00:21:44
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So there's kind of like you open the app now and you don't have to go between pages if you don't want to show you all your missed calls or your incomings, outgoings, and your favorites.
00:21:53
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So if an unknown number calls you, you have the ability for basically your phone to answer it for you, get information from the person.
00:22:02
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It will show you that on the screen so you can decide whether you want to answer or not.
00:22:05
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And then my favorite feature was the ability for the iPhone to just wait on hold for you and it will let you know when your time in the queue has come up.
00:22:27
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I'm a little skeptical about the unified layout only because some of that information is not information that I find valuable in the current phone app.
00:22:40
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But I'm skeptical because like I get a lot of junk calls that I don't need to see.
00:22:44
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And I really mostly am just dialing out to one of my favorites at that point.
00:22:49
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But I guess if I pin my favorites at the top, it doesn't matter about the rest of it.
00:22:52
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Call screening seems very clever because it's basically taking live voice mail.
00:22:57
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And applying it to another set of calls, which are these calls from contacts that it doesn't know.
00:23:05
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Because one of the problems with sending everything to voicemail is then the person who's coming to fix the glass in your windshield calls you.
00:23:16
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And you're like, oh, I should have taken that one.
00:23:19
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And then you turn off, send unknowns to voicemail, and then all the junk calls start.
00:23:25
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So they're trying to find a little slot right in here to take those things and not completely ignore them and send them to voicemail, but instead prompt and say, what's your message?
00:23:51
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But I like that they're picking it up and they're picking based on the transcript.
00:23:54
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They're going to – you know, they can actually choose to push a notification that says that this person is – this is an important one.
00:24:02
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Like there's a lot of really interesting stuff that's building on existing technology that they've stuck in there.
00:24:07
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So the lock screen got some new features, I guess.
00:24:12
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And it seems like, at least from the way the app was showing, they kind of don't want you to use the widgets anymore because they have this really cool new clock that expands to the image that you have.
00:24:28
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I think that – I think I could see myself maybe moving to a different type of wallpaper here and maybe having one of the Photoshop or wallpapers.
00:24:38
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I mean, I love the Photoshop on my watch.
00:24:40
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Or maybe I'll pick some images that it could scroll through that maybe will do some fun stuff to the clock.
00:24:45
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But I think that looks very dynamic, very fun.
00:24:49
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And you mentioned the spatial scenes, as they're calling them, where it takes like an image and 3D-fies it.
00:27:35
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This is – they put a tab, a couple of tabs back so that people can toggle because they were trying to get different – it's – I have no opinion about it because, first off, I didn't dislike the new change as much as a lot of people did.
00:27:51
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I mean, I'm in the club of I enjoy it.
00:28:08
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And then we've got the Games app, which for me is a bit of a letdown.
00:28:11
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I was hoping that this would usher in something a little bit more significant.
00:28:17
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You know, like, where I ended up landing is what I want them to do is split the App Store and the Game Store, essentially.
00:28:27
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That's what I was hoping that this could be.
00:28:30
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But essentially it's just beefed up Game Center with Apple Arcade and all of the games that you've downloaded in your kind of game library.
00:28:40
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But it doesn't seem – it seems like you'll still get your games through the App Store.
00:28:43
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And, you know, there wasn't any kind of, like – there's no streaming apps in here or integrations of any kind.
00:28:54
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I don't know if I understand the reason for this existing with what they've shown right now.
00:29:02
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Well, it – I think the answer is it gives them a place to point people to and say here's where all your games are and here's where all of your –
00:29:11
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they've – clearly they seem to have enhanced the friends, you know,
00:29:18
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they're adding essentially activity challenges to what we have thought of as Game Center up to now.
00:29:24
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And they put that in the center here and they've made it – you know, they – it gives them a place to iterate from now and say,
00:29:31
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look, you can see your games, you can see your friends, you can see your friends' games, you can see your games' friends.
00:29:39
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And then, you know, we'll – they'll have to go from there.
00:29:43
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But I think it has value just in being an app again because Game Center was an app, right, for a while.
00:29:49
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But this is more than that because it's also listing all your games that you've got and gives you a place to go.
00:29:55
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Because I think it's weird to have game – like, friend features and challenges and stuff like that that are in a pop-up that can appear outside of your app but only from your –
00:30:09
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like, that's not the way you should do it.
00:30:11
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It should be its own place that you could go.
00:30:13
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And they pointed out you can control it with a controller, which is, I think, interesting, right, the idea that you're popping around.
00:30:20
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And then they also have that on the Mac, the overlay that will come down that has a bunch of sort of game-related things in it.
00:30:27
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So it seems like there's, at least to a certain degree, they're trying to think of ways to make this more game-friendly.
00:31:03
◼►
And that you could actually, like, you haven't got to go to each individual game to see your updates with your friends if that's the thing that you do, right?
