Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:07 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 4-something-2.

00:00:12 ◼   ► I'm your usual charming British host, James Thompson.

00:00:15 ◼   ► And I've been instructed by connectedintro.com/jjj

00:00:19 ◼   ► to introduce everybody's favorite Big Apple buddy, Mr. Jon Voorhees.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Hey James, it's good to talk to you in this holiday season.

00:00:28 ◼   ► I'm here sitting in North Carolina having some barbecue and a few drinks while we chat about the holidays.

00:00:35 ◼   ► But before we really get into this, I want to introduce my favorite co-host, Mr. Jason Snell.

00:00:41 ◼   ► Jon, thank you. I don't know why I'm not anybody's favorite Big Apple buddy.

00:00:46 ◼   ► Is it worse to ship from California than from North Carolina?

00:00:49 ◼   ► Do you have proximity to Europe going for you, Jon?

00:00:52 ◼   ► I'm right by the ocean, practically.

00:00:54 ◼   ► Just put it in a bottle and shove it out into the ocean and it'll get there.

00:00:59 ◼   ► Sometimes it takes that long.

00:01:01 ◼   ► Don't you have to be next to the Big Apple? I feel that's how it works.

00:01:05 ◼   ► Oh, that's interesting. That's an interesting idea.

00:01:07 ◼   ► I will admit that I absolutely hate shipping things.

00:01:10 ◼   ► So maybe that's why people don't ask me, because I hate it.

00:01:13 ◼   ► I have a guy. I have a shipping guy.

00:01:16 ◼   ► I have boxes in my office that I've been meaning to ship back for like a month and they're just still here

00:01:20 ◼   ► because I don't want to go to the UPS store.

00:01:24 ◼   ► They're very nice there. Literally, the Amazon stuff, you just throw it at them and be like, "Here, ah!"

00:01:29 ◼   ► And you leave. I don't think they like me throwing boxes at them, but I do it.

00:01:34 ◼   ► That's the nice thing about those boxes that have the pre-printed labels. It's great stuff.

00:01:39 ◼   ► I ship our awards every year and I've got to fill everything on triplicate for everybody who lives outside the US.

00:01:46 ◼   ► Yeah, that's true. I ship your awards too, Jon. I'm so happy that they're finally together.

00:01:52 ◼   ► I've believed it all along.

00:01:55 ◼   ► It does not feel like it's been a whole year since we did one of these, but we are...

00:01:59 ◼   ► I mean, the Pickies episode. That's what I mean. We're here every week.

00:02:02 ◼   ► It doesn't feel like it's a whole year since we did this, but before we get to the Pickies,

00:02:06 ◼   ► which we will be doing our special Pickies episode, it is time first for our traditional Connected Christmas gift exchange.

00:02:17 ◼   ► And as I've been instructed by Connected, intro.com/exchange, it's time for me to introduce the Triple J gift exchange,

00:02:24 ◼   ► where we give each other presents. See, that wasn't so hard. I don't know why the website tells me that I have to do that every time.

00:02:28 ◼   ► Anyway, James, can you get us started with our traditional gift exchange?

00:02:32 ◼   ► I have something which I've hand-selected for you.

00:02:35 ◼   ► It is a page of an original pencil-drawn artwork from an issue of the ROM and the Micronauts comics that came out in 2018 or something like that.

00:02:47 ◼   ► But is remarkably affordable.

00:02:50 ◼   ► Well, James, thank you. You know me so well. And with that said, I'll just point out the reason it's so affordable is this is one of those latter-day...

00:03:00 ◼   ► We picked up the rights and made comics that don't have any of the original characters in it, but have the licensed toys in it.

00:03:07 ◼   ► So it's a very nice gift, but that's why it was so cheap. I'll just explain. That's why it's so cheap.

00:03:13 ◼   ► I mean, I did look at the...

00:03:15 ◼   ► You can get some of the original stuff, but it's like $10,000.

00:03:19 ◼   ► I actually have a page of Micronauts that I got a Comic-Con for what I thought was an exorbitant amount of money, but it turns out not so much.

00:03:26 ◼   ► Oh, nice.

00:03:27 ◼   ► This is great, James. Thank you. I look forward to a big Scotland buddy sending it my way.

00:03:34 ◼   ► I guess it's my turn on the round robin next.

00:03:37 ◼   ► Jon, I want to take you back to a magical time. It was the Super Bowl a few years ago, and everybody was really excited to see Rob Lowe in the crowd at the Super Bowl.

00:03:47 ◼   ► And they're like, "Oh, it's TVs and movies, Rob Lowe. I wonder what team he's a fan of."

00:03:52 ◼   ► And then as they zoomed in on Rob Lowe, you noticed that he was wearing a hat, a branded hat with the NFL logo on it.

00:04:00 ◼   ► Nothing says, "I'm not really a fan," but, "I'm here at an NFL event, like wearing the logo of the league and not of a team."

00:04:10 ◼   ► And with that in mind, and the fact that my beloved Cal Bears are going to be joining your region's premier sports conference, inexplicably, the Cal and Stanford are joining it, the Atlantic Coast Conference.

00:04:25 ◼   ► I have decided to celebrate this, Jon, by getting you straight from the ACC's website, shop.theacc.com, a ACC conference logo t-shirt.

00:04:36 ◼   ► So you can say, "I am a fan of administrators of a conference of schools that have teams that people are fans of." I hope you appreciate.

00:04:45 ◼   ► It's gray. That feels appropriate in some way. Don't offend somebody with a color that might be for a team. Just make it gray.

00:04:54 ◼   ► So a gray t-shirt is winning its way to you.

00:04:56 ◼   ► This is a wonderful gift. Thank you so much, Jason. I mean, this is not the kind of t-shirt you can just get anywhere.

00:05:04 ◼   ► You can't go down to your local shop and buy an ACC t-shirt. You have to go to this really special website to get this t-shirt.

00:05:13 ◼   ► And you've also educated me with this gift because I had no idea that the Cal Bears were coming to the ACC before this, because I've kind of fallen off the ACC bandwagon.

00:05:23 ◼   ► And even though my oldest son went to Berkeley, I had no clue about this.

00:05:28 ◼   ► Well, this t-shirt's going to put you in the mood for the ACC, Jon.

00:05:31 ◼   ► I'm excited. You know, you'll be able to from now on, you'll be able to watch your football games, your basketball games over breakfast,

00:05:38 ◼   ► because most of the games that your Cal Bears are going to be playing are going to be early morning in California.

00:05:44 ◼   ► I love morning sports. It's great.

00:05:47 ◼   ► I did misread this. I thought it was an AAC t-shirt, and I thought it was like an audio format.

00:05:52 ◼   ► Yeah, sure.

00:05:53 ◼   ► Well, I mean, it's very similar.

00:05:54 ◼   ► It'll go well with your MP3 sweatpants.

00:05:57 ◼   ► Right.

00:05:58 ◼   ► Jon, what do you hope for James?

00:06:01 ◼   ► Oh, all right. So, you know, it's the holiday season.

00:06:05 ◼   ► And I've been revisiting a bunch of holiday classic movies, and so I thought I would get James the Jelly of the Month Club, because, you know, Christmas Vacation.

00:06:17 ◼   ► I was watching it, and, you know, Clark Griswold, he was anticipating that he would get a big bonus, but instead he got a Jelly of the Month Club.

00:06:26 ◼   ► And I think he seemed really happy about it. And I think that James, too, will enjoy the gift that keeps on giving all year long, the Jelly of the Month Club.

00:06:34 ◼   ► So I have a question. When you say "jelly," which kind of jelly? Are we talking American jelly or British jelly?

00:06:42 ◼   ► Well, I sent you a certificate, James, in our show document.

00:06:45 ◼   ► It doesn't help. There's a little pod on it that says "jelly."

00:06:48 ◼   ► This is a pod that's a little bit like the creamers you get at a coffee shop.

00:06:52 ◼   ► That is exactly how the jelly comes in some coffee shops, too, James. This is

00:06:57 ◼   ► "jelly" as in a gelatinous fruit spread that goes on your muffin.

00:07:04 ◼   ► So jam.

00:07:05 ◼   ► It's a jam of the month club, right?

00:07:07 ◼   ► Yeah, jam's a little, in our lingo, jam is much chunkier than jelly. Jelly is more kind of uniformly consistent,

00:07:15 ◼   ► like jello, but for Britain.

00:07:17 ◼   ► Yeah, so jelly is jello here, just to confuse Americans.

00:07:21 ◼   ► So I think you're going to be getting some sort of preserves, a very gelatinous preserve.

00:07:25 ◼   ► Some fruit-based, sugar-based.

00:07:28 ◼   ► Twelve different ones, James, though. I mean, we're not just talking about raspberry and strawberry and, like, marmalade here.

00:07:34 ◼   ► We're talking about all—you're going to get, you know, you're getting mango, you're getting all sorts of different flavors.

00:07:39 ◼   ► Boysenberry, lingo berry, ginger. Maybe.

00:07:45 ◼   ► Well, I look forward to finding out what January is.

00:07:48 ◼   ► Okay, James, you're up.

00:07:51 ◼   ► Yep, it is me. And, John, I think something kind of like with as much thought into it as your present for me.

00:08:00 ◼   ► I'm getting you an empty cardboard box. It's the exact size and shape of the packaging for an Apple Vision Pro.

00:08:09 ◼   ► Complete with a prepaid shipping label addressed to my house.

00:08:13 ◼   ► And inside the box, there is a t-shirt in your size that says "Big Apple Vision Buddy."

00:08:20 ◼   ► Very nice. I appreciate that. I've got a lot of t-shirts coming my way, plus a cardboard box.

00:08:25 ◼   ► So, I got that going for me, too.

00:08:27 ◼   ► You have cats. Cats love a cardboard box.

00:08:30 ◼   ► They do. They do. It's too bad. I'm going to have to get a cat now, too, I guess.

00:08:33 ◼   ► I know I don't have a cat yet, but now that I have a cardboard box, it's the only logical thing to get.

00:08:39 ◼   ► Do check that there is not a cat in it when you ship the…

00:08:42 ◼   ► I will try not to ship a cat to you, James.

00:08:45 ◼   ► You should name your cat Heef after another multimedia format.

00:08:49 ◼   ► Oh, well, this is a really big surprise. I mean, I have a feeling that a lot of my friends in Europe

00:08:56 ◼   ► are going to want me to be their Big Apple Vision Buddy, too. But you know what? James,

00:09:02 ◼   ► you're at the top of my list. You've been a good boy this year.

00:09:06 ◼   ► Do you think that Apple is going to track people who are hoarding Apple Vision Pros?

00:09:12 ◼   ► Are they going to be like, "Voorhees, we can't sell any more to Voorhees."

00:09:16 ◼   ► That's like four. The guy bought five Vision Pros. What's he doing with them?

00:09:20 ◼   ► He's got a big family. They all want one.

00:09:24 ◼   ► I'm just going to travel the Southeast US, going to every Apple store and buying one at every

00:09:30 ◼   ► store and then driving them back and sending them with my guy, Mike, at the shipping place.

00:09:35 ◼   ► Yeah, it'll be, you know, I'll be fine.

