PodSearch

Cortex

70: CORTEK - WWDC 2018

 

00:00:00 ◼   ► No, I don't have anything on my phone. I don't know. I was like, I'll just look at my home screen

00:00:03 ◼   ► my disgusting messy home screen

00:00:05 ◼   ► Why would it be disgusting and messy?

00:00:08 ◼   ► Because I'm traveling, because I'm traveling

00:00:10 ◼   ► Oh, okay

00:00:11 ◼   ► Everything's... look at this, look at this mess. It's disgusting

00:00:15 ◼   ► That is really bad actually

00:00:17 ◼   ► It is

00:00:17 ◼   ► See? I wasn't kidding you, it's terrible

00:00:22 ◼   ► 32

00:00:23 ◼   ► Have you got an iOS update to do?

00:00:26 ◼   ► Oh, no, that's a Twitter DM hiding in a folder

00:00:29 ◼   ► Do you have badges for Twitter DMs when you travel?

00:00:32 ◼   ► - I'm in conference mode.

00:00:33 ◼   ► I need Twitter DMs.

00:00:35 ◼   ► - All right.

00:00:36 ◼   ► - You didn't even ask me about the 32 in the folder as well.

00:00:39 ◼   ► - No, I said the number and then quickly moved on.

00:00:41 ◼   ► What's 32?

00:00:42 ◼   ► 32 what?

00:00:42 ◼   ► - Okay, 32 is my email app hiding two folders,

00:00:47 ◼   ► two rows over, because as well,

00:00:49 ◼   ► I have to turn on one of my email accounts

00:00:51 ◼   ► when I'm traveling.

00:00:52 ◼   ► - Why do you have to?

00:00:53 ◼   ► - I have to for like tickets and hotels and like notifications.

00:00:56 ◼   ► It's just like, it's too impossible

00:00:58 ◼   ► to be the lockdown version of myself that I want to be.

00:01:00 ◼   ► I've got 19 items on OmniFocus.

00:01:02 ◼   ► A badge has appeared on my calendar.

00:01:04 ◼   ► I don't even know what it is.

00:01:05 ◼   ► Let me find out.

00:01:07 ◼   ► - I don't like traveling gray.

00:01:09 ◼   ► - Oh, it's a notification about a change to a flight.

00:01:12 ◼   ► Oh boy.

00:01:14 ◼   ► - Oh no.

00:01:15 ◼   ► - There we go.

00:01:16 ◼   ► I have cleared one badge while we started the show.

00:01:18 ◼   ► - Did you wanna clear that badge?

00:01:19 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's cool.

00:01:21 ◼   ► I'll look at it later.

00:01:22 ◼   ► - We're back in San Jose, California.

00:01:25 ◼   ► It's WWDC time again.

00:01:27 ◼   ► we are sitting around the exact same table that we sat around last year just

00:01:32 ◼   ► through some beautiful stroke of luck I've got the exact same hotel room which

00:01:35 ◼   ► is amazing I believe it has been dubbed the mic suite yep the suite this very

00:01:39 ◼   ► it's very sweet here and so I was able to coerce you to sitting in front of me

00:01:43 ◼   ► again I think I did try to push for the separate rooms and then again

00:01:47 ◼   ► immediately caved because I realized that would require me to bring equipment

00:01:51 ◼   ► and I was like for this summer of traveling no equipment so we're here in

00:01:56 ◼   ► person. Yep. And I'm looking looking right into your eyes,

00:02:00 ◼   ► which makes me a little bit uncomfortable, but they're just

00:02:03 ◼   ► they're so big and bright and they're they're as full of life

00:02:08 ◼   ► and enthusiasm as a Memoji and it's making me a little

00:02:12 ◼   ► uncomfortable. Why can't we can't talk about Memoji yet

00:02:14 ◼   ► because we'll lose the rest of the episode. I think at this

00:02:18 ◼   ► point, I'm able to just say equipment and then we can just

00:02:22 ◼   ► and that's that's my way of convincing you. You've learned

00:02:24 ◼   ► one of the buttons you can press with me, which is the,

00:02:27 ◼   ► can I bring fewer things or prepare less?

00:02:31 ◼   ► And if you can press that button, it's like immediate sale.

00:02:34 ◼   ► - So here we are, we're back in San Jose.

00:02:36 ◼   ► There's been a big addition to San Jose this year

00:02:39 ◼   ► in the form of electric scooters.

00:02:42 ◼   ► In some cities in the US right now,

00:02:44 ◼   ► there are these, I think two companies

00:02:47 ◼   ► that are dropping scooters,

00:02:49 ◼   ► littering scooters into the city.

00:02:52 ◼   ► - Littering.

00:02:53 ◼   ► I imagine kind of like ticket-tape parade type style.

00:02:56 ◼   ► A truck comes by and a bunch of scooters

00:02:58 ◼   ► get thrown out of the side.

00:03:00 ◼   ► And you can sign up in these applications

00:03:02 ◼   ► and you scan them with a QR code,

00:03:03 ◼   ► and then you have access to these electronic scooters,

00:03:06 ◼   ► which probably travel at like maybe 10 to 15 miles an hour.

00:03:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, 15 miles an hour is what they top out at.

00:03:12 ◼   ► - And there's a bunch of controversy around it

00:03:14 ◼   ► because whilst we have been here,

00:03:16 ◼   ► they have been banned in San Francisco.

00:03:18 ◼   ► - Really? - Yeah.

00:03:19 ◼   ► - Wow. - The exact scooters

00:03:20 ◼   ► that we're using are banned in San Francisco now.

00:03:22 ◼   ► right now.

00:03:23 ◼   ► So I wouldn't be surprised if by the

00:03:26 ◼   ► time this episode is released, they

00:03:28 ◼   ► are banned in San Jose.

00:03:29 ◼   ► Because it's just the next town.

00:03:31 ◼   ► Like I'm looking over the looking

00:03:32 ◼   ► out the window.

00:03:33 ◼   ► They're still there.

00:03:35 ◼   ► Are they taking away?

00:03:36 ◼   ► Are they taking away my scooters?

00:03:37 ◼   ► At any moment the scooter police may

00:03:39 ◼   ► come in and take them away.

00:03:40 ◼   ► Oh.

00:03:41 ◼   ► This was one of those things where it

00:03:43 ◼   ► was like I don't know if

00:03:45 ◼   ► I'm really a person who

00:03:46 ◼   ► typically would jump on a

00:03:48 ◼   ► 15 mile an hour scooter and ride it

00:03:50 ◼   ► through a city.

00:03:52 ◼   ► But it was like, "Oh yeah, okay, I'll give it a go."

00:03:54 ◼   ► And there is this arc that we've been talking about

00:03:57 ◼   ► with people where you're a little trepidatious of it,

00:04:00 ◼   ► you get on it, you're not sure, it starts going,

00:04:02 ◼   ► you fall in love with it and then realize

00:04:04 ◼   ► how horrifically dangerous it is as a mode of transport

00:04:09 ◼   ► for you and everyone around you.

00:04:11 ◼   ► - But Myke, they're really fun.

00:04:15 ◼   ► - Yes, they are really fun. - They're super duper fun.

00:04:17 ◼   ► - There was a moment where it was me and you

00:04:20 ◼   ► and some of our friends and we're like zooming down a little street and it was

00:04:24 ◼   ► just this really weird thing, like "what am I doing right now?"

00:04:27 ◼   ► It's super fun. I was very interested to see these scooters because I've been

00:04:32 ◼   ► vaguely reading about them on places like Hacker News and it's one of these

00:04:35 ◼   ► things where you keep hearing about like there's cities where there's piles of

00:04:40 ◼   ► scooters in the street like I don't really under- I never really understood

00:04:43 ◼   ► what it was and people were complaining about them like I just didn't get it.

00:04:46 ◼   ► Because when you're done with them you just get off and leave it wherever you

00:04:49 ◼   ► want basically and again like with all of these things that the company suggests

00:04:54 ◼   ► the kind of areas you're supposed to park them in and you know they say oh of

00:04:58 ◼   ► course you're wearing a helmet right like all these little things yeah like

00:05:01 ◼   ► and you know oh don't definitely don't ride them on the sidewalks but yeah

00:05:05 ◼   ► literally everybody rides them on the sidewalks yeah is they're not fast

00:05:09 ◼   ► enough for streets one of the apps asked me to scan my driver's license and I

00:05:13 ◼   ► noticed there was a little X on the screen so I just click the X and it let

00:05:17 ◼   ► me right on through. It's like, "driver's licenses are required, we just want to verify

00:05:22 ◼   ► your driver's license." No, I'll do it later. Sure, that's fine. Keep driving the scooter.

00:05:26 ◼   ► Please get on the scooter, sir, we need you, we need you. And they're so cheap, it's like

00:05:30 ◼   ► a couple of dollars for like a 10-15 minute ride. It's like, I see the utility in them,

00:05:36 ◼   ► but they're a nuisance. It reminds me of Uber. When Uber first launched, and like, all of

00:05:44 ◼   ► the cities tried to ban it, and then they had to slowly work

00:05:48 ◼   ► with each city to get them to come back.

00:05:51 ◼   ► It reminds me of that, because it's like,

00:05:53 ◼   ► you're taking something that is established,

00:05:56 ◼   ► you're changing it, and it's disrupting stuff,

00:05:59 ◼   ► and all of the traditional lobbies don't want it to occur,

00:06:03 ◼   ► and then over time, these companies have to find ways

00:06:06 ◼   ► to work with these cities, because otherwise,

00:06:08 ◼   ► they go out of business.

00:06:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, the Uber comparison is an interesting one,

00:06:11 ◼   ► because, you know, when, much to my surprise,

00:06:16 ◼   ► I was convinced to try one of these things,

00:06:19 ◼   ► and then much to my surprise, I totally loved it.

00:06:22 ◼   ► Like, it's just fun to ride.

00:06:24 ◼   ► It was like a fun novelty for the first day,

00:06:26 ◼   ► but there have now been, I think, three or four times

00:06:29 ◼   ► where I have legitimately run errand on those scooters,

00:06:33 ◼   ► and I realized, sort of like Uber,

00:06:36 ◼   ► it solves a very particular transportation problem

00:06:39 ◼   ► of, oh, I need to get to the Walgreens,

00:06:41 ◼   ► The Walgreens is far enough away that it's going to be like a 15 minute walk, which is

00:06:47 ◼   ► too short for an Uber.

00:06:49 ◼   ► But then this scooter turns that into a four minute walk, right?

00:06:53 ◼   ► Walk in quotation marks because you're going 15 miles an hour down the sidewalk wearing

00:06:56 ◼   ► your helmet and with your driver's license.

00:06:58 ◼   ► Not on the sidewalk.

00:06:59 ◼   ► No, not on the sidewalk of course.

00:07:01 ◼   ► Wearing my helmet in the road.

00:07:02 ◼   ► Yeah, wearing my helmet in the road and doing proper hand signals on this scooter that I

00:07:07 ◼   ► wouldn't want to let go of with two hands.

00:07:09 ◼   ► Like I'd want to hold tight very close.

00:07:10 ◼   ► So it's like, but it was genuinely interesting to notice

00:07:13 ◼   ► an immediate change in behavior in myself

00:07:16 ◼   ► of a kind of expansion of the radius of the city,

00:07:20 ◼   ► like how far away is the city?

00:07:21 ◼   ► I did the same thing where I went

00:07:23 ◼   ► to a coworking space to work, and I was like,

00:07:25 ◼   ► "Oh, this makes it really achievable to go and come back."

00:07:29 ◼   ► So I think they genuinely solve

00:07:32 ◼   ► a short distance transportation problem

00:07:36 ◼   ► in a super useful, super interesting way,

00:07:38 ◼   ► precisely because they're left everywhere.

00:07:41 ◼   ► So you can just pick one up,

00:07:43 ◼   ► and when you go to the place, you can just leave it.

00:07:46 ◼   ► And it is great, but it is very obvious as well

00:07:50 ◼   ► that these things are kind of a public nuisance

00:07:52 ◼   ► being strewn about everywhere,

00:07:54 ◼   ► but that's also the advantage of them.

00:07:56 ◼   ► They're kind of a nuisance on the sidewalk,

00:07:58 ◼   ► but that's also the advantage of them.

00:08:00 ◼   ► And I am very interested to see how this shakes out.

00:08:05 ◼   ► - Have you heard of the jump bikes?

00:08:07 ◼   ► - No.

00:08:08 ◼   ► like it's a bicycle that is part electric powered and uber bought them a while ago and they've just

00:08:16 ◼   ► launched them in London. Oh interesting. So it's like a part electric powered bike and they call

00:08:22 ◼   ► jump and they're coming to London now. Is it the same idea though that people just leave them

00:08:25 ◼   ► everywhere? No it's kind of like a cross between these scooters and our current like city bike

00:08:32 ◼   ► system. Okay. So like there are places that you pick them up from and leave them but if they're

00:08:37 ◼   ► prevalent enough like our current bike situation in a lot of places you can get them basically

00:08:42 ◼   ► anywhere right yeah it but like i think it's interesting like i can see now why people feel

00:08:48 ◼   ► so divisive about the bikes i like i now i understand in retrospect all of these stories

00:08:53 ◼   ► that i've been reading that they're this nuisance but they're all so amazing and they're great like

00:08:57 ◼   ► they just totally solved this problem that i never really thought of as a problem before

00:09:01 ◼   ► and i don't know how it's going to shake out but even things like oh we're going to have

00:09:06 ◼   ► designated dropping spots. It's like, yeah, but that just like, Oh, well,

00:09:10 ◼   ► it's one of the great things about these is that you just find one when they're

00:09:14 ◼   ► all GPS.

00:09:15 ◼   ► So you can look on the app and find one near to you and you just get off it.

00:09:18 ◼   ► And then there's, do you know how they get charged? Yeah.

00:09:22 ◼   ► I've been hearing about this, that they send,

00:09:24 ◼   ► they send like children around to go pick them up and charge.

00:09:26 ◼   ► Let's not say it's like that so much you as an individual can sign up to pick

00:09:31 ◼   ► them up, take them home.

00:09:34 ◼   ► they send you this specific type of charger

00:09:35 ◼   ► and they pay you like $5,

00:09:37 ◼   ► they give you an amount of money, right?

00:09:39 ◼   ► So it's like the gig economy on the other end of it.

00:09:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

00:09:43 ◼   ► - It's quite an interesting business model.

00:09:46 ◼   ► You can see people just driving around in vans

00:09:48 ◼   ► and just picking them up to take them home.

00:09:49 ◼   ► They charge them and then just put them,

00:09:50 ◼   ► I guess they're told to put them

00:09:52 ◼   ► in a specific place the next day.

00:09:54 ◼   ► - I was looking at it and that's what they say.

00:09:55 ◼   ► It's like they give you drop off spots to try to put them.

00:09:58 ◼   ► And presumably again, like everything,

00:10:00 ◼   ► they're using a computer to figure out

00:10:01 ◼   ► where's the best spot to leave them,

00:10:02 ◼   ► Where do people want them?