00:31:44
◼►
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00:33:54
◼►
I really appreciate the tone that Craig Federighi had where he's like, look, everybody, all these things, they're blowing our minds.
00:34:01
◼►
And it's very much the implication there is where do we get these ideas?
00:34:04
◼►
It's like, oh yeah, because you can do it on the Mac and now you can do it on the iPad too, which is great.
00:34:09
◼►
And what I didn't have in my bingo list was the idea that they have reconceptualized windowing to the point where everybody gets windows now.
00:34:23
◼►
It's not like, I'm sorry, you don't have an M1.
00:35:11
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I'm looking forward to hearing more about it.
00:35:14
◼►
Obviously, we're recording this right after the keynote.
00:35:15
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I'm going to be, you know, talking to people from Apple later this week about this.
00:35:20
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And so I don't have anything to say about technical details behind the scenes now because I don't know.
00:35:24
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But I will say the fact that it's re-architected, the fact that it runs everywhere, the fact that there are many windows that can be opened now and not four.
00:35:34
◼►
All, I'd say a little bit surprising and kind of huge.
00:35:38
◼►
The idea that they've embraced the Mac OS style traffic lights for window management.
00:35:49
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That there is a sort of double swipe gesture to get, you know, to basically say, no, I need you all to kind of go away because I want to focus.
00:35:57
◼►
That they're doing these very familiar from the Mac side things that work pretty well.
00:36:03
◼►
And that you put them in the iPad and then they probably are going to work pretty well because that's, you know, they've been tested and they work pretty well.
00:36:13
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So, you know, flick to tile, have the tile things like on the Mac underneath if you tap and hold.
00:36:21
◼►
Like it's a lot of really, flick to tile is pretty cool.
00:36:24
◼►
But like some things that are very familiar, but done in, you know, if they're new to, they're new to iPad and yeah, I'm looking forward to trying it out too.
00:36:55
◼►
I wrote a, why is there not a menu bar like three years ago?
00:36:58
◼►
I was like, you got all the, they've had all the pieces in place and they finally did it where if you mouse up to the top of the screen, you get a menu bar that's got all the features in it, which is, you know, sometimes it's really nice to just be able to find a feature in the menu bar on an iPad.
00:37:13
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So, and don't forget the pointier pointier that they have now.
00:37:18
◼►
Which is funny because, yeah, so, so here's the thing.
00:37:22
◼►
I really appreciated the way they did the pointer, the little animated circular pointer on the iPad because they were trying to show you that the iPad software is sort of expecting a finger.
00:37:52
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The reason it's triangular is it's going to a point that is a specific point, not a general circular area.
00:37:59
◼►
And it's more Mac-like in that way, but it's also, that's, that's one of the things that's going on there is it's the implied precision of the pointer that wasn't implied before.
00:38:13
◼►
The menu bar is, is a fascinating addition.
00:38:17
◼►
Like it really just acts like the Mac, like menu items, you know, like I've got Safari open here and I go to file and I've got like 20 things.
00:38:30
◼►
And I, I don't know if they've done more to add in here.
00:38:35
◼►
Like if this is more than what was in the previous versions, like when you'd press the command key and get all the shortcuts, like I don't, I don't know.
00:38:42
◼►
But it looks and feels very much like a Mac menu bar.
00:38:45
◼►
And also in the menu bar, you get the little traffic lights when you have an app in full screen.
00:38:49
◼►
So you can then pop it down to a different size and, and do that whole thing.
00:38:53
◼►
And you can start doing your window management.
00:39:07
◼►
This is one of these things where it's like every WWDC is the thing that happens and you hear it and you're like, oh my God, this is the thing we've been asking for.
00:39:15
◼►
And then you use it and then you realize that it's, it's the limitations of it.
00:39:20
◼►
Like it still does what you want, but maybe not in the way you're expecting, right?
00:39:23
◼►
Like there's always that kind of thing.
00:39:25
◼►
So from what I can see here, there is new, like specific tools to change your input, your audio input.
00:39:32
◼►
So you can choose different microphones, which is great.
00:39:34
◼►
And then on those microphones, no matter what they are, you can use things like voice isolation and stuff like that, which is really interesting.
00:39:40
◼►
But there's also a new local capture where you can have high quality recordings of your audio and your video captured locally.
00:39:48
◼►
They have echo cancellation, which I think is very cool if you're not using, I mean, if you're using any kind of professional setting and you're not using earbuds, I'm happy Apple's here to protect you, but you should be wearing earphones, headphones, whatever.
00:40:01
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And then once the recording's done, it will create a folder that everybody can upload their audio to.
00:40:07
◼►
And I don't know if that's automatic in any way or whatever, but like it, that does that.
