0:00:00[Music]
0:00:08From Relay FM, this is Upgrade Episode 194.
0:00:12Today's show is brought to you very kindly by Simple Contacts, Squarespace, and Linode.
0:00:17My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Jason Snell.
0:00:20Hi, Jason Snell. Can you tell why I'm so excited?
0:00:23Why are you so excited? No, no is my answer. I can't tell why.
0:00:28Next week is draft time.
0:00:31It's the most wonderful time of the three times a year.
0:00:34Uh, also the WWDC draft.
0:00:37It's the big one next week on upgrade big episode.
0:00:42We're going to do our draft for our WWDC picks because believe it or not,
0:00:46everyone, we are two weeks away from WWDC.
0:00:49So get ready for that.
0:00:51I'm very excited for the draft, Jason.
0:00:53I'm very, very excited for the draft, but we don't need to keep talking about it
0:00:56today because we have a #snowtalk question which comes from Joel and Joel
0:01:01would like to know this is this is an interesting question for you here Jason
0:01:04Joel would like to know would you rather have AirPods and an older iPhone or an
0:01:11iPhone 10 with any other type of headphones so just I'll rephrase it a
0:01:16little bit you can own AirPods but you cannot use them of an iPhone 10 or you
0:01:21can own an iPhone 10 and you cannot use AirPods. Also the iPhone 8 came out the
0:01:26same time as the iPhone 10 and he says an older iPhone so it can't even be an iPhone
0:01:308. Well I guess it came out a couple months earlier. Does it count?
0:01:33Well technically, yeah technically, yeah the iPhone 8 would, I am ruling iPhone 8 counts.
0:01:38Well either way I think I, this is a tough hypothetical, I appreciate it Joel, thanks
0:01:43a lot. Monday morning and I'm being hit with hypotheticals but I'm gonna say, where the
0:01:47mean man comes to my house and says I'm sorry sir, you cannot possess both AirPods and an
0:01:52iPhone 10. One man cannot possess so much power.
0:01:55That is a cruel, cruel, mean man who came to my door and said that I must give one of
0:01:59them up.
0:02:01You know what?
0:02:02I have another pair of wireless headphones that I don't like as much, and I have some
0:02:04wired headphones I like very much.
0:02:06And as much as I like having the AirPods, I think at this point I would really rather
0:02:11not unlearn all the behavior that I've learned in the iPhone X.
0:02:14Because if it was another year and it was like literally just you're going back to last
0:02:18year's iPhone and you're going to miss a few features, but it's still the home button and
0:02:22all of that. I might go the other way, but the iPhone X has kind of reprogrammed all
0:02:26the gestures in my brain, reprogrammed all those kind of gestures I use on the phone,
0:02:32and I don't want to ever go back. When I pick up my wife's phone, I'm like, "What is—why
0:02:37is it not—oh, there's a button. How cute. There's a button at the bottom. I remember
0:02:43that when iPhones had buttons." So yeah, I think I would just make do with headphones,
0:02:47Although I would be sad because I like my AirPods, but I think I never want to go back
0:02:52now that I'm in iPhone 10 land.
0:02:55It is very difficult because every iPhone is better than the previous one.
0:02:59So it's, you know, it is a difficult thing to say, yeah, X iPhone or iPhone 10 is a better
0:03:05than is like my favorite iPhone of all time, right?
0:03:08Like it's a difficult thing to say because in theory they always should because they
0:03:10get better.
0:03:11But I feel like that there is some kind of like every phone you have an amount of affinity
0:03:17for it. Of course you know it's a better phone but you either like it more or less.
0:03:23And I would say that the iPhone X is my favourite iPhone since the original iPhone. I absolutely
0:03:30love this phone where like previous phones that affinity has started to decrease. If
0:03:36you've listened to this show for long enough you will know that I really did not like the
0:03:40iPhone 7. I had a lot of problems with the iPhone 7 because again they took away stuff
0:03:45that didn't make sense to me and I didn't get anything in return.
0:03:47That was my biggest problem with the iPhone 7.
0:03:49The iPhone 10, I absolutely love it.
0:03:52So this is me saying I would use any other type of headphones.
0:03:56I'd go back to wired ear pods personally, like because I did OK before.
0:04:00Right. Like the AirPods are incredible. Right.
0:04:02But I don't love the AirPods more than other headphones
0:04:06than I do the iPhone more than other iPhones.
0:04:08Yep. Especially because there are a lot of cool wireless headphones
0:04:13on the market now.
0:04:14Like for example, do you know what I would do?
0:04:16I would just buy the Beats once and then I'm done.
0:04:19So I showed you Joel.
0:04:21Thank you, Joel, for your question.
0:04:23You can send in a tweet with the hashtag Snail Talk for
0:04:26any question to open the show.
0:04:27I would love for you listeners, for the Upgradients to think of
0:04:31something fun for our draft episode next week for a Snail Talk question.
0:04:35So get your brain working on that one.
0:04:37Maybe we can have something draft or WWDC related for our
0:04:41hashtag Snail Talk question.
0:04:43Be like Joel, be cool.
0:04:44Send in a question.
0:04:45So, uh, we have no follow ups.
0:04:47Let's just move into upstream.
0:04:48Um, Netflix orders Guillermo De Toro horror anthology series.
0:04:53It's going to be called, I love this name Guillermo De Toro
0:04:56presents 10 after midnight.
0:04:58I love that name.
0:04:59It's so evocative of something I can't put my finger on, but 10
0:05:03after midnight, I really like it.
0:05:04Creepy, scary.
0:05:07Woo.
0:05:07Exactly.
0:05:08This is a part of a long-term deal that Netflix and Guillermo De Toro have.
0:05:12I think it's a first look deal, I think,
0:05:16but they have a deal together where he is making content
0:05:19for them.
0:05:20This show has no set episode or series order
0:05:24and it has no premiere date right now.
0:05:26They've just announced that it's happening.
0:05:27- And it's an anthology series.
0:05:29And I'm fascinated because it's been,
0:05:33there used to be, we talked about this before, I think,
0:05:35but there used to be a lot of anthology series on TV
0:05:36in the old days and like "The Twilight Zone"
0:05:39is a great example of that.
0:05:40and there are others, Alfred Hitchcock Presents
0:05:42is a great example of that.
0:05:44But lately, with streaming especially,
0:05:47there has been this resurgence in this
0:05:50and I'm kind of fascinated by it.
0:05:52Black Mirror is your best example,
0:05:54although there are others.
0:05:55- I would argue that that's the reason
0:05:57that anthology series is so popular again.
0:05:59- Yeah, I mean, they tried it with amazing stories
0:06:00in the 80s and it didn't really work.
0:06:02Like, in the Twilight Zone,
0:06:04they brought back in the 80s too.
0:06:05And neither of them was a particularly big success.
0:06:08They both kind of putted around for two or three years,
0:06:11but they were never a big success.
0:06:13I feel like with streaming, something has changed
0:06:16and I can't decide what it is
0:06:17and whether it's that audiences are more receptive to this.
0:06:20The idea that you're essentially watching a short story
0:06:23instead of watching a continuing story
0:06:25or a short film, if you will, right?
0:06:27That maybe people are more receptive to that on streaming,
0:06:30that they can kind of pick and choose.
0:06:32It's funny 'cause it's very different.
0:06:34Like you could binge Black Mirror,
0:06:35but everything, every episode is different.
0:06:38so you don't really have to, you could also just watch a couple and move on with your
0:06:42life and maybe not be so sad because it's Black Mirror.
0:06:46It's interesting because anthology series do not lend themselves to binging because
0:06:50we binge because shows are built to entice you to watch the next episode so because it's
0:06:56just available to us we do, right? Yeah, yeah so the question is why are people
0:07:00doing this and my guess is that that some factor here is the idea that these
0:07:10are little films and that you end up with this is almost like a it's like a
0:07:19studio within a studio almost where it's like you come and work with Guillermo
0:07:24Del-pl-uh, you know, it's Monday morning. G-D-T. You go work with him. You go work with
0:07:32G-D-T and make a, you know, you come in and you direct an episode and you're making a
0:07:41little film and you're a director and maybe you're a big name director like, you know,
0:07:46there are notable people who've come in and directed their other anthology series and
0:07:51are planning to. Or you're a writer and you come in and say, "Well, I've got this idea,"
0:07:55and you pitch it to GDT and he's like, "Yeah, that's awesome. That fits with our format."
0:08:00So I wonder if that's part of it, is this is a place for people who are creative, people
0:08:05who work in the movie and TV industry, to do these one-off projects so they're not committing
0:08:10to working a long time on a project. They can drop in and shoot something for a couple
0:08:16of weeks and then be done. Maybe that's part of it too, but it's another one for Netflix.
0:08:26By the way, yes, listener Joe in the chat room has pointed out that Netflix also has
0:08:31announced the thing we talked about a few weeks ago, which is that the Obamas have made
0:08:36that deal that maybe David Letterman helped inspire them to make to produce films and
0:08:41series for Netflix, so the Obamas are gonna try it, which I think is gonna be interesting
0:08:48to watch because there is a real question about whether people want to watch... first
0:08:55off there's a political issue, right, where there's like a portion of the audience that's
0:08:58not gonna want to watch the Obamas do anything. And then there's the other issue which is
0:09:03just how much of this is gonna be, you know, take your medicine television and trying to
0:09:10like, say, get people engaged in public service and changing the world and all these things
0:09:14that former presidents tend to do, is that going to be... I mean, it's totally prestige
0:09:21for Netflix to do that, but what's the audience going to be like for that? So we'll have to
0:09:26watch it. But what a world we live in where the second act for a former president of the
0:09:30United States is making a deal with streaming service.
0:09:35How different is it to writing books these days, though, really?
0:09:39You know?
0:09:40Yeah, it's true.
0:09:41I mean, the challenge there is the books.
0:09:44What are the books?
0:09:45Like a memoir will sell well, right?
0:09:50But so will a TV series from that.
0:09:54That Obama sits down to walk you through his presidency in interviews with people.
