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Connected

51: Ironic Heartbeats

 

00:00:00   [Intro music]

00:00:06   From relay FM, this is Connected, episode number 51.

00:00:11   Today's show is brought to you by Igloo, an internet you'll actually like.

00:00:14   Lender.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts,

00:00:19   and Casper, because everyone deserves a great night's sleep.

00:00:24   My name is Myke Curley and I'm joined today by the independent man, Mr. Steven Hackett.

00:00:29   Hey Myke.

00:00:30   How you doing?

00:00:31   I'm doing well.

00:00:32   It's just the two of us today.

00:00:34   It is just the two of us.

00:00:36   We can make it if we try.

00:00:38   I think we'll be okay.

00:00:40   Our Italian brethren is, I guess brethren is plural, our Italian brother is away this

00:00:48   week with us.

00:00:50   On special business.

00:00:51   Yes, special beach business.

00:00:53   (laughing)

00:00:56   So it is morning time, if you're listening to us live.

00:01:00   We should say that we are now recording in the morning time,

00:01:04   depending on where you live, if you're in the US.

00:01:07   It is in the morning now on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. Eastern,

00:01:12   which will let you do your own math

00:01:15   to figure out where that is in your time.

00:01:17   - No, just say it, you've written it down here

00:01:18   in the little-- - I did, is it right?

00:01:19   So it's eight a.m. Pacific,

00:01:22   - 11 a.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. mic time.

00:01:24   Mykey in standard time.

00:01:26   - Generous mic time.

00:01:28   - Generous, is that what you decided the GMT stands for?

00:01:31   - Well, yeah, but it's actually not,

00:01:33   'cause GMT, it's three o'clock,

00:01:35   'cause at the moment in London, we're not on GMT,

00:01:38   we're on BST.

00:01:40   - Which is bus standard time.

00:01:43   - It's BS time.

00:01:44   That's British summertime, so we go forward in summer.

00:01:50   - British Summertime sounds like a bandstand TV show

00:01:54   that I don't wanna watch.

00:01:57   - Well we are currently on British Summertime,

00:02:02   so you're just gonna have to live with that.

00:02:04   - I can do that.

00:02:07   We should do some summer up, we should do some follow up.

00:02:10   So far this week, shockingly,

00:02:16   we have more iCloud backup stuff.

00:02:20   So to quote the show notes,

00:02:23   Steven wasn't wrong, but he wasn't completely right either.

00:02:26   There is a series of tweets that'll be in the show notes.

00:02:30   We spoke last week about iCloud Drive documents

00:02:34   and the fact that the Time Machine interface

00:02:37   doesn't really have anything to do

00:02:39   with getting those old copies back.

00:02:41   But it turns out that iCloud Drive documents

00:02:45   and Time Machine have a Time Machine-like feature

00:02:48   with iCloud but they're not the app level.

00:02:50   They're in the app level not like the finder.

00:02:52   So if you open something like pages or byword

00:02:56   or something that offers this feature,

00:02:58   you can go in and you can say view previous versions.

00:03:03   I'm pulling up the screenshot to file revert to

00:03:07   and then you can do browse all versions in the menu.

00:03:10   And it's sort of weird.

00:03:13   I understand why they do this

00:03:15   because it is not time machine.

00:03:17   So they kind of want to, I guess, keep it separate visually

00:03:21   and like mentally that it's under the revert to menu.

00:03:24   But strange to me, I didn't even think to look here.

00:03:27   Of course, when I saw all these tweets, I was like,

00:03:28   oh yeah, I'm a moron.

00:03:30   But so iCloud does have versioning.

00:03:34   It's under the file menu in the app of choice.

00:03:37   Yeah, that you're working in, which is a little strange,

00:03:40   but I guess it is what it is.

00:03:42   - This is another one of those follow up topics,

00:03:44   which right now is what I claim as being dead.

00:03:48   - No, well this is the end of it.

00:03:49   This is the truth.

00:03:50   We're over when we get to the truth

00:03:52   and we have gotten to the truth this time.

00:03:54   - Because I'm currently adding five tweets

00:03:57   to the show notes, which is one of the most ridiculous

00:03:59   things I've ever done.

00:04:00   Plus, I think this is maybe the third we've spoken

00:04:02   about this and I still don't understand

00:04:05   what everybody's talking, I just don't know

00:04:06   what's happening. - No one does.

00:04:08   That's the problem.

00:04:09   I guess we could have done like a Storify link

00:04:12   or whatever, but I don't know how that works.

00:04:14   - Well, now there are now four links in the show notes

00:04:17   with the title, Teddy proving Stephen wrong.

00:04:20   - Perfect.

00:04:21   Where are the show notes this week, Myke?

00:04:24   - They're in the same place that they always are,

00:04:26   which is at relay.fm/connected/51.

00:04:30   But I hope that you have a great app,

00:04:33   which you use to look at the show notes in every week.

00:04:37   All good apps have show note support,

00:04:40   and I hope that you use one of those.

00:04:43   well said. In the, it's not really follow-up in the sense that we've talked

00:04:48   about it, but people now have this thing where when Apple adds new banks to Apple

00:04:54   Pay, a bunch of people tweet at me and say, "Hey, is your bank on here? This

00:04:57   morning, 46 new banks were added to Apple Pay and my bank is still not listed." So

00:05:03   there's that. You need to just give up. I know, right? Because clearly your bank is

00:05:09   too small to deal with this so it's just it's just not gonna happen for you I'm

00:05:14   afraid they they say it's coming I believe them really no I don't believe

00:05:21   them so yeah that's all the follow-up this week it's it's short people follow

00:05:28   up is on vacation a little bit I think so that's all I have so I don't know if

00:05:34   people recognize this we tend to say it quite a lot but I feel like it's one of

00:05:38   those jokes that makes the most sense if you can actually see our document where

00:05:42   like we have like topic one topic two but every now and then particularly

00:05:46   every episode we have a topic 0 topic 0.5 topic 0.7 you know yeah that's the

00:05:51   thing that we refer to quite a lot this this topic is topic 0.life which is I

00:05:57   think is a new segment that I'm going to introduce and this week on topic

00:06:01   0.life you are now independent as of yesterday completely unshackled from the

00:06:07   man, shackles you may say. How are you feeling? I guess the only shackle now I

00:06:14   guess is me? I don't know like are we shackled? I think so. I think we have to

00:06:18   deal with that to each other but we are shackled together I guess. How are you

00:06:22   feeling? Very confused after whatever that was. It's really good so today is

00:06:30   day two of full-time self-employment. We spoke about it I was kind of part-time

00:06:37   I'm self-employed most of July.

00:06:40   But yeah, it was great.

00:06:41   It's fun, it's busy,

00:06:45   but it's nice that I can do things during the workday,

00:06:49   even though I did work until my kids went to bed

00:06:53   and then after they went to bed last night,

00:06:55   yesterday was long, but it's really good to be able

00:06:58   to work on things as they come up and have flexibility.

00:07:01   And like today, this morning, you and I were speaking,

00:07:04   you want me to write a blog post for Relay,

00:07:06   I just put that on my to-do list, I'll get to that today, maybe tomorrow, and it'll get

00:07:09   done.

00:07:10   I don't have to worry about what night I'm going to slot it in after dinner.

00:07:14   That sort of flexibility and being able to deal with time and big chunks is really nice

00:07:17   so far.

00:07:18   Are you showering?

00:07:20   Yes, every morning.

00:07:22   Okay, you still wearing trousers or pants as you would say?

00:07:25   I did actually.

00:07:27   I did actually tweet about that this morning, I'll put that in the document for you.

00:07:31   I wore pants yesterday and I'm wearing them again today, so I was lied to.

00:07:35   Wow, look at you. Well, no, it's only two days. Just wait, because you're leaving the house,

00:07:40   like, at the moment. It's the days where you don't leave the house is where you'll stop wearing pants.