00:09:37 ◼   ► Getting custom eye inserts for various prescriptions, and when they put them on you,

00:09:42 ◼   ► you're like, "Yep, totally can see that." You have to wear some padding on your head to

00:09:48 ◼   ► emulate a larger head. Little masks. Are you going to do masks? I don't know how it's going to work,

00:09:54 ◼   ► but I look forward to the fun.

00:09:55 ◼   ► I'm working on the logistics right now, Jason. But let me tell you, Jason, I've got something for you

00:10:00 ◼   ► this holiday season. Yeah, I do. You know, returning to the sports theme and the fact that

00:10:07 ◼   ► your cow bears are now part of Tobacco Road. Yeah, Atlantic Coast Conference. I've got you

00:10:14 ◼   ► a tailgate kit complete with a full barbecue spread. We've got for you here, we've got pulled

00:10:22 ◼   ► pork with a great Carolina vinegar-based sauce. We've got hush puppies. We've got fried pickles.

00:10:28 ◼   ► Fried pickles, Jason. And grits.

00:10:31 ◼   ► What can make pickles better is fry them. And grits! Now that's subtle.

00:10:34 ◼   ► Grits. I'm a big fan of the grits. I'm a big fan of the grits. So that's all for you for your first

00:10:40 ◼   ► Duke Cal game.

00:10:41 ◼   ► Sure, that's right. Karen Healey and I will be facing off in the—this is great. I'll also point

00:10:47 ◼   ► out that the tailgate culture at Cal is so spectacular that often you can find people

00:10:54 ◼   ► standing in a multi-level parking lot and just soaking in the no sun just in a parking lot.

00:11:06 ◼   ► Yeah, anyway, we've got to work on that.

00:11:10 ◼   ► There's some confusion in the chat room about hush puppies. Hush puppies are not shoes. Hush

00:11:17 ◼   ► puppies are in fact food. They are balls of cornmeal that are deep-fried. And you know,

00:11:23 ◼   ► anything that's deep-fried is good. And cornmeal? Yeah, absolutely. It's a great thing. I had some

00:11:29 ◼   ► jalapeno hush puppies just last night.

00:11:32 ◼   ► You know, I've said this before and I'll say it again. I love barbecue and I love southern food

00:11:37 ◼   ► so much that if I did not live in California, I would probably be dead already from mass

00:11:45 ◼   ► consumption of brisket and hush puppies.

00:11:46 ◼   ► There is a big problem of moving to South Jason, which is that food is everywhere.

00:11:50 ◼   ► I know. I know. I've got to stay away.

00:11:52 ◼   ► And here I am.

00:11:53 ◼   ► I know.

00:11:54 ◼   ► I did think also shoes on hush puppies because it is a brand of shoes.

00:11:59 ◼   ► It is.

00:11:59 ◼   ► But I don't know what grits are. It sounds unpleasant, like something you would spread

00:12:07 ◼   ► on a driveway, but I—

00:12:09 ◼   ► It's a coarsely ground cornmeal that is slow cooked and it can be either like white corn

00:12:16 ◼   ► or yellow corn. And then what you put in it, you always put butter in it because butter

00:12:22 ◼   ► everything's better with butter on it. But you can have you can mix in some cheese,

00:12:26 ◼   ► kind of have it as a side dish to a meal. You could put in some honey or some brown

00:12:32 ◼   ► sugar for a little sweetness for breakfast. It's good all the time.

00:12:37 ◼   ► It's closest to analog is polenta, but it's not the sister polenta.

00:12:41 ◼   ► But it's similar. It's southern polenta.

00:12:43 ◼   ► I mean, the sort of southern cuisine and the Scottish cuisine seem to involve both a lot

00:12:48 ◼   ► of deep frying. So I think we have a common ground.

00:12:51 ◼   ► We do. We can meet in the middle at fried Oreos.

00:12:55 ◼   ► Yeah. All right. I will round us out. James, I have a present for you. I know that you

00:13:01 ◼   ► took to my present last year of the curling lessons so much, but I want to focus in on

00:13:05 ◼   ► your professional development now because we did an episode of Upgrade a few weeks ago

00:13:13 ◼   ► where you made the shocking to some admission that PCALC basically was because you wanted

00:13:20 ◼   ► an interesting project, but that you're not actually somebody who loves maths, as you

00:13:26 ◼   ► say. It is true.

00:13:28 ◼   ► So I am going to help you out. Coming your way from Amazon.co.uk is a DK hardcover for

00:13:36 ◼   ► kids called What's the Point of Maths? And I mean, I have wondered about that.

00:13:43 ◼   ► Maths Make the World Go Round, an educational book that will give you surprising answers

00:13:47 ◼   ► to everyday maths challenges, unpacking how maths is an essential part of our everyday

00:13:54 ◼   ► life in ways you never thought of. So I think, James, after you read What's the Point of

00:13:59 ◼   ► Maths, you're going to be more centered as a person and you're going to understand how

00:14:03 ◼   ► much good you put out into the world by doing PCALC. That's my plan.

00:14:07 ◼   ► Well, I do appreciate that you went for a UK one that has maths rather than math.

00:14:12 ◼   ► Oh, yeah. So, you know, I didn't want it to be confusing for you.

00:14:16 ◼   ► Yeah. This book also apparently promises magic tricks. So, yeah.

00:14:22 ◼   ► Those will be in the about box before you know it.

00:14:24 ◼   ► Yeah. I'm just going to pivot to being a magician.

00:14:29 ◼   ► Oh, very nice. I like that idea. I like it a lot.

00:14:33 ◼   ► I think these are our best presents yet.

00:14:36 ◼   ► Yes.

00:14:37 ◼   ► And I'm so excited to move on to the pickies now. But we do have an ad, and I'll point

00:14:44 ◼   ► this out same as last year. The suits at Real AFM don't let us read the ads anymore.

00:14:49 ◼   ► Ever since the incident.

00:14:51 ◼   ► Look, all I said was that capitalism was a bad idea and you don't need to buy anything

00:14:56 ◼   ► to be truly happy.

00:14:57 ◼   ► Yeah. Well, so instead, here's one of those suits to read you an ad.

00:15:02 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by Notion. Notion combines your notes, documents,

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00:17:03 ◼   ► of the show and Relay FM. We're back from that, whatever that was, we didn't hear it,

00:17:09 ◼   ► we don't know. The Pickies, it's time for the Pickies, our annual contest we do, where

00:17:14 ◼   ► we pick what will happen next year and also grade what we thought would happen this year.

00:17:18 ◼   ► Please stand on one leg for the reading of the Pickies Charter, most recently amended

00:17:25 ◼   ► on Jason Voorhees Day, which of course is the first Friday the 13th of the year.

00:17:28 ◼   ► That was January 11th, 2023. There will not be another Jason Voorhees Day until

00:17:34 ◼   ► September of next year. So we will have to amend our rules next September. But

00:17:40 ◼   ► let's get started with the rules. There are two types of Pickies,

00:17:45 ◼   ► annual Pickies and WWDC Pickies. No other Pickies shall ever be introduced.

00:17:52 ◼   ► The winner of the annual Pickies is named Grand Admiral Pinkerton and retains the title for a

00:17:58 ◼   ► full year. The WWDC Pickies winner is named the Apple Park Prince, that was one we renamed,

00:18:05 ◼   ► and retains the title until the next WWDC is held. Order for annual Pickies and WWDC Pickies

00:18:13 ◼   ► is based on the winner of the previous year. The winner goes second, the users flip a coin,

00:18:21 ◼   ► the losers flip a coin to determine who goes first and who goes third. Jason is the only person who

00:18:28 ◼   ► is allowed to flip a coin and cannot use any apps to do so. James is the only person who is allowed

00:18:34 ◼   ► to roll dice. John, that's me, may use any other method of generating random numbers that he wants.

00:18:42 ◼   ► - Oh, that's special. Special things are special.

00:18:45 ◼   ► - For a pick to earn any points, everything written down in the prediction document,

00:18:50 ◼   ► for that specific pick must come true. We changed that one after I tried to invalidate the entire

00:18:55 ◼   ► contest last year when I lost. - Yeah, that's true. That sounds

00:18:59 ◼   ► like you. Because James tried to introduce irrational numbers and crash the entire Pickies,

00:19:03 ◼   ► there are now no half points or fractional points awarded in any round except when grading in the

00:19:07 ◼   ► event of a tie. - And three points are awarded for any pick deemed correct in the first round.

00:19:14 ◼   ► - Two points are awarded for any pick deemed correct in the second round.

00:19:19 ◼   ► - One point will be awarded for correct picks in the lightning round, our longest round.

00:19:24 ◼   ► - Any pick that comes true in the first half of the year is worth a double.

00:19:30 ◼   ► - Your total percentage expressed as a faction of wrong answers will be multiplied by five and

00:19:37 ◼   ► deducted from your final score. All calculations are performed using IEEE 754 floating point

00:19:43 ◼   ► numbers, not integers. - The two other hosts must agree that one of

00:19:49 ◼   ► your picks is not obvious, one is pretty cool, and one is quite sneaky.

00:19:53 ◼   ► - Every pick has to be related to Apple or the tech industry.

00:19:58 ◼   ► - No picking things that the picker of the pick could make come true by themselves or by inducing

00:20:05 ◼   ► others, including taking a job at Apple or learning how to hypnotize people by becoming a magician.

00:20:11 ◼   ► - This is the only reason we don't work at Apple, any of us really.

00:20:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, because we want to be grand admiral pickerton. No picking things that are not

00:20:20 ◼   ► provably true or false, whether or not you can prove a negative is best left for the philosophers.

00:20:26 ◼   ► - No altering the prediction document after the show is over. We all remember what happened in

00:20:33 ◼   ► 2020, 2021, and 2022, and even last week. - Yes, that's right.

00:20:40 ◼   ► - And we have a big new introduction here, so I think we should split this one up between us.

00:20:45 ◼   ► - Okay. - So in the event of a tie,

00:20:47 ◼   ► all ties will be broken by the following procedure. Each lightning round pick deemed incorrect will

00:20:54 ◼   ► receive a coin flip. If the coin is tails, the incorrect pick will be regraded by the host who

00:21:01 ◼   ► is not in a tie. - The regrading shall be judged on the

00:21:05 ◼   ► following criteria. One, passion up to half a point. Two, precision up to one third of a point.

00:21:12 ◼   ► Three, wildcard up to one quarter of a point. - All after all regrading of wrong answers is

00:21:22 ◼   ► completed. The scores will be recalculated and the winner will be proclaimed.

00:21:26 ◼   ► - So in the event of a three-way tie, a three-sided die will be rolled. The winner

00:21:32 ◼   ► of a coin flip between the two current non-winners of the pickies will choose the numbers for all

00:21:37 ◼   ► hosts, and the host whose number is rolled on the three-sided die will be eliminated.

00:21:41 ◼   ► The tiebreaker will then proceed. I think we can all agree this is very simple.

00:21:45 ◼   ► - Pretty simple stuff. Pretty basic baby stuff. - This is straightforward as usual.

