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Connected

213: Movement of the Dogs

 

00:00:00   (upbeat music)

00:00:02   - Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 213.

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

00:00:15   Linode, and PayPal.

00:00:16   I am your host, Steven Hackett,

00:00:18   and I am joined, as I am, every single week.

00:00:21   That's not actually true.

00:00:22   Most weeks, it's the three of us.

00:00:23   - It's not true at all.

00:00:24   - I've got Myke Hurley.

00:00:25   - Ciao, Steven.

00:00:28   And I have Federico Vatici.

00:00:30   - Hey guys, hey Steven, how are you?

00:00:33   - I'm good.

00:00:33   - Ciao Federico. - Ciao.

00:00:35   - Ciao Myke.

00:00:36   Why the sudden influx of Italian in your--

00:00:40   - 'Cause I just, I was in Rome, baby.

00:00:43   I was in Rome all weekend with Federico Vatici.

00:00:45   - Basically one day-- - The greatest guide.

00:00:48   - Basically one day Myke just text me,

00:00:50   and I'm like, "Hey, I'm in Rome."

00:00:51   And he just showed up.

00:00:52   And I was like, "I'm at the airport,

00:00:53   "I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go."

00:00:55   - Come collect me.

00:00:56   Please come save me.

00:00:58   Come get me.

00:00:59   I was in Rome.

00:01:01   We spent a long weekend in Rome.

00:01:03   I saw the bakery.

00:01:04   Unfortunately, I didn't go in the bakery.

00:01:07   Every time we were at the bakery, the bakery was closed.

00:01:09   Yeah, but I saw it.

00:01:11   I saw that it exists.

00:01:12   The sign.

00:01:13   I saw the sign. I know where it is.

00:01:15   I can picture it.

00:01:15   It's a yellow building.

00:01:17   That's that's as much, you know,

00:01:19   OPSEC and all that stuff.

00:01:21   I won't give it away.

00:01:21   So people steal your bakery.

00:01:24   I have, I've had Federico prepare me espresso. I've had, I've seen Federico make espresso.

00:01:31   I ate some of the greatest food I've ever eaten in my entire life in Rome.

00:01:35   My God, that, oh my God, there was a tiramisu.

00:01:39   You're still thinking about the tiramisu.

00:01:41   I'm still thinking about that tiramisu, it was so good. And yeah, we had a really great time.

00:01:46   Federico showed me the sights. I put some pictures on my Instagram. We went to the Coliseum.

00:01:51   It was very nice. Very, very nice.

00:01:53   I have a question about the bakery situation.

00:01:56   - Yeah.

00:01:57   - You said every time you went it was closed.

00:01:58   Is it possible that the bakery is somehow monitoring

00:02:03   where Federico is and when he gets within a certain radius,

00:02:06   they put the clothes--

00:02:07   - They just pull the shot down.

00:02:08   - Yeah, they pull the clothes sign out

00:02:10   and they hide behind the counter,

00:02:12   like holding their breath that he walks by

00:02:13   without coming in.

00:02:14   - They made a shortcut.

00:02:16   They have some like home automation like stuff, you know,

00:02:19   and then whenever he comes near, they just,

00:02:21   They put a beacon in his shoe, an eye beacon, and whenever he comes near it just closes up.

00:02:27   Didn't you see though, one day, a few nights ago when I took you guys back to the hotel,

00:02:35   we saw that the light was on inside because the guy was making bread and pizza for the

00:02:39   morning after.

00:02:40   So, they're definitely inside.

00:02:43   I don't know why they're closing when I'm around.

00:02:45   Honestly, I think it was just late.

00:02:48   One day was a Sunday and they didn't work on Sundays and then it was just late in the

00:02:52   evening and they like to close early because they wake up early so it kind of makes sense.

00:02:58   But yeah it was fun.

00:02:59   I mean as someone who lives in Rome, I was actually telling Myke about this, we don't

00:03:04   usually go to the center of Rome because it's a whole thing to plan, you need to park your

00:03:09   car and walk a few kilometers.

00:03:11   I have in my lifetime, I've been to many of the biggest cities in the world.

00:03:16   I live in London, I visited New York, I visited San Francisco, Paris, Memphis, all the big

00:03:22   hubs. The center of Rome is the busiest place I've ever seen in my entire life. The concentration

00:03:30   of people to space is untenable. It's bonkers there, it's really wild. I don't think that

00:03:37   there's necessarily more people, there's just way less space for the people that are there.

00:03:44   I was very taken aback by that.

00:03:46   Yeah, the narrow streets and, you know, people parking everywhere.

00:03:51   And those are just people with permits to drive cars in the center of Rome.

00:03:56   Imagine if they would let anybody drive a car there.

00:03:59   It would be just an incredible mess.

00:04:03   But yeah, we don't often go to the Colosseum.

00:04:04   I think it's actually, since I moved here in Rome four, five years ago, this is the

00:04:11   first time I've actually gone to the Colosseum.

00:04:13   You haven't been there since the big blogger fight that happened in the Coliseum a few years ago, right?

00:04:19   Yes, that was you'd never go back. Yeah, there was the the

00:04:22   Blog blogger fights others the emperor of tech meme that stand standing and you know doing the thing with the thumbs up in the thumbs

00:04:30   Down they go tip up or sit down. They got the we got a tip up and you're raised

00:04:35   And then you get pushed up you get pushed down totally if you get pushed down

00:04:42   basically nobody cares about your blog posts. You walk away in a parade of shame. You walk

00:04:52   away like that. I mean, I've seen the Coliseum but just driving around it because you can

00:04:58   drive around the Coliseum. There's a road that people can, you know...

00:05:03   Power sliding? Power sliding around it?

00:05:05   If you want, you can. The police is probably going to arrest you, but you can try. So yeah,

00:05:09   It was fun.

00:05:11   We walked with...

00:05:13   We brought the dogs too, so we have photos of the dogs in front of the Coliseum, which

00:05:17   was fun.

00:05:18   Steven, you're up next.

00:05:20   When are you coming to Rome?

00:05:23   I'm gonna come by this afternoon, I think.

00:05:24   I'll get the show up and I'll just...

00:05:27   Do you prefer pasta or pizza for dinner?

00:05:29   We'll see.

00:05:30   We can figure something out.

00:05:32   Gluten-free options.

00:05:34   I have them.

00:05:35   I actually have them.

00:05:36   That's good.

00:05:37   So Myke, did you experience the 14 HomePods in Federico's house?

00:05:44   I saw three of them. The thing that is more intriguing in the Vittucci household is the

00:05:50   amount of cameras that there are. There are lots of cameras everywhere. And it made me

00:05:56   kind of, I was thinking about something because, you know, it was kind of one of the things

00:06:01   where I was checking my canary more than I do on any other trip just because the cameras

00:06:06   were just more of a thing that I was seeing in my life. I know that Federico likes to

00:06:10   monitor the movement of his dogs. We don't need to do that so much because we don't have

00:06:14   dogs, but you know. But it did. I was looking at my camera at one point and I thought to

00:06:19   myself, "Huh. The Canary has that microphone functionality, right?" So I tested it out

00:06:26   and it worked. I was able to activate my HomePod via the speaker in my Canary.

00:06:32   yeah I saw it I saw it in in person it actually works I tried to do this with

00:06:38   the echo like when when the canary first got this stuff it didn't work but the

00:06:44   home part is so much better at detecting it so I was able to turn my lights on

00:06:48   and off from Rome via the canary's microphone thing it was very cool I don't

00:06:54   know what I can do with this new power that I have but it's you know it's

00:06:59   always in my back pocket in case I need it. A really wild Internet of Things Rube Goldberg

00:07:03   machine. But another thing is, so this was a piece of follow-up and this was kind of

00:07:10   something that I had in the back of my head last week when we were talking about the fact

00:07:14   that Federico refused to try a popsocket. I was thinking to myself, "haha, he won't

00:07:18   have a choice when I see him next week." So I forced him to try my popsocket, which

00:07:23   use this very strange sentence, on my iPhone and Federico, I would say that I think I may

00:07:31   have converted you.

00:07:33   I liked it. I definitely understand why you find it useful. I think Silvia is more convinced

00:07:41   about it than I am.

00:07:43   Yeah, she seemed very intrigued. Like, she was like, "Ah, okay." And I was kind of explaining

00:07:48   why I like it and showing all the different ways I can hold the phone with it.

00:07:52   Yeah, I'm still not sure if I want to get one, primarily because I really like the idea

00:08:00   of wireless charging at night, so just putting the iPhone on the ugly but functional Samsung

00:08:06   charger that I have on my nightstand, because I have a precedent for this, which is when

00:08:13   my iPhone used to charge via a cable, and the cable was basically touching the floor

00:08:20   I have this plug on the right side of my nightstand so I can plug in the charger, but then the

00:08:27   cable touches the floor, unless I wrap it around the nightstand, basically.

00:08:32   And so, last year, Ginger, one of my dogs, was running, she ran into the cable, and with

00:08:38   the cable also came the phone, and the phone basically shattered on the ground.

00:08:42   So ideally I don't want to have cables that the dogs can run into and cause similar damage,

00:08:49   But also at the same time, having tried the popsocket, I do find it convenient and I do...

00:08:58   I'm thinking about it.

00:09:00   Especially because I'm finding myself watching a lot of videos at night on the access...

00:09:05   I just said access...

00:09:06   Well, whatever.

00:09:07   On the max at night and reading using the phone at night in bed and having what you

00:09:14   do with holding the pop socket with your fist closed and holding it in between two fingers,

00:09:21   I think that's really convenient. So I'm thinking about it. But also I kind of want to wait

00:09:25   for the new iPads and see if maybe having the new, I don't know, 10.5 in a new lighter,

00:09:33   more comfortable design, maybe I'm going to switch to using that to read at night and

00:09:37   watch videos. So we'll see. Keep us posted. Mmhmm. Yeah.

00:09:43   We have some frisbees. We have some frisbee follow up.

00:09:45   Oh my god. Oh my god. This was like so many tweets about this.

00:09:49   I kind of got my frisbee thing slightly wrong. I was on the right line, but just ever so

00:09:55   slightly wrong. I mean, as wrong as you could be while still

00:10:00   being partially right. Yeah, I'm fine with that. Basically, so there

00:10:04   were many people that wrote in about this, including Marco Arment, who says, "Has anyone

00:10:09   told you yet, the answer was yes, quite a few people, that you confused Whammo, maker

00:10:14   of the frisbee, with Aerobee, maker of the Aerobee flying disc. So Aerobee make a frisbee

00:10:21   that isn't a frisbee, because frisbee is a brand name, Aerobee make their own frisbee-like

00:10:27   thing, right, called the Aerobee flying disc. They're the company that makes AeroPress.

00:10:32   So they make stuff like frisbees, not frisbee. So I was-

00:10:36   I'm looking at pictures, this is a frisbee.

00:10:39   Right, that's what I mean, but frisbee is a brand, right?

00:10:44   Like Kleenex and Hoover and stuff like that, and Google, but it's one of those brands that

00:10:49   gets turned into a word, you know?

00:10:51   Like a generic product, like an iPod when it was not an iPod, but just an MP3 player.

00:10:58   So I was close, but just got the company slightly wrong.

00:11:00   But then, as just an interesting tidbit, listener Brian responded to this thread to say "Error

00:11:06   press is now an independent company because the Aerobee brand and toy line was sold off

00:11:12   to a company called Spin Master. That's a good name. The founder of Aerobee kept Aeropress

00:11:20   and created its own company. So the Aeropress is now a company of its own and the Aerobee

00:11:25   flying disc is now owned by Spin Master. Spin Master is a good name. I feel like Spin Master

00:11:31   should be the title of the head of Apple PR. I'm a spin master. I can spin stories however

00:11:39   I want to.

00:11:41   Spin is not a good term for PR though. It's got negative connotations.

