Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:08 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 430.

00:00:13 ◼   ► It's made possible this week by our sponsors, TexExpander, Memberful, and FitBod.

00:00:18 ◼   ► My name is Stephen Hackett and I'm joined by my friend and yours, Mr. Myke Hurley.

00:00:22 ◼   ► My name is Sean O'Steven Hackett and I'm joined by Federico Vittucci. Hi Federico.

00:00:27 ◼   ► Hello, hello, hi guys.

00:00:29 ◼   ► This is our year in review episode.

00:00:33 ◼   ► The Annie's.

00:00:34 ◼   ► Myke really wants to call this episode the Annie's, but I think it's confusing with the annual picks next week.

00:00:40 ◼   ► This wasn't a Myke thing. We decided upon this last time when we made it a game.

00:00:45 ◼   ► We made this a game with the tiki scale and everything.

00:00:48 ◼   ► We decided to call it the Annie's. This wasn't just a me thing. This was an everybody thing.

00:00:53 ◼   ► Okay, we'll do the Annie's.

00:00:54 ◼   ► Right?

00:00:55 ◼   ► Have I lost my mind here?

00:00:57 ◼   ► Wasn't that the thing that we did last time?

00:00:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, I think you're right.

00:01:01 ◼   ► I think you're right.

00:01:03 ◼   ► - Kate says I'm right, so I must be right.

00:01:07 ◼   ► - They are the official historian.

00:01:08 ◼   ► - Exactly.

00:01:09 ◼   ► - We need to work out the title then

00:01:11 ◼   ► because we used to do 20, you know, the year,

00:01:14 ◼   ► 2022 year interview colon and then a funny title.

00:01:18 ◼   ► But if we do the Annie's parentheses 2022,

00:01:22 ◼   ► like we do the Ricky's episode,

00:01:24 ◼   ► there's not a user-generated title.

00:01:26 ◼   ► It's just the Annie's 2022.

00:01:27 ◼   ► - Oh, we can break all the rules.

00:01:29 ◼   ► Why don't we do the Annie's 2022 colon funny title?

00:01:32 ◼   ► - Or the 2022 Annie.

00:01:34 ◼   ► I just don't wanna do like parentheses and then a colon.

00:01:36 ◼   ► - Whatever you want, Gramble Boy.

00:01:38 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

00:01:39 ◼   ► You just...

00:01:40 ◼   ► - I typed 2002.

00:01:41 ◼   ► We're gonna be talking about the G4 today.

00:01:43 ◼   ► - Oh, I can love it. - Oh my gosh, I can't type.

00:01:45 ◼   ► Okay, so how this works is we will round up

00:01:50 ◼   ► each month of the year and rank them on the teachy scale.

00:01:55 ◼   ► That is the artwork for the episode.

00:01:58 ◼   ► There's also a link in the show notes so you can see it.

00:02:00 ◼   ► That artwork is done by the official relay historian, Kate.

00:02:03 ◼   ► Inferior minus is the lowest possible score.

00:02:06 ◼   ► - No, nightmare.

00:02:07 ◼   ► - We only score a month.

00:02:08 ◼   ► - No, nightmare.

00:02:09 ◼   ► - We only score a month, a nightmare.

00:02:10 ◼   ► - Oh. - Yes, yes.

00:02:12 ◼   ► - You know it when you see it.

00:02:13 ◼   ► - I don't remember what that means.

00:02:16 ◼   ► What does that mean?

00:02:16 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:02:17 ◼   ► - I don't know, Federico said it, I think.

00:02:18 ◼   ► And so, Nightmare is for a truly special month.

00:02:22 ◼   ► - Yeah, you know when you see it,

00:02:22 ◼   ► it was inspired by a Supreme Court decision, I think.

00:02:27 ◼   ► Yeah, you know it when you see it.

00:02:29 ◼   ► - Yeah. - But I don't know what...

00:02:31 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:02:32 ◼   ► How can it be the lowest score?

00:02:34 ◼   ► And then there's a lower score.

00:02:36 ◼   ► - March 2020, Nightmare, right?

00:02:40 ◼   ► So we'll see what happens.

00:02:42 ◼   ► We're gonna round robin this.

00:02:44 ◼   ► And so each of us will take a month

00:02:46 ◼   ► and run through the news.

00:02:47 ◼   ► Lots of links in the show notes this week.

00:02:50 ◼   ► And I apologize in advance for sounding the way that I sound.

00:02:54 ◼   ► - You sound perfect. - I cannot be helped.

00:02:55 ◼   ► Little, little sick.

00:02:57 ◼   ► So let's start with January.

00:02:59 ◼   ► How does that sound?

00:02:59 ◼   ► - I mean, it's the best place to start.

00:03:01 ◼   ► - Makes sense, yeah.

00:03:02 ◼   ► - Cast your mind back.

00:03:03 ◼   ► - Wow.

00:03:04 ◼   ► - iOS 15.4 allows a face ID while wearing a mask,

00:03:09 ◼   ► not requiring an Apple Watch.

00:03:12 ◼   ► And for a while you could do this if you had a watch.

00:03:15 ◼   ► - That feels like two years ago to me.

00:03:17 ◼   ► like, I know, wow, I know.

00:03:19 ◼   ► This was a long running joke on the show, right?

00:03:21 ◼   ► Am I remembering correctly?

00:03:23 ◼   ► We kept making this joke for like weeks about,

00:03:26 ◼   ► oh, iOS 15.4 allows Face ID while wearing a mask

00:03:30 ◼   ► 'cause if it was a new piece of news.

00:03:31 ◼   ► Do you remember this?

00:03:32 ◼   ► Ah, yes, yes, yes.

00:03:33 ◼   ► Like breaking news, iOS 15.4, yes, I remember that.

00:03:37 ◼   ► Yes, we were doing this for weeks.

00:03:39 ◼   ► That's so good, this is a great feature.

00:03:42 ◼   ► I love it.

00:03:44 ◼   ► I forgot that I couldn't always do it.

00:03:47 ◼   ► I kind of take it for granted now, but yeah,

00:03:49 ◼   ► it was this year, maybe a little late, you know,

00:03:53 ◼   ► it would have been nice to have it in 2021,

00:03:55 ◼   ► but hey, it's still with us, so I'll take it.

00:03:58 ◼   ► - Still with us.

00:03:59 ◼   ► Also in January, Universal Control,

00:04:02 ◼   ► which is the feature that lets you use your cursor

00:04:05 ◼   ► and keyboard across multiple devices, entered beta,

00:04:09 ◼   ► and a good feature.

00:04:13 ◼   ► I thought it came with iOS 15, apparently it was late.

00:04:16 ◼   ► I know this is real because I can see the link, but I don't believe this is true.

00:04:20 ◼   ► That we only got to use universal control this year?

00:04:23 ◼   ► What happened to that feature?

00:04:27 ◼   ► Yeah, it was delayed multiple times actually.

00:04:29 ◼   ► I think it was delayed twice.

00:04:32 ◼   ► I think it was.

00:04:32 ◼   ► I mean, it would have had to have been.

00:04:34 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, in hindsight, I got to say, like this feature completely changed, like, the way I work.

00:04:42 ◼   ► And at the time, I mean, at that point in January,

00:04:45 ◼   ► I didn't even know I was gonna buy a house

00:04:47 ◼   ► and have a new desk.

00:04:49 ◼   ► But now that I'm using it, like without universal control,

00:04:53 ◼   ► I wouldn't have the kind of setup that I have right now.

00:04:57 ◼   ► And so I am very thankful that this feature exists.

00:05:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's good.

00:05:01 ◼   ► - I will say, part of my surprise

00:05:04 ◼   ► is I was confusing this with Sidecar.

00:05:06 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, that's a--

00:05:07 ◼   ► - I still, I'm surprised,

00:05:08 ◼   ► but that was why I was extra surprised.

00:05:09 ◼   ► - They both exist still.

00:05:11 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:05:12 ◼   ► - And I get them confused all the time.

00:05:15 ◼   ► - They're oddly sort of the same feature,

00:05:17 ◼   ► but inside out in a way, it's very strange.

00:05:20 ◼   ► - It's very, very peculiar.

00:05:21 ◼   ► - January was also the beginning of two long running stories

00:05:26 ◼   ► that are really still with us.

00:05:28 ◼   ► The first being Google's campaign against Apple

00:05:33 ◼   ► to adopt RCS on the iPhone.

00:05:36 ◼   ► So if you're not familiar with RCS,

00:05:38 ◼   ► we don't really have the time to get to it too deeply today,

00:05:40 ◼   ► but it is something that Google

00:05:43 ◼   ► and carrier partners have worked on.

00:05:45 ◼   ► It's sort of a super set of SMS.

00:05:48 ◼   ► It does offer some end-to-end encryption,

00:05:50 ◼   ► not end-to-end encryption, everywhere, attachments.

00:05:52 ◼   ► It's more iMessagey in some ways,

00:05:56 ◼   ► but Apple's not gonna adopt it 'cause they have iMessage

00:05:58 ◼   ► and Google keeps beating them up in the press about that.

00:06:00 ◼   ► I think the bigger story, at least for Apple-centric people,

00:06:03 ◼   ► is third-party payment methods.

00:06:06 ◼   ► So this is something that Apple has just

00:06:09 ◼   ► continued to fight on and now we have stuff in the EU

00:06:12 ◼   ► which we'll get to later in the episode.

00:06:14 ◼   ► But in January, this saga began with,

00:06:19 ◼   ► of all things, Dutch dating apps.

00:06:22 ◼   ► I don't know how this story broke with something so specific

00:06:26 ◼   ► but here we are, if you're trying to hook up

00:06:29 ◼   ► in the Netherlands, you can use a third party

00:06:31 ◼   ► payment provider.

00:06:32 ◼   ► - Well, that was when it began.

00:06:34 ◼   ► It took months and months and Apple will find lots of money

00:06:37 ◼   ► but this was where they started this incredibly long process.

00:06:41 ◼   ► I don't think this was the first one.

00:06:43 ◼   ► I think it started in South Korea,

00:06:45 ◼   ► but this one, I think, what happened in the Netherlands--

00:06:47 ◼   ► This was the first one this year, I think.

00:06:49 ◼   ► Yeah, and what happened in the Netherlands, I think,

00:06:51 ◼   ► will inform a lot about the way it will work going forward

00:06:54 ◼   ► for when they do these arrangements,

00:06:56 ◼   ► because the Netherlands were very tough on Apple,

00:06:59 ◼   ► and really, I think, in a good way,

00:07:01 ◼   ► and especially around language for errors and stuff.

00:07:05 ◼   ► So Apple really kind of refined it,

00:07:07 ◼   ► And I think it laid the groundwork for what we may see

00:07:11 ◼   ► going into next year about the way Apple talk about

00:07:14 ◼   ► third-party payments and app stores and stuff like that.

00:07:16 ◼   ► - This year has been the year of the NibNib.

00:07:19 ◼   ► We came across this on PocketLint in January.

00:07:24 ◼   ► - CES. - This is the finger--

00:07:24 ◼   ► - Yeah. - CES.

00:07:26 ◼   ► Yeah, man, CES is right around the corner.

00:07:29 ◼   ► Who knows what we'll get this time?

00:07:30 ◼   ► - All kinds of matter accessories.

00:07:32 ◼   ► That's gonna be the thing. - NibNib Pro.

00:07:34 ◼   ► - Yes. - That's what I want.

00:07:35 ◼   ► getting the Nib Nib 2, 2.0.

00:07:37 ◼   ► - Nib Nib, Nib Nib Ultra.

00:07:39 ◼   ► This was a finger biting soft toy cat,

00:07:42 ◼   ► which we for some reason keep referencing.

00:07:46 ◼   ► - We're a bit obsessed about it to be honest.

00:07:48 ◼   ► - We are.

00:07:49 ◼   ► - And then our friend Austin Evans got one.

00:07:50 ◼   ► - Right, I forgot about that.

00:07:52 ◼   ► - I forgot about that too.

00:07:53 ◼   ► - Yeah, in a mystery tag, you got it in a mystery tag.

00:07:55 ◼   ► - Oh my God, yeah.

00:07:56 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:07:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, Nib Nib.

00:07:58 ◼   ► - Yeah, Nib Nib for the views, you know?

00:08:02 ◼   ► And then really, I feel like the last couple of years,

00:08:05 ◼   ► Elgato has really been on a tear

00:08:08 ◼   ► with accessories for streaming and automation.

00:08:10 ◼   ► Of course, the Stream Deck has been around for a while,

00:08:13 ◼   ► but in January, they announced the Stream Deck Pedal,

00:08:15 ◼   ► which sits on your floor,

00:08:17 ◼   ► and you can tap different buttons with your foot

00:08:19 ◼   ► and fire automations on your computer.

00:08:21 ◼   ► I know several people who have these, who really like them.

00:08:24 ◼   ► I know Matt, one of our Discord mods has one.

00:08:26 ◼   ► David Sparks has one.

00:08:28 ◼   ► And it's just the beginning

00:08:30 ◼   ► of a bunch of Stream Deck news this year.

00:08:32 ◼   ► They've had quite a few releases,

00:08:34 ◼   ► but this one I think is really cool

00:08:35 ◼   ► if you have this sort of need.

00:08:37 ◼   ► I think they're interesting that they keep expanding

00:08:40 ◼   ► their product line.

00:08:42 ◼   ► - Didn't either of you buy the foot thing?

00:08:43 ◼   ► - No, I didn't.

00:08:45 ◼   ► We made fun of it initially,

00:08:47 ◼   ► but I actually think it's pretty cool.

00:08:49 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:08:50 ◼   ► - I don't have it.

00:08:51 ◼   ► I've got the Stream Deck XL, the big one.

00:08:53 ◼   ► - So that's January.

00:08:55 ◼   ► Goodbye, January.

00:08:56 ◼   ► - Goodbye, Jan, we gotta give it a rating.

00:08:57 ◼   ► - Oh yeah.

00:08:58 ◼   ► - Let's see, let me open the TG scale for context.

00:09:01 ◼   ► So it was definitely a good month, right?

00:09:04 ◼   ► Because we got a bunch of software features,

00:09:07 ◼   ► nip-nip, I mean, come on, right?

