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Connected

278: Honey for my Ears

 

00:00:00   (upbeat music)

00:00:02   - Hello and welcome to Connected episode 278.

00:00:12   It's made possible by our sponsors,

00:00:14   Squarespace, Direct Mail, and Booz Allen.

00:00:17   My name is Steven Hackett

00:00:18   and I am joined by Mr. Federico Vittucci.

00:00:22   - Hello, Mr. Steven Hackett, how are you?

00:00:24   - I'm good, how are you?

00:00:26   - I'm great, yes, thank you.

00:00:28   And we are joined by Myke Hurley.

00:00:30   - Hello there.

00:00:31   - Wow. - Oh, hi.

00:00:33   - Popped onto the scene there.

00:00:35   - Yeah, that's my new style for 2020.

00:00:38   It was a surprise.

00:00:40   - Surprise.

00:00:41   It's a surprise hello, easier style for 2020.

00:00:44   Okay.

00:00:45   It's a very specific style.

00:00:46   - Hello.

00:00:47   See, I did it again.

00:00:48   - Yes, wow, I'm surprised.

00:00:49   - I'm not expecting it.

00:00:50   - I'm shook.

00:00:51   I am shook. - You're shook?

00:00:53   - Yes. - I'm so shook right now.

00:00:54   - We're gonna start the show with some follow-up.

00:00:57   If Myke, if all your greetings are done,

00:01:00   do you have any more greetings to do?

00:01:02   - No. - Find out.

00:01:03   - Hello, ha ha, see, I said I didn't have one.

00:01:07   But I did have one.

00:01:08   - It's too much for me one day, Myke.

00:01:10   - Last week on the show, I built a little web app

00:01:14   so you could put next to Twitter for iPad

00:01:16   if you don't wanna see trends.

00:01:18   And the listeners made much better versions of this.

00:01:21   So these are filler 2.0 options.

00:01:26   We have a version-- these are all in the show notes--

00:01:29   by Matt, who created an improved version that responds

00:01:34   to light and dark mode, including the blue,

00:01:37   kind of dark blue that Twitter uses,

00:01:41   which I think is really nice.

00:01:43   And then not to be outdone, we have

00:01:46   Lars, who made a shortcut to generate an empty web

00:01:50   page, which can then be added to the home screen.

00:01:53   It hides the Safari UI.

00:01:55   OK.

00:01:55   But then we have Kyle, not Kyle's the gray, another Kyle.

00:02:00   Kyle-- - Kyle Jones.

00:02:02   - Kyle Jones. - Kyle's the Jones.

00:02:04   - Kyle the Jones, Kyle's the Jones,

00:02:06   made a PWA that you have to,

00:02:11   you've run on a server somewhere,

00:02:14   and then you add to your homepage,

00:02:16   and you can set the background color,

00:02:19   you can double tap and it cycles through the colors,

00:02:22   but you can use it to store tweets temporarily

00:02:27   via drag and drop.

00:02:29   So you have the official Twitter app or website,

00:02:31   and you just drag them over.

00:02:34   So he made a shelf app for Twitter.

00:02:36   And it looks incredible.

00:02:40   And this goes far above and beyond

00:02:42   what I ever thought would be possible for my little project.

00:02:46   - I just love that because it's a PWA,

00:02:48   like it takes advantage of all the latest.

00:02:51   the WebKit stuff on iOS and iPadOS, which means you can add it to your home screen and

00:02:56   it gets a custom icon, you can use it in SplitView, which is of course the main use case here.

00:03:03   This is way more than I was expecting. Actually somebody actually made a PWA that lets you

00:03:10   store tweets in the browser local storage. PWA, is that like public want for affection

00:03:17   or something. What is that? No, it is a rap group.

00:03:21   Oh, okay. The people with attitude, right? Is that what that is? Okay, that's good. That's

00:03:26   good to know. It's exactly what it is. You can put people

00:03:31   with attitude on your server. You know what? People with attitude is actually

00:03:35   a really good name for Twitter in general. Like PWA. I think we found it.

00:03:41   It's an inception sort of thing. It's a PWA for Twitter.

00:03:44   You just drag all of the most salty tweets into the PWA and this is my people of attitude folder.

00:03:50   That's really good.

00:03:54   I have still very much been enjoying Backfill, which was made by a listener Charlie,

00:04:02   whose podcast I was on actually. It was a very good interview. Charlie just launched a show

00:04:07   called Launched, which is mostly about developers launching apps.

00:04:15   What have you launched, Myke?

00:04:16   You don't want to know what I've done.

00:04:19   But I am a person who's launched other things.

00:04:22   So it was actually a very, very fun interview.

00:04:25   I will put a link to that in the show notes.

00:04:27   Charlie did a really good job.

00:04:29   I know the trials and tribulations of trying to host an interview show, and I think that

00:04:34   Charlie did a good job, so you should go check it out.

00:04:36   Also from last week, we had the birth of two Twitter accounts, annual chairman and keynote

00:04:41   chairman. Currently I have the keys to the keynote chairman account. Federico, you have

00:04:46   the annual chairman account all year, but you have not done anything with it. Why not?

00:04:50   Get off my back. I'm being busy.

00:04:52   You didn't even upload an avatar yet. I was aware of the fact that like Steven for some

00:04:57   reason set a telephone number on the account. I don't actually know why Steven found it

00:05:01   upon himself to log into that account.

00:05:04   So I can tell you what happened.

00:05:05   I attempted to log into mine, but I have like 35 Twitter logins and one password.

00:05:14   That's what happened.

00:05:17   And I got confused in my old age and logged into the wrong one.

00:05:23   And by the time I realized what was happening, it already had a phone number attached to

00:05:27   it.

00:05:28   So when I was in there, I gave it a banner image and a bio and stuff.

00:05:30   Do you see the level at which Stephen believes he will be the chairman that he gave his own

00:05:35   phone number to the account that's supposed to be passed around?

00:05:39   Well it required a phone number, so I was there.

00:05:44   It didn't when I set it up.

00:05:45   Did it though?

00:05:46   Did it really require a phone number?

00:05:48   You just, see in your old age you also missed the very small button that lets you skip it

00:05:52   because I also skipped it.

00:05:53   Can we just talk about for a second how bad Twitter is when you create an account?

00:05:57   We have gotten more email.

00:05:59   They really want your phone number now, like desperately. You have to like basically put

00:06:04   them in a headlock to get them an email address. It's kind of interesting. What I will note

00:06:08   though Federico is that @KeynoteChairman, which is Steven's account, has 550 followers

00:06:14   and @AnnualChairman has 470. So the moment I start tweeting, that account will get to

00:06:21   a thousand followers. Will it? Well, what is that going to be? It's going to be some

00:06:26   hot exclusive content. But when? Anytime now? Well it's a surprise, that's my thing for 2020,

00:06:32   surprise Twitter account. Wait hang on a second, surprise is my thing for 2020, don't take my thing.

00:06:37   Yours is a surprise hello, mine is a surprise tweet. Maybe I need a Twitter account for surprise

00:06:43   hello. You just tweet the word hello? Just yell hello at people? Because yeah, I mean you know,

00:06:49   I don't deserve a Twitter account because I'm not a winner so maybe eventually later on I can get one.

00:06:55   It looks like we're gonna get to do this again in March. It seems like there's an event coming.

00:06:59   Oh yeah? Oh yeah? Wait, what? Is this hashtag breaking news? No, just no, no invites have

00:07:04   been sent, but it just seems there's a lot of, there's like more and more rumors that there's

00:07:08   a March event. I did see something today about production ramping up on a small phone. Yeah.

00:07:14   Yeah, the iPhone hello. The iPhone hello. Hello. Federico, tell us about the Italian baker iPad

00:07:23   kickstand case mod. What an incredible just can we all just drink that sentence in a little bit?

00:07:30   Yes, yes. Steven can you say that again but a little bit more slowly? Federico can you tell

00:07:37   us about the Italian Baker's iPad kickstand and keyboard case mod? Geez boy that sounds good.

00:07:45   Isn't that good? Wow that is like I don't know honey for my ears. Yeah that's that's incredible.

00:07:52   Can I just say though real quick how terrible it would be to have a honey poured into your ear?

00:07:56   It would be so bad for that to happen to you.

00:08:01   Why? No, look, Steven, Steven, this is one of those things where like you're old again.

00:08:07   Just saying ASMR is not...

00:08:09   That's better.

00:08:11   Italian baker.

00:08:14   No, see, look, again, again.

00:08:16   All right, you know what, fine. That's the... you just did some ASMR. Good work.

00:08:21   Italian baker. You're freaking me out a little bit now because it's making the hairs on my neck stand

00:08:26   up so you need to stop. Yeah because the ASMR is working. It's actually working. ASMR.

00:08:33   You just kept saying it over and over again. That's all it is.

00:08:39   Funny in your ear. Please stop.

00:08:42   Funny in your ear. You need to stop. Please you need to stop. Like because you just you just awoke

00:08:50   a selection of people, like, almost like sleeper cell agents, a bunch of people just realized

00:08:56   their sensitivity. Like, they could be on buses and stuff, like, you need to be more

00:09:00   careful with that.

00:09:01   A bunch of people just discovered ASMR because of you, Steve.

00:09:04   Yeah.

00:09:05   And they got the totally wrong idea.

00:09:07   So Federico, what is this about?

00:09:09   ASMR stands for... is that what you want to know more about? Or are we talking about Italian

00:09:14   bakers again?

00:09:15   Yeah, tell us about this video. I watched this about four times. It's amazing.

00:09:18   incredible so a connected listener who goes by the name of Italian Baker which

00:09:24   is by the way just incredible awesome reference thank you sent me actually

00:09:30   sent us a video over the weekend containing a v-mail it's a v-mail link

00:09:36   and this video shows it's basically just a video that this person made for us to

00:09:43   show how they modded the iPad's smart keyboard folio to accommodate a bunch of additions to the iPad.

00:09:52   So we were talking last week about the iPad accessories that we would like to see. We mentioned,

00:09:58   I mentioned it would be nice to have a kickstand or more viewing angle options on the iPad.

00:10:06   So the Italian baker video, it starts relatively simple.

00:10:11   It shows how this person bought an accessory called the Zwiches cover body,

00:10:16   which is a plastic case that protects the edges of the iPad,

00:10:23   but also serves as a pass-through for the smart keyboard folio.

