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585: The Rickies (January 2026)

 

00:00:00   from relay this is connected episode 585 it's 2026 and happy new year from your ricky benjamin

00:00:15   federico vittici today's show is brought to you by our sponsors century feedback and ecamm and we're

00:00:21   joined in this inaugural episode of a new year by steven happy new year steven happy new year buddy

00:00:28   it's good to be back together good to be back i miss doing the show me too well i was i was glad that

00:00:34   we were on a bit of a break but i miss doing the show yes and i'm joined by uh you obviously but

00:00:42   also mike oh wow hello the audience gets introduced before me now you being federico

00:00:48   i've got to say federico i do not feel like you put enough import on saying you were the ricky

00:00:55   benchman because you're probably going to do it for the last time because you're going down

00:01:00   yep am i i i want to make sure of it so we'll see what happens over the score in today's episode

00:01:07   because what are we doing today we are doing the annies i think that's what we call this

00:01:13   is this the annies no no it's not that's a different thing the annies we did last time

00:01:18   what are you doing what are you doing this is just an annual annual annual rickies so we are going to

00:01:26   grade our 2025 picks and we are going to make our 2026 picks and there's links rickies.co and

00:01:35   rickipedia for both in the show notes um buckle up because there's a lot to cover so we made these

00:01:43   picks at the beginning of 2025 yes uh fully confident in what was going to be happening

00:01:52   over the course of a year that i would say was pretty unexpected in the world of apple and you're

00:01:58   going to hear that uh i think throughout today's episode there's a lot of red in this document

00:02:03   there is a lot of red like a lot of it yes federico why don't you get started with what

00:02:11   your round whoa whoa we got to read the bill oh no i don't care about rules or names

00:02:17   this is this is my new year uh this is my theme it's uh the year of destroying the show no i watched

00:02:25   your video no it was something else it was something else you if you listen to it backwards then you'll hear

00:02:32   the true intention john is dead or whatever so john oh no it wasn't dj no the beatles thing

00:02:39   yes i know yeah yeah do you ever just read that wikipedia article really late at night and just

00:02:45   wonder about things never read it once but i'll put it in the show notes you should read it okay

00:02:50   the rickies is a game connected host hey that's us play before apple keynotes in the beginning of a

00:02:56   new year trying to predict future events it's made up of three rounds each host makes two regular

00:03:03   picks followed by a risky pick there are two types of rickies annual rickies and keynote rickies the

00:03:10   winner of the annual rickies is named the annual chairman this position is awarded every january

00:03:16   so that's what we're playing today obviously hosts should be introduced at the top of each episode

00:03:21   according to their current titles in the event that a host has both positions annual and keynote chairman

00:03:28   like federico does right now they shall be introduced as the ricky benjamin after the rickies the hosts

00:03:36   then play a game called the flexies these two games are separate but related

00:03:41   each host gets to make two regular picks hosts can be granted a bonus regular pick for any previously

00:03:58   incorrect pick that has now come true from the last three corresponding games a previously incorrect pick

00:04:05   may be used only once correct regular picks are awarded one point the language used for regular

00:04:12   picks must be finalized and agreed upon during recording and no partial points may be awarded

00:04:17   risky picks unsurprisingly have a more complex scoring system each host must make a pick with three

00:04:25   supporting details if you get all three details correct you earn two points two details correct earn

00:04:32   you one point if you get one detail correct you break even with zero points and if you get all three

00:04:39   details wrong you will lose a point points are only awarded based on details not the overall pick

00:04:46   picks must have been approved as risky by the other two hosts before the start of the game

00:04:51   the annual rickies have their own subset of rules once a host chooses something as an annual pick they

00:04:58   cannot reuse it in that calendar year additionally picks may not be used in back-to-back annual rickies

00:05:06   by the same host all hosts are allowed to reuse picks previously made by others scoring is completed

00:05:13   during recording and cannot be modified once an episode is complete in the event of a tie dice by p calc must be

00:05:20   used in relay mode to pick a winner in the case of a three-way tie hosts all make their calls at the

00:05:26   same time with flipping continuing until a winner is named jason snell previously had a lifetime ban on

00:05:34   flipping any coins in relation to the rickies however after graduating coin flip university during the

00:05:41   2024 podcastathon he can now flip a coin albeit under direct supervision the order of picks is set by

00:05:49   previous performance the winner of the previous associated game goes first the previous loser goes

00:05:55   last winners will be recognized during the closing ceremonies past results can be seen at rookies.co and

00:06:03   rookies.net these sites also have pages about managing your own scorekeeping at home you may be seated

00:06:10   that takes a really long time yeah it's a little complicated um yeah but you know can't do anything

00:06:18   about our today nope okay round one federico you start okay so in round one i said a cheaper iphone is

00:06:30   uh yes correct yes well we got the the and i said uh not part of the big context the sc or something in

00:06:42   its place it was the iphone 16e um that's what it was uh cheaper for sure not cheap but cheaper than other

00:06:50   iphones uh but yes that's what we got and uh it's a point yeah kind of a boring phone but yeah kind of

00:06:58   weird phone also yeah uh i um i bought one for a family member for christmas that's fine oh not like

00:07:06   this family member or what yeah i mean it's one of my children

00:07:10   could you could you not gotten them uh 16 or what you know it's fine

00:07:18   it's fine they get what they get you know what i mean they get what it's also it's also fine if you

00:07:23   want to say that you don't like your children they were coming from an se3 so it was a pretty good

00:07:27   upgrade i i feel like this is the thing federico you'll probably agree with me like steven got the 16e

00:07:33   so then that can go into his collection later on when that device eventually meets its end because

00:07:39   it's like a weird weird thing yeah it was just really cheap refurbished is what it was

00:07:45   ah okay there we go the refurbished that's the key all right okay this was quite quite good pick

00:07:54   for you federico because you could have said the se se gets a new design and that would have been a

00:07:59   problem for you uh potentially but uh you you you good picking yeah uh mine was apple introduces its

00:08:07   own large language model to power siri oh yeah um not only was this so wrong uh in a way that

00:08:15   now this is a round one pick right yeah so like this this talks about the context like everyone was

00:08:21   just like oh this is an obvious thing that will happen yeah this is a round one pick

00:08:25   it now looks like they will have another company do it for them that's how that's how wrong this was

00:08:32   uh if there is a new one it won't be apples mad madness so no i did not get that correct uh a rare

00:08:39   round one incorrect pick uh there not looking good for me a rare sighting for for this show but it can

00:08:48   happen it can happen yeah yeah oh by the way you said ungraded doesn't have to ship in 2025

00:08:54   it shipped never yeah it won't it won't yeah they actually announced that it wasn't coming

00:09:01   in 2025 just a couple of months later i hedged my bets a little bit by introduces you did but they

00:09:09   didn't even do that so fascinating stuff yeah if if you if people don't remember you should go rewatch

00:09:15   the first like six minutes of wbc 25 because it's just it's just so interesting because apple very

00:09:22   rarely is like oh thing needs more time we will be back later but they do it sorry all right my round

00:09:29   one pick apple ships the apple watch ultra three correct correct you know i think sort of famously

00:09:37   now the two stuck around for a couple of rounds um but the three's here it's great i'm wearing one

00:09:42   really like it and uh you know i'm very curious to see now like will the three stick around another

00:09:48   year or is that just kind of a a weird thing that happened um there's not really a pattern yet with

00:09:54   the ultra but um i'm glad that i got updated my uh the battery on my ultra 2 is nowhere near as good

00:10:02   as it used to be

00:10:02   hmm that's how my one was i upgraded to the three and it says 91 maximum capacity

00:10:09   but i i feel like i have to charge this thing every day and a half now

00:10:16   hmm yeah it's not great

00:10:19   okay we're ready for round two round two round two i said a new air tag is introduced with better

00:10:29   tracking capabilities no and this is a wrong round two pick this one went down to the wire i think

00:10:36   like it felt like that we were always just around the corner from the new air tag and apple tv shipping

00:10:42   like that feel like that persisted all the way to the end of the year

00:10:45   and that's not happened and so yeah i don't think i don't think uh

00:10:50   it hasn't happened in a while for me to get a wrong round two pick but also

