0:00:00[Music]
0:00:08Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 157.
0:00:12It is brought to you this week by Eero, Ting, and Crimson Mesa.
0:00:16My name is Stephen Hackett and I'm joined, as always, by my co-host, Federico Vittucci.
0:00:22Hi Stephen.
0:00:24Hey buddy.
0:00:25How are you?
0:00:26I'm good.
0:00:27Uh, it's, it's just the two of us, just the two of us this week.
0:00:31I know there's a, there's a sense of, uh, being grownups when Myke is not around.
0:00:38I feel like, uh, I feel like I'm having an adult conversation instead of, you
0:00:42know, just basically, I don't know what, what is that we do with Myke, but Myke is
0:00:46not with us. We don't know where, we don't know where he will be coming back if he
0:00:51will be coming back but that Steven doesn't doesn't have to stop you from
0:00:58doing the follow-up no the follow-up train cannot come off the tracks no it
0:01:02must it's barreling down on us and it's really good getting dark so you guys
0:01:09spoke last week about the iPad that you bent I found that whole conversation
0:01:13hysterical because I want to follow up on the investigation have you
0:01:21investigated what happened. So I tried to investigate what happened and I couldn't
0:01:26come up with any reasonable idea for exactly how the iPad bent but I saw
0:01:32someone on Twitter today with actually a pretty good idea that maybe this person
0:01:37asked me did you leave the iPad in the Sun and is it possible that the iPad got
0:01:42hot and the aluminum bent because of a of a just a light pressure not even a
0:01:49strong force. Now it is possible that I left the iPad in the sun but you know I
0:01:57don't think the aluminum would bend if I don't see at least the error message
0:02:04with the you know on iOS that tells you that the your device is overheating I'm
0:02:09not sure that that temperature you know if I don't see the message can the
0:02:13aluminum really bent. So I'm doing some googling about the softening and melting points
0:02:21of aluminum. The softening point seems to be like as low as 100 degrees Celsius.
0:02:27I'm definitely not at a beach with 100 degrees Celsius.
0:02:31No, you'd be dead or you'd want to be dead. So I don't think it's that. But iPads
0:02:37not made out of butter. They don't slowly become softer as they warm up. But yeah, so
0:02:44I don't have any real thoughts. I'm sure it was in a bag and just got squished. It
0:02:48happens. But you went to the Genius Bar and I know they all know you there. I know that
0:02:51they roll out the red carpet and they hand you an espresso.
0:02:54They really don't. I wish they did, but they really, unfortunately they don't. So
0:02:59yeah, I went to the Genius Bar and I take out my iPad. Actually, first I go to the guy
0:03:05guy and I say, I have a problem with my iPad Pro. I made a reservation. It's like, yeah,
0:03:09sure. What is the problem? So basically I just pulled the iPad from my bag and I showed
0:03:16to the guy, I was like, this is the problem. And he was like, huh, how did that happen?
0:03:22It was like, well, I have no idea actually. So Apple covered that under, thankfully I
0:03:31AppleCare+ for my iPad. Yes. So instead of, and this is, I should say this is the
0:03:37first time in eight, nine years that I'm buying Apple mobile devices that I ever
0:03:43did AppleCare. I decided to do AppleCare+ because it felt like for a
0:03:48thousand plus euro device it felt like a good choice. So I don't think I've ever
0:03:55done it on an iPad. Yeah. But I do on the phone, I do the AppleCare+ on the phone
0:03:59phone. Because as we've talked about at length, I carry my phone without a case. And sometimes
0:04:04it comes in handy to have AppleCare+. Yeah, and so instead of paying, the guy did the
0:04:10calculation, instead of paying 550 euros, I only had to pay 49, which was pretty nice.
0:04:18Which is less. Which is less. If the math is hard, it is
0:04:21less money. And last week I was telling Myke about these
0:04:26AppleCare costs. And then I was left waiting for a… the guy told me you've got to wait
0:04:35for five to six days. I was like, "Okay, sure I can use my bent iPad. I can go to the
0:04:40beach with a bent iPad. It's fine." But then the following day I get an email from
0:04:45Apple, "Your iPad is ready for pickup at the Apple Store." So I was really…
0:04:49I bet it was. I saw that email address. So we better take care of this guy.
0:04:53I don't know. I don't think that's the case. Probably just luck. You know, who's buying
0:04:58iPad Pro, iPad Pros in August in Rome? Come on. Everybody's at the beach.
0:05:03Just you.
0:05:04Just me buying an iPad, getting an iPad Pro. So yeah, the following day I go to the Apple
0:05:08store. Sure enough there's a cardboard box with an iPad Pro inside. And we make the exchange
0:05:17and the first thing I notice is that I'm trying to turn on the new iPad Pro and it's stuck
0:05:21at the Apple logo. I was like, oh man, this is a bad sign. So I had to do a force reset,
0:05:29like a forced reboot, and then it worked well. I wonder why he was stuck on the Apple logo,
0:05:35maybe some installation gone wrong. And actually I wanted to ask you, do you know if these
0:05:40iPads that Apple gives you, these replacement units, are they actually new devices or are
0:05:45they like refurbished devices?
0:05:48That's a good question. I mean, my experience at Apple Retail so long ago is basically irrelevant.
0:05:55But my understanding is that they are "like new," so they have new batteries and new enclosures,
0:06:02but the logic board or the screen may have come out of something they refurbished. So
0:06:09I don't think it's new, but I think it is "like new," where effectively there's no difference.
0:06:15Okay. But again, that could be, if you're out there and you're listening and you're
0:06:19yelling at me for getting that wrong, send us an email. We'll correct it next week.
0:06:23Send an email to Stephen, yes. So the new one comes with some variant of iOS 10, I'm
0:06:28sure. Did you put 11 on it right out of the box?
0:06:30Right out of the box I went back home because thankfully I was still in Rome. I was in Rome
0:06:35for a couple of days last week. So I went home and I downloaded iOS 11. And yeah, it's
0:06:43fine I had to do a restore from backup which I usually do not perform because it tends
0:06:49to be so slow but you know I have a fiber connection not as good as mics connection
0:06:53but it's still manageable so I did a restore I had to put in a bunch of passwords again
0:06:58but overall I was you know back up and running in I would say three to four hours the iPad
0:07:03was normal again yeah yeah good I'm glad it worked out so quickly you know that delay
0:07:09is kind of annoying but they just can't keep everything in stock right so they have to
0:07:12order you in a service part but um well good I'm glad you're sorted I'm glad that this
0:07:18one is not bent and you know don't dump in this one. Yeah I'm being super super careful
0:07:26with what I do with this iPad. Now it's in your head right? I'm constantly looking at
0:07:32the profile of the device and like is it slightly bent now? Am I bending the iPad? I did that
0:07:38with my 6 Plus, because people remember that some of those phones, I won't say they're
0:07:43prone to bending, but you could bend them. And yeah, sometimes I get in my head, like
0:07:48I pick it up and like, oh no, I've bent it. And then I put it on like a glass top table
0:07:52and like see if it wiggled any, you know, I'm sure anyone watching me thought I would
0:07:55have just lost my mind. But once it's like in your head, right, that it's like, oh, this
0:07:59feels bent, then you have to like prove to yourself that it's not. It's really upsetting.
0:08:03Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, now it's in my head and I'm looking at it all the time, but it seems
0:08:08to be fine. So I was really happy.
0:08:11It's impressive really. You don't know your own strength Federico. That's what it is.
0:08:17I don't know man. I don't know.
0:08:20So we had a bunch of people send us an email about this TechCrunch article.
0:08:25If this is our legacy I'm happy with it.
0:08:30You know it's not what I, you know, you don't always get decided what your legacy is going
0:08:34to be, right? Sometimes your legacy chooses you and ours is wall to wall comprehensive
0:08:41blah blah car coverage. So what is this story? Do you want to break this down?
0:08:45So you know how in Google Maps, in the iPhone app, you can integrate with a bunch of what
0:08:52do they call it? Ride sharing services, stuff like Uber and MyTaxi, you know, that stuff.
0:08:58Yeah, Lyft.
