0:00:00Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 262.
0:00:12It's made possible this week by our sponsors Pingdom, Smile, and FreshBooks.
0:00:17My name is Stephen Hackett and I am joined by Mr. Federico Vittucci.
0:00:21Hello.
0:00:22Hi.
0:00:23How are you?
0:00:24I'm great.
0:00:25How are you today?
0:00:26I'm alive.
0:00:27So that's good.
0:00:28That's good.
0:00:29We're gonna talk about that in a little while.
0:00:32And we're also joined by Myke Hurley.
0:00:34Big show.
0:00:35I got a lot of exciting things to talk about today.
0:00:38Huge, huge show.
0:00:39Sometimes there are weeks on this show where, like two days ago or yesterday, there's nothing
0:00:43in the document, and then I load it today, and it's 19 pages long.
0:00:47It just goes on forever.
0:00:48We have five items to follow up, five tiny topics, and four main topics to talk about
0:00:56today.
0:00:57This document is longer than my review.
0:01:00(laughing)
0:01:01It's too long, I don't wanna read it.
0:01:03- Too long.
0:01:04- Yeah.
0:01:05- Well, let's get started then.
0:01:06What are we doing?
0:01:07We don't have time to waste.
0:01:08Let's start with follow-up.
0:01:09As promised, the podcast-a-thon video and audio
0:01:14have been posted.
0:01:14It's over on YouTube.
0:01:16It's also in a new feed called Departures
0:01:18on the Relay website.
0:01:19I definitely recommend, if you're gonna spend six hours
0:01:22with this thing, to watch the video.
0:01:24It's totally worth it.
0:01:26watch it, it's way better than listening.
0:01:28- Yeah, I listened to some of it,
0:01:29and I was there and the video was better.
0:01:33It's a lot better.
0:01:34I do want to tease also Sunday's episode
0:01:37of Mac Power Easers, episode 502.
0:01:39It'll be out in a few days.
0:01:41The whole first section is David and I talking about
0:01:44all the behind the scenes stuff.
0:01:45So if you wanna know about how you do
0:01:47a six hour podcast-a-thon,
0:01:49check out MPU 502 this coming weekend.
0:01:52- And if you're interested in, you know,
0:01:55jump into a point about two hours in is when Federico comes on and we have a little mini
0:02:00episode of Connected during the middle of the podcast is done. There's lots of great
0:02:03stuff in there.
0:02:05What are you going to do for episode 512?
0:02:08We actually planning we've already been talking about it a like Stump the Genius episode where
0:02:14I answer people's tech questions for an hour and a half.
0:02:17Perfect.
0:02:18It's gonna be it's gonna be fun. If you have participated in our St. Jude campaign this
0:02:24this fall, this September.
0:02:26Thank you so much, we are over a quarter of a million dollars
0:02:29which--
0:02:30- One quarter of a million dollars!
0:02:32Put that into perspective.
0:02:34- I keep saying it and it keeps,
0:02:36it just keeps making me smile every time I say it.
0:02:39If you are interested in donating and you haven't yet,
0:02:42the campaign will be up through the end of the month.
0:02:44You can go to stjue.org/connected
0:02:48and learn more and donate to a cause that
0:02:52It means the world to us, but the world to families all around the globe.
0:02:57St. Jude works to treat kids who are fighting cancer and to care for their families all
0:03:02at the same time.
0:03:03It's an amazing deal.
0:03:04So humbling to be a part of it.
0:03:05And yeah, a quarter of a million dollars is just amazing.
0:03:09Unbelievable.
0:03:10Thank you so much, everybody.
0:03:12That's really just astounding.
0:03:15Moving on to some less serious, but also way more serious follow up.
0:03:22Federica, we all know about pranking your mom.
0:03:25That's a thing that you do.
0:03:26This is not a prank.
0:03:27It was not a prank.
0:03:28And you had a tweet the other day that said, "Left my mom at home and forgot to tell her
0:03:32about our new security system."
0:03:34And a screenshot is of at least four, I'm sure there are more of them because they're
0:03:38basically every minute, your HomeKit alarm system going off.
0:03:44So what happened? Is your mom okay?
0:03:49My mom is okay. This was not a prank. Of all the pranks that I could have pulled on my
0:03:55mom that I may have done that weekend, this was not a prank. I promise it was accidental.
0:04:04I forgot that. Yes, I left my mom at home watching the dogs because Sylvia and I needed
0:04:12to be somewhere and I didn't think about the fact that since the last time she was at home
0:04:20I set up this new HomeKit security system that I think I mentioned on the show that
0:04:25I also covered in the review which is basically there's a siren that I bought from Amazon
0:04:32it's a very loud siren it's 120 decibels it's very loud and it's connected to HomeKit smart
0:04:41plug and the smart plug is part of a series of automations that whenever one of my doors or
0:04:47windows open and nobody's home, so that's the condition, if nobody's home then basically
0:04:54engage this incredible siren and a bunch of other things, including send me SMS alerts and
0:05:03pushover alerts. Both of them I programmed as custom shortcuts in HomeKit using the Twilio
0:05:11and push over APIs. So what happened here is that my mom simply opened the balcony door
0:05:19to let the dogs play outside and she was blasted with this siren at 120 decibels.
0:05:26Oh no, it's so loud.
0:05:29After the first siren, the second siren,
0:05:31kicked in, that's not as loud. There's a second one, 90 decibels in the bedroom,
0:05:39that also comes in as a second layer. And I started getting all of these alerts. And
0:05:45at first, my reaction was, "Oh no, somebody broke in." And then I realized, like in a
0:05:52fraction of a second, I realized, "Wait, my mom is home." And then I realized, "Oh no,
0:05:56the automation rule worked because nobody's home right now." And so even though I was kind of happy
0:06:06about it that, yes, all my code worked correctly.
0:06:10I opened the Home app and turned off the siren right away,
0:06:15and then I called my mom on the phone,
0:06:17and I could tell from her voice that she was, like, shaking.
0:06:21I was like, "Mom, everything's fine. I'm sorry."
0:06:24Just, I didn't realize that nobody was home
0:06:27and the alarm was triggered.
0:06:30But it will not trigger anymore now.
0:06:33-Oh, woman. -Yeah.
0:06:35I know, I agree, I believe that this wasn't a prank, but I feel so badly for your mother
0:06:41in so many situations.
0:06:43This one is real bad.
0:06:45Yeah, it was very bad.
0:06:48Thankfully the dogs were not scared too much by the siren.
0:06:52I think my mom was more scared by the sound than the dogs.
0:06:57The dogs were just running outside, so they didn't care.
0:07:02So it's also, your mom is more of the concern here, right?
0:07:07Sure.
0:07:08Your mom being upset by the siren should be more concerning than the dogs getting upset
0:07:13by the siren, you know?
0:07:14Well, you know, but she's a grown woman, so the dogs are small and…
0:07:18Right, but like your mother is older than the dogs.
0:07:22Yeah.
0:07:23Right?
0:07:24That's my main concern here.
0:07:26Yeah, I guess you're right.
0:07:28But I'm still happy that everything worked as expected.
0:07:32So the notifications worked.
0:07:35Sylvie also got a bunch of alerts
0:07:37because in the Twilio API,
0:07:39I also associated Sylvie's phone number.
0:07:41The automation worked,
0:07:44the multiple layers of actions to be performed also worked.
0:07:48So in addition to, there's a first siren,
0:07:51there's a second siren,
0:07:52and then all the lights turn on to 100% white color.
0:07:58And as I mentioned, I think on the podcast-a-thon,
0:08:00was it on the podcast-a-thon that I mentioned this?
0:08:02Yeah.
0:08:03In the future, as soon as the HomePod software update becomes
0:08:07available, I will add spoken messages to the mix.
0:08:11So there will be a message that says that the home security
0:08:15system is calling the polizia, or carabinieri,
0:08:18even though it's not actually true,
0:08:19but the thieves don't know that it's not true.
0:08:23Or your mother.
0:08:25Right.
0:08:26Right.
0:08:26hopefully this will not. You know, there should be, there should be in HomeKit some kind of
0:08:32way, maybe through family sharing to say when this person is visiting. So this person is
0:08:39not necessarily one of the home owners, but she may be visiting. So in the nobody's own
0:08:46condition, there should be some kind of flag to say, allow for guests or something like
0:08:53that and it could probably because you know in my family sharing setup we have my mom and Sylvia's
0:08:58mom so that I you know I don't think I mentioned this so I can just play for I can just pay for
0:09:04iCloud drive for everybody and they don't need to manage any more subscriptions maybe there should
0:09:09be a way to have guests that are that do not have direct admin control over every single accessory
0:09:16but maybe they should be part of conditions for exactly this type of scenario. I wonder if you
0:09:22you could use the automation stuff in shortcuts so when her phone joins your
0:09:26Wi-Fi it disables the alarms. No that wouldn't work. Maybe though, maybe
0:09:34with one of the future HomeKit routers that will be possible because in theory
0:09:40I don't know. Who knows if they ever gonna release those. They promised them
0:09:46and then we don't know what happened to those. So but anyway she's alive she's
0:09:50fine and the system worked. Success all around. Steven can we talk about your video? Yes please.
0:09:57And the dance at the beginning which was amazing. Where's the music from? The music is from...
0:10:03let me look, I have a subscription to this thing where you get a bunch of
0:10:07royalty-free music you can use. It's like the intro... so the intro is very technically
0:10:15impressive. You did a really good job with the edit and then you just started dancing.
0:10:18But I have a continuity problem with the beginning of your video. Do you know what it is?
0:10:24That the music is playing before I put my earbuds in?
0:10:26Yeah, and that you're dancing before you've got the earbuds in. Why are you dancing?
0:10:30Is it your pre-dance?
0:10:31So let me show behind the scenes. The song is from Epidemic Sound, by the way. That's a service
0:10:38you can pay for and you get music you can use on YouTube. I tried the dance without any music in my
0:10:45office and I couldn't do it like it didn't look right and so I was playing
0:10:49the song loudly through my iMac like so I was dancing to music in the real world
0:10:54and then put my headphones in like it's a little bit of a continuity thing but
0:10:57look when you wink at the camera with a mustache like everything else is
0:11:01secondary so it's one of the it's one of the sexiest things I've ever seen on
0:11:06YouTube honestly yeah I got the account flagged as adult material but I can fix
0:11:11No surprise.
0:11:12Yeah.
0:11:13I feel like we could build the law for this, right?
0:11:16You were actually listening to music and you were getting ready to go out with new music,
0:11:20right?
0:11:21And that was what happened.
0:11:22The wink was like, "Yeah, I'm out here."
0:11:24Yeah.
0:11:25"See ya!"
0:11:26Yeah, it's a little, what, three-minute deal about the stainless steel iPod Shuffle, which
0:11:32came out in 2009.
0:11:34This stupid iPod Shuffle with no buttons.
0:11:36It was all voice control that was really terrible.
0:11:40But a listener actually sent me this iPod for this video.
0:11:43I have to mail it back tomorrow.
0:11:46He just lent it to me.
0:11:47But it was cool to take a look at it.
0:11:49I also learned that filming something that is perfectly reflective is very difficult.
0:11:54So in most of the shots, the stainless steel iPod shuffle, I'm holding it or it is near
0:12:00something else.
0:12:01So I have something else to focus on and manually adjust the focus to get the shuffle in line
0:12:07because it's perfectly reflective and difficult to see through a camera but it
0:12:12was a fun little project it's nice to be back on YouTube after a hiatus and yeah
0:12:17mustache and all which is a side effect of the podcast-a-thon if you watch but
0:12:23not but like a general improvement to everybody's lives I think so I think so
0:12:29yeah we all agree that we were referenced last week the idea wouldn't
0:12:34be lovely if they're gonna make iPhone 11 battery cases. Stephen, I think you said that
0:12:39you didn't think they would do it. I don't remember, but that's what my memory tells
0:12:42me. There has been references found by Guilherme Rambeau in iOS 13.1 of smart battery cases
0:12:48in the works.