00:11:45   I know, right?

00:11:46   But you can offset that though if you spell "master" with a "z" in the middle of it.

00:11:51   What if you also put "general" at the end? Spin master general.

00:11:55   Spin master, oh. I like that.

00:11:57   It just sounds cool.

00:11:59   That's good. So there's that. Federico, you have some follow-up about red envelopes.

00:12:04   Yes. Turns out that a bunch of people were sending us links and confirmation that red

00:12:10   envelopes are in fact used for weddings too.

00:12:13   No, no, no. Not in fact, also. You can't say "in fact" because they are also used.

00:12:18   For weddings too, in addition to New Year's celebrations. So during the tea ceremony for

00:12:27   the traditional Chinese wedding, there's a moment when gifts are exchanged and usually people,

00:12:35   and this is an extremely brief summary of this post that listener Dave sent, basically people

00:12:44   put money in these red envelopes that they give to the groom and the bride, and that's the gift.

00:12:50   So the gift is a red envelope with money, could be a red envelope with money, but that's a

00:12:55   traditional thing that people do. There's pictures in the link that you will find in

00:13:00   the show notes. Myke, what are the show notes?

00:13:03   Show notes are more of an idea, they're more of a concept than a reality.

00:13:09   But they're useless then. Listen, shouldn't use the show notes. That's just an idea.

00:13:15   They're all in your mind, man.

00:13:18   Okay, moving on. Have you fixed your dropler? This is such a terrible name.

00:13:27   No, I've not fixed my dropler problem. It doesn't really seem like there are a lot

00:13:31   of really competitive solutions. It seems like DropShare, which is the one we mentioned

00:13:36   last week, is the only one that is almost slightly like what I'm looking for because

00:13:42   it is very similar to Dropla and it actually does have a plan that you know

00:13:49   you can give them money or you could just use their applications with your

00:13:54   own storage solutions so I am going to probably switch to drop share but

00:14:00   ultimately all I really want is for Dropla to just fix their iOS app right

00:14:04   that's like all I really want I'm already a paid paying customer of Dropla

00:14:08   like I have a lifetime account which I bought from some it was like included in

00:14:13   some like package deal thing once you get like here's five productivity apps

00:14:17   for $99 and one of the reasons I did it was because I got a lifetime account for

00:14:23   like $20 or something silly like that and so I don't really want to have to

00:14:28   switch to something where I now need to pay every month because I already have

00:14:31   this thing and it used to work for me so good but now they change their app and

00:14:33   it sucks but I'm probably just gonna have to move to drop share I think about

00:14:37   this lifetime accounts, right? Because I also have a bunch of these lifetime accounts, probably

00:14:42   with Feedly, the RSS service. And I, like every time I see this lifetime accounts, it

00:14:48   kind of makes me sad. And it makes me...

00:14:50   It's not good. Yeah, I don't think it's a good thing.

00:14:53   Like until I die, I have to use Feedly and Dropler because...

00:14:58   That wasn't how I was thinking of it, but sure.

00:15:01   No, it's like, it makes me think about, it makes me think about mortality, like lifetime

00:15:05   account so forever I'm entitled to using this service like it makes you think man that's

00:15:12   what I'm saying it's you know like until like when I'm 80 years old will I still be checking

00:15:19   RSS feeds and 95 Mac and okay I mean that's a you know it's a it's something it's an a

00:15:27   it's a big it makes me feel bad about my lifetime Evernote account there's not much left in

00:15:32   it though, right? You have a lifetime Evernote account? No, I don't. So yeah, Jopler, fix

00:15:40   your iOS app for Myke, please. Thank you. This episode of Connected is brought to you

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00:16:45   and Relay FM.

00:16:46   - We have some news that I feel like the two of you

00:16:49   may be excited about.

00:16:50   I don't particularly care,

00:16:52   but I want to share it with y'all.

00:16:53   Stardew Valley, which is apparently some sort of game.

00:16:56   - I like the way you say it.

00:16:58   Even the way that you say this stuff,

00:17:00   it's like you're somehow judging it?

00:17:03   Like Stardew Valley?

00:17:06   Like it's just the way you said it,

00:17:07   it was just like, you know, I'm judging you.

00:17:09   And I don't know why.

00:17:10   - No, I know it's extremely popular,

00:17:13   and they're bringing it, the news is,

00:17:14   they're bringing it to iOS, which I think is pretty cool.

00:17:17   So it's a port being done by an outside studio,

00:17:21   which I don't know how these things normally work,

00:17:22   but I found that interesting.

00:17:23   This is done all the time.

00:17:24   This is done all the time.

00:17:25   This is this is the nature of like

00:17:27   you create a game for one platform

00:17:29   and then you want to bring it

00:17:30   to another platform.

00:17:31   There are like specialty studios

00:17:34   who make that happen for you.

00:17:35   It's weird because it sounds like

00:17:37   it would be a negative,

00:17:38   but it's actually a positive

00:17:39   because the company

00:17:40   because actually Stardew

00:17:41   value was developed by one dude

00:17:43   and mostly still is.

00:17:45   They have a little bit more help now.

00:17:49   Need where it's needed.

00:17:50   Is his name Stardrew?

00:17:52   Star Drew? His name is Star Drew Valet.

00:17:55   Star Drew Valet.

00:17:58   No, uh, what is the guy's name? I was just talking about this recently.

00:18:03   The guy's name is...

00:18:06   Is it Star? No. Is it Valet? It is Eric Boron.

00:18:11   Well... Goes by Concerned Ape is his handle.

00:18:14   Okay. Um, online. But um, this is a big surprise

00:18:18   because I straight up never expected that this game would come to iOS.

00:18:24   It just felt like it was kind of like, well, if they haven't done it already,

00:18:29   they probably never would.

00:18:30   It's on pretty much all the consoles now.

00:18:34   The switchboard is really good and they are bringing again, I'm very surprised

00:18:38   the full game except for the multiplayer stuff.

00:18:40   So I am.

00:18:42   Both excited and nervous because Stardew Valley

00:18:47   will take every second you can possibly give it. It is one of those types of games. So

00:18:54   I have no idea what this is going to do to my life, but I assume it's just going to be

00:19:00   the iOS game I play whenever I want to play an iOS game for a very long time. Like how

00:19:05   threes is like I still play threes all the time and I expect Stadiu will start to fill

00:19:11   that role for me for sure.

00:19:13   going to be $8 and the blog post says that it is sort of been like rebuilt for

00:19:20   touchscreen gameplay but it is still like the same the same game so yeah it

00:19:25   wouldn't be incredibly hard to rebuild this game for touch screens because it

00:19:31   was made for the PC so everything is point-and-click right yeah I can see

00:19:35   that right so you know they have as long as they've done it well like I don't

00:19:40   know how this is going to play on a phone. It will be really good on the iPad. Maybe

00:19:45   if they do some resolution stuff it will be good on the XS Max. But I think you're going

00:19:49   to need a decent screen for this for it to be really good but you could play it on the

00:19:53   iPhone. I really hope that it syncs on iOS versions. You can't sync it to your game

00:20:03   on other platforms but if you play on the PC you can transfer your save data via iTunes.

00:20:08   So I guess it's like you just drop the file in through iTunes and it will transfer your

00:20:14   save over and you can just continue from there but it won't be syncing to the other platforms.

00:20:20   When I was a kid I played a game and you guys can help me remember the name of it.

00:20:24   We played it on the 64.

00:20:27   Harvest Moon.

00:20:28   Harvest Moon.

00:20:29   Yeah, yeah.

00:20:30   So I sunk a lot of time into that as a kid.

00:20:31   And you're going to love this because Stardew Valley was created because Harvest Moon got

00:20:36   bad.

00:20:37   Like Eric Barone was a huge Harvest Moon fan and the series kind of started to suck over time

00:20:43   So he created Stardew Valley. So if you enjoyed that you'll probably like this

00:20:49   All right. I'm gonna put it in my to-do list. Check it out comes out October 24th. Yeah in the IRS app store

00:20:56   I'm very very very excited

00:20:58   I'm excited that it's coming to iOS. I'm not going to

00:21:03   Buy this one because I'm really not a Stardew Valley type of person. Have you played it? I don't remember

00:21:08   Did you play I've seen I've seen streams and videos. I don't think it's a game for me

00:21:13   I get bored with these types of games

00:21:15   Usually so I get I mean it looks fantastic. I'm super happy that it's coming to iOS just not a game for me

00:21:23   I can sort of get behind Animal Crossing

00:21:26   but then again

00:21:27   I got addicted to Animal Crossing real bad 15 years ago on the DS and

00:21:32   Like that was real bad

00:21:35   Like I was keeping an agenda for different days of the year and different chores that I needed to do during the day

00:21:42   Like I wasn't I wasn't meeting up with friends anymore because I needed to catch fish or you know

00:21:49   Look after my garden

00:21:51   So I got real bad and from that I sort of got burned and I tried to avoid these types of games as much as possible

00:21:57   I don't feel a pull toward Stardew Valley and

00:22:01   I will probably try

00:22:04   Like when Animal Crossing comes out on the switch, I'll check it out for sure

00:22:07   But I need to take it easy because I really don't want to end up like 15 years ago was real bad

00:22:14   I got addicted to Ninten dogs first and then to and then to Animal Crossing on the DS

00:22:20   My mom still remembers the dogs from Nintendogs and every once in a while when I mentioned

00:22:27   The Nintendo I'm playing with the Nintendo. She goes like have you have you checked on the dogs?

00:22:32   I mean even ten years later and she makes me feel bad saying that the dogs are dead

00:22:36   Game man. Why does she do that to you? I don't know. She's terrible. Sometimes my mom

00:22:42   She does things like I don't know like so so terrible comments to make me feel bad

00:22:47   Nintendogs was basically a dog Tamagotchi on the Nintendo DS if you need a little bit of context.

00:22:53   And it was adorable because you could pet the dogs with the stylus.

00:22:56   Yeah, yeah. So I mean they're probably dead or they're probably super upset.

00:23:01   I would assume that they don't die.

00:23:03   I don't think they don't die.

00:23:04   Because you didn't play.

00:23:06   You find them in really, really bad shape. They don't look at you. I think that's what I

00:23:12   researched 10 years ago, 15, actually maybe 13 years ago when I stopped playing the game,

00:23:17   I actually tried to make sure that they wouldn't die in the game. So yeah, it's a whole thing.

00:23:22   So I try to avoid these types of games whenever I can. I understand your reservations now,

00:23:27   but then I will show you when we're on a plane next together, the game. You showed me,

00:23:34   you showed me Stardew Valley already. Did I? I watched you play Stardew Valley on Twitch. Oh,

00:23:40   - Oh, I didn't know that.

00:23:42   - Yes, I'm aware of you playing the game.

00:23:44   - Just keep watching me play, you don't need to play.

00:23:46   Just watch me instead, it's fine.

00:23:48   - He has a TV dedicated to your Twitch stream, actually.

00:23:51   - Yes. - What's Myke doing today?

00:23:53   All right, up next, there is a report

00:23:54   that Apple has acquired Danish computer vision

00:23:57   startup Spectral.

00:23:58   So this company's pretty interesting.

00:24:01   They have developed some technology using AI

00:24:05   and neural networks and all the buzzwords you can think of

00:24:09   to effectively make green screen effects possible

00:24:12   through a smartphone camera.

00:24:14   So it cuts out you from the background

00:24:18   and then it can replace the background with something else.

00:24:23   And seems like some pretty interesting technology.

00:24:25   It seems to fit in maybe with what Apple's doing

00:24:27   with AR and some other stuff.

00:24:29   It made me think about iChat AV.

00:24:31   So back in the day you could video conference with people

00:24:34   and then you could, basically it made you slide

00:24:38   out of the frame so it could capture the whole background and then it would put you on a

00:24:42   roller coaster or in the jungle or under the ocean.

