Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:08 ◼   ► From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 392.

00:00:13 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you by Electric Text Expander and NetSuite.

00:00:17 ◼   ► I am Myke Early and I have the absolute pleasure of introducing to you all,

00:00:23 ◼   ► Federico Vittucci. Hi Federico.

00:00:25 ◼   ► Hello Myke. What a nice "from Relay FM".

00:00:29 ◼   ► I'll give you the extra, you know, you want it, so I'll just give you the extra.

00:00:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:00:33 ◼   ► I have a question about the introduction thing.

00:00:36 ◼   ► So with it being round robin, it does mean I only ever introduce you, right?

00:00:40 ◼   ► Like, I think that's how this works. It's like it's not randomized in any way, right?

00:00:44 ◼   ► Like, I am always the person introducing Federico.

00:00:46 ◼   ► I think that's how this works, right?

00:00:48 ◼   ► Yeah, I think that's how it works.

00:00:52 ◼   ► Don't you want to introduce me anymore?

00:00:54 ◼   ► I have no problem with that at all.

00:00:56 ◼   ► Like, none at all. I just wondered.

00:00:58 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, it is also my pleasure to introduce our other co-host for

00:01:06 ◼   ► this program from the United States of America, from Tennessee, from Memphis, from his house,

00:01:14 ◼   ► from his podcast cabin specifically, Mr. Steven Hackett.

00:01:18 ◼   ► Hello.

00:01:19 ◼   ► You see how I did the whole thing, like from America and then the state.

00:01:23 ◼   ► I thought you were going to rattle off my address for a second.

00:01:28 ◼   ► From Latitude.

00:01:29 ◼   ► I don't know about the ordering thing.

00:01:34 ◼   ► That's a good question for the makers of connectedintro.com.

00:01:39 ◼   ► Maybe they can provide us some real-time follow-up.

00:01:42 ◼   ► Because that's what I wonder of, like, do we need to round robin it perfectly, or do

00:01:46 ◼   ► we just need to round robin it?

00:01:48 ◼   ► So here's where...

00:01:49 ◼   ► Look, okay.

00:01:50 ◼   ► It's like...

00:01:51 ◼   ► Nested round robins, right? Yes. So, no that's how we could, I mean look, I don't

00:01:57 ◼   ► know how you do the mess on this, but like, I, you know, do one in three, but

00:02:03 ◼   ► then like the first time I introduced Federico, the second time I introduced

00:02:07 ◼   ► Steven, you know? Right. Then it goes back, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like

00:02:11 ◼   ► concentric round robins. Yeah. Spiraling robins. Yeah, Zach says it is a

00:02:20 ◼   ► normal round robin right now so what about what about like randomized robins and we call them

00:02:26 ◼   ► like quantum robins or something like that that's really good

00:02:31 ◼   ► i think that the order of who starts the intro needs to be regular round you know yeah but then

00:02:39 ◼   ► outside of that i mean we can go into the multiverse of madness you know what i'm saying

00:02:43 ◼   ► should we have rules for the robins i mean we're all thinking it right that this is where we're

00:02:48 ◼   ► - I wasn't. I don't know what they would be yet.

00:02:51 ◼   ► We'll think about that.

00:02:53 ◼   ► You know what? Let's just keep talking

00:02:54 ◼   ► 'cause I don't want to do follow-up today.

00:02:57 ◼   ► I don't want to do it.

00:02:58 ◼   ► - Well, there's some follow-up we need to do.

00:02:59 ◼   ► - Two thirds of the follow-up,

00:03:01 ◼   ► I think I have explicitly asked for us never to do again.

00:03:05 ◼   ► Could not have made clearer

00:03:07 ◼   ► that I never wanted to cover

00:03:10 ◼   ► either of these things ever again.

00:03:12 ◼   ► - It's a democracy here.

00:03:14 ◼   ► And my third of the democracy

00:03:16 ◼   ► wants to talk about these things.

00:03:16 ◼   ► This doesn't feel democratic.

00:03:18 ◼   ► This feels authoritarian.

00:03:20 ◼   ► Like I am being forced against my will to listen to this.

00:03:23 ◼   ► - The first one, I will just say,

00:03:25 ◼   ► we got a lot of feedback about how Apple charges more

00:03:28 ◼   ► for black keyboards and mice on trackpad

00:03:30 ◼   ► than white and silver ones.

00:03:32 ◼   ► We understand there's a link.

00:03:34 ◼   ► Go look at the link.

00:03:35 ◼   ► - Do you have any idea what it's like to have follow up

00:03:38 ◼   ► that you don't want follow you across two shows?

00:03:42 ◼   ► This is where I am with this now.

00:03:43 ◼   ► - Well, you're making this last longer than it has to.

00:03:46 ◼   ► I was just saying, we've heard you,

00:03:48 ◼   ► there's a link in the show notes.

00:03:49 ◼   ► - Well, I'm upset.

00:03:50 ◼   ► - Okay, well the next one will definitely calm you down.

00:03:53 ◼   ► #GreenGate.

00:03:54 ◼   ► - This is nonsense.

00:03:55 ◼   ► - No man, come on. - Why?

00:03:57 ◼   ► - This is like from, this is from two years ago, come on.

00:04:00 ◼   ► I mean, geez.

00:04:01 ◼   ► - I just wanna share an update, that's all.

00:04:04 ◼   ► - No, no one wants it except you.

00:04:06 ◼   ► - Apple had an iOS update that was meant to fix this

00:04:09 ◼   ► where some iPhone models had like a green or gray tint

00:04:11 ◼   ► to their display.

00:04:12 ◼   ► An anonymous source shared an intro--

00:04:15 ◼   ► This is the thing that makes me most annoyed about this.

00:04:17 ◼   ► I feel, I honestly, oh man, this feels...

00:04:20 ◼   ► Are you questioning my sources?

00:04:22 ◼   ► No, it's just, this is just really annoying.

00:04:25 ◼   ► No, it just feels like being waterboarded with follow-up.

00:04:28 ◼   ► It's what it feels like.

00:04:29 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:04:31 ◼   ► You're just pouring this thing on our ears because it's a podcast.

00:04:36 ◼   ► Because also, it's like, you may have just thought to yourself,

00:04:38 ◼   ► "I want to do more of that."

00:04:39 ◼   ► See, like, "Oh, my source is anonymous, so you know, can't prove it."

00:04:44 ◼   ► Are you questioning my integrity as a...

00:04:46 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:04:47 ◼   ► - Out.

00:04:48 ◼   ► - Well, you just said you were a pseudo journalist.

00:04:50 ◼   ► Like you won't even commit.

00:04:51 ◼   ► - Well, I mean like is podcasting

00:04:52 ◼   ► or blogging really journalism?

00:04:54 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:04:54 ◼   ► - You went to school to be a pseudo journalist?

00:04:57 ◼   ► Wow.

00:04:58 ◼   ► - And also, hang on a second, hang on a second.

00:05:00 ◼   ► As the person with a journalism degree,

00:05:02 ◼   ► shouldn't you be able to answer that question?

00:05:04 ◼   ► - No, it means that I have the most questions about it.

00:05:06 ◼   ► It's very existential in my mind

00:05:08 ◼   ► if podcasting and blogging is journalism or not.

00:05:11 ◼   ► - But you should be able to answer.

00:05:12 ◼   ► surely you have some kind of framework.

00:05:15 ◼   ► Like, isn't that like the first lesson in journalism school?

00:05:19 ◼   ► - No, it's like if you go to school to major in philosophy,

00:05:24 ◼   ► you have more questions when you graduate

00:05:25 ◼   ► than when you go in.

00:05:26 ◼   ► - Whoa, yeah, but that's philosophy.

00:05:28 ◼   ► Like most things aren't like philosophy.

00:05:30 ◼   ► No, journalism isn't philosophy.

00:05:32 ◼   ► Like if you go to school for chemistry,

00:05:35 ◼   ► you don't leave and you're like, I don't know anything.

00:05:37 ◼   ► I have more questions than when I began.

00:05:38 ◼   ► Like that's bad teaching.

00:05:40 ◼   ► - Isn't that the whole point of the college system

00:05:42 ◼   ► the United States though like no okay it's just to play carry Omar and ask

00:05:49 ◼   ► questions that's all it is Apple has a document saying that if you have an

00:05:54 ◼   ► iPhone 12 and you show up with this issue so apparently it is still going on

00:05:59 ◼   ► for some people quote let the customer know that Apple is aware of the reports

00:06:03 ◼   ► and is looking into it Apple itself refers to itself in the singular I will

00:06:08 ◼   ► point out. Because they're American. And they say don't set up service for the issue, just tell them

00:06:13 ◼   ► to stay up to date software-wise. So there's not really a fix, if you're still seeing it. This was

00:06:20 ◼   ► great. I'm really pleased we covered this today. We'll be back soon with more. Getting the truth

00:06:25 ◼   ► out, you know. We spent the last couple weeks adjusting the bill of rookies. I was going to

00:06:31 ◼   ► just leave it until we played the game the next time in case, uh, the case of changes, but Justin

00:06:38 ◼   ► And the discord brought something up that I thought we needed to go ahead and address because it potentially

00:06:43 ◼   ► Has some like pretty big ramifications. So there's a section of the document that says

00:06:48 ◼   ► For the annual rookies host are forbidden from choosing any pick they made during the previous calendar year

00:06:55 ◼   ► Annual picks cannot be reused for the remainder of that calendar year by the host who made them

00:06:59 ◼   ► All hosts are allowed to reuse picks made by others from previous games. So Justin writes based on the discussion

00:07:06 ◼   ► I think this was intended to mean that when a host is choosing new annual picks in 2023, for example,

00:07:11 ◼   ► he cannot reuse any of his annual picks from 2022,

00:07:15 ◼   ► but quote "any pick they made during the previous calendar year sounds like it also includes 2022 keynote picks and maybe even flexes."

00:07:23 ◼   ► So I see where this confusion has come from. I think we can probably... I think I know...

00:07:29 ◼   ► I think we know what we wanted out of this and

00:07:33 ◼   ► And so I have a suggested change I want to get y'all's feedback on.

00:07:38 ◼   ► Just before that I would like to provide some real-time follow-up.

00:07:40 ◼   ► It is a correction for you.

00:07:42 ◼   ► It was Jason of Rickypedia at rickys.net who wrote in with this, not Justin.

00:07:48 ◼   ► Oh, sorry.

00:07:49 ◼   ► We'll play more to correct.

00:07:50 ◼   ► I probably typed it on my iPhone and then it is corrected.

00:07:54 ◼   ► So my source of change is the annual rookies have their own subset of rules.

00:07:59 ◼   ► Once a host chooses something as an annual pick, they cannot reuse it in that calendar

00:08:04 ◼   ► year.

00:08:05 ◼   ► Additionally, picks may not be used in back-to-back annual RICIs by the same host.

00:08:11 ◼   ► And then all hosts are allowed to reuse picks previously made by others.

00:08:15 ◼   ► All right, can I read this again just to make sure I understand it?

00:08:18 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:08:19 ◼   ► All right, the annual RICIs.

00:08:20 ◼   ► So where is this sitting in the rules then?

00:08:23 ◼   ► Like what comes before this in your mind?

00:08:26 ◼   ► Well, if you look in the Google Doc, you will see that the annual RICCES has its own little

00:08:32 ◼   ► subsection in the rules.

00:08:34 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

00:08:35 ◼   ► So where is this starting?

00:08:36 ◼   ► Oh, in that part?

