112: ‘Retina Quality’ With Guest Paul Kafasis
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Feel like we got to talk about the thing which thing my thing how was your with your eyeball? Yeah
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How was your week
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I don't know. I don't think I've talked to you about it
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We haven't we haven't had a working refrigerator in five weeks Amy mentioned that to me
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yeah, it's a hell of a thing and that you're it's like you've got like
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Yeah, I mean obviously you could for five within the last five weeks
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You could have just run out and bought a new refrigerator, but you're in you're in some kind of a spat with your refrigerator
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Well, no, no, like it's not even just on principle. It's first of all getting a fridge in here requires a crane
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So that's a whole thing
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So we were trying to get it fixed because instead of needing to hire a crane to bring a new fridge in and take the old
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Why would you need a crane? Is this like a step situation a staircase situation? Yeah staircase
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They're too narrow and and modern refrigerators are in size of a car exactly. Okay, so it's a whole thing and finally
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They were trying to fix it and I was like fine fix it. I don't care and finally they said okay, we can't fix it
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Here's two grand and I said great
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I'll buy a new fridge and then I found out that I needed to get it repair need to get it craned in rather and
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So the two grand doesn't even cover it
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It's it's it hasn't been good. So what do you what are you doing with your perishables?
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I mean it is on the other hand you guys are in the midst of record cold
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So I mean like you could you could keep like frozen stuff outside, right?
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Right, but the temperature fluctuates too much such that like, you know
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If you got your if you got something that only you only needs to be refrigerated. It's no good
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Yeah, it's no good too cold. And then some days it gets warm enough that anything you have out there. It's frozen is no good
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I got a little mini fridge. That's that's all I've got right now. Did you buy that?
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that especially just for this no fortunately I guess it was a wine cooler
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it's it's but it gets down when you crank it like as cold as it goes I'm
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looking at it right now when it get when you crank it down as low as it goes it's
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it's cold enough to keep some milk and what the hell's do I have in there I got
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some pasta sauce and some butter I'm living like a savage John what about ice
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that's outside I can just grab a handful right now you have like ice cubes or do
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you just taking like snow or something like that?
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- I have not been using ice.
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I've been drinking my drinks straight up.
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- So how much snow do you have outside still?
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Is it come down at all?
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I mean, is it like up over your ears?
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- We crossed 32 degrees.
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It was above freezing today for the first time in,
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I think the second time in like a month.
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So we lost a little bit today, that was good.
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Like depth wise, if I look outside,
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a small child would still be buried.
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We got a we got a good couple two three four feet
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Which also doesn't help when you need to get a fridge in and it's you know, like I'm saying this whole thing
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It's not like I'm I'm just saying no I refuse to buy a new fridge. I'm trying to buy a new fridge
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It's still a whole headache
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It's just one of those things you just never really anticipate having to do without
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No, exactly. I've never and I've never had to buy one either. I've never bought appliances before for example
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- I can imagine if your toilet stopped working.
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Like it could happen, right?
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Especially, you know, I think it's a lot more likely
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that let's say if you live in a small apartment
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with only one toilet, that it could break.
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And then, you know, obviously you would accelerate,
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you know, you'd call your plumber
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and explain the situation
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and hopefully get an expedited service.
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But in the meantime, I feel like it would never stop.
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You just, every 15 minutes you'd forget
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and you'd go to pee or whatever.
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- You'd just go and use the toilet again?
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Well, not that you would actually use it.
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I'm sure that by the time you look at the broken toilet,
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you'd realize, ah, crap.
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But it's like, what would you do?
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I mean, I guess you'd pee in a jar or something.
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I don't know.
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- I guess, I don't know.
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Hopefully that doesn't come up.
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We got a couple bathrooms.
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So that one, I should be good on that one.
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But only got one fridge.
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- Right, but it's the same.
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You just take modern, these modern luxuries for granted.
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We don't even think of them as luxuries, but they are.
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- Oh yeah, well, it's funny.
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I was talking to my grandmother.
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She's 90 years old and she used to have an ice box like a literal ice box
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Where they would put a piece of ice in there to keep things cold
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right, it's just like a big steel box and then a guy would come once a week with like a
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Chunk of like 20 pound block of ice. Yeah, like a microwave oven sized block of ice, right and drop it in there
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and then that would yeah, you'd keep your
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Keep your perishables in there. Well, the thing she told me is that you had to drain it all the time
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We're obviously ice melt. That's that's a huge pain in the ass. You're draining your fridge once a day
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Right. It's crazy. But we take it for granted.
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I have a new appreciation for the goddamn refrigerator.
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I'll trade you problems.
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I don't know. Yeah.
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Oh, I would trade you in a heartbeat. You could have my toilet and my refrigerator.
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Well, do I have to start from scratch or do I start from where you are now?
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I just start from where I am now.
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And you start from where I am? Because I feel like I'm near in the end.
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Oh, you could I'll go back to the beginning of years all the way. I don't know
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I don't know. I had I had a lot of 8 a.m
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Wake-up calls for this John the service people try and come at 8 a.m. You wouldn't like that. I
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You know I had
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I had 8 a.m. Follow-up with my surgeon. All right. All right. So what's the difference? So here's the thing
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I got to talk about it. So because it's gonna come out within the next week because I'm missing the Apple event
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so a week ago I
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Suffered a detached retina in my left eye, which is not good
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This that's like a you can't see type of situation they're supposed to say to stay attached. All right, so that was
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Wednesday one day later. I had surgery at the Wills Eye Hospital right here in Philadelphia
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And ours on Yelp five stars
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They do advertise themselves as the world's finest eye hospital. So I've got that going for me
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This is not a quick recovery. This is a long slow recovery and in the procedure that I had involves a
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injected in the back of my eye that that
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Holds the repaired retina in place
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So like right in front of the guy went in he repaired my retina then
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At the very end of this procedure. They put a gas bubble back there and that's crazy, right?
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I mean it told me this it's it's when they told me I thought they were making it up
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It's like a little guy is pushing the retina all the time though, right?
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I a little bubble a little bubble but it's like it's like you got a little dude in there just keeping everything in place
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place. Yeah, keeping it in place. So it is, I was very confused at first. I thought it was that they
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were saying that it was like a sack or like a balloon filled with gas or something. And then I
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thought, oh, this sucks. Because then, you know, obviously, at some point, I'm gonna have to go
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back and they're gonna have to take this thing out. But no, it's just a gas bubble. They just
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inject the gas and my eye will naturally absorb it over the course of six to 10 weeks and it will
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It'll shrink in my field of vision.
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But anyway, long story short, one of the results of this is that while I have this gas bubble
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in my eye, I cannot step foot on an airplane, or at least I can't step foot in an airplane
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that is up in the air.
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And you're probably not supposed to climb mountains.
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No, well, that's recommended against altitude changes.
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So the way it was explained to me is absolutely, positively, no airplanes.
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If you can avoid it, don't go to the Poconos or anything like that.
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What about Denver or like...
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Well, I would presume if the Poconos are out, Denver would...
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Denver's definitely out.
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Denver's definitely out.
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And, you know, how would I get to Denver?
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You know, I'd have to...
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It would be a long drive.
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Long drive, yeah.
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So I will miss the Apple event, which is...
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recording right now on Monday March 2nd seven days from now I will not be able
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to to make that I think a live stream yeah I hope so I don't know it'll be
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weird it's sort of like the old days I mean it's you know at least for the
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first half of the run at daring fireball I never went to the press events so I
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got a back out unfortunately of the all conference too which is at the end of
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the month I said you should just cruise over to Ireland yeah that would be the
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option. So that conference is in Ireland. I guess my only, I think that would be my only option
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would be to cruise there. I looked it up. I think it's like an eight day each way cruise,
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which you would have to do. And I don't know that they run them until like April or May,
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because it's pretty cold out there right now. Right, because it wouldn't even be enough to get
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to England. Because, you know, you think, you know, like when you're booking flights to Ireland
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or something like that. If it goes through Heathrow or something, you don't really give
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it any second thought because it's like a 15-minute flight, you know what I mean?
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But if you can't get in an airplane, you know, like the difference between England and Ireland
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is actually pretty significant. It's decent, yeah. Like, it never really matters when you're
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flying everywhere that Ireland is actually, you know, an island. But once you can't get in a plane,
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Yes, it matters.
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- Well, so you've had to bail on,
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you're bailing on the watch event, unfortunately.
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You're bailing on this conference.
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Are you just in a bed?
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What do you have to do?
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Do they let you walk around?
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- Yeah, I am allowed to, you know,
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obviously, I mean, there's been no disruption
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on Daring Fireball.
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I was posting, it was so, it's just weird.
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The way modern anesthesia works is just crazy.
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It's like at 11 o'clock, I was high as a kite.
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They didn't fully put me under, which is terrifying.
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And I know, like for anybody who's out there,
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it sounds absolutely, positively terrifying
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that you're awake for some kind of operation on your eye.
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But you're-- - You're poking at your eye.
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- You're so far out of it that it really,
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I actually found it to be rather enjoyable.
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And modern anesthesia, and I've had unfortunately
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more of it than I would like lately.
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They've really gotten good at making,
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not just putting you under,
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not just making sure that you're out or whatever,
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but actually making your mood euphoric.
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These guys-- - During or after?
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- During. - Okay.
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- Like, when you're in the operating room,
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at least with the fine anesthesiologists
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at Will's Eye Hospital, you feel good.
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- So now you're kind of wishing
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that they had to go back in there
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and pull this little sack out.
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- Well, no, I wouldn't go that far.
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- Wasn't that good.
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- No, it wasn't that good.
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But there were moments when I was, you know,
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sort of kind of there, like, aware of my,
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what was going on, and I have to say,
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it was sort of a euphoria.
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It was a very good feeling.
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But the procedure was like an hour long or so,
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you know, so 11 to 12, I'm in there, they're operating,
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I'm out of it for the most part, but not unconscious,
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but, and there were moments where I could hear
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my surgeon talking, and it was bizarre,
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but it's, you're so high, so crazy, crazy high.
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- But do you remember anything he said?
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Like, should he be careful about what he's saying
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when he's working on you?
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- Yeah, obviously.
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At one point he was talking about some kind of fold,
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and it was very, very clear to me,
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and it was very reassuring.
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It was like an air of competence and precision that was inspiring.
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But it was, and he was clearly talking to his fellow, like, you know, I don't know if
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they call him resident anymore.
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They call them fellows.
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But in other words, a young doctor who was like his Padawan, effectively, his apprentice.
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It was clear that he wasn't talking to anybody else in the ER.
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He certainly wasn't talking to me.
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He was talking to his fellow, and it was something about a fold, like in the corner or something,
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something, something fold, and that you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it
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like this, and it was, you know, super--
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- Did they give you like a little eye tuck?
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Did they do a little work while you were under?
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- No, no, the retina, it was definitely about the retina.
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It was some part of the torn portion of the retina, I don't know, that it was folded under.
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I don't know, something about a fold.
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I don't know, maybe they throw in a little plastic surgery
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while you're under.
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- Well, I don't know, if so,
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that didn't really help me much.
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But anyway, that's what it is. - So you're out,
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and then you're back to work?
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- By three o'clock, I'm, you know,
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like noon, 11 to noon is like my surgery.
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1230 or so is when I remember seeing Amy
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in the recovery room.
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So apparently I was still out for maybe a half hour
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after the procedure was over.
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And I was definitely unsteady, not right.
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It's a good thing that they make you have like a,
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they don't sign you out on your own.
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Like Amy had to sign me out.
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But we literally, I mean, obviously this whole situation
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is a very unfortunate run of bad luck.
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But there's all sorts of,
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it's mixed in with little bits of good luck.
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Like just by pure coincidence,
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we certainly didn't pick our house because of it,
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but we literally live four blocks away
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from Wills Eye Hospital.
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It's less than a five minute walk.
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We live incredibly close, so we just walked home.
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- And did you walk there and back?
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- All right.
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- I mean, we live, it's so close that it wouldn't even--
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- But there's no better way to do it, right?
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- You know, if it were raining or something,
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I guess we could take a cab, you know,
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but it would make zero sense to drive.
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I mean, there's, I mean, I think some people, you know, they do have a parking garage, so
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it would be closer to our house.
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But it's, I think by the time you waited for the elevator in the parking garage and it's
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all said and done, it probably takes about the same amount of time to walk in the front
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door as it does from our house.
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So we walked home and by like three o'clock I was writing and reading, working during
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But now what day was this?
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Because maybe we should look at this and—
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Yeah, maybe.
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That was Wednesday.
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So it would have been Wednesday—
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It's the 25th I think yeah, I
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Love to check and see if it if any of it makes sense
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That didn't actually occur to me
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Maybe I maybe I shouldn't have done
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Like were there any odd posts on Wednesday? I don't know
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Let me see here. I'm scrolling down
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Uh, I don't think so. It looks pretty normal
00:15:22
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All right, they do give you a piece of paper
00:15:25
◼
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I think I sent this to you because I knew that you would enjoy it. Yeah, here's Wednesday
00:15:29
◼
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I don't think I was very busy here got far had manju
00:15:32
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Google plans new headquarters
00:15:35
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Yeah, I think it was you know was obviously I was not a prolific but
00:15:42
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You know, I could read and write
00:15:45
◼
►
What were we saying or I was a
00:15:52
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I was just talking about how you've got a you know, you got a bail on this stuff, but I'm sharp as a tack that
00:15:57
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There's no long-term
00:15:59
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►
Reprecussions of the sedatives that they had me, you know, I mean, it's the basics just though
00:16:03
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But when they first told me that though, I I you know, you hear what you want to hear and my thought is well
00:16:08
◼
►
You know, I'm not supposed to fly but I guess I can still do it. But no, it's not like
00:16:12
◼
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You know, maybe you shouldn't fly. This is you you're go blind if you fly. Yeah, I hear gas bubble in the eye
00:16:19
◼
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I think probably probably don't want to change my my elevation too much. Yeah
00:16:24
◼
►
Well, you know like when you take a sealed bag of chips on a plane like you buy it at the airport
00:16:28
◼
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You buy a bag of chips and you take them on the plane and then when you open it up mid-flight
00:16:32
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It's puffed out like a balloon because you can change an air pressure. You don't want that in your eyeball
00:16:36
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No, that would I mean, I think that's exactly what would happen. I'm not sure that my eye would burst but
00:16:41
◼
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It's it doesn't seem like it's half the question. I
00:16:47
◼
►
I wouldn't risk it. It would be like that. What was that stupid commercial where the guy was like,
00:16:51
◼
►
uh, the guy's getting on an airplane and it's like his back hurts and he's like,
00:16:56
◼
►
Oh, it's like a Tylenol or something commercial. Yeah.
00:16:58
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Yeah. No, but she's like, we have aspirin and he goes, aspirin? I'm not having a heart attack.
00:17:04
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I'm not having a heart attack. My back hurts.
00:17:06
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►
I think that guy was a real racist. Don't you?
00:17:10
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Why? Why a racist?
00:17:15
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►
because it was clearly an international flight and she was uh i think i think it was a japanese
00:17:19
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►
airline and she's he's talking to her as if like she doesn't understand english
00:17:23
◼
►
like no no i'm not having a heart attack it's my back she's like yeah dumbass here's some
00:17:30
◼
►
aspirin i didn't read it to that i just got that like at bear they've had a meeting where they've
00:17:36
◼
►
been so successful with this you know the way that the aspirin is now prescriber you know like
00:17:42
◼
►
if people over a certain age are supposed to pop one aspirin a day and it just somehow,
00:17:46
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►
reasons they don't understand, don't really know, but they just, clinical studies show,
00:17:51
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►
if you pop an aspirin a day, there's less chance of heart attack.
00:17:54
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►
Dr. Zaino Like blood thinning or something.
00:18:10
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►
widely used like, you know, in the 1800s or at the end of the 1800s. And, you know, it was like in
00:18:16
◼
►
the snake oil era, and it was something that actually did work. You know, it does actually
00:18:19
◼
►
decrease pain. But I, you know, you just know the meeting that they had where they're like,
00:18:27
◼
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"Well, now everybody's forgotten that you can take aspirin for pain relief."
00:18:30
◼
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- Nobody's forgotten. No one thinks it's only for a heart attack.
00:18:35
◼
►
- Well, can you imagine, can you imagine like hitting that little thing to call the flight
00:18:39
◼
►
attendant ding and they come by I'm holding my eye and I'm like do you have
00:18:43
◼
►
any aspirin my my eyeball just burst oh is it in your hand or is it what are you
00:18:52
◼
►
picturing I'm picturing just like a water balloon that pops like it's just
00:18:56
◼
►
gone it's just gone and I've just and maybe a couple wet naps to clean up
00:19:01
◼
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around yeah also can you imagine like if you know if you somebody was seating
00:19:08
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next to me and having to apologize because your your eyeball just burst all over them.
00:19:14
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Well, you just hold the air sick bag up to your face. Yeah, I guess.
00:19:19
◼
►
Well, anyway, I'm not gonna find out. Good plan. Good plan.
00:19:25
◼
►
All right. 1853 is when we discovered aspirin. I thought it was older than that.
00:19:31
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►
Yeah, I knew it wasn't ancient, but I knew it was like, you know, like a Wild West era,
00:19:35
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►
you know discovery and it just it's crazy because I don't I it might be the
00:19:40
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one and only medical treatment from 1853 that it's still in here still in here
00:19:45
◼
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let me take a break and thank our first sponsor why not since we're talking
00:19:54
◼
►
about eyeballs why not talk about our good friends at Warby Parker yes is it
00:19:59
◼
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- Really? - It is.
00:20:00
◼
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- Oh, I was so hopeful.
00:20:02
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- Oh, it's a jackpot.
00:20:03
◼
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- Go on, I'm sorry.
00:20:07
◼
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- Our next sponsor, by the way, is Bayer.
00:20:09
◼
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No, it's our good friends at Warby Parker.
00:20:12
◼
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You guys know Warby Parker.
00:20:14
◼
►
This is where you go online and you buy eyeglasses
00:20:17
◼
►
and they've got a whole bunch of cool styles to pick from.
00:20:20
◼
►
Really great prices.
00:20:23
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The whole idea is that the guys who founded the company,
00:20:25
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they're like, how come eyeglasses cost like $800
00:20:27
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when you go to a place to get good looking eyeglasses.
00:20:30
◼
►
Well, guess what?
00:20:31
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They don't have to.
00:20:32
◼
►
Warby Parker's progressives start at 295, including frames.
00:20:38
◼
►
It's for the older people out there
00:20:41
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who've got your distance prescription at the top
00:20:43
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and a transition to a reading lens near the bottom.
00:20:47
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295, that's unheard of.
00:20:48
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It's way less than what you'd pay at retail places.
00:20:52
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They use what's called a digital freeform lens,
00:20:57
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which is the most advanced progressive technology.
00:21:00
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►
It's applied digitally with a computer,
00:21:02
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so the design is far more precise
00:21:04
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►
than traditional models of progressives.
00:21:06
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►
It also provides a larger field of vision.
00:21:10
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So it looks better, you don't see the line between the lenses
00:21:13
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like you used to in the old days.
00:21:16
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►
And it gives you a better, bigger field of vision.
