Upgrade

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:10 ◼   ► From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, Episode 136.

00:00:15 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you by Encapsula, Squarespace, and MacWelder.

00:00:20 ◼   ► My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined across a glass table by Mr. Jason Snow.

00:00:25 ◼   ► Oh, hi Myke, I didn't see you there.

00:00:29 ◼   ► That is podcast comedy, ladies and gentlemen.

00:00:31 ◼   ► - Oh, that's the highest, of the highest caliber.

00:00:34 ◼   ► But look out the window, Myke.

00:00:35 ◼   ► This is the best view we've ever had

00:00:36 ◼   ► for an episode of Upgrade, I think.

00:00:38 ◼   ► - I will put a picture in the show notes

00:00:40 ◼   ► of our view right now.

00:00:41 ◼   ► Me and Jason are sitting in a hotel in Killarney

00:00:45 ◼   ► called The Europe, 'cause we're attending

00:00:47 ◼   ► the All Conference.

00:00:49 ◼   ► I think this is the third episode of Upgrade

00:00:52 ◼   ► recorded at All. - Yes, indeed.

00:00:53 ◼   ► - In this very location. - Yes.

00:00:55 ◼   ► - It's like our second home as a show.

00:00:58 ◼   ► - I guess.

00:00:59 ◼   ► - It's the place we've recorded most frequently.

00:01:01 ◼   ► - Probably, other than our own homes.

00:01:04 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Yeah.

00:01:05 ◼   ► - I think that will work.

00:01:06 ◼   ► This is the place that we're together the most.

00:01:08 ◼   ► So we are here and we're enjoying the All Conference,

00:01:11 ◼   ► but obviously we took time out of the day

00:01:14 ◼   ► to record the show for you.

00:01:15 ◼   ► And we should begin this episode,

00:01:16 ◼   ► as we begin every other episode,

00:01:19 ◼   ► with #SnailTalk, so you send in your questions.

00:01:22 ◼   ► We have the #SnailTalk on Twitter,

00:01:24 ◼   ► and I get them for Jason.

00:01:25 ◼   ► Now Jason, there's been a trend over the last couple of weeks where people are asking me

00:01:30 ◼   ► baseball related questions and I think they're trying to get me to annoy you. They keep like

00:01:37 ◼   ► mentioning other teams. But what I will take a question here that I think is maybe the

00:01:42 ◼   ► most innocuous, which comes from Robert, which is, "What do you think of the Giants chances

00:01:47 ◼   ► this year?"

00:01:48 ◼   ► I think they are, well, they've started the season poorly, but there are hopes that

00:01:56 ◼   ► they will have an okay year.

00:01:58 ◼   ► And in the end, all you can hope for is that they finish strong enough to get a chance

00:02:02 ◼   ► to win at the end.

00:02:04 ◼   ► And they've done that a lot lately.

00:02:06 ◼   ► So I enjoy baseball, is what I'm going to say.

00:02:10 ◼   ► And we've had a lot of success in San Francisco lately.

00:02:13 ◼   ► And if we have more, that's great.

00:02:17 ◼   ► Congratulations to Baseball.

00:02:19 ◼   ► Hooray for Baseball!

00:02:20 ◼   ► Welcome back to Baseball.

00:02:22 ◼   ► Baseball now being played.

00:02:24 ◼   ► We love Baseball, I guess.

00:02:25 ◼   ► Yes, we do.

00:02:27 ◼   ► It's the official sport of Upgrade.

00:02:29 ◼   ► I thought that was Brain Ball.

00:02:30 ◼   ► Uh, okay.

00:02:32 ◼   ► It's the second official sport of Upgrade.

00:02:36 ◼   ► So we, last week in Ask Upgrade, somebody was asking about Dropbox-related media players.

00:02:42 ◼   ► And boy did we get some response.

00:02:44 ◼   ► We got many responses of options.

00:02:46 ◼   ► So if you are somebody who has Dropbox files that you would like to have a media app to

00:02:51 ◼   ► play maybe music or podcasts or audiobooks, I have four suggestions.

00:02:57 ◼   ► Many of these were suggested by multiple people, but I picked out the people that suggested

00:03:00 ◼   ► them first.

00:03:01 ◼   ► James suggested an app called Bound.

00:03:04 ◼   ► Mark suggested an app called Infuse.

00:03:06 ◼   ► Ali suggested Cloudbeats and John suggested Endplayer.

00:03:09 ◼   ► Now full disclosure, I have not tried any of these.

00:03:12 ◼   ► No, me neither.

00:03:13 ◼   ► is not really a thing that I need or that I would use.

00:03:18 ◼   ► So what I'm going to do, I'm going

00:03:20 ◼   ► to put them all in the show notes

00:03:21 ◼   ► so you can go and take a look.

00:03:22 ◼   ► I looked at the screenshots.

00:03:23 ◼   ► They all look like legit applications.

00:03:25 ◼   ► Some are free, some are paid.

00:03:26 ◼   ► So if you out there need this type of application

00:03:29 ◼   ► in your life, you now have some suggestions

00:03:32 ◼   ► in our lovely show notes, which will be in your podcast app

00:03:35 ◼   ► of choice, so relay.fm/upgrades/136.

00:03:39 ◼   ► So you can go and take a look for yourself.

00:03:42 ◼   ► and I don't know, listen to music, I think is the thing?

00:03:46 ◼   ► - From Dropbox?

00:03:46 ◼   ► - From Dropbox, everybody's favorite music storage solution.

00:03:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's right.

00:03:51 ◼   ► I'm rocking on Dropbox.

00:03:54 ◼   ► - You know, drop rocks?

00:03:56 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:03:57 ◼   ► - We have rocks in it?

00:03:57 ◼   ► - Sure.

00:03:58 ◼   ► - Yeah, we could do that.

00:03:59 ◼   ► - Rockbox, rockbox.

00:04:00 ◼   ► - We did it, we did it everyone.

00:04:01 ◼   ► We're on fire today.

00:04:03 ◼   ► We are cooking with gas.

00:04:05 ◼   ► So it was a week ago that we had the Mac Pro announcement,

00:04:10 ◼   ► Apple's recommitment to the professional Mac user.

00:04:13 ◼   ► - And we were surprised, I mean, really,

00:04:16 ◼   ► we recorded last week's upgrade.

00:04:17 ◼   ► - We were on the heels.

00:04:18 ◼   ► - I was visiting your co-host from remaster, Shahid,

00:04:23 ◼   ► at his house, and then he drove me over to your house.

00:04:28 ◼   ► And when I was at his house,

00:04:30 ◼   ► I got the notification that that had happened.

00:04:34 ◼   ► So I had a little car ride to think about it,

00:04:36 ◼   ► and then you were already on Connected,

00:04:38 ◼   ► And so we were, it was hot on the heels.

00:04:40 ◼   ► It could not have been timed any better slash worse

00:04:44 ◼   ► in terms of just sort of having the instant reactions.

00:04:46 ◼   ► So now we had a little bit more time.

00:04:48 ◼   ► The one correction I wanted to make,

00:04:50 ◼   ► although we, it's one of those things

00:04:51 ◼   ► that we said we thought was true,

00:04:53 ◼   ► but then we expressed a lot of skepticism

00:04:56 ◼   ► about whether it was true or not.

00:04:58 ◼   ► So I feel like this isn't necessarily an error

00:05:00 ◼   ► as much as a, I wanna restate that we were right

00:05:04 ◼   ► when we said we had no idea,

00:05:06 ◼   ► which is the specifications for the Mac Pro.

00:05:10 ◼   ► Like within a half an hour after I was done with upgrade,

00:05:14 ◼   ► Marco, Armet, and I had a Twitter exchange

00:05:17 ◼   ► about how the update to the Mac Pro

00:05:20 ◼   ► was literally a pricing change,

00:05:21 ◼   ► and the hardware didn't actually change at all,

00:05:23 ◼   ► and the high-end model is just the high end

00:05:25 ◼   ► of the former bill to order.

00:05:27 ◼   ► So the prices are less, but it's not,

00:05:29 ◼   ► they're not new in any way.

00:05:30 ◼   ► They're just existing configurations that they repriced.

00:05:33 ◼   ► And we thought there might be something new there,

00:05:35 ◼   ► but we didn't know, and the answer is,

00:05:38 ◼   ► we didn't know because there isn't one, there's nothing new.

00:05:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, like the processors aren't new processors, right?

00:05:44 ◼   ► They've just chopped off the lowest end

00:05:47 ◼   ► and brought the more powerful ones down the line, yeah?

00:05:50 ◼   ► And the same with the GPUs as well,

00:05:51 ◼   ► 'cause this was something I think we kind of spoke about

00:05:54 ◼   ► on the show, especially with the GPUs,

00:05:57 ◼   ► that we don't, me and you, I think,

00:05:58 ◼   ► don't really follow that stuff so much,

00:06:00 ◼   ► so it was easy for us to kind of, for it to slip by,

00:06:03 ◼   ► 'cause it was basically just a lot of numbers

00:06:05 ◼   ► letters really yeah but we knew they were better but that nothing new was

00:06:09 ◼   ► introduced yeah that's exactly right and and it's just a as we said and I think

00:06:14 ◼   ► we've said for a while we've heard from people who buy Mac pros sometimes you

00:06:19 ◼   ► need to buy a Mac Pro because you have a specific need and it fulfills it and you

00:06:23 ◼   ► need to do it and that's the answer to the question who's buying Mac pros is

00:06:27 ◼   ► there Pete there's some people who have to get one doesn't matter that they know

00:06:31 ◼   ► that it's old and hasn't been updated and all of that.

00:06:34 ◼   ► They need that system.

00:06:36 ◼   ► And so that's why Apple's keeping them around.

00:06:38 ◼   ► At least now it's a better value

00:06:40 ◼   ► that they're getting a higher end version

00:06:43 ◼   ► of that old system.

00:06:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, if you have to do it,

00:06:46 ◼   ► you maybe feel a small percentage less ripped off.

00:06:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

00:06:51 ◼   ► - By the fact that you have to do it

00:06:52 ◼   ► because you're now getting a little bit more

00:06:54 ◼   ► bang for your buck.

00:06:55 ◼   ► - Right, at least you're not paying the same price

00:06:58 ◼   ► that somebody paid for that exact same computer

00:07:00 ◼   ► three years ago. Whilst we're here at all, I did want to mention that I'm merely attending,

00:07:07 ◼   ► but you are participating, you are reincarnating All Radio, which was something that you did

00:07:13 ◼   ► last year, which was a fascinating mini-series of interviews with people that were giving

00:07:19 ◼   ► presentations at all as a way to document what was happening, but also to give people

00:07:24 ◼   ► that can't be here a glimpse into what it was all about.

00:07:30 ◼   ► So you're going to be doing that again this time, right?

00:07:32 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

00:07:33 ◼   ► So we're bringing it back.

00:07:34 ◼   ► That's why they asked me back.

00:07:36 ◼   ► There will be more this time because I'm a little more

00:07:38 ◼   ► organized in scheduling my interviews.

00:07:41 ◼   ► So we'll be doing a bunch of interviews tomorrow afternoon

00:07:46 ◼   ► and rolling them out.

00:07:47 ◼   ► I guess as I get a chance, some of them

00:07:51 ◼   ► will roll out after I get home because I'm

00:07:53 ◼   ► doing so many interviews that I'm not going to be able to produce them, but I have a very

00:07:57 ◼   ► long trip home on Wednesday, so I may do some of it then.

00:08:00 ◼   ► But lots of interesting people come here and speak, and the reality is, even though they

00:08:04 ◼   ► do some capturing of the sessions, it's kind of lost if you're not here.

00:08:09 ◼   ► It's kind of lost to history.

00:08:10 ◼   ► And even if you are here, there are oftentimes sort of questions that people have, and that

00:08:15 ◼   ► in this case that I have, about why those people are here and what they're talking

00:08:19 ◼   ► about that I get to follow up.

00:08:20 ◼   ► So they're fun little interviews with interesting people

00:08:22 ◼   ► is sort of the bottom line of it.

00:08:24 ◼   ► And I was happy with how the ones turned out last time,

00:08:26 ◼   ► so I'm glad to be back and do it again.

00:08:28 ◼   ► - So I'm gonna put in the show notes the RSS feed

00:08:30 ◼   ► so people can go and subscribe.

00:08:32 ◼   ► I recommend that you actually go and listen

00:08:34 ◼   ► to episode seven of the previous years.

00:08:37 ◼   ► It was Chadwick Seven's Escape Room,

00:08:39 ◼   ► where we did an escape room,

00:08:41 ◼   ► and you recorded the audio of the escape room.

00:08:43 ◼   ► And it's a really fun episode.

00:08:44 ◼   ► - It's weird but fun.

00:08:45 ◼   ► It's not like the others in that way.

00:08:47 ◼   ► It's not quite representative, but it is kind of fun.

00:08:49 ◼   ► it's a fun little thing just to listen to.

00:08:51 ◼   ► Alright, today's show is brought to you by our friends at Encapsula, the multifunction

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00:09:54 ◼   ► As a listener of this show, you can get one whole month of service for absolutely free.

00:09:59 ◼   ► All you need to do is go to encapsula.com/upgrade.

00:10:06 ◼   ► You'll find out more here about Encapsula and also claim your free month.

00:10:09 ◼   ► Thank you so much to Encapsula for their very much continued support of this show and Relay

00:10:13 ◼   ► FM.

00:10:14 ◼   ► They're a great company, great service, great people.