00:10:55   just like we saw with round one and mike can happen and it did happen we were sure at the

00:11:01   beginning of 25 that we would have new air tags and nope so that's not a point

00:11:07   hmm it's probably apple intelligence and you know they got too much apple intelligence in the air tag

00:11:13   my round two pick was that apple would introduce its thinnest iphone ever

00:11:19   yeah yes correct it's a great phone it really really is i love it i love love mine

00:11:27   yeah yeah um did a little interjection have y'all seen any iphone airs in the wild in our time off

00:11:34   nope just mine once i've got a a cousin we were at christmas and he has the black iphone air which

00:11:43   looks pretty good i've only seen the black one in the store but he put it in like a it's not an

00:11:48   otterbox case but in like a pretty beefy no it's like what are you doing man do it no

00:11:54   yeah it was disappointing yeah okay my round two pick the m1 map of gear is not for sale at the end

00:12:03   of 2025 um oh not true right now you can get it on walmart.com for 599 new oh boy restored for 400

00:12:14   which is an incredible price incredible this computer is this computer is never gonna go away

00:12:20   it's not and the it's just so interesting that it's i mean the whole thing's interesting right

00:12:24   selling at walmart selling at such a low price um but you know it's it's still like i've got a family

00:12:31   family members with them right and it's still very a very capable laptop but it is

00:12:35   in it like my mom has one i was doing some stuff for her on it over the break and it's like it feels

00:12:41   older than it is because i think because of the design but super snappy like totally fine computer

00:12:47   my wife really doesn't want to get rid of hers it's like she writes for the verge um she loves the the

00:12:53   teardrop wedge shape uh and doesn't like the way the new laptops work uh look sorry so i don't know

00:12:59   what we're gonna do there but she's still using it and it works great for her needs so it's not it's

00:13:05   not in need of any change but sure it's gonna be interesting to see that whenever they do launch

00:13:10   this cheap macbook if this just continues to be sold or not because like it's supposed to replace it but

00:13:17   like if we're selling these for like 400 like i don't know what's gonna happen they get how

00:13:23   i'm gonna keep making that thing for

00:13:24   yeah it's um i think i suspect the a series macbook will replace it but we'll see

00:13:30   okay um there is a bone there was a bonus pick

00:13:36   for 2025 mike it was yours what's up

00:13:40   uh my bonus pick was that the mac studio would be updated with a new chip

00:13:46   it was which it was and it was two of them two of them is a weird one one of them is a weird one

00:13:52   yeah m3 ultra ultra yeah and along with the m4 series of chips uh so we should just say at this

00:13:59   point because we've not done a score recap uh that puts me at two points and you each at one point

00:14:04   it does

00:14:05   it does yeah yeah and we are now in the risky pick round

00:14:12   okay so i said apple announces a new standalone siri app

00:14:18   based on a new llm that will be multilingual and support multiple languages at the same time

00:14:25   support multiple modalities for example text input voice input or image attachments in the same conversation

00:14:30   and three display content from third party apps in line based on a new developer framework

00:14:35   all of this is wrong none of this came true i lose one point i believe you do you do i feel less bad

00:14:47   uh about my pick i can be swinging for for whatever this was supposed to be uh yeah i mean i still think this

00:14:56   should exist who knows when if ever made by who even we don't know anything this thing is not real

00:15:05   and look at look how look how innocent i was here picking this thing man i'm gonna read some context here that

00:15:13   comes from jason of rikipedia

00:15:15   rikis.net i think is the anyway if the overall pick is wrong about if the overall pick about a siri app is

00:15:23   wrong all the details will be counted wrong as well but that won't be a problem because federico thinks that

00:15:28   this is this approach is quote so obvious the approach is so obvious

00:15:33   the problem is the problem is the problem is the company following the approach look it's they've just

00:15:40   got to do it um do it because there is the rumor that they do have they have built this app

00:15:46   internally yeah like the apple has an app like a chatbot app that they're using to kind of to test the

00:15:53   new llm or whatever is powering it but that this was a mark german report i think it was called veritas

00:16:00   or something like that yeah um and it uh but it he is unsure as to whether apple will actually release

00:16:07   a standalone app for siri which i think would be a shame like if if if it gets the capability of

00:16:13   something like a chat gpt a gemini where you can actually have like proper good conversations with

00:16:18   it yeah and it do things of content of like use for you and like consequence i think it would be

00:16:24   a shame if you would not be able to just read back through those conversations and you're at your kind

00:16:29   of desire yeah i mean i mean clearly that's how people are using these tools elsewhere right like

00:16:35   that's the form that all these tools have taken uh at least at the consumer level and i think it was uh

00:16:42   john janadrea who is is now retired or close to it uh from apple that he thought that was maybe the

00:16:48   wrong move and you know we'll see how that settles out but clearly the market has said

00:16:53   at least for now like chat bots like that's the interaction that people want and it's the expectation

00:17:00   yeah yeah so i think i agree with you i do think siri has to become its own app you know you can still

00:17:05   interface with it through voice or through the side button or carplay or whatever but then you also have

00:17:12   the you know the transcript and and other things in the app very much like the um the amazon assistant

00:17:18   app has has similar features right you can ask your echo for something and then you you can see a log of

00:17:23   all of that in the app um you know make it multimodal in that way seems like a like an obvious move

00:17:30   replace image playgrounds with it dude for real i mean you can still if if apple still feels like they

00:17:38   should uh they can continue to have image generation right like and to you that doesn't need to have its

00:17:44   own application because i would assume maybe one person a day in the world uses image playgrounds i would

00:17:52   love to know those actual stats like yeah how many people a day use image playgrounds

00:17:57   it can't be many it can't be many right do we think it's like more or less than 1000 people

00:18:05   oh that's a great question i mean there is a law of large numbers thing right which like if something

00:18:14   exists people will use it but okay

00:18:20   i'm gonna say it's less than 1000 people what i would say is i i struggle to imagine it but also

00:18:26   at the same time if they told me it was i wouldn't be surprised does that make sense

00:18:31   sure like if someone was like oh yeah yesterday was like 900 people then i'd be like yeah sure

00:18:38   uh my risky pick was apple introduces a new smart home product that features a screen it will be in

00:18:46   the home pod line of products it will feature eye or hand tracking as a way to control the interface

00:18:52   without needing to touch the screen and it will feature support for third-party apps to run on the

00:18:57   device like federico i am convinced this will be true and i will in the future benefit from a bonus

00:19:05   pick for this pick being so correct but it has not happened in the year 2025

00:19:12   yeah and you know i think government's reporting another say like this is tied to

00:19:16   the lack of an updated siri right that this product depends on something in that world that that

00:19:24   they're not um they're not ready to to ship and i think it was on upgrade you said like what you want

00:19:31   from this is like show my pictures from my icloud photo library and let me control home kit stuff and

00:19:36   yep i couldn't agree more like you know uh we have i think you do too mike the um aurora frame

00:19:43   yeah or a frame or a frame like it's great like you know and the app's pretty good and you just

00:19:47   like have a share sheet and dump pictures into it but all my photos are in icloud photo library and

00:19:53   having that really well integrated would be really nice and obviously having all my home kit stuff like

00:20:00   it's the perfect kitchen computer but i guess it's uh i guess it's not quite ready

00:20:05   i i hope that as well as learning the lesson of don't show things too early the air power lesson

00:20:16   yeah well i'm well yes i meant more of the apple intelligence lesson of like where that was clearly

00:20:23   just not working right when they didn't exist when what they showed just didn't exist at that point

00:20:28   um i hope that they have also learned uh don't tie new hardware to software that like don't don't

00:20:37   so tightly tie hardware to software in this way where like this is a thing that apparently is all done

00:20:43   except for the fact that it needs app intent stuff that is part of the apple intelligence stuff which at

00:20:49   this point i don't even know that's going to ship all spoilers maybe for later in the show so i don't

00:20:53   know what they're going to do with this thing and it's possible that maybe they've had to go back to

00:20:57   the drawing board a little bit of what the os is like and how that works and that might be why there's

00:21:02   another reason this thing is so delayed because like wild stuff i just it's wild to me that a product that

