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Connected

533: Somehow, AirPort Returned

 

00:00:00   [Intro music]

00:00:07   Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Connected, number 533.

00:00:12   This one is brought to you by FitBod and Squarespace.

00:00:16   Join us once again as we push the boundaries of how long a bit can go on for and still be considered funny.

00:00:23   Can a podcast even have a fourth wall?

00:00:26   I am but your humble Apple Park Prince James Thompson, and it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to the Connected Quiz champion

00:00:34   and Grand Admiral Pickerton himself, Mr. John Vohies. Welcome, John.

00:00:38   Thank you for having me. I mean, you know, here we are again and I'm, you know, I've had a great year.

00:00:45   How could I not have had a great year being the Grand Admiral? But yeah, I'm the Pickerton.

00:00:51   And I'm also joined today by another wonderful co-host, Mr. Jason Snell, who is in fact the winner of the Vohieses and the Connected monthly contest winner.

00:01:05   Yeah, baby. Yeah, yeah, I am. I've got those. But John, it's Picky's day.

00:01:11   So now after your year of lording it over us, a new champion will be crowned today.

00:01:17   That's true.

00:01:18   It's very amazing. And really, I think my favorite thing that I won this year is the Vohieses of all of the many games we play,

00:01:24   because I correctly predicted everything you do this year, which is hard to do because you are a man of mystery.

00:01:31   And yet somehow I nailed it.

00:01:33   Maybe you've been stalking me all year. I mean, have you been just like right around the corner?

00:01:37   That's why we recorded that episode in secret and didn't let you in on it.

00:01:40   It's because we didn't want you to know I was stalking you this year.

00:01:43   But I, you know, I did it successfully and I just asked the two of you, don't do this to me next year, OK?

00:01:49   Right? Not going to stop. Everything will change this year.

00:01:53   Oh, OK. It is it's hard to believe it's been a whole year since we did this.

00:01:59   I mean, our holiday special. That's what I mean. We're here every week.

00:02:02   But I mean this particular episode.

00:02:06   Yeah. And and since it is our post Christmas, pre New Year's episode,

00:02:11   it also means we're going to do our triple J gift exchange that we'd like to do every year where we give each other presents

00:02:18   and have definitely not kept the receipts. And I believe this year the wheel of fun begins with James Thompson.

00:02:25   Yes. So for you, Jason, in light of our recent D&D member special that we did,

00:02:31   my present to you is a brand new Dungeon Master for running episodes of TPK over the incomparable.

00:02:38   Who is it? Tony, Tony gets quite tired. So we need a new one.

00:02:43   Who is it? Who's it going to be? OK, so technically I got bought a copy of the 2024 Dungeon Masters guide for my Christmas,

00:02:52   but I will say on the record that one of my goals for the year is to start running at least a small game.

00:02:58   So surely the best present is potential. OK, well, I mean,

00:03:02   I think maybe somebody has somebody broken this to you that not all D&D games have to be podcasts that you could just do.

00:03:11   I don't think that's true. OK. All right, fine.

00:03:16   John, I know what you want and I got it for you. It's technically it's a Maker World gift certificate,

00:03:22   but basically I was thinking this 3D printed Mac Mini case that turns it into a Mac Pro optionally with wheels.

00:03:34   I just look at it and I think John Voorhees, I think this is the everything,

00:03:38   everything in your life basically needs a case that's shaped like a Mac Pro to put it in.

00:03:44   They also make a Mac Studio version, which is laughably large, but again, not as large as the Mac Pro.

00:03:49   And I just I want you to use it is set to use skateboard bearing wheels

00:03:55   so you can actually get like real wheels for this thing and slide it all around.

00:03:59   And I think you're going to love it. This is the new version to design.

00:04:05   I've got the link is to Jared, who is inspired by, of course,

00:04:09   that photo of Steve Jobs where everybody goes, why is there a tiny G5 on his desk?

00:04:13   And it was actually a right. Well, I'm going to have to just yeah,

00:04:16   I'm going to disassemble my my skateboard now and turn it into my put it on the wheels on the case.

00:04:22   You know, who doesn't want a case that makes something that's conveniently small into something that's bigger and less convenient.

00:04:29   That's a perfect gift. I love it. I love it. Yeah. All right.

00:04:33   James, I've got something for you.

00:04:36   And this is going to take a little work on your part, I think,

00:04:39   because you're going to have to take care of these this gift and feed it and and, you know, give it a good home.

00:04:45   But I have gifted you a friendly family of monkeys.

00:04:49   These are a little bit like monkey butlers that you can use to eat all those bananas that your app has is always dropping all over the place.

00:04:58   Well, I mean, this sounds like you're giving me a gift that comes with extra homework,

00:05:04   but, you know, large likable monkeys always produce heaps of good, good things.

00:05:11   So I look forward to welcoming them into my home.

00:05:15   Yeah, you don't want too many heaps around your house.

00:05:17   But the thing is with friendly monkeys, you don't have to worry about them destroying your home as much.

00:05:24   So they're just going to be there to eat the bananas and they're they're well behaved.

00:05:27   So don't worry too much about it.

00:05:29   You feed the large likable monkeys, you just feed them slop, is my understanding.

00:05:32   Yeah. So well, John, you know, I know how much you're into portable consoles,

00:05:38   and I thought you could do with a bit of a change in 2025.

00:05:41   So I have got you a Nintendo Switch 2 development kit,

00:05:46   which unfortunately has to be kept bolted down to a desk at all time for security reasons.