00:21:48 ◼   ► - Like you do on the playground. - Yeah. And after scoring is complete,

00:21:52 ◼   ► each host must place the official pickies' refrigerator magnets in the proper configuration

00:21:58 ◼   ► on the refrigerator for next year. Winner at the center of the door, second place lower left

00:22:03 ◼   ► corner, third place lower right corner, failure to produce evidence of a properly secured magnet

00:22:09 ◼   ► will result in immediate disqualification. - That's true. That's true. All right.

00:22:14 ◼   ► What's on the line here? The winner of each competition is given access to the Relay.fm

00:22:20 ◼   ► CMS and will have to post the show until the next winner is revealed. The losers of the competition

00:22:27 ◼   ► will have to take turns doing the edit of the show each week.

00:22:32 ◼   ► - Wow. - That's the worst.

00:22:33 ◼   ► - That's tough stuff. Tough stuff. All right. Time to score the 2023 pickies. The first round

00:22:44 ◼   ► worth three points. Jon predicted that a MacBook Pro will be updated.

00:22:51 ◼   ► - Woo-hoo! - Six points.

00:22:54 ◼   ► - Not only did I get this right once, I got this right twice. - You got it right twice,

00:22:57 ◼   ► although you don't get the pick twice. - You don't get the points.

00:23:00 ◼   ► - Oh, come on. Guys, come on. How often does a wish come true twice?

00:23:04 ◼   ► - It's kind of amazing. Six points because it happened the first half of the year, too. So,

00:23:08 ◼   ► you really maximized your total here, but you don't get it to happen twice.

00:23:12 ◼   ► - All right, all right. - James picked that the Mac Pro will

00:23:17 ◼   ► finally be introduced. We thought he was mad by making this claim, but not only did he get it

00:23:23 ◼   ► right, he got it right in the first half of the year. James, look at you.

00:23:27 ◼   ► - Yep, it was introduced and then promptly forgotten by everyone.

00:23:31 ◼   ► - I think this puts you at your highest point total in the history of the pickies. Just one pick.

00:23:37 ◼   ► One pick in. - Yeah.

00:23:40 ◼   ► - Amazing. All right. - This was a very good round because

00:23:44 ◼   ► Jason then picked that the Mac Mini will get an update, and of course, he was right in the first

00:23:50 ◼   ► half of the year. - It's true. We maxed out here, everybody. We did six, six, six. Nothing wrong

00:23:58 ◼   ► with that. That's a perfectly good set of numbers. Okay. So, we're tied at six, and we move on to the

00:24:05 ◼   ► second round, which was worth two points each and, of course, double if it was in the first

00:24:10 ◼   ► half of the year. We did pretty good here, too. Yeah.

00:24:14 ◼   ► - And John chose that Apple would release Logic or Final Cut for the iPad, and they did, and they

00:24:23 ◼   ► did it in the first half of the year. So, that's four points.

00:24:24 ◼   ► - And in fact, I got both. So, actually, I should get double, double, double, double points.

00:24:28 ◼   ► - It's one pick. We're gonna need language in the rules, I think, for this. That no matter what

00:24:37 ◼   ► happens with your pick, you don't get it more than, those points more than once.

00:24:42 ◼   ► - All right. Well, you know, I will tell you that I did not think this was actually gonna happen,

00:24:47 ◼   ► and it happened in early May, and so I was kind of shocked.

00:24:50 ◼   ► - It is kind of amazing. John, I will say also, we're being a little kind to you because

00:24:54 ◼   ► that word "or," I don't know. - Oh, Jason, you're such a lawyer.

00:24:59 ◼   ► - You could interpret it as being that it's one or the other, and they did both, but I'm gonna

00:25:04 ◼   ► let it go because we're not gonna count double points, but we're gonna let these go. I think

00:25:08 ◼   ► it's the most fair result. And as we know, despite our lengthy rules process, it is a very fair and

00:25:14 ◼   ► gentlemanly sort of... - You are so kind, so kind.

00:25:17 ◼   ► - James chose another real stretch of a pick. "Apple will introduce a mixed reality headset

00:25:24 ◼   ► and, proving, if you pick it every year, eventually you might be right."

00:25:26 ◼   ► - Yes. - And "WWC continuing to be in June"

00:25:30 ◼   ► means that it's a double score, and you get four more points for 10, James. 10!

00:25:34 ◼   ► - I know. I mean, the only thing that could be even more impressive is if your next pick

00:25:40 ◼   ► came true as well, and you picked, that there will be a bigger MacBook Air. And there was,

00:25:46 ◼   ► and it happened in the first half of the year. - Amazing.

00:25:48 ◼   ► - Four points. So we're all at 10. - 10.

00:25:51 ◼   ► - We're all perfect 10s. - We are.

00:25:53 ◼   ► - Which is what I'm hearing. - I hear that all the time.

00:25:55 ◼   ► - It's very doubly more. - And that leads us to our lightning round,

00:25:58 ◼   ► where we get one point each, and of course double if it's in the first half of the year.

00:26:04 ◼   ► And this is where our wonderful correctness of our main picks got a little bit askew.

00:26:10 ◼   ► So in round one, John picked "Apple will increase the free storage tier for iCloud." Again,

00:26:17 ◼   ► a pick you could pick every year for the last 12 years and never get it right.

00:26:21 ◼   ► - Right. What was I thinking? - James, I don't know. I don't know.

00:26:25 ◼   ► Look, at the end of the year, a cockeyed optimist, you know, who's like, "Oh, next year's going to be

00:26:31 ◼   ► the best year ever." And then you do stuff like this and this is going to lose you the pickies.

00:26:36 ◼   ► - Ensa, Lucy pulling away football cartoon labeled with iCloud.

00:26:41 ◼   ► - Absolutely. - James picked "Apple will

00:26:45 ◼   ► announce their own social network based on ActivityPub." - Yeah, I was just too hyped up

00:26:51 ◼   ► on the Fediverse at this time last year. And I thought, I mean, we are seeing like,

00:26:57 ◼   ► lots of people are starting to embrace it and, you know, like Threads is starting to roll things out

00:27:04 ◼   ► now. But Apple is still burned after Ping and that's it. No more.

00:27:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, and replace Apple with Meta and you would have been golden, James. But no dice.

00:27:16 ◼   ► - No, no. My choice was "Apple's classical music thing finally arrives." That's all I said,

00:27:23 ◼   ► classical music thing. And I think we can all agree it was something and it arrived in the

00:27:29 ◼   ► first half of the year. So that's two points for me, putting me in the lead with 12.

00:27:32 ◼   ► - So, Jon, you picked that Apple is going to release a new or updated accessory for the iPad.

00:27:41 ◼   ► And that was indeed correct. - Jon, you got this by the

00:27:45 ◼   ► thinnest margin ever. Anything new for the iPad in 2023 is ridiculous. But technically that USB-C

00:27:56 ◼   ► Apple Pencil is. And I'm glad you said updated accessory because new, we might've had to fight

00:28:01 ◼   ► about it, but it's like, yeah, okay. - Yeah, this is really it for all of 2023.

00:28:07 ◼   ► - That's the, yeah, that was literally the year in iPad, a weird pencil. That's it. That's it.

00:28:14 ◼   ► But it's good. And it was second half of the year. So you got one point, but that's still

00:28:17 ◼   ► kind of amazing that like I kept, I don't know about you guys, but I check these picks every

00:28:24 ◼   ► so often. I'm like, oh, how's it going with the pickies? And I laughed at this pick and then that

00:28:30 ◼   ► pencil came out and I was like, Jon. - Curses. I'm just glad that the whole,

00:28:36 ◼   ► all the iPad teams got a year off. It was quite nice.

00:28:38 ◼   ► - That's nice. I mean, we know how far ahead they were. Their year off was 2021, but

00:28:43 ◼   ► I'm glad they got that year off. - So my pick in this was, I said that Apple

00:28:50 ◼   ► would sell their mixed reality headset to consumers by the end of the year. I was not correct. I mean,

00:28:57 ◼   ► I think Apple possibly expected me to get this pick, but it didn't happen and it hasn't happened

00:29:04 ◼   ► yet. And whether it happens in the UK is still touch and go next year. So we'll see. I think

00:29:11 ◼   ► they've made about three of them and they will be selling them.

00:29:14 ◼   ► - To Jon. - To me.

00:29:17 ◼   ► - Yes, Jon will buy the entire run. - I'm going to be the entire gray market

00:29:22 ◼   ► of Vision Pro. - Your world global Vision Pro buddy.

00:29:26 ◼   ► - This is my side hustle. - You're a preferred reseller

00:29:31 ◼   ► of Vision Pro. - Jason's pick was that an Apple executive will be present at the awarding of

00:29:38 ◼   ► trophy for a sporting championship. - Let me explain myself here. I was thinking

00:29:42 ◼   ► they were so hyped up about the MLS that either at the MLS cup or at that the league cup that they

00:29:48 ◼   ► did with Liga MX from Mexico, that there would be something where like we'd see Eddy Q or somebody

00:29:54 ◼   ► in the background. And I'm going to admit, I scoured the websites of various sports and

00:30:06 ◼   ► photography outlets for any sign that an Apple executive was present somewhere in one photo at

00:30:16 ◼   ► the trophy award ceremonies for the MLS cup and for the other cup. And I couldn't spot somebody.

00:30:23 ◼   ► So I tried, I tried. - It could have been true. I mean,

00:30:27 ◼   ► like present is a very wide term here. - Right, right. And who would blame you after

00:30:34 ◼   ► Tim Cook's wonderful waving the flag at F1. - Right, I just, I felt like they'd just be in

00:30:39 ◼   ► the room, not like handing the trophy or something, but they'd be in the room and they were not,

00:30:43 ◼   ► as far as I can tell, I can't validate this. So I have to let it go.

00:30:45 ◼   ► - All right, well, let's move on to our third pick. And I, you know, I was committed to the

00:30:57 ◼   ► AirPods Max getting an update in 2023 and you know what? It didn't happen. And who knows,

00:31:05 ◼   ► who knows what 2024 will bring, but the AirPods Max, same old, same old for 2023. It's very much

00:31:13 ◼   ► like an original HomePod at this point. - You were committed to the update, Apple.

00:31:17 ◼   ► - I was. - So with this and the free

00:31:19 ◼   ► storage tier pick, I think we should file this away for Jason Voorhees day. Because I know we've

00:31:25 ◼   ► gotten some feedback from people who are like, well, it shouldn't be fair. You shouldn't be able

00:31:28 ◼   ► to pick the same pick for the next year. I kind of go the other way. I kind of feel like we need

00:31:33 ◼   ► like a let it ride function where if you want to keep your bad pick for another year, you get a

00:31:39 ◼   ► little bonus if it finally comes true or something. - Like it doubles each year.

00:31:43 ◼   ► - Or maybe in addition to your lightning round picks, you get to also let it ride and have extra

00:31:48 ◼   ► picks. We'll talk about it in September. - I've got a lawyer term for you, Jason.

00:31:54 ◼   ► - Yeah. - The right of first refusal. I am going to

00:31:58 ◼   ► have the right of first refusal on the AirPods Max, which means that neither of you can pick it

00:32:03 ◼   ► if I want to pick it again in 2024. That's how it's going to work.

