Upgrade

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:11 ◼   ► From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, episode 386.

00:00:16 ◼   ► Today's holiday special is brought to you by Bombus, Hunter Douglas, and Setapp.

00:00:21 ◼   ► My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by Jason Snow. Hi, Jason Snow.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Happy holidays, Mr. Myke Hurley. It's Christmas week.

00:00:27 ◼   ► Ho ho ho to you, my friend.

00:00:29 ◼   ► - Well, ho to you too.

00:00:30 ◼   ► - I have some jingle bell snow talk for you.

00:00:33 ◼   ► - Oh.

00:00:34 ◼   ► - It comes from JD who wants to know,

00:00:37 ◼   ► this is not a, this is not,

00:00:38 ◼   ► I've resisted a holiday snow talk because we are--

00:00:40 ◼   ► - Not holiday themed.

00:00:42 ◼   ► - We are basically all holiday ask upgrade

00:00:44 ◼   ► for the entire episode today,

00:00:46 ◼   ► 'cause we've got like a billion questions, which is great.

00:00:49 ◼   ► But this one comes from JD who asked,

00:00:50 ◼   ► "Have you ever tried coding and if so, what language?"

00:00:54 ◼   ► - Well, I have, yes is the answer JD.

00:00:59 ◼   ► I started using basic when I was a kid,

00:01:04 ◼   ► where you had to number the lines of code

00:01:08 ◼   ► and that's how you navigated around.

00:01:10 ◼   ► I was thinking about that the other day

00:01:12 ◼   ► that I remember the first time I saw a programming language,

00:01:15 ◼   ► I think it was Pascal that didn't have line numbers

00:01:17 ◼   ► and I couldn't understand how you would do a program

00:01:19 ◼   ► without line numbers.

00:01:21 ◼   ► And I think back now and I think like,

00:01:23 ◼   ► why did you need the line numbers?

00:01:25 ◼   ► But it was how I was thinking, it was how it was taught.

00:01:28 ◼   ► and I learned a lot of basic.

00:01:30 ◼   ► And then we have to go to AppleScript after that.

00:01:33 ◼   ► Like basically I didn't do anything beyond AppleSoft basic

00:01:38 ◼   ► until I was in grad school maybe.

00:01:42 ◼   ► I'm not sure I did any AppleScript in college.

00:01:45 ◼   ► And that was, and AppleScript is very weird,

00:01:48 ◼   ► but it is a coding language of a sort.

00:01:51 ◼   ► And I was scripting and connecting together various apps.

00:01:56 ◼   ► Lately, I've been doing a lot more of this.

00:01:58 ◼   ► So I, when we moved six colors to WordPress,

00:02:03 ◼   ► I built a custom template.

00:02:07 ◼   ► It's actually kind of funny.

00:02:09 ◼   ► As a side note, I'll say our friend, David Sparks,

00:02:12 ◼   ► just changed his website over from Squarespace,

00:02:16 ◼   ► I think, to WordPress.

00:02:18 ◼   ► And I was saying, well, if you need any advice,

00:02:20 ◼   ► I spent all, you know, I spent several months converting,

00:02:24 ◼   ► meticulously converting six colors

00:02:27 ◼   ► from movable type to WordPress

00:02:29 ◼   ► and WordPress is all PHP stuff.

00:02:31 ◼   ► So I had to make a custom theme complete

00:02:34 ◼   ► from zero custom theme.

00:02:36 ◼   ► I had to do a lot of PHP stuff

00:02:38 ◼   ► and I had a little bit of help

00:02:39 ◼   ► from some of the people at WordPress,

00:02:40 ◼   ► but for the most part, I did it myself.

00:02:42 ◼   ► And the lesson learned here is that David Sparks's response

00:02:46 ◼   ► was, "Oh, I hired a guy to do that."

00:02:48 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:02:50 ◼   ► I was like, "Oh, yeah, I guess I could have done that."

00:02:53 ◼   ► But I didn't.

00:02:53 ◼   ► learned a lot about PHP and my weather page, Upgrade Plus listeners can hear all about

00:02:58 ◼   ► my weather environment, my weather ecosystem that I have at my house. That weather page

00:03:06 ◼   ► is in PHP. Doing what PHP was designed to do, which is take a web page and modify it

00:03:12 ◼   ► based on some simple-ish logic. Anyway, so I learned a lot of PHP from that project.

00:03:19 ◼   ► People who were listening to Upgrade Plus may also hear another portion of my weather

00:03:22 ◼   ► ecosystem involves widgets in Scriptable. Scriptable is an app that is, that lets you

00:03:28 ◼   ► write stuff in JavaScript on your iOS device and you can put it in widgets and stuff like

00:03:33 ◼   ► that. And so I had to learn some JavaScript for that where I'd never, I resisted learning

00:03:37 ◼   ► JavaScript for a long time and I still don't understand it that well but I understand it

00:03:42 ◼   ► enough to be dangerous, as they say. And then in the last couple of months, you know, I

00:03:47 ◼   ► don't know, three, four months, I have made a concerted effort to learn Python

00:03:53 ◼   ► and I've written a whole bunch of different scripts in Python that do a

00:03:56 ◼   ► whole bunch of different things and that's been really great because the

00:04:00 ◼   ► great advantage of knowing one of these languages instead of AppleScript is that

00:04:04 ◼   ► I have a server running Unix that's in the cloud and I can put scripts on it

00:04:11 ◼   ► and they run, whereas with AppleScripts you got to run it on a Mac somewhere and

00:04:16 ◼   ► and it's nice to be able to have that script

00:04:19 ◼   ► just running in the cloud and running it from there.

00:04:21 ◼   ► - I guess if you're gonna know this stuff,

00:04:23 ◼   ► it helps for it to be a bit more universal, right?

00:04:26 ◼   ► - Exactly, and the, and this is a,

00:04:28 ◼   ► the reason that I've been doing this recently

00:04:32 ◼   ► is that I really wanted to pick up some of those skills,

00:04:37 ◼   ► and I think it's a fun challenge for my brain

00:04:40 ◼   ► to try and do this.

00:04:42 ◼   ► the AppleScript muscles are there.

00:04:47 ◼   ► And the fact is all of these languages are kind of,

00:04:49 ◼   ► I mean, I know enough now to understand when people like

00:04:53 ◼   ► the ATP guys talk about the differences

00:04:55 ◼   ► in programming languages.

00:04:57 ◼   ► I've seen enough of them now that I'm like,

00:04:58 ◼   ► "Oh yeah, they are all kind of the same."

00:05:01 ◼   ► And it comes down to how do they phrase things?

00:05:04 ◼   ► And is there a built-in module for this?

00:05:06 ◼   ► And do they use semi-colons too much?

00:05:09 ◼   ► Or is it brackets that they use too much?

00:05:11 ◼   ► or is it indenting that they use too much?

00:05:14 ◼   ► Every language has its issues, let's say.

00:05:18 ◼   ► There is no perfect language.

00:05:19 ◼   ► Although I prefer indenting in Python

00:05:21 ◼   ► to all the semicolons in JavaScript.

00:05:23 ◼   ► Anyway, so it's been fun because it's good for my brain too.

00:05:26 ◼   ► As a 50 plus year old person,

00:05:28 ◼   ► I wanna keep challenging my brain

00:05:30 ◼   ► and keep it plastic and adaptive and learning.

00:05:33 ◼   ► And it has been a lot of fun to write these,

00:05:37 ◼   ► the Python scripts especially.

00:05:39 ◼   ► You know, and again, I could probably hire a guy to do it,

00:05:41 ◼   ► like do what Sparks did for his WordPress site.

00:05:45 ◼   ► Yeah, I got to learn that lesson,

00:05:46 ◼   ► but it has been a lot of fun to pick this stuff up

00:05:50 ◼   ► and I hope I will continue using it in the future.

00:05:53 ◼   ► - Do you want your brain to be plastic?

00:05:55 ◼   ► Is that the right thing?

00:05:56 ◼   ► - Well, plastic in this case means able to be like moved.

00:06:01 ◼   ► It's instead of being set fixed,

00:06:03 ◼   ► it's like fixed in plastic or opposites in this case.

00:06:06 ◼   ► So you want to be able to have a brain

00:06:07 ◼   ► that's kind of adaptive and can learn and grow

00:06:09 ◼   ► and change and not remain kind of locked in place because that's how you become like an

00:06:14 ◼   ► old person who goes "ah these kids today get off my lawn" and I don't want to be that guy.

00:06:18 ◼   ► What about foam like a brain ball? Some people don't like foam but yes I would like my I

00:06:24 ◼   ► would like my brain to be as as squishy and adaptive as my brain ball. Thank you. If you

00:06:30 ◼   ► would like to send in a question for us to open an episode of Upgrade just send out a

00:06:34 ◼   ► tweet with the hashtag #snowtalk like JD did or you can use question mark snow talk in

00:06:38 ◼   ► Relay FM members Discord, which I actually think is what JD did.

00:06:42 ◼   ► 10 print "Hello World 20" go to 10. You can get access to the Relay FM members

00:06:48 ◼   ► Discord if you want by becoming a member and supporting this show. You can go to

00:06:53 ◼   ► getupgradeplus.com, you can sign up and you'll also get to hear about Jason's

00:06:57 ◼   ► weather station, which is what we're going to talk about in Upgrade Plus today. If you are listening to this

00:07:03 ◼   ► episode on the day of release you have less than 24 hours remaining to get your

00:07:09 ◼   ► nominations in for the upgradees. Nominations are closing on December the

00:07:13 ◼   ► 21st so if you still have time go to upgradees.vote and you can get your

00:07:18 ◼   ► nominations in. The results will be revealed and deliberated on next week's

00:07:22 ◼   ► episode of upgrade as we do the upgradees to finish out 2021. Got some

00:07:29 ◼   ► - Follow up for you, Jason.

00:07:31 ◼   ► I was talking last week about my issues with Wi-Fi

00:07:34 ◼   ► on my MacBook Pro.

00:07:35 ◼   ► Mac OS 12.1 seems to have solved this issue

00:07:39 ◼   ► and now I have no problem connecting to Wi-Fi networks,

00:07:42 ◼   ► finding new Wi-Fi networks and that kind of stuff.

00:07:44 ◼   ► One of the things that I've noticed is,

00:07:47 ◼   ► which was not happening to me before,

00:07:49 ◼   ► when you click on the Wi-Fi kind of arrow thing,

00:07:53 ◼   ► you know, in Control Center, you can hover over it

00:07:55 ◼   ► and it has a little chevron which you can click.

00:07:58 ◼   ► It shows you in that area,

00:08:00 ◼   ► wifi networks that you can connect to.

00:08:02 ◼   ► That UI never loaded from before.

00:08:04 ◼   ► I didn't even know it was in there.

00:08:06 ◼   ► - Oh.

00:08:06 ◼   ► - So it was, so basically my machine

00:08:08 ◼   ► just could not find wifi networks

00:08:11 ◼   ► unless I would go into system preferences,

00:08:13 ◼   ► toggle it on and off, on and off.

00:08:15 ◼   ► I don't think I mentioned last time,

00:08:16 ◼   ► but sometimes I would get like an N-A-N error

00:08:20 ◼   ► on the turn off button.

00:08:21 ◼   ► So like turn on, turn off wifi

00:08:23 ◼   ► was sometimes saying nan and then like a code

00:08:26 ◼   ► that would like break through the button.

00:08:28 ◼   ► It was like a big old mess.

00:08:30 ◼   ► - That's not good.

00:08:31 ◼   ► - But 12.1 has completely fixed it.

00:08:34 ◼   ► It wasn't in the release notes,

00:08:35 ◼   ► like I was looking through the release notes.

00:08:36 ◼   ► There were like MacBook Pro specific fixes,

00:08:40 ◼   ► but WiFi wasn't mentioned as one of them,

00:08:42 ◼   ► but it has fixed my WiFi problems.

00:08:45 ◼   ► So I'm really happy about that

00:08:47 ◼   ► because now I don't have that annoyance on my computer.

00:08:50 ◼   ► - That's good.

00:08:51 ◼   ► I wonder what caused that.

00:08:51 ◼   ► I wonder why they did that, but it's good.

00:08:54 ◼   ► keep in mind 12.0 came out before the laptops came out, so there's a—this is the first

00:08:59 ◼   ► full version that is released, right? So they decided not to put it in like one of the little

00:09:07 ◼   ► dot updates, but they jammed it into 12.1. That's interesting. I guess we'll never

00:09:12 ◼   ► know the behind-the-scenes thing.

00:09:13 ◼   ► But they fixed it.

00:09:14 ◼   ► I mean, I always have this like belief that sometimes things just get fixed and—well,

00:09:19 ◼   ► I think this is not—I think this is commonly held. Things get fixed without meaning to

00:09:22 ◼   ► be in the same way that things can get broken

00:09:24 ◼   ► without meaning to be.

00:09:25 ◼   ► - Ah, that's, I think that's fair.

00:09:26 ◼   ► - You know, I saw you link to Notch Meister

00:09:30 ◼   ► on six colors. - Yes, yes.

00:09:33 ◼   ► - And now if I ever want, I can have an application.

00:09:37 ◼   ► Right now, if I just go up to the notch,

00:09:39 ◼   ► I have some Christmas lights that pop down.

00:09:41 ◼   ► - That's right.

00:09:42 ◼   ► So I posted a tweet about how somebody should make it

00:09:46 ◼   ► so that the notch glows when your mouse is behind it,

00:09:49 ◼   ► when your pointer is behind it,

00:09:50 ◼   ► because you can lose your pointer up there.

00:09:52 ◼   ► you can move your pointer behind and not see it and be aware is it and it's in the notch.

00:09:58 ◼   ► Craig Hockenberry from the Icon Factory took this as a challenge and even though he doesn't

00:10:01 ◼   ► have a laptop with a notch he wrote with some other people and it's open source so anybody

00:10:07 ◼   ► can look at it and contribute a thing called Notchmeister and he was sending me builds

00:10:12 ◼   ► to take pictures of like tell me what this looks like because he doesn't have one and

00:10:18 ◼   ► ended up releasing Notchmeister, which is this funny utility that is really Craig and

00:10:23 ◼   ► I both thought that it reminded us of there's a program called Underwear back in the day,

00:10:28 ◼   ► which was like kind of like a screensaver, except it was always on underneath your desktop

00:10:35 ◼   ► and it was a desktop diversion or distraction. I think they called it and it was just silly

00:10:39 ◼   ► is what it was. And so he was inspired by that. So yeah, you can have a like a little

00:10:43 ◼   ► Cylon light that goes around the notch or you can have it that when your when your pointer goes behind it

00:10:48 ◼   ► It throws off sparks or it glows

00:10:50 ◼   ► and you can have it that Christmas lights drop down from the notch when you move your mouse up there and

00:10:55 ◼   ► Also, I think there's one that's like a radar x-ray kind of thing, which is hilarious because like I said the your pointer is is

00:11:03 ◼   ► Actually back there and it's moving around and so he built this thing that drops down a little scanner

00:11:09 ◼   ► That shows you what your pointer is doing up there

00:11:12 ◼   ► which is quick to listen. - Like poking around

00:11:15 ◼   ► and hiding behind chips and stuff,

00:11:16 ◼   ► and it's very responsive.