00:10:16 ◼   ► and check them out. So Mr Jason Snell, I had an entire episode planned last week. I had

00:10:24 ◼   ► taken the time as always, as we always do, to we go through and we think about what do

00:10:28 ◼   ► we want to talk about. And then Apple, every now and then, drops a bombshell on us and

00:10:33 ◼   ► we ended up last week talking about the Mac Pro stuff for even longer than I expected.

00:10:38 ◼   ► So I didn't, when I woke up this morning in Dublin, before we got the train down to Killarney,

00:10:43 ◼   ► we are right now. I didn't, all I needed to do was copy and paste from the previous

00:10:48 ◼   ► document and I have our entire show here.

00:10:52 ◼   ► So this is what Upgrade 135 would have been.

00:10:55 ◼   ► This is a time, this is an episode like a time machine episode.

00:10:59 ◼   ► If we weren't so hungry and exhausted last week we could have just recorded this episode

00:11:02 ◼   ► last week.

00:11:03 ◼   ► We could have.

00:11:04 ◼   ► We wouldn't have had any follow up. But yes, we were planning on things and we would

00:11:07 ◼   ► have come up with something to talk about this time, some new topics, but it was, this

00:11:12 ◼   ► easier, I suppose. And the fact is, last week I was traveling. In some ways, since one of

00:11:17 ◼   ► our topics is travel, this is better because this week you were traveling. You were preparing

00:11:21 ◼   ► to travel last week. That was going to be the idea. And now we are both traveling.

00:11:24 ◼   ► So, we're going to talk about how we travel with technology in 2017. I feel like this

00:11:29 ◼   ► is, along with home screens and stuff like that, this is a topic that me and you have

00:11:33 ◼   ► come back to maybe a couple of times.

00:11:36 ◼   ► It's what we call an evergreen topic. It's something that you just want to revisit every

00:11:40 ◼   ► now and then because the technology changes and your approaches change. And I think it's

00:11:45 ◼   ► not, if somebody said, "What about travel tech?" we could say, "Well, go listen to

00:11:48 ◼   ► when we talked about it at the end of episode 24," or something like that. But the fact

00:11:52 ◼   ► is our travel experience now is different than it was when we started this podcast.

00:11:56 ◼   ► It keeps changing, so why not talk about it a little bit while we're here?

00:11:59 ◼   ► So let's start with the beginning of the trip, the packing. So where does your packing checklist

00:12:05 ◼   ► live and how does that work?

00:12:06 ◼   ► Well, it's a series of calendar events, Myke.

00:12:09 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:12:11 ◼   ► - Do you keep it in Game Center,

00:12:13 ◼   ► or do you write on the back of a postcard

00:12:17 ◼   ► and take a picture of it and save it in iCloud Photo Library?

00:12:20 ◼   ► - Well, I have a copy of Sticky's running in an emulator

00:12:22 ◼   ► that's running Mac OS 9.

00:12:23 ◼   ► - Sticky's, there is a version of it.

00:12:25 ◼   ► - I know, it's still there.

00:12:26 ◼   ► - I was using it for a while to remind me

00:12:28 ◼   ► to press the button on Audio Hijack.

00:12:30 ◼   ► - So, oh nice, that's very nice.

00:12:32 ◼   ► My packing list lives in two places.

00:12:37 ◼   ► You might be able to guess them.

00:12:38 ◼   ► One is in my head in the noggin, and the other is I have a reminders list that is before

00:12:45 ◼   ► I go things to do.

00:12:47 ◼   ► That is essentially where it lives.

00:12:49 ◼   ► And this list, is it just a growing list?

00:12:52 ◼   ► Yeah, I would say that it's not one of those sort of like standard, "I've got a list

00:12:56 ◼   ► of everything I need to take."

00:12:57 ◼   ► We do that for some…

00:12:58 ◼   ► It varies depending on what trip I'm taking.

00:13:00 ◼   ► When we went to camp every summer, we had a camp list that we had compiled as we went

00:13:05 ◼   ► that we knew like every year…

00:13:06 ◼   ► In these specific things that trip.

00:13:07 ◼   ► Yeah, and you forget.

00:13:08 ◼   ► from the year before.

00:13:09 ◼   ► But for most of these sorts of trips,

00:13:12 ◼   ► what I have is, and it's always there,

00:13:15 ◼   ► it's just usually empty, a before-I-go list.

00:13:18 ◼   ► And a before-I-go list, every time I think of something

00:13:20 ◼   ► that I need to do before I go, I need to post this podcast,

00:13:23 ◼   ► I need to record this thing, I need to send this thing,

00:13:25 ◼   ► whatever it is, I put it on the list.

00:13:27 ◼   ► And then before I leave, I make sure

00:13:29 ◼   ► that I've done all of those things.

00:13:30 ◼   ► And that means I don't necessarily do them all

00:13:33 ◼   ► at the same time at the end.

00:13:35 ◼   ► Sometimes I just will remember I need to do that

00:13:38 ◼   ► and I'll go do it and then I'll check it off the list.

00:13:40 ◼   ► But it does ensure that everything gets done.

00:13:43 ◼   ► - So I have a, I use Clear for this,

00:13:46 ◼   ► because Clear is like, for me,

00:13:48 ◼   ► a perfect kind of checklist app.

00:13:50 ◼   ► And I have just a packing checklist in Clear

00:13:53 ◼   ► that nothing ever gets deleted from.

00:13:56 ◼   ► So all of the items I may ever need to pack

00:14:00 ◼   ► for any trip are in Clear.

00:14:02 ◼   ► And what I do is, they're all deactivated.

00:14:05 ◼   ► So I go in and just activate them all,

00:14:07 ◼   ► because you swipe to like check and check off,

00:14:09 ◼   ► but it doesn't delete unless you ask it to do that.

00:14:12 ◼   ► So I'll go in before the trip,

00:14:13 ◼   ► I'll take a look at everything in the list,

00:14:15 ◼   ► I'll activate all those items,

00:14:16 ◼   ► and then as I pack them, I check them off again.

00:14:18 ◼   ► - Oh that's nice.

00:14:19 ◼   ► - So it's just like a list that I add to over time

00:14:22 ◼   ► as things change, but it's for any trip

00:14:24 ◼   ► I may ever need to take,

00:14:25 ◼   ► all of the items should be in that list,

00:14:27 ◼   ► and then I just go in and kind of activate and deactivate,

00:14:31 ◼   ► and then do my packing checklist.

00:14:34 ◼   ► So that's worked pretty well for me over time,

00:14:36 ◼   ► and like I only really use Clear for that.

00:14:41 ◼   ► Clear is a love little application.

00:14:44 ◼   ► It hasn't received any love in the last couple of years.

00:14:46 ◼   ► I think it might just be a kind of feature complete

00:14:50 ◼   ► and it just lives there,

00:14:52 ◼   ► but it's a great little app for stuff like checklists,

00:14:55 ◼   ► like just very simple checklists like shopping lists

00:14:57 ◼   ► and packing lists, so that's kind of how I do it.

00:15:00 ◼   ► - Nice.

00:15:00 ◼   ► - What devices are making your trip today?

00:15:02 ◼   ► What kind of big devices are you bringing?

00:15:05 ◼   ► Well, you know I like to travel just with my iPad.

00:15:09 ◼   ► But for this event, I brought my iPad and my MacBook Air.

00:15:14 ◼   ► The MacBook Air, mostly because I have a lot--

00:15:21 ◼   ► honestly, I had to edit the incomparable last week.

00:15:24 ◼   ► I did it actually on the train from London to Glasgow.

00:15:27 ◼   ► And I used Logic for that on the MacBook Air.

00:15:32 ◼   ► I could have done that in Fairite on my iPad,

00:15:35 ◼   ► but since I had the MacBook Air,

00:15:37 ◼   ► it is a little more efficient to do it there.

00:15:40 ◼   ► Really, for me, as we mentioned, I'm doing All Radio,

00:15:42 ◼   ► and that's a lot of interviews, it's a lot of podcasts,

00:15:47 ◼   ► and what I decided was I probably wanted

00:15:50 ◼   ► to start processing those before I went home,

00:15:53 ◼   ► and they all require some processing.

00:15:55 ◼   ► It's not complicated, but there are a lot of them,

00:15:57 ◼   ► and there will be a lot of processing,

00:15:59 ◼   ► and I just thought it would be more expedient

00:16:01 ◼   ► to do that all on the Mac and also that it is,

00:16:05 ◼   ► the Mac is more flexible and if I have any issues

00:16:08 ◼   ► that come up, if there's a technical issue,

00:16:10 ◼   ► I feel like having a Mac with me is a little bit safer

00:16:13 ◼   ► and since I'm coming all this way to do podcasts,

00:16:18 ◼   ► I felt like it would be irresponsible for me

00:16:21 ◼   ► not to bring it.

00:16:22 ◼   ► So it's one of those things that in another circumstance

00:16:25 ◼   ► I wouldn't have bothered but it is an 11 inch MacBook Air.

00:16:30 ◼   ► it's very small.

00:16:31 ◼   ► It doesn't take up a lot of room, so it's fine.

00:16:34 ◼   ► I had to bring the extra charger for it, but it's fine.

00:16:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, I brought my smaller iPad Pro, the 9.7,

00:16:41 ◼   ► with the, I used the Logitech Create.

00:16:44 ◼   ► Like, that, for me, that combo is like

00:16:46 ◼   ► the perfect travel machine, 'cause it's small

00:16:48 ◼   ► and I got the full keyboard and I can, you know,

00:16:49 ◼   ► that's what I was doing my outline work on this morning.

00:16:52 ◼   ► But I do have my MacBook as well.

00:16:55 ◼   ► The 12-inch MacBook, aka the MacBook Adorable,

00:16:57 ◼   ► because we're recording this show and in the show.

00:17:00 ◼   ► I could have gotten away with it and said like,

00:17:02 ◼   ► oh Jason, can I borrow your MacBook Air?

00:17:03 ◼   ► But like I just, this computer is so small.

00:17:06 ◼   ► Really, for me, the thing that was the most,

00:17:10 ◼   ► that added the most weight and annoyance

00:17:13 ◼   ► was bringing the USB-C charger,

00:17:15 ◼   ► 'cause it's just this big thing that you have to bring.

00:17:17 ◼   ► But now I have my Nintendo Switch,

00:17:20 ◼   ► which needs a USB-C to charge.

00:17:23 ◼   ► And also I brought my Android phone with me, my Pixel,

00:17:27 ◼   ► because I'm gonna use it to take some video stuff.

00:17:30 ◼   ► So having a good USB-C charger is just a good thing to have.

00:17:35 ◼   ► So I threw the MacBook in the bag, 'cause it's easy.

00:17:39 ◼   ► - Well, like the 11-inch Air, it's so small

00:17:41 ◼   ► that it's really not that big a deal to bring it.

00:17:43 ◼   ► - It doesn't add so much weight to the already heavy-ish bag

00:17:47 ◼   ► that you would notice.

00:17:48 ◼   ► Like, what it adds, it obviously adds something,

00:17:51 ◼   ► but it's adding so little in proportion to everything else.

00:17:54 ◼   ► I just brought it with me.

00:17:55 ◼   ► And it just makes things easier when I'm doing the shows.

00:17:58 ◼   ► If we weren't recording this show,

00:17:59 ◼   ► this computer wouldn't be here, right?

00:18:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, and like I said, I think if I weren't doing

00:18:02 ◼   ► the old radio thing, I wouldn't have brought it.

00:18:04 ◼   ► And the reality is, I could have just come with my iPad

00:18:08 ◼   ► and made it work, even.

00:18:10 ◼   ► - 'Cause I mean, we're not recording into a computer

00:18:12 ◼   ► right now. - No, right now,

00:18:12 ◼   ► we're recording into the Zoom H6 recorder.

00:18:16 ◼   ► So yeah, it's not necessary, but I think both of you

00:18:21 ◼   ► and I made the, we made the same call,

00:18:23 ◼   ► which was it was a little more efficient

00:18:27 ◼   ► and a little more flexible and a little safer.

00:18:29 ◼   ► - Safer is a good point, right?

00:18:31 ◼   ► Because I like that word.

00:18:34 ◼   ► I feel with some of the things that I do,

00:18:36 ◼   ► I feel safer with the Mac than with iOS

00:18:38 ◼   ► because it's more, it's just got a better lineage

00:18:42 ◼   ► and history of doing certain tasks.

00:18:44 ◼   ► - And if you, there are ways to work around problems

00:18:46 ◼   ► on the Mac and on the iPad.

00:18:48 ◼   ► You know, this is something that we've talked about

00:18:50 ◼   ► many times before.

00:18:51 ◼   ► On iOS, if you hit the brick wall, you can hit it,

00:18:55 ◼   ► and you may not have a solution.

00:18:57 ◼   ► And we're fortunate to be in a place

00:18:58 ◼   ► with lots of people with Macs, so we probably would.

00:19:02 ◼   ► Although it's funny, you and Marco Arment

00:19:05 ◼   ► have both told me that you didn't,

00:19:06 ◼   ► you refrained from bringing podcast equipment,

00:19:09 ◼   ► which is fine 'cause I brought all of it in my suitcase.

00:19:11 ◼   ► But you guys didn't need to.

00:19:12 ◼   ► If you need an emergency podcast at some point,

00:19:15 ◼   ► just let me know, I've got all the microphones.

00:19:17 ◼   ► - Excellent, just always is on the hip.

