00:00:39 ◼ ► We're on the paternity countdown. By my current estimation, this is my first of last three.
00:00:47 ◼ ► I expect that currently, if all goes to plan, February 17th will be my final upgrade before
00:01:12 ◼ ► However, on your birthday, we did record an episode of Upgrade to be released at a later
00:01:23 ◼ ► That is like a back to the future kind of scenario, right? Like in that idea where I've come back
00:01:30 ◼ ► and it's in the future. Anyway, this is nonsense. I have a snow talk question for you that comes
00:01:36 ◼ ► from Tom, who wants to know, are you listening to any severance podcasts or podcasts explaining
00:01:47 ◼ ► I'm not. Funnily enough, as a person who makes podcasts about media, I've listened to very few
00:01:57 ◼ ► podcasts about media. In part because I don't have time to listen to podcasts. I have soap because I
00:02:04 ◼ ► don't have a commute. I become a really great podcast listener when I have a long car trip or I need to
00:02:10 ◼ ► like go down to Apple or something like that or on a plane. I can do some of that. But in my regular
00:02:16 ◼ ► life, no. And also, honestly, severance, I really enjoy it. I just don't see the need. I don't feel
00:02:25 ◼ ► sorry to Tom, but like, I feel like I know what's going on in severance. Do you? So yeah, I feel like
00:02:34 ◼ ► I do. I feel like I get what's going on. I'm enjoying the ride. I think it's really interesting.
00:02:40 ◼ ► Um, but no, I'm not, I love severance so much. I love, I love lots of things that I don't listen
00:02:46 ◼ ► to podcasts about. Yeah. So I don't, I don't listen to podcasts about it either. I think actually really
00:02:50 ◼ ► because I, this is just one of those shows where I enjoy the lack of information. Like I enjoy just
00:03:00 ◼ ► trying to work out what I think is happening based on what I'm seeing. But I have seen some talk about
00:03:07 ◼ ► this and I thought I'd include a link in the show notes. There is an official severance podcast,
00:03:10 ◼ ► which is hosted by Ben Stiller and Adam Scott, which I think is cool. Yes. But it's, it's unclear if
00:03:16 ◼ ► this is an Apple show that they're not, Apple's not on the branding anywhere. Um, it's Odyssey is the,
00:03:23 ◼ ► the creator, but I believe this is pure memory that Apple has worked with this company to produce
00:03:29 ◼ ► these kinds of shows, but Apple's not listed anywhere, uh, on this one. So, but it's there
00:03:35 ◼ ► if you want it. Uh, yeah, it's, I've listened to some official ones are different, right? Official
00:03:41 ◼ ► ones are sort of like, here's what we're thinking of. And I find those sometimes interesting because
00:03:45 ◼ ► they have stuff you can't get anywhere else. And sometimes the least interesting because they're,
00:03:54 ◼ ► They're not going to get into theories on the, on the official show because they know how the show
00:03:58 ◼ ► goes. They know the answers. And also they're not going to have like, um, we just did an episode of
00:04:04 ◼ ► Vulcan. Hello. The podcast I do with Scott McNulty, where we talk about the latest Star Trek episode. And we
00:04:09 ◼ ► just did an episode about the Star Trek TV movie section 31. And that's a good example where whatever
00:04:15 ◼ ► official, whatever they have for that is going to be all happy talk about here's this actor and here's
00:04:20 ◼ ► this person that isn't it great. And our episode is like, wow, that was terrible. Let's list all the
00:04:26 ◼ ► ways that that was a terrible, terrible piece of filmed entertainment. And then we ranked, uh, all the
00:04:32 ◼ ► Star Trek movies by our preferences as a way to kind of get the stink out afterward. And you know, an
00:04:37 ◼ ► official podcast is going to be all smiles. Um, and so, and, and so there can be value in that. I have
00:04:43 ◼ ► definitely done that, but it's just a different vibe. Yep. Uh, if you'd like to send in a question to help
00:04:49 ◼ ► us open a future episode of the show, uh, just go to upgradefeedback.com and send in your Snell
00:04:55 ◼ ► talk questions. Let's do a rumor roundup to start this week's episode. Oh, exciting. We've got some
00:05:01 ◼ ► big topics today, so, uh, we're going to get into those. Yeah. So we're riding out a little early
00:05:09 ◼ ► He's a man made entirely of goo. Mark Gooman at Bloomberg. Uh, Apple has brought, brought in Kim
00:05:18 ◼ ► Vorath to advance. Bloomberg is where Mark Gooman works. Yeah. Mark Gooman at Bloomberg. That's,
00:05:24 ◼ ► you know, Bloomberg. Yep. Uh, they, Apple, see, I have a new name to say, and I think I was focused
00:05:30 ◼ ► on that as I've not said this name out in like out loud yet. Uh, Apple has brought in Kim Vorath to
00:05:37 ◼ ► advance Apple intelligence. So I've seen a few reports about Vorath. Uh, one came from John
00:05:43 ◼ ► Gruber, which I'll also put in the show notes. Uh, Vorath has been at Apple for 36 years and has a
00:05:48 ◼ ► history of kind of being dropped in to manage tough projects. They are a person who gets things done.
00:05:54 ◼ ► Uh, she most recently worked on getting Vision Pro out of the door, but has been in charge of project
00:06:01 ◼ ► management for many OS releases going back all the way to the original iPhone software group. John
00:06:07 ◼ ► Gruber describes Vorath as effectively at this time being seen as Scott Forstall's chief of staff.
00:06:13 ◼ ► Gruber also notes. I thought this is interesting. Mark Gooman's reporting notes that the source for
00:06:19 ◼ ► this information was a long time Apple executive and wonders if this may have been a planned
00:06:24 ◼ ► sharing of information. Yep. Yeah. It seems to me that that's probably the most likely scenario,
00:06:31 ◼ ► given how it's identified that people were okay in this kind of like leaking out this way,
00:06:37 ◼ ► they weren't going to make an announcement, but, and why would they do that? I think the answer is
00:06:42 ◼ ► they're, they're, they feel the criticism that the Apple intelligence rollout has been rough and it's
00:06:47 ◼ ► slow and that they're trying to send a little bit of a message that they're on it essentially. And
00:06:52 ◼ ► that they're moving people who are very respected, uh, at getting things shipped that fixes into,
00:07:05 ◼ ► I have no idea what to really, uh, take from this, like realistically, like I can, I can take from it
00:07:17 ◼ ► People think she's great and they've prioritized her from, from working on vision pro stuff to working
00:07:22 ◼ ► on Apple intelligence stuff. I think that even the most enormous fan of the vision pro would probably
00:07:28 ◼ ► agree that Apple intelligence is where the fire is right now. Um, well, well, I mean, like,
00:07:35 ◼ ► like the fire is burning the house down and they need to fix that. That's my, my fire metaphor is more
00:07:40 ◼ ► that the fire is, uh, is where's the fire at Apple? It's AI. It's a problem. It's behind, it's broken.
00:07:48 ◼ ► Um, and culturally they need more attention applied to it. So I think that's the idea here, but I don't
00:07:54 ◼ ► know anything about this person or her inner, you know, inner workings at Apple, other than that she
00:07:59 ◼ ► seems to come very highly regarded, which is great. That was the, I think Gruber, Gruber's big
00:08:03 ◼ ► contribution was he talked to a bunch of people he knows at Apple who are like, she's amazing. It's
00:08:07 ◼ ► like, great. That's, that's great. Cause that's the message here, right? Is Apple put one of their
00:08:11 ◼ ► stars who is, who seems to be very capable at making things run and work and ship on Apple
00:08:20 ◼ ► intelligence, which, uh, you know, is a, has been a scramble, right? And so maybe they're also the
00:08:27 ◼ ► message here is that they're getting more serious about structuring how they put all of this stuff
00:08:33 ◼ ► together. Cause one of the criticisms that you and I have had about Apple intelligence is not
00:08:38 ◼ ► necessarily the fundamental criticisms about AI in general. It's about Apple rushing their
00:08:44 ◼ ► implementations out and making some poor decisions and things are lagging and other things ship, but
00:08:49 ◼ ► they don't really work very well. And, you know, more supervision, uh, not to get in the way, but to
00:08:54 ◼ ► enable things to be clear and to ship is probably required. Yep. Display analyst Ross Young has said that
00:09:02 ◼ ► the upcoming iPhone SE4 will have a notch on the display, not a dynamic Island. There have been prior
00:09:10 ◼ ► leaks that would suggest it would have an Island. So it'd be interesting to see where this lands. I feel
00:09:15 ◼ ► like if it has a notch that doesn't lend into the conversation that I know that you are a proponent
00:09:22 ◼ ► of, of like an iPhone 16 E, it's not going to look like that, that, you know, it's going to look more
00:09:27 ◼ ► like an iPhone 14 than an iPhone 16 because it wouldn't have all the features even in, in the
00:09:34 ◼ ► operating system. I'll just say it, they can call it whatever they want. Sure. They want to call it
00:09:39 ◼ ► part of the 16 line. They'll just do it and, and it won't matter. Uh, I agree. This makes it less of an
00:09:45 ◼ ► iPhone 16 for sure. I wonder if they've thought about like, well, they probably did when they introduced
00:09:50 ◼ ► the dynamic Island of like, if you have a notch, is there a way to do something that's kind of like
00:09:55 ◼ ► the dynamic Island, but I think there isn't. And, uh, this is a way to save money on an SE is you've
00:09:59 ◼ ► got a phone that's got face ID, but it's using the iPhone 10 level notch technology, not the, uh,
00:10:08 ◼ ► And that's probably a, I don't know, like face ID gen one or something like that. Right.