0:08:59Yeah, when you search for an address, you get the usual walking and car transit options,
0:09:06but then you also get these integrations with these services. And if you don't want to use
0:09:09your own transportation methods, you can hook up your account and get a fair estimation
0:09:14in the app, and then you can request an Uber or Lyft directly from Google Maps. Well, now
0:09:20it seems that there's a blah, blah, blah car integration in Google Maps. So if you want
0:09:25to ride long distance and of course you don't want to spend like a thousand euros with Uber.
0:09:32You can see if there's anybody who's traveling there with BlaBlaCar which is the awesome
0:09:38service. Also possibly sketchy, I don't want anybody to get killed by a stranger in a car
0:09:44but you know it seems to be quite popular in Europe and especially in France and Italy.
0:09:48So if you want to ride with someone who's going to the same place where you're supposed
0:09:52to be going, now you can see the estimated cost and the timeline, the schedule of someone
0:10:02else sharing a ride with BlaBlaCard directly in Google Maps.
0:10:06Which, I mean, if you trust and use BlaBlaCard, I should say, a couple of my friends swear
0:10:11by this service, they are super in love with it.
0:10:14So if you're into the idea of doing a BlaBlaCard ride, and if you can survive it, maybe you
0:10:22should test the Google Maps integration because it seems pretty cool.
0:10:26It is nice. I have used the Lyft integration, or at least played with it, you know, you
0:10:31kind of poke at it in iOS maps and like, I'm looking at this place, someone in a car taking
0:10:36me here. It's nice you don't have to go out to another app. It's one of those integrations
0:10:40that makes a lot of sense. So yeah, making moves, man.
0:10:44These integrations in mapping applications like in Apple Maps and Google Maps are actually
0:10:49quite nice. Maps on iOS, the Apple one, has also extensions for developers. So a couple
0:10:57of times in the past I use, I don't know if you're familiar with the service that
0:11:01is called TripAdvisor. It's like a...
0:11:03Yeah, sure.
0:11:04Yeah. So in Italy, I guess in Europe it's super popular because we don't really have
0:11:09Yelp. So we use TripAdvisor all the time. And one sort of sister company to TripAdvisor
0:11:16It's called the Fork and it lets you book,
0:11:18it's like open table but for Italians basically
0:11:21and Europeans I think.
0:11:22And the Fork has an Apple Maps integration.
0:11:26So when I'm looking up, usually restaurants
0:11:29in popular cities like in Rome
0:11:31or in very touristy type places
0:11:34and they have the Fork integrations.
0:11:37So I can go into Apple Maps
0:11:39and make a reservation from there
0:11:41and it takes care, you know,
0:11:42you get this custom UI inside of Maps
0:11:45And it's very similar to the integration system
0:11:47that Google Maps has, but Apple has an actually
0:11:50like a developer API, so anybody in theory
0:11:53can work with Apple to make these extensions,
0:11:55which is kind of neat.
0:11:56- So many times like you have an address or something,
0:11:59you gotta put it on your clipboard
0:12:01and then paste it into one of these other apps
0:12:02or try to remember it or like,
0:12:04it's just way cleaner to have it all in one.
0:12:06So I'm a big fan as well.
0:12:07All right, Jamie wrote in about subscription fatigue.
0:12:11So I'm gonna read a little bit of Jamie's email
0:12:14and I really want to know what you think about this.
0:12:17So this is riffing off something that Myke said,
0:12:19I think a couple weeks ago,
0:12:21that if you only use an application once or twice a year,
0:12:23you may not necessarily want to pay for it
0:12:25for a whole year of use via subscription.
0:12:27So if I have this app, I use it once in the winter
0:12:31and once in the summer, I don't want to pay for it
0:12:33the other 10 months out of the year, for instance.
0:12:36So Jamie suggests a approach for these companies
0:12:39that would be like a smart subscription system,
0:12:41is what they call it,
0:12:43so that you would still pay a monthly fee,
0:12:44but you only get charged if you use the app
0:12:48during that period.
0:12:49So if I use this app in January,
0:12:51I pay January's subscription amount,
0:12:54but if I do not use it in February, March, or April,
0:12:56I don't get billed for those months.
0:12:58I open it again in May and use it, I get billed for May.
0:13:01And I think Jamie's thought is that you could gain
0:13:06casual users, part of the deal with subscriptions,
0:13:08we've talked about it.
0:13:10If you have an app that goes subscription
0:13:12and you kind of only use it every once in a while,
0:13:13you may drop it and this would help keep those people along
0:13:18without getting involved for the full yearly fee.
0:13:22I was curious what you think about this.
0:13:25- I mean, I think these argument make sense,
0:13:28you know, if you don't wanna,
0:13:30we talked about this, I think, in terms of
0:13:33the subscriptions are gonna target different types
0:13:36of customers and different types of audiences.
0:13:40But I think the problem is how do you calculate,
0:13:42how do you create a subscription service
0:13:45that can make these kind of calculations for everybody?
0:13:49So if you apply that to millions of people on the App Store,
0:13:52how do you create a system that can basically build
0:13:57a subscription dynamically and differently for everybody
0:14:03based on their usage?
0:14:05Because that idea seems super smart, you know,
0:14:07like I'm paying a quote unquote subscription but only for the months that I'm actually
0:14:13using the app but how can you, you know it seems to add like a whole bunch of other complications
0:14:20to the system.
0:14:21Right, like what does using it mean?
0:14:22Exactly, exactly.
0:14:23Like if I tap it once when I'm like moving folders around because in iOS 11 that's super
0:14:26confusing, oh no I opened it and I'm going to get charged $3.99.
0:14:30I agree with you that it's fuzzy right?
0:14:32You need some sort of clear definition.
0:14:34- Yeah, and so I don't know because on one hand
0:14:37you got a pretty simple model.
0:14:38Every month or every year you pay X and that's it.
0:14:41Instead we would say, oh well it depends
0:14:44on how much you use the app.
0:14:45So what does use constitute exactly?
0:14:48And then you gotta make an API for this
0:14:50because you gotta tell developers,
0:14:51well either the system decides what using means,
0:14:56so if I wanna export my data from the app
0:14:59because I'm done with it,
0:15:00because I don't wanna use it anymore,
0:15:02I want to take all my documents out of the app.
0:15:04Does that mean I'm using the app?
0:15:06So does the app need to have like a grace period model
0:15:10built in?
0:15:11It seems like it makes sense in practice.
0:15:15It makes sense in theory, but in practice, I
0:15:17would just say, just go look for something else.
0:15:20Because the subscription is clearly
0:15:24meant for a different type of user.
0:15:26And I think the greatest thing that subscriptions
0:15:30are doing right now is they're sort of splitting up the apps
0:15:33into two type of professional applications.
0:15:39The ones that follow the old model of pay once and pay
0:15:42for upgrades or buy the new version,
0:15:44and the new sort of trend of doing subscriptions.
0:15:49And we can choose, right?
0:15:50It's not like everybody is switching to subscriptions.
0:15:53If you-- even using Ulysses as a recent example,
0:15:57The folks at IE Writer or ScrewRunner, for example,
0:16:01which are pretty similar apps,
0:16:03they are not switching to subscriptions.
0:16:05So the great thing right now is that we have choice.
0:16:08And so because we have choice, instead of saying,
0:16:10we should create the system that accounts for
0:16:14how much a user actually uses the app
0:16:18and then calculates the subscription accordingly,
0:16:21instead I think it's just better maybe
0:16:23to pick a different tool and use it.
0:16:27- Yeah, so far, the couple apps that I have had moved
0:16:32to a subscription are apps that I really used.
0:16:34And so they, so far I've not been in the situation
0:16:37where an app that I only use a couple of times a year
0:16:40has done this, but I'm sure it's coming at some point.
0:16:43But you know, like when day one went to their premium model,
0:16:46I used day one multiple times a week.
0:16:49And I was happy to pay for it, and I did so like on day one.
0:16:52For me, I don't use Ulysses, and so, you know,
0:16:56that one kind of just went by me
0:16:58'cause I didn't use it before.
0:17:00I do like that if I want to use it,
0:17:01now there's more options with their trial stuff
0:17:04they've built in.
0:17:05But if I have the need for it,
0:17:07then I'll visit in the future.