0:12:49I was wrong. It seems to be in the works and the 11 Pro, but especially the 11 Pro Max
0:12:57will just be unstoppable with the battery case.
0:13:00It's basically a nuclear power plant at that point.
0:13:02Would you guys...
0:13:03generates power for everything around it.
0:13:04- Would you guys be interested in this,
0:13:06even though the new phones have better battery life?
0:13:08- No, with a better battery life, probably not.
0:13:11I mean, yeah, I wanted to go until 2 a.m.
0:13:16with battery left in my phone.
0:13:19I probably don't need to go until 6 a.m.
0:13:23So I don't think I will need the battery case for this.
0:13:25If the battery life stuff is accurate, which I wanna see,
0:13:32But if true, if the comments from the reviews match up with my experience,
0:13:37I don't think I'll have to put it on this time.
0:13:39Well, I've already done multiple travel days with the 11 Promax.
0:13:46That was it, right? That was the agreed upon audible way of saying it.
0:13:51And it worked, it was great. I had battery for the majority of the time that I would need it, right?
0:13:58it was perfectly fine. I mean, I would maybe want, I would, it couldn't last like the whole
0:14:06day and then a transatlantic flight and then all the way home again, right? Like I had to charge
0:14:11it a little bit like in the middle, I could charge it on the plane, which is fine. I mean,
0:14:16and honestly, I would always charge my phone in the battery case on the plane anyway too. So
0:14:20I think that it might, it might be enough. We'll see. But it has been so far. I didn't have it,
0:14:27The battery didn't die is what I'm saying, you know.
0:14:30So I was happy with it. Very nice. Okay. Well then no case for me, I guess.
0:14:35We have a teaser for an upcoming episode. Myke, you are the the Apple TV expert.
0:14:42Yeah, I don't like saying that it's an upcoming episode.
0:14:46Wait, no, wait, wait. It's the next episode.
0:14:49You will be reviewing tvOS 13. Oh yes! Is it gonna be out? One week. It's out.
0:14:55It's out yesterday. TVOS 13 is out.
0:14:58I knew that. I knew that. It was a test. I'm the expert.
0:15:00Oh yeah, you did? Mm-hmm.
0:15:02So next Wednesday, we will have a multi-hour episode in which you break down TVOS 13.
0:15:07Can you share the table of contents for the review, Myke?
0:15:10Yeah, of course I can. So like, you know, everyone's really excited about TVOS.
0:15:16So, you know, like, and we all know exactly where we want to go to get all of the information about
0:15:22TV OS if we ever need it. Apple seems to not be very clear about where they put that on
0:15:28their own website in case you were the kind of person that needed a breakdown of all of
0:15:32the features of TV OS at any particular moment. But you know, TV OS, it is really great as
0:15:46we all know. Apple Arcade coming to TV OS, that's probably going to be something that
0:15:50I will talk about in my full review.
0:15:53And then of course you've got the multiple profiles for people.
0:15:58You know, everyone's really excited about that.
0:16:00And that's all I'll talk about for now, I suppose.
0:16:04Did you get Castzone 3D graphics done for the review?
0:16:08Yeah, but you'll just have to... I'll describe them.
0:16:12Because it's an audio, right? So I'll just describe the 3D graphics.
0:16:16Okay.
0:16:16I actually got 4D graphics.
0:16:18So I did one more graphic than you, so...
0:16:22Sure, sure.
0:16:23I hope, I really genuinely hope that you're going to do a better job of that next year.
0:16:27Oh, I can try.
0:16:30And I'm hearing that this review, this TV OS review, will be released with binaural
0:16:34audio, is that correct?
0:16:36Binaural, yeah that is correct.
0:16:38Very nice.
0:16:39I actually wrote 275,000 words, just because I could, and then decided that I would trim
0:16:46it down for you guys.
0:16:47Are they all the same word? Just says TV over and over again. TV, TV, TV, TV, TV. 275,000
0:16:56times. Okay, well I'm very excited to put this movie to come out. Aren't we all? It's
0:17:04gonna be great. Yeah, it is the event of the year, after all. Yeah. Can't wait to talk
0:17:09about the changes to metal. An Apple crypto kit, which I know we've been waiting for.
0:17:17Wait, what? You know about that. That's not a thing. That's not a thing.
0:17:21It is the framework to perform common cryptographic operations securely and efficiently.
0:17:25It's just reading things off the Apple website. No, I know it because I read about it, I wrote
0:17:29about it in like 275,000 words. But this is what I'm talking about. You're not worthy of those
0:17:34words so they're gone from the review now. Wow. Well, I'm very excited for this. Thank
0:17:44you for putting in the work Myke. Anytime. This episode of Connected is brought to you
0:17:49by Pingdom, the company that makes website performance monitoring really easy. Everyone
0:17:55loves a fast website and Pingdom is helping keep your favorite sites online. Just little
0:17:59web properties like Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, Twitter, BuzzFeed, Slack, Relay FM, these
0:18:06are just a few companies who trust Pingdom to take care of their website monitoring.
0:18:11Websites are complicated now, and you can monitor a bunch of different site transactions
0:18:16with Pingdom, stuff like user registrations and logins, checkouts, and much more.
0:18:21Pingdom cares about your users having the smoothest site experience possible, and if
0:18:26disaster strikes, you'll be the first to know. It's super easy to get started. All
0:18:31Pingdom needs is your URL and they take care of the rest. That's it. So go to
0:18:36Pingdom.com/RelayFM right now for a 14-day free trial with no credit card
0:18:43required. And when you sign up, use the code "Connected" at checkout to get a huge
0:18:4930% off your first invoice. Our thanks to Pingdom for their support of this show
0:18:54and relay FM. It is a new year the clock has been reset on Google so we will
0:19:00start tiny topic zero which will be tiny topic zero for the foreseeable future
0:19:04does Google Docs support the multi window support on iPad OS? No. Let me
0:19:09let me answer in Italian too I think it's important. Okay. No. And Steven can
0:19:15you answer in American? No. That was better than I expected it would be. So we'll keep checking in on
0:19:23that one. Buckle up everyone, it's gonna be a long fall. Can we do predictions? Yeah.
0:19:32For when it'll be out? We have so many. Can we just put them in there? Can we bet on it?
0:19:40Okay, so it's the end of September. I'm gonna say February. Okay. By the end of February,
0:19:51will have support for multi window. I'm going for end of March 2020. That's six
0:19:57months. All right. I'm going to be ambitious and say the end of 2019. There
0:20:03you go. Wow. iOS 13 is out. And a big a big story last year with iOS 12 was its
0:20:11performance on older devices. Apple said that was an important thing to them. It
0:20:16It seems according to this article by Andrew Cunningham that I was 13 continues in that
0:20:23In that work so our Seneca rounded up an iPhone 6s and an iPhone SE
0:20:28Which are effectively the same phone. I don't I don't know why they got compared side by side
0:20:35But anyways looking at iOS
0:20:3712.4.1 and the iOS 13.0
0:20:42GM so basically if you read this look at the tables iOS 13 is as
0:20:47Fast if not a little bit faster on this a9 processor than iOS 12
0:20:53Which is great Apple should do a good job at supporting older products, and it seems like 13
0:20:59Continues in that and that that makes me happy for those customers who hold on their phones longer than we crazy people do
0:21:07Hmm who knows it's even possible to runs better than home
0:21:11on the 11 Pro because it's real wonky in a bunch of places.
0:21:16Still, have I told you about my favorite bug
0:21:19that is persisting in 13.1?
0:21:21- What is it?
0:21:22- Sometimes, well, I have a lot of problems
0:21:24where I pull down to get to the search field, you know?
0:21:29Like to go to Spotlight, like and it just hangs.
0:21:32Sometimes, no matter what I tap,
0:21:34just the letter Q gets entered into the search field.
0:21:36- The letter Q?
0:21:38- The letter Q, yeah, just so I tap anywhere on the screen
0:21:41when I'm in Spotlight, and it just puts a queue
0:21:44into the search field.
0:21:45I'm wondering if some of these problems
0:21:49are third-party keyboard support,
0:21:51'cause Gboard is just bad.
0:21:55- Yeah.
0:21:56- The support, they've done something,
0:21:59and the support for third-party keyboards has become worse.
0:22:03- Maybe you should restore your phone.
0:22:06- You know what, I probably should.
0:22:08- Get on that.
0:22:09- There was a, there's actually an article yesterday
0:22:12on The Verge, I'll put this in the document,
0:22:15Apple basically warning people who use third party keyboards
0:22:20that things--
0:22:23- Oh really?
0:22:24- Things are a little funny. - I didn't see that.
0:22:25- Yeah, so it's really framed in the support article about,
0:22:28it's an advisory, which is very exciting,
0:22:31that third party keyboard extensions in iOS can access,
0:22:37or it can have network access, even if you haven't approved it.
0:22:42So like, for instance, the text expander keyboard, you have to go in and say allow full access.
0:22:47So it actually works.
0:22:48And apparently that just can happen without the user setting that that option.
0:22:54So that's a security issue in 13.
0:22:57But it seems like maybe just there's a lot of keyboard stuff going on, like on the iPad,
0:23:01the third party keyboards don't even load the right way.
0:23:03Like they should, they should super tall for me.
0:23:05It's all very broken.
0:23:07I've just given up on third party keyboards at this point.
0:23:09I'm just I'm done.
0:23:10It's just too messy and the experiences too second rate for me.
0:23:15Anyways, let's talk about bilateral charging.
0:23:20So there was a rumor about the new iPhones that like the Samsung phones, you could put
0:23:24wireless earbuds or maybe even another phone and the phone would charge that second device
0:23:30via wireless charging.
0:23:33didn't ship with the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11, but according to the iFixit
0:23:39tear down, it looks like there are there's some hardware and
0:23:44the hardware is only in the 11 Pro. The regular 11 does not have this. There's a
0:23:47second cable and a board coming off the battery that they have speculated that
0:23:52could potentially be this bilateral charging. Federico, what do you think
0:23:57about this? Do you know anything about bilateral charging? Is there
0:24:00something in iOS coming, you think?
0:24:02- No, I don't, first of all, I don't know anything
0:24:06about this, but looking at, you know, reading through
0:24:10the details of this article, it doesn't feel like something
0:24:13that can be added via software update.
0:24:16I may be wrong, but it feels like something
0:24:18that isn't finished at a manufacturing level,
0:24:21like something that they left in there
0:24:23because they changed their minds during the process.
0:24:27But again, I have no idea.
0:24:28It just feels like, I don't know,
0:24:31it just feels like something that would be odd
0:24:33to add via a software update.
0:24:35But then again, I'm not an engineer, so I may be wrong.
0:24:39It just feels, it just seems to me
0:24:41that it's not ready to ship,
0:24:42that it's like physically unfinished.
0:24:45So, you know, software updates
0:24:48cannot fix that kind of stuff.
0:24:51- That's the case, isn't that weird?
0:24:54- There's just like zombie hardware in your phone?
0:24:56Our phones all have the ghost of bilateral charging inside of them.
0:25:00You make it sound...
0:25:01It's like super weird.
0:25:02It sounds very weird.
0:25:04Like when you put it like that.
0:25:05Yeah.
0:25:06It's very strange.
0:25:07Like you have a cable that it's in there but it does nothing.
0:25:10Yeah.
0:25:11It's like a ghost town.
0:25:12It's very strange.
0:25:13But we may never know what happened to that.
0:25:16We may never know.
0:25:17I had a big morning this morning gentlemen.
0:25:20Oh no.
0:25:21I finally used a Galaxy Fold.