00:10:13 ◼ ► Whatever, whatever is cheapest. Yeah. Yeah. And also according to Mark Gurman, Apple has canceled
00:10:20 ◼ ► development of AR glasses that were intended to be paired to a Mac. I will read from his
00:10:26 ◼ ► report on Bloomberg. The now canceled product would have looked like normal glasses, but include
00:10:32 ◼ ► built-in displays and require a connection to a Mac. The company had initially wanted the glasses to
00:10:37 ◼ ► pair with an iPhone, but it ran into problems over how much processing power the handset could provide.
00:10:42 ◼ ► It also affected the iPhone's battery life. Yeah. I mean, that doesn't, that tell the story
00:10:48 ◼ ► right there. It's not quite how Mark Gurman tells it, but that's the story is we're working on AR
00:10:52 ◼ ► glasses. We want an iPhone to drive them. Oh no, it can't do that. Well, what if we have a Mac drive it?
00:10:59 ◼ ► Um, and, and, and then they cancel it and it's like, well, maybe it worked. Maybe it didn't,
00:11:04 ◼ ► but again, glasses that you, you can use when you're next to a Mac is not a product, right?
00:11:12 ◼ ► That's more like, can we, that, that feels very much like we're investigating. Can we even do this?
00:11:17 ◼ ► And, and what Gurman says doesn't indicate whether they can or can't do it because to me,
00:11:24 ◼ ► the fact that it requires a connection to a Mac and that they can't use an iPhone is a good sign of like,
00:11:32 ◼ ► well, this is not whatever we're doing here. We're not doing it right because nobody is going to buy
00:11:36 ◼ ► that product. It's not a real product. If, if it's, if it requires a Mac, like what? No. So, um,
00:11:44 ◼ ► I, what I don't know is what this means. Cause what does it mean to cancel development of a product?
00:11:50 ◼ ► Does that mean they aren't going to make those AR glasses or does it mean that it's gotten kicked back
00:11:57 ◼ ► out of productization into a more high level research product? Because they went through the
00:12:05 ◼ ► sort of like productization of it and went, Oh no, because again, a lot of this stuff is going to be
00:12:11 ◼ ► pretty far off. Um, or they need to set recalibrate and set their sites differently. I also wonder,
00:12:17 ◼ ► Mike, I know this is kind of a weird one, but I also wonder if partly the reason that this is going on
00:12:23 ◼ ► is because of the success of the Meta Ray-Bans and the realization that maybe what they need to do
00:12:27 ◼ ► is focus on building a, uh, no, you know, no glasses, no vision related, but, but a different set of
00:12:36 ◼ ► glasses that are, are like the Meta Ray-Bans and that they can't have this thing in development while
00:12:43 ◼ ► they have that in development. And they want to retask that team and say, we're going to put off
00:12:48 ◼ ► this AR stuff at a high level until the technology is more advanced. Um, but we, that's just speculation.
00:12:54 ◼ ► We don't know. But one of the things that I've noticed is a lot of times people take Mark Gurman's
00:13:00 ◼ ► reports and they, obviously they interpret them to mean whatever they want them to mean. So there's
00:13:04 ◼ ► this, there's definitely a, Oh, Apple's decided they're not going to ever make AR glasses. That's
00:13:09 ◼ ► not what's going on here. What's going on here is that Apple had an AR glasses project that couldn't
00:13:15 ◼ ► function on a portable, uh, compute platform like the iPhone. So they stuck it on a Mac to see if
00:13:20 ◼ ► they could get it to work there. And then it got canceled. And we actually don't know even if it
00:13:24 ◼ ► could or couldn't work on the Mac, or if they just looked at it and said, what are we even doing here?
00:13:28 ◼ ► We have a higher priority somewhere else. We don't know. But if I had to guess, I'd say it's possible
00:13:34 ◼ ► that that's what happened is that this thing is not practical as currently conceived. So they put it on
00:13:40 ◼ ► the shelf and that maybe they have a, you know, while they're developing vision OS and they're,
00:13:45 ◼ ► they're kind of working in the background on what this future stuff is, maybe there are some other
00:13:50 ◼ ► approaches to AR glasses that are much cut down from this, that they could work on just a speculation
00:13:57 ◼ ► on my part. Yeah. This is not the product. This is, isn't it? Like what is that? You know what I mean?
00:14:05 ◼ ► Like, no, congrats. You, while you're sitting in front of a Mac, you can also have a screen in front
00:14:09 ◼ ► of your eyes. Like it's not, I think you can kind of see, I mean, here's what I imagine. It's like,
00:14:14 ◼ ► they tried to get to work with the iPhone and it was causing problems. So they're like, well,
00:14:17 ◼ ► let's just get it to work with a Mac. And like that, I see a story there of like, if we could just get it
00:14:22 ◼ ► to work with a Mac, maybe by the time that we get this actually ready to be a product, it will be good
00:14:26 ◼ ► enough to work with an iPhone because the iPhones would be more powerful and more efficient. You know,
00:14:29 ◼ ► like these things go up and down. It's like to get to the iPhone, they made a tablet first and then
00:14:34 ◼ ► they went back to the tablet, right? Like this is, this is product design, right? Especially in
00:14:38 ◼ ► technology because you know that maybe by, well, you believe by the time you get to product, the
00:14:44 ◼ ► technology is advanced already. But for whatever reason, they've decided this isn't the thing because
00:14:49 ◼ ► it's clearly not the thing. And as you said, like AR glasses, like AR glasses, they're not the thing
00:14:55 ◼ ► because it's too early. Like everyone wants to make this technology, but no one can make it.
00:15:01 ◼ ► And people are like, but, but, but, but meta is like, I'm pretty sure Apple could have done a,
00:15:05 ◼ ► done a demo of something and it, but it would be, it's not realistic. Like it's not happening for
00:15:11 ◼ ► years. And when they do ship, they're going to be incredibly limited. And you're going to be able
00:15:16 ◼ ► to do that thing where you compare what they ship to what they demoed five years before. And a lot of
00:15:22 ◼ ► that stuff's not going to be there because turns out they couldn't do it. Cause that's what happens
00:15:26 ◼ ► when you do a tech demo like that. Cause this is hard. It's hard. Think about it. Think about like
00:15:31 ◼ ► Apple's making a $3,500 headset in order to get screens that look good enough for, for, and I'll
00:15:38 ◼ ► grant you, it's not just the UI, it's also the pass through, but it's also the UI. And like you start
00:15:44 ◼ ► to tick off all of the things that are going down, make it so that you can see through it, but there's
00:15:48 ◼ ► also an overlay and make it light enough to be look unobtrusively like glasses on your face.
00:15:54 ◼ ► And now where does the compute go? Does it go to a phone? Like you can tick through the list. Like
00:16:00 ◼ ► our technology in 2025, it's pretty impressive, but that is very, very hard and is going to take time
00:16:09 ◼ ► and probably needs more efficient and more powerful mobile processing and better display technology
00:16:16 ◼ ► and miniaturization of everything, including battery. Like you could tick off the list. And
00:16:22 ◼ ► I'm sure that the engineers working on this and all these companies know exactly all of these
00:16:30 ◼ ► One of the things in Mark's report is saying that these glasses basically could have worked just like
00:16:36 ◼ ► the Mac virtual display, you know, kind of like you plug those, you know, you plug a Mac into like
00:16:41 ◼ ► X real glasses or whatever. That is not a product category. It is worth Apple getting in like just
00:16:47 ◼ ► that. Like here's a product. All it is, is a monitor for your Mac. That's not it. Cause they sell Mac
00:16:53 ◼ ► monitors or Biovision Pro. Like it's not compelling enough as a product for them to make at all.
00:16:58 ◼ ► Or buy X real glasses at that point. But like, I don't, I don't think that there's a real. Yeah,
00:17:01 ◼ ► I agree. I think that that's the, the wrong product. I think the, I think the right thing to do is to make
00:17:07 ◼ ► something like meta Ray-Bans that are augmented reality in the sense that they've got your voice
00:17:11 ◼ ► assistant and they tie into your ecosystem and they tie into your camera roll and they do, you know,
00:17:16 ◼ ► and they may be eventually have like a little widget area that you can see something in a dynamic island,
00:17:22 ◼ ► that kind of thing, notification center, that's low resolution. And in the corner of your screen,
00:17:26 ◼ ► which is what a lot of these things are going to be in quarter of your vision, maybe over time.
