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Connected

238: Weird Plex, But Okay

 

00:00:00   (upbeat music)

00:00:02   - Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 238.

00:00:12   It's made possible this week by FreshBooks,

00:00:14   Squarespace, and Warby Parker.

00:00:17   I'm your host, Stephen Hackett,

00:00:18   and because it is an even episode,

00:00:20   I will first announce Mr. Federico Vittigi.

00:00:23   - Hello, Stephen.

00:00:24   Hello, hello everybody.

00:00:25   I'm back in my rightful spot

00:00:27   as the first, what's her name?

00:00:30   Introductee, is that a word?

00:00:32   I don't know.

00:00:33   - Yes, cool, that's good.

00:00:35   I like that.

00:00:35   - So here I am, hi, hi.

00:00:37   - Bringing up the rear, we have Myke Hurley.

00:00:41   - This is bull (beep)

00:00:42   (laughing)

00:00:44   What up, boys?

00:00:46   I've got jet lag.

00:00:48   Let's do this thing.

00:00:49   - Oh, hi, Myke.

00:00:53   Welcome back.

00:00:54   - Thank you.

00:00:55   - To Europe.

00:00:56   I just saw you just a few days ago.

00:00:58   - Yep.

00:00:59   - We were in Atlanta together,

00:01:01   where we did a live episode of "Ungeniused,"

00:01:05   and then y'all did a live episode of "The Pen Addict"

00:01:08   at the "Elena Pen Show."

00:01:09   Always a super fun trip.

00:01:11   - Mm-hmm. - Mm-hmm.

00:01:12   We'll put links to those in the show notes.

00:01:14   - Show well.

00:01:15   - But we have some follow-up,

00:01:17   and the first piece here says,

00:01:20   "Federico's whole childhood was a lie."

00:01:23   So. - Yes, yes.

00:01:25   What's happening?

00:01:27   I made a very unsettling discovery

00:01:31   as I was doing some research around a thing

00:01:35   that I mentioned last week.

00:01:37   And that made me very sad.

00:01:39   And I spoke about this with Sylvia, my girlfriend,

00:01:42   and we were shaken by this discovery.

00:01:47   When Myke made a joke about the keyboard butler,

00:01:51   and he said, "Keeves."

00:01:53   And I didn't know why it was that funny, and he mentioned how Jeeves is this figure,

00:01:59   this butler figure from, I don't know, some movie or TV show? Like, what's it from?

00:02:04   Book series. It's a book series and TV show.

00:02:07   And I said, "Oh, like Ambrogio." And Ambrogio was this character, this butler, for the commercials

00:02:16   of a popular little chocolate thing. The Ferrero Rocher. You guys are familiar with those,

00:02:24   right? Oh, you didn't have the Ambassador ads? No, no, we had the lady, we call it like

00:02:34   the lady in yellow or something. And she was the lady of the Ferrero Rocher. And Ambrogio

00:02:40   was her butler and he, you know, drove the car and just randomly popped up to make sure

00:02:47   that she had, you know, her daily dose of Ferrero Rocher. That was what Ambrogio was

00:02:53   meant to do, to supply her with Ferrero Rochers as much as possible. And, but what I discovered

00:03:01   is that by, you know, just googling Ambrogio Ferrero Rocher, that kind of stuff. Ambrogio

00:03:07   is a British man. Ambrogio is not Italian. Ambrogio is a British actor named Paul Williamson,

00:03:15   who is still alive and is very old at this point, but is still, I think is still working

00:03:20   actually. And so yeah, Ambrogio, not an Italian butler, but a British butler playing Italian.

00:03:29   And I should have known, I guess at the time I didn't notice that there was voiceover going

00:03:32   on. I re-watched the commercials and you can tell that it's, you know, even the actress,

00:03:38   the lady, she's an American actress, I think.

00:03:41   That's super interesting because I don't remember these ads, like for a Rocher, like there's

00:03:46   this thing about the ambassador, it's like that was like the advertising campaign for

00:03:50   my entire life. So it's strange that these were dubbed, but I don't know them because

00:03:56   I would have expected that they would be the UK ads and then they dubbed them, right? Like

00:04:00   what you would think but that I don't think that's what happened.

00:04:04   Yeah, yeah, so Ambrogio, not an Italian butler but just, you know, whatever capitalism served

00:04:14   in terms of actors and commercials. So very sad follow-up, very sad story. I feel like

00:04:20   this is, you know, it was one of the key figures of, you know, my childhood in terms of TV

00:04:27   consumption you know the Ferrero Rocher commercial and Ambrogio it's like it's

00:04:30   like a joke that people use in Italy like yeah literally like I used it last

00:04:34   week. What I just said about ambassador you're spoiling us that is a joke that

00:04:40   people in the UK use right like it was there was these fancy dinners at like

00:04:44   ambassadors house or whatever and then someone will bring out like this pyramid

00:04:48   tray for a Rocher and someone will go ambassador you're spoiling us and like that is like a

00:04:54   thing that people say to each other is like a it's like a meme right it's like

00:04:58   if someone's like you go in someone's house and they have like a bunch of like

00:05:01   oh I'm Bassety you're spoiling us so yeah yeah or like when when someone is

00:05:06   bald and you call him mr. clean you know stuff like that yeah not so much but

00:05:12   sure it's it's in that vein sort of when commercials and advertisements well I'm

00:05:17   very very sorry that that we had to be the reason you found out that your

00:05:22   entire childhood was a lie. Yeah, also Ferrer Rocher is not sponsoring this episode, so

00:05:27   this is a true story. Okay, I'm glad we got that taken care of. It did remind me of Kate's

00:05:35   awesome tweet where she illustrated Keeves presenting a iPad keyboard case on what appears

00:05:42   to be a golden platter because that's what keyboards deserve to be presented on. Yeah,

00:05:50   And I love the lettering in this artwork.

00:05:54   The 3D effect is very, very good.

00:05:56   Yes.

00:05:57   Kate is the official illustrator of Connected.

00:05:59   Just hands down.

00:06:02   We have some feedback about health kit data between multiple phones.

00:06:09   I think this came up in Federico's multi-watch lifestyle section of the show.

00:06:14   Yes.

00:06:15   Oh no, I think it was when we were talking about iCloud, like that you can't have health

00:06:19   - It was iPhone. - It syncs from iPhone

00:06:20   to iPad, but it does sync from iPhone to iPhone.

00:06:23   - Yes, so Saphon corrected us saying it does sync

00:06:26   between two iPhones, but that it is,

00:06:28   this is quoting, "Ridiculously slow,

00:06:31   "so slow that you would think it doesn't work at all."

00:06:34   - I love that. - I love that phrasing.

00:06:36   - I can add that I was told privately

00:06:41   that it does merge, of course, between devices.

00:06:44   So it syncs and emerges.

00:06:47   It's just, it's kinda slow because it's,

00:06:49   I think it's due to the encryption going on.

00:06:52   But it does work as we hoped it would.

00:06:55   So even more so, it means it is technically possible

00:06:58   for Apple to actually use this data on the iPad

00:07:02   even though the iPad will not capture any data,

00:07:05   it can at least present it.

00:07:07   So that would be technically possible already.

00:07:09   - Federica, let me ask you a question.

00:07:10   You may not know the answer,

00:07:11   but I know the A12 processor in the iPhone

00:07:15   has that motion coprocessor.

00:07:17   Does that just not exist on the iPad?

00:07:20   - I am not sure.

00:07:21   I think it does not exist,

00:07:23   but I would need to double check on that.

00:07:25   - It just popped in my head.

00:07:26   I didn't mean to put you on the spot.

00:07:27   - But my feeling is it does not have that processor.

00:07:31   - Yeah, okay.

00:07:32   - Yeah.

00:07:33   - I mean, I guess, why would it, right?

00:07:35   It's like it's tracking your steps.

00:07:38   Although I think it also does

00:07:39   some of the Ahoy telephone stuff? The Wikipedia page for the motion core processor says that

00:07:46   it's in the A12X bionic. Okay, so maybe it's there but it's just not doing... It's used

00:07:52   for different things. Doing things. Yeah. So the function is to collect sensor data

00:07:57   from integrated accelerometers, gyroscopes, and compasses and offload the collecting and

00:08:01   processing of sensor data from the main central processing unit. And the iPads still have

00:08:06   stuff in them you can go for a walk with an iPad and use the app as a pedometer I

00:08:11   guess I actually don't know it's the I actually don't know if you can't do that

00:08:15   though right like it has the chip in it but can you actually do that I don't

00:08:18   know yeah this feels like school yeah say this was like a question for

00:08:22   underscore you can strap an iPad to your chest running up you could actually

00:08:28   install a knife a knife oh my god underscore just join the chat we have

00:08:32   summoned David Smith and apparently it doesn't do step counting. That is one of the craziest

00:08:38   things that's ever happened. Why did that? David's just like, he's just like lurking

00:08:42   somewhere. That was such a crazy thing to see. If you say his name, he will appear.

00:08:49   Can we summon David on demand? Is that how this works?

00:08:53   Underscore as a service.

00:08:55   Well, he crushed my dream of strapping an iPad to my chest and using it as a step counter.

00:09:01   You could still do that and just want to work as a step counter.

00:09:04   Also I would look like a crazy person but that's a different problem.

00:09:07   Maybe like an Iron Man type thing.

00:09:08   Kind of, yeah.

00:09:10   Myke, tell us what's going on in the UK with Apple Music.

00:09:15   Oh, I wonder where you were going with that.

00:09:17   Like in general, I have no idea.

00:09:19   I can't help you.

00:09:20   Walk away from that.

00:09:21   Easy, easy.

00:09:22   Nobody knows.

00:09:23   Apple Music is finally available on the Echo in the UK.

00:09:27   Congratulations.

00:09:29   I haven't set it up because I decided I actually don't care about having it because I don't want to listen to music on

00:09:35   my gen 1 echo or an echo dot but

00:09:39   It's available now

00:09:41   So I just wanted to follow up on something which is so ridiculous that Amazon takes so long to roll out features to other echo

00:09:48   Products, but it's now available and you have spent some time with an iPad mini, I believe

00:09:54   yeah, a friend of mine Thomas at the pen show had it and he brought like the iPad mini and the Apple pencil and

00:10:00   It's a really great device. I just don't think it has a fit for me like this was basically what you were saying too, right?

00:10:07   You use it and I if this looked like an iPad Pro

00:10:10   It would be a very different scenario but like so much of it feels like a step back from what I'm used to

00:10:16   Yeah, if you are an iPad mini owner

00:10:19   This is like a no-brainer upgrade totally because it moves super smooth super fast. It looks fantastic, right?