0:25:23Did you break it?
0:25:25Did not break it.
0:25:26very careful with it. Did you buy it? We'll get to that. So I went to a Samsung store
0:25:32here in London and they have demos that they're doing. I put some pictures on my Instagram
0:25:39store, I put that in the show notes. They have, the Galaxy Fold is locked inside of
0:25:44this cylinder and you have to have somebody come and get it for you so they can go through
0:25:49everything with you. And I very quickly kind of like established to the guy that like I
0:25:54I knew what I needed to know, right?
0:25:57Like, and he was like, oh, okay,
0:25:59you clearly have done your research about this.
0:26:00I was like, yep, I know, I kind of know everything.
0:26:02So kind of stop him from doing the demo.
0:26:05I just wanted him to give it to me, right?
0:26:07Which he did.
0:26:08He was like, here you go, then try it out.
0:26:10And it's amazing.
0:26:13It's so janky, but it's so incredible.
0:26:15- Can you define janky and incredible
0:26:17and where do you draw the line between them?
0:26:20- Well, it's okay.
0:26:21So like the incredibleness is like,
0:26:23The hardware itself, I find it very beautiful and when you use it, it feels like the future.
0:26:31Just little things, like you can use the little screen on the front and you open up the camera
0:26:35and then you open it and then the camera is open on the inside.
0:26:39It feels very futuristic in that way and it's very different.
0:26:45It isn't like any other technology that I've seen before.
0:26:48feels like something new. And it's kind of cool that I can have multiple apps open. Do
0:26:54you know you can have 18 apps open, like on screen open?
0:26:5918? One eight? Oh god.
0:27:02That's what the guy told me. You can have more than these little windows. It would be
0:27:05an absolute disaster. But it has 12 gigabytes of RAM in it. So, you know, it can do it.
0:27:13The jankiness is in the software, right? Like having the multiple apps open and trying to
0:27:17resize them. It works but it's not maybe as intuitive as you would want it to be.
0:27:23It has six cameras on it which is always just a thing that's hilarious to me.
0:27:27Six cameras. When you're using it you don't see the crease. You only see the
0:27:34crease when the screen is off or if you're kind of leaning it to the side
0:27:37right like if you're standing next to somebody and looking at their Galaxy
0:27:40Fold you see the crease but you don't see it when you're looking at it. You
0:27:44the jankiness is in him saying like "you've got to be careful with the screen" like they tell you,
0:27:48you've got to be careful with the screen because you could break it really easily. I'll actually
0:27:52put a link in the show notes to a YouTube video that Dieter Bohn did which is a walkthrough of
0:27:57all of the various warnings that are inside the packaging. There are lots of warnings in the
0:28:02packaging like "don't press it too hard with your fingernail because you may puncture the screen and
0:28:07break it. It is this incredibly delicate piece of technology, right? It is just very delicate,
0:28:17but there's something that I can't help how much I love it and I really love it and
0:28:26it is available to buy here but is in higher demand than Samsung can hold right now. So this
0:28:37this might sound crazy, but I have given them all of the money and I'm now waiting for them
0:28:42to call me to tell me they have one for me. So you paid for it in full? I paid for it
0:28:47in full, yeah. Okay. That's a bold decision. I just figured, you know, they said you can
0:28:55pay a hundred or you can pay the full amount and I was like, well, I'm going to get it,
0:28:59so I'll just pay for it and now it's mine and I've just got to wait until they call
0:29:02me until they have one. Can you remind us and everybody else why you're doing this?
0:29:08I am fascinated by this technology. I think that this form factor is the future of smartphones.
0:29:16I am convinced of it. There is a lot of work between now and that happening, but it feels
0:29:23like where everybody's moving, right? Like it feels like a place to move towards. And
0:29:29I want to understand what it means to use a device like this.
0:29:33I'm very excited about it.
0:29:35- Okay. - You know.
0:29:37The last six months of this show has featured
0:29:39almost weekly updates about my excitement of this device.
0:29:43I'm very excited about it.
0:29:45And I know it's one of those things
0:29:46that every time I go somewhere, go to a conference,
0:29:49people will say to me, "Did you bring the Galaxy Fold?"
0:29:50'Cause I know everyone wants to see it.
0:29:52- No, I get it, yeah.
0:29:53- And so like, I'm taking this bullet for everybody, right?
0:29:57Like--
0:29:58Well, we didn't ask you to, but...
0:30:00Yeah, well, that's the service I provide.
0:30:03Sure.
0:30:04I can't explain it, but like, this excites me at quite a strong level from a technological standpoint.
0:30:11Like, I think that this is a fascinating piece of hardware, and I really want to spend some time
0:30:18understanding what it is to use something like this, because it feels like something very different,
0:30:25even though it's similar to many things we already own.
0:30:29But like what does it mean to have this device that you can...
0:30:33Like the guy who was talking to me like today, he kind of was like, "Oh, you know, the screen
0:30:37on the front is for triaging basically.
0:30:40Imagine it like a smartwatch and then the screen inside, that's the one that you're
0:30:44using to do anything of substance."
0:30:46And I was like, "I get that.
0:30:49That makes sense."
0:30:50So, I don't know.
0:30:51I will report back when I actually do get it and then it will be an even bigger review
0:30:56than my tvOS review I'm sure.
0:30:59Perfect.
0:31:00Can you mention today any particular apps that you tested?
0:31:06Anything that stood out to you?
0:31:08Well it's just the Samsung apps and Chrome.
0:31:10That was kind of like, you know, I played around with the camera app and the calendar
0:31:13app.
0:31:14Like it's pretty, I didn't bother downloading anything.
0:31:16I don't really think that that was something I was allowed to do.
0:31:20But like, I tried out a bunch of apps that were installed on the device and it's, you
0:31:24know, they were fine.
0:31:26Okay.
0:31:27So do you know when it should become available for you to get?
0:31:33Soon?
0:31:34Soon.
0:31:35Just soon.
0:31:36Okay.
0:31:37Yeah.
0:31:38Okay.
0:31:39Probably next week.
0:31:40They said it's probably next week.
0:31:42But we'll see.
0:31:43So big week for you next week between tvOS and Galaxy Fold?
0:31:47Yeah, yeah.
0:31:49Big week this week too.
0:31:50done yet. I want to complain about reminders. IOS 13 brought new reminders.
0:31:55Everyone was very excited about it because they did such a good job with
0:31:58Notes a few years ago. So I have been running IOS 13 for a while. My wife was
0:32:04not, and we use reminders for a couple of shared lists. And so I held off on
0:32:08upgrading to the new reminders format until just a couple of weeks ago. I
0:32:12figured, hey, I can access the old list on my iMac. That'll be fine. I just
0:32:18won't have them on my phone. My wife, we know we installed iOS 13 for her and then 13.1.
0:32:25And I figured I should reset up those shared lists. And it I did today both phones running
0:32:3313.1. And it was the most broken experience I think I've had an Apple software in years
0:32:40like no. I know sometimes we exaggerate on the show. I'm not exaggerating. It's really,
0:32:47really bad.
0:32:48- Never, ever exaggerate.
0:32:49- No, no, it's no one ever exaggerates.
0:32:53So I wanna walk you through the steps that I went through.
0:32:58I had my iPhone 11 Pro, my wife's iPhone 8,
0:33:03both running 13.1.
0:33:05I made a new list called groceries,
0:33:07and you hit add a person,
0:33:10and it's supposed to come up with the screen pops up,
0:33:12and it says, do you wanna share this link
0:33:14via iMessage or email, whatever?
0:33:16it would just spin for like minutes.
0:33:20Force quit the app, go back in the app,
0:33:22the screen is still there spinning.
0:33:25So restarted the phone and eventually could send
0:33:29a text message, an iMessage, from my phone
0:33:32to my wife's phone saying,
0:33:33"Hey, join this shared reminder list."
0:33:35Pick up her phone, tap the link in iMessage,
0:33:37it gives you some pop-up of,
0:33:38"Hey, this is gonna be added to your reminders."
0:33:41And then I would hit OK or Accept or whatever it says.
0:33:46And the list just wasn't in Reminders.
0:33:50Your other lists were there, but the shared list
0:33:52that I just accepted on her phone, not there.
0:33:55Rebooted the phone, not there.
0:33:59I went into the iCloud settings and toggled Reminders off,
0:34:03told the phone to delete the local reminders,
0:34:06toggled it back on, and then the app was just empty.
0:34:09when I say empty I mean no list whatsoever just the empty UI rebooted
0:34:16her iPhone 8 yet again and then then it showed up so I said great that was
0:34:22really weird to get accepted but now we are sharing this list so I said I should
0:34:27test this I added a test item on her phone synced didn't show up on my phone
0:34:33for minutes and minutes this this test item never showed up force quit
0:34:38reminders on both phones relaunched them shared lists are still there but no
0:34:43shared items restarted my phone didn't fix it toggled iCloud off and then back
0:34:51on or you know the reminders and iCloud off them back onto my phone because it
0:34:54cleared whatever is going on to her phone I figured maybe to clear whatever
0:34:57goes on on my phone now it's important to realize at this point that I have
0:35:01several non shared reminders lists in reminders with items on them and when I
0:35:07toggle iCloud back on, they are gone. The only thing that comes back and that is
0:35:12currently on my phone is the one shared list. Now to reminders credit, it does sync
0:35:19items between that list but it blew away my others. They're just gone. They're not
0:35:23in iCloud, they're not on my other devices. The three or four lists I had just
0:35:29vanished when I turned iCloud off and then back onto my phone. I at this point,
0:35:35like my trust and reminders is completely broken. I had this vision of
0:35:40this fall trying to move to it because I think it would meet my needs and it's
0:35:44all integrated and looks better than to do it. I thought this could be a
0:35:48thing that I do, but at this point I'm nowhere close to wanting to try that
0:35:53because I could maybe forgive that the sharing the list was like a
0:35:58little buggy and you know I got it working, but removing other lists from my
0:36:05devices from my iCloud account against my knowledge or desire is completely
0:36:10unacceptable it is so broken and and that even doesn't get into like the UI
0:36:17problem so like the new lists and new group UI very often just closes as
0:36:21you're typing a list name or a group name so you're typing like relay admin
0:36:26to make a new list and the keyboard everything just goes away and like the
0:36:28list doesn't exist you have to go back and add it again even upgrading from the
0:36:33old version reminders to the new version, you open your phone and there's an upgrade
0:36:37button and a popover comes up and says, "Hey, this is what this means. You're going to lose
0:36:41sharing of these things with the other devices." And you hit upgrade and it spins and goes
0:36:46away but doesn't actually upgrade. And you have to do it. I think on my wife's phone
0:36:49it took like five or six tries to finally get it to upgrade. And, you know, I have no
0:36:56doubt people are working hard on reminders and they've had a terrible summer, but someone
0:37:01above them should not have let this ship in its current state. I don't know if
0:37:05it's iCloud or the reminders app. I think it's probably both, considering the
0:37:09problems I've seen are both in the app and in the sharing and syncing side of
0:37:12things. But it's a dumpster fire and it's not an app that I'm gonna revisit
0:37:16anytime soon because of it. It's really bad. Really made me angry this morning.
0:37:20This sounds horrible. Wow. I also think that the personal reminders and shared
0:37:30reminders are like two separate sync systems in the app. So it may be, if you
0:37:37want to check it out again sometime in the future, it may be worth seeing if it
0:37:41actually happens for non-shared lists as well. Otherwise, speaking from personal
0:37:48experience, this is exactly... and I know that you're not supposed to do it, you
0:37:52shouldn't have to do this, what I'm about to say, but it is exactly the kind of
0:37:56problem that, you know, if you submit a radar, Apple will have you install a login profile
0:38:03to gather data on whatever is going on. Because it's what I had to do, for example, for my,
0:38:10remember my notes problems from July? That's what I did. Notes and reminders. You can actually
0:38:16download these login profiles yourself. There's a developer page with links and instructions
0:38:22for all of them. And yeah, this is messed up. It's exactly the kind of issue that should
0:38:28be looked in because it's, it is. It sounds horrible.