00:21:19
◼
►
The other big thing that Warby Parker does, huge,
00:21:22
◼
►
this is absolutely huge.
00:21:23
◼
►
Every time you buy a pair of prescription glasses
00:21:26
◼
►
from Warby Parker, they send a pair to someone in need around the world. Millions and millions
00:21:32
◼
►
of people around the world who don't have access to corrective vision. Huge problem.
00:21:42
◼
►
Just imagine if everything went around, you couldn't see anything sharply. Terrible. Well,
00:21:47
◼
►
guess what? Warby Parker is helping to solve that because every time you buy glasses from
00:21:52
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►
and then they send one to someone in need.
00:21:54
◼
►
Here's the crazy thing.
00:21:56
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I know, when I first heard about Warby Parker years ago,
00:21:59
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►
I thought, well, this sounds great,
00:22:00
◼
►
but how in the world are you gonna buy glasses,
00:22:02
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►
something that you're gonna wear like every single day,
00:22:05
◼
►
something that goes right on your face,
00:22:07
◼
►
without trying them on first?
00:22:09
◼
►
Like, even if you look at the webpage and you say,
00:22:12
◼
►
well, those look cool,
00:22:13
◼
►
but how do you know they're gonna look on you?
00:22:14
◼
►
I mean, it's crazy.
00:22:15
◼
►
Like, every time I've ever bought glasses,
00:22:18
◼
►
even right there in the store, you look at some,
00:22:19
◼
►
you say, well, those look cool, then you try them on,
00:22:21
◼
►
you're like wow I look like an idiot in these they have a great try at home
00:22:26
◼
►
program you pick like I think it's up to five you get five five picks find five
00:22:31
◼
►
that you think you like pick pick a variety they send them to you without
00:22:35
◼
►
the lenses you know the corrective lenses at first send them to you at home
00:22:40
◼
►
you try them take a couple days ask your friends ask your you know friends and
00:22:46
◼
►
family which ones they like take a look in the mirror and then you pick the one
00:22:51
◼
►
you like the best, send the whole thing back to them. It's all pre-shipping. It's all pre-labeled.
00:22:56
◼
►
You don't have to do any kind of work other than just hand it off back to the UPS guy.
00:23:00
◼
►
Boom, a couple days later, your glasses, brand new glasses, come with the actual lenses.
00:23:07
◼
►
Could not be easier. I've lost count of how many Warby Parker glasses we've got laying
00:23:13
◼
►
around the house now between me and Amy. Great, great stuff. They do sunglasses, all sorts
00:23:20
◼
►
styles to pick from really could not be easier. It's a great thing. Once you start buying glasses
00:23:27
◼
►
from Warby Parker, you're not going to go back. Where do you go to find out more? Go to their
00:23:31
◼
►
website warbyparker.com/thetalkshow and then you'll know that you came from here. And use that code.
00:23:43
◼
►
I think they send you, I think it's expedited shipping. They'll give you free three-day shipping
00:23:50
◼
►
on your glasses if you use that that code warbyparker.com/thetalkshow.
00:23:56
◼
►
I was hoping I went there I was hoping maybe I could get a designer eye patch.
00:24:01
◼
►
Oh I was just looking for monocles they do not sell monocles currently.
00:24:06
◼
►
Yeah see that's that could be a problem for me if this doesn't I mean a prognosis is good I mean
00:24:11
◼
►
it's and everybody you know if anybody I hope I made that clear that you know after this procedure
00:24:16
◼
►
I had last week that I went back the next day and they took a look at I said it looks
00:24:20
◼
►
Quote-unquote great for day one. So, you know, I have a good prognosis here. I don't want anybody
00:24:25
◼
►
I'm only I hate even going public with it
00:24:28
◼
►
but I have to because I feel like I have to explain why I'm not at the Apple event and
00:24:31
◼
►
I absolutely have to explain why I won't be speaking as scheduled at all. I
00:24:36
◼
►
Feel like if you just drop out of a speaking event people are gonna think you're a flake, you know
00:24:41
◼
►
And I want people you got it
00:24:42
◼
►
You got a pretty good excuse that you'd prefer to keep both your eyeballs
00:24:48
◼
►
I don't know that there's anybody who's that dedicated that they would voluntarily go
00:24:52
◼
►
blind in one eye to make a—
00:24:55
◼
►
That'd be a really good conference. I've heard good things about Ull, but—
00:24:58
◼
►
Oh my god. Can you imagine how uncomfortable that would be if that was the subject of my talk?
00:25:02
◼
►
I hope you like this talk!
00:25:06
◼
►
I went blind to be here.
00:25:08
◼
►
You get quite a round of applause at the end.
00:25:11
◼
►
No, I think people would feel terrible. I think that you—everybody—I mean,
00:25:15
◼
►
I mean, 'cause it would be such a sign
00:25:17
◼
►
that you're mentally ill.
00:25:21
◼
►
- All right, maybe.
00:25:22
◼
►
- Right, like watching somebody destroy themself.
00:25:25
◼
►
It'd be terrible.
00:25:26
◼
►
- All right, I think you made the right call.
00:25:30
◼
►
- You know, I mentioned, but I should go back.
00:25:32
◼
►
I'm the worst, but with the Warby Parker,
00:25:34
◼
►
you know, the 295 is for the progressives.
00:25:38
◼
►
They're regular ones.
00:25:39
◼
►
If you don't need progressives, by the way,
00:25:40
◼
►
I just feel obligated to go back and mention this.
00:25:42
◼
►
They start at just 95 bucks, including the lenses.
00:25:45
◼
►
So I don't wanna leave the impression
00:25:47
◼
►
that you gotta pay 300 bucks for glasses.
00:25:50
◼
►
100 bucks gets you a high quality pair of glasses.
00:25:53
◼
►
And anyway, what else?
00:25:58
◼
►
What's going on?
00:25:59
◼
►
- I think there's some kind of a watch coming out.
00:26:02
◼
►
What about the, before we talk about that,
00:26:05
◼
►
we could talk about the Pebble Color.
00:26:07
◼
►
Was it, is that what it's called?
00:26:08
◼
►
Is it called Pebble or--
00:26:09
◼
►
- Pebble Time, right?
00:26:10
◼
►
- Pebble Time.
00:26:10
◼
►
Because you know, it's a watch so well and you I know I have a pebble
00:26:17
◼
►
Which I never really got into wearing. I don't think I ever wore it for more than like a day
00:26:22
◼
►
But I know that you you have a original first gen pebble and you've worn it regularly I did I
00:26:30
◼
►
Stopped wearing it. I think I wore it for two or three months and
00:26:34
◼
►
You know, I bought it
00:26:36
◼
►
But I think for the same reason you did just out of curiosity because when the Kickstarter
00:26:40
◼
►
was announced, geez, like a year and a half, two years ago even, it was a curiosity and
00:26:46
◼
►
nothing else like it existed.
00:26:49
◼
►
And it was, I think, what was it, about a hundred bucks or so?
00:26:52
◼
►
Do you remember?
00:26:53
◼
►
I think it was a hundred bucks.
00:26:55
◼
►
It wasn't outlandish.
00:26:56
◼
►
I mean it wasn't much more than that.
00:26:58
◼
►
It might have even been a little less than that.
00:27:00
◼
►
And I said, you know, this seems interesting and I think I enjoyed it a little more than
00:27:04
◼
►
you did but it's to me it's it sort of proved the concept of having a watch
00:27:11
◼
►
connected to your phone because I think even now and I think even after the
00:27:16
◼
►
Apple watch comes out people are gonna say you know what the heck do you need
00:27:18
◼
►
that for you've got your phone but when you're driving it's great you can glance
00:27:23
◼
►
at your wrist when you're in a meeting when you're you know talking to somebody
00:27:27
◼
►
else it's a whole lot easier to just look at your wrist real quick then pull
00:27:30
◼
►
out your phone and you know figure out what's going on there and I did find
00:27:34
◼
►
that it was you know not the most valuable thing in the world but it was
00:27:37
◼
►
certainly a useful accessory to the phone in a way that without trying it I
00:27:43
◼
►
might not have believed my big one of my big complaints with it my two big
00:27:47
◼
►
complaints I guess were that one I didn't feel like I was getting
00:27:51
◼
►
fine-grained enough control over which notifications like I pebble specifically
00:27:57
◼
►
with pebble specifically it was more or less all notifications anything you know
00:28:01
◼
►
you if you pair it with your phone through your iPhone then anything that
00:28:05
◼
►
would be a notification on your phone is a notification on your pebble and I tend
00:28:10
◼
►
to have my phone set up to not I don't get a lot of notifications period I you
00:28:14
◼
►
know most things I have turned off yeah same I only get email notifications for
00:28:19
◼
►
my VIPs etc which is like I think I was just talking to someone I know if it was
00:28:25
◼
►
on the show or where but it it's like one of the best features apples come up
00:28:28
◼
►
with like a little feature that you take for granted but but right at the barely
00:28:32
◼
►
even notice but then you know if you stop and think hey I'm only getting
00:28:36
◼
►
emails from you know my mom and the wife and whoever it's it's very nice yeah but
00:28:40
◼
►
there's so many little things that really just little notifications that I
00:28:47
◼
►
do want on my phone but I don't want on my watch and the fact that I couldn't
00:28:50
◼
►
turn them off made it feel like my watch was annoying me now was that I think
00:28:54
◼
►
that's how it was initially I think eventually I you know I stopped using it
00:28:58
◼
►
well. But I think eventually you did get a little more fine grained control as far as
00:29:01
◼
►
some things that would notify on the phone only and not on the not on the watch.
00:29:05
◼
►
Yeah, maybe. And this, you know, I might be speaking from old experience, you know,
00:29:09
◼
►
but maybe it's, but it just, but I also did not, I also found it that the physical sensation of
00:29:14
◼
►
the vibration to be unpleasant, even for things I wanted the pebble to notify me about, like a text
00:29:20
◼
►
message, right? Like a text message is one that I would think anybody wants, you know, my wife
00:29:24
◼
►
Texts me. I want that. I do want it on my watch if if my watch is gonna show me anything
00:29:29
◼
►
That's something I would want
00:29:30
◼
►
I found the vibration to be physically unpleasant not like in a big way
00:29:35
◼
►
But in it never once made me happy that my watch buzz
00:29:39
◼
►
Well, so you've you've tried on an Apple watch right and and you and they showed you the the Taptic sensor, right?
00:29:47
◼
►
I don't have to feedback so
00:29:49
◼
►
You can compare the two I have not yeah, it's a completely different sensation
00:29:53
◼
►
I've said this before, but it's not the Taptic thing.
00:29:57
◼
►
And I know that Taptic is a word that they've made up,
00:29:59
◼
►
that it's tap plus haptic,
00:30:01
◼
►
but it really is a kind of great name.
00:30:05
◼
►
Like at some point once they had the thing working
00:30:08
◼
►
and somebody said Taptic, everybody in the room,
00:30:11
◼
►
I'm sure it was like, that's it.
00:30:12
◼
►
Because it does feel like it's tapping you
00:30:15
◼
►
and it's not at all like a vibration, a phone vibrator.
00:30:19
◼
►
- It sounds weird.
00:30:22
◼
►
It is weird, it's different, but it's not unpleasant.
00:30:25
◼
►
It to me solves a very real problem
00:30:28
◼
►
that at least the original Pebble definitely had,
00:30:31
◼
►
which is that the vibrating engines that we have--
00:30:34
◼
►
- Vibration motor, yeah.
00:30:35
◼
►
- Right, are just not pleasant sensation.
00:30:38
◼
►
- Well, so the thing to me about the new one,
00:30:40
◼
►
the Pebble Time, was it looks very nice,
00:30:44
◼
►
and it's interesting to me that it's gonna be
00:30:46
◼
►
one of the first devices out there
00:30:48
◼
►
using a color e-ink display,
00:30:51
◼
►
because none of the, you know, like the Nooks and the Kindles are all still black and white
00:30:57
◼
►
But it seems very much geared at Android users because they just can't get the level of,
00:31:04
◼
►
you know, connection to the system on iOS that they want.
00:31:08
◼
►
And I think that's sort of unfortunate because it'd be nice if there were competitors that
00:31:13
◼
►
worked with the iPhone, but I think if they're carving out a niche in the market, it's on
00:31:18
◼
►
the Android side.
00:31:19
◼
►
Yeah, even though I think the original one I think probably was large. I maybe it was even iPhone first, right?
00:31:25
◼
►
Wasn't it like that their Android software took a while?
00:31:28
◼
►
It's definitely yeah, that sounds right. All right, I think that it that because of the enthusiasts market and the Kickstarter market
00:31:35
◼
►
Especially from from a couple years ago when Kickstarter was you know a little bit less well-known, you know
00:31:43
◼
►
It was definitely the iPhone I think made up a much bigger part of their market, right?
00:31:48
◼
►
But I think it's inevitable. I think you're exactly right though there right now. It's inevitable because they need
00:31:52
◼
►
They crave more control on the phone and the iPhone just doesn't offer it
00:31:58
◼
►
well, and I think so I think that's it's interesting because in this space Apple's making a device and
00:32:05
◼
►
You know Apple's answer is going to be get the Apple watch. That's the one that works best with the iPhone, but I got a
00:32:13
◼
►
Doorbell I got a doorbell called the ring and it's a video doorbell and it connects to your phone
00:32:19
◼
►
And it's great it rings your phone wherever you are when somebody's at the door
00:32:23
◼
►
So if you're not at home, or you know whatever you can tell UPS guy to leave a package whatever
00:32:27
◼
►
but the biggest issue that I have with it is that I keep my phone on silent most of the time and
00:32:32
◼
►
on the iPhone the only thing that can override the silent switch is your alarm clock and
00:32:37
◼
►
If I could have one other thing do it it would be this doorbell
00:32:42
◼
►
Because I want that notification anytime that it happens and it's something where I don't think Apple's likely to ever make a doorbell
00:32:49
◼
►
but because the system is locked down enough, it means that nobody else can make one that has that level of
00:32:55
◼
►
Access right and you know, you see it with the watch you see it with with a bunch of things and it's I think in this
00:33:02
◼
►
You know, there's an answer. It's get an Apple watch and that'll have all the
00:33:05
◼
►
Authority that you need but in a lot of other cases, I think there's sort of missed opportunities right now
00:33:12
◼
►
Yeah, I think it's you know, it's an unfortunate side effect, you know of and I don't think it's purely I think plays into it
00:33:19
◼
►
I mean, let's face it. There's a little bit of
00:33:21
◼
►
competitive spite
00:33:24
◼
►
So do your doorbell thing you can like if you're away you can then use an app or something to talk through the intercom
00:33:31
◼
►
yeah, so it's it's the whole thing is it's got a little video camera and it's got a battery and
00:33:38
◼
►
They ring the doorbell just like you ring a normal doorbell
00:33:40
◼
►
But then it rings on your phone and you accept the call and you can see them. They can't see you but
00:33:46
◼
►
it's you know, so the the
00:33:48
◼
►
Their angle is a security angle that I guess a lot of breaking and entering the very first thing
00:33:54
◼
►
They do is ring the doorbell to make sure nobody's home
00:33:56
◼
►
Hmm and with this you can your home no matter where you are is sort of the way they pitch it
00:34:00
◼
►
you know, it's it's not necessarily the
00:34:05
◼
►
yeah, I'm not necessarily that interested in that aspect of it, but it is nice to have a little intercom without needing to run a
00:34:11
◼
►
whole bunch of wires and
00:34:14
◼
►
Except for like I said
00:34:15
◼
►
If I've got my phone on silent or if I've got it on do not disturb and somebody
00:34:18
◼
►
Wants to deliver a package at 8 in the morning, and I've got my phone set up to not bother me
00:34:23
◼
►
Suddenly the doorbell doesn't ring
00:34:25
◼
►
Which is sort of unfortunate, right?
00:34:28
◼
►
yeah, and like the way that the alarm app can override that is is
00:34:33
◼
►
Black magic because the it's only the built-in system
00:34:37
◼
►
alarm, you know clock app that has the ability to go outside the you know, the
00:34:44
◼
►
Privileges, you know, like I don't think there's I'm 99% sure
00:34:50
◼
►
There's no way that any third-party alarm clock app can know I can do those things
00:34:54
◼
►
I think they're all a bit a bit of a disadvantage because of that but right, you know in that case again
00:35:01
◼
►
the built-in alarm clock app is pretty good. It's decent. But yeah, for other stuff,
00:35:06
◼
►
there's just no way around it.
00:35:07
◼
►
Yeah, that's a perfect example though of the sort of thing that you just don't think about,
00:35:12
◼
►
right? And it's in a way that Apple isn't trying to build everything, right? I mean,
00:35:18
◼
►
they've only... That watches their first new products in five years. They're not building
00:35:23
◼
►
thermostats and doorbells and security cameras and et cetera, et cetera. And somebody else is,
00:35:30
◼
►
And once you sit there and think, well,
00:35:33
◼
►
if we reinvented the doorbell, what would we do?
00:35:35
◼
►
And you start thinking of cool things
00:35:37
◼
►
you could do with notifications and apps and Wi-Fi.
00:35:39
◼
►
I guess you have it on your Wi-Fi, right?
00:35:41
◼
►
- Yeah, exactly. - Yeah, it's brilliant.
00:35:43
◼
►
It's really clever, I like that.
00:35:45
◼
►
- It is, but it's something where
00:35:48
◼
►
I don't necessarily have that much hope
00:35:49
◼
►
that this will change, but it's something where
00:35:51
◼
►
I think if you get enough of these types of products
00:35:53
◼
►
where they do need these higher privileges,
00:35:56
◼
►
higher access to the system,
00:35:58
◼
►
and I'm willing to give it to it,
00:35:59
◼
►
That's really the thing is I want the app to be able to say no matter what you get to ring
00:36:04
◼
►
Yeah, I almost feel like it's almost at this point
00:36:07
◼
►
It's almost like it would be confused, but I could see it like I would like to give this app
00:36:11
◼
►
Get out of do not disturb. You know privilege right and and
00:36:16
◼
►
Yeah, you don't want to you don't want to have games asking for this
00:36:19
◼
►
You don't want to have I don't even know most things asking for this
00:36:22
◼
►
But I can look at this as a user and say this thing should have it and I would bet that there's you know
00:36:28
◼
►
a half dozen types of these products that could use the levels of access that the alarm clock app have.
00:36:35
◼
►
And, you know, like I said, I don't hold out a whole lot of hope that that'll ever happen,
00:36:39
◼
►
but I certainly hope that these people are talking to Apple and saying, "Look, you're not going to make this,
00:36:44
◼
►
and we're trying to make it as top quality and experience for your users as we can."
00:36:49
◼
►
And I think on Android, there's at least, you know, I don't have enough experience with it to say they could definitely do this,
00:36:54
◼
►
definitely do this, but there's definitely more flexibility and more access on that side
00:36:58
◼
►
where, you know, we just don't have it on the iPhone.
