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Connected

603: Ungraded for Style

 

00:00:00   From Relay, this is Connected, episode 603. Today's show is brought to you by FitBot, DocPops,

00:00:14   and Mercury Weather. I'm your keynote chairman, Federico Vittici, and it's my pleasure to introduce

00:00:19   on this chairman-only episode, the annual chairman, Stephen Hackett. Hello, fellow chairman.

00:00:25   Hello, fellow chairman. It's all chairman today. It's great.

00:00:28   It's chairman-only, you know?

00:00:30   Yeah.

00:00:30   That's...

00:00:31   A little secret.

00:00:32   No, no regular people allowed.

00:00:34   Wow.

00:00:35   Except for listeners, obviously.

00:00:36   Obviously. I mean, they're chairman in my heart, you know?

00:00:39   Yeah, yeah. Mike is not here.

00:00:42   Yeah, a little vacation.

00:00:44   With us today.

00:00:44   A little vacation.

00:00:45   A little vacation.

00:00:45   You know, let the guy have a vacation every once in a while.

00:00:48   Yeah.

00:00:49   You know? We miss you, Mike, but we know you will be back.

00:00:52   We do.

00:00:53   In style next week. I don't know what that means.

00:00:56   And we can say, specifically to Mike, you can listen to all this episode until we tell

00:01:01   you you have to stop listening, because there's a thing at the end that you can't hear.

00:01:04   Yes. We don't want yourself to be spoiled with something we're going to discuss.

00:01:10   That's right.

00:01:10   About you. You are the topic.

00:01:12   That's right. Topic three.

00:01:14   Yes.

00:01:14   Mike.

00:01:15   Mike.

00:01:18   Oh, we got some follow-up. I want to start with Home Assistant.

00:01:21   I just picked a few things. I have lots of emails, lots of very helpful things that people

00:01:27   are sending me to do with Home Assistant. I had this whole email chain with somebody about

00:01:31   how to make, like, even the Home Assistant UI you can change, because it's just a web app.

00:01:36   And, like, someone sent me their favorite projects to, like, make the theme feel less like

00:01:41   a web app written by Android users, and so that's nice. But a couple things. Robin wrote

00:01:47   in. One of the things I talked about was the side gate, that I wanted to know if someone

00:01:53   opened that gate to our yard. And Robin wrote in and said, I really hope that Stephen's gate

00:02:00   in Home Assistant is called GreenGate. I want to see that in a widget in every home screen

00:02:04   discussion from now on. Pretty good.

00:02:07   That is actually a great name.

00:02:10   It's really good.

00:02:12   I hate that it's a good name.

00:02:13   I know. I know. It's not a GreenGate. It's just a WoodGate. But, you know, maybe I could

00:02:20   change that.

00:02:22   Okay.

00:02:23   Do I have to paint it green to make it funnier?

00:02:25   Please stop.

00:02:27   Okay.

00:02:27   It's okay.

00:02:30   And then Max wrote in with, I think, my favorite thing that I've gotten from people

00:02:34   so far is, I use Home Assistant to track the location of the International Space Station.

00:02:39   So there's a plugin for Home Assistant that takes, that's like public data from NASA.

00:02:43   They just have, I think they have an API for it. This just looks at that API. And what it

00:02:48   does is you can set a radius around your home's location, and then Home Assistant sends Max

00:02:55   a notification when the ISS is going to be overhead.

00:03:00   which is super cool. That's one thing that I haven't done in a long time. But when my

00:03:05   kids were younger, we would do that pretty often. Like, at the time I was using just,

00:03:09   I think NASA's app had a feature that would like send you a notification. No, it's longer,

00:03:14   older than that. You got to email when the ISS was going to be like visible from your location.

00:03:19   And we like try to run outside and see it. You just see like this little point of light moving

00:03:22   across the sky. So you can do this in Home Assistant. And then Max had a really, I think,

00:03:30   really clever home automation that you don't need Home Assistant for, I don't think, but it's very

00:03:34   clever. So Max writes, I have a bunch of basement lights in Home Assistant, but I always forget to turn

00:03:41   them off. So I now have a light switch at the top of the stairs as a master control.

00:03:46   Okay. There's an irritating notification light on the master switch that tells me if other lights

00:03:52   downstairs are still on. And if I double tap the switch, it turns off all the basement lights at once.

00:03:58   Okay. That's more serious. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's actually really good.

00:04:03   Really clever. Feels a bit more useless than tracking the location of the ISS.

00:04:07   Hey, don't you want to be inspired? No, no, no. I just wonder what are you going to do when,

00:04:12   when, when it's passing above you? Just go out and look at it and think, okay, I am so small.

00:04:17   But like every day? It is not, depending on where you are in the world, it is very infrequent.

00:04:24   Okay. So I don't know how frequent it is for me here. It is definitely not every night. It's definitely

00:04:31   not every week even. It's, it's because the ISS, like it's orbit is sort of, that's complicated.

00:04:38   Okay. We have to revisit Tim Cook, Tim Cooked quotes as well. Do you want to read this one?

00:04:45   Yes. Kevin wrote in and said, I am, oh, where's my window? I enjoyed your Tim Cooked quote episode

00:04:53   and wanted to provide some feedback on the quote that included peanut butter spread. I work in a

00:04:57   large enterprise and this is a term that I didn't know until I had a deal. I had to deal with budgets.

00:05:03   We use this term when we budget for something, but you either don't know when the expense will fall

00:05:08   or is variable throughout the year. So you spread the yearly budget across all 12 months. So it's even

00:05:15   like you spread peanut butter on toast. I mean, sure. Okay. Because when you're spreading peanut

00:05:22   butter, you want to make sure that you spread it even across the entire surface of the toast. And so

00:05:28   when you're budgeting and you want to spread it on 12 months, you want to make sure that it's

00:05:33   I get it. I get it. It's pretty, uh, pretty good. Uh, uh, yeah. I mean, could have, you know, it could

00:05:40   have been worse. It's about budgeting and I mean, fine. You know what? Fine. I'll take it. Yeah. I thank

00:05:48   you, Kevin. Yeah. And then lastly, and this is follow out, I guess. I don't know. Um, a couple people

00:05:55   sent us this, there'll be a screenshot in the show notes. Uh, Apple news plus has puzzles each day.

00:06:04   And I'm not a big, like crossword guy. Are you across? Are you like a word puzzle person?

00:06:10   No, no, no, no, no, but, but, but, but hold on. And I'm not joking. Uh, and I kind of want to,

00:06:18   want to hear from you and the listeners. So I've been thinking of, of, about trying to go,

00:06:25   on the wheel of fortune in Italy on TV. Yes. So I've been watching the wheel. So the wheel

00:06:33   of fortune was really popular when I was a kid, like, uh, 30 years ago came back. Uh, we used

00:06:43   to have this historic host, um, that passed away, uh, about a decade ago. Okay. And the format

00:06:50   was like frozen in time forever. The wheel of fortune came back last year on channel five

00:06:57   in Italy, and it quickly became the most watched, uh, quiz show at that time slot, uh, right after

00:07:05   dinner. And I've been watching the, the new version of the show religiously every day with

00:07:11   Sylvia. And I think I've been getting better, but obviously like playing from home is very

00:07:17   different from playing in, you know, in the studio, but I've actually been thinking about

00:07:22   it because like, there's so many times that I get upset at people not knowing the answers

00:07:27   or just not even strategizing the game well enough. And I don't know, I feel like I could

00:07:33   do a decent enough job at it. Uh, and that's the only word puzzle or collection of word puzzles

00:07:40   that I play regularly. It's the wheel of fortune. And Sylvia keeps pushing me like, yeah, you should,

00:07:46   you should go, you should go. If you win something, we can, you know, it could be, could be great for

00:07:50   the mortgage that we have. Uh, so I don't know. I don't know. I've been thinking about it.

