Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► From Relay, this is Connected, episode 559. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace

00:00:12 ◼   ► and FitBud. I'm your Ricky Benchman, Federico Vittici, and it's my pleasure to introduce

00:00:18 ◼   ► Steven. Hello, Steven.

00:00:20 ◼   ► Hello, Ricky Benchman Federico.

00:00:22 ◼   ► Hi.

00:00:23 ◼   ► Hello.

00:00:24 ◼   ► How are you?

00:00:25 ◼   ► Man, I'm good. It's summer. My kids are home. We're doing swim parks.

00:00:29 ◼   ► We're going to shoot some fireworks this weekend, safely and responsibly.

00:00:34 ◼   ► I'm going to watch other people shoot fireworks safely and responsibly, I meant to say. Don't

00:00:41 ◼   ► write in. Hello. I am introduced by Federico, and I'm introducing Mike. I'm in the sandwich

00:00:48 ◼   ► this week. I'm in the middle.

00:00:49 ◼   ► You're not allowed to fireworks? You're not allowed to do that.

00:00:52 ◼   ► You know, people get...

00:00:53 ◼   ► Don't do fireworks. They're bad for animals. They're bad for the environment, or they're

00:00:58 ◼   ► especially bad for dogs.

00:00:59 ◼   ► See?

00:01:00 ◼   ► Okay, so we found the person. He's on our podcast.

00:01:03 ◼   ► I am one of those people. Yes.

00:01:06 ◼   ► The complaints are in the podcast. Okay, so that's good to know.

00:01:09 ◼   ► Jesus, people still doing fireworks.

00:01:10 ◼   ► I was going to say, I am not a fireworks fan, personally. I am of the opinion that fireworks

00:01:15 ◼   ► should just be done by professionals, but I just wasn't sure if there were rules because

00:01:20 ◼   ► of the way that you said that. But, like, if it's legal to do, fine. But I just think

00:01:24 ◼   ► it's... They're never as good as the ones that professionals do, so I just figure.

00:01:27 ◼   ► I will find a link, put it in the show notes of that time when all the fireworks went off

00:01:33 ◼   ► at once. Thank you.

00:01:33 ◼   ► It's my favorite YouTube video of all time. Federico, if you've never seen this, you've

00:01:40 ◼   ► got to watch it at some point. San Diego fireworks. San Diego's thing. It's just the best. It's

00:01:49 ◼   ► so good. 11 million views on YouTube. It's the loudest noise in human history. I think it

00:01:55 ◼   ► I have seen this video many years ago. Yes. I'll tell you when I watch this, every New

00:02:03 ◼   ► Year's. So, like, I'll watch the fireworks display on TV that they do in Central London,

00:02:09 ◼   ► and then I will, once that's done, immediately go to YouTube and find this video and then laugh

00:02:14 ◼   ► for 15 minutes and make everybody watch it. Oh, it's so good. The sound, the sound is just

00:02:22 ◼   ► incredible. There's never been a sound like it. Maybe. My favorite thing is just watching

00:02:27 ◼   ► the reactions. My second favorite thing, after the noise, is just watching the way that people

00:02:32 ◼   ► react to it happening while it's happening to them. There's people running, people moving

00:02:38 ◼   ► in circles. Oh, it's incredible. Oh, it's so good. I mean, it's overwhelming in video. In

00:02:45 ◼   ► person, it probably felt like the end of the world. The people running, I just saw something

00:02:50 ◼   ► new for the first time where there's a woman who's pulling her husband away. Like, he doesn't

00:02:55 ◼   ► want to leave, but she's just, like, pulling him. I gotta watch this video again. Oh my god,

00:03:00 ◼   ► it's so loud. Yeah, just watch, just watch one section of the video each time on replay. Yeah,

00:03:07 ◼   ► yeah. Oh, I love it. I see the, I see the woman pulling the guy away. Yeah, she's just pulling

00:03:11 ◼   ► that guy. He's like, no, I'm too cool for this. And then there's, like, these two younger

00:03:15 ◼   ► women who just start, like, running in circles. Oh, it's so good. Oh, it's the best video.

00:03:19 ◼   ► But that's not what we're here to talk about. Is it not? I mean, it could be. I'm not gonna

00:03:25 ◼   ► just bring my favorite YouTube videos to the show. That's right. We just talk about them

00:03:29 ◼   ► in audio form. That's perfect. Uh, follow-up. Mike. Yeah. Chris and Stephen both wrote in,

00:03:37 ◼   ► not me. Okay. Another Stephen. Although, they spelled their name correctly. Mike, when

00:03:43 ◼   ► you ask for feedback in a blog post, how do you prefer that feedback to come in? Reader's

00:03:49 ◼   ► choice. Really? Yeah. Social media? You find me. Facts. Yeah, you find me. That's, I know

00:03:58 ◼   ► that sounds stupid. Like, maybe people can reply to the emails. I don't know. Or, like, they

00:04:03 ◼   ► can, they find me. You know? I just, people can get to me. I'm not hidden. You know? Come

00:04:08 ◼   ► find me. No, yeah. I think this was a question out of respect. Like, yeah, yeah. What works

00:04:14 ◼   ► best for you? I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. People can get me how they need to get me.

00:04:18 ◼   ► You know? That's kind of how I feel. I don't yet have, like, a, and I don't, I don't want

00:04:24 ◼   ► another place to check, right? So, like, I'm not gonna be, like, and here's the feedback

00:04:29 ◼   ► form for the website. It's like, no, no. Just, like, I'm online. You, I'm on three text-based

00:04:35 ◼   ► social networks. You know what I mean? Just send me that. Too many. Or, like, you can find

00:04:39 ◼   ► my email address and send me that. Like, that's kind of how I feel. Do you have, like, a Macedon

00:04:48 ◼   ► Blue Sky Threads account just for the website? No. Good. No, I'm just posting every post

00:04:53 ◼   ► myself. Yeah. Because that simplifies things. It's my website. Right? Simplifies things.

00:04:57 ◼   ► Yeah. Yeah. But it's, like, I understand why people do it, because it's, like, the way

00:05:01 ◼   ► people did it. But it's just, like, especially this particular thing, it's just me. Right?

00:05:05 ◼   ► So, it's, like, I don't, I feel like I'm just gonna publish the links to my, to my posts.

00:05:10 ◼   ► Man, you haven't blogged this month. You're falling off.

00:05:13 ◼   ► Yes, I have. Oh, this month. Oh, it's the 2nd of July. Come on.

00:05:18 ◼   ► Come on. Our boy fell off. Is that how it works? Is that how it works? You gotta keep

00:05:23 ◼   ► up the habit or something? You do. Is there, like, a... Yeah.

00:05:25 ◼   ► Have I got to do, like, a NaNoWriMo for blogging, but it's every day? Like, it's, like, Mike's

00:05:33 ◼   ► freak... I don't know. I haven't got a thing for it, but there you go.

00:05:36 ◼   ► What was that? Do you get it? You get it? Never mind. Okay.

00:05:38 ◼   ► Nope. Dimmy wrote in and said, I work in a big company in tech. We have a policy to change

00:05:44 ◼   ► our passwords every 12 months. We use this password for everything. Laptops, email, Slack,

00:05:49 ◼   ► Jira. Mine just expired, so I can finally share it. A year ago, I said it to, it's not what you

00:05:55 ◼   ► think. And every time I had to type it, it gave me a chuckle. I think this is a great idea for a

00:06:02 ◼   ► password, but I have a question. So, you would presume that the policy is for security reasons,

00:06:09 ◼   ► right? That's what they say. You change it every 12 months. But then this password is used for four

00:06:16 ◼   ► or more things. Yeah. And for a year. No, but, like, even a year, it's like, fine. You change it every

00:06:23 ◼   ► year. Like, I understand that. Like, that's good. But, like, I don't think it's that secure if you're

00:06:28 ◼   ► then using the same password for four separate things. Don't seem like it. Don't seem like it. Laptop,

00:06:32 ◼   ► email, Slack, and Jira. That actually seems worse. Mm-hmm. When I worked at the Apple store a thousand

00:06:40 ◼   ► years ago, we had to do this. We had to rotate our passwords. And I think it was every 60 days. It was

00:06:47 ◼   ► just often enough to be really annoying. And what I ended up doing for a while on a recommendation from

00:06:53 ◼   ► a friend was the first letters of, like, a movie series. So, I did, like, Star Wars movies. And at the

00:07:02 ◼   ► time, there were just six of them. And so, it was, like, S-W colon A-N-H. Like, Star Wars A New Hope. Or

00:07:11 ◼   ► whatever. And, or the whole title. I forget what I did. But, like, you pick, like, a theme for your

00:07:16 ◼   ► passwords. An annual theme for passwords, Mike. That's a Cortex idea for you. There you go. I'm just very

00:07:22 ◼   ► specific. Get 1Password to sponsor it. Yeah. It's going to do really well. I used to decide to do

00:07:28 ◼   ► this, too, when I worked in the bank. And I would have the same password and increment the number.

00:07:34 ◼   ► But the problem is, sometimes, you know, you go away for two weeks or whatever, you start remembering

00:07:39 ◼   ► the number. It's like, well, I don't know what the number was. I think more modern systems don't let

00:07:43 ◼   ► you do that. I'm sure they don't. And I am, in having this conversation, I am realizing why 1Password

00:07:50 ◼   ► pivoted to the enterprise. Yep. Yep. Yeah. And, like, in having this conversation, it's like,

00:07:54 ◼   ► oh, yeah. Like, it's better this way. Right? Like, you force your employees to use 1Password,

00:08:01 ◼   ► and then they will set better passwords. And then they just have to remember 1Password,

00:08:06 ◼   ► 1Password, which is the name of the app. That's what they say. Wow. Wow. That's deep, man.

00:08:10 ◼   ► Okay. Time for some follow-out. Widgetsmith 7.3 is out. Yeah. It's a really good update. I don't

00:08:17 ◼   ► want to give Steven a chance to talk about it, but I just wanted to do the intro for him so he doesn't

00:08:22 ◼   ► have to do it for himself. The big thing in 7.3, I assume this was a long-requested feature. I know

00:08:28 ◼   ► it's one that I've enjoyed, is that you can now, there now is, like, a wallpaper gallery, and there

00:08:34 ◼   ► are a bunch of wallpapers, so you can get some fun wallpapers if you want them, which is always good,

00:08:38 ◼   ► because I always struggle with how to find new wallpapers if I want a new one. Not that I ever want

00:08:42 ◼   ► one, but, you know, if I was that kind of person. Yeah. You did the same one for, like, five years.

00:08:45 ◼   ► Yeah. I would like one on my iPad, so if you could, like, get that rolling, that would be great.

00:08:50 ◼   ► Interesting. Okay. Yeah. But now you can choose these wallpapers and easily have thematically

00:09:00 ◼   ► appropriate, from a color perspective, like, themes for your widgets. That's right. So, like,

00:09:04 ◼   ► here is the wallpaper. Here's a bunch of options that are colors. But my favorite feature is you can

00:09:10 ◼   ► say, here is my wallpaper. Theme the widgets. And I've been doing that to my widgets, and they look

00:09:16 ◼   ► great. So, thank you both for doing that. Yeah, it's great. We've worked with a couple of designers

00:09:20 ◼   ► for this initial set, including BasicAppleGuy, which was really awesome. Nice. I just sent them an email

00:09:26 ◼   ► like, hey, I have this idea. Like, are you game? And they were totally game. I got some of my own

00:09:32 ◼   ► photos in there. I'm really pressing underscore. That's my favorite thing, is how many credits are

00:09:36 ◼   ► Stephen Hackett? I like that. Well, we wanted to test, like, would photographs do well compared

00:09:41 ◼   ► to, like, graphically designed? You're a good photographer. You have good photos. So, they

00:09:45 ◼   ► might as well go in there. Give them to the world, you know? And we're going to have drops moving

00:09:50 ◼   ► forward of new wallpapers, which will be fun. And yeah, the ability to theme a widget based on your

00:09:56 ◼   ► own photo is really cool. And Underscore's magic of, like, these are the colors that look good with

00:10:04 ◼   ► this wallpaper, it doesn't miss. Like, while he was building this, I kept throwing more and more

00:10:10 ◼   ► unhinged images at it. And it just does a great job all the time. So, it is really cool.

00:10:16 ◼   ► he explained this to me over lunch the other day, how the colors work. I could not explain it back

00:10:23 ◼   ► to you. Oh, I know. I heard a similar thing. I was like, oh, cool. I'm like, mm-hmm, yeah. Oh, wow.

00:10:29 ◼   ► Yeah, color theory. Have you ever seen him, like, in development mode? No, I wish I have, but I've

00:10:37 ◼   ► never. I know you've seen him a few times. I've seen him a few times in this. And so, he's like,

00:10:42 ◼   ► he's at his laptop. You know, he carries this, like, foldable stand and a keyboard and mouse with

00:10:47 ◼   ► him. It's awesome. Yep. He recommended that stand to me once. It might be the Roost.