00:37:02
◼
►
With Pebble, I never really wrote about it on Daring Firewall because I always felt a
00:37:06
◼
►
little bad. And I often complain about other people grading somebody on a curve or something,
00:37:11
◼
►
and I don't feel it's quite that way because I like the idea of Pebble. I like that they
00:37:15
◼
►
seem like a good company. I'm rooting for them, and I really felt bad. I couldn't get
00:37:22
◼
►
myself to just really write about it because if I were gonna write about it
00:37:26
◼
►
I'd have to be honest and if I were honest it would be a very negative
00:37:28
◼
►
review and I just didn't want to do it you know I'd rather say nothing than you
00:37:35
◼
►
know cuz you get on the podcast right exactly and I feel like that's sort of
00:37:40
◼
►
the fun thing about having a podcast it's a little bit you know like I can
00:37:44
◼
►
use the intonation of my voice and and it conveys it I think I think everybody
00:37:48
◼
►
listening to this can kind of knows what I'm saying right it's it's easier to be
00:37:54
◼
►
put some emotion into it maybe to put a better way so I bought I signed up for
00:37:59
◼
►
the new one too even though I don't expect not to like it either but I like
00:38:04
◼
►
them enough that I got the cheapest pebble time that I could you know I
00:38:08
◼
►
looked at it and I thought it's so close to the Apple watch and I'm interested in
00:38:14
◼
►
it but it doesn't seem like there's any real benefit to getting it ahead of time
00:38:18
◼
►
If I were a consumer just a pure consumer, I would not have done bought it
00:38:22
◼
►
I feel like for whatever I paid for it the 200 bucks or whatever it's like 179 or something. I can I can
00:38:28
◼
►
It's a perfectly valid business expense. Yes cost of doing business for you. Absolutely
00:38:33
◼
►
Well, the thing to me was that again it seemed very clear that the Android experience for this was going to be superior to the iOS
00:38:40
◼
►
experience and
00:38:42
◼
►
Because Apple is now making a watch they're not going to be inclined to make it any better for pebble
00:38:47
◼
►
So that to me scared me off of it a little bit. I was also interested that they did another
00:38:53
◼
►
Kickstarter on this.
00:38:54
◼
►
Yeah, I thought that was interesting too.
00:38:55
◼
►
Did you look at that at all?
00:38:56
◼
►
Yeah, I thought it, well, yeah, because I bought it from their Kickstarter.
00:38:59
◼
►
Right, but I mean just the, I think it was two or three years ago,
00:39:02
◼
►
Kickstarter had a blog post and it said, "Kickstarter is not a store."
00:39:05
◼
►
That was the headline of a blog post.
00:39:08
◼
►
And now this product, I think it's supposed to ship in May, which is two months from now.
00:39:14
◼
►
now. Kickstarter is a store for this product. Yeah, totally. I mean there's there's no other
00:39:21
◼
►
way to look at this than that you're buying this and in two months you'll have it and
00:39:25
◼
►
you're not really you're not backing it to make it come into existence. If you don't
00:39:30
◼
►
buy it there you're gonna be able to buy it somewhere else in two months no matter what.
00:39:33
◼
►
So I think they opened this thing six days ago. It was sometime last week. Yeah, within
00:39:38
◼
►
the past week or so. Although I seem to recall it was before my incident. But anyway, they've
00:39:43
◼
►
already raised $12 million, which is crazy. It's great. They had a $500,000 goal, which they knew
00:39:48
◼
►
they were going to reach. Yeah, they knew they were going to blow through that.
00:39:50
◼
►
Right. But they've got 12 million and... Are they the top? I was looking a few days ago at
00:39:57
◼
►
the top projects and the Pebble was like number three and the Pebble time was already number four.
00:40:02
◼
►
Yeah. And the Pebble was number one for a long time. Like it was the... It had sat at number
00:40:09
◼
►
one for like the longest period of anybody. I also like I know that they've hired some people with
00:40:15
◼
►
who were interaction designers for web OS. I think maybe all the way back to when it was a
00:40:21
◼
►
palm project, which I've always thought was a great design for an operating system. Like
00:40:26
◼
►
without any hesitation, I would say this, you know, second only to iOS and the one with the
00:40:31
◼
►
most ideas that I kind of feel like were better than iOS. And then almost none of them got picked
00:40:37
◼
►
up anywhere no no but like the way they did notifications with a thing at the bottom i mean
00:40:43
◼
►
it's you know we have it a lot now they're you know they're like what on ios we call banners
00:40:47
◼
►
but on the web os they were at the bottom and they everything was designed from the get-go to
00:40:53
◼
►
support them so whatever was on your interface would shrink to go above it you know and okay
00:40:59
◼
►
uh just all sorts of little things like that not that that's you know not that the bottom is that
00:41:04
◼
►
much greater than the top, but there was so many little things about WebOS that were really nice,
00:41:08
◼
►
you know. And, you know, a lot of them have come to Android and iOS now. You know,
00:41:12
◼
►
the card-based interface for switching is, you know, was WebOS. And they've, just looking at
00:41:19
◼
►
the video for the new Pebble Time, there's so many little bits of animation. And I'm impressed,
00:41:26
◼
►
I mean, and it looked like it was all straightforward, like that they were
00:41:30
◼
►
shooting actual prototypes, like it wasn't like that they were faking it.
00:41:32
◼
►
It wasn't animator, right? Yeah. So that's impressive for E Ink, I think. And it, you know,
00:41:39
◼
►
it just shows it was a glaring weak spot in the 1.0 Pebble OS. The interaction design of that
00:41:45
◼
►
thing was it really felt like a device from the early 90s. No animation, everything just sort of
00:41:53
◼
►
jumped from one thing to another. And no real sense of, what would you call it even, spatiality?
00:41:59
◼
►
I don't know, like place, like where am I in the watch?
00:42:02
◼
►
I don't know.
00:42:03
◼
►
Right. You were just always looking at whatever was there and then swiping to a completely new,
00:42:07
◼
►
like wiping the whole screen and getting a new look at it.
00:42:10
◼
►
Right. So they've come up with, you know, is it actually going to be useful? I don't know. But
00:42:15
◼
►
to me, at least it's novel, which to me is always impressive. And it sounds like it could be good,
00:42:21
◼
►
this timeline interface where older stuff is up and future stuff is down and the moment right now
00:42:30
◼
►
is in the middle so if you want to look at what you were doing yesterday you go up and you can
00:42:34
◼
►
see like what was my step count yesterday i guess where was i yesterday and if you want to see where
00:42:40
◼
►
you have to go tomorrow you go down and it'll say well here's you know here's your schedule for
00:42:44
◼
►
tomorrow and then you hit the middle button and you're back to now here's the time and what's
00:42:48
◼
►
what's going on right now.
00:42:49
◼
►
I think it was
00:42:51
◼
►
that I think it was a pretty impressive
00:42:53
◼
►
response because obviously when
00:42:55
◼
►
was the Apple Watch announced
00:42:56
◼
►
last September.
00:42:58
◼
►
Yeah. So I'm
00:43:01
◼
►
presumably they were already working
00:43:02
◼
►
on this but and they
00:43:04
◼
►
had a sense that something might be
00:43:06
◼
►
coming from Apple but then suddenly
00:43:07
◼
►
Apple announces it and they're
00:43:09
◼
►
trying to compete with that obviously
00:43:11
◼
►
as a smartwatch but it's
00:43:12
◼
►
a very different product.
00:43:14
◼
►
They're not they didn't suddenly say
00:43:15
◼
►
you know what we better put a touch
00:43:16
◼
►
screen on there and it's got to be
00:43:18
◼
►
proper LED display or LCD display rather, they stuck with what they had, which was the E-paper,
00:43:27
◼
►
and improved upon that in a way that makes it a different product and not sort of a direct
00:43:33
◼
►
competitor to the Apple Watch. Yeah, definitely. I think if Apple Watch has had any influence on
00:43:39
◼
►
this at all, I would guess it's only the timing that maybe that's it lit a fire.
00:43:45
◼
►
Of the release, you mean?
00:43:45
◼
►
Yeah, you know that I mean they expect to ship them in May
00:43:50
◼
►
But maybe that was a good and maybe it was really just motivation that knowing that you know
00:43:54
◼
►
when Apple finally decloaked the watch in September and said early
00:43:57
◼
►
2015 that it really motivated the people who work at pebble to let's we got a ship before they do, you know
00:44:04
◼
►
Right, we are we just have to announce before they do it's a good motivation
00:44:08
◼
►
But I would bet though that the design of this was already largely in place and it certainly is true to the original pebble
00:44:15
◼
►
vision. And that to me is also why these guys are so interesting to watch, is they clearly have a
00:44:21
◼
►
very different just basic idea for what a little wrist smart computer would be like than Apple does.
00:44:30
◼
►
Well, and it's much simpler. The technology inside of it is a lot simpler, which means it's
00:44:36
◼
►
cheaper. It means it lasts for, what do they say, like seven to 10 days, I think. I know the first
00:44:42
◼
►
Which was definitely true in my experience.
00:44:44
◼
►
Yeah, oh absolutely. The first one definitely had good battery life and
00:44:47
◼
►
Apple still hasn't announced an actual battery life, but they're saying charge it every night, right? Right. So that to me is definitely
00:44:55
◼
►
Not a good thing. I mean, I don't think it'll affect things too negatively
00:44:59
◼
►
But I'd rather not have to charge a watch every single night
00:45:02
◼
►
Right it were to know that if you're only going away for an overnight, you know, like just one overnight
00:45:08
◼
►
I'm gonna be in New York, you know for 48 hours that you still have to take your charger, right?
00:45:13
◼
►
And it's a different charger than everything else you've got. So you've got your charger for your
00:45:18
◼
►
phone and your laptop and now your watch. Right. And it's totally understandable why. Although,
00:45:24
◼
►
I wonder, because to me the way forward would be to get the iPhone on the magnetic charger. I mean,
00:45:31
◼
►
clearly a lightning port is never going to happen on a watch because it would be horrible.
00:45:35
◼
►
But a magnetic charger for the iPhone, I could see that
00:45:42
◼
►
In terms of like decreasing the number of things you have to pack with you,
00:45:45
◼
►
but on the other hand, like when you travel, I always, you know, I charge my phone right before
00:45:50
◼
►
I go to sleep. And so if I have to charge the phone and the watch, I still, I don't see how
00:45:54
◼
►
you get out of two chargers, but at least you maybe, you know, you don't have to worry that you've
00:45:58
◼
►
picked the wrong one. Right. Well, I guess the other thing that I sort of don't understand is
00:46:04
◼
►
that there's definitely been talk of using the Taptic feedback to wake you up in the morning.
00:46:09
◼
►
No, yeah. Yeah. If you're charging the watch overnight, that's not going to work, obviously.
00:46:14
◼
►
Right. Yeah, I don't get it. I know Johnny Ive, I think it was, I don't think they talked about
00:46:19
◼
►
it at the event, but I think there was some kind of interview with Johnny Ive, like maybe it was
00:46:23
◼
►
the Vanity Fair conference that he was interviewed at, and he mentioned that it's a great alarm clock
00:46:29
◼
►
and immediately you were like, I messaging me like, well, how the hell is that going to work?
00:46:34
◼
►
- Right, you'll charge it every night.
00:46:37
◼
►
And then you'll remember at four in the morning to wake up.
00:46:41
◼
►
- Put it on.
00:46:42
◼
►
- Yeah, like you have to set your iPhone alarm
00:46:44
◼
►
to remind you.
00:46:45
◼
►
- There you go.
00:46:46
◼
►
And fortunately that alarm goes no matter what.
00:46:48
◼
►
So your iPhone alarm will go off,
00:46:51
◼
►
you'll put the watch on,
00:46:52
◼
►
and then four hours later you'll wake up.
00:46:54
◼
►
- There is some talk, I forget where it came out,
00:46:57
◼
►
like in the dribs and drabs of stuff
00:46:59
◼
►
that's coming out in the last few weeks.
00:47:01
◼
►
There's something that came out
00:47:03
◼
►
that it might charge very quickly,
00:47:05
◼
►
that it won't take all night to charge,
00:47:07
◼
►
that it'll charge pretty fast.
00:47:09
◼
►
And that might not even be
00:47:10
◼
►
because the charging technology is all that fast,
00:47:12
◼
►
but simply that it's such a tiny battery that--
00:47:14
◼
►
- It's got a tiny battery, right, exactly.
00:47:15
◼
►
It can't have that big a battery, given how big it is.
00:47:18
◼
►
- Right, that maybe like an iPad
00:47:21
◼
►
that was charging at the same rate would take a week,
00:47:24
◼
►
but the watch can charge in half an hour
00:47:26
◼
►
or something like that.
00:47:28
◼
►
- And did they say anything,
00:47:30
◼
►
is the bigger watch gonna have a bigger battery?
00:47:32
◼
►
- It must, right?
00:47:34
◼
►
I mean, why wouldn't it?
00:47:37
◼
►
I can't imagine that they would put a smaller battery in it
00:47:41
◼
►
just so that it has the same, you know,
00:47:44
◼
►
and presumably it's going to need,
00:47:47
◼
►
the laws of physics would say that it's going to need
00:47:49
◼
►
a bigger, the screen's gonna use more energy.
00:47:52
◼
►
'Cause it has-- - Right, so that's actually
00:47:54
◼
►
the question is, is will it have longer battery life?
00:47:57
◼
►
- Right, is it like an iPhone 6, 6 Plus type thing
00:48:00
◼
►
where the bigger one is gonna have noticeably
00:48:01
◼
►
better battery life or is it the other way around where maybe the extra size of the screen
00:48:08
◼
►
eats up all the extra battery life that they can fit in there? I don't know. It's a good
00:48:13
◼
►
I guess we'll see in a week, maybe.
00:48:14
◼
►
Yeah. I hadn't really thought about this because for whatever reason, selfishly, I had known
00:48:20
◼
►
that if I get one of these, I'm going to want 42 millimeters, not the 38 millimeter. So
00:48:25
◼
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I haven't really thought about the 38 millimeter ones. And then when it comes to cost, I haven't
00:48:29
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really like the game that everybody's playing you know the last two weeks
00:48:33
◼
►
including me I'm not pointing figures but you know how much of these things
00:48:38
◼
►
gonna cost I hadn't occurred to me that the 38 millimeter one would cost less
00:48:42
◼
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right at any level aluminum steel gold gold it makes out of it the gold right
00:48:48
◼
►
right because even if the price isn't really based on the price of gold it
00:48:52
◼
►
there's the illusion that it is right right yeah so if you if you if they were
00:48:57
◼
►
the same price, then somebody's getting something for free. Right, right. It feels like you're
00:49:01
◼
►
getting, it actually feels like you're getting ripped off if they're the same price, if you're
00:49:05
◼
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getting the bigger one, or the smaller one. But anyway, we can talk about pricing in a moment.
00:49:10
◼
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But with Pebble, I don't know. The bottom line, I'm very impressed by what they've
00:49:16
◼
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showed. I don't think I'm going to like it, and I think you're right that maybe it's not even
00:49:19
◼
►
fair because I'm an iPhone user, but I'm certainly rooting for them.
00:49:24
◼
►
I think it's I think it's certainly great to have anybody in the space doing something to compete with Apple and doing something different where hopefully
00:49:31
◼
►
Some ideas cross pollinate instead of you know, somebody coming directly head-on and and you're just trying to match features here. It's something where
00:49:39
◼
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Pebble has some very different ideas and potentially it changes the way you do things on both platforms
00:49:44
◼
►
Android where I think one of the things that to me was a little surprising about
00:49:49
◼
►
The when the Apple watch was unveiled in September was how at least at the hardware level
00:49:56
◼
►
It's sort of the same basic idea as Android wear right like it's you know a phone type display
00:50:03
◼
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You know whether it's IPS or whether it's OLED or whatever
00:50:07
◼
►
It sounds like apples is going to be OLED because they want the blacks to you know, they want the deeper blacks
00:50:14
◼
►
But it's whatever the actual technology it's a you know, a light up bright color phone display with a touchscreen
00:50:21
◼
►
You know, it's take a take a modern smartphone and shrink it to your watch right at a fundamental level now
00:50:27
◼
►
I think Apple watch is clearly more ambitious than Android where in terms of having apps actually on the watch and Android
00:50:33
◼
►
Where is a little bit more about just showing you these cards that are based on your Google now
00:50:39
◼
►
profile. It's more like here's all the stuff Google knows about you. Google knows you have
00:50:43
◼
►
a flight tomorrow because your Gmail adds the flight confirmation from the airline.
00:50:48
◼
►
And so they put a card on here. And since they know you have a flight and you're going to
00:50:53
◼
►
San Francisco, then they know to put a card on there that has your weather for San Francisco.
00:50:59
◼
►
It's this card-based interface. But just at the hardware level, it's this one day of battery life
00:51:06
◼
►
Bluetooth connection to your phone with a bright color screen and pebble pebble has a very different
00:51:11
◼
►
take on that with the battery i mean the pebble is obviously very different with the with the
00:51:16
◼
►
e-paper with the e-ink but what what might you have expected apple to do any differently i guess
00:51:20
◼
►
i don't know i uh you know i i i guess it's not in the digital crown is sort of their distinguishing
00:51:28
◼
►
hardware characteristic right absolutely and and i know that it sounds like a trivial little thing
00:51:33
◼
►
And I pointed this out on Twitter the other day, and a whole bunch of Android people were like,
00:51:39
◼
►
"Dude, all the Android Wear phones have a crown. Look." But they don't. They have buttons. It's
00:51:46
◼
►
placed where it goes on a watch. It's over there in the same place where a crown is on a watch.
00:51:52
◼
►
But on all the Android Wear phones that I've seen to date, it's just a button that you press to
00:51:55
◼
►
wake it up or dismiss things or something. What I mean that Apple has done that is original is
00:52:01
◼
►
is the spinning crown and that it's a big part of the interaction of using the device.
00:52:06
◼
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Well, I think they talked about it, right? That the, you know, the gesture on the iPad,
00:52:11
◼
►
you know, 10 years ago, the spinning wheel was a big deal and then touch multi-touch on the iPhone,
00:52:17
◼
►
and now this is sort of the new gesture that, you know, is distinguishing and potentially
00:52:23
◼
►
changes the way you're going to use this sort of thing. Right. I think that, yeah, I think
00:52:26
◼
►
you're right though that in the video, like I think Johnny Ive, you know, we're not like putting
00:52:31
◼
►
words in his mouth. That's exactly what he said. Like that each one of those leaps forward came
00:52:35
◼
►
with one new thing like the Macintosh with the mouse pointer, right? Right. You have a thing on
00:52:41
◼
►
your desk that you slide around your desk and it moves a pointer on your screen. That's what the
00:52:45
◼
►
crown is to the Apple watch. Yeah. So, so when you did the, when you got to try one on, did,
00:52:51
◼
►
did you try one of the functional ones on or did you just have the, I know they had like a demo.
00:52:55
◼
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No, nobody that I know of got to try on only Apple employees got, had the functioning ones.
00:53:01
◼
►
ones that I got to try on were all running the loop. But the loop included, like when
00:53:07
◼
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it included things like getting a text message. So it's like, you know, it wasn't like a movie
00:53:15
◼
►
was playing on a watch. It's like a series of events. Yeah. You know, right. But it's still not
00:53:21
◼
►
so did you use the digital crown at all? I got to spin it, but I did not get to
00:53:29
◼
►
use it in a meaningful way. Like when I spun it, it didn't affect what was going on on the watch.