00:19:19 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'll just pull out the microphones

00:19:21 ◼   ► you can do a podcast.

00:19:22 ◼   ► - We had our upgrade meet up early this week.

00:19:24 ◼   ► Thank you for everybody that attended.

00:19:26 ◼   ► It was excellent.

00:19:27 ◼   ► And I was talking to somebody about

00:19:30 ◼   ► if Apple were to bring really good audio support to iOS.

00:19:34 ◼   ► The kind of audio support that we're looking for,

00:19:36 ◼   ► the ability to record and listen

00:19:38 ◼   ► and basically an audio engine like the Mac has,

00:19:41 ◼   ► which would allow us to have a Skype call

00:19:43 ◼   ► and then use another application to capture that audio.

00:19:47 ◼   ► I still wouldn't trust it immediately 'cause it's new.

00:19:50 ◼   ► this is the trust thing.

00:19:52 ◼   ► I know the Mac will do this because I do it on the Mac

00:19:55 ◼   ► and have been doing it on the Mac for,

00:19:56 ◼   ► actually, seven years today, actually.

00:19:59 ◼   ► I've been podcasting for seven years.

00:20:01 ◼   ► So congratulations to me. - Congratulations, yes.

00:20:03 ◼   ► - But I've been doing it on the Mac for that entire time

00:20:06 ◼   ► and honestly, the failures that I've ever had,

00:20:09 ◼   ► it's not because of the OS.

00:20:11 ◼   ► It's not because of the apps.

00:20:12 ◼   ► It's something I've done that breaks things.

00:20:16 ◼   ► I don't have things that can't be repaired.

00:20:20 ◼   ► Well, I had all the Mac Pro woes,

00:20:22 ◼   ► but we don't have to talk about that right now.

00:20:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think comfort is a part of it,

00:20:29 ◼   ► and security is a part of it.

00:20:30 ◼   ► So for me, I'm comfortable in Fairite.

00:20:33 ◼   ► I know that you aren't, but I am comfortable with that app,

00:20:36 ◼   ► and so I'm comfortable editing on iOS.

00:20:38 ◼   ► It's a different experience, but a lot of it is,

00:20:42 ◼   ► again, it's the details, and that's what we would have,

00:20:44 ◼   ► in this scenario of yours, that's what we would get,

00:20:46 ◼   ► is files transferring and being able to do two things

00:20:49 ◼   ► once and all of that. And then, yes, this is what we both do for a living, so there's

00:20:54 ◼   ► a level of being careful and seeing how it goes and trying it out. And let's say, the

00:21:02 ◼   ► first time I try out, if the iPad gets an update, iOS gets an update, and suddenly we

00:21:07 ◼   ► can use it somehow so that I don't need to travel with a Mac to do all of the recording

00:21:12 ◼   ► stuff we do, the first time I do that is not going to be while I'm traveling, certainly

00:21:17 ◼   ► not going to be when I'm 5,000 miles away from home.

00:21:19 ◼   ► I'm going to do it at home so that if it fails,

00:21:22 ◼   ► I can switch to my Mac.

00:21:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

00:21:25 ◼   ► - And then after a while of using that,

00:21:26 ◼   ► maybe I feel confident enough to take it on the road.

00:21:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's like I bring my Mac on a trip like this

00:21:32 ◼   ► for the same reason I pack an extra set of clothes.

00:21:36 ◼   ► - Right, because it's whatever the computer equivalent is

00:21:39 ◼   ► of spilling something on your pants.

00:21:42 ◼   ► You need another, you need a change of clothes.

00:21:44 ◼   ► - What are you going to do?

00:21:45 ◼   ► You need a change of clothes?

00:21:46 ◼   ► I need to change the computer.

00:21:47 ◼   ► - I only brought one set of pants on this trip,

00:21:50 ◼   ► and Lauren said, "What happens if you spill on your pants?"

00:21:53 ◼   ► And I said, "I guess I go wash them off,

00:21:56 ◼   ► "or everybody gets to see me wearing my pajama pants

00:22:00 ◼   ► "for a little while."

00:22:02 ◼   ► - I'm not gonna say I'm gonna spill any soup on you.

00:22:04 ◼   ► - Don't spill any soup on me.

00:22:07 ◼   ► - I would like to see you walking around in your pajamas.

00:22:09 ◼   ► - I've also got a pair of shorts,

00:22:10 ◼   ► so I might just walk around in the shorts too.

00:22:13 ◼   ► Why not?

00:22:14 ◼   ► I wanted to just, these are the devices,

00:22:17 ◼   ► these are our computing devices,

00:22:18 ◼   ► but they're not the only devices that we bring on a trip.

00:22:20 ◼   ► And I bring something like my Nintendo Switch

00:22:24 ◼   ► on a trip like this.

00:22:25 ◼   ► - Oh, is this your first time traveling

00:22:27 ◼   ► with a Nintendo Switch? - It is, yeah.

00:22:28 ◼   ► It's the first time I've been on a plane with it.

00:22:30 ◼   ► - Did you play with it on the plane?

00:22:31 ◼   ► - Yes, I did.

00:22:32 ◼   ► I only had like a 90 minute plane journey,

00:22:35 ◼   ► but it was incredible.

00:22:36 ◼   ► It was so good.

00:22:37 ◼   ► For when we were taking off and landing,

00:22:40 ◼   ► I just had it in handheld mode, right?

00:22:42 ◼   ► Like I'm just holding it and playing,

00:22:43 ◼   ► it was playing Zelda naturally and then when we were you know just in the air

00:22:47 ◼   ► and the seatbelt sign was off tray table down stand it up and just I disconnected

00:22:51 ◼   ► the controllers and I can have the switch closer to me and my hands around

00:22:55 ◼   ► the back of it Oh out parading the controllers because that's you can kind

00:22:59 ◼   ► of sit however you want and it was it was incredible like I mean I I'm in love

00:23:05 ◼   ► with Zoda I mean I will categorically say now it's the best video game I've

00:23:08 ◼   ► ever played like I think that it's just unbelievable and the switch system is so

00:23:14 ◼   ► great for stuff like this I am very excited as more games come out over the

00:23:19 ◼   ► next week so bringing games out a lot but like big games and the next one is

00:23:23 ◼   ► Mario Kart the end of the month which is a shame because by the end of the month

00:23:27 ◼   ► because I'm traveling basically all of April and Mario Kart comes out on 27th

00:23:31 ◼   ► like the day I can't finish my travel but then I can play it at home yes that's

00:23:36 ◼   ► - That's right. - That's great.

00:23:38 ◼   ► - I've got a Kindle with me as well.

00:23:42 ◼   ► I actually read a book on the plane.

00:23:44 ◼   ► And all my other entertainment is loaded on the iPad.

00:23:47 ◼   ► I've got movies and Netflix shows and things like that.

00:23:51 ◼   ► But I did bring the Kindle Oasis with me.

00:23:53 ◼   ► - Yeah, for a trip like this, for me,

00:23:55 ◼   ► I don't need to worry about movies.

00:23:58 ◼   ► But on the trips that I'm gonna be taking

00:24:00 ◼   ► over the next couple of weeks,

00:24:01 ◼   ► one of them's gonna be a trip to the US,

00:24:04 ◼   ► I'm putting stuff on there as well, like movies and whatever.

00:24:09 ◼   ► I know that there's always stuff on the plane to watch,

00:24:12 ◼   ► but I like to use my own devices.

00:24:14 ◼   ► - Yep, my stuff, my screen.

00:24:15 ◼   ► - I just way prefer that to anything that I get.

00:24:18 ◼   ► 'Cause as well, the screens are never that great,

00:24:21 ◼   ► no matter kind of where you are on the plane,

00:24:23 ◼   ► and iPad is always gonna be better.

00:24:26 ◼   ► So that's what I bring there.

00:24:28 ◼   ► Now I can see your backpack, it's right over there,

00:24:31 ◼   ► and you're still using your trusty Brent Haven

00:24:34 ◼   ► that we've spoken about in the book.

00:24:35 ◼   ► - Yeah, indeed, this is the eBay duplicate that I got

00:24:39 ◼   ► that is a duplicate of the other one that's falling apart.

00:24:41 ◼   ► And you'll notice that Mr. James Thompson,

00:24:43 ◼   ► who is all here at the conference,

00:24:45 ◼   ► if you look at his backpack,

00:24:46 ◼   ► you'll find it's identical except in color.

00:24:50 ◼   ► - But this bag is not made anymore.

00:24:52 ◼   ► The Brent Haven bag, right?

00:24:53 ◼   ► They don't make this one?

00:24:54 ◼   ► - No, they don't.

00:24:54 ◼   ► So I ended up, yeah, and I've had it for like 15 years,

00:24:58 ◼   ► and I liked it so much that I realized

00:25:00 ◼   ► that as it was falling apart,

00:25:01 ◼   ► Maybe I could see if somebody was selling them

00:25:04 ◼   ► where they just had an old backpack around

00:25:06 ◼   ► and sure enough on eBay I found a couple.

00:25:08 ◼   ► So for 20 bucks I got a duplicate of it

00:25:11 ◼   ► so I can just never change.

00:25:13 ◼   ► - You better find another one.

00:25:15 ◼   ► - My theory is that by the time these ones fall apart

00:25:18 ◼   ► I will not be well enough to carry things on my back.

00:25:22 ◼   ► - Is that the situation? - Just be an old man.

00:25:24 ◼   ► That's my hope.

00:25:25 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:25:26 ◼   ► I've got a new bag by a company called Manal

00:25:29 ◼   ► and I bought the bag that they make called the Daily Carry bag

00:25:32 ◼   ► and this is the first trip that I've taken it on.

00:25:34 ◼   ► So this is a bag that I use kind of on my back.

00:25:38 ◼   ► We both, I mean they're not a sponsor of this episode,

00:25:41 ◼   ► but we both have our away suitcases.

00:25:43 ◼   ► That's why I got my clothes in.

00:25:45 ◼   ► And this is the first time that I've checked that bag

00:25:47 ◼   ► and it's worked fine for me.

00:25:48 ◼   ► - Me too.

00:25:50 ◼   ► - But I have kind of all of my stuff in my backpack.

00:25:53 ◼   ► And I've been really happy with this bag.

00:25:56 ◼   ► It's made really nicely.

00:25:57 ◼   ► It's got a lot of compartments in it,

00:25:59 ◼   ► which I was looking for.

00:26:00 ◼   ► And also everything opens flat, which I really like.

00:26:03 ◼   ► So I can unzip parts and just open the whole thing up

00:26:06 ◼   ► and I can get to what I need.

00:26:08 ◼   ► And the computer compartment is brilliant.

00:26:10 ◼   ► It has two neoprene slots, so I can put a larger device

00:26:15 ◼   ► and a smaller device in there,

00:26:16 ◼   ► and they're kind of held in by Velcro.

00:26:18 ◼   ► - Nice.

00:26:18 ◼   ► - And they're just suspended in the center of the bag.

00:26:20 ◼   ► So I can put MacBook and iPad into this little compartment

00:26:24 ◼   ► and it's done really well.

00:26:24 ◼   ► The straps are super comfortable.

00:26:26 ◼   ► like some of the most comfortable straps I've used.

00:26:29 ◼   ► And the bag is relatively heavy right now,

00:26:31 ◼   ► but it feels really excellent to put on.

00:26:33 ◼   ► This is a relatively new company,

00:26:35 ◼   ► they're based in New Zealand,

00:26:36 ◼   ► and they had two successful Kickstarters, I think.

00:26:39 ◼   ► One for their original bag,

00:26:40 ◼   ► and then they did one which had two bags,

00:26:42 ◼   ► 'cause they do a carry-on bag,

00:26:44 ◼   ► and a daily bag, and I have the daily bag.

00:26:47 ◼   ► So I actually really, really recommend it.

00:26:49 ◼   ► I am very pleased with this bag.

00:26:52 ◼   ► So if that sort of thing interests you,

00:26:55 ◼   ► then it gets a big thumbs up from me.

00:26:57 ◼   ► So a friend of mine, his name's Chase Reeves,

00:27:00 ◼   ► and you've met Chase.

00:27:02 ◼   ► He actually does hilarious and really entertaining

00:27:05 ◼   ► bag reviews, like backpack reviews on YouTube.

00:27:08 ◼   ► I'll put a link in the show notes to his review of this bag

00:27:12 ◼   ► because he is the reason I bought it

00:27:15 ◼   ► because he did a really great job of explaining it

00:27:18 ◼   ► and kind of going through it and reviewing it.

00:27:20 ◼   ► So if you're interested in that, you can go there.

00:27:22 ◼   ► He reviews a bunch of stuff so you can go see

00:27:24 ◼   ► as a bag you're looking for. He's always got good solutions and good suggestions.

00:27:29 ◼   ► So what's going in this carry-on bag? So my cable situation is mostly taken care of by

00:27:37 ◼   ► the Anker USB wall charging hub thing. So I have one of those, you just plug it into

00:27:43 ◼   ► the mains and you have like five cables available to you. So you can just plug a bunch of USB

00:27:49 ◼   ► cables in so you're not searching for plugs all over the room. And they have a new one

00:27:54 ◼   ► now which I don't have but I will at some point upgrade to which has USB type C and

00:28:01 ◼   ► with the power delivery thing so it charges those devices quicker that's going to be something

00:28:06 ◼   ► that I will be getting in the future because that will charge something like this MacBook

00:28:10 ◼   ► on my switch like really quickly or even my iPad because the 12.9 inch iPad has that fast

00:28:16 ◼   ► charging thing if you have USB C power delivery so I'm grabbing you one of those now. The

00:28:21 ◼   ► The reason I like these devices is, like say me and Idina are traveling together, we need

00:28:26 ◼   ► minimum 4 USB cables.