00:10:52 ◼   ► I think it is. Or similar to that, I think. They're really good. And that's how people

00:10:57 ◼   ► should use their laptops if they're, like, going to be working for a long time. Yeah. But he is just,

00:11:01 ◼   ► like, his hands are, like, a blur. And then he'll be like, hey, look at this. And he'll, like,

00:11:06 ◼   ► swing his laptop around. Like, this whole new idea has just happened. It is really incredible.

00:11:11 ◼   ► And you can see a lot of that work. Yeah, Widget Smith 7.3. It's out now. Go check it

00:11:17 ◼   ► out. Can I tell you a secret about a future drop? Yes. I have some iMac G3 photos coming.

00:11:24 ◼   ► Let's go. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah, I don't know when. In the next couple weeks, at some point,

00:11:30 ◼   ► they'll be in there. Can't you control that? Technically, he controls that because it's, like,

00:11:37 ◼   ► caching server somewhere. Technically, you're like you, too.

00:11:41 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:11:44 ◼   ► You're Songs of Innocence-ing us. Right? Wow.

00:11:49 ◼   ► We're, like, there's just, like, millions of people around the world who are going to be, like,

00:11:53 ◼   ► forced to see the iMac G3 photos.

00:11:56 ◼   ► I'm not putting that as people's wallpaper. That would be the true Songs of Innocence. Like,

00:12:05 ◼   ► you unlock your iPhone in the morning and it's a picture of a tangerine iMac.

00:12:08 ◼   ► No, no. It wasn't the only music I could listen to. I could choose other music. But, like,

00:12:15 ◼   ► I, you know, it was just there. And so, like, I guess it's the same where you're just, like,

00:12:20 ◼   ► Hi, here's an iMac. Would you like it?

00:12:23 ◼   ► Please, look at my iMac.

00:12:28 ◼   ► I did have him order them in the, the color, the color order is in release order of the iMacs.

00:12:35 ◼   ► Obviously.

00:12:36 ◼   ► He had tangerine first. I was like, no, tangerine can't go first, even though it's the best one.

00:12:41 ◼   ► Oh, dear.

00:12:42 ◼   ► I am, you too. That's a really upsetting realization.

00:12:44 ◼   ► You're really good, too. You, can I get, like,

00:12:48 ◼   ► Oh, funny, you too. I know David was just with you. I wish that you,

00:12:51 ◼   ► he was still there so you could do, like, the, the finger thing.

00:12:55 ◼   ► You know, you could touch your fingers together and, uh...

00:12:59 ◼   ► Maybe we did.

00:12:59 ◼   ► And then iMacs. iMacs to millions of people around the world.

00:13:03 ◼   ► Speaking of music, it's 10 years of Apple Music.

00:13:07 ◼   ► Apple celebrated 10 years of Apple Music in a, I think, truly chaotic way.

00:13:11 ◼   ► With a press release.

00:13:13 ◼   ► They built an entire building. No, they built a building for musicians.

00:13:17 ◼   ► And I don't, it feels to me, this is like the developer center, but for music.

00:13:22 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:13:23 ◼   ► That's what they did here. It's in LA.

00:13:25 ◼   ► And similarly to the developer center, it's like, here are all these facilities.

00:13:29 ◼   ► How do you use them? Don't ask.

00:13:33 ◼   ► Here's, here's the thing that, that kills me.

00:13:36 ◼   ► Uh, so, our, our friend Ryan wrote this at 9to5Mac, describing what's in this building.

00:13:40 ◼   ► Uh, and he's quoting from Apple.

00:13:42 ◼   ► The last bullet point.

00:13:44 ◼   ► The A-list corridor and the archive corridor, showcasing images and artwork of unforgettable moments

00:13:50 ◼   ► from Apple Music's past and present.

00:13:53 ◼   ► So, at some point, you're deemed cool enough to be in the A-list corridor.

00:13:58 ◼   ► And then when people don't care about you anymore, you get moved into the archive hallway.

00:14:01 ◼   ► Oh, no.

00:14:02 ◼   ► Oh, that's really sad.

00:14:05 ◼   ► That's rough.

00:14:05 ◼   ► Oh, do you think Bono is in here?

00:14:08 ◼   ► Well, you know what they do though, right?

00:14:11 ◼   ► Like, they know someone's coming in.

00:14:12 ◼   ► It's like, oh, you're in the A-list corridor now.

00:14:14 ◼   ► Oh, like they, it's, it's, uh, it's a living document.

00:14:17 ◼   ► It's a living, and they just move you from one to the other, you know?

00:14:22 ◼   ► Just like, oh, like, Steven's coming through.

00:14:25 ◼   ► Let's put the IMAX in the A-list corridor, you know?

00:14:30 ◼   ► So, like, so he can look at them there.

00:14:32 ◼   ► Like, so he can look at them there.

00:14:32 ◼   ► And then, this facility looks truly unbelievable.

00:14:35 ◼   ► Like, there's these, this room, which looks like a spaceship, and it's immersive spatial audio where you can listen to it.

00:14:43 ◼   ► And they've got podcast studios and stuff in there, too.

00:14:45 ◼   ► Sounds incredible, but like, I don't know how you get to go there.

00:14:49 ◼   ► You know?

00:14:50 ◼   ► I will go there.

00:14:51 ◼   ► I'll go.

00:14:52 ◼   ► I'll go there, if people will let me.

00:14:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:14:55 ◼   ► I'll go there.

00:14:55 ◼   ► You know what?

00:14:56 ◼   ► You don't even have to put me in the corridor.

00:14:58 ◼   ► That's true.

00:14:59 ◼   ► We just want to use the studio.

00:15:01 ◼   ► Let us record in that podcast studio.

00:15:02 ◼   ► You know, you say that.

00:15:03 ◼   ► Historically, Apple has done a pretty bad job at setting up podcast spaces for us.

00:15:07 ◼   ► One year, we just recorded in a hallway.

00:15:11 ◼   ► That was the first one, though, right?

00:15:13 ◼   ► It's gotten better.

00:15:14 ◼   ► Yeah, they do a good job.

00:15:16 ◼   ► The last one was pretty good.

00:15:17 ◼   ► Federico's pretty good, right?

00:15:18 ◼   ► It was good with Jason.

00:15:20 ◼   ► I think that the most recent one was the best one I've seen from them today.

00:15:26 ◼   ► Good.

00:15:27 ◼   ► Good.

00:15:27 ◼   ► They get better.

00:15:27 ◼   ► They get better.

00:15:28 ◼   ► They also have a replay of 10 years of Apple Music history for users.

00:15:38 ◼   ► So you can go in, and there's a special playlist, and it shows you over the last 10 years what

00:15:45 ◼   ► has been your most listened to music, which is cool.

00:15:48 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:15:49 ◼   ► About that, I got some problems with it in the sense that I've been using Spotify for

00:15:57 ◼   ► a year.

00:15:57 ◼   ► Over the past decade, I would say I've used Apple Music for like eight years and combined all

00:16:09 ◼   ► the times that I've switched back and forth.

00:16:10 ◼   ► I would say it's an eight to two split, you know, eight years of Apple Music, two years

00:16:15 ◼   ► of Spotify over the past decade.

00:16:17 ◼   ► So I do have like most of my history is in Apple Music.

00:16:21 ◼   ► Now, my problem with this playlist is that they don't do any sort of like sorting or like it's

00:16:31 ◼   ► just a straight up list of songs by play count.

00:16:36 ◼   ► There's no AI in it.

00:16:38 ◼   ► There's no algorithmic such as like, for example, the album, and Stephen knows about this.

00:16:44 ◼   ► I have been listening to Plants by Death Cab for Cutie for the past, well, 20 years, I guess.

00:16:51 ◼   ► And it is my go-to album for relaxing at night and falling asleep, especially when I'm having

00:16:59 ◼   ► a hard time falling asleep.

00:17:00 ◼   ► I just love to put on Plants and fall asleep to that record.

00:17:04 ◼   ► Not because it's a boarding record, just because it puts me in a really, really good mood.

00:17:08 ◼   ► Amen.

00:17:08 ◼   ► But just when I open my replay all time playlist, the top, how many, 12, 11 spots are all the

00:17:20 ◼   ► songs from Plants.

00:17:21 ◼   ► Okay.

00:17:22 ◼   ► Really, it would be nice to have just like a representative.

00:17:26 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:17:26 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:17:27 ◼   ► Like just do something.

00:17:29 ◼   ► No, this is just a straight up play count in a playlist.

00:17:33 ◼   ► I mean, okay.

00:17:34 ◼   ► I mean, I'm pretty sure if you have a Mac and you can put together a smart playlist with the

00:17:41 ◼   ► same filters, like give me the top songs from the past 10 years, you're going to have your

00:17:46 ◼   ► replay all time.

00:17:47 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

00:17:47 ◼   ► It's just a pure smart playlist.

00:17:49 ◼   ► Nothing else is going on here.

00:17:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:17:51 ◼   ► My playlist is kind of ruined by the fact that when I stream, I have a playlist in Apple

00:17:58 ◼   ► music that plays.

00:18:00 ◼   ► So it's just all that.

00:18:01 ◼   ► But if I go down far enough, then it's a lot of Taicho, Vampire Weekend, Jungle, Fleetwood Mac,

00:18:11 ◼   ► Maggie Rogers, Foo Fighters, 1975, and Churches.

00:18:17 ◼   ► Foo Fighters.

00:18:17 ◼   ► And Tudor Cinema Club for Fighters.

00:18:19 ◼   ► Foo Fighters.

00:18:20 ◼   ► Did you?

00:18:21 ◼   ► They just announced a new song today, by the way.

00:18:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:18:23 ◼   ► I haven't listened to it yet, but I could see that.

00:18:26 ◼   ► I just found a very funny thing and music on the Mac.

00:18:28 ◼   ► I was trying to build that playlist and there's a limit.

00:18:32 ◼   ► There's a limit option.

00:18:33 ◼   ► Minutes, hours, items, or megabytes.

00:18:38 ◼   ► I only want 25 megabytes of music, please.

00:18:40 ◼   ► And thank you.

00:18:42 ◼   ► Oh, wow.

00:18:42 ◼   ► That is an old school feature, right?

00:18:45 ◼   ► That's iPod shuffle history right there, boys.

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00:18:49 ◼   ► How much can I get on this SD card?

00:18:52 ◼   ► That's right.

00:18:53 ◼   ► That's good.

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00:20:53 ◼   ► Mark Gurman is reporting that Apple is considering partnering with a third party to power Siri.

00:21:06 ◼   ► Apple has been building an LLM of their own, which was hopefully going to be powering a new version of Siri in 2026.

00:21:16 ◼   ► If my memory is correct, this was not the more personal Siri.

00:21:21 ◼   ► This was like a whole new endeavor to like actually make it what it should be in today's world.

00:21:31 ◼   ► They are now talking to, like actually having meetings with both OpenAI and Anthropic

00:21:38 ◼   ► about one of their models being the back end for a new Siri, potentially abandoning their own efforts.

00:21:46 ◼   ► Give a couple of quotes from the piece.

00:21:48 ◼   ► The iPhone maker has talked to both companies about using their large language models for Siri.

00:21:52 ◼   ► Mike Rockwell and Craig Federighi don't see the need for Apple to rely on its own models,

00:21:58 ◼   ► which they currently consider inferior when it can partner with third parties instead.

00:22:02 ◼   ► And Apple believes that running the models on its own chips housed in Apple-controlled cloud servers

00:22:07 ◼   ► rather than relying on third-party infrastructure will better safeguard user privacy.

00:22:11 ◼   ► To add on to that last part, the conversations that they're having,

00:22:15 ◼   ► they're basically saying to these companies,

00:22:17 ◼   ► you give us the model and we'll run it.

00:22:21 ◼   ► Like we want a custom version that will run on our hardware,

00:22:24 ◼   ► like either on device or private cloud compute, probably private cloud compute, right?

00:22:28 ◼   ► If it's Siri to be realistic, that's kind of where we are.

00:22:32 ◼   ► That like they are now, and my thought on this before I hand it over to you two to talk about as well,

00:22:37 ◼   ► is that whether this is going to happen or not,

00:22:41 ◼   ► the fact that they are considering it is important.

00:22:45 ◼   ► The fact that they are actually having meetings with these companies is even more so.

00:22:51 ◼   ► And that's probably how this information has gone out.

00:22:54 ◼   ► I have so many thoughts and questions, as you can imagine.

00:22:58 ◼   ► First off, I will say, like I said this two months ago, and I'll say it again,

00:23:02 ◼   ► this is Craig getting his way.

00:23:04 ◼   ► This is exactly what they should be doing.

00:23:07 ◼   ► This is exactly the sort of vibe that we got from the original German report from a couple of months ago

00:23:12 ◼   ► about sort of Apple not being so, and especially Federighi's team,

00:23:16 ◼   ► not being so religious about not using external technology

00:23:20 ◼   ► and external AI providers for AI features on their platform.

