135: Uncomfortable in My Pants
00:00:00
◼
►
Yeah, and I'm listening to top four and it's driving me insane because Margo is the worst
00:00:03
◼
►
Podcast host of a show with top four ever. Oh my god
00:00:07
◼
►
I thought the same thing and I'm too nice a guy to say it
00:00:10
◼
►
I don't understand how Tiff has the patience of a saint like it would just pick four things like make him write it down on
00:00:15
◼
►
A piece of paper everything is number five what everything can't be number five and then within the top four
00:00:21
◼
►
It's like this is my number one and then all these are tied for number two. That's not how top four works
00:00:27
◼
►
The show is though and I like the fact at the end of the episode you admitted it and like explain like I realized it
00:00:32
◼
►
But I'm I'm not able to even follow the simple formula and Tiff is like she's fine with it
00:00:36
◼
►
Yep, how she can live with you. Well, she you know, she tolerates me. Yeah, she does
00:00:41
◼
►
I was like she's not even frustrated by it. Like the show is called top four
00:00:44
◼
►
I'm still bitter that you didn't bring up transport tycoon. I'm so angry at you for that
00:00:51
◼
►
No, that's not what he picked. It's not your top four. It's their top four. Yeah, but I know it's his top four
00:00:55
◼
►
Apparently it's not it's probably that one was probably at number 15 with every other game in existence
00:00:59
◼
►
But I couldn't agree with you more John
00:01:02
◼
►
Marco you've got to get a grip on the top four
00:01:04
◼
►
It's so easy to do you just see if I did not write number one two three and four and you write words next each
00:01:11
◼
►
So easy to do TIFF does it TIFF does it see how watch her do it if you need like help
00:01:17
◼
►
She does such a good job. She has a list of all the ones she considered. She's got her top four
00:01:22
◼
►
She has reasons that you're just like, "I don't know, TV shows? I like some of them."
00:01:26
◼
►
Well, I like this one a lot. And then there's these 34 other ones that are somewhere down below.
00:01:33
◼
►
It's difficult to talk you into changing your mind halfway through the show.
00:01:37
◼
►
And she's like, "You're just saying that because I liked it."
00:01:41
◼
►
You're like, "No, no, no, I've changed my mind at this moment."
00:01:44
◼
►
Boy, good thing she's on that show. She's really carrying you.
00:01:49
◼
►
Oh my god, that's so true.
00:01:51
◼
►
true. Oh, Jon, I love you.
00:01:53
◼
►
I enjoyed it. What is the next episode going to be about?
00:01:57
◼
►
All right, let's start with, we've learned that not only does this universe have many,
00:02:03
◼
►
many, many, many, many tap-to-click wizards, but as I believe Jon has phrased in the show
00:02:09
◼
►
notes, we have also found that there are quite a few CEC unicorns.
00:02:14
◼
►
Yeah, it's kind of an oxymoron because the whole thing of unicorn is like the one rare,
00:02:18
◼
►
you know, the last unicorn, but if there's a lot of them, they're obviously not unicorns.
00:02:21
◼
►
But anyway, yeah, lots of CEC unicorns. The last show, I expressed my general disdain
00:02:26
◼
►
for CEC and my frustration with it almost working. Like that's the thing about it. Like
00:02:32
◼
►
it almost works. It works some of the time. You can kind of get it to work. You're going
00:02:35
◼
►
to think you have everything set up and it's working perfectly. And then things will go
00:02:39
◼
►
wrong in a way that you can't debug and you maybe you'll never be able to get them to
00:02:43
◼
►
work again. That's been my experience with CEC across many different manufacturers in
00:02:46
◼
►
many years. so i asked, "anyone use cec and have good things to say about it?" and i did get a bunch
00:02:52
◼
►
of people tweeting that they have, you know, i have a mixed component setup with components
00:02:56
◼
►
from different companies and it works for me, i have a complete panasonic setup and it works for
00:03:01
◼
►
me, so probably maybe fewer than the tap to click wizards, but a surprising number of people are
00:03:07
◼
►
using cec and are happy with it. a lot of them admittedly have fairly simple needs, like they're
00:03:12
◼
►
They're like, I turn this thing on and it switches my input
00:03:14
◼
►
and turns the other thing on.
00:03:16
◼
►
I think as the number of devices you connect increases
00:03:19
◼
►
and as you have greater expectations,
00:03:21
◼
►
like not only does it have to just auto switch inputs
00:03:24
◼
►
and turn on the television and stuff,
00:03:26
◼
►
but do a bunch of other things
00:03:27
◼
►
in terms of changing surround settings
00:03:29
◼
►
or whatever other things it can do,
00:03:31
◼
►
then maybe it goes more awry.
00:03:33
◼
►
And maybe it's gotten better since I bought my TV
00:03:35
◼
►
and receiver a couple of years ago, so who knows?
00:03:37
◼
►
But anyway, if you want to be optimistic about CEC,
00:03:41
◼
►
There are people out there who are using it successfully and happily and it's working for them
00:03:46
◼
►
Robert Engdahl wrote in to explain why CEC might be so terrible
00:03:50
◼
►
He is an ASIC designer. What does that stand for guys? That is oh, I don't remember offhand. Is it the shoe?
00:03:56
◼
►
Nicely done. Yeah, I can't believe I don't know this acronym off the top of my head Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Yeah
00:04:04
◼
►
Application specific integrated circuit. Yeah, how can I not pull that out? I'm getting old guys. All right. Anyway,
00:04:10
◼
►
It's an ASIC engineer with HDMI experience.
00:04:15
◼
►
And he says the CEC protocol is crappy because only a limited set of commands are defined
00:04:22
◼
►
in the protocol, and the rest is entirely up to the manufacturer of the device.
00:04:26
◼
►
So there's a small set of commands that are defined, and then device makers can make up
00:04:30
◼
►
anything they want.
00:04:31
◼
►
And so I assume, like, Panasonic will make up a bunch of stuff that works with its own
00:04:35
◼
►
stuff, and Sony will make up stuff that works with its own stuff.
00:04:37
◼
►
top of that the spec for CEC says even the defined commands you don't have to implement them they're
00:04:43
◼
►
not mandatory so even though there are a small number of defined commands and you can extend
00:04:47
◼
►
them you don't even have to implement the defined commands you could for example implement your own
00:04:51
◼
►
volume up down or input switching thing that works with your receiver not implement the the standard
00:04:55
◼
►
one. HDMI 2.0 apparently fixes this but HDMI 2.0 isn't out yet on a lot of hardware so CEC could
00:05:04
◼
►
could get better in HDMI 2.0 because they kind of learned
00:05:06
◼
►
from the past that if you let the manufacturers do whatever
00:05:08
◼
►
they want with your protocol, they'll
00:05:10
◼
►
do things that are not conducive to mixing components,
00:05:14
◼
►
and maybe not even conducive to mixing with their own components
00:05:16
◼
►
from distantly separated by time,
00:05:19
◼
►
and not having the defined commands be mandatory.
00:05:23
◼
►
Like, I don't even know what kind of standard is that.
00:05:25
◼
►
If you don't have to implement the defined commands,
00:05:26
◼
►
then you can make up your own commands,
00:05:27
◼
►
it's basically the Wild West.
00:05:29
◼
►
So that is the explanation for why
00:05:32
◼
►
people who have bad experiences with CDC have bad experiences.
00:05:35
◼
►
All right. Moving on, we had yet another excellent post from dear friend of the show, _DavidSmith.
00:05:44
◼
►
My favorite David Smith blog posts are when he goes spelunking into data that he has gathered
00:05:49
◼
►
or can discover and figure out little tidbits or perhaps confirm little tidbits that people
00:05:57
◼
►
theorize or maybe don't even realize is true.
00:06:00
◼
►
And so the blog post that is in question, which relates to
00:06:03
◼
►
what we had lamented last episode, is entitled "16
00:06:08
◼
►
Gigabytes is a Bad User Experience." And in this post,
00:06:12
◼
►
Underscore goes through his homegrown analytics that he
00:06:17
◼
►
has in his very popular app, Audiobooks, that's not a super
00:06:22
◼
►
duper nerdy app and so it's got a really good kind of install base of regular people and
00:06:30
◼
►
he has these graphs of reported free space for 16 gig phones and if you look at these
00:06:38
◼
►
graphs it's abundantly obvious that almost all these phones have almost no available
00:06:43
◼
►
free space and that just doesn't seem good.
00:06:47
◼
►
So was it John that pulled out a couple of these choice quotes?
00:06:49
◼
►
Would you like to go over them?
00:06:50
◼
►
So the first thing is like I said, this is these are just the customers of one application
00:06:55
◼
►
But it's not a super nerdy application
00:06:57
◼
►
But anyway, the this is the the premises discussion is this is just among people who bought this one app from this one developer
00:07:03
◼
►
We're hoping it's representative. This is the best data we have
00:07:05
◼
►
It seems like it could be representative if anything. It might skew more nerdy. I don't know. Anyway, this is among
00:07:12
◼
►
iPhone 6 and 6 plus customers only
00:07:15
◼
►
43% of iPhone 6 and 6 plus customers have 16 gig models
00:07:19
◼
►
That's what I was getting at in the last show when I was saying it used to be that the most popular
00:07:23
◼
►
Model of whatever Apple product was always the most expensive fanciest one and that started to change
00:07:28
◼
►
I don't know at this point like a decade ago
00:07:30
◼
►
But anyway, it changed and now since Apple is a mass-market company and sells tons and tons of things
00:07:35
◼
►
Obviously, it's going to skew more towards how you'd expect but even I was surprised to see that 43% of iPhone 6 6 plus customers
00:07:41
◼
►
got the 16 gig model because
00:07:44
◼
►
That's the newest fanciest iPhone. It's not like we're saying that the people buying last year's the year before phone
00:07:50
◼
►
They're cheaping out
00:07:50
◼
►
These are the people who want the new iPhone and just want it like I said the last show
00:07:54
◼
►
Want to find the cheapest possible way they can get it so 16 gig model now among the people with a 16 gig iPhone 6 and 6
00:08:02
◼
►
37% of them have less than a gig of space available and less than a gig of space available
00:08:06
◼
►
Just is basically full like less than a gig is
00:08:08
◼
►
Almost anything can happen and it could push you over the edge
00:08:12
◼
►
You are you know that's the point where OS 10 would start popping up dialogues in your face and saying
00:08:16
◼
►
Your disk looks like it's almost full you you know do something about that
00:08:22
◼
►
The other theory is like okay well fine, but I bet everybody fills up their phones well
00:08:26
◼
►
Among people who have 64 gig phones only 1% of them have filled them to that amount so it's not as if space
00:08:33
◼
►
It doesn't matter. It's not like lanes on a highway where all you just make the phone bigger
00:08:36
◼
►
Oh people are just gonna fill it there is a certain amount of stuff that people have or expected to encounter during the useful lifetime
00:08:42
◼
►
of the phone and according to these stats if you have a 64 gig phone only 1% of the
00:08:46
◼
►
people have basically filled it and among 16 gig phones almost 40% have filled it.
00:08:51
◼
►
And then finally taking these customers the ones who have the 6 and 6 plus who have filled
00:08:57
◼
►
it up you know multiplying the percentages together who have filled it up this is 17%
00:09:03
◼
►
of the customers of this audiobooks application are basically walking around all day as underscore
00:09:08
◼
►
puts it with a, I'm not going to be able to pronounce this, Damoclean sword dangling over
00:09:11
◼
►
their head. Did I get that right? You know, the big sword that swings back and forth,
00:09:15
◼
►
a ground poe.
00:09:16
◼
►
Is it Damoclean? I don't know. I'm going out on a limb here.
00:09:19
◼
►
Sword of Damocles. Anyway.
00:09:20
◼
►
I don't even know what that was.
00:09:22
◼
►
Yeah, you can look it up, Marco. Get some culture. Yeah, so 17% of the customers. Now,
00:09:29
◼
►
is this representative of all iPhone users in the entire world? We don't know. This is
00:09:33
◼
►
It's one developers customers for one kind of general interest app only the iPhone 6 6 plus things
00:09:39
◼
►
but these numbers do not look promising like I
00:09:42
◼
►
Again, I would think that
00:09:44
◼
►
Underscore's customers who skew even more nerdy because he moves in nerdy circles. He is nerdy some of the apps
00:09:49
◼
►
He sells are nerdy
00:09:50
◼
►
But other ones are like pedometer plus plus and the weather app and stuff and the audiobooks app are just general
00:09:55
◼
►
You know general interest applications
00:09:57
◼
►
Again Apple we've said this before Apple has the real numbers
00:10:01
◼
►
We don't have the real numbers, so that impairs our ability to definitively shame them for selling 16 gig models.
00:10:09
◼
►
the little data that we have, you know, we're not Apple and they're not sharing this information. The data that we can glean,
00:10:13
◼
►
here's some more support for the theory that a 16 gig phone is not a good experience for users.
00:10:17
◼
►
Yeah, it's, it seems completely obvious to me that this is a terrible, terrible, terrible decision.
00:10:24
◼
►
And just like you said, Jon, you know, we don't have all the data that Apple has, but
00:10:28
◼
►
Gosh, I would love to see what metric they're using to justify this and and if it's not something related to profit or
00:10:37
◼
►
Margins or something along those lines one of those business II terms that I'm not very good with then money. Yeah money
00:10:44
◼
►
Money, I want to know what what this metric is if it isn't just money because it seems so obvious to me
00:10:51
◼
►
This is just a terrible terrible terrible decision. I mean, it's look I
00:10:56
◼
►
I'm totally in agreement with you Casey.
00:10:58
◼
►
I mean, it's, you can look at all the different
00:11:01
◼
►
possible explanations of why they might reasonably
00:11:03
◼
►
have done this, but none of them are particularly strong,
00:11:06
◼
►
especially for a very high profit product like the iPhone,
00:11:10
◼
►
even at the 16 gig capacity.
00:11:13
◼
►
So the reality is, Apple very well could ship that device
00:11:17
◼
►
with 32 or even 64 at that price point
00:11:20
◼
►
and barely affect the margins of that product at all.
00:11:24
◼
►
But I think the reason they do it, as we said before,
00:11:26
◼
►
is not because they can't afford to put 16 gigs
00:11:29
◼
►
in a $650 phone, right, is that what it is?
00:11:33
◼
►
- Something like that, yeah.
00:11:34
◼
►
- Right, it's not because of that.
00:11:36
◼
►
It's because if they did that, it would hurt sales
00:11:38
◼
►
of the one that's $100 more, and so it would drive
00:11:41
◼
►
their average sale price down in all likelihoods.
00:11:44
◼
►
So that is why it's not done, it's simple as that.
00:11:47
◼
►
Any other explanation is really just grasping at straws,
00:11:51
◼
►
trying to make an excuse, that is the real reason.
00:11:54
◼
►
I completely agree. I could go on forever about this, but I feel like we've kind of
00:11:58
◼
►
beaten this horse, I should say.
00:12:02
◼
►
Moving on, let's talk about the iPhone 6s battery. I guess we had talked about it getting
00:12:08
◼
►
a little bit smaller last episode, is that right? One way or another, it got smaller,
00:12:12
◼
►
and the numbers say that the iPhone 6 had a 1,810 milliamp-hour battery. The iPhone
00:12:19
◼
►
6S has 1,715, so almost exactly
00:12:22
◼
►
100 milliamp hour difference.
00:12:24
◼
►
And that is about a 5% loss
00:12:28
◼
►
in terms of the new iPhone's 6S battery.
00:12:32
◼
►
Or I guess that's just the 6S, I'm sorry, not the 6S Plus,
00:12:36
◼
►
which is a little bit of a loss,
00:12:37
◼
►
but presumably the different chips on the device,
00:12:42
◼
►
and they did a shrink, didn't they, on this one?
00:12:44
◼
►
- Yeah, they did.
00:12:45
◼
►
Remember in the keynote, they wanted to say
00:12:47
◼
►
they did a shrink, but they did it in like
00:12:48
◼
►
regular person speak instead of jargon.
00:12:51
◼
►
And so it confused all the nerds.
00:12:53
◼
►
Like, wait, are they trying to say shrink?
00:12:55
◼
►
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they did a shrink.
00:12:57
◼
►
The other thing they do very often is reduce the number of chips, get chips that combine
00:13:02
◼
►
functionality that previously took two separate chips.
00:13:04
◼
►
I'm assuming that they can absorb this 5% loss combined with the shrink and the efficiencies
00:13:09
◼
►
of just a second crack at the same size form factor.
00:13:12
◼
►
So it probably should be fine.
00:13:13
◼
►
But again, I just wanted to put some hard numbers on like the last show where like,
00:13:16
◼
►
"Oh, it looks like that vibration and taptic engine thing takes up a lot of room."
00:13:19
◼
►
Well, quantify it, and quantifying it, it looks like it's about 5%.
00:13:22
◼
►
And by the way, these numbers are pulled from Apple's videos, where they like pan over the
00:13:28
◼
►
innards and show the battery, and on the battery is stamped the power rating.
00:13:34
◼
►
And of course the iPhone 6 everybody knows from teardowns and stuff.
00:13:38
◼
►
Although, this also leaked beforehand.
00:13:40
◼
►
This information leaked weeks before, actually.
00:13:44
◼
►
And I believe the leak was right on.
00:13:45
◼
►
- Yeah, they usually are, but I just want to give people
00:13:49
◼
►
the source because if it turns out that the video was wrong
00:13:52
◼
►
because someone photoshopped that number on there
00:13:54
◼
►
and leaks were wrong and the real battery is different,
00:13:56
◼
►
you know, anyway.
00:13:58
◼
►
- I mean, one thing to consider, first of all,
00:14:01
◼
►
this, the 5% loss of raw capacity and saying
00:14:05
◼
►
it's the same battery life, that could also,
00:14:08
◼
►
even if you ignore any kind of component changes,
00:14:11
◼
►
they made iOS 9 more battery efficient.
00:14:13
◼
►
And so they can say, oh, it gets X hours
00:14:17
◼
►
just because it's a new OS.
00:14:19
◼
►
They do the same thing on the Macs or the laptops.
00:14:21
◼
►
They also, I don't know if they're including
00:14:24
◼
►
in their battery runtime estimates,
00:14:26
◼
►
if they are including the low power mode
00:14:28
◼
►
being turned on at 10% or whatever it is,
00:14:30
◼
►
20 or 10 that it turns on.
00:14:32
◼
►
- Does that, is that automatically turned on?
00:14:34
◼
►
- It prompts you to turn it on.
00:14:35
◼
►
But I'm guessing if you wanna fudge a number a little bit
00:14:39
◼
►
and really optimize your number,
00:14:41
◼
►
they would probably do that,
00:14:42
◼
►
and they could argue that that's fair
00:14:43
◼
►
because most people would do that anyway.
00:14:45
◼
►
So it could be including those things
00:14:49
◼
►
where it wasn't before.
00:14:51
◼
►
So keep that in mind when you read the official estimates.
00:14:54
◼
►
We'll see what happens in practice.
00:14:56
◼
►
I am still very skeptical.
00:14:57
◼
►
I, oh man, I just went to XOXO
00:15:01
◼
►
and I took the 6 Plus with me.
00:15:04
◼
►
And I've been using the 6 all year
00:15:06
◼
►
except for when I took another trip
00:15:08
◼
►
or another series of trips.
00:15:09
◼
►
But I went back to the 6 Plus for this trip
00:15:11
◼
►
battery life primarily and wow it is glorious and then going back to the 6 after a week
00:15:17
◼
►
of the 6 plus again oh my god it's so it's so bad I wish they would meaningfully improve
00:15:24
◼
►
the battery life but it's very clear that they think this is good enough and I don't
00:15:30
◼
►
and so we just disagree on that I will say one thing though that you know in on this
00:15:36
◼
►
this battery topic, we've talked in the past about how the reason the phone might be this
00:15:42
◼
►
skinny and light and have a mediocre battery life is, John, I believe what you term the
00:15:46
◼
►
naked robotic core theory, which is that the ideal phone is this really tiny thing that
00:15:52
◼
►
is so small that you can put it in a case if you want some other ability, whether it's
00:15:57
◼
►
more durability, more battery life, whatever cases can offer. You can put it in a case
00:16:04
◼
►
to fix the shortcomings of being small.
00:16:06
◼
►
And then if you want a really small phone,
00:16:07
◼
►
you can just carry the naked phone.
00:16:09
◼
►
And so I looked after this trip over the last few days.
00:16:14
◼
►
I've been trying to research iPhone battery cases.
00:16:17
◼
►
And I had one in the past and it was so big and clunky,
00:16:20
◼
►
I never really used it.
00:16:22
◼
►
And it doesn't fit my current phone now,
00:16:24
◼
►
but I look to see what's out there today
00:16:26
◼
►
and they're just so, so terrible.