00:28:29 ◼   ► And no hotel room on the planet gives you 4 plug sockets near the bed.

00:28:34 ◼   ► It just doesn't happen.

00:28:35 ◼   ► They just don't do it.

00:28:36 ◼   ► I don't know why, but it doesn't happen.

00:28:38 ◼   ► So these, I really recommend these Anker USB things.

00:28:41 ◼   ► Yeah, I've thought about buying those and I just haven't done it because my approach

00:28:46 ◼   ► has been, I still have a bunch of the, you're using one right now in fact, I have a bunch

00:28:50 ◼   ► of the long cables that I think Apple doesn't even put in the box anymore. That's the

00:28:55 ◼   ► long power cable that clips into the Apple power brick. And then for international travel

00:29:00 ◼   ► I just use a plug adapter. And so what I end up doing is I have, I think I brought three

00:29:05 ◼   ► of those.

00:29:06 ◼   ► You just have these long cables just trailing all over the room.

00:29:09 ◼   ► Right, one of the, one of the ways you can get, what I found is there are outlets around

00:29:14 ◼   ► and they're often inconvenient and I have a long USB cable and I have these long plug

00:29:18 ◼   ► cables and you put those two together and that outlet that's over by the window is

00:29:25 ◼   ► far enough you can get you can get it to so you can put your Apple watch or your by your

00:29:32 ◼   ► bedside or your iPhone by your bedside and not everything needs to be by my bedside I

00:29:37 ◼   ► can you know put the iPad across the room or whatever but and so right now like here

00:29:42 ◼   ► I traveled with three of those.

00:29:45 ◼   ► And that was enough for me.

00:29:46 ◼   ► But I'm intrigued by this because yeah,

00:29:49 ◼   ► the fact is when I travel, if it's all of us,

00:29:53 ◼   ► we have my daughter's phone, my son's iPad,

00:29:57 ◼   ► my wife's phone and iPad, and my phone and iPad,

00:30:00 ◼   ► and at that point we have six USB charge devices.

00:30:04 ◼   ► So right now what we do is everybody brings their own stuff

00:30:07 ◼   ► and it works fine, but this would work better.

00:30:10 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:30:10 ◼   ► couple of those and you'd be set. You'd need one but like you had two.

00:30:14 ◼   ► I should just get one that's got six on it and I'd probably be done.

00:30:18 ◼   ► Yeah and I think this thing's a really good thing. You just need the one kind of European

00:30:21 ◼   ► adapter or

00:30:22 ◼   ► for me, in my case, a US adapter. Plug it straight into the wall and you're good to go.

00:30:26 ◼   ► Yeah. What about battery packs? Do you bring any batteries with you?

00:30:30 ◼   ► I try to. I actually forgot to bring my little Anker battery this time.

00:30:36 ◼   ► It's in the drawer at home but since I have the away

00:30:38 ◼   ► the away suitcase, which again, not a sponsor this week,

00:30:43 ◼   ► but that has a battery in it, the away carry-on.

00:30:47 ◼   ► And little known fact about the away,

00:30:49 ◼   ► since they're not a sponsor, is for parts of Asia,

00:30:53 ◼   ► you're not allowed to bring the battery,

00:30:56 ◼   ► to check the suitcase with the battery in it.

00:30:59 ◼   ► - They're not.

00:31:00 ◼   ► - In the rest of the world you are, they say,

00:31:01 ◼   ► because it's attached, there's specific regulations,

00:31:03 ◼   ► they've looked them up, because it's attached to the case

00:31:07 ◼   ► and it's below a certain capacity, it's considered safe.

00:31:10 ◼   ► But because in some places you may need to detach it,

00:31:13 ◼   ► it comes with a little screwdriver

00:31:14 ◼   ► that actually you zip inside.

00:31:16 ◼   ► And you can unscrew the case

00:31:20 ◼   ► and the battery charger pops right out.

00:31:23 ◼   ► And I did that because I was curious

00:31:26 ◼   ► and I was looking all this stuff up.

00:31:28 ◼   ► And you can actually slide that out and put it anywhere.

00:31:30 ◼   ► And it's a fully functional battery pack,

00:31:32 ◼   ► even when it's out of the suitcase,

00:31:34 ◼   ► it's just another big custom battery pack.

00:31:37 ◼   ► So I have used that a little bit,

00:31:40 ◼   ► but normally I do have an anchor,

00:31:43 ◼   ► a little black kind of oval cylindrical battery charger

00:31:48 ◼   ► that I keep around for emergencies, right?

00:31:51 ◼   ► It's that moment where your iPhone is about to run out

00:31:53 ◼   ► of gas and you need a little bit more to get to a charger.

00:31:57 ◼   ► - I was thinking about this.

00:31:58 ◼   ► I over pack batteries.

00:32:01 ◼   ► I have a Mophie that I don't think they make anymore.

00:32:06 ◼   ► It's one of their power station ones,

00:32:08 ◼   ► but it has an integrated lightning cable in it.

00:32:11 ◼   ► And I found it in an airport a couple of years ago,

00:32:14 ◼   ► and I don't think they make this exact one,

00:32:16 ◼   ► but they do, you know,

00:32:17 ◼   ► Mophie do make a ton of different solutions.

00:32:19 ◼   ► So I have that, which is just always there,

00:32:21 ◼   ► and it's like I can charge my phone

00:32:24 ◼   ► and put both things in my pocket if I need to, right?

00:32:26 ◼   ► 'Cause it's big, but not too big.

00:32:28 ◼   ► So it's smaller than my phone.

00:32:31 ◼   ► I also have a huge Anker battery

00:32:33 ◼   ► called the Anker PowerCore.

00:32:36 ◼   ► This is like one of those batteries

00:32:37 ◼   ► that will charge your phone five times, right?

00:32:40 ◼   ► Like this is a all else fails,

00:32:42 ◼   ► here is the battery that I have.

00:32:44 ◼   ► And then on this trip, I also have my suitcase

00:32:46 ◼   ► which has a battery in it.

00:32:47 ◼   ► And I was thinking, am I--

00:32:50 ◼   ► - You're more battery than man now.

00:32:52 ◼   ► - Is this overkill was my thinking.

00:32:54 ◼   ► And I kind of came down to two things in this.

00:32:56 ◼   ► One, yes it is.

00:32:58 ◼   ► But two, I care about having my devices with me

00:33:02 ◼   ► all times and this is a way to ensure especially when I'm doing long travel that I have access

00:33:08 ◼   ► to those devices. Like if I'm traveling for 12 hours maybe on a plane or like from door

00:33:15 ◼   ► to door like from when I leave sometimes I'm traveling for 18 hours or something like that.

00:33:21 ◼   ► My phone will need to be charged more than once most likely with the amount that I use

00:33:26 ◼   ► it on a trip like that. If I'm playing like games on my Nintendo Switch that's going to

00:33:31 ◼   ► need to get charges or whatever. If there is a solution for a problem when it comes

00:33:39 ◼   ► to travel that can be solved by technology, I will take that road.

00:33:46 ◼   ► I guess my question would be, do you really need it? Because so many planes now have power

00:33:51 ◼   ► plugs or USB chargers.

00:33:53 ◼   ► But they don't always.

00:33:54 ◼   ► They don't always. It's true. It's true. And then, how many times do you need? I can

00:33:59 ◼   ► see, look, you can do as much as you feel you need to to be comfortable, I think, in

00:34:05 ◼   ► the end.

00:34:06 ◼   ► And this is it.

00:34:07 ◼   ► In the end, if this relieves your stress, then that's fine.

00:34:08 ◼   ► For me, I have driven a lot of this stuff out because I realized that it's not—now

00:34:14 ◼   ► it's stressing me out because it's unnecessary and I'm mad that I brought it and that that's

00:34:19 ◼   ► the time when you kind of shed those.

00:34:22 ◼   ► Because I feel like this is less of a worry than it used to be, that battery life has

00:34:25 ◼   ► gotten better, that there are more chargers in more places.

00:34:28 ◼   ► And if you've got a battery that you bring with you, then you've got it for emergencies.

00:34:33 ◼   ► I rarely need it for anything other than—honestly, I rarely need it when I travel.

00:34:38 ◼   ► It's when I'm at my destination and I'm not in my usual sort of charge-all-the-time

00:34:42 ◼   ► mode, and I'm walking around with my iPhone, and then at the end of the day, the iPhone—I've

00:34:46 ◼   ► been using it heavily because I'm not at home and I'm out and about, and that's

00:34:50 ◼   ► when the iPhone battery drains, which is why I like having that anchor battery that I've

00:34:56 ◼   ► that I can keep in my pocket and I can actually charge my phone while I'm walking around just

00:35:01 ◼   ► in my pocket. Back pocket's got the battery, front pocket's got the phone. So that's the

00:35:06 ◼   ► most common place for me, not on an airplane. But it's happened. I've had an international

00:35:10 ◼   ► flight and I was listening to music and doing other stuff and it ended up that my phone

00:35:16 ◼   ► was uncomfortably low for me and I was thinking, "I'm just getting off the plane in another

00:35:20 ◼   ► country and my phone's dying." And I had my battery and I was able to charge it and then

00:35:25 ◼   ► I felt a lot better.

00:35:26 ◼   ► - Yeah, I feel like I just have an increasing amount

00:35:28 ◼   ► of devices in my life that require power.

00:35:31 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:35:31 ◼   ► - Like my headphones now.

00:35:33 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, so this is the same thing.

00:35:36 ◼   ► We talked last week about how I got an electric car.

00:35:38 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:35:39 ◼   ► - And despite the fact that 95%, 99% of the time

00:35:44 ◼   ► we drive it, we'll be within about five miles of our house,

00:35:48 ◼   ► 10 miles of our house.

00:35:49 ◼   ► We still spent most of our brain power

00:35:52 ◼   ► first week we had it dealing with range anxiety. And range anxiety is not just for cars, it's

00:35:59 ◼   ► for any device with a battery. There is the reality of when it runs out of battery and

00:36:05 ◼   ► if you can survive. And then there is the anxiety part of it. And it is psychological.

00:36:11 ◼   ► It is, "You're trying to plan ahead. You're concerned. But what if this lets me down?

00:36:16 ◼   ► What if I end up in a situation where I can't do this anymore?" And that's true for

00:36:22 ◼   ► a laptop or a phone, just as it's true for an electric car, and you just have to manage

00:36:27 ◼   ► it. And batteries do provide peace of mind. They also weigh, so you have to balance that

00:36:35 ◼   ► out. I feel like when we're traveling with bags and stuff like we are right now, as opposed

00:36:40 ◼   ► to being out in an event where you just have your phone with you, that's one of the nice

00:36:44 ◼   ► things about those little batteries, is that you can just stick them—we can stick them

00:36:48 ◼   ► in these bags, and it's not a big deal to bring them in the bag. And then if we want

00:36:52 ◼   ► to bring them with us out for the night we can do that too.

00:36:55 ◼   ► Alright so when we travel on, when we take these long trips, when people take these long

00:37:00 ◼   ► trips they want to be entertained. So I wanted to kind of touch on some things that we would

00:37:05 ◼   ► recommend or things that we're looking at right now for anybody that's got summer vacations

00:37:08 ◼   ► coming up, how to entertain themselves but before we do that let me take a moment to

00:37:13 ◼   ► thank Squarespace for supporting this week's show. Use the offer code UPGRADE at checkout

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00:37:36 ◼   ► to sell that little thing that you've created

00:37:39 ◼   ► which will help people pack better.

00:37:41 ◼   ► Maybe you have a restaurant, maybe you have a band,

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00:38:51 ◼   ► make your next move, make your next website. Do you watch movies on a airplane?

00:38:57 ◼   ► Yeah, sometimes. Although I do more TV shows than movies only because I feel like it gives

00:39:02 ◼   ► me more options to, I'm not committing to watching the same thing for two hours. I can

00:39:06 ◼   ► watch an hour here and an hour there. I do sometimes watch movies on planes but it's

00:39:11 ◼   ► It's a little more TV.

00:39:12 ◼   ► - And do you choose kind of whatever you're watching

00:39:16 ◼   ► right now, do you have go-tos?

00:39:17 ◼   ► - It's a combination.

00:39:18 ◼   ► I have some comfort food, like Doctor Who's coming back

00:39:22 ◼   ► this next weekend, and I have the, not the last series,

00:39:25 ◼   ► but the previous series, the first Peter Capaldi series.

00:39:29 ◼   ► I want to kind of revisit him before the new season starts,

00:39:31 ◼   ► so I loaded those on using Plex, actually.

00:39:35 ◼   ► I just downloaded them from my Plex server onto my iPad.

00:39:39 ◼   ► So that's some kind of comfort food.

00:39:42 ◼   ► And I also have, there are shows that I want to watch

00:39:46 ◼   ► and that my wife probably doesn't want to watch

00:39:52 ◼   ► that are fair game for a trip like this.

00:39:55 ◼   ► So I've got some of that.

00:39:57 ◼   ► And these days what it is mostly is stuff

00:40:02 ◼   ► from Amazon and Netflix that I can download.

00:40:04 ◼   ► Now that those services both allow you to download videos

00:40:08 ◼   ► to your device and watch them when you're off the internet,

00:40:12 ◼   ► that has made a big difference.

