Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:07 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Connected, Episode 377. I'm Jason Snell and I am joined as usual by James Thompson.

00:00:15 ◼   ► It's good to be finally back. Thanks for looking after the show for the last few weeks. Some interesting guest choices also.

00:00:21 ◼   ► Well, yes, of course. We're also joined by Mr. John Forhees, who never, ever misses an episode of the show. Hi, John.

00:00:27 ◼   ► No, I don't think I've ever been off this show. It's been tough sometimes, but yeah,

00:00:33 ◼   ► I'm a bad penny. I just keep turning up.

00:00:35 ◼   ► That's good. I mean, I like the commitment that James seems to have failed to make to

00:00:39 ◼   ► this show.

00:00:40 ◼   ► Well, some of us have things to do.

00:00:43 ◼   ► Wow, wow. I think that cuts deep.

00:00:47 ◼   ► It's true. It's true, but it hurts. Oh, James. All right, you know, we should stop with the

00:00:52 ◼   ► nonsense and get down to business because we've got a lot. We've got a packed show.

00:00:55 ◼   ► The show document is overflowing this time because it's the Connected Holiday Special.

00:00:59 ◼   ► And of course, as always, we begin the Connected Christmas episode with our gift exchange,

00:01:07 ◼   ► the Triple J gift exchange, and we open our presents. It's a tradition like none other.

00:01:13 ◼   ► It doesn't feel like a year since we last touched one of these.

00:01:16 ◼   ► Oh yeah, I know. I mean, it seems like a long time, but you know, hey, it comes around quickly.

00:01:21 ◼   ► That's COVID time for you.

00:01:22 ◼   ► is flexible, it happens. It's like, what is time even now? But I love this. It's a great

00:01:26 ◼   ► tradition. We go around round robin style as is our tradition and give each other a

00:01:31 ◼   ► presence. They're not on the show. The presence happen at a later date or immediately during

00:01:36 ◼   ► the show or, you know, it's not something like, "I don't have this stuff here because

00:01:40 ◼   ► it's supposed to be a surprise, you see, and we can't trust one another to not open the

00:01:44 ◼   ► packages." So anyway, James, why don't you kick off the round robin? What do you have

00:01:48 ◼   ► for me? Me in particular?

00:01:50 ◼   ► Yeah, I know you're important here.

00:01:52 ◼   ► So I have commissioned your favorite artist, Jen Bartell, I believe,

00:01:57 ◼   ► to draw you a sketch of a micronaut holding up a similarly colored iMac.

00:02:01 ◼   ► Oh!

00:02:02 ◼   ► And kids, if you don't know what micronauts are,

00:02:06 ◼   ► you were probably not a child in the late '70s.

00:02:10 ◼   ► They were kind of like translucent robots that I'm going to say,

00:02:13 ◼   ► without any shred of evidence,

00:02:16 ◼   ► that they were the inspiration for the original iMac.

00:02:20 ◼   ► And I'm just gonna drop a picture of one.

00:02:23 ◼   ► - Jen Bartell is my favorite artist,

00:02:25 ◼   ► a comic book artist working probably.

00:02:27 ◼   ► And micronauts are a formative toy from my childhood.

00:02:31 ◼   ► You posted the picture, these are time traveler.

00:02:33 ◼   ► A lot of the micronauts were made of die cast metal.

00:02:36 ◼   ► So they're way heavier and like higher quality

00:02:38 ◼   ► than you'd expect a cheap toy to be.

00:02:40 ◼   ► But they needed, actually this fits in

00:02:42 ◼   ► with our conversations about Apple

00:02:44 ◼   ► and Apple always wanting to have like good, better, best

00:02:46 ◼   ► and keeping its profit margins.

00:02:48 ◼   ► You got to have a low cost product.

00:02:51 ◼   ► So I think, in fact, Time Traveler was like the iMac

00:02:54 ◼   ► or the MacBook Air of the Micronauts

00:02:56 ◼   ► because he was made more cheaply so he

00:03:00 ◼   ► could be sold at a lower price than the rest of them.

00:03:02 ◼   ► Yeah, definitely.

00:03:03 ◼   ► Yeah, cheap clear plastic.

00:03:04 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:03:05 ◼   ► Exactly, well, that is delightful.

00:03:06 ◼   ► I can't wait to see a modern artist who

00:03:09 ◼   ► I love drawing a Micronaut and an iMac.

00:03:12 ◼   ► Will it be-- is it a G3 iMac or is it one of the 24-inch iMacs,

00:03:15 ◼   ► James. No, it's a G Street one. I mean, you've got to go for the true translucent plastic

00:03:20 ◼   ► compatriot. Yeah. Okay, John, here's yours. I, for you, see, this is going to be so disappointing

00:03:26 ◼   ► after that because James has just outdone me again. I wrote a shortcut for you. Oh,

00:03:31 ◼   ► nice. Just for you. What does it do? Okay, it's going to wish you a happy holiday. If

00:03:35 ◼   ► you run it tomorrow or this week, it's going to say Merry Christmas, but it varies based

00:03:39 ◼   ► on the date. It will always wish you something, but it changes throughout the year. I have

00:03:45 ◼   ► caveats, it doesn't work on the Mac right now. Shortcuts crashes, what can you do? I

00:03:49 ◼   ► hope it will work at some point, there will be a holiday where it will say I can't believe

00:03:52 ◼   ► I'm working on the Mac. Doesn't work right now. And you can't really automate it to display

00:03:56 ◼   ► like every day like I wanted it to, but you could make a widget on your iOS home screen

00:04:00 ◼   ► that you could tap and then it would look and see what holiday it was. Anyway, I hope

00:04:05 ◼   ► you like it, it's just for you. If I could mint it as an NFT so it could only be run

00:04:10 ◼   ► by you, I would.

00:04:12 ◼   ► Oh wow, thank you.

00:04:13 ◼   ► But I can't, so it's just a shortcut for you.

00:04:15 ◼   ► Oh, well, it's just a shortcut that—it's a widget that I poke at every day of the year,

00:04:19 ◼   ► thank you.

00:04:20 ◼   ► Yeah, and you won't be that surprised because there aren't that many holidays, but who

00:04:22 ◼   ► knows?

00:04:23 ◼   ► Perfect.

00:04:24 ◼   ► Okay, Jon, what do you have for James?

00:04:25 ◼   ► All right, for James.

00:04:26 ◼   ► James, I made you a trophy.

00:04:29 ◼   ► I made you the world's greatest calculator app trophy, and it's really meant to sit

00:04:34 ◼   ► right alongside your Eddie from Macworld back in the day.

00:04:37 ◼   ► So you know, I got—but I felt like that wasn't quite enough.

00:04:41 ◼   ► I mean, you know, trophy's no big deal, right?

00:04:43 ◼   ► You've got a million of them.

00:04:45 ◼   ► I also got you some beard oil because we know, James,

00:04:48 ◼   ► how precious you are about your beard.

00:04:50 ◼   ► - Oh boy.

00:04:51 ◼   ► - I mean, I hope that this trophy is quite shiny

00:04:53 ◼   ► so that I can look in it and I can see my beard

00:04:56 ◼   ► because yes, you are right that everybody in the UK

00:05:00 ◼   ► really likes their beard.

00:05:01 ◼   ► - James, I'm just gonna remind you again,

00:05:03 ◼   ► who got you that Macworld trophy?

00:05:05 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:05:07 ◼   ► - Someone in the room.

00:05:08 ◼   ► - It was a legitimate process,

00:05:10 ◼   ► but who is your guy in the room, okay?

00:05:12 ◼   ► - There is no collusion in the trophy market.

00:05:15 ◼   ► - All right, James, what do you have for Jon?

00:05:17 ◼   ► - So I have got Jon, this is very special.

00:05:20 ◼   ► It is a year's membership,

00:05:22 ◼   ► and you know how we like to support other podcasts.

00:05:24 ◼   ► So it's a year's membership to The Prompt Pro,

00:05:27 ◼   ► and I think they're on episode 434 now.

00:05:31 ◼   ► It's a great podcast.

00:05:32 ◼   ► I think it's about how to use the terminal app or something,

00:05:35 ◼   ► but it's by friends of the show,

00:05:37 ◼   ► Myke Federico and Steven, or as we call them, the MFS.

00:05:41 ◼   ► - I mean, some people pronounce it MFS,

00:05:43 ◼   ► but MFS is more polite.

00:05:45 ◼   ► - This is a family show.

00:05:48 ◼   ► But I think we should have them on our show one day.

00:05:51 ◼   ► - Oh, that would be a good idea.

00:05:52 ◼   ► You know, who would have thought that you could get

00:05:54 ◼   ► over 400 episodes all about the terminal?

00:05:56 ◼   ► I mean, am I right?

00:05:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, those guys are just, they work hard, right?

00:06:00 ◼   ► So you should do that.

00:06:01 ◼   ► Well, relay.fm/membership,

00:06:03 ◼   ► if you want to be a member of our show, Connected,

00:06:06 ◼   ► or of the prompt, you can do that right there.

00:06:09 ◼   ► Okay, John, what do you have for me?

00:06:13 ◼   ► - I do have something for you, Jason.

00:06:16 ◼   ► I talked to Apple and I pulled some strings

00:06:19 ◼   ► and I got them to agree to stop fiddling around

00:06:22 ◼   ► with the Photos app so you could have it year off

00:06:25 ◼   ► from writing your book.

00:06:27 ◼   ► And they also, they went a step further though.

00:06:30 ◼   ► They said that they're gonna take that engineering time

00:06:33 ◼   ► and they're going to implement a proper audio system

00:06:37 ◼   ► on the iPads that you can start recording all of your shows

00:06:41 ◼   ► on your iPad Pro.

00:06:42 ◼   ► - I am impressed that you talked to somebody

00:06:45 ◼   ► who has that power, but I guess you're that well-connected,

00:06:48 ◼   ► which fits with the name of the show, so that makes sense.

00:06:51 ◼   ► That's probably why the show is called what it is,

00:06:53 ◼   ► I would think.

00:06:54 ◼   ► - That's where it started.

00:06:54 ◼   ► - That Jon is so well-connected.

00:06:56 ◼   ► All right, last in the Christmas gift exchange,

00:06:59 ◼   ► it's me for James.

00:07:00 ◼   ► James, I bought you a pound of dice.

00:07:03 ◼   ► Did you know that they sell dice by the pound?

00:07:06 ◼   ► They do.

00:07:07 ◼   ► - I did.

00:07:08 ◼   ► - It's a sorted dice.

00:07:09 ◼   ► It weighs a pound.

00:07:10 ◼   ► I'm sorry, I didn't do it in metric.

00:07:12 ◼   ► - I did the conversion

00:07:13 ◼   ► and I did actually weigh some dice just there.

00:07:17 ◼   ► And I think that's about 13 complete sets worth of dice.

00:07:21 ◼   ► So that's great.

00:07:22 ◼   ► - Yes, I have to warn you.

00:07:23 ◼   ► They are just loaded by weight.

00:07:25 ◼   ► So I can't, they may not be sets at all.

00:07:27 ◼   ► They may be just kind of weird dice.

00:07:29 ◼   ► They might have weird like textures or something.

00:07:32 ◼   ► I don't honestly know because that's what happens

00:07:34 ◼   ► when you buy dice by weight.

00:07:36 ◼   ► But I hope that there are some gems in there.

00:07:37 ◼   ► - I think you shouldn't use the term loaded

00:07:40 ◼   ► when you're talking about dice.

00:07:41 ◼   ► Otherwise I might get in trouble with Tony.

00:07:43 ◼   ► - All right, well, that was great.

00:07:45 ◼   ► I think we're all looking forward to getting our gifts

00:07:47 ◼   ► and gift exchange.

00:07:49 ◼   ► Let's do this again next year.

00:07:51 ◼   ► I love it.

00:07:52 ◼   ► - It's a holiday tradition.

00:07:55 ◼   ► - We have of course another great tradition

00:07:57 ◼   ► for the end of the year coming up.

00:07:59 ◼   ► But first, James is going to tell you

00:08:01 ◼   ► about our sponsor this week, James.

00:08:03 ◼   ► - So this episode of Connected is brought to you

00:08:07 ◼   ► by Unchecked Corruption and the Lifetime Award-winning

00:08:10 ◼   ► Peacock, the only scientific calculator that can order food

00:08:13 ◼   ► from local restaurants, tells you when your website is down,

00:08:16 ◼   ► and is also a pizza oven.

00:08:18 ◼   ► Jason, I believe you had to calculate

00:08:20 ◼   ► a special number recently.

00:08:21 ◼   ► How did that go?

00:08:22 ◼   ► - It didn't go great, honestly,

00:08:24 ◼   ► because I was trying to multiply

00:08:26 ◼   ► and then I needed to clear the calculator

00:08:27 ◼   ► and I can never remember the difference between the AC button and the C button.

00:08:31 ◼   ► (Laughter)

00:08:32 ◼   ► I just pressed the AC button a bunch of times. Is that what I'm supposed to do?

00:08:35 ◼   ► Well, that sounds wonderful. Go to peakout.com/connected and you can save yourself the time it would

00:08:40 ◼   ► take to Google for it. Thanks to Peacock for their support of this show, and by support

00:08:44 ◼   ► I mean the large envelope of cash.

00:08:47 ◼   ► Thank you to our sponsors. With that, it brings us to that time. I know everybody who listens

00:08:52 ◼   ► connected once this. It is time for the pickies. Our annual contest. Ah, the pickies. We do our

00:08:59 ◼   ► picks for what is going to happen next year. And so, I have to ask everybody, please stand

00:09:05 ◼   ► for the reading of the Pickies Charter. Rule number one. There are two types of pickies.

00:09:12 ◼   ► The annual pickies and WWDC pickies. No other pickies shall ever be introduced. Two. The winner

00:09:20 ◼   ► Winner of the annual pickies is named Grand Admiral Pickerton and retains the title for

00:09:25 ◼   ► a full year.

00:09:27 ◼   ► 3.

00:09:28 ◼   ► The WWDC Pickies winner is named the San Jose Shindig King and retains the title until the

00:09:34 ◼   ► next WWDC is held.

00:09:36 ◼   ► 4.

00:09:37 ◼   ► Order for annual pickies and WWDC pickies is based on the winner of the previous year.

00:09:43 ◼   ► 5.

00:09:44 ◼   ► The winner goes second.

00:09:45 ◼   ► The loser flips a coin to determine who goes first and who goes third. Jason is the only

00:09:51 ◼   ► person allowed to flip a coin, and he cannot use Nat to do so.

00:09:57 ◼   ► To earn any points, everything written down in the prediction document must come true.

00:10:03 ◼   ► There are no half points awarded in any round, but other fractions are allowed.

00:10:09 ◼   ► Three points are awarded for any pick deemed correct in the first round.

00:10:15 ◼   ► Two points are awarded for any pick deemed correct

00:10:17 ◼   ► in the second round.

00:10:18 ◼   ► - 10, one point will be awarded for correct picks

00:10:22 ◼   ► in the lightning round.

00:10:23 ◼   ► - 11, any pick that comes through

00:10:25 ◼   ► in the first half of the year is worth double.

00:10:27 ◼   ► - 12, your total percentage of wrong answers

00:10:30 ◼   ► will be multiplied by five

00:10:32 ◼   ► and deducted from your final score.

00:10:35 ◼   ► - Okay, I gotta jump in here

00:10:36 ◼   ► because this is one of those places

00:10:37 ◼   ► that I said I wanted last time.

00:10:39 ◼   ► I said I wanted to do a rule change.

00:10:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, fair enough.

00:10:41 ◼   ► - As many listeners may remember,

00:10:44 ◼   ► we had an argument about what percentage meant

00:10:46 ◼   ► and whether if it was 25%, you multiplied by 25

00:10:50 ◼   ► or you multiplied by 0.25.

00:10:53 ◼   ► So I wanna specify we mean decimal percentage

00:10:56 ◼   ► so that we're deducting 1.25 instead of 125.

00:11:00 ◼   ► - Yes, in my former life as a lawyer,

00:11:04 ◼   ► we would have said this in a contract

00:11:05 ◼   ► as we'd say that it was expressed as a fraction.

00:11:09 ◼   ► So the percentage is expressed by a fraction

00:11:12 ◼   ► is what I would say.

00:11:13 ◼   ► Yeah, it's almost as if this rule was added, so we'd need to use a calculator at some point.

00:11:16 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:11:17 ◼   ► Well, either...

00:11:17 ◼   ► Okay, let's do express as a fraction.

