7: Hot Dog Allergy

0:00:00[Music]

0:00:08Hello and welcome to episode 7 of Upgrade on Relay FM. This episode of

0:00:14Upgrade is brought to you by Backblaze, online backup made easy,

0:00:18and igloo, an intranet you'll actually like.

0:00:21My name is Myke Hurley, but I'm joined by the man of this hour,

0:00:25Mr. Jason Snell. Hi Myke. This hour. Yeah, figure of this hour that's about to

0:00:32proceed you will be the man. 3 p.m. is Jason time. Jason daylight time. Yeah,

0:00:38we're in that time right now where we have switched to daylight

0:00:44savings time in the United Kingdom but you change in a week. In a week.

0:00:50so that the trick-or-treaters can have a little more light. That's really it,

0:00:56seriously, that's why. Oh really? Yeah, yeah they moved it to after Halloween on

0:01:01purpose so that Halloween would have a little more light in the evening for the

0:01:05little kids who are wandering around and demanding candy. My word. It's true.

0:01:09Does that mean we're closer? Doesn't that mean we're closer together, Myke? It does.

0:01:13I prefer this but I only get one week of it. When it changes back to summertime

0:01:21we change three weeks earlier than you which is horrible because that's the

0:01:27wrong way. We're far away. That's nine hours. Yeah, yeah. With the West Coast. With the

0:01:32best coast, yes. That's upsetting because I can deal with things when it brings

0:01:38things forward an hour but pushing them out makes it harder. However, next time it

0:01:42it won't be a problem for me, sir.

0:01:45- That's good, 'cause you'll just be living

0:01:46in your vampire hours as a new,

0:01:49living East Coast hours in England, which is fun.

0:01:52- I'll be walking around here going,

0:01:53"What are you guys talking about?

0:01:54"Daylight savings time, we've got another three weeks of that

0:01:57"well, what's the problem, guys?"

0:01:59- My cousin and her husband,

0:02:02he used to work in a job in Louisville, Kentucky,

0:02:05and they lived in Indiana.

0:02:05So they lived in Central time,

0:02:07but he worked in Eastern time.

0:02:08And she was a telecommuter to a job in Florida,

0:02:11which is Eastern time.

0:02:12So their house was all the clocks were in Eastern time,

0:02:14even though if you went to the store, it was central time,

0:02:17but they just pretended that they were in Eastern time.

0:02:19It was easier for everybody

0:02:21if they just acted on Eastern time,

0:02:23'cause all their work was Eastern time.

0:02:25- Probably not easier for the people around them.

0:02:28- Probably not.

0:02:29My wife used to work, her boss used to live,

0:02:33still does I think, half the year in New Zealand

0:02:35and half the year here.

0:02:37And the way that works, because it's the other hemisphere,

0:02:42the times come closer each way by an hour,

0:02:46and then they go away from each other by an hour.

0:02:48So actually when my wife was working with her

0:02:50and it was winter here and summer there,

0:02:53I think the difference in time,

0:02:54I think it was like four hours.

0:02:55It was almost no difference in time.

0:02:57It was very much like a New York,

0:02:58San Francisco kind of thing.

0:03:00So it was actually really easy to work

0:03:01with people from New Zealand,

0:03:02but then the other half of the year,

0:03:04they're much further apart.

0:03:05Time zones, how do they work?

0:03:09Apparently, however anybody likes is what we've learned today.

0:03:13Just do whatever you want.

0:03:14So this is our top of episode digression for this week is a vertical, the vertical this

0:03:19week, as we said, our vertical podcast of the week.

0:03:21This is about time zones.

0:03:22Yeah, and we're not actually, the Kindle will not be a vertical this week.

0:03:26Who knows if it'll be a topic?

0:03:29Yo.

0:03:30Yeah.

0:03:31It's in there.

0:03:32I know it's in there.

0:03:33There is a chance that it, there's a chance it might be.

0:03:35There's a chance it might not be.

0:03:37Just so people know so we can kind of keep abreast of Kindle Talk, which is part of the

0:03:43Vertical Podcast, which is part of Upgrade.

0:03:46Do you have your Kindle Voyage?

0:03:48I do.

0:03:49Okay, great.

0:03:50So the Kindle Voyage is in the house.

0:03:55So now if we don't talk about it, we'll really not be talking about it.

0:04:01I think it's time for your favorite part of the show.

0:04:05Sponsors who are our good friends.

0:04:07- Oh, follow up, follow up is what you mean.

0:04:10- I do.

0:04:12- Okay, listener Shep wrote in to say,

0:04:15"Myke, please, I beg you, don't buy a Mac Mini."

0:04:19- Wow, wow Shep, you really mean this.

0:04:22Please tell me more Jason.

0:04:24Shep, please tell me more via Jason.

0:04:27- I think you might've gotten this email,

0:04:28but I forwarded this to you.

0:04:30But anyway, he says, "The new machines are not only limited

0:04:32"to dual core, which we mentioned last time,

0:04:34"but the RAM is soldered onto the machines.

0:04:36the upgrade price from 4 gigs in the Lowison machine to 16 is a ridiculous

0:04:40amount because they know you can't do it later

0:04:43and he said I'd strongly urge you to find

0:04:45new old stock, I assume he means something that's still floating around

0:04:49or refurbed or something, of the previous superior version

0:04:53of the mini that had the quad core i7 processor then do your own 30 second RAM

0:04:57upgrade

0:04:58and so he's recommending you seek out an old

0:05:02previous generation Mac Mini that had the quad core processor and

0:05:06upgrade the RAM and use that instead of buying one of the limited

0:05:10new model Mac Minis. That's not a bad idea actually.

0:05:15If you're doing multi-core, I mean I don't think it's going to be much slower

0:05:20to do single core and it would be much faster to do multi-core.

0:05:24If you can find it. Yeah, that's the problem if I can find one.

0:05:28Um, yeah, definitely not a bad idea.

0:05:30Maybe I'll save myself some money.

0:05:32Who knows?

0:05:32Or maybe there'll be, like, a black market, um,

0:05:36of these machines.

0:05:38- Listenership says that PowerMax.com, for example,

0:05:41has a quad core at $699 US right now.

0:05:45- Jason, have you ever heard of PowerMax.com?

0:05:47- No.

0:05:49- Okay, good.

0:05:50Well, I'm not gonna buy from them then.

0:05:51(laughing)

0:05:52- Just as an example of a...

0:05:56It's Power Max, it's like Max Power.

0:05:58It's like the Homer Simpson's alter ego, Max Power.

0:06:01- I don't remember that. - It's just like that.

0:06:05Anyway, Myke don't buy a Mac Mini.

0:06:07That's the only, you only move twice.

0:06:09You should see that.

0:06:09That's a great, is that, is that the,

0:06:11- Oh! - Is he Max Power in that?

0:06:12No, it's a different episode where he's Max Power.

0:06:14He changes his name because there's the police cops star

0:06:17who's a character called Homer Simpson.

0:06:19And in the pilot episode, he's really cool.

0:06:20And then in the series episode, he's a loser.

0:06:23And so he changes his name to Max Power.

0:06:25that I remember that you only is it moved twice

0:06:30you only move twice is the one where he gets the job as the James Bond villain

0:06:33played by Albert Brooks is a nuclear power

0:06:36guy that is my favorite Simpsons episode of all time

0:06:40I'm it's a good one it ends with a great joke that you wouldn't understand which

0:06:44is a

0:06:45an NFL joke because Dallas Cowboys

0:06:48he owns the Dallas Cowboys but instead he gets the Denver Broncos

0:06:51Denver Broncos! Mars is well I don't know it seems funny Mars you don't understand

0:06:56football because back then the Denver Broncos were terrible then they won the

0:06:59Super Bowl and ruined the joke. And then everyone on the internet shared that

0:07:02clip for 24 hours. That's what I found. Yeah that is I think you only move

0:07:08twice it kind of has everything that is good about the Simpsons. Yeah I kind of

0:07:15stopped watching the Simpsons in recent years there's a lot of things is

0:07:18everything bad about the Simpsons. So there's our Simpsons vertical. Done.

0:07:23They're not tangents anymore, they're vertical. You can sponsor these

0:07:27verticals in the future. That'll be good. We just get totally

0:07:30vertically aligned sponsorship deals. This vertical was brought to you by Fox.

0:07:35Yeah, exactly. By the new Simpsons app from FXX. Listener Joseph wrote in, we had

0:07:43some Apple Pay comments, and listener Joseph said, "Obviously Apple Pay works

0:07:48with any NFC compatible system.

0:07:50He says, "I think Apple's cache will push retailers

0:07:54to enable NFC and advertise

0:07:57that they're Apple Pay participants,

0:07:58but it doesn't look like they have to specifically

0:08:00partner with Apple."

0:08:01This is true, and of course,

0:08:01as we found out some drugstores in the US,

0:08:05which we call that a chemist, Myke,

0:08:08in your part of the world. - A chemist, yes.

0:08:10Or a pharmacy.

0:08:11- Or a pharmacy, okay, well, indeed.

0:08:13So many drugstores, pharmacies, chemists

0:08:15in the United States have actually,

0:08:17They had it on and when they discovered that it worked with Apple Pay, they quickly turned

0:08:21it off because they are plotting their own system.

0:08:25But yes, theoretically if you're an NFC terminal, it should be able to work with Apple Pay.

0:08:31And I think I read somewhere that somebody in Australia was able to pay with something

0:08:35using Apple Pay because they had a US credit card and there was an NFC terminal and they

0:08:39had to pay the conversion rate and all of that, but it actually did work.

0:08:43So that's good.

0:08:44if you have a US credit card you can basically pay anywhere in the world. It's

0:08:48very interesting that that works but it's all... The thing is like I have a... I have

0:08:55an understanding of this stuff kind of a little bit from a technical level from

0:08:59my soon-to-be previous employment and these things like the machines and the

0:09:06NFC chips they just see each other as very basic technology. Apple's not doing

0:09:11anything magic that requires--

0:09:15- It's sending numbers, right?

0:09:16I mean, it's like numbers.

0:09:18- All it's doing is like, if you have one of these chips

0:09:20in your credit card or your debit card,

0:09:21it's the same thing that's inside of what Apple's doing.

0:09:26And a lot of it, like the terminal doesn't know

0:09:29what is necessary talking to it,

0:09:31because then it's kind of by design, but.

0:09:33- The only difference is that Apple's system

0:09:35is generating that one time credit card number.

0:09:38- Yes.

0:09:39But the terminal doesn't need to know that, right?

0:09:42All the terminal knows is that it's got a number,

0:09:44it's valid, and it clears the sale.

0:09:46- But obviously the mean people

0:09:50at these American pharmacies have found ways

0:09:52to stop it from happening.