00:07:56   Uh, I think you should do it. Uh, I think that's awesome. Um, I, I, I think I'm with you. I'm not

00:08:04   a word puzzle player, but if I were to be, or like what I, what I'm good at is like will a fortune

00:08:12   like stuff. Apparently when I was a little kid, my parents have told me that I was like obsessed with

00:08:18   it when I was like a toddler, like young kid. And again, it dinnertime TV show here in America. Right.

00:08:24   And I would like rush to eat dinner and then want to go watch wheel, which apparently is what I called

00:08:29   it. And, um, it's fantastic. Anyways, a bunch of people sent us this in, um, on Wednesday, May 13th,

00:08:38   the name of the Apple news plus crossword was triple J. Why? Which is concerning. That's very

00:08:47   concerning. Yes. The, the triple J is our replacement in case, uh, we die and they take over the show.

00:08:53   Why is, why is this happening? They sometimes remind us of that in a creepy ways. Hmm. I don't like

00:09:00   that. Is there, is there some form of collusion going on here? Um, could be, could be.

00:09:08   Hmm. This episode of connected is brought to you by FitBod. When you want to change your fitness

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00:11:18   My thanks to FitBod for the support of the show and Relay.

00:11:22   So WBDC is, oh my gosh, it's less than a month away.

00:11:29   And so we are deep into rumor season now with software. You know, the hardware rumor cycle never, never ends, right?

00:11:39   Like there's always a new shot of an iPhone or a new iPad part. But software tends to, it comes in hills and valleys, I think, in terms of rumors.

00:11:47   And this week, Mark Gurman released a big report outlining what he knows about iOS 27 coming, of course, at WBC and releasing this fall.

00:12:01   There's a lot of stuff in this report. I kind of wanted to hit on a couple of big things with you and then sort of a smorgasbord at the end.

00:12:09   I think we're going to get into the Siri and AI stuff because that's obviously going to be the focus.

00:12:14   But what was actually what was most interesting to me in this report was what Gurman wrote about the camera app on the iPhone.

00:12:23   And, you know, we've spoken about this in the past.

00:12:25   The UI and the camera app, it has to do a lot of things, right?

00:12:30   And I don't think they're necessarily doing all those things very well.

00:12:34   Like with the liquid glass redesign, like that slider to move in between modes is kind of weird.

00:12:39   And there's a lot of power in the camera app, but a lot of it's hidden.

00:12:43   And I understand that. And that's good to a large degree, right?

00:12:47   Because like you can just pick up your iPhone, take a picture and it's going to look great.

00:12:50   But like with so much of their software, Apple struggles, I think, with how do you meet the needs of the everyday user?

00:12:58   But also make something that is good for power users as well.

00:13:02   And the way they are thinking about solving this in the camera app is UI customization, which you and I are both huge fans of.

00:13:11   I think our software should bend to what we want out of it.

00:13:14   And so a couple of points he wrote about.

00:13:17   The app will continue to launch with the same default set of tools that it has now.

00:13:23   But if you want to, you can edit the user interface.

00:13:28   And in my mind, this is sort of like control center, like there are going to be spots you can change out the tools.

00:13:35   The tools that Gurman lists include the flash, exposure, timer, resolution.

00:13:44   So for like for video, if I want, you know, 4K or 1080p or different frame rates or whatever.

00:13:48   And you'll be able to put these things where they're more immediately accessible to you.

00:13:55   So if the type of work you do, like you really are moving between frame rates, right?

00:14:01   You remember a long time ago, you used to go to the settings app for that.

00:14:04   Remember that the settings should be in the settings app?

00:14:07   Remember that movement?

00:14:09   That didn't hold up.

00:14:12   And like if you're trying to shoot something quickly, right?

00:14:14   Like, and you need to switch frame rates.

00:14:17   Going to the settings app stinks.

00:14:18   You may actually miss the shot because you're like digging around in settings.

00:14:22   They've moved a lot of that stuff into the camera app itself, but you're still kind of toggling through things.

00:14:29   This is really interesting to me.

00:14:32   Do you think this is a reasonable approach to make the camera app more useful to more people?

00:14:38   I think so, and I'm all in favor of letting users customize a tool, especially if it can be both a simple tool for just taking quick photos and videos, but also professional tools for users who want to have more controls.

00:14:53   So I think the camera app is an ideal candidate for all of this.

00:14:57   But as soon as I saw this, my brain just fixated on one idea and one story that we covered previously on the show, which is the hell-eyed designer, Sebastian DeWitt, now working at Apple, and the lawsuit between the...

00:15:18   So, and wasn't the news report at the time, didn't it mention that Apple tried to acquire Haylite as well?

00:15:29   Or maybe they considered, and then they ended up hiring the designer.

00:15:36   So, I don't know.

00:15:38   I guess, you know, good timing, for sure.

00:15:41   They definitely have a person that knows how to design a flexible camera UI now, amongst other things.

00:15:48   Sebastian is a great designer.

00:15:49   But yeah, that's the first thing I thought of.

00:15:53   Yeah.

00:15:53   Like, ah, yeah, okay.

00:15:55   That being said, I kind of love the idea.

00:15:59   And we've been seeing Apple dip their toes into UI, not just like UI customization.

00:16:05   Sure, we have wallpapers, widgets, themed icons.

00:16:09   But we've seen Apple go beyond that for the past few years when they started, wasn't it iPadOS 16, the cursed release with Stage Manager?

00:16:20   But if you forget about Stage Manager, it was also the release when they brought customizable toolbars to iPad from the Mac.

00:16:28   And we still have that feature.

00:16:29   It's not as flexible as it is on the Mac.

00:16:32   But we have a precedent for Apple letting you actually customize the UI of apps with the system level control.

00:16:40   I actually wonder if this could be something that you can do in the camera app, but it's also something that is an API for developers, like a proper liquid glass API for customizing controls.

00:16:52   Maybe.

00:16:52   I don't know.

00:16:53   I think it's a good idea.

00:16:54   They should do it.

00:16:55   The camera app has gotten so confusing over the years.

00:16:58   And it's the kind of app that has two very different audiences.

00:17:03   Yeah.

00:17:04   The people who just want to get in and out, take a picture and be done with it.

00:17:07   And the professionals that spend actual hours staring at the camera UI.

00:17:12   So the only way out is to not make a decision for people, but to let the people make a decision themselves.

00:17:20   And that means customization.

00:17:23   So, yeah, thumbs up.

00:17:24   Yeah.

00:17:24   The move here for Apple is not to, like, have a separate camera app for pros.

00:17:30   I don't think that's the way to go here.

00:17:33   And I do agree with you.

00:17:35   It would be great to make this something more accessible to developers.

00:17:40   Like, you mentioned the iPad OS getting toolbars that you could rearrange.

00:17:45   The Mac has had that forever, like, since the OS X days.

00:17:49   And it's really great.

00:17:52   Like, it's actually, it was actually funny.

00:17:54   I was recently on my wife's MacBook Air helping her with something in her email app.

00:18:00   And I realized, like, and I use MimeStream and she uses mail.

00:18:04   But even that aside, I just realized, like, oh, your buttons aren't the buttons I would have here.

00:18:08   Right?

00:18:09   Because, like, I use my email differently than her.

