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Connected

476: Back in the Scuttlebutt

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:07   From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 476. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace,

00:00:15   ZocDoc, and NetSuite. My name is Mike Hurley and I am joined by... I've had a recovery TG.

00:00:21   Hello, hi. What a intro. Put something extra on you there today. I hope you like it.

00:00:27   It's I feel like a like a it was like a wrestling announcement or something.

00:00:31   Oh weighing in at an amount of I don't know how much 10 kilograms from Vittavo Italy.

00:00:40   Federico Vitti. Do you like that? Yes, perfect, thank you. I'm worried about you. That weight,

00:00:47   I'm worried about you. The 10 kilograms is very very little very little. Very aggressive diet.

00:00:54   We're also joined by Stephen Hackett. Hello, Stephen. I cannot do a wrestling intro,

00:00:58   I'm sorry. You should try. Go and give it a go. Just see what it would feel like. Try it.

00:01:02   I've never... right on the other side of the ring, hailing from Memphis, Tennessee,

00:01:10   the beast of the south, Stephen Hackett. The beast of the south? I would say you did a better job

00:01:17   than I did, so... Yeah. You know. Something like that. That's good. I feel like I should do one

00:01:23   next time. I have to introduce somebody, but I'm last today, so... Why don't you introduce follow-up?

00:01:29   From the depths of John Saracusa's psyche, we come to follow-up. Do you know that actually

00:01:36   Frasier Crane created follow-up? Yeah, no, John didn't, but John wants credit for it, so...

00:01:40   Yeah, but Frasier created it. Saving myself a text message. Let me find it. I'm gonna search slack.

00:01:46   There was an episode of Frasier where they talk about follow-up, I can't find it. Never mind,

00:01:52   it's not worth going into. We've got lots of budgeting app recommendations. I haven't tested

00:01:58   any of them, but I've downloaded a bunch. I've taken a look at screenshots and websites and

00:02:02   pruned to what I think maybe could be the most interesting. What I'll say is this is the caveat

00:02:07   of lots of the recommended apps are US only, so I can't use them. Lots of people recommended You

00:02:13   Need a Budget, which is one of the classics, and a web app called Lunch Money, which looked kind

00:02:20   of cool, but it's a web app only. The iOS apps that I have downloaded include Fudget, Fudget,

00:02:25   Chronicle, and Dime. These are the four that I've downloaded. These were some of them that

00:02:36   were recommended a bunch, and I looked at the app store screenshots and was like, "These look like

00:02:39   interesting apps." I will follow up on this at some point in the future, maybe towards the end

00:02:44   of the year, if any of these actually stick with me. So thank you to everybody that wrote in.

00:02:49   Yes, thank you. It was a bunch of feedback. It was really cool to see. Good news,

00:02:52   if you're out in the middle of nowhere and your iPhone is the only thing you have,

00:02:57   you can be rescued without paying Apple first for another year. So if you have an iPhone 14,

00:03:04   Apple announced today that they are adding, or extending, I should say, the Emergency SOS by

00:03:10   Satellite Service free for another year. So now the coverage runs out for the 14 and the 15

00:03:18   at the same time, and Apple doesn't have to tell us how much it's going to charge us to save our

00:03:22   lives, which is good. They haven't worked out the business model yet, have they? Or they haven't

00:03:27   gotten it to like, there's like a business model, but they just haven't gotten all the ducks in a

00:03:32   row, I suppose. Maybe not, yeah, maybe not. Or maybe, you know, they're forecasting a down

00:03:37   quarter for services, and that's when they're going to introduce this to keep it, keep it

00:03:41   afloat. Right, and everyone's going to be like really into it. I went to the Apple store, and I

00:03:47   played with the new MacBook Pro. How is it? Okay. It's, uh, the space gray is pretty nice. I would

00:03:53   say it's... I would just say the Freudian slip there that you called it space gray. Space black.

00:03:59   It's not black. It is not... I want it to be the same black as the keyboard well, and Apple hasn't

00:04:07   done that. But, yeah, if you had a continuum with silver on one end and space black on the other,

00:04:15   space gray feels like it's dead in the center. So it is noticeably darker than space gray,

00:04:19   but it's not black. I think it looks good, but if you're looking for like the black MacBook or

00:04:26   ThinkPad or something like that, the Razer series of laptops are all black. Apple's not quite there

00:04:32   yet. It's close. It's good, but not, not black. It is funny, right, that like the black of space

00:04:40   is just like the blackest black there can be, right? Like no light, you know, and that this

00:04:47   space black is actually not that. That's funny to me. In space, no one can hear you complain

00:04:53   about a MacBook Pro finish. Yeah, so, you know, that's, you know, that's a really good point.

00:04:58   Uh, did you buy one of these computers, Steven? Were you even tempted... Were you tempted to buy

00:05:01   one of these computers? You know, we know what you're like around here, you know. The spec that

00:05:05   I would want, uh, not the budget right now. So, you know, maybe if I use Fudge-It for a while,

00:05:11   I can, I can, I can swing it. Right, you could fudge it and get a black MacBook. Yeah, that's

00:05:15   a weird thing about that name. I mean, one, it sounds funny, but two, like, I don't want to fudge

00:05:20   the budget, right? I want the budget to be exact. It's a weird, weird name. No, I, I'm, I'm cool

00:05:26   with fudging it. I'll fudge it if I get more money at the end. I'll fudge it. I was sort of eyeballed

00:05:32   by the security guard at the Apple store, I feel like, because I came in, I dodged the person at

00:05:38   the entry, right? Like, where do you want to go? Uh, I was like, I'm a professional Apple store

00:05:42   visitor. I know what I'm doing. Uh, went over there, took some pictures, right? Uh, took several

00:05:47   pictures. This lady's just like, I can just feel her presence. I can just feel her looking at me.

00:05:53   And then I had to go buy a case. And then I left. Did you buy the case because you were embarrassed?

00:05:58   No, no. What's it like, Oh no, now I gotta buy something. What can I buy? It's either

00:06:05   going to be a USB-C cable or a case. What case did you buy? Bury in the lead here.

00:06:10   Something for an iPad for a family member. Their iPad case was falling apart. So smart folio,

00:06:18   whatever one doesn't have a keyboard, but is a cover back and front. All their names are stupid.

00:06:23   Okay. Uh, I did do the self checkout thing, which made me feel much more like a criminal than

00:06:29   taking pictures of a laptop. So if you haven't done this, you pull up the Apple store app on

00:06:33   your phone and it says, Oh, you're in an Apple store. It's like, yes I am. And it offers a

00:06:37   barcode scanner. You just barcode it. You can Apple pay right there. And then it just, you know,

00:06:41   it'll email you a receipt, but then you just walk out with whatever it is. Like I didn't talk to a

00:06:47   single Apple store employee. I just, I did my things and left, but I was more self-conscious

00:06:52   about this, I guess because the security guard had already spotted me and I made sure to have

00:06:57   the Apple store app like open on my phone. So if I got stopped, like, no, no, I paid for this. I'm

00:07:01   not, you know, I'm not stealing a case, but that was my, that was my trip to the Apple store.

00:07:06   I feel like it was a bold move. If you already felt like the security guard was like

00:07:12   on you to then do the self-checkout. I didn't want to wait around, you know, it's

00:07:17   so, so busy and it's very disorganized and it's very confusing. And it's like, I can,

00:07:25   I can pay for it myself and just leave and go straight to jail. I still never done it myself.