00:40:12
◼►
I don't, I think it's a, see, I just took that as being, it offers your file to you and then you can choose to put it somewhere.
00:40:36
◼►
This is, or, or anything anybody's doing where they're doing, uh, using an iPad to do audio and video.
00:40:45
◼►
Um, one of the problems has been that I can use Zoom to talk to people on a podcast, but part of the workflow is that I also want to record my audio locally on my device.
00:40:57
◼►
And that hasn't been possible unless the app specifically adds that feature, which they don't.
00:41:03
◼►
So now the system, the, one of the solutions is the system just does it.
00:41:07
◼►
So that's, what's happening here is that you can specify the microphone and then you choose, you know, local recording.
00:41:13
◼►
And, you know, Zoom doesn't care that it's doing whatever it's doing, but, you know, your iPad is recording locally to you.
00:41:23
◼►
And that, that unlocks that whole thing about, can I do a podcast on my iPad?
00:41:27
◼►
So, uh, I had Jeremy Burge, friend of the show, um, previous video consultant, social media manager of Upgrade, as well as the founder of Emojipedia.
00:41:37
◼►
And he was saying to me, like, what could they, this was before we had lunch before, or early dinner, I guess we'll call it before the keynote.
00:41:45
◼►
And he was like, what could they do to iPad OS where you would leave your Mac when you travel?
00:42:23
◼►
So now next time I see him, I'm going to be like, dude, you, you did it.
00:42:26
◼►
Uh, you got to be the one who rolled that feature out.
00:42:29
◼►
But yeah, it is, uh, it's a big deal because it does mean that, um, especially for us podcasters, if we wanted to travel with just a microphone and an iPad, it's fine.
00:42:40
◼►
I, this is the sort of thing where Federico and I were always like, well, you bring a microphone and a compact flash, you know, recorder, and then you wire them all around.
00:42:48
◼►
And then you, no, you don't have to do any of that anymore.
00:42:51
◼►
So that's, uh, I'm very excited about that.
00:50:31
◼►
You can even add parameters like sending messages, adding tasks, quick keys, which are customizable shortcut actions can serve as menu items when in apps and clipboard history.
00:51:09
◼►
I never use spotlight, but when I do, I'm like, yeah, okay.
00:51:11
◼►
They solve the problems that used to be.
00:51:13
◼►
The reason I use launch bar is because I can type a couple of letters and hit return on an app launches.
00:51:19
◼►
And it used to be, you type a couple of letters in spotlight and then it would go spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, give you a list of irrelevant things.
00:51:26
◼►
Maybe the app would come up and you could launch it.
00:51:28
◼►
So it's come a long way, but this is the kill shot.
00:51:34
◼►
Like this is, um, like, like launch bar has the concept of actions.
00:51:40
◼►
I know a lot of different apps have this, uh, of these launcher apps, but the, the, using the app intents, the idea that you could literally send an email from spotlight, um, with the body and who it's to and the subject line, and then you hit return and it just does it.
00:51:55
◼►
Um, the idea that, that, um, I wrote a piece, I don't know if you remember this last year or it was like, what's left of like the table stakes for Mac OS.
00:52:05
◼►
And I said, it's the clipboard, the clipboard.
00:52:08
◼►
They've gone all this time without doing a clipboard manager.
00:52:11
◼►
It's like the one thing that I feel like should just be in there.
00:52:15
◼►
Well, apparently Mac OS has a clipboard manager now and it's spotlight, I guess, which is, it seems weird on one level, but on another level, my clipboard manager is launch bar.
00:52:28
◼►
It is my launcher that is also a clipboard manager.
00:52:31
◼►
So we'll have to see the details, but like, that's wild.
00:52:35
◼►
The other thing that launch bar really made its name for and all these other apps used was the shortcut things where you, you, you assign a couple of keystrokes to that app or that action.
00:52:45
◼►
And shortcuts will let you do that now too.
00:52:48
◼►
Um, it's just, there's, yeah, it's, it's a lot and it's going to take some time for us to figure out what, you know, what all its limitations are and what its capabilities are.
00:53:00
◼►
But I mean, when they said it's the biggest update to spotlight ever, I, they're not wrong.
00:53:05
◼►
It looks huge because of app intents and quick keys and, and clipboard history.
00:53:12
◼►
And we're, we're talking about, um, we're talking about, yeah, filling in kind of like the, the gaps and making it extensible in a way that makes it incredibly powerful.
00:53:23
◼►
You know, Federica just did that pre preview of sky.
00:53:27
◼►
Um, the app from the previous workflow team.
00:53:29
◼►
And, and, you know, there are some things in here that, that sky is doing, but obviously with the difference that sky is underpinned by LLMs.
00:53:37
◼►
Um, and it kind of feels like you take one more, two more steps from this and you end up there, um, which is intriguing.