00:17:33 ◼ ► which is you take the vision pro and you try to make it cheaper and cheaper and cheaper and
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00:20:12 ◼ ► So it is time for the Apple in 2024 six colors report card. We talk about this every year. This
00:20:21 ◼ ► is a project you've been running, I think for the entire length of six colors, but for those that
00:20:32 ◼ ► The Apple report card. So I invite a bunch of people who I see on social media or who have websites or
00:20:39 ◼ ► whatever blogs, videos to give me their opinions about what Apple has done in the last year, in the
00:20:49 ◼ ► previous year. And so I have a survey. I've been sending it out. This is the 10th time I've sent it
00:20:53 ◼ ► out annually, uh, right at the end of the year and, uh, or in early January. And I let them, uh, rate
00:21:03 ◼ ► Apple from one to five, one being worst five being best in a bunch of different categories. And then I
00:21:07 ◼ ► also give boxes for them to type small amounts of text and they type long, long, long amounts of text
00:21:14 ◼ ► instead. And, uh, then, uh, then I put it together and compile it and we, and make some graphs, uh,
00:21:22 ◼ ► you know, and, uh, that's, that's what we, that's what we do. And so people can, uh, the goal of the
00:21:31 ◼ ► report card is to really sort of say, what's the general feeling, the general drift of sentiment. You could
00:21:40 ◼ ► say the vibe in the room among people who pay attention to Apple about how Apple is doing. And while
00:21:48 ◼ ► there's nothing definitive about it, right there, you can't point it and go, aha, see, Apple is doing badly
00:21:56 ◼ ► on the Mac, right? Like you can't do that. It doesn't prove anything. It's just people's opinions. I think it
00:22:05 ◼ ► does show people are feeling down about this topic, uh, or people have been or up. And then you can see
00:22:15 ◼ ► now I've got, uh, trends, uh, for 10 years as well in a lot of these categories. So you can actually get a sense
00:22:22 ◼ ► of sort of like, how are people feeling relative to, uh, previous eras? And like, how is the, how is the vibe in the
00:22:30 ◼ ► room changed over time? And then the individual quotes are also very interesting about calling out
00:22:35 ◼ ► various things. So I feel like it's a useful thing to kind of review what has been going on in, for the
00:22:42 ◼ ► whole year at Apple, big picture, uh, what are they doing? Right. What are they doing wrong in the eyes
00:22:47 ◼ ► of people who focus on Apple? And then you can take what you want from it. Again, you can take validation
00:22:53 ◼ ► for your own feelings. Um, you can, uh, shake your head and show why it's evidence that the, the people
00:23:02 ◼ ► in the media and in the development community and all, I just don't get it. I mean, you can, you can
00:23:06 ◼ ► really put whatever you want onto it. Um, it is just a survey of, you know, 50 odd people who filled out
00:23:13 ◼ ► the form and, um, and, and that's it. I mean, I guess if you're at Apple, you can pay attention to
00:23:20 ◼ ► it and decide whether it gives you leverage to make your arguments or whether you can roll your eyes as
00:23:26 ◼ ► well. Like everybody can see into it, whatever they want to see into it. But I think it's interesting to
00:23:35 ◼ ► what we'd like to do on the show is, uh, I, I am, uh, very happy to be included, uh, in the report
00:23:42 ◼ ► card every year. So I've already submitted my scores to you and my comments. So I'll share those, my,
00:23:48 ◼ ► my scores and maybe touch on some of my comments, but I always will push you to also give your score
00:23:53 ◼ ► because you do not participate, uh, in the report card. I do not vote. Um, I do not vote or participate
00:23:58 ◼ ► in the survey. And also I will, uh, for each category, I will read out the summary that you have
00:24:03 ◼ ► for each of them to, to kind of give an idea for how people are feeling. And then we can talk about
00:24:07 ◼ ► how we're feeling. Uh, but I will encourage every listener to go and look at the report card and to
00:24:12 ◼ ► look at the charts. There are loads of great charts. I think having so many, uh, years now, it's really
00:24:17 ◼ ► interesting to look at them. Like we'll start with the Mac and there's something that's so interesting.
00:24:20 ◼ ► You can see like these peaks and valleys in the Mac over time, which I find one of the more
00:24:26 ◼ ► interesting charts. So I recommend people go look at it and we'll start with the Mac, which got a 4.2
00:24:31 ◼ ► out of 5 this year. This was the summary. The panel was very positive about the Mac with many
00:24:37 ◼ ► praising Apple's continued hardware advancements in the Apple Silicon era, especially the M4 chip and
00:24:42 ◼ ► the redesigned Mac mini. The move to 16 gigabytes of RAM as the new baseline for entry-level models was
00:24:48 ◼ ► widely welcomed. However, there are lingering concerns about the lack of updates for higher
00:24:52 ◼ ► machines like the Mac studio and Mac pro. Uh, I gave the Mac a 4 out of 5. Um, I think for me right now,
00:25:01 ◼ ► just the continued march of Apple Silicon, like I kind of feel like I can't complain. Like honestly, like I just
00:25:07 ◼ ► looking back to the years prior to Apple Silicon where things felt really lost. And now every year that they're
00:25:15 ◼ ► giving us a new chip and it's like, I, it can, you know, they're continuing to make everything more powerful. I
00:25:22 ◼ ► feel like I can't really complain and I wouldn't want to complain. Um, I think the laptop updates
00:25:27 ◼ ► were nice. Uh, I welcome the simplification of the MacBook airline, which I think has been long
00:25:32 ◼ ► overdue, but of course, you know, I would say for, for Mac studio users, I think some, I think it would be
00:25:40 ◼ ► nice, uh, to get a bit more clarity about what's going on with that product. Like realistically, is there ever
00:25:46 ◼ ► going to be a new one? Now I feel like I know the answer to that, but we have no evidence. Um, and so
00:25:52 ◼ ► that's kind of like, you know, I think that would have made it, uh, higher than a four for me, but I
00:25:56 ◼ ► feel like a four kind of, I think at the moment, something like four is like my baseline score for
00:26:01 ◼ ► the Mac line. So what do you think? Um, I would give this one, this is an easy one. I think I would
00:26:07 ◼ ► give this one four. Um, I would consider five, but I would give it four. I think one of the problems
00:26:12 ◼ ► that I have with a lot of, um, people who participate in the survey is, and they can do
00:26:17 ◼ ► what they want. I mean, that's the whole point is there's a lot of like, um, what have you done for
00:26:22 ◼ ► me lately that it's like, well, if Apple didn't release a new thing in this year, it gets a bad
00:26:27 ◼ ► score. And it's like, are the things that are there okay or not? If it's okay, who cares? Right. It's
00:26:35 ◼ ► like, if it's okay, who cares? So I, uh, yeah, people talk about the Mac pro and the Mac studio. I think
00:26:41 ◼ ► we all know what happened there. I think the M three was a placeholder and the M four versions
00:26:46 ◼ ► of those are reportedly according to Mark Gurman, especially the Mac studio forthcoming. So I'm not
00:26:50 ◼ ► worried about it. Also, some people comment that they were disappointed that it was only an M three
00:26:56 ◼ ► MacBook air in 2024. I was like, well, that's the cycle it's on. There'll be an M four in a couple of
00:27:01 ◼ ► months. Like the M three came out before the M four was announced. That's just how life works. And
00:27:07 ◼ ► Apple doesn't go on the calendar year cycle. So I think it's silly to get so focused on like,
00:27:15 ◼ ► if they didn't do a thing in a particular calendar year, they are therefore bad. Cause I think you
00:27:18 ◼ ► could, uh, I think you could, uh, the M four to M three, uh, like MacBook air or whatever. Like
00:27:24 ◼ ► what's the difference? Like really probably just Ram? Like what? Like, you know, like it's not
00:27:28 ◼ ► that great. Uh, I did, did not mention the Mac mini, obviously the Mac mini super good, incredible
00:27:34 ◼ ► computer. I love mine. Uh, but I just don't think that that was perfect because it gets so expensive
00:27:39 ◼ ► so fast in a way that I think that that ramp is too steep for, for, you know, you, you make one of
00:27:46 ◼ ► those machines like powerful and it's the cut. It's basically the price of a Mac studio. And I feel like
00:27:52 ◼ ► I would like to see them. I don't know how, but I am confident that there is a way to, to make that
00:27:58 ◼ ► better. Like what, you know, I think one of the things we're talking about that our friend, uh,
00:28:01 ◼ ► Quinn Nelson from Stancy labs, who just became a father himself. Congratulations, Quinn.
00:28:05 ◼ ► Congratulations, Quinn. Uh, was saying that like, you could buy like two Mac minis for the price of
00:28:09 ◼ ► put in 32 gigabytes of Ram and, and increasing the storage. Like if you just doubled the base storage
00:28:24 ◼ ► should be more expensive, like should, should have an inherent cost to them. Right. Rather
00:28:29 ◼ ► than just the storage and the Ram, like how much of the cost of the product really is the
00:28:34 ◼ ► storage in the Ram. So yeah, well, they're, they're obviously taking a revenue hit on base
00:28:40 ◼ ► models because they want to have their base models perceived as being affordable. And then
00:28:45 ◼ ► they ramp up the costs. And several people mentioned that that's one of the issues that
00:28:48 ◼ ► everybody noticed this year is that upgrading everything costs so much more. I think realistically,
00:28:54 ◼ ► I agree. It's true. I think realistically, this is the game Apple's playing because they've decided
00:29:00 ◼ ► that they want to hold the line on entry, uh, prices, uh, but everywhere else, they're just going
00:29:05 ◼ ► to raise the prices or have them be very expensive. And that's where they get, that's where they make
00:29:08 ◼ ► their money by the people who care about specs pay more. Um, I think it's a really interesting to
00:29:14 ◼ ► look at this one more than any other chart in terms of the annual, because we now have 10 data points.