00:53:56
◼
►
I described the feel of the digital crown as I used the word lugubrious I
00:54:03
◼
►
Knew it was a really wonderful word that started with L. But lugubrious is a word that means looking or sounding sad and dismal
00:54:13
◼
►
It sounds like it means like liquid yeah, which is somehow why
00:54:22
◼
►
it came to mind. The word I was looking for was "lubricousness."
00:54:27
◼
►
As in lubricated?
00:54:32
◼
►
Lubricous is a word that means, well, the first sense of it is not what I mean. The first sense
00:54:37
◼
►
means offensively displaying or intended to arouse sexual desire. That is not what I meant. I meant,
00:54:45
◼
►
definition two, smooth and slippery with oil or a similar substance.
00:54:51
◼
►
And there is it's simply the only word that I've encountered that describes the feel of the digital crown. It has a wonderful
00:54:59
◼
►
Wonderful almost magical lubriciousness to it
00:55:03
◼
►
Alright, I'm telling you when this thing comes out and everybody gets to play with it
00:55:08
◼
►
I'm telling it this is all everybody is gonna say is oh my god
00:55:11
◼
►
I like to just sit there and spin that wheel. It just has this wonderful feel it feels amazing
00:55:18
◼
►
It does not feel like you're spinning a mechanical thing. It feels like like it's somehow suspended in the world's like
00:55:25
◼
►
Best oil and that it's like not even touching anything mechanical and it just spins in the oil
00:55:32
◼
►
And it doesn't it doesn't spin. It doesn't ever reach an end point, right? No
00:55:36
◼
►
It spins infinitely in both directions like a like a mouse pointer or a you know mouse wheel like a scroll wheel. Yeah
00:55:43
◼
►
yeah, right, right, so if you were if if
00:55:48
◼
►
And still, and people say to me, like I say, even on the show last week, I'll emphasize,
00:55:53
◼
►
I really still have so many questions about Apple.
00:55:56
◼
►
I mean, I'm kind of bummed that I'm not going to the event because I have so many questions.
00:55:59
◼
►
But you know, and there's so many other events where I go and I don't really have that many
00:56:06
◼
►
You know what I mean?
00:56:07
◼
►
Like it's like—
00:56:09
◼
►
When there's a new iPhone, it's not—
00:56:11
◼
►
It's going to be terribly different from the old iPhone.
00:56:13
◼
►
Like the better example would be the iPads last year.
00:56:15
◼
►
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:56:16
◼
►
least with the iPhones last year, it's like, well, am I going to like a bigger phone? How,
00:56:19
◼
►
you know, the big phone was kind of a curiosity. But with the iPads, it was like, same as last
00:56:24
◼
►
year, but now they have touch ID. It's like, okay. And I'm not saying, I don't blame Apple.
00:56:28
◼
►
I'm not saying that was a bad event. I'm saying that somehow that's how progress happens.
00:56:31
◼
►
I'm just saying, if I had to miss that event, I don't really feel like I was missing out
00:56:36
◼
►
on a chance to really learn anything. I mean, it was pretty easy to figure out, you know,
00:56:41
◼
►
remotely. Whereas the watch, I have so many questions, so many questions. And I don't
00:56:46
◼
►
see how anybody couldn't be chock full of questions. Because the one thing they've shown
00:56:50
◼
►
that you use the crown for is zooming. So when you're on the home screen, you can turn
00:56:55
◼
►
it one way, spin it one way, and the apps get smaller, and you'll see more of them.
00:56:58
◼
►
And you spin it the other way, and you zoom in, which makes them easier to tap. And then
00:57:03
◼
►
the photos work the same way. So you can zoom out, and you see thousands of, or hundreds,
00:57:08
◼
►
I guess, of tiny little thumbnails. And then you can zoom in and make them bigger. But
00:57:13
◼
►
Are you gonna be able to use it to scroll
00:57:15
◼
►
or when you scroll is that like you use the touch screen?
00:57:18
◼
►
I mean I can't imagine that you're gonna wanna read
00:57:22
◼
►
long passages of text but it still seems to me
00:57:26
◼
►
like that would work for scrolling too
00:57:28
◼
►
'cause that it would for the same reason that they said
00:57:30
◼
►
that they didn't wanna use touch for everything
00:57:32
◼
►
which is that your big fat finger covers everything.
00:57:34
◼
►
- Just gets in the way, yeah.
00:57:36
◼
►
I should take another break for a sponsor
00:57:40
◼
►
but I just off the top of my head another thing,
00:57:42
◼
►
I know I've mentioned this before but it's okay because everybody forgets all sorts of stuff
00:57:45
◼
►
But I keep getting questions on Twitter about whether there are going to be left-handed
00:57:48
◼
►
Models of the watch and the answer is no you can just it's a setting
00:57:55
◼
►
Might even that's right. Yeah, you just turn it upside down and because the straps come right off. It's very easy
00:58:02
◼
►
you'll just take the straps off put the
00:58:04
◼
►
You know top strap on the bottom bottom strap on the top and then when you put it on your wrist it like knows that
00:58:10
◼
►
Oh, you're left-handed and it'll just turn the whole interface upside down and the only is is it not even a setting that you need
00:58:17
◼
►
Don't think so
00:58:18
◼
►
Although I don't know because I I asked it might be the sort of thing that if if you do it
00:58:24
◼
►
Before you go through the first run. It'll recognize it and know okay
00:58:28
◼
►
But otherwise, you know, I think it's just a quick setting, you know open up settings and you know, tap a checkbox and
00:58:37
◼
►
It just turns upside down. So the only difference you'll have as a left-handed user is that your crown will be underneath the button and
00:58:44
◼
►
So yeah, that of the crown being above the button. It'll be below the button
00:58:48
◼
►
That's the only difference which does make it a little weird
00:58:51
◼
►
It still makes me you know
00:58:53
◼
►
I'm still curious about the whole idea that it's not centered that the crown isn't centered because if the crown were centered
00:58:59
◼
►
Which it is on a lot of watches then it would be it would be identical left-handed and right-handed. I
00:59:06
◼
►
I don't think it's a big difference though.
00:59:07
◼
►
And I also know I saw firsthand walking around after the event, I saw Eddy Cue wearing his
00:59:14
◼
►
and he's left handed and he had it on his right hand upside down.
00:59:20
◼
►
But there's only one button, right?
00:59:21
◼
►
There's the crown on the button.
00:59:23
◼
►
But the button is underneath the… when you're wearing it on your left wrist, the crown is
00:59:28
◼
►
at the top and the button's underneath.
00:59:31
◼
►
if you turn it upside down the crown is on the bottom and the button is at the top right
00:59:36
◼
►
but even if even if the crown were centered the button would still oh yeah the button
00:59:40
◼
►
would still yeah that's flipped yeah exactly I'm in my you know wonder why they didn't
00:59:45
◼
►
do it this way world it would I guess it's sort of why didn't they put the button on
00:59:49
◼
►
one side and the crown on the other right having both in the center but if you're gonna
00:59:53
◼
►
put one above the other it would definitely not be the same left-handed and right-handed
00:59:58
◼
►
- Right, yeah, yeah.
00:59:59
◼
►
- Let me take a break here and thank our good friends
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you go to the next store, they don't have that one.
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'Cause from one store to another,
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they sell the same mattress
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with a completely different name
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when buying something significant like a mattress.
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You get you get sunk in there like you're an egg carton or something like that
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I don't want to get up from bed and have like a
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Crime scene outline on my body on the bed. This isn't like that at all
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It's like just enough of the memory ish stuff that I'm surprised that there's any of it
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But they use a little bit of it, you know, that's what they call it
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But it's not you know, there's no like outline of your body in there
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We go to a retail store mattresses often cost well over
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That's a that's a fact. I've
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unbelievable how much mattresses like that's like one of those little things about getting
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in the real world where you have to buy your own beds and like you said, it's too grand
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out of your pocket or gets too grand to get a crane to put your refrigerator in your house.
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And you're like, are you serious $2,000 Jesus? Well, Casper mattresses cost between 500 bucks
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It shows up at your house and it's amazing.
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It shows – well, how the hell do they ship a mattress?
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Well, they – because they use the foam.
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Because it's like this foam type thing, they vacuum seal the thing up and it shows up in
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a box that's like the size of –
01:03:02
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Like a sandwich, right?
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No, it's like a little –
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It's dry, like two sandwiches.
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It's a little bit bigger than a sandwich, but it's surprisingly small.
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probably about the same size as the box that your little dorm room temporary fridge came
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Amazingly small for the queen size mattress that I had them send. Can't believe it. But
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it's like when they tell you to, if you want to take some advice, when they tell you to
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put it in a room where you want it before you open it, do that. Do that. Do that.
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Does it explode out of the box or does it just…?
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Explode but it is very rapid it it the mattress wants to be big
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The mattress wants to expand to the size of a mattress
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But you have a hundred days. No questions. They you don't like have to call them up and and talk to like a hard sell
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Comcast guy who's gonna be like trying to talk you into keeping a mattress
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You don't like it
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if you you just
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You just send it right back and you know
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I guess getting it out of your house is gonna be a little bit harder and getting it in because it's already expanded
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But they take care of it. No questions asked no hassle. There's no guy who's gonna give you a hard time about sending it back
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They'll take it back because they're so confident
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That you're gonna like it. And in fact, I think I don't know I might be wrong here
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But I think that they've had such success that they actually like expand. I think that hundred day period is actually
01:04:25
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Longer than it used to be because there were so few people who sent it back
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Where do you go to find out more go to Casper Casper Casper sleep.com?
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Talk-show now, they don't have the the this gets so confusing. They've just got slash talk show Casper sleep
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Hey, are you sure they don't have the Viva because it 404 is without
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Well, the thing I have here in front of my face just says Casper sleep
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You want you it does have the the it does have that. Yeah. Well, there we go
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good thing that Paul kafasas is here I check these ads for you check these ads
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I maybe what happened is that after I bitched about it the last time that they
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didn't have the then they added to the but then they got rid of the got rid of
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them good well anyway thank God Paul you know Paul just saved you 50 bucks
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somebody yeah anybody and some embarrassing 404s and and who knows you
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know what kind of horrible stuff would happen so anyway it's Casper comm slash
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The talk show good for them for putting it on there. I paid good money for that
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So anyway, we talked about pebble we're talking about Apple watch
01:06:04
◼
►
We could get into pricing I know I've written about this I
01:06:09
◼
►
Don't I mean you've written about it and that was interesting enough. I find it sort of
01:06:14
◼
►
We're gonna know in a week, right? Right. I do
01:06:18
◼
►
That's the thing about doing this show the show before an event is fun because it's like the one time where you can you can
01:06:23
◼
►
be completely wrong and just make stuff up and it's like anything could happen. But then
01:06:28
◼
►
it's like, you know, six days from now, everything we said is either going to be completely wrong
01:06:32
◼
►
and we look like idiots. Or even if we were right, it doesn't matter because everybody
01:06:36
◼
►
knows it's true.
01:06:37
◼
►
Who cares? Yeah. I mean, the most interesting thing to me is seeing just how big the range
01:06:44
◼
►
is. And, you know, they've only told us one thing, that it's $349 for the very cheapest
01:06:48
◼
►
Right and that to me means I figure there's like a slight chance. It's actually 299. What do you think?
01:06:54
◼
►
No, you know you don't think they come down from that. Nope. Haven't they done that before I?
01:06:59
◼
►
Think I feel like there was a product where they had pre announced a price and then they dropped at 50 bucks. I
01:07:05
◼
►
Mean it certainly is more possible than that day that they raised the price, you know, right?
01:07:12
◼
►
It's certainly not gonna be more than 349 to start right?
01:07:16
◼
►
There's gonna be at least one model you can get for 349 for sure. I
01:07:20
◼
►
Guess 299 is possible
01:07:23
◼
►
But I don't know that just feels it feels to me like a side effect of the Tim Cook era of Apple is that?
01:07:29
◼
►
They've they've really neatened up on things like that, you know like
01:07:34
◼
►
Like famously with the iPhone
01:07:39
◼
►
When they announced it at Macworld in January 2007 it had some kind of high
01:07:45
◼
►
polymer plastic touch screen.
01:07:49
◼
►
And then it was like right in May,
01:07:51
◼
►
where they first announced final shipping dates and stuff,
01:07:55
◼
►
and they said, "And by the way,
01:07:56
◼
►
"we've upgraded the display from plastic
01:07:59
◼
►
"to this amazing glass from,"
01:08:02
◼
►
what's that company?
01:08:04
◼
►
- Corning. - Corning.
01:08:05
◼
►
And in stories that have come out in the years since,
01:08:09
◼
►
it was clearly like,
01:08:14
◼
►
know that it was Steve who's like, "Goddamn it, this is nicer, so we're definitely doing it. We're
01:08:18
◼
►
not waiting a year. We're getting it in here now." And it's up to Tim Cook to somehow make this
01:08:22
◼
►
happen. Where like- And I think the story was they had to find a factory, they had to ramp the
01:08:27
◼
►
factory up to do it. It wasn't as if this existed and was being made. It was crazy.
01:08:32
◼
►
Right. It was like nobody was really using it. Corning invented Gorilla Glass years before,
01:08:36
◼
►
but nobody had really found a use for it. And they just didn't... They more or less needed them
01:08:42
◼
►
to make more of it than they'd ever made before. And by the way, it's got to happen in the next
01:08:47
◼
►
four weeks. So you're saying that I think you're right that it's a lot tighter.
01:08:52
◼
►
Yeah, stuff like that doesn't happen anymore, I don't think. I think part of it is that Jobs
01:08:58
◼
►
was clearly impetuous, and I don't think anybody would describe Tim Cook as impetuous. And I just
01:09:03
◼
►
think that it's just a little bit more orderly. I feel like as of September, Tim Cook knew that
01:09:10
◼
►
that they could sell this entry thing for $349.
01:09:12
◼
►
And marketing-wise, however they decided
01:09:15
◼
►
that that looks good as the entry level price,
01:09:17
◼
►
I just don't see how that would change.
01:09:19
◼
►
- Okay, so we're starting at $349.
01:09:21
◼
►
Yeah, so to me, I don't care if it's exactly $999
01:09:26
◼
►
or $1299, whatever, but I think the interesting thing to me
01:09:29
◼
►
is just the three price points of the entry level
01:09:33
◼
►
and then just the straight up Apple Watch and the edition,
01:09:36
◼
►
which I think is, I hate that suffix
01:09:40
◼
►
as to try and mean a whole 'nother thing, but.
01:09:43
◼
►
- The more I write about it, the harder,
01:09:45
◼
►
it never ceases being a mouthful to--
01:09:50
◼
►
- Apple Watch edition.
01:09:51
◼
►
- Right, because I keep wanting to use editions
01:09:54
◼
►
to mean what they call collections.
01:09:57
◼
►
- Right, yeah, that's just, the word edition means,
01:10:00
◼
►
or often means a group of something.
01:10:04
◼
►
- And so I find it very awkward
01:10:05
◼
►
that to be a model, but whatever. And combined with the fact, and I've still to this date,
01:10:10
◼
►
still not gotten used to the fact that the mid-price or mid-level, the steel one is just
01:10:16
◼
►
called Apple Watch. I really wish that it was the app, you know, the basic Apple Watch Sport,
01:10:21
◼
►
Apple Watch Steel, Apple Watch Edition. I don't call it something, you know. Oh, give it, give
01:10:26
◼
►
that one, give that one some sort of suffixes. That they all have a name, right? Right. There'd
01:10:31
◼
►
there'd be like Sport, Steel, and Edition.
01:10:33
◼
►
You know, I kind of see why they didn't,
01:10:36
◼
►
I'm not even saying, 'cause I can't think of a good name.
01:10:38
◼
►
I don't think Steel is a great name.
01:10:39
◼
►
I think, you know, it's, you know, I don't know.
01:10:44
◼
►
It's not great. - Sounds heavy.
01:10:45
◼
►
- Yeah, and it maybe sounds a little masculine.
01:10:49
◼
►
- Right, oh, definitely, yeah.
01:10:50
◼
►
- You know, so I know, you know, I don't know,
01:10:54
◼
►
and regular sounds stupid too.
01:10:56
◼
►
You know, it's just called Apple Watch.
01:10:57
◼
►
But it still, it makes it very hard to write about
01:11:00
◼
►
because sometimes when you say Apple Watch,
01:11:02
◼
►
you mean all of them, like your app.
01:11:05
◼
►
Your app just runs on Apple Watch,
01:11:06
◼
►
and it doesn't matter which one you bought.
01:11:09
◼
►
But when you're shopping, if you just buy an Apple Watch,
01:11:12
◼
►
you're buying a very specific model.
01:11:14
◼
►
You're buying the stainless steel one.
01:11:17
◼
►
Very confusing.
01:11:18
◼
►
Perhaps worrisome, I don't know.
01:11:20
◼
►
Maybe it's a little worrisome that they're coming out
01:11:23
◼
►
with something that seems so,
01:11:25
◼
►
sometimes it's so hard to talk about.
01:11:27
◼
►
- Well, it's interesting 'cause you,
01:11:29
◼
►
before we started the show,
01:11:30
◼
►
sent me this image that somebody made and it was based on pricing predictions you had made.
01:11:34
◼
►
They made this whole image and it was just, you know, here's all the prices. And I guess
01:11:40
◼
►
you said it got circulated as if this was a real leak, right?
01:11:42
◼
►
I'll put it, I will absolutely, positively, Dave, make sure I put this in the show notes.
01:11:47
◼
►
I've already got a link in my show notes as we go. It's a guy, oh God, why can't anybody on a forum
01:11:55
◼
►
Give themselves a real name
01:11:57
◼
►
Pjur one is a Mac rumors forum member and last week he posted this image
01:12:04
◼
►
And he his what he wrote. He's very honest. He's straightforward about he wrote I made this speculative
01:12:10
◼
►
Priceless based in large part on Gruber's speculation colon and then here's the image that he made
01:12:17
◼
►
But he he's using Apple
01:12:21
◼
►
photography of the watches and he's set the names in the you know,
01:12:26
◼
►
San Francisco font and he's got the prices in Helvetica
01:12:30
◼
►
So it's vaguely styled or roughly styled in the format of Apple's marketing materials
01:12:36
◼
►
I could tell by looking at it right away that it's not official. It's there's little subtle things that are off about the
01:12:42
◼
►
fonts, but it's close enough that
01:12:47
◼
►
5% of people could easily be convinced that this is from Apple.
01:12:51
◼
►
- Right, and so then it got circulated
01:12:52
◼
►
as if this had leaked out of Apple, right?
01:12:54
◼
►
- Right, 'cause it's all one big image,
01:12:55
◼
►
and of course it hit Twitter and people stop immediately,
01:12:59
◼
►
especially when the source is something
01:13:00
◼
►
like a forum post at MacRumors.
01:13:03
◼
►
And it spun out of control incredibly fast.
01:13:08
◼
►
Within 24 hours over the last weekend,
01:13:10
◼
►
it went from, did you see that there was a guy
01:13:13
◼
►
who posted a thing in the MacRumors forum
01:13:15
◼
►
to like the poor kid, some poor kid at iDownload blog,
01:13:20
◼
►
like by the next day had written,
01:13:22
◼
►
these are the Apple Watch prices.