00:21:08   should replace something like an amazon echo show cannot ship because apple intelligence didn't ship it's

00:21:16   like we i think you just made a fundamental mistake in how this product was supposed to work if that was if

00:21:22   that's the reason like if that's true that's the reason like there are so many things that this

00:21:26   product should do and people would want it to do it's got nothing to do with apple intelligence

00:21:31   and so like wild just really wild stuff to me so you also lose a point at the end of that yeah so i

00:21:41   have one point now and federico has zero points yeah you have two points because you had your bonus

00:21:50   but i got my first pick wrong so i had two points total and then i wait so how many points do i have

00:21:55   now i have one point i have one point yeah because i lost a point oh yeah wrong i think there's a bug

00:22:01   a bug in rickies.co i don't think it's doing math correctly i have one point federico has zero points okay

00:22:07   yeah um here here i come with my risky pick apple replaces the it's in quotes plus phone with an all

00:22:17   new model it's the thinnest iphone ever but is made of titanium to remain strong

00:22:24   that is correct it has no camera control and or action button that's wrong it does not offer an

00:22:34   always on display that's wrong now personally i'm very excited that those last two were wrong because

00:22:40   the iphone air gets all the good features um but i did get the first one correct but it is

00:22:46   just one that's correct so i break even here um leaving me with one point so i think mike and

00:22:54   i are tied yeah you know what that means peacock i've got it open i was ready for this moment

00:23:03   uh steven would you like to pick heads or tails or would you like me to pick heads or tails

00:23:07   why don't you pick all right i'm gonna say heads okay all right i accidentally stopped it here we

00:23:15   go let me try again ah yes yes oh god a whole year we have to listen to it yes i hate that i was so

00:23:28   excited about winning i was i was really excited to win today and that's not happening for me

00:23:36   sorry mike yeah sorry mike congratulations steven thank you congratulations to our new

00:23:43   annual chairman thank you how long has it been since you've been a winner event i'm actually let me see

00:23:49   um obviously it was federico last year and then it was mike and then it was mike

00:23:56   wow and then it was me so i haven't won since 2022 did you win any keynotes during that time

00:24:03   i won wbc 25 and okay uh wait no that's not he's the benjamin how is that possible

00:24:09   oh no i won the flexis i won a bunch of flexis i won flexis september 25 dub dub 25 september

00:24:17   2024 your your last win was wwc 24 yeah 20 wwc 2024 i won the keynote so we're ending the drought

00:24:27   that's right i'm back he's back he's back he's back baby

00:24:31   but can you tie it all up can i win the flexis can you be benchman that's the important thing can you be

00:24:39   the benjamin yeah well i mean i'm gonna i'm gonna have to win um the next keynote but let's see if i

00:24:46   win the flexis how about that okay this episode of connected is brought to you by century we use

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00:26:25   so let's do this thing federico uh no i'm first i'm first no you're first mike's first what what is

00:26:33   happening do you not have to read the document i should read the rules yeah yeah yes man man it's been

00:26:42   too long usually and we still have to do a whole other game yeah i think how smooth that one will be you

00:26:49   you know usually we have another thing that happens between september and now it's been a long time

00:26:56   since we played this game it has been yes okay are we ready yes i'm stalling so i can open the tab okay

00:27:04   the flexis is a game held after each edition of the rickies it consists of a series of additional

00:27:13   picks in relation to the upcoming apple event or year scoring is completed separately from the main

00:27:19   game but like the rickies the order of picks is set by the results of the previous game and ties will

00:27:26   be broken using dice by p calc james really should just sponsor us at this point you know you thought

00:27:33   about that mike can you make that happen no please lie down as the rules are read

00:27:43   host must make a minimum of five flexi picks each correct pick is awarded with one point wrong picks

00:27:54   do not remove any points and no partial points may be awarded the winner is determined by comparing the

00:28:00   percentage of correct flexis made by each host the winner can use their chosen title as long as they are

00:28:07   the winner federico shall be named prince flexi and is known as king flexi when having won both the

00:28:14   keynote and annual games mike has chosen duke of flexington and uses the name archduke flexington

00:28:22   when applicable i if i win am the attorney general flexi and i use the title secretary of the flex when

00:28:31   necessary loser of the flexis must compensate the winner of the flexis by donating to a charity of

00:28:38   the winner's choice the amount of the donation is 25 dollars per wrong flexi made by the loser

00:28:45   and the money must be donated on air if someone holds all four titles they are allowed to choose

00:28:51   their own nickname just as a reminder mike won the last annual flexis so he gets uh he gets to go first and

00:29:01   you may be seated the duke of flexington i had six flexi picks in 2025 the first one was the old

00:29:14   double down home pod touch is the name of the smart device oh boy that's right the device that does not

00:29:20   exist uh pick number two the mac pro does not get updated this is one that i genuinely just happy didn't

00:29:30   happen because it's so fun for me i wish i could pick it again i think legally i cannot pick it again right

00:29:36   uh i think for a year yeah uh and you know what i will pick it again for the next one and it will

00:29:42   still be correct uh so in 2027 everybody can look forward to that uh no new vision hardware announced

00:29:50   it was it was uh airpods pro get hardware changes to support new health features they got heart rate

00:29:58   sensing yeah this one i was cooking on another person on the apple leadership page changes their

00:30:04   title in 2025 what i like is for for posterity's sake we took a screenshot of the uh the page we did

00:30:12   we did not need to do that because it's changed here's well here's the thing actually in looking at this

00:30:22   people changed but did anyone's title change well junji and andrea went from senior vice president to

00:30:29   retired but that means he's not on the pages anymore i think this says i mean you win it in spirit i'm

00:30:36   just wondering if you win it in the letter of the law is anyone on here that was here last year with a

00:30:42   different title yes sabir khan has gone from senior vice president of operations to chief operating

00:30:48   officer to say i got him he was trying to get me but i got him i got him okay i got him go go go mike

00:30:56   thank you and there will only like this there will only be three apple events in 2025 in fact there were

00:31:04   only two yeah so yeah i got three out of six no spring event and no october event um kind of a quiet

00:31:11   year for keynotes so that gives you three out of six or fifty percent how you feeling fantastic i think

00:31:25   that's a great result okay um i also picked five a second generation vision pro is rumored to feature

00:31:34   an m4 but does not launch in 2025 ouch yeah not kind of missed it on all sides there

00:31:45   the mac pro is updated to an m4 system on a chip but is otherwise unchanged from the m2 model

00:31:55   no number three mac os 16 includes a controversial change so i have this one in yellow because i think

00:32:05   it obviously had a controversial change with liquid glass but it's not called mac os 16 i mean i wouldn't

00:32:12   need i mean that the mac os 16 parts like whatever i just don't think mac os 26 includes what we would

00:32:18   call controversial are you kidding me you know people are mad about liquid glass i mean yes but it's on

00:32:23   everything the icons i don't think that it is yeah but the icons that it's not controversial

00:32:28   they're not people just don't like what like no this is a point no this is yeah all right fair enough

00:32:34   take the point i just there are so many this isn't anything like tied to mac os specifically that's kind

00:32:41   of how i feel about it but i guess i think yeah take it okay thank you um ios 19 brings agreements with

00:32:50   new llm partners beyond open ai did i don't think they ever came to an agreement with anyone in china

00:33:00   right no no because i know that that was a thing that they were working on to have like new llm partners

00:33:10   outside of america but i'm not sure that they did so so as of november there were no apple intelligence

00:33:19   features in china okay um they had teamed up oh hang on hang on apple has teamed up with alibaba for

00:33:26   apple intelligence but the rollout feature was delayed in june due to all grading ongoing trade

00:33:31   issues so it seems like it is not shipped but it was announced when uh in february of 2025

00:33:43   brings is the problem here if i had said announced i think i'd get it but they had i don't think it's

00:33:50   shipped of course i mean i don't see anything that it says that it's shipped so let me see apple brings

00:33:55   agreements when you're hmm i don't even know what brings agreements means i feel like i've lost the

00:34:01   plot now brings agreements how do you bring it you don't want to leave them at home you gotta take them