00:09:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, I wouldn't go past good,

00:09:11 ◼   ► but I think it's a normal month,

00:09:13 ◼   ► but the nip-nip and the face ID with the mask

00:09:15 ◼   ► pushes it all the way to good, I think.

00:09:18 ◼   ► - Good. - Okay.

00:09:20 ◼   ► - Good work, January.

00:09:21 ◼   ► - Nicely done.

00:09:22 ◼   ► - Good work.

00:09:24 ◼   ► - So now we're onto February.

00:09:25 ◼   ► In February, Apple wrote a thing on their website

00:09:29 ◼   ► kind of addressing some of the stories that appeared

00:09:31 ◼   ► in the media kind of around this time and before

00:09:35 ◼   ► about concerns over people using air tags to stalk people.

00:09:40 ◼   ► But I think the bigger issue that seemed to arise

00:09:44 ◼   ► around this time was some kind of bugs in their software.

00:09:47 ◼   ► I mean, Find My,

00:09:49 ◼   ► that they were labeling things really poorly, right?

00:09:51 ◼   ► It would say like, "A device is with you."

00:09:54 ◼   ► And it really was just like your own AirPods,

00:09:57 ◼   ► but they were doing like a really bad job

00:09:59 ◼   ► of labeling a lot of that stuff.

00:10:02 ◼   ► So Apple kind of laid out its case

00:10:04 ◼   ► for why they think AirTags are good, right?

00:10:06 ◼   ► And why they think that, you know,

00:10:08 ◼   ► they took all the steps that they took

00:10:10 ◼   ► to try and make sure that they were as safe as possible.

00:10:13 ◼   ► They added new privacy warnings

00:10:15 ◼   ► and they then spoke about things they were going to add.

00:10:18 ◼   ► And we've seen a lot of this stuff roll out now,

00:10:20 ◼   ► which is like new privacy warnings

00:10:22 ◼   ► when people are setting them up.

00:10:24 ◼   ► They fixed the AirPods thing.

00:10:26 ◼   ► And then they added some new features like precision findings.

00:10:30 ◼   ► So you could, if an AirTag was said to be with you,

00:10:33 ◼   ► you could use your device to find it,

00:10:36 ◼   ► which wasn't a thing you could do before.

00:10:38 ◼   ► And they made the AirTags alarm sound louder

00:10:42 ◼   ► and stuff like that.

00:10:43 ◼   ► So I would say this seemed to address

00:10:47 ◼   ► pretty much everything.

00:10:49 ◼   ► Like I don't feel like, it felt like for a while

00:10:51 ◼   ► there were a lot of these stories.

00:10:53 ◼   ► And I think I saw maybe one or two more throughout the year,

00:10:56 ◼   ► but it seemed like at least Apple did a good enough job of convincing the media

00:11:01 ◼   ► that they were doing all that they could for this product, right?

00:11:04 ◼   ► So, uh, Beats Fit Pro were released in February.

00:11:09 ◼   ► Oh yeah. We talked about this. I had this for a while, I think.

00:11:13 ◼   ► Was this, was this the one that Mary got?

00:11:15 ◼   ► We had Mary on the show to talk about headphones this year, Steven.

00:11:17 ◼   ► Was it these ones, the Beats Fit Pro?

00:11:20 ◼   ► It was these, yeah.

00:11:21 ◼   ► Okay. I had completely forgotten about them, right?

00:11:24 ◼   ► Cause it's just like, I don't even think about this.

00:11:26 ◼   ► - Yeah, I got Big Apple Buddy to send them to me.

00:11:29 ◼   ► And then of course I used them for like a couple of weeks.

00:11:34 ◼   ► I really liked them, but yeah, I couldn't, I don't know.

00:11:38 ◼   ► I just, something about the little hook, you know,

00:11:41 ◼   ► was kind of weird.

00:11:43 ◼   ► Yeah, I didn't like it.

00:11:44 ◼   ► And I ended up going back to AirPods Pro as always.

00:11:47 ◼   ► - Case is too big, I think.

00:11:49 ◼   ► - Yeah. - The case is too big.

00:11:50 ◼   ► It's huge.

00:11:51 ◼   ► - That's true of a lot of Beats products.

00:11:53 ◼   ► - She also has the, whatever the ones that go over your ear.

00:11:57 ◼   ► - The Powerbeats.

00:11:58 ◼   ► - The Powerbeats, and that case is enormous.

00:12:01 ◼   ► It gets way bigger than it needs to be.

00:12:03 ◼   ► - Just love big batteries, big Beats battery.

00:12:06 ◼   ► And tap to pay contactless payments were announced

00:12:09 ◼   ► as a thing that Apple were gonna work on.

00:12:10 ◼   ► They were gonna basically open up the NFC chip on the iPhone

00:12:13 ◼   ► to allow companies like Square and Stripe

00:12:17 ◼   ► to let businesses create accounts and take payments.

00:12:20 ◼   ► So you could just put your card or your phone

00:12:23 ◼   ► on an iPhone and take a payment, removing the need for those readers devices.

00:12:29 ◼   ► And this seems to be something that like it was announced to a bit of fanfare and more

00:12:33 ◼   ► partners have been added in, but we haven't really heard much about it, but I bet that

00:12:36 ◼   ► it's something that is really great for the people that use it.

00:12:39 ◼   ► Like this is just a good feature.

00:12:40 ◼   ► But you know, now looking at the stuff that we see later on in the year, this is clearly

00:12:45 ◼   ► Apple trying to like hedge against future antitrust stuff because the NFC chip is considered

00:12:51 ◼   ► one of the things that Apple has too much control over? February? Normal? Normal? I

00:12:59 ◼   ► feel like normal. It doesn't, nothing exciting happened. I agree. Normal month, normal month.

00:13:05 ◼   ► Yeah, and in a way like the the AirTags thing is still with us, like Apple's still trying to

00:13:10 ◼   ► yeah work that out with the public, so I don't want to go higher than normal for sure.

00:13:16 ◼   ► All right, we get to March. And March begins with the obviously unfortunate news, something

00:13:25 ◼   ► that is still happening, sadly, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And Apple put out a

00:13:34 ◼   ► statement at the beginning of the month, saying that they were pausing product sales in Russia

00:13:42 ◼   ► and pulling state media apps from the App Store. So they had a post on the Apple newsroom

00:13:51 ◼   ► about this. I don't know if sales have resumed since.

00:13:58 ◼   ► They haven't.

00:13:59 ◼   ► They haven't, rightfully so, because the invasion is still ongoing.

00:14:03 ◼   ► I think this is one of those things that a lot of companies thought like, "Oh, we'll

00:14:06 ◼   ► just pull out for a bit and nope."

00:14:08 ◼   ► And then unfortunately it wasn't a bit.

00:14:11 ◼   ► So that Apple are not in Russia now at all, like a lot of companies.

00:14:14 ◼   ► Yeah, nine months later, this is still ongoing. It's a tragedy. And yeah, a bunch of companies

00:14:19 ◼   ► like Apple put out these statements and maybe they thought it was going to be over in a

00:14:23 ◼   ► month or something and it wasn't. And it isn't over.

00:14:28 ◼   ► Getting back to Apple, there's a bunch of Apple product announcements here because there

00:14:32 ◼   ► was an event, right? There was an Apple event in March 2022. What was it called?

00:14:38 ◼   ► and Steven were together we watched it together because I was in Memphis you

00:14:43 ◼   ► were in Memphis what was it called what was the tagline of the event son oh gosh

00:14:52 ◼   ► was it anyway it was the max studio event peak performance leap performance

00:14:59 ◼   ► thank you peak performance peak performance performance performance

00:15:04 ◼   ► - Leet performance.

00:15:06 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:15:08 ◼   ► - Like that one.

00:15:09 ◼   ► The Mac Studio was announced,

00:15:13 ◼   ► and this is the mini Mac Pro that many were expecting,

00:15:18 ◼   ► and it sort of, it sits between,

00:15:24 ◼   ► I can't do this with this.

00:15:26 ◼   ► - It really, Leet performance really got me.

00:15:29 ◼   ► It was very funny.

00:15:30 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:15:34 ◼   ► I mean, is it a tiny Mac Pro or is it a big Mac Mini?

00:15:37 ◼   ► - Is it a big Mac Mini?

00:15:38 ◼   ► I don't know, you tell me Steven.

00:15:40 ◼   ► I don't have one.

00:15:41 ◼   ► John, one true John.

00:15:42 ◼   ► - It's a big Mac Mini.

00:15:43 ◼   ► - It's a big Mac Mini, okay, it's not a small Mac Pro.

00:15:44 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:15:46 ◼   ► - Ooh, that feels like a controversial thing

00:15:48 ◼   ► you may have just said there.

00:15:49 ◼   ► - No slots, baby.

00:15:50 ◼   ► You can't put things inside of it.

00:15:52 ◼   ► - I mean, you can, but it won't be good.

00:15:56 ◼   ► Well, still, it's a brand new product in the Mac line app,

00:16:04 ◼   ► brand new name like the studio name for a product like this.

00:16:09 ◼   ► It was obviously the first time and it led us and many others

00:16:14 ◼   ► to speculate, hey, maybe is there

00:16:15 ◼   ► room for a MacBook Studio in the future or an iPad

00:16:19 ◼   ► Studio in the future?

00:16:19 ◼   ► We'll see.

00:16:21 ◼   ► But in addition to the Mac Studio,

00:16:23 ◼   ► we also got the studio display.

00:16:25 ◼   ► Apple's return to consumer level displays,

00:16:28 ◼   ► a 27-inch 5K monitor that eventually I also got.

00:16:34 ◼   ► I'm looking right at it right now.

00:16:37 ◼   ► There was a controversy though for the studio display about the camera, about the built-in

00:16:42 ◼   ► camera of the studio display.

00:16:44 ◼   ► And now the studio display supports center stage, but it's not, I believe in the reviews

00:16:50 ◼   ► at the time, everybody pretty much agreed that it was not as good as the center stage

00:16:54 ◼   ► seen on the iPad Pro for example.

00:16:57 ◼   ► And really the main problem was that the picture coming out of the studio display's webcam

00:17:02 ◼   ► was terrible.

00:17:04 ◼   ► Like, it didn't--

00:17:06 ◼   ► It was very bad.

00:17:07 ◼   ► It was very bad.

00:17:08 ◼   ► And I want to say that Apple sent a statement to Diverge

00:17:13 ◼   ► and a bunch of others saying that it

00:17:15 ◼   ► was due to something that needed to be fixed with an upcoming

00:17:18 ◼   ► software update.

00:17:19 ◼   ► That software update-- by the way,

00:17:21 ◼   ► the studio displays the kind of display

00:17:23 ◼   ► that it's got its own firmware, runs a fork of iOS,

00:17:26 ◼   ► therefore you can update.

00:17:27 ◼   ► That update has since been released.

00:17:29 ◼   ► I don't think it really did wonders in terms of improving the picture quality of the webcam,

00:17:36 ◼   ► of the display. I mean it made it worse for me. Yeah, exactly. You get the flickering thing going

00:17:40 ◼   ► on. They fixed the flickering and then fixed and then broke it again. Yeah. So I have to use the

00:17:45 ◼   ► continuity camera with my studio display. Good job. And also updating the studio display is so

00:17:50 ◼   ► annoying. It's so annoying. And it's kind of weird. I don't know. It's very weird to update

00:17:56 ◼   ► a thing that like you don't think of, you normally don't think about a display having its own

00:18:02 ◼   ► software and it's kind of strange. Yeah I don't want to have to update my monitor by restarting

00:18:07 ◼   ► my computer. It's like this is, this doesn't feel good at all. Yeah that's the thing to do.

00:18:13 ◼   ► There was also a new iPhone SE and a green iPhone 13. These were the smaller announcements I think

00:18:20 ◼   ► from the event. I mean, it's literally just a green iPhone 13. Coming out months later

00:18:28 ◼   ► from the original iPhone 13 lineup, I always thought that would...

00:18:33 ◼   ► They did it the previous year with the purple one.

00:18:35 ◼   ► Why is this like...

00:18:36 ◼   ► And they always used to do the red before.

00:18:37 ◼   ► They used to do the red. I mean, they must have the numbers. They must know that introducing

00:18:42 ◼   ► a color in the middle of mid-cycle helps somehow with sales, or it's good to get people into

00:18:49 ◼   ► Apple stores to check out the new color and eventually they buy something else? I don't

00:18:53 ◼   ► know. And the SE, which I believe Sylvia's sister bought, it's got still the same boring

00:19:02 ◼   ► design, A15 Bionic inside, 5G, still a home button, better battery life, you know, the

00:19:11 ◼   ► usual. Still an old design that does not have Face ID. The other big news, and this one

00:19:16 ◼   ► and really liked the new iPad Air with an M1.

00:19:21 ◼   ► Now at the time, we all kind of started asking ourselves the question,

00:19:25 ◼   ► and I remember asking myself the question,

00:19:27 ◼   ► "We thought the M1 was supposed to be like for the iPad Pro lineup only.

00:19:32 ◼   ► What does it mean to get an M1 on an iPad Air as well?"

00:19:36 ◼   ► And months later, we eventually got our answer,

00:19:40 ◼   ► and the answer was this iPad Air supports Stage Manager and external displays.

00:19:45 ◼   ► We couldn't know at the time.

00:19:47 ◼   ► I still believe that the iPad Air,

00:19:49 ◼   ► especially now that we got the full picture

00:19:51 ◼   ► with iPad OS 16 and Stage Manager,

00:19:53 ◼   ► I still think it's the definitive iPad for most people.

00:19:57 ◼   ► I mean, you got a relatively portable iPad

00:20:00 ◼   ► that is not too expensive, it's not too big.

00:20:04 ◼   ► It's bigger than an iPad Mini.

00:20:06 ◼   ► It's very balanced as a product.

00:20:09 ◼   ► It's got the M1 and it comes in colors.

00:20:12 ◼   ► I really like this iPad.

00:20:14 ◼   ► I think it's a really good update.

00:20:15 ◼   ► I remember at the time it was like,

00:20:17 ◼   ► "Oh, if they've done this, what are they going to do to the iPad Pro?"

00:20:22 ◼   ► That was the conversation.