00:10:04 ◼   ► I know they're super interesting

00:10:05 ◼   ► and we have all been saying like they're so fun,

00:10:08 ◼   ► but it is inevitable that they're going to be banned.

00:10:10 ◼   ► So it is amazing to me that while we are here,

00:10:13 ◼   ► they have been banned.

00:10:15 ◼   ► But I think they're a real plus to a city

00:10:18 ◼   ► and in my like most optimistic timeline,

00:10:23 ◼   ► the existence of these bikes would encourage municipalities

00:10:26 ◼   ► to have better separated biking lanes.

00:10:29 ◼   ► Like that would be the best possible outcome,

00:10:32 ◼   ► But that's an outcome that takes decades to do.

00:10:36 ◼   ► - And again, they could keep bringing up London,

00:10:38 ◼   ► but since the introduction of the city bikes,

00:10:43 ◼   ► there are much better bike lanes in London

00:10:47 ◼   ► because they basically created new ones.

00:10:50 ◼   ► They call them like bike super highway or something

00:10:52 ◼   ► for these bikes when they were created.

00:10:54 ◼   ► So like, and this was because

00:10:56 ◼   ► it was a part government backed scheme to put them in.

00:11:00 ◼   ► But I think what these scooters show

00:11:02 ◼   ► and what all of this stuff shows is

00:11:04 ◼   ► that there is a change in the way that people wanna move.

00:11:07 ◼   ► And you're completely right.

00:11:09 ◼   ► Like I have somewhere I wanna go tomorrow,

00:11:11 ◼   ► which is a 35 minute walk, an eight minute taxi drive.

00:11:16 ◼   ► Now, neither of those are great.

00:11:19 ◼   ► But these scooters would be perfect.

00:11:21 ◼   ► That's like maybe like 10 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever

00:11:25 ◼   ► and that's perfect for something like this.

00:11:27 ◼   ► And it's showing, I think it's showing a lot about the way

00:11:30 ◼   ► that people today are outgrowing the way

00:11:33 ◼   ► that their cities allow them to move.

00:11:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, they're really at the intersection

00:11:37 ◼   ► of a whole bunch of different things.

00:11:38 ◼   ► And I've found it very fascinating to see them here.

00:11:41 ◼   ► I've found it great to use them to find out immediately

00:11:46 ◼   ► that like, oh, this solves all these problems.

00:11:48 ◼   ► Like I've thought of so many cases

00:11:50 ◼   ► where if they existed in London,

00:11:51 ◼   ► I've realized all of these point to point walking journeys

00:11:56 ◼   ► that I do that I would totally replace with the scooter.

00:11:58 ◼   ► And now I'm frustrated with the technology of walking.

00:12:03 ◼   ► I honestly have found myself thinking,

00:12:04 ◼   ► why am I walking to someplace like a chump?

00:12:07 ◼   ► Why am I not on a scooter right now?

00:12:09 ◼   ► But I think that is a sign of how perfectly

00:12:11 ◼   ► a technology is solving a problem.

00:12:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, but just the issue with them is they are dangerous.

00:12:16 ◼   ► They are, like, they go too fast.

00:12:17 ◼   ► - They go way too fast on the sidewalks without a doubt.

00:12:21 ◼   ► - For everyone, for you and other people,

00:12:23 ◼   ► but they are not safe enough to be on with cars.

00:12:28 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, there's no way, like every,

00:12:29 ◼   ► I have ridden them on the roads every time,

00:12:32 ◼   ► but you know, of course. - Of course, of course.

00:12:34 ◼   ► 'Cause you're a law-abiding citizen

00:12:35 ◼   ► with your big helmet that I've seen you be wearing.

00:12:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's with my big helmet and my respect for society.

00:12:39 ◼   ► - It has lights on the back of it

00:12:41 ◼   ► so people can see you, all of those things.

00:12:43 ◼   ► - All of those things.

00:12:44 ◼   ► But no, it'd be crazy to drive them in the streets.

00:12:48 ◼   ► It'd feel like you're just asking to die.

00:12:52 ◼   ► So there's no good place for them.

00:12:54 ◼   ► And this, along with all the other kinds of things

00:12:57 ◼   ► like the various segues and boosted boards,

00:13:00 ◼   ► it feels like we've just hit this tech.

00:13:03 ◼   ► - There are so many boosted boards here.

00:13:04 ◼   ► I mean, we're in California, so it makes sense,

00:13:06 ◼   ► but they're just everywhere as well.

00:13:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I've been seeing them pop up in London as well,

00:13:10 ◼   ► along with these unicycles. - Oh, really?

00:13:12 ◼   ► - And yeah, all of these things are popping up.

00:13:15 ◼   ► My understanding is part of all of these things

00:13:17 ◼   ► have come into existence because a bunch of segues,

00:13:19 ◼   ► original patents have expired, like with self-balancing,

00:13:21 ◼   ► and so now these things can exist,

00:13:23 ◼   ► combined with where we've reached with battery technology.

00:13:26 ◼   ► But the point is, there's a million different companies

00:13:29 ◼   ► coming at this same problem

00:13:31 ◼   ► from all of these different angles

00:13:33 ◼   ► of short distance electric transport.

00:13:37 ◼   ► And I feel totally convinced that these bikes have shown

00:13:40 ◼   ► there needs to be physical infrastructure changes in cities

00:13:45 ◼   ► in order to accommodate them.

00:13:46 ◼   ► Because they're a third solution

00:13:48 ◼   ► that just doesn't fit on sidewalks,

00:13:50 ◼   ► doesn't fit in roads.

00:13:51 ◼   ► But in like in this potential future are you operating these though or are they autonomous?

00:13:58 ◼   ► Oh these scooters?

00:13:59 ◼   ► That's the other way of getting around this kind of thing right?

00:14:02 ◼   ► Is that humans just don't drive them at all.

00:14:04 ◼   ► That's how you remove the, well that's how you change some of the safety equation.

00:14:09 ◼   ► I mean yeah okay now if we can fast forward to a place where all the cars are self-driving

00:14:13 ◼   ► as well and they feel like oh everything's very safe then that does change things but

00:14:17 ◼   ► that seems to me like oh it's too far off right?

00:14:20 ◼   ► Like, we've got scooters right now.

00:14:22 ◼   ► I don't want to walk ever again, Myke, starting today.

00:14:27 ◼   ► How do we solve this as fast as possible?

00:14:28 ◼   ► I thought you wanted one of those what are they called rascal scooters?

00:14:32 ◼   ► You're getting one of those next.

00:14:33 ◼   ► I think they're more generally accepted than these other types of scooters.

00:14:38 ◼   ► All I know is walking is for chumps now.

00:14:39 ◼   ► That's what these scooters have taught me.

00:14:42 ◼   ► This episode is brought to you in part by our friends at Squarespace.

00:14:45 ◼   ► Make your next move with Squarespace.

00:14:46 ◼   ► let you easily create a website for your next idea, giving you the ability to grab a unique

00:14:51 ◼   ► domain name, take advantage of beautiful award winning templates and more.

00:14:55 ◼   ► Where if you want to create an online store, a portfolio of your amazing artwork, a site

00:15:00 ◼   ► for your business, a site for your restaurant, a site for your band, a site for your blog,

00:15:04 ◼   ► no matter what type of website you want to make, Squarespace is the all in one platform

00:15:08 ◼   ► that will let you take care of it. There is nothing to install, nothing to patch or upgrade,

00:15:12 ◼   ► you don't ever have to worry about any of that stuff because Squarespace has got it

00:15:16 ◼   ► it covered for you. They have award winning 24/7 customer support that you can take advantage

00:15:21 ◼   ► of at any time in case you need any help but it's so easy to use I would really be surprised

00:15:26 ◼   ► if you did but it's there if you need it. They can let you take advantage of beautiful

00:15:31 ◼   ► templates that really show off your great ideas to the world. It's so easy to customise

00:15:36 ◼   ► your Squarespace website as well but you don't have to keep tweaking endlessly. You just

00:15:40 ◼   ► set it all up and get going. In fact, you can set up your website as part of a free

00:15:45 ◼   ► trial that you can set up with Squarespace. Just go to squarespace.com/cortex and you

00:15:50 ◼   ► can sign up for a trial with no credit card required right now so you can play around

00:15:54 ◼   ► with it and see what Squarespace has to offer. Then, once you're ready to put your website

00:15:58 ◼   ► out to the world, their plans start at just $12 a month. When you decide to sign up, use

00:16:03 ◼   ► the offer code "CORTEX" and you will get yourself 10% off your first purchase of a

00:16:08 ◼   ► website or domain and it will show your support for this show. Once again that's squarespace.com/cortex

00:16:14 ◼   ► and the code CORTEX to get 10% off your first purchase. We thank Squarespace for their support

00:16:18 ◼   ► of this show. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

00:16:23 ◼   ► So even though we've been at ScooterCon there's other stuff happening. Of course we are here

00:16:30 ◼   ► for Apple's WWDC Worldwide Developers Conference and we are in San Jose but something that

00:16:36 ◼   ► is 15 minutes away from here is Apple Park,

00:16:39 ◼   ► which is Apple's new campus.

00:16:41 ◼   ► And every time we come to California,

00:16:44 ◼   ► we always go somewhere.

00:16:46 ◼   ► And typically, in the past couple of years,

00:16:49 ◼   ► we've been able to get tours of a building.

00:16:52 ◼   ► That does not happen at Apple Park.

00:16:54 ◼   ► You do not get tours of that building.

00:16:57 ◼   ► But they have built a visitor center.

00:17:00 ◼   ► Now, we have been to One Infinite Loop,

00:17:03 ◼   ► which is the previous campus.

00:17:04 ◼   ► They have a store and it's a very small Apple store, that's it.

00:17:08 ◼   ► But I think Apple very cleverly knew that this had become a bit of a destination for

00:17:12 ◼   ► visitors in general.

00:17:14 ◼   ► So at the new campus they built an entire building which has in it a store, a cafe,

00:17:21 ◼   ► a kind of, has an AR experience which is just kind of information about their building which

00:17:26 ◼   ► they're very proud of.

00:17:27 ◼   ► They're very proud of the building and the AR experience.

00:17:30 ◼   ► And as a roof deck as well where you can go up and you can take pictures of the huge circular building

00:17:35 ◼   ► So what did you think of it?

00:17:37 ◼   ► Mean

00:17:40 ◼   ► There's there's an interesting thing. So when we went today when you pull up to see you know Castle Apple Park like this this

00:17:47 ◼   ► Infinite ring. I think they have a moat around the edge of it so that you can't approach too closely

00:17:53 ◼   ► A very peculiar looking fence is what it was very strange a fence with no horizontal slats

00:17:59 ◼   ► Just vertical just lots of poles aluminium poles. I'm assuming

00:18:03 ◼   ► I'm just assuming that if you walk through any of those two poles Apple has some kind of

00:18:08 ◼   ► instant stun laser that just knocks you unconscious and then

00:18:12 ◼   ► The grass opens up below you and that you go fall down a shoe that foliage is hiding stuff

00:18:17 ◼   ► Yeah, there's no it's not just it's not just trees

00:18:20 ◼   ► Yeah, like you wake up two days later on the beach in San Francisco thinking what happened like that's I think that's what happens

00:18:25 ◼   ► If you try to get close to Apple Park, the building is so

00:18:28 ◼   ► enormous that I

00:18:31 ◼   ► Found from the from the vantage point that we came up to and where they have this visitor center

00:18:36 ◼   ► You just lose all sense of scale of it

00:18:39 ◼   ► Like it's it's so big that one of the things that happens is it almost looks like it's flat again

00:18:45 ◼   ► Like you almost can't realize that it's a curved

00:18:47 ◼   ► structure

00:18:49 ◼   ► And I had been closer to it when it was under construction and like had this feeling of how enormous it really is

00:18:56 ◼   ► and so if I feel like I had a better sense of how just

00:19:00 ◼   ► Tremendous it is but it's it's a funny trick of the brain where the thing becomes so big that you lose all of your normal

00:19:06 ◼   ► Frames of reference and then it almost feels like not that it's small but it it feels like it's way

00:19:13 ◼   ► Smaller yeah than you think it is. Yeah. I've had an experience like this before

00:19:18 ◼   ► In Bucharest there is a building called People's House,

00:19:21 ◼   ► a palace of the parliament, which is,

00:19:23 ◼   ► this is a whole thing.

00:19:24 ◼   ► I actually did an episode of "Ungeniest"

00:19:26 ◼   ► about the history of this building.

00:19:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, you sent me the Wikipedia page on this one.

00:19:29 ◼   ► So it was one of those things where when you send it to me

00:19:31 ◼   ► and I'm reading through it, I'm thinking,

00:19:32 ◼   ► how did I not know this existed?

00:19:33 ◼   ► - I think it's like the second or third largest

00:19:36 ◼   ► man-made structure on earth, only behind the Pentagon.

00:19:38 ◼   ► Like, it is mammoth.

00:19:40 ◼   ► And it's the same thing that I found with Apple Park.

00:19:44 ◼   ► With these two buildings, anytime you are close enough

00:19:47 ◼   ► to look at it, your eyes cannot see all of it.

00:19:51 ◼   ► Like you have to move your head to see the edges

00:19:55 ◼   ► and that kind of scale is so wild.

00:20:00 ◼   ► Like it breaks everything that you,

00:20:03 ◼   ► 'cause it never can look as big or as like,

00:20:07 ◼   ► it never just looks right.

00:20:08 ◼   ► It looks almost too big and too small all at the same time.

00:20:10 ◼   ► It's very, very, very peculiar.

00:20:12 ◼   ► But again, I've only seen what I've seen from the outside,

00:20:15 ◼   ► but it is unbelievable.

00:20:17 ◼   ► - Yeah. - To look at.

00:20:18 ◼   ► - It really is.

00:20:19 ◼   ► I keep thinking of when I used to play Magic the Gathering,

00:20:24 ◼   ► Magic cards, like they have giants are a standard feature

00:20:27 ◼   ► and there's a joke in the game

00:20:29 ◼   ► about how every giant requires birds for scale

00:20:32 ◼   ► and as soon as you tune into it in the artwork,

00:20:34 ◼   ► you realize it's like, oh, there's a giant thing,

00:20:36 ◼   ► you have no sense of scale,

00:20:37 ◼   ► so they'll put like a flock of birds,

00:20:39 ◼   ► very tiny, like flying around

00:20:40 ◼   ► and I think Apple Park needs to just constantly release

00:20:44 ◼   ► doves from out from the center

00:20:46 ◼   ► then you would realize like my god it's enormous right that's that's my

00:20:51 ◼   ► suggestion for apple park but it's it's a beautiful building it it really is a

00:20:55 ◼   ► beautiful building it's it's nicely set like it's again i think it was like it's

00:20:59 ◼   ► like a castle because it's up like yeah it's higher than everything basically to

00:21:05 ◼   ► put it on which is probably where all the secret chambers are in the hill yeah

00:21:09 ◼   ► and it's also better as a defensive structure right if if you're you've got

00:21:12 ◼   ► - You've got to have the high ground.

