Cortex

00:00:00 ◼   ► We had a real marathon of a show last time, Myke.

00:00:03 ◼   ► I was tired, very tired. I think I'm still tired.

00:00:05 ◼   ► I don't remember what it was. I just know I had some plans after last episode

00:00:10 ◼   ► that as soon as I was done recording, I was like, "You know what I'm gonna do?

00:00:13 ◼   ► I'm just gonna sit on the couch and I'm gonna watch Netflix until I fall asleep on the couch.

00:00:17 ◼   ► And that's gonna be the rest of my day." And it was.

00:00:19 ◼   ► It was a real day.

00:00:22 ◼   ► I'm very happy for you because we recorded the episode a little bit late,

00:00:26 ◼   ► So my task that evening was to start editing it.

00:00:29 ◼   ► I think that's why I'm still tired.

00:00:32 ◼   ► - I'm sorry.

00:00:35 ◼   ► So you had to go through that conversation twice in one day.

00:00:38 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:00:38 ◼   ► - I have occasionally done the record and edit

00:00:45 ◼   ► on the same day and it's, in some ways it's easier

00:00:48 ◼   ► because it's fresh in your head,

00:00:49 ◼   ► but in some ways it's 10 times more exhausting

00:00:53 ◼   ► and particularly for an episode like that.

00:00:56 ◼   ► But you did get me the edit, and I just have this little point of feedback, which

00:01:02 ◼   ► it's a point of feedback for me on that episode, because I was listening during

00:01:08 ◼   ► this edit and it will never cease to amaze me how, listener, if you ever, if

00:01:14 ◼   ► you ever start a podcast, you think, oh, I can just talk and ideas come out of my

00:01:19 ◼   ► head and they, and they make sense.

00:01:21 ◼   ► And I say them into the air and they go out there and it's like,

00:01:24 ◼   ► cause that's how we all work.

00:01:25 ◼   ► Right?

00:01:25 ◼   ► Like, and that's just every day you say things because that's a good idea.

00:01:28 ◼   ► Or like that's interesting is you're just talking.

00:01:30 ◼   ► It's how people communicate.

00:01:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:01:32 ◼   ► You think you're just talking and it is only when, when you have to listen to

00:01:37 ◼   ► yourself that you are faced with the reality of how poorly you communicate

00:01:41 ◼   ► ideas sometimes.

00:01:42 ◼   ► And I was listening to myself in that episode and I kept thinking, when is this

00:01:48 ◼   ► idiot going to make this fundamental point clear and spoiler, he never did.

00:01:53 ◼   ► And it's always like, it's always just such an amazing disassociative experience to hear yourself on a podcast in important conversations.

00:02:02 ◼   ► It's like, this isn't clear at all.

00:02:04 ◼   ► So we were having a discussion about podcasts versus YouTube and all of the algorithms and like this whole thing.

00:02:13 ◼   ► And you were the heroic defender of podcasters in this conversation, I believe is that I think that's what it was.

00:02:21 ◼   ► And like, I kept trying to agree with you,

00:02:24 ◼   ► but I was doing it in just the worst way.

00:02:26 ◼   ► So let me try to just say the thing now

00:02:29 ◼   ► that I wish I had said in the last episode,

00:02:32 ◼   ► which is part of the reason I mentioned podcasts

00:02:37 ◼   ► as an example is precisely because they don't have

00:02:42 ◼   ► these algorithmic properties that we were discussing

00:02:48 ◼   ► last time that like YouTube does,

00:02:49 ◼   ► where YouTube learns what keeps you there.

00:02:52 ◼   ► And the reason it was such a red flag for me,

00:02:58 ◼   ► my podcasting behavior, is precisely because I felt like,

00:03:02 ◼   ► oh, my brain has been put into like a weakened,

00:03:07 ◼   ► less attentive, less focused state

00:03:15 ◼   ► by all of the algorithmic content that it is exposed to.

00:03:20 ◼   ► So that even in a scenario, like with podcasts,

00:03:24 ◼   ► where those algorithms don't exist,

00:03:27 ◼   ► I'm still acting almost as though they do,

00:03:30 ◼   ► because my brain has been trained this way.

00:03:34 ◼   ► So that's why it struck me as like a real red flag behavior

00:03:36 ◼   ► because like the algorithms aren't even here,

00:03:40 ◼   ► but I'm still, I've been trained in this pattern

00:03:44 ◼   ► of information consumption that is being spread out into other places where information consumption

00:03:53 ◼   ► can be easier or simpler than something like reading a book. So that's all it was. I

00:04:00 ◼   ► feel like this is a relatively straightforward sentence that I just somehow never said in

00:04:05 ◼   ► the show. So that's all. That's my point of follow-up for past me and his inability

00:04:11 ◼   ► to say this particular point.

00:04:14 ◼   ► So I think I'm understanding you.

00:04:17 ◼   ► Like what you're saying is you just can't stop binging them because your brain continues

00:04:24 ◼   ► to tell you to do that even though the medium isn't necessarily made for that.

00:04:30 ◼   ► I've built this little loop of going in a circle between a bunch of websites where I'm

00:04:34 ◼   ► just like "oh I'm checking this place and then I'm going over here and I'm reading this

00:04:37 ◼   ► comment thread and then I'm going back and I'm reading this other comment thread and

00:04:40 ◼   ► and then I returned back to the place that I just came from even though nothing has changed.

00:04:43 ◼   ► I will tell you, since we recorded that episode, I've been much more aware of me doing that

00:04:48 ◼   ► stuff.

00:04:49 ◼   ► Oh really?

00:04:50 ◼   ► Yeah, I've just noticed that like, and it's something that comes up every now and then,

00:04:54 ◼   ► that like you open an app, close the app, and open it again.

00:04:57 ◼   ► But I've just been much more aware of my personal loops and patterns than I think I have been

00:05:03 ◼   ► before.

00:05:04 ◼   ► That's interesting to hear.

00:05:05 ◼   ► It is such a funny thing and I think it's easy to blow off that behavior, but I really

00:05:13 ◼   ► think that that behavior is induced in a person intentionally.

00:05:16 ◼   ► That's the intended outcome.

00:05:19 ◼   ► But there are certain tools that are trying to induce that behavior.

00:05:24 ◼   ► And you are right, that is my feeling of it, that it's like I've been trained in these

00:05:29 ◼   ► little loops and the training results in like shorter attention spans or less ability to focus.

00:05:37 ◼   ► And then this is manifesting itself in all sorts of other areas that don't actually have anything

00:05:45 ◼   ► to do with the source of the problem. So it's it's it was much more like my podcast listening habits

00:05:53 ◼   ► and particularly the thing with the shower for me is like a real symptom, but it's a symptom of

00:06:00 ◼   ► something else. And so that's really what I was just trying to say.

00:06:04 ◼   ► It makes more sense to me.

00:06:07 ◼   ► If I had only said it at the time.

00:06:09 ◼   ► I know, because my main complaint was like, the algorithm and the podcast didn't go together,

00:06:16 ◼   ► but you were missing that middle part of explaining the bridge, which wasn't in your video,

00:06:21 ◼   ► which you were saying, like, "I didn't explain my point, but then you never explained it."

00:06:26 ◼   ► - Right, but I never explained it again.

00:06:28 ◼   ► But that's why, like, when I was listening back to me, I thought,

00:06:30 ◼   ► "That guy who was recording the podcast with you,

00:06:34 ◼   ► he knew this connection that the guy who made the video didn't.

00:06:40 ◼   ► He had articulated this thought by that time in his own head,

00:06:43 ◼   ► but then he neglected to actually communicate that part to you."

00:06:47 ◼   ► But this is why, you know, in that conversation,

00:06:52 ◼   ► it was very clear, like I've been thinking this topic

00:06:55 ◼   ► through and it's like, it really feels like it's

00:06:57 ◼   ► a developing thing and again, it is interesting,

00:07:02 ◼   ► it's super interesting to me that like after the last show,

00:07:06 ◼   ► tons of people that I know in my personal

00:07:10 ◼   ► and professional life, you know, reached out and were like,

00:07:13 ◼   ► sort of like you just said there,

00:07:16 ◼   ► that they noticed habits in themselves

00:07:18 ◼   ► that they just didn't really,

00:07:19 ◼   ► they weren't mindful of before

00:07:21 ◼   ► or expressed a similar idea.

00:07:25 ◼   ► But there's something in this topic

00:07:27 ◼   ► which seems to touch a lot of people in different ways.

00:07:30 ◼   ► Like it doesn't express itself in everybody in the same way,

00:07:33 ◼   ► which is part of what makes it so difficult to talk about.

00:07:37 ◼   ► But I really find that if this topic resonates with someone,

00:07:41 ◼   ► it resonates with them pretty strongly.

00:07:45 ◼   ► but it can be very hard to define the boundaries of what is and is not exactly what we're

00:07:52 ◼   ► talking about here.

00:07:53 ◼   ► I 100% agree. Like I think this ties into what I was talking about last time with like

00:08:01 ◼   ► just thinking through some different stuff and like making some small changes. You know,

00:08:07 ◼   ► the more I think about what you're doing, whilst I have no desire to follow the path

00:08:12 ◼   ► that you've chosen because it's just not for me, right? Like the complete removal,

00:08:17 ◼   ► it's just not something... I feel like I would be punishing myself as opposed to getting a relief,

00:08:22 ◼   ► which yeah, I think that's the difference between the two of us.

00:08:25 ◼   ► Yeah, and then that would be dumb and pointless.

00:08:27 ◼   ► Yeah, it's like there's no good in that, right? Like I'm punishing myself and also

00:08:31 ◼   ► making myself worse at my job, right? Like I just don't understand the benefit for me.

00:08:35 ◼   ► But it has kind of just brought forward into my mind to think a little bit more consciously

00:08:42 ◼   ► about what I'm doing in a day. And I don't know what that means yet. And I think that this is the

00:08:50 ◼   ► start of me working out my theme for next year. I think that I'm building towards something here.

00:08:56 ◼   ► I don't know what it is yet. I've seen some interesting characterizations in the Reddit of

00:09:00 ◼   ► what I was talking about last time, right? Like people like throwing out some names and that's

00:09:04 ◼   ► like, "Oh, okay, like if that becomes a thing, I don't want to spoil it. No spoilers. You

00:09:08 ◼   ► can't do yearly themes until we all know this, right? Yearly themes come in January."

00:09:12 ◼   ► Even though it seems like it's a great time to talk about it, but okay.

00:09:14 ◼   ► But we don't need to do that. I did actually notice a lot of feedback in the Reddit of

00:09:18 ◼   ► people, and this was like happening in between the time that we recorded and published. There

00:09:24 ◼   ► were multiple threads in the Cortex subreddit about people thinking of their new themes.

00:09:27 ◼   ► And I was like, "Huh, this must be the time that like..."

00:09:31 ◼   ► It is the time.

00:09:32 ◼   ► No, it's the time you start thinking, it's not the time you set it.

00:09:34 ◼   ► We haven't set it yet.

00:09:35 ◼   ► You think, it's like, "Oh, I'm thinking about it."

00:09:38 ◼   ► The leaves are starting to change.

00:09:40 ◼   ► It's like it is the perfect time to start reflecting on your previous year and starting

00:09:47 ◼   ► to think about what you want the next one to be.

00:09:49 ◼   ► In all seriousness, it's the perfect time for that.

00:09:51 ◼   ► I think it's too soon to just be like, "All right, I'm thinking about it.

00:09:55 ◼   ► I've set it and I'm going to go."

00:09:56 ◼   ► That doesn't work for me.

00:09:58 ◼   ► I want some time to let it embed.

00:10:01 ◼   ► And so like, you know, I'm just in that phase right now. And I think that considering my

00:10:05 ◼   ► usage of everything in my life a little bit more, not just the internet, like how much

00:10:11 ◼   ► time I spend on video games, and they're just like, just trying to take stock of it all

00:10:15 ◼   ► a little bit. I think that's kind of where I am right now.

00:10:17 ◼   ► Yeah, I'll mention another phrasing that I have used since I started the time tracking.

00:10:26 ◼   ► And I should say, since I started the time tracking full time, you know, when I wasn't

00:10:30 ◼   ► just tracking the work hours.

00:10:32 ◼   ► And what is an extremely important tag for me

00:10:36 ◼   ► across some activities is intentional versus unintentional.

00:10:41 ◼   ► And so watching Netflix is,

00:10:49 ◼   ► it's a totally different experience,

00:10:51 ◼   ► whether it is intentional or unintentional.

00:10:55 ◼   ► Like, oh, I'm sitting down to watch a thing

00:10:59 ◼   ► is very different from I'm sitting on the couch

00:11:02 ◼   ► and I'm just bored and I want something to occupy me, right?

00:11:06 ◼   ► Like the second one is like this unintentionally,

00:11:08 ◼   ► like I'm just looking for whatever.

00:11:11 ◼   ► And there are a lot of activities that are like that

00:11:14 ◼   ► where I have a marker for these two different things.

00:11:17 ◼   ► Like am I playing video games intentionally?

00:11:21 ◼   ► That's great.

00:11:22 ◼   ► That's actually high quality time

00:11:23 ◼   ► if I have sat down and decided

00:11:25 ◼   ► that this is the thing that I want to do now.

00:11:27 ◼   ► Or am I just unintentionally doing this thing?

00:11:32 ◼   ► Like, oh, I just kind of blew the evening on the internet

00:11:36 ◼   ► and I didn't mean to.

00:11:38 ◼   ► Whereas like when shows went up and I would go on the Reddit,

00:11:42 ◼   ► like that is tracked as intentional internet.

00:11:44 ◼   ► Like I'm here, I'm looking at feedback,

00:11:46 ◼   ► I'm replying to people and then I'm out of here, right?

00:11:49 ◼   ► And it's like, that's intentional internet versus like,

00:11:51 ◼   ► oh, I just sat down on the couch

00:11:53 ◼   ► and the iPad was next to me.

00:11:54 ◼   ► And then I put it on me and I just read the Reddit

00:11:59 ◼   ► and oh, Netflix is also just on in the background

00:12:01 ◼   ► and I'm not paying attention to Netflix

00:12:03 ◼   ► and I'm not paying attention to Reddit either.

00:12:06 ◼   ► It's like, oh, that's terrible.

00:12:08 ◼   ► Like it's a terrible way to spend a life.

00:12:10 ◼   ► Anyway, I just mentioned that because I find

00:12:12 ◼   ► that phrasing really useful because even though I am

00:12:16 ◼   ► taking this rather dramatic break from the internet,

00:12:19 ◼   ► in normal life, there are lots of activities

00:12:22 ◼   ► where the intentionality matters.

00:12:25 ◼   ► And I think it's really important to have

00:12:29 ◼   ► like a war on unintentionally in your life.

00:12:31 ◼   ► Like don't do things unintentionally,

00:12:33 ◼   ► do them intentionally.

00:12:34 ◼   ► Hello, cortexins.

00:12:44 ◼   ► Well, I'm back in the acoustically subpar glass cube.

00:12:51 ◼   ► It's been a while since I've been here.

00:12:54 ◼   ► It's quite different than those woods.

00:12:56 ◼   ► Looking around there's a couple things I think maybe could improve this office.

00:13:01 ◼   ► I mean I'm standing up in it right now and I can see all of my little cubicle farm neighbors

00:13:08 ◼   ► in every direction.

00:13:10 ◼   ► I'd rather not see them.

00:13:11 ◼   ► And you know I took some gorgeous photos while I was out hiking around.

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00:15:36 ◼   ► Great, I get feedback for shows, right? Like all the shows that I do people send

00:15:42 ◼   ► in suggestions and they send in comments and stuff like that. It's great. I have

00:15:45 ◼   ► never ever, for any show I've ever done in the last eight years, received as much

00:15:51 ◼   ► feedback as I did for suggestions on music. And I know now this is going to be

00:15:59 ◼   ► something that continues probably for the next five years.

00:16:02 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah. But I am not complaining because I have found some brilliant

00:16:10 ◼   ► stuff from Cortex listeners. But there are hundreds of comments, hundreds of

00:16:16 ◼   ► threads with more comments in them. But by that pure amount, some names bubbled up a

00:16:26 ◼   ► a lot. So like that just getting the pure amount has allowed me to surface a few specific artists

00:16:34 ◼   ► that I really like. Okay so do you have some lyric-less suggestions for me? I do. I'm looking

00:16:39 ◼   ► for music like this and I always find it very hard so what have you distilled down for me here?

00:16:44 ◼   ► Okay so one is Tycho. Oh I on heavy rotation so when I try to find this music there's like

00:16:53 ◼   ► in Apple Radio there's something that's like some radio station called Electronic Chill.