00:11:18 ◼   ► It's really cool.

00:11:19 ◼   ► I have a feature request if Craig happens to be listening

00:11:23 ◼   ► or hearing this.

00:11:24 ◼   ► I would like a way to be able to hide the dock icon

00:11:28 ◼   ► for this app.

00:11:30 ◼   ► - For Notch Meister.

00:11:31 ◼   ► - So I can just leave it open all the time

00:11:34 ◼   ► and forget that it's there and get joy

00:11:37 ◼   ► whenever I pop up towards the notch.

00:11:38 ◼   ► - That's nice.

00:11:40 ◼   ► Yeah, it's a fun idea.

00:11:41 ◼   ► I, you know, my purpose with it was really just,

00:11:44 ◼   ► I thought somebody should make a very simple utility

00:11:47 ◼   ► that just lets you, maybe one of these utilities

00:11:50 ◼   ► that fixes your menu bar or something like that,

00:11:52 ◼   ► that literally just gives you a subtle indicator

00:11:55 ◼   ► that your pointer is currently living behind the notch

00:11:59 ◼   ► and that's why it's not visible.

00:12:01 ◼   ► And Craig was like, what if we made it wacky?

00:12:03 ◼   ► And he succeeded, it is very wacky.

00:12:05 ◼   ► - I like it.

00:12:06 ◼   ► - I think, I love it when people do silly software.

00:12:10 ◼   ► Like, I love it.

00:12:11 ◼   ► - It feels very Mac to me.

00:12:13 ◼   ► Like, it does part of like the Mac's history

00:12:17 ◼   ► is the silly little things that it can do.

00:12:19 ◼   ► I mean, an Apple has had a history

00:12:21 ◼   ► of building them in themselves just not recently.

00:12:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's whimsical and funny

00:12:26 ◼   ► and yet also professional and considered, right?

00:12:30 ◼   ► And that's the delight I think

00:12:31 ◼   ► that makes it sort of feel Mac like

00:12:33 ◼   ► is that it's very intelligent, brilliant,

00:12:36 ◼   ► serious professionals using some of their brain power

00:12:39 ◼   ► to create something silly.

00:12:41 ◼   ► I like it.

00:12:42 ◼   ► That's a lot of fun.

00:12:44 ◼   ► - Apple have delayed their return to the office indefinitely.

00:12:48 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:12:49 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:12:50 ◼   ► - So this is something that they've been kicking this can

00:12:52 ◼   ► down the road for I think the best part

00:12:54 ◼   ► of six to eight months now, where it's like,

00:12:56 ◼   ► hey, we're gonna come back. - Now they've lost

00:12:57 ◼   ► the can entirely.

00:12:58 ◼   ► - And then-- - What can?

00:13:00 ◼   ► - Yeah. - I don't know.

00:13:01 ◼   ► - We've never seen a can.

00:13:02 ◼   ► What are you talking about?

00:13:04 ◼   ► This is actually kind of funny

00:13:05 ◼   ► because we're working on our connected year in review.

00:13:09 ◼   ► So we go through the year and we look at stories

00:13:13 ◼   ► and stuff like that.

00:13:14 ◼   ► And today I was looking through June

00:13:17 ◼   ► and one of the stories for June was Apple employees

00:13:20 ◼   ► pushed back against return to office in an internal letter.

00:13:23 ◼   ► - Ah yes.

00:13:24 ◼   ► - So when that internal letter that went around,

00:13:26 ◼   ► that was in June of last year.

00:13:30 ◼   ► So they have been talking about their return to the office

00:13:32 ◼   ► for over six months now.

00:13:35 ◼   ► but they just kept saying, "Hey, it was this time.

00:13:37 ◼   ► Hey, it was this time."

00:13:38 ◼   ► And now they've just said, you know,

00:13:42 ◼   ► for very obvious reasons,

00:13:44 ◼   ► we don't know when anybody's gonna come back now.

00:13:48 ◼   ► So corporate employees are gonna be given $1,000

00:13:52 ◼   ► to spend on home office equipment, which-

00:13:55 ◼   ► - There we go.

00:13:55 ◼   ► - I don't remember if they've had this before.

00:13:57 ◼   ► If they haven't, what the hell?

00:13:59 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:14:00 ◼   ► Like, what the hell?

00:14:01 ◼   ► Why has it taken them so long

00:14:03 ◼   ► if they haven't done it up until now.

00:14:05 ◼   ► But that tells you, I think, quite clearly that

00:14:09 ◼   ► this is for people that do not need to be in the office,

00:14:13 ◼   ► 'cause there are people that are in Apple Park,

00:14:15 ◼   ► like there are. - Sure.

00:14:16 ◼   ► - But for the people that don't need to be,

00:14:18 ◼   ► I think Apple is now taking a hunker down

00:14:21 ◼   ► kind of response for this one.

00:14:24 ◼   ► I've been saying this for a long time

00:14:27 ◼   ► that my feeling is there would be no WWDC this year.

00:14:30 ◼   ► I think that's set now, like--

00:14:32 ◼   ► I think probably right.

00:14:33 ◼   ► - As I've said for the whole time,

00:14:36 ◼   ► they were never gonna do it

00:14:37 ◼   ► if the employees went back in the office

00:14:38 ◼   ► 'cause that just doesn't make any sense, right?

00:14:40 ◼   ► That you would be happy to bring five to 10,000 people

00:14:44 ◼   ► to a place, but yet you wouldn't have your own employees

00:14:47 ◼   ► in an office.

00:14:49 ◼   ► And that decision kind of has to be made now.

00:14:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's the thing,

00:14:53 ◼   ► is we don't know what the state of affairs

00:14:56 ◼   ► is gonna be in June, right?

00:14:58 ◼   ► We don't know that.

00:14:59 ◼   ► All we do know is that right now,

00:15:01 ◼   ► we are seeing surges everywhere because of Omicron,

00:15:05 ◼   ► and it's not looking good for the next couple of months.

00:15:10 ◼   ► The problem is Apple's got to make a decision pretty soon

00:15:14 ◼   ► about what they're going to do.

00:15:15 ◼   ► And it's not just the not knowing.

00:15:18 ◼   ► It's the you've got to take a gamble about a live WWDC

00:15:22 ◼   ► in June.

00:15:25 ◼   ► And I think what we've seen in this pandemic

00:15:27 ◼   ► is that it's really hard to plan even a couple of months.

00:15:31 ◼   ► Like I have a thing that I'm supposed to go to in LA

00:15:34 ◼   ► in February and I'm like, is that gonna really happen?

00:15:37 ◼   ► I don't know, I have no idea.

00:15:39 ◼   ► So let alone June, right?

00:15:43 ◼   ► It's tough.

00:15:44 ◼   ► So event planners, like Apple doesn't have to have the event

00:15:47 ◼   ► unlike so many events where like the business is the event.

00:15:51 ◼   ► Apple's business is not the event

00:15:52 ◼   ► and it's shown that it can do it online just fine.

00:15:54 ◼   ► So I think that you might as well just kick that can.

00:15:58 ◼   ► - The event is a distraction.

00:15:59 ◼   ► That's what the event is.

00:16:01 ◼   ► - It is actually.

00:16:02 ◼   ► - It is a cost and a distraction, which is not needed.

00:16:06 ◼   ► Like they have proven two years in a row

00:16:09 ◼   ► that a virtual WWDC is as if not more effective

00:16:13 ◼   ► for the vast majority of developers.

00:16:15 ◼   ► I think it's probably a fair assessment.

00:16:18 ◼   ► So it was always kind of like,

00:16:20 ◼   ► if they ever were to bring it back,

00:16:21 ◼   ► it's because they want the community aspect of it,

00:16:24 ◼   ► which I understand, but no company wants

00:16:29 ◼   ► to be the first company, no tech company wants

00:16:31 ◼   ► to be the first tech company

00:16:32 ◼   ► to bring the developer conference back.

00:16:33 ◼   ► So everyone's gonna be holding off anyway.

00:16:37 ◼   ► And I just think that, look, Apple needs

00:16:39 ◼   ► to have made this decision already.

00:16:40 ◼   ► Like they announced WWDC in March every year, right?

00:16:44 ◼   ► Which means before March, they have to have all

00:16:47 ◼   ► of the agreements with all of the conference center

00:16:51 ◼   ► and all that kind of stuff.

00:16:53 ◼   ► I just can't imagine anyone would be working on that right now.

00:16:57 ◼   ► So yeah, so yeah, the return to the office thing delayed indefinitely.

00:17:01 ◼   ► I honestly now expect that they will just take this as an opportunity to change the

00:17:06 ◼   ► plan as well so that they will be able to appease more of their employees for a more

00:17:11 ◼   ► hybrid approach.

00:17:12 ◼   ► That would be my other guess on that, but we'll see.

00:17:15 ◼   ► And there were some rumors going around that LG is developing three display panels for

00:17:21 ◼   ► Apple displays, a 24 inch display, a 27 inch display, and a 32 inch display. The 27 and

00:17:29 ◼   ► 32 appear to be mini LED displays with ProMotion support, and the 32 would be an XDR replacement

00:17:36 ◼   ► and also would include an Apple Silicon chip inside of it.

00:17:40 ◼   ► Yeah, this was covered really well on ATP last week, but for those who didn't listen,

00:17:45 ◼   ► I think the speculation here that we don't really know, this is sort of spotted at LG.

00:17:50 ◼   ► three displays. And I don't know if it really tells us anything about what will be a standalone

00:17:56 ◼   ► display, because they're describing literally the 24-inch iMac display. Okay, that's not

00:18:02 ◼   ► that exciting. The 27-inch seems to be what would be in a new, larger iMac, and that it

00:18:09 ◼   ► would be mini-LED with ProMotion makes sense and is exciting. And then an XDR replacement

00:18:13 ◼   ► that would be mini-LED with ProMotion also makes sense and is exciting. I think the question

00:18:18 ◼   ► is that a lot of us want to know is, is any of these going to be sold standalone for people

00:18:24 ◼   ► who have a laptop or a Mac Pro or a Mac Mini or whatever, separate from just the iMacs.

00:18:28 ◼   ► And I'd imagine the 32 probably.

00:18:30 ◼   ► - The 32 seems like the most likely, right? Because I actually don't imagine Apple would

00:18:35 ◼   ► make a 32-inch iMac. I think that might be a bit aggressive, especially if it's going

00:18:41 ◼   ► to have some kind of chip inside of it. That very much sounds like a high-end machine.

00:18:46 ◼   ► I mean maybe that 24 because like why would they be continuing to develop an iMac screen?

00:18:51 ◼   ► The iMac screen is available.

00:18:53 ◼   ► Yeah well I mean but we don't know where this in where this information is from and whether

00:18:57 ◼   ► this is a forthcoming thing or if it might be an old thing that is the iMac screen. Also

00:19:01 ◼   ► we should say there are two different LG companies there's the LG that makes panels and the LG

00:19:06 ◼   ► that sells productized displays and I'm unclear about which LG this is but LG supplies Apple

00:19:14 ◼   ► with its panels. So there's no proof that it's like, "Aha! They're gonna be LG displays,"

00:19:19 ◼   ► or "They're gonna be Apple-branded displays." All we really know is that these panels are

00:19:24 ◼   ► being seen and that they're being worked on in some sort of container. So this is a really

00:19:29 ◼   ► fuzzy, hazy kind of report. What I would take away from it that I think we could probably

00:19:34 ◼   ► take away with some confidence is that this report indicates that Apple is planning to

00:19:38 ◼   ► bring that mini LED technology that we've seen in the laptops and in the iPad Pro 12.9

00:19:47 ◼   ► to the 27 inch and 32 inch sizes which we could kind of assume are going to be iMac

00:19:53 ◼   ► and Pro Display XDR. But I think what it doesn't give us any signal on really is this going

00:20:02 ◼   ► to be a standalone product as well. Is Apple building a full standalone product? Maybe

00:20:07 ◼   ► Maybe it does, but I don't know enough about it and that report is squishy enough that

00:20:11 ◼   ► I can't have a lot of confidence.

00:20:13 ◼   ► It would be quite a thing if Apple rolled out, imagine, a 24-inch display, a 27-inch

00:20:18 ◼   ► display and a 32-inch display instead of just the 32 that they have now.

00:20:23 ◼   ► But I don't know, part of me thinks, are we just seeing the iMacs here?

00:20:27 ◼   ► Are they just saying, "I saw the iMac panels and here's the next generation iMac panel

00:20:31 ◼   ► is going to be mini-LED?"

00:20:33 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:20:34 ◼   ► So people who want to get excited...

00:20:36 ◼   ► I can't imagine that.

00:20:37 ◼   ► You can get excited about it.

00:20:38 ◼   ► I could imagine them maybe doing a 24 inch display that's just very regular, like just

00:20:45 ◼   ► a regular display that Apple makes, you know, and a 32 inch Pro Display XDR, which is like

00:20:50 ◼   ► 1500 bucks, like they bring the price down significantly because they move it to mini-LED

00:20:57 ◼   ► and like I could imagine that would bring the price down, like because they don't charge

00:21:03 ◼   ► incredible amount of money for all of their other displays that use that mini LED, right?

00:21:07 ◼   ► So that's what I would guess. I would guess that the 32 would be the one that people would

00:21:12 ◼   ► want and it would be much more price available, but we'll see.

00:21:17 ◼   ► >> Yeah, well, that is one of the things that we have not talked about a lot is the idea

00:21:22 ◼   ► that what if they don't release a standalone display except for an XDR replacement, and

00:21:28 ◼   ► if the XDR replacement is way cheaper, right? Like that's a scenario that could happen.