00:10:26   Like it's got all of the stuff that you love about it and you know, so go for it. Like it's wild like go crazy

00:10:32   In and the Apple pencil is great on it, but it's the Apple pencil is way too big it just is

00:10:38   disproportionately

00:10:40   Bonkers using an Apple pencil that is about as big as the iPad mini like that. It just feels super weird to do that

00:10:48   But it's you know, it's it's it's available if you want it

00:10:51   I think it's a good product, but I'm pleased I didn't get one because I just don't I wouldn't use it like

00:10:56   My multi-pad lifestyle setup is pretty pretty set right now, and I don't need a device like this, but it

00:11:04   It's definitely a great upgrade for people that want that kind of device in their lives

00:11:09   So I did also I was talking to a friend of mine

00:11:12   He says Pontus and he was at the pensioner - and he had an iPod touch

00:11:16   with him and

00:11:18   I was holding the iPod touch and was like, oh man, this is such so thin and light and then I remembered

00:11:24   the fun fact about the thinnest iOS device, which is the new iPad and

00:11:30   It was funny because Brad had his iPad Pro to put them down on a table next to each other and like that device is

00:11:36   Thinner than this one, although you'd never believe it. Yeah

00:11:39   and it's it's like a

00:11:41   Super fit thin difference like that the difference is like minuscule, but it is possible to see it

00:11:46   But it's just hilarious when you're holding the iPod touch

00:11:49   Which is like feels still like this impossibly thin and light but does that it is no longer the thinnest iOS device both new iPads

00:11:56   Are thinner than it's it's almost as if device thickness is not a problem for USB C like people yeah some people think it is

00:12:03   They can go thinner and still be USB C on the iPhone just a whole not hope and endless hope

00:12:10   Well, I mean irrespective of the iPads other phones have USB C. Mm-hmm

00:12:14   Oh, yeah, maybe Apple have like boxed themselves into a thermal corner with it

00:12:18   But it is definitely possible to put USB C into phones and this isn't a thing like oh

00:12:24   I'm not dying for him to do it. I would love them to do it

00:12:27   But if I have to wait another couple of years, I'll wait another couple of years

00:12:30   But I would really like to see USB C come to the iPhone at some point. I just I just wanted one

00:12:35   Cable for everything I had this while traveling this weekend right and a hotel a multi charger and it's like oh

00:12:40   I have a USB C cable for my iPad and my MacBook but lightning for my phone and yeah

00:12:46   I think it's like I had like we have all of the downsides of USB C without the major upside

00:12:53   The only I was thinking about this and it feels to me like the only upside of lightning

00:12:59   Is that it is the existing connector and hundreds or?

00:13:04   The only benefit is do not change it because it's going to be annoying.

00:13:09   And I guess maybe you could argue that if you get a Lightning cable from Apple or one of the MI5 ones,

00:13:17   it's always going to work irrespective of data transfers or charging rates,

00:13:22   those kinds of issues that maybe are still a problem with USB-C.

00:13:27   I feel like they used to be a problem. I feel like the situation has gotten better on that front.

00:13:32   Everyone knows since we've got USB 2x2 SuperSpeed XFL.

00:13:36   Yeah, but I feel like now that you know, once you know,

00:13:39   OK, thick cable means also data transfers, standard cable just means charging.

00:13:45   Yeah, it's still confusing.

00:13:48   So you can argue that lining is easier to understand.

00:13:51   Just get a lightning cable.

00:13:52   But also the Apple lightning cables are terrible

00:13:55   because they always break eventually after a few months.

00:13:58   Like everybody I know complains about the lightning cables.

00:14:01   everybody. So now thankfully I just saw that Anker launched this week the first MiFi USB-C

00:14:09   to Lightning cable that's out on amazon.com at least. But really, to me personally, I feel like

00:14:16   the only benefit of keeping Lightning is keeping Lightning so you don't have to change it. But,

00:14:22   you know, I would love to have USB-C. Not to the extent though that I've seen some people say

00:14:27   unless Apple puts USB-C in the next iPhone, I'm not gonna buy the next iPhone.

00:14:31   I'm not like that. I'm gonna buy the next iPhone, even if it doesn't have USB-C.

00:14:35   But, you know, one can dream.

00:14:37   I did just go to Anker's website to get that, to get a link to the cable,

00:14:42   which I put in the show notes. They actually link straight out to Amazon,

00:14:44   which is kind of interesting to me. But they had a marketing hashtag, which I like,

00:14:48   which is #UsernakerInstead, which I just think is really friggin' good.

00:14:53   That is good.

00:14:54   That is a brand that understands themselves. Like, their main thing here is like,

00:15:00   ditch your freebie charges, hashtag use anchor instead. It's very good. I like that.

00:15:05   It's what people say.

00:15:06   Yeah, I think that's very clever. I like that. I think that's good work, anchor marketing people.

00:15:11   Okay, so we have a bunch more stuff to talk about, but I want to tell you about our first sponsor.

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00:16:52   So Steven, you've been out in the field doing some serious testing for us.

00:16:56   Can you do a report on your findings?

00:17:01   Sure.

00:17:02   So I'll put a link in the chat room as well.

00:17:05   This link in the show notes is to a completely shattered Apple Watch Series 4.

00:17:11   My Apple Watch Series 4.

00:17:14   Did you finally do the drop test we've all been looking for?

00:17:17   That's right.

00:17:18   my YouTube channel, it's not really growing the way I want it to, I should drop some stuff.

00:17:23   No, no, that's not what happened. So I was on a bike ride yesterday wearing a helmet

00:17:30   because you should always wear a helmet when you're riding a bicycle. People who don't

00:17:35   are just asking for trouble.

00:17:36   Or electric skateboards.

00:17:38   Or an electric skateboard. Or rollerblades.

00:17:44   Or a spaceship.

00:17:45   A spaceship? You should wear a helmet, definitely.

00:17:47   That's a good one.

00:17:48   Gravitational boots.

00:17:49   Not enough people talk about these these days Federico, I'm really pleased that you called

00:17:54   that out, you know.

00:17:55   Yeah, for sure.

00:17:56   Spaceship safety is a real concern.

00:17:58   We want to get on the record about this.

00:18:00   We believe in spaceship safety.

00:18:03   We do.

00:18:04   So I was on my road bike and I had a little tumble and I learned a few things.

00:18:10   One, fall detection on the Apple Watch does work if you crash a bicycle into the ground.

00:18:16   kind of laying there doing a self-assessment.

00:18:19   I'm okay, like, I sprained a wrist,

00:18:21   but that's the worst of it.

00:18:22   I was kind of checking out, like, am I okay to get up?

00:18:25   And, 'cause there's no one around, thankfully,

00:18:27   'cause I'm sure it looked awesome.

00:18:29   And all of a sudden my watch,

00:18:31   which I hadn't realized is broken at this point,

00:18:33   is just going crazy, saying,

00:18:35   "Hey, it looks like you've taken a hard fall.

00:18:37   "We're gonna call emergency services

00:18:39   "and your contact information."

00:18:39   - How is it alerting you?

00:18:41   Is it making a sound or like, buzz it?

00:18:42   Like, what's it doing?

00:18:43   vibrating way harder and faster than I've ever noticed it doing. I don't know

00:18:50   if it was making a sound or not actually. I have my watch on silent I just don't

00:18:53   recall. I'm gonna say yes that it was making a noise but I'm not

00:18:57   positive. It probably was because if you do the emergency SOS it makes a sound

00:19:02   even if you don't even if you have it silent. I didn't have my notes app out

00:19:07   taking notes for the show in this moment as I'm pulling myself together. You're just

00:19:10   not dedicated enough. I know I'm sorry I'm sorry and so then I pick my wrist up

00:19:16   and I realized that a my watch is totally shattered and then I say hey yes

00:19:21   I'm okay please don't call 911 or my wife just gonna end that now and so yeah

00:19:27   so fall detection works and my watch is broken but I have AppleCare Plus even

00:19:33   though don't wear this watch every day anymore I do really like it for exercise

00:19:37   tracking and so I'm like I have an appointment later this week to get it

00:19:40   uh swapped out. I have never met anybody that breaks as many Apple devices as you

00:19:47   do. It is unbelievable the amount of stuff that you break. It's true. You were I

00:19:52   think every iPhone you have owned since I've known you you've had to have

00:19:55   repaired. I've broken several phones this is also my second watch I've broken.

00:20:00   Would you describe yourself as a clumsy person? No I just happen to crash a

00:20:05   a bicycle every 18 months or so. For somebody who like worships computers to the level that

00:20:11   you do, that you built a shrine. That's the thing, it needs to break them to fully love

00:20:16   them. If I don't see the insides of them then it just doesn't mean anything. I thought that

00:20:22   was going a different direction, like as someone who's into computers you're outside a lot,

00:20:25   I was like well that's kind of harsh. Well that is also true, but like stop trying to

00:20:30   this better of being like, "Oh, I was exercising." You still, you still, you exercise too hard

00:20:35   is what happened. Yeah. And then now you have a hole in your watch. And my body. But I did

00:20:42   break, I did break my original Apple Watch, also working out. So, well that I really wasn't

00:20:48   working out. It was in the locker at the gym and I dropped it out of the locker. That,

00:20:52   it's just, your muscles just got so big that it just popped the watch right off, right?

00:20:57   That's what you're saying.

00:20:58   Yeah.

00:20:59   Why hasn't Tim Cook shared this story already?

00:21:02   I don't know.

00:21:03   Because I'm taking a break from Twitter, so he hasn't seen it, I guess.

00:21:06   He'll hear it on the podcast, probably.

00:21:08   Sure.

00:21:09   So yeah, that's all the story really is.

00:21:11   Like I said, I'm pretty okay.

00:21:13   A little banged up, but I'll survive.

00:21:15   Wear a helmet.

00:21:16   I would like our listeners to start a petition to please ask you to stop just being so aggressive.

00:21:22   I mean, there has to be a different type of workout you can do.

00:21:25   Yeah.

00:21:26   You're always falling off that bike, man.

00:21:28   Like, just please stop it.

00:21:30   I've had two crashes in like four years.

00:21:32   It's a pretty good--

00:21:34   Well, it's more than zero crashes

00:21:36   that I've had because I work out at home.

00:21:38   I think it's time that we need to review our company life

00:21:41   insurance.

00:21:42   Oh, it's really good.

00:21:43   Don't worry.

00:21:44   Yeah, well, I want to review it.

00:21:45   I just want to make sure it covers mountain bike accidents.

00:21:47   I wasn't on the mountain bike.

00:21:49   I was on the road bike.

00:21:50   Different things.

00:21:51   All right, road bikes then.

00:21:52   Yeah.

00:21:53   It was the first crash on this bike, and I'm sad.

00:21:56   damage to the bike. Did you break the bike? It's not broken, it's just scraped up and

00:22:00   I bent a wheel a little bit. Okay. But it'll lift. And the handlebars fell off and the

00:22:04   seat exploded. Yeah, I mean, I had to take it back to my truck in pieces, but it's fine.