00:24:45   And it was very basic and if you move too quickly there was a lot of image tearing and

00:24:50   stuff.

00:24:51   But now with the technology we have today and it seems like what this company was doing,

00:24:55   Apple could do something like this and it would be pretty nice.

00:24:58   I'm kind of excited about this.

00:24:59   I could see this being a lot of fun.

00:25:02   This technology is still available on the Mac in the form of Photo Booth, right?

00:25:08   Yes.

00:25:09   And I'm gonna send you guys right now a picture that I just generated in Photo Booth for your

00:25:17   enjoyment and you maybe see why they've mostly abandoned this technology at this point.

00:25:23   I don't think it works very well.

00:25:26   Oh no!

00:25:27   So...

00:25:28   Did you move out of the frame like I told you to?

00:25:32   Yeah, you have to move out of the frame or it won't it won't work. So

00:25:35   I'll put that in the show notes for people.

00:25:38   I'm gonna try to...

00:25:40   Gotta hope the spectral is better than this. I like how there's a hole in your head.

00:25:46   It's very upsetting, isn't it? I think it doesn't like

00:25:50   my beard. I think that's what it's really upset with.

00:25:54   It just doesn't like you in general. It's not just a beard.

00:25:58   It is worth remembering though that Clips has this functionality. So my expectation is that this this is

00:26:05   probably a more

00:26:08   advanced or maybe a

00:26:11   less bandwidth intensive version of this type of technology

00:26:15   Because my expectation is Apple's buying this to either put it in FaceTime or put it in the iMessage camera

00:26:20   That they want to put this stuff in because wouldn't it be fun if you could put your animoji into any like

00:26:27   place in the world, right? Like, you're an emoji character in Paris or whatever.

00:26:32   They must have something that is superior to what Apple is already doing with the TrueDepth system,

00:26:38   because that feature of clips is dependent on the TrueDepth

00:26:43   sensors and camera array of the X and XS.

00:26:48   They must have something that Apple seems to find convenient and

00:26:55   possibly useful to integrate in the future.

00:26:57   I mean these features are always super fun if done well, and I think you know

00:27:02   my experience with the filters in clips has been pretty awesome. I think they work pretty well.

00:27:08   But I think it would be more interesting to see this technology applied to the rear-facing camera because right now clips,

00:27:17   these filters, these scenes, I think they're called, they use the true depth,

00:27:21   So the front-facing camera and I think it would be fun to have this sort of effects

00:27:25   For just when taking pictures or when using the rear-facing camera

00:27:29   Steven's yours your image is better than mine

00:27:33   It's still not perfect, but it's better and you're wearing a cool t-shirt. Yeah, well, we'll put those both in the show notes

00:27:39   But yeah

00:27:40   I see what you're saying Federico like this could at least we could enable to put on other devices and or just make it better

00:27:45   Right like in general

00:27:47   It's maybe less because any time the true depth camera is used at length the phone basically catches on fire

00:27:54   I think it's hot right like it really doesn't like using that for a long period of time

00:27:59   so yeah, it's

00:28:02   How did this one come out by the way?

00:28:04   Cuz like did Apple announce it or did it just like someone updated their link to know it?

00:28:08   I think a local newspaper had an article about it

00:28:12   So I don't think I don't think at this point Apple's confirmed it

00:28:15   But this seems like very much an Apple-like company to buy.

00:28:18   Right?

00:28:19   It's like, oh, yeah, of course.

00:28:20   That makes a ton of sense.

00:28:21   Algorithms and cool engineers.

00:28:23   Yeah.

00:28:24   Yeah.

00:28:24   So yeah.

00:28:25   You see clips benefiting from it.

00:28:26   You see the AR stuff benefiting from it.

00:28:28   This makes a lot of sense to me.

00:28:30   So yeah.

00:28:31   I guess we'll see if some-- a WBC or two from now,

00:28:35   we see something that's like, oh, maybe that's

00:28:37   what came from that Danish company.

00:28:39   Talking about cool companies that Apple bought,

00:28:41   there is a--

00:28:42   FileMaker.

00:28:43   Yes, we're going to talk about FileMaker. FileMaker is that independent company, right?

00:28:47   It's a wholly owned subsidiary.

00:28:50   Subsidiary.

00:28:51   Let me back up one second. If we were recording this podcast in 1994,

00:28:57   Federico would be living his best FileMaker life.

00:29:01   I would be six, first of all. You would be 20.

00:29:03   If we were this age in 1994, you would be a FileMaker wizard.

00:29:09   Probably.

00:29:11   I used to use Bento.

00:29:12   Oh, me too actually.

00:29:14   Yeah, me too.

00:29:14   Wasn't that a FileMaker product?

00:29:16   It was.

00:29:17   It was like, it was, it was like kind of like iLife or iWork, you know, it's like numbers, pages, and then Bento, Shruggy emoji guy.

00:29:24   It didn't last very long, but yeah, I used it.

00:29:26   We used to use it at my Apple authorized service provider to track like stock of stuff before we had like a fancy point of sale system.

00:29:34   We used it for like six months and it was pretty good.

00:29:37   Man, FileMaker, like, their website is a lot more modern than I had expected it would be.

00:29:44   Like it actually looks like a website Apple would make, like filemaker.com.

00:29:50   They are introducing the workplace innovation platform, which I guess is good to know.

00:29:54   Oh, finally, I've been waiting for that.

00:29:56   But like all of the text and all of like the buttons and stuff?

00:30:00   This is an Apple website.

00:30:02   It looks like an Apple website, which wasn't what I expected.

00:30:05   and the buttons, yeah this is totally an Apple website. You can escape the work

00:30:09   work from anywhere and bridge the gap so that's good. It's important to bridge the

00:30:13   gap. You can streamline your scattered information and inefficient processes.

00:30:19   I'm always trying to do that. This is what this show is all about, scattered information.

00:30:23   I bet there are a lot of companies that still have their basically their entire

00:30:29   business in a file maker database. I can give you some examples Home Depot or

00:30:36   Nissan Motor, Berkshire Hathaway, Costco, Panasonic. I thought you were just pulling

00:30:42   these out your brain. No, no, I'm actually reading. FileMakerStories.net coming.

00:30:48   Anyway, Shortcuts 2.1, the beta version has been released. So this is

00:30:54   is interesting because it shows that shortcuts is being actively developed

00:31:01   like throughout the year we would expect right that it's that the app is gonna

00:31:05   receive updates which now I think for me at least I mean probably isn't an

00:31:09   original thought but has answered the question of why is this not included in

00:31:13   the OS I think it's because it's gonna be updated like an app would receive

00:31:16   updates on a regular schedule and it appears at least for now that the that

00:31:23   betas of this are going to be somewhat publicly available. You have to sign up on the developer

00:31:28   website the same as with the original shortcuts beta. But 2.1 is now out on the beta train

00:31:36   and Federico, can you give us a rundown of what is new?

00:31:40   Sure. In this first version there's only one major new feature and the rest is just a bunch

00:31:47   of bug fixes. So if you have problems with App Store actions for example, you should see the fix

00:31:54   in the new version. Apple is also saying that some of the clock actions, the series suggestions for

00:32:01   setting alarms, have been fixed, but this weekend Myke and I checked on his device running iOS 12,

00:32:09   not 12.1 beta, and those actions were not fixed. So it's unclear if maybe this bug fix sort of

00:32:16   slipped in the release notes or maybe you need to have 12.1.

00:32:21   The new feature, which was actually announced and shown on stage at WWDC but didn't make

00:32:27   it to shortcuts 2.0, the App Store release, is weather integration.

00:32:33   So there's a few actions now for checking the weather and getting forecasts from the

00:32:40   Weather Channel, which is the data provider of the weather app on iOS.

00:32:45   This is great because it now allows you to automate certain weather-based shortcuts and

00:32:51   routines without having to use an API like the Dark Sky API or third-party shortcuts

00:32:57   like the excellent Kerat weather shortcuts.

00:33:01   You can get the weather for the current location.

00:33:04   Of course, you can pass any location you want to the weather action.

00:33:08   So you can either get your current location and check the weather, or you can do things

00:33:11   like pass a specific address and check the weather for that location or extract the location

00:33:17   from a photo or from a contact card and check if you want.

00:33:23   People have been asking me like why would you want to extract the location of a photo

00:33:26   and check the weather there.

00:33:28   Maybe you're a blogger and you need to shoot specific videos at certain locations and it

00:33:35   may be useful to check the weather there.

00:33:38   You can also get the details of what shortcuts returns from the weather app.

00:33:45   This means that you can extract individual data points.

00:33:48   So you can say "I want to have a full forecast" or "I just want to get the temperature", "I

00:33:52   just want to get the high and the low" or "I want to get the humidity" or "I want to

00:33:56   get the rain chance".

00:33:57   So all of these individual details and data points can be extracted and you can do stuff

00:34:02   with them.

00:34:03   It's easy to imagine how people may in the future do things such as if it's raining,

00:34:08   make my lights blue, or if it's sunny outside, make them gold, or something like that.

00:34:14   So it will be interesting to see how people can integrate weather actions.

00:34:18   I think that most of us are probably going to integrate them as part of our morning routine

00:34:23   shortcuts.

00:34:25   Everybody has a morning routine shortcut, and I think I'm going to swap the current

00:34:28   solution that I have with this new weather summary, which is faster and easier to use.

00:34:36   I think there will be more betas for version 2.1. I hope that there's more coming, that

00:34:43   this is not just the only feature. One of my major complaints right now, in addition

00:34:49   to the big missing features that maybe we can talk about briefly in a minute, my main

00:34:55   problem is that one of the iCloud sync features that was launched with Shortcuts 2.0, the

00:35:02   ability to sync the order of shortcuts between devices is completely broken for me. Like

00:35:06   it just plain doesn't work. Every time I enable that option, all my shortcuts get scrambled

00:35:11   on both devices, so it's been impossible to keep track of them. What I'm doing now is

00:35:16   I have iCloud sync enabled, because that works well, but I disabled the toggle for syncing

00:35:21   shortcut order. So I'm keeping the same order but manually on both devices.

00:35:27   I just feel like sometimes the order of my shortcuts just changes. Like it just changes.

00:35:32   I have no idea why it's happening.

00:35:34   If you have that option enabled you probably want to disable the sync shortcut order.

00:35:38   Because that's what it's...

00:35:39   I didn't even know there was an option.

00:35:40   Yes, you need to go into...

00:35:41   Yeah there it is, sync shortcut order.

00:35:43   You want to disable that and keep an eye on the beta.

00:35:46   That is in the settings app by the way. I had no idea there was all this stuff in the

00:35:50   settings app. I didn't even know that there were settings for shortcuts.

00:35:53   Is there any... do you guys have the frustration where it's sort of crashy?

00:35:58   Like I have it if I go to edit something or if I'm rearranging sometimes it'll

00:36:02   just like bomb out to the springboard?

00:36:04   Yeah I had that a few times. It's a... I think it's one of the long-standing

00:36:08   bugs of workflow that in some shape or form also made it into shortcuts.

00:36:14   Sometimes when I'm trying to open and edit a long shortcut, like the one that I

00:36:20   did today for adding device frames to screenshots. Sometimes it crashes.

00:36:25   I love that device frames thing by the way, I was just playing around with it now while

00:36:29   you were talking to see if I could get shortcuts to crash because I know it's doing a lot of

00:36:32   crazy stuff. Thank you.

00:36:33   But I just found like a screenshot of Beats music and I ran it through it and it put it

00:36:36   in like an iPhone 5 or something.

00:36:41   Should be an iPhone 6 because I don't support iPhone 5 but yeah, it should work.

00:36:46   Must be an iPhone 6. But it's something for hot buttons.