00:07:46   Right, so days that I'm doing audio stuff, I am coming up to the office. I've not--

00:07:55   and I came up here yesterday as well, just because it was going to be busy at home. And so, yeah,

00:07:59   I plan on-- I think I'll probably be in the office, you know, at least half the time,

00:08:02   If not maybe a little bit more is kind of how I think it's gonna go now, but uh, I work from home

00:08:06   Yeah, I could just not wear pants

00:08:08   But here I have to like walk by the people's offices and they will care if I come in without pants, I think

00:08:12   Well, I mean you don't know until you try though, right? Uh, I mean basically where we rent space

00:08:18   from is sort of like a church type place so they might they might have a

00:08:23   Policy. They might have some pretty serious ramifications

00:08:27   Perhaps

00:08:30   What are you excited about that you're working on? Because you have to fill your time up with something.

00:08:34   Yeah, I mean, it's nice. I've got some new projects

00:08:40   I'm working on

00:08:44   Some stuff that I'll be launching in the next couple weeks, I hope. So that's exciting, although vague for now.

00:08:50   I got my, we're gonna talk about it, but I got my Apple Watch review up yesterday.

00:08:55   I worked on that last week actually and being able to spend I spent a lot of time on that like I took really like

00:09:01   Some I think some of the best photos ever taken for the site like I'd shot him in a lightbox like in the studio

00:09:06   Like that sort of stuff on 512 is exciting, you know new stuff with relay we have in the pipe

00:09:11   Really just it's just being able to put more time into things that I care about

00:09:16   Where before

00:09:20   The something like the watch if you might have like one photo and it wouldn't be nearly as nice like I did a whole like

00:09:25   photo shoot with that thing and being able to sort of invest more time and

00:09:28   make things more polished is really what at least right now is exciting to me. I

00:09:34   got some new stuff coming like I need to get started on my OS X review. I'm

00:09:38   excited about doing not on the weekends. Are you writing an OS X review? I am I'm gonna do it

00:09:44   again. So I did Yosemite was my Yosemite review was short I just did a design

00:09:49   review because we were having a baby in like the end of September and I was like

00:09:54   this is really not a great time to have to sit down and write 10,000 words but

00:09:57   um yeah I'll do I'll do El Capitan this year I think so. Well like a full-on

00:10:02   thing. Yeah yeah like I did for if you look on 512 Mountain Lion and Mavericks

00:10:08   both got full reviews on on 512 okay so I'll return to that form as opposed to

00:10:13   what I did for Yosemite. I like the Yosemite one though because it was

00:10:16   different so yeah and you know and I thought about finding a hook like that

00:10:22   like Yosemite the hook was easy because the interface was you know obviously

00:10:25   very different but El Capitan doesn't really have that and so it made you know

00:10:33   it may end up being something more like a sort of a look at the fine details but

00:10:37   we'll see I haven't really gotten into it at all yeah that's on my kind of my

00:10:40   list for next week to start thinking about that and more specific terms you

00:10:45   should write the review on top of a mountain like to really kind of get in

00:10:50   and the feel of it all.

00:10:51   - Yeah, well you've been here.

00:10:53   We don't really have mountains at this part of the country,

00:10:55   so I have to go drive somewhere to do that.

00:10:57   But yeah.

00:11:00   - I'm just an ideas guy.

00:11:01   - Yeah, it's good.

00:11:03   It's so far so good.

00:11:07   - And you did something, there's a note here,

00:11:09   what did you do?

00:11:11   - I needed to confess something,

00:11:12   and I thought this would be a good topic to confess within.

00:11:18   So I currently have an old Apple II GS,

00:11:23   if you're really curious, under my display

00:11:27   at my new desk at the office, but it's too tall.

00:11:32   And so I was looking, I was like, well,

00:11:33   I like the idea of having an old computer under my display.

00:11:36   I think it's kind of way cooler

00:11:37   than having a display stand or something.

00:11:40   I was like, I need something shorter.

00:11:41   And I was like, oh, it'd be really cool

00:11:43   to have a neck station, 'cause they were pretty thin.

00:11:45   And I ended up, this was last night late.

00:11:50   This guy had a thing, like four of them,

00:11:54   and I was like, well, one of them was in much better shape

00:11:58   than the other, and so I ended up sort of falling down

00:12:02   the eBay rabbit hole and ended up buying a next station.

00:12:04   So I have a next station coming in a couple weeks,

00:12:07   that'll be my new display stand, I'm excited about it.

00:12:10   - How much did you spend on that?

00:12:11   It also, well, that's not very much on the first one.

00:12:16   - Wait, what?

00:12:17   - The guy had four of them, and I was like,

00:12:25   oh, well, one of them, the one that was in nice shape,

00:12:29   like that's gonna get, I had a cap, right?

00:12:31   So you always go into these things,

00:12:32   like I am willing to spend this much money and no more.

00:12:35   And-- - What was your cap?

00:12:37   - That was not important.

00:12:38   I'm not gonna-- - That's important.

00:12:39   I'm not going, it was under $100,

00:12:42   which is cheap for these things.

00:12:44   Just barely under $100.

00:12:48   And so I was like, well I won't win that one,

00:12:51   so there's this other one that's all banged up,

00:12:53   let me also bid on it.

00:12:56   And so worst case scenario is I get sort of a banged up

00:12:59   next station.

00:13:00   Turns out I won them both.

00:13:01   So I have two coming and I will flip one of them, I'm sure,

00:13:06   or mail it to you, maybe.

00:13:08   - I don't want it.

00:13:09   They're kind of heavy.

00:13:10   I just don't want it.

00:13:11   Like, I don't even know why you want it.

00:13:13   It doesn't make any sense.

00:13:14   I'll bring it to XOXO with me and I will give it to you in person.

00:13:17   You can and I'll just immediately drop it on the ground.

00:13:21   That's really sad.

00:13:22   I don't care.

00:13:23   I don't want it.

00:13:24   Give it to me and hell, we'll pay for you.

00:13:27   I just, I don't even know why you're doing this.

00:13:30   It's one of the...

00:13:31   I mean, you know, there's just a whole joke about me, right?

00:13:33   Buying stuff.

00:13:35   You're buying old computers to put new computer monitors on top of.

00:13:39   Like that is, that's just weird.

00:13:41   That's...

00:13:42   - You're just weird.

00:13:43   - Maybe I am.

00:13:44   - When we're done, I'll take a picture of my desk

00:13:47   and we'll put that on the screen

00:13:47   so people can see where it will live.

00:13:49   - This week's episode is brought to you by lynda.com,

00:13:55   the online learning platform that has over 3000

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00:16:14   Hooray.

00:16:15   So, why, I mean, what are we today?

00:16:21   It's the 4th of August today.

00:16:22   I mean, that is true.

00:16:24   And so you're basically about three and a bit months after the Apple watch was released.

00:16:30   written a review. That's uh, that is that is accurate. Why did you do this? I feel

00:16:36   the question in the way that you're saying that. A couple of reasons, some of

00:16:41   it was just, it started out as just scheduling pain, but what it ended up

00:16:48   being, we spoke a little bit last week about how we work and how I was sort of

00:16:53   still thinking through it and that's really the big reason it was so

00:16:59   seemingly late that when when I review new version of OS X or I spend time with

00:17:05   a new Mac or new iPhone or iPad I have a frame of reference for those things

00:17:10   right so I can look at 10.11 and I know all about all the previous versions OS X

00:17:15   so I can kind of see where it fits into that story relatively quickly. Same thing

00:17:20   with the Mac or iOS device. The watch though is in many ways a very new

00:17:28   thing and even though I've had spent time with the Pebble and various fitness

00:17:35   tracking devices over the years the watch is something different and

00:17:38   something new and definitely my first foray into sort of a non-Pebble kind of

00:17:45   modern smartwatch platform and so I really wanted to understand how I was

00:17:53   gonna use the watch how I feel about it and sort of where it fits into my life.

00:17:59   I actually had, I was talking with somebody about this yesterday in person and he was

00:18:04   kind of you know wondering about what the watch did and sort of you know kind

00:18:10   of what its features were and I sort of stumbled through it right because it

00:18:16   takes, you can't explain the watch succinctly. It's really actually really

00:18:21   difficult, I tried and ended up writing 3200 words.