00:11:19 ◼   ► I trust the law language of John here, as always.

00:11:22 ◼   ► That's fair.

00:11:23 ◼   ► All right.

00:11:23 ◼   ► Number 13.

00:11:25 ◼   ► "The two other hosts must agree that at least one of your picks is not obvious, and that one of your picks is pretty cool."

00:11:31 ◼   ► All right, 14.

00:11:32 ◼   ► "No picking things not actually unrelated to Apple or the tech industry."

00:11:37 ◼   ► So, again, this is a place where we need to change this.

00:11:40 ◼   ► We need to remove one of the negatives from that statement.

00:11:42 ◼   ► Otherwise, I'm going to redo all my picks.

00:11:45 ◼   ► Oh, I see. It's not actually unrelated. Oh, no.

00:11:50 ◼   ► Yeah, see, Boolean logic will get you every time.

00:11:53 ◼   ► John, do you have any law recommendations for us here?

00:11:57 ◼   ► How about something really simple like,

00:12:00 ◼   ► "Everything has to be related to Apple or the tech industry."

00:12:02 ◼   ► Okay, great. Let's do that. Everything. I'm going to do it right now.

00:12:05 ◼   ► Everything has to be related.

00:12:09 ◼   ► Every pick has to be, okay, that's our new rule.

00:12:14 ◼   ► - I think that's our record there.

00:12:17 ◼   ► That was a triple negative we had going there.

00:12:20 ◼   ► - Well, we are the triple kurties.

00:12:22 ◼   ► - I wish the, yeah, whoever wrote this.

00:12:25 ◼   ► - Somebody needs an editor.

00:12:26 ◼   ► - Yeah, seriously.

00:12:28 ◼   ► - Okay, number 15, no picking things

00:12:31 ◼   ► that the picker of the pick could make come true

00:12:33 ◼   ► by themselves or by inducing others, including,

00:12:37 ◼   ► and this is important, taking a job at Apple.

00:12:40 ◼   ► - We all know what that's regarding.

00:12:41 ◼   ► Number 16, no picking things

00:12:43 ◼   ► that are not provably true or false.

00:12:46 ◼   ► Whether or not you can prove a negative

00:12:48 ◼   ► is best left for the philosophers.

00:12:50 ◼   ► - Number 17, no altering the production document

00:12:53 ◼   ► after the show is over.

00:12:55 ◼   ► We all remember what happened in 2020.

00:12:58 ◼   ► As an aside, I'm going to mint this as an NFT,

00:13:01 ◼   ► so we all know that that means

00:13:03 ◼   ► it'll be unalterable and uncopyable.

00:13:05 ◼   ► - That's good.

00:13:06 ◼   ► blockchain that's where it belongs yes okay number 18 and we're into the

00:13:10 ◼   ► important stuff here after the scoring is complete each host must place the

00:13:15 ◼   ► official pikis refrigerator magnet in the proper configuration on their

00:13:19 ◼   ► refrigerator for the entirety of the next year and that's winner at the

00:13:23 ◼   ► center of the door second place in the lower left corner and third place in the

00:13:28 ◼   ► lower right corner all right that's right we we need to sell those next year

00:13:32 ◼   ► because people are gonna love those. Yes. Yeah, and I do want to put in a proposed rule change

00:13:37 ◼   ► here because if your fridge door is not made from a ferrous metal like mine, you're allowed to use

00:13:44 ◼   ► Blu-Tack or some other adhesive substance to secure the magnets because they keep falling off

00:13:48 ◼   ► my fridge. I'm going to propose a separate rule that James needs to get himself a new fridge,

00:13:53 ◼   ► just saying. Well, I mean, if it comes out of the show's budget, then fine. See, I don't think this

00:13:57 ◼   ► rule change is necessary because all the rules say is that you must place the magnets in the

00:14:02 ◼   ► in the configuration. It doesn't say anything about, I mean, their magnets.

00:14:05 ◼   ► So I guess it-

00:14:06 ◼   ► So if they fall on the floor, I can just put them away?

00:14:08 ◼   ► No, they must remain in the configuration, but you can place them there by any means.

00:14:12 ◼   ► So if you wanted to like superglue them on or something, you could do that, but you have

00:14:15 ◼   ► to be prepared to pull them off and move them.

00:14:17 ◼   ► Well, I don't need to because I win every year. So, you know, it's fine. I can just

00:14:21 ◼   ► superglue them.

00:14:22 ◼   ► That's not true. That's not true. You don't win every year.

00:14:24 ◼   ► One last chance.

00:14:25 ◼   ► You say that now because-

00:14:26 ◼   ► He's doing it again.

00:14:27 ◼   ► every year. Number 19, you know, that's what you do every year. You claim you always win every year,

00:14:33 ◼   ► but you don't always win every year. We shall see. Number 19, the winner of each competition will be

00:14:41 ◼   ► given access to the official competition Twitter accounts @WWDCShindigKing and @PikisAdmiral,

00:14:49 ◼   ► as appropriate. All right, and that's the end of the rules. Everybody can sit back down. That was

00:14:55 ◼   ► the official Picky's Charter being read. 2021 winner was James, just to recap. He is both

00:15:04 ◼   ► Admiral Pickerton and the Sanitization Dig King.

00:15:08 ◼   ► Yeah, as always.

00:15:10 ◼   ► No, not as always. Okay, let's just get to the picks. Let's start arguing about this.

00:15:14 ◼   ► People want to hear the picks. And per the rules, I need to flip a real coin to determine

00:15:19 ◼   ► who goes first and who goes third. Jon, I'm going to let you call it Heads or Tails, and

00:15:25 ◼   ► if it comes up the one you called,

00:15:26 ◼   ► we gotta specify all this 'cause of shenanigans,

00:15:29 ◼   ► if it comes up the one you called, you get to go first.

00:15:31 ◼   ► - All right, I call tails.

00:15:33 ◼   ► - All right, tails.

00:15:34 ◼   ► Now, how do I flip this thing?

00:15:35 ◼   ► It came up tails, so you, John, get to go first.

00:15:43 ◼   ► In the first round is the three-point round.

00:15:46 ◼   ► What do you have?

00:15:47 ◼   ► - Well, my first prediction, my first picky,

00:15:49 ◼   ► is that Apple's gonna introduce

00:15:51 ◼   ► a standalone display next year.

00:15:53 ◼   ► And it's not one that's connected, obviously,

00:15:55 ◼   ► to a laptop or to an iMac.

00:15:57 ◼   ► I'm talking about a standalone display that's less--

00:16:00 ◼   ► that costs less than a Pro Display XDR.

00:16:04 ◼   ► I feel that we should have a rule about not being

00:16:06 ◼   ► able to reuse your picks, because you pick

00:16:08 ◼   ► this every single year.

00:16:10 ◼   ► It's going to be true someday.

00:16:12 ◼   ► Someday.

00:16:12 ◼   ► I actually-- I like him throwing away his three points year

00:16:15 ◼   ► after year after year on the white whale that

00:16:17 ◼   ► is the standalone Apple display.

00:16:19 ◼   ► It's like AirPower.

00:16:20 ◼   ► It's the new AirPower, I think.

00:16:21 ◼   ► I just want to say--

00:16:22 ◼   ► I just want to officially handicap this,

00:16:23 ◼   ► that I fear that Jon is actually correct this time.

00:16:26 ◼   ► And it's killing me that Jon won the coin flip,

00:16:30 ◼   ► because I think this is the year,

00:16:31 ◼   ► that 2022 is the year where it's going to happen.

00:16:33 ◼   ► - So my pick is that Apple will introduce a Mac in 2022

00:16:37 ◼   ► that is more than twice as fast

00:16:39 ◼   ► as any existing Mac from 2021.

00:16:42 ◼   ► - All right, we need to clarify this, James.

00:16:44 ◼   ► What do you mean by twice as fast?

00:16:46 ◼   ► Come on.

00:16:47 ◼   ► - Let us clarify this in terms of, say,

00:16:50 ◼   ► the multi-core benchmark--

00:16:54 ◼   ► Or what is it?

00:16:55 ◼   ► Geekbench.

00:16:56 ◼   ► Yeah, let's go with Geekbench as a good--

00:16:59 ◼   ► because I think, yeah, the single core is probably not

00:17:02 ◼   ► going to be twice as fast.

00:17:04 ◼   ► But I think the multi-core is definitely--

00:17:07 ◼   ► I'm figuring they're just going to add in some more processes,

00:17:12 ◼   ► basically, into this thing of the sort of M1 Mac style,

00:17:17 ◼   ► but just with more processes.

00:17:19 ◼   ► So this is basically, okay, so this was the four core,

00:17:23 ◼   ► this is the rumored four die Mac Pro

00:17:26 ◼   ► is probably what you're predicting here

00:17:27 ◼   ► because a two die might not actually be twice as fast,

00:17:31 ◼   ► which is-

00:17:32 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's why I put in the padding

00:17:34 ◼   ► to just say twice as fast

00:17:35 ◼   ► because I figure if we get a four die one,

00:17:38 ◼   ► it's definitely gonna do it.

00:17:40 ◼   ► - And my other question is about introduce as a term.

00:17:43 ◼   ► How can we score it if it is introduced but not shipping?

00:17:48 ◼   ► Well, by the legal language of my prediction,

00:17:52 ◼   ► I think that I would get the points.

00:17:54 ◼   ► - I don't like that.

00:17:55 ◼   ► I think it needs to ship.

00:17:56 ◼   ► - All right, okay, fine.

00:17:58 ◼   ► This is my three points, but I will because-

00:18:02 ◼   ► - Well, how can we get a Geekbench score if nobody has it,

00:18:05 ◼   ► if it's just been announced?

00:18:06 ◼   ► - Well, what will happen is it will be in the hands

00:18:09 ◼   ► of some journalists who will accidentally upload

00:18:11 ◼   ► their Geekbench score as happens every year.

00:18:14 ◼   ► - Okay, actually, you know what?

00:18:15 ◼   ► I'm gonna give it to you.

00:18:16 ◼   ► I think this is fair as it is

00:18:18 ◼   ► because if there's no score, then you don't get it.

00:18:20 ◼   ► There has to be, somebody has to have a score.

00:18:22 ◼   ► And I'll just point out to the rules, James,

00:18:24 ◼   ► you can't upload a fake Geekbench score

00:18:28 ◼   ► in order to win this.

00:18:29 ◼   ► 'Cause we'll know, we'll find out.

00:18:30 ◼   ► - We'll figure it out.

00:18:31 ◼   ► - That is covered under the rules of inducing others

00:18:34 ◼   ► and so on, so yeah.

00:18:35 ◼   ► - All right.

00:18:36 ◼   ► - All right, all right.

00:18:37 ◼   ► It has to be available on the internet.

00:18:38 ◼   ► I mean, we're not talking about a Geekbench score

00:18:40 ◼   ► that someone told you about that they ran

00:18:42 ◼   ► and didn't upload.

00:18:42 ◼   ► This has to be something that Jason and I

00:18:44 ◼   ► can see on the web.

00:18:46 ◼   ► - Well, my three point pick is going to kind of piggyback

00:18:49 ◼   ► on John's a little bit, because John stopped my pick there.

00:18:51 ◼   ► I am going to say that iPadOS is going to finally,

00:18:56 ◼   ► finally, finally, finally get non-mirrored

00:19:00 ◼   ► external display support.

00:19:03 ◼   ► - Talk about the pick that comes up every single time.

00:19:06 ◼   ► - I know, it's you and me.

00:19:09 ◼   ► I'm hoping that the picks will make it true.

00:19:12 ◼   ► It hasn't happened yet, but I'm still gonna hope

00:19:13 ◼   ► against all evidence.

00:19:15 ◼   ► I feel like everything is lining up.

00:19:17 ◼   ► We have pointer support in iPad OS.

00:19:19 ◼   ► We got the keyboard support in iPad OS.

00:19:21 ◼   ► We got new windowing that was introduced in iOS 15.

00:19:24 ◼   ► We've got that great standalone display

00:19:26 ◼   ► that Jon is gonna make happen with his pick.

00:19:29 ◼   ► - Indeed. - And so I'm just gonna

00:19:31 ◼   ► ride in there and say, "How would Apple do this

00:19:32 ◼   ► "without finally having it be the last piece

00:19:34 ◼   ► "of the puzzle for iPad OS?"

00:19:35 ◼   ► So that's my choice. - Yeah, well,

00:19:36 ◼   ► I hope you're right, I hope you're right.

00:19:38 ◼   ► All right, well, that's it for round one.

00:19:40 ◼   ► Why don't we head into round two?

00:19:42 ◼   ► And, you know, - Okay.

00:19:43 ◼   ► - I'm gonna kick it off.

00:19:45 ◼   ► with at WWC, Apple will introduce a new home strategy

00:19:49 ◼   ► that includes at least one new product.

00:19:53 ◼   ► What do you guys think of that?

00:19:55 ◼   ► I think it's very vague, but--

00:19:57 ◼   ► Well, that's what scoring is all about.

00:20:00 ◼   ► Do they have an existing home strategy?

00:20:03 ◼   ► Oh, well, no, that's true.

00:20:05 ◼   ► Maybe I should not say new.

00:20:07 ◼   ► Apple will have a home strategy

00:20:10 ◼   ► and will introduce a new home product.

00:20:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:20:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, I like this pick because I also want to believe

00:20:18 ◼   ► that there will be something.

00:20:19 ◼   ► And I like the vagueness of it because you can get

00:20:22 ◼   ► these two points if you get that Amazon Echo-like

00:20:26 ◼   ► - Right, the screen.

00:20:27 ◼   ► - Thing that has a screen and a center stage camera maybe

00:20:30 ◼   ► and sits in your kitchen and is also a HomePod.

00:20:33 ◼   ► If they did the soundbar,

00:20:34 ◼   ► if they do something we don't even know,

00:20:37 ◼   ► bring back airport, like anything will get you that point.

00:20:42 ◼   ► But honestly, I think I would still call this a non-obvious pick because it requires Apple to have a home strategy.

00:20:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:20:50 ◼   ► Okay.

00:20:51 ◼   ► Uh, so my pick, I, I'm going to be betting heavily on, uh, AR and VR in my picks this year.

00:21:00 ◼   ► So if Apple doesn't do any of this, I'm just completely out there running.

00:21:05 ◼   ► So my pick is a developer kit will be introduced

00:21:08 ◼   ► for Apple's mixed reality headset at WWDC,

00:21:12 ◼   ► but the headset itself will not actually ship

00:21:14 ◼   ► to consumers during 2022.

00:21:17 ◼   ► Now there's a couple of things that can trip me up here.

00:21:19 ◼   ► One, if it's only an AR headset,

00:21:22 ◼   ► then I don't know that I get the mixed reality,

00:21:24 ◼   ► but I'm fairly sure that developers

00:21:29 ◼   ► are gonna get something,

00:21:29 ◼   ► but I don't think consumers are gonna get anything

00:21:31 ◼   ► until next year.

00:21:33 ◼   ► - I'm just gonna read my pick now

00:21:34 ◼   ► because it's in direct opposition to your pick.

00:21:36 ◼   ► My pick is--

00:21:37 ◼   ► - I noticed.

00:21:38 ◼   ► - Anyone who wants an Apple headset

00:21:40 ◼   ► will be able to buy one by the end of 2022

00:21:42 ◼   ► without becoming a developer.

00:21:45 ◼   ► That's my choice.

00:21:46 ◼   ► So you're saying there will be something,

00:21:47 ◼   ► but it won't ship to consumers.

00:21:49 ◼   ► I will say that if you wanna buy one,

00:21:51 ◼   ► I'm not saying it'll be a good buy,

00:21:52 ◼   ► I'm not saying it makes sense

00:21:53 ◼   ► that people spend the money on it,

00:21:55 ◼   ► but that regardless, if you wanna get one,

00:21:58 ◼   ► you'll be able to put down money to buy one

00:21:59 ◼   ► by the end of 2022.

00:22:01 ◼   ► Without, 'cause I knew you guys were gonna ask,

00:22:04 ◼   ► without spending $99, becoming a developer,

00:22:07 ◼   ► and then buying an Apple headset.

00:22:08 ◼   ► They can just go get one.

00:22:10 ◼   ► They can order one online,

00:22:11 ◼   ► or maybe go into the Apple store, I don't know.

00:22:13 ◼   ► - Well, I think this is an interesting one

00:22:15 ◼   ► because we're gonna have some rules language

00:22:18 ◼   ► on be able to buy one.

00:22:22 ◼   ► What does this mean?

00:22:23 ◼   ► But I'm prepared to accept this as a pick.