00:20:23 ◼   ► The answer was, "Ah, don't worry about it."

00:20:26 ◼   ► Don't think about it too much.

00:20:29 ◼   ► Don't worry about it.

00:20:30 ◼   ► We're going to make the iPad closer to this one as well.

00:20:33 ◼   ► Don't worry about it.

00:20:35 ◼   ► Come on.

00:20:36 ◼   ► And lastly, and I'm going to need some help here from Myke,

00:20:39 ◼   ► a Friday night baseball on Apple TV+ was announced.

00:20:43 ◼   ► if my understanding is correct, this means that each week during the season,

00:20:48 ◼   ► there are two baseball games on Friday nights on Apple TV+,

00:20:53 ◼   ► that include also like pre and post show segments.

00:20:58 ◼   ► Yeah, that's what it is.

00:21:01 ◼   ► Yep.

00:21:02 ◼   ► Yep, and they're available for free.

00:21:04 ◼   ► For free.

00:21:05 ◼   ► To Apple TV+.

00:21:07 ◼   ► Well, they're available for free on Apple TV+,

00:21:12 ◼   ► Does that make sense?

00:21:13 ◼   ► Right, meaning they're not like a paid extra on top of Apple TV Plus.

00:21:18 ◼   ► What? You don't have to be an Apple TV Plus subscriber to watch them.

00:21:23 ◼   ► Oh, okay. So they are free, like free free for all.

00:21:25 ◼   ► They are free.

00:21:26 ◼   ► Okay, good.

00:21:28 ◼   ► Probably won't be forever, but there are free games as part of this.

00:21:33 ◼   ► Because that was like this whole thing about like, Aaron Rodgers was going to

00:21:37 ◼   ► potentially break the record of home runs and everyone was like super mad.

00:21:41 ◼   ► that it was on, no it did but not in this game.

00:21:44 ◼   ► People were super mad that Apple were having it,

00:21:47 ◼   ► like, 'cause it's like, "Oh, now I won't be able to watch it."

00:21:48 ◼   ► But actually people can just watch it for free.

00:21:50 ◼   ► Very cool.

00:21:52 ◼   ► And that was March.

00:21:54 ◼   ► Aaron Judge.

00:21:55 ◼   ► Aaron Rodgers is a basketball player?

00:21:58 ◼   ► Football.

00:21:59 ◼   ► Football, there you go.

00:22:01 ◼   ► I got there in the end.

00:22:02 ◼   ► So obviously everything is very good here, I think.

00:22:06 ◼   ► Mac Studio, Studio Displays, you know, M1, iPad Air.

00:22:11 ◼   ► with the exception of, you know, the war.

00:22:15 ◼   ► So I, but that's like,

00:22:19 ◼   ► that's outside of Apple's control here. Like it's not like, you know, Apple,

00:22:23 ◼   ► and they did the right thing. So overall,

00:22:27 ◼   ► I would argue in favor of a good plus,

00:22:32 ◼   ► maybe I would agree with you.

00:22:35 ◼   ► Me too. Good plus. Now world events,

00:22:39 ◼   ► Nightmare right right exactly don't judge the would necessarily judge world events

00:22:44 ◼   ► here

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00:24:49 ◼   ► So we are now into April. This is when friend of the show Apple self-service

00:24:56 ◼   ► repair program launched. So proud of them. This is definitely in the category of

00:25:01 ◼   ► Apple hedging against future legislation and present legislation here in the US

00:25:07 ◼   ► with a program where you can order parts. They mail you 500 pounds of tools to do

00:25:13 ◼   ► things. This started just with iPhones and just in the US, but throughout the

00:25:19 ◼   ► year they've expanded it, including this week they added desktop Macs to it. A

00:25:23 ◼   ► good thing for Apple to have from the political angle, I'm not sure how many

00:25:30 ◼   ► regular consumers are ever going to take advantage of this I would love to know

00:25:36 ◼   ► the volume of orders through this I just I have to imagine it's pretty low.

00:25:41 ◼   ► Just as a clarification this was when they announced it was available they had

00:25:46 ◼   ► previously announced this as a thing I think it was in 2021.

00:25:53 ◼   ► I think so yeah I think you're right I think people can do it right but I don't

00:25:57 ◼   ► think people are doing it youtubers are doing it but I don't think anybody else

00:26:00 ◼   ► is really using this.

00:26:02 ◼   ► - It's just Quinn Nelson.

00:26:04 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:26:04 ◼   ► I think probably the best result out of this

00:26:07 ◼   ► is that small companies could buy better tools.

00:26:11 ◼   ► That's what I reckon is probably the best result, right?

00:26:13 ◼   ► So like a screen repair company

00:26:16 ◼   ► could buy a screen repair tool that Apple makes.

00:26:20 ◼   ► 'Cause you can buy the tools, right?

00:26:22 ◼   ► As well as just rent the tools.

00:26:23 ◼   ► So that I reckon is probably pretty good.

00:26:27 ◼   ► But I don't think this is still the easy thing

00:26:31 ◼   ► we were hoping for, right?

00:26:33 ◼   ► And I don't think it's ever gonna happen

00:26:35 ◼   ► 'cause Apple would have to design and develop

00:26:37 ◼   ► their products very, very differently

00:26:39 ◼   ► for that to work out, but it's cool.

00:26:41 ◼   ► - We also learned a little bit more about

00:26:44 ◼   ► why the website looks so weird.

00:26:45 ◼   ► I went deep down the rabbit hole

00:26:47 ◼   ► looking up company listings out of state and stuff.

00:26:50 ◼   ► - That was fun.

00:26:51 ◼   ► Oh, that was fun, I forgot about that.

00:26:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, so this is run by a partner company

00:26:55 ◼   ► that does a lot of logistics for tech companies,

00:26:57 ◼   ► including Apple.

00:26:58 ◼   ► So the website's jank, but that is what it is.

00:27:01 ◼   ► Even though it's not hugely popular, I don't think,

00:27:05 ◼   ► I'm glad that it exists.

00:27:07 ◼   ► WBC was also announced in April,

00:27:11 ◼   ► quote, returning to its all online format.

00:27:15 ◼   ► - Fake news.

00:27:17 ◼   ► - Fake news.

00:27:18 ◼   ► - Fake news.

00:27:19 ◼   ► - Because, let me read this,

00:27:21 ◼   ► in addition to the online conference,

00:27:22 ◼   ► Apple will host a special day for developers and students

00:27:25 ◼   ► at Apple Park on June 6th to watch the keynote

00:27:27 ◼   ► and State of the Union videos together

00:27:30 ◼   ► along with the online community.

00:27:32 ◼   ► And you could sign up a few weeks later to get into that.

00:27:36 ◼   ► We'll get into the announcements of WWDC,

00:27:39 ◼   ► but being there was really special this year,

00:27:43 ◼   ► getting to see people for the first time in a long time

00:27:46 ◼   ► and who knows what the future holds,

00:27:48 ◼   ► but it was a really fun day.

00:27:51 ◼   ► I know it wasn't for everybody, but...

00:27:53 ◼   ► - Good for you.

00:27:54 ◼   ► - You know, I'm not trying to bring you down.

00:27:56 ◼   ► - Well, you do though.

00:27:57 ◼   ► You didn't have to say any of that thing.

00:27:58 ◼   ► You could have just moved on, right?

00:28:00 ◼   ► Federico, do you agree with me?

00:28:02 ◼   ► He could have just moved on.

00:28:03 ◼   ► We're not even in June yet.

00:28:04 ◼   ► - I think he lingered a little too much, you know?

00:28:08 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah. - Too long, right?

00:28:10 ◼   ► Like how great a perfect, wonderful day it was.

00:28:13 ◼   ► We got two months until the WWDC part.

00:28:17 ◼   ► You know what I mean? - Yeah, yeah.

00:28:17 ◼   ► - So he's gonna do it again.

00:28:19 ◼   ► - Yeah, it rubbed it in a little bit.

00:28:20 ◼   ► - Well, June is Federico's month, this is my shot.

00:28:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, but you can't say anything?

00:28:24 ◼   ► - And look how tastefully I will handle that.

00:28:27 ◼   ► Just wait 10 minutes or so.

00:28:29 ◼   ► - I'm looking forward to it, I'm looking forward to it.

00:28:32 ◼   ► - Also in March, Apple's Coda,

00:28:35 ◼   ► which was a film on Apple TV+.

00:28:39 ◼   ► It won a Oscar for best picture at the Academy of Wards.

00:28:43 ◼   ► And what's really cool about this is that,

00:28:47 ◼   ► so this movie, if you haven't seen it,

00:28:49 ◼   ► has a lot of deaf actors in it.

00:28:53 ◼   ► And this was the male actor, Tony Coats, Troy Coatsar.

00:28:58 ◼   ► I can't, I don't know what his last name,

00:29:02 ◼   ► how to pronounce his last name.

00:29:03 ◼   ► Or his first name.

00:29:04 ◼   ► That sounds a bit.

00:29:07 ◼   ► You know how much cold medicine I've taken

00:29:08 ◼   ► to be here with y'all?

00:29:10 ◼   ► Not enough.

00:29:11 ◼   ► Too much?

00:29:12 ◼   ► Anyways, a big deal.

00:29:15 ◼   ► And Apple TV Plus just raking in the awards.

00:29:19 ◼   ► And this is a great movie.

00:29:20 ◼   ► Like if you haven't seen it,

00:29:21 ◼   ► you should watch it over the break.

00:29:23 ◼   ► - It's one of those movies you know is gonna make you cry

00:29:25 ◼   ► before you even watched it.

00:29:27 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, it's a tearjerker.

00:29:28 ◼   ► - It's just one of those.

00:29:29 ◼   ► That's an Oscar movie right there.

00:29:30 ◼   ► - Reader apps, okay, going back to App Store versus the law,

00:29:36 ◼   ► reader apps got the ability to post links to their sites

00:29:42 ◼   ► to sign up for accounts.

00:29:43 ◼   ► So the sort of the example I think everybody thinks of

00:29:46 ◼   ► is Netflix, right?

00:29:46 ◼   ► open the Netflix app and it's like sign in. It's like what how do I get an

00:29:50 ◼   ► account? What what does that mean? And so Apple announced some entitlements that

00:29:58 ◼   ► quote reader apps like Netflix, Kindle, etc could apply for and then they could

00:30:05 ◼   ► link out to their sites for account management and creation. So this is the

00:30:14 ◼   ► stupidest thing, the stupidest hill Apple could die on. I hate everything about

00:30:18 ◼   ► their decisions on this, but they finally gave in and you can have a link.

00:30:23 ◼   ► It's still not good enough. Not good enough at all. No, because only certain apps can do it and

00:30:27 ◼   ► it's only under certain circumstances and you still have to have this screen

00:30:30 ◼   ► come between you and the link, right, that Apple's got a bunch of language in.

00:30:33 ◼   ► Like it's a whole... Don't go over the web! It's scary out there! Use the App Store!

00:30:38 ◼   ► And what will probably be the only Twitter story we talk about... Nothing

00:30:42 ◼   ► else happened so nothing else happened the edit button is announced to become a

00:30:49 ◼   ► reality I think it actually launched in April but they talked about it they

00:30:53 ◼   ► started testing it and then they put it into blue later on yeah this yeah it was

00:30:58 ◼   ► weird it was like only to blue users I mean in some places it was they they you

00:31:03 ◼   ► know that's how they do things they really kind of slow roll or at least

00:31:07 ◼   ► used to now they too fast roll but they used to slow roll features who knows

00:31:12 ◼   ► 'cause anyways, you can edit tweets for a little while.

00:31:14 ◼   ► Also with Twitter, we got the beginnings

00:31:17 ◼   ► of the Elon Twitter saga.

00:31:22 ◼   ► So I don't, I think we have to spend a lot of time

00:31:25 ◼   ► recapping all of this, but he said he was gonna buy it,

00:31:28 ◼   ► and then he said he wasn't gonna buy it,

00:31:30 ◼   ► and then the court said he had to buy it, and here we are.

00:31:34 ◼   ► - Well, it began in, it began in--

00:31:37 ◼   ► - In April.

00:31:38 ◼   ► - In April? - In April.

00:31:39 ◼   ► - Yep. - Oh, gosh.

00:31:41 ◼   ► - I know.

00:31:42 ◼   ► And then lastly, Dyson known for things with fans in them,

00:31:46 ◼   ► announced a headphone air purifier combo

00:31:50 ◼   ► that made you look like you were in Tron.

00:31:52 ◼   ► And actually it's out now, just this week,

00:31:56 ◼   ► Victoria's song over the verge had a piece

00:31:58 ◼   ► about wearing it out into the streets of New York City.

00:32:01 ◼   ► It's hilarious.

00:32:02 ◼   ► Dyson just puts fans in things.

00:32:04 ◼   ► I don't know. - It looks so bad.

00:32:06 ◼   ► - It does look bad.

00:32:07 ◼   ► - I was convinced that this was an April Fool's joke.

00:32:10 ◼   ► Me too, like I was convinced. I still don't understand why it needs to exist as a product.

00:32:15 ◼   ► At this point, I think I still think it was an April Fours joke, but someone posted it early

00:32:20 ◼   ► and then they just decided to commit to making it. Like they posted it by accident and now they're

00:32:26 ◼   ► like "oh well, I'm gonna have to make this thing now" and so they did.

00:32:31 ◼   ► Also they called it the Dyson Zone, which is also kind of a scary name.

00:32:35 ◼   ► I mean you're inside the Dyson Zone.

00:32:37 ◼   ► Should have called it the Die Zone.

00:32:39 ◼   ► Whoa, it's right there, but it also sounds like die zone, so which is you're gonna die

00:32:45 ◼   ► Sound to die for if you were in an alley and someone came towards you wearing that you would think you were going to die

00:32:54 ◼   ► I will run my favorite part of Victoria's songs review is that she says I'm in New York

00:33:01 ◼   ► So literally no one paid attention to me. Yeah

00:33:05 ◼   ► So she was worried about going out into the street, but nothing happened because she's seen weirder things in New York than that

00:33:11 ◼   ► Which I just also there is yeah. All right, so

00:33:15 ◼   ► Let's see

00:33:19 ◼   ► Decent

00:33:21 ◼   ► Really brings it down and these yeah, no, but you see at the time

00:33:28 ◼   ► It was kind of like funny and like all what might happen

00:33:32 ◼   ► You know what I mean? Like it went real bad, but it was like, what could happen here?