00:29:20 ◼ ► So you can look at it and say, wow, the late 2010, 2010s were rough. And they were like, this is the
00:29:25 ◼ ► depth of the butterfly keyboard era. Uh, and it, they have been digging their way out of that. And then
00:29:32 ◼ ► you see the, um, 2020 leap for Apple Silicon. And although the scores are down a little bit from the
00:29:39 ◼ ► introduction of Apple Silicon in 2020, they still have stayed at a very high level. I agree with
00:29:44 ◼ ► that. The only reason that I wouldn't give this a five, honestly, is I feel like on the software side,
00:29:49 ◼ ► there are issues, right? Like Apple's, the Mac kind of like is sometimes still a laggard when it comes to
00:29:57 ◼ ► features. Um, there are things that are, are just kind of weird on the Mac that are fine on iOS.
00:30:03 ◼ ► And as a grumpy Mac user, I am concerned about the, you know, state of affairs of Mac software in
00:30:09 ◼ ► general and Apple's commitment to Mac software in particular, but it's a minor, I mean, I could give
00:30:15 ◼ ► it five. I just, nothing's perfect. Nothing is so perfect. So, uh, but this is close. This is really
00:30:20 ◼ ► close. The Mac is probably in, uh, among the best positions that it has ever been in. Yep.
00:30:26 ◼ ► Uh, so let's move on to the iPhone, uh, which scored a 3.7 out of five. Uh, the summary is
00:30:34 ◼ ► feelings about the iPhone lineup were mixed. Many panelists praising the incremental hardware
00:30:39 ◼ ► improvements, but expressed disappointment in Apple intelligence and a new camera control
00:30:43 ◼ ► feature. The rolling down of previously higher end features, the action button to the lower end
00:30:50 ◼ ► iPhones five times zoom to the smaller iPhone pro were well received. However, frustrations persisted
00:30:55 ◼ ► regarding the lack of a smaller phone option, lackluster color choices for pro models and
00:31:00 ◼ ► software features that feel rushed or unfinished. So it's 3.7 down from 4.1 last year. Uh, I went with
00:31:08 ◼ ► a four. This for me is my approach to the report card is I grade for me. I don't grade for the
00:31:15 ◼ ► world, right? It's how I feel. Sure. And for me, this is a great year because I switched from the
00:31:20 ◼ ► pro max to the pro phone. Part of that reason I didn't share at the time was because I wanted a
00:31:25 ◼ ► smaller phone for when the baby came so I could use my phone in one hand easier. Like that was
00:31:30 ◼ ► a big part of my reason for making that change. And I adore this phone size. I mean, they've made it
00:31:37 ◼ ► bigger and they made it a little bit bigger this year and that ended up being the perfect sweet spot
00:31:40 ◼ ► for me. I I'm a big fan of it. Um, I like the camera control button as a camera launching button.
00:31:46 ◼ ► I don't like taking pictures with the button because there is too much force. Um, but I do do it
00:31:53 ◼ ► sometimes if I have two, if I have two hands on my phone, I will use the button. If I have one hand
00:31:58 ◼ ► phone, I would just use the software button, but I really like the get to the camera from anywhere
00:32:03 ◼ ► control that I have from, uh, the camera control button. And one thing that I did think was
00:32:08 ◼ ► interesting this year, it's just like an observation. It didn't affect my score, but I wanted to share it,
00:32:14 ◼ ► uh, was just, it was really interesting to me this year. I think more than any year that I can remember
00:32:19 ◼ ► that the kind of broader community conversation was a lot of people considering moving down from the pro
00:32:26 ◼ ► phone line to the regular phone line that that would indicate to me that Apple missed the mark
00:32:32 ◼ ► on the product mix this year, whether they, okay. So if we look at this from pure business perspective,
00:32:37 ◼ ► whether they maybe put too many features from the pro phone to the regular phone, or they didn't give
00:32:43 ◼ ► enough differentiation in the pro phone or whatever it was, or maybe it is just purely colors, but I'm not,
00:32:49 ◼ ► I don't think that is the full thing. Cause this has been a problem forever. Um, there was so much
00:32:54 ◼ ► conversation about people considering moving or actually moving, or maybe in some cases moving
00:32:58 ◼ ► back, but hi Federico. Um, but you know, people were thinking more about leaving the pro phone
00:33:05 ◼ ► this year. And I think that is exactly the opposite of what Apple wants. So I just found that to be
00:33:10 ◼ ► an interesting thing that happened in 2024. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's look, you know, we are in a,
00:33:18 ◼ ► a state where the smartphone, the generic general sort of smartphone is so amazing and yet also pretty
00:33:25 ◼ ► boring because the pace of innovation is, is less. There's still some out there, but it's, it's less.
00:33:32 ◼ ► And some of the things that are, are trying to be innovative are also still kind of impractical.
00:33:38 ◼ ► We're seeing more folding phones, but, um, they're not really a breakthrough yet. They're kind of esoteric and
00:33:44 ◼ ► expensive. Um, you know, Tim Cook gets on his analyst call and says, uh, you know, I couldn't be more excited
00:33:50 ◼ ► about the future of the smartphone. There's so much in our pipeline. It's amazing. Take that for what you will
00:33:55 ◼ ► as Mr. iPhone saying that, but, um, you know, I, I, I'd probably give this a three. Um, I think the camera
00:34:08 ◼ ► control was an interesting idea that was badly implemented. It kind of whiffed on that, which is
00:34:13 ◼ ► so fascinating to whiff on an iPhone feature. Like surely these are the things that get the most
00:34:20 ◼ ► attention. And it's really, to me, it just feels like the button is too hard to press, which means
00:34:27 ◼ ► you, you use the, in my opinion, use the wrong part and you put way too many features in the slippy
00:34:33 ◼ ► slidey thing. Like it's very peculiar. Over engineered. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and I would say
00:34:39 ◼ ► they, I mean, last year they, they did the, the action button this year, they do the camera control
00:34:47 ◼ ► button, which, you know, remember the rumors were that the action button was going to be
00:34:51 ◼ ► touch sensitive and all that, which means the action button, I think was going to be the camera
00:34:54 ◼ ► control button. And then they still added the camera control button, but kept the action button,
00:34:58 ◼ ► which is also really interesting. That's fine. I do. I think that things are so quiet now
00:35:03 ◼ ► when it comes to iPhone evolution, that one of the things they do is try to figure out what their
00:35:09 ◼ ► marketing features are, what's their big thing that they're going to sell. And I think these buttons
00:35:18 ◼ ► are intended to be things they can promote as being new on iPhones. And you're, you're saying to
00:35:25 ◼ ► yourself, well, well, yeah, but they're spending all their time on Apple intelligence. And I guess what
00:35:29 ◼ ► I would say is that wasn't the original plan. The original plan was probably not Apple intelligence.
00:35:35 ◼ ► It was probably something like camera control and then they did Apple intelligence. So maybe,
00:35:41 ◼ ► maybe this feature got forced in here. And also remember that this is like their second try because
00:35:45 ◼ ► action button was sort of going to be camera control. I don't know. Anyway, it is, you know,
00:35:50 ◼ ► the most important Apple product and iPhones are good. They're very, very good. And there is that danger
00:35:55 ◼ ► of being like, we're just bored with something that's so good, but the pace has really, really slowed.
00:36:00 ◼ ► Um, and you know, when we commented about the pace slowing five years ago, it has slowed since then,
00:36:05 ◼ ► like it continues to slow. And perhaps in 2025, we will see some really new takes on the iPhone and it
00:36:12 ◼ ► will lead us to some interesting places in the back half of this decade. But right now the iPhone is
00:36:17 ◼ ► solid and it's good. And, you know, I would say it's better than it's ever been. And most people don't
00:36:24 ◼ ► buy a new iPhone every year. But if we are looking at how Apple has kind of squired the iPhone along
00:36:30 ◼ ► here above the, the waterline where we can see what they're doing, it was kind of a, uh, an okay year
00:36:37 ◼ ► where it continues to be good. But what really is there? The, the, the non-pro phones have the pretty
00:36:43 ◼ ► colors. They don't have a, they're still running at 60 Hertz display, which is, um, it should be more
00:36:49 ◼ ► right. Um, and the camera control was just a miss. So I, I don't know, you know, I can't give them a
00:36:54 ◼ ► really great score because the stuff that they did try to do, they didn't really execute that well
00:36:57 ◼ ► on. Yep. I agree. So the iPad has a 3.5, which is up from a 2.4 last year and is kind of returning
00:37:06 ◼ ► the iPad back to the level, uh, that it's been on for quite a while. Uh, the summary says after a
00:37:13 ◼ ► completely quiet year in 2023, the iPad came roaring back with major updates in 2024 and our panel responded
00:37:21 ◼ ► favorably. The M4 iPad Pro is highly regarded thanks to its thin design, OLED display and performance.
