0:00:00[Music]
0:00:08From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, episode 111.
0:00:13Today's show is brought to you by Freshbooks and the Nuisance Committee.
0:00:17Please stay tuned after the show for a special message about the 2016 presidential election.
0:00:22My name is Myke Hurley, I am joined by Mr Jason Snell.
0:00:25Hi Myke, how's it going?
0:00:27Very well, Mr. Snow, I'm ready to upgrade my week.
0:00:30Good. Well, that's how we start here. We go early in the week so that your week is nice
0:00:37and upgraded for... I don't know how that works. Yes.
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0:01:27Exactly. Everybody out there in iMessage land can rejoice
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0:01:37Oh finally. We've been working very hard on this which
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0:02:31Jason, a little bit of Twitter follow-up. So we've been following Twitter's potential
0:02:36buyout or sale and there is an article on The Verge this week basically stating that
0:02:42It seems that everybody who was rumored to potentially be interested in buying Twitter
0:02:48has effectively pulled themselves out, including the Salesforce CEO, who is Mark Benioff, who
0:02:56told the Financial Times that the company has walked away.
0:03:00So they explicitly said that they're not interested, and The Verge's sources at various companies
0:03:06that seem to be interested like Google or Disney or Apple, Twitter could buy themselves.
0:03:14They've basically said that everyone is seeming to say, "No, we are not interested in this."
0:03:18So as it stands right now, nobody wants to buy Twitter.
0:03:21The Salesforce thing is interesting too because that's a case where it sounds like major investors
0:03:25in Salesforce basically went to Marc Benioff and were like, "No, don't do that." And he
0:03:30was like, "Well, we were just investigating." And they're like, "Well, stop." And he's like,
0:03:34okay we'll stop. The only, it's interesting because then you know what happens if a company
0:03:40wants to be bought out and nobody wants to buy them and I found a post that I think somebody
0:03:48linked to me on Twitter that is from somebody writing on his own blog but it's an investor
0:03:57essentially suggesting that what most likely will happen is that a strategic buyer will
0:04:07come in, like private equity might come in and buy out Twitter, and his argument is that
0:04:15what he calls a "Wall Street bastard" will come in and improve the product and cut the
0:04:22the expenses and this guy, John Hempton, who wrote this, basically says there's a business
0:04:28here, somebody who's an investor will see that there's a good business to be had here
0:04:32by changing what it is and cutting a lot of people and making changes and that's the most
0:04:39likely scenario is that especially as Twitter's stock falls in a moment of like people stopping
0:04:46the anticipation of a buyout that somebody could come in with private money and buy it
0:04:51and take it over and make some huge changes to it. This guy who wrote this blog post also
0:04:57hates Jack Dorsey and thinks that he is a fashion plate who doesn't actually care about
0:05:04it. I don't know how realistic this is but I think as the stock gets depressed because
0:05:10everybody realizes that there's nobody out there who actually wants to buy Twitter, then
0:05:14that's when somebody will buy Twitter because the Twitter stock price has been one of the
0:05:17big impediments to the purchase. So that may happen now that the Twitter's going to get
0:05:24bought rumors have sort of fallen on hard times.
0:05:27Because it's basically with everybody pulling out, it's getting to the point now where the
0:05:31stock price is so low, it's maybe becoming attractive for these people, I guess, right?
0:05:36Right. And the stock price was high in anticipation that some big pocketed buyer was going to
0:05:40come in and have to make an offer that was going to buy at the higher price, even though
0:05:44was a piece a while ago that I think we might have referenced on the podcast that was very
0:05:48much that, that Twitter's problem was that anticipation of a sale had driven its price
0:05:54up above what its actual value is, and therefore there couldn't really be a sale because you'd
0:05:59be overpaying for Twitter. But all signs point to no buyer now, which means that the stock
0:06:07price might start to drain away and then open it up for somebody else to come in and buy
0:06:13it. So over the weekend the Apple store in Regent Street was reopened. I saw that, I
0:06:22saw your video. Yep so I went down to take a look. I've been super excited about this
0:06:26thing for quite a while to reopen. I love the Regent Street store, I've always loved
0:06:30it and I love the new stores like the one that we saw in Union Square in San Francisco.
0:06:36So Apple have reopened it, I went down there, I took some video which I put on my vlog.
0:06:40uh... i recommend go watching it because this place is absolutely stunning it is
0:06:46unbelievable it's
0:06:48by far away the best uh... of these applesauce i've seen i've seen the one in
0:06:52memphis which is one of two one of the first ones if not the first one that had
0:06:55some of these elements
0:06:56and i've seen the one in in san francisco announcing this one in london
0:07:01day absolutely nailed it this is absolutely fantastic didn't cover my
0:07:06favorite uh... features in the store
0:07:09are the uh... that on the stairs like the handrails are carved into stone
0:07:14and i read in a tech crunch article that
0:07:16that is italian limestone
0:07:19and the angles of the the handrails are
0:07:22and like that they cut an angle as such that matches the angles and apples
0:07:26products
0:07:28so like that the curve in the handrail
0:07:31i love little things like that
0:07:32and this is something that i noticed when i was in the store but it seemed a
0:07:35bit strange to me at the time
0:07:37none of the devices are tethered to the desks
0:07:40so like you can just pick up the iPhone
0:07:41there's like no cable on it at all
0:07:43and in this TechCrunch article it says that
0:07:46basically Apple are not gonna be doing this now
0:07:49in their stores, they're not gonna be tethering
0:07:51to the desks anymore 'cause they want you to be able
0:07:53to pick up and walk around with them
0:07:54so you can kind of feel what they're like
0:07:56but if you try and leave the store
0:07:57they're immediately bricked.
0:07:59- Huh.
0:08:00- So you can just pick up the iPhones now
0:08:02and you see it in the video I pick up
0:08:03one of the Jet Black iPhone pluses
0:08:06the 7 Plus and I'm kinda just handling it and there's absolutely no cable in it, no
0:08:11tether on it at all. And I wondered if that was something that they were just doing for
0:08:14day one, but that's how it's gonna be done going forward now, which is very interesting.
0:08:21**Ezra Klein-Lamport-Gilligan** Have you been to the new one in San Francisco?
0:08:24**Matt Stauffer** Yeah, I was there during the WWDC week.
0:08:26**Ezra Klein-Lamport-Gilligan** Right, okay, so you have been to that one. I missed that.
0:08:32Because that's what the video that you took, that's what it reminded me of, right? It's
0:08:36It's the trees and the grove and all of that.
0:08:38It's like this is the new Apple Store model.
0:08:42- Yeah, but I've gotta say this one to me
0:08:45is the most impressive.
0:08:47I just thought it was absolutely stunning.
0:08:49Everything about it, like how open the store is
0:08:53and how it all kind of leads to the back
0:08:54and then up these beautiful stairs where they have
0:08:56the screen and then there's more product stuff at the back
0:08:58and the trees lying this walkway down to the back
0:09:01of the store, it is absolutely stunning.
0:09:05If you are in London or visiting London at any point,
0:09:08I thoroughly recommend this.
0:09:09I mean, the Covent Garden Store is beautiful.
0:09:11It's the biggest in the world
0:09:12because it's sprawling across these floors.
0:09:16I cannot wait to see what they do to that store now.
0:09:19But this Regent Street store is,
0:09:22I think it's a real landmark now.
0:09:23It's always been one of Apple's flagship stores,
0:09:25but they put a big effort into this one, I think.
0:09:31And there's an executive briefing room in the back, according to TechCrunch, that's
0:09:36like the secret boardroom. That's cool. I can imagine Apple doing product briefings
0:09:44with journalists in that area. Just come on back.
0:09:48So I know that there are offices above the store that Apple uses. It's actually some
0:09:54of the headquarters for a lot of Apple's London stuff. And they do briefings there,
0:09:59So they may now relocate those briefings to this new room in the actual store.