0:10:00Obama talks with people in his administration about the Obama administration and the hard
0:10:04choices they made and there's a thing about Osama bin Laden and there's a thing like all
0:10:08of that like the mistakes they made and the things they feel that they are proud of and
0:10:12all of that that would be an interesting series I kind of feel like instead what we're gonna
0:10:16get is you know stuff about like a spotlight on volunteerism or and I'm not trying to or
0:10:22other stuff like that which again I'm not trying to belittle those efforts those are
0:10:26important charitable philanthropic efforts and getting people to you know speak speaking
0:10:33to people about getting them excited about this stuff and all that. It's great. That's
0:10:37a great role for a former president. But that as entertainment I am less sure is going to
0:10:44reach a particularly broad audience. But who knows? I mean, I would love this to be like,
0:10:51"Hey, you know presidential memoirs? Well, it's a show." I'm like, "What?" That would
0:10:57be amazing. But again, I don't think that's what they're gonna do. Although, call me Netflix
0:11:03or the Obamas if you want to talk about the idea of… I'm available for you to consult
0:11:11on your memoir television series. But wouldn't that be cool? I think that would be really
0:11:15interesting if it was literally like the people involved in a presidency breaking it down
0:11:20a few years after the fact and kind of justifying themselves and having people question them
0:11:25and having them do a little bit of failure analysis. I think that would be fascinating.
0:11:30I said like a video memoir almost but it ain't gonna happen.
0:11:34This is probably not what they're doing. But who knows could be good I mean they're entertaining
0:11:38we'll wait and see.
0:11:40Canal Plus in France now offers an Apple TV as a cable replacement box. They Canal Plus
0:11:47are like a TV provider. They have gotten rid of their own boxes now going forward and will
0:11:53be offering their current 5 million customers the opportunity to have an Apple TV instead
0:11:58of their satellite TV boxes. These customers will be able to watch programming the Canal
0:12:03Plus app and obviously they'll have a login for that. And the Apple TV boxes are on a
0:12:08lease agreement of 6 euros a month. Canal Plus customers can currently opt to stick
0:12:13with their current satellite service instead or they can switch over to the Apple TV option.
0:12:20This is very interesting.
0:12:22This is a satellite TV service that's also becoming an over-the-top, as they say, TV
0:12:26and internet TV service. I think it's great to see this. I think this is going to happen
0:12:31more. I've mentioned on previous shows that the Comcast app, the Xfinity app on my iPad
0:12:38is essentially a, when I'm in my house, it's essentially a cable box. I can watch any channel
0:12:45that they have in my house live. Plus I have access to all the on demand and the extra
0:12:51stuff that they've got. And I realized at some point that if they put that on the Apple
0:12:55TV, my Apple TV would essentially be a cable box. That it wouldn't have all the features,
0:13:00they don't have like a DVR feature on their stuff, and I have a DVR, so my DVR is way
0:13:07more functional than this. But it's so close to being that. And we've seen some of these
0:13:11over the top providers, and they have cloud DVR and things like that in order to take
0:13:16care of that. So I think this is a question on one level of like, is it better for cable
0:13:23companies to offer this sort of thing, or does it risk making them, you know, if you're
0:13:30going to get your cable company's app, why don't you just use the YouTube TV app if it's
0:13:35better, right? Like that would be the argument there. But I think it also says that--
0:13:41Well, they may-- Canal Plus may have exclusives in France or whatever for certain channels.
0:13:47That's true, that's true, but I'm thinking that's how they have to compete then. At that
0:13:50point your cable provider, separate from your internet, and my cable provider is my internet
0:13:54provider and that's how they get you, but it does, at one point the over-the-top services
0:14:02are so full-featured that the cable companies are just essentially competing, they're another
0:14:06over-the-top service. Whether they're using their proprietary way to get video into your
0:14:10home or whether like Canal Plus they're like, "Look, here's an app, just use that." Either
0:14:15way, they're just all competing then, and that's a separate competition from being the
0:14:21provider of the internet pipe, and that is a little bit different from what some cable
0:14:28companies do now where they control your internet and they control your video. But in the end,
0:14:34I think more competition is good, and having competition for who your TV provider is is
0:14:42potentially a really good thing.
0:14:43So also I'll point out again, this is a satellite service,
0:14:46which is notable because satellite services
0:14:49don't have high speed internet.
0:14:52I mean, they've got low speed internet,
0:14:54but they don't have high speed internet to your house.
0:14:56- Yes and no.
0:14:57So like you can't offer it over satellite,
0:14:59but these companies also typically tend to offer
0:15:02internet service now as well.
0:15:03- Some do.
0:15:04In the US, the satellite services generally,
0:15:09although there's been some consolidation,
0:15:12But generally, the satellite service doesn't give you
0:15:14anything but there is satellite internet,
0:15:15it's very slow, a lot of latency, it's not good.
0:15:18But, and a few of them, like DirecTV is owned by AT&T
0:15:22and AT&T has broadband in some markets,
0:15:25but mostly it doesn't.
0:15:25So if you're like me, I used to be a DirecTV customer,
0:15:29I still had to have high speed internet from someone else.
0:15:32And it was AT&T for a while with DSL
0:15:34and then I moved to Comcast for,
0:15:36and then eventually I picked up Comcast for TV.
0:15:39So what I'm saying is if you're not in lockstep
0:15:43where like most of your customers are getting TV
0:15:46and internet from you, it's a lot easier to do this, right?
0:15:50Because for you, you're already under pressure
0:15:53because they've got another company they're paying
0:15:57for their internet.
0:15:58They could drop you on a moment's notice.
0:16:00And so for them, they're basically saying,
0:16:02"Look, however you want it, satellite, internet, whatever,
0:16:06we don't care, just use us for your TV and we'll be happy."
0:16:09And I think that that's just, we'll see more of that.
0:16:12DirecTV now is an over the top service.
0:16:16That is, it's the same kind of idea.
0:16:18They're a satellite broadcaster and there are limits to that.
0:16:22So now they also are an over the top service.
0:16:24So yeah, it's interesting.
0:16:26Even if you're not in France,
0:16:28it's an interesting development
0:16:29because most cable companies could do this today
0:16:32if they really wanted to.
0:16:33They'd have to invest in the technology a little bit,
0:16:35but like a lot of their apps already are there
0:16:38for this stuff.
0:16:39They're just-- I see why they would be reluctant,
0:16:41because once everything is an app,
0:16:46then they have to compete with all the other apps.
0:16:48Whereas right now, they get to be like the monolithic TV
0:16:51provider.
0:16:52And you don't have to use them, but a lot of consumers
0:16:54are just like, OK, they give me my TV.
0:16:57At least older consumers.
0:16:58I think younger consumers do not care about their TV services.
0:17:01But there's still a lot of money to be
0:17:04made in selling people cable instead of internet
0:17:08and then pick an app.
0:17:09- All right, buckle up, this one's a little bit confusing.
0:17:11Google announces YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.
0:17:15So they are separating the features of YouTube Red
0:17:18and they are now charging for them differently.
0:17:21So it will now cost you $9.99 a month to get YouTube Music.
0:17:26This was the existing price of YouTube Red.
0:17:30YouTube Red did come with some music features,
0:17:33like you got to be able to listen to YouTube
0:17:35in the background and stuff like that.
0:17:37but Google are now creating a YouTube music streaming service.
0:17:41It's going to be, have its own dedicated app for mobile and desktop.
0:17:46They are building a full on music streaming service now. Um,
0:17:51I am assuming Google play music is going to die, uh,
0:17:56because they are leaning into the powerful brands and the advantages of YouTube
0:18:00for this. Um, Google say then, and again, like this is how you can,
0:18:04I think you can read that is they say that they have the YouTube advantage is what they
0:18:10call it. This means that as well as official songs, right, so you get to listen to say
0:18:16the Taylor Swift album, you also have because it's YouTube access to thousands of remixes,
0:18:22covers, live versions and music videos. So that does make it quite interesting. This
0:18:27is something that Apple Music doesn't have and Spotify doesn't have because Google have.
0:18:32So say for example, if you like Pomplamoose and you like their covers, you can get them
0:18:39immediately because they're in YouTube, right?
0:18:42So also Google have or YouTube has a powerful search engine algorithm behind it.
0:18:48They give an example of you could search for that hipster song with the whistling and you
0:18:53would get the song "Young Folks" from a few years ago.
0:18:56This is an example that they give.
0:18:57I like that thought, right?
0:18:59And it makes sense because people are searching for this stuff right now in YouTube.
0:19:04So like YouTube's algorithm for finding this music is incredibly powerful.
0:19:09So that's going to be YouTube Music.
0:19:12If you want to get ad-free YouTube, the ability to download videos and get access to YouTube
0:19:17Originals or the YouTube Red stuff, you now need to pay a total of $11.99.
0:19:22You cannot have this separately.
0:19:24You must have a YouTube music subscription and then you can pay extra for YouTube Premium,
0:19:29which is an additional $2.
0:19:32However, if you are already a YouTube Red customer, you're grandfathered into the $9.99
0:19:37price.
0:19:38This will be for new customers only.
0:19:39I believe that it's rolling out this week.
0:19:41So if this sounds interesting to you and it hasn't rolled out in your territory, maybe
0:19:45go sign up for YouTube Red right now because you'll get it for $9.99.
0:19:50The big news for me is that YouTube Premium and YouTube Music is going international.
0:19:56Previously YouTube Red has been US only, so rolling out in the coming weeks to many countries
0:20:00including Germany, France, Mexico, Italy and the UK, we're going to be able to get YouTube
0:20:05Music and YouTube Premium.
0:20:07Now I am really interested in YouTube Music because of the additional features that YouTube
0:20:16has that nobody else has.
0:20:18I'm really keen to try this out because if they have all the songs that I want, they
0:20:23have playlists functionality, right?
0:20:24I'm assuming that they can do a lot of the like discover weekly type stuff, probably
0:20:28better than Apple can, maybe not as good as Spotify.
0:20:31We'll see.
0:20:32But the fact that they have all of this other content that they can give you around that
0:20:37musician and around that song, that is a competitive advantage that Spotify and Apple cannot match
0:20:43them on for now.
0:20:45And I think that's really cool.
0:20:46I think it sounds really interesting.
0:20:47I'm keen to see what the apps are like.
0:20:50But more than anything, I want to get YouTube Premium because I want to be able to download
0:20:54YouTube videos.
0:20:55I have a workflow that does this, but I'd prefer to not have to do this.