00:08:38 ◼   ► Okay, so it says, "Pics made for keynote RICCES cannot be reused by the host who made them

00:08:43 ◼   ► for the next keynote.

00:08:45 ◼   ► Following on, the annual RICCES have their own subset of rules.

00:08:48 ◼   ► Once a host chooses something as an annual PIC, they cannot reuse it in that calendar

00:08:54 ◼   ► year.

00:08:55 ◼   ► Additionally, picks may not be used in back-to-back annual RICIs by the same hosts.

00:09:00 ◼   ► All hosts are allowed to reuse picks previously made by others.

00:09:04 ◼   ► That feels pretty good for me.

00:09:06 ◼   ► Jason has recommended language himself.

00:09:08 ◼   ► Can I read that just so we can compare?

00:09:10 ◼   ► Yeah, we went round and round the other day and I voted it down.

00:09:15 ◼   ► Hosts may not reuse their own active annual picks in any of that year's keynote RICIs.

00:09:20 ◼   ► Nah, that's too confusing.

00:09:22 ◼   ► Just like, we're mixing them together.

00:09:24 ◼   ► I like it's just like, we only mentioned one here and then one here.

00:09:28 ◼   ► That works for me.

00:09:29 ◼   ► I mean, it serves the same purpose, right?

00:09:31 ◼   ► So the idea being we can't reuse those and no one can reuse the annual picks

00:09:37 ◼   ► that they pick in keynote events and okay, cool.

00:09:42 ◼   ► All right.

00:09:43 ◼   ► Cool.

00:09:44 ◼   ► And also next year.

00:09:46 ◼   ► So like in 2022, you can't use the same picture you made in 2021.

00:09:50 ◼   ► You can't make, you can't reuse your annual pick again.

00:09:53 ◼   ► Didn't we decide that the annual picks would be called the Annie's?

00:09:57 ◼   ► We've had this conversation before right? It's in the bottom of our document

00:10:02 ◼   ► This is I noticed it the other day when I was looking for something else. And so if we're gonna call it the Annie's I

00:10:07 ◼   ► Feel like it should be reflected as such in the rules. I mean really then it's like a whole third set of rules

00:10:14 ◼   ► It's Ricky's flexes and Annie's that feels like a bit much

00:10:18 ◼   ► But like just wherever it says that annual Ricky's

00:10:22 ◼   ► Or like the annual rickys aka the annies have their own subset of rules, you know what I mean?

00:10:27 ◼   ► Or just rocks up the top, like there are two types of rickys.

00:10:31 ◼   ► Annies and kinis.

00:10:34 ◼   ► There we go, we got it.

00:10:36 ◼   ► No, I'm not going with kinis, I'm sorry.

00:10:39 ◼   ► But there's a line and I'm drawing the line at kinis. I cannot do that.

00:10:45 ◼   ► Just have that up the top, Steven. We're at the very top.

00:10:47 ◼   ► very top. So it says there are two types of Ricky's. Annual Ricky's, aka the Annie's,

00:10:52 ◼   ► and keynote Ricky's. That works for me, you know? Just so we remember to call it that.

00:10:57 ◼   ► Because I don't know why we decided that, but we did.

00:11:00 ◼   ► Alright, it's in there. Any other follow-up that you guys want me to not talk about, or

00:11:05 ◼   ► can we move on?

00:11:06 ◼   ► No, I just wanted to read again the language that we chose for the previous rule. "The

00:11:13 ◼   ► annual Ricky's have their own sub-server rules. Once a host chooses something as an annual

00:11:17 ◼   ► pick. They cannot, they cannot reuse it. Okay. So once a host chooses something as an annual

00:11:24 ◼   ► pick, they cannot reuse it in that calendar year. Okay. Additionally picks me. Okay. Yeah,

00:11:31 ◼   ► this. Okay. I think it makes sense. Yeah. Cause what it's referring to in the calendar

00:11:35 ◼   ► year is any keynote reviews. So I pick something in January, like a iPadOS 17, you know, um,

00:11:42 ◼   ► does not, you know, introduces Xcode. None of the keynotes in 2023 I can pick Xcode in

00:11:50 ◼   ► iPadOS 17. And so, and same, I cannot pick it in the Anis of 2024. Right. Now, okay,

00:12:01 ◼   ► so all this works for me. Question for you guys though. Okay. Do these rules retroactively

00:12:08 ◼   ► apply to the current year because it's only April.

00:12:16 ◼   ► No, I've thought about this.

00:12:24 ◼   ► Normally the rules apply only moving forward, but I think there needs to be an exception

00:12:29 ◼   ► made this time that we can't...

00:12:30 ◼   ► No, I think we should do it.

00:12:32 ◼   ► I think we should just apply it because it's not hard.

00:12:34 ◼   ► What we're going to do is just apply the annual Ricky's rules now.

00:12:38 ◼   ► That's the only thing that changes.

00:12:40 ◼   ► So now we just can't pick anything we chose from that, which we wouldn't have done anyway.

00:12:43 ◼   ► I think we can slot these in and it won't be...

00:12:45 ◼   ► Well no, we could have picked, like if we don't apply the rules we could have picked

00:12:50 ◼   ► stuff from January in the next keynote.

00:12:53 ◼   ► But now we can't.

00:12:54 ◼   ► So I'm happy with the starting from now, just like from the next one, like now it's like

00:12:59 ◼   ► this is set.

00:13:00 ◼   ► So we, for the rest of 2022, adopt the rules of... and I actually don't think... the way

00:13:07 ◼   ► the rules are written before we wouldn't have been allowed to pick something from the annuals

00:13:11 ◼   ► anyway. That's true because we had no repicking within a year. Yeah. Okay. So I don't think

00:13:17 ◼   ► we would have been able to do that and so I'm fine with it. Let me have a quick scan

00:13:22 ◼   ► through the annuals real quick. That looks pretty fine. I don't think we've done any

00:13:27 ◼   ► um no I think we're pretty fine. There's no one's reused these picks. I want to just

00:13:33 ◼   ► mention one last thing while we're on this. So Lex, who makes rickys.co, has

00:13:38 ◼   ► made a Rickys API for who the current chairman are. What? So it's just at the

00:13:45 ◼   ► moment it just has keynote chairman and annual chairman. That's all it's got right now.

00:13:49 ◼   ► But my assumption is this will only get more complicated as time goes on.

00:13:53 ◼   ► I believe Jason Snell asked for this. I don't know why Jason wanted it, but Jason

00:13:59 ◼   ► wants it and now James is using it for the relay FM mode of dice by peak out I

00:14:05 ◼   ► am gonna do something with this live on the show I want a widget someone make us

00:14:12 ◼   ► widgets hold on you guys keep going I will make something very quickly very

00:14:18 ◼   ► quickly automation April over there automation April is happening live I

00:14:25 ◼   ► I assume, I naturally assume that just knowing Lex's work to date, that there will be more

00:14:33 ◼   ► in this in the future, but like this is just the basic.

00:14:37 ◼   ► I'm not asking for more, I don't even know what you put in it, but I just, it feels like

00:14:41 ◼   ► a natural assumption considering just how complex Ricky's.co has gotten over the last

00:14:46 ◼   ► couple of years.

00:14:48 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is made possible by Elektrick.

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00:15:34 ◼   ► Plus you get a really cool IT platform to see and manage everything.

00:15:39 ◼   ► I know as a small business owner that delegation is a super critical skill to growing the company.

00:15:44 ◼   ► Having things that maybe I did at the beginning doesn't make sense for me to do anymore, and

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00:16:21 ◼   ► Okay.

00:16:22 ◼   ► You guys ready?

00:16:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:16:24 ◼   ► Hey Siri, who's the keynote chairman.

00:16:29 ◼   ► Okay.

00:16:30 ◼   ► No run the shortcut.

00:16:32 ◼   ► Uh, you don't even know it works.

00:16:34 ◼   ► Hey Siri, run.

00:16:36 ◼   ► Who's the keynote chairman.

00:16:38 ◼   ► No.

00:16:41 ◼   ► Are you sure you know how to do this?

00:16:45 ◼   ► Yes.

00:16:46 ◼   ► I know how to use Siri.

00:16:47 ◼   ► Hey.

00:16:47 ◼   ► Hey Siri.

00:16:48 ◼   ► Hey Siri.

00:16:50 ◼   ► Hey Siri.

00:16:54 ◼   ► - You sure?

00:16:54 ◼   ► - It's not working anymore.

00:16:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, 'cause you don't know how to do it.

00:16:58 ◼   ► - Run, who's the keynote chairman?

00:17:01 ◼   ► - The current keynote chairman is you,

00:17:04 ◼   ► Federico, my King Ricky.

00:17:06 ◼   ► - That's coming from the rickys.co API.

00:17:10 ◼   ► - Can you ask who the annual chairman is?

00:17:12 ◼   ► Did you not bother setting me up?

00:17:13 ◼   ► - No, I just added support for the keynote one.

00:17:16 ◼   ► - Just for you? - Because that was me.

00:17:17 ◼   ► It's actually quite nice because it's getting data from rikis.co.

00:17:21 ◼   ► It's parsing the response for keynote chairman and then it has a condition.

00:17:26 ◼   ► If the name is Federico,

00:17:27 ◼   ► there's a special condition for me with saying is you Federico my king

00:17:31 ◼   ► Ricky. If it's either of you guys, it's not going to have the nice message.

00:17:35 ◼   ► Wow. So the API should also have whoever the loser is.

00:17:39 ◼   ► I agree.

00:17:40 ◼   ► When, when I try to run this,

00:17:42 ◼   ► will I need to ask it seven times to run it or do I need to just do it one

00:17:47 ◼   ► Look, it's not my fault that Siri is unreliable and that it doesn't understand the name of

00:17:52 ◼   ► my shortcut and I need to say "Run, who's the keynote chairman?"

00:17:56 ◼   ► Like it shouldn't have to be that way.

00:17:58 ◼   ► You were the one that chose to have it do this, you know?

00:18:03 ◼   ► I didn't choose anything.

00:18:04 ◼   ► Well, I mean, you could have just created a shortcut that just read it aloud, you know?

00:18:10 ◼   ► But it needed to be for the show.

00:18:12 ◼   ► Automation April is happening right now.

00:18:17 ◼   ► Federico, can you give the top line of what Automation April is

00:18:21 ◼   ► to connected listeners that are currently living under a rock and are unaware?

00:18:25 ◼   ► Yes, it's a month-long event to showcase automation on Apple platforms

00:18:32 ◼   ► with a focus on shortcuts.

00:18:35 ◼   ► By month-long event, I mean it's something that we are running on Mac stories,

00:18:40 ◼   ► but it goes beyond Max Stories.

00:18:42 ◼   ► We are trying to do things on all the properties,

00:18:46 ◼   ► if you will, of the Max Stories universe.

00:18:49 ◼   ► So there's gonna be-- - The Emu.

00:18:51 ◼   ► - The Emu, the extended Max Stories universe.

00:18:53 ◼   ► There's gonna be special articles

00:18:55 ◼   ► and shortcuts on Max Stories.

00:18:56 ◼   ► There's gonna be stuff for club members,

00:18:59 ◼   ► whether they are regular club members in Max Stories Weekly

00:19:02 ◼   ► or the Plus and Premiere ones.

00:19:04 ◼   ► There's special episodes of App Stories,

00:19:06 ◼   ► segments of App Stories Plus.

00:19:08 ◼   ► We're gonna interview a bunch of folks about shortcuts,

00:19:10 ◼   ► a bunch of developers is going to be nice.