00:18:24   Like, it's not something that really has an elevator pitch

00:18:29   that's universal.

00:18:30   For me, the watch has a bunch of different things

00:18:34   it can do and you kind of pull some from column A,

00:18:36   some from column B, some from column C

00:18:38   and kind of focus on the features that you like

00:18:42   and I think we're gonna get into this,

00:18:43   you and I even, between the two of us,

00:18:45   use it fairly differently and like different things about it

00:18:49   and so all that just makes it complicated

00:18:50   think about complicated to write about and so I really wanted to kind of be

00:18:53   like okay this thing is now ingrained it is now you know part of my routine part

00:18:59   of my pattern every day what what does it mean to me now and so it is late but

00:19:04   I could also kind of just couldn't write it any earlier because I needed to

00:19:07   understand it better I try and when I think about these things and because I

00:19:11   agree with you about the idea of trying to explain this to someone is super

00:19:15   difficult like even so much like when someone says do you like it it's like

00:19:19   yes asterisk and you give a bunch of things about it that you're not sure

00:19:24   about or whatever and I try and remember like the iPhone and how I felt and and I

00:19:32   you know I might be like looking at it through rose-tinted glasses now but I am

00:19:38   sure that I was like this is the best thing ever you must own this where I

00:19:44   I don't really feel that way about the Apple watch. So I was in preparation of today

00:19:50   And we're gonna talk about how we feel about it. I was talking to my girlfriend Adina because she has one

00:19:56   And I was asking her I said to her like, you know, is it a need?

00:20:02   Yeah, like do you feel now like she's won the watch?

00:20:06   I mean she I think she got hers two weeks after it launched. So basically for as long as everybody else has

00:20:12   I was like, "Is it a need for you yet, or is it still a want?"

00:20:15   And she's like, "I don't know."

00:20:16   She says, "I don't feel like I need it, right?

00:20:19   But it's something that I really like now and I get use out of."

00:20:24   So I was like, "Well, tell me then, what do you use?"

00:20:26   And she was like, "Well, it's nice to see the time

00:20:30   and it's nice to see the weather."

00:20:33   Right? Primarily, they're her things.

00:20:34   She's like, "I like that I can see those two things right there at all times.

00:20:38   Like, I like that."

00:20:39   Because they're right on the watch face.

00:20:41   and especially the weather is something that she really kind of,

00:20:44   she's one of those kinds of people like you that obsess over the weather.

00:20:47   Yep.

00:20:48   So she likes it. She has it right on her watch face.

00:20:50   She was saying to me, you know, because obviously I know this stuff,

00:20:53   but that she doesn't, she never answers the phone.

00:20:57   Like she doesn't like to answer phone calls.

00:20:59   So this allows her to screen the calls even better than before.

00:21:02   She also as well, like

00:21:06   she doesn't like she doesn't let her phone rule her life.

00:21:10   like if something happens, if she has a notification or something, she likes to

00:21:14   come to it in her own time, right? So she'll just, she'll deal with it as she

00:21:18   wants to. So in that essence, Adina's phone is always on silent and never, like,

00:21:23   doesn't even buzz, right? But she doesn't, she doesn't have it in Do Not Disturb, she

00:21:28   just has all those sentence turned off. And so now she's like, well what the

00:21:32   watch does is it's, it doesn't like really bother me when I get like a little

00:21:36   notification come through but I can very easily check this stuff without getting

00:21:41   lost in the phone right so that's so she finds those things very useful and I was

00:21:46   like well what if I took it away from you like what if it was

00:21:49   gone and she was like well I would annoy me but I would I would be able to just

00:21:54   get used to it so I found it interesting because she you know I think she's more

00:22:01   than an average user in her understanding of this stuff but she's

00:22:05   she doesn't care about these things to the level that we do,

00:22:08   but I actually think that she has a very similar feeling

00:22:12   about this stuff to us.

00:22:14   Oh, she does really love the fitness stuff as well.

00:22:15   I'm gonna talk about that a little bit more

00:22:17   in regards to how we, me and her both use the watch,

00:22:19   but I think that her feelings are very similar

00:22:23   to the way that a lot of us feel about it, in all honesty,

00:22:26   which I found interesting.

00:22:28   - No, I mean, listening to you describe her thoughts on it,

00:22:32   very much in sync with what I think about it.

00:22:37   So for me, I kinda came to two overall conclusions,

00:22:43   it's sort of like two points

00:22:46   at the same conclusion really.

00:22:47   One is the question of do you recommend it?

00:22:51   And I do if you're strongly tied to your iPhone

00:22:55   and you're looking for something to track their fitness.

00:22:58   Now part of that is maybe colored by how I use mine

00:23:02   that the notifications of the Fintan stuff

00:23:04   are two of my favorite things about it.

00:23:06   But I think that combination is unique to Apple Watch

00:23:11   where Fitbit can do one but not the other,

00:23:13   the Pebble can do one but not the other.

00:23:15   The Apple's platform can do both.

00:23:17   And I think it is, to your point a second ago,

00:23:22   the watch is more about want than about need,

00:23:25   where I need a Mac or a computer to do my job.

00:23:30   a Mac or a computer to do my job, right?

00:23:33   Like I cannot be a podcaster and a writer

00:23:35   without a computer, I just can't do it.

00:23:37   Like that falls squarely in the need category.

00:23:41   Now, when it comes to computers,

00:23:44   there are things that I want, like I want a big SSD,

00:23:46   I want a retina display, I want a lot of RAM,

00:23:50   but I don't necessarily need them.

00:23:52   The watch though, I think falls for the most part

00:23:55   completely in the want category.

00:23:56   Like I agree with Adina that if mine went away,

00:23:59   I would be annoyed and I would miss it.

00:24:01   But it's not at all the same as if my computer

00:24:06   or my phone went away.

00:24:06   Like if my car gets broken into

00:24:08   and my computer and phone get stolen,

00:24:10   I'm replacing them like straight up like that day.

00:24:13   I've got to go buy a phone, I gotta go buy a computer.

00:24:15   If the watch was stolen out of my gym bag,

00:24:18   I would be annoyed but I don't think

00:24:20   I would necessarily replace it like that day

00:24:22   or even in the immediate future

00:24:25   because it falls into that one category.

00:24:28   So I think in talking with people who wear them,

00:24:31   both online and the world,

00:24:34   you know, I've got friends with them now,

00:24:36   I think that's where a lot of people sit.

00:24:38   I don't think there's anything in my conclusion

00:24:39   that's like wildly dividing or upsetting.

00:24:44   I think that that's sort of just where this device lives,

00:24:46   that it's an accessory.

00:24:48   And by that very nature,

00:24:49   it is not something that is necessary,

00:24:53   but something that is desired, if you will.

00:24:58   The most intimate device, what do they call it?

00:25:00   Most personal device, that's it, right?

00:25:03   - Yep. - That's what Apple call it.

00:25:04   And I think one of the things that they really understood

00:25:07   and they're pushing, they continue to push

00:25:10   in their advertising, is for you to interact with people

00:25:15   frequently that you care about,

00:25:18   that also have Apple Watch, right?

00:25:20   That is the thing that Apple like to try and promote.

00:25:23   And they have features, like, you know,

00:25:25   whole button is dedicated to doing this, right? Digital touch. And obviously

00:25:32   I think one of... I feel like I'm in a relatively unique position amongst most

00:25:37   of my friends in that my significant other also owns and wears an Apple Watch.

00:25:42   I don't think there are many of us that have that. I think Erin does, Casey's wife.

00:25:46   I can't think of anybody else off the top of my head that I know personally that

00:25:51   their wives or husbands also own them. So that actually for me it builds in

00:25:59   one of the things that I like most about the Apple Watch is that both me and

00:26:03   Adina use them and this comes through in a couple of different ways. So the

00:26:08   digital touch stuff initially we used it a lot and I think we used it jokingly

00:26:14   and like still ironically like the way that me and you would use it.