0:38:32And I would have done that this morning, except neither of our phones are on the beta. She
0:38:35never was. I took mine off the beta yesterday when 13.1 came out. Like, I'm on just the
0:38:41standard release. So I guess I gotta go find a feedback app somewhere and do that. But
0:38:47it is a, I mean, I will go through that process because I know how it works. But like, Twitter
0:38:51Even the chat room now people are saying they're seeing the same thing like my bigger complaint is yes
0:38:56This new app is really really bad
0:38:58But like how did this get out the door like I mean in a world where they're already delaying other features
0:39:04This should have been delayed too if it's really this bad for
0:39:07You know more than just me and it may just be like a weird thing in my iCloud account
0:39:11Even though I don't believe that based on feedback. I've gotten today
0:39:14but
0:39:16It's it's pretty
0:39:19Pretty sad. Yeah. So is it you think something got broken in the upgrading process? Is that what you think it is?
0:39:25I don't know
0:39:26I mean
0:39:27I think that the app and iCloud don't talk well together because the sharing and syncing all goes through iCloud
0:39:34Now that doesn't I think like the new list new group UI like closing while I'm typing
0:39:39That's just a bug like that's just a UI bug and they can they can fix that
0:39:42But there's something going on with where it interacts with iCloud. That seems
0:39:46pretty pretty busted
0:39:49Oh boy.
0:39:49Amazon's having an event right now and I want to demand them to stop.
0:39:54They have released a picture of a $199 Echo Studio, which is like a high-end speaker.
0:40:02It's an Echo with a hole in it and I hate it.
0:40:05I hate it.
0:40:07Why? Is it because of the wall?
0:40:09Just look at it.
0:40:10It makes me very uncomfortable.
0:40:12Why have they put a hole in it?
0:40:14Do you see this image?
0:40:17Yeah, I'm looking at it.
0:40:18It's like you could slot a cookie into it.
0:40:20- Oh, this makes you so uncomfortable.
0:40:22- What is an Echo Studio?
0:40:25What does that even mean?
0:40:25- It's a high-end,
0:40:27'cause they have a HD streaming service now, right?
0:40:30- And it supports Dolby Atmos.
0:40:30- And this is a high-end product.
0:40:32This is probably their competitor for the HomePod.
0:40:35- Or Sonos stuff.
0:40:38- I hate that it has a hole in it.
0:40:39It makes me feel unwell.
0:40:40- It looks like one of those things
0:40:43you're supposed to slip your hand into
0:40:46and have it like read your palm or something?
0:40:48Yes.
0:40:49Yeah, the hole is like wide, like a big mouth right at the bottom.
0:40:53I want to put big googly eyes on it.
0:40:55Yes, exactly.
0:40:56I was about to say somebody should photoshop eyes on it.
0:40:59That would make me feel more comfortable if there was a mouth, if there were eyes.
0:41:03It's just the random hole on it.
0:41:05There's other stuff, like this event is happening as we are recording,
0:41:08but they have released also an echo dot with a LED clock on it, which is genius.
0:41:13That is nice. That is very nice.
0:41:15They're doing other stuff too, but that's all I have to report so far.
0:41:18It feels like all these Amazon events are becoming...
0:41:22Like, there's an object that is also an echo.
0:41:27So like...
0:41:28We can maybe check in back on this event towards the end
0:41:34and see what other nonsense Amazon's decided to do.
0:41:37Like, these events, they always have good things
0:41:39and then they have just like the most random stuff.
0:41:43I'm gonna reveal to you the lineup for the Amazon Echo line in 2020. There's a pen that
0:41:49is also an Echo. There's a... let me think about it. There's a mouse pad.
0:41:54A plastic dinosaur.
0:41:56There's a plastic dinosaur that is also an Echo. There's a crib for babies that is also
0:42:02an Echo. There's shoes that are also an Echo. So when you go running...
0:42:09I wonder if any of those will actually be an echo by the end of this episode.
0:42:13Honestly, the crib I could see happen, you know,
0:42:16to put an echo around your newborn baby. Uh, that sounds like an Amazon idea.
0:42:21It sounds Amazon enough to be possible.
0:42:24I have a, I'm saving a image right now. I put eyes on it.
0:42:27I'll put this in the chat room.
0:42:29And also chapter artwork.
0:42:31Let me tell you about our second sponsor.
0:42:32This episode of connected is brought to you by text expander from our friends
0:42:37over at smile. You can unlock your productivity with text expander. Make everything you write
0:42:44repetitively available everywhere you type whether you're using text documents, spreadsheets,
0:42:49web forms, or basically anything else. You can keep your message consistent, accurate
0:42:53and up to date by sharing snippets with your co workers. We use this at work with relay
0:42:58and it's absolutely great to be able to have several people type things the same way. Text
0:43:04Expander for teams is a great collaboration tool. You can organize
0:43:07snippets for your support, customer service, or other departments. We use it
0:43:11so we spell our sponsor names correctly and you give the teams the snippets that
0:43:16they that they need and it's all centrally managed. Really easy to do. I've
0:43:21used TextExpander since the dawn of time. I remember way back when I was doing
0:43:26like Apple support stuff using TextExpander to make sure that my notes in
0:43:29the shop are all nice and tidy and everyone's followed the same template.
0:43:33And I've used it ever since. A computer without TextExpander is basically useless to me.
0:43:37TextExpander is available for Mac OS, Windows, iPhone, and iPad as well as Chrome.
0:43:42Connected listeners get 20% off their first year. Just go to textexpander.com/podcast.
0:43:49That's textexpander.com/podcast.
0:43:53If you've been meaning to try TextExpander, go do it now at textexpander.com/podcast.
0:43:59Our thanks to text expander from smile for their support of this show and relay FM topic time time for a topic topic time
0:44:07new iPhones
0:44:09New phones time the pretty good
0:44:12Better than last year a lot better than a few years ago. Pretty nice
0:44:16Federico what let's start with you. What do you have any phones hanging hanging around? Well, there has been a development
0:44:24from last week, I now have-
0:44:27Mister, I don't make purchases anymore.
0:44:30That's why we call you now.
0:44:32Well, I-
0:44:33Mister, I'm so chill.
0:44:35I don't need to make purchases.
0:44:36There has been-
0:44:38There ha-
0:44:39I try to be chill.
0:44:41It's very difficult these days.
0:44:44There has been a development
0:44:46in that I now have two review units
0:44:50for an iPhone 11
0:44:52and an iPhone 11 Pro Max.
0:44:54or Pro Max.
0:44:55So I have an iPhone 11 in black
0:45:00and a Pro Max in gold,
0:45:02which looks very nice.
0:45:05I am setting up the Pro Max right now.
0:45:10It's, I think it's almost finished
0:45:11and the 11 is still in the box.
0:45:13So I got this yesterday.
0:45:18I didn't really have the time to play around with them much.
0:45:21Basically all that I did,
0:45:23it was take a single ultra-wide photo on the Pro Max.
0:45:28And that's all that I've done because I left iCloud sync
0:45:31to pull back the apps and games from the backup.
0:45:35Yeah, so I have a clear case for the Pro Max,
0:45:40no case for the 11.
0:45:44And so yeah, I basically used it for five minutes today,
0:45:49And I plan to play around with both of them,
0:45:53actually, tonight for several hours
0:45:55to set it up and take a bunch of night mode photos.
0:45:58So I have this idea for a story that I will not
0:46:02share publicly yet.
0:46:05Don't worry, it is not something that will require
0:46:07me to write 10,000 words.
0:46:099 million words.
0:46:11No, no, no, and no.
0:46:15I know how you do it.
0:46:16You just write constantly forever now about your...
0:46:20Like you just always, is that okay?
0:46:22- That is not, no, no, it's not what I wanna do.
0:46:26I have this idea that's kind of different
0:46:28from anything I've done before.
0:46:30That should be relatively easy for me,
0:46:33but requires time and you will see why.
0:46:36Actually, I probably gonna start on this idea
0:46:39later this week.
0:46:40So I wanna test both of them and I will compare
0:46:44to the XS Max, so that should be fun. But yeah, right now I cannot comment on the battery
0:46:53life for example, or the display because I haven't watched the movie. I just set it up
0:46:59today. But yeah, that was my development. I think Myke has actually used the phone more.
0:47:07Steven happens to. Right.
0:47:08So you got an 11 and an 11 Pro Max. No 11 Pro.
0:47:15No 11 Pro. Only an 11 in black and the 11 Pro Max in gold.
0:47:21Did you choose the colours?
0:47:23I did not choose the colours.
0:47:24Yeah, because I don't remember you saying you wanted gold.
0:47:27I did not choose the colours. So when the time is up to give this back, I think I'll
0:47:35probably go with the Pro Max. I think in Midnight Green because I saw it in person and it got
0:47:43me. Yes, they will do that to you. Yeah, so I think when it's time to give this back and
0:47:50I will go in with my purchase and it'll be a Midnight Green because I saw it during the
0:47:57demo yesterday and it looked real pretty actually, you know, depending on, you know, the kind
0:48:03of light that hits the phone. It looks... and I was not expecting this, I thought it
0:48:08looked boring in all the photos that I had seen, but in person it looks really nice.
0:48:13Yep. I disliked it when I saw... you know, I was like "No, I really don't like that."
0:48:18But Stephen surprised me with it during the podcast of the phone, because I was wearing
0:48:22a green jacket. And now I love it, and it's the one I'm going to keep. This is my phone.
0:48:27So you have a Midnight Green Pro Max. Pro Max, yep.
0:48:31So how did it go during your travel time?
0:48:35As I said earlier, battery life was perfectly fine.
0:48:38And you know, it really did the job.
0:48:41This phone is all about the cameras, right?
0:48:44Like that's what it's about.
0:48:46And these cameras are amazing.
0:48:49And I'm having a ton of fun playing with them.
0:48:53Like, when I say playing with them,
0:48:56like it's in a different way than I would usually take photos.
0:48:58take photos. I'm taking more photos. I'm taking photos in every single lens.
0:49:04So if I take a picture, I'm taking it in all three of them and comparing it
0:49:07so I can kind of understand when should I be using the wide angle, like the ultra
0:49:12wide. I'm not 100% sure at what times I would use it. The night mode is
0:49:19bananas and I really want to do more with that but I've done some, you know,
0:49:24I've been taking some pictures, like I put it on a tripod yesterday and just
0:49:28a picture in my office with the lights off and just like a light in the hallway and I mean I
0:49:34shared the images with you guys I can't I actually can't share the images because of how good they are
0:49:40because you can read things which is bananas right so like these images the office is
0:49:48there is no light in it right like I turned off night mode what do they have a frustration with
0:49:52with people sharing images.
0:49:54Don't show me pictures of a dark room with the 10s.
0:49:58Just turn off night mode and show me it with the 11
0:50:02compared to night mode on the 11.
0:50:04You still follow what I'm saying?
0:50:06Like every review is like,
0:50:08here's what it looks like with a tennis with no light.
0:50:10And here's what it looks like with night mode on the 11.
0:50:12So no show turn turn off night mode on the 11 and show me that
0:50:17and then turn it on and let me see.
0:50:19But anyway, so like the difference, like
0:50:22You can barely see anything in the original shot.
0:50:25And then in the night mode shot, I put it on a tripod, left the night mode going for 30 seconds.
0:50:29It's like there's a light coming from the iPhone and that you can read text on boxes
0:50:35that were otherwise unable to be seen in the other picture.
0:50:39I do not know how they are doing this.