00:40:13 ◼   ► So those are my two techniques right now is,

00:40:17 ◼   ► stuff from streaming services that are not on the queue

00:40:20 ◼   ► to watch at home, and then some favorites

00:40:24 ◼   ► that I can just offload from my Plex server,

00:40:27 ◼   ► because Plex lets you download to a device,

00:40:29 ◼   ► and so that couldn't be easier.

00:40:31 ◼   ► And sometimes, if there's a show that I'm watching

00:40:34 ◼   ► that my wife's not watching that's on our DVR.

00:40:38 ◼   ► The TiVo, TiVo has an app that lets you download

00:40:42 ◼   ► those files too and play with them.

00:40:43 ◼   ► - You can download them locally?

00:40:44 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:40:45 ◼   ► - That's awesome.

00:40:46 ◼   ► - Yeah, so I can walk away with,

00:40:47 ◼   ► I've got a few episodes on there too.

00:40:49 ◼   ► It's way more than I will ever possibly watch on this trip,

00:40:53 ◼   ► but what it means is on my 13 hours of flights

00:40:57 ◼   ► that I've got back to the US on Wednesday,

00:40:59 ◼   ► I will have a bunch to choose from

00:41:02 ◼   ► and I'll just see what I'm in the mood for.

00:41:03 ◼   ► Now, flying over here, I didn't watch anything

00:41:05 ◼   ► 'cause I read a book instead,

00:41:06 ◼   ► but that was because that was what I was in the mood for.

00:41:10 ◼   ► I just didn't feel like, you know,

00:41:12 ◼   ► it's kinda hard to explain, just, I didn't feel like it.

00:41:14 ◼   ► I didn't feel like sitting there and watching a TV show.

00:41:16 ◼   ► I just wanted to put in some music and read a book.

00:41:21 ◼   ► Music, by the way, as I learned the hard way,

00:41:26 ◼   ► I think the last time I traveled,

00:41:28 ◼   ► part of my checklist now, my digital checklist,

00:41:31 ◼   ► is making sure that some of my favorite playlists

00:41:34 ◼   ► are downloaded to my phone,

00:41:36 ◼   ► because now that I am using Apple Music and all of that

00:41:39 ◼   ► and not syncing from iTunes,

00:41:40 ◼   ► I need to make sure that I've got files stored locally.

00:41:44 ◼   ► - Sometimes it feels like,

00:41:45 ◼   ► I mean, I have no way of testing this,

00:41:47 ◼   ► but something I feel like should be downloaded,

00:41:50 ◼   ► like I feel like I would have downloaded this, isn't.

00:41:53 ◼   ► - Well, it's marked as purgeable, just like on the Mac,

00:41:55 ◼   ► and if certain apps in iOS need free space,

00:42:00 ◼   ► the stuff I think can be freed.

00:42:04 ◼   ► Although it tries not to do it with things

00:42:06 ◼   ► you've explicitly downloaded, I'm not sure.

00:42:08 ◼   ► But sometimes I've had that same thing

00:42:10 ◼   ► and I don't know whether it's,

00:42:12 ◼   ► have I not listened to this since the last time

00:42:14 ◼   ► I upgraded my iPhone?

00:42:16 ◼   ► Or is it just that they went away

00:42:18 ◼   ► 'cause they were just sitting there for a while

00:42:19 ◼   ► and now I need to get them back?

00:42:20 ◼   ► But I did get stuck on a plane,

00:42:23 ◼   ► I think when I was visiting my mom in Phoenix.

00:42:24 ◼   ► So it was only an hour flight,

00:42:26 ◼   ► but I got stuck on a plane where I looked at my music

00:42:28 ◼   ► and I realized I had no music to listen to.

00:42:30 ◼   ► So I have podcasts and I listen to podcasts some too,

00:42:33 ◼   ► but music was not gonna be an option.

00:42:35 ◼   ► - That's a big thing for me, making sure I download shows,

00:42:37 ◼   ► 'cause I just stream everything.

00:42:39 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, yeah, then you have to.

00:42:41 ◼   ► I download 'em all, but I still go back into the archive.

00:42:45 ◼   ► A lot of times I'm listening to a show from way back,

00:42:47 ◼   ► so like for me it's Magic Tavern,

00:42:48 ◼   ► where I'm like 50 episodes back, 40 episodes back,

00:42:51 ◼   ► and so I will go in and I'll just tap,

00:42:54 ◼   ► you know, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo,

00:42:55 ◼   ► download these five, download these six

00:42:58 ◼   ► of whatever podcast I'm listening to,

00:43:00 ◼   ► going through the back catalog,

00:43:02 ◼   ► so I have those on the plane.

00:43:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, my all-time kind of plane show is The Flop House,

00:43:07 ◼   ► and I actually had a couple of episodes

00:43:11 ◼   ► that I was behind on, so I got to listen to.

00:43:13 ◼   ► - That's great.

00:43:15 ◼   ► - But also, I've mentioned this show on this show before,

00:43:20 ◼   ► and it's My Brother and My Brother and Me.

00:43:22 ◼   ► That's my show in which I'm going back, right?

00:43:25 ◼   ► Like you do with Hello. - You're dipping

00:43:26 ◼   ► into the back catalog.

00:43:27 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Yeah.

00:43:28 ◼   ► and it's just a light-hearted fun show,

00:43:30 ◼   ► it works for me on a plane,

00:43:32 ◼   ► 'cause that tends to be most of what I can cope with

00:43:35 ◼   ► on planes.

00:43:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, my only problem with podcasts on a plane is it's,

00:43:40 ◼   ► I'm tired, I'm tired of these podcasts on this plane.

00:43:46 ◼   ► Exactly right.

00:43:48 ◼   ► That's a terrible movie, Podcasts on a Plane.

00:43:50 ◼   ► It's just people listening to podcasts.

00:43:52 ◼   ► It's really boring.

00:43:53 ◼   ► - Or recording shows of horrible sound quality.

00:43:56 ◼   ► My problem is that stimulates me auditorily,

00:44:00 ◼   ► but not visually.

00:44:02 ◼   ► So unless I'm staring out the window--

00:44:04 ◼   ► - Oh, would you should be playing an iPhone game

00:44:05 ◼   ► or something?

00:44:06 ◼   ► - That could be.

00:44:07 ◼   ► - Would I do that?

00:44:08 ◼   ► - So I don't do that as much, although I do it some

00:44:11 ◼   ► if I'm not in the mood.

00:44:12 ◼   ► Honestly, a lot of times it's like if I'm tired

00:44:14 ◼   ► and I don't want to use my eyes, I want to close my eyes,

00:44:18 ◼   ► they're dry 'cause they've been in a plane,

00:44:21 ◼   ► I haven't slept well, whatever the reasons,

00:44:24 ◼   ► podcasts are good in those circumstances

00:44:26 ◼   ► where I can kind of close my eyes and zone out

00:44:28 ◼   ► and just listen to the podcast.

00:44:29 ◼   ► - So listen to Close Your Eyes, unless you're driving.

00:44:32 ◼   ► Zone out, listen to our voices.

00:44:34 ◼   ► - Yes, we are. - It's time to rush

00:44:35 ◼   ► your dry eyes.

00:44:36 ◼   ► - Are you on an airplane now?

00:44:37 ◼   ► - We're talking directly to you.

00:44:39 ◼   ► - Airplane people, relax.

00:44:41 ◼   ► Play an iPhone game if you like.

00:44:43 ◼   ► Close your eyes. - Close your eyes.

00:44:44 ◼   ► - If you want to.

00:44:45 ◼   ► If you're driving, pay attention to the road.

00:44:48 ◼   ► - Pay more attention.

00:44:50 ◼   ► I, for movies, for me, and TV,

00:44:55 ◼   ► - I always go with the comfort food route

00:44:57 ◼   ► when it comes to planes.

00:44:58 ◼   ► - Yeah, you know I always have real genius

00:45:00 ◼   ► loaded on my phone.

00:45:00 ◼   ► - Do you?

00:45:01 ◼   ► - On my phone.

00:45:02 ◼   ► - On your phone.

00:45:03 ◼   ► - In case-- - For immediate need.

00:45:04 ◼   ► - In case I'm, it's like carrying,

00:45:06 ◼   ► I carry a bar of chocolate with me

00:45:08 ◼   ► when I go on a long trip, just like,

00:45:10 ◼   ► feeling you need some comfort.

00:45:12 ◼   ► There's a little chocolate for you,

00:45:14 ◼   ► and there's real genius.

00:45:17 ◼   ► - Godfather one and two.

00:45:18 ◼   ► Goodfellas.

00:45:20 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:45:22 ◼   ► - And Glengarry Glen Ross.

00:45:22 ◼   ► - Wow.

00:45:23 ◼   ► - Always on my iPad.

00:45:25 ◼   ► - You need some mob action, mob violence.

00:45:29 ◼   ► - Serious, just serious movies.

00:45:31 ◼   ► I don't know why, they're just movies that I love.

00:45:33 ◼   ► I just absolutely, I could just watch them

00:45:35 ◼   ► over and over and over again. - It's comfort food,

00:45:36 ◼   ► that's what it is.

00:45:37 ◼   ► - And also, I've been very slowly

00:45:40 ◼   ► going through Curb Your Enthusiasm.

00:45:42 ◼   ► It's a show Adina has no interest in watching,

00:45:44 ◼   ► even though she loves Seinfeld,

00:45:45 ◼   ► she just doesn't click for her.

00:45:48 ◼   ► And it's 'cause it is just like 30 minutes of awkward.

00:45:52 ◼   ► - Yeah. - And sometimes

00:45:53 ◼   ► can be painfully awkward and I've just been going through this show very

00:45:58 ◼   ► slowly and of course my another big huge source of entertainment for me right now

00:46:02 ◼   ► is video games. I mean I play a lot of iPhone games like threes and is remained

00:46:08 ◼   ► continuous and Altos adventure is another game that like

00:46:15 ◼   ► that continues to get a lot of play especially in these sort of scenarios

00:46:19 ◼   ► because they're very mindless and easy. And today on the train you were playing

00:46:23 ◼   ► what's it called? - Type Shift?

00:46:26 ◼   ► - Type Shift.

00:46:27 ◼   ► - Which is another great game.

00:46:28 ◼   ► I was playing that today.

00:46:29 ◼   ► That's a great game.

00:46:30 ◼   ► But I don't know if that's gonna be a timeless, right?

00:46:33 ◼   ► Like threes and like Alto's adventure,

00:46:35 ◼   ► but I continue to play those games very frequently,

00:46:38 ◼   ► and especially when I'm traveling.

00:46:39 ◼   ► Like these would be the games that I will play

00:46:41 ◼   ► whilst I'm listening to episodes of The Flop House.

00:46:44 ◼   ► - Nice.

00:46:45 ◼   ► - So I mean, I think, do you,

00:46:47 ◼   ► I mean you've been reading, right?

00:46:49 ◼   ► I mean I'm sure reading continues to be a big thing for you.

00:46:51 ◼   ► I read an entire novel on the flight here. What did you read? It's one of the Nebula

00:46:56 ◼   ► nominees and it's called Borderline. Okay. I wonder if I know who wrote it.

00:47:04 ◼   ► It's a, it's good, it's like a noir story about... It's a book in black and

00:47:12 ◼   ► white, huh? About fairy people who can cross over to Hollywood.

00:47:21 ◼   ► - Okay, this is kicking up a storm.

00:47:24 ◼   ► I'm so lost.

00:47:24 ◼   ► - No, it's interesting, 'cause it is written very noir-ish.

00:47:27 ◼   ► Technically, it's urban fantasy,

00:47:29 ◼   ► which is a genre that's very popular these days,

00:47:32 ◼   ► but I felt like that it doesn't fit

00:47:36 ◼   ► with my conception of urban fantasy,

00:47:37 ◼   ► because it feels more to me like a film noir

00:47:42 ◼   ► where it's about Hollywood,

00:47:45 ◼   ► and there's somebody who's missing,

00:47:48 ◼   ► and they're trying to find somebody,

00:47:50 ◼   ► And the person who's called is a kind of cranky, unpleasant person, like a noir detective.

00:47:58 ◼   ► And she has to find these.

00:48:00 ◼   ► But she's also then revealed to her as the fact that fairies are real and they're problematic

00:48:05 ◼   ► in many ways.

00:48:07 ◼   ► And there are issues and they're the secret creative power that's powering Hollywood.

00:48:11 ◼   ► And so there's a whole other layer of Hollywood over it.

00:48:14 ◼   ► It is Borderline by Michelle Baker.

00:48:16 ◼   ► And that was really great.

00:48:17 ◼   ► So I read that on the plane over here.

00:48:18 ◼   ► And on the way back I will probably read one of the other Nebula nominees, Nine Fox Gambit

00:48:25 ◼   ► or Everfair.

00:48:26 ◼   ► But Borderline.

00:48:27 ◼   ► It was good.

00:48:29 ◼   ► Really good.

00:48:30 ◼   ► Took up the whole plane.

00:48:31 ◼   ► Didn't need to watch a movie.

00:48:32 ◼   ► Had Borderline.

00:48:33 ◼   ► We've been talking quite a lot in the past, and you have, on Six Colors, about flight

00:48:38 ◼   ► tracking apps.

00:48:39 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

00:48:40 ◼   ► Because our favorite app went away, Flight Track.

