Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:08 ◼   ► From Real FM, this is Connected, episode 423. Today's show is brought to you by our excellent

00:00:14 ◼   ► sponsors Capital One, and indeed, I'm one of your co-hosts, Federico Vittucci, and it's my absolute

00:00:19 ◼   ► pleasure, as always every week, to be joined by my friend, Mr. Stephen Hackett. Hello, Stephen.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Hello, Federico, how are you?

00:00:26 ◼   ► I am doing fantastic, how are you?

00:00:29 ◼   ► I am good as well. I got a notification that your calendar had been delivered. Can you verify that?

00:00:36 ◼   ► I can verify that my doorman got... Oh, I gotta tell you something. For reasons that will make

00:00:42 ◼   ► sense to people who listen to the pro show for connected pro members, Apple Mail just opened.

00:00:50 ◼   ► Okay, good. Well done, Apple Mail.

00:00:55 ◼   ► You may wonder, "Wait, why is Federico telling people that Apple Mail just opened?"

00:01:00 ◼   ► Well, you know, sign up and find out.

00:01:02 ◼   ► Where can people sign up, Myke?

00:01:03 ◼   ► We're doing this right away at the beginning.

00:01:05 ◼   ► Before I've even been introduced, get connected to pro.co.

00:01:08 ◼   ► Yes, and then you will get introduced.

00:01:11 ◼   ► And I am joined by Mr. Myke Hurley.

00:01:14 ◼   ► Hello!

00:01:16 ◼   ► Federico, you started a sentence about your doorman,

00:01:19 ◼   ► but then you didn't finish the sentence.

00:01:21 ◼   ► Yeah, you never finished.

00:01:22 ◼   ► Whatever the doorman.

00:01:23 ◼   ► Yes, so the Dormine got the very nice package that you prepared with my address on it.

00:01:31 ◼   ► And when I went down to walk the dogs this morning, told me there's a package for you.

00:01:36 ◼   ► And I was like, thank you, Mario.

00:01:38 ◼   ► When I come back with the dogs, I'll get the package.

00:01:41 ◼   ► I came back with the dogs, got the package, went upstairs, and there was the calendar

00:01:46 ◼   ► and the stickers that you sent me.

00:01:49 ◼   ► So it looks lovely.

00:01:51 ◼   ► It's gonna go up in my office soon-ish, as soon as we're done with furniture here.

00:01:57 ◼   ► And the stickers have already been placed on the Smart Cover, well, Smart Folio, that

00:02:03 ◼   ► I'm using with the iPad Pro.

00:02:05 ◼   ► So finally, Drama Free Delivery, I believe we called it on iMessage today.

00:02:13 ◼   ► And it's one of the many perks of having Mario downstairs, taking care of all kinds of packages

00:02:20 ◼   ► and envelopes for me. What other perks are there for Mario? Well, there's plenty. Like

00:02:26 ◼   ► all sorts of like gossip, right? Getting to know. Yeah, yeah. It's a big thing now to

00:02:33 ◼   ► like gossip about other people here. Like we are realizing there's a lot of like inside

00:02:39 ◼   ► drama, you know, with some of these people. Like for example, today we just find out,

00:02:45 ◼   ► I'm going to tell you guys something. So we just found out there's a, what's the name

00:02:50 ◼   ► of that popular service for like commenting on your neighborhood next door, next door,

00:02:57 ◼   ► next door. So we found out that we have like our, like our private version of next door

00:03:04 ◼   ► for the building. Uh, while it's two buildings, one in front of the other and we have like

00:03:09 ◼   ► our private, like mini social network thing where people can post messages and complain

00:03:15 ◼   ► about stuff and we got access today and immediately we saw a lady complaining about some people

00:03:34 ◼   ► throwing parrot poop onto our balcony?

00:03:39 ◼   ► What?

00:03:40 ◼   ► Apparently there's someone who is just throwing out of the window, I suppose, the things that

00:03:51 ◼   ► parrots, you know, the birds, like the parrots, like the colored...

00:03:57 ◼   ► Yeah, no, no, no, I know what a parrot is.

00:04:01 ◼   ► throwing the parrot poop and seeds out of the window onto this lady's balcony. And so

00:04:08 ◼   ► this lady, as soon as she got access to this portal today, like it literally opened two

00:04:13 ◼   ► hours ago, and she's already, there's already this parrot drama happening, which is super

00:04:19 ◼   ► exciting for me because like, one, if I was that person, that is the first thing I would

00:04:25 ◼   ► complain about upon getting access to this app, right? Is like this person keeps throwing

00:04:31 ◼   ► parrot poop on my balcony, which is just a weird, like what, what is this person doing?

00:04:37 ◼   ► Why are they throwing it out the window? What is wrong with them? Exactly. Like, and the

00:04:42 ◼   ► seeds, like obviously I want to immediately find out who has, apparently the way the message

00:04:48 ◼   ► was phrased multiple parrots. So like I want to... How does she know this though? Exactly

00:04:55 ◼   ► like and the way the way she posted this it was like super passive-aggressive like I'm

00:04:59 ◼   ► not gonna name names but whoever has parrots I mean how many people are gonna have parrots?

00:05:04 ◼   ► I mean you don't need to name names dude you've given away a pretty big clue at that point.

00:05:10 ◼   ► It's the guy in the building dressed like a pirate it's that guy. Oh you mean pirate

00:05:15 ◼   ► gym yeah so like for example so Mario as I was saying is useful for this kind of

00:05:23 ◼   ► gossip and just you know general bureaucracy stuff like you know

00:05:29 ◼   ► because it's still like these buildings are not fully finished yet some

00:05:35 ◼   ► apartments are already like they're still being worked on we were one of the

00:05:39 ◼   ► first families to enter the building this summer now of course after

00:05:44 ◼   ► September after the summer vacations basically plenty of people have joined

00:05:49 ◼   ► but like it was useful like hey I like Mario can you find one of the plumber

00:05:55 ◼   ► guys and and you know send one of them upstairs because I have like a leak or

00:06:01 ◼   ► something or can you get me like a plumber's are let me call my brother

00:06:13 ◼   ► he's a plumber. He dresses in green. I'm just saying more than a doorman is like

00:06:19 ◼   ► some kind of manager which is incredibly useful. He's a powerful individual.

00:06:25 ◼   ► Let's do some follow-up. How does that sound? Well did we introduce everybody?

00:06:28 ◼   ► Everybody got introduced? I think so. We're all been introduced, yes. Okay, that's good.

00:06:33 ◼   ► We've been intro'd. Okay, well speaking of packages that Mario helps you get your

00:06:38 ◼   ► hands on, I believe you got a slightly bigger box than my calendar. Recently you

00:06:43 ◼   ► you want to tell us about that? Well, in fact, this morning, as I walked downstairs, the

00:06:48 ◼   ► full conversation was, I have a, you know, this smaller package for you, but then when

00:06:53 ◼   ► you come back, I think you should go upstairs first to leave the dogs, then come back because

00:06:58 ◼   ► these other packages, these other boxes like pretty big and you want to make sure that

00:07:03 ◼   ► you can carry it without also, you know, having your dogs on a leash. So considerate. Yeah,

00:07:09 ◼   ► He's looking out for you.

00:07:10 ◼   ► He's very considerate.

00:07:11 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:07:12 ◼   ► Yeah, he is.

00:07:13 ◼   ► He is.

00:07:14 ◼   ► Looking out, Mario.

00:07:15 ◼   ► And I got this big box and I can tell you that right now I am looking at a beautiful

00:07:21 ◼   ► Apple Studio display on my desk.

00:07:25 ◼   ► Now it literally is on my desk because...

00:07:31 ◼   ► So we did a lot of research with Sylvia and like we're trying to imagine, okay, what kind

00:07:35 ◼   ► of desk do you want?

00:07:37 ◼   ► you want this office to look like. We went with the VESA mount option. I am going to

00:07:44 ◼   ► mount this to a wall, to the wall in front of me right now. But we're still torn between

00:07:52 ◼   ► two options on Amazon. We're gonna buy one tonight. But in the meantime, I mean, the

00:07:56 ◼   ► display arrived, so I figured, you know, I'm just gonna very carefully place it on my desk

00:08:01 ◼   ► can, you know, and obviously it's like touching the wall right now at a slight angle so it

00:08:07 ◼   ► doesn't tip over. Otherwise we're going to mount it to a wall. We're going to get one

00:08:10 ◼   ► of those like extendable arms that lets you do like, you know, tilt it and move it around.

00:08:17 ◼   ► I believe it also supports rotation. So if the arm is long enough, like I could realistically

00:08:25 ◼   ► like extend it to the side of the desk and then flip it to portrait mode, which is something

00:08:30 ◼   ► that the studio display can do it actually the text rotation which it's

00:08:35 ◼   ► not something that I think I'm gonna do all the time but it's cool to have the

00:08:38 ◼   ► option I suppose. So you can watch your YouTube shorts and stuff? Exactly like

00:08:45 ◼   ► full screen portrait mode YouTube shorts you know take like a scroll 70 tweets

00:08:51 ◼   ► all at once like that kind of stuff. Yeah I mean why not you know just I'm just

00:08:58 ◼   ► just gonna be like a Bloomberg terminal, but just for my tweets. And yeah, I mean, it looks

00:09:04 ◼   ► fantastic. It's got that nice clean design that I was hoping it would have. I mean, I

00:09:11 ◼   ► did go to the Apple Store to check it out beforehand to make sure, hey, am I convinced

00:09:17 ◼   ► that this is the thing I'm buying? And I checked it out at the Apple Store. It looked amazing.

00:09:20 ◼   ► I was like, yep, I want this. It's glorious because I'm literally just running a single

00:09:25 ◼   ► cable, a single Thunderbolt cable, and I can place my iPad Pro, or in this case the Macbook

00:09:31 ◼   ► Pro, I can just swap the computer and I can use it regardless because of Stage Manager,

00:09:38 ◼   ► which is not great, but it kind of works. And of course on Mac OS it's much better.

00:09:43 ◼   ► The only, I mean besides the missing wall mount, which should be here later this week

00:09:50 ◼   ► I hope. So I will again very carefully drill two holes into the wall, or four, depending

00:09:57 ◼   ► on how many are required, and I'll get that done.

00:10:02 ◼   ► Just one.

00:10:03 ◼   ► But the only thing...

00:10:04 ◼   ► That's fine. That's where the rotation comes in. The whole thing just falls off the wall.

00:10:09 ◼   ► The one thing I'm struggling with right now, which is why I tweeted it this afternoon,

00:10:15 ◼   ► switching with the... I have a Bluetooth Magic Keyboard. Like, I have an external Magic Keyboard

00:10:19 ◼   ► and a Magic trackpad. The new ones with the trackpad that is slightly more rounded than

00:10:25 ◼   ► before and the Magic keyboard that has Touch ID. It sucks that if I want to use them wirelessly,

00:10:33 ◼   ► it's not that easy at all to switch them between a MacBook and an iPad. They don't support

00:10:40 ◼   ► multi-device pairing, so each time you've got to disconnect one device, put the accessory

00:10:47 ◼   ► in pairing mode and pair it again with the second device, which is not something I'm

00:10:52 ◼   ► gonna do. Or I could do what my friend Chris Lawley is doing, like get dedicated pairs

00:11:00 ◼   ► of keyboard and trackpad, one for the MacBook, one for the iPad, which is like... I mean,

00:11:05 ◼   ► I have a spare Magic Keyboard and a spare Magic Trackpad, the older ones, but I don't

00:11:12 ◼   ► really want to do that either. So for now I'm using them in wired mode. They are wired

00:11:20 ◼   ► into the studio display, which is also serving as a hub, I guess. And then, depending on

00:11:26 ◼   ► the computer I plug in, they pair with that computer. Which works. It's not ideal. I would

00:11:34 ◼   ► have preferred a wire-free look on the desk, but I'm open to suggestions. And no, I don't

00:11:41 ◼   ► want to use other pointing devices because they're not as accurate or fast

00:11:46 ◼   ► or reliable as the Magic Trackpad, but I don't think I have other options.

00:11:51 ◼   ► All I was gonna suggest is if you like to make it because wired I think is your

00:11:55 ◼   ► only real option here if you wired them into a dock it might be tidier and you

00:12:02 ◼   ► could still go one cable from the display to the dock because especially

00:12:06 ◼   ► if you're on the VESA arm you don't want to be moving the arm around if it's got

00:12:11 ◼   ► tons of cables attached to it like you would drag in the keyboard along the desk when you

00:12:17 ◼   ► go into portrait mode. So I would recommend using a dock of some kind, a Thunderbolt dock,

00:12:22 ◼   ► and then just having one cable to the dock and then the wires going into the dock for

00:12:27 ◼   ► the keyboard and mouse.

00:12:29 ◼   ► What is a good Thunderbolt dock for the studio display?

00:12:33 ◼   ► I like the OWC one.

00:12:35 ◼   ► That one's good.

00:12:36 ◼   ► Give me the best dock. What is the absolute best dock?

00:12:39 ◼   ► Okay, I'm looking for the link because we talked about it on another show.

00:12:44 ◼   ► Is it the CalDigit thing?

00:12:45 ◼   ► Yes, the little one though.

00:12:47 ◼   ► Not like the TS4, but...

00:12:49 ◼   ► The little one?

00:12:50 ◼   ► Yeah, they have one...

00:12:51 ◼   ► I like that it's little.

00:12:52 ◼   ► Okay.

00:12:53 ◼   ► Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub.

00:12:55 ◼   ► That's what you want.

00:12:56 ◼   ► I'll send you a link right now.

00:13:00 ◼   ► All I'm going to say is I had a lot of problems with the TS3 and I have no problems with the

00:13:05 ◼   ► OWC dock.

00:13:07 ◼   ► the OWC dock. Oh, I like this. This looks nice. Delivery on Friday. So, what am I...