00:05:52   And it must be stored in a locked room with the blinds down.

00:05:55   But, you know, it's portable, kind of.

00:05:58   Yeah, yeah.

00:05:59   No, it sounds like maybe Nintendo has learned a thing or two from Apple with developer kits.

00:06:04   It sounds like.

00:06:05   Very good.

00:06:06   Well, I'm looking forward to it.

00:06:07   I mean, I'll I'll strap it onto my desk and, you know,

00:06:10   hopefully get a get one that I can unbolt within a few more months in 2025.

00:06:15   Let's see.

00:06:15   So I have something for you, Jason, too.

00:06:18   All right.

00:06:20   I listened to the pro show on upgrade not long ago

00:06:24   and heard about your Miu Mini Plus, which is a great selection.

00:06:29   It's a wonderful little retro handheld, but I want you to experience the other end of the spectrum.

00:06:35   So I have gotten you a one X player X1,

00:06:40   which is an 11 inch portable quote portable game console.

00:06:48   Basically, it's an 11 inch Windows tablet with controllers strapped to the side.

00:06:53   It's described as a gaming handheld, which again, I would say, quote handheld handheld on the market that I've seen.

00:07:01   Your hands go on the controllers that are attached to the giant tablet that's in the middle.

00:07:06   Yes.

00:07:07   Well, this is the other way to go, Jon.

00:07:09   I'm glad you just didn't get me like a PC with a CRT or something and said just, you know,

00:07:13   and a backpack.

00:07:15   It's portable.

00:07:17   This is totally portable.

00:07:18   You've got a laptop CPU in there and everything.

00:07:20   I mean, it's shrunk down to about as portable as Windows can get, I guess.

00:07:24   Finally, I can get Windows games and play them.

00:07:27   Yep.

00:07:27   And my Steam, all those things I search for on Steam that are only available.

00:07:30   Actually, I used to buy Windows games on Steam and use Bootcamp, but I haven't done that for a long time.

00:07:36   So this would be great.

00:07:38   I appreciate it.

00:07:40   By the way, you mentioned Upgrade Plus.

00:07:41   I thank you for mentioning that.

00:07:42   Is it weird that I host, I'm a co-host on Connected and Upgrade,

00:07:47   and I have two different tech podcasts that are like on different days of the week.

00:07:52   Is that weird or is that okay?

00:07:54   What do you think?

00:07:55   It's quite a different audience, I think.

00:07:57   All right.

00:07:57   I mean, yeah, that's true.

00:07:59   We talk about those handhelds here.

00:08:01   So that's the important thing.

00:08:02   Yeah.

00:08:02   We're the silly ones.

00:08:04   All right.

00:08:06   John, I have gotten you the very best Vision Pro accessory yet.

00:08:11   Now, as you both know...

00:08:14   I think you've got this for me, not for John.

00:08:16   Oh, I'm sorry, James.

00:08:17   Well, it's the Js.

00:08:18   There's so many Js.

00:08:19   I know.

00:08:20   The secret is I also got them for John because we, as Vision Pro experts, need these things.

00:08:26   And as we know for this year, the Vision Pro, this is the year of the Vision Pro.

00:08:30   And by that, I mean the year that Apple released the Vision Pro.

00:08:32   And then very gradually over the course of the year, Apple via third parties and also third parties

00:08:38   tried to adjust all the things that were wrong with the original Vision Pro

00:08:41   because it was designed in a fantastical white room by people who didn't have any connection to reality.

00:08:50   And so we got that like the different head straps we've been experimenting with all year

00:08:54   and various other mounting devices.

00:08:56   And I got that pillow that is like a face pillow that attaches to your Vision Pro

00:09:04   and then it attaches to your face and then you can lay face down and do the Vision Pro like you're swimming.

00:09:09   So comfortable.

00:09:09   There are so many.

00:09:10   Well, you know me, I like to experiment with things.

00:09:13   But I think I've got the ultimate answer.

00:09:15   And this will work with the current Vision Pro, but I think this is also a good direction for Apple

00:09:19   to go with future Vision OS models.

00:09:21   And it is the Amazon, I sent you guys the Amazon link, the Amazon description,

00:09:27   because those are always the best, is giant googly eyes, self-adhesive, big wiggle eyes,

00:09:31   large sticky eyes for party decorations, refrigerator door, lawns, car, DIY craft projects, 50 millimeters.

00:09:38   It's only a matter of time before it also says Vision Pro right in that description.

00:09:43   I think these are good because A, on the existing unit, they just cover up the weird creepy CG.

00:09:49   Uh-huh.

00:09:50   And I think, Tim, we just saved you about $500 on each unit going forward.

00:09:56   Just don't have that screen.

00:09:58   Just ship.

00:09:59   I mean, you could ship them optionally in the box like they used to have the Apple stickers.

00:10:03   Just have the googly eye stickers that you can apply to the front if you want to.

00:10:07   Oh, makes sense.

00:10:09   These come in 150 millimeters too.

00:10:11   Oh, yeah, you can pick.

00:10:12   You can if you want to.

00:10:13   I really like, James, first off, has been made clear every week on this show,

00:10:18   we should really be designing products at Apple.

00:10:21   Yes.

00:10:22   We all know it.

00:10:22   All three of us should just, Apple, call us.

00:10:24   We're available.

00:10:24   But I would say that the idea of replacing the Apple stickers in the box, which they got rid of, right?

00:10:32   Well, bring them back.

00:10:33   Don't bring back Apple stickers.