00:07:29   Self-checkout. Yeah. Too much stress. I would, I would continue to feel like a criminal,

00:07:36   even though I've actually paid for the thing. I don't know. I can do it. It's good that in the new

00:07:42   design they have like just quick checkout things where you go to a person and it's like

00:07:46   the fine place you can just go and buy the thing. And then like, you've got the thing that you

00:07:51   wanted to buy. It's like great, you know? Yeah. I don't know why it was so busy. It was like the

00:07:55   middle of the afternoon, but it was chaotic in there. It's like, you know what? Like I can,

00:07:59   I can manage this myself, but, uh, that's the story. It looks, it's a good looking laptop

00:08:04   and, uh, make a darker one next time, Apple. I have one last piece of follow-up for y'all.

00:08:12   And it is long term follow-up because back in the 2022 flexis, Federico made a pic. I'm going to read

00:08:22   it to you. This had come, I think on a series of conversations we've been having about like

00:08:27   the TVOS app or like the TV app and TVOS. So what are they doing? You said Federico Apple stops the

00:08:34   iTunes store app. Apple stops using the iTunes store app and move store content into dedicated

00:08:40   apps and lo and behold, uh, news this week, this is from nine to five Mac based on code in the

00:08:49   iOS 17.2 and TVOS 17.2 betas. It looks like Apple is going to merge the iTunes movie store

00:08:57   with the Apple TV app. Um, you can now buy content in the TV app, but the iTunes store is like still

00:09:08   hanging around and there's a bunch of stuff in there. And so I don't think this answers

00:09:13   questions about like, well, what happens to ringtones? Like other things you can buy,

00:09:17   but at least for movies and TV shows, um, it seems like this is happening. So I would,

00:09:23   if they do discontinue this app, I would say that this is now a prediction ahead of its time

00:09:28   in terms of a Ricky pic. I mean, as always, I'm always ahead of my time, you know,

00:09:34   always a few years. You have a lot of them. I know. I look forward to the, the page in the

00:09:40   settings app where you can open a store menu to buy ringtones. That's where that's going to go.

00:09:44   And that will be hilarious that settings or maybe it's going to be a store tab in the phone app.

00:09:50   Yes. Honestly, wherever they put this is going to be great. Like it's just going to be great.

00:09:56   Cause it's not going to make any sense wherever they put it. If they put it anywhere, like

00:10:00   seriously, Apple, do you need to keep selling ringtones? Is anyone buying ringtones? Okay.

00:10:04   You mentioned the phone app. I think the phone app is, is long overdue for an overhaul. You know

00:10:09   what I want when I go to favorites, maybe I'm old and make phone calls and y'all don't, but

00:10:14   I want the favorites thing to look like the grid of people that I have favorited in messages.

00:10:20   Okay. Like bigger pictures, bigger tap targets. Cause the favorites, it's so old. It looks so

00:10:27   old. What if, and hear me out, what if we put your favorite people in the app switcher on the iPhone

00:10:34   say at the top. Did that ever shit? Like, uh, yeah, it did. Yeah. It was all of iOS 8.

00:10:42   Wait. So that wasn't just the beta.

00:10:43   See, that's a good question. Uh, I don't think that made it out. Well, it, it existed, right?

00:10:52   So I say it was a thing, but I, my memory tells me that that was in the bay or about didn't ship in

00:10:59   iOS 8. I don't know. Well, there's, I found a tutorial from CNET in September, 2014

00:11:07   to disable your contacts from displaying in the app switcher, launch the settings app. So I guess

00:11:12   it shipped. That sounds like it shipped. That sounds like it shipped. You know what? You know

00:11:17   what I think that was? I think that was, cause I, I always say was in the time of iPhones are getting

00:11:22   bigger. And I think someone looked at that and be like, Oh, they didn't know what to do with it.

00:11:27   There's too much empty space. We don't know what to do. Hey, I got it. When you're switching,

00:11:31   put your friends up there between your email client and your Twitter client. Let's put a picture

00:11:36   of your mom up there so you can quickly call her. If I ever call anybody, I'm starting that call

00:11:42   from a spotlight search. Interesting. Yeah. If like I want to call my mom, I just pull down the

00:11:48   keyboard and type mom and then, and then I press call and it never does it the way that I want to.

00:11:53   That's also. Yeah. I opened the phone app and I make sure that I'm doing like a regular phone

00:11:58   call instead of a FaceTime audio thing. See, I want to do FaceTime audio cause it sounds better.

00:12:02   And so I don't know why I can't set that as a preference. And I know that Apple's like,

00:12:07   we just do it smart, but it's like, no, you don't like you really don't. And also like if I,

00:12:12   on the Mac, if I like press the call button on someone's contact, it opens up Skype and

00:12:16   starts ringing. It's like, what are you doing? Of all of the options to choose, why are we using

00:12:22   Skype? Like why are you not using my iPhone and making the call from that and like handing it off,

00:12:26   which I know is a thing you can do, you know, but Skype, you know, I have to quit Skype quickly

00:12:32   because it starts dialing people. Making phone calls is the, is the most use I get out of Siri

00:12:40   on my phone. Right. I start almost every phone call just with Siri and I don't, I don't use

00:12:45   Siri for hardly anything else. Like on a regular basis. I think phone calls should be illegal.

00:12:50   I think phone calls should be made illegal. I, uh, yes, yes. I dislike them. I dislike making them.

00:12:59   See, if I had to choose, I would rather receive a phone call and sort of be the one who gets called

00:13:05   because what I dislike is calling somebody and telling them what I want instead of want to be

00:13:11   on the receiving end and be like, Hey, you bothered me. Tell me what you want. You know,

00:13:15   sort of being like, you called me because making a phone call, it's, it's a, there's a lot of

00:13:22   decisions involved. Like, Oh, is it the right time? Am I going to bother them? How am I going

00:13:26   to phrase what I'm about to ask? Instead of you're on the receiving end, you're just, you know,

00:13:31   you are sort of accept, you're allowing the phone call to come to you and it's easier,

00:13:36   you know, except in the goal, socially speaking, there's fewer factors to consider. You're just

00:13:41   accepting the call and hearing them out. So that's my strategy. Sometimes I call people

00:13:47   and I let the phone just do like two or three rings and then I, I end the call. So they call

00:13:53   me back and I prefer it. This episode of connected is brought to you by Squarespace.

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00:15:31   That's squarespace.com/connected and the code connected when you decide to sign up to get 10%

00:15:37   off your first purchase and to show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their

00:15:41   support of the show and Relay FM. Federico I have good news for you. Okay. Your time is coming. I

00:15:48   know it's been, I know 2023 has been quiet. You've been having to buy all manner of technology to

00:15:52   keep yourself occupied. Glasses and cables and docks and all kinds of stuff. And a Microsoft

00:16:00   Surface. Yes. Microsoft Surface. What was it? The Surface dock. You've been really, you know,

00:16:06   you've been doing, you've been going all over the place. Well, Apple. I got it. I sold it. Yeah.

00:16:12   Is planning to release new versions of all iPad models in 2024. The biggest expected changes

00:16:20   are a 12.9 inch iPad Air and an OLED versions of both the 11 and 12.9 iPad Pro. That is where the

00:16:28   rumors are circulating. Federico, you have the floor. Okay. I have thoughts as you can imagine.

00:16:37   First of all, finally, it feels like we're just, we just, we stayed frozen for a year. We're just

00:16:44   coming out of hibernation here, coming out of sleep mode, all the iPad people. So finally,

00:16:50   we're getting some new stuff. It's been a long year. And like you said, I've been trying to

00:16:54   distract myself to optimize my workflow. There's only so much tech gear you can buy to sort of,

00:17:00   you know, just wait for new iPads to come out. So iPad Pro. I kind of want, so I was just listening

00:17:07   to Upgrade and you and Jason were literally talking about this, how the 11 inch iPad Pro

00:17:12   seems to be pretty much confirmed, right? That they're keeping the 11 inch iPad Pro around.

