Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:08 ◼   ► Hello, and welcome to Connected, episode 361.

00:00:13 ◼   ► It's made possible this week by our sponsors, Squarespace,

00:00:17 ◼   ► Pingdom, and Hello.

00:00:19 ◼   ► My name is Stephen Hackett, and I'm joined by Mr. Myke Hurley.

00:00:22 ◼   ► Hello, welcome back.

00:00:23 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Thank you for going down the fort this summer.

00:00:26 ◼   ► You have been the constant on Connected.

00:00:29 ◼   ► Yeah, did I take one off?

00:00:31 ◼   ► You took one.

00:00:33 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:00:34 ◼   ► One off.

00:00:35 ◼   ► One off, but you two have been all over the place.

00:00:38 ◼   ► Federico is away this week.

00:00:40 ◼   ► So Federico, in case you don't know,

00:00:43 ◼   ► he writes a review of iOS and iPadOS every year.

00:00:45 ◼   ► What?

00:00:46 ◼   ► And yeah, I know, right?

00:00:48 ◼   ► Shocker, breaking news.

00:00:49 ◼   ► And Federico came to us this week

00:00:52 ◼   ► and asked if we would be cool holding the fort for him

00:00:54 ◼   ► because he's in the final stretch now

00:00:57 ◼   ► of writing that review.

00:00:58 ◼   ► And he's obviously been pretty distracted with all the Club Max story stuff. So Federico's down in a bunker now

00:01:04 ◼   ► Writing his iOS and iPad OS review. So he's taking a week off the show this week and he should be back next week

00:01:11 ◼   ► We have some follow-up. Yeah, I would like to apologize to most countries of the world, you know, I upset some people first off

00:01:18 ◼   ► I would like to apologize. I've

00:01:20 ◼   ► provided individual

00:01:21 ◼   ► Apologies to basically all of our Brazilian listeners for suggesting that Brazilian people spoke Spanish

00:01:26 ◼   ► when they in fact speak Portuguese, so I'd like to apologize for that.

00:01:30 ◼   ► Kosovo. Now, you remember we had a Kosovo problem last time

00:01:35 ◼   ► where we had a listener, Blend, who was from Kosovo,

00:01:39 ◼   ► but I said we had zero Kosovo listeners.

00:01:41 ◼   ► Kosovan listeners. Here we go, I'm doing it again.

00:01:45 ◼   ► Kosovo can also be known as Serbia,

00:01:48 ◼   ► but it has declared independence from Serbia,

00:01:51 ◼   ► but is only partially recognized worldwide.

00:01:54 ◼   ► So that might be why our hosting provider doesn't recognize there's Kosovo

00:01:58 ◼   ► because maybe our hosting provider hasn't got that data.

00:02:01 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:02:02 ◼   ► This is maybe too much for us to try and get into.

00:02:04 ◼   ► It feels pretty murky.

00:02:05 ◼   ► But it could be why we show a zero for Kosovo.

00:02:08 ◼   ► I did check, though, and we had ten listeners from Serbia.

00:02:11 ◼   ► So if they were being counted into Serbia's data,

00:02:14 ◼   ► maybe that would mess it up.

00:02:15 ◼   ► I apologize to blend, but unfortunately, it's not up to us

00:02:20 ◼   ► to decide which countries are recognized.

00:02:25 ◼   ► Yeah, that sounds complicated for this podcast.

00:02:27 ◼   ► This is incredibly complicated and I almost wish we hadn't done this follow-up

00:02:30 ◼   ► because I'm almost convinced I will now have more follow-up.

00:02:33 ◼   ► This is basically Greengate but for global politics which is much more.

00:02:38 ◼   ► Globegate!

00:02:38 ◼   ► If we do this segment in the future,

00:02:41 ◼   ► listener James suggested calling it the Raromies which I enjoyed.

00:02:44 ◼   ► Oh, that's good!

00:02:45 ◼   ► Which I really enjoyed.

00:02:47 ◼   ► My suggestion was the Weirdies.

00:02:49 ◼   ► as we were ultimately finding the weirdest listener,

00:02:52 ◼   ► but the Raromies is better.

00:02:53 ◼   ► - Raromies is very good.

00:02:54 ◼   ► - So I think we will come back to this at some point,

00:02:57 ◼   ► especially because now somebody has been given

00:02:59 ◼   ► the nod of weirdest fish.

00:03:04 ◼   ► Now, like, now that Umar is the weirdest fish,

00:03:09 ◼   ► lots of other people want to be weird, right?

00:03:11 ◼   ► So like we put this call out

00:03:12 ◼   ► and we gave people enough time,

00:03:14 ◼   ► but all week I've been getting tweets from people

00:03:16 ◼   ► who are like, "Hey, I'm from this country,

00:03:17 ◼   ► "is that weirder?"

00:03:18 ◼   ► Well, you had your time, right?

00:03:20 ◼   ► It's not up to us, you had your opportunity.

00:03:23 ◼   ► - Listen to the show the week it comes out,

00:03:25 ◼   ► is what we're saying.

00:03:25 ◼   ► - No, they were like, "Oh, I just didn't do it.

00:03:27 ◼   ► I just didn't send it in."

00:03:28 ◼   ► I was like, "Well, this isn't, you know what I mean?"

00:03:30 ◼   ► Like, just like, "Well, you were lazy

00:03:32 ◼   ► or you didn't think you were weird enough.

00:03:34 ◼   ► Believe in your weirdness."

00:03:35 ◼   ► It is very likely that some point next summer,

00:03:38 ◼   ► we will come back to the Raromies

00:03:39 ◼   ► because it was a great way to fill half of a show.

00:03:42 ◼   ► - And it was very enjoyable to listen to.

00:03:45 ◼   ► I made Mary listen to it.

00:03:46 ◼   ► I was like, "You gotta hear this."

00:03:47 ◼   ► I actually listened back to that segment in full, which is a rarity for me to do, because

00:03:54 ◼   ► I wanted to see how it came out.

00:03:55 ◼   ► I also wanted to just be completely aware of how many people I could have upset accidentally.

00:04:02 ◼   ► In episode three, so this is some follow up from Darren, from listener Darren.

00:04:07 ◼   ► In episode 360 you were hoping to have a listener in space.

00:04:10 ◼   ► Unfortunately I couldn't quite do that, but I did go and listen to Connected inside both

00:04:15 ◼   ► a Soviet space station hull, the Almaz 206, and a VA space capsule, which are part of

00:04:21 ◼   ► a museum collection. And Darren has sent in an image for us, proof of that. The image

00:04:28 ◼   ► that I have put in our show notes is the wrong one.

00:04:31 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:04:32 ◼   ► And so I just got a bit of a shock when I opened that and I don't know what happened.

00:04:36 ◼   ► I need to correct that, Steven. I can only apologize to you. I don't know why this has

00:04:41 ◼   ► and I think there's some kind of horrific virus

00:04:43 ◼   ► inside of our S3 bucket,

00:04:45 ◼   ► which is just an image of your face.

00:04:47 ◼   ► So we've got that going on.

00:04:49 ◼   ► - Maybe.

00:04:50 ◼   ► - I will find this image.

00:04:51 ◼   ► And then, yeah, okay.

00:04:55 ◼   ► - I believe it was an email.

00:04:56 ◼   ► - Do you think there are any emails to me?

00:04:56 ◼   ► - It was an email. - Yeah, so let me get it.

00:04:58 ◼   ► Let me get it now.

00:05:00 ◼   ► - Okay, I'll let you go deal with that.

00:05:02 ◼   ► And--

00:05:04 ◼   ► - That was so scary.

00:05:06 ◼   ► - Scary.

00:05:07 ◼   ► Last week, I also spoke about Tim Cook

00:05:10 ◼   ► and his time at the company.

00:05:13 ◼   ► And, you know, 10 year anniversary has been there.

00:05:19 ◼   ► A while, Tim Cook has made comments before about,

00:05:23 ◼   ► I think like, you know, he's not gonna be at Apple forever.

00:05:26 ◼   ► German chimed in, speculating that Tim would retire

00:05:30 ◼   ► between 2025 and 2028 sometime.

00:05:34 ◼   ► And apparently he wants to oversee

00:05:39 ◼   ► one more major product category introduction.

00:05:42 ◼   ► And I don't think you have to guess

00:05:45 ◼   ► that that would probably be something AR focused.

00:05:47 ◼   ► He talks a lot about it, seems very passionate

00:05:50 ◼   ► about having charts and meetings in space.

00:05:53 ◼   ► And so maybe once we see that, then Tim's gone.

00:05:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, we were talking about this last time, right?

00:05:59 ◼   ► That the Apple Watch is maybe the biggest product

00:06:04 ◼   ► that Tim has ever seen.

00:06:05 ◼   ► - Oh yeah.

00:06:06 ◼   ► - But it isn't the change the world product

00:06:09 ◼   ► that maybe you would want if you were Apple CEO, right?

00:06:12 ◼   ► And so I expect he probably wants to give that another go

00:06:16 ◼   ► and see if he can be at the helm of the company

00:06:18 ◼   ► when they introduce their next paradigm shifting company.

00:06:23 ◼   ► Like you can put the slide up of the Mac and the iPhone

00:06:27 ◼   ► and the iPad up as much as you want, right?

00:06:29 ◼   ► And talk about like, oh, and this is the next one,

00:06:32 ◼   ► but the market decides.

00:06:34 ◼   ► And I don't think the market has decided.

00:06:37 ◼   ► Apple Watch is a very successful product.

00:06:39 ◼   ► We're gonna talk about it later on today.

00:06:41 ◼   ► But it is not, you know, it has not changed the world

00:06:45 ◼   ► like those other ones that I mentioned.

00:06:48 ◼   ► I have now found the image of Darren in a space capsule.

00:06:53 ◼   ► - Oh good. - Which is very good.

00:06:54 ◼   ► Do you see this?

00:06:55 ◼   ► So Darren printed out a weird fish

00:06:57 ◼   ► and you can also see he's listening to the episode.

00:07:02 ◼   ► So good proof.

00:07:03 ◼   ► And to up the weirdness factor,

00:07:06 ◼   ► this is all took place on the Isle of Man, which has a population of 85,000 people. It's

00:07:10 ◼   ► weird. But Darren knows that doesn't make him lifetime weird, which is what we were

00:07:14 ◼   ► looking for for somebody to listen from space. This is good enough.

00:07:17 ◼   ► Space weird. So if you're Tim Cook and you want to be in the hall of fame that is the

00:07:24 ◼   ► Mac iPod, iPhone, iPad, and the watch doesn't get you there, I just don't see how AR is

00:07:32 ◼   ► going to be the thing that pushes you into that.

00:07:36 ◼   ► Am I just being pessimistic about AR? I feel like I am on general, but I just don't know.

00:07:41 ◼   ► I mean, he's really banking on this AR/VR combination. Here's the thing, right?

00:07:46 ◼   ► So let's just think of this a second, talk about this a second.

00:07:50 ◼   ► If Apple's creating a product, not the first one, right? The first one is a developer kit,

00:07:54 ◼   ► mostly, right? AR/VR home use. If they are making AR glasses, right? The expectation is they will

00:08:01 ◼   ► will be in front of your eyes, right?

00:08:04 ◼   ► Like you cannot escape them.

00:08:05 ◼   ► It's not like the Apple Watch, right?

00:08:08 ◼   ► Where it's like this complimentary thing.

00:08:11 ◼   ► AR glasses would be like this,

00:08:16 ◼   ► a much more of a companion, I think, to other devices

00:08:19 ◼   ► with the, I guess the eventual goal

00:08:21 ◼   ► of becoming something of its own.

00:08:24 ◼   ► It does feel to me like just in theory,

00:08:27 ◼   ► much more for good and ill invasive

00:08:31 ◼   ► than an Apple Watch is.

00:08:33 ◼   ► It's more, maybe pervasive is a better word to use,

00:08:37 ◼   ► like in our lives in that sense.

00:08:39 ◼   ► If it can truly give you that sci-fi idea

00:08:43 ◼   ► of as you're walking around,

00:08:44 ◼   ► you can be presented information,

00:08:46 ◼   ► that could be, for some people, a pretty big deal.

00:08:52 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:08:54 ◼   ► I mean, would we have necessarily assumed

00:08:57 ◼   ► that the iPhone was gonna be as big as it ended up being?

00:09:00 ◼   ► - I don't think so.

00:09:01 ◼   ► - I don't think anyone did.

00:09:02 ◼   ► I don't think Apple did, honestly.

00:09:04 ◼   ► - It was just like, here is like a really,

00:09:07 ◼   ► like much nicer experience for using a cell phone.

00:09:10 ◼   ► Right, but then it was the apps

00:09:12 ◼   ► that was what truly made it what it is.

00:09:15 ◼   ► So maybe they can do it again.

00:09:18 ◼   ► I don't know either, but I think if you're looking

00:09:21 ◼   ► at what's on the horizon for Apple,

00:09:23 ◼   ► what areas they have to tackle,

00:09:25 ◼   ► I mean, it's not gonna be the car, right?