00:16:29
◼
►
And I feel like one of the biggest arguments
00:16:31
◼
►
against the naked robotic core theory
00:16:33
◼
►
is just how bad all the other cases are.
00:16:37
◼
►
Like if you want to give this phone 50% more battery life,
00:16:41
◼
►
you have to add so much bulk and so much size,
00:16:45
◼
►
way more than if they would have just built it in
00:16:47
◼
►
to begin with.
00:16:48
◼
►
Plus, it's this big like, you know, plastic thing
00:16:50
◼
►
with some stupid logo on the back that's so ugly and tacky
00:16:53
◼
►
that no one's heard of from some case company who cares.
00:16:56
◼
►
Right, you have to care in this stupid logo.
00:16:58
◼
►
And then you have this,
00:17:00
◼
►
then you have like this giant plug on the bottom,
00:17:03
◼
►
the phone has to be extended by like a half inch just to have room for this plug. It's
00:17:10
◼
►
the bulkiest, most terrible decision ever. And so this is, I think, like a huge strike
00:17:15
◼
►
against the naked robotic core theory is that by doing that, by going that direction, and
00:17:23
◼
►
by, let's say you want more battery, okay, buy a battery case. That argument falls apart
00:17:28
◼
►
when all the battery cases are varying degrees of terrible.
00:17:30
◼
►
So I generally agree with you.
00:17:34
◼
►
I do have a Lenmar battery case, which I'll put the link
00:17:38
◼
►
in the show notes for what I have.
00:17:41
◼
►
And I use it only when I know that I'm going to need some
00:17:46
◼
►
extra juice, which is almost never.
00:17:48
◼
►
The only time I typically use it is at WWDC and when I go to
00:17:52
◼
►
football games when my phone is just desperately melting
00:17:56
◼
►
its own battery trying to search for service.
00:18:00
◼
►
And it is exactly as you describe.
00:18:02
◼
►
It is enormous, it is bulky, it was not cheap.
00:18:07
◼
►
I don't remember how much it was.
00:18:08
◼
►
It was cheaper than the Mophie was at the time.
00:18:11
◼
►
And I chose it for more than just frugality.
00:18:15
◼
►
I forget why else I chose it.
00:18:16
◼
►
Maybe the battery was a little bit bigger.
00:18:18
◼
►
It adds a crapload of bulk to a phone that I still think is a little bit big for my taste.
00:18:25
◼
►
But that being said, just today I got an email from Mophie where they have announced a new
00:18:30
◼
►
new juice pack, which is their line of batteries, called the Juice Pack Reserve.
00:18:35
◼
►
And we'll put that link in the show notes, and I've just put it in the chat room.
00:18:38
◼
►
This one is a very, very, very slimline battery that does not look to add very much bulk at
00:18:45
◼
►
In fact, in the email, which I don't have in front of me, they had in, they had, oh,
00:18:49
◼
►
here it is, now on the same page.
00:18:51
◼
►
They show that without the Juice Pack, it's 6.86 millimeters, and with this Juice Pack
00:18:59
◼
►
reserve, it is 14.79 millimeters, whereas with the average, as they say it, or typical
00:19:05
◼
►
as they say a protective case, it would be 15 millimeters. So in other words, it is no
00:19:09
◼
►
thicker than a normal case you would put on your phone by whatever they define normal.
00:19:15
◼
►
This actually looks extremely appealing to me, and I would absolutely buy one if it wasn't
00:19:18
◼
►
for the fact that I already have a case. So this might be the exception that proves the
00:19:22
◼
►
rule. Generally speaking, though, I think you hit the nail on the head, they are all
00:19:25
◼
►
terrible and huge and bulky and annoying.
00:19:27
◼
►
They're just terrible and huge to people like us though. Like you I mean think forget battery cases just think cases
00:19:33
◼
►
We all see people with cases on their phones that we consider hideous and huge and ridiculous
00:19:38
◼
►
I've seen people with non battery cases that are bigger than any battery case that I've seen that are
00:19:43
◼
►
Colored like the rainbow that that might as well have like fins and wedges poking out of them and people love them
00:19:48
◼
►
So there's no accounting for taste, right? So that set that aside
00:19:51
◼
►
the other thing I would say is that uh, as
00:19:53
◼
►
Every time this comes up I say it
00:19:56
◼
►
There's a place in Apple's line for a phone that is thicker and has more battery life. That is not the 6 plus
00:20:01
◼
►
They don't currently make that but if they keep diversifying maybe eventually they will and that would satisfy Marco's need for a Johnny I've
00:20:08
◼
►
designed hopefully non teflon coated
00:20:10
◼
►
Nice looking phone where he doesn't have to deal with someone else's thing slapping on to he doesn't have to deal with it extending the port
00:20:17
◼
►
He's not a deal with a different logo and all the things that he finds distasteful about it
00:20:20
◼
►
But I would say that people like him and people like me are in the vast
00:20:25
◼
►
Minority based on what I see out in the world of how much people love their super ugly like a wallet credit card
00:20:30
◼
►
You know card jack combined whatever like bottle opener iPhone cases that people have on it like
00:20:37
◼
►
Seriously, I of all the problems that that's I would think that people consider that a feature like this
00:20:44
◼
►
That is the one thing of the naked robotic core allows is allows people to exercise their different tastes
00:20:50
◼
►
let's say. You can exercise your taste with a sticker. Please don't encourage stickers.
00:20:55
◼
►
Besides, they'll probably like melt to the thing because it gets so warm as you noted
00:20:58
◼
►
when you used it without a case, right? Yes. Yeah, I think I've turned into a case person
00:21:03
◼
►
with the 6 simply because, and I can choose the Apple leather case because it's really
00:21:08
◼
►
slim and feels very good. I always like the feel of leather. Ooh, title. Even that, like
00:21:14
◼
►
I, because the 6 is just such a bad phone to hold.
00:21:18
◼
►
And I've heard rumblings that the new phone
00:21:23
◼
►
is significantly grippier, but I have my doubts
00:21:26
◼
►
that just because of the shape, like it's the same shape.
00:21:29
◼
►
And the 6 is a problem for two main reasons.
00:21:33
◼
►
One is the shape, one is the slickness of the metal.
00:21:36
◼
►
And so even if they've made the slickness
00:21:38
◼
►
of the metal better, the shape is such that
00:21:41
◼
►
it's still probably gonna be very hard to hold.
00:21:43
◼
►
You tell me you didn't get to hold one at XOXO?
00:21:45
◼
►
You don't have to say who let you hold it.
00:21:47
◼
►
Our first sponsor is Squarespace.
00:21:50
◼
►
Squarespace is the all-in-one platform
00:21:52
◼
►
that makes it fast and easy to create
00:21:53
◼
►
your own professional website, portfolio, or online store.
00:21:56
◼
►
For a free trial and 10% off, visit squarespace.com
00:21:59
◼
►
and enter offer code ATP at checkout.
00:22:02
◼
►
Now, Squarespace, as you all know,
00:22:05
◼
►
is simple and powerful with intuitive and easy-to-use tools.
00:22:09
◼
►
Everything on Squarespace is beautifully designed.
00:22:11
◼
►
Your site, the Squarespace site itself,
00:22:13
◼
►
Everything is beautifully designed so that your site can look professional regardless
00:22:17
◼
►
of your skill level with no coding required.
00:22:20
◼
►
All the sites have responsive design so it scales to look great on every device.
00:22:24
◼
►
And every site even includes optional commerce functionality.
00:22:27
◼
►
If you want to make a store, you want to sell something, you want to, you know, digital
00:22:32
◼
►
or physical goods, you want to sell t-shirts or you want to sell ebooks or whatever, you
00:22:35
◼
►
can sell stuff right there on Squarespace with built-in commerce with no additional
00:22:40
◼
►
All of this is powered by 24/7 support via live chat and email with state of the art
00:22:45
◼
►
technology that is trusted by millions of people and some of the most respected brands
00:22:50
◼
►
in the world.
00:22:51
◼
►
This ensures that your site stays up and is secure.
00:22:54
◼
►
You don't have to worry about getting hacked.
00:22:55
◼
►
You don't have to worry about going down.
00:22:56
◼
►
Your site stays up and your site is secure.
00:22:59
◼
►
All of this starts at only $8 a month.
00:23:01
◼
►
And if you sign up for a whole year upfront, you get a free domain name with that.
00:23:04
◼
►
Now look, many of the listeners of this show, myself included, are programmers or we already
00:23:10
◼
►
know how to use some open source CMS that we could self-host. I've done that. You've
00:23:15
◼
►
probably done that. We've all tried to host or make a CMS. Now, the reality is there's
00:23:21
◼
►
a lot of times when making your own or running your own is really just not the best idea.
00:23:26
◼
►
There's something else that your time is better spent on. Anything else that your time is
00:23:30
◼
►
better spent on. Squarespace is not only for people that we know that or, you know, maybe
00:23:35
◼
►
you're one of these people, but it's not only for people who don't know how to make websites
00:23:38
◼
►
themselves. It's also for people like us who we can make our own websites other
00:23:44
◼
►
ways if we want to but it probably is not a good use of our time or somebody
00:23:48
◼
►
else in our life needs this and rather than having us build something from
00:23:51
◼
►
scratch we can tell them to go to Squarespace and then Squarespace will
00:23:54
◼
►
host it they'll support it and all of our friends and family won't have to bug
00:23:57
◼
►
us whenever they want to update their website. So check it out go to
00:24:00
◼
►
squarespace.com enter offer code ATP at checkout you can start a free trial with
00:24:06
◼
►
with no credit card required.
00:24:08
◼
►
Once again, when you decide to sign up,
00:24:10
◼
►
use offer code ATP for 10% off your first purchase.
00:24:12
◼
►
Squarespace, build it beautiful.
00:24:14
◼
►
- So before we get off this topic,
00:24:17
◼
►
one thing I meant to bring up earlier
00:24:18
◼
►
was the idea of an Apple branded battery case.
00:24:22
◼
►
Apple has been making,
00:24:24
◼
►
seems like more and more accessories lately.
00:24:27
◼
►
But yeah, there's third party everything,
00:24:29
◼
►
but there's also a first party, a lot of stuff.
00:24:32
◼
►
They brought the dock back recently.
00:24:33
◼
►
The new one I think even has a headphone port
00:24:35
◼
►
the back of it and you can get it in pink I mean so excuse me rose gold it's
00:24:40
◼
►
so pink just own it just say it it's pink yeah I haven't seen them person yet
00:24:44
◼
►
I assume it's it's pink in the same way that the gold one is gold and the answer
00:24:48
◼
►
is like barely but anyway no no no no it's it's really pink yeah so I haven't
00:24:52
◼
►
seen the phone but I did go to the Apple Store Sunday oh I should do this quick
00:24:57
◼
►
well I'll get to that in a second anyway I went to the up store Sunday saw the
00:25:00
◼
►
watch the rose gold watch it was pink it was not rose gold it was pink it's very
00:25:05
◼
►
much pink. I mean, it does look like it's roughly the same saturation as the gold, but
00:25:12
◼
►
it is unquestionably, unashamedly pink. And I don't know why they don't just call it pink.
00:25:19
◼
►
You would never look at this color and say, "That's rose gold." No, it's pink, and pink
00:25:22
◼
►
is great. I don't know why you wouldn't just own that.
00:25:25
◼
►
Yeah, I think it looks good. I really honestly do, so I agree with you. Anyway, I'm sorry,
00:25:29
◼
►
we totally hijacked your thought here, Jon.
00:25:31
◼
►
Yeah, I don't remember where I was in my thought.
00:25:33
◼
►
I think what I was getting at was, oh yeah, Apple making battery cases.
00:25:36
◼
►
Apple makes a bunch of stuff.
00:25:37
◼
►
They make leather cases.
00:25:38
◼
►
They don't just make even one case anymore.
00:25:40
◼
►
They make a leather case.
00:25:41
◼
►
They have the silicone case.
00:25:43
◼
►
They have those weird things with the holes in them on the back of the old iPod touches.
00:25:47
◼
►
They have the docks.
00:25:50
◼
►
Why wouldn't they make a battery case eventually?
00:25:52
◼
►
And if they did, the idea would be like, well, if Apple made one, Marco would like it.
00:25:56
◼
►
But based on the accessories that they've made lately, I don't think that's guaranteed.
00:26:01
◼
►
Maybe they would have a higher chance of making a battery case that Marco would not find objectionable
00:26:06
◼
►
But I mean just look at those docks where your entire phone is sitting on the lightning port. That's not great
00:26:12
◼
►
It's kind of wobbly and you know, it makes me a little nervous and the leather case is good
00:26:17
◼
►
Most of their cases are okay. I always like the bumper remember the the bumper they made
00:26:22
◼
►
I thought yes, it was a really nice case because it had like the shiny edges
00:26:25
◼
►
But then it had rubber on the parts that you gripped and had metal buttons in them
00:26:30
◼
►
If that ever happens, maybe it will help Marco with his battery woes.
00:26:35
◼
►
Yeah, I like the bumper as well.
00:26:37
◼
►
But I will say that for the 5S and the 6, I have been rocking the Apple leather case.
00:26:42
◼
►
I have gotten it in black because that's the way it should be done.
00:26:46
◼
►
And beyond that, it's probably the only one that doesn't eventually turn black anyway
00:26:50
◼
►
because it's already black.
00:26:52
◼
►
I quite like this Apple leather case.
00:26:55
◼
►
If I was brave enough, I would roll without a case at all, but I'm not that brave.
00:27:00
◼
►
And although I have yet to break an iPhone, it is only a matter of time, and now I've
00:27:04
◼
►
probably jinxed what I've purchased, which we'll talk about in a minute.
00:27:08
◼
►
So I will hopefully stick with this Apple leather case going forward.
00:27:12
◼
►
Before we talk about our purchases from this past weekend, I wanted to do a very brief,
00:27:16
◼
►
very quick follow-up with regard to my crescent moon on my iPhone 6.
00:27:22
◼
►
Again, if you haven't been keeping up and following along, that is, there was a crescent
00:27:28
◼
►
Moon kind of thing in the front-facing camera.
00:27:31
◼
►
I believe they call that the FaceTime camera on my iPhone 6.
00:27:34
◼
►
I realized that we were running out of warranty time for those of us who purchased on launch
00:27:39
◼
►
day like I did.
00:27:40
◼
►
And so I took my iPhone into the local Apple store this past Sunday.
00:27:47
◼
►
I mentioned the Crescent Moon.
00:27:48
◼
►
The Genius didn't even blink twice.
00:27:50
◼
►
He said, "Okay, we will get you a new screen.
00:27:53
◼
►
It'll take about 45 minutes."
00:27:55
◼
►
He took my phone from me.
00:27:57
◼
►
Interestingly, he forced me to turn off, like not in a jerky way, I should say he asked me to turn off Find My iPhone, which
00:28:04
◼
►
I guess isn't a bad thing, but it struck me as a little bit odd. Like if all they're doing is replacing the screen,
00:28:11
◼
►
why does that really matter? Maybe in case they screw something up and then need to replace the phone? I don't know.
00:28:17
◼
►
We had people write in about that too. One person was super angry about having to, you know,
00:28:21
◼
►
being told to like enter his passwords and unlock everything and not encrypt it and turn off like whatever.
00:28:26
◼
►
I'm always nervous about what is actually going on.
00:28:30
◼
►
It's like when the Grinch takes your Christmas tree back
00:28:32
◼
►
to repair it, right?
00:28:34
◼
►
I'm giving you my phone and then a little while later
00:28:37
◼
►
you're going to emerge with another thing
00:28:39
◼
►
that you say is my phone.
00:28:40
◼
►
Are any part of those phones related?
00:28:43
◼
►
Am I just getting a new refurbished phone?
00:28:44
◼
►
Did you really replace the screen?
00:28:46
◼
►
Does this thing come apart and go back together
00:28:50
◼
►
in a way that is, you know,
00:28:52
◼
►
is it meant to come apart and go back together?
00:28:54
◼
►
Is it possible to even do that?
00:28:55
◼
►
Is it a one way assembly?
00:28:56
◼
►
I'm always nervous about things like this.
00:28:58
◼
►
That's why I always just really hope I win the lottery
00:29:02
◼
►
and get something that doesn't have any problems.
00:29:04
◼
►
So it's like my old laptop.
00:29:05
◼
►
Like once I opened up my old laptop
00:29:07
◼
►
to replace the hard drive,
00:29:08
◼
►
and it's never been the same again.
00:29:11
◼
►
I'm not good at doing that.
00:29:12
◼
►
Presumably they're better at the Apple store
00:29:14
◼
►
where they do it over and over and over again,
00:29:15
◼
►
but I'm always nervous about that.
00:29:17
◼
►
And the smaller the thing gets, the more, yeah, I don't know.
00:29:20
◼
►
They've gotta be better than I am, but still.
00:29:22
◼
►
- As far as I can tell, I did get the same phone back.
00:29:24
◼
►
I mean, I didn't need to restore from backup all the--
00:29:28
◼
►
- No, no, but that's, but if they have you turn off
00:29:29
◼
►
all that stuff, that's the whole thing.
00:29:30
◼
►
You don't, you know, like what you should have done
00:29:32
◼
►
is put like a tiny microscopic, you know,
00:29:35
◼
►
etching of your initials in some part of the case
00:29:36
◼
►
that they say they're not replacing
00:29:37
◼
►
and see it's still there when you get it back.
00:29:39
◼
►
- Put a hair across the headphone port
00:29:41
◼
►
and if it's nice, you'll know.
00:29:43
◼
►
- I mean, it's hard to tell because this thing
00:29:45
◼
►
has lived in a case pretty much since day one,
00:29:47
◼
►
but it does look good, I'm not gonna lie.
00:29:50
◼
►
I mean, I didn't inspect it for scuffs
00:29:53
◼
►
apparently the genius had noted that it had. I do know that where there was a little scratch in the
00:29:58
◼
►
screen there isn't a scratch anymore, but that makes sense because they replaced the screen.
00:30:02
◼
►
But I had a couple of beta apps on my phone and those still worked. All the stuff that was once
00:30:07
◼
►
on my phone is still on my phone. I mean, maybe Apple can do like a bit-for-bit restore of what's
00:30:14
◼
►
on the phone, but everything that I can see that indicates that all I got was a screen is what
00:30:21
◼
►
what happened. It appears to me that all I got was a screen.
00:30:23
◼
►
No, that's very likely, because that is the way most of them are fixed. Most of them are
00:30:27
◼
►
not swapped out. And that's how mine was fixed earlier this year for the same reason, before
00:30:31
◼
►
you apparently caused like this global shortage of Genius Time by mentioning this on our show.
00:30:37
◼
►
Yeah, I did get, or we did get some reports in that some people went to the Genius Bar
00:30:44
◼
►
and were specifically asked, "Oh, do you listen to the Accidental Tech podcast?" because we've
00:30:49
◼
►
gotten a lot of you in here lately, which genuinely hand on heart made me extraordinarily
00:30:55
◼
►
proud. I was very happy to hear that. But yeah, so I did get a replace screen. My understanding
00:30:59
◼
►
is some people did get replaced phones. In fact, one person wrote in and said, "Well,
00:31:04
◼
►
I went in right around closing time and they didn't want to deal with it, so they just
00:31:08
◼
►
gave me a new phone," which I thought was pretty awesome.
00:31:10
◼
►
That's a good strategy. Which is a pretty solid strategy. I wish I
00:31:13
◼
►
had thought of that. Well, it didn't work for me. Like, I went
00:31:15
◼
►
in in the evening when I went to get Mind Fixed earlier this year and they just told
00:31:17
◼
►
me come back tomorrow. Oh wow. They kept it overnight and they said come back tomorrow.
00:31:23
◼
►
So I said alright. And that's you know when I go in there I try to avoid having service
00:31:28
◼
►
done on my current active phone and if I really do have to have it done I will just switch
00:31:33
◼
►
to an old phone and wipe it because like I excited because you know the whole idea of
00:31:37
◼
►
like oh unlike because they told me to you take off your passcode like does it they basically
00:31:42
◼
►
you disable all of your security on your device. And I say no. I'm not doing that. That is
00:31:49
◼
►
not an option. So I just wipe my devices whenever I have to get them serviced and it's inconvenient
00:31:55
◼
►
but it's terrible that they make people do that and whatever the reason is they should
00:32:00
◼
►
find a better way to do it that doesn't require that. They'll say oh well certain tools won't
00:32:04
◼
►
run. Well then your Apple, make tools that run. You can do that. There's no reason to
00:32:11
◼
►
get people to disable all their security while doing a hardware repair? That is complete
00:32:17
◼
►
Well, I think there might be some legit reasons because the whole idea is that there's no
00:32:22
◼
►
secret backdoor key to get at your data that Apple has, right? And you say, "Why don't
00:32:27
◼
►
you just make something worth it?" You're essentially asking them to put a backdoor.