00:22:28 ◼   ► - How about order?

00:22:29 ◼   ► Can I change it to order?

00:22:30 ◼   ► Would that make it better or worse for you?

00:22:31 ◼   ► - No.

00:22:32 ◼   ► - No, okay.

00:22:33 ◼   ► - Because like, you know, you could order one

00:22:35 ◼   ► and it doesn't ship until 2024.

00:22:38 ◼   ► So I'm not gonna let you have that.

00:22:40 ◼   ► - Okay, I'll take it.

00:22:41 ◼   ► Jon, you okay with it?

00:22:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think I'm okay with this.

00:22:44 ◼   ► - You're spoken like a man who's watching

00:22:46 ◼   ► his two competitors kill each other

00:22:48 ◼   ► while you just run on by.

00:22:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

00:22:50 ◼   ► I mean, yeah, that's fair.

00:22:52 ◼   ► - Says the man with the home strategy.

00:22:53 ◼   ► All right, that brings us to the lightning round

00:22:55 ◼   ► of the pickies.

00:22:56 ◼   ► This is basically a draft.

00:22:58 ◼   ► Multiple selections are allowed.

00:23:00 ◼   ► We're gonna do up to five rounds.

00:23:01 ◼   ► You can drop out at any point

00:23:02 ◼   ► If you want to chance it on the percentage deduction that's in the rules, you have to

00:23:08 ◼   ► do some math to do that.

00:23:09 ◼   ► So I leave that to James.

00:23:10 ◼   ► But you can also do all five rounds, which is generally what we always do.

00:23:14 ◼   ► We limited it to five because there was that one time that James picked 12 things and the

00:23:17 ◼   ► show was too long.

00:23:19 ◼   ► But it worked.

00:23:21 ◼   ► James also won this last time because he was using Peacock in the background.

00:23:25 ◼   ► Oh yeah, he was calculating his odds.

00:23:28 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:23:29 ◼   ► Yeah, that's true.

00:23:30 ◼   ► I mean, it's really bad podcasting if you just

00:23:32 ◼   ► drop out after one pick.

00:23:34 ◼   ► But if it's strategically favorable,

00:23:36 ◼   ► James will just do whatever he wants.

00:23:37 ◼   ► Yeah, where's the excitement in that?

00:23:39 ◼   ► Where's the excitement?

00:23:39 ◼   ► Yeah, we usually do five picks.

00:23:40 ◼   ► I'm in this to win.

00:23:42 ◼   ► I'm not in this for podcasting.

00:23:44 ◼   ► We know it.

00:23:45 ◼   ► We know it.

00:23:46 ◼   ► All right, so we'll alternate picks.

00:23:48 ◼   ► No duplication of picks because it's a draft.

00:23:50 ◼   ► And Jon won the coin toss.

00:23:51 ◼   ► So Jon, what's your first pick in round one?

00:23:53 ◼   ► All right, I'm going to say that Eddy Cue is going

00:23:57 ◼   ► return to the next Apple keynote to talk about services, but he won't dance, unfortunately.

00:24:03 ◼   ► Oh, I love a stagecraft pick. This is like a non-stagecraft pick, but still,

00:24:09 ◼   ► stagecraft is involved. So, Eddie appearance without dancing.

00:24:12 ◼   ► Yeah, it's been too long since we've seen Eddie, you know? My favorite, literally, my absolute

00:24:17 ◼   ► favorite WWDC was the music one where Eddie and Drake were up there, and I'm hoping that we'll

00:24:22 ◼   ► we'll get that again, but I think the reality is

00:24:26 ◼   ► we'll probably just get Eddie talking about services

00:24:29 ◼   ► and maybe something else that's one of my other picks.

00:24:32 ◼   ► - Oh, okay.

00:24:33 ◼   ► - I don't wanna give it away

00:24:34 ◼   ► and have one of you guys swipe it.

00:24:36 ◼   ► - No spoilers.

00:24:37 ◼   ► Okay, James. - Okay, mine is,

00:24:38 ◼   ► at least one Mac will be introduced in 2022

00:24:41 ◼   ► that is available in regular Pro and Macs

00:24:45 ◼   ► processor configurations at once.

00:24:47 ◼   ► - All right, I was writing my Macworld article

00:24:50 ◼   ► previewing the 2022 in the Mac,

00:24:54 ◼   ► which I think might be posted just now.

00:24:56 ◼   ► And I was trying to, I was thinking about the same thing

00:24:59 ◼   ► and I was trying to think, and I'm just gonna say it,

00:25:02 ◼   ► James, your pick, I saw it in the doc

00:25:05 ◼   ► and I added it to my article

00:25:07 ◼   ► because I thought it was really interesting.

00:25:08 ◼   ► But this is the part that I stumbled on,

00:25:10 ◼   ► is what Mac model spans the M1 or M2

00:25:15 ◼   ► and the M1 Pro and the M1 Macs?

00:25:20 ◼   ► Do you have any thoughts?

00:25:21 ◼   ► I mean, you're picking at least one and that's fine,

00:25:22 ◼   ► but I'm curious what you think

00:25:24 ◼   ► is the most likely Mac to do that.

00:25:26 ◼   ► - I think the iMac is one

00:25:29 ◼   ► and I think the Mac Mini might be another,

00:25:32 ◼   ► but I think the iMac is probably my safe bet for this,

00:25:36 ◼   ► that we are gonna have, with the same industrial design,

00:25:40 ◼   ► we are, not the same colors possibly,

00:25:42 ◼   ► but the same industrial design,

00:25:44 ◼   ► we're gonna have a regular Pro and Macs configuration

00:25:47 ◼   ► that you can buy.

00:25:49 ◼   ► - Very interesting.

00:25:50 ◼   ► I could see it for the Mini too,

00:25:52 ◼   ► but I think probably iMac is the better bet.

00:25:54 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think the Mac Mini might be the better bet,

00:25:56 ◼   ► but I'm also unclear whether they're going to,

00:25:59 ◼   ► something that maybe somebody could pick if they want to,

00:26:01 ◼   ► but I wonder about if we're gonna see a Mac Mini Pro,

00:26:05 ◼   ► and if the reason that they have shipped the one Mac Mini,

00:26:07 ◼   ► and then the other Mac Mini is still in the price line,

00:26:09 ◼   ► is they may make a split there,

00:26:12 ◼   ► and have like an M1 Mac Mini,

00:26:14 ◼   ► and then the Pro and the Max be the Mac Mini Pro,

00:26:18 ◼   ► or something like that.

00:26:19 ◼   ► - Right.

00:26:19 ◼   ► - But I agree, I think James's best bet here

00:26:21 ◼   ► is probably that they release an iMac Pro

00:26:24 ◼   ► that comes in three chip configurations

00:26:25 ◼   ► or something like, or a high-end iMac

00:26:27 ◼   ► that comes in three chip configurations.

00:26:29 ◼   ► Whatever it's called.

00:26:30 ◼   ► Okay, my choice is gonna be

00:26:32 ◼   ► universal control ships before WWDC.

00:26:35 ◼   ► - All right.

00:26:36 ◼   ► - I mean, it's good to be optimistic.

00:26:39 ◼   ► - See, this is the thing is it seems obvious

00:26:41 ◼   ► and yet is it obvious?

00:26:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, I don't know.

00:26:44 ◼   ► It feels to me like this is the kind of thing

00:26:46 ◼   ► that's going to ship in the spring

00:26:48 ◼   ► when new M1 Macs, or not M1, but you know,

00:26:51 ◼   ► Apple Silicon Macs are introduced,

00:26:53 ◼   ► because it's a perfect time to show it off again,

00:26:55 ◼   ► is at a March or April event.

00:26:57 ◼   ► - Right, hey, remember this feature

00:26:59 ◼   ► that we announced previously?

00:27:01 ◼   ► - It still works, and it works with these new computers too.

00:27:03 ◼   ► - I don't know, I think you cannot guarantee it,

00:27:07 ◼   ► but I'm gonna pick it, 'cause I'm optimistic

00:27:10 ◼   ► that it'll ship before WWDC.

00:27:12 ◼   ► Round two, Jon, what do you have?

00:27:14 ◼   ► - All right, round two.

00:27:15 ◼   ► I am gonna go with something a little safer,

00:27:17 ◼   ► a little safer bet this time.

00:27:18 ◼   ► I'm going to predict that the Notes app

00:27:23 ◼   ► is going to gain smart folders

00:27:24 ◼   ► based on both tags and other metadata.

00:27:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.

00:27:30 ◼   ► Strangely missing from iOS 15, right?

00:27:31 ◼   ► Like it's in Reminders, but it's not in Notes,

00:27:33 ◼   ► which doesn't make sense.

00:27:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, this seems to be

00:27:35 ◼   ► where the market's going as well.

00:27:37 ◼   ► So yeah, I could see this certainly being a thing

00:27:40 ◼   ► that Apple introduces.

00:27:41 ◼   ► - I bet they had that feature

00:27:43 ◼   ► and then they just couldn't ship it and they delayed it

00:27:45 ◼   ► because it usually notes and reminders move in somewhat

00:27:48 ◼   ► of a lock step and for reminders to get those features.

00:27:50 ◼   ► Yeah. - Right.

00:27:51 ◼   ► They're usually pretty close.

00:27:52 ◼   ► - And there's, you know, people will say it's Sherlocking

00:27:54 ◼   ► and all that, but it's not because if it's an obvious

00:27:56 ◼   ► feature, I don't think it counts as a Sherlock.

00:27:58 ◼   ► - Yeah. All right, James.

00:28:01 ◼   ► - So mine, looking forward to the Mac Pro,

00:28:05 ◼   ► the Apple Silicon Mac Pro will not support

00:28:08 ◼   ► discrete graphics cards or any other form of PCIE cards

00:28:12 ◼   ► for expansion.

00:28:13 ◼   ► So like the new one, or the current one,

00:28:17 ◼   ► it's an old school style, you know,

00:28:21 ◼   ► Power Mac type case that you can slap lots of cards in.

00:28:24 ◼   ► But I think that that is gonna be a one off

00:28:27 ◼   ► and I think they're gonna have, you know,

00:28:29 ◼   ► I'm not saying it's gonna be a perfect cube,

00:28:32 ◼   ► but I wouldn't rule it out.

00:28:33 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:28:35 ◼   ► - I am right now making myself a note

00:28:38 ◼   ► for the story that I'm gonna write

00:28:39 ◼   ► in two to three years time about that golden era

00:28:42 ◼   ► of eGPUs that we had for about a split second with Max.

00:28:46 ◼   ► So, I kind of am with you, James.

00:28:49 ◼   ► - I think Apple just like at this point is like,

00:28:52 ◼   ► we can beat like Nvidia and all that at their own game,

00:28:56 ◼   ► whether they can or not remains to be seen.

00:28:58 ◼   ► But I think they just don't feel they need

00:29:02 ◼   ► the discrete graphics cards anymore.

00:29:03 ◼   ► They can do it all on their own silicon.

00:29:05 ◼   ► - Yes, because gaming doesn't require that.

00:29:07 ◼   ► They've got, they're the champions of casual gaming

00:29:11 ◼   ► and you can do that on Apple Silicon.

00:29:12 ◼   ► Maybe you don't need a discrete GPU for that.

00:29:15 ◼   ► - I agree with you about the GPU.

00:29:16 ◼   ► I think that Apple's gonna say,

00:29:17 ◼   ► "Look, we will sell you 128 GPU cores if you want,

00:29:21 ◼   ► and that's gonna need to be good enough."

00:29:24 ◼   ► And I think what we've seen with the,

00:29:25 ◼   ► for at least the markets that they really care about,

00:29:28 ◼   ► that with the MacBook Pro,

00:29:31 ◼   ► with the high-end Pro Max chip,

00:29:34 ◼   ► well, Max chip, M1 Max, Pro Max, I'm so confused,

00:29:37 ◼   ► 'cause they're Max and they run the M1 Max chip.

00:29:40 ◼   ► Anyway, they've shown that the GPU power is pretty good.

00:29:43 ◼   ► So I'll get that.

00:29:44 ◼   ► I think where you might get bitten here, James,

00:29:46 ◼   ► is this any other form of PCIe cards?

00:29:49 ◼   ► Because what I think Apple might offer

00:29:53 ◼   ► is pathways for storage and IO expansion

00:29:58 ◼   ► that might be internal.

00:30:00 ◼   ► Storage especially takes up,

00:30:04 ◼   ► I mean, I know you can add like things

00:30:05 ◼   ► and chain them off with Thunderbolt,

00:30:07 ◼   ► but I wonder if they've listened to customers

00:30:09 ◼   ► who want to put beefy storage things inside a box that is all self-contained and if that's

00:30:14 ◼   ► the only expansion that they're going to offer.

00:30:17 ◼   ► I think all the expansion they're going to have is external. I don't think they're going

00:30:20 ◼   ► to have any internal expansion. I think because they've got, you know, all the various thunderbolts

00:30:26 ◼   ► and whatever coming.

00:30:27 ◼   ► What about memory though, James? What about memory? I mean, I could see memory being a

00:30:31 ◼   ► thing that would be an internal storage, internal add-on.

00:30:34 ◼   ► I think Apple will just they'll sell 128 gigabyte thing and if and that's going to that's going

00:30:40 ◼   ► to have the majority of it's going to cover the majority of customers and they're not

00:30:45 ◼   ► going to build a box that can be turned into something for anybody.

00:30:48 ◼   ► All right that's a cool pick I think it is definitely a not obvious pick I'm gonna piggyback

00:30:55 ◼   ► on John again John you know if you had lost the coin flip this would have made me look

00:30:59 ◼   ► much more original but since you picked the Apple notes I'm gonna I'm gonna go with that

00:31:03 ◼   ► and I'm gonna say Apple Notes is gonna get on the notes cross linking train in iOS 16.

00:31:09 ◼   ► They're going to do that thing where they're gonna do the Obsidian, Kraft, Roam Research,

00:31:15 ◼   ► etc., etc. thing. They're gonna do it in a way that frustrates power users of those apps,

00:31:21 ◼   ► but that Apple thinks is sort of an appley way to do it for everybody else who uses Notes.

00:31:25 ◼   ► So you combine that with tags and other metadata and kind of like making Notes a more kind

00:31:30 ◼   ► Notes has come a long way, but it's still got more places

00:31:33 ◼   ► that it could go, so I think they're gonna ride that train.

00:31:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, I can see that happening.

00:31:37 ◼   ► I think they'll do it with like colorful little pills

00:31:39 ◼   ► or something that are your links back instead of,

00:31:41 ◼   ► you know, those ugly just text-based links.

00:31:44 ◼   ► I think it'll be, yeah, if they do it,

00:31:45 ◼   ► they'll do it a little bit like how they've done

00:31:47 ◼   ► with tagging with having a cloud of tags,

00:31:51 ◼   ► but a cloud of links maybe, I don't know.

00:31:53 ◼   ► It'll be interesting to see what happens with that.

00:31:55 ◼   ► It's kind of a power user feature,

00:31:57 ◼   ► but it feels like Notes is ready for that kind of thing.

00:32:01 ◼   ► - All right, good, I thank you for your endorsement.

00:32:02 ◼   ► Yeah, we're hoping for big things for Notes in 2022

00:32:05 ◼   ► is what we're saying here.

00:32:07 ◼   ► - All right.

00:32:07 ◼   ► - Okay, what's your pick, Jon?

00:32:08 ◼   ► Round three.

00:32:09 ◼   ► - For round three, I'm gonna go out on a limb

00:32:11 ◼   ► and I'm gonna say that the 13-inch MacBook Pro

00:32:13 ◼   ► is gonna be discontinued because I think

00:32:16 ◼   ► what we're gonna get, we're gonna get a refresh

00:32:20 ◼   ► of the MacBook Air, which is 13 inches,

00:32:22 ◼   ► and we've already got the 14 and 16

00:32:24 ◼   ► of the new MacBook Pros.

00:32:26 ◼   ► There's no place in the lineup for a 13-inch Pro

00:32:29 ◼   ► at this point, I don't think.

00:32:30 ◼   ► We'll have a beefier Air and we'll have the 14 and 16.

00:32:33 ◼   ► And that makes a lot more sense than having

00:32:35 ◼   ► that oddball 13-inch MacBook Pro in the lineup.

00:32:38 ◼   ► - I want to believe.

00:32:39 ◼   ► You know how I love it when blood fills the streets

00:32:41 ◼   ► as Apple destroys products?

00:32:44 ◼   ► Like, I love it.