00:09:28 ◼   ► Like that's the other area.

00:09:29 ◼   ► the car's not gonna be that thing

00:09:31 ◼   ► because even if they make an incredible car,

00:09:34 ◼   ► it's gonna be really expensive.

00:09:36 ◼   ► And so it's not gonna be something that everybody owns,

00:09:40 ◼   ► like everybody owns a smartphone or whatever.

00:09:42 ◼   ► - Right. - So I don't know.

00:09:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, Apple's best products have been the ones

00:09:45 ◼   ► that democratize technology, right?

00:09:48 ◼   ► Where all of a sudden the computer is accessible to you

00:09:52 ◼   ► through something like the mouse and pull-down menus.

00:09:55 ◼   ► You don't have to be using punch cards like Dr. Drang did

00:09:58 ◼   ► or the iPod making music accessible to everybody, right?

00:10:02 ◼   ► That's Apple at its best.

00:10:04 ◼   ► And that's really kind of where I come back

00:10:06 ◼   ► to the AR question is like, is that going to be for everyone?

00:10:10 ◼   ► I mean--

00:10:11 ◼   ► - I mean, it could be closer to an iPod

00:10:12 ◼   ► in its success than an iPhone,

00:10:14 ◼   ► but that would still be enough.

00:10:16 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, the iPhone is still like so far above and beyond

00:10:19 ◼   ► and even AirPods, you know, so much of what he has done

00:10:23 ◼   ► or what Apple has done I should say is

00:10:26 ◼   ► pivoting off the phone, right?

00:10:28 ◼   ► The Apple Watch can only be as big as the iPhone market

00:10:33 ◼   ► as long as they continue to tie it to iOS the way they have.

00:10:36 ◼   ► AirPods are the same way, right?

00:10:38 ◼   ► Yes, I'm sure there are people using AirPods products

00:10:40 ◼   ► with non-iPhones, but it can't be many.

00:10:42 ◼   ► And I don't know, and--

00:10:45 ◼   ► - I guess, yeah, AirPods are probably

00:10:46 ◼   ► his most successful product line, right?

00:10:49 ◼   ► But they're not, it's not like the big new--

00:10:53 ◼   ► - It's an accessory. - You're not putting it

00:10:54 ◼   ► on that slide that I was mentioning earlier, right?

00:10:57 ◼   ► Of like, here's Apple's history.

00:10:59 ◼   ► It's not going on there.

00:11:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's fair.

00:11:01 ◼   ► Anyways, Tim Cook, hang around for a little longer.

00:11:04 ◼   ► - We'd like that.

00:11:05 ◼   ► - Myke, today, September 1st.

00:11:07 ◼   ► - Hooray!

00:11:09 ◼   ► - Know what that means?

00:11:10 ◼   ► - It means that the podcast is getting closer and closer

00:11:13 ◼   ► is what it means.

00:11:13 ◼   ► - That is true in a very troubling way.

00:11:18 ◼   ► But September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month,

00:11:20 ◼   ► something that we mark and celebrate every year

00:11:24 ◼   ► here at Relay FM.

00:11:25 ◼   ► And the reason we do that is because of the work

00:11:29 ◼   ► of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

00:11:31 ◼   ► There'll be a link in the show notes

00:11:32 ◼   ► to a thing that I wrote today.

00:11:33 ◼   ► My oldest son was diagnosed with cancer as an infant.

00:11:37 ◼   ► They found a brain tumor and he's getting ready to turn 13.

00:11:41 ◼   ► And he has officially moved from cancer patient

00:11:45 ◼   ► to cancer survivor because of the work at St. Jude.

00:11:50 ◼   ► In fact, if you look at the overall childhood cancer

00:11:54 ◼   ► survival rates, they are way, way higher

00:11:57 ◼   ► than they were 60 years ago

00:11:58 ◼   ► when St. Jude first opened its doors.

00:12:01 ◼   ► And it's not just kids in Memphis.

00:12:03 ◼   ► We were fortunate to already live here, it's our home,

00:12:07 ◼   ► but they treat kids from all over the world

00:12:09 ◼   ► and their research is shared all over the world

00:12:12 ◼   ► to increase cancer survival rates in kids

00:12:15 ◼   ► in all corners of the earth.

00:12:17 ◼   ► So we take this seriously.

00:12:19 ◼   ► We spend a lot of time and energy on this every fall

00:12:23 ◼   ► because it is really important to us.

00:12:25 ◼   ► And every year the relay community

00:12:28 ◼   ► has been absolutely amazing

00:12:29 ◼   ► in helping raise money for St. Jude.

00:12:31 ◼   ► So you can donate now.

00:12:33 ◼   ► We're already over $80,000 and it's just September 1st.

00:12:37 ◼   ► We've been talking about this for two weeks now.

00:12:39 ◼   ► And it'll run through the end of September.

00:12:41 ◼   ► September is a time where a lot of us

00:12:44 ◼   ► are gonna spend a lot of money on tech, right?

00:12:45 ◼   ► Like, I'm gonna order a new iPhone this month

00:12:48 ◼   ► and maybe a watch.

00:12:49 ◼   ► And it's a time where a lot of us in this sort of community

00:12:54 ◼   ► are spending money and set some of that aside

00:12:58 ◼   ► and make it really count.

00:13:00 ◼   ► So you can go to stjude.org/relay and donate.

00:13:04 ◼   ► And that money goes to not only this research and treatment,

00:13:07 ◼   ► but families don't pay anything for that treatment.

00:13:11 ◼   ► So our son has been a St. Jude patient for 12 years

00:13:15 ◼   ► and they've never charged me a single dime.

00:13:19 ◼   ► That's incredible because that is really best in world care.

00:13:24 ◼   ► And because it is just given to us,

00:13:28 ◼   ► we could focus on our family and focus on our kid,

00:13:31 ◼   ► which is what's most important.

00:13:33 ◼   ► So make that possible for more families,

00:13:36 ◼   ► stjude.org/relay.

00:13:39 ◼   ► - I think I first heard Casey mention this about like,

00:13:43 ◼   ► which I kind of like it, that donating to St. Jude

00:13:47 ◼   ► during this time is guilt absolution

00:13:48 ◼   ► for buying expensive technology products.

00:13:51 ◼   ► And I'm into that idea.

00:13:54 ◼   ► So you don't have to feel so guilty

00:13:56 ◼   ► about spending $1,000 on your phone

00:13:58 ◼   ► if you make a nice donation to St. Jude as well.

00:14:00 ◼   ► - Look, last year I put wheels on my Mac Pro

00:14:02 ◼   ► and I donated the same amount to St. Jude to offset it.

00:14:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

00:14:05 ◼   ► We've got some streams coming up actually on that note.

00:14:10 ◼   ► - We do.

00:14:11 ◼   ► - Do you want to tell people what you're doing?

00:14:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, so on Thursday, September 2nd,

00:14:15 ◼   ► I will be taking apart my next cube.

00:14:18 ◼   ► I don't know how the next cube comes apart,

00:14:20 ◼   ► so we're just gonna figure that out together.

00:14:23 ◼   ► And that'll be on my Twitch stream at twitch.tv/ismh.

00:14:28 ◼   ► - Yeah, and this is part of, we do these milestones,

00:14:32 ◼   ► so as we hit different fundraising levels,

00:14:35 ◼   ► we unlock extra content, and that is typically

00:14:38 ◼   ► in the form of me and you doing silly things on stream.

00:14:42 ◼   ► also another one on Friday at 11 30 a.m. Eastern on my twitch channel Myke.live

00:14:47 ◼   ► we're going to be playing Kerbal Space Program which is a game that neither of

00:14:52 ◼   ► us have played I've had a very short amount of time in the tutorial and our

00:14:56 ◼   ► plan is to try and leave us orbit that's the plan we're gonna get out into space

00:15:03 ◼   ► on a rocket ship of which we have been told multiple times now is probably an

00:15:10 ◼   ► unattainable goal and we're gonna prove everybody wrong and we're gonna go to

00:15:13 ◼   ► space. I mean we've done so well in flight simulator. Exactly. I landed so no

00:15:18 ◼   ► one thought I was gonna be able to do that. I successfully landed a jumbo jet

00:15:21 ◼   ► so... You did do that. And this is all leading up to the podcast

00:15:26 ◼   ► athon on September 17th from 12 to 8 p.m. Eastern at twitch.tv/relayfm

00:15:31 ◼   ► we're gonna be doing a bunch of wild fun incredible things of a whole host of

00:15:36 ◼   ► guests, many of your favorite Relay FM hosts are going to be taking part as well as we

00:15:40 ◼   ► always do. We've got a lot of stuff going on. I received just a huge box a couple of

00:15:46 ◼   ► days ago full of questionable things that we're going to be using as part of the Podcastathon

00:15:51 ◼   ► this year. So you've got to check that out. It's going to be an excellent time.

00:15:56 ◼   ► Good. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. And we'll keep talking about it, but please

00:16:00 ◼   ► go learn more and donate at stjou.org/relay.

00:16:02 ◼   ► - All right, Myke, we're gonna talk about iPhones from space, but let's take a break.

00:16:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's not just us going to space.

00:16:10 ◼   ► iPhones are gonna do it too.

00:16:11 ◼   ► - Tim Cook, going to space.

00:16:13 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by Squarespace.

00:16:16 ◼   ► It fits right in with what we're talking about.

00:16:18 ◼   ► - It's always a circle while it's square.

00:16:22 ◼   ► It's just space.

00:16:23 ◼   ► It's all space.

00:16:24 ◼   ► - In space, no one can hear you build a website.

00:16:26 ◼   ► But Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build your online presence and run your

00:16:30 ◼   ► business whether you're here on the ground or I guess in low earth orbit you

00:16:33 ◼   ► can do it there too. From websites and online stores to marketing tools and

00:16:37 ◼   ► analytics they have everything you need. They combine cutting-edge design with

00:16:43 ◼   ► world-class engineering making it easier than ever to establish your home online

00:16:48 ◼   ► and to make your ideas a reality. Squarespace has everything you need to

00:16:52 ◼   ► create a beautiful modern website. You start with a professionally designed

00:16:57 ◼   ► template and use drag and drop tools to make it your own. Customizing the look

00:17:01 ◼   ► and feel, the settings, the products you have on sale, so much more with just a

00:17:05 ◼   ► few clicks. And all Squarespace websites are optimized for mobile. Your content

00:17:10 ◼   ► automatically adjusts so to look great on any device. You'll get free unlimited

00:17:15 ◼   ► hosting, top-of-the-line security, and the dependable resources that you need to

00:17:21 ◼   ► succeed. There's nothing to patch or upgrade. Their 24/7 customer support is a

00:17:26 ◼   ► award-winning. So if you have any questions, someone is always around to help.

00:17:31 ◼   ► Let's you quickly and easily grab a unique domain name, plus they have tools for

00:17:35 ◼   ► SEO and email marketing as well. I've used Squarespace a whole bunch over the years

00:17:41 ◼   ► and it is my go-to when helping somebody build a website for a company or a

00:17:45 ◼   ► project, whatever it may be, that is always my answer because you can do so

00:17:49 ◼   ► much with it just right out of the box. So head on over to squarespace.com/connected

00:17:55 ◼   ► for a free trial with no credit card required.

00:17:58 ◼   ► And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code "CONNECTED" to save 10% off your first

00:18:04 ◼   ► purchase of a website or domain name and to show your support for the show.

00:18:09 ◼   ► Once again that's Squarespace.com/Connected and the code "CONNECTED" to get 10% off your

00:18:14 ◼   ► first purchase.

00:18:15 ◼   ► Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of Connected and all of Relay FM.

00:18:21 ◼   ► Ming-Chi Kuo has reported that the next iPhone would feature low Earth orbit LEO satellite

00:18:27 ◼   ► communication capabilities.

00:18:30 ◼   ► This basically allows for an iPhone to make calls or send messages about any cell coverage

00:18:35 ◼   ► it's connecting to satellites instead.

00:18:38 ◼   ► Kuo expects this technology could also expand to other products that Apple makes in the

00:18:41 ◼   ► future.

00:18:42 ◼   ► I think we had a conversation about this a couple of days ago, just me and you.

00:18:46 ◼   ► It wasn't a podcast conversation, we do actually have those.

00:18:50 ◼   ► And this seemed like an absolutely bonkers idea that I would never pay any attention

00:18:55 ◼   ► to if it didn't come from Wing Chi Kuo, right?

00:18:58 ◼   ► It would just be like, "This doesn't make any sense.

00:19:01 ◼   ► Why is this happening?

00:19:02 ◼   ► I don't understand.

00:19:03 ◼   ► Who's providing all of this?"

00:19:05 ◼   ► It kind of reminded me of the way Kindles used to – I don't even know if they still

00:19:09 ◼   ► work this way, but how you would get like 3G on them.