00:32:30
◼
►
So at some point, there has to be some...
00:32:31
◼
►
Well, no. I'm saying for a hardware repair, like if it's a screen replacement, why do
00:32:35
◼
►
they need access to the software on the phone for a screen replacement?
00:32:38
◼
►
They probably do want to do a full backup of your thing in case the guy slips with a
00:32:43
◼
►
screwdriver or something and, you know, cracks a chip in the thing and they have to give
00:32:47
◼
►
you a new phone and then you say, "But where's all my data?"
00:32:49
◼
►
I don't know.
00:32:50
◼
►
I don't know if that's true though because he specifically, the genius that I was speaking
00:32:54
◼
►
to, specifically went into the settings on my phone, went to the iCloud backup, or I
00:33:02
◼
►
believe it was iCloud backup screen, and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, you haven't backed
00:33:05
◼
►
this up to iCloud in a while? Have you backed this up to your computer?" And I said, "Yes,"
00:33:10
◼
►
last night. And at that point, he was completely satisfied. But I think there would have been
00:33:17
◼
►
a little bit of a kerfuffle if I had said, "No, I haven't backed this up in ages. Why
00:33:22
◼
►
do you ask?" He also didn't, if memory serves, he did not expressly ask me to remove my passcode,
00:33:29
◼
►
but he was, well, the funny thing about it was he wasn't clear about why he wanted my
00:33:34
◼
►
my Apple ID password and he handed me the phone to type it in.
00:33:37
◼
►
It's not that he needed it himself, but as I was typing it in, I looked at what he was
00:33:42
◼
►
doing and he was disabling Find My iPhone.
00:33:44
◼
►
So basically he just wanted to make sure that I had a backup.
00:33:48
◼
►
He wanted to make sure Find My iPhone was not on and then at that point he was satisfied.
00:33:52
◼
►
Anyway, the tipster is frustrated that we're not listening to him.
00:33:56
◼
►
That is impossible.
00:33:57
◼
►
What he says is, was it impossible to ring out, he says, a repair.
00:34:04
◼
►
if you don't have to find my iPhone on to do the tool use.
00:34:06
◼
►
But I think what it all comes down to is that
00:34:08
◼
►
they want to be able to use your phone,
00:34:10
◼
►
even if they're not making a backup,
00:34:11
◼
►
which makes sense because Apple doesn't usually care
00:34:13
◼
►
about your data.
00:34:14
◼
►
They want to, like when they're doing this screen repair,
00:34:17
◼
►
I assume that when the screen repair is over,
00:34:19
◼
►
they want to make sure everything works.
00:34:20
◼
►
They want to be able to tap things on the screen.
00:34:23
◼
►
And if your screen is locked and is gonna like erase itself
00:34:27
◼
►
after 10, you know, like they have to be able to get
00:34:30
◼
►
at your stuff somehow.
00:34:31
◼
►
Otherwise like, can't they just do an iPhone,
00:34:33
◼
►
hardware repair blind and just repair it and give it back to me and then
00:34:37
◼
►
when I turn it on I'm sure that it will work and I'm sure that you know, I
00:34:40
◼
►
like like I said
00:34:42
◼
►
I don't I don't think it's possible for them to not ask you to undo some amount of security
00:34:47
◼
►
To do repair any kind of repair even just a hardware repair just so they can verify that the hardware repair was successful
00:34:55
◼
►
It makes some sense. Maybe the geniuses aren't telling people because it's very difficult to explain why they might need to do this
00:35:01
◼
►
Whenever I've brought a Mac in for repair. I've always just wiped the entire thing
00:35:06
◼
►
I put it on a single account username Apple password Apple on an entirely erased hard drive
00:35:11
◼
►
I take out all my third-party RAM like I've you know back in the day if I brought something to the Apple Store
00:35:17
◼
►
It's just so much easier to do that then you don't have to deal with anything
00:35:20
◼
►
Like it's like sometimes I would put in a new hard drive like, you know
00:35:23
◼
►
Most of my Mac was still at home because of the part I was repairing was not that
00:35:28
◼
►
especially in the days where they were cranky about third-party RAM. Like, "Here you go!
00:35:31
◼
►
Here's a box stock computer with no data on it and a single account called Apple Apple. Have at it."
00:35:35
◼
►
And Marcos basically doing that with his phones. And it is annoying,
00:35:39
◼
►
but it makes your repair experience smoother in exchange for you spending some time at home to
00:35:45
◼
►
do stuff. Just make sure you do an actual encrypted local backup that will save all your passwords,
00:35:49
◼
►
and then you see you don't have to wait for your apps to restore over the course of several hours
00:35:53
◼
►
from the app store. Yep, I couldn't agree more. And one other quick piece of real-time follow-up
00:35:58
◼
►
from me to me. It occurred to me that one of the reasons I knew that I did not get a
00:36:03
◼
►
different phone was because my Touch ID was still working exactly as it was when I got
00:36:08
◼
►
my phone back. And if the secure element is really secure, then that means I must have
00:36:13
◼
►
gotten the same phone back just with a new screen.
00:36:17
◼
►
Our next sponsor is lynda.com. L-Y-N-D-A dot com. Go to lynda.com/ATP to see for yourself.
00:36:24
◼
►
Lynda.com is an easy and affordable way to help you learn, with high quality, easy to
00:36:28
◼
►
follow video tutorials.
00:36:30
◼
►
Instantly stream thousands of courses created by experts on software, web development, graphic
00:36:35
◼
►
design and more.
00:36:36
◼
►
Lynda.com has fresh new courses added daily.
00:36:39
◼
►
They work directly with industry experts and software companies to provide timely training
00:36:43
◼
►
often the same day new versions or releases hit the market, like iOS 9, so you're always
00:36:48
◼
►
up to speed.
00:36:49
◼
►
Lynda.com offers courses for all experience levels, whether you're beginner or advanced.
00:36:54
◼
►
And every Lynda.com course is produced at the highest quality.
00:36:58
◼
►
This is not like inconsistent homemade videos on YouTube.
00:37:00
◼
►
It's very hard to find the quality stuff there.
00:37:03
◼
►
Lynda.com courses are broken into bite-sized pieces so you can learn at your own pace.
00:37:07
◼
►
You can learn from start to finish or you can just jump in and find a quick answer.
00:37:11
◼
►
Now part of the quality here is that these include very high production, including things
00:37:15
◼
►
like transcripts that are totally searchable.
00:37:18
◼
►
So you can jump around to find exactly the part you need within a video, right using
00:37:21
◼
►
the transfer from the side which scrolls as you view the video.
00:37:24
◼
►
It is really cool.
00:37:25
◼
►
There's also playlists.
00:37:26
◼
►
There's even certificates of course completion which you can publish to a LinkedIn profile.
00:37:31
◼
►
You can even learn while you're on the go with the lynda.com apps for iPhone, iPad and
00:37:36
◼
►
They even have a premium membership if you want that will offer downloads of offline
00:37:40
◼
►
viewing for those mobile apps as well as sample project files.
00:37:44
◼
►
Now my favorite thing about lynda.com is that you can watch anything you want with no pressure
00:37:49
◼
►
or commitment because you don't pay per video.
00:37:52
◼
►
You get one low monthly price, $25 a month, and that gives you unlimited access to all
00:37:58
◼
►
over 100,000 of their video tutorials.
00:38:01
◼
►
This is great if you just want to learn a little thing here, a little thing there, or
00:38:04
◼
►
if you want to learn on multiple different topics, or you just don't want to commit to
00:38:09
◼
►
say, "Well, do I want to buy each video pack separately for each thing?"
00:38:12
◼
►
No, $25 a month for flat rate, unlimited access to all of their video tutorials.
00:38:18
◼
►
Now they have all sorts of courses you might love.
00:38:20
◼
►
This includes things like app development, web development in many languages.
00:38:25
◼
►
Things like productivity apps, you know, brush up on your office skills.
00:38:29
◼
►
Creative Pro apps like Adobe's Creative Suite.
00:38:31
◼
►
Logic and Final Cut if you want to learn how to produce podcasts or videos.
00:38:35
◼
►
Even professional skills like management and negotiation skills.
00:38:39
◼
►
So lynda.com, this is a great service, they're so useful that 30% of colleges and universities,
00:38:45
◼
►
including most of the Ivy League schools, offer subscriptions to their students and
00:38:48
◼
►
faculty members.
00:38:49
◼
►
That's how good this is.
00:38:51
◼
►
lynda.com is offering a 10-day free trial.
00:38:54
◼
►
Access all courses for free.
00:38:55
◼
►
Watch as much as you want for 10 days.
00:38:57
◼
►
Visit lynda.com/atp.
00:39:01
◼
►
Once again, a 10-day free trial with access to all courses at lynda.com/atp.
00:39:07
◼
►
Thanks a lot to lynda.com for sponsoring our show once again.
00:39:11
◼
►
So we should recap what we bought this past weekend.
00:39:14
◼
►
I for one am in for two phones.
00:39:16
◼
►
I bought or preordered Aaron a rose gold 64 gig iPhone 6s and I preordered myself a space
00:39:27
◼
►
gray 64 gig iPhone 6s.
00:39:30
◼
►
I am not part of the plus club because I actually know what I'm talking about.
00:39:34
◼
►
Marco, did you eventually…
00:39:37
◼
►
Did you eventually give in and join the Plus Club?
00:39:39
◼
►
You know, one of the reasons I brought the 6 Plus to XOXO was that the pre-orders were
00:39:45
◼
►
going to open up about in the middle of my trip, and so I figured I'd give it, because
00:39:48
◼
►
I was on the fence, I'd give it one more time to see, like, you know, because I really
00:39:52
◼
►
was undecided, because I really, as I said, I really have not been happy with the 6 battery
00:39:57
◼
►
life, and I really do appreciate the larger screen during many of the things I do of the
00:40:03
◼
►
So I was really on the fence.
00:40:05
◼
►
So I moved all my stuff over the night before I left.
00:40:10
◼
►
Moved all my stuff over and started using the phone
00:40:14
◼
►
and literally within 20 minutes I was like,
00:40:18
◼
►
"Nope, I'm not buying this one."
00:40:20
◼
►
- Atta boy, atta boy.
00:40:22
◼
►
So Mike was wrong?
00:40:24
◼
►
- For me, yeah.
00:40:25
◼
►
So there's a number of, the six plus, as I said,
00:40:27
◼
►
there are a lot of benefits to it
00:40:29
◼
►
and if you can use it and hold it comfortably,
00:40:33
◼
►
then more power to you.
00:40:34
◼
►
It is a great device for a lot of people.
00:40:36
◼
►
What didn't do it for me is two things.
00:40:41
◼
►
Number one, and it's not how big it feels in the hand.
00:40:43
◼
►
I got used to that last time, it's fine.
00:40:45
◼
►
What it is for me is the size in the pocket,
00:40:50
◼
►
which is a big deal, and like,
00:40:52
◼
►
I'm not a phone on the table kind of person.
00:40:56
◼
►
I keep my phone in my pocket if I'm sitting down somewhere.
00:40:59
◼
►
So if I need to use my phone or check my phone for something,
00:41:02
◼
►
I'm taking it in and out of my pocket a lot, right?
00:41:05
◼
►
So a phone that large, it's like taking a dinner tray
00:41:10
◼
►
out of your pocket.
00:41:10
◼
►
It is so big, it's very clumsy to insert or remove.
00:41:15
◼
►
And secondly, another thing that's weird about the 6 Plus
00:41:19
◼
►
is that a lot of apps that don't normally rotate on the 6
00:41:25
◼
►
do rotate on the 6 Plus, and when they do rotate,
00:41:29
◼
►
they go into this like weird, like miniature iPad,
00:41:33
◼
►
not iPad mini, I guess, this nano iPad mode,
00:41:36
◼
►
where they will use a split view the way iPads do,
00:41:38
◼
►
and this is part of the whole universal thing,
00:41:40
◼
►
I know how it works in the SDK side.
00:41:42
◼
►
They, it considers it like a mini iPad,
00:41:45
◼
►
and so you'll have like this cramped, weird,
00:41:48
◼
►
tiny iPad-like split interface in a lot of apps
00:41:51
◼
►
when you rotate them, and I found that it rotates
00:41:54
◼
►
more easily. I don't know, maybe it's just happier to do it, maybe I just wasn't used
00:41:56
◼
►
to it, but whenever I use the 6 Plus, it's constantly rotating when I didn't want it
00:42:01
◼
►
to. And I try rotation lock, but it's like, you know, then you go to look at the photo
00:42:06
◼
►
or watch a video and you turn it to the side and you gotta undo it, it's a pain. And I
00:42:10
◼
►
found that even, even, you know, I'm used to the iPhone 6, and I don't have these problems
00:42:16
◼
►
on the 6, and I haven't had these problems on any previous iPhone, including ones I wasn't
00:42:20
◼
►
used to, like when I first got the 6, and it was, I'm going up a size, so I'm not used
00:42:24
◼
►
to holding it. I didn't have these problems with that, so I know it isn't just that I'm
00:42:27
◼
►
not used to the 6 Plus, it's just that the 6 Plus, like springboard rotates, lots of
00:42:31
◼
►
things rotate, and I do it in a weird way, and so I just found it cumbersome in those
00:42:38
◼
►
two big ways. And so those are important enough, especially the pocket size, those are important
00:42:45
◼
►
enough that I couldn't do it. Now, in the future, you know, Apple likes to make things
00:42:49
◼
►
thinner and smaller. So if they can like shave off more of the margins, I don't know. I mean,
00:42:55
◼
►
it is heavy, but it doesn't really matter. If they can, if they somehow, like if we ever
00:42:59
◼
►
get like the borderless iPhone that like that loses the chin on the top and bottom, you
00:43:03
◼
►
know, somehow God knows how, but if they somehow do that, then I would consider it again. But
00:43:09
◼
►
as of now, it's, it's just too big for me.
00:43:12
◼
►
Just gonna wait for a flexible one. That's the thing that annoys me most about even the six I find. That you gotta unfold your phone?
00:43:18
◼
►
Just so it curves like the six I find uncomfortable in my pants pockets because it is so like it stays
00:43:26
◼
►
Flat it doesn't conform to the shape of my leg or anything it kind of stretches the pants out a little bit
00:43:30
◼
►
So yeah flexible ones. It's probably in our lifetime
00:43:34
◼
►
Hopefully we'll say dad John did your family buy anything?
00:43:38
◼
►
Nope didn't buy anything. I didn't even know what people were all talking about staying up late at night in the beginning
00:43:44
◼
►
When people first started tweeting about it. No, I'm not like and here's the reason not not just because I'm not getting
00:43:49
◼
►
I mean, I was probably gonna get a success, but we're not in a hurry
00:43:53
◼
►
She's actually I think she's got a couple more months before she can actually get it
00:43:56
◼
►
I'm gonna go to the Apple store and look at it
00:43:58
◼
►
but the final reason and the same reason I always sort of hold off on these things with a few rare exceptions is
00:44:05
◼
►
You get the first one you get crescent moons like anything any weird
00:44:08
◼
►
Manufacturing defect a weak tapped a tapped egg engine in your watch or whatever like you don't want the first cars off the assembly line
00:44:14
◼
►
Right you want to everyone else to find all those problems
00:44:16
◼
►
I have a six, but I didn't buy it on launch day
00:44:19
◼
►
I bought it not too far after launch
00:44:21
◼
►
But after everyone had gotten the first round of phones maybe the second round of phones and so
00:44:25
◼
►
Mine was manufactured on a line where hopefully they had worked out more of the kinks and lo and behold I have no crescent
00:44:30
◼
►
Moon and so far no other problems with my phone, so that is my strategy
00:44:34
◼
►
but I'm not even getting a 6.
00:44:36
◼
►
My wife is going to get a 6+, but not imminently.
00:44:39
◼
►
- Well, 6S or 6+.
00:44:40
◼
►
- Oh, sorry, 6S, yeah.
00:44:42
◼
►
All these stupid names, they're killing me.
00:44:44
◼
►
- I just wanna make sure we all agree that Mike was wrong.
00:44:46
◼
►
- I'm not participating in this.
00:44:50
◼
►
- That's 'cause you're a better man than I.
00:44:51
◼
►
John, are you a secret 6+ user?
00:44:53
◼
►
Is that why you just bring your flip phone to conferences?
00:44:55
◼
►
- I am not a secret 6+ user.
00:44:58
◼
►
- Oh, goodness.
00:45:00
◼
►
One thing I should note is that
00:45:02
◼
►
I had been kicking around the idea
00:45:03
◼
►
of getting the new iPad Mini.
00:45:06
◼
►
What is that called, iPad Mini 4, is that right?
00:45:08
◼
►
- Yeah, the weird, oh, by the way, a quick follow-up.
00:45:10
◼
►
I was wrong about the CPU in that.
00:45:13
◼
►
I had said last episode that there is now no difference
00:45:16
◼
►
between the iPad Air 2 and the Mini 4,
00:45:19
◼
►
except for screen size.
00:45:21
◼
►
That is wrong.
00:45:22
◼
►
The Mini 4 has an up-clocked A8 processor,
00:45:26
◼
►
so it is slightly faster than an iPhone 6 in benchmarks.
00:45:30
◼
►
And that's a dual-core processor.
00:45:33
◼
►
The Air 2 has the A8X, which is a triple core processor.
00:45:38
◼
►
And so at various benchmarks and stuff
00:45:42
◼
►
that we've seen so far, the iPad Mini 4
00:45:47
◼
►
is faster than the Mini 3.
00:45:48
◼
►
It is a nice chip, but it is very close
00:45:51
◼
►
to the performance of an iPhone 6,
00:45:53
◼
►
and not very close to the much higher performance
00:45:55
◼
►
of the Air 2.
00:45:57
◼
►
- That's correct.
00:45:58
◼
►
And so I thought about replacing my beloved
00:46:02
◼
►
OG Retina Pad Mini with a new iPad Mini 4.
00:46:07
◼
►
And I haven't pulled the trigger yet.
00:46:10
◼
►
And part of that is because I just spent $1,700
00:46:15
◼
►
or whatever it was on two completely contract-free iPhones.
00:46:18
◼
►
And I did that because I just,
00:46:20
◼
►
that's the way I wanted to do it.
00:46:21
◼
►
I'm not saying it was the best approach.
00:46:23
◼
►
I'm not saying it was the most frugal.
00:46:26
◼
►
It's just what I wanted to do.
00:46:27
◼
►
Please don't email me.
00:46:28
◼
►
So I've dropped all this money
00:46:30
◼
►
and I probably shouldn't be spending any more, but the other reason I haven't done it is
00:46:35
◼
►
I'm kind of bummed, not surprised, bummed that 3D Touch hasn't made it to the iPads yet and
00:46:42
◼
►
I want to wait if I can. Now the last time I said this was about the watch and we saw how well that worked out,
00:46:48
◼
►
but I want to wait if I can and see what 3D Touch is all about and see if I really like it and see if it's
00:46:54
◼
►
see if it's like earth-shattering and it's just completely life-changing and if it is
00:47:00
◼
►
then maybe I'll just hold out for hopefully next year when iPads get 3D
00:47:07
◼
►
touch, although we'll see what ends up happening knowing me. I'll probably buy
00:47:11
◼
►
it for myself as like a Christmas present or something like that. But for
00:47:15
◼
►
now, for the next at least few weeks, I am holding off. Alright, any other thoughts
00:47:20
◼
►
about Saturday morning purchases? Alright. Oh, the other thing I actually wanted to
00:47:25
◼
►
ask you guys, did you hear anything about really really bad inventory issues like
00:47:29
◼
►
there were last year with the iPhone 6 because I did not. It seemed like the inventory was
00:47:35
◼
►
considerably better for this year than last and I don't know if that's because most people are not
00:47:39
◼
►
on the S cycle. I don't know if it's because they were fine, you know, last year we finally got the
00:47:44
◼
►
bigger phones that so many people have been clamoring for. But I did not hear any big
00:47:51
◼
►
grumbling about, "Oh, I really wanted the blah but it was sold out by the time I got through."
00:47:58
◼
►
Did you guys hear anything?
00:47:59
◼
►
Sales numbers are bigger this year than last year, so it's not like, you know, what they're
00:48:02
◼
►
saying so far, rumors, whatever, is that they're selling even more than they sold last year.
00:48:07
◼
►
I think it's just that they had more lead time to build up inventory and wanted to have
00:48:12
◼
►
more lead time because this is an S year and they're not making an entirely new phone in
00:48:15
◼
►
an entirely new shape.
00:48:17
◼
►
And, you know, so that's if they're going to have a year where they have more inventory,
00:48:22
◼
►
it's going to be an S year, I would imagine, because they're kind of used to making phones
00:48:25
◼
►
like this and they know what they're doing and the scheduling just worked out.