00:10:28   So you can put this case on and you can still keep using the Apple smart keyboard.

00:10:32   But like all it does is that you put the pencil somewhere, right?

00:10:37   And there's a pencil holder at the top. It comes with a pencil holder. You can still attach the

00:10:42   pencil magnetically to the iPad Pro, which is why I instantly bought this accessory. I had no idea

00:10:47   this existed. And it's on my iPad right now. It's a case and a pencil holder. And it's got a smart

00:10:55   connector pass-through. So you can keep using the smart keyboard. It basically adds no bulk to the

00:11:01   the iPad Pro, it adds no thickness, it's incredible, it's really well done, it's

00:11:06   not cheap because I think I paid like $45. It's not cheap but it totally does what

00:11:14   I want from this. It's a pretty expensive Apple Pencil holder though, right? Yes, it's

00:11:20   an expensive Apple Pencil holder and it also protects the edges of the iPad Pro which,

00:11:25   in hindsight, I kind of wish that I knew this before because all my edges are dinged up

00:11:29   and scratched for some reason, so it's very nice. But the video gets progressively more interesting,

00:11:38   gets wild after about one minute. Better or worse, depending on your kind of outlook on life.

00:11:45   Gets so much better. So Italian baker attached a plastic kickstand. This is a standard

00:11:53   laptop kickstand that you can buy from Amazon to the back of the Zwiecheese cover body case.

00:11:59   Now, the Italian baker cut a hole in the Apple Smart Keyboard Folio to let the kickstand

00:12:13   basically come out the other side. This person used magnetic paper, which we talked about last

00:12:21   year very famously I think MKBHD made this thing popular. It's a piece of paper that

00:12:26   lets you see where magnets are. So Italian Baker used magnetic paper on the SmartKeyboard

00:12:33   Folio to see where the magnets were. He then cut a hole into the SmartKeyboard where it

00:12:39   was magnet free and the hole is cut precisely so that the plastic kickstand can come out

00:12:46   on the other side. Then he lined up the hole and in the video, I mean this makes so much

00:12:54   more sense in a way I guess in the video because you see the finished project is actually kinda

00:13:00   amazing that you have this completely custom iPad Pro with a pencil holder with a case

00:13:07   and a kickstand that comes out of the back and the SmartKey portfolio is still attached

00:13:14   but it's got a hole and the kickstand comes out of the hole. It is honestly incredible.

00:13:20   So I have done something following this video. I did not cut a hole in my smart keyboard

00:13:27   folio. I don't plan to do so because as we talked about before, I already have kickstands

00:13:36   in the back of the smart keyboard folio. It's the kickstand method that we talked about

00:13:39   last year, I have four metal kickstands that allow me to use the smart keyboard with two different...

00:13:45   I'm surprised it hasn't gone up to six by now.

00:13:48   No, it's four because I have two different viewing angles, a touch typing angle and a movie mode

00:13:53   angle. So I have two sets of kickstands. So I don't need to cut a hole and attach a plastic

00:13:59   kickstand, but I have bought the cover body, pencil holder/case, and I've done something else.

00:14:08   But I want to keep this a surprise for now, because I will be, and I'm not kidding, I will be extremely

00:14:15   judged by you both for what I've done. This will be revealed in tomorrow's episode of Adapt,

00:14:24   here on Real AFM, and I have not yet received this thing. It should be here by next week, so I assume

00:14:35   the next week's episode of Connected, I will have to suffer the consequences of my decision.

00:14:40   Wuls, I don't want to share anything else for now, because I really want to make sure

00:14:46   that especially you both listen to Adapt tomorrow and to that segment and realize what I've

00:14:52   done.

00:14:53   There is a thing that you have not quite anticipated, which is that both me and Steven have complete

00:14:59   access to the Relay FM CMS.

00:15:01   Oh no.

00:15:02   I don't know how you looked.

00:15:03   I've already looked at the show notes for Adapt.

00:15:05   Oh my god.

00:15:06   So you know.

00:15:07   So you know.

00:15:08   It is not completely clear, but I think I know what you've done, and I am incredibly

00:15:14   excited for next week's episode of Connected, because we can really get into that.

00:15:18   So I would like to double down on the recommendation for listening to Adapt, so all of our listeners

00:15:24   can be fully prepared for the glory of next week's episode of Connected.

00:15:29   See, look, we have always...

00:15:32   have always. I did not consider that. But you know what? I looked like four hours ago

00:15:37   because I have been having this in my mind and as soon as I saw that adapt was in the

00:15:41   system, I went trolling through the show notes. The show notes. Well, yeah. Will you stop

00:15:49   doing that? You can't just keep doing this. So I'm surprised how low in 2020 is ASMR time

00:15:57   for Stephen Hackett.

00:15:58   Myke, it seems like you got confused in talking about 5G.

00:16:03   Do you want to correct the record?

00:16:04   Yeah, David wrote in to say that I got my 5G specs backwards.

00:16:09   Made me feel better by saying it's complicated, so there should be no shame.

00:16:12   Millimeter Wave is the high band super fast stuff over short distances, and sub-6 or 600

00:16:19   megahertz is the stuff that's closer to LTE in speeds, and it's what T-Mobile has put

00:16:24   into place.

00:16:25   the point still stands in that Apple is looking to apparently integrate both of these technologies

00:16:32   into their 5G chips later this year, right? Later this year. Maybe. We'll find out. We'll find out

00:16:39   together. This episode of Connected is brought to you by Booz Allen. Modernizing for the future is

00:16:46   a challenge, especially for large organizations. You may need to integrate legacy systems with new

00:16:51   technology, you may need to incorporate AI and analytics to work more efficiently and

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00:16:59   Everyone needs new ways of thinking to move to what's next, whether for government or

00:17:03   commercial goals.

00:17:05   Booz Allen understands that they're helping some of the world's largest organizations

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00:17:43   Booz Allen.com/relay. We'd like to thank Booz Allen for their support of the show.

00:17:50   You may or may not be right about 5g, but I may or may not be right about Apple planning

00:17:55   original podcasts.

00:17:57   So this comes from a report in Bloomberg by Lucas Shaw and Mark Mark Gurman a couple of

00:18:02   days ago that Apple is planning to make original podcasts promoting its TV shows.

00:18:08   I think we spoke about this exact idea that a lot of TV networks now have podcasts that

00:18:13   go behind the scenes and shows interview writers and actors and all that sort of sorts of things.

00:18:18   It seems like a really, to me, really obvious way Apple could get into this.

00:18:22   And it seems like they are maybe looking into this and they have sent requests for pitches,

00:18:28   they've been talking to podcast producers, and it seems like maybe this could be moving

00:18:35   forward.

00:18:36   Apparently as well, according to a report which makes perfect sense, is they're going

00:18:38   to be making them that you would see some stars showing up on the shows.

00:18:42   Basically they're copying the model that a lot of other TV networks have been doing.

00:18:47   HBO have done this.

00:18:48   Who makes The Good Place?

00:18:49   NBC?

00:18:50   Yeah, well there's a Good Place podcast which is hosted by one of the characters of the

00:18:54   show, although not as the character as an individual, as a real human.

00:19:00   So yeah, this approach makes a lot of sense because it is a good free marketing thing

00:19:07   to do.

00:19:08   People like it.

00:19:09   There are tons and tons of podcasts about TV shows just in general, people doing rewatches

00:19:13   and this kind of fits into that idea but also includes conversation from the people who

00:19:20   made it. Like there was a really good Watchmen podcast for HBO as well. So HBO's been doing

00:19:25   a lot of this, the Chernobyl show was apparently very good. Jason always picks them in his

00:19:29   favourites of the year when we do the upgrade he's like there's always an entrant of one

00:19:33   of these because they're pretty good as look behind the scenes. My expectation if Apple

00:19:39   are doing this because it is ultimately a promotional play that they would make these

00:19:46   shows available to all. That would be my expectation. Because there's been a lot of questioning

00:19:53   around like if Apple made their own podcasts would they only exist inside of Apple podcasts

00:19:59   or would they exist everywhere that you could subscribe to a show in? And I think that if

00:20:04   The idea of your show is that you want to make it a promotional piece for your TV content,

00:20:12   that it makes sense to have it available everywhere.

00:20:14   It could be proven wrong.

00:20:16   But I think this is a very natural and great beginning.

00:20:21   This is what we expected if they were going to do something.

00:20:23   This seemed like low hanging fruit of a type of show to do because these shows are already

00:20:28   popular, they do well, and it's not going to be like a conflict of interest for Apple

00:20:33   and the types of things that they would want to do. It's not going to cause them trouble.

00:20:38   Doing a daily news show could be difficult, right? It could get political or whatever,

00:20:43   but this is just easy stuff to do in a pipeline that they can control as well. So this makes

00:20:52   a lot of sense, I think.

00:20:54   So assuming that Apple is doing this original podcast content, is it just a way to sort

00:21:00   of upsell the Apple TV+ content service, or are they also doing actual Apple podcasts

00:21:08   originals that are not a way to upsell you on Apple TV+?

00:21:15   I think this would be the start, right? Because this is logical. These types of shows are

00:21:22   obvious to do, right? And if they did well, maybe they would do more, but I don't know

00:21:29   know what more they would want to do. Because you're getting into the whys, right? Which

00:21:37   is the trickier thing. Why does Apple want to make their own podcast? What is the benefit?

00:21:44   And I think that it is harder to draw that benefit for Apple than it is for Spotify.

00:21:51   Spotify's benefit is clear. They want to drive people to sign up for Spotify and also provide

00:21:59   Spotify subscribers with more content but people do not subscribe to Apple

00:22:03   podcasts right now so Apple would have to if they wanted people to do that like

00:22:07   consider it a strong enough business case to somehow move the needle

00:22:11   somewhere else I don't know if just like the use of Apple podcasts is that

00:22:18   important to them I don't know if it's that much of a big deal like ultimately

00:22:24   as part of the business to spend a bunch of money producing shows to lock them

00:22:30   inside of Apple podcasts to try and drive growth of Apple podcast. I just

00:22:34   don't know if I can see the link there like if they want to give Apple like if

00:22:40   they want to put them inside of Apple podcast but they're only available for

00:22:45   people that subscribe to TV+ then and I don't know how they would do that but

00:22:50   like let's imagine they do that, then sure that is a value add to an existing service.