00:21:35 ◼   ► I think a lot of the conversation in our sphere has been about a 27 inch and I would love

00:21:40 ◼   ► to see that. Quite honestly, 27 is kind of big for me. I used that 24 inch iMac for a

00:21:45 ◼   ► while and I thought, do I want a 24 inch display? Probably not. Probably want a 27 inch display.

00:21:51 ◼   ► I really don't want a 32 inch display. But that all said, that's just my personal thing.

00:21:56 ◼   ► I do wonder if a scenario we did not anticipate is what if the XDR just gets replaced and

00:22:02 ◼   ► it gets replaced by this superior and maybe cheaper mini-LED technology and that $5,000

00:22:07 ◼   ► or $6,000 monitor becomes a, I don't know what, $2,000 or $3,000 monitor. But a lot

00:22:12 ◼   ► of people, again, a lot of people don't want to pay a lot for that muffler, right, for

00:22:17 ◼   ► that monitor. So we're all hoping for a 27th standalone. And maybe we'll get it. I mean,

00:22:22 ◼   ► I hope we get it. I think 24 standalone maybe goes too far, but wouldn't that be great?

00:22:27 ◼   ► I would love it for Apple to be like, "We have so many different monitors you can buy

00:22:32 ◼   ► now because we realize that nobody else is making them and we need to." Because that's

00:22:36 ◼   ► the truth. I think this all goes back to the fact that Apple thought the market would zoom

00:22:43 ◼   ► in here and be like, "Yes, we want to reach all those Apple customers. We're going to

00:22:47 ◼   ► make displays and it turns out they kind of don't care and if Apple wants these products

00:22:53 ◼   ► to exist they should make them themselves and then make a lot of money selling them

00:22:57 ◼   ► to laptop and Mac Pro and Mac mini buyers in the Apple store like everybody wins Apple.

00:23:02 ◼   ► A good Thunderbolt display isn't just a Mac product either like I'm not I'm sure this

00:23:08 ◼   ► is not what Apple aims for and doesn't care but they wouldn't they would probably sell

00:23:15 ◼   ► more of them, right?

00:23:17 ◼   ► I don't know, we'll see.

00:23:18 ◼   ► - Also, I'll throw this in there,

00:23:20 ◼   ► especially about the 24, but in general,

00:23:23 ◼   ► I still believe that there's an iPad software update

00:23:26 ◼   ► forthcoming, if not this cycle, the next cycle,

00:23:30 ◼   ► to do external display support with some proper kind of

00:23:33 ◼   ► window management kind of thing.

00:23:35 ◼   ► And these products are for the iPad too.

00:23:38 ◼   ► So that's something to keep in mind.

00:23:40 ◼   ► Like these products are not just gonna be for Macs.

00:23:43 ◼   ► I think they're also gonna be for the iPad.

00:23:45 ◼   ► So that is another little wrinkle in this whole thing.

00:23:50 ◼   ► So I don't know what it all means

00:23:52 ◼   ► other than it makes me feel just that much more

00:23:55 ◼   ► enthusiastic for the prospect of a standalone,

00:23:58 ◼   ► external Apple branded display

00:24:01 ◼   ► and for whatever that next large iMac is,

00:24:04 ◼   ► which is probably the one that I'm gonna buy.

00:24:06 ◼   ► If that could be a 27 inch with high dynamic range

00:24:09 ◼   ► and a mini LED backlit display,

00:24:11 ◼   ► like yeah yeah that'll probably get my vote.

00:24:17 ◼   ► This episode of Upgrade is brought to you by Bombas. Bombas' mission is simple, to

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00:26:13 ◼   ► It is time for some ho ho ho holiday #AskUpgrade. We put it out to the upgrade-ians, Jason.

00:26:19 ◼   ► Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle lasers.

00:26:24 ◼   ► We put it out to the upgrade-ians, send us your holiday questions. We got about two times

00:26:29 ◼   ► the amount of holiday questions that we're gonna use today.

00:26:32 ◼   ► A lot of them were duplicates.

00:26:33 ◼   ► The upgradings are very good. They're diligent.

00:26:35 ◼   ► So we're gonna do that today.

00:26:36 ◼   ► That's gonna be our holiday special for this year.

00:26:38 ◼   ► It's answering your questions about our holiday preferences,

00:26:42 ◼   ► like this one from Timakus, who asks,

00:26:44 ◼   ► "What kind of tech do you employ

00:26:46 ◼   ► in your Christmas decorations?"

00:26:48 ◼   ► -Well, we have one of those candles

00:26:49 ◼   ► that's an LED that flickers,

00:26:52 ◼   ► so it looks like a candle, but it's fake.

00:26:55 ◼   ► That's technology, right?

00:26:56 ◼   ► -Yeah, sure. -Actually, the best part

00:26:58 ◼   ► Part of that is that it has a switch that is not just an,

00:27:01 ◼   ► it has an on, but it also has an on timer

00:27:03 ◼   ► where you turn it on and it goes for five hours

00:27:05 ◼   ► and then it turns itself off, which is great.

00:27:07 ◼   ► 'Cause otherwise you gotta turn,

00:27:09 ◼   ► you don't wanna turn your candle on and off, come on.

00:27:11 ◼   ► And I think what this question is asking is,

00:27:14 ◼   ► I do attach the Christmas lights on the house

00:27:19 ◼   ► and on the tree to smart switches.

00:27:21 ◼   ► And I have a home kit automation

00:27:22 ◼   ► that turns them on and off.

00:27:23 ◼   ► I used to have a little timer that you would, you know,

00:27:26 ◼   ► put the pins in it and all of that,

00:27:27 ◼   ► but now I just use smart switches and HomeKit.

00:27:29 ◼   ► They're not particularly sophisticated automations.

00:27:33 ◼   ► They really are sort of time on and off.

00:27:35 ◼   ► It's actually linked into existing automations I have

00:27:38 ◼   ► for like our front light outside and stuff like that.

00:27:42 ◼   ► And then I will say a word for how the LED revolution

00:27:47 ◼   ► has affected so many aspects of our lives.

00:27:52 ◼   ► Christmas lights are so much better now

00:27:55 ◼   ► because they're all LEDs.

00:27:58 ◼   ► And so they don't use a lot of power, and they are cheap,

00:28:02 ◼   ► and they're just-- it's pretty amazing.

00:28:05 ◼   ► As somebody who remembers glass bulbs with filaments in them

00:28:09 ◼   ► that would break when you looked at them funny,

00:28:11 ◼   ► the LED stuff is so much more resilient, and it's better.

00:28:15 ◼   ► So that's mine.

00:28:16 ◼   ► How about you?

00:28:17 ◼   ► So for holiday decorations, we just have a tree, right?

00:28:21 ◼   ► That's kind of what we do.

00:28:22 ◼   ► And we have fairy lights on the tree.

00:28:25 ◼   ► And a while ago, I used to use a Wiimote for these every year.

00:28:28 ◼   ► I have just a Wiimote that was just in the Christmas box.

00:28:31 ◼   ► It was one of the really old ones,

00:28:33 ◼   ► and that was what we'd use.

00:28:34 ◼   ► And it always made me laugh, because every time it turned on,

00:28:36 ◼   ► it sounded like it was a big thunk it would make,

00:28:38 ◼   ► like the Wiimote.

00:28:39 ◼   ► Like, dah!

00:28:40 ◼   ► And then, OK, Christmas is ready.

00:28:42 ◼   ► But a while ago, a friend of the show, James Thompson,

00:28:46 ◼   ► turned me on to this surge protector

00:28:49 ◼   ► by a company called Miros, I think.

00:28:52 ◼   ► And it's got a, it's for UK plugs.

00:28:57 ◼   ► I don't know if they make them other for other places

00:29:00 ◼   ► for other plug types.

00:29:03 ◼   ► But what I really like about this surge protector is

00:29:06 ◼   ► by default in HomeKit, and it just works with HomeKit.

00:29:10 ◼   ► Like it's just very easy to connect.

00:29:11 ◼   ► You don't even need to use an app.

00:29:13 ◼   ► What I like about it is by default in HomeKit,

00:29:15 ◼   ► it's like it's four plugs or sockets, four USB sockets.

00:29:19 ◼   ► It's just on and off, but you can ungroup it.

00:29:22 ◼   ► So you can individually address each plug socket in each USB.

00:29:27 ◼   ► So over time, like as we add different things to it,

00:29:32 ◼   ► so we have a lava lamp at home that's on it

00:29:34 ◼   ► and that's got its own automation.

00:29:36 ◼   ► And then we have the fairy lights

00:29:38 ◼   ► and that has its own automation.

00:29:40 ◼   ► My wife and Dean are--

00:29:41 ◼   ► - Are fairy lights fairy lights?

00:29:43 ◼   ► What are they?

00:29:44 ◼   ► Are those Christmas lights? - Christmas lights.

00:29:45 ◼   ► Yeah, we call them fairy lights.

00:29:46 ◼   ► I guess this is a thing I've just found out

00:29:48 ◼   ► that you don't call them that.

00:29:50 ◼   ► Fairy lights are Christmas lights.

00:29:51 ◼   ► the little regular lights that you have and they twinkle.

00:29:54 ◼   ► Adina loves fairy lights, so we actually just leave them in,

00:29:57 ◼   ► but when the tree comes down,

00:29:59 ◼   ► we just use them to decorate the living room

00:30:01 ◼   ► so that we always have the fairy lights.

00:30:02 ◼   ► And then when the Christmas tree comes out,

00:30:05 ◼   ► we then wrap them around the tree.

00:30:06 ◼   ► And I have that, like you,

00:30:08 ◼   ► I mean, it's then a switch in my home kit, which I enjoy,

00:30:11 ◼   ► but I also have it on an automation,

00:30:14 ◼   ► one of the home kit automations,

00:30:16 ◼   ► you know, to turn on and off at certain times.

00:30:18 ◼   ► One of my favorite things

00:30:19 ◼   ► about the home kit automation stuff

00:30:20 ◼   ► is how easy it is to enable or disable

00:30:24 ◼   ► when you are or aren't home.

00:30:26 ◼   ► It's like, I really love that,

00:30:28 ◼   ► like that you can set up an automation,

00:30:30 ◼   ► but only have it trigger when you are at home

00:30:32 ◼   ► or when you're not at home.

00:30:34 ◼   ► So, you know, like when we're not at home,

00:30:35 ◼   ► lights come on at a certain time,

00:30:37 ◼   ► but that doesn't happen if we are at home,

00:30:39 ◼   ► that kind of thing.

00:30:39 ◼   ► So I like that. - I can't,

00:30:40 ◼   ► well, I guess I could do that.

00:30:42 ◼   ► I have to rope in all the people who live in my house

00:30:46 ◼   ► to do that automation thing.

00:30:48 ◼   ► And that's always been a challenge for me

00:30:50 ◼   ► because some automations it's like,

00:30:52 ◼   ► do I really only want this?

00:30:54 ◼   ► And I work at home, so I'm always at home anyway.

00:30:56 ◼   ► So it's a whole thing, but yeah,

00:30:59 ◼   ► that can be really cool where it's like,

00:31:00 ◼   ► if you basically have it set,

00:31:01 ◼   ► so if you and Adina are not present, it doesn't bother.

00:31:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, but we have other ones as well that like,

00:31:07 ◼   ► if we're not there, then they will also trigger.

00:31:09 ◼   ► So like, you know, I like that kind of stuff.

00:31:11 ◼   ► So yeah, that's-

00:31:12 ◼   ► - It's probably a conversation for another time,

00:31:13 ◼   ► but my cameras just got updated to support HomeKit.

00:31:18 ◼   ► home kit, which is wild.

00:31:21 ◼   ► But one of the things that they do,

00:31:23 ◼   ► 'cause they also have motion sensors in them,

00:31:25 ◼   ► is the motion sensors are implemented separately

00:31:28 ◼   ► from the camera.

00:31:30 ◼   ► So they're like motion sensor switches

00:31:32 ◼   ► that you can automate, which I thought was very clever,

00:31:35 ◼   ► but I'm not doing any of those things.

00:31:37 ◼   ► - I've just added Jason's home kit cameras

00:31:40 ◼   ► in my topic documents for the future.

00:31:41 ◼   ► - Future conversation.

00:31:43 ◼   ► - Nathan asks, "Do you decorate your homes as well,

00:31:47 ◼   ► and offices, we obviously have homes,

00:31:48 ◼   ► but offices as well as homes for the holidays.

00:31:51 ◼   ► What kind of decorations do you use?

00:31:52 ◼   ► Are they all for enjoyment, the enjoyment of neighbors?

00:31:55 ◼   ► Like, do you use outdoor stuff?

00:31:57 ◼   ► What do you do?

00:31:57 ◼   ► - Well, my office is not decorated at all,

00:32:01 ◼   ► so I should probably get on that.

00:32:04 ◼   ► Our homes are, we have outside lights,

00:32:07 ◼   ► as I mentioned before, on a smart switch.

00:32:08 ◼   ► It's mostly sort of peer pressure for the neighborhood.

00:32:11 ◼   ► Like, it can't be the house that doesn't have lights.

00:32:13 ◼   ► Come on.

00:32:15 ◼   ► but they're minimal, Lauren puts those up.

00:32:17 ◼   ► I used to put those up and I got so frustrated with it

00:32:20 ◼   ► that I retired from it and Lauren was like,

00:32:22 ◼   ► "Hey, why don't we have lights?"

00:32:23 ◼   ► And I said, "I'm not doing it."

00:32:24 ◼   ► And she was like, "Well, then I'll do it."

00:32:25 ◼   ► So now she does it and it's like, all right.

00:32:27 ◼   ► I feel a little guilty and yet also I feel grateful

00:32:29 ◼   ► every year that I don't have to do it

00:32:31 ◼   ► 'cause I hate putting those up.

00:32:32 ◼   ► I do have, so some listeners may know,

00:32:37 ◼   ► I enjoy the air dancer, the waving tube man.

00:32:42 ◼   ► - The flailing inflatable,

00:32:44 ◼   ► I don't remember the family guy thing,

00:32:46 ◼   ► but people know what that is.

00:32:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, you know, it's like a car dealership,

00:32:49 ◼   ► and it's like a guy and his arms,

00:32:51 ◼   ► and your brain is programmed to react to motion,

00:32:54 ◼   ► and so you immediately go there,

00:32:56 ◼   ► and that's how they get you.

00:32:57 ◼   ► Anyway, I love 'em, and Jamie and I used to say,

00:33:01 ◼   ► Lauren and Julian would not care,

00:33:04 ◼   ► but Jamie and I would be like,

00:33:05 ◼   ► oh, tube men, they're so great, we should get one.