00:23:24 ◼   ► So I will say up front that I think this is a good move.

00:23:28 ◼   ► Is it a short-term solution?

00:23:30 ◼   ► Possibly.

00:23:31 ◼   ► But there's nothing, I think, especially right now when it comes to marketing,

00:23:35 ◼   ► when it comes to telling people that you have an AI platform,

00:23:38 ◼   ► that you have an AI-capable phone,

00:23:40 ◼   ► and, you know, you've got to fix Siri.

00:23:42 ◼   ► I think the short-term is especially important.

00:23:45 ◼   ► I continue to be also skeptical of the long-term.

00:23:48 ◼   ► Like, are we so convinced that Apple is going to have a Siri LLM

00:23:52 ◼   ► with comparable quality to, let's not even say the big models, right?

00:23:57 ◼   ► Let's even just say GPT-40 or even GPT-4.

00:24:00 ◼   ► Are they really going to have a GPT-4 equivalent Siri large language model by next year?

00:24:06 ◼   ► Happy to be proven wrong, but, you know, I see these comments from people saying,

00:24:10 ◼   ► oh, they're just doing this for the next six months.

00:24:13 ◼   ► I don't think this is the kind of thing that you can fix in six months, but we'll see.

00:24:16 ◼   ► Yeah, and also, like, Mark Gummer makes a really good point in his article,

00:24:20 ◼   ► and I'm not entirely sure from my memory if this is from having conversations with people or not,

00:24:24 ◼   ► but, like, if they do this, the people at Apple who are building this technology will leave.

00:24:33 ◼   ► And I think he spoke to people who said, like, if Apple decide that we're not going to be building R&LM anymore,

00:24:41 ◼   ► or we're going to partner with somebody else to do this, I'll just go to OpenAI.

00:24:45 ◼   ► Yeah, or Meta, who's offering $100 million signing bonuses right now.

00:24:51 ◼   ► Yes.

00:24:51 ◼   ► So if they do make this move, it's going to be even harder for them to do whatever it is they would need to do.

00:25:00 ◼   ► But I just don't think they need to do it, right?

00:25:02 ◼   ► I think the best possible thing to do is to just be a good platform, right?

00:25:10 ◼   ► I know I'm not the only person.

00:25:12 ◼   ► Everyone's saying this now in our space, and I think for good reason.

00:25:15 ◼   ► Just, like, just be a good platform, a good computer for AI to work on, however it might be,

00:25:23 ◼   ► and partner with people and do all the stuff you've got to do.

00:25:25 ◼   ► I still think they should be building their own large anchorage model.

00:25:32 ◼   ► Which is why I think what I would like to see them do is basically a reverse Apple Maps situation,

00:25:39 ◼   ► where instead of debuting a version of a Siri large anchorage model that sucks,

00:25:45 ◼   ► keep building it in private.

00:25:47 ◼   ► And in the meantime, keep the Google Maps equivalent of an LLM.

00:25:52 ◼   ► So partner up and continue teaming up with OpenAI or Anthropic, and I have some thoughts about that.

00:25:57 ◼   ► But keep building your own thing, close doors, in private.

00:26:02 ◼   ► Keep trying to understand, like, can we actually get there in a year, in a year and a half?

00:26:08 ◼   ► Like, do we actually have the knowledge and the team and the resources?

00:26:11 ◼   ► And up the spending.

00:26:13 ◼   ► Like, there's no world in which Meta can afford to pay more for AI engineers and product managers right now

00:26:21 ◼   ► than the most powerful tech company in the world, which is Apple.

00:26:23 ◼   ► Like, there's no, there shouldn't be any timeline in which Apple is not gonna,

00:26:29 ◼   ► you know, Tim Cook is not opening his wallet and be like,

00:26:32 ◼   ► okay, look, all right, how much do you want?

00:26:34 ◼   ► Like, they should be doing exactly that.

00:26:36 ◼   ► I know that it's a crazy situation to be in.

00:26:38 ◼   ► It's ridiculous that there's now this bidding war between Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic

00:26:43 ◼   ► on who can hire, who can put together the most, like, superstar of an AI team.

00:26:48 ◼   ► But, hey, this is the timeline we're living in now.

00:26:51 ◼   ► And either you play ball or you don't.

00:26:54 ◼   ► And I think Apple should play.

00:26:55 ◼   ► But regardless, so OpenAI or Anthropic.

00:27:01 ◼   ► So I think this is a really reasonable choice right now.

00:27:05 ◼   ► But I've been thinking, like, how do you choose between ChildGPT or Claude?

00:27:10 ◼   ► When it comes to having a Siri, like, an LLM-infused version of Siri.

00:27:18 ◼   ► So when you're talking to Siri, first of all, you want fast interactions, right?

00:27:22 ◼   ► So you want quick responses.

00:27:24 ◼   ► You don't want latency.

00:27:26 ◼   ► You want something to happen quickly.

00:27:28 ◼   ► And you want Siri to understand you and also follow your instructions.

00:27:33 ◼   ► And I do believe, having played with all of these things for the past several months, I really do think that when it comes to instruction following, Claude is the better model right now.

00:27:44 ◼   ► Both Sonnet 4, but especially Opus 4, are really, really good.

00:27:49 ◼   ► And even previous versions of Claude were good.

00:27:53 ◼   ► I think, in general, the work that Anthropic has done for instruction following and making sure that the LLM sticks to what the user is asking, I think they are best in class when it comes to that.

00:28:06 ◼   ► I think the main problem when it comes to Anthropic, when it comes to Claude, is that historically, Anthropic's inference platform has been very bad in terms of performance and speed.

00:28:23 ◼   ► They're based on Amazon Web Services, obviously, because Amazon owns a stake in Anthropic and, you know, they have their own investment thing going on.

00:28:31 ◼   ► But obviously, Apple wants these things to run on private cloud compute.

00:28:36 ◼   ► So, first of all, I don't think it's as easy as saying, Anthropic, give us your model.

00:28:42 ◼   ► We'll just drag a zip file on private cloud compute, and that's Claude.

00:28:47 ◼   ► Like, you gotta, you gotta, potentially, you need to, potentially, you need to retrain the whole thing.

00:28:53 ◼   ► You need to, to, to, not retrain, but basically, like, you gotta run on a completely different architecture.

00:29:01 ◼   ► So, it's, it's not as easy as saying, well, give us the code, we'll put it here, it's gonna run.

00:29:07 ◼   ► It's, it's a, it's a month-long process, I assume.

00:29:10 ◼   ► But, the main question is, assuming that you get it running on private cloud compute, can Sonnet, like, even, let's, again, disregard Opus 4, which is a huge model.

00:29:21 ◼   ► It's not gonna run fast.

00:29:22 ◼   ► Can a version of Sonnet, Claude Sonnet 4, assuming Apple is gonna ask Anthropic to run Sonnet 4.

00:29:30 ◼   ► Can Sonnet 4, without reasoning, so, again, assuming you don't want to wait too long for a response, can that be, can that run quickly on private cloud compute, as quickly as Siri?

00:29:45 ◼   ► But the main problem, from my perspective is, isn't the whole thing with Siri, right now, that a portion of Siri runs on device?

00:29:55 ◼   ► Like, isn't it the whole thing that Apple has said over the past few years, we have continued to upgrade Siri so that most of your, some of your requests can run offline on device, and then when necessary, we're gonna go to the cloud.

00:30:09 ◼   ► Like, that's the whole thing, like, when you're setting a timer, when you're setting an alarm, or even creating a reminder, I think, like, you're not going to the cloud, you're doing so on device.

00:30:18 ◼   ► And, by definition, and by the laws of physics, if something runs on device, it's gonna be faster than whatever latency they're gonna have on private cloud compute, right?

00:30:27 ◼   ► So, question, how are you gonna do that?

00:30:30 ◼   ► Like, you cannot...

00:30:32 ◼   ► I think they can have an Apple Intelligence model operate the on-device stuff, and then...

00:30:36 ◼   ► And then, because, remember, they said they have a model that decides where it goes, right?

00:30:40 ◼   ► Right.

00:30:41 ◼   ► So, we're basically looking at an Apple take on...

00:30:45 ◼   ► This is interesting, because a bunch of companies have been exploring this space of, like, dual LLM systems.

00:30:50 ◼   ► Apple has their own flavor, which is, they have the, sort of, the orchestration model that takes a look at the requests and says, well, I don't think I'm capable of doing this, I should go off to the cloud.

00:31:00 ◼   ► Google has actually published a paper on something similar.

00:31:03 ◼   ► It's a system called CAMEL.

00:31:05 ◼   ► And it's basically, like, this dual LLM system that was theorized by Simon Willison and applied by researchers at Google for a different purpose, not to understand the request, but to prevent prompt injection.

00:31:19 ◼   ► It's a really fascinating paper where, basically, Google has these two LLMs talking to each other, one of them being quarantined and basically being unable to execute code, and the other model that actually takes the requests from the safe model.

00:31:34 ◼   ► It's really fascinating.

00:31:35 ◼   ► You should go take a look at the paper.

00:31:37 ◼   ► So that's a potential solution, like, to have the Apple intelligence model coordinating and saying, well, I think this can be done on device, and this other thing can probably, should probably be done in the cloud.

00:31:48 ◼   ► But still, still, assuming all of that works, and assuming you team up with Anthropic, they have Sonnet 4 on private cloud compute, how do you fix the very fact that Siri sometimes doesn't understand you?

00:32:02 ◼   ► Like, the thing you're speaking into the microphone doesn't understand you.

00:32:06 ◼   ► Or, for example, a scenario in which I ran into the other day, where I asked Siri, can you give me my schedule for the upcoming week?

00:32:15 ◼   ► And Siri understood that it could do that on device, but it just gave me my tasks for today instead of the upcoming week.

00:32:25 ◼   ► So how exactly do you fix the problem where Apple intelligence may hallucinate, well, I think I'm going to be able to do this on device, and I think the user is asking for events and tasks due today, while, in fact, the user is asking for data for the upcoming week.

00:32:44 ◼   ► So that'll be interesting.

00:32:46 ◼   ► Well, yeah, well, maybe that's, like, the con.

00:32:51 ◼   ► Maybe the answer is just con.

00:32:53 ◼   ► Right, right, because if we're just saying, well, Apple is going to want this external help from their friends for world knowledge, well, okay, you already got the help for world knowledge.

00:33:05 ◼   ► And I think here, instead, we're talking about something else.

00:33:09 ◼   ► We're talking about infusing Siri with LLM capabilities.

00:33:13 ◼   ► So if we are following that trajectory, I think we're talking about getting rid of the on device parts of Siri.

00:33:20 ◼   ► I even think this is the kind of thing where you may actually launch it as a beta preview that is completely separate from the existing on device Siri.

00:33:30 ◼   ► That may be a solution for Apple to say, hey, look, you can continue using the traditional Siri.

00:33:35 ◼   ► It's going to have some stuff on device.

00:33:37 ◼   ► It's going to have some other stuff in the cloud.

00:33:39 ◼   ► Or you can opt in for a beta version of Siri LLM where it actually behaves like a large language model.

00:33:46 ◼   ► You can have conversations.

00:33:47 ◼   ► You can have back and forth.

00:33:48 ◼   ► There's even going to be an app where you can have text conversations with it, like a proper chatbot.

00:33:54 ◼   ► I think that's what we're talking about because it doesn't, from my perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have half and half, like half Siri, silly, stupid Siri on device.

00:34:05 ◼   ► And the other half is actually cloud coming in and be like, uh-huh, Siri, you got it wrong.

00:34:10 ◼   ► I don't think it doesn't make any sense.

00:34:12 ◼   ► I just wonder if, though, like the device control stuff, if that has to be dealt with.

00:34:17 ◼   ► I guess it didn't always get dealt with on device, right?

00:34:21 ◼   ► It wasn't always.

00:34:23 ◼   ► They switched and, I don't know, potentially got even worse.

00:34:26 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:34:28 ◼   ► Just one final thing about OpenAI.

00:34:31 ◼   ► Why not OpenAI?

00:34:32 ◼   ► Obviously, they already have a partnership, an existing relationship with OpenAI, which I think is an important factor right now.

00:34:39 ◼   ► Apple seems to suggest that they're using GPT-4.0 when it comes to their integration right now.

00:34:49 ◼   ► I continue to be a little skeptical that it's actually the latest version of GPT-4.0 that they have with child GPT integration in Siri, but whatever.

00:34:56 ◼   ► That's beyond the scope of this argument.

00:34:59 ◼   ► So they have an existing relationship.

00:35:00 ◼   ► Somehow, OpenAI is letting Apple use their model for free, which is nice.

00:35:04 ◼   ► So they obviously like each other.

00:35:06 ◼   ► But I do think that when it comes to instruction following, so being able to follow the instructions of the user, I think that all of the GPT models are worse than Claude.

00:35:21 ◼   ► The one that is better than 4.0, than 0.3, than 0.4 Mini is GPT-4.1.