00:16:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, a bunch of people recommended those types of things to me too.

00:17:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's not very good but occasionally it hits just right. And there's some Tycho song

00:17:07 ◼   ► that I found which has just been on really heavy background loop. But I never really thought to

00:17:14 ◼   ► investigate farther. So okay, this sounds like a winner.

00:17:16 ◼   ► - So I've been listening to Tycho's album Awake a lot and I've added

00:17:22 ◼   ► all of their previous albums to my Apple music. I haven't started listening to those yet.

00:17:27 ◼   ► Timecop 1983, an album called Night Drive. There is an instrumental version and a version with

00:17:35 ◼   ► lyrics. It is so good. It's just 80s electronic music. It's so good. So good. I love this album.

00:17:44 ◼   ► There's an entire genre of music called synthwave. And I've been finding some compilations of this.

00:17:52 ◼   ► and I'm trying to find what I like and don't like about it, so I'm still kind of like digging into that.

00:17:56 ◼   ► I don't have any artists specifically.

00:17:58 ◼   ► Um, deadmau5, you know, D-E-A-D-M-A-U-5, the mouse guy, you know, deadmau5, right?

00:18:06 ◼   ► Sure, you would know him if you saw him.

00:18:08 ◼   ► No, yeah, I remember-

00:18:09 ◼   ► The DJ who wears the big mouse head, the big fun mouse head.

00:18:11 ◼   ► I remember a YouTube clip where he threw a concert on a Minecraft server,

00:18:16 ◼   ► where at the end he dumped everyone into lava.

00:18:18 ◼   ► That is how I know deadmau5.

00:18:20 ◼   ► Deadmau5.

00:18:21 ◼   ► Alright, well, whatever it is, you've got some kind of cultural touchpoint.

00:18:26 ◼   ► The most important cultural touchpoint, I'm sure.

00:18:28 ◼   ► And I've been listening to an album called Where's the Drop quite a lot, and also Explosions

00:18:34 ◼   ► in the Sky is another band.

00:18:37 ◼   ► And I've slightly listened to that today, I'm not 100% sure how I feel about that

00:18:41 ◼   ► yet.

00:18:42 ◼   ► What I have come to understand about myself is primarily the stuff that I seem to be drawn

00:18:47 ◼   ► to is electronic music.

00:18:49 ◼   ► I didn't really know that I liked electronic music as much as I do, but it turns out I really really like it

00:18:54 ◼   ► There is an album that I've been listening to a bunch right now, which it isn't is full of lyrics, but it's so friggin good

00:19:01 ◼   ► I can't stop listening to it and it's and I actually think you should try this one as well

00:19:05 ◼   ► So back with jungle who I really like and they just released a new album called forever

00:19:09 ◼   ► Which is just excellent, but like their music the way they the way they present it like the the lyrics

00:19:17 ◼   ► They're very melodic, so it's easy to tune out.

00:19:20 ◼   ► It's not very lyric focused.

00:19:23 ◼   ► So yeah, these are the ones that I've added so far

00:19:26 ◼   ► and have been listening to a bunch.

00:19:28 ◼   ► There's also an entire genre of music called lo-fi hip hop,

00:19:32 ◼   ► which has been recommended to me about 70 billion times.

00:19:36 ◼   ► I have yet to find a definitive thing for this.

00:19:41 ◼   ► I don't know where to look,

00:19:44 ◼   ► because I keep finding stuff that sounds very different.

00:19:48 ◼   ► So, and also people keep sending me Spotify playlists,

00:19:51 ◼   ► which is no good for me.

00:19:52 ◼   ► I appreciate that a lot, but I use Apple Music.

00:19:55 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:19:56 ◼   ► - And there's kind of nothing I can really do about it, but.

00:19:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, are you gonna be able to put

00:20:00 ◼   ► a bunch of Apple Music links in the show notes

00:20:02 ◼   ► so that I can just load up this stuff as well?

00:20:03 ◼   ► - 100%, yes.

00:20:04 ◼   ► Well, you bet, it's gonna be in there.

00:20:06 ◼   ► Loads of Apple Music links is what you're gonna find in there.

00:20:09 ◼   ► - That's what I want.

00:20:10 ◼   ► - But also all the stuff that I've recommended,

00:20:12 ◼   ► they're not like playlists so you can get them on any service.

00:20:15 ◼   ► But people have been recommending like compilation playlists to me for lo-fi

00:20:20 ◼   ► hip hop, which I can't do anything with. And again,

00:20:22 ◼   ► very helpful because there's been some stuff where like I've picked out some

00:20:25 ◼   ► artists and I've tried them out,

00:20:27 ◼   ► but they just haven't been for me for whatever reason.

00:20:29 ◼   ► Because really I think we were all going together on a journey to understand what

00:20:33 ◼   ► type of music does Myke want to listen to? Because I didn't know.

00:20:35 ◼   ► And lo-fi hip hop and electronic are very different in style.

00:20:39 ◼   ► Now they perform the same task for lots of people, like good background music.

00:20:44 ◼   ► Like again, like a lot of people have suggested, try music that is not in your

00:20:48 ◼   ► language, and I've been thinking about like K-pop and J-pop, so I would love some

00:20:55 ◼   ► recommendations there as well, because that's a good thought, right?

00:20:59 ◼   ► It's like, there can be lyrics, but if I can't understand them,

00:21:01 ◼   ► then it doesn't matter, you know?

00:21:04 ◼   ► So...

00:21:04 ◼   ► The only thing I've ever listened to that sort of works like that is Sigur Ros.

00:21:09 ◼   ► I've seen Sigur Ros mention a lot a lot too.

00:21:12 ◼   ► I have a bunch of stuff from them that I quite like, but it never occurred to me, because

00:21:20 ◼   ► everybody knows, I sure do like the worst of the worst top 40 pop songs, like boy, as

00:21:27 ◼   ► right in the core of my musical preferences.

00:21:32 ◼   ► As Britney Spears released a new song, that's gonna be on loop for a while.

00:21:37 ◼   ► But it never occurred to me to try to find that stuff in another language.

00:21:41 ◼   ► Maybe that would work even better.

00:21:43 ◼   ► Because I can have such a feeling in my head that there's a particular sound from some

00:21:49 ◼   ► pop music that's like, "Yes, that is exactly what I just want on loop that works for work."

00:21:54 ◼   ► And I'd be curious to see if I could find that in another language.

00:21:57 ◼   ► So I'll be curious to let you filter through all the recommendations.

00:22:02 ◼   ► You would find that sort of stuff in K-pop for sure.

00:22:05 ◼   ► language stuff I would like to try but my brain latches on even I found in the

00:22:12 ◼   ► past like some songs in Japanese and stuff that I've listened to my brain

00:22:17 ◼   ► just tries to latch on and I try to sing them right you know what I mean like so

00:22:21 ◼   ► like I don't know if it what what would happen with that but anytime I've ever

00:22:26 ◼   ► heard any type of like kpop or jpop it does excite me like the music is really

00:22:31 ◼   ► fun. So again, I would love more recommendations. I feel like I'm just setting myself up to

00:22:36 ◼   ► get this forever. But I will also say this is the most useful feedback I've ever received

00:22:43 ◼   ► from a show because I it is it's like helping me change something. I'm listening to music

00:22:50 ◼   ► all the time now all the time. There is music on when I'm at home and I'm enjoying that

00:22:56 ◼   ► a lot. I'm very excited about it. So I appreciate the feedback.

00:23:01 ◼   ► I'm interested to go through this stuff because I always want background noise on. I've always

00:23:07 ◼   ► tended to favor like thunder sounds or rain or just nature sounds but I do have this problem

00:23:14 ◼   ► that they make my wife very sleepy. So I always have to turn them off when she comes back.

00:23:21 ◼   ► I guess so. I guess that makes sense. You know, but like if I leave my thunder sounds

00:23:28 ◼   ► on she'll be asleep within 20 minutes like she just can't stay awake so I have to you

00:23:32 ◼   ► know I was like oh well I can't leave this on but I have been trying the reason I've

00:23:37 ◼   ► been using that Apple radio thing is I've been trying to build together a list of songs

00:23:43 ◼   ► that's like this one taiko song that I found where I can just have it on in the background

00:23:47 ◼   ► and it won't put her to sleep but it also means I'm not in a totally silent room.

00:23:51 ◼   ► I don't under- this is like one of those things where I feel like I can't understand your

00:23:55 ◼   ► brain. If you wanted songs like that one, why didn't you just check out an album or

00:24:01 ◼   ► two of his?

00:24:02 ◼   ► I can tell you why, because I've had a bunch of experiences where I find a song that I

00:24:06 ◼   ► like and then I go to look at the artist and it's a weird one-off for some reason.

00:24:11 ◼   ► Like a one-hit-wonder type deal. I know what you mean.

00:24:14 ◼   ► So I think that's just why. It hadn't occurred to me to go look because I've been on a

00:24:19 ◼   ► a long string of "oh I like this one song and I like nothing else that you've done".

00:24:25 ◼   ► One of the key ones for me, you've ever seen the movie Drive?

00:24:28 ◼   ► No.

00:24:29 ◼   ► It's an incredible movie, Drive, Ryan Gosling. You should watch the movie, it's a very good

00:24:33 ◼   ► movie. There's a song in that movie called Night Call by a band called Kipinski, I think

00:24:38 ◼   ► it's Kipinski, and I love that song so much and it's like electronica and stuff and it's

00:24:44 ◼   ► got a really nice vocal in it. And that like Kipinski's album is kind of like it, but it's

00:24:52 ◼   ► not this it's not as good. Right. Or it's like, it's Kavinsky sorry, not Kipinsky Kipinsky.

00:24:59 ◼   ► Like it's from their album Outrun, which is all like focused on like, it's electronica

00:25:03 ◼   ► with an 80s flare. But it's just not as good as Night Call. Right. Like Night Call stands

00:25:08 ◼   ► out so strongly that it's just like, "Oh man, I thought I'd found like the perfect band."

00:25:14 ◼   ► Well, good luck filtering through all those suggestions, Myke. They're going to be coming

00:25:21 ◼   ► from now until you die. But this is useful though. It's not like, you know, I said something wrong

00:25:26 ◼   ► one time and I hear about it forever. Like this is like people adding value to me. I did want to say

00:25:30 ◼   ► like why I don't use Spotify because I used to use Spotify. The reason I use Apple Music is because

00:25:35 ◼   ► The best device in my house for music is my HomePod.

00:25:38 ◼   ► And so for the HomePod, you should use Apple Music because it's the only thing that's supported.

00:25:42 ◼   ► Like, we used to use Spotify, I used to listen to it on the Echo,

00:25:46 ◼   ► but the Echo kind of sucks, right? Like the Echo we have, it just doesn't sound very good.

00:25:50 ◼   ► But the HomePod sounds incredible, so I'm using Apple Music primarily now because

00:25:55 ◼   ► that's where I listen to the music, so I love the HomePod.

00:25:59 ◼   ► The audio on that thing is incredible. Do you have one?

00:26:02 ◼   ► Oh man, when you play a stereo, a recorded stereo thunderstorm on a pair of HomePods...

00:26:09 ◼   ► You got a pair? I've been thinking about getting a second one.

00:26:12 ◼   ► You need an umbrella to listen to that.

00:26:14 ◼   ► I've heard in a stereo pair at Jason Snell's house and it sounded incredible.

00:26:22 ◼   ► And at the time I was like, "Oh, I don't listen to music that much."

00:26:25 ◼   ► But now I do, so maybe I need a second one.

00:26:27 ◼   ► Yeah, well, the HomePod is vital once you start using a lot of shortcuts.

00:26:32 ◼   ► Siri and I, we're much more friendly now that shortcuts is around,

00:26:38 ◼   ► which means HomePods, they're sprouting up everywhere.

00:26:41 ◼   ► cortexmerch.com

00:26:43 ◼   ► cortexmerch.com

00:26:46 ◼   ► Thank you to everybody who's bought some of our merch from our most recent merch drop.

00:26:50 ◼   ► We do still have some limited edition items that are only available for a week more,

00:26:56 ◼   ► So don't miss out on these. You want to go to cortexmerch.com

00:27:00 ◼   ► Find out. There have been a bunch of people, Gray, who are getting their pins arriving already

00:27:03 ◼   ► and they've been sending me pictures. Mine are like days away from getting here and I'm so

00:27:07 ◼   ► freaking excited because those pins look so good. So good.

00:27:12 ◼   ► I've got pins on the way. I don't know when they're coming, but I do have pins coming.

00:27:17 ◼   ► Everybody loves the pins. I figure I gotta get in on this pin action.

00:27:20 ◼   ► Yeah, they look excellent. I can't wait. And yeah, there's a bunch of stuff going on so you

00:27:25 ◼   ► So you gotta go check it out because it's not gonna be around forever.

00:27:28 ◼   ► Cortexmerch.com.

00:27:29 ◼   ► Go check out some of the limited edition stuff.

00:27:31 ◼   ► They have a whole cornucopia of items for you.

00:27:34 ◼   ► Cortexmerch.com.

00:27:35 ◼   ► >> Cortexmerch.com.

00:27:36 ◼   ► >> Oh, my.

00:27:37 ◼   ► There's a lot of explosions when it comes to merch.

00:27:42 ◼   ► >> I was trying to think about, like, it's a drop.

00:27:45 ◼   ► Like a bomb is dropping, but the sound came out all wrong.

00:27:47 ◼   ► I gotta work on that.

00:27:48 ◼   ► We gotta workshop that.

00:27:52 ◼   ► Did you get a new iPhone?

00:27:57 ◼   ► Did I get a new iPhone?

00:27:58 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:27:59 ◼   ► I did get a new iPhone, Myke.

00:28:00 ◼   ► Okay.

00:28:01 ◼   ► Did you get a new iPhone?

00:28:02 ◼   ► I got a new iPhone.

00:28:03 ◼   ► So we both have new iPhones.

00:28:05 ◼   ► Did you get a XS Max?

00:28:06 ◼   ► I've got a XS Max.

00:28:07 ◼   ► It's right in front of me.

00:28:09 ◼   ► It's huge.

00:28:10 ◼   ► Alright, let me ask you about that, right?

00:28:11 ◼   ► Like you say it's huge.

00:28:13 ◼   ► Do you feel like it's too big?

00:28:19 ◼   ► How do you feel?

00:28:20 ◼   ► I feel that like this is a big phone.

00:28:23 ◼   ► I know it's a bigger phone like in screen than I've ever used before,

00:28:28 ◼   ► but it's not, I don't find it unwieldy.

00:28:31 ◼   ► It's interesting.

00:28:33 ◼   ► It's interesting using this phone.

00:28:35 ◼   ► I'll tell you what my mind keeps going to.

00:28:40 ◼   ► It's the TV show Westworld.

00:28:45 ◼   ► Okay.

00:28:46 ◼   ► I don't know if you've watched Westworld or not.

00:28:47 ◼   ► I haven't seen it.

00:28:48 ◼   ► If you just do a quick Google for Westworld phones,

00:28:52 ◼   ► they do, they have a very, like whoever is the guy

00:28:56 ◼   ► who has like the design for that show,

00:28:59 ◼   ► like the tech design, that team, they're great.

00:29:03 ◼   ► They use these super duper big phones in Westworld.

00:29:08 ◼   ► - Oh right, okay.

00:29:09 ◼   ► - They're all screen.

00:29:12 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:29:12 ◼   ► - They expand out, but in their default version,

00:29:15 ◼   ► they're all screen.

00:29:15 ◼   ► - They look nice.

00:29:17 ◼   ► I keep thinking about those phones because

00:29:20 ◼   ► my initial impression is that what I hoped

00:29:26 ◼   ► would be the case is the case.

00:29:28 ◼   ► That because the entire front of the phone is display,

00:29:33 ◼   ► it really does change the feeling of it.

00:29:37 ◼   ► It just feels like the whole thing is so much more useful.

00:29:41 ◼   ► I don't feel like they're these big, dumb dead zones

00:29:45 ◼   ► at the top and the bottom that you can't do anything with.

00:29:49 ◼   ► So it does feel very big to me,

00:29:54 ◼   ► but it feels appropriately and usefully big.

00:29:59 ◼   ► So my initial reaction is this is a big phone,

00:30:04 ◼   ► but I love it.

00:30:06 ◼   ► I really love it so far. - Yeah, you do.

00:30:09 ◼   ► Nice club.

00:30:10 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:30:12 ◼   ► - I mean, I still have a week before I have to make

00:30:15 ◼   ► the final decision about am I returning it or not?