00:21:13 ◼   ► Everyone wants the high ground.

00:21:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, without the high ground you have nothing.

00:21:17 ◼   ► - But, you know, and I just, you know,

00:21:19 ◼   ► as a obvious fan of this company,

00:21:23 ◼   ► there is something to be said about effectively building

00:21:26 ◼   ► the ancillary parts of a museum,

00:21:28 ◼   ► the gift shop, and the cafe.

00:21:31 ◼   ► Because when you then go there just to look at it,

00:21:35 ◼   ► you don't spend 10 minutes and leave,

00:21:37 ◼   ► your journey gives you an hour.

00:21:40 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:21:41 ◼   ► like we went and looked around the store and you buy the t-shirts you can only buy at the store

00:21:45 ◼   ► right because that's your merchandise for making it and they also sell everything else that you

00:21:50 ◼   ► know you can buy all the of course you can buy an iMac Pro if you really need to yeah I was thinking

00:21:55 ◼   ► of just grabbing one for the trip while I was there I have a podcast to edit later but then

00:22:00 ◼   ► also you can go and sit and I had an old grey tee like and you can appreciate there's this weird

00:22:05 ◼   ► kind of like feeling of it almost being like a gallery anyway because it's so

00:22:09 ◼   ► beautifully built. Yeah the visitor center I don't know it's it's not a mini

00:22:16 ◼   ► version of the main building but it's like it's there to inspire the idea of it.

00:22:20 ◼   ► It's closer to an Apple store, a really nice Apple store in design and you can see all

00:22:26 ◼   ► these little elements like the roof looks like the store they just built in

00:22:29 ◼   ► Chicago and the handrails and the stairs like the stores in London like they're

00:22:35 ◼   ► just kind of showing off everything. There's like this corridor where the bathroom is,

00:22:38 ◼   ► which is one of the most beautiful corridors I've ever seen in my entire life. Like, you

00:22:42 ◼   ► know, they made it this thing for people to go to when really like the old store One Infinite

00:22:48 ◼   ► Loop just looked like a not very good Apple store.

00:22:50 ◼   ► Yeah, it looked like they took some offices that were against the window, knocked out

00:22:54 ◼   ► the windows, right, put in a door.

00:22:56 ◼   ► Because that wasn't, you are right. And I think it's kind of what happened. I was told

00:23:01 ◼   ► that by a friend who used to work at Apple a long time ago

00:23:03 ◼   ► that the store used to be inside the building

00:23:06 ◼   ► and was more like the company store.

00:23:09 ◼   ► - Okay, that makes sense.

00:23:10 ◼   ► - And then they started to kind of open it up

00:23:12 ◼   ► to the world a little bit and turned it into an Apple store

00:23:14 ◼   ► 'cause there wasn't always Apple stores, right?

00:23:17 ◼   ► But they had the kind of company store

00:23:18 ◼   ► where you would go and buy the new products

00:23:21 ◼   ► when they were all released.

00:23:22 ◼   ► But then they kind of opened it up to the world.

00:23:24 ◼   ► But I mean, when we went there a couple of years ago,

00:23:26 ◼   ► like that's not your day.

00:23:28 ◼   ► Like we went there on the way to Facebook.

00:23:30 ◼   ► - Yeah, we just, 'cause we knew it, we stopped off,

00:23:32 ◼   ► we wanted to see it, you know, we took a picture

00:23:35 ◼   ► in front of the Apple flag and then it's like,

00:23:36 ◼   ► and then you just keep on going, but you're right.

00:23:40 ◼   ► Apple did a great job of making this,

00:23:42 ◼   ► it's not like a full day expedition,

00:23:44 ◼   ► but it's a place that you wanna go.

00:23:45 ◼   ► - We spent like our afternoon, you know,

00:23:47 ◼   ► like a big part of our afternoon there, it was nice.

00:23:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, you go, you take a look, it's a beautiful setting,

00:23:52 ◼   ► you can sit upstairs and look at the building

00:23:55 ◼   ► and be in the sunshine and then you go down

00:23:57 ◼   ► and get some refreshments, it was,

00:23:58 ◼   ► And it's a nice space to be in for, for a thing that is also like a busy

00:24:03 ◼   ► retail environment, they did a good job of giving you these spaces to just be

00:24:09 ◼   ► like the cafe has a lot of space and it's separated from the store and the upstairs

00:24:13 ◼   ► has a lot of space and is separated from the store.

00:24:16 ◼   ► So they did such a good job of giving you a place to go.

00:24:20 ◼   ► If you are a fan of this company.

00:24:23 ◼   ► And I think they also probably saved themselves an enormous amount of hassle

00:24:27 ◼   ► patrolling that perimeter, right?

00:24:29 ◼   ► Because they can tell everybody, go to this place,

00:24:31 ◼   ► here's the visitor center, you can take some pictures,

00:24:34 ◼   ► like this is the spot to congregate.

00:24:36 ◼   ► - Because they don't want people to be in there.

00:24:37 ◼   ► Like it's almost, it's impossible to get in there.

00:24:40 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Like it's very,

00:24:41 ◼   ► very, very hard. - Yeah.

00:24:42 ◼   ► - I've come close so many times and then they like,

00:24:45 ◼   ► they do a little bit of research, you can't come in here.

00:24:47 ◼   ► And I do understand, like I almost find it strange

00:24:52 ◼   ► that we've been able to go into as many buildings

00:24:55 ◼   ► as we have been able to go in.

00:24:57 ◼   ► because all of these tech companies are so very secretive

00:25:00 ◼   ► about what they do anyway.

00:25:02 ◼   ► It is almost funny to me that I've been able to go to

00:25:05 ◼   ► as many companies as I've been to.

00:25:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think I felt that most strongly

00:25:09 ◼   ► when we visited Facebook.

00:25:11 ◼   ► It's not that I wouldn't have expected

00:25:13 ◼   ► Facebook would give tours,

00:25:15 ◼   ► but it was just that once we were on the inside,

00:25:17 ◼   ► it was such a strange alternate Facebook land.

00:25:21 ◼   ► - There is danger to showing to the world what they do.

00:25:24 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:25:25 ◼   ► Universal Studios like campus that they built for themselves.

00:25:28 ◼   ► - That's a good way to put it.

00:25:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, I've saw that from someone.

00:25:31 ◼   ► Someone mentioned, we were talking about this,

00:25:32 ◼   ► that's what it's like.

00:25:34 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:25:34 ◼   ► - That it's, it almost feels like a risk

00:25:38 ◼   ► to show it to people because, you know,

00:25:42 ◼   ► from talking to people at Facebook,

00:25:44 ◼   ► they seem very, you know, they're very adamant,

00:25:46 ◼   ► like, you know, we don't sleep here, we don't live here.

00:25:49 ◼   ► Right, but nobody believes that.

00:25:51 ◼   ► - Right, yeah, nobody believes that.

00:25:51 ◼   ► - And when you see the fact that you can get a haircut there

00:25:54 ◼   ► you need it. It doesn't enforce that idea and we haven't actually spoken about

00:26:00 ◼   ► this. We'll get to it at some point in the future but like Facebook are building a

00:26:03 ◼   ► village. Yeah yeah that's been on our list for a while of like we thought we

00:26:07 ◼   ► saw the walled city of Facebook and it's like oh no. They are literally building one. But that is yet to come.

00:26:12 ◼   ► Right this was this was just the start of it but but I but I agree like that

00:26:17 ◼   ► was where I had the feeling the most strongly like I can't believe that

00:26:20 ◼   ► they're letting us tour this and I'm still so grateful that we were able to

00:26:25 ◼   ► do that like that was such an interesting day even though I had to lay

00:26:28 ◼   ► down on the floor in my bathroom and stay with the blank ceiling for a while

00:26:31 ◼   ► to like defrag my brain from the whole experience.

00:26:35 ◼   ► Oh I've gone on this riff by the way. I bought one. I lasted like two days and now I have one.

00:26:40 ◼   ► And it is as good as it was in that place.

00:26:44 ◼   ► Okay I've got to come over to your place then and we're gonna be fine.

00:26:46 ◼   ► I played the game. So you know the game we played on the train?

00:26:49 ◼   ► Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:26:50 ◼   ► They've epic made a game based on that.

00:26:53 ◼   ► Mm-hmm.

00:26:53 ◼   ► And I can only play it for like 15 minute chunks because it's way too intense.

00:26:57 ◼   ► It's way too intense.

00:26:58 ◼   ► I have to like, I love it, but I have to take it off like I can't do it anymore.

00:27:01 ◼   ► All right, I'm definitely coming over to your house.

00:27:04 ◼   ► Yeah, it's, it's, there's a game called Beat Saber. Oh, it's like a rhythm game.

00:27:08 ◼   ► My god.

00:27:09 ◼   ► You've so good. Anyway.

00:27:11 ◼   ► As soon as, as soon as I'm back. As soon as I'm back from, from my summer of traveling.

00:27:15 ◼   ► From your travels.

00:27:15 ◼   ► - I will be.

00:27:16 ◼   ► I'm gonna go right out of Heathrow, right to your door.

00:27:19 ◼   ► - Just come straight to my place, to the cottage.

00:27:21 ◼   ► - Let's do some VR.

00:27:22 ◼   ► But no, it is an interesting thing.

00:27:24 ◼   ► We could get into Facebook,

00:27:25 ◼   ► we can get into all these other places.

00:27:26 ◼   ► And they seemed genuinely happy to show us around.

00:27:30 ◼   ► - They have a whole program for visitors and everything.

00:27:33 ◼   ► - And then, you know, Apple is Apple,

00:27:35 ◼   ► and they are fortress Apple upon a hill.

00:27:38 ◼   ► But they also built the world's most beautiful fortress.

00:27:41 ◼   ► - It's the most desirable one to get into.

00:27:43 ◼   ► They've made it worse.

00:27:45 ◼   ► - Not only was it hard before, you've now built this like,

00:27:49 ◼   ► I don't even know how to describe it.

00:27:52 ◼   ► Like it's kind of like a statue to themselves, right?

00:27:55 ◼   ► It was kind of a way that we were describing it.

00:27:57 ◼   ► It's like this thing which is,

00:27:58 ◼   ► you have built a tourist attraction.

00:28:00 ◼   ► Well like previously it was a tourist attraction

00:28:02 ◼   ► because it was Apple, but now you've built,

00:28:04 ◼   ► you have a piece of architecture

00:28:06 ◼   ► that people just wanna look at and then go inside

00:28:09 ◼   ► and see the garden on the inside.

00:28:11 ◼   ► - Right, but we don't get to see the garden on the inside.

00:28:13 ◼   ► - That's not for you.

00:28:14 ◼   ► So you mentioned about travel.

00:28:17 ◼   ► How is the Year of Order surviving all this travel?

00:28:21 ◼   ► - I'm very tired, Myke.

00:28:22 ◼   ► - Yeah, are you going to anywhere else after this?

00:28:25 ◼   ► - Oh, Myke, this is but chapter one of part two.

00:28:29 ◼   ► - Well, 'cause I know that there is a big conference

00:28:31 ◼   ► which is focused on video, which is coming up soon.

00:28:32 ◼   ► I don't know if you're going, but that's coming up.

00:28:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, I was trying today to mentally place

00:28:40 ◼   ► what has been going on with me, but yeah, I think,

00:28:42 ◼   ► I'm dividing up the past couple months for me is two parts.

00:28:46 ◼   ► We're in part two. This is chapter one. WWDC.

00:28:51 ◼   ► I think the, I think I can say that it ends chapter three.

00:28:55 ◼   ► Vidcon.

00:28:58 ◼   ► Oh, you're going again. Okay. Okay.

00:29:00 ◼   ► It's the place to be Myke.

00:29:02 ◼   ► Oh, all right. Sorry. I don't know how I missed that.

00:29:05 ◼   ► Um, yeah, it's been, it's been interesting. Uh,

00:29:09 ◼   ► it's been interesting because one of the things I'm doing in this part two is I

00:29:14 ◼   ► am thinking a lot about the year of order and

00:29:18 ◼   ► Well because year of order was created because of this last year.

00:29:23 ◼   ► Yeah. Largely because of last year.

00:29:24 ◼   ► You're basically doing the same amount of travel again.

00:29:26 ◼   ► Yeah. Depending on how you want to count it, like it's,

00:29:29 ◼   ► I think cumulatively it's going to be more travel this year. It's just,

00:29:32 ◼   ► it's just broken up a little bit more. There's a space in the middle. But yeah,

00:29:36 ◼   ► But last year, Summer of Travel was great, super valuable for me to do, but completely

00:29:42 ◼   ► destroyed my life.

00:29:43 ◼   ► It really did.

00:29:45 ◼   ► I was just destroyed.

00:29:46 ◼   ► And so that really did get me started thinking about Year of Order and like I can't possibly

00:29:50 ◼   ► do that.

00:29:51 ◼   ► So I'm trying this time to be much better.

00:29:55 ◼   ► Spoiler alert, part one, I totally failed at this.

00:29:59 ◼   ► So all of my initial travels, I was not very good.

00:30:02 ◼   ► But that's what life is, right?

00:30:03 ◼   ► You try to figure out and you try to get better.

00:30:05 ◼   ► So for part two, I've made myself a little spreadsheet and I'm trying to keep track of

00:30:10 ◼   ► two things.

00:30:11 ◼   ► I've set myself a kind of low but still difficult to achieve goal, which is that I'm trying

00:30:18 ◼   ► to be very consistent about doing some kind of exercise on a regular basis and doing some

00:30:24 ◼   ► kind of what I'm classifying as "real work" on a regular basis.

00:30:29 ◼   ► work for the purposes of this summer is doing something that moves a project closer to publication

00:30:37 ◼   ► or closer to closure. So like we're doing real work right now, Myke.

00:30:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:30:43 ◼   ► Right, because we're recording a podcast. This is necessary to happen in order to make

00:30:47 ◼   ► the podcast go up. So it's like I'm going to be able to give myself a little tick right

00:30:52 ◼   ► after we're done with this.

00:30:53 ◼   ► Right, because you have at least spent some time today

00:30:56 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly.

00:30:57 ◼   ► pushing something forward.

00:30:58 ◼   ► Yeah. And so my, like with the way I work, I've mentioned it before on the show,

00:31:02 ◼   ► but I tend to think of things in terms of units, which for me are about 40 minutes.

00:31:06 ◼   ► So the goal is like do 40 minutes of work that push,

00:31:11 ◼   ► like that is real work that pushes a project forward.

00:31:14 ◼   ► And I'm aiming to do that like, and every seven, seven days,

00:31:18 ◼   ► do that like five days on average, which here's the thing.

00:31:21 ◼   ► I know when I say that,

00:31:23 ◼   ► that it sounds like there's no amount of work being done.