00:22:57   There is also a possibility that Apple could create a subscription service for podcasting

00:23:01   but I just don't see that right now. I would see that they will more likely start in this

00:23:08   and if this really takes off for them then maybe they will go that route but I don't

00:23:13   I think it's still way too early to tell.

00:23:16   I would put money on these shows existing everywhere,

00:23:21   and then Apple can work out what they wanna do from there.

00:23:25   - Possibly, yeah.

00:23:26   I mean, I guess it's easier,

00:23:27   because with these types of shows,

00:23:29   you have the content essentially cut out for you already.

00:23:32   You're talking about an existing property.

00:23:34   So it's not like you're putting together an original story

00:23:39   or doing original reporting.

00:23:41   It's easier than to come up with, I don't know,

00:23:43   something like Serial, for example. So yeah, I think it makes sense. And I mean, obviously

00:23:48   I wouldn't pay for these types of shows, but as a way to sort of attract listeners to eventually

00:23:56   pay for something else, maybe I could see that. I don't know.

00:23:59   Like I would listen to a podcast about For All Mankind produced by the people that made

00:24:03   For All Mankind. Totally. For sure. Like I would do that because I want more of that

00:24:07   world and I like the people involved in it and I want to hear more about it, like how

00:24:11   they made it and stuff I would like totally be in for that so but I wouldn't

00:24:17   switch to Apple podcast to get it. All right so we have another story about

00:24:23   things Apple may do in the future and it is about smart keyboards so this comes

00:24:29   from DigiTimes and it's kind of a multi-part thing that Apple's next

00:24:36   generation iPad would come with a new smart keyboard and that would feature

00:24:42   scissor switches. Right now they use butterfly switches but because they're

00:24:46   all encased in fabric they don't seem to have the issues that the laptops did

00:24:50   where you get debris in there and then they fail. But it's interesting right

00:24:54   because I don't know I mean people have issues with the smart keyboard they seem

00:24:58   to die sometimes but it isn't an issue like they had on the MacBooks so maybe

00:25:02   they just want to bring everything over to the new design I don't know. Not just

00:25:06   scissor switches, glowing scissor switches.

00:25:09   And that's the more exciting part. It could be backlit.

00:25:14   Could it be though?

00:25:16   It should be. It'd be awesome.

00:25:18   Federico, do you want to write what you put in the document which blew my mind today?

00:25:22   Yes. So months ago, I think it was sometime last year,

00:25:26   I believe I joked about, hey, what if Apple made a smart keyboard

00:25:32   keyboard and the keycaps are made of glow-in-the-dark material. That sort of

00:25:37   would be a way to make them kind of backlit without actually adding, you know,

00:25:42   wires under the keyboard and lights under the keyboard. Just make it glow in

00:25:47   the dark like those, you know, silly toys that, you know, you have when you're a kid.

00:25:51   So imagine if it actually comes true that it's a glowing smart keyboard that

00:25:56   is still thin and light but you can actually see in the dark. But you can

00:26:00   only use it at night for a short period of time before the glow. It's like, it's like,

00:26:05   oh, it glows, but you can only work for two hours because that's all you should be doing anyway.

00:26:08   And then you should go to bed, right? Because it only will the glowing, well, I guess kind of funny.

00:26:12   Yes, it should and probably will be a backlit, but I do love the idea of a glow in the dark

00:26:18   keyboard. That's just cute in a way that I would enjoy very much. So this did come from Digitimes.

00:26:24   In July of last year, Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple would stick with the rubber dome design on the

00:26:29   smart keyboard but who knows things could have changed that could have been wrong.

00:26:32   I agree with you Steven there wasn't like a lot of there isn't a lot of call for any change to

00:26:37   the underlying mechanism of the smart keyboard but maybe if Apple is unifying again around the

00:26:43   magic keyboard that they would just want to make them all the same right like just make one type of

00:26:48   keyboard key who knows because this this report does also reiterate the idea of a 13-inch MacBook

00:26:56   Pro with a Sysix switch keyboard being released in the first half of 2020?

00:27:00   I mean maybe it's just a matter of we're not gonna make the butterfly

00:27:03   keyboard anywhere so let's just get rid of all the machines right? It could be a

00:27:06   very operation-centric decision and not

00:27:09   necessarily one about customer usage or customer satisfaction

00:27:13   which would be fine. I mean I for one like I don't mind the smart

00:27:17   keyboard it's the keyboard I use most of the time on my iPad. I have a bridge

00:27:20   keyboard that I'll bust out if I'm doing like real riding but you know day in and

00:27:24   a day out I keep the smart keyboard on there and I don't have any real problems with that

00:27:28   keyboard but I wouldn't argue with one that felt even better.

00:27:31   So I can imagine like just a unifying story around wanting to move because you know to

00:27:39   people that have ever been frustrated with keyboards over the last few years there is

00:27:43   something nice about hearing ultimately all of the products if they're gonna go that route

00:27:47   being like and we're using the same magic keyboard right they just keep saying that

00:27:52   line over and over again, right? I can imagine that kind of putting people at ease of the

00:27:57   idea of Apple making bad keyboards, right? It's just like they use one keyboard design

00:28:02   everywhere and everyone loves it and everyone's happy and there's no more keyboard problems.

00:28:07   I think that's a good story for them to tell. Ready to take a break?

00:28:11   Yes.

00:28:12   Yes.

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00:29:33   and all of Relay FM.

00:29:35   - Apple, iCloud encryption

00:29:38   and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

00:29:40   - The FBI.

00:29:41   - Buckle up everyone.

00:29:43   I have many things to say and then we can talk about it, right?

00:29:46   I've been doing a bunch of reading today.

00:29:48   According to a report from Reuters yesterday, as we record this, six sources confirmed to

00:29:54   them that Apple previously dropped plans to offer fully encrypted iCloud backups.

00:30:02   The report partly states that this was after complaints from the FBI.

00:30:06   There was a quote from an employee to Reuters saying "legal killed it for reasons you can

00:30:12   imagine."

00:30:13   And I'll continue with another quote.

00:30:14   "Once the decision was made, the 10 or so experts

00:30:17   on the Apple encryption project,

00:30:18   variously codenamed Plessio and KeyDrop,

00:30:22   were told to stop working on the effort,

00:30:23   three people familiar with the matter told Reuters."

00:30:27   So this is the idea that your iCloud backups

00:30:31   are not currently end-to-end encrypted, right?

00:30:34   So this means that Apple has the ability

00:30:37   to access that data of your iCloud backups.

00:30:40   I'll get into a little bit more later on

00:30:42   about what that actually means, what is encrypted and what isn't.

00:30:45   But if we're thinking about the idea that the Apple was previously working

00:30:50   on an end to end encryption solution for iCloud backups,

00:30:53   then they have since stopped working on that.

00:30:56   This could mean one of a few things that the FBI told Apple not to do it,

00:31:00   whether Apple disclosed to them or not.

00:31:02   But it was pretty clear a few years ago after the San Bernardino

00:31:08   shooting, which is what is back in court right now, right?

00:31:12   Like, and there's a there's a lot of drum beating from the government about Apple,

00:31:17   from the U.S. government about Apple handing over that information, which they

00:31:20   previously refused to hand over.

00:31:22   Right. Like it's come back around again.

00:31:24   I'm writing that Steven. Yes, that's back in the news again.

00:31:27   Yes, it is.

00:31:28   So that's maybe potentially one of the reasons why this story has come out as it

00:31:32   has. But so this Apple will talking a lot then about encryption.

00:31:36   So it may have been that the FBI told Apple don't do end to end or they disclose

00:31:40   to the FBI or whatever, but so it could be that the FBI told Apple not to do it.

00:31:44   Apple could have decided not to do it

00:31:47   because they knew it would cause more trouble than they wanted.

00:31:49   Or possibly Apple is not using end to end encryption on iCloud backups

00:31:54   because if people lose their passwords, they lose all of their data.

00:31:58   And this has nothing to do with the FBI at all.

00:32:01   There's actually a quote in the story from Reuters

00:32:04   which says that one employee did say this,

00:32:06   that this could have been one of the reasons or a reason

00:32:09   to stop pursuing this approach because if you have end-to-end encryption on iCloud

00:32:13   backups and you lost your password that was connected to that backup, everything's

00:32:18   gone, right? You've lost all of your photos, you've lost everything if there

00:32:23   was no other way to recover it. Like if that was as we would expect it to be,

00:32:27   and SAP will create something that we've never seen before but that's how we

00:32:30   would expect end-to-end encryption to work or the fail state to be. So then from a

00:32:35   report from 9to5Mac. Apple currently stores iCloud backups in a non end-to-end encrypted

00:32:44   manner. This means that the decryption key is stored on Apple's servers. If a police

00:32:49   entity comes to Apple with a subpoena, then the company has to give over all of the iCloud

00:32:53   data including the decryption key. This has further rounds of ramifications. For instance,

00:32:58   whilst the iMessage server is end-to-end encrypted, the conversations stored in an iCloud backup

00:33:03   or not. So whilst we believe end-to-end encryption to exist in iMessage, because that's something

00:33:08   that we've been told, whilst that's true, if you use iCloud backup it doesn't matter, right? That

00:33:13   your iMessages could then be read if a law enforcement agency was to have gotten your

00:33:19   iCloud data or anybody could in theory if they have access to it at Apple. So currently though

00:33:27   Data from health, home, keychain and Wi-Fi passwords are end-to-end encrypted.

00:33:32   Like this is encrypted, but that's it.

00:33:35   So if you were to have my understanding from doing reading on this is even if somebody

00:33:39   was to get a subpoena, they couldn't get that information.

00:33:42   But messages they could get to if you're using iCloud backup.

00:33:47   And of course, none of this matters at all if you're using the backup option

00:33:51   that you can do with a Mac through iTunes or Finder where you can have it encrypted,

00:33:56   but then you need a password, but then you can't be using iCloud. That's the only way to get an

00:34:01   end-to-end encrypted backup of your iPhone or iPad. So basically, Apple store this in like

00:34:09   the iCloud backups in an unencrypted manner in case you need help to recover the data.