00:30:17 ◼   ► It is very big in the pocket,

00:30:19 ◼   ► which we can come to in a little bit.

00:30:20 ◼   ► But I really like it.

00:30:23 ◼   ► I like it a lot.

00:30:23 ◼   ► I think this, the all screen on the front

00:30:28 ◼   ► is super duper nice.

00:30:30 ◼   ► I mean, I presume as the founding member

00:30:33 ◼   ► of the giant phone club, no longer the plus club.

00:30:37 ◼   ► - Max Club. - The Club Max?

00:30:39 ◼   ► You gotta call it Club Max, I think.

00:30:40 ◼   ► Club Max.

00:30:42 ◼   ► I assume you love it as well.

00:30:44 ◼   ► Oh, I love it. Like there was a phrase that I that came to mind kind of after about 10 minutes.

00:30:50 ◼   ► I'm not using this phone. It's like, oh, I'm home again.

00:30:53 ◼   ► Like, oh, it felt just so right.

00:30:57 ◼   ► Like, right.

00:30:59 ◼   ► Because there was always this thing about the 10 of like, I knew it was a smaller phone, like it was always smaller.

00:31:05 ◼   ► And like I liked it because I loved the design, but it was always.

00:31:08 ◼   ► Smaller and it wasn't too small, but it was smaller.

00:31:13 ◼   ► And there were just a lot of things that I would notice where it was like, oh, this

00:31:17 ◼   ► feels different. And it's like I can hold it in one hand.

00:31:21 ◼   ► It's like, OK, I can do that, but like comfortably and like easily, which is nice.

00:31:25 ◼   ► But like it feels weird because it's not what I've been used to.

00:31:28 ◼   ► And it took 10 minutes for the 10 to feel like a baby's phone.

00:31:33 ◼   ► Like I picked it up like I'm doing the transfer process.

00:31:36 ◼   ► I'm like, what is this tiny phone?

00:31:39 ◼   ► So, yeah, I love it.

00:31:42 ◼   ► I really love it. It definitely doesn't have as many kind of improvements that the 6+ did to the 6,

00:31:54 ◼   ► right? Where you'd look at it and be like, okay, so you get all these extra cameras and extra

00:31:59 ◼   ► battery and there's way more space on screen and that sort of stuff. The 10 and the 10s are way

00:32:04 ◼   ► closer together, but even the small gains that it gives me in battery life, in being able to see

00:32:12 ◼   ► a couple more emails on a screen or whatever. It's what I want. I always want the big one.

00:32:18 ◼   ► I always want that because I just any more space I can get on my pocket computer. I want it.

00:32:24 ◼   ► Yeah, I will just say for the listeners every once in a while when I see Myke's phone in person,

00:32:30 ◼   ► I'm always shocked at how how small you crank down the font.

00:32:36 ◼   ► Very small.

00:32:37 ◼   ► your phone. Like, you showed me last time we were in person, I think I saw you using Twitter

00:32:42 ◼   ► on your phone. It was something like that. And I think you had two dozen tweets visible on the

00:32:49 ◼   ► screen at once because you had you had done like the reverse accessibility option to make the font

00:32:54 ◼   ► just micro. Like you are a man who wants content on his phone. And lots of it.

00:32:59 ◼   ► - If I'm gonna get it, I want as much as I can get, right? Like it just it that was always just

00:33:04 ◼   ► just made sense to me and I don't know why.

00:33:07 ◼   ► - It just makes me laugh because I'm the exact reverse here

00:33:10 ◼   ► where I want big screens because I want the text

00:33:14 ◼   ► to be enormous, right?

00:33:15 ◼   ► Whereas like, I've always like, oh great,

00:33:17 ◼   ► it's a bigger screen, I can crank it up.

00:33:18 ◼   ► - It makes so much sense, you have more space,

00:33:21 ◼   ► you can more comfortably have a bigger text size

00:33:25 ◼   ► and not lose a lot.

00:33:26 ◼   ► But I think this is a holdover from when I ran a business

00:33:29 ◼   ► from my phone, right?

00:33:31 ◼   ► And that it was just like, if you can get information

00:33:34 ◼   ► on these things, I want all of the information.

00:33:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, I remember listening to you talk about that,

00:33:39 ◼   ► I think back in the pre-Cortex days, maybe?

00:33:42 ◼   ► I don't know, I can't quite think of the timeline,

00:33:44 ◼   ► but I remember that was a big deal for you,

00:33:46 ◼   ► like you were running the business off of the Plus phone

00:33:49 ◼   ► when it came out, and yeah, so that does make sense

00:33:53 ◼   ► that if you are doing that, you want all the content

00:33:56 ◼   ► you can possibly get on the phone.

00:33:58 ◼   ► - But it is big, I did pay a horrific amount for AppleCare.

00:34:03 ◼   ► Apple care is so expensive now.

00:34:05 ◼   ► Look, you got to increase that average selling price somehow.

00:34:07 ◼   ► I know, I know.

00:34:08 ◼   ► And the way you increase it is by making Apple care $2 more expensive every year.

00:34:12 ◼   ► But, and I put it in a case, oh, what color did you get by the way?

00:34:16 ◼   ► Oh, space gray, of course.

00:34:17 ◼   ► No, the chocolate, the color of chocolate color. Don't like it.

00:34:20 ◼   ► It's not chocolate.

00:34:21 ◼   ► Don't like it, it's not gray enough. It's like this weird brownie color. It's very strange.

00:34:25 ◼   ► I got gold.

00:34:26 ◼   ► You must have, I swear to God, you have a different phone than I do.

00:34:29 ◼   ► Because mine is like, Batman black.

00:34:31 ◼   ► I do have a different phone. I have beautiful gold.

00:34:35 ◼   ► The gold does look good. I won't disparage you for the gold. I think it looks good. Some

00:34:40 ◼   ► years I like their golds better. They're more or less gold, but the gold on the phone looks

00:34:45 ◼   ► pretty good.

00:34:46 ◼   ► So I've just done that thing where I've taken it out of the case. I love the way these phones

00:34:49 ◼   ► feel without cases on them. But I just can't trust myself. I have to have a case. So I

00:34:55 ◼   ► went with the blue, like a dark blue case because I think it looks good with the little

00:34:58 ◼   ► gold pieces that you can see, but I just, as much as I don't want to, I can't trust myself.

00:35:03 ◼   ► Okay, so let's talk about cases and pockets and many other things.

00:35:10 ◼   ► We know you love pockets.

00:35:11 ◼   ► Any excuse to talk about a pocket.

00:35:13 ◼   ► God damn it, Myke.

00:35:14 ◼   ► No, I'm not, it's not about the pockets.

00:35:17 ◼   ► It's about the holding of things.

00:35:19 ◼   ► I don't understand why I seem to be the odd man out here and everybody else has some kind of

00:35:25 ◼   ► war on pockets and convenience.

00:35:28 ◼   ► I'm just trying to make things easy.

00:35:30 ◼   ► And pockets is one way to make things easy.

00:35:33 ◼   ► But this phone, it is pretty big in the pocket.

00:35:38 ◼   ► Like it's a little bit uncomfortably big.

00:35:41 ◼   ► And that for me is the trade-off.

00:35:43 ◼   ► It's like, boy, I like the screen.

00:35:44 ◼   ► Boy, I don't like feeling a bunch of things in my pockets.

00:35:49 ◼   ► I don't want that.

00:35:52 ◼   ► And when you put the case on it,

00:35:58 ◼   ► I just have the default Apple case.

00:35:59 ◼   ► Boy, does it make a significant difference.

00:36:02 ◼   ► And I swear, just the larger physical size

00:36:07 ◼   ► changes the whole interaction

00:36:08 ◼   ► between the friction in your pocket and the phone.

00:36:11 ◼   ► Like, I find it much harder with the exact same case

00:36:14 ◼   ► to get the Plus phone in and out of my pocket

00:36:16 ◼   ► than I do with the X.

00:36:18 ◼   ► It's like, oh, just a little bit bigger,

00:36:21 ◼   ► the friction increases with the square

00:36:23 ◼   ► of the size of the Surface.

00:36:24 ◼   ► Like, that's the way it feels.

00:36:26 ◼   ► So I'm like, I don't really want a case on this thing.

00:36:28 ◼   ► I don't know, like I'm going back and forth.

00:36:30 ◼   ► I have to say, you a while back recommended

00:36:35 ◼   ► that I try popsockets on phones.

00:36:38 ◼   ► - Ah, yeah, yeah.

00:36:41 ◼   ► - So do you want to explain to the people

00:36:42 ◼   ► what a popsocket is?

00:36:43 ◼   ► - You have seen these in the world.

00:36:46 ◼   ► They are these little disks that sit

00:36:49 ◼   ► on the back of people's phones,

00:36:51 ◼   ► typically people that have larger phones.

00:36:53 ◼   ► and you can pull the disc away from the phone.

00:36:58 ◼   ► It's like stuck on the back of this adhesive.

00:37:00 ◼   ► And there's this like rubber that's left behind

00:37:03 ◼   ► in an almost like a funnel shape, like a cone shape.

00:37:06 ◼   ► And what that does is it means you can put the pop socket

00:37:09 ◼   ► in between your fingers when it is extended,

00:37:12 ◼   ► and it allows you to be able to hold onto the phone

00:37:15 ◼   ► without the requirement of gripping the entire thing

00:37:17 ◼   ► all the way around.

00:37:19 ◼   ► So it helps for either A, people have smaller hands,

00:37:22 ◼   ► B, people have phones that are too big for their hands,

00:37:25 ◼   ► which is pretty much everyone at this point.

00:37:28 ◼   ► And so I have used one of these things for a while

00:37:32 ◼   ► and I continue to use it.

00:37:35 ◼   ► I really, really like it.

00:37:36 ◼   ► It just means that I'm able to adjust my grip.

00:37:39 ◼   ► Sometimes I will hold my phone regularly,

00:37:41 ◼   ► but sometimes I don't want to.

00:37:42 ◼   ► Sometimes I want to either just like hold it

00:37:45 ◼   ► and put the pop socket in between my fingers

00:37:47 ◼   ► or I like grip the whole pop socket in my fist

00:37:51 ◼   ► and kind of hold it like that and just look at my phone.

00:37:53 ◼   ► Or I can rest my phone in between like my pointer finger

00:37:56 ◼   ► and my thumb, can just rest it there.

00:37:59 ◼   ► It allows for me to be able to adjust my grip,

00:38:01 ◼   ► which anyone that's listened to this show for long enough

00:38:04 ◼   ► knows that me and you really like to adjust the way

00:38:06 ◼   ► that we do things with our hands.

00:38:08 ◼   ► - Yep, yep.

00:38:09 ◼   ► - And I've found that since I started using the Popsocket,

00:38:12 ◼   ► it's just become way easier for me

00:38:14 ◼   ► to be able to handle my phone all the time.

00:38:16 ◼   ► - When we meet up in person,

00:38:17 ◼   ► I would always see you playing around with the Popsocket.

00:38:19 ◼   ► - Oh, so it's a great fidget toy.

00:38:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly. - Great fidget toy.

00:38:21 ◼   ► - I get fun to fidget with.

00:38:22 ◼   ► It makes a very satisfying pop sound

00:38:24 ◼   ► as you extend it or compress it.

00:38:27 ◼   ► It's a really interesting thing.

00:38:31 ◼   ► And I was always curious when I saw you using it,

00:38:33 ◼   ► and at some point, I don't know, in the last six months,

00:38:36 ◼   ► I caved and I decided to get one for my iPhone X.

00:38:40 ◼   ► I was like, "I put it on the phone."

00:38:41 ◼   ► And I was like, "I try it, and oh, it's kind of interesting.

00:38:44 ◼   ► "Hmm, I don't know."

00:38:45 ◼   ► And I would say to you, "Oh, how do you use it?"

00:38:47 ◼   ► I was going just back and forth with this thing,

00:38:50 ◼   ► and I was like, eh, I couldn't really quite decide,

00:38:53 ◼   ► and so I put it in a drawer.

00:38:55 ◼   ► And then when the tennis max came,

00:38:58 ◼   ► I stuck it on the back, and I thought, oh.

00:39:02 ◼   ► Oh, this makes a pretty big difference

00:39:05 ◼   ► to have this pop socket on here.

00:39:07 ◼   ► - I have noticed it make a much, much bigger difference

00:39:09 ◼   ► to me on the max than on the regular 10.

00:39:12 ◼   ► - Yeah. - I'm using it even more.

00:39:14 ◼   ► - So let me tell you this arc that happened.

00:39:17 ◼   ► So I put the PopSocket on the back of the phone.

00:39:19 ◼   ► Now, no case on the phone, just the PopSocket.

00:39:23 ◼   ► And I'm like, "Oh wow, this is great."

00:39:24 ◼   ► So I'm using it for a week.

00:39:26 ◼   ► And as the course of the week goes on, I think,

00:39:28 ◼   ► "Oh yeah, it's pretty good,

00:39:29 ◼   ► but I think I like it maybe less than I did at the start.

00:39:32 ◼   ► I don't know, I'm not really paying attention."

00:39:34 ◼   ► But just so happens in this past week

00:39:36 ◼   ► that I had family visiting.

00:39:38 ◼   ► And just like with you, when I saw you using the PopSocket,

00:39:41 ◼   ► everybody wanted to know,

00:39:42 ◼   ► "Hey, what's that thing on your phone?"

00:39:44 ◼   ► And so, of course, people wanted to try it on their phone.

00:39:47 ◼   ► I was taking it on and off

00:39:48 ◼   ► and sticking it on other people's phones,

00:39:50 ◼   ► and they were trying it out,

00:39:51 ◼   ► and it's like, "Ooh, this is interesting."

00:39:52 ◼   ► So, of course, what happened is the glue on my Popsocket

00:39:55 ◼   ► became not as strong.

00:40:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, you can't just keep doing that.

00:40:02 ◼   ► - Well, now I know.

00:40:04 ◼   ► I didn't know then.

00:40:06 ◼   ► And so I eventually went to re-affix it onto my tennis max,

00:40:12 ◼   ► and it sadly would not stick.

00:40:15 ◼   ► And that is the moment I realized,

00:40:18 ◼   ► oh, this accessory became a 100% vital accessory

00:40:23 ◼   ► for this phone.

00:40:26 ◼   ► When I thought, oh, I'm not sure how much I like it,

00:40:29 ◼   ► what actually had occurred is

00:40:31 ◼   ► this has just been completely incorporated

00:40:33 ◼   ► into the way you use the device,

00:40:34 ◼   ► so you're not thinking about it as much.

00:40:36 ◼   ► But right now, I don't have a pop socket on my phone

00:40:40 ◼   ► because the glue became too weak.

00:40:42 ◼   ► So I have express ordered three, right?

00:40:45 ◼   ► So I have replacements available and it's like on the way,

00:40:48 ◼   ► it's like, I need this thing immediately.

00:40:51 ◼   ► Because I was really surprised, but with the big phone,

00:40:55 ◼   ► it's so much more comfortable to hold it on the back

00:40:59 ◼   ► with one, 'cause you're gonna need two hands anyway.

00:41:02 ◼   ► So to hold it on the back with the pop socket

00:41:04 ◼   ► and then use the front, like you don't have to have

00:41:07 ◼   ► this death grip around the edges of your phone

00:41:09 ◼   ► when you're holding it.

00:41:10 ◼   ► So it's like, I like the bigger phone,

00:41:15 ◼   ► but I think the PopSocket is totally a necessary part of it.

00:41:19 ◼   ► Like I couldn't believe how much of a difference

00:41:21 ◼   ► it made on the big phone.

00:41:22 ◼   ► But this is where I, but now, now Myke,

00:41:27 ◼   ► we start to descend into this world.

00:41:28 ◼   ► This like, this frustrating, this frustrating world.

00:41:33 ◼   ► - You're right over there.

00:41:34 ◼   ► - No, I'm genuinely not.

00:41:36 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:41:37 ◼   ► - Because it's this frustrating world.

00:41:38 ◼   ► - Oh.

00:41:39 ◼   ► can never get everything that you want in life. Yeah. And all I want is everything to

00:41:45 ◼   ► go my way. But you can't get everything to go your way. So what is not going my way,

00:41:51 ◼   ► Myke, you can't charge it. Okay, now, we have wireless charging. If, if when you take the

00:42:01 ◼   ► phone out of your pocket. If you have the very forgiving Mophie charger and if the ambient

00:42:10 ◼   ► temperature in your room is low enough so that the popsocket hasn't slightly expanded

00:42:17 ◼   ► due to the heat.