00:33:39 ◼   ► Ah, it was immediately bad.

00:33:41 ◼   ► Yeah, but if it was immediately as bad as it ended up being, we wouldn't have waited until December to leave, right?

00:33:47 ◼   ► Like there was anticipation of what might happen here, which isn't a bad thing.

00:33:53 ◼   ► Let me put the chart again.

00:33:56 ◼   ► Open link, open Safari.

00:34:00 ◼   ► Maybe normal.

00:34:01 ◼   ► I don't think it's higher than normal.

00:34:03 ◼   ► It's not higher than normal.

00:34:05 ◼   ► Yeah, because even the good stuff that we got isn't necessarily that good.

00:34:10 ◼   ► Happy for Coda, but you know, like, normal.

00:34:14 ◼   ► I can go with normal.

00:34:15 ◼   ► No, I'm good with normal.

00:34:16 ◼   ► I think it kind of washes out this one.

00:34:19 ◼   ► Yeah, okay.

00:34:20 ◼   ► We go on to May.

00:34:22 ◼   ► In May, the iPod touch was put on a little boat and sent out into the sunset, never to

00:34:27 ◼   ► be heard from again.

00:34:28 ◼   ► - Oh.

00:34:29 ◼   ► - But as the URL says, the music lives on, which--

00:34:32 ◼   ► - The music lives on, baby!

00:34:34 ◼   ► - Well, you see, I know that they're trying to say

00:34:36 ◼   ► that it's like a touch and tribute,

00:34:37 ◼   ► but it's kinda just like,

00:34:39 ◼   ► we don't need the iPod touch anymore, you know?

00:34:41 ◼   ► Like, music is just gonna continue anyway.

00:34:43 ◼   ► What's the iPod touch gonna do, you know?

00:34:44 ◼   ► - Well, they didn't even announce,

00:34:46 ◼   ► so the iPod touch cancellation is in the subhead

00:34:49 ◼   ► and then the last paragraph.

00:34:51 ◼   ► The rest of it is like, damn, the iPod is pretty good, y'all!

00:34:54 ◼   ► Like, it's so silly.

00:34:56 ◼   ► It's like a victory lap where they accidentally killed something.

00:35:01 ◼   ► Can you still buy it?

00:35:02 ◼   ► No.

00:35:03 ◼   ► No? Because it said like, "While stocks last."

00:35:05 ◼   ► Did those stocks not last for very long?

00:35:06 ◼   ► The stock did last, I think.

00:35:08 ◼   ► Apple had record quarterly results that they posted in NetMay,

00:35:13 ◼   ► but this is where they started to talk about how it could get tougher

00:35:17 ◼   ► to satisfy demand for products later in the year with supply chain issues.

00:35:21 ◼   ► So Apple had done pretty well during all of this time, all of COVID, right?

00:35:25 ◼   ► posting bigger and bigger results than ever.

00:35:28 ◼   ► They didn't seem to be having any particular issues

00:35:30 ◼   ► with chip supply like a lot of their competitors were,

00:35:33 ◼   ► but this is where things started to become a problem

00:35:35 ◼   ► for Apple in the supply chain.

00:35:38 ◼   ► This was also where, leading up to this point,

00:35:41 ◼   ► Apple was kind of going backwards and forwards

00:35:44 ◼   ► on their return to the office stuff,

00:35:45 ◼   ► and we were getting a lot of reports,

00:35:48 ◼   ► and we were getting a lot of people

00:35:49 ◼   ► that were trying to organize against Apple,

00:35:53 ◼   ► and that was getting stamped down,

00:35:54 ◼   ► people were getting fired. It was like a whole big thing, a whole big kind of

00:35:58 ◼   ► cultural thing. And Apple were announcing their plans of like I think three days

00:36:03 ◼   ► you could work. No, maybe two days at home, three at the office I think it was.

00:36:08 ◼   ► Something like that. But they were mandating some days that people had to

00:36:11 ◼   ► be there. But basically like there was not going to be any complete flexibility

00:36:15 ◼   ► which people hoped that they would. So Apple were announcing these and then

00:36:19 ◼   ► they said they set their return to the office date and then had to change it

00:36:22 ◼   ► because of rising COVID cases, which was particularly interesting at the time

00:36:27 ◼   ► because the month previous they were like, "Hey, come to Apple Park, developers!"

00:36:31 ◼   ► and then in May were like, "No, staff should not be here!"

00:36:34 ◼   ► So, it was a bit of a tumultuous time.

00:36:37 ◼   ► It really was, and it's something I think they continue to struggle with even now.

00:36:42 ◼   ► Well, I think every company does, right?

00:36:43 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:36:44 ◼   ► Who's not?

00:36:46 ◼   ► If companies are having people return to the office, that is.

00:36:48 ◼   ► Apple also previewed a bunch of new accessibility features as part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

00:36:54 ◼   ► I think the one that caught the most headlines was door detection.

00:36:58 ◼   ► So being able to use scanning cameras and light on all that kind of stuff to work out if there is a door

00:37:06 ◼   ► and then what that door has for opening and how to open the door.

00:37:10 ◼   ► And a lot of really interesting stuff, more Apple Watch accessibility control.

00:37:14 ◼   ► These were all things that were pretty much coming from iOS 16 onwards, but by doing this every May,

00:37:21 ◼   ► Apple has the ability to get a lot of attention for its accessibility features. It's like similarly

00:37:27 ◼   ► how they announced some emoji award on emoji day even though they don't release them until later

00:37:31 ◼   ► on. It's like this is the day when people are talking about and focusing on that stuff, let's

00:37:35 ◼   ► show what we're doing and it gets attention for later on. You know and also one of the interesting

00:37:40 ◼   ► points about the door detection thing of like this would work really well with

00:37:45 ◼   ► some kind of AR device right and so I think that was the thing we were talking

00:37:48 ◼   ► about at the time and it also just shows like you know if it works which

00:37:52 ◼   ► apparently does work pretty well it kind of shows their ability there to do some

00:37:57 ◼   ► some object detection in the real world. Okay so the accessibility stuff is

00:38:02 ◼   ► awesome the rest isn't. No it's good to kill the Apple touch you know that thing

00:38:06 ◼   ► needed to go. Harsh. I'm being real though right like either it was

00:38:12 ◼   ► kind of either do something with it or get rid of it because it was a like not

00:38:16 ◼   ► It was holding iOS back for sure and in fact it did not get you could buy one in

00:38:20 ◼   ► March and it didn't get iOS 16 in the fall like it was stuck on 15 forever.

00:38:24 ◼   ► But I think decent I think we could go with decent. I mean decent. Decent I think is

00:38:28 ◼   ► decent. Yeah. Decent. Because there's some good stuff there's some bad stuff some of

00:38:33 ◼   ► the bad stuff like I mean I don't you know realistically Apple having risky

00:38:40 ◼   ► quarterly results is like not a thing that's going to affect my feeling on the

00:38:43 ◼   ► you know what I mean it's like they're gonna be okay

00:38:46 ◼   ► all right so thank you May you were decent moving on to June obviously

00:38:53 ◼   ► WWDC time now normally I would act much more excited about that with WWDC but I

00:39:01 ◼   ► But I think in respect of our co-host Myke, our fallen comrade, we're going to keep a

00:39:09 ◼   ► much more, what's a good word to describe it?

00:39:13 ◼   ► Sombre.

00:39:14 ◼   ► Sombre tone for this segment.

00:39:18 ◼   ► This is the month where when Myke got COVID in a series of terrible circumstances that

00:39:25 ◼   ► involved a series of unfortunate events.

00:39:30 ◼   ► unfortunate events that essentially ended up with Myke stuck in a hotel room in San Jose,

00:39:36 ◼   ► almost at WWDC, but not quite there yet. So, WWDC, the reason why we said that the

00:39:46 ◼   ► announcement was fake news is that Apple did end up having a bunch of people over at Apple Park.

00:39:52 ◼   ► I was invited but couldn't go. I didn't disclose at the time the reason why, and the reason was I

00:39:58 ◼   ► had just bought a house and we were moving. So that's why I thought, "Eh, not a great time for

00:40:03 ◼   ► me to travel this year." They invited a bunch of developers who won a lottery, I believe, to be

00:40:10 ◼   ► able to watch the keynote at Apple Park. They set up a bunch of chairs outside and in the cafeteria,

00:40:16 ◼   ► and they also did the tours of the developer center. They had a bunch of colleagues of ours

00:40:25 ◼   ► recording podcasts at the podcast studio, the developer center, including one through John,

00:40:30 ◼   ► to whom I connected remote over, what did we use, WebEx or something like that? So FaceTime?

00:40:38 ◼   ► And yeah, so there was that. But then of course there were the announcements. iOS and iPad S16,

00:40:47 ◼   ► Mac OS, watch was nine Mac OS Ventura and the brand new M2 MacBook Air. I believe there

00:40:55 ◼   ► was also an announcement of the like, there's still like a MacBook Pro with the touch bar.

00:41:01 ◼   ► That doesn't sound right. No way they still sell that machine.

00:41:03 ◼   ► They do. They do. Right. They're still, you can buy one.

00:41:06 ◼   ► Yeah, they can buy one. But I don't know if it was here. I don't know.

00:41:10 ◼   ► I think it was. I think it was here. And I remember thinking like, wait, what am I watching?

00:41:14 ◼   ► Like this doesn't make any sense.

00:41:16 ◼   ► And after that on the story, yeah.

00:41:19 ◼   ► Anyway, iOS 16, the big news, which we all knew at the time, like how shortly they're

00:41:24 ◼   ► doing this because of the always on display in the iPhone 14, lock screen widgets.

00:41:30 ◼   ► That was the feature of iOS 16, the customization of the lock screen.

00:41:36 ◼   ► What else is new in iOS 16?

00:41:38 ◼   ► I think it's a useful exercise months after the fact to think about like what else was

00:41:44 ◼   ► new in this. Focus mode stuff, lots of focus improvements. The new focus mode settings,

00:41:50 ◼   ► I'm taking a look at my review again. Notifications, they did some changes to the way notifications

00:41:55 ◼   ► look and work. They did the new display, the display of notifications at the bottom, the

00:42:00 ◼   ► lock screen widgets, the live activities on the lock screen, we couldn't know at the time

00:42:06 ◼   ► that they were going to be the dynamic island. There were some changes to apps, like the

00:42:12 ◼   ► the new features in notes and reminders for lists

00:42:14 ◼   ► and the drag and drop a subject out of a photo thing.

00:42:18 ◼   ► - Mail.

00:42:20 ◼   ► - Big updates to mail.

00:42:21 ◼   ► Yeah, all these things were in iOS 16 overall,

00:42:24 ◼   ► a good update as we'll see later with a bit of a roadmap.

00:42:27 ◼   ► - Oh, and all the messages stuff.

00:42:29 ◼   ► - Oh yeah.

00:42:30 ◼   ► - Editing, retracting.

00:42:31 ◼   ► - Editing and deleting a message.

00:42:31 ◼   ► - I saw iOS 16, really good.

00:42:33 ◼   ► - Really good update on the phone.

00:42:34 ◼   ► - Really good update.

00:42:35 ◼   ► - We saw the announcement of course also of stage manager

00:42:38 ◼   ► on iPadOS 16. And I remember being very happy during the keynote, just seeing the multiple

00:42:45 ◼   ► windows. I almost couldn't believe it that they were going to do windowing on iPad. And

00:42:49 ◼   ► you know, during the announcement, that was fun. Like it was a wild 20 minutes. I was

00:42:54 ◼   ► just very happy tweeting back when I was a tweeter myself. And yeah, that was cool seeing

00:43:02 ◼   ► the windowing and all of that.

00:43:04 ◼   ► WatchOS 9, relatively small update, changes to the workout app, the brand new medications

00:43:11 ◼   ► app, some new watch faces I want to say as always, like a couple of new watch faces from

00:43:17 ◼   ► Apple.

00:43:18 ◼   ► Overall, not a huge update at all.

00:43:23 ◼   ► Ventura, stage manager for Mac OS, which is similar but also kind of different from how

00:43:29 ◼   ► it works on iPadOS.

00:43:31 ◼   ► else is in Ventura? Mail, of course, all the changes, like all the changes to the apps

00:43:36 ◼   ► that we mentioned, they are shared between Mac OS and iPad OS, but also the much criticized,

00:43:43 ◼   ► as we'll see later in the summer, system settings app in Mac OS, Ventura. And yeah, that was

00:43:50 ◼   ► a thing that...

00:43:51 ◼   ► So bad.

00:43:52 ◼   ► Yeah. And the MacBook Air. I mean, I think we are all in agreement that this is an awesome

00:43:58 ◼   ► computer and we love this computer and I wish I had a use case for this computer because

00:44:03 ◼   ► I totally would get one.

00:44:04 ◼   ► That's my favorite Mac ever.

00:44:06 ◼   ► I love mine.

00:44:07 ◼   ► Later in June, like obviously the aftermath of WWDC is always like a couple of weeks all

00:44:14 ◼   ► about sessions and the technical stuff that was announced, Beta 1 and Beta 2, there's

00:44:20 ◼   ► all of that.

00:44:22 ◼   ► But one particular item that I want to mention here is the first of many controversies surrounding

00:44:30 ◼   ► Stage Manager, specifically about the devices that Stage Manager in its original version

00:44:36 ◼   ► was running on.

00:44:38 ◼   ► If you recall, Stage Manager was announced just for the M1 iPads.

00:44:43 ◼   ► And I'm not talking about external display support, which was demoed at the time, but

00:44:48 ◼   ► But I'm talking about the whole feature, like the entire stage manager was supposed to be

00:44:53 ◼   ► exclusive to the M1 and M2 and that's it.

00:44:56 ◼   ► And that drove a lot of people upset, rightfully so I would say.

00:45:02 ◼   ► Steven and I, or was it Myke and I?

00:45:04 ◼   ► No, I think it was Steven and I.

00:45:05 ◼   ► No, it was you two.