00:18:12   And it's great because you can just right click and move things around.

00:18:17   And it would be really great for that to come to the iPhone.

00:18:19   Because I think we've all had those experiences where, oh, the thing on the tab bar is not really what I want.

00:18:28   And a lot of developers have solved this.

00:18:30   Like, TweetBot back in the day and now Ivory and a lot of other apps, sort of indie apps made by people who really care about the platform do offer some of those things.

00:18:39   Right?

00:18:39   Like, oh, I don't need this at the bottom.

00:18:41   I want it over here or actually don't want to see, like, RSS readers, right?

00:18:47   Like, oh, I don't want to see the preview image.

00:18:49   Or I do.

00:18:49   Or I want two lines of preview text or four.

00:18:52   Like, developers offer that sort of thing.

00:18:54   But to make it a system level thing where, like, I could in Apple Mail on the iPhone.

00:19:00   Like, you know what?

00:19:00   Actually, I don't want this button here.

00:19:02   I want something else.

00:19:03   That would be awesome.

00:19:05   I don't know if we're going to get it this year.

00:19:06   I don't think we are.

00:19:07   But if this is successful and, like, people use it and are happy with it, maybe that's a signal to Apple that we should have more of it.

00:19:14   Yeah.

00:19:15   I agree.

00:19:16   The camera report also, it, like, has sparked a hot take in me that may end up being a Flexi at some point.

00:19:24   Okay.

00:19:26   Another thing coming inside the camera UI is Siri mode, so a way to get to visual intelligence.

00:19:31   I think the camera control is going to go away.

00:19:37   I agree with that.

00:19:38   It's maybe not that hot of a take.

00:19:39   They've already dialed back.

00:19:41   Now, if you set up a new phone, all, like, the fancy swipey stuff is turned off by default.

00:19:45   Yep.

00:19:46   But visual intelligence, like, I think, maybe I'm wrong, but I think the only way to get to visual intelligence is camera control.

00:19:54   Is that right?

00:19:55   That is correct.

00:19:57   Maybe there's a control center toggle.

00:20:00   There is a control center toggle, I think.

00:20:03   Yeah, you can, there's a control center toggle, which means you can do action button and all those things.

00:20:08   Yeah, and, you know, maybe that's, uh, maybe moving it, I mean, moving in here is clearly a part of the bigger play with Siri and the Gemini models and everything.

00:20:18   But it just, like, sparked to me, I was like, oh, visual intelligence is really tied to the camera control.

00:20:25   So that, I don't think, has been the success Apple wanted it to be.

00:20:28   Maybe this is step one in moving to a future without it.

00:20:33   Yeah.

00:20:34   Okay, you want to walk us through, because, uh, the Siri stuff, there's a lot of detail in here about, like, the UI that Siri could take, which I think is really fascinating.

00:20:43   Yeah.

00:20:44   So the report, uh, essentially mentioned something that we've been hearing for some time.

00:20:49   Um, I can tell you, Steven, uh, I have also privately heard that this is the UI from a, you know, a source.

00:20:57   We'll say, we'll put it like that.

00:20:59   And, uh, the idea being that Siri comes up from the dynamic island this year in iOS 27.

00:21:06   So, uh, when you activate Siri, you press the side button or you invoke, um, you use the invocation phrase, uh, a glowing Siri UI appears as a special type of UI.

00:21:18   And, uh, in and around the dynamic island, um, that allows you to ask questions.

00:21:25   And, uh, obviously, uh, you know, the report says you can, you can choose whether you want to speak or you want to type.

00:21:31   Now, the idea is that you can also, um, uh, this is the part that I think is very clever.

00:21:37   It sounds like they're going to use the dynamic island, um, not just as a container for the Siri interface, but also as a new gesture that allows you to invoke Siri.

00:21:47   With touch by swiping down from the dynamic island anywhere you are on iOS 27.

00:21:54   And that presumably, when you do that, uh, you're going to default to a typing experience, uh, with an interface that says search or ask with the search bar that appears when you swipe down from the top center of the screen.

00:22:08   And that allows you to type and ask Siri something.

00:22:12   And, of course, depending on what you're asking, you're going to get, you know, the, the, the fancy, uh, Gemini version that powers Apple intelligence.

00:22:21   Uh, uh, that in theory will allow you to have these rich results.

00:22:25   Um, uh, uh, uh, German has described them as these inline mini app cards.

00:22:31   Uh, uh, essentially I can imagine like thumbnail, fancy thumbnail previews of, uh, that are themed after, you know, weather results, web results, calendar events, task manager results.

00:22:44   Um, essentially like if I were to guess, like this is based on widget kit, uh, UI elements that can now live inside rich results in Siri triggered from the dynamic island.

00:22:56   And, uh, supposedly Siri will be able to, to, to, to be better at dealing with that compared to what it is today in iOS 26.

00:23:14   And lastly, there's going to be a standalone Siri app that is going to be a check, a more traditional chat bot experience where, um, in theory, again,

00:23:25   you will be able to persist some of those conversations and continue some of those conversations.

00:23:29   And you will have, according to the report, this grid view of your previous chats and you can resume them.

00:23:36   You can go in there.

00:23:36   You can ask for more information, you know, essentially what you can do with JGPT, Cloud, Gemini, but in a more native Siri fashion.

00:23:44   Um, this sounds very exciting to me, not just because it's, it sounds like Apple may be finally getting their Siri act together, but also because it seems like it finally

00:23:54   finally unlocks, uh, the kind of system wide search that has been missing from the iPhone forever.

00:24:00   Uh, you never be, you've never been able on the iPhone to invoke search, uh, outside of the home screen or the lock screen.

00:24:09   Uh, if you're using an app, you got to go back and then search.

00:24:12   And it sounds like by using the dynamic island and a new swipe down gesture from the top, uh, from the top center of the screen,

00:24:19   that's going to be their answer to system wide Siri presence without using voice or without using a button.

00:24:25   Yeah.

00:24:26   And it brings it in line with the iPad and the Mac where you can hit spotlight from anywhere, right?

00:24:31   It's, it's always available to you.

00:24:32   Um, it's just so fascinating.

00:24:36   I mean, there were reports a couple of years ago that Apple was really against sort of a chat bot style feature, but like they were wrong.

00:24:43   Like clearly that's what people want and sort of all these companies are doing.

00:24:46   And I think having this like be system wide and using the dynamic island as sort of a place for it to live.

00:24:54   Like, I think that's all super clever.

00:24:57   And, you know, I am curious, like, what does this look like on the iPad and the Mac, uh, in terms of, you know, sort of, is it just going to be up in the, in the menu bar somewhere?

00:25:09   Like probably, um, that's where Siri is on the Mac now, right?

00:25:12   It's like the one colorful, uh, menu bar icon that ships from Apple.

00:25:17   Uh, I always drag it out of there, but it is, uh, I think this is going to be well thought through.

00:25:24   And, uh, I hope you're right.

00:25:26   I hope they've gotten their, their act together.

00:25:28   I mean, they're, they're building this on top of Gemini.

00:25:30   So hopefully, uh, this is going to work as well as it looks.

00:25:33   My main concern is that Gemini of all the models that we have, Gemini is Apple has picked the worst one at calling external tools.

00:25:43   Gemini is by far the worst model when it comes to integrating with external apps.

00:25:48   Um, both chat GPT, GPT 5.5 and Claude are much better at tool calling than Gemini.

00:25:55   Yeah, but does that matter on the phone?

00:25:57   Like if you're, if you're, if you're, if it's powering search and text and stuff?