00:42:18 ◼   ► Wow, you've really gone through all this.

00:42:20 ◼   ► And you, look, I've got an office, I keep it very cold in here. And you place the phone

00:42:26 ◼   ► exactly in the center of the wireless charger,

00:42:30 ◼   ► it will wirelessly charge at, I think, about half a watt.

00:42:35 ◼   ► That's like, it will charge.

00:42:38 ◼   ► The battery chart is hilarious

00:42:40 ◼   ► because it goes up extremely slowly.

00:42:43 ◼   ► You can, in theory, get it to work,

00:42:45 ◼   ► but now you have given up all of the advantages

00:42:50 ◼   ► of wireless charging, which is,

00:42:52 ◼   ► you don't have to think about it.

00:42:53 ◼   ► You just place it on the thing and it just charges.

00:42:56 ◼   ► And it's like, boy, I really love the wireless charging.

00:42:59 ◼   ► To me, the wireless charging is like the go-to example

00:43:02 ◼   ► of how removing what seems like a trivial amount of friction

00:43:07 ◼   ► from a process actually makes a huge difference.

00:43:10 ◼   ► So it's like, oh, I've got to choose between the popsocket

00:43:13 ◼   ► and the wireless charging, and I don't like this at all.

00:43:17 ◼   ► It's very frustrating.

00:43:19 ◼   ► But then, okay, this starts a little bit of a cascade,

00:43:24 ◼   ► because then I think, well,

00:43:26 ◼   ► if I can't have the wireless charging anyway,

00:43:29 ◼   ► I can put a case back on the phone.

00:43:32 ◼   ► Now, I don't want a case on the phone,

00:43:36 ◼   ► except having a case has a huge advantage,

00:43:40 ◼   ► which is my glass cube office

00:43:45 ◼   ► has one of those little security credit card things

00:43:49 ◼   ► that you need to tap on a bunch of doors.

00:43:51 ◼   ► - Oh, okay.

00:43:52 ◼   ► It's the dumbest office setup in the world.

00:43:55 ◼   ► Because if I'm in my glass cube,

00:43:57 ◼   ► and I wanna go to the cafeteria and get a coffee,

00:43:59 ◼   ► I think I need to tap like four or five security doors

00:44:02 ◼   ► to get there.

00:44:04 ◼   ► It's so dumb.

00:44:05 ◼   ► It provides, it's like, the building said,

00:44:07 ◼   ► "Hey, how can we have all of the hassle of security

00:44:11 ◼   ► with none of the actual security?"

00:44:14 ◼   ► But nonetheless, I need to carry this little card with me.

00:44:16 ◼   ► And it doesn't work very well in my wallet

00:44:19 ◼   ► because all of the other RFID cards block it.

00:44:22 ◼   ► So I put a little RFID blocker behind just that one.

00:44:25 ◼   ► Like I've done all these crazy things,

00:44:27 ◼   ► but if I can put it in the case of the phone,

00:44:30 ◼   ► ooh, this is suddenly a very big advantage.

00:44:33 ◼   ► But then it's like, do I want a PopSocket

00:44:35 ◼   ► and the case and a card behind the phone as well?

00:44:40 ◼   ► I don't know, I don't know.

00:44:42 ◼   ► I feel extraordinarily uncertain

00:44:45 ◼   ► about what's gonna happen with like the case setup.

00:44:47 ◼   ► I also have like a little bumper case that's on the way to try out.

00:44:51 ◼   ► I feel like I'm about to descend into a madness of what is the combination of pop

00:44:57 ◼   ► sockets and cases.

00:45:01 ◼   ► Bumper case and pop socket would be interesting.

00:45:03 ◼   ► So I found one that looks pretty good, which is from Rhino Shield or Rhino Case, something

00:45:09 ◼   ► like that.

00:45:10 ◼   ► Okay.

00:45:11 ◼   ► No, you don't like it?

00:45:12 ◼   ► I've hated their stuff in the past.

00:45:13 ◼   ► I haven't looked at the most recent one.

00:45:15 ◼   ► They are the only one that I could find that seemed to make what was like the classic bumper

00:45:19 ◼   ► case that Apple had for the 4.

00:45:22 ◼   ► It looks like it's the closest for that for the Max.

00:45:25 ◼   ► But I don't know.

00:45:26 ◼   ► I'm like, I don't.

00:45:28 ◼   ► I like having extra grip around the side of the phone.

00:45:30 ◼   ► But then this brings us to the final complication where I'm trying to weigh these trade offs.

00:45:35 ◼   ► The trade off is it's big in the pocket.

00:45:38 ◼   ► Fortunately, before I left the internet, last time we had a discussion about pockets, our very helpful audience introduced me to a whole world of tactical jeans.

00:45:53 ◼   ► So jeans that are designed for discrete carry of stuff.

00:45:58 ◼   ► And I'd saved all of those links in a little document.

00:46:03 ◼   ► And then I sent out emails to a bunch of companies asking

00:46:05 ◼   ► exactly what their pocket size was,

00:46:07 ◼   ► trying to narrow down like side pockets

00:46:09 ◼   ► and if they would fit the phone.

00:46:10 ◼   ► So I've ordered a few other pair of jeans

00:46:12 ◼   ► that are on their way to me right now

00:46:14 ◼   ► to try to be side pockets to hold the phone.

00:46:18 ◼   ► - Oh, I remember what I didn't like about RhinoShield.

00:46:20 ◼   ► - What?

00:46:21 ◼   ► - The bumper cases go all the way around,

00:46:25 ◼   ► So you couldn't easily activate the home gestures wiping?

00:46:28 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:46:30 ◼   ► Because the Apple cases stop at the bottom, right?

00:46:32 ◼   ► Right. Right.

00:46:34 ◼   ► The bumper cases don't.

00:46:35 ◼   ► And I had I bought the Rhino Shield for the 10.

00:46:39 ◼   ► And I couldn't properly activate the the home buttons wiping stuff.

00:46:47 ◼   ► So that will be worth checking out.

00:46:49 ◼   ► I'd be intrigued to know if they've made any kind of difference on that.

00:46:53 ◼   ► looking at the design doesn't look like they have.

00:46:56 ◼   ► So I'm keen to see what your experience ends up being.

00:46:59 ◼   ► - I might be able to cut it down.

00:47:01 ◼   ► You can always try to modify these things.

00:47:02 ◼   ► - Sure that won't affect the structural integrity

00:47:05 ◼   ► of the case if you just start cutting chunks out of it.

00:47:07 ◼   ► - I don't think it will.

00:47:09 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:47:10 ◼   ► - But yeah, so it's like, there's this whole,

00:47:11 ◼   ► I feel like I'm in this uncertain matrix

00:47:15 ◼   ► of what are all of the options going to be.

00:47:18 ◼   ► Like the pop socket and the case and the pants,

00:47:21 ◼   ► they all depend on each other.

00:47:23 ◼   ► And I just, I don't know, I don't know what's going to happen.

00:47:26 ◼   ► And I do feel like you said at the beginning

00:47:29 ◼   ► of this conversation, which is just the normal iPhone

00:47:33 ◼   ► with nothing else on it is also just so nice.

00:47:36 ◼   ► Like it's such a pleasing design.

00:47:38 ◼   ► So I don't know.

00:47:39 ◼   ► I feel great uncertainty and I don't know

00:47:44 ◼   ► what's gonna happen with all these cases and designs.

00:47:46 ◼   ► I just look, all I want is everything.

00:47:48 ◼   ► I want a pop socket and I want no case.

00:47:50 ◼   ► And I also want to be able to put a card on the back of the phone or a hotel card on the

00:47:55 ◼   ► back of the phone.

00:47:56 ◼   ► And I also want to use wireless charging.

00:47:58 ◼   ► Would that card not then interfere with your ability to use Apple Pay?

00:48:03 ◼   ► It doesn't.

00:48:04 ◼   ► The card doesn't interfere with the ability to use Apple Pay.

00:48:08 ◼   ► But the wireless charging will totally fry the card.

00:48:14 ◼   ► Just FYI for anybody else who wants to put the card at the back of the phone in between

00:48:18 ◼   ► the case.

00:48:19 ◼   ► going to fry that card.

00:48:21 ◼   ► I probably shouldn't say this because this is going to sound crazy, but I went so far

00:48:27 ◼   ► as to...

00:48:28 ◼   ► So I found some x-rays of the phone to see where the Qi charger is, and then I took the

00:48:35 ◼   ► card and I melted it down with acetone to take out just the chip and the little antenna.

00:48:41 ◼   ► And I threaded the antenna as tightly as I could around where the camera casing is with

00:48:48 ◼   ► the little chip on the side.

00:48:49 ◼   ► And I thought, this is with the 10

00:48:51 ◼   ► when I was trying to get,

00:48:52 ◼   ► 'cause I hate cards in my wallet, Myke.

00:48:54 ◼   ► Like I don't want them.

00:48:56 ◼   ► I want to get rid of this stupid wallet.

00:48:58 ◼   ► I threaded it around.

00:48:59 ◼   ► It was like, it worked, but only for a few days.

00:49:03 ◼   ► And I think it was the same problem

00:49:04 ◼   ► that it was still too close to the wireless charger

00:49:06 ◼   ► that it was getting fried.

00:49:07 ◼   ► - How far away are you from like embedding this

00:49:10 ◼   ► into your fingertip?

00:49:11 ◼   ► - I mean, if I could do it, I would.

00:49:15 ◼   ► Like if I just, like I will do anything

00:49:17 ◼   ► not have to carry these things. So anyway, this is all to say it's like there are these

00:49:23 ◼   ► different options and I just I don't know where I'm going to settle with this, but I

00:49:32 ◼   ► really want to make this bigger phone work because I really do like it.

00:49:36 ◼   ► Could you find a way to try and embed that coil into a watch band?

00:49:40 ◼   ► That's an interesting idea. That's an interesting idea. I might have to report back later on

00:49:46 ◼   ► that.

00:49:47 ◼   ► that then someone might make an Apple watch band that you could put something

00:49:50 ◼   ► inside anyway but like you might be able to try and find a way to get it in a

00:49:53 ◼   ► watch band hmm I'm gonna I'm gonna mull on that I'm gonna mull on that this

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00:52:02 ◼   ► Relay FM.

00:52:03 ◼   ► Did you get a new Apple Watch too?

00:52:06 ◼   ► Because you seemed way more excited about the watch than the phone last episode.

00:52:09 ◼   ► Oh yeah, for sure.

00:52:10 ◼   ► The watch was the much more interesting product from the announcement.

00:52:14 ◼   ► I'm really pleased with the phone, but I was super interested in the watch.

00:52:18 ◼   ► That camera though.

00:52:20 ◼   ► My god, it's so good.

00:52:24 ◼   ► They undersold that camera a lot.

00:52:26 ◼   ► So bad.

00:52:27 ◼   ► It's like they didn't even bother.

00:52:28 ◼   ► Like it's so good.

00:52:31 ◼   ► Between us recording that episode and then the episode actually going up, a bunch of

00:52:35 ◼   ► reviews came out which talked about how like, oh, this camera is super amazing.

00:52:38 ◼   ► And I just kept thinking about how I said nothing burger in the show and I was like

00:52:41 ◼   ► oh no.

00:52:42 ◼   ► Well but that was they really did not position they just didn't position it well enough I

00:52:47 ◼   ► don't think and I'm not 100% sure why.

00:52:50 ◼   ► I'm always happy for camera improvements so that makes me feel a lot better like doubly

00:52:54 ◼   ► better about upgrading like bigger size better camera.

00:52:57 ◼   ► But yeah the watch.

00:52:59 ◼   ► I have had the new watch for less than 24 hours.

00:53:04 ◼   ► Oh but you guys got one that's great.

00:53:06 ◼   ► Yeah, so I was able to get one yesterday.

00:53:09 ◼   ► I'm wearing it on my wrist at this very moment.

00:53:11 ◼   ► Which one did you get?

00:53:13 ◼   ► I got the big one, 44 millimeters, black, stainless steel, that's my watch.

00:53:19 ◼   ► Okay, okay.

00:53:23 ◼   ► And I like the big iPhone screen.

00:53:30 ◼   ► I totally love, love, love the bigger watch screen.

00:53:36 ◼   ► This made sense because this was what you said as much on the last episode,

00:53:39 ◼   ► "I'm gonna love this because I like big watches."

00:53:41 ◼   ► It just seemed like inevitable.

00:53:42 ◼   ► Like there was no way I wasn't going to like it, right?

00:53:45 ◼   ► And unlike the phone, I don't have to shove the watch in my pocket, right?

00:53:48 ◼   ► There's no pocket conundrum here, so this is no problem.

00:53:53 ◼   ► I have to say, just like getting text messages and alerts and timers and things on the watch in the last 24 hours,

00:54:00 ◼   ► the big screen, it's so nice.

00:54:02 ◼   ► Like, it's the, I even feel like with timers,

00:54:07 ◼   ► I don't have to think about hitting the button,

00:54:09 ◼   ► like I don't have to care about positioning my finger.

00:54:11 ◼   ► It's like, boom, I can just hit the button.

00:54:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, 'cause it was always this like,

00:54:16 ◼   ► I feel like I need a chiseled point of a finger

00:54:19 ◼   ► to hit some of this stuff reliably.

00:54:21 ◼   ► - The one to me that's the clearest example of it

00:54:25 ◼   ► is a timer where you had the two buttons,

00:54:27 ◼   ► which is like stop and restart

00:54:28 ◼   ► and they're next to each other.

00:54:30 ◼   ► and is like, oh, this is just a much more comfortable

00:54:33 ◼   ► gesture, plus they've pushed the buttons down

00:54:36 ◼   ► and into the corners, they've kind of used

00:54:37 ◼   ► the rounded edges of the phone, so the buttons are big

00:54:41 ◼   ► and there's enough space on either side of them.

00:54:43 ◼   ► Like when I get a Slack message alert through this watch,

00:54:48 ◼   ► it's like, oh, look at all this text I can see,

00:54:50 ◼   ► it's amazing, so of course, because I'm me and not you,

00:54:53 ◼   ► I've already felt like, oh, I gotta go in those settings

00:54:55 ◼   ► and increase the text size, right, to make it bigger.

00:54:58 ◼   ► - Removing all of the benefit.

00:54:59 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:55:01 ◼   ► - No, no, you go halfway, right?

00:55:03 ◼   ► I'll take like half the size back

00:55:05 ◼   ► and lose half of these extra words.

00:55:08 ◼   ► I'm not Myke going in like cranking the text

00:55:09 ◼   ► all the way down.

00:55:10 ◼   ► - How small can I make this now?

00:55:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

00:55:13 ◼   ► But man, the bigger screen, it's just great.

00:55:18 ◼   ► I could do even bigger still, but this to me is like,

00:55:23 ◼   ► ah, I don't feel like it's a little small.

00:55:26 ◼   ► Like I always love the Apple Watch,

00:55:28 ◼   ► but I always felt like, man, I could use a bigger screen.

00:55:31 ◼   ► I could do bigger.

00:55:32 ◼   ► And now they did bigger.

00:55:33 ◼   ► I'm super duper happy with it.

00:55:37 ◼   ► Now, if I remember correctly,

00:55:41 ◼   ► Adina was going to get a watch

00:55:42 ◼   ► and you were going to play with it.

00:55:44 ◼   ► Was that the plan?

00:55:45 ◼   ► Have you gotten your hands on a watch?

00:55:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, there's like an arc to this.

00:55:50 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:55:51 ◼   ► - So it began with me picking up my iPhone,

00:55:53 ◼   ► like morning of, right?

00:55:55 ◼   ► So I ordered the iPhone and Adina's 40 millimeter watch

00:55:58 ◼   ► and I went to pick them up,

00:55:59 ◼   ► but on that day they have everything out.

00:56:03 ◼   ► So I went and tried on the 44 gold stainless steel

00:56:08 ◼   ► and immediately fell in love with it.

00:56:11 ◼   ► - With the band, with the Milanese band

00:56:12 ◼   ► or with something else?

00:56:14 ◼   ► - Actually, they didn't have the Milanese,

00:56:15 ◼   ► they just had like a selection of sport bands.

00:56:17 ◼   ► They didn't have the gold Milanese

00:56:19 ◼   ► as a thing that you could try on,

00:56:20 ◼   ► but I looked at it, I could see it, right?

00:56:22 ◼   ► They had it in the case, but I couldn't try it on.

00:56:24 ◼   ► So I just tried on the gold watch with like another band,

00:56:28 ◼   ► like a couple of different bands, I changed them out.

00:56:31 ◼   ► That thing is beautiful.