0:09:53- Well, there's a whole harebrained scheme

0:09:55to build their own mobile app that has a barcode

0:09:59that you take a picture and then you show a barcode

0:10:01on your phone and it links with your bank account

0:10:06so they have access to just take money

0:10:07out of your bank account.

0:10:08it sounds so evil and so bad and they can track your purchases and aggregate all that

0:10:15data and presumably resell it and market it.

0:10:20Walmart is apparently one of the prime movers in it and it sounds really bad and it's all

0:10:24basically to just get out from paying Mastercard or Visa for transaction fees.

0:10:29Thing is about this...

0:10:30Not to help customers at all, right?

0:10:32Consumers are not supposed to be aided by this in any way, it's just for them to save

0:10:35money.

0:10:36I read about this yesterday and it just made me laugh

0:10:41because like, this is like,

0:10:45Apple's not giving up on Apple Pay.

0:10:47I think that Apple consider Apple Pay,

0:10:50I mean, I'm not the only one who obviously thinks this

0:10:52as a hugely important thing

0:10:53to the future of their business.

0:10:55Like Apple Pay is a big deal.

0:10:56- Tim Cook said as much.

0:10:58- Yeah, this is huge.

0:10:59- Yeah, Tim Cook in his phone call with analysts,

0:11:02said this is a huge services move for us doing this and you know their whole idea is that

0:11:08they're basically making money at this, one from the halo of selling more devices that

0:11:14use this thing that's awesome but also by they're taking a piece of what was the credit

0:11:20card fee basically as part of the deal and it's not you know it's just sort of like inserting

0:11:26themselves in the middle there. Anyway it's yeah it'll be interesting to see I think that

0:11:31a customer hostile attempt to aggregate user data

0:11:36in exchange for coupons is probably gonna fail.

0:11:41Or at least will, I doubt it,

0:11:43they're going to be able to succeed

0:11:45at making it an either or.

0:11:46It's more likely that they'll finally say,

0:11:48'cause also keep in mind, they can't turn off Apple Pay,

0:11:51like you said, they have to turn off NFC.

0:11:53So everybody's gonna get these chips in the US,

0:11:55these chips in their cards,

0:11:56and they're gonna wanna do the tap to, you know,

0:12:00and they're gonna say, "Well, no, you can download our app

0:12:02"and scan this barcode and all."

0:12:04And people are not gonna wanna do that.

0:12:06That's crazy.

0:12:07Nobody wants to do that.

0:12:08- I like to say retail, say hello to the music industry

0:12:14because if the music industry tried to do this with iTunes,

0:12:18you will not win in this scenario

0:12:20and your customers will want you to get your,

0:12:23to buy your products via this.

0:12:25And there will be people that decide to go to a competitor.

0:12:29ditch as well, you know?

0:12:31Wherever you think that's a, you know,

0:12:32like people who maybe go to Walmart

0:12:34will go to another supermarket.

0:12:36Jason, help me.

0:12:37- If one of those exists, Safeway or Publix or Buy Right,

0:12:42now I'm making up things.

0:12:45They'll go to Wall, people who wanna go, let's try this,

0:12:47who wanna go to Rite Aid will now go to Walgreens

0:12:50because Walgreens accepts Apple Pay and Rite Aid does not.

0:12:53- There you go.

0:12:54- It's sad for me because the Whole Foods

0:12:56where I can buy things with Apple Pay

0:12:58surrounded by a CVS and a Rite Aid both of which have now had it turned off

0:13:03because they're part of this cabal. And you used Apple Pay at the ballpark? I did

0:13:08I bought a hot dog with Apple Pay. Alert! Stop presses! New story just

0:13:14breaking. Man buys hot dog. Seen at the ballpark today. Yeah. Is that hot dog he's

0:13:22carrying purchased with Apple Pay could be.

0:13:26So I do have a question about purchasing with Apple Pay now you've used me using it for

0:13:30like all of a week and a bit.

0:13:33Are you using it genuinely or ironically at the moment still or is it changed or do you

0:13:38think it will change?

0:13:39I am going to use it every damn chance I get and not ironically.

0:13:44I think it's, first off it's fun and second I like the idea that I am just taking my phone

0:13:50out of my pocket and holding my thumb on the little button and it's all done. I think that's

0:13:54really cool. Plus, as a writer, I'm also interested in getting into those weird circumstances where

0:14:00things are not quite right and just experiencing it. Like with the hot dog, the guy wasn't ready

0:14:09and I beeped his little terminal with Apple Pay and he was like, "No, no, no, wait, wait, wait."

0:14:13And he pressed a couple of keys and he said, "Now do it." And I did it again and it went through.

0:14:19So I thought that was interesting that I couldn't just jump ahead.

0:14:22Like, you know, at some supermarkets, it's not so true now because I think they

0:14:27realized that people use their terminals differently than they expected.

0:14:30But it used to be you would sometimes run your credit card and put in your pin or

0:14:35whatever you would need to do.

0:14:36And then they would get to the end of the transaction and they'd say, "Okay, now put

0:14:41in your credit card."

0:14:42And that was because the terminal wasn't ready yet.

0:14:45And now I never experienced that.

0:14:47Now they all know, "Look, if you're gonna run your credit card now, I'll just hold on to it,

0:14:51wait until the checker says that they're done, then I'll verify your credit card and we'll move ahead."

0:14:57I feel like that's where Apple Pay is right now. Like, some of these terminals aren't,

0:15:00aren't like ready to take your payment information yet. Like, I don't know,

0:15:04I don't know what to do with that, and this is what happened when I bought the hot dog

0:15:07at the World Series. That, that, the way that you explained about the teller ringing,

0:15:12I had absolutely no idea what that means. No? Because basically it's the same like with chip

0:15:17and pin transactions, what happens is, and this is all part of the terminal and the security

0:15:21and all that sort of stuff, the transaction is finished and then the transaction is sent

0:15:26to the terminal, which dials to get the authorization to begin the transaction, and then that's

0:15:32who it is here, and then you put your card in and put it through.

0:15:36In my supermarket line, so you put your groceries on the conveyor belt or whatever and you go

0:15:41and they're scanning them all and putting them in bags, and there's usually a terminal,

0:15:46This is actually one of the rare cases where you actually have a terminal now in the US

0:15:51because so many of these cases you give them the card and they take it and do things with

0:15:54it.

0:15:55But here there's a terminal so you can run your own credit card, put in your pin if it's

0:15:58a debit card or whatever, put in your affinity card if you've got a club membership or something

0:16:05that gives you a discount on some things.

0:16:08And so it used to be that it would be there waiting for your credit card and you could

0:16:13run your credit card, you could run it through and say, "Okay, I'm ready," before they were

0:16:17done ringing up your order. And it got very confused, and you usually have to do it again.

0:16:24However, at least at Safeway, where I go supermarket shopping the most often, they've outsmarted

0:16:31me. Now, even if I start running my credit card when they've scanned the first two items

0:16:37and they've got 50 items left to scan, I can run my credit card through. And what the terminal

0:16:42does is it just waits until the checkout says I'm done here's the total and then

0:16:49it runs the card and then all I have to do is press the button or put in my pin

0:16:52or whatever I need to do but I don't need to run my card again it's just sort

0:16:55of holding on to that information because I think they realize that people

0:16:58are impatient and want to just run their card right away and not have somebody

0:17:02say wait wait wait don't do it yet so they just it just it's working around

0:17:06the human desire to jump the gun in terms of swiping the credit card and now

0:17:11it just caches that temporarily until the the clerk presses the total button

0:17:17and then it runs the card. So it's interesting. So that's what I mean.

0:17:21Here with chip and pin you just have to wait. If you try and use your

0:17:26card in any way it will just fail and if you like put your card in before it

0:17:30tells you to put the card in whilst the transaction is in process it will also

0:17:33fail. Yeah it's literally the person rings you up, you wait and it

0:17:40it says please insert your card, you then insert your card and the transaction begins.

0:17:44So you can understand then, the equivalent of that is what happened to me with the hot

0:17:47dog for Apple Pay, which is, it looked like he was at the end of the transaction so I

0:17:52got out my phone and went beep, and then he was like no no wait wait wait, and then he

0:17:56pressed a couple buttons and then I did it again and then it cleared.

0:17:59So I think you could change the software around so it will accept that, because it's not like

0:18:04you're, I don't know if you're actually approving a specific amount when you do Apple Pay, I

0:18:09you're just sort of approving that it happened? I don't know. I don't know. It's interesting.

0:18:13This is fascinating just from a purely social and sort of like what your script is when you purchase

0:18:19something aspect separate from the technology that it like upsets our recipe for how we buy things.

0:18:24So to answer that question that you asked, this is one of the reasons why I'm going to

0:18:30keep using Apple Pay is not only do I think it's kind of cool and I want to do it, but also I want

0:18:34I want to have this experience of,

0:18:35so I can write about it probably,

0:18:37of what happens in these situations

0:18:40and how does it change what you do

0:18:42and could there be ways to make it better or worse?

0:18:45And so I can at least tell that to myself

0:18:48that I'm using Apple Pay for research and not anything else.

0:18:52Related to this, by the way, we have,

0:18:56we also in the chat room,

0:18:59there's some real-time follow-up

0:19:02or a real-time question Brian Hamilton

0:19:04was asking about loyalty cards and credit cards.

0:19:06My understanding is that Apple Pay can transmit

0:19:08your loyalty card at the same time

0:19:11that it transmits your credit card.

0:19:13It can actually say, "Oh, I'm at Safeway.

0:19:15"Here's my Club Card ID, and now here's my Credit Card ID."

0:19:18Or that you might be able to pick one or the other.

0:19:20It's capable of it.

0:19:22I'm not sure anything has been implemented yet.

0:19:24So I'm not sure they actually are doing that yet,

0:19:27but I had an Apple person at the Apple event

0:19:29where they unveiled this say that you could piggyback

0:19:33affinity card stuff on top of credit card stuff, which is cool, because then instead of running two cards,

0:19:39you're just going "beep" and it says "oh, I know you're Jason and you get these coupons and now I'll charge your credit card and we're done."

0:19:46Which is exciting.

0:19:47The ability to have the loyalty cards attached and used automatically, I find interesting, more appealing than just using my credit card or debit card.

0:20:00Right, it saves you another step.

0:20:02Yeah, and also... Just doing it incrementally better.

0:20:04I would be more likely to sign up for loyalty cards if I then didn't have to carry them around

0:20:08and I used them every time automatically.

0:20:11I never carry them around. It turns out usually you can give them your phone number

0:20:14and then you just put in your phone number and that works.

0:20:17But I would much rather just have it be in there and know that my loyalty cards are in there.