00:26:01   It doesn't for that, but it does matter if Apple wants to ship the App Intense thing they showed off two years ago.

00:26:08   That's fair.

00:26:09   And that makes me very curious to see how they solved that.

00:26:13   Like, are we going to get the, the exact same architecture based on App Intense that Apple pre-announced in 2024?

00:26:22   Mm-hmm.

00:26:23   Or in their intervening time, uh, we're going to get something else like an MCP bridge on device.

00:26:29   Um, that is a different architecture.

00:26:31   And what, and if that's the case, what happens to the developers that have done the work of supporting App Intense for Apple intelligence that never shipped?

00:26:38   I don't know.

00:26:39   We'll see.

00:26:40   Um, I wouldn't be shocked though, to see a scenario where there's going to be Gemini as the general, like chatbot and answering model.

00:26:49   But Apple has, but also to see Apple build something on the side to compensate for tool calling and integrating with iOS apps.

00:26:58   Because I don't know, Gemini is not really good.

00:27:01   At, uh, integrating with external tools.

00:27:04   But we'll see.

00:27:04   We'll see.

00:27:05   A couple other just sort of, uh, random things German runs through.

00:27:10   Um, Safari's start page is going to be a bit more organized between favorites, bookmarks, reading list, browsing history.

00:27:18   Oh, reading list lives on.

00:27:19   It, it never dies.

00:27:21   The, uh, uh, yeah, that, that page is a bit messy.

00:27:25   I think particularly on the iPhone, like it's kind of, I don't know about you, but I just kind of look at it and don't know what to do.

00:27:31   It's like sort of a little overwhelming and to get to history and some other things, you're really like tapping through a bunch of things sometimes.

00:27:38   So, um, I think having this better organized would be good.

00:27:41   Mm-hmm.

00:27:42   Um, image playgrounds is going to get a redesign and possibly, this is the interesting part to me, possibly upgraded models to make images created, uh, to be more lifelike.

00:27:52   You know, there's, you know, there's, there's this thing, a little sidebar people, uh, it has been, it has been said like, oh, um, Apple not investing in AI models is actually genius because they're just going to be able to use somebody else's.

00:28:10   And if these companies collapse at some point, then they can just go in and buy the parts like, you know, at, at discounted prices.

00:28:17   That, that, that wasn't the plan, right?

00:28:19   Apple may have backed into that position or been backed into that position, but that wasn't the plan.

00:28:24   The plan was to have great stuff from day one and that they weren't able to do it.

00:28:29   I feel like image playgrounds is a little bit of the same thing.

00:28:32   Like one thing that I like about image playgrounds is that you can't make lifelike images in it.

00:28:38   Now the images aren't good.

00:28:40   Like it's, it's a goofy system and like the, the, the artwork it makes is weird, but very clearly like I'm not making deep fakes, uh, Federico using windows with image playgrounds.

00:28:52   And I don't think they're going to go that far, but I'm very curious to see how far down the road they go into making these things.

00:28:59   Uh, lifelike.

00:29:00   My guess is it'll be doable, but through Gemini and it's going to be really clear like, Oh, Apple intelligence didn't make this, this other thing made it.

00:29:10   Yeah.

00:29:11   Yeah.

00:29:12   And then some, uh, liquid glass tweaks.

00:29:16   What do you think about these?

00:29:17   So, uh, Apple is, uh, so the, the German is saying here that, um, in iOS 27, Apple will be tweaking the tab bar again across, uh,

00:29:29   several apps.

00:29:30   So this is the top bar at the bottom of iPhone apps to combine the search tab with the other tabs.

00:29:36   So this was a whole thing last year.

00:29:40   Uh, if you recall my iOS 26 review, or if you recall liquid glass in general, where they split the search icon in the top bar to be its own standalone entity in the bottom right corner.

00:29:52   Uh, this was the case in, in, in Apple music, in, uh, photos, in, in a bunch of other apps, uh, the word, the main tabs, and then the search tab separate from those.

00:30:05   And it seems like Apple is undoing that.

00:30:08   And to, uh, and I believe this to be true because in iOS 26.5, if I'm not mistaken, Apple is already doing this in the app store and in the Apple games app.

00:30:24   Uh, I think, uh, where they unified the search tab with the other tabs again in 26.5, almost as a test of sorts.

00:30:34   I really don't know what to think.

00:30:36   I'm sure, like, are we just going to, you know, shuffle these things around?

00:30:40   Like this year, the, the tab is separate.

00:30:42   No, this year, the, the, the search tab is unified again.

00:30:46   Um, all right, cool, sure.

00:30:47   Um, uh, I guess, uh, Steve, Steve LeMay didn't really like the separate search icon.

00:30:54   Whatever.

00:30:56   Uh, I don't, I don't really have an opinion.

00:31:00   I guess they must have seen that people get confused by the separate search icon.

00:31:04   I don't know.

00:31:05   Maybe.

00:31:05   Yeah, it's weird.

00:31:07   So I just have the app store app and then the Apple store app.

00:31:11   Boy, that's a confusing sentence.

00:31:12   Just bouncing between them on my phone right now.

00:31:16   And yeah, the app store has it separate.

00:31:18   I, I, I don't know.

00:31:21   I don't really have a preference either.

00:31:23   Like being separate, I think makes more sense if it is an action.

00:31:30   So, and this is apps.

00:31:34   This was more on Android and a lot of iOS apps have adopted now.

00:31:37   Like Todoist, uh, I know has this where there's a big floating plus button that's above the tab

00:31:42   bar.

00:31:42   It's not really part of it, but like a separate entity search doesn't belong.

00:31:45   They're clearly, but I think maybe I prefer search being at all being one bar a little

00:31:53   bit.

00:31:53   The thing that I am, you know, this is not the first time they've, they've fiddled with

00:31:57   this.

00:31:57   Uh, we also had the thing early on in 26, like in the news app and others, you would start

00:32:03   scrolling and the tab bar would disappear.

00:32:06   like it would move over to the left and then you just have one icon and then it would come

00:32:11   back.

00:32:12   That is basically gone now.

00:32:14   And I'm glad that it's gone.

00:32:17   I think that was just, that was a bit too much.

00:32:18   I think, uh, German also mentions that there's going to be a new animation, uh, for when a user

00:32:25   activates the key, the onscreen keyboard, a new animation will show the keys sliding up from

00:32:30   the bottom of the iPhone's interface.

00:32:32   Now, how is that different from now?

00:32:35   Like right now, open Safari, tapping the search field at the bottom.

00:32:42   the keys do slide up from the bottom of the screen.

00:32:46   So I'm guessing the German is saying that there's a new animation because right now there is the

00:32:53   keys sliding up from the bottom of the iPhone's interface.

00:32:57   Uh, German makes it sound like a new thing, but we already have this animation.

00:33:03   Uh, so maybe there's going to be a new one.

00:33:06   Uh, unless I don't know, there's like, uh, all the keys, you know, flying separately and then

00:33:11   they unify, what are they going to do here?

00:33:14   A new animation for the keyboard coming up.

00:33:16   I don't know.

00:33:17   Sure.

00:33:18   Yeah.

00:33:18   And, uh, lastly, uh, there's going to be undo and redo controls when customizing the home

00:33:25   screen, uh, convenient for people who frequently move around, uh, icons and widgets.

00:33:31   Yes.

00:33:31   Yes.

00:33:32   Very excited about this.

00:33:33   Yeah.

00:33:34   Uh, customizing the iPhone home screen and getting the layout just right continues to be something

00:33:41   that is too difficult for no apparent reason for end users.