00:26:20   And now it's to the point where it's used sparingly, and when it's used sparingly, it

00:26:26   has more of a significant feel to it when it happens.

00:26:30   So if Adina sends me some taps, or sends me a little doodle of some description, that's

00:26:37   nice.

00:26:38   I like that, and I know that she does too.

00:26:40   So now it's like a much more sparing thing that we communicate to each other.

00:26:44   But I do like to touch for that thing.

00:26:47   It shouldn't have a whole piece of the UI, like a whole button dedicated to it, because

00:26:53   pretty much for most people, they're not going to need to send this stuff to more than a

00:26:56   couple of people.

00:26:58   For it to actually be really effective in their lives would be my feeling.

00:27:02   So then the other thing is, like, you know, everyone was complaining initially, "Oh, we

00:27:06   need to have more than 12."

00:27:08   And then Apple have added a UI for that, but I actually think most people will never need

00:27:12   more than 12.

00:27:14   Like now it's calmed down and people aren't sending ironic

00:27:18   heartbeats to each other as much anymore.

00:27:20   I don't think it's important but Apple did it

00:27:22   because it was something that people wanted.

00:27:25   You know?

00:27:26   - Yeah, the touch stuff is interesting.

00:27:29   I spoke about that in the review and you know,

00:27:34   because Mary doesn't have one, I'm not sending things

00:27:37   back and forth to her.

00:27:38   We've talked about it and I've always phrased it

00:27:40   like in that light, like it'd be nice to be able

00:27:42   to do this sort of stuff.

00:27:44   Instead it's just like me and a bunch of people

00:27:45   I podcast with sending a heartbeats around,

00:27:47   which is fine, it's funny.

00:27:49   It's not like a life changing thing though.

00:27:53   I do agree with you that I think Apple

00:27:57   played its importance up and I would not be surprised

00:28:01   at some point if that button changes

00:28:05   or like a lot of people replied to me about the review

00:28:09   saying it'd be great if Apple made that button programmable.

00:28:11   So maybe you could tie an app to it,

00:28:14   so I hit that and it opens the fitness app,

00:28:16   or I hit that button and it opens messages.

00:28:18   Some sort of customizable hardware shortcut, if you will.

00:28:22   I think that would be nice,

00:28:24   and I think that it would be more in balance with,

00:28:28   it just makes digital touch seem really important,

00:28:33   and I don't think for most people,

00:28:36   at least that I've talked to, it is.

00:28:37   I like it, I like that feature a lot,

00:28:40   even though I'm not using it with my significant other,

00:28:43   but it is something that,

00:28:44   it just feels really heavy handed.

00:28:47   Like Apple's really trying to push it,

00:28:49   and I think they may have overstepped that a little bit.

00:28:52   But--

00:28:52   - It's 'cause it was a nice idea, it's a fun idea,

00:28:55   but I don't think it requires a dedicated button.

00:28:58   And I know the button is also used for Apple Pay,

00:29:01   but that is a secondary use of the button.

00:29:04   The primary use is the friend stuff,

00:29:09   and I don't think that's necessary, to be honest.

00:29:12   I think you could make that a little app all of its own,

00:29:14   but I think having the button programmable

00:29:17   would make way more sense.

00:29:18   Like for example, I would quite like to hit that

00:29:20   to launch the workout thing.

00:29:22   - Yeah, yeah.

00:29:24   I would love just to be able to say,

00:29:26   "Hey, make this button do this thing."

00:29:28   And then I guess maybe Digital Touch gets rolled

00:29:31   into the Messages app or something.

00:29:33   And I mean, it's definitely one of those little corners

00:29:37   of watchOS that seems a little misaligned with how people are actually using it.

00:29:42   And I think my guess is Apple will correct that eventually.

00:29:45   I'm sure they have data, right? I would like to think that they probably have an idea of how many people use it.

00:29:51   I'm sure they can collect that, well they do collect that stuff, they know how many people use Notes, for example.

00:29:57   So I'm sure they have an idea.

00:30:00   One of the other things though that actually ends up being more interesting for me,

00:30:04   in both me and Nadina owning a watch together is Bragging of Fitness Rings.

00:30:09   This is a daily occurrence in our house now where we will show off to each other

00:30:16   about how fit we've been in the day. She wins many days because I am a hermit now,

00:30:26   locked in my home, but it makes it even sweeter because when I do win,

00:30:31   like I win by a massive amount for whatever reason that ends up being

00:30:36   probably because I'm less fit than her right so any movement is like 10 minutes

00:30:41   of exercise congratulations you went downstairs is a minute for you but that

00:30:47   that's a good thing but I've also got into this idea of wanting to fill the

00:30:51   rings up more I do struggle with the exercise ring some days most days but I

00:30:56   like to try and fill them up and especially if I'm like if I'm getting

00:30:59   to that point in the day and I can see oh I've got a little bit more to go then

00:31:02   I'm getting in that scenario now of wanting to fill that up to the point

00:31:06   where I and we'll talk about our watch faces in a moment like I changed mine

00:31:09   recently to include the fitness rings around the front because I quite like

00:31:12   that but there was I I had a a thing that I wanted to point out which I

00:31:17   didn't necessarily agree with with your review in the kind of the blanket

00:31:21   statement of apps are bad sure because I have some that I think are excellent

00:31:27   and work really really well. The most the most good, that's a great

00:31:32   that's a great turn of phrase, the most good watch app that I've used is Dew. So

00:31:40   the Dew app I use quite frequently for just quick reminders and little alarms

00:31:44   in the day. This app works flawlessly every single time. It launches fast, I'm

00:31:49   able to go in and dictate a message like "remind me to take the trash out in 45

00:31:55   minutes and it just does it takes it all together spits out as an alarm I can go

00:32:00   in there and reschedule things that already existing I never have problems

00:32:04   with this app I don't know how they have made it work as well as they have

00:32:07   compared to other apps but it's just absolutely fantastic and it's also for

00:32:13   me is a great app it's like a great use case for the watch because I used you

00:32:19   for like that thing I need to remember to do I must remember to do it I need to

00:32:23   set an alarm for it because it's an important thing but it's not really like

00:32:26   OmniFocus worthy. Like I'm not one of those people that puts take the trash

00:32:31   out in OmniFocus and you know what I really like about Joo is it has like the

00:32:36   repeating alarms so you like when it notifies you you can just hit snooze for

00:32:39   X amount of time that notifications really go on the watch pops up on the

00:32:43   watch I just hit remind me in 30 minutes so the Joo app is like a perfect use

00:32:47   case for the watch anyway but it the app itself just works fantastically well

00:32:53   another that I really like so I'm I've been dabbling with the spark email app

00:33:00   yeah are you familiar with this by read all I am and I plan to eventually move

00:33:08   my all of my email usage into this app because I quite like it but I need them

00:33:14   to have basically all platforms because at the moment it's just iPhone because

00:33:19   they like many of these email services these days they do things to your email

00:33:23   right like snoozing and stuff like that and there is no like standardized way of

00:33:28   doing this so if you use like for example you spark a mailbox together

00:33:32   they just can't understand each other and all hell breaks loose end up with a

00:33:36   bunch of folders named later yep it's just the worst but I really like their

00:33:42   watch app so I've tried it out for a while and it's excellent. It's really

00:33:46   great. The notifications when they come through because they have like that

00:33:50   small notification stuff and it does a pretty good job of picking emails that I

00:33:54   want to be notified about. I can read the entire email and the notification which

00:33:59   I like and I can go into the app and I can read and respond to email and all

00:34:04   that kind of stuff so it's a great way to check email. I find it to be faster

00:34:08   and more responsive even than Apple's Mail app. It loads mail faster for me

00:34:12   than Apple's app does. Again, don't know how they're doing this but it's another

00:34:16   great app. And the last one is Fantastical. I like the layout of it, it

00:34:21   looks really nice, I can add events really easily with the natural language

00:34:24   stuff that I like. So there are three apps that I use quite frequently, nearly

00:34:30   every day if not every day, and I think that they do an absolutely great job of

00:34:35   what they're set out to do and I certainly know, again, I'm confused about

00:34:40   about how they work so well in the confines

00:34:42   of what every other app has,

00:34:44   but pretty much every other app that I have

00:34:46   struggles in some way.