00:34:15   As reported by Benjamin Mayo, Cook of 9to5Mac, Tim Cook told a German newspaper in 2018 the following,

00:34:24   Our users have a key and we have one. We do this because some users lose or forget their key

00:34:29   and they expect us to get their data back. It is difficult for us to estimate when we will change

00:34:34   this practice, but I think that in the future it will be handled on the devices. We will therefore

00:34:38   no longer have a key for this in the future. This is a translation from a newspaper that I pulled

00:34:43   together from two different sources who's had translation clarifications. I'll put both of those

00:34:47   in the show notes. But it seems that from 2016 to 2018 there are numerous quotes in

00:34:53   numerous outlets, including places like the Wall Street Journal, of Tim Cook seeming to

00:34:58   state that Apple would be changing their encryption practices, but nothing has happened since,

00:35:03   which potentially means that they did drop this project for some reason, whether told to by a law

00:35:09   enforcement agency or told to by themselves that they decided they weren't going to do it.

00:35:16   By the way, Google on some of their newer devices do offer end-to-end encryption on their backups.

00:35:22   So it's not impossible to do this. Like law enforcement agencies haven't stopped Google,

00:35:28   or Google didn't care, or Google have just decided to do it, or whatever, but Google did do this.

00:35:33   I will also for further reading recommend that you read an article from Data Bone over on The Verge,

00:35:39   who looks at how tricky this whole thing can be about encryption in general. So this is the

00:35:44   place where we are right now. It is not news that end-to-end encryption is not a

00:35:50   thing for iCloud backups. I think we all forget it from time to time. I know I

00:35:54   always forget it, especially the thing around iMessages because I've been told

00:35:59   many times that iMessages are end-to-end encrypted. They are from device to

00:36:04   device but if either of those devices is backed up by iCloud that is null and

00:36:10   void. I would like the option to be able to end and encrypt my device and I think

00:36:15   really that Apple should give a choice and it should be on the user to be smart

00:36:20   about their passwords right like where they're stored and how they're stored so

00:36:25   they won't forget them. But that's where we are. I you know I honestly can see

00:36:31   both reasons so let's imagine that they have not done this for one of those two

00:36:37   main reasons. They haven't done it so there is a reason they haven't done it to now. Maybe

00:36:42   it's super difficult, maybe it's still coming, but let's just assume that they have abandoned

00:36:46   this project. Honestly I can see them doing it because of law enforcement stuff because

00:36:52   we have seen things in the past where Apple have done things because they're a big company

00:36:57   and big companies have to do things and sometimes that's taking the president around your factory

00:37:01   and letting him claim that it was built because of him, right? Like there are games to play

00:37:07   And the same reason that Apple does give data to the FBI when requested, right?

00:37:13   But I would like to see them build end-to-end encryption

00:37:17   because Apple put up posters on the side of buildings

00:37:21   that say "What happens on my iPhone stays on my iPhone."

00:37:25   But what they don't put is an asterisk that says "Unless you backup."

00:37:29   By the system which we notify you to backup on

00:37:33   that we put a badge on the settings app if you don't use.

00:37:37   I kind of wish they would go the full way.

00:37:40   This is always the problem.

00:37:41   If a company takes a stance which is so strong,

00:37:46   they are held to it, right?

00:37:48   If you say, "We are the most privacy-conscious technology company

00:37:53   and we're never going to look at your information,"

00:37:56   and you talk about how great your end-to-end encryption on messages are,

00:38:00   you need to back it up.

00:38:02   Like it is mind-boggling to me that Google offer this now, but Apple doesn't.

00:38:06   So I want to see them do it.

00:38:08   And I hope that Apple have not commented at all on this yet.

00:38:12   I expect if it continues to be a story over the next few days, they will issue

00:38:17   some kind of response, which will go into some more detail, but I would love to see

00:38:21   them do this because I would just like to, I would just like the option.

00:38:26   And I understand, look, I get it, right?

00:38:29   Like it will be an absolute nightmare for them if they let people do this,

00:38:34   but it should be a like 20 step process where they make me read a bunch of pop

00:38:39   ups that I have to opt into. Like iMessage in the cloud, right?

00:38:43   Super useful feature, but you have to go and manually turn it on, right?

00:38:47   Make me go into four nested like settings menus to get this feature because I

00:38:53   want, it's like FireVault, right? That's difficult to turn on, right?

00:38:59   Stephen, like you have to go and do it like they don't do it for you to go and

00:39:02   do it because you're encrypting your Mac and if you forgot that password you kind

00:39:06   of screwed. I'm writing that yes? I think now it's part of the setup process where

00:39:11   it's easier to do. Yeah it kind of it prompts you I believe at some point. Well they're

00:39:16   willing to do that but I would like to see them go to that to that route right

00:39:21   like that's what I would like to see them do and you know I'm sure that

00:39:25   there's that I'm like that company is full of incredibly smart people I'm sure

00:39:30   they can come up with ways to try and make this as best a process as it can be

00:39:34   but I want to see them do it because I don't think that they can talk the game

00:39:41   they talk about privacy and not allow me to do this that's where I am on this one

00:39:46   yeah this to me totally feels like the sort of thing that Apple will end up

00:39:51   announcing that it's coming in a future version of iOS. It seems like sort of a repeat of

00:39:59   the situation that they had with the battery life stuff when they were caught, well maybe

00:40:03   not lying necessarily, but you know, lying by omission about what the iPhone was doing

00:40:09   to preserve the power efficiency stuff and the battery-related shutdowns. And they were

00:40:17   were caught and people started writing about it and then they said, "Okay, we're actually

00:40:22   gonna add this." And this to me feels like a much, much more serious and more important

00:40:28   problem, especially because there's the government involved, and especially in the United States

00:40:36   with the FBI and all these shootings. You know, the other thing is like, yeah, maybe

00:40:39   it wasn't the FBI, but maybe it was China. Because Apple were playing ball with the Chinese

00:40:44   government that the decryption keys live on servers in China for iCloud in China. So like,

00:40:50   yeah, maybe it wasn't the FBI, right? Maybe it was somebody else, you know, like, because

00:40:56   that's a whole other thing, right? Like, if they do this, what about China? I don't know

00:41:01   what they're going to do there. But like, so that could be a reason why they maybe won't

00:41:04   do it or didn't do it or I can't do it. I don't know.

00:41:08   I guess the bigger question is that, and I really don't have a good answer to this, the

00:41:14   The bigger question, of course, is should the government or should a government agency

00:41:23   be able to get access to personal data, such as personal communications and emails, when

00:41:30   something bad happens, like a terrorist attack or a shooting or some other criminal-related

00:41:38   event.

00:41:39   And that's a big question that folks who have been studying history and politics and all

00:41:47   this kind of stuff have not been able to provide a good answer for, because it comes down to

00:41:53   some fundamental themes of human rights and privacy and what it all means. And as far

00:42:02   as Apple is concerned, this is why I don't necessarily have an opinion more complicated

00:42:07   then yes, I know it's a complex problem, but I think Apple should do it. But it comes down

00:42:12   to taking a stance, I think, and it feels to me like the sort of issue that years ago

00:42:19   I would have said, "Oh, for sure, Apple is gonna take a stance and they're gonna do it,

00:42:24   because whatever the government, they're gonna do it because it's the right thing to do."

00:42:29   And the fact that I am not so sure about 2020 Apple taking this kind of stance, I'm sort

00:42:36   of like 70% sure they're gonna do it. But there's a 30% in the back of my mind that

00:42:41   says, "But you know, maybe they want to be on Trump's good side, and maybe they want

00:42:45   to be on China's good side, and they're not gonna do this." And that speaks to the sociopolitical

00:42:52   changes that we've gone through over the past five years. Everything is more complicated,

00:42:57   and the relationship between Apple and the government in the US and in China and with

00:43:01   the EU is much more complicated than 10 years ago when Steve Jobs was around. Steve Jobs

00:43:06   could take a stance about Flash, right? But it wasn't like this big political fight.

00:43:11   It was about Flash player in a web browser. This is about human rights and privacy and

00:43:18   encryption and what does it mean for the government to have a corporation that operates in the

00:43:24   United States that can hold potentially sensitive data that could be useful for an investigation

00:43:33   and you cannot get to that data at all. Is that kind of privacy a human right? Personally,

00:43:42   from my perspective, I would say yes, it is a human right. But also, I understand the

00:43:49   emotional component of this, and this is why the FBI and all these other agencies are so

00:43:54   - and even in Italy we see this type of story every once in a while - why they're so clever

00:43:59   been sort of exploiting that emotional component of this, of being like "Oh, what if you were

00:44:05   the son of a victim of a shooting? Wouldn't you want to know who was behind it?" And I

00:44:10   totally get it, that there's an emotional component, especially when it's about terrorist

00:44:14   attacks and shootings and being able to find the truth in that kind of instance. But, you

00:44:21   know, politics are often at a different level than the emotional component, or they should

00:44:28   be at least. So, I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. It feels like a writing...

00:44:34   Encrypting everything after 20 pages of settings, that should be the right thing to do, and

00:44:39   this is what Apple should do. And I think, honestly, they're gonna do it. But it's complicated.

00:44:46   And I don't know what else is there to say, but it's complicated. It feels right, but

00:44:51   it's complex. Honestly, I was under the impression, as Myke said, I keep forgetting that iCalp

00:44:57   backups are not end-to-end encrypted 100%. I was under the impression that they were.

00:45:03   But yeah, so. I mean it's barely end-to-end encrypted, honestly.

00:45:07   Like the amount of information that is end-to-end encrypted is so minuscule compared to everything

00:45:12   else that is in my iCloud backup. But does it make sense, like what I'm saying

00:45:17   that... Oh yeah, it's incredibly difficult. So like,

00:45:21   I'm not the one making those decisions, right? So I just think about me, right? And I want

00:45:27   want my data to be end-to-end encrypted. That's what I want. I know it's

00:45:31   incredibly complicated and honestly like the thing is I don't have any I don't

00:45:39   have a massive problem with the idea of them not doing this. My problem is you

00:45:46   can't say one thing and then do another right? You can't say what happens on your

00:45:56   iPhone stays on your iPhone when any court in America can change that.

00:46:06   And then it doesn't.

00:46:08   That's my problem.

00:46:10   If Apple was different in what they spoke about, or if they didn't say things like that,

00:46:15   then I would just have to choose to live with the situation that I have brought upon myself.

00:46:21   And if I cared about it enough, I would stop using iCloud backup and I would start doing

00:46:26   encrypted backups on my Mac, right?

00:46:29   I tend to just have a problem with marketing that is effectively lying.

00:46:35   Like false advertising?

00:46:37   Yes.

00:46:38   From a company that we expect better from because they give their impression to the

00:46:43   world.