0:20:22Related to this, by the way, another piece of follow-up, since we're still doing follow-up,

0:20:25believe it or not, Lister Tim wrote in to say,

0:20:30He's not bugged about extra stuff like Office Depot asking if I want my receipt emailed

0:20:34or even entering in a prompt confirming the amount that he wants to spend, or Walgreens

0:20:39asking for his phone number for the store rewards program.

0:20:42What he wants is not to have to enter his PIN, and I've heard this from people.

0:20:45He said, "I've already used my super cool guy Uber phone to make the payment.

0:20:49Don't make me slog through the plebeian mud of a PIN number."

0:20:52This is one of the great questions that a lot of people have had about Apple Pay, which

0:20:56is verification.

0:20:58The fact is, my understanding is that Apple Pay, because it's the one-time charge, because

0:21:03you've got your thumbprint, it's... no other validation is required by the service, that

0:21:10it's the equivalent of putting in a pin.

0:21:12The problem is that a lot of these systems have policies put into them, I think by the

0:21:18stores, saying above a certain amount you need to validate.

0:21:20And so I've heard people say they paid with Apple Pay but they had to put in a pin, or

0:21:24they paid with Apple Pay but they had to sign something.

0:21:27And I think my understanding is that in the long run this probably won't need to happen

0:21:33because I believe what Apple Pay is supposed to be transmitting is basically saying this

0:21:38is verified, you're good, and don't ask for anything.

0:21:42But the software in a lot of these places is set to ask above $25 or $50 or $100.

0:21:50And so it'll be interesting to watch this and see whether this can get resolved because

0:21:55it becomes much less exciting to do Apple Pay

0:21:58if, you know, you were just saying,

0:22:00if it eliminates a step, it makes it more interesting.

0:22:02Some of these cases, it's adding steps back in

0:22:04from the old way, at which point, why even bother, right?

0:22:08If you have to put in your phone number

0:22:10and put in your PIN number and sign something

0:22:12and all these things, then why did I even use Apple Pay?

0:22:16So it'll be interesting to see.

0:22:17I have never had to do anything but go, boop,

0:22:20but I've also never bought anything more expensive

0:22:22than peanut butter or a hot dog.

0:22:23- Does Apple Pay-- - Don't have

0:22:24peanut butter hot dog by the way, that's a bad, bad meal, don't do that.

0:22:29Especially if you're allergic like me. The hot dogs are a peanut butter.

0:22:32Yes, you especially.

0:22:33I'm allergic to peanuts.

0:22:36Poor Myke, the hot dog allergy is the worst.

0:22:39So bad. Do you know if Apple Pay has a limit on transactions? I don't recall seeing this

0:22:47anywhere.

0:22:48I think it's only whatever your credit card limit is, but I think that individual stores

0:22:51can have a policy on it. So if you went into the Apple Store even and bought $2,000 worth

0:22:55of equipment with it, they might have you pay for that. I had somebody tell me that

0:22:59they had to sign something at an Apple Store and we thought he was crazy on Twitter. Glenn

0:23:03Fleischman and I sort of engaged him and what. And you know, his fault was he said, "Apple

0:23:07Pay is stupid because you always have to sign." And we said, "You don't have to sign." He

0:23:10said, "Well, I had to sign once." I was like, "Okay, that's not always. That's once."

0:23:14I haven't used it once. I know.

0:23:17know, forget it Myke, it's Twitter. This stuff happens on Twitter. But it is an interesting

0:23:22wrinkle that, you know, individual stores may ask you for more information. But like

0:23:29I said, technically I believe the Apple Pay thing is at that other tier of fraud prevention

0:23:36where they basically said, look, this has been verified and you don't need a signature

0:23:41or a PIN or something like that. Because the reason the stores do that is to protect themselves

0:23:45against fraud. If they ask and there's still fraud, then it's off of their plate a little

0:23:52bit more. They've gathered more information. But my understanding is that Apple Pay actually

0:23:56means you don't need to do that, but they still may. And for a while they might, just

0:24:00because of policy or because of technical limitations, it's possible that some readers

0:24:04only just know that it's a card number. And if you tapped your NFC credit card to make

0:24:09a purchase and it was for $5,000, they may just have a policy that, no, we really need

0:24:14to see your you know your ID and your you need to sign or put in your pin or

0:24:18whatever it is so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out over time.

0:24:23Most definitely. Mr. Snell I would like to take a moment to thank our friends. Our

0:24:29friends. Our new friends at Backblaze. I want to talk about Backblaze. I'm a big

0:24:36fan of Backblaze. I have come to fall in love with them recently. They've

0:24:41been helping me out, not just by... Does your girlfriend know? Yeah, I mean she's

0:24:46okay with it. So are these aren't even our friends, these are like our loved ones at

0:24:50Blackblaze, it's that good. It is, it is. Do you know why, Jason? I'm looking at it,

0:24:54I'm looking at it right now in my menu bar. I do know why, but why don't you tell the

0:24:57listeners why? I'm gonna tell you why, Jason, because it's time to upgrade your backup strategy.

0:25:02Oh, good. If you're not backing up your data at all, you have to change this. And if you're

0:25:11If you're just backing up locally, even if you have like a an omni-focus task to remind

0:25:16you to do it twice daily and swap out the drives, you still need to listen to what I'm

0:25:19about to tell you.

0:25:20What if there was a fire?

0:25:22What if there was a flood?

0:25:23Exactly.

0:25:24You'd lose your backup anyway.

0:25:25It'll be gone.

0:25:26If it's not backed up, off-site and in the cloud, you need to address this.

0:25:30And this is where Backblaze can help you.

0:25:32Backblaze is an online backup solution for all the data you have on your Mac and your

0:25:37PC.

0:25:38All documents, photos, videos, movies, everything you have on your Mac or PC will get backed up

0:25:44and made available online via the Backblaze web and mobile apps for Android and iPhone.

0:25:50Even if you have a slow connection like I do, this is something you should do.

0:25:55So yes, the first backup can take a while, multiple days, weeks maybe in some instances,

0:26:00but it's just a minor inconvenience on your machine that you will have for that period of

0:26:04time. You can set schedules for when you want the backups to occur, you can set

0:26:08upload limits, you can set like if you want to throttle it you can. Backblaze

0:26:13offers unthrottled backup but you can put your own throttles on if you want to

0:26:16keep the load and your connection down.

0:26:20And you can very easily just pause the backup if you need it from the menu bar

0:26:23or from system preferences if you live in there. And once you've got

0:26:27that first backup out of the way, everything else will back up super fast,

0:26:31simple in the background you can set it so when you don't even ever see it and

0:26:34then what you'll have is the peace of mind that all of your files are safe and

0:26:39secure they all become accessible online if you need them you can grab individual

0:26:43files or everything at once backblaze can even put all of your stuff on a

0:26:46hard drive and ship it to you if you have a catastrophic failure and need it

0:26:50all back in one go so I have been using backblaze and I'm super happy I feel

0:26:56just better because before backblaze I didn't have a good backup strategy

0:27:00now I feel a lot better about it.

0:27:02And if I knock another drink into my laptop,

0:27:05then I won't be concerned.

0:27:07So go now and start your risk-free,

0:27:09no credit cards required, full featured trial

0:27:12at backblaze.com/upgradepodcast.

0:27:16I did think when I was working with Backblaze

0:27:19and these URLs that our shows,

0:27:20it may be difficult for some of our sponsors

0:27:23to just have /upgrade,

0:27:25'cause they're probably already using it.

0:27:27But hey, that's why we have /upgradepodcast.

0:27:30So there are no add-ons, gimmicks, or additional charges

0:27:33after your free trial, which is $5 per month,

0:27:35per computer for unlimited fast online backup.

0:27:38So go to backblaze.com/upgrade podcast,

0:27:41and you'll be helping support this show.

0:27:43Thank you so much to Backblaze

0:27:44for their support of Relay FM and Upgrade.

0:27:47- Ooh.

0:27:49We have a little more feedback,

0:27:52but I'll try to move quickly through this

0:27:53because we have been doing all feedback.

0:27:56We are becoming more like ATP all the time.

0:27:58Just it's all feedback.

0:28:00That's good. It's a good problem to be more like ATP.

0:28:02We would have to find a Casey,

0:28:06or would we have to find a Marco,

0:28:08or would we have to find a John?

0:28:09Who are we?

0:28:10I leave it to the listener to decide which one of us

0:28:12is Marco, John, and Casey, and who our third would be.

0:28:17Fantasy casting upgrade as a three-person podcast.

0:28:23Go to it.

0:28:23I look forward to your feedback

0:28:24in our fantasy casting vertical next week.

0:28:28Lister JP wrote in.

0:28:30JP is blind.

0:28:32He says, "Shopping is always hard.

0:28:33Card readers at retail establishments

0:28:35are never blind friendly.

0:28:37Shopping has never been secure for somebody who's blind.

0:28:41They often require assistance from a clerk.

0:28:43Every time his card or pin leaves him, he's at risk.

0:28:46Even if the clerk is completely honest."

0:28:49He says, "Apple Pay makes this a distant memory.

0:28:51It's 100% accessible.

0:28:52I can use my cards without assistance,

0:28:53which makes it more secure to me.

0:28:55It allows me independence."

0:28:57And then obviously companies like Best Buy and Walmart

0:29:00who are trying to turn off Apple Pay,

0:29:01he says they're actually turning their heads away

0:29:03from disabled customers.

0:29:06I thought it was really interesting,

0:29:07Stephen Aquino who writes about accessibility or not,

0:29:09wrote a really quick post on his site about this too.

0:29:13Apple Pay is an accessible feature

0:29:15that actually makes life better for people

0:29:17who are blind in this case.

0:29:19And I thought that was really an interesting angle.

0:29:23So thank you JP for sharing that.

0:29:24I thought that was really great.

0:29:27Listener Colon wrote in just to say,

0:29:28we talked about, this is not about Apple Pay,

0:29:31we talked about a beta app review a week or two ago.

0:29:34And we were complaining about how,

0:29:36since they need to app review betas for TestFlight,

0:29:39which has launched now as part of Apple,

0:29:41but TestFlight app is out there and all of that,

0:29:43if you're beta testing apps,

0:29:45we thought that was ridiculous

0:29:46that you had to app review betas

0:29:49and who was gonna do that?

0:29:50Listener Colon wrote in just to say,

0:29:52he got beta app review for his app

0:29:54and it took about two hours,

0:29:56much faster than a normal review.

0:29:57So it may be beta app review with something programmatic

0:30:01where they're running a scanner on it

0:30:02just to make sure that nothing particularly notably,

0:30:06you know, automatively bad can be found.

0:30:11And if so, that's great.

0:30:13That's great news.

0:30:14I look forward to seeing how people use TestFlight

0:30:16because it has this huge benefit

0:30:18of being able to attach to Apple IDs instead of device IDs

0:30:21so that when people upgrade their devices,

0:30:23you run out of slots for beta testers.