00:13:16 ◼   ► Okay, so, CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 element hub. So, explain this to me. I'm gonna run a Thunderbolt

00:13:26 ◼   ► cable from the computer that I'm using to the hub. And then, from the hub to the studio

00:13:33 ◼   ► display another Thunderbolt cable. Yep. That's it? That's it. And then you can plug the keyboard

00:13:39 ◼   ► and trackpad or anything else into the dock. It has USB-A ports in front? Yeah, but I mean

00:13:47 ◼   ► it's... No. You got a million USB-A to lightning cables for your stuff. But they're not braided

00:13:53 ◼   ► like the nice ones I have. Yeah, that's true. There's a lot, I mean you really can't get

00:13:57 ◼   ► wrong with any of these I don't think, but I've heard good things about the Element Hub.

00:14:02 ◼   ► Okay, all right. Well, I'll do some research I guess but yeah. Well, I mean you have

00:14:07 ◼   ► four

00:14:09 ◼   ► Thunderbolt 4 ports, right? So you could plug the keyboard and mouse into the Thunderbolt port which is

00:14:14 ◼   ► Overkill. No, I have three USB-C. No, there's three. There's three ports

00:14:19 ◼   ► I'm looking at their page and it says four times Thunderbolt 4 so I don't know why it says that then

00:14:24 ◼   ► Yeah, the Amazon picture shows

00:14:27 ◼   ► Three. Oh, yeah, cuz you got one that goes out to the computer on the side

00:14:31 ◼   ► Oh is there one on the side? Yeah yeah. Oh oh okay. Who's the Mac power user now?

00:14:40 ◼   ► Hmm. So there's one because there's always on these hubs you always have like a one dedicated port

00:14:47 ◼   ► which is labeled as computer. I don't know why but like there's always like you must plug the

00:14:52 ◼   ► computer into this one and so then you could put the display on one of them and then the keyboard

00:14:58 ◼   ► and the mouse on the other two.

00:15:01 ◼   ► It's overkill to be plugging a magic keyboard

00:15:05 ◼   ► into a Thunderbolt 4 port, but it will do the job.

00:15:08 ◼   ► Oh, wow, they also have a 500 euro dock

00:15:12 ◼   ► called the CalDigit TS4.

00:15:15 ◼   ► Yeah, that has--

00:15:16 ◼   ► Oh, is this the one that Casey likes?

00:15:18 ◼   ► It's this one, right?

00:15:20 ◼   ► I think so, and it's got like SD and ethernet,

00:15:23 ◼   ► and it has a bunch of other stuff

00:15:25 ◼   ► that you probably don't need.

00:15:28 ◼   ► I mean, I do... Internet would be cool.

00:15:30 ◼   ► But it does have a couple of USB-C ports on the front, so...

00:15:33 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:15:33 ◼   ► It's ugly though, compared to the other one.

00:15:37 ◼   ► Well, it's very industrial.

00:15:40 ◼   ► We'll call it that.

00:15:42 ◼   ► What's the difference between...

00:15:44 ◼   ► It would fit with some of your audio gear though, I think, visually.

00:15:47 ◼   ► With all the ridges.

00:15:48 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:15:49 ◼   ► Yeah, that's right.

00:15:50 ◼   ► Lots of ridges.

00:15:50 ◼   ► Heat fins, baby!

00:15:51 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:15:53 ◼   ► Look at this, look at this.

00:15:55 ◼   ► Ethernet. How many Thunderbolt? Oh, USB-C data.

00:16:00 ◼   ► Audio in and out. I mean, it has all sorts of stuff.

00:16:03 ◼   ► What's the difference between a,

00:16:04 ◼   ► between a CalDigit TS4 and a CalDigit TS3?

00:16:08 ◼   ► Do I care about that difference?

00:16:12 ◼   ► Yeah, I think it's Thunderbolt 3 versus Thunderbolt 4,

00:16:15 ◼   ► which I think in practice doesn't matter for what you're doing.

00:16:19 ◼   ► I'm not gonna do like, uh, you know,

00:16:22 ◼   ► I'm not going to transfer video projects between computers.

00:16:27 ◼   ► Right.

00:16:28 ◼   ► 40 gigabits a second, right?

00:16:31 ◼   ► No, because I mean, it's like a...

00:16:33 ◼   ► Right, but if you ever want to, you know what I mean?

00:16:37 ◼   ► Now, you know, you're putting yourself into a situation where you can't, so...

00:16:40 ◼   ► And I mean, the TS4 has an extra Thunderbolt port.

00:16:44 ◼   ► You guys are bad for me.

00:16:46 ◼   ► Why am I still doing this show?

00:16:47 ◼   ► Well, you can spend money on apps, on docs.

00:16:53 ◼   ► Anyway, I got a studio display.

00:16:54 ◼   ► It's very cool.

00:16:55 ◼   ► I love it.

00:16:56 ◼   ► It's nice.

00:16:57 ◼   ► I will update you on something else that I am researching.

00:17:04 ◼   ► I got the proper adapters and everything,

00:17:06 ◼   ► but I still need to test it.

00:17:08 ◼   ► I think I should be able to use an Apple TV with the studio

00:17:14 ◼   ► display as well.

00:17:17 ◼   ► found this company that makes an HDMI to Thunderbolt video adapter.

00:17:22 ◼   ► And because the idea was like, and also why we're getting the VESA arm,

00:17:27 ◼   ► this is gonna double as a guest bedroom.

00:17:31 ◼   ► If we ever happen to have, you know, like my mom or something,

00:17:36 ◼   ► like someone that needs to sleep here. And the idea was, well,

00:17:40 ◼   ► what if the studio display, I mean, it's big enough and it looks very nice.

00:17:44 ◼   ► what if we could double as like an entertainment monitor

00:17:49 ◼   ► for things like what if you wanna watch something

00:17:53 ◼   ► on Netflix or YouTube, whatever.

00:17:57 ◼   ► So I should be able to use that.

00:18:00 ◼   ► I mean, in that case, I'm not gonna work in the office

00:18:02 ◼   ► if we have a guest, but that's fine.

00:18:04 ◼   ► And if we can connect an Apple TV to it,

00:18:08 ◼   ► they also have like, they can watch a movie or something

00:18:12 ◼   ► before bed.

00:18:13 ◼   ► So that requires an adapter though and I still, I have it, it arrived, but I still have not tested it.

00:18:20 ◼   ► I'll be interested to hear if that works just because I didn't even think that that was a possibility.

00:18:25 ◼   ► What do you think about the speakers in the studio display?

00:18:28 ◼   ► From what I heard today, 30 seconds, they sounded really nice with more bass than I was expecting,

00:18:37 ◼   ► but I have not listened to a song yet. I was just watching a video on Twitter.

00:18:42 ◼   ► And I was like, oh, this is louder than I thought.

00:18:46 ◼   ► But yeah, I have not really tested them.

00:18:50 ◼   ► I like them. I like the studio display speakers quite a lot for video and stuff.

00:18:56 ◼   ► It's the webcam that is bad, right?

00:18:59 ◼   ► Yes, for me. Yeah. I mean, it's bad in general, but it's especially bad for me.

00:19:03 ◼   ► The flickering with the 50Hz.

00:19:06 ◼   ► Yeah, the flickering.

00:19:08 ◼   ► Let's see, does it flicker for me? Like, I just open FaceTime.

00:19:13 ◼   ► You probably don't have that issue. I only have that issue specifically because I have fluorescent overhead lighting in the studio.

00:19:20 ◼   ► That doesn't happen to me at home.

00:19:23 ◼   ► It's the fluorescent lighting that it doesn't like specifically for me.

00:19:27 ◼   ► Alright, well, I'll continue talking about this over the next few weeks as I figure out my new life with a new desk and a display and multiple computers.

00:19:38 ◼   ► and I guess a Thunderbolt dock.

00:19:41 ◼   ► So, because you guys made me do this, so.

00:19:44 ◼   ► - It's gonna be sweet, man.

00:19:44 ◼   ► I can't wait till you get it all going.

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00:21:08 ◼   ► I have a question for the two of you. I put a link into the show notes, which is a tweet

00:21:13 ◼   ► from listener Edward, who used a web service that I don't really understand called Tweet

00:21:22 ◼   ► Hunter to generate some AI tweets from the three of us. Did either of you spend much

00:21:28 ◼   ► time looking at that?

00:21:29 ◼   ► I saw that.

00:21:31 ◼   ► You can answer honestly.

00:21:32 ◼   ► It's pretty wild.

00:21:33 ◼   ► you I just want to know like did you spend any time reading them today not

00:21:37 ◼   ► today no it wasn't the other day Federico I I haven't read them at all

00:21:42 ◼   ► that's really good so it's time for quiz oh no oh my god so you didn't do your

00:21:54 ◼   ► homework because now look what's happened to you so listen to Edward so

00:21:59 ◼   ► this is the quizzes welcome back to the quizzes this is the long-running quiz

00:22:02 ◼   ► show here on Connected where I surprise my co-hosts with random quiz rounds.

00:22:07 ◼   ► Today we're going to be playing a game of trying to guess who would potentially

00:22:13 ◼   ► tweet something based on an AI. So I assume what's happened here is that this

00:22:20 ◼   ► website looks at our tweets and then tries to create new tweets from that

00:22:26 ◼   ► information. I would say that these are interesting to dubious in the

00:22:30 ◼   ► effectiveness I am going to read a tweet and I want each of you to take a guess

00:22:36 ◼   ► as to which one of the three of us this AI believes that this tweet would work

00:22:41 ◼   ► for does that make sense okay yeah the first tweet I've lost the link oh here

00:22:48 ◼   ► it is the first tweet what a question I hope iOS 14.2 fixes it shrug emoji

00:22:55 ◼   ► Steven which one of the three of us said that there are 200 points available for

00:23:00 ◼   ► each correct answer. The emoji makes me think that it's you so I'm gonna say one

00:23:06 ◼   ► Myke Hurley. Federico who do you think it was? Can you read it again please? Yep.

00:23:11 ◼   ► What a question! I hope iOS 14.2 fixes it. Shrug emoji. I think I said it. You would

00:23:19 ◼   ► be correct. It's 200 points for Federico. That was indeed an expected Federico

00:23:25 ◼   ► tweet. Tweet number two. I produce a lot of podcasts but I'm really bad at

00:23:31 ◼   ► remembering to tweet about them so I'm trying out a new service called Tweet

00:23:35 ◼   ► Deck. It's basically a Twitter client for your desktop. Stephen who said, who is

00:23:40 ◼   ► believed to have said this? Federico. Okay Federico who do you think said this?

00:23:46 ◼   ► I produce a lot of podcasts. I produce a lot of podcasts but I'm really bad at

00:23:53 ◼   ► remembering to tweet about them.

00:23:55 ◼   ► So I'm trying out a new service called TweetDeck.

00:23:57 ◼   ► It's basically a Twitter client for your desktop.

00:24:00 ◼   ► - I think Myke said it.

00:24:02 ◼   ► - Federico, he's another one, that's correct again.

00:24:05 ◼   ► Another 200 points to Federico.

00:24:07 ◼   ► - Nice.

00:24:08 ◼   ► - I should have given,

00:24:09 ◼   ► I didn't give a score update before we began.

00:24:12 ◼   ► - Oh yeah.

00:24:13 ◼   ► - It was 500 and, sorry, 5,673 points to Steven.

00:24:18 ◼   ► 4,401 points to Federico,

00:24:23 ◼   ► which is obviously now 4,601 points to Federico

00:24:28 ◼   ► as he just scored 400 points in total there so far.

00:24:31 ◼   ► This could be where you pick up your lead again Federico.

00:24:36 ◼   ► We'll find out.

00:24:37 ◼   ► - I feel like we've had point inflation as we've gone on.

00:24:40 ◼   ► - Yes, yeah, yeah.

00:24:41 ◼   ► I messed it up.

00:24:42 ◼   ► I gave some large points to some things

00:24:47 ◼   ► and I think the two of you scored way better

00:24:50 ◼   ► in that round than I expected

00:24:51 ◼   ► and it destroyed the scoring.

00:24:54 ◼   ► So like at some point,

00:24:55 ◼   ► there's gonna be like a Thanos-like situation

00:24:58 ◼   ► and we're gonna start again.

00:24:59 ◼   ► But like now I have to just give high points for everything.

00:25:03 ◼   ► So 200 points is what's available.

00:25:06 ◼   ► The next tweet is,

00:25:08 ◼   ► "Today is Monday.

00:25:10 ◼   ► "It's Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday."

00:25:13 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:25:14 ◼   ► Who said it?

00:25:15 ◼   ► Who would say this?

00:25:17 ◼   ► Stephen, who would say that?

00:25:18 ◼   ► - Sounds like me.

00:25:20 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:25:21 ◼   ► Federico?

00:25:22 ◼   ► I'm gonna go with Steven.

00:25:24 ◼   ► You're both wrong, that was another Myke tweet.

00:25:26 ◼   ► Today is Monday.

00:25:27 ◼   ► It's Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday.

00:25:31 ◼   ► Monday Monday Monday Monday.

00:25:32 ◼   ► Alright, the next one.

00:25:34 ◼   ► Okay.

00:25:35 ◼   ► Wow.

00:25:36 ◼   ► Yeah, comma, I was at Apple's keynote today.

00:25:40 ◼   ► Who said that?

00:25:45 ◼   ► That's it?

00:25:46 ◼   ► That's the sentence?

00:25:47 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:25:48 ◼   ► I was at Apple's keynote today.

00:25:51 ◼   ► I'm gonna go with me again.

00:25:52 ◼   ► - Okay, Federico?

00:25:54 ◼   ► - I think I said it.

00:25:56 ◼   ► - That was a Steven tweet.

00:25:58 ◼   ► As we know, Steven likes to rub it in.

00:26:00 ◼   ► That he's, that he won't turn up.