00:34:48   - Yeah, and I mean, there are some

00:34:51   that are better than others.

00:34:53   I think my bigger point is that right now,

00:34:57   like the bar to be a good watch app

00:35:00   is sort of like difficult because of the technology

00:35:03   that is there currently.

00:35:04   And of course, listen to this in a year,

00:35:07   and hopefully will not be relevant anymore.

00:35:10   But I think that's part of it that they struggle

00:35:14   under WatchKit to do certain things.

00:35:17   I think part of it is too, like I,

00:35:20   like to do this to OmniFocus, for instance,

00:35:23   I have Watch Absolutely Nice to go in there

00:35:24   and just like check things off a list as you go.

00:35:27   That sort of stuff is nice, but I just,

00:35:29   for anything more complex, I'm just not super interested

00:35:35   and doing it on my wrist.

00:35:37   Now I don't use, do,

00:35:42   and actually I actually dislike

00:35:43   Fantastic Hell on the watch a good bit

00:35:45   for reasons we don't have to get into.

00:35:47   I just think it's heavy handed.

00:35:48   - I think you're heavy handed.

00:35:50   - Wow.

00:35:51   But, see I mean, it will only get better I think.

00:35:55   And I think that's a good thing.

00:35:57   I did say though that I can't help but think

00:36:03   that my sort of disinterest in watch apps

00:36:06   is partially because of the technology.

00:36:08   Because most of them are sort of so-so because of WatchKit

00:36:12   that it has sort of sourdered me to the whole thing.

00:36:16   And that, if that's true for me,

00:36:18   it's probably true for other people

00:36:19   who don't do what I do for a living.

00:36:22   And I think that that is potentially problematic

00:36:26   for the watch as a platform.

00:36:28   Like if a normal person like tries to watch apps today

00:36:32   and they're not very good, then they could just be

00:36:35   turned off to that forever and never go into that app screen

00:36:38   and just deal with notifications and stuff.

00:36:40   And that's fine, again, because the watch

00:36:42   does a hundred different things, you can pick and choose.

00:36:45   And you can never go to the 100-gom screen,

00:36:47   and that's fine, because you can still use a watch

00:36:49   the way you want to.

00:36:50   But I would think that the whole thing

00:36:53   has sort of been damaged by the fact

00:36:54   that they're not super great on day one.

00:36:57   - Yeah, so last night when we were talking about it,

00:36:59   Adina said to me, "Do you think there's gonna be

00:37:01   a new watch in a couple of months time and I explained to her why I thought

00:37:05   that wouldn't be the case because you know the watch was announced in

00:37:09   September but came out late and it hasn't really been out for long enough I

00:37:14   think for them to warrant a new design this year and I think they'll be in the

00:37:17   fall next year like to take the place of where the iPod event is you know I'm

00:37:21   not an original thinking this but this is what I think yeah I agree and was you

00:37:25   know it's kind of saying that I also don't think it fits in the holiday

00:37:28   line up as a new one. I think the existing one will fine, I don't need another one because

00:37:32   it would be too confusing. But I think they'll have new bands and stuff like that as well

00:37:36   as third party bands with the Made for Apple Watch program. I think that's how they bump

00:37:41   up more cash in the Apple Watch market this year. But she said, "Well, you know, this

00:37:47   one's really slow." Which I found interesting because it's not particularly slow, just the

00:37:55   apps are and that's where her experience of the watch's overall performance is

00:37:59   coming from because all the apps that she uses take too long to do anything.

00:38:03   So I said to her like you know I expect based on what's being said that that will

00:38:08   all improve in September but the funny thing is is who's telling

00:38:13   people this? Like nobody knows like Apple can't really I guess and they

00:38:20   maybe should do a bit more marketing around it I'm sure they

00:38:23   will. I don't know how they do it. Your watch is better because before it was

00:38:26   really slow because the apps were crippled. But it's just interesting to me

00:38:31   to think like I'm telling her this she's like oh that's cool like I'm pleased to

00:38:34   know that but who's telling everyone? Like no one? Like it's just a weird thing

00:38:39   that it's like maybe they should... I stand by it. I don't think that the watch kit

00:38:45   apps should have ever been a thing. It should have just been glances and

00:38:48   notifications and maybe like giving them even more power than they had and just

00:38:53   forgoing apps for a bit but hey this is where we are. We should talk about

00:38:57   glasses actually because we have wildly differing opinions on glasses but before

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00:42:06   So you basically, you know, professed an undying love for glances.

00:42:12   I do really like glances. I've got several set up, like about like eight or nine now,

00:42:18   and it's a really nice way just to go in and just get like a little glance,

00:42:25   a little quick update of what's going on.

00:42:29   The downside is they do sometimes take a second

00:42:31   to load data, which is frustrating.

00:42:33   And again, that should be better with watchOS 2.

00:42:36   But I like that I can just really quickly see

00:42:40   like how many tasks I've left,

00:42:43   what podcast is next to my queue?

00:42:46   What is next to my calendar?

00:42:48   Having that stuff just easily accessible,

00:42:52   I like is just sort of like a little little dashboard on the wrist of what's going on in my life

00:42:57   So what glasses do you have enabled?

00:43:00   Let's see I have

00:43:03   So I've got of course the default Apple ones first the little like control center one

00:43:09   now playing

00:43:12   Then I have oh god. Don't start playing music

00:43:16   It's dangerous to do this on the air

00:43:19   overcast

00:43:22   calendar, Todoist, weather, activity rings, heart rate, and then battery.

00:43:29   So I had a bunch of these, like you did, basically the same amount, but then when I read your

00:43:33   review I realised that the only one I ever use is Now Playing.

00:43:37   So like I-

00:43:38   Which is definitely my favourite, like I use that one more than any of the others for sure.

00:43:42   Like I check the weather a lot on my watch, I don't have it on my watch face, but I just

00:43:47   go to the home screen and open the weather app because I get more data, I get more information,

00:43:50   Because I know if I'm going to open the complication, I'm just going to want to check for stuff

00:43:56   later anyway.

00:43:57   You know, it's not going to give me the data that I want in the glance.

00:44:01   So I find myself either opening apps or seeing what's on the watch face.

00:44:06   I don't use glances a lot.

00:44:08   So because of that, I pared them down.

00:44:10   And now, all I have enabled, I have Now Playing and Overcast because I tend to use those two

00:44:16   together.

00:44:17   I have Fantastic Cal and Activity.

00:44:19   That's it.

00:44:20   And I don't even really need the activity one,

00:44:22   but I just have it there just to fill out the whole thing.

00:44:25   But I really don't use them very much at all.

00:44:28   - Yeah, again, it's going back to that you can do

00:44:33   so many things on this device

00:44:36   and you can set it up the way that you want to.

00:44:38   Really like in a way that most Apple stuff

00:44:43   doesn't really support.