0:30:25So now it'll be the person with their Apple ID as your beta tester.

0:30:29And if they get a new device, if they drop their phone and have to get a new one, you

0:30:31don't have to do anything.

0:30:32They just log in with their Apple ID and they're back on your beta list, which is really cool.

0:30:37So that was great news from Listener Colon.

0:30:39I have a quick question about that.

0:30:41I want to get your opinion.

0:30:44If it is the case that it is just going through a machine and then the machine spits out the

0:30:49approved, should Apple communicate this so people can set their expectations that it's

0:30:53it's not gonna be a two week delay?

0:30:56Or should they not because then you might as well

0:30:58just not have it done like that in the first place

0:31:00'cause people will still abuse it maybe.

0:31:02- I don't know.

0:31:05I mean, I like the idea that it's less

0:31:07because we said it was untenable if it's more.

0:31:13And right, the standards can be lower.

0:31:16The bar can be lower for the beta app review.

0:31:18So I like this news because it suggests to me

0:31:21that beta app review is perfunctory,

0:31:23that it is automated, it's basic,

0:31:25it's like, let's do a sanity check

0:31:27before we let you send this thing out.

0:31:29Because if it's so crazy that it's breaking things

0:31:32that this thing finds,

0:31:33you should not distribute it to your beta testers

0:31:37'cause you will kill them, which is good.

0:31:38That is a good thing,

0:31:40instead of it being like a full on app review kind of thing,

0:31:43which would be really annoying.

0:31:44So I think it's good.

0:31:47Also the percentage of people

0:31:48who actually do beta testing of apps is so low

0:31:50that most people are never gonna care.

0:31:52but as somebody who beta tests apps,

0:31:54I think this is really great

0:31:55that the turnaround was so fast

0:31:58because the prospect of not having to register

0:32:00all my devices is really exciting

0:32:02'cause that really was terrible.

0:32:03Like I dropped my iPad and I had to write

0:32:06to everybody whose apps I was beta testing

0:32:07and say, I'm so sorry.

0:32:09If you want me to not beta test your app, that's fine.

0:32:12I understand, but here's my new UDID

0:32:14for this new iPad that's my replacement.

0:32:17And then they have to enter it in

0:32:18and they lose a slot and it's terrible.

0:32:20So this is better.

0:32:22This is better.

0:32:23- There's no reason in my mind where it shouldn't be

0:32:26that if you can just delete someone,

0:32:28like I just can't get my head around it.

0:32:31- It's paranoia.

0:32:32They are concerned about beta testing being used

0:32:35as an external app store.

0:32:37That's what it is.

0:32:38It's like you add somebody, you give them--

0:32:40- Sorry, it's like to delete a UDID that I don't know,

0:32:43I probably can't, but if you could, you know,

0:32:45somehow then just cut that device off.

0:32:48I don't know how that would happen, but you know.

0:32:50- I don't know.

0:32:51Well, if this works, then we won't have to worry about it,

0:32:54'cause it won't be per device, it'll be per person,

0:32:56which always has made more sense.

0:32:58- If you have, you listener, ahoy listener,

0:33:01if you've had-- - Ahoy listener.

0:33:02- Ahoy listener, if you've, like Colin,

0:33:05if you've had anything, if you put an app through it

0:33:08and it's gone through quicker than usual

0:33:10through the test flight process,

0:33:12please contact us and let us know.

0:33:14- All right.

0:33:16Listener Brian Hamilton in the chat room, by the way.

0:33:20listen to Brian, says that I'm John and you're Casey.

0:33:24That's not bad.

0:33:25- No, probably how I would have gone actually.

0:33:28- But do we need a Marco then?

0:33:30- Probably.

0:33:31Can you find another Marco?

0:33:33- I don't know.

0:33:35I have talked about having guests on this show

0:33:37from time to time, so that would be interesting

0:33:39to see how that changes the dynamic.

0:33:41But we gotta get up to speed ourselves before we get there.

0:33:44- Maybe we just bring Marco on.

0:33:47- Yeah, sure.

0:33:47Let's try him out as a Marco,

0:33:49see what kind of a Marco Marco is.

0:33:51I got a couple of Twitter things

0:33:53that I wanted to throw in here.

0:33:55Mentions to @_upgradefm, our Twitter account.

0:33:59This is a Hoy telephone related, these both of these.

0:34:04Leon, listener Leon says, the best way, Leon, I don't know,

0:34:11L-E-O-N, the best way I've encountered to activate Siri

0:34:16to say hello telephone is to use the song we built this city by Starship. You know that

0:34:23one Myke? Do you know that song? Well of course we built it on rock and roll. That's right.

0:34:28That song's not going to be in my head for the next week and a half. So thank you. Well

0:34:31it's gonna activate the Siri in your mind. Just think ahoy telephone as you listen. And

0:34:42And then listener Connor wrote in with a,

0:34:45he sent us a little video that basically is him

0:34:47saying a Hoy telephone at the Apple store

0:34:51and activating phones there with it.

0:34:53I mean, not saying a Hoy telephone, obviously,

0:34:55we're not gonna say what he actually said,

0:34:58but it activated the phones there.

0:34:59What's funny about the video is that he sort of

0:35:02almost whispered it and the video only shows

0:35:05two phones activating.

0:35:06And when I asked him about that, he basically said,

0:35:08"Well, I didn't wanna shout it 'cause I thought

0:35:10that they would think I was a crazy person."

0:35:12which maybe so--

0:35:14- But what Connor-- - But thank you to Connor.

0:35:16- He has answered our question from last week

0:35:18that it is on and-- - It is on.

0:35:20- Yeah, so have at it.

0:35:24- Yeah, so I've got one more item of feedback

0:35:28which isn't quite feedback, but I just wanted to mention it.

0:35:30I don't wanna spend too much time dwelling on it.

0:35:31Anybody who's listened to ATP has heard

0:35:33some really great discussion, mostly from John about this,

0:35:36but I just wanted to mention because Brianna Wu

0:35:38is somebody who's been on my podcast a lot

0:35:40and she, if you don't know, got some death threats

0:35:43and had to move out of her house

0:35:45and it's all related to "Gamergate."

0:35:47I wanted to just say, first off,

0:35:48I wanted to send all my best wishes to Brianna.

0:35:50She's great.

0:35:51I've never met her in person,

0:35:52but she's been great on the podcasts and on Twitter.

0:35:55And I really appreciate working with her

0:35:57and look forward to working with her more in the future.

0:36:00And about the "Gamergate" thing,

0:36:02I'm not really a gamer.

0:36:04I'm kind of a fake gamer.

0:36:05What I would say is it's really dispiriting.

0:36:09And John Syracuse's, everything that he said on ATP

0:36:11is pretty much what I think.

0:36:13It's really sad to see people making threats,

0:36:16attacking people, bullying people,

0:36:18and essentially using troll tactics on the internet

0:36:21to silence discussion of issues that they don't agree with.

0:36:26And the fact that I approached this on this show

0:36:28with some trepidation shows that this is actually

0:36:31what they're trying to do.

0:36:33They're trying to make it so inconvenient

0:36:34to talk about these issues

0:36:35that everybody just shuts up about them.

0:36:38And I definitely feel uncomfortable about it and I've been hammered on Twitter

0:36:42by expressing relatively mild things about

0:36:45"Gamergate" by the trolls and their sock puppets.

0:36:49Which, boy, trolls and sock puppets sound so much more fun than it actually is.

0:36:53Wouldn't that be a great game?

0:36:55Like, sock puppets that just kill trolls or something? I don't know.

0:36:59Anyway, it's really a dispiriting way where the darkest parts of the internet get used

0:37:04by people who have agendas that are not related to

0:37:07What the gamer gate is supposedly about to attack people mostly women?

0:37:14to push forward an agenda that is mostly anti woman and

0:37:18Has some pretty serious political undertones as well that they will deny

0:37:23It's you know, I don't know. I don't know what more to say other than

0:37:29People like Brianna have my full support. I feel like gaming is a powerful enough cultural force that it can

0:37:37Take a whole lot of cultural criticism

0:37:39Games make more money than big budget motion pictures

0:37:43People who like games are not an endangered species. They are in fact

0:37:49among the most catered to people on the planet and

0:37:54When you you know, you've got it good when people start to criticize you and being criticized isn't fun

0:38:01But it's also a sign you made it and then you got to act

0:38:04You've got to act it the right way when people criticize you and learn to deal with the criticism and maybe

0:38:10even listen to it and use it to learn about yourself and

0:38:15Grow and I do believe actually that one of the reasons all this gamergate stuff is happening

0:38:20I've seen it in some other areas again. I

0:38:23I really don't like to get political because that's not what I'm here for and although I have opinions

0:38:27They're fairly moderate in nature and they're for sure to outrage the most outrageable people on either side of me

0:38:34but I feel like this is similar to something like gay marriage which

0:38:38well in this country is tipping rapidly toward being accepted almost everywhere and

0:38:43That's when people get the most angry is when they see that they're on the wrong side and that the world is changing and some of

0:38:50their well-held-to beliefs are going to go away, that women are part of gaming and aren't

0:38:59going to go away, and can't just be used as toys in video games.

0:39:06And of course people are going to react badly when they realize that the arc of history

0:39:13is bending away from them.

0:39:15And I'd like to think that's what we're seeing now.

0:39:18And I'm not excusing behavior, I'm saying it explains why they're so vociferous about

0:39:23it is that they know they're losing it and they're gonna lose it.

0:39:27And they're just gonna go out in a blaze of infamy, I guess?

0:39:31Anyway, it really upsets me that somebody as cool as Brianna Wu could get chased out

0:39:38of her home because she has an opinion about how women should have opportunities in video

0:39:44games, like of all the things, to be chased out of your home about that. Very

0:39:50upsetting. So anyway, yeah, there it is. Go listen to ATP After Show from last week.

0:39:58Jon did a great job. Jon Siracusa is a marvel because he is the most...

0:40:04I think what I say is that he's a computer programmer with the soul of an

0:40:09artist. He's... and he did get art training. He's a very empathetic person and I

0:40:13I think that's one of the reasons why people love him,

0:40:16'cause he brings a giant bowl of empathy with him

0:40:19when he talks about technical issues,

0:40:21and that mixture is amazing.

0:40:22And he has done a great job talking about this.

0:40:25Very, I mean, he wouldn't say that.

0:40:27He'd be like, "Oh, well, I botched it.

0:40:28"I talked about this and that,

0:40:29"and you should read this article."

0:40:30But I think he actually does a very good job

0:40:31of getting to the heart of why some of these people

0:40:34are so angry and why we should pity them

0:40:36more than anything else,

0:40:37because they obviously have terrible things happening

0:40:40that have caused them to act this way.