0:50:42It is really very, very impressive.
0:50:44And I want to see if I can.
0:50:46I've been seeing people taking all these pictures outside
0:50:48where they like can see stars and stuff.
0:50:51And I want to see if I can do that.
0:50:53I have a tripod. I want to get that go.
0:50:56I'm really enjoying playing around with these.
0:50:58And also, you know, since we had Tyler on this show,
0:51:04I have been taking photography more seriously in my life,
0:51:07and I really try and do something with it.
0:51:09And this phone has already produced one of my favourite pictures
0:51:15that I have ever taken, and I posted it to my Instagram.
0:51:18my Instagram and it's a picture that I took of Adina when we were in the airport and I
0:51:23put it in the show notes.
0:51:25It is the quality of this image is a portrait mode photo.
0:51:29It could trick you in thinking that it came from a real camera.
0:51:32It is a very good picture.
0:51:35It's taken on the pro in portrait mode and ended some editing in VSCO and I am very excited
0:51:43about the quality of these cameras.
0:51:46So yeah. That picture looks real good. It's nice, right? Yeah. Yeah. Even Tyler approved
0:51:53it in the comments. Tyler says, Tyler says that that's the best comment I could have
0:51:56wished for. Like I always want Tyler to comment on my Instagram photos and tell me that he
0:52:00thinks that he likes them. Uh, and he did this time. He got the approval of the pro.
0:52:06Yeah. And so I was pretty happy with that one. But yeah, these, the cameras on these
0:52:09phones like it it's very exciting and it's a lot of fun to play with and I'm
0:52:15having a great time and again I've said it in a bunch of places already about to
0:52:20say here the upgrades to the selfie camera I'm very pleased about that it
0:52:24was needed and I'm happy to see a better quality there. So I just wanted to to to
0:52:29have a quick update before Steven shares his thoughts on the phone that we now
0:52:34have an Echo that is also a power outlet and an Echo that is also an oven.
0:52:40Are you being serious? I am 100% serious.
0:52:45Okay. So, you cannot continue. There's more coming out as we speak and I will keep you
0:52:55updated. Reporting live from the Verge Live blog.
0:53:03I just loaded it and it says Amazon sidewalk. I don't know what that meant, but I was like wait
0:53:08They put echo in the street now
0:53:10Also a city
0:53:13You can open team you
0:53:18Yeah, I went with the the space gray
0:53:2211 Pro not the max the smaller of the two and
0:53:27I've been I've been really happy with it. The ultra wide camera is a lot of fun and
0:53:32And but like y'all I've been really impressed with the the night mode shots I shared with y'all
0:53:38I'm not gonna share it with the show notes, but I shared a
0:53:41Picture with y'all last night. I took in my driveway and there was one outside light on but it was like daytime
0:53:49I mean it really sharp really nice one thing I've noticed and now that I've seen it. I can't unsee it. It's hard to
0:53:56To realize it's happening because it's bright
0:53:59But if you turn the flashlight on the on the pro at least because the glass is shiny
0:54:05Like there's light leakage around like in the camera Mesa
0:54:11So it's like the flashlight is really bright
0:54:13But then part of the camera Mesa also lights up because like the light travels through the glass or across the surface of the glass
0:54:19Oh, yeah, I can see
0:54:21So I have to clear case on oh, so I just looked at I just looked at the flashlight and I think I'm blind now
0:54:27Yeah it's on the front of the phone too! What's going on? This is wild!
0:54:31I look directly at the flashlight. Yeah me too and I shouldn't have done that.
0:54:35With the clear case, I don't know if it's like because I haven't taken the case off,
0:54:40but it like illuminates everything. It illuminates all of the case. It's like a very it's a lot going
0:54:45on now. Oh god yeah you can see it if you cover the flashlight there's like light coming around
0:54:50the edge of the camera. Sort of a strange effect. But I like it. The matte back is really nice,
0:54:56but it's even somehow more slippery than before. This phone is very, very slippery. There was a
0:55:03rumor, I think today, that the 2020 iPhones will be designed with flat edges, and I look forward
0:55:09to that because it means you could hold on to them without them shooting out of your hand.
0:55:12But all in all, I've been really happy with it. And yeah, it's great. I've been basically just
0:55:21heads down in the office, so I haven't got much time with it out in the world, but at least around
0:55:26the house, big thumbs up. Yeah I was happy to travel with it immediately, you know,
0:55:29like I've got a lot of usage out of it. Oh yeah, that's like the the stress test for a phone,
0:55:34right? It's days that you're flying or, you know, have a long car ride or something. It's always
0:55:38when you you realize the flaws in things. Also the screen in bright sunlight is very good. I've still
0:55:46got to try that. Yeah, like, I noticed it almost immediately on a sunny day in Chicago, which is
0:55:52which is where I ended up being for a couple of days.
0:55:54And it was very nice.
0:55:57I was like, "Oh, okay, this is different."
0:56:00So what they're saying about all the nits going up when it's in direct sunlight,
0:56:04I can attest to that because it looks really good.
0:56:06So Federico, I'm intrigued to see what you think of that
0:56:10because you have more sunlight than I do.
0:56:12Yeah, I should try that, especially when I'm at the dog park
0:56:15where it's basically impossible to use a phone if it's sunny.
0:56:20Yeah, I will try that. Okay. Apple watches. Mm-hmm. There are also new Apple watches
0:56:26in households. Okay. So I should say I also got a review unit for that. It's a
0:56:34Series 5 stainless steel in gold, called gold color, 44 millimeters, etc. I haven't
0:56:45set it up yet. So I don't know what it's like. I haven't even turned it on.
0:56:52Were you gonna get one? Remind me, were you gonna get an Apple Watch anyway?
0:56:55Yeah, I wanna get the ceramic one.
0:56:57Right.
0:56:58Mm-hmm.
0:56:59Okay.
0:57:00Um, but the review unit is a stainless steel in gold.
0:57:05Okay.
0:57:06And, uh...
0:57:07Shiny.
0:57:08it's very it's not as it's not as tacky as I feared when I saw on the box gold
0:57:13because they don't tell you beforehand like and I didn't ask like which color is it so I
0:57:21looked on the box and I saw gold I was like oh this is gonna look like you know I'm gonna look
0:57:26like I'm a you know I have all this bling on my wrist but it's not it's not too terrible actually
0:57:32it's very... and I think this has been going on for the past couple of years
0:57:37that it's sort of like bronze, it's not yellow gold, it's not terrible
0:57:43it's actually quite nice, it's not rose gold but it's a good type of gold
0:57:48I like the gold stainless steel, the gold aluminium is good too, I think the gold
0:57:53color on the watches is a very nice color, I think they did a good job of that
0:57:56it looks really nice but the display is still off, all that I did today was
0:58:01I unpaired my two Apple watches from the iPhone and I don't know what's gonna
0:58:08happen to my cellular plan on the main watch. I also...
0:58:13Oh, I'm having a big thing about that right now.
0:58:15Oh no, so it's gonna happen to me as well for sure.
0:58:18I removed it from the Series 4 watch that I had just because I figured that,
0:58:26you know, doing this kind of transition it's probably best if it's not still
0:58:30associated with another watch so I removed it from the other watch but I
0:58:35haven't set it up I haven't set up the new one yet so I'll let you I'll let you
0:58:39know how it goes I you know the the iPhone told me you're probably going to
0:58:44have to check with your carrier so I'm pretty sure that's gonna happen I will
0:58:48have to call Vodafone and ask for some kind of fix. I bought my wife a Series
0:58:55five. She was on the series three of the little one so it was that 38 millimeter
0:59:02back in the day and she's now up I guess to the 40. She likes the always-on
0:59:09display but she actually just last night complained about the battery life. Now
0:59:15she is a sleep tracker so she sleeps with her watch on and so I recommended
0:59:20well you know remember to put it in theater mode at night. A) so you don't
0:59:23blind to me in the middle of the night, but also so the screen stays off.
0:59:28But in poking around this, there's this big thread on the MPU forums and most people on
0:59:33Twitter talking about how the Series 5 battery life is just not what the Series 4 was.
0:59:40And I figured from the Series 3 to the 5, it would be an improvement, or at least come
0:59:43out in the wash, but she does not seem to think so.
0:59:47So I don't know if it's the always-on display, or maybe Apple has some software things going
0:59:50on.
0:59:51Casey was he was coming from a series 3 and I see on Twitter that he has been like also feeling like the battery life is
0:59:58Well, he Casey also went from the big watch to the little did his is even even more complex
1:00:04I've been wearing my series 4 and I feel like in watch it was from watch was 5 to 6
1:00:10I don't think I've really noticed any major battery life. So I'm a little
1:00:13Worried that this isn't as good as we were used to on the 4 Apple says it should be 18 hours
1:00:19Which is what they said before but I think everyone knows you could push it further than that on the previous model
1:00:24So, I don't know. Is this something to keep an eye on?
1:00:26And I'm curious if it's Federico as you wear this if you'll check in with us once you have a handle on this
1:00:34If it's an issue, yeah
1:00:37Did not buy a watch because I've got the series 4 I don't wear my Apple watch every day
1:00:42I didn't feel like I could justify
1:00:44Especially after I saw the titanium which is really the one that I want
1:00:48I used to wear stainless steel Apple watch my series 4 is aluminum
1:00:51the titanium is right in the middle looks and weight wise between the stainless and the aluminum like I
1:00:57Absolutely loved it when I picked it up in the store
1:01:00But it's a lot of money for something
1:01:02I don't wear every day and now it slipped to the end of November for delivery
1:01:07It's actually the furthest delivery that the stainless steel is not that far out
1:01:10Oh the aluminum is saying this actually I could walk into my store today and get it get but the titanium is like
1:01:15nowhere to be found until the end of November, which is a ways away. So that's probably good
1:01:20for me because that's the one I would want. And now I have time to like, cool my jets about it.
1:01:24But, uh, so no, no series five here and not one in the foreseeable future.
1:01:29There's something we should talk about here that I'm looking at.
1:01:31We should just move on. No, we should have.
1:01:33Is Amazon doing something again? Uh, yes, I can confirm to you that, um,
1:01:40There is now, hold on, hold on because I saw the photo,
1:01:43there is now an echo that is also a dog color.
1:01:48It is called, there's the Amazon Fetch,
1:01:53which is a really good name.
1:01:54- I don't know if, I've been also following along,
1:01:56I don't know if that's an echo.
1:01:58I think it's an Amazon product
1:02:00that is something to do with the sidewalk.
1:02:03- Okay, okay, so it's not, it's still an Amazon product,
1:02:06so still a bunch of, also very good dog in the photo.
1:02:10So it's still a bunch of things going on today, but maybe this is...
1:02:12It's got a blue light though, so the blue light is typical of the Echo line.
1:02:16Probably means it's got something, yeah.
1:02:18It's got something, probably not, you know...
1:02:20I guess, you know, dogs put it on the screen.
1:02:24I guess whatever you do, don't call your dog Alexa.
1:02:27Well, you just said it. I was trying to avoid the word.
1:02:30Hold on.
1:02:32Mark Gurman on Twitter, Amazon just announced Echo Frames,
1:02:36glasses with built-in Alexa.
1:02:38They are unstoppable. They will not stop, will they?
1:02:41And they just put it in everything.
1:02:43- There is now Echo Buds,
1:02:47earbuds with Alexa built in, $130.
1:02:52And Mark Gurman is saying Echo Frames,
1:02:56glasses with built-in Alexa.
1:02:58Been in the labs for years,
1:03:00never wanted to launch to consumers,
1:03:02but finally decided to.
1:03:04Yep.
1:03:06They're putting it everywhere.
1:03:09Oh, well.
1:03:10Wait, what is that kind of statement?
1:03:12This appears to be something they've
1:03:13had in their labs for years.