00:19:12 ◼   ► There's workshops in Discord for Discord members

00:19:16 ◼   ► where I just did one yesterday

00:19:18 ◼   ► where we got to talk about shortcuts techniques

00:19:21 ◼   ► and principles of design for designing shortcuts

00:19:25 ◼   ► that you want to share with others.

00:19:26 ◼   ► So there's going to be a little something everywhere

00:19:29 ◼   ► on all the things that we do.

00:19:31 ◼   ► But the cornerstone of this event is the contest.

00:19:35 ◼   ► There's the Automation April Shortcuts Contest.

00:19:38 ◼   ► and you can go to shortcuts.maxstories.net.

00:19:41 ◼   ► You can submit up to two shortcuts.

00:19:44 ◼   ► If you're a club member, you can use your existing account.

00:19:48 ◼   ► If you're not a club member, it's fine.

00:19:50 ◼   ► You can create a free account.

00:19:52 ◼   ► We just need a name and email address to identify you

00:19:55 ◼   ► if in case you're winning the contest,

00:19:57 ◼   ► we gotta be in touch with you, or if you have any questions.

00:19:59 ◼   ► But anyone can sign up for free, it's fine.

00:20:03 ◼   ► And the thing is, it's not just us at Mac Stories evaluating this shortcuts.

00:20:11 ◼   ► The three of us, we came up with this idea of assembling a panel of judges.

00:20:16 ◼   ► And so it's a group of 10 people.

00:20:18 ◼   ► In addition to the three of us, me, John, and Alex, there's Matthew Cassinelli,

00:20:23 ◼   ► Alex Cox, Rosemary Orchard, David Sparks, Simon Stobring.

00:20:28 ◼   ► Is it seven?

00:20:29 ◼   ► Am I forgetting someone?

00:20:30 ◼   ► I think I'm forgetting someone.

00:20:32 ◼   ► I'm sorry.

00:20:32 ◼   ► Alex Cox, you did say Alex.

00:20:33 ◼   ► I said Alex Cox, yes.

00:20:35 ◼   ► You always forget one. You did this in App Stories too.

00:20:38 ◼   ► You always forget one person. It was Simon Stovering last time.

00:20:42 ◼   ► Well, I mentioned Simon this time.

00:20:43 ◼   ► Did you say Rosemary?

00:20:45 ◼   ► I said Rosemary.

00:20:46 ◼   ► Alex, Alex, Chris, David, Federico.

00:20:49 ◼   ► Chris Lolly, duh, and Jason Snell. Thank you, John.

00:20:52 ◼   ► I forgot about two people this time, so I'm getting worse.

00:20:56 ◼   ► Hey, Steven.

00:20:57 ◼   ► So yeah, ten people.

00:20:58 ◼   ► Hey, Steven.

00:20:58 ◼   ► How do you feel about not being asked?

00:21:02 ◼   ► I know, I didn't even get asked.

00:21:04 ◼   ► It's pretty ridiculous, right?

00:21:06 ◼   ► Steven doesn't care about shortcuts.

00:21:08 ◼   ► I mean, what about me? I have like 40 shortcuts, you know?

00:21:12 ◼   ► You said to me that you use like 10 shortcuts

00:21:16 ◼   ► and yesterday you deleted like 200 from your library or something.

00:21:21 ◼   ► Yeah, I did. After listening to App Stories,

00:21:23 ◼   ► I went down from 300 shortcuts to 40 shortcuts

00:21:26 ◼   ► because there's just a bunch of stuff I don't use.

00:21:28 ◼   ► I included like three people from Relay FM so you like you guys must not complain.

00:21:35 ◼   ► I will not accept it.

00:21:37 ◼   ► I've got 42 shortcuts that's two more than Myke.

00:21:40 ◼   ► See, see he's got more than me.

00:21:42 ◼   ► I do not care so.

00:21:44 ◼   ► Well move let's move on to topic two shall we?

00:21:50 ◼   ► Okay well it's fine.

00:21:51 ◼   ► Shortcuts.m- automation.com shortcuts.

00:21:53 ◼   ► Have you had a bunch of submissions so far?

00:21:57 ◼   ► Yes, yes. In fact...

00:21:58 ◼   ► Are you concerned about how complicated somebody's shortcuts could end up being?

00:22:02 ◼   ► Yeah, so, okay. We tried to mitigate this as much as possible, right? We are already well in the

00:22:12 ◼   ► double digits of this, and I think, you know, we're gonna be in the triple digits pretty soon.

00:22:17 ◼   ► So, we are allowing only two shortcut submissions per user. You can go in and edit and fix your

00:22:27 ◼   ► submission anytime. The contest closes on April 20th, so you have time. You can include 500 words

00:22:35 ◼   ► as a description for both of your shortcuts, and there's a field where you can list any

00:22:41 ◼   ► third-party app or web API that you may be using. So just that we have a reference as to what kind

00:22:49 ◼   ► of integrations you're using. I am a little concerned for just the number of shortcuts.

00:22:55 ◼   ► It's 10 people, but some shortcuts, I bet, will be complex.

00:23:00 ◼   ► And so we're going to need some time to go over all of this.

00:23:03 ◼   ► We have a set of rules, obviously, that you need to agree to

00:23:06 ◼   ► if you want to participate in the contest,

00:23:08 ◼   ► but those are pretty generic rules, like,

00:23:10 ◼   ► don't steal user data and upload it somewhere

00:23:13 ◼   ► or you will be disqualified.

00:23:14 ◼   ► Like, duh, of course, we're going to do that.

00:23:18 ◼   ► And also, something that I want to point out,

00:23:21 ◼   ► yes, I'm concerned, but also this is what I was expecting.

00:23:25 ◼   ► And I'm encouraging folks to not feel like only these shortcuts power users should participate in this.

00:23:31 ◼   ► In fact, we're also considering with Jon adding a fifth category to the ones that we have

00:23:38 ◼   ► for something that we're kicking around this idea of best everyday shortcut or something like that.

00:23:45 ◼   ► Like a category that makes it clear that you can submit even a simple utility shortcut,

00:23:51 ◼   ► because that's the thing.

00:23:52 ◼   ► We are not rewarding complexity for complexity's sake.

00:23:56 ◼   ► Shortcuts that are complex, like MusicBot for example, they are remarkable, they are impressive.

00:24:04 ◼   ► But don't feel like if you have a 10 action or 20 action shortcut, that maybe it's not as long

00:24:11 ◼   ► or as complex as other shortcuts you may have seen. Don't feel like it's not good enough to

00:24:16 ◼   ► participate, because that's the kind of message that I've tried to underline as much as possible.

00:24:21 ◼   ► We are accepting all kinds of automations because we're also looking at other qualities,

00:24:26 ◼   ► like how easy it is to use, how intuitive it is to set up, how accessible it is,

00:24:32 ◼   ► how well it's designed. So if you have something simple that works well and that does one thing

00:24:37 ◼   ► well, feel free to submit it. In fact, it's quite welcome that you submit those kinds of shortcuts.

00:24:43 ◼   ► But that said, we are considering this fifth category to make, sort of, really stress the

00:24:49 ◼   ► fact that we are also rewarding this simpler but still useful everyday shortcuts. And then we're

00:24:57 ◼   ► going to try and make it as easy as possible for the judges to go in and evaluate. We're working on

00:25:02 ◼   ► this back-end UI for the panel of judges to have ratings, have notes attached to shortcuts. It's

00:25:11 ◼   ► going to look quite nice. And that's just a contest, right? Because there's a whole other

00:25:18 ◼   ► like content side of things where I've prepared 30 shortcuts for the whole

00:25:25 ◼   ► month to share on Mac Stories and there's the club and there's the podcast

00:25:30 ◼   ► but essentially we figured look April and May not much is going on usually

00:25:38 ◼   ► because everyone is just waiting for WWDC and the March event from Apple is

00:25:43 ◼   ► is, well, past. So we figured we want to do something about automation, we want to do

00:25:49 ◼   ► something special about shortcuts. It's fun, it's going to be a lot of work, but we love

00:25:54 ◼   ► doing this sort of thing, and so why not? And we want to keep doing this on an annual

00:25:58 ◼   ► basis. So you know me, I had tons of ideas, and Silvia sat me down and went like, "Okay,

00:26:05 ◼   ► look, you know you're going to do this thing next year and the year after that and so forth.

00:26:10 ◼   ► do it all at once. Take some of your ideas and save them for the following editions."

00:26:15 ◼   ► And I'm like, "Okay."

00:26:16 ◼   ► Make it better, right?

00:26:17 ◼   ► Yes.

00:26:18 ◼   ► Later on.

00:26:19 ◼   ► Yes. So I took, I literally took some ideas from the planning note that we had and I put

00:26:25 ◼   ► them in a 2023 section. So we're already planning next year's edition. And yeah, it's a ton

00:26:31 ◼   ► of work, but honestly, it's the most fun of Ed on Mac stories in a while. Like this kind

00:26:38 ◼   ► of stuff is pretty much what I love doing, and it doesn't feel like work. Which is concerning,

00:26:45 ◼   ► but also a very good sign. I think it's super cool, and I can't wait to

00:26:49 ◼   ► see those winning shortcuts. It's going to be fun. Not that I can help choose one.

00:26:53 ◼   ► Oh, and as you mentioned, we're giving away an Elgato Stream Deck XL and an Analog Pocket,

00:26:59 ◼   ► so yeah, there's also that. I mean, you're competing for the glory of it and for the

00:27:05 ◼   ► club premiere account and whatever, sure there's that, but there's literally a stream deck

00:27:11 ◼   ► excel and an analog pocket on the line for the best overall shortcut. And the glory,

00:27:16 ◼   ► sure, but you know.

00:27:17 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm gonna get to work on making a really good shortcut for next year.

00:27:21 ◼   ► Mykebot!

00:27:22 ◼   ► Yeah, then you'll see.

00:27:24 ◼   ► What if I just made a shortcut and when you open it, it like sends flowers or some sort

00:27:31 ◼   ► of gif to one of the judges at random?

00:27:33 ◼   ► Oh, I like that.

00:27:34 ◼   ► I mean, technically, you guys can compete because, like, I know you.

00:27:38 ◼   ► Can you imagine, though, if we won? That's not good, is it? That's not good for you, is it?

00:27:43 ◼   ► Okay, so another thing I want to mention. Another thing I want to mention. The submissions,

00:27:49 ◼   ► what we're going to see in the... Because people may be wondering this, like, what happens if you

00:27:54 ◼   ► see a shortcut submission from someone you know? And we thought about this. The backend UI will be

00:28:00 ◼   ► anonymized until we pick a winner. So the submissions come in, they have a random ID

00:28:05 ◼   ► attached. We don't see the names of the people submitting that shortcut by default.

00:28:12 ◼   ► But that's even more of a problem, because if I submit my killer shortcut that I have,

00:28:17 ◼   ► you don't want to announce the winner of this entire contest is my friend Myke, who I work

00:28:24 ◼   ► with.

00:28:25 ◼   ► At the end, there could be the problem of like,

00:28:28 ◼   ► oh no, I picked a shortcut that Myke made,

00:28:31 ◼   ► but that's why we have a panel of judges,

00:28:33 ◼   ► because the ratings, and like,

00:28:34 ◼   ► it's not gonna be like purely based on the score.

00:28:37 ◼   ► Like we're gonna have ratings,

00:28:38 ◼   ► we're gonna have like a ranking system,

00:28:41 ◼   ► but then we gotta get together and chat and talk about it.

00:28:44 ◼   ► So there's gonna be a-- - And that's where you

00:28:45 ◼   ► throw out my submission.