0:17:08But I think there are a lot of people
0:17:09who are coming up against apps that fit
0:17:13into what Jamie's talking about.
0:17:14I think it's an interesting approach,
0:17:15but I think I agree with you
0:17:16that it's not quite the right answer.
0:17:18But it's interesting to think about.
0:17:22Because there are sort of all these,
0:17:24anytime there's a change in the app store,
0:17:26there's always pros and cons, right?
0:17:27It's such a complex system with so many apps
0:17:31and so many users that there is no one size fits all
0:17:34in anything, and anytime something changes or is updated
0:17:37or works differently, you always have to approach it
0:17:41in a new light, both as a developer, but as a user as well.
0:17:45- I have to wonder if this problem with subscriptions
0:17:50is mostly a result of the fact that some of the established
0:17:55developers in the industry right now are folks that used to be around before. Like they're
0:18:02relatively old companies. They
0:18:04have a vested interest in keeping the old model around.
0:18:09So I wonder if the new generations of developers like the kid that is now
0:18:1316 or 17 and wants to, it's her dream to start a company in three years. Is she gonna do
0:18:22You know a paid upfront app or are the new generations more inclined to consider these new models whether they are
0:18:30subscriptions or in-app purchases or you know new stuff because the popular apps that we use, you know, the OmniFocus and Ulysses and
0:18:37Scrivener these are all folks that have been around for a long time and
0:18:42Maybe some of them and this is not an accusation, but it's just a natural evolution of things
0:18:47They don't have the mindset to try new stuff because they are structured in a specific
0:18:53way as a company or because they just don't understand that change is scary for everybody.
0:19:00But some people are more inclined to change and to experiment. And usually those people
0:19:04are young people. So I wonder if the apps are five years from now, 10 years from now,
0:19:11where someone who's a kid in college today will create a development studio in the future,
0:19:19will they stick with the old model or will they change to the new ones? That is fascinating
0:19:24for me to think about.
0:19:25Yeah, I think kind of along those same lines, I wonder if this would have been different
0:19:32had subscriptions been introduced five years ago.
0:19:34Exactly. Yeah.
0:19:35Paid up front was still very much the business model and we are also used now
0:19:40to free with in-app purchase or free with ads that introducing this new paid
0:19:48mechanism feels a little late and obviously there's no way to know but I
0:19:54think about that a lot of like what would have this been like had been
0:19:57available earlier in the store and it may have been a more natural stepping
0:20:02stone over to this if we were all still used to paying for apps up front and
0:20:06said that oh hey it's great now you can pay less just on a monthly basis or a
0:20:10yearly basis or whatever and you know it's not a big deal but because we were
0:20:15so used to free apps now that there's some backlash of of users who don't who
0:20:21have been used to not paying for apps and now you know they're they're faced
0:20:25with paying something on a regular basis I don't know it's just interesting you
0:20:29Yeah, so we take a quick break tell you about our first sponsor this episode is brought to you by
0:20:35Eero never think about your Wi-Fi again
0:20:39Eero has created the dream Wi-Fi setup fast reliable connection throughout your house and even the backyard and
0:20:46Now is the best time to get on board with Eero as they've just released their super slick second generation device
0:20:52This thing introduces a new tri-band
0:20:56Second generation model along with Eero beacon allowing you to build a Wi-Fi system
0:21:00That's perfectly tailored to your home the new second generation Eero includes a third 5 gigahertz radio
0:21:05Making it twice as fast as before this lets you do more than ever whatever your Wi-Fi needs Eero has the power to blanket your
0:21:12Entire home and fast reliable warm cuddly Wi-Fi it sits flat on any surface
0:21:18Just plug it into the wall
0:21:19And you're ready to connect your Eero via ethernet or wirelessly the new Eero also includes a new thread radio
0:21:24which lets you connect low-powered devices like smart door locks and door bells and all this other stuff right to your Eero network.
0:21:31And the Eero Beacon is all new. Just plug it into a wall and expand coverage into any room.
0:21:36You can add as many Eero Beacons as you want
0:21:39so long as you have one Eero device. And it even includes a built-in LED nightlight with ambient light sensor.
0:21:47It's really great. The Eero app lets you manage all the stuff from the palm of your hand.
0:21:50It's easy to set up your network. You can easily create and share guest networks,
0:21:54set rules, all the sort of stuff right from the super well-designed iOS app. And
0:21:59if you do get stuck their customer support it's amazing. You call and get
0:22:03hold of a Wi-Fi expert in just 30 seconds. Before Eero I had just a single
0:22:08access point in my house and I had dead spots, I had remote bedrooms, there was no
0:22:12Wi-Fi, forget about doing something in the driveway or in the yard, and the Eero
0:22:15has my entire house covered because I can put multiple base stations out and
0:22:19they all work together. The new Eero system starts at just $399 for one second
0:22:24generation era with two beacons. That's everything you need to get started.
0:22:28Listeners of this show can get free overnight shipping to the US or Canada
0:22:32when you head to Eero.com and use the promo code connected. That's Eero.com
0:22:37with the promo code connected for free overnight shipping. Thank you to Eero for
0:22:42their support of this show and Relay FM. So we were falsely accused, Federico,
0:22:49- Mm, by who? - As a show.
0:22:51Somebody on Twitter, I don't remember.
0:22:55Blaming us for killing Crash Plan.
0:22:58- Didn't we?
0:22:59- And I was like, no, we haven't talked about Crash Plan.
0:23:01I even looked through the notes.
0:23:03I was like, did we mention it recently?
0:23:04And then the prompt curse killed it, no.
0:23:07This is not our fault. - Okay.
0:23:09- But the news is Crash Plan, which is a backup service
0:23:12for your Mac or PC, they have exited, exited,
0:23:18the consumer space.
0:23:20So it used to be you go to this crash plan,
0:23:23you pay whatever it was, five bucks a month,
0:23:25and you can back up your Mac.
0:23:26And they are moving out of that business
0:23:29and just doing small business, basically.
0:23:33Now we should say Backblaze has been a sponsor
0:23:35of Connected and a bunch of Relay FM shows,
0:23:38but I used Backblaze before then.
0:23:40I've used Backblaze for a long time.
0:23:42But just to get that off the table, they are a sponsor.
0:23:45So I don't necessarily talk about the crash plan thing
0:23:48all that much.
0:23:48It's clearly that it's not working for them.
0:23:52You can migrate from a personal account
0:23:53to a small business account.
0:23:55There's some incentives if you do that.
0:23:57They reckon people use Carbonite.
0:23:59I think all of us would say Backblaze is a better choice.
0:24:02But it got me thinking again about Time Machine and iCloud.
0:24:08So Time Machine backup is great, but the problem
0:24:10is that your hard drive-- like for instance, on my iMac
0:24:13here on my desk, my time machine drive is under the desk.
0:24:16And so if my studio burns to the ground,
0:24:19A, a lot of old Macs would be killed,
0:24:20but two, my data, just on my iMac and the time machine drive
0:24:24would go away.
0:24:25And what Backblaze does, or Crash Plan,
0:24:26or these other services, is they get your data offsite.
0:24:31And I can talk about backups all day.
0:24:34It's a very exciting topic, mostly in Federico.
0:24:36- I had no idea, really, can you?
0:24:39- Yeah, I know, right?
0:24:40Yeah, huh, weird.
0:24:42But it got me thinking, what would it take for iCloud to offer Time Machine backup to
0:24:49the cloud?
0:24:50So I looked up some pricing, because the iCloud pricing seems to change every nine months
0:24:54or so.
0:24:55Right now, if you're in the US, you can buy two terabytes of iCloud data for basically
0:25:02ten bucks a month.
0:25:04And all around the world, two terabytes is the max.
0:25:07So that is more a month than something like Backblaze, which is five dollars a month for
0:25:11for unlimited backup, but it's a reasonable amount
0:25:16for that data, and for most people,
0:25:20you know, if I had this two terabyte plan,
0:25:22if I could go into the iCloud settings,
0:25:25hey, I'm gonna use a terabyte for time machine backup,
0:25:30just carve out a terabyte for time machine backup,
0:25:33and let the other terabyte be used for iCloud photo library
0:25:36and whatever else I have in iCloud.