00:45:06 ◼   ► I think I was traveling home.

00:45:08 ◼   ► Steven and I, we talked about it in an episode of Connected at length for like 40 minutes

00:45:12 ◼   ► or something about why it was wrong to limit this feature to modern iPads.

00:45:17 ◼   ► later we would get our answer, but not at the time. And lastly for June, Apple landed this deal,

00:45:27 ◼   ► they actually went into a bit more detail yesterday, but they announced it in June.

00:45:32 ◼   ► They landed a deal with the Major League Soccer organization, with MLS, for 10 years. It's a 10

00:45:40 ◼   ► year exclusive deal beginning in 2023, where you will be able to watch soccer games in

00:45:47 ◼   ► the US on Apple TV+.

00:45:51 ◼   ► It's worldwide.

00:45:52 ◼   ► It's US soccer, watch the worldwide.

00:45:54 ◼   ► It's US soccer, but watch it worldwide, if you're into that sort of thing.

00:45:57 ◼   ► Now, unlike the Friday night, I keep calling it Friday night lights, but that's a TV show.

00:46:03 ◼   ► What's it called?

00:46:04 ◼   ► The Friday night baseball.

00:46:05 ◼   ► Baseball.

00:46:06 ◼   ► Friday night.

00:46:07 ◼   ► Friday night baseball.

00:46:08 ◼   ► This is the name of the sport.

00:46:09 ◼   ► I like the Friday night lights thing. This one, the MLS season pass. So this will be

00:46:18 ◼   ► different. They announced the schedule and the pricing yesterday. It will be available

00:46:23 ◼   ► starting February 1 for $14.99 a month or $99 per season. I don't know. How long is

00:46:32 ◼   ► the season? Is it like football in Italy? Like six months or something? Eight maybe

00:46:37 ◼   ► or $99 per season. But Apple TV+ subscribers will be able to get it at $12.99 or $79 per

00:46:46 ◼   ► season, which is a pretty good deal, I think. If you're into that, you can seek $20 per

00:46:50 ◼   ► season if you also subscribe to Apple TV+. I'm going to say, I think that this is a thing

00:46:55 ◼   ► that seems like we're like, oh, this is like a good idea. This is a good way for them to

00:46:59 ◼   ► stretch their wings. Apple has a lot that they're doing with this. They're controlling

00:47:03 ◼   ► a lot that they have really partnered with Major League Soccer to do this. It's like

00:47:07 ◼   ► the baseball thing, Apple's just showing some games, but Apple is like helping dictate the

00:47:13 ◼   ► schedule of the season with Major League Soccer. Like they've worked together on like tons

00:47:18 ◼   ► of stuff about the way they are playing the game is changing for this. Like it's all good

00:47:23 ◼   ► stuff like it makes a lot of sense and to have this partnership. I reckon we will look

00:47:28 ◼   ► back on this and so this is a great thing because soccer is growing in America. The

00:47:33 ◼   ► interest in the sport is growing and Apple have this as exclusive for 10 years which

00:47:39 ◼   ► is wild and Major League Soccer is going to do great out of it. This is great promotion

00:47:43 ◼   ► for them. It puts them on a worldwide stage. Apple is going to show a bunch of games for

00:47:47 ◼   ► free right as well so people can come and watch them. It's very cool and I think it's

00:47:53 ◼   ► super smart. One of my very favorite things if you are already a season ticket holder

00:47:57 ◼   ► for a major league soccer team, you get this for free as part of your season ticket. I

00:48:02 ◼   ► just think that that is like a real respect of the fans. I think that they've come together

00:48:07 ◼   ► to do something really cool here.

00:48:09 ◼   ► Yeah, I would love to see more sports leagues adopt this sort of deal. Like you can do like

00:48:16 ◼   ► NBA league pass, but it's really, really expensive and you still have blackout issues and you

00:48:21 ◼   ► still have, you know, if you're a ticket holder, it doesn't really matter. I would love to,

00:48:26 ◼   ► I mean, I think soccer is doing it because it's growing in popularity, like you said,

00:48:32 ◼   ► but I think there's lessons here that I'd like to see the NBA and NFL and others adopt.

00:48:36 ◼   ► I hope so.

00:48:38 ◼   ► So where do we rank June?

00:48:40 ◼   ► Nightmare.

00:48:41 ◼   ► You guys can rank whatever you want.

00:48:43 ◼   ► I will say nothing more than nightmare.

00:48:45 ◼   ► You got to understand it's one of the worst times of my entire life.

00:48:48 ◼   ► This was the WWC.

00:48:51 ◼   ► We can do a double rating system here.

00:48:54 ◼   ► So we're going to do.

00:48:56 ◼   ► did for March. We're gonna do Myke Nightmare. And then the two of you can decide on the

00:49:02 ◼   ► real grade, but I can't accept it. I don't know, it feels like a good plus at the very

00:49:06 ◼   ► least. I think it is good plus. That is a real spread. What is after good plus? Best

00:49:14 ◼   ► I love you. And it was not that, come on. No, it can't be that, because we were sad

00:49:18 ◼   ► for you. And we also as a team missed out on some stuff because of it, so. And if we

00:49:23 ◼   ► to pick a single one in between Nightmare and Good Plus it would be somewhere... it would be decent

00:49:29 ◼   ► but we'll go with this. I think that you could say it was Good Plus like you can we can officially

00:49:33 ◼   ► rank it as Good Plus. But we'll have the mic rating I think it's important. Yeah that can just always be like a

00:49:39 ◼   ► footnote somewhere that this was for me a nightmare and I can't accept anything. I believe you said it

00:49:45 ◼   ► was literally the worst time of my life so that counts for something. It was genuinely one of the

00:49:50 ◼   ► worst weeks of my entire life. It sucked so bad. It sucked so bad. Like I cannot describe how bad.

00:49:59 ◼   ► Yeah, don't remember that. Don't think about it anymore. It's in the past. It's over.

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00:51:57 ◼   ► We have some real time follow-up that pains me, but I have to do it because we

00:52:03 ◼   ► have integrity. Kate went back and found a clip from the Ricky's January 2022

00:52:10 ◼   ► episode 379. Wow. I suggested the name Annie's. Yep, and then you tried to tell

00:52:16 ◼   ► me that it shouldn't exist and I just don't understand this. You're not proud of your own work?

00:52:18 ◼   ► I believe that's gaslighting, right? You tried to gaslight, Myke. Which is

00:52:24 ◼   ► unfortunate, really. We were now in July and Apple's done. They're not gonna take

00:52:29 ◼   ► it anymore. They are committing to protect users from quote, highly targeted mercenary

00:52:37 ◼   ► spyware.

00:52:39 ◼   ► So when you put mercenary in a document, right? Apple versus mercenary spyware. There's no

00:52:44 ◼   ► way they said mercenary. There's no, and they did. Oh wow.

00:52:48 ◼   ► It's right there in the headline. So I'm just going to read the subhead. Apple is previewing

00:52:52 ◼   ► a groundbreaking security capability that offers specialized additional protection to

00:52:57 ◼   ► to users who may be at risk of highly targeted cyber attacks

00:53:01 ◼   ► from private companies developing

00:53:02 ◼   ► state-sponsored mercenary spyware.

00:53:07 ◼   ► - The word mercenary is used 28 times in this press release.

00:53:11 ◼   ► - Oh! (laughs)

00:53:12 ◼   ► - There's a lot of mercenaries.

00:53:14 ◼   ► They've gotten into it.

00:53:15 ◼   ► - I don't think I have a state-sponsored

00:53:17 ◼   ► mercenary spyware coming after me,

00:53:19 ◼   ► but if I did, Apple's got my back.

00:53:22 ◼   ► - Well, provided you wanna lock down your entire phone.

00:53:24 ◼   ► - Yes, lockdown mode,

00:53:26 ◼   ► - Which came with iOS 16, right?

00:53:29 ◼   ► - Well, it came recently, 16 point whatever.

00:53:31 ◼   ► Like, so they announced it here,

00:53:33 ◼   ► but it came with the advanced data protection thing.

00:53:37 ◼   ► They all came at the same time, mercenaries.

00:53:39 ◼   ► So this is what it--

00:53:40 ◼   ► - I feel like if you have a state sponsored

00:53:43 ◼   ► mercenary spyware coming after you,

00:53:45 ◼   ► like some things have happened in your life.

00:53:47 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, well, I mean, this was in response

00:53:49 ◼   ► to the Pegasus?

00:53:50 ◼   ► - Yes, yeah, yeah.

00:53:51 ◼   ► - So basically all of these things,

00:53:53 ◼   ► they find their way into your device

00:53:55 ◼   ► by using some kind of like access to an outside door.

00:53:58 ◼   ► So like for example, sending a message to someone

00:54:01 ◼   ► with a link could do it because link previews could load

00:54:04 ◼   ► and that could somehow inject some code into your phone.

00:54:06 ◼   ► It's all pretty scary stuff.

00:54:07 ◼   ► So effectively what lockdown mode does

00:54:10 ◼   ► is it stops the ability for things to automatically load

00:54:14 ◼   ► in a bunch of places, which is really interesting.

00:54:17 ◼   ► Even things like FaceTime calls are blocked.

00:54:21 ◼   ► So this is, they're never gonna be able to stop this

00:54:24 ◼   ► completely, but this will get rid of a lot of the ways that it's done now and

00:54:29 ◼   ► you've got to expect that in the future other features will be added to

00:54:32 ◼   ► lockdown mode as Apple finds out about new backdoors that people are trying to

00:54:36 ◼   ► use. Apple also landed a record-breaking 52 Emmy Award nominations in July. 20 of

00:54:44 ◼   ► those were Ted Lasso with 14 going to Severance, both excellent shows on Apple

00:54:51 ◼   ► TV Plus, of course, and then sort of the other,

00:54:54 ◼   ► were spread across 13 different titles.

00:54:57 ◼   ► I mean, Apple's doing a really good job with their content.

00:55:01 ◼   ► I think way better than we feared,

00:55:04 ◼   ► especially after the planet of the apps

00:55:06 ◼   ► and sort of those early outings.

00:55:09 ◼   ► They hired good people and they pay for good things

00:55:11 ◼   ► and they are definitely reaping the rewards of it.

00:55:15 ◼   ► - They won nine of those Emmys.

00:55:17 ◼   ► I don't know if that's coming up later on, but.

00:55:19 ◼   ► - I don't know.

00:55:20 ◼   ► They won, it's not, so I tell you now,

00:55:21 ◼   ► they won nine of them and it was mostly Ted Lesser.

00:55:24 ◼   ► - July is when the M2 MacBook Air landed

00:55:27 ◼   ► and we have a bunch of reviews in the show notes

00:55:29 ◼   ► you can go check out.

00:55:30 ◼   ► Excellent laptop, like we said a second ago.

00:55:32 ◼   ► I absolutely adore mine.

00:55:34 ◼   ► We also got rumors of the Extreme Sports Apple Watch.

00:55:39 ◼   ► This kicked off lots of discussion

00:55:41 ◼   ► about what it would look like, would it be rubberized

00:55:44 ◼   ► in a way, what we ended up with is the Apple Watch Ultra,

00:55:47 ◼   ► which is fantastic.

00:55:48 ◼   ► But way back in July, started to,

00:55:51 ◼   ► this really started to pick up steam.

00:55:53 ◼   ► There had been stories of this, I think even back in '21,

00:55:57 ◼   ► but it really started to pick up

00:55:59 ◼   ► with this Bloomberg report over the summer.

00:56:01 ◼   ► - Kind of a quiet month.

00:56:03 ◼   ► - But it's all good stuff though, right?

00:56:05 ◼   ► Like for me, it's the MacBook Air, right?

00:56:07 ◼   ► So we didn't spend, but like, that computer was so good.

00:56:10 ◼   ► And this is when it became available.

00:56:12 ◼   ► Like I would lean good plus for this.

00:56:16 ◼   ► - I could do that.

00:56:17 ◼   ► - I can do that, I can do that.

00:56:18 ◼   ► I think it's fine. It's a really good computer.

00:56:20 ◼   ► So far, like, I feel like 2022 has been better.

00:56:24 ◼   ► Yeah, I think it's been a better year overall.

00:56:26 ◼   ► -Except for June. -Yeah, of course.

00:56:30 ◼   ► In August, friend of the show, Shazam.

00:56:33 ◼   ► Shazam.

00:56:35 ◼   ► Shazam.

00:56:36 ◼   ► Turn 20.

00:56:37 ◼   ► Nice.

00:56:38 ◼   ► Oh, that's when you told us that it used to be like a UK service

00:56:42 ◼   ► where you could like a text message thing, yeah.

00:56:44 ◼   ► And then the next week Apple wrote this article referencing the fact that it used to be a text

00:56:49 ◼   ► message thing. This just happened to be I was at a family gathering over the weekend and I used my

00:56:55 ◼   ► iPhone to say like what song is this? My brother was like you should use Shazam for that and I'm

00:57:00 ◼   ► like my friend look the logo right there Apple bought it. He was very surprised by that.

00:57:05 ◼   ► That's the thing people in the UK just know what Shazam is. We just we all just know because we

00:57:10 ◼   ► we were texting it all the time.

00:57:11 ◼   ► I have it in Control Center now.

00:57:13 ◼   ► You know, swipe down, hit the button.

00:57:15 ◼   ► No, no, see, I actually use Siri.

00:57:17 ◼   ► I use Siri for this a lot, because it's good, because it's fast.

00:57:20 ◼   ► Hey, what song is this, I say, and it listens.

00:57:23 ◼   ► The Mac was added to the self-service repair program in August.

00:57:26 ◼   ► Yes, just a series of notebooks, but good.

00:57:30 ◼   ► Good stuff.

00:57:30 ◼   ► The iOS battery percentage indicator was introduced,

00:57:33 ◼   ► and everybody had design opinions.

00:57:35 ◼   ► [LAUGHTER]

00:57:37 ◼   ► Oh, that was that was a couple of weeks on Twitter.

00:57:40 ◼   ► I remember this.

00:57:41 ◼   ► Yep.

00:57:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:57:43 ◼   ► And they bullied Apple into making the wrong choice.

00:57:46 ◼   ► Eh, well, they made a choice.