00:17:17   And realistically, they're probably giving it an OLED display. So we're looking at once again,

00:17:22   an 11 inch and a 13 inch iPad Pro with OLED, most likely an M3 chip. What else is in these

00:17:31   iPad Pros besides OLED and M3? Because I mean, don't get me wrong. I love some good OLED displays.

00:17:39   In fact, Mike, I am pre-ordering an OLED Steam Deck because I don't even want to think about it.

00:17:46   If it's got OLED, I am getting it. Like OLED is the best thing ever. And I can, once you,

00:17:53   I mean, we all know this. Once you try OLED, you cannot go back. I expect what will happen to me

00:17:57   with the Steam Deck is the same as the first one where like I don't buy it and then you get on it

00:18:02   and then wait for months. But I just hope I don't have to buy this one from StockX.

00:18:06   Yep. That's what, that's what you do the first time. Yeah. So, I mean, sure. I'm happy. And I'm

00:18:13   really happy that we're getting an OLED display. And in fact, if Apple doesn't do an even bigger

00:18:19   iPad Pro, if they do a bigger iPad Pro, and I mean, the rumors are not pointing to it,

00:18:25   but obviously I would love to have a giant iPad, but it doesn't sound like it's coming.

00:18:29   It doesn't seem like it's now. I mean, who knows, right? Like the rumors are always rumors, right?

00:18:35   But everything is pointing towards the 11 sticking around. And I think if the 11 sticks around,

00:18:41   they're not going to do a bigger one. I think there's two iPad Pros, whatever sizes they end

00:18:45   up being. And I will just say, if you don't mind me jumping in here, you said like what else goes

00:18:50   inside the iPad Pro? I think maybe the answer is what's outside, you know? Exactly. I was getting

00:18:56   to that. So, I mean, just a thought that I had was maybe a second Thunderbolt port. We talked about

00:19:05   this a few months ago when we did our sort of my Microsoft Surface segment, and I noted how

00:19:12   convenient it is to have two USB-C ports, two Thunderbolt ports in the Surface. And I continue

00:19:18   to think that having two Thunderbolt ports in the iPad will be super convenient for charging

00:19:23   and connecting other accessories. But that's the only thing I can think of. An iPad, obviously,

00:19:30   any tablet, but especially an iPad, the experience is very much dictated by the accessories you pair

00:19:37   with it. And let me tell you, I think I've reached a point where more than three years in, I am pretty

00:19:44   much done with the current design of the Magic Keyboard. And I can say this with confidence,

00:19:50   because a couple of nights ago, I found myself on the Bridge website wondering, "Hey,

00:19:58   Bridge, you got business?" "You've passed over into some..." Turn back, Federico, turn back.

00:20:07   Yeah, they're not even a company anymore, right? No, they are. They got acquired by an investment

00:20:14   group, which is typically not a great sentence to utter, but they got acquired by a firm,

00:20:22   and the website is back. Their iPad keyboard is out of stock, unfortunately. So who knows what they're doing.

00:20:31   Yeah, that's not... okay. But I ended up on that website because I... So, look, I like the Magic

00:20:41   Keyboard. It was good for its time. What's it called, the design? What's the right way to

00:20:46   pronounce it? Cantilever? Cantilever? Cantilever, yeah. That design was fancy at the time.

00:20:53   Fun fact, I recently found myself shopping for chairs for a new apartment, and you won't believe

00:21:02   how many fancy design chairs have the Cantilever design these days. Anyway, the Magic Keyboard was

00:21:10   good for its time, but now I just want something like the Bridge Keyboard. Like, give me a proper

00:21:15   laptop keyboard with a bigger trackpad, function keys, backlit, and the thing is multiple viewing

00:21:23   angles. I found myself reaching for my MacBook Air when I want to watch something in bed, like a

00:21:32   quick YouTube video, because it's just easier to put a laptop on your lap and adjust the viewing

00:21:39   angle of the screen, which is impossible to do with the Magic Keyboard for the iPad because it's

00:21:43   got limited viewing angles due to that design. And so that's why I ended up on the Bridge website,

00:21:49   looking at that keyboard. Do you remember the Razer iPad keyboard? I had it, yes. I know you did,

00:21:56   I just wondered if you remembered it. It was like laptop style, but they had like mechanical switches

00:22:01   and the keys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that one broke for me after a few months, and Razer never got

00:22:07   back about my support email, so yeah. Because they sold one of them. Yeah, you're the only one.

00:22:14   I've tried them all, I've tried them all, just let me turn my iPad into a laptop. And look,

00:22:21   my thought here is pretty simple. You don't need, and Apple in fact is going to love my suggestions

00:22:26   because Apple likes money, you don't need to stop selling the Magic Keyboard. Keep making the Magic

00:22:31   Keyboard, but also either call it Pro Keyboard or Magic Keyboard Pro. Make a fancier, read more

00:22:40   expensive version that really turns your iPad into a laptop. And if I'm not mistaken, Gherman

00:22:47   was pointing to this kind of accessory months ago with a Pro Keyboard made of aluminum, similar to a

00:22:54   laptop style keyboard. I want that at this point, just give me that. So yeah. What I was

00:23:01   saying on that is it seems like the logical thing to do, right? But I won't put it past them to do

00:23:08   something interesting and weird, right? Because the Magic Keyboard is a cool design, and I understand

00:23:16   that after a while you stop appreciating what's cool about it and focus on what you don't like

00:23:22   about it. But when they announced that, it was like, wow. Yeah, sure. Because it did a lot of

00:23:27   things we wanted them to do, right? Like it had an integrated trackpad, back click keys, like all

00:23:33   that kind of stuff, but it did the physical part differently. But yeah, I have not used one

00:23:41   seriously for a very long time, but I had all of these problems that you're talking about, right?

00:23:45   Like it is limited in how you can look at the screen. And what I always found like frustrating

00:23:52   from it compared to the smart keyboard was it's an iPad, right? But the keyboard's always there now.

00:23:59   Like I actually didn't like that part, but I don't think a laptop style will fix that. It's like with

00:24:04   the smart keyboard, you just flip it around to the back and the keyboard's not in front of you,

00:24:07   right? But with the Magic Keyboard, it's like the keyboard's always there and they should take it

00:24:12   out. So I don't think it was awesome, comparatively, but I don't know. iPad Air. So we're going to get

00:24:20   a 12.9 inch version of the iPad Air. Why? Why would they do it? I don't know. And my big question here

00:24:29   is how are they going to differentiate between the 12.9 inch iPad Pro and the iPad Air besides the

00:24:37   OLED screen? Is it going to be about the Thunderbolt port? I doubt that the iPad Air is going to get

00:24:44   Thunderbolt. Is it going to be about the accessories? Are they really going to do a

00:24:49   Pro keyboard that is iPad Pro only? The iPad Air and the iPad Pro are already quite similar

00:24:56   with each other, right? You can use Stage Manager with an iPad Air. You can use the Magic Keyboard

00:25:01   with an iPad Air. It's USB-C. It's not Thunderbolt, but it's USB-C. So the differences are really all

00:25:09   about the screen. If we are getting an iPad Air with the same size and the same design,

00:25:14   the only differentiating factor, what's it going to be? OLED and just that? So I am really

00:25:20   intrigued and quite skeptical, honestly, about this bigger iPad Air. I mean, it's going to be

00:25:28   a pretty sweet tablet for sure, but I guess the differences between... As things stand now with

00:25:35   the limited information we know from the rumors, it's going to be tricky to explain the differences

00:25:40   between the 12.9-inch iPad Air and the equivalent size of the iPad Pro. I have no idea what to

00:25:48   expect here. Yeah, and Zach brings up in the Discord that they make a big MacBook Air and a

00:25:53   big MacBook Pro. They're all different sizes, first of all, and just looking at an Air and a Pro,

00:25:59   you can see the differences. Even if you don't understand that one has this processor or this

00:26:03   one that has this processor, one is thicker and comes with more ports, and you can kind of

00:26:08   instantly see that there are some differences, even if they just appear skin deep. And maybe the

00:26:14   idea of the second port would help the iPad Pro. I think they 100% should do that. I do wonder if

00:26:20   they make a big iPad Air, if it gives Apple the breathing room to take the Pro and make it even

00:26:27   more high-end, that you can add even more things to it and make it more expensive. And maybe OLED

00:26:35   will do that on its own, right? Maybe OLED will force the price up, but it's interesting to think

00:26:43   how they could make them more different. But to your point, I don't think LCD versus OLED

00:26:50   is enough for most people just walking into an Apple store, right? We know the differences,

00:26:55   and some people can see them once it's pointed out to them, but a lot of people just don't care.