00:32:07 ◼   ► - I like that. I like that. Okay. Okay. And we'll look at maybe doing something in the rules for a

00:32:12 ◼   ► bonus or something in September. But yeah, I think that that's right. I think clearly you own these

00:32:16 ◼   ► picks and honestly, they've been so unsuccessful that you are welcome to them. - Yeah, it's just

00:32:23 ◼   ► like the free storage on iCloud. I want that every single year.

00:32:26 ◼   ► - I feel there should be something also if you have picked something in the past and then it

00:32:31 ◼   ► comes true the next year that you were just so ahead of your time and you might not have picked

00:32:37 ◼   ► it the next time. - Oh. Picky's residuals,

00:32:41 ◼   ► we call that. - Yeah, I like that.

00:32:42 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Well, Jon, what did James pick in round three?

00:32:45 ◼   ► - So James picked that Twitter would go bankrupt. And you know what, James, you're on the right

00:32:51 ◼   ► track, but it takes a long time for a company the size of Twitter to go bankrupt. And they're not

00:32:56 ◼   ► quite there yet, but I think they'll get there. I agree with you. I think they'll get there.

00:33:00 ◼   ► - My argument for this, I have two arguments. One, does Twitter exist any longer? No. You know,

00:33:07 ◼   ► Twitter as a social media platform doesn't exist. - I mean, the domain is still there,

00:33:14 ◼   ► but even if they disappeared, they didn't disappear by going bankrupt is the problem.

00:33:17 ◼   ► - Well, they went morally bankrupt, I think we could say at the very least. But I will

00:33:25 ◼   ► see that this one is not true yet, but I think this could be my residual or whatever for next year.

00:33:32 ◼   ► - Right, a first refusal, you've got it. - Yeah.

00:33:34 ◼   ► - You're welcome to. - All right, all right. Well,

00:33:36 ◼   ► our only point scorer in this particular lightning round was Jason who said that Apple will not offer

00:33:44 ◼   ► iOS sideloading anywhere in the world in 2023, and he was 100% correct.

00:33:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, I've decided I don't want to do these for the whole year picks anymore because you

00:33:53 ◼   ► can never get two for them. You can only get one, you can never double because it doesn't come through

00:33:57 ◼   ► - That's true, you have to go through those early things, yeah.

00:33:59 ◼   ► - till right now at the end of the year. But it didn't happen. This is how I thought it would go,

00:34:03 ◼   ► right? There are all those stories about them working on sideloading stuff, but it was kind

00:34:06 ◼   ► of clear that until they weren't going to roll them out with the OS update, they were going to

00:34:10 ◼   ► save them for when they were legally obligated to maybe in Europe, and maybe that will happen in

00:34:15 ◼   ► a few months, but not yet, not yet. So I take a point, I'll take it.

00:34:19 ◼   ► - I think just the super tanker of sideloading just takes a while to turn.

00:34:23 ◼   ► - It does, and it might get wedged in a canal somewhere.

00:34:26 ◼   ► - Yes. - It's possible.

00:34:27 ◼   ► - In Europe. - Certainly. Okay, pick four of the lightning

00:34:33 ◼   ► round, which is our five picks. John said, this is a real bad round for all of us, John said Apple

00:34:39 ◼   ► Arcade will add online multiplayer support for its games. - Nope.

00:34:43 ◼   ► - Nope. - Another, you can pick this every year too,

00:34:46 ◼   ► and wait and see what happens. - You really could. You could pick anything

00:34:49 ◼   ► about gaming and hope for it, and it'll never come true.

00:34:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, it was a bit much to think that Apple would become like the Xbox of

00:34:59 ◼   ► this kind of thing and add robust multiplayer, or any multiplayer.

00:35:06 ◼   ► - Well, they should, but they didn't. - Well, absolutely.

00:35:10 ◼   ► - James, you picked Apple's plans to introduce full encryption for iCloud. Remember, that was a

00:35:17 ◼   ► big thing last year. We'll face a legal challenge from the US government.

00:35:21 ◼   ► - And for once, I'm glad to be wrong. I have turned on the full encryption for all the iCloud stuff,

00:35:28 ◼   ► and maybe the UK government will have a go with that next year, but so far, we're okay.

00:35:34 ◼   ► - And proving that I am also an optimistic dreamer at the end of the year, I said,

00:35:42 ◼   ► "Apple will ship a wireless keyboard that is charged by USB-C." And you know,

00:35:47 ◼   ► iMacs were coming out, and I was like, "I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get it," and I did not get it.

00:35:51 ◼   ► - That seemed like the most obvious pick of all of these. That's gonna happen.

00:35:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, it really did. - And it didn't.

00:36:00 ◼   ► - No. - No, my lightning keyboard is dying right now with my Mac Studio,

00:36:05 ◼   ► and I'm just kinda hoping it holds on long enough to get something that's USB-C.

00:36:09 ◼   ► - Don't do it. All right, James, bring us home with the fifth round.

00:36:13 ◼   ► - Yep. So, John said, "Notes will add linking between notes locus."

00:36:20 ◼   ► And yeah, correct. First half of the year, two points.

00:36:24 ◼   ► - I feel like you sniped this for me, too, because this was definitely on my list of things that I

00:36:29 ◼   ► thought would happen, but I think you got there right before me, and it's a... Or maybe I picked

00:36:34 ◼   ► it the previous year. It felt... I know that I wrote about, like, I felt like it was coming,

00:36:38 ◼   ► and I was surprised that it hadn't come last year, so I'm glad it finally made it.

00:36:42 ◼   ► - Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of people who have been following Notes for a while had a

00:36:46 ◼   ► feel that this might be coming eventually, and it's finally 2023 was the year, and it was nice

00:36:51 ◼   ► to have it. - Yeah. Yeah, it's a great feature.

00:36:54 ◼   ► I picked that no new product from Apple would ship with a Lightning connector,

00:37:00 ◼   ► and dongles didn't count. And I was very close on this. You know, it was like... Because I said

00:37:07 ◼   ► "new," that was the thing, because they shipped tons of things with Lightning connectors. But,

00:37:15 ◼   ► yeah, again, we were so convinced because we saw it start to happen with the earlier products,

00:37:23 ◼   ► and it's like, "Oh, well, this is all switching to USB-C." So, clearly, come all the machines

00:37:30 ◼   ► getting revised, we'll be USB-C everywhere. But no.

00:37:33 ◼   ► - No, but that... I mean, John's ridiculous Apple pencil or iPad accessory that he got a whole point

00:37:41 ◼   ► for is the sign, right? Like, they're not gonna do a new product with Lightning. They may keep

00:37:46 ◼   ► old Lightning products around for a while, but they're not gonna do a new product with Lightning.

00:37:50 ◼   ► It's just... It's not gonna happen, and that dumb pencil is a good example of that.

00:37:54 ◼   ► - But I did get a point. - But not sore. And you get a point. Yeah,

00:37:58 ◼   ► you and John both got points for those things. - But, again, you've worked out this thing,

00:38:04 ◼   ► don't do the negatives, because then you have to wait for the whole year, and you only get one point.

00:38:09 ◼   ► - You only get one point. It's true. - And, Jason, you picked that

00:38:15 ◼   ► another new Apple standalone display will ship. Sadly, Apple only does one of those every, like,

00:38:21 ◼   ► 10 years. - Yeah. Yeah. I was really hoping. I was trying to make that happen. And I was just as

00:38:28 ◼   ► wrong with that as I was about the USB-C keyboard, which is funny, because I thought that one of them

00:38:32 ◼   ► was a guarantee and the other one was not gonna happen, but I wanted a dream. And I got no points

00:38:37 ◼   ► to show for it. None. And that means that after the Lightning route, we have a tie. I have 13,

00:38:44 ◼   ► John has 13, luckiest number, and James has 11, which, as we know, because maths are useful,

00:38:50 ◼   ► is two less. And now it is time for the deductions. I will do my quick calculations of our deductions,

00:38:58 ◼   ► reminding you your total percentage expressed as a fraction of wrong answers will be multiplied by

00:39:03 ◼   ► five and deducted from your final score. John and I both got three out of seven wrong, which means

00:39:09 ◼   ► the fraction three-sevenths ends up multiplying by five, and you end up with 2.142857145 of a

00:39:18 ◼   ► deduction, which means John and I finish with 10.85714285 points. John, same numbers as me.

00:39:24 ◼   ► James, four out of seven wrong, four-sevenths times five, you get 2.85142855 for a total of

00:39:31 ◼   ► 8.142857145 points. So we're tied, after the deductions, Jason and John, with James, just

00:39:39 ◼   ► 2.714285705 points behind us. Great showing, James. I did like the fact that both of those

00:39:49 ◼   ► numbers have a 42. They do. Yeah, they do. They do. It shows that James' powers in maths are

00:39:58 ◼   ► everywhere. All right, we now need to recalculate our Lightning Round picks using the new, improved

00:40:05 ◼   ► tie-break procedure, which I'll remind you of now. I am going to flip a coin,

00:40:10 ◼   ► because I'm the only one who can flip a coin. That's true. Yeah, we know that. That's like a

00:40:15 ◼   ► given. For each of the misses. If the coin is tails, the incorrect will be regraded by James,

00:40:23 ◼   ► since he's not in the tie. James will be using three different criteria—passion, precision,

00:40:30 ◼   ► and wildcard—and after all the regratings of all the wrong answers is complete, the scores will be

00:40:38 ◼   ► recalculated and a winner will be proclaimed. All right, James, are you ready to judge us?

00:40:43 ◼   ► Yep, I'm always ready to judge you. Let's do John's incorrect ones. First, Apple will increase

00:40:50 ◼   ► the free storage tier for iCloud. It's tails. So I get to judge. You do, you do, you do.

00:41:03 ◼   ► I think this is the real winner of this competition is the person who gets to

00:41:09 ◼   ► judge everybody else. It seems like it. It seems like you're enjoying this.

00:41:17 ◼   ► So I think there is never any passion in a pick about cloud storage. It is literally the most

00:41:24 ◼   ► boring thing possible. And particularly this one, which you've picked for the last 10 years.

00:41:29 ◼   ► Doesn't it depend? Doesn't it depend what you're storing in iCloud storage, James? I mean,

00:41:34 ◼   ► come on. This isn't about you. This is about everyone. And you can't argue with my

00:41:43 ◼   ► regrading. So you get zero, no passion. But I would say as picks go, there was no wiggle room

00:41:52 ◼   ► in that statement at all. It was super precise. So I would say full third of a point for,

00:41:58 ◼   ► for your preciseness. Now for the wild card this year, I have decided to roll a set of D100 dice

00:42:06 ◼   ► that will give me a percentage value of the allowed quarter point. Straightforward.

00:42:11 ◼   ► Each player also has one point of inspiration each during this tie break, which they can spend

00:42:17 ◼   ► at any time during the rest of this regrading in order to reroll the wild card dice for either

00:42:23 ◼   ► themselves or for the other person. Oh.

00:42:27 ◼   ► So. Can I spend the whole point or can I spend a fraction of the point?

00:42:33 ◼   ► You could, you have to spend the whole point. One inspiration.

00:42:36 ◼   ► And, but, and if you both do it then, well, I'm not sure. I guess it gets rerolled twice.

00:42:46 ◼   ► Yes, I think so.