00:33:46   So, so many times I found myself exactly in that scenario where I drag something, you drag

00:33:54   a widget and then for some reason, five icons move.

00:33:57   Yeah.

00:33:57   And then you're like, no, go back.

00:33:59   And so having undo and redo there, it sounds nice.

00:34:02   You know, what really needs it is control center.

00:34:04   I mean, control center, like rearranging the widgets in control center is like a distilled

00:34:11   version of everything bad about the home screen rearrangement thing.

00:34:14   It's so easy to blow up your control center, man.

00:34:16   Like it is so easy and, uh, bring it there too, Apple.

00:34:23   This episode of connected is brought to you by doc pops.

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00:36:14   Big news Federico.

00:36:15   Okay.

00:36:16   Google books.

00:36:17   Google book.

00:36:18   Google book.

00:36:19   If you say it fast enough, it doesn't sound like a word.

00:36:22   Uh, so Google, Google IO is next week.

00:36:25   Uh, but, uh, the Android show, which is put on by Google, uh, hosted by Dieter Bohn.

00:36:30   Fun to see him on video again.

00:36:32   Uh, used to be at the verge.

00:36:33   Uh, they previewed a bunch of announcements concerning Android, Gemini, uh, and Google books.

00:36:38   That's where we're going to kind of focus today.

00:36:40   I assume we're going to talk about IO in the coming weeks.

00:36:42   Yeah.

00:36:43   Yeah.

00:36:44   Um, so some, some basics of this.

00:36:47   So we've had Chromebooks for a long time.

00:36:50   Do you remember back in the day that getting a, you had to be like, I don't think it was

00:36:56   a lottery, but like not everyone could get the first Chromebook.

00:36:59   Maybe you had to apply.

00:37:01   I forget.

00:37:01   I don't remember that.

00:37:03   Um, a friend of mine locally got one, like the very first one.

00:37:07   And it was, it was a wild time.

00:37:09   Um, but these are not replacing Chromebooks.

00:37:15   They are sort of above Chromebooks, I think, in terms of features and price points, certainly.

00:37:23   So they are not running Chrome OS and they're not running Android.

00:37:29   They are running a yet unnamed operating system.

00:37:34   Now the code name for this has been aluminum OS.

00:37:37   Yeah.

00:37:37   Oh, I think you mean aluminum.

00:37:39   And, uh, I, Google was like, yeah, that's, that's the code name.

00:37:43   You know, we'll have a, a, a name.

00:37:45   We get closer to it.

00:37:46   You know, nothing really says screams confidence, like not having a name for the thing you're

00:37:50   announcing, but that's classic Google, I think.

00:37:53   So these are notebooks.

00:37:57   Uh, they're built by a bunch of different companies.

00:38:00   So they mentioned like, uh, Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP.

00:38:05   They're going to be building these things.

00:38:07   And it will certainly be a lot like Chrome OS and it will certainly, they will run Android

00:38:14   apps and you can cast Android apps to them.

00:38:17   Yeah.

00:38:17   Which is really, I think, pretty, pretty cool.

00:38:20   And you can access your phone files from the Google book as well.

00:38:25   Yeah.

00:38:25   Really, really cool stuff.

00:38:27   Stuff that we take for granted on the sort of the Apple side of things, but something that

00:38:33   a lot of other ecosystems just don't, they don't have all that connective tissue.

00:38:36   I'm going to read a quote.

00:38:38   Google books are the first laptops designed from the ground up for Gemini intelligence to

00:38:42   deliver personal and proactive help when and where you need it.

00:38:47   But most importantly, Federico, forget Gemini for a second.

00:38:52   These things are going to have what's called the glow bar.

00:38:56   The glow bar.

00:38:57   I'm very excited about this.

00:38:58   The Chromebook Pixel.

00:38:59   I'll have a link to the show notes, uh, to an article about it.

00:39:03   Uh, perhaps one of the coolest industrial designs for a laptop of all time.

00:39:08   And it had on the lid, there's a couple inches across, but very thin, this little light bar

00:39:14   at blue, red, yellow, green, sort of the googly colors.

00:39:17   And it was, as far as I know, it was just like on this and maybe like one other product.

00:39:23   It did not take off in terms of an industrial design, you know, sort of piece for Google,

00:39:29   but these machines will have it.

00:39:31   And you think, my gosh, what will it do?

00:39:33   Quoting from Ars Technica.

00:39:35   Google says the bar on the Google Books is both quote, functional and beautiful, but

00:39:40   has not explained the functionality yet.

00:39:42   I don't know what it does, but, um, uh, the Gemini stuff is, is baked right in.

00:39:51   And there's some pretty cool stuff here.

00:39:53   Do you want to walk us through magic pointer?

00:39:55   Cause I think in some ways that's the most compelling.

00:39:57   I think, so the idea behind the magic pointer is that you shake the cursor and, uh, that instantly

00:40:04   triggers the Gemini intelligence, which is, seems to be their new name for Gemini integration

00:40:10   in the operating system, kind of like Apple intelligence, but this one is called Gemini

00:40:14   intelligence.

00:40:14   Um, the idea being that you shake the cursor and the Gemini comes up and allows you to ask

00:40:22   or do things based on what's around the cursor, uh, or the pointer as they call it.

00:40:29   Uh, which I think is a really, I think it's an interesting idea for AI integration on desktop

00:40:36   to almost offer like this proactive assistance, uh, that is contextual to what's happening on

00:40:45   screen.

00:40:45   Right.

00:40:46   I think it's a, like you can, for example, select some text or, or compare like, uh, two

00:40:54   images or two tabs or, or, um, like you can select two images.

00:40:59   For example, if you're browsing the web, you can select a bunch of them and then you can

00:41:02   say, uh, combine these two into a, uh, like a poster or you can, you know, select a song

00:41:09   and you can say, you can find this on Spotify.

00:41:12   Um, just the idea of turning, because you don't have like, it seems to be, it seems to

00:41:20   me that it's the equivalent to the circle to draw that they have on touchscreens for Gemini

00:41:26   right now.

00:41:26   But here they're shaking the pointer instead, which is, I think a fun, fun idea.

00:41:32   Um, the other feature that they, that they have that they also showed off during the

00:41:36   presentation, uh, create my widget.

00:41:39   So they're bringing, they're, they're making a bet on what they call generative UI, which

00:41:46   is the idea of, instead of pre-building dozens of predefined widgets, you can just create your

00:41:53   own widget using AI.

00:41:55   Uh, so for example, you can say, uh, I want to make a custom widget for my upcoming trip to

00:42:01   WWDC and it, it, it, it's got to show my, uh, flight information directions for the hotel

00:42:09   and my calendar appointments for, I don't know, briefings for the week.

00:42:13   And Gemini will pull in those data points from Gmail, Google calendar, and I don't know, Google

00:42:19   tasks.

00:42:19   So if you're using that, it's not clear to me if it can pull from third party apps or

00:42:23   not, uh, but it will create a custom widget that does not exist by default on the system.

00:42:28   Uh, that's based on the data that you requested, which I think is an interesting idea.

00:42:34   And again, it's a, it's a, it's a different type of customization, right?

00:42:38   Uh, what we discussed before with Apple is more like traditional customization, whereas this

00:42:44   is, uh, oh gosh, generative customization.

00:42:48   The idea being that if a piece of UI does not exist, you can sort of will it into existence

00:42:53   with Gemini on Android or aluminum OS, whatever.

00:42:58   Interesting idea.

00:43:00   Uh, it all comes down to how rigid the system is.