00:10:34   Bring back googly eyes.

00:10:35   Put googly eyes in every Apple product so you can stick.

00:10:37   Maybe the Apple Watch only has one.

00:10:39   So it's just like a one eye on the Apple Watch.

00:10:42   A little Cyclops Ultra.

00:10:44   Yeah, yeah.

00:10:45   But we've saved a lot of money.

00:10:46   If Apple is busy decontenting the Vision Pro in order to get it down in price, googly eyes on the front.

00:10:52   Boom.

00:10:53   Boom.

00:10:54   Done.

00:10:54   There you go.

00:10:55   Done.

00:10:55   Solved.

00:10:56   Problem solved.

00:10:57   Well, our favorite thing of the year, which is the pickies, is coming up.

00:11:01   But I've been told legally that I must throw it to one of the suits at Relay now to tell you about our first sponsor.

00:11:09   This episode of Connected is made possible by Fitbod.

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00:13:28   So go now and get your customized fitness plan at fitbod.me/connected.

00:13:34   And you'll get 25% off your membership. Our thanks to Fitbod for their support of the show.

00:13:40   Okay, picky's time. This is our annual contest, where we do our picks for what will happen next year.

00:13:48   And get ready, here it comes. Please stand on one leg for the reading of the classic picky's charter, used when we made the picks for 2024.

00:14:00   Just for 2024? That sounds a bit like foreshadowing to me.

00:14:11   It is, of course it is, everybody knows this, but that's fine, here we go.

00:14:15   There are two types of pickies, annual pickies and WWDC pickies. No other picky shall ever be introduced.

00:14:22   The winner of the annual pickies is named Grand Admiral Pickerton, and retains the title for a full year.

00:14:30   The WWDC pickies winner is named the Apple Park Prince, that's me, and retains the title until the next WWDC is held.

00:14:39   Order for the annual pickies and WWDC pickies is based on the winner of the previous year.

00:14:45   The winner goes second, the losers flip a coin to determine who goes first and who goes third.

00:14:52   Jason is the only person allowed to flip a coin and cannot use any apps to do so.

00:14:57   James is the only person who is allowed to roll dice. I may use any other method of generating random numbers I want.

00:15:06   For a pick to earn any points, everything written down in the prediction document for that specific pick must come true.

00:15:13   Because James tried to introduce irrational numbers and crash the entire pickies, there are now no half points or fractional points awarded in any round except when grading in the event of a tie.

00:15:23   Three points are awarded for any pick deemed correct in the first round.

00:15:27   Two points are awarded for any pick deemed correct in the second round.

00:15:31   One point will be awarded for correct picks in the lightning round.

00:15:35   Any pick that comes true in the first half of the year is worth double.

00:15:39   Your total percentage expressed as a fraction of wrong answers will be multiplied by five and deducted from your final score.

00:15:47   All calculations are performed using IEEE 754 floating point numbers, not integers. Nan is not considered the number.

00:15:54   The two... that's math stuff, I don't understand it. The two other hosts must agree that at least one of your picks is not obvious, one is pretty cool, and one is quite sneaky.

00:16:03   Every pick has to be related to Apple or the tech industry.

00:16:07   No picking things that the picker of the pick could make come true by themselves or by inducing others, including taking a job at Apple or learning how to hypnotize people by becoming a magician.

00:16:20   The chat room is saying the right leg is getting tired. Switch legs, switch legs, everybody can switch legs right now.

00:16:26   Switch, we have more rules to go.

00:16:28   No picking things that are not provably true or false. Whether or not you can prove a negative is best left for the AIs, and maybe not even them.

00:16:35   No altering the prediction document after the show is over. We all remember what happened in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and even last week.

00:16:47   All ties will be broken by the following simple procedure.

00:16:51   Each lightning round pick deemed incorrect will receive a coin flip. If the coin is tails, the incorrect pick will be regraded by the host who is not in a tie.

00:17:00   The regrading shall be judged on the following criteria.

00:17:03   One, passion up to half a point. Two, precision up to a third of a point. Three, wild card up to a quarter of a point.

00:17:09   After all regrading of wrong answers is completed, the scores will be recalculated and the winner will be proclaimed.

00:17:20   In the case of a three-way tie, a three-sided die will be rolled.

00:17:23   The winner of a coin flip between the two current non-winners of the pickies will choose the numbers for all hosts,

00:17:29   and the host whose number is rolled on the three-sided die will be eliminated. The tiebreaker will then proceed.

00:17:35   After scoring is complete, each host must place the official pickies' refrigerator magnets in the proper configuration on their refrigerator for the next year.

00:17:41   Winner at the center of the door, second place in the lower left corner, third place in the lower right corner,

00:17:46   fail to provide evidence of a properly secured magnet will result in immediate disqualification.

00:17:52   Alright people, we're almost finished here.

00:17:55   The winner of each competition will be given access to the Relay.fm CMS and will have to post the show until the winner is revealed.

00:18:03   The loser of the competition will take turns doing the editing each week.

00:18:14   So now it's time to score the 2024 pickies.

00:18:17   Alright, let's do it. I think I feel good about my chances this year.

00:18:21   I feel medium good. So yes, first round, this is three points, potentially a six.

00:18:29   Mine was that Apple allows a third-party app store on the iPhone somewhere in the world.

00:18:36   Correct.

00:18:37   This is correct because it happened in Europe in the first half of the year.

00:18:41   Six points.

00:18:42   Six whole points.

00:18:43   Yep, yep. And I said the Vision Pro will be released in the first calendar quarter of 2024, which was also correct.