0:20:58I would like to be able to just watch them in the app, download them in the app, because
0:21:02I like to watch some video game streams that I like, for example, when I'm flying.
0:21:07It's such a pain to have to do the whole rigmarole.
0:21:12We paid for YouTube Red last summer for a couple of months.
0:21:15there was a trial and we did that
0:21:18because we were going on a long car trip
0:21:19and Julian wanted to download a bunch of his favorite,
0:21:23yeah, YouTube videos and watch them while we were,
0:21:26you know, in the middle of the Nevada desert, right?
0:21:28So streaming is not, it would kill our cellular
0:21:31even if he could and we don't want that.
0:21:33And we did that and that's okay.
0:21:34I'm fascinated by this because this shows you
0:21:37all the strength and all the confusion
0:21:39of Google's brands, right?
0:21:42Like first off, they tried to launch, you know,
0:21:44have a Google Music brand that is, that was originally famously Google Play Music All
0:21:49Access, the worst product name for, worst service name ever. They may keep that or they
0:21:56may kill that, right? But that is a traditional, if there can be such a thing, music streaming
0:22:01service like Apple Music. Yield Spotify. So there's that. And then there's YouTube. And
0:22:10And the funny thing is, I get it, I get it, right?
0:22:13YouTube is not a music brand in the sense that its name even is about video and we think
0:22:18about it about video.
0:22:19However, that hasn't stopped it from being one of the primary ways, if not the primary
0:22:24way that many people, especially younger people, listen to music.
0:22:28I think that YouTube is probably the biggest music platform on the planet.
0:22:32It's possible.
0:22:33My daughter listens to music on a music app.
0:22:36She's using Apple Music now, she used Spotify for a while and I said I upgraded us to the
0:22:40family plan for Apple Music and she has switched now because she has everything in there. But
0:22:44my son really likes listening to video game music and it's all on YouTube. He will literally
0:22:50just put his iPad playing YouTube music on his headphones while he plays video games,
0:22:56right? And I think this is a very common use case. We took a family trip this weekend and
0:23:00we brought one of my son's friends with me. You know, he came along and so then I had
0:23:06two of these boys in the back seat.
0:23:10And they're both doing this, right?
0:23:11Like this is just what that cohort is doing.
0:23:16And so on that level, it's like, yeah,
0:23:18I know you don't think of YouTube as a music brand,
0:23:20but it's actually an enormous music brand for some people.
0:23:23I think the danger of Google
0:23:25just killing their traditional music service
0:23:28would be that some people aren't going to ever see YouTube
0:23:32as a music brand.
0:23:33But the problem is those people
0:23:34are probably already using Spotify, right?
0:23:36Like I'm not sure, maybe choose what you're best at.
0:23:40And YouTube is what is best at doing music
0:23:42for within the Google portfolio.
0:23:44So just leaning into that, I kinda like that idea.
0:23:48It's gonna be, right?
0:23:49Like not every service is for everybody.
0:23:51Your description of all of the advantages
0:23:54that YouTube has in terms of all the content
0:23:57that's around that, the ancillary content,
0:23:59that's the stuff that I listened to once
0:24:00and never wanna listen to again.
0:24:02So for me, I'm like, I don't care about that.
0:24:05I'm also really skeptical of, because of Google in general,
0:24:10that they're really gonna be able to do something
0:24:13like a discover playlist or curated playlist
0:24:16because that's not them, they're algorithm-based
0:24:19and I'm not entirely sure I trust their algorithms
0:24:21to actually give me, over having some human participation
0:24:25in the curation.
0:24:26But again, that's a style thing.
0:24:27Like for other people, you just trust the,
0:24:29I mean, when I think about using YouTube,
0:24:31you kind of trust the algorithm, right?
0:24:33Like, oh, look at these videos.
0:24:34how many times do you play a YouTube video
0:24:37and then you see like five interesting videos
0:24:39that are generated by the algorithm, right?
0:24:41So there is something to be said for that.
0:24:44And so that's all good.
0:24:45That's all good.
0:24:46I think as weird as it is as an old to look at this
0:24:49and be like YouTube music service, it makes sense.
0:24:51It totally makes sense if you understand what YouTube is
0:24:55in terms of being a music delivery platform
0:24:57for especially young people.
0:25:00My problem is the video stuff.
0:25:02'Cause I feel like YouTube Red was weird
0:25:06because it was like all these YouTube features
0:25:08plus premium content.
0:25:10And of course they've changed
0:25:11their premium content strategy too,
0:25:13where they were like working with YouTubers
0:25:16and now they're still working with YouTubers,
0:25:17but they also have like traditional-
0:25:19- It's mostly celebrities now.
0:25:20- Right, right.
0:25:21And "Cobra Kai" is just an original series, right?
0:25:24They're trying out an entirely,
0:25:27just an original scripted series.
0:25:29So that's the part that kind of,
0:25:31I feel like they're getting their music story together,
0:25:34their video story is still just kind of a mess
0:25:36because I look at this and I think, well, wait a second,
0:25:38so you can't get it separately.
0:25:39So you have to get a music service
0:25:41in order to get the extra features and the video content,
0:25:45which that seems like a mistake to me.
0:25:48So the YouTube music seems like a service
0:25:53that will actually stick
0:25:54after them trying all these different things.
0:25:58I would probably lay money that YouTube Premium
0:26:01is gonna change dramatically in the next couple of years
0:26:05'cause I'm not sure it actually works or makes any sense.
0:26:07It's more like they need a place to stuff
0:26:09a bunch of these things.
0:26:11And why you would not just put the,
0:26:14I mean, like the downloading videos and stuff,
0:26:16it's like, you got people paying you money,
0:26:18maybe you want an extra $2 a month,
0:26:20you're Google, you want an extra $2 a month
0:26:22for somebody who's already paying you,
0:26:24maybe you should just let them have that feature.
0:26:27Ad-free is weird.
0:26:28It's fine, but of course, staking anything on AdFree
0:26:31is always strange because you have a relationship
0:26:33with advertisers, and now you're telling them
0:26:36that we have this hardcore group of people
0:26:38who you can't reach, which is also a little bit weird.
0:26:41And then you've got the premium content.
0:26:43So I'm not sure they've got a whole story there.
0:26:46But then again, I could also say maybe Google saying,
0:26:50"Look, we're not gonna build our own video streaming service
0:26:54outside of YouTube, and we're not,
0:26:57just like we probably shouldn't have built
0:26:58our own music streaming service outside of YouTube
0:27:01because we own YouTube and we're just gonna be YouTube
0:27:04as much as we possibly can.
0:27:06And I can really see that argument.
0:27:08I feel like the end result may be that they realize
0:27:12that generating all of this premium content,
0:27:14whether it was with YouTubers or then celebrities
0:27:16or then they bought this scripted show,
0:27:19they may realize, no, that's not us.
0:27:21And just kind of back away from there.
0:27:23But it's hard.
0:27:25You can see Apple couldn't resist it.
0:27:26It's hard to sit on the sidelines as a tech giant
0:27:29and see Netflix and see what Amazon's doing
0:27:32and how Apple's doing it and be Google and like,
0:27:34but I really wanna compete with those guys.
0:27:37It's like, but you've got YouTube,
0:27:38you don't need to compete with those guys.
0:27:40You've got this huge video,
0:27:41but I kinda wanna spend billions of dollars
0:27:43on original scripted content.
0:27:45Maybe not, maybe don't do that, but who knows?
0:27:49I don't know, it's fascinating.
0:27:51I'm tired of YouTube and Google
0:27:53keeping changing all of their things
0:27:56and what they are, it's so confusing and weird.
0:27:58But with the music thing anyway,
0:28:00I feel like they maybe found the right approach,
0:28:02which is just to embrace that YouTube is a music brand too,
0:28:06and just lean all the way in.
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0:29:37So I have built a gaming PC. This is something that I've been talking about throughout the
0:29:43year and I have done it. Um, and it's making me, it's given me a couple of things that
0:29:48I want to talk to you about, Jason.
0:29:50If you are interested in hearing the process of me building the PC, I will do some follow-out
0:29:56to episode 58 of remaster and episode 69 of Cortex, which will be released within 24 hours
0:30:05of this show being posted, so you can look out for those.
0:30:08I kind of go into detail about the actual building process, but I didn't want to talk
0:30:14about that so much here today.
0:30:16I wanted to talk about some of my experiences of using a PC again after, well for one, not
0:30:24having really used a PC at all for four years and not used a PC for like entertainment or
0:30:31my own choice for like ten years maybe?
0:30:38Before I got my first Mac, more than that, nearly 15, who knows.
0:30:41So I have a few different areas, Jason, that I wanted to talk to you about. App stores
0:30:48is probably the one of the most interesting. The Windows App Store is barren. It is bad.
0:30:58It's kind of like the Mac App Store in that there isn't really a lot there, but Microsoft
0:31:03tries to position it. There is, I have to say this because I can't get it, there's a
0:31:07huge storm here happening right now in London. I have to mention it right now because you're
0:31:11to keep hearing it. I nearly, my brain nearly exploded a minute ago because of some lightning.
0:31:16I edited that out of the show. But there is, there's a storm. I'm sorry. There's nothing
0:31:20I can do to control the world. That's exactly it. That was an accurate representation of
0:31:27what just happened outside of my office. But anyway, so, you know, the Mac App Store is
0:31:31a lonely place, right? And the Windows App Store is kind of like that. There are some
0:31:35apps there, there are some utilities there, but most of the stuff that's there, it's not
0:31:39really that useful or updated that often because there's just not a lot of focus put there
0:31:44by Apple and I don't think there's been a lot of focus there by Microsoft. But the thing
0:31:48is about the Windows App Store, that is the App Store for all of their devices, right?
0:31:54So you can still get Windows Phone apps and then there's tablet apps and then there's
0:31:57the desktop apps. And if you think of it in comparison to the iOS App Store, it's not
0:32:04good. Like, I downloaded the official Twitter app. It's just the webpage. Like, that's all
0:32:12it is. It is literally the webpage. You can't even have multiple accounts in the official
0:32:17Twitter app on Windows. All it is is the webpage. It's not good there. And I think this is why
0:32:24they announced this a couple of weeks ago, right, at Build, their revenue split change.