00:46:45   One of the reasons we all care about Apple so much is because of the way they present

00:46:50   themselves, because they present themselves as like better than Facebook, right?

00:46:56   And like Tim Cook will tell you that if you ask him, right?

00:46:59   You know what I mean?

00:47:00   And so it's like when I see stuff like this or when I'm reminded of things like this,

00:47:05   it's like, "Ah, but this doesn't jive with what you're saying."

00:47:11   Do I have a problem with Apple having this information if they can help save other people's

00:47:17   lives?

00:47:18   No.

00:47:19   But do I have a problem with them doing this if they say that if they if their marketing tells me that's not what they're doing

00:47:25   yeah, I kind of do have a problem with that because

00:47:29   It's complicated steven you haven't said anything

00:47:33   I mean, I agree with everything that's that's been said. I think apple needs

00:47:37   to have this as an option. I think that they

00:47:40   I think they're going to be forced to do it now because this is not going to be an issue that fades away

00:47:45   I don't think this feels like this is one of those big deals that they have to contend with

00:47:49   it does open questions about

00:47:53   you know how they explain these things to their users right and I

00:47:58   Hey, I think Apple totally regrets that CES banner that they put on the side of the hotel last year

00:48:04   So stupid think they they really regret that the fact that we three

00:48:09   were confused or had forgotten that iCloud backups were not end-to-end encrypted. Like we're plugged into this more than anybody and

00:48:16   I bet you there's a lot of users out there who saw this story if they understand what end-to-end encryption means we're really surprised

00:48:24   that the iCloud backup doesn't do it. And so Apple has an opportunity here to not only fix it but to explain

00:48:30   what this technology does and what it provides for people because

00:48:37   on one hand you have us saying Apple should do this,

00:48:40   it should be an option, you should understand

00:48:42   that if you do this and you lose your iCloud password,

00:48:44   all your data's gone, right?

00:48:46   That needs to be clear.

00:48:48   'Cause that's the reason,

00:48:50   I think the primary reason Apple would say

00:48:52   that it is like this,

00:48:55   it's so they can get people back into their accounts.

00:48:59   But I don't know if people really understand

00:49:03   what that means.

00:49:04   So we have all this on this side,

00:49:06   But then the other side, you have people like the president

00:49:08   and politicians saying, we need access to backups,

00:49:12   we need access to data, so when things happen,

00:49:14   we can deal with it.

00:49:16   And that, more people are gonna hear that

00:49:19   than are gonna hear this show, right?

00:49:21   And hear that the reasons that you should do it.

00:49:23   And so Apple has to navigate all that,

00:49:26   and it's an opportunity for them to speak really clearly

00:49:28   about what encryption is and does in a world

00:49:32   where there's a lot of voices saying that it's a bad thing,

00:49:34   because it is not a bad thing.

00:49:35   Yes, it has consequences.

00:49:37   And one of those consequences is the FBI

00:49:41   can't see Cerna data.

00:49:42   And we have to understand that that's a trade-off.

00:49:46   And that's a trade-off that many of us are willing to make,

00:49:49   some other people aren't willing to make, and that's fine.

00:49:52   But Apple needs to be really clear here

00:49:56   about what this option would mean,

00:49:57   not only for password resets,

00:50:00   but what it would mean in the bigger world.

00:50:02   because if they don't,

00:50:05   their voice is just gonna be drowned out by the others,

00:50:07   and Apple does risk either political or social

00:50:12   or sort of feedback or pushback that,

00:50:16   oh, you're not willing to help

00:50:18   when these terrible things happen.

00:50:20   And that's the situation I don't wanna navigate.

00:50:23   I'm really glad I'm not Tim Cook this week,

00:50:25   but my biggest hope for this is whatever Apple does

00:50:29   is that it is very clear about what it means,

00:50:31   and they don't do their marketing, you know, spiel on,

00:50:36   like what was so refreshing about the thoughts

00:50:38   on FlashLetter that you referenced earlier?

00:50:40   It seems jobs was very clear

00:50:41   about their decision making, right?

00:50:43   It wasn't, I mean, he always had his reality distortion

00:50:47   feel, but like in reading that letter, I remember being,

00:50:49   this is very like clearly worded in a way

00:50:51   that I think most people could understand.

00:50:53   Apple needs that again today for this.

00:50:56   - 'Cause like they have that whole privacy webpage, right?

00:50:58   And I just don't feel like it is clear enough.

00:51:03   Right?

00:51:04   Because there's things like, they talk about end-to-end encryption for

00:51:07   iMessages and saying that when it's in transit, it's encrypted.

00:51:11   And it's like, that's great.

00:51:12   But it doesn't talk about iCloud backup.

00:51:14   So you've got like, you know, it talks about, I just, you know, like they

00:51:19   talk about on the iCloud backup portion, they talk about the data being

00:51:23   encrypted and then they say that it is end-to-end encrypted for these things.

00:51:28   but it doesn't really talk about what that means, right?

00:51:32   Like these are marketing pages.

00:51:34   They are meant to inform people.

00:51:36   And I don't, I feel like that they do not go

00:51:39   into enough detail about what that encryption means.

00:51:42   Will you read me to just, let me just read this to you?

00:51:45   - Sure. - Mm-hmm.

00:51:45   - So this is end-to-end encryption.

00:51:47   This is under the, oh, actually I want to get the,

00:51:50   where's the iCloud page?

00:51:52   Sorry, I mean, I want to get,

00:51:53   I want to make sure I get the right one

00:51:55   because I think, yeah, okay, yeah.

00:51:56   Encrypted data, this is under iCloud.

00:51:58   Your iCloud content like photos, contacts, and reminders

00:52:02   is encrypted when it's transferred

00:52:03   and when it's stored on our servers.

00:52:05   Mail is sent from your device to iCloud

00:52:07   with encryption in transit,

00:52:09   and it's stored with security features

00:52:10   designed to protect your communications

00:52:12   while giving you fast and easy access to your messages.

00:52:15   Apple also encrypts the information that is transferred

00:52:18   between any email app you use in our iCloud's mail servers.

00:52:22   Some personal data such as home and health data

00:52:24   stored of end-to-end encryption, which provides the highest level of data security. This data

00:52:30   is protected of a key derived from information unique to your device and combined with your

00:52:34   device passcode, which only you know. No one else can access or read this data."

00:52:39   What did you learn from that? Right? Like, when I read that, it makes it sound like

00:52:45   all of this data is protected of a key derived from information unique to your device.

00:52:51   Like, that's what it makes it feel like. But that's not the case.

00:52:57   But that's not it. And there is no asterisk here. There is nothing here which is referencing the

00:53:03   fact that like, who can get to this? So I don't know. I know this is super difficult because like,

00:53:08   what are they going to do? Like on their security page say like, by the way, if the government comes

00:53:13   a knock in, we'll give this data over. Like it's hardly the best marketing. But, and you know,

00:53:19   know, it's like fine, I can get on board with that to a point. But like, but who are you

00:53:24   trying to be? What are you trying to say as a company? What do you want your company to

00:53:29   be? What do you want it to be known for? And I feel like a stronger privacy stance is it.

00:53:35   And I think the strongest privacy stance that you can take is you can say, no one gets this.

00:53:42   We don't get this. No one can get this, right? For as much as encryption can be trusted,

00:53:48   right? Which is, you know, the good encryption is basically unbreakable, especially for an

00:53:54   individual like who's really trying that hard to get our data, right? Like, any amount of

00:54:00   time that it would take someone to break it is almost pointless. So I would I want to

00:54:05   see them go that route. And whether this report is true or not, isn't the story and like,

00:54:11   it annoys me when people are like, the story is that we've already known about this. It's

00:54:16   "No, that's not the story. I don't care about the fact that this came up two years ago.

00:54:22   It came up two years ago and it's the same now. We're still in the same boat and it's

00:54:28   not enough. They should be doing more if between then and now the CEO's walking around and

00:54:35   saying Facebook should be shut down by the government because their privacy is not strong

00:54:39   enough." Right? Where it's like, "Yeah, okay. Facebook messed up big time and gave it away,

00:54:44   with enough court orders that give away the same amount, right? Like, you know, if the

00:54:48   government comes to them and somehow they have a court order for every single person

00:54:52   in the country, what's Apple going to do?

00:54:54   Yeah, ultimately their north star should be to just enable full, real, end-to-end encryption.

00:55:03   That should be the ultimate goal. Like, no matter how you think about it, yes, it would

00:55:07   be a problem for customers who then later would not remember the password, but then

00:55:12   use 20 pages of settings.

00:55:14   Make it an option. I don't think they should make it the default because it's...

00:55:17   It shouldn't be.

00:55:18   You know, I do not want my mom to have end-to-end encryption.

00:55:21   Right.

00:55:22   Because she will lose everything in about 20 minutes and it's all gone, right?

00:55:28   The public conversation... I don't know if this can ever happen, but we should stop thinking about real encryption

00:55:38   as a helping tool for the bad guys and more as a fundamental right of a person.

00:55:45   That's what I believe. I don't think it's what other people believe because most

00:55:49   people say "I have nothing to hide" and instead the bad guys are using encryption.

00:55:53   I'm not a bad guy therefore I don't need encryption and therefore the government

00:55:57   is right. And I think that conversation, that discourse needs to change. But

00:56:02   But ultimately, it's Apple that needs to make a decision and have a real, clear, easy to

00:56:09   understand public stance that says "We are going to do end-to-end encryption for iCalc

00:56:16   backups.

00:56:17   We do not want your data.

00:56:19   We cannot get to your data.

00:56:21   And then we'll handle the government and we'll give them what we can."

00:56:25   I don't know what it is that they can give them, but this is where a line needs to be

00:56:30   drawn. And this, I believe, will define the real leg. And I don't say this lightly, but

00:56:39   I think it will define Tim Cook's legacy here of like, do you actually draw a line and do

00:56:45   what's right for your customers and do what's right based on your own marketing campaign?

00:56:51   Or do you just let this one go and, you know, just ignore the issue and keep doing what

00:56:56   you're doing? Like, this is it. Like, what are you going to do?

00:57:00   I don't believe they have to do this. They just need to be clear about who they are.

00:57:07   And if they don't want to go the end-to-end encryption route for whatever reason, fine.

00:57:12   You don't have to. It's fine, but it will define you.