00:18:51   Yes, yeah. So you get six points.

00:18:54   And I said Apple Watch Ultra 2 will be on sale in the US on March 1st, 2024, which is a really weird pick,

00:19:02   but I think we were wondering about Massimo.

00:19:05   Yeah, I think it was legal challenges.

00:19:08   But I get six points because that, yeah, that happened.

00:19:12   Here's a pro tip, by the way, for me and John.

00:19:14   We made picks that were built into the first half of the year, so we weren't really shooting for those six points.

00:19:20   We were.

00:19:21   Okay, so the score after one round, everybody's got six points. Time for round two.

00:19:24   James, what do you have?

00:19:25   Yep, the only way is down.

00:19:27   My second round pick was that the Vision Pro finally goes on sale in Scotland.

00:19:34   And I was correct. I got two points and I missed getting four points by, I think, 10 days as it came out on the 12th of July in the UK.

00:19:42   Oh, wow. So I predicted that 2024 will see the return of a March Apple event, which it did not.

00:19:50   So I was incorrect.

00:19:52   Unfortunately, I think the March event may be a thing of the past thanks to doing stuff online.

00:19:58   Yeah, I think so. I think it may not happen.

00:20:00   I predicted a new Apple Pencil Pro is introduced.

00:20:06   Now, when I originally scored this, I thought I forgot that that actually is what the name is called.

00:20:11   I couldn't believe that I correctly predicted that it would be Apple Pencil Pro because I thought, I don't know, I thought that was a dumb name, but it was correct.

00:20:19   But Jason, is a new Apple Pencil Pro, is that really a revision of the Apple Pencil Pro?

00:20:26   You didn't, you in fact predicted that there would be an Apple Pencil Pro and then another new one. Isn't that what you're…?

00:20:32   I don't know about that. Four points happened in May. It happened in May.

00:20:37   After round two, I have 10, James has eight, John has six, but it's all to play for because we're now in the lightning round.

00:20:44   [thunder]

00:20:46   Yeah, so round one, I said a Mac would be introduced with a brand new form factor and thankfully the Mac Mini was indeed a brand new form factor. One point for me.

00:20:56   Yeah, for sure.

00:20:57   I predicted that personal automations would come to the Mac on Mac OS and I was incorrect.

00:21:04   Not, you know, it's not like they need those things for Apple intelligence or anything. They'll, you know, they'll get around to it eventually.

00:21:09   It's brutal. It's absolutely brutal.

00:21:11   I predicted that the M3 MacBook Air would be introduced, the M2 MacBook Air would be discontinued and the M1 MacBook Air would remain.

00:21:21   Well, almost got it, but the M2 MacBook Air is also around. They are selling and the M1 Air is at Walmart.

00:21:30   We could have argued about whether that counts, but it doesn't matter because they kept the M2 Air around. So I am also wrong.

00:21:36   Yeah, they did.

00:21:37   For round two, I said an original Apple TV+ show or movie is released in 3D. And I could argue this one, you know, since we had that little submarine movie in 3D and things, but you know, that's not the spirit of my pick.

00:21:51   And it was on the Apple TV app, but was not really Apple TV+, so I'm going to say incorrect.

00:21:56   Yeah, and you were, I think we were thinking it would be just a 3D like show, not an immersive necessarily, but just like a 3D version of Shrinking or something because you want to see.

00:22:07   Yeah, like a 3D conversion of something that was coming out in 2D.

00:22:10   Yeah, exactly. But they didn't do it.

00:22:12   Nope.

00:22:13   It's too bad.

00:22:14   Oh, well. I also had a TV pick, which was that tvOS's Quadbox would expand to work with more kinds of content. And it did not.

00:22:25   John, you got my hopes up for this one.

00:22:28   I know.

00:22:29   It is, I was just the other day, I was watching, there was a, there was a, a game on a streaming service. I don't think it was the Netflix Christmas. I think it was like something that was on Paramount+ or something.

00:22:40   And I had that moment, and I do this with soccer too, where they've got games on Peacock and then they've got some game that's on like USA Network.

00:22:47   Right.

00:22:48   And I had that same thought, which is like, all these things are happening at once. I want to put them in a multi-view, but they're in different apps and tvOS just won't do it. It's very frustrating.

00:22:57   Separate apps don't work.

00:22:59   Ah, well, you know what they say, it's like age old wisdom, never bank on a tvOS update adding anything.

00:23:06   I, speaking of disappointment, I predicted a live sporting event would be transmitted immersively to Vision Pro users and it didn't happen. I don't know why it didn't happen.

00:23:16   I wish they would experiment with that, but it didn't happen. So no points in that round.

00:23:20   Yeah, we picked these things that seem so obvious, you know, these must happen. But no.

00:23:25   Round three. So I said that an iPad would be introduced with a bigger screen than we've seen before. And I was entirely incorrect.

00:23:34   Yeah, I wish.

00:23:36   Yeah, for sure. I predicted that the Vision Pro is reintroduced with an event that includes an appearance with EdiQ who will not dance.

00:23:47   I was thinking that there would be some sort of event in January where they would kind of recap everything that was coming with the Vision Pro, but that did not happen. We got some press releases and that was about it.

00:23:57   Yeah, yeah. Who knows what they're doing over there. I don't know. I think, although I would prefer an event where EdiQ does dance.

00:24:06   Hi. You know, I hold out hope. I just go back to that GIF all the time, you know. I mean, it's my favorite.