00:34:06   where are you bringing it to yeah i was 19 brings agreements with new llm partners well but you said

00:34:14   it was announced in february so i was 19 did not bring it yeah i think i miss it but not but not by

00:34:19   much you were close like slightly different wording and you yeah you got this one right like if you

00:34:26   would have just said like 2025 brings agreements with new llm partners beyond open ai i would have

00:34:32   given it to you but i mean it's closer than home pod touch but i think it's still wrong it absolutely

00:34:36   is closer than it's also closer than uh a second generation vision i don't know what you mean

00:34:41   and the number five apple services see a price increase in the u.s apple tv went from 9.99 a month to

00:34:52   12.99 a month so i think it's green i forgot about that i had to look it up um but yeah i did not

00:34:59   remember that happening when it's standalone right if it's part of apple one or whatever it's different

00:35:03   but standalone it's gotten more expensive yeah so um that gives me two out of five or 40 percent

00:35:10   okay so mike at 50 steven at 40 let's see oh i'm gonna do very badly i said number one the

00:35:19   new iphone se is called the iphone 16e yes congrats number two the the homepod mini is updated uh the

00:35:27   homepod mini is still a product in apple's lineup yeah not even new colors number three apple does

00:35:35   something with pixel meter beyond keeping it on the app store or updating its privacy policy

00:35:42   well i mean are we sure no i think they put apple intelligence stuff in it yes i think so like

00:35:49   image playgrounds i think they put hold on hold on i'm looking at the the the history in the app store

00:35:55   um let's see here see i'm searching nine to five mac

00:36:03   yeah um at the end of june okay pixel meter pro 3.7 adds support for apple intelligence

00:36:10   yeah okay so i think you get i mean none of those features matter but i think you get it

00:36:14   yeah i mean they've done something now if the something is horrible that's not my fault

00:36:21   i would say you get this with the absolute skin of your teeth you get it

00:36:27   but yes you do get it now number four is interesting apple showcases building shortcuts

00:36:34   with natural language

00:36:35   why is it green

00:36:38   who's like that green that didn't happen apple showcases building shortcut yeah that's not right

00:36:45   put that in green have we seen building shortcuts with natural language that doesn't exist it doesn't

00:36:52   exist right no no if somebody tried it they did something on their own that didn't happen

00:36:58   yeah this didn't happen why was it green who could tell maybe maybe we're just hopeful maybe someone

00:37:04   maybe maybe it was apple intelligence yes maybe uh number five more natural language apple music

00:37:11   gets a natural language playlist creation no man it's lots of natural language federico just wants

00:37:18   language to be natural he does i just want yeah so the the open ai

00:37:22   stuff the connector for apple music that doesn't hold on because kate is also saying in discord why

00:37:30   has rickies.co got it marked right too in green well apple showcases shortcut no this didn't happen

00:37:40   so i don't know why anyone's rickies.co is like that's based on like your own

00:37:45   grading so i think kate has to look in the mirror about why that happened like for me it's marked

00:37:52   with a question mark in my browser interesting i mean it didn't happen though no like i don't know

00:38:01   what we're not we're not hallucinating this right it didn't happen i mean the chat gpt thing is like

00:38:06   outside of apple music so you can use other tools i was i was i was talking about shortcuts in

00:38:13   natural oh oh yeah i don't know it didn't happen no it didn't happen okay they haven't done that i

00:38:19   don't know why that's what anybody although apple music gets natural language playlist creation now that

00:38:25   you mentioned it doesn't it doesn't come on it doesn't don't even try it well because a third

00:38:32   part is doing it using the api i didn't well it's a it's a it's an official partnership this isn't what

00:38:38   you meant it's an official no no it doesn't matter because i didn't say the music app i said apple music

00:38:46   and it's an official partnership within apple and open ai i think it's good it's an official

00:38:54   partnership within apple and open ai this is undermining the sanctity we have undermined

00:39:00   no i'm i'm just today i'm just what i'm saying i'm just saying i said apple music i said apple music

00:39:07   not the music app so apple music as a apple music as a service no why i say no you can mark it if you

00:39:17   want to but i think that this is an undermining of the sanctity of the flexes why you meant apple

00:39:24   music what's the sanctity no the pig says yes you did yes you did you didn't hang on let me let me

00:39:31   read from uh i'm gonna read from mac rumor so this isn't even reporting by somebody who federico pays

00:39:36   apple music can be added to chat gpt through the settings section in the mac app website or ios app

00:39:42   apple music is listed under the apps option and connecting to it requires signing in with your

00:39:47   apple account for the authorization purposes yeah i mean chat gpt can be used to search through apple

00:39:53   music catal the apple music catalog for songs artists albums and playlists even without a subscription

00:39:59   open ai says that all users are able to discover music generate playlists and listen to preview

00:40:05   clips in chat gpt yeah here's i think the crux of it apple music subscribers can add songs albums and

00:40:12   playlists to their apple music library using chat gpt when apple music is added to chat gpt it can be

00:40:20   selected by tapping the plus button playlists and suggestions generated by chat gpt can be opened

00:40:26   directly in apple music yeah but chat gpt does not it can't like tap into your music listening history or

00:40:36   that sort of thing no um but it can absolutely create playlists with natural language i know because i've done

00:40:42   them i i have made them and you're signing with your apple music account my well my gut says it's green but

00:40:49   the lightest shade of green possible i don't know who's that who's the who's the adjudicator for this

00:40:55   thing um i think maybe we need to maybe we need somebody i wonder if jason's around this this for the you

00:41:04   you know what that for the flexes it's not worth it just give me and this is just not worth it

00:41:08   i don't think but here's the thing you can you can give yourself the point yeah i give myself the point

00:41:15   you did not mean this right i tell you what score it so it's done look i don't care honestly i don't

00:41:23   care the point is a point yes okay you you got the point now you didn't mean this did you i have no moral

00:41:29   compass whatsoever like i will now ask you you didn't mean this did you i'm not i'm not i'm not

00:41:35   so i'm not don't incriminate yourself i don't need to answer you the scoring is complete you you got the

00:41:43   point which means nothing can change that which means you win you're the winner yeah federico you

00:41:48   didn't mean this did you thank you yeah i didn't mean this yeah okay cool i'm just i just need it to

00:41:53   be heard but sometimes but sometimes this is what happens in life yes i know they got somebody else to

00:42:00   do it and i still get the point you get the point but you didn't mean it as i know i just need these

00:42:06   things to be known they're known what can i say i'm a lucky guy you know yeah yeah okay all right so um

00:42:15   the flexis end with federico winning with 60 percent man this did not go the way that i thought it was

00:42:23   gonna go like when i sat down today like i prepared a charity and everything wow i was convinced i had won

00:42:29   this yeah mike is at 50 percent three out of six and i am last two out of five with 40 percent so i

00:42:39   owe what is it 75 dollars to a charity of federico's choice choosing yes yes i wanna choose uh are you

00:42:52   you able to use an italian website steven can you i think so let's see we can see it's the

00:42:58   e-n-p-a it's in italian is ente nazionale protezione animali oh yeah that helps it's a national

00:43:04   organization for protecting animals and it's about protecting animals steven i like animals here you go

00:43:13   with a cute picture of a cat no i just i just really like the steven's reaction to you saying it in

00:43:19   italian is it well e-n-p-a-b-i-h.org uh you want to go here steven yes send me a link um you want to go

00:43:28   here look at that picture and yeah you know lots of animals okay if it if i if it can't if it won't

00:43:36   let me donate oh it's all in italian don't you have a translation yeah translate to english here we go

00:43:42   enable translation yeah okay donate now or donate in memory i could donate memory of you

00:43:48   no i'm not dead you donate memory of mike's pics yeah donate in memory of uh the duke of fleckington

00:43:56   because he doesn't exist anymore he is dead all right i'm gonna give give a cuddle give a piece of

00:44:03   freedom or give a cure give a piece of freedom i mean this is going through safari translation

00:44:10   do the cure do the cure yeah they just let them out for a little bit or what all right i don't know

00:44:16   i think it's just a cute thing i don't have a tax code or a civic number do you need one or a cap i