00:26:59   And it just seems like a confusing move in what is already a pretty confusing product lineup.

00:27:05   I'm not trying to troll here, but I'm just trying to make a point. I'll say to you,

00:27:11   Steven, as the one who's the most well-versed, what does a MacBook Pro have that a MacBook Air

00:27:16   doesn't? What differentiates those products? Like just looking at them?

00:27:20   Oh, like from a product line. What makes them different? I guess also looking at them, yeah.

00:27:25   Yeah, I mean, you've got HDMI, SD card slot, and extra Thunderbolt port right off the bat.

00:27:30   For more ports.

00:27:31   More ports. And then of course it is a nicer screen, but I think the ports are like what...

00:27:36   It is going in and looking at them, the ports are what stand out. And the iPad Air and iPad Pro,

00:27:43   unless there's something coming we don't foresee, they don't look any different, right? Even going

00:27:48   to the Apple store earlier this week, just looking down the iPad table, I was like,

00:27:54   oh, some of them are brightly colored now, but I don't know which ones are, right? They all look

00:27:58   the same, they all have the same industrial design. And maybe we're going to see some industrial design

00:28:02   changes that come to the Pro that maybe don't come to the Air. But I just, I don't know if Apple's

00:28:07   doing a good job explaining, let alone selling these things to people who need some education

00:28:12   about the differences. Can we talk about the best iPad?

00:28:15   The iPad mini.

00:28:16   They're just not going to do any of the things that I want them to do.

00:28:18   No.

00:28:19   No, they're not.

00:28:20   Except for one, which is fix the screen problems that I have.

00:28:23   They're probably going to fix the jelly scrolling, but this is not going to be mini LED, let alone

00:28:29   OLED.

00:28:30   How sick would that be though?

00:28:32   Oh, don't even. Just don't even.

00:28:34   Just imagine a seven inch OLED iPad mini. Oh my word. I mean, even like, here's the thing I

00:28:42   wanted to say about the iPad Pro. The 11 inch iPad Pro with OLED could be a really compelling device

00:28:50   at this point. I've always resisted the temptation of the small iPad Pro because I love a big tablet,

00:28:56   I love a bigger iPad OS UI, but really it was the screen. I wanted to have the liquid retina XDR

00:29:02   display on the big iPad Pro. But if the small iPad Pro gets OLED and the same keyboard as,

00:29:09   like if there are no more differences between the 11 inch iPad Pro and the 12.9 inch iPad Pro,

00:29:14   I think I'm going to have to think about it. Because I mean, when I dock my iPad at the desk

00:29:19   and work with the studio display, I have the studio display anyway.

00:29:23   Right.

00:29:23   But then when you take it out of the case and you're using it as a tablet,

00:29:28   it's much more comfortable. And if it has OLED, that could be a real compelling product at that

00:29:35   size. But we'll see. Still, iPad mini. I think we're going to be lucky. I'm going to say

00:29:42   something that probably is not going to come true. Maybe promotion on an LCD display?

00:29:49   Is that I don't see it, but I don't think promotion will come to a non pro product,

00:29:55   which is unfortunate, at least not at least not now. All the things I want from the iPad

00:30:00   mini I'm not going to get the one thing that I'll ask for, which is like a random thing.

00:30:03   I wish the screen could be darker at its dimmest level, like reading in bed on that iPad at its

00:30:10   dimmest level. Still quite bright. Would like it to be darker as a very strange request,

00:30:15   but I think would make sense for the iPad mini, because I'm sure for a lot of people,

00:30:18   it is a reading device. Can I interest you, Mike, in some glasses you can use? No, because you know

00:30:26   what, Federico, I'm trying to reduce the amount of light that goes into my eyes. I don't want to

00:30:31   beam it directly into my eyes. It's definitely going to be closer. It's a small, you take one

00:30:37   for the team. You get all the light, but you don't bother Adina. You know, it's not for Adina. It's

00:30:43   just for me. Okay. She's fine. Then you're selfish. So well, but she's not bothered by it Federico.

00:30:49   Maybe she's not telling you out of kindness. I love my wife very much.

00:30:57   If something was interrupting her sleep, she wouldn't keep it to herself.

00:31:03   She would 100% tell me. Could I interest you, Mike, in an e-ink device shaped like a phone?

00:31:13   I'm reading comics, which is the problem. So what are you reading? Spider-Man. Oh, okay. Right now.

00:31:21   Ultimate Spider-Man. Hopefully not on Comixology. No Marvel Unlimited, which is probably one of the

00:31:28   main reasons that Comixology is going the way that it is. Like you just pay a subscription to Marvel

00:31:33   and you have access to everything. So yeah, I mean at the end of this sort of a spin-off of

00:31:39   a rumor round-up, I guess. I think the iPad line, obviously, and it's not just me, we all think that

00:31:45   the iPad line is confusing, needs simplification, needs clarity, and I mean really needs anything,

00:31:51   needs something new. We've gone a whole year without no changes in the iPad lineup, which is

00:31:56   unusual to say the least. I am excited about OLED. I don't know what else it's going to be in this

00:32:06   device. The two things that I'm looking forward to are the new displays and the new keyboard.

00:32:12   Will that be enough to reignite the enthusiasm for iPad Pro in other people? I don't know.

00:32:20   I think obviously it's way too soon to even talk about foldable devices. That's way down the line

00:32:27   at this point. Who knows? Maybe by this time next year, you know, maybe by this time November 2024,

00:32:33   I won't be an iPad user primarily anymore. I'll be a Vision Pro user primarily. Who knows what's

00:32:40   going to happen next year? Maybe we'll be recording episode 500 and something unconnected and we're

00:32:46   all going to be wearing Vision Pro headsets. So we'll see. But for sure, I think we need to...

00:32:54   I want to see what they do on the Pro line and on the Air, and I'm just... I know that I'm going

00:32:59   to be sad about the Mini, because I already know that's going to happen. It's going to be a minor

00:33:03   spec bump and it's unfortunate, but it is what it is. Do we have a branding issue? You said that we

00:33:09   were the spin-off of Rumor Roundup, so I looked in the thesaurus for other words that mean "rumor."

00:33:15   Maybe we can pick our own name. Gossip, hearsay, tittle-tattle, the grapevine, like you heard it

00:33:23   through the grapevine, word on the street. I could go for a word pun instead of... We could be the

00:33:34   you know the TV show Gossip Girl. We could be the gossip trio, maybe. Can I make a suggestion? Yeah.

00:33:41   Rumor Roundup, tittle-tattle, corral. It's pretty good. There's also scuttlebutt. Speculation, whisper.