00:48:44 ◼   ► you made a decision on which app you're using? Well, the one that I'm gravitating

00:48:51 ◼   ► to a lot is is called Flight Update Pro. Okay. It's not pretty, but it has all

00:49:04 ◼   ► the information in it. Okay. And so I like that one. I've tried App in the Air,

00:49:10 ◼   ► and it's a very beautiful full-featured app,

00:49:14 ◼   ► but it's also a subscription app,

00:49:16 ◼   ► and the subscription is priced for people

00:49:18 ◼   ► who basically are business travelers and fly all the time.

00:49:21 ◼   ► And I don't begrudge them that,

00:49:23 ◼   ► but it's not an app that I'm,

00:49:25 ◼   ► I'm not willing to pay the price

00:49:27 ◼   ► that they're asking for it.

00:49:28 ◼   ► So although it's a beautiful app,

00:49:30 ◼   ► I'm not gonna subscribe or,

00:49:34 ◼   ► I think you can unlock all the features forever

00:49:36 ◼   ► for like 50 bucks or something,

00:49:38 ◼   ► and it's just like, I'm not gonna do that.

00:49:40 ◼   ► That's, it's not enough of me.

00:49:42 ◼   ► I am trying some others.

00:49:44 ◼   ► Kayak is okay.

00:49:48 ◼   ► Tripit is okay.

00:49:53 ◼   ► Tripcase is okay.

00:49:54 ◼   ► I've got more work to do here,

00:49:56 ◼   ► and I'll probably, when I get home,

00:49:57 ◼   ► I'll kind of try to wrap it up

00:49:58 ◼   ► and do some more testing too.

00:50:00 ◼   ► But it's funny, the one I've been gravitating to

00:50:03 ◼   ► is FlightAware, or FlightUpdate Pro,

00:50:06 ◼   ► because it's pretty straightforward.

00:50:10 ◼   ► It's got all my whole trip,

00:50:12 ◼   ► even though I'm using two different tickets

00:50:14 ◼   ► on two different airlines

00:50:15 ◼   ► 'cause I had a flight in the middle from Glasgow to Dublin,

00:50:18 ◼   ► it's all in there in one place and it's got all my details.

00:50:22 ◼   ► And so I feel like it's the best one so far.

00:50:26 ◼   ► - I'm using App in the Air.

00:50:28 ◼   ► I paid for like, I think you get like six months

00:50:31 ◼   ► or something. - Yeah.

00:50:32 ◼   ► - And it's like $20.

00:50:33 ◼   ► It's not cheap.

00:50:35 ◼   ► I pay for a year, which is like $30 or something.

00:50:40 ◼   ► I like it a lot.

00:50:41 ◼   ► - It's good.

00:50:42 ◼   ► - Because it's a stupid amount of money

00:50:45 ◼   ► to pay for a single app that all it's doing is this,

00:50:48 ◼   ► I mean, it's not, apps can be that price,

00:50:51 ◼   ► but it doesn't really do a ton for what you do.

00:50:55 ◼   ► Like, I'm used to paying that kind of amount of money

00:50:58 ◼   ► for an application that the Omni group make.

00:51:00 ◼   ► - If I was flying all the time,

00:51:02 ◼   ► I would feel different about it.

00:51:03 ◼   ► is because I fly a lot.

00:51:05 ◼   ► And that's who-- and you know what?

00:51:06 ◼   ► The fact is great flight tracking apps are going out

00:51:09 ◼   ► of business because they were bought in the case of Mobiata,

00:51:14 ◼   ► who did Flight Track Pro.

00:51:16 ◼   ► But the business model is a question, right?

00:51:19 ◼   ► They need to develop these things,

00:51:21 ◼   ► and they need to have access to the data,

00:51:22 ◼   ► and they need to do all of the stuff they need to do.

00:51:24 ◼   ► So I don't begrudge them--

00:51:26 ◼   ► and there's a business traveler market for App in the Air.

00:51:28 ◼   ► So it's actually good for them that they're doing it.

00:51:31 ◼   ► And you can see the results.

00:51:32 ◼   ► It looks very good.

00:51:33 ◼   ► they take a lot of care with it. It's just that I don't think I can prioritize it because

00:51:37 ◼   ► I don't fly enough to do that.

00:51:39 ◼   ► Oh, I should mention, because we did get some feedback about this, that I always pooh-poohed

00:51:46 ◼   ► the idea of using airline apps because in the early days the airline apps were awful,

00:51:54 ◼   ► but I have to give it to them. I downloaded some airline apps for this trip and also for

00:52:02 ◼   ► another airline that I use frequently,

00:52:05 ◼   ► and they're a lot better.

00:52:07 ◼   ► If you're on an airline, it probably benefits you,

00:52:11 ◼   ► even if you have another app,

00:52:12 ◼   ► it benefits you to have the airlines app

00:52:15 ◼   ► because they will send you push notifications,

00:52:18 ◼   ► they will send you change information,

00:52:21 ◼   ► and it's often where you can stash your boarding pass

00:52:23 ◼   ► if it's not in wallet.

00:52:25 ◼   ► So I had the United Airlines app on this trip

00:52:27 ◼   ► and it was not bad.

00:52:30 ◼   ► I don't know if I would rely on it on its own, but it was, that was a good tip that

00:52:35 ◼   ► I had just written them all off and they were actually worth downloading.

00:52:40 ◼   ► Yeah, I, the airlines I tend to fly with the most are British Airways, Virgin and Delta,

00:52:48 ◼   ► and all of their apps are, I think they were built on the same platform, honestly.

00:52:53 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:52:54 ◼   ► I think someone's made a platform.

00:52:55 ◼   ► And there's a white label for airlines, yeah.

00:52:58 ◼   ► But it's good.

00:52:59 ◼   ► It's good.

00:53:00 ◼   ► BA's was a good app and Virgin's was terrible and then they changed it and they started

00:53:04 ◼   ► to look very similar. But now they, I find them fine. This is Virgin Atlantic. And yeah

00:53:12 ◼   ► they do what I want them to do. That app in the air, it's expensive app. I want to pay

00:53:17 ◼   ► it because I want the features that it has. Like the real time notifications and just

00:53:23 ◼   ► a lot of the stuff that it does is things that I want and using it on this trip I feel

00:53:28 ◼   ► you have indicated in my decision

00:53:29 ◼   ► 'cause it's the app I'm looking for.

00:53:31 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:53:32 ◼   ► - For me, it's a good replacement

00:53:34 ◼   ► and enhancement on FlightTrack.

00:53:35 ◼   ► 'Cause it's doing everything FlightTrack was doing

00:53:37 ◼   ► and it also offers some extras as well

00:53:39 ◼   ► and it has good customization.

00:53:40 ◼   ► It has some tools that I don't want,

00:53:42 ◼   ► like it can automatically check you in for flights,

00:53:44 ◼   ► but I just don't want it to do that.

00:53:46 ◼   ► But it really is focused around people

00:53:49 ◼   ► that take more than one or two trips a year.

00:53:52 ◼   ► And you know, I keep saying this,

00:53:56 ◼   ► But I'm gonna be taking eight or nine airplanes in April.

00:54:00 ◼   ► I'm gonna be taking eight or nine flights in April.

00:54:03 ◼   ► - After your year with it, you'll know.

00:54:04 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:54:05 ◼   ► - If you look at the price and go,

00:54:08 ◼   ► "Oh, do I really wanna pay again?"

00:54:09 ◼   ► - Exactly. - Or if you say,

00:54:10 ◼   ► "Yeah, got it." - No brainer, right?

00:54:12 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Then I'll know.

00:54:14 ◼   ► But that's the one that I've gravitated towards.

00:54:16 ◼   ► - It looks like it's the best one.

00:54:18 ◼   ► My frustration with it is the price,

00:54:21 ◼   ► and also it seems like I think I have to,

00:54:25 ◼   ► I think I could sign up and it's a trial and then they'll charge me but it's one of those

00:54:28 ◼   ► things where, yeah.

00:54:29 ◼   ► It's the standard Apple 14 day but like the, you know, the cancelling is better but still

00:54:33 ◼   ► not great, you know.

00:54:35 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:54:37 ◼   ► What would you like to see improved upon to kind of make travelling better?

00:54:41 ◼   ► For me, one that jumps out is USB-C. The rising of USB-C for me makes things a lot better

00:54:51 ◼   ► because, you know, I think about most of the technology that I bring with me on a trip.

00:54:56 ◼   ► If USB-C could make it to iOS devices, it'd be the only cable I would ever need. And I

00:55:01 ◼   ► would be, I would like that, to not have to be like, "Did I have such and such cable?

00:55:06 ◼   ► Did I have X cable? Did I have Y cable?" It's just like, bring a bunch of cables,

00:55:10 ◼   ► they're all the same. I like the idea of that.

00:55:13 ◼   ► Yeah, it's going to be a long time before USB-C is common because USB-A is so common.

00:55:19 ◼   ► we still have hotels with dock connector radios and things, right?

00:55:23 ◼   ► The one I'm looking at right now has both a dock connector, a lightning, and micro USB,

00:55:29 ◼   ► so this hotel is with the times.

00:55:31 ◼   ► That's actually pretty impressive, because most of the hotels I stay at still have the

00:55:35 ◼   ► dock connectors. They got burned, they aren't going to reinvest in their hardware, so it'll

00:55:40 ◼   ► be a while. USB-A, the nice thing is, we'll have adapters or converters or something,

00:55:47 ◼   ► and we'll get there eventually.

00:55:50 ◼   ► But I agree with that.

00:55:51 ◼   ► I think that one of the nice things about the fact

00:55:56 ◼   ► that basically all electronic devices charge on USB is

00:56:00 ◼   ► airlines started to add power plugs

00:56:06 ◼   ► and now they seem to have converted

00:56:08 ◼   ► where they are embracing USB, which is better

00:56:12 ◼   ► because especially if you're flying between countries,

00:56:14 ◼   ► everybody's USB plug is the same.

00:56:16 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

00:56:17 ◼   ► - Instead of having to adapt it.

00:56:19 ◼   ► And they're small so that you can put them,

00:56:23 ◼   ► more than one of them in a place.

00:56:25 ◼   ► You know, you put two or three in the same place

00:56:28 ◼   ► that you put one of your enormous UK plugs, right?

00:56:32 ◼   ► - Safe UK plugs.

00:56:33 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's safe and enormous.

00:56:35 ◼   ► - Safe.

00:56:36 ◼   ► - So, and enormous.

00:56:37 ◼   ► Anyway, yes, so that would be,

00:56:42 ◼   ► the more USB the better, I think, in general.

00:56:45 ◼   ► USB-C will get there eventually but just having USB would be everywhere.

00:56:48 ◼   ► Adam: And also as a man who lost his wallet six days before he was going to be taking

00:56:54 ◼   ► international travel.

00:56:55 ◼   ► I had to get all the cards replaced and ID replaced.

00:57:00 ◼   ► I can't believe that our money has died behind these pieces of plastic that could

00:57:05 ◼   ► be lost.

00:57:06 ◼   ► I find it just started to make me think about the fact that we still don't have a real

00:57:13 ◼   ► kind of digital lifestyle in this way like Apple pay is great but it's still

00:57:19 ◼   ► tied to your card it's still tied to a card it still doesn't work everywhere

00:57:23 ◼   ► and it's still limited by price what do you think a bank would one day will do

00:57:28 ◼   ► a like an Apple pay credit card that look they literally never send you a

00:57:32 ◼   ► card there's no reason why they couldn't all they need to do is generate a number

00:57:35 ◼   ► it doesn't need a car but they do yeah like I know that it's tricky because of

00:57:42 ◼   ► of things like the numbers on the back, the CCV numbers and stuff, but you could work

00:57:47 ◼   ► around that.

00:57:48 ◼   ► Sure.

00:57:49 ◼   ► But my thinking is just, why doesn't my bank just have an app which is this payment app

00:57:54 ◼   ► which ties into Apple Pay?

00:57:56 ◼   ► That's all I ever do.

00:57:57 ◼   ► And I know there's so many things about the system that are not built for this, but it's

00:58:02 ◼   ► crazy to me that I can lose my wallet and then I have no money.

00:58:07 ◼   ► But think about it, you could lose your wallet but you still had Apple Pay.

00:58:11 ◼   ► I did, which was great, but then I had to cancel my card and I couldn't use Apple

00:58:15 ◼   ► Pay.

00:58:16 ◼   ► That hasn't happened to me.

00:58:18 ◼   ► When I've done it, they've sent me a new card and my Apple Pay has continued to work.

00:58:22 ◼   ► It is dependent on bank implementation.

00:58:25 ◼   ► So they changed the number of my card.

00:58:27 ◼   ► They don't always do this.

00:58:29 ◼   ► Because I lost it, they changed the number.

00:58:32 ◼   ► And depending on how a bank implements Apple Pay, I'll dig in on this, there's different

00:58:36 ◼   ► ways you can implement it and it can be that if the number is changed on the card, the

00:58:41 ◼   ► long card number, which doesn't usually change when you have a typical renewal, it will cut

00:58:46 ◼   ► the support. So my Apple Pay support was cut when my card was cut so I had no access to

00:58:52 ◼   ► money and it just made me think like, it is just surprising to me that we still have our

00:59:02 ◼   ► money tied behind these little pieces of plastic. It just seems strange.

00:59:08 ◼   ► Time to live the cash only lifestyle, Myke. Just cash, cash, cash.

00:59:11 ◼   ► That's going in the wrong direction, Jason. Cash it in now.