00:28:48 ◼   ► - And there's where I will go in in the database

00:28:51 ◼   ► and just delete your entry, and be like,

00:28:52 ◼   ► oh no, we never received it,

00:28:54 ◼   ► I don't know what you're talking about.

00:28:56 ◼   ► So you're saying the election was rigged.

00:28:58 ◼   ► Yes, I will very much rig this election.

00:29:01 ◼   ► Well, only if it applies to you both, only for you guys.

00:29:07 ◼   ► I will make an exception.

00:29:09 ◼   ► Big news, WWDC is coming back.

00:29:13 ◼   ► We back, baby!

00:29:14 ◼   ► The week of June 6th. No, we're not.

00:29:16 ◼   ► It is.

00:29:17 ◼   ► We're not.

00:29:18 ◼   ► All this excitement, okay, okay.

00:29:21 ◼   ► Apple announced this yesterday.

00:29:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, yesterday.

00:29:25 ◼   ► - Two days ago? - Uh-huh.

00:29:26 ◼   ► - Yesterday?

00:29:27 ◼   ► Here's the meat of it.

00:29:29 ◼   ► In addition to the online conference,

00:29:31 ◼   ► Apple host a special day for developers and students

00:29:35 ◼   ► at Apple Park on June 6th to watch the keynote

00:29:38 ◼   ► and State of the Union videos together

00:29:40 ◼   ► along with the online community.

00:29:42 ◼   ► Space will be limited and details

00:29:44 ◼   ► about how to apply to attend will be provided

00:29:46 ◼   ► on the Apple developer site and app soon.

00:29:50 ◼   ► So basically what we talked about last week, right?

00:29:53 ◼   ► some, I would say calling this a hybrid event is too strong.

00:29:58 ◼   ► This is Apple dipping their toe and having people back.

00:30:02 ◼   ► But at some point you can apply to go watch a video live,

00:30:06 ◼   ► I guess probably outside,

00:30:08 ◼   ► maybe that cool rainbow stage will get some use.

00:30:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's probably outside,

00:30:12 ◼   ► unless the weather's bad, right?

00:30:14 ◼   ► - Take sunscreen, you know,

00:30:15 ◼   ► if we learned anything from Google I/O, take sunscreen.

00:30:18 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:30:19 ◼   ► - What do you guys think about this,

00:30:20 ◼   ► having people coming to watch, and it's not live, right?

00:30:25 ◼   ► The keynote and say the union won't be live.

00:30:27 ◼   ► It says keynote and say the union videos together.

00:30:30 ◼   ► - That I wanna go and I don't care if it's prerecorded.

00:30:35 ◼   ► Like I just crave human contact.

00:30:37 ◼   ► Is that good enough?

00:30:39 ◼   ► - No, I wanna go.

00:30:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, I also wanna go, but I'm not gonna.

00:30:44 ◼   ► You know, I'm not gonna, I mean, you know,

00:30:46 ◼   ► I've always, I never applied for a WWC ticket, right?

00:30:48 ◼   ► And I always said that 2021, no,

00:30:52 ◼   ► 2020 was the year I was gonna apply

00:30:54 ◼   ► for an actual developer ticket.

00:30:56 ◼   ► And that never happened.

00:30:57 ◼   ► I'm not gonna apply for one of these for multiple reasons.

00:30:59 ◼   ► Like one, it just feels like it's wasted.

00:31:02 ◼   ► - You canceled the WWDC when you said that, by the way.

00:31:05 ◼   ► It's all your fault.

00:31:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what I did.

00:31:09 ◼   ► All right, I know what I did.

00:31:10 ◼   ► They don't want me to be there so much.

00:31:13 ◼   ► So much.

00:31:14 ◼   ► I cancel the entire thing, never comes back.

00:31:16 ◼   ► - They just dropped the whole thing.

00:31:17 ◼   ► But this doesn't really feel like much of a thing

00:31:20 ◼   ► like that in the set for what I would want, right?

00:31:24 ◼   ► Like what I want is to be in there in that room

00:31:27 ◼   ► when they're doing the whole thing.

00:31:28 ◼   ► And this is not that.

00:31:29 ◼   ► Although I do actually think my,

00:31:32 ◼   ► I would imagine Tim comes out and intros live

00:31:35 ◼   ► and then they go to a prerecorded videos

00:31:37 ◼   ► and then he concludes it live.

00:31:40 ◼   ► That's how I reckon they're going to do it with WWDC.

00:31:42 ◼   ► So like he'll come out and there'll be developers like,

00:31:44 ◼   ► woo.

00:31:45 ◼   ► And then he's like, good morning, like that.

00:31:47 ◼   ► and he's like, "We've got a great day for you all today."

00:31:49 ◼   ► You know how he always does that anyway,

00:31:51 ◼   ► like he just did it at the Apple event a few weeks ago,

00:31:53 ◼   ► like it was in Steve Jobs theater, right?

00:31:57 ◼   ► It was like a little intro and then it's a bunch of videos

00:31:59 ◼   ► and then it's him at the end.

00:32:01 ◼   ► I reckon it will be that, right?

00:32:03 ◼   ► And they just throw the videos and they do the whole thing.

00:32:06 ◼   ► To me, this whole development,

00:32:09 ◼   ► I think this is kind of a microcosm of what WWDC used to be

00:32:15 ◼   ► in the sense of like, there will be some kind of open system

00:32:18 ◼   ► for people to apply, but this also allows Apple

00:32:20 ◼   ► to bring in people that really wants to see.

00:32:23 ◼   ► - Right.

00:32:24 ◼   ► - Right, like there is maybe some high profile developers

00:32:28 ◼   ► or whatever that they would like to have meetings with,

00:32:31 ◼   ► and it gives them an excuse to bring them to Apple Park

00:32:35 ◼   ► to have those meetings.

00:32:36 ◼   ► Same as it always was with WWDC, right?

00:32:38 ◼   ► WWDC was a lottery system, except for the tickets

00:32:41 ◼   ► that Apple kept to give to developers

00:32:43 ◼   ► they made sure had to be there, which I think is the right way to do it, honestly. Like,

00:32:48 ◼   ► you know what I mean? Like if you've got like, let me think of a, like a company, like imagine

00:32:52 ◼   ► if it like Netflix and Disney just missed out on the lottery system. They're like, oh

00:32:57 ◼   ► no, we didn't win the lottery. We can't come. But it's interesting, right? Like this, this

00:33:03 ◼   ► to me, I mean, honestly, I know that there are at least some people on our show that

00:33:06 ◼   ► really hate when I say this, but like this to me just further kind of underlines the

00:33:11 ◼   ► point that I don't think it's ever coming back to what it was. I'm sorry but

00:33:16 ◼   ► like just this idea of like now they're doing this slightly hybrid thing but

00:33:19 ◼   ► there's even though they're gonna have an audience they're still gonna show

00:33:23 ◼   ► videos. But it's a progressive thing like this year it's it's just these two

00:33:28 ◼   ► videos next year maybe half of the sessions will be videos and half will be

00:33:33 ◼   ► in person like progressively. By that point they have invested so much time

00:33:38 ◼   ► attention and money into the online system which you can keep using it saying is better you can keep

00:33:44 ◼   ► using it and people keep saying is better like i don't know why you would then be like oh now we're

00:33:48 ◼   ► going to bring thousands of people because humans want to see each other this is like when we all

00:33:54 ◼   ► thought this is not the only place that people can see each other yeah but in this context and

00:33:59 ◼   ► in this community it kind of is well no i mean let's all go to whatever you know someone will

00:34:04 ◼   ► start up their own thing and look at that. No, it doesn't have the same impact or the same,

00:34:08 ◼   ► you know, anticipation of WWDC. This is like when we all thought, you know, during the pandemic,

00:34:13 ◼   ► "Oh, all concerts are gonna be live streamed from now on." And guess what? The pandemic is slowly,

00:34:20 ◼   ► you know, progressively, even though it's not over, but basically people, at least here in

00:34:25 ◼   ► Italy, don't care anymore. And guess what? Concerts are back, just as they were two years ago. So,

00:34:32 ◼   ► I don't have any faith in all these remote things continuing to be remote forever.

00:34:39 ◼   ► They're going to be a hybrid system, but based on what I'm seeing, again, based on my reality here

00:34:44 ◼   ► in Italy for things that we thought were going to stay remote only, guess what? They're not,

00:34:50 ◼   ► because people want to see each other, people want to go out and hang out in person. It's just what it is.

00:34:54 ◼   ► People want to see each other, but what if the organizers of that event don't want to do it anymore? Then what?

00:35:01 ◼   ► Oh, well, I also doubt that because I also feel like Apple feels energized by seeing all these people in real life.

00:35:08 ◼   ► I'm looking forward to WWDC though, just in general.

00:35:11 ◼   ► Yeah, me too.

00:35:12 ◼   ► It's not very far away at all, right? It's like eight weeks?

00:35:15 ◼   ► Two months. Two months from today.

00:35:17 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, look at that. Pretty wild.

00:35:21 ◼   ► Does that fill you with dread, Federico?

00:35:25 ◼   ► Especially this summer when I'm going to be particularly busy for personal life reasons.

00:35:31 ◼   ► I'll make it work. I think we talked about this last September. With the iOS review season coming

00:35:38 ◼   ► up, I think I will stick to the approach that I followed last year, which is much more conversational

00:35:43 ◼   ► review with less philosophical stuff on top of it, you know, much more straight to the point.

00:35:51 ◼   ► It was very well received, so I'll do that again.

00:35:55 ◼   ► And, but yes, iOS 16 review season starts again two months from today.

00:36:04 ◼   ► It does fill me a little with dread.

00:36:06 ◼   ► Yes, scary possibility.

00:36:08 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by our friends at TexExpander.

00:36:13 ◼   ► Get your team communicating faster so they can focus on what's most important.

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00:37:39 ◼   ► Can y'all believe it has been five years

00:37:41 ◼   ► since Apple said the Mac Pro wasn't dead.

00:37:43 ◼   ► - Five?

00:37:43 ◼   ► - Five years since the Mac round table.

00:37:45 ◼   ► So our friend Joe over at MacRumors put this together.

00:37:50 ◼   ► - Joe Rossignol?

00:37:52 ◼   ► - Rossignol.

00:37:53 ◼   ► - Is it Joe Rossignol?

00:37:54 ◼   ► - And he sent me an iMessage, he's like,

00:37:55 ◼   ► "Hey, can you believe it's been five years since this?"

00:37:57 ◼   ► And sent me the link and I instantly turned to dust.

00:38:00 ◼   ► I was like, "Jeez."

00:38:02 ◼   ► So I thought it'd be a fun time to sort of like check in

00:38:05 ◼   ► on where we think the Mac is and maybe how, you know,

00:38:10 ◼   ► how this looks in hindsight, you know, all that,

00:38:12 ◼   ► all that fun feeling stuff about the Macintosh

00:38:14 ◼   ► that I love to talk about and Federico loves to talk about.

00:38:18 ◼   ► And I can take it or leave it, you know what I'm saying?

00:38:19 ◼   ► Yeah, Myke's in the middle, you know?

00:38:21 ◼   ► Whatever. Like the TV show.

00:38:23 ◼   ► Michael in the middle.

00:38:25 ◼   ► Now that's Malcolm.

00:38:27 ◼   ► Yes.

00:38:28 ◼   ► Yeah, his dad turns into Jesse Pinkman.

00:38:30 ◼   ► It's very exciting.

00:38:31 ◼   ► Oh, you're right.