00:43:05   Like, are all these widgets going to look the same because they're all based on the same

00:43:09   template?

00:43:10   Are they going to be limited just to data coming in from Google apps?

00:43:14   Can you say, I want to make a widget that shows me my to do is tasks for today.

00:43:19   And also the albums that I'm listening to on Spotify this week.

00:43:23   Like, can you combine third party data like that in, in a, in a generative widget?

00:43:29   We'll see.

00:43:30   They have the right ideas, but I want to see Google commit to this long term because Google

00:43:35   has many ideas and they never stick to most of them.

00:43:39   So interesting, but we'll see, which is, uh, I think you can, you can summarize any Google

00:43:45   event with interesting, but we'll see.

00:43:47   And it works every single time.

00:43:49   Yeah.

00:43:49   Yeah.

00:43:51   It's, it's, I think that's spot on.

00:43:55   And that's one thing if it's like a sort of a on the side web service that not many people

00:44:02   use, but if you go buy a $1,200 laptop and you expect these things to work for the long

00:44:07   haul, and I don't know if it's $1,200, like just picking a number.

00:44:10   I think that's what, I think that's about what the Chromebook pixel was.

00:44:13   Um, you, you are making, or at least should be making some sort of, uh, agreement with your

00:44:22   users that this stuff is going to be around and supported.

00:44:26   And like Google has just burned so much of that goodwill.

00:44:28   I think over the years, I just, uh, I don't know.

00:44:33   It's hard to believe, especially with around IO and the announcements they've made at IO

00:44:39   in the past to like believe that this stuff is going to surface or stick around.

00:44:43   That's why the BBC a couple of years ago stands out so much because Apple historically, generally

00:44:50   delivers what they say they're going to deliver.

00:44:53   And then they made a bunch of promises about Apple intelligence that still haven't come

00:44:57   true and some may never come true.

00:44:59   And that's why that event stands out.

00:45:01   Um, but yeah, when you bundle a bunch of it into a laptop, you're like, that's a, that's

00:45:07   a bit of a commitment that feels different to me than just, Hey, there's this web tool we're

00:45:11   building.

00:45:12   Yeah.

00:45:13   Yeah.

00:45:14   Oh man.

00:45:16   Okay.

00:45:16   That's, um, I think it's fascinating.

00:45:19   I think Google, I think about like the Android ecosystem, they are sort of stranded without

00:45:27   a personal computer to a degree, right?

00:45:30   Like, again, we enjoy these things on the Mac and a lot of Google stuff shows up on the web,

00:45:34   but if they can integrate this really well and like Android apps are just there and they

00:45:40   work and this is very interesting, but the, the proof is going to be year one, two, three

00:45:47   down the road, I think.

00:45:48   Also, what does the glow bar do?

00:45:51   I mean, come on, you got to tell us they do look cool though.

00:45:57   I mean, the, the, they look very nice, very nice.

00:46:00   Yeah.

00:46:00   Yeah.

00:46:01   Yeah.

00:46:03   This episode of connected is brought to you by mercury weather.

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00:48:05   Okay, Mike.

00:48:08   This is just for Mike Hurley.

00:48:09   Don't listen past here.

00:48:12   Okay?

00:48:13   Okay, Mike?

00:48:13   Skip the chapter.

00:48:15   Skip the chapter.

00:48:17   I'm making that the chapter name.

00:48:19   Mike, comma, skip this chapter.

00:48:23   All right.

00:48:23   What are we doing?

00:48:24   All right.

00:48:25   So you came up with this or did I?

00:48:28   I don't remember.

00:48:29   I did, but I think y'all did this for me, but I don't think we've graded them.

00:48:33   Oh, yeah.

00:48:33   Oh, yeah.

00:48:34   Okay.

00:48:35   So we are going to be doing something.

00:48:36   I guess we're going to round rob in this.

00:48:38   We're going to predict things that we think Mike will do within the next 12 months.

00:48:47   The winner will get something.

00:48:51   Well, to be determined.

00:48:53   To be determined, TBD, we picked each four things that we believe Michael will do over

00:49:03   the course of the next 12 months, starting from today.

00:49:07   Yes.

00:49:08   So we will grade this on a future episode of Connected as close to May 14th.

00:49:15   You know, no earlier than 365 days from now.

00:49:17   So.

00:49:17   Yeah.

00:49:18   Okay.

00:49:19   Kick us off.

00:49:20   Okay.

00:49:21   So Mike has been busy, as we know, making websites.

00:49:26   Yes.

00:49:27   For the past year or so.

00:49:29   He's got the Cortex brand website.

00:49:32   Then he became a blogger with the Enthusiast.

00:49:35   So he's been launching websites, and I think Mike will soon get a niche to either launch

00:49:44   another website or redesign one of his existing websites.

00:49:47   So my prediction is that Mike will launch at least one new website that he designed and created

00:49:55   entirely with Claude.

00:49:57   Mike has become a bit of a Claude user.

00:50:01   Mike really likes Claude.

00:50:03   I think I got him into Claude because my birthday gift to him was like three months

00:50:08   of Claude max.

00:50:10   And I think that kind of hooked him.

00:50:13   And, you know, every once in a while he mentions that he likes using Claude co-work, and I think

00:50:19   he's dabbled with Claude code as well.

00:50:22   And I think Mike at some point will go in and we'll have an idea for a new website, and

00:50:27   we'll do it all with Claude, the design, the development, and it will launch the website

00:50:32   with Claude.

00:50:34   And that'll be Mike almost saying, yeah, I guess I'm a web designer and developer now.

00:50:40   But, and I also think Mike, you know, I don't know.

00:50:43   I just feel like this will happen.

00:50:46   I'm pretty confident that this will happen.

00:50:48   Okay.

00:50:48   Ungraded for style, what is the content of this website?

00:50:53   So I was, I was debating whether it's going to be like, like a section of the enthusiast.

00:51:01   Like, like I could see Mike put together like some kind of gallery of things he likes and

00:51:08   things he recommends with a fancy grid layout or something like that.

00:51:14   Like he wants to put together a gallery of products or people or websites that he likes

00:51:19   and wants to, like a, like a, like a fancy blog role.

00:51:21   If you think about it.

00:51:22   He should have that.

00:51:23   Like I'm just looking on his site.

00:51:25   He should have that.

00:51:25   It's like, yeah.

00:51:25   He should have, he should have.

00:51:27   It kind of sucks that he cannot listen to this because that could have been a nice idea.

00:51:30   That's a good idea.

00:51:30   Oh yeah.

00:51:31   Yeah.

00:51:31   That would have tainted the idea now.

00:51:32   Yeah.

00:51:33   Yeah.

00:51:34   Um, I don't know.

00:51:35   Or, or, um, he comes up with a, with a new venture of his own.

00:51:41   Could be.

00:51:42   Could be, you know, he's, he's an entrepreneur.

00:51:44   He's got the entrepreneurial spirit.

00:51:46   Yeah.

00:51:46   He could come up with something else.

00:51:48   Maybe he builds a website to prepare for Wheel of Fortune.

00:51:50   I'm obsessed with this idea of you going on Wheel of Fortune now.

00:51:55   I'm really thinking about, I'm really thinking about it.

00:51:57   I would, I would, I would watch that.

00:51:59   I would, I would do whatever.

00:52:01   I would move heaven and earth to view that video.

00:52:03   Okay.

00:52:04   Okay.

00:52:05   All right.

00:52:05   We'll see.

00:52:06   Steven, what do you, what do you have?