1:03:14Never wanted to launch to consumers,
1:03:16but they were just like, oh, whatever.
1:03:18Yeah, you know what?
1:03:20We'll do it live.
1:03:21We were the space in the keynote.
1:03:22[LAUGHTER]
1:03:25Whatever.
1:03:27Get the thing from the labs and let's do it.
1:03:29Myke, before we move on to the next topic, some--
1:03:32No, let's take a break.
1:03:34How about that?
1:03:35Let's just take a break right now.
1:03:36Do you want to talk about Fresh Quick, Steven? Let's just take a break.
1:03:38I feel like we should talk about your situation.
1:03:41Alright, fine. We're gonna be six hours. Six hours on this episode. Let's not take a break now.
1:03:46I bought an Apple Watch. You happy?
1:03:48Why? Come on.
1:03:50Just let me... let me... let me... let me feel the taste of this statement.
1:03:56You bought an Apple Watch.
1:03:58I buy watches.
1:03:59That feels good.
1:04:00No, no. You used to buy Apple Watches.
1:04:04Now you buy physical.
1:04:06I set up my watch. This is a physical watch too. It's not digital. It's like it exists. It's on my wrist. I can touch it.
1:04:13You're trying to work around the English language to your advantage. You stopped buying smart watches.
1:04:23I did stop buying smart watches. That's correct. But we spoke about my decision to stop buying smart watches a few weeks ago.
1:04:30ago and one of the main reasons that I said I wasn't interested in wearing an
1:04:33Apple watch was that I did not have an always-on display mm-hmm and what did
1:04:39they do to the series 5 they added the always-on display they added an always-on
1:04:42display okay my for all the people that are
1:04:46jubilating including Federico don't get your hopes up yeah because I'm not
1:04:52decided that I want to keep this and maybe I should I have I have five points
1:04:59that I would like to get to today. Will you allow me to do that?
1:05:02Sure. Yes. So the first thing I want to do is talk about the hardware because I bought
1:05:07the ceramic watch because I saw it and I fell in love with it. I love it. It is, I think,
1:05:16and I've always thought it's the most beautiful Apple watch. The original time that they did
1:05:20the white ceramic, I loved it then and I love it now. I just think it looks very cool.
1:05:29It is not a look that everybody will want in their lives.
1:05:34It is a very bold statement, but I really love it.
1:05:37I'm wearing it with a white sport band.
1:05:40Now I owned a white sport band.
1:05:43I got it with one of the sport loops because that was just what they had available in the
1:05:46store because even though you can do this like mix and match or whatever you want, that
1:05:52doesn't like they won't let you buy them like that sometimes like it would only let me buy
1:05:56it to reserve it in certain configurations still, it was very confusing. Like I couldn't
1:06:03say, "Give me a black sport band with the ceramic watch and I'll pick it up in an hour."
1:06:07It's like, "No, you can only pick up these specific configurations," which doesn't make
1:06:10sense to me. But that's what that was all about. But what I didn't know, and I hadn't
1:06:17seen this reported anywhere, I may have just missed it, you get with the ceramic watch
1:06:23white sport band that has the white ceramic pin instead of the aluminium pin you get that in the box it comes with it and
1:06:30I've also heard that apparently this the
1:06:33Titanium has a sport band of a titanium pin on it as well
1:06:39They come in the box you get a bigger box long big box thick box
1:06:43You get the band that you ordered so I got a sport loop and inside the box is a sport band
1:06:49which has the white ceramic pin, which I was very happy about because
1:06:52it matches. This is the first time I've owned a 44 and the watch face feels big
1:07:00because of its 44 milliliters but it's big because I went from the Series 3
1:07:04right so I mean even though the size is similar now the watch face itself is the
1:07:11full width but I think it looks really cool. I have currently basically set all
1:07:19of my watch faces that I'm trying out into monochrome because all white and
1:07:23black baby that's what I'm going for I think that's the look for me but on the
1:07:28watch faces this is point two I still feel like I cannot get what I want like
1:07:33I find Apple watch Apple's watch faces they frustrate me in many ways so I
1:07:41really like the look of the California face right but it has one complication
1:07:46If I want to use corner complications, you can take it from full screen into a circle,
1:07:52like a small circle in the middle is where it will push all of the numbers and indices,
1:07:56but that looks really ugly in the California face.
1:07:59Like squished in, it looks too busy and I don't like it.
1:08:02I feel like they could have done something to make this a little bit more elegant, but
1:08:06they didn't.
1:08:08I feel like a lot of the Apple watch faces still feel a little bit like my first watch
1:08:14face you know like like they're like childish versions of watch faces they're
1:08:20like really big and chunky I just feel like they they just haven't hit it in
1:08:26what I'm looking for they're there either it's too it's either too much
1:08:30information or not enough information and nowhere in between that's kind of
1:08:36how I feel with them or like they're like oh we've made this really beautiful
1:08:40face but then we put these super weird aggressive indices the whole way around
1:08:44and you can't remove them.
1:08:46The indices?
1:08:48What are the indices?
1:08:49The little lines that count for seconds.
1:08:51Right? That go all the way around.
1:08:53So like, the Meridian watch face, right?
1:08:55It's like, okay, this is a pretty nice hands,
1:08:57I like the little lines,
1:08:59and I can have four complications,
1:09:01but then it has all of the seconds the whole way around.
1:09:03It's like, oh, but now it's too many,
1:09:05you've done too many now, it's too aggressive for me.
1:09:07So like, I feel like they get it close with a bunch of them,
1:09:12but none of them are spot on.
1:09:15And I feel like this problem could be solved with, spoiler alert, third-party watch faces.
1:09:21I was about to ask you about that. So you think it's, as a watch person,
1:09:25you think Apple should open it up to third-party developers?
1:09:28100% I do, yes. Because as much as I would love to see then, like, the Omega watch face,
1:09:34that's not going to happen. But people could just design their own ones, right?
1:09:39like someone could make something that's a California face which has more support for
1:09:43complications on it than the one complication. Like they could have just put some of the corner
1:09:48complications around and got rid of some of these second indices. Like it's close but I feel like
1:09:57that they are... Apple are trying too hard and not hard enough at the same time, right? They're
1:10:03They're trying too hard in wanting to be the only people that are allowed to make watch
1:10:08faces, but then they're not doing enough with what they have.
1:10:15It's just frustrating to me because it's like, I have this computer thing on my wrist, but
1:10:21to let it be a computer, I have to make it ugly.
1:10:25Right?
1:10:26the Infograph faces, you can do stuff with them, but they're like...
1:10:31it makes me look too much like a scientist, right? I've got my little science readouts on my wrist,
1:10:39right? Like, look at me everyone and here's my computer, like it's too much and I feel like that
1:10:45they have watch faces that look nice but they're not customizable enough or they have computer ones
1:10:52that are just like, it's just like I'm ready for this thing to start spitting out a roll of tape,
1:10:57right, for all to get my readouts. Like it's, it's too much. So that's how I feel about watch faces.
1:11:03And I have way stronger opinions on this now because analog watches, that's what they are,
1:11:13right? You are buying the watch face. And so now I have refined my own personal tastes a little
1:11:19bit more which I feel like I can't explain but I know when I see it right
1:11:23like I see a watch now and I'm like I can tell you what I like and don't like
1:11:27about that and and I've I pay way more attention to it like my Instagram is
1:11:31just full of watches all the time right so I feel like I've gotten much more
1:11:37I've gotten way more opinionated about this stuff because I pay more attention
1:11:42to it than I used to before where it was like oh that looks nice but now it's
1:11:46like well I like this and I don't like this about it and I like this and I
1:11:49don't like this about it. Anyway, but then it all gets turned up on its head because of
1:11:52the always on display anyway, right? Because now you might want to pick a
1:11:57watch face depending on how they transition. So I liked the California
1:12:02face which is the new one, right? I have it mixed with the Roman and Arabic
1:12:06numerals because I think that looks pretty nice. And I originally had it on
1:12:10the... there's like a there's a color called "Edition" which is like an off
1:12:15white but in the always on so when the how do you describe it how do you
1:12:21describe the on and always you know what I'm talking about like what do you call
1:12:25them one is like when it's in use and then one is when it's not dimmed there
1:12:30we go the dimmed version is like it's black background white numbers but then
1:12:36when I look at it it's that inverts so now I have a white face and gray numbers
1:12:40so it's like well now I don't want to use that because the transition is too
1:12:44harsh, right? Like that's too much. So now I've been using the California face
1:12:50with a black background, like so it's dark background, and white numbers so
1:12:55then the transition it just looks like it illuminates a little bit rather than
1:13:00like blowing your eyes out, right? Because that's a big thing now I think
1:13:04where you are looking at it before you've raised it and then when you raise
1:13:10it you don't want it to change dramatically because that feels quite distracting. So the
1:13:17transition is quite important. So now what I've got right now works really well for me
1:13:23because basically it just illuminates a little bit like it just goes from dim to a little
1:13:27bit brighter. It's funny because in a few instances I've caught the minutes hand moving.
1:13:33So like I don't know how often it's updating right? But like I've brought the watch up
1:13:38to my face and as it's illuminated the minute hand has also moved a little bit and that's
1:13:43the watch catching up. So like the time isn't completely accurate anymore because it's not
1:13:50updating as frequently as when you're looking at it. So sometimes you might be looking at
1:13:55it and it might be a minute behind. Right, so like there's something interesting about
1:14:00that. Shouldn't it be one time per second, like one Hertz means one refresh per second?
1:14:05It's not updating every second. So I've had it on the California face and I've watched
1:14:10it and every now and then you can see the minute hand take a big sweep. It's not moving
1:14:17constantly as it was before. When you have the screen on, the minute hand is moving in
1:14:25minute proportions. I just watched it do it and it just jumped an entire minute in one
1:14:30go. So I think it's actually updating every minute. So I don't know. But it's just like
1:14:38a different thing. This is not important by any stretch of the imagination. But it's just
1:14:43a different thing. But I think the only way they could do this is to update it every minute
1:14:47because otherwise the battery life is going to be absolutely obliterated if they're updating
1:14:52it every second. So I think they're updating the, I assume, probably about every minute.
1:14:59There's another thing that's interesting about the always on faces.
1:15:03When you get a notification on the Apple Watch and you look down at your watch, you typically
1:15:08see the notification, right?
1:15:09Because you're looking at the watch now.
1:15:11But that isn't the case because the notifications don't light up initially.
1:15:15You have to interact with the watch to get the light up now, right?
1:15:18So there's like a weird disconnect for me there.
1:15:21But I'm used to like, "Oh, okay, I'll look at my watch."
1:15:23But now looking at my watch can mean just moving it a little bit and I can see the watch
1:15:28face but I haven't taken it out of the dimmed mode but I don't know that I haven't done
1:15:34that because I didn't know that my movement wasn't enough and now I don't see the notification.
1:15:40Are you following what I'm saying? So like the movement of your arm isn't necessarily
1:15:45enough anymore. You have to still move it to the level at which you will like brighten
1:15:49the screen but you don't know you've done that until you've done it. So there's like
1:15:55a weird break in my mind there and also same thing you have to tap the crown twice to get it to go to
1:16:01the home if you've not kind of taken it out of the dimmed mode because the first tap illuminates the
1:16:06face second tap of the crown takes you home so it kind of the always on screen adds a lot of
1:16:13functionality but i think is going to be difficult for especially for long time apple watch owners
1:16:19to get used to because it's changing a lot of the way that you're typically used to dealing
1:16:26with the Apple Watch. My fourth point is returning to the Apple Watch as a thing in my life.