00:26:01 ◼   ► - Even the AI knows. - You're right.

00:26:03 ◼   ► - Even the AI knows.

00:26:04 ◼   ► Next one is,

00:26:06 ◼   ► one, I want a 10.5 inch iPad.

00:26:11 ◼   ► Two, I want a 10.5 inch iPad with touch ID.

00:26:15 ◼   ► Three, I want a 10.5 inch iPad with a headphone jack.

00:26:19 ◼   ► Four, I want a 10.5 inch iPad with a USB-C port.

00:26:24 ◼   ► Five, I want a 10.5 inch.

00:26:27 ◼   ► - It just stops, how long is this list?

00:26:34 ◼   ► - It just stops, it stops at five and five ends

00:26:36 ◼   ► says I want a 10.5 inch, that's it, it just stops.

00:26:39 ◼   ► Steven, who said that?

00:26:42 ◼   ► Well, who is expected to have said that?

00:26:44 ◼   ► - Wow, go with Federico.

00:26:47 ◼   ► Okay Federico. Yeah I think I said it. That's 200 points each for the two of you.

00:26:55 ◼   ► Yeah, making a list about the iPad and you know something I would do.

00:27:01 ◼   ► Max stories is well known for its listicles. Yes.

00:27:05 ◼   ► Alright, this tweet reads 3.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.

00:27:13 ◼   ► This goes on about for 15 more times.

00:27:16 ◼   ► I wondered if I could get through it and I can't get through it.

00:27:18 ◼   ► So that's the tweet, that's the entire tweet.

00:27:21 ◼   ► 3.1 and then there's like 20 of them.

00:27:24 ◼   ► Wow.

00:27:25 ◼   ► Steven, whose tweet is that?

00:27:28 ◼   ► That's me.

00:27:29 ◼   ► Okay.

00:27:30 ◼   ► I think that's Myke.

00:27:32 ◼   ► That was a Steven tweet.

00:27:33 ◼   ► But now it's 600 points apiece.

00:27:35 ◼   ► So I'm going to emphasize capitals by shouting.

00:27:41 ◼   ► Here's the tweet.

00:27:44 ◼   ► The June 2018 new music playlist is here.

00:27:48 ◼   ► That's Federico.

00:27:50 ◼   ► Okay.

00:27:51 ◼   ► Yeah, I think that's me.

00:27:53 ◼   ► No, that was a mic tweet.

00:27:55 ◼   ► Really?

00:27:57 ◼   ► Apparently, yeah.

00:27:59 ◼   ► 2018 is the year of the podcast.

00:28:03 ◼   ► It's true. I'm gonna go with Myke. Okay. I'm gonna go with Steven. That was a Myke tweet.

00:28:13 ◼   ► That was another... I'm not gonna read it but there are four tweets in my

00:28:17 ◼   ► selection here that all have 2018 in them. What were you doing four years ago?

00:28:23 ◼   ► Don't know. Tweeting a lot I suppose. Yeah, aren't we all. Alright, ready for the next one.

00:28:29 ◼   ► This tweet says "Okay, now the HomePod. I'm betting Apple will release a Plus model at

00:28:35 ◼   ► some point, a smaller, cheaper model with two tweeters and three midwoofers for around

00:28:40 ◼   ► $300, around $200 for the 3.5 model, a larger, non-speaker included model that has the same

00:28:49 ◼   ► speakers as the..."

00:28:51 ◼   ► [laughter]

00:28:52 ◼   ► That's a fantastic tweet.

00:28:57 ◼   ► That's a good one. I'm gonna read it again because it's just fun.

00:29:00 ◼   ► Okay, now the HomePod. I'm betting Apple will release a Plus model at some point,

00:29:05 ◼   ► a smaller, cheaper model with two tweeters and three midwoofers for around $300,

00:29:10 ◼   ► around $200 for the 3.5 model, a larger, non-speaker included model that has the same speakers as the...

00:29:17 ◼   ► I know how it ends.

00:29:19 ◼   ► Steven, who said that?

00:29:22 ◼   ► As the...

00:29:23 ◼   ► As the...

00:29:23 ◼   ► As the...

00:29:24 ◼   ► As the...

00:29:26 ◼   ► As the...

00:29:26 ◼   ► I'm gonna go with Myke. Okay, Federico? I guess the question is the AI must

00:29:36 ◼   ► have seen the data. So who amongst the three of us used before in tweets the

00:29:43 ◼   ► words "tweeters" and "midwoofers," right? I don't think I ever have. Oh yeah. I don't

00:29:50 ◼   ► I think I ever have used those words.

00:29:53 ◼   ► Those strike me as Steven words.

00:29:57 ◼   ► So I'm gonna go with Steven.

00:29:59 ◼   ► - You're both wrong.

00:30:00 ◼   ► That is a Federico tweet.

00:30:02 ◼   ► You're always talking about midwoofers.

00:30:04 ◼   ► - Oh my God.

00:30:05 ◼   ► What, when?

00:30:09 ◼   ► Hold on.

00:30:09 ◼   ► - I don't know.

00:30:10 ◼   ► - How is it from?

00:30:12 ◼   ► Be teaching.

00:30:14 ◼   ► - Midwoofers.

00:30:15 ◼   ► I think, what is a midwoofer?

00:30:16 ◼   ► Is that even a thing?

00:30:17 ◼   ► How is it, how is, is it mid dash woofer?

00:30:22 ◼   ► Or just one word?

00:30:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, mid dash woofer.

00:30:24 ◼   ► - Dash woofers.

00:30:25 ◼   ► - No, it's a hyphenated mid woofers.

00:30:28 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:30:30 ◼   ► - I never tweeted this word.

00:30:33 ◼   ► So the AI made it up.

00:30:36 ◼   ► - Mixing and matching things in.

00:30:37 ◼   ► I've got another one for you.

00:30:41 ◼   ► Oh, and that $10,000 12.9 inch iPad Pro.

00:30:46 ◼   ► It's $1,099.

00:30:49 ◼   ► Ooh, that's a good deal.

00:30:52 ◼   ► That's a discount.

00:30:55 ◼   ► Can you read it again, please?

00:30:57 ◼   ► Oh, and that $10,000 12.9 inch iPad Pro?

00:31:01 ◼   ► It's $1,099.

00:31:02 ◼   ► Who tweeted that, Steven?

00:31:05 ◼   ► It's like 90% off.

00:31:07 ◼   ► I think that's me.

00:31:09 ◼   ► Okay, Federico?

00:31:10 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm gonna go with Steven.

00:31:13 ◼   ► That's true.

00:31:14 ◼   ► even loves a deal. Alright, we're gonna do two more, alright? When I got my first job,

00:31:21 ◼   ► it wasn't a dream, it was an internship.

00:31:24 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:31:30 ◼   ► Why? It wasn't a dream, it wasn't an internship?

00:31:36 ◼   ► It was an internship.

00:31:37 ◼   ► It was an internship.

00:31:38 ◼   ► That's not a dream.

00:31:39 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:31:41 ◼   ► When I got my first job...

00:31:43 ◼   ► Man, I don't know.

00:31:46 ◼   ► I'm gonna go with Myke.

00:31:49 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:31:50 ◼   ► Federico?

00:31:52 ◼   ► - I'm gonna go with me, Federico.

00:31:56 ◼   ► - It was Myke.

00:31:57 ◼   ► So now Steven is leading 1200 to 800.

00:32:01 ◼   ► - I cannot win in this game.

00:32:03 ◼   ► - You cannot win, but you can get closer.

00:32:06 ◼   ► This is the final one.

00:32:08 ◼   ► So I just got my flu shot and I want everyone to know

00:32:11 ◼   ► that the doctor told me it would wear off after two weeks,

00:32:15 ◼   ► but it's still stuck in my head.

00:32:17 ◼   ► - Oh no.

00:32:19 ◼   ► - Stuck in my head?

00:32:21 ◼   ► - So I just got my flu shot and I want everyone to know

00:32:24 ◼   ► that the doctor told me it would wear off after two weeks,

00:32:27 ◼   ► but it's still stuck in my head.

00:32:29 ◼   ► - So this is vaccine misinformation.

00:32:32 ◼   ► - Well, maybe, yeah.

00:32:34 ◼   ► So who would do that, the three of us?

00:32:37 ◼   ► - I don't think either of y'all would tweet about flu shots.

00:32:41 ◼   ► I'm going to say it's me.

00:32:42 ◼   ► Okay.

00:32:42 ◼   ► Federico?

00:32:43 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm going to go with Steven too.

00:32:45 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:32:46 ◼   ► You were both correct.

00:32:47 ◼   ► So that comes out at 1400 points to Steven.

00:32:53 ◼   ► Boom.

00:32:53 ◼   ► 1000 points to Federico.

00:32:56 ◼   ► So the current scores are Federico at 5201 points.

00:33:03 ◼   ► Steven at 7073 points.

00:33:07 ◼   ► Thank you both for...

00:33:10 ◼   ► It's impossible for me.

00:33:11 ◼   ► Well, I mean, who knows?

00:33:13 ◼   ► I might do a 1,000 point round at some point, you know?

00:33:16 ◼   ► You can never know with me.

00:33:18 ◼   ► Thank you both for playing the quizzies.

00:33:20 ◼   ► I am ready to concede if necessary.

00:33:23 ◼   ► You know, I got my speech all good to go.

00:33:28 ◼   ► Like, you know.

00:33:30 ◼   ► Maybe it will end at the end of the year

00:33:32 ◼   ► and then we'll start a new year's points, right?

00:33:36 ◼   ► I haven't decided yet.

00:33:37 ◼   ► And we should say we're gonna put the link to

00:33:40 ◼   ► Edward Munn's tweet thread in the show notes so you can see all these but only look at it after the quiz

00:33:47 ◼   ► Don't look at it now. Don't look at it before I've done this in the wrong order. Okay, I want to talk about an air tag

00:33:54 ◼   ► Alternative. How does that sound? Does that sound good? Intriguing. Intriguing. So

00:34:00 ◼   ► How do you pronounce this company name? Yuffie? I think it's Yuffie. Yeah, I hear youtubers say Yuffie

00:34:07 ◼   ► So yeah, that's all that's how sparks does it so I'll go with it

00:34:10 ◼   ► They make a bunch of stuff that make some home kits cure video cameras and other things and they have

00:34:16 ◼   ► the smart track link

00:34:19 ◼   ► Not a great name item tracker. So it works with the find my app and the whole find my network

00:34:26 ◼   ► It's like a round rect

00:34:29 ◼   ► Air tag, but it has a hole punch through it

00:34:32 ◼   ► So you don't need to like put it in a case, right?

00:34:34 ◼   ► That's part of the deal with the air tags, right? Unless you just put it in your pocket

00:34:37 ◼   ► you need something to attach it to something else.

00:34:40 ◼   ► But this is another alternative

00:34:43 ◼   ► and it's got some cool features.

00:34:44 ◼   ► It has a built-in speaker.

00:34:46 ◼   ► It has the same CR2032 battery.

00:34:49 ◼   ► So the little kind of watch battery you can put in it

00:34:52 ◼   ► after about a year.

00:34:53 ◼   ► And it's 20 bucks as opposed to $29 for an AirTag.

00:34:58 ◼   ► This is not the first thing we've seen

00:35:01 ◼   ► that's fine to my compatible.

00:35:03 ◼   ► Remember there's like that smart bike that I really want

00:35:05 ◼   ► and there's the Chipolo One spot,

00:35:10 ◼   ► and then they also make the key card,

00:35:12 ◼   ► like credit card sizing, you can put in your wallet.

00:35:15 ◼   ► But it's another option.

00:35:16 ◼   ► And if you're kind of annoyed that AirTags

00:35:19 ◼   ► require something else to make them useful

00:35:21 ◼   ► on a key chain or something,

00:35:22 ◼   ► and you don't care about the U1

00:35:25 ◼   ► like extreme up close tracking,

00:35:28 ◼   ► then this seems like a pretty good deal.

00:35:30 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think that the U1 support is,

00:35:34 ◼   ► I think is a $10 differentiator.

00:35:37 ◼   ► I think that that's kind of about right price-wise.

00:35:43 ◼   ► Like this is good for a bunch of reasons.

00:35:45 ◼   ► You can also use the UFE app.

00:35:46 ◼   ► They'll also work on Android.

00:35:48 ◼   ► They have a cool thing.

00:35:49 ◼   ► They have a QR code on the back that you can scan

00:35:52 ◼   ► and it gives the information of the person

00:35:54 ◼   ► whose tracker it is.

00:35:55 ◼   ► Like that's kind of like a clever little feature.

00:35:57 ◼   ► - That's cool.

00:35:58 ◼   ► - And 20 bucks is like, that's good, right?

00:36:00 ◼   ► It's a good deal.

00:36:01 ◼   ► And as you say, Steven, it's like,

00:36:03 ◼   ► it's an easier way to get in for less money

00:36:06 ◼   ► 'cause you don't have to buy something to hook it on

00:36:08 ◼   ► and also it's just easy to put it on a key chain or whatever.

00:36:11 ◼   ► And so as a replacement for a tile tracker or whatever,

00:36:16 ◼   ► that's great 'cause it's in the Fire My Network

00:36:19 ◼   ► and it's 20 bucks, but there is still a jump

00:36:23 ◼   ► to what the AirTag does.

00:36:25 ◼   ► And as a reminder, the U1 thing is like,

00:36:28 ◼   ► Bluetooth will only get you so far,

00:36:29 ◼   ► probably within 10 feet or whatever,

00:36:31 ◼   ► and then it's trying to help you find it

00:36:33 ◼   ► with the Bluetooth signal,

00:36:35 ◼   ► but it's not completely precise.

00:36:37 ◼   ► Where the, when you have the U1 tracking,

00:36:40 ◼   ► at a certain point that takes over from Bluetooth

00:36:42 ◼   ► and can direct you perfectly to where the item is.