0:32:29So they're doing like 95% goes to developers now.
0:32:35It can be up to between 85 and 90%, 95% of the revenue goes to developers.
0:32:40And this is a clear thing from them where they really want people to use their apps
0:32:45at like their app store and to use their functions and to actually put stuff there.
0:32:49But there is another side of the Windows App Store, which is games.
0:32:55So like any Xbox exclusive is on the Microsoft Store for PC.
0:33:01This is the reason I bought it and this shows the big difference, right?
0:33:05You can get games in the Mac App Store, but they're like okay games or they're older games.
0:33:11This is anything.
0:33:12Like games that come out now on Xbox I can get on my PC, as well as being able to get
0:33:18anything from Steam.
0:33:20all these PC games and VR games are available to me, which is why I built this PC in the
0:33:25first place. And like that's the big difference, right? Like Apple has apps, Microsoft has
0:33:31games and depending on what you are more focused towards, I think that's these days why you
0:33:37would make the decision that you would make, right? Would you agree with that?
0:33:41Yeah, I think so.
0:33:42So I also wanted to talk about just the overall feel today still, because I think Windows
0:33:48Windows 10, Windows 10 looks nicer than any version of Windows I've used in the past.
0:33:53Have you used Windows 10 at all?
0:33:55Yeah, I have it installed on my iMac actually because I do have, of course, I do have games
0:34:02that I want to play that are only available on Windows. And so I set up boot camp, I went
0:34:06to the, I went to my local Microsoft store, I walked in the door, I had to make my way
0:34:11through the massive crowds that were outside the Apple store. And then went, walked with
0:34:17a tumbleweed blowing by into the Microsoft Store. I'm sorry, we kid Microsoft, but those
0:34:21stores don't have very many people in them. I had like two, three people who are like,
0:34:25"Oh, yes, sir. I wanted to touch that Surface thing, the big Surface Studio thing." And
0:34:30I couldn't even use it for a minute before I had two people pop up to me saying, "Yes,
0:34:34sir. Can I help you with anything?" I'm like, "Oh, man." Anyway, I bought a Windows 10 install
0:34:38on a little USB stick and used boot camp and got it all up and running on my iMac. So I
0:34:45I do have it and I have used it.
0:34:47It's a little weird because like I learned
0:34:50how to use Windows XP, right?
0:34:54That's the Windows that I like.
0:34:56I know my way around in Windows XP
0:34:58and Windows 10 is like, it's so strange
0:35:00and like things are in corners
0:35:03and there are little tabs and little blue things everywhere.
0:35:06And it's a little, it takes a lot of getting used to,
0:35:08but it looks great.
0:35:09It is the result of Microsoft taking care
0:35:13with their platform.
0:35:14but what I like is on the face of it everything looks way nicer but you do not have to go
0:35:19very far down to get Windows 95 back.
0:35:21Oh yeah.
0:35:22Like so you can go into the control panel right and everything's much more nicely designed
0:35:26and you click it and you can select from these little icons as soon as you click like properties
0:35:30on anything you get Windows 95 pop up right with all the tabs and it's like no this is
0:35:36not it's only skin deep this this this change.
0:35:41I think their philosophy is like, they want to float up all the stuff that most people
0:35:47care about to this one level, and it's a very nice level. And then if you want to tweak
0:35:51anything, they're like, "All right, forget it. Here you go. You're one of those people.
0:35:56Dig down deep." And yeah, it's hard. You can't change it all overnight. And so yeah, there's
0:36:02still a whole level below the surface. Because it's still Windows, right? It still fundamentally
0:36:08is Windows, it needs to do the things that Windows does and that also means that it has
0:36:11to have all of these kind of weird areas and tweaky settings and things. Things that seem
0:36:15perfectly normal probably to a Windows user but that to a Mac user you're like, "Whoa,
0:36:20okay, now what do I have to do?" Yeah.
0:36:22- But like, you know, in surprise to nobody, like, if overall look and feel and polish
0:36:28is what you like, the Mac OS is like, I almost, I feel like I had forgotten or like not paid
0:36:36attention for a while to just like the overall look and feel of desktop operating systems.
0:36:42I appreciate the way my Mac looks a lot more now that I've used Windows. Like Windows looks
0:36:47so much better than it ever has. Yes. But it's still not not I mean I'm sorry if you
0:36:52love Windows but like for my tastes it is still nowhere near what the Mac is. Like just
0:36:57from a visual consistency perspective like everything kind of looks the same. You know
0:37:03like there are elements of basically all Mac apps unless they're like Windows
0:37:08first like Steam for example right that like all Mac apps kind of have a look to
0:37:13them and all of the OS kind of has a consistent look to it and this
0:37:17consistency doesn't really seem to exist in Windows so much and I know that that
0:37:21is like a thing of Windows right so like I wanted to talk about custom
0:37:28customizability a little bit right like it's almost endless on Windows you can
0:37:32It comes from the build, right?
0:37:35You choose every piece of hardware you want, you make your own thing,
0:37:38which I think is amazing.
0:37:40Like I've loved doing that, like making my own PC and the software as well.
0:37:44Like it's all kind of, you're putting it all together on your own, but what
0:37:47that lends itself to, uh, is real kind of mess in places, right?
0:37:56because things just don't, they just don't
0:38:00like map together so well at times,
0:38:04you know, like apps just look so wildly different sometimes.
0:38:07- And I don't wanna beat up Windows here,
0:38:10but I do think that, and everybody can like what they like,
0:38:13but I think there is a trend in the media,
0:38:16especially the tech media, to give Microsoft kind of a pass
0:38:21because it's made so many improvements,
0:38:24which again, to be congratulated,
0:38:25Microsoft used to not care basically
0:38:28about user experience and design.
0:38:30And they clearly do care and they are trying their best.
0:38:33But I will also say, going back to the Mac OS thing,
0:38:36like there are people out there I read now
0:38:39who straight faced say Microsoft has passed Apple on desktop
0:38:44in terms of usability, in terms of design.
0:38:46- They haven't, like I want a masterclass from those people.
0:38:51Those, I think, and again, they are using Windows a lot,
0:38:56so maybe they are seeing it and I just haven't gotten it,
0:38:58but I look at it and I think,
0:39:00you don't use your computer as much as you used to
0:39:04because you're using smartphones,
0:39:06you are taken in by how much they've improved.
0:39:10And so here's a fun narrative
0:39:12because horse race narratives are fun.
0:39:14And this is like, oh, now Microsoft has edged,
0:39:16ha ha, the shoe is on the other foot.
0:39:17No, Apple, Microsoft is beat.
0:39:20I just, I don't think it actually bears up
0:39:23other than to say like,
0:39:24it's got a bunch of touchscreen stuff
0:39:25that of course Apple doesn't even do.
0:39:27And if you're interacting in that mode,
0:39:28it is very nice on that level,
0:39:32they've built it for that.
0:39:33And, but anyway, I question that.
0:39:36And then when you go to the other apps,
0:39:37this is the other thing is when I was saying like apps
0:39:41or like Microsoft is committed to improving windows,
0:39:44like Microsoft app developers,
0:39:46Windows app developers, not as committed,
0:39:50not as committed.
0:39:51So my story here is that I have a friend
0:39:55who is a podcaster and a podcast editor,
0:39:58and I have her do some podcasts, everything for me,
0:40:02and she and her husband have a podcast consulting business.
0:40:07- Just give it a plug.
0:40:07- Podcast and work with people.
0:40:09It's called Castria, it's Erica Ensign and Steven Shipanski.
0:40:13and they are at, I think it's wearcastria.com,
0:40:18and I think that is a redirect. - Yep, I got it.
0:40:21- Anyway, so she's a PC user, he's a Mac user,
0:40:24and we were talking about recording audio and video,
0:40:27and I was talking about Audio Hijack.
0:40:29And I'm like, what would be the equivalent on Windows?
0:40:34And there's a program called Total Recorder.
0:40:37And I called up the Total Recorder website,
0:40:39and first off, they make it kind of hard
0:40:40to see what Total Recorder looks like,
0:40:41which I find suspicious fundamentally, like,
0:40:45you want me to buy your software
0:40:48and you won't show me your software?
0:40:49That's, I'm a little concerned about that.
0:40:52But I feel like it is the perfect example
0:40:54of the difference between the Mac and Windows,
0:40:55which is call record, or not call recorder, audio hijack.
0:40:59It's got these little round wrecked, you know,
0:41:03little squares with rounded off corners
0:41:05that you build like a little workflow
0:41:07and it's got a whole bunch of different functions
0:41:08and you can do all of this stuff
0:41:10and you press the button and it lights up
0:41:13and all of this stuff.
0:41:14And then there's like Total Recorder,
0:41:16which again, seems like a very functional,
0:41:18useful app for recording audio and video on Windows.
0:41:22But to look at it,
0:41:24it does not feel like the modern version of Windows
0:41:29that Microsoft would like us to think about for Windows 10.
0:41:31It feels like a PC app from the Windows 95 era,
0:41:37which is a whole bunch of rectangles and functions and menus,
0:41:42and it's confusing.
0:41:43And again, fair enough.
0:41:46If it's functional, people are gonna use it,
0:41:48and apparently it is functional.
0:41:51But I had that moment where I was like,
0:41:53"Oh yeah, Windows, right, yeah."
0:41:55- So you know you were talking about usability, right?
0:42:00I just think that one of the biggest arguments
0:42:03against usability is drivers.
0:42:06the problems I have been having with drivers.
0:42:10And so like drivers are what you need to install
0:42:12to make basically everything work.
0:42:13A lot of them install automatically,
0:42:15but a lot of them don't.
0:42:16So I have a little audio interface
0:42:19called the Tascam 2x2.
0:42:21It's just a simple audio interface
0:42:22that I've had for a while.
0:42:23If I plug it into my Mac, it just works.
0:42:25I can plug my XLR microphone in, it's a USB interface.
0:42:29Work straight away, no problem.
0:42:31It needs drivers on Windows to work.
0:42:33So you plug it in, you have to download drivers
0:42:35from Tascam's website.
0:42:36And then I plugged it, I had to,
0:42:41my mouse stopped working,
0:42:42I needed a new driver for my mouse.
0:42:44When I installed the driver for my mouse,
0:42:45my Tascam audio interface stopped working.