0:10:04Tim Cynova Although apparently they're, I mean, because
0:10:06they're going to take up many portions of the Battersea power station, right, eventually.
0:10:12So I wonder if eventually everything will be there because that was another big story.
0:10:18Apple made a bunch of international facilities announcements and one of them was unifying
0:10:24their London operations at the old Battersea power station.
0:10:27as a part of it. Which is going to be amazing.
0:10:30It's going to be amazing. So maybe that'll be...
0:10:32I think they're taking something like six floors of the new building, which is...
0:10:35So the building's being renovated, and it seems like Apple's going to be taking a significant
0:10:40chunk to unify a lot of their European effort, I think. This is what happens when a company
0:10:45can't move its money back. It starts buying real estate, right?
0:10:50Yeah, and that's exactly what's happening, is that it's... It also is a change in Apple's
0:10:54culture that Apple is now, much more than it was when Steve Jobs came back. Now it's
0:11:01embraced its international nature and has people all over the world working for Apple
0:11:07and groups in many countries.
0:11:10It's like this weird thing where they've always been there, but now they're kind
0:11:13of acknowledging it in a weird way by making bold statements and bold groups.
0:11:17Right, and creating, yeah, campuses and all of that. And if people don't know, outside
0:11:20of the UK don't know what Battersea Power Station is. It's right on the Thames, it's
0:11:24got these four huge smokestacks. You've probably seen it if you've watched any British TV shows
0:11:29because either as itself or doubling as some, you know, unnamed industrial complex in a
0:11:35James Bond movie or a Doctor Who episode, it's been used in a lot of different TV shows.
0:11:39It's iconic and that's why they can't tear it down, but it's not being used as a power
0:11:45station anymore, so what do you do when Apple's taking over?
0:11:48Oh, you may know it from the Pink Floyd Animals album.
0:11:51It's the building that they flew the inflatable pink pig
0:11:54over the top of that Spazzy power station.
0:11:57That's the one.
0:11:58Because I know when I was tweeting about this
0:11:59on the beta, Apple announced a sale.
0:12:01Every reply I had featured Pink Floyd in some manner.
0:12:04Talking about Apple scaling up,
0:12:08we've seen some news today from our good friend,
0:12:10Mr. Mark Gurman, of Apple scaling back on the Titan plan.
0:12:17Project Titan is the code name of Apple's car initiative.
0:12:22So the new German news is that there have been hundreds
0:12:25of job cuts inside of that team because the project,
0:12:29the team is now on a new direction.
0:12:31They are confirmed via German sources
0:12:35to no longer be building a car.
0:12:36This is something that was rumored that there was a change,
0:12:39but apparently now he's found out
0:12:41that they are no longer focusing on building a car,
0:12:43but leadership has put focus
0:12:45on building an autonomous driving system
0:12:48that will allow Apple to have the flexibility
0:12:51of either partnering with an existing car maker
0:12:53or to give them kind of the brains
0:12:56to return to designing their own car in the future.
0:12:59And Apple have been hiring more people
0:13:01that have a focus on this.
0:13:02So whilst they haven't cut the size of the team down,
0:13:05they've just cut the people out,
0:13:06I think that we're focusing on hard car hardware design
0:13:09and they're re-staffing with people
0:13:10that can help in the autonomous effort.
0:13:12Apple executives have given the Titan team
0:13:15until the end of next year to prove feasibility
0:13:17of the project.
0:13:18When I look at this, I kind of see a couple of things.
0:13:22I think this is probably the right move
0:13:23because I think just deciding you're gonna design a car
0:13:26when you're a computer company is a bold
0:13:28and I think kind of stupid move.
0:13:30- It's a big leap, big leap.
0:13:32- And I think if they can build something like this,
0:13:35if they can build the brains, they can either decide
0:13:37to work with a car company later,
0:13:39it gives them the road to buy a car company later
0:13:42knowing that they have something they can actually do
0:13:44with that company or they can return to making their own car later on once they've actually
0:13:49worked out if they can do something interesting. And clearly, if Apple are going to get into
0:13:53the car game, they need to get in the future of the car game. And for a company like Apple,
0:13:58the electronic stuff and the battery powered stuff, that's doable. There are enough companies
0:14:04doing it now, it's technology that's known, it can be done. But the autonomous stuff,
0:14:09still in the infancy, right, in the automotive industry. So if Apple feel like they can do
0:14:14something there, and by the end of next year feel like they have something worthwhile,
0:14:18I think that's when they might go back to working on a car again. And I think this is
0:14:22probably the right solution. Make sure you actually have something to give to the world
0:14:26before you start trying to build a product, which is leaps and bounds outside of what
0:14:31you're currently doing.
0:14:33I mean we talk about this from time to time and when we talked about the Apple car project
0:14:39there's often been this kind of head scratching aspect of it which is how does this work?
0:14:45Like we generally agree like it makes sense for Apple to investigate things like this.
0:14:51This is an area where they've got a lot of expertise in certain areas. Maybe this is
0:14:55something that they can do. They've got the money to do this. Why not them? If we look
0:15:00out at an industry that's ripe for change, it's the car industry, it's not going to be
0:15:03the same in 10 or 15 years as it is today. All of those things are true, and yet when
0:15:08we tried to imagine the product, it started to get weird. Like, imagining a line of Apple
0:15:16cars and Apple dealerships, Apple sales, it all started to feel a little bit weird. And
0:15:24we all kind of try to force our way through it and all that. I think it's interesting
0:15:28to see that this has apparently gone on inside of Apple, where the initial thing was "Let's
0:15:33see about making a car." Right? And also, I should say, this is the kind of thing that
0:15:38for many companies with many products, this happens behind closed doors and you don't
0:15:42hear anything about it. And unfortunately for Apple, everything it does is under so
0:15:47much scrutiny that an exploration of a direction, which, you know, companies should be able
0:15:54to do and they should be able to decide against making certain products. And I'm sure there
0:15:59are many small products that we don't ever hear about that Apple goes through with the
0:16:03same thing where they investigate them and they're like, "No, we're not going to do that."
0:16:07But this one was so huge and Apple so big that we heard about it. So they said, "Let's
0:16:12make a car. Let's see about making a car." And they worked on that for a couple of years.
0:16:16And then at some point somebody said, "This is not working." Like this is either... the
0:16:20Gherman's story cites sort of some leadership issues. It sounds like, too, maybe the fundamental
0:16:26question of why are we doing all of these things, does this all make sense? And so when
0:16:32they re-orged, it seems like they said, "Let's go back to basics. Let's stop planning on
0:16:36building an entire car and start with the stuff that we're best at and that will give
0:16:44us a foundation of technologies that we can then use in a car in the future, or we can
0:16:50license it out, or we can have a partnership, which I always thought was the most likely
0:16:54scenario with some sort of strategic partnership and investment with a car maker that would
0:16:59have cars that were powered by Apple, but that Apple wouldn't buy a whole car maker
0:17:04or make a car by itself. I still don't know if Apple really wants to be in the business
0:17:09of being an OEM for car software, right? That seems unlikely to me. So, but still, there
0:17:16are lots of possibilities here. This could amount to nothing. This could be, Apple could
0:17:21go down the road with this, road metaphor, Apple could go down the road with this and
0:17:26decide that it's a good product, but it's sort of outside of what Apple usually does
0:17:30and spin it off or sell it. Or Apple could decide to build their own car, they could
0:17:36decide to make that partnership or they could decide to license this technology to multiple
0:17:40automakers. Those are all possibilities. I feel like the Apple brand is so powerful that
0:17:46if you put this stuff in a car you'd almost want to co-brand it or brand it. Even if GM
0:17:51made it, you'd almost want to have it be like Saturn was or something as an Apple side brand
0:17:58rather than it being the automaker. There's a lot of options out there. I don't know.