00:19:13 ◼   ► It's just like, "Oh, don't worry about it.

00:19:15 ◼   ► We'll take care of it for you," right?

00:19:16 ◼   ► It's just like –

00:19:17 ◼   ► Paid for somehow.

00:19:18 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:19:19 ◼   ► had a kindle, so this is a fun fun story side story. The kindle two, I think, was

00:19:25 ◼   ► the first kindle that was released outside of america. This is when they got

00:19:28 ◼   ► rid of the weird keyboard yeah and I bought one of those. They made them

00:19:32 ◼   ► available to unite kingdom, but the cell service was roaming

00:19:36 ◼   ► huh, so it was still provided by like verizon or wherever it was, but it was

00:19:43 ◼   ► roaming. So whenever I would use the cell service, the battery would just

00:19:49 ◼   ► it would not, it just did not deal very well

00:19:51 ◼   ► and it took a really long time to download anything.

00:19:54 ◼   ► - I'm sure.

00:19:55 ◼   ► - It was on a roaming plan.

00:19:55 ◼   ► They actually didn't do a deal with a UK carrier at first.

00:19:58 ◼   ► So, super strange.

00:20:00 ◼   ► Anyway, so I wouldn't have believed this.

00:20:04 ◼   ► And then Mark Gurman also doubled down on it and reported,

00:20:08 ◼   ► expanding saying that this would ideally be intended

00:20:10 ◼   ► for emergency calling and reporting.

00:20:14 ◼   ► So this is a quote,

00:20:15 ◼   ► "The first component dubbed emergency message

00:20:18 ◼   ► via satellite will let users text emergency services

00:20:21 ◼   ► and contacts over a satellite network

00:20:24 ◼   ► when there's no cell signal available.

00:20:26 ◼   ► That feature will be integrated into the messages app

00:20:29 ◼   ► as a third protocol alongside the standard SMS

00:20:32 ◼   ► and iMessage and appear with gray message bubbles

00:20:35 ◼   ► instead of green or blue.

00:20:36 ◼   ► The second feature will be a tool to report

00:20:39 ◼   ► major emergencies such as plane crashes and sinking ships

00:20:43 ◼   ► also using satellite networks.

00:20:45 ◼   ► It's very niche.

00:20:46 ◼   ► - I mean, yeah, I mean, I believe it

00:20:48 ◼   ► 'cause these sources are good at this sort of thing,

00:20:51 ◼   ► but definitely not something I think most people

00:20:54 ◼   ► are ever going to need to use, hopefully.

00:20:57 ◼   ► I hope I never have to use it.

00:20:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, but it's like, if you have to,

00:21:02 ◼   ► you maybe be happy that it's there, right?

00:21:04 ◼   ► But it is an interesting feature for sure.

00:21:09 ◼   ► It's expected that this would be included in the iPhone 13,

00:21:14 ◼   ► but the feature will come later.

00:21:16 ◼   ► And this reminded me of like the UWB chip, right?

00:21:19 ◼   ► Like the U1 chip or whatever they call it.

00:21:21 ◼   ► Like it didn't really do anything

00:21:26 ◼   ► until the air tags became a thing.

00:21:28 ◼   ► Apparently Apple have considered using satellites

00:21:33 ◼   ► of their own, of course, right?

00:21:35 ◼   ► But have decided to rely on existing infrastructure.

00:21:38 ◼   ► The Bloomberg report mentioned this company,

00:21:40 ◼   ► it's like Global Networks or something is their name.

00:21:43 ◼   ► And their stock like jumped after this

00:21:46 ◼   ► because the week before,

00:21:48 ◼   ► because there are a few companies that do this,

00:21:50 ◼   ► the week before they had said that they had entered

00:21:52 ◼   ► into an agreement with an unnamed company.

00:21:54 ◼   ► - Oh, interesting.

00:21:56 ◼   ► - Right?

00:21:57 ◼   ► Because it's like they had to report it or something

00:21:59 ◼   ► in their earnings and they just, they couldn't say who.

00:22:02 ◼   ► And then one or two other companies said it wasn't them.

00:22:06 ◼   ► And there's like limited companies that can do this.

00:22:08 ◼   ► So it was expected that it's this one company.

00:22:11 ◼   ► It's unlikely that this feature will be available everywhere

00:22:14 ◼   ► after launch, there were local restrictions and stuff,

00:22:16 ◼   ► and also just coverage.

00:22:18 ◼   ► And Apple also developed a UI inside of iOS

00:22:22 ◼   ► that will tell people, hey, move around, move over here

00:22:25 ◼   ► until you get a signal kind of thing.

00:22:27 ◼   ► This stuff isn't instantly available everywhere.

00:22:30 ◼   ► And this also kind of isn't satellite internet either.

00:22:33 ◼   ► - Right, this is not Starlink, so you can get rid of AT&T.

00:22:37 ◼   ► This seems like a emergency pull cord type,

00:22:41 ◼   ► break glass kind of thing.

00:22:43 ◼   ► Yeah, it's a really weird niche feature.

00:22:47 ◼   ► So here's the thing that I find particularly peculiar

00:22:49 ◼   ► about this as well, is the timing of it.

00:22:53 ◼   ► So Mark Gorman's report also references

00:22:56 ◼   ► that they will probably be using a Qualcomm chip

00:22:59 ◼   ► like for the modem for this.

00:23:01 ◼   ► Even though Apple is known to be developing

00:23:03 ◼   ► their own modems, right?

00:23:04 ◼   ► Like this is a thing.

00:23:05 ◼   ► They got into that deal, you may remember,

00:23:07 ◼   ► they settled that deal with Qualcomm, right?

00:23:10 ◼   ► And said that they would use their licensing

00:23:12 ◼   ► for X amount of years or whatever.

00:23:15 ◼   ► And then also bought Intel's modem business

00:23:17 ◼   ► so they could make their own modems for the future, right?

00:23:20 ◼   ► 'Cause they don't wanna be tied to Qualcomm.

00:23:21 ◼   ► That was why they were having that dispute

00:23:22 ◼   ► in the first place.

00:23:23 ◼   ► Apple thought that they didn't wanna pay all of their,

00:23:26 ◼   ► should believe they shouldn't have to have paid

00:23:28 ◼   ► all the licensing fees.

00:23:30 ◼   ► So it's intriguing to me to launch this feature,

00:23:32 ◼   ► which I don't know if anyone's asking for, right?

00:23:37 ◼   ► Before you have your own modems,

00:23:40 ◼   ► when you are probably also working on it as well.

00:23:43 ◼   ► Like it just maybe seems like this would be something

00:23:45 ◼   ► to wait and do at the time when you can do it,

00:23:49 ◼   ► rather than now adding in this complexity.

00:23:52 ◼   ► So they now have added in something

00:23:54 ◼   ► that they have to replace

00:23:55 ◼   ► before they can ship their own modems.

00:23:57 ◼   ► 'Cause they can't take this feature away

00:23:58 ◼   ► now that they add it into the fund, right?

00:24:00 ◼   ► - Oh yeah.

00:24:01 ◼   ► - So if this makes it more complex

00:24:03 ◼   ► to ship their own modem system,

00:24:05 ◼   ► they have now only made it harder for themselves to do that.

00:24:08 ◼   ► - I mean, or they're on the road and they know that,

00:24:12 ◼   ► okay, in two years, we'll be able to move to our own.

00:24:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, but then it makes me wonder, like,

00:24:19 ◼   ► why not just wait?

00:24:20 ◼   ► Like this feature specifically, I don't know.

00:24:22 ◼   ► And you know, and always there's always the story, right?

00:24:27 ◼   ► And sometimes just the story of it is enough.

00:24:29 ◼   ► Like it's a feature they can add so they add it.

00:24:32 ◼   ► And like, I personally go back to the blood oxygen

00:24:37 ◼   ► meter in the new Apple watch. I don't know how much utility that really has

00:24:42 ◼   ► had for most people like it feels like it is not as useful as many of the other

00:24:48 ◼   ► senses. I have no doubt some people have had their lives saved right. This is

00:24:52 ◼   ► always the thing that happens no doubt, but for most it would be the same with

00:24:56 ◼   ► this right. There would be a couple of lives saved. Oh yeah, it's not a mass

00:25:00 ◼   ► market feature that's for sure right, but like the blog session thing you can

00:25:06 ◼   ► in an ad as well. So it's a feature you can add that might help some people but

00:25:12 ◼   ► also it ends up being a cool marketing thing and that's probably a reason to do

00:25:15 ◼   ► it. But I do it does give me that pause of wondering if they're making it more

00:25:20 ◼   ► complicated for themselves to move over to their own modems. Maybe. Are they fully

00:25:26 ◼   ► on their own modems for 5G yet? I don't I don't know where that stands. No, it's all Qualcomm.

00:25:29 ◼   ► Apple's got none of their own modem technology. Yeah, they just bought

00:25:33 ◼   ► they bought Intel's business right and they're yes they're working on that yeah

00:25:37 ◼   ► yeah they were working on it anyway and then the main reason they bought Intel's

00:25:41 ◼   ► business is so they could get patents of their own because this was the problem

00:25:45 ◼   ► that they were having that's right yeah pants are bad I'm worried though like

00:25:51 ◼   ► for the future that this is gonna cause Apple some issues just because they are

00:25:55 ◼   ► annoyed about having to pay licensing fees to Qualcomm they will switch over

00:25:59 ◼   ► and then everybody's cell service is gonna be worse

00:26:02 ◼   ► and then we're all paying for their weirdness.

00:26:05 ◼   ► - The Apple Maps of cellular radios is what you're saying.

00:26:09 ◼   ► - You know what, yes, that's the kind of exact thing

00:26:11 ◼   ► I'm talking about, but this would be way worse

00:26:13 ◼   ► because you can't get a third party cell radio.

00:26:16 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:26:17 ◼   ► - If someone makes like a lightning adapter,

00:26:19 ◼   ► it's like outboard. - Oh my God, that would work.

00:26:21 ◼   ► Yeah, that's what Qualcomm's working on.

00:26:23 ◼   ► They're gonna give you, you just put it in a special case,

00:26:25 ◼   ► it's just very conductive.

00:26:28 ◼   ► I mean, we'll know soon enough.

00:26:30 ◼   ► It's gonna be iPhone time here.

00:26:31 ◼   ► - It's a few years, it's gonna be,

00:26:33 ◼   ► oh, for this particular feature?

00:26:35 ◼   ► They might not mention it.

00:26:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, but you know, did they mention the ultra wide band

00:26:39 ◼   ► or did that just get shown up?

00:26:41 ◼   ► Did that get show up in like the iFixit tear down?

00:26:43 ◼   ► - I don't think they mentioned it.

00:26:45 ◼   ► - I think it just showed up.

00:26:46 ◼   ► And then maybe they confirmed it, I think.

00:26:48 ◼   ► - I think it, yeah, 'cause then it came out,

00:26:50 ◼   ► they like, I think it was given to press about like,

00:26:53 ◼   ► oh, there's a new, there's a new like air drop.

00:26:57 ◼   ► drop feature that I swear has never worked for anyone. I still don't know what it was meant to have done

00:27:02 ◼   ► But that was meant to be a thing

00:27:05 ◼   ► Maybe you'd be able to point your phone at someone and then it would share files, but they just never really seemed to work

00:27:09 ◼   ► Well, we're talking about things that plug into things. Yeah a couple of interesting

00:27:15 ◼   ► Mac accessories have popped up one I sent to you because you have a 24-inch iMac

00:27:21 ◼   ► Hyper people may remember them. They had a Kickstarter like in 2016

00:27:26 ◼   ► when the USB-C MacBook Pros first showed up,

00:27:29 ◼   ► basically a mega dongle that plugged into the side of it.

00:27:32 ◼   ► But they have a new, as a set too,

00:27:36 ◼   ► new USB-C hubs designed for that M1 iMac.

00:27:40 ◼   ► And they sort of grip it at the bottom

00:27:43 ◼   ► and give you ports around front,

00:27:45 ◼   ► which is a great place to have ports on a computer.

00:27:48 ◼   ► - Yeah, we both have our iMac Pros.

00:27:52 ◼   ► They make a version for the iMac Pro

00:27:55 ◼   ► this type of thing right? Is it them? It's somebody. Or is it Satechi? Satechi makes the one that

00:28:02 ◼   ► that you have on your iMac Pro and I used to. And so it's just basically putting ports on the front.

00:28:07 ◼   ► I wanted to buy one of these just to see what it was like but they don't ship to DNA Kingdom.

00:28:11 ◼   ► Oh no. Yeah it's Brexit man. Bunch of companies just don't bother anymore. It's like too much.