01:13:24
◼
►
- And then had to retract it later.
01:13:27
◼
►
- Yeah, had to retract it with a horribly,
01:13:30
◼
►
he was very contrite about it, but you know.
01:13:33
◼
►
- Well, what was interesting about the whole thing was--
01:13:35
◼
►
- I still get it, if you look at my Twitter stream,
01:13:36
◼
►
by the way, right now as we speak,
01:13:38
◼
►
you won't have to go more than 20 or 30
01:13:40
◼
►
before you'll find somebody asking me
01:13:42
◼
►
what I think about this leaked, priceless.
01:13:45
◼
►
Which is based on your own predictions
01:13:49
◼
►
From like two weeks earlier.
01:13:50
◼
►
Right, but it's actually not. I actually think that these prices are off. There's some things
01:13:55
◼
►
that I think he probably got right and he was very thoughtful about, but I think once he gets
01:14:00
◼
►
past Apple Watch Sport, he's vastly underestimating the price of these things.
01:14:04
◼
►
Well, what I thought was interesting about it was just how clunky the image was, and it shows,
01:14:10
◼
►
Yeah, I have to pull the thing up, but it shows there's like 18 rows aren't there?
01:14:15
◼
►
At least right right and it's it's showing you know here's the intro sport. Here's the
01:14:22
◼
►
steel sport. Here's the main Apple watch. Here's the Apple watch in space gray or whatever and
01:14:27
◼
►
he's got 12 pricing tiers. Okay, and each one in two sizes 38 and 42 and we mentioned this earlier
01:14:37
◼
►
They showed I think that actually makes sense that I don't know about at the sport level
01:14:41
◼
►
I could see like maybe at sport
01:14:43
◼
►
They're both just 349 and you just pick the size you want but then I think once you go to steel and gold
01:14:47
◼
►
There there probably will be a small difference in price
01:14:53
◼
►
But it was interesting just because of how clunky it actually is and you know
01:14:56
◼
►
We were talking about how clunky it is to talk about the different
01:15:02
◼
►
and I think it's I don't know it'll be interesting to see just how this plays out because
01:15:06
◼
►
Apple has not really ever had anything at least not recently. It was this complex or this complicated, right?
01:15:12
◼
►
It is like buying a watch
01:15:14
◼
►
I mean like when you go and buy, you know a watch at a jewelry store, you know
01:15:18
◼
►
you can't just say I want a you know Rolex Explorer and
01:15:22
◼
►
Well, I guess Rolex Explorer is actually one where there is just one
01:15:26
◼
►
You know like a Rolex Submariner has all sorts of color choices just on the dial there's blue dial
01:15:35
◼
►
There's green dial the black dial is the traditional one steel steel with gold all gold, you know, etc, etc
01:15:42
◼
►
And that there's you know, all sorts of matrixes like that within
01:15:47
◼
►
The line of all the major watch brands where you know certain watches come in all sorts of different
01:15:53
◼
►
You know dial colors and band colors and stuff like that
01:15:56
◼
►
But it's absolutely nothing like any Apple product before right and and you know
01:16:02
◼
►
Apple used to have these terrible major matrices of products, you know
01:16:05
◼
►
the ten different models of performa back in the early 90s and so on and
01:16:09
◼
►
Then I think it's in my mind
01:16:12
◼
►
It's sort of burned in where Steve Jobs would have a grid and there would just be four items
01:16:17
◼
►
Right, right and it's you know good better best and and I don't know I guess that's only three items, but
01:16:22
◼
►
well famously the I
01:16:25
◼
►
To me it was like a moment where I remember thinking like I think that this guy is gonna do it
01:16:30
◼
►
I think he's going to turn the company around is that that four-way matrix for
01:16:35
◼
►
It was laptop desktops
01:16:38
◼
►
Yeah, right pro consumer
01:16:40
◼
►
And so that's it. So it's the iBook. It's the power book. It's the iMac. It's the power mac, right? Yeah
01:16:45
◼
►
Yeah, that's that's really the one i'm thinking. Yeah, and it was brilliant and it in hindsight
01:16:50
◼
►
I think it's so easy to underestimate the brilliance of that decision
01:16:52
◼
►
But it it cut all sorts, you know
01:16:55
◼
►
Cutting products out of a company is always painful politically unless you're somebody like jobs who just doesn't give a shit
01:17:00
◼
►
about the policy screw you if your job was running the performance 700 line you know
01:17:06
◼
►
you know get with the program and none of the no other computer company had a had a
01:17:12
◼
►
lineup like that right I mean even to this day if you go to like dell.com and try to
01:17:16
◼
►
configure it it's a nightmare trying to it's hard to even figure out like even if you just
01:17:22
◼
►
know I want like the the maxed out you know I want the best laptop I can get it's like
01:17:26
◼
►
hard to figure it out. Right? It's this is nothing like that. And again, that's not to say that if
01:17:33
◼
►
Steve Jobs were still around, they wouldn't be doing this. Who knows, you know, maybe, you know,
01:17:36
◼
►
he and Johnny I've mapped out these watches, you know, five years ago, and you know, he'd be right
01:17:41
◼
►
on board watches are different. You know, there's no, you know, you can't sell watches like yourself.
01:17:46
◼
►
PCs and laptops. Well, well, are you? Well, they're not they're not willing to try at least
01:17:53
◼
►
right now or they're looking to try doing it the way you normally sell a watch as opposed to the
01:17:57
◼
►
way that they sell phones and computers. Yeah, no, I guess you're right. I shouldn't say you can't. I
01:18:01
◼
►
should say it doesn't. Apple apparently doesn't think that they can or they should. Well, and so
01:18:07
◼
►
the interesting thing to me is I was in an Apple store, what about a week ago? And I they haven't
01:18:13
◼
►
shown how the stores are going to change, but they're clearly going to have to change. And I
01:18:18
◼
►
think that's something that everyone will see in the near future. And that to me is more interesting
01:18:22
◼
►
speculating on the prices. You've been in a store recently, right?
01:18:26
◼
►
Yeah, a couple times.
01:18:27
◼
►
Yeah, what are they going to do?
01:18:29
◼
►
I don't know. I mean, and they even said in the New Yorker story on Johnny Ive,
01:18:34
◼
►
that big one profile, they even mentioned that one of the things he's got going on is that he's
01:18:39
◼
►
leading a redesign of the—it sounds to me like from—it was sort of an offhand remark in, you know,
01:18:46
◼
►
the article was so long that it's easy to just throw something off, but it seems like a huge
01:18:51
◼
►
undertaking that they're gonna redesign all of the stores you know he's working
01:18:55
◼
►
hand in hand with Angela aren't on that right partly for the watch for sure I'm
01:19:02
◼
►
I'm guessing partly just to build for the future because who knows what
01:19:05
◼
►
they're gonna do next you know but I have no idea what they're gonna do I my
01:19:10
◼
►
best guess at this point is that there's nowhere near enough time for them to
01:19:13
◼
►
renovate even if it's not a total redesign of every store even if it's
01:19:17
◼
►
some kind of we're gonna renovate the where the genius bar used to be or
01:19:21
◼
►
something. We're gonna get rid of all the, take the spot in the stores where they used to sell
01:19:27
◼
►
gift cards. And I guess if you want a gift card now, you just talk to somebody and we'll use that
01:19:32
◼
►
space to sell the watches. I don't think the vast majority of stores are gonna have the edition
01:19:40
◼
►
models. I think that at least to start out, my best, this is my best, 'cause I just don't think
01:19:44
◼
►
there's enough time. It's already March 2nd. If they don't ship until April 30, which would be the
01:19:51
◼
►
And I don't think that's good given that the event is on March 9th. I'm kind of thinking they're gonna ship in early April, right?
01:19:56
◼
►
But you know the the longest period of time they have
01:20:00
◼
►
Between like seven weeks right and there's no way that they could do that across however many hundred stores they have
01:20:05
◼
►
So do you think I think it's like three or four hundred stores now? Yeah, so do you think?
01:20:09
◼
►
the addition models will be something that you go to New York City or LA or
01:20:13
◼
►
You know could be to start and certainly San Francisco, right? Right, you know, there's whatever wherever
01:20:20
◼
►
they're major cities yeah well and maybe that's all the stores that are like landmarks okay you
01:20:26
◼
►
know there's i don't know what i don't quite think that they have like a tier of those stores you know
01:20:31
◼
►
like a name for it but they're you know the ones like in london that tim cook was just at this week
01:20:37
◼
►
you know the ones that look architecturally interesting and that are physically bigger
01:20:41
◼
►
that they'll have you know a separate little uh a salon you know where you'll buy the edition models
01:20:49
◼
►
I think I you know and I think they could they could even start and just say it's only in three
01:20:53
◼
►
cities to start in New York you know Los Angeles and San Francisco and then they'll slowly roll
01:20:59
◼
►
that out over time right yeah I don't know it's the to me that's that's a very interesting aspect
01:21:06
◼
►
of it that you know not a lot of people will consider and then maybe it doesn't really matter
01:21:10
◼
►
that much but this is it's not it's not changing the company the way that the iPad changed the
01:21:14
◼
►
company because that was or it's changing it much more than the iPad or even the iPhone changed the
01:21:18
◼
►
the company because those are still computing devices that are sold the way computing devices
01:21:24
◼
►
are sold and the watch clearly is not going to be sold that way.
01:21:27
◼
►
Right and it's there's so many different ways where it's like you can't have it both ways
01:21:32
◼
►
like if you're going to say we're going and I just I really do believe that this is true that
01:21:37
◼
►
these are ten thousand dollar watches maybe you know if and again if I'm right that they're
01:21:41
◼
►
that they sell a gold link band, $20,000 watches. And that's totally reasonable given the price of
01:21:50
◼
►
fine watches and solid gold bracelets in the market today. But you can't have those things
01:21:58
◼
►
being sold by kids wearing jeans and t-shirts, right? Who like their next, the next thing that
01:22:06
◼
►
they're doing is scanning somebody's Hello Kitty iPhone case.
01:22:13
◼
►
- You probably, yeah.
01:22:15
◼
►
- What can I help you with?
01:22:16
◼
►
I'm buying a Hello Kitty iPhone case.
01:22:18
◼
►
Oh, okay, thank you, here you go.
01:22:19
◼
►
Do you want a receipt?
01:22:20
◼
►
Nope, all right.
01:22:21
◼
►
I'm buying a $15,000 watch.
01:22:23
◼
►
Okay, here you go.
01:22:25
◼
►
Like, I think Molt said last week,
01:22:26
◼
►
do you think they're gonna let you do the walk out
01:22:28
◼
►
and pay on your own?
01:22:31
◼
►
- Just walk out the door.
01:22:32
◼
►
- You wouldn't even imagine how hard you'd get tackled.
01:22:37
◼
►
Trying to walk out of the store
01:22:38
◼
►
with a self-paid $15,000 watch.
01:22:41
◼
►
Like they're just gonna have them on the shelf
01:22:43
◼
►
just in a little case.
01:22:46
◼
►
- Yeah, you just grab it and you flash your receipt
01:22:47
◼
►
and you're good to go.
01:22:49
◼
►
- No, I don't know.
01:22:50
◼
►
I'm having so much fun with this watch thing.
01:22:53
◼
►
And again, it's not even because I know I want one
01:22:55
◼
►
and I can't wait to get it 'cause I don't even know.
01:22:57
◼
►
I'm so, so many questions
01:22:59
◼
►
about what I would find useful with it.
01:23:01
◼
►
I just find it useful like,
01:23:02
◼
►
as somebody who's professionally paid
01:23:04
◼
►
to write about the company that there's so many things
01:23:06
◼
►
we don't know.
01:23:07
◼
►
And there don't seem to be good answers for it.
01:23:11
◼
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There just does not seem to be a good answer
01:23:13
◼
►
for how do you sell a $10,000 gold watch
01:23:15
◼
►
in the Apple store as we know it.
01:23:17
◼
►
Like I said to Molt last week, I know in the Philly store,
01:23:21
◼
►
we have an upstairs that's not retail.
01:23:23
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You can't wander up there.
01:23:24
◼
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It's like the business center and they have classes
01:23:27
◼
►
and stuff like that.
01:23:28
◼
►
And I could see them apportioning, you know,
01:23:31
◼
►
like if you go in to buy the edition,
01:23:33
◼
►
you would be taken up there.
01:23:35
◼
►
But even then, even if you get escorted
01:23:37
◼
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to a quiet salon-type experience
01:23:41
◼
►
and get a concierge level of sales.
01:23:44
◼
►
- Get some cucumber water.
01:23:45
◼
►
- Yeah, cucumber water and maybe a glass of bubbly.
01:23:49
◼
►
And you get to try these watches on
01:23:51
◼
►
while sitting or whatever.
01:23:54
◼
►
I still don't see how you go from the front of the store
01:23:56
◼
►
to where you tell somebody that's what you're here for.
01:24:03
◼
►
my big irritation with Apple stores in general is that sometimes it's so hard to get somebody's
01:24:07
◼
►
attention, like if you know exactly what you want to get. You know, like we got Jonas a MacBook for
01:24:17
◼
►
Christmas, and I knew exactly what I wanted to get. And it's like, you know, it didn't take too long.
01:24:24
◼
►
And you know, I have to say, given that it was the holiday season and everything, it didn't take too
01:24:28
◼
►
long. But it seemed to take a little bit too long given that I knew exactly what I wanted when I
01:24:32
◼
►
stepped foot into the store right yeah yeah and and now they're adding a whole
01:24:38
◼
►
separate section most likely right like if you walk into a Tiffany to buy some
01:24:44
◼
►
fine jewelry you know there's no there aren't any there's no loud crowds you
01:24:48
◼
►
know you don't kids sitting on round balls playing bugs life or right it's
01:24:54
◼
►
you know and who knows you know maybe if it's like the Christmas or whatever
01:24:59
◼
►
whatever, maybe you might have to wait to before a salesperson will come greet you.
01:25:04
◼
►
But once the first salesperson who greets you is going to be able to handle your request,
01:25:09
◼
►
whether it's for $150 pendant or whether it's for $15,000 pendant, right? It's like whatever
01:25:16
◼
►
it is that you're there to buy at Tiffany, that your sales rep is going to make you feel
01:25:20
◼
►
comfortable and like you're in the right place.
01:25:23
◼
►
Right. I just don't get it with that. I think the more I think I wrote about this last week
01:25:30
◼
►
I the more I look at the bands the more I think that there's gonna be
01:25:33
◼
►
wide variation and pricing based on the band
01:25:38
◼
►
I'm convinced of it and I think it's sort of how they fill in the gaps
01:25:42
◼
►
Like if you're looking I think if you're looking and I this is high for months. I was thinking well three main price points
01:25:47
◼
►
You know 349 for sport
01:25:50
◼
►
Something maybe a thousand for the steel and five thousand for gold or whatever. I think that within each
01:25:55
◼
►
Collection I'm making sure I use the right word within each collection. There's gonna be I think a
01:26:01
◼
►
Not startlingly big but a very wide variety like I could see the still based on fans
01:26:08
◼
►
Yeah, I could see the steel one like starting at like seven hundred dollars
01:26:12
◼
►
With the rubber band. What do they call it? Poly you?
01:26:16
◼
►
urethane what's the famous their fancy word for rubber band rubber strap
01:26:21
◼
►
floral elastomer all right I would not have come up with that black floral
01:26:29
◼
►
elastomer so I could see that starting at let's say 700 which would be double
01:26:35
◼
►
the price of the sport watch which to me is like a reasonable like increment to
01:26:39
◼
►
go from aluminum to steel you double it but then I would think like the ones
01:26:46
◼
►
but the leather bands would be a couple hundred bucks more than that and I could see like
01:26:49
◼
►
the metal link band one being like $1500 or even $2000 and I know everybody else is like
01:26:56
◼
►
nobody else is thinking that for the steel one but I could see them doing it. I just
01:27:02
◼
►
reread it before we started the show. On Apple Watch's page, you go to apple.com/watch/apple-watch.
01:27:10
◼
►
Now this is probably going to change next week so you know go check it out before you
01:27:15
◼
►
I'm guessing the website will be redone after it's released.
01:27:19
◼
►
But here's their description for the link bracelet.
01:27:22
◼
►
This is for the steel watch.
01:27:23
◼
►
This isn't for the edition.
01:27:24
◼
►
This is for the steel watch.
01:27:26
◼
►
Crafted from the same 316L stainless steel alloy is the case.
01:27:30
◼
►
The link bracelet has more than 100 components.
01:27:34
◼
►
The machining process is so precise, it takes nearly nine hours to cut the links for a single
01:27:41
◼
►
In part, that's because they aren't simply a uniform size but subtly increase in width
01:27:46
◼
►
as they approach the case.
01:27:48
◼
►
Once assembled, the links are brushed by hand to ensure that the texture follows the contours
01:27:54
◼
►
of the design.
01:27:55
◼
►
The custom butterfly closure folds neatly within the bracelet and several links feature
01:28:00
◼
►
a simple release button so you can add and remove links without any special tools available
01:28:05
◼
►
in stainless steel and black stainless steel.
01:28:08
◼
►
If it takes nine hours for them to cut one, and then after it's assembled, it's polished
01:28:13
◼
►
by hand, that's not going to be like $150 extra.
01:28:19
◼
►
I'm not exaggerating.
01:28:22
◼
►
That might be like a $1,500 bracelet.
01:28:25
◼
►
It might mean that the watch that comes with that bracelet is $2,000.