0:40:43doesn't excuse them but that empathy is interesting to say you know for somebody

0:40:48to behave like this they really have to be in pain and messed up and that's sad

0:40:52and anyway so all my best to Brianna and everybody else who's been affected by

0:40:57the gamergate crap because it's a it's a real shame that we live in a world where

0:41:02stuff like that can happen. Me and Federica took a bit of time to

0:41:06discuss gamergate on episode 9 of virtual on this fine podcast network

0:41:11I agree with the fact that like, Jon is empathetic. I am not so much and kind of

0:41:19just questioned the terrible side of humanity for a bit. Federico does a

0:41:27great- if you don't really understand Gamergate and this whole thing

0:41:31that's happening, because it is very complex, Federico on the episode did a

0:41:35very very good job of going back to the beginning and explaining it. So he spoke

0:41:40for about half an hour or 40 minutes or so explaining everything, then I basically shouted

0:41:45for 10 minutes, so if that's the kind of thing that you'd like to hear, you should go and

0:41:50check that out, and that's in our show notes for today, as well as that fantastic episode

0:41:53of ATP as well.

0:41:56It's all after the show, or the end theme song, it's all in the post show for ATP, because

0:42:01they like to do it that way, but it's a good, you know, I like to hear John, it's largely

0:42:06it's John trying to understand why, and list all the reasons why this is bad, but also

0:42:10of why it happens. And then it's Casey just being like you, actually, you guys, and this

0:42:14is why you do the show about the feels too. And Casey just being like, I don't understand

0:42:18it. It really makes me angry, you know, like, which is an absolutely natural response. And

0:42:22for me, I learned a long time ago that I'm a conflict avoider. I like everybody to get

0:42:25along. Let's just not. And so something like this is really difficult because it, uh, your

0:42:31choices between avoiding conflict and saying nothing and allowing it to go and go on or

0:42:35saying something and getting hit with the conflict. And that's why I said, you know,

0:42:39One of the ways that this is insidious is all the sock puppets, all the anger, what

0:42:45they're trying to do is get people to stop talking about it, because that's one of the

0:42:50goals, is don't talk about it.

0:42:52Try to divert people, try to make people just want to avoid the subject.

0:42:58And essentially what that's doing is saying, "We want people to shut up about this, so

0:43:01we're going to make life miserable for them until they shut up."

0:43:04And as much as I like to avoid conflict, if that's the alternative, then I can't do that.

0:43:11Because that's a line too far, and somebody I know and have positive feelings toward is

0:43:17like on the run now because she had an opinion about video games.

0:43:21And I can't be silent.

0:43:23So for what it's worth...

0:43:25I don't know if I did mention this in virtual, but I wanted to...

0:43:30amount of respect I have for Brianna because I know that if I was in her situation I would

0:43:36shut up.

0:43:39Yeah it would be so easy to do that and she said that. I mean fortunately, and I say this

0:43:42with actually a great deal of affection, Brianna doesn't back down from anything. She's happy

0:43:48to be kind of a loudmouth and get pissed off and good for her because it takes people like

0:43:54that because there are a whole lot of other people who feel the same way who just, you

0:43:59know, they look at her like, "Why am I doing this?" And for her, she is

0:44:04saying, "I am spending huge amounts of time. I am affecting my life, but I'm

0:44:09doing it for the future of an industry that she loves." Also, that's the other

0:44:13thing is she gets attacked for like not being really into games. It's like, she

0:44:17loves games so much that she is willing to do this, because she wants

0:44:22other girls growing up to be able to feel more welcome

0:44:27in this industry and even just playing games.

0:44:32And she knows that that's not gonna happen

0:44:34unless the women in games today say something.

0:44:38And so full credit to her 'cause yeah, I'm with you.

0:44:40I mean, it makes me, I get, ugh, I hate it.

0:44:45I hate even talking about it,

0:44:47but you can't not talk about it

0:44:48because that's what they want you to do

0:44:50is not talk about it.

0:44:51And I think that the reason that we are talking about it now

0:44:55is because of Brianna, because she is making it

0:44:58that it cannot be avoided, and that's how it should be.

0:45:01You mentioned this, right?

0:45:02She is bringing this out now,

0:45:04and is basically putting us in a position

0:45:07where we have to talk about this,

0:45:09because it's like, I can't stand by now

0:45:13and watch this unfold as it is.

0:45:15It makes me feel sick.

0:45:16- Well, she sent out something very pointed,

0:45:19where she was like, I expected more Apple-related bloggers

0:45:23and podcast hosts to talk about this issue

0:45:25and a lot of them have been silent.

0:45:28And I wrote back to her and I said,

0:45:29well, when the death threats and stuff happened,

0:45:32I wrote a thing on Six Colors about it,

0:45:34but I haven't mentioned it on my podcast

0:45:36and I will rectify that tomorrow and that's today.

0:45:38And there it is.

0:45:40And maybe we'll talk more about it.

0:45:41The only other thing I'll say about Gamergate

0:45:45is if it's about ethics and journalism,

0:45:47it's doing a really lousy job

0:45:49because there are lots of issues

0:45:50and this is well-documented,

0:45:51there are lots of great issues about true ethical issues

0:45:54with games journalism in particular

0:45:55and you could broaden it to even more other aspects

0:45:58of journalism including tech journalism if you'd like.

0:46:01But yet, you know, that's not what it's about

0:46:04because if it was about those things,

0:46:06we would actually be seeing things that address

0:46:09all of the issues of ethics and journalism.

0:46:11Instead, it's conspiracy theories and attacks

0:46:15and misogyny and people being used as in the phrase as convenient idiots people being used

0:46:23by people with ulterior motives and lied to and pointed in directions that they might

0:46:27not go if they knew the whole story and it's sad but it's not about ethics because there

0:46:31are lots of ethical issues and journalism and these people aren't addressing them they're

0:46:36just spinning conspiracy theories and attacking people sad.

0:46:44So Myke, ahoy telephone!

0:46:50Let me take a shower, I'll be right back.

0:46:53Do you want to take a break here?

0:46:55Yeah, let's take a break and we'll come back with something awesome.

0:47:01After a word from some friends of ours, I bet.

0:47:04Let's reset and talk about Igloo.

0:47:07We love Igloo.

0:47:08Igloo is an internet you'll actually like.

0:47:10Hulu is built from the ground up for people that have had to use intranet products. It

0:47:16is built to be the complete opposite of what you are used to. It's actually built to be

0:47:22easy to use, which is not always a thing for intranet products. It has fantastic apps like

0:47:28you're used to. It has stuff like shared calendars, Twitter-like micro-blogs, file sharing, task

0:47:33management. It's the full solution that you'd want in a product that's supposed to make

0:47:38you more connected and productive with your co-workers.

0:47:41That's what igloo is all about.

0:47:42It helps you work better together with the people you work with.

0:47:46You are easily able to do things like co-author documents.

0:47:50Maybe you want to share status updates on what the food truck outside is serving today.

0:47:55Or maybe you want to be able to manage your projects easily with the people that you work

0:47:59with all in one place.

0:48:00You can do all that with igloo.

0:48:03If someone makes changes to an item in igloo, they send out notifications and you choose

0:48:07the way you want to receive them, which is really great. The types of things you want

0:48:10to receive notifications for, how do you want to get them. That's the sort of stuff you

0:48:13can finally hone and make to be the exact way that you want. This keeps you up to date

0:48:18with everything. All items like documents that you save have a complete version history

0:48:23maintained. This keeps you in touch with everyone and in case crazy Annie decides to delete

0:48:28that thing from the spreadsheet that you put in the other day, you're going to be able

0:48:31to get it all back again.

0:48:33Gartner, I love this bit, released their famed report, "The Magic Quadrant for Social Software

0:48:39in the Workplace," and Igloo appears on this report for the sixth consecutive year, alongside

0:48:45Microsoft, IBM, Google, and SAP.

0:48:48Jason, would you like to hear an excerpt from the Gartner profile of Igloo?

0:48:53Would I, Myke?

0:48:54Well, let me tell you.

0:48:56Feedback from Igloo's reference customers was consistently positive.

0:48:59They praised the product's quick deployment, configuration, and customization flexibility

0:49:03with self-service options for non-technical users, control over branding and information

0:49:08organization ease of use.

0:49:10They also praised the responsiveness of igloo as a whole organization.

0:49:14Basically what this is, if you need me to help you sift through that, is igloo is really

0:49:19easy to set up, even for people that are not that technical, you can very easily customize

0:49:23it and make it fit with part of your business, you have complete control over it and it's

0:49:26super awesome.

0:49:27I don't know what more you need than that.

0:49:29If your company has legacy internet software built on SharePoint or old portal technology,

0:49:35you should be giving igloo a try.

0:49:38Quite frankly, you should be trying them if you're in any business because they're free

0:49:41to use with up to 10 people and you can sign up right now at igloosoftware.com/upgrade.

0:49:46Thank you so much to igloo for the support of this show and all of Relay FM.

0:49:51Before we get to the Retina iMac, which is our next discussion today, I want to tell

0:49:55you about one other little quick thing.

0:49:57Yes.

0:49:58Very quick.

0:49:59Very quick, at Real AFM we want to make sure that we're connecting you, the listener, with

0:50:05the best type of sponsors and advertisers that we can.

0:50:08A great way to do this is for us to find out just a little bit more about you.

0:50:13So we have a short anonymous survey that we'd like you to take.

0:50:15It takes no more than five minutes to complete.

0:50:18Your answers will help us match you guys with the best advertisers for you to make sure

0:50:22that we are keeping a good match between the types of things that you enjoy and the types

0:50:26of things you hear on this show.

0:50:28who completes this survey will be entered into an ongoing monthly raffle to win a $100

0:50:33Amazon gift card. We promise that we will not share or sell your email address when

0:50:38you do this. No email will be sent to you unless you are a winner of the $100 Amazon

0:50:43gift card. So please go to podsurvey.com/upgrade and fill that out and help out Upgrade and

0:50:50RelayFN. Thank you.

0:50:51Yes, you know, Myke, not to make you all feel guilty, but Myke and I recently left our jobs

0:50:56or in the process of leaving our jobs and this is one of the ways we actually hope to

0:51:00support ourselves, if not the only way for Myke.

0:51:02So filling out that survey really helps because it helps us find good advertisers and allow

0:51:08them to be happy and allow us to live.

0:51:12So no pressure.

0:51:14It helps us find new advertisers because we can kind of say to them this is what we know

0:51:18because at the moment, aside from knowing that you're all very very handsome and beautiful

0:51:22people. We only know that you download the show that's effectively it and we

0:51:27know where in the world you are because that's what we get from our hosting

0:51:30provider. That's all we know. Yeah exactly so podsurvey.com/upgrade

0:51:40I don't think we're gonna talk about the Kindle. Oh no no!