00:36:49   all look the same to me now. No, it's a really clever... let's actually talk about this for

00:36:54   a second. So you worked on this for a while. I know that that iMac is a screenshot of my

00:36:59   desktop. How does this work? So you are not supplying sliced up images, right? You're

00:37:10   doing this mathematically? Okay, how does... walk us through this. So this shortcut, it

00:37:15   It began as a way to add iPhone XS frames to iPhone XS screenshots.

00:37:21   And now it can add device frames to iPhones, iPad Pro, the 12.9, the 13-inch MacBook Pro,

00:37:28   the 5K iMac, and the Apple Watch Series 4, the 44mm version.

00:37:34   The way that it works is, you will see on Reddit and other blogs similar shortcuts that

00:37:41   require you to manually install these frames, which are transparent PNGs, where you overlay

00:37:48   the screenshot.

00:37:49   That's basically what it is.

00:37:51   My shortcut takes a different approach.

00:37:54   It doesn't require you to install images in Minecraft Drive, like these image templates.

00:38:01   You don't need to install anything, you don't need to configure anything, because the images

00:38:06   are encoded inside the shortcut, and you may ask how can you encode a file, because shortcuts

00:38:13   do not support file attachments.

00:38:16   And the trick is to use a base64 encoded version of the image.

00:38:21   So you're turning an image into text.

00:38:25   This is like, I don't know, I can't fully wrap my head around the concept.

00:38:30   The basic idea is that...

00:38:32   I already struggled with this when he tried to explain this to me over the weekend.

00:38:36   I was like, wait, an image is text? I don't understand.

00:38:39   Yes, the idea would be that there's some kind of algorithm that is able to turn files, file objects,

00:38:48   into binary representations in text. So I don't know fully the way that it works,

00:38:57   but it's a way to convert a file into a long string of text.

00:39:01   and the algorithm later can take the string of text and recompose it, basically,

00:39:06   in a way that it becomes the same file again.

00:39:08   You can base 64 encode anything.

00:39:11   You can encode text, you can encode links, you can encode images,

00:39:14   even videos and zip documents or PDFs, whatever.

00:39:17   Of course, the bigger the file, the longer the text string,

00:39:21   and even just encoding the 5K iMac template,

00:39:27   Just copying the text and pasting the text, it required a few seconds inside shortcuts,

00:39:35   because you're moving around this insanely long string of random gibberish text.

00:39:41   Like, it's insane how big it is.

00:39:43   The entire shortcut, because of these long strings of encoded text, it weighs 10 megabytes.

00:39:52   A shortcut file is usually like an XML or actually plist file. It's a text file.

00:39:59   It's a configuration file that you see as a visual thing in the shortcuts app,

00:40:04   but it's actually a text document with a bunch of XML structure. This one weighs

00:40:10   10 megabytes, so imagine 10 megabytes of text. It's a lot of text. So yeah, this

00:40:17   This was fun to put together, it was fun to test the limitations of shortcuts.

00:40:22   This shortcut will not run inside Siri, it will not run from the widget, and it will

00:40:29   not complete when activated from the extension.

00:40:32   You can trigger it from those places, it'll just take you to the shortcuts app to continue

00:40:37   and finish putting together the images.

00:40:40   But I was able to create these insane combinations of like 5 iPhones and 2 iPads and a bunch

00:40:46   of Apple Watches, a MacBook Pro and an iMac and it worked just fine. Just last night I

00:40:51   saved a 50 megabyte composite image from shortcuts to the Photos app and it worked. In fact I

00:40:58   think it took longer for the file to be saved to Photos than for the shortcut to actually

00:41:04   finish running. So that gives you the idea.

00:41:07   Also it's not every device yet, right? Like you're kind of limited to some specific devices.

00:41:13   It's most of the modern devices that Apple is selling.

00:41:16   So these images, these templates, they are the official Apple ones.

00:41:20   And these are basically most of the official Apple templates that you can find on the Apple

00:41:25   marketing website.

00:41:26   I think of those devices, I only lack support for the iPod Touch and the MacBook Air, but

00:41:33   I really wanted to release it and I didn't want to waste time putting together shortcuts

00:41:39   for the MacBook Air.

00:41:41   If I can come across old templates from Apple for the iPhone 5 and the 5s or the SC and

00:41:49   old iPads, I will update the shortcut.

00:41:52   But right now I just wanted to support the same devices that Apple is supporting with

00:41:56   templates.

00:41:57   I didn't want to use templates from other people.

00:41:59   Not because I don't trust them, just because I want to have an official thing that people

00:42:05   ...

00:42:06   I have them all because I save all the images from Apple's PR site.

00:42:09   So let me know what you want.

00:42:10   I'll invite you to a Dropbox folder.

00:42:12   You have the PSDs?

00:42:15   For some stuff, we'll talk.

00:42:19   My people will get with your people.

00:42:20   Yeah, I feel like the power of you two combined on this one is something that the world should

00:42:25   be concerned about.

00:42:27   My payment is though that you do one for the EMAC, so I really need to be able to do that

00:42:32   in shortcuts.

00:42:33   Mm-hmm.

00:42:34   All right.

00:42:35   Do you have any EMAC screenshots that you have?

00:42:38   You know what an emac is?

00:42:41   Is that the Newton thing?

00:42:44   It's an emate.

00:42:45   It's close.

00:42:46   It's an emate.

00:42:47   What's an emate?

00:42:48   Which is different from a chessmate.

00:42:49   They're all different things.

00:42:50   Is it from a chessmate?

00:42:52   There's a note in this section of the document, Steven, you really want folders in shortcuts.

00:42:58   Is that right?

00:42:59   I do.

00:43:00   I don't have a ton of shortcuts.

00:43:01   I mean, I probably have probably two dozen.

00:43:03   I know lots of people have many more.

00:43:05   But even with that number, I find it frustrating that I can't organize them in any way beyond

00:43:12   order and color.

00:43:13   So I do have some sort of color scheme I've created, sort of like this type of thing is

00:43:18   this type of color, but it would be nice to have folders.

00:43:22   I know that would introduce some potential complexity when firing one of these things

00:43:27   from something like the share sheet.

00:43:28   They'd have to do some filtering and get rid of the folders or it'd be an extra tap or

00:43:32   something.

00:43:33   that main screen, we were scrolling through that list,

00:43:37   I think having folders would make it

00:43:39   a little easier to deal with.

00:43:41   Now, they have to fix the iCloud syncing,

00:43:42   because like you said, it completely scrambles them

00:43:45   when you turn that on, but I think just some additional ways

00:43:48   to organize these, you know, maybe it's not folders,

00:43:51   maybe it's like things, and you can just have headers,

00:43:54   like these are my ones about to-do lists,

00:43:57   these are my ones about images,

00:43:58   these are my ones about alarms,

00:44:00   like just some way to group these things,

00:44:02   Because as people, as all of us create more and more of them,

00:44:05   it feels like it's getting kind of out of hand

00:44:07   when you're looking for something.

00:44:10   - Yeah, this is one of the features

00:44:13   that I really want to see.

00:44:15   Besides the ability to run shortcuts at specific times

00:44:18   or specific locations, instead of having to use

00:44:21   stuff like Launch Center Pro or Launcher

00:44:23   to have these triggers for shortcuts,

00:44:26   I want to have a native automatic trigger feature

00:44:28   in the shortcuts app.

00:44:30   I really hope to see folders eventually.

00:44:32   I almost can't believe that it's still not a thing

00:44:37   four years after Workflow came out.

00:44:39   - You mentioned earlier that having the ability

00:44:42   to update this app outside of OS releases is good,

00:44:44   and I agree it is good for shortcuts,

00:44:46   but it doesn't make me so sad for apps like Mail

00:44:49   and Safari and Notes.

00:44:51   David Sparks wrote a thing today about how he's trying Bear,

00:44:54   and one reason is that Notes only gets updates annually,

00:44:58   if that, and I just wonder if some of these other apps

00:45:01   decoupled from the system, they could update them quicker.

00:45:04   It's what Google does with Google Play services.

00:45:06   It can update things like Gmail and Maps separate from Android

00:45:10   and while iOS is still this monolithic thing.

00:45:13   It's an interesting difference, and I wish more apps

00:45:16   could get the attention Shortcuts does.

00:45:18   Have you guys seen any problems with searching

00:45:21   in Notes in iOS 12?

00:45:23   I've started to have an issue where I have a file name,

00:45:28   say like October tour and I search the word tour and it gives me no results.

00:45:33   I don't think I ever search in notes.

00:45:38   Yeah, I don't either.

00:45:39   Yeah, I do. I do. Like just to find a note, right? Because I have lots of notes. I keep

00:45:43   a lot of stuff in notes. And that's just the searching is just getting worse. Like actual

00:45:48   text that I have in notes is not finding anymore, which is just super weird. But hey ho, this

00:45:53   is what happens.

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00:47:42   of this show and relay FM.

00:47:44   - So we have a lot of Google stuff to talk about.

00:47:47   The company had a press event in New York City

00:47:50   earlier this week talking about new phones

00:47:52   and some other stuff.

00:47:53   So I thought we could go through some of the stuff

00:47:56   they announced and kinda talk about it as we go through.

00:47:59   So let's start with the Google Home Hub.

00:48:04   So I think last year we saw the first

00:48:06   like Google Smart Display from Lenovo.

00:48:09   So it's like, kinda like the Echo Show, right?

00:48:11   like it's a small tablet and a speaker base you put in your kitchen or somewhere.

00:48:14   Some quick specs for y'all. It's got a seven inch touchscreen LCD.

00:48:18   It has a true tone feature. They call it ambient HQ,

00:48:22   where if the light is warmer than the screen is warmer, that sort of thing.

00:48:26   A physical mute switch to kill the microphone so it's not listening.

00:48:30   And I think perhaps most interesting, there is no camera.

00:48:35   So there's no...

00:48:36   And they said they made like a conscious decision to not put a camera on it.

00:48:40   so you could feel comfortable putting it in your bedroom.

00:48:43   And there's there's two parts of this one, which is like the side, which is like,

00:48:47   yeah, that is cool. And the other side of like, why should it not be cool?

00:48:50   Like the phones that they sell have cameras in them.

00:48:53   Well, I think there's anyway, I think it's just the deal.

00:48:56   Two things. I think Amazon made it creepy with the drop in feature.

00:48:59   And Google could have not picked a better week to announce something without a

00:49:03   camera because it was like a day after the Facebook video messenger

00:49:07   Echo type thing that they've released that.

00:49:10   Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:49:11   It got broadly mocked, at least in the circles of Twitter I'm in.

00:49:14   So I think it's interesting.

00:49:15   I think something in the kitchen, you know, like with a phone, you can put it in the drawer,

00:49:18   but it's out all the time.

00:49:19   So it's interesting.

00:49:21   So this is like, it's Googley, right?

00:49:24   So it's the Google Assistant.

00:49:27   Their OS is very, it's very nice looking, very colorful, lots of voice interaction,

00:49:32   but it's got a touchscreen as well.

00:49:34   It can play videos from YouTube, plus YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio support.

00:49:39   so lots of streaming stuff.

00:49:41   And they're doing this thing that Amazon's trying to do

00:49:43   of like create a centralized location

00:49:48   for all of your smart home stuff.

00:49:50   So like for me, for instance, I have several Nest cameras,

00:49:54   a Nest thermostat, I have a bunch of Hue bulbs,

00:49:56   I have some switches or like outlets from iHome.

00:50:01   It's like all my stuff works with HomeKit

00:50:03   except the Nest stuff, and I gotta go into

00:50:05   these individual apps and do things,

00:50:07   and I don't have one cohesive place

00:50:11   to control all of this stuff,

00:50:13   because again, I use Nest products.

00:50:15   Well, the Home Hub is designed to kind of bring

00:50:18   all that stuff into one interface.

00:50:20   So they showed, of course they have Nest stuff,

00:50:23   'cause Google owns Nest,

00:50:24   but then they had Hue stuff and other light bulbs

00:50:26   and smart switches, and they sort of have a level of UI

00:50:31   above all those third-party apps,

00:50:34   so you can get a good overview of what everything is doing.