00:31:27 ◼   ► But the interesting thing I can and what I've come across on this,

00:31:30 ◼   ► this conference in particular is like the reason we go to these things is it is

00:31:35 ◼   ► valuable to interact with the people who are here and to do the events that are

00:31:41 ◼   ► here and to go to meetings while you're here.

00:31:42 ◼   ► And I'm so aware that taking out time to try to do exercise and to try to do real

00:31:48 ◼   ► work,

00:31:50 ◼   ► it has to play off of taking time away from the very reason that we're here.

00:31:57 ◼   ► - Which in and of itself is a very valuable

00:32:00 ◼   ► work related thing.

00:32:01 ◼   ► Like it is networking, it is meeting,

00:32:04 ◼   ► and it is stuff that helps to find new opportunities

00:32:07 ◼   ► and strengthen current ones.

00:32:09 ◼   ► Even finding like a solid hour every day to do work in

00:32:14 ◼   ► can be tricky when there is all this other stuff going on

00:32:19 ◼   ► which you wouldn't technically class as typical work.

00:32:22 ◼   ► - Right.

00:32:23 ◼   ► - But there is, depending on how you're approaching

00:32:25 ◼   ► something like this, there is a work benefit to it.

00:32:28 ◼   ► - Yeah, like again, thinking of last summer,

00:32:30 ◼   ► the things that got done, like would I consider them

00:32:32 ◼   ► real work, no, but they were super important

00:32:34 ◼   ► and they're exactly that kind of thing.

00:32:35 ◼   ► Like, you never know what comes out of meetings,

00:32:38 ◼   ► you never know just like where conversations can go,

00:32:41 ◼   ► even if they don't pay off for like three years, right?

00:32:44 ◼   ► Or you just like, you start establishing

00:32:45 ◼   ► relationships with people, it's a really valuable thing.

00:32:49 ◼   ► And it's just, it's been very interesting for me to,

00:32:53 ◼   ► being very deliberate about I'm trying to carve out this time and realizing it's

00:32:58 ◼   ► like, man, it really,

00:33:01 ◼   ► it is really hard to do that on a consistent basis when the very reason you're

00:33:06 ◼   ► here is to spend as much time as possible doing the things that you came here

00:33:11 ◼   ► for. So I've, I'm, I'm happy with what I've done so far, but like I'm just,

00:33:16 ◼   ► it's a,

00:33:16 ◼   ► it's one of these cases in life where I'm just very aware of these trade offs.

00:33:22 ◼   ► So like basically in the mornings, like if I wake up early enough,

00:33:25 ◼   ► like I'm trying to sneak out and go get coffee and like take all the less

00:33:29 ◼   ► populated routes to the coffee store and back to the hotel to try to be able to

00:33:34 ◼   ► get back into my room without running across anybody and like getting swept into

00:33:38 ◼   ► the maelstrom of the day. Uh, and it's like,

00:33:40 ◼   ► it is hard or just finding a little window of time between events.

00:33:44 ◼   ► You're also in conflict with the exact reason that you've made the trip.

00:33:48 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly. It's like I've come across the face of the earth.

00:33:51 ◼   ► Avoiding everything is kind of silly.

00:33:54 ◼   ► Because otherwise you've taken such disruption out of your life anyway.

00:34:00 ◼   ► Why even do it if you're just going to hide away in a hotel room all day, right?

00:34:06 ◼   ► So this is, I feel like for the Year of Order, this week so far, being at WWDC, has been

00:34:11 ◼   ► an interesting case of, I think I've hit it pretty well attempting this balance between

00:34:18 ◼   ► maintaining some kind of regularity in work and health while I'm traveling,

00:34:23 ◼   ► while also participating largely in everything that's going on,

00:34:26 ◼   ► but not everything because I am sneaking away sometimes.

00:34:30 ◼   ► I've been thinking a lot of, um, like what you think of as,

00:34:33 ◼   ► as decreasing marginal utility of things.

00:34:36 ◼   ► And so I'm just very aware of, I guess,

00:34:39 ◼   ► the first half an hour of exercises and there's like a great marginal increase

00:34:45 ◼   ► what the day is like and the same thing with the first unit of work is a great marginal increase

00:34:49 ◼   ► so like i'm just trying to hit the maximum point on that curve and then like bail immediately and

00:34:55 ◼   ► then and then do all the things that are the very reason that i'm here so yeah but i'm very tired

00:35:00 ◼   ► even though this is probably i reckon probably end up being a similar amount of work that you

00:35:05 ◼   ► probably did on the last trip it is the system of having this like i've checked this off this

00:35:11 ◼   ► I guarantee will make you feel like there has been more orders to these trips.

00:35:15 ◼   ► Yeah, it is also partly keeping the order. I mean, I will disagree with you because last year the

00:35:20 ◼   ► amount of real work and particularly exercise was like horrific. I understand. I did not do well

00:35:27 ◼   ► at all. But so already I feel much better about this balance. But again, I was thinking about the

00:35:34 ◼   ► year of order and just, you know, in my mental time frame of when years are like, oh, I still

00:35:39 ◼   ► live on teacher time and the year starts in the summer. I'm just letting you know now,

00:35:43 ◼   ► and I think I've gotten it on the record before, that the year of order is not a year-long project.

00:35:48 ◼   ► It's not the year of order. It's going to be the regime of order. Like this is going to be a longer

00:35:52 ◼   ► thing. But I'm feeling good about it. This episode of Cortex is also brought to you by

00:35:57 ◼   ► FreshBooks. Hey freelancers, come on, you know how important it is to make smart decisions for

00:36:02 ◼   ► your business, right? One of those smart decisions is helping you save time and frustration. That is

00:36:07 ◼   ► That is what FreshBooks is all about. They simplify tasks like invoicing, expense tracking

00:36:11 ◼   ► and even getting paid online. FreshBooks has drastically reduced the time it takes for

00:36:16 ◼   ► their over 10 million customers to deal with their paperwork. In fact, FreshBooks did some

00:36:20 ◼   ► studies and worked out you could save up to 192 hours with their incredible cloud accounting

00:36:26 ◼   ► software. Why would you not want to do that? I just came back from travelling. Whilst I'm

00:36:30 ◼   ► travelling, I always have to take care of some regular business tasks. My business is

00:36:34 ◼   ► always running the stuff that needs to be done. And with FreshBooks I'm able to get

00:36:38 ◼   ► my invoices sent out so fast I can get back to doing whatever it is that I need to do.

00:36:43 ◼   ► It is so simple to log in to FreshBooks, I can get my notifications from my notification

00:36:47 ◼   ► center there so I can see exactly what's changed since the last time I logged in,

00:36:51 ◼   ► I can see who's viewed invoices, I can see who's late, I can get all the information super quick

00:36:55 ◼   ► and then when I'm sending my invoices out it's all in a what you see is what you get interface,

00:37:00 ◼   ► so what I see is what my client's going to see and everything is filled out so fast I can get it all sent off and I

00:37:06 ◼   ► don't have to worry anymore. And the same is that I don't have to worry when I'm traveling about sending chaser and reminder emails because FreshBooks

00:37:13 ◼   ► will do that all for me. If you're listening to this and still not using FreshBooks, fix that problem.

00:37:19 ◼   ► Come on, go to freshbooks.com/cortex right now and you can take advantage of an unrestricted 30-day free trial

00:37:25 ◼   ► just because you listen to this show. There's no credit card required, you just go to freshbooks.com/cortex

00:37:31 ◼   ► and then when they say "hey how did you hear about us?" say "you heard about them from the Cortex Podcast."

00:37:36 ◼   ► Our thanks to FreshBooks for their continued support of this show and Relay FM.

00:37:40 ◼   ► I have ticked off a huge year of branching out moment last night. Yes. We had a live show last

00:37:47 ◼   ► night um for one of one of my tech podcasts called Connected and we had a big theater and we had a

00:37:53 ◼   ► big audience and it was a big production and really good. There are very few

00:37:58 ◼   ► things in my professional career just any amount of work that I do where when

00:38:04 ◼   ► it's completed I say that was perfect. This was one of those things.

00:38:10 ◼   ► Everything went perfectly. Absolutely not one thing I would want to change about

00:38:14 ◼   ► the event. The show went great. Meeting everybody was amazing. Everybody that

00:38:19 ◼   ► came was wonderful. I got to have so many of my friends come out and see me do

00:38:23 ◼   ► this thing. It was fantastic. It was so good. Yeah and I gotta say as an

00:38:29 ◼   ► audience member, as like you ended up with an amazing venue. You're up

00:38:35 ◼   ► on stage like you guys killed it in the show. I really felt I was

00:38:40 ◼   ► sitting in the audience just like beaming with happiness for you guys

00:38:43 ◼   ► because I could just... it's one of those things where you're at an event and you

00:38:46 ◼   ► can just tell like man this is just going great like everything about this

00:38:50 ◼   ► is going great and so yeah it's it was a big big like it felt like such um just

00:38:58 ◼   ► being in like a semi-circular theater with a balcony and everyone like it felt

00:39:04 ◼   ► like you really put on such a thing. We had like spotlights and red velvet curtain.

00:39:10 ◼   ► I'm sure there were gaffers I don't know there was like things. We had

00:39:14 ◼   ► production managers and it was a we had a green room yeah which had a tv in it so we could see

00:39:19 ◼   ► the stage and could listen to it and dressing rooms i had a dressing room uh it was it was so

00:39:26 ◼   ► good it was at a as a location here called the hammer theater which is um i think it's part of

00:39:31 ◼   ► the university here uh so they as also like we had students helping us out as part of like as

00:39:38 ◼   ► well as the like the professional people that they have it was it was so good we had the show was

00:39:43 ◼   ► just done so perfectly I absolutely loved it and this is a massive tick for me professionally.

00:39:48 ◼   ► I mean this week has been a pretty big week for me in general. Well yeah because when you were saying

00:39:53 ◼   ► oh you've hit a big tick I was thinking which big tick has Myke ticked because

00:39:59 ◼   ► yeah if we can jump a little bit ahead you did tick the biggest of ticks that I think you possibly can

00:40:07 ◼   ► in your industry. Which is connected the artwork and the name were shown on stage during WWDC

00:40:18 ◼   ► not as part of a list or anything but as the center item on the stage while they were

00:40:26 ◼   ► talking about podcasts and they showed the "Hey Siri play an episode of connected command"

00:40:33 ◼   ► on the stage and it was amazing.

00:40:36 ◼   ► - It was so good.

00:40:37 ◼   ► I did not know this was gonna happen.

00:40:41 ◼   ► This is the way, you know,

00:40:43 ◼   ► obviously the Apple keynotes are what they are

00:40:46 ◼   ► and people make the decisions.

00:40:49 ◼   ► We had no idea that this was gonna happen.

00:40:51 ◼   ► And I almost blacked out.

00:40:56 ◼   ► Like there is a part of the keynote that I know happened

00:40:59 ◼   ► but I don't remember it,

00:41:00 ◼   ► which is basically everything preceding this moment.

00:41:03 ◼   ► So like podcasts are now gonna be a thing

00:41:05 ◼   ► on the Apple Watch in September.

00:41:08 ◼   ► And for whatever reason, they decided that on stage

00:41:12 ◼   ► they would show our show.

00:41:13 ◼   ► There are many more shows with much more mainstream

00:41:18 ◼   ► and wide appeal that they could have picked,

00:41:19 ◼   ► but for whatever reason, they chose to show Connected.

00:41:23 ◼   ► And I think it makes, I can see why they did it,

00:41:25 ◼   ► 'cause it's a developer conference for developers

00:41:28 ◼   ► and this is a show that's listened to by people

00:41:30 ◼   ► in our community and it was incredible.

00:41:32 ◼   ► And one of the really amazing and kind of hilarious things

00:41:36 ◼   ► is Getty Images took a photo of Tim Cook

00:41:41 ◼   ► standing in front of the kind of Apple Watch wrap up slide,

00:41:45 ◼   ► which is these five watches in a row

00:41:48 ◼   ► showing the major features.

00:41:50 ◼   ► And they showed our artwork as in like the podcast thing.

00:41:53 ◼   ► But this image is taken in such a way

00:41:55 ◼   ► that there are two things in this image.

00:41:57 ◼   ► There is Tim Cook and a huge Apple Watch

00:42:01 ◼   ► with our logo on it.

00:42:02 ◼   ► And this image has been used everywhere.

00:42:05 ◼   ► I've seen it on Sky News.

00:42:07 ◼   ► I've seen it printed in newspapers.

00:42:10 ◼   ► So many large websites ran this, with this image.

00:42:15 ◼   ► I have actually bought rights to the image

00:42:18 ◼   ► just so I can have it.

00:42:20 ◼   ► - Right, so you can get the full high resolution

00:42:22 ◼   ► professional Getty image.

00:42:23 ◼   ► - This is mine, me and my buddy Timmy.

00:42:26 ◼   ► Yeah, and I ordered a fracture of it as well.

00:42:29 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:42:32 ◼   ► - Okay, I have to ask, what size fracture did you order?

00:42:34 ◼   ► - I just went with a small one.

00:42:36 ◼   ► - Oh, okay, all right. - Because I have this like,

00:42:38 ◼   ► wall in my office where I have a bunch of like,

00:42:42 ◼   ► professional achievements, and that's gonna go on there.

00:42:45 ◼   ► And I want them all to be the same size,

00:42:46 ◼   ► they're all kind of the small size.

00:42:47 ◼   ► - Okay, I wasn't sure if when I show up to play VR

00:42:50 ◼   ► at your house that I was going to discover--

00:42:52 ◼   ► - What? - Yeah, that there's

00:42:53 ◼   ► a wall size printout of Tim Cook,

00:42:55 ◼   ► right with the connected-- - I ordered a split in half

00:42:57 ◼   ► - The two of the largest ones.

00:42:59 ◼   ► - And just to be clear,

00:43:01 ◼   ► that would be perfectly fine with me.

00:43:03 ◼   ► You would be 100% justified if you wanted to make that

00:43:06 ◼   ► a permanent wall-sized feature in your house.

00:43:09 ◼   ► I could not blame you because it really is an amazing thing.

00:43:14 ◼   ► - I still can't believe it happened.

00:43:17 ◼   ► - No.

00:43:18 ◼   ► - It was unbelievable because it just kept happening, right?

00:43:25 ◼   ► The first part that was shown,

00:43:27 ◼   ► you could see it in a list. They were scrolling through a list and that was all I needed.

00:43:31 ◼   ► Oh, I didn't even realize it. Okay.

00:43:32 ◼   ► That was when I saw it for the first time.

00:43:34 ◼   ► There was a little teaser preview.

00:43:36 ◼   ► Because what happened to me is they start showing podcasts.

00:43:40 ◼   ► Now I had friends who were there and I started getting a barrage of messages

00:43:46 ◼   ► just saying, Oh my God, Oh my God.