00:44:44   I mean, you can do it on the Mac, but like iOS,

00:44:46   like you just have your grid of home screen icons and that's it and you can't

00:44:51   really you can do some widgets and notification center but no one knows or

00:44:54   cares about those it's just a nice like flexibility I think that's one reason

00:44:59   this thing feels so new it's just historically Apple it doesn't really

00:45:04   smile upon that sort of stuff all that much which is sad. So one of the things I

00:45:13   actually haven't even mentioned my I think my single favorite feature of the

00:45:16   Apple Watch which is walking directions. Yeah they're really nice. I walk around

00:45:22   London a lot whenever I whenever I leave the house I'm always taking public

00:45:27   transport and I'm walking around and stuff so I'm looking forward to getting

00:45:30   the transit directions as well on hand seeing how that works out but what I do

00:45:34   like I just put my location in now and I just start walking and most of the time

00:45:39   I just trust the Apple Watch to tell me where to go by the taps and I've worked

00:45:44   out what left and right is now. I couldn't tell you what they are now but I know that when they

00:45:48   when I feel them I work it out. And while I'm walking along I might just check the map every

00:45:52   now and then to kind of just see where I am in like relation to everything else. But I've found

00:45:56   the walking locations in London to be very reliable on the whole and I use them a lot and it's one of

00:46:03   my favorite features because as a way to like get around it makes so much more sense than just

00:46:08   staring at my phone screen for every turn as I would before and now it's kind of just like oh I

00:46:13   I just go here, I go here, I go here, it's great, that's perfect, you tell me to go left,

00:46:17   you tell me to go right, and I'll just trust what you tell me to do.

00:46:19   I think it's fantastic, I really love it.

00:46:22   Like the Apple Watch Maps app is, in my opinion, better than the Apple Watch iPhone app, because

00:46:28   I find the iPhone app very confusing because it doesn't do that great thing that Google

00:46:31   Maps does where it does a really good job of, well I'm sure it does but I can't find

00:46:35   it, of orienting the map to show you where you are in relation to it, alright, so it

00:46:39   uses the compass to move the map around.

00:46:41   If Apple maps on their phone does this, I find it very confusing the way it does it.

00:46:45   It always confuses me, I know that walking in the wrong direction, but I never do with

00:46:48   the watch because the watch does a really good job of displaying that information very

00:46:52   cleanly and simply to me.

00:46:54   So I really love it.

00:46:55   I agree on the walking directions.

00:46:59   I used it in San Francisco a good bit at WWDC and it's something that people were like,

00:47:09   what is Apple doing here, right?

00:47:11   'Cause it's like a series of taps to go one way

00:47:13   and then like this is taps to go the other.

00:47:15   And it, you do it one time and it makes sense.

00:47:20   Like you can feel it and you kind of know what it's doing

00:47:22   and sort of the way that it does it makes sense

00:47:24   once you experience it.

00:47:26   But I, yeah, I like it a lot while walking

00:47:29   and actually, because if you set directions

00:47:32   on your phone in your car, it also mirrors to the watch.

00:47:37   And so, which is a much bigger use case for me

00:47:40   than walking is driving directions.

00:47:43   And it is nice to have those on your wrist

00:47:45   while you drive as well.

00:47:46   You know, you can very kind of,

00:47:48   if your hands up on the wheel,

00:47:50   you kind of very quickly glance at it

00:47:51   and not looking down at your phone.

00:47:53   If, you know, I don't know who would do that,

00:47:56   but if you do, it's better.

00:47:58   So yeah, again, like one of these things the watch does

00:48:02   that is sort of like,

00:48:04   there are gonna be a bunch of people

00:48:05   never come across that right but if it's important to you and it's there and you

00:48:09   like it then it becomes one reason you like the device again this thing is

00:48:14   multifaceted in ways that are just mind-boggling at times. Right last thing

00:48:20   let's talk about watch faces so how do you have your watch face set up and what

00:48:25   complications do you use? So most days I use the simple watch face which is a

00:48:33   analog watch face and with it gives you four complications plus the date on the

00:48:40   watch face itself which is nice. And so I use weather kind of going from top left

00:48:45   going clockwise. I have weather, activity rings, sunrise/sunset time which is nice

00:48:52   doing like yard work and stuff with the kids especially during the summer no

00:48:55   time it's gonna get dark. And then I have the event one which on this doesn't show

00:49:01   you the name of the next event but shows you the time of the next thing on your

00:49:04   calendar which is enough for me at least right now to remember oh yeah I've got

00:49:08   this you know I got a good meet this person at at two o'clock or whatever

00:49:12   busier days I do use the utility face which is the one I'm sure you've seen

00:49:19   that is all of the text right so you have or not utility excuse me modular

00:49:26   where you get big time and you get big calendar.

00:49:31   I use the calendar one in the middle,

00:49:33   so it's like really big and I can see the name of the event.

00:49:35   So busier days I do switch over to that.

00:49:38   But most of the time, the simple face is enough

00:49:43   to get me by.

00:49:44   - And what color do you tint?

00:49:46   - The colors depend really on what I'm wearing.

00:49:52   - Hey, look at you.

00:49:53   The link I just put in the document,

00:49:56   I sort of walked through all the watch faces in May.

00:50:00   All the screenshots were orange.

00:50:02   I actually really liked the way the orange looks.

00:50:04   But like today, I'm wearing a shirt

00:50:08   that's got some blue on it

00:50:09   and I'm wearing my blue tennis shoes

00:50:10   and so I have the second hand blue.

00:50:14   So it's kind of fun to mix and match that a little bit.

00:50:16   Generally, it's kind of like between like blue, red

00:50:18   and orange kind of depending on what's going on.

00:50:22   So I use the utility phase.

00:50:26   - Okay, that seems to be the popular one

00:50:28   amongst people I hear on podcasts.

00:50:29   - Yeah, I really like the way it looks.

00:50:32   And I like the full text in my events thing.

00:50:36   So I have that one on the bottom.

00:50:37   And then top right I have my activity rings.

00:50:40   And then the top left I have Eastern Time.

00:50:43   So I have New York City.

00:50:45   'Cause Eastern Time gives me a good approximation

00:50:47   of when America's awake.

00:50:49   And I can base most of America being awake

00:50:51   on Eastern Time basically. Works well for me. I only ever use this watch face. I don't

00:50:58   use any other watch faces. And I change the color depending on my band. So I have four

00:51:03   bands. I have black, blue, green, and white sport. The green sport gets the green color,

00:51:10   the blue sport gets the blue color. Black gets a purple color and white gets red.

00:51:15   - Yeah, I saw you, I guess, this summer with the purple one.

00:51:20   And it actually looks really nice.

00:51:21   It's like that sweeping second hand in purple

00:51:24   is a nice touch.

00:51:25   I definitely have used that one as well.

00:51:27   I like the contrast there.

00:51:30   - Apple Watch, baby, there we go.

00:51:33   - Yeah, I mean, the watch faces and even the bands,

00:51:37   you know, ways to customize this thing and make it your own.

00:51:40   I mean, if you, you know, when we were in San Francisco

00:51:44   together is the highest concentration

00:51:46   Apple watches I've ever seen.

00:51:48   And even most people, you know,

00:51:49   it was a common talking point of,

00:51:51   oh, you know, how's your setup?

00:51:52   What are you doing?

00:51:53   And like, the utility face was very common,

00:51:55   probably second was the modular face,

00:51:58   but past that people had them set up

00:52:00   in drastically different ways,

00:52:02   different colors, different bands,

00:52:04   of course, different cases.

00:52:05   And just all that customization is really interesting

00:52:10   from a, like a Apple perspective

00:52:12   that they're usually not hip to that.

00:52:13   Yeah, I'm still gonna buy the Milanese, but I've just been waiting until my next America

00:52:18   trip to get it.

00:52:19   It's not cheap, so anything I can do to get it a bit cheaper would be great, so I'll buy

00:52:23   it in dollars.

00:52:24   Probably when I go to Portland.

00:52:27   Sweet.

00:52:28   So let's talk quickly about this rumor about Apple looking at their own cell network.

00:52:36   Yeah, so before we get started, I saw someone tweet this that it's like the oldest Apple

00:52:43   and so I actually have links from 2006 and 2008 as well.

00:52:46   This article that wises in the news again

00:52:49   is Business Insider had an article,

00:52:52   I think yesterday or day before,

00:52:54   about Apple looking into an MVNO.

00:52:57   So to back up for a second,

00:53:00   MVNO is a type of cell network here in the States,

00:53:03   I think overseas as well, I think it's like--

00:53:05   - It is, yeah. - It can be done anywhere.

00:53:07   Okay, there's several here that operate in Memphis,

00:53:10   I'm pretty familiar with them.