00:59:14 ◼   ► You're not doing this correctly. That's the wrong direction. It was good that we

00:59:19 ◼   ► weren't from cash to cards, but now we need to go from cards to cash.

00:59:23 ◼   ► Back to cash. God, no. I think we have to move on. I think it's

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01:01:02 ◼   ► Time for Ask Upgrade, Jason Snell. Thank you so much for the laser accompaniment. Robert

01:01:07 ◼   ► asks, "What is Jason's preferred Blu-ray ripping method and equipment used?"

01:01:15 ◼   ► Well, I'll reference a post that I wrote a couple of years ago on six colors that maybe

01:01:19 ◼   ► we can put in the show notes.

01:01:20 ◼   ► Of course it will be in the show notes.

01:01:21 ◼   ► is about how I rip Blu-rays and I go into all the details. I bought a Blu-ray USB drive.

01:01:29 ◼   ► The post is quite literally called "How I Rip DVDs and Blu-rays."

01:01:33 ◼   ► Yeah, oh that's it. And it's got a link to the drive that I bought on Amazon for, I don't know,

01:01:39 ◼   ► $50. It's a USB Blu-ray drive and I use MakeMKV as the name of the software that extracts Blu-ray

01:01:47 ◼   ► and turns it into a giant MKV file.

01:01:50 ◼   ► And then you can either use Handbrake at that point,

01:01:53 ◼   ► or you can use Don Melton's transcoding scripts,

01:01:55 ◼   ► which are a little harder to set up.

01:01:57 ◼   ► And if you're afraid of the command line, like Myke--

01:01:59 ◼   ► Hello.

01:02:00 ◼   ► --don't do that.

01:02:01 ◼   ► But Don has done a lot of work with presets

01:02:05 ◼   ► to make the best trade-offs.

01:02:07 ◼   ► But you can also just use Handbrake at that point

01:02:09 ◼   ► and point it at the MKV file and do it.

01:02:12 ◼   ► And I still do it that way.

01:02:14 ◼   ► And then at that point, I put it on my server

01:02:17 ◼   ► and it's on Plex and I can watch it on my TVs or my devices wherever I want.

01:02:22 ◼   ► Yeah, if I have ever ripped a DVD or whatever, I do it via Handbrake.

01:02:28 ◼   ► Yeah, and Handbrake doesn't do Blu-ray directly, basically, so you use MakeMKV, which is not

01:02:35 ◼   ► free, although it may be free to try, but it will do the job of pulling out the video

01:02:42 ◼   ► file and that's what I do because I prefer in general, I'll play a Blu-ray from time

01:02:47 ◼   ► to time but our Blu-ray player is our Xbox and so you know you start up the Xbox and

01:02:53 ◼   ► then you have to launch the player and it's got unconventional controls because it's

01:02:57 ◼   ► a game system and it's not my preferred way. I actually would rather rip that Blu-ray

01:03:01 ◼   ► and then just watch it on Plex. Ben has been looking all over. He's done

01:03:07 ◼   ► "He's done his research and he's coming to you because he cannot find the answer to his

01:03:12 ◼   ► question. Ben wants to put his photos library on multiple Macs without iCloud. Is this possible?"

01:03:21 ◼   ► If you have a server or some device running with like an AFP, like a standard Apple kind

01:03:32 ◼   ► of server connection and I think it's going to be an HFS volume connect by the

01:03:37 ◼   ► AFP maybe SMB will work too. Basically if all those things are right you should be

01:03:43 ◼   ► able to open that library over the network but it's gonna be really slow

01:03:47 ◼   ► unless you're like on a gigabit network and all your computers are wired but if

01:03:51 ◼   ► you're over Wi-Fi and it's a big network or a big library it's gonna be really

01:03:54 ◼   ► slow. So it's not really made to do this outside of iCloud that's sort of the

01:04:00 ◼   ► the point of it. Can you save the location of the library in a cloud storage solution?

01:04:08 ◼   ► The location of the library? Because the library it's pulling from, like, it's a file, isn't

01:04:12 ◼   ► it? It's like a big bundle file. Well, yeah, it's a package with all the files in it. So

01:04:16 ◼   ► you have to put that somewhere where photos can read it and photos want it to be... So

01:04:20 ◼   ► could you put it in Dropbox for instance? No. Okay. It has to be... And I don't, yeah,

01:04:24 ◼   ► that's a bad idea. Okay. Because then it would sync it, but they'd get out of sync and that

01:04:27 ◼   ► That would be incredibly bad.

01:04:29 ◼   ► I don't recommend it.

01:04:30 ◼   ► - Do not follow Myke's advice.

01:04:31 ◼   ► - No, you can't do that.

01:04:33 ◼   ► So I'd say, I hate to say it,

01:04:35 ◼   ► the other solution here is to buy a big hard drive

01:04:37 ◼   ► and put it on the hard drive

01:04:38 ◼   ► and connect it to the computer you want to.

01:04:41 ◼   ► And that'll be the fastest of all these solutions.

01:04:43 ◼   ► Just walk it around.

01:04:45 ◼   ► But Photos, the app, is not made to do this

01:04:48 ◼   ► because they want you to use iCloud.

01:04:52 ◼   ► And if the alternative is to use some other system,

01:04:56 ◼   ► But yeah, so there are ways, but they're not ideal.

01:05:00 ◼   ► OK.

01:05:01 ◼   ► O-Plays asked, do you buy the cellular and Wi-Fi iPads,

01:05:05 ◼   ► or just the Wi-Fi only ones?

01:05:09 ◼   ► My current iPad is a cellular plus Wi-Fi.

01:05:11 ◼   ► I think I wrote a six colors piece about this too.

01:05:14 ◼   ► Of course you did.

01:05:14 ◼   ► Of course you did.

01:05:16 ◼   ► Well, you got to use all the parts of the Buffalo.

01:05:18 ◼   ► So yeah, my rationale was that I wanted it

01:05:22 ◼   ► for kind of flexibility, since this was the iPad Pro,

01:05:25 ◼   ► I expected to use it for a while. And since it's kind of unlocked, it gives me the flexibility

01:05:29 ◼   ► to – I have the T-Mobile deal where I get 250 megs or something of free data every month.

01:05:36 ◼   ► It's not a lot, but there's a little bit there.

01:05:39 ◼   ► I signed up for that actually.

01:05:40 ◼   ► And the reality is I basically never use the cellular features on it. And I have it. It's

01:05:47 ◼   ► like that range anxiety we're talking about. I am almost never in a place where I don't

01:05:52 ◼   ► Wi-Fi and am using an iPad. If I'm at a cafe, they have Wi-Fi. So it very rarely happens.

01:06:03 ◼   ► I thought about it that if I had it, I might use it in places like cafes where the Wi-Fi

01:06:08 ◼   ► is poor. I might use the cellular instead and not bother with the cafe Wi-Fi and not

01:06:14 ◼   ► get frustrated by it. But if that had happened enough, I would have done that by now. It

01:06:19 ◼   ► It would take one call to AT&T and $10 a month to put this on my AT&T plan and I haven't

01:06:25 ◼   ► done that either.

01:06:26 ◼   ► So I've got it and I've got it sort of for safety and comfort but in reality, I don't

01:06:32 ◼   ► use it.

01:06:33 ◼   ► Adam: So my travel iPad, my 9.7 is cellular, my other one isn't.

01:06:40 ◼   ► And the reason I bought the Wi-Fi and the 12.9 is I wasn't sure if I was going to

01:06:44 ◼   ► like that device when I bought it.

01:06:45 ◼   ► I was interested in it but I wasn't in the iPad camp that I'm in now and that's

01:06:52 ◼   ► fine because that device stays at home right so it doesn't need it but the 9.7

01:06:56 ◼   ► it comes out with me and I use it whenever whenever I travel I use the

01:07:00 ◼   ► Celia on that thing because most of the places I go to in the US is faster and

01:07:04 ◼   ► so I get the T-Mobile because I have a T-Mobile account and so I get that right so I

01:07:10 ◼   ► sign up and I have a US T-Mobile account because I have a US T-Mobile SIM for my phone

01:07:14 ◼   ► - And then it's easy to buy more data from T-Mobile,

01:07:18 ◼   ► which is why we give you the free.

01:07:19 ◼   ► - Or anywhere.

01:07:20 ◼   ► I use this all over the world,

01:07:22 ◼   ► because you could just use,

01:07:23 ◼   ► I have an Apple SIM in there,

01:07:25 ◼   ► so I can just buy anything.

01:07:28 ◼   ► Any plan for like a set period of time.

01:07:31 ◼   ► - In fact, I thought about doing that here in Ireland,

01:07:33 ◼   ► and I haven't done it,

01:07:34 ◼   ► but I've thought about the same thing, right?

01:07:36 ◼   ► You just, with the Apple SIM,

01:07:38 ◼   ► you just turn it on and see what you get

01:07:40 ◼   ► and what the deals are. - If you travel,

01:07:41 ◼   ► I think you should get the cellular.

01:07:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, for me it's just that I always have my phone

01:07:46 ◼   ► with me in those circumstances,

01:07:48 ◼   ► and so it's generally not a big deal.

01:07:50 ◼   ► - Tethering is good and I tether a lot,

01:07:53 ◼   ► but I also like having my own connection with the--

01:07:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'd use it more. - 'Cause then I'm draining

01:07:59 ◼   ► the batteries of both devices, right?

01:08:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, I see it, and I would use it more.

01:08:03 ◼   ► I mean, I would use it if I had it,

01:08:05 ◼   ► but it just hasn't escalated at the point

01:08:07 ◼   ► where I thought I need to do this.

01:08:09 ◼   ► - Yep, that makes sense.

01:08:11 ◼   ► Dave asked, "Given the success of Amazon's Echo,

01:08:14 ◼   ► "do you think that they would make

01:08:16 ◼   ► "another attempt at a phone?"

01:08:18 ◼   ► If you remember, they made a phone called the Fire Phone.

01:08:21 ◼   ► I don't think that these two things go together.

01:08:24 ◼   ► The Echo's success

01:08:27 ◼   ► is not a story that's easy to tell,

01:08:32 ◼   ► because they may have sold 150,000 of those,

01:08:36 ◼   ► for all we know.

01:08:36 ◼   ► - There's just a chart.

01:08:37 ◼   ► - Because they don't talk about it.

01:08:38 ◼   ► - That's right.

01:08:39 ◼   ► - The success that we refer to is how people that use it

01:08:43 ◼   ► feel about it, and a lot of people that own one

01:08:45 ◼   ► really like it.

01:08:47 ◼   ► Does that translate into other people buying them?

01:08:49 ◼   ► We have literally no idea right now.

01:08:51 ◼   ► - And phones are just entirely different devices.

01:08:54 ◼   ► - It's a completely different thing.

01:08:55 ◼   ► - In fact, you're seeing Android phone makers

01:08:57 ◼   ► talking with Amazon about integrating the Echo technology,

01:09:02 ◼   ► the lady in the canister, into their devices.

01:09:05 ◼   ► - Which makes a lot of sense.

01:09:08 ◼   ► So does Amazon really want to build hardware

01:09:11 ◼   ► that's a vehicle for this?

01:09:13 ◼   ► - They failed so hard with that Fire Phone.

01:09:16 ◼   ► - They could try, they could scale it back, right?

01:09:17 ◼   ► They could do something that was an Amazon phone

01:09:19 ◼   ► that's stock, you know, that's,

01:09:23 ◼   ► 'cause Amazon's not out of the Android business, right?

01:09:25 ◼   ► The Fire tablets and the Fire TV are all Android-based.

01:09:30 ◼   ► So they could do a new Fire Phone

01:09:33 ◼   ► that is much more stock Android-like,

01:09:37 ◼   ► much more much less like 3d cameras and super weird and integrate this

01:09:44 ◼   ► technology this voice technology I think it's possible I'm sure they're

01:09:49 ◼   ► prototyping stuff like that all the time because it's not like they have they

01:09:52 ◼   ► have a custom version of Android that has their own App Store it would not be

01:09:57 ◼   ► it would not be a lot for them to do this and now they have their their

01:10:00 ◼   ► voice agent but I would say that it would learn the lessons of the fire

01:10:04 ◼   ► and be a much more understandable normal phone.

01:10:07 ◼   ► And then they would use the power of Amazon, right?

01:10:10 ◼   ► They'd use their ability to, you know,

01:10:12 ◼   ► maybe it's got a, for Prime members,

01:10:15 ◼   ► there are features that it has.

01:10:16 ◼   ► Maybe if you're a Prime member,

01:10:17 ◼   ► you pay very little for your service or something,

01:10:21 ◼   ► and it's a weird reselling.

01:10:23 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:10:24 ◼   ► It's possible, I guess, I would say,

01:10:26 ◼   ► but it's not gonna be, it's not gonna be a Fire phone.

01:10:28 ◼   ► And I do think that they got burned a little bit.

01:10:32 ◼   ► - I think so. - By the Fire Phone.

01:10:35 ◼   ► - Oh. - Yeah.

01:10:36 ◼   ► And so I think they're gonna be a little more careful.

01:10:40 ◼   ► - Finally today, Brent asked,

01:10:41 ◼   ► "Do you think that the new modular Mac Pro

01:10:44 ◼   ► "will be previewed at WWDC or the fall event

01:10:46 ◼   ► "like the trash can was?"

01:10:48 ◼   ► Brent, I think it's too early.