00:43:49 ◼   ► Right. Because the,

00:43:49 ◼   ► in the WWDC conference is happening live and we are watching it streamed a lot

00:43:54 ◼   ► watching it streamed a little bit delay. It's not a lot, but it's a little bit.

00:44:00 ◼   ► So I start getting all these messages and I see that they're showing... so I know something's

00:44:06 ◼   ► happening. I don't know what it is, but something's happening. And they start scrolling through

00:44:09 ◼   ► this list and you could see the connected artwork in it. So I start screaming and then

00:44:17 ◼   ► they demo Siri and use the name of our show in it. And then it just becomes the artwork

00:44:24 ◼   ► to show off the feature. And we were in the room together, I just lost it. I don't even

00:44:29 ◼   ► remember how anybody else was reacting. But I just, I still can't get my head around it.

00:44:35 ◼   ► I've watched it back since once and I'm sure I'll watch it many more times. Anyone who

00:44:43 ◼   ► I guess is kind of in our position would always dream of something like that to happen to

00:44:51 ◼   ► them but it feels like such an impossibility.

00:44:55 ◼   ► - Hmm.

00:44:56 ◼   ► - Right, like you know you may one day see your app

00:45:00 ◼   ► or a picture that you had taken on a website

00:45:03 ◼   ► or the artwork for your music or album or show

00:45:07 ◼   ► to be part of an app.

00:45:09 ◼   ► You know, if you care about this thing,

00:45:11 ◼   ► it's like one of the highest honors you can achieve

00:45:13 ◼   ► because none of this is accidental.

00:45:16 ◼   ► Like they weren't just scrolling through a list

00:45:18 ◼   ► and this show happened to be there.

00:45:19 ◼   ► like it's all specifically picked for reasons

00:45:22 ◼   ► that we have no way of understanding.

00:45:25 ◼   ► But to be in that, what is ultimately

00:45:29 ◼   ► a very small group of people in kind of history

00:45:33 ◼   ► is incredible and you know, I'm sure if this isn't something

00:45:38 ◼   ► you care about as deeply as we would, it sounds mad,

00:45:42 ◼   ► but there is this kind of feeling of like acceptance

00:45:48 ◼   ► and like credit being shown, which is,

00:45:51 ◼   ► I can't even begin to express it, like what it means to me.

00:45:54 ◼   ► - I think of it as like a mark of acknowledgement from Apple

00:45:58 ◼   ► is what it is. - Yeah.

00:45:59 ◼   ► - Right, it's-- - It's like we see you.

00:46:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, we see what you're doing

00:46:03 ◼   ► and we're putting you up on stage as part of that.

00:46:07 ◼   ► And I think that combined with doing the show

00:46:12 ◼   ► that you did this week,

00:46:13 ◼   ► I feel like you've had this incredible week

00:46:15 ◼   ► and as a friend of ours said,

00:46:17 ◼   ► It has been very interesting to see like relay grow over the years as a result

00:46:22 ◼   ► of the work that you and Steven have put into it.

00:46:25 ◼   ► And it's like the keynote is not accidental and the growth of relay is not

00:46:30 ◼   ► accidental.

00:46:32 ◼   ► Like it's it's the result of all of the work that you have put in over all of

00:46:37 ◼   ► this time. And it's like,

00:46:40 ◼   ► it really feels like a bunch of that has just come together in very visible ways

00:46:44 ◼   ► this week. And it's like, I'm just, I'm so happy for you,

00:46:47 ◼   ► I really am. I really am.

00:46:49 ◼   ► So yeah, it's been a good one.

00:46:52 ◼   ► This has been one of the busiest WWDCs that I have and usually really busy,

00:46:56 ◼   ► means I don't enjoy it as much.

00:46:58 ◼   ► It's not been the cases here.

00:47:00 ◼   ► No, I think you have been a very happy Myke.

00:47:02 ◼   ► I am very happy.

00:47:03 ◼   ► You've been a very happy Myke this year.

00:47:04 ◼   ► Which is actually an interesting segue.

00:47:06 ◼   ► Year of Positivity.

00:47:08 ◼   ► Now, the timeline on the Year of Positivity is up.

00:47:12 ◼   ► Oh, is it? Right.

00:47:14 ◼   ► So I decided that I was going to be positive about the what Apple has been up to

00:47:20 ◼   ► After lots of negativity right beginning with WWDC last year to WWDC this year

00:47:25 ◼   ► Now you had preemptively labeled this as the the tumbleweed. Yeah. No, no, not a year of tumbleweed

00:47:32 ◼   ► It was it was a ww DC of tumbleweed which marks the start of the year

00:47:36 ◼   ► So then you would assume that a tumbleweed event would maybe not lead into a year of positivity

00:47:42 ◼   ► Like if you think about all of these things landing together, so I guess we should talk about

00:47:47 ◼   ► WWDC in the announcements

00:47:49 ◼   ► I will give a spoiler alert in saying that my year of positivity is going to continue for another year

00:47:56 ◼   ► because I am

00:47:58 ◼   ► Very surprised about how good I feel about the announcements. Mm-hmm

00:48:03 ◼   ► So I think we'll break down a few of them. There's way too much stuff for us to get into here and plus

00:48:10 ◼   ► There is this weird thing about being at WWDC when you were here and you were participating in the events and stuff

00:48:16 ◼   ► You actually don't get as much information as you could get when you're at home

00:48:22 ◼   ► I'm gonna put a little asterisk on that because I know exactly what you're talking about. It's

00:48:27 ◼   ► It's one of the reasons why I really enjoyed coming to WWDC because it's a you know

00:48:35 ◼   ► I get even though I'm not a developer like I'm not deeply in this world. It's still

00:48:40 ◼   ► incredibly interesting, but I want to add this asterisk to what you're saying,

00:48:44 ◼   ► which is yes, in some ways by being in WWDC,

00:48:47 ◼   ► you sort of know less because you're not connected to the news cycle in the

00:48:52 ◼   ► outside world.

00:48:53 ◼   ► You're much less connected to simply the thing where people recap everything

00:48:58 ◼   ► that has been done and you like,

00:48:59 ◼   ► you get refreshed in your head about like everything that was announced.

00:49:02 ◼   ► When people find a new little feature about it. Right.

00:49:06 ◼   ► Cause I never read Twitter when I'm at these types of events.

00:49:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, you don't find any of that stuff.

00:49:11 ◼   ► So in one sense, yes, I agree with you.

00:49:13 ◼   ► You feel like you know less.

00:49:14 ◼   ► On the other hand, there's this weird thing

00:49:17 ◼   ► where you're right at ground level zero

00:49:22 ◼   ► and you have the chance to see people messing around

00:49:26 ◼   ► with some of the features in ways

00:49:28 ◼   ► that the outside world reporting on it

00:49:30 ◼   ► might not see what can be done.

00:49:33 ◼   ► So I feel both like I know less

00:49:36 ◼   ► and I know more from being here.

00:49:38 ◼   ► - The way that I look at it is I have less information,

00:49:41 ◼   ► but I have more of a sense of enthusiasm.

00:49:43 ◼   ► So like, I'm not getting the nitty gritty parts

00:49:47 ◼   ► of everything, but I am understanding much more greatly

00:49:51 ◼   ► what people are excited about,

00:49:53 ◼   ► because all of the conversation is surrounded by this stuff.

00:49:57 ◼   ► But it does, it is also based upon people

00:49:59 ◼   ► that are not spending the time yet

00:50:03 ◼   ► to really pour through a lot of the information.

00:50:05 ◼   ► - To go back to, you know what I'm saying before

00:50:07 ◼   ► about being around people is the valuable thing.

00:50:10 ◼   ► I have found it really interesting to particularly talking to developers,

00:50:14 ◼   ► just seeing like,

00:50:14 ◼   ► what is your take on this as the person who has to work with it? And I've,

00:50:17 ◼   ► it has definitely expanded my thoughts on some of the aspects of the keynote in

00:50:22 ◼   ► ways where when I was watching the keynote, I was thinking like, Oh,

00:50:24 ◼   ► that's neat. And then I realized like, Oh wow, like I didn't,

00:50:27 ◼   ► I didn't really understand this. And I think were I not here,

00:50:31 ◼   ► I wouldn't really understand it if I wasn't talking to like developers working

00:50:36 ◼   ► on various things, so it's interesting.

00:50:40 ◼   ► - But the reason my year of positivity is continuing

00:50:42 ◼   ► is because so many of the things that I really wanted

00:50:46 ◼   ► have happened, so we're gonna get into some detail

00:50:49 ◼   ► on some of these a little bit.

00:50:51 ◼   ► We know what's happened to the workflow team,

00:50:54 ◼   ► and we know where that's going.

00:50:55 ◼   ► We're getting more time tracking-esque information

00:50:58 ◼   ► about how we use our devices,

00:51:00 ◼   ► and there's a bunch of changes to notifications

00:51:02 ◼   ► in Do Not Disturb to make them more manageable.

00:51:04 ◼   ► Again, I think all of these things, this is typical,

00:51:07 ◼   ► never go to the full extent that you would like to see,

00:51:10 ◼   ► but movement on this stuff means that focus

00:51:12 ◼   ► is being put in the areas that you care about.

00:51:15 ◼   ► We didn't get any iPad hardware or anything like that,

00:51:18 ◼   ► but there are hints in some changes to iOS on the iPad

00:51:22 ◼   ► that tells me that the exact thing that I'm looking for

00:51:24 ◼   ► is coming, but I just need to wait for it,

00:51:26 ◼   ► which is an iPad with Face ID,

00:51:29 ◼   ► because they've moved a bunch of gestures around,

00:51:31 ◼   ► it's more like the iPhone X.

00:51:33 ◼   ► - Control centers in the corner, it's like, oh really?

00:51:35 ◼   ► - You can see like they move the clock.

00:51:37 ◼   ► Oh, how would you move the clock?

00:51:38 ◼   ► - Why would you move the clock?

00:51:39 ◼   ► We got tired of it where it was.

00:51:40 ◼   ► - We just like to move stuff around every now and then.

00:51:43 ◼   ► So, you know, there's a lot of stuff

00:51:44 ◼   ► that is there for me for later.

00:51:47 ◼   ► So my positivity is guaranteed

00:51:50 ◼   ► because I'm still gonna get what I want.

00:51:53 ◼   ► But was this tumbleweeds like you expected?

00:51:56 ◼   ► - Okay, we're gonna give you a visual metaphor.

00:51:59 ◼   ► - All right.

00:52:00 ◼   ► - 'Cause I know you like the visual metaphor.

00:52:01 ◼   ► - You're very good at those.

00:52:02 ◼   ► Well known.

00:52:03 ◼   ► - Let's set the scene.

00:52:06 ◼   ► Desert, nighttime.

00:52:08 ◼   ► A road going through the desert.

00:52:12 ◼   ► There's nothing around except tumbleweeds

00:52:17 ◼   ► blowing across that road.

00:52:18 ◼   ► Bam!

00:52:22 ◼   ► - Oh, oh, wow.

00:52:23 ◼   ► - Strike of lightning.

00:52:25 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:52:25 ◼   ► - Back to tumbleweeds.

00:52:27 ◼   ► - Ah, okay, yeah, okay.

00:52:28 ◼   ► - So that is my visual metaphor

00:52:31 ◼   ► for WWDC. I understand that completely. See? Yeah. Isn't it good to paint a picture? There

00:52:37 ◼   ► was a lot of stuff that maybe wasn't amazing. There also wasn't a lot like last year. You

00:52:42 ◼   ► know like we got such huge changes and depending on how you take it for good or bad but need

00:52:46 ◼   ► to do some big stuff. I would say there was probably a couple of bolts of lightning for

00:52:52 ◼   ► this but. One. Okay. I don't know. Alright go on then. What's the one bolt of lightning?

00:52:59 ◼   ► Well, just to be clear, to put my cards on the table here,

00:53:02 ◼   ► like I said in the last episode,

00:53:04 ◼   ► I was not taking a tumbleweed year as a bad sign at all.

00:53:08 ◼   ► And I think that this is the best possible quieter year

00:53:13 ◼   ► that I could have imagined or hoped for.

00:53:16 ◼   ► So there's lots of little improvements.

00:53:17 ◼   ► The bolt of lightning is obviously Siri shortcuts

00:53:19 ◼   ► and what happened to the workflow team.

00:53:21 ◼   ► You know, your question was answered

00:53:23 ◼   ► and that was the bolt of lightning that came through.

00:53:25 ◼   ► And that is also the thing where

00:53:28 ◼   ► I was interested in it during the keynote,

00:53:30 ◼   ► but having now spoken to developers

00:53:32 ◼   ► and seeing what they're doing with it

00:53:33 ◼   ► and getting a better sense of what the details of this are,

00:53:36 ◼   ► that's the thing that's like, wow, that is impressive.

00:53:40 ◼   ► It is unexpected, it was out of the blue,

00:53:43 ◼   ► and I think it has really huge ramifications.

00:53:46 ◼   ► Many, many of the other things, I think,

00:53:48 ◼   ► are much, much lower key.

00:53:50 ◼   ► - What about iOS apps on the Mac, though?

00:53:53 ◼   ► I mean, I know this is a 2019 thing,

00:53:55 ◼   ► but that's a pretty big deal,

00:53:57 ◼   ► especially for someone like yourself

00:53:59 ◼   ► where you are right now with your computers.

00:54:00 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, it is a big deal.

00:54:05 ◼   ► I think it's fascinating that Apple

00:54:06 ◼   ► talked about it ahead of time.

00:54:07 ◼   ► I think it's a great move.

00:54:09 ◼   ► - It is a fantastic public relations move is what it is.

00:54:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think it is a good move for the platform.

00:54:15 ◼   ► I think it's a good move for both platforms as well.

00:54:17 ◼   ► Like I think that's good for pro iPad stuff.

00:54:20 ◼   ► I think it's good for the Mac.

00:54:22 ◼   ► - So this is my kind of feeling on this.

00:54:24 ◼   ► So we'll get back to Siri shortcuts in a minute,

00:54:27 ◼   ► but basically what Apple have announced is in 2019,

00:54:31 ◼   ► they're gonna be delivering tools to developers

00:54:33 ◼   ► to allow them to take iOS apps and do some poking around

00:54:38 ◼   ► and make them work on the Mac.

00:54:39 ◼   ► So much so that there are a bunch of system apps

00:54:42 ◼   ► that Apple are debuting to macOS this year,

00:54:44 ◼   ► which are iOS apps that they have ported over

00:54:47 ◼   ► to the new system.

00:54:48 ◼   ► - Stocks.

00:54:49 ◼   ► - Stocks, stocks.

00:54:50 ◼   ► - Stocks got more mentions in this keynote.

00:54:54 ◼   ► - It was so funny 'cause--

00:54:54 ◼   ► - That it's gotten in the history of keynotes.

00:54:56 ◼   ► - Going through the keynote and they were talking

00:54:57 ◼   ► about stocks and he's like,

00:54:58 ◼   ► "Why are we spending so much time on this?"