00:57:15   Everything has to match. I just want to say, because the chat room is getting all upset,

00:57:20   I was obviously being facetious with my comment about them being like Facebook. I'm clearly

00:57:27   stretching metaphors but my point is just like you can't be so strong in your stance in the press

00:57:36   when you have these omissions that you're making. You know like Tim Cook is talking about privacy

00:57:45   as being a fundamental human right. Now a human right should be worth more than what any particular

00:57:54   government in any country wants, right? Human rights, they're more important than that.

00:58:00   And so I feel like that you can't talk about these human rights and then be like, "except for"

00:58:08   or "except unless" this. And it starts to get messy, right? This is what I'm talking about.

00:58:15   Fundamental human right has pretty strong language. And my expectation from the guy

00:58:21   who's saying that is that he will let me keep my privacy at all costs but that's not the case so

00:58:28   yeah and also fundamental even right with an asterisk doesn't really work that's it

00:58:34   yeah yeah exactly quick straw poll do you think apple are going to make a comment about this

00:58:42   oh yeah yes before the next episode of the show yes i believe they are i think they will make a

00:58:49   a comment in the next few days. I think they have to.

00:58:52   I think they won't. This hasn't become, I think, a big enough story as of right now.

00:59:01   It's big in our circles, but I don't think it's big enough and they are dealing with

00:59:06   much worse from the government right now. I don't think they are going to say anything.

00:59:11   Interesting.

00:59:12   Because...

00:59:13   Okay, we'll see.

00:59:15   The story that they are fighting in the mainstream media right now is that Apple is holding back

00:59:22   from the government.

00:59:23   I cannot imagine them making a press release talking about how they're going to hold back

00:59:27   even more.

00:59:29   So that's where I am on this one.

00:59:30   I'm not saying they won't do this, but I think it would probably be easier for them to announce

00:59:36   in June that they're doing this with iOS 14 than if they were to save in the next two

00:59:41   days. Oh by the way we're adding end-to-end encryption in the future update of iOS. That's

00:59:46   where I think they are in this one. But we'll see. I would love to be proven wrong.

00:59:51   Man, things were easier when it was about Flash and the daily. Remember the daily? Those

00:59:57   were the days. Yeah, those were the dailies.

01:00:00   Things were much easier. We could get upset. We didn't have to think about the government

01:00:05   and the FBI. Well, whatever.

01:00:08   take a break and then end this episode of something fun. Okay. Yes. Yes, something fun.

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01:02:01   Federico, what have you been up to today?

01:02:03   All right, so I've been sort of teasing that I was going to do a bit of a surprise launch

01:02:10   for a product on Max Stories.

01:02:13   And so today we introduced a new, a bit of a refresh of the whole Max Stories pixel design

01:02:20   brand that we have.

01:02:21   So if you go to maxstories.net/pixel, you will see the new homepage and the new products.

01:02:27   And yes, products, multiple ones, actually.

01:02:31   So today we launched a separate new color version

01:02:36   of the Max Stories Shortcuts Icons.

01:02:39   So for those not aware, in September 2019, a few months ago,

01:02:44   we introduced Max Stories Shortcuts Icons.

01:02:47   They were originally a set of 300

01:02:51   that later grew to 350 with a free update.

01:02:55   Custom icons for your shortcuts on the home screen.

01:02:58   And the first version, now called the classic version of the icons, it featured monochrome glyphs.

01:03:06   So there were white glyphs with a transparent background.

01:03:10   And the idea was that when saved to your home screen, when saving a shortcut to your home screen from the shortcuts app using our icons,

01:03:20   they will look like standard shortcuts.

01:03:23   They would keep the original color of your shortcuts.

01:03:25   They will look like Apple icons, but with more icon options,

01:03:30   because Silvia made hundreds of glyphs and symbols

01:03:34   that are not available in shortcuts.

01:03:36   Now, today we launched a separate version.

01:03:41   It's called the MaxStory Shortcuts Icons Color.

01:03:44   It's the color set.

01:03:46   And this takes a different approach.

01:03:48   So uses the same glyphs and the same symbols.

01:03:51   So the same collection of 350 glyphs.

01:03:56   But each one is a multicolor.

01:03:58   So each one has been colored.

01:03:59   Silvia came up with a color palette

01:04:02   that we're using for icons with a white background

01:04:07   and multicolor icons with a black background.

01:04:10   And those are actually two subtly different color palettes,

01:04:14   sort of like Apple does dark mode.

01:04:16   The colors in light mode are different

01:04:18   from the colors in dark mode.

01:04:20   But anyway, the color set features icons,

01:04:24   color icons on top of a white background

01:04:28   or on top of a black background.

01:04:30   And the idea was, let's take a different approach

01:04:34   from the standard look of the shortcuts icons

01:04:37   and let's give users something that resembles more

01:04:42   the look of an app icon.

01:04:44   So a normal app icon, especially with the white

01:04:47   background icons.

01:04:50   a bunch of apps today, they have multicolor glyphs

01:04:54   on top of a white background.

01:04:56   - You made the enterprise set.

01:04:58   - Yes, this is the enterprise,

01:05:00   basically it's the enterprise joke, right?

01:05:03   Of all the apps having a white background.

01:05:05   But that's the reality of the situation.

01:05:07   And we thought, let's do something different.

01:05:09   So the Apple icons do not have any color.

01:05:12   So the Apple glyphs do not have any color.

01:05:14   We're gonna have,

01:05:15   we're gonna go through the entire list

01:05:18   all these shortcuts icons, and we're gonna color each one, choosing from a palette of

01:05:23   multiple colors. And then we're gonna offer two different background versions, so you

01:05:27   can have a white icon or you can have a black icon. And the black icons, the idea was, they

01:05:34   look good on any background, but especially if you have a pure black wallpaper. You know,

01:05:39   there's folks who like to use a super minimalistic pure black wallpaper. If you install these

01:05:45   you will not see the shape of the icon. You will just see the multicolor glyph.

01:05:51   And that sort of allows you to do this custom layout for your home screen that I think

01:05:57   it looks really cool and it looks really different from the usual home screens.

01:06:01   So that's what we've done. And the set is available just like the first one. The color set is

01:06:10   1999 but if you bought the classic one up until this morning

01:06:15   You can get the color one at just six dollars. So

01:06:19   it's a

01:06:21   Pretty big discount if you own the original set you can get the color one at six dollars

01:06:25   And in addition to that if you're totally new to maxory shortcut icons if you never bought them before

01:06:31   We have a bundle now. So the bundle is C is 30% off

01:06:38   the combined price of the two sets.

01:06:40   So it's basically $20 and you can get the full bundle and when you add up all the numbers

01:06:46   the bundle basically gives you

01:06:50   1400 icon options. It's a lot of icons.

01:06:55   Because today, also I forgot to mention, if you bought the classic set months ago, there's another free update for you

01:07:04   that comes with monochrome black and white versions of the icons.

01:07:09   So white glyphs with a black background.

01:07:12   There's screenshots for all of this stuff in the post that I wrote on Mac stories, and there's the FAQ section

01:07:20   where I also have a bunch of other screenshots. Basically now you can choose, right? We wanted to give people choice.

01:07:26   Do you want to go with a standard look that resembles the Apple

01:07:32   shortcuts icons and now you also have a monochrome version then go with the classic. Do you want to

01:07:38   have something different that has a bit of color and that looks like apps on your home screen? Go

01:07:44   with the color set. Do you want to have everything and just mix and match stuff? Go, which is what I

01:07:49   do, go with the bundle and go crazy. So that was the idea. So in this post, your announcement post,

01:07:57   You included a screenshot of your home screen.

01:08:03   Yes.

01:08:04   I would like to talk about this.

01:08:07   Yes, hold on. Before we do that, tomorrow, on Thursday, there will be, as I promised,

01:08:16   I was a bit late this year, but it's coming out tomorrow, my must-have apps 2018 edition article.

01:08:24   It's coming out tomorrow.

01:08:25   2019.

01:08:25   2019.

01:08:26   2019.

01:08:27   Super late, 2018.

01:08:28   2019 edition.

01:08:29   It's coming out tomorrow.

01:08:33   So it was supposed to be out in December, but I got sidetracked and I needed to make

01:08:38   a bunch of adjustments to my home screen, but it's done.

01:08:41   It's coming out tomorrow and there's going to be details about all the apps that you

01:08:44   see on the home screen.

01:08:46   But yes, Myke, let's talk about the home screen.

01:08:48   Ask away.

01:08:50   So I mean, there are lots of things on here that I don't understand.

01:08:54   I don't know where the icons go and I'm very intrigued.

01:08:59   So you have a bunch of folders that go down the right hand side.

01:09:02   I'm assuming that they're to a shortcut which opens a folder in iCloud Drive or something?

01:09:06   Yes. Those are... The idea there was to have a sidebar of folders.

01:09:12   So I used the color icons with a black background to sort of make that column look different from the rest of the home screen.

01:09:23   and those are shortcuts that open a folder in the Files app.

01:09:28   - Okay, so you're using a black background now

01:09:31   to make that stuff look good, right?

01:09:32   - Yeah, exactly, because it looks different to the side.

01:09:36   My goal was to sort of make it look like a desktop of sorts,

01:09:41   so that, yeah, I faked my way around it

01:09:43   using the black wallpaper.

01:09:46   - What is Raindrop?

01:09:48   - That's the question that I assumed correctly

01:09:53   that a bunch of people were going to ask.

01:09:55   So this is actually the longest segment

01:09:58   in tomorrow's article.

01:09:59   So raindrop.io is this bookmarking service.

01:10:04   And yes, I'm using a bookmarking service in 2020

01:10:07   and there's a whole backstory there

01:10:09   that I actually explained in the article.

01:10:11   Basically, I, so Myke knows,

01:10:15   I've started playing competitive Pokemon

01:10:18   over the past few months.

01:10:21   And yes, competitive Pokémon, it's a thing, Steven.

01:10:24   And it's a very serious game, actually.

01:10:27   Like, bunch of stats, bunch of numbers.

01:10:32   It's really incredible, the community around this.

01:10:34   But here's my problem.

01:10:37   I have been away from competitive Pokémon, like serious Pokémon team building, for the

01:10:46   past 17 years, since the Gameboy Advance, basically. And things have changed a lot.