00:32:45 ◼   ► And this product is an odd one out, right?

00:32:48 ◼   ► It's just there to hold down the bottom of the price list.

00:32:52 ◼   ► And so I could see them updating it

00:32:53 ◼   ► with the new chip options and taking off the touch bar,

00:32:58 ◼   ► but otherwise leaving it kind of as it is.

00:33:01 ◼   ► But I think you're right, it makes more sense for Apple

00:33:04 ◼   ► to come up with a MacBook Air focused strategy.

00:33:08 ◼   ► And I'm actually a little disappointed

00:33:10 ◼   ► that we haven't heard rumors

00:33:11 ◼   ► that Apple is gonna do a couple MacBook Airs,

00:33:13 ◼   ► maybe like a 12 and a 14 or a 13 and a 15.

00:33:17 ◼   ► And there are rumors that they're gonna make a big iPhone

00:33:21 ◼   ► that's not a Pro Max, but just an iPhone Max.

00:33:24 ◼   ► Sort of like saying, look, we know you don't want

00:33:26 ◼   ► to spend the maximum amount of money,

00:33:28 ◼   ► but you want a bigger phone.

00:33:29 ◼   ► So maybe at some point they could do that

00:33:31 ◼   ► with a MacBook Air and like throw a bigger screen

00:33:34 ◼   ► on a MacBook Air, but still let it be a MacBook Air

00:33:36 ◼   ► and be cheaper instead of this 13 MacBook Pro nonsense.

00:33:39 ◼   ► So, it's a good pick.

00:33:40 ◼   ► - Now that Apple is basically controlling all of the things,

00:33:44 ◼   ► it's just a question of, you know,

00:33:46 ◼   ► what chip you put in which case?

00:33:50 ◼   ► And they can do all sorts of things.

00:33:52 ◼   ► And I think they should definitely be flexible enough

00:33:55 ◼   ► that if you wanted a low end, but big screen product,

00:33:59 ◼   ► you can get one.

00:34:00 ◼   ► - All right, James, what's your choice?

00:34:02 ◼   ► - So continuing on the AR headset, VR headset,

00:34:07 ◼   ► I think that Apple will announce that Apple Arcade

00:34:11 ◼   ► will have AR and VR titles at the launch,

00:34:14 ◼   ► at the consumer launch of their headset.

00:34:16 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:34:18 ◼   ► - I wanna ask you about AR.

00:34:20 ◼   ► You mentioned this in an earlier pick

00:34:22 ◼   ► and I wanna ask about it again.

00:34:23 ◼   ► Are you thinking that you're gonna be able

00:34:26 ◼   ► to like see out of these things

00:34:27 ◼   ► or is it gonna be one of those things

00:34:29 ◼   ► where you're seeing a view of reality filtered

00:34:31 ◼   ► through the cameras that are on the outside of the thing?

00:34:33 ◼   ► - Oh, I think it will be a view

00:34:35 ◼   ► of reality filtered through cameras.

00:34:37 ◼   ► I mean, I think that still counts as augmented reality

00:34:40 ◼   ► because what you're seeing is, you know,

00:34:42 ◼   ► as close as they can do it,

00:34:46 ◼   ► it just looks like you're looking through a little window.

00:34:48 ◼   ► but I think it's gonna be entirely done through cameras

00:34:51 ◼   ► because projecting stuff directly into your eyes

00:34:55 ◼   ► or whatever, I think that technology is too far away.

00:34:58 ◼   ► - Or even transparent lenses that where they can,

00:35:00 ◼   ► they can reflect down like an overlay over,

00:35:03 ◼   ► like that's asking a lot of engineers.

00:35:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think like if they're gonna ship something in,

00:35:08 ◼   ► you know, the next six months to a year or whatever,

00:35:11 ◼   ► it's gonna be not a million miles away

00:35:14 ◼   ► from where an Oculus Quest is.

00:35:16 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:35:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, I get this pick.

00:35:18 ◼   ► The only thing that I would suggest is that it's not going to be 2022 because Apple and gaming is

00:35:25 ◼   ► they're not exactly at the forefront. So I think it'll happen eventually, but I think it'll be more

00:35:29 ◼   ► like a 2023 thing. I think with this stuff, they're just going to, they're going to pay like a whole

00:35:36 ◼   ► lot of money AR and VR developers throw money at them. So they've got some stuff that they can say,

00:35:40 ◼   ► look, if you subscribe to Apple arcade, you also get games on this thing. Yeah, that could be,

00:35:45 ◼   ► I mean, that's essentially how Apple Arcade went down when it was launched,

00:35:48 ◼   ► was they just threw a bunch of money at people and said, "Here, make your game work with our thing."

00:35:53 ◼   ► And that's essentially what happened. And it's not like they have a shortage of money,

00:35:56 ◼   ► and they definitely want to promote this thing. If I had to guess a sort of a timeline based on

00:36:01 ◼   ► James's picks — James, tell me if this is what you're actually thinking — is there'll be a

00:36:05 ◼   ► developer kit announced at WWDC, and people will be evangelized on it. And then, like,

00:36:10 ◼   ► toward the end of the year, Apple will make an announcement that they're going to launch it,

00:36:15 ◼   ► and maybe that rolls into 22, but they will have made the,

00:36:18 ◼   ► they maybe they announced that they're going to ship it in the fall.

00:36:21 ◼   ► Does that, does that sort of fit with your timeline here?

00:36:24 ◼   ► I don't, it's hard to say, but I think the one thing like when they did like Apple TV and things

00:36:30 ◼   ► like that, developers could get an early version of that. And they had like, I think it was a couple

00:36:36 ◼   ► of months Headstar and similar. I have one of those Apple TVs.

00:36:41 ◼   ► But the AR/VR stuff is such a different way of doing it.

00:36:46 ◼   ► I mean, the Apple TV, you know,

00:36:47 ◼   ► it's basically like writing an iPhone app.

00:36:49 ◼   ► But this is, I think, you know,

00:36:51 ◼   ► this goes way beyond the picks,

00:36:52 ◼   ► but I think they're gonna have to introduce,

00:36:54 ◼   ► you know, whole UI frameworks, new things for this device.

00:36:58 ◼   ► - Okay, I guess what I'm asking though is that you did a,

00:37:02 ◼   ► you picked that this would be a developer kit,

00:37:04 ◼   ► but you're also saying when they launch it,

00:37:05 ◼   ► they're gonna have titles.

00:37:06 ◼   ► So those are like developers who were brought in

00:37:08 ◼   ► before the launch of the developer kit?

00:37:10 ◼   ► - No, I'm saying that when they,

00:37:13 ◼   ► Apple is going to announce that it will have titles

00:37:15 ◼   ► at the launch of the headset.

00:37:16 ◼   ► I'm saying that announcement will happen next year.

00:37:20 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:37:21 ◼   ► - I'm not necessarily saying that the titles ship,

00:37:23 ◼   ► but I think as when they do their,

00:37:26 ◼   ► at WWDC, they're obviously gonna talk about

00:37:29 ◼   ► the consumer headset, not just say,

00:37:31 ◼   ► oh, we've got this thing, it's only for developers,

00:37:34 ◼   ► everybody else look away.

00:37:35 ◼   ► So they're gonna talk about it

00:37:37 ◼   ► and they're gonna like say what their goals are

00:37:40 ◼   ► and what kind of things they wanna do.

00:37:42 ◼   ► So yeah.

00:37:43 ◼   ► - Jon, I feel like this headset thing

00:37:45 ◼   ► is our opportunity to dethrone James.

00:37:47 ◼   ► - I think it really is.

00:37:48 ◼   ► He's all in this year.

00:37:49 ◼   ► - Has to be done.

00:37:52 ◼   ► You've gotta be brave with your picks.

00:37:54 ◼   ► You know, you need passion.

00:37:55 ◼   ► So I'm told.

00:37:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's true.

00:37:56 ◼   ► Well, I'm gonna do the thing that I always do

00:37:58 ◼   ► that you guys give me a hard time for,

00:37:59 ◼   ► which is I try to include myself

00:38:01 ◼   ► in at least one of my picks.

00:38:02 ◼   ► So here it is.

00:38:03 ◼   ► - It's always about Jason.

00:38:04 ◼   ► - It is, it is.

00:38:05 ◼   ► It's always about me.

00:38:06 ◼   ► picking myself. Come on! So this is my choice and I know that we're in a rough time right

00:38:10 ◼   ► now in terms of the pandemic, but I'm going to choose to look on the bright side and be

00:38:13 ◼   ► optimistic and I'm going to predict that I will set foot on the Apple Park campus this

00:38:19 ◼   ► year by invitation. I'm not going to break in.

00:38:23 ◼   ► - Does this count if you go for a job interview? - No, because of the rules. I can't induce

00:38:28 ◼   ► it. I would have to agree to that. If they really secretly wanted to offer me a job by

00:38:34 ◼   ► a mysterious figure saying, "Come to the Alpa Park campus and go in this entrance and we

00:38:38 ◼   ► will tell you more will be revealed then at Cafe Max or whatever."

00:38:42 ◼   ► I'd be like, "Okay."

00:38:43 ◼   ► - Meet me in the underground parking lot in spot E31.

00:38:47 ◼   ► - What I'm really saying is, what I'm trying to encompass with this pick is, first off,

00:38:51 ◼   ► there might be an event with limited press at the Steve Jobs Theater, but also potentially

00:38:55 ◼   ► that they might do a briefing in person because those happen in briefing rooms. So I don't

00:39:00 ◼   ► want to just pick the Steve Jobs Theater. And if there's something else where they have

00:39:04 ◼   ► Sometimes they do weird stuff.

00:39:05 ◼   ► Apple hasn't done this so much,

00:39:06 ◼   ► but sometimes they do weird stuff where they're like,

00:39:08 ◼   ► "Come to see our AR thing,

00:39:11 ◼   ► and it'll be out by the rainbow in the center."

00:39:15 ◼   ► But that would still be an invitation to Apple Park.

00:39:16 ◼   ► I'm just saying, I will get back to Apple Park,

00:39:19 ◼   ► which I have not been into since 2019 iPhone event,

00:39:24 ◼   ► I think, so yeah.

00:39:25 ◼   ► - Well, I wanna exclude the visitor center, Jason,

00:39:28 ◼   ► 'cause I don't want you driving down there this weekend

00:39:30 ◼   ► and buying a T-shirt.

00:39:32 ◼   ► - First off, the visitor center's not gonna invite

00:39:34 ◼   ► me and two it's not the campus right it's across the street it's very deliberately kept apart from

00:39:39 ◼   ► oh they don't they don't let the uh the uh the apple store buyers in the real campus that's

00:39:45 ◼   ► there's the gates and the you can go up to the roof and you can look at apple park through the

00:39:50 ◼   ► trees and you can see like a little glimpse of it but no they it is very there's a big wall all

00:39:55 ◼   ► right i just want to clarify that because i don't want i don't want any you know shenanigans like

00:39:59 ◼   ► like we had last year.

00:40:00 ◼   ► - Oh no, no shenanigans.

00:40:01 ◼   ► - I think that this is actually a fairly solid pick

00:40:04 ◼   ► because I had a draft pick which I'm not picking this time

00:40:08 ◼   ► but I think that they're not gonna have WWDC

00:40:12 ◼   ► but I think they are gonna get,

00:40:15 ◼   ► when they have this headset reveal,

00:40:18 ◼   ► they're gonna get people down to try it on

00:40:21 ◼   ► because unlike most of the other products,

00:40:25 ◼   ► I think actually using it in person

00:40:27 ◼   ► is gonna be such a big thing about it.

00:40:29 ◼   ► - All right, John, we're in round four

00:40:32 ◼   ► of the lightning round, what's your choice?

00:40:34 ◼   ► - All right, well this pick is probably

00:40:36 ◼   ► wish casting on my part, but you gotta lead

00:40:38 ◼   ► with your heart sometimes, so I'm gonna say that Apple--

00:40:40 ◼   ► - It's part of the passion.

00:40:41 ◼   ► - It is, it is.

00:40:42 ◼   ► I'm gonna say that Apple finally updates

00:40:44 ◼   ► Safari Reading List because they haven't touched it

00:40:46 ◼   ► since they created it, basically, and I would just,

00:40:49 ◼   ► all I want is something like folders, for instance,

00:40:51 ◼   ► or offline mode that actually works.

00:40:54 ◼   ► - Are you saying that Apple is the kind of company

00:40:57 ◼   ► that puts out features and then just never touches them again.

00:41:00 ◼   ► It happens once in a while, once in a great while,

00:41:03 ◼   ► but, or, you know, by great, I mean, most of the time.

00:41:06 ◼   ► But yeah, it does happen.

00:41:08 ◼   ► I think this is wish casting, but I love it.

00:41:10 ◼   ► It is wish casting, I understand.

00:41:12 ◼   ► James.

00:41:13 ◼   ► Okay, now this is my furthest out pick, I think.

00:41:18 ◼   ► The aforementioned AR/VR headset

00:41:22 ◼   ► is gonna have a sensor on it that can detect mouth shapes

00:41:25 ◼   ► and other facial expressions.

00:41:27 ◼   ► And the reason that I'm saying things like this

00:41:29 ◼   ► is so that when you're having a FaceTime 3D call

00:41:33 ◼   ► with somebody, this thing can animate your face

00:41:41 ◼   ► of your avatar or whatever based on your actual expressions.

00:41:45 ◼   ► - Wow, this is, you're heavy into the Memoji land here.

00:41:50 ◼   ► - Well, you know, Tim loves his Memoji.

00:41:53 ◼   ► Just imagine the front-facing sensor on an iPhone,

00:41:58 ◼   ► but that pointed down at your face.

00:42:02 ◼   ► - I mean, I'm okay with this pic.

00:42:03 ◼   ► I came to the realization a little while ago

00:42:05 ◼   ► that Memoji is one of those stealth features

00:42:08 ◼   ► that Apple has been talking about a lot,

00:42:11 ◼   ► thinking that it's just like,

00:42:12 ◼   ► why are they trying to make Memojis happen so hard?

00:42:15 ◼   ► And now I realize that it's because of AR and VR,

00:42:17 ◼   ► that they want everybody to have a personalized avatar

00:42:20 ◼   ► for themselves once they do a FaceTime

00:42:22 ◼   ► where they're wearing a headset.

00:42:23 ◼   ► - And they added like arms and stuff

00:42:26 ◼   ► in one of the recent updates.

00:42:27 ◼   ► Yeah, I think we're heading for full Memoji,

00:42:32 ◼   ► Memojification.

00:42:34 ◼   ► - If it's between the Memoji and Mark Zuckerberg's avatar

00:42:40 ◼   ► in the metaverse, I'll go with Memoji every time.

00:42:42 ◼   ► That's what I'm just saying.

00:42:44 ◼   ► - I don't love the Memoji art style,

00:42:46 ◼   ► but at least we're not all using Bitmoji,

00:42:49 ◼   ► 'cause I really don't like Bitmoji.

00:42:51 ◼   ► Sorry to everybody who likes Bitmoji. I do not like them.

00:42:53 ◼   ► I'm gonna make a stagecraft pick now,

00:42:55 ◼   ► which is at some point in 2022,

00:42:57 ◼   ► there will be a video made for an Apple event

00:43:00 ◼   ► of some kind featuring Ted Lasso,

00:43:03 ◼   ► a pre-filmed Ted Lasso bit.

00:43:05 ◼   ► They're gonna do a Ted Lasso bit.

00:43:06 ◼   ► They're shooting the third season of Ted Lasso,

00:43:09 ◼   ► and I think that there will be something in there

00:43:10 ◼   ► that'll be like a little comedy bit that they will use.

00:43:13 ◼   ► I think Apple is not going to stop trying to exploit

00:43:16 ◼   ► Ted Lasso at every point,

00:43:19 ◼   ► And I think that this is now that they've won all the awards

00:43:21 ◼   ► and all of that and are back in production,

00:43:23 ◼   ► now is the time where they're gonna say,

00:43:25 ◼   ► "Can you make us write up a little comedy bit

00:43:28 ◼   ► "that we'll do for the next Apple event?"

00:43:31 ◼   ► And that they will.

00:43:32 ◼   ► So that's my pick is just like,

00:43:34 ◼   ► never underestimate Apple's promotion of Ted Lasso.

00:43:37 ◼   ► - I can totally see a slightly nervous Tim backstage

00:43:40 ◼   ► being given a pep talk by Ted.

00:43:42 ◼   ► I mean, that just feels like it's so surprising

00:43:45 ◼   ► it hasn't happened already.