00:37:27 ◼ ► The iPad Air also received a solid update while the iPad mini saw a minor refresh. However, the biggest
00:37:32 ◼ ► complaint remains iPad OS, which many feel continues to limit the potential of the hardware. The iPad lineup
00:37:38 ◼ ► is also considered confusing with overlapping models and accessories that make purchasing decisions
00:37:42 ◼ ► difficult. Overall, while the hardware continues to impress, Apple's lack of commitment to advancing iPad OS
00:37:48 ◼ ► has left many feeling that the iPad is not reaching its full potential. Uh, I gave the iPad a five out
00:37:55 ◼ ► of five this year because I have decided it is pointless for me to continue to grade iPad on iPad OS.
00:38:03 ◼ ► It's not what it's not. There's just no point. Like I have decided to accept what it is and then just do
00:38:10 ◼ ► that. Like I don't grade the Mac or the iPhone on the operating system's potential, what, what I believe
00:38:20 ◼ ► it should potentially be. I don't do this with any other product where I'm like every year saying to
00:38:25 ◼ ► myself, Oh, but it could be so much more if they just did this. Like I don't do that for the other
00:38:30 ◼ ► things when I could, right? I could say like, Oh, the Mac could be so much more if it also had a
00:38:36 ◼ ► touchscreen mode. Like I don't do this for other products. So for me personally, I'm just going to
00:38:41 ◼ ► grade it on what it is. And then in what I would consider realistic like desires from iPad OS, because
00:38:49 ◼ ► I feel like a lot of people, and I understand it because I used to be one of these people, they're
00:38:53 ◼ ► grading iPad OS against Mac OS. And I just think at this point, it is clearly pointless to do this
00:39:01 ◼ ► because we see what it is anyway. So I think the M4 iPad Pro is literally everything I could have
00:39:09 ◼ ► wanted in an iPad. I absolutely love this iPad. It's incredibly thin, incredibly light, makes it a joy
00:39:17 ◼ ► to use. The OLED screen is unbelievable. It's the best quality screen I own anywhere. Sometimes I am
00:39:24 ◼ ► annoyed at my television because the iPad screen is so much better. Like it's, I love this thing.
00:39:31 ◼ ► I think it is as good as I could want from an iPad. And so for me, it's a five out of five. Because
00:39:37 ◼ ► like, I mean, again, I had not, I, you know, it's been a while for me with the iPad Pro. I've been away
00:39:42 ◼ ► from the iPad Pro for a while. And this year I was like treated to all of the great things that iPad
00:39:47 ◼ ► Pros can give you, including the better screen technology. You know, like I've been using a mini
00:39:53 ◼ ► and before that I hadn't had a mini LED iPad Pro or anything like that. I'd gotten off that train.
00:40:01 ◼ ► That's great. Um, yeah, I agree. I think, I mean, look, the iPad was a 2.4 last year and a 3.5 this
00:40:10 ◼ ► year. Why? The answer is it's that one hat. What have you done for me lately? Argument. No new iPads.
00:40:17 ◼ ► Well, as a bad year for the iPad, new iPads, it was a great year for the iPad. And again, I would argue,
00:40:24 ◼ ► I mean, that's not how I would view it. I think that you have to limit your like, give me something
00:40:29 ◼ ► new or otherwise your product line is a disaster is not, I just don't agree. I think that, that they
00:40:35 ◼ ► should have released some iPads in 2023, but they, if they introduced like an iPad error in 2023, does
00:40:41 ◼ ► that suddenly make it, Oh, what a relief. This was a great year for the iPad or does it not? I don't
00:40:46 ◼ ► know. It is, it is, you take it, take it what you will. The truth is 23, there were no new iPads. 24,
00:40:52 ◼ ► there were all new iPads. So great. Uh, the number went back way, way up as it should. Um, I, I think I'm
00:41:00 ◼ ► going to say, I think I'm going to say four here. And my reasoning is not only did Apple make an iPad
00:41:08 ◼ ► Pro that is spectacular, right? Thin and powerful debuted the M four on it. And that amazing OLED
00:41:17 ◼ ► display. It's amazing, right? Great model. But they also basically revised the iPad air and it's every,
00:41:26 ◼ ► it's essentially with the exception of face ID, everything that the iPad pro used to be. So
00:41:32 ◼ ► they're basically keeping the iPad pro around as the iPad air at a much more affordable price,
00:41:39 ◼ ► which is important because the iPad pros are very expensive now, like extremely expensive,
00:41:48 ◼ ► And for most people, I don't recommend an iPad pro anymore because it's just, it's too much for what
00:41:54 ◼ ► most people are going to use it for. I just, I just can't recommend it, but that's good news is they did.
00:41:59 ◼ ► They did the thing that Apple arguably should always do, which is push the limits and make this
00:42:04 ◼ ► amazing product. That's great. And make something that's really, really good. That's much more
00:42:09 ◼ ► affordable that regular people who don't care about the super cutting edge, high-end amazingness
00:42:14 ◼ ► can get and use and love. And they did that with the iPad air. So, uh, I, I think it is a good year
00:42:20 ◼ ► for the iPad in those ways. Um, I, you know, also in the background, I'm, I'm going to just say it. I,
00:42:28 ◼ ► I wish they had more of a vision for iPadOS than they do. I actually kind of don't care what the
00:42:34 ◼ ► vision is at this point is what I would say, but I wish, I wish that there was a vision for it. That
00:42:39 ◼ ► wasn't just, it's, it's kind of like iPadOS or iOS, but bigger. Um, it's not really like the Mac.
00:42:47 ◼ ► Um, but it's also just kind of kicking off, like why, again, sorry to say this, but like,
00:42:52 ◼ ► again, why is it iPadOS? Cause it's basically just iOS and almost everything other than like
00:42:57 ◼ ► stage manager or something like almost everything you can do on iOS, you can do an iPadOS and vice
00:43:01 ◼ ► versa. So I don't know. It just, I wish, I wish it could be more than it is. And that makes me sad.
00:43:09 ◼ ► So I, I, again, nothing is so perfect. I'll give it four. Yeah. I mean, I get what you're
00:43:14 ◼ ► saying. I also wish, but I'm just not like criticized. I just don't want to criticize it
00:43:22 ◼ ► anymore for, for, for, I agree. I understand. I totally, it's totally understandable to think
00:43:27 ◼ ► that. All right. So we move on to wearables and Apple watch. So I think you made some changes
00:43:33 ◼ ► this year, kind of like clarified and broke out some stuff. So there's a, there's a couple of
00:43:37 ◼ ► things here. So the overall score is a 3.6 out of five up from a 3.5 out of five year over year.
00:43:44 ◼ ► The Apple watch specifically is 3.7 up from 3.4. And we introduced the vision pro as a category,
00:43:59 ◼ ► Yeah. Apple's wearable lineup in 2024 saw strong advancements in AirPods and steady if uninspired
00:44:05 ◼ ► improvements to the Apple watch. The new hearing aid features for AirPods pro two was widely
00:44:16 ◼ ► ultra two updates are seen as incremental with some frustration over the lack of significant
00:44:20 ◼ ► redesigns or an ultra three. However, the Apple vision pro dominated the conversation with reactions
00:44:25 ◼ ► split between or at its technical advancements and disappointment over its price usability and
00:44:31 ◼ ► lack of compelling software. Many view it as an impressive, but unfinished first generation
00:44:41 ◼ ► concerns about stagnation in the watch line and the vision pros uncertain future persists.
00:44:45 ◼ ► I went with an overall score of four and a vision pro score of three. So I think the Apple watch
00:44:54 ◼ ► one was one of my most interesting ones to score because I just continue to be disappointed with the
00:44:59 ◼ ► Apple watch from a hardware perspective. Making it thinner is lovely, but I want to see a significant
00:45:04 ◼ ► design change for the Apple watch. Like significant is what I want, but I'm, I don't know if I'm ever
00:45:09 ◼ ► going to be able to get it. But watch OS 11 was my favorite operating system update this year.
00:45:13 ◼ ► Um, the enhancements to the widgets. I really liked the smart stack. I really liked to live activities is great,
00:45:19 ◼ ► but the new photo face is one of my favorite things. Apple has put in an operating system in as far as I can
00:45:25 ◼ ► remember. I adore that every time I look down at my watch, I get a little moment of joy. So I have like pictures of places we've been to, pictures of my wife and oh man, I am so excited to get photos of my baby onto this thing.
00:45:41 ◼ ► My word, my heart's going to explode. I just, if you've not used the photos face, maybe you think you're not a photos face person, just try it because I didn't think I was a photos face person, but this it's so good.
00:45:52 ◼ ► They've done such a good job. They lay them out really well. Whatever machine learning model they've made to, to lay these things out is, is really great. And you can have two complications on it now too. So, uh, I, I, I really do recommend it. I think it's great.
00:46:05 ◼ ► And then the vision pro, I mean, that's just a mixed bag, right? Like the summary said, the launch was exciting, which is a year now. It's like a year yesterday. Um, the hardware itself is so futuristic.
00:46:17 ◼ ► And so I think well, really well done. Vision OS is a very promising operating system with, which has gotten great advancements throughout the year. They've made it significantly better throughout the year, but
00:46:30 ◼ ► the lack of the lack of developer support has just meant that the buzz has just disappeared. I think even if you remove Apple intelligence out of the conversation, I don't think this would have gone any differently. And you can't ignore that.
00:46:44 ◼ ► Yeah. Um, I would say, um, overall, I would say four. Um, although I, I would actually even consider five and here's why.