00:48:28
◼
►
Yeah, I heard the same thing, although some people were saying that if you went to a particular
00:48:32
◼
►
carrier's website, a lot of those had really crappy dates for like when you were going
00:48:35
◼
►
to get your phone.
00:48:36
◼
►
And that's just like, however, Apple is distributing the inventory they do make and, you know,
00:48:41
◼
►
presumably they're keeping most of it for themselves.
00:48:44
◼
►
So yeah, but that was, speaking of staying up late and ordering a phone, I did see tweets
00:48:49
◼
►
from a bunch of people who were like, "I didn't stay up late.
00:48:51
◼
►
I just woke up at my normal time in the morning and I got online and I ordered my phone."
00:48:54
◼
►
and it was still in stock and it's gonna come right away
00:48:57
◼
►
and you know, voila.
00:48:59
◼
►
- Yeah, I mean, the morning after the launch,
00:49:03
◼
►
later that morning, nine hours later or whatever,
00:49:05
◼
►
I looked at all the configurations, I was curious
00:49:08
◼
►
and the only one that was showing any delay
00:49:10
◼
►
and it was only a small delay was the six plus
00:49:13
◼
►
in some of the colors, including the new pink one.
00:49:16
◼
►
The regular six, even the pink one was fine.
00:49:19
◼
►
And actually, so I just looked right now,
00:49:21
◼
►
if you go to Apple's site right now
00:49:23
◼
►
and configure the common boring geek phone,
00:49:26
◼
►
which is the 64 gig black 6S,
00:49:29
◼
►
that is still saying deliver is 925,
00:49:32
◼
►
which is the first day any of them are delivering.
00:49:34
◼
►
So this is still delivering on day one.
00:49:35
◼
►
Yeah, if you go right now--
00:49:36
◼
►
- Wait, so I didn't have to wake up
00:49:37
◼
►
at three in the damn morning?
00:49:40
◼
►
- You didn't see all those tweets about it?
00:49:41
◼
►
Oh, it's part of the fun, part of the fun of Wigam.
00:49:43
◼
►
Although, as the tipster is saying in the chat room,
00:49:46
◼
►
don't try to do that next year.
00:49:47
◼
►
I don't know, you never know.
00:49:48
◼
►
It all depends on how many could they make
00:49:50
◼
►
before they went on sale,
00:49:51
◼
►
That's a factor of scheduling and the timing of the,
00:49:55
◼
►
whatever event they're gonna have
00:49:57
◼
►
and everything else they have to announce,
00:49:58
◼
►
and any glitches in manufacturing and blah, blah, blah.
00:50:02
◼
►
Anyway, so this was a good year
00:50:04
◼
►
for everyone to get their phones.
00:50:06
◼
►
I just hope you don't all have whatever the new iteration,
00:50:09
◼
►
whatever the new incarnation of the crescent moon is,
00:50:12
◼
►
broken home button, weak tap to click, whatever.
00:50:14
◼
►
- Yeah, we'll say the taptic engine
00:50:16
◼
►
that may or may not work, et cetera, et cetera.
00:50:19
◼
►
Alright, so speaking of new purchases, Marco, did you purchase anything recently that was
00:50:24
◼
►
very, very, very cheap?
00:50:27
◼
►
For one dollar?
00:50:28
◼
►
Oh yeah, the Apple TV?
00:50:31
◼
►
Damn it, man, pay attention.
00:50:32
◼
►
Yeah, yeah, the developer lottery Apple TV.
00:50:35
◼
►
Yes, I registered for that.
00:50:37
◼
►
I won, I guess.
00:50:40
◼
►
I don't think I'm allowed to say anything about it.
00:50:42
◼
►
I agreed to something.
00:50:44
◼
►
Yeah, I don't know.
00:50:46
◼
►
I agreed to not write about and talk about
00:50:49
◼
►
like the actual device and what it's like,
00:50:52
◼
►
but I don't remember if that agreement included
00:50:55
◼
►
that I'm allowed to mention whether I have one or not.
00:50:58
◼
►
But I mean, heck, as of right now, I don't have one.
00:51:01
◼
►
So there we go.
00:51:02
◼
►
- Yeah, I'm disappointed in my Twitter timeline,
00:51:05
◼
►
which I read exhaustively,
00:51:06
◼
►
that I didn't know that this lottery was even a thing
00:51:09
◼
►
until people were finding out whether they had won,
00:51:11
◼
►
or not that I wouldn't have entered
00:51:12
◼
►
'cause I'm not developing an Apple TV app.
00:51:14
◼
►
But how did I not even know about this?
00:51:15
◼
►
Was this just not a big deal?
00:51:17
◼
►
- The lottery?
00:51:18
◼
►
- Yeah, I heard about it.
00:51:19
◼
►
- I heard about it when people were saying,
00:51:22
◼
►
"Oh, I got one, I didn't get one."
00:51:23
◼
►
I'm like, "What are they talking about?"
00:51:24
◼
►
And I went to the website and looked at it.
00:51:26
◼
►
- It was a reference.
00:51:27
◼
►
- Yeah, no, anyway.
00:51:29
◼
►
I think on my Twitter timeline,
00:51:30
◼
►
people were talking about it obliquely
00:51:32
◼
►
without anyone actually ever saying it
00:51:34
◼
►
or linking to a story or writing a blog post about it
00:51:36
◼
►
or doing anything like that.
00:51:38
◼
►
So anyway, a bunch of people, who was it that had the...
00:51:41
◼
►
I saw some number thrown out there
00:51:44
◼
►
for how many they gave away.
00:51:45
◼
►
Anyway, they gave away a bunch of Apple TVs.
00:51:47
◼
►
I saw some people speculating that
00:51:49
◼
►
these were originally going to be WWDC style,
00:51:52
◼
►
look under your seat, free gifts for every attendees in WWDC.
00:51:55
◼
►
But then of course, Apple TV wasn't launched to WWDC.
00:51:58
◼
►
That would have been cool.
00:52:00
◼
►
I would have been excited to get one.
00:52:01
◼
►
I'm buying one anyway, so whatever.
00:52:03
◼
►
It doesn't make a difference.
00:52:05
◼
►
The tipster says the WWDC thing is true.
00:52:07
◼
►
I think I saw someone posting pictures of the packaging
00:52:11
◼
►
and it was all fancy packaging with like inspirational words
00:52:14
◼
►
all of which fits with the rumor of these were meant to be gifts for developers at WAAC,
00:52:19
◼
►
which is kind of out of character for Apple because I can't, since the Apology Mouse,
00:52:23
◼
►
I haven't, don't think they've given away any significant hardware at any of their events.
00:52:27
◼
►
That's totally a Google thing to do. And lots of other conferences, like I think when you
00:52:30
◼
►
went to build one year, they gave everyone Xbox ones and they give them like surfaces
00:52:34
◼
►
and you know, Android phones and all sorts of stuff like that. Everyone loves free hardware,
00:52:39
◼
►
Apple. So get with the program. Maybe next year.
00:52:44
◼
►
It's the kind of thing like giving a bunch of developers, I mean the rumor that we heard
00:52:49
◼
►
is that there were tens of thousands of these given out. Given a bunch of developers early
00:52:54
◼
►
access to hardware that they're very excited to develop for that has a really apparently,
00:52:58
◼
►
I haven't looked at it yet, but everyone's saying it's a very easy SDK because it is
00:53:02
◼
►
really very close to iOS. I mean it is iOS basically, you know, and just like with certain
00:53:06
◼
►
frameworks not available and certain new frameworks, but they're very close to iOS. So giving a
00:53:13
◼
►
whole bunch of developers who are excited about this early access and making them feel
00:53:16
◼
►
special and letting them make their apps on a real device, that, you know, before it's
00:53:21
◼
►
available to the public, that is really valuable to get the app story started. And, you know,
00:53:25
◼
►
maybe they learned from the watch, you know, with the watch, the app story with the watch
00:53:29
◼
►
early on and honestly still is pretty weak. And a lot of that was because of just limitations
00:53:35
◼
►
of watchOS 1 and limitations of WatchKit, but a lot of that was also because the developers
00:53:40
◼
►
for the most part didn't have early access. A few did, but most didn't have early access
00:53:44
◼
►
to the hardware. So this I think is pretty cool. I think it's a smart move. It's the
00:53:51
◼
►
kind of move that you're right, we wouldn't have expected this from the Apple of even
00:53:56
◼
►
two or three years ago, but now it seems like Apple is making more of these Apple would
00:54:03
◼
►
never do that kind of very pragmatic moves. And that's a good thing. I think everybody
00:54:08
◼
►
wins here. I don't think there's any downside. They've already announced it. No one's going
00:54:11
◼
►
to blow any secrets. They've already shown it off like crazy, so they don't have to worry
00:54:14
◼
►
about that. I think this is great.
00:54:17
◼
►
It's also the cheapest platform they sell. If they're going to give you a device, if
00:54:21
◼
►
you have to pick one to give, even the watch is more expensive. This is what, $150 for
00:54:25
◼
►
the small one?
00:54:27
◼
►
And there's no watch at $150, and the free phones don't count because of plans and subsidies
00:54:31
◼
►
or whatever. So yeah, if you're gonna give something away, start with this one. And you
00:54:35
◼
►
know, people, here's the thing about like, I think people were excited to make watch
00:54:41
◼
►
apps and it seemed like for the TV, people were excited for other people to make TV apps.
00:54:47
◼
►
Like I think there's, you know, I would like there to be apps for the TV, but it wasn't,
00:54:52
◼
►
there's not a straight line from people who develop either watch Mac or iOS apps to say,
00:55:00
◼
►
you could do it on a TV.
00:55:01
◼
►
It's like, well, it's not a touch screen, it's not a mouse, it's not a keyboard.
00:55:04
◼
►
If I don't have video content to show, I'm not quite sure what I'll make.
00:55:07
◼
►
But if you give them free hardware, they're like, you know what, let me try thinking of
00:55:11
◼
►
Maybe I can come up with something, maybe I have some kind of idea.
00:55:13
◼
►
So I think this is just the kind of platform where the developers might need a little boost
00:55:18
◼
►
to get moving and get motivated about if you get free hardware, you're like, maybe I do
00:55:24
◼
►
have a couple ideas.
00:55:25
◼
►
Let me try this, let me try that.
00:55:27
◼
►
You might surprise yourself, whereas if you don't have the free hardware, you'll probably
00:55:31
◼
►
just convince yourself that none of your existing applications or skills or ideas for apps are
00:55:35
◼
►
applicable to a big screen that you sit far away from and can't touch.
00:55:40
◼
►
That's pretty wild.
00:55:41
◼
►
I don't know.
00:55:42
◼
►
Speaking of Apple TV, we should note that last episode I had said, "Eh, I don't know.
00:55:47
◼
►
Maybe I'll get it.
00:55:48
◼
►
Maybe I won't."
00:55:50
◼
►
And I had said that my beloved Plex, if that was available on the Apple TV, I would probably
00:55:58
◼
►
insta-buy it.
00:55:59
◼
►
And in the time between last episode and this episode, IT World got in contact with the
00:56:05
◼
►
Plex, I think, CEO and has stated that, yes, they are developing a Plex client for the
00:56:12
◼
►
So that means I'll probably be buying one.
00:56:15
◼
►
Why don't you tell us about clicks versus taps, Jon?
00:56:18
◼
►
Yeah, you skipped that one. You noticed that, huh?
00:56:22
◼
►
So, yeah, last week I looked at the, like, Apple's developer documentation that had these animations showing the new Apple TV remote and showing, like, a dot on it showing this is a click and this is a tap, and they both looked the same to me, and I didn't understand how you could tell a difference or what was going on there.
00:56:37
◼
►
So someone asked on Apple's--oh, okay, is Apple's developers from NDA? I can't even say, can I?
00:56:44
◼
►
Only if it's, like, the red section, right?
00:56:46
◼
►
No, I pretty sure you can because I'm pretty sure I just hit it with yeah, I'm not logged in so you're good to go
00:56:52
◼
►
So I want to know the difference between it's happening click was
00:56:55
◼
►
In Apple's developer forums and URL that will put in the show note
00:56:59
◼
►
Someone asked the very same question and someone with a little Apple logo underneath their name
00:57:06
◼
►
A click is when a user physically clicks down on the trackpad causing a select event
00:57:10
◼
►
And then I guess a tap is just happening. So what it sounds to me like is that
00:57:14
◼
►
The touchpad at the end of the remote moves in some way like physically moves
00:57:19
◼
►
And makes a click as opposed to just tapping on the touch surface and again none of us have this device yet
00:57:25
◼
►
And when Marco gets it he probably can't talk about it
00:57:28
◼
►
No, so we'll all find out I will find out when mine ships. I'm ordering that day one basically
00:57:32
◼
►
I'm gonna accept whatever the equivalent of the crescent moon is for the Apple TV hardware because it's cheap and whatever I don't care
00:57:39
◼
►
But it seems like it's actually a physical button and I still don't quite understand how that will work based on the pictures of the remote
00:57:44
◼
►
So what part of it moves?
00:57:46
◼
►
How does it move down?
00:57:46
◼
►
How far does it move?
00:57:47
◼
►
Is there a hinge?
00:57:48
◼
►
Does it just bend?
00:57:49
◼
►
I don't know.
00:57:50
◼
►
All these questions will be answered
00:57:51
◼
►
when we get it into our little hands,
00:57:52
◼
►
but it was interesting to see an actual response
00:57:55
◼
►
from an Apple person about this.
00:57:56
◼
►
- Excellent.
00:57:59
◼
►
All right, let's see.
00:58:00
◼
►
What else do we have to talk about?
00:58:01
◼
►
We already talked about Plex.
00:58:04
◼
►
Do you want to tell us about 24p on the Apple TV?
00:58:07
◼
►
- This is, I think, from the exact same Apple person
00:58:09
◼
►
in the Apple forums.
00:58:10
◼
►
Someone asked a question, said,
00:58:12
◼
►
will the new Apple TV actually output 24p video?
00:58:15
◼
►
And so 24p is a lot of movies, old movies and new movies
00:58:20
◼
►
are shot at 24 frames per second.
00:58:22
◼
►
24p is a video mode where it sends 24p
00:58:26
◼
►
is for progressively scanned frames of video,
00:58:30
◼
►
just one frame, another frame, another frame, another frame,
00:58:32
◼
►
24 of those every second.
00:58:34
◼
►
That's how the movie was shot.
00:58:36
◼
►
What you want to happen is if you are viewing a movie
00:58:39
◼
►
at home you want 24 frames of video every second to be displayed in your television
00:58:46
◼
►
in one frame, then the next frame, then the next frame, at exactly 24.
00:58:50
◼
►
If you don't do that, it's not going to look quite right.
00:58:53
◼
►
The most common situation is where your television, or the device that's outputting something,
00:58:58
◼
►
for example your computer, is going at 60 hertz.
00:59:01
◼
►
So it's got 60 frames per second.
00:59:02
◼
►
The computer you're looking at right now, and I think all iOS devices except for maybe
00:59:05
◼
►
the new the new iPad Pro which has the variable refresh rate but anyway 60
00:59:10
◼
►
Hertz is common for computers unfortunately 24 does not go into 60
00:59:13
◼
►
evenly so if you're going to display video content that originally has 24
00:59:18
◼
►
different frames every second but you have to show 60 frames every second you
00:59:22
◼
►
have to divide them up unevenly and when the camera pans quickly it can kind of
00:59:27
◼
►
look weird they call it judder where you it can kind of look kind of herky-jerky
00:59:30
◼
►
because you have to figure out how to you know you're gonna show the first
00:59:34
◼
►
How many times are you gonna show the first frame and how many times you can show the second frame?
00:59:37
◼
►
You're gonna end up showing some frames longer than other frames and when you have a smooth camera move
00:59:41
◼
►
You can kind of see it as a jerkiness in the motion
00:59:43
◼
►
So what you want is 24 frames all the way through this is the hope this video files are asking
00:59:47
◼
►
So in practice in my setup
00:59:49
◼
►
Anyway, the only way I can see video like that is if I buy a blu-ray my blu-ray player and my television all do 24 frames
00:59:55
◼
►
So the blu-ray puts out 24 frames the television shows 24 frames again. I don't have an LCD. I have a plasma
01:00:01
◼
►
It's all straight through, no image processing.
01:00:04
◼
►
It looks correct, it looks right.
01:00:05
◼
►
Don't have to worry about anything.
01:00:07
◼
►
Apple TV, according to this answer from this Apple person,
01:00:12
◼
►
does not do that.
01:00:13
◼
►
It says, "No, the device output frame rate is fixed
01:00:14
◼
►
"and content is automatically converted during playback
01:00:17
◼
►
"to match the selected device output frame rate.
01:00:19
◼
►
"Apps do not have the ability
01:00:20
◼
►
"to affect the device output frame rate."
01:00:23
◼
►
And it says, "If you have a scenario
01:00:24
◼
►
"where you believe this would be required,
01:00:25
◼
►
"please file a bug, blah, blah, blah."
01:00:27
◼
►
This is focused on application development,
01:00:30
◼
►
saying, "Oh, I'm making a video app and I want to show video.
01:00:33
◼
►
Can I control the frame?" or whatever the answer is.
01:00:35
◼
►
Still unclear to me whether if you buy a movie on iTunes
01:00:40
◼
►
and the movie is 24 frames a second,
01:00:43
◼
►
does the Apple TV, is it also unable to send that natively
01:00:47
◼
►
over HDMI to a device that is able to display 24p?
01:00:51
◼
►
Some theories I've seen thrown around
01:00:55
◼
►
amongst people who are disappointed in this decision
01:00:58
◼
►
is that Apple doesn't want to incur the switching overhead
01:01:01
◼
►
of like switching modes and HDMI apparently can be wonky
01:01:04
◼
►
and take some time and blank your screen and stuff
01:01:06
◼
►
and you don't wanna do that.
01:01:07
◼
►
It's like a bad user experience
01:01:09
◼
►
like everything else involving HDMI.
01:01:11
◼
►
So they're just gonna lock it at like a computer,
01:01:14
◼
►
like a tiny little computer,
01:01:15
◼
►
like a tiny little Mac mini,
01:01:16
◼
►
lock it at 60 frames and just up convert all video
01:01:19
◼
►
on the device presumably with nice scaling
01:01:22
◼
►
and trying to deal with all of these different problems
01:01:25
◼
►
to hide judder and image processing.
01:01:26
◼
►
Anyway, video files hate all of that.
01:01:28
◼
►
So if you are a video file, like me, I guess,
01:01:33
◼
►
you will probably want to continue buying the movies
01:01:37
◼
►
that you really care about in a format
01:01:38
◼
►
other than videos that appear on Apple TV.
01:01:41
◼
►
- But if you are a video file, there's hope for you
01:01:46
◼
►
because there's a good chance
01:01:48
◼
►
that something will come to the Apple TV.
01:01:50
◼
►
What would that be, Jon?
01:01:52
◼
►
- Did we talk about it on this show a long time ago
01:01:54
◼
►
about calibrating your television?
01:01:55
◼
►
- A long time ago.
01:01:56
◼
►
Yeah, I'm heavily in favor of calibrating your television.
01:01:59
◼
►
It's not a super complicated-- it can be super complicated,
01:02:02
◼
►
but even just very basic calibration
01:02:04
◼
►
can be done pretty easily.
01:02:05
◼
►
But the question is, how?
01:02:06
◼
►
How do I calibrate?
01:02:07
◼
►
I don't know.
01:02:08
◼
►
I just look at my television.
01:02:09
◼
►
I can't tell what looks right.
01:02:11
◼
►
Well, they sell iOS applications that
01:02:13
◼
►
can help you calibrate your television.
01:02:15
◼
►
There's also Blu-ray discs that help you calibrate them.
01:02:17
◼
►
It used to be that every THX DVD came with the calibration
01:02:20
◼
►
Maybe a TiVo comes with the calibration thing
01:02:22
◼
►
built into the thing.
01:02:23
◼
►
Lots of different ways to do this, but iOS apps are ideal,
01:02:26
◼
►
because hey, it's an app and you can write a fancy app
01:02:29
◼
►
and whoever owns, I guess it's Disney now,
01:02:33
◼
►
whoever owns THX can make an app for it and stuff.
01:02:35
◼
►
And lo and behold, there is a THX app for iOS
01:02:37
◼
►
and you can use it, but you had to AirPlay to do it.
01:02:39
◼
►
And I always worried about that
01:02:40
◼
►
because what you're really calibrating
01:02:42
◼
►
is how AirPlay video looks.
01:02:44
◼
►
Like, well, maybe I calibrate my TV,
01:02:45
◼
►
but then when I play things off my Blu-ray player
01:02:47
◼
►
through a different input,
01:02:48
◼
►
is that calibration still valid?