00:43:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's true too.

00:43:47 ◼   ► They could do it then.

00:43:49 ◼   ► Well, now that they're in production, they couldn't do it.

00:43:51 ◼   ► They could do it with the cast, but they're right.

00:43:52 ◼   ► Jason Sudeikis could just come out and shoot that somewhere.

00:43:55 ◼   ► They could do a fake backstage in London.

00:43:56 ◼   ► There are lots of ways to do it.

00:43:57 ◼   ► I'm just saying, how will they resist?

00:43:59 ◼   ► So I don't think they will.

00:44:00 ◼   ► - I'm hoping for the Claymation version,

00:44:02 ◼   ► like the little Christmas short that they did

00:44:04 ◼   ► with a little Clay Tim coming out on the stage.

00:44:06 ◼   ► - Oh man, the Apple holiday special in Claymation.

00:44:09 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:44:10 ◼   ► - That's what we need.

00:44:11 ◼   ► Next year, we should do our holiday special in Claymation.

00:44:13 ◼   ► Nobody will know.

00:44:14 ◼   ► We could do it now.

00:44:15 ◼   ► We could just say we're in Claymation now

00:44:16 ◼   ► and nobody would know.

00:44:17 ◼   ► - We are.

00:44:17 ◼   ► What are you saying? Of course we are.

00:44:20 ◼   ► - Of course we are. We are.

00:44:21 ◼   ► That's officially it.

00:44:22 ◼   ► Last round, Jon, what's your last pick?

00:44:25 ◼   ► - All right, well, you know that Apple bought

00:44:27 ◼   ► Primephonic in 2021, and I think that we will see in 2022

00:44:31 ◼   ► the introduction of a classical music-focused app.

00:44:36 ◼   ► I think this is kind of a lock.

00:44:37 ◼   ► They've all but said that they're doing this,

00:44:40 ◼   ► and I think that music is ripe for a little bit of a refresh.

00:44:47 ◼   ► both with breaking out something like classical music,

00:44:50 ◼   ► which doesn't fit the model of the music app

00:44:53 ◼   ► as it exists today, but also possibly,

00:44:57 ◼   ► and this is not part of the pick,

00:44:58 ◼   ► splitting out streaming and owned music.

00:45:01 ◼   ► I really think that that ought to be done at some point.

00:45:03 ◼   ► I'm not sure that that'll ever be done,

00:45:05 ◼   ► but I think classical is different enough

00:45:08 ◼   ► that they will in fact do a separate classical app.

00:45:11 ◼   ► - I've got a suggestion for the name of the app, Jon.

00:45:13 ◼   ► Classical music.

00:45:15 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:45:18 ◼   ► - That would be very, very appropriate, Jason.

00:45:21 ◼   ► - Right, we got music, classical music.

00:45:24 ◼   ► - The problem with that is it's too long

00:45:26 ◼   ► to fit on an iPhone screen.

00:45:28 ◼   ► So I think it's just gonna be classical.

00:45:31 ◼   ► - Oh, maybe it'll be like class dot dot dot music.

00:45:35 ◼   ► - Classy.

00:45:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's good.

00:45:39 ◼   ► I'm just saying, and Apple Music's right there,

00:45:40 ◼   ► so just Apple, it's classical music.

00:45:43 ◼   ► Come on, make it happen. - Classical Apple.

00:45:44 ◼   ► - Classic. - Oh, James?

00:45:46 ◼   ► - So this is also wish casting in a way.

00:45:50 ◼   ► My pick is that no Apple executive will say the words

00:45:55 ◼   ► metaverse, blockchain, or NFT

00:45:58 ◼   ► during any Apple event in 2022.

00:46:01 ◼   ► - Oh, I think that's a good call, actually.

00:46:04 ◼   ► - I agree.

00:46:05 ◼   ► - I will be really disappointed if they do.

00:46:07 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:46:08 ◼   ► - So will I.

00:46:09 ◼   ► - I'm not mad.

00:46:11 ◼   ► I'm just disappointed you used that word.

00:46:14 ◼   ► No, I think you're right. I think even if Apple did things that were involving the metaverse,

00:46:17 ◼   ► the blockchain, and the NFTs, I think that they wouldn't call it that because Apple's

00:46:24 ◼   ► too proud and they would be like, "No, no, no. This isn't blockchain. This is using secure

00:46:28 ◼   ► encryption technology to verify your..." They would tech it up and Apple it up and they

00:46:33 ◼   ► wouldn't call it blockchain.

00:46:34 ◼   ► And pretty much any company that's announced something with NFTs has had to do a notes

00:46:38 ◼   ► apology about three days later saying that they have dropped all plans to do it. So I

00:46:44 ◼   ► should say any reputable company.

00:46:46 ◼   ► I like it. And I like the Stagecraft picks, so thank you. I am gonna go way out on the

00:46:54 ◼   ► limb, guys, with the vaguest of picks, and yet I think it's risky because you never know

00:46:58 ◼   ► with Apple. I predict, and I'm picking for my last pick, the last pick of the pickies

00:47:03 ◼   ► for this year. Apple will introduce a new service with a monthly fee option.

00:47:09 ◼   ► - classical music - huh? could be anything! I don't care but I just it's like Apple

00:47:15 ◼   ► will find another way to pull money out of your wallet. - I can't see that it be

00:47:20 ◼   ► the classical music thing because they're not gonna pull all the existing

00:47:22 ◼   ► classical music out of the Apple music app but yeah I could see definitely them

00:47:26 ◼   ► doing something. Apple love services revenue. - yeah I don't know what it is I

00:47:32 ◼   ► actually that's why I think it's a tricky pick is I don't know whether it's... that would be another

00:47:37 ◼   ► name we could call this the trickies well nah that's not gonna get you. Tricky pickies so I do think that

00:47:43 ◼   ► I struggle to figure out what it is but I have faith in Apple. I've got a suggestion and I

00:47:51 ◼   ► think it's going to be a difficult one. They do a paid service around health. Interesting.

00:47:58 ◼   ► Interesting.

00:47:58 ◼   ► So for $10 a month, we will tell you

00:48:03 ◼   ► if you've got a deadly disease, or I don't know, whatever.

00:48:05 ◼   ► But they could do something.

00:48:07 ◼   ► I think there's a lot in the health space,

00:48:09 ◼   ► which is also very highly regulated.

00:48:11 ◼   ► But if, say they introduce new sensors on an Apple Watch,

00:48:15 ◼   ► which go beyond the kind of like,

00:48:17 ◼   ► just base consumer level stuff, like, I don't know,

00:48:21 ◼   ► blood sugar monitoring and that kind of thing,

00:48:22 ◼   ► maybe they have a service that goes along with that.

00:48:26 ◼   ► So what you're saying, James, is your Apple Watch can tell you whether you're about to

00:48:29 ◼   ► die but only if you pay $9.99 a month?

00:48:33 ◼   ► Well I don't think Tim is going to announce it like that, but yeah.

00:48:37 ◼   ► It would be a shame if something happened to you.

00:48:40 ◼   ► Nice buddy, you've got that.

00:48:42 ◼   ► Shame if something happened to you.

00:48:43 ◼   ► All right, well that does it.

00:48:44 ◼   ► That wraps up the annual pickies and we'll just have to be back here in a year to do

00:48:50 ◼   ► the calculations and figure out how we all did.

00:48:55 ◼   ► - I'm feeling pretty confident.

00:48:57 ◼   ► - I'm feeling really good about my picks this year.

00:48:59 ◼   ► - I feel like the WWDC will tell all

00:49:03 ◼   ► because that'll be James's all or nothing bet on AR.

00:49:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, definitely.

00:49:09 ◼   ► - And of course I imagine the connected listeners,

00:49:12 ◼   ► our favorite connected listeners,

00:49:14 ◼   ► the connected as I like to call them, the connected.

00:49:17 ◼   ► I'm sure somebody out there has already created

00:49:21 ◼   ► a a picky's spreadsheet, which is got all of the deductions

00:49:26 ◼   ► for points and all of that in there

00:49:27 ◼   ► and the extra bonuses for the first half of the year.

00:49:30 ◼   ► And, and I'm sure it's already there.

00:49:33 ◼   ► So thank you for that.

00:49:33 ◼   ► And we'll watch out for that.

00:49:34 ◼   ► Let's move on.

00:49:35 ◼   ► But before we do that, we have our next sponsor.

00:49:38 ◼   ► This episode of connected is brought to you

00:49:40 ◼   ► by Connected Plus.

00:49:43 ◼   ► What does the plus mean?

00:49:44 ◼   ► The plus means that you get more of connected.

00:49:47 ◼   ► You get more connected content.

00:49:49 ◼   ► you get more connected.

00:49:50 ◼   ► Japes.

00:49:51 ◼   ► - I mean, the fourth J is Japes after all.

00:49:54 ◼   ► - That's right.

00:49:55 ◼   ► Triple J plus Japes.

00:49:55 ◼   ► That's us.

00:49:56 ◼   ► You get more Japes.

00:49:57 ◼   ► You get more content.

00:49:58 ◼   ► You know, you might think that you get more ads,

00:50:01 ◼   ► but actually what you get is more of fewer ads.

00:50:05 ◼   ► Think about it.

00:50:07 ◼   ► You're getting more of less.

00:50:09 ◼   ► - Oh, I see.

00:50:10 ◼   ► I think what you're saying is the plus that,

00:50:12 ◼   ► what it really means is that the plus is the new dollar sign.

00:50:15 ◼   ► There's more for us, right?

00:50:17 ◼   ► You, me and James, right?

00:50:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, that's it.

00:50:20 ◼   ► And James knows from math that it's a plus

00:50:23 ◼   ► within in parentheses, there's a minus,

00:50:25 ◼   ► which is the ads then are removed.

00:50:27 ◼   ► And it's an addition of by subtraction essentially.

00:50:30 ◼   ► - Exactly.

00:50:31 ◼   ► - And we were gonna call it connected pro,

00:50:32 ◼   ► but James insisted on plus because, you know, math

00:50:35 ◼   ► and also connected minus didn't sound very good

00:50:37 ◼   ► and connected divide or multiply integral.

00:50:40 ◼   ► It doesn't really work so plus.

00:50:42 ◼   ► - Connected dollar sign had problems

00:50:43 ◼   ► with our backend system, so.

00:50:45 ◼   ► - Yeah. - It's true.

00:50:46 ◼   ► - You know. - It's also a little too real.

00:50:47 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:50:48 ◼   ► - I'm all about the plus guys, I'm good with it.

00:50:50 ◼   ► - All right, so go to relay.fm/connected/join.

00:50:54 ◼   ► We should get a domain,

00:50:55 ◼   ► we should get like connected.plus or something,

00:50:57 ◼   ► but we don't have it yet.

00:50:58 ◼   ► So relay.fm/connected/join to join connected plus

00:51:02 ◼   ► and get more Japes and give us money, thank you.

00:51:06 ◼   ► All right, we have lots of leftover questions

00:51:08 ◼   ► in the connected Q&A doc, so we're gonna blow them out.

00:51:11 ◼   ► We're gonna do a lot of Q&A for the rest of the show,

00:51:14 ◼   ► this holiday special.

00:51:16 ◼   ► Now, we have 20 loaded up in the show dock,

00:51:19 ◼   ► and I have a dice by Peacock here with a D20 loaded

00:51:22 ◼   ► and ready to go.

00:51:24 ◼   ► And so I'm gonna roll the dice,

00:51:26 ◼   ► and we're gonna answer some questions.

00:51:29 ◼   ► Do you, you guys ready?

00:51:31 ◼   ► - And we're gonna stay here until we've done all 20.

00:51:33 ◼   ► - All 20, that's right.

00:51:35 ◼   ► - There's gonna be a lot of repeats next to the end,

00:51:38 ◼   ► but we'll just keep going.

00:51:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, you're right.

00:51:42 ◼   ► It's just gonna be how it is.

00:51:43 ◼   ► Okay, here we go.

00:51:46 ◼   ► 13. TM Trains writes, "What road trip, i.e. driving in a car to get places,

00:51:52 ◼   ► would you want to go on that you haven't yet?" Hmm. So, here's how I think I'll answer this.

00:52:00 ◼   ► I've got two answers. In the U.S., I'd say the Grand Tetons. I've not spent nearly enough time

00:52:05 ◼   ► out west, especially in Wyoming and in the northwest parts of the U.S. So that's where I'd

00:52:11 ◼   ► I'd go in the US, but abroad, I'd go all over Italy.

00:52:15 ◼   ► I'd like to see both coasts and go from the south

00:52:19 ◼   ► to the north and end up in the Alps.

00:52:21 ◼   ► So I'd like to see more of Italy.

00:52:22 ◼   ► I've only seen Rome and Florence so far.

00:52:24 ◼   ► - James, what do you think?

00:52:25 ◼   ► - Well, for driving a car, I think,

00:52:28 ◼   ► so my answer is gonna be the States.

00:52:31 ◼   ► And I'm picking that because it means one of two things.

00:52:34 ◼   ► Either somebody has built an extremely long bridge

00:52:38 ◼   ► between the UK and the US,

00:52:40 ◼   ► Or I have one of those cars that I can just drive into the water and I can just go along

00:52:46 ◼   ► and then I'll drive up on a beach somewhere.

00:52:48 ◼   ► Maybe Hawaii.

00:52:49 ◼   ► Oh, you're James Bond is what you are.

00:52:51 ◼   ► Well, I can't really comment on that, but they are casting the new one.

00:52:58 ◼   ► And yeah, so that's what I would like, but I would actually like to do a car road trip

00:53:01 ◼   ► of the States.

00:53:03 ◼   ► How about, we're actually talking about doing this at some point.

00:53:07 ◼   ► and I want to drive to visit our friends in Edmonton, which is way the heck up there.

00:53:16 ◼   ► So we would be driving through Nevada and Utah and Idaho and Montana and then through

00:53:22 ◼   ► a whole lot of Alberta to get all the way up to Edmonton and then maybe come back going

00:53:27 ◼   ► through like by Banff and through the mountains and then down and into Washington and Oregon.

00:53:32 ◼   ► I have done that. Yeah, I've done the Canadian Rockies years ago and it was fun. Yeah, I'm

00:53:36 ◼   ► I'm looking forward to that.

00:53:38 ◼   ► All right, let's roll the dice.

00:53:40 ◼   ► - Eight. - Eight.

00:53:44 ◼   ► This is from David S.

00:53:46 ◼   ► "How do you use messages?

00:53:48 ◼   ► Do you use the subject field or read receipts?

00:53:51 ◼   ► How often do you send Memojis?"

00:53:54 ◼   ► Lots of questions here.

00:53:54 ◼   ► "How long do you keep your messages,

00:53:56 ◼   ► 30 days, one year or forever?

00:53:57 ◼   ► And do you sync them with iCloud

00:53:58 ◼   ► or do they live separately on each device?"

00:54:00 ◼   ► - Well, I think I use messages

00:54:03 ◼   ► not a million miles away from how I used SMS.

00:54:06 ◼   ► I don't use many of the features.

00:54:09 ◼   ► I do use read receipts, which I like,

00:54:12 ◼   ► although they can be a problem.

00:54:14 ◼   ► I keep my messages forever.

00:54:16 ◼   ► (mumbles)

00:54:17 ◼   ► And I don't have messages in iCloud switched on,

00:54:21 ◼   ► but they still sync between all the devices.

00:54:24 ◼   ► Whether they're backed up is another matter.

00:54:28 ◼   ► But yeah, I don't really do anything fancy.

00:54:30 ◼   ► And I sent Memojis for about a day

00:54:33 ◼   ► when they were introduced.

00:54:34 ◼   ► And yeah, I think it's the thing that I do now

00:54:41 ◼   ► that I didn't do is I react to things, you know,

00:54:44 ◼   ► with a little thumbs up or a heart.

00:54:46 ◼   ► All right, so subject field, never.

00:54:48 ◼   ► Never used it, and if someone uses it with me,

00:54:51 ◼   ► I think I would probably block them in terms of--

00:54:54 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:54:55 ◼   ► I'll keep that in mind.

00:54:57 ◼   ► Keep that in mind, guys.

00:54:58 ◼   ► In terms of read receipts, only with my family,

00:55:01 ◼   ► not with friends and other people.

00:55:03 ◼   ► Memojis, no, not really, hardly ever,

00:55:06 ◼   ► maybe a couple of times.

00:55:07 ◼   ► And I archive everything, I keep it all.

00:55:11 ◼   ► But I don't really get hung up on whether or not

00:55:13 ◼   ► my messages are on every single device.