00:47:05 ◼ ► The vision pro, while not a product, most people should buy is an amazing product. It costs too much, which is why nobody should buy it. It is amazing. The OS is really kind of incredible. It's got huge potential. If they work on it there, you know, it has a frustrating lack of content and a frustrating lack of apps.
00:47:25 ◼ ► And that is on Apple bottom line. But that all said, I, I choose not to invent a world where the, everybody rushed out and bought a vision pro because we don't live in that world. Like that, that doesn't, that was never going to happen. That was never going to happen.
00:47:43 ◼ ► And I was looking at my review today of, uh, of the vision pro and I used, I described it in the first sentence as speculative and impractical, right?
00:47:57 ◼ ► Show me the lie, right? Like that is, it is impractical and it is a speculative product about the future.
00:48:04 ◼ ► And I likened it to early days of personal computers where you'd spend $5,000 on a computer because computers are the future and it doesn't do anything.
00:48:11 ◼ ► Um, and that boy, that was true. That was, that was personal computers in the early days. And, and vision pro is like that.
00:48:17 ◼ ► The problem is Apple needs to be doing more to get people to try it and experiment with it and think about the future. And they're not.
00:48:23 ◼ ► And I, I wrote that column in Macworld a few weeks ago that I feel like it's because they don't know how to be an upstart and they don't know how to jumpstart a weird product category and get people excited about something that's not going to pay off for a few years.
00:48:34 ◼ ► I feel like they've like completely lost that because they've been on top for so long, but that said, and there are one other item is missed opportunities, which is they should have had AirPods and glasses, right?
00:48:48 ◼ ► They should have had that. They should, they should not have let meta. They have all the pieces for that. And they, a lack of vision in their product map. They blew it. So I can't give it a five, but I'm going to say overall four. I, I'm going to say Apple watch is a five. Um, and my reason there is that I know it's not for you, but I bought a series 10. I love it. It is such an enormous update. It is. I love how thin it is. I think it's, I know it doesn't look
00:49:18 ◼ ► any different, but it is very different. I don't doubt that. And it's very pleasant. Well, this is, I'm just, I know it doesn't interest you. So I'm going to give you the enthusiastic perspective of it, which is, is it's not for you, but it is for me. And I think it's really great. I'm sorry to the ultra users who didn't get an ultra three this year. In hindsight, the ultra two should not have come out last year. That was kind of weird, right? Like that was kind of weird. Um, but, but whatever, there'll be an ultra three this year probably, and it'll be fine. But yes. And watch OS really, really, really,
00:49:47 ◼ ► great update. I was, uh, we were driving a curling yesterday, Lawrence driving. I'm sitting in the passenger seat and my watch taps me and I'm like, what is it? It was a live activity from my phone, pushing to my watch and tapping. And I looked at my watch and it said, Arsenal just scored a goal. And I'm like, Oh, that's the stuff. Like, that's exactly what I want is. It's a thing I care about. It's on my phone, but my watch is right there. And it takes the live activity widget. And it gives me the tap because I'm, I'm wearing my watch and I'm not looking at my
00:50:17 ◼ ► phone and it says, here it is. You know, score update is now two one to the arsenal. And like, I really love that. I scrolling down to see my timers going, you know, here's this thing, this live activity, this running. Like, I think they are, they are still picking their way out of the wreckage of the initial conception of the Apple watch and watch OS 10 years later, which, you know, things change. That's, that's how evolution works, but they are doing it. I would say in the last few years, it feels like they have gotten
00:50:47 ◼ ► a much more confident approach to what people want on the Apple watch and are building it and are kind of taking the garbage away or at least putting it on the side and putting some new stuff forward that makes it more usable. Um, and yeah, vision pro, I'm going to give the vision pro a four, um, just off of, cause I'm just making this up as I go along here because of everything I just said, which is it's actually kind of a brilliant product. It's just not ready for widespread use. And honestly, that's okay. Um, because it's so good. It's
00:51:17 ◼ ► way too expensive. Nobody should buy one. Right. Like, but, but I, my take on the vision pro is not that it's bad. I get, I get a sense from some people's like, Oh, it's a flop. It's so bad. It's like, it's actually great. It just is overpriced and a 1.0 and you know, it, Apple needs to put more effort behind it. I, I will not give it a five because that's what bothers me is that Apple hasn't tried to drive developer interest in it by, you know,
00:51:47 ◼ ► essentially making an effort and giving more and offering incentives. And they just, and I think it goes to what we'll talk about in a little bit, which is Apple's relationship with developers that continues to degrade and also the content. I wish they had had a much stronger content plan because I do think that if anybody would buy it for $3,500, it's people who really, really, really want niche content. Like, uh, let's say live theater in a, in immersive space or live sports in an immersive space. And what we've gotten,
00:52:17 ◼ ► is a small amount of prerecorded stuff. So there's more to do there, but I think the vision pro as a product, well, as a technology product, I think is a great success. And then as a product in the market, it's a failure, but what could it have been at $3,500? It was always going to be a failure and, and that's okay. As long as they keep working on it.
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00:55:01 ◼ ► Apple's smart home strategies, as the summary in 2024, continue to frustrate users of many feeling that HomeKit remains unreliable.
00:55:13 ◼ ► While there were minor improvements, such as better control center integration and some Matter enhancements,
00:55:22 ◼ ► Many users have resorted to third-party solutions like Home Assistant to achieve better automation and compatibility.
00:55:28 ◼ ► The lack of Apple Intelligence integration into the HomePod and the continued unreliability of Siri further disappoints users.
00:55:34 ◼ ► Some are hopeful that Apple may reinvest in smart home efforts in 2025, possibly with new hardware, but for now, the platform feels stagnant.
00:55:42 ◼ ► I find it funny that, like, the Apple Intelligence thing being a negative, when, like, I don't know.
00:55:58 ◼ ► For me, the control center actions and the way that I can customize those, it's, like, exactly what I was looking for from my home, from the Home app.
00:57:07 ◼ ► I think Matter is going to eventually come through and be something that it just means you don't
00:57:22 ◼ ► HomeBridge and Home Assistant says something, and it says that the home stuff in Apple's
00:57:28 ◼ ► Like, that's the problem, is that it doesn't seem to be as smart as it should be, if that
00:57:38 ◼ ► But, like, if you try to automate anything beyond about turn it on at sunrise and sunset or turn
00:57:55 ◼ ► So, you know, I'll give it a three because I think actually a lot of my home stuff works
00:58:07 ◼ ► My hope is if we hear all these stories, like you said, about new stuff for the home and
00:58:12 ◼ ► a new home kind of renaissance from Apple in the coming year and years, that they will also
00:58:42 ◼ ► Summary is, Apple TV remains a solid, reliable streaming device, but 2024 was another year
00:58:51 ◼ ► While Apple TV Plus continues to receive significant attention from Apple, TVOS and the Apple TV
00:59:00 ◼ ► Users appreciate its ad-free, privacy-focused experience compared to competitors, but remain
00:59:06 ◼ ► frustrated by the aging UI, lack of major software improvements, and the high price relative to
00:59:13 ◼ ► The few newer features, such as automatic subtitles and any enhanced dialogue feature, were welcomed,
00:59:19 ◼ ► but did little to change the overall perception of Apple TV's in maintenance mode rather than
01:00:10 ◼ ► I mean, they will probably put a different processor in it and maybe they'll add a different
01:00:18 ◼ ► It is so much more powerful than the competitors in this space, especially the stuff that's embedded
01:00:26 ◼ ► And you have to go to the high-end competitors that are actually more aligned with the price
01:00:39 ◼ ► The TVOS is perfectly functional, but as especially our friend of the show, Joe Rosenstiel, has
01:00:46 ◼ ► pointed out on numerous blog posts and many other people have too, like what are they doing
01:01:12 ◼ ► Apple is the only box maker that's playing a game where they're not trying to sell you,
01:01:33 ◼ ► But like there's software stuff that is such a no-brainer and has been a no-brainer for years.
01:01:40 ◼ ► I can't believe Eddie Q isn't angrier about the sports and live in general on Apple TV, on TVOS.
01:02:27 ◼ ► even though it's more expensive, because it provides a premium experience in terms of not
01:02:33 ◼ ► feeling like there's an ad around every corner and that all of your data is being shipped back
01:03:13 ◼ ► They've added some things around the edges that tend to be things that are on other Apple platforms.
01:03:21 ◼ ► But, like, something that's very Apple TV plus, or, sorry, very Apple TV specific has just not been given any attention.
01:03:34 ◼ ► For a product that nobody seems to care about at Apple, it's actually surprisingly good.
01:03:39 ◼ ► Imagine how much better it could be if anybody showed it any attention, but it really doesn't feel like a product Apple cares about.
01:04:01 ◼ ► It's really like giving, it's giving a student a good grade, but writing, see me on the paper.
01:04:07 ◼ ► So that you can tell them that you're disappointed that they're not applying themselves better.
01:04:25 ◼ ► Apple TV plus remains a standout, consistently producing high quality content, though its film lineup still lags behind its strong TV series.
01:04:34 ◼ ► Apple Music saw improvements, but frustrations of its macOS client and Siri integration persist.
01:04:47 ◼ ► Apple services ecosystem benefits from deep integration with its hardware, but few of its offerings are considered best in class.