00:33:48   Scuttlebutt. I like scuttlebutt. Me too. What's the scuttlebutt? What's the scuttlebutt? All right,

00:33:58   that's what we're doing. Okay. App Store Awards. Apple has announced close to 40 finalists. So

00:34:06   are these winners? Is it like a sudden death? No, they're finalists. Well, it's like the AGAs at

00:34:13   this point. It's the same format. They are pre-announcing the... There's lots of winners.

00:34:16   They're pre-announcing the finalists and they're going to announce the winners, usually at the end

00:34:21   of November, so like in a couple of weeks. So this is a way to get two stories out of one on Apple's

00:34:26   part. Exactly. Got it. And to get people to click on the links and sign up for some subscriptions on

00:34:34   the App Store, I guess. What can I say? I mean, it's the same format as the Apple Design Awards.

00:34:38   They've been doing this for a few years now. I think it works well for them and it works in the

00:34:44   context of putting the spotlight on multiple different apps. There are some usual names in

00:34:50   here, right? What's the point of two different award ceremonies but overlapping apps?

00:34:57   One is in the summer, one is in the winter. I feel like it would be better if maybe they...

00:35:02   They're not enough for you? Split it out a bit more and didn't keep awarding Duolingo

00:35:09   all the time. Duolingo, Endling, Flighty... I mean, this is like the Avengers of the apps, right?

00:35:16   Photonator. Like these are all really good, but it's like also very funny again, Mac Game of the

00:35:24   Year. This time, Friendship Ended of Resident Evil. Lies of Pee is my new best friend. It's

00:35:30   gonna be Lies of Pee. Oh, you know it's gonna be Lies of Pee. Speaking of which, I kind of really

00:35:35   want to play Lies of Pee, Mike. You should play it on the Mac, man. Why not? No, no. Did they put

00:35:40   it on the iPad or is it just on the Mac? No, it's just on the Mac. Steven, do you know what Lies of

00:35:45   Pee is? No. So it's... Are you familiar with the Dark Souls game or Elden Ring, for example? I

00:35:52   know the name Elden Ring. So they're really gothic, super hard video games. Super hard video game for

00:36:00   capital G gamers. But this one is so inspired by those games, but it's a it's a dystopian

00:36:07   sort of version of the Pinocchio world. The P is for Pinocchio and you play as this P character

00:36:15   and in the game you need to upgrade your P organ. That was... If you didn't say it, I was gonna say

00:36:22   it. This is legit. It's called the P organ. It's actually a pretty good video game, Steven.

00:36:27   Called the P organ. People really like Lies of Pee. And obviously the Lies, right? Because,

00:36:33   you know, he has to tell the truth. Oh, it's not Liza like a name. No, it's the like Lies.

00:36:39   Because it really it should be the Lies of Pee, but it's not. It's just Lies of Pee

00:36:44   as then there is the game. And it is a legit AAA video game that debuted this year also on the Mac,

00:36:52   which is now the second one to do this, which is cool. It's 60 bucks in the Mac App Store. It's a

00:36:58   serious video game and it's actually quite... It looks like a lot of fun and I kind of want to play

00:37:04   it on... It's just gonna get good. I gotta get good at the P organ. So yeah, this finalist,

00:37:11   this format, I think it works for Apple. Therefore it works for us, I guess. I just think it's a

00:37:17   little bit unfair that Apple split the App Store awards into two so they can get out ahead of the

00:37:25   upgradees and the Mac story select awards. I just think... I know, right? I think it's a travesty,

00:37:30   honestly. And this... So I'm announcing now the upgradees will happen in both September

00:37:37   and October and November and December next year. Cool, perfect. Just a couple of shout outs from

00:37:44   this list of apps because it's always cool to see some indie darlings in here. Concepts for iPad,

00:37:51   very cool to see that drawing and sketching app in here. And I also want to give a shout out to

00:37:56   Planny, which is a really interesting, good looking sort of task manager slash to-do list

00:38:04   app and Smart Gym. I know the developer of Smart Gym, we've met up a couple of times at WWDC.

00:38:10   Great developer and it's really cool to see the recognition for Smart Gym in the Apple Watch App

00:38:17   of the Year finalists. So a couple of shout outs that I wanted to give on the show.

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00:40:17   and Relay FM. We should talk about the Humain AI pen. After what feels like 400 years of hyping,

00:40:27   Humain has finally unveiled their product, although it did leak the night before,

00:40:34   basically completely to the verge, which is incredible. We should also note our friend

00:40:40   David Pierce flew to California to be at the unveiling and then was uninvited,

00:40:46   along with some other people, not just him. Incredible though, right?

00:40:50   I want to separate the introduction of the product and the product itself, because of course,

00:40:54   the introduction, if you haven't seen the video, my word, go watch the video, but it's pretty bad.

00:41:01   It's pretty bad. Actual errors in the video, like when he's asking the AI things and it just gets

00:41:09   it wrong and they just left it in. Like fact check your video, dub an audio, do something to make it

00:41:15   correct. Weird pacing, they talked about batteries and design before what the thing actually did.

00:41:20   I think the big thing, and Jason said this really succinctly on upgrade, was like,

00:41:24   people like their phones and this thing is pitching a world without your phone and that's just not

00:41:31   a feature that hardly anybody wants. So they did it. I don't think they did a good job in the video

00:41:37   in the introduction, but ultimately the big picture, like it did work because we do know

00:41:43   what this thing is and does. It's just the way they did it was pretty amateur hour.

00:41:50   There's probably going to be a lot of hot takes over this next segment, so I'll start.

00:41:54   I didn't think the video was that bad. I really didn't. I kind of liked the vibe of it,

00:42:00   to be honest. Like it was different. Was it the best? Probably not, but I kind of liked

00:42:06   the chillness of it. It was like there was a carbon monoxide leak in the room. I mean,

00:42:11   it was, it was below chill, I think. Yeah, but like sometimes people were too over the top.

00:42:19   Yeah, that's, you know, low key chill is the new cool, you know? So like being like, yeah,

00:42:24   we made this thing. It's like that, that vibe. It doesn't, the vibe of it was fine, fine in my,

00:42:31   for me, but like it didn't change the fact that I 100% came away from it feeling like they were

00:42:37   just too high on their own supply. Yes. Right? Like, yeah, that comes, you've never seen a video

00:42:42   with people who believe in themselves more than this video. Like, and that is good and bad. I

00:42:48   think that it led to good and bad decisions in their product. Like, because I also don't think

00:42:55   that it is inherently seems like a bad product. There are just some assumptions that they make

00:43:01   that I think are fundamentally flawed, which is why this won't work. But like as a piece of

00:43:06   hardware, it looks fine. It looks nice. Actually, I think some of the decisions that they made

00:43:11   are smart, like the idea that you don't speak to it, you like touch it and then speak to it.

00:43:17   I kind of like that personally, the overall hardware design, I think is pretty cool. I

00:43:22   like the case. I think that the battery booster thing is a clever way to get around the fact that

00:43:29   the battery is going to need to be changed multiple times a day. Like I think you get

00:43:32   a lot in the package. I think the fact that you have to pay a multi-subscription for this thing,

00:43:38   as well as the money is not great. The fact that you need a phone number, not good, right? Like

00:43:44   when it's like, we're getting rid of the phone by giving you a new phone number. It's like,

00:43:48   all right. Like, and that's the high on their own supply thing, which I think is a problem. They

00:43:53   think they've solved a problem and they just introduced new ones, you know? Yeah. So, so my

00:43:58   reaction to this and okay, I mean, Mike said that it's fine to have outtakes in this segment.