00:55:00 ◼   ► But it was a fake out.

00:55:01 ◼   ► - Right, it made sense later on that they showed,

00:55:04 ◼   ► oh look, stocks is on the Mac is one of their,

00:55:06 ◼   ► 'cause it's stocks, it's home, there's two others I think.

00:55:09 ◼   ► - There's news and voice memos.

00:55:10 ◼   ► - Voice memos, that's what it was.

00:55:11 ◼   ► Yeah, so they're showing that they put four iPad apps

00:55:16 ◼   ► on the Mac, but yeah, they were really focusing on stocks.

00:55:19 ◼   ► And I think in the room everyone was like,

00:55:20 ◼   ► "Why do they keep talking about stocks?"

00:55:22 ◼   ► - It just seems so weird.

00:55:23 ◼   ► - Well that was what made it feel like,

00:55:24 ◼   ► oh no, they have nothing to talk about.

00:55:26 ◼   ► - It did, it did, yeah.

00:55:27 ◼   ► - Really, I think it was very clever.

00:55:30 ◼   ► I think that they were not stupid

00:55:31 ◼   ► about how much time they gave to the stocks app.

00:55:34 ◼   ► They knew what they were doing.

00:55:35 ◼   ► - Yeah, it was a good bit of theater

00:55:36 ◼   ► when you think about it afterwards, yeah.

00:55:38 ◼   ► - But so this whole thing, this iOS app on the Mac thing,

00:55:43 ◼   ► this was put in the Mac section, it closed the keynote.

00:55:46 ◼   ► And so this whole thing has been positioned as a,

00:55:48 ◼   ► look how great this is gonna be for the Mac.

00:55:51 ◼   ► It's our continued commitment to the Mac.

00:55:53 ◼   ► We're gonna let more apps appear on the Mac.

00:55:56 ◼   ► We're gonna give you, as developers,

00:55:57 ◼   ► easier ways to make cross-platform applications.

00:56:01 ◼   ► I think that this is just as big a deal for the iPad

00:56:04 ◼   ► as it is for the Mac.

00:56:05 ◼   ► - Oh yeah. - But it's not what's

00:56:06 ◼   ► being focused on, because now, over the next year,

00:56:09 ◼   ► developers of iOS applications will be spending time

00:56:12 ◼   ► thinking about how they can make their iPad-sized apps

00:56:16 ◼   ► powerful enough that they live at home on the Mac.

00:56:19 ◼   ► Like that is huge.

00:56:21 ◼   ► And also they're talking about this multi-year project.

00:56:23 ◼   ► My belief is that something that will come from this project

00:56:26 ◼   ► is differences in the input methods for the iPad,

00:56:31 ◼   ► like track pads, pointing devices.

00:56:35 ◼   ► It feels like some stuff could start to trickle down

00:56:37 ◼   ► as well as go up.

00:56:38 ◼   ► But I think that this is an incredibly smart move

00:56:43 ◼   ► to bolster two important platforms

00:56:48 ◼   ► that have significant failure points,

00:56:50 ◼   ► which is nobody makes Mac apps anymore

00:56:53 ◼   ► and iPad apps aren't powerful enough.

00:56:56 ◼   ► This fixes both of those things and it's incredible.

00:57:00 ◼   ► And the way that they are positioning this right now

00:57:03 ◼   ► to the community of people that are there is perfect

00:57:06 ◼   ► because everybody in that room uses and loves the Mac

00:57:09 ◼   ► because that's the way they make their apps.

00:57:11 ◼   ► So they position it as, hey, your iOS apps that you make

00:57:14 ◼   ► are gonna be amazing for that platform that you love,

00:57:17 ◼   ► hee hee hee, iPad apps are gonna get real good.

00:57:20 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:57:21 ◼   ► - I think it's very, very clever.

00:57:24 ◼   ► And I think the fact that they did it was brilliant

00:57:29 ◼   ► because if they didn't do this,

00:57:30 ◼   ► so much conversation post WWDC would be focused

00:57:33 ◼   ► on the fact that Apple didn't talk about this.

00:57:36 ◼   ► They did this last year when they showed off the iMac Pro,

00:57:39 ◼   ► that they are doing a very good job of understanding

00:57:42 ◼   ► and I think listening to the enthusiast community

00:57:45 ◼   ► understanding what could take the sales out of the stuff that we're doing and

00:57:50 ◼   ► they are adjusting this specific keynote to address some of those points.

00:57:55 ◼   ► There are unanswered questions about Mac laptops and stuff but the announcements

00:58:00 ◼   ► that they have had this week far outshone any of that. Oh yeah, I agree with

00:58:06 ◼   ► all that. I think it's a great move. Like you said, it solves the weakness for

00:58:10 ◼   ► both platforms because you take Apple's two smaller platforms and instead of

00:58:15 ◼   ► also splitting developer time across the two smaller platforms.

00:58:18 ◼   ► It gives developers way to say like, well, you know,

00:58:20 ◼   ► we can kill two birds with one stone. I think it's,

00:58:23 ◼   ► I think it's totally great. The, I,

00:58:26 ◼   ► I'm so fascinated by Apple talking about it ahead of time.

00:58:29 ◼   ► I think it makes perfect sense for them to do it, but it's just,

00:58:31 ◼   ► it was so unlike Apple's like watching the keynote. It did,

00:58:35 ◼   ► it really felt like falling into an alternate universe where it's like, wait a minute,

00:58:39 ◼   ► wait a minute. I think giving us a roadmap, like is that,

00:58:42 ◼   ► did they just hand us a road? Like I've never, you never hand us anything at these,

00:58:46 ◼   ► these keynotes and like, Oh no, but look, and they said like a timeframe.

00:58:49 ◼   ► It was, it was very interesting. Um,

00:58:52 ◼   ► I just,

00:58:54 ◼   ► the only reason why I'm not giving it bolt of lightning is simply because it's

00:58:59 ◼   ► not a thing that's happening right now. That's the only,

00:59:03 ◼   ► that's the only reason I'm doing it right. It's like, I love it. It's great.

00:59:06 ◼   ► Can't wait to see what happens next year. And I think it's,

00:59:10 ◼   ► It's useful for developers to have that timeframe,

00:59:14 ◼   ► but for some, like for iPad apps,

00:59:17 ◼   ► I can see that developers would spend more time

00:59:19 ◼   ► making them more powerful,

00:59:20 ◼   ► but it is a little bit of a holding pattern

00:59:23 ◼   ► of like be aware that this thing is coming.

00:59:26 ◼   ► So that's the only reason why I don't give it

00:59:27 ◼   ► a lightning bolt, even though I agree with you,

00:59:29 ◼   ► like it's incredibly important.

00:59:31 ◼   ► It's very interesting to think about

00:59:33 ◼   ► what does this mean for the platforms, and I love it.

00:59:35 ◼   ► But I'm giving my one lightning bolt

00:59:38 ◼   ► across the desert sky to Siri shortcuts.

00:59:41 ◼   ► Like that's the thing that was really quite striking.

00:59:45 ◼   ► - This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Fracture.

00:59:48 ◼   ► Almost everyone takes and shares photos online,

00:59:50 ◼   ► but so few of those photos end up printed

00:59:53 ◼   ► and even fewer end up on display.

00:59:56 ◼   ► You should focus on the moments

00:59:57 ◼   ► that mean the most in your life

00:59:59 ◼   ► by turning your favorite digital memories

01:00:01 ◼   ► into a meaningful photo decoration.

01:00:04 ◼   ► Fracture prints are made by printing directly onto glass

01:00:07 ◼   ► and they come ready to display right out of the box,

01:00:09 ◼   ► even including a wall hanger or a little stand

01:00:12 ◼   ► for you to put them on as well.

01:00:14 ◼   ► Now, as I mentioned in the show, and I really meant it,

01:00:16 ◼   ► I have ordered a fracture of some of the really important

01:00:19 ◼   ► moments that happened to me over WWDC week.

01:00:22 ◼   ► I have a fracture of Tim Cook with the connected artwork

01:00:26 ◼   ► over his shoulder.

01:00:27 ◼   ► I also ordered a fracture for our live show

01:00:29 ◼   ► and also an image put on a beautiful fracture

01:00:32 ◼   ► on some lovely piece of glass of just a bunch of me

01:00:35 ◼   ► and my friends just walking down the street in San Jose.

01:00:38 ◼   ► They're gonna go right in front of me,

01:00:39 ◼   ► I have on the wall, just in the corner of my wall,

01:00:42 ◼   ► some fracture prints of some important moments

01:00:44 ◼   ► in my professional career.

01:00:46 ◼   ► This is the perfect thing for me.

01:00:47 ◼   ► Now I will be able to, whenever I'm in my office,

01:00:49 ◼   ► whenever I'm in mega office, I can look up

01:00:51 ◼   ► and I can see moments that mean a lot to me.

01:00:54 ◼   ► And that's why I get fracture prints.

01:00:56 ◼   ► Not only are they wonderful for you,

01:00:58 ◼   ► they also make thoughtful, unique gifts.

01:01:00 ◼   ► And don't forget Father's Day is around the corner,

01:01:03 ◼   ► so you can get your fracture prints in quickly.

01:01:06 ◼   ► I even did these all on my iPhone.

01:01:07 ◼   ► I was just using Safari on my iPhone

01:01:10 ◼   ► and I uploaded the image right from my camera roll.

01:01:13 ◼   ► Like it's super, super easy to do.

01:01:15 ◼   ► Their prints are handmade in Gainesville, Florida

01:01:17 ◼   ► from their wonderful Fractury, sourced from US materials

01:01:21 ◼   ► with a sleek frameless design that will go with any decor.

01:01:24 ◼   ► Fracture is a green company

01:01:26 ◼   ► and they operate a carbon neutral Fractury.

01:01:28 ◼   ► Fractury, I love that by the way.

01:01:30 ◼   ► So good.

01:01:31 ◼   ► visit fractureme.com/cortex and get yourself a special discount on your first fracture order

01:01:37 ◼   ► and don't forget to pick Cortex in their one question survey because that will help support

01:01:41 ◼   ► this show. Save those memories from the phone gallery wasteland. Go to fractureme.com/cortex

01:01:48 ◼   ► right now. Our thanks to Fracture for their support of this show and Relay FM.

01:01:52 ◼   ► Siri shortcuts. What seems very clever about it is that they've done the beginner level and then

01:01:58 ◼   ► in the advanced level.

01:01:59 ◼   ► So there's like Siri shortcuts is workflow.

01:02:02 ◼   ► For us workflow nerds,

01:02:03 ◼   ► it seems like all the complicated stuff is there.

01:02:05 ◼   ► But on the basic level,

01:02:06 ◼   ► if you're explaining to someone who doesn't care

01:02:08 ◼   ► about any of this stuff,

01:02:10 ◼   ► there's just a way now to tell Siri

01:02:11 ◼   ► to do a thing in an app.

01:02:13 ◼   ► That's the basic idea.

01:02:15 ◼   ► - So they did this thing where you can basically tell Siri,

01:02:20 ◼   ► that action that I just performed,

01:02:22 ◼   ► whenever I say to you, adding you to do,

01:02:24 ◼   ► I want you to open things and let me add in you to do,

01:02:27 ◼   ► And you can do this from anywhere. You can do it on the watch.

01:02:30 ◼   ► You can do it on the home pod if things are,

01:02:32 ◼   ► you're able to perform these actions.

01:02:34 ◼   ► Yeah. And what has been interesting,

01:02:36 ◼   ► like what I have found interesting to see with developers is, um,

01:02:40 ◼   ► like part of the reason why it's such a lightning bolt and it's,

01:02:44 ◼   ► I only realized it in retrospect is I just like Apple has solved these two

01:02:49 ◼   ► problems with their platforms,

01:02:51 ◼   ► with merging them with iPad and Mac in some way. Uh,

01:02:56 ◼   ► I feel like they pulled off this amazing judo move with Siri shortcuts where

01:03:01 ◼   ► everybody knows like Siri's not that great compared to all of the other voice

01:03:05 ◼   ► assistants.

01:03:05 ◼   ► And they did this move where they've drew,

01:03:10 ◼   ► they've like infinitely expanded in every direction,

01:03:13 ◼   ► all of the things that Siri can do without them having to teach Siri how to do

01:03:18 ◼   ► any of it. And it's all local on the device.

01:03:23 ◼   ► Like Siri can just interact with this app.

01:03:25 ◼   ► as like, it's a great judo move because in some ways,

01:03:28 ◼   ► like Siri doesn't have to be any smarter

01:03:30 ◼   ► in terms of natural language processing.

01:03:33 ◼   ► Like that part doesn't have to get any better.

01:03:36 ◼   ► It's just, it allows Siri to press these buttons

01:03:39 ◼   ► to do the things for you.

01:03:40 ◼   ► And it's just, it's so impressive.

01:03:42 ◼   ► And it's doubly impressive seeing

01:03:43 ◼   ► from the developer end of it,

01:03:45 ◼   ► how much Siri shortcuts can interact with,

01:03:49 ◼   ► even without the developers having changed anything

01:03:52 ◼   ► in their app.

01:03:53 ◼   ► Like it doesn't need to be added in.

01:03:54 ◼   ► - This method of the way that some of the APIs have worked

01:03:58 ◼   ► for the last couple of years,

01:04:00 ◼   ► means if you're developing to a specific API

01:04:02 ◼   ► that everybody has suggested that they develop to,

01:04:04 ◼   ► it exposes these actions in the operating system right now.

01:04:08 ◼   ► Like a developer doesn't have to do anything.

01:04:10 ◼   ► If they've been following the kind of the suggested rules

01:04:13 ◼   ► of the road, the Siri can already unearth these actions

01:04:16 ◼   ► and launch an application straight into it,

01:04:17 ◼   ► or just perform the action with nothing needing to be done.

01:04:21 ◼   ► And then Apple is adding all of the tools in

01:04:23 ◼   ► to allow you to do more with it, to add these buttons to it,

01:04:26 ◼   ► and to basically build this underpinning system

01:04:29 ◼   ► to allow Siri to do effectively anything.

01:04:32 ◼   ► And then there's an app.

01:04:33 ◼   ► The app is called Shortcuts.

01:04:35 ◼   ► It's an app you download from the App Store.

01:04:37 ◼   ► If you take advantage of Shortcuts,

01:04:40 ◼   ► you get the most powerful version of workflow

01:04:43 ◼   ► that could have ever existed.

01:04:45 ◼   ► It's been made by the same team, same people.

01:04:47 ◼   ► The app looks exactly the same.

01:04:49 ◼   ► It has all of the things in it.

01:04:51 ◼   ► From what I understand, it has everything that Workflow had.

01:04:55 ◼   ► Nothing is being taken out.

01:04:57 ◼   ► You can move your workflows into this application,

01:05:00 ◼   ► is what I have heard when this app ships,

01:05:03 ◼   ► 'cause it's currently not in the beta right now.