00:33:07 ◼   ► And we talked about it,

00:33:08 ◼   ► we joked about getting our own tube man

00:33:10 ◼   ► and putting him on our roof and stuff like that.

00:33:12 ◼   ► So I bought one.

00:33:14 ◼   ► this was a few years ago, but what you get is you get the blower. So I got an orange

00:33:19 ◼   ► one, I put him up at Halloween, and let me tell you, the kids, oh, they love it. They

00:33:22 ◼   ► love it! They love that there's this Tubeman flailing in our front yard at Halloween when

00:33:27 ◼   ► they come by to trick or treat, it's great. But once you're in the ecosystem, the Tubeman

00:33:33 ◼   ► ecosystem...

00:33:34 ◼   ► Once you've given in to the Tubeman life...

00:33:37 ◼   ► To big Tubeman, you're living your Tubeman life. Once you're in the Tubeman ecosystem,

00:33:43 ◼   ► You can buy, of course, accessories for Tube Man.

00:33:45 ◼   ► Oh, I'm sure there's a Santa Tube Man you can buy if you wanted.

00:33:49 ◼   ► I, indeed there is, Myke.

00:33:51 ◼   ► And I have it, I'm happy to let you in.

00:33:54 ◼   ► And I have bought it.

00:33:55 ◼   ► And that is also, the only thing is that those you really should only put up when it's not

00:33:58 ◼   ► raining so, and we're about to get into a rainy stretch here, but if it's not raining

00:34:03 ◼   ► on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, I will bring out Tube Santa and he will dance around

00:34:09 ◼   ► to the delight of whoever is around on Christmas.

00:34:13 ◼   ► So that's my outside.

00:34:14 ◼   ► And on the inside, you know,

00:34:16 ◼   ► Lauren and I were just talking about this.

00:34:17 ◼   ► We have a collection of stuff,

00:34:18 ◼   ► but it's like, we've been married for like 27 years

00:34:22 ◼   ► and we've been living together for 28, 29 years.

00:34:27 ◼   ► We've collected a lot of Christmas stuff

00:34:31 ◼   ► and Hanukkah stuff over that time.

00:34:34 ◼   ► Lauren is Jewish, so we have Hanukkah stuff too.

00:34:36 ◼   ► We have both.

00:34:39 ◼   ► And it's all eclectic

00:34:43 ◼   ► 'cause it's just been collected over 20 plus years.

00:34:46 ◼   ► And we were looking at it all

00:34:48 ◼   ► and she was pulling some of it out of the box

00:34:50 ◼   ► and like, why do we even have, I don't even like this.

00:34:51 ◼   ► Why do we even have this?

00:34:52 ◼   ► But we save it because it's one of our Christmas things

00:34:55 ◼   ► that we have.

00:34:56 ◼   ► And they're not our style and they're not our preference

00:34:59 ◼   ► but we put them out because we have them.

00:35:01 ◼   ► And if we were starting from ground zero and told,

00:35:05 ◼   ► design your house for the holidays and get stuff,

00:35:09 ◼   ► we would have a sensibility

00:35:11 ◼   ► that our Christmas stuff does not have.

00:35:14 ◼   ► A lot of it, especially because it's from people, right?

00:35:16 ◼   ► It's like, my mom, my aunt gives me this pillow

00:35:21 ◼   ► and it's got a fuzzy Santa beard on it.

00:35:24 ◼   ► And you're like, okay, great.

00:35:26 ◼   ► And then suddenly it's in your house every year for 25 years.

00:35:30 ◼   ► So I guess what I'm saying is

00:35:32 ◼   ► we have collected a lot of those.

00:35:33 ◼   ► And ornaments too, I should mention,

00:35:34 ◼   ► We've collected a lot of ornaments over the years.

00:35:37 ◼   ► When you have kids too, you have the kid ornaments

00:35:40 ◼   ► where the kids like make an ornament at school

00:35:42 ◼   ► and putting the ornaments on the tree this year

00:35:44 ◼   ► as every year is a wonderful moment

00:35:46 ◼   ► when my kids put those ornaments up

00:35:48 ◼   ► and they have whole discussions about this dumb thing

00:35:50 ◼   ► that they made when they were in fourth grade.

00:35:52 ◼   ► And they also have grown to have strategies

00:35:56 ◼   ► about our ornament collection.

00:35:57 ◼   ► At one point, we had friends who gave us

00:35:59 ◼   ► an ornament of the month club from Etsy

00:36:02 ◼   ► and there were a bunch of stuffed monkeys.

00:36:05 ◼   ► And so my kids now have like a monkey strategy

00:36:09 ◼   ► when they put the ornaments on the tree,

00:36:11 ◼   ► which like you gotta spread out the monkeys.

00:36:14 ◼   ► So, you know, so we got a lot of those

00:36:16 ◼   ► and then they're nerdy ones.

00:36:17 ◼   ► I've got like baseball ornaments

00:36:19 ◼   ► and I've got Dr. Who ornaments

00:36:20 ◼   ► and Star Trek ornaments and stuff.

00:36:21 ◼   ► And they're in there too.

00:36:23 ◼   ► There's lots.

00:36:24 ◼   ► So anyway, it's just kind of a mess,

00:36:25 ◼   ► but I think that that's what a lot of people do is,

00:36:28 ◼   ► you know, not everybody is the like,

00:36:29 ◼   ► we have an aesthetic for Christmas

00:36:31 ◼   ► and we hold to it. I think some people are, but I think a lot of people are just like,

00:36:34 ◼   ► you know, the stuff collects and we put it up and that's what it is. And when they break

00:36:38 ◼   ► or they're ratty, we throw them away, but until then we just put them out and they are

00:36:41 ◼   ► what they are. That's very much our non-aesthetic for our decorations.

00:36:47 ◼   ► So, we only decorate home. I have thought about decorating the studio. We didn't spend

00:36:55 ◼   ► much time in London for December.

00:36:59 ◼   ► So wasn't gonna do it this year, but maybe next year.

00:37:01 ◼   ► I would like a bit of holiday cheer at the studio.

00:37:03 ◼   ► Our kind of strategy at home is we really just lent into

00:37:08 ◼   ► none of this is gonna make any sense

00:37:10 ◼   ► as kind of like our general idea for decorations.

00:37:14 ◼   ► - That's the way.

00:37:15 ◼   ► - So our Christmas tree decorations,

00:37:18 ◼   ► we have a large selection of felt ones

00:37:21 ◼   ► that we found this company a few years ago

00:37:22 ◼   ► that now lots of companies in the UK have just straight up ripped off

00:37:26 ◼   ► because they did really well.

00:37:27 ◼   ► We have a lot of like, so we have like a Brussels sprout with a paper crown on it.

00:37:32 ◼   ► That's a good one.

00:37:32 ◼   ► We have a badger and a space suit with skis.

00:37:36 ◼   ► Uh, we have a few dinosaurs, which are really great.

00:37:39 ◼   ► Like the ones wearing a Santa outfit.

00:37:41 ◼   ► Uh, one is a Stegosaurus with like four, um, Santa hats on each of its like

00:37:48 ◼   ► spines on its back, which is really good.

00:37:52 ◼   ► We have lots of really weird stuff.

00:37:53 ◼   ► We've also started collecting holiday decorations from good vacations that we have.

00:38:00 ◼   ► So we have like a Hawaii one, we have a couple of Disney ones.

00:38:04 ◼   ► And then like around the house we have these, I think, I think maybe Adina bought this for me a couple of years ago.

00:38:12 ◼   ► Geez, these like, they look like snowballs, but they're actually like little soft balls.

00:38:17 ◼   ► so they go all over the house, which sometimes we break out into snowball fights at home

00:38:21 ◼   ► of those. We just really have lent into, none of this is gonna make any sense, so we don't

00:38:26 ◼   ► have to worry about there being an aesthetic, but the kind of overall theme is eclectic,

00:38:32 ◼   ► which we enjoy very much. It's very—

00:38:33 ◼   ► it brings me great joy when every year I was like, "Oh my god, I forgot we had a dancing

00:38:39 ◼   ► Mariachi Day of the Dead themed guy."

00:38:42 ◼   ► Guy yeah, I think I think your ornaments especially can and your decorations will speak to the people who are in the house

00:38:49 ◼   ► and things that that have have delighted them over the years and that's definitely the truth truth with our our

00:38:55 ◼   ► Ornaments is that there's the story of our kids are in there and then other things we like

00:39:01 ◼   ► Like I've got a I've got a a Skeletor ornament. Oh, of course that I bought

00:39:08 ◼   ► He lives in my pen cup on my desk most of the year,

00:39:13 ◼   ► but then he has to put in his servitude on the tree

00:39:18 ◼   ► during the holidays.

00:39:19 ◼   ► I got a doctor who, I got like a TARDIS out there.

00:39:22 ◼   ► And then there are a bunch of things with dates on them

00:39:23 ◼   ► because they're from the kids or for the kids or whatever.

00:39:27 ◼   ► So yeah, I think that's good

00:39:29 ◼   ► 'cause it says something about you and Adina

00:39:34 ◼   ► and your interests and stuff.

00:39:35 ◼   ► That's what it's all about.

00:39:37 ◼   ► Nathan asks, "When is the proper time to put up

00:39:39 ◼   ► or take down holiday lights and decorations?"

00:39:42 ◼   ► - So it will come as no surprise

00:39:44 ◼   ► that I have opinions about this,

00:39:47 ◼   ► but it's when I was in Ireland for Uhl,

00:39:52 ◼   ► you remember that was around Halloween?

00:39:54 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:39:56 ◼   ► - We all dressed up in things for Halloween for Uhl.

00:39:59 ◼   ► And then we're leaving and we get to the Dublin Airport

00:40:01 ◼   ► and the Christmas stuff is everywhere.

00:40:04 ◼   ► - Yeah. - And I thought,

00:40:06 ◼   ► - Oh, like unforeseen advantage of Thanksgiving

00:40:11 ◼   ► being a high American calendar.

00:40:12 ◼   ► - Yes, I hate that we don't have this.

00:40:14 ◼   ► There's no barrier, we have no barrier.

00:40:16 ◼   ► - Exactly, and it's a permeable barrier.

00:40:18 ◼   ► There are people on November 1st

00:40:20 ◼   ► who are putting up Christmas decorations.

00:40:21 ◼   ► I get it, it's fine, whatever.

00:40:23 ◼   ► But even though it's a permeable barrier,

00:40:27 ◼   ► it is a milestone, it is a barrier

00:40:29 ◼   ► where you're gonna get some people

00:40:30 ◼   ► who are gonna give you looks,

00:40:31 ◼   ► and then a lot of people use that as their date.

00:40:34 ◼   ► So Thanksgiving in the US is a third,

00:40:38 ◼   ► it's a fourth Thursday in November.

00:40:42 ◼   ► And so you end up with this very late

00:40:45 ◼   ► November permeable barrier.

00:40:50 ◼   ► And my opinion is that yes,

00:40:51 ◼   ► as soon as Thanksgiving is over, it's fair game.

00:40:54 ◼   ► You can put it up in late November if you really want to,

00:40:56 ◼   ► you can wait till December.

00:40:57 ◼   ► But like for me, that is the official start

00:41:01 ◼   ► of holiday decoration in the US anyway,

00:41:05 ◼   ► should be the day after Thanksgiving, essentially.

00:41:09 ◼   ► And then in terms of taking it down, for me,

00:41:12 ◼   ► usually it is the weekend after New Year's.

00:41:15 ◼   ► New Year's is on a weekend this year,

00:41:16 ◼   ► so it might be the following weekend,

00:41:19 ◼   ► where you start taking the ornaments off the tree,

00:41:21 ◼   ► and eventually you take the tree out.

00:41:23 ◼   ► The tree's fate is ultimately, we have a live tree,

00:41:25 ◼   ► so it's ultimately decided by when the refuse company

00:41:30 ◼   ► says to put out your trees so that they can bring the wood chipper by. You know, that's

00:41:36 ◼   ► part of the circle of life. And some stuff lasts longer than that. We slowly take that

00:41:44 ◼   ► down. One tradition that we have that I really like is we have a door in our, we have a hallway

00:41:50 ◼   ► that connects every room in our house. So there's like 11 doors in that hallway. But

00:41:54 ◼   ► one of the doors is out to the living room, which is a kitchen, dining room, living room

00:41:59 ◼   ► Marriott is the big room in our house where we spend most of our time. And so that door

00:42:04 ◼   ► gets covered with the cards we get. So we have, as the cards come in, they get affixed

00:42:11 ◼   ► to the door. And so in addition to just getting a card from people, you can see them and see

00:42:16 ◼   ► the people you know and see their messages, and it's kind of nice to go there and look

00:42:20 ◼   ► at them from time to time. And that stays up through the end of January, and even then

00:42:24 ◼   ► Lauren is reluctant to take them down because she really enjoys it that much. So that lasts

00:42:28 ◼   ► to the end of January, but otherwise it all starts to drift away after New Year's.

00:42:33 ◼   ► How about you?

00:42:34 ◼   ► December 1st, no earlier than December 1st for going up.

00:42:39 ◼   ► Coming down?

00:42:40 ◼   ► Bless you.

00:42:41 ◼   ► Like sometime in January, like early January?

00:42:45 ◼   ► And for me, again, like you, I think the natural time is the next weekend after New Year's,

00:42:50 ◼   ► that just feels like the time you would do it.

00:42:52 ◼   ► But no, I don't like Christmas music or Christmas decorations before December 1st.

00:42:58 ◼   ► Good for you. That's right. You don't have the permeable barrier of Thanksgiving and yet you're doing it right.

00:43:04 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, I'm aware of it, which helps me a lot, right? Like, I'm very aware of when Thanksgiving is.

00:43:10 ◼   ► We try to observe it in some way.

00:43:12 ◼   ► You mentioned, you were real cheap, we're a fake tree household just because we don't have a lot of space,

00:43:17 ◼   ► so we have like a really slim plastic tree.

00:43:20 ◼   ► - We would like to be a real tree household in the future,

00:43:25 ◼   ► like in a future house where we have more space.

00:43:28 ◼   ► - It's nice. I love the smell of it.

00:43:29 ◼   ► Honestly, that's the thing that I don't think,

00:43:31 ◼   ► if we didn't have a live tree,

00:43:32 ◼   ► I don't think we'd have a tree because I don't like the,

00:43:36 ◼   ► I don't really like the fake trees.