00:36:46 ◼   ► So, you know, it depends on the item, right?

00:36:50 ◼   ► Like if you're putting it on a suitcase,

00:36:52 ◼   ► you probably don't need the U1,

00:36:54 ◼   ► but if you are putting it on a bunch of keys,

00:36:57 ◼   ► you might want it 'cause keys are small,

00:36:58 ◼   ► they could fall somewhere, right?

00:37:00 ◼   ► So your mileage might vary.

00:37:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm just glad that the Find My network

00:37:04 ◼   ► continues to expand.

00:37:07 ◼   ► I am a big fan of the Chipolo Wallet Finder.

00:37:10 ◼   ► It's very similar to this.

00:37:11 ◼   ► It's really loud, which is nice.

00:37:13 ◼   ► So if, even though it doesn't have the U1,

00:37:16 ◼   ► like it's really noisy if you open Find My

00:37:19 ◼   ► and tell it to make noise.

00:37:21 ◼   ► But yeah, it's just cool that we're seeing

00:37:22 ◼   ► additional things come out for this network

00:37:24 ◼   ► because it is a very useful feature,

00:37:28 ◼   ► very useful thing to have all your stuff be trackable. Do you use the wallet finder in

00:37:34 ◼   ► your wallet? So I am it was in my old wallet I switched to a Bellroy like super slim one

00:37:40 ◼   ► and it doesn't fit. Yeah so that's why I asked. Maybe I just rubber band it's in my desk right

00:37:45 ◼   ► now my desk drawer. Right. But I do I am sad that doesn't fit that was one bummer going

00:37:49 ◼   ► to the more minimal wallet.

00:37:51 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:37:52 ◼   ► Hashtag minimalism.

00:37:53 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:37:54 ◼   ► Okay.

00:37:55 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:37:56 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:37:57 ◼   ► Interesting.

00:37:58 ◼   ► Oh, Federico, do you still use the magnetic wallet?

00:38:02 ◼   ► No, no, I told you months ago I stopped.

00:38:06 ◼   ► Was it the one?

00:38:07 ◼   ► Because you did the case thing for a while.

00:38:10 ◼   ► You still doing that?

00:38:11 ◼   ► What is the case?

00:38:12 ◼   ► Oh no, I stopped doing that also like two years ago.

00:38:17 ◼   ► It was all because of COVID, because of, it became kind of mandatory to carry around.

00:38:26 ◼   ► We have, it's not like an ID, but it's like this, it's like a, like a health card basically

00:38:35 ◼   ► that has like the equivalent of, I guess, a social security number, but it's not really

00:38:41 ◼   ► a social security number and it's got a chip in it.

00:38:44 ◼   ► You can basically use it at hospitals or pharmacies or other places where you're either buying

00:38:53 ◼   ► medicines or booking appointments to identify yourself in the Italian health system.

00:39:02 ◼   ► And that became mandatory to carry around.

00:39:04 ◼   ► And so that became the fourth card that I needed to have on me at all times.

00:39:10 ◼   ► But all these wallets, both the case thing and the MagSafe one, which I loved, but they're

00:39:17 ◼   ► all limited to three cards.

00:39:20 ◼   ► And so if I wanted to have my ID, my debit card, my credit card, and the health card,

00:39:28 ◼   ► I needed to look at something else.

00:39:30 ◼   ► So I got one of those cheap wallets from Amazon that has like a little button that you press

00:39:37 ◼   ► and it pushes out the cards.

00:39:39 ◼   ► And I really like it. I've been using that for like six months. At some point it'll break,

00:39:46 ◼   ► I guess. It's like the stitching is coming apart on one side. But I mean, I paid like

00:39:51 ◼   ► 12 euros for it. It's like a no-brand thing, and it's fine. I'm open to suggestions. I

00:39:58 ◼   ► really like this one because it's super compact. It can store three cards in the metallic structure,

00:40:06 ◼   ► And then you can place two more in an outer, like in a different pocket of the wallet when

00:40:13 ◼   ► you fold it open.

00:40:15 ◼   ► It's got like this little section for two more cards.

00:40:17 ◼   ► And you can even store some cash in it.

00:40:21 ◼   ► It's got like a smaller compartment where you can fit like a couple of bills or something

00:40:25 ◼   ► like that.

00:40:26 ◼   ► It's very nice, it's very compact, and then you can fold it close and it's got this button

00:40:30 ◼   ► at the bottom that you push it and it pops out the cards that you want to pick up like

00:40:34 ◼   ► your credit card for example.

00:40:36 ◼   ► I like it, but I've been wondering about this AirTag compatibility thing.

00:40:42 ◼   ► It would be nice to have...

00:40:44 ◼   ► Because I am extremely paranoid about losing my wallet.

00:40:47 ◼   ► I'm one of those people who constantly double-check in my pockets if I have still my wallet on

00:40:51 ◼   ► me and my car keys on me.

00:40:54 ◼   ► So if anyone has a recommendation for something that is compact...

00:40:59 ◼   ► Not too expensive, because I really don't want to spend like $200 on a wallet.

00:41:03 ◼   ► I understand why lots of people do.

00:41:05 ◼   ► I don't particularly care.

00:41:07 ◼   ► It's more the utility of it.

00:41:09 ◼   ► If there's a way for me to have something compact

00:41:11 ◼   ► that lets me store four cards, some cash,

00:41:14 ◼   ► and an air tag, send a link my way, maybe, you know,

00:41:19 ◼   ► would you be so kind to send me a link?

00:41:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:41:23 ◼   ► That'd be nice.

00:41:24 ◼   ► Yeah, that'd be cool.

00:41:25 ◼   ► But to answer your question, Myke,

00:41:26 ◼   ► no, I'm not using the Macs.

00:41:28 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:41:30 ◼   ► Federico, you have launched Apple Frames

00:41:35 ◼   ► 3.0, which is your massive shortcut where people can take screenshots and embed them in

00:41:42 ◼   ► Apple devices. So I can take a screenshot of my iPhone and then run it through this shortcut,

00:41:47 ◼   ► and it has like the iPhone border around it. Tell us a little bit about how this works and then,

00:41:55 ◼   ► you know, why 3.0 is here. Yeah, so you may remember I launched version 2.0,

00:42:05 ◼   ► last year and that also was a major update to Apple Frames based on a new structure.

00:42:10 ◼   ► And that version worked well, I would say, for the past year, actually maybe more, like 15 months or

00:42:20 ◼   ► something. All the problems started when I began working on adding support for the iPhone 14 Pro

00:42:26 ◼   ► family and the new multiple display resolution modes. If you recall, that version of Apple

00:42:34 ◼   ► frames was based on a single JSON file that contained a lot of Base64.

00:42:43 ◼   ► Base64, one of the recurring in-jokes of this program, is a technique that lets you turn files,

00:42:53 ◼   ► like images, into plain text. It does that by using its own algorithm that encodes a file into

00:43:04 ◼   ► a bunch of random text that is incredibly long, like hundreds of

00:43:09 ◼   ► thousands of characters long. And when you deal with those kinds of strings of

00:43:14 ◼   ► texts that are incredibly long, plain text can get surprisingly large. To give

00:43:23 ◼   ► some context, I was dealing with a 45, 46 megabyte plain text file, which if you know

00:43:35 ◼   ► plain text, you know that 46 megabyte for a plain text file is wild. BBEdit was the

00:43:42 ◼   ► only app I could use to open that file, and even BBEdit was like super snappy at navigating

00:43:51 ◼   ► that file. But it got to a point where all the solutions that I was using before, like

00:43:56 ◼   ► the excellent JSON app by Simon Storring, it just couldn't open the file anymore. As soon as I added

00:44:03 ◼   ► the iPhone 14 Pro and the Pro Max frames, JSON was crashing on launch every single time I opened

00:44:11 ◼   ► the file. So for like a month I struggled to get this to work, because I reached the point where

00:44:20 ◼   ► Even I couldn't debug the file and the shortcut anymore.

00:44:25 ◼   ► And even I, so, and that was the worst part.

00:44:28 ◼   ► I couldn't get the frames out of the file anymore,

00:44:33 ◼   ► because I couldn't open the file

00:44:35 ◼   ► and I couldn't copy the text.

00:44:37 ◼   ► And every time I opened it, it would crash.

00:44:39 ◼   ► So like, it was like all my work was prisoner of base64.

00:44:44 ◼   ► It was like, how can I do this?

00:44:46 ◼   ► So it took me like a week to scroll manually with BBEdit all the sections of the base64

00:44:56 ◼   ► and manually copy the bits in between the double quotes. And as you can imagine, like,

00:45:04 ◼   ► scrolling a single frame took me like 20 minutes. And I wasted so much time.

00:45:12 ◼   ► But basically, eventually, I was able to take all the data out of the JSON file,

00:45:18 ◼   ► and I realized, you know, this is impossible. I know that I redid this shortcut last year,

00:45:25 ◼   ► but if I want to make this easier for me to maintain and to add more stuff in the future,

00:45:33 ◼   ► I need to stop using Base64. Plain text is not the way to go with this anymore. I need to use

00:45:40 ◼   ► actual PNG image files stored somewhere in the file system. So Apple Frames 3 has a brand new

00:45:48 ◼   ► structure. When you download it, it installs a folder for you. Well, first it downloads a zip

00:45:55 ◼   ► archive from MacStories. It takes care of unzipping that archive, and it just installs a folder

00:46:04 ◼   ► in iCoud Drive shortcuts called Frames, that contains all the things that the shortcut needs,

00:46:11 ◼   ► all the images and all the coordinates and all the other information that are required.

00:46:16 ◼   ► And that, as soon as I figured out that structure, that opened a whole new world of possibilities for

00:46:24 ◼   ► me, because it's now so much easier for me to add new devices to Apple Frames. I don't have to deal

00:46:31 ◼   ► with encoding and decoding anymore, I can just take the PNG that Sylvia prepares for me, drop it into a folder,

00:46:39 ◼   ► and add the coordinates for pasting the screenshots on top of the frame in a text file that is super lightweight.

00:46:48 ◼   ► To prove my point, I'm already working on version 3.1 of Apple Frames that will bring back compatibility with the 13-inch MacBook Pro,

00:46:58 ◼   ► which I removed a while back. I got a bunch of requests from people, and, surprisingly,

00:47:05 ◼   ► I got like five different people asking me about this already. The iPhone 8 Plus. Don't

00:47:12 ◼   ► ask me why. I got a bunch of requests, and I figured, you know, now that I have this

00:47:17 ◼   ► simple structure that makes it so easy to add new stuff, why not? So, I'm already working

00:47:23 ◼   ► version 3.1. And yeah, so there was technically, like, from the behind the scenes point of view,

00:47:30 ◼   ► there was a lesson to be learned there about, you know, Base64 can be useful, but don't overdo it,

00:47:36 ◼   ► and I definitely overdid it for a long time. Initially, the shortcut was storing the Base64

00:47:44 ◼   ► inside the shortcut itself, and then it became an external file, but even that was not

00:47:52 ◼   ► good enough for me. Brief aside, shortcuts should really offer you the ability to store assets

00:47:59 ◼   ► inside a shortcut that you want to share with other people. This is one of the things that,

00:48:04 ◼   ► Steven, I'm sure you know about this. Automator has offered this functionality for decades.

00:48:10 ◼   ► Yeah, forever.

00:48:11 ◼   ► If you have resources that you need to store in an Automator workflow, like, "Hey, users need this

00:48:19 ◼   ► PDF document or they need this PNG,

00:48:23 ◼   ► you can store that.

00:48:24 ◼   ► You can store those resources inside the workflow

00:48:28 ◼   ► that you share with people.

00:48:30 ◼   ► Automator has this, Shortcut does not.

00:48:33 ◼   ► And so I had to do this thing where like,

00:48:35 ◼   ► I'm hosting the assets on my CDN

00:48:39 ◼   ► and the Shortcut has to download those

00:48:42 ◼   ► and install those for people in iCODE drive.

00:48:44 ◼   ► I mean, none of this is ideal for people, but.

00:48:49 ◼   ► or your hosting bill, probably.

00:48:51 ◼   ► - To talk about the new stuff,

00:48:53 ◼   ► full support for the dynamic island,

00:48:55 ◼   ► iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max in both orientations.

00:48:59 ◼   ► M2 MacBook Air, Myke was kind enough

00:49:02 ◼   ► to lend his screenshot taking skills to the cause.

00:49:07 ◼   ► I was able to add support for the M2 MacBook Air

00:49:10 ◼   ► because of the kind help of Myke sending me screenshots.

00:49:14 ◼   ► What else?

00:49:16 ◼   ► Oh yeah, and I figured while I was at it, you know, I added support for default and

00:49:26 ◼   ► more space resolutions, both on iPadOS 16 and on macOS.

00:49:32 ◼   ► So all the Mac models supported by Apple Frames, you can now frame those screenshots, whether

00:49:40 ◼   ► you use default resolution or more space resolution.

00:49:42 ◼   ► I forgot where...

00:49:43 ◼   ► Oh, there's a new action.

00:49:46 ◼   ► have this new Quick Save to Finder or Files, so if you want to save like, I don't know,

00:49:53 ◼   ► five screenshots with a single command without having to rename each of them, which was the

00:49:59 ◼   ► case before, now you can just press the Quick Save button and you're going to save all of

00:50:04 ◼   ► those framed images all at once. Yeah, that's about it. Oh, and Apple Watch Ultra, Apple

00:50:10 ◼   ► Watch Ultra as well. But I'm already working on version 3.1 of Apple Frames, and I mean,

00:50:16 ◼   ► I'm pretty much done. As I mentioned, I'm going to restore support for the 13-inch

00:50:21 ◼   ► Micro Pro, bring back the iPhone 8 Plus. But I also had this idea for this new feature.

00:50:28 ◼   ► Again, this new foundation of Apple Frames makes it so much easier for me to add stuff.