00:44:04   So I, I kind of like this product, but I feel like there's, there's an underlying issue here,

00:44:15   which is pitching this as the next step instead of using a phone. I think there's a lot of people

00:44:23   in certain Silicon Valley circles, you know, the folks who go to, to what's it called burning man

00:44:31   and the folks who micro dose and, you know, tons of people who do ayahuasca and those sorts of

00:44:35   things. A lot of folks are like, Oh, the future, what if we got rid of phones and instead of phones,

00:44:42   you had lasers on your head. Like, I can imagine sort of the pitch for this, which is fundamentally

00:44:49   flawed because people love that's the worst part, the laser part. They should just not have had

00:44:53   that. That just shouldn't be there, but they clearly spent way too much time on that. And

00:44:58   according to the New York times article that was about the launch, that's what they had first.

00:45:02   And they spent a lot of time shrinking that down. I don't know when AI got added to this thing.

00:45:09   Couldn't have been, couldn't have been any sooner than October realistically. Doesn't the time story

00:45:14   literally mention a shaman or something like that? Like that they met through their massage

00:45:20   therapist or something. Acupuncturist. They're either going to make a device for woman's health

00:45:27   or this. And the shaman said, do this. So they did this. Of course it did. Yeah. So the thing is

00:45:34   brother spirit was that person's name by the way. Brother spirit. So if you can, that's,

00:45:39   who was the guy, was it Chingy? Oh yeah. The digital prophet. Is it that guy? Just a different

00:45:44   name. Same guy keeps rebranding himself to keep up with the ages. So here's the thing. This is

00:45:54   actually a pretty cool piece of art where I feel like, but it comes from a place of nonsensical

00:46:02   planning that is ultimately, I feel like gonna result in a failure for this product in particular,

00:46:11   but at the same time, so multiple things can be true in my hot takes. I think at the same time,

00:46:18   I kind of want something like this in my life. Me too. I kind of, because I see the use case

00:46:24   and you may ask why. And let me tell you very practically speaking, there are many times,

00:46:30   because I've seen a lot of people say like, oh, isn't there, isn't just this an Apple watch with

00:46:34   Siri? No, it's not. The thing is there are so many times and dog owners will understand me or folks

00:46:41   who go out and buy groceries and come back with multiple bags of groceries will understand me.

00:46:46   Perhaps you're buying groceries and you need to hold the leash of your dog. At the same time,

00:46:54   my hands are occupied, right? And I have the dogs and maybe the plastic bags for my groceries,

00:47:00   and I cannot physically turn my wrist or use my second hand to interact with the Apple watch.

00:47:10   But I need to look at something real quick or I need to, you know, I need to do something.

00:47:16   It would be extra convenient for those times to have a little something that projects

00:47:23   and I know that the lasers maybe are stupid, but I kind of like it. The idea of like... Well,

00:47:29   the laser wouldn't work because it has to be protected onto your hand, but you could at least

00:47:32   talk to it. After you tap it. Well, but I can just tap it with the back of my hand. I can tap it with

00:47:39   my palm or something. Like it doesn't have to be precise is what I'm saying. That's a good point.

00:47:44   And second, it has a camera. I know privacy implications and all of that. No, they're out

00:47:52   of the window. Smartphones got rid of that. Like genuinely, like the cameras are everywhere. Like

00:47:58   that time is over. So the combination of it can be used with an imprecise input. Just tap it with

00:48:06   whatever you have, like your wrist or your palm, like in a hurry. I can see that. And a camera that

00:48:13   is always on you and ready to record. I think it's compelling. And I think I like the ideas of a

00:48:20   device that can have eyes at what I'm looking at. Like that kind of idea. It's like why the

00:48:26   new meta Ray-Bans when they put the meta AI in it, like that's also compelling, right? That you

00:48:32   would just look at something and be like, what is that? And it could tell you like that is,

00:48:37   I think that all of that stuff is interesting way to use this type of technology. But it's like,

00:48:43   these are the two things that are true about this product. There are some really compelling ideas in

00:48:48   here. I don't inherently believe that they can do all of the things that they're telling me they can

00:48:55   do, right? That like it almost feels more like a concept, but they're about to ship it as a product

00:49:00   purely because it makes so many mistakes in the video where they're demoing the thing. And

00:49:08   it also has the whole phone number thing, which just like inherently means that this just can't

00:49:16   work for most people because it's not going to replace the phone. It's a compliment to the phone,

00:49:20   but it also is like its own phone. But the ideas that they are talking about, I think they are

00:49:28   probably the next phase of technology, right? Like of integrating these machine learning models and

00:49:36   transformer models into hardware. Like everyone's doing it. We're going to talk about it in a little

00:49:40   bit. Apple's starting it. Like this is the next thing. It's kind of funny because AR and VR was

00:49:46   supposed to be the next thing, but that's kind of like a concurrent thing, which isn't as big as the

00:49:51   big real next thing. We'll have to just kind of ignore that because some people, including Apple,

00:49:57   are just too far down that road now to kind of turn away. But maybe they will be able to do what

00:50:02   Humain did and integrate AI into a hardware device that they were already making that did different

00:50:07   things. So in conclusion, my takeaway is that I would 100% buy this kind of accessory for my

00:50:16   iPhone made by Apple. I would not buy a separate sort of standalone pin that requires its own phone

00:50:28   number. And that's the issue. This, I think, should start right now in 2023 as an accessory

00:50:38   to the phone. Thinking that this can replace your phone. I mean, if you gravitate in certain circles,

00:50:46   such as the brother spirit, group friend, you know, then maybe it makes sense for you.

00:50:54   For most people, this does not make sense as a standalone product. But hey, best of luck.

00:51:01   You know, I also thought that the video was not as dramatic as a lot of us made it out to be.

00:51:09   It was fine. Not the highest production. Like we're not looking at a James Cameron movie here,

00:51:15   but it was like, it was a video. It was okay. Yeah, it was. And it's easy to poke fun of it,

00:51:21   which I did, but I think they invited that on themselves in a couple of ways.

00:51:28   And the attitude that they had. Yeah. So there's the hype. It's not even a hype train. It's like

00:51:34   a hype supersonic missile. They've been firing at all of us for a year. This video without all the

00:51:38   hype before would not have been reacted to the same way because they are from Apple and they want,

00:51:44   they very clearly want to project that in their work and even how they present it.

00:51:50   And I think the reason it rubbed a lot of people in our community the wrong way is that you look

00:51:55   at this and it's like a stereotype of everything bad that people think about Apple, right? That

00:52:01   they're aloof and making silly expensive toys and, you know, have monk friends called brother

00:52:07   spirit or whatever. And I think that's maybe what fueled some of this, but I think mostly it's on

00:52:14   themselves. That they set themselves up in a way that really nothing was ever going to live up to

00:52:20   honestly. But then you have this thing that is kind of weird and super expensive and probably

00:52:25   not that useful. And it's just kind of a perfect storm. As good as some of the ideas are,

00:52:30   clearly it's not going to be a success and launching it the way they did doesn't do it

00:52:37   any favors either, I guess. One of the things that I found, oh, very fair. I think it's very fair.

00:52:42   I mean, it's why it happened, right? Like, as I said, like if they, if all of the stuff before

00:52:47   hadn't happened, it would have been different. And if they were not from Apple, it would be

00:52:52   different. If they didn't do all these reports saying that like, we think we've ruined the world

00:52:57   by being involved in the iPhone, right? Like all this kind of stuff. It's just like, get over

00:53:01   yourselves. Like, you don't have to say every thought you have. One of the things that I found,

00:53:07   like, which I thought was pretty tone deaf in the video that I haven't really seen a lot of people

00:53:11   mention is the moment with the book. So he's like, oh, if you're out in the world and you see a book,

00:53:17   you can just pick it up and say, buy it. And it's like, what about the bookstore you're in?

00:53:21   Yes. What about the people that run the bookstore that you're in?

00:53:25   That felt bad too. Look, I feel guilty.