00:57:50 ◼   ► Uh, not sure.

00:57:52 ◼   ► I don't even know what is right or wrong anymore.

00:57:56 ◼   ► So.

00:57:56 ◼   ► And Amazon bought Roomba for $1.7 billion.

00:58:01 ◼   ► I had forgotten about this entirely.

00:58:03 ◼   ► Yeah, me too.

00:58:05 ◼   ► until yesterday when I was setting up the Echo Studio.

00:58:08 ◼   ► More details about this in Connected Pro.

00:58:11 ◼   ► Where can people get connected?

00:58:12 ◼   ► - Get connected pro.co, get connected pro.co.

00:58:15 ◼   ► - The Amazon app tells you,

00:58:18 ◼   ► "Hey, I see there's a Roomba in this house.

00:58:21 ◼   ► Set it up here."

00:58:22 ◼   ► It's like, yeah, I get it.

00:58:23 ◼   ► I get it.

00:58:24 ◼   ► It's owned by you now.

00:58:25 ◼   ► Okay.

00:58:26 ◼   ► - Boys, I have some news for you when it comes to Roombas.

00:58:30 ◼   ► - Oh.

00:58:30 ◼   ► - Just bought a new Roomba.

00:58:32 ◼   ► - Which one did you get?

00:58:33 ◼   ► Did you know that they make a one machine that both vacuums and mops?

00:58:40 ◼   ► And mops, yeah.

00:58:42 ◼   ► It has like a mop on its head, right?

00:58:44 ◼   ► And like an arm comes down or something?

00:58:46 ◼   ► So we just bought that one.

00:58:47 ◼   ► So I'm going to set it up probably tomorrow.

00:58:49 ◼   ► This is a really weird thing for me where a couple of months ago,

00:58:52 ◼   ► I was talking to someone and for some reason

00:58:54 ◼   ► was convinced that they made this product and couldn't find it.

00:58:58 ◼   ► And I felt like I was losing my mind or it came to me in a dream.

00:59:01 ◼   ► So I don't like I must have seen it announced somewhere, but they weren't selling it.

00:59:05 ◼   ► And then I went on to the website a couple of days ago and there it was like a dream.

00:59:09 ◼   ► We're going to call this one Rambo.

00:59:11 ◼   ► Nice.

00:59:12 ◼   ► Makes sense.

00:59:13 ◼   ► Because we had Robbie.

00:59:15 ◼   ► Robbie is our original Roomba and we just had the regular one.

00:59:18 ◼   ► Like it didn't have the like collection part, you know?

00:59:22 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:59:22 ◼   ► Uh, but this new Roomba, because it has a mop, I wanted to put an M somewhere in the name

00:59:28 ◼   ► and Adina suggested Rambo.

00:59:29 ◼   ► So we're gonna get Rambo set up.

00:59:31 ◼   ► The J7 plus yeah J7 plus yeah, it looks cool. It's really quite clever. It's really quite clever

00:59:37 ◼   ► It is very clever. So I've we sent one of those up for the new place. It's so

00:59:41 ◼   ► well

00:59:44 ◼   ► Normal normal

00:59:46 ◼   ► Normal no, okay. Yeah normal. Yeah some good stuff, you know some hot takes a robot or two

00:59:53 ◼   ► Moving on to September, of course, I get all the busy months in this episode. It seems good

00:59:59 ◼   ► Obviously there's the iPhone event and this one what was this one called?

01:00:03 ◼   ► There was a sneak design. No look into the saw. No. Yeah was the space one like

01:00:10 ◼   ► Space is out there. Welcome to the island. What's it called? Like quantum whatever. No, what was it called?

01:00:17 ◼   ► Come on quantum computing. Oh, well, that's a Apple September

01:00:21 ◼   ► 2023 - this is what we're all just trying to Google to find this thing

01:00:26 ◼   ► you know what I mean? Looking to the stars was really good, Myke. I really liked that one.

01:00:30 ◼   ► Far out. Far out. Far out. See, that was close enough. Thank you. I knew where I was going,

01:00:35 ◼   ► you know? I just didn't get there. This event, iPhone 14 and 14 plus, so the base model. Yes. We

01:00:43 ◼   ► kissed the iPhone mini lineup goodbye for now, forever. We'll see. When that sentence started,

01:00:50 ◼   ► did not know where it was. Yeah, and that's where it ended. We got a bigger regular model iPhone,

01:00:58 ◼   ► and of course the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, and these are the big updates that we were looking for.

01:01:03 ◼   ► The always-on display of course is here, a better, much better 48 megapixel camera,

01:01:09 ◼   ► support for two features that I didn't think we could imagine, crash detection, which as we saw

01:01:16 ◼   ► later in the year. Apple needed to fine-tune a little bit more because it

01:01:21 ◼   ► was accidentally triggered by people on roller coasters or people skiing, I

01:01:26 ◼   ► believe, and also the satellite SOS feature which was very cool, just launched

01:01:30 ◼   ► in the US. I believe it's launching soon in some parts of Europe including the UK.

01:01:35 ◼   ► I have it now. You have it. And of course the feature of the 14 Pro and

01:01:42 ◼   ► Pro Max, the dynamic island.

01:01:44 ◼   ► It was a great moment when they revealed

01:01:47 ◼   ► the name of the feature in the keynote because unconnected.

01:01:52 ◼   ► Steven had previously joked that--

01:01:55 ◼   ► you remember we were talking about, like, oh,

01:01:57 ◼   ► is Apple going to own the design of the pill-shaped cutout

01:02:02 ◼   ► in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max?

01:02:04 ◼   ► And Steven said, oh, it's going to look

01:02:06 ◼   ► like an island of black pixels, whatever.

01:02:11 ◼   ► And it turns out that the feature is much more

01:02:13 ◼   ► than we could imagine.

01:02:14 ◼   ► It's a dynamic element that expands and shrinks

01:02:19 ◼   ► and shows you interactive controls and live activities.

01:02:22 ◼   ► It's called the dynamic island.

01:02:24 ◼   ► And so we felt very happy for like 10 minutes there.

01:02:27 ◼   ► So these were the iPhones.

01:02:28 ◼   ► Anything else worth noting about the 14 lineup?

01:02:32 ◼   ► - I mean, the 14 and 14 Plus use an old CPU.

01:02:36 ◼   ► And it's the first time we've seen that happen on an iPhone.

01:02:39 ◼   ► We got the second generation AirPods Pro, finally.

01:02:43 ◼   ► - Yes, very good product.

01:02:45 ◼   ► - Very good product, much improved noise cancellation

01:02:48 ◼   ► and sound, battery life, same design.

01:02:52 ◼   ► The case now supports Find My.

01:02:55 ◼   ► I love the AirPods Pro too.

01:02:56 ◼   ► I think they are like, they are not like,

01:02:59 ◼   ► they don't have an exciting design, but it doesn't matter.

01:03:03 ◼   ► They're supposed to be portable, the battery should last

01:03:05 ◼   ► and they gotta sound good and they check all those boxes.

01:03:09 ◼   ► The noise cancellation is unbelievably good.

01:03:14 ◼   ► - And the transparency mode, like it keeps getting better.

01:03:17 ◼   ► Like I really like, they are,

01:03:19 ◼   ► gotta be my favorite Apple accessory, I think at this point.

01:03:22 ◼   ► The Apple Watch SE2 was announced

01:03:26 ◼   ► along with the Apple Watch Series 8.

01:03:28 ◼   ► The Series 8 kind of a boring minor update

01:03:31 ◼   ► with a temperature, with a wrist temperature sensor

01:03:35 ◼   ► that however cannot use, cannot be used to, you know,

01:03:39 ◼   ► to check if you have a fever or something.

01:03:41 ◼   ► It's been primarily advertised as a women's health feature

01:03:44 ◼   ► for cycle tracking and this ovulation estimates

01:03:48 ◼   ► that the health app can provide you with,

01:03:50 ◼   ► and those are based on taking your risk temperature

01:03:52 ◼   ► each night and establishing this baseline temperature

01:03:55 ◼   ► going forward.

01:03:56 ◼   ► Very cool feature, but maybe not as expensive

01:04:00 ◼   ► as a lot of users were expecting.

01:04:02 ◼   ► Like, oh, I'm gonna check if I have a fever

01:04:04 ◼   ► using my Apple Watch, and no, it doesn't work like that.

01:04:07 ◼   ► But the announcement, of course, in Apple Watch World

01:04:11 ◼   ► was the Apple Watch Ultra, the brand new,

01:04:15 ◼   ► it turns out that that rugged, extreme watch

01:04:17 ◼   ► was actually the Apple Watch Ultra,

01:04:19 ◼   ► a bigger, thicker, chunkier, more serious,

01:04:22 ◼   ► more expensive Apple Watch for people

01:04:25 ◼   ► who are really into almost dying, basically.

01:04:29 ◼   ► Like people who practice extreme sports or adventures,

01:04:33 ◼   ► people who cross deserts and climb mountains,

01:04:37 ◼   ► really dangerous things that they love doing.

01:04:39 ◼   ► And now they can do those while wearing an Apple Watch Ultra

01:04:42 ◼   ► that has more sensors, a bigger display, it's brighter.

01:04:46 ◼   ► It's got a bunch of things.

01:04:48 ◼   ► You've got a new design, it's got the action button.

01:04:50 ◼   ► It's a pretty lovely Apple Watch for a very specific market.

01:04:54 ◼   ► And I think the people who got one,

01:04:56 ◼   ► there is the conversation as to whether

01:04:58 ◼   ► does this replace like a dedicated device,

01:05:00 ◼   ► like a Garmin or like, what's the name of the other company?

01:05:03 ◼   ► like a Sonto watch if you're into scuba diving,

01:05:08 ◼   ► those dedicated devices maybe still have more features

01:05:12 ◼   ► for that kind of niche market.

01:05:14 ◼   ► The Apple Watch Ultra kinda tries to do it all

01:05:17 ◼   ► with Apple's more elegant, more powerful software.

01:05:21 ◼   ► And it's a new product.

01:05:23 ◼   ► I think it's very exciting,

01:05:24 ◼   ► but we'll need to see over time if this category grows,

01:05:29 ◼   ► if this becomes an annual thing.

01:05:31 ◼   ► We don't have the answers to that right now.

01:05:33 ◼   ► Then, of course, there's a software story.

01:05:37 ◼   ► We got iOS 16, which we talked about

01:05:39 ◼   ► in the month of June, and watchOS 9.

01:05:42 ◼   ► I did my usual annual review,

01:05:44 ◼   ► and I just did it for iOS 16 this time around,

01:05:47 ◼   ► because iPadOS 16 got delayed.

01:05:50 ◼   ► This, we heard, I think toward the beginning of September,

01:05:56 ◼   ► we heard the rumor toward the end of August,

01:05:59 ◼   ► and then it was officialised, I want to say, in...

01:06:02 ◼   ► No, it was officialised in the end of August,

01:06:04 ◼   ► but yeah, we didn't get it in September

01:06:06 ◼   ► because it got delayed.

01:06:09 ◼   ► It would eventually launch in October as iPadOS 16.1,

01:06:14 ◼   ► with Stage Manager and Apple was facing multiple issues.

01:06:19 ◼   ► They had to delay it.

01:06:20 ◼   ► In the meantime, they had announced

01:06:22 ◼   ► that they were gonna bring it to more devices,

01:06:25 ◼   ► to older iPads, but the external display part

01:06:28 ◼   ► was going to stay exclusive to the M1 and M2.

01:06:31 ◼   ► However, that external display integration

01:06:33 ◼   ► was not going to be back ported to the older iPads.

01:06:37 ◼   ► So, older iPads would get the single screen stage manager,

01:06:41 ◼   ► everything else will get stage manager

01:06:44 ◼   ► and the external display support,

01:06:45 ◼   ► but staggered in two releases, 16.1 and 16.2,

01:06:50 ◼   ► which we just got, I think it was last week or two weeks ago.

01:06:54 ◼   ► Lastly, in terms of Apple news, we got the first reports

01:06:59 ◼   ► that Apple was considering moving more of its production

01:07:02 ◼   ► out of China.

01:07:04 ◼   ► You know, by, I believe, the report

01:07:06 ◼   ► were saying they were considering India.

01:07:09 ◼   ► Was it also someplace else?

01:07:12 ◼   ► I mean--

01:07:13 ◼   ► Vietnam?

01:07:14 ◼   ► Yes, by 2025, they wanted to diversify the product line.

01:07:17 ◼   ► However, there's also the conversation there.

01:07:19 ◼   ► Like, if you're still using Foxconn,

01:07:21 ◼   ► but in other countries, are you really

01:07:23 ◼   ► diversifying your production line.

01:07:25 ◼   ► This is something that I know Myke and Jason

01:07:27 ◼   ► talked about an upgrade a couple of weeks ago.

01:07:30 ◼   ► So that's a conversation that's still ongoing.

01:07:32 ◼   ► And lastly- - Yeah, it only got worse.

01:07:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, it got worse later.

01:07:36 ◼   ► And lastly, of course,

01:07:38 ◼   ► Relay FM for St. Jude hit another incredible record.

01:07:43 ◼   ► Guys, tell me how much money did you raise

01:07:46 ◼   ► for the kids of St. Jude?

01:07:47 ◼   ► - $706,000.

01:07:50 ◼   ► - Wild, just wild.

01:07:52 ◼   ► - It's incredible.

01:07:53 ◼   ► - Well done both of you.

01:07:54 ◼   ► So that's September.

01:07:57 ◼   ► - I'm gonna go on a limb.

01:07:59 ◼   ► Best I love you.

01:08:00 ◼   ► - So here's what I'll say on that.

01:08:01 ◼   ► I think this is probably the best month of the year.

01:08:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

01:08:06 ◼   ► I mean, I remember being very happy

01:08:08 ◼   ► with how my iOS 16 review went,

01:08:11 ◼   ► how people responded to it.

01:08:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, you did a great job.

01:08:13 ◼   ► - Thank you.

01:08:14 ◼   ► - So good, best one.

01:08:15 ◼   ► Best one ever.

01:08:16 ◼   ► - I was very happy, thank you.

01:08:17 ◼   ► I was very happy that iPad OS 16 got delayed.