01:02:50
◼
►
But with an Apple TV, the Apple TV,
01:02:54
◼
►
if that's where you're watching your video,
01:02:55
◼
►
The apps can be right on the Apple TV.
01:02:57
◼
►
You're not air playing this weird
01:02:59
◼
►
MPEG-4 compressed stream or whatever.
01:03:01
◼
►
It can be right on the Apple TV.
01:03:03
◼
►
So I'm excited about the prospect of native Apple TV.
01:03:07
◼
►
I'm not the only person who's excited about calibration apps
01:03:11
◼
►
for the Apple TV, but it's perfect.
01:03:12
◼
►
Like it is perfect for the Apple TV because it's not,
01:03:16
◼
►
it doesn't help you with your Blu-ray player,
01:03:17
◼
►
but it does make you sure that what you're calibrating
01:03:19
◼
►
is the exact thing that you're gonna watch movies on,
01:03:22
◼
►
which is, if you have a bunch of iTunes movies
01:03:24
◼
►
on your Apple TV.
01:03:26
◼
►
Of course, the people who would be most into calibration
01:03:29
◼
►
are also now crushed that it doesn't do 24p.
01:03:31
◼
►
So I'm not sure if it's really the HDMI switching issue,
01:03:34
◼
►
I'm not sure Apple ever fixed that
01:03:36
◼
►
because I've seen that, you know,
01:03:38
◼
►
when your TV screen goes blank or goes gray
01:03:41
◼
►
or does this little glitchy fuzz, it's terrible.
01:03:43
◼
►
I would never want the Apple TV to do that.
01:03:45
◼
►
So I'm actually kind of in favor
01:03:47
◼
►
of this cheap little $150 box, never doing that
01:03:49
◼
►
and just, you know, putting out everything
01:03:51
◼
►
at 60 frames per second and let the audio files
01:03:53
◼
►
buy their blue-gray players and we'll get along fine.
01:03:57
◼
►
Fair enough.
01:03:59
◼
►
What iOS games support MFI controllers, John?
01:04:02
◼
►
I don't know, but we've got a list and we'll put it in the show notes.
01:04:05
◼
►
I think someone was saying that the list was only like 16 games, so that seems way small
01:04:10
◼
►
But I'm sure there's a huge number of games that support it because it's been around since
01:04:15
◼
►
This was offered up as the potential base for games that could go to the Apple TV, but
01:04:21
◼
►
not really true because these games probably also have like a touch control and they're
01:04:27
◼
►
not going to have a touch equivalent.
01:04:29
◼
►
That gets to our next follow-up item which is if you have a game that works with a controller
01:04:34
◼
►
and also works with touch controls, can you just bring that right over to Apple TV?
01:04:39
◼
►
Well the controller part you can bring right over because I don't think they've changed
01:04:41
◼
►
anything involving the controllers there, but the touch part obviously you can't bring
01:04:45
◼
►
over and you say well that's fine I will just bring over the game and say it requires a
01:04:49
◼
►
controller to play.
01:04:50
◼
►
And last week, I think I went to their website and looked this up, and I think in the show
01:04:54
◼
►
it was like, "Oh, you know, Apple says that you can have games that require controllers."
01:04:58
◼
►
So a bunch of people sent us links, and the great thing is, a bunch of people tweeted
01:05:01
◼
►
to us and sent us email with exactly the same URL.
01:05:05
◼
►
Some people saying, "Apple says that you can make Apple TV apps that require a controller."
01:05:10
◼
►
And other people saying, "Apple says that you cannot make..."
01:05:13
◼
►
And both point to the same exact URL.
01:05:15
◼
►
Luckily, someone on Twitter actually screenshotted it, right?
01:05:18
◼
►
Here's a screenshot, and again, you can fake screenshots,
01:05:20
◼
►
but I'm pretty sure I read this on Apple's site.
01:05:22
◼
►
At one point, this URL that we will put in the show notes,
01:05:26
◼
►
pointed to a document that said, had a heading that said,
01:05:29
◼
►
"You can require an extended game controller.
01:05:31
◼
►
Unlike iOS apps, Apple TV apps can require the user
01:05:33
◼
►
to own a full game controller
01:05:35
◼
►
that supports the extended gamepad profile."
01:05:37
◼
►
But requiring a full game controller is highly discouraged
01:05:40
◼
►
when you restrict blah, blah, blah, right?
01:05:41
◼
►
But bottom line is, you can require an extended controller.
01:05:44
◼
►
But the current version of that page
01:05:46
◼
►
says exactly the opposite.
01:05:48
◼
►
your game must support the Apple TV remote.
01:05:50
◼
►
Your game may not require the use of a controller.
01:05:52
◼
►
So going by like the last one wins rule,
01:05:56
◼
►
although I should probably click on this link now
01:05:57
◼
►
to see what it actually says,
01:05:59
◼
►
I'm pretty sure that despite the waffling
01:06:02
◼
►
in the first day or two after the Apple TV was announced,
01:06:04
◼
►
right now it says your game may not require
01:06:07
◼
►
the use of a controller.
01:06:08
◼
►
And that spawned a whole bunch of stories on tech websites
01:06:10
◼
►
about everyone going crazy about how
01:06:12
◼
►
Apple doesn't understand gaming
01:06:13
◼
►
and if you can't require a controller,
01:06:15
◼
►
you're not gonna be able to play
01:06:16
◼
►
insert my favorite genre of game here,
01:06:18
◼
►
and all of that is true.
01:06:20
◼
►
I think this rule is in keeping
01:06:23
◼
►
with how Apple has positioned all of its devices
01:06:26
◼
►
with respect to gaming.
01:06:27
◼
►
It seems kind of dumb to me,
01:06:30
◼
►
but on the other hand, like does it,
01:06:32
◼
►
what, was it the case that the next call of duty
01:06:35
◼
►
was gonna come for Apple TV?
01:06:37
◼
►
If only Apple changes one rule.
01:06:39
◼
►
Nope, it was never coming.
01:06:40
◼
►
It was not, this is not the thing that's keeping it.
01:06:43
◼
►
It's kind of silly if Apple,
01:06:45
◼
►
It showed what it does feel said this shows Apple doesn't understand games or isn't serious about games
01:06:50
◼
►
What it shows is how Apple views games for its platforms. It wants games to be on its platforms
01:06:55
◼
►
It wants a certain kind of games the kind of games it wants
01:06:57
◼
►
It wants you to be able to play without having to buy a controller. That's the product Apple is making
01:07:02
◼
►
I don't think I I don't think it shows a
01:07:04
◼
►
lack of understanding because I don't think anyone in Apple is under any illusions that they are going to
01:07:11
◼
►
You know have the same type of games that consoles have and appeal to the same people who buy console games and love them
01:07:17
◼
►
I think they're making a decision not to do that
01:07:20
◼
►
And so this is in keeping with that but it drives people who love console games crazy because they feel like oh you're so close
01:07:25
◼
►
If only you got serious about games and get serious by get serious
01:07:28
◼
►
They mean made games that appeal to the millions of people who buy a PlayStation 4 and Xbox one and even the Wii U to some
01:07:34
◼
►
Extent that's not what Apple's doing
01:07:36
◼
►
Apple is not serious about game, but one of one of the ideas I have in my ideas file for
01:07:42
◼
►
Hypercritical.co that I never update. I think it's one of the first ideas I put in there
01:07:48
◼
►
I think I mentioned it before it's like Apple and games. He's just not that into you like Apple
01:07:53
◼
►
Apple is doesn't feel the same way about games
01:07:56
◼
►
That those of us who have game consoles and have played Mac and PC games feel about games like there
01:08:02
◼
►
They have a different attitude towards games and their attitude is more common in
01:08:06
◼
►
The world of people who are going to buy their products than our attitude is and that is disappointing to a lot of people
01:08:13
◼
►
But that is just the case. So this rule assuming it hasn't swapped back by now is in keeping with that
01:08:18
◼
►
I think it will cut down on the sophistication and interest of the type of games they're gonna get it might also cut down on
01:08:25
◼
►
Shovelware and maybe that's why they're doing it. It's really interesting to see this phenomenon of Apple having public
01:08:31
◼
►
documents that are not even behind a developer account password that one day say one thing and the next day say the entire opposite about
01:08:37
◼
►
a fairly significant feature having to do with gaming on their newly launched product. It's a little out of character for them to
01:08:43
◼
►
go back and forth like that.
01:08:46
◼
►
Is it? Well, publicly, like, I mean, what can you think of? You're gonna get carbon 64,
01:08:52
◼
►
a resolution independence. I'm thinking more like the various app review
01:08:58
◼
►
controversies that usually crop up after a new ability is added to the SDK. So, you know,
01:09:05
◼
►
they might decide, you know, like similar to how with iOS 8, there was this big kerfuffle
01:09:11
◼
►
about what notification center widgets could and couldn't do or include, and then what
01:09:16
◼
►
keyboards could and couldn't include. Could you include a button in the notification center
01:09:20
◼
►
and all this crazy stuff?
01:09:21
◼
►
Well, that's like rules lawyering, though, because someone will get rejected and they'll
01:09:25
◼
►
say, "Well, according to the rules, it doesn't seem like it should've been rejected." Then
01:09:27
◼
►
they amend the rules to make their decision right,
01:09:29
◼
►
but then people complain and they reverse it.
01:09:30
◼
►
Or like Launch Center Pro,
01:09:31
◼
►
where like you couldn't launch an app
01:09:32
◼
►
from the notification screen.
01:09:33
◼
►
They changed that, but like two years later,
01:09:35
◼
►
this was just like a black and white
01:09:37
◼
►
before anyone had even started development.
01:09:39
◼
►
Day one, one thing.
01:09:41
◼
►
And it wasn't even like it was in response to outcry.
01:09:43
◼
►
It's almost like they just forgot
01:09:44
◼
►
to update the public facing docs, you know?
01:09:46
◼
►
'Cause no one even had probably,
01:09:49
◼
►
it was literally day one and day two.
01:09:51
◼
►
So that seems strange to me,
01:09:52
◼
►
that they would just not have their acts together,
01:09:54
◼
►
because I don't think anything happened
01:09:56
◼
►
between day one and day two that made them reverse this policy. There was no outcry from
01:10:00
◼
►
developers or whatever, it's just that they kind of like forgot to update the site or
01:10:05
◼
►
maybe like the final decision maker made his decision one day late or her decision.
01:10:11
◼
►
Our final sponsor this week is Automattic. Automattic is a connected car adapter that
01:10:16
◼
►
plugs into your car's diagnostic port. It pairs with your phone and integrates with
01:10:21
◼
►
over 20 apps to give you a better driving experience. There's a bunch of great advantages
01:10:25
◼
►
to this little device. So first of all, it can measure things about your car, it can
01:10:30
◼
►
measure your fuel efficiency, it can measure how fast you're going, where you're going.
01:10:34
◼
►
If your check engine light comes on, if any error codes are reported, it can tell you
01:10:37
◼
►
what they're telling you. It can tell you exactly what's being reported. It can let
01:10:41
◼
►
you clear various clearable errors that are there so you can turn off the check engine
01:10:45
◼
►
light and not have to go to a mechanic. It is great. It can give you a log of your trips.
01:10:50
◼
►
It can track your parking locations so you never lose your car. It can even call emergency
01:10:54
◼
►
services in case of an accident. So, automatic has lots of great features. It can score you
01:11:00
◼
►
when you're driving. So, let's say you set an efficiency goal and you say, "I want to
01:11:05
◼
►
maintain at least X miles per gallon to keep your cost down," or whatever. It can actually
01:11:10
◼
►
beep at you to tell you when you're driving in a spirited fashion such that you're not
01:11:15
◼
►
going to hit your goal. So, it can help you keep to your goals, help you save tons of
01:11:20
◼
►
money on gas. Now, Automatic has also recently launched this huge app store. So they have
01:11:27
◼
►
automatic.com/apps and you can see how you can use your car's data in all kinds of ways.
01:11:33
◼
►
You can do things like have it automatically trigger your Nest thermostat to turn on when
01:11:37
◼
►
you're getting close to home. Cool stuff like that. It integrates with Pebble watches. You
01:11:42
◼
►
can even send YOs in the Yo app, which is a real thing.
01:11:46
◼
►
That's still a thing?
01:11:48
◼
►
As far as I know, it's still a thing.
01:11:51
◼
►
It was and is a real thing.
01:11:52
◼
►
So along with the App Store, Automattic also has a developer platform for building apps
01:11:57
◼
►
using the car's data.
01:11:59
◼
►
This is a modern API with REST, real-time streaming, OAuth 2, and this provides access
01:12:04
◼
►
to a driver's trip history, including distance, route, time, location, miles per gallon, whatever
01:12:09
◼
►
else you want to know.
01:12:10
◼
►
The REST API is very easy to use, and of course you can get more advanced with streaming if
01:12:15
◼
►
person with a car. It works with almost every car made in
01:12:18
◼
►
the last, I don't know, what, 20 years?
01:12:19
◼
►
These ports have been around for a while.
01:12:21
◼
►
So check it out.
01:12:22
◼
►
You can check on their site to make sure your car's
01:12:24
◼
►
It almost certainly is.
01:12:25
◼
►
Go to automatic.com/ATP.
01:12:27
◼
►
Now normally, this is $100.
01:12:29
◼
►
And that's it, one time.
01:12:32
◼
►
There's no monthly fee for all the different services.
01:12:34
◼
►
It's just $100 up front for the automatic.
01:12:36
◼
►
Now, for our listeners, you can get 20% off.
01:12:40
◼
►
So that's just $80 bucks by just $100.
01:12:43
◼
►
So that's just 80 bucks by following our link automatic comm slash ATP you get 20% off
01:12:49
◼
►
So just 80 bucks a one-time upfront and that's it. No hidden fees. No monthly fees
01:12:53
◼
►
No subscription fees 80 bucks upfront using our link you get free shipping in just two business days
01:12:59
◼
►
And there's a 45 day return policy if you decide you don't like it, but you probably won't make sure they can offer
01:13:05
◼
►
Such a great return policy. So check it out. Go to automatic comm slash ATP for 20% off
01:13:10
◼
►
Thanks a lot to automatic for sponsoring our show
01:13:12
◼
►
All right, John, tell me about the Apple TV and WebKit.
01:13:16
◼
►
Before I get to that, I just want to point out that Neil Cronin in the chat room reminds
01:13:20
◼
►
me that the PS3 does actual 24p output.
01:13:24
◼
►
By the way, the PS3 is my Blu-ray player, when I was thinking that's where I watch movies.
01:13:27
◼
►
It's on the PS3.
01:13:28
◼
►
It's a pretty good Blu-ray player, albeit kind of noisy.
01:13:31
◼
►
But anyway, it is possible.
01:13:32
◼
►
It's not like it's impossible for a computer-like device to do this, but I'm pretty sure the
01:13:36
◼
►
PS3, when you launch Blu-ray, blanks the screen and switches HDMI modes and does all that
01:13:40
◼
►
stuff that I said the Apple TV probably shouldn't.
01:13:42
◼
►
So what may be appropriate for a Blu-ray player, even if that Blu-ray player is essentially
01:13:47
◼
►
a minicomputer like the PS3, is maybe not appropriate for a $150 fanless black puck.
01:13:53
◼
►
I'm not saying Apple shouldn't support it.
01:13:56
◼
►
If they can figure out a way to do it, that's fine.
01:13:58
◼
►
I'm just saying I kind of understand why it might not support it.
01:14:01
◼
►
Same thing with 4K, by the way.
01:14:02
◼
►
We didn't discuss this, but maybe we briefly mentioned it last time.
01:14:05
◼
►
The new Apple TV is not 4K.
01:14:08
◼
►
Everyone who asks me, you know, they keep asking me if they should get a television
01:14:12
◼
►
They want to know what television to get and I tell them to get no television because now
01:14:14
◼
►
is not a good time to buy a TV.
01:14:17
◼
►
Because we're after the plasma times where four OLEDs have come into their own.
01:14:23
◼
►
Most of the OLEDs I keep seeing are curved too.
01:14:24
◼
►
I really hope that goes away.
01:14:26
◼
►
I really hope that goes away like 3D kind of went away because I do not want a curved
01:14:30
◼
►
Anyway, it's a bad time to buy because 4K is on the horizon.
01:14:36
◼
►
You can buy a 4K TV now, but it would be kind of like buying one of the very early Plasmas.
01:14:41
◼
►
Unless you get really lucky and got one of the top-end Kuro Elites things, probably not
01:14:47
◼
►
the best time to buy a 4K television.
01:14:50
◼
►
Apple doesn't support it, but a lot of people are saying, "Why doesn't the new Apple TV
01:14:54
◼
►
It's got enough grunt to support it in theory."
01:14:57
◼
►
I don't know if the HDMI spec that it conforms to supports 4K to the degree that it's needed,
01:15:03
◼
►
but I kind of agree that it seems like what, it's an A8 in there right?
01:15:08
◼
►
Maybe handle 4K, maybe, I don't know.
01:15:11
◼
►
Anyway, bottom line it doesn't, that's not how this product is defined.
01:15:14
◼
►
I wouldn't count on this product being updated in any way to support 4K in the future even
01:15:18
◼
►
if the hardware is technically capable of it because that's just not kind of the thing
01:15:22
◼
►
that Apple does.
01:15:23
◼
►
I mean they made you buy a whole new product when they went from 720p to 1080p if that
01:15:26
◼
►
tells you anything.
01:15:27
◼
►
So don't buy an Apple TV if you're expecting it to magically have 4K support.
01:15:32
◼
►
Resign yourself to spending under 150 bucks in a couple years when 4k finally matures
01:15:36
◼
►
Alright, so tell us about webkit. This is a big kerfuffle started. I think it was started by Daniel Pascoe
01:15:44
◼
►
He's from black pixel, right? Mm-hmm
01:15:47
◼
►
He wrote a thing called a world without Apple TV a world without web views
01:15:51
◼
►
Limiting or maybe just reporting the fact that you are not allowed to bring up a web view in your Apple TV application
01:15:57
◼
►
And everyone is upset about that
01:16:00
◼
►
It's I don't think it's gonna be that big of a deal
01:16:04
◼
►
I mean one question is like which I think we don't really know the answer yet is
01:16:09
◼
►
How many of the apps that we have on our phone are going to be necessary to have in our TVs?
01:16:14
◼
►
How many are we actually going to want to have in our TVs?
01:16:17
◼
►
I think it's gonna be a smaller and slightly different group
01:16:20
◼
►
So a lot of the apps in your phone are just like for things that could have been websites
01:16:25
◼
►
You know like your bank app and like some of the stuff like it just could have been a website
01:16:28
◼
►
right? And so obviously web views are used very heavily in a lot of those things. And
01:16:32
◼
►
so, you know, it's fine if a lot of those can't work. Now, that being said, there are
01:16:39
◼
►
a lot of apps that use web views in smaller ways. Like I use web views in Overcast for
01:16:46
◼
►
the rendering of the show notes. On the playback screen, the scroll view on the playback screen
01:16:50
◼
►
that includes the artwork and the show notes below it, that is a web view. It is a giant
01:16:54
◼
►
web view because that way I can render HTML in the notes and it works just fine and it's
01:17:00
◼
►
great. So like you know stuff like that, that makes sense. Things like reading apps, you
01:17:05
◼
►
know Instapaper, Instapaper is a big web view as well. I don't think people are going to
01:17:10
◼
►
be reading on their TVs very often, who knows? I mean sure somebody might want to try but
01:17:14
◼
►
that's not going to be a very common request I don't think so again that's fine too. I
01:17:19
◼
►
I think it's gonna be annoying for some people,
01:17:22
◼
►
but not nearly as big of a problem
01:17:25
◼
►
as what most people expect.
01:17:26
◼
►
Now the other thing is,
01:17:28
◼
►
what about just web browsing on the TV?
01:17:31
◼
►
Obviously, like you know,
01:17:31
◼
►
not just using a web view in an app,
01:17:33
◼
►
but actually just browsing two arbitrary pages.
01:17:36
◼
►
Obviously, if you think about something like
01:17:38
◼
►
a Twitter client on the Apple TV or a news reader,
01:17:41
◼
►
then those are gonna be challenging to make compelling
01:17:44
◼
►
because again, what are they gonna do?
01:17:47
◼
►
tap like Twitter's full of links. So if you if you are browsing a Twitter client on the
01:17:52
◼
►
TV and you can't tap any links, it's going to be kind of annoying. But again, it's like
01:17:57
◼
►
are people really going to be browsing arbitrary web pages on TVs? Because one thing that people
01:18:02
◼
►
don't often talk about, but becomes obvious if you've ever tried to do this, like plugging
01:18:06
◼
►
a computer into your TV or anything, that TVs actually look terrible when you try to
01:18:11
◼
►
view like text and web page and stuff like TVs are much lower resolution than you think,
01:18:18
◼
►
weird contrast and color issues and limitations. They really are not good screens to be reading
01:18:25
◼
►
text on. So I don't think this is that big of a problem really.