0:25:38And that seems not unreasonable to me at this point,
0:25:41that they could do something like this.
0:25:45I think it'd be nice.
0:25:46- Yeah, and especially when you compare iOS devices and Macs,
0:25:51even if I don't personally use iCalc backup and restore
0:25:56every time, it's just so easy when you need it.
0:25:59And it surprises me that the Mac
0:26:01doesn't have a feature like this.
0:26:03And quite possibly, I mean, the fact that Macs can,
0:26:07They tend to ship with more built-in storage than iOS devices.
0:26:11Probably that was a problem in the past.
0:26:14But Apple seems to be open to the idea of extending the storage of iCloud Drive.
0:26:18And especially now that they're also going to do family sharing in iOS 11,
0:26:24you can share your space with other members in your family.
0:26:26I'm surprised that the Mac still doesn't have any deeper iCloud integration when
0:26:31it comes to setup and backup.
0:26:33It is surprising.
0:26:35So I've been setting up my High Sierra Drive over and over.
0:26:39Like you, I'm in the depths of a review.
0:26:41And if you sign into iCloud on a blank Mac,
0:26:44it pulls down a bunch of settings.
0:26:46You have all your contacts and calendars like you normally do.
0:26:48But it pulls down account settings.
0:26:50So it knew about all three of my email addresses.
0:26:52And it knows about these other logins and stuff.
0:26:57But it's not nearly as comprehensive
0:27:00as a time machine restore would be, of course,
0:27:03or an iCloud restore on iOS.
0:27:05And we're at the point where I think most nerds know
0:27:09about Time Machine.
0:27:10It's been around since 10.5.
0:27:11It's been a really long time.
0:27:12But it still requires you go buy an external hard drive
0:27:16and plug it in, right?
0:27:18Or-- and most people have notebooks,
0:27:20so you've got to remember, like, oh, it's on my desk
0:27:21when I charge my laptop.
0:27:22I need to plug in the drive.
0:27:23I know I need to buy a dongle.
0:27:24And I think a lot of people can go longer
0:27:29than they think they do between backups.
0:27:30and then you're at risk for data loss.
0:27:33And something like CrashPlan or Backblaze takes care of that.
0:27:38A lot of things would have to go wrong for me to go get my data off Backblaze.
0:27:41It's not my first backup, but it is my safety net.
0:27:44If my office disappears, then I can go get my data from Backblaze.
0:27:51And I think people would be more willing to do something like this
0:27:56if it's built in with iCloud system settings, because it's just built in.
0:28:00They trust it, they don't have to go find something else.
0:28:02They already know and trust Apple and the iCloud brand.
0:28:06And it just seems like an opportunity for Apple
0:28:08to maybe make a move here at some point.
0:28:12And Dan Morin, I wrote this thing over at Macworld.
0:28:14This is one of those deals where I was preparing
0:28:16for the show and then somebody we know wrote basically
0:28:19exactly what I was gonna say.
0:28:20So go read Dan's article.
0:28:23It's very much in line with this.
0:28:25But I think it would be nice to have another option
0:28:28for Mac users.
0:28:29said that iCloud backup is so good on iOS and time machine is really good but again
0:28:35you got to go you got to go buy a hard drive and not everyone's gonna do that.
0:28:38mm-hmm yeah. Crash plan. It's time for backup plays. It's uh it's the way to go.
0:28:45This week Apple introduced app development in Swift. This is a new
0:28:50community college curriculum built around the Swift programming language.
0:28:55So Tim Cook has been doing this like great American tour.
0:28:59He's spoken at some factories.
0:29:02He was in Austin, Texas where Apple actually has a really big corporate presence in Austin.
0:29:08He was speaking at the Austin Community College District, which is apparently a 74,000 student
0:29:17community college or group of community colleges and more or less this is a course on Swift.
0:29:29This is a quote from Tim Cook.
0:29:30We've seen first hand how Apple's app ecosystem has transformed the global economy creating
0:29:35new industries and supporting millions of jobs.
0:29:39We believe passionately that the same opportunity should be extended to everyone and community
0:29:42colleges have a powerful reach into communities where education becomes the great equalizer.
0:29:47feels good. Yeah. It feels nice. Yeah. They've been talking about this, you know, extending
0:29:53Swift with this type of course. So I think it's, you know, I wonder if we'll ever see
0:29:58this kind of initiative from Apple outside of the US, but still, I mean, in Italy they
0:30:03do have the sort of the, what's it called? Not the Apple university, like the app accelerator.
0:30:11Like the it's like, yeah, you get like a college degree or something and to become an app developer,
0:30:16it's in Naples and it's structured like a university degree, I think. So that's great.
0:30:25There's one in India too, I think, now.
0:30:27Yeah, there's one in India, I think. But it would be great to have this kind of curriculum
0:30:32in the community colleges as well. So it's great that they've started doing this in the
0:30:37US. I think it's definitely, you know, it's one of the things that sort of distinguishes
0:30:45Tim Cook's Apple from what the company was before, especially now that they have their
0:30:50own programming language. And you can see a certain amount of pride every time Apple
0:30:55talks about this stuff, whether it's like Swift Playgrounds and what they're doing with,
0:31:00you know, extending playgrounds to, for example, now kids can, you know, run custom code on
0:31:06like Bluetooth toys and small drones even. So that's awesome. And you can see how they,
0:31:12As a company they are proud to ship this kind of software and to create these opportunities
0:31:18for kids and students.
0:31:21So I'm really happy to see that they're continuing to do this stuff.
0:31:25Yeah, and so this is on the iBook store, which we can get to, but this is available, I'd
0:31:33say it's going to be offered at more than 30 community colleges across the US in the
0:31:362017-2018 school year.
0:31:39you would imagine that this would grow. And this is separate from things like Swift Playgrounds
0:31:46on the iPad, but they are slowly building all of this stuff together. And I think it is interesting
0:31:52that they are using their programming language as a means for civil good, if you can say that.
0:31:58There's a quote in this press release from the Austin mayor talking about lifting people out
0:32:03of poverty and into good jobs. I think you're right that Apple leverages Swift for much
0:32:10more than "just" a programming language.
0:32:14Yeah, I think you're right. They're sort of using this as -- I think Swift in this regard
0:32:23is sort of the continuation of -- you know, Apple always said that education is really
0:32:29important for the company and I think
0:32:31Swift is now a representation of that.
0:32:33So I want to talk a little bit about how
0:32:35they're rolling it out. Like I said this
0:32:36seems like it's in iBooks and this
0:32:41comes, I mean they're unrelated stories
0:32:43except I'm going to try to make them
0:32:45related, and this comes after last week
0:32:48Apple announced that in September
0:32:52iTunes U collections will be
0:32:56moving into Apple podcasts and that the courses will only be available through the iTunes
0:33:02U app on iOS. So, I feel like it's always been one of those products that doesn't really
0:33:10have a home. It kind of got glued into iTunes and they've had an iOS app. Do you remember
0:33:15– I had a real flashback reading through this – do you remember the UI for iTunes
0:33:21you at first it was the same bookcase as newsroom but like dark wood instead of light wood it
0:33:27was like way to go guys good work. Do you mean newsstand? Yes yeah newsstand yeah. Yeah
0:33:35because I think newsroom is their website for. That's very confusing. Yeah Apple names
0:33:41man. Newsstand. So yeah I do remember the old iTunes U stuff and there were like some
0:33:47elements that were like borrowed from iBooks even I think. Those old apps like iTunes U
0:33:55and the first podcast app, you know with the tape reel and those were the days of iOS UI
0:34:03design.
0:34:04So many times.
0:34:05So I wonder if this stuff of iTunes U collections moving into podcasts and the courses staying
0:34:16a separate app. Do you think we'll eventually see iTunes U rename to Apple Education or
0:34:22something as a sign of iTunes as a brand and as a product eventually going away?
0:34:29Yeah, I mean the iTunes thing is a bigger conversation, but I do think that this is
0:34:34a step towards dismantling iTunes U and at the same time building up Apple Podcasts,
0:34:40which is something they have a lot of equity in right now and they're really pushing
0:34:44on with iOS 11. I do think that the name clearly comes from an age that we're not in anymore.