01:10:55   So when I started playing Pokemon back in November on the Nintendo Switch, and then

01:10:59   when I shared with Myke my intention of like, actually trying to get more serious about

01:11:04   it and actually play online, which I never do, usually, I realized, oh boy, things have

01:11:10   changed a lot, and I need to catch up on a bunch of things here. So I started reading,

01:11:14   I started watching YouTube videos and I realized I was saving all these links in Apple Notes,

01:11:21   like a lot of them, and I realized, oh, this is way too many links and they're basically

01:11:26   unsearchable. Because in Apple Notes you can search notes by title, but you cannot search

01:11:32   the title of a link contained within a note, right? Those are not real bookmarks. And of

01:11:39   Of course, bookmarks in Safari, they're clunky and it's not really meant for having

01:11:45   a collection of, we're talking about hundreds of bookmarks here.

01:11:49   And so I started looking around again and I realized very quickly, well, I don't want

01:11:53   to use stuff like devon.think or kipit because I always run into some kind of glitches and

01:12:00   bugs and stuff that I don't like.

01:12:02   And also devon.think on iOS and iPadOS.

01:12:06   I mean, it's inactive development, but really the developers are focusing much more on the Mac version these days.

01:12:11   And then, you know, I thought, well, maybe Pinboard is an option. And I know that plenty of folks love Pinboard.

01:12:18   Honestly, I just don't like the way that it looks. Like, the website is just... I don't like it.

01:12:24   It's not nice. And, you know, what I think about nice things and design, something has to be nice and pleasant to look at for me.

01:12:32   Also, before people send me a tweet, yes, pinboard clients exist on iOS, but have you looked at those pinboard clients lately?

01:12:41   They're not really, you know, updated very frequently.

01:12:45   And so I started looking around again, and I came across Raindrop, which

01:12:50   has been around for years. It's a really great looking bookmarking service that works everywhere. So it's got an iPhone app,

01:12:58   it's got an iPad app, it's got a web app,

01:13:01   desktop extensions, all kinds of different ways to save bookmarks. And these bookmarks

01:13:07   you can organize in collections, which I liked, and you can tag, which I also like. But really,

01:13:13   it's all about the design. So when you save a bookmark, it gets this rich thumbnail that

01:13:18   sort of extracts the main image of a web page, and it tries its best to extract a description

01:13:25   of the page as well. And your collections, you can have folders and sub-folders, but

01:13:32   also you can customize the icon of the collection. You can choose from thousands of icons. There's

01:13:38   going to be screenshots tomorrow in the story showing my Pokémon collections. Each one

01:13:44   has a custom Pokémon icon, it's amazing, it looks so pretty. And you can choose from

01:13:48   different view options, so you can have bookmarks laid out in a grid or in a list. It's really

01:13:53   well done. And what makes it super useful for me is the fact that on iOS, all these

01:14:00   bookmarks they open with Safari View Controller. Like, you tap on it and it opens with Safari.

01:14:07   Usually these services have their own custom web views, this one does not. It opens Safari,

01:14:12   so all of the extensions that you want to use you can use. If you use content blockers

01:14:16   it works. If you want to use Safari Reader it also works. And it's super well done, it's

01:14:22   so fast and well done and the extension to save links from the iPhone or from the iPad is also very well done because you can

01:14:29   save a web page to you as a bookmark with one tap or

01:14:33   After you've saved it

01:14:34   You can customize it from the extension without

01:14:37   Opening the app so you can add a tag or you can change the title or you can change the description

01:14:43   so I've been using raindrop to

01:14:46   At first to save a bunch of competitive Pokemon basics, so videos and guides and strategies and that kind of stuff

01:14:54   Then I started creating my own Pokedex, which would be a list of Pokemon and important stats

01:15:01   So like what's the base speed of this Pokemon? What's the like?

01:15:06   What is it? What is the Pokemon weak to for example?

01:15:09   And then I started using it to save other bookmarks for non Pokemon stuff like

01:15:15   things that I want to buy online or music albums that I want to buy in the FLAC format for my Sony Walkman.

01:15:21   So I got a bit of a collection of stuff.

01:15:23   Let me ask you a couple of questions. These are incredibly important questions for me personally as a human being.

01:15:30   Yes.

01:15:30   When you add a link, can you put in like a note?

01:15:34   Oh, yeah.

01:15:35   So you can...

01:15:36   There's a description field.

01:15:37   You can just type your own stuff in there?

01:15:39   Yeah, totally. That's where I keep my notes for

01:15:42   the base speed of a Pokémon. It's something that I write because when I'm playing online

01:15:48   with the Nintendo Switch and I want to double check like

01:15:53   I'm against this person and I want to make sure that my Pokémon is faster than the opponent

01:15:58   I open raindrop and I type in very quickly in the search bar the name of the opposing Pokémon and

01:16:06   Usually there's my note in there saying "Bass speed is 50".

01:16:11   And so I'm like, "Okay."

01:16:12   So as a tool to double-check things when I'm playing online, it's perfect for that.

01:16:18   And the description field, the note, is shown by default in the main list view.

01:16:24   So you see the title in bold, and you see the note in regular font.

01:16:29   Okay, one last thing, which is maybe even more important, and I'm expecting this is not possible.

01:16:33   I'm assuming you can't just add something like a note randomly, it has to be attached

01:16:39   to a bookmark, right?

01:16:40   So yeah, unfortunately yes. You can upload images and documents like your own, if you

01:16:47   pay for the premium service, you can upload your own files, but not text files for now

01:16:53   I think. It's just PDF documents and photos.

01:17:00   Have you heard of Evernote?

01:17:02   Yeah, and this is so much better because all I want to do is save links from the web.

01:17:06   Let me save you some time. Have you tried Notion?

01:17:09   Don't open that can of worms.

01:17:10   Cool, I just need to say it. I just need to say it because if I don't say it...

01:17:14   No, no, and I can answer that because I know that there's a whole group of people out there

01:17:18   that are going to say this. Have you tried saving a link from Safari on the iPhone 2

01:17:24   Notion?

01:17:25   Oh, I have.

01:17:26   Look, this is just... I love it because it's a dedicated tool to manage bookmarks that

01:17:34   works well with Safari. The extension to save a bookmark, it works really well in the sharesheet,

01:17:41   and when I'm inside the Raindrop app, I tap on a link and it opens with Safari ViewController

01:17:47   in line. It's really well done. Like, that's all I want. I want to be able to save a link,

01:17:52   a preview and actually also of course be able to search those links, which I cannot do in

01:17:57   Apple Notes because it doesn't index the title of a link or the contents of a link.

01:18:04   And in theory, like there's a whole bunch of other things that Raindrop does, like it

01:18:07   checks broken links for you and it shows you a message if a page that you bookmarked is

01:18:14   gone. It does suggestions in the search bar. It's very nice because once you start saving

01:18:23   a bunch of things, it provides you with some shortcuts of videos, which automatically give

01:18:29   you all the YouTube stuff that you've saved, or articles, for example. The developer is

01:18:36   working on full text indexing of web pages, which I think is coming out over the next

01:18:42   few months. So yeah, I mean, that's the... I know that's gonna be the big surprise of

01:18:48   the home screen this year, which is why I spent a bunch of time in the article talking

01:18:52   about the app. Anything else?

01:18:54   I feel like we talked about that way longer than the icons.

01:18:57   Yeah, on Raindrop, no. I mean, it's close to being something that I'm looking for, but

01:19:03   not completely. The ability to not be able to just add text notes, that's a shame for

01:19:10   like just arbitrary text notes, then it would be exactly something that I'm looking for

01:19:15   right now, which is to replace my Apple Notes workflow for adding, for collecting up information

01:19:21   for show research. Sometimes I just add in arbitrary pieces of text into that, right?

01:19:26   Like a thought or an outline of something. All right, but I'm going to look in that because

01:19:31   it could still do at least half of what I need. Okay, so looking at some of these, I

01:19:38   works them out. There are some clear time tracking ones at the bottom.

01:19:41   Yes. Timer menu, articles, shortcuts corner, I'm assuming, opens something, or S corner,

01:19:47   I'm assuming, is opening something to do with the shortcuts corner in the club.

01:19:50   No, it actually starts a timer for the shortcuts corner section.

01:19:54   Yeah. What is clip to jar?

01:19:57   So there's this beta, this app called Data Jar.

01:20:01   Ah. Yep, yep, yep, yep.

01:20:04   Made by Simon Stovering, he's the developer of Scriptable.

01:20:06   -Mizz Jason. -Mizz Jason.

01:20:08   And Data Jar is this utility that...

01:20:12   It's one of those shortcuts utilities that is, in theory, coming out in 2020,

01:20:16   that basically lets you manage data

01:20:21   that you can then access from shortcuts.

01:20:23   And what I'm building is a clipboard manager for iOS

01:20:28   that works with Data Jar.

01:20:30   And that, unlike other clipboard managers that others have tried to do before,

01:20:34   This one lets you actually retrieve images and PDF documents and links and music in a rich format, not just plain text.

01:20:43   So that's what I'm doing.

01:20:45   The new Shortcuts icons, the recent one is the one that I use a lot.

01:20:56   That runs a shortcut that shows me a list of my recently modified notes in Apple Notes.

01:21:04   So just a way to get back into...

01:21:06   - Wait, how? - This is actually on the Mac.

01:21:08   It's in the MacStory Shortcuts Archive.

01:21:10   I believe it's called Recent Notes.

01:21:13   It's quite clever.

01:21:14   It searches all your Apple Notes database,

01:21:18   sorts your notes by recently modified,

01:21:21   and shows you the titles of all those notes,

01:21:24   just the titles in a list.

01:21:26   And then you can choose from a list

01:21:28   and it opens that specific note.

01:21:30   - So I bet that works in a widget, huh?

01:21:32   - Oh yeah, it does.

01:21:33   It's not in there, but in theory it does.

01:21:36   Site, it's got an SSH icon, but it's not actually a terminal.

01:21:41   I just like the icon.

01:21:42   It's a terminal.

01:21:44   No, it's not a terminal.

01:21:45   It's a menu.

01:21:48   It's not.

01:21:48   It looks like a terminal.

01:21:49   It's not a terminal.

01:21:50   It's a terminal, but a different kind.

01:21:53   It's a menu with a bunch of options for Mac stories,

01:21:55   including one which I do all the time, which is sync

01:22:00   all repos in working copy.

01:22:02   So with the push of a button, it refreshes working copy in the background.

01:22:06   So I don't have to open the app and do the pull to refresh myself.

01:22:09   And add shortcuts with the Flask, sort of a mad scientist type of deal.