00:42:47 ◼   ► So let's have a go. And I have rolled 87. So you get 87% of, well, it's 87%

00:42:59 ◼   ► Of a quarter of a point, but it doesn't matter, James, because I'm going to use my inspiration

00:43:03 ◼   ► right now and make you reroll that.

00:43:06 ◼   ► Wow. Because that was too high for your liking.

00:43:09 ◼   ► Too many points for Jon. I don't want it.

00:43:11 ◼   ► Okay. So, well, that was, that was a correct thing because it is now 13. So 13% of a quarter

00:43:21 ◼   ► of a point.

00:43:22 ◼   ► 13 is my number, but still.

00:43:24 ◼   ► So yeah.

00:43:26 ◼   ► You want to reroll? You want to use it now or you want to save it for later?

00:43:29 ◼   ► Save it for later.

00:43:32 ◼   ► Okay.

00:43:35 ◼   ► Because there could be no other, like everything else could come up heads and then you've thrown

00:43:41 ◼   ► away that whole inspiration.

00:43:43 ◼   ► I know. It's just, just how I'm feeling.

00:43:45 ◼   ► Okay. All right. Well, that is, by my calculations, that has added .365833333 recurring to Jon's

00:43:55 ◼   ► total. This is very scientific. I love it. Jon's next miss was Apple will introduce an

00:44:01 ◼   ► update to the AirPods Max. Let's see how the coin goes.

00:44:06 ◼   ► It's heads, no regrading.

00:44:10 ◼   ► Lucky.

00:44:12 ◼   ► And Jon's last mistake was Apple arcade will add online multiplayer support for its games,

00:44:21 ◼   ► which it didn't do. But now I'm going to flip the relay FM challenge coin.

00:44:24 ◼   ► Tails.

00:44:27 ◼   ► Yes. Another regrading.

00:44:30 ◼   ► Yes. So, I mean, I think online multiplayer is a very passionate thing. Perhaps it is often

00:44:37 ◼   ► too passionate. But I'm going to give you the full half point.

00:44:40 ◼   ► And, you know, there is some vague wiggle room in this pick. You know, does it mean they have

00:44:48 ◼   ► to add it to every single one of their games? You know, just more than one, you know, what

00:44:54 ◼   ► actually counts as multiplayer. So this is a bit sort of vague, but I will give you a quarter of

00:44:59 ◼   ► a point for that. And we have the wildcard dice, which I will say that I am using some sliced

00:45:09 ◼   ► fruit dice that were from the relay FM dice advent calendar that was made for me by the Breakroom

00:45:16 ◼   ► channel. And they are very nice indeed. And 81%.

00:45:22 ◼   ► Nothing I can do to stop that.

00:45:25 ◼   ► Nope. Do you want to reroll that, Jon?

00:45:28 ◼   ► No, I'm going to let it stand.

00:45:29 ◼   ► All right. I think that was wise on your part. Okay. Well, that is another 0.9525 points for

00:45:34 ◼   ► Jon by my calculations. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. You got most of your points

00:45:39 ◼   ► back for that one. All right. My turn to flip for my own picks. My first wrong pick, an Apple

00:45:46 ◼   ► executive, Eddy Cue. I did Where's Waldo on the MLS cup. Couldn't find Eddy Cue. So heads or tails?

00:45:54 ◼   ► It's heads. We're not regrading that one. That's bad for me.

00:45:58 ◼   ► Uh, Apple will ship a wireless keyboard that was charged by USB-C. Oh, I flipped it onto a cat.

00:46:04 ◼   ► Let's flip it again. Tails regrade.

00:46:08 ◼   ► Okay. So, I mean, I think this pick, it's all about the raw power flowing into the keys and

00:46:15 ◼   ► then out again as your words, you know, what could be more passionate than that? So I think

00:46:20 ◼   ► you get the full half a point. I felt it.

00:46:23 ◼   ► Yeah. Um, also, I mean, this isn't exactly defined pick, you know, can't argue with it.

00:46:29 ◼   ► Third of a point of precision. Um, but let's see what the dice say.

00:46:34 ◼   ► Oh, this is unprecedented. It is literally a hundred percent.

00:46:42 ◼   ► Well. Hmm.

00:46:46 ◼   ► Now, how mean do you feel, Jon?

00:46:49 ◼   ► I say you re-rolled that.

00:46:52 ◼   ► Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

00:46:53 ◼   ► I think I kind of think of that.

00:46:54 ◼   ► I think that's kind of a given.

00:46:55 ◼   ► Um, I, it's very rare that I roll a hundred on these dice.

00:47:00 ◼   ► I know. And yet we've ruined it. Jon ruined it.

00:47:02 ◼   ► So. And it is now five percent.

00:47:06 ◼   ► Oh, there we go.

00:47:08 ◼   ► Oh, so painful. All right. Well, that by my calculations,

00:47:10 ◼   ► You bracketed that one well, James.

00:47:12 ◼   ► means I have received a 0.84583, uh, recurring points for the wild, uh, the wireless keyboard.

00:47:20 ◼   ► Feels like this is going to come down to this last pick here.

00:47:23 ◼   ► If, if I, if I, if it's heads, I, um, I, I think Jon's going to have this one in the bag.

00:47:30 ◼   ► If it's tails, it's a much closer and more dramatic thing, but I'm going to let the coin decide.

00:47:35 ◼   ► Well, everybody.

00:47:38 ◼   ► Let's take a break and then we'll tell you the result.

00:47:43 ◼   ► I'm, I'm doing that thing here.

00:47:44 ◼   ► Let's hear from Steven Hackett again, because we're not allowed to read our ads with our next.

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00:49:38 ◼   ► Thank you, Steven.

00:49:41 ◼   ► And now it is my sad duty to report that I flipped and it was heads,

00:49:46 ◼   ► which means I get no more corrections and regrading,

00:49:49 ◼   ► which means that the final scores, I have 11.70297618 points.

00:49:58 ◼   ► Jon has 12.17547618, which means by 0.4725 points,

00:50:06 ◼   ► Jon Voorhees is Grand Admiral Pickerton, please place his magnet at the center of the refrigerator

00:50:13 ◼   ► door. Second place, me in the lower left corner and James in the lower right corner.

00:50:18 ◼   ► If you are using the official Picky's app or the Clockwork Picky's trophy,

00:50:24 ◼   ► you will see the magnets moving momentarily.

00:50:28 ◼   ► Congratulations to James for having a positive score and to Jon for winning.

00:50:34 ◼   ► Oh, Jon, good job. Thank you all so much.

00:50:37 ◼   ► I am going to cherish this throughout 2024 is all I can say.

00:50:41 ◼   ► You gotta, you gotta.

00:50:42 ◼   ► Yeah, sadly, that was not my only positive that I got this month.

00:50:46 ◼   ► Yeah, reference acknowledged.

00:50:50 ◼   ► All right, time for our 2024 picks.

00:50:54 ◼   ► So as I've been instructed by connectedintro.com/newpicks,

00:50:59 ◼   ► it's time for us to make our picks for next year.

00:51:02 ◼   ► And Jason, can you flip the coin?

00:51:05 ◼   ► Yes, the winner, as we know, goes second in this round.

00:51:08 ◼   ► And I will flip a coin to determine who goes first and who goes third.

00:51:12 ◼   ► James, call the coin heads or tails.

00:51:14 ◼   ► I'm going to say heads.

00:51:17 ◼   ► So much coin flipping.

00:51:21 ◼   ► It's heads.

00:51:22 ◼   ► I control the coins.

00:51:24 ◼   ► So James will go first and I will go last in this round.

00:51:31 ◼   ► And that means let's go to 2024.

00:51:34 ◼   ► First round worth three points, double if it's in the first half of the year.

00:51:39 ◼   ► James, it's your choice.

00:51:40 ◼   ► Okay, my pick is Apple allows a third party app store on the phone somewhere in the world.

00:51:47 ◼   ► You know, it's going to be Europe.

00:51:52 ◼   ► It's probably going to be Europe, but you know, like it could be Peru.

00:51:56 ◼   ► Who knows?

00:51:57 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, I think it's a good pick.

00:52:00 ◼   ► I think that's a good pick.

00:52:01 ◼   ► All right, for me, I'm going to pick that the Vision Pro will be released in the first

00:52:06 ◼   ► calendar quarter of 2024.

00:52:09 ◼   ► Not an incredibly passionate pick, but I think a very safe pick.

00:52:13 ◼   ► Yeah, could be.

00:52:15 ◼   ► I think, yeah, I mean, unless there's a thing, I mean, it's sounding more and more like it

00:52:23 ◼   ► is going to be in the first calendar quarter, but like you never know with that Vision Pro.

00:52:26 ◼   ► You never know, you never know.

00:52:27 ◼   ► It sounds like February, I think the first couple of weeks, February, but we'll see.

00:52:31 ◼   ► Right, I don't know how much passion there is here, but as we choose this, I think that

00:52:36 ◼   ► there is a real mystery about what's going to happen.

00:52:38 ◼   ► I am going to pick that the Apple Watch Ultra 2 will go back on sale because it's not on

00:52:44 ◼   ► sale now in the US.

00:52:45 ◼   ► And if I were to tag onto that pick, Jason, I would say it will go on sale by January

00:52:50 ◼   ► 31st because it's likely that the next earnings call will be on February 1st.

00:52:55 ◼   ► Yeah, I think you're right.

00:52:57 ◼   ► I'm definitely looking for the double points here.

00:53:02 ◼   ► And so are you.

00:53:04 ◼   ► Definitely.

00:53:04 ◼   ► I mean, do you think that they're just going to software update to switch off the sensor?

00:53:10 ◼   ► I don't.

00:53:11 ◼   ► I think they'll pay off Massimo.

00:53:13 ◼   ► Yeah, I think there'll be a settlement of some sort.

00:53:15 ◼   ► That's what I think.

00:53:17 ◼   ► But, you know, turning off the sensor is part of, it's part of the leverage to do the

00:53:22 ◼   ► negotiations, right?

00:53:23 ◼   ► I think ultimately with saying, oh, well, we've got a software patch and we're going

00:53:27 ◼   ► to use that and all that.

00:53:28 ◼   ► John, you're the lawyer here.

00:53:31 ◼   ► I mean, I think it's hard not to look at anything that is said right now from the,

00:53:35 ◼   ► from any perspective other than who gives it more leverage to drive the settlement.

00:53:40 ◼   ► Yeah, I think that's absolutely how you have to look at it.

00:53:43 ◼   ► And the fact of the matter is that we don't see all the leverage that's being exerted

00:53:48 ◼   ► right now.

00:53:48 ◼   ► I mean, I'm sure there are things happening that we don't know about, but based on what

00:53:52 ◼   ► we know publicly, Massimo is in a pretty good place.

00:53:55 ◼   ► And I think that Apple will eventually cave because you're not going to have your biggest

00:53:59 ◼   ► market unavailable to you for your two latest watches, I don't think.

00:54:03 ◼   ► So we have some real-time follow-up.

00:54:05 ◼   ► Real-time follow-up.

00:54:06 ◼   ► In that the ban has already been paused by the US appeals court.

00:54:11 ◼   ► There you go.

00:54:12 ◼   ► So I don't know what that means because it didn't happen in 2024.