00:24:12   You know, I got to, I actually had my first meeting with EdiQ this year in February for the Apple Sports app of all things.

00:24:21   Oh, right, right, right. That's Edi's baby.

00:24:23   Yeah, yeah. And he just flew in from the Super Bowl and boy were his arms tired. I predicted new Magic Keyboard for iPad with Function Key Row and it happened. Guys, it happened.

00:24:40   Yeah.

00:24:41   In the first half of the year, so plus two for me, they did it. They did it. Just again, they did it. Dreams rarely come true, but the dreams came true right there.

00:24:51   For Ranfur, I predicted that Apple would ship some form of generative AI, e.g. text or image generation, and they did ship some form of generative AI. That is true. One point.

00:25:03   I continued my trend of incorrect predictions with the prediction that the iPad Pro would get a second USB-C compatible port and it did not.

00:25:14   And I predicted that a new Apple AI assistant was unveiled, but it would just still be called Siri, which we debated this before the show. It's kind of right.

00:25:26   Like, right, they unveiled this whole promise of doing new things with an AI enhanced version of Siri. They haven't shipped it. I think we decided that "unveiled" was the key word here because they unveiled it, all right? They sure did that.

00:25:41   They promised it much in the same way that many things have been promised, but yeah, we have yet to actually experience it. For round five, I said that Apple would-- I always go like on the round five, I pick something completely wild.

00:25:57   Apple introduces some form of new display technology, folding mini-LED holographic beaming directly into your brain. No, they did not.

00:26:07   A little early on that one, James. A little bit early. So my prediction revolves around the fact that Apple likes to pick a new best friend in the gaming world every couple of years.

00:26:22   And I predicted that in 2024, that would be Death Stranding and that Death Stranding or Hideo Kojima would appear in more than one Apple event in 2024, which did not happen.

00:26:36   In fact, the game came out at the end of January and was never mentioned again in another event, I don't think.

00:26:44   It was a bold pick, John. It was a bold pick. I picked Apple would make another sports rights related deal. Also did not happen. Apple not going beyond their MLS deal.

00:26:55   Now, our friend of the show, ZM Nox, says, "Does tandem OLED count as a new display technology?" What do you think?

00:27:03   I mean, we've never seen the likes of it before. Two sandwiched OLED screens. I mean, I don't know that it's actually going to make any difference in the score.

00:27:14   It literally doesn't make any difference. I'm going to give it to you.

00:27:17   I will take it, even if it means I don't actually win.

00:27:22   Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, you should take it. Take it and take your two points or one point, right?

00:27:28   One point, because that was...

00:27:30   Second half of the year. All right, good for you. Good for you. I'm so benevolent, because I'm going to win, in giving you extra points.

00:27:38   All right, so after the lightning round, the scores are 14 for me, 11 for James, six for John. John, rough year for you.

00:27:45   I know.

00:27:46   That's like one of my scores.

00:27:48   Picking from the middle position is rough. Well, as people know, though, this is not how the pickies are scored.

00:27:53   The pickies are scored by deducting your total percentage expressed as a fraction of wrong answers, multiplied by five and deducted from your final score.

00:28:00   And when we do that, because that gets...

00:28:03   The iPad we're being told was May, so give me another point.

00:28:08   Okay, John.

00:28:09   Still makes no difference. 12 points.

00:28:13   It's fine. It's fine. Anyway, final scores.

00:28:19   I have three out of seven wrong, which is a deduction of 0.428571429 times five, so I deduct 2.142857145 for a total of 11.85714285 points.

00:28:34   John, six out of seven wrong. Wow.

00:28:38   So that's 0.857142857 times five, so we'll deduct 4.285714285 for a total of 1.71428715.

00:28:51   Now, James, what did you end up getting wrong if we give you that one as correct?

00:28:55   I think... Let me see.

00:28:58   So you get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So that's two out of seven.

00:29:09   So that's going to give you a different deduction, which is exciting.

00:29:15   Five maths, which everyone loves.

00:29:17   It is. Dice by Pcalc is not doing the math because it's a dice app. You've ruined your branding.

00:29:23   So we're going to deduct that. So you get 12 minus 1.42857143, which gives you a total of 10.57142857, which means that I win by the skin of my teeth,

00:29:39   because I have 11.85714285, and you have 10.57142857, which means I win by a total of...

00:29:49   Oh, this is good. This is why we do this 1.28571428.

00:29:53   1.3 basically.

00:29:54   Yeah, 1.3 points. So that was good because you didn't just get two points there.

00:29:59   You also got an additional reduction in your deduction, which is why we do the deductions. That's why right there.

00:30:07   Yeah, and I know people really love this level of complexity.

00:30:10   Makes it exciting. That's why we're here. That's why we're here.

00:30:13   Well, not for long, but for this one. John, will you do the honors?

00:30:19   I will. Jason, congratulations. You are the Grand Admiral Pickerton.

00:30:25   Please place his magnet at the center of the refrigerator door.

00:30:29   Yes, please.

00:30:30   Second place is James. He goes in the lower left corner. And for me, you could probably put me on the floor or underneath the fridge.

00:30:39   It's the bronze medal.

00:30:41   But technically, I'd appreciate it if you would place him in the lower right hand corner.

00:30:47   Just slightly lower than James in the lower left corner because it's the bronze medal spot.

00:30:51   If you're using the official Picky's app or the Clockwork Picky's trophy, you will see the magnets moving automatically in just a moment.

00:30:59   So just watch.

00:31:00   Keep watching.