00:56:32 ◼   ► I think it is absolutely stunning.

00:56:35 ◼   ► It is the first time I have genuinely liked the look

00:56:39 ◼   ► of an Apple watch.

00:56:40 ◼   ► Like prior to this, it's kind of just been like,

00:56:43 ◼   ► let me pick the one I like the look of the most,

00:56:46 ◼   ► but it's always been a bit of an ugly duckling.

00:56:48 ◼   ► - Right.

00:56:49 ◼   ► - But this one, it's like everything about it,

00:56:51 ◼   ► like it being thinner, the gold steel,

00:56:54 ◼   ► really love is the first time I've ever liked a stainless steel watch as well I

00:56:58 ◼   ► don't I don't like the original kind of this the silvery stainless steel one and

00:57:02 ◼   ► it just never really spoke to me I always preferred the aluminium ones but

00:57:05 ◼   ► it being in like gold as a color was really nice and just the finish of it

00:57:08 ◼   ► was nice to screen going all the way to the edges just looks so much better

00:57:12 ◼   ► everything about it I loved everything about it and was like well they had none

00:57:16 ◼   ► in stock on that day so I didn't get one but I was like I'm gonna get one of

00:57:20 ◼   ► these things like I'm gonna get one I love it oh you mean you're gonna get one

00:57:24 ◼   ► for yourself? This was my feeling at that moment. Okay, wait, you say was though? This

00:57:29 ◼   ► was my feeling at that moment. Alright, this is a real roller coaster. Yeah, I bought Adina's

00:57:34 ◼   ► watch, took it home, and I wore it for 12 hours, right, like set it all up, wore it,

00:57:41 ◼   ► and found myself hating it. I hated it. Okay, why? This was something that was not the case

00:57:47 ◼   ► before but I hated getting notifications on my wrist.

00:57:52 ◼   ► Right because you have now gone, I mean how long has it been since you wore the Apple

00:57:57 ◼   ► Watch?

00:57:58 ◼   ► Since May.

00:57:59 ◼   ► I haven't, since May.

00:58:00 ◼   ► I mean I've put them on, I put it on like a day here or there, you know, but like it's

00:58:03 ◼   ► been, it's been since May.

00:58:06 ◼   ► And I never stopped wearing it because I disliked it.

00:58:09 ◼   ► Like that was never the thing.

00:58:11 ◼   ► It was that I found this Apple Watch I liked more.

00:58:13 ◼   ► Like it wasn't that I had a problem with the Apple Watch.

00:58:16 ◼   ► I always loved the Apple Watch.

00:58:17 ◼   ► I love the notifications, right?

00:58:18 ◼   ► But I noticed it most where

00:58:22 ◼   ► I was streaming a video game, right?

00:58:25 ◼   ► So I was playing video game, streaming a game.

00:58:27 ◼   ► And I'm playing and while I'm playing, my wrist is just going buzz, buzz, buzz.

00:58:33 ◼   ► And I'm like, I can't do anything with this right now.

00:58:35 ◼   ► Right. Like I'm doing something.

00:58:37 ◼   ► And now the watch is like vying for my attention.

00:58:41 ◼   ► Where my iPhone, I just put it down and it can be buzzing and going crazy.

00:58:46 ◼   ► but like it doesn't interrupt me unless I see it.

00:58:50 ◼   ► Where like the watch, I don't have to be looking

00:58:53 ◼   ► at this thing and it's trying to get my attention

00:58:56 ◼   ► when I'm busy.

00:58:57 ◼   ► - Right.

00:58:58 ◼   ► - And I think it's just in the time that I've not used it,

00:59:01 ◼   ► I've developed new habits and my new habits are

00:59:05 ◼   ► that I don't want to be interrupted

00:59:08 ◼   ► when I don't want to be interrupted.

00:59:11 ◼   ► And--

00:59:12 ◼   ► - I can understand that very well, Myke.

00:59:14 ◼   ► Exactly. And the Apple Watch inherently will do that.

00:59:18 ◼   ► Like I can put it in do not disturb.

00:59:20 ◼   ► Right. But then like, what's the point?

00:59:21 ◼   ► So basically the kind of conclusion that I've come to is I don't want an Apple

00:59:25 ◼   ► Watch anymore for the foreseeable future.

00:59:28 ◼   ► I have no interest in one because since I've stopped wearing it, nothing bad has

00:59:33 ◼   ► happened. Right.

00:59:35 ◼   ► All of my fears, nothing happened.

00:59:37 ◼   ► Everything's fine because when I need to be available, I have my phone on me and

00:59:44 ◼   ► What I also like is I can put my phone down

00:59:47 ◼   ► and just walk away and I'm away from it all.

00:59:49 ◼   ► And it's unintentionally away, but I've noticed just,

00:59:54 ◼   ► I think that a lot of this stuff,

00:59:56 ◼   ► so a lot of my yoga and the music,

01:00:01 ◼   ► it's all coming from this, I think,

01:00:04 ◼   ► this new place of me being a little bit more chill.

01:00:08 ◼   ► And I think part of that is I'm not so connected

01:00:12 ◼   ► to everything anymore. Right? Like a message coming in that is not important for now, it's

01:00:20 ◼   ► just dealt with later. Or any message really. But like messages that are not important,

01:00:24 ◼   ► they're just getting dealt with and they're getting dealt with. On the Apple Watch, I

01:00:27 ◼   ► was immediately aware of them all the time. So I think that there's just like a change

01:00:32 ◼   ► in my mood which has come from me not wearing this thing every day. So if I was going to

01:00:36 ◼   ► wear an Apple Watch now, I would significantly pare down the notifications for it, right?

01:00:42 ◼   ► now just like why am I even bothering I'm just gonna buy the watch I want

01:00:45 ◼   ► which is not an Apple watch it's a beautiful something else right which is

01:00:50 ◼   ► super thin and you know what else drove me crazy couldn't see the time when I

01:00:54 ◼   ► wanted to see it I noticed it like the first time I raised my wrist to look at

01:00:58 ◼   ► the time and it took like however many milliseconds it took but it was too slow

01:01:02 ◼   ► like for the screen to come on it's like my instinct now is to just see it I see

01:01:07 ◼   ► I just looked right like I can give it a quick glance like I can get the time

01:01:11 ◼   ► from my watch quicker and put my wrist down again, then the Apple Watch can show me the time in the first place.

01:01:18 ◼   ► That is a big behavior change that if you go to the Apple Watch, you have to learn.

01:01:23 ◼   ► You're on your computer and you're just typing away and you can look down at your real watch and

01:01:30 ◼   ► just see the time without having to trigger it, without having to do a little gesture. And that

01:01:36 ◼   ► that does take a lot of getting used to.

01:01:38 ◼   ► And if you've gone back to a nice, real mechanical watch,

01:01:43 ◼   ► that is a frustration if you are wearing the Apple Watch

01:01:47 ◼   ► and like, I can't just look at it,

01:01:50 ◼   ► I have to do this little gesture to trigger it

01:01:52 ◼   ► to show me what the time is.

01:01:53 ◼   ► - And that drove me crazy.

01:01:55 ◼   ► But like, so there are those things,

01:01:56 ◼   ► like they're the reasons I don't wanna wear one anymore,

01:01:58 ◼   ► but I did find two new things,

01:02:01 ◼   ► which is why I might wanna wear one.

01:02:02 ◼   ► One was I'm now doing a form of exercise

01:02:06 ◼   ► every single day and it's not being tracked properly.

01:02:10 ◼   ► 'Cause I'm not going and putting my Apple Watch on,

01:02:12 ◼   ► turn my Apple Watch on, I'm not gonna do all that

01:02:15 ◼   ► 'cause I'm not gonna-- - Yeah, no, that's crazy.

01:02:16 ◼   ► - It's like whatever, I'm not gonna do that

01:02:17 ◼   ► just for 25 or 30 minutes every day, it's too much hassle.

01:02:20 ◼   ► But if I was wearing one all the time,

01:02:22 ◼   ► 'cause I did a yoga workout with the watch on

01:02:24 ◼   ► and it was great 'cause I got an accurate reading

01:02:27 ◼   ► of how the workout went, right?

01:02:29 ◼   ► Like I got all of that information

01:02:30 ◼   ► from the senses that it has because the yoga app

01:02:33 ◼   ► that I use logs things to Apple Health,

01:02:36 ◼   ► well actually, so here's the thing,

01:02:37 ◼   ► it can log things to Apple Health,

01:02:39 ◼   ► but not on the iPad, because health isn't on the iPad,

01:02:42 ◼   ► and I watch the videos on the iPad, so it can't log them.

01:02:45 ◼   ► So I've set up a shortcut that logs a 30-minute activity

01:02:49 ◼   ► to the Health app every day, but it's almost pointless

01:02:51 ◼   ► because there's no usable information in it

01:02:54 ◼   ► because it's just like you were exercising.

01:02:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's just a binary track, like you did this thing.

01:02:59 ◼   ► You might as well be keeping track of it

01:03:00 ◼   ► in like a habit tracking or streaks kind of app.

01:03:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, there's nothing to it, right?

01:03:06 ◼   ► But like that shortcut also puts Do Not Disturb on,

01:03:09 ◼   ► like it does a couple of things,

01:03:11 ◼   ► like for 30 minutes, right?

01:03:12 ◼   ► So like my phone won't buzz,

01:03:13 ◼   ► and it's like a little shortcut that I built for that.

01:03:16 ◼   ► And also like the yoga app,

01:03:18 ◼   ► it tells you how many calories you burned, right?

01:03:21 ◼   ► But that's just how many it assumes.

01:03:23 ◼   ► It's wildly different to what the Apple Watch was telling me

01:03:25 ◼   ► 'cause the app knows nothing about me, right?

01:03:28 ◼   ► but the watch knows how I'm breathing and it knows how my heart rate is so it's able to

01:03:33 ◼   ► more accurately guess the calories that I'm burning so it was great for that and

01:03:37 ◼   ► also I'm using Siri way more now for music and for shortcuts and all that

01:03:42 ◼   ► kind of stuff and I really like the raised speak in the new watches so all

01:03:48 ◼   ► you do is I think this is on the series 3 as well you just raise it right to your mouth and

01:03:52 ◼   ► just start speaking without saying the trigger word you know they "hey" something

01:03:56 ◼   ► trigger word. He's hearing. Exactly. I didn't want to say it purely because my phone will go off. I

01:04:02 ◼   ► wasn't doing it for anyone else's help but my own. It's like I don't want my phone to go off right

01:04:06 ◼   ► now. But that so that was really good because the HomePod will take every request, right? If it's

01:04:12 ◼   ► in your home, it is scary. I like whispered into my phone in the bedroom yesterday and the HomePod

01:04:18 ◼   ► went off. I was like, Oh God. And sometimes I don't want that. Can I just say what's crazy about the

01:04:25 ◼   ► HomePod is how, so again, like with family visiting,

01:04:30 ◼   ► I'm doing a bunch of tutorials about like,

01:04:31 ◼   ► here's how to use thing.

01:04:32 ◼   ► And I was trying to do a Siri tutorial on the shortcuts.

01:04:36 ◼   ► And so I'm showing this person how to do Siri triggers

01:04:40 ◼   ► with the shortcuts.

01:04:41 ◼   ► Now they're not in, like they're not registered in my house.

01:04:44 ◼   ► It's a totally different iCloud account, right?

01:04:46 ◼   ► They have nothing to do with this.

01:04:48 ◼   ► But what I thought was kind of crazy is when they,

01:04:50 ◼   ► when you say the trigger word, I could see, oh,

01:04:52 ◼   ► this iPad that I'm trying to demo on,

01:04:55 ◼   ► that doesn't belong to this household at all,

01:04:57 ◼   ► starts, Siri starts to wake up,

01:05:01 ◼   ► but then the HomePods get it,

01:05:04 ◼   ► like they take over and then Siri shuts down on the iPad.

01:05:07 ◼   ► It's like, this is crazy.

01:05:08 ◼   ► Siri must have some kind of ad hoc network in the house

01:05:12 ◼   ► where every device is seeing who's,

01:05:15 ◼   ► but it like, it's, I don't know if it's great

01:05:18 ◼   ► or if it's not great that even across everybody's device,

01:05:22 ◼   ► it's still doing this, but so the funny thing was is,

01:05:25 ◼   ► We had to go into another room in the house and like close the door and sort of whisper

01:05:31 ◼   ► so that Siri couldn't hear us.

01:05:33 ◼   ► It's like, we're hiding from Siri in this room.

01:05:36 ◼   ► HomePod by far hears you better than any other of these digital assistant products.

01:05:40 ◼   ► Like it is incredible.

01:05:42 ◼   ► But the problem is it doesn't always understand you.

01:05:44 ◼   ► Hears you, doesn't always understand you.

01:05:46 ◼   ► So that still frustrates me.

01:05:47 ◼   ► It's like, Apple's ability to create this hardware is almost unparalleled,

01:05:52 ◼   ► but Siri the software is still not good enough.

01:05:54 ◼   ► Like, you know, that I can give it the same command twice.

01:05:57 ◼   ► One time it doesn't understand.

01:05:58 ◼   ► Second time it understands. It's like, well, I don't.

01:06:01 ◼   ► Also, I'm trying to use Siri more and it drives me crazy.

01:06:03 ◼   ► Like I've got to set up some home actions right to like turn lights off

01:06:08 ◼   ► at night.

01:06:10 ◼   ► So like before we go to bed, it turns the lights off everywhere.

01:06:12 ◼   ► But the bedroom and actually turns the bedroom lights on to 10 percent. Right.

01:06:15 ◼   ► So it's like a nice just way to go.

01:06:17 ◼   ► So I say like, hey, set bedtime.

01:06:21 ◼   ► And then it's like.

01:06:23 ◼   ► "Okay, I've set your bedtime in your humble abode."

01:06:26 ◼   ► It's like, "Shut up. Shut up."

01:06:29 ◼   ► Like, it gives me this, like, phrase, this long phrase,

01:06:32 ◼   ► where the echo just goes, "Okay."

01:06:35 ◼   ► Right? And that's it. It's all I ever want.

01:06:36 ◼   ► But the home part, like, it said to me two days ago, it's like,

01:06:39 ◼   ► "I have set bedtime in your humble abode."

01:06:42 ◼   ► It's like, "Shut up, you stupid thing! I don't care!

01:06:45 ◼   ► Like, I just want you to do it!"

01:06:47 ◼   ► Like, don't give me all that nonsense.

01:06:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, Siri for sure needs what Carrot has,

01:06:53 ◼   ► the ability to set the verbose-ness.

01:06:56 ◼   ► And it's like, I wanna turn it all the way down.

01:06:59 ◼   ► My frustration with that is in doing the lights,

01:07:03 ◼   ► just because of the way our house is set up,

01:07:05 ◼   ► there's always somewhere in the house

01:07:07 ◼   ► where one of the sockets has been physically turned off.

01:07:10 ◼   ► And so if we say something like,

01:07:11 ◼   ► "Hey, Siri, turn on all the lights,"

01:07:13 ◼   ► Siri will always be like,

01:07:15 ◼   ► "Oh, I've turned on all the lights for you,

01:07:16 ◼   ► "but just so you know,

01:07:18 ◼   ► "a couple of the lights aren't responding in.

01:07:19 ◼   ► You might want to check on that. It's like, yeah, I get it.

01:07:22 ◼   ► Every, like, don't ever say this to me again.

01:07:25 ◼   ► It's always going to be like this every time.

01:07:28 ◼   ► Like, I don't need to hear this whole story about how a couple of light bulbs aren't checking in.

01:07:33 ◼   ► I know they're not checking in. I don't care. Just turn on all the things you can turn on.

01:07:38 ◼   ► It's good for music, though.

01:07:40 ◼   ► It is good for music. And thunder sounds.

01:07:42 ◼   ► I mean, also some of the shortcut stuff, it works pretty well, right?

01:07:45 ◼   ► Like, I'm still trying to work out, like, how I want to run all of my shortcuts,

01:07:51 ◼   ► like how I want to trigger them off and what ones I want and what ones I don't want.

01:07:55 ◼   ► And I'm finding myself, I'm using the shortcuts way more on the devices than I am just like with

01:08:01 ◼   ► HomePod. But I'm kind of, I'm still building through that stuff, but I am building more

01:08:07 ◼   ► shortcuts at rate faster than I ever built workflows.

01:08:10 ◼   ► Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. And this is just to go back to what started this, this is where I find the watch without needing the trigger word is really nice.

01:08:19 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:08:20 ◼   ► Because particularly in the house, because the HomePods are not on my account for personalized stuff, but they always want to pick up whatever I'm saying.