00:53:12   So an MVNO is a carrier in the sense that you pay them your cell phone bill

00:53:16   and they have features and plans and stuff but they don't build out the

00:53:20   infrastructure. It's not their towers, it's not their back call. They are more or

00:53:25   less renting space and most of the time in the United States that is from Sprint

00:53:29   or from T-Mobile. So somebody like here we have like Cellular South and they're

00:53:34   renting space from another carrier. And the the trade-off is that very

00:53:39   often they can have much cheaper month-to-month plans because they're not

00:53:45   having to subsidize or pay for all of the infrastructure and hardware it takes

00:53:51   to make cell phone networks work. It's actually been interesting they're

00:53:55   putting a new cell tower up not far from the house which I'm glad for because I have

00:53:58   Verizon hopefully they have a Verizon space on it because it's not really

00:54:03   terrible inside my home and it's just like really complicated there's like

00:54:06   people running around all day for like weeks putting this tower up and it's just that little reminder to me of how

00:54:12   complicated this business is

00:54:14   So none of you know can come in and say, you know

00:54:16   We don't pay for any of that so we can do like really interesting things with our with our plans

00:54:20   That we have to more affordable we can subsidize the phone in a different way

00:54:23   The trade-off is historically at least in my experience

00:54:27   in having friends and family members on these things is

00:54:30   That generally the coverage is not very good if you go like outside of like major cities

00:54:36   So I have a fan member on MVNO and like anytime we go outside the city itself. It's like well my phone's dead

00:54:43   So the trade-offs there and for that family member it makes sense because they must have spend their time in the city

00:54:49   So there's all these trade-offs with these things

00:54:52   It's sort of a different take on the the standard AT&T or Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile where they're building out their platform

00:54:59   But another hardware and you pay them directly

00:55:02   The rumor is is that Apple is going to launch an MVNO

00:55:07   Which again has been old kind of old rumor kind of comes back around

00:55:11   But it's still interesting I think for a couple of reasons

00:55:17   Well the old rumor thing that they've been saying that apparently that the reason this is an old rumor is they've been working on this

00:55:23   for years

00:55:25   They've been having talks with people and continue to expect it to take a long time

00:55:31   Yeah, I mean sure and that's definitely one of those things where maybe this isn't different rumors

00:55:36   Maybe it's the same story just sort of popping up from time to time

00:55:39   But business insider basically is saying that you pay Apple directly for data calls and texts

00:55:46   This sort of came up with the Apple sim which is in like the new iPad air 2

00:55:51   So mine is on AT&T

00:55:54   But before I decided that the the SIM card that was in it could go could work with anybody except Verizon

00:56:00   I think so I could I could tell it hey, I'm AT&T or I'm T-mobile and then the the sim

00:56:05   can do both and so, you know, maybe Apple's been playing with this on that front as well and

00:56:10   The interesting

00:56:15   Thing about this to me at least is like the control aspect like I'm sure Apple would love

00:56:19   who used to pay your cell bill through your Apple ID or like your iTunes credit card or whatever and

00:56:25   You deal with them when you have issues

00:56:28   So I can see that from Apple's perspective from like a customer service

00:56:31   Viewpoint being attractive, but I just don't know

00:56:36   Apple does this and like their coverage is bad at Memphis because t-mobile is bad in Memphis for instance

00:56:44   They can't do anything about that. I don't think they unless

00:56:48   They're doing something that these other MV knows or not

00:56:51   They can't go to t-mobile and say hey

00:56:53   You need to put a tower up in the zip code because we have a lot of customers complaining

00:56:57   Now maybe Apple's big enough to pull that off.

00:57:00   Apple is the only smartphone vendor who doesn't have

00:57:03   carriers putting, you know,

00:57:05   karate software on their phones.

00:57:07   But it just seems like a sort of a mixed bag

00:57:10   from the control standpoint, in my mind at least.

00:57:13   I don't know, what do you think about this, Myke?

00:57:16   - I'm trying to work out why.

00:57:19   Like why.

00:57:21   I mean, the only thing that I can draw is like,

00:57:25   People then, they don't buy iPhone,

00:57:28   they subscribe to iPhone.

00:57:30   And maybe then it allows Apple to shift

00:57:34   their release schedule or something, I don't know.

00:57:36   So you just pay Apple every month

00:57:39   and you just get a new iPhone every 18 months

00:57:41   as they make new ones, right?

00:57:43   You never buy the phone.

00:57:45   You just pay them your $50 a month and that's it.

00:57:48   And you just keep getting the new one.

00:57:49   And they keep upgrading everyone

00:57:51   and it's happy days all around.

00:57:54   That's why I can maybe see that they would do it because it allows Apple to continue

00:57:59   to push the phone in further directions.

00:58:02   It allows them to continue to push the software in further directions because they can guarantee

00:58:06   a certain amount of their customers will always have the new phone.

00:58:12   That's where I can see that they would do this because really, I mean I don't know the

00:58:18   ins and outs of this, but I can't see what Apple are losing by having to work

00:58:23   with carriers. It doesn't seem like the iPhone is crippled in any way

00:58:28   because of working with carriers, like how Google and Android is, right?

00:58:32   They've got updates and stuff like that. There doesn't really seem to be too much of a

00:58:36   downside, like the carriers are very much just out of the way.

00:58:40   The only thing that I can see is I know that things are changing in America now

00:58:43   and you guys are going on to a system which has been in Europe for a while

00:58:47   which is kind of the idea of looking at leasing handsets.

00:58:51   Exactly. Yeah things like AT&T Edge or I think Verizon has one as well where you

00:58:56   pay a little bit more but you can upgrade more frequently and you don't

00:58:59   really own your phone. Kind of just paying extra a month. So it seems like that's

00:59:04   just gonna become the standard and the thing that can happen there is people

00:59:08   will then see the price of the iPhone and then may not go for it. Where

00:59:11   currently they don't see the price. Like if you're told pay $150 pay $200 and you

00:59:17   get in your iPhone and you pay $50 to us every month for two years. I think

00:59:20   people do that but if it's like pay $30 for your talk plan to $20

00:59:26   a month for your phone, oh by the way the phone costs you $650. I think even

00:59:31   though the cost is exactly the same over the same period of time potentially, the

00:59:36   sticker shock might start turning people off upgrading. So you know this could be

00:59:40   a move that they're trying to make to think about stuff like that but even

00:59:43   that seems like a long shot to me. So I just can't work out why they want to do

00:59:47   it and the control thing doesn't really seem to to mix because it's like how

00:59:51   much control do you really need and then you as you say like by gaining that

00:59:55   additional control whatever it is that they might get they're gonna lose a

01:00:00   bunch because they're no longer in a scenario where they can guarantee good

01:00:04   coverage for their customers and even in this even in this like I can't imagine

01:00:08   it will be the only option right like Apple Apple plan or whatever they'll

01:00:14   call it you know would just be basically I don't know oh you're sending me a link

01:00:20   here what is this yeah it turns out maybe you're right that uh like 15

01:00:25   minutes ago 9to5 posted that Apple denies the report saying is not planning

01:00:29   to launch an VNO service so it may be that all of your reasons are correct

01:00:37   well let's look at this a second right Apple are obviously dealing with

01:00:42   carriers on a daily basis. If they are planning this or if they are looking at

01:00:48   this they don't want that to start causing problems with their current

01:00:53   customers. So you know this could be a denial that's not you know not actually

01:01:00   true but who knows but anyway right so that kind of killed that then didn't it?