01:08:20 ◼   ► It's unfortunate that I couldn't review iPadOS 16

01:08:22 ◼   ► the way I want it this year.

01:08:24 ◼   ► There will never be iPadOS 16, the max stories review.

01:08:28 ◼   ► Maybe not say never.

01:08:29 ◼   ► We'll see in 2020 what I can do.

01:08:31 ◼   ► Yes, this is the best I love you month.

01:08:32 ◼   ► It's gonna be the best month of the year.

01:08:35 ◼   ► I can go for that.

01:08:36 ◼   ► And St. Jude, of course.

01:08:38 ◼   ► There's also that.

01:08:38 ◼   ► So it makes it the best month.

01:08:40 ◼   ► - Great products, great community month,

01:08:43 ◼   ► just awesome all the way around.

01:08:45 ◼   ► - This episode is brought to you by Fitbud.

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01:10:54 ◼   ► Thanks to Fitbod for the support of this show and Relay FM.

01:10:58 ◼   ► In October the iPhone 14 Plus shipped and came a little bit later than the other phones.

01:11:04 ◼   ► I am very curious to know how well this phone is selling.

01:11:09 ◼   ► I feel like I haven't heard anything about it

01:11:12 ◼   ► now that it's out in the world.

01:11:14 ◼   ► I just don't know.

01:11:14 ◼   ► I think we all believed it would do really well

01:11:17 ◼   ► because it was cheaper with a bigger screen,

01:11:20 ◼   ► compared to the Pro and Pro Max, but I just don't know.

01:11:24 ◼   ► I'm curious to see how this strategy plays out for Apple.

01:11:28 ◼   ► I don't think I've seen one in the wild,

01:11:30 ◼   ► which is interesting.

01:11:32 ◼   ► All estimates suggest that it's not doing very well, which is really interesting, right?

01:11:42 ◼   ► I wonder if the old CPU turned people off.

01:11:44 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:11:45 ◼   ► I just don't know.

01:11:47 ◼   ► Maybe we'll see what happens if they do a bit more to it.

01:11:50 ◼   ► Maybe they go for some design updates and stuff.

01:11:52 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:11:53 ◼   ► We also got a series of updated products in October.

01:11:59 ◼   ► We got the 10th generation iPad, which brings it in line with the current design language

01:12:04 ◼   ► with the flat sides.

01:12:06 ◼   ► We talked a lot about this iPad when it came out.

01:12:09 ◼   ► It's more expensive than the old ones.

01:12:10 ◼   ► The old one is still on sale.

01:12:12 ◼   ► It has the new design, but Apple Pencil 1 support because they moved the camera to the

01:12:18 ◼   ► long edge with the Pencil 2 charges.

01:12:20 ◼   ► And apparently those two things cannot be rectified in time for this iPad to come out.

01:12:25 ◼   ► I think it's a good iPad.

01:12:26 ◼   ► I just, there's lots of questions about it.

01:12:29 ◼   ► And I think we all kind of feel that the lineup is kind of hectic between this and like the

01:12:36 ◼   ► iPad Air and to make matters I think even more confusing.

01:12:39 ◼   ► The iPad Pro was updated with the M2 chip that's in the MacBook Air and the touch bar

01:12:44 ◼   ► machine, but no real design changes or other feature changes.

01:12:50 ◼   ► And design is now four years old.

01:12:53 ◼   ► And I think we're hoping that Apple moves the iPad Pro forward in a more meaningful

01:12:57 ◼   ► away next time around.

01:12:59 ◼   ► And the last October press release was a new Apple TV 4K.

01:13:04 ◼   ► So this is the now, I think the third 4K Apple TV.

01:13:09 ◼   ► That's right.

01:13:12 ◼   ► - I think so.

01:13:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, updated with the A15 bionic

01:13:16 ◼   ► and support for HDR 10 plus.

01:13:20 ◼   ► New starting price, the form factor is the same

01:13:23 ◼   ► but a little bit shorter than the previous one.

01:13:27 ◼   ► They got rid of the fan apparently,

01:13:28 ◼   ► and it comes with the Siri remote,

01:13:31 ◼   ► which now supports USB-C and not lightning.

01:13:34 ◼   ► So some decent, if not a little confusing products

01:13:40 ◼   ► in October.

01:13:41 ◼   ► - Oh, I mean, I think the iPad Pro,

01:13:43 ◼   ► underwhelming, like, and the introduction

01:13:49 ◼   ► of the 10th generation iPad was the good product

01:13:51 ◼   ► as we kind of hinted at earlier,

01:13:52 ◼   ► just further made the whole thing

01:13:55 ◼   ► just hard to understand the whole iPad line is just very confusing.

01:14:00 ◼   ► We got some software stories in October as well.

01:14:03 ◼   ► Mac OS Ventura and iPad OS 16 both ship in October.

01:14:08 ◼   ► Um, on the Ventura front, I don't think that's super surprising.

01:14:14 ◼   ► Mac OS has lagged behind iOS about a month for a while now. Uh,

01:14:20 ◼   ► but of course we'd mentioned last month,

01:14:22 ◼   ► last time that iPadOS had been delayed.

01:14:26 ◼   ► And Federico, you haven't done a full iPadOS 16 review,

01:14:31 ◼   ► but you've obviously continued to write about Stage Manager

01:14:36 ◼   ► and what Apple's doing with iPadOS 16.

01:14:39 ◼   ► How did you feel when this came out

01:14:42 ◼   ► and kind of the state that it was in?

01:14:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, I felt very bad about it

01:14:45 ◼   ► because it's been like one of the things

01:14:47 ◼   ► that I didn't like about 2022 was the stress

01:14:50 ◼   ► of dealing with Stage Manager and iPadOS 16 in the summer

01:14:54 ◼   ► while I was moving, iOS 16 made it pretty easy

01:14:59 ◼   ► for me to write about it because if it was a very solid,

01:15:01 ◼   ► very stable, polished update, iPadOS 16 was a mess.

01:15:06 ◼   ► And it was a mess up until the very last minute

01:15:09 ◼   ► when they somehow managed to make something

01:15:12 ◼   ► that didn't crash every five minutes.

01:15:14 ◼   ► However, still that feature was, you know,

01:15:19 ◼   ► It was filled with so many different design issues

01:15:24 ◼   ► and interaction problems that are still with us today.

01:15:28 ◼   ► So the underlying, like the core problems of Stage Manager

01:15:33 ◼   ► in terms of like the way it's designed,

01:15:35 ◼   ► the way you interact with it,

01:15:37 ◼   ► I have learned to accept it by now, but I don't love it.

01:15:42 ◼   ► And I don't think it's a good design.

01:15:44 ◼   ► It's all I have.

01:15:45 ◼   ► I have no other option.

01:15:46 ◼   ► And unfortunately, you know, I love using the iPad.

01:15:50 ◼   ► It's the only device that lets me do what I want to do.

01:15:53 ◼   ► But I gotta tell you, I don't love Stage Manager.

01:15:56 ◼   ► I accept that it's my only option

01:15:59 ◼   ► if I want to use the device I want to use,

01:16:01 ◼   ► which is a hybrid tablet, laptop device.

01:16:05 ◼   ► That it's the only one that Apple makes.

01:16:07 ◼   ► And if I want to have more apps at the same time,

01:16:09 ◼   ► Stage Manager is my only option,

01:16:11 ◼   ► but it's got a long way to go.

01:16:12 ◼   ► And so far, the latest version of the beta of 16,

01:16:17 ◼   ► 16.3, has nothing in terms of stage manager changes.

01:16:23 ◼   ► So we'll see if in 2023, this cycle, this 16.3 cycle,

01:16:28 ◼   ► maybe 16.4 in the spring,

01:16:30 ◼   ► we'll have something for stage manager before WWDC.

01:16:34 ◼   ► But I'm afraid that if we want to get

01:16:37 ◼   ► any more stage manager fixes and like major changes,

01:16:40 ◼   ► we're going to have to wait another year.

01:16:42 ◼   ► October also saw a lot of upheaval in the App Store.

01:16:45 ◼   ► So basically the last week of the month,

01:16:48 ◼   ► Apple announced that,

01:16:49 ◼   ► "Hey, we're gonna do some more ad spots,"

01:16:52 ◼   ► including, I think, the most controversial one,

01:16:55 ◼   ► being the You Might Also Like section,

01:16:58 ◼   ► which is at the bottom of an individual app page.

01:17:01 ◼   ► They gave people basically like three or four days notice

01:17:04 ◼   ► that this was going to happen.

01:17:07 ◼   ► And it went off the rails really, really quickly.

01:17:12 ◼   ► the bulk of these ads were purchased by apps

01:17:15 ◼   ► that I think a lot of people find objectionable

01:17:18 ◼   ► or at the very least questionable.

01:17:20 ◼   ► And there were lots of stories about like recovery apps

01:17:23 ◼   ► and they'd have a gambling ad on them

01:17:24 ◼   ► and lots of terrible things.

01:17:27 ◼   ► Apple announced they were quote,

01:17:29 ◼   ► "Putting a pause on some categories of these ads."

01:17:34 ◼   ► And I don't think the other shoe

01:17:36 ◼   ► has really dropped there yet,

01:17:38 ◼   ► but I feel like they really botched this.

01:17:40 ◼   ► And if they were surprised that these were the type

01:17:43 ◼   ► of developers that were gonna pay the most,

01:17:46 ◼   ► then whoever is running this program in Apple

01:17:49 ◼   ► is not doing their job very well.

01:17:52 ◼   ► - I agree.

01:17:52 ◼   ► - They have burned so much goodwill this year

01:17:55 ◼   ► with developers.

01:17:56 ◼   ► And this was just like the cherry on top

01:17:58 ◼   ► of a pretty crappy deal and caused a lot of outrage

01:18:03 ◼   ► and anger amongst users and developers both.

01:18:07 ◼   ► There's really no winning for Apple in this.

01:18:09 ◼   ► - Bad idea, poorly executed.

01:18:11 ◼   ► - Bad idea, yes.

01:18:13 ◼   ► - And we had two launches in October,

01:18:15 ◼   ► Matter finally launched.

01:18:19 ◼   ► Launched is like, I'm putting in air quotes a little bit

01:18:22 ◼   ► because just now three months later,

01:18:25 ◼   ► we're seeing some products roll out with Matter support.

01:18:29 ◼   ► This is gonna take a while,

01:18:30 ◼   ► but people are off to the races.

01:18:33 ◼   ► And James Thompson's podcast, "Citron," screensaver.

01:18:37 ◼   ► So if you backed the relay FM for St. Jude campaign,

01:18:40 ◼   ► you got a macOS screensaver

01:18:42 ◼   ► and I hope everyone's running it.

01:18:44 ◼   ► I run it, I use the fireworks mode and absolutely love it.

01:18:48 ◼   ► - It's the best.

01:18:49 ◼   ► - It is.

01:18:50 ◼   ► - Made my Mac better.

01:18:51 ◼   ► - I feel like October is a real mixed bag.

01:18:53 ◼   ► - It is.

01:18:54 ◼   ► - I feel like we got new products, but they're not amazing.

01:18:57 ◼   ► We have the app store thing.

01:18:59 ◼   ► - I am gonna suggest inferior minus.

01:19:01 ◼   ► - Inferior minus?

01:19:03 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:19:04 ◼   ► - I was gonna go inferior.

01:19:06 ◼   ► Man, that's the each manager shipping and the 14 plus

01:19:09 ◼   ► and that weird iPad lineup.

01:19:12 ◼   ► - I can see this.

01:19:13 ◼   ► There was some good stuff,

01:19:14 ◼   ► but there was like without same matter

01:19:17 ◼   ► and the screen saver,

01:19:18 ◼   ► I think it may have been down there anyways.

01:19:22 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:19:23 ◼   ► Yeah. All right.

01:19:24 ◼   ► Inferior minus it is.

01:19:25 ◼   ► - In November, Apple had to publicly announce supply issues

01:19:30 ◼   ► for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max,

01:19:34 ◼   ► because it is going to make a significant impact

01:19:39 ◼   ► on their holiday earnings for this quarter.

01:19:42 ◼   ► Apple cannot fulfill demand.

01:19:44 ◼   ► This is primarily due to COVID shutdowns

01:19:49 ◼   ► and lockdowns inside of China,

01:19:52 ◼   ► and then riots at their factories

01:19:54 ◼   ► because of the conditions that their workers were in

01:19:56 ◼   ► because of these lockdowns and shutdowns.

01:19:59 ◼   ► So the impact is like millions of iPhones

01:20:03 ◼   ► that won't be made.

01:20:04 ◼   ► And so I'm fascinated to see what these quarterly results

01:20:08 ◼   ► are gonna look like because it was so bad

01:20:10 ◼   ► that Apple needed to release a press release

01:20:12 ◼   ► because otherwise they would basically be misleading

01:20:15 ◼   ► their investors if they didn't announce this information.

01:20:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's a bad deal.

01:20:21 ◼   ► - The previously announced emergency SOS satellite feature

01:20:26 ◼   ► launched in the US.

01:20:28 ◼   ► - Okay, nice.

01:20:29 ◼   ► - Which is cool, it's a cool feature.

01:20:30 ◼   ► One thing I don't like now is now when my iPhone

01:20:33 ◼   ► doesn't have service, I see a little satellite icon

01:20:36 ◼   ► and I think it's too busy.

01:20:38 ◼   ► - Yeah, does it say SOS at the top?

01:20:40 ◼   ► - Yes, it says SOS and then there's a little satellite

01:20:43 ◼   ► and it's like, this is too much.

01:20:44 ◼   ► Chills one or the other.

01:20:46 ◼   ► - The way I read that is the iPhone is crying out for help?

01:20:49 ◼   ► - Yeah. - I can't find the internet.

01:20:50 ◼   ► - Please, I need the internet.

01:20:52 ◼   ► My iPhone's even more addicted to the internet than I am.

01:20:56 ◼   ► - Maybe your iPhone should quit Twitter, you know?

01:20:58 ◼   ► - Maybe it should, come on iPhone.

01:20:59 ◼   ► The long awaited Apple Music Replay

01:21:02 ◼   ► - They came out and confused everyone

01:21:04 ◼   ► because you open the app and you have to go out

01:21:06 ◼   ► to a webpage and log in for a bad experience.