01:18:29
◼
►
Well, the screen quality, if you have a good TV and you're the right distance from it,
01:18:33
◼
►
it's not that bad. It's not as bad as it used to be in the old CRT standard Deaf days. And
01:18:37
◼
►
If you have a 4K TV, even though Apple TV doesn't support it,
01:18:40
◼
►
then I think those problems would be gone.
01:18:44
◼
►
It's kind of disappointing to me that they don't support it,
01:18:46
◼
►
mostly because every smartish thing that is not a computer
01:18:51
◼
►
that is connected to a television in the past several years
01:18:55
◼
►
has a web browser built in.
01:18:56
◼
►
I think my PlayStation 4 does, my Wii U does,
01:18:59
◼
►
I think my Wii does, like everything,
01:19:02
◼
►
I don't know if my TiVo does,
01:19:03
◼
►
but like everything feels compelled to have a browser
01:19:07
◼
►
if it hooks up to a TV and has an internet connection
01:19:09
◼
►
because hey, why not?
01:19:10
◼
►
Why, I mean, the 3DS has a web browser for crying out loud
01:19:13
◼
►
and every single one of those browsers
01:19:16
◼
►
is the worst browser ever.
01:19:17
◼
►
Like they're terrible to use.
01:19:19
◼
►
You launch it once and you realize like maybe it uses
01:19:21
◼
►
like an old version of the opera engine
01:19:23
◼
►
and can't render anything.
01:19:24
◼
►
It's really slow and they have these weird controls
01:19:27
◼
►
about scrolling the page and moving the cursor
01:19:29
◼
►
and oh, it's just terrible.
01:19:31
◼
►
And so you just never launch it again, you know,
01:19:33
◼
►
And the only reason I'm disappointed,
01:19:35
◼
►
the main reason I'm disappointed is that
01:19:37
◼
►
if an iOS powered device with an A8 in it,
01:19:41
◼
►
powered by WebKit, was hooked up to my television
01:19:43
◼
►
and they put a WebView on it,
01:19:45
◼
►
and I had like a touch control
01:19:46
◼
►
on the remote to scroll around,
01:19:47
◼
►
it would actually be like nice and responsive and fast
01:19:51
◼
►
and look good and render correctly.
01:19:53
◼
►
And that would be a miracle
01:19:55
◼
►
because I've never seen that on my television.
01:19:57
◼
►
That said, I really have no urge
01:19:59
◼
►
to browse my pages on my television.
01:20:01
◼
►
And I think that's kind of,
01:20:02
◼
►
I'm not gonna say it's a red herring
01:20:05
◼
►
because we'll get to like what the motivation
01:20:07
◼
►
to this might be.
01:20:07
◼
►
But Marco, when you're talking about like the show notes,
01:20:11
◼
►
that's coming from the web.
01:20:12
◼
►
And of course, Instapaper content is coming from the web.
01:20:15
◼
►
But I think there are a lot of,
01:20:17
◼
►
perhaps a surprising number of iOS applications
01:20:21
◼
►
that use a web view to render content
01:20:25
◼
►
that does not come from the web.
01:20:26
◼
►
Maybe it's just in the application bundle.
01:20:29
◼
►
Maybe it's like if they want to just build a string on the fly.
01:20:31
◼
►
Maybe it's someone who is like a web developer
01:20:33
◼
►
and is more accustomed to doing that.
01:20:34
◼
►
Maybe it is served from their own private web server
01:20:36
◼
►
and parts of the UI or web views.
01:20:38
◼
►
Like you're not giving them arbitrary web browsing.
01:20:40
◼
►
You're not even perhaps giving them links.
01:20:42
◼
►
You're just using it as a more flexible,
01:20:45
◼
►
or maybe just the way that people are more comfortable
01:20:47
◼
►
with way to lay out text and images in your UI,
01:20:50
◼
►
which is probably not the appropriate thing to do,
01:20:53
◼
►
but because WebKit is so fast
01:20:54
◼
►
and because it's fairly efficient
01:20:56
◼
►
and if you have simple needs,
01:20:57
◼
►
It is a pretty easy way to do, you know,
01:21:01
◼
►
to sneak a little bit of web development into your iOS app.
01:21:03
◼
►
And the fact that that's not possible,
01:21:05
◼
►
I think is something that Apple may have to end up
01:21:08
◼
►
backsliding on because as long as I took,
01:21:12
◼
►
why is this, why is this happening?
01:21:14
◼
►
Is it happening because they couldn't get WebKit ready
01:21:16
◼
►
in time for AppTV?
01:21:17
◼
►
That seems unlikely because all the TVML stuff
01:21:19
◼
►
surely uses WebKit or at least JavaScript core
01:21:22
◼
►
or something like that in there.
01:21:23
◼
►
And it's just an A8 and it's just an iOS variant.
01:21:26
◼
►
getting WebKit to work is not rocket science, it could work.
01:21:29
◼
►
Is it because they don't want anyone
01:21:31
◼
►
to ever make a web browser app for the Apple TV?
01:21:35
◼
►
Couldn't they do that with App Review?
01:21:36
◼
►
Like slap you down if you're trying to make something
01:21:38
◼
►
like a web browser?
01:21:40
◼
►
Or the final reason, the most popular one seems to be
01:21:42
◼
►
they don't want you using web technologies to make a UI,
01:21:44
◼
►
they want you to make a native application.
01:21:47
◼
►
That may be the case,
01:21:48
◼
►
maybe that's getting back to what I talked about
01:21:50
◼
►
in the last show about the AMC and the USA apps,
01:21:52
◼
►
one of which was terrible
01:21:53
◼
►
and one of which was only merely so-so.
01:21:56
◼
►
and I can't remember which was which,
01:21:58
◼
►
but a lot of those seem like big giant web views
01:22:00
◼
►
with HTML5 video players.
01:22:02
◼
►
Is that why they're cruddy,
01:22:03
◼
►
or is it cruddy because the servers wouldn't respond,
01:22:05
◼
►
or is it cruddy because they have buggy JavaScript detecting
01:22:07
◼
►
whether they're seeing a commercial or not?
01:22:08
◼
►
I don't know where the blame lies,
01:22:09
◼
►
but it's conceivable that that app was cruddy
01:22:12
◼
►
because it was done with web UI.
01:22:14
◼
►
It was like a repackaging of their website
01:22:16
◼
►
inside an iOS container,
01:22:17
◼
►
and it was, you know, their website was crappy,
01:22:19
◼
►
and so was their iOS app.
01:22:20
◼
►
As usual, Apple is silent in this area.
01:22:24
◼
►
I haven't heard anything, whispers from anybody about is this something they're going to amend?
01:22:29
◼
►
Is it just we weren't quite ready in time?
01:22:30
◼
►
Or is it an intentional thing where they're trying to send a message with a lack of WebKit
01:22:35
◼
►
support to tell you you're not allowed to use web technologies anywhere on Apple TV?
01:22:40
◼
►
I would love to know what the answer is, but right now I don't.
01:22:44
◼
►
Tell us about your early musings on the iPad Pro.
01:22:47
◼
►
Well, actually, before we do that, any other thoughts on the Apple TV?
01:22:50
◼
►
Honestly, I'm kind of looking forward to it.
01:22:53
◼
►
I mean, I—so one of the topics—I don't know how much I want to get into this now
01:22:56
◼
►
because I haven't really thought too much about it yet, but one of the topics that we
01:23:00
◼
►
kept hearing about—that I kept hearing about is how could—how could we in general and
01:23:07
◼
►
usually me specifically, how can I be so pessimistic about all the stuff Apple announced? And first
01:23:14
◼
►
of all, I don't think I was. I don't think—I don't think I was unreasonably pessimistic.
01:23:17
◼
►
And I do think there's a lot of warranted pessimism or skepticism that I expressed about
01:23:24
◼
►
the various stuff.
01:23:25
◼
►
However, there are two things that I am more excited about this week than I was last week.
01:23:31
◼
►
Number one is 3D touch because after watching more of the videos and after maybe seeing
01:23:36
◼
►
some people using it, it does look, I have not used it, I have not felt it or touched
01:23:42
◼
►
it myself. However, it does look like it's going to be really, really nice as a shortcut
01:23:49
◼
►
mechanism to do a lot of quick things. I don't, you know, my concerns about its discoverability
01:23:55
◼
►
and everything remain. However, I do think for power users like us, I think it will be
01:24:02
◼
►
really nice to have. So we'll see, you know, we'll see how much it matters for regular
01:24:06
◼
►
people. I think it's going to matter about as much as things like multitasking gestures
01:24:10
◼
►
for regular people, but we'll see. And the other thing I am more excited about than last
01:24:14
◼
►
week is the Apple TV. I do, however, you know, I said last week my main concern with the
01:24:20
◼
►
Apple TV is not whether I would like it, it's whether people will buy it because it's a
01:24:25
◼
►
$150 box entering a market of very, very cheap things that people think are good enough and
01:24:31
◼
►
they're still going to keep selling the old Apple TV, so it's going to have to compete
01:24:34
◼
►
with that, which is half the price. And I think it's going to be a tough sell for a
01:24:39
◼
►
a while until the app story develops if it does. That being said, I'm looking forward
01:24:44
◼
►
to it because first of all, it'll allow me to consolidate our universal remote situation
01:24:49
◼
►
here, which will be nice. But also I'm looking forward to it because I like apps and I think
01:24:56
◼
►
it'll be kind of interesting and kind of fun to play around with. So I am looking forward
01:25:00
◼
►
to both of those things. Whether through the whole rest of the world is, we'll see what
01:25:06
◼
►
happens there. But I'm looking forward to them.
01:25:08
◼
►
Yeah, I didn't think like the Apple TV was the one thing I said
01:25:11
◼
►
I'm definitely buying and I was enthusiastic about it as well. I was I know of course
01:25:15
◼
►
I'm also enthusiastic about the iPad Pro, so I don't think you know
01:25:18
◼
►
it's maybe it's the
01:25:21
◼
►
the hypercritical influence but
01:25:23
◼
►
Thus far most of us mostly on the show
01:25:27
◼
►
We've found it more interesting to talk about the potential problems of products and think about what could go wrong
01:25:32
◼
►
Then to just spend the entire time gushing about the things that we like
01:25:35
◼
►
But there were things that we like and you know if we end the show and a bunch of us say that we're definitely getting
01:25:39
◼
►
an Apple TV that's probably you know like okay
01:25:42
◼
►
But anyway who cares if we're getting one like we talked about the products the good the bad and the ugly
01:25:46
◼
►
I do agree that Marco lately has been in a downswing in terms of being
01:25:51
◼
►
Cranky about things that Apple has is falling down about but it's not like he's just inarticulately
01:25:57
◼
►
He's written thousands of words about it like it's not it's not a vague notion that he just kind of has and just you know
01:26:03
◼
►
has got an axe to grind. He's got specific concerns that he's expressed in various ways.
01:26:07
◼
►
And so I think that's just his opinion, man.
01:26:11
◼
►
Well, and I think also there's a lot that I've been positive about. Now, the idea that
01:26:15
◼
►
I have to be equally positive and negative is, of course, totally wrong.
01:26:18
◼
►
It's fair and balanced, Margo.
01:26:20
◼
►
Yeah, right. Let's get that out of the way. That is total BS. However, there's a lot of
01:26:26
◼
►
Apple stuff and Apple products that have launched in the last couple of years that I really
01:26:32
◼
►
enjoy that I use constantly. I've been very vocal about how much I really enjoy the Apple
01:26:37
◼
►
Watch. Even though I think the app situation is terrible, which it is, I think the rest
01:26:42
◼
►
of the product is great. And I keep saying that. Nobody hears it, but I keep saying it.
01:26:46
◼
►
I also really enjoy the rediscovery of MDNS Responder and the eviction of DiscoveryD from
01:26:54
◼
►
our operating system because as I've written about and said on this podcast, the reliability
01:27:00
◼
►
of the things I do with my home network on an OS X has skyrocketed. The reliability of
01:27:07
◼
►
my Apple TV and the things I do on there and AirPlay and things like that, those have all
01:27:12
◼
►
skyrocketed after MDNS Responder came back.
01:27:15
◼
►
Discovery D is the new Coke because like, no, but maybe you came into the Mac too late,
01:27:20
◼
►
but there was no love for MDNS Responder in the many years when it was introduced. It
01:27:25
◼
►
was always a source of problems. You always had to kill it. People had problems with it,
01:27:29
◼
►
The only reason it gets any love is because they brought out New Coke and nobody liked
01:27:32
◼
►
New Coke and they brought back NDNS.
01:27:34
◼
►
Oh, it's NDNS Responder Classic.
01:27:36
◼
►
Everybody loves it.
01:27:38
◼
►
Anyway, so yeah, that like, my world has been changed at home.
01:27:43
◼
►
Like the last year with Yosemite was really rough until that change was made a few months
01:27:48
◼
►
And as I wrote about on my site when it happened, that has made a massive difference for me
01:27:52
◼
►
in the reliability of this stuff.
01:27:54
◼
►
However, there's still tons of things that need work.
01:27:58
◼
►
For instance, I launched an app today, which we might get to, and it was delayed by an
01:28:04
◼
►
App Store bug for five and a half hours after it was approved for sale because the CDN just
01:28:10
◼
►
didn't work.
01:28:11
◼
►
And that's happened to a lot of developers today during the release of iOS 9.
01:28:14
◼
►
It happened to tons of people.
01:28:18
◼
►
There's still issues with the services.
01:28:20
◼
►
There are still issues with some of the applications.
01:28:22
◼
►
There are still issues with some of the hardware.
01:28:25
◼
►
There's still delays of things like Skylake, which granted is not Apple's fault, but it
01:28:29
◼
►
still affects Apple's products.
01:28:31
◼
►
There's been significant stagnation in the laptop lineup recently because we're so late
01:28:36
◼
►
with the CPU.
01:28:37
◼
►
So, you know, there's stuff that is not perfect and there is stuff like the iPhone 6 battery
01:28:43
◼
►
that I think is not the decision I would have made and not the decision that fits me.
01:28:48
◼
►
When I say things like that the product line is getting, is gaining more narrowly focused
01:28:54
◼
►
products and that the question of who is this for, the answer to that keeps getting narrower
01:28:59
◼
►
for a lot of these newer products. I don't think that's unfair or necessarily negative,
01:29:05
◼
►
but that is certainly an observation of the product line. But again, it's like I still
01:29:08
◼
►
use the iMac, which is this general purpose large desktop and the 15 inch MacBook Pro,
01:29:13
◼
►
which is the most general purpose laptop I think they have. Like for, you know, get a
01:29:17
◼
►
laptop that will serve anything you need to serve. That's the one. Okay. You know, I'm
01:29:21
◼
►
I'm talking to you on this through a Mac,
01:29:23
◼
►
through livestreaming through another Mac
01:29:26
◼
►
with a room full of Apple gear.
01:29:27
◼
►
I mean, it's like, you know,
01:29:28
◼
►
I still like a lot of Apple stuff.
01:29:30
◼
►
However, I don't think it's unfair or unwarranted
01:29:35
◼
►
to point out the areas in which
01:29:38
◼
►
they're kind of missing the mark for me or for everybody.
01:29:40
◼
►
And as they keep serving more and more and more areas,
01:29:44
◼
►
'cause what they have today with the product line
01:29:47
◼
►
is way more broad in just like sheer number
01:29:51
◼
►
products and services and apps that they have right now is so much more broad than it used
01:29:55
◼
►
to be. And the fact is, they're not doing all of them well. Apple has never been able
01:30:02
◼
►
to juggle too many things at once particularly well, and the number of things they can juggle
01:30:06
◼
►
at once well over time has gone up, but so has the number of things they try to juggle
01:30:11
◼
►
all at once. And so there's still always areas that can use improvement. And we on the outside
01:30:18
◼
►
that can use improvement. And we on the outside, people like us who don't work for them, and
01:30:24
◼
►
they're like, because people who work for them can't really say anything, because they
01:30:28
◼
►
can get in trouble. But people like us on the outside who don't work for them and can
01:30:33
◼
►
say whatever we want, can effect positive change within Apple and within its products
01:30:40
◼
►
by ranting about them when it's warranted, by giving them real constructive valid criticism
01:30:47
◼
►
when it's warranted, that actually affects positive change. Every time I complain about
01:30:52
◼
►
something about Apple, that is like a fair complaint, I hear from people on the inside
01:30:57
◼
►
of the company, either right then or near that, or either right then or soon after,
01:31:03
◼
►
I hear from people that whatever I said or wrote was circulated in some group and that
01:31:09
◼
►
like helped that team argue for their point or make a change or whatever. And I hear this
01:31:14
◼
►
from everyone I know who writes about Apple or who talked about Apple, the people inside
01:31:18
◼
►
listen. Our complaints are ammunition for internal fights and that complaining works
01:31:24
◼
►
in a way that filing bug after bug might not for me. Complaining works. And again, you
01:31:31
◼
►
know, there's no reason to stop complaining just out of, you know, trying to be nice if
01:31:36
◼
►
things really are broken or could use improvement.
01:31:38
◼
►
David Schanzer Yeah, the thing that struck me about the feedback
01:31:42
◼
►
we got and we did get several people writing in saying, "Oh my god, you're a bunch of curmudgeons."
01:31:45
◼
►
You know, maybe there's some truth to that, but I don't know.
01:31:48
◼
►
I don't think it does anyone any good for us to just be parrots that are saying,
01:31:53
◼
►
"Oh, this is the best. Apple's the best. Apple is flawless. Nothing Apple does is wrong."
01:31:56
◼
►
And that would not be a particularly enjoyable show for us to make or for most people to listen to. So I
01:32:03
◼
►
feel like I speak for all of us and saying genuinely, I mean if we came across
01:32:08
◼
►
grumpy last episode that that wasn't our intention, but
01:32:11
◼
►
You know, we're gonna call it like we see it and if we see things as being broken then damn it
01:32:17
◼
►
We're gonna say that it's broken and that's just how we feel and you know, if it doesn't work for
01:32:22
◼
►
if it doesn't work for you, then I'm sorry, but
01:32:26
◼
►
You know TJ Loma is saying in the chat. It was a three-hour negative a thon. Maybe we listen maybe
01:32:32
◼
►
What I said did not feel it was like a three-hour complaining festival
01:32:38
◼
►
I didn't get a chance to listen back to the episode, but man, it certainly didn't
01:32:43
◼
►
feel that way when I was recording it, and I'm pretty sure that you guys didn't think
01:32:48
◼
►
it went that way either.
01:32:49
◼
►
And if it came across that way, then, you know, we're sorry, but this is how we feel.
01:32:52
◼
►
And, you know, if you're looking for someone to just parrot about how amazing Apple is,
01:32:56
◼
►
you're going to have to look elsewhere.
01:32:58
◼
►
The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that criticism, for lack of a better word, is good.
01:33:03
◼
►
Criticism is right.
01:33:04
◼
►
Criticism works.
01:33:06
◼
►
Criticism clarifies.
01:33:07
◼
►
through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
01:33:10
◼
►
Is this a reference?
01:33:12
◼
►
I can tell that was your quote voice, but I couldn't figure out where it was from.
01:33:16
◼
►
That was my quote voice, and I was, there's a double quote voice, because I was quoting
01:33:20
◼
►
a thing in which I was quoting a thing.
01:33:23
◼
►
We'll put it in the show notes.
01:33:25
◼
►
Speaking of quoting yourself, why don't you tell us about what you said about the iPad
01:33:30
◼
►
Yeah, speaking of quoting myself, I was just curious about this because we talked about
01:33:34
◼
►
the iPad Pro last week and I wanted an iPad Pro for a long time and I was like, "How long?
01:33:40
◼
►
When did I first start talking about the iPad Pro?"
01:33:43
◼
►
I thought it was on a podcast and so I deployed the _DavidSmith who has magical abilities
01:33:50
◼
►
to find out when people said things in the past, which we should all be frightened of
01:33:53
◼
►
because I don't understand where he gets these powers.
01:33:56
◼
►
But if you've lost your car keys, contact _DavidSmith.
01:33:59
◼
►
He will tell you where they are.
01:34:00
◼
►
It's a very convenient service.
01:34:02
◼
►
long as you've spoken about it on a podcast. Right. Well, we don't know. We don't know.
01:34:06
◼
►
That's not just, you know, you're speculating by the limits of his power. Anyway, I searched
01:34:11
◼
►
my own podcast for like a good 90 seconds before I went to the Slack channel and asked
01:34:18
◼
►
to look it up for me. I feel kind of bad. Anyway, but I did search for it and I couldn't
01:34:21
◼
►
find it. He found it immediately. It was a Hypercritical episode 58 in March of 2012,
01:34:27
◼
►
31 minutes in, you'll hear my first public musings about, "You know what Apple should
01:34:34
◼
►
They should make a bigger iPad and call it the iPad Pro," and blah, blah, blah.