0:34:51And there's a lot of talk about iTunes needing to go away, and my money is that 2018 is the
0:34:58year we see iTunes on the Mac get broken up. But either way, I think what's more interesting
0:35:04is Apple's still invested in this technology and invested in leveraging these tools for
0:35:13for, because iTunes U, we should back way up.
0:35:16For people who aren't familiar with iTunes U,
0:35:18it is a platform where teachers or even professors
0:35:23can basically load in content for their classrooms, right?
0:35:28And students can download them.
0:35:30There's a bunch of free stuff through iTunes U,
0:35:33so you can go like, you know, basically look through
0:35:35the material for a class at Stanford or something,
0:35:37you know, or whatever.
0:35:39It still being a standalone iOS app gives me hope
0:35:41Apple is still invested in this. But yeah, I think iTunes on the Mac, it doesn't bode
0:35:46well for that software.
0:35:47Yeah, yeah. I was reading through a bunch of tweets from Marco Aurment a few days ago
0:35:53and I think what he was imagining made a lot of sense that it's not like Apple will, you
0:36:00know, have a big ceremony and kill off iTunes very publicly. Instead, it'll probably, you
0:36:05know, it'll be slowly dismantled and a bunch of functionalities will be rolled out into
0:36:10other products and into separate apps. And eventually they'll just put iTunes in a legacy
0:36:16like the utilities folder on the Mac. Because nobody's really, you know, most people are
0:36:22streaming music or they are using Netflix and, you know, streaming stuff from iTunes
0:36:28on their Apple TVs. Nobody's really syncing their iPhones and iPads and iPods anymore
0:36:35with iTunes. And so there's still those folks that sync their music libraries. But maybe
0:36:40that would be better served by a separate music app instead of having every single feature
0:36:47into iTunes. So maybe eventually iTunes will go into a folder and if you really want to
0:36:51use it you will be able to open it and to sync your devices manually but I wouldn't
0:36:55be surprised if Apple's intention is not to have a big announcement about killing off
0:37:00iTunes. Instead you see a feature going into podcasts, another feature going into the TV
0:37:07app and eventually, you know, maybe a couple of years from now, well, iTunes will be not
0:37:12forgotten but just put there aside and, you know, it's going to be sad for those who,
0:37:20I mean, iTunes did a lot of good things back in the day, you know, it sort of democratized
0:37:24the Apple ecosystem in the sense of you have an Apple device, well now you have a single
0:37:28app to put anything you want in there. So that was awesome but I think it's, you know,
0:37:33it's passed its time and it's probably time to move on.
0:37:36I just find it all interesting, they're making moves on content but not using the channels
0:37:40they may have done a year ago or two years ago.
0:37:43Alright, so we have more to talk about, but first I want to tell you about our second
0:37:47sponsor that is Ting.
0:37:49Ting is a mobile phone service that wants you to help save money.
0:37:53Ting believes you should only pay for what you actually use.
0:37:56With prices like $10 per gig of data, the average Ting customer pays just $23 a month
0:38:02per phone.
0:38:03If you're in the US and you use a cell phone, you will love what the folks over at Ting
0:38:07can do for you.
0:38:09They don't believe in contracts, overage fees, or unlimited plans with a ton of catches and
0:38:14fine print.
0:38:15They are focused on offering the best prices they can for their customers.
0:38:18Any savings they can make, they pass on to you.
0:38:2180% of devices made in the last two years, both GSM and CDMA, can come to Ting.
0:38:27And with their top-rated, no-hold customer support, you call and you get a real person,
0:38:32you can make sure that your phone is going to work the even.
0:38:35And rumor is, there's a new one coming.
0:38:36You can get the latest iPhone as soon as it launches,
0:38:38along with Apple Care.
0:38:39So if you're like Federico and need Apple Care+,
0:38:42they got you covered.
0:38:43If you're stuck in a contract like most of us,
0:38:45Ting will offer a 25% credit off your early termination fee
0:38:49as well.
0:38:49This is up to $75 per device that you bring.
0:38:53To get started, head over to connected.ting.com
0:38:56and use Ting's handy device checker
0:38:58to confirm that your phone can make the move.
0:39:00And if you're looking to upgrade to something new,
0:39:02Ting has plenty of options for you in their online store.
0:39:05Listeners of this show can save $25 on selected devices or keep it as Ting credit.
0:39:10Head over to connected.ting.com and see how much more you can save.
0:39:15We thank Ting for their support of this show and Relay FM.
0:39:19A story made the rounds this week about a hardware Kickstarter project, which is usually
0:39:24something I don't know if we would cover on the show because hardware and Kickstarter
0:39:29have a mixed history.
0:39:32- They are probably, usually they are probably worse
0:39:36than video game Kickstarters.
0:39:38(laughing)
0:39:39There have been so many examples of accessories
0:39:43never shipping or being super delayed
0:39:45to the point where they come out and they are irrelevant
0:39:48because the technology has moved on.
0:39:50But this one comes from a company that a lot of people trust
0:39:54they're called Astro HQ, they make AstroPad,
0:39:57is an iPad application to turn the iPad screen into an external display for your Mac, which
0:40:04a lot of people use. Astropad comes in two versions. One is, you know, we were talking
0:40:10about this actually just a few minutes ago, the basic version as a paid-up-front traditional
0:40:16model. The other one, I think it's called Astropad Studio, it uses a subscription model
0:40:21for users that want more from the app. So that's an interesting way to go about it,
0:40:25actually release two separate apps and two sort of aimed at two separate audiences.
0:40:31But anyway, now the makers of AstroPad are making the Luna accessory, which is a little,
0:40:35should I say, a little dongle that you put into your MacBook and that basically via some
0:40:42magic, I don't know even how this works, but this little USB thingy, it uses the GPU
0:40:48the metal APIs on macOS to accelerate the graphics on the iPad screen.
0:40:58That means that the iPad, if you have a Luna plugged into your MacBook, the iPad now becomes
0:41:03an external display for anything, not just graphics applications, but for anything that
0:41:09you want to use your Mac for.
0:41:12And it's got insane performance to the point of it feels like an actual external display
0:41:17you know, like something that is being streamed over Wi-Fi.
0:41:20I don't know how these folks do it,
0:41:22but the general idea is that because of the GPU acceleration
0:41:27and because of the Metal API, by going deeper
0:41:30into the system stack of graphics technologies
0:41:34on MacOS, they can have better performance
0:41:36than similar apps that just rely on Wi-Fi.
0:41:39And that because of that, they have a lot of latency,
0:41:41they have a lot of lag.
0:41:42And anybody who's tried this says it's the best iPad as an external display solution
0:41:48I've ever tried.
0:41:50So it seems pretty awesome.
0:41:52Yeah, it really seems like, from the video and people's reactions, it seems like all
0:41:59the lag and stuff you get over a Wi-Fi setting is gone.
0:42:04You don't have to use a lightning cable or anything, just this little dongle.
0:42:08In the video they even show someone on a couch sketching, I think, an Illustrator with the
0:42:11Apple Pencil, like you don't even see the Mac, like it's just somewhere else, right?
0:42:15And the iPad can take advantage of it.
0:42:19It really seems like something Apple would never do, but so many people would like them
0:42:23to do, because there are some, like, especially illustration apps that are only on Mac OS,
0:42:32but I think Apple's response would be like, "Well, you should build them for the iPad."
0:42:37That hasn't really happened with some of these, and it probably won't ever with something
0:42:40like Adobe Illustrator, but if you do need a Mac app,
0:42:44but want to use the pencil and the iPad Pro,
0:42:48this does answer that question.
0:42:50Like the Kickstarter is like super funded already.
0:42:53They're at, is this recording like almost $345,000.
0:42:57Clearly there's demand for this 4,200 backers,
0:43:00which is way bigger demand than I thought there would be,
0:43:03but it does seem like something I'm not sure it's for me,
0:43:08'cause I really don't have an app on my Mac
0:43:10that I want to use this way, but if you do, this seems like the best way to go about it.