00:54:16 ◼   ► Yeah, you're right.

00:54:17 ◼   ► Interesting.

00:54:19 ◼   ► So I'm going, how about this?

00:54:22 ◼   ► I'm going to amend my pick to say, after the news, you're going to amend your pick.

00:54:27 ◼   ► I mean, I have to, right?

00:54:29 ◼   ► Don't I?

00:54:30 ◼   ► I guess you do.

00:54:30 ◼   ► I'm going to say the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is on sale in the US on, let's say, March 1st,

00:54:44 ◼   ► which means that there's still a randomness about are they going to lose the appeal?

00:54:50 ◼   ► Are there going to be a settlement and all that?

00:54:52 ◼   ► I'll push it out a little bit and say, on that date, I give them two months to resolve

00:54:57 ◼   ► this and work it out because we are unclear.

00:55:00 ◼   ► I feel bad for the federal circuit and the people working there who are actually having

00:55:04 ◼   ► to deal with Apple Watches on two days after Christmas.

00:55:08 ◼   ► Are you guys okay with that?

00:55:10 ◼   ► With me sort of pushing it out in 60 days and saying, "We'll see what the status is

00:55:14 ◼   ► of this in 60 days"?

00:55:15 ◼   ► I think that makes it so that we're not quibbling over-wording.

00:55:19 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, no, that's good to me.

00:55:21 ◼   ► I like that.

00:55:21 ◼   ► I will make a new pick if you want, but I think that makes it random enough.

00:55:26 ◼   ► I think we're civilized people here.

00:55:28 ◼   ► We don't need to.

00:55:29 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:55:30 ◼   ► All right, second round, James.

00:55:32 ◼   ► My pick is the Vision Pro finally goes on sale in Scotland.

00:55:38 ◼   ► Who knows?

00:55:42 ◼   ► I think it's going to happen.

00:55:45 ◼   ► They've said that it's going to be in the UK by the end of the year.

00:55:51 ◼   ► Does the UK mean one store in London?

00:55:54 ◼   ► In London, right.

00:55:55 ◼   ► Of course, I'll have my Vision Pro since John will have already sent it.

00:56:01 ◼   ► Will I be able to walk into a store somewhere in Scotland and buy one?

00:56:09 ◼   ► And I don't know.

00:56:10 ◼   ► So I think there's a certain unknownness to my pick.

00:56:16 ◼   ► I feel like you're really probably not going to be getting double points for this, right?

00:56:21 ◼   ► Like if it happens, probably.

00:56:22 ◼   ► No, I mean, like, but I'm doing these picks for passion.

00:56:26 ◼   ► It's good passion.

00:56:27 ◼   ► Scottish pick is strong passion.

00:56:30 ◼   ► I can feel the passion from here, honestly.

00:56:32 ◼   ► Jason and I are clearly playing for the first half of the year.

00:56:36 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, like next year, I'm going to write myself a note that's like play tactically,

00:56:41 ◼   ► because no.

00:56:44 ◼   ► Or we can change the rules about the first half of the year if we really want to,

00:56:47 ◼   ► but then I'll have to wait till September.

00:56:48 ◼   ► It will.

00:56:50 ◼   ► It will.

00:56:50 ◼   ► All right, my second round pick is that 2024 will see the return of a March Apple event.

00:56:59 ◼   ► And of course, this is by definition a first half of the year pick,

00:57:04 ◼   ► but we've gone two full years without a March event.

00:57:07 ◼   ► And historically, Apple has done a March event in oftentimes various locations,

00:57:13 ◼   ► not necessarily in California.

00:57:15 ◼   ► There was one year it was in Chicago.

00:57:17 ◼   ► There was another year it was in New York.

00:57:19 ◼   ► Oftentimes it involves the lower end of the iPad lineup and education.

00:57:24 ◼   ► But I think that 2024 is going to be a packed year for hardware and that there's going to be a need

00:57:31 ◼   ► for more events and that March will return to the calendar.

00:57:34 ◼   ► All right.

00:57:35 ◼   ► And what are we defining as an event?

00:57:37 ◼   ► Either an in-person or, you know, streamed Apple event that announces products.

00:57:46 ◼   ► Let's say,

00:57:48 ◼   ► could we just define it maybe as being it's a thing where they send out invitations in advance?

00:57:53 ◼   ► Yeah, that's fine.

00:57:54 ◼   ► They announce they're going to do it in advance because like they could drop a video anytime,

00:57:58 ◼   ► but what they tend to do is say, oh, well, you know, next Tuesday.

00:58:01 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm not talking about press releases or press releases or random videos.

00:58:05 ◼   ► It's only an event.

00:58:06 ◼   ► Right.

00:58:07 ◼   ► I like the riskiness of this.

00:58:11 ◼   ► It is a packed year and it does feel like that this is probably a thing that's going to happen,

00:58:15 ◼   ► especially if they've got all the iPads and they've got a bunch of Macs doing M3 that they

00:58:20 ◼   ► need to do.

00:58:21 ◼   ► They got the Vision Pro maybe coming out in February or late January.

00:58:24 ◼   ► Like I like the passion though, because they could just as easily do it in late February

00:58:29 ◼   ► or early April and you get nothing.

00:58:30 ◼   ► And it could be that they do like Vision Pro in February and say, well, we're not going to do

00:58:35 ◼   ► the next one in March.

00:58:36 ◼   ► We'll wait till May.

00:58:36 ◼   ► We're going to be very busy the first half of the year, I think.

00:58:39 ◼   ► It's going to be a big year.

00:58:40 ◼   ► Going to be a big year.

00:58:41 ◼   ► Okay, I'm going full passion with this next pick.

00:58:45 ◼   ► I pick that the new Apple Pencil Pro is introduced.

00:58:50 ◼   ► I like the spec.

00:58:52 ◼   ► Very nice spec too.

00:58:53 ◼   ► Because I'm not just saying that there'll be a new Apple Pencil introduced.

00:58:56 ◼   ► I'm saying Apple Pencil Pro because I want them to clear up what's going on with the Apple

00:59:03 ◼   ► Pencil, with the USB-C and the Apple Pencil 2 and all of that.

00:59:07 ◼   ► And I feel like having a pro and non-pro pencil because that USB-C Apple Pencil is a non-pro

00:59:13 ◼   ► pencil and putting lots of cool new tech in the Apple Pencil Pro to go along with the iPad

00:59:20 ◼   ► Pro feels like it could happen.

00:59:23 ◼   ► It's always dangerous to do naming picks, but I feel like not only do I want this to happen

00:59:29 ◼   ► for a bunch of different reasons, I think that there's a good likelihood that it will.

00:59:32 ◼   ► So I'm going to put my two points down on it.

00:59:33 ◼   ► I would like Apple to be selling at least four models all called Apple Pencil.

00:59:41 ◼   ► Just because Apple Pencil 1, Apple Pencil 2, Apple Pencil USB-C and then Apple Pencil,

00:59:48 ◼   ► let's say four and there's not a three.

00:59:50 ◼   ► That would be great.

00:59:50 ◼   ► Or just go to five.

00:59:53 ◼   ► Five sounds better.

00:59:54 ◼   ► Yeah, with Thunderbolt 5.

00:59:56 ◼   ► Yeah, Thunderbolt Pencil.

00:59:58 ◼   ► That's what people want.

00:59:59 ◼   ► Why not?

00:59:59 ◼   ► It has just a cord Thunderbolt cable coming out the end of it that snakes through your

01:00:04 ◼   ► house to your Mac and you just use it that way.

01:00:06 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:00:07 ◼   ► Okay, time for the lightning round.

01:00:10 ◼   ► Here we go.

01:00:11 ◼   ► Okay, round one.

01:00:13 ◼   ► My pick.

01:00:13 ◼   ► A Mac is introduced with a brand new form factor.

01:00:19 ◼   ► Now, I realize this is somewhat wooly.

01:00:21 ◼   ► I think like if it's recognizably the same as an existing thing, but like big or small

01:00:32 ◼   ► or whatever, I don't think that counts.

01:00:34 ◼   ► Is there a laptop that could be a new form factor?

01:00:37 ◼   ► Well, I'm thinking, yeah, like imagine like a laptop that transforms, you know, the kind

01:00:43 ◼   ► of like flip it back to get your touch screen.

01:00:45 ◼   ► It could also be like maybe a tablet or detach the keyboard or something like that.

01:00:48 ◼   ► Yeah, something like that.

01:00:49 ◼   ► Or, you know, it's like a completely new case.

01:00:52 ◼   ► Like say they do a Mac Pro that it's in a completely different box.

01:00:57 ◼   ► It doesn't look like the old Mac Pros.

01:00:59 ◼   ► What's the limit here?

01:01:02 ◼   ► Is it if the ports change, it's obviously not a new form factor.

01:01:08 ◼   ► If the dimensions change, but it's basically the same like the 15, is the 15-inch MacBook

01:01:13 ◼   ► Air a brand new form factor?

01:01:15 ◼   ► I wouldn't say so.

01:01:17 ◼   ► I think if I, I would say, you know, we're, I mean, we can get in an, an, an arbiter of,

01:01:25 ◼   ► of this, but I think it's something that an average person will look at it and they'll

01:01:28 ◼   ► say, no, that is something.

01:01:30 ◼   ► Right.

01:01:30 ◼   ► All right.

01:01:31 ◼   ► So the M2 Air is a new form factor from the M1 Air, but the 15-inch is not from the M2.

01:01:39 ◼   ► That is what I'm saying.

01:01:40 ◼   ► Okay.

01:01:40 ◼   ► All right.

01:01:41 ◼   ► You're like a 32-inch iMac.

01:01:43 ◼   ► Not so much.

01:01:44 ◼   ► James, I'm just telling you now, I love this pick mostly because there's no way this

01:01:49 ◼   ► is happening.

01:01:49 ◼   ► I know that.

01:01:52 ◼   ► And it is one of those, it is, I want it to happen.

01:01:57 ◼   ► Therefore, I will pick it.

01:01:58 ◼   ► I'm going to give you a little maths equation here.

01:02:01 ◼   ► It's a million points for passion times zero.

01:02:04 ◼   ► Wow.

01:02:06 ◼   ► John, what's your pick?

01:02:09 ◼   ► All right.

01:02:11 ◼   ► So my pick is that personal automations are going to come to macOS finally.

01:02:16 ◼   ► You know, shortcuts, I don't know.

01:02:20 ◼   ► I, I'm, I'm, I'm not a, I'm very disappointed in shortcuts in a lot of ways these days.

01:02:28 ◼   ► Personal automations have been a thing on iOS for a while.

01:02:30 ◼   ► iPadOS as well.

01:02:32 ◼   ► We don't have them on the Mac.

01:02:33 ◼   ► It feels like the Mac is where they should be even before those other platforms because

01:02:39 ◼   ► more people have it always on Mac than they have an always on iOS device.

01:02:43 ◼   ► But, but hey, you know, it hasn't happened.

01:02:46 ◼   ► And I think 2024 though, we'll see things like personal automations that allow you to

01:02:51 ◼   ► run shortcuts on a schedule if nothing else.

01:02:55 ◼   ► That would be like the minimum that they would do.

01:02:58 ◼   ► Right.