00:50:34 ◼   ► And one of the first things I want to add is this feature that I called "Input Macros."

00:50:41 ◼   ► The idea being that you can use Apple Frames manually, like you always have. You just run

00:50:47 ◼   ► it manually from the shortcuts app, from the home screen, as a widget, whatever, and it'll

00:50:55 ◼   ► continue working. But I figured out a system to trigger Apple Frames in different ways.

00:51:06 ◼   ► I will release this utility shortcuts

00:51:09 ◼   ► that lets you trigger Apple frames in different modes,

00:51:13 ◼   ► I guess.

00:51:14 ◼   ► For example, one of them is run Apple frames,

00:51:18 ◼   ► but just get the image that I have in the clipboard

00:51:23 ◼   ► and frame that.

00:51:24 ◼   ► Like don't let me pick images,

00:51:26 ◼   ► just get the one from the clipboard.

00:51:27 ◼   ► - Very sweet.

00:51:28 ◼   ► - There's another mode that is just

00:51:30 ◼   ► immediately frame the latest screenshot I took.

00:51:35 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:51:35 ◼   ► There's another mode where you can pass a number and say, frame the most recent seven

00:51:43 ◼   ► screenshots I took. I figured out the system to basically pass an instruction to Apple

00:51:52 ◼   ► Frames and it will skip the image picking process and it'll just do its thing for you

00:51:59 ◼   ► based on the command that you sent.

00:52:01 ◼   ► I have a request, a feature request.

00:52:05 ◼   ► to be able to have a bunch of, maybe it does this,

00:52:08 ◼   ► I don't know, to be able to say like,

00:52:10 ◼   ► take these three and put them in frames

00:52:14 ◼   ► and put them in one, say, horizontal image.

00:52:17 ◼   ► - That's already the case.

00:52:18 ◼   ► - It could do that already?

00:52:19 ◼   ► Cool, I'm gonna redo a screenshot that I need.

00:52:21 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:52:22 ◼   ► - Yeah, so if you pick three iPhone screenshots.

00:52:25 ◼   ► - It would give you all in one image?

00:52:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, only one.

00:52:29 ◼   ► - I never tried that.

00:52:29 ◼   ► I just never thought that it could do it.

00:52:31 ◼   ► I never tried.

00:52:32 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, it does that.

00:52:33 ◼   ► - Thank you. - It does that.

00:52:34 ◼   ► What some people have been asking is, "Can you properly align screenshots from different

00:52:44 ◼   ► devices?"

00:52:46 ◼   ► And unfortunately, there's nothing I can do there.

00:52:49 ◼   ► So if you try, for example, right now, you combine...

00:52:52 ◼   ► So let's say you pick an Apple Watch screenshot and an iPhone screenshot.

00:52:56 ◼   ► Apple Frames will frame them, and it will combine them in a single image.

00:53:01 ◼   ► But ideally, you want the Apple Watch to be aligned with the bottom edge of the iPhone,

00:53:10 ◼   ► right?

00:53:11 ◼   ► If you were to put together like a nice image for your website, you would want to have the

00:53:17 ◼   ► Apple Watch aligned with the bottom edge of the phone.

00:53:20 ◼   ► Right now it doesn't.

00:53:21 ◼   ► Apple Frames doesn't do that.

00:53:23 ◼   ► It just puts the Apple Watch at the very top and the iPhone next to it.

00:53:31 ◼   ► And that's because Apple Frames at the moment doesn't have any idea of proportions between

00:53:36 ◼   ► different devices, which is something that I've been thinking about how to solve.

00:53:43 ◼   ► Is there any way for me to add logic in the image compositing process to say, "I understand

00:53:52 ◼   ► that you're trying to frame an iPhone and an Apple Watch, let me make sure that when

00:53:59 ◼   ► they end up together, they have the correct proportions and alignment, but I haven't figured

00:54:05 ◼   ► that out yet. Otherwise, like right now, for example, you end up with the absurd scenario

00:54:11 ◼   ► in which if you frame an iPhone and an iPad, like the iPhone is taller than the iPad, right?

00:54:18 ◼   ► that kind of stuff. You're not going to notice this if you just frame screenshots from the

00:54:25 ◼   ► same device, but the moment you mix and match, the composited image looks weird. And that's

00:54:31 ◼   ► always been the case, but that's because I still need to figure out that logic. And hopefully

00:54:37 ◼   ► that will happen at some point. But yeah, 3.1 should be coming out soon with more legacy

00:54:43 ◼   ► devices and this new macro system for running Apple Frames in a bunch of different ways.

00:54:51 ◼   ► And I'm excited about that, but otherwise, you know, people are really into this shortcut

00:54:55 ◼   ► and I'm happy to continue working this. You know, it's been, what, three, four years at

00:55:01 ◼   ► this point and it's always fun.

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00:56:36 ◼   ► Relay FM. I feel like we've got to talk about Twitter. The news changes. The news

00:56:44 ◼   ► has changed multiple times since we started the document. In fact the stuff

00:56:47 ◼   ► in the show notes is now completely wrong. So I propose we talk sort of more

00:56:53 ◼   ► about how we feel more than like the news. I think it's really hard to keep

00:56:57 ◼   ► that up to date as quickly as things are moving. Obviously it's been a

00:57:04 ◼   ► drama-filled week and a half since Elon Musk took over Twitter, laid off almost

00:57:11 ◼   ► half the staff last week, which is just a wave of a bunch of layoffs happening in

00:57:15 ◼   ► tech. I saw today that Meta let go 11,000 people, roughly 13% of their

00:57:21 ◼   ► workforce, so a lot of layoffs in the tech sector right now. That's obviously

00:57:25 ◼   ► really hard and frustrating to watch because a bunch of those people did

00:57:28 ◼   ► great work for a long time and they're just let go overnight. But Twitter is

00:57:34 ◼   ► undergoing a lot of changes, right? It is now a privately held company by Elon

00:57:40 ◼   ► Musk and his holdings company. A lot of debt is associated with that. It was a

00:57:45 ◼   ► 44 billion dollar deal and he has to pay that back. The interest alone is

00:57:50 ◼   ► substantial and Twitter was not making money if Elon's word is to be believed

00:57:56 ◼   ► something like four million dollars a day in losses when he took over and it's

00:58:02 ◼   ► important to remember I think that Twitter is not a big platform it is big

00:58:09 ◼   ► if you're in the tech world or if you're in professional athletics or if you're

00:58:14 ◼   ► in like news and politics but the couple hundred million active users it has

00:58:19 ◼   ► is a drop in the bucket compared to meta which is like 10 times the size and so

00:58:25 ◼   ► while I think we often talk about Twitter in terms of equal footing with

00:58:30 ◼   ► Facebook and Instagram and other social platforms it's really not very big it's

00:58:35 ◼   ► extremely influential for its size I mean turn on any newscasts in America

00:58:40 ◼   ► and some something that someone said on Twitter will be in that newscast because

00:58:44 ◼   ► again like news, sports, tech, these are some areas that really revolve around

00:58:48 ◼   ► Twitter, but out in the broader world the user base is much smaller than some of

00:58:53 ◼   ► the other things, and so it means that the people I think, I think on the whole

00:59:00 ◼   ► people on Twitter care more about Twitter than people on Facebook care

00:59:04 ◼   ► about Facebook, as like on the company level, which makes all of this much more

00:59:08 ◼   ► exciting. Like there's so much talk on Twitter, especially at the moment, but it

00:59:13 ◼   ► kind of has always been just about Twitter, like just in general, it's not

00:59:17 ◼   ► really a thing that I see as prevalent on other social media networks. It just feels

00:59:24 ◼   ► like people on Twitter like Twitter in general. I don't really know what to... I wanted to

00:59:34 ◼   ► talk about this today. I was the one who asked the two of you, "Can we talk about it?"

00:59:40 ◼   ► You drug us into this a little bit. We're just fine.

00:59:43 ◼   ► And I don't really know where to go with it as such, right?

00:59:47 ◼   ► I think that, you know, this is obviously very complicated and Elon is a very problematic

00:59:54 ◼   ► individual and is bringing a lot of that energy just to Twitter in general now.

01:00:00 ◼   ► I am on the side of the idea that Twitter should be a private company.

01:00:04 ◼   ► I actually think that that is better for Twitter right now, but I think it very much remains

01:00:11 ◼   ► to be seen if the guy that owns it is the right person to own it. I think so far the

01:00:18 ◼   ► answer feels pretty much no, right? That like it is absolute chaos it feels like at the

01:00:25 ◼   ► moment. Right so like as we're recording today they, like because there's been this whole

01:00:30 ◼   ► thing about like people paying for verification right it's part of Twitter Blue and then they

01:00:34 ◼   ► were like well we're also going to put in this system where very notable individuals

01:00:40 ◼   ► will get a secondary tag which is added to their account. So like whether they pay or

01:00:45 ◼   ► not it will be noted like government officials or whatever. And then this came into effect

01:00:52 ◼   ► today where a bunch of people got official added to their Twitter account which was a

01:00:58 ◼   ► grey word official with like a grey outline of a verification. But it was also added to

01:01:04 ◼   ► like a bunch of celebrities, tons of YouTubers got it and then within hours it was taken

01:01:10 ◼   ► away again and then re-clarified that it's only going to be given to companies.

01:01:15 ◼   ► And it's just absolute chaos. It feels like no one is making definitive decisions and

01:01:24 ◼   ► things are leaving Twitter before anyone seems to have fully agreed on them. Because just

01:01:29 ◼   ► a couple of weeks ago these absolutely wild app release notes came out talking about fighting

01:01:37 ◼   ► in the bots and power to the people, like in the App Store release notes, which I read

01:01:42 ◼   ► on platform and were written directly by Jason Calacanis and I was like, "Oh, okay then.

01:01:47 ◼   ► I understand."

01:01:49 ◼   ► And so they kind of, they just like, that came out, but like Twitter Blue is not even

01:01:54 ◼   ► ready for this stuff.

01:01:57 ◼   ► It feels like, it feels like they're a startup again, but like they shouldn't be, like it

01:02:03 ◼   ► It shouldn't feel like this, it shouldn't have this kind of energy to it because it

01:02:07 ◼   ► is this established thing.

01:02:10 ◼   ► Really the reason I wanted to talk about this is like, this is all preamble to just, I just

01:02:15 ◼   ► want to know how the two of you feel about being on Twitter right now.

01:02:20 ◼   ► Like how it makes you feel, what you would, or if you would consider something else instead.

01:02:27 ◼   ► That's kind of what I wanted to talk about.

01:02:29 ◼   ► I love Twitter, I've always loved Twitter.

01:02:32 ◼   ► I owe a lot of the things I know and the people I know to Twitter.

01:02:37 ◼   ► I think it, I always, I've always felt like Twitter was the social network made for me

01:02:43 ◼   ► and people like me.

01:02:46 ◼   ► And I've always felt like it was the social network that best represented my interests,

01:02:53 ◼   ► the way I like to communicate publicly.

01:02:56 ◼   ► It's the place where I can find interesting things, funny things, engage with listeners,

01:03:01 ◼   ► readers in a way that Facebook doesn't let me do that, YouTube doesn't let me do that,

01:03:06 ◼   ► Instagram doesn't let me do that, and Twitter is perfect for me. But right now I feel like,

01:03:17 ◼   ► I feel sad and worried and at times just in awe of the sheer stupidity of many decisions

01:03:33 ◼   ► that are being taken right now.

01:03:36 ◼   ► Amongst all of them, the worst one is this idea of giving verification to everybody without

01:03:50 ◼   ► verifying their identity, but just by letting them pay for it.

01:03:57 ◼   ► And I'm not saying that because I'm one of those people saying, "No, no, I'm verified.

01:04:03 ◼   ► should be exclusive for an exclusive club. It's not about that. It's about the signal

01:04:12 ◼   ► that you're sending and about the, you know, verification was important because you could

01:04:20 ◼   ► verify the identity of an individual and say, yes, this person is who they claim to be.

01:04:27 ◼   ► But right now, and I'm going to get political and I'm sorry, but I think I, to understand

01:04:33 ◼   ► And the consequences of this, I think it's helpful to speak in practical terms with practical

01:04:40 ◼   ► examples.

01:04:41 ◼   ► Mark Gorman, we all know Mark, just posted a tweet showing how there is no moderation

01:04:47 ◼   ► when it comes to "verifying" people now if they just sign up for Twitter Blue, which

01:04:54 ◼   ► launched again as we were recording the show at $8 a month.

01:04:58 ◼   ► Oh, they did it again.

01:04:59 ◼   ► They've done it, they've launched it again.

01:05:01 ◼   ► Congratulations everyone.

01:05:03 ◼   ► It's now live.

01:05:04 ◼   ► By the end of this episode,

01:05:05 ◼   ► they probably will pull it, I would expect.

01:05:07 ◼   ► It's now live again.

01:05:08 ◼   ► It launched a few minutes ago.

01:05:10 ◼   ► And like I was saying,

01:05:13 ◼   ► nobody is verifying anyone anymore, right?

01:05:17 ◼   ► It's just that you pay, you get a blue check mark.

01:05:19 ◼   ► And so right now, according to this tweet by Mark Gurman,

01:05:24 ◼   ► user called minefuhrer is verified on Twitter.

01:05:31 ◼   ► Awesome.

01:05:32 ◼   ► Mindfuhrer with a blue checkmark next to it.

01:05:35 ◼   ► This is not like theoretical.

01:05:37 ◼   ► This is like a real user right now.

01:05:42 ◼   ► You can go in and open their profile.

01:05:45 ◼   ► So you know, someone who pretends to be Hitler or is named after Hitler can be verified on

01:05:53 ◼   ► Twitter right now by just paying $8 a month.