01:04:59 ◼ ► While reliability is improved in areas like iCloud syncing, some Apple services feel stagnant or focused more on revenue generation than user experience.
01:05:10 ◼ ► I will actually echo, I didn't put this in, but in reading this, I echo the five gigabyte free tier is terrible.
01:05:17 ◼ ► I think I submitted this before I ended up having an issue with my mom's phone and needing to upgrade her storage and stuff.
01:05:23 ◼ ► But for me, I just guess a four out of five, just because the content that Apple TV plus produces far exceeds my frustrations with other areas of Apple services where I have them.
01:05:42 ◼ ► There are things in here that people are mentioning that I literally never think about.
01:05:52 ◼ ► I think you can see where some people just get attached to certain vibes and will not let them go.
01:06:06 ◼ ► But I just think it's like, it's just like, I remember feeling these things, but like, I don't feel them anymore.
01:06:15 ◼ ► Now, of course, do I have the occasional thing where like a folder sits there just spinning?
01:06:25 ◼ ► But yeah, Apple continues to make my favorite TV shows of the year, basically every year.
01:06:30 ◼ ► And I just think that that is such a feat that they've managed to produce and like they're able to find, produce, and program this content.
01:06:56 ◼ ► Like, there's so many other things going on in services, but they talk about TV Plus all the time because it is their most visible thing.
01:07:16 ◼ ► I've heard – I haven't spent as much time with it, but I've heard from a lot of people who say News Plus is actually good now.
01:08:07 ◼ ► 4.6 and has remained a 4.6 and has been in that realm for, like, five years at this point.
01:08:17 ◼ ► Summary is Apple's hardware reliability in 2024 remained exceptionally strong, with very few complaints or major issues reported.
01:08:24 ◼ ► Many panelists noted that they had no significant hardware problems, and some praised Apple's consistency in delivering high-quality devices year after year.
01:08:32 ◼ ► The transition to Apple's silicon has continued to pay off, with users appreciating the improved performance and durability compared to older Intel-based models.
01:08:40 ◼ ► While a few minor concerns were raised, such as Touch ID inconsistencies and the non-replaceability of certain components, the general consensus is that Apple is in a golden era of hardware reliability.
01:08:50 ◼ ► I gave it a 5 out of 5 with zero comment because it just feels like there is no comment to be made, in my opinion, anymore.
01:09:11 ◼ ► Like, they've overcome the worst of it with the butterfly keyboard and things like that.
01:09:21 ◼ ► I expect the thin phone, the unfolding phones, to be their next potential issue, right?
01:09:35 ◼ ► But folding phones, I mean, they come with so many new issues that potentially existing iPhone users have not had to consider.
01:09:44 ◼ ► And I'll be keen to see how that changes or not, as if Apple moves into new areas where these things scratch and bend and break.
01:10:32 ◼ ► Anyway, what if we just said, tell us your feelings about Apple's OS this year and about Apple's apps this year?
01:11:01 ◼ ► While macOS Sequoia and iOS 18 were mostly stable, longstanding bugs and usability frustrations persist.
01:11:11 ◼ ► Many felt it was overhyped, underdelivered, and introduced new problems while failing to justify the tradeoffs.
01:11:16 ◼ ► Some praised minor improvements like notification summaries and the new sports app, but others saw Apple's software design trending toward unnecessary complexity.
01:11:24 ◼ ► Many users wish Apple would focus more on stability and polish rather than pushing new features annually.
01:11:59 ◼ ► I'm going to get so many people who are angry with things that are in the report card who are yelling at me about it.
01:12:18 ◼ ► I think this is the category where you've got to hammer them on the bad rollout of Apple intelligence.
01:12:29 ◼ ► I think it would have been a real problem if they had come up at WWDC last year and not mentioned AI.
01:13:09 ◼ ► And you get a four out of five because none of the apps, these things you're mentioning, they're not my things.
01:13:16 ◼ ► But, like, you're not going to get a five out of me because I can't think of something that they came out with where I was like, this is mine, you know?
01:13:25 ◼ ► My comments on Apple Intelligence, it's a thorn in the side of Apple for the entire year, especially operating systems.
01:13:44 ◼ ► And the fact that we haven't even gotten a full, like, six months on these features and they've had to roll them back again.
01:13:52 ◼ ► I mean, honestly, on notification summaries, we've got, like, a couple of months and they had to, like, they had to kind of, like, kneecap them to make them acceptable.
01:14:12 ◼ ► It was a bad version of something that wasn't great to begin with, and they did it anyway, and it was a big mistake.
01:14:34 ◼ ► And my, my, my objections to Apple intelligence are more about how they were implemented.
01:15:09 ◼ ► But where you see it, the offense, the offense to me is not, oh, it's LLMs, they're bad.
01:15:23 ◼ ► Like, they, they, and that was my, always my thought about news summaries is LLMs aren't
01:15:38 ◼ ► Ironically, Mike, ironically, the best UI work they did in the entirety of Apple intelligence
01:15:44 ◼ ► is Image Playground, which Image Playground, they are trying to figure out how do we build
01:16:28 ◼ ► And that's what I want them to do is the whole purpose of Apple intelligence should be to bring
01:16:34 ◼ ► powerful Apple intelligence features to users with the extra added care of Apple's commitment
01:16:42 ◼ ► And I didn't feel a lot of that with their initial implementations of Apple intelligence.
01:16:55 ◼ ► There are times when I put things out, whether it's, you know, a podcast episode or whatever,
01:17:11 ◼ ► have done a better job with this piece of music or like, you know, we're doing our special
01:17:14 ◼ ► I was like, oh, I wish I could have got a sound effect in there that I didn't want, but I didn't
01:17:19 ◼ ► I didn't, I was, I had a thing come up and I missed an hour of research that I was going
01:17:27 ◼ ► I didn't read that article, which I wanted to read, but life got in the way and I couldn't
01:17:59 ◼ ► Like for two weeks or a week, I'm going to hear about like this episode didn't sound good.
01:18:18 ◼ ► They know this, like they must know this because what they know is they didn't get the usual
01:18:33 ◼ ► And so they ended up creating this set of features and they don't work the way that they should.
01:18:49 ◼ ► This is the, this is the thing that I, I, I definitely see that like, oh, you, you know,
01:18:59 ◼ ► People who, if, if a movie is, is targeted at people, as human beings, human beings get
01:19:13 ◼ ► under the gun, everybody at Apple was in terms of putting in Apple intelligence features
01:19:28 ◼ ► Please make them better and do better because they're not, a lot of them kind of let down
01:19:42 ◼ ► You've heard me talk on the show about how much of your personal data could be out there on
01:19:46 ◼ ► the internet for people to see and to use and how uncomfortable that can make you feel.
01:19:52 ◼ ► I don't like the idea that my personal information could be out there bought by people and then used
01:20:07 ◼ ► Delete Me is a subscription service that removes your personal information from hundreds of data
01:20:13 ◼ ► They also send you regular personalized privacy reports that show you what information they found,
01:20:24 ◼ ► The problem is how would you or me as an individual know about these companies or even know what the
01:20:34 ◼ ► I got to tell them, they send you this, when you sign up, you get this form that you fill in
01:20:39 ◼ ► and you can put in whatever information you want into that form, as little or as much as you like.
01:20:44 ◼ ► Maybe there are certain pieces of your information you want out there on the web because you are a
01:20:49 ◼ ► person who lives on the web like me and you have a business and so you don't want your business email
01:20:53 ◼ ► to be removed, but you want your personal information or your personal email to be removed.
01:20:57 ◼ ► Maybe you have a business telephone number you would like to be on the web, but not your personal
01:21:28 ◼ ► Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now
01:22:17 ◼ ► It's not a new low in scoring, but it is maybe a new low in just the, it's been going down
01:22:41 ◼ ► The, the, the vibe among the people who have feelings about Apple's relationship with its
01:22:50 ◼ ► Perceptions about Apple's relationship with developers may have reached a new low in 2024.
01:22:54 ◼ ► The company's aggressive responses to regulatory pressure, particularly in the EU, with the
01:22:59 ◼ ► Digital Markets Act, were widely criticized as hostile, manipulative, and profit-driven rather
01:23:05 ◼ ► The rollout of third-party app stores and alternative payment options was seen as an exercise in malicious
01:23:15 ◼ ► Additionally, Vision Pro's weak app ecosystem highlighted the declining trust developers have in Apple's new
01:23:20 ◼ ► While developers continue to build great apps, the ability to make a sustainable living on
01:23:30 ◼ ► And basically, my top line of this is this is one of the worst years that I've seen from
01:23:34 ◼ ► Apple in a long time, if not the worst of any time that I've covered them professionally.
01:23:48 ◼ ► These are things that we believe about Apple and have said for many years are going back to
01:23:57 ◼ ► But their response to legislation that is supposed to make the lives of third-party developers better
01:24:08 ◼ ► Using notarization as a way to stop apps from existing, which we've seen them do, terrible.
01:24:47 ◼ ► Maybe this is the year where we get a press release a week before WWDC saying that they're
01:24:55 ◼ ► But I think with the DMA this year, we have seen that the people making the decisions high
01:25:23 ◼ ► But like, Craig Hockenberry of the Icon Factory says, Apple is blowing it with developers.