00:52:07   Uh, Mike will buy a folding iPhone, but not use it as his daily.

00:52:15   Oh, okay.

00:52:16   So it's kind of similar to what I have in my number three, which makes me wonder if I got

00:52:23   to change it.

00:52:24   I can, I can change mine because I think you're right.

00:52:28   My prediction was going to be Mike will purchase both an iPhone fold and an iPhone 18 pro.

00:52:33   But I think that's also, you're also kind of implying that.

00:52:37   Yeah.

00:52:38   Um, so I think I'll do something else.

00:52:42   I mean, this is a, an informed decision because he bought an iPhone air and a 17 pro.

00:52:49   The 17 pro is his daily.

00:52:50   He's going to do that for sure.

00:52:51   The air is his sort of like work phone.

00:52:54   He's got social media apps on it.

00:52:55   I know that because I process a lot of his screenshots.

00:52:57   That's what he's using, uh, for like media stuff across forward.

00:53:02   So I think, I think, I think this is it.

00:53:05   I just, I don't think ungraded for style.

00:53:08   I don't think he's going to use the foldable as his daily because of the camera and he's

00:53:13   got a baby.

00:53:14   And he's got a baby.

00:53:15   He wants to take pictures of the baby.

00:53:17   That's right.

00:53:17   Yeah.

00:53:18   Yeah.

00:53:19   I changed mine.

00:53:20   So, uh, we're good.

00:53:21   Oh, um, this is, Oh, I like this.

00:53:23   This is spicy.

00:53:24   Okay.

00:53:25   Yeah.

00:53:25   Yeah.

00:53:26   Yeah.

00:53:26   And I'll tell you why my number two, it's not about technology.

00:53:29   My number two in 2027, Mike will see Oasis live.

00:53:34   So there's a rumor that Oasis is going to take a pause, uh, this year from live touring.

00:53:40   I don't know if you've seen Steven, but the, I don't know if you know, actually that the

00:53:46   Oasis 25 live series of concerts, they were filmed, uh, for an upcoming documentary.

00:53:55   Shot and put together by the, if I'm not mistaken, the director of Peaky Blinders, the TV show.

00:54:01   Uh, there's a movie out.

00:54:03   They did a movie to end it.

00:54:05   Yeah.

00:54:05   Yeah.

00:54:06   Uh, I just watched it and what a great series.

00:54:10   Yeah.

00:54:10   I remember actually when I went to Wembley to see Oasis with a friend of the show, Jeremy

00:54:14   Burge, there were signs telling you that, you know, you were basically waiving your rights

00:54:21   to be filmed for the upcoming documentary.

00:54:23   Yeah.

00:54:24   Um, and so, uh, they announced last week that the documentary is unfortunate date.

00:54:30   All right.

00:54:31   But documentary is coming out on September 11.

00:54:33   Um, and it's going to premiere in cinemas worldwide.

00:54:37   It's going to be available in IMAX as well.

00:54:40   And it'll come later to Disney plus.

00:54:43   So Disney got the rights for the Oasis documentary.

00:54:46   And this is a big deal, not just because it's like a bunch of live footage with exclusive

00:54:51   access to backstage and the stage itself, but it'll feature exclusive footage of the Gallagher

00:54:59   brothers together leading up to the reunion, including their first joint interview in 25 years.

00:55:08   Right.

00:55:08   Cause they don't, cause they don't like each other.

00:55:10   Well, they, they got, they split in 2009.

00:55:14   They always had this like a rivalry, like sibling rivalry thing going on, uh, throughout the

00:55:20   nineties, throughout the early two thousands.

00:55:21   And then they got into this huge fight in, uh, just before a concert in Paris in 2009, supposedly

00:55:28   Liam threw a guitar at Knoll.

00:55:31   So it was, it was a whole thing split and they stayed split and they went on to have solo

00:55:38   careers until they reunited in 2025.

00:55:41   And it was a massive deal for the fans.

00:55:44   They did the Oasis live 25 series of concerts worldwide.

00:55:49   Then it seems like they're taking a bit of a break right now, but they still like each

00:55:54   other.

00:55:54   There's going to be the documentary and the rumors are saying that at the end of the documentary,

00:56:00   there's like in the credits or something, there's going to be the official announcement

00:56:03   for Oasis live 27.

00:56:05   And I think at that point, Mike would want to go to see Oasis in 2027.

00:56:13   So it seems like one of those things that you're not promised another tour, right?

00:56:18   Like, yeah, this could be, I mean, any, any Oasis show could be the last Oasis show.

00:56:22   Yes.

00:56:23   Yes.

00:56:23   And, uh, obviously Mike couldn't come in 25, uh, like Sophia was very little and I understand

00:56:30   why he didn't feel like he was able to travel or go to a concert, but I think in 2027, Sophia

00:56:37   will be two.

00:56:39   Yeah.

00:56:40   Yes.

00:56:41   And, um, and I think Mike will try whatever possible to get tickets.

00:56:46   So to grade this in May, 2027, uh, either there's going to be dates in that Mike has already

00:56:56   gone to, or Mike has purchased a ticket for a show after May 27.

00:57:03   Okay.

00:57:03   Okay.

00:57:04   Yeah.

00:57:05   That totally works for me.

00:57:06   That's really good.

00:57:06   Yeah.

00:57:07   I'm going to say that Mike damages or breaks another device.

00:57:13   Oh yeah, for sure.

00:57:14   You know, he,

00:57:15   this may happen like in 2026.

00:57:16   Yeah, it could have been happening right now.

00:57:18   I mean, he, uh, he smashed, he may come back next week and say, I, I dropped my, my phone

00:57:26   again or something.

00:57:27   Yeah.

00:57:27   It could.

00:57:28   He, uh, he damaged his 17 pro, you know, he had that deep scratch on his phone that he

00:57:33   got mad at Apple care about.

00:57:34   Yeah.

00:57:35   Guy's a parent now.

00:57:36   These things happen.

00:57:37   Yeah.

00:57:38   Yeah.

00:57:38   Okay.

00:57:39   Hey, my spicy one.

00:57:41   Yes.

00:57:41   Okay.

00:57:41   Yes.

00:57:42   In 2027, Mike will drop the Sonos ecosystem.

00:57:47   So Mike has said many, many times how much he loves Sonos.

00:57:52   He loves Sonos.

00:57:54   And he's into, I, I have seen Mike's home.

00:57:57   I have been in Mike's home.

00:57:59   Dude's got Sonos everywhere.

00:58:02   He does.

00:58:02   Okay.

00:58:02   Huge Sonos guy.

00:58:04   He's got, he's got the Sonos thing going on in every single room.

00:58:08   And he showed me his control center with the AirPlay integration.

00:58:11   It's got a long list of Sonos devices.

00:58:13   The guy loves his Sonos.

00:58:15   Okay.

00:58:16   Yeah.

00:58:16   But, but I think a couple of things may happen.

00:58:21   Either Sonos will officially, I don't want to say cease to exist, but like maybe they'll

00:58:29   be acquired by somebody or maybe they'll do some other weird thing.

00:58:37   Or the more likely scenario, Mike will fall in love with whatever Apple has in store for

00:58:47   the new HomePod line.

00:58:48   And he will make an informed decision to abandon the Sonos ecosystem and embrace the HomePod

00:58:55   lifestyle instead.

00:58:56   Now, the big question mark here for me is the soundbar because I think that I know that

00:59:04   Mike's loves, Mike loves the soundbar.

00:59:07   I don't think Apple will make a soundbar, but I think we will know if this is right.