00:28:17 ◼   ► Yeah I was one of those people on that small island. Really I was just wondering how well did they

00:28:22 ◼   ► actually color match because they give you it's just weird as well it's just

00:28:27 ◼   ► like just to deal with their logistics you get a front cover for all the colors

00:28:33 ◼   ► yeah I'm a and you can swap them around it's bit heavily branded for my liking

00:28:39 ◼   ► with the hyper logo on the front I would maybe prefer not to have that but I was

00:28:45 ◼   ► intrigued and plus it is cool to have these things at the front but they don't

00:28:49 ◼   ► shipped to me so I won't be trying it. I mean I think I bought my like I buy

00:28:54 ◼   ► products like this on Amazon every now and then like it'll probably come to

00:28:57 ◼   ► Amazon at some point in the future probably but so it's not happening right

00:29:02 ◼   ► now yeah you would think someone else would do this yes it's a tetchy has one

00:29:06 ◼   ► this is actually one for the regular iMac that's the one that like weirdly

00:29:10 ◼   ► like just you stick it inside the fan vent right yep yeah yeah it's very

00:29:14 ◼   ► sketch but it's a good product. Mm-hmm. Oh it's, I mean I've really enjoyed it and... Oh I forgot

00:29:22 ◼   ► you don't have an iMac Pro do you? No. You have to, maybe they should make one that

00:29:26 ◼   ► you can stick into the top of your Mac Pro you know? Yeah, I mean I have a

00:29:31 ◼   ► Thunder, I have a one of the small Cal digits on my desk, I have some ports on my

00:29:37 ◼   ► desk now, but I thought well why doesn't anyone make this for the Pro display? And

00:29:40 ◼   ► And then I remembered that it's just like USB 2 on the back.

00:29:44 ◼   ► It's not Thunderbolt or anything or, you know,

00:29:47 ◼   ► anything faster.

00:29:48 ◼   ► So that's a bummer.

00:29:50 ◼   ► - They have two versions of this thing.

00:29:52 ◼   ► They have one that they call the 6-in-1,

00:29:55 ◼   ► the one that they call the 5-in-1.

00:29:56 ◼   ► And it's very confusing the way that they've named them,

00:30:00 ◼   ► because like, it's not like the $79 6-in-1

00:30:03 ◼   ► gets one more port than the 5-in-1.

00:30:05 ◼   ► They're like completely different configurations of ports.

00:30:08 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:30:09 ◼   ► So the 6-in-1 has a HDMI, a 10 gigabit USB-C, two USB-A, one SD card, and one micro SD card

00:30:18 ◼   ► like port.

00:30:19 ◼   ► And then the 5-in-1 has two 5 gigabyte USB-C, two 5 gigabyte USB-A, or gigabit USB-A, and

00:30:27 ◼   ► then one 7.5 watt USB-A.

00:30:32 ◼   ► So it can do power, the other ones can't.

00:30:34 ◼   ► It's very confusing, the choices.

00:30:38 ◼   ► and also the fact that they're so incredibly different. I feel like they should be differently

00:30:41 ◼   ► named because the first one is very clearly for people that deal with images and video.

00:30:48 ◼   ► And then the second one is just standard adapting. And I feel like they could have done a better

00:30:52 ◼   ► job and maybe named them as such.

00:30:55 ◼   ► Yeah, it's a little confusing. I thought the same thing.

00:30:57 ◼   ► I kind of was looking at it and couldn't work out which one I wanted based on that.

00:31:01 ◼   ► Well, you don't get either one, so...

00:31:03 ◼   ► No, I don't get either.

00:31:04 ◼   ► Joke's on you.

00:31:05 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's a joke, it's a joke is on me, I suppose.

00:31:08 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:31:10 ◼   ► - Also something that popped up is the 12 South Stago Mini,

00:31:14 ◼   ► which is a--

00:31:16 ◼   ► - It's a baby hub.

00:31:17 ◼   ► - It's a baby hub, and so--

00:31:19 ◼   ► - It's a tiny baby hub.

00:31:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, you can plug it right into the side of an iPad

00:31:23 ◼   ► or something with USB-C, and it gives you USB-A,

00:31:26 ◼   ► HDMI, headphone audio out, and then another USB-C port,

00:31:31 ◼   ► but just for power, that one doesn't get data.

00:31:35 ◼   ► You can just plug it right into your iPad or you can have it on your desk.

00:31:39 ◼   ► It comes with this little braided cable.

00:31:41 ◼   ► I have the full size Stago USB-C hub and I really like it.

00:31:45 ◼   ► It's a very good, simple hub.

00:31:48 ◼   ► Like it's just a good, like, can give you a few extra ports

00:31:53 ◼   ► when you need them kind of hub.

00:31:55 ◼   ► Because it doesn't need to be powered

00:31:57 ◼   ► like a lot of hubs do these days.

00:31:59 ◼   ► But that's because it's not doing anything heavy lifting.

00:32:02 ◼   ► It's not doing Thunderbolt or anything like that.

00:32:05 ◼   ► the regular one. You just get HDMI, three USB ports, an Ethernet port, and SD and micro SD card readers.

00:32:13 ◼   ► So it's like a nice little thing. I have it. You know, I was using that a lot for my iPad Pro

00:32:18 ◼   ► when I was using like a keyboard and mouse in my iPad Pro, putting it on the laptop stand.

00:32:21 ◼   ► This was the hub that I was using for that. I think that the Stago Mini, that is a, I don't know,

00:32:28 ◼   ► feels like a good impulse buy, put it in your backpack, never think about it until you need it kind of thing.

00:32:34 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:32:35 ◼   ► - This is a cool little product.

00:32:37 ◼   ► 12 South have been on a good run recently.

00:32:40 ◼   ► Like they make that, I've been really, really happy

00:32:44 ◼   ► with the iPad stand that they make.

00:32:47 ◼   ► What is that one called?

00:32:48 ◼   ► The Hoverbar Duo.

00:32:50 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, yeah, that is nice.

00:32:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, I really like that product.

00:32:54 ◼   ► That is a very strong recommendation from me,

00:32:56 ◼   ► the Hoverbar Duo.

00:32:57 ◼   ► They make so many things now,

00:33:00 ◼   ► their website has become difficult to navigate.

00:33:02 ◼   ► - Yeah. - 12 South.

00:33:03 ◼   ► A lot of stuff.

00:33:04 ◼   ► They make a lot of stuff.

00:33:06 ◼   ► Yeah, lots of like, if you just need like a stand or a weird accessory, they probably

00:33:10 ◼   ► have you covered.

00:33:11 ◼   ► Didn't they make something really weird recently that you bought?

00:33:14 ◼   ► Me.

00:33:15 ◼   ► Not the candle, but something else.

00:33:17 ◼   ► Not the candle.

00:33:18 ◼   ► I remember the candle, but I thought they made another weird product recently.

00:33:22 ◼   ► I don't...

00:33:23 ◼   ► Or was it an April Fool joke?

00:33:24 ◼   ► They had an April Fool's joke, I think.

00:33:27 ◼   ► Okay.

00:33:28 ◼   ► That, oh, it was the rock.

00:33:29 ◼   ► Right?

00:33:30 ◼   ► Do they have the stone?

00:33:32 ◼   ► the we're off the beaten path now I don't remember what what you're talking

00:33:36 ◼   ► about it was like some sort of like it was like a it was a I remember it was a

00:33:41 ◼   ► wireless charger but it looked it was made out of like polished stone or

00:33:44 ◼   ► marble or so oh yeah yeah yeah that was it that was it was yes and then they

00:33:50 ◼   ► were trying to see if people would want it yeah there it is here it is stoner it

00:33:57 ◼   ► - It was cold, yeah.

00:33:59 ◼   ► - It's pretty good.

00:34:03 ◼   ► - It's a mag safe puck.

00:34:05 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:34:06 ◼   ► The perfect place for iPhone 12 to charge and chill.

00:34:11 ◼   ► That's what their copy says.

00:34:13 ◼   ► Anyways, lots of fun little accessories.

00:34:17 ◼   ► And now you know you're building out a desk or something,

00:34:19 ◼   ► it's always a fun time to look at these things.

00:34:21 ◼   ► - Yep, like you.

00:34:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, I really want to move to my new desk.

00:34:26 ◼   ► - Yeah, well you can't.

00:34:27 ◼   ► because I have calendar situations.

00:34:29 ◼   ► - Yes, look, this is a bed that you've made for yourself.

00:34:32 ◼   ► - I know.

00:34:33 ◼   ► - The new desk is possible because the calendar's success.

00:34:35 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:34:36 ◼   ► - You need to wait, you need to package the calendars,

00:34:38 ◼   ► then you can move into the new area.

00:34:40 ◼   ► - This episode of Connected is also made possible

00:34:43 ◼   ► by Pingdom from SolarWinds.

00:34:46 ◼   ► Today's internet users expect a fast web experience.

00:34:49 ◼   ► No matter how targeted your marketing content is,

00:34:52 ◼   ► or how sleek your website may be,

00:34:54 ◼   ► people are gonna leave the pages loading

00:34:56 ◼   ► too slowly. Look, we all do it. We all are guilty of this. But if you're using real time,

00:35:04 ◼   ► real user monitoring from Pingdom, you can discover how your website's performance is

00:35:09 ◼   ► affecting your visitors experience. So you can take action to fix things before your

00:35:13 ◼   ► business is impacted. All for as low as just $10 a month. Whether your visitors are dispersed

00:35:20 ◼   ► around the world across browsers, devices and platforms, Pingdom helps you identify

00:35:25 ◼   ► troubleshoot performance and make informed optimizations.

00:35:29 ◼   ► Real user monitoring is an event-based solution

00:35:33 ◼   ► so it's built to scale.

00:35:35 ◼   ► That means you can monitor millions of page views,

00:35:37 ◼   ► not just sampled data.

00:35:39 ◼   ► You can get the real data all at an affordable price.

00:35:43 ◼   ► So get live site performance visibility today

00:35:45 ◼   ► with real user monitoring from Pingdom.

00:35:48 ◼   ► Go to pingdom.com/relayfm right now

00:35:52 ◼   ► for a 30 day free trial with no credit card required.

00:35:56 ◼   ► And when you're ready to buy, use the code connected

00:35:58 ◼   ► at checkout to get an awesome 30% off your first invoice.

00:36:03 ◼   ► Our thanks to Pingdom from SolarWinds

00:36:05 ◼   ► for the support of the show and Relay FM.

00:36:08 ◼   ► - I was gonna let you start this one.

00:36:09 ◼   ► - Oh, I was gonna let you start this one.

00:36:12 ◼   ► - It's your topic, I don't really.

00:36:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, but then I thought you could like

00:36:15 ◼   ► introduce the topic and hand it to me.

00:36:17 ◼   ► - Okay, all right, okay.

00:36:20 ◼   ► - So you mentioned your new desk.

00:36:23 ◼   ► That desk is inside of a structure called the PodCabin,

00:36:27 ◼   ► which I named and you've stolen and never credited me.

00:36:31 ◼   ► - No, it wasn't you?

00:36:32 ◼   ► - Yeah, I came up with that.

00:36:33 ◼   ► - I knew it came from the internet, but I wasn't sure who.

00:36:36 ◼   ► I'm sorry.

00:36:37 ◼   ► - It was from me in our super secret text channel.

00:36:41 ◼   ► Because I have the PodCastle here.

00:36:45 ◼   ► - Do you, is that what it's called?

00:36:47 ◼   ► - That's the structure that I have built

00:36:49 ◼   ► inside of my studio was named on my Twitch stream as the PodCastle because they can see

00:36:54 ◼   ► it behind me when I'm streaming. So this is like these huge blankets, these like soundproof

00:36:59 ◼   ► blankets and things that I've got in this little cocoon that I'm in right now. Anyway,

00:37:05 ◼   ► so the PodCabin, which and the reason that I named it as such is that your studio now

00:37:10 ◼   ► looks like a cabin. Yes. Which is beautiful, it looks beautiful. How are you deciding to

00:37:17 ◼   ► protect the incredibly expensive Mac collection that only you care about

00:37:23 ◼   ► inside of that building. A dragon. Oh great do you want to move on? Yeah. Okay.

00:37:30 ◼   ► Does it seem like it'd be a tech topic but there you go. It's technologically

00:37:36 ◼   ► quite difficult to look after a dragon. It's not as hard as you would think you

00:37:39 ◼   ► just put an air tag on them and listen for screaming and that's how you know

00:37:44 ◼   ► where they went. Speaking of AirTags, we're gonna get back to this topic

00:37:48 ◼   ► eventually but you started this. So I've installed iOS 15 on my phone now. I feel

00:37:52 ◼   ► like now is the time to do it for me. And I was at the studio and I went out

00:37:59 ◼   ► to get a coffee and my phone was like "Hey you left your bag behind!"