00:31:01   Hit the button, James, and that'll make it all start going.

00:31:04   Yeah. Well, congratulations to Jason for his big comeback and congratulations to me for not being in last place again,

00:31:10   which seems like the entirety of this competition.

00:31:13   Will I have learned this year to be more strategic in my picks? Let's find out.

00:31:18   And now here are some editorially independent words from our sponsor.

00:31:22   I'd love some free web hosting.

00:31:25   James, be quiet. We've been talking about this.

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00:33:33   All right, here we are. It is time for the 2025 picks for the pickies.

00:33:42   Please remain in the position of your choosing for the reading of the all-new revised Picky Charter Ultra,

00:33:49   as most recently amended during our Constitutional Convention on Jason Voorhees Day,

00:33:54   the first Friday the 13th of the year, which was September the 13th, 2024.

00:33:59   Now, we've had some feedback over the many years that we've been doing this about the convoluted nature of our rules.

00:34:06   And we've decided to do what no other podcast has the courage to do.

00:34:11   That's right, James.

00:34:13   Instead of heaping even more complexity on top of a clearly failing system, we are actually going to take things away.

00:34:22   So with no further delay, here is the new statement of streamlined rules.

00:34:29   Every year we play two games and predict what will happen at WWDC and throughout the year.

00:34:41   We pick in reverse order of the previous contests final standings.

00:34:47   Everyone picks five things that they think will happen.

00:34:50   The person with the most right things wins.

00:34:52   In the case of a tie, there are multiple winners. We, here, do not let mere chance determine success.

00:35:01   And there shall be no disputes over scoring because we are all just inherently honorable people.

00:35:08   And that's it. Just the art of prediction in its purest form, no silly titles to award, no trophies needed.

00:35:14   And certainly no ridiculous sports paraphernalia to inflate our egos. What sort of people need that?

00:35:20   And put all those magnets in the bin.

00:35:22   So, okay, please pause to remove your magnets from the refrigerator. Put them in the bin.

00:35:29   Exactly. Exactly. So, we're going to get started and I'm going to go first.

00:35:38   I'm going to predict for my first pick that a revision or new model of the Apple Watch will be introduced that supports a new sensor.

00:35:47   Ooh. Oh.

00:35:49   My pick is a new iPhone SE is introduced that supports Apple intelligence.

00:35:55   That's pretty good. That's pretty good.

00:35:57   That's a more bold pick, I think, than John's. John's pick is bold.

00:36:02   Your pick is actually kind of like, I mean, is Apple ever going to release anything that doesn't support Apple intelligence at this point?

00:36:08   Probably Apple TVs.

00:36:09   All right. I predict Apple will introduce, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, it's going to punch me in the face next year, a new home appliance with a screen.

00:36:18   Blender.

00:36:20   There I said it.

00:36:21   I'm not saying what the appliance is. If Apple ships a refrigerator with a screen, I get the pick. Okay?

00:36:31   Did you see that LG just did a microwave oven with a 27-inch screen? It was just announced two days ago.

00:36:37   I love it. I love it. You know what? Somebody should make a microwave oven or a regular oven.

00:36:41   What they should do is they should put a screen on the door and a camera on the inside so that the door shows you what's going on inside. It would be great.

00:36:47   Why haven't they thought of that?

00:36:49   Isn't that exactly what this does? I don't know.

00:36:51   I don't know.

00:36:52   All right. All right. We're moving into round two.

00:36:54   Okay.

00:36:55   And I'm going to kind of play off of James a little bit here with my own iPhone SE prediction, which is that it will have a 48-megapixel camera sensor.

00:37:03   Ooh.

00:37:04   Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Mine is, and I would like to say that I wrote this in the document a few days ago, there will be a brand new redesigned mouse.

00:37:13   I'm not going to say it's going to have microphones or do any AI nonsense.

00:37:17   Talk to you.

00:37:18   Because I think that is silly.

00:37:20   It's nonsense.

00:37:21   But, you know, I think we are finally going to get away from the, shall we say, very meme-able mouse.

00:37:31   The worst mouse you can buy anywhere? Is that what we're saying?

00:37:34   I don't know.

00:37:36   I like it as a mouse. I just don't like the charger.

00:37:38   I just feel like you always have to be prepared for disappointment when you're trying to predict new Apple input devices.

00:37:43   But I would say if they do completely redesign the mouse and it still has a port on the bottom, I still get the point.

00:37:49   Okay.

00:37:50   All right.

00:37:51   I am going to go out on a limb and say that Apple will finally announce a third-party LLM partner for Apple Intelligence that is not OpenAI.

00:38:03   But it won't actually be available until at least the last quarter of 2025.

00:38:10   So basically, get excited when they announce it probably at WWDC, and then you'll finally get your Google or Anthropic or whatever.

00:38:19   Like at the end of 2025, or they'll say it's coming next year.

00:38:25   I feel like that's the scenario.

00:38:27   Yeah.

00:38:28   But they need to announce it.

00:38:29   Yeah, I think that's a good pick.

00:38:30   Announce it and then it won't be available until at least the last quarter.

00:38:32   Not graded, but who do you think it will be?

00:38:35   I wonder if it will be multiple.

00:38:38   I wonder if they will throw Google and Anthropic in there together.

00:38:42   I think those are the two most likely.

00:38:43   But because I don't think they're going to do meta, and do they really want to do X? I don't know.

00:38:50   Yeah, they're not going to do whatever that, Grok?

00:38:53   Grok, yeah.