01:01:03   Yeah I mean I don't know it I think overall it is interesting whether doing

01:01:11   or not just from a like to talk about like the cell phone carrier situation in

01:01:17   the States and you're right that it is shifting and a lot of people have worked

01:01:20   out that those deals like you actually pay more over time but if you need a new

01:01:25   phone or something happens to your phone you have more options and you know not

01:01:28   everybody buys off contract every other year like some people do who are nerds

01:01:32   who remain nameless I think overall though like the carrier situation at

01:01:37   least here is like kind of miserable and maybe there's an opportunity for someone

01:01:43   like Apple to do something. Remember we talked about it. Google just like six

01:01:48   weeks ago or something a couple months ago started this with the Nexus 6 so you

01:01:53   can you can sign up for Google Fi and it switches between Sprint T-Mobile and

01:01:58   wireless whatever is the best connectivity at the time is what the

01:02:03   phone operates on and that sort of stuff is interesting to me like a technology

01:02:09   perspective that hey no matter where you are you're probably guaranteed or at

01:02:13   least it's highly likely that one of those three things has good coverage and

01:02:17   that sort of like innovation and flexibility is not possible under the

01:02:22   current model where you know about my iPhone I pay for Verizon way too much

01:02:26   money a month and it just works on Verizon and if Verizon is crummy where I

01:02:30   I am and there's not Wi-Fi, I'm just out of luck.

01:02:33   And like I said, my home for instance,

01:02:36   Verizon's not very good.

01:02:38   And so the phone's on Wi-Fi and that's nice,

01:02:41   but if that's not an option, then I'm sort of stuck.

01:02:45   And it would be great to see Apple,

01:02:48   it's great to see Google doing it,

01:02:50   like pushing on those carriers and say like,

01:02:52   it's time to maybe think about this

01:02:55   from the consumer perspective and not just say,

01:02:58   this is how we've always done it,

01:02:59   this is how we always will do it mentality.

01:03:02   - So, like you know, all I want,

01:03:06   and I would hope from if Apple ever did do this

01:03:09   or some other company could just take this role

01:03:11   now that Apple clearly aren't doing it,

01:03:14   I just wanna pay for data.

01:03:15   That's all I want, just data.

01:03:16   I don't need calls, I don't need texts, I never use them.

01:03:20   If I ever do use them, I use them so infrequently

01:03:22   that I wouldn't mind just paying for them as I go.

01:03:25   But just give me a cheap plan,

01:03:28   which gives me a bunch of data, like unlimited data,

01:03:30   and I'll be happy 'cause it's all I need.

01:03:32   Just all I want's all I need.

01:03:34   - Yeah, and again, the flexibility would be great

01:03:38   'cause for me, I do need some voice minutes.

01:03:41   I do need SMS.

01:03:42   I've got family members and friends who are not on iMessage.

01:03:45   But my plan, if I look at my usage, it is very data heavy.

01:03:50   And it'd be nice to sort of pick and choose better

01:03:54   what I actually need and base my plan

01:03:57   my billing on what I'm actually using and not sort of a guess of what I might use.

01:04:03   So that sort of stuff is also if it's possible, but these companies just don't want to change

01:04:10   this from the status quo.

01:04:12   Right, let's move on.

01:04:14   Let's take our final break.

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01:06:59   So let's do some pics.

01:07:00   We haven't done any pics in a while.

01:07:02   Yeah, why don't you lead us off?

01:07:04   So I was talking about like my fitness bands and fitness bands, my fitness rings and stuff

01:07:09   like that recently.

01:07:11   So one thing I've been doing now is the seven minute workout.

01:07:16   was recommended to me by Underscore. Me and him were talking about fitness stuff recently

01:07:21   and he suggested I try this out. It's made by Johnson & Johnson and it's a really good

01:07:25   app and basically you just open it up and you put some basic information in on the first

01:07:30   time like height and weight and that kind of stuff and fitness level and it gives you

01:07:33   a workout that you do every day. You just go in and you want to start the workout. It

01:07:39   has an Apple Watch app as well which I've not actually used. I didn't know that there

01:07:42   was one. Oh I should try that out maybe I can just trigger it off my watch. There you

01:07:46   go. Technology how does it work? And you go in and it gives you a little warm-up

01:07:50   which takes a couple of minutes and then you can do the workout and it's you know

01:07:54   it's got little videos and stuff so it shows you how to do each exercise and it

01:07:58   explains them every time and it's a really great little way to do a bit of

01:08:02   exercise every day. They have a bunch of different workouts that you can

01:08:06   customize if you want to. I haven't done that I'm just using the same one at the

01:08:09   moment whilst I'm getting kind of to the level where I want to then go out and do

01:08:13   some other things as well. They have workouts for all different types of

01:08:17   fitness levels. I really like it. I think it's a great a great little app and it's

01:08:20   just a good way for me to do something every day to try and keep fit. So the

01:08:25   seven minute workout from Johnson & Johnson is my pick this week.

01:08:28   Sweet. Mine is Cloak VPN which I know we've talked about on some other shows.

01:08:35   I think it was on upgrade a while back.

01:08:38   But it's a VPN service, so if you are traveling

01:08:42   or if you need content that is only available

01:08:46   in another country, things like that.

01:08:48   Or if you just want a secure connection

01:08:49   to the internet from where you are.

01:08:51   So if you're, for instance, I use this

01:08:55   when I was traveling a good bit.

01:08:57   I was gone two weeks out of June

01:08:59   and being able to use it on like hotel wifi

01:09:02   know that my connection was secure was a way to breathe a little bit easier.

01:09:09   So cloak is an iOS and a Mac app. You basically install it you have to give it

01:09:16   on the Mac if you give it some credentials and on iOS installs a

01:09:19   certificate setup thing and basically you go in and you enable it and you're

01:09:25   you're browsing via a VPN. They do have like plans so they have ones like three

01:09:31   I think it's like three bucks a month for five gigabytes of data which is really nice if you travel.

01:09:37   They've got some that are a couple that are unlimited you can pay by the month or pay by the year.

01:09:43   Earlier this year I just paid for the unlimited data for a year and so if I'm

01:09:47   on an untrusted network for whatever reason I need to do something like connect to one of the relay servers or pull something from my

01:09:56   Synology at home or just you know check my email on the network that I don't really

01:09:59   Trust I can just go to the menu bar or open the app and enable it and know that I'm safe and sound which is

01:10:05   Just nice a big fan of cloak. I use it

01:10:09   I don't really think about the security stuff in the same way that you do it does secure me in connections

01:10:15   I don't know does it automatically with think it quit over cloak is there?

01:10:18   Yes, the little thing so it just does it for me, and then I just have to say like yes

01:10:22   This is a trusted connection, and we're all good to go

01:10:26   I've used it in hotels previously, like when we were at Oul, we were struggling to upload

01:10:32   Upgrade on the hotel Wi-Fi, but as soon as I connected to Cloak, it uploaded really quickly.

01:10:40   So they were obviously blocking something, right?

01:10:42   And so that was really cool.

01:10:43   I don't know why that happened, maybe somebody who's smart can explain it to me, but it did

01:10:47   work and it was fantastic.

01:10:49   But I use Cloak to get around region restrictions on videos, stuff like that.

01:10:54   So if I want to watch American Netflix or something, I use Cloak for that.

01:11:00   Sometimes if I want to watch a John Oliver video, right, because YouTube restrict them,

01:11:04   or Comedy Central restrict them.

01:11:05   You see on Comedy Central?

01:11:06   I don't know what it is.

01:11:08   HBO or something.

01:11:09   Yeah, it's great.

01:11:10   It's a fun show.

01:11:11   So you can like it, because sometimes they're like, "Oh, watch this thing where he tears

01:11:15   down FIFA or whatever."

01:11:17   So I use Cloak to get around the region restrictions and stuff like that.

01:11:20   So I really like it.

01:11:21   I think it's really great.

01:11:22   that you can pay your subscription via your iTunes account. So yeah I'm also in

01:11:30   agreement it's a great little app. Cool good solid picks this week. Our

01:11:35   weekly picks lol. It's been a while it's been a long time. Alright so I think

01:11:42   that about wraps up this week and if you want to find our show notes today go to

01:11:45   relay.fm/connected/51 if you want to find us online. There's a couple

01:11:50   ways you can do that. You can find Steven over at 512pixels.net and he is @ismh on Twitter.

01:11:56   I am @imike. Thanks again to our sponsors for this week, Igloo, Kasper and Linda and

01:12:04   we'll be back next time. Until then, bye bye.