00:38:02 ◼   ► Oh yeah. So this was my introduction to this new feature of AirTags and all

00:38:08 ◼   ► devices letting you know when you leave the place where they are. So it's easy with home

00:38:15 ◼   ► because it sets that up on its own. So if you leave your home, it's not going to say

00:38:21 ◼   ► how you left your Mac at home. But because I have also this studio space where I also

00:38:26 ◼   ► leave stuff. It's just good though because you can add this in and you can do it on a

00:38:31 ◼   ► product by product basis or for all products where you're like don't tell me

00:38:35 ◼   ► if I like don't don't alert me if I leave this place and haven't taken this

00:38:41 ◼   ► product with me which is good so now like I've kind of said it so if I leave

00:38:45 ◼   ► my iPhone at the studio it's gonna tell me how you left your iPhone studio but

00:38:48 ◼   ► if I leave my backpack at the studio it's not gonna say hey you left your

00:38:51 ◼   ► backpack at the studio it's a cool feature though so it's the idea you get

00:38:54 ◼   ► disconnected from your air tag or a device that's in the find my app it's

00:38:58 ◼   ► gonna be like hey you forgot it. Yeah I turned that off for the one that's in my

00:39:02 ◼   ► truck because like I don't need to know when I go inside my house every time

00:39:05 ◼   ► that my trucks on the street. The truck is gonna be a particularly difficult one

00:39:08 ◼   ► because you're always leaving it and it's not in the right place. Every time

00:39:12 ◼   ► you go in the grocery store it's like hey your Tacoma is parked at so-and-so I was

00:39:14 ◼   ► like yeah I know I drove it there and I parked it there. I put a picture of the

00:39:19 ◼   ► pod cabin in the show notes if you haven't seen it. You can see why it's called the pod cabin.

00:39:24 ◼   ► It is very cabin-y. So I've had a Nest cameras for years really and I wanted one for this space

00:39:35 ◼   ► looking out you know so if anyone approaches it I can let the dragon free and well the problem

00:39:41 ◼   ► I had is I didn't want to have to drill into the new pod cabin to run power you know from the

00:39:48 ◼   ► outside of the inside for a Nest camera because up until very recently all Nest cameras were

00:39:53 ◼   ► hardwired to power.

00:39:54 ◼   ► They didn't have a battery option for an exterior camera.

00:39:57 ◼   ► But maybe like a month ago,

00:39:59 ◼   ► they announced a battery powered exterior Nest camera.

00:40:02 ◼   ► I thought, great, I can mount this thing

00:40:05 ◼   ► on the outside of the building.

00:40:06 ◼   ► I can keep an eye on things.

00:40:08 ◼   ► I'm already in the Nest ecosystem.

00:40:10 ◼   ► It's gonna work great.

00:40:12 ◼   ► So ordered one, it came in.

00:40:13 ◼   ► The install is really easy.

00:40:14 ◼   ► You basically just put like this mounting plate

00:40:16 ◼   ► on the building and then it attaches with magnets.

00:40:19 ◼   ► Maybe it's too easy to install,

00:40:22 ◼   ► but they say they'll replace it if it's stolen,

00:40:24 ◼   ► so that's nice.

00:40:26 ◼   ► - Oh, you can't lock it?

00:40:28 ◼   ► - Uh-uh.

00:40:29 ◼   ► - How long has the battery lost on these things?

00:40:31 ◼   ► - Well, I don't know because it didn't stay up very long,

00:40:33 ◼   ► which I'm getting to.

00:40:34 ◼   ► - Okay, like you didn't notice it didn't say like,

00:40:37 ◼   ► hey, this is a six month battery or whatever.

00:40:38 ◼   ► I guess it's not even there.

00:40:39 ◼   ► - No, it's a rechargeable thing

00:40:41 ◼   ► and it comes with this little,

00:40:42 ◼   ► kind of like a little MagSafe puck,

00:40:44 ◼   ► actually, that it charges on.

00:40:45 ◼   ► They may say on their website how long the battery is.

00:40:50 ◼   ► So anyways, get it, set it up, install it,

00:40:53 ◼   ► and right away realize that this new Nest camera

00:40:58 ◼   ► doesn't work with the Nest app.

00:41:01 ◼   ► - Good.

00:41:02 ◼   ► - Which is like, I guess Google now considers a legacy.

00:41:04 ◼   ► You have to use the new Google Home app.

00:41:07 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:41:08 ◼   ► - For the new cameras.

00:41:09 ◼   ► The problem is the Google Home app is bad.

00:41:12 ◼   ► - Right.

00:41:13 ◼   ► - It really lacks almost all the options and settings

00:41:17 ◼   ► that are in the old Nest app.

00:41:18 ◼   ► And this new camera doesn't even show up

00:41:20 ◼   ► in the old Nest app.

00:41:21 ◼   ► It has no idea this camera exists.

00:41:24 ◼   ► It does seem like the Android version is farther along

00:41:26 ◼   ► and Google for months now has made promises

00:41:29 ◼   ► that it's going to make it feature parity with the Nest app

00:41:32 ◼   ► and they haven't done it.

00:41:33 ◼   ► So that was a real bummer.

00:41:35 ◼   ► I was like, well, I don't wanna have one camera in one app

00:41:39 ◼   ► and the other couple in another app.

00:41:41 ◼   ► I was like, well, I'll just move everything

00:41:42 ◼   ► into the home app and that's when I realized like,

00:41:45 ◼   ► oh, it's lacking a lot of settings and control

00:41:47 ◼   ► that I want to have.

00:41:48 ◼   ► - The Google Home app.

00:41:49 ◼   ► - The Google Home app, yes.

00:41:51 ◼   ► All these companies have products the same name,

00:41:53 ◼   ► it's very confusing.

00:41:55 ◼   ► There's also some other issues,

00:41:57 ◼   ► particularly with the new crop of Nest cameras.

00:42:00 ◼   ► This one is 1080, not 4K,

00:42:03 ◼   ► like some of the other Nest cameras are.

00:42:07 ◼   ► I assume that's a battery life deal,

00:42:11 ◼   ► it's like way less data to process.

00:42:12 ◼   ► - Okay, makes sense.

00:42:13 ◼   ► - There's also no web livestream,

00:42:15 ◼   ► so on the wired Nest cameras,

00:42:17 ◼   ► you can go to home.nest.com and look at your camera feed.

00:42:20 ◼   ► Can't do that with this.

00:42:21 ◼   ► - Wait.

00:42:22 ◼   ► - There's no way to manually pull clips for saving offline.

00:42:26 ◼   ► - Well, I have to stop you a second.

00:42:28 ◼   ► If you can't view it live, what is the point?

00:42:30 ◼   ► - Right, exactly.

00:42:31 ◼   ► You can view it live in the app, but not on the web.

00:42:34 ◼   ► - Oh, okay, then that's not so much of a problem, okay.

00:42:37 ◼   ► - Right, but this camera's not,

00:42:39 ◼   ► so all the wired Nest cameras,

00:42:40 ◼   ► you can have them running all the time,

00:42:42 ◼   ► which is how mine are.

00:42:43 ◼   ► So I can look back over the last 30 days

00:42:46 ◼   ► and I have 24 hour coverage of like, say,

00:42:48 ◼   ► looking out my front door.

00:42:50 ◼   ► But this battery powered one doesn't do that.

00:42:52 ◼   ► And so that was all, it was like,

00:42:56 ◼   ► it was all just one bummer after another.

00:42:59 ◼   ► And I sort of had this realization,

00:43:01 ◼   ► I tweeted the other day, that I've never felt more punished

00:43:05 ◼   ► for buying into an ecosystem than I do with Nest.

00:43:08 ◼   ► Because they not only have been very slow

00:43:12 ◼   ► to roll out new hardware,

00:43:14 ◼   ► like almost every other company in this field

00:43:16 ◼   ► has a battery powered exterior camera,

00:43:19 ◼   ► which is like, it's great for outside, right?

00:43:21 ◼   ► Like if, so you don't have to run power,

00:43:24 ◼   ► like cut a hole in your house

00:43:25 ◼   ► and run a cable through your attic, right?

00:43:27 ◼   ► It's just very clean.

00:43:29 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:43:29 ◼   ► - But they're super late to it.

00:43:31 ◼   ► The new app, the new Google Home app

00:43:34 ◼   ► is just not very useful.

00:43:36 ◼   ► The Nest app, the old Nest app is cluttered,

00:43:39 ◼   ► but at least everything's there that you could need.

00:43:42 ◼   ► and they just keep promising that stuff is going to happen

00:43:46 ◼   ► and it keeps not happening.

00:43:48 ◼   ► And they don't necessarily even stand by their old products.

00:43:51 ◼   ► So years ago they were gonna drop support

00:43:53 ◼   ► for like the original Dropcam,

00:43:55 ◼   ► which is what Nest started as,

00:43:58 ◼   ► and I guess they got bought by, anyways.

00:44:00 ◼   ► That was discontinued.

00:44:02 ◼   ► The Secure, which I use in my office,

00:44:04 ◼   ► like a keypad and motion sensors and stuff,

00:44:07 ◼   ► also discontinued.

00:44:08 ◼   ► And I just kind of realized like, why am I,

00:44:11 ◼   ► Like I have a change to start over,

00:44:13 ◼   ► like in this new, you know, expanded building.

00:44:16 ◼   ► And why am I putting up with this ecosystem

00:44:20 ◼   ► where like Google has just fumbled Nest so badly?

00:44:24 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:44:25 ◼   ► - I mean, it's really pretty, pretty shocking

00:44:27 ◼   ► how badly they've managed it.

00:44:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, like the meta thing here is that like,

00:44:33 ◼   ► Google tried a couple of times to do something with Nest.

00:44:36 ◼   ► Like remember like Nest was a component of its own

00:44:37 ◼   ► and they did thermostats.

00:44:40 ◼   ► Then Google bought them and did a bunch of stuff with them

00:44:44 ◼   ► and then tried to increase the offering.

00:44:48 ◼   ► Then they decided they were going to integrate it

00:44:51 ◼   ► into Google and then decided, no, that was a bad idea.

00:44:54 ◼   ► We're gonna spin it back out as Nest again

00:44:55 ◼   ► because people don't trust us with Google.

00:44:58 ◼   ► Like that was one of the main reasons.

00:44:59 ◼   ► It was like a brand thing.

00:45:01 ◼   ► Like people didn't necessarily trust Google

00:45:03 ◼   ► with their home security system.

00:45:05 ◼   ► So then they put it back out into Nest again.

00:45:09 ◼   ► And so they keep going around and around, but then you would ask yourself,

00:45:12 ◼   ► why do they insist that you put all of the Nest products in the Google home app?

00:45:16 ◼   ► Right. As you say, um, which is just really, that's just really frustrating,

00:45:20 ◼   ► especially if they don't fully support all of the stuff new and old in the same

00:45:24 ◼   ► system.

00:45:25 ◼   ► Yeah, it is. It is definitely frustrating. And so, yeah,

00:45:30 ◼   ► I kind of took the, you know, took, took all this in. I was like, you know what?

00:45:35 ◼   ► I know like basically other people in my family

00:45:37 ◼   ► are all using Ring stuff at home.

00:45:39 ◼   ► I know you're using Ring in your studio.

00:45:42 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:45:43 ◼   ► - I was like, well, let me give this a shot in the office.

00:45:46 ◼   ► And I know like Ring is a very complicated company

00:45:48 ◼   ► to talk about.

00:45:49 ◼   ► They have the same problem Nest does

00:45:49 ◼   ► that they're owned by a much bigger company

00:45:51 ◼   ► that some people don't trust.

00:45:53 ◼   ► They were really late to end to end encryption.

00:45:56 ◼   ► They have had a lot of like political social issues

00:46:00 ◼   ► with like data being reported to police departments.

00:46:02 ◼   ► I know it's a complicated company to talk about.

00:46:04 ◼   ► And I've only had this stuff for like four or five days,

00:46:08 ◼   ► but going through the app, you can turn a bunch of that off.

00:46:11 ◼   ► - It seems like these days, there isn't a tech company

00:46:15 ◼   ► that doesn't report stuff to the police.

00:46:17 ◼   ► - That's true.

00:46:18 ◼   ► - This is just a thing that happens now.

00:46:20 ◼   ► It's like the tech companies are as much

00:46:22 ◼   ► a law enforcement as anybody else at this point.

00:46:25 ◼   ► - We saw that with the CSAM stuff, with Apple, right?

00:46:26 ◼   ► - Yes, that's one of the things

00:46:28 ◼   ► I'm exactly referencing, right?

00:46:30 ◼   ► Like that's what I'm thinking about.

00:46:32 ◼   ► Whereas the you know in a lot of this stuff is like when it's done, right?

00:46:35 ◼   ► It's the right thing to do the problem is it isn't always the right thing to do so it's very murky

00:46:40 ◼   ► But in setting it up. It seems like you can you can really

00:46:43 ◼   ► Customize the privacy stuff maybe a lot more than you used to be able to and so I picked up their

00:46:51 ◼   ► combined outdoor

00:46:54 ◼   ► Like outdoor spotlight thing you know it's like two lights and a camera in the middle. This is ring right ring. Yes

00:47:01 ◼   ► - Yes, and the Bezos Lite, as I've called it.

00:47:05 ◼   ► And it was really easy to set up.