00:35:30 ◼   ► But it's expensive to run, and it's kind of slow.

00:35:34 ◼   ► Like, it's not as fast as 4.0.

00:35:36 ◼   ► It's expensive.

00:35:37 ◼   ► I don't think OpenAI will let Apple use GPT-4.1 for free.

00:35:42 ◼   ► Now, two asterisks are important to mention here.

00:35:46 ◼   ► The first one, OpenAI as an open source model come in this summer, and they have said it won't run on phones.

00:35:53 ◼   ► So, should Apple take a look at the open source model by OpenAI?

00:35:59 ◼   ► I bet that's obviously going to be much better than the model that they have.

00:36:04 ◼   ► I don't think Apple is just going to say, oh, we'll take OpenAI's open source model.

00:36:09 ◼   ► We're going to put it on a private car computer and call it a day.

00:36:11 ◼   ► OpenAI also has GPT-5 coming out this summer, potentially.

00:36:16 ◼   ► And that's the big deal that's happening in OpenAI land in the upcoming weeks.

00:36:23 ◼   ► And Sam Altman has said, GPT-5 is going to be a big release.

00:36:26 ◼   ► It's going to take all of the aspects of the research and the work that they've done lately.

00:36:32 ◼   ► So, it's going to be a big model, you know, GPT-4.5 style, the model that was like a huge model that nobody cared about because it was kind of weird.

00:36:40 ◼   ► They're going to combine that with the speed of 4.0, and it's going to be a true multi-model release.

00:36:47 ◼   ► Also, in the sense that in addition to images and text and, you know, URLs, for example, it's going to be the kind of model where it will know whether it's supposed to answer you quickly or it's supposed to reason over your request.

00:37:03 ◼   ► I cannot describe how much I hate the models.

00:37:07 ◼   ► Yes, yes.

00:37:08 ◼   ► Which is, OpenAI seems to be very much aware of how ridiculous that old thing has grown into, you know, that model picker.

00:37:18 ◼   ► I mean, they are responsible for it, though.

00:37:20 ◼   ► Yes, they are.

00:37:21 ◼   ► We're unhappy about it.

00:37:22 ◼   ► This is the bet they made.

00:37:24 ◼   ► Who did this?

00:37:25 ◼   ► We're all trying to find the guy who did this.

00:37:29 ◼   ► Yes, yes, yes.

00:37:30 ◼   ► So, they said they're going to unify everything.

00:37:33 ◼   ► But again, I doubt that OpenAI will let Apple come in and say, sure, take GPT-5 and run it for free at no cost on private cloud compute.

00:37:43 ◼   ► So, I think, realistically speaking, from my perspective, what we're looking at is a partnership for a separate version of Siri that is a chatbot that is potentially labeled as a beta version, opt-in, no on-device processing or as very little as possible.

00:38:03 ◼   ► Because the main problem with Siri is that it doesn't understand you.

00:38:07 ◼   ► And they obviously want a version of Siri that understands you and that behaves like a chatbot, like a large language model.

00:38:14 ◼   ► I think they should do this.

00:38:15 ◼   ► I think it should potentially be a separate, opt-in, different version of Siri.

00:38:21 ◼   ► We'll find out.

00:38:22 ◼   ► They've got to pay these companies, though.

00:38:25 ◼   ► I mean...

00:38:28 ◼   ► Right?

00:38:28 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:38:29 ◼   ► I don't think Anthropic is going to...

00:38:32 ◼   ► You know, I don't think Dargamo Day is going to sit in front of Tim Cook or Eddy Q and be like, yeah, sure, take Sunnet for running for free on private cloud compute, whatever.

00:38:41 ◼   ► It's good for our exposure.

00:38:43 ◼   ► No.

00:38:44 ◼   ► Like, it's different with the way that, like, ChatGPT integrates right now, where it feels a little bit more like advertising in a way, right?

00:38:53 ◼   ► Where it's like, this is provided by OpenAI, you know.

00:38:57 ◼   ► But at the point where it's just, you're just straight up, like, the entire Siri infrastructure is power.

00:39:02 ◼   ► Like, you know, it's like, no, you've got to give us some money now.

00:39:05 ◼   ► So what you're saying is these companies with LLMs don't want another company to use their work without paying for it.

00:39:11 ◼   ► Ah, I walked right into that one.

00:39:14 ◼   ► Yes.

00:39:14 ◼   ► Yes.

00:39:15 ◼   ► Interesting.

00:39:16 ◼   ► Yes.

00:39:16 ◼   ► Yes.

00:39:17 ◼   ► Yes.

00:39:17 ◼   ► Silly me.

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00:40:46 ◼   ► You can stay informed with tracking charts, weekly reports, and sharing cards.

00:40:51 ◼   ► It lets you keep track of your achievements and share them with friends and family.

00:40:55 ◼   ► And it integrates with your Apple Watch, Wear OS smartwatch, and apps like Strava, Fitbit, and Apple Health.

00:41:01 ◼   ► What I love about FitBod is that all this data is tuned by certified personal trainers.

00:41:07 ◼   ► And those videos make sure that you know what you're doing.

00:41:10 ◼   ► It's that human touch on the app that I really appreciate.

00:41:13 ◼   ► Personalized training of this quality can be expensive, but FitBod is just $15.99 a month or $95.99 a year.

00:41:22 ◼   ► But you can get 25% off your membership by signing up at FitBod.me slash connected.

00:41:29 ◼   ► That's FitBod, F-I-T-B-O-D.

00:41:32 ◼   ► FitBod.me slash connected for your customized fitness plan and 25% off your membership.

00:41:40 ◼   ► Our thanks to FitBod for their support of the show and all of Relay.

00:41:44 ◼   ► Big news.

00:41:48 ◼   ► Tiny processors coming to a new MacBook.

00:41:51 ◼   ► I am fascinated by this report.

00:41:54 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:41:55 ◼   ► So this has been, as Jason pointed out in his Six Colors article,

00:42:00 ◼   ► it was rumored a couple years ago that Apple was looking at putting an A-series chip,

00:42:06 ◼   ► so the chip from the iPhone and the entry-level iPad,

00:42:10 ◼   ► putting that chip in an entry-level Mac laptop.

00:42:15 ◼   ► And a couple years ago, it kind of made sense,

00:42:20 ◼   ► but it sort of didn't really amount to anything.

00:42:23 ◼   ► Now the rumor's back with Ming-Chi Kuo having a report on X,

00:42:28 ◼   ► and then MacRumor is actually saying that they have seen code from Apple software

00:42:35 ◼   ► with a reference to an A18 Pro running Mac OS, which is fascinating.

00:42:42 ◼   ► So I want to break this into three things, just like Steve Jobs did when he introduced the Power Mac G5.

00:42:48 ◼   ► We have the chip, the system, and the product.

00:42:50 ◼   ► Talk about these things in three levels.

00:42:53 ◼   ► We're lucky to have our own Steve Jobs here with us today.

00:42:56 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:42:56 ◼   ► It's true.

00:42:57 ◼   ► Thank you, Steve.

00:42:57 ◼   ► Thank you, Steve.

00:42:58 ◼   ► Oh, finally, I get to call you Steve.

00:43:00 ◼   ► Yeah, you're Steve now.

00:43:01 ◼   ► For this conversation, you're now Steve.

00:43:05 ◼   ► It feels gross.

00:43:06 ◼   ► So as Snell points out, I don't know if you guys know this,

00:43:09 ◼   ► Jason really likes charts, and they're very handy.

00:43:12 ◼   ► Really?

00:43:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:43:13 ◼   ► He's a chart man.

00:43:14 ◼   ► Chart man.

00:43:15 ◼   ► Chart man.

00:43:15 ◼   ► Chart man.

00:43:17 ◼   ► The A18 Pro is 46% faster than the M1 in single core tasks, and is basically identical in multi-core and graphics tasks.

00:43:33 ◼   ► That is wild to me.

00:43:38 ◼   ► You know, the M1, I can't wrap my mind around this, really.

00:43:41 ◼   ► The M1 is getting ready to be five years old.

00:43:44 ◼   ► The Apple Silicon Transition started in the fall of 2020 with the M1, and we've had four generations.

00:43:53 ◼   ► We've passed five years since announcements.

00:43:55 ◼   ► Yes, it was WBDC five years ago.

00:43:58 ◼   ► And in those years, the A series has continued to improve and improve.

00:44:04 ◼   ► And so that means the A18 Pro, even in its worst benchmarks, is similar to the M1.

00:44:12 ◼   ► Like, when you get into RAM and SSD bandwidth, it struggles a little bit against the M1.

00:44:16 ◼   ► But in single core, being in between the M3 and M4 is huge.

00:44:21 ◼   ► And a lot of users who just need a laptop for school or work, who aren't doing production work the way we do,

00:44:29 ◼   ► single core is what makes a machine feel fast in almost all of those things, right?

00:44:35 ◼   ► And so it being 46% faster than the M1 in single core is a huge percentage.

00:44:40 ◼   ► I have no doubt the A18 Pro could handle Mac OS from a power perspective.

00:44:48 ◼   ► The M1 does.

00:44:49 ◼   ► And the M1, so I have an M1 MacBook Air.

00:44:51 ◼   ► I pulled it off the shelf this morning to just reacquaint myself with it.

00:44:58 ◼   ► And it's totally fine.

00:45:01 ◼   ► Like, it's great.

00:45:02 ◼   ► And something that's 46% faster in single core would be even greater.

00:45:08 ◼   ► So I have no doubt the A18 Pro could handle this.

00:45:13 ◼   ► And, of course, the A18 Pro supports Apple Intelligence, which any new Mac will have to do for better or worse.

00:45:19 ◼   ► So that's the chip.

00:45:21 ◼   ► Let's talk about the system, what you build around the chip.

00:45:26 ◼   ► And one thing you run into immediately is I.O.

00:45:30 ◼   ► And so the A18 Pro has USB 3 support at 10 gigabit a second, not Thunderbolt.

00:45:41 ◼   ► Remember, we talked about this in the lead-up to these current generation of phones.

00:45:45 ◼   ► Like, oh, well, the Pro phone have Thunderbolt.

00:45:47 ◼   ► They haven't done it yet, but they are doing USB 3 as opposed to USB 2 on the non-pro system on a chip, which is just ridiculous.

00:45:55 ◼   ► Like, everything should at least be USB 3 now.

00:45:58 ◼   ► I said in my post that, you know, maybe that would lead to confusion for some users.

00:46:04 ◼   ► I stand by that, but at the same time, like, if you're buying a potentially very cheap laptop, it probably doesn't matter.

00:46:11 ◼   ► And for most people, they don't care.

00:46:13 ◼   ► They want USB-C.

00:46:14 ◼   ► People don't care about Thunderbolt.

00:46:16 ◼   ► They want USB-C.

00:46:16 ◼   ► Federico cares, but he's Federico.

00:46:18 ◼   ► I mean, obviously, I was going to chime in.

00:46:20 ◼   ► Obviously, the big problem here is that I don't think you can, with USB 3 at 10 gigabit per second, I don't think you can do external displays.

00:46:28 ◼   ► So, for sure, you cannot do 4K 60, because that 10, it's probably not enough.

00:46:33 ◼   ► I don't think you can do that.

00:46:35 ◼   ► So, potentially, this computer will not let you do a 4K external display.

00:46:39 ◼   ► Which I think is fine.

00:46:41 ◼   ► I think it's probably fine, too.

00:46:43 ◼   ► I'm going to jump ahead a little bit, if you don't mind, Stephen.

00:46:45 ◼   ► Sure.

00:46:46 ◼   ► In your post, you reference this machine coming in at, like, the $9.99 point.

00:46:54 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:46:56 ◼   ► And I don't think that that's what this is.

00:46:59 ◼   ► Jason was talking about, we were talking about this on Upgrade 2, and Jason mentioned that.

00:47:03 ◼   ► I think this does not sit in any price slot that Apple is currently occupying on their website for a Mac.

00:47:11 ◼   ► I actually agree with that.

00:47:12 ◼   ► The reason that this product exists is it goes below, and, you know, we were talking about this on Upgrade 2.

00:47:18 ◼   ► Like, Apple has seen whatever success that cheap Walmart M1 MacBook Air has been, and has been like,

00:47:27 ◼   ► why are we giving Walmart any of this money?

00:47:29 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:47:30 ◼   ► When we can just make a Mac ourselves for this money, and get all of the money.

00:47:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:47:35 ◼   ► And it's all ours.

00:47:35 ◼   ► I don't disagree with that.

00:47:37 ◼   ► I sort of hedged my bet on that in my post, and now I wish I hadn't.

00:47:40 ◼   ► Because you're not the first person to say that to me today.

00:47:43 ◼   ► Because I don't think you can replace anything and do less with it.

00:47:47 ◼   ► And I didn't, Federico, that's such a great point about the displays.