01:28:32
◼
►
Reading that description, it certainly sounds much more expensive than I think what people
01:28:37
◼
►
anticipating yeah right it's like at first like the way they showed it at the
01:28:41
◼
►
event in September it's like you can get a bracelet that matches your taste you
01:28:45
◼
►
know maybe you're you know maybe and I like I've had over the years I've had
01:28:49
◼
►
many watches with like a rubber plastic strap I find them to be very comfortable
01:28:53
◼
►
I think you know I always feel like you can get them nice and tight and then
01:28:56
◼
►
they have a little bit of give I I think that the fluoro elastomer band is gonna
01:29:01
◼
►
be great but they made it seem as though it's like pick the one that matches your
01:29:06
◼
►
style and you know maybe you know I think everybody thought well maybe this
01:29:09
◼
►
the link bracelet will cost a little bit more but I if you think about it if you
01:29:13
◼
►
just start with the assumption that it's gonna cost a lot more that description
01:29:17
◼
►
makes a lot more sense nine hours to cut the links is for what what what bracelet
01:29:23
◼
►
what I'll tell you what they're saying you know that's because they chained
01:29:27
◼
►
width slightly maybe they could have just made them the same width well or
01:29:31
◼
►
you could have cut in about four hours well why couldn't you have one machine
01:29:34
◼
►
that cuts the first link one machine you know right right right it actually it
01:29:40
◼
►
seems kind of crazy that it takes nine hours you know but I mean I have no
01:29:45
◼
►
reason to doubt them but there certainly seem to be setting it up it that to me
01:29:48
◼
►
sounds like the description of a $1,500 bracelet of an expensive piece of
01:29:52
◼
►
watch band yeah right the thing that's the thing that's so interesting to me is
01:29:58
◼
►
that all of these watches are the same like the gold whatever it costs whether
01:30:04
◼
►
it's only 1500 bucks or whether it's 15,000 bucks it's still the exact same device as the watch that
01:30:10
◼
►
you're gonna get for 349 bucks and that's nuts well but there is precedent for that in the the
01:30:19
◼
►
some precedent not scaling all the way down to 349 but that's you know like if you buy a Rolex
01:30:26
◼
►
Submariner in stainless steel in the fashion world there's huge precedent right right or yeah
01:30:32
◼
►
are like handbags right that they're you know there might be two Louis Vuitton bags but one is
01:30:37
◼
►
made out of you know I don't know some kind of special rare leather and the other one is right
01:30:44
◼
►
out of the regular leather and it's you know $5,000 difference and it's the exact same bag
01:30:49
◼
►
same dimension same pocket same zippers everything's the same except one is made out of a different kind
01:30:54
◼
►
of leather and it costs $5,000 more you know but in terms of technology what has
01:31:01
◼
►
besides besides the outlier like what's the virtue is the one that makes a case
01:31:06
◼
►
for your phone that makes it worth like no not a case it is a phone but it's it's
01:31:10
◼
►
a whole phone right right but it's a well but the value in it is all in the
01:31:13
◼
►
case right the case of the phone the casing moles and I were talking about
01:31:18
◼
►
this last week they also offer a concierge service where there's like a
01:31:22
◼
►
a special button on the phone and then it you just hit this button and then you get like a virtue person who will be like
01:31:28
◼
►
We want on star for your phone. Yeah. Yeah, and you're like, oh, I want to you know, I want to go to Italian restaurant tonight
01:31:33
◼
►
Well, but I mean besides these outliers in terms of selling technology
01:31:39
◼
►
I don't think there's ever been anything like this. No
01:31:42
◼
►
No, you cannot think of it as a technology product. You really kid doesn't make any sense, right?
01:31:48
◼
►
Well, but I think I think that's completely true, but I think the $349 one as a technology product is very interesting. Yeah
01:31:55
◼
►
So it's it's almost like they're selling you know an Apple watch for 349 bucks or Apple watch sport
01:32:02
◼
►
Whatever and then they're also entering the fashion world with this
01:32:05
◼
►
You know all these bands and all these different cases and and it's it's two completely different
01:32:11
◼
►
Markets. Yeah, absolutely
01:32:13
◼
►
it's it also
01:32:18
◼
►
I remember the day of the event, the very day of the event back in September, I met
01:32:23
◼
►
Michael Lop in San Francisco, you know, like after he got out of work at five and we got
01:32:32
◼
►
And the first thing he said, and I thought it was so astute, is that it seems as though
01:32:36
◼
►
they're launching this product three years in.
01:32:41
◼
►
You know, that the Apple way to do it would have been the first one.
01:32:43
◼
►
Here's the Apple Watch.
01:32:45
◼
►
one size, one color, one style as a white band. Here's what it does. And then the next year,
01:32:50
◼
►
they fix it and make it better, whatever. And then maybe in the third year, they say,
01:32:55
◼
►
"Okay, this has been great. It's been a great success. Now you can get it in steel,
01:32:59
◼
►
you can get it in gold, et cetera. Here's all these other leather bands."
01:33:02
◼
►
Michael - Right. This is fully formed in terms of they didn't just make the watch and they didn't
01:33:07
◼
►
just make the watch in three different cases. They made all these bands and they've done every,
01:33:13
◼
►
they've really fine-tuned every aspect of it.
01:33:16
◼
►
Yeah, definitely. And I think that they're going to cover an incredible gamut of price
01:33:21
◼
►
points. I think that, you know, and I think, you know, I think 90-some percent—this is
01:33:26
◼
►
another thing. The Wall Street Journal had this goofy story two weeks ago about some
01:33:31
◼
►
sources in the supply chain that said that they expect to sell like 50 percent sport
01:33:36
◼
►
and 33% steel and 16% gold. That's crazy. The more I think about it, the more I think
01:33:43
◼
►
that whoever told them that was just, you know, like a—
01:33:46
◼
►
Eric Bischoff Screwing with them?
01:33:47
◼
►
Trevor Burrus Yeah, just totally screwing with them. Because
01:33:50
◼
►
there is no way—unless it's possible that I'm completely wrong. Could be that I'm
01:33:55
◼
►
completely wrong and the gold one is only going to cost, I don't know, $1500 or something.
01:34:00
◼
►
It's far more in line with the $349 price.
01:34:05
◼
►
If I'm right, though, that it's—even if I'm only right that it's $5,000, let alone
01:34:09
◼
►
$10,000 to start, there's no way that 16% of the ones they'd sell, they're not going
01:34:13
◼
►
to sell a million of those a month.
01:34:15
◼
►
That's crazy town, right?
01:34:18
◼
►
I mean, Rolex only sells—I mean, Rolex is a very secretive company, but best that anybody
01:34:24
◼
►
can tell is Rolex sells somewhere around 600,000 watches a year.
01:34:29
◼
►
There's some weird thing where they have to submit them to some Swiss government agency
01:34:36
◼
►
that's officially—
01:34:37
◼
►
Jared Ranere>> A horological society or something?
01:34:50
◼
►
That's probably less rigorous than what Rolex themselves is
01:34:53
◼
►
But it lets them say it's an officially certified chronometer and that because it's like a government thing
01:34:58
◼
►
The numbers come out and it's something like Rolex certifies
01:35:01
◼
►
800,000 watches a year or at least they did in 2012, but that they might only sell 600,000 of them
01:35:08
◼
►
I guess you don't get the watch certified you get the movement certified the
01:35:11
◼
►
Okay, you know some of those might be for repairs or who knows but there's such they're almost Apple like in their secrecy and it
01:35:18
◼
►
know, maybe it's just purposeful misdirection. Yeah, but it could be that they're, you know,
01:35:23
◼
►
extras for repairs or whatever. But at the very least, though, long way of saying that's just a
01:35:29
◼
►
baseline for what, you know, the world's premier luxury watchmaker sells in a year, 600,000.
01:35:35
◼
►
Right. It's almost a ceiling. I mean, not that Apple can't sell more,
01:35:38
◼
►
but it's a likely ceiling.
01:35:40
◼
►
Right. And a lot of Rolex's watches do not cost more than $10,000. I mean,
01:35:44
◼
►
And a lot of them do, but I think by volume, you know, a lot of them sell less.
01:35:48
◼
►
So if the edition starts at $10,000, which I really do think it does, the idea that they
01:35:53
◼
►
would sell a million of them a quarter in the first year, it just does not compute.
01:36:00
◼
►
I mean, and this is – I think – I don't think anybody would accuse me of being a pessimist
01:36:06
◼
►
on Apple, you know, future Apple products success, you know, possibilities.
01:36:11
◼
►
But I'm just saying that in terms of, you know, just how the world seems to work in
01:36:16
◼
►
terms of people who spend that kind of money on jewelry, it just seems out of scale.
01:36:21
◼
►
So I think the Wall Street Journal is nuts.
01:36:22
◼
►
I think the edition is going to be like – I think the company could wind up making tons
01:36:27
◼
►
of money on them because even if only like 1 percent of the watches sold are the edition
01:36:31
◼
►
ones, if they're 15,000 on average, that's tons of money, right?
01:36:36
◼
►
It's 30 or 40 times – each one of them is 30 or 40 times more expensive than a sport
01:36:40
◼
►
edition but there's no way it's gonna be that I don't think I think the vast majority of people
01:36:46
◼
►
are gonna come in and just buy a sport as though you know like buying an iPod you know 349 bucks
01:36:52
◼
►
boom right yeah the the market for the higher end and the highest end ones is certainly going
01:36:59
◼
►
to be very small compared to the market for a consumer priced watch yeah yeah you know it's
01:37:07
◼
►
You know did it and there's so many weird psychological things to it too where it's like
01:37:11
◼
►
If they only had the one if they did what seemingly would be the more obvious route and just said here's the first Apple watch
01:37:18
◼
►
It's three hundred forty nine dollars. It comes in these colors
01:37:21
◼
►
And maybe you know maybe do the 38 and 42 millimeter size thing because there is sort of a they're not calling it men's and ladies
01:37:28
◼
►
But clearly there's a sort of men's and ladies divide on average wrist size
01:37:35
◼
►
If they did that, you know, there'd be so many people who would say wow 349 bucks for a watch, you know
01:37:40
◼
►
You know you're going to buy a fossil watch. It's you know, $75 or whatever
01:37:44
◼
►
There is that psychological thing where even if you don't even count the addition if you just look at the stainless steel
01:37:50
◼
►
If it's right next to a thousand dollar watch 349 looks a lot better
01:37:57
◼
►
So, I don't know. I think all of that goes into the strategy that they have here
01:38:01
◼
►
you know that if they want to sell a
01:38:04
◼
►
zillion three hundred forty nine dollar aluminum Apple watches that it helps them to do that by
01:38:11
◼
►
having these seemingly inexplicably more expensive if you think of them as little risk computers
01:38:16
◼
►
right next to them well and especially because they never break break down their sales based on
01:38:23
◼
►
model right so a quarter in or you know a year and they can say we sold you know whatever 10
01:38:29
◼
►
million watches and if only a thousand of them are the addition watches no one's ever gonna know
01:38:34
◼
►
yeah and I guess it'll do they break out the earnings based on I guess you could maybe
01:38:41
◼
►
calculate calculate it that way no but they've also said though that they've even said in advance
01:38:47
◼
►
so that nobody's disappointed that they're gonna be less transparent about the watch they're not
01:38:51
◼
►
even gonna put the watch as a separate item they're not gonna say they're not even gonna
01:38:54
◼
►
say we sold five million Apple watches they're gonna go wow okay they've they've created this
01:38:59
◼
►
new other category and watch revenue will go in there. It's going to be very, very difficult
01:39:05
◼
►
for outsiders to-
01:39:06
◼
►
Think of anything.
01:39:07
◼
►
Yeah. And to his credit, Tim Cook is very clear about it for the obvious reasons, it's
01:39:13
◼
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01:42:00
◼
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kind, competent, trustworthy people at Hover. You give them the information, you know, your
01:42:05
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login information for your other domain registrars. Tell them you want to move your domains to Hover,
01:42:12
◼
►
and they just go take care of it. And they make sure all the DNS is set right. They go through
01:42:19
◼
►
whatever hoops the other registrar is going to make you go through to transfer a domain.
01:42:24
◼
►
They do it. And this is all they do is transfer domain. So it's like, I'll go years without
01:42:29
◼
►
Transferring a domain. I don't know how to do it. This is all the people at hover do let the experts do it
01:42:33
◼
►
It's it could not be easier sounds too good to be true because they do it for free, but they do
01:42:38
◼
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I'm telling you you just go there believe me you have domains at some crappy registrar sign up for hover
01:42:44
◼
►
Let them move them over and boom. You don't have to worry about it anymore. I
01:42:49
◼
►
Have no idea what the coupon code is for hover
01:42:56
◼
►
No, actually I do that they hover it gives me a new one every time and today's coupon code for this show is all one word
01:43:04
◼
►
spring training
01:43:07
◼
►
So go type that in spring training. That's a baseball there
01:43:09
◼
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They're making a baseball reference here on the talk show go to hover calm and use this code spring training at checkout and
01:43:17
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a they'll know you came from the show and
01:43:20
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That's always appreciated. That's why you know sponsors like hover keep coming back and keep supporting the show
01:43:26
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Be you get something to you will save 10% off your first purchase just by using that code. So use spring training
01:43:33
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At hover comm use their valet transfer service get all your domains over on hover and then you'll you'll email me you'll say thank you
01:43:41
◼
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Thank you. Thank you for introducing me to hover. My domains are in better hands. So my thanks to her
01:43:47
◼
►
I have a surprise for you then Paul. Oh
01:43:51
◼
►
Well, I'll tell you about it later
01:43:55
◼
►
After the show. Yeah. Well before the end of the show before the end of the show, I won't make you wait long. All right
01:44:02
◼
►
Are you excited about spring training?
01:44:05
◼
►
It's too cold to be thinking about it yet seems impossible
01:44:08
◼
►
I know and I know I'm not trying to complain to you because Philly's had a bad winner
01:44:12
◼
►
Boston has had like
01:44:15
◼
►
Epic like the worst winner in the history of bad winners like well, so at this point at this point
01:44:20
◼
►
We are I just saw it today
01:44:21
◼
►
I think we're about three and a half inches off of the all-time snowiest winter on record.
01:44:27
◼
►
And it's only the beginning of March.
01:44:29
◼
►
Well, but so at this point, I'm rooting for just a little bit more snow.
01:44:33
◼
►
Like we're at like 104 inches and the record is like 107 and a half inches or something.
01:44:38
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►
I want to have lived through the snowiest winter of all time.
01:44:41
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►
I don't want any BS second place.
01:44:43
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►
So it's been terrible for like a month and a half at this point.
01:44:47
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►
It might as well be a little terrible for a little bit longer and then I'll have
01:44:51
◼
►
something to you know put on my resume yeah especially since you can get there
01:44:55
◼
►
with you don't even need like a bad snowstorm I mean no no talking worries
01:45:01
◼
►
for a couple days and we'll be set yeah I mean you guys you know at this point
01:45:04
◼
►
three four inches of snow you guys may know they may not even put that on TV
01:45:08
◼
►
they may not even mention that now we talk in feet now and yeah it's it's been
01:45:12
◼
►
crazy so yeah I'm not thinking about I don't know I the Red Sox I get emails
01:45:18
◼
►
from them and I've been getting the information and I'm vaguely paying attention to it but I don't
01:45:24
◼
►
know I don't really get into the spring training the baseball season is long enough how about that
01:45:27
◼
►
the kid from Cuba that they signed all the 19 year old that they paid god only knows how much money
01:45:32
◼
►
for 63 million or something like that yeah I don't know what do you think Yankee fans Yankee fans
01:45:38
◼
►
are starting to get antsy because we've gone we've gone five years without a World Series and that's
01:45:46
◼
►
That's right around, that's when Yankee fans start losing their shit.
01:45:50
◼
►
And it's this, that's my hobby, that's my, I like to watch the Yankees, I don't
01:45:57
◼
►
know if you knew that.
01:45:58
◼
►
But one little rough similarity between the Yankees and Apple is this crazy figure who's
01:46:09
◼
►
now dead, who haunts the organization.
01:46:11
◼
►
The Yankees had George Steinbrenner, Apple has Steve Jobs.
01:46:15
◼
►
And so you run into the, exactly like the this never would have happened with Steve
01:46:19
◼
►
Jobs, you run into this never would have happened with George Steinbrenner.
01:46:23
◼
►
- But it's his kids running the team, which is really sort of a--
01:46:26
◼
►
- His kids, Hal and Hank, are, you know, I think they're doing an okay job.
01:46:32
◼
►
I think it's too short of a period of time.
01:46:35
◼
►
You've gotta, it's, you're gonna have to give them 10, 15 years before we really decide
01:46:39
◼
►
whether they're up to snuff as owners.
01:46:43
◼
►
But with this, what's the kid's name from Cuba?
01:46:46
◼
►
Oh, it's like Yoann Mancato or something.
01:46:50
◼
►
You know, and it's so many of these recent players coming out of Cuba have been so good.
01:46:55
◼
►
There's clearly so much crazy talent, athletic baseball players coming out of Cuba.
01:47:03
◼
►
But it's a ton of money for a kid who nobody has seen play.
01:47:06
◼
►
I mean, I'm not saying I would have been shocked if the Yankees had outbid the Red Sox, but
01:47:10
◼
►
I don't think it's crazy that they didn't, you know.
01:47:13
◼
►
But a lot of Yankee fans are, you know,
01:47:15
◼
►
George is rolling over in his grave.
01:47:17
◼
►
And that in particular, if he had been on the fence,
01:47:21
◼
►
there's no way he would have let the kid go
01:47:23
◼
►
to the Red Sox.
01:47:24
◼
►
- Right, right. - And there's,
01:47:25
◼
►
the thing is, there might be some truth to that.
01:47:27
◼
►
'Cause George, the thing is, is that George Steinbrenner
01:47:31
◼
►
made some moves that everybody agrees were terrible.
01:47:34
◼
►
That he would insist on paying big bucks
01:47:37
◼
►
for like an aging slugger.
01:47:38
◼
►
and everybody in the organization would be on the record.
01:47:41
◼
►
You know, not on the record, but like, you know,
01:47:44
◼
►
anonymous sources within the Yankees organization
01:47:47
◼
►
said that nobody but George wanted this guy,
01:47:50
◼
►
but that he overruled everybody and got him anyway.
01:47:53
◼
►
And at this point, Yankee fans are like,
01:47:56
◼
►
they missed that guy.
01:47:57
◼
►
They want the Yankees to make terrible mistakes
01:48:00
◼
►
and just spend money on everybody
01:48:02
◼
►
that they should have signed.
01:48:02
◼
►
- 'Cause it's at least interesting.
01:48:06
◼
►
And that ultimately, at least they want,
01:48:09
◼
►
if the Yankees aren't going to win,
01:48:10
◼
►
they at least want them to be hemorrhaging cash
01:48:13
◼
►
as they do it.
01:48:16
◼
►
- Right, 'cause at least then they've done
01:48:17
◼
►
as much as they can.
01:48:18
◼
►
- Right, what more--
01:48:19
◼
►
- At least if they're burning money.
01:48:20
◼
►
- What more could we do?
01:48:21
◼
►
We spent a billion dollars and we still lost,
01:48:24
◼
►
whereas now it's starting to frustrate people
01:48:27
◼
►
that they're not just shooting money at the problems.
01:48:32
◼
►
And the Yankee, we've got Alex Rodriguez back on the team.
01:48:37
◼
►
- Oh, that's a treat for the rest of us,
01:48:40
◼
►
I'll tell you that much.
01:48:42
◼
►
Where do you think he's gonna wind up this year?
01:48:44
◼
►
- I think it is either going to be,
01:48:49
◼
►
my guess is it's going to be binary.
01:48:52
◼
►
He's either gonna be a complete bust and unable to play
01:48:57
◼
►
and doesn't, you know, is like off the,
01:48:59
◼
►
they're gonna have to like cut him
01:49:00
◼
►
and just pay him the $61 million.
01:49:02
◼
►
Or he's actually gonna be okay.
01:49:05
◼
►
I think he maybe he'll hit like 270, 20 home runs,
01:49:09
◼
►
80 RBIs as DH.
01:49:12
◼
►
- I was at the last one I was gonna say,
01:49:13
◼
►
you think he gets third base back or you think he's the DH?
01:49:15
◼
►
- I don't think so.
01:49:16
◼
►
It doesn't, it sounds,
01:49:17
◼
►
the Yankees are prepared for him to be DH.
01:49:20
◼
►
I mean, I think he's got a chance to play third base,
01:49:23
◼
►
but they spend a surprising amount of money on Chase Headley.
01:49:27
◼
►
- Yeah, exactly.