01:05:05 ◼   ► And then you will be able to create these new shortcuts,

01:05:09 ◼   ► which is a much better name than Workflow, I love the name,

01:05:12 ◼   ► to do basically anything your device can do,

01:05:16 ◼   ► and you can chain them.

01:05:17 ◼   ► So you could say, for example, hey, good morning.

01:05:21 ◼   ► Turn on the lights, turn on the WeMo

01:05:24 ◼   ► with that power in the coffee maker.

01:05:27 ◼   ► Start playing your favorite morning flash briefing show.

01:05:30 ◼   ► Open up your favorite news app

01:05:32 ◼   ► and get you ready for the day.

01:05:34 ◼   ► It is huge, you can make these huge chains,

01:05:38 ◼   ► which Workflow could always do,

01:05:39 ◼   ► but it is now exposed out to the system

01:05:42 ◼   ► in such a powerful way.

01:05:44 ◼   ► And it is so easy to get swept up in this stuff,

01:05:47 ◼   ► 'cause there's so many things that we don't know yet.

01:05:48 ◼   ► There are gonna be limitations,

01:05:50 ◼   ► but if this is able to pull off what I've seen on stage,

01:05:54 ◼   ► and even what I've seen

01:05:55 ◼   ► just with developers tinkering around with this,

01:05:58 ◼   ► the way I use my devices is going to change significantly.

01:06:02 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, yeah.

01:06:03 ◼   ► - I will be turning on the ability to call Siri

01:06:07 ◼   ► from anywhere, and I'm gonna be speaking to my devices

01:06:10 ◼   ► all the time. - A lot more, yeah.

01:06:11 ◼   ► - Because in theory,

01:06:12 ◼   ► every time I wanna perform some kind of action,

01:06:16 ◼   ► I will be able to ask my device to set a bunch of parameters for me to open some

01:06:20 ◼   ► applications and get me ready to perform a specific action in a way that is as

01:06:25 ◼   ► simple and yet more so than workflow ever was.

01:06:28 ◼   ► It is mind blowing what they have done.

01:06:31 ◼   ► And one of the things with the WWDCs is like you said,

01:06:35 ◼   ► it can be very easy to get carried away.

01:06:38 ◼   ► And so I feel like I always try to try to temper expectations,

01:06:42 ◼   ► especially after many years of these things. Uh,

01:06:45 ◼   ► But I am giving myself a bit of a pass on this one,

01:06:48 ◼   ► simply because it is the workflow team.

01:06:50 ◼   ► And the things that they have done in the past,

01:06:54 ◼   ► what they were able to accomplish with that app

01:06:56 ◼   ► without Apple was already so impressive.

01:06:59 ◼   ► - Wild, yeah.

01:07:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, it was beyond what any of us ever thought

01:07:03 ◼   ► was possible.

01:07:05 ◼   ► And I think for a very large number of people

01:07:08 ◼   ► was the key tool that allowed them to move a huge portion

01:07:11 ◼   ► or all of their work onto iOS devices.

01:07:15 ◼   ► And so the fact that it is that team

01:07:18 ◼   ► that has done this Siri integration, the Siri shortcuts,

01:07:21 ◼   ► I'm very confident that it is going to be

01:07:24 ◼   ► like the powerful tool that was demoed on stage.

01:07:26 ◼   ► And that like, yes, of course,

01:07:27 ◼   ► there will always be restrictions,

01:07:28 ◼   ► but it won't be the kind of thing

01:07:30 ◼   ► that I would normally expect from Apple,

01:07:32 ◼   ► where it's like, oh, we have some automation,

01:07:34 ◼   ► but we've given you baby automation.

01:07:36 ◼   ► Like I don't think that's what we're getting here.

01:07:38 ◼   ► But no, it's a huge deal.

01:07:41 ◼   ► And if there is one thing that is true about Apple

01:07:43 ◼   ► is that they are often slow to do something,

01:07:48 ◼   ► but when they get there,

01:07:49 ◼   ► they tend to do it in a very nice way.

01:07:51 ◼   ► And this is like, boy, Apple has been very slow

01:07:56 ◼   ► to any kind of automation or scripting on iOS devices.

01:08:01 ◼   ► And this is the first time they're really opening the door

01:08:04 ◼   ► to a thing that can have a loop and variables,

01:08:08 ◼   ► which is opening the door to general purpose computing.

01:08:12 ◼   ► And it looks like they've done it in just an incredible way. And,

01:08:17 ◼   ► you know,

01:08:18 ◼   ► we've talked about software acquisitions in the past on the show and how it's

01:08:22 ◼   ► always like, Oh, sad trombone day when your favorite thing gets acquired.

01:08:26 ◼   ► And I can't wait to get my hands on shortcuts,

01:08:29 ◼   ► but I think I can say right now,

01:08:31 ◼   ► like this looks like maybe one of the most successful software acquisitions ever.

01:08:36 ◼   ► if this becomes what the foundation of automation

01:08:40 ◼   ► and scripting on iOS devices are,

01:08:42 ◼   ► combine that with the judo trick

01:08:44 ◼   ► of making Siri infinitely better

01:08:46 ◼   ► without having to actually make her understand things better

01:08:50 ◼   ► it's, the more I think about it, the more impressed I am

01:08:53 ◼   ► by that whole new thing that's coming in.

01:08:58 ◼   ► So I am really looking forward to getting my hands on it.

01:09:01 ◼   ► I was like, I'll wait until a couple of public betas

01:09:04 ◼   ► before I put it on my machine.

01:09:06 ◼   ► I'm traveling, I don't want to put beta software on my,

01:09:08 ◼   ► now it's like the instant there's a public beta

01:09:11 ◼   ► that has Siri shortcuts available,

01:09:12 ◼   ► it's like that is going right on my phone.

01:09:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, as soon as the shortcut app shows up,

01:09:16 ◼   ► if it shows up during the beta period,

01:09:17 ◼   ► I'm installing it immediately.

01:09:19 ◼   ► I guess the last thing that I've been thinking about

01:09:21 ◼   ► in regards to Siri shortcuts

01:09:23 ◼   ► is the idea of Siri as a digital assistant.

01:09:26 ◼   ► As someone who works with an assistant,

01:09:29 ◼   ► there is I think a misconception in technology

01:09:32 ◼   ► that digital assistants have to work

01:09:35 ◼   ► completely on machine learning,

01:09:37 ◼   ► that they must be these things

01:09:39 ◼   ► that can anticipate your every need and cater to them.

01:09:42 ◼   ► When it's not necessarily what it's like

01:09:43 ◼   ► to work with somebody else,

01:09:45 ◼   ► sometimes you just have a thing you wanna ask someone

01:09:47 ◼   ► and have them perform an action based upon it.

01:09:50 ◼   ► And that's what Siri Shortcuts is, right?

01:09:52 ◼   ► You can just say, "Do this thing for me,"

01:09:54 ◼   ► and the thing is done.

01:09:55 ◼   ► It doesn't need to be constantly Siri being like,

01:09:58 ◼   ► "Oh, I have a million ideas for you

01:10:01 ◼   ► "and I've learned every pattern of your life

01:10:03 ◼   ► "and looked into your calendar

01:10:04 ◼   ► and all of your email and here is this thing.

01:10:06 ◼   ► It doesn't need to be that way.

01:10:08 ◼   ► And I'm actually enthused more than I have been in years

01:10:11 ◼   ► about Siri as a product based upon the fact that

01:10:14 ◼   ► it is a very complex machine

01:10:17 ◼   ► that I can give very specific instructions to now

01:10:20 ◼   ► in a way that I haven't been able to do before.

01:10:22 ◼   ► Because the way it's been before

01:10:23 ◼   ► is I would ask Siri a question

01:10:25 ◼   ► and hope that Siri understands what I want

01:10:28 ◼   ► and gives me the result.

01:10:29 ◼   ► But now I program what I want the results to look like

01:10:33 ◼   ► and then record a shortcut with my own voice as to what I want Siri to understand,

01:10:40 ◼   ► then whenever it hears that specific trigger phrase, it will perform those series of actions.

01:10:44 ◼   ► Most of the time that's all I ever really want it to do. It doesn't need to be smart in the sense of

01:10:52 ◼   ► the anticipation of my needs, and it does an element of that still, right? But a lot of the

01:10:57 ◼   ► time all I ever really want is for Siri to or any like the echo any of these

01:11:02 ◼   ► things to just perform the action that I expect and a lot of the time I can

01:11:09 ◼   ► program that once and then it will work great yeah I completely agree like it's

01:11:14 ◼   ► again I just I just think of it as this this opening the door to this automation

01:11:21 ◼   ► that can be done like I'm interested to see they were they were saying on stage

01:11:24 ◼   ► as to Siri will have these suggestions for you.

01:11:28 ◼   ► And that's always sort of fallen flat in the past

01:11:32 ◼   ► because Siri can't be a mind reader.

01:11:35 ◼   ► And I do have a little bit more anticipation

01:11:37 ◼   ► that those suggestions will be more useful

01:11:39 ◼   ► when Siri has like a pattern

01:11:41 ◼   ► of when you do particular things,

01:11:42 ◼   ► when you're invoking particular shortcuts,

01:11:45 ◼   ► and that'll be great.

01:11:46 ◼   ► But yeah, 100%, the big win here is turning Siri

01:11:50 ◼   ► from a thing that I use as an egg timer

01:11:53 ◼   ► to a thing that I can very easily see becoming just an integral part of my

01:11:58 ◼   ► workflow and an integral part of, of my life. I was already thinking, Myke,

01:12:05 ◼   ► you know, it was cause I was like, Hmm,

01:12:07 ◼   ► the only thing Siri can't do is like automatically kick off at a particular time

01:12:12 ◼   ► thing. All right. As I got like a cron job is what I'm looking for there.

01:12:16 ◼   ► But then I thought, well I could just have, you know,

01:12:20 ◼   ► like a recording play in my house at a particular time to be the thing that kicks off a Siri

01:12:27 ◼   ► action.

01:12:27 ◼   ► Oh wow.

01:12:28 ◼   ► Right? Like basically I'm thinking I could leave it my glass cube where things are always

01:12:34 ◼   ► running it's a possibility that I could just have my main computer just kick off a sound

01:12:39 ◼   ► at a particular time of me speaking and invoke a Siri action.

01:12:43 ◼   ► Goes to a HomePod?

01:12:43 ◼   ► Yeah it goes to a HomePod.

01:12:45 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:12:45 ◼   ► So that's pretty fun.

01:12:47 ◼   ► I'm looking forward to what can be done with Siri shortcuts.

01:12:49 ◼   ► is one thing I have wanted since I begun time tracking that this may allow which

01:12:54 ◼   ► is to start a timer with my voice. Oh my god that was the first thing I thought

01:12:57 ◼   ► of is like the number of times I want to say like start a whatever timer it

01:13:03 ◼   ► happens all the time that was the that was the very first thing I was thinking.

01:13:07 ◼   ► Just so you know on the current version of the beta you can already do this.

01:13:11 ◼   ► Sweet. Because any workflow in the current workflow app can be turned into

01:13:16 ◼   ► to a Siri shortcut now, like the basic version.

01:13:20 ◼   ► So you could do it now.

01:13:21 ◼   ► I don't know what it would look like.

01:13:23 ◼   ► There might be some adjustments you'd have to make.

01:13:25 ◼   ► But this is something I even looked into creating

01:13:28 ◼   ► my own echo skill at one point

01:13:30 ◼   ► to try and understand what that would require.

01:13:32 ◼   ► Because this is just something I wanna be able to do

01:13:35 ◼   ► 'cause sometimes I'm like halfway through a job

01:13:37 ◼   ► and I'm like, oh, I need to set the timer.

01:13:40 ◼   ► And then I have to stop what I'm doing,

01:13:41 ◼   ► go to an app or go to notification center.

01:13:44 ◼   ► But really I want to just, hey computer, start a timer.

01:13:48 ◼   ► And then I can categorize it later if that's necessary.

01:13:51 ◼   ► But that is going to be amazing.

01:13:53 ◼   ► Yeah, I have buttons everywhere I can possibly

01:13:56 ◼   ► have buttons to launch the timers to start whatever

01:13:59 ◼   ► it is that I'm doing.

01:14:00 ◼   ► But nonetheless, the ability to do it by voice

01:14:03 ◼   ► will be amazing to make that work.

01:14:04 ◼   ► So yeah, that was the first thing I was thinking of.

01:14:07 ◼   ► I was like, man, if it could just do this, it'll be great.

01:14:09 ◼   ► I'm also looking forward to coming up with my command words.

01:14:13 ◼   ► You have to create words for everything,

01:14:15 ◼   ► a phrase for everything.

01:14:16 ◼   ► So I'm trying to think of this two-step system.

01:14:18 ◼   ► So a category and an action.

01:14:22 ◼   ► So tweet something or timer this.

01:14:27 ◼   ► Timer, sponsor.

01:14:28 ◼   ► Timer, work.

01:14:29 ◼   ► I'm looking forward to creating that system.

01:14:32 ◼   ► - Yeah, this is the keyboard shortcuts/text expander/keyboard

01:14:38 ◼   ► maestro issue of when you get into this automation,

01:14:41 ◼   ► you have to create your own taxonomies.

01:14:43 ◼   ► And I think it's going to be interesting to see how everybody who is a power

01:14:49 ◼   ► user of this thing ends up creating their own Siri little language that they

01:14:53 ◼   ► talk to, which again is another just incredible win that everybody doesn't have

01:14:57 ◼   ► to do the same thing in the same way with Siri. It's like,

01:15:00 ◼   ► you can say it the way it makes sense for you. And if you're like us,

01:15:04 ◼   ► you want to create your little squirrely system of like,

01:15:07 ◼   ► here's the way I say the thing. That's great.

01:15:08 ◼   ► If you just want to say it in more natural language, that's great. You know,

01:15:11 ◼   ► Siri will just make it work in either way.

01:15:13 ◼   ► - Talk about making the HomePod useful.

01:15:15 ◼   ► It's gone from this device I have in the house

01:15:18 ◼   ► just because it's a nice speaker,

01:15:20 ◼   ► to potentially it's going to become

01:15:22 ◼   ► one of the most important mechanisms for me

01:15:26 ◼   ► to perform actions in my daily life.

01:15:28 ◼   ► It's pretty incredible.

01:15:30 ◼   ► I'm very excited for Siri Shortcuts.

01:15:32 ◼   ► And I really hope that the enthusiasm that we have right now

01:15:35 ◼   ► based upon everything we've seen and heard

01:15:37 ◼   ► is carried through.

01:15:38 ◼   ► That it is as good as it seems.

01:15:40 ◼   ► and you can be rest assured we're gonna follow this through

01:15:44 ◼   ► until September and beyond.

01:15:46 ◼   ► But there were some other things,

01:15:48 ◼   ► I don't wanna let this episode end without touching on them.