0:43:15Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is looking at this idea from a slightly different
0:43:22angle. And that is most of these companies, their pitch is use your iPad as an external
0:43:29display. And that makes a lot of sense if you're that type of user that mostly works
0:43:34on the Mac, but also as an iPad. And so when you're working on your Mac, you want to find
0:43:39some utility for the iPad. Instead I would not be surprised if Apple is sort of seeing
0:43:46this as if they were ever to do a similar feature. Something along the lines of "use
0:43:53your iPad to control your Mac". Something like "transform the iPad Pro into a Wacom
0:44:00tablet". You know, with the Apple Pencil and with the, you know, with apps on your iPad,
0:44:04can now integrate them with similar apps or with companion apps on macOS. And so whereas
0:44:11these companies, they try to... I don't want to say they demote the iPad as a dumb display,
0:44:19but they let you use the iPad when you wouldn't probably use the iPad because you're at your
0:44:24desk. Instead, I think if Apple were to do something like this, they would do, you know,
0:44:30your iPad Pro and now you can use your iPad to control your Mac. See, does it make any
0:44:37sense what I'm saying?
0:44:39Yeah, yeah. I think it does. And I think that opens it up to more users than just people
0:44:46who want to use Illustrator. It makes it more flexible.
0:44:49Yeah, and again, this is all speculation. I don't actually know if Apple is planning
0:44:55something like this. But it would make more sense to me because I cannot see Apple coming
0:45:00out on stage and saying, "Well, if you hate your iPad, now you can use it as a dumb monitor
0:45:05for your computer."
0:45:06I mean, that kind of takes the wind out of the sails of iOS, right?
0:45:11Pretty much.
0:45:12Forget all this stuff.
0:45:13Just everyone's Mac OS over the network.
0:45:16Yeah, just buy a dongle, because we love to sell you dongles anyway.
0:45:21They do love dongles.
0:45:22So buy a dongle and use your iPad as a display.
0:45:24That's it, we're done.
0:45:25Pack it up and go home, iPad.
0:45:28We fired all the iOS engineers. That would be... they're not doing that.
0:45:32But still, still, if you want to use your iPad as an external display, this is probably
0:45:37the way to go. And I mean, we all knew that Wi-Fi was a lossy solution to this problem.
0:45:44So you know, whatever these guys did in terms of code, you know, the fact that they can
0:45:50hook up with the, you know, with the metal APIs on macOS and the GPU, that seems crazy
0:45:56to me. So it sounds also crazy awesome. And if I were, you know, that type of user, I
0:46:03would be all over this. I would probably buy the 10 pack option, you know, just, just buy
0:46:08a dongle for every occasion, you know? So yeah. So there's that. So best luck to those
0:46:12guys that seems to be, uh, rocking and rolling. Yeah. So, so Frederick, it is the end of August
0:46:19and the iPhone event, depending on what you read, could be just a couple of weeks away.
0:46:25So today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iPhone event will take place on September
0:46:3212th, which is a Tuesday, and it will take place in the Steve Jobs Theater, which of
0:46:37course is built at Apple Park.
0:46:40It has got an above-ground lobby, I guess, an entryway, and then the theater is underground.
0:46:47We talked about it when they announced the name.
0:46:48It's a perfect name.
0:46:49So yeah, I was curious if you think, I mean this seems like the ideal thing to start holding
0:46:57events at the C-Jobs Theater with, right? Having your iPhone, your biggest product,
0:47:01introduced there seems like a great way to introduce it. What do you think?
0:47:04Yeah, and I mean especially after 10 years of the, from the first iPhone, that would
0:47:09be perfect. I think that would be the right way to look back tastefully, but also look
0:47:16forward to what is coming to the iPhone's future. So I think that would be a perfect
0:47:20combination honestly. September 12 as the date, personally I would be extremely relieved
0:47:29if an event is in mid-September because that would mean that iOS 11 is not launching for
0:47:35at least a week after the event, which would put the iOS 11 release date at least September
0:47:4319th or September 20th. So that would be awesome for me because it means another 20 days of
0:47:47editing my review and preparing all the little surprises and extras that we're working on.
0:47:54And also I wonder if maybe pushing the release of the new iPhones by a week, you know, compared
0:48:01to the previous two years, instead of returning to the pattern of the 2014 releases, I wonder
0:48:09if it's a product of Apple is making a new phone and they needed slightly more time.
0:48:14So they had to push the announcement and not in the first week of September but in the
0:48:19second week with the iPhone launching in the third week of September. So that could be
0:48:22a possible reason. But if the rumors are correct, we are in for quite the show because Apple
0:48:30in theory is announcing three new iPhones but also 4K content on iTunes with a 4K Apple
0:48:37TV launching in theory alongside 4K movies and TV shows on iTunes. And what else? Probably
0:48:44another announcement/demo of the HomePod. Am I missing something else?
0:48:51I mean, we'll see software, right? We'll see if we can have iOS 11 and High Sierra.
0:48:56And of course the new Apple Watch, which according to the rumors has an LTE version this time.
0:49:01So that would be quite a lot of stuff, you know? No iPads because they did the iPads
0:49:06in June but still quite the show. There's a lot of stuff man. I think back about two
0:49:11years ago they had the Apple TV 6s and 6s plus, the big iPad Pro, it was a big two hour
0:49:20event and this would be on up there with that. I think it would be great to have it at the
0:49:27theatre. We've talked about this before where they lump other products with the iPhone to
0:49:35to share that stage with the iPhone, right?
0:49:37'Cause that is their biggest, I mean, WBC is big,
0:49:40but the world cares about the iPhone keynote, right?
0:49:44People don't really pay attention to WBC as much.
0:49:48But, so if you have all that attention,
0:49:51why not do this other stuff
0:49:54and have these other products ready to go?
0:49:57And so many of them work together
0:49:59where the Apple Watch and the phone go together.
0:50:01And maybe there's something unique there
0:50:03if you pair it with a new phone
0:50:05or the Apple TV is sort of always floating,
0:50:08so they have to stick it with something
0:50:10to make it make sense?
0:50:12- Well, this is something that I wonder about in my review,
0:50:17and I don't remember if I also discuss this on the show,
0:50:22but there's a section in my IOS 11 review
0:50:25where I'm talking about the new image and video formats
0:50:29coming with IOS 11, if and HEVC.
0:50:34And I wonder if maybe, because Apple is supposedly
0:50:39going to roll out 4K content, and of course,
0:50:41traditional 4K content is huge in terms of file sizes.
0:50:46So I wonder if maybe Apple was waiting for HEVC,
0:50:49the high efficiency video codec, to roll out with iOS 11,
0:50:54with tvOS, and with macOS High Sierra.
0:50:57I wonder if for a 4K Apple TV to come out
0:51:01and for 4K content to be available on iTunes.
0:51:05If Apple wanted to have that piece of the ecosystem
0:51:09in place first, to have HEVC available as a format on iOS
0:51:14and all the other platforms, and to request all the movie and TV
0:51:22show companies to release their 4K stuff in that format,
0:51:27with that codec, which results in better compressions,
0:51:31smaller file sizes, built-in support for HDR,
0:51:35and all these other modern features of movie formats
0:51:39on our devices.
0:51:41So I do wonder if,
0:51:45everybody's been saying Apple must do 4K,
0:51:47and Apple must do 4K,
0:51:49and Apple knows that they have to do 4K
0:51:50if they don't wanna be left behind,
0:51:53but before they can do that,
0:51:55they wanted to have the underlying technology
0:51:58done first with a better format.
0:52:00- Yeah, it's interesting.
0:52:02Anything they could do to bring those file sizes down
0:52:06is good for them, but it's good for customers too, right?
0:52:09If you hit play on the Apple TV
0:52:11and you're downloading 4K HDR content.
0:52:14You know, right now,
0:52:15if you have a pretty decent internet connection,
0:52:16you hit play on a rental and it just starts, right?
0:52:18There's enough data coming in that it has plenty of time
0:52:22to stream it all down locally
0:52:23before even getting close to needing it.
0:52:27And 4K is a lot more data, but with this new compression,
0:52:30they may be able to help balance that out.
0:52:33I think, the more I think about it,
0:52:35the more I think you're right
0:52:36that the 4K Apple TV is dependent on this.