01:34:36
◼
►
So if you're interested in that or just want to hear a really old hypercritical where I
01:34:40
◼
►
sound really weird and talk about things in the past, I will put that link in the show.
01:34:47
◼
►
Speaking of the iPad Pro, Dr. Wave, Michael B. Johnson from Pixar, tweeted at some point
01:34:52
◼
►
or another – or I believe it was a tweet.
01:34:54
◼
►
He said, my understanding is that the iPad Pro recognizes
01:34:57
◼
►
the stylus data from the Apple Pencil flowing in at 240 Hertz,
01:35:03
◼
►
fingers at 120 Hertz.
01:35:06
◼
►
And the Air 2, in general, will do 120 Hertz.
01:35:10
◼
►
And all other iPads and iOS devices do 60 Hertz.
01:35:14
◼
►
My understanding is that his understanding is accurate,
01:35:17
◼
►
that the iPad Pro is 240 for the Apple Pencil, 120 for
01:35:21
◼
►
everything else.
01:35:22
◼
►
And the Air 2 is 120, everything else is 60.
01:35:25
◼
►
- Yeah, and that, combined with the variable refresh rate,
01:35:28
◼
►
is really interesting, you know,
01:35:30
◼
►
the technical length that Apple either has to go
01:35:32
◼
►
or is willing to go or both to do a good job with like,
01:35:35
◼
►
you know, why don't you just add a stylus to the iPad?
01:35:37
◼
►
Well, it's not that simple, you know,
01:35:39
◼
►
you have to do like,
01:35:40
◼
►
figure out how you can do pressure sensitivity.
01:35:42
◼
►
And also, you know, 60 hertz, again,
01:35:45
◼
►
very common for computery things,
01:35:47
◼
►
any kind of computery thing,
01:35:48
◼
►
whether it's hooked up to a TV or hooked up to a monitor,
01:35:50
◼
►
it's been a standard for many years
01:35:51
◼
►
ever since CRTs went away, it's just 60 Hertz, but that's not good enough for
01:35:58
◼
►
it to feel nice when you're drawing on it. I'm not sure why the Air 2 is 120,
01:36:02
◼
►
maybe they just cranked it up because they could, or I don't know what the
01:36:07
◼
►
technique behind that is, but 240 for the thing that supports the pencil makes
01:36:12
◼
►
perfect sense. And again, during the videos that they showed people
01:36:17
◼
►
drawing on the thing, I could see the lag. Like the lag, once you know what to look
01:36:22
◼
►
Yeah, I could too.
01:36:23
◼
►
The lag is there.
01:36:24
◼
►
But if you've ever used a Wacom or Wacom tablet, depending on how you pronounce it, or Cintiq,
01:36:30
◼
►
which is their thing where you draw on a screen that they provide to you, there's plenty of
01:36:34
◼
►
lag there too.
01:36:35
◼
►
We'll link for the umpteenth time that video from the Microsoft Research thing that shows
01:36:40
◼
►
they have an experimental display that shows different amounts of lag where they can just
01:36:43
◼
►
turn the dial and crank it up and down.
01:36:45
◼
►
And boy, the difference between current technology and the best thing that we can do right now
01:36:52
◼
►
with unlimited money is dramatic.
01:36:55
◼
►
And as soon as you see the good one, you're like, "Oh, well, I want that."
01:36:58
◼
►
You know, it's like, "Well, tough luck.
01:37:00
◼
►
You can't have that."
01:37:01
◼
►
But, you know, we'll get there eventually.
01:37:03
◼
►
And the only way we'll get there is by every new iteration of these type of things that
01:37:06
◼
►
you can scroll on with a pen, make it better, make it faster.
01:37:09
◼
►
So what I'm interested in, and I haven't seen, I think I have a link in that we can put in
01:37:13
◼
►
the show notes from somebody who wrote a blog post comparing the apple pencil to the top
01:37:18
◼
►
of the line tablet that artists use now and had nice things to say about the apple tablet
01:37:24
◼
►
but I guess we have to wait until these things are in people's hands and see like hands-on
01:37:28
◼
►
tests or whatever but I do know that every every tablet I've ever seen anyone use to
01:37:33
◼
►
draw with or have drawn with myself has had lag that I can see.
01:37:37
◼
►
Apple's thing also has lag that I can see.
01:37:40
◼
►
I can't eyeball it, I can't say which is worse
01:37:42
◼
►
or which is better.
01:37:43
◼
►
One point that was made, is this in the show notes somewhere?
01:37:46
◼
►
I thought we had a link to it, anyway.
01:37:47
◼
►
One point that was made in this article
01:37:49
◼
►
about comparing the Cintiq to the iPad Pro
01:37:54
◼
►
was that the Cintiq, it makes it seem like
01:37:58
◼
►
where the image is and where your stylus touches the screen
01:38:02
◼
►
are distant from each other, like there's an air gap
01:38:05
◼
►
or like a, you know, sort of like a large gap
01:38:08
◼
►
so that depending on what angle you're holding it,
01:38:09
◼
►
Parallax makes it seem like the ink or whatever is not coming out of the tip of your pen
01:38:13
◼
►
It's coming out of some point removed from the tip of your pen
01:38:16
◼
►
and in the iPad
01:38:19
◼
►
That seems less because that the whole thing is thinner and the glass is thinner and is laminated to the glass and all the other stuff
01:38:25
◼
►
and that makes sense to me tech wise because
01:38:28
◼
►
Apple is surely better able to manufacture the fanciest
01:38:32
◼
►
Sort of screen with the smallest gap and no air gap and great lamination and everything
01:38:38
◼
►
Whereas a company that makes tablets for artists necessarily has much smaller volumes and not as not doesn't have billions of dollars in the bank
01:38:46
◼
►
And all the other stuff so there is the potential for the iPad Pro to be a really good tool for artists
01:38:51
◼
►
That is potentially as good as are better than all existing dedicated tools
01:38:56
◼
►
But I think we just have to wait and see for the people who actually buy this and use it to do real work and they'll
01:39:02
◼
►
Yeah, I mean this is another by the way another one of those things
01:39:05
◼
►
I was very positive about was the iPad Pro for pen input, the pencil itself, and the
01:39:11
◼
►
general notion of writing things on a screen with a pen. I like all those things. They
01:39:17
◼
►
just aren't things that I need to do. But I'm very positive on all of those things for
01:39:23
◼
►
people who use pens or who like to write or who like to take notes or who like to draw.
01:39:28
◼
►
That all sounds awesome for those people. However, I'm a computer geek. In the old school
01:39:34
◼
►
sense of computer geekdom where I mostly just need a keyboard and a mouse and a big screen
01:39:38
◼
►
and a big powerful computer. So it's not really for me. However, you know, good on them for
01:39:43
◼
►
the people who actually want to use it.
01:39:45
◼
►
You know, if this ever does, it'll go all the way down to an iPhone 6 size device, you
01:39:49
◼
►
would get a little stylist and scratch things out on it. If only because someone would bring
01:39:54
◼
►
out Draw Something again and people would forget that it previously existed and be like,
01:39:57
◼
►
"Wow, try this great new game. You draw pictures to each other. It's really fun."
01:39:59
◼
►
Sure, yeah, I mean look if this was available even for you know even when as soon as it comes to an iPad
01:40:07
◼
►
Size that I want to own I'll probably buy one
01:40:11
◼
►
I'll probably buy whatever you know if like if next year's iPad air supports the pencil
01:40:16
◼
►
Then I'll probably get one of those I just or you know if there's some really compelling reason for me to get the iPad Pro
01:40:23
◼
►
I will get it like I talked before like I'd love to make a podcast editor
01:40:28
◼
►
And, you know, if I'm going to do that, making it on the iPad Pro is certainly worth investigating.
01:40:33
◼
►
However, I'm not doing that right now. I'm doing other things and I don't plan to do
01:40:38
◼
►
that anytime soon. You know, by the time I get to that, it'll probably be next year.
01:40:41
◼
►
I'll get the second one. I also am worried with the current one that, you know, I think
01:40:47
◼
►
I mentioned this in last week's show, that forced touch on the iPhone is going to be
01:40:52
◼
►
so interesting and so compelling as a shortcut mechanism that it's going to be weird getting
01:40:57
◼
►
used to that on the phone and then not having it yet on the iPads. So I would rather wait
01:41:01
◼
►
if I'm going to spend over a thousand dollars on a brand new really high end iPad that I
01:41:07
◼
►
don't really need right now, I would rather wait until next year to see if maybe it gets
01:41:12
◼
►
forced touch. But we'll see.
01:41:14
◼
►
I think you mean 3D touch, but I'm with you.
01:41:16
◼
►
Sorry, yeah, you're right. Even Federighi screwed it up, come on.
01:41:19
◼
►
Yeah, so true. Alright, do you think anyone's going to make any money on apps on the iPad
01:41:25
◼
►
Pro because the friend of the show that we just mentioned, underscore David Smith, tweeted
01:41:29
◼
►
a link to a company, I don't recall their name, but the people who make Sketch, which
01:41:36
◼
►
apparently is a very popular app.
01:41:38
◼
►
They are basically saying, "No freaking way we're going to touch the iPad Pro because
01:41:42
◼
►
we can't make any money on it."
01:41:43
◼
►
Yeah, that post kind of struck me the wrong way because we all know there are problems
01:41:48
◼
►
with the App Store and there are problems with the companies that have difficulty finding
01:41:52
◼
►
way to make money and the price pressure like we've talked about these things a million times
01:41:55
◼
►
but i think one of the least convincing um it's at least convincing because this app is sketch
01:42:01
◼
►
and not photoshop i guess but one of the least convincing things you can do is say this entirely
01:42:05
◼
►
new thing like an apple tablet with with a pencil which has not existed before we are writing off
01:42:11
◼
►
because we assume it will be exactly like all of the other markets and they're probably right like
01:42:15
◼
►
i'm not saying they're wrong or anything like that it's just there are many reasons why it
01:42:20
◼
►
make sense for them not to make the app. Maybe they have Mac developers, not iOS developers.
01:42:26
◼
►
You can sell Mac apps for more, like all the things we've talked about or whatever, but
01:42:29
◼
►
the idea that it is inconceivable and they're just entirely sure, I guess what they're saying
01:42:34
◼
►
is that we can't risk it. We think that there's not a sustainable market for iPad per application,
01:42:40
◼
►
and we think that because we've judged there not to be a sustainable market for these applications
01:42:44
◼
►
on the previous iPads and on the phones and blah blah blah, so on and so forth. But it
01:42:48
◼
►
Reid's kind of like, you know,
01:42:51
◼
►
"We understand it's a chicken egg situation, you go first."
01:42:54
◼
►
And you go first with the hardware and we say,
01:42:55
◼
►
"Yeah, no, I don't think so."
01:42:57
◼
►
Like someone is gonna go first.
01:42:59
◼
►
Someone's gonna try to make a go of it here.
01:43:01
◼
►
Maybe they're the suckers
01:43:02
◼
►
and they're gonna all go out of business
01:43:03
◼
►
and not find out that they can't make money on the platform.
01:43:05
◼
►
But it's not particularly convincing to me
01:43:07
◼
►
for one company to say,
01:43:09
◼
►
"Because there are a bunch of good reasons
01:43:12
◼
►
for us not to make an app for the iPad Pro,
01:43:15
◼
►
it is a condemnation of the entire concept
01:43:17
◼
►
of there being a supportable pro application space.
01:43:19
◼
►
I think the iPad Pro has the best chance,
01:43:22
◼
►
maybe Apple TV tied with that,
01:43:24
◼
►
the best chance to break through the thing
01:43:27
◼
►
that has caused the iOS pricing and business model
01:43:31
◼
►
to get pulled down so much.
01:43:33
◼
►
Because you can sell, well, there's two things here.
01:43:35
◼
►
One, you can sell more expensive things to professionals.
01:43:39
◼
►
Right, that's what you're always looking for.
01:43:40
◼
►
It's why if someone needs a Mac app to do their job
01:43:42
◼
►
and they make a lot of money at their job,
01:43:44
◼
►
they will give you $100 for this app
01:43:46
◼
►
that they use at their job.
01:43:47
◼
►
they will just do it.
01:43:48
◼
►
Even just for musicians, people sell music applications.
01:43:50
◼
►
Even if these people don't make money doing music,
01:43:52
◼
►
they love music, they'll give you 50 bucks for a thing
01:43:55
◼
►
that lets them do something with their band.
01:43:57
◼
►
And you know, like that will definitely happen.
01:44:00
◼
►
Much less so than trying to sell somebody
01:44:02
◼
►
like a little game or you know,
01:44:04
◼
►
something more trivial or general interest, right?
01:44:07
◼
►
So pro apps are good.
01:44:08
◼
►
And the second thing, this is a theory I've had for a while.
01:44:12
◼
►
I think it's still kind of true.
01:44:15
◼
►
the bigger the screen, the more money you can charge
01:44:17
◼
►
because bigger equals more money.
01:44:20
◼
►
I know that makes no sense logically,
01:44:22
◼
►
but in my experience, I've seen,
01:44:24
◼
►
it seems to me that people can be more convinced to,
01:44:29
◼
►
maybe it's just a coincidence,
01:44:30
◼
►
maybe it's not actually causation,
01:44:32
◼
►
it's just like, it just so happens
01:44:34
◼
►
that computers have bigger screens
01:44:35
◼
►
and people use computers for their jobs and blah, blah, blah.
01:44:37
◼
►
But like what I was getting at was I'm thinking,
01:44:39
◼
►
can you sell an Apple TV app for more money
01:44:42
◼
►
because it's bigger?
01:44:44
◼
►
Setting aside things like video content,
01:44:47
◼
►
where that's just, you know, you're not,
01:44:48
◼
►
it's not that the screen is big,
01:44:50
◼
►
it's that you're buying video.
01:44:50
◼
►
Like I'm buying access to HBO,
01:44:52
◼
►
I'm buying access to the Major League Baseball or whatever.
01:44:55
◼
►
Setting that aside, can you charge more money
01:44:57
◼
►
because the screen is bigger?
01:44:59
◼
►
Or is it because apps that run on a bigger screen
01:45:01
◼
►
can have more features
01:45:02
◼
►
and people are gonna pay for those features?
01:45:04
◼
►
I don't know what the connection is.
01:45:05
◼
►
But anyway, I am not ready to entirely write off
01:45:09
◼
►
both the iPad Pro and the Apple TV
01:45:11
◼
►
as platforms where it is just as difficult
01:45:15
◼
►
to sell an application for more than a couple bucks
01:45:18
◼
►
as it is on iOS.
01:45:20
◼
►
- Well, the big thing is going to be volume.
01:45:24
◼
►
It's will the iPad Pro sell in enough volume
01:45:28
◼
►
that it'll be worth developing high quality apps for it?
01:45:32
◼
►
Because if it doesn't achieve really high volumes,
01:45:36
◼
►
and high volumes for an iPad are still very low volumes
01:45:40
◼
►
for an iPhone, but let's just say like,
01:45:43
◼
►
if it doesn't sell a lot, if a lot of these things
01:45:46
◼
►
don't sell by iPad standards, it's gonna be very hard
01:45:49
◼
►
for most companies to justify developing for it,
01:45:51
◼
►
just on that basis alone, before you even get to price.
01:45:54
◼
►
- Don't you think volume works against it though?
01:45:56
◼
►
Because the high volumes is part of the reason
01:45:57
◼
►
why there's such downward price pressure,
01:45:59
◼
►
because if you sell to almost everybody,
01:46:01
◼
►
most people don't wanna pay for software, period.
01:46:03
◼
►
But if you're selling a pro app, you don't need,
01:46:05
◼
►
there are very few pros.
01:46:08
◼
►
How many people who are going to buy a $50 music app are there out there?
01:46:13
◼
►
For drawing applications in iPad Pro, it's still chicken and egg.
01:46:16
◼
►
Someone has to make the software.
01:46:17
◼
►
Someone has to go first.
01:46:18
◼
►
Apple has made the hardware and they hope someone makes the software.
01:46:20
◼
►
But how many professional artists are there in the world?
01:46:24
◼
►
How many people who use a Stiles to do their daily work drawing and designing things are
01:46:29
◼
►
there in the world?
01:46:31
◼
►
I think volume...
01:46:34
◼
►
You can't sell 10,000 of them.
01:46:36
◼
►
I think you probably even need more than Microsoft Surface numbers, but you don't need iPhone size numbers
01:46:41
◼
►
So I don't know what the the middle is there
01:46:43
◼
►
Like if it just sells in merely normal iPad volumes, is that too few?
01:46:47
◼
►
But if it sells in merely normal iPad volumes, couldn't they sell?
01:46:51
◼
►
You know one to every designer the entire world and still have tons left over
01:46:58
◼
►
It's conceivable. I think that it could sell
01:47:00
◼
►
I mean just look at the Mac the Mac sells in vanishingly small volumes compared to the iPhone
01:47:04
◼
►
and yet it is a sustainable platform for some companies to sell programs that people use
01:47:10
◼
►
to do their jobs on their Macs and they pay astronomical amounts of money for them by
01:47:16
◼
►
the standards of iOS applications. Like 20 whole dollars for an application. It's unheard
01:47:22
◼
►
Well, that's true. However, Macs also have the advantage of an installed base already
01:47:27
◼
►
where they don't sell as many units as before.
01:47:31
◼
►
However, if you wanted to,
01:47:33
◼
►
suppose Apple made a new Mac
01:47:35
◼
►
with some interesting new screen shape or something,
01:47:41
◼
►
and you made an app that worked well on that,
01:47:44
◼
►
well there's also the millions and millions of other Macs
01:47:47
◼
►
that already exist in the world
01:47:48
◼
►
that can probably also run that app.
01:47:50
◼
►
So the sales volumes itself are a little bit
01:47:52
◼
►
of a bad example here.
01:47:56
◼
►
Also, I would argue that there's a lot more people who, quote, "get their work done on
01:48:03
◼
►
a Mac than an iPad in these kind of like content creation or professional kinds of fields."
01:48:08
◼
►
I don't know that offhand, however, that sounds very likely, if I can take a guess.
01:48:13
◼
►
Now, you know, on the iPad Pro, to make a really good iPad Pro app, you need to really
01:48:19
◼
►
use that expansive screen space very well, and also it would be nice if it worked well
01:48:24
◼
►
with the pencil.
01:48:25
◼
►
I think that's going to be a huge differentiator because, again, I like the pencil idea.
01:48:30
◼
►
I think that sounds very good and very compelling and very interesting.
01:48:33
◼
►
However, again, there's going to be very few of these things in the market for a while.
01:48:37
◼
►
So it's going to be hard just numbers-wise.
01:48:39
◼
►
Now, assume they have healthy install base.
01:48:43
◼
►
Assume it actually becomes reasonably possible to sell a decent number of $30 or whatever
01:48:49
◼
►
apps on this thing.
01:48:52
◼
►
Then the question is, can you actually build and sustain a business with the app stores
01:48:58
◼
►
pricing and trial and upgrade situation?
01:49:01
◼
►
And that is another question.
01:49:04
◼
►
We've had iPads for five years now, five and a half years now, and I know a lot of companies
01:49:12
◼
►
have struggled to bring that kind of business to the iPad.
01:49:15
◼
►
It's hard enough on the iPhone where you have tons of volume to make up for it.
01:49:18
◼
►
It's even harder on the iPad.
01:49:20
◼
►
So how, what do you think, like I don't think the iPad Pro
01:49:24
◼
►
alone can solve that problem.
01:49:29
◼
►
It can solve the first problem of,
01:49:30
◼
►
"Hey, let's get a bunch of people buying these things,
01:49:32
◼
►
"you know, 'cause they're really good."
01:49:33
◼
►
But how do you solve the second problem there,
01:49:36
◼
►
you know, if you're Apple?
01:49:37
◼
►
Like how do you solve the App Store pricing problem?
01:49:39
◼
►
Or do you not think that's enough of a problem to matter?
01:49:43
◼
►
- Yeah, I don't know what the right answer is.
01:49:46
◼
►
I do know that a friend of the show, Ben Thompson,
01:49:48
◼
►
a really good piece about the Apple platforms becoming platforms rather than products. And
01:49:55
◼
►
I didn't get a chance to read it thoroughly, so now I'm assigning myself some homework
01:50:00
◼
►
to do so, but we'll put a link in the chat for both myself and for the listeners. I think
01:50:05
◼
►
that, from what I did get to read of it, he made some really, really great points, and
01:50:12
◼
►
that Apple seems to think that they can solve these problems by just creating new products,
01:50:16
◼
►
And that's not the case, just like you said, Marco.