00:53:47
◼►
And I, and I, I mean, you know, with the moment that they showed it off, there was a lot of conversation of like, is Apple just going to buy them?
00:53:53
◼►
And now I've seen this, I'm like, is Apple just going to buy them?
00:53:58
◼►
Like, cause it feels like Apple's gotten to the point of like all of these types of apps and sky is like, yeah, but what if we did all that stuff?
00:54:12
◼►
I mean, I also see of like, you know, one of the things that sky does is integrates quite heavily with shortcuts.
00:54:19
◼►
So like these new shortcuts actions will make that even more powerful and apps like that.
00:54:24
◼►
Cause that's, that's the other thing that we have to talk about is huge upgrade to shortcuts.
00:54:29
◼►
Um, and while, you know, those of us who use the app are wondering if the app is better because the app has been a real pain point.
00:54:35
◼►
The big deal here, first off on the Mac, you couldn't really automate shortcuts and now you'll be able to.
00:54:43
◼►
And they said, it's like, you could do it by time.
00:54:45
◼►
You could do it by when connecting to a device, uh, when you take certain actions, which reminds me of like folder actions, Apple script, the idea that you put a file in a, in a folder.
00:54:55
◼►
And then a shortcut happens, um, that's all really great.
00:54:59
◼►
But then the really big one here is intelligent actions where not only are they adding summarize text and create image, all these things from Apple intelligence, uh, which they should do.
00:55:13
◼►
And, and if app developers can do it, social shortcuts and, and that's great.
00:55:17
◼►
App developers will be able to do it, but a shortcuts user will be able to do it too.
00:55:21
◼►
But, um, at least on the Mac, I don't, I don't know if anything is changing on iPad or iPhone, but at least on the Mac, you will also be able to feed queries in a shortcuts action into a, a model of your choosing that could be an Apple on device model.
00:55:43
◼►
It could be private cloud compute, which I don't think even app developers get the ability to do.
00:55:48
◼►
The app developer stuff is, is, is local, aren't we?
00:55:59
◼►
So, so on shortcuts though, you can do on device or private cloud compute or chat GPT.
00:56:05
◼►
And my understanding is like, you know, you can pass like a dictionary of items to chat GPT and say, I want you to do this with it and get me this thing back.
00:56:16
◼►
And one of the things that, that Federico was talking about with sky, that was really interesting is the idea of having a sort of non-deterministic portion of an automation.
00:56:25
◼►
So you, this is that, this is that same idea, which is you can pass data from a shortcut onto an LLM and say, give me a response.
00:56:35
◼►
And then the shortcut takes the response back and then acts upon it.
00:56:40
◼►
And that opens up huge additional capabilities for automation because now you, you know, you are, you don't know what you're going to get.
00:56:50
◼►
And, and you, and you get that prompt and then LLMs are really good at giving you back a little JSON blob that becomes a dictionary and shortcuts or an answer that you use somewhere.
00:56:59
◼►
Or, I mean, that demo using spotlight was like, Hey, um, I need a, uh, I need some blurbs and it suggests some blurbs.
00:57:08
◼►
And then you pick one like that's a, that, that's a good use of this kind of technology.
00:57:12
◼►
So that really could potentially empower, um, shortcuts all the more.
00:57:17
◼►
And the fact that you're, you, you have access to chat GPT or private cloud compute models or on device models, and you can just pick what you want to use when you build your shortcut that has a huge potential.
00:57:28
◼►
This episode is brought to you by century.
00:57:32
◼►
All right, founders, it's time to be honest.
00:57:34
◼►
How much time is your team wasting on debugging?
00:57:38
◼►
If you're like most startups, it's way too much.
00:57:40
◼►
Your team should be focused on shipping features, not chasing down bugs.
00:58:16
◼►
Your team isn't drowning in bug alerts.
00:58:18
◼►
And instead of grinding through logs, your developers are back to building the product.
00:58:21
◼►
I think this is fantastic because you can get people to focus on the things that they want to do, not just chasing down the things that they don't.
00:58:27
◼►
People like to build features and advance things further rather than getting stuck in bugs, right?
00:58:33
◼►
That's what all of the developers I know talk about.
00:58:36
◼►
So I think this is fantastic if it really, truly helps them get there.
00:58:39
◼►
And it will because it's tracking down these bugs and helping them squash them.
00:58:43
◼►
The good news is users get three months free of the team plan, which covers 150,000 errors.
00:58:50
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Click the link in the show notes or go to Sentry.io and use the code UpgradePod.
00:58:54
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That's S-E-N-T-R-Y dot I-O and the code UpgradePod or just click the link in the show notes.
00:59:01
◼►
Our thanks to Sentry for their support of this show and Relay.
00:59:03
◼►
Let's dig a little more into Apple Intelligence.