00:38:32 ◼   ► It is Bryan Cranston on the show.

00:38:34 ◼   ► Better Call Saul's coming soon.

00:38:36 ◼   ► I know, so I've been rewatching Better Call Saul.

00:38:39 ◼   ► So, okay, okay, okay, all right, stop there.

00:38:41 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:38:42 ◼   ► - Is it a good show?

00:38:43 ◼   ► Like, can I get into it?

00:38:44 ◼   ► Is it worth it? - Yes.

00:38:45 ◼   ► Oh my gosh, yes, Federico.

00:38:47 ◼   ► - Federico, this is no exaggeration.

00:38:50 ◼   ► I prefer it to "Breaking Bad."

00:38:51 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:38:52 ◼   ► - Interesting additional question.

00:38:55 ◼   ► Does it start slow?

00:38:57 ◼   ► - A little.

00:38:58 ◼   ► - Okay, because I have this thing

00:39:00 ◼   ► where if a show picks up slow, Sylvia and I struggle with it

00:39:04 ◼   ► because we watch TV shows late at night.

00:39:06 ◼   ► And so we need something that keeps us focused on the show.

00:39:10 ◼   ► But if we know that it gets the action or the story,

00:39:14 ◼   ► whatever picks up later, we can stick with it.

00:39:16 ◼   ► - It picks up.

00:39:17 ◼   ► I mean, honestly, I think within the first two episodes,

00:39:20 ◼   ► it really picks up.

00:39:22 ◼   ► - Okay, okay, all right.

00:39:24 ◼   ► - But it's just like the start of the first episode,

00:39:26 ◼   ► it's a little bit like I don't understand what's happening.

00:39:29 ◼   ► But like it becomes clearer later on.

00:39:31 ◼   ► It's so good, it's so good.

00:39:34 ◼   ► Like, oh my God, I love it so much.

00:39:36 ◼   ► All right, all right, all right, all right.

00:39:37 ◼   ► We'll try it.

00:39:39 ◼   ► The Mac Pro.

00:39:40 ◼   ► So, five years ago was the Mac round table.

00:39:45 ◼   ► Sort of a--

00:39:46 ◼   ► No, no, stop there.

00:39:48 ◼   ► I know something you've done, Steven,

00:39:50 ◼   ► that you're not sharing on the show

00:39:51 ◼   ► and I don't understand why.

00:39:53 ◼   ► What?

00:39:53 ◼   ► Mm-hmm, about the Mac Pro.

00:39:55 ◼   ► About your Mac Pro.

00:39:57 ◼   ► Oh, we haven't even spoken about this.

00:40:00 ◼   ► It has been sold.

00:40:01 ◼   ► Oh, wait, what?

00:40:03 ◼   ► I didn't know this.

00:40:04 ◼   ► I knew this.

00:40:05 ◼   ► How did- wait a second, why did he notice but I don't notice. Did you send it to him?

00:40:09 ◼   ► Yeah, Federico bought it.

00:40:11 ◼   ► No.

00:40:12 ◼   ► No, he didn't.

00:40:13 ◼   ► Oh.

00:40:14 ◼   ► Did you send it to Big Apple Buddy?

00:40:16 ◼   ► It has been sold.

00:40:17 ◼   ► No.

00:40:18 ◼   ► I just happened to know, so...

00:40:19 ◼   ► Why do you know though?

00:40:21 ◼   ► What's going on?

00:40:25 ◼   ► How do you know?

00:40:26 ◼   ► Or do you just guess?

00:40:29 ◼   ► The person who Steven sold it to told Federico is my assumption.

00:40:34 ◼   ► I like all these gases. I like this energy. So keep going.

00:40:38 ◼   ► I think he's just buffing.

00:40:40 ◼   ► Well, am I?

00:40:43 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:40:44 ◼   ► You sure?

00:40:45 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:40:46 ◼   ► If you pay attention to the things I tell you guys, I'm surprised you haven't guessed yet why I know. So.

00:40:53 ◼   ► Did you hack him?

00:40:55 ◼   ► No. Did I?

00:40:57 ◼   ► Okay. All right. Legit. Do you, did you know this Federico?

00:41:01 ◼   ► Yes.

00:41:02 ◼   ► Okay. Steven?

00:41:03 ◼   ► That's why I brought it up.

00:41:04 ◼   ► How do you feel about the fact that he knows this?

00:41:06 ◼   ► I mean, it's upsetting.

00:41:07 ◼   ► I'm looking at through like our text message history

00:41:08 ◼   ► if I said something.

00:41:10 ◼   ► So did you tell him?

00:41:11 ◼   ► I don't think I did.

00:41:13 ◼   ► All right, Federico, do you know who was bought it?

00:41:16 ◼   ► No, I don't know who bought it.

00:41:17 ◼   ► Is it from the like Instagram story of a little salute guy?

00:41:22 ◼   ► I haven't seen any Instagram story.

00:41:25 ◼   ► Look, honestly, the answer is so easy.

00:41:27 ◼   ► Like it...

00:41:27 ◼   ► I don't understand.

00:41:32 ◼   ► How do you know?

00:41:33 ◼   ► Why are we recording an hour later than usual?

00:41:37 ◼   ► Oh, you were on--

00:41:39 ◼   ► Oh, David told you.

00:41:41 ◼   ► David told you you were on Automators.

00:41:43 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:41:44 ◼   ► Did you sell it to David?

00:41:45 ◼   ► No.

00:41:46 ◼   ► What's he doing?

00:41:47 ◼   ► No, we talked about my MacStudio impressions

00:41:50 ◼   ► for more power users, which is like connected pro,

00:41:53 ◼   ► but for my other show.

00:41:54 ◼   ► Join both and get more of me every week.

00:41:57 ◼   ► Is that why we're not talking about this today?

00:41:59 ◼   ► You're making people pay for it?

00:42:00 ◼   ► Well, first it'll be here eventually. Well, that's the idea.

00:42:03 ◼   ► I'm sorry if I ruined the surprise. No, it's good. No,

00:42:07 ◼   ► Myke freaking out was well worth the surprise being ruined.

00:42:10 ◼   ► Look, one of, one of, one of the,

00:42:12 ◼   ► one of my responsibilities is bringing this chaos to connected. Yeah.

00:42:17 ◼   ► And I feel like I just couldn't resist the temptation of bringing it up and

00:42:21 ◼   ► springing it on you in this segment. So that's what I did. Anyway,

00:42:25 ◼   ► the macro, anyway, Joe Rossino and the Mac round table. That's right.

00:42:30 ◼   ► That's right. On track. Yes. I mean, it is so at the time it felt so weird.

00:42:35 ◼   ► And I think in hindsight, it only continues to feel weird that they had this event where they invited some journalists out and they sat up, literally sat them around a table and said, Hey, we have a new strategy for Mac hardware for pros moving forward.

00:42:50 ◼   ► And it's like, it's just so rare for Apple to talk

00:42:54 ◼   ► so openly about not only future plans,

00:42:57 ◼   ► but also like a mistake they made,

00:43:00 ◼   ► and a mistake they made in a product that was still ongoing.

00:43:03 ◼   ► Like if you think about the butterfly keyboards,

00:43:06 ◼   ► they just quietly kept making them better,

00:43:08 ◼   ► and then replaced it,

00:43:09 ◼   ► and then have a repair extension program.

00:43:11 ◼   ► But there was never a sort of,

00:43:13 ◼   ► hey, we're gonna talk about this openly,

00:43:15 ◼   ► we're just gonna kind of quietly move things along

00:43:19 ◼   ► and hope people quit talking about it.

00:43:20 ◼   ► But in 2017, when this was going on,

00:43:25 ◼   ► the temperature was so high in the Mac community around--

00:43:30 ◼   ► - Is that a pun? (laughs)

00:43:32 ◼   ► - Good, right?

00:43:32 ◼   ► The Mac community was in a thermal corner

00:43:36 ◼   ► over the Mac Pro, but also over the Mac in general.

00:43:41 ◼   ► And so in 2017, this is kind of where things were.

00:43:48 ◼   ► The Mac Mini was three years old,

00:43:50 ◼   ► and the 2014 model everyone hated

00:43:52 ◼   ► 'cause you couldn't open it and upgrade things inside of it.

00:43:55 ◼   ► There have been no iMac updates for over a year.

00:43:57 ◼   ► There was no new iMac in 2016.

00:43:59 ◼   ► The old non-Retina MacBook Air was still kicking around,

00:44:05 ◼   ► and the one-port MacBook was for sale

00:44:08 ◼   ► and pretty slow and underwhelming.

00:44:10 ◼   ► And the new MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar,

00:44:13 ◼   ► which is only like six months old at this time,

00:44:15 ◼   ► there were a lot of stories beginning to surface

00:44:17 ◼   ► about how the keyboards were breaking.

00:44:19 ◼   ► - And people just didn't like the touch bar too, right?

00:44:21 ◼   ► Like that was like an immediate saying.

00:44:22 ◼   ► - And people didn't like the touch bar.

00:44:24 ◼   ► People didn't like those laptops, right?

00:44:25 ◼   ► Like those are just bad MacBook Pros.

00:44:27 ◼   ► - And the ports and all that kind of stuff.

00:44:28 ◼   ► I would say it was funny to me in Joe's post on MacRumors,

00:44:32 ◼   ► he included just a great contextual image

00:44:34 ◼   ► of the MacRumors Buyers Guide like on that day.

00:44:38 ◼   ► And it's don't buy, don't buy neutral, don't buy,

00:44:40 ◼   ► don't buy, don't buy for all of the Macs.

00:44:42 ◼   ► Like it's just like, it was just a time where

00:44:46 ◼   ► even the new stuff, the only thing that isn't done by

00:44:48 ◼   ► was the MacBook Pro and they were neutral on that,

00:44:51 ◼   ► even though it had been out for such a short period of time.

00:44:53 ◼   ► It was a time full of angst.

00:44:56 ◼   ► - It definitely was.

00:44:58 ◼   ► And in that context, the Mac Pro was aging poorly.

00:45:03 ◼   ► So in 2013, they got rid of the cheese grater.

00:45:05 ◼   ► They had this like small cylinder of a computer

00:45:09 ◼   ► that sat on your desk and it had limited upgradeability

00:45:12 ◼   ► and expandability.

00:45:14 ◼   ► It had, including yours, Myke, widespread GPU failures.

00:45:18 ◼   ► Remember, you had one of these machines.

00:45:20 ◼   ► - I like to try and forget that I owned that computer.

00:45:23 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:45:24 ◼   ► - That was such a mistake for me.

00:45:26 ◼   ► - I know, you had a Mac Pro before I did.

00:45:28 ◼   ► It was garbage town, unfortunately.

00:45:31 ◼   ► There were no hardware updates from Apple

00:45:33 ◼   ► and it just didn't meet the needs of the community.

00:45:35 ◼   ► And so all of this is going on, right?

00:45:39 ◼   ► And that's not even touching like Mac OS itself.

00:45:42 ◼   ► People were feeling like it really wasn't

00:45:44 ◼   ► getting the attention it needed.

00:45:45 ◼   ► And all this is going on.

00:45:48 ◼   ► So they call people out to Cupertino and say,

00:45:49 ◼   ► "Look, we are committed to the Mac

00:45:53 ◼   ► and we're going to fix it."

00:45:55 ◼   ► And in hindsight, that's like the best message

00:45:58 ◼   ► Apple could have had at the time,

00:45:59 ◼   ► because people were worried that the Mac

00:46:03 ◼   ► was going to be going away or just slowly die on the vine

00:46:06 ◼   ► while Apple was distracted in their words,

00:46:10 ◼   ► distracted with things like the iPhone and iPad,

00:46:12 ◼   ► the Apple Watch was new,

00:46:14 ◼   ► they were building their campus at this time, right?