00:55:17 ◼   ► If I feel like I have to start fresh on an iPhone

00:55:19 ◼   ► or something, I'll do that and I won't worry

00:55:22 ◼   ► about having all those old messages on there.

00:55:25 ◼   ► But yeah, I sync everything with iCloud too.

00:55:27 ◼   ► So I think that's it.

00:55:29 ◼   ► I will ask you guys one question.

00:55:31 ◼   ► I'm gonna have a follow-up question here.

00:55:33 ◼   ► As a friend of the show and listener myself,

00:55:35 ◼   ► is that I wanna know whether you hesitate

00:55:38 ◼   ► to send a message to somebody in a faraway time zone

00:55:42 ◼   ► because you're concerned about sending a message

00:55:44 ◼   ► very late or not.

00:55:46 ◼   ► I mean, personally, I will answer this first,

00:55:48 ◼   ► which is I don't.

00:55:50 ◼   ► I feel like that's on them.

00:55:51 ◼   ► I know enough people in enough places

00:55:52 ◼   ► that if they don't know how to put on Do Not Disturb,

00:55:56 ◼   ► that's kind of on them and they can,

00:55:58 ◼   ► I'll send it even if it's middle of the night for them.

00:56:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, my problem is more at the very early end of things.

00:56:03 ◼   ► It's like, do I send this message knowing that,

00:56:06 ◼   ► I've got up and I'm looking at something,

00:56:07 ◼   ► but they're asleep.

00:56:09 ◼   ► But as you say, A, for start,

00:56:11 ◼   ► you do get the little notification now

00:56:13 ◼   ► that says that they have notification silenced.

00:56:15 ◼   ► So you can be reasonably sure in that case,

00:56:18 ◼   ► but yeah, people should figure out

00:56:22 ◼   ► how to put do not disturb on.

00:56:23 ◼   ► - So I'll answer the follow-up question first.

00:56:26 ◼   ► I'm also very much in the feeling of,

00:56:28 ◼   ► I'm not gonna worry about it

00:56:29 ◼   ► because they should be using Do Not Disturb.

00:56:31 ◼   ► And I assume that everybody that I'm communicating with

00:56:33 ◼   ► has probably got stuff like that set up.

00:56:37 ◼   ► I think about it, but I usually don't worry about it.

00:56:39 ◼   ► I work with so many people like James,

00:56:41 ◼   ► who are in far off time zones,

00:56:43 ◼   ► that I just think of things to tell them and I tell them.

00:56:46 ◼   ► And I figured that they'll get up in the morning

00:56:48 ◼   ► and they'll see it and then they'll answer me.

00:56:49 ◼   ► And then I will be asleep

00:56:50 ◼   ► and then I will see it the next morning.

00:56:52 ◼   ► and then for the few hours that we're awake together,

00:56:55 ◼   ► we could have a conversation.

00:56:57 ◼   ► I just had this bite me.

00:56:59 ◼   ► Well, it didn't really bite me,

00:57:00 ◼   ► but it made me worried for a minute,

00:57:02 ◼   ► which was that I sent a question to Rosemary Orchard

00:57:07 ◼   ► about a podcast that she had done for "The Incomparable."

00:57:12 ◼   ► And if she did the map capture for "Total Party Kills,"

00:57:16 ◼   ► so she had a video file and I couldn't find it,

00:57:18 ◼   ► and I was like, "Okay, I'll just ask her in the relay slack."

00:57:21 ◼   ► "Do you have that file?" And it was 4 a.m. UK time, 3 a.m., and she answered me. And

00:57:28 ◼   ► I was like, "Oh no, did I just wake you up?" And she said, "No, no, I was up." You know,

00:57:32 ◼   ► she had some insomnia or something and she was up. And I was like, "Oh, thank God." Because

00:57:35 ◼   ► I had that moment of like, "Oh no, a thing that I don't really need immediately at all.

00:57:39 ◼   ► I just wanted to lay it there so she'd find it the next day." But she said it was fine

00:57:43 ◼   ► and she was actually up. Or she was lying to me and very polite, which is also possible.

00:57:46 ◼   ► I have noticed that my waking hours have slipped more towards sort of the US time zones because

00:57:55 ◼   ► I'm just talking to the likes of you all the time and I don't go to bed until like

00:58:00 ◼   ► 2, 3 a.m.

00:58:01 ◼   ► I might have slipped closer to Europe, but that's a whole other story.

00:58:06 ◼   ► As for the rest of this question, I'm similar to Jon. I don't use the subject field. I

00:58:12 ◼   ► I do use read receipts.

00:58:13 ◼   ► I just leave them on, I don't care.

00:58:16 ◼   ► I never send em emojis and I do iCloud messages in the cloud

00:58:20 ◼   ► and basically assume that they'll stay there forever.

00:58:23 ◼   ► So yeah, that's it.

00:58:25 ◼   ► Shall I roll?

00:58:26 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Go for it.

00:58:28 ◼   ► (drumming)

00:58:31 ◼   ► - 11.

00:58:31 ◼   ► - Max R.

00:58:33 ◼   ► If Apple was going to force another album

00:58:36 ◼   ► into people's music libraries, what would they pick?

00:58:40 ◼   ► So I'm gonna say that Coldplay fits the same vibe these days

00:58:45 ◼   ► and would be equally roundly mocked

00:58:48 ◼   ► if it appeared in a music library.

00:58:50 ◼   ► So yeah, some terrible Coldplay album.

00:58:54 ◼   ► - Hmm, interesting.

00:58:55 ◼   ► Well, you know, one thing that I actually have found

00:58:58 ◼   ► the U2 album very useful for

00:59:01 ◼   ► is that whenever I see it showing up in my Airplay list,

00:59:05 ◼   ► I know that there's something wrong with one of my home pods

00:59:07 ◼   ► because it's got this special status inside music

00:59:11 ◼   ► where if it's not connected to the rest of your library,

00:59:15 ◼   ► it'll still always connect to Age of Innocence.

00:59:17 ◼   ► But I'm gonna go with a Bruce Springsteen,

00:59:20 ◼   ► a future Bruce Springsteen album.

00:59:21 ◼   ► I'm thinking that Bruce Springsteen,

00:59:23 ◼   ► while he's an icon and a great musician,

00:59:26 ◼   ► is really not quite with the current times

00:59:30 ◼   ► and I assume not super popular with the youngest generations.

00:59:34 ◼   ► So I'm thinking Bruce Springsteen.

00:59:36 ◼   ► I think that is a great pick, 'cause What You Want,

00:59:38 ◼   ► and I love you too, but that's not a good album.

00:59:41 ◼   ► - No, it's not.

00:59:42 ◼   ► - And it's not, it's just, it's not a good album.

00:59:44 ◼   ► Apple wants to be cool, but they need to find somebody

00:59:50 ◼   ► who's gonna be happy that they bought literally

00:59:54 ◼   ► everybody in the world their album.

00:59:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, they wanna be cool like a dad wants to be cool

00:59:59 ◼   ► and with about the same success rate.

01:00:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, so I'm just gonna say Billie Eilish.

01:00:06 ◼   ► They're gonna pony up for Billie Eilish

01:00:07 ◼   ► and they're just gonna give her album away to everybody.

01:00:09 ◼   ► Maybe it's an EP or something.

01:00:10 ◼   ► Maybe it's not a whole album, but like, yeah.

01:00:13 ◼   ► - That's a good pick

01:00:14 ◼   ► because she is on an Amazon Echo after all.

01:00:16 ◼   ► I mean, you know, that feels like that's in the same vein.

01:00:21 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, all these tech,

01:00:23 ◼   ► if you're a big artist like that, it's great

01:00:25 ◼   ► because all these tech companies

01:00:26 ◼   ► are just throwing you money and so you take it.

01:00:30 ◼   ► - Absolutely. - You do, you take it.

01:00:32 ◼   ► Jeremy, I'm incredibly hyped by how AR and VR could change how we interact with others

01:00:42 ◼   ► in the world. What piece or idea of future tech are you most looking forward to in your

01:00:47 ◼   ► lifetime?

01:00:48 ◼   ► Well, I hope this is my lifetime. I would like some medical tech that directly interfaces

01:00:54 ◼   ► with my nervous system and lets me switch off specific pain receptors and things like

01:00:59 ◼   ► that because I don't know how much longer I've got left but it would be nice to be

01:01:04 ◼   ► able to enjoy it.

01:01:05 ◼   ► All right.

01:01:06 ◼   ► I'm going to go with … I've had a Roomba now for about six months and I kind of like

01:01:11 ◼   ► it.

01:01:12 ◼   ► The little guy gets around my house, sweeping up my floors but what I really want him to

01:01:17 ◼   ► do is to clean the bathrooms and I want a robot to do that for me.

01:01:21 ◼   ► I haven't had a robot do that and that would be great to kind of put that short of the

01:01:25 ◼   ► side and let a robot take care of it.

01:01:27 ◼   ► tech or self-driving cars. I'm just gonna say it. I don't think it's actually gonna happen,

01:01:30 ◼   ► but I am gonna hold out hope that there would be self-driving cars at some point, especially by the

01:01:37 ◼   ► time that I'm older and not able to drive well. Or if I can't see well or whatever it is, like,

01:01:43 ◼   ► I really would love at that point to be able to still have mobility. And I don't know if it's

01:01:49 ◼   ► actually gonna happen, but I would love that. Let's roll the dice. All right.

01:01:56 ◼   ► Three. Ryan, is Universal Control ever going to ship?

01:02:01 ◼   ► I say yes in the spring as a demo at the next event.

01:02:05 ◼   ► I'm going to say yes it's going to ship because it's not like hardware, you know,

01:02:10 ◼   ► you can keep changing stuff in software up to the last minute and you can always push it off,

01:02:15 ◼   ► but things like, you know, the air power, it's, you know, you're kind of locked in on a design

01:02:22 ◼   ► fairly early and it's not as flexible, but software, yeah, you can you can scrap it and

01:02:26 ◼   ► you can start again. Which, who knows, they may have done.

01:02:29 ◼   ► Uh, I picked it. So yes, is my answer. Before WWDC it will ship. Maybe it won't all be there,

01:02:38 ◼   ► maybe it won't be as originally conceived, but I think it will ship.

01:02:40 ◼   ► 15. 15. Justin Hamilton, if you opened a connected

01:02:47 ◼   ► cafe, what kind of food would you serve? Wow.

01:02:51 ◼   ► Oh good question. I've got one for this. I would serve pizza first of all, but I

01:02:57 ◼   ► would also have an extensive and excellent beer list. But here's the thing,

01:03:02 ◼   ► I would have one bad beer on my list and if you ordered that beer you would be

01:03:09 ◼   ► kicked out of the bar and banned for life. Wow. That is how I would decide who

01:03:14 ◼   ► my customers are. So that's the Connected Cafe right there. Pizza and beer, but with

01:03:19 ◼   ► a threat if you pick that one beer that you'll never be able to come in again.

01:03:24 ◼   ► Oh for my pick, possibly similar lines, I just wrote down "revenge served piping hot."

01:03:31 ◼   ► James, revenge is a dish best served cold. What are you talking about?

01:03:36 ◼   ► It's not. You want it hot, trust me.

01:03:39 ◼   ► Ah well, John, it's a theme of this episode, John keeps picking my things because pizza and beer is

01:03:44 ◼   ► absolutely what I would pick. I thank you, John, for not saying I'm also going to put a bad pizza

01:03:48 ◼   ► on the menu and it's got pineapple on it because that would offend me. Oh no no no I'm into

01:03:54 ◼   ► pineapple pizza myself Jason. All right we're relaxed up on that one. We're okay. I'm looking

01:03:58 ◼   ► forward to this pizza beer and revenge cafe but we are coming up. I am going to serve burritos

01:04:06 ◼   ► because I'm from California and everybody should like burritos. Burritos are good, especially good

01:04:10 ◼   ► burritos are good, so you can have burritos at our place. And that's the Triple J Cafe opening in

01:04:16 ◼   ► locations in San Francisco, Chicago, and Glasgow.

01:04:20 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:04:22 ◼   ► - All right, here goes the dice.

01:04:24 ◼   ► - 17.

01:04:28 ◼   ► - We haven't had a double yet.

01:04:29 ◼   ► - I know that I could calculate the probability,

01:04:31 ◼   ► but I'm not going to.

01:04:32 ◼   ► - Don't do it.

01:04:33 ◼   ► 17 is Sam.

01:04:35 ◼   ► Keyboards, what's the deal?

01:04:38 ◼   ► - So I say keyboards a passing fad.

01:04:41 ◼   ► You know, in the brave new world of AR headsets,

01:04:43 ◼   ► we're gonna be typing directly onto tables

01:04:46 ◼   ► or in the air or something and physical keyboards.

01:04:48 ◼   ► - Boo.

01:04:49 ◼   ► - Gonna be like a thing for old people.

01:04:53 ◼   ► - Wow, you are all in on this James,

01:04:56 ◼   ► all in on this AR thing.

01:04:57 ◼   ► - James, are you wearing like AR goggles right now?

01:05:00 ◼   ► - I couldn't possibly comment.

01:05:03 ◼   ► - Oh.

01:05:04 ◼   ► - If I had a developer prototype,

01:05:06 ◼   ► you know, I'd be under NDA.

01:05:08 ◼   ► - What I like, I didn't use mechanical keyboards

01:05:11 ◼   ► for a long time and keyboards like the deal is

01:05:13 ◼   ► that you need to type letters and so you need a keyboard.

01:05:15 ◼   ► but I like, assuming Sam is asking about mechanical keyboards

01:05:18 ◼   ► or enthusiasm in keyboards,

01:05:19 ◼   ► I really like the sound and the tactility of it.

01:05:20 ◼   ► And that's why I say to James,

01:05:23 ◼   ► you're gonna need to replicate the sound

01:05:24 ◼   ► and the tactility of it.

01:05:25 ◼   ► Sound you can do, tactility, you're gonna need something.

01:05:29 ◼   ► Maybe it's just gloves or something

01:05:31 ◼   ► that will give you some force

01:05:33 ◼   ► as you're doing your typing on the table.

01:05:35 ◼   ► I'm willing to accept that that's a possibility,

01:05:37 ◼   ► but that's what I want is I wanna be able to do it by feel.

01:05:40 ◼   ► And it's hard to do it by feel

01:05:41 ◼   ► when you're literally feeling nothing.

01:05:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, I get that.

01:05:44 ◼   ► - There could be some kind of little device

01:05:46 ◼   ► that you place on the table that, you know,

01:05:48 ◼   ► at least makes it vibrate in ways

01:05:51 ◼   ► when your fingers are over the keys or something.

01:05:53 ◼   ► - You have a haptic feedback table.

01:05:55 ◼   ► Yeah, sure, James.

01:05:57 ◼   ► - Or just gloves, just the haptic feedback gloves.

01:06:01 ◼   ► - It's like a giant magic track pad.

01:06:02 ◼   ► I don't know what the deal is with keyboards.

01:06:05 ◼   ► It's not something that I've personally ever been into.

01:06:07 ◼   ► I actually like the Apple keyboards a lot.

01:06:10 ◼   ► I have experimented with like Logitech MX keys

01:06:14 ◼   ► in those keyboards in the past,

01:06:16 ◼   ► but now that I have Touch ID on my keyboard, I love it.

01:06:21 ◼   ► And I actually kind of like the shallow throw

01:06:22 ◼   ► of the Apple keyboard.

01:06:24 ◼   ► So that's kind of how I go with things.

01:06:27 ◼   ► - That's right.

01:06:28 ◼   ► That's the deal, that's fine.

01:06:29 ◼   ► Everybody should use the keyboards that they like.

01:06:31 ◼   ► I think that some people don't like

01:06:33 ◼   ► the laptop style keyboards, which Apple now fancies.

01:06:36 ◼   ► I think Apple is absolutely making the right decision

01:06:40 ◼   ► in, since most people use laptops,

01:06:42 ◼   ► to make laptop style keyboards the norm.

01:06:44 ◼   ► And they've been doing that for a long time.

01:06:46 ◼   ► And I think that's perfectly fine.

01:06:47 ◼   ► That said, I prefer the ones with more travel

01:06:51 ◼   ► and more clickiness.

01:06:52 ◼   ► And I love the magic keyboard for iPad.

01:06:54 ◼   ► I think it's great,

01:06:55 ◼   ► but I would prefer a mechanical keyboard

01:06:58 ◼   ► if I could help it.

01:06:59 ◼   ► That's fine.