00:47:08 ◼   ► Their app is so customizable, you can really--

00:47:12 ◼   ► - I would say to a fault.

00:47:14 ◼   ► - It can be fiddly, I think.

00:47:17 ◼   ► - It's pretty confusing sometimes to realize what,

00:47:22 ◼   ► for me, so I have the full Ring security system.

00:47:26 ◼   ► So it's got a hub, and I've got sensors

00:47:30 ◼   ► for doors and windows and a couple of cameras,

00:47:32 ◼   ► like the whole nine yards, right?

00:47:35 ◼   ► Because that's what I wanted for the studio.

00:47:37 ◼   ► I wanted like my own internet controlled security system.

00:47:40 ◼   ► And when I was buying this,

00:47:43 ◼   ► this was basically my only option for anything half decent.

00:47:46 ◼   ► And I was not into this like, just get a home bridge bot.

00:47:51 ◼   ► Like, no, right?

00:47:52 ◼   ► 'Cause I did try that once and it was a frigging disaster.

00:47:55 ◼   ► But I wasn't gonna trust that with a security system.

00:47:57 ◼   ► And plus I wanted the whole like monitoring system, you know, that you can get with these

00:48:02 ◼   ► things.

00:48:03 ◼   ► Especially one of the things I actually really like about Ring is the box has a 3G card in

00:48:09 ◼   ► it.

00:48:10 ◼   ► So if I lost power, it still can communicate.

00:48:13 ◼   ► Yeah, it's got a battery as well.

00:48:16 ◼   ► It's got a battery and 3G in it, which is just like, I think, you know, that whole like

00:48:20 ◼   ► package I just think is really, is really interesting.

00:48:22 ◼   ► I've forgotten my point now.

00:48:24 ◼   ► I apologize.

00:48:25 ◼   ► Uh, I don't know.

00:48:26 ◼   ► But yeah, I mean,

00:48:27 ◼   ► Oh, oh, oh, but when I was setting it up, it's like trying to get the cameras and when

00:48:31 ◼   ► I want them to notify me and in what modes and stuff.

00:48:33 ◼   ► Like it takes a while and there's still stuff that I'm not sure I got completely the way

00:48:37 ◼   ► that I wanted.

00:48:39 ◼   ► But on the flip side, you can also be very particular.

00:48:44 ◼   ► So like I have a sensor on the back door in the studio, which will always sound the alarm,

00:48:50 ◼   ► even if I'm in it.

00:48:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:48:52 ◼   ► Like that should not ever go off.

00:48:53 ◼   ► It should, because the door should never be opened.

00:48:56 ◼   ► It all ties in really well to each other.

00:48:59 ◼   ► And I agree with you, the app can be fiddly,

00:49:01 ◼   ► but compared to something like the Google Home app,

00:49:04 ◼   ► which has basically very few settings in it,

00:49:07 ◼   ► is kind of a business of relief.

00:49:09 ◼   ► So yeah, so I'm kind of going down this road,

00:49:13 ◼   ► and I think over time,

00:49:16 ◼   ► I will eventually replace the Nest stuff with Ring stuff.

00:49:21 ◼   ► Stuff like this goes on sale.

00:49:24 ◼   ► And so, for instance, my dad's whole house

00:49:26 ◼   ► is outfitted with a ring.

00:49:27 ◼   ► And he's like, when he was in Costco

00:49:29 ◼   ► and they had a three pack of cameras or door sensors,

00:49:31 ◼   ► he would just get them and add them, you know?

00:49:32 ◼   ► So it is nice that you can kind of build it up over time.

00:49:35 ◼   ► And so far I've been happy with it.

00:49:38 ◼   ► Again, it's just out here in the studio,

00:49:40 ◼   ► but even in this sort of limited test,

00:49:42 ◼   ► it's been pretty good.

00:49:44 ◼   ► - You got a little Echo thing too, right?

00:49:47 ◼   ► Echo Show thing?

00:49:49 ◼   ► - I did.

00:49:49 ◼   ► It came with one of the, I think with the security,

00:49:53 ◼   ► like the base station, the Echo Show 5,

00:49:57 ◼   ► which is adorable.

00:49:59 ◼   ► It is really adorable.

00:50:02 ◼   ► It's like this little, it's like a smartphone Echo Show.

00:50:06 ◼   ► And I could pull the camera feed up on it

00:50:09 ◼   ► and I have the Echo Assistant,

00:50:12 ◼   ► which I haven't had in a long time

00:50:14 ◼   ► because we're all HomePod in the house

00:50:15 ◼   ► and my family prefers that and I have a HomePod out here.

00:50:18 ◼   ► But I was like, I would like something

00:50:20 ◼   ► that I could just pull up the camera feed

00:50:22 ◼   ► and just like keep an eye on it.

00:50:23 ◼   ► you know if I'm expecting a delivery or no it that is cool like if I had

00:50:27 ◼   ► extended cause all my security stuff here is internal right I don't have

00:50:30 ◼   ► anything external if I had something external I would probably also want one

00:50:35 ◼   ► of those so you could watch the camera feed whenever you wanted yeah and like

00:50:38 ◼   ► again like I just want to underscore like a point that I think we're both

00:50:42 ◼   ► trying to make like I know it is getting somewhat possible for you to like start

00:50:48 ◼   ► stringing this stuff together on your own like I have a friend who just bought

00:50:52 ◼   ► a bunch of those cameras they like the Arlo cameras the company that Anker owns you can get

00:50:57 ◼   ► a whole thing and you can hook them all up I don't know if they have outside it might just be inside

00:51:01 ◼   ► but you can like hook them all up and it's like you have it all stored locally and it can the app

00:51:09 ◼   ► can ping you when there's motion detected and all that kind of stuff and it has no service to it

00:51:15 ◼   ► and like if that's your bag go for it but that isn't always what people want and I don't want

00:51:21 ◼   ► that I want there to be a service that is monitoring this place so that if I am

00:51:28 ◼   ► not here or if I need the help or if like I don't answer the notification

00:51:35 ◼   ► that someone can check on this and call the authorities if needed like yeah if

00:51:41 ◼   ► this studio gets broken into I am in trouble yeah right like I have a lot of

00:51:46 ◼   ► gear here it's worth a lot to me I want to have like a full-on thing okay so my

00:51:53 ◼   ► the person I was talking about is out of themselves it was James Thompson he set

00:51:57 ◼   ► up a family member's house and they have outside and inside cameras but the alo

00:52:03 ◼   ► system and like I said like that is cool for you like if it's what you want but

00:52:08 ◼   ► that's not what I want and yeah I want to I want to pay there are some things

00:52:13 ◼   ► where I want to pay someone for it and this is one of those things. I want to pay and

00:52:17 ◼   ► I want to pay a security company like a fee so that if something goes wrong we are under

00:52:24 ◼   ► contract right like now you have to replace it repair it deal with it you know as opposed

00:52:29 ◼   ► to me being the security administrator and the tech administrator and all that kind of

00:52:33 ◼   ► stuff yeah.

00:52:34 ◼   ► Yeah I feel the same way about about my office space and you can do like you said some of

00:52:39 ◼   ► this is coming to other places.

00:52:41 ◼   ► I know David Sparks is big into like the home kit,

00:52:43 ◼   ► secure video stuff, but I tend to think about this

00:52:46 ◼   ► the way that you think about it.

00:52:47 ◼   ► It's like, I want something watching over this, right?

00:52:51 ◼   ► So I signed up for the thing and you can put

00:52:54 ◼   ► an emergency contact in there.

00:52:55 ◼   ► Like it's all really well thought through

00:52:58 ◼   ► and that's really what kills me about Nest

00:53:00 ◼   ► is like they were so early to this, right?

00:53:04 ◼   ► I mean, you could buy Nest cams years,

00:53:07 ◼   ► for years it was kind of like the only thing worth it on the market.

00:53:10 ◼   ► And they just have let it all go.

00:53:14 ◼   ► This is why Google bought them, right?

00:53:16 ◼   ► Because they were doing something and they were making really good looking stuff

00:53:19 ◼   ► that worked well and it was cool and people liked it. So Google were like,

00:53:22 ◼   ► Oh, we'll take a slice of that. But so much as Google does,

00:53:25 ◼   ► they buy something and they don't know what to do with it or they mess it up.

00:53:28 ◼   ► So it has been disappointing to see that unfold,

00:53:32 ◼   ► but trying this out and I'll probably check it back in, you know,

00:53:37 ◼   ► down the road sometime but so far I've been really impressed with it. It's the

00:53:41 ◼   ► Anker Eufy not Arlo. I don't know if Arlo is a thing or if I just made that up in my brain.

00:53:46 ◼   ► Arlo is another camera company I believe. Okay, E-U-F-Y. Yeah that's what

00:53:51 ◼   ► Sparks uses. Great. Yeah I mean I know that these have or at least will have

00:53:55 ◼   ► the HomeKit thing but I also don't want to do that the HomeKit secure video

00:53:59 ◼   ► thing. No it's it's I don't either and maybe it's better but last time I tried

00:54:04 ◼   ► HomeKit camera because I have one of those Logi circles. Remember it was like one of the first

00:54:08 ◼   ► ones I bought one to, and then we talked about it on the show, talk about lack of control over when

00:54:13 ◼   ► things notify you. It was a nightmare and I've even thought like maybe I bring the Ring stuff in

00:54:20 ◼   ► you know in via Homebridge but I don't even think I'm gonna do that. I think I'm just gonna let it

00:54:23 ◼   ► kind of live in the Ring app. Don't man. It was a mess. I don't recommend it. I really don't. I

00:54:29 ◼   ► I know people have had good experiences with Homebridge, but like I've had very bad experiences

00:54:35 ◼   ► with Homebridge. You know, you just kind of got to wait yourself out a little bit longer,

00:54:39 ◼   ► a couple of years or two, and it will all be accessible via that matter standard somehow.

00:54:43 ◼   ► But like, you know, look, I have a bunch of HomeKit products here at the studio and at

00:54:49 ◼   ► home. Every couple of days, one of them gets lost somewhere, right? Like no response on

00:54:56 ◼   ► the light or like one device can't find one of my hue lights but the other

00:55:01 ◼   ► device can. I'm not gonna trust my home security camera to the system. Like I'm

00:55:05 ◼   ► not gonna do that. I don't trust that it will work well enough. You know it's like

00:55:10 ◼   ► I asked my home pod turn off the lights and it's like oh I can't find the

00:55:14 ◼   ► internet and then but then my iPhone I just pull my phone out and I can turn

00:55:17 ◼   ► them off from the control center. It's like I don't trust this system enough to

00:55:23 ◼   ► now say please watch over my home in case I'm burgled. I think that's totally

00:55:28 ◼   ► fair. This episode of Connected is brought to you by Hello. Hello makes

00:55:33 ◼   ► incredibly comfortable buckwheat pillows. These are really different than a

00:55:36 ◼   ► regular fluffy pillows. They don't collapse under your head and neck. You're

00:55:42 ◼   ► not turning it over in the middle of the night to find the cool side because it's

00:55:45 ◼   ► always cool. Because these things stay dry and cool. They, because they breathe

00:55:50 ◼   ► better so you don't get all warm and sticky at night. You can also add or

00:55:54 ◼   ► remove filling to suit your needs so you can make it as tall as you want it or as

00:55:58 ◼   ► as short as you want it. You can really dial it in just the way you want. Buckwheat

00:56:04 ◼   ► pillows are a bigger deal than you may think. They're very popular in all parts of

00:56:09 ◼   ► the world and they appear on pillow menus at fancy hotels. The ability to

00:56:15 ◼   ► adjust and change the hello is really what I appreciate about it. We've all

00:56:18 ◼   ► had those nights where we're in a hotel or maybe staying, you know, someplace

00:56:22 ◼   ► where not normally are and the pillow is too tall or too short and you wake up

00:56:26 ◼   ► with a, you know, a sore neck or something. There's no adjustment like that with

00:56:30 ◼   ► Hello because you can really dial it in and get exactly what you want. I really

00:56:35 ◼   ► recommend trying them out. Hello is made in the US of A with quality construction

00:56:40 ◼   ► and materials. The certified organic cotton case is cut and sewn for

00:56:45 ◼   ► durability and the buckwheat is grown and milled in the United States.

00:56:48 ◼   ► So you can try one of these for 60 nights, and if it's not for you,

00:56:52 ◼   ► you can send it back for a refund.

00:56:54 ◼   ► Head on over to hullopillow.com/connected right now to get your own buckwheat

00:57:00 ◼   ► pillow. That's H U L L O pillow,

00:57:03 ◼   ► hullopillow.com/connected. And if you buy more than one,

00:57:08 ◼   ► they have a special discount of up to $20 off depending on the size you're

00:57:12 ◼   ► looking at.

00:57:12 ◼   ► They have fast free shipping with every order and 1% of their profits are donated to the

00:57:16 ◼   ► Nature Conservancy.

00:57:18 ◼   ► So give Hello a try.