00:46:16 ◼   ► A lot of stuff going on.

00:46:18 ◼   ► It's also interesting because as far as I can tell,

00:46:22 ◼   ► this may not have been the first time

00:46:23 ◼   ► we heard from John Turness,

00:46:24 ◼   ► but it was definitely an early time

00:46:26 ◼   ► we heard from John Turness,

00:46:28 ◼   ► who now has kind of become the face

00:46:29 ◼   ► of the Apple Silicon transition.

00:46:31 ◼   ► And from everything I've witnessed from the outside,

00:46:35 ◼   ► seems like he's doing a really good job with Mac hardware.

00:46:38 ◼   ► He is in this meeting with like Phil and Craig

00:46:41 ◼   ► and a bunch of really respected journalists.

00:46:43 ◼   ► - My favorite thing, one of my favorite things about this

00:46:46 ◼   ► is the image in the TechCrunch article.

00:46:48 ◼   ► So I think it may have been the only photo

00:46:51 ◼   ► that was published of this thing.

00:46:53 ◼   ► And it's just of, it's Phil trying to like really explain

00:46:57 ◼   ► something and Craig is very sad.

00:46:59 ◼   ► And like there is just something about this image

00:47:01 ◼   ► that really is like, it really puts into context.

00:47:05 ◼   ► There's an image of a young John Turness too

00:47:07 ◼   ► later on in this article.

00:47:09 ◼   ► But like it really puts into context,

00:47:11 ◼   ► Like all of the photos, everyone just looks really downtrodden.

00:47:14 ◼   ► And there's just something about it, it's very funny to me.

00:47:16 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, I'm so sorry."

00:47:18 ◼   ► With the puppy eyes in these photos.

00:47:21 ◼   ► By the way, something I just thought of,

00:47:24 ◼   ► if they ever do another movie about Apple,

00:47:28 ◼   ► like modern Apple, not Steve Jobs' Apple,

00:47:30 ◼   ► but like modern Apple, here's my--

00:47:32 ◼   ► I'm throwing this-- I'm throwing my pitch in the ring for this.

00:47:36 ◼   ► Eugene Levy as Craig Federighi.

00:47:39 ◼   ► Oh my God, yes.

00:47:41 ◼   ► So good that is a plus casting cuz plus

00:47:45 ◼   ► Little goofy you know yeah, yes, oh, I love it

00:47:50 ◼   ► All right, we need to get the funding to make this movie happen. We could do it. Okay. You know like Steven can write it

00:47:57 ◼   ► Yes, I mean obviously

00:48:00 ◼   ► Obviously mm-hmm who would play John Turnus

00:48:03 ◼   ► Yeah, yes

00:48:10 ◼   ► Fast

00:48:12 ◼   ► Picture of it was like yep got it nailed it 100% Yes, what about Phil that feels harder to me

00:48:19 ◼   ► Phil feel mmm

00:48:22 ◼   ► Savra and the discord were also recommends Paul Rudd for John Ternus, which I would also take hmm

00:48:28 ◼   ► I feel like that would also work out of this came news

00:48:31 ◼   ► they're going to build a Mac Pro and they're also going to build what they called a

00:48:38 ◼   ► a 27 inch iMac, you know, sort of more dedicated to pros and

00:48:43 ◼   ► There's even a quote in here about you know

00:48:46 ◼   ► we've talked about this before how the iMac was a consumer machine and over time it sort of spread and

00:48:52 ◼   ► kind of covered every body that it could and

00:48:55 ◼   ► You know now

00:48:58 ◼   ► Years later we see that they were good for their word 2017. We got the iMac Pro in 2019. We got the Mac Pro so

00:49:07 ◼   ► So and now one of those machines is gone and one is still here.

00:49:12 ◼   ► But all in all, like I think they were good to their word for this, that not only did

00:49:17 ◼   ► they reinvest in the Mac's like pro hardware side of things, but even on the bigger picture

00:49:26 ◼   ► that we're committed to the Mac, clearly that's still true, or we wouldn't be doing things

00:49:30 ◼   ► like this Apple Silicon transition.

00:49:32 ◼   ► Do you think that they had made the silicon decision before this or after this?

00:49:37 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:49:38 ◼   ► It was, I mean, it had to have been on the table at this point.

00:49:42 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:49:43 ◼   ► I don't know how firmly the timelines had been set.

00:49:47 ◼   ► I do think that like the Intel Mac Pro, I definitely think by the time that it was well

00:49:54 ◼   ► into development that they, that the die had been cast for Apple Silicon.

00:49:59 ◼   ► The, the, the proper Mac Pro.

00:50:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:02 ◼   ► Yeah, the 2019, the good one.

00:50:04 ◼   ► The one you had but have sold.

00:50:06 ◼   ► The one that I have sold to Federico.

00:50:08 ◼   ► Yes.

00:50:09 ◼   ► And yeah, it's never gonna show up, buddy, I'm sorry.

00:50:11 ◼   ► It's gonna get lost in the mail.

00:50:13 ◼   ► Just like everything else that gets sent to Italy.

00:50:15 ◼   ► It's true.

00:50:16 ◼   ► It will come back to you destroyed in six months time.

00:50:19 ◼   ► I'll just get a giant box

00:50:20 ◼   ► and there's one Mac Pro foot in it.

00:50:22 ◼   ► That's all that's left.

00:50:25 ◼   ► Yeah, so I don't know.

00:50:26 ◼   ► I think by the time the Mac Pro was well underway,

00:50:29 ◼   ► they knew what was coming,

00:50:30 ◼   ► But I think they also knew,

00:50:32 ◼   ► just like with the Intel transition,

00:50:34 ◼   ► that the Pro Tower would be last.

00:50:35 ◼   ► And so that machine was going to be sticking around longer

00:50:38 ◼   ► than say the Intel MacBook Air that came out in 2018.

00:50:43 ◼   ► - I was thinking about this

00:50:44 ◼   ► when we were preparing for the show today.

00:50:45 ◼   ► And like, it is funny that we mentioned the movie,

00:50:48 ◼   ► because I did have the thought about this,

00:50:51 ◼   ► I think yesterday, of like,

00:50:52 ◼   ► if there's one thing I would love to know,

00:50:55 ◼   ► like if I could pick one thing about Apple,

00:50:58 ◼   ► to get a book written about everyone talks about it this would be very high up on that list because

00:51:04 ◼   ► something had to give for this to happen yeah and i really want to know what that was like what gave

00:51:14 ◼   ► you know like they were clearly on a trajectory and then they changed course and i don't feel like

00:51:23 ◼   ► I could point at any one thing that was like, "Oh, this happened."

00:51:29 ◼   ► So now they ended up completely changing their future.

00:51:34 ◼   ► Because it really did change the future of Apple.

00:51:38 ◼   ► I think it was pretty clear at this point where they were moving,

00:51:41 ◼   ► and it is not where we are now, right?

00:51:44 ◼   ► Like, they were moving into a different area.

00:51:46 ◼   ► Like, the Mac was focusing on a different thing,

00:51:49 ◼   ► and they were maybe putting more of their focus on other platforms.

00:51:52 ◼   ► and just like that was the way that was going to be.

00:51:56 ◼   ► And then everything got kind of got upended and I would love to know

00:52:00 ◼   ► what it was or who it was that convinced someone that this should change.

00:52:08 ◼   ► Because like it wasn't in response to like a specific thing that happened.

00:52:11 ◼   ► Like there wasn't like a big news story and then it was like

00:52:15 ◼   ► obvious that they were going to do this because people were upset for a really

00:52:19 ◼   ► long time. They were. When we were preparing for the

00:52:21 ◼   ► show I put in a thing, it was a potential conversation starter of would Apple do this

00:52:25 ◼   ► for any other product line. And when I wrote it, I just wrote that thing and left it there,

00:52:31 ◼   ► the only thought that I had was iPad but then thought no it's not as bad.

00:52:35 ◼   ► No yeah I agree. The hardware is so good right, it's just the software is not good for some

00:52:42 ◼   ► people, but contrasting that the Mac was bad, the software, nothing exciting was happening

00:52:49 ◼   ► on Mac OS and all of the hardware options had significant problems. And so like that

00:52:56 ◼   ► we're not there right?

00:52:57 ◼   ► - Even with the iPad OS software like it's not catastrophically bad. It's I mean it's

00:53:04 ◼   ► not you know we can say it doesn't have enough power user options and there's always that

00:53:09 ◼   ► looming threat of an identity crisis for iPad and iPad OS but it's not a tragedy. I don't

00:53:18 ◼   ► think they need an apology for iPads.

00:53:21 ◼   ► No, because the hardware is just incredible on the iPad right

00:53:26 ◼   ► now.

00:53:26 ◼   ► Like across the board, it's as best as it's ever been.

00:53:29 ◼   ► Has been for a long time.

00:53:31 ◼   ► Yeah, yes, yes.

00:53:32 ◼   ► But the Mac, like--

00:53:34 ◼   ► but what's fascinating is exactly what Myke said.

00:53:37 ◼   ► Like, what was it?

00:53:38 ◼   ► Like, if you were to pin down a specific moment,

00:53:42 ◼   ► is it just like a culmination of things one after the other,

00:53:46 ◼   ► you know, blog post after blog post, podcast episodes,

00:53:49 ◼   ► articles on the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

00:53:52 ◼   ► Like, what was it though?

00:53:53 ◼   ► Like, what was the moment that Tim Cook looked

00:53:56 ◼   ► at all these options and were like, you know what, enough.

00:53:58 ◼   ► Like, we're done.

00:53:59 ◼   ► You gotta change course.

00:54:00 ◼   ► Like, what was it?

00:54:02 ◼   ► And I guess, you know, we'll never know probably.

00:54:05 ◼   ► - Maybe there was an ultimatum.

00:54:06 ◼   ► Maybe someone said, I'm gonna leave.

00:54:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, maybe.

00:54:09 ◼   ► Maybe it was that.

00:54:10 ◼   ► - Right?

00:54:11 ◼   ► Because you got to imagine there were high level fights

00:54:13 ◼   ► in Apple about this anyway, right?

00:54:15 ◼   ► like debates and you know, this person says this,

00:54:18 ◼   ► this person says that and they were unhappy.

00:54:20 ◼   ► Like there had to have been different camps

00:54:23 ◼   ► because they then had this very strong strategy

00:54:28 ◼   ► that started almost immediately, right?

00:54:29 ◼   ► Like someone wanted to do whatever we ended up going down.

00:54:34 ◼   ► - Right.

00:54:35 ◼   ► - But there was someone that didn't and they were winning.

00:54:38 ◼   ► - And it's important to remember like Apple makes

00:54:40 ◼   ► all of their products with Macs, right?

00:54:43 ◼   ► like iOS development, Mac OS development,

00:54:47 ◼   ► their application development,

00:54:49 ◼   ► all that is happening on Macs.

00:54:52 ◼   ► And so Apple is a really big customer of its own computers.

00:54:55 ◼   ► And I remember when the MacBook Pro keyboard is really bad.

00:55:00 ◼   ► So it kind of in the year or two after the round table,

00:55:04 ◼   ► hearing from friends at Apple,

00:55:08 ◼   ► like, yeah, we got to send our laptops in

00:55:10 ◼   ► just like everybody else,

00:55:12 ◼   ► and figure out what to do when you're without it.