00:50:38   Sort of like the TV app does on Apple TV, right?

00:50:40   You have all of your individual content providers

00:50:43   and the TV app is sort of like a layer on top.

00:50:46   I think it's really an interesting approach

00:50:49   with smart home stuff because very often

00:50:51   we do mix and match brands and HomeKit

00:50:53   isn't supported by everybody.

00:50:54   So this does have to be supported

00:50:57   by the various manufacturers.

00:50:58   It seems like they have all the major players here,

00:51:00   at least a lot of them.

00:51:01   So I think that's a pretty big deal.

00:51:05   And it's only $149.

00:51:07   I thought for sure this was going to be $250 or $300.

00:51:11   Maybe I'm just used to being an Apple customer.

00:51:13   But $149 for a seven-inch Google Home Hub with no camera.

00:51:18   What do y'all think?

00:51:21   I like the idea of having this dedicated interface for home

00:51:26   stuff.

00:51:26   And there's this idea that I had of it's

00:51:30   It's kind of like CarPlay, but for your home.

00:51:33   So you get this -- it's like based on integrations and stuff that you manage on the phone, but

00:51:38   it gives you this personalized and different, easier to use probably, UI to manage accessories

00:51:45   and to manage different features that you would also get on the phone, but you get them

00:51:50   on this display, which makes more sense for a shared use.

00:51:55   I love how it doesn't have a home screen, but it shows you actions and how you can swipe

00:52:02   down to get this sort of control center for your home.

00:52:05   This is so much better, for example, the UI of the home hub and also the new design for

00:52:15   the Google Home app on iOS is so much better than what Apple is doing with the Home app

00:52:22   on iOS 12 even.

00:52:25   It's colorful, it gives you actual explanations for what the buttons do, there's different

00:52:31   types of icons, so there's like, in the Home app from Apple, everything looks the same,

00:52:37   basically.

00:52:38   It's either a rectangle for scenes or a square for all kinds of accessories.

00:52:43   And I think it's so much better to have this kind of design where everything is clearly

00:52:46   presented and it gives you actions like shortcuts to stuff that you can do.

00:52:53   It just looks better and more intuitive.

00:52:56   I think it's great that it's launching with support for multiple voices and multiple timers.

00:53:02   It feels to me like it's an Echo Show, but done better by Google.

00:53:08   I'm not interested in this product, I'm not interested in the Google ecosystem, but boy

00:53:13   do I wish that Apple made one of these.

00:53:15   That's my takeaway.

00:53:16   I want these but from Apple with a better UI

00:53:20   than the current home app on iOS.

00:53:22   - Yeah, it's one thing I sort of skipped over.

00:53:25   The Google Assistant has multiple voice support

00:53:28   so it can tell you and your significant other apart.

00:53:32   They have a lot of family limit stuff now

00:53:35   that just kind of like iCloud does.

00:53:38   And so you can even set like,

00:53:39   hey, if one of my kids talks to it,

00:53:41   they only have access to this sort of content

00:53:43   or it won't respond to them within these hours.

00:53:46   You can set the whole thing in a do not disturb mode

00:53:48   so the screen won't come on.

00:53:49   All it will do is alarms.

00:53:51   So it seems like it's very flexible,

00:53:53   very well thought through.

00:53:55   I agree with you.

00:53:56   I've got Apple Music.

00:53:58   I'm not interested in any other streaming service.

00:54:01   I do have Nest stuff, so this would be nice.

00:54:02   But having something like this from Apple would be nice.

00:54:05   Like a HomePod with a screen.

00:54:07   And it seems like it's something

00:54:10   all these other companies are doing.

00:54:11   If it continues to take off,

00:54:13   I think Apple will have to look at it.

00:54:14   So here's something kind of strange.

00:54:17   I didn't watch this video live, like I didn't watch your presentation live.

00:54:24   I watched the presentation later on in the evening because I was recording another show

00:54:31   when it was going on. And I thought I would check in and see what was being announced

00:54:36   and that kind of stuff. And just because I figured if there was anything that I wanted

00:54:41   to buy just by looking at the products, I would need to put the order in sooner rather

00:54:46   than later and then I was going to watch the presentation later on in the evening, which

00:54:50   I did. And I saw this thing and I was like, "Huh, that seems interesting." And I preordered

00:54:56   it. Like I put a preorder.

00:54:58   Nice.

00:54:59   After I watched the video, I cancelled my preorder.

00:55:03   Really?

00:55:04   And I don't really know why. I just saw it and I was kind of like, two things I think

00:55:10   It's like one is like I don't really think I need this

00:55:12   I don't know a hundred percent really sure where it go in my life

00:55:15   Like where I would put it in my home and the other was I think I kind of remembered

00:55:19   How frustrating I found

00:55:22   the Google home to be

00:55:25   Right like and it's some of the frustration that I have with the home pod

00:55:30   But I find the home pod to have other advantages in that it sounds really good

00:55:34   But you remember I have one of those Google home minis. Yeah, and I just found it way too

00:55:39   conversation, like way too conversational compared to the echo.

00:55:44   I just was like, it has way too much to say.

00:55:48   And when you ask a question like it's so much more verbios,

00:55:52   especially when my echo a couple of days ago said to me,

00:55:56   like I asked it a question like to internalize or whatever.

00:55:59   And it just said, oh, hey, by the way, if you want, I can say less.

00:56:02   Just just let me know. Like, would you want me to do this?

00:56:05   I can make play sounds instead. And I was like, yeah.

00:56:08   and now it just says when I ask it to turn on the lights it just goes like it doesn't say okay

00:56:12   anymore. It's kind of funny that like as I was getting frustrated about my HomePod being too

00:56:17   chatty the Echo was like "I know what I can do I'll say less that will make him love me more"

00:56:22   um so I was kind of just like if I was going to get one of these things it would make more sense

00:56:29   for me to get an Echo Show because I am more in the Echo camp like I'd have to probably change out

00:56:35   my other devices for the Google Home and at this point I don't really feel like the Google Home

00:56:42   gives me much more that I would really want to use than the Echo ecosystem does. So I decided not to

00:56:50   go for it right now. Plus I found the hardware at the back to be very attractive at the front to be

00:56:56   super ugly like the bezel is huge but I don't know why they make such a big thing about having it

00:57:01   it blend into your home when all of the faces are white,

00:57:05   considering the bezels are so big.

00:57:07   Like they do a black one, but the bezels are white

00:57:09   on the front of the screen.

00:57:11   And that would look terrible in my kitchen

00:57:13   because everything else is like,

00:57:15   it would fit way better if I got the black one,

00:57:18   but then the front of it's white.

00:57:19   Like I wasn't that impressed with the hardware.

00:57:21   I actually think like, you can see why this thing

00:57:25   costs $149, I think that the hardware shows that.

00:57:29   I think it not having a camera, that might be one of the reasons it actually doesn't

00:57:33   have a camera, because they wanted to make this thing $150.

00:57:37   But I actually am not impressed really with the way that the hardware looks.

00:57:41   I actually think, we haven't spoken about it, but the new Echo Show I think looks better

00:57:46   than this one.

00:57:47   Have you seen the new Echo Show?

00:57:50   The Echo Show 2?

00:57:51   It's way better than the original.

00:57:53   Way better.

00:57:54   I prefer the design of the Echo Show 2 to this Google Home product. It's just kind of

00:58:03   it looks, you know, it's got black screen on the front. It's a little bit more what

00:58:07   I would want in my home. It has the home product fabric like everything else does. But yeah,

00:58:17   I just figured that I don't really think that this is a device for me purely because like

00:58:21   I'm not really I don't want a third assistant at home.

00:58:25   Right. I don't want to use Siri and Alexa and Google Home.

00:58:31   You can use them, right?

00:58:31   I don't want to use them all like I don't.

00:58:35   And and I'm pretty happy with what I currently have.

00:58:39   I don't know if I need this right now.

00:58:42   It's kind of my thinking on it. That's fair. But there you go.

00:58:44   So if I haven't found enough reason to buy an Echo Show, why would I buy this?

00:58:48   Yeah. That was kind of why I ended up canceling. Sure.

00:58:51   So let's move on to the Pixel Slate.

00:58:54   It is a tablet, 12 inch tablet that runs Chrome OS,

00:58:59   has an optional keyboard and trackpad,

00:59:01   a couple hundred bucks, with backlit keys,

00:59:03   which is nice, but they're circular,

00:59:05   which is kind of weird.

00:59:06   Like other recent Chrome OS devices,

00:59:10   it runs Android apps, and it's powered by Intel,

00:59:13   so you can get a Celeron M3, i5, or i7 CPU.

00:59:17   You can price this thing up from $599

00:59:20   all the way to basically $1,700 depending on the specs.

00:59:24   It's a--

00:59:25   - There's a lot of customizability in this thing,

00:59:27   which is interesting.

00:59:28   - Way more than I thought there would be.

00:59:31   3000 by 2000 display, that puts it at 293 pixels per inch,

00:59:35   which is higher than the iPad,

00:59:36   but not as high as the iPhone.

00:59:38   Eight megapixel front and rear cameras.

00:59:41   The front camera is sort of wide-angled,

00:59:43   so you can do video chat a little bit easier.

00:59:46   Two front-facing speakers, two USB-C ports,

00:59:50   a fingerprint reader on the power button,

00:59:53   no SD card reader, no headphone jack.

00:59:55   There is a headphone adapter in the box.

00:59:58   I think what's interesting about this is the software

01:00:01   that is running Chrome OS,

01:00:03   Android on tablets seems to be dead.

01:00:06   I think it should be, that never really took off.

01:00:08   But in their presentation, Google threw a lot of shades.

01:00:13   They call things like the Surface, too much like a PC,

01:00:16   and other tablets, who will remain nameless,

01:00:19   kind of too much like a big iPhone.

01:00:21   And they think--

01:00:22   - This annoyed me. - Yep.

01:00:24   - This really angered me. - Yeah.

01:00:25   - Because they kept going back to this well a lot.

01:00:30   And they were throwing overall way more shade at Apple

01:00:34   for saying that like, oh, you know,

01:00:36   it's not like a phone app, it's a real app.

01:00:38   It's not like a phone OS, it's a real OS.

01:00:41   But here's the thing about this.

01:00:43   It's like Google don't understand

01:00:45   what they're actually selling.

01:00:48   The only tablets that exist today that are like big phones are Android tablets.

01:00:53   Yes.

01:00:53   Because Apple has a rich ecosystem of tablet apps, which Google doesn't have, right?

01:01:03   Like, so you can use the Chrome browser.

01:01:07   That the operating system, Chrome OS, is basically what's in the browser.

01:01:10   And it is a, I mean, you know what's really nice?

01:01:12   A full version of Chrome.

01:01:14   That is super cool because you can use web apps and all that sort of stuff.

01:01:17   But if you don't want to use a web app, the only apps that you have are Android apps,

01:01:21   and Android apps on tablets are terrible, so you end up with just phone apps.

01:01:27   The actual operating system that runs phone apps on a tablet is this one, and that's what

01:01:33   I found so interesting about this.

01:01:36   And also in the presentation, they don't even mention the Android apps, because I think

01:01:39   they know this.

01:01:41   They just talk about web apps.

01:01:43   That's what they're talking about.

01:01:44   Chrome OS apps.

01:01:45   And the Android apps are there for where companies haven't got in on the Chrome OS thing.

01:01:52   And so I just found that like, I think they should, they had a really cool product here,

01:01:57   but I think they need to rein in the shade because they can do whatever they want, but

01:02:02   this thing's not going to sell very well.

01:02:04   And they're going to end up with egg on their face, right?

01:02:06   Like I just don't, like most people are going to buy an iPad.