01:50:18
◼
►
Creating a new product doesn't just fix all of these problems.
01:50:21
◼
►
Yeah, the reason the iPad Pro is interesting is because it's finally a new product with
01:50:26
◼
►
different features that changes a little bit of the equation.
01:50:29
◼
►
If you're going to sell a $100 app for designers for the iPad without a stylus, good luck.
01:50:35
◼
►
Am I supposed to just swipe this with my finger or a big smushy ball of rubber or a hot dog
01:50:40
◼
►
or something?
01:50:41
◼
►
It's a non-starter.
01:50:43
◼
►
So suddenly things are more possible.
01:50:46
◼
►
post from the sketch designers or sketch developers is so definitive it's like
01:50:50
◼
►
"Apps on iOS sell for unsustainably low prices due to the lack of
01:50:55
◼
►
trials." Like they're just flat-out conclusion. They sell for
01:50:59
◼
►
unsustainable... the prices are unsustainably low and the reason is no
01:51:02
◼
►
trials. And we all agree that like you know based on the model that we know
01:51:06
◼
►
worked on the Mac, upgrade pricing, trials for very expensive applications, you can
01:51:11
◼
►
figure out if you like them, so on and so forth, that is a system that has already
01:51:15
◼
►
existed on the Mac that did work. Apple's contention, implicit contention with iOS
01:51:20
◼
►
has been we can get rid of all the bad sides of that system while, you know, and
01:51:29
◼
►
make up for it by just being better in so many other ways. Make up for it in volume,
01:51:33
◼
►
make up for it in an easier to develop platform, make up for better user
01:51:37
◼
►
experience so more people buy your apps, you know, make up for it because
01:51:40
◼
►
people can just tap their finger on a piece of glass and buy your app really
01:51:42
◼
►
easily and will take care of the payments like and it's enough to be you
01:51:48
◼
►
know probably the most successful application platform ever created
01:51:51
◼
►
because it's so easy to buy applications far more people put apps on their
01:51:55
◼
►
phones than ever put apps on their computers you know volume wise like it's
01:51:59
◼
►
just so easy to get an app like we talked about this before there's lots of
01:52:03
◼
►
upside but once you get into the realm of professional applications applications
01:52:07
◼
►
that cost a lot of money to develop applications that are always going to
01:52:10
◼
►
sell in smaller volumes, they're not angry birds,
01:52:13
◼
►
that you know there's only 700,000 people
01:52:16
◼
►
in the entire United States who even need this application
01:52:18
◼
►
and I need to sell to 5% of them.
01:52:21
◼
►
And that's my entire user base,
01:52:22
◼
►
I'm gonna charge each one of them $1,000
01:52:25
◼
►
and I can't charge each one of them $1,000
01:52:27
◼
►
every single year.
01:52:28
◼
►
I have to charge them $1,000 once
01:52:29
◼
►
and then $200 every year or two when I make major updates
01:52:33
◼
►
and if I can't do that, it doesn't work for me.
01:52:35
◼
►
And pick whatever numbers you want for the applications.
01:52:38
◼
►
Like I'm thinking back to the good old days
01:52:40
◼
►
of the I am rich application.
01:52:42
◼
►
In some ways, I have a kind of nostalgia for the idea
01:52:46
◼
►
that that's how high the pricing would go.
01:52:49
◼
►
I know there are some high priced applications in iOS
01:52:52
◼
►
for very, very narrowly defined fields,
01:52:54
◼
►
but it's just this big gulf like in the middle
01:52:57
◼
►
between free or almost free things
01:53:01
◼
►
and things that are just really expensive
01:53:04
◼
►
and are being sold to companies.
01:53:06
◼
►
It used to be on the Mac there was, and still kind of is,
01:53:09
◼
►
a healthy place for applications that cost tens or hundreds of dollars,
01:53:14
◼
►
that let people do their jobs better
01:53:19
◼
►
and let the developers support that application in an ongoing basis,
01:53:23
◼
►
year after year after year, just working on that application,
01:53:26
◼
►
making it better, porting it to new platforms,
01:53:28
◼
►
knowing that their user base doesn't need to grow by leaps and bounds
01:53:31
◼
►
so they will just continue to pay them a little bit of money each year
01:53:34
◼
►
for the new version of the whatever because it helps them get their job done.
01:53:37
◼
►
So I sympathize with the sketch people,
01:53:40
◼
►
but I really hope someone, some poor sucker, I guess,
01:53:45
◼
►
runs the experiment and says, can I
01:53:49
◼
►
make a business selling professional-level applications
01:53:52
◼
►
for double-digit or triple-digit prices on the iPad Pro?
01:53:56
◼
►
Not just like get an Apple Design Award next year's WWDC,
01:54:00
◼
►
but five years from now, still be selling the latest version
01:54:03
◼
►
of that application and have an actual company that runs with
01:54:06
◼
►
maybe more than one or two people selling an application
01:54:09
◼
►
that people really use.
01:54:10
◼
►
That's what I think Apple should be bragging about.
01:54:12
◼
►
They always go up there and they brag about it.
01:54:13
◼
►
Look at all these applications we have
01:54:15
◼
►
and look at this one, it's beautiful.
01:54:17
◼
►
And you all love this app or whatever,
01:54:19
◼
►
but where are there success stories like Adobe Photoshop
01:54:24
◼
►
or BB Edit for crying out loud or any application
01:54:26
◼
►
that's like this isn't just a flash in the pan,
01:54:29
◼
►
popular application for a company that got bought
01:54:31
◼
►
by Facebook or Google or went out of business
01:54:33
◼
►
or got venture funding or whatever,
01:54:34
◼
►
but it is actually a sustainable business.
01:54:36
◼
►
And on the Mac, they have things like OmniGroup
01:54:38
◼
►
at the very least.
01:54:40
◼
►
And on iOS, they have like, well,
01:54:42
◼
►
companies that can subsidize things like Microsoft
01:54:45
◼
►
and Apple itself, and to some degree, Adobe.
01:54:47
◼
►
And then a bunch of other one and two person shops
01:54:49
◼
►
who get really rich selling a game
01:54:51
◼
►
that sells to millions of people, which is great.
01:54:52
◼
►
Those games are great and everything, more power to them.
01:54:56
◼
►
But there's a dead spot in the middle
01:54:57
◼
►
for applications that could sell to a lot of people,
01:55:01
◼
►
but are forced to sell for $2 because of the real
01:55:06
◼
►
or imagined pressure to price that low
01:55:08
◼
►
and the platformers were off for it
01:55:12
◼
►
and I think users are worse off for it.
01:55:14
◼
►
That's setting aside developers
01:55:16
◼
►
'cause developers can always do something else
01:55:18
◼
►
like I make a different application,
01:55:19
◼
►
developers are employable, they'll be fine, right?
01:55:22
◼
►
It's just most disappointing for Apple and for users
01:55:24
◼
►
because users want better applications
01:55:26
◼
►
and I think so does Apple.
01:55:27
◼
►
I think they would be able to brag more convincingly
01:55:29
◼
►
about the things that happen on their platform if it wasn't a new one every year.
01:55:34
◼
►
All right. So we have, at least by the way the clock reads on the Skype call, we have
01:55:40
◼
►
had two hours of follow-up. So I think we are pretty much tapped out.
01:55:43
◼
►
Thanks a lot to our three sponsors this week, Squarespace, Lynda.com, and Automattic. And
01:55:49
◼
►
we will see you next week.
01:55:52
◼
►
Now the show is over, they didn't even mean to begin
01:55:58
◼
►
'Cause it was accidental, oh it was accidental
01:56:04
◼
►
John didn't do any research, Margo and Casey wouldn't let him
01:56:09
◼
►
'Cause it was accidental, oh it was accidental
01:56:14
◼
►
And you can find the show notes at ATP.fm
01:56:19
◼
►
And if you're into Twitter, you can follow them @C-A-S-E-Y-L-I-S-S
01:56:29
◼
►
So that's Kasey Liszt, M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M
01:56:33
◼
►
Auntie Marco Arment, S-I-R-A-C-U-S-A, Syracuse
01:56:40
◼
►
It's accidental (It's accidental)
01:56:43
◼
►
They didn't mean to, accidental (It's accidental)
01:56:49
◼
►
Tech broadcast so long
01:56:54
◼
►
So Marco, did anything happen today?
01:56:56
◼
►
Barely. It almost happened tomorrow.
01:57:00
◼
►
Fair enough. So you have a new thing?
01:57:03
◼
►
Yeah, I launched a new app. It's called Peace. It's an iOS 9 content blocker.
01:57:09
◼
►
And the big deal about it is, so it's an add and tracker blocker, but the big deal about it is that
01:57:14
◼
►
I actually licensed the database from Ghostery. So this is powered by Ghostery, which is pretty
01:57:20
◼
►
cool I think. I think it's the best database out there. Honestly, I tried a lot of them
01:57:25
◼
►
and really a lot over the summer. And I found them to be the best. So I went to them. I
01:57:33
◼
►
asked if they'd be interested in licensing it for a simple revenue share deal and they
01:57:38
◼
►
actually said yes, which is amazing. And yeah, so we worked it out and they're fun to work
01:57:46
◼
►
with and easy, which is, you know, they're a big company, so that was kind of a surprise
01:57:49
◼
►
for me. And yeah, great. All good stuff.
01:57:53
◼
►
If you couldn't have licensed the database, would you have made the app anyway?
01:57:57
◼
►
I had other databases, you know, in various stages of testing throughout the summer. And
01:58:03
◼
►
I had a really hard time finding one that was really truly good, and not just some like
01:58:08
◼
►
like total mammoth thing, like massive number of rules, massive database size and complexity
01:58:15
◼
►
and everything because the bigger you make the rule set, the worse it impacts performance.
01:58:22
◼
►
And it is a pretty fast system and you can do quite a lot of rules and have it not slow
01:58:27
◼
►
down too bad but you do change things like how, when you make a change to the rules,
01:58:35
◼
►
have to send the system all of your rules again. So if you like add a white listed site,
01:58:39
◼
►
you have to send all of your rules back to the system again. And that actually takes,
01:58:43
◼
►
with my rule set on an iPhone 6 with just the Go Street database, that takes like two
01:58:47
◼
►
and a half seconds to do. The way you can tell how long it takes is if you use the open
01:58:53
◼
►
unrestricted extension, the way that works is it literally just sends an empty rule set,
01:59:01
◼
►
a Safari View Controller, and then when the Safari View Controller closes, it re-enables
01:59:06
◼
►
the regular rule set. And so you can tell when the Safari View Controller closes, it
01:59:10
◼
►
says "restoring piece..." for a few seconds, and then that screen goes away. That is how
01:59:15
◼
►
long it takes to reload the content blocker rules. That is what that is waiting for. And
01:59:19
◼
►
so if you test, if you do a larger database, most of the big hosts files, the easy list,
01:59:25
◼
►
all these, all the different sources of either ad block format or host format block lists.
01:59:32
◼
►
If you do those, you tend to get like 10,000 entries for a good one and mine is 2,000.
01:59:39
◼
►
So it literally, it loads for the most part pretty much five times more quickly and then
01:59:44
◼
►
there is some, you know, some per page cost as well and even though the cost might be
01:59:47
◼
►
small it is still a per page cost to evaluate all those rules. You know, it tries to do
01:59:51
◼
►
do smart things like building trees and building fast parsers and everything, but it's still
01:59:56
◼
►
the fewer rules, the faster it is. So I also found with the other rule sets, I had more
02:00:02
◼
►
compatibility problems. So certain sites, there's a tracker, I think it's called Adobe
02:00:08
◼
►
Omniture. I don't know much about this stuff, about the specifics of these things.
02:00:12
◼
►
Big in the enterprise.
02:00:13
◼
►
Exactly. It's also used on Apple's site. And if you don't, if you allow, rather, if you
02:00:18
◼
►
block Adobe Omniture on Apple developer site, the site doesn't work. Like you can't do provisioning
02:00:26
◼
►
profiles, stuff like that. It just doesn't work because certain sites will actually use
02:00:32
◼
►
various events triggered by these analytics packages to trigger page functionality. So
02:00:36
◼
►
if you disable some of these things, pages actually stop working right. And Ghostery,
02:00:42
◼
►
does compatibility work? They're a big enough company. They have the resources to both hear
02:00:47
◼
►
about these things and to make exceptions. So their database was pretty sophisticated
02:00:51
◼
►
and like, you know, these rules should be exempted on these domains, otherwise things
02:00:55
◼
►
break, you know, stuff like that. So their data was just, it was better for me. It was
02:01:02
◼
►
just better. I did try, one of my crazy ideas, which I ran for about two weeks, was to just
02:01:09
◼
►
block all third-party JavaScript. Just all of it. And I found I had to already make a
02:01:16
◼
►
a few little exceptions, even just to make that work.
02:01:18
◼
►
Like one of the biggest ones was Squarespace sites.
02:01:21
◼
►
They would just break.
02:01:22
◼
►
Like simple things like links and images and you know,
02:01:25
◼
►
Squarespace hosts all of its scripts
02:01:27
◼
►
on like a static Squarespace CDN domain,
02:01:29
◼
►
which is considered third party
02:01:30
◼
►
if you look at like our page template,
02:01:31
◼
►
'cause we have our own domain.
02:01:32
◼
►
So any Squarespace site hosted on some domain name
02:01:35
◼
►
would break without these certain exemptions made.
02:01:37
◼
►
- And Google has like jQuery hosting
02:01:39
◼
►
and tons of people use that.
02:01:40
◼
►
So yeah, you can't blog all third party
02:01:42
◼
►
'cause it's just lots of stuff won't work.
02:01:45
◼
►
I found like, like I was, like so many sites
02:01:47
◼
►
that you wouldn't think, like, like I,
02:01:49
◼
►
like I, it was when I was trying,
02:01:50
◼
►
when I was trying to order my camera,
02:01:51
◼
►
and B&H, their site broke.
02:01:53
◼
►
Like the whole B&H site, you just can't view
02:01:55
◼
►
any product page on iOS with that enabled.
02:01:58
◼
►
So, so like it, there was just,
02:02:00
◼
►
there were so many things that broke
02:02:02
◼
►
with simpler rules like that,
02:02:04
◼
►
and then the bigger rule sets were primarily focused on like
02:02:09
◼
►
hiding ads on PCs, and without regard to breakages really.
02:02:15
◼
►
So they had a lot of those issues with breakages.
02:02:17
◼
►
They also just had these giant rule sets
02:02:20
◼
►
that were full of like, you know,
02:02:21
◼
►
5,000 entries for Russian porn sites.
02:02:24
◼
►
And it's like, do I really need that?
02:02:25
◼
►
Do I really need to waste thousands of entries
02:02:27
◼
►
on things like that?
02:02:28
◼
►
- You need to block those ads for the X10 camera.
02:02:32
◼
►
I'm sure you saw that on a totally legitimate news site.
02:02:36
◼
►
So, so yeah, I mean,
02:02:38
◼
►
I tried lots of other databases and rule sets.
02:02:40
◼
►
I inquired about licensing,
02:02:43
◼
►
Because a lot of these things, like for instance, I saw a couple of the browser blockers. If
02:02:49
◼
►
you're free and open source, you could include a lot more host names and block list sources
02:02:55
◼
►
than if you are a commercial product. If you are a commercial app on iOS, there's a lot
02:03:00
◼
►
of these lists that you are not allowed to use by their license agreement. I did go to
02:03:04
◼
►
some of them and approach them for licensing. Most of them didn't respond. Some of them
02:03:09
◼
►
and said no, some of them said yes for X dollars a year,
02:03:13
◼
►
but I never found any that were both usable
02:03:15
◼
►
and were actually good enough, if that makes sense,
02:03:19
◼
►
except Ghostery, and that's why I went to them.
02:03:22
◼
►
I did not think they would say yes.
02:03:23
◼
►
I figured, they're a big company, they have these plugins,
02:03:26
◼
►
they're gonna wanna do their own thing.
02:03:28
◼
►
Turns out they don't wanna do their own thing on iOS
02:03:29
◼
►
because the content blockers are so limited,
02:03:31
◼
►
they can't do their core business function.
02:03:33
◼
►
So they didn't really have anything ready for iOS 9,
02:03:37
◼
►
And I had an app that needed a database,
02:03:39
◼
►
and they had a database that needed an app.
02:03:41
◼
►
So there you go.
02:03:42
◼
►
- That's pretty awesome.
02:03:44
◼
►
- Yeah, it really worked out very well.
02:03:47
◼
►
- To channel some friends of ours,
02:03:49
◼
►
I've been testing it for a couple of weeks now,
02:03:51
◼
►
and it is pretty darn good.
02:03:52
◼
►
And it's funny because I had,
02:03:56
◼
►
I'd been noticing that, especially at home,
02:04:01
◼
►
when I'm doing more browsing for me
02:04:03
◼
►
rather than looking up things for work,
02:04:06
◼
►
I felt like my internet had been getting slower lately,
02:04:09
◼
►
and I couldn't put my finger on what it was or why it was.
02:04:13
◼
►
And between installing Ghostery on my Mac
02:04:15
◼
►
and installing Peace on my iOS devices,
02:04:18
◼
►
suddenly things seemed snappier again.
02:04:21
◼
►
And it very well could be that this is all in my head,
02:04:25
◼
►
but I feel like having these content blockers
02:04:30
◼
►
has really made things feel snappy,
02:04:32
◼
►
like they did just a year or two ago.
02:04:34
◼
►
And so whatever content blocker you choose to run,
02:04:38
◼
►
whether it's a piece or something else,
02:04:40
◼
►
I strongly encourage you to run one
02:04:42
◼
►
because it really does make your browsing experience
02:04:46
◼
►
that much better,
02:04:47
◼
►
especially if you're on a limited data plan.
02:04:49
◼
►
You don't wanna have to pull down
02:04:51
◼
►
all that superfluous information
02:04:52
◼
►
that really doesn't help you read what you're trying to read.
02:04:55
◼
►
So do what you gotta do.
02:04:57
◼
►
- We have more on this topic.
02:04:58
◼
►
I think we'll save for the next show
02:04:59
◼
►
'cause I do wanna talk more about things.
02:05:01
◼
►
Marco had a post today about a piece,
02:05:04
◼
►
but also kind of about the larger issue of ad blocking
02:05:07
◼
►
and tracking blocking and all that stuff.
02:05:10
◼
►
And of course he had posted previously about that as well.
02:05:12
◼
►
So you should read those so you're ready
02:05:13
◼
►
as your homework listener for next week
02:05:15
◼
►
when we will probably talk more
02:05:17
◼
►
about ad blocking and all that stuff.
02:05:20
◼
►
But in the meantime, I'm mostly upset
02:05:22
◼
►
that finally my iPad 3 has been left behind
02:05:25
◼
►
because none of the content blockers
02:05:27
◼
►
I've tried to work on it.
02:05:28
◼
►
- They can't.
02:05:29
◼
►
- They can't because of the, what is the requirement?
02:05:33
◼
►
- 64 bit, and is it just for content blockers, 64 bit?
02:05:36
◼
►
Or does every submission have to be 64 bit now?
02:05:38
◼
►
- It's content, the content blocker backend is 64 bit only.
02:05:42
◼
►
- Oh, okay, so that's the, all right.
02:05:45
◼
►
- What is the 64 bit?
02:05:46
◼
►
They're finally accepting 64 bit only apps, right?
02:05:49
◼
►
But you can't, you don't have to submit them.
02:05:50
◼
►
- That's right.
02:05:51
◼
►
- Like just, oh, broadly speaking.
02:05:52
◼
►
- Yep, that's right.
02:05:53
◼
►
- Okay, anyway, content blockers are all 64 bit.
02:05:56
◼
►
If you have an iPad 3 like me, you're sad.
02:05:58
◼
►
which is kind of a bummer.
02:05:59
◼
►
So now I really do need to get a new iPad.
02:06:02
◼
►
My iPad 3 is really showing its age now.
02:06:06
◼
►
Like when I, I still do manual updates
02:06:08
◼
►
because I'm a nerd and I want to see what's updated
02:06:11
◼
►
So when I go to the App Store updates tab
02:06:14
◼
►
and it's like five things need to be updated
02:06:15
◼
►
and I hit update all, and then I hit the home button
02:06:17
◼
►
and try to go to another app,
02:06:18
◼
►
I don't know why I even bother
02:06:20
◼
►
because the iPad is going to be paralyzed
02:06:22
◼
►
while it's doing all those updates in the background.
02:06:24
◼
►
Even though I'm just trying to browse a webpage,
02:06:26
◼
►
just everything is slow and creaky so yeah.
02:06:29
◼
►
I need a new iPad but I just installed Peacever and we'll talk more about content blockers
02:06:36
◼
►
next week but I am in favor of them.
02:06:38
◼
►
Short version.