01:08:30 ◼   ► but I find that doing the watch to raise

01:08:33 ◼   ► and then talking to the watch tells it like,

01:08:35 ◼   ► "Hey, I'm talking to the watch.

01:08:36 ◼   ► I'm not talking to you, HomePods."

01:08:38 ◼   ► And that's great for doing all the timers.

01:08:40 ◼   ► And this is one place where I do have to give Apple

01:08:43 ◼   ► total credit because I think we talked about it

01:08:46 ◼   ► on the Cortex after WWDC,

01:08:49 ◼   ► but I thought there is no way that feature

01:08:52 ◼   ► where you can just raise to talk to Siri

01:08:55 ◼   ► without using the trigger word was gonna work.

01:08:57 ◼   ► Like, I was like, there is no way.

01:09:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, here we go, we're gonna have a million stories,

01:09:02 ◼   ► and I have to give Apple total credit,

01:09:04 ◼   ► it has not falsely triggered once.

01:09:08 ◼   ► Like they genuinely nailed that,

01:09:11 ◼   ► and I thought there was like a 0% chance

01:09:14 ◼   ► that was gonna work, but it turns out, joke's on me,

01:09:17 ◼   ► I've had a 0% failure rate on it.

01:09:20 ◼   ► - I didn't get it to trigger every time though.

01:09:22 ◼   ► - I know, that's not what I'm saying.

01:09:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, I know you're not, I'm saying like--

01:09:25 ◼   ► - It doesn't always trigger.

01:09:26 ◼   ► - It doesn't always trigger, but it never misfires.

01:09:29 ◼   ► Yeah, it never misfires, which is the much more important thing.

01:09:33 ◼   ► You may have missed this actually, because yes, you definitely have missed this. And

01:09:38 ◼   ► I hope I can give you some information now that you're happy about.

01:09:41 ◼   ► Do you know that there is a way to get shortcuts to talk to IFTTT?

01:09:47 ◼   ► I do. Oh, you found it?

01:09:49 ◼   ► I saw this on... MaxLauris?

01:09:51 ◼   ► Yes, I saw this on Federico's site. Did you see my little Roomba? Did you see

01:09:57 ◼   ► him? I haven't seen your Roomba, I don't know about

01:09:59 ◼   ► - This is in the article, there is an embedded video.

01:10:01 ◼   ► - Oh, is that your Roomba?

01:10:02 ◼   ► Oh, okay. - That's little Robbie.

01:10:04 ◼   ► - Oh, I didn't realize.

01:10:04 ◼   ► - So like now I can, and I do, I get my Roomba to go

01:10:07 ◼   ► and to stop by talking to my home pod.

01:10:10 ◼   ► - I saw that, I actually, I have a little project

01:10:12 ◼   ► in OmniFocus called Automate Roomba,

01:10:14 ◼   ► because I wanna do the two things which I'm now,

01:10:17 ◼   ► oh, now I know I can obviously do,

01:10:19 ◼   ► is like you can control Roomba via your voice with shortcuts,

01:10:23 ◼   ► which is crazy, like that ability to plug into webhooks,

01:10:27 ◼   ► It's like the horizon is open in every direction.

01:10:30 ◼   ► And I know that I can do, like with Google Sheets

01:10:34 ◼   ► and IFTTT, I've figured out, oh, I can do the thing

01:10:38 ◼   ► where when the last person leaves the house,

01:10:40 ◼   ► the Roomba goes automatically.

01:10:42 ◼   ► It's like, oh, this is great, I can't wait to do this.

01:10:45 ◼   ► - Ooh, I wanna see how that ends up when you set that up.

01:10:49 ◼   ► - I'll let you know.

01:10:49 ◼   ► - I'm still at the point, I don't know if you felt like this,

01:10:51 ◼   ► but I'm still at the point where I'm not confident

01:10:54 ◼   ► send in my Roomba out when I'm not at home.

01:10:57 ◼   ► - Oh, no.

01:10:58 ◼   ► - I just get scared that he's gonna break everything

01:11:00 ◼   ► and get lost again.

01:11:01 ◼   ► - No, no, no, in our house Roomba's great.

01:11:03 ◼   ► We trigger him if we're out at dinner

01:11:07 ◼   ► and we suddenly think, oh, we'd like to come home

01:11:09 ◼   ► to a cleaner household.

01:11:10 ◼   ► Let's send Roomba out to do his job.

01:11:13 ◼   ► - We just need to get, it's like sending him off to school.

01:11:17 ◼   ► - That's exactly what it is.

01:11:19 ◼   ► - We're just a little scared he's gonna hurt himself.

01:11:21 ◼   ► - Yeah, you're thinking, oh, he's there,

01:11:23 ◼   ► He's got his little backpack, he's dressed all up for the first day of school,

01:11:26 ◼   ► and you have to let him go on his own.

01:11:29 ◼   ► This is part of growing up.

01:11:31 ◼   ► Have you ever gotten the "Help, I'm stuck" notification?

01:11:35 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:11:35 ◼   ► It's so funny.

01:11:37 ◼   ► He's just chewed up the rug in the bathroom,

01:11:40 ◼   ► and closed the door on himself.

01:11:42 ◼   ► The phrasing of some of them,

01:11:45 ◼   ► the one that gets me is "Help, I'm stuck" on a cliff?

01:11:47 ◼   ► Yeah, that's what I got.

01:11:49 ◼   ► "Hold on, Roomba, I'll be right there!"

01:11:50 ◼   ► "Where did you go?"

01:11:52 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:11:54 ◼   ► It makes me feel like, it makes me feel so bad for him.

01:11:57 ◼   ► Like, oh, I'm coming home.

01:11:59 ◼   ► I'm coming home right now.

01:12:00 ◼   ► - Why did you use the word cliff?

01:12:02 ◼   ► - Okay, now Myke, you may remember

01:12:08 ◼   ► when we first started talking about downtime.

01:12:11 ◼   ► I kept saying this thing about how,

01:12:15 ◼   ► oh, I'm really interested in this,

01:12:17 ◼   ► but it really depends on the implementation details.

01:12:21 ◼   ► I might find this super useful, but a very slight,

01:12:26 ◼   ► ooh, going this way or going that way

01:12:28 ◼   ► in exactly how Apple implements it

01:12:31 ◼   ► will make or break this feature for me.

01:12:33 ◼   ► And just as a while ago,

01:12:38 ◼   ► we were trying to get Apple to do things

01:12:43 ◼   ► in a certain way with the Apple Pencil.

01:12:44 ◼   ► I was like, "Oh, do it this way, please.

01:12:46 ◼   ► Don't do it that way."

01:12:48 ◼   ► I was, during the beta process,

01:12:50 ◼   ► repeatedly sending feedback about one of the implementation details for downtime.

01:12:57 ◼   ► And this has not gone my way.

01:13:02 ◼   ► So now that iOS 12 is out and we have the final version of the way it works, there is

01:13:09 ◼   ► an implementation detail that is absolutely killing me.

01:13:14 ◼   ► So let me explain.

01:13:17 ◼   ► I, unlike you, want all of my notifications to come through the Apple Watch.

01:13:24 ◼   ► Okay.

01:13:25 ◼   ► That's how I want to manage things.

01:13:26 ◼   ► Well, you know, I was like, again, I understand that, but you probably have less notifications

01:13:31 ◼   ► than I do anyway, right?

01:13:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:13:35 ◼   ► As we saw last time we checked our stats, literally an order of magnitude less.

01:13:39 ◼   ► So yeah, it's a very different situation.

01:13:42 ◼   ► Now here's the thing that kills me.

01:13:47 ◼   ► The Apple Watch has no understanding of the concept of downtime.

01:13:56 ◼   ► So what this means in practice is, in the morning, when I wish not to be disturbed by

01:14:03 ◼   ► the outside world, I have been putting iMessage in downtime.

01:14:10 ◼   ► Texting is not available to me in the morning on the phone.

01:14:14 ◼   ► And it's fantastic.

01:14:16 ◼   ► No iMessages come in, and what I really love, I don't even see the little bubble, the alert

01:14:22 ◼   ► bubble.

01:14:23 ◼   ► That's not there, and nothing is in Notification Center, and it will all just reappear after

01:14:28 ◼   ► lunch when I'm ready to be exposed to the outside world.

01:14:33 ◼   ► Except that all of those iMessages joyously come straight to my watch, and it's killing

01:14:41 ◼   ► me!

01:14:42 ◼   ► Oh!

01:14:43 ◼   ► killing me that if somebody messages me in the morning,

01:14:47 ◼   ► it just pops right up on the watch,

01:14:49 ◼   ► pops up on the watch like nothing has gone on.

01:14:52 ◼   ► And sometimes there are these situations with Apple

01:14:57 ◼   ► where you feel like you get a little punished

01:15:00 ◼   ► for buying completely into the ecosystem.

01:15:02 ◼   ► - Do you know, I'd never even thought of this as a thing.

01:15:05 ◼   ► - So I had been using the feedback system

01:15:09 ◼   ► and messaging with some of the engineers

01:15:11 ◼   ► and I got the impression that this was not a behavior

01:15:15 ◼   ► that they wanted, and then they went dark

01:15:18 ◼   ► for a very long period of time, and I thought, oh no.

01:15:21 ◼   ► And of course, when the gold master came out

01:15:24 ◼   ► and it appeared in the final version,

01:15:26 ◼   ► this was not the case.

01:15:28 ◼   ► So the watch has no concept of downtime.

01:15:33 ◼   ► So apps that you put into downtime still just are able

01:15:36 ◼   ► to be used on the watch, and it's infuriating.

01:15:40 ◼   ► And I also think it's behavior that an adult, say,

01:15:43 ◼   ► trying to cut down on the amount of time

01:15:45 ◼   ► that their child texts, would not expect.

01:15:49 ◼   ► And I hope this gets changed,

01:15:52 ◼   ► but I get the impression that like,

01:15:54 ◼   ► somebody lost a battle inside of Apple,

01:15:57 ◼   ► and this didn't happen.

01:16:00 ◼   ► But so I'm just like, I love the Apple Watch so much,

01:16:05 ◼   ► but this is one of these cases

01:16:06 ◼   ► where I'm super duper frustrated,

01:16:08 ◼   ► because I was using downtime in this very particular way

01:16:12 ◼   ► where it's like, oh, fantastic.

01:16:14 ◼   ► I can just get notifications from the apps

01:16:16 ◼   ► that I want in the morning

01:16:17 ◼   ► and I can close off everything else

01:16:19 ◼   ► and it works automatically every day.

01:16:21 ◼   ► And now that doesn't work

01:16:24 ◼   ► because all the apps that I don't wanna hear from,

01:16:26 ◼   ► they're just like, hey, I'm on the Apple Watch.

01:16:28 ◼   ► You can hear straight from me.

01:16:29 ◼   ► And it's like, there's no sensible way to fix this.

01:16:33 ◼   ► - And I guess, you just don't ever want them

01:16:36 ◼   ► to come through, right?

01:16:37 ◼   ► because it's not going to work for you.

01:16:39 ◼   ► Here's the problem.

01:16:39 ◼   ► Do not disturb is too much of a blanket.

01:16:42 ◼   ► It's nothing can talk to you.

01:16:44 ◼   ► So for me, when I'm using my exercise app in the morning,

01:16:46 ◼   ► it's like, exercise app can't send me notifications

01:16:49 ◼   ► that this interval is done because we're

01:16:50 ◼   ► in do not disturb mode.

01:16:52 ◼   ► That really sucks.

01:16:53 ◼   ► Calendar reminders that I set in the morning

01:16:55 ◼   ► because there's something different in the day

01:16:57 ◼   ► that I need to know about, they can't come through

01:16:59 ◼   ► because the watch-- it would be in do not disturb mode.

01:17:02 ◼   ► So here is the workaround that I have made so far.

01:17:07 ◼   ► So if anybody else wants to live like me,

01:17:09 ◼   ► here's the best I have found, but it's super frustrating.

01:17:13 ◼   ► I've set a reminder for myself to manually turn on

01:17:20 ◼   ► Do Not Disturb on the watch at night,

01:17:23 ◼   ► and then to remember to turn it off

01:17:27 ◼   ► with another alert in the afternoon.

01:17:30 ◼   ► So since I have to make a decision about all or nothing

01:17:35 ◼   ► with alerts on the watch, it's really important for me

01:17:39 ◼   ► not to receive distracting interruptions in the morning.

01:17:42 ◼   ► So it's like, well, I just have to put this

01:17:44 ◼   ► in do not disturb mode.

01:17:46 ◼   ► Like this is the equivalent of why I used to run two watches,

01:17:48 ◼   ► but I really don't want to do that anymore.

01:17:50 ◼   ► So I've just got to put the watch in do not disturb mode

01:17:54 ◼   ► during the morning.

01:17:56 ◼   ► And then everything else that I don't want to get bothered by

01:17:59 ◼   ► on the phone is in downtime,

01:18:02 ◼   ► so none of those notifications come through,

01:18:06 ◼   ► but OmniFocus and Calendars and the exercise app

01:18:10 ◼   ► can send messages to the phone

01:18:13 ◼   ► because now I'm not running Do Not Disturb

01:18:16 ◼   ► on the phone during the morning.

01:18:18 ◼   ► But it's a frustrating and annoying situation

01:18:23 ◼   ► because I'm mentally split now

01:18:27 ◼   ► between where am I getting notifications from.

01:18:30 ◼   ► And I love just like,

01:18:31 ◼   ► oh, the watch is just where all notifications come from.

01:18:33 ◼   ► And now it's like this split attention.

01:18:36 ◼   ► But so anyway, this is a really, really frustrating

01:18:40 ◼   ► result for me.

01:18:42 ◼   ► And I'll again put it in this bin

01:18:45 ◼   ► that I find it kind of infuriating

01:18:48 ◼   ► how the ability to genuinely control notifications

01:18:51 ◼   ► on the phone is so limited.

01:18:53 ◼   ► And especially now with Apple having screen time,

01:18:58 ◼   ► it's like, oh great, people can know

01:19:00 ◼   ► here's where you're getting all of these notifications from.

01:19:03 ◼   ► But if you wanna do anything more than just say no or yes,

01:19:07 ◼   ► you still don't have a lot of options.

01:19:10 ◼   ► So anyway, that's the sad end

01:19:15 ◼   ► to my concern about implementation details.

01:19:19 ◼   ► - It really does feel like something that will be changed.

01:19:21 ◼   ► - I really hope so.

01:19:23 ◼   ► I really do.

01:19:24 ◼   ► It feels like this was just something that was completely missed because it goes against

01:19:27 ◼   ► everything they're attempting to do here.

01:19:29 ◼   ► I hope you're right.

01:19:31 ◼   ► I really do hope you're right.

01:19:32 ◼   ► But as can sometimes happen with these things, if they do want to change it, I hope I don't

01:19:39 ◼   ► have to wait a year.

01:19:41 ◼   ► And I hope that Apple doesn't think, oh, they're cool with notifications now and no more ability

01:19:49 ◼   ► to fiddle with notifications is introduced for the next several years. So that's always

01:19:55 ◼   ► the concern. But my workaround sort of works, but it's just frustrating because I felt

01:20:01 ◼   ► like, oh, I was so close. I was so close to making everything work. But it doesn't work.

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01:21:48 ◼   ► next website.

01:21:50 ◼   ► Last episode we left our listeners of what had been described by some as the worst cliffhanger

01:21:55 ◼   ► in history.

01:21:56 ◼   ► Wow.

01:21:57 ◼   ► Some people-

01:21:58 ◼   ► That's quite the feedback.

01:22:00 ◼   ► They really want to know what is going on with your home screen.

01:22:05 ◼   ► I don't understand what there is to know about.

01:22:09 ◼   ► Well, there's nothing weird about it. Of course, we just want to know more about it. So can

01:22:12 ◼   ► Can you share with me an updated version of your home screen and we can take a little

01:22:17 ◼   ► look at this?

01:22:18 ◼   ► Okay, all right.

01:22:19 ◼   ► Let me give you the current version.

01:22:22 ◼   ► Slightly different from the old one.

01:22:24 ◼   ► But here, here is my screen right now.

01:22:27 ◼   ► All right, I will share mine with you too.

01:22:30 ◼   ► I think mine is mostly standard, but you know,

01:22:32 ◼   ► yeah, because there's there's no extra spaces for icons on the tennis max.

01:22:38 ◼   ► So you don't you don't have like the catastrophe of everything needs to be rearranged because

01:22:41 ◼   ► Is it like an extra row or something like that?