00:55:14 ◼   ► And I don't know, I agree with you.

00:55:16 ◼   ► I don't think from the outside it's clear

00:55:18 ◼   ► there was one big thing, but really it took today

00:55:22 ◼   ► preparing for this episode,

00:55:23 ◼   ► me looking through the entire Mac line at 2017,

00:55:26 ◼   ► realizing that every single product line

00:55:28 ◼   ► had a major problem, right?

00:55:30 ◼   ► That there wasn't a good Mac at this point.

00:55:33 ◼   ► All of them had some sort of flaw.

00:55:35 ◼   ► Now that flaw may not have been a big deal to you,

00:55:38 ◼   ► but to somebody it was.

00:55:40 ◼   ► And I think it was just like kind of a realization of, wow,

00:55:45 ◼   ► like no matter kind of where you look in this portfolio,

00:55:48 ◼   ► there's problems.

00:55:49 ◼   ► And they slowly over time,

00:55:54 ◼   ► fixed all of them to a point now,

00:55:57 ◼   ► I think really the only hole in the lineup is,

00:56:01 ◼   ► what's the story about a bigger iMac?

00:56:05 ◼   ► Is the Mac studio really the replacement for it?

00:56:07 ◼   ► It seems like that's the answer.

00:56:09 ◼   ► It seems like that's the wrong answer to me.

00:56:11 ◼   ► But if that's all there is compared to where we were

00:56:16 ◼   ► five years ago, they did what they said they were gonna do.

00:56:19 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by NetSuite.

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00:58:00 ◼   ► Ming-Chi Kuo has reported that Apple will this year announce a new AirPods

00:58:05 ◼   ► pro model and will discontinue the old version, which is unlike what they have done with the

00:58:11 ◼   ► regular AirPods. Apparently, Apple has cut the orders for AirPods 3 units as demand has

00:58:21 ◼   ► been significantly weaker than AirPods 2, according to Kuo, due to "failed product

00:58:27 ◼   ► segmentation strategy", reading from 9to5Mac. As a refresher, when Apple announced AirPods 3

00:58:32 ◼   ► last year it simultaneously cut the price at the second generation AirPods and left them in the

00:58:38 ◼   ► AirPods lineup. Current rumors are indicating that AirPods Pro 2 would feature lossless support,

00:58:43 ◼   ► a new design and quote "new health" features, I don't know what that means, coming second half of

00:58:48 ◼   ► 2022. I feel like anyone could have predicted this right? Like there wasn't any, well correct me if

00:58:55 ◼   ► I'm wrong, do AirPods 3 have any features that AirPods 2 doesn't have? Yeah a different design

00:59:02 ◼   ► that a lot of people don't like.

00:59:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, but that's not a feature.

00:59:05 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:59:06 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

00:59:06 ◼   ► - Exactly.

00:59:07 ◼   ► - I know that that is the biggest difference, I think, right?

00:59:10 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:59:11 ◼   ► - And I don't know if that is what people were looking for.

00:59:16 ◼   ► - Is it me you're looking for?

00:59:19 ◼   ► - Hello.

00:59:21 ◼   ► - Special audio?

00:59:23 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:59:24 ◼   ► - Nah.

00:59:25 ◼   ► No, these AirPods, well, I guess that's the thing.

00:59:30 ◼   ► - Special audio, yeah.

00:59:31 ◼   ► AirPods 3rd generation have spatial audio and sweat and water resistance.

00:59:36 ◼   ► They have a longer battery life.

00:59:38 ◼   ► But like an hour longer.

00:59:39 ◼   ► And a magsafe charging case.

00:59:42 ◼   ► Well AirPods...

00:59:43 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:59:44 ◼   ► Oh yeah, well yeah sure.

00:59:45 ◼   ► I mean magsafe in that it snaps magnetically but also like sit back and place it on any

00:59:50 ◼   ► wireless charging pad and it's fine.

00:59:52 ◼   ► So apparently skin detecting sensors as well.

00:59:55 ◼   ► I don't know what that means but it's something that AirPods 3 have that no other AirPods

01:00:00 ◼   ► including Pro has. I don't know what that means.

01:00:04 ◼   ► So what I saved for this segment is a little note. Was Sylvia, and I would also add Steven,

01:00:11 ◼   ► were Sylvia and Steven right about AirPods 3 and continuing to use AirPods 2 instead?

01:00:18 ◼   ► Going back to a few months ago, you may remember that we purchased a set of AirPods 3 for Sylvia.

01:00:24 ◼   ► She tried them for a week and she ended up not liking them, and she returned them to

01:00:30 ◼   ► Apple and she stucked with the AirPods 2.

01:00:34 ◼   ► And that primarily came down to a couple of things.

01:00:38 ◼   ► First and the most important one, the design.

01:00:41 ◼   ► The AirPods 3 were bigger and they were hurting her ears.

01:00:46 ◼   ► She was not used to the shape, she tried to get used to it, but they were just not comfortable

01:00:51 ◼   ► enough for her.

01:00:53 ◼   ► And the second thing is, she just couldn't really appreciate any of the changes in the

01:00:59 ◼   ► AirPods 3, and she said, "My AirPods 2 are fine, they sound pretty much the same, they

01:01:04 ◼   ► are more comfortable, they're totally okay, the battery is still okay, they charge wirelessly,

01:01:10 ◼   ► it's not MagSafe, but I don't care, why should I upgrade to AirPods 3?"

01:01:15 ◼   ► And I guess that a bunch of people have had this exact same scenario happen to them, including

01:01:22 ◼   ► So I guess they were right. So I just say people in the discord are telling me

01:01:27 ◼   ► that the AirPods 2 have spatial audio but with no head tracking. Right right

01:01:33 ◼   ► okay. Apple's website does not say the second generation AirPods have spatial

01:01:39 ◼   ► audio at all. Right. So it's hard for me to you know it's hard for me to know

01:01:45 ◼   ► that. Yeah I mean for me it just it just came down to the fit that yeah I don't

01:01:50 ◼   ► really care about those other features honestly I mean some of them it's hard

01:01:54 ◼   ► to even know what they did or meant but the fit on the three just didn't work

01:01:59 ◼   ► for me and so I've I've stuck with it with the twos and I was very glad to see

01:02:04 ◼   ► that the twos remain on sale because I was nervous that oh if they like

01:02:10 ◼   ► outright replace them and these don't work for me what will I do maybe that'll

01:02:15 ◼   ► still be the case at some point in the future but I've been totally happy just

01:02:20 ◼   ► sticking with you know what I've known. Yes as Justin was saying in the chat and

01:02:25 ◼   ► I mean I was big on this at the time that the AirPods third generation have

01:02:30 ◼   ► the squeeze controls the AirPods Pro do which for me if I was using regular

01:02:34 ◼   ► AirPods would be a big thing because I really hated the tapping on the AirPod

01:02:38 ◼   ► you know but again you say this isn't about features for you I mean it's

01:02:43 ◼   ► different for Sylvia but like for you it was a fit thing right maybe that is a

01:02:46 ◼   ► thing for a lot of people I don't know I mean genuinely if my read on this is the

01:02:52 ◼   ► reason that they're not selling as well is that you can now get AirPods for way

01:02:56 ◼   ► less money I think the price is a big thing and like that's what happened yeah

01:03:00 ◼   ► I don't think this is like phones right like where people are coming to the

01:03:06 ◼   ► purchasing decision already kind of knowing what they want not necessarily

01:03:09 ◼   ► going for the cheaper one and I think for AirPods people were like I will get

01:03:14 ◼   ► the one that costs whatever like you know the cheap I'm looking at the UK

01:03:18 ◼   ► site now so I don't want to say 119 pounds because most people won't know

01:03:22 ◼   ► what that means whatever they cost right now a hundred and twenty nine dollars

01:03:27 ◼   ► you can get a pod second generation for and I think it really is for a lot of

01:03:32 ◼   ► people like easy I'll get that one you know yeah it's interesting and I do

01:03:38 ◼   ► I do wonder if the shape change,

01:03:43 ◼   ► like if Apple feels like that kind of

01:03:45 ◼   ► came back to bite them a little bit.

01:03:49 ◼   ► I mean, I'm sure they have feedback

01:03:50 ◼   ► on why people return things and that sort of thing,

01:03:54 ◼   ► but I didn't really thought about the cost that much.

01:03:56 ◼   ► And I would imagine that's a much bigger reason

01:03:58 ◼   ► of like, you're just gonna buy a set of AirPods,

01:04:00 ◼   ► especially as a gift.

01:04:02 ◼   ► They go, "Oh, I'll just get the cheap ones," right?

01:04:04 ◼   ► And I'm sure that they sell tons of those because of that.

01:04:08 ◼   ► the very reason I think that makes a ton of sense.

01:04:10 ◼   ► - But then to go back to Sylvia's position

01:04:14 ◼   ► that Federico shared, if you have a good pair of AirPods

01:04:17 ◼   ► and you hadn't upgraded to the AirPods Pro,

01:04:20 ◼   ► why would you upgrade to the third generation AirPods?

01:04:24 ◼   ► - Exactly.

01:04:24 ◼   ► - What does it get you?

01:04:26 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

01:04:27 ◼   ► Like if for whatever reason the AirPods Pro

01:04:28 ◼   ► couldn't entice you, I don't know why you would necessarily

01:04:33 ◼   ► move to the third generation until you got to that point

01:04:36 ◼   ► where your battery life was really bad or whatever.

01:04:39 ◼   ► - Exactly, yeah.

01:04:40 ◼   ► Sometimes you're made the product

01:04:43 ◼   ► that is just good enough

01:04:44 ◼   ► and most people just don't feel compelled

01:04:47 ◼   ► to upgrade over and over because it's good enough.

01:04:49 ◼   ► And AirPods maybe are one of those categories of things

01:04:53 ◼   ► that are, you know, it's good enough, I don't need it.

01:04:55 ◼   ► That's the thing.

01:04:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think you're right.

01:04:59 ◼   ► I mean, I'm starting to get to that point again,

01:05:01 ◼   ► not as bad as with my original AirPods.

01:05:03 ◼   ► Like my AirPods Pro battery life,

01:05:05 ◼   ► can tell he's worsening. You know like I needed to charge it more frequently.

01:05:09 ◼   ► Oh on that note I changed my first AirTag battery today. I had a battery run

01:05:14 ◼   ► out. We've each had one now. Yeah but my other ones are totally fine. Very strange.

01:05:19 ◼   ► That's how mine was. I had one that I mean it was months ago and all the

01:05:23 ◼   ► others are totally cool so who knows. I wanted like because it was one on my

01:05:28 ◼   ► backpack I was like oh is it because I have it with me all the time but the one

01:05:32 ◼   ► on my keys, which I have more than my backpack, no problem.

01:05:35 ◼   ► So I don't know.

01:05:36 ◼   ► While we were talking about AirPods, I wanted to see from the two of you, AirPods Max 2,

01:05:42 ◼   ► do you think that's going to happen?

01:05:44 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, I think so.

01:05:46 ◼   ► I think they could do some pretty interesting things by pulling the first gen AirPods Max

01:05:52 ◼   ► and maybe just having AirPods Max 2 with proper support for lossless.

01:05:59 ◼   ► could be something that we discussed a while back. Maybe even if they stop using Bluetooth.

01:06:05 ◼   ► There was a rumor a while back that Apple was going to work on a different standard

01:06:10 ◼   ► than Bluetooth for these wireless headphones. So maybe they could do the Max 2s with that.