0:42:48Then I had to download older versions
0:42:51of the Tascam driver until it worked again.
0:42:53And I feel like I am constantly playing this
0:42:57like game of Jenga with drivers.
0:42:59Like it's wild.
0:43:01Like it's, I just like, you install one
0:43:04then one stops working and then you have to update one and another stops working and then
0:43:08this one didn't auto update so you have to like on the Mac you just plug and unplug things
0:43:13and they work right sometimes you need software but you just need software right and the software
0:43:18does its thing but by and large you don't.
0:43:20And this is this is Apple's advantage of having I've dealt with this Myke with the hackintosh
0:43:25stuff right because it's the same thing Apple builds all its own hardware and it builds
0:43:29its OS, and the OS supports all the hardware that's in every Mac that is, this is where
0:43:35compatibility comes from in large part, OS compatibility is like, they have to cover
0:43:40every system, every OS that is covered, every device that is covered, compatibility, the
0:43:45OS has to have all the drivers for all the hardware that Apple has ever shipped for those
0:43:50devices, which is hard, but it does mean that every device has the drivers all the time,
0:43:58not a problem. And then, yeah, when you do the hackintosh stuff, it's the same thing,
0:44:04where like, either, "Oh, it doesn't do Wi-Fi," because there's no driver for that. Or there's
0:44:10like, "Well, you can take this driver and you can install it, but you have to kind of
0:44:14hack this file and then you do this and you install it and then restart and set this BIOS
0:44:18setting, and then it'll work." And doing that, it reminded me like, "Oh yeah, hardware doesn't
0:44:25just work. There's software that has to talk to it and Apple takes care of that whole,
0:44:30like, thing. You just never have to worry about it. And then if you're building your
0:44:33own PC, no, you've got to do it yourself. Which, I mean, to be fair, you are building
0:44:38your own PC, but it is a reminder of how good we got it.
0:44:41I would still have to do some, but I wouldn't have to install as many if I was just buying
0:44:45something off the shelf. But there's stuff I would still need, but not as many as I have
0:44:50needed. But, like, this is just, though, like, I find this frustrating, but it's the flip
0:44:54side of the thing that I like so I'm willing to accept it and what I like is the customizability
0:44:58of it. I have built a PC to my own specification to mean that it is as powerful as I want it to be
0:45:04and it has all of the features that I want. I appreciate what Windows can do for me. It is
0:45:09allowing me to do a thing that I really want to do, gaming on the PC and streaming games, that I
0:45:16couldn't do any other way. That's why I'm happy with it and I love my PC because it's my PC,
0:45:22I built it, right? And everything else is like, well, the software is just the software.
0:45:28It's just a bridge for me to get to the games. Like I'm not sitting and doing my work on
0:45:33this PC and that's not going to change because I like Mac OS for that stuff. But all I have
0:45:37to do is like, yes, it takes time to manage it. It does take time to manage it, but I'm
0:45:42willing to do that management because I am getting ultimately what I want out of this,
0:45:47which is the ability to play literally any PC game around.
0:45:53So, I think you've crystallized perfectly what I learned after much pain over many years
0:46:01is the fundamental difference, I think, between people who are enthusiastic about Macs and
0:46:07people who are enthusiastic about PCs. It's a little bit like this with iOS and Android,
0:46:12but it's really about this with the...
0:46:13There are parallels there, for sure.
0:46:15Not PC users in general because there are a vast number of PC users and the
0:46:20vast number of them, the vast percentage, are not PC enthusiasts, right? A lot of them
0:46:26don't care about their computer, it's just the computer that they have. They
0:46:29literally don't care and I would argue that's what the that nice bright, you
0:46:33know, blue shiny layer on Windows 10 is it's for them, right? They hopefully will
0:46:39never see the layer underneath that that's still a little bit ugly and
0:46:43Tweaky but what you said is exactly right which is I think the PC enthusiasts
0:46:49never understood that Mac users even if they were enthusiasts what they were
0:46:57enthusiastic about is that Apple kind of like took care of all those issues and
0:47:01like those are issues we don't care about
0:47:03I don't want to be bothered with them I want to move this way whereas if you're
0:47:07viewing the world as I can make a computer by buying parts and assembling
0:47:11them and then I get all the software and I put that together and I can make the
0:47:15perfect computer for me because I chose the parts, I chose the software, I
0:47:19installed it all myself, I made this computer. That is fun for some people, it
0:47:28is an accomplishment, it is a thing that you now have that is for you, made by you
0:47:33to your specifications. That's all great and that is the that is a divide, right?
0:47:38Because I think from the Apple side, and again, I don't want to generalize because there are people
0:47:43who don't care and there are people who actually wish that you could do that stuff on on Macs and
0:47:48have always been. But I look at that and I'm like, "Yeah, I don't want to do that." It's that simple.
0:47:53It's like, "Well, wait a second. You say you're a tech person and you like computers and you like
0:47:58knowing stuff about computers. Why would you not want to build your own PC and install your own
0:48:03drivers. And for me, that's always been the disconnect, which is because that sounds awful
0:48:09and I don't want to do it. I'd rather spend my time on something else. But it's not invalid
0:48:14to say that is fun to do that. I kind of had fun building the two kind of Hackintosh projects
0:48:20that I've done. I had fun doing them for certain definitions of fun, and certainly felt a sense
0:48:29of accomplishment that I got these things to work, but also realizing that it wasn't
0:48:35for everyone and that I wasn't going to judge somebody for not wanting to do that, because
0:48:40I myself also kind of don't want to do that on an ongoing basis. But like in the end,
0:48:44you got the thing that you wanted and you made it yourself and that's great.
0:48:47Yeah, I'm, and I'll tell you, I'm very happy. Like, I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole
0:48:53a little bit right now but I expected that to happen because I don't know anything about this
0:49:00world right of like building a gaming PC and maintaining it and getting it to where I want
0:49:06it to be you know like I'm doing a bunch of things where I'm like buying this part but that was the
0:49:10wrong part or like going down this direction oh no I made a mistake here like for example I have
0:49:16have a HDMI monitor, right? And I just bought an Oculus. But the hate I only have one HDMI
0:49:22port and the Oculus needs that. So now what do I do? Right? So like, okay, maybe I need
0:49:29to get an adapter. You gotta buy a different right? You gotta buy a different video card
0:49:33or some video card or buy a different monitor like a DisplayPort monitor because my graphics
0:49:38card has one HDMI and three DisplayPorts on it. It's like, okay, and a lot of the gaming
0:49:44monitors run by DisplayPort. So like there's just all these things where it's like, I didn't
0:49:48know that. Here's the thing I learned. And this is and mostly most of my frustrations
0:49:53come from the fact that I don't know any of this and I'm learning it. And that's part
0:49:58of whilst it can be frustrating. It's also part of a valuable experience for me because
0:50:04I feel like I have not learned something in consumer technology for a very long time.
0:50:08Right? Like I feel like most of the stuff that I use, I know and I know how it works
0:50:13and I know what I need to know to make it work the way I want.
0:50:16And this is like a whole different world to me.
0:50:18It's opening up, which I'm which I'm excited about.
0:50:20It's great.
0:50:21But it's led me to think of something else, Jason,
0:50:23that I wanted to talk to you about, and that's ecosystems.
0:50:26But before we do that, let me thank Linode for their support of this show.
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0:51:20And here's a great offer for you. If you go to linode.com/upgrade, that's l-i-n-o-d-e.com/upgrade,
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0:51:32that will give you 4 free months to try out. They have a 7 day money back guarantee so
0:51:36there's nothing to lose. And if you go to linode.com/upgrade you'll learn more, sign
0:51:41up take advantage of that totally little credit and support this show in the process. You
0:51:45can also use the promo code upgrade 2018 at checkout. Our thanks to Linode for their support
0:51:50of this show and Relay FM. And everything I do. Everything Jason does. Because that's
0:51:58where all of my stuff is is on a Linode server so yay. So in trying to get a PC set up I've
0:52:05been focusing a little bit on ecosystems because there's been some stuff that I've been doing
0:52:09where like if I have my iPhone and I need to get something from my iPhone to my Mac
0:52:14or my Mac to my iPhone, it's pretty easy to do that. You know, like the continuity stuff,
0:52:20I do use some of it. Like I use the copy and paste or you know, I'll use the notes app
0:52:24or something like that. And that stuff obviously doesn't work with my PC. Right? I can't do
0:52:31that. That doesn't work so well. There are some ways to bridge the gaps, right? Like
0:52:34I have one password on everything. I can get Dropbox and everything, that kind of stuff.
0:52:38But it's nowhere near as seamless.
0:52:41So it kind of got me to thinking about the ecosystems that are out there and the ecosystems
0:52:45that we are in.
0:52:46I would say that whilst I own a PC, I'm definitely not in the Microsoft ecosystem because it's
0:52:51the only piece, it's the only Microsoft product that I own.
0:52:54And honestly, I'm using Google services and Steam and everything else, right?
0:53:00So I'm still in the other ecosystems that I'm a part of, but Microsoft's PC is a conduit
0:53:04to that.
0:53:05So I would say that I think we're pretty similar in the main ecosystems that we're a part of
0:53:09are Apple, Google, and Amazon.
0:53:11Right, and I think this is a way where we may diverge from some of our listeners, and
0:53:15it's something that I always keep in mind that it is, I think a lot of our listeners
0:53:19are probably just in the Apple ecosystem or primarily in the Apple ecosystem, and there
0:53:24are plenty who aren't, but it is something that I think about from time to time, but
0:53:30it's like, I don't know, it's just never been, I've always kind of like tried out these different
0:53:34services and sort of mixed and matched and I like that about it. But it's not for everyone.
0:53:40And it is in many ways inconvenient, right, to do that because the convenience of being
0:53:46in an ecosystem is that it's all just there and you just use all of it and you never have
0:53:52to think about it. And it's the same idea of people who go into the Apple Store and
0:53:56they buy everything at the Apple Store, all the accessories and everything like that.
0:54:01or what we were talking about airports a while ago,
0:54:04like buying a wifi base station from Apple,
0:54:07you could probably get one somewhere else,
0:54:09but you'd have to shop for it and all those things.