0:52:39It's also dependent on them having 4K content ready
0:52:43in iTunes, like we spoke about a couple weeks ago,
0:52:45having some way to upgrade your 1080 content to 4K.
0:52:48There's a lot of moving parts there
0:52:50and the iTunes movies and TV show, you know,
0:52:54that is probably the most important part
0:52:57of the iTunes ecosystem.
0:52:58I think it's probably more important than the music store at this point.
0:53:01And obviously it's front and center on the Apple TV. So you have to have that,
0:53:06right? You can't launch a 4k Apple TV and not have 4k,
0:53:10at least some 4k stuff in the iTunes store. That would just be, that'd be silly.
0:53:14So there's a lot of moving parts there, but I think the more I think about it,
0:53:17the more I think you're right that this is sort of all one lump sum.
0:53:21And again, it's a big stage, so why not do it here if it's already. Yeah,
0:53:26Exactly.
0:53:27Yeah.
0:53:27So we'll see.
0:53:28Oh, how many days left?
0:53:31Uh, two weeks at this point.
0:53:33Yeah.
0:53:33Just about.
0:53:34And, and surely if, if this 4k Apple TV is real, we're going to see demos.
0:53:39We're going to see Netflix or Hulu or somebody, uh, Amazon prime video, uh,
0:53:44on stage and saying, Hey, we're ready for this on day one, because that's important.
0:53:49I write that if you, if you have this TV, that's 4k and you have this box, it's 4k.
0:53:54You want to have all your other stuff.
0:53:56And so this is this is going to be one where I think we see some demos
0:53:59I'm sure there'll be there's always a cringe-worthy video game demo
0:54:03I will get that too
0:54:04But I mean we'll know within the next couple days if it's the fifth or not because they've got to send invites out if it's quiet
0:54:09Over the next couple days, then I think the 12th is is much more likely. Yeah, I
0:54:14was waiting for the invitations to go out today and instead we got the
0:54:20developer beta 8 of iOS 11
0:54:22So I was really surprised by that. We don't always get to beta 8 or you know, even better 7
0:54:28Yeah, so if Apple can still no GM, right?
0:54:31No, no GM. The GM is gonna be officially announced as usual at the event and you know developers on that day can you know
0:54:40Maybe the following day can submit
0:54:42is11 apps to the App Store, so
0:54:46Definitely looking forward to that because the final week for me means taking screenshots and videos because now I was seven in theory is final
0:54:53Yeah, I'm super excited about all this. You know, we've been talking about this phone. It feels like about ten years
0:55:00yeah, like I feel like we've talked about this phone forever and
0:55:03I'm just super excited about it. The more we learn about the more excited I am about it and
0:55:09Not everything that introduced will be for me. I don't have a 4k television
0:55:13I'm not looking to buy a new television so the Apple TV won't be for me yet, I don't
0:55:17think.
0:55:18But there's other stuff, you know, an LTE Apple Watch, I'm very curious about how they
0:55:22pull that off and what that's like in experience.
0:55:24I'm very curious about the new phone and I think it's going to be a fun fall and, you
0:55:30know, along with Myke and his, you know, year of enthusiasm or whatever he's called on this
0:55:35show, like, I think the three of us are just, we're excited about seeing this stuff and
0:55:39get our hands on it next month.
0:55:40I think it's called the year of optimism.
0:55:43Yeah, something.
0:55:45Myke gives names to everything.
0:55:47Everything.
0:55:48Do you know Myke has nicknames for objects in his house?
0:55:52Yes.
0:55:53OK.
0:55:53I know that his canary is called Buster.
0:55:55Yeah.
0:55:56Is it called?
0:55:56Because it busts the bad guys.
0:55:57Buster or Alfred or--
0:56:00I think it's Buster.
0:56:01I'm almost positive.
0:56:02OK.
0:56:03He's adorable.
0:56:05He really is.
0:56:06All right.
0:56:07We're gonna get into some teachy-teaches,
0:56:10but first I wanna tell you about our final sponsor.
0:56:12That is Crimson Mesa.
0:56:14Crimson Mesa is excited to announce its first app
0:56:17for the iPad,
0:56:18Shokim Niimai, Ancient Game of the River.
0:56:24It can be found in the iPad App Store
0:56:25by searching for Ancient Game of the River.
0:56:27Shokim Niimai is a fun strategy game
0:56:30for parties or evenings with friends
0:56:33with simple to learn rules.
0:56:35All you have to do is swipe on your pieces to move them,
0:56:37and the goal is to get your pieces around the board
0:56:40before your rival does.
0:56:42It's based on a game that was popular in ancient times,
0:56:45but was forgotten for thousands of years.
0:56:46And now it's back, it's on the iPad, and costs just $9.99.
0:56:51I know Myke has spent some time with it.
0:56:52He said it was really fun and simple,
0:56:54and that there's a lot of tension between the players,
0:56:57as opposed to making it all about
0:56:58what's going on on the screen.
0:57:00And that makes it really different
0:57:01to a lot of things on the iOS App Store.
0:57:05Crimson Mesa creates premium tablet-focused software and is driven by one principle that
0:57:09I really respect, design quality experiences that their users will love and enjoy.
0:57:16In addition to Shokunmimai, Crimson Mesa is hard at work creating revolutionary iPad tools
0:57:20for professionals to help bring that multi-pad lifestyle to more people.
0:57:24To discover why this game was so popular eons ago, buy The Ancient Game of the River on
0:57:29the iPad App Store for only $9.99.
0:57:32You can find out more at GameoftheRiver.com.
0:57:34Thank you so much to Cryptza Mesa for supporting this show and relay FM.
0:57:39All right, Federico,
0:57:40you are here to talk about something that I will admit to you.
0:57:43I didn't know was a thing in iOS 11 until you suggested it,
0:57:46that you talk about it. And that is SMS filtering in iOS 11.
0:57:51So I assume is this like call filtering is an iOS 10 where it detects spam or
0:57:56what is this? What is this thing?
0:57:57So last year Apple rolled out the spam calling extensions that allowed the
0:58:04developers to identify potential robocallers, you know, those companies, awful companies,
0:58:11that call you and they want to sell you something or maybe it's like it's not even a person
0:58:15on the other end. Anyway, that was a new extension point in iOS 10. With iOS 11 they want to
0:58:21tackle another aspect of this problem, of the same problem, which is companies that
0:58:26spam you over SMS or MMS even, because they found your phone number somewhere and they
0:58:33they get in touch with you, they send you offers, they send you links, they send you
0:58:36just annoying messages to catch your attention and you know for spam reasons and engagement
0:58:43and whatever. So how do you block SMS? Well you cannot really block SMS if you don't know
0:58:50the source beforehand. So iOS 10 and even iOS 9 I think it featured a built-in unknown
0:59:02and junk section of the Messages app that, by default,
0:59:06put messages from unknown contacts into that view
0:59:12so that you wouldn't be distracted by notifications
0:59:15so that those messages wouldn't end up
0:59:17in the main conversation list.
0:59:20But still, there's still some messages
0:59:25that go through that filter.
0:59:29Because sometimes-- I don't know if it ever happens.
0:59:32to you but sometimes I get these messages that don't actually show a phone number.
0:59:36They show like a name of a store or I don't know how that works but somehow my iPhone
0:59:44doesn't recognize that as an unknown contact. And so it goes through the unknown and junk
0:59:50filter and it ends up in my main conversation list. You know, spammers are really enterprising
0:59:58They always find a way.
1:00:01So with iOS 11, there's this new API.
1:00:03It's called the Identity Lookup API.
1:00:06And it's the foundation for this new extension type, the SMS
1:00:11filtering extension.
1:00:13This allows developers to write apps
1:00:16that don't block SMS and MMS from these companies.
1:00:21Again, you cannot block them beforehand,
1:00:23but you can filter them.
1:00:24And by filtering them into the unknown and junk
1:00:27view of the Messages app, you can allow the users to not be distracted by notifications
1:00:34and to go into that section when they want to clean up and remove all of these conversations.
1:00:39The filtering extensions, they only work with SMS. They cannot integrate with iMessage,
1:00:48and they work locally on your device. They cannot integrate with your carrier, for example,
1:00:57or they cannot integrate with the iMessage protocol.