00:43:37 ◼   ► And I really love the smell of the tree.

00:43:39 ◼   ► That's my favorite thing about it.

00:43:40 ◼   ► As you walk into the house and it smells like a tree.

00:43:44 ◼   ► It's great. I love it.

00:43:45 ◼   ► Also the slim plastic tree.

00:43:48 ◼   ► Wasn't that one of David Bowie's nicknames in the 70s?

00:43:51 ◼   ► The slim plastic tree?

00:43:53 ◼   ► Probably not.

00:43:54 ◼   ► - I think that could have been.

00:43:55 ◼   ► Tombur asks, "Warm or cool lights on the tree?"

00:44:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, Tombur's question,

00:44:00 ◼   ► "Warm or cool white lights on your tree?"

00:44:02 ◼   ► actually is what Tombur wrote.

00:44:04 ◼   ► And I think that's funny because my fairy lights,

00:44:07 ◼   ► am I doing this right, Myke?

00:44:08 ◼   ► Fairy lights?

00:44:09 ◼   ► They are colorful LEDs.

00:44:11 ◼   ► - Ah, that's where you get me.

00:44:12 ◼   ► - It's all the colors, all the colors, blue and red,

00:44:16 ◼   ► and whatever else is in colors.

00:44:17 ◼   ► Yay, all the colors in the colorful LEDs.

00:44:20 ◼   ► They're beautiful and I love them.

00:44:22 ◼   ► - Warm white tree lights.

00:44:27 ◼   ► We like warm white fairy lights.

00:44:28 ◼   ► Not a big colorful.

00:44:30 ◼   ► - Your fairies are boring.

00:44:32 ◼   ► - They sure are.

00:44:33 ◼   ► Sure are.

00:44:35 ◼   ► JD wants to know what is your favorite piece

00:44:37 ◼   ► of holiday apparel that you own?

00:44:40 ◼   ► - Controversy, maybe.

00:44:41 ◼   ► JD, I do not own any holiday apparel.

00:44:47 ◼   ► - No ugly holiday sweatshirts?

00:44:49 ◼   ► - I have nothing.

00:44:51 ◼   ► No holiday apparel of any kind.

00:44:54 ◼   ► Not really a choice, just don't.

00:44:56 ◼   ► I used to have a long sleeve shirt

00:45:00 ◼   ► with a giant line drawing of a sheep on it,

00:45:05 ◼   ► that I considered my holiday apparel.

00:45:08 ◼   ► - Why?

00:45:09 ◼   ► - I don't know, there was something about it.

00:45:11 ◼   ► It felt like it was like the thing to wear on Christmas day.

00:45:14 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:45:14 ◼   ► Also, because we are a Cal supporting house,

00:45:18 ◼   ► and our arch rival is Stanford,

00:45:20 ◼   ► I think I've explained this before,

00:45:21 ◼   ► but I'll just explain it again here.

00:45:24 ◼   ► At Cal, you can't wear red.

00:45:26 ◼   ► You can't wear red to a Cal game,

00:45:28 ◼   ► because that's Stanford color.

00:45:29 ◼   ► It doesn't matter if they're playing some other team,

00:45:31 ◼   ► it doesn't matter.

00:45:32 ◼   ► You can't wear red.

00:45:33 ◼   ► And in fact, if you wear red at a Cal game,

00:45:36 ◼   ► everyone around you will begin chanting,

00:45:38 ◼   ► and this is true, loudly,

00:45:39 ◼   ► "Take off that red shirt, take off that red shirt."

00:45:43 ◼   ► can hear it from across the stadium. So as a result, I own very little red anything,

00:45:50 ◼   ► and certainly no jackets or anything outerwear that I might wear to a football game in the

00:45:54 ◼   ► fall in red. You can't do it. So I think red is a very Christmassy color, and I have

00:46:03 ◼   ► almost nothing that's red. I also have almost nothing that's green. I don't love

00:46:08 ◼   ► wearing green either. So where does that leave me? With no holiday apparel.

00:46:12 ◼   ► So I'm assuming you didn't buy the red hoodie, the red upgrade hoodie?

00:46:16 ◼   ► I absolutely did not. In fact, there was a real debate of whether I was going to even

00:46:21 ◼   ► suggest we sell it, and every time somebody happily shows us their picture about the red

00:46:26 ◼   ► upgrade hoodie...

00:46:27 ◼   ► The red one is a winner! I can't wait for mine to arrive.

00:46:30 ◼   ► I know, it looks so good and I just look at it and I go, "Ugh, red." But I did, I did

00:46:35 ◼   ► a, we did a red incomparable shirt at one point, which I call the red zeppelin. And

00:46:40 ◼   ► And that is deeply, and it looks great.

00:46:43 ◼   ► And I find it deeply disturbing

00:46:45 ◼   ► and I will not have it in my house.

00:46:46 ◼   ► So that is, that's how my life goes.

00:46:48 ◼   ► However, I will say Lauren used to have a red sweatshirt

00:46:50 ◼   ► with four penguins, a picture of four penguins

00:46:53 ◼   ► in a stack in a phone booth

00:46:54 ◼   ► that was labeled four calling birds.

00:46:57 ◼   ► That was her Christmas sweater for a long time,

00:46:58 ◼   ► but it was very old and it's gone now.

00:47:00 ◼   ► I think she had that from when she was in high school.

00:47:03 ◼   ► And so I don't know if she has anything, I have nothing.

00:47:05 ◼   ► I have nothing.

00:47:06 ◼   ► Should I buy, is there some merch available, Myke,

00:47:09 ◼   ► that I could buy to make my life more holiday-like?

00:47:13 ◼   ► - Not that I'm aware of.

00:47:15 ◼   ► Back in 2019, we, for Cortex, made an ugly sweater.

00:47:20 ◼   ► - Oh, right, I remember this.

00:47:21 ◼   ► Well, I missed out on that.

00:47:22 ◼   ► - Yep, that was back in holiday 2019.

00:47:25 ◼   ► That is my favorite piece of holiday apparel.

00:47:27 ◼   ► I have packed it, 'cause we're in Romania

00:47:29 ◼   ► for Christmas this year, and it's,

00:47:31 ◼   ► I'm gonna be wearing it maybe on Christmas Day.

00:47:34 ◼   ► I love it, I love it so much.

00:47:37 ◼   ► I hope we can do this again one day.

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00:49:33 ◼   ► Okay, so next up is Brian. Brian wants to know, "What is your favorite Christmas song?"

00:49:39 ◼   ► Oh, my favorite modern Christmas song changes regularly, but my favorite

00:49:46 ◼   ► classic Christmas song is the Christmas song by Nat King Cole. That's Chestnuts

00:49:52 ◼   ► Roasting on an Open Fire. Oh, that's really good. That's a classic and I love

00:49:55 ◼   ► it and I have that one queued up every year. And then my modern ones, there are

00:49:59 ◼   ► Lots of good kind of monitoring takes on this.

00:50:02 ◼   ► Father Christmas is a good one.

00:50:05 ◼   ► That might be my number one right now,

00:50:07 ◼   ► but it varies over time.

00:50:08 ◼   ► I go back and forth among many.

00:50:11 ◼   ► - Mine is Step Into Christmas by Elton John.

00:50:14 ◼   ► - Oh.

00:50:14 ◼   ► - What I like about Step Into Christmas

00:50:17 ◼   ► is it is not like other Christmas songs.

00:50:22 ◼   ► It doesn't sound like other Christmas songs.

00:50:24 ◼   ► It's just a good song.

00:50:25 ◼   ► And I like that a lot.

00:50:26 ◼   ► I like Christmas songs that are good songs.

00:50:29 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:50:30 ◼   ► - As well as just being like Christmas, you know?

00:50:33 ◼   ► - I agree, that's great.

00:50:35 ◼   ► - Justin asks, "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?"

00:50:38 ◼   ► - Justin, of course it is.

00:50:41 ◼   ► - It so is.

00:50:42 ◼   ► This is unequivocal in my opinion.

00:50:45 ◼   ► - I mean, people joke about it and they're like,

00:50:46 ◼   ► "Oh, well this movie had a scene

00:50:48 ◼   ► "at the beginning set at Christmas,

00:50:49 ◼   ► "so is it a Christmas movie?"

00:50:50 ◼   ► But like Die Hard is throughout,

00:50:52 ◼   ► the whole point of Die Hard is that it's not just Die Hard

00:50:55 ◼   ► is a guy running around an office building. He's running around an office building at

00:50:58 ◼   ► Christmas with people who are hostages because it's a Christmas party, which leads to the

00:51:03 ◼   ► classic ho ho ho, now I have a machine gun. What could be more Christmas than that?

00:51:09 ◼   ► It's like, you know the song "Driving Home for Christmas" by Chris Rea? Do you know that

00:51:14 ◼   ► song?

00:51:15 ◼   ► I don't.

00:51:16 ◼   ► Okay. Well that's just about a guy who's driving home for Christmas. That's a Christmas song.

00:51:19 ◼   ► And really, you know, Die Hard is John McClane just like dying for Christmas. I don't know.

00:51:26 ◼   ► It's like, it's just, he has to get through the terrible, is it Action Skyscraper?

00:51:33 ◼   ► Yes.

00:51:34 ◼   ► Is that, yep.

00:51:35 ◼   ► Action Skyscraper, yep.

00:51:36 ◼   ► He has to get through the Action Skyscraper to make it out alive and so he can save Christmas

00:51:41 ◼   ► for everyone and have Christmas with his family. It is 100% a Christmas movie. You know, it's

00:51:47 ◼   ► like, yeah, it is.

00:51:48 ◼   ► For those who don't know, Action Skyscraper is the Swedish, I think, name of Die Hard.

00:51:56 ◼   ► That's how they released it there, Action Skyscraper.

00:51:58 ◼   ► It's a good name.

00:52:00 ◼   ► It's a very good, very good name.

00:52:02 ◼   ► So yeah, 100% Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

00:52:04 ◼   ► Stance wants to know, "What is your favorite Christmas movie?"

00:52:07 ◼   ► Oh, my favorite Christmas movie.

00:52:10 ◼   ► I have a recency pic, which is, we just watched-

00:52:14 ◼   ► Give it to me.

00:52:15 ◼   ► We just watched Love Actually again, I haven't seen it in years.

00:52:18 ◼   ► That is such a great movie. It's just a good movie, let alone a good Christmas movie. Great.

00:52:23 ◼   ► Love it. Anyways, I imagine maybe people who didn't see it at the time think, "Oh yeah,

00:52:29 ◼   ► it's like those movies where they bring a bunch of famous people together and all their

00:52:32 ◼   ► stories intertwine and it's like one of those movies." Love actually was the movie that

00:52:37 ◼   ► started that.

00:52:38 ◼   ► Is that movie.

00:52:39 ◼   ► Yeah. That's the movie. And I remember at the time, I saw it when it came out, because

00:52:43 ◼   ► I remember at the time, one of the things that was so shocking here was the poster.

00:52:48 ◼   ► all of the people on the poster? It's like how does one movie have the all of these people

00:52:54 ◼   ► in it? So yeah the answer is it was a very clever you know multi-story kind of threaded

00:53:00 ◼   ► thing. It's a great movie. Um I have two I'm gonna again do the classic and modern take

00:53:05 ◼   ► here because it cheats and lets me have two. Um classic is Miracle on 34th Street which

00:53:12 ◼   ► is my wife's favorite and is it's a great movie it is sappy in parts but also super

00:53:20 ◼   ► not in other parts the whole plot is that a santa gets so falling down drunk that he

00:53:26 ◼   ► has to be replaced falling down drunk during the the macy's thanksgiving parade and has

00:53:33 ◼   ► to be replaced and then he's replaced by uh maybe the real santa claus but they think

00:53:39 ◼   ► he's crazy because if somebody claimed to be the real Santa Claus you would think that he was a

00:53:43 ◼   ► crazy old man. Things spin out of control. There's a trial. Oh I was gonna say I haven't seen this

00:53:50 ◼   ► movie. I have seen this movie. We did this. We did this. We did this for Myke at the Movies. I loved

00:53:56 ◼   ► that movie. It is it is so great. It's weird and it's funny and and uh Edmund Gwynn who plays Santa

00:54:05 ◼   ► Claus won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for that movie.

00:54:09 ◼   ► Yeah, because it turns into like, it turns into Christmas courtroom drama.

00:54:14 ◼   ► It's a courtroom drama where kids are getting called as witnesses and there's a dramatic

00:54:18 ◼   ► moment when the US Postal Service brings in all of Santa's letters. And there's a great,

00:54:22 ◼   ► there's this whole political subplot where the judge says, "If I rule against Santa,

00:54:28 ◼   ► the only person who's going to vote for me is the district attorney." It's my favorite line in the

00:54:31 ◼   ► movie because his political fixer who's always got a cigar and is played by the

00:54:35 ◼   ► guy who played Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy says, he shakes his head and goes, "The

00:54:39 ◼   ► District Attorney is a Republican, so you're gonna get no votes." It's just a

00:54:44 ◼   ► it's again if you haven't seen it you should see it. It is surprising

00:54:51 ◼   ► in if you think that it's gonna be a super sappy kind of thing it's from

00:54:55 ◼   ► 1947. It's not. It's actually kind of light and funny and weird and takes all

00:55:00 ◼   ► all these strange plot turns that anyway, it's good. Um

00:55:04 ◼   ► that's my favorite classic and my favorite uh new more modern

00:55:08 ◼   ► movie, although it's just rapidly uh becoming a classic

00:55:12 ◼   ► and I'm gonna say the same things about it as Miracle on

00:55:14 ◼   ► 34th Street. It's Elf. Oh, Elf starring Will Ferrell.

00:55:18 ◼   ► Classic. 2003. Yeah. It is a classic and I'll just say if

00:55:22 ◼   ► you're a person cuz I've heard this from a lot of people. If

00:55:24 ◼   ► you're a person who doesn't like Will Ferrell, just watch

00:55:27 ◼   ► Elf. It's not gonna give you, I think, all the Will Ferrell things that you don't like

00:55:32 ◼   ► about Will Ferrell. He fully commits to being a human-sized elf, and it is, I love it. I

00:55:39 ◼   ► could not love it more. It is such a great movie. So those are my two favorites, those

00:55:43 ◼   ► are my two go-to, watch-during-the-holidays movies, Elf and Miracle on 34th Street.