0:18:02I like the idea that they're going back to basics, which is what are we best at, because
0:18:06building the car is completely outside of Apple's expertise, but the hardware, the technology
0:18:13stuff is, and the software, is in their wheelhouse. Not for car specific, but in the fact that
0:18:21that's a thing that Apple generally, everybody would agree, does well.
0:18:25So we'll see on that one.
0:18:27Yeah, I like the idea that they've also got a little bit of a deadline. That was part
0:18:30of the report, right? That you get until the end of next year to prove this is feasible.
0:18:35And again, this is a blue sky project. There is every possibility that they will spend
0:18:42all this time and money on it and say, "You know what? We don't need to do this." And
0:18:47people will say, "Well, that was a waste of time and money." Well, yeah, you know, that's
0:18:50R&D investment. You've got to investigate this stuff. If you think there's an opportunity
0:18:54there in your Apple and you've got all this money, you're trying to find the next big
0:18:57thing. It's just like what Google does. You're trying to find the next big thing so that
0:19:00you're always moving forward and sometimes it doesn't work out and I think it's a sign
0:19:04of a mature organization for them to put a lot of money into something and then say,
0:19:09you know what, it didn't work, like, and we're not going to throw more money at this because
0:19:13this is, turns out this is not where we want to go and we're not going to keep chasing
0:19:17after the sunk cost of our investment into the, into the car business. So, you know,
0:19:23I, I hope, I still believe that the car industry is going to be transformed in the next 10
0:19:2815 years and I would love for Apple to have a seat at the table but you know I
0:19:33like I actually really like the fact that they're trying to it seems like
0:19:38they're keeping a skeptical eye on this and that they're not believing like
0:19:41we're gonna we're gonna march in and completely transform with our brand new
0:19:45car that we drop in 2020 or whatever and instead are or maybe thinking a little
0:19:49more realistically. There are many seats at this table that Apple can take car
0:19:54maker doesn't have to be one of those seats.
0:19:57Tim Cynova Yeah, I agree. And certainly not now, right?
0:20:00I think that's the big thing. Like, leaving your options open for later is fine, but do
0:20:05you need to do all of it right now? And I think they bit off maybe more than they could
0:20:11chew and then part of this reorg is that, of saying, "Why don't we go back to the focus
0:20:16on the stuff that we're best at and pursue that for a while and see where it leads us."
0:20:22This week's episode of Upgrade is brought to you by Freshbooks. If you haven't tried
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0:24:15Sometimes. It's different.
0:24:17Go become a Six Colors member and you'll get the show.
0:24:19This was my piece at Macworld last week because I write a piece at Macworld every week. Because
0:24:24I went to Arizona, so last week I was in Arizona, I was in the desert getting all the moisture
0:24:29sucked out of my body by the desert like it does. And I traveled with, actually I brought
0:24:35my MacBook Air with me and my iPad. And that was the first time I had done that in a little
0:24:41while where I really was, uh, had both of them there and that was, uh, it was instructive
0:24:47to me.
0:24:48So, the reason I wanted to touch on this today is for a couple of things. I want to kind
0:24:53of do a check in with us both, like how we are using our devices still and if and how
0:24:57that's changing. But also because in listening to you talk about this and in reading the
0:25:02Even though I talk to you every week on the show, I was given a much kind of refreshed
0:25:07and greater insight into the fact of just how important the iPad has become for you
0:25:12in a way that I don't think me or you would have expected before the iPad Pro.
0:25:17Yeah, sometimes writing makes you realize things about yourself that I found.
0:25:23I wrote the article and it was a bit of a journey for me as I by the time I got to the
0:25:28end.
0:25:29Basically this piece is kind of going into detail about the way that the iPad and the
0:25:33Mac are occupying roles in your life, especially focusing on when traveling.
0:25:38But I thought maybe check into this in a bit more detail.
0:25:40So I guess one of the things that is a constant thread, it's been something we've spoken about
0:25:44for so long, is podcasting, right?
0:25:48And there's kind of been some advancements in this.
0:25:51know I know that you use and and love Ferrite which is a great
0:25:58application for podcast editing and there's kind of another thing that I've
0:26:02been thinking about which I wanted to touch on so it's not so much for me
0:26:08anymore the edit because I know that there are tools that can do this it's
0:26:13not even so much for me anymore like the Skype thing because it doesn't work very
0:26:18very well but you can kind of make it happen right by using multiple devices
0:26:22but the other thing that I found these days is when I'm traveling I'm usually
0:26:26traveling to places where I'm going to be recording shows that's one of the
0:26:30main reasons that I would take a laptop with me for that reason now and I have
0:26:35recognized that a key hole which I can't perceive being fixed anytime soon is
0:26:42backup recordings and this is something that's very important to me whenever I
0:26:47our recorders show I have three recordings running. I have core recorder, I have audio
0:26:53hijack and I have the backup that's coming from the streaming system. And this is because
0:26:58I have lost calls, I have had bugs, I have had crashes and when I am recording these
0:27:05shows to provide for my living, right, it becomes very important that backups are essential
0:27:13for this because if this was just me and you and we had our show that we just did together
0:27:19and you know maybe we had sponsors or maybe we didn't and it crashed and you know we'd
0:27:23lost the show and we couldn't rerecord because of our schedules okay like we'll just move
0:27:27it to the next time but we need to put these shows out every week because it's a business
0:27:31right this is part of a business we do this because we love this but it is an important
0:27:35part of the way that me and you make money so losing a show is like the worst possible
0:27:40thing that could happen. So I now, like I think my key thing now, and I know I keep
0:27:46moving the goalposts on this, but this is kind of just the way it's going to have to
0:27:49be, there has to be the ability to not only record, not only be able to hear someone,
0:27:54not only be able to have the interface for these devices, but also to have backups.
0:27:58Yeah, it's true that this is still, what I said to Dan in the secret podcast was, you
0:28:09do a lot of things like 90% of the things I want to do I can do on my iPad
0:28:13and then that other 10% some of them you can work around them and some of you
0:28:17can't but the some of the work arounds put you on the razor's edge and and
0:28:21that's exactly what you're saying which is you can do it but you have no
0:28:26latitude no chance of recovering from a failure if you do that and I I don't
0:28:34love that and I think we'll get there on iOS. I think one of my realizations that came out
0:28:42while I was writing that article is "Have I bought my last Mac laptop ever?" I don't
0:28:50know that this MacBook Air that I have is my last Mac laptop ever, but it's an i7 from
0:28:562013. It's powerful. Yeah, it's an 11-inch screen in non-retina, which means that it's
0:29:01dwarfed by my iPad screen, but it's very powerful, I can edit podcasts on it, I can
0:29:07do all of my-- I can generate charts for six colors, I can do all that stuff on it.
0:29:11And then I think, okay, so I can use that for another couple years easy. And then I
0:29:17think, okay, what's the iPad going to be like in a couple years? Because if the
0:29:20iPad in the next two or three years closes the gap on all the other features
0:29:24that it currently can't do and the Mac can do, then in a couple of years
0:29:30years, again, I'll be in this position of why do I need to buy a laptop? Because now
0:29:36my iPad can do all those things. So I find it funny, and it may very well be that I buy
0:29:40another Mac laptop, but I find it funny that I actually wonder now if I will ever do that
0:29:46or if I don't need one. By the time I need to buy a new Mac laptop, will I need to buy
0:29:52a Mac laptop anymore? And I don't know. It sort of depends on how Apple does with the
0:29:57with the iPad, there's some key things that it needs to add, but it's just a funny thing.
0:30:02And the other realization I had was about essential hardware, and I know you've felt
0:30:10this way too. My iPad's coming with me, right? My iPad is not ever going to be left at home.
0:30:17That's never going to happen. That is an essential part of my travel kit. The MacBook is optional.