01:06:59 ◼   ► I'm not a,

01:07:00 ◼   ► something we said before the show about like

01:07:01 ◼   ► pronouncing Jif or Gif or whatever.

01:07:04 ◼   ► Like there are more than one way of doing things

01:07:07 ◼   ► and there's not just one right or wrong way.

01:07:09 ◼   ► - That is right.

01:07:10 ◼   ► - You can pronounce things different ways.

01:07:11 ◼   ► you can like different keyboards, it's okay.

01:07:13 ◼   ► Right, roll the dice.

01:07:15 ◼   ► - 14.

01:07:19 ◼   ► - Still haven't gotten a double, we are lucky today.

01:07:22 ◼   ► Brants wrote, "What piece of media, if any,

01:07:24 ◼   ► helped you get through the deepest

01:07:26 ◼   ► and longest parts of quarantine?"

01:07:28 ◼   ► - Well, for me, it started with Animal Crossing

01:07:31 ◼   ► on the Switch and there was Ted Lasso as well.

01:07:34 ◼   ► But really, the thing that helped me most

01:07:36 ◼   ► through the worst parts of quarantine

01:07:40 ◼   ► your first quarantine, however you want to put it,

01:07:42 ◼   ► was playing the White Sparrow set of adventures

01:07:45 ◼   ► on Total Party Kill.

01:07:46 ◼   ► That was a great set of things

01:07:49 ◼   ► and, you know, basically hanging out with your friends.

01:07:52 ◼   ► -Yeah, that was fun.

01:07:53 ◼   ► And that's -- We played that out,

01:07:55 ◼   ► the White Sparrow adventures on Total Party Kill.

01:07:57 ◼   ► We played them out this year on the feed,

01:07:59 ◼   ► but they were very much a height of lockdown project

01:08:03 ◼   ► where we were all not going anywhere or doing anything,

01:08:06 ◼   ► and we spent our spring and a little bit of summer

01:08:09 ◼   ► playing a lot of D&D, which has taken a year to roll out. But I agree with you, James. That was

01:08:14 ◼   ► a real—it was just nice being with people, even if it was on Zoom and having fun and playing a game.

01:08:18 ◼   ► That was a real sanity helper. I think that I'm going to go with music in general, but

01:08:24 ◼   ► specifically Phoebe Bridger's Punisher album was an album that I had on repeat for a lot of 2020. So

01:08:30 ◼   ► that album helped, even though it's kind of a moody album at times. And maybe you could have

01:08:36 ◼   ► it sent me into a deeper funk. I liked it a lot. It helped in general, but music is

01:08:45 ◼   ► something, I don't know, I did about a thousand hours of music in 2020, but that was right

01:08:51 ◼   ► at the top of the list.

01:08:52 ◼   ► Steve McLaughlin It's funny how music connects you with a

01:08:54 ◼   ► particular time. I had that where there's a NaNoWriMo that I wrote a novel in, you know,

01:09:00 ◼   ► in a month, and there was a very particular Image and Heap album that I played over and

01:09:05 ◼   ► over and over and every time I hear it I think of that time. For 2020 it was Notes on a Conditional

01:09:10 ◼   ► Form by the 1975. That was the album that I had. Apple did its little thing, its little

01:09:15 ◼   ► like 2020 and rewind at the end of the year for my Apple Music account and it was like,

01:09:20 ◼   ► you listen to and it was every track on Notes on a Conditional Form at the top and then

01:09:24 ◼   ► some other stuff. And I was like, yep, that's about right. I just listened to that album

01:09:27 ◼   ► over and over. And it's, you know, these days I listen to a lot of playlists. I listen to

01:09:31 ◼   ► to a lot of the Apple Music curated playlists.

01:09:34 ◼   ► So I'm listening to a lot of singles or tracks,

01:09:36 ◼   ► but not whole albums.

01:09:37 ◼   ► But every now and then an album just completely captures me.

01:09:40 ◼   ► And last year it was "Notes on a Conditional Form."

01:09:43 ◼   ► This year it was a Church's album, "Screen Violence."

01:09:45 ◼   ► Same thing.

01:09:46 ◼   ► - Yep, great album.

01:09:47 ◼   ► - And for TV, it's "Taskmaster."

01:09:49 ◼   ► I was introduced to "Taskmaster" last year

01:09:50 ◼   ► and found every episode.

01:09:52 ◼   ► And we watch those as a family

01:09:53 ◼   ► because my daughter came home from college

01:09:55 ◼   ► and my son was of course logged down with us.

01:09:57 ◼   ► And so we were all just,

01:09:58 ◼   ► 'cause he's a high school student,

01:09:59 ◼   ► so we were all just in the house all the time.

01:10:01 ◼   ► and that was one of our kind of nesting things that we did as a family is just we watched

01:10:05 ◼   ► Taskmaster and there are not that many shows that will get all of us together and enthusiastic

01:10:10 ◼   ► but that if you haven't seen it there are episodes on YouTube it's a UK game show sort

01:10:16 ◼   ► of comedy show sort of where a bunch of comedians have to do silly tasks and it is hilarious

01:10:22 ◼   ► and that was our pandemic save like life saver for us as a family.

01:10:26 ◼   ► - And I believe a lot of it is on YouTube officially.

01:10:29 ◼   ► - Yes, it is officially on the Taskmaster channel.

01:10:31 ◼   ► Even if you're in the US, you can see a lot of episodes.

01:10:34 ◼   ► It's great.

01:10:35 ◼   ► I'll roll the dice.

01:10:36 ◼   ► I'm gonna cross out Brant's here.

01:10:38 ◼   ► I gotta keep track of what we've already covered.

01:10:40 ◼   ► - Yep.

01:10:41 ◼   ► (dice clacking)

01:10:43 ◼   ► Six.

01:10:44 ◼   ► - Another original.

01:10:45 ◼   ► This is from JD.

01:10:48 ◼   ► What is your favorite food?

01:10:51 ◼   ► - I'm gonna say beef Massaman curry with Thai basil.

01:10:54 ◼   ► And this was a dish that I had the first time I came to the US

01:11:00 ◼   ► in Mountain View, of all places.

01:11:02 ◼   ► And I spent about a decade--

01:11:04 ◼   ► or more accurately, my wife spent about a decade

01:11:08 ◼   ► trying to recreate that dish.

01:11:10 ◼   ► And it turned out it was the Thai basil, which

01:11:13 ◼   ► was the little addition that made it perfect.

01:11:17 ◼   ► And that is absolutely my favorite.

01:11:18 ◼   ► Interesting.

01:11:20 ◼   ► Pizza's a food group for me.

01:11:22 ◼   ► So I already started a cafe with pizza.

01:11:24 ◼   ► I'm gonna choose pizza for my favorite food too.

01:11:27 ◼   ► - Ah, that's good.

01:11:28 ◼   ► My favorite food is peanut butter.

01:11:29 ◼   ► I realized this like five years ago.

01:11:32 ◼   ► I always would say like favorite dish.

01:11:34 ◼   ► And so I would say like flank steak or something like that.

01:11:38 ◼   ► There's a favorite dishes out there.

01:11:39 ◼   ► I'm doing a soy ginger marinated flank steak.

01:11:41 ◼   ► That's really great.

01:11:42 ◼   ► But food period, it's peanut butter.

01:11:45 ◼   ► I had peanut butter every day.

01:11:47 ◼   ► I'll eat it as a snack.

01:11:48 ◼   ► I like it in stuff.

01:11:50 ◼   ► I like the flavor of it in cookies or whatever.

01:11:52 ◼   ► I just, I love it.

01:11:53 ◼   ► And I know that it's not for everybody, but it is for me.

01:11:56 ◼   ► And if I ever became a vegetarian,

01:11:59 ◼   ► I would subsist on peanut butter.

01:12:01 ◼   ► That's what I'm saying.

01:12:02 ◼   ► - It's a good thing you don't have any co-hosts

01:12:03 ◼   ► with the peanut allergy.

01:12:05 ◼   ► - I have a question for you, Jason.

01:12:07 ◼   ► What's your position on pretzels

01:12:10 ◼   ► with peanut butter on the inside?

01:12:12 ◼   ► - I kind of get it.

01:12:14 ◼   ► I don't love them, but I get it

01:12:16 ◼   ► because you've got the little pretzelly crunch

01:12:18 ◼   ► and you've got the salty flavor.

01:12:20 ◼   ► I'm not gonna say what you probably expect me to say,

01:12:23 ◼   ► which is it's just pretzels getting in the way

01:12:25 ◼   ► of good peanut butter.

01:12:26 ◼   ► 'Cause it's, I get it, it's not my favorite,

01:12:29 ◼   ► but I don't think it's offensive.

01:12:32 ◼   ► Like I can see why people would wanna find other ways

01:12:35 ◼   ► of enjoying peanut butter,

01:12:36 ◼   ► and it's a lot less messy if they're inside the pretzel

01:12:39 ◼   ► than like outside it.

01:12:41 ◼   ► - That is true.

01:12:42 ◼   ► I think they usually use an inferior peanut butter,

01:12:45 ◼   ► which is part of the problem, I think.

01:12:47 ◼   ► - Yes, oh, that's for sure.

01:12:49 ◼   ► I mean, I use the natural peanut butter

01:12:52 ◼   ► in my day-to-day life, the kind that you have to stir up

01:12:54 ◼   ► or the peanut oil separates.

01:12:56 ◼   ► And I know that a lot of people,

01:12:59 ◼   ► they've engineered peanut butter, they add sweetener to it,

01:13:01 ◼   ► or they add a different kind of oil that is shelf stable

01:13:04 ◼   ► and doesn't separate at room temperature.

01:13:06 ◼   ► I prefer the natural kind.

01:13:09 ◼   ► The stuff that's in the pretzels is undoubtedly

01:13:11 ◼   ► the most adulterated peanut butter, right?

01:13:13 ◼   ► It's gonna be the stuff that the oil's been replaced

01:13:16 ◼   ► or removed and the sugar's been added.

01:13:18 ◼   ► So it's not really peanut butter anymore,

01:13:21 ◼   ► but it's got that flavor.

01:13:22 ◼   ► It's a nice flavor.

01:13:23 ◼   ► I like it.

01:13:24 ◼   ► - All right, very good.

01:13:25 ◼   ► - Now for our gifts next year,

01:13:27 ◼   ► I'm gonna write down to get you a peanut butter maker.

01:13:31 ◼   ► Just put peanuts in the top

01:13:33 ◼   ► and peanut butter comes out the bottom.

01:13:34 ◼   ► (dice clacking)

01:13:36 ◼   ► - Six.

01:13:37 ◼   ► - Oh, we already did six.

01:13:38 ◼   ► - That's a double.

01:13:39 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:13:40 ◼   ► (dice clacking)

01:13:43 ◼   ► - 10.

01:13:44 ◼   ► Matt V, you're both successful writers on the internet.

01:13:48 ◼   ► Burn, James, burn.

01:13:50 ◼   ► Any advice for writers starting out

01:13:52 ◼   ► well past the blocking heyday of yesteryear?

01:13:54 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, I'm just a humble,

01:13:55 ◼   ► lifetime award-winning developer, but what do I know?

01:13:58 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:13:59 ◼   ► - Wow. - Nothing about writing.

01:14:00 ◼   ► - I don't know, Jason, where do you wanna go?

01:14:02 ◼   ► I think where I would go with this

01:14:04 ◼   ► is that there's no one path that works for everybody.

01:14:08 ◼   ► Just look at me and Jason.

01:14:09 ◼   ► We have very different backgrounds, for sure, so.

01:14:13 ◼   ► - I didn't go to law school?

01:14:14 ◼   ► - Yes, and I didn't. - You didn't work in a magazine?

01:14:16 ◼   ► - No. (laughs)

01:14:18 ◼   ► - People ask me about this every now and then,

01:14:21 ◼   ► and what I say is, the great thing about being

01:14:23 ◼   ► on the internet today,

01:14:24 ◼   ► I know that it's not the same as it was,

01:14:26 ◼   ► but the great thing on the internet today

01:14:27 ◼   ► is if you're interested in something,

01:14:28 ◼   ► first off, you can always publish it yourself.

01:14:30 ◼   ► - Right.

01:14:31 ◼   ► - And that shows your writing to the world.

01:14:33 ◼   ► And you may get an audience from that,

01:14:35 ◼   ► but also you're showing your writing to the world

01:14:36 ◼   ► and other people will take notice.

01:14:37 ◼   ► Or if you wanna approach somebody and say,

01:14:39 ◼   ► "I would like to write for you,"

01:14:41 ◼   ► you can say, "Look at what I write."

01:14:43 ◼   ► And that does two things.

01:14:43 ◼   ► One, they can read your writing and say,

01:14:45 ◼   ► "Oh, this person can write."

01:14:46 ◼   ► And two, this person is interested in the subject matter

01:14:50 ◼   ► that they're writing about,

01:14:51 ◼   ► which is what I want to use them for.

01:14:52 ◼   ► And that is not something, it used to be like,

01:14:56 ◼   ► here's a clip from my college newspaper,

01:14:57 ◼   ► or like, I would hear from people

01:15:00 ◼   ► who wanted to write for Macworld,

01:15:00 ◼   ► who'd be like, "I have nothing published anywhere

01:15:03 ◼   ► that you can read."

01:15:04 ◼   ► And it was not that understandable even in like the 2000s,

01:15:08 ◼   ► but it's certainly not understandable now.

01:15:09 ◼   ► So I'd say number one thing is write.

01:15:11 ◼   ► Also, you'll get better.

01:15:12 ◼   ► The more articles you write,

01:15:13 ◼   ► if you say, "I want to write about apps,"

01:15:15 ◼   ► like John in Federico,

01:15:17 ◼   ► the more of those articles you write,

01:15:18 ◼   ► the better you'll get.

01:15:20 ◼   ► And then you start taking the old ones down

01:15:22 ◼   ► and keeping the newer ones and saying,

01:15:23 ◼   ► "See, look at my app writing, it's good."

01:15:25 ◼   ► And I think that that is a huge,

01:15:28 ◼   ► as somebody who's been on the other side,

01:15:29 ◼   ► looking for good writers,

01:15:31 ◼   ► having that evidence in public view of your enthusiasm

01:15:34 ◼   ► and of your capability is the number one best thing

01:15:38 ◼   ► when I'm looking for a new writer.

01:15:40 ◼   ► Yeah, that's absolutely true. I mean, I think the fact my writing has improved so much just over the

01:15:46 ◼   ► last five years or so that I've been doing this kind of full time. And it's all just because I've

01:15:51 ◼   ► written like 1800 stories or something since I started in the late 2015. And, you know, that's

01:15:58 ◼   ► kind of what it takes is just constantly writing. And I'm with you, Jason. I mean, we actually are

01:16:03 ◼   ► always on the lookout for somebody to write with us and do some freelance work. And it's always,

01:16:09 ◼   ► We keep an eye on everybody who's writing about Apple.

01:16:13 ◼   ► It may not always look like we are, but we are.

01:16:16 ◼   ► And there actually aren't that many people doing it

01:16:19 ◼   ► kind of on a consistent basis right now.

01:16:21 ◼   ► But if we're ever gonna add somebody to help us out,

01:16:24 ◼   ► it's because they've got that catalog of writing

01:16:28 ◼   ► that they've already done that we like, we think's good,

01:16:30 ◼   ► and shows an interest.

01:16:32 ◼   ► - Yeah, so invest in yourself and put in that time

01:16:37 ◼   ► and do the work and maybe you start not posting it

01:16:38 ◼   ► and then when you're proud of it, you post it.

01:16:40 ◼   ► Nobody needs to read it right away, but it's out there.

01:16:43 ◼   ► And then somebody may notice

01:16:44 ◼   ► or you can send a link to somebody and it's doing,

01:16:47 ◼   ► you can do that all yourself now, which you couldn't before.

01:16:49 ◼   ► You can't like put your articles in a magazine

01:16:51 ◼   ► back in the day, but you can just do it on the web now.

01:16:54 ◼   ► And it's fine.

01:16:54 ◼   ► - And I would say that all of this advice

01:16:56 ◼   ► does actually cross over for development as well.

01:16:59 ◼   ► You know, if you want to write apps,

01:17:01 ◼   ► it's exactly the same thing.

01:17:02 ◼   ► It's just keep writing, keep doing things.

01:17:05 ◼   ► And no, it's not, life's not fair, right?

01:17:09 ◼   ► Like you're not necessarily gonna be seen

01:17:11 ◼   ► and you may not be as good at it as you wanna be.

01:17:13 ◼   ► And there are all sorts of caveats there.