01:25:41 ◼ ► Paul Kafasa says, they know what's right and refuse to do it because they want to protect
01:26:05 ◼ ► And I think it's worth pointing out that one of the reasons there was no developer adoption,
01:26:09 ◼ ► really, to speak of the Vision Pro, is because Apple seems to be approaching it as the way
01:26:14 ◼ ► that it happened with the iPad so long ago, which is people just love our platforms and
01:26:24 ◼ ► And then you get a platform like Vision Pro where they're not going to sell very many of
01:26:28 ◼ ► It's going to be ages before anybody really makes back their investment on writing software
01:26:50 ◼ ► Like, people aren't developing for Vision Pro because they just love developing for Apple's
01:26:53 ◼ ► platforms and they're having such a great time and there's such a great relationship with
01:26:57 ◼ ► Apple that they want to throw in on a new Apple platform, even though it doesn't really
01:27:19 ◼ ► And you look at the Vision Pro and one of the things you have to point to is that's why.
01:27:26 ◼ ► Like, that's why you need to maintain good relationships with your developers is do you want them to embrace
01:27:54 ◼ ► But you make a lot of money and you are harming other aspects of your business by doing this.
01:28:11 ◼ ► Yes, formerly Apple, environmental, social, like, it was always the Rorschach test category
01:28:26 ◼ ► Apple talks a good game about how they want to make the world a better place and leave it
01:28:33 ◼ ► And this is the fill-in-the-blank, everybody has a different interpretation of it, but it's
01:28:37 ◼ ► the, how do you think Apple's doing in terms of living up to its stated goals and philosophies
01:28:48 ◼ ► The summary is, our survey asked panelists to consider anything they deemed appropriate,
01:28:53 ◼ ► including education and environmental initiatives, commitment to accessibility and diversity,
01:29:21 ◼ ► Apple's growing reliance on AI raises concerns about its environmental impact and ethical stance,
01:30:02 ◼ ► Because from AI to legislation and everything else, for me, this is my case as it has been forever.
01:31:24 ◼ ► The way I'll put it, and I agree, a three seems about right to me, is Apple is an enormous,
01:31:46 ◼ ► A capitalist, profit-driven, investor-driven corporation, global in scope, larger than countries.
01:32:05 ◼ ► Have they set better goals for themselves and have tried harder to meet those goals than other similar corporations?
01:32:17 ◼ ► Does that mean, as you said, are they able to always live up to all aspects of what people would wish they would behave as?
01:32:31 ◼ ► No, because they are too big and too complicated and are a profit-driven corporation, right?
01:32:40 ◼ ► And Tim Cook, given a million dollars to the Trump inauguration, like, we all know why he did that.
01:32:50 ◼ ► And two, because he knows that he's going to be navigating Apple through at least four years of an administration that requires gestures of fealty to get what they want.
01:33:05 ◼ ► And in the end, Tim Cook cannot, as the CEO of said enormous profit-seeking corporation, cannot cut off his nose to spite his face.
01:33:19 ◼ ► And, you know, people who want to hold him up to higher levels of ideal, like, I get it.
01:33:25 ◼ ► But, and, you know, Tim Cook, look, does anybody think Tim Cook was happy to make that donation?
01:33:41 ◼ ► Well, I mean, he could have, but that would have either hurt Apple or they would have replaced him with somebody else who would do the same thing.
01:33:48 ◼ ► And I think that's just, like, you got to take the blinders off a little bit about what Apple really is.
01:33:52 ◼ ► And I think that Apple talks a good game and mostly walks a good game, but they're still what they are, which is giant corporation.
01:34:12 ◼ ► Yeah, it's like if you find yourself, like, being surprised you have a bad taste in your mouth, use this as an opportunity to recalibrate your thinking about what they should be.
01:34:29 ◼ ► I mean, that's the thing for me is I've been covering Apple as a subject for so long now that I am legitimately taken aback when I see somebody, and there was a lot of this after the Tim Cook donation.
01:34:45 ◼ ► I am taken aback when I see somebody write about that, and it's very clear that they are coming from the perspective of being a fan of the company and thinking about it in these terms like you're a fan of a sports team.
01:35:11 ◼ ► I do this because I have used and loved Apple products over the years and continue to do so.
01:35:16 ◼ ► But, boy, you cover a company, a corporation for long enough, and first off, you get to know the people, and they're often great people, sometimes not, but often great people who work at that corporation.
01:35:29 ◼ ► And, you know, you have to very quickly realize that the corporation is a vast money-making machine, and that's what it is.
01:35:38 ◼ ► And I think that maybe the last year has helped some people go through that process of saying, oh, right, I need to recalibrate how I view Apple and my relationship to Apple, because I don't think you should be a fan of the corporation.
01:35:59 ◼ ► And how they impact on your life, and want them to be better, and be excited when they're good.
01:36:12 ◼ ► So, just as a quick wrap-up to the report card, the biggest swings were the iPad gained 1.1 over its previous year, and world impact and developer relations lost 0.7 and 0.6, respectively.
01:36:39 ◼ ► As the perfect coder to this discussion, Jason, why don't you play me a little piece of music?
01:37:04 ◼ ► Thank you to Lex Friedman, Lex.Games, for creating the forever jingle now that will be part of the Apple earnings discussion.
01:37:11 ◼ ► The great thing is that these earnings were really boring, which is good, because I want to rush through them, because this has been a long episode.
01:37:29 ◼ ► It's funny to say that and then also say it's boring, but there just aren't as many stories here as there are usually, I feel like.
01:38:13 ◼ ► Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC's Steve Kovach that the iPhone sales were stronger in countries where Apple intelligence is available.
01:38:21 ◼ ► Currently, the software is only available in a handful of English-speaking countries, and it isn't available in China or in Chinese.
01:38:36 ◼ ► Dan, Morin, and I did a live stream afterward, and this came up there, and we were both kind of chuckling.
01:38:42 ◼ ► I was like, well, I mean, there are countries that have Apple intelligence rollouts, and you could say that the iPhone sold better there, and then you could ascribe that to being Apple intelligence related.
01:38:52 ◼ ► But if what you're really covering up is that you had one market that was bad, which was China, one way to cover it out is to say, well, you know, it didn't have Apple intelligence.
01:39:06 ◼ ► I think it's a smokescreen, and that, you know, they just are – they had a big miss in China.
01:39:14 ◼ ► I think that the era of Apple being, you know, really bullish about its huge place in China, I think, is over.
01:39:22 ◼ ► They are still competitive in China, but it's going to be the hardest market for them, and that's just going to be it going forward.
01:39:33 ◼ ► But they're just, you know, they're fitting into – we've seen this pattern from them.
01:39:46 ◼ ► And if they bring out this, like, the iPhone 17 Air, then maybe we get a folding phone the year after that, they're going to make money in China.
01:39:54 ◼ ► Like, this is something we have seen time and time again, that, like, they see the biggest swings there when they have something that people can show.
01:40:03 ◼ ► It was a status object, which seems to be – I think it's important everywhere, but has been said, and so I'm repeating it.
01:40:13 ◼ ► But it is said that being able to show newness and wealth and change is beneficial there.
01:40:25 ◼ ► I think it's beneficial everywhere, but I think there may be something particular about the Chinese market that magnifies it even more.
01:40:38 ◼ ► I think it's great in a way for Apple's business that they were able to record the largest revenue quarter with a down year-over-year iPhone, even though it was only down 1%.
01:40:49 ◼ ► That does mean that the slack was picked up by the other products, which is – I mean, that's the whole reason you have a product mix.
01:41:02 ◼ ► They're both up about 15%, and that enabled the 56% of their business this quarter, which was iPhone revenue, to be down a little and still set the record.
01:41:15 ◼ ► And I will say, so calling the China Apple intelligence thing a smokescreen, I will back that up by saying I will give them credit.
01:41:23 ◼ ► But a lot of people at Wall Street are, like, freaking out about whenever there's anything that's not, like, up.
01:41:50 ◼ ► And I think there's a general feeling that there's more of a desire for things that are Chinese-made than there was when Apple was selling a lot of iPhones.
01:42:07 ◼ ► Any of those markets down 11% year over year, you're going to see it in the top-line number.
01:42:19 ◼ ► For the record, Apple's largest market is the Americas, followed by Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
01:42:41 ◼ ► But just to give you an idea, the China number in revenue is, like, about, I don't know, 13 billion.
01:43:23 ◼ ► I didn't think they would break records this year, personally, because I just didn't think
01:43:32 ◼ ► Like, it didn't do the leap, but I did not count for the fact that the Mac and the iPad
01:44:08 ◼ ► I think that they sold a lot of those, and that generates a lot of revenue and a lot of
01:44:20 ◼ ► That's what I mean of, like, what is it that jumped them 15% more over last year's figures?
01:44:31 ◼ ► The Mac Mini and the fact that it's been another year since the Apple Silicon transition.
01:44:38 ◼ ► So you're going to get more people to make the transition to a new M4 from, like, an M1 or M2.
01:44:45 ◼ ► And I guess if you're a purchaser, the base models being more attractive would mean that this might be a year to buy.
01:44:56 ◼ ► We don't have time for Ask Upgrade this week because otherwise we will be here until Tuesday.