01:05:58 ◼   ► And we knew this was going to happen, right? Because they, Musk said, uh, power to the

01:06:02 ◼   ► people, uh, give us $8 and you can be verified, but it's not about being verified. Is it?

01:06:10 ◼   ► It's just about paying $8. You're just paying a subscription. So the reason I'm concerned

01:06:16 ◼   ► is that you're getting all the benefits of verification by just signing up for a subscription.

01:06:23 ◼   ► And I gotta ask, why?

01:06:27 ◼   ► It's so stupid.

01:06:28 ◼   ► The company itself has realized, "Oh, well, but what are we gonna do for the organizations

01:06:35 ◼   ► and the celebrities that we want to make sure are verified, are who they claim to be?

01:06:41 ◼   ► Well, I guess we're gonna need another checkmark."

01:06:44 ◼   ► So in a span of a week, you went back to the original problem, and you realized that the

01:06:53 ◼   ► solution to that problem was what you thought was the problem in the first place.

01:06:58 ◼   ► Good job.

01:06:59 ◼   ► You just invented another checkmark.

01:07:02 ◼   ► But right now, in the meantime, user mine_fuhrer can sign up for Twitter Blue, get a blue checkmark,

01:07:08 ◼   ► and what are the benefits called again?

01:07:11 ◼   ► they have a new splash screen saying "Rocket" to the top of your replies and search results.

01:07:17 ◼   ► Well they're just gonna wait. This is the other thing. It's basically turning Twitter

01:07:23 ◼   ► into pay for play. That you now have to give money, or have to be in a case where you can

01:07:31 ◼   ► give money to be able to see, for your tweets to be seen. Because they're making, if you

01:07:39 ◼   ► subscribed to twitter blue or you are verified or whatever there's always been a verified tab

01:07:43 ◼   ► but it was the third tab so you had all activity mentions and verified and so you could go to

01:07:50 ◼   ► verified and see what other verified people were saying to you they're now making verified it seems

01:07:54 ◼   ► like the first tab so most people will just see notifications from verified users if they are

01:08:01 ◼   ► verified if you want to have this like paid system of doing all this stuff like i suppose do it but

01:08:08 ◼   ► but why make it part of the verified system,

01:08:12 ◼   ► which is like, I had to submit my identification

01:08:16 ◼   ► to be verified.

01:08:17 ◼   ► Like I was, I don't remember, it was a long time ago,

01:08:21 ◼   ► and I had to send Twitter a scan of my passport

01:08:24 ◼   ► to prove who I was,

01:08:25 ◼   ► and I had to answer a bunch of questions, right?

01:08:27 ◼   ► This is what you had to do.

01:08:29 ◼   ► And that should be what this is.

01:08:31 ◼   ► And if you can't do that anymore,

01:08:34 ◼   ► get rid of it for everyone, right?

01:08:36 ◼   ► Whatever.

01:08:37 ◼   ► Like if you're saying someone is verified,

01:08:41 ◼   ► it means you have verified them.

01:08:43 ◼   ► And like they're saying, oh, a credit card would do it.

01:08:46 ◼   ► I'm pretty sure that person's name is not mine, Fuhrer.

01:08:48 ◼   ► Right?

01:08:49 ◼   ► Like I feel pretty confident

01:08:52 ◼   ► that that's probably not their legal name.

01:08:54 ◼   ► If it is like, I guess fine, I suppose, like egg on my face,

01:08:59 ◼   ► but I'm assuming it probably isn't.

01:09:01 ◼   ► And so there isn't verification.

01:09:04 ◼   ► The verification is like, you have a credit card, right?

01:09:07 ◼   ► But it doesn't say anything, right?

01:09:10 ◼   ► And I just, it's just all just like this,

01:09:14 ◼   ► this is like a perfect example of like,

01:09:17 ◼   ► I just have like much more increased anxiety

01:09:22 ◼   ► on Twitter at the moment than I have,

01:09:24 ◼   ► which is already pretty high when I'm there, to be honest,

01:09:27 ◼   ► but I'm addicted, right?

01:09:29 ◼   ► Like this is the issue.

01:09:30 ◼   ► And I saw someone, I think it was,

01:09:33 ◼   ► Oh, I've got to find this tweet because it was, this actually is like a good bordering

01:09:38 ◼   ► between the two things that I'm feeling right now.

01:09:42 ◼   ► I think it was from Chris Sacker.

01:09:45 ◼   ► Jason sent it to me.

01:09:46 ◼   ► I'm just going through Slack to find this now.

01:09:50 ◼   ► It was super good of like explaining the situation.

01:09:52 ◼   ► Yeah, it was Chris Sacker.

01:09:54 ◼   ► To those questioning if I'm going to Mastodon, that's like asking if I'm going to quit a

01:09:59 ◼   ► a pack of day camels habit to start rolling my own clothes cigarettes like

01:10:04 ◼   ► the rest of you. I just need to stop smoking. It's like that like encapsulates

01:10:09 ◼   ► both things of like I go to Twitter and I'm going there more right now than I

01:10:13 ◼   ► have done in a while because I'm addicted to it and I also just can't

01:10:16 ◼   ► help but not see what's happening, but if I decide to quit like I'm done like

01:10:23 ◼   ► I'm not going to go spin up a mastodon server like this is if I leave, which I

01:10:28 ◼   ► I think my timeline of if, like it's an if timeline,

01:10:33 ◼   ► but like my if timeline of will I stop using Twitter

01:10:36 ◼   ► is speeding up now, like an accelerating rate,

01:10:39 ◼   ► I feel like.

01:10:40 ◼   ► Like if I'm ever going to quit,

01:10:42 ◼   ► I think that that time is coming faster

01:10:44 ◼   ► than it would have without Elon in charge.

01:10:47 ◼   ► Because it's just, it's so,

01:10:50 ◼   ► it just feels so bad right now.

01:10:52 ◼   ► And everyone is just even more mad than they were before.

01:10:55 ◼   ► And it's like a new mad about Twitter,

01:10:57 ◼   ► which is on top of all of the other mad,

01:10:59 ◼   ► which is already on Twitter all the time, right?

01:11:01 ◼   ► People just being mad about things.

01:11:03 ◼   ► I just, I don't enjoy being there right now.

01:11:06 ◼   ► It feels like chaos, but not good chaos.

01:11:09 ◼   ► Yeah, if I'm gonna leave,

01:11:11 ◼   ► I'm, it's just like I'm done with it.

01:11:14 ◼   ► So I wonder what you two think about that.

01:11:16 ◼   ► - I think my is when, not if.

01:11:19 ◼   ► I have over the last year or so,

01:11:22 ◼   ► just been much more aware of my usage of it.

01:11:25 ◼   ► and like you feel pretty addicted to it, to be honest.

01:11:29 ◼   ► And for me, it's about the direction of the platform

01:11:34 ◼   ► just as much as about like what I want personally for me.

01:11:37 ◼   ► Right, and I think overall,

01:11:41 ◼   ► there's not a scenario that I can imagine

01:11:43 ◼   ► where it ends well for Twitter.

01:11:45 ◼   ► It either slowly becomes less relevant

01:11:49 ◼   ► and just hangs on forever,

01:11:51 ◼   ► like Flickr or Tumblr or one of those other services

01:11:53 ◼   ► that we all used to use all the time

01:11:55 ◼   ► now we don't even think about it anymore. Or it sinks into some sort of like 4chan

01:12:00 ◼   ► level of hell that without moderation and without a lot of people who make the

01:12:08 ◼   ► community what it is now. One of the best things about Twitter, at least in the

01:12:12 ◼   ► Apple community and the technology community, is that I can see and talk to

01:12:19 ◼   ► a lot of people who have a lot of different thoughts and feelings and

01:12:23 ◼   ► points of view on things. And that's fantastic. And our little corner of it

01:12:28 ◼   ► feels pretty good most of the time. But at the same time,

01:12:33 ◼   ► it feels like the shadows are creeping in around the edges already.

01:12:38 ◼   ► And, you know, I don't remember who said this.

01:12:42 ◼   ► It was on a podcast I listened to,

01:12:43 ◼   ► it may have been someone who really it may not have been, but, um,

01:12:45 ◼   ► the genius, one of the geniuses of Twitter, oh, it was on, um, offline,

01:12:51 ◼   ► which is a Pod Save America podcast.

01:12:53 ◼   ► Jon Favreau had Neil Patel on this weekend's episode.

01:12:56 ◼   ► And I think it was on that show they were talking about,

01:13:00 ◼   ► kind of the brilliance of Twitter

01:13:02 ◼   ► is that you just type into a box

01:13:05 ◼   ► and like everyone's thoughts and feelings

01:13:08 ◼   ► are kind of on the same level, right?

01:13:10 ◼   ► It's different from YouTube where if you're shooting a video

01:13:14 ◼   ► on like your iPhone 4S versus MKBHD shooting in like 8K,

01:13:18 ◼   ► like there's real quality differences.

01:13:20 ◼   ► So Twitter in a way is like the great equalizer

01:13:23 ◼   ► in terms of social media platforms.

01:13:25 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:13:26 ◼   ► - But for all the good that brings,

01:13:29 ◼   ► and it brings a lot of good,

01:13:30 ◼   ► like I do not want to undersell like the good,

01:13:34 ◼   ► and frankly, the good that Twitter's done,

01:13:36 ◼   ► frankly, what the three of us have benefited from Twitter,

01:13:39 ◼   ► because all three of us have benefited from it,

01:13:44 ◼   ► professionally and personally, hugely.

01:13:47 ◼   ► That's all fantastic, but I'm not willing to stick around

01:13:52 ◼   ► and watch it burn if it crosses some sort of threshold

01:13:56 ◼   ► I'm unwilling to cross.

01:13:58 ◼   ► And I don't know what that is.

01:14:00 ◼   ► I've taken a big step back, but it is so complicated.

01:14:05 ◼   ► I mean, even in talking about it now,

01:14:07 ◼   ► I feel like I'm talking in circles

01:14:08 ◼   ► because I don't really know what I feel about it.

01:14:10 ◼   ► I don't know what I think about it other than it hurts.

01:14:14 ◼   ► and it hurts to see a place that on its best days

01:14:19 ◼   ► promised equal footing for all voices.

01:14:23 ◼   ► And Twitter wasn't perfect at that right there.

01:14:25 ◼   ► I mean, under previous administrations of Twitter,

01:14:27 ◼   ► like abuse and harassment

01:14:30 ◼   ► and people chased off the platform,

01:14:31 ◼   ► like it's been a bad place for a long time,

01:14:36 ◼   ► but on its best days, you could see what it could be.

01:14:39 ◼   ► And Elon and all the people he's brought in

01:14:44 ◼   ► do not care about that, right?

01:14:46 ◼   ► They have a big problem on their hands at the financials.

01:14:50 ◼   ► They saw the blue check mark as something people wanted.

01:14:53 ◼   ► And I think Musk hates the press.

01:14:57 ◼   ► If you look at the way he operates his other country,

01:14:59 ◼   ► other companies, he doesn't like the press.

01:15:01 ◼   ► Tesla famously doesn't have a PR department.

01:15:04 ◼   ► SpaceX doesn't really either,

01:15:06 ◼   ► although it's a little bit different.

01:15:07 ◼   ► They're not really a consumer company.

01:15:09 ◼   ► It fits in with, okay, we need money.

01:15:12 ◼   ► People want to like take down the liberal blue check people

01:15:17 ◼   ► and it fits in with his sort of view of the world.

01:15:21 ◼   ► And I was talking to Casey about this.

01:15:23 ◼   ► I hope he doesn't mind.

01:15:24 ◼   ► It's something I said in our conversations.

01:15:26 ◼   ► I feel like I can share it.

01:15:27 ◼   ► This is fundamentally different

01:15:29 ◼   ► than Elon Musk's other companies, right?

01:15:32 ◼   ► Like Tesla and SpaceX and the Boring Company

01:15:34 ◼   ► and everything else.

01:15:35 ◼   ► Like they've all done, well, not the Boring Company.

01:15:37 ◼   ► SpaceX and Tesla have both done amazing things.

01:15:39 ◼   ► They're amazing people who work there.

01:15:40 ◼   ► I know people at both companies

01:15:43 ◼   ► who are doing their best work of their lives

01:15:45 ◼   ► in that structure.

01:15:47 ◼   ► Those companies don't affect tens of millions of people

01:15:51 ◼   ► based on what Elon Musk thinks about the world, right?

01:15:55 ◼   ► Elon's like libertarian stance on things,

01:15:58 ◼   ► which is like, it's what he believes, right?

01:16:00 ◼   ► I disagree with it, that's fine.

01:16:02 ◼   ► But it doesn't really affect how the Model S turns out.

01:16:06 ◼   ► It doesn't really affect SpaceX's ability

01:16:09 ◼   ► to do amazing things with their rockets.

01:16:12 ◼   ► But with Twitter, like you, I mean,

01:16:15 ◼   ► in Eli's "Welcome to Hell" Elon piece,

01:16:17 ◼   ► which we'll link in the show notes,

01:16:19 ◼   ► he was like, you know,

01:16:20 ◼   ► the thing that these companies make is content moderation.

01:16:23 ◼   ► That's their product.

01:16:24 ◼   ► Musk has no experience in that.

01:16:26 ◼   ► And it seems like he's allergic to it in a lot of ways.

01:16:29 ◼   ► And that's at odds with what he says

01:16:31 ◼   ► he's gonna do for advertisers.

01:16:33 ◼   ► And so I think it's confused as we feel about it

01:16:36 ◼   ► and as conflicted as we feel about it,

01:16:37 ◼   ► that reflects what's happening with Twitter itself,

01:16:40 ◼   ► where it seems like a company that's in complete disarray

01:16:43 ◼   ► and no one knows really what's happening.

01:16:45 ◼   ► And like, I mean, Esther, I forget her last name,

01:16:49 ◼   ► but she's the one who's been tweeting a lot

01:16:50 ◼   ► about like the new verification system.