00:47:51 ◼   ► Because that would, like, further my point of, like, you can't say, like, this is the new entry-level MacBook Air,

00:47:57 ◼   ► and now it doesn't support external displays.

00:47:59 ◼   ► But I think you can say, this is now the new entry-level MacBook Air, and it's, like, just a single display experience.

00:48:05 ◼   ► And, like, that's it.

00:48:06 ◼   ► It's your laptop, and that's the end of it.

00:48:08 ◼   ► No, it's just a laptop.

00:48:09 ◼   ► You could say that.

00:48:11 ◼   ► This is a laptop.

00:48:12 ◼   ► Honestly, I think they call it the MacBook.

00:48:13 ◼   ► I think that name comes back for something like this.

00:48:16 ◼   ► Oh, absolutely.

00:48:16 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, this is the MacBook Air.

00:48:17 ◼   ► They should, they should call it the MacBook.

00:48:19 ◼   ► They should not call it the Air.

00:48:20 ◼   ► The Air line, the Air line is actually kind of confusing now, because, like, you have the M1, which you can get, you know, for $649, currently at Walmart.

00:48:31 ◼   ► And then the M4, which starts at $999.

00:48:34 ◼   ► They don't look the same.

00:48:35 ◼   ► They don't have the same features.

00:48:36 ◼   ► Obviously, the performance is pretty different.

00:48:41 ◼   ► So, I think USB-C, at USB, you know, 10 gigabit a second, like, I think it's fine.

00:48:48 ◼   ► Would it power any monitor?

00:48:49 ◼   ► I'm sure that it would.

00:48:53 ◼   ► Like, something.

00:48:55 ◼   ► It's just not going to be.

00:48:56 ◼   ► Not 4K 60.

00:48:57 ◼   ► Right.

00:48:59 ◼   ► But, like, in theory, you could plug it into a display.

00:49:03 ◼   ► You're just not going to have a good.

00:49:04 ◼   ► 1080, 1080 for sure.

00:49:06 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:49:06 ◼   ► Let me see.

00:49:11 ◼   ► Like, the studio display requires a Thunderbolt cable.

00:49:15 ◼   ► It does.

00:49:15 ◼   ► It would not push the studio display.

00:49:17 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:49:18 ◼   ► But it could power.

00:49:19 ◼   ► I'm sure LG make a display that you could plug this into and it would work.

00:49:23 ◼   ► But it's just not going to be great.

00:49:25 ◼   ► I think, potentially, you could do 1440p at 60.

00:49:30 ◼   ► Yeah, because you're at 6 gigabit per second with 1440p at 60.

00:49:36 ◼   ► So, realistically, you could plug it into a 1080p, like, display.

00:49:39 ◼   ► You can do 1080p, 1080p.

00:49:41 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:49:43 ◼   ► You cannot do 1440p at 120.

00:49:45 ◼   ► So, you can do 1080p.

00:49:46 ◼   ► You can do 1440p at 60 hertz.

00:49:48 ◼   ► Maybe 1080p at 20 hertz.

00:49:52 ◼   ► 120, actually.

00:49:54 ◼   ► At 120 hertz.

00:49:55 ◼   ► Yes.

00:49:56 ◼   ► Yes.

00:49:57 ◼   ► Yes.

00:49:57 ◼   ► 1080p and you've got to wait 4 minutes to move it.

00:50:00 ◼   ► No, no, no.

00:50:00 ◼   ► Gaming on the Mac, am I right?

00:50:03 ◼   ► So, you can do 1080p at 60 or 120 or 1440p at 60.

00:50:09 ◼   ► I think that's reasonable.

00:50:10 ◼   ► But that's the thing of, like, you can plug into a display, but, like, that's a messy situation

00:50:15 ◼   ► for Apple to explain, right?

00:50:17 ◼   ► So, it's like...

00:50:18 ◼   ► You can plug it.

00:50:19 ◼   ► You can plug it into a 4K display.

00:50:21 ◼   ► You're just going to get the...

00:50:22 ◼   ► You're not going to get the native resolution.

00:50:24 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:24 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:25 ◼   ► So, yeah.

00:50:26 ◼   ► I mean, and that's really what I was saying about it, about the confusion it brings, is

00:50:33 ◼   ► just explaining that sort of stuff.

00:50:35 ◼   ► But I would imagine that out in the world where people are most interested in the cheapest

00:50:41 ◼   ► laptops, like education and just, like, a fleet of laptops for business workers, like, 1440

00:50:49 ◼   ► is probably fine.

00:50:52 ◼   ► It's a laptop.

00:50:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:53 ◼   ► It's just a laptop.

00:50:54 ◼   ► What it is, is a computer that you use on your lap.

00:50:57 ◼   ► Like, don't worry about anything else.

00:50:58 ◼   ► Like, this is a laptop.

00:50:59 ◼   ► It's like, the laptop's laptop.

00:51:00 ◼   ► It's like, this is what it does.

00:51:02 ◼   ► Forget about everything else.

00:51:03 ◼   ► Like, it's not important, right?

00:51:04 ◼   ► Like, really, it is a way that you would promote a product like this.

00:51:07 ◼   ► Like, look at this thing.

00:51:09 ◼   ► And they'll probably make it look fun, maybe?

00:51:11 ◼   ► What do you think?

00:51:11 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:51:13 ◼   ► So, the...

00:51:15 ◼   ► Going from the system to the product now, you got to...

00:51:17 ◼   ► I have my shtick, okay?

00:51:18 ◼   ► I'm sorry.

00:51:19 ◼   ► I've helped you get to 0.3, right?

00:51:22 ◼   ► It's true.

00:51:22 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:51:23 ◼   ► Walk quietly and carry a big shtick, as they say.

00:51:26 ◼   ► Hello?

00:51:29 ◼   ► Yeah, we're still here.

00:51:33 ◼   ► Like, I just don't...

00:51:34 ◼   ► I didn't even understand the reference.

00:51:36 ◼   ► Like, I don't even know what that meant.

00:51:37 ◼   ► Yeah, me neither.

00:51:37 ◼   ► It's an American president thing.

00:51:39 ◼   ► It's fine.

00:51:39 ◼   ► Yeah, so I think there's two directions I could go with the design.

00:51:44 ◼   ► The simplest thing, and the most cost-effective thing, would be you take the M1 MacBook Air,

00:51:52 ◼   ► which is really like the old Retina Intel MacBook Air design from 2018, and you pop an A18 Pro in it, and you call it a day.

00:52:00 ◼   ► So, it's wedge-shaped, no MagSafe, just USB-C ports, Touch ID.

00:52:05 ◼   ► I think it's a real possibility they do that, but I think that's really boring.

00:52:09 ◼   ► What would be more exciting, and the direction I hope they go, and Ming-Chi Kuo says this in their post on Twitter,

00:52:19 ◼   ► they rattle off some colors.

00:52:21 ◼   ► And what I thought of immediately was the Framework 12, their new little laptop that comes in fun colors.

00:52:29 ◼   ► Yes.

00:52:30 ◼   ► And, I mean, they designed that laptop with, like, basically, like, four people.

00:52:34 ◼   ► I mean, Framework versus Apple, huge gulf in terms of the amount of resources they have.

00:52:40 ◼   ► Yep.

00:52:41 ◼   ► Surely Apple could design something...

00:52:44 ◼   ► This is exactly...

00:52:46 ◼   ► The Framework 12, Stephen, is such a great, like, example of how do you make a fun computer today.

00:52:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:52:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:52:53 ◼   ► Like, I have no need for one, but I want one.

00:52:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:52:56 ◼   ► You know, and that's, like, the most...

00:52:57 ◼   ► That's, like, the most praise I can give a PC.

00:53:00 ◼   ► It's like, this looks sick, and I want one, even though I'll never use it.

00:53:03 ◼   ► Yep.

00:53:04 ◼   ► So, you could design something that was fun, but also that makes sense for these types of users.

00:53:13 ◼   ► Now, I'm not saying you go full iBook and do, like, rubber-injected-molding colors, right?

00:53:18 ◼   ► Like, they're not going to do that.

00:53:20 ◼   ► But are there things in the wedge MacBook Air design that you could improve or change to make it an even better computer for people who are shopping for a $700 Mac?

00:53:33 ◼   ► And I'm sure that there are.

00:53:36 ◼   ► Like, I would hope that this would have Mac safe, because that's, like, a quintessential Mac experience.

00:53:43 ◼   ► But having colors, even if they did, got rid of the wedge and did a slab design so you could, like, really get bonkers battery life out of it.

00:53:54 ◼   ► I think all that's, I hope all that's on the table.

00:53:57 ◼   ► And I know that some people look at this and say, gosh, Apple should make the 12-inch MacBook again.

00:54:03 ◼   ► And I would argue that that is not what this product should be.

00:54:08 ◼   ► I think there is, theoretically, room for an ultra-thin, small, like, sub-notebook from Apple again.

00:54:15 ◼   ► People who love the 12-inch MacBook really loved it, despite it being, just to be honest with you, a pretty bad computer in a lot of ways.

00:54:23 ◼   ► People loved the size and the lightness.

00:54:26 ◼   ► But I think looking at this, if you're looking at a $700-ish MacBook, I think a 13-inch display is basically as small as you can go and still be mainstream enough to fit the needs of people who want to buy a $700 MacBook.

00:54:44 ◼   ► I think if you're thinking about schools and consumers and students and, you know, companies that just need to have everybody have a Mac, I think 12-inch is too small.

00:54:55 ◼   ► I think 13 is about right.

00:54:58 ◼   ► How many USB ports could the A18 Pro Power?

00:55:03 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:55:05 ◼   ► That's a good question that I don't know the answer to, honestly.

00:55:09 ◼   ► Because this is part of my, like, I think it has to have MagSafe for that reason, right?

00:55:14 ◼   ► USB 3.0 speeds?

00:55:16 ◼   ► Yes.

00:55:16 ◼   ► 3.0?

00:55:16 ◼   ► Yeah, 10 gigabit a second.

00:55:18 ◼   ► I mean, we know it can do one.

00:55:22 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:55:22 ◼   ► Right?

00:55:23 ◼   ► We know it can do one.

00:55:24 ◼   ► Can it do more?

00:55:25 ◼   ► Maybe it's MagSafe and one USB-C port?

00:55:28 ◼   ► I think it might be, right?

00:55:30 ◼   ► So we're looking at...

00:55:34 ◼   ► I'm looking at the power delivery.

00:55:37 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:55:38 ◼   ► And it's not clear.

00:55:39 ◼   ► Oh, these USB specs are so confusing.

00:55:41 ◼   ► I think it's...

00:55:42 ◼   ► I think we could be looking at MagSafe on one USB-C port here, realistically.

00:55:46 ◼   ► Maybe.

00:55:46 ◼   ► Which is not great, but maybe understandable.

00:55:50 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:55:52 ◼   ► So my hope for this product is it's made of plastic and it's somewhat chunky.

00:55:58 ◼   ► So it can go up to 7.5 watts, the USB...

00:56:04 ◼   ► Okay.

00:56:05 ◼   ► By default, the USB 3.0 port standard was designed for 4.5 watts, but by implementing additional

00:56:13 ◼   ► specifications like USB battery charging specification, it can go all the way up to 7.5 watts.

00:56:22 ◼   ► Ooh, big.

00:56:23 ◼   ► Now you're playing with power.

00:56:24 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:56:27 ◼   ► So...

00:56:28 ◼   ► I think MagSafe.

00:56:30 ◼   ► I think they should put MagSafe on it.

00:56:32 ◼   ► But I want it to be colorful, right?

00:56:34 ◼   ► I want it to be made of plastic.

00:56:35 ◼   ► I want it to be chunkier.

00:56:37 ◼   ► You mentioned the ultra-thin and light.

00:56:39 ◼   ► That's the MacBook Air now, right?

00:56:41 ◼   ► Like, that's the ultra-thin and light.

00:56:43 ◼   ► If you want that, you don't get that at the bottom end.

00:56:46 ◼   ► You get that at the top end, and that's just what you're going to get.

00:56:49 ◼   ► And I agree with the 13-inch.

00:56:51 ◼   ► I feel like if you want a smaller screen laptop, hello, can I introduce you to the 11-inch

00:56:56 ◼   ► iPad Pro?

00:56:57 ◼   ► Like, if you really want a small laptop...

00:56:58 ◼   ► For twice as much money.

00:57:00 ◼   ► Yeah, but you pay for it, right?

00:57:03 ◼   ► Like, that's the thing.

00:57:04 ◼   ► The smallest, I think, except for the MacBook Air, if you really want a tiny laptop, in history,

00:57:11 ◼   ► you've paid more for it.

00:57:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:57:12 ◼   ► Right?

00:57:13 ◼   ► The 12-inch PowerBook was expensive, right?

00:57:16 ◼   ► Mm-hmm.

00:57:17 ◼   ► And the MacBook...

00:57:19 ◼   ► MacBook.

00:57:20 ◼   ► There's so much MacBook that was expensive.

00:57:22 ◼   ► Like, miniaturization is expensive.