0:30:25MacBook I have to think about, do I need to bring it? And I thought that was a really
0:30:28funny turn too. And again, I'm not the average user, everybody's going to be different, I've
0:30:32heard from people who said I feel exactly the opposite, and that's fine. But I had a
0:30:36strange realization about myself that for me, that MacBook is like optional tech that
0:30:41I might not, I might eventually not ever need again. And that's weird, because that used
0:30:46to be the computer I used, that used to be the device I used for 100% of my work. That
0:30:51very laptop.
0:30:52- And I guess the key thing to just mention,
0:30:55this isn't the Mac, it is Mac laptops.
0:30:58- Yeah, yeah, we should talk about that
0:31:00because I am sitting at a Mac right now, you are too.
0:31:03My work day is at a Mac.
0:31:06I don't use, I mean, I use an iPad to get work done,
0:31:08but when I am at work at home here sitting at my desk,
0:31:12my 5K iMac is my device of choice.
0:31:17This is where I do almost all of my work all day long.
0:31:22So it's not that, but in the context of travel or of going out in the other room, going out
0:31:27to the living room of the house, things like that, the Mac is rarely involved now. It's
0:31:32sort of sit down at my desk, do my work, use my professional tools, write articles, things
0:31:38like that.
0:31:39So do you only sit at the Mac when you're writing or recording?
0:31:45No, I mean I do other stuff. I'm moving files around and I'm doing email and
0:31:53things like that. I mean this is my, this is home base. I will take
0:31:56breaks from this and go in the other room and maybe do some stuff on the iPad,
0:32:00but when I'm working I'm at the Mac and so Slack and Twitter and all that
0:32:06other stuff is happening here. What I try not to do is read a lot on the
0:32:12Mac because I know that I could just read those articles on the iPad and that would
0:32:16be better. I should basically stand up, stretch my legs if I want to read an article, like
0:32:21use iCloud tabs or whatever to just open that article on my iPad in Safari and read it there.
0:32:31But when I'm at my desk, I'm using my Mac. I'm very focused on it. It's 27 inches
0:32:36diagonal. There's a lot of room to put Windows. Lots of stuff is going on.
0:32:40Yeah, I, um, I, I purely consider my Mac as a focused tool. Uh, it is something that I
0:32:47use to produce podcasts and videos like that. That's what I'm doing with it now. Like I'm,
0:32:53I've been spending more professional time. I've been spending more time at the Mac recently
0:32:57than usual because I've also been using Final Cut, right? So that is a large, large, large
0:33:04amounts of time spent editing and Final Cut. And it's funny, I've, I've noticed, um, in
0:33:09in the last few weeks, that my computing life
0:33:12has lacked some delight.
0:33:14And I think it's because I've been spending
0:33:17more time at the Mac.
0:33:18And for me, I enjoy computing on my iPad.
0:33:22But the Mac, it's like, this is work stuff.
0:33:25This is projects to be done, work to be completed.
0:33:29But when I'm on my iPad, I find it
0:33:31a more pleasurable experience.
0:33:33Reading Twitter, checking Slack at the Mac,
0:33:35it's just not fun for me.
0:33:38So that was the moment that actually prompted this entire article for me was I'm in Arizona
0:33:42and I had the MacBook Air out because I needed to do something that was on the MacBook Air.
0:33:48And then I found that I was not, I found that then I was looking at Slack or something,
0:33:56I sort of completed my task and I had like Slack and Twitter going, and I thought, I
0:34:00need to put this away.
0:34:01Like I, now I'm in the Slack and Twitter zone where I'm just reading things and interacting
0:34:07with people and the reason, and I would have a better experience on my iPad and that was
0:34:13when I closed the laptop. And that was just a funny moment of there are things that the
0:34:17Mac can do but I greatly prefer them on the iPad. And it's not like I think, like I have
0:34:23pains when I use Slack on my Mac here in my office, but if all I'm doing is looking at
0:34:29Slack and Twitter and reading articles on the web, the Mac is not, is the worst tool
0:34:35for that compared to the iPad. It's a worse tool for that. It just is. For me, it's less
0:34:42ergonomic. It's less comfortable. I would much rather have a little thing I can carry
0:34:47around with me than to sit at a desk or sit in like typing pose on a laptop with a small
0:34:54non-retina screen tilted, you know, and some of that could be you buy a bigger laptop and
0:34:58all those things and solve some of that. But it's just it was that moment of realization
0:35:02that there are certain modes that I would prefer to do on my iPad and not my laptop.
0:35:08So it's funny that we've got to here.
0:35:10>> Talking about ergonomics, though, you mentioned in the article about some of the issues of
0:35:15using the iPad when writing when traveling with the top line because you don't have a
0:35:21way to kind of comfortably rest this on your lap.
0:35:23>> Yeah, 12.9 is big and I love it and I think it's actually a great sort of disembodied
0:35:30screen and I think with an external keyboard at a table or a desk it's fantastic, but it's
0:35:35not something you can really put in your lap without a case that adds so much bulk that
0:35:40I've tried all those cases or many of those cases and I don't like them at all because
0:35:45it makes it huge. And so I end up compromising and not writing. When I'm at my mom's house
0:35:52with just the iPad, I go to her table and I put down my Bluetooth keyboard and my iPad
0:35:57and I sit there and write. It's not great ergonomically, but I can do a lot of writing.
0:36:02And with the MacBook Air, I actually wrote a couple of articles sitting on one of her
0:36:07couches with the MacBook Air in my lap, and I realized, well, this is nice. I don't have
0:36:12to be at the table like I do with the iPad, which is not to say that the 9.7--I keep coming
0:36:21back to the 9.7-inch iPad Pro with that Logitech keyboard--is an amazing portable writing tool.
0:36:26but I prefer the 12.9 and you know that's the one that I bought is the 12.9
0:36:3112.9 inch iPad Pro and so I prefer I prefer that one and that one is a
0:36:37harder sell as a as a right on your lap kind of device you can balance some
0:36:42things on your lap like the smart cover but it's not it's not great it's really
0:36:48so I was writing the show notes this morning on the couch with my 12.9 inch iPad in my
0:36:55lap using the smart keyboard. So like, I think, the way I was thinking about this is it can
0:37:00be done, like I do it all the time, however, we're doing very different things. And I imagine
0:37:06sitting and writing for an hour, I don't know if I would want to do that, but like I have
0:37:10it in my lap and I'm like typing out an email and then I just carry on, but it's not a great
0:37:16experience I imagine to sit and do focus writing.
0:37:18It's not, it's not great, I mean, I can write an email just in the software keyboard too,
0:37:22I can write an article on the software keyboard too, but you're trading off. Every little
0:37:26bit has some trade-off about it. The laptop is really great. It's designed to sit in your
0:37:33lap and let you type, and you don't need to. It's a laptop, right? You don't have to have
0:37:37a table. You can just put it in your lap, and the iPads are not as great for that, especially
0:37:42if you don't have an accessory. It's a challenge there. The iPad, as capable as it is, it just
0:37:52it reminded me of all of the things that it can't do, that, as I was saying to Dan, because
0:37:57Dan's going to be making an international trip pretty soon for an extended period of
0:38:01time, and one of the things that I said to him was, the iPad is not flexible in the same
0:38:09way that the Mac is. Like, you know what the iPad can do, but the Mac can do anything.
0:38:15Like the Mac can do anything you need. If any eventuality while you're traveling that
0:38:20need to do something, you know you can find a way to get the Mac to do it. And the iPad,
0:38:24there are lots of things that are like on the edges, and you realize, "Oh, I can't use
0:38:29the iPad for this. I need a Mac now." And so that's just where we are. And there's software.