01:22:44 ◼   ► So, yeah, I imagine there's not as much iPhone icon

01:22:48 ◼   ► shuffling this year as there would be last year.

01:22:50 ◼   ► -No, but my home screen will definitely have changed

01:22:53 ◼   ► since the last time I shared it.

01:22:56 ◼   ► I know there's new stuff on there.

01:22:57 ◼   ► -What a nice wallpaper, Myke. What is that wallpaper?

01:23:00 ◼   ► -That is the, like, OG Cortex wallpaper.

01:23:04 ◼   ► -That looks nice. -Right?

01:23:05 ◼   ► It's created by the wonderful Simon Buckmaster,

01:23:08 ◼   ► and it's the OLED version.

01:23:10 ◼   ► looks so good on OLED.

01:23:11 ◼   ► - I love it.

01:23:13 ◼   ► I love it on the OLED phone.

01:23:16 ◼   ► So yeah, that will be in the show.

01:23:18 ◼   ► So again, if people wanna check it out.

01:23:19 ◼   ► It's really good as for the big phone too.

01:23:21 ◼   ► It's just something about it.

01:23:22 ◼   ► It makes everything pop.

01:23:23 ◼   ► The icon colors pop a lot more.

01:23:25 ◼   ► Like it's really excellent on the black phone,

01:23:28 ◼   ► which is why you went, like the OLED phone,

01:23:31 ◼   ► which is why you went for an all black, I'm sure, right?

01:23:34 ◼   ► 'Cause it just looks really good.

01:23:35 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's like you gotta go with black on OLED,

01:23:38 ◼   ► you know, at least for a while.

01:23:39 ◼   ► 'cause it's just, it's so good.

01:23:41 ◼   ► It's so super good.

01:23:43 ◼   ► - We can talk about my home screen real quick

01:23:44 ◼   ► if you want to.

01:23:45 ◼   ► Like, I don't know if there's anything

01:23:46 ◼   ► specifically new on there,

01:23:48 ◼   ► but I'm intrigued to know if you have any thoughts on it.

01:23:50 ◼   ► - I don't.

01:23:51 ◼   ► I have no thoughts on your home screen.

01:23:52 ◼   ► It's just overwhelming.

01:23:53 ◼   ► It's too much, Myke.

01:23:54 ◼   ► - Well, I'll ask you,

01:23:55 ◼   ► is there any icons that you're intrigued about?

01:23:57 ◼   ► There is one on there

01:23:58 ◼   ► that I think you might be intrigued about,

01:24:00 ◼   ► but you just might not know it yet.

01:24:02 ◼   ► - Oh, I wasn't sure if we're allowed to talk about this.

01:24:04 ◼   ► - Well, we can at least mention it.

01:24:08 ◼   ► It's the timer, right?

01:24:09 ◼   ► It's the timer app, you know?

01:24:11 ◼   ► Yeah, so isn't this some, like, toggle beta thing?

01:24:14 ◼   ► - Yes. - Isn't that what this is?

01:24:15 ◼   ► It is, and it's amazing.

01:24:17 ◼   ► Like, so this isn't an app that is released yet.

01:24:21 ◼   ► I, the developer did say that I could mention it.

01:24:24 ◼   ► Okay.

01:24:25 ◼   ► It is effectively the toggle app that you want

01:24:27 ◼   ► if you use toggle, because they've built, basically,

01:24:29 ◼   ► a new front end for toggle, and it's incredible.

01:24:32 ◼   ► Like, there's a widget, which is fantastic.

01:24:35 ◼   ► It shows the currently used one,

01:24:36 ◼   ► and you can save specific timers

01:24:38 ◼   ► you want to activate a bunch.

01:24:40 ◼   ► You can then create timers that are saved

01:24:44 ◼   ► with Siri shortcuts.

01:24:46 ◼   ► So you can ask the HomePod to start and stop them,

01:24:48 ◼   ► but then you can also integrate them into other shortcuts.

01:24:52 ◼   ► It's an amazing app.

01:24:53 ◼   ► - Okay, that is fantastic.

01:24:55 ◼   ► - I don't know how soon it is before it comes out.

01:24:58 ◼   ► It's moving along, but it's awesome.

01:25:02 ◼   ► Like it's really good.

01:25:03 ◼   ► - I'll be looking forward to that

01:25:04 ◼   ► because there are Siri shortcuts

01:25:07 ◼   ► that work for the default timer app,

01:25:11 ◼   ► but they remember none of the fiddly information

01:25:15 ◼   ► that I care about. - They suck.

01:25:16 ◼   ► - They're terrible.

01:25:17 ◼   ► - This is like, you can set the projects,

01:25:19 ◼   ► all the related tags, and name the project,

01:25:22 ◼   ► and then you can create that as a standalone item,

01:25:25 ◼   ► which you can trigger from the app.

01:25:28 ◼   ► You can also log just rudimentary times in there.

01:25:31 ◼   ► Like, they don't have to be saved.

01:25:32 ◼   ► just like saved times that you can trigger,

01:25:35 ◼   ► but then all of the saved times can be turned

01:25:37 ◼   ► into Siri shortcuts, we can then be turned,

01:25:39 ◼   ► put into the shortcuts app as well.

01:25:41 ◼   ► It's really good, it's very, very good.

01:25:43 ◼   ► - That's very cool.

01:25:44 ◼   ► - Like even, I don't even think the name is finalized yet,

01:25:47 ◼   ► but like when this app is out, you can rest assured

01:25:50 ◼   ► I'm gonna be talking about it again.

01:25:53 ◼   ► - Yeah, you gotta let me know when that one comes out.

01:25:54 ◼   ► - But I couldn't put this, so this is the thing,

01:25:56 ◼   ► it's like I wanted to put my home screen in the show notes,

01:25:59 ◼   ► but I emailed the developer and said, can I mention it?

01:26:02 ◼   ► and they said yes, you can mention it.

01:26:04 ◼   ► - I love that you've even chosen

01:26:05 ◼   ► the clown vomit icon for carrot.

01:26:07 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Boy.

01:26:08 ◼   ► - It's good though. - Some things never change.

01:26:10 ◼   ► - I feel like they added that for me.

01:26:11 ◼   ► So the timer app has a bunch of colorful ones,

01:26:13 ◼   ► but I won't move red

01:26:14 ◼   ► 'cause it just made the most sense to me.

01:26:16 ◼   ► - Yeah, it makes the most sense.

01:26:17 ◼   ► - The carrot one, it's like, it could just be anything.

01:26:19 ◼   ► You know, like, I like it like that.

01:26:21 ◼   ► It's good.

01:26:22 ◼   ► It's good to have a bit of color on the home screen,

01:26:23 ◼   ► especially with the black wallpaper.

01:26:25 ◼   ► - Colorful p-calc. - Yep.

01:26:27 ◼   ► - I feel like if any one of these things,

01:26:28 ◼   ► if they gave you more color, that's what you choose.

01:26:30 ◼   ► The timer has a six color rainbow option but I didn't choose it. I'm not out of control.

01:26:35 ◼   ► Oh okay. I'm glad to know that you're restraining your crazy color choices.

01:26:39 ◼   ► You're still using every slot on your phone, huh Myke?

01:26:41 ◼   ► Well of course I am.

01:26:43 ◼   ► All the content! Myke wants all the content of course. I guess this is all on theme.

01:26:48 ◼   ► Such a misunderstanding. Like I like to fill everything up. If it can be filled up I'll fill it up.

01:26:53 ◼   ► - You know what, no, I think I finally understand.

01:26:56 ◼   ► Okay, if I can reframe this in the context

01:26:59 ◼   ► of the way your Twitter looks,

01:27:01 ◼   ► I think maybe I can understand the mind of Myke

01:27:03 ◼   ► a little better.

01:27:04 ◼   ► - Okay. - That's why you want

01:27:05 ◼   ► everything filled up on your phone

01:27:07 ◼   ► so there's not an inch of breathing space.

01:27:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, if you've got the space, you know, fill it.

01:27:11 ◼   ► You've actually gone in the inverse

01:27:13 ◼   ► where you've gotta make a phone.

01:27:14 ◼   ► - Well, yes, of course. - Now you have less icons

01:27:16 ◼   ► than you did last time.

01:27:17 ◼   ► - I worked very hard to have fewer icons than last time.

01:27:21 ◼   ► Yes, Myke. (laughs)

01:27:22 ◼   ► You're doing that hidden thing again. How do you do that? Do you use some kind of guide?

01:27:27 ◼   ► Oh, how do I get the blank row on the top? I'm actually just doing it in shortcuts.

01:27:32 ◼   ► I just made a blank shortcut that does nothing, and then you can set a custom picture, and

01:27:37 ◼   ► since it's just black, I just put a black thing there.

01:27:40 ◼   ► You should put some secret stuff in there!

01:27:42 ◼   ► Oh, like secret launchers? Actually, that's not a bad idea! That's an interesting idea.

01:27:46 ◼   ► It's a way to get a bit more real estate on the screen.

01:27:48 ◼   ► Like you press a blank screen and all your hue lights go red or something, you know,

01:27:52 ◼   ► like you can just do some secret stuff up there?

01:27:55 ◼   ► Actually that's a great idea, I didn't think about that, but it is a way to have

01:27:58 ◼   ► some more buttons on the phone without the visual distraction of the buttons.

01:28:02 ◼   ► I'm going to give that a thought.

01:28:04 ◼   ► That's quite fun actually.

01:28:05 ◼   ► I like that.

01:28:06 ◼   ► Yeah, I like that a lot.

01:28:07 ◼   ► So you're still running, I'm looking at this, this is 100% shortcuts that you can

01:28:14 ◼   ► see and I'm sure that the four folders on the top they contain applications right?

01:28:17 ◼   ► Okay so yes although essentially every app is in just shoved into that first folder.

01:28:28 ◼   ► Okay okay but like there has to still be apps on the phone because the shortcuts have to go.

01:28:33 ◼   ► Yes Myke there are apps on the phone right I haven't let's let's not be crazy Myke there

01:28:38 ◼   ► are apps on the phone. I'm intrigued now having a look at this I want to play a little game.

01:28:43 ◼   ► Okay, I want to see if I can guess what the buttons do. Okay, do you want to try to like,

01:28:49 ◼   ► I'll explain high level what's going on. But if you want to play a guessing game first,

01:28:52 ◼   ► you go right? No, no, no, no, explain high level what's going on. So people can understand what

01:28:56 ◼   ► we're talking about. And then I'm going to try and guess what the buttons do. Okay, there's two

01:29:00 ◼   ► high level things here. One is aesthetic, and one is practical. The aesthetic one is, I think this

01:29:08 ◼   ► phone, the way I have set it up using icons that all match that have a color scheme that

01:29:17 ◼   ► is coordinated between them and that also importantly have no dumb words below them

01:29:23 ◼   ► looks beautiful. Every time I look at this screen, I think it looks really beautiful

01:29:31 ◼   ► because it's consistent. It does look nice and it's simple. It does. It is almost it's

01:29:35 ◼   ► It's like the perfect home screen for you, right?

01:29:38 ◼   ► Because you are able to force design consistency.

01:29:40 ◼   ► Yeah, I can force design consistency across it.

01:29:43 ◼   ► And there are badges right now because it's the afternoon and I'm open to the world.

01:29:49 ◼   ► And you know, like when we're done recording this podcast, I'll work through trying to

01:29:53 ◼   ► clear all of those badges.

01:29:54 ◼   ► But particularly in the mornings, the phone is just so pleasing to use, because all of

01:30:01 ◼   ► those badges disappear because everything with a badge is put into downtime.

01:30:05 ◼   ► So it's like, ah, what a beautiful phone.

01:30:07 ◼   ► So that's the aesthetic target here.

01:30:10 ◼   ► Now, the second thing that's going on is

01:30:14 ◼   ► the whole time I was using the beta

01:30:18 ◼   ► and thinking about shortcuts,

01:30:21 ◼   ► and what eventually led me to think,

01:30:23 ◼   ► oh, I think I can actually do this is

01:30:27 ◼   ► because shortcuts are so integrated with the system,

01:30:33 ◼   ► They have access on this level to all of the apps

01:30:37 ◼   ► that Workflow was never able to have.

01:30:40 ◼   ► So they can launch all of the apps at a bare minimum

01:30:42 ◼   ► and they can do all of these different things.

01:30:45 ◼   ► It totally changed the way I thought about the home screen

01:30:49 ◼   ► from a collection of the most used apps

01:30:54 ◼   ► to instead being a collection of the most performed actions.

01:31:00 ◼   ► - Sure.

01:31:02 ◼   ► So that's like, but once you start to really think

01:31:05 ◼   ► about that, it changes the idea of what do you want there?

01:31:10 ◼   ► And so that's why I've gone for this 100%

01:31:14 ◼   ► shortcut home screen, because I've tried to rethink

01:31:19 ◼   ► what are the actions that I want to do,

01:31:23 ◼   ► and then creating shortcuts that perform that action.

01:31:28 ◼   ► Now, maybe that's opening an app,

01:31:31 ◼   ► but maybe it's doing something else.

01:31:33 ◼   ► Those are the high-level goals of this home screen.

01:31:36 ◼   ► And I do have to say, it was experimental last time,

01:31:40 ◼   ► but since that show and this show,

01:31:42 ◼   ► especially since iOS is now out

01:31:45 ◼   ► and more apps are integrating with shortcuts,

01:31:48 ◼   ► it's like, this is the way I'm going.

01:31:50 ◼   ► This is no longer an experiment.

01:31:52 ◼   ► This is my life.

01:31:53 ◼   ► - I have a question. - Yes.

01:31:55 ◼   ► - You said about opening apps.

01:31:56 ◼   ► How are you, I mean, 'cause not every app

01:32:00 ◼   ► has a shortcut to open the app.

01:32:02 ◼   ► So what are you doing there?

01:32:04 ◼   ► - Now that Shortcuts is part of the system,

01:32:07 ◼   ► I have yet to find an app it won't open.

01:32:10 ◼   ► Whereas back when it was Workflow,

01:32:13 ◼   ► there were a bunch of apps it wouldn't open.

01:32:15 ◼   ► So I have not run into that.

01:32:17 ◼   ► - What action are you running though?

01:32:19 ◼   ► - So Shortcuts has a command that's just open app.

01:32:22 ◼   ► And as far as I can tell,

01:32:23 ◼   ► that command contains every app on the phone.

01:32:27 ◼   ► - Interesting, okay.

01:32:28 ◼   ► So when you tap on those,

01:32:30 ◼   ► does it immediately open the application

01:32:33 ◼   ► or does it open shortcuts first?

01:32:35 ◼   ► - Here's the one thing that is a little strange,

01:32:40 ◼   ► but I'm absolutely sure there is some glitchy behavior

01:32:45 ◼   ► in the current implementation of iOS

01:32:49 ◼   ► because I have a bunch of like weird content restrictions

01:32:52 ◼   ► set for myself around the browser as well.

01:32:55 ◼   ► But the way these icons are working

01:32:59 ◼   ► is that all of them are actually a little URL.

01:33:03 ◼   ► So what happens is you press it,

01:33:05 ◼   ► it quickly bounces to Safari,

01:33:07 ◼   ► but all Safari has is this URL,

01:33:10 ◼   ► which bounces back to Shortcuts, and then Shortcuts runs.

01:33:15 ◼   ► I'm messing with the settings a little bit,

01:33:16 ◼   ► but sometimes I've run into this thing

01:33:18 ◼   ► where it tries to bounce into Safari,

01:33:19 ◼   ► and it's like, "You've run out of time on Safari today."

01:33:21 ◼   ► It's like, "No, no, no, that's not remotely what I want,

01:33:23 ◼   ► 'cause I'm just using this to open an app."

01:33:24 ◼   ► But that is just like, there is clearly a glitchy thing

01:33:29 ◼   ► because I used to be able to whitelist these things.

01:33:32 ◼   ► So I think that will be fixed for anyone who's trying it now

01:33:35 ◼   ► and is also weird like me and has content restrictions.

01:33:37 ◼   ► But it works, like it just bounces to Safari

01:33:39 ◼   ► and then it runs the shortcut

01:33:41 ◼   ► and the shortcut does whatever.

01:33:43 ◼   ► Now, one of the things that is helpful here

01:33:47 ◼   ► is I have turned on the accessibility feature

01:33:53 ◼   ► to reduce motion in iOS.

01:33:56 ◼   ► And that makes the process of bouncing to Safari

01:34:00 ◼   ► and then bouncing to shortcuts almost instant.