00:55:47 ◼   ► Elf is a great movie. That's so good. It's very funny. It's very charming

00:55:52 ◼   ► Yeah, I want to say I don't know if I feel like I'm just gonna I'm gonna die on the sword maybe

00:55:58 ◼   ► Last year I watched will we watch nightmare before Christmas for the first time? Yeah, don't like it

00:56:05 ◼   ► Mmm, don't get it. I love the style on the look

00:56:10 ◼   ► There's no story in that movie. I don't understand. I don't get it don't understand. I know it's a cult classic. I don't get it

00:56:17 ◼   ► I don't like it either.

00:56:19 ◼   ► Good, please.

00:56:20 ◼   ► You know, as I said, I was like, I know if I say this enough,

00:56:22 ◼   ► Jason will agree with me.

00:56:23 ◼   ► I knew you'd agree with me.

00:56:24 ◼   ► I don't get it.

00:56:25 ◼   ► No.

00:56:26 ◼   ► We were actually talking about this.

00:56:28 ◼   ► I would like somebody to redo it.

00:56:31 ◼   ► Like, give us the visuals more of a plot.

00:56:36 ◼   ► And then, you know, we can actually have a good movie.

00:56:41 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:56:41 ◼   ► Brant wants to know,

00:56:43 ◼   ► what are your favorite Christmas episodes of TV shows?

00:56:46 ◼   ► Oof, this is tough.

00:56:49 ◼   ► - I was gonna, I don't really have

00:56:51 ◼   ► any particular thoughts on this.

00:56:53 ◼   ► I figured that you would say like "Doctor Who" or something.

00:56:57 ◼   ► - Well, that's gonna be my answer,

00:56:58 ◼   ► is that I actually have a playlist

00:57:00 ◼   ► of the "Doctor Who" holiday specials

00:57:02 ◼   ► that I will sometimes just flip on.

00:57:04 ◼   ► But I did, a couple of years ago, I did a rewatch.

00:57:07 ◼   ► I watched sort of like a "12 Days of Christmas"

00:57:10 ◼   ► kind of thing.

00:57:11 ◼   ► I rewatched all the "Doctor Who" Christmas specials.

00:57:13 ◼   ► And what I'm gonna say is that the best one

00:57:17 ◼   ► is the return of Dr. Mysterioso.

00:57:21 ◼   ► Dr. Mysterio, Dr. Mysterioso?

00:57:24 ◼   ► It's silly, it's a superhero pastiche,

00:57:29 ◼   ► which is not what you expect.

00:57:32 ◼   ► I guess it's Dr. Mysterio, not Dr. Mysterioso.

00:57:34 ◼   ► From 2016, written by Steven Moffat.

00:57:36 ◼   ► It's just, it's sweet.

00:57:39 ◼   ► It's like an homage to Superman, the movie, kind of,

00:57:44 ◼   ► except in Doctor Who,

00:57:46 ◼   ► and there's kind of a romance subplot,

00:57:50 ◼   ► and it is, at the time, I feel like everybody was like,

00:57:54 ◼   ► "Yeah, yeah, it's another Doctor Who Christmas special."

00:57:57 ◼   ► It's kind of great.

00:57:58 ◼   ► And I also really love "Last Christmas,"

00:58:02 ◼   ► which is from two years before, another Steven Moffat.

00:58:05 ◼   ► That one has,

00:58:08 ◼   ► who's in that?

00:58:10 ◼   ► It's a good cast.

00:58:11 ◼   ► It's what if we did a Doctor Who Christmas special

00:58:16 ◼   ► that was modeled on "The Thing", a horror movie?

00:58:22 ◼   ► Why would you do that?

00:58:23 ◼   ► But Nick Frost is in it as Santa Claus.

00:58:26 ◼   ► So it's Nick Frost and Peter Capaldi

00:58:28 ◼   ► kind of going at it. - Oh, I think I've seen

00:58:29 ◼   ► that one. - Yeah.

00:58:30 ◼   ► - That's also a legitimately great Doctor Christmas special.

00:58:34 ◼   ► So I recommend those.

00:58:35 ◼   ► Obviously, "Charlie Brown Christmas"

00:58:36 ◼   ► is the greatest Christmas episode.

00:58:38 ◼   ► It's a special, so is it a TV show?

00:58:40 ◼   ► It's not a movie, but I do love that as well.

00:58:43 ◼   ► And we'll see, I haven't watched it yet,

00:58:46 ◼   ► but we're gonna watch the Ted Lasso Christmas special

00:58:47 ◼   ► this year and we'll see how that goes.

00:58:49 ◼   ► - I don't really think I rewatch TV episodes like that,

00:58:53 ◼   ► you know, like in a way that we might rewatch a movie.

00:58:55 ◼   ► - Well, the beauty of like the Doctor Who Christmas specials

00:58:58 ◼   ► for example, is if you build something

00:58:59 ◼   ► that's totally standalone,

00:59:00 ◼   ► you can just enjoy it as a thing.

00:59:02 ◼   ► And that's why I made that playlist

00:59:04 ◼   ► and it's actually pretty fun is that,

00:59:05 ◼   ► is that those are all structured to be,

00:59:07 ◼   ► because it's the BBC audience on a Christmas day,

00:59:11 ◼   ► they know they're gonna get all sorts of people

00:59:12 ◼   ► who don't watch the show regularly.

00:59:15 ◼   ► And so a good Doctor Who Christmas special

00:59:17 ◼   ► is just meant to be of its own story and not much more

00:59:22 ◼   ► and be kind of big and fun.

00:59:25 ◼   ► And sometimes those are great.

00:59:27 ◼   ► But the Ted Lasso one is made to be a Christmas special.

00:59:30 ◼   ► And I read a story the other day

00:59:32 ◼   ► that said that somebody finally admitted

00:59:33 ◼   ► they actually asked Apple not to release it until Christmas.

00:59:36 ◼   ► And Apple said, "Yeah, no, we're not gonna do that."

00:59:39 ◼   ► - Aha.

00:59:40 ◼   ► - So here we are.

00:59:43 ◼   ► That's the explanation.

00:59:43 ◼   ► They released this little claymation short.

00:59:46 ◼   ► That's cute, but kind of insubstantial

00:59:48 ◼   ► about the Ted Lasso's mustache.

00:59:52 ◼   ► But like their original idea was to do the Christmas special

00:59:56 ◼   ► as a Christmas special.

00:59:56 ◼   ► And it only really, I mean, that's how it works.

00:59:59 ◼   ► It's a great fun episode,

01:00:00 ◼   ► but it really should have been released as a surprise

01:00:02 ◼   ► like now, and that didn't happen.

01:00:05 ◼   ► So I'm gonna go back and watch that one.

01:00:07 ◼   ► - Larson asks, favorite Christmas time beverage?

01:00:11 ◼   ► - Do you have one?

01:00:12 ◼   ► - For me, it's eggnog.

01:00:13 ◼   ► It's really, I think the only Christmas beverage

01:00:16 ◼   ► that I can think of.

01:00:18 ◼   ► - And Myke Brantz asks,

01:00:19 ◼   ► do you have a preferred brand of eggnog?

01:00:22 ◼   ► - I've only ever made eggnog.

01:00:24 ◼   ► I've never had pre-made eggnog.

01:00:27 ◼   ► - Okay, what goes in the Myke eggnog?

01:00:29 ◼   ► - Oh, so we use, the basic recipe that we use

01:00:32 ◼   ► is a Benjamin Babish recipe,

01:00:35 ◼   ► which I'll put a link in the show notes.

01:00:37 ◼   ► You can watch the video, but it's also written it out

01:00:39 ◼   ► on this website.

01:00:41 ◼   ► So we use that one, and in it,

01:00:43 ◼   ► the recipe calls for rum and bourbon,

01:00:45 ◼   ► and that's what we use, and that's what I like.

01:00:48 ◼   ► The rum, we just use Bacardi rum.

01:00:52 ◼   ► We haven't really ventured out there,

01:00:53 ◼   ► but bourbon I have more opinions on,

01:00:55 ◼   ► so I kind of change it up every year,

01:00:56 ◼   ► depending on what I'm interested in having.

01:00:59 ◼   ► I think this year, we used Eagle Rare in our eggnog.

01:01:04 ◼   ► I really enjoy eggnog, but I've only ever had it at home.

01:01:08 ◼   ► It's actually like a, it's like our Christmas tradition.

01:01:12 ◼   ► The day we put up the tree,

01:01:13 ◼   ► the day before we do the eggnog part,

01:01:17 ◼   ► 'cause you gotta let it mature.

01:01:18 ◼   ► So we do eggnog the day before,

01:01:20 ◼   ► and then we drink it on the day we put up the tree.

01:01:24 ◼   ► - Okay, so now you said rum and bourbon.

01:01:28 ◼   ► That's two things.

01:01:29 ◼   ► What else is in there?

01:01:30 ◼   ► - Eggs.

01:01:31 ◼   ► Eggs, sugar. - Eggs.

01:01:34 ◼   ► - And nutmeg.

01:01:36 ◼   ► - Ah, and nutmeg, okay.

01:01:38 ◼   ► I've never had eggnog.

01:01:39 ◼   ► It sounds disgusting and I'm not interested.

01:01:41 ◼   ► - So here's the thing, Jason.

01:01:42 ◼   ► It does.

01:01:43 ◼   ► This is why I never had it.

01:01:44 ◼   ► I was like, why on earth would I want to drink eggs?

01:01:48 ◼   ► This sounds terrible, but it's really nice.

01:01:52 ◼   ► It's like a milkshake, Jason.

01:01:53 ◼   ► It's much more like a milkshake.

01:01:54 ◼   ► There's lots of milk goes in it too as well as egg.

01:01:56 ◼   ► - Oh, okay.

01:01:57 ◼   ► I also don't like hard alcohol, so it's, you know.

01:02:00 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:02:01 ◼   ► - I don't even have bourbon in my house.

01:02:03 ◼   ► I do have some rum in my house from the relay five when Shelley made mixed

01:02:07 ◼   ► drinks for the relay fifth anniversary pre pre show party that we did at my

01:02:13 ◼   ► house. I still have Shelley's rum. So who knows? Um, for me, my favorite

01:02:19 ◼   ► Christmas Christmas time beverage Larson is my favorite beverage essentially

01:02:26 ◼   ► because Christmas time is the perfect time for people to have like a dark beer,

01:02:30 ◼   ► like a stout. Oh, it's holiday time and you can get a stout. I drink stouts all year round.

01:02:38 ◼   ► It's my favorite beer type. So there are more of them and they're easier to get this time

01:02:44 ◼   ► of year and it feels more seasonal than when I drink them in the summertime. There are

01:02:48 ◼   ► a lot of like, like I've got a, I've got a, a porter right now that is like a chocolate

01:02:57 ◼   ► porter, and I have a stout that's a s'mores stout, so it's like marshmallow chocolate

01:03:04 ◼   ► graham cracker. That one is so sweet that I'm actually saving it for Christmas because

01:03:08 ◼   ► it's like kind of laughably, it's too sweet for regular use, but those are my favorite

01:03:14 ◼   ► beers and we have them. I have a lot, it's for regular use.

01:03:20 ◼   ► No, I just like that phrase. "That beer is too sweet for the regular uses of beer."

01:03:24 ◼   ► You can't drink a beer like that every, like a dinner.

01:03:27 ◼   ► It's, don't do it.

01:03:29 ◼   ► So anyway, that's my, the approved beer of the holidays

01:03:34 ◼   ► is my favorite beer style.

01:03:35 ◼   ► And so that's awesome.

01:03:38 ◼   ► So that's what I do.

01:03:39 ◼   ► Also, I should say for special occasions,

01:03:41 ◼   ► what we often do is we go and buy some fancy beer.

01:03:45 ◼   ► So I've got a big bottle of a Belgian triple in the closet

01:03:48 ◼   ► that we'll put in the fridge for Christmas.

01:03:51 ◼   ► and I've got a couple of bottles of a really nice Belgian.

01:03:56 ◼   ► The Belgians are the fancy.

01:03:59 ◼   ► For me, the ones that I really love are the Belgians.

01:04:02 ◼   ► So we've got a Belgian style, big bottle

01:04:05 ◼   ► with a cork and everything.

01:04:06 ◼   ► And then I've got two of these, it's kind of expensive,

01:04:09 ◼   ► but it's amazing called Ode Guze,

01:04:13 ◼   ► which is like a sour-ish.

01:04:16 ◼   ► It's like a ghost, but it's Guze 'cause it's Belgian.

01:04:20 ◼   ► and we will put that out at some point during the holiday season too. So some fancy expensive

01:04:25 ◼   ► beer, but that's it.

01:04:27 ◼   ► Geoff - Bronwyn wants to know, chocolate desserts or ginger bready spiced style desserts?

01:04:32 ◼   ► [Gavin sighs]

01:04:33 ◼   ► Geoff - And during the holidays I would lean ginger bread.

01:04:38 ◼   ► Brie - Yeah, I agree. I love ginger. Ginger is one of my favourite things. And I like

01:04:45 ◼   ► eaten raw ginger, I like having ginger beer, I like having ginger bread, and so yeah I will make,

01:04:52 ◼   ► I make these ginger, I think I've talked about it before, but there's a blue bottle coffee recipe

01:04:57 ◼   ► for ginger cookies that I'll put in the show notes. They are amazing, they're crispy and they're

01:05:08 ◼   ► molasses-y and they're gingery and I love them, but yeah I'll take ginger wherever I can get it.

01:05:13 ◼   ► Chocolate's great too, but the ginger is just that much more seasonal. Yeah, definitely ginger like I like like you

01:05:20 ◼   ► I like ginger a lot of the time. I especially like it during the holidays. It's when all the good gingery stuff would appear

01:05:25 ◼   ► I think like I like chocolate. I'm not chocolate eat dessert as much I

01:05:31 ◼   ► Feel like like, you know like cake like chocolate cake and stuff like that

01:05:35 ◼   ► I'm not like a big big fan of like brownies that because I'm the only chocolate cake type thing that I do enjoy

01:05:41 ◼   ► But yeah, Gingerbread, I enjoy it and you get the best Gingerbread stuff during the holidays.

01:05:45 ◼   ► Yeah, for sure. This is the time.

01:05:47 ◼   ► This episode is brought to you by Setapp. Getting things done is a challenge that we all struggle

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01:07:23 ◼   ► setup.com/upgradefm our thanks to setup for the support of this show and relay FM.

01:07:29 ◼   ► All right, next up is from Dave.