0:54:12And it's like, no, I'm just gonna get the Apple one, right?
0:54:14Like it's all from the one vendor.
0:54:16It's gonna be easier to set it all up.
0:54:18And so there are some, it's super convenient,
0:54:20but you kind of pay for it.
0:54:22And that's the power of the ecosystem.
0:54:25But yeah, I'm like you, every now and then
0:54:28I write about Apple or I write something about Google or Amazon, I will get an accusation
0:54:34that's like, "Well, yeah, but you just care about Apple stuff." And it's like, "I don't
0:54:38know. I've got a lot of Google stuff and I got a lot of Amazon stuff. I am a heavy user
0:54:47of the Google ecosystem."
0:54:50There are many advantages to picking a company and sticking to that company. Because the
0:54:56The products all work together and there's sometimes less,
0:54:59- Sure. - Like just mental baggage.
0:55:01So for example, I find myself constantly triggering
0:55:05my HomePod, well, trying to trigger my HomePod,
0:55:08I should say, for music, but I actually trigger the Echo.
0:55:12So I'm asking my HomePod to play something,
0:55:14but in my mind, the Echo trigger word
0:55:17is how you talk to a computer.
0:55:20'Cause that's what my mind has been trained to.
0:55:23So that is like a mental baggage for me to remember,
0:55:25oh no, I have to ask the HomePod in the HomePod's way,
0:55:29not talk to the Echo in the Echo's way.
0:55:31But if I was all in on Siri for this,
0:55:34then this wouldn't be so much of a problem for me.
0:55:37So this can be some of the issues,
0:55:39as well as just the fact that, you know,
0:55:41if you use such and such company services,
0:55:44it can be difficult to get it to integrate with another.
0:55:46Right? Like if you use iCloud for your mail,
0:55:50it works fantastically in mail.
0:55:52But if you use Google, there's things that you miss.
0:55:54You don't get push notifications on iOS.
0:55:56They're all delayed.
0:55:57There are a bunch of things that can start to get tricky.
0:56:00But me and you use Apple, Google, Amazon products.
0:56:06Why?
0:56:07Why do you do that?
0:56:08Why do you use products from multiple companies
0:56:11when most of these products,
0:56:13there is something comparable in every individual ecosystem?
0:56:18- So for me, it's always the idea
0:56:20that I want the best product.
0:56:24And sometimes it's the first product, that's true,
0:56:26but I always want the best product.
0:56:28And I don't care who it comes from on some level,
0:56:33if it's the best.
0:56:34I'm not gonna get, and this is, again,
0:56:37people make, everybody makes their own decisions,
0:56:39but every now and then, over the years,
0:56:41I've gotten asked like, why do you use this
0:56:43and not what Apple does?
0:56:44And my answer is, 'cause Apple stuff isn't as good.
0:56:46And like, and there is this implication like,
0:56:49but you have Apple stuff,
0:56:51so you should just use Apple stuff.
0:56:52and that's very powerful and it can be there are reasons you go that way but
0:56:56for me it was always like no I'm not gonna use iCloud mail I'm not gonna use
0:57:03iCloud Drive it's better now right but I still don't use it I still use Dropbox
0:57:08I've got one drive I still use Dropbox right like I think it's the best one for
0:57:14me and I use Gmail I use Google Docs I could use I can use Microsoft stuff for
0:57:21document sharing, I could use Apple stuff for document sharing. I don't. I just
0:57:26don't. And some of that is because I made a choice a while ago and there's
0:57:30kind of inertia there, but at some point I made the choice that this is better.
0:57:36I'm going to use it. I don't care that it's in the other ecosystem. One of the
0:57:41things that Google does that really makes it easy to also be in Google's
0:57:45ecosystem is Google doesn't, it's actually kind of like at various points in the Microsoft/Apple
0:57:53relationship where Microsoft didn't care if you used a Mac, even when Microsoft was killing
0:57:58the Mac in the mid to late 90s, the analysis that was done at several points was that Microsoft
0:58:05might actually make more money off of the average Mac sale than the average PC sale,
0:58:11it had to do with the percentage of Macs that had Microsoft Office installed on them. And
0:58:16if you think this is the cost of a seat of Microsoft Office and it's this percentage,
0:58:20then you realize like for every Mac sold, there is a certain percentage of a seat of
0:58:27Office that goes along with it. And you start to do the math and you're like, oh yeah, actually,
0:58:32like Microsoft wouldn't want to lose half the market to Apple, but the segment of the
0:58:37market that's buying Macs is also buying Microsoft products and so Microsoft's fine with it.
0:58:41Google's like that, right?
0:58:42- Google's even more so, right?
0:58:44They will put everything on everything.
0:58:47- I have to say, I mean, and again,
0:58:49maybe these aren't the exact right words,
0:58:52but the feeling I get is that Google does not care
0:58:56if you buy an iPhone or an Android phone.
0:58:58They want Android to be good.
0:59:00It is super important for them.
0:59:02It is a, you know, they get to control huge parts
0:59:05of the user base by doing that.
0:59:07And we can debate, you know,
0:59:09what they're doing with that data and all of that.
0:59:11But one of the reasons Android exists at all is that Google got really concerned that Apple
0:59:16figured it out and they were going to take over the smartphone market.
0:59:21And that would potentially shut out Google from people who use smartphones, and that
0:59:24was bad.
0:59:25They've ended up as essentially the Microsoft at the smartphone market.
0:59:28But I would say the same thing applies, which is Google doesn't care.
0:59:31Google doesn't care if you use iPads in schools instead of Chromebooks.
0:59:34You know why?
0:59:35Most of those iPads are using Google Classroom.
0:59:36of those iPhones, or at least many of those iPhones, it's very easy to use Google Maps,
0:59:43and you can use Chrome, and you can use all the Google services, you can use Gmail, you
0:59:47can use Google Docs and Sheets, and all of that stuff is on iOS too. So they're like,
0:59:54"Fine." And so they make it easy. They make it easy for you to use anything. And on computers,
1:00:00right, they're in the web browser. So they're like, "Yeah, you can use..." That's how they
1:00:06got big is that they lived in your web browser and it didn't matter whether
1:00:09you're running Windows or Mac because you were just in a web browser and
1:00:12that's how Google built their success. So it's it's really easy to be an Apple
1:00:17hardware user and in Google's ecosystem and I'm one of those people I mean I
1:00:23really am I am mostly using Google stuff rather than Apple stuff for the places
1:00:30the services where they compete directly like I you know pages is a an app that
1:00:34that remains in my application folder, but I don't use it.
1:00:39I also have the Microsoft stuff and I use that.
1:00:41I mean, I use numbers and Excel for different things.
1:00:46And I use Keynote, but not PowerPoint
1:00:48because I don't work in a big company
1:00:50that requires PowerPoint anymore.
1:00:51And I use Google docs and I use Google sheets.
1:00:53So I don't know, I'm all over the place.
1:00:56- And I think for both me and you,
1:01:00there is obviously an element of we use this stuff
1:01:03so we can try and remain informed.
1:01:06But in doing that, we do also find new things that we like.
1:01:10We both have home pods but prefer our echoes
1:01:15for the majority of things that a smart speaker can do.
1:01:18But I do also think that within the remit
1:01:21that you can as an individual to try and try out new things,
1:01:26to make sure that you are aware of what's out there, right?
1:01:29- Yes.
1:01:30- And this can even just be the case of like,
1:01:31if you want to buy a new product, do some research about what's available rather than
1:01:36just buying or using the product or service that is provided by the company that you've
1:01:42always used from.
1:01:44Because like, so for example, like Apple Notes is a great example of this, right?
1:01:48Like Apple Notes was terrible, so bad for so long and would have been really easy for
1:01:54us to just ignore.
1:01:55But when they showed off the new Apple Notes in like iOS 9 or 10 and it looked really good
1:02:01it could have been easier to just be like,
1:02:03they can't do this.
1:02:04Like it's gonna suck and it's gonna lose all my data.
1:02:06But I tried it and I was like,
1:02:07oh no, this is actually the best one available
1:02:09for me right now.
1:02:10You know?
1:02:11- Yeah.
1:02:12I think there is,
1:02:14if you're like us and you're communicating with people
1:02:17about this stuff,
1:02:19it is, you're not doing anybody any favors
1:02:22by only knowing what one company is doing.
1:02:27Because, and this is always a conundrum
1:02:31when you're talking about technology stuff.
1:02:32Like my job largely is not and has never been
1:02:37to constantly justify choosing Apple stuff
1:02:44over the competition.
1:02:45Like I've never been in that world.
1:02:49My job is to serve the people who are using Apple's products
1:02:54by telling them what is good and what is bad,
1:02:58whether it's Apple or not, right?
1:03:00But that is, and there's a difference there.
1:03:02Like, cause, cause this happens all the time when you write about the iPhone
1:03:04and somebody says, Why didn't you mention that Android is better?
1:03:07It's like, whatever.
1:03:09Or why didn't you mention windows is better when you write about the Mac?
1:03:12It's like, okay, Mac world always back in the day, I was like, this
1:03:15is not a site about switching.
1:03:16We're not going to constantly have that debate.
1:03:19We're speaking to people who've made that choice about all the
1:03:21other choices they're making.
1:03:22But this is the, but my point is what you don't want to do is say,
1:03:28Apple's got this amazing thing,
1:03:31not knowing that that thing already existed
1:03:33from five different vendors and Apple's playing catch up.
1:03:37Ideally, you have a context where you can say,
1:03:39"That's amazing for things that are truly amazing,
1:03:41and that's catch up for things that are truly
1:03:44Apple being behind and catching up to the crowd."
1:03:47And that is sometimes hard,
1:03:50because sometimes it's an area
1:03:51that you going into a keynote or something
1:03:53you don't know a lot about,
1:03:54and Apple announces something and you're like,
1:03:55"Oh, that's pretty cool."
1:03:57and then you have to look around and be like,
1:03:58"Is this new or is this..."
1:04:00And sometimes the answer is, "Yeah, that's actually new."
1:04:02And people who are using the competition are like,
1:04:04"Oh, that's really interesting."
1:04:06And other times it's like,
1:04:06"Oh, well, they finally got there."
1:04:08But ideally, if you're trying this stuff out,
1:04:09then you can sit there and you can say,
1:04:11"All right, they advanced the ball."