00:57:19 ◼   ► If you love it, keep it.

00:57:20 ◼   ► If you don't, send it back.

00:57:22 ◼   ► Head on over to HelloPillow.com/Connected.

00:57:25 ◼   ► Our thanks to Hello for their support of the show and Relay FM.

00:57:29 ◼   ► So there's been a bit of hubbub around the next Apple Watch over the last few weeks.

00:57:33 ◼   ► So we're going to talk about that, but we're going to start with like a bit of a refresher

00:57:36 ◼   ► as to kind of like what we know or believe is going to be happening for the Apple Watch

00:57:42 ◼   ► going forward. So back in June, actually starting in May, John Prosser reported that the Apple

00:57:48 ◼   ► Watch would get flat sides, smaller bezels, and that there would be a green option for

00:57:53 ◼   ► the Apple Watch Series 7. Then in June, Mark Gorman corroborated this with some of the

00:58:00 ◼   ► basic stuff like it's going to have a faster chip, it's going to do some new things, and

00:58:05 ◼   ► it's going to have smaller bezels, flat sides as part of a design refresh. Then some sites

00:58:11 ◼   ► including MacRumors, got sent some images of a 45 millimeter Apple Watch band. So this

00:58:21 ◼   ► sent a lot of people in some areas of the internet that I'm in into a bit of a tizzy,

00:58:26 ◼   ► I'll say, as they were convinced that none of their Apple Watch bands were going to fit

00:58:30 ◼   ► anymore. And so I would like to just give people a reminder of the way that this stuff

00:58:35 ◼   ► So, remember we've already done this once, right? We went from, what was it, 42 to 44?

00:58:42 ◼   ► It was 38, 42, and now 40, 44, I think.

00:58:48 ◼   ► Okay.

00:58:48 ◼   ► Is that right? The Discord will tell us if we're wrong about that. Apple Watch

00:58:51 ◼   ► sizes are hard to remember.

00:58:52 ◼   ► There's been millimeter changes, but what we're talking about,

00:58:57 ◼   ► when Apple talks about the millimeter changes of the Apple Watch, it's the size of the screen,

00:59:02 ◼   ► it's not the size of the watch.

00:59:03 ◼   ► Right.

00:59:05 ◼   ► So what is most likely to occur here is the watch's physical size is not going to change

00:59:10 ◼   ► So your bands won't need to be replaced

00:59:13 ◼   ► But the screen is going to get bigger if they flatten out the edges

00:59:18 ◼   ► Because what they're gonna do is they will just take like if you look at your Apple watch

00:59:22 ◼   ► It will be basically what like what they did to the iPhone the iPhone used to have rounded edges

00:59:27 ◼   ► What they did was they flatten the edges and expanded the screen out to get to that edge point, right?

00:59:32 ◼   ► So kind of like the surface area of the iPhone screen or whatever went up, right?

00:59:37 ◼   ► Because it no longer was dealing with like it being there and then the edges

00:59:42 ◼   ► went around the side and it curves. It just flattened out and they brought the

00:59:45 ◼   ► screen out. The same as what happened with the iMac, the same as what happened

00:59:48 ◼   ► with the iPad and on and on and on. They're gonna do it with every other

00:59:53 ◼   ► product they can. So your bands are gonna work. This is gonna be fun. You can take

00:59:56 ◼   ► this. This is a Myke Hurley guarantee, right? Your bands are gonna be fine. I'm

01:00:00 ◼   ► I'm willing to put my guarantee on the line here.

01:00:03 ◼   ► Your bands are going to be fine.

01:00:04 ◼   ► They're going to work.

01:00:05 ◼   ► Then I'm going to change the sizes, physical sizes, the band

01:00:08 ◼   ► attachments.

01:00:09 ◼   ► But they are going to change the names of the watches again.

01:00:12 ◼   ► So it will probably change to like 41 millimeters and 45

01:00:16 ◼   ► millimeters, or 43 and 45, whatever.

01:00:20 ◼   ► Yeah, 43 and 45 it will go to, rather than 42 and 44,

01:00:24 ◼   ► which is what we have right now.

01:00:25 ◼   ► And so, yeah, the screen's going to get bigger.

01:00:27 ◼   ► So that will-- but I will say your watch will look bigger.

01:00:30 ◼   ► When you look at your watch, it's going to look larger because the face is going to be larger.

01:00:37 ◼   ► And this is again similar to how just watch design is done in general.

01:00:41 ◼   ► You know, you say this is a 42mm watch. It's measuring the watch face.

01:00:46 ◼   ► What goes around, the adornments around the watch face are not included in the size.

01:00:51 ◼   ► This is the same as phones, right?

01:00:53 ◼   ► You know, we talk about like, this one is 6.7 inches.

01:00:57 ◼   ► we're talking about the screen, you know, like if there's additional stuff around the

01:01:01 ◼   ► outside this is not the size and this again, right, iPads are the same, Macs are the same,

01:01:07 ◼   ► we talk about them in their screen sizes, but their physical dimensions are typically

01:01:12 ◼   ► bigger than their screen sizes, right, it's not like it gets to the edge of the screen

01:01:16 ◼   ► and then the thing just stops. So that's what's going to happen to the Apple Watch. 9to5Mac

01:01:21 ◼   ► some renders of what they think this could look like and it made me realize, I've been

01:01:28 ◼   ► thinking about this, it is the Apple Watch is very overdue a design change, very, very

01:01:34 ◼   ► overdue.

01:01:35 ◼   ► Yeah, it's basically the same as day one.

01:01:38 ◼   ► It hasn't changed.

01:01:39 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean they made the screens bigger.

01:01:41 ◼   ► But that's it, that's not a design change, right?

01:01:43 ◼   ► Like the...

01:01:44 ◼   ► No, it's still the Airstream trailer sort of vibe.

01:01:47 ◼   ► footprint and like the the like the way it looks the round chunky edges like to

01:01:56 ◼   ► me it feels incredibly dated at this point I mean it's old it's like 2015

01:02:01 ◼   ► this thing was shown off like this is old now it's like seven years old nearly

01:02:06 ◼   ► six years seven years old and I kind of like I don't mean this to be mean but

01:02:11 ◼   ► like when I look at it now it feels like kind of like Fisher price to me

01:02:15 ◼   ► compared to the rest of Apple's other products. It isn't sleek, it feels chunky

01:02:21 ◼   ► and like rounded and like like it's a safety watch right like it's meant to

01:02:26 ◼   ► bounce or something you know like it's got that kind of look to me now. I was

01:02:31 ◼   ► when I was thinking about was preparing for today's episode I was actually

01:02:34 ◼   ► genuinely really surprised that it's taken them this long before they've

01:02:38 ◼   ► changed the physical design of the Apple Watch. Yeah I mean if you look at what

01:02:41 ◼   ► has changed, it's been finishes and it's actually on a hair thicker. And as you

01:02:48 ◼   ► say the screen size has changed. Little bits and bobs have changed but like the

01:02:52 ◼   ► overall silhouette has remained the same. Yeah and I think for what it's worth these

01:02:57 ◼   ► renders which we can get into it's basically bringing the flat side design

01:03:01 ◼   ► of the iPad Pro and the iPhone 12, bring that to the Apple Watch and I think the

01:03:09 ◼   ► combination of that and smaller bezels it's really gonna make this watch feel a

01:03:15 ◼   ► lot more a lot more modern and I think I think looking at this if this is how

01:03:20 ◼   ► they go the old one is gonna look really old to basically everybody else right

01:03:26 ◼   ► like I agree with you but I think most people don't just look at it as an Apple

01:03:29 ◼   ► watch is what it is but this is gonna really change change it up in terms of

01:03:35 ◼   ► how it looks and I think how it feels on your on your wrist potentially too even

01:03:38 ◼   ► if it isn't actually thinner, things with flat sides tend to look thinner, I think.

01:03:45 ◼   ► Because you... Yeah, I think one of the reports actually

01:03:47 ◼   ► suggested it will be like a little bit thicker, but not in such a way that you would notice.

01:03:51 ◼   ► Because right now, like if you look like I'm looking at my watch sort of head on, you...

01:03:56 ◼   ► your eyes kind of follow the curve to the surface, and it's hard to define, okay, when

01:04:00 ◼   ► am I on the side and then when am I on the top, right? And so, yeah, I'm excited about

01:04:05 ◼   ► I'm curious you are more into watches than I am. What do you feel about the flat sides?

01:04:10 ◼   ► Like do you like that look? Oh for a watch you think it'd be weird feeling like, you know, what do you watch is have them?

01:04:17 ◼   ► Right, like regular watches don't have like these big curvy sides to them like and I know people are concerned

01:04:24 ◼   ► They're like, oh, it's gonna stab me like don't worry like you're gonna be fine

01:04:28 ◼   ► Like this is what watches look like they they have the face and then it goes down and then it comes to the bottom and

01:04:33 ◼   ► there'll be different chamfers and you know there'll be some with different

01:04:37 ◼   ► platforms and stuff but every watch that I own has what I would consider to be

01:04:42 ◼   ► flat sides like that Draplin watch that you own yeah the edges are flat on it I

01:04:47 ◼   ► mean the watch is round right but the edges are flat on the sides because it's

01:04:53 ◼   ► sleek that way you don't have more case than you need around the edge of the

01:04:59 ◼   ► watch neither do you you know and a lot of watches have bezels but that's like a

01:05:03 ◼   ► design rather than required, right, in a lot of cases. So like I think that this

01:05:09 ◼   ► is going to be a much nicer looking watch. I do not believe it will be

01:05:14 ◼   ► uncomfortable to wear. I know that people wouldn't be sure about that and I get it.

01:05:18 ◼   ► Like if you've if the main watch that you've won in your life, which could be

01:05:21 ◼   ► many of our listeners, is an Apple watch, this isn't going to be in my opinion any

01:05:25 ◼   ► less comfortable, right? Like I move from watch to watch and I never feel like any

01:05:30 ◼   ► any of my watches with flat asides are like digging into

01:05:34 ◼   ► me or whatever. So you know I think that's going to be really

01:05:38 ◼   ► fine like do not worry about that and I think this looks

01:05:42 ◼   ► much sleeker. I think it's going to look potentially more

01:05:46 ◼   ► like computer watch than ever before, but they're never

01:05:50 ◼   ► going to get away from that. So they may as well lean into it

01:05:52 ◼   ► like from in my perspective. They will not get away from

01:05:55 ◼   ► this for as long as they refuse to make a circular one like

01:05:58 ◼   ► That is when they can actually make the Apple Watch look like a watch, I think, because

01:06:03 ◼   ► I think that Samsung's watches look like watches.

01:06:06 ◼   ► Yeah, they do.

01:06:08 ◼   ► That are also computers because they're round.

01:06:11 ◼   ► Right?

01:06:12 ◼   ► I think that that I think it's a big difference.

01:06:13 ◼   ► This is always going to look like a tiny phone because phones are square and that rectangular,

01:06:17 ◼   ► right?

01:06:18 ◼   ► So it's going to have that look to it.

01:06:21 ◼   ► But I think that this look is a much needed refresh.

01:06:24 ◼   ► refresh like you know obviously these renders aren't how it's gonna look but I

01:06:28 ◼   ► would be very confident it's gonna look really close to this so this is the

01:06:34 ◼   ► thing that I am most jazzed about when thinking about a new Apple watch is a

01:06:39 ◼   ► new industrial design because watches are fashion right and Apple knows this

01:06:45 ◼   ► because they give you new colors and new bands and new finishes every year and so

01:06:50 ◼   ► it is now in thinking about it which I have been for quite a bit over the last

01:06:54 ◼   ► few days preparing for this episode I am really surprised that we have never seen

01:07:00 ◼   ► a different case design yeah we've maybe had like two or three redesigns of the

01:07:05 ◼   ► iPhone in that time three I mean really I mean well two if you count if you just

01:07:10 ◼   ► talk about sides because it came out the same time as the iPhone 6 but since then

01:07:15 ◼   ► we had the iPhone 10 right and then the 12 and so yeah so - yeah and I wonder -

01:07:22 ◼   ► for so long, I think it's less true now,

01:07:25 ◼   ► but in the beginning at least,

01:07:28 ◼   ► every new watch was so much better

01:07:30 ◼   ► than the one before it, right?

01:07:32 ◼   ► Speed-wise, like, I don't know the last time

01:07:34 ◼   ► you used an original Apple Watch,

01:07:35 ◼   ► but it is unbelievably slow in hindsight.

01:07:38 ◼   ► And having that to deal with,

01:07:42 ◼   ► I just, I wonder if this was something

01:07:45 ◼   ► that maybe they felt like, we can't really do this

01:07:49 ◼   ► until we are further along with the technology inside of it.

01:07:54 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think you're right.

01:07:56 ◼   ► They were focusing on the things

01:07:57 ◼   ► that they immediately needed to focus on

01:07:59 ◼   ► and not having to design new internals

01:08:02 ◼   ► to fit a new case design every couple of years

01:08:04 ◼   ► probably helped them get the watch

01:08:06 ◼   ► to the point that it's at now, right?