01:16:52 ◼   ► She works for Twitter still.

01:16:53 ◼   ► And like, Elon's just going around

01:16:55 ◼   ► basically undoing everything she's doing in public.

01:16:57 ◼   ► Like that has to feel terrible.

01:16:59 ◼   ► - Esther Crawford.

01:17:01 ◼   ► - Yes, thank you.

01:17:02 ◼   ► It just, it's a mess.

01:17:03 ◼   ► And what I fear is like the, you know,

01:17:07 ◼   ► the idea of like Twitter being a city on a hill,

01:17:09 ◼   ► like everyone's voice can be heard

01:17:11 ◼   ► and you can learn from people with different points of view

01:17:13 ◼   ► and different backgrounds.

01:17:14 ◼   ► Like as hard as that was to see in the past,

01:17:17 ◼   ► and I did think we had glimpses of it on the old Twitter,

01:17:20 ◼   ► I'm afraid that that is gone.

01:17:23 ◼   ► That the people who I need to listen to more in my life

01:17:28 ◼   ► because they have points of view that are different for me

01:17:30 ◼   ► and I can grow as a person being exposed to them,

01:17:35 ◼   ► a lot of those folks aren't gonna stick around

01:17:37 ◼   ► because Twitter's not a safe place for them anymore.

01:17:40 ◼   ► And that, at the end of the day,

01:17:42 ◼   ► I think is what bums me out the most.

01:17:45 ◼   ► Like, I'll just say it,

01:17:46 ◼   ► as like a verified white dude on Twitter,

01:17:48 ◼   ► like, I'm probably not gonna feel

01:17:50 ◼   ► a lot of like personal pain on Twitter

01:17:52 ◼   ► beyond what I put myself through.

01:17:54 ◼   ► But there are so many people on Twitter

01:17:56 ◼   ► whose voices other people think shouldn't be there,

01:18:00 ◼   ► and they're gonna be run off,

01:18:02 ◼   ► and that makes the platform worse,

01:18:03 ◼   ► and that means it's a place I don't wanna be.

01:18:05 ◼   ► - Like everything that you said, Stephen,

01:18:07 ◼   ► like 100%, I agree with that.

01:18:09 ◼   ► And I would add that for me,

01:18:13 ◼   ► it's also a matter of kind of company are you supporting

01:18:18 ◼   ► by participating in it,

01:18:20 ◼   ► and by effectively giving your free content.

01:18:24 ◼   ► - Or paying for it, not right.

01:18:25 ◼   ► Or paying for it. Like, I can tell you right now, I am not going to pay $8 to stay verified.

01:18:33 ◼   ► In good conscience, right now, as it stands, I'm not going to shout out $8 to the guy who

01:18:43 ◼   ► posts a meme with a Nazi soldier. I am not going to, you know, give my $8 to the company

01:18:53 ◼   ► that allows user mindfuhrer to verify. I'm sorry, but that's a pretty hard and clear

01:19:02 ◼   ► line for me. Being okay with posting Nazi symbols and imagery or having usernames, that's

01:19:16 ◼   ► a big nope from me. And I'm sure that, you know, fellow Italians and Germans, I'm sure

01:19:23 ◼   ► that, you know, this is a topic that is especially close to our countries for obvious historical

01:19:31 ◼   ► reasons. I mean, we literally have laws both in Italy and in Germany to ban imagery and

01:19:39 ◼   ► symbols and that type of stuff, which, and seeing that on Twitter with the blue check

01:19:46 ◼   ► mark next to it, you know, it, it hurts and it sucks. And I don't want to participate

01:19:52 ◼   ► in that.

01:19:53 ◼   ► And if it hurts you think about how much it hurts somebody who, who has a more personal

01:20:00 ◼   ► connection to those historic events. Right.

01:20:02 ◼   ► Exactly. Like nothing happened to me because of those historical events. Imagine people

01:20:10 ◼   ► and communities and, and you know, folks who are and continue to be still affected by that

01:20:16 ◼   ► line of political thinking. And that's the thing for me. Ultimately, that's the thing

01:20:20 ◼   ► for me. The idea that we should welcome all opinions under this Utopian banner of free

01:20:30 ◼   ► speech. That's where I draw the line, because for me, there are some things that are not

01:20:38 ◼   ► free speech, they are violence. And I cannot, as a person, justify things and opinions and

01:20:48 ◼   ► ideas and symbols and whatever, like, that are wrong, as "No, it's just someone else's

01:20:56 ◼   ► No, it's wrong and illegal, I would say, in some countries.

01:21:01 ◼   ► So that's where I draw the line.

01:21:03 ◼   ► If this continues, well, obviously, I'm not going to...

01:21:06 ◼   ► And it's not so quite...

01:21:08 ◼   ► I don't want to just, you know, I don't want to pay $8 to the richest white man in the

01:21:12 ◼   ► world to be, "Hey, I'm cool too."

01:21:14 ◼   ► You know, like, no, no.

01:21:17 ◼   ► And if this company allows for this kind of users and symbols and photos to continue spreading,

01:21:24 ◼   ► I don't want to participate in that.

01:21:26 ◼   ► Yeah, absolutely. And I do think we're going to get to a point where that very thing becomes

01:21:32 ◼   ► a litmus test, at least in our community. And I mean, it's something that I thought of when you

01:21:39 ◼   ► were talking like these images and symbols of hatred that our society can't seem to

01:21:46 ◼   ► scrub itself of. Like that's as bad as that is, it's just one category and one example.

01:21:52 ◼   ► Exactly. Just one of them.

01:21:54 ◼   ► If you have a verified account or an account that Elon or one of his boys retweets that is against people of color or against trans people,

01:22:06 ◼   ► those folks should be safe on a platform like Twitter.

01:22:11 ◼   ► And again, Twitter before this was not perfect or even good at this, right?

01:22:16 ◼   ► Like, don't hear what I'm not saying.

01:22:17 ◼   ► But it is even worse when the guy who wholly owns the company is proliferating it, right?

01:22:24 ◼   ► So you can say you have a moderation issue, right?

01:22:27 ◼   ► 'Cause like moderation at this scale

01:22:29 ◼   ► is a very complicated thing,

01:22:31 ◼   ► which takes huge person power to make work.

01:22:35 ◼   ► - And no system is perfect, right?

01:22:37 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:22:38 ◼   ► - But when the dude who bought it,

01:22:40 ◼   ► swims in those waters, it sets the tone.

01:22:44 ◼   ► - Yep.

01:22:45 ◼   ► - And when you look at a company that just went under,

01:22:47 ◼   ► again, massive layoffs,

01:22:49 ◼   ► and the teams that were gutted were things like

01:22:52 ◼   ► ethical AI research and the safety team

01:22:56 ◼   ► and like a bunch of teams that are really vital

01:22:59 ◼   ► to this service remaining safe for people to be on,

01:23:03 ◼   ► you gotta wonder what the future holds.

01:23:05 ◼   ► And I don't see any sign that this new leadership

01:23:10 ◼   ► gives a crap about these serious moderation issues, right?

01:23:14 ◼   ► He says it's gonna be a free speech haven

01:23:16 ◼   ► while also saying it's gonna be good for advertisers.

01:23:18 ◼   ► Advertisers don't wanna be associated

01:23:19 ◼   ► with any of this either, right?

01:23:22 ◼   ► It's, I mean, YouTube has struggled with this, right?

01:23:25 ◼   ► YouTube has struggled on and off the year,

01:23:27 ◼   ► over the years with having advertising paired

01:23:31 ◼   ► with extreme content or radicalized content.

01:23:34 ◼   ► And then a bunch of advertisers freak out

01:23:35 ◼   ► and they have to rework their algorithms and their rules.

01:23:37 ◼   ► And like, I think someone, I think, again,

01:23:40 ◼   ► someone else said this, I've consumed way too much media

01:23:43 ◼   ► over the last week about this,

01:23:44 ◼   ► but it's like Elon and team are speed running,

01:23:49 ◼   ► running a network, right?

01:23:50 ◼   ► Like you saw YouTube and even Tumblr, Tumblr went through this.

01:23:54 ◼   ► Flickr went through this.

01:23:55 ◼   ► Like figuring out what's okay and not okay on your platform.

01:23:59 ◼   ► He's doing it in public.

01:24:01 ◼   ► He's doing it at a breathtaking speed.

01:24:04 ◼   ► And he's doing it with something that was already up and running.

01:24:07 ◼   ► I mean, Myke, you mentioned at the top of this that it feels like they're a startup

01:24:10 ◼   ► again.

01:24:11 ◼   ► They are too big and too influential for that to be the case for very long.

01:24:16 ◼   ► I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on some things for a little while

01:24:21 ◼   ► as they get their feet under them, but it's become increasingly clear to me that I don't

01:24:26 ◼   ► think it's going to get to a place where I'm comfortable staying.

01:24:29 ◼   ► And like, that sucks.

01:24:33 ◼   ► Like there are so many people that I know, including the two of you, that some of our

01:24:38 ◼   ► first interactions were on Twitter.

01:24:41 ◼   ► And I like that serendipity, that ability to meet somebody and talk to somebody like

01:24:50 ◼   ► a lot of that's been gone from Twitter for a while now.

01:24:53 ◼   ► At least for us, our lives changed.

01:24:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:24:56 ◼   ► Like I expect that there are a lot of people that still do have that exact same thing that

01:25:01 ◼   ► we all had 15 years ago, but like our just lives changed over that time period.

01:25:08 ◼   ► But that's going to disappear, right?

01:25:11 ◼   ► Because the the conversation, the question you started asking us like two hours ago,

01:25:15 ◼   ► Myke was like, what do we go from here?

01:25:17 ◼   ► I'm with you.

01:25:18 ◼   ► Like I have a Mastodon account.

01:25:19 ◼   ► I'm not interested in using it.

01:25:21 ◼   ► I did it to hold my name.

01:25:23 ◼   ► And I mean, I think I set one up like, yeah, when it started, I haven't bothered to look.

01:25:28 ◼   ► I looked at mine the other day.

01:25:29 ◼   ► I started in like 2018 and it has one post on it.

01:25:33 ◼   ► And that's all it'll be.

01:25:35 ◼   ► Um, I could see myself in the not too distant future not being on social media at all, which

01:25:40 ◼   ► which is really weird to think about

01:25:42 ◼   ► because on the professional,

01:25:44 ◼   ► so like on the personal level, I'm already there, right?

01:25:46 ◼   ► Like I don't post like on Instagram,

01:25:49 ◼   ► anything about my family.

01:25:51 ◼   ► I actually went through my history

01:25:52 ◼   ► and like took down pictures of my kids

01:25:54 ◼   ► and that sort of thing.

01:25:55 ◼   ► Like I turned Instagram into a professional thing

01:25:57 ◼   ► and then I took it off my phone.

01:25:58 ◼   ► I haven't looked at it in a while.

01:26:00 ◼   ► I've done the same thing on Twitter

01:26:02 ◼   ► where I'm basically just using it in a professional context.

01:26:06 ◼   ► And I know you and Jason spoke about this on Upgrade Plus

01:26:08 ◼   ► about how he still really values that as a professional.

01:26:12 ◼   ► And I do too, because that's where our audience is.

01:26:15 ◼   ► Like most of the stuff in feedback or follow-up

01:26:17 ◼   ► on this very podcast you're listening to comes from Twitter.

01:26:21 ◼   ► It doesn't come from the email address.

01:26:22 ◼   ► I wish it would, but it comes from Twitter.

01:26:24 ◼   ► And so there is part of this that part of the conflict is,

01:26:28 ◼   ► well, I'm in, I like it personally,

01:26:30 ◼   ► but that's where the audience is.

01:26:31 ◼   ► And I need to be able to interact

01:26:35 ◼   ► and like see what people think about the shows

01:26:37 ◼   ► and like, you know, answer questions

01:26:39 ◼   ► and like be available to people.

01:26:40 ◼   ► And I wanna continue to do that, right?

01:26:42 ◼   ► It's one reason I love our Discord so much.

01:26:44 ◼   ► But having said that,

01:26:48 ◼   ► like at some point the balance is gonna shift

01:26:50 ◼   ► and that's not gonna be enough.

01:26:52 ◼   ► It may hurt me professionally.

01:26:54 ◼   ► It may make people think of my projects less often, right?

01:26:57 ◼   ► It may mean that I don't sell as many calendars next year

01:26:59 ◼   ► or whatever, but I have to be okay with that

01:27:02 ◼   ► if I feel like this is not a thing

01:27:04 ◼   ► I wanna be a part of anymore.

01:27:05 ◼   ► And that's tough. It's hard to know.

01:27:07 ◼   ► I don't think that it's a concern for us anymore.

01:27:11 ◼   ► Like more people pay attention to the three of us

01:27:16 ◼   ► via our non-social media things.

01:27:18 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:27:19 ◼   ► Right. And I would say maybe it's a little more complicated for the two of you,

01:27:22 ◼   ► because I know that like writing, you know,

01:27:25 ◼   ► like I know Twitter drives a lot of traffic,

01:27:27 ◼   ► but so for our podcasts though, right?

01:27:30 ◼   ► Like our audiences are audiences. I don't think Twitter grows that audience for us.

01:27:35 ◼   ► I don't think we see significant amounts of new traffic

01:27:40 ◼   ► because we post our episodes, you know?

01:27:43 ◼   ► I mean, and I know this to be the case

01:27:45 ◼   ► 'cause I can see that our audience numbers

01:27:47 ◼   ► stay mostly the same.

01:27:49 ◼   ► And maybe it means we're never gonna get those

01:27:51 ◼   ► like bubbling up moments, right?

01:27:54 ◼   ► But I don't know really one, how much they happen

01:27:58 ◼   ► and two, how important they are.

01:28:00 ◼   ► I think this is a very different thing for me

01:28:02 ◼   ► than for you two for that reason of like,

01:28:05 ◼   ► what do we publish, right?