1:04:13Or you can say, "All right, well,
1:04:14they just caught up with Google there,"
1:04:15or, "They caught up with Amazon there."
1:04:17And it's important to know that, right?
1:04:20To not be missing that larger story.
1:04:26And I think it makes for better conversation
1:04:30and it makes for better analysis
1:04:31when you know the bigger picture.
1:04:35And it always disappoints me
1:04:36when I see somebody writing about Apple announcing something
1:04:40and treating it like it's this amazing new thing
1:04:44when I know that somebody else did it two years ago.
1:04:48Because that's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
1:04:50That's the wrong way to play this story.
1:04:53But yeah, so I think it's important
1:04:55on lots of levels. Personally, also, I want the best stuff. And I want to try out the
1:05:00new stuff, and I don't want to lock myself in. But professionally, I also want to know
1:05:04what the lay of the land is. That's why I've got, I mean, I've got an Android phone about
1:05:09a foot away. I've got Windows installed on my iMac. I use all these different services.
1:05:16I want to at least be vaguely versed in the other stuff so that I can, again, not make
1:05:23the argument of like, well, you should just give up,
1:05:26because I'm not, people who are gonna make those decisions,
1:05:30they're gonna have other people to listen to
1:05:32about the big picture stuff.
1:05:34But like the details of, is this better or worse?
1:05:37Should you use iCloud?
1:05:38Should you use Google Drive?
1:05:39Should you use OneDrive?
1:05:41Should you use Dropbox?
1:05:42Like that is worth, that's useful for everybody.
1:05:47- So I think that it is worth trying to keep up
1:05:52as an individual. And so, you know, it is not practical for anybody to buy all of the
1:05:59products that are coming out or even to buy like one product of every major platform.
1:06:05So like I think it's important to find some places where you can keep up. So I will give
1:06:10a plug right now to Download, which is one of Jason's shows on Relay FM. And this is
1:06:14one of the reasons Jason has to be so plugged in because Download covers all of technology.
1:06:19Like again, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe one of the kind of the production
1:06:25ideas of download is unless there is an event going on, you cover one Apple story only,
1:06:30right?
1:06:31Well, I mean, we will or none, right?
1:06:34I mean, that's the idea is it's not an Apple podcast.
1:06:36It's about technology in general.
1:06:38And so Stephen Hackett and I both need to watch the broader market, which is useful
1:06:42for us.
1:06:43That's good for us.
1:06:44He also does doing the subnet podcast and it's similar.
1:06:46he needs to be watching for both of those podcasts what's going on in the broader market.
1:06:52And then I try to get guests on who know about that stuff. And they educate me about what
1:06:56Microsoft's doing and what Google's doing and what Amazon's doing and things like that.
1:07:00So that's good. And it is good to have that perspective, the little bigger perspective
1:07:05about what's going on in the wider world.
1:07:07Will Barron And then something I do, I watch a lot of YouTubers
1:07:10who work in technology who are primarily focused on Android. So I mentioned forever MKBHD.
1:07:16He's one individual who's like he seems to he understands iPhone, he uses iPhone, he has an appreciation for Apple products
1:07:24But is doesn't really seem to be a fan particularly, right?
1:07:29But he and he mostly focuses a lot of his mobile stuff on Android and so I
1:07:34He always has all the new devices and I really enjoy watching his opinions because I trust what he says
1:07:39You know like it's good to find people you can trust
1:07:42So MKBHD for sure and Austin Evans is another youtuber whose work I like a lot for very similar reasons and
1:07:50Austin stuff about gaming PCs helped me build my gaming PC
1:07:55So like I think finding some shows or finding some youtubers or finding some websites that cover stuff more broadly
1:08:02I think is a good way to try and keep abreast of what's going on
1:08:05Like I feel like I understand the Android handset market from watching MKBHD videos
1:08:10I was like, I understand what OnePlus is doing.
1:08:12I understand what like Razer is doing.
1:08:14I get an idea of that from his stuff.
1:08:18So there you go.
1:08:20I was thinking about this and now we've spoken about it.
1:08:22And now we can take a break and do #AskUprade.
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1:10:25Are you ready, Jason, for #AskUpgrade?
1:10:28I'm ready, Myke.
1:10:30Let me have it.
1:10:30Rowan has the first question this week. Rowan has said, "At this point, I've given up on
1:10:37Instagram ever releasing an app for the iPad. Do you have any thoughts on why they have
1:10:42chosen to ignore the iPad this way?"
1:10:46- I don't know. It seems dumb. Part of me thinks you can be logged into the web browser
1:10:54and see stuff, and so they figure like, that's fine. It does baffle me a little bit like,
1:10:59How hard is it for them to take their app and just do a, I know there's work, but like
1:11:04their Instagram to make an iPad layout so that John Syracuse doesn't have to watch,
1:11:09you know, in 2X an iPhone app, like the iPhone's popular.
1:11:13It makes the photos pretty.
1:11:15So it is frustrating.
1:11:17My guess is that they've got other priorities and that they just, it's just not on their
1:11:22agenda, but I'm a little, it's strange that it's been this long and that they just haven't
1:11:27even done it.
1:11:28So I don't know.
1:11:29My thinking is Instagram's business is based around people taking pictures and sharing
1:11:34them, right?
1:11:36As well as viewing.
1:11:37But the taking, putting the content into the system is probably the most important part.
1:11:42So there's always something there.
1:11:43People take pictures on their iPads all the time.
1:11:46We see them, we point at them and say, "Wow, they're taking a picture on an iPad."
1:11:49I just don't think it's this much.
1:11:51And I think that they focus on the phone.
1:11:53I want the app.
1:11:54I mean, this is the only reason that I can assume they've not made it is they just want
1:11:58they want to focus on the taking rather than the viewing.
1:12:02I just don't, at this point,
1:12:03I don't believe they will make it, but I want it.
1:12:05- I agree with you.
1:12:06I think at this point, if they haven't done it,
1:12:08they're never going to do it.
1:12:09- Ben wants to know, does the popsocket on my iPhone 10
1:12:13affect the ability to do wireless charging?
1:12:15I had a bunch of people ask me this question
1:12:17after I spoke about popsockets last week.
1:12:19The answer is mostly no.
1:12:23So you can, with a popsocket on your phone,
1:12:28put it on a charging pad and it will charge.
1:12:30If you balance your phone on the pad, it will charge.
1:12:32I tried this out as soon as I got it
1:12:34just 'cause I was interested.
1:12:36But to do this, you have to have the pop socket
1:12:40placed in an area on the phone that the phone will balance.
1:12:45Right, so if you have it at the bottom, it might not work.
1:12:48You might have to, it's gonna depend on like
1:12:50how much contact you make.
1:12:51But if you have it in the middle like I do,
1:12:52just underneath the Apple logo on my case,
1:12:54you can put it on there, the phone balances,
1:12:56and it will charge through it.
1:12:57So I'm not going to recommend this because I have no idea what that means or does, but
1:13:04it does work. I can confirm that I can answer that part of the question. You can still charge
1:13:08with a popsocket on your case. Michael's question for Jason is, "Jason, do you maintain a standard
1:13:15work day like nine to five of an hour for lunch? If so, as a free agent, have you considered
1:13:21changing that or is the corporate schedule too ingrained in you? If it's not, how does
1:13:26this feel after years being in an office environment with those kind of standard rigid hours?
1:13:30Mm, interesting. An hour for lunch makes me laugh. I did used to work with some people
1:13:38who had like some serious RSI issues who made sure that they took an hour break in the middle
1:13:43of the day for lunch because they earned it and because they needed the break physically.
1:13:49I never, I never, I would, I would go out if I didn't bring my lunch, I would go out and get like a sandwich and bring it back.
1:13:57But then I was just eating at my desk.
1:13:59So I never took a, you know, rarely ever took a lunch break where I like went somewhere for an hour and then came back.
1:14:05So first off, I'm going to say that.
1:14:06Um, but Michael, let me tell you, if I was left entirely to my own devices, I would probably, um, I would
1:14:19probably have very different hours than I do. I would probably work much later.
1:14:25Sort of like Myke. I would probably work much later. I always, again, I'm older now, but when I
1:14:32was in college and in my twenties, like I found that I was always really
1:14:36productive in the afternoon and evening and into night. Like that was my most
1:14:41productive time. And so I'm going to guess that that might still be the case.
1:14:46case. Every now and then my wife is out like she's gone out to dinner with friends or she's
1:14:52been doing a bunch of extra dance classes the last few weeks because they've got their
1:14:57their end of the term show coming up and so like she's gone until nine o'clock and I'm
1:15:03like oh I'm gonna do some work. It's like a treat. I can work from seven to nine pm.
1:15:11So here's the thing though this implication that it's the ingrained corporate schedule.
1:15:16not it. That's not it. The issue is, life is structured around work times, and I live
1:15:23with humans. So that's the bottom line is, I could work, you know, until two in the morning,
1:15:33and then sleep until ten in the morning, and get up and kind of putter around for the first
1:15:40few hours and then go back to work at four in the afternoon. The problem is this, I have
1:15:46two children, they go to school during school hours, they wake up at seven in the morning,
1:15:51they come home at four in the afternoon, and then they're home the rest of the night. I
1:15:56have a wife, she has a job, she generally is working, I think it's like nine, was it
1:16:02930 or 10 until about 530. I can't live this weird nighttime Batman kind of life because
1:16:15I have other people in my life and they are still on traditional scheduling. So my freedom
1:16:22to work whenever I want is limited by the fact that I do have a family and I'm not going
1:16:27to work while they're home and then sleeping, and then I'm certainly not going to sleep
1:16:33through them all getting up. And so I basically work, you know, eight to five, mostly. It
1:16:43varies, but something like that. And that's, again, mostly because it's the time where
1:16:49people are out of the house, and I can do it. So I don't, I would love to have a more
1:16:55flexible schedule, but I just don't think it's in the cards. And it has nothing to do
1:16:59with my office. My hours are much nicer now because I don't have to deal with commutes
1:17:03and sometimes the traffic where that 45-minute bus ride home becomes an hour and a half.
1:17:10Like I don't have to deal with any of that kind of variability, which is nice.
1:17:14I have no schedule. I don't know what it is.