0:51:45Well what do you what so well the Kindle the Kindle has lasted this long it could

0:51:50last another week if we need to. The fact is there's so much going on now.

0:51:55Somebody was telling me, you know, "Wow, you've been doing a lot of stuff lately."

0:51:58I was like, "Well, yeah, I happen to launch my new site and my new podcast right as

0:52:03Apple does like its busiest six weeks of the year, which is now, where all the new

0:52:08things are coming out." And, you know, in April, plenty of time, but right now

0:52:13things are crazy. So if we don't get to the Kindle this week, you know, we will

0:52:17get to it and I I've only you know used it for a couple of days so if I learn

0:52:23more about it and we give it the room that it deserves then so be it. In April

0:52:28we'll really be exploring the verticals. Oh man, it may be vertical month.

0:52:35Hey Jason what did you have for lunch today? Lunch vertical, important food

0:52:40related vertical. Okay what do you want to know about the about the retina iMac?

0:52:45I've had it for a week. My review went up on Six Colors last Friday, Thursday, somewhere in there.

0:52:50And so it's right behind me, as it was when we recorded the last episode, but I'd only

0:52:57turned it on then. So what would you like to know? So how have you, you haven't had a retina

0:53:03computer before have you? You haven't had a retina Mac before? No, I've used a retina MacBook Pro a

0:53:09a little bit, but I've never had one

0:53:12as my main system before.

0:53:13- So how have you found using Retina just day to day?

0:53:17- That's a good question.

0:53:23- So let me tell you my feelings.

0:53:26Let's see if I can try to say it.

0:53:26- Yes, please.

0:53:27- 'Cause I have a Retina MacBook Pro

0:53:28and I've been using a Retina MacBook Pro

0:53:31for over a year at least.

0:53:33And I kind of find it to be here and there.

0:53:38So it's easy for me to forget that it has Retina

0:53:41because I use Retina devices all the time.

0:53:44So it's just like, this is a screen that I like.

0:53:47Anything less than this is just a bad screen

0:53:49and these are all just like standard screens.

0:53:53But I still have a bunch of apps that aren't Retina ready.

0:53:58Microsoft Word, which I do have to use sometimes

0:54:01and it's just a mess, like just horrible.

0:54:04- Microsoft Word really still doesn't have Retina text

0:54:08display? The text in the documents is but like everything else.

0:54:13All the art and stuff is not written? Just everything is not written

0:54:18already. I'm opening it right now just to confirm all of that but yeah no it's

0:54:21definitely not I can see it as soon as I open the app. It's a real sorry state of

0:54:26affairs there but anyway so I mean so and also you know there there are parts

0:54:32of the web as well which don't look great on these devices I can only assume

0:54:36assume that it's interesting on a screen of that size.

0:54:40So how have you found it to be day to day?

0:54:43- It's a fast Mac and that's good.

0:54:48And the screen is beautiful.

0:54:50I mean, the Mac retina experience is what it is.

0:54:53So if you've seen, especially Yosemite on a random MacBook

0:54:56Pro or something like that, you've seen it.

0:54:57And it's very nice.

0:54:59And the images are arresting because you're used to seeing

0:55:05a certain resolution for images.

0:55:07And it's almost like they're deeper somehow

0:55:09that you look at it and it's just the same size

0:55:11and yet somehow there's more in it

0:55:13because there's literally much more information

0:55:15in that picture.

0:55:16They're little tiny details that would previously

0:55:19have just been washed away.

0:55:20It's a little bit like going from, you know,

0:55:21standard def to high def for TV or something like that

0:55:24where the picture is the same

0:55:25except the details are completely different.

0:55:29So if you've seen a Retina MacBook Pro, you've seen it,

0:55:34except that it's sort of the screen

0:55:36is the size of four of those screens.

0:55:38But it's, I don't know, it's beautiful.

0:55:41Is it necessary?

0:55:44I had some people tell me that they thought it was.

0:55:46I think like, if you're a designer,

0:55:48if you're a photographer, it's necessary.

0:55:50You should get one.

0:55:52If you're not, then it's, or like a video editor,

0:55:56if you're not, it's nice.

0:55:59And eventually they'll all be like this.

0:56:01Is it necessary?

0:56:02Eh, probably not.

0:56:03But for me, the niceness plus the fact that I'm in the market

0:56:06for a faster computer and this iMac is,

0:56:10other than some of the higher end Mac Pros

0:56:14for multi-threaded processing power,

0:56:17this is the fastest Mac around.

0:56:19And you can get one for $500 to start,

0:56:23$500 less than a MacBook Pro

0:56:25and it comes with the 27 inch retina display.

0:56:28So it's a pretty good deal for somebody

0:56:31who thinks of themselves as a power user of a Mac

0:56:34who wants a desktop system with a big screen,

0:56:37if you can afford it, it's a good deal.

0:56:40It's still an expensive computer at 2,500,

0:56:43but if you can afford it, it's a pretty good deal

0:56:45because you're getting that screen

0:56:46and you're getting a lot of power.

0:56:48This is not a halfway kind of system.

0:56:52The processor and the GPU are pretty impressive.

0:56:57- I think maybe if you're thinking about

0:57:00what's necessary, potentially a,

0:57:04the power is more necessary than the retina.

0:57:08- I agree. - Most people.

0:57:10- The reason that I wanted, well, there are two reasons.

0:57:13One, I think I mentioned this last week,

0:57:15is what Dan Morin's calling our rich uncle who died

0:57:19and left us some money, which is that our former employer

0:57:23has as one of our farewell parting gifts,

0:57:26has given us some money toward a computer

0:57:28to get us on our way and get us on our feet

0:57:30and stop eating beans out of a can.

0:57:33And in order to do that,

0:57:35you gotta buy it within like three months or something.

0:57:37So I'm in the market for a computer is what I'm saying.

0:57:40And I also discovered when we were trying to do

0:57:44some live streaming of the Dungeons and Dragons podcast

0:57:47I do over on the incomparable called Total Party Kill,

0:57:49that my little dual core MacBook Air cannot compress video

0:57:54and stream it on the fly.

0:57:57It can't do that.

0:57:58- Oh, just saying.

0:58:00So I'm in the market for more computing power.

0:58:02And as we said last week, with that quad core

0:58:04that our good listener Shep tells you not,

0:58:09you know, that you should find remaindered somewhere.

0:58:12With that off the price list,

0:58:15if I want a new Mac, my choices are narrowed.

0:58:19And so I look at this system and I think,

0:58:20well, I got some money coming from my former employer.

0:58:22I need a fast system.

0:58:23I want a quad core processor.

0:58:25And yeah, so the processor makes it necessary.

0:58:28and then the screen makes it nice.

0:58:31- Yeah, I had the question about the,

0:58:35if I can, you know, your rich uncle.

0:58:38Did they assume that nobody had,

0:58:40did you all have computers that were provided

0:58:43by the company?

0:58:44Or did they assume nobody has computers or something?

0:58:47- Actually, we all did have computers

0:58:49provided by the company.

0:58:50That is the case.

0:58:52The company provides you with a computer to work with.

0:58:54So I think part of what they were saying here

0:58:57is and the way it's tasked is they say something like it's you can either take it as job training.

0:59:03Again, some of these outplacement things are very strange and they come from

0:59:07industries that are different from our industries. So it may be like we're more like we're steel

0:59:16workers than we're writers. Although you could argue that that journalism maybe is doomed in

0:59:20industry as being a steel worker. So you could do like job retraining from a couple of different job

0:59:26retraining firms, or you can put the money toward equipment and material that would help you with

0:59:31your future career path. And one of those was, very specifically was, you could buy a computer.

0:59:36And I think it's great that they're that flexible about it. Like we can get you set up with something

0:59:40that you can use to look for a job or do a job, and we'll pitch in with that. And so, for my

0:59:47former colleagues who left IDG, that's one of the benefits that we get as part of our departure,

0:59:53which is which is really nice and so I you know we need to take advantage of that so Dan bought like

0:59:57a MacBook Air and uh maybe an iPad or something and I'm gonna buy this this iMac I bought it

1:00:03I ordered it what would you have developed the forum to get reimbursed for it what would you

1:00:08have retrained as like what industry would you have retrained into if you were going to use it

1:00:14for retraining lessons? Like circus or something? I think I have no other useful skills. So

1:00:26if I went to the circus I'd have to be the guy, one of the announcers. I could do that.

1:00:31Presenting now! Maybe not. You know, I don't know. This is what I do. So I'm sure somebody

1:00:41in the, you know, what is the line from Ghostbusters in the hospitality or food service industry?

1:00:48Yeah. Or, you know, I hear steel work is nice.

1:00:54At this time of year. You mentioned something, I just need, I feel like I need a bit of clarification

1:01:02on this technically if you can. This is from your view, a great review of the Rettner iMac.

1:01:08The iMac's got one in three times the pixels

1:01:11as the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

1:01:13Explain to me, is this just the space on screen?

1:01:19Because the PPI is similar enough, right?

1:01:23The 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro has a higher PPI at 227

1:01:27than the iMac does at about 200, if my Googling is correct.

1:01:31So I'm assuming there that what you're saying is

1:01:33it's just bigger, right?

1:01:35So it's better because it's bigger.

1:01:37Is that what, am I right in thinking that

1:01:39or is it more than that?

1:01:41- Yeah, and I think I went back,

1:01:44I changed this section so I may have changed it,

1:01:45but basically the 15 inch MacBook Pro

1:01:47has about 5 million pixels

1:01:49and the 13 inch has about 4 million pixels, right?

1:01:54And the iMac with retina display has what,

1:01:58what did we say?

1:01:5814.7 million pixels.

1:02:00So it's basically three times as many as the 15 inch

1:02:04and more than three times as many as the 13 inch.

1:02:06So it's size, the PPI is not that different,

1:02:10but like literally if you can think of 15 inch diagonal

1:02:14and then 27 inch diagonal is almost double,

1:02:17but remember it's not just double

1:02:19because it's in two dimensions.

1:02:20So it's quadruple, almost quadruple.

1:02:23- Yeah.

1:02:24- And so, yeah, it's, yeah, it's 15 megapixels versus five.

1:02:29So triple the pixels more or less if you're rounding,

1:02:32which is close enough.

1:02:35It's size, it's just a huge screen.

1:02:37It's so even though the,

1:02:39it's not like the type is notably bigger or smaller,

1:02:41it's just that there's more of it.

1:02:43This is a 27, it's a little bit like the,

1:02:45when you go to a place, a showroom that has TVs,

1:02:49and you look at a TV and you think,

1:02:50"Oh, this isn't that big."

1:02:51And then you get it home

1:02:52and it doesn't fit through your door

1:02:53'cause it's actually huge.

1:02:54It was just the context of the showroom

1:02:56that made it seem small

1:02:57because it was next to an even larger TV.