0:38:37You've got a bit here in the show notes. I mean, there's so many things that the Mac
0:38:41can do that there are sometimes workarounds for on an iPad, but sometimes not. Like having
0:38:47the terminal, having command line stuff in the terminal, having scripts and
0:38:50automater stuff, which again there are workflows but they aren't necessarily as
0:38:54powerful and can't do everything. The file management stuff is
0:38:58problematic for, ding, hi Merlin, right? Because file management like
0:39:03you put in an SD card and it thinks that it's for photos and videos but what if
0:39:07you've got a word file on there or an audio file on there? You should be able
0:39:11to open those in an app on your iPad because your iPad has an SD card
0:39:17connected to it for Pete's sake, and yet you can't because as far as the iPad is concerned,
0:39:22SD cards only contain photos and movies. That's it. So that's another limitation. We do a
0:39:28lot of audio work, right? There are all these audio plugins. There are a few audio plugins
0:39:32that are available on iOS, but it's a brand new kind of interface on iOS, and most of
0:39:39the stuff that I use is not available in an iOS version. And so if I want to line up my
0:39:45files and denoise them before I start editing them and I want to edit them on my iPad, guess
0:39:51what? I prep all the files on my Mac and then I edit them on my iPad. It's not a full on
0:39:57iPad experience. So, you know, the list goes on depending on what you're doing. Like, six
0:40:03colors charts at an Apple event, right? The six colors charts. I have a whole thing where
0:40:08I'm actually just taking screenshots on my Mac but they're of retinal size and then I
0:40:13I run a script and it uploads them and all that. Well, I can do that on my iPad, but
0:40:17it is very much a more painful process because I have to take an iPad screenshot and then
0:40:23I have to crop it using a different app and then I have to upload it using a workflow.
0:40:28And it's, and so when, the last time I took a trip with my Mac, it was because there were
0:40:34going to be Apple results while we were on the trip and I didn't want to commit to doing
0:40:39charting on my iPad where time is of the essence and building those charts on the iPad is just
0:40:46going to take three times as long as on the Mac.
0:40:49So I think it's like it's the legacy of this platform that enables these things. It's the
0:40:55legacy of the Mac platform because you know we know how we use computers and this thing
0:41:01can just be used as a computer but the iPad is a different computer, it's a new thing.
0:41:07So it can't do all of that stuff, but just different stuff.
0:41:09Like for example, like I was just,
0:41:11I mean, people will have their ways of doing this,
0:41:13but I needed to download a YouTube video.
0:41:16I don't even know, I don't know how to do it on the Mac.
0:41:19There isn't a way to do that.
0:41:20You'd have to get an app.
0:41:21I don't know what app to get.
0:41:22- Yeah, I have a Safari plugin that does that.
0:41:25- Sure, I mean, I have no doubt
0:41:26that there are things that do it,
0:41:28but for me, the easiest way to do it
0:41:30was to open the workflow app
0:41:32and run a download YouTube workflow, which I have,
0:41:36and then just airdrop it back to the Mac again
0:41:38to put into Final Cut.
0:41:39(laughing)
0:41:40And it's because I think I am of a different,
0:41:42I am of a different mindset, I'm of a different,
0:41:47age isn't the right phrase because there are people
0:41:51that are younger than me and that know how to do
0:41:53all of this stuff easily on the Mac,
0:41:55but I'm of a different mindset of the way
0:41:57that I've been brought up in computing.
0:41:59Not as somebody who has ever really bothered
0:42:02to be very focused on code and all the rigmarole.
0:42:07You know, like, I'm talking about things like terminal
0:42:11and I'm talking about command line utility
0:42:13as an Apple script and all that sort of stuff.
0:42:14This stuff just doesn't make any sense to me, right?
0:42:18But what I am able to do is to understand something
0:42:21like workflow, which just makes a ton more sense
0:42:24to the way that I work.
0:42:26- Yeah, and workflow, I find workflow doesn't make
0:42:28lot of sense that there it's it's even more like automator you have to you have
0:42:33these blocks that do very strange things and you're you're because your
0:42:36vocabulary is so limited you have to do like five steps in order to get it to do
0:42:41something that should probably only take one or two and I understand you know I
0:42:45end up going to Federico Fattici and saying what am I or Fraser Spears what
0:42:51am I doing wrong here like what why how and and sometimes their answer is that
0:42:55should work and then they'll think about it and they'll figure out that even for
0:42:59somebody who's very well versed in workflow stuff that it's more complicated
0:43:04than they really thought and then they'll send me something I'll be like
0:43:07oh I would never have guessed that you had to go through those steps and and
0:43:10but you're right it is sometimes it's generational or it's at least it's
0:43:14really contextual like command line I don't love the command line but like
0:43:19I've got some command line utilities that do incredible things for me like
0:43:22like, you know, Marcos talked about on ATP, he has this app called Sidetrack, which is
0:43:25still a private data, but it lines up all the audio files of a podcast, and it's a command-line
0:43:30utility. And I wrote a very short automator action with some AppleScript in it that basically,
0:43:36in the end, what it does is it lets me click on a file and say, "Sidetrack this," in the
0:43:41Finder. And I don't have to go into the terminal. I do it all using the user interface, and
0:43:45great and the Mac lets me do that. If I was on iOS and even if I had that binary,
0:43:51which I don't know what that would be, but even if I did, how would I enable
0:43:56that? And I think that's... it will all... I think it will all come, right?
0:44:00But it's right now it's just... we have a complete platform and we have a
0:44:05still building platform. And that's the difference. It's like, if you want to be
0:44:09able to do everything, use the complete platform. If you want to... the building
0:44:14platform has a lot of value, but it's just not all there yet.
0:44:20No, I don't think that I'm out of the woods of buying Macs. I think I will be buying a
0:44:27new Mac laptop this year, because my needs are different.
0:44:34You travel a lot. I travel a lot, and I want something that's
0:44:38thinner and lighter than my current MacBook Pro for the times where I do want to take
0:44:43the laptop which are becoming less and less but it still exists as a thing when I travel
0:44:48and I want to be able to record and there isn't any other solution I want to have my
0:44:51Mac with me to do that especially now if like also I expect that every time that I leave
0:44:58I'll be working on videos as well so I will I definitely need for Final Cut so I want
0:45:06something that's thinner and lighter than what I currently have which means that it
0:45:09is likely that I will be purchasing a new laptop this year, but it remains to be seen
0:45:14which one.
0:45:15I've thought about it because I hear, you know, the temptation of a, like a MacBook
0:45:20that's much thinner and lighter and also has retina. If I felt confident that that would
0:45:27be a tool that I would need for the next five years, I would be more interested in that,
0:45:31but mine is in a pretty good place. You also travel a lot, and you have tools that have
0:45:37to be run, you know, right? You have work that has to be done on the Mac and that there
0:45:41aren't really any good solutions for that now. So that all pushes it in the other direction.
0:45:47But for me, I've been able to get away in most cases without the Mac and occasionally
0:45:53I will bring it. So we're going to Ireland in a couple of weeks and I am bringing a Mac
0:45:58there. And there are a couple reasons for that. One is Lauren needs a Mac because she's
0:46:01got some stuff that she has to do for this organization that she's a part of
0:46:05that requires basically Excel macros that I wrote for her to simplify her
0:46:12workflow for that. So she needs that. She needs a computer that's got Excel on it
0:46:17with macros. And then I've got enough podcast editing and stuff to do
0:46:22that I really need to to bring that to and to read off of a memory card.
0:46:26So, you know, what are you going to do? You gotta read off a memory card. You gotta
0:46:30bring your card reader and my card reader is apparently a Mac book so you know I'm still
0:46:36going to bring that a Mac is still going to come with us because it has to. I will not
0:46:40be bringing a Mac to Ireland. Monster. Well actually I don't think I will be maybe I will
0:46:47be. Oh yeah no upgrade there. I will be no the reason the only reason I will be is when
0:46:53I'm away I'll need to publish Cortex. Oh see. That requires a Mac unfortunately. That's
0:47:00a shame. If I wasn't doing that, then I wouldn't be bringing one. Because when me and you record,
0:47:07I would just use your laptop. Which is how, this is like the thing that I've been doing
0:47:11recently. Like, so when we were in Portland, I just kept like stealing Steven's computer
0:47:16to do anything.