00:57:24 ◼   ► Like, that's the way that that goes.

00:57:27 ◼   ► Or, do you know what?

00:57:28 ◼   ► Buy an iPad mini, you get the smallest screen.

00:57:30 ◼   ► There you go.

00:57:31 ◼   ► Or you get a regular iPad or something.

00:57:33 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

00:57:33 ◼   ► I just...

00:57:34 ◼   ► I feel like this product is going to be a budget product, and so it is going to exhibit budget

00:57:40 ◼   ► things.

00:57:40 ◼   ► But I want it to be fun with it.

00:57:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:57:43 ◼   ► Because then it will be, like, a fun product to have.

00:57:44 ◼   ► Colorful, chunky, plastic laptop?

00:57:46 ◼   ► Like, it'd be fun.

00:57:48 ◼   ► I was texting with somebody earlier today, like, this would be a really fun secondary Mac

00:57:52 ◼   ► for somebody who, maybe they have a desktop.

00:57:55 ◼   ► Maybe they got a Mac Mini or a Mac Studio or something, and they want a portable Mac.

00:58:02 ◼   ► Like, this would be great.

00:58:03 ◼   ► Someone, Stephen?

00:58:04 ◼   ► Me.

00:58:05 ◼   ► So you're going to have a second laptop?

00:58:07 ◼   ► Second, yeah.

00:58:09 ◼   ► It's just a secondary laptop.

00:58:10 ◼   ► Secondary.

00:58:10 ◼   ► Eight terabytes of storage into a $700 computer.

00:58:14 ◼   ► I have a secondary laptop now.

00:58:15 ◼   ► It's fine.

00:58:17 ◼   ► So we'll see.

00:58:18 ◼   ► This is very exciting to me, just because...

00:58:23 ◼   ► Well, for many reasons, but mainly because this is a space Apple hasn't played in before

00:58:26 ◼   ► with the MacBook.

00:58:27 ◼   ► You can get a Mac Mini cheap, but the MacBook Air has basically been a $1,000 computer, roughly.

00:58:33 ◼   ► I'm not doing any math about inflation.

00:58:35 ◼   ► It has roughly been a $1,000 computer forever.

00:58:39 ◼   ► And if they drop below that, it's for education.

00:58:43 ◼   ► Or it's like the M1, it's an older machine.

00:58:46 ◼   ► And I would expect an A18 Pro MacBook.

00:58:51 ◼   ► God, the pro naming just comes back to bite you and all these things.

00:58:56 ◼   ► I suspect that it would not get updated every year.

00:58:58 ◼   ► It would be a longer cycle, and that would be fine.

00:59:02 ◼   ► But having Apple build something that's inexpensive from the jump is just really interesting because they don't do it very often.

00:59:14 ◼   ► And times they've tried it in the past hasn't always gone so well.

00:59:18 ◼   ► And I think they have all the pieces here to make something really good.

00:59:21 ◼   ► I hope they take it, take the opportunity to make something with this market in mind and not just put it in the M1 Air enclosure.

00:59:29 ◼   ► But we'll see.

00:59:32 ◼   ► So moving on from small MacBooks, we now have to talk about big awards.

00:59:38 ◼   ► We are now grading the Teach Olympics.

00:59:42 ◼   ► You don't have a recollection because you don't know this happened.

00:59:51 ◼   ► You don't know this happened.

00:59:53 ◼   ► You don't know this happened.

00:59:54 ◼   ► What?

00:59:55 ◼   ► Because this was on an episode.

00:59:58 ◼   ► This was episode 510.

01:00:01 ◼   ► There's a link in the show notes.

01:00:02 ◼   ► This was a show that you missed last summer.

01:00:06 ◼   ► We had John on, and then we banned you from listening to the episode.

01:00:10 ◼   ► Ah, yes, yes.

01:00:12 ◼   ► You told me don't listen.

01:00:14 ◼   ► That's right.

01:00:14 ◼   ► Yes, okay.

01:00:14 ◼   ► That's right.

01:00:15 ◼   ► Okay.

01:00:16 ◼   ► And we've also forbidden you from scrolling down in the notion.

01:00:19 ◼   ► Yes, but the Teach Olympics were public for people, right?

01:00:24 ◼   ► Yes, everyone else in the world heard it but you.

01:00:26 ◼   ► Yes, every single person on the planet has heard this episode.

01:00:29 ◼   ► We did.

01:00:30 ◼   ► We YouTubed it to everybody.

01:00:31 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:00:32 ◼   ► This was the game.

01:00:34 ◼   ► To remind everybody and to explain to Federico for the first time.

01:00:37 ◼   ► We're going to make picks on what source of technology experiments Federico may undertake in the next 12 months.

01:00:52 ◼   ► To avoid a space-time paradox, Federico has been forbidden from looking at our show planning document and isn't allowed to listen to the episode.

01:01:04 ◼   ► We will each make three picks.

01:01:06 ◼   ► A correct prediction will earn one point when graded in July 2025.

01:01:10 ◼   ► That's now.

01:01:12 ◼   ► That's now.

01:01:13 ◼   ► Passion picks are ungraded and are for passion.

01:01:17 ◼   ► You may remain seated.

01:01:20 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:01:21 ◼   ► Federico, you're going to have to help us, I think, in most of the grading of this.

01:01:28 ◼   ► So now I can look.

01:01:29 ◼   ► Okay.

01:01:30 ◼   ► Well, yeah.

01:01:30 ◼   ► And we'll read these out to you as we go.

01:01:32 ◼   ► So don't read too far ahead.

01:01:33 ◼   ► And we'll read John's.

01:01:36 ◼   ► Maybe John will win and we'll just never tell him.

01:01:38 ◼   ► And we'll ban John from listening to this episode.

01:01:40 ◼   ► All right.

01:01:41 ◼   ► We'll be like the John games.

01:01:45 ◼   ► So round one.

01:01:46 ◼   ► John's pick was, Federico finds a use for Thunderbolt 5.

01:01:51 ◼   ► This, John knows me well.

01:01:56 ◼   ► And I assume he was looking at the potential timeline of Thunderbolt 5 devices.

01:02:03 ◼   ► This is not a point because I thought about it.

01:02:07 ◼   ► Right.

01:02:08 ◼   ► I thought about waiting for a Thunderbolt 5 eGPU.

01:02:12 ◼   ► But then, obviously, I upgraded to a full-blown gaming PC.

01:02:17 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:02:17 ◼   ► So I am no longer relying on.

01:02:20 ◼   ► I sold all of my eGPUs, in fact.

01:02:22 ◼   ► So this is not a point.

01:02:25 ◼   ► But it came very close.

01:02:26 ◼   ► And also, by a similar token, the next item.

01:02:31 ◼   ► Yeah, so, okay, I was extrapolating out on your life, right, from my first round pick,

01:02:36 ◼   ► which was I was convinced at a certain point you were going to be fed up of unfurling your

01:02:43 ◼   ► fiber optic cable from your office to the bedroom.

01:02:48 ◼   ► You always said it as if you enjoyed it as a thing.

01:02:51 ◼   ► I was convinced that at a certain point life was going to hit you and you were going to be

01:02:56 ◼   ► like, this is ridiculous.

01:02:57 ◼   ► Why am I doing this?

01:02:59 ◼   ► And eventually I'm going to break this cable.

01:03:01 ◼   ► And that's one day you would get the approval to drill a hole through the wall to run this

01:03:07 ◼   ► cable to power an external GPU in another room.

01:03:11 ◼   ► Incredible.

01:03:12 ◼   ► Incredible.

01:03:13 ◼   ► But that didn't happen.

01:03:14 ◼   ► Because you stopped using external GPUs.

01:03:16 ◼   ► Yeah, I stopped.

01:03:17 ◼   ► So I'm now a happy boy with a gaming PC.

01:03:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:03:23 ◼   ► Sorry, Mike.

01:03:24 ◼   ► That's not a point.

01:03:25 ◼   ► Steven, it seems that you're up next.

01:03:28 ◼   ► Federico tries an e-ink phone to help reduce distractions and get more into reading.

01:03:36 ◼   ► point because I did try one.

01:03:38 ◼   ► You get it.

01:03:40 ◼   ► I did purchase.

01:03:42 ◼   ► Actually, I purchased two e-ink phones.

01:03:46 ◼   ► I tried each for like a week and then I realized, oh, I'm never going to be like, I'm not.

01:03:51 ◼   ► I'm not a, I'm not really an e-ink phone person.

01:03:55 ◼   ► I've forgotten how this went down because isn't this cheating?

01:03:57 ◼   ► You said two days before recording that you were going to do this before we recorded the

01:04:01 ◼   ► show.

01:04:01 ◼   ► Steven, I don't remember how...

01:04:03 ◼   ► Read the, read the tweet.

01:04:04 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:05 ◼   ► At the beach, wanted to try and read a book for a few hours under the sun.

01:04:09 ◼   ► Try it.

01:04:09 ◼   ► Oh, okay.

01:04:11 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:11 ◼   ► All right.

01:04:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:12 ◼   ► Fair enough.

01:04:13 ◼   ► I ended up purchasing, purchasing, let me see if I can find it, but for sure I have

01:04:17 ◼   ► a Books Palma.

01:04:18 ◼   ► Everyone does.

01:04:19 ◼   ► I do.

01:04:20 ◼   ► I, I purchased something else that I barely even used.

01:04:26 ◼   ► Um, I'll try and find it.

01:04:29 ◼   ► I purchased it for like this website about ebook, ebook readers.

01:04:33 ◼   ► Um, um, I'm trying to see if, yeah, it's basically like that.

01:04:39 ◼   ► I'm trying to see if the super human AI search still works.

01:04:44 ◼   ► You mean grammarly.

01:04:45 ◼   ► Yeah, I know, right?

01:04:47 ◼   ► On top of the Books Palma, you bought another one?

01:04:49 ◼   ► Yes, yes.

01:04:50 ◼   ► A few months later thinking, oh, this one, uh, I bought one that has a, a, a, a,

01:04:59 ◼   ► SIM capability, like that you can actually use it as a phone.

01:05:03 ◼   ► And I remember trying it.

01:05:05 ◼   ► I vaguely remember trying it like around Christmas of last year and thinking, yeah,

01:05:10 ◼   ► it's got the same issue.

01:05:11 ◼   ► Like I just like using a proper smartphone with like a colored screen and apps, you know?

01:05:17 ◼   ► Um, so that's why, but I did, I, the, the pick is correct.

01:05:21 ◼   ► I did try an e-ink phone to get more into reading, not about the distractions,

01:05:28 ◼   ► uh, about the reading.

01:05:29 ◼   ► All right.

01:05:29 ◼   ► I'll take it.

01:05:30 ◼   ► So the end of round one, I'm winning one to zero to zero.

01:05:33 ◼   ► Congratulations.

01:05:34 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:05:35 ◼   ► I'm sorry for challenging you.

01:05:37 ◼   ► I apologize.

01:05:38 ◼   ► That's okay.

01:05:38 ◼   ► Uh, my round two, first pick.

01:05:40 ◼   ► Another Windows handheld is declared to be the best, resulting in Federico selling his

01:05:44 ◼   ► Legion Go.

01:05:46 ◼   ► Uh, well, I haven't sold my Legion Go, Mike.

01:05:50 ◼   ► Uh, although I do think there are now better Windows handhelds.

01:05:54 ◼   ► Um, I, uh, but I am, I haven't sold my Legion Go.

01:05:59 ◼   ► In fact, I am, I'm waiting for the Legion Go too, but Legion Go one is now running Steam

01:06:05 ◼   ► OS and I like it.

01:06:06 ◼   ► So, so you think another Windows handheld is the best?

01:06:11 ◼   ► I do think that, I do think that right now the Rogue Ally X is better than the Legion Go,

01:06:20 ◼   ► technically speaking.

01:06:21 ◼   ► Like, it's the better handheld for most people.

01:06:23 ◼   ► And I do think that supposedly over the next few months, the Xbox Rogue Ally X, geez, that's

01:06:32 ◼   ► a name.

01:06:32 ◼   ► The, uh, that's going to be the best one this year because it's going to have like the Xbox

01:06:38 ◼   ► partnership and the Z2 Extreme inside.

01:06:41 ◼   ► But right now I would say the Rogue Ally X is the more well-rounded Windows handheld, more

01:06:47 ◼   ► than the Legion Go.

01:06:49 ◼   ► I'm trying to find a definition of the word sold, uh, which would somehow answer for you

01:06:55 ◼   ► removing Windows from the Legion Go.

01:06:57 ◼   ► Well, I have a suggestion, actually.

01:07:00 ◼   ► Okay.

01:07:01 ◼   ► These rules don't say anything about half points.

01:07:03 ◼   ► Incredible.

01:07:05 ◼   ► You can get a half point.

01:07:05 ◼   ► I'll take a half point from mine.

01:07:07 ◼   ► I mean, I do feel like, especially in the fact that while he hasn't sold this, he's no

01:07:11 ◼   ► longer using Windows on it.