00:59:14   If Mike will say within the next 12 months, I think I'm going to progressively abandon the

00:59:21   Sonos ecosystem for something else.

00:59:23   I think it's going to be the HomePod, especially if they come up with one that has a screen.

00:59:27   I could also see a scenario in which Mike decides to embrace because of AI, maybe the Google

00:59:34   ecosystem with the new Google speakers that they have.

00:59:37   But I think there's a chance that it will say, I think I've decided that I got to move away

00:59:43   from Sonos onto something else.

00:59:45   And it's going to be a process and we're going to replace some of this.

00:59:49   I don't know.

00:59:49   But I think this will happen.

00:59:52   It's very interesting.

00:59:54   I mean, they certainly have had their issues.

00:59:57   And Sonos.

00:59:59   Yeah.

00:59:59   You know, I've got a bunch of Sonos stuff, not nearly as much as he does.

01:00:03   Not necessarily in love with all of it, but this would be huge.

01:00:11   I'm going to say Mike does not get another tattoo.

01:00:14   He's talked about it for a long time, but he's not going to do it.

01:00:17   He's just not going to do it.

01:00:19   He's going to stick with what he has.

01:00:22   Unlike gentlemen of culture like you and I.

01:00:25   Yeah.

01:00:26   I would get a tattoo for sure.

01:00:29   Yeah.

01:00:30   Yep.

01:00:31   No.

01:00:35   You think?

01:00:36   He's talked about the Scott Pilgrim one for literally years.

01:00:41   I just don't think he's going to get around to it.

01:00:44   I just don't.

01:00:44   Maybe eventually, but I don't think it's going to be in the next 12 months.

01:00:47   Interesting.

01:00:49   Okay.

01:00:50   My number four.

01:00:52   My final one.

01:00:53   Mike will buy a steam machine.

01:00:57   Yes.

01:00:58   I wish I thought of this.

01:01:01   He is definitely going to do this.

01:01:03   It's going to be expensive and he's going to have some sadness about it, but he's definitely

01:01:08   buying a steam machine.

01:01:08   You're going to get this.

01:01:09   He's, he's, he's, he's been, I don't know.

01:01:12   He's been skeptical.

01:01:13   He didn't, he's, he's been waiting for the steam controller.

01:01:16   Uh, uh, I think it will end up purchasing a steam machine and setting it up.

01:01:22   Maybe at home, not at the studio, maybe at home, because I think he's, I think he's

01:01:31   keeping, what does he have an Xbox and the PlayStation of the studio.

01:01:36   I think so.

01:01:36   And he has a switch.

01:01:37   And he has a switch.

01:01:39   I think it's going to, I think it's going to set up the steam machine at home to play indie

01:01:43   games on the TV.

01:01:45   Maybe very slowly get Sophia into video games.

01:01:50   And I mean, indie games, colorful, simple pixel art style indie games are perfect for that.

01:01:56   I think it'll, uh, he'll buy a steam machine.

01:01:59   I'm convinced.

01:02:00   Yeah.

01:02:00   I'm more to, for, for style.

01:02:03   Um, I'm going to say that it's going to set it up at home.

01:02:05   I love it.

01:02:06   This is really good.

01:02:07   All right.

01:02:09   My final one is that Mike will buy a touch based MacBook pro.

01:02:14   Now you may think, well, Steven, you already got that.

01:02:16   He's talked about it a lot.

01:02:17   He has talked about it a lot.

01:02:19   My style points, which we haven't written any of those downs, whatever.

01:02:23   Uh, I think he's going to struggle with the price.

01:02:26   I think these things are going to be pricey.

01:02:29   I think they're going to be specced, like even to get in the doors and be a pretty high

01:02:33   spec.

01:02:34   I think there may be some, there may be some, uh, wishy-washiness here, but I think he's

01:02:40   going to do it.

01:02:41   I think you're right.

01:02:42   This is absolutely going to happen.

01:02:44   Yeah.

01:02:45   I mean, that, that MacBook Air of his is like falling apart.

01:02:47   Yep.

01:02:48   Yep.

01:02:48   So I'm going to, I'm going to do a recap.

01:02:51   Okay.

01:02:52   Steven, I said, uh, number one, Mike will launch at least one new website that he designed

01:02:57   and created entirely with Claude.

01:02:59   Number two, in 2027, Mike will see Oasis live.

01:03:03   Number three, Mike will drop the Sonos ecosystem.

01:03:06   And number four, Mike will end up buying a steam machine.

01:03:10   Steven said, number one, Mike will buy a folding phone, a folding iPhone, but he will not use

01:03:19   it as his daily.

01:03:20   Number two, Mike damages or breaks another device.

01:03:24   Number three, Mike will not get another tattoo.

01:03:28   And number four, Mike will buy a touch-based MacBook Pro.

01:03:33   I think we know our guy.

01:03:34   We've done good work here.

01:03:36   I think.

01:03:36   Yeah.

01:03:37   Yeah.

01:03:39   That brings us to the end of the show.

01:03:41   Uh, if you want to find more about the stuff we spoke about, head on over to the website,

01:03:46   relay.fm slash connected slash 603.

01:03:50   The links of course are also in your podcast player.

01:03:53   A couple of links I want to draw special attention to, uh, you can leave us feedback or follow

01:03:58   up.

01:03:58   We have this little form on the website.

01:04:00   You can fill it out.

01:04:01   You don't have to, you know, send us a tweet or anything.

01:04:03   It's just, it's all there on the website.

01:04:04   Really super easy.

01:04:05   Uh, drop us a line.

01:04:07   Uh, it can be anonymous.

01:04:08   You can tell me more cool things to do with home assistant.

01:04:11   If you have ideas on what Mike may or may not do, I actually can't do that because he, he

01:04:15   doesn't know the game was played.

01:04:16   So don't, don't address that in the feedback.

01:04:19   Uh, if you want to join and get connected pro, which is the longer and ad free version of

01:04:24   the show that we do each and every week, uh, you can join.

01:04:26   It's just seven bucks a month.

01:04:28   You get that longer ad free version of the show, but you also get access to the relay members

01:04:33   discord and a bunch of other goodies, including some members only podcasts.

01:04:37   If you want more Federico, he is the editor in chief of max stories.net.

01:04:43   Uh, y'all been on a tear the last couple of weeks, got a bunch of new stuff.

01:04:47   Go check it out.

01:04:48   Um, you wrote this really fascinating thing about dictation, which you, you wrote a sentence

01:04:53   in here.

01:04:54   Uh, I believe that reliable dictation and Texas speech are largely solved problems in the AI

01:04:59   industry right now for most languages.

01:05:01   Like you put that in there, but I want to highlight it.

01:05:04   Cause like that was not true for a long time.

01:05:07   Dictation used to really be like computationally expensive and not very good.

01:05:12   And I agree with you.

01:05:13   It has come such a long way.

01:05:15   So, uh, go check that stuff out.

01:05:18   Over at max stories.

01:05:19   You can find my writing at five, 12 pixels.net.

01:05:23   You know, just, uh, write about stuff.

01:05:25   Just, just we're, we're both, we're, we're, we're a pair of not only chairman, but also pro

01:05:30   bloggers here this week.

01:05:32   That is true.

01:05:33   Uh, Mike, we'll be back next week, but you can find him across a bunch of shows here at

01:05:39   relay and his blog, the enthusiast.net.

01:05:42   Like to thank our sponsors this week, fit bod doc pops and mercury weather until next

01:05:48   time, Federico say goodbye.

01:05:50   I do that.

01:05:51   Bye y'all.