01:02:59 ◼   ► I mean, there, there are lots of solutions, third-party solutions for this kind of stuff,

01:03:03 ◼   ► but I'd like to see it built into the system.

01:03:05 ◼   ► I really don't know where Apple's head is in terms of automation right now.

01:03:10 ◼   ► Right?

01:03:10 ◼   ► It's very confusing.

01:03:11 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't know, but I love it.

01:03:14 ◼   ► I want to, I want to believe John.

01:03:16 ◼   ► All right.

01:03:17 ◼   ► I want to believe that.

01:03:18 ◼   ► That's kind of like a notes linking thing.

01:03:19 ◼   ► I mean, it is a feature on other platforms, so it feels like it could be just sort of

01:03:23 ◼   ► a fairly quick win for them to put that on Mac OS, but they haven't done it yet.

01:03:27 ◼   ► So you're like, well, is there something that's holding it up?

01:03:30 ◼   ► Which is exactly how I felt about the notes thing.

01:03:32 ◼   ► I was like, why didn't they do it last year?

01:03:33 ◼   ► But they did finally do it.

01:03:34 ◼   ► So maybe this is the year.

01:03:35 ◼   ► I'm going to do a little bit of a wild pick here for my lightning round first.

01:03:39 ◼   ► I'm going to just spell it out.

01:03:42 ◼   ► M3 MacBook Air introduced, M2 MacBook Air discontinued, M1 MacBook Air remains.

01:03:48 ◼   ► So the idea there is they're going to keep the cheap one, but they're not going to let

01:03:51 ◼   ► you buy a discounted M2 Air.

01:03:53 ◼   ► If you want the nice new form factor, you're going to need the M3.

01:03:56 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:03:58 ◼   ► I mean, they could do whatever, but like that's, that's where I'm putting my, my little flippable

01:04:03 ◼   ► coin here.

01:04:03 ◼   ► I'm putting it down on that.

01:04:05 ◼   ► The M1 Air remains, the M2 Air goes away.

01:04:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:08 ◼   ► I mean, I think there just isn't as much differentiating the M3 Air and the M2 Air.

01:04:12 ◼   ► Right?

01:04:13 ◼   ► So you want that, you know, you want people to look at that initial one and go, nah, I

01:04:20 ◼   ► don't want that.

01:04:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:21 ◼   ► Totally on the low end there.

01:04:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:23 ◼   ► Okay.

01:04:25 ◼   ► I like that.

01:04:25 ◼   ► Okay.

01:04:26 ◼   ► Round two, James.

01:04:27 ◼   ► So my round two pick is an original Apple TV+ show or movie is released in 3D.

01:04:34 ◼   ► And, you know, I think there's been some rumblings of perhaps there's something, you know, like

01:04:42 ◼   ► that Monarch show.

01:04:43 ◼   ► I think there was some talk that might be 3D stuff with that, but I think they're going

01:04:49 ◼   ► to need content for the Vision Pro and they're, you know, they can buy stuff in, sure.

01:04:53 ◼   ► But they, you know, give us the Doctor Who 50th anniversary.

01:04:58 ◼   ► I think there have been some reports.

01:05:00 ◼   ► I mean, I think it's a no brainer that they're going to put existing 3D material available

01:05:05 ◼   ► for like purchase or rent or whatever, and maybe even convert your iTunes purchases to,

01:05:09 ◼   ► you know, the 3D version if it's available and you've got a Vision Pro.

01:05:12 ◼   ► But this pick is really interesting because it's like Apple's going to put its money

01:05:16 ◼   ► where its mouth is.

01:05:16 ◼   ► Like no TV shows, for example, are done in 3D, right?

01:05:20 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:05:20 ◼   ► - But Apple might do it for Vision Pro and it would probably not be the rumors with Monarch

01:05:26 ◼   ► that they did like a 3D camera.

01:05:28 ◼   ► My guess is that the truth is more like they're going to do what they do with movies, which

01:05:33 ◼   ► is they do a 3D conversion where somebody sits there and generates after the fact a

01:05:39 ◼   ► depth version of it.

01:05:42 ◼   ► But also the idea that, yeah, maybe they've got a movie animation or live action.

01:05:47 ◼   ► I mean, so many of their live action stuff is with prestige directors who probably don't

01:05:53 ◼   ► want a 3D conversion of their movie.

01:05:55 ◼   ► Although Martin Scorsese made maybe the best 3D movie of all.

01:05:59 ◼   ► - That's true.

01:06:01 ◼   ► - But probably "Killers of the Flower Moon" is not going to be in 3D.

01:06:04 ◼   ► So I don't know.

01:06:05 ◼   ► I like the passion of this pick because it's a little bit of a leap to say, "No, no, Apple's

01:06:10 ◼   ► going to do it."

01:06:11 ◼   ► One of its products is going to be in 3D.

01:06:13 ◼   ► - And I think if they release like one of their existing shows, like if say Monarch

01:06:20 ◼   ► or whatever, I'm going to argue that counts.

01:06:22 ◼   ► But I think that they're going to do new stuff.

01:06:28 ◼   ► We'll see.

01:06:29 ◼   ► I mean, maybe we get the 3D conversion of Ted Lasso so we can see the balls flying towards

01:06:35 ◼   ► you.

01:06:35 ◼   ► - Ted in 3D, that's what we need.

01:06:36 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:06:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, who knows?

01:06:38 ◼   ► All right, I am going to continue the theme here and pick that the Quad Box is going to

01:06:45 ◼   ► expand in 2024 to include other kinds of content.

01:06:50 ◼   ► So maybe you want to watch four news channels at once, or maybe you want to watch your baseball

01:06:57 ◼   ► game and the news at the same time.

01:06:59 ◼   ► Why limit it to sports?

01:07:01 ◼   ► Let's allow people to put whatever they want in the Quad Box.

01:07:05 ◼   ► - Oh, John, I want this feature so much.

01:07:07 ◼   ► I want TVOS to be able to take video streams and just multi-display them.

01:07:12 ◼   ► - Anything.

01:07:13 ◼   ► - Oh, that would be so good.

01:07:15 ◼   ► My fear is that the app developers aren't going to use whatever API would be supported.

01:07:20 ◼   ► Although a bunch of them do support picture in picture, but like this would be so much

01:07:24 ◼   ► better if I've got like...

01:07:26 ◼   ► There was a...

01:07:26 ◼   ► Just the other day, there was a game on like Peacock and I was like, "Oh, I can't..."

01:07:31 ◼   ► This happens in the fall with college football where there's like a soccer game that's on

01:07:36 ◼   ► and it's only on Peacock and I want to watch it because it's going on along with these

01:07:40 ◼   ► college football games and you can't do it because if you go out of one app to the other

01:07:45 ◼   ► app, they can't...

01:07:46 ◼   ► They're not in the Quad Box together.

01:07:48 ◼   ► They can't do that.

01:07:48 ◼   ► - Right, right.

01:07:49 ◼   ► And the reason I think this might be different than other things is that all these companies

01:07:57 ◼   ► are going to tell themselves what people really want to watch is our show.

01:08:01 ◼   ► So as soon as we're in the Quad Box, people are going to switch to us and we're going

01:08:04 ◼   ► to be the only thing that they're watching.

01:08:06 ◼   ► So I think there's an incentive there for some of these other streaming services to join

01:08:10 ◼   ► the Quad Box.

01:08:11 ◼   ► - All right.

01:08:11 ◼   ► Mine is going to be a live sporting event is transmitted immersively to Vision Pro users.

01:08:18 ◼   ► I don't know what and I don't know how long.

01:08:20 ◼   ► I don't know anything, probably MLS.

01:08:23 ◼   ► I don't know whether this technology really exists to do something that can do immersive

01:08:27 ◼   ► video live streaming.

01:08:30 ◼   ► Can they make that work?

01:08:32 ◼   ► But I think they're going to try.

01:08:33 ◼   ► So I'm going to put some money down on that one.

01:08:35 ◼   ► - So round three.

01:08:37 ◼   ► I am saying an iPad will be introduced with a bigger screen than we have seen before.

01:08:44 ◼   ► So I'm thinking, you know, like this has been one that's going on for many years that will

01:08:50 ◼   ► get like a 13 inch iPad Pro or something like that to kind of push it away from the cheaper

01:08:57 ◼   ► end of the iPad line.

01:09:00 ◼   ► So I think we're going to get a big iPad.

01:09:02 ◼   ► - Yep, sounds good.

01:09:05 ◼   ► - Well, I'm going to push back on this one because I think we're going to get OLED and

01:09:09 ◼   ► I think that's going to increase the price of the Pro enough that Apple's not going to

01:09:13 ◼   ► do a bigger screen.

01:09:14 ◼   ► - Wow.

01:09:15 ◼   ► - We shall see.

01:09:16 ◼   ► - Oh, I guess so.

01:09:17 ◼   ► - Just saying, sorry.

01:09:19 ◼   ► Sorry to rain on your parade there, James.

01:09:20 ◼   ► - I mean, there is some rumor that it's going to be a 13 and it's currently 12.9.

01:09:26 ◼   ► - Right.

01:09:27 ◼   ► - That would be a bigger screen.

01:09:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's what it counts.

01:09:30 ◼   ► - We'll see.

01:09:33 ◼   ► John?

01:09:34 ◼   ► - All right.

01:09:35 ◼   ► Well, all right.

01:09:36 ◼   ► So the Vision Pro is going to be reintroduced at an event this year that includes an appearance

01:09:41 ◼   ► by Eddy Cue, but he's not going to dance.

01:09:45 ◼   ► That's my pick.

01:09:46 ◼   ► Just to expand on that a little bit, not graded, is that Eddy Cue will be there to tell us

01:09:52 ◼   ► all about the great entertainment stuff that we can do, you know, whether it's sports

01:09:56 ◼   ► or movies or TV or music or whatever it happens to be.

01:09:59 ◼   ► But he learned his lesson.

01:10:00 ◼   ► He's not going to dance again.

01:10:02 ◼   ► - I mean, when I'm regrading this false pick next year, I think you'll get lots of points

01:10:08 ◼   ► for precision.

01:10:09 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:10:09 ◼   ► - This is very precise.

01:10:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, I agree.

01:10:12 ◼   ► I don't think it's going to happen, but it is very precise.

01:10:14 ◼   ► I love it.

01:10:15 ◼   ► Who will not dance?

01:10:16 ◼   ► He dances, even a little bit.

01:10:18 ◼   ► A little shake.

01:10:19 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:10:19 ◼   ► - The pick's no good.

01:10:21 ◼   ► - Just enough for a gift.

01:10:23 ◼   ► - I'm going with, my pick is going to be about a new iPad Magic keyboard that has a

01:10:28 ◼   ► function row.

01:10:30 ◼   ► I thought, is it going to be backlit?

01:10:31 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:10:32 ◼   ► I didn't want to pick two things, so I can pick a function row.

01:10:34 ◼   ► It's going to have a function key row.

01:10:35 ◼   ► They're going to do it.

01:10:36 ◼   ► Like every other Apple keyboard has a function key row, and as an iPad user and a Magic keyboard

01:10:40 ◼   ► user, I hate that I can't adjust brightness and control media and volume and stuff.