01:15:51 ◼   ► Screen Time, which is this new system

01:15:53 ◼   ► of showing you information about how you use your device,

01:15:56 ◼   ► it shows you what apps you're in, what web pages you're in,

01:15:59 ◼   ► how many times a day you pick up your phone,

01:16:02 ◼   ► all of this type of stuff synced across all of your devices.

01:16:04 ◼   ► Does this interest you?

01:16:05 ◼   ► It feels like it's right in our wheelhouse as a thing.

01:16:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, I've been getting a lot of feedback

01:16:10 ◼   ► from people on Twitter about this one.

01:16:12 ◼   ► And this is a case where I think it's hard to explain

01:16:15 ◼   ► where I have my own time tracking system set up.

01:16:20 ◼   ► So this to me, I am very glad that it's part of the system.

01:16:25 ◼   ► I will want to see those numbers.

01:16:27 ◼   ► But for me, this falls into the category

01:16:30 ◼   ► much more of just it will be interesting to see.

01:16:34 ◼   ► More data is always better.

01:16:36 ◼   ► But I don't feel like this is going to be

01:16:38 ◼   ► huge revelation for me in any way or even like an incredibly important tool because

01:16:43 ◼   ► I'm mostly already doing manual time tracking about what activity am I engaged

01:16:49 ◼   ► in and my devices, except when I'm traveling for conferences, are already so

01:16:54 ◼   ► locked down that I don't feel that I have the relationship that some people

01:17:00 ◼   ► do with their phones where they're using them too much. Like I don't have that

01:17:03 ◼   ► feeling. I have other problems with the phone bothering me too much with

01:17:07 ◼   ► notifications, but that's a different thing from like, oh, I picked it up and I spent

01:17:12 ◼   ► 30 minutes on Twitter when I didn't mean to or like whatever because I just don't have

01:17:16 ◼   ► those things on the phone normally. So I'm going to be interested to see it. I think

01:17:21 ◼   ► it's a great tool and 100% I think it's a great addition to the operating system. I

01:17:28 ◼   ► think Apple did handle it very well. The idea of like we want to report to you what you're

01:17:32 ◼   ► doing with the device. So I'm very glad it's in there. But when everyone's like, oh, it's

01:17:37 ◼   ► time tracking isn't that exciting it's like well yes but I like I already have

01:17:40 ◼   ► like this this Rube Goldberg machine to track my whole life it'll be interesting

01:17:44 ◼   ► but not vital to me. I'm keen to see how this information reflects what I believe

01:17:51 ◼   ► is my accurate form of time tracking. Like how does the how do these two

01:17:56 ◼   ► things stack up because one is me reporting it the other is my device

01:18:00 ◼   ► being a little snitch. Right. Right the device really knows what's going on and

01:18:05 ◼   ► And I'm interested to see how, in the same way that when I went from not tracking my

01:18:09 ◼   ► time to tracking my time, how it enlightened me about how I actually spent my time.

01:18:15 ◼   ► And then we're going to get some real cold, hard information rather than just what I think

01:18:19 ◼   ► is going on.

01:18:20 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:18:21 ◼   ► I have to say that, like, well, for me, I'm like, "Ooh, I'm interested to see."

01:18:26 ◼   ► I think there are going to be a lot of people come September or October who are more or

01:18:31 ◼   ► are forced to go through the thing that we have told people

01:18:36 ◼   ► about when they start time tracking.

01:18:38 ◼   ► - Yeah, you laugh, you wait.

01:18:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, all the listeners are like,

01:18:43 ◼   ► "I know what I do all day."

01:18:45 ◼   ► Like, "Oh no, you don't."

01:18:46 ◼   ► - You have no idea.

01:18:48 ◼   ► - You have no idea.

01:18:49 ◼   ► - You pick up your phone.

01:18:50 ◼   ► Do you know what even does stuff like,

01:18:52 ◼   ► it will tell you how many notifications you got?

01:18:54 ◼   ► - Oh, that's interesting.

01:18:55 ◼   ► - So it would say like, in the last 24 hours,

01:18:57 ◼   ► you got 159 message notifications, 25 Slack notes.

01:19:01 ◼   ► So again, it's like all that sort of stuff,

01:19:03 ◼   ► is that cold hard data I think is gonna help me

01:19:05 ◼   ► make some decisions.

01:19:07 ◼   ► And the notification stuff in general looks very interesting.

01:19:10 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:19:11 ◼   ► - They gave us one of the exact things we spoke about,

01:19:14 ◼   ► which was a notification comes in

01:19:16 ◼   ► and you can from the notification say,

01:19:18 ◼   ► I don't wanna see this anymore.

01:19:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, this is the one place where

01:19:24 ◼   ► I am very consciously tamping down any expectations

01:19:27 ◼   ► because before the keynote, I made my little wishlist

01:19:29 ◼   ► And I like my big, my gigantic taking up half the page items were like serious

01:19:33 ◼   ► improvements to do not disturb and serious improvements notifications.

01:19:36 ◼   ► I'm going to give them like a half tick on those.

01:19:39 ◼   ► Like there have been improvements. But for me,

01:19:44 ◼   ► this I'll have to wait until I see the beta because the implementation details

01:19:49 ◼   ► really matter.

01:19:50 ◼   ► This might be a thing that doesn't help me at all depending on the details of

01:19:53 ◼   ► how they implemented. It might be very helpful,

01:19:56 ◼   ► but I'm happy to see that there's motion

01:19:58 ◼   ► in the right direction.

01:20:00 ◼   ► I just hope that this isn't the thing

01:20:01 ◼   ► where Apple improves something

01:20:03 ◼   ► and then they leave it for several years.

01:20:06 ◼   ► I have to dig around in the settings,

01:20:08 ◼   ► but what I'm interested in and what I don't understand

01:20:11 ◼   ► at the time of our recording is,

01:20:13 ◼   ► you know, there's this distinction

01:20:14 ◼   ► where there is a bedtime mode

01:20:16 ◼   ► where it keeps things silent for a longer period of time,

01:20:19 ◼   ► which may be very useful for me in my mornings

01:20:22 ◼   ► of wanting to be separated from the world.

01:20:23 ◼   ► like I'll just set the bedtime ends at noon

01:20:27 ◼   ► and see how that works.

01:20:28 ◼   ► But the one that I'm very interested to play around with

01:20:31 ◼   ► and obviously when someone shows me like,

01:20:34 ◼   ► oh I put the beta on my phone,

01:20:36 ◼   ► what I can't do is say, oh I would like to take your phone

01:20:39 ◼   ► and I'm going to put it into child mode.

01:20:41 ◼   ► Could you have another device that I can set up as a parent

01:20:43 ◼   ► to enforce restrictions on this

01:20:44 ◼   ► because I'm very curious to see the exact details

01:20:49 ◼   ► of what they're, I think it's called downtime.

01:20:51 ◼   ► - Screen time.

01:20:51 ◼   ► - No, no, screen time is the tracking one.

01:20:53 ◼   ► - Oh. - Downtime is a mode

01:20:56 ◼   ► that you can set, and I think you can only set

01:20:59 ◼   ► for a child device where,

01:21:03 ◼   ► I don't think even in the current beta it's fully baked,

01:21:06 ◼   ► because I was trying to even just look at the settings,

01:21:08 ◼   ► but again, I may have to be looking at a parent device,

01:21:11 ◼   ► looking at a child device,

01:21:13 ◼   ► but the text description is that downtime allows you

01:21:16 ◼   ► to set hours where particular apps are unavailable.

01:21:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, so this is kind of two parts.

01:21:22 ◼   ► There's something you can do to yourself,

01:21:23 ◼   ► and something you can do to a device that you manage

01:21:25 ◼   ► as a parent. - Yeah, so like,

01:21:26 ◼   ► bedtime is the thing you can do to yourself.

01:21:27 ◼   ► - Well, but there's also something called app limits,

01:21:29 ◼   ► where you can say, I only wanna use Instagram

01:21:32 ◼   ► for an hour a day. - Right.

01:21:34 ◼   ► - And when you get to that hour, a pop-up comes up,

01:21:36 ◼   ► and they're like, you said you didn't wanna look

01:21:38 ◼   ► at this anymore, maybe you should stop.

01:21:40 ◼   ► But it's like suggestions, and you can override it.

01:21:42 ◼   ► But if you manage a device that's classed

01:21:45 ◼   ► as a child's device, you can straight up say, no.

01:21:49 ◼   ► And that app cannot be used, and it is locked out.

01:21:51 ◼   ► And even, because of some of the ways that,

01:21:54 ◼   ► I think it's called universal linking,

01:21:56 ◼   ► so you know when sometimes you tap on a URL,

01:21:58 ◼   ► like a tweet URL, and it opens a Twitter app.

01:22:01 ◼   ► If an app uses that, if you say,

01:22:04 ◼   ► "I don't wanna use Twitter,"

01:22:05 ◼   ► you also can't look at it on the web browser.

01:22:07 ◼   ► - Right, yeah, which I think is very clever.

01:22:09 ◼   ► - It's very clever, and it's one of those things

01:22:11 ◼   ► where Apple seemed like they were giving something

01:22:13 ◼   ► to developers that they wanted,

01:22:14 ◼   ► and now it's like, "Oh man, why did I do that?"

01:22:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, now we know the website's associated with your app,

01:22:19 ◼   ► so we can block the whole thing.

01:22:21 ◼   ► - So but yet for someone like you who likes to lock,

01:22:23 ◼   ► this is like past gray and forcing on future gray

01:22:27 ◼   ► and I wonder how is that going to work

01:22:31 ◼   ► for an adult setting it up for themselves

01:22:35 ◼   ► on another device that they own?

01:22:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, this is what I mean,

01:22:37 ◼   ► like the implementation details really matter.

01:22:39 ◼   ► Like I may be wrong about my guess

01:22:40 ◼   ► that I even need to set up as a child device,

01:22:42 ◼   ► I just don't know.

01:22:43 ◼   ► - I think it needs to be a separate Apple ID

01:22:45 ◼   ► within a family group.

01:22:46 ◼   ► - I think so too, but here is a case where,

01:22:50 ◼   ► Like if I have to go through a gigantic rigmarole

01:22:52 ◼   ► to set it up once, like I'm totally happy doing that.

01:22:54 ◼   ► Like whatever.

01:22:55 ◼   ► - I think it's completely possible that you could do this.

01:22:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, the only other question then is like

01:23:00 ◼   ► ability to break out of that mode if I have to, right?

01:23:04 ◼   ► Where it's like, I just need to see like

01:23:06 ◼   ► what are the details, but I am hopeful

01:23:11 ◼   ► that this gives me a little bit of a work around

01:23:14 ◼   ► to what we said last time is like my main thing of like,

01:23:17 ◼   ► I want periods where some apps are quiet and other apps are not.

01:23:22 ◼   ► And I think I might be able to get that by enforcing downtime on

01:23:27 ◼   ► myself and saying like, Oh, in the morning I message in Slack and like,

01:23:31 ◼   ► everybody's quiet unless you're the calendar or your Omni focus.

01:23:36 ◼   ► And that's, I'm just going to be curious to see how that works out. So I'm,

01:23:39 ◼   ► I am, uh, I'm hopeful about how that goes and very curious. Uh,

01:23:44 ◼   ► once I get my hands on the beta to actually monkey around with it,

01:23:46 ◼   ► because I can't monkey around with a developer's phone

01:23:49 ◼   ► and be like, "Let me just put all these restrictions on

01:23:51 ◼   ► "and see how it works."

01:23:52 ◼   ► Like, "Oh no, it's a beta.

01:23:53 ◼   ► "I've totally locked you out of your device, I'm sorry."

01:23:56 ◼   ► - I think the only other thing I'm doing at Stub

01:23:58 ◼   ► that I like is that it's getting smarter in some ways

01:24:01 ◼   ► that you can say when this meeting ends

01:24:04 ◼   ► or when I leave this place.

01:24:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, leaving the place is the really interesting one.

01:24:08 ◼   ► And I was also wondering, you mentioned it last time,

01:24:11 ◼   ► the thing that we never even thought about,

01:24:12 ◼   ► like I'm just wondering, Siri shortcuts.

01:24:15 ◼   ► Can you, I wonder like what, what can you do with do not disturb and,

01:24:19 ◼   ► and Siri shortcuts? Because I was,

01:24:20 ◼   ► this is actually what I was thinking about with like a recording of my own

01:24:26 ◼   ► voice in my office that says the thing and like set up, set up everything.

01:24:29 ◼   ► All right.

01:24:30 ◼   ► Do not disturb Siri short, can you turn on Siri? Yeah.

01:24:33 ◼   ► Can you do that or can you do other things? Like I'm just very,

01:24:35 ◼   ► can you locate them? I mean we don't know, but we don't know. Right.

01:24:39 ◼   ► I think this is going to be the power that comes out of the shortcuts app and

01:24:43 ◼   ► Like, will that enable you to turn these on

01:24:46 ◼   ► in any interesting ways?

01:24:47 ◼   ► This is the stuff that we don't know yet,

01:24:48 ◼   ► because no one's actually really been able

01:24:51 ◼   ► to play around the app in detail.

01:24:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, so again, this is where I'm very curious

01:24:54 ◼   ► to see the implementation details.

01:24:56 ◼   ► But I'm just glad that there is some motion

01:24:59 ◼   ► in the correct direction.

01:25:00 ◼   ► And we have brand new grouping notifications by app.

01:25:04 ◼   ► Never been seen before.

01:25:06 ◼   ► - Never, imagine.

01:25:07 ◼   ► Someone coming up with something like that

01:25:08 ◼   ► or the blue. - Imagine what we could do.

01:25:10 ◼   ► I enjoyed that moment.

01:25:12 ◼   ► is like, oh, here we are again.

01:25:15 ◼   ► - Do you know, we haven't even spoken

01:25:16 ◼   ► about the most important part yet,

01:25:18 ◼   ► which is the fact that I can now create an Animoji

01:25:20 ◼   ► of my own face, it's called Memoji,

01:25:22 ◼   ► and I can create stickers and I can call you over FaceTime

01:25:25 ◼   ► and you can see my amazing cartoon head,

01:25:27 ◼   ► and it could be anything I want it to be

01:25:29 ◼   ► with beards and glasses, imagine.

01:25:31 ◼   ► - Myke. - Yeah.

01:25:32 ◼   ► - Myke, I know you wanna talk about Memoji,

01:25:37 ◼   ► but it's like, we're many days into this conference.

01:25:41 ◼   ► I'm very tired.

01:25:43 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:25:44 ◼   ► I haven't yet done any exercise for today as well.

01:25:48 ◼   ► And I'm afraid that this is like opening the gates of hell

01:25:52 ◼   ► if we discuss Memoji.

01:25:54 ◼   ► So I don't, let's put a pin in that.

01:25:57 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:25:58 ◼   ► - Put a pin in that.

01:26:00 ◼   ► I am curious however,

01:26:01 ◼   ► why aren't you wearing your Apple Watch?

01:26:05 ◼   ► - I think we're gonna put a pin in that as well.