0:47:17So you need a Mac, it just doesn't have to be your Mac.
0:47:20That's all that I care about, to be honest. Let's put it in that bag. Talking of bags,
0:47:24Yeah, I wanted to mention the bags that I use.
0:47:27So for carry on, I have a bag called
0:47:30the Topo Mountain Briefcase that I love very much.
0:47:33It is a briefcase/backpack/messenger bag.
0:47:38It has like three different ways you can carry it.
0:47:41I've used it for a long time.
0:47:42It is my like airplane travel bag now.
0:47:45And I get a surprising amount of stuff inside this bag.
0:47:50It served me very, very well.
0:47:53But then I also, when I'm out and about in London,
0:47:57or I usually take this with me on trips in case,
0:47:59you know, when I'm out and about walking around,
0:48:02is the Tom Binn Ristretto, which is a shoulder bag.
0:48:06And it's kind of made for smallish devices,
0:48:09but like laptops and stuff.
0:48:11So I've been very happy with that.
0:48:13And also I will give a shout out to Nock Co,
0:48:17Brad Dowdy, my co-host of The Pen Addict.
0:48:20He has a Kickstarter running for a bag right now
0:48:23called the Laniya, which I have been using more and more.
0:48:25It's kind of like, it is not meant to be like your daily bag
0:48:29it is a briefcase, but it's a bag that you would take
0:48:32to a conference, I'll be bringing mine to all.
0:48:34And it will be the thing that I would carry my iPad
0:48:38downstairs to the conference room with,
0:48:40that kind, it's that kind of bag, you know?
0:48:42So I'll put a link in there.
0:48:43You can still back to Kickstarter
0:48:44for the next couple of days and then it will be,
0:48:47he'll be making it later on.
0:48:49But if you want it, you should get one, I have one.
0:48:51I got sent a prototype one and I love it.
0:48:54- And I've been using the Timbuk2 laptop messenger bag.
0:48:59Some, we got one, we got those back at IDG
0:49:03and I still use that a lot.
0:49:04And it fits my, I can actually put my iPad
0:49:08and my MacBook Air together.
0:49:10They can snuggle in the--
0:49:12- Is that your bag that has the TechHive logo on it?
0:49:14- Yeah, that's the one.
0:49:16Yeah, that's a Timbuk2.
0:49:18And, but I have lots of other,
0:49:19I have lots of other bags too.
0:49:20a Bren Haven backpack that I've had for like 15 years that is still kicking that I love
0:49:26that they don't make anymore. I actually found one on eBay the other day and I couldn't believe
0:49:31it because they haven't made it in 10 years and I really love that backpack and I'm worried
0:49:35that it's going to die. So I spent 20 bucks and I bought the eBay on eBay the same one
0:49:43just to have another one because I love that backpack.
0:49:47What is the name of the Timbuk2 bag that you have?
0:49:50They have many laptop messenger bags.
0:49:53Well I think it's called Laptop Messenger Bag.
0:49:59I think that's actually what it's called.
0:50:02Is a laptop or custom laptop.
0:50:07It's probably custom.
0:50:08Because they have custom laptop, they have classic laptop, they have commute laptop.
0:50:13We're gonna go with custom.
0:50:15I think it's custom classic messenger bag, but I'm not 100% on that one.
0:50:21We'll go with that.
0:50:22We'll just assume that's the one, right?
0:50:24People can look it up from there.
0:50:25That's basically what it looks like.
0:50:26I want to round this topic out with a thought experiment, right?
0:50:30With you.
0:50:31You're going on a trip, and you can only take one device.
0:50:37And this is a trip where you will need to be working on.
0:50:40What device do you take?
0:50:42I would say it depends on what I'm working on during the trip.
0:50:46Like, am I editing podcasts?
0:50:50Am I recording podcasts on Skype?
0:50:52Am I recording things locally?
0:50:54Am I doing Apple quarterly report charts?
0:50:59All of those things.
0:51:01If I could only choose one, it would depend on those
0:51:04because often I will only bring the iPad Pro.
0:51:07But if I was in a case where I was doing things
0:51:10where I literally couldn't do it without a Mac, then I would have to choose a Mac because
0:51:15I would otherwise be unable to do them.
0:51:17So, my feeling would be I would take the iPad and just work it out.
0:51:21Yeah, well, I can see that. In fact, if I knew I've had that happen when I visited my
0:51:27mom because she used to have a MacBook Pro and she doesn't anymore. She just uses the
0:51:31iPad. And when she had the MacBook Pro there, it gave me this other level of confidence
0:51:35of like, "Well, if I need to do something, I could just use her MacBook Pro." But now
0:51:40that she doesn't like--so visiting my in-laws in Orange County, they have an iMac, and my--actually,
0:51:46my mother-in-law has a MacBook Air, too, so it's like, I don't have to bring a Mac with
0:51:50me, and I can work it out. But if I'm going somewhere--so if I was going to OOL, and--which
0:51:55I am, and I'm fairly confident that there will be Macs there, right? I could probably
0:52:02work it out, but I'm not going to. So if you said you're going someplace where there's
0:52:09no other technology and you need to do things that require a Mac, then I would--at that
0:52:13point I would start to think, "Do I really want to get a retina Mac laptop so that I
0:52:19can have the retina with me and take retina screenshots and things like that?" Then I
0:52:24would start to think about that. But, you know, generally they let you take a laptop
0:52:29and an iPad with you when you travel. So that's good.
0:52:34Ladies and gentlemen, open your iMessage applications, find the correct sticker, hold down on the
0:52:41up arrow, select lasers, because it is time for #AskUpgrade.
0:52:48Set with lasers. Steve wants to know, for a new iMac purchase,
0:52:51would you recommend a fusion drive or SSD plus external hard drive? I have lots of photos.
0:52:57I have not even considered or thought about Fusion Drive for a long time.
0:53:03It just fell out of my memory.
0:53:05That's what Fusion Drive is for, right?
0:53:06If you need a lot of space, it gives you the speed of the SSD, but the storage capacity
0:53:12of a spinning hard drive.
0:53:15And so I think either of those is probably fine to Steve.
0:53:20The external hard drive will give you a little more flexibility, but you're also going to
0:53:23have a thing that you have to plug in.
0:53:26advantage, you know, you can get a different one. You can take it to a
0:53:30different computer. All of those things are not true with the Fusion Drive. It's
0:53:34inside your iMac at that point. I opted for SSD, but I have a, you know, I have an
0:53:41external hard drive, essentially. I have a server with a giant storage area on it.
0:53:46You've got an external hard drive for yours, right? Yeah, I have a couple that I use. I keep,
0:53:53actually two plugged in at all times for different things because one of them
0:53:56needs to be taken out and moved around more than the other. The other is
0:53:59basically just what I refer to as just it's actually just called cold storage
0:54:02like it's just where I put stuff and it stays forever like large things I have
0:54:08some just weird files and etc on there and one of the things that will be built
0:54:15into mega office will be some kind of network attack storage when I when I get
0:54:19around to that. I personally would say go SSD and external hard drives just
0:54:24because it gives you more flexibility and if you have the ability to do it and it's
0:54:27easy enough like just get a thunderbolt something or other or you know
0:54:32depending on the computer that you end up buying whenever you buy it there
0:54:35might be other options like USB 3 or whatever I just think that that's just
0:54:40way better I don't I just have an inherent distrust for Fusion Drive it
0:54:44It just seems super strange to me and like, I feel like there's just more likelihood of
0:54:50something getting broken somewhere along the way.