01:10:50 ◼   ► I think WWDC 2018 will be the first time

01:10:53 ◼   ► we see anything about this product.

01:10:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, you may be right, 'cause the idea here,

01:10:57 ◼   ► most people seem to believe that this is a relatively

01:11:01 ◼   ► this is a relatively recent decision on Apple's part.

01:11:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, like it's from everything I'm hearing and seeing,

01:11:08 ◼   ► like it was maybe a matter of weeks

01:11:11 ◼   ► from when this thing became an actual thing

01:11:13 ◼   ► before we found out about it.

01:11:14 ◼   ► - What they said was that they said they made this decision,

01:11:16 ◼   ► they didn't make this decision this year,

01:11:19 ◼   ► but if that's true, I would say it happened in December,

01:11:22 ◼   ► because it has not been very long,

01:11:24 ◼   ► and I've heard that it's been a much more recent decision

01:11:26 ◼   ► than that from some places. - It's like they maybe,

01:11:28 ◼   ► I think Apple's being careful

01:11:30 ◼   ► about the way they're talking about it.

01:11:31 ◼   ► I think they began thinking about if the Mac Pro was going to live again, maybe about four

01:11:37 ◼   ► or five months ago, but the actual, like, "Do we have a product we can make?"

01:11:42 ◼   ► I think that has been a very recent decision.

01:11:43 ◼   ► And it takes a long time to make a new product, so if they only now are discussing what the

01:11:47 ◼   ► new product is going to be, I think we'd all like them to do sort of a crash course

01:11:52 ◼   ► here and get it out quickly, but it's going to be next year, and so, you know what?

01:11:58 ◼   ► I don't see them showing a Mac Pro at the iPhone event, right?

01:12:01 ◼   ► I don't think it's going to happen.

01:12:03 ◼   ► So more likely they will…

01:12:05 ◼   ► You're right.

01:12:06 ◼   ► I think if I had to say what the most likely time that Apple would show a new Mac Pro,

01:12:13 ◼   ► it would be WWDC 2018.

01:12:16 ◼   ► I agree.

01:12:17 ◼   ► I think that's fine.

01:12:18 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:12:19 ◼   ► I mean, Mac Pro buyers want it sooner.

01:12:21 ◼   ► They'll want it January 1st.

01:12:23 ◼   ► But that's not going to happen.

01:12:25 ◼   ► - The iMac, I think the iMac will fill a gap

01:12:28 ◼   ► for a lot of people, but we need to see that soon.

01:12:32 ◼   ► - Yeah, what's that new iMac and what's that iMac Pro style,

01:12:37 ◼   ► the higher end iMac, we'll see.

01:12:38 ◼   ► - What's that gonna look like?

01:12:39 ◼   ► And I think that's gonna help a lot of people.

01:12:41 ◼   ► And at least they may show in this announcement

01:12:44 ◼   ► a renewed commitment that makes Mac Pro owners happy.

01:12:49 ◼   ► They may be show something which is like,

01:12:51 ◼   ► ah, there you go.

01:12:53 ◼   ► that's the type of thing we want to see, right?

01:12:55 ◼   ► And that may help kind of keep the goodwill going

01:12:58 ◼   ► with the idea that Apple knows

01:13:00 ◼   ► and maybe we'll give updates, you know,

01:13:02 ◼   ► to say, "Hey, we're still working on it."

01:13:04 ◼   ► And this is the type of thing we're thinking about.

01:13:06 ◼   ► But I think it would be from a goodwill perspective,

01:13:09 ◼   ► like the biggest bang for your buck,

01:13:11 ◼   ► the place you do this is at WWDC.

01:13:13 ◼   ► You've got all those people in the room,

01:13:15 ◼   ► you got some whooping and some hollering,

01:13:17 ◼   ► 'cause that's not gonna happen anywhere else.

01:13:19 ◼   ► But it will happen at WWDC.

01:13:22 ◼   ► And if they can get a product out before then,

01:13:23 ◼   ► I'll be surprised, right?

01:13:25 ◼   ► Like, this stuff takes a long time.

01:13:27 ◼   ► - It takes a long time.

01:13:28 ◼   ► - It's not, this isn't a quick thing,

01:13:30 ◼   ► especially if they are, they are starting from scratch.

01:13:34 ◼   ► - And if you listen to, which people showed

01:13:35 ◼   ► the excellent ATP from last week,

01:13:37 ◼   ► they went through the list of things this needs to do,

01:13:42 ◼   ► and I would say, think back to the Power Mac G5.

01:13:47 ◼   ► The Power Mac G5 enclosure

01:13:50 ◼   ► was also the Mac Pro enclosure until the trash can.

01:13:54 ◼   ► That was a decade long enclosure.

01:13:59 ◼   ► And it varied on the inside.

01:14:02 ◼   ► They did some different things in different models,

01:14:04 ◼   ► but they built something to last

01:14:07 ◼   ► and be a platform for different technologies

01:14:11 ◼   ► to come in and out, to have different kind of airflow

01:14:15 ◼   ► systems all still running sort of front to back.

01:14:20 ◼   ► And they had the water cooling at one point,

01:14:22 ◼   ► and they changed processor architectures

01:14:24 ◼   ► but kept the device the same on the outside.

01:14:28 ◼   ► I would think that if Apple's going

01:14:31 ◼   ► to pay all this attention to the Mac Pro this time, when it

01:14:35 ◼   ► really--

01:14:36 ◼   ► obviously, large parts of Apple don't want it

01:14:39 ◼   ► and don't think that it's going to be the best return

01:14:41 ◼   ► on the investment, but it's something they need to do.

01:14:45 ◼   ► Well, if you're going to design it--

01:14:47 ◼   ► and I'm managing that.

01:14:48 ◼   ► I'm gonna say, "Design me something

01:14:50 ◼   ► "that's gonna last me 10 years

01:14:51 ◼   ► "that is as flexible as possible.

01:14:54 ◼   ► "Put in the work now so we don't ever have to work

01:14:56 ◼   ► "on this thing again in the big picture for a decade.

01:14:58 ◼   ► "And we'll tinker around the margins after this,

01:15:01 ◼   ► "but this is your shot to get something,

01:15:03 ◼   ► "and I want it to not,

01:15:05 ◼   ► "I want you not to come back to me in three years and say,

01:15:07 ◼   ► "Oh, we didn't anticipate this thing.

01:15:10 ◼   ► "Anticipate all the things."

01:15:11 ◼   ► - This is, this should be the last one, right?

01:15:16 ◼   ► Because if you imagine in 10 years time,

01:15:19 ◼   ► it's very likely that technology's moving

01:15:22 ◼   ► in a different direction that we can't anticipate.

01:15:24 ◼   ► - So approach it that way.

01:15:25 ◼   ► Take your time.

01:15:26 ◼   ► And my point is, if you're gonna do that,

01:15:29 ◼   ► you're not gonna slap something together in six months.

01:15:31 ◼   ► - And it's not gonna be a triangle.

01:15:33 ◼   ► - And it's not gonna be a triangle.

01:15:35 ◼   ► Triangles are scary, they'll kill you.

01:15:36 ◼   ► Stay away from triangles, go back to squares.

01:15:38 ◼   ► - You hear what I mean?

01:15:39 ◼   ► I would be very surprised if we get a whiz-bang-dazzle machine.

01:15:44 ◼   ► - No, I think it'll have a sleek case

01:15:47 ◼   ► with some curves and things. - It will look beautiful.

01:15:49 ◼   ► - But in the end, it's gonna be a box

01:15:51 ◼   ► with a computer in it. - You will see that

01:15:52 ◼   ► a lot of function won out of a form

01:15:54 ◼   ► in the overall industrial design.

01:15:56 ◼   ► - I feel like-- - Which is the right way to go.

01:15:59 ◼   ► - In fact, I feel like the story here

01:16:00 ◼   ► is ultimately going to be that story,

01:16:02 ◼   ► which is people who thought even the Mac Pro

01:16:04 ◼   ► should have consumer things applied to it,

01:16:06 ◼   ► which is we're gonna do wacky stuff

01:16:08 ◼   ► that's right at the edge of tolerances

01:16:10 ◼   ► and make this trash can Mac.

01:16:14 ◼   ► They want out over the people who are like, "You know what?"

01:16:16 ◼   ► People like Marco and John who say, "You know what we really want is you to update

01:16:20 ◼   ► the chips every year with the fastest chips possible, and that's all we really care

01:16:23 ◼   ► about."

01:16:24 ◼   ► This decision seems to be finally an understanding within Apple that that is the right approach,

01:16:30 ◼   ► that that is the way to do it, that the pro market doesn't need to follow consumer rules.

01:16:35 ◼   ► It needs to be served.

01:16:36 ◼   ► But it may take some time for them to get that final product out because I do think

01:16:41 ◼   ► they need to do it right, not just do it fast.

01:16:44 ◼   ► Let me do my best Johnny Ive here.

01:16:47 ◼   ► We see designers more than just on the outside.

01:16:51 ◼   ► Design is on the inside too.

01:16:53 ◼   ► And then he opens the case, right?

01:16:55 ◼   ► And they show all the wonder that sits inside of the Mac Pro.

01:16:59 ◼   ► But there'll still be a curved something or a funny something and all that.

01:17:02 ◼   ► And they'll say, "Look, it has flourished."

01:17:05 ◼   ► Yes.

01:17:06 ◼   ► Chamfered cases.

01:17:07 ◼   ► Once you see the rose gold of the new Mac Pro.

01:17:11 ◼   ► Yeah, that's what I want. That's how you get me to buy one. Put it in rose gold.

01:17:16 ◼   ► I think that wraps it up for this week.

01:17:19 ◼   ► I think so. It's been a pleasure to have two upgrades in person with you.

01:17:22 ◼   ► I know. We'll do it again before the end of the year.

01:17:26 ◼   ► Certainly in June, right?

01:17:27 ◼   ► June. Maybe in August.

01:17:29 ◼   ► Maybe if I come to Memphis for Relay Host Con.

01:17:34 ◼   ► Members in Memphis. We'll see. But yeah, thank you so much for listening to this week's episode

01:17:39 ◼   ► of upgrade. If you want to send in Ask Upgrade questions, just tweet at us with #AskUpgrade

01:17:44 ◼   ► and we'll answer your questions at the end of the show. If you have a small talk topic

01:17:49 ◼   ► that you would like me to discuss with Jason, #SNELtalk.

01:17:51 ◼   ► Thank you. Small talk, you're confusing it. They're going to give you a #smalltalk.

01:17:56 ◼   ► Well that's going to go to somebody else. That's nothing to do with me.

01:17:58 ◼   ► Okay, that's to Jason Small. Questions, Ask Upgrade, small talk is SNELtalk.

01:18:02 ◼   ► Okay, good. I see what you're doing there.

01:18:05 ◼   ► I'm phrasing, I'm making sure the questions are diverged.

01:18:08 ◼   ► We're in sync now.

01:18:09 ◼   ► want people to ask me what do you think about the Mac Pro in Snell Talk. That's what that's

01:18:12 ◼   ► for. It's like, you know, how's the baseball season? I'll just say it's good. It's good.

01:18:18 ◼   ► The Mac Pro's doing great. I've seen it, it's lovely, and then we just move on. It's just

01:18:22 ◼   ► small talk, so we're not going to get into details. If you want to find Jason online,

01:18:26 ◼   ► he's at Sixcolors.com. If you want to go to find more of his shows, they're over at The

01:18:31 ◼   ► Incomparable. Of course he has many more, and Relay FM as well. We're going to be recording

01:18:35 ◼   ► - I'm doing Clockwise live at all,

01:18:36 ◼   ► and we'll be doing that in person.

01:18:37 ◼   ► I'm gonna be taking the place of Dan Moran for the day.

01:18:42 ◼   ► If you wanna find Jason in person for the next 48 hours,

01:18:48 ◼   ► he's in the EuroPoto on Killarney in Ireland.

01:18:50 ◼   ► - I hope you're in Killarney, otherwise you won't find me.

01:18:52 ◼   ► - You can find him in, I don't know, after the secret word.

01:18:55 ◼   ► What's the secret word this time?

01:18:58 ◼   ► - Pineapple.

01:18:58 ◼   ► - Pineapple, say pineapple, and we got a sticker for you.

01:19:01 ◼   ► - Oh, nice.

01:19:02 ◼   ► - I got some stickers.

01:19:03 ◼   ► - You got the stickers.

01:19:03 ◼   ► - Pineapple the mic.

01:19:06 ◼   ► - If you're here, if you're at the Europe

01:19:07 ◼   ► and you say pineapple, say pineapple sticker

01:19:10 ◼   ► 'cause then I'll remember 'cause last year

01:19:11 ◼   ► we said banana, people keep saying banana to me,

01:19:14 ◼   ► I had no idea why they were saying it to me.

01:19:16 ◼   ► - No, you could do it at home.

01:19:17 ◼   ► - And I will give you some stickers.

01:19:18 ◼   ► And I'm online, I'm @imike, I-M-Y-K-E.

01:19:22 ◼   ► Thanks again to our lovely sponsors of this week's episode,

01:19:25 ◼   ► The Fine Folkover at Encapsular Squarespace and Mac Weldon.

01:19:29 ◼   ► But most of all, thank you for listening

01:19:31 ◼   ► and we'll be back next time.

01:19:33 ◼   ► Say goodbye, Jason Snow. Goodbye, Myke Hurley.

01:19:35 ◼   ► [Music]

01:19:53 ◼   ► [BLANK_AUDIO]