01:06:18 ◼   ► But that's part of the rumor for AirPods Pro 2 is they feature lossless support. And I

01:06:23 ◼   ► think if they do that, they kind of have to upgrade the Max, right? Like that should be

01:06:28 ◼   ► the very best listening experience.

01:06:30 ◼   ► - Yes, yes.

01:06:31 ◼   ► I could see that.

01:06:33 ◼   ► So pull the Gen 1 from sale, keep the new ones around,

01:06:36 ◼   ► and they have the faster connectivity and the better audio

01:06:40 ◼   ► and the lossless and all that.

01:06:41 ◼   ► And you can continue charging a premium for them.

01:06:44 ◼   ► Maybe introduce some new color options too.

01:06:47 ◼   ► That would be cool.

01:06:49 ◼   ► But yeah, I think they should keep them around

01:06:50 ◼   ► and I think they should use them as the top of the line.

01:06:53 ◼   ► Here's the absolute best experience

01:06:56 ◼   ► that you can get with Apple headphones now with lossless.

01:06:59 ◼   ► That'd be nice.

01:07:00 ◼   ► - I mean, if we're gonna make a wishlist

01:07:02 ◼   ► for AirPods Max 2, right?

01:07:04 ◼   ► Fold 'em, I wanna fold 'em.

01:07:06 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:07:07 ◼   ► - I wanna fold them.

01:07:08 ◼   ► - Have a real caring case.

01:07:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, I wanna be able to fold them

01:07:11 ◼   ► and put them in a proper case that Apple provides me.

01:07:15 ◼   ► And then I'll be happy, because otherwise I love 'em,

01:07:17 ◼   ► like for traveling, you know,

01:07:19 ◼   ► like now I've done some traveling again,

01:07:20 ◼   ► it's like, oh my God, it's fantastic.

01:07:22 ◼   ► Like for what I need that kind of headphone for,

01:07:25 ◼   ► They're just superb, but they're so big and they're so cumbersome.

01:07:30 ◼   ► And also this is probably a weird thing.

01:07:33 ◼   ► Please make them of a material that is not so cold to the touch.

01:07:39 ◼   ► Sometimes I grab them and they're freezing.

01:07:41 ◼   ► They're so cold.

01:07:42 ◼   ► Yeah, it's not a nice experience made of metal.

01:07:45 ◼   ► No, no.

01:07:46 ◼   ► Plus you can make them lighter by making them out of plastic, right?

01:07:48 ◼   ► Like an apple, you know how to make plastic things look good.

01:07:52 ◼   ► Like these things don't need to be metal.

01:07:54 ◼   ► plenty of premium plastic headphones by all kinds of manufacturers. Apple make

01:08:00 ◼   ► them they're called AirPods right you know just make them out of a nice plastic.

01:08:06 ◼   ► They're so cold sometimes I touch them like it's very cold anyway yeah gestures will be

01:08:13 ◼   ► cool on the on the pad but I'm not sure. You know I actually kind of like the button. I do as well

01:08:23 ◼   ► Well, but it'd be nice sometimes to have...

01:08:25 ◼   ► The crown?

01:08:26 ◼   ► Now, with that surface though, it'd be cool to have like, multi-touch gestures.

01:08:32 ◼   ► No, see, I really don't want that.

01:08:34 ◼   ► I know why somebody would, and, you know...

01:08:37 ◼   ► Two-finger swipe on the ear pad.

01:08:41 ◼   ► Oh god, I don't want to do any of that.

01:08:44 ◼   ► Pinch and zoom on the ear pad.

01:08:46 ◼   ► I'll tell you one of the things I really like, right?

01:08:49 ◼   ► You're on a plane, you're watching a video.

01:08:52 ◼   ► you want to hear the announcement. You can press both buttons at the same time,

01:08:56 ◼   ► so you go into transparency mode and pause the thing. That's great. I guarantee you,

01:09:02 ◼   ► if we've got this like touchpad thing, I won't be able to do that.

01:09:06 ◼   ► Oh, you know also what? You know what? USB-C.

01:09:09 ◼   ► Yes, put USB-C on it. Just do it.

01:09:15 ◼   ► Why are we not in charge of headphones at Apple?

01:09:17 ◼   ► We should be.

01:09:19 ◼   ► I think about it sometimes.

01:09:20 ◼   ► Maybe the touchpad could enable like type to Siri so you could like like Siri and you could write out like

01:09:26 ◼   ► IP for like skin I

01:09:30 ◼   ► Think it'd be great

01:09:34 ◼   ► Thinking for playback controls that was thinking for like text, but you want to be like

01:09:38 ◼   ► skip back to start of song what you call it like text to play back or something like that where you

01:09:45 ◼   ► if you if you want to listen to the next chapter, it's in e

01:09:50 ◼   ► X, T, and then you wait a second, C, H, it would be great.

01:09:54 ◼   ► - Yeah, you could maybe get them both going

01:09:57 ◼   ► and like you could do a letter or a timelapse here.

01:09:59 ◼   ► - Here's a terrible idea, okay?

01:10:01 ◼   ► - Oh, 'cause that one was a good one?

01:10:02 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:10:04 ◼   ► - That one was a creative one.

01:10:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, sure.

01:10:08 ◼   ► - But here's a terrible idea, okay?

01:10:10 ◼   ► Picture headphones, so AirPods Max,

01:10:12 ◼   ► the outside of the ear pad is a display,

01:10:17 ◼   ► so the people around you can see what you're listening to.

01:10:20 ◼   ► - That's a bad idea.

01:10:22 ◼   ► - Terrible idea.

01:10:23 ◼   ► - Or a transcript of the podcast you're listening to.

01:10:28 ◼   ► - Hey, what are you listening to?

01:10:29 ◼   ► Oh no, it's Joe Rogan.

01:10:31 ◼   ► Oh no, I preferred when you listened in silence.

01:10:35 ◼   ► - Look, it's not as bad as the Dyson headphones

01:10:40 ◼   ► with the breathing mask.

01:10:41 ◼   ► - All right, okay, we can talk about this now real quick.

01:10:44 ◼   ► I was convinced, do you want,

01:10:45 ◼   ► Federico wanted to talk about this last week on the show,

01:10:47 ◼   ► And I was like, no, I don't want to do that because it's 100% in April fools.

01:10:51 ◼   ► But it isn't.

01:10:54 ◼   ► What are they doing? Who made this product? Why are they doing this?

01:11:00 ◼   ► I don't know, man.

01:11:01 ◼   ► So they announced this pair of urban lifestyle headphones for city living.

01:11:10 ◼   ► Is that how they're pitching this?

01:11:11 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:11:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:11:13 ◼   ► In this current, you know, society, these headphones are going to help you isolate yourself

01:11:21 ◼   ► with music and audio, but also breathe better because of it's all kinds of terrible.

01:11:28 ◼   ► It's not a COVID thing.

01:11:30 ◼   ► It's not a COVID thing.

01:11:31 ◼   ► It's like an air pollution.

01:11:32 ◼   ► Air filtration thing because of pollution.

01:11:34 ◼   ► Air filtration thing, yes.

01:11:36 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:11:37 ◼   ► They apparently started this in 2016.

01:11:39 ◼   ► I think someone just watched the Batman movie with Bane in it and like yes.

01:11:44 ◼   ► That's the direction we need to go.

01:11:46 ◼   ► I want to wear a headphones.

01:11:47 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:11:49 ◼   ► I just don't know who they think is gonna buy this.

01:11:53 ◼   ► Who wants to think about this, right?

01:11:56 ◼   ► So like I want to make the choice that like my city's so unlivable that I'm gonna, you

01:12:02 ◼   ► know, like oh I want every time I'm listening to Joe Rogan I want to think about something

01:12:09 ◼   ► he probably denies, which is climate change.

01:12:12 ◼   ► And you know, like I just, you know,

01:12:15 ◼   ► oh my God, why?

01:12:16 ◼   ► It's just so bad.

01:12:17 ◼   ► I hate this.

01:12:18 ◼   ► I hate everything about this.

01:12:19 ◼   ► - It's so good though.

01:12:20 ◼   ► - I like Dyson as a company.

01:12:22 ◼   ► I'm so disappointed for this product.

01:12:24 ◼   ► - I still kind of believe this is like a meme

01:12:29 ◼   ► or like some kind of joke.

01:12:30 ◼   ► Like I don't think it's a real product.

01:12:32 ◼   ► Part of me wants to believe it's not a real,

01:12:35 ◼   ► because it's so stupid.

01:12:37 ◼   ► Honestly, it's not even a COVID mask. It's it's a, what is it?

01:12:41 ◼   ► Is it like a visor before your mouth? I don't really understand what it is.

01:12:45 ◼   ► It's like a, how would you describe it? Like a barrier in front of your mouth.

01:12:49 ◼   ► It's I don't even know. It's I hate everything about it.

01:12:54 ◼   ► It's like,

01:12:55 ◼   ► what if you took the helmet of Daft Punk but removed the glass and you just have

01:13:00 ◼   ► this, you just had the structure left, you know,

01:13:05 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:13:07 ◼   ► - It's so terrible.

01:13:09 ◼   ► - Anyway, so you see my idea for a display built

01:13:14 ◼   ► into the pad of the iPhone, it's not so bad now, is it?

01:13:18 ◼   ► Compared to this.

01:13:19 ◼   ► - I think that does it for this week.

01:13:21 ◼   ► If you wanna find links for the stuff we spoke about,

01:13:24 ◼   ► head on over to our website.

01:13:25 ◼   ► That's relay.fm/connected/392.

01:13:30 ◼   ► While you're there, you can join and get access

01:13:33 ◼   ► to Connected Pro, which is a longer ad-free version

01:13:36 ◼   ► of the show each and every week.

01:13:39 ◼   ► Lots of fun, we do a pro topic at the beginning

01:13:42 ◼   ► and we pick titles at the end and you get an ad-free

01:13:46 ◼   ► enjoyment right there in the middle.

01:13:48 ◼   ► Thank you so much if you have signed up.

01:13:49 ◼   ► If you haven't, now's a great time to join.

01:13:51 ◼   ► You can find us all online.

01:13:53 ◼   ► You can find Myke on Twitter as @imyke

01:13:56 ◼   ► and Myke hosts a nature-focused podcast

01:13:59 ◼   ► here on Relay FM named Cortex.

01:14:01 ◼   ► You can find Federico on Twitter.

01:14:04 ◼   ► - Can I just tell you how bad the last week has been for me?

01:14:07 ◼   ► - People, he sends you, he sent me a spider picture.

01:14:10 ◼   ► - It's constant, constant.

01:14:12 ◼   ► I get them nearly every day now.

01:14:15 ◼   ► - It's terrible.

01:14:16 ◼   ► - He sends me some kind of spider photo.

01:14:18 ◼   ► It's rough, man.

01:14:19 ◼   ► - It's terrible.

01:14:20 ◼   ► You can find Federico on Twitter, Vittici, V-I-T-I-C-C-I.

01:14:25 ◼   ► Go check out everything going on at Mac Stories.

01:14:28 ◼   ► Automation April is up and running lots of cool stuff going on over there.

01:14:33 ◼   ► So keep an eye on all that.

01:14:34 ◼   ► You can find me on Twitter as ISMH.

01:14:37 ◼   ► Uh, I host Mac power users here on relay FM and right at five 12 pixels.net.

01:14:42 ◼   ► I'd like to thank our sponsors this week.

01:14:44 ◼   ► They are electric smile and net suite until next time guys say goodbye.

01:14:49 ◼   ► I'll do that.

01:14:50 ◼   ► Cheerio.