01:02:10   If you don't buy an iPad, you're probably going to get a Surface before you're going

01:02:13   to get this unless you're in an education environment, I think.

01:02:16   Now, like, there were also, Dieter Baum got to look at this thing a little bit

01:02:20   early and he made a video about it.

01:02:22   And like when I was watching it, I was like, yeah, a full web

01:02:26   browser could go a long way for me.

01:02:29   Right. Like we use Google Docs all the time, use Google Sheets all the time.

01:02:32   But I don't always want to use websites like I like native apps.

01:02:37   I like the way that they feel.

01:02:38   I don't always want to use web apps.

01:02:40   Yeah, but Apple could...

01:02:41   Ideally what you're using.

01:02:43   But Apple could give us both if Safari on the iPad was

01:02:46   Big Boy Safari.

01:02:48   And it's not.

01:02:49   100 percent. Yeah. Yeah.

01:02:50   But that's where if you live in Google Docs and Google Sheets, something like

01:02:54   this is attractive because you get the full the fuller versions.

01:02:58   Oh, 100 percent.

01:02:59   I agree with that.

01:03:00   And that's what they should have spent more time pitching rather than just trying

01:03:03   to say that they had the best product when I don't think that they do here

01:03:08   as well. Something that was interesting.

01:03:10   MKBHD did a video with the Pixel, which we'll talk about in a bit,

01:03:13   but he called this out specifically that the OS on this device was super glitchy.

01:03:19   And you can see it indeed the bones video.

01:03:22   But he makes literally no mention of the fact that like using this thing

01:03:27   looks like a train wreck right now. And it could be that it's early.

01:03:30   Like when I don't even know if they said when this is shipping,

01:03:33   but on the Google website right now, like at least for me in the UK,

01:03:36   it just says to join the waiting list.

01:03:38   So maybe they still have.

01:03:39   That's all there is.

01:03:41   It's probably too early and that's

01:03:44   why I mean, I hope that's why it

01:03:45   looks so bad because it was super

01:03:47   jittery.

01:03:48   But I just think that Google

01:03:50   have come a long way in their

01:03:51   presentations and they

01:03:53   seem to in you know, they do

01:03:55   with the pixel, they throw some

01:03:57   shade at Apple.

01:03:58   But I think in some interesting

01:03:59   ways, I think that this was

01:04:00   misguided and they were trying way

01:04:02   too hard. And I think that

01:04:04   I think this is going to come back

01:04:06   to bite them a little bit when the

01:04:07   reviews come out. But we'll wait and

01:04:08   Yeah, I think it's interesting to see the list that they're just pretending that nobody

01:04:14   is getting work done on the iPad Pro at this moment.

01:04:19   Every time I see these companies making fun of other tablets, or just people in general

01:04:25   writing these articles about tablets today, I thought that this was a discussion that

01:04:33   that was over three years ago with the iPad Pro,

01:04:36   but it feels like some people still want to sort of try

01:04:40   and make the point again when the facts

01:04:42   are just picking for themselves.

01:04:44   There's a rich ecosystem of native tablet apps

01:04:46   on the App Store.

01:04:47   There's some crazy stuff that you can do

01:04:49   on an iPad Pro today.

01:04:50   Yes, it could be better.

01:04:51   Yes, it could use a desktop browser.

01:04:54   Yes, we need more desktop, not even desktop class,

01:04:58   that's not a term that I like,

01:04:59   but actual desktop apps on the iPad.

01:05:02   there's Photoshop coming, there's Illustrator coming, but we need more. But to say that

01:05:08   the current iPad OS is a big fun OS, that is, besides being completely false, it just,

01:05:17   it betrays this kind of, I don't know, it just not, it's just not cool to the point

01:05:26   where I want to see what happens when these reviews come out, and if any reviewers will

01:05:31   point out the differences between the Slate and the iPad Pro or even the Surface, which

01:05:36   is an excellent tablet for different use cases. I just think it's funny that you can just

01:05:42   pretend other tablets don't exist or are not good.

01:05:47   You can buy it, you can't buy this right now, but like I'm pretty sure that I am going to

01:05:51   buy it just so I can review it on this show or whatever, because I really feel like, because

01:05:56   Because even in Dieter Bohn's video he's like saying that you can't work on an iPad but

01:06:02   you can probably work on this thing and it's just like I really don't, I mean I think that

01:06:07   a lot of reviewers are coming to this in like an interesting way that I don't fully understand.

01:06:15   You know it's like they say that because you don't have a full web browser you can't use

01:06:19   Google Docs but like that's...

01:06:21   I mean if your company uses a CMS that depends on having a desktop browser sure you cannot

01:06:26   get work done on an iPad. And that's probably it for a lot of these people, right? That

01:06:30   like, they can't get their work done, so they just assume nobody can work on it. Where I

01:06:35   think for people to do it's the difference. Like, I can, I know that not everybody can.

01:06:40   I can't do all my work on an iPad. I can do most of it. But I do want to be able to compare

01:06:45   these two things because I think I will be surprised at how much of my work I can do

01:06:50   really comfortably on a device like this because of how much time I do spend in Google products.

01:06:56   And I really wish they would have focused more on that as opposed to being like,

01:07:02   "We've solved it guys, don't worry, like, Google's come and save the day." Like,

01:07:06   it just seems super strange to me. It is funny to me that this thing has two USB-C ports because,

01:07:11   like, laptops can't do that in some instances. Like, Microsoft just announced a bunch of Surface

01:07:17   stuff which has no USB-C ports on it which is wild like I'm really surprised about that.

01:07:22   But like this annoys me because this looks like a cool product but like their overall rhetoric has

01:07:28   frustrated me. But it has a keyboard and the keyboard has a trackpad which is super cool.

01:07:33   It has a kind of a case that comes with the keyboard which allows for adjustability of

01:07:39   angle which is good but the keyboard is not like firmly attached to the case which basically makes

01:07:45   it unusable in your lap. This is like that Logitech create case, the newer one, which

01:07:50   I hated. If the keyboard doesn't have a firm connection to the tablet, when you're trying

01:07:57   to type on it on your lap, the keyboard is just going wild. It just goes everywhere.

01:08:03   This is not really a lapable thing, I think, but it will be really good on tables because

01:08:08   it has an adjustable viewing angle, which is something that I wish Apple would have

01:08:11   which is why I use the bridge keyboard for my iPad Pro,

01:08:14   because it has the adjustable angles on it,

01:08:18   which I really like.

01:08:19   But yeah, it's like, I wish that they didn't

01:08:21   rile me up so much, 'cause I think I'd be more excited

01:08:23   about this, but like, I could have taken one hit of this,

01:08:27   it's like, okay, cool, I get what you're doing,

01:08:29   but the whole presentation was just dripping in this like,

01:08:32   don't worry guys, we solved it, when Google's history

01:08:36   for these types of devices hasn't been that great so far.

01:08:39   So I feel like it should take--

01:08:41   I mean how else are they gonna pitch it?

01:08:42   Right like they get up there and be like as I said they didn't have to go so hard right like they could have

01:08:48   They could have pitched it for what the product actually is which is

01:08:51   This is the best Chrome OS device you can buy and there are people that will be able to get their work done on it

01:08:57   And you can say that without then saying oh, it's not like those phone OSes

01:09:02   Oh, and it's not like a it does you know it's not like some rubbish thing which has a fan in it like you don't

01:09:07   need to bash everyone else to say that your product's good. Yeah, I mean, I don't

01:09:11   know, I just I don't take it as personally as y'all do, but... There's a

01:09:14   there's a few things that I... Can't get work done on a Mac, that's what they said.

01:09:18   Did you hear him say that? I heard them say that. Now, are you upset now, huh? There's a few

01:09:23   things that I like. There's a there's the the home screen, whatever you want to

01:09:30   call it, on the slate has these actions, these launchers, that are suggested

01:09:37   suggested through machine learning. If you remember, a few episodes ago, here on Connected,

01:09:43   we were speculating about how could Apple improve the iOS home screen next year. And

01:09:49   one idea that I shared was, what if, in the future, in addition to icons on the home screen,

01:09:56   you could also get shortcuts suggested by the system, or you could manually pin some

01:10:01   of your favorite shortcuts. And this is kind of the idea, right? On the slate, you will

01:10:06   get these actions, which have a different name on Android, I'm not sure what they're

01:10:11   called, probably shortcuts or actions.

01:10:14   But you have them at the top of the home screen and they are suggested by the OS, which I

01:10:18   think is interesting and something that I would also like Apple to explore.

01:10:24   There's the power button as a fingerprint sensor in it, so again, Apple is probably

01:10:31   going to dispense with Touch ID to make room for Face ID, but it's always fascinating to

01:10:36   me how these companies are finding ways to sort of tuck the fingerprint sensor into different

01:10:43   buttons that are not actually home buttons, which I think is fascinating. The keyboard

01:10:48   supports multiple angles, which I like. I thought it was fascinating that Google made

01:10:53   a comment on the design of the round keys. In the interview with Dieter Bohn at The Verge,

01:10:59   one of the project managers said that while it looks strange initially, Google did a bunch

01:11:05   of user testing and they realized the round shape for the keys, this is where we actually

01:11:09   need Jason Snell on the show, they discovered that users were making fewer mistakes, so

01:11:16   fewer typos, after getting used to the round design of the key.

01:11:21   It looks like a typewriter to me, like one of the old typewriters that my dad used to

01:11:25   have, not sure about it, but it looks cool, and there's a bigger point that I really want

01:11:30   Apple to rethink the smart keyboard as an actual keyboard with backlit keys and probably

01:11:35   a trackpad too. But still, I want an actual keyboard with plastic keys that are backlit

01:11:39   and that looks and behaves like a computer keyboard.

01:11:44   And a trackpad.

01:11:45   And a trackpad. Yeah, also USB-C, there's a, what would you call this, follow out? Myke,

01:11:53   I need to mention something that you guys are saying on upgrade.

01:11:55   Yeah, it's follow out.

01:11:57   out the idea of adding USB-C to the iPad Pro, to the future version of the iPad Pro. The

01:12:06   rumor from 9to5Mac saying that Apple is doing this to use external displays. I also wrote,

01:12:14   I think in the iOS review, maybe Myke you actually read this out loud, or maybe it was

01:12:19   another post on Mac stories, there should be a way to plug in a USB drive via USB-C

01:12:26   and have there be a location of the Files app.

01:12:29   So you...

01:12:30   Yeah, you said this for the last couple of years in the review.

01:12:32   You should have the option to plug in a drive.

01:12:36   And it's not like you get a hard drive icon on your home screen.

01:12:42   You just get a location in the Files app.

01:12:45   Apple already has a...

01:12:46   If Apple add a USB-C port to the iPad and don't do this,

01:12:50   it's like a slap in the face.

01:12:51   So the Slate has two USB-C ports, good on them.

01:12:56   that's a good idea. I really hope that Apple switches to USB-C on the Apple 2.

01:12:59   There will only be one of them, huh?

01:13:02   Yeah, one of them, not two.

01:13:04   There's only going to be one.

01:13:05   There's not going to be two if they do add it.

01:13:07   Johnny doesn't like two ports.

01:13:08   There can be only one.

01:13:09   No, he doesn't.

01:13:11   All right. Let's talk about the phones.

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01:15:17   Make your next move, make your next website.

01:15:20   - So let's move on and talk about the Pixel 3

01:15:24   and Pixel 3 XL.

01:15:25   They have a similar two-tone design to last year,

01:15:28   so it's like a color and then like a glass window

01:15:30   at the top that's a similar color but different finish.

01:15:33   They've retained that, but they've made it all glass

01:15:36   on the back, so like one glass has like a different finish.

01:15:38   - And no two-tone design this year, which is a real shame.

01:15:43   I love that two-tone one.

01:15:44   You like the white and black?

01:15:45   What? No, no, it's... Oh yeah, yeah, the panda one's gone, but I mean like...