01:07:13 ◼   ► Yeah, I know.

01:07:13 ◼   ► You deserve a half point.

01:07:14 ◼   ► You deserve a half point.

01:07:16 ◼   ► Haven't you also, at this point, gotten into a non-sellable point because you kind of ruined

01:07:20 ◼   ► it by putting SteamOS on it, if I remember from MPC?

01:07:23 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

01:07:25 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

01:07:25 ◼   ► It's unsellable.

01:07:26 ◼   ► And it's also, no, no, no.

01:07:28 ◼   ► And I mean, it's also modded, right?

01:07:30 ◼   ► It's the Legion Go with a little cage in the back for the SSD.

01:07:33 ◼   ► So, yeah, it's unsellable.

01:07:35 ◼   ► Um, Steven, you're up.

01:07:38 ◼   ► I love getting half points.

01:07:39 ◼   ► We should bring these back to the rookies.

01:07:40 ◼   ► No, no, no, no.

01:07:44 ◼   ► Federico speaks before a government body in an official capacity about AI training.

01:07:49 ◼   ► Nope.

01:07:50 ◼   ► This has not happened in any timeline.

01:07:52 ◼   ► So.

01:07:53 ◼   ► There was a timeline where it seemed possible.

01:07:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:07:56 ◼   ► Well, I don't think they would have called me, but hasn't happened.

01:07:59 ◼   ► So, uh, no points, Steven.

01:08:02 ◼   ► And John said, and now this is a weird one.

01:08:06 ◼   ► John said Federico buys a 3D printer.

01:08:09 ◼   ► No, and also John should know better than I prefer to purchase physical things than to make them.

01:08:17 ◼   ► I think this was a good pick from him.

01:08:18 ◼   ► Me too.

01:08:18 ◼   ► Because here's where he was coming from, if I remember him rightly, which was you were getting more and more and more into modding things, right?

01:08:26 ◼   ► Right.

01:08:27 ◼   ► And you have that garage space.

01:08:30 ◼   ► No, I cannot put stuff in the garage.

01:08:32 ◼   ► No, I cannot do that.

01:08:33 ◼   ► But I think that was the thinking of like, you wouldn't put one of these in your house.

01:08:36 ◼   ► Because I'm not sure if you should have a 3D printer like in the house.

01:08:39 ◼   ► Like, I don't know.

01:08:40 ◼   ► No, no.

01:08:41 ◼   ► I would never get permission to do it.

01:08:43 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:08:43 ◼   ► But maybe in the garage, right?

01:08:45 ◼   ► You could have maybe put it down there.

01:08:46 ◼   ► I think it was the thinking.

01:08:47 ◼   ► Nope.

01:08:47 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:08:48 ◼   ► Okay.

01:08:48 ◼   ► I get the thinking.

01:08:49 ◼   ► But the reality is that I would never get permission to do it.

01:08:52 ◼   ► So, yeah.

01:08:54 ◼   ► No point.

01:08:55 ◼   ► So, at the end of round two, we have Steven with one point and Mike with 0.5 points.

01:09:02 ◼   ► Love it.

01:09:03 ◼   ► Good job.

01:09:05 ◼   ► All right.

01:09:05 ◼   ► Round three.

01:09:06 ◼   ► Round three.

01:09:06 ◼   ► Federico adds a water feature to his balcony.

01:09:10 ◼   ► Can you define water feature?

01:09:13 ◼   ► I think.

01:09:15 ◼   ► What is a water feature?

01:09:16 ◼   ► I think it's mostly decorative.

01:09:17 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:09:19 ◼   ► Or could have fish in it.

01:09:20 ◼   ► Like a fountain?

01:09:22 ◼   ► Or, yeah.

01:09:23 ◼   ► A fountain or like a koi pond or, you know, more than just like a garden hose for watering

01:09:30 ◼   ► plants.

01:09:30 ◼   ► It's not an irrigation system.

01:09:32 ◼   ► Right.

01:09:33 ◼   ► Right.

01:09:33 ◼   ► So, okay.

01:09:34 ◼   ► Okay.

01:09:34 ◼   ► So, that's what I was asking.

01:09:35 ◼   ► You were not thinking about an irrigation system.

01:09:37 ◼   ► No.

01:09:38 ◼   ► So, you don't get any points.

01:09:39 ◼   ► We don't have any water features in the balcony.

01:09:42 ◼   ► We just have a really good, homemade, automatable irrigation system.

01:09:49 ◼   ► But no water features.

01:09:50 ◼   ► It's a feature of water, not a water feature.

01:09:53 ◼   ► Yes.

01:09:54 ◼   ► John said, Federico re-explores the world of glasses that serve as an external display.

01:10:03 ◼   ► John gets a point.

01:10:04 ◼   ► Oh, here he goes.

01:10:07 ◼   ► I have done that.

01:10:08 ◼   ► In fact, I do own and use them occasionally.

01:10:13 ◼   ► See, what are the latest Xreal called?

01:10:16 ◼   ► No one knows.

01:10:16 ◼   ► Pro.

01:10:17 ◼   ► Max.

01:10:18 ◼   ► Pro.

01:10:18 ◼   ► No.

01:10:19 ◼   ► Xreal.

01:10:22 ◼   ► Xreal.

01:10:22 ◼   ► Okay.

01:10:22 ◼   ► So, let's go.

01:10:23 ◼   ► Xreal.

01:10:24 ◼   ► I don't have any.

01:10:26 ◼   ► I don't think I have the Ultra.

01:10:28 ◼   ► Are they really called Ultra?

01:10:29 ◼   ► I don't have it.

01:10:30 ◼   ► Hold on.

01:10:30 ◼   ► This website.

01:10:31 ◼   ► Why is this website so weird?

01:10:33 ◼   ► Air 2 Pro.

01:10:35 ◼   ► Air 2 Ultra.

01:10:36 ◼   ► Oh, my God.

01:10:38 ◼   ► These are all products that they make.

01:10:39 ◼   ► One Pro, one.

01:10:41 ◼   ► Air 2 Ultra, Air 2 Pro.

01:10:43 ◼   ► Hold on.

01:10:44 ◼   ► We got it.

01:10:45 ◼   ► So, we're searching for Xreal.

01:10:50 ◼   ► All right.

01:10:50 ◼   ► I'm actually now, while you're doing this, I'm going to read all of their products in the comparison.

01:10:54 ◼   ► Xreal 1 Pro.

01:10:55 ◼   ► Xreal 1.

01:10:56 ◼   ► Xreal Air 2 Pro.

01:10:57 ◼   ► Xreal Air 2 Pro plus Xreal Beam Pro.

01:10:59 ◼   ► Xreal Air 2.

01:11:01 ◼   ► Xreal Air.

01:11:01 ◼   ► Xreal Air 2 Ultra.

01:11:03 ◼   ► I feel like this company's been around for, like, two years, and, like, they bring out a new product every four months.

01:11:08 ◼   ► So, I have the Xreal 1.

01:11:12 ◼   ► Okay.

01:11:14 ◼   ► Okay.

01:11:14 ◼   ► That's what I purchased at the end of 2024.

01:11:17 ◼   ► I like them.

01:11:19 ◼   ► I got the custom lenses with my prescription on them.

01:11:22 ◼   ► And, occasionally, I use them as external displays for the iPad or for the Steam Deck.

01:11:31 ◼   ► I haven't tried them with the Switch 2, actually, now that I think about it.

01:11:34 ◼   ► It doesn't work without power.

01:11:36 ◼   ► It doesn't?

01:11:37 ◼   ► They need, there needs to be, like, a power source in the middle.

01:11:41 ◼   ► The reason I notice is because there's a gaming podcast, and they are actually sponsored by Xreal, and they tried it during the, their Switch 2 launch coverage was sponsored by Xreal, and they tried it.

01:11:51 ◼   ► It's like, ah, it doesn't work.

01:11:54 ◼   ► And this is the thing with the original Switch.

01:11:56 ◼   ► There needs to be, like, there needs to be, like, a thing in the middle for the Switch.

01:12:01 ◼   ► Yeah, I got that.

01:12:02 ◼   ► I got that dongle.

01:12:03 ◼   ► I got that.

01:12:03 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:12:04 ◼   ► So, you need that.

01:12:04 ◼   ► I know what to do.

01:12:05 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:12:05 ◼   ► Okay.

01:12:06 ◼   ► But, yeah.

01:12:07 ◼   ► Good job, John.

01:12:07 ◼   ► What, is that the Genki thing or whatever?

01:12:09 ◼   ► Is that it, right?

01:12:10 ◼   ► Genki maker thing?

01:12:11 ◼   ► Where it's, like, you're faking a powered HDMI or something like that?

01:12:16 ◼   ► I got one of those.

01:12:18 ◼   ► I got one of those.

01:12:19 ◼   ► You still need one of those.

01:12:20 ◼   ► It's like a little dongle.

01:12:22 ◼   ► What I have is a little dongle that allows you to have both USB charging and USB video pass-through in the same dongle, which is kind of rare as a thing to find.

01:12:32 ◼   ► So, yeah, it should work.

01:12:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:12:34 ◼   ► Good job, John.

01:12:36 ◼   ► You know me well.

01:12:38 ◼   ► Well, we'll see.

01:12:41 ◼   ► And then my last round pick was Federica makes more than 10 flexi picks in one game of the rookies.

01:12:46 ◼   ► Which is correct.

01:12:49 ◼   ► It happened very soon after.

01:12:51 ◼   ► You got really excited and then we all did it.

01:12:54 ◼   ► And then afterwards, somebody, I think John pointed out that I got my point.

01:12:58 ◼   ► And I was very excited about that.

01:12:59 ◼   ► It was the September rookies where we all went mad.

01:13:02 ◼   ► Okay.

01:13:04 ◼   ► So, at the end of round three, there's been a few changes.

01:13:09 ◼   ► We have Stephen and OTJ tied with one point.

01:13:14 ◼   ► And surprisingly, Mr. Mike Hurley at 1.5 points.

01:13:21 ◼   ► So, I now win John's share of Mac Stories.

01:13:24 ◼   ► Is that what was at stake?

01:13:27 ◼   ► Yep.

01:13:27 ◼   ► We all put on the line our ties with you.

01:13:32 ◼   ► And so, now I get Mac Stories.

01:13:34 ◼   ► So, you have a new business partner.

01:13:36 ◼   ► Congratulations, Federico.

01:13:38 ◼   ► Nice.

01:13:38 ◼   ► I don't know how you feel about that.

01:13:39 ◼   ► Nice.

01:13:41 ◼   ► Nice.

01:13:41 ◼   ► Welcome on board.

01:13:43 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:13:43 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:13:44 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:13:44 ◼   ► I'm blogging now.

01:13:45 ◼   ► I was in preparation for this.

01:13:47 ◼   ► So, I'm going to be doing the Mac review this year.

01:13:49 ◼   ► It's all mine now.

01:13:50 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:13:51 ◼   ► You know what, Mike?

01:13:52 ◼   ► You're fired.

01:13:54 ◼   ► Oh, no.

01:13:55 ◼   ► So close.

01:13:57 ◼   ► Are you going to give me severance?

01:13:59 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:14:00 ◼   ► The TV show.

01:14:01 ◼   ► That's what I'll give you.

01:14:02 ◼   ► Hire me.

01:14:03 ◼   ► So, Stephen, can you please tweet hire me?

01:14:06 ◼   ► Hire Mike.

01:14:07 ◼   ► Hire half of him.

01:14:08 ◼   ► Hire Mike.

01:14:08 ◼   ► Hire Mike.

01:14:09 ◼   ► Because Federico's fired him.

01:14:10 ◼   ► There were passion picks, though.

01:14:12 ◼   ► Yes.

01:14:12 ◼   ► Okay.

01:14:14 ◼   ► OTJ said, Federico built something new with magnets?

01:14:18 ◼   ► No.

01:14:19 ◼   ► No.

01:14:20 ◼   ► Not since...

01:14:22 ◼   ► Not in the fall.

01:14:23 ◼   ► Not in the winter.

01:14:24 ◼   ► Hold on.

01:14:26 ◼   ► No.

01:14:29 ◼   ► That was before.

01:14:30 ◼   ► I was thinking of the MacPad.

01:14:31 ◼   ► That was before.

01:14:32 ◼   ► Oh, yeah.

01:14:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:14:32 ◼   ► This was after MacPad.

01:14:34 ◼   ► This was after MacPad.

01:14:35 ◼   ► No.

01:14:35 ◼   ► Which is helpful.

01:14:36 ◼   ► Because I think there are a lot of passion picks related to the MacPad.

01:14:38 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:14:39 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:14:39 ◼   ► Okay.

01:14:39 ◼   ► Okay.

01:14:40 ◼   ► Then no.

01:14:40 ◼   ► Okay.

01:14:41 ◼   ► Federico finally breaks down.

01:14:44 ◼   ► And admits his friends were right.