01:21:11 ◼   ► - And it's a bad webpage, yeah, let's go.

01:21:14 ◼   ► - They should just stop doing this

01:21:16 ◼   ► because it is so embarrassing, right?

01:21:19 ◼   ► Like, because Spotify Wrapped gets better

01:21:22 ◼   ► and better every year, Apple need to either do it all

01:21:26 ◼   ► or just don't, just don't get involved in it

01:21:29 ◼   ► because it's just a sad time, I think,

01:21:34 ◼   ► every year when they put this out there.

01:21:36 ◼   ► - There is one upside, is that Marco has said

01:21:40 ◼   ► he's going to do something like this in Overcast,

01:21:43 ◼   ► because Pocket Casts and others do it.

01:21:45 ◼   ► So I'm much more excited about to see it in Overcast

01:21:48 ◼   ► next year than in my Apple Music.

01:21:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, Pocket Casts did it this year and it was awesome.

01:21:53 ◼   ► - It was great. - It was really great.

01:21:54 ◼   ► And it was very fun as a podcaster to see that, right?

01:21:57 ◼   ► Like see people posting their things,

01:21:58 ◼   ► "Hey, I listened to this many episodes this year and this is my favorite show."

01:22:02 ◼   ► And something I liked is Cortex listeners, basically,

01:22:05 ◼   ► they were one of the things that was the longest episode.

01:22:08 ◼   ► I don't know if this was on Pocket Caster or on Spotify, it was one or the other.

01:22:12 ◼   ► And basically, if you listen to Cortex, the state of the apps was the longest episode.

01:22:16 ◼   ► -Rockash, you listen to this, yeah? -Yeah.

01:22:18 ◼   ► And so I enjoyed that. I enjoyed seeing that.

01:22:21 ◼   ► In November, Elon Musk charged at Twitter.

01:22:25 ◼   ► And then the clown cars arrived and the wheels fell off incredibly fast.

01:22:33 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:22:34 ◼   ► And here we are now.

01:22:36 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:22:37 ◼   ► The iOS 16, iOS 16.2, the beta allowed for always on customizations.

01:22:43 ◼   ► This is when we found out this was going to happen which is shit later on.

01:22:46 ◼   ► The only reason I put this in here is I wanted to ask the two of you if you've changed any

01:22:49 ◼   ► of the settings of the always on display on your phones.

01:22:52 ◼   ► Yes.

01:22:53 ◼   ► Okay.

01:22:54 ◼   ► Were you both turned off the wallpaper?

01:22:56 ◼   ► Yeah, I just have the black dimmed lock screen, yeah.

01:23:00 ◼   ► Just that.

01:23:01 ◼   ► That's what it's supposed to be.

01:23:02 ◼   ► You know, always on.

01:23:04 ◼   ► Just let me see the minimal stuff.

01:23:06 ◼   ► But yeah, I understand why other people like it the other way around.

01:23:09 ◼   ► But I'm happy with this option.

01:23:10 ◼   ► Yeah, I like the images.

01:23:11 ◼   ► I know you are a visual person, so it makes sense.

01:23:16 ◼   ► So November...

01:23:17 ◼   ► Normal.

01:23:20 ◼   ► I would...

01:23:20 ◼   ► No, no, inferior.

01:23:23 ◼   ► I just scrolled and saw that Twitter item.

01:23:28 ◼   ► Yeah, I would say inferior.

01:23:30 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:23:33 ◼   ► It's not minus, but it's inferior for sure.

01:23:36 ◼   ► All right, Federico, take us home.

01:23:37 ◼   ► All right, I'm taking you guys home

01:23:39 ◼   ► with the month of December.

01:23:41 ◼   ► December saw the debut of a bunch of things, really.

01:23:44 ◼   ► The first one we couldn't anticipate, Apple Music Sing.

01:23:47 ◼   ► This is a karaoke.

01:23:49 ◼   ► Where did this come from?

01:23:50 ◼   ► Out of nowhere.

01:23:51 ◼   ► A karaoke mode for Apple Music.

01:23:53 ◼   ► I love it.

01:23:54 ◼   ► I absolutely love it.

01:23:56 ◼   ► It's time-synced karaoke mode built right

01:23:59 ◼   ► inside the existing real-time lyrics feature of Apple Music.

01:24:04 ◼   ► You can do it on the iPhone, on the iPad, on the Apple TV.

01:24:07 ◼   ► I love it.

01:24:08 ◼   ► I love this feature.

01:24:09 ◼   ► It's gonna be great for parties,

01:24:10 ◼   ► great for just goofing around with your partner

01:24:13 ◼   ► or with friends and family at Christmas, whatever.

01:24:16 ◼   ► I love it.

01:24:17 ◼   ► Apple announced some pricing changes for the App Store,

01:24:19 ◼   ► kind of boring stuff.

01:24:20 ◼   ► There are like over 700 new price points.

01:24:24 ◼   ► Basically, you can price your subscription

01:24:27 ◼   ► like 29 cents or something.

01:24:29 ◼   ► There's much, much greater flexibility.

01:24:32 ◼   ► - You can also do round numbers.

01:24:33 ◼   ► - You can do round numbers like $5,

01:24:35 ◼   ► and it's literally just $5 instead of $4.99.

01:24:38 ◼   ► Advanced data protection.

01:24:41 ◼   ► Also another feature that came out of nowhere.

01:24:44 ◼   ► I mean, we've been talking about this for years,

01:24:46 ◼   ► and it basically refers to-

01:24:48 ◼   ► - Mercenaries, man, they're out there.

01:24:50 ◼   ► - The mercenaries are out there.

01:24:51 ◼   ► - I don't know if this one is mercenaries too.

01:24:53 ◼   ► - We understand those mercenaries are out there.

01:24:56 ◼   ► Sometimes those mercenaries are governments, turns out,

01:24:59 ◼   ► but you know, that's-

01:25:00 ◼   ► - I was gonna say the mercenaries are the FBI.

01:25:02 ◼   ► - That's a different conversation

01:25:03 ◼   ► for a different type of show.

01:25:05 ◼   ► - There's no mention of the word mercenary

01:25:08 ◼   ► in this press release.

01:25:09 ◼   ► - This is about end-to-end encryption

01:25:12 ◼   ► for your iCloud backups, including messages, conversations,

01:25:16 ◼   ► and a bunch of other things.

01:25:18 ◼   ► It's US only for now.

01:25:20 ◼   ► It launched with 16.2.

01:25:22 ◼   ► It was announced right before the public release of 16.2.

01:25:27 ◼   ► At this moment, neither Myke nor I can use this feature

01:25:31 ◼   ► because we are, you know, we're not in America.

01:25:36 ◼   ► But why do I see an item that says neither can marry LOL?

01:25:41 ◼   ► - I still can't turn it on.

01:25:42 ◼   ► I spoke last week about the recovery key

01:25:44 ◼   ► wouldn't enter into system settings, still won't do it.

01:25:48 ◼   ► I don't know why.

01:25:49 ◼   ► - Okay, perfect.

01:25:50 ◼   ► - That's pretty bad.

01:25:51 ◼   ► - Good job, advanced data protection.

01:25:53 ◼   ► Freeform, which was also announced to WWDC,

01:25:56 ◼   ► finally launched with 16.2 and Ventura 13.2.

01:26:00 ◼   ► Is it also two or is it one?

01:26:05 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:26:06 ◼   ► I guess it's one.

01:26:06 ◼   ► - One, yeah, it's kind of weird whether or not the same.

01:26:10 ◼   ► Still, I don't get it.

01:26:12 ◼   ► So Freeform, there's a bunch of reviews.

01:26:15 ◼   ► Jason wrote about it.

01:26:16 ◼   ► John wrote about it.

01:26:18 ◼   ► I think Steven, you talked about this with David?

01:26:22 ◼   ► - Yeah, on MPU 672, we went deep,

01:26:26 ◼   ► or 673, excuse me, we went deep into it.

01:26:28 ◼   ► - It's basically like a fancy mind map collaboration app

01:26:31 ◼   ► that can also be used for yourself

01:26:33 ◼   ► if you're not into live collaboration,

01:26:35 ◼   ► which is also part of these other collaborative features

01:26:38 ◼   ► in 16 and Ventura this year.

01:26:40 ◼   ► It's very flexible, limited in the usual ways you would expect a brand new Apple app to

01:26:47 ◼   ► be limited in a 1.0, but otherwise very good debut, I think, from what appears to be a

01:26:54 ◼   ► joint collaboration of the Notes team and the iWork team at Apple, based on some things

01:27:00 ◼   ► I've heard.

01:27:01 ◼   ► It's very nicely done.

01:27:04 ◼   ► The self-service repair pro...

01:27:05 ◼   ► Why are we talking about the self-service repair program?

01:27:08 ◼   ► It's the friend of the show.

01:27:09 ◼   ► We just mentioned that he added desktops a few months back.

01:27:13 ◼   ► He added support for the Mac.

01:27:15 ◼   ► Oh, I guess-- - No, that was laptops.

01:27:17 ◼   ► - Oh, that was laptops.

01:27:17 ◼   ► So now we added the Mac Studio

01:27:19 ◼   ► and the Studio Display, maybe.

01:27:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, so it's the iMac, the Mac Mini,

01:27:26 ◼   ► the Mac Studio and the Studio Display.

01:27:29 ◼   ► - Very nice.

01:27:30 ◼   ► Our friend keeps growing.

01:27:31 ◼   ► It's, we love to see it.

01:27:33 ◼   ► - Grows up, we love it.

01:27:34 ◼   ► You do love to see it.

01:27:36 ◼   ► - And finally, of course,

01:27:37 ◼   ► we all said goodbye, or in my case, are you there, Chi, to Twitter, given the circumstances of,

01:27:44 ◼   ► you know, we don't need to go to get into this conversation again. We spoke about it at length

01:27:49 ◼   ► last week, but we left for now, forever, we'll see, we left Twitter, goodbye, Twitter. Some of

01:27:57 ◼   ► us are using Mastodon, some of us being me. We'll see where it goes from here, but this will be a

01:28:04 ◼   ► topic for 2023. Like what will happen to our social media usage will very much be a conversation

01:28:11 ◼   ► for next year.

01:28:12 ◼   ► Because we all can't stop thinking and talking about it. It is such a big deal to us. Just

01:28:17 ◼   ► real quick, I need to share an earworm with the two of you. Power Rangers, right? Familiar

01:28:22 ◼   ► with Power Rangers? Do you watch it when you were a kid?

01:28:25 ◼   ► Yeah, all the time. I had the toys.

01:28:27 ◼   ► Right. So do you remember the moment when they would go from being humans, right? And

01:28:31 ◼   ► they would, they would like bring the robot right during like the transforming scene.

01:28:37 ◼   ► One of them would say Mastodon and then the next one was Pterodactyl. So every single

01:28:41 ◼   ► time someone says Mastodon, I say Pterodactyl in my brain and I can't stop it. And I think

01:28:46 ◼   ► I will never stop because it's still happening. Oh my God. Thank you. I knew it was, it was

01:28:52 ◼   ► familiar. It started to me for me in 2018 when it launched and it's still happening.

01:28:58 ◼   ► So I'm now sharing this with other people of around our age who also watched Power Rangers.

01:29:03 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:29:04 ◼   ► I knew it was familiar from my youth from somewhere.

01:29:07 ◼   ► I was like, I know what a Mastodon is, but like, why does it sound familiar?

01:29:11 ◼   ► Now I get it.

01:29:12 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:29:13 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:29:14 ◼   ► So I've had in my mind, like, I would like to start a Mastodon instance called Pterodactyl.

01:29:20 ◼   ► Something that I want to do, but can't be bothered to do the work.

01:29:23 ◼   ► So somebody else can do it if they want to.

01:29:24 ◼   ► So it's great December.

01:29:25 ◼   ► Mmm.

01:29:26 ◼   ► Good plus.

01:29:27 ◼   ► made a good choice in our lives. Yeah good plus because we left Twitter. I

01:29:31 ◼   ► think we should do it. And the data protection thing is great.

01:29:33 ◼   ► Apple Music Sing is hilarious. Apple Music Sing free form is good. I love it.

01:29:39 ◼   ► I love weird. So yeah. If you want to find a whole lot of links head on over

01:29:44 ◼   ► to the website relay.fm/connected/430. There you can get in touch

01:29:50 ◼   ► via email. You can also join Connected Pro which is a longer ad-free version of

01:29:55 ◼   ► of the show each and every week.

01:29:57 ◼   ► You can find us all online.

01:29:58 ◼   ► Federico is the editor-in-chief of MacStories.net.

01:30:02 ◼   ► Myke hosts a bunch of other shows here on Relay FM,

01:30:05 ◼   ► as do I, and I write over at 512pixels.net.

01:30:08 ◼   ► - You can go to MykeHurley.net.

01:30:10 ◼   ► MykeHurley.net, I set it up.

01:30:11 ◼   ► - MykeHurley.net.

01:30:13 ◼   ► - There you go, find me on the line.

01:30:16 ◼   ► - Yeah, he's on the social web.

01:30:17 ◼   ► You can, yeah, go read that.

01:30:20 ◼   ► Make it your homepage, is what I'd say.

01:30:22 ◼   ► - What do you mean?

01:30:23 ◼   ► make mycurly.net your homepage.

01:30:25 ◼   ► - Like when you see when you open a new tab.

01:30:28 ◼   ► - Oh, I thought you were telling me

01:30:30 ◼   ► that it needed to be my homepage.

01:30:31 ◼   ► I'm like, "Why, what did I do?"

01:30:32 ◼   ► I understand now.

01:30:33 ◼   ► - It should be yours as well.

01:30:34 ◼   ► - It is.

01:30:35 ◼   ► - It should be the default in Safari, honestly.

01:30:37 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:30:38 ◼   ► - I'd like to thank our sponsors this week,

01:30:39 ◼   ► TextExpander, Membrful, and Fitbaud.

01:30:42 ◼   ► And until next week, guys, say goodbye.

01:30:44 ◼   ► - Arrivederci.

01:30:45 ◼   ► - Cheerio.