00:44:24   don't know we're gonna find out uh i'm doing a free donation of 75 this is definitely gonna lock my

00:44:31   credit card oh yeah there's a bunch of required fields here that i don't know so what if i send you

00:44:36   75 and you donate yes okay do that wait we'll do that thank you okay well congratulations to uh

00:44:46   me and congratulations both of you i guess thank you yep yep look at me without i'm gonna have to i'm

00:44:52   gonna have to come back swinging poor poor mike i told them we're gonna ruin your mood today and we

00:44:58   you were right and you have because i thought i was gonna win everything

00:45:01   all day i've been like uh well i know i've got the flexes tied up and i'm good at coin flips so i'm

00:45:09   gonna take everything this is just the eighth day of 2026 it's gonna be like this for the rest of the

00:45:16   year yeah absolutely ruined

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00:47:46   okay it is now time for 2026 oh my round one okay okay i get to go first because i just won

00:48:00   tim's tim's cook tim's cook it's a new job tim's personal chef tim cook's job title changes in 2026

00:48:15   yeah yeah maybe he's chairman and ceo maybe he's doesn't have a job title at all

00:48:22   we'll find out either way changes mm-hmm yeah okay okay okay easy enough yeah and uh next we have mike

00:48:35   apple ships a folding iphone okay um

00:48:41   any thoughts they will have an i mean i didn't ask for follow-up about tim cook because i don't think

00:48:49   steven has any particular feelings about tim cook do they have any particular feelings about a folding

00:48:53   phone i i don't know how i feel anymore in all honesty like i'm excited for something new is it the

00:49:03   size i mean it's the size thing i just don't know there's been lots of intrepid blogging uh yeah in

00:49:12   the last few days i'll put a link in the show notes to steven's blog which goes to jason's blog which

00:49:17   goes back to himself i think somehow yeah it's a it's around robin it really is around robin

00:49:23   thing between the bloggers okay is it very much this is one of those like secret cobalt kind of

00:49:28   kind of that's nepotism in the blog absolutely okay absolutely papa jason is giving his son steven

00:49:34   um i just don't know how to feel about a product that is so radically different in size like and and i

00:49:46   feel like i i have faith that they have are making something that they think is good right and like works

00:49:55   well but until i can use an iphone of those very peculiar dimensions it's hard to really um

00:50:04   make a judgment on it like steven obviously broke out many products uh it is essentially the height

00:50:13   of an original iphone and the width of a pro max like that is just yeah close really weird

00:50:21   iphone to use on the front screen and so yeah i just don't know yet i mean but i am interested

00:50:29   and excited about covering it and i guess in a way you know obviously i'm happy that i don't have

00:50:35   to buy it you know what i mean like it doesn't have to be my iphone there will still be a pro iphone

00:50:40   that i can just use and i'll be happy with that it's not like if if i was federico i would be a

00:50:46   little bit more concerned because it's possible it's you know you're not going to i find it unlikely

00:50:53   that the phone that you will get this year will be the iphone air 2 absolutely not i'm just getting

00:50:59   the folding phone i know especially my next phone yeah exactly especially because i mean it's expected

00:51:04   that that won't even come this year there actually won't be one yeah um and so yeah you know for me

00:51:09   it's like if i don't like that dimension as like my daily phone like the phone that i want to use

00:51:15   every day then they'll still be the pro phone out there for me but yeah i'm excited about it i think

00:51:20   we're in for a really fun final and like end of the year like i think it's going to be weird and even as

00:51:28   this year was this past year was really fun with the iphone lineup and i think 2026 is going to be

00:51:35   even more so so i'm looking forward to that even if i'm at this point unsure what

00:51:41   whether i would want to use that phone as my iphone

00:51:48   well thank you for the follow-up yes uh round one for me uh apple updates the macbook air with the m5

00:51:58   i think it's gonna happen yep we got it wait wait wait yeah they did didn't they what no they haven't

00:52:07   done that no what are you talking about oh it was the base macbook pro okay i'm sorry it was the base

00:52:12   macbook pro yeah he doesn't know max we know max me and federico hey hey hey hey hey that's

00:52:18   okay hey i'm a mac power user i actually doesn't know the max what if i told you that i'm using

00:52:24   three max right now three concurrently uh-huh uh-huh well you gotta listen to the next episode of

00:52:30   app stories to find out i i absolutely want to okay um yeah so the macbook air with the m5 we got it in

00:52:38   the ipod pro we got in the macbook pro base model and just give it to the macbook air now next you

00:52:45   know so should be should be a pretty safe round one pick yeah i think yeah yeah i i think we're all gonna

00:52:52   do well there well unless they just go straight to m6 can you imagine can you imagine like i actually

00:52:58   thought about that m6 okay yeah and the iphone flips and tim cook is still ceo the if the

00:53:07   no matter how i said a folding iphone right flipping is still folding oh man i just i flipped

00:53:15   the 3d printed model i made it's even worse oh yeah i mean it's terrible in that orientation

00:53:23   i don't real bad i don't love this thing but we'll see what happens well it doesn't turn on yet that

00:53:28   might make a difference that's true but i did do it in blue and bright pink which is fun which was fun

00:53:32   very fun very strange yeah uh you definitely didn't go for the colors that everybody else

00:53:37   for it is what i had the most of in this in the printer so

00:53:42   okay round two the iphone 17e ships in 2026

00:53:53   17e 17e 17e oh as we are recording i'm sorry i have to do this is breaking news oh no the new

00:54:05   york times has just published an article about apple succession plans the new york times i'm gonna

00:54:11   quote the times mr cook 65 has told senior leaders that he is tired and would like to reduce his

00:54:17   workload should he step down mr cook is likely to become the chairman of apple's board according to

00:54:22   three people close to the company mr cook is preparing several other internal candidates to be his

00:54:27   potential successor to other people said but the title the headline of the article is the man who could be

00:54:35   apple's next ceo john tennis oh whoa it's happening boss our boy john our boy john it's absolutely

00:54:43   happening now now now question for you guys when this happens we're gonna have a problem on our hands

00:54:54   okay with john turnus as apple ceo who's the one true john oh my gosh well ot i mean john

00:55:04   vorries is still the one true john and then john turnus is just ceo daddy

00:55:10   hot john hot john hot john

00:55:14   hot john why why does this illustration of the new york times have three vision pros in it that's

00:55:21   like all the vision why would it not that's all the units they sold why would it not let's just

00:55:27   put it there loads of them they're only talking in different directions you know it's one for each

00:55:34   candidate for ceo mr turnus was a quote man of the people yes he was still is we took a picture

00:55:42   with him well this is a big article to read yeah i have i lost oh wait 20 was it 2024 i don't know

00:55:48   know 2024 yeah i got a picture with both john turnus and tim cook so maybe you're the new if you

00:55:56   think about it i'm the glue you know the new york times should talk to me because like you're a match

00:56:02   maker you're a i met him yeah then a few months later i met turnus and then you know come on you can

00:56:08   spill the beans now what did you whisper in tim tim cook i said well to tim i said it's gotta be

00:56:13   john and then it's gonna be john it's gonna be you that's so you know i did it it's like who are

00:56:21   the people that choose the pope it's i'm that yeah i'm that you're you're the cardinal or something i'm

00:56:27   yeah yes if i was to have won any of these games today i would can i read this cardinal flexi

00:56:34   can i read this final quote because taken out of context from this article it's just incredible

00:56:38   he's he's a he's a nice guy mr rogers

00:56:45   he's from the neighborhood

00:56:52   i mean what more could you want i just keep the head and i saw he's a nice guy mr rogers

00:57:01   mr rogers said it mr rogers said it brought him back just to praise john turnus

00:57:07   it's me and mr rogers you know he's someone you want to have with this is this is basically a

00:57:15   profile of john turnus it's happening boys oh what a year it's gonna be yeah oh here's the question

00:57:24   here's the question here's the question this is probably more of a question for jason but maybe i'll

00:57:28   just ask it here like emergency episode if it happens oh yeah i think so you know like i feel

00:57:38   like i feel like you gotta do that right yeah like if if it gets posted to apple's website like yeah

00:57:46   we should i don't know we should go live and and live stream the the the press release or something