01:15:50   The panda's gone.

01:15:51   It's like white and like off-white.

01:15:53   Sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like two slightly different...

01:15:57   Finishes.

01:15:58   Colours in the same colour. They have a white one, a black one, and a pink one.

01:16:01   Yes.

01:16:02   What? It's called Not Pink. I kinda like...

01:16:03   Not Pink.

01:16:04   I like their names. I like their names. Like I think that they're kinda cute and it's like

01:16:08   a funny name. What do they call them? It's like Not Pink and...

01:16:13   Just Black, Clearly White, Not Pink.

01:16:15   I like those names. I can't tell you why, but I just like them.

01:16:18   I feel like I should be in charge of making these names.

01:16:22   I feel like this is something that I would be good at.

01:16:24   I actually agree with that.

01:16:25   Somewhat orange or kind of purple.

01:16:30   Like, I would love to, like as a job, I would love to be the color

01:16:34   chooser for Google.

01:16:36   Did you guys notice like throughout this presentation

01:16:39   the kind of Apple-y like way that they were doing things, like

01:16:43   where they had their like head designer talking about their design process and

01:16:48   they had videos and stuff. Did you notice that?

01:16:50   Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

01:16:51   I found that interesting. Right. And also like,

01:16:53   I kind of agree with it because I kind of feel like they are doing good jobs

01:16:58   with their design and that they should be able to talk about it in a similar way

01:17:03   that Apple does if they believe that they are being as focused.

01:17:06   But I just found it was like an interesting change and I kind of welcomed it

01:17:10   because I want to see a little bit more about that stuff at Google.

01:17:15   I think they know they're playing in a world where that sort of stuff is important to show

01:17:19   off.

01:17:20   You know, Apple does it, Samsung started it.

01:17:23   Especially when they're charging the same prices.

01:17:26   We will get to that.

01:17:27   It's very expensive.

01:17:28   So the big deal with the Pixel, of course, is the camera.

01:17:31   So the rear is now a 12.2 megapixel camera.

01:17:36   They've added a bunch of software stuff.

01:17:38   It does seem like it's an improved hardware.

01:17:40   They weren't super clear about hardware differences,

01:17:44   I didn't think, not the way Apple normally is,

01:17:46   but new software including Top Shot,

01:17:49   which selects the best image,

01:17:51   automatically taken from a burst series.

01:17:53   They've got some stuff where if you wanna take a selfie,

01:17:55   you just pick up and it sort of knows what's going on

01:17:58   and takes the picture for you.

01:18:00   And there's still just a single camera

01:18:03   where everyone else has two,

01:18:05   now three cameras in some cases.

01:18:07   But on the front, they did add a second one.

01:18:10   So the front facing camera,

01:18:12   you have the regular selfie camera,

01:18:13   and now you have what they call a group selfie camera

01:18:16   with a Y 97 degree lens.

01:18:18   So it's not fish eye,

01:18:20   like the pictures look pretty good

01:18:22   from their sample photos.

01:18:24   But you know, if you're taking a group shot,

01:18:26   you don't have to squeeze everybody in now,

01:18:27   it's a little bit easier.

01:18:28   Which I think is great,

01:18:29   it makes a lot of sense for how people use these things.

01:18:32   - It is definitely a good practical use.

01:18:34   It is just kind of funny to me

01:18:36   that like Google feel like they're proving a point

01:18:39   with one camera on the back, but they put two on the front.

01:18:42   And it is true, like they don't,

01:18:44   for everything that all other companies

01:18:46   are adding multiple cameras on the back of a phone for,

01:18:49   they're doing all of that stuff in software.

01:18:51   And it still seems like they're better at it

01:18:54   than anybody else's, right?

01:18:55   For like, they're even, I mean,

01:18:58   I'm super keen to see what this looks like.

01:19:01   They're using AI to do software zoomed photos now.

01:19:05   And like, so you can zoom and apparently

01:19:07   it's gonna look really good because they're using,

01:19:09   the shaking of your hands, it's like all this weird AI stuff that they're doing. But like,

01:19:14   you know, they seem to be saying we only need one camera on the back as long as it's a good camera

01:19:18   and we can fix everything in software. But the idea of having more people in a selfie,

01:19:24   I actually kind of like this. I think I would actually really like this feature personally,

01:19:28   right? To have a wider angle lens when needed for group pictures would be kind of cool.

01:19:37   They showed some stuff that they have a new like low light mode that they've given a name to it's

01:19:43   like night light or something I can't remember the exact name but they showed a picture one taken on

01:19:49   the iPhone XS and one on the Pixel 3 and again as with Apple all these pictures they show the best

01:19:58   ones possible but if this is true and that is the difference in low light photography my word

01:20:06   like that is huge. It looks really good. It seems like it's sort of impossible actually.

01:20:13   It almost feels like that was a... I don't know, I'm sure it's not the case.

01:20:17   But it looks like the picture on the XS was taken badly on purpose almost. Like it's

01:20:26   too... like the comparison is too good in favor of the Pixel 3. As I say, these things always,

01:20:34   They always choose the best things possible. But like even if it's like half the way there, right?

01:20:41   Like it's gonna be a hugely noticeable difference

01:20:44   So this is one of those things where like I'm just waiting for him KB HD show me some photos now

01:20:48   Right like and then I'm gonna know

01:20:50   but

01:20:53   It is super interesting and talking about MKB HD. He did a real good video

01:20:57   He got an exclusive while he's wearing a peacock shirt in his video, too

01:21:01   which is so awesome for James like it's very cool but like he kind of said that

01:21:08   it's kind of weird that all of the enhancements that Google are talking

01:21:13   about and they kind of confirmed it to him too in the camera they're all

01:21:17   software there's except for that selfie thing the hardware is doing none of the

01:21:22   advancements Google are charging like a lot more money for these phones they're

01:21:27   like, how much more are they? They're like $150 more in some cases. And it seems like,

01:21:33   you know, except for the fact that there is a bigger screen, right, on them too. But like,

01:21:38   all of the enhancements that they seem to be talking about are software enhancements.

01:21:43   So it's like a real interesting thing. And they're saying they're not going to bring

01:21:46   it to the other phones. It's just for the three line. I mean, and that's, you know,

01:21:51   we talk about this with Apple, right? Like that is Google's prerogative to do this. It's

01:21:55   just in I just find it interesting especially with the camera stuff where

01:21:58   they have a bunch of new camera features but they're all software

01:22:01   features it's not being enabled by different hardware on the devices where

01:22:06   it seems like at least some of what Apple's doing or at least what they're

01:22:10   saying is is enabled by hardware for the smart HDR because they got the neural

01:22:15   chip or whatever so there's something that I'm really interested in called

01:22:19   it's like autofocus but basically you it's like tap to focus on the iPhone you

01:22:24   tap what you want and the focus follows it so if a dog or a kid is sort of

01:22:29   running back and forth in the frame the focus will follow it. 100% apples to copy

01:22:35   this. I want this so badly on my iPhone. Yes this will be will be perfect

01:22:40   because my dogs they do not want to pose for pictures unless we have plenty of

01:22:45   trees so yes please copy autofocus for puppies and babies thank you this is an

01:22:51   excellent idea. You have a great brand name there. It's good. I think out of all the stuff

01:22:56   they announced on the camera, this is a thing of like, oh man, this is really smart. Really

01:23:01   smart. Yeah, I think this is just not a thing that I need because I don't have puppies or

01:23:05   babies. Don't you have a... I can see why it would be cool. You got a Roomba. The Roomba

01:23:09   moves around. Not that fast though. You can ask Kadina to run around the house and take

01:23:12   pictures of her. Right, but that's the specific thing that I'm then requesting. Like, that's

01:23:17   my own fault. She just typically doesn't do that.

01:23:20   She's not a fast-moving wife, Myke.

01:23:25   If she wants to be, sure. But I don't really know if I take pictures of her in those moments.

01:23:30   What is happening? I think the Pixel 3 is going to continue to be at the top of the

01:23:36   heap when it comes to smartphone cameras. I think that the Pixel 2…

01:23:41   Everyone saying the 2 is still better.

01:23:42   Yeah, a year later.

01:23:45   I am super keen to see how this ends up looking.

01:23:48   - I do that, we talked about Google's positioning earlier,

01:23:50   and they're still finding their way in these events,

01:23:52   and so maybe they overstepped in some things.

01:23:54   But they said multiple times that how honored they were

01:23:59   that the Pixel 2 was still regarded the best

01:24:02   in a year of really good phones.

01:24:05   Yes, they compared directly to the XS,

01:24:08   but they seem to understand that they're the new kids

01:24:11   on the block and that they are trying to respect that in a way that I found sort of refreshing.

01:24:17   So can I just say, considering I got so upset a moment ago, all of the stuff around the

01:24:22   Pixel I think they did right in comparing it to others. They said they were better in

01:24:26   places that we all know they are, right? And they were also really humble. And this is

01:24:32   on a product that exists that is successful, where the slate is this new thing and they're

01:24:36   already coming in and saying it's better than everything else. So I thought their positioning

01:24:40   on the pixel stuff especially was really good because they were saying and I

01:24:43   really liked it where they were like people say that it's the best camera

01:24:46   still and we're like super honored about that because there are all these other

01:24:49   great cameras that have come out in the last year and it's like that is a really

01:24:53   cool way to show your number one like it's a humble brag they did a good job

01:24:58   of it and I thought that they positioned that well. Me too. It's got a couple of

01:25:02   things we talk about there's a $79 wireless stain that sort of puts it up

01:25:06   at an angle that enables some like hands-free Google Assistant stuff. They're not the first

01:25:11   to do this. In fact, the Palm Pre in webOS had a dock mode that if you put it on its

01:25:16   touchstone charger it did some things. So just saying. Just saying. There is no headphone

01:25:22   jack. Last year with the Pixel 2 they made a big deal that they still had the headphone

01:25:26   jack. They got rid of it this year. There was no explanation of it. It's just gone.

01:25:31   So I mean what's the explanation right? Everybody's doing it because there's no explanation. The

01:25:35   The explanation is everybody's doing it.

01:25:38   So the Pixel Slate, to back up for a second, also no headphone jack.

01:25:43   And in the Dieter Bohn video, he asked them about that.

01:25:45   He says, "Well, you know, people are using Bluetooth on their phones, and so we figure

01:25:48   they don't want to carry wired and wireless, so we'll just go Bluetooth everywhere."

01:25:52   It's like, well, that's sort of a backwards way of thinking.

01:25:55   That's a non-answer answer.

01:25:56   Yeah.

01:25:57   "Oh, everyone got riveted on their phones, including our new phones."

01:26:00   So what can you do?

01:26:02   The sizes are a little bit bigger.

01:26:04   So the Pixel 3 is 5.5 inches up from five before.

01:26:09   It starts at $799 for a 64 gigabyte model.

01:26:13   100 extra bucks gets you 128 gigs of storage.

01:26:16   That is more expensive than last year.

01:26:19   As we will see, this is a refrain

01:26:22   with the Pixel 3 this year that they are more expensive.

01:26:26   And they are trying to position themselves as the,

01:26:29   if you want a really clean Android experience,

01:26:31   and you want nice hardware, in some cases

01:26:34   the best hardware you can buy, then you're gonna pay for it.

01:26:36   They're trying to, as premium phones,

01:26:39   like the Nexus line back in the distant past was not that.

01:26:44   The Pixel is like the premium Android phone.

01:26:46   But it's still less than a lot of Samsung flagship phones

01:26:50   and less than if you're gonna buy like an iPhone XS Max.

01:26:55   So they are cheaper than other flagships,

01:26:58   but they are more expensive than they used to be.

01:27:00   And again, I follow a lot of tech reporters

01:27:04   and people that are maybe even more focused on Android,

01:27:07   but it does seem like the general rhetoric is like,

01:27:10   it's more expensive for a reason that we can't find.