0:54:52I don't know, I think Fusion Drive is fine, but yeah, I would say if you can afford to
0:54:56not and have an SSD and an external hard drive, the exceptions there are if you can't afford
0:55:01to do that, or if you really don't like desk clutter, if you really don't like the sound
0:55:07of spinning hard drive enclosures, because that can be an issue where you've got a noisy
0:55:13you know, ticking thing on your desk that is the spinning hard drive. Then again, if
0:55:19you only need that in certain circumstances and you can have it off other circumstances,
0:55:24then that's fine too. So it really sort of depends on those kind of specific things.
0:55:29But all things being equal, yeah, I agree, SSD, and then have an external, big external
0:55:35hard drive for you to use when you need the huge storage of your whole photo library.
0:55:39talking about things that I'd kind of forgot existed Brent asked is there any
0:55:44benefit to running more than one content blocker on iOS I mean my feeling is I
0:55:49guess it depends what they do like I don't know if it's worth running to just
0:55:52pure ad blockers if that's what you're looking to do I feel like you at a
0:55:57certain point you're just gonna be blocking blocking and blocking blocking
0:55:59like I don't really know how far it will take you but there are content blockers
0:56:04that do different things like there is a content blocker that I actually do run
0:56:09called, I always forget is on, I think it's called like cookie jar or something
0:56:14like that and all it does is it stops the European Union cookie notifications
0:56:21appearing on sites. It's called cookie something. I'll see if I can find it. I
0:56:29can't even remember the name of it but I'll find it somewhere. Cookie box. Is that
0:56:33what it's called? Cookie box. So I use that. That's the only one that I've ever
0:56:38ever used because it just helps get rid of some of those when I'm going to
0:56:43websites from Twitter links and stuff like that. I don't run any other kind of
0:56:48content blockers. Do you run any? I don't. It just is the thing to me where it's
0:56:54like alright whatever like it's I'm not even really taking a moral stand on it I
0:56:59just know how frustrating it is and how sometimes things don't work. We get
0:57:03people write to us every couple of days for the stuff to do with the
0:57:07membership where they're like I can't log in and the first answer is
0:57:12do you run any content blockers because for whatever reason it just breaks stuff
0:57:17right so you know I just can't be dealing with that. The ads aren't that bad.
0:57:24Yeah I've decided in general that I would rather see the ads than have weird
0:57:32incompatible experiences that I have to troubleshoot.
0:57:35Yeah it's just not, it's just not worth it for me.
0:57:40I don't get enough frustration out of it to feel like I need to turn them on.
0:57:43Steve wrote in, "So now the US Department of Transport says you cannot take the
0:57:48Galaxy Note 7 onto aircraft, will this be something Samsung can bounce back from?
0:57:53I think it's going to be tough considering right now it is a federal crime to take a Note 7 onto a plane,
0:58:00This is a quote that I found from the Verge which is quoting the Department of Transport
0:58:04passengers who bring a note 7 onto a plane are subject to civil penalties of up to
0:58:10179,933
0:58:12where did I come up with these numbers? dollars for each violation for
0:58:16Doing this and could be prosecuted which could result in imprisonment of up to 10 years as well as the fine
0:58:22So I think that's pretty bad marketing for Samsung right now
0:58:27especially because like
0:58:30if I'm an air like if I'm an air steward and I'm walking down the line and I see a Samsung device
0:58:37Do I know what a note 7 is or do I know I need to look at the Samsung devices
0:58:44Right. I am assuming that if you have any kind of Samsung device you are being told to turn it off
0:58:51But the unit or at least you're being given the you know, the eyeball so being honest
0:58:57Is that a Samsung device?
0:58:58I mean, like this is like, at first,
0:59:00it was you couldn't have them powered on,
0:59:01but now if you have a Note 7,
0:59:03I don't know how they're checking what a Note 7 is or isn't,
0:59:05like I wonder what they're doing there,
0:59:07but they are saying that you literally cannot
0:59:09board an airplane with it.
0:59:11I mean, frankly, if you still have one of these devices,
0:59:15you need to return it.
0:59:17Like, they are effectively taking time bombs at this point.
0:59:20Any of them could set off in flame, right?
0:59:23Like, it is clear right now,
0:59:25it doesn't matter what the battery is,
0:59:26doesn't matter where it's come from, Samsung have stopped making this device. I think they
0:59:32said they are killing the Note brand, like it's over. Like you just need to return it
0:59:37now I think. Like I'm afraid the dream has to die.
0:59:40Well what if you have a Note 5, right? It doesn't look that different. Maybe you've
0:59:44got it in a case. The Edge? The Edge is about the same size,
0:59:48the 7 Edge, it just doesn't have the pen. I mean it is a, if you're a Samsung phone
0:59:53owner right now. This is a tricky situation to have to deal with every time you board
0:59:57public transport. This is not good for them. This is really not good for them.
1:00:02I think to answer Steve's question, I think Samsung will bounce back from it, but it's
1:00:07going to cost them a lot and it's going to take time and they're going to have to do
1:00:12some perhaps unintended product redesign, like not just the external, but like, or not
1:00:17just the internal, but the external, and they're going to have new branding and they're really
1:00:20gonna have to relaunch their product line in order to get out of this and there will
1:00:25be a hangover and it will be a few years before I think they will get back. I don't think
1:00:30they're gonna exit the phone business. I would be shocked if something like that happened
1:00:33but I think it's gonna be, they're gonna be in jail for a little while.
1:00:36David Tompa If Samsung is good at one thing, it is product
1:00:39marketing like in the sense of whether it's good or it's bad, they make sure everybody
1:00:44knows their products. And sometimes that's all it takes though, right? Just blasting
1:00:50and they are good at that. They are good at endorsement deals, they're good at getting
1:00:54their phones in rap videos, like they're good at this stuff, like they understand how to
1:00:59do that.
1:01:00Well that's why Samsung is the most successful Android phone manufacturer, honestly, is because
1:01:06they saw the potential of this market and made an investment up front in huge marketing.
1:01:13Huge marketing. And there was a time when the Samsung phones were really not notably
1:01:16different or better than any other Android phones out there, I would argue, but they
1:01:22were the ones spending more than Apple on marketing, and they established themselves
1:01:28as the brand to be, and they beat out, you know, Motorola and the Verizon Droid marketing
1:01:34and all that. They really owned it, and they're going to have to use, you know, that investment
1:01:39is kind of blown now to a certain extent, and they're going to have to spend more time,
1:01:44but I have no doubt that they'll bounce back.
1:01:46It's just gonna cost them time and money.
1:01:47- Like at this point, it is argued
1:01:49that they do make the best Android phones as well.
1:01:51But I agree that like initially,
1:01:53when it was like earlier on,
1:01:55whether they made the best phones or not,
1:01:56they were getting ahead because of their marketing.
1:01:58And now it's kind of like an inertia thing, right?
1:02:00The marketing's continuing,
1:02:02but they're also considered to be making great devices.
1:02:04Now they've kind of lost the latter of those two points,
1:02:08because whether the devices are great or not,
1:02:09if they're catching on fire,
1:02:11or if they're known to catch on fire,
1:02:12It kind of undermines your product innovation.
1:02:15So I think they're gonna struggle.
1:02:17I think that there is a possibility,
1:02:21there is of course a possibility this ends
1:02:23their phone division, but it won't be a decision
1:02:27they make now.
1:02:28I think it will be depending on how the next couple
1:02:30of revisions phones do.
1:02:32Like if people decide not to buy their phones
1:02:34because they're scared they're gonna catch on fire,
1:02:37that's only a couple of revisions away,
1:02:39like a couple of like product cycles away
1:02:40from ending up not doing that anymore.
1:02:43- I suppose.
1:02:43- My money would be on the fact that they are able
1:02:45to revive the division and push ahead again,
1:02:49but the possibility is definitely there.
1:02:51- Yeah, I can't see it happening.
1:02:54It would require a complete rejection by the market,
1:02:59and I don't think that'll happen also
1:03:00because there are so many other Samsung phones
1:03:03that are fine, that are not covered in this.
1:03:06It's really just the Note.