01:17:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, there's all kinds of luck involved too,

01:17:17 ◼   ► but it's like you put yourself in a position of having luck

01:17:20 ◼   ► by actually doing the work first.

01:17:22 ◼   ► - Exactly, and you would be surprised,

01:17:24 ◼   ► as somebody who's dealt with a lot of freelance writers

01:17:26 ◼   ► over the years, you would be surprised what you can get

01:17:29 ◼   ► by honing your craft, which is by doing it

01:17:32 ◼   ► over and over again, by being visible, showing your work,

01:17:35 ◼   ► by having an enthusiasm, and then the last one

01:17:38 ◼   ► that I'll throw in there is in being reliable.

01:17:40 ◼   ► Because let me tell you, you get that chance,

01:17:43 ◼   ► you make your deadlines, and it's like lights go off,

01:17:48 ◼   ► a rainbow appears to editors when you ask somebody

01:17:51 ◼   ► for something and they give it to you.

01:17:53 ◼   ► And if you don't, you're just forget it.

01:17:56 ◼   ► I loved at Macworld finding writers who were on time

01:18:03 ◼   ► and did good work and were responsive.

01:18:06 ◼   ► And these seem like logical things,

01:18:08 ◼   ► like, well, of course, who would not do that

01:18:11 ◼   ► if they want an opportunity?

01:18:12 ◼   ► Oh, you would be surprised.

01:18:13 ◼   ► There are lots of people who want an opportunity,

01:18:15 ◼   ► but then won't be timely with it or will do a shoddy job.

01:18:18 ◼   ► And it's like, you just wasted your opportunity.

01:18:21 ◼   ► So back in the day, by the way, a little side note,

01:18:24 ◼   ► Dan Morin came up to me on the floor at Macworld Expo

01:18:26 ◼   ► and said, "I would like to be a writer.

01:18:27 ◼   ► "What should I do?"

01:18:28 ◼   ► And actually what I told him back in the day,

01:18:30 ◼   ► you don't have to do this so much now,

01:18:31 ◼   ► was tidbits that is still published, Adam and Tanya Angst and a bunch of other people

01:18:37 ◼   ► work on, I guess it's Adam and Josh centers and a bunch of people work on tidbits. But

01:18:44 ◼   ► they would often publish articles, but they didn't pay for outside writers, but they would

01:18:50 ◼   ► sometimes publish articles by outside writers. And I think Dan actually did an article or

01:18:54 ◼   ► two there. But that's the beauty of like having Squarespace or Medium or something. It's like

01:18:58 ◼   ► Like you don't need anybody to keep any gate for you

01:19:01 ◼   ► to just get started.

01:19:03 ◼   ► Dice?

01:19:04 ◼   ► - Let's do it. - Dice by PCalc.

01:19:05 ◼   ► Here we go.

01:19:06 ◼   ► - Three.

01:19:10 ◼   ► - We already did three.

01:19:11 ◼   ► - It's repeats from here on in.

01:19:14 ◼   ► - 18.

01:19:17 ◼   ► - Oh, this is from high definition image of Big Bird.

01:19:20 ◼   ► What single decision by Apple would you reverse and why?

01:19:25 ◼   ► So I would say making services revenue a big profit center

01:19:29 ◼   ► because I feel it's led to a number

01:19:30 ◼   ► of very questionable decisions of light.

01:19:33 ◼   ► - So I've got an old one and a new one.

01:19:36 ◼   ► My old one is something that I've mentioned before recently

01:19:40 ◼   ► which is the elimination of the airport line of routers

01:19:43 ◼   ► because I feel like those would be the perfect fit

01:19:47 ◼   ► for some sort of home strategy,

01:19:49 ◼   ► the home strategy that we're hoping

01:19:50 ◼   ► that Apple will come up with in 2022.

01:19:52 ◼   ► But getting rid of them, I think, was short-sighted.

01:19:56 ◼   ► Maybe they weren't making money,

01:19:57 ◼   ► maybe it was too much R&D to keep up

01:19:59 ◼   ► with the Eros of the world and other routers.

01:20:01 ◼   ► But I think there was value there to Apple

01:20:04 ◼   ► beyond just the dollars that came in

01:20:06 ◼   ► on profit margins with routers.

01:20:08 ◼   ► And that's been squandered, and I'd like to see that.

01:20:11 ◼   ► I wish that those would come back.

01:20:13 ◼   ► Then close second would be rebuilding shortcuts

01:20:18 ◼   ► with SwiftUI in the same year

01:20:19 ◼   ► that they were moving it to the Mac.

01:20:21 ◼   ► And this one is obviously very close, cuts very close

01:20:25 ◼   ► for the work that I do.

01:20:27 ◼   ► And I just don't, I mean I think SwiftUI is great

01:20:31 ◼   ► and I think it is the future of developing UIs

01:20:34 ◼   ► on Apple's platforms, but I don't think an app

01:20:37 ◼   ► like Shortcuts was the right candidate for it

01:20:40 ◼   ► at this particular time.

01:20:41 ◼   ► And I'm sure these things are tied together

01:20:44 ◼   ► that moving to the Mac and doing everything in SwiftUI,

01:20:49 ◼   ► there was a hope that there would be some sort of synergies

01:20:52 ◼   ► and savings there.

01:20:54 ◼   ► Instead, I think what Apple ended up with was a distraction

01:20:57 ◼   ► that has kept them away from improving the actions

01:21:00 ◼   ► and other fundamental features of the app itself.

01:21:05 ◼   ► - I mean, I will say that, you know,

01:21:07 ◼   ► SwiftUI isn't gonna get better unless Apple has internal apps

01:21:11 ◼   ► that are using it.

01:21:12 ◼   ► You know, it's the same thing with Catalyst,

01:21:15 ◼   ► which is used for messages and podcasts and other apps.

01:21:19 ◼   ► You know, so it's good that they have something

01:21:21 ◼   ► that is pushing the technology more than other apps,

01:21:24 ◼   ► but I think they probably didn't mesh together as well

01:21:29 ◼   ► that they hoped, and it's been a difficult year.

01:21:33 ◼   ► - I think it was just a little too early.

01:21:34 ◼   ► I agree with you 100% that they should be pushing,

01:21:36 ◼   ► you know, they should be dogfooding all this stuff

01:21:38 ◼   ► and pushing it forward using their own apps,

01:21:40 ◼   ► but I think that this was probably not the right app

01:21:43 ◼   ► to do it with, especially since they had to do all the work

01:21:46 ◼   ► to bring automator actions over to the Mac

01:21:49 ◼   ► into shortcuts and other things that were,

01:21:51 ◼   ► you know, just launching that as an app itself,

01:21:54 ◼   ► no matter what technology you use,

01:21:57 ◼   ► I think was probably a big job

01:21:59 ◼   ► and adding SwiftUI to that pile made things worse, I believe.

01:22:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, I wanna give the crowd-pleasing answer here,

01:22:06 ◼   ► except I think it's the wrong one now,

01:22:08 ◼   ► which is whatever happened in the mid-2010s

01:22:09 ◼   ► where Apple kind of took its eye off the ball of the Mac

01:22:12 ◼   ► and we got like a weird Mac Pro

01:22:14 ◼   ► and we got the butterfly keyboard

01:22:16 ◼   ► we got the laptops that nobody seemed to love that took the ports off and all of that. But

01:22:22 ◼   ► the problem with that is that Apple Silicon wasn't ready to go. And I think maybe that

01:22:26 ◼   ► it was really a combination of both. They knew they wanted to do their own thing and

01:22:31 ◼   ► they were kind of biding their time and also losing their way a little bit. And the fact

01:22:34 ◼   ► is it's all basically resolved now. So I could change it so it was a little bit better in

01:22:40 ◼   ► the late 2010s. But I think we'd end up more or less where we are now regardless. So I'm

01:22:46 ◼   ► I'm gonna go back to like the 2010, 2011,

01:22:50 ◼   ► and I wanna whisper in somebody's ear,

01:22:52 ◼   ► maybe Eddy Cue, I don't know, maybe it's Tim Cook,

01:22:56 ◼   ► and say, "Don't have the attitude

01:23:00 ◼   ► that if the App Store is bringing in a lot of money,

01:23:05 ◼   ► that means you shouldn't change your policies."

01:23:10 ◼   ► I know that's really conceptual,

01:23:11 ◼   ► but I think the root of a lot of Apple's failure

01:23:14 ◼   ► in terms of the quality of the App Store,

01:23:16 ◼   ► in terms of the relationship with developers,

01:23:20 ◼   ► and in terms of the take and how contentious that's been,

01:23:23 ◼   ► their take on how much money developers

01:23:26 ◼   ► can make in the App Store.

01:23:28 ◼   ► I think a lot of it is rooted in the fact

01:23:31 ◼   ► that Apple had such an instant hit with the App Store

01:23:33 ◼   ► that they just decided either charitably

01:23:36 ◼   ► not to mess with success or uncharitably

01:23:39 ◼   ► were so arrogant about their success

01:23:42 ◼   ► that they thought that they hadn't made any mistakes,

01:23:45 ◼   ► when in fact they had built it

01:23:46 ◼   ► on a questionable technical foundation

01:23:48 ◼   ► and they were alienating developers,

01:23:49 ◼   ► but they were laughing all the way to the bank.

01:23:51 ◼   ► And so if I could do some whisper in someone's ear,

01:23:54 ◼   ► you should really not get complacent

01:23:58 ◼   ► because in the long run it will cause a lot of turmoil

01:24:01 ◼   ► and your stuff isn't as good as you think it is.

01:24:03 ◼   ► That's what I would do.

01:24:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, that's a really good one.

01:24:06 ◼   ► I mean, I think a big part of that

01:24:07 ◼   ► is how Apple fell backwards into gaming

01:24:09 ◼   ► and how gaming became a big thing on the App Store.

01:24:12 ◼   ► you know, despite Apple's, kind of, lack of understanding of the the gaming market.

01:24:17 ◼   ► Apple always goes backward into gaming. Never forward, only backward.

01:24:22 ◼   ► Eight.

01:24:26 ◼   ► Duplicate.

01:24:26 ◼   ► Three.

01:24:30 ◼   ► Duplicate.

01:24:31 ◼   ► Duplicate.

01:24:31 ◼   ► This is going to be great.

01:24:33 ◼   ► Eleven.

01:24:34 ◼   ► Duplicate.

01:24:35 ◼   ► Two.

01:24:38 ◼   ► Two!

01:24:40 ◼   ► is from three raccoons in a trench coat. If you could swap places with a relay host,

01:24:44 ◼   ► who would you choose?" So I have a lot of problems with this question. Am I inhabiting their body or

01:24:49 ◼   ► just taking over their whole life in my body? I think you're just taking over their podcast.

01:24:55 ◼   ► Well, I mean, like, I could do with the body of somebody younger, so, you know, who's the youngest

01:24:59 ◼   ► relay host? I would happily swap places there, just so that I don't have to put up with this one.

01:25:06 ◼   ► But I, yeah, I, answering the wider question,

01:25:11 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:25:15 ◼   ► I mean, it's a question of like,

01:25:17 ◼   ► you wanna take over somebody,

01:25:20 ◼   ► do you wanna take over somebody

01:25:21 ◼   ► because you wanna like podcast with their partner

01:25:25 ◼   ► or something?

01:25:26 ◼   ► It's a difficult one.

01:25:27 ◼   ► I don't think I can answer this with like,

01:25:30 ◼   ► being rude to one or other people.

01:25:32 ◼   ► - Oh, okay, well, I'm just gonna say

01:25:34 ◼   ► that I would take over Mac power users from Steven

01:25:36 ◼   ► and then it would just be me and David Sparks.

01:25:38 ◼   ► And I, you know, we would be great

01:25:39 ◼   ► 'cause we both remember old Macs from using them

01:25:42 ◼   ► and not just from, you know, finding them on eBay.

01:25:45 ◼   ► - Well, you know what I'm gonna go.

01:25:46 ◼   ► I'm gonna go with Matt Alexander

01:25:48 ◼   ► because I think he really paces himself well.

01:25:50 ◼   ► I mean, he's got the very best ratio

01:25:54 ◼   ► of total number of episodes to longevity on the network.

01:25:57 ◼   ► So, I mean, you know, low workflow and longevity.

01:26:03 ◼   ► It's a great combination.

01:26:05 ◼   ► - Well, I didn't want to insult anybody on the network,

01:26:07 ◼   ► but apparently my co-host is back in there.

01:26:10 ◼   ► - We're okay with it, yeah.

01:26:12 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:26:12 ◼   ► (clapping)

01:26:14 ◼   ► - Two. - You just did two.

01:26:15 ◼   ► Come on, Dice by Peacock.

01:26:17 ◼   ► Oh no!

01:26:18 ◼   ► - Two. - Oh no.

01:26:19 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:26:20 ◼   ► - Do I have to read the question again?

01:26:21 ◼   ► - One. - One.

01:26:22 ◼   ► Marlies, both your co-hosts are canceled,

01:26:24 ◼   ► but you managed to escape the wrath of Twitter.

01:26:26 ◼   ► Who would you start a new podcast with to replace Connected?

01:26:30 ◼   ► - Well, you know, Jason and John know what they did

01:26:32 ◼   ► to get canceled.

01:26:33 ◼   ► But I would really, I think as I said before,

01:26:37 ◼   ► I'd like to do something with Myke, Steven or Federico

01:26:39 ◼   ► one day and I was thinking that we should have

01:26:41 ◼   ► a succession plan for this podcast.

01:26:44 ◼   ► If anything happens to us.

01:26:46 ◼   ► - Oh, that's dangerous though,

01:26:47 ◼   ► because then it motivates them to make something happen

01:26:50 ◼   ► to us so that we're not getting taken over.

01:26:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean that's true, but you know,

01:26:53 ◼   ► I think we should give them a chance.

01:26:57 ◼   ► - Never name your successors, James.

01:26:59 ◼   ► No, never name your successors.

01:27:01 ◼   ► It's trouble.

01:27:02 ◼   ► when you're gone, they can all sort it out together, but you don't motivate them in any way.

01:27:06 ◼   ► This is, if I learned anything from dictators of the past, that's what I learned.

01:27:10 ◼   ► - Okay, so we're gonna just hold on to our power, okay.

01:27:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think so. I think so we gotta consolidate the triple J power, I think is the way that works.

01:27:19 ◼   ► You know, I'm gonna go with Federico because this kid from Italy, he's an up and comer,

01:27:24 ◼   ► he really is. And I've had a show in mind for a while, and I think I'm gonna call it Apple Stories.

01:27:31 ◼   ► I bought Apple stories.net a long time ago,

01:27:35 ◼   ► and I think it could make a good podcast.

01:27:36 ◼   ► I think we'll, you know,

01:27:37 ◼   ► we'll talk about Mac apps or something.

01:27:39 ◼   ► - I was also gonna pick Federico,

01:27:40 ◼   ► 'cause I thought that he doesn't talk about,

01:27:42 ◼   ► I like the iPad Pro and like iPad life a lot,

01:27:45 ◼   ► and I don't think he talks about it enough.

01:27:47 ◼   ► So I would give him like,

01:27:48 ◼   ► I think we could talk about the iPad,

01:27:50 ◼   ► but since you took him, I'll spread some love around.

01:27:53 ◼   ► I already do a show with Myke, right?

01:27:55 ◼   ► So I'm gonna do Steven.

01:27:57 ◼   ► I've taken his spot on Mac Power Users,

01:27:59 ◼   ► but we will create some other kind of show about the Mac

01:28:02 ◼   ► that Steven and I can do instead after "Connected" is canceled.

01:28:07 ◼   ► -You could maybe do, like, "Laser Rider Power Users"

01:28:10 ◼   ► or something like that.

01:28:13 ◼   ► -All right. That's -- "Laser Rider Power Users."

01:28:16 ◼   ► I'm looking forward to that. Let's roll the dice.

01:28:19 ◼   ► -10. -Duplicate.

01:28:20 ◼   ► -14. -Duplicate.

01:28:24 ◼   ► This is good podcasting, people.

01:28:26 ◼   ► -3. -Duplicate.

01:28:27 ◼   ► - It's what they pay for.

01:28:30 ◼   ► - What am I looking for here?

01:28:31 ◼   ► - Eight.

01:28:32 ◼   ► - Seven, four, five.

01:28:33 ◼   ► - Nine.

01:28:34 ◼   ► - Nine.

01:28:35 ◼   ► - Seven.

01:28:36 ◼   ► - Seven.

01:28:37 ◼   ► - It heard you, it's listening.