1:16:32It was incredibly distracting and is incredibly distracting for me to have something illuminated
1:16:37on my wrist now, right? So like if I'm not using a dim face like I was using the one that had the
1:16:44white background before, like just like reaching out and grabbing something and my wrist is
1:16:49is lit up was a strange thing for me now because I've not been used to that. Within one hour
1:16:54of wearing it, I'd already put the wash on Do Not Disturb because our group thread was
1:16:58popping off and I was doing something and it was really annoying me.
1:17:02Yeah, I saw this all group threads should be in Do Not Disturb all the time.
1:17:06No, but I don't want that on my iPhone. I just like I want text messages on my iPhone
1:17:12to be coming through because I can just I just my iPhone's just not with me if I don't
1:17:17want it with me. Right. Like it's just down. It's not on me. It's not getting all up in
1:17:23my business. Right. Like I can leave the room but now I can't get away from it because why
1:17:29can't I set independent do not disturb stuff on my on my devices. So like why can't I say
1:17:38put this thread in messages in Do Not Disturb on my watch but not on my phone.
1:17:43Why do they mirror?
1:17:44Even if I turn off Do Not Disturb mirroring.
1:17:46What is going on?
1:17:48Like, and also, why if I turn off Do Not Disturb mirroring on my watch can I not then set Do
1:17:56Not Disturb on a time basis on the watch?
1:17:59It's either on or off.
1:18:00I can set up a time basis Do Not Disturb on my phone and if I have the mirror then my
1:18:05My watch will go on Do Not Disturb on the times that I set, but if I turn off mirroring,
1:18:09there's no option to turn on Do Not Disturb on a schedule on the watch.
1:18:14I don't understand why these...
1:18:16I can't do these things.
1:18:18I want better control of Do Not Disturb because that's important to me.
1:18:22And I don't know why these devices are either completely linked or they're not linked and
1:18:28then you lose the features.
1:18:30I don't get it.
1:18:31So I would love to see...
1:18:32There should be more there.
1:18:34I noticed that, so this is when I say, I'm not sure about this, I was out today, I was
1:18:40meeting with some friends and stuff and my watch was tapping on me and I really didn't
1:18:45like it because I felt like I was being distracted and in a way that my phone does not distract
1:18:53me.
1:18:54It's like my phone buzzing does not cause me the same kind of feeling as my watch tapping
1:18:59me.
1:19:00I don't know why.
1:19:01Anxiety is too strong a word but it was something akin to that right where it
1:19:07was just like I know that things are happening and I don't know what they are
1:19:11and I and that was a much stronger feeling to me than it is with the phone
1:19:19I find the watch more distracting and that is a thing even with I have like
1:19:25pared down notification management it's like 0.5 that I have is not a
1:19:30notification management still sucks. I have to go in and disable every single
1:19:34app. All of them are on and I have to go in and uncheck every box to
1:19:41turn them all off and I have like three apps that bug me but one of them is
1:19:45messages which is where I get most of my notifications so I don't know what to do
1:19:50about that. So like I'm not sure that I just don't know if this is the product
1:19:55for me like I'm gonna wear it for a couple of weeks and then make my
1:19:58decision but I'm I don't know if the Apple watch has a consistent place in my
1:20:03life I'm not sure about it so that is my 24-hour review of the Apple watch I
1:20:10don't know if you're like listening to your problems with it I'm not sure
1:20:14you're gonna keep this watch it really does feel like I don't know if I think I
1:20:20think I've moved on from what it does yes people yeah but I love the way it
1:20:25It looks, I think it's beautiful, but I don't know if that's enough.
1:20:30There are definitely things that I love about it, right?
1:20:33The ease of Apple Pay using the Apple Watch is so much better than the iPhone with FaceID.
1:20:40The activity stuff, it's nice to actually have the activity stuff back in my life again.
1:20:45I love all that sort of stuff.
1:20:46And as soon as my broken back heals, the gym is the thing that I want to get into in a
1:20:52more serious way.
1:20:53So I want to be able to track that and an Apple Watch is perfect for that.
1:20:57But like, I know this is never going to be a daily thing for me anymore.
1:21:01Like I know that now, because I love my Apple Watches way more than I love this one.
1:21:07But like, there's still a lot of stuff that just doesn't work for me.
1:21:10And I think that the way that notifications are handled on the Apple Watch has not gotten
1:21:15significantly better in a way that it should have.
1:21:18That is a cause for concern for me because we're up to watch OS 6 and I just don't think
1:21:24They're putting enough attention into the way that notifications are handled because I feel like there needs to be way more controls about
1:21:33What and I feel like I have been saying this since watch OS 1
1:21:37that there needs to be better controls for when an app can bother you and when it can't and if you can send specific types of
1:21:45certifications to different devices right like I've used this Twitter example for years just send DMS to the watch
1:21:51Send mentions to whatever else I want it sent to right like and I feel like that they've not done any of this and
1:21:59That is just a very confusing thing to me, but I love the ceramic though
1:22:03So should just keep the ceramic for the occasional workout. That's it
1:22:08So when you do you when you work out you work out in style some fancy workout
1:22:14The My Curly routine, work out with a ceramic watch.
1:22:17- All right, let's move on.
1:22:22Tell you about our sponsor FreshBooks.
1:22:24If you're a freelancer,
1:22:26and I told you you could save 192 hours,
1:22:29you'd probably give me a hug,
1:22:30which would make me uncomfortable,
1:22:31but maybe in the moment it would work.
1:22:34Our friends at FreshBooks can help us do that
1:22:36with their super simple cloud accounting software.
1:22:40FreshBooks simplifies tasks like invoicing,
1:22:42tracking expenses, and getting paid online. And FreshBooks has drastically reduced the time it
1:22:48takes for over 10 million people, including me to deal with their paperwork. FreshBooks helps you
1:22:54with all those awkward invoice client discussions. It will let you know whether or not a client has
1:23:02seen an invoice after you email that to them so you don't have to have some sort of guessing game.
1:23:07And if someone is late to a payment, FreshBooks can automate late payment email reminders
1:23:13so you can spend less time chasing payments and more time working your magic. If you're listening
1:23:18to this and you're not using FreshBooks yet, now is the time to try it. They are offering an
1:23:23unrestricted 30 day free trial for listeners of this show with no credit card required. All you
1:23:29have to do is go to freshbooks.com/connected and enter the code connected in the How did you hear
1:23:35About Us section. Our thanks to FreshBooks for their support of this show and Relay FM.
1:23:40All right, let's talk about iOS 13 and iOS 13.1. Federica, your review went up last week. It is,
1:23:48it's incredible. I'm curious how the reception has been.
1:23:51Thank you. It's been it's been really good. It's the best performing review to date.
1:24:00by far. That is very, very good news. I was sort of, I was concerned that maybe I peaked last year
1:24:10in terms of like how many, just how many people are going to read these reviews. But nope, still
1:24:17haven't found my peak apparently and that is very good news. And the traffic is still going
1:24:23going strongly, especially since The Verge linked it yesterday.
1:24:26Oh, nice. Wow.
1:24:28That was very nice.
1:24:30And, you know, I'm publishing these reviews in an increasingly sparse landscape in the
1:24:41context of very few people are doing these reviews anymore.
1:24:46Well, that's because you're, I mean...
1:24:49Well, I think it's a combination of things.
1:24:54I think a lot of people have moved to video.
1:24:56It makes more sense to cover a new version of iOS in video.
1:25:00And I think a lot of people also, it makes sense to combine iOS 13 with the videos for
1:25:06new hardware.
1:25:07So you'll find coverage of a new version of iOS for iPhone or iPad reviews, for example.
1:25:14And I don't know, I guess other bigger websites maybe think that nobody's reading long-form
1:25:22content anymore.
1:25:24So every year I'm thankful that Mac Stories readers have become accustomed to this tradition,
1:25:32which is now officially, at this point is very much a tradition, there's people waiting
1:25:35for this review.
1:25:38And I feel, obviously, it feels kind of insane and I'm super grateful.
1:25:42I mean the fact that I have gotten messages and emails from people asking me like when
1:25:49is the review going to come out because I need to take a day off at work to make sure
1:25:53that I can enjoy the publishing day.
1:25:56Like I think that's insane.
1:25:59But it's also kind of awesome.
1:26:00I think it's incredible.
1:26:03And I mean, the review has, you know, you can read it on the website, but the reason
1:26:13why it's worth it for me, financially speaking, is the integration with Club Max Stories.
1:26:19And I think this year we've put together a collection of extras that I think is my favorite
1:26:26so far, like we added wallpapers, for example, and advanced shortcuts and the making of.
1:26:34It's a whole package of, like, it's not just the behind the scenes, it's not just the making
1:26:38of, it's a whole collection of things. And so I think it's very, I think it's awesome
1:26:45that as a, you know, we're not the Verge, we're not TechCrunch, but we, you know, we
1:26:51can get by and not just that, we can actually do pretty great.
1:26:56It's not getting by. It's not getting by. It's going really well.
1:27:01And the idea of, you know, there's folks saying, "Oh, look at this guy. He works out manually
1:27:07three months on this thing and is it even worth it?" And yes, otherwise I wouldn't do
1:27:13it because there's only so much I would do out of personal passion. So I'm not that stupid,
1:27:19I think. So yeah, there's a, you know, there's a question, of course, like, is this year
1:27:27the year that you've picked? And probably in terms of, in terms of like, just how much
1:27:33work can I put into it? Then yes, I don't think I would be physically capable of doing
1:27:40more. This year has been really taxing for me in all kinds of different ways in terms
1:27:48of my personal life and my personal schedule and relationships with people. I don't think
1:27:54there's... this is the most I can do as a single person. And, you know, there's also
1:28:00the fact that I'm getting older and it's undeniable that I don't have the strength that I had
1:28:06when I was 19. And so working on a 75,000 word story, it's not easy, physically speaking.
1:28:14So this year, I don't think I will ever, ever again be able to do something of this scope
1:28:22and length. So next year, I'm still going to do a review. I'm going to do reviews for
1:28:31the foreseeable future. I'm not going to stop. I'm not stopping. I'm continuing, but I'm
1:28:36not doing more in the context of it's going to be even longer. In fact, I want it to be
1:28:42shorter and there's a discussion to be had about what is the content that you're gonna
1:28:50cover in your review and what is all the rest that can be covered just as well, if not better,
1:28:57by the Maxories team during the summer.
1:28:59So what we did this year with the iOS 13 coverage on Maxories, we're gonna continue, probably
1:29:04gonna double that next year.
1:29:07Otherwise, I'm super happy by just how it went and it's really heartwarming.
1:29:16Twitter can be a pretty terrible place these days and the internet can be a pretty terrible
1:29:20place, but the love and affection that this single story can gather on an annual basis,
1:29:28I think it's pretty awesome.
1:29:29Yeah, I can imagine these types of things are just very heartwarming events, right?
1:29:35people were so kind about the work that you've done, you know?
1:29:39I know that actually, because I've done things like this myself too, right?
1:29:43Like it's a great feeling when you've been working hard on something.
1:29:46You share it with the world and the feedback is positive.
1:29:49But I am about a third of the way through the review,
1:29:52and I've been enjoying it very much so far.
1:29:55Which is about as long as it probably would have taken me to read
1:29:59the previous year's review or something.
1:30:02I couldn't do your audiobook this year because of travel that I was doing and
1:30:06I'm so happy that that was something that I couldn't do this year because I may have died
1:30:11It would have been impossible
1:30:15We couldn't do it because neither
1:30:18You wouldn't have been able to finish in time and I wouldn't have been able to finish in time and it would have been a nightmare
1:30:23yeah, and
1:30:25Unfortunately, you know people have been asking about that like where's the audiobook and it just the the fact that I
1:30:32But it really came down to the wire almost, like we finished the final editing two days
1:30:40before.
1:30:41And so, yeah, even if Myke wanted to and was available to because he wasn't travelling,
1:30:48he would have still needed to read an unfinished version of the review.