01:08:08 ◼   ► It's one less thing to have to think about.

01:08:10 ◼   ► Like you just know this is the size,

01:08:12 ◼   ► these are the dimensions,

01:08:13 ◼   ► this is what we have to play with.

01:08:15 ◼   ► But I think that the Apple Watch Series 6

01:08:19 ◼   ► to me, shown that they have run out of ideas for now,

01:08:22 ◼   ► because I don't really feel like the Apple Watch Series 6

01:08:24 ◼   ► was a meaningful upgrade over the 5.

01:08:28 ◼   ► In the way that I think every watch had been before that one,

01:08:31 ◼   ► I think it was the first one where it was like,

01:08:33 ◼   ► I don't really know what they're selling me here.

01:08:36 ◼   ► It just doesn't really make sense to me.

01:08:38 ◼   ► There's a product that I would feel like

01:08:40 ◼   ► I would need to upgrade to,

01:08:42 ◼   ► even from the Series 4 watch.

01:08:44 ◼   ► Because the Series 5 made sense,

01:08:46 ◼   ► and if you didn't go for the Series 5,

01:08:47 ◼   ► I don't know why you would then go for the Series 6, right?

01:08:51 ◼   ► So I think maybe now, now is time, right?

01:08:54 ◼   ► With Series 7, you can redesign.

01:08:56 ◼   ► Because especially there's a Wall Street Journal report

01:08:58 ◼   ► talking about Series 8 and beyond,

01:09:02 ◼   ► so the 2022 and beyond watch.

01:09:03 ◼   ► So they're targeting for Series 8

01:09:05 ◼   ► to have more sleep tracking features

01:09:07 ◼   ► to detect different sleep patterns and sleep apnea.

01:09:10 ◼   ► Apple is still working on a blood pressure sensor.

01:09:13 ◼   ► Now, this is something that Samsung's most recent watches

01:09:16 ◼   ► do.

01:09:17 ◼   ► And it's obviously not as good as a proper blood pressure

01:09:21 ◼   ► monitor where you put in the cuff on and stuff.

01:09:23 ◼   ► But there are these electro wave patterns

01:09:25 ◼   ► that you can use that if you get a baseline from somebody

01:09:27 ◼   ► taking a reading on a proper machine

01:09:29 ◼   ► and you input that baseline, it can calibrate it and then

01:09:32 ◼   ► can do some sensing.

01:09:34 ◼   ► I don't know if this is what Apple is going to do, but maybe.

01:09:37 ◼   ► But blood pressure is one thing.

01:09:39 ◼   ► Blood glucose monitoring is something

01:09:41 ◼   ► they're still working on.

01:09:43 ◼   ► Put them on a thermometer in the Apple Watch

01:09:44 ◼   ► to help with fertility planning.

01:09:46 ◼   ► They don't know when these are going to appear,

01:09:48 ◼   ► but these are the areas that Apple's focusing on for health.

01:09:51 ◼   ► And the Series 7, so this year's watch,

01:09:53 ◼   ► is currently not expected to have

01:09:55 ◼   ► any new health-related sensors.

01:09:56 ◼   ► - So it's a new design driving the--

01:09:59 ◼   ► - It feels like that they will use this as a year to say,

01:10:03 ◼   ► "Hey, here's the new design.

01:10:05 ◼   ► "That's what we're doing with the Apple Watch."

01:10:08 ◼   ► And then adding fuel to the fire,

01:10:09 ◼   ► there have been rumors over the past few days

01:10:12 ◼   ► from Nikkei in Asia, corroborated by Bloomberg,

01:10:15 ◼   ► that there could be potential delays or shipment constraints,

01:10:18 ◼   ► probably both, for this new Apple Watch

01:10:21 ◼   ► as they are having some issues adjusting

01:10:23 ◼   ► to the new design and manufacturer.

01:10:25 ◼   ► I expect now, if this is the case,

01:10:28 ◼   ► that we'll probably see the Apple Watch in October

01:10:31 ◼   ► along with new Macs rather than September with new iPhones.

01:10:36 ◼   ► And don't forget, last year was the first year

01:10:38 ◼   ► that, and it set a precedent,

01:10:40 ◼   ► the Apple Watch came out before the iPhone.

01:10:43 ◼   ► Remember that?

01:10:44 ◼   ► - Vaguely.

01:10:45 ◼   ► They had the Apple Watch and iPad event first, then they had the iPhone event after that,

01:10:52 ◼   ► and then they had a Mac event after that in the fall.

01:10:54 ◼   ► I don't remember if it came out, but it was at least shown off.

01:10:57 ◼   ► So I could imagine them releasing the iPhone in September and maybe the Apple Watch a little

01:11:01 ◼   ► bit later if it's not ready.

01:11:03 ◼   ► Last year was also the iPad Air, and it didn't ship for a month until...

01:11:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:11:08 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, who knows what the...

01:11:09 ◼   ► Because it needed...

01:11:10 ◼   ► What was it?

01:11:11 ◼   ► The iPad Air had the chip that the iPhone was going to get, right?

01:11:14 ◼   ► And then also it needed iOS 13.

01:11:17 ◼   ► So yeah, the timeline definitely, it could be like the iPad is like, "Oh, we have a new

01:11:22 ◼   ► watch and then it'll ship next month, right?

01:11:24 ◼   ► The phone is sooner."

01:11:25 ◼   ► I mean, who knows?

01:11:27 ◼   ► I do think though, even if it's not a big change from a health sensor angle, you know,

01:11:36 ◼   ► if people are buying an Apple Watch every three or four years, they're going to scoop

01:11:40 ◼   ► up people who are on the Series 4, right?

01:11:43 ◼   ► Maybe you had an original or a series one or two,

01:11:45 ◼   ► you bought it when it got bigger,

01:11:47 ◼   ► and now you're in the market again

01:11:48 ◼   ► and you'll do a new design, right?

01:11:50 ◼   ► And so maybe from that perspective,

01:11:52 ◼   ► if you count the larger screen as a reason to upgrade,

01:11:56 ◼   ► and I think it definitely could be,

01:11:58 ◼   ► then having this now I think makes maybe a little more sense

01:12:03 ◼   ► than waiting until you can also cram in

01:12:06 ◼   ► a bunch of new sensors, right?

01:12:08 ◼   ► Because-- - Oh, for sure, yeah.

01:12:10 ◼   ► - And also you have the expectation

01:12:11 ◼   ► and putting a watch out every year.

01:12:13 ◼   ► And so you gotta be able to do that.

01:12:16 ◼   ► - I think this was an upgrade somebody asked this question

01:12:19 ◼   ► about like, should the watch still be

01:12:21 ◼   ► a year over year product?

01:12:23 ◼   ► And I think that we might start approaching the point soon

01:12:26 ◼   ► where it might become more tricky for them to do that.

01:12:29 ◼   ► - I mean, if you talk about low hanging fruit,

01:12:31 ◼   ► there's not a ton of that left.

01:12:34 ◼   ► And so I could see it becoming an 18 months thing.

01:12:38 ◼   ► - There's a lot of plans, right?

01:12:40 ◼   ► like all these sensors would be amazing,

01:12:41 ◼   ► but they're really hard to do and to do well.

01:12:45 ◼   ► And the ramifications are much higher

01:12:48 ◼   ► because you're dealing with people's health.

01:12:50 ◼   ► So it can be, you know, you've got to get it right.

01:12:53 ◼   ► But yeah, I think that it would make sense.

01:12:55 ◼   ► I think this would be a big product

01:12:57 ◼   ► that people would want because of the design.

01:13:01 ◼   ► As for the exact reason that you mentioned earlier

01:13:03 ◼   ► that people would see it

01:13:04 ◼   ► and it would make their Apple watches look really old.

01:13:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, for something you wear every day,

01:13:09 ◼   ► that's, like you said, it's a fashion thing.

01:13:13 ◼   ► And so I could see this if this design comes to pass,

01:13:16 ◼   ► and I hope it does, I think it looks fantastic,

01:13:19 ◼   ► that this could be a pretty big Apple Watch cycle.

01:13:23 ◼   ► - Considering we're talking about the Apple Watch today,

01:13:25 ◼   ► I have some assorted thoughts about the Apple Watch

01:13:29 ◼   ► that I would like to share.

01:13:30 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:13:31 ◼   ► - So I've been wearing an Apple Watch every day

01:13:32 ◼   ► for like the last couple of months, maybe a bit longer,

01:13:37 ◼   ► because I've been working on some health related stuff

01:13:40 ◼   ► and the Apple Watch is part of making it work.

01:13:43 ◼   ► It's helping me be accountable for steps and activity

01:13:48 ◼   ► and it's also helping me just like push myself

01:13:52 ◼   ► to do some extra stuff, like make some different choices

01:13:55 ◼   ► in the essence of trying to fill up my exercise ring

01:14:00 ◼   ► or my activity ring or whatever.

01:14:02 ◼   ► So I've been wearing the watch for that.

01:14:04 ◼   ► My biggest complaint with the watch

01:14:06 ◼   ► is the design, like the design of the watch itself

01:14:10 ◼   ► and the design of the watch faces.

01:14:12 ◼   ► This will, the watch faces I feel like this will be a thing

01:14:16 ◼   ► that I will never be happy with.

01:14:17 ◼   ► I'm never gonna be happy with watch faces

01:14:19 ◼   ► because I have just issues with like,

01:14:22 ◼   ► I feel like they're both not watchy enough

01:14:25 ◼   ► and not computery enough depending on what I want, right?

01:14:28 ◼   ► Like I never feel like I'm gonna be happy with that.

01:14:31 ◼   ► I honestly think the only way to solve this problem

01:14:34 ◼   ► is for Apple to let other people design watch faces.

01:14:37 ◼   ► I feel like it's the only way that I'm ever gonna be happy

01:14:40 ◼   ► because then you'll have way more choice.

01:14:41 ◼   ► I think that watch face design

01:14:44 ◼   ► shouldn't be constrained just to Apple.

01:14:47 ◼   ► I genuinely believe this, this is not an original thought,

01:14:50 ◼   ► but I don't buy,

01:14:53 ◼   ► I would never buy just one company's watches

01:14:56 ◼   ► if I was buying watches

01:14:58 ◼   ► 'cause I wanna choose the designs that I like

01:15:00 ◼   ► and they may be in a design period,

01:15:02 ◼   ► say if you choose like I don't own a Rolex but I'll just say Rolex but I

01:15:07 ◼   ► don't really like Rolexes personally but I've just picked Rolex as a watch

01:15:10 ◼   ► brand that people know. If Rolex are in a like a they've been designing watches

01:15:14 ◼   ► for like a couple of years and they've gone into a design pattern that I'm not

01:15:18 ◼   ► a fan of I won't keep buying Rolexes I will go and look at what else is

01:15:23 ◼   ► available on the market right like maybe I go and look at Omega instead right

01:15:28 ◼   ► With Apple there's the kind of nothing you can do if you want an Apple watch.

01:15:32 ◼   ► So they ripped for... I honestly think for me to be ever to be happy with watch

01:15:37 ◼   ► face design it has to come with third parties designing those watch faces as

01:15:42 ◼   ► well because then lots more people's point of view can be expressed in this

01:15:48 ◼   ► design area then what Apple is doing. So that's that but then just the

01:15:55 ◼   ► physical design of the watch I'm unhappy with but I already spoke about that

01:15:58 ◼   ► there's one other thing I wanted to share it's just like a real frustration

01:16:01 ◼   ► for me so do you use do you use the Apple watch for workouts yeah okay do

01:16:08 ◼   ► you have to use the workout app apples walk out sir yeah why do I have to see

01:16:12 ◼   ► the time to walk thing at the top I think you can turn that off if you can

01:16:16 ◼   ► please somebody tell me because I don't know how to get rid of it this is Apple

01:16:21 ◼   ► as part of Fitness Plus, it's time to walk, right?

01:16:24 ◼   ► They have these sessions and at the top of the workouts app.

01:16:27 ◼   ► I don't want them.

01:16:29 ◼   ► I don't need them.

01:16:31 ◼   ► And the thing that frustrates me the most about this

01:16:33 ◼   ► is the rest of the workout options in the workouts app,

01:16:37 ◼   ► they sort themselves based on recency.

01:16:40 ◼   ► So, you know, like the things that you do the most

01:16:43 ◼   ► or do most often go to the top,

01:16:46 ◼   ► but except for time to walk, which is always number one.

01:16:49 ◼   ► And it infuriates me because this is like, you know,

01:16:53 ◼   ► one of those things where like Apple is making my experience worse

01:16:57 ◼   ► to try and sell me something that I already pay them for.

01:17:00 ◼   ► I'm already a Fitness Plus customer

01:17:02 ◼   ► because I'm in the premium Apple One whatever thing.

01:17:05 ◼   ► So they don't need to