00:38:54   So that's my guess.

00:38:55   I mean, Google is the obvious one, but then again, they also keep talking about Google.

00:38:59   It's like, it would be really nice if we could have Google, and they never do.

00:39:02   So I don't know.

00:39:03   That's why I think this is worth a pick.

00:39:06   All right.

00:39:07   Well, round three time, and I'm doing a negative pick, which is that Apple will not announce

00:39:14   new Vision Pro hardware before the next annual pickies.

00:39:18   Yeah, I think that's fair.

00:39:20   I agree.

00:39:21   I mean, does this count if they bring out a new head strap?

00:39:24   No, I'm talking about the device itself, the computing device.

00:39:28   Head straps are by very definition software.

00:39:32   Right, okay.

00:39:33   You wear them soft.

00:39:34   So my pick is that Apple gets into the Wi-Fi writer business again.

00:39:41   What?

00:39:42   Somehow, airport returns.

00:39:43   This is where James starts smoking something during his fix.

00:39:48   I mean, I think there's a potential.

00:39:51   I'm not saying that we're going to get airport expresses again, but I think we might get

00:39:56   something.

00:39:57   Okay, sure.

00:39:59   I love it.

00:40:00   I love it.

00:40:01   I love the Moxie there.

00:40:03   Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb too.

00:40:05   Apple will receive a record fine from the European Commission.

00:40:09   About what?

00:40:10   Yeah.

00:40:11   I don't know, but it'll be something.

00:40:12   It's coming.

00:40:13   Yeah, that's a very good first aspect too.

00:40:16   There's about like a hundred different ways that that could happen as well.

00:40:19   So many possibilities.

00:40:20   Yeah, exactly.

00:40:21   All right, it's time for round four.

00:40:24   And for this, I am predicting that a new Apple TV will be introduced, so new hardware that

00:40:32   includes Apple intelligence features.

00:40:35   I think this is worse than my airport pick, but...

00:40:39   It probably is.

00:40:40   This is where I started like a grass-meated straws.

00:40:43   You know, I mean, my thought is it'll be something where you can maybe use the Siri commands

00:40:48   with the remote and get suggestions for shows to watch or something like that.

00:40:53   And that they'll use one of the newer, you know, A-series chips that can support Apple

00:41:00   intelligence.

00:41:01   So maybe, I don't know.

00:41:02   I mean, there are rumors that we're getting a new Apple TV, whether it'll go that high

00:41:07   end with a chip set, I don't know.

00:41:09   We'll see.

00:41:10   Mine, there's a possibility here that Apple introduces an M-series chip in a configuration

00:41:17   better than an Ultra.

00:41:19   And I just mean that like where the Ultra is for, I can't remember.

00:41:24   So like, so what is this?

00:41:26   This is like an M4 Extreme in the Mac Pro or something like that?

00:41:29   Yeah, basically.

00:41:30   Like, if they're going to keep that product around, they need to do something with it

00:41:36   to make it distinct from like all the small boxes they sell, which are just as good.

00:41:40   Well, I appreciate that in this round, you two guys are dreaming big.

00:41:44   I'm going to be very small and say the only new feature on the MacBook Air beyond an M4

00:41:53   processor, which it will catch up to the M4 line, will be an upgraded webcam.

00:41:59   So basically, oh boy, there's a new MacBook Air.

00:42:02   How is it different?

00:42:03   Well, the webcam's better and that's it.

00:42:08   I think this is actually an optimistic pick.

00:42:10   Well, they built that new webcam that's in the MacBook Pro that is better, that is improved

00:42:18   in quality, and the one that's in the MacBook Air isn't that good.

00:42:21   So I'm thinking basically that they'll put that MacBook Pro webcam in the MacBook Air

00:42:26   too.

00:42:27   Yeah, I think you're probably right.

00:42:28   One clarification though, would you consider it a feature if Apple bumps the base amount

00:42:35   of memory, for instance?

00:42:36   No, I mean, that's just specs, right?

00:42:38   I think they would have to move a port or change a port or add a port or something else

00:42:43   that's actually like a...

00:42:44   When we're writing our reviews of the MacBook Air that we would actually call out as a change

00:42:49   beyond just configuration, yeah.

00:42:51   But I feel like we're in a really...

00:42:53   I wrote my Macworld predictions piece yesterday, so I was able to sync that up with this a

00:42:58   little bit.

00:42:59   And one of the things that just struck me is I think it's actually going to be a really

00:43:01   boring year for Apple hardware because they've recently reset a whole bunch of stuff and

00:43:07   are so focused on Apple intelligence that I feel like it's going to be a real lull of

00:43:10   a hardware year.

00:43:11   And I thought, well, what is even going to change?

00:43:14   But making that MacBook Air webcam good is a thing they could do.

00:43:18   So maybe that's it.

00:43:19   All right.

00:43:20   Well, it is time for our fifth and final round, and I am going to predict that the M5 will

00:43:27   separate the CPU and GPU from the GPU memory architecture, which will be explained in the

00:43:35   context of improving Apple intelligence and gaming because this is something...

00:43:40   This has been, I guess, rumored, and apparently the current architecture does have some limitations

00:43:49   because of the way it's designed to share that memory that is not ideal for Apple intelligence.

00:43:56   So I'm going with they're separating the two and they're going to use it as an opportunity

00:44:01   to say, "Now Apple intelligence is five times faster and gaming is 10 times better."

00:44:07   So something like that.

00:44:08   Wow.