01:49:28
◼
►
- And clearly with the idea
01:49:29
◼
►
they're going to need him at third base. I mean, if A-Rod can do it, I guess he will, but I don't,
01:49:33
◼
►
nobody really seems to be expecting that. And they're also giving them, in Florida, they're
01:49:38
◼
►
giving them a lot of reps at first base, which I think is as much about, well, we've got to do
01:49:44
◼
►
something with them. And I think it's also like a sort of sad statement about what they expect out
01:49:50
◼
►
of Marc Teixeira's durability, you know, that they're already planning, you know, somebody's
01:49:54
◼
►
Somebody else is gonna have to play some first-rate.
01:49:58
◼
►
- Well, I think the, what are they?
01:50:00
◼
►
They signed him for 10 years,
01:50:01
◼
►
and then they re-signed him for 10 years,
01:50:03
◼
►
like four years into that contract, is that right?
01:50:05
◼
►
- It's a very complicated contract.
01:50:07
◼
►
It is, it's something to the effect of that, yeah.
01:50:11
◼
►
- Well, I think the original signing, that 10-year period,
01:50:15
◼
►
it was an incredible amount of money,
01:50:16
◼
►
but they got a lot of value out of that.
01:50:19
◼
►
The re-signing was where I think they went wrong.
01:50:22
◼
►
- Yeah, definitely.
01:50:24
◼
►
it's the second half of that new contract that is now, you know, they're paying in the 61 million for maybe nothing.
01:50:30
◼
►
Yeah, and the the thinking the entire thinking behind the resigning was marketing driven not baseball driven
01:50:38
◼
►
because it was all based it was before any of the PED stuff had hit obviously and it was all based on
01:50:45
◼
►
projections of not not any kind of like
01:50:49
◼
►
oh, we think he's gonna play like his 33-year-old self forever or his 32-year-old self, you know,
01:50:54
◼
►
they knew he was going to go into decline and that by the end of this contract he would, you know,
01:50:58
◼
►
be a shell of his former self. But the projections all had him at, you know,
01:51:06
◼
►
right around Bonds' home run mark, you know, around that time and that he'd be breaking
01:51:11
◼
►
these historic home run records, filling the stadium with people, you know, in anticipation
01:51:18
◼
►
of him getting his 700th home run, getting his 750th home run. Whereas now, he could
01:51:25
◼
►
break the record and people are going to throw the ball back on the field. Right? I mean,
01:51:32
◼
►
who gives a crap about Barry Bonds' home run? That's the thing. Even if, just imagine
01:51:37
◼
►
that he does physically come back in pretty good shape and actually does start hitting
01:51:42
◼
►
dingers again and plays out these three years. It doesn't even matter if he breaks the record,
01:51:48
◼
►
because nobody cares about the record anyway, because everybody thinks Bond's numbers are
01:51:52
◼
►
tainted and then it would be broken by the guy who's the only one who might be the more notorious
01:51:58
◼
►
user of performance-enhancing drugs. Do you even know Bond's home run number?
01:52:03
◼
►
No, I don't even know. Ruth was 715, right?
01:52:06
◼
►
Right. And Hank Aaron was 744, right? No, I think it was 755.
01:52:11
◼
►
755. All right. I knew it was a double number. Yeah.
01:52:15
◼
►
So bonds is more than that, but I don't know. I don't know how much more.
01:52:19
◼
►
I'm going to guess like 780. He didn't get 800. Right. I don't remember him getting another
01:52:26
◼
►
landmark after breaking the record and 800 would have been something.
01:52:29
◼
►
Yeah, no, I don't think it's something in the seven. It's got to be like 760.
01:52:32
◼
►
All right. I'm going to look it up, but I'm not going to cheat. I'm going to say 7,
01:52:35
◼
►
770. Okay. What are you going to say?
01:52:39
◼
►
I think it was even closer.
01:52:40
◼
►
I think he just barely, I'm gonna go 760.
01:52:43
◼
►
I gotta go below you, so.
01:52:44
◼
►
- All right, hold on, career home runs.
01:52:49
◼
►
This is at baseballreference.com.
01:52:51
◼
►
- This is good podcasting, John.
01:52:55
◼
►
- Oh, we fixed it all in post.
01:52:56
◼
►
Let's see here.
01:53:01
◼
►
Boy, Wikipedia makes it hard to find it too.
01:53:04
◼
►
Home runs, 762, you're right.
01:53:07
◼
►
He just kinda snuck past him.
01:53:10
◼
►
He has seven more home runs than,
01:53:11
◼
►
God, you know what would have been class,
01:53:14
◼
►
I mean, he never would have done it.
01:53:15
◼
►
I mean, 'cause one thing when you're talking
01:53:16
◼
►
about Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez,
01:53:18
◼
►
class doesn't really--
01:53:19
◼
►
- That is not the word.
01:53:20
◼
►
- Wouldn't it have been classy if he had stopped at 754?
01:53:24
◼
►
- You think one less or tied?
01:53:26
◼
►
- Or tied, yeah, even if he just stopped at the top,
01:53:28
◼
►
yeah, even if he had just stopped at 755.
01:53:31
◼
►
- Yeah, I feel like tied,
01:53:32
◼
►
maybe you could have convinced him to do it,
01:53:34
◼
►
but one less, I don't think,
01:53:35
◼
►
one viewer I don't think you would have gone for.
01:53:38
◼
►
- All right, well what's the surprise you got for me, John?
01:53:41
◼
►
- My surprise for you, Paul,
01:53:43
◼
►
is that we have a fourth sponsor this week.
01:53:49
◼
►
- All right.
01:53:50
◼
►
- It is, and you're gonna like 'em.
01:53:51
◼
►
I know you like these guys.
01:53:53
◼
►
You like to play jokes with these guys.
01:53:54
◼
►
It's our good friends at Fracture.
01:53:57
◼
►
- All right.
01:53:58
◼
►
Fracture Photo Swap.
01:54:00
◼
►
- Yeah, this is, now this, we can talk about that.
01:54:02
◼
►
This is a great idea for a gag.
01:54:04
◼
►
You guys know Fracture, I talk about them.
01:54:06
◼
►
They've been sponsoring the show all year long.
01:54:09
◼
►
They take your photos, they print them directly on glass.
01:54:13
◼
►
And you get a little package and it's right there.
01:54:16
◼
►
The glass has your photo right on it.
01:54:18
◼
►
You don't need a frame, it is a frame.
01:54:20
◼
►
You just hang it out on a wall, you can hang it up,
01:54:22
◼
►
you know, prop it up on your mantle or your desk.
01:54:25
◼
►
Really clever packaging, really great image quality,
01:54:30
◼
►
really great prices, really great customer support,
01:54:33
◼
►
all sorts of sizes and shapes to pick from.
01:54:36
◼
►
You could do square ones, print your favorite Instagrams,
01:54:39
◼
►
big ones, you know, all sorts of great things.
01:54:43
◼
►
Have you seen this ad campaign from Apple
01:54:45
◼
►
with the, it's taken with an iPhone,
01:54:48
◼
►
where they're showing like photos
01:54:49
◼
►
that people have taken with their iPhone.
01:54:50
◼
►
They're printing them on--
01:54:51
◼
►
- Phenomenal photos.
01:54:52
◼
►
- Yeah, they're phenomenal photos,
01:54:53
◼
►
but then now it's like a billboard campaign.
01:54:55
◼
►
Like, you just sort of forget,
01:54:58
◼
►
like with the megapixels that you've got,
01:55:00
◼
►
like, you know, I'm sure if you got real close,
01:55:01
◼
►
like when you're hanging,
01:55:02
◼
►
if you're the guy hanging the billboard,
01:55:03
◼
►
You can see the pixels or whatever.
01:55:04
◼
►
But you said you were in the Apple Store recently.
01:55:09
◼
►
I was in the Apple Store just last week, a week or two ago, and they have some of these
01:55:15
◼
►
customer iPhone user photos up in the Apple Store, big, printed, really big, like panoramas
01:55:22
◼
►
printed big.
01:55:23
◼
►
And it's amazing how good they look, even when you're standing right in front of them
01:55:26
◼
►
at the wall.
01:55:27
◼
►
You can get – go to fracture it and get the big ones with your iPhone pictures.
01:55:30
◼
►
They'll look great.
01:55:31
◼
►
Amazing how much detail is in an iPhone picture?
01:55:33
◼
►
Paul you and my wife have played games with fracture this describe the fracture photo swap, right?
01:55:41
◼
►
So fracture sponsored the podcast I do with your wife Amy
01:55:44
◼
►
little show called just the tip and
01:55:47
◼
►
They sponsored the show and they it was actually their idea to do this
01:55:50
◼
►
they gave us each a coupon code and had us send a photo or photos to the other party and
01:55:56
◼
►
We trademarked this this is now a joint trademark between just the tip enterprises and fracture
01:56:02
◼
►
And you can participate in the fracture photo swap all you do is you get together with a friend you say I'm gonna send you
01:56:07
◼
►
a photo you send me a photo, and you just go nuts with it and
01:56:11
◼
►
I have you talked to pricing on this. I you haven't talked pricing it. You can do it
01:56:15
◼
►
it's very inexpensive for the small photos and
01:56:18
◼
►
You can have some fun with it
01:56:20
◼
►
The only rule is that whatever you send the receiving party has to keep in their house for at least a year
01:56:25
◼
►
So then then it becomes a real conversation piece
01:56:28
◼
►
Which so that you need to take that into account that explains why we have a photo of Pete Rose in his underwear
01:56:36
◼
►
His jockeys. That's right. That's right
01:56:39
◼
►
You're welcome. Thank you Paul. It's the gift that keeps on giving
01:56:45
◼
►
Do you think that that was based that was an ad that that while Pete Rose was playing you could google this just google was
01:56:54
◼
►
it Pete Rose jockeys? I think that's right. Yeah, it jockey underwear. And he is he is
01:57:02
◼
►
not an attractive man. Not even then. No, this is the height of his career in the prime
01:57:08
◼
►
of his playing career did not really look very attractive in his jockeys. Do you think
01:57:14
◼
►
maybe when they had that, that maybe they got the idea and they just assumed that Pete
01:57:19
◼
►
Rose with his, you know, his jersey off would look good. Because you know, there was like,
01:57:23
◼
►
Jim Palmer, very handsome pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, famously did a lot of
01:57:30
◼
►
underwear ads during his career. Very handsome man. Looked amazing. Looked certainly look better
01:57:36
◼
►
than I've ever looked in the best day of my life in this underwear. Looked great. Looked like he
01:57:39
◼
►
should be modeling underwear. Do you think that there's somebody at Jockey was like, "Well, we'll
01:57:43
◼
►
get Pete Rose. He's a great player. He's going to look great. And they called him and they
01:57:50
◼
►
came to terms and they signed a contract and then they got to see him in his joggies. That's
01:57:59
◼
►
what I think. That's my guess as to how that came to be.
01:58:02
◼
►
John: But they still could have saved money by not printing the ad. I mean, that's good
01:58:05
◼
►
money after bad.
01:58:06
◼
►
Well, anyway, my thanks to Fracture. Do the Fracture Photo Swap. It's great fun. Do whatever
01:58:14
◼
►
you want with them. But they're a great, great company, great products, lots of fun. The
01:58:19
◼
►
code that you want to remember is "daring fireball," all one word, "daring fireball,"
01:58:23
◼
►
and you will save 15% on whatever it is that you order, including, I'm betting, Fracture
01:58:30
◼
►
There you go.
01:58:31
◼
►
One last thing. I got to go soon. We've been chatting for a while, but I wanted to talk
01:58:36
◼
►
while I had you because I wanted to get your insight on this.
01:58:39
◼
►
I think you're gonna give me a big fat I told you so
01:58:41
◼
►
about app pricing.
01:58:42
◼
►
So my-- - Oh yes.
01:58:43
◼
►
- My friends Brent and Dave and I at Q branch,
01:58:47
◼
►
we've just a few days ago released a new update
01:58:49
◼
►
to our app Vesper that adds iPad support on iOS.
01:58:54
◼
►
And coincident with that, it's a universal binary,
01:58:57
◼
►
but we've raised the price of the app to 999, right?
01:59:02
◼
►
I think for the next 10 days,
01:59:03
◼
►
we're still gonna keep it at 799,
01:59:05
◼
►
which is higher than it has been all along.
01:59:07
◼
►
But the new default regular price
01:59:10
◼
►
once this intro period is over is gonna be $9.99.
01:59:12
◼
►
And I don't wanna go on a trade about it,
01:59:18
◼
►
but just more or less that we've concluded
01:59:20
◼
►
that the idea that you can go low,
01:59:22
◼
►
and we've been at $2.99 for months
01:59:25
◼
►
before this update came out,
01:59:26
◼
►
that you can go low and make it up with quantity
01:59:30
◼
►
because the iOS market is so big,
01:59:31
◼
►
that it just, that just doesn't work.
01:59:34
◼
►
or it doesn't work for the type of app that Vesper is,
01:59:37
◼
►
which I would call like--
01:59:39
◼
►
- A deeper app.
01:59:40
◼
►
- Yeah, and like a productivity app.
01:59:41
◼
►
It's not a game, it's not a gimmick.
01:59:43
◼
►
- No, that's it, yeah.
01:59:44
◼
►
- You know, but it's sort of, basically,
01:59:46
◼
►
it's like the type of apps that indie developers
01:59:49
◼
►
have been making for the Mac for decades,
01:59:51
◼
►
now it's on iOS, like a Mac app on iOS.
01:59:54
◼
►
And I don't think that that works.
01:59:57
◼
►
And I mean Mac in terms of being something that you do,
01:59:59
◼
►
like you work with it, you do things, productivity,
02:00:02
◼
►
I don't know.
02:00:04
◼
►
I definitely do want to say I told you so, but I think it's something where, what, six
02:00:10
◼
►
years ago, my company released an iPhone app and we priced it at $9.99 and it didn't work.
02:00:18
◼
►
But I felt like at least we went down swinging.
02:00:20
◼
►
We went down at a price where we were content.
02:00:24
◼
►
And I think, exactly like you said, trying to make it up on volume doesn't work unless
02:00:28
◼
►
you wind up with one of the apps, you know, an Angry Birds or
02:00:33
◼
►
that's it. It's a game. Games are different. I think games are is a totally different market and
02:00:39
◼
►
you know, there's other apps that to me it's a different type of, it's just a different category.
02:00:47
◼
►
I'm talking, you know, and I will also add and I don't want to be so self-centered as to presume
02:00:54
◼
►
that Vesper is good enough that it should be making more money. So let's
02:01:00
◼
►
just leave Vesper out. Maybe the problem is that Vesper isn't original enough.
02:01:03
◼
►
Maybe the, you know, the problem is Vesper. The eye-opening thing to me was
02:01:06
◼
►
in Panics' annual letter that they published on their blog back in early
02:01:13
◼
►
January where Cable Sasser just flat-out said, you know, and they had a great year.
02:01:17
◼
►
They had so many apps that came out, Mac and iOS, and they had iOS versions of
02:01:23
◼
►
at coda the mini coda whatever they call coda like coda diet coda diet coda oh
02:01:29
◼
►
what a great name that is can't believe it drew a blank on that they have their
02:01:33
◼
►
terminal app prompt prompt great great stuff transmit for iOS transmit for iOS
02:01:41
◼
►
which is a phenomenal app really really well done it's everything you close your
02:01:46
◼
►
eyes you think well what would panic do if they did transmit for iOS and your
02:01:49
◼
►
mind starts running wild with how you know detailed it would be well that's
02:01:52
◼
►
That's exactly what it is. It's a remarkable, remarkable app. And truly, a Mac caliber app
02:01:59
◼
►
in terms of the scope of what it does. It's a full-featured file transfer app for a whole
02:02:04
◼
►
bunch of great services. And in their annual letter, Cable FlatOut said that the revenue
02:02:13
◼
►
that they're making from these iOS apps doesn't justify the engineering expense of making
02:02:20
◼
►
these apps compared to the revenue they get from the same amount of work on the Mac apps.
02:02:25
◼
►
Right. Doing the same amount of work on the Mac is going to pay so much better than it
02:02:30
◼
►
does on iOS.
02:02:31
◼
►
Right. And there's no, you know, I mean, there are two different platforms, but in terms
02:02:34
◼
►
of which, you know, how much it costs to pay for a talented engineer to spend, you know,
02:02:40
◼
►
eight to ten hours tomorrow coding for it, it's the same, right? You don't get, you know,
02:02:46
◼
►
If anything, iOS developers are more in demand, right?
02:02:51
◼
►
It's even harder to hire them.
02:02:55
◼
►
That to me was an eye-opener to me that if Panic is saying, "Hey, something funny is
02:03:00
◼
►
going on on iOS because we're not getting the bang for our buck.
02:03:05
◼
►
We have to think about how we're going to do this because we can't justify this because
02:03:08
◼
►
if we put these resources toward the Mac, we'd be making more money."
02:03:13
◼
►
me as an eye-opener because those apps are fantastic. I mean, I'm too close to Vesper
02:03:19
◼
►
to judge Vesper objectively, but I can judge Panix apps objectively and they are best of breed.
02:03:26
◼
►
Yeah, and yeah, I've got it right in front of me. Basically, they had a 50/50 split for iOS
02:03:31
◼
►
versus Mac sales, and then the Mac was 83% of their revenue. So, I mean, just in terms of the
02:03:38
◼
►
way the numbers work, yeah, you certainly should be devoting more of your resources to the Mac.
02:03:42
◼
►
And that's unfortunate because iOS is a fun platform. It's an interesting platform to be
02:03:47
◼
►
developing for. But right now, the money just isn't there.
02:03:50
◼
►
Darrell Bock Yeah. And I think that we're starting to see it now. Like to me,
02:03:53
◼
►
eight years in, I guess it's eight or seven years, I guess seven years since the App Store.
02:03:59
◼
►
It's long enough. And the devices, you know, Moore's Law has had its effect. Like, our current
02:04:06
◼
►
iPhones and iPads are so powerful. The current iPads are clearly on par with the Macbooks
02:04:15
◼
►
of the time when the iPhone came out. I mean, the devices aren't limiting them. But I really
02:04:21
◼
►
think that for seven years in, there's a dearth of what I would call – just name any of
02:04:27
◼
►
your favorite indie Mac apps from the last 20 years. And we're not seeing them get developed
02:04:33
◼
►
on iOS. I mean, not that there's none, but that we're just not seeing as many as we should.
02:04:37
◼
►
Well, and I wonder if... definitely there are people inside of Apple who are aware of
02:04:44
◼
►
this, but I wonder if the people who can do something about it are blinded by the fact
02:04:49
◼
►
that there are these phenomenal success stories where companies come out of nowhere and suddenly
02:04:54
◼
►
make millions upon millions of dollars because they have this hit 99 cent app, but it disguises
02:04:59
◼
►
the fact that so many developers try and fail and move on and just can't really make a living
02:05:06
◼
►
at it, let alone a good living at it.
02:05:09
◼
►
Yeah, I don't know.
02:05:11
◼
►
And part of it, and because we could go on for an hour, just about the App Store angle,
02:05:16
◼
►
but part of it is clearly just that having to go through the App Store limits iOS development
02:05:22
◼
►
in certain ways.