1:03:08And I feel like they will,
1:03:10The only thing I would say is I think that the pride of the Samsung brand is going to
1:03:13be a factor here too, where they're not going to...
1:03:17Like one thing to do would be to just create a new brand for phones made by Samsung and
1:03:22do that, but they're not going to do that because Samsung is all about putting its own
1:03:25name on everything it makes, whether it's a washing machine or a phone.
1:03:29And so they're not going to go away from that.
1:03:32So maybe the Galaxy brand goes away or maybe the Note brand goes away and the Galaxy brand
1:03:36stays and it gets called something different. We'll see, but I don't think they're
1:03:42going anywhere. They're just going to have to take the hit for two or three years.
1:03:46No, I find it very unlikely, but I think, my point is, I think the likelihood of them
1:03:52going away is higher than other phone makers at this point. They have a thing that's
1:03:58happening to them which isn't happening to anybody else, which is the phones are
1:04:01considered dangerous. Like that is a thing not working in their favor. But I want to
1:04:08underscore I think they will rebrand and they will bounce back, but I don't think the next
1:04:12firm will bring them to the point where they want to be. I think it will be in a couple
1:04:15of years time for them to really establish themselves back on top of the pile.
1:04:18There'll be a dip and then it'll slowly come back. I think that's what will happen.
1:04:22And I do think the Galaxy brand is gone. I think the Note brand is gone. I think it's
1:04:26brand new branding.
1:04:28That's my yes change as much as possible.
1:04:32Dave has asked is there a way to see my purchased or slash downloaded iMessage apps on a second
1:04:37device without just searching the store.
1:04:41So my assumption of what Dave is asking is is it how can I find out which apps I've downloaded
1:04:47another devices.
1:04:48So the way that I do this is to look at the purchase tab in the main app store.
1:04:53All of the apps that you've purchased or downloaded are in there and if there's just sticker packs
1:04:57or just iMessage apps, they're identifiable by the oval icon.
1:05:01Well, I'm looking at, on my iPhone, at the purchase list, and the message apps all still
1:05:08just have round-rack icons, just like every other app.
1:05:11Uh, no, you're right, Jason. I was wrong with that one. So, you're out of luck, Dave.
1:05:18Yeah, there's no special way to filter just things that have stamp packs. I am baffled
1:05:25by many things in the iMessage app store, but one of the things that I'm baffled by
1:05:31is that there's no like purchased link to just filter your purchased sticker packs or
1:05:39apps that contain sticker packs.
1:05:41Especially because they don't sync.
1:05:43Yeah.
1:05:44Right?
1:05:45Because they don't sync from device to device, so the only way you can do it is by going
1:05:49in and downloading them again.
1:05:50Well they do.
1:05:51you have auto download apps on they'll auto download right but yeah but I don't
1:05:58yeah I mean who really has that on for everything I don't know I don't know
1:06:03about that it's not great Jason asked is there gonna be any chance that the air
1:06:09pod pairing process will come to the Apple watch I don't think that's needed
1:06:13the Apple already have a unique pairing and process for the Apple watch using
1:06:18the camera and then the little thing it displays.
1:06:21Oh, you read that way. No, I think this means to pair your AirPods with your Apple Watch.
1:06:27That's how I read it. And my guess is that if you pair your AirPods with your iPhone,
1:06:32that perhaps they will direct, they will automatically pair with the Apple Watch as well. But it's
1:06:36a, I think, yes, if, I would be shocked if you can't fairly easily pair your AirPods
1:06:43with your Apple Watch.
1:06:44It would just be paired via your account, like you would do it via the phone as you
1:06:48say.
1:06:49I would think so.
1:06:50For either of those, so whether it's pairing the Apple Watch and the phone or pairing the
1:06:54AirPods to the watch, I think no for either of them.
1:06:57I don't think there's going to be any change.
1:06:59Yeah, I don't know if you try to pair the Apple Watch with AirPods if it will pop up
1:07:06a little thing that says, you know, "Let's do this," or whether you need to do a standard
1:07:11Bluetooth pairing with those.
1:07:13I don't know whether they've added that into
1:07:15watchOS yet or not but
1:07:17I would think that they would make it as easy as possible
1:07:19to connect it if it isn't automatically connected when you're connected to
1:07:24the iPhone if it doesn't also pair with your Apple Watch. I don't know.
1:07:28And finally today Landon asked how tall I am.
1:07:32[laughter]
1:07:35Because after watching my vlogs, he was curious, Landon, I am
1:07:40about six foot tall on the money
1:07:42And if you are in Europe, let me find out what that is
1:07:45six feet in
1:07:48meters
1:07:49It's one point eight meters tall. Hmm. How tall are you Jason? I am
1:07:54Somewhere between five foot ten and five foot eleven on a good day. I'm five foot eleven on a bad day
1:07:59I'm five foot ten. This is one of those funny things where I was almost positive that you were taller than me
1:08:04Absolutely not. I everybody that I know I think is taller than me
1:08:09I don't know what that says about me, but I'm sure a psychologist would have a field
1:08:12day with that.
1:08:13We are all much shorter than Anjey Tomić.
1:08:16That's the important thing to note.
1:08:18By a country mile.
1:08:19He is, yes, he is a, and that country is Slovenia.
1:08:23By a Slovenian mile.
1:08:25Yep.
1:08:26Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Upgrade.
1:08:30You want to go to our show notes today at relay.fm/upgrade/111 or look in your app of
1:08:34of
1:08:50is closed. So if you want to get this stuff, you have to go now. I will not accept people
1:08:55saying to me, "Oh, you didn't give me enough notice." This is your notice. Right, this
1:08:59is your final warning. Would you agree, Jason? Final warning right now.
1:09:03Final warning. Final warning.
1:09:05If you want to find Jason online, you can go to sixcolors.com and he is @jasonel on
1:09:11Twitter, J-S-N-E-L-L-L. I am @imike, I-M-Y-K-E. I host many podcasts here at Relay.fm, as
1:09:19This does, Jason.
1:09:20That is our URL, relay.fm.
1:09:22The company's name is relay.fm.
1:09:23There is no dot in the company name, but there is a dot in the URL.
1:09:27So I feel like I must say it both ways.
1:09:28I also publish YouTube videos over at youtube.com/mikehurley.
1:09:32Thank you so much for listening.
1:09:33Thank you so much again to our sponsors this week, FreshBooks and the Nuisance Committee.
1:09:37We'll be back next time.
1:09:39Until then, say goodbye, Mr. Snell.
1:09:41Goodbye, Mr. Hurley.
1:09:47What's going on inside Donald Trump's head?
1:09:51Do you think he's ever scared or wonders if he's wrong?
1:09:56In public he calls people names.
1:09:59He's a germaphobe and he doesn't like to be touched.
1:10:03Trump spreads conspiracy theories and makes wild accusations.
1:10:08He says that Ted Cruz's father helped assassinate JFK.
1:10:14He says that Obama is a traitor who wants Muslims to attack the United States and that
1:10:20Hillary Clinton might have committed murder.
1:10:24He thinks climate change is a conspiracy created by the Chinese government.
1:10:30Do you think he believes those things?
1:10:34He used money from his charity to buy a six-foot painting of himself.
1:10:39He lied to the press about helping to clear rubble after 9/11.
1:10:45In interviews, Trump has said he's too busy to read books.
1:10:51He seems to not know how to use a computer or type on a keyboard.
1:10:57Donald Trump doesn't know what's in the United States Constitution.
1:11:02When a member of Congress asked him about Article I, which defines congressional powers,
1:11:08He said, "I'm going to abide by the Constitution, whether it's number one, number two, number
1:11:15twelve, number nine."
1:11:18The Constitution has seven articles.
1:11:24This November, the American people will elect a sane and reasonable president who understands
1:11:30the basic facts about our democracy.
1:11:34And that won't be Donald Trump.
1:11:46[BLANK_AUDIO]