00:57:51   yeah i feel like just on the phone like if i'm driving like i just pick up the phone you know like

00:57:57   it's gotta happen i feel like we need to have some like immediate live content that occurs at the

00:58:01   moment i i have this weird thing that i feel i think it's if when it's gonna happen it's gonna

00:58:07   happen on a wednesday don't ask me why but it's gonna happen on a wednesday great then adp will get

00:58:15   it before us well but not if we do an emergency episode that's true so that's why you gotta get there

00:58:21   you gotta be there it's true yeah this new york times article is hilarious uh you mentioned preparing

00:58:27   several other internal candidates uh craig federighi eddie q greg jazwiak didger o'brien like three

00:58:35   candidates yeah craig doesn't want it i don't think it's the right disposition jaws jaws is the marketing

00:58:43   guy i mean well maybe they said but this is they could i mean who's saying that right like is these

00:58:50   is this the sources or is that the new york times for people close to the company so i mean really this

00:58:55   isn't as specific as like the ft the ft was like no it's turnus right um but uh i mean if that is if

00:59:04   those are the people then they that's token in my perspective from my yeah like because i just don't

00:59:11   think it's any of them because we've not heard their names mentioned at all in any reporting about

00:59:18   this as like see potential seeming yeah who knows it just seems like they asked somebody who like i

00:59:24   don't know tweets about apple like oh there's other people right there yeah yeah turnus is it i think

00:59:29   that's pretty clear um you know and it's uh it's a good run he's only 50 which apparently is the age cook

00:59:35   cook was when he took over okay um well that's very exciting for my round one pick yeah i'll say uh we

00:59:45   are now in round two and uh i said the 17e ships in 26 yep which means mike you're next a google llm is

00:59:53   powering some siri features by default interesting so this hinges on the idea that apple is gonna say this

01:00:01   is powered by google i think we'll know like i think that we will it will be clear like one way or

01:00:10   another like you know and the and i changed my pick to not say gemini for this reason right because

01:00:19   gemini is a brand and if they're not doing like a big coming out on stage together thing they might not

01:00:30   say gemini but somewhere it will be clear that google is working with them for siri

01:00:39   yeah i think i think if that comes true i think one of the companies will just i mean i don't think

01:00:45   they'll be on stage but i think one of the companies will announce it right like why would they

01:00:48   why would they not i guess google would you know what i mean like someone's gonna i i believe it will

01:00:56   either be said or it will be in a document somewhere a privacy policy something right um but i i i

01:01:04   hesitated from saying gemini in case they in case it's branded differently but i think i think i think

01:01:13   we'll know and i think we'll know in a way that we can point to something yeah that's what i'm betting on

01:01:18   i'm just trying to combine gemini and siri in my head to one word geminiri gemini simonai

01:01:27   where are we i lost track of everything you're in your round two pick i forgot we were doing

01:01:44   this i'm just thinking yeah i'm just thinking about john turnus now um yeah i mean aren't we all all the

01:01:51   the time really especially mike uh round two um apple ships some of the ai features previously seen

01:02:01   at wwdc 2024 so this i said some because this will make more sense later but i think at least some of

01:02:12   them will be shipped this year maybe not all of them but some of them will some of them i think so

01:02:21   i think it's fine i mean you'd hope so two years in i mean that'd be bad if they don't

01:02:26   i mean yeah the coming year right you know yeah it is the year has come in fact and so yeah

01:02:36   some of them come on personal contacts or whatever like at least fetch data from

01:02:42   apps or something come on come on there's gotta be something i just want to know when my mom's flight

01:02:49   lands how would you know otherwise how would i know otherwise she's still at the airport

01:02:54   she's still there waiting for me it's been two years please

01:02:58   okay i think we move on to our risky picks are we ready no we do not is there a bonus pick there is a

01:03:08   bonus pick oh it's federico's in it oh i forgot i had one you need to come up with a pick while i

01:03:15   explain what happens yeah yeah yeah okay in 2022 federico said at least one airpods model will support

01:03:25   lossless music playback by the end of 2022 hang on a minute hang on a minute that didn't come true

01:03:33   yeah let's forget the end of 2022 part just forget that part um so in 2023 the airpods pro with usbc

01:03:43   which is which when connected to airpods pro allows for lossless audio playback and you can listen to

01:03:53   lossless music with it so now to confirm this is it too far back to get a bonus the rules are the last

01:04:01   last three games right last three okay last and you wouldn't include 2025 in that because we just

01:04:09   graded that so you couldn't get a bonus pick for something we've literally just done right so you

01:04:16   wouldn't for this it wouldn't make any sense we just scored it so you can't get a bonus pick for

01:04:22   for something we just did because there is no world in which it could have come true in between like the

01:04:30   last three no you lost you lost me right so by default i would say it's too far back

01:04:36   the last three i think we have identified a rules problem because you could not get a bonus pick

01:04:47   because a bonus pick is when something that has been previously predicted has come true right that

01:04:53   that was originally wrong right so something we said something it was graded as incorrect and then since

01:05:01   has come true we wouldn't include 2025 in that because we just graded those so how could you get a bonus

01:05:07   pick we just did it right so it should be 22 23 24 what's i mean hmm basically what we're looking

01:05:18   for here is are we going to take this logically or literally and i think we should take it logically

01:05:24   okay okay right i don't know yeah that's fine because there is no way it's like pointless right

01:05:34   the rule shouldn't say the last three games or whatever it should be like the last three not

01:05:42   including it should 2025 shouldn't be counted in that because you wouldn't it wouldn't work would it

01:05:46   maybe at some point we need to change that to be like uh just within the last

01:05:51   x years or something yes i think the games is the problem there so i think for now he gets a bonus

01:05:58   pick and maybe we need to revisit that next time i think yes make a note on it okay i will make

01:06:04   i don't know when next time we'll be like what next year well no we could do it we could do it you

01:06:10   know wbc or the next march or whatever um okay um well thank you uh and actually so what the text

01:06:19   actually says is from the last three corresponding games so it has to be an annual yeah and it is from

01:06:26   that yeah okay so maybe we will work on clarifying that but do you get my point i do i do like the

01:06:34   2025 one is pointless because you can't claim a bonus pick for something because there's no time in which

01:06:42   it could have come true i mean less than the last like five minutes but then we would have just scored

01:06:46   like if during the episode right if like i feel like if during the episode news oh i guess i guess

01:06:56   technically it could happen in the first week right yeah but i just don't i don't think that makes any

01:07:04   sense so to me i think it makes sense that federico would get this pick okay i made a note we'll debate

01:07:09   that in the future but i think it for now he gets it yeah do you have a bonus pick yes i do now wow and

01:07:18   that would be the macbook pro is refreshed with the new chip love it you gotta go easy man you get a bonus

01:07:25   pick don't get a bonus pick wrong it's like the worst possible thing you could do yep so but i mean it

01:07:31   should be the m5 pro or the m5 max but who knows something okay 2026 risky

01:07:39   picks apple announces a mac with a touch screen

01:07:44   point one it is an update to an existing notebook so ungraded context here because we debated this

01:07:55   internally um it is not a new macbook touch it's an update to a mac we already know technically

01:08:04   what you're saying is it's a macbook pro yeah yeah no but i'm not saying that that's

01:08:09   you're but that's what you're saying you don't think they're going to put this on the macbook air

01:08:13   do you i mean i think they should but you know no but then not going to the first time like none of

01:08:18   the rumors suggest it like it's going to be a macbook pro like that's essentially what you're saying

01:08:22   without being too prescriptive yes point two mac os does not radically change to accommodate touch

01:08:32   now i asked you for a bit of context on this one yes um and that context i think we agreed on

01:08:37   was this could be that it ships before mac os 27 or that there's no ui change made just for this

01:08:46   machine yeah and i and i think that that is actually how we need to score this because i think

01:08:52   you know it it could be argued like let's say that 26 shipped at the same year like people will be

01:08:58   like oh touch targets got bigger but it's like well no they just redesigned the operating system

01:09:02   like i think it's like specific ui that runs on the touch model is right what we're looking for