01:22:16   That's when I have an idea for a shortcut that I want to build,

01:22:20   or that I've already built in my mind,

01:22:23   but that I want to make sure that I add to the archive later.

01:22:26   You've built it in the shortcuts... Yeah, okay.

01:22:29   Sometimes I have this entire flow of a shortcut already developed in my brain

01:22:34   and I just need to actually make it, but I know it's gonna work.

01:22:37   And so that shortcut adds it to an Apple Note.

01:22:41   Does your brain shortcut maker have folders?

01:22:45   Yeah.

01:22:46   [Laughter]

01:22:47   Frames, I'm assuming, does a bunch of Base64, right?

01:22:51   Yes.

01:22:51   Yeah, that's where all the Base64 is hidden.

01:22:53   Oh no. Don't tap that one.

01:22:55   No, I tap it all the time.

01:22:57   Below frames in the dark next to the Apple Notes icon is like a little picture.

01:23:01   What is that?

01:23:02   Yeah, that's another shortcut called article formatting, which is just a bunch of...

01:23:09   It doesn't make sense to share it, because it's a bunch of Mac Stories specific syntax

01:23:18   options for my articles.

01:23:19   What if I want those, though?

01:23:20   Well, they're going to be useless for you, because you don't have a website.

01:23:24   You don't know what I have.

01:23:26   I own iOS stories, don't I?

01:23:28   Sure, you can try that.

01:23:30   Any day now I'm ready to launch it.

01:23:32   So that shortcut is basically like a sort of a poor man's

01:23:38   text expander type of deal.

01:23:41   It shows you a list of text blocks, and you choose one,

01:23:47   and it copies that text to the clipboard

01:23:49   so I don't have to type it out myself.

01:23:52   I'm surprised none of you mentioned in the doc what's next to reminders.

01:23:58   Because I mean, I have the calendar on the main home screen, but then I also have Fantastic

01:24:03   Al in the doc.

01:24:04   I mean, I assume that you're a dual calendar power user.

01:24:08   Big boy calendar user.

01:24:10   Dual calendar cowboy.

01:24:12   Not really, but yeah.

01:24:13   Cowboy.

01:24:14   C-A-L-B-O-Y.

01:24:15   You're a cowboy.

01:24:16   I'm a cowboy.

01:24:17   I'm a true cowboy.

01:24:18   Yeah, I'm a true cowboy. I'm not a power user, but I've been using fantastic...

01:24:27   So the real question is, why is the Apple icon still there?

01:24:30   So you get the date? Now the date's in the sidebar.

01:24:34   Exactly. Initially I thought, well, it's for the date, and then I realized, oh, I'm dumb,

01:24:38   because the date is always right there on the home screen. So the Apple calendar will

01:24:42   probably go away. I just really like it there as an icon for now. But fantastical, I've

01:24:48   been using because they're working on a bunch of things and I, you know, I cannot,

01:24:55   I don't want to talk about it now but as like in addition to reminders that was a kind

01:25:00   of a trick question, "Why don't you ask me about Fantastical?" Actually I can't

01:25:03   talk about it. Federico, that's why I didn't ask about it,

01:25:06   all right? It was a whole setup. Yeah, but I wanted to

01:25:09   set you up but I failed. Honestly, I failed. I failed very badly.

01:25:14   Yeah, it wasn't good. I regret that decision. Actually, no, I do not regret that.

01:25:20   Oh, wow. This is a rollercoaster. Yeah, I'm all emotional right now. I don't

01:25:25   know. Launch cuts next to shortcuts. No, there's one I want to ask about, and I've waited because

01:25:31   I've been wondering what this is for a long time. What is Ideas?

01:25:35   Oh, it's a shortcut that...

01:25:39   This is the simplest thing, honestly.

01:25:43   It's a one-action shortcut that opens an Apple Note

01:25:47   called "Shortcut Ideas."

01:25:49   - Okay, there was one more, though.

01:25:51   There is a couple of other questions I have,

01:25:52   but I can't ask them,

01:25:53   because you've had some stuff on home screens for a while,

01:25:57   and I've been really interested about it,

01:25:59   but I don't think it's here, right?

01:26:02   - Yeah, that's not here.

01:26:05   You can see it, though, probably in the article about the shortcut icons color today.

01:26:15   There's the second page of my home screen, which is also interesting because I'm using

01:26:20   a real custom layout there with black icons in the middle and then regular icons.

01:26:27   Oh, let me go see.

01:26:29   I was just looking at the screenshot you put in our document.

01:26:31   Yeah, I should have put the second one, sorry.

01:26:33   Yeah, okay.

01:26:34   - Alright. - Yeah, there's my tasks and releases.

01:26:38   - An agenda. - Profile.

01:26:41   Oh, Profile, that's a shortcut that opens the settings page for installing a profile on your device.

01:26:49   I basically use it whenever I'm checking whether I have the Apple Developer Beta profile installed.

01:26:55   How often do you need to check that?

01:26:57   You also have four HomePod shortcuts, one for each HomePod.

01:27:01   No, it's for all HomePods.

01:27:05   Shuffle love, is that what that means?

01:27:07   Shuffle love, shuffle star.

01:27:09   You're ready for love?

01:27:11   That's what I do. Look, I gotta be efficient at all times.

01:27:14   What is my tasks and what is releases?

01:27:18   So, those two are...

01:27:23   Myke, I need you to take this seriously.

01:27:27   Honestly, they are PWAs.

01:27:30   Oh jeez.

01:27:31   No, I'm-

01:27:32   Why?

01:27:33   I am a hundred percent serious.

01:27:35   Why is this happening?

01:27:37   You did it.

01:27:39   It's not that it's happening to you.

01:27:41   No!

01:27:42   Oh, we're doing it back here again?

01:27:43   It's back.

01:27:44   Those are- so-

01:27:46   My tasks.

01:27:47   No.

01:27:48   Oh my god.

01:27:49   Releases.

01:27:50   Oh, don't do that one.

01:27:52   Don't do that.

01:27:53   Releases.

01:27:54   No.

01:27:55   Stop saying that word in that voice.

01:27:56   Go back to my tasks.

01:27:58   [LAUGHTER]

01:28:01   So months ago-- actually, I think it was late August--

01:28:06   I asked-- I started working on a shortcut.

01:28:10   I was like, wouldn't it be nice if I could put together

01:28:13   a shortcut to build a custom calendar view just for me

01:28:21   that shows me both tasks and calendar

01:28:24   events on the same page?

01:28:26   And so I started building that.

01:28:28   And at the same time, that was when I began working on MusicBot.

01:28:34   And on the side, I started thinking,

01:28:37   wouldn't it be nice if the music releases that I saved to my MusicBot collection

01:28:45   could also be previewed as their own grid, like in a custom page?

01:28:51   And eventually, these two things became sort of the same related project of,

01:28:55   like how can I build a responsive grid that shows me

01:29:00   for my tasks, reminders and events,

01:29:04   and for releases, music albums.

01:29:08   And I realized soon after that,

01:29:11   that I had no idea how HTML and CSS worked.

01:29:14   And so I asked Brett Terpstra,

01:29:16   hey, can we work together on this?

01:29:18   And so my tasks and releases will eventually be released

01:29:23   as Cloud Max Stories Only perks.

01:29:26   They are progressive web apps

01:29:29   that you can install on your own server

01:29:32   and then bookmark on your device with a custom icon,

01:29:36   as shown in this screenshot.

01:29:38   And my tasks...

01:29:40   - Where would one get custom icons?

01:29:42   - Well, they come because they are PWAs, Myke.

01:29:45   They... - Oh, they come with their own.

01:29:47   - They come with their own icon.

01:29:49   - Wow.

01:29:49   - Yeah, but you can, I guess they're,

01:29:51   I mean, I'll make it possible for you to use any icon you want. I'll think about that.

01:29:56   Of course you will.

01:29:57   And they are progressive web apps that they open super fast and they fetch a page from

01:30:06   your server and then they show you either your schedule for the week or your entire

01:30:11   collection of music releases that you've previously saved via MusicBot. Of course, both of them

01:30:18   are powered by shortcuts. There's a shortcut that updates the contents of the My Tasks

01:30:24   page on your own server, and there's a shortcut that updates the releases webpage. They're

01:30:30   fun but I mean, the work comes out for the club at some point before WWDC, I'm sure.

01:30:38   But yeah, they are PWAs, Mykey. They're good web apps, you know?

01:30:44   Aren't all web apps good? Is it the same as dogs?

01:30:49   Well, no. Dogs are all good, that's a fact. Web apps, it depends.

01:30:54   I still don't agree with this. Dogs are all good. Nonsense.

01:30:57   Let's pick... You are a bad person.

01:31:00   But yeah, this is the second screen. You can see the "tutur" icon down there.

01:31:06   "Tutur" is there. TV forecast. This is a good one.

01:31:10   forecast is an upcoming TV tracker.

01:31:16   Used to be around many, many years ago.

01:31:19   The developer sort of abandoned the app, and now it's back,

01:31:23   and it's super well done.

01:31:24   And I'm using that as my TV tracker of choice.

01:31:28   And I think everything else you pretty much

01:31:30   know about a bunch of other shortcuts,

01:31:33   all the new color icons.

01:31:36   Yeah, that's about it.

01:31:38   Steven, tell people where they can find the show notes

01:31:40   for this episode, which would be important.

01:31:42   - They can find the show notes

01:31:43   at relay.fm/connected/278.

01:31:48   So go look through Federico's screens.

01:31:51   There'll be links to that Mac Stories article there.

01:31:54   There's also other fun activities

01:31:55   you can have on the website.

01:31:56   You can send us an email with feedback or a follow-up,

01:31:59   or you can find us on Twitter.

01:32:02   Myke is there as I-M-Y-K-E.

01:32:04   Myke is, of course, the host of a bunch of other shows

01:32:07   here on relay FM.

01:32:08   So go check those out.

01:32:10   You can find Federico on Twitter as V I T I C C I,

01:32:15   and he's the editor in chief and icon guru

01:32:20   over at maxstories.net.

01:32:23   You can find me on Twitter as ISMH

01:32:25   and my work at 512pixels.net.

01:32:29   I think our sponsors this week,

01:32:30   Squarespace, Direct Mail, Booz Allen.

01:32:34   Until next week guys, say goodbye.

01:32:36   I'll do that to you.

01:32:37   Hello!

01:32:37   Adios.