00:53:27   You're just like, oh, just buy this online, man. I don't care. I'll put it down and leave.

00:53:31   I would never do that in like a cool indie bookstore. But I even feel guilty doing it

00:53:37   if I'm in like Target or, you know, some like a grocery store. I'm like, oh, I wonder if this

00:53:41   is cheaper online somewhere. This guy's not buying books in Target, right? Like that's kind of the...

00:53:45   No. This guy, he's buying books at like the independent bookstore in the Mission or

00:53:52   something. Like that's his whole view. And then his robot button buys it from God knows where.

00:53:58   Who knows what's hooked up on the other end of that thing, you know? And if chat GPT is in

00:54:03   charge of ordering your book, you're going to get a hundred copies of some other book accidentally.

00:54:07   It seems like it, doesn't it? I know you said it already, Steven, and you've already made the

00:54:13   point, which is like, so good, but I have to just say it again. Like I cannot believe that any

00:54:18   company who is working with an AI model is not fact checking their announcement videos.

00:54:23   I know.

00:54:24   Because this has happened every single time. And like the thing is, even if you think it's right,

00:54:30   you know, people want to find mistakes now. So if there are any, they will be found because

00:54:35   if you are lucky enough to find a mistake in one of these videos, you go viral. So everyone's trying

00:54:41   to find them. Wait, do you think they did it to go viral? No, I don't think so.

00:54:46   Me neither.

00:54:47   Because what goes viral is people saying you're an idiot, which is kind of is not a great

00:54:51   marketing strategy. Look, there's technology here and it's coming together and it's going to create

00:54:58   something interesting. But just this ain't it. And I cannot wait for the reviews. I'm so excited.

00:55:04   Like, because like, so I really recommend if you don't listen to the Vergecast, last week's

00:55:09   episode of the Vergecast, so good where they talk about this because they just obliterate it. And

00:55:14   like websites like that, they are so excited to destroy your product, right? Like, and I don't

00:55:21   mean that in a mean way, but it's like, they are just, they're ready to make that video or that

00:55:28   review of like, these are all the things that are wrong with this product and they will do it in a

00:55:33   way that will just be great. And I can't wait for it. This episode of Connected is brought to you by

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00:57:52   and make sure your business is one that continues to thrive. Our thanks to NetSuite for their

00:57:57   support of the show. All right, we're back in the scuttlebutt. We're talking about, and I cannot

00:58:02   believe it, iOS 18 rumors. This comes from reporting from Mark Gurman over the weekend

00:58:10   that Apple is extremely amped about iOS 18. They want some of that hype back from others,

00:58:19   and they're saying it's going to be ambitious and compelling. This of course comes with the

00:58:24   reporting that they were taking a week off from all of that to fix iOS 17. Can I just say,

00:58:29   we got that wrong by the way on last week's show. What did we do? They were fixing bugs in iOS 18,

00:58:34   not iOS 17. Oh okay. Which I think we read it as what we believed the company should be doing,

00:58:42   but no, they took a week off to fix iOS 18 bugs because it wasn't ready to hit the development

00:58:50   schedule that they were on. Okay, I mean, sure, whatever they think is right. I mean,

00:58:58   they're working on it. They have the thing. We don't. So okay. Let's start because we

00:59:03   just talked about humane. Let's talk about Siri. Gurman reports that Apple is expected to unveil

00:59:09   its LLM powered version of Siri at WWDC 2024, although other generative AI features could be

00:59:17   exclusive to the iPhone 16 that would be revealed in September. So maybe there's like some stuff

00:59:24   that's coming in iOS or Siri or whatever, and it needs new hardware. Like maybe they're a neural

00:59:30   engine or some upgrade in future iPhones. I think it's also interesting, maybe related to this,

00:59:37   that the rumors also say that the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro will have the same system on a chip. They're

00:59:43   not going to do the hand-me-down this time around. So maybe they want this out there on everything.

00:59:48   Maybe it's also why we haven't seen any iPads. I don't know, but I don't think the iPad plays

00:59:53   into that. But the phones maybe do. Okay, hit me. A new MagSafe accessory where you can clip

01:00:01   your iPhone to your shirt and then you can wear your iPhone on your shirt all day and you can

01:00:08   talk to it and it can see what you can see. What do you think? I mean, the iPhone Pro Max is pretty

01:00:14   big. Like I'm just holding it up to my chest. Can I call you brother Mike? You sure can. Brother Mike

01:00:23   is here in the scuttlebutt to tell you about the MagSafe pin. We ought to see what brother OTJ

01:00:28   thinks about this. German has some examples of what this could be. Auto-generated Apple music

01:00:36   playlists, integration with productivity apps like Pages and Keynote. Of course, that's been a big

01:00:41   thing for Microsoft with its co-pilot programs. You can have co-pilot help you deal with your

01:00:46   documents. And then maybe AI-assisted writing and even slide deck creation. I don't think any of

01:00:52   that's particularly groundbreaking, but it's certainly interesting that Apple could be gearing

01:00:57   up for this. What do you think about Apple joining the party next year and is Siri the right brand

01:01:04   for this sort of new type of thing? I think they got to do it to answer your first question. They

01:01:10   have to do it because it's one of those things everybody else is doing it. Chai GPT having...

01:01:15   They're already too late, right? So they have to do it next year. They are already too late and

01:01:19   Chai GPT taking off. Can you imagine if you think of now to... Like it's been like 12 months now,

01:01:26   right? Since Chai GPT. Can you imagine where we are in September of next year? Who knows? I mean,

01:01:32   it's wild to think about. It's wild. And so like if Apple are not doing this, like just how much

01:01:39   work it will be to try and catch up. Yeah. Because at that point they are two years after the

01:01:45   introduction of this technology. Yeah. You're catching up with a moving target. That's tough.

01:01:51   That already has a hundred million weekly users. Yeah. And they had to turn off paid signups

01:01:58   because their website fell over. Oh really? I signed up again two days ago. So lucky me.

01:02:02   Yeah. No, today they came out. They're like, "We're inundated. We have no more capacity.

01:02:08   We want your $20, but please come back later." So I think they got to do it. And I think what's

01:02:12   interesting, so for the branding, I think Siri is fine. They can just, you know, they can put a spin

01:02:17   on it. They can say, they can actually label it the new Siri. I mean, this is literally the company

01:02:22   who released an iPad and called it the new iPad. So if they can do it, they can do it. If we were

01:02:29   just spending a lot of time talking about like design hubris and stuff, there is absolutely zero

01:02:34   way that Apple changes the name Siri in my opinion. Or they could call it the new Siri or Siri X, or

01:02:41   maybe not X now is a negative connotation. I could imagine any of those kinds of things, right? Siri

01:02:46   Pro or whatever. Siri Pro, Siri AI, like whatever. Just gonna call it Siri something or the new Siri.

01:02:52   Isn't it wild that they've stuck so hard to this name, a name they bought? That's the weirdest,

01:02:59   I was just getting ready to say it. The weirdest thing is Siri came from a purchase and they kept

01:03:03   the branding. Like why hold on to it so hard? It wasn't even yours, you know? It's different

01:03:10   with Shazam, right? Shazam had a long history before and... But also nobody says Shazam's bad,

01:03:16   you know? Yeah, yeah. People I think generally like Shazam, but the Siri one is a real mystery.