1:01:01They are a simple way to listen, basically, for incoming SMS.
1:01:06And based on a list of keywords or phone numbers
1:01:10that you want to filter, they can hide those messages
1:01:14by default and put them into the unknown and junk
1:01:18view of messages.
1:01:20There are some details of these extensions
1:01:23that we should cover.
1:01:24First, you can only activate one at a time.
1:01:27Unlike content blockers, if you want, in Safari, if you want,
1:01:30you can activate multiple content blockers at once.
1:01:33I don't recommend you do that.
1:01:35But if you want to, it's possible.
1:01:37With the SMS filtering extensions,
1:01:39you can only activate one at a time.
1:01:42When you go into-- when you have some of these apps installed,
1:01:44you go into the settings for messages,
1:01:47and you see the unknown--
1:01:49I think it's called the filtering section or the unknown
1:01:51and junk section.
1:01:53Anyway, you go in there and you see that you can select one of these filters.
1:01:57You get a message, you get like a permission dialog that says the extension will be able
1:02:01to read your incoming messages, of course, because it needs to actually take a look at
1:02:06the phone number or the keywords included in the body of the message.
1:02:11Once you enable one, it's running in the background, you don't have to do anything else.
1:02:16So I've been playing with three or four of these.
1:02:19I think they're going to be an extremely popular category of IS-11 apps because they
1:02:24remove that tiny frustration of getting SMS from my local grocery store, now for some
1:02:31reason sends me spam via SMS because they have my phone number, because I have a loyalty
1:02:38card and they have my details. So a few months ago they decided, "Let's just start sending
1:02:42Federico some SMS about, you know, vegetables discounted on sale today. I have no idea what
1:02:50they think that's a great idea, but they do it anyway.
1:02:52The way that, at least, you know, based on the betas that I've had so far, most developers
1:02:57are going to offer blacklist and whitelist features. So if you want to make sure that
1:03:04some SMS, either from a specific phone number or that contain a specific keyword, they go,
1:03:11are filtered out and they go into the unknown and junk section, you can create a blacklist.
1:03:17Otherwise if you want to make sure that some SMS, stuff like one-time passwords from your
1:03:22bank or two-factor authentication codes, if you want to make sure that those SMS go into
1:03:30the main conversation list and that you get notifications from them, you can whitelist
1:03:35them. So you can make sure, you know, these are the good ones and these keywords, they
1:03:39are bad messages, filter them out. I think they're going to be extremely popular and
1:03:46you know, considering that Apple has already done spam call extensions and now they're
1:03:51doing SMS filters, I think they're really helping people get rid of these annoyances
1:03:59on a daily basis. It will be interesting, I think, to see how developers design these
1:04:07extensions in the sense of I've seen for example developers integrate with core
1:04:15ml and the natural language api's to automatically detect possible spam
1:04:21keywords I've also seen some folks try to do like a crowdsourced database of
1:04:28popular spam keywords so aggregating that data across the extensions user
1:04:36So it will be interesting to see if most developers settle on "here's the app, create your own
1:04:44blacklist manually, type in some keywords, type in some phone numbers" or if they will
1:04:49do some type of smart extension that tries to figure out on its own what is potentially
1:04:55spam over SMS.
1:04:57So again, this is probably not a big deal as spam called extensions last year, if only
1:05:05I think spam calls are more intrusive and more annoying than SMS. But they're still
1:05:12welcome. So I'm gonna keep one enabled. I still gotta choose the one that I prefer.
1:05:18But I think it will be a nice addition to iOS.
1:05:21Yeah, and carriers have tried this. Just like carriers had robocall stuff. But I use...
1:05:27I was actually trying to find on my phone, I forget the Nomo something, Nomo Robo.
1:05:37It's like two bucks a month or something and it does a really good job.
1:05:39You can add calls to the blacklist and they look over them and then add them to their
1:05:45database so it's crowd sourced a little bit.
1:05:47But this sort of stuff is nice to have because spam, at least for me, has gotten way worse
1:05:54on my phone number.
1:05:55It really got worse when we founded Relay because my phone number was attached to a
1:05:59bunch of paperwork that I assume is public record, but it's out of control.
1:06:03So I'm glad that they're doing something here.
1:06:06And it seems like they're doing it the right way, where it's on-device.
1:06:08It's very Apple-like, it seems like, in the way that they're going about it.
1:06:12Yeah, the extension itself, it cannot even talk to the network.
1:06:17So if you want to have an associated web server that goes along with your app.
1:06:23So these extensions, as you mentioned, as any other extension on iOS, they are bundled
1:06:28with an app that you download from the App Store.
1:06:31But the extension itself, it cannot talk to the network, it doesn't have network access.
1:06:37And the way that Apple has designed the Identity Lookup API is iOS acts as a middleman.
1:06:44iOS talks to your server, and if your server wants to evaluate some keywords that the extension
1:06:50doesn't understand, or if your server has some more information about potential spam
1:06:55keywords. Anyway, iOS talks to the network, and then iOS passes that information back
1:07:02to the extension. So there's no direct network access between the extension and the server.
1:07:08There's iOS in the middle taking care of that translation between the two. So Apple always
1:07:13likes to design these APIs with privacy and security in mind.
1:07:19And I'm not a technical expert, but looking
1:07:22through the documentation, from what I can understand,
1:07:25it seems that they are following through.
1:07:28The same with content blockers and spam calling last year.
1:07:32These APIs are always designed to make sure
1:07:34that user information is not given away to developers
1:07:40and given away to extensions.
1:07:41So the Identity Lookup API follows content blockers.
1:07:45For example, they cannot see the URL of the web page
1:07:48that you're visiting at the moment.
1:07:51And it doesn't surprise me that Apple has designed the API
1:07:55this way.
1:07:56Yeah.
1:07:57You know, it pops up every once in a while.
1:08:02I saw it kind of floating on tour the other day of like,
1:08:05the phone numbers, like the app or messages,
1:08:08is really the only thing on your phone that really
1:08:11can take over the phone, so you get a phone call,
1:08:13that UI takes over the whole screen.
1:08:15People are like, "Well, it'll just be a notification."
1:08:17I don't know how I feel about that,
1:08:18but same thing with SMS in particular.
1:08:21These things can just come to you.
1:08:24And, you know, or something like the weather,
1:08:27or with Twitter or Instagram, I'm going to it,
1:08:29but with phone number, it feels like stuff
1:08:32is just always pouring in.
1:08:33And so to have some smart stuff built up around that
1:08:36to make it a better experience,
1:08:38you know, it's like, yes, let's leverage
1:08:39what iOS can do, what the iPhone can do to make this better for people.
1:08:44And so I'm excited they were adding it.
1:08:46I can't believe I missed it over the summer, but I'm glad you explained it.
1:08:50Yeah.
1:08:51I feel, I feel, I feel teached, so to speak.
1:08:53You feel teached.
1:08:54Okay.
1:08:55That, that is great to know.
1:08:56That is great to know.
1:08:57I think that does it for this week.
1:08:58I think we're done.
1:08:59Yeah.
1:09:00If you, if you want to find show notes this week, point your web browser to relay.fm/connected/157.
1:09:08While you're there, we should mention that it is still August, and that is Relay FM's
1:09:13birthday month, and we're winding down our membership drive.
1:09:16If you're not a member, go check out relay.fm/membership.
1:09:20You get lots of goodies.
1:09:22You can support this show, you can support all the great shows, so every Relay FM host
1:09:27benefits, but lots of goodies.
1:09:31We're doing member-only episodes, we have a newsletter, we got a bunch of 5K wallpapers,
1:09:36A lot of fun stuff, so relay.fm/membership.
1:09:39If you are a member, thank you so much for your support.
1:09:44If you wanna find us online, Myke isn't here,
1:09:48but if he were here, he would be on Twitter,
1:09:50at twitter.com/imike, I-M-Y-K-E.
1:09:54You can find Federico at maxstories.net
1:09:58and Vitici on Twitter, and you can find me
1:10:00at 512pixels.net, and I am I-S-M-H.
1:10:04And I think that's it.
1:10:07So until next time, Federico, say goodbye.
1:10:10- Adios, echos. - Adios.