01:14:46 ◼   ► And buys...

01:14:48 ◼   ► Ayan?

01:14:50 ◼   ► I don't...

01:14:51 ◼   ► Ayan.

01:14:51 ◼   ► Ayan.

01:14:52 ◼   ► Ayan.

01:14:53 ◼   ► Ayan Odin 2.

01:14:55 ◼   ► And why he hasn't yet.

01:14:57 ◼   ► Yes.

01:14:59 ◼   ► I did that.

01:15:00 ◼   ► I did.

01:15:01 ◼   ► I did buy the Odin 2.

01:15:03 ◼   ► And then I sold my Odin 2.

01:15:06 ◼   ► And in fact, I miss my Odin 2.

01:15:08 ◼   ► And I'm really...

01:15:09 ◼   ► I really hope that the rumors of an Odin 3 are correct.

01:15:12 ◼   ► By the way, Stephen, this is a gaming handle.

01:15:14 ◼   ► I figured it was that or a vape.

01:15:16 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:15:16 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:15:17 ◼   ► No, it's...

01:15:18 ◼   ► I don't vape.

01:15:19 ◼   ► Turns out all Federico's friends are vaping.

01:15:24 ◼   ► And...

01:15:25 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:15:25 ◼   ► Gamers.

01:15:27 ◼   ► To be honest.

01:15:27 ◼   ► A lot of similarities, I feel like, between the vaping world and handheld gaming.

01:15:35 ◼   ► Maybe.

01:15:35 ◼   ► They're all really into kickstands.

01:15:37 ◼   ► Next, portable cigarettes.

01:15:39 ◼   ► Okay.

01:15:40 ◼   ► All right, Mike, you're up soon.

01:15:41 ◼   ► Federico returns to WWDC and tries a new food.

01:15:45 ◼   ► He doesn't like it.

01:15:46 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:15:49 ◼   ► Yes.

01:15:50 ◼   ► Yes.

01:15:50 ◼   ► What was the food?

01:15:52 ◼   ► I tried.

01:15:52 ◼   ► So, do beverages also count?

01:15:55 ◼   ► I mean, yeah.

01:15:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:15:56 ◼   ► It's something that you eat.

01:15:56 ◼   ► You drink.

01:15:57 ◼   ► Chris Lolly had me try the abomination of the Dr. Pepper.

01:16:03 ◼   ► I don't know why he made you do that.

01:16:04 ◼   ► It was almost like bullying, like emotional bullying to you.

01:16:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:16:08 ◼   ► I saw that video and it's like, I don't know why this is happening right now.

01:16:11 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

01:16:11 ◼   ► Because Federico's going to be very upset about this.

01:16:13 ◼   ► Yeah, it was terrible.

01:16:14 ◼   ► It was terrible.

01:16:15 ◼   ► I also have to file a complaint about some of the actual Apple cafeteria press food.

01:16:27 ◼   ► There was something about like, I tried like a cookie at some point because basically my entire week, I survived, especially breakfast and lunchtime on cookies, on chocolate chip cookies, because everything that they made that was advertised as vegetarian, they seem to have gotten some kind of memo where vegetarian means, oh, you must put lots of raw onion inside.

01:16:56 ◼   ► You've made this complaint on multiple podcasts, including this one.

01:17:00 ◼   ► And I will continue.

01:17:01 ◼   ► I really like the, they claim is vegetarian.

01:17:05 ◼   ► Like, what's the claim?

01:17:07 ◼   ► Like, it could be vegetarian.

01:17:08 ◼   ► They have their fancy labels in front of the food, you know, all printed with a nice font and everyone says vegetarian.

01:17:15 ◼   ► And it's like, sure, eat the vegetarian and then try and talk to people at the conference.

01:17:20 ◼   ► You're going to have a good time.

01:17:23 ◼   ► And also, I tried this cookie, which was different.

01:17:26 ◼   ► I was like, oh, today I want to try a different cookie.

01:17:28 ◼   ► It was horrible.

01:17:29 ◼   ► It tasted like dish soap or something.

01:17:32 ◼   ► I don't know what they were doing.

01:17:33 ◼   ► Oh.

01:17:34 ◼   ► So, well.

01:17:36 ◼   ► Do you eat coriander?

01:17:37 ◼   ► No, I don't.

01:17:40 ◼   ► Why?

01:17:41 ◼   ► Because it tastes funny.

01:17:44 ◼   ► That's what was in that food.

01:17:45 ◼   ► So, people that don't like a common, or potentially, a common complaint for coriander or cilantro, as it's known in America, is people feel like it tastes like soap.

01:17:57 ◼   ► It does.

01:17:58 ◼   ► It does.

01:17:58 ◼   ► It really does.

01:17:59 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:17:59 ◼   ► But not to everyone.

01:18:00 ◼   ► I love coriander.

01:18:01 ◼   ► It doesn't taste like soap to me.

01:18:03 ◼   ► Like, this is like a, there is like a thing.

01:18:05 ◼   ► There is like a thing that goes on here for the way that people taste.

01:18:08 ◼   ► And coriander is like, some people think it tastes like soap and some people don't.

01:18:12 ◼   ► And they like the taste of it.

01:18:14 ◼   ► So, that's what was going on.

01:18:16 ◼   ► Too much coriander.

01:18:16 ◼   ► John suggests here, John made a third passion pick in the middle of mine.

01:18:23 ◼   ► Federico hires Mike as his taster after becoming convinced that I tried to poison him in 2022.

01:18:29 ◼   ► Good idea.

01:18:30 ◼   ► Good idea.

01:18:31 ◼   ► I have no doubt that something like this would have happened, because he did try to poison you.

01:18:35 ◼   ► It was 2023, by the way.

01:18:37 ◼   ► Okay.

01:18:38 ◼   ► John is off by a year.

01:18:40 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:18:40 ◼   ► The story is, I tried to convince you to come to breakfast with me that day, and you didn't.

01:18:46 ◼   ► And you let John take you to go get a sandwich, and you got food poisoning.

01:18:49 ◼   ► Mike, you tried to save me.

01:18:51 ◼   ► I tried to save you.

01:18:52 ◼   ► We went and had a very nice breakfast that day, Adina and I, and you could have been with us.

01:18:56 ◼   ► And you said, look what happened.

01:18:58 ◼   ► You nearly lost your life on a plane.

01:19:00 ◼   ► What could have happened?

01:19:01 ◼   ► What could have happened?

01:19:02 ◼   ► I could have died because of John.

01:19:04 ◼   ► You could have, but luckily you didn't.

01:19:07 ◼   ► Federico creates another Frankenstein computer device.

01:19:10 ◼   ► No.

01:19:11 ◼   ► You didn't do that.

01:19:13 ◼   ► Federico discovers a new kickstand technology.

01:19:16 ◼   ► Hold on, hold on.

01:19:18 ◼   ► Hold on.

01:19:20 ◼   ► I did assemble the crazy eGPU that at some point caught on fire and then was fixed in the summer.

01:19:30 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm taking that point.

01:19:31 ◼   ► I'm taking that point.

01:19:32 ◼   ► That's a passion point.

01:19:33 ◼   ► Because that was like a 3D printed computer case.

01:19:36 ◼   ► Yes.

01:19:36 ◼   ► I think was the result of that.

01:19:39 ◼   ► Yeah, and then there was a dangerous smoke that came from that.

01:19:43 ◼   ► And then finally Federico discovers a new kickstand technology.

01:19:46 ◼   ► No.

01:19:49 ◼   ► No.

01:19:50 ◼   ► I don't think so.

01:19:50 ◼   ► I don't think so.

01:19:51 ◼   ► I just had two and I was weirdly fixated on your body.

01:19:56 ◼   ► Yeah, that's interesting.

01:19:58 ◼   ► Who isn't?

01:19:58 ◼   ► Okay.

01:19:58 ◼   ► Who isn't?

01:20:00 ◼   ► Interesting.

01:20:00 ◼   ► All right.

01:20:01 ◼   ► He gets a new technology-related tattoo.

01:20:03 ◼   ► No.

01:20:04 ◼   ► I haven't gotten any tattoos in a while, unfortunately.

01:20:07 ◼   ► I'm ready.

01:20:09 ◼   ► I'm getting itchy.

01:20:09 ◼   ► Me too.

01:20:11 ◼   ► Federico considers implanting a magnet and or NFC chip into his body.

01:20:19 ◼   ► No, no, no, no, no, never, never.

01:20:21 ◼   ► Nope.

01:20:22 ◼   ► That's not the kind of tech person I am.

01:20:27 ◼   ► I'm sorry.

01:20:28 ◼   ► Nope.

01:20:28 ◼   ► Huge nope.

01:20:30 ◼   ► Not yet.

01:20:30 ◼   ► Nope.

01:20:33 ◼   ► I also won the passion picks.

01:20:35 ◼   ► Federico, come on.

01:20:36 ◼   ► Who knows you best?

01:20:36 ◼   ► You know?

01:20:37 ◼   ► I got to say, Mike knows me best.

01:20:40 ◼   ► I know you best.

01:20:41 ◼   ► Based on these are very strategic picks, but also very good ones.

01:20:46 ◼   ► So, you know, there was strategy and everything.

01:20:48 ◼   ► I feel like I get you.

01:20:49 ◼   ► You know, I know your thing.

01:20:51 ◼   ► I knew the WWDC food thing was going to happen.

01:20:53 ◼   ► Like, that was an obvious one.

01:20:56 ◼   ► But I was also, see, the thing that there's a second part to this pick, though, that I predicted

01:21:02 ◼   ► you would return to WWDC, which at that point, you were very much like, I'm never going back

01:21:08 ◼   ► there.

01:21:08 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

01:21:09 ◼   ► You know?

01:21:10 ◼   ► Because of the food poisoning.

01:21:12 ◼   ► Because of the food poisoning, yeah.

01:21:13 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:14 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:14 ◼   ► It's a good reason.

01:21:16 ◼   ► It is a good reason.

01:21:17 ◼   ► But I was confident you'd return, and you did.

01:21:19 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:20 ◼   ► Well, so, Mike, do you get any title because of this?

01:21:23 ◼   ► Why don't you decide?

01:21:25 ◼   ► That wasn't under the rules.

01:21:26 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:27 ◼   ► You can be the Ricky Benchman's best friend.

01:21:31 ◼   ► I love it.

01:21:33 ◼   ► I love it.

01:21:34 ◼   ► That's incredible.

01:21:34 ◼   ► I'll take it.

01:21:36 ◼   ► I'm happy about that.

01:21:36 ◼   ► We don't need to introduce me as such.

01:21:39 ◼   ► Federico could choose to if he wants to.

01:21:42 ◼   ► Occasionally.

01:21:42 ◼   ► Occasionally, I may use your secondary title.

01:21:46 ◼   ► Yes.

01:21:47 ◼   ► Speaking of secondary titles, it's now time for the show to end.

01:21:52 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:21:54 ◼   ► That's sad.

01:21:54 ◼   ► One very good.

01:21:55 ◼   ► All right.

01:21:57 ◼   ► We have a bunch of links for you to check out.

01:21:58 ◼   ► They are in your podcast player or on the web at relay.fm slash connected slash 559.

01:22:07 ◼   ► One of those links is to leave feedback or follow up.

01:22:10 ◼   ► If you have something you want to tell us, there's a form there.

01:22:12 ◼   ► You can make it anonymous.

01:22:13 ◼   ► You can write us a poem, whatever you want to do.

01:22:17 ◼   ► There's also a link to go join Connected Pro, which is the longer ad-free version of the show

01:22:23 ◼   ► that we do each and every single week.

01:22:27 ◼   ► So there's an extra section before the show, an extra section at the end of the show,

01:22:31 ◼   ► and you also get a bunch of cool perks from Relay, including a newsletter, some members-only

01:22:35 ◼   ► podcasts, and access to the Discord.

01:22:38 ◼   ► So go check that out.

01:22:39 ◼   ► If you want more of us, you can find us online.

01:22:42 ◼   ► Federico is the editor-in-chief of MacStories.net.

01:22:46 ◼   ► Mike is the host of many, many shows on Relay.

01:22:50 ◼   ► You can check out his work at both Cortex Brand and TheEnthusiast.net.

01:22:56 ◼   ► Love it.

01:22:58 ◼   ► I got it in there in the template now.

01:22:59 ◼   ► You can find my writing at 512pixels.net.

01:23:03 ◼   ► You can find my photography featured heavily in Widget Smith 7.3.

01:23:07 ◼   ► Whether you like it or not.

01:23:09 ◼   ► Whether you like it or not.

01:23:10 ◼   ► And I co-host Mac Power users each and every Sunday.

01:23:15 ◼   ► I like our sponsors this week, Squarespace and FitBod,

01:23:19 ◼   ► for their support.

01:23:20 ◼   ► And until next week, guys, say goodbye.

01:23:22 ◼   ► Arrivederci.

01:23:24 ◼   ► Cheerio.

01:23:25 ◼   ► Bye, y'all.