02:05:23
◼
►
But let's ignore that for now.
02:05:24
◼
►
I think it's safe to ignore it.
02:05:27
◼
►
There's something more to it than that.
02:05:28
◼
►
Like, Rogue Amoeba, you guys don't have any iOS apps right now, right?
02:05:33
◼
►
We've got two small companion apps to our Mac apps because that's what we felt has been
02:05:38
◼
►
the most valuable thing to do is to expend our resources on the Mac.
02:05:42
◼
►
And we certainly want to be involved on iOS.
02:05:45
◼
►
Like I said, it's an exciting platform.
02:05:47
◼
►
But if the money's not there, we'd rather have them be a companion to a Mac app.
02:05:51
◼
►
So here's a free Airfoil Speakers, which works with our app Airfoil.
02:05:55
◼
►
you pay for the airfoil app on the Mac and you get the iOS app for free.
02:05:59
◼
►
And it's not necessarily the best way to do things, but it's the way that we found works.
02:06:04
◼
►
I knew I remembered it.
02:06:06
◼
►
I remembered Airfoil.
02:06:07
◼
►
I didn't even think of it as an app because it's not, you know what I mean?
02:06:09
◼
►
Like to me, it's not an app.
02:06:10
◼
►
It's a thing on your phone that it's just part of using Airfoil.
02:06:14
◼
►
Right exactly.
02:06:15
◼
►
So effectively, yeah, effectively you guys that were treating the iPhone the way that
02:06:20
◼
►
like it's like the Apple watch, right?
02:06:22
◼
►
just this little thing where you've got apps for it and you've written code for it, but it's really
02:06:26
◼
►
just a peripheral to the main thing. Yeah, exactly. And that works, but I would love to see the sort
02:06:37
◼
►
of thing that you're talking about where you have a first-class application experience on the phone
02:06:41
◼
►
or on the iPad, and we can devote our resources to that and then charge $10, $20, $30, which is what
02:06:48
◼
►
you need to charge in terms of the volume that you're going to see on an average product
02:06:53
◼
►
because you can't make enough money selling it for $0.99 or $2.99 or even $4.99.
02:06:58
◼
►
And I think if I'm not mistaken in the panic letter that they sent out
02:07:03
◼
►
that they posted on their blog, they also mentioned talking about discounted upgrades.
02:07:08
◼
►
And that's a big thing that I think the app stores are lacking and have been lacking.
02:07:13
◼
►
you need to either charge full price for version 2 or that's really pretty much your only option besides giving it away.
02:07:21
◼
►
And upgrade revenue is definitely a way that for 20 or 30 years now, companies have been selling software and making money.
02:07:30
◼
►
And it encourages companies to make a version 2 and a version 3 and not have to worry,
02:07:35
◼
►
"Oh, we got to sell all over to people." When they can just say, "Hey, this new version has a bunch of new features.
02:07:40
◼
►
of new features, we think you're going to like it. Because you bought the first version,
02:07:44
◼
►
you get a big discount on it, but we still get a little bit of revenue. They don't just
02:07:47
◼
►
have to live off the revenue from the first product or try and sell a whole new product.
02:07:51
◼
►
And I think not having that really sort of stunts the ability to make deeper products
02:07:57
◼
►
and longer term products.
02:07:58
◼
►
Yeah. I'll borrow, to tie the whole show together, bring it full circle, I'll borrow a term from
02:08:03
◼
►
the watch world. There's a term in the watch world, a tool watch. So for example, like
02:08:07
◼
►
a diver watch, a watch that can go 300 meters underwater, which you think about as terrifying.
02:08:14
◼
►
That's an extraordinary depth. Watches that are meant to be treated roughly to work or
02:08:23
◼
►
chronometer watches that race car drivers would wear and actually use to time their racing and
02:08:32
◼
►
and stuff like that.
02:08:33
◼
►
That's the type of apps, that's a good word, tool, right?
02:08:35
◼
►
Like tool apps, like, you know, Audio Hijack is a tool.
02:08:40
◼
►
It's a serious tool that people, you can use it for fun too,
02:08:42
◼
►
but you know, BB Edit is a tool.
02:08:46
◼
►
- Those type of apps need continuous,
02:08:48
◼
►
for long-term success, need continuous development.
02:08:52
◼
►
Like you guys-- - Oh, absolutely.
02:08:53
◼
►
- You guys have been working on Audio Hijack,
02:08:56
◼
►
like effectively, I'm not that, not that,
02:08:58
◼
►
well, nonstop, right?
02:08:59
◼
►
Like for-- - For 13 years, yeah.
02:09:01
◼
►
And there's no other way to do that
02:09:04
◼
►
without upgrade revenue or some kind of,
02:09:07
◼
►
like a subscription typing.
02:09:09
◼
►
I mean, clearly that's like what Adobe is pivoting towards.
02:09:12
◼
►
And successfully, I mean, it's,
02:09:14
◼
►
or so far it seems like it, but to justify that,
02:09:18
◼
►
because all of their apps that we think of,
02:09:20
◼
►
they're tools, and the only way to keep them going
02:09:23
◼
►
is with some sort of sustained revenue stream
02:09:26
◼
►
from your existing users.
02:09:28
◼
►
And the whole idea that once you've paid for it,
02:09:30
◼
►
you get it forever, it just doesn't work.
02:09:32
◼
►
And any time people have tried it, it's always fallen apart.
02:09:35
◼
►
I mean, I think of poor TextMate, right?
02:09:39
◼
►
Where Alan Ogdard had great success,
02:09:43
◼
►
you know, came out with a new text editor,
02:09:45
◼
►
it was a sensation, all the Rails developers loved it,
02:09:49
◼
►
really seemed to strike a chord with like
02:09:51
◼
►
the new to the Mac users who, you know,
02:09:54
◼
►
maybe didn't, weren't, were somehow turned off
02:09:57
◼
►
by BB edits sort of Mac likeness.
02:10:00
◼
►
But then he promised that the next major upgrade
02:10:03
◼
►
was gonna be a free update, you know,
02:10:05
◼
►
which I thought, wow, that is a crazy ass thing to say.
02:10:09
◼
►
'Cause I, you know, if it wasn't for upgrades,
02:10:11
◼
►
I don't see how bare bones would still be in business.
02:10:13
◼
►
I mean, I'm sure that they still get some number
02:10:16
◼
►
of new customers, but you know, I've paid for upgrades.
02:10:20
◼
►
I even worked for them for two years,
02:10:22
◼
►
but I must have paid for, I don't know,
02:10:24
◼
►
six or seven upgrades over the last 15 years of using BB edit.
02:10:29
◼
►
- Right, well, and the key is that it got you new features
02:10:33
◼
►
and new functionality. - Right, happily so, right.
02:10:35
◼
►
- And got you, yeah, you were happy to do it
02:10:37
◼
►
because it got you the top of the line product,
02:10:40
◼
►
the current product, and on iOS,
02:10:43
◼
►
I think you're seeing a whole lot of stuff get abandoned
02:10:46
◼
►
because it doesn't make enough money up front,
02:10:48
◼
►
and then you can't, like I said earlier,
02:10:52
◼
►
you can't keep throwing good money after bad,
02:10:54
◼
►
or good time after bad when a product isn't successful enough right up front, it's not
02:10:59
◼
►
going to be successful long term because you can't afford to make it successful.
02:11:03
◼
►
So my conclusion, my new working theory is that for tool apps, that the market on iOS
02:11:10
◼
►
is actually not much bigger at all than the Mac.
02:11:13
◼
►
It's roughly the same size.
02:11:14
◼
►
And the fact that there are 200 million iOS users total is irrelevant because, I don't
02:11:20
◼
►
know, 180 million of them would never even consider spending money on like, which to
02:11:26
◼
►
me is not a crazy expensive app, like a 9.99 app, right? But it's just they're never going
02:11:30
◼
►
to do it. Like the way that those 180 million people do it is they go to the App Store and
02:11:35
◼
►
they search for what they're looking for. And if it's a notes app, they type notes and
02:11:39
◼
►
then they look for one that's free and then they keep downloading free ones until they
02:11:43
◼
►
find one that's good enough. And there's so many of them that they're eventually going
02:11:48
◼
►
to find one that's good enough and that's it and then never go past it so it doesn't
02:11:51
◼
►
matter whether you're 99 cents or 199 or 999 they're never looking past the free ones and
02:11:57
◼
►
not that there aren't people you know there's I think there's you know same way that there's
02:12:01
◼
►
10 20 30 million active Mac users who will consider spending a reasonable amount of money
02:12:05
◼
►
on a good app I think that there's the same number of people I think that all those same
02:12:10
◼
►
people have an iPhone in their pocket and would consider doing the same thing for the
02:12:13
◼
►
iPhone but there's you have to price it accordingly though you still you can't
02:12:19
◼
►
price it for the at lower all 200 million people right you cannot do it
02:12:23
◼
►
and it might be less than the Mac version just because it's it's a smaller
02:12:27
◼
►
app and it does take slightly you know slightly less time to do the iPhone app
02:12:32
◼
►
than the Mac app because there might be you know you don't have to do Apple
02:12:35
◼
►
script you don't have to you know there's all sorts of things you may not
02:12:37
◼
►
be able to do but it still has to be commensurate to what you would charge
02:12:41
◼
►
for the Mac version. Well the interesting analogy to me is it's sort of analogous to the split
02:12:46
◼
►
between Mac and Windows that when we first came out on the Mac a decade ago more than that and
02:12:51
◼
►
had some success people said oh you should be on Windows there's you know 10 or a hundred times as
02:12:55
◼
►
many users but I think it's a very similar thing where there aren't 10 or a hundred times as many
02:13:00
◼
►
people willing to pay for software. Yeah. There might be more there might even be fewer but it's
02:13:06
◼
►
It's not as if you can just look at the size of the user base and say, "Okay, that's the
02:13:11
◼
►
possible number of people we can sell to."
02:13:13
◼
►
And I think on the iPhone it's very similar where of those, however, 200 million devices,
02:13:18
◼
►
how many of those are in the hands of kids or are secondary devices?
02:13:23
◼
►
So it's not really that there's that many active users out there.
02:13:27
◼
►
The market isn't necessarily that much bigger.
02:13:31
◼
►
You think it might be the same size, it might be smaller, it might be bigger.
02:13:34
◼
►
I don't have a good number, but I think it's silly to just look and say, oh, they sold
02:13:37
◼
►
so many hundreds of millions of devices, that's obviously the market to attack.
02:13:40
◼
►
Yeah, I just think it doesn't actually work.
02:13:42
◼
►
You have to pick a price that's commensurate with how you would price the equivalent Mac
02:13:46
◼
►
And I really do believe that.
02:13:48
◼
►
And it's, you know, and I but I realized that the App Store is not set up to promote apps
02:13:54
◼
►
Like you're not going to get on the best selling chart that way.
02:13:56
◼
►
And being on the best selling chart does get you downloads.
02:13:59
◼
►
It's, you know, well, the only the only thing that Apple added, what a couple years
02:14:04
◼
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in was the top revenue generating apps.
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And that's the one sort of SOP that we got that if you do have a more expensive app,
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potentially you could wind up on that chart and that could be useful.
02:14:17
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But I don't think it's in the end played out that way because I think a whole lot of that
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is in-app purchase stuff where it could be a free or a freemium game type thing where
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you got it for free and then you spent a whole bunch of money on coins or whatever and that's
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what winds up topping those charts.
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So I think it's, as you said, the stores just aren't set up to promote an app that is priced
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sustainably.
02:14:38
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Totally agree.
02:14:39
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So you were right, I was wrong.
02:14:44
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Well I only wish, you know, hopefully people listen and developers listen and say, "You
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I'm not making enough money at $2.99 or $4.99.
02:14:52
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I should try a higher price," because that's really what it is, is that you can't be the
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only one that does it.
02:14:57
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That's what we tried in the first place and it didn't work.
02:14:59
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Even even someone like you who's got you know an audience who will listen to this
02:15:03
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I don't know that it needs a title change from everybody really to make it sustainable
02:15:07
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Oh, you know ever since we wrote about it and Jason Snell of Lincoln and shown us
02:15:11
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Jason still had a brief interview with me about it today that I thought was came off pretty good
02:15:15
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I've got a lot
02:15:16
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We've got a lot of feedback about it
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And it does seem like I think that there's a movement afoot to maybe do this and it might have to
02:15:22
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It is I think harkening back to almost the pre App Store days where you know
02:15:26
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You're gonna have to do your marketing on your own outside the App Store
02:15:29
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But that you know that that for a certain class of tool app that the prices I think are going to go up
02:15:35
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I think there's momentum. I
02:15:37
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Hope so. Yeah. Yeah, so let's wrap it up. But let's put a shout out to audio hijack. So audio hijack
02:15:44
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The new version is three point. Oh, right. That's right. It is version 3.0 big hit
02:15:50
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For you guys at rogue amoeba. Do you guys have a patch upgrade? Do you up to 301 yet?
02:15:56
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302 and I think 303 will probably be probably not before this errors, but yeah, we're at 302 now. What's the price?
02:16:04
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$49, but if anyone has bought any audio hijack in the past any product with audio hijack in the name
02:16:09
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Which there were a couple different versions whenever it's a $25 upgrade. That's it. It's a bargain. That's absolute positive bargain
02:16:16
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I bet you get a lot of very well
02:16:18
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I'll bet there's a lot of diehard audio hijack users who are begging you to take their $25
02:16:24
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It has been incredible to get a whole lot of feedback from people
02:16:27
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who have been using it forever and love the new version and
02:16:30
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You know, I'm sure everybody who ever puts out a new version says this is the best version and Apple always says that but in
02:16:37
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This case it's it's just been phenomenally well received to the point where I would not have expected it. Yeah
02:16:43
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well, I think it's really I had had your
02:16:45
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Your colleague Krista on a few episodes ago and we talked about the interface which is to me fantastic
02:16:51
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I think you guys got I think just from my sense from talking to Krista was that you guys got too close to the interface
02:16:58
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During its development and you lost sight of just how radically better it was
02:17:02
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Because in terms of the past several years of developing version 3
02:17:06
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that you guys you guys were nose to the grindstone on that interface for so long and you became infamit intimately familiar with it and
02:17:14
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And then it came out and I think it was just I think it's that interface that's driving that the hit because to me
02:17:20
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I always I always knew what audio hijacked it, but I have to admit that when I looked at it
02:17:25
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I was always little like I have to I have to read and think about what I'm doing here
02:17:29
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Whereas with the new interface it's in an instant. You can see exactly what is going on and it's you know
02:17:34
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Yeah, I mean that that was certainly the idea was we've got a pipeline and you can visually see my audio is going from here
02:17:41
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to here and it's doing what I expected to do and
02:17:43
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Previously we had most of the power that's in this version, but it was a lot more difficult to suss out, right?
02:17:49
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But and you know and on the back end you guys have been through so much
02:17:53
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It's always been a Mac OS X product. It hasn't it debuted on Mac OS X so you don't have any classic Mac OS roots, right?
02:17:59
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There was there was a plug-in version back on Mac OS 9
02:18:03
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But as a product it was it's always been on Mac OS X you guys have been through so many technical
02:18:08
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Differences in at the level that you that audio hijack needs to operate in terms of you know
02:18:14
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I mean, there was no core audio back in 2001
02:18:18
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What's there? I don't think so. I
02:18:20
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Mean, yeah, we've gone through we've gone through what 11 different versions of the operating system and it's it's it's it's been it's been a
02:18:28
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Pretty long journey as far as getting to where we are
02:18:31
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But the only way that that worked was through upgrade pricing and having a sane
02:18:35
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Sustainable price to start with right? Yeah
02:18:38
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I think the bigger thing for us was having a price that you know made money as opposed to selling for 99 cents
02:18:43
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But certainly version 3 having an upgrade price has been essential right because there's no other way
02:18:49
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I mean, how could you justify three years of development on it if you weren't going to do it?
02:18:52
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So anyway, my congrats well-deserved success on that app. It's thank you
02:18:57
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It should win all the awards in my opinion. It's you know, it's funny. Somebody said that and
02:19:02
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It got me thinking there aren't very many Mac Awards left anymore. No because we lost Macworld's
02:19:09
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Eddie Awards are they gonna do that? Are they didn't they didn't do it at the end of last year with their with their slim down staff
02:19:15
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You know the the the ada's are now only for the App Store which audio hijacked can't be in
02:19:22
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We lost I mean all the Mac magazines have disappeared and that was really the people that were doing a lot of the awards. Yeah
02:19:29
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So it's that actually somebody said that somebody said exactly that but it should win all the awards and and I said that's that's a lovely
02:19:35
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Thing to say and it made me depressed because there really aren't any
02:19:39
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of these sort of community recognition awards anymore.
02:19:42
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Yeah, the ADA is, you know, it's an achievement more than an award. If you get an ADA, you've done
02:19:51
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good work. There is no way to get one that does not involve good work. But it's not really an
02:19:57
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award. It's, you know, you've done good work that is exactly where Apple wants you to be doing good
02:20:02
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work this year. It's, you know, not that, again, I'm not downplaying it. I would certainly,
02:20:07
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I would happily accept one. But it's to call it an, you know, I don't know. It's not like
02:20:13
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the Eddies used to be, where it was more objective and had more of like a year to year
02:20:21
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fairness to it. Like the ADA's shift radically. I mean, there was one year where they were like,
02:20:25
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you know, iOS only. Well, and they had like, they'd add a category like best dashboard widget.
02:20:31
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And you know it was clearly it was in Apple's promotional interests.
02:20:37
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Whereas right the Eddies and other awards like it were you know just this is the best
02:20:41
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software and best products we saw this year.
02:20:44
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And yeah so the one that is I actually I emailed our friend Renee Ritchie at iMore because
02:20:50
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they do an annual award and I said you know somebody made me realize that so many of these
02:20:54
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are gone I'm glad that iMore is still doing them and you know certainly I hope we are
02:20:59
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in the running for one, but ignoring that, it's just nice that someone is looking at the whole
02:21:03
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community and looking at everything as a whole and saying, "These are things that actually deserve
02:21:07
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some recognition and some attention." Yeah. There's the crunchies.
02:21:11
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Doesn't that have a gorilla statue? I think it's got a 2001 gorilla style statue.
02:21:19
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Did you see I got nominated, Daring Fireball got nominated for the best bootstrapped startup
02:21:24
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this year. What year?
02:21:26
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This year. What?
02:21:28
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Go look it up daring fireball was nominated in this year's crunchy awards for best bootstrapped startup
02:21:35
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This in my uh, what 13th year for writing the website? Wow. Did you oh you didn't win? You didn't win
02:21:45
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Oh god, we got some kind of autoplay video. All right. All right, let's wrap it up my thanks to our sponsors
02:21:49
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We have four great sponsors this week
02:21:51
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►
And my thanks to them all casper the mattress people warby parker the eyeglass people who do not yet make monocles or ipad
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which is fracture your photos on Glass
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and last but not least, hover the world's best place
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to manage and register domain names.
02:22:07
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►
Paul Kefastas, I thank you.
02:22:10
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- Thank you and get better soon, John.
02:22:12
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- All right, I'll keep an eye out for you.