01:09:10   yeah right yeah yeah yeah it's not like there's a weird fork a mac os just for this thing right yeah

01:09:17   number three the product comes with the apple polishing cloth in the box it is only now that

01:09:26   i have realized why this is in the pic i've read this a bunch of times oh because you touch it

01:09:33   because you touch it so they want you to clean it um yes and you send us uh an apple intelligence

01:09:38   summarize notification can you read that to the class message from steven hackett apple announces

01:09:43   touch screen mac notebook update it includes polishing cloth so i thought it happened i was

01:09:49   like wow it's happened they've done it earlier than i thought they did it you know apple used to want

01:09:54   to show up ces that would do it yep oh my gosh those are the days yeah um yeah federico do you have

01:10:02   apple intelligence uh notification summaries on uh i still have them on because i haven't bothered to

01:10:08   disable them um i probably should yeah that's off for me everywhere i keep them on i like them

01:10:15   okay mike mike mike mike mike you're up by the end of the year apple will not have shipped equivalent

01:10:25   features for all of the apple intelligence features shown off at wwdc 2024 okay so we need to be i think we

01:10:32   need to be specific here federico has said they will ship some but you are saying they will not have

01:10:38   shipped all so you're saying the same thing yeah you're risky as his regular pick yeah sure i mean

01:10:46   there's nothing saying you can't do that and we agreed it was risky so that part is not the part that i'm

01:10:51   getting scored on anyway oh yeah no no yeah your your your details are amazing this is just the

01:10:58   context for the details and the details are craig federighi will talk at least once more about there

01:11:04   being quote two architectures so they will bring that line back out again in telling the history of

01:11:11   why this did not work apple will once again promise that the missing features will be shipping by the end of

01:11:18   the next year and actions across apps is one of the features that has not shipped

01:11:26   so i think this is the winner for me because i've been listening to a man called federico batichi

01:11:33   and i think they will not commit to app intense as the way that this works

01:11:43   and that instead they will move to mcp but it's going to take them longer to get that done because

01:11:49   i believe that apple will have hopefully woken up and realized no one's going to implement this

01:11:57   like google or whatever right i'm not going to be like sure we'll make app intense so nobody needs

01:12:05   to use google docs anymore no they're not going to do this yeah they need to go into an an open

01:12:11   standard that everybody else could potentially use that there is more incentivization for people to

01:12:18   use and use that as a way to make this work that's what i and i think that is going to be

01:12:24   the linchpin that gets me at least one of these things to be correct but i think two of them

01:12:30   that's where i'm coming from on this one okay yeah i hate that you're listening to me but

01:12:36   i mean i'm listening to you in this show especially which is quite important but yeah

01:12:43   we'll see please unsubscribe from app stories is what he's saying and and connected yeah good

01:12:49   pick good pick are you ready for an even better pick mm-hmm okay so my risky pick is apple ships a

01:12:59   foldable phone that column okay condition one is called iphone duo

01:13:08   number two runs both ios and ipad os apps and seamlessly switches between them and number three

01:13:18   has at least one feature that operates both the outer screen and the inner screen at the same time

01:13:27   now i can go into details for all of this if you want yeah i feel 1.5 good for you

01:13:34   but want all of it does that make sense uh okay uh so the name obviously first of all i should say

01:13:42   i wanted to have some fun with this pick um now they could call it iphone fold right i don't think

01:13:48   it's a i don't think fold is a particularly great name especially when you don't speak english uh fold only

01:13:58   makes sense in english right um and so that was my first thought like it doesn't immediately convey

01:14:05   what it is air i mean you can make it the same argument for other products but i'm just saying that

01:14:11   especially when it comes to apple stuff fold is a new english word that doesn't necessarily translate

01:14:18   well to other languages but you know maybe people know the samsung z fold or the google pixel fold

01:14:23   um so maybe maybe i'm mistaken i've been thinking that like for since i read this pick of yours i have

01:14:31   now come around to the fact that i don't think i don't i don't know if i call it duo but i don't think

01:14:35   no call it fault yeah so my idea is that so in thinking about this pick i tried to sort of go to the very

01:14:43   core of my idea of why apple is doing this so if if apple is doing this how would you think about it

01:14:52   like what's the whole thing about it obviously it's one device that transforms into another device so it's

01:14:58   two things in one right it's you got the screen on the outside and you got the bigger screen inside

01:15:03   um only apple of all tech companies has both a phone ecosystem and a tablet ecosystem they're the

01:15:16   only company right now that i mean sure we can talk about android tablets android tablets don't really

01:15:21   exist um it's like a collective hallucination that android tablets exist um only apple has this kind

01:15:29   of ecosystem and they can ship two things in one and so obviously when i started thinking about like

01:15:35   two things you know number two dual it's right there apple also has a history of calling things

01:15:42   dual and we know that apple loves to reuse their adjectives over the years uh steven obviously if i'm not

01:15:50   mistaken the powerbook duo yep was a thing i've wrote about it on your website the yeah yeah uh the

01:15:59   there was a mac mini core duo model and just a few that was intel right that was intel and just a few

01:16:07   years ago we got the magsafe duo charger oh my gosh yes which was good poll i've come around to this now

01:16:17   was also a thing that you folded open in fact and it was called duo um and so the whole idea of like

01:16:24   you get a phone on the outside but then you open it up and it's another thing so two things in one

01:16:30   that's why i picked the name and also you want apple to stand out you know they call the they didn't call

01:16:37   it the iphone 17 edge or iphone 17 slim they called it iphone air and it's you know successful or not they

01:16:46   like to stand out from what everybody else is doing so that was my thinking number two runs both ios and

01:16:53   ipad os apps and seamlessly switches between them uh my thinking here is that so imagine your apple and

01:17:02   you're launching this product right and obviously on the outside it's a phone so it's right it runs ios and

01:17:07   i think it's going to run ios i don't think it's going to run ipad os as an operating system i don't think

01:17:12   you're going to have stage manager on this thing right i think maybe you're going to have split

01:17:17   view maybe you're going to have slide over i don't think you will have ipad os 27 running on this okay

01:17:23   i think you're going to have ios but what happens when you open it up do you just get a giant iphone app

01:17:30   what i think apple should do here is once again they should leverage the fact that only they have an

01:17:37   an ecosystem of apple of developers making universal apps the same app can be both an ios app with a phone

01:17:46   layout and it can be a tablet app with an ipad layout and i think it would only be natural for this product

01:17:54   to have say to do is in ios layout on the outside but then when you open it up it's got the ipad version

01:18:02   of to do is um so that's what i'm thinking right seamlessly i hope that's the case like i really do i

01:18:09   don't know how i don't i hope so like would it run ipad os and ios simultaneously or is it all just ios

01:18:19   i mean i think at the level that would be required for that that's not a that's the you know the same

01:18:26   thing um and with universal apps right it's even just one app bundle that can do both yeah yeah yeah

01:18:35   with universal apps you just have the one app bundle and you know i mean it's apple so they can do

01:18:40   whatever they want because they control the whole thing yeah so if they want to have if they want to

01:18:44   install two bundles instead of what traditionally now when you go to the app store you have the

01:18:50   universal app and it's got how many iphone ipad mac apple tv watch vision pro it's at six platforms

01:18:58   right and it just installs one on the device that you're using now on this product you can install two

01:19:05   that's again duo um and finally number three uh has at least one feature that operates both the outer

01:19:12   screen and the inner screen at the same time now let me clarify this i wanted to have some fun with this

01:19:16   one so um traditionally when you use a folding phone uh you either use the outer display or you fold it

01:19:25   open and you use the inner display there are uh some exceptions but most of the time you don't use

01:19:32   two screens at the same time now knowing apple and the fact that they like to flex the fact that they have

01:19:40   a really powerful uh silicon architecture i think they will come up with some silly way to use both

01:19:47   displays at the same time and i was thinking of um sort of like local multiplayer of sorts uh first i had a

01:19:58   gaming angle like imagine you fold this thing open and you can you know you're with a friend and you

01:20:04   can play a local game and the friend sees a part of the game on the outside display and you see

01:20:11   something else on the inner display so like local multiplayer like that when you can play a game with