1:17:18Yeah, you were like on East Coast time in London, which is amazing. So that's the one
1:17:21One question I had for you is, how do you square that with Adina having a job with hours?
1:17:29Does she just leave and you just keep snoozing?
1:17:33No, she mostly wakes me up.
1:17:35I'm usually awake before 9, but I go to bed at like 2.30.
1:17:42That mostly works for me.
1:17:44I'm fine with that right now.
1:17:45Yeah, you're going to need more sleep eventually, but sure.
1:17:48Yeah.
1:17:49- Well, I'm sure at some point,
1:17:51but I function perfectly fine.
1:17:53Honestly, I tend to be a little bit more sluggish
1:17:57if I sleep longer.
1:17:59I don't know why, it's just how I am wired
1:18:01for the time being.
1:18:02I'm sure it will change, 'cause this has changed
1:18:04a bunch of times over my life, but that's kind of,
1:18:06like I used to really struggle to wake up in the mornings,
1:18:09but now I don't anymore.
1:18:12So that's just kind of where I am right now.
1:18:13I have absolutely no standard schedule,
1:18:16but I like my life that way, that I kind of pick and choose.
1:18:19- So the way, and the way it works is that you're,
1:18:22so when Adina comes home, do you hang out with her
1:18:26and then she goes to sleep and you go back to work?
1:18:29- By and large, yeah.
1:18:29I mean, there are some evenings
1:18:30where I work a little bit later or whatever,
1:18:32but that's typically what happens when she gets home.
1:18:34We just spend time together and then she goes to sleep.
1:18:37I either work or I just read Twitter
1:18:41and watch YouTube videos.
1:18:43- Yeah, my challenge would be that
1:18:44if I went back to work after, I mean, really,
1:18:47'cause I don't wanna stay up with Lauren
1:18:49until she goes to bed, so I go back to work after that,
1:18:51I could totally do that,
1:18:53but the problem is gonna be in the morning,
1:18:56everybody else is gonna be waking me up at 6.30,
1:18:586.45 in the morning, the dog, the kids,
1:19:00and Lauren, they're all gonna be getting up,
1:19:03and I can't sleep through that.
1:19:06And then all of a sudden I'm up till two in the morning
1:19:09and up at 6.45 AM, and that's not gonna,
1:19:12I would die.
1:19:13So there you go, that's my problem.
1:19:15And I don't nap.
1:19:15That's the other problem, I don't nap.
1:19:17I can't grab a nap in the middle of the day
1:19:19in order to improve things.
1:19:22I don't do that.
1:19:23- Eric wants to know if either of us use a UPS
1:19:27in our office studio.
1:19:28This is not the postal service system.
1:19:30This is an uninterrupted power supply?
1:19:34Is that what--
1:19:35- Uninterruptible power supply, I think.
1:19:38It's like a, it basically is a thick power strip
1:19:42that's got a battery in it.
1:19:44And you've got some of the ports on the power strip.
1:19:47The battery will power even if your power goes out.
1:19:51- Which is, it's funny, if you're having a thunderstorm
1:19:53like I am today, these things can be really useful
1:19:57because they keep things powered.
1:19:58But Jason, do you think I use a UPS?
1:20:01- I'm gonna guess you don't have a UPS.
1:20:02- I don't, I don't, 'cause I've never had a power outage.
1:20:07- I did not get a UPS until I set up my home office
1:20:12and then I finally got one.
1:20:13I almost never have a power outage here.
1:20:15We're very lucky, I think,
1:20:19that whatever our particular little block is,
1:20:22that it seems pretty resilient,
1:20:24'cause it only happens maybe once a year.
1:20:27But I do have one, in fact, now I have two.
1:20:31I bought one a while ago,
1:20:33and then I realized that I wanted to keep my internet up.
1:20:36And so I bought a second one
1:20:37because my cable modem used to be in the other room,
1:20:40and I put it in there, my router and my modem over there
1:20:43so that they would stay up.
1:20:44Because the theory there is that if your power goes out,
1:20:47but the internet's still on, you stay on the internet,
1:20:50which is also nice.
1:20:51And you could even power like a wifi base station
1:20:54for a little while, and then you could still get wifi
1:20:56on your battery operated devices,
1:20:58even when the power is out, which is great.
1:21:01So I do have them, I'm gonna move one of them,
1:21:04the one that's in there isn't powering anything
1:21:07super vital anymore, so I'm gonna move it in here eventually
1:21:09into my office. The primary thing is to keep the iMac running at least briefly
1:21:17when the power goes out. My UPS has a USB cable on it, so it's attached to my
1:21:24iMac, and there are software interactions there that my iMac actually has a
1:21:29battery settings menu, which is funny because it's not a laptop, but it's for
1:21:33when the UPS kicks in, and it basically allows it to dim the monitor
1:21:39when it's on the battery power and auto shut down after, you know, when the battery is
1:21:44about to run out. And the idea there is it'll give you time to save and maybe copy things
1:21:48somewhere if you need them to, you know, need to have access to them, but you know you're
1:21:53going to lose your main thing. Because I've got a laptop with battery and I've got iPads
1:21:59and iPhones, but the iMac is not going to make it for more than a few minutes on battery
1:22:03power. So, yes, I recommend that people consider getting these. They're really useful and you're
1:22:09you not losing data. And now that we store things in the cloud, losing data is not as
1:22:14big a deal, but giving it access, putting your router or your Wi-Fi or your access point
1:22:21or whatever on a battery backup, because depending on where you are and what happened, you may
1:22:27find that your internet is still there. It's just the power that went out. And that means
1:22:31that you can still use your tablet or your iPhone or your laptop to connect to the internet,
1:22:37even when the power is out, which is also nice.
1:22:40So we'll put a link in the show notes
1:22:42to the Wirecutters review of the best
1:22:44on our uninterruptible power supplies.
1:22:46I have one of those, one of their picks,
1:22:48the CyberPower is the pick that I bought.
1:22:51And then I also have an APC one
1:22:53that I bought a couple of years ago.
1:22:54They're heavy.
1:22:56- I bet. - But--
1:22:57- They're just big fat batteries, right?
1:22:59Like it's just heavy heavy.
1:23:00- But like if you're recording a podcast
1:23:03and your power went out,
1:23:04like some of the podcast recording apps,
1:23:06you just lose the recording. It's very bad. So I recommend that. Yeah. I'm going to look
1:23:12into this. I think look into one. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you never know. You might have a thunderstorm,
1:23:16sudden thunderstorm and the power could go out. Uh, Eric, either the same Eric or another
1:23:21Eric also asked, uh, I was really taken with the design of the keynote slides, the last
1:23:26Apple education event. So this was the, uh, like the Apple pencil written, you know, handwritten
1:23:32slides. Do you think this is going to be a new style for Apple, having a graphic design
1:23:37that is outside their typical, or do you think it is just a one-off?
1:23:41Um, it's a good question. I would love it if every Apple, I mean, they do this a little bit,
1:23:48but not as dramatically as the one in Chicago. I would love it if Apple had art directed its entire
1:23:55event, right? And this, we may see this for WWDC, right? They may be WWDC typeface and art style,
1:24:02and that that gets integrated into the keynote.
1:24:04- It's all that kind of white geometric blocks and stuff
1:24:08like they have on the WWDC page.
1:24:10- With WWDC, you've got to keep in mind
1:24:11that they probably are using the same template
1:24:13for everybody in the company
1:24:14because everybody who's doing a WWDC presentation
1:24:17has to use the official template.
1:24:19And the keynote's a little bit different,
1:24:21but they probably would want to connect it to that.
1:24:23So I hope they do this because it's fun
1:24:26and it's a very Apple thing to do,
1:24:28but it's also a really nice kind of like design motif
1:24:31to say, you know, our event from the invitations onward is all going to be in this particular
1:24:40style, this color palette, these fonts and all of that. Certainly not necessary, but
1:24:44I would like to see it. I mean, I don't think we'll see the handwriting come back, but I
1:24:48think we could see some other just, again, unifying principle applied to the entire event,
1:24:55and we'll see at WWDC if they do that. I bet they, to a certain degree, they will do that
1:24:59because I think that that's Apple.
1:25:00But how far they take it,
1:25:02and if they have all sorts of unique imagery
1:25:05and typefaces and stuff,
1:25:07or if it looks more or less
1:25:08like what Apple Keynotes look like, we'll see.
1:25:11- And finally, Jake asked,
1:25:12"Do you think we'll see new laptops at WWDC?"
1:25:15Don't answer, Jason.
1:25:18- Draft it.
1:25:19- He'll get our answer next week.
1:25:20We'll find out next week because we're gonna be drafting.
1:25:23On our next episode of Upgrade,
1:25:25we'll be participating and competing
1:25:28in the 2018 WWDC draft.
1:25:31I think this is our third or fourth,
1:25:34maybe our third WWDC draft. - Third WWDC draft.
1:25:36I think that may be right.
1:25:38And I'm up one nothing on 2018 so far.
1:25:41- And so unlike last year,
1:25:43there will be a definitive winner this year we expect.
1:25:47'Cause last year we drew because I won WWDC
1:25:50and you won the September.
1:25:53So-- - Yes, it was one all.
1:25:54- It was one all.
1:25:55And we've had a March event.
1:25:56We have this one.
1:25:57We're definitely having a September event.
1:25:59I reckon that will probably be it, but we'll wait and see.
1:26:01So there's more likely this year to be a definitive winner,
1:26:04but Jason is the winner.
1:26:06He'll be getting his first picks, but we'll run through all of the rules
1:26:08and do our picks in the upgrade WWDC draft next week.
1:26:14But until then, we will see you next time.
1:26:18You can send in your questions with the hashtag #askupgrade
1:26:21to close out the show.
1:26:22We always appreciate those.
1:26:24You can find Jason online at sixcolors.com
1:26:27and he's at the incomparable dot com on Twitter.
1:26:29He is at J Snell.
1:26:30I am at I Myke I M Y K E.
1:26:33I want to thank again our wonderful sponsors,
1:26:36the fine folk over at Squarespace, Linode and Simple Contacts.
1:26:40And we'll be back next time.
1:26:42Until then, say goodbye, Jason Snow.
1:26:45Bye, everybody.
1:26:45[MUSIC]