1:30:55And obviously nobody wants that.
1:30:57So it's a...
1:30:58probably would have had to have been late, realistically, what would have happened, but
1:31:02that wouldn't have been good for anybody.
1:31:03Right, right, yeah. And this is an, you know, it's such an unrealistic scenario of, I wrote
1:31:10something that is book length, but within the constraints of a couple of months. Nobody
1:31:18that writes something that is 75,000 words long and has an audiobook version of it, works
1:31:24on it for just two months or two months and a half. They probably work on it for a year
1:31:31or two years, you know. But this is the unique situation of these reviews. But, you know,
1:31:39there's a whole discussion and we'll talk about it next year and beyond. Like, do I
1:31:43want to continue doing iOS and iPadOS together? Will I have to? Does it mean that, you know,
1:31:48will iPadOS get annual updates?
1:31:51Like that is all up in the air right now.
1:31:55I just know what needed to be done this year
1:31:58because I couldn't plan in advance.
1:32:00I was surprised just like everybody else at WWDC
1:32:03to see iOS and iPadOS split in two.
1:32:05Next year, you know, we'll see how it goes,
1:32:11but it's not gonna be, it's still gonna be special.
1:32:14I'm still gonna, you know, I have some ideas
1:32:15for the web layout and the animations,
1:32:17which I think it's time to try something else entirely
1:32:21on that front.
1:32:22But in terms of my content,
1:32:24like the time that I spend writing and editing,
1:32:27it has to go down.
1:32:28It has to be shorter.
1:32:29I need to take better care of myself
1:32:32when I work on these stories.
1:32:33So I've done it this year,
1:32:35but never again with 250 hours of work.
1:32:40I don't wanna do that again.
1:32:43- Yeah, it's just too much.
1:32:45- I loved working on it.
1:32:47And I love the way that it came out.
1:32:49But it was a little too much for me personally.
1:32:53- Have you, I know you're a writer first,
1:32:57but you said something that caught my attention
1:32:59that you feel like a lot of these things
1:33:00have moved to video.
1:33:02Do you think that's a component
1:33:03you may experiment with in the future?
1:33:05- Yeah, yeah.
1:33:06It's one of the things that, you know,
1:33:10I keep talking about with Sylvia,
1:33:11like we need to try something with video.
1:33:14And it feels like 2020 would be a good year for that.
1:33:18Just because I find myself writing certain sections
1:33:22that really would be shorter
1:33:23and much better explained as a video.
1:33:27So I don't see myself going all pivoting to video.
1:33:30I don't see myself doing that.
1:33:32But I can see how more videos throughout the review
1:33:37and maybe even something before the review
1:33:40comes out as a video,
1:33:42could be a pretty great integration just to diversify and have some actual properly done
1:33:50videos that are not just screencasts or something captured with my iPhone. But also it could
1:33:56be something to make the review shorter, like the actual text, to have less text, especially
1:34:03for features that make so much more sense, as explained visually. So you can see the
1:34:08interactions, you can see what are you doing, and I don't have to find myself describing
1:34:13tap this button and scroll this menu.
1:34:17That stuff is better shown on video.
1:34:19Okay.
1:34:20Yeah, I know that, just in my dabbling with it, the production time goes way up, but I
1:34:25think the potential upside for what you want to do could be really interesting.
1:34:30Yeah.
1:34:31Yeah, and something that I plan on, because you mentioned that production time, I plan
1:34:37on continuing to hire people to assist me. So I had a web developer and there's Silvia
1:34:47giving me a hand with design stuff and there's of course Brian King with the videos and the
1:34:533D assets and the animations. So to have this collection of different features and different
1:35:03aspects of the review taken care of by different people. I think that is something that I should
1:35:08continue doing. Yeah, like we said a couple weeks ago, I'm proud that you are delegating some of
1:35:13this because not only does it take weight off you, it makes the work better when you have more voices
1:35:20in the mix. And I think the guys did such a great job at those CarPlay stores and other things that
1:35:25got broken out. I think that you're on the right track with that. Thank you. Okay, it's good to hear.
1:35:32Update, Amazon have put Echo in a ring.
1:35:35That you wear?
1:35:37That you wear.
1:35:38What is happening over there?
1:35:40[laughter]
1:35:41They're busy today.
1:35:42Did you say in a ring?
1:35:43In a ring, yeah, like, like jewelry ring.
1:35:46Oh my god, really?
1:35:47Then you put on your finger and then you...
1:35:49Echo Loop, oh my god.
1:35:51Echo Loop, yeah.
1:35:52Does it...
1:35:53Does it talk?
1:35:55I don't know.
1:35:57I don't know.
1:35:59How can anybody know anymore?
1:36:01It's impossible to know
1:36:03What is happening oh my god, okay, well sure
1:36:07There's there's that the review is not the only thing you have released though is it
1:36:13You're just you're releasing stuff all over the place, and I promise I'm done with with this last surprise today. Yeah
1:36:21so we
1:36:23We launched an entirely new project and an entirely new sort of design brand for max stories
1:36:30So the product is MaxSeries Shortcuts Icons.
1:36:35The idea is these are 300 custom icons for shortcuts on the home screen.
1:36:43So you can add shortcuts to the home screen for quick activation,
1:36:48but by default you can only choose from the built-in glyphs that are made by Apple and built into the Shortcuts app.
1:36:57A few months ago I had this idea of, so people come to Max Stories and they read about shortcuts
1:37:05and they sign up for the club to get more and more advanced shortcuts and we have the
1:37:10Max Stories shortcuts archive.
1:37:13What is something else that we could do to sort of, you know, promote Max Stories as
1:37:19a single sort of a one-stop destination for everything related to shortcuts?
1:37:24And I was at WWDC and I saw the new feature to load a custom icon, a custom image, for
1:37:32adding a shortcut to the home screen with the Files picker.
1:37:37And at that point something clicked in my brain.
1:37:39I was like, "I want to make a custom icon set for shortcuts on the home screen."
1:37:46And I knew exactly what I was going to do.
1:37:48I wanted to design a set, well not me personally, but to ask Silvia to design a set that would
1:37:55basically complement the default options in the shortcuts app.
1:38:00So to have icons, some very specific, others more mainstream, if you will, designed by
1:38:11shortcuts users for shortcuts users is the way that I've been referring to this.
1:38:15So the idea of... I've been going through all the shortcuts that I ever created and
1:38:20that I published in the Mac Stories shortcuts archive. I've been going through popular shortcuts
1:38:26on Reddit, on the websites of David Sparks and Matthew Casinelli and Rosemary Orchard.
1:38:32I've been taking a look at the shortcuts in the Apple Gallery, and I've made notes for
1:38:37myself of this shortcut. When you add it to the home screen, is there a good glyph that
1:38:43represents it, and if not, I would take a note. And so we came up with these 300 glyphs, they're
1:38:50called the Max Stories Shortcuts Icons. You can buy them today, they are discounted if you are a
1:38:56Club Max Stories member, they're over 30% off if you already pay for Club Max Stories, so that's the
1:39:03the next perk for you. And all you need to do is, so you basically download a zip file, it contains
1:39:10these 300 icons. And the very nice thing about it is that we designed it with iOS 13.1 and
1:39:19iPadOS 13.1 in mind, because yesterday's update added one specific feature that makes our
1:39:27shortcuts icons really special, and that is they will keep the original color of your shortcut
1:39:35when you add it to the home screen. So before, it used to be that any image that you picked from
1:39:40files to use as a custom home screen icon, it would override the original color of your shortcut,
1:39:48either with a black background color that looks horrible, or with any other background color,
1:39:56if you provided a jpg image. But with our icons, if you're using 13.1, they will look just like
1:40:04the Apple-made home screen icons. So you will have your default color of the
1:40:11shortcut that you assigned in the shortcuts app, but you will have a custom
1:40:15glyph on top of it. And I should also note that there are no crazy hacks or
1:40:22workarounds involved. I know that in the past I shared my own, like I reverse
1:40:28engineered, for example, the way that Apple used to generate these icons, but
1:40:33But in iOS 13, the way that you add home screen shortcuts is all new, it's all native, and
1:40:39our icons are native as well.
1:40:41So you can pick them directly inside the shortcuts app from files.
1:40:45There's no crazy hack or workaround involved.
1:40:49It's all natively supported, and because of 13.1, it looks great in terms of it keeps
1:40:55your original shortcuts color.
1:40:59So I rethought my entire home screen setup, because this is a product that I use myself.
1:41:04And so now on my iPad Pro and on my iPhone I have basically rethought my home screens
1:41:10around these icons that finally give me options for like my clipboard shortcuts or my timers
1:41:18for toggle, for time tracking, so all of that.
1:41:21And we launched them today and they're part of the new Max Stories Pixel design brand
1:41:29that is run by Silvia and me. We're gonna do more design stuff in the future. We have
1:41:35some ideas. Not physical products. I'm not crazy like Myke. I'm not gonna get into that.
1:41:45I'm not lucky, Myke.
1:41:48That space is all yours.
1:41:51But more design stuff, we have some ideas.
1:41:54And that is the second big thing that I've been working on since July.
1:41:57So we launched it today, and you can go to maxstories.net/pixel and you will find the
1:42:04links to the icons.
1:42:05They look really awesome.
1:42:07Yeah, they're really good.
1:42:10If I just saw a screenshot and I didn't know this was third party, it looks like something
1:42:17Apple would do.
1:42:18I mean, in the highest possible praise.
1:42:21It's amazing work.
1:42:23Thank you.
1:42:24Well, it's all, you know, I gave the ideas and actually, Sylvia hated me for this.
1:42:30I gave my requests.
1:42:32I need an icon for a clipboard that also contains a link.
1:42:37And it's like, okay.
1:42:39So she did all the design necessarily for this.
1:42:42And there's actually a full preview
1:42:46that you can see on the website.
1:42:49We have banners and we have screenshots,
1:42:50but there's also a full preview that you can open and see
1:42:54all the icons that are included.
1:42:55And yeah, you can take a look at my home screens.
1:43:00I'm probably going to write about them in more detail
1:43:02because I'm still tweaking them and I'm still coming up.
1:43:05And what's been fascinating in this process
1:43:07is reorganizing my home screen around shortcuts
1:43:12has been interesting because it made
1:43:14me think of new shortcuts to create and share.
1:43:17So that's been fun.
1:43:20I'm not personally using an all shortcuts home screen.
1:43:24I'm mixing and matching shortcuts and regular apps.
1:43:30And yeah, that's it.
1:43:33With this, I can finally take it easy for a little while.
1:43:37this was the other thing that I've been teasing for a while
1:43:40and it's finally out and it feels good.
1:43:42So yeah, I'm done.
1:43:45- Take a break now.
1:43:49- Yeah, I can, I think I can.
1:43:51- Well, is that it?
1:43:53We made it to the end. - I think so.
1:43:55- We made it.
1:43:55- Is Amazon doing anything else or are we all set there?
1:43:58I think they're done now.
1:44:00- Yeah, I think they're done.
1:44:01The ring was the last one.
1:44:02- They'll be back next week with something else new,
1:44:04I'm sure.
1:44:04If you want to find links to all the stuff
1:44:06we spoke about today, you can head over to the website relay.fm slash connected slash
1:44:11262. While you're there, you can send us an email with feedback or follow up. Or you can
1:44:17do that on Twitter, you can find Myke there as I am y ke Myke is the host of a bunch of
1:44:22other shows here at relay FM as well. You can find Federico on Twitter at Fattahi VITI
1:44:28CCI. And he's the editor in chief of Max stories.net. You can find me on Twitter as ISMH and I
1:44:35I write 512 pixels net I think our sponsors this week pingdom smile and
1:44:40fresh books until next time guys say goodbye I'll do that you cheerio adios