01:03:22   I would love to know why that's the case. I think this is really exciting because the one thing that

01:03:28   Apple can do that chat GPT that arguably Microsoft with co-pilot is more similar to what I'm about to

01:03:38   say. I think there's incredible, almost infinite potential for a large language model that is

01:03:45   infused with your own data, with apps that you have on your computer that has integration with

01:03:52   the operating system that is not just a website where you can go and... I mean most people go to

01:03:58   the chat GPT website and ask questions about the world or the web. It's a website where you go in

01:04:04   and have a conversation. But imagine having that sort of power on your phone and the kind of power

01:04:11   that can do things on your device, right? Just by understanding you. Imagine like... That is the

01:04:19   reason why I created months ago that shortcut as GPT. The idea being what if you could blend

01:04:26   the intelligence of a large language model with the native apps and system features of your phone.

01:04:33   Once you start thinking about that, and Microsoft is of course thinking along these lines, I mean

01:04:38   look at co-pilot which is baked into Windows right now, and they're actually rebranding the whole

01:04:44   thing as co-pilot. That's going to be the name of the Microsoft AI. But imagine Apple doing it,

01:04:51   right? And I think that's exciting because sure you can imagine a new, more conversational,

01:04:56   more generative, sort of smarter Siri. And so the simple example could be now you can talk to Siri

01:05:06   and ask a bunch of questions like you would to an actual assistant and Siri is going to do it.

01:05:11   Like I wrote down an example in the document like imagine say to Siri "Enable my work focus,

01:05:18   then open Safari or Notes, dim the lights and turn on stage manager." Like that's a multi-command

01:05:25   request that in theory a large language model combined with native integrations on your computer

01:05:31   should be able to do. And if that sounds similar to a shortcut, that's exactly what I'm getting at.

01:05:39   Because I think the real power that Apple has here is taking that foundation of shortcuts

01:05:46   and making it something that everybody can create just by using natural language. We talked about

01:05:53   this months ago. I had a tweet somewhere now on X.com I guess. Like imagine having that sort of

01:06:02   capability of folks have always found shortcuts too difficult to get started with, but what if you

01:06:08   could just make a shortcut with a sentence? And I'm pretty sure that at the time I used the old

01:06:15   the sentence feature of Beats Music as an example. Really Beats Music was ahead of its time 10 years

01:06:21   ago man. Beats Music was good. In so many ways. In so many ways. But I mean the list goes on.

01:06:27   Apple Music playlist generation. Yes, there's plenty of services that do this now for Spotify.

01:06:32   That notification summary feature which is okay, but imagine if a large language model could

01:06:40   actually summarize notifications that you've gotten on your phone. A preview of your daily

01:06:47   schedule or your weekly schedule with proper action points for things for you to do.

01:06:52   Links that you can click or apps that you can launch. Siri intelligence built into iWork.

01:07:01   Document summaries or maybe even image generation. I want to create a slide deck that has these

01:07:09   colors and this type of font and this type of imagery make it for me. The real trick though

01:07:16   I feel like what Apple can do to differentiate their efforts here besides you know the pretty

01:07:23   huge factor of the phone is always with you and now you have this intelligence that can actually

01:07:29   do things with the camera, actually do things with Safari or Mail or Notes or Reminders. Set that

01:07:35   aside, but imagine also the developer ecosystem for this. Imagine if this technology could be

01:07:42   something that developers can just drop into their apps. There's a framework. I just hope that people

01:07:48   will be able to integrate because I don't want to have to use all of Apple's apps to be able to make

01:07:53   the most benefit of this. If I have to use Reminders rather than Todoist, that's going to be

01:08:02   frustrating for me. I don't want that to be my life so I can then use the smart assistant and

01:08:09   I'm worried that that's how a lot of this stuff will go with a lot of companies. That they will

01:08:15   try and use it as a way to lock you into all of their services and I just hope that Apple as they

01:08:20   are the phone maker as well as the operating system maker or whatever might take a bit of a

01:08:26   more wide view on that and like be like oh developers can plug in and offer their information

01:08:30   to the system. Yeah, yeah that is exactly the sort of thing that I hope will happen because I mean

01:08:38   the simple answer sure there could be a new Siri with a new UI now you can ask more questions but

01:08:45   it would feel like so much wasted potential in my opinion because I think what what sets Apple apart

01:08:51   is that they could bake this into all sorts of places of iOS, iPadOS, their entire ecosystem

01:09:00   really with a third-party developer story that doesn't require shaky web plugins and I say this

01:09:07   as someone who tried the beta version of the Todoist integration with chat GPT. It was sort

01:09:13   of shaky. Imagine having this sort of intelligence in a native experience on your phone with any apps

01:09:19   that you want to use. I think this is really exciting and I sort of understand if done

01:09:27   correctly the words that were that German used ambitious and compelling this is ambitious and

01:09:34   compelling at the same time because having a software update that's gonna make my phone

01:09:39   10 times more intelligent and useful for me yes that's compelling. We've seen the results

01:09:45   like a fraction of the results of these efforts with the transformer model in the keyboard.

01:09:52   Now imagine that sort of intelligence applied to the entire... So good, it's so good, it's so good,

01:10:00   it's so good. I don't know how but it suggests meme text to me you know like

01:10:06   like I would say like you love to and it's like see it it's like how do you know this?

01:10:11   How do you know that I want to use these like modern phrases rather than just what the dictionary

01:10:17   would like? I think it's very clever very very clever whatever it is they're doing they have

01:10:21   done a very very good job with the keyboard stuff which does actually make me confident that they

01:10:28   they could make these models work well in general. I mean who has a bigger data set?

01:10:34   And that's the really exciting part for me this intelligence with your own data. Imagine asking

01:10:43   things like hey the last time I saw Mike what did we have for lunch? And just imagine having

01:10:50   an answer back in two seconds. Like normally you will be like okay when did I see Mike and maybe

01:10:57   you know you had an event in your calendar so you open the calendar you go in there like okay

01:11:02   so maybe it was two weeks ago on Wednesday and then you open photos and you scroll back and

01:11:06   like okay when was Wednesday what date was it and you're like okay let me find the picture of the

01:11:11   meal that I took right? Instead the large language model could be just like okay I know who Mike is

01:11:17   it's saved as a person in photos just let me calculate all of this and push back result and

01:11:23   I mean that's the idea right but done with your own data. Now imagine this for all kinds of things

01:11:30   coming from your device and your apps and your photos your messages your mail whatever.

01:11:36   If Apple is doing what I hope they're doing this is going to be incredible.

01:11:40   If you want to read stuff we spoke about or feed us through an LLM of your own check out the show

01:11:45   notes in your podcast player or on the web at relay.fm/connected/476. While you're there you

01:11:53   can sign up to become a member. Connected Pro members get longer ad-free versions of the show

01:11:59   each and every week. This week on the Pro Show I'm going to follow up with Mike about the Mac audit I

01:12:05   put him through recently. Oh yeah okay yeah get ready get ready boy. Oh no. You can find us all

01:12:14   online you can find Mike's work on a bunch of other shows here on relay.fm but also of course over at

01:12:20   Cortex Brand. You can follow Mike online he's on threads as imike and he is on mastodon as mike

01:12:28   always get yours backwards at imike at mike.social. You can find Federico's work at maxstories.net.

01:12:36   We didn't even get to talk to you about the iPad as a gaming screen maybe we can follow up on that

01:12:42   next week. Lots of cool stuff happening over at Max Stories. It takes four hours just to talk about the cables

01:12:48   you know. I know. Set aside some good time some quality time for the cables. It's good I will.

01:12:54   I know you care a lot about USB-C cables I think it's good. You can find Federico on Mastodon as

01:13:00   vatici at maxstories.net as well. You can find my writing at 512pixels.net and I co-host Mac

01:13:08   power users each and every Sunday here on relay.fm. You can follow me on threads as ismh86 or ismh@eworld.social

01:13:16   over on Mastodon. I'd like to thank our sponsors this week Squarespace, ZocDoc, and NetSuite.

01:13:22   And until next time guys say goodbye. I do that cheerio. Bye y'all.