01:34:03 ◼   ► Because there's no animation,

01:34:05 ◼   ► like the screen is just white for a split second

01:34:07 ◼   ► while it goes to Safari,

01:34:08 ◼   ► and then it's immediately in shortcuts.

01:34:11 ◼   ► And quite frankly, I don't really notice anywhere

01:34:14 ◼   ► in the system where the reduced motion bothers me.

01:34:16 ◼   ► The only thing is the app multitasker,

01:34:19 ◼   ► the physics of it seem a little weird,

01:34:21 ◼   ► but I've totally gotten used to it now,

01:34:23 ◼   ► and now I don't even think about it.

01:34:25 ◼   ► So turning on reduced motion, it's great.

01:34:28 ◼   ► As far as I'm concerned, there's no trade-off,

01:34:30 ◼   ► and there's only benefit

01:34:31 ◼   ► that the shortcuts load way, way faster.

01:34:33 ◼   ► - Okay, so I'm looking at this now,

01:34:36 ◼   ► looking at this screen,

01:34:37 ◼   ► and I can imagine that there's a mix

01:34:40 ◼   ► of performing some kind of action,

01:34:43 ◼   ► logging some kind of timer,

01:34:45 ◼   ► opening some kind of application, right?

01:34:48 ◼   ► So I'm gonna start with the doc,

01:34:50 ◼   ► and previous history of this show has told me that the green plus mark that is launching

01:34:57 ◼   ► a toggle timer, right?

01:34:59 ◼   ► Yeah, that one has been on the dock for a long time.

01:35:02 ◼   ► Yeah, I remember that.

01:35:04 ◼   ► That brings up a list of all of the possible workflows that I have that are related to

01:35:09 ◼   ► timers. So that may eventually disappear, but I'm still using that as I'm slowly

01:35:16 ◼   ► going through the long tail of converting a bunch of timers over to Siri actions. But

01:35:21 ◼   ► yes, that is the default. I want to start a timer. Here it goes.

01:35:26 ◼   ► All right, spaceship, using my knowledge of the apps that you use, is going to open Launch

01:35:32 ◼   ► Center Pro. Okay, I'm going to give you that. It does

01:35:36 ◼   ► not open Launch Center Pro. But I'm using it as a replacement for a bunch of the stuff

01:35:42 ◼   ► that Launch Center Pro used to do for me. Like little actions. So now I have just built,

01:35:47 ◼   ► when I press that, it opens up a menu and it's like, here's a bunch of junk I used to

01:35:51 ◼   ► have in Launch Center Pro.

01:35:53 ◼   ► That's now shortcuts.

01:35:54 ◼   ► Yeah, I've rebuilt Launch Center Pro with a shortcut.

01:35:57 ◼   ► So I'm assuming from this, you must have lots of shortcuts because you're building shortcuts

01:36:03 ◼   ► for shortcuts, right? Which is a thing you can do where like, you can build a bunch of

01:36:07 ◼   ► many actions and then build one action that calls all those many actions.

01:36:12 ◼   ► Yeah, so yeah, so this is this is like, if you have any experience programming at all,

01:36:18 ◼   ► it really pays off here. Because I'm trying to think about modularity of like, don't build

01:36:24 ◼   ► a big shortcut to do everything, build shortcuts that can call other functions. And there's

01:36:32 ◼   ► great tricks about you can use the the pace board on iOS as a place to temporarily store a value.

01:36:39 ◼   ► So you can have one shortcut, write a value to the clipboard, and then it launches another shortcut,

01:36:45 ◼   ► which then reads the clipboard and pulls that value in. So there's like, you have a variable

01:36:52 ◼   ► that can be passed back and forth between different shortcuts, which is great. But yes,

01:36:58 ◼   ► I'm having lots of shortcuts launch other shortcuts.

01:37:01 ◼   ► I built this one that needed that. Like it needed, I need something I was doing. I needed

01:37:05 ◼   ► to use the clipboard and I was really proud of myself that I built like a non-destructive

01:37:10 ◼   ► clipboard version by taking the clipboard, pasting it into a note, like that's in shortcuts,

01:37:17 ◼   ► pasting it into a text field, then using the clipboard and then the final action of the

01:37:22 ◼   ► shortcut is to take the original pasted element. Oh, that's clever.

01:37:26 ◼   ► So if I have something on my clipboard, I don't want it to be destroyed by running the shortcut?

01:37:31 ◼   ► That's very clever.

01:37:32 ◼   ► Thank you. I was proud of myself on that one, because I was like, hmm,

01:37:34 ◼   ► I'm frequently copying things and then going somewhere else and pasting them in,

01:37:39 ◼   ► and if I'm using shortcuts to move between documents, like in Google Docs,

01:37:44 ◼   ► I don't want it to destroy it, so I kind of built this really weird version of clipboard history.

01:37:49 ◼   ► It's just writing it once and then taking it again.

01:37:53 ◼   ► Alright, so the clipboard I'm assuming is some kind of notes or like, oh no, it's a

01:37:59 ◼   ► checklist. It's a checklist of some kind, right? It's gotta be.

01:38:03 ◼   ► Excellent guess. You're wrong. Ah. Okay. Let me explain. We don't really have to go through

01:38:09 ◼   ► all of these, but let me explain. Well, you won't go. I know you won't go through all

01:38:12 ◼   ► of them, right? Like some of you, I'm not telling you what that is and we'll have to

01:38:15 ◼   ► move on. I know that's how it's going to go. The chess piece in the top left, the blue horse,

01:38:20 ◼   ► night and the clipboard at the bottom. Both of those are omni-focus related.

01:38:26 ◼   ► Okay. And the night is acting as my top level

01:38:33 ◼   ► perspective. So I have a perspective in omni-focus, like a way of filtering the particular tasks.

01:38:38 ◼   ► And it's like my number one perspective that I'm using is like high level and super important stuff

01:38:47 ◼   ► for the day, but stuff that is not necessarily urgent,

01:38:51 ◼   ► but things that like, man, I feel like I've had a great day

01:38:54 ◼   ► if I do these things.

01:38:56 ◼   ► And so I always wanna make sure to try to clear that list

01:39:00 ◼   ► before I get sucked in by like more urgent things

01:39:05 ◼   ► as the day goes on.

01:39:07 ◼   ► So the night is there because I always just wanna be able

01:39:09 ◼   ► to like bam, hit that and go straight into this perspective.

01:39:13 ◼   ► This again is where like, man, shortcuts in Siri integration

01:39:17 ◼   ► with all the apps is just amazing

01:39:19 ◼   ► because you can just go exactly

01:39:22 ◼   ► to where you want in the app.

01:39:24 ◼   ► And the little clipboard on the dock

01:39:27 ◼   ► just brings up a list of all of the other perspectives

01:39:31 ◼   ► I might want to access in OmniFocus.

01:39:34 ◼   ► And then I can just select from there

01:39:35 ◼   ► and it opens OmniFocus right where I want to be.

01:39:39 ◼   ► And it sounds dumb,

01:39:41 ◼   ► like you're not really saving any steps,

01:39:43 ◼   ► but it totally, like it, again,

01:39:45 ◼   ► And this is just like reducing a little bit of friction makes things way easier.

01:39:49 ◼   ► Well, it shifts your mindset.

01:39:51 ◼   ► Like you said, like it takes you away from the silo of apps to broadening it out to think

01:39:58 ◼   ► of actions or projects.

01:39:59 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:40:00 ◼   ► And so I'm, yeah, I'm finding that I'm using the perspectives much more than I did before.

01:40:06 ◼   ► Just because it's very simple that the step isn't like, go to OmniFocus.

01:40:10 ◼   ► "Oh, what state was it left in back up to the main page

01:40:14 ◼   ► and then go to the place that I want to go?"

01:40:16 ◼   ► It's like, "No, no, I pressed the button,

01:40:18 ◼   ► take me to Aaron's right now."

01:40:20 ◼   ► Or like, "Take me to this other place right now."

01:40:23 ◼   ► And it just goes, it's so nice.

01:40:25 ◼   ► It's so super nice.

01:40:27 ◼   ► So those two are for OmniFocus.

01:40:31 ◼   ► And let me do a little bit of a diversion here

01:40:34 ◼   ► to tell you about the top row of folders

01:40:36 ◼   ► and what's going on since we're talking about OmniFocus.

01:40:38 ◼   ► So the four folders at the top, I am using

01:40:42 ◼   ► as the four kinds of notifications that I wish to receive.

01:40:47 ◼   ► Like what do I want badges for?

01:40:49 ◼   ► And so because these things are shortcuts,

01:40:53 ◼   ► shortcuts cannot display a badge

01:40:56 ◼   ► for whatever should be on them.

01:40:57 ◼   ► Only apps can do that.

01:40:59 ◼   ► So I want OmniFocus to be able to have badges

01:41:02 ◼   ► because I want to be aware of this number

01:41:05 ◼   ► that I'm always trying to get down to zero

01:41:06 ◼   ► over the course of the day.

01:41:08 ◼   ► So that first folder at the top left

01:41:11 ◼   ► with the little purple check mark in it,

01:41:13 ◼   ► that is the number that is being displayed in OmniFocus.

01:41:18 ◼   ► And I have a couple of other little to-do apps in there,

01:41:22 ◼   ► like I have Do in there,

01:41:24 ◼   ► which has different kinds of notifications for it.

01:41:26 ◼   ► So that first folder is acting for me

01:41:29 ◼   ► as here are all of the action items

01:41:34 ◼   ► that you have to perform in the day.

01:41:36 ◼   ► And it's really important for me to be able

01:41:38 ◼   ► to see those badges.

01:41:40 ◼   ► I totally love it.

01:41:41 ◼   ► And what I really love is that if you force press

01:41:46 ◼   ► on any of those folders, the system will show you

01:41:50 ◼   ► the breakdown of which app is displaying

01:41:53 ◼   ► how many number of badges,

01:41:54 ◼   ► and you can jump straight to that app.

01:41:57 ◼   ► - It's a very nice feature.

01:41:58 ◼   ► - It's a really nice feature.

01:42:00 ◼   ► I never used it before now, but suddenly it's vital.

01:42:03 ◼   ► Like it's super great.

01:42:05 ◼   ► And then continuing across the top row,

01:42:07 ◼   ► the next one over is iMessage badges.

01:42:10 ◼   ► Now the third one over then is my company Slack.

01:42:15 ◼   ► And then the last one is like miscellaneous

01:42:19 ◼   ► other kinds of communication that may come into me.

01:42:22 ◼   ► So VIP emails, secondary Slack,

01:42:25 ◼   ► a couple of other like communication things.

01:42:28 ◼   ► So across the top row,

01:42:31 ◼   ► It's also roughly ordered in priority.

01:42:35 ◼   ► - How can you have slacks in two different folders?

01:42:37 ◼   ► - Oh, Myke, you can have slacks in two different folders.

01:42:41 ◼   ► Did you not know this?

01:42:43 ◼   ► - No.

01:42:44 ◼   ► - Okay, okay, let me tell you something.

01:42:47 ◼   ► Don't tell anybody about this

01:42:49 ◼   ► because I'm afraid they're gonna pull it.

01:42:50 ◼   ► But if you search for Slack in the store

01:42:53 ◼   ► and then you go to the spot

01:42:56 ◼   ► where it says more by this developer,

01:43:00 ◼   ► there is an Enterprise Edition of Slack that you can download.

01:43:05 ◼   ► And so you can have two Slack apps running on your phone.

01:43:11 ◼   ► -Holy sh--.

01:43:12 ◼   ► -Which means you can have all of your lower-priority Slacks

01:43:18 ◼   ► in the Enterprise Edition

01:43:20 ◼   ► and your higher-priority Slack in the main Slack.

01:43:23 ◼   ► -Holy sh--. That's incredible.

01:43:26 ◼   ► But, like, what's the difference?

01:43:29 ◼   ► The difference is, the Enterprise version seems to get the exact same updates maybe a week or two later.

01:43:35 ◼   ► But other than that, it's the same.

01:43:37 ◼   ► Oh my god.

01:43:39 ◼   ► We've potentially ruined this by talking about it.

01:43:43 ◼   ► But I feel like Slack cares so much about the Enterprise that that app exists for a reason.

01:43:48 ◼   ► But you've just like, changed everything for me.

01:43:52 ◼   ► Because I'm, you know, like everyone, I'm a member of too many Slacks,

01:43:56 ◼   ► and I don't need the notification badges for most of them.

01:44:00 ◼   ► Or at least I would like notifications,

01:44:02 ◼   ► but I don't need them as urgently.

01:44:05 ◼   ► - Here's what you want to do, because this is what I do,

01:44:07 ◼   ► that for my company Slack, I wanna know right away

01:44:12 ◼   ► when someone messages me, right?

01:44:14 ◼   ► 'Cause it's like, here's the thing,

01:44:16 ◼   ► I don't wanna be the bottleneck,

01:44:17 ◼   ► I wanna turn it around, great.

01:44:19 ◼   ► But for all of the other Slacks,

01:44:22 ◼   ► the iOS implementation of deliver quietly is fine, right?

01:44:27 ◼   ► Like when I pull down notification center,

01:44:29 ◼   ► I can just see what all of that stuff is.

01:44:32 ◼   ► Or when I'm working across clearing these badges

01:44:34 ◼   ► from left to right, like I'll get to it.

01:44:36 ◼   ► I'll see that there's something there,

01:44:38 ◼   ► but it's not the top priority item.

01:44:41 ◼   ► So by having two instances of Slack,

01:44:44 ◼   ► it means that you can have two different iOS levels

01:44:48 ◼   ► of notification.

01:44:50 ◼   ► So it's great.

01:44:51 ◼   ► someone at Slack next week saying, "Wow, what happened to the downloads on the Enterprise

01:44:55 ◼   ► Edition?"

01:44:56 ◼   ► Myke, you're not really going to leave this in the show and ruin it for us, are you?

01:45:01 ◼   ► I'm going to leave it in. There's no way they can get rid of it. Like, Enterprise is too

01:45:05 ◼   ► important for them. They clearly need this application.

01:45:08 ◼   ► I'm going to blame you if you ruin it for us, Myke.

01:45:10 ◼   ► We've got to share this with the people. They need to know.

01:45:14 ◼   ► All right, well, I'm sure all the people will be very discreet about it.

01:45:17 ◼   ► Yeah, don't tell anyone.

01:45:19 ◼   ► You will have to download it on different days.

01:45:22 ◼   ► Alright, you work together, download it at different times.

01:45:25 ◼   ► Alright, let me see if I can knock some of these ones out here, right?

01:45:28 ◼   ► So, the globe is probably Safari.

01:45:30 ◼   ► The globe is not Safari, no.

01:45:32 ◼   ► I try never to use Safari on my phone. Do you even know me, Myke?

01:45:36 ◼   ► That's why I have the content restrictions on me.

01:45:38 ◼   ► Alright, alright, alright, alright.

01:45:39 ◼   ► I figured you'd still want to use the web browser sometimes, though.

01:45:43 ◼   ► I never want to use the web browser on my phone.

01:45:45 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:45:46 ◼   ► - It's glitchy right now in iOS 12,

01:45:48 ◼   ► but I am trying to set it so that the web browser works

01:45:51 ◼   ► for nothing but the URLs that Shortcuts is launching it.

01:45:54 ◼   ► - Well, let me take a second shot

01:45:56 ◼   ► and say it's something to do with maps.

01:45:58 ◼   ► - It is maps.

01:45:59 ◼   ► - Okay, great.

01:45:59 ◼   ► - So this is one of these pleasing little things

01:46:01 ◼   ► where I like to have maps on the home screen.

01:46:04 ◼   ► I don't use it a ton, but I do like to have it there

01:46:06 ◼   ► instead of searching for it.

01:46:08 ◼   ► And I do switch between Apple Maps and Google Maps,

01:46:11 ◼   ► and I was never gonna put two not super frequently used apps

01:46:16 ◼   ► on the home screen.

01:46:17 ◼   ► But so now the globe, I have one button.

01:46:20 ◼   ► It asks me, do you want Apple maps or Google maps?

01:46:22 ◼   ► And I just pick which one and then it opens it.

01:46:24 ◼   ► - Ooh, you know, just for stuff like that,

01:46:27 ◼   ► that's really clever.

01:46:31 ◼   ► 'Cause you could even like have one for Slack,

01:46:33 ◼   ► like which Slack app do you want?

01:46:35 ◼   ► - Exactly. - Do you want the good one

01:46:37 ◼   ► or the secret one?

01:46:38 ◼   ► (both laughing)

01:46:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, so there's like the red icon at the top,

01:46:44 ◼   ► which is the database icon.

01:46:46 ◼   ► - Yeah.