01:07:31 ◼   ► What personal knowledge management system

01:07:34 ◼   ► do you think Santa uses?

01:07:36 ◼   ► Is he on the obsidian bandwagon

01:07:38 ◼   ► or do you think he's got his own custom VIM system

01:07:42 ◼   ► that he built in Linux?

01:07:43 ◼   ► - I think Santa, well, first off Santa is the end user.

01:07:47 ◼   ► So he's got a whole team of elves who are building

01:07:50 ◼   ► a whole database behind the scenes.

01:07:54 ◼   ► So all Santa needs is the end product,

01:07:56 ◼   ► which is Santa's got a dashboard thing

01:07:58 ◼   ► or maybe a phone at this point

01:08:00 ◼   ► that gives him his next destination and the details.

01:08:03 ◼   ► And there's probably a package dispenser,

01:08:06 ◼   ► either automated or maybe an elf riding in the back

01:08:09 ◼   ► that is getting the particular items prepped

01:08:12 ◼   ► for the next stop.

01:08:14 ◼   ► So I think it's all like, really it's in the cloud

01:08:17 ◼   ► and there's a whole-

01:08:19 ◼   ► - He's up in the clouds, so it makes sense

01:08:21 ◼   ► to put it in the cloud.

01:08:22 ◼   ► - It's fitting, right?

01:08:23 ◼   ► And there's a whole elf backend

01:08:26 ◼   ► that's doing the database approach and timing it all out.

01:08:31 ◼   ► That's what I would say is that I don't think Santa,

01:08:34 ◼   ► Santa is, you know, he's the CEO basically,

01:08:38 ◼   ► but he's got a whole team to do that.

01:08:41 ◼   ► And it's way better than the old days

01:08:42 ◼   ► where they had to have like scrolls and stuff.

01:08:44 ◼   ► And it was, you know, they digitized

01:08:47 ◼   ► and now it's pretty easy for Santa.

01:08:48 ◼   ► He just needs to go to the next stop.

01:08:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, I could imagine he's got like,

01:08:53 ◼   ► you know, somebody's used like a raspberry pie, you know,

01:08:56 ◼   ► and they've created this like little computer

01:08:59 ◼   ► that sits at the front of the sleigh

01:09:00 ◼   ► and it's just pulling down from this system.

01:09:02 ◼   ► - I think, again, I think he might just have a,

01:09:04 ◼   ► like a phone and like a clip now

01:09:06 ◼   ► on the dashboard of the sleigh.

01:09:07 ◼   ► - Good point.

01:09:08 ◼   ► - It might not even need the interface.

01:09:10 ◼   ► Also, I would say, Santa's app does have some features.

01:09:14 ◼   ► For example, he has, there's tagging involved.

01:09:17 ◼   ► So it's gonna bring up the IDs of the kids

01:09:19 ◼   ► that he's delivering the presents to, right?

01:09:20 ◼   ► He can on the fly check their naughty nice score.

01:09:24 ◼   ► - Oh my God, Jason. - He can tag a kid to naughty

01:09:26 ◼   ► if he needs to. - A Tinder style swipe left,

01:09:29 ◼   ► swipe bright for naughty nice.

01:09:31 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's probably happening, honestly.

01:09:33 ◼   ► Also there are notes in there about like,

01:09:34 ◼   ► if they're trying to see him and he has to avoid,

01:09:36 ◼   ► or if there's a, you know,

01:09:38 ◼   ► it's like a CRM system a little bit

01:09:39 ◼   ► where he can mark in like, this fireplace is dangerous

01:09:43 ◼   ► and you should go in the window instead and all of that.

01:09:45 ◼   ► So that's, he can do some of that,

01:09:47 ◼   ► 'cause he's the one who's out there in the field, right?

01:09:49 ◼   ► He's taking notes.

01:09:50 ◼   ► But it's all going in the database that is in the cloud,

01:09:54 ◼   ► like his sleigh, and operated by the elves.

01:09:57 ◼   ► That's what I think.

01:09:58 ◼   ► - He's gotta have a pretty beefy iPhone case

01:10:02 ◼   ► on that phone though.

01:10:04 ◼   ► 'Cause he's in some elements, that guy.

01:10:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

01:10:07 ◼   ► And you know, it's sparkly and red.

01:10:10 ◼   ► - Naturally.

01:10:11 ◼   ► Marlies asks, "If you could buy all of the Upgradients

01:10:14 ◼   ► a gift, what would you get them, or us?"

01:10:18 ◼   ► - What do you think?

01:10:19 ◼   ► It would be the existence of said cheaper Apple display from earlier on.

01:10:22 ◼   ► That would be the gift I would give people.

01:10:25 ◼   ► Wow.

01:10:27 ◼   ► You're very, you're very generous.

01:10:28 ◼   ► So you're buying the existence of it.

01:10:33 ◼   ► They can buy it themselves.

01:10:34 ◼   ► I'm not buying it for them.

01:10:36 ◼   ► I'm very particular about this.

01:10:38 ◼   ► I will buy that this thing exists.

01:10:41 ◼   ► I will not buy said monitor.

01:10:43 ◼   ► Nice try everyone.

01:10:45 ◼   ► I, well, if I go by your means,

01:10:47 ◼   ► I'm gonna say a 27-inch iMac that runs Apple Silicon.

01:10:52 ◼   ► If I go where I actually have to buy it,

01:10:56 ◼   ► but somebody is gonna give me the money,

01:10:57 ◼   ► I mean, if the money is no object, then sure,

01:10:59 ◼   ► I'll just buy a standalone Apple display for everybody,

01:11:02 ◼   ► but it's probably not gonna happen.

01:11:04 ◼   ► So instead, I don't know, a phone brain.

01:11:08 ◼   ► - Oh, phone brain is good.

01:11:10 ◼   ► Well, if somebody was, hang on though,

01:11:13 ◼   ► if somebody was gonna give you the money

01:11:16 ◼   ► and you could buy all of the Upgradients a gift,

01:11:20 ◼   ► we would make specialized merchandise.

01:11:23 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:11:24 ◼   ► - So then we would get the money at the end.

01:11:27 ◼   ► - Oh, interesting.

01:11:28 ◼   ► Now that's Cortex brand thinking right there.

01:11:30 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:11:33 ◼   ► Yeah, but when I say foam brain, Myke,

01:11:35 ◼   ► what I actually meant was the foam brain,

01:11:37 ◼   ► the Nick plus Nerf foam brain

01:11:38 ◼   ► has been out of production for 20 years.

01:11:40 ◼   ► What we're gonna do is we're gonna create

01:11:42 ◼   ► a new Foam Brain that is upgrade branded.

01:11:45 ◼   ► We may sub-license it to Cortex

01:11:47 ◼   ► 'cause Brain's kinda your thing.

01:11:48 ◼   ► And we're gonna put it back in production and sell those

01:11:53 ◼   ► because we know that we have stoked the fires of interest

01:11:56 ◼   ► for Foam Brains for years now,

01:11:58 ◼   ► and yet there's no product for them to buy.

01:12:01 ◼   ► So we will put that into existence

01:12:02 ◼   ► and then we will give it away as a gift

01:12:04 ◼   ► and pay ourselves as the vendor.

01:12:06 ◼   ► - Perfect. - Sounds good.

01:12:07 ◼   ► It's a Christmas miracle, we made money.

01:12:09 ◼   ► - It's the Christmas game.

01:12:11 ◼   ► - That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

01:12:13 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:12:15 ◼   ► - Chris asks, "What are your thoughts about giving

01:12:19 ◼   ► or receiving Apple products as gifts?

01:12:21 ◼   ► Will there be a polishing cloth

01:12:23 ◼   ► underneath the orchard this year?"

01:12:25 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:12:27 ◼   ► - If you're very bad, you get a polishing cloth

01:12:29 ◼   ► in your stocking.

01:12:30 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:12:31 ◼   ► I think giving or receiving Apple products as gifts

01:12:34 ◼   ► is great, depending, I mean, it's a little bit like

01:12:37 ◼   ► those car commercials with the big bow on the car

01:12:39 ◼   ► in the driveway that like you shouldn't buy a car

01:12:41 ◼   ► for your spouse without their consent.

01:12:44 ◼   ► Like it's too big a purchase.

01:12:46 ◼   ► That's come on, don't do that.

01:12:47 ◼   ► So I think you need to know them

01:12:49 ◼   ► and maybe it's sort of a wink wink nudge nudge kind of thing.

01:12:51 ◼   ► But yeah, I think that they can be really good

01:12:54 ◼   ► whether it's AirPods or a laptop or whatever,

01:12:57 ◼   ► an Apple watch.

01:12:58 ◼   ► I will tell you because nobody tell her,

01:13:01 ◼   ► but my mom, she has a,

01:13:05 ◼   ► I discovered when I visited her last time

01:13:07 ◼   ► that she has a very, very, very, very, very, very,

01:13:11 ◼   ► very old iPad Air that she is using

01:13:14 ◼   ► that is running several iOS versions ago

01:13:17 ◼   ► because it can't be updated anymore.

01:13:20 ◼   ► And I am going to provide her with an upgrade.

01:13:24 ◼   ► So there you go.

01:13:25 ◼   ► I'm gonna give an Apple product

01:13:27 ◼   ► to somebody in my family this Christmas.

01:13:28 ◼   ► I think that can be great.

01:13:30 ◼   ► - For me, like if you're asking for me,

01:13:33 ◼   ► I don't want anybody to buy me Apple-related things.

01:13:37 ◼   ► - Well, we're already on it.

01:13:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, like I've got it taken care of.

01:13:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's right. - Right?

01:13:44 ◼   ► Anything you wanna buy me,

01:13:46 ◼   ► you're probably also not gonna get me

01:13:48 ◼   ► the thing that I want, right?

01:13:49 ◼   ► Like, I'm good, that part is good.

01:13:52 ◼   ► For other people, yeah, like, you know, go for it.

01:13:56 ◼   ► And I'll ask Matt's question,

01:13:58 ◼   ► what is the best Apple product or gift

01:14:01 ◼   ► for a complete stranger.

01:14:02 ◼   ► So I feel like App Store gift card,

01:14:07 ◼   ► if it's a complete stranger,

01:14:08 ◼   ► I'm not exactly sure why Matt needs to buy Apple gifts

01:14:11 ◼   ► for complete strangers.

01:14:13 ◼   ► - Secret Santa?

01:14:14 ◼   ► - Maybe, I would say App Store gift card.

01:14:16 ◼   ► You have to know that they're in the Apple ecosystem

01:14:19 ◼   ► for that, but if they're not a complete complete stranger,

01:14:22 ◼   ► probably AirPods.

01:14:23 ◼   ► - AirPods, that's what I was gonna say is the other way

01:14:26 ◼   ► is if you know they don't have AirPods,

01:14:27 ◼   ► and even honestly, even if they are not

01:14:29 ◼   ► in the Apple ecosystem, AirPods will pair

01:14:32 ◼   ► via Bluetooth with anything.

01:14:34 ◼   ► So that's a nice price, nice gift.

01:14:37 ◼   ► But yeah, gift card is always good

01:14:40 ◼   ► 'cause you can price that lower than any Apple product.

01:14:45 ◼   ► Polishing cloth's not available.

01:14:46 ◼   ► It would be very funny to hand them

01:14:50 ◼   ► like a USB-C to headphone jack adapter or something, enjoy.

01:14:55 ◼   ► But yeah, I think gift card is a great answer there.

01:14:58 ◼   ► So Matt said that he was thinking AirTags when he asked. I don't think AirTags is an AirTag

01:15:06 ◼   ► is the gift of you might lose something. Yeah bummer. Which I don't know that's not necessarily

01:15:13 ◼   ► a fun fun gift but cheaper than AirPods so you know maybe. Aaron asks why has it been

01:15:21 ◼   ► impossible to buy an iPad or iPad mini this holiday? How big of a financial hit will this

01:15:25 ◼   ► be for Apple's quarterly results.

01:15:27 ◼   ► - Billions, billions.

01:15:28 ◼   ► - We don't know the exact answer of this.

01:15:31 ◼   ► I mean, we can assume it's chip shortages and legacy nodes.

01:15:35 ◼   ► - Legacy nodes.

01:15:36 ◼   ► - I hadn't been looking, but I actually do know,

01:15:38 ◼   ► like I know people that ordered their iPad mini

01:15:41 ◼   ► when like pretty much when they came out

01:15:43 ◼   ► and have just gotten them, which is wild to me.

01:15:46 ◼   ► It was like three months ago or something like that.

01:15:48 ◼   ► So this is definitely a product line

01:15:51 ◼   ► that they're struggling with.

01:15:52 ◼   ► - It's interesting to me that the iPad and iPad mini

01:15:55 ◼   ► are that, but I guess for most people,

01:15:58 ◼   ► that does seem like the logical iPad to buy right now

01:16:01 ◼   ► is one of those two, right?

01:16:02 ◼   ► It's either the cheapest one or the smallest one.

01:16:04 ◼   ► Like that, I guess that kind of makes sense

01:16:07 ◼   ► rather than the Pro or the Air.

01:16:09 ◼   ► And in a lot of cases, like when it comes to gifts.

01:16:11 ◼   ► - I'm gonna provide some advice by the way,

01:16:13 ◼   ► which is it's actually our advice for new iPhones,

01:16:16 ◼   ► but I'm gonna provide it here,

01:16:18 ◼   ► which is if you can't order it online

01:16:21 ◼   ► until after Christmas, check and see if it's available

01:16:25 ◼   ► at one of your local Apple stores,

01:16:27 ◼   ► if you have a local Apple store.

01:16:28 ◼   ► And I'll say that because I just went to apple.com

01:16:31 ◼   ► and clicked through on an iPad mini and got to the bottom

01:16:34 ◼   ► and it says, "Delivers January 4th through 6th.

01:16:37 ◼   ► Pick up today."

01:16:39 ◼   ► So there's gonna be stock.

01:16:43 ◼   ► It may not be exactly what you want.

01:16:44 ◼   ► You may need to get a color you don't want

01:16:46 ◼   ► or a size you don't want,

01:16:47 ◼   ► but there are gonna be things available in stock

01:16:50 ◼   ► at an Apple store that are not available online.

01:16:52 ◼   ► So if you're near an Apple store,

01:16:54 ◼   ► going to be near an Apple store,

01:16:55 ◼   ► that's a thing you should at least try.

01:16:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, you should just keep your eye on that, I agree.

01:16:59 ◼   ► Even if you put an order in, if your order's a long time,

01:17:02 ◼   ► like you can cancel the order.