01:28:08 ◼   ► And everything that I make is audio

01:28:13 ◼   ► or is a physical product,

01:28:15 ◼   ► which I'll talk about on one of my audioship.

01:28:17 ◼   ► Like social media is really bad

01:28:21 ◼   ► for promoting podcasts in general.

01:28:23 ◼   ► And so like from a professional perspective,

01:28:27 ◼   ► it isn't as important for me anymore

01:28:30 ◼   ► for like getting out to my audience of people.

01:28:35 ◼   ► And I mean, one of the reasons I know this is like, I barely tweet anymore.

01:28:40 ◼   ► This has been me for a long time.

01:28:41 ◼   ► It wasn't a conscious decision.

01:28:42 ◼   ► I just kind of stopped tweeting.

01:28:44 ◼   ► And really now all I ever tend to do is share things that I'm working on.

01:28:49 ◼   ► But I don't think it really drives much of anything for me now.

01:28:55 ◼   ► And like, really the majority of my tweets, they're just replies to people that are asking

01:29:00 ◼   ► me things.

01:29:01 ◼   ► I would miss that.

01:29:02 ◼   ► When you said that, Stephen, I hadn't realized that, yes, the majority of the feedback and

01:29:06 ◼   ► follow up that I get from listeners comes from Twitter and I don't want more email.

01:29:14 ◼   ► So like that would start to be a thing that would become difficult for me.

01:29:17 ◼   ► Like I think I would maybe set up like a form or something, right?

01:29:22 ◼   ► Like go fill out a Google form if you've got some follow up, like if I was to leave, right?

01:29:27 ◼   ► or like questions follow up that kind of stuff because I'd

01:29:31 ◼   ► That would be the main thing that I would miss. Yeah, it's it's tough right and it's tough because it has become

01:29:39 ◼   ► the personal and professional

01:29:41 ◼   ► While you were talking I was I was sitting thinking about

01:29:44 ◼   ► The fact I left Facebook

01:29:47 ◼   ► 2014 or 15 it's a long time ago and I was conflicted about that because it's like well

01:29:54 ◼   ► I got a bunch of friends on here,

01:29:56 ◼   ► and this is how I keep up with like,

01:29:57 ◼   ► what's going on in their lives, right?

01:29:58 ◼   ► Like, oh, we're having a baby, or we're moving, or whatever.

01:30:01 ◼   ► And what I've learned in the years since then

01:30:04 ◼   ► is that I still keep up with people

01:30:05 ◼   ► I wanna keep up with, right?

01:30:07 ◼   ► It's the core group of people that I really care about.

01:30:10 ◼   ► What I've realized is that it has solidified

01:30:13 ◼   ► the relationships I wanna keep up with.

01:30:15 ◼   ► And I think the same would be true for Twitter.

01:30:17 ◼   ► Like, I could still read who I wanna read,

01:30:19 ◼   ► I still listen to who I wanna listen to.

01:30:21 ◼   ► It's not like a bunch of people

01:30:22 ◼   ► are gonna be Thanos out of my life

01:30:25 ◼   ► because I quit looking at Twitter.

01:30:27 ◼   ► Just gotta find different ways

01:30:28 ◼   ► to keep up with who I really want to.

01:30:30 ◼   ► I think that's why so many people

01:30:32 ◼   ► are like clamoring for what is next.

01:30:34 ◼   ► Like, oh, let's go, I'll go over here.

01:30:36 ◼   ► I don't think any system,

01:30:37 ◼   ► any social media platform is perfect.

01:30:40 ◼   ► And I don't think Mastodon really solves

01:30:42 ◼   ► many of the problems that Twitter has.

01:30:43 ◼   ► Like I know it's federated or like whatever,

01:30:45 ◼   ► and that's cool technically,

01:30:46 ◼   ► but at the end of the day,

01:30:47 ◼   ► if you put a bunch of human beings in a service,

01:30:49 ◼   ► you have to have moderation

01:30:50 ◼   ► because people do and say bad things.

01:30:53 ◼   ► And so I just don't know if anything can replace it.

01:30:58 ◼   ► And I'm becoming more and more comfortable

01:31:00 ◼   ► with thinking that that's actually okay,

01:31:03 ◼   ► that we don't actually need something to replace it.

01:31:07 ◼   ► Yes, it's sad.

01:31:08 ◼   ► Yes, it is frustrating.

01:31:11 ◼   ► But at the same time,

01:31:13 ◼   ► the world isn't gonna stop spinning

01:31:15 ◼   ► because a social network like Twitter goes away.

01:31:18 ◼   ► And listen, you might, right?

01:31:21 ◼   ► You might need something.

01:31:23 ◼   ► And that's perfectly okay, right?

01:31:26 ◼   ► I just want to say, you know, like,

01:31:28 ◼   ► we just have for us, I think we can live without it.

01:31:32 ◼   ► I mean, Federico, I don't know if you've mentioned,

01:31:34 ◼   ► but like, you know, if you out there feel like

01:31:37 ◼   ► you need Mastodon, like, please go ahead.

01:31:40 ◼   ► Like, I encourage you.

01:31:42 ◼   ► - Right, or micro.blog or like this,

01:31:45 ◼   ► I mean, there's other things, right?

01:31:46 ◼   ► I think what we're running what we're gonna be in is like everyone is on a handful of slacks and discords

01:31:52 ◼   ► And you have like weird overlapping social circles

01:31:54 ◼   ► You know I think we should always go back to blogging like Federica, and I talked about last week, but it's um

01:31:59 ◼   ► Yeah, I think for me at the end of the day like I will be sad, but fine leaving it behind

01:32:06 ◼   ► Yeah, if that happens you know

01:32:11 ◼   ► We'll just, we'll leave the trolls and all those people on Twitter and

01:32:16 ◼   ► maybe it's gonna be weird for a while as

01:32:20 ◼   ► we split up. Maybe, you know, some of us are gonna say I'm not gonna be on social media at all.

01:32:25 ◼   ► Some of us are gonna be split into like these private communities like slacks and discords, for example.

01:32:31 ◼   ► I think at some point if

01:32:34 ◼   ► Twitter goes

01:32:37 ◼   ► badly as it seems to be going as of right now,

01:32:41 ◼   ► now. I think at some point there will be a new thing that is not Mastodon. And I

01:32:48 ◼   ► mean, I love open source projects, I tweeted about my Mastodon username just

01:32:55 ◼   ► as a backup. I'm not using it. I never posted "created an account in 2018" and I

01:33:02 ◼   ► still don't understand it. And that's the main problem with it. And yes, you

01:33:07 ◼   ► can you know you're gonna send me a video about what Federation means what

01:33:11 ◼   ► the Fediverse is if you are under the illusion that my mom is gonna sign up

01:33:20 ◼   ► for a Mastodon instance hmm I mean come on seriously like this is a like the the

01:33:30 ◼   ► it really feels like the Linux version of social media for people like us and

01:33:36 ◼   ► And even people like us, like I struggle to understand it.

01:33:40 ◼   ► So this is not gonna be it.

01:33:43 ◼   ► Must I believe, I fundamentally believe

01:33:46 ◼   ► that something like Twitter needs to exist

01:33:50 ◼   ► and will exist again,

01:33:52 ◼   ► but it's gonna be strange for a while

01:33:55 ◼   ► because these things, you know, unless you wanna,

01:33:58 ◼   ► you know, you said if watching Elon

01:34:00 ◼   ► and his sycophants around Twitter

01:34:03 ◼   ► feels like watching a speed running a social network.

01:34:07 ◼   ► To me, it feels more than speed running.

01:34:09 ◼   ► At the moment, it feels like improv.

01:34:11 ◼   ► - Oh, yeah.

01:34:13 ◼   ► - They are improvising.

01:34:14 ◼   ► Everything feels improvised.

01:34:16 ◼   ► Like, "Ooh, I don't know, blue check mark?

01:34:17 ◼   ► Yeah, go for it.

01:34:19 ◼   ► Like, ooh, the official one?

01:34:21 ◼   ► Maybe, oh, no, no, no, pull it.

01:34:24 ◼   ► We're gonna do it later.

01:34:25 ◼   ► Release notes?

01:34:26 ◼   ► Yeah, write them like that.

01:34:27 ◼   ► Ooh, but no, they are bad."

01:34:29 ◼   ► Like, everything feels like it's been improvised,

01:34:32 ◼   ► like on the spot. And it shouldn't be like that. Anyway, I think it's gonna be strange

01:34:41 ◼   ► for a while. Yeah, I think a bunch of people in our community—and Twitter is made of

01:34:48 ◼   ► all these communities, like that's why for years we've been saying things like Apple

01:34:52 ◼   ► Twitter or video game Twitter or, you know, Pokemon Twitter. Like, Twitter is, by and

01:34:58 ◼   ► large, Twitter is all of its sub-communities, and they happen organically, and they're not

01:35:06 ◼   ► structured, like subreddits can be structured on Reddit, where you have clear sub-communities.

01:35:13 ◼   ► It's more organic and chaotic, which has always been the fun aspect of Twitter, you know,

01:35:18 ◼   ► to dip in and out of different social spheres, I guess. Something like it needs to exist,

01:35:27 ◼   ► it won't for a while, because if an alternative comes out, you know, most people, thankfully,

01:35:32 ◼   ► most business people are not like Elon, just throwing 44 billions at something he wanted

01:35:39 ◼   ► to buy out of spite, I guess. Usually business people think about their investments and the

01:35:47 ◼   ► companies they want to run, and it takes time to strategize, to come up with a plan. So

01:35:53 ◼   ► If a Twitter alternative comes out, it'll be a while because it's not something you

01:35:58 ◼   ► can improvise. That's how I feel about it. Yeah. So I don't know where that all ends

01:36:03 ◼   ► or even where we ended up. I think the thing is, I think we don't know.

01:36:10 ◼   ► We don't. It's impossible to keep track of it. It's impossible to know, but I think we

01:36:14 ◼   ► all feel a certain way, and that feeling should be our North Star right now. Like, at some point,

01:36:24 ◼   ► you gotta ask yourself, "If this thing makes you feel bad or gross, are you sure you want to

01:36:32 ◼   ► continue using it?" We can't know how it's gonna go, but let's keep checking in on our feelings

01:36:39 ◼   ► about this and I think a decision will just happen organically. I think it'll just happen

01:36:46 ◼   ► naturally in our community and in other communities. If things go a certain direction, I think

01:36:52 ◼   ► we'll just know if and when it's time to leave.

01:36:58 ◼   ► If you want to find links to stuff we spoke about this week, head on over to the website

01:37:02 ◼   ► relay.fm/connected/423. There you can become a member of connected pro which is a longer ad-free

01:37:11 ◼   ► version of the show each and every week. This week Federico asked the unaskable question about MacOS

01:37:18 ◼   ► and said something about mail.app. So leave it at that. And he bought an application. He bought an

01:37:23 ◼   ► app on the app store. It was wild. He acquired an app. He acquired an app. I am working on my

01:37:30 ◼   ► review as we speak. Good! First item does not work as Myke and Steven told me it would.

01:37:37 ◼   ► On that web page there's also an email link you can send us feedback or follow up there. We love

01:37:44 ◼   ► to hear what you think about the show. You can find us all online. Federico is the editor-in-chief

01:37:50 ◼   ► of MacStories.net. Go check out Apple Frames. It's so good. I enjoyed when you do it all like the

01:37:57 ◼   ► Apple journalist people we know like yes finally he's updated it like so many

01:38:02 ◼   ► people use this it's really great and it makes everything look way more

01:38:05 ◼   ► professional than just having a floating screenshot in your story or in your

01:38:09 ◼   ► tweet or whatever yeah I'm gonna use them for my state of the app screenshots

01:38:12 ◼   ► that's what I wanted it for Federico so they're gonna look much nicer this time

01:38:16 ◼   ► so thank you it's good you can find Myke on a bunch of other shows here on relay

01:38:22 ◼   ► FM you just mentioned state of the apps that's a upcoming cortex episode I

01:38:26 ◼   ► I suppose towards the end of the year.

01:38:28 ◼   ► So at some point soon in the future.

01:38:30 ◼   ► - Recording it tomorrow.

01:38:32 ◼   ► - Recording it tomorrow is what I've heard.

01:38:33 ◼   ► - Oh nice. - Is what I've been told.

01:38:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, so it's gonna be pretty soon.

01:38:37 ◼   ► - Always know Daisy record Cortex

01:38:38 ◼   ► because I can't get ahold of you.

01:38:40 ◼   ► Like answer me five hours later.

01:38:43 ◼   ► - Yep.

01:38:44 ◼   ► - You can find me online.

01:38:45 ◼   ► I write at 512pixels.net

01:38:47 ◼   ► and I'm the co-host of Mac Power Users here on Relay FM.

01:38:50 ◼   ► Go check that show out.

01:38:51 ◼   ► A big thank you to our members

01:38:52 ◼   ► for their direct support of the show and the network.

01:38:55 ◼   ► Again, if you're not a member,

01:38:56 ◼   ► go check that out.

01:38:57 ◼   ► If you are a member, go check out the Discord.

01:39:00 ◼   ► It's a fantastic community of a bunch of people

01:39:02 ◼   ► who care about technology.

01:39:04 ◼   ► - It's better than Twitter.

01:39:05 ◼   ► - It's better than Twitter.

01:39:06 ◼   ► It's way better and cheaper.

01:39:08 ◼   ► - There are rules, they're enforced, you know?

01:39:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's great. - Imagine.

01:39:13 ◼   ► - It's fantastic.

01:39:14 ◼   ► I'd like to thank our sponsors for this episode.

01:39:16 ◼   ► They are Capital One and Indeed.

01:39:18 ◼   ► And until next time, guys, say goodbye.

01:39:20 ◼   ► - I'll be there with you. - Cheerio.