00:44:09   And maybe this isn't an example of me not learning to be strategic, but I think Apple

00:44:16   will announce a partnership with a third party publisher, e.g. Sony, Steam, to help bring

00:44:22   games to the Vision Pro.

00:44:24   Now, I will say this could mean a lot of things.

00:44:27   This could mean putting Steam VR on the Vision Pro.

00:44:30   I don't think that'll happen.

00:44:32   But it could also mean something with controller support for using Sony's controllers.

00:44:38   Yeah.

00:44:39   I have been wondering with all the stories about the Sony controllers potentially being

00:44:45   added to Vision OS, I started to wonder, is there a bigger picture deal here, which is

00:44:52   Sony, either, because as we all know, because the good people at Mac stories who push everything

00:44:58   to its limit, Jon, you can project from a PlayStation into Vision Pro?

00:45:04   Yes, with an NDI HDMI.

00:45:07   Right, but it's hard, right?

00:45:09   And I thought, so one thing could be, would Sony and Apple do something where they made

00:45:14   a link where you could just use the Vision Pro as a display for the PS5 and it would

00:45:21   just be built into the software.

00:45:24   That would be an interesting thing.

00:45:25   And the other thing I thought was, if PSVR 2 is not that successful, which it sounds

00:45:30   like it isn't because they're going to unbundle these controllers, I wonder, is there something

00:45:34   there where they could be like, you don't even need to buy a PSVR if you've got a

00:45:37   Vision Pro, which is way more expensive, but anyway, you could play PSVR stuff on.

00:45:43   Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me.

00:45:45   And I think that having some sort of, using basically the technology that allows you to

00:45:51   stream your screen from the Mac to the Vision Pro makes a lot of sense because that's already

00:45:57   there, it's built into the system already, and simply streaming from the internet is

00:46:02   not a good solution because the Vision Pro only has Wi-Fi 5 and that's not a good gaming

00:46:08   experience if you're using like Xbox Game Pass, cloud gaming or whatever.

00:46:13   I think we've gone from this is the worst pick to this is a guarantee.

00:46:17   Well, I don't know about that, but I love it.

00:46:19   I love this.

00:46:20   I think this is reading the tea leaves perfectly well, where it's, we have this report, but

00:46:27   then you're like, whoa, but what if it was more?

00:46:29   I like that.

00:46:30   Okay, I'm going to do it.

00:46:32   I'm going to make a naming pick.

00:46:33   I'm going to predict something about that Apple home appliance with a screen.

00:46:38   So I'm doubling down on that and I've decided I've, I'm a wrecking my brains to think, what

00:46:43   is that product going to be called?

00:46:45   And I've got a thing I think it will be called, but I'm going to make my pick a little bit

00:46:49   broader, which is that name in whole or in part will be HomePod.

00:46:57   And let me explain myself here.

00:46:59   I actually think that what they may do is say this is the new HomePod.

00:47:04   And especially given that they're going to probably have like a speaker doc for it.

00:47:08   So it could take the place of the bigger HomePod that the bigger HomePod will either be renamed

00:47:13   or go away or will be called a previous generation of HomePod.

00:47:17   It's possible that it will be called HomePod something, but I think HomePod is actually

00:47:21   the perfect name for this thing.

00:47:23   So I'm just going to go in all in on that, whatever that home appliance with the screen

00:47:27   is HomePod will be in the name and might be the name.

00:47:31   I'm really hoping that Apple's home appliances called the Apple refrigerator.

00:47:35   Okay.

00:47:36   All right.

00:47:37   I'm going with VisionPod.

00:47:39   It would be weird to call a refrigerator HomePod, but they could do it.

00:47:43   HomePod fridge.

00:47:44   HomePod cold.

00:47:45   I mean, I also think that they should make a meta Ray-Ban style things and just call

00:47:50   them AirPod specs, but that's just me.

00:47:54   Not a prediction because they're not going to do it because they're too slow and they're

00:47:57   not going to do that product for like two years and it's too late and it's so frustrating.

00:48:01   All right.

00:48:02   Well, those are the picks.

00:48:03   Yeah.

00:48:04   That's our very simple and straightforward, which should be admired and adopted by all

00:48:09   podcasts.

00:48:10   It really should be.

00:48:11   Next week is our traditional year in review episode.

00:48:15   This time we're going to be rating every single year of Apple's existence based on the famous

00:48:21   Voorhees scale.

00:48:22   Yes.

00:48:23   Just in case this is the first episode of connected you've ever heard and oh boy, I

00:48:28   really hope it is.

00:48:29   The scale goes like this.

00:48:31   At the bottom you have worst I hate you, then awful, then awful plus, then just below average,

00:48:37   then just above average, then believe, believe max and at the very top dream.

00:48:43   You should find the canonical illustration by listener Kate linked in the show notes.

00:48:48   It's very important that we use the Voorhees scale at all times.

00:48:52   And yes, the triple threat of the triple J will return in 2025 when you most expect it.

00:49:01   I would just like to say thanks again to John.

00:49:04   I know we do this every week, but it really is a pleasure.

00:49:08   Well, and I'd like to say thank you to Jason too.

00:49:11   And thanks to you both, but especially thanks to James cause we do this in order.

00:49:15   I don't know why.

00:49:16   And thanks to all of you out there for listening to this classic regular normal, but special,

00:49:23   but very normal episode of connected.

00:49:25   And until next time, happy new year.

00:49:28   Happy new year.

00:49:30   Happy new year, everyone.

00:49:31   everyone.

00:49:31   [ No Sound ]