01:17:04 ◼   ► - Right.

01:17:06 ◼   ► - Go and get something much, much sooner.

01:17:08 ◼   ► Matt asks, "Christmas is right around the corner,

01:17:13 ◼   ► but we have to get through Festivus first.

01:17:15 ◼   ► Do you have any grievances to air?"

01:17:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, here's my big grievance for you, Myke.

01:17:21 ◼   ► - Oh, hang on.

01:17:22 ◼   ► - You know, there's a lot of talk on "Connected"

01:17:25 ◼   ► about the triple J conspiracy,

01:17:27 ◼   ► but it seems like only John Voorhees is ever on "Connected."

01:17:30 ◼   ► And James is always present with other things.

01:17:34 ◼   ► - This is not my decision.

01:17:36 ◼   ► - I don't think I've, have I ever been on "Connected?"

01:17:38 ◼   ► I was on the prompt, but I don't-

01:17:39 ◼   ► - No, you've been on "Connected."

01:17:40 ◼   ► - Have I been on "Connected?"

01:17:42 ◼   ► - As a judge and adjudicator of things.

01:17:44 ◼   ► - Okay, that's true.

01:17:45 ◼   ► I just, I feel like the, the, there's a lot of talk about the triple J, but that I'm kind

01:17:49 ◼   ► of left behind on that. That's what I'm saying.

01:17:50 ◼   ► Well, I just feel left out. I do not trust the triple J. So I wouldn't

01:17:55 ◼   ► invite any of the triple J onto the show. Okay. So it's not your fault that there are

01:17:59 ◼   ► breaches in the wall. It's other people's fault. Steven has been doing this, I believe.

01:18:03 ◼   ► Steven has, Steven invited John Voorhees onto the show. Uh, well once, one time recently,

01:18:08 ◼   ► John was just in the same room as Federico, so it was kind of unavoidable.

01:18:11 ◼   ► Yep. That was a good one. And then another time was, well, I think the

01:18:14 ◼   ► The last time was Federy--

01:18:15 ◼   ► was it Federy Code had his booster shot

01:18:17 ◼   ► a couple of weeks ago?

01:18:19 ◼   ► And so there was a concern that he wouldn't make it

01:18:21 ◼   ► through the episode, and it was true.

01:18:23 ◼   ► And so Jon came in.

01:18:24 ◼   ► But I don't know why this--

01:18:25 ◼   ► I don't know why Steven keeps bringing Jon onto the show.

01:18:28 ◼   ► You have to look to Steven for that.

01:18:29 ◼   ► I know I was on, like, the live episodes and all that,

01:18:32 ◼   ► and I just am saying I feel a little left out

01:18:36 ◼   ► when there's all this talk about the triple J,

01:18:38 ◼   ► me and Jon and James, and yet, I don't know.

01:18:41 ◼   ► -Well, I don't trust you. -It's a minor--

01:18:42 ◼   ► minor grievance but I like how you've just thrown it on your co-host instead.

01:18:45 ◼   ► Oh 100% I will. You distrust us all equally I appreciate the equality there.

01:18:52 ◼   ► Uh-huh and I will throw Steven under the bus for this anytime anytime all day

01:18:59 ◼   ► that nothing to do with me I was on holiday. Do I have any grievances to air?

01:19:06 ◼   ► hmm I don't think so I feel pretty zen right now I think I feel like maybe if

01:19:11 ◼   ► If you would have asked me this before I took that big vacation, I may have had more grievances.

01:19:15 ◼   ► I feel like your iPhone scratches is your number one.

01:19:19 ◼   ► Oh, that is my number one grievance right now. Thank you for the reminder. I have a

01:19:23 ◼   ► grievance towards the Apple Care corporate machine. That's it. The Apple Care corporate

01:19:32 ◼   ► machine in denying my screen replacement, which is something that I tend to get back

01:19:38 ◼   ► on top of when I get back home in January.

01:19:41 ◼   ► So I'm going to be back on it next year trying to get my screen replaced.

01:19:47 ◼   ► I do at this point, I think I said this in the show, I do feel like now I just want to

01:19:51 ◼   ► get some of those new parts and just try and do it myself.

01:19:55 ◼   ► But you know, I would also like to, I demand satisfaction from this one.

01:20:03 ◼   ► And finally today Kim asks, "How do you celebrate the new year?

01:20:06 ◼   ► What is your typical New Year's celebration, Jason?

01:20:09 ◼   ► - It's gonna be disappointing and boring.

01:20:13 ◼   ► Occasionally we have friends who invite us over

01:20:15 ◼   ► for a New Year thing, but otherwise we are at home

01:20:18 ◼   ► and we will try to get some crackers.

01:20:21 ◼   ► Usually it's a Christmas cracker that we've forgotten

01:20:23 ◼   ► we had at Christmas and so we keep it

01:20:25 ◼   ► and then we use the UK kind where you pull on them

01:20:28 ◼   ► and they pop and you get a little crown.

01:20:30 ◼   ► We do that for New Year's and it's a lot of fun.

01:20:33 ◼   ► And I have picked up a tradition

01:20:36 ◼   ► from my friend Philip Michaels,

01:20:37 ◼   ► where I try on sometime on New Year's Eve

01:20:40 ◼   ► to watch "Duck Soup" by the Marx Brothers,

01:20:43 ◼   ► which is a very silly movie.

01:20:45 ◼   ► Why it's about New Year's, I don't know, it's not really,

01:20:47 ◼   ► but it has become a New Year's tradition.

01:20:50 ◼   ► Might try to get in a viewing of "When Harry Met Sally,"

01:20:52 ◼   ► which is New Year's related and is one of my favorite movies.

01:20:56 ◼   ► And, you know, there's, like I said,

01:20:58 ◼   ► there's probably Belgian beer

01:20:59 ◼   ► and other things like that around.

01:21:01 ◼   ► And then new year's day because I'm an American,

01:21:04 ◼   ► there's a lot of college football on while you're sitting on the couch under a

01:21:08 ◼   ► blankie. And uh, I like it that way.

01:21:10 ◼   ► I do not like new year's Eve as this idea of you're going to have a great night.

01:21:17 ◼   ► Yeah. Like if you go out and party like,

01:21:21 ◼   ► cause I believe none of the great nights,

01:21:24 ◼   ► like the true great nights you have in your life are because they were supposed

01:21:27 ◼   ► to be one. They,

01:21:30 ◼   ► The great nights happen because they just happen.

01:21:33 ◼   ► It's not like, I really don't like this.

01:21:35 ◼   ► Like we are going to have an epic night because it's new years.

01:21:39 ◼   ► Like, so I don't like new year's parties.

01:21:40 ◼   ► I never have for that reason.

01:21:42 ◼   ► I like very chill new year's things.

01:21:47 ◼   ► So whether it's just me and Nadina at home or a couple of years, we've gone to a

01:21:52 ◼   ► friend's house and just just four of us.

01:21:54 ◼   ► And we just really kind of just use this as an excuse to be together.

01:21:58 ◼   ► like rather than actually really paying attention to anything past the fireworks that occur

01:22:03 ◼   ► at midnight. So hopefully, I mean if we're lucky we might be able to do that this year

01:22:08 ◼   ► but I don't know yet. But otherwise New Year's is just, we might have like a nice meal, like

01:22:15 ◼   ► cook a nice meal kind of thing. I like to have it low-key, low-key for New Year's.

01:22:20 ◼   ► I agree, again unless I've got a friend, and our friends who always did the New Year's

01:22:24 ◼   ► party at their house which is, you know, not a party party, it's just a bunch of parents

01:22:28 ◼   ► getting together and their kids getting together.

01:22:30 ◼   ► They moved, so they don't have that anymore.

01:22:32 ◼   ► And we occasionally will get invited

01:22:34 ◼   ► to another friend's place and they're English, Myke.

01:22:37 ◼   ► So that is beautiful because what you do is you come over

01:22:41 ◼   ► and you have some dinner or some snacks and dinner,

01:22:44 ◼   ► heavy snacks, I guess,

01:22:46 ◼   ► and you watch it be midnight in London.

01:22:49 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:22:50 ◼   ► - And then you can hang out for a few more hours

01:22:54 ◼   ► and then maybe if you're really feeling bold,

01:22:56 ◼   ► you watch the ball drop in New York and then you leave. And you know, basically London

01:23:02 ◼   ► is perfect, right? That's like 5 p.m., something like that?

01:23:06 ◼   ► Yeah. So this is a tradition that I knew that the

01:23:09 ◼   ► under-schoolers did where they would have their, like, they would put the TV on for

01:23:16 ◼   ► the kids to see the fireworks at New Year's and then the kids could go to bed, right?

01:23:22 ◼   ► Right. Yes, oh yeah, it's a classic.

01:23:23 ◼   ► - Yes, oh yeah, it's a classic.

01:23:25 ◼   ► - So I don't know, I'm asking how are they dealing

01:23:27 ◼   ► with this, with the fireworks?

01:23:30 ◼   ► Because now the kids don't get to see the fireworks

01:23:33 ◼   ► 'cause if they do, it's midnight.

01:23:35 ◼   ► Kids, they're here.

01:23:36 ◼   ► - I don't know about their kids,

01:23:37 ◼   ► but one of the things that I discovered,

01:23:39 ◼   ► and I think they're still on Netflix,

01:23:41 ◼   ► is they make New Year's videos for kids.

01:23:46 ◼   ► - Wow.

01:23:47 ◼   ► - Where you get to play the video

01:23:50 ◼   ► and it plays the video and then it counts you down

01:23:53 ◼   ► and then everybody says happy new year

01:23:56 ◼   ► and then you turn off the TV and put them to bed.

01:23:58 ◼   ► - That is genius. - And they think

01:23:59 ◼   ► that they've seen the countdown, yeah.

01:24:02 ◼   ► - So if I got, let me go to Netflix.

01:24:04 ◼   ► I'll type in new year countdown maybe?

01:24:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, or new year kids, I don't know.

01:24:11 ◼   ► - Skylanders Academy New Year's Eve countdown.

01:24:15 ◼   ► The Skylanders are celebrating their heroic accomplishments

01:24:18 ◼   ► of a huge New Year's party

01:24:19 ◼   ► and you can help them count down to midnight.

01:24:21 ◼   ► That's one.

01:24:22 ◼   ► - And it's one minute long.

01:24:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's one.

01:24:24 ◼   ► - That's it.

01:24:25 ◼   ► That's it.

01:24:26 ◼   ► There used to be more, I'm not seeing more of them,

01:24:29 ◼   ► but like that's what you want,

01:24:32 ◼   ► is you want the thing that is like, it's a lie.

01:24:34 ◼   ► It's not really, but they don't,

01:24:35 ◼   ► they're excited that we all get to count down,

01:24:38 ◼   ► we have fun, and then it's off to take your bath

01:24:40 ◼   ► and go to bed and all of that.

01:24:41 ◼   ► And they're asleep whenever you want them to be.

01:24:44 ◼   ► - Very clever.

01:24:45 ◼   ► Thank you to everybody who sent in

01:24:48 ◼   ► a holiday Ask Upgrade question. You can send in Ask Upgrade questions for our more regular

01:24:54 ◼   ► episodes as well just with a tweet #AskUpgrade or ?AskUpgrade in the Relay FM members discord.

01:25:00 ◼   ► There will be no Ask Upgrade next week because we are going to be deliberating, judging and

01:25:06 ◼   ► awarding the 8th annual Upgradies Awards on next week's episode which I'm really excited

01:25:11 ◼   ► about. I will get overly excited about the upgrade is every year. I now have the monstrous

01:25:18 ◼   ► task over the next seven days of trying to work out the upgrade ins for sponsors. Because

01:25:26 ◼   ► in case you don't know, like with the nomination, except for like one, I think of our questions,

01:25:33 ◼   ► people just have to type in what they want. I have a whole process and I know how to do

01:25:39 ◼   ► and I've got it all taken, like I've got it down.

01:25:41 ◼   ► I wrote instructions for myself a couple of years ago,

01:25:44 ◼   ► 'cause it's something I do once a year,

01:25:46 ◼   ► and I have like a good process for it,

01:25:48 ◼   ► so I just follow the instructions.

01:25:49 ◼   ► And so I've got to go through that over the next few days,

01:25:52 ◼   ► but this is like good work for me,

01:25:55 ◼   ► 'cause it's kind of mindless work.

01:25:57 ◼   ► I like this work.

01:25:58 ◼   ► It's like a nice kind of end of the year thing.

01:26:00 ◼   ► So I've got people in that together.

01:26:02 ◼   ► Plus I love watching the little chart that I make.

01:26:05 ◼   ► I love watching it populate and seeing,

01:26:06 ◼   ► 'cause there's always surprises in there for me.

01:26:08 ◼   ► So I find it kind of fascinating as a process to go through.

01:26:12 ◼   ► And also, as I'm sure you will be, Jason,

01:26:14 ◼   ► I have to finalize my own nominations

01:26:18 ◼   ► because mine and Jason's nominations,

01:26:21 ◼   ► they weigh quite heavily

01:26:23 ◼   ► because we actually make the decision.

01:26:24 ◼   ► - But I like to see the submissions at the upgrading.

01:26:28 ◼   ► - It helps me.

01:26:29 ◼   ► It helps me pull my ideas together.

01:26:30 ◼   ► And also very many times helps us make a wall

01:26:32 ◼   ► because I have a bunch of categories this year

01:26:34 ◼   ► that I do not have strong answers for, if any, at all.

01:26:38 ◼   ► So I'm excited to see what the Upgradients say.

01:26:40 ◼   ► So, thank you for listening to this episode of Upgrade,

01:26:44 ◼   ► and we'll be back next week.

01:26:45 ◼   ► If you want to find Jason online, you can go to sixcolors.com,

01:26:48 ◼   ► and he's @jsnell.

01:26:49 ◼   ► I'm @imike, I-M-Y-K-E.

01:26:53 ◼   ► Thank you so much to our sponsors, Setapp, Hunter Douglas, and Bombas,

01:26:57 ◼   ► and if you are a Relay FM member and support the show,

01:27:00 ◼   ► thank you as well.

01:27:01 ◼   ► Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate,

01:27:04 ◼   ► and we'll be back next time.

01:27:05 ◼   ► Until then, say goodbye, Jason Snell.

01:27:07 ◼   ► Ho ho ho!

01:27:09 ◼   ► [Music]

01:27:23 ◼   ► [BLANK_AUDIO]