01:20:16   somebody else and they control something on the outer display you control something else on the inner

01:20:22   display uh but my other idea was again knowing apple they like to come up with these silly things for the

01:20:29   camera i was thinking of something like duo selfies when you're again with somebody else they take a

01:20:37   selfie using the the the other display you take another selfie and then you merge them together or something

01:20:44   i don't know why you would do it maybe to get to different perspectives so like you can shoot a video

01:20:49   now with your face and also the the video itself uh and you can have a picture in picture thing going on

01:20:56   i'm kind of thinking of something like that like a camera mode that lets you take pictures that way

01:21:02   so yeah that's my pick question frame i don't think this would be the case which is the question

01:21:09   i think it's definitely called iphone something yeah i think it's gonna call be called iphone

01:21:16   yeah in the sense that it'll be a phone with a with support for a sim card and making phone calls

01:21:23   and it's just in the in the thought of supporting car play for example stuff like that

01:21:28   yeah yeah good to be good or an apple watch in it being like

01:21:33   if it is like this combo iphone ipad thing but yeah you're right is it it has too much iphone-y

01:21:43   stuff to not be called iphone yeah yeah yeah i hope you're right i do i do i get your thinking on the

01:21:53   name um i like iphone ultra still it's a name that exists in their world but you make a pretty good case

01:21:59   for duo pretty good case what about extreme extreme iphone extreme no i like i i think i think it has i

01:22:10   i'm on the thinking that it would be a name that would somehow indicate what the device is well i

01:22:17   don't know if ultra does that you know what i mean although i do think that that is a name they should

01:22:22   use at some point but like it indicating that this is the phone that has two different screens on it is

01:22:29   there's there's something about that that i like this episode of connected is brought to you by

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01:24:19   there's now time for the flexis okay all right so my number one john turnus is apple's new ceo

01:24:28   that was already in there before the new york times article well he isn't the ceo he isn't it's fine

01:24:35   number two by the end of 2026 there is still no magic keyboard that supports multi-device pairing

01:24:44   i just think apple is gonna make you buy magic keyboards and magic keyboards forever they're

01:24:48   never gonna support multi-device pairing and if they do i'll be happy but i will lose a point

01:24:52   um and number three the ipad mini gets oled

01:24:56   yeah bold for 2026 i think yeah yeah maybe we'll see number four apple holds another media event

01:25:07   slash gathering in at battersea in london it's been a couple of years they should do another

01:25:15   they do lots of gatherings well me okay so what's a good way to phrase it uh a media event like the

01:25:22   last time media media media media event is because they they do do a lot of events there yeah like

01:25:26   they're not what you're thinking about with invitations yeah yeah number five apple announces

01:25:33   some kind of mcp integration for ios apps what a great flexi federico yeah i know right so good

01:25:40   and number six a case option for the iphone duo made by apple has a kickstand

01:25:47   really going all in now just really going all in the most federico flexi we've had in a long time

01:25:55   yeah man can you imagine oh i'll be yeah that'll be historic that'll be historic moment isn't the

01:26:01   phone kind of its own kickstand well no what if you open it fully a lots of people uh lots of people

01:26:07   buy these cases uh that have little kickstands to prop up especially uh when it's folded open

01:26:12   it's a small tablet and so if you want to keep it when you're you know in the kitchen when you're cooking

01:26:16   or something uh it doesn't yeah watching a video i do it all the time with my pixel fold

01:26:21   but you got to have a case that has a kickstand hmm or a pop socket yes all right there are your flexis

01:26:29   six six for now okay here are mine apple does not ship the base model iphone 18 by the end of the year

01:26:40   so i'm expecting that that comes in 2027 spring of 27.

01:26:44   apple ships a new laptop that is cheaper than the macbook air

01:26:48   okay

01:26:51   tim cook becomes chairman of the board okay yeah

01:26:54   two more countries after brazil and japan get alternate app marketplaces

01:27:04   the studio display gets an upgrade or update sorry

01:27:07   apple unveils a macbook pro with an oled touch screen

01:27:12   okay the mac pro does not get update

01:27:16   i checked the rules there's nothing in the flexi rules about reusing picks so i'm using it again the

01:27:24   mac pro does not get updated okay

01:27:25   uh i have six the imac it gets an optional pro chip the ipad mini receives an update

01:27:38   of some sort any kind

01:27:42   apple cancels the mac pro

01:27:46   okay wow he's taking an extra step

01:27:49   mm-hmm liquid glass persists in the ios 27 releases

01:27:56   os 27 releases excuse me

01:27:58   i love this the the opposite of this pick is there's another redesign

01:28:04   yeah

01:28:07   apple announces a new service or icloud feature

01:28:13   like do you have anything in mind

01:28:17   outside of the i'm not ediq but it's time okay you know there'll be something

01:28:21   remember that one where it was like if you die

01:28:25   you can give your icloud to someone remember that legacy contact yeah yeah that's a good

01:28:31   feature mike it is a good feature but it was such a

01:28:34   like weird thing to do in the keynote i don't know i don't think it was needed in the

01:28:39   keynote like nobody nobody wants to hear about the death feature of your phone

01:28:43   like hey we've got some new products today death comes for us all you know what i mean

01:28:48   like it's like hey we're all happy we're all happy do you want to know what happens when you die

01:28:53   to your phone totally weird but a good feature to have i set it up yeah me too mine is john

01:29:00   otj is my legacy contact really wow interesting yeah yeah yeah i think mary and then my brother

01:29:08   are mine no i'm all in on otj he's the only one he's my only one he's he's a little older than us

01:29:14   yeah but he's more trustworthy yeah that's true number six the foldable is called the iphone

01:29:21   ultra i watched that one be typed in in real time i saw that one yeah i typed that in

01:29:26   as we went number seven oh apple announces no a home kit accessory

01:29:39   or product you're thinking a camera or a camera a sensor something

01:29:45   i'm gonna go for an eighth okay these always go well when we grade them by the way no no new car

01:29:55   companies announce carplay ultra oh man that's good none there'll be no more no it's done yeah it's

01:30:05   finished yeah yeah no i'm not adding any okay i want to keep i want to keep winning

01:30:12   number eight square like i did last oh oh number eight yeah fair and square

01:30:18   at least one more person on apple's leadership page oh wow leaves or retires

01:30:29   hmm and obviously i need a screenshot of that page again for posterity feels less likely this time

01:30:35   to me i think i think there's one more i think that i think there's one more to shake out of the tree

01:30:40   yeah obviously well the screenshot is not great for this because there's already people on that

01:30:48   page that want that we know won't be there i will mark them out with red x's how about that

01:30:52   that's really aggressive but sure

01:30:59   so who out of here is not lisa jackson won't be here yes that feels bad i like lisa jackson

01:31:06   um i'm going to the page see if i can use my memories okay so so i think that katherine

01:31:17   adams won't be there by then that is correct i don't remember when it is it might be by the end of

01:31:23   the year but maybe by the time that we mark this yeah no it definitely will be johnny saruji because

01:31:31   you know he's not leaving anytime soon remember that whatever that means anytime soon yeah but i think i

01:31:39   think you know maybe jaws maybe phil maybe phil just finally leaves the page maybe maybe tour who

01:31:48   apparently runs marketing communications they put that on the secret internet you know

01:31:53   tour i don't know what you're talking about or where you're looking

01:31:58   vice president of marketing communications yeah and you're making a joke about his name yes

01:32:04   it's a multi-layered joke because it's an onion it's an onion

01:32:10   uh i think luca could could step out the door the rest of the way yes very possible um but yes

01:32:17   i will put those in the document well we may actually know the answer to that so i'm going to

01:32:22   find that that piece of information out oh yeah if we know that then i think i have to take this off

01:32:26   because maybe i subconsciously knew it or no no he would just get a red x like the others yeah

01:32:36   i did a slash i didn't do an x okay i suppose that's half as bad

01:32:41   are we done i think so i think so okay great okay thank you for listening to uh this this episode

01:32:54   it's done if you want to find links in the show notes to do your own scorekeeping or to keep up

01:33:00   throughout the year look just pin that tab throughout the year check in on it yeah uh

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01:33:42   bye y'all