1:03:00The iMac's kind of like that.

1:03:0127 inches, it's big, it is huge.

1:03:04And until you see it, you kind of forget.

1:03:07And then if you put one in the context of your own home,

1:03:10then like I have done, it's really big.

1:03:14I look at a 24 inch monitor all day.

1:03:18So the 27 inches is not much bigger,

1:03:20but it is definitely bigger.

1:03:23- I assume it just feels bigger as well.

1:03:25Like the resolution makes it feel bigger

1:03:28than it physically is.

1:03:29- Yeah, and it's really bright.

1:03:30I mean, you can turn down the brightness obviously,

1:03:32but it's a big, bright, super sharp display.

1:03:36It's pretty impressive.

1:03:37- I imagine kind of when you sit at that computer,

1:03:39you know the guy who's sitting in the armchair

1:03:42in front of the jet engine with like the listening to,

1:03:46you know what I'm talking about, right?

1:03:47- On headphones, I know what you're talking about.

1:03:49- I imagine that's what you're like sitting

1:03:51in front of the brightness of this thing.

1:03:52You get in a suntan as you're sitting and working.

1:03:56- I did have to scale down the brightness

1:03:57and turn on some lights so that I didn't get just, yeah.

1:04:01There you go, nerds.

1:04:03We'll all just buy a 27-inch iMac,

1:04:05so turn up the brightness and we'll talk about that sometimes.

1:04:07- Get that iMac tan.

1:04:08- Yeah, perfect.

1:04:09You mentioned one thing in your review

1:04:12about how you felt graphics performance was fine,

1:04:16but if you open a lot of windows and spaces

1:04:18and use mission control, you see pauses and stuttering.

1:04:21I have had this problem on my iMac Pro.

1:04:24There is an issue in Yosemite, I believe.

1:04:29For example, it's weird.

1:04:31If I use the trackpad and I try and swipe between spaces, like I swipe and it kind of

1:04:35moves like a quarter of the way and just gets stuck.

1:04:38But if I use my magic mouse, it doesn't happen so much.

1:04:41One thing that I have found that's helped significantly is turning off transparency,

1:04:45which you can do in System Preferences/Accessibility.

1:04:49That has pretty much solved the problem.

1:04:51I also zapped the PRAM at the suggestion of Stephen Hackett, because that's the kind of

1:04:55thing that he's really good at telling me to do.

1:04:57tells me to zap the PRAM quite a lot, so I went and did that. It's old school.

1:05:01Uh-huh, and it fixed it. The combination of those two things pretty much

1:05:05fixed it. So if you are having problems with this on a retina machine, turn off

1:05:08transparency. I actually think at the moment I prefer the way Yosemite looks

1:05:13without transparency. That's a discussion for another time maybe. Yeah, right

1:05:17after we talk about the Kindle. Right after the Kindle, yeah, we'll get to Yosemite

1:05:21in about May of next year. But yeah, that's something that I think that's a

1:05:25software problem and I think it will probably, well I hope it will be fixed, I really genuinely

1:05:30hope it will be fixed because if Apple were testing, I actually don't know how that sort

1:05:35of thing gets retesting unless it's like it affects a small percentage of people and then

1:05:39I still hope that they fix it because I'm sure they were testing Yosemite on Retina

1:05:43Macs. Well yeah, yes I'm sure they were on the Retina MacBook Pro, maybe not on the iMac

1:05:48if it was off in a lab somewhere and not announced but yeah, you would think so. And it's variable

1:05:53Like if I open a lot of windows,

1:05:55it's more stuttery than if I open a few.

1:05:57And I saw somebody posted a YouTube video

1:06:01that looked horribly stuttery,

1:06:03and I didn't experience that when I tried to replicate it.

1:06:06So I think there's some strange variability going on here.

1:06:09I do think there's some bugs.

1:06:10Also individual apps do a better or worse job.

1:06:12You pointed out like Microsoft Word has a lot of issues

1:06:15not being retina friendly.

1:06:17I found out that Logic Pro 10,

1:06:19Logic Pro 10 has huge performance issues

1:06:22when it's running in retina mode, it'll run,

1:06:24but it's all stuttery and like pinching and zooming

1:06:27with my track pad, it's laggy and it's stuttery.

1:06:32And so here's another tip,

1:06:33if you're somebody using a retina Mac of any kind

1:06:36and you're unhappy with its performance,

1:06:39if you go to the finder and open that app in the finder

1:06:43and choose get info, select it and choose get info, command I

1:06:48you'll discover a checkbox that you may not know existed

1:06:52because it doesn't exist on non-retina Macs.

1:06:55And the checkbox is open in low resolution.

1:06:58And if you check that box, when you open the app,

1:07:01it basically runs it at 1X scaled instead of at 2X retina.

1:07:06And when I did that with Logic Pro X, totally worked,

1:07:10totally fixed it, no stuttering, no lag.

1:07:14But something like iMovie was able to run in 2X

1:07:18and scrolling on a timeline and zooming in on a timeline

1:07:21and all the things that Logic couldn't do flawlessly.

1:07:24So it's Logic's problem, not the IMAX problem,

1:07:29but you would think that they would fix that.

1:07:33- It's really sad that you have to do that,

1:07:36like really sad.

1:07:38- I love that that feature's there, right?

1:07:40I love that feature.

1:07:41It's like, just forget Retina on this app, just forget it.

1:07:44Don't even try.

1:07:45That's good.

1:07:46That's, I like that it exists 'cause it fixed the problem.

1:07:51I was gonna edit an episode of "The Incomparable"

1:07:54on the Retina iMac.

1:07:55And that was what I had to do.

1:07:57I had to do get info and set it to low res mode.

1:08:02And then it looked normal.

1:08:03I mean, as normal as it normally looks, it looked like 1X.

1:08:08Didn't look all fancy, but I don't need all fancy.

1:08:10I wanted the processor power, not fancy graphics

1:08:12for something like Logic 'cause it's audio.

1:08:15And that little checkbox solved it.

1:08:18- Ah, I just did it with Tweetbot.

1:08:20Oh my, oh, this is horrible, Jason.

1:08:23- What have I done?

1:08:25Well, it's not, you shouldn't try it.

1:08:27You should only do it when you need it.

1:08:29If there's a problem. - Well, I just wanted to see.

1:08:30I just wanted to see what it looked like.

1:08:31- Word, maybe.

1:08:33Well, no, 'cause you don't want the text to look awful.

1:08:35But if you have issues with something looking

1:08:38totally broken on retina, you can check the box.

1:08:41- I just wanted to see what would happen.

1:08:43And now your Twitter is all fuzzy and awful.

1:08:46- Yeah, it looks bad.

1:08:47Yeah, so for Word, like to give a bit of a real time

1:08:49follow up on Word, the text that I type in

1:08:53does render correctly, but like menus and toolbars,

1:08:56that does not render in retina.

1:08:58I can't understand what they're doing.

1:09:01It's so confusing to me.

1:09:03So strange.

1:09:04Okay, we touched on it briefly,

1:09:07but do you have any different feelings about Yosemite

1:09:09now having used it more extensively on a retina machine?

1:09:13if you haven't already, I mean, when you reviewed,

1:09:15were you using a retina machine at all?

1:09:17- Well, I have, so my Yosemite reference system

1:09:24is a retina MacBook Pro that is a loan from Apple.

1:09:28So that's been my experience with retina,

1:09:30has been on that system.

1:09:31- Right, so you kind of, your feelings remain the same

1:09:37in essence about it.

1:09:39- Yeah, it is.

1:09:42I mean, the experience is not any different

1:09:45running it on an iMac than running it on a MacBook Pro,

1:09:47other than that you've gone from a smaller screen

1:09:48to a bigger screen.

1:09:49And Yosemite, you know, that Helvetica Neue light is a way,

1:09:54actually the way I would put it,

1:10:00when I was booting up the Retina iMac,

1:10:03I was looking at that font and I thought, wow,

1:10:05that font is, that's sharp enough,

1:10:06it could cut you by looking at it.

1:10:09And I think there's, I mean, it is so sharp.

1:10:11Whereas on a regular screen, it's a font, it's there.

1:10:16But on the retina screens, it's super thin and sharp

1:10:20and it looks great.

1:10:21And yet also, it looks like a font

1:10:23that is designed for that kind of a screen

1:10:27because it's just super thin and it's very impressive.

1:10:32So, I don't know, it's a Mac.

1:10:34Eventually all Macs are gonna be like that,

1:10:36but it looks great.

1:10:37And then I turned, I pivoted from my iMac

1:10:40to my regular display while working on the review

1:10:44and had one of those moments where I was just like, ah!

1:10:46Like there's a film across my, what happened to my screen?

1:10:49It's all messed up now.

1:10:50And then after like 10 minutes it went away

1:10:52and it seems normal again.

1:10:53And then I look at the retina display and I go, ah!

1:10:56What happened?

1:10:56And every time.

1:10:58So you get used to it.

1:11:00- The future of Apple Computers Incorporated

1:11:05It's to go all retina, I assume, everywhere.

1:11:07Everything will be retina.

1:11:09- Yes.

1:11:10- I mean, it's safe to assume where we stand right now.

1:11:12There will be, you know, all of the laptops will be retina,

1:11:15there will be retina as, you know,

1:11:17we don't know when that will happen.

1:11:18There will be a retina cinema display,

1:11:21the Mac Pro will be able to drive it, et cetera, et cetera.

1:11:24- It will happen.

1:11:25- But you know, you look at these things,

1:11:26you're like, okay, screens are better now

1:11:29than they were previously before retina.

1:11:31Pre-retina screens were better than, like, you know,

1:11:34lower resolution screens before it.

1:11:36Can we go any further than Retina?

1:11:38Like I know it's a dumb thing to say like,

1:11:40this four megabytes of RAM is all I'll ever need.

1:11:43But I mean, what point is it just like,

1:11:47okay, the changes you're making,

1:11:48people just can't see them anymore.

1:11:51- Further than Retina.

1:11:53- Well, we've done that with the iPhones, right?

1:11:56We have Retina HD now,

1:11:58because it wasn't high definition enough.

1:12:00- Yeah.

1:12:02- Well, I mean, I think that is the answer

1:12:04about what you get when you go further.

1:12:07You don't, I don't think beyond the point

1:12:10at which you can't see the dots,

1:12:12you don't get anything as a user,

1:12:14except flexibility in what screen size you see.

1:12:19So the idea with the iPhone 6 Plus is,

1:12:22unless you are a really sharp-eyed

1:12:27and picky designer, essentially,

1:12:32or John Syracuse, I suppose.

1:12:34You can't tell it,

1:12:38you can't tell, but the iPhone 6 Plus screen is scaled,

1:12:41right, it's 3X scaled down.