01:10:46 ◼   ► While my hands are down on the keyboard, I have to reach up and use control center, and

01:10:50 ◼   ► I don't like it.

01:10:51 ◼   ► And so I'm hopeful that when they're doing all this work to do a new Magic keyboard,

01:10:56 ◼   ► they will add a function row.

01:10:58 ◼   ► - Like a laptop.

01:10:58 ◼   ► - They're just going to, they're going to spite you, and it's going to have a touch bar.

01:11:01 ◼   ► - Hmm.

01:11:02 ◼   ► I don't like that at all.

01:11:05 ◼   ► All right, round four.

01:11:06 ◼   ► Lightning, James.

01:11:07 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:11:08 ◼   ► I say Apple ships some form of generative AI, either text or image generation, for example.

01:11:15 ◼   ► I think this is possibly slightly wooly because what is generative AI?

01:11:20 ◼   ► What is AI?

01:11:21 ◼   ► What is intelligence?

01:11:23 ◼   ► But I think they're going to do something because everybody's doing it, and they're

01:11:30 ◼   ► going to want to have some system.

01:11:32 ◼   ► But they will say it's ethical, and they will say, you know, we know we're not stealing

01:11:36 ◼   ► the food from the mouths of artists and writers because it's been trained entirely on the

01:11:46 ◼   ► photos of Apple employee kits.

01:11:47 ◼   ► - I mean, it might be like simple reply suggestions and messages or in a, not even messages, in

01:11:55 ◼   ► mail, something like that, like Gmail does, where it's more than autocorrect or autocomplete.

01:12:02 ◼   ► It's like, I will write some sentences for you.

01:12:04 ◼   ► I think it's the most likely scenario here.

01:12:08 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:12:09 ◼   ► - They're going to try.

01:12:09 ◼   ► - I think they'll do something, and I think if they don't do something, this WWDC where

01:12:16 ◼   ► they're shouting AI loudly, people are going to say, oh, Apple is just out of touch now.

01:12:22 ◼   ► - All right, all right.

01:12:24 ◼   ► Well, for my pick, I'm picking that the iPad Pro is going to get a second USB-C compatible

01:12:31 ◼   ► port.

01:12:32 ◼   ► I'm not saying it's going to be Thunderbolt.

01:12:34 ◼   ► I'm saying it's going to have the same shape as USB-C.

01:12:39 ◼   ► So whatever that means, whatever speed it happens to be, I think we'll get a second

01:12:42 ◼   ► port on the device itself.

01:12:44 ◼   ► - I hope you're right.

01:12:45 ◼   ► I love this world that you're building here.

01:12:47 ◼   ► Maybe, you know, ediQ doesn't dance, the QuadBox gets power, and the iPad Pro gets a second.

01:12:56 ◼   ► - It's all very serious business, Jason, very serious business.

01:12:59 ◼   ► - I want that.

01:13:02 ◼   ► I don't actually think the iPad needs a second port, but it would fill that whole idea of

01:13:06 ◼   ► what makes it an iPad Pro, which is it's more of a laptop, and this would do that too.

01:13:11 ◼   ► So I think that's, I want it to be true.

01:13:14 ◼   ► - What if they put it on the Magic Keyboard?

01:13:16 ◼   ► - That's why I say it has to be on device, not on the keyboard, not on an accessory.

01:13:21 ◼   ► - Right.

01:13:21 ◼   ► And my pick is a new Apple AI assistant is unveiled, but it's still called Siri.

01:13:30 ◼   ► - Yeah, I could see that.

01:13:33 ◼   ► I mean, are they going to stick a large language model inside Siri and ship it?

01:13:38 ◼   ► - Right.

01:13:38 ◼   ► - I would be fascinated, because like, Siri is terrible.

01:13:43 ◼   ► - It really is.

01:13:44 ◼   ► - It's like, any question, like we do it every now and again, and we say, you know,

01:13:49 ◼   ► who was the person who did this thing?

01:13:52 ◼   ► And Siri will either say, I have found some results on the web, which I really can't tell you about.

01:13:57 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:13:58 ◼   ► - Or it'll just, like, I have no idea.

01:14:01 ◼   ► And I would like to see that.

01:14:03 ◼   ► Unfortunately, the other thing with the large language models is they lie, like, a lot.

01:14:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, although they're getting better when they're using data, trusted data sources,

01:14:11 ◼   ► and so the idea here that you use it as the mediation for your trusted data sources,

01:14:15 ◼   ► that Siri already has those trusted data sources, right?

01:14:17 ◼   ► And you have it look up things and converse with you.

01:14:21 ◼   ► I don't know, I say unveiled here, because it may be, like, a beta that you have to turn on,

01:14:26 ◼   ► and it's not really available until later in the year, but they're going to say that they're

01:14:31 ◼   ► going to do it and still use the brand value, whatever that is, of Siri, because I don't think

01:14:36 ◼   ► they're going to throw...

01:14:37 ◼   ► - And Apple.

01:14:37 ◼   ► - We all say Siri sucks, but, like, I don't think they're going to throw away the Siri branding.

01:14:40 ◼   ► Like, people know what it is, so they can just say, "This is new Siri.

01:14:43 ◼   ► "It's better now."

01:14:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, I agree.

01:14:45 ◼   ► I think it's going to stick around, and the thing is is that Apple is supposedly negotiating right

01:14:49 ◼   ► now with the New York Times and a bunch of other news outlets to use their data to train a model,

01:14:54 ◼   ► and that could be exactly what Jason was describing, which would be a known data source

01:14:59 ◼   ► that is more accurate and could be called Siri.

01:15:03 ◼   ► - I like calling it new Siri, so you just have to say, "Hey, new Siri."

01:15:07 ◼   ► - Hey, new Siri.

01:15:08 ◼   ► Hey, beta Siri.

01:15:09 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:15:12 ◼   ► - All right, round five.

01:15:13 ◼   ► My pick is Apple introduces some form of new display technology, and we're talking, like,

01:15:20 ◼   ► folding screens, mini-LED, holographic, you know, beaming directly into your brain,

01:15:26 ◼   ► something like that.

01:15:27 ◼   ► It's going to be some product as a brand new display technology that we have not seen on

01:15:32 ◼   ► an Apple product before.

01:15:33 ◼   ► - A lot of passion there.

01:15:35 ◼   ► A lot of passion.

01:15:35 ◼   ► I like the passion.

01:15:37 ◼   ► - All right, I've got a gaming one.

01:15:41 ◼   ► I couldn't go this year without coming up with some sort of gaming pick, and mine is that

01:15:46 ◼   ► Death Stranding and/or Hideo Kojima will appear in more than one Apple event in 2024.

01:15:56 ◼   ► Now, Apple has a long history of favoring one game over all the others, and for a long time

01:16:02 ◼   ► now, it's been Capcom and Resident Evil Village, and it seems like Lies of P may have become

01:16:09 ◼   ► Apple's new best friend, right?

01:16:11 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:16:11 ◼   ► - But I think Death Stranding, which reportedly is coming out early in 2024, originally supposed

01:16:18 ◼   ► to have come out this year, is going to be the new thing because Kojima is just a hot

01:16:25 ◼   ► commodity. Everybody loves having him on stage and having his games and other projects associated

01:16:33 ◼   ► with their brand.

01:16:34 ◼   ► I think that Apple's going to go really hard on the Kojima angle here, although I could

01:16:41 ◼   ► see this going the other way because he's pretty tightly associated with Microsoft right

01:16:45 ◼   ► now, so it could be that Apple doesn't have...

01:16:48 ◼   ► Apple's not as good a friend as Microsoft is, but I'm hoping that that will be what

01:16:54 ◼   ► we see in 2024.

01:16:56 ◼   ► - And what says...

01:16:57 ◼   ► - With Lies of P.

01:16:58 ◼   ► - And what says more about Apple and gaming than talking about a five-year-old game?

01:17:05 ◼   ► - A five-year-old game where what you basically do is walk around with a baby strapped to

01:17:10 ◼   ► your stomach.

01:17:10 ◼   ► - Yep.

01:17:11 ◼   ► - It is. That's what it is.

01:17:13 ◼   ► All right, I'll wrap us up. Round five pick is Apple makes another sports rights-related

01:17:19 ◼   ► deal. I don't know what the deal is. I don't know where it's going to be. Is it a league

01:17:24 ◼   ► deal? Is it a 3D Vision Pro rights deal, sub-deal? I don't know. They didn't make one this

01:17:32 ◼   ► year, but I think maybe next year's the year, and I think it's worth throwing it in because

01:17:36 ◼   ► Apple is interested in live sports. They are. They just haven't done it. So we'll see if

01:17:41 ◼   ► they do it. And that's it.

01:17:43 ◼   ► - All right.

01:17:44 ◼   ► - Well, I think there's some interesting picks there. I think I need to be more tactical

01:17:51 ◼   ► in my picks, and you've all reminded me about this.

01:17:54 ◼   ► - Damn it, James. You finally figured that out. John and I have been enjoying this.

01:17:57 ◼   ► - It only took me, like, however long we've been doing this show, 15 years.

01:18:01 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:18:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, come on, 20.

01:18:04 ◼   ► - I like your sports pick, Jason, because I feel like Apple is like ESPN in the early

01:18:08 ◼   ► days, like ESPN in the '80s, where all they showed was, like, second-tier college sports.

01:18:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, and Australian rules football.

01:18:16 ◼   ► - Right.

01:18:17 ◼   ► - Yep.

01:18:19 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, that's us. That is the pickies for 2023. Next week, of course, we have the

01:18:28 ◼   ► connected year in review episode, as always.

01:18:31 ◼   ► - Oh, yeah.

01:18:31 ◼   ► - It's going to be, I think, a really good one. We're rating all 26 Fortnites of 2023,

01:18:39 ◼   ► and that's not the game, based on the famous Vohie scale. You know, don't need to remind

01:18:44 ◼   ► the regular listeners, but it goes like this. At the bottom, you have "Worst I hate you,"

01:18:49 ◼   ► then "Awful, Awful Plus," "Just below average," "Just above average," "Believe," "Believe

01:18:53 ◼   ► Max," and at the very top, of course, "Dream." I believe we have an illustration of it, which

01:18:59 ◼   ► has just gone into the Discord.

01:19:01 ◼   ► - Yeah. Thank you.

01:19:03 ◼   ► - And yes, the triple threat of the triple J will return in 2024, when you most expect it.

01:19:11 ◼   ► - The threat never goes away.

01:19:14 ◼   ► - Yeah. I would like to say thanks again to John for being here and shipping me so many things.

01:19:21 ◼   ► - Well, and I would like to thank Jason for being here, too. Thanks for being here, Jason.

01:19:26 ◼   ► - ACC! ACC! ACC! Who's excited about a conference?

01:19:31 ◼   ► - We are united in our 2025 sports ball watching.

01:19:36 ◼   ► - Oh, man. And I would like to say thanks to James, who is going to learn a lot about maths in 2024.

01:19:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm going to win next year purely because of this book.

01:19:47 ◼   ► - All right. And that's the show. Thank you all for listening. We'll see you in 2024.

01:19:54 ◼   ► - Bye.

01:19:56 ◼   ► - Bye.