00:22:09   But it's fine. I have all the pieces, so they're not broken. I did make it back to my car,

00:22:15   and I'm sure I looked like something really terrible happened, because I'm holding one arm

00:22:19   against me because my wrist really hurt, and I'm bleeding down my leg. It's like,

00:22:23   I'm fine. Just carry on with your day. It's totally cool. Anyways, that's enough about me.

00:22:29   Myke, you have a dilemma to face, and you have come to the right place.

00:22:35   Yeah.

00:22:36   You are looking to purchase a new television, and I think this is where, if we could use our

00:22:43   chat room power, we would summon John Syracuse, but he's probably at work. So what are you looking

00:22:48   for and what like what are your list of needs and maybe we can help you decide

00:22:53   what you should get. All right. I haven't bought a TV since like 2010 so I'm

00:22:57   definitely on top of this. Okie dokie. Eurovision's coming up.

00:23:01   So like how people buy new televisions for the Super Bowl, we're

00:23:08   thinking, well we're planning to host a little Eurovision party here at a

00:23:13   mega Cortex cottage or whatever we call this place. So I want to get a new TV.

00:23:19   We've had our current TV for like two or three years and it's been very good for

00:23:23   us. We have like a Panasonic something and it has it like it was one of the

00:23:29   good HDR TVs back when HDR was like starting to happen. But I wanted I want

00:23:35   to get a bigger TV like we were a bit reserved and we could have a much bigger

00:23:38   TV than we have and it would still be fine in the room. I think like most

00:23:41   people, you're always concerned that the TV is going to be too big.

00:23:44   Right. So I figured there's a lot of interesting stuff happening with HomeKit

00:23:49   right now in TVs, 4K and HDR is getting better on all of these TVs.

00:23:54   Plus, we have an event coming up which is very television focused.

00:23:57   So I want to get a new TV.

00:23:58   And I don't know.

00:24:00   I remember having this conversation.

00:24:02   If you could, if everyone can cast their minds back to when this news started

00:24:06   breaking around CES, that I said at some point I'm going to get to a point

00:24:09   where I'm going to need a new TV and I'm not going to have any idea what one to get based

00:24:15   on all the features that are available.

00:24:17   And here I am, I'm at that point.

00:24:19   Because initially I thought the Samsung TVs would be the best ones because they have the

00:24:25   TV app built into them.

00:24:27   But I still want to use the Apple TV, so that's not important, right?

00:24:31   Necessarily to have the TV app.

00:24:33   Especially now that we know that at some point, we know this now, like the LG TVs and the

00:24:39   other companies that I don't remember. Can anybody help me? What are the three companies?

00:24:43   LG, Visio, Sony and Visio, they're all getting the Apple TV app at some point. So the most

00:24:50   important thing for me then is HomeKit support, right? As well as, obviously if it's a television,

00:24:57   I want it to be a good television, like good panel, 4K, HDR and all that stuff, but we

00:25:01   assume that parts are given, right? But what I want to have is the HomeKit support because

00:25:08   just feels like something that I should go for now. You know what I mean? I feel like

00:25:12   that is like, oh, there's probably some good stuff in there. I know that you've enjoyed

00:25:16   at Federico with your like, homebridge setup. So what I basically am looking for is what

00:25:22   is the best TV panel, which isn't incredibly expensive, that has homekit support?

00:25:28   OK, so there are some questions that I need you to answer.

00:25:36   Well, mostly I think it's a matter of taste in terms of certain specifics.

00:25:43   Like, would you like a TV that has a really good soundbar integrated with it,

00:25:48   or do you feel like the soundbar is not necessary?

00:25:51   I hadn't thought about a soundbar before.

00:25:55   Also, do you want... so you say you can live without the iTunes app, because you're gonna

00:26:02   use an Apple TV anyway, but you want HomeKit.

00:26:05   Okay.

00:26:07   Do you... and here's where my personal taste comes in, I would strongly recommend that

00:26:12   you get an OLED TV.

00:26:14   Yeah.

00:26:15   Not just... okay.

00:26:16   Yeah, I want an OLED TV, because I want to get, like, the best panel that I can get as

00:26:21   well, right?

00:26:22   Alright.

00:26:23   give me the best HDR and stuff.

00:26:26   All right, so I recommend you read through--

00:26:28   there's a Digital Foundry article.

00:26:31   And for those unaware, Digital Foundry

00:26:33   is like the technical vertical, as they call it,

00:26:37   like the section of Eurogamer, which

00:26:39   is this excellent video game website, where

00:26:43   they do technical analysis of all kinds of video games

00:26:45   and performance issues and that kind of stuff.

00:26:48   And they have an article about the best 4K TVs for gaming.

00:26:52   So if you're going to use this for video games, and I think you are because you love video

00:26:56   games and you have a PS4 Pro now, you want to get a TV that has very low input latency.

00:27:03   That would be the time between when you press a button on a controller and when you see

00:27:07   the action on screen.

00:27:08   So you want to make sure that you get around 20, 22 millisecond input latency, that kind

00:27:13   of stuff.

00:27:14   And of course, this article has all the details here that you need to care about.

00:27:19   Also, you want to check how a panel deals with 1080p content, because not all content is going to be ready in 4K.

00:27:28   Of course, you have a PS4 Pro, so that's not an issue, but for example with the Nintendo Switch, you're going to play in 1080p.

00:27:34   So you want to see, is this EV going to do some kind of filtering for 1080p? What kind of upscaling mode it's going to offer?

00:27:42   And there's of course, you also need to check for example, do you want to have

00:27:47   What's it called HDR plus or do you want to have Dolby Vision?

00:27:51   I personally recommend Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

00:27:54   The thing is though, some of these questions, I don't know.

00:27:58   But that one you just asked me.

00:28:00   Okay, so my personal advice would be get an LG TV, which also happens to be the top recommendation from

00:28:09   Eurogamer, the new version of the LG, the C model.

00:28:14   This one is called the C8.

00:28:17   I think it should be the 2019 model,

00:28:19   which has HomeKit integration.

00:28:21   It's gonna have HomeKit integration,

00:28:23   and it runs WebOS.

00:28:24   This TV has-- - Wait, it doesn't have it yet?

00:28:26   - I don't think it has it yet,

00:28:30   but LG promised that this is one of the models

00:28:33   that's gonna get HomeKit via software update.

00:28:36   - I don't know about that. - The 2019 LG,

00:28:38   I mean, it's on Apple's website, so, you know.

00:28:41   - So is AirPower, mister.

00:28:43   - Hey-o, there it is.

00:28:45   Somebody ring the AirPower bell.

00:28:47   - Even if they don't deliver on this,

00:28:49   you're still gonna have Homebridge,

00:28:50   but I understand you wanna have the native integration.

00:28:52   LG promised the 2019 models and beyond

00:28:55   will have the native HomeKit support.

00:28:57   This one has Dolby Vision, which is HDR,

00:29:01   Dolby Atmos, which is a really good sound,

00:29:04   but I don't think it's got a soundbar built in,

00:29:06   but I can tell you, Myke.

00:29:07   It doesn't. People, it's like recommending the Sonos on Amazon's website.

00:29:12   Okay. I have an LG OLED TV. I have the B line. I have the B7.

00:29:18   Your TV is amazing.

00:29:21   It sounds really good. You've seen it. It's a big panel. It looks fantastic. It's super

00:29:28   fine for gaming. I have an Xbox One X. I have a PS4 Pro and I have a Switch. I looked up

00:29:34   to this TV and it's beautiful. WebOS, personally, I've seen other Sony and

00:29:39   Android TVs. I prefer WebOS. It's actually fast, it works okay, and when you're actually

00:29:48   watching, I don't know if you watch live television, but it's got all these integrations like with

00:29:53   smart TV stuff that you can use from the remote, it works really great. There are other options.

00:30:01   I think you could get another Panasonic OLED that's also recommended by Digital Foundry.

00:30:08   But personally, I don't know Vizio myself. I've never seen or tested the Vizio TV. I

00:30:14   think Jason has a Vizio, if I'm not mistaken. I think he used to. I think when he changed

00:30:19   recently he went to someone else. Oh, the TLC. He got a TLC maybe?

00:30:23   Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So my recommendation would

00:30:26   be check out this article and maybe watch some YouTube videos. I remember at the time

00:30:30   I watch a lot of YouTube reviews before buying the TV that I have, but the LG OLED C8 with

00:30:38   upcoming HomeKit support would be a good choice for you, I think. Or you can always wait for

00:30:44   one of these 16K panels that Sony announced.

00:30:48   Yeah, I'm good.

00:30:49   That, like, takes up an entire wall.

00:30:51   I'm good. I'm good. That might be too much. So, like, on Apple's website, it just says

00:30:56   "LG OLED 2019."

00:30:57   Yeah, yeah.

00:30:59   So we're assuming that this is one of those.

00:31:01   Yeah, I think the C9 exists, so I'm just gonna say that the...

00:31:07   Well, just need to double check that the C8 is actually the 2019 version.

00:31:12   I'm not sure at this point.

00:31:14   You're making me second guess myself.

00:31:17   So my recommendation would be get the 2019 LG OLED whenever it comes out, if it's not

00:31:22   out already.

00:31:23   Okay.

00:31:24   I mean, I'm looking at the page and it looks good.

00:31:26   It's not cheap, but it looks good.

00:31:28   So this is probably what I'll do then. Really, like, I don't want to do a lot of research.

00:31:35   What I want to happen is what just happened. You have told me what to do.

00:31:40   So the C9 exists, by the way, the next version. So I'm guessing that this is the 2019 version.

00:31:48   I want the C9 then, not the C8. Let's see. Let's see what it says. I'm on

00:31:52   the web page right now. Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, 4K, yeah, Google. Oh, it's got Amazon

00:32:03   integration and Google integration. It's got a bunch more stuff than my model.

00:32:08   So this is the one that I want then, the C9?

00:32:12   Yeah, I think this is the one from 2019. I will double check real quick for you, but

00:32:18   yeah, I will go with this one.

00:32:20   Well, you've got to assume that the C9 is more modern than the C8.

00:32:24   But then again, TV numbering is just an impossible thing to get your head around.

00:32:30   9to5Mac, they have an article mentioning...

00:32:34   This was from March 15th, so about a month ago.

00:32:37   "LG releasing first 2019 OLED TVs with HomeKit and AirPlay 2,"

00:32:42   which is also another thing you should care about.

00:32:44   Yeah, that's kind of what I meant with the HomeKit, it's also the AirPlay 2.

00:32:47   Next month and the C9 models, yep, 77 inches, 65 and 55.

00:32:56   Yep.

00:32:57   This is the one that I want then.

00:32:58   So this is terrible news then, isn't it?

00:33:00   Because I can only imagine that a brand new OLED TV that has just been released is very expensive.

00:33:07   Yep.

00:33:08   Be sure to buy it with my Amazon affiliate link, please.

00:33:12   Straight up, that's the one in the show notes.

00:33:14   I don't think it's on Amazon.

00:33:16   Yeah dude I'm looking at it right here.

00:33:18   No but like in the U- we're not in the same country.

00:33:21   Well you could uh, I could ship it to you.

00:33:23   Um, if it's of any consolation Myke that's exactly what I paid for my B7 when it was

00:33:28   new so.

00:33:29   Okay.

00:33:30   Yeah.

00:33:31   Yeah this one isn't even on Amazon in the UK yet.

00:33:35   Yeah.

00:33:36   Okay.

00:33:37   Yeah.

00:33:38   I didn't buy an Amazon either.

00:33:39   I bought it from a store.

00:33:40   Oh my god that's expensive.

00:33:42   Woof!

00:33:43   Well you asked for all the good things.

00:33:45   Oh, I know, I know, I know. If I want to get all of the current new technology, then that's

00:33:50   what I'm going to have to deal with, I know. But it's still really expensive.

00:33:56   Yeah, I'm sorry. Well, think about it. Think about it and, you know, we'll follow up on

00:34:04   your decision.

00:34:05   Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to look around. I don't know when I'm going to buy it, but like...

00:34:10   Break the news very gently to Adina.

00:34:13   She wants she's interested in a new TV too. I don't know if she's necessarily

00:34:17   gonna be as interested but I tell her what the price is but yeah. Wow these are

00:34:24   expensive. Yeah it looks awesome though. Yeah. Yeah I mean I haven't like I said

00:34:30   I haven't shot for TV in a long time but if I were to have to go buy something

00:34:33   today I would buy an LG OLED just hands down. It seems like it's the best way to

00:34:38   ago. Okay. There was a story just this morning, actually from our friend Mr. Rambo at 9to5Mac,

00:34:45   backing up some stuff that Steve Trout Smith had talked about, I think on Twitter, that the next

00:34:50   version of Mac OS, you know, so 10.15, would include standalone apps for music, podcasts,

00:34:58   and TV, as well as a redesign for the books app, which until I read this paragraph, totally forgot

00:35:04   was on my computer, just like, I just never read in the Apple Bookstore stuff.

00:35:09   But it seems like these are all going to be using fancy marzipan stuff, which I think

00:35:14   is to be expected.

00:35:16   And he's got the icons here, which look very nice.

00:35:19   And I'm just curious what y'all think about this.

00:35:21   I mean, we've all sort of poked fun of iTunes for a really long time, for really good reasons.

00:35:28   And do we think that breaking this out will make sense on the Mac?

00:35:32   I cannot wait for this to happen, honestly.

00:35:35   To have a more similar experience on the Mac

00:35:39   that I get on iOS, to have dedicated apps for podcasts

00:35:43   and TV and music.

00:35:44   Like whenever-- every once in a while,

00:35:48   I test the Apple Podcasts app.

00:35:50   And eventually, I go back to Overcast

00:35:52   because of the sound effects and smart speed.

00:35:55   But whenever I'm testing podcasts

00:35:58   and I start listening on my iPhone,

00:36:00   and then I'm using my Mac Mini and I realize,

00:36:03   oh, I wanna continue listening to this.

00:36:04   And then I realized, well, I gotta open iTunes.

00:36:06   I'm like, nope, I don't wanna open iTunes

00:36:09   and wait for my episodes to sync.

00:36:12   So I cannot wait for this to happen.

00:36:14   I'm curious to see what Apple is gonna do

00:36:16   in terms of iTunes and specifically in terms of managing

00:36:21   your music library, because I do wonder if those who keep

00:36:25   a collection of music files, is that feature going to remain

00:36:30   remain separate from the music app.

00:36:33   So is Apple gonna do just an Apple Music client

00:36:36   as a separate Marzipan app,

00:36:37   or are they going to roll that feature into music?

00:36:41   - I don't think so.

00:36:42   I don't think so. - I don't think they will.

00:36:43   I think they will keep iTunes around

00:36:45   for this kind of stuff.

00:36:47   But, you know, one can dream that, you know,

00:36:50   eventually you will be able, both on the Mac and iOS,

00:36:53   to actually import MP3s and that kind of stuff

00:36:56   into your music library.

00:36:57   but I have a feeling they'll just keep iTunes around and that's about it.

00:37:01   I think that's what's going to be the case.

00:37:04   It doesn't match with the business model,

00:37:11   right?

00:37:12   Like they want you to just use Apple Music because in theory all the music you

00:37:15   want should be there. If it isn't,

00:37:17   you are now an edge case and you can use iTunes.

00:37:20   And I think too, looking at it from like the engineering side of it,

00:37:24   I think that just getting these apps up on the Mac is a big enough deal for one year.

00:37:30   So I would imagine the launch versions of these will be more or less what is on the

00:37:37   iPad now, right?

00:37:39   That whatever the music app on the iPad does now, either good or bad, will be basically

00:37:45   what's on the Mac.

00:37:46   And I think after this, so maybe looking forward two or three years, they could come back and

00:37:52   if they're going to add quote unquote legacy features to these apps it would be it would

00:37:58   be then because iTunes will still be around and if you still need those features you could

00:38:04   just you know dumpster dive the utilities folder and find it if you need it but I would

00:38:09   imagine for most people just having you know the the Apple music stuff there and I assume

00:38:15   iTunes match that your match music would be there too again because that's how it is on

00:38:18   the iPad, that this is how this is going to begin.

00:38:21   Yeah, because that stuff all lives in the cloud now, right?

00:38:24   Like it's all up there.

00:38:25   It's there, right?

00:38:26   Like you don't need iTunes to listen to iCloud music library

00:38:30   files.

00:38:31   They're there.

00:38:32   Yeah, yeah.

00:38:32   So yeah, I agree, Federico.

00:38:34   Like if you are someone who imports MP3s to your iTunes

00:38:37   library, which I do sometimes, I'll download concerts

00:38:39   and put them in iTunes.

00:38:41   That is my guess would be that this app doesn't do that.

00:38:46   and that if that becomes an important feature,

00:38:49   that would be added over time.

00:38:51   But I'm trying to keep my expectations low

00:38:54   for these apps going in as far as features.

00:38:56   I do expect them, however, to work better

00:38:59   than the Marzipan apps we see now

00:39:02   because they are just garbage in a lot of places.

00:39:07   I hope they're better than that,

00:39:08   but to think that this is gonna be

00:39:09   like a modern take on iTunes,

00:39:12   maybe a bit of a stretch for day one.

00:39:14   - You would be fooling yourself to think

00:39:16   it would be anything more because then it's not a marzipan app is it? Then it's a new app,

00:39:21   which they haven't done yet, right? Then they're not going to do it. Like this isn't a criticism.

00:39:26   I think the music app on the iPad is by and large mostly fine, right? Like for what you're going to

00:39:30   need to do. And we've spoken about some changes that Apple could make to the app, to the services

00:39:35   in the past, but I think it's mostly fine. Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's better than using

00:39:39   music in iTunes. I can tell you that. Yeah, like if you like all those people who

00:39:45   think it's they say garbage would you rather have garbage or just be sad?

00:39:50   Garbage on fire which is like it's really really bad in iTunes. It's terrible.

00:39:56   Like just searching searching for music in the iTunes app is abysmal it's like

00:40:01   such a bad experience so yeah it's gonna be the the iPad version but there is a

00:40:07   benefit to that, right? And I think that this is one of the intrinsic benefits of Marzipan.

00:40:12   What it should do, if the Marzipan scheme works well, is it will move these apps forward for

00:40:21   everyone, right? If Apple consider these iPad apps to be the way that they want Mac apps to be,

00:40:31   it's going to make these apps better for iPads and Macs.

00:40:36   Like that's the goal.

00:40:37   So I think this is I think this is only a good thing.

00:40:41   And I'm excited. I'm excited about it.

00:40:44   Well, I think it's good as long as the one feature you need makes it makes it in.

00:40:48   Right. Or at least they don't make it impossible. Right.

00:40:52   Like it doesn't matter if you can't load your music files into the music app

00:40:56   as long as iTunes remains on your Mac somewhere. Yeah. Right.

00:41:00   It's like GarageBand 6 never went away.

00:41:02   Yeah, or QuickTime 7 is just going away this year.

00:41:05   You know, it's yeah, which John and Jason talked about on upgrade this week, but

00:41:09   That's always the friction here, right?

00:41:13   Like is this more like a Final Cut situation where the new version is so hampered and things

00:41:18   People really needed weren't there and everyone freaked out

00:41:21   Or is the Delta between iTunes and this so great that people are willing to go back to iTunes only when they they need to

00:41:28   My guess is it's the latter.

00:41:30   I think the good thing is that you already know though.

00:41:33   Right? Like if you use music on iOS and are unhappy with it because of a feature that's missing,

00:41:39   that feature's probably going to still be missing.

00:41:42   Or if you use music on iOS and you're never like, "Gosh darn it, I can't do this, which I can do on iTunes,"

00:41:48   if you never have that feeling, then you're going to be fine.

00:41:50   Because they're going to be the same.

00:41:53   So it's a little bit different to the Final Cut thing where the Final Cut thing kind of

00:41:57   came out of nowhere and sideswiped everybody.

00:42:00   And it's also different because people made their living with Final Cut, right?

00:42:03   Yeah, absolutely.

00:42:05   And that made it different, but we already know what music looks like.

00:42:10   And iTunes is so bad that people are going to be willing to forgive a lot of this, I

00:42:16   think, if this app works and looks good on the Mac.

00:42:19   Yeah, iTunes is just old at this point, you know?

00:42:21   Yeah, but that's the problem with it.

00:42:23   I guess the only point that I should make is that there's still a bunch of things that

00:42:27   you can do in iTunes with Apple Music, not necessarily with your own music files.

00:42:33   Like for example, you can add stuff to smart playlists or you can inspect more information

00:42:40   about songs, that kind of stuff that you can do in iTunes for Apple Music that you cannot

00:42:46   do in music on iOS.

00:42:50   So it would be nice to have a least feature parity for the Apple Music experience as it

00:42:55   is right now in the future music app for Mac.

00:43:00   But as you mentioned I think I'll be fine even if they just remove a couple of features

00:43:05   and maybe eventually they bring those back.

00:43:08   Yeah I think stuff like that is probably gonna go away.

00:43:12   Because they feel like, you know, again like niche features.

00:43:18   And they're only features really that exist because iTunes had them.

00:43:22   You know, so like it's just, it's probably easier to have Apple Music songs respect those

00:43:27   features than it is to remove them.

00:43:31   They haven't added them in music.

00:43:32   Like smart playlists are cool, but you know what people think is cooler now?

00:43:38   You know, like just in general, curated playlists.

00:43:41   Playlists made by artificial intelligence.

00:43:43   That's what people want to give you now, whether you want smart playlists or not.

00:43:47   And the Get Info thing is like, that is like a Federico Vittucci special, you know what

00:43:52   I mean?

00:43:53   Like that's something that you really love and I get that.

00:43:55   But like that is, I just don't think that's a thing that people are like, "Oh, who produced

00:43:58   this track?

00:43:59   Let me, let me go to Get Info on my Mac and find out."

00:44:01   You know what I mean?

00:44:02   Yeah, yeah.

00:44:03   Well, I don't care personally because I keep my library in Plex, but yeah, I get it.

00:44:08   Yeah.

00:44:09   Weird Plex, but okay.

00:44:10   Oh my God, I love you.

00:44:13   That's so good.

00:44:15   Wow.

00:44:16   The books bit of this is interesting too.

00:44:18   Again, this has been on the Mac now since Mavericks, I think.

00:44:22   But it looks like a reworked version of books.

00:44:26   Again, my assumption is Mars in pain here,

00:44:28   even though the article is a little--

00:44:30   Remember Mavericks?

00:44:32   Yeah, the wave.

00:44:32   What was that all about?

00:44:34   That was weird.

00:44:35   What was that?

00:44:37   It was the last version of the old UI.

00:44:39   What was new in Mavericks?

00:44:42   Maps, maybe?

00:44:43   Yes, all those apps.

00:44:44   Let's see.

00:44:45   512 pixels, mavericks review.

00:44:48   Maverick? Oh was it the one? No that was not it.

00:44:51   With the new UI for opening and saving files with iCloud?

00:44:56   No that was Lion I think.

00:44:59   Is it called Books on Mojave or is it iBooks?

00:45:03   Because I'm running High Sierra still.

00:45:05   Okay.

00:45:05   You're still running High Sierra?

00:45:07   Yeah.

00:45:08   Even though I'm getting these like

00:45:11   undismissable notifications now about upgrading to Mojave.

00:45:16   You should just upgrade, it's totally fine.

00:45:18   Yeah, I will, I just haven't.

00:45:19   Like, at this point, it's just I'm on High Sierra for inertia,

00:45:23   like rather than fear because I have Mojave on my Mac Mini.

00:45:27   So Mavericks brought iBooks and maps and some updates to other things.

00:45:34   Anyways, nothing wild.

00:45:36   It did get rid of the the leathering calendar, so that was good.

00:45:40   It's a good change.

00:45:41   Back to the topic at hand, this new version of books will have support for

00:45:48   audiobooks and have basically like a separate book and audiobook store which

00:45:53   I think makes sense and yeah kind of bringing it up to up to speed. I said

00:46:00   earlier I just don't ever use Apple Books for anything. I mean I've got it and

00:46:05   I probably have a few things in there but I've been on the Kindle for a really

00:46:08   long time. I just wonder how many people are reading books on their Mac. This is

00:46:12   important or maybe audiobooks is... I feel like it's like a reference thing like

00:46:16   when you're working right that you like you've maybe read it on your iPad and

00:46:20   then you have your notes and then you're sitting down at your Mac and you've got

00:46:23   your notes up right as opposed to like it I also find it like an interesting

00:46:28   thought of somebody sitting on their MacBook and reading a whole novel like

00:46:33   that just seems less than ideal for me unless it's your only device that you

00:46:37   have right that has the bigger screen so you want to use that but I don't imagine

00:46:41   that it is an incredibly high use case but like would be good for like would be

00:46:48   good for reference stuff the adding of audiobooks is even funnier to me because

00:46:52   I really can't imagine somebody listening to an audiobook sitting on a

00:46:55   Mac just sitting at your laptop listening yeah that one seems even

00:47:00   harder to me than then like ebooks but to each their own you know it's probably

00:47:07   the same people will play games on a Mac. So those people don't exist. Some of them.

00:47:14   This episode of connected is brought to you by our friends at Squarespace. Make your next move

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00:48:14   I've got a friend who started a business a while back. I helped him get set up on

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00:49:10   All right. So there is a

00:49:12   Kickstart the campaign which is of it is of interest

00:49:15   To us and people that use iPads a lot. It is something called the touch type Pro

00:49:23   And it is a kind of folio case that enables you to easily use a Apple Magic keyboard via

00:49:31   a Bluetooth connection with the iPad Pro.

00:49:36   And this Kickstarter campaign launched yesterday, I think.

00:49:40   But our friend, Mr. Federico Vittucci, has a prototype model of this device.

00:49:47   So we're going to talk about it.

00:49:48   Yeah.

00:49:49   I think it's a production, early production unit.

00:49:52   looks finished. There's a logo and everything.

00:49:55   So yeah, so the Kickstarter is run by a guy called Salman Sajid, who made a product years

00:50:02   ago called the Touch Type back in 2012, which was again, pretty much a very similar thing,

00:50:08   right? Like to be able to use a magic keyboard, I think it was a magic keyboard with an iPad.

00:50:14   But now it's like more of even more of a thing than it was before, right? Because keyboard

00:50:18   cases are a much more well known thing.

00:50:21   And I've been doing a little bit of digging into the Kickstarter campaign.

00:50:24   So I was wondering, the timeline on this campaign is pretty aggressive,

00:50:30   like with delivery in August.

00:50:32   And I thought that that was interesting.

00:50:35   But I took a look through the Q&A and the kind of risks and challenges section.

00:50:40   And it seems like they have already

00:50:45   paid for the production molds and stuff like that.

00:50:49   Or at least have gone through making prototypes as well as working with manufacturers.

00:50:56   So that would suggest to me that they may be pretty far down the line.

00:50:59   However, I will say this is a Kickstarter campaign.

00:51:01   And I will just say that I think August seems pretty aggressive.

00:51:05   So you've got to always know it doesn't matter if Federico has an incredible prototype that's perfectly made.

00:51:12   There could be a problem that makes this stuff delayed.

00:51:15   I'm not saying that there will be, but Kickstarter is Kickstarter and sometimes stuff is very

00:51:19   difficult.

00:51:20   It's always possible.

00:51:21   Yeah.

00:51:22   Yeah.

00:51:23   That said, go check out the campaign.

00:51:25   There's a video, there's a bunch of animated gifs that you can see to get an idea.

00:51:29   It's a very well put together Kickstarter campaign page.

00:51:33   And I've been using this thing for two weeks, I think, at this point.

00:51:37   I've used it mostly at home for reasons that I will mention shortly.

00:51:41   I've also tested it in my car because I spend a bunch of time every week waiting in the

00:51:45   car and I need to be able to use the iPad there.

00:51:49   So this is kind of peculiar for an iPad accessory.

00:51:56   The way that this works is there's a folio case as you mentioned, so you put the iPad

00:52:00   into this plastic case.

00:52:02   That's kind of like what Logitech is doing in that you put the iPad into this plastic

00:52:07   shell.

00:52:08   actually not a terrible experience because there's a the top side as a long

00:52:13   opening to make sure that you can charge the pencil so that makes it easier to

00:52:17   put it into the case and get it out of the case. And also to put it in and

00:52:21   leave it there, like not be bothered that it's left there because you can still

00:52:24   charge the pencil and stuff like that right like you're more willing to want to keep it.

00:52:28   Yeah so exactly so the entire basically the entire top side when using

00:52:34   landscape is free, so you can charge the pencil and it's gonna be fine. But attached to the

00:52:40   case is this folding cover that, when it's closed, it wraps around the iPad and also

00:52:47   there's this final part of the cover that is actually like this folding, kind of like

00:52:54   a folding flap, that actually also covers the pencil. So when everything is closed,

00:53:00   It covers the pencil too, keeps the pencil in place, and it ensures that when you put

00:53:06   everything in your bag, for example, you will not find the pencil at the bottom of your

00:53:10   bag.

00:53:11   So it will secure and protect the pencil, and it actually works.

00:53:15   But this cover, as we've seen with other iPad Folio covers before, also acts as a kickstand

00:53:23   of sorts in that when you place it on a desk the cover basically folds and creates like

00:53:32   a stand in the back of the iPad. Now the Magic Keyboard, the way that it plays into all of

00:53:38   this, is kind of ingenious in that there's a separate case for the Magic Keyboard. So

00:53:44   you put the Magic Keyboard, the second generation model, not the old one, into the case. The

00:53:50   The case has this flexible magnetic attachment that reminds me a little of the old Razer

00:53:57   keyboard for the first generation iPad Pro.

00:54:01   It's got this flexible attachment that uses magnets to attach to the bottom of the iPad

00:54:07   case.

00:54:08   So the Magic Keyboard is attached magnetically to the front of the iPad.

00:54:13   cover, the main cover, you lay it down flat on your desk, you put the Magic Keyboard on

00:54:22   top, and both inside the cover and into the Magic Keyboard case there's magnets, and they

00:54:29   create this kind of like a train track system where like you can slide the Magic Keyboard

00:54:36   onto this cover to adjust the viewing angle of the iPad. So the cover combined with the

00:54:42   Magic Keyboard, they make the iPad stand upright, and thanks to magnets you can adjust the angle.

00:54:48   So you can make it...

00:54:49   And also I guess one of the benefits of this one as opposed to the Razer keyboard is that

00:54:53   the case extends so that even the Magic Keyboard when it's connected to the iPad is supported

00:54:59   by the case underneath, right? So it's probably easier to use on your lap because the Razer

00:55:04   keyboard, it just wanted to fall apart all the time.

00:55:07   Yeah, because the kickstand was an actual kickstand metal in the back.

00:55:11   So there was nothing supporting the connection between the keyboard and the iPad case.

00:55:16   Yeah, and really it's one of those things you just gotta take a look at the picture

00:55:19   and the video to get an idea because when you describe it in words it's just a bunch

00:55:24   of words.

00:55:25   It's complicated.

00:55:26   It's really easy to understand once you see it.

00:55:28   And I guess there's also, what also makes it unique is that if you don't want to use

00:55:35   the Magic Keyboard of course you can detach it because it attaches via magnets.

00:55:40   of course, does not use the smart connector.

00:55:42   This is all Bluetooth.

00:55:43   The Magic Keyboard is a Bluetooth keyboard.

00:55:44   So you can detach it and use it.

00:55:47   For example, you can keep the iPad on your table

00:55:50   and use the Magic Keyboard on your lap if you wish to do so.

00:55:54   But also what you can do if you're done working,

00:55:57   for example, and you wanna put everything away,

00:56:00   you can fold the Magic Keyboard behind the iPad.

00:56:05   So between the iPad and the case,

00:56:07   You can hide the Magic Keyboard beneath the iPad,

00:56:12   then close the cover, and you end up

00:56:14   with this integrated, unique package

00:56:17   that looks like a sandwich.

00:56:18   It's like iPad, keyboard, cover, everything together.

00:56:21   Of course, it adds a bunch of weight and bulk to the iPad.

00:56:28   It's a little bulky, yeah.

00:56:30   It's a little bulky and heavy, but if that

00:56:32   is no concern for you, it actually works as advertised.

00:56:37   you're gonna keep the iPad, the Magic Keyboard,

00:56:38   and the Pencil, and this case, all close together.

00:56:41   You can throw it in a bag and forget about it.

00:56:44   Now, I believe that this accessory

00:56:48   is mostly a desk accessory.

00:56:52   I don't think, well, this is not as portable

00:56:55   as the Smart Keyboard Folio.

00:56:57   For, first of all, because it's much heavier,

00:57:01   there's a, I saved this comparison.

00:57:05   So the 12.9 inch iPad with the Smart Keyboard Folio is £2.3.

00:57:11   The iPad Pro with the upcoming Brydge keyboard is going to be £2.96.

00:57:17   The Touch type is £3.4.

00:57:21   So how?

00:57:23   Well there's two plastic cases.

00:57:27   Both of them have magnets inside.

00:57:30   And there's this long cover that folds to act as the surface for the Magic Keyboard

00:57:38   and that also becomes a folio for the iPad when everything is closed.

00:57:41   I would have just assumed a big chunk of aluminium that is the Bridge Keyboard would be heavier.

00:57:49   It's just a surprise to me to see those.

00:57:51   Because that's like significant.

00:57:52   It's like half a pound heavier.

00:57:54   That also includes the Magic Keyboard though.

00:57:56   Well sure, but the Bridge has the keyboard in it too.

00:57:58   Okay, keyboard.

00:58:00   Yeah.

00:58:01   Well, it's a bunch of plastic and it adds weight to the entire package.

00:58:06   There's some caveats that I should mention.

00:58:09   I think it's a bit...

00:58:11   I think the sliding system to adjust the viewing angle, so you gotta hold the Magic Keyboard

00:58:15   and slide it on top of the cover, so basically the cover becomes this surface.

00:58:20   It's a bit awkward in that you gotta pay attention to what you do, so what I do is I grab the

00:58:25   the keyboard with both hands and slide it, but I get a, you know, it's quite easy to

00:58:30   detach the Magic Keyboard from the iPad case. So that can be a bit awkward.

00:58:36   That just feels like with a lot of this stuff, this is just one of those things that you

00:58:39   just get used to and get better at over time.

00:58:41   Yes, I agree. Yeah, you get used to it. What else? Well, of course, the Magic Keyboard.

00:58:48   You know, we talked about it before. It's got media keys, so that's convenient, but

00:58:52   it doesn't have all the media keys shortcuts that you get, for example, from the Logitech

00:58:55   like home button or search, you know, that kind of stuff does not have that.

00:59:00   It's only got, you know, controlling playback, for example. It's not backlit and it's Bluetooth.

00:59:05   So if those are important reasons for you to get a different keyboard, you should consider

00:59:09   the slim folio that we talked about last week from Logitech. But what I do like is that

00:59:18   I'm a fan of the Magic Keyboard myself. And if you're looking to integrate the Magic Keyboard

00:59:23   with the iPad Pro, I think this is... and if you're willing to accept that this is

00:59:28   mostly going to be a desk device, because of the weight concerns and because it becomes

00:59:33   a really bulky package, you know, when you close it all together. I'll try and have a

00:59:39   picture in the show notes. It's thick and, you know...

00:59:41   Let me ask you though, like, how comfortable and easy is it to use on your lap?

00:59:46   I think it's... hmm... I think it's better on...

00:59:50   Compared to the Smart Folio.

00:59:51   Well, I think the Smart Folio is better on your lap because there's fewer moving parts.

00:59:57   For a desk, I think it's so much better because you're getting a better keyboard and because

01:00:04   everything is a bit more stable on the desk.

01:00:06   I think it's fine on your lap.

01:00:08   I don't think it's terrible.

01:00:09   I still think the Smart Keyboard Folio is better because there's fewer moving parts.

01:00:16   I've been using it mostly at my desk or at the kitchen table, and I like it because I

01:00:22   can type faster on the Magic Keyboard than the Keyboard Folio.

01:00:25   I think I've told you that.

01:00:27   All right, so let me ask you about that with the desk then.

01:00:30   So I use a stand and a Magic Keyboard.

01:00:34   Is that not better than a case and a Magic Keyboard?

01:00:38   So by "with a stand" you mean like something that increases the height of the i

01:00:46   which is one of the many stands that I found, and this was one that I liked the most.

01:00:50   And with that, I have height adjustment as well as angle adjustment.

01:00:56   And I can then use the Magic Keyboard.

01:00:59   OK, so with this thing you're still going to have to look down,

01:01:03   because it doesn't adjust the height of the iPad Pro.

01:01:09   I guess I should mention that because of the opening of the case on the longer side, you

01:01:19   can remove the iPad from the case and put it in portrait mode.

01:01:24   There's a photo of this I think or maybe it's shown in the video.

01:01:28   It makes me very nervous it's going to topple over.

01:01:33   This is not a replacement for that kind of setup, so if you need height adjustment to

01:01:37   prevent things like neck strain for example. I think you should stay with

01:01:42   your setup mic because if you look down for several hours you're gonna feel that.

01:01:48   And also the difference when you use a stand you need to reach for the

01:01:56   screen. With this thing I feel like it's a bit more comfortable because you can

01:02:00   keep your elbows on the table and just touch the iPad. I think it's a bit easier

01:02:04   maybe than just using a vertical stand? I don't know.

01:02:08   So with this thing you're gonna have to look down,

01:02:10   because it doesn't adjust the height of the iPad Pro.

01:02:12   So for your personal use case, I would suggest not to get this thing?

01:02:17   Yeah, this product is not for me at all.

01:02:21   Just like in talking to you, it's like,

01:02:23   it's too heavy for me to want to carry around with me,

01:02:26   and it looks like super bulky,

01:02:28   because it's got the Magic Keyboard, which is a thick thing.

01:02:32   and then at home it's not gonna provide me with what I want anyway because I

01:02:38   don't I'm at you know I'm trying to reduce the amount of time that I'm

01:02:41   sitting at a desk and looking down I want to have to be able to look in front

01:02:45   of me I just find that more comfortable and I find that like using the Apple

01:02:51   pencil like I can mostly keep my arms on the table anyway I just reach up and

01:02:54   just have something yeah this I can see the appeal of this product for some

01:03:01   people but I don't think that this one's to me. It also is part of like I don't

01:03:04   love this the Magic Keyboard. I don't like love the Magic Keyboard like it's

01:03:09   fine. It's no I do like it. It is interesting this case is the newest in a

01:03:16   long line of products that try to marry the iPad and like Apple's Bluetooth

01:03:20   keyboard there was the EnCase Origami workstation back forever ago Amazon

01:03:25   told tells me I purchased it in 2012 that you know is the keyboard snapped

01:03:29   into it and the original iPad went into it. Studio Neat did the canopy which like

01:03:33   kind of doesn't work with modern iPads really well with the thin bezels. I wish

01:03:39   it did like you kind of have to like set something in there so the bottom isn't

01:03:43   below the keyboard and like I wish there were some. How does this thing do with

01:03:47   that? Oh it's totally fine. Okay. Because the case is thicker at the bottom. There's a separation as well between the two, right?

01:03:56   There's a separation also, the plastic case on the bottom edge is thicker and wider so

01:04:01   that it sort of extends the iPad a bit more vertically so that the home indicator does

01:04:07   not interfere with the Magic Keyboard.

01:04:09   But also there's a distance between them because there's the attachment, so it's totally fine.

01:04:15   I like it myself, despite the...

01:04:20   It's nice that... because I travel just once a week now, not twice a week, I mostly work

01:04:29   with the iPad Pro when I'm at home these days, and so it's nice that I can just open this,

01:04:35   get work done for five, six hours, close everything, and charge via USB-C, and I never have to

01:04:42   take out the individual parts.

01:04:44   When I travel I use the Smart Keyboard Folio, or if I want to type on my lap I use the Smart

01:04:50   Keyboard Folio, which as I confessed I think last week I've been using more.

01:04:57   My recommendation would be, if you love the Magic Keyboard and if you use your iPad Pro

01:05:02   at a desk, and if you like this idea of integrating the two in a single package, I think you should

01:05:11   consider this one.

01:05:14   There's other ways that you can use the Magic Keyboard with an iPad Pro, but I think none

01:05:19   of them are as, you know, putting together all both parts, the iPad Pro and the Magic

01:05:25   Keyboard.

01:05:26   They do that as well as this one does.

01:05:30   As I mentioned, it can be a bit awkward to adjust the viewing angle and you're still

01:05:36   going to be stuck with Bluetooth so you don't get the simplicity of the Smart Keyboard Folio.

01:05:43   But if you work at a desk, I think it's a very clever idea and I think it's very well

01:05:48   done.

01:05:50   Yeah, so go check out the Kickstarter campaign and make sure to take a look at the video

01:05:55   and the pictures to get a better idea whether this is for you or not.

01:06:00   I think it is a very good idea with a lot of really interesting details.

01:06:04   Yeah.

01:06:05   I think the magnetic stuff in the case is really good because you get almost infinite

01:06:10   degrees of you can find what works just right for you.

01:06:13   But like this just isn't for my personal ergonomic needs, but that doesn't mean

01:06:19   that it's not for yours.

01:06:21   Right. Like if you're sitting and using the Smart Folio all day, every day,

01:06:26   sitting at a desk, maybe this is a better option than that one.

01:06:30   But if you're like me as somebody who's trying to use the Smart Folio less when

01:06:34   I'm working, this isn't going to give me what I want.

01:06:38   Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

01:06:40   this is not for you, but I bet there's a bunch of people out there who like the Magic Keyboard

01:06:44   or maybe just own the Magic Keyboard, don't want to buy another keyboard, and they could

01:06:49   consider this case to sort of integrate the two of them together in a better way than

01:06:54   other solutions right now. So if you're that type of person, I say go check out the campaign,

01:06:59   watch the video, and then maybe consider the 12.9 inch version or the 11 inch version,

01:07:06   And I think I saw on Reddit that if you order the 11" version and then later change your

01:07:13   mind you can still swap it for a 10.5" version for the old iPad Pro.

01:07:19   There's a, I think there's an FAQ about this somewhere.

01:07:22   So yeah, go check out the campaign, watch the video, make sure that you also watch the

01:07:27   GIFs because they really do give you an idea of how this works.

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01:10:10   All right, so we're going to talk now about an article that Federico published today about

01:10:16   using the Luna Display. Now, Luna Display are a previous sponsor and a future sponsor

01:10:21   of this show. They do not know that we're talking about this today, nor have they paid

01:10:25   us to have this conversation. Everything we speak about today is outside of any previous

01:10:30   arrangement we have of them. Understandably, if you want to take this conversation with

01:10:34   a grain of salt, that's fine. But this discussion is as unbiased as we can make them, but everyone

01:10:39   has biases. Bias is a thing. You have to accept that bias exists. But so like, I just want

01:10:44   to say all of that. We're going to talk about what it's like to use this thing. It's probably

01:10:48   gonna sound like some of the stuff we've been talking about when we've done ads, because

01:10:52   in the ads we talk about how we use it. But this is not sponsored content, there's nothing

01:10:58   more I can say than that, but we're just gonna talk about this article.

01:11:01   This Luna is also sponsored by my website and my podcasts, but as I said, as I wrote

01:11:07   in the article, this is entirely based on my opinion of the Luna display that I bought

01:11:12   myself. I didn't tell them, they had no idea I was working on this article, so you can

01:11:17   trust us or not, but personally I can say that this is entirely based on what I've been

01:11:22   doing myself for the thing that I bought and that I paid for. So that's it for the disclaimer,

01:11:28   thank you Myke. So yeah, what do you guys want to know about the article that I published?

01:11:33   Well I think there's a few things which is interesting to me. We are using this device

01:11:40   in some similar ways but slightly differently. So like I use mine with my Mac completely

01:11:45   headless, there's no monitor attached to my Mac.

01:11:48   - Oh, really?

01:11:49   - Yeah, yeah, and I can maybe talk about some of the ways

01:11:53   that I deal with the problems that you've had,

01:11:55   or like the things that you've seen

01:11:57   which haven't worked very well for you.

01:11:59   Like for example, one of them, so like today,

01:12:02   for some reason, the lunar display wouldn't connect.

01:12:04   Like the Mac had restarted, I don't know why it did that.

01:12:08   But I use screens then to log into the Mac to log in,

01:12:12   so I don't need to connect to a monitor.

01:12:15   And that's just because your Mac Mini serves a purpose

01:12:18   as an actual machine that you are using

01:12:21   to record podcasts on when mine doesn't.

01:12:23   It's like home server and media stuff

01:12:26   and we're trying to do more and more with it.

01:12:28   So there's a difference there,

01:12:29   but I just don't need it attached to a monitor,

01:12:31   so that works pretty well for me.

01:12:33   I think one of the key parts of this

01:12:37   is the thing that I love so much too,

01:12:39   is the idea of having macOS as an app, an iOS app,

01:12:45   basically and the flexibility that that gives you.

01:12:49   Like, because there are things that are easier and can be done way faster on a Mac than there

01:12:55   is on iOS.

01:12:56   I don't think I've ever said anything to the contrary.

01:12:59   So it's really good to have something like that and I feel like that's kind of where

01:13:05   you are.

01:13:06   So I was just wondering like, what are you doing with the Mac that you weren't doing

01:13:14   of iOS that you've kind of moved with using the Luna Display? Like why do you need this

01:13:20   basically?

01:13:21   Okay, that's a good question. I feel like there's not necessarily things that I cannot

01:13:28   do on iOS if I wanted to. There's things that I, now that I have a Mac that is faster than

01:13:36   the one that I used to have and it's easier to use in that it's always on, I just need

01:13:41   to sit down and press a key on the keyboard to wake it, I think it's just easier for me

01:13:47   to do those things on the Mac Mini when I'm home. There's also things that I was not doing

01:13:52   before, like running a Plex library or running a Homebridge server that I was not doing before

01:14:00   because I didn't have a Mac Mini server, I had a MacBook Pro. So now that I have those,

01:14:04   I want to be able to manage them. But to give you some actual examples, besides Plex and

01:14:10   Backblaze and iTunes, which I use a lot in terms of iTunes is the only app that can be

01:14:19   controlled with automation.

01:14:21   If you want to have scripts to deal with connecting to AirPlay speakers, for example, there's

01:14:26   no automation support for AirPlay on iOS, for the iOS music app.

01:14:33   But with iTunes you can create scripts that allow you to play specific playlists in specific

01:14:37   modes on specific speakers. And I've wrote about these shortcuts before, so that's something

01:14:44   that I do. But also, things that I could do on iOS, but that I prefer to do on the Mac

01:14:50   whenever possible, downloading files from Safari. I mentioned a few weeks ago, I think,

01:14:56   I had to download a few gigabytes of different zip files from the website.

01:15:02   - iCab!

01:15:03   Yeah, and I could have used iCab.

01:15:06   It's just easier to use Safari on the Mac, because it's got a download manager.

01:15:10   You just click the links and you download a bunch of files and you can see the progress.

01:15:15   And that's it.

01:15:16   Or for whatever reason, you gave me this tip Michael, I think a few months ago.

01:15:23   If you try and copy rich text from Evernote on iOS and paste that text in Google Docs

01:15:30   on iOS, it'll lose all of your formatting. If you copy rich text from Evernote on the

01:15:36   Mac and paste it in Safari, Google Docs, on the Mac, it keeps the exact same formatting

01:15:42   that, you know, rich text, all your lists, all your indentation, everything is fine.

01:15:48   Because rich text just does not work on iOS.

01:15:51   Although as we know, it's worse if you try and have Zapier do that pasting for you, right?

01:15:55   It is worse because I tried...

01:15:59   Federico set up an automation, as he sometimes will do recently, where he would be able to

01:16:05   send something from Evernote to Google Docs via a Zapier action of some description. Zapier

01:16:12   is the IFTTT on steroids, basically. For reasons unknown to everybody, when this would happen,

01:16:21   it would paste in the formatted text correctly from Evernote, but remove the formatting of

01:16:28   everything else in the document. And this is one of those funny things where I say to

01:16:32   Federico "I think your script has broken everything" and he's like "there's no way it could do

01:16:37   that" and I was like "I understand, but let's look at this together" and then he's like

01:16:42   "oh" and I don't know if you ever found out why that happened but like there was a link.

01:16:48   I told Zapier, I told them, and their response was you know, that was, I mean I love Zapier

01:16:55   but that was kind of annoying, like, "I'm a paying customer and if you know how much

01:16:59   Zapier costs, you know, it's not cheap." And the response was to the extent of "Yeah, we're

01:17:05   aware of this, can you go through this form and send us a bunch of details about all that

01:17:10   you did?" It's like, you know, I understand what these processes are like, but can't you

01:17:18   just look in my account and do it for me? Because I really don't have the time to sit

01:17:23   down and file a radar essentially for Zapier. Anyway, I love Zapier, maybe they'll figure

01:17:29   it out without my help because I forget about these things. Anyway, so they know, but I

01:17:35   don't know what the problem is, but they do, apparently. So anyway, the article that

01:17:41   I published is this idea of using the Luna Display on my iPad Pro to access the Mac Mini

01:17:48   and therefore Mac OS when I need it.

01:17:51   But trying to find ways to optimize this experience

01:17:56   and sort of making it easier and faster

01:18:00   and a bit more flexible maybe to use Mac OS on the iPad

01:18:05   through the Luna Display.

01:18:06   So little scripts, little shortcuts,

01:18:09   little enhancements that I come up to make it better

01:18:14   than the default experience, I think.

01:18:16   That would be, yeah.

01:18:18   One of the things that I found really fascinating was the accessibility keyboard.

01:18:21   Which I didn't even know existed.

01:18:24   Yeah, so I think this was something that I discovered last year.

01:18:29   And, you know, I always put off those things that you're like,

01:18:33   "Yeah, one day I'm going to experiment with this."

01:18:35   So the idea is that there's a whole suite of accessibility features on Mac OS and iOS.

01:18:43   But on Mac OS, one of them is the accessibility keyboard.

01:18:47   which by default is an on-screen QWERTY keyboard.

01:18:51   It's a standard keyboard for folks with physical and motor impairments

01:18:56   that want to be able to type, but using an on-screen keyboard rather than a physical keyboard.

01:19:01   What's great about this is that, as many accessibility features always do,

01:19:08   it goes beyond the traditional realm of accessibility

01:19:13   because it allows you to customize the entire thing for whatever need you may have.

01:19:19   And what you can do with the Accessibility Keyboard is create multiple panels.

01:19:24   They're called panels, these keyboards.

01:19:26   And there's a free app that is built and available right on your Mac called Panel Editor.

01:19:32   And it lets you design your own keyboard.

01:19:35   It lets you design your own custom on-screen keyboard that can be a standard keyboard

01:19:40   keyboard or can be just a collection of buttons. And those buttons you create,

01:19:45   it looks like an image editor, you have a grid, you have a canvas,

01:19:49   and you can create these buttons. And to each button you can assign a label, you

01:19:54   can modify the size, but then you can assign an action so that when it's

01:19:58   clicked it does something. And there's a collection of built-in actions like

01:20:03   system actions like "raise the volume" or "mute the volume" or like "type a

01:20:09   a letter for example, but there's also actions like "run an Apple script".

01:20:14   And that's when things got interesting for me, because what I wanted to have was...

01:20:20   So I was using the Lunar Display on the iPad Pro and I realized there's a bunch of actions

01:20:26   that I could do easily on a Mac with the media keys for example of the Magic Keyboard, but

01:20:35   when I'm on the iPad Pro with the Lunar Display and the Smart Keyboard Folio, because I didn't

01:20:39   have the touch type at the time. But just, wouldn't it be nice if I had some kind of

01:20:47   launcher to do things more quickly, just by tapping them? Sort of like having a floating

01:20:54   Launch Center Pro was my idea. Like, is it possible to have a thing that is always on

01:20:59   screen that lets me tap buttons to execute actions? And I tried a bunch of things like

01:21:05   keyboard maestro palettes or like having persistent launchers on the desktop. And then I remembered

01:21:12   about the accessibility keyboard. And so I designed this shortcuts bar, is my nickname.

01:21:20   It's like a row of buttons that do things like pause iTunes or mute system sounds or

01:21:27   open the iCloud drive folder in the finder. And so that was really interesting in putting

01:21:33   this together and it brought me back to using AppleScript and going crazy over the limitations

01:21:41   and the little idiosyncrasies of AppleScript.

01:21:46   But that was fun, it was a fun learning experience, this idea of you can design your own keyboard

01:21:52   panel and you can make any action that you want using these built-in suggestions or just

01:21:58   using your own AppleScript stuff.

01:22:01   I think it's super fascinating. And then when you start putting like BetterTouchTool

01:22:06   and then you've got it like moving all the windows around and stuff, it's like a really

01:22:10   interesting way of doing it.

01:22:12   Yeah, that was my other problem in that my Mac Mini is always connected to the UltraFine

01:22:16   display. And when you connect via Luna Display, by default it becomes the secondary display,

01:22:25   and this is called the extended desktop mode on macOS. The problem is the primary display

01:22:31   on the Mac is where all your apps and your desktop icons, they show up first by default.

01:22:39   So when you open an app, by default it goes to the primary display, and then you need

01:22:44   to move it to the secondary display.

01:22:46   My problem was, of course, I'm using a secondary display from another room, I'm not necessarily

01:22:53   in front of the Mac Mini, so that I have my trackpad, but I want to use macOS from the

01:22:57   kitchen table and the Mac Mini is in the bedroom. So how can I move these windows back and forth

01:23:02   between displays? And of course one solution will be just unplug the cable of the ultrafine

01:23:09   so that the Luna display becomes the primary display by default. But I don't want to remember

01:23:13   to unplug and replug every single time. So I struggled with this for a long time. I came

01:23:19   across some system modifications to let you automate switching displays, but that required

01:23:26   disabling SIP on Mojave, system integrity protection, and really didn't want to do that.

01:23:31   Yeah, that's a bad idea.

01:23:33   All kinds of nasty things could happen, so I don't want to do that. So I sort of gave

01:23:38   up on the idea of finding a way to automate display switching, which is not possible on

01:23:44   the Mac, and I realized, well, maybe I just need to figure out how to make working with

01:23:49   secondary display better and faster. And BetterTouchTool is this utility that all kinds of people use

01:23:58   for all kinds of different things. For example, John Boris, we do app stories together. He

01:24:03   customized BetterTouchTool completely to access certain Logic Pro, it's called Logic Pro 10,

01:24:10   the new version, but Logic shortcuts, Logic actions. And one of the categories, yeah,

01:24:19   One of the categories of actions the BetterTouch tool has is Window Control.

01:24:25   You can shuffle windows back and forth between displays, you can resize them, you can actually

01:24:31   give them exact pixel coordinates to do window resizing.

01:24:38   Combining all of that with the accessibility keyboard, the idea of, I can now just open

01:24:44   the iPad, log into Luna Display, move all my windows from the ultra-fine 2D iPad's

01:24:53   display, and now I have a reasonably efficient Mac OS environment where I have keyboard shortcuts

01:25:01   to resize my windows, I have visual shortcuts to do things like opening the Finder or muting

01:25:08   system sounds, because my Mac main is always streaming audio to the HomePod, or hiding

01:25:14   the Luna Display window that always comes up and it's so annoying, or showing hiding

01:25:21   the dock, you know, all these things.

01:25:22   So this combination of keyboard shortcuts and visual shortcuts, it's a really fascinating

01:25:29   way to get work done, because it's like you have Mac OS on your iPad, and it works well

01:25:34   enough because you can use both the pencil and the keyboard for inputs, but it's still

01:25:40   an app, so you can sort of use it on demand just when you need it, and I don't have to

01:25:45   sit down, you know, go necessarily to another room and sit down and switch contexts. I can

01:25:51   just, you know, I need to do something on my Quest for two minutes, I can just stay

01:25:55   at the kitchen table and do it from the iPad.

01:25:58   And there are software, complete software-based solutions, right, like Duet and AirDisplay

01:26:04   But I will say from my own experience, they both work perfectly fine.

01:26:10   They do work, yeah.

01:26:11   But the Luna Display is a much better experience. The lag is definitely better, the image quality is definitely better.

01:26:17   And I find this, you said this in your article, when using the Luna Display, sometimes it feels like the Mac is just native.

01:26:26   I forget sometimes that I'm sitting and looking at an iPad. It works very, very, very well.

01:26:32   very well and I found the other stuff it works but it doesn't work as well as I

01:26:38   would want. It's like it's 70% there and the Luna is like 90% there and

01:26:44   at those levels you can tell the difference in image quality and

01:26:49   just the general smoothness and yes I've tried you know I have a 2018 fully

01:26:53   spec'd Mac Mini, well not fully spec'd but reasonably spec'd Mac Mini with like

01:26:58   16 gigs of RAM and the better CPU option. I have a mesh Wi-Fi,

01:27:04   5 gigahertz network, it's really good Wi-Fi, so I've tried those apps before, but the latency and

01:27:10   the image quality and the image artifacts and various glitches, they were like... I could use

01:27:15   those apps, but compared to the lunar display, I prefer the nicer experience, even if it requires

01:27:21   buying a separate accessory.

01:27:23   But yeah, it was a fun learning experience really to just dive back into the world of

01:27:32   Keyboard Maestro and AppleScript and BetterTouchTool and the accessibility stuff.

01:27:38   And I guess what I tried to say in the conclusion of the article was that maybe someday we will

01:27:44   have this kind of Apple laptop that can do... it's got the app ecosystem of iOS and the

01:27:53   intuitive interactions of iOS, but also this idea that you can personalize everything and

01:27:59   that you get access to these really technical and really powerful apps and utilities such

01:28:05   as macOS.

01:28:06   Maybe one day there will be a thing that you can buy and actually it runs on Apple OS,

01:28:13   But until that happens, and I reckon it'll be a while, this mixed sort of hybrid environment,

01:28:20   it works pretty well.

01:28:21   Now, you can do this via VNC software, you can do this with other wireless display apps

01:28:27   like Duet and Air Display.

01:28:28   Yeah, like all of the stuff that Federico is talking about, you don't need a lunar display

01:28:33   to do it.

01:28:34   Yeah.

01:28:35   Right?

01:28:36   Like, to be able to use the Better Touch Tool stuff, the accessibility keyboard stuff, right?

01:28:41   That's all running on the Mac.

01:28:42   It's just like what is your portal to it?

01:28:44   I use this stuff when I'm using the Mac physically in front of my Mac Mini as well.

01:28:49   Like, I have the accessibility keyboard shown in front of me right now,

01:28:54   and I have BetterTouchTool keyboard shortcuts set up for the Mac, for the Ultrafine display.

01:29:00   So all of these things, you can use them.

01:29:03   You know, you don't need...

01:29:04   But it is, you know, a strong personal preference from both of us that the best experience,

01:29:09   the most native feeling experience is the Luna display to do it.

01:29:13   You know, yeah, and I, you know, I like nice things, like the best options and, you know,

01:29:19   it's just the image quality that you get with the Luna, it's just, you know, something that

01:29:23   I prefer. But yeah, so it was fun to write about Mac stuff again, for sure.

01:29:30   It's like a story, you wrote like a story about the Mac.

01:29:34   What could you call that website?

01:29:35   Yeah, well, that's a good domain name.

01:29:38   Yeah.

01:29:39   Starymax.com.

01:29:40   Now that I've done this, because it was like two months late, I'm going back to more traditional

01:29:52   iPad stories, hopefully before WWDC.

01:29:57   So we'll see.

01:29:58   There's kind of a no big deal, but like a 10-year anniversary coming up next week.

01:30:05   So after that, it's all wrapped.

01:30:06   - It's all wrapped. - It's next week?

01:30:08   - Yeah. - Wow.

01:30:10   - We have a lot of things planned at Max Stories.

01:30:14   It'll be the 10-year anniversary.

01:30:16   So I usually don't like these kinds of self-celebrations,

01:30:21   but it's 10 years, we're doing a few things.

01:30:25   So starting Monday, that'll be things on Max Stories.

01:30:29   But yeah, after that, it's all.

01:30:32   - You'll be happy to know

01:30:33   that I just registered storymax.com.

01:30:36   - Thank you, otherwise somebody else would have.

01:30:38   - I will direct to your website.

01:30:40   - Thank you, Storymax.

01:30:43   But yeah, so after that, I will be back

01:30:46   to traditional iPad coverage for a while.

01:30:51   So this was fun though, it was really fun.

01:30:54   - I think that about does it.

01:30:56   If you want to find links and stuff we talked about,

01:30:58   including Federico's awesome article about this,

01:31:01   lunar display, Mac, iPad, hybrid madness,

01:31:06   head over to the website, relay.fm/connected/238.

01:31:11   I'd like to mention too, we have a handful of tickets left

01:31:15   to our WODC show, so if you haven't bought a ticket

01:31:18   and you're gonna be in San Jose that first week of June,

01:31:21   we'd love to have you at the show,

01:31:22   so that link will be there as well.

01:31:24   - We're about 90% sold out, so there's not many tickets left

01:31:30   If you're gonna be there, you want one.

01:31:32   It's "now's your time." That's what you're saying.

01:31:35   Yeah, and you want to be there, because my surprise is complete.

01:31:40   And just waiting for this event to happen.

01:31:44   So...

01:31:45   -Really worries me. -The anxiety that I feel.

01:31:47   [laughter]

01:31:49   -It's just palpable. -I'm now in the planning stages

01:31:53   for how the surprise will be revealed.

01:31:56   There will be games involved.

01:31:59   You know, the audience will participate actively in this, so you want to be there, trust me.

01:32:05   It's, uh, you know, putting a lot of work into this. Don't worry, it's all safe content. It's all,

01:32:12   you know, all safe and funny and in good spirits. Do we have to wear helmets? No, no, but you will

01:32:21   also, you two will participate but in a different way than the audience, so you'll see. That's the

01:32:25   That's the part I'm scared about.

01:32:28   This is what I'd assumed.

01:32:29   I will not ask you to jump off a platform like FieldShooter.

01:32:33   That's good.

01:32:34   Our insurance doesn't allow that anyways.

01:32:38   You can get in touch with us via email if you have feedback or follow up.

01:32:42   There's a link there on the sidebar on the webpage.

01:32:46   Or you can find us on Twitter.

01:32:48   You can follow Federico there as Vitiici.

01:32:53   And as we mentioned, Federico's site, MaxStories, turns 10 next week.

01:32:57   I've gotten a sneak peek at some of the stuff that's being planned and you don't want to

01:33:01   miss it.

01:33:02   It's going to be a lot of fun.

01:33:04   You can go to storymax.com or iosstories.net.

01:33:08   Both of those websites will take you to Federico's website.

01:33:11   That is my gift to you on your 10th anniversary is to redirect iosstories.net back to you.

01:33:18   That's good.

01:33:19   I was going to Casey's site before, I think.

01:33:22   It was going to my own site was where I was going. It's going to my color

01:33:26   You know Myke was right calm was where it went to but now it goes it goes to where it should

01:33:31   Good that feels that feels right to me

01:33:33   You can find Myke on Twitter as I am y ke and Myke is the host of a whole lot of shows

01:33:39   here on relay FM

01:33:42   You can find me there as is m/h and I write 512 pixels dotnet

01:33:48   I

01:33:48   Like to thank our sponsors this week FreshBooks Squarespace and Warby Parker and until next week gentlemen say goodbye

01:33:56   How do we ditch you cheerio adios?