1:12:43And the reason you can do that is that screen

1:12:46is high resolution enough that when you scale,

1:12:49it used to be if you scaled down an interface,

1:12:52you could see it was all fuzzy

1:12:53because you could see the dots that kind of fuzzed it out.

1:12:57But when the dots are all too small to see individually,

1:13:01the fuzz kind of just fades away

1:13:04and you can't see the fuzz.

1:13:05You just see what it wants you to see,

1:13:07which is a scaled interface.

1:13:09So that would be the advantage in all of these devices

1:13:12of getting higher resolution is having an infinite number

1:13:17or maybe not infinite, but you know,

1:13:20a very large number of different resolutions

1:13:24that you could scale to.

1:13:25So you could basically say,

1:13:26I want everything to be a little bit bigger

1:13:28or a little bit smaller,

1:13:28and it would all still look clear.

1:13:30Instead of it being like right now,

1:13:33where you can do a few steps on the iMac,

1:13:35but even then some of them you can kind of tell.

1:13:38But although like the Retina MacBook Pro,

1:13:41I believe is a scaled interface.

1:13:42I think it's scaled down from a higher resolution,

1:13:46just like the iPhone 6 Plus.

1:13:48And you can't really tell.

1:13:50So that's the big advantage of going even further

1:13:54is the more of that you could do

1:13:56in terms of scaling the interface

1:13:58to make it whatever size you wanted it to be.

1:14:01And it would all just look good.

1:14:02And it wouldn't matter that it wasn't

1:14:03the native resolution of the display

1:14:05because all of the anti-aliasing

1:14:08and all of that is happening.

1:14:11It's like subatomic anti-aliasing.

1:14:15It's like, you can't see it.

1:14:17And so it looks fine.

1:14:18The problem with anti-aliasing was always

1:14:20that you could see every pixel.

1:14:21And so you could see that half shaded pixel

1:14:24and it made everything fuzzy.

1:14:25But when that half shaded pixel is something

1:14:27that is just imperceptibly small,

1:14:29then everything looks good.

1:14:31So I think that's it.

1:14:32'Cause otherwise, yes, practically,

1:14:34text can't get more sharper than sharp text.

1:14:36It's just once it's sharp,

1:14:38once you can see it all, that's it.

1:14:40But there are other ways that it can get better

1:14:44for things like changing resolutions.

1:14:46That's all I had. I don't know if you want to talk about anything else about the Retina

1:14:53iMac or anything in general today.

1:14:56I don't know. I think people should check out the review on sixcolors.com. Do that if

1:15:03you haven't already. Great. Check your show notes.

1:15:07Or there at relay.fm/upgrades/seven.

1:15:11Lucky seven. We finally made it to lucky number seven, Myke.

1:15:15I got a Kindle, but I guess we don't really have time to talk about that.

1:15:20I'm reading things on the Kindle now and I will report back perhaps next week.

1:15:25Who knows?

1:15:27Oh man, I am sorry because I really thought we would do it this week and then I was looking at all the follow-up and the fact that I also got the red dot iMac.

1:15:33I had a bunch of people who were, I assume, upgrade listeners who were very excited when I said I got my Kindle and they're like, "Write the review now!"

1:15:42and I thought I got this iMac here I got a review and let me do that and then

1:15:47I'll get to it so I got to get to it now and I and honestly I was working on that

1:15:52a lot to the point where I wasn't reading as much for pleasure as I

1:15:56usually do so I've only had a you know a few hours reading with the Kindle

1:16:00Voyage and I want to spend some more some more time with it but it's neat I

1:16:03like it but we can talk more because I want to talk about Kindles in general

1:16:08too and why they exist and why you would even want one and all of those all

1:16:12all of those things to maybe we could get a guest.

1:16:15Oh, all right, I'm gonna ponder that one.

1:16:18Maybe we could get a good like Kindle related guest.

1:16:21Maybe not.

1:16:23- Mr. Kindle.

1:16:24- Mr. Kindle, well, Scott McNulty is Mr. Kindle.

1:16:27Dare we dream of getting Scott McNulty on this podcast

1:16:29where he could be like, I'm incomparable and be on,

1:16:31but never say anything.

1:16:32He may even be here today.

1:16:35- I'd like to watch a lot of "The Guest".

1:16:38- Wouldn't be the first time Scott buys,

1:16:40he may have a problem, he buys every Kindle.

1:16:43I've only bought about half the Kindles.

1:16:45But yeah, we'll talk about it.

1:16:47We'll talk about any books and Kindles

1:16:50and different reading modes and stuff.

1:16:51That's totally gonna happen.

1:16:52It's not gonna be like the, you know,

1:16:55the what is it John Sirkius always talked about?

1:16:58He was promising an episode about file systems forever,

1:17:00I think, and he finally did it.

1:17:02So we'll get there, it's our white whale.

1:17:04It's the Kindle episode.

1:17:06It's gonna happen, just not this week.

1:17:08So that's it, that's all I got.

1:17:09I, my Apple Pay total is up to two.

1:17:13So in the intervening week,

1:17:14I only bought one other thing with Apple Pay

1:17:15and it was a hot dog at a sporting event.

1:17:19And yeah, and the retina iMac has to go back this week

1:17:24to Apple, but mine is on order.

1:17:27I ordered the one,

1:17:28this is something we could talk about right before we go.

1:17:30I ordered the one with the VESA mount on the back

1:17:33instead of the foot.

1:17:34And I don't know if people know this,

1:17:37It used to be that you could get an iMac

1:17:39and you could buy a $30 kit from Apple

1:17:41and pop the foot off of it

1:17:43and put on an adapter that was a VESA mount

1:17:47so that you could then put it on an arm

1:17:49or mount it to a wall.

1:17:51And with the last design rev of the iMac,

1:17:53that was no longer an option.

1:17:55You can either order it with a foot or with a VESA mount.

1:17:59And once it's in one format, you can't get it in the other.

1:18:02You can't convert it back.

1:18:04So you're committing.

1:18:05So I used, so I've got my 24 inch monitor here on an arm

1:18:10and I really like it.

1:18:11I've got my desk and it's got stuff on the desk.

1:18:15So I've got like a little thermometer

1:18:16that tells me how warm it is in here.

1:18:18And I've got a little remote control for my speakers

1:18:20and I've got a little foam orange brain

1:18:25that I like to squeeze 'cause it makes me happy.

1:18:28I have to, I love it so much.

1:18:31I have, this was sent with a,

1:18:33some sort of game that we were all sent at Macworld

1:18:36like 15 years ago.

1:18:38And I took, and I had one and I loved it so much

1:18:41that at one point I went around,

1:18:42'cause I was gonna order more

1:18:44and it turns out they didn't make them anymore.

1:18:46So I went around to all of my coworkers and I said,

1:18:48do you still have that orange brain?

1:18:50And they all like had just put it in a drawer

1:18:51and forgotten that it was there.

1:18:52And I said, and can I have your orange brain?

1:18:54So I have like three of these Nerf brains.

1:18:57I love them.

1:18:58So I've got that on my desk.

1:19:01And then I put the retina iMac on my desk.

1:19:04And we'll put a picture of the brain in the show notes.

1:19:07And suddenly my desk was gone.

1:19:11All there was was this screen

1:19:13because it was at the front of the desk where I'm working

1:19:16and it was huge.

1:19:17And then the foot was there.

1:19:18And then I have to like go around the iMac

1:19:20to see that there's a desk behind it

1:19:22and everything's inaccessible.

1:19:23And you know what?

1:19:24I really didn't like it.

1:19:25And that was the moment where I decided

1:19:26I'm gonna put this thing on an arm.

1:19:28I don't want it sitting down on my desk.

1:19:29I like it floating.

1:19:30I like this monitor floating six or eight inches

1:19:33above my desk where I've actually still got

1:19:35a desktop below it.

1:19:36And the way I figure it,

1:19:39although there are ways to hack,

1:19:40there are hilarious ways.

1:19:42There are the people who make these VISA mounts

1:19:44that are literally like a clamp that goes onto the foot

1:19:46of the iMac and then you mount that.

1:19:49And they look terrible.

1:19:51I decided if ever there is a day where I wanna put that

1:19:55on a stand, there are people who make VISA mount

1:19:59monitor stands.

1:20:00So I'll just go the other direction

1:20:01and it won't have the metal Apple foot look to it,

1:20:04but I don't care.

1:20:05I really want it on an arm.

1:20:08So we'll see.

1:20:10Supposedly my monitor arm can hold 23 pounds

1:20:13and the iMac is about 20 pounds.

1:20:14So it should work, but we'll see.

1:20:16That's the one I ordered and I upgraded.

1:20:18I got the upgraded CPU and GPU

1:20:20because I decided if uncle IDG

1:20:24was gonna help me pay for it,

1:20:25I was gonna splurge a little bit

1:20:27and get something that could last a long time.

1:20:29- Was it the Nerf Brain Ball?

1:20:32- Possibly.

1:20:36It is a Nerf Nickelodeon co-branded.

1:20:40- Yeah, I got it.

1:20:41- Oh, did you find it on the internet?

1:20:43- Yeah, the Nick and Nerf Brain Ball.

1:20:45It was from the '90s, shaped like a brain,

1:20:49meant to throw like a football.

1:20:51- Oh man, put that in the show notes.

1:20:53- It's in there, it is in there.

1:20:54- Okay, yeah, so I have three of those,

1:20:57and it's from the '90s.

1:20:58That's how long ago we got that.

1:21:00It was some like some piece of software or CD-ROM or something that was like,

1:21:04it'll magnify your brain power.

1:21:06And to demonstrate that here's a foam nerf brain.

1:21:10And like I said, uh, I don't even remember what that thing was.

1:21:14And I went around and collected everybody's foam brains a couple of

1:21:16years later, because I really liked it.

1:21:18It's my little thing that I keep at my desk and I kind of squeeze it.

1:21:21And, um, and, uh, I'm, you know, it's, it's, it helps me think.

1:21:26I stare into the brain.

1:21:28I give it a little squeeze. It helps me thank Myke.

1:21:30So I want, that is why my iMac is going to be on an arm

1:21:33because I gotta have the, I gotta have the phone brain handy.

1:21:36Words to live by.

1:21:38- With that, if you'd like to get the show notes

1:21:40I mentioned earlier, really.fm/upgrades/seven.

1:21:43You'll also find some contact links for us there.

1:21:45I am iMyke on Twitter, I-M-Y-K-E.

1:21:48And Mr. Jason Snell is @jsnell, J-S-N-E-L-L on Twitter.

1:21:53And he writes the glorious sixcolors.com.

1:21:56Thanks again to our sponsors for this week, Backblaze and igloo, and we'll be back next

1:22:01week with another episode of Upgrade.

1:22:02Bye bye.

1:22:03Kindle Kindle Kindle.

1:22:05Bye everybody.

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