01:27:13   - Yeah, it's not, if there was a second camera on the back,

01:27:17   like okay, that doesn't really justify $150,

01:27:20   but I understand I'm getting something.

01:27:23   - Like a material difference, right?

01:27:25   The materials are the same, they're still using Glass.

01:27:28   Again, it's like, it's all excuses,

01:27:30   but like Apple used stainless steel, right?

01:27:32   Which is more expensive, like whatever, you know,

01:27:33   like it's one of the reasons that there's the difference

01:27:36   in pricing between the XS and the XR

01:27:37   is the materials used on the device, so.

01:27:40   - We gotta talk about the 3XL though.

01:27:41   So once again, the little Pixel

01:27:43   and the big Pixel phone have different designs.

01:27:46   So this year, the 3XL is 6.3 inches

01:27:51   from six inches before,

01:27:52   but my friends, it has a notch.

01:27:57   and Google says, Google says it has an edge to edge design.

01:28:01   I would argue with that.

01:28:02   It still has a pretty big chin.

01:28:04   - They actually didn't.

01:28:05   The way, okay, so the way they explained it on stage,

01:28:07   I wrote it down because it was so funny to me.

01:28:10   The presenter says, "This display extends all the way

01:28:14   to the upper corners."

01:28:16   And I was like, "Oh yeah, 'cause the bottom, right?

01:28:19   It's not going to the corners on the bottom, is it?"

01:28:22   And I thought that was like a really funny way

01:28:25   that they positioned it.

01:28:26   And they try and say like, I mean, they do say the reason that there is that space on the bottom is for the front facing stereo speakers.

01:28:33   Yeah.

01:28:35   OK.

01:28:36   I mean, yes, that's probably true.

01:28:39   I don't know how important that is.

01:28:40   Like, I'm sure it's nice to have front facing stereo speakers, but I don't know if front facing stereo speakers is worth not having the screen space.

01:28:51   I would wonder how many people if they ask them,

01:28:54   right, we're gonna move the speaker down to the bottom now,

01:28:56   like where it is on the iPhone,

01:28:59   and you're gonna get more screen space.

01:29:01   They would say, no, no, please, please, my stereo speakers.

01:29:03   Like I don't think that's a thing a lot of people would say.

01:29:07   Like the notch is really big.

01:29:11   I think the notch is bigger than pretty much

01:29:13   any other phone that has a notch.

01:29:15   I think it is made to look even bigger

01:29:17   by the fact that there's the chin

01:29:19   on the bottom of the phone.

01:29:20   Don't think that this is a particularly good-looking phone to be honest

01:29:23   Like I'm I liked the way the old pixels looked when they came out

01:29:28   I'm not sure that I'm convinced on the way the screen looks on this thing. I don't think they've done a

01:29:37   Incredible job with the the way this thing looks on the front. Yeah, I agree

01:29:42   It looks bigger and the if the angles are sharper going into it

01:29:49   So it doesn't feel as as sort of gradual in a way that the yeah does there's something about the the way that it

01:29:56   Cuts out of the border that feels more aggressive

01:29:59   I think it makes it look bigger and that's probably just because they've tried to minimize the amount right because it's going so deep

01:30:05   That they've made the corner quite sharp. So it's not taking even more of the screen than it needs to yeah

01:30:12   I kind of wish that they had

01:30:15   Not done the notch and they look the same and even though that would mean the XL has to be bigger to fit all that

01:30:20   Stuff up there. It just it doesn't look

01:30:22   Doesn't look great

01:30:24   and again

01:30:25   It's super weird that these phones are so different from each other when like

01:30:28   The iPhone way to do it like the Samsung like between the galaxy s9 and the galaxy s9 plus and even the note

01:30:35   Like that's all pretty much the same design language just scaled up

01:30:38   Yeah

01:30:38   Yeah, and how old does the Pixel 3 look now? Like it looks like a really old phone.

01:30:46   Yeah, it's, they've got some way to, they got some some way to go and then there's

01:30:51   there are rumors with the past ones you know that it was like a an HTC or

01:30:55   somebody else you know basically they picked up a phone they were working on

01:30:58   and made it a Pixel and I don't know if anyone knows for sure about these phones

01:31:02   But clearly there it's not it doesn't have the design

01:31:06   Either time or the engineering experience something about it isn't to the part of Apple and Samsung yet. I think they'll get there

01:31:13   Maybe this is only their third round, you know, the iPhone 3gs wasn't great either the galaxy s3 wasn't great

01:31:19   It's like it takes time to really kind of understand how this goes together

01:31:22   But the 3xl will cost you $899 for the 64 gig and a thousand bucks for the 128

01:31:29   So again more expensive than previous years they ship here in just a week or so

01:31:34   Looking now October 18th is the date here in the US for most of them

01:31:38   Some of them are pushed out to November 1st. I think that's the date

01:31:42   In other countries as well, but pretty soon they'll be out in the world and I expect we'll see full reviews here

01:31:48   You know in the next week or so, I have ordered one. Oh boy

01:31:54   Two reasons I ordered a pixel 3 XL ship in November. We're gonna be in New York when this thing is available

01:32:01   So like if I can pick one up in New York

01:32:03   I will and just cancel my order because it's it's a it's like two weeks later. It ships outside of the US

01:32:08   So it's two reasons that I bought this phone

01:32:11   I was probably gonna get one anyway

01:32:13   because I like to have an Android phone around like I always like to play around with the new version of Android so I can

01:32:19   kind of compare it to iOS.

01:32:20   And I don't like I really don't like the feeling of being out of touch,

01:32:24   even though I don't spend a lot of time talking about Android.

01:32:28   I just like to know what's out there.

01:32:30   The other thing is.

01:32:32   I hear a lot about the cameras and like I can see what the pictures

01:32:36   that people take, and but I want to do my own comparison

01:32:40   because I feel like I'm spending so much time now just kind of like

01:32:44   saying the Pixel 2 camera is better because I hear people say it.

01:32:48   who's I trust, like, and I'm not saying that they're wrong, but like, I want to see, like,

01:32:53   what does it look like when I take a picture on the Pixel 3 compared to the 10S Max?

01:32:58   And like, so I really have an idea of just how much better it is, you know, so that these are kind of like the two big reasons that I wanted to do this.

01:33:08   And there's like a lot of little things, right?

01:33:10   Like I want to see, like, how does Android deal with a notch compared to how iOS deals with a notch?

01:33:15   and I'm intrigued by the hardware itself and stuff like that.

01:33:19   So I have an original Pixel, which has lasted me for a couple of years now.

01:33:24   And then I'll get this one and it'll probably last me for two or three more years

01:33:27   until I want to upgrade.

01:33:29   But there was enough in this one compared to the old one,

01:33:33   where like the camera has jumped so significantly since the original Pixel

01:33:37   that like I've become significantly intrigued again,

01:33:40   because I find myself on a daily basis

01:33:43   being absolutely astounded at how good the camera is on the XS Max.

01:33:47   Right. Like I am continually blown away, like where I keep going, like,

01:33:51   look how good this looks like it happens all the time.

01:33:54   So how good will I feel about this camera if it if we expect it's going to be

01:34:00   even further ahead?

01:34:02   And I want to kind of see what that looks like myself, as opposed to just

01:34:07   looking at sample images or listening to other people have to say.

01:34:11   I'm the same way.

01:34:11   I've had an Android phone for forever.

01:34:13   I have a Nexus 5X right now.

01:34:15   And I've held off because I was waiting on the Pixel 3.

01:34:18   So I haven't ordered yet.

01:34:20   But I will probably pick up the smaller one,

01:34:22   just because it's not going to be a primary phone for me,

01:34:25   and spend some time with it.

01:34:27   For all the same reasons you said,

01:34:28   I need to be up on it for work.

01:34:31   I like having a phone--

01:34:32   You have way more reason than I do, right?

01:34:34   Like Download talks about this stuff extensively.

01:34:38   So I need to do that.

01:34:39   And so I will order a smaller one here

01:34:44   probably in a couple weeks.

01:34:45   I'm gonna let the dust settle a little bit,

01:34:46   make sure there's nothing crazy wrong.

01:34:48   They've had some quality issues in the past

01:34:50   with early phones.

01:34:52   But yeah, I think it's exciting.

01:34:54   I think this is an important phone in the world

01:34:58   because it can serve as a, you know,

01:35:00   it is a flagship phone, but it's not like Samsung

01:35:03   holds that title in the Android world

01:35:05   and other brands are even ahead of Google.

01:35:07   but I think it's important that Google has a phone

01:35:09   so they can set the example of what an Android phone can be.

01:35:14   And for, you know, this is an enthusiast device.

01:35:17   They're not gonna sell in the numbers of the iPhone

01:35:20   or the Galaxy phones do.

01:35:21   But for Android enthusiasts who want a really pure version,

01:35:25   you know, they've been limited to things

01:35:26   like the OnePlus series or, you know,

01:35:30   other phones sort of in that range.

01:35:32   And if you want something nicer than that,

01:35:34   but you want a clean experience,

01:35:36   want Google's take on Android, then this is the phone that you buy. And I think if you're

01:35:40   in that camp, this is a great upgrade if you're coming from an original Pixel or a Nexus 6P

01:35:45   or something. Federico, how many are you going to buy?

01:35:49   Five each year. Wow. Just hand them out to all your friends and family.

01:35:54   No, I'm not going to buy any of these. I don't think I, I just don't want to. Like when I

01:36:03   want to play with Android. I like to be informed so I'm gonna watch videos and

01:36:08   I'm gonna watch reviews. I just don't want to spend money on a phone that I'm

01:36:12   that I'm gonna keep in a drawer just to check out every once in a while. So yeah

01:36:17   I think it's it. Which is the actual sensible thing to do. I mean I totally got it

01:36:24   like... No it is like because I will use it for a period of time and then the

01:36:28   majority of time it will sit on a shelf. Like it is way more sensible to not do

01:36:33   it but there is a part of me that just wants it because it's a cool new toy and

01:36:37   there's a part of me that does genuinely believe that I will get value from it so

01:36:43   but then you'll hear me and Steven talk about it and then that's all you need

01:36:46   you know you can be like the wonderful connected listeners who get their

01:36:50   information from us yeah I can say my friends are saying that you know I can

01:36:54   say sources tell me that the pixel takes good photos and sources is Myke and

01:37:00   Stephen. Sorry that I just blew your cover. You're my source. Yeah, it's fine.

01:37:06   All right, so if you want to find show notes this week of stuff we talked about

01:37:10   head over to relay.fm/connected/213. Of course those links are also right

01:37:18   here in your podcast app of choice. I'd like to thank our sponsors this week, Squarespace,

01:37:22   Linode, and PayPal for making the show possible. If you have feedback or follow

01:37:27   or questions or comments, you can send us an email

01:37:31   from that page on Relay FM or you can find us on Twitter.

01:37:34   Federico is @vitiici, V-I-T-I-C-C-I,

01:37:38   and of course Federico is also the editor-in-chief

01:37:41   of maxstories.net, the home for all the finest

01:37:44   shortcuts material you could ever need,

01:37:46   plus lots more, app reviews, game reviews,

01:37:49   all sorts of good stuff.

01:37:51   You can find Myke on Twitter as @imyke,

01:37:54   and Myke is the host of a whole plethora of shows

01:37:58   here on Relay FM.

01:38:00   If you like connected, you can probably go find something

01:38:02   else that Myke makes that you would like.

01:38:04   You can find me as ISMH and I write and host

01:38:08   the 512Pixels YouTube channel.

01:38:10   So, you know, like and subscribe, as the kids say.

01:38:14   I think that's it, so until next week gentlemen,

01:38:18   say goodbye.

01:38:19   - Adios, that's you.

01:38:20   - Cheerio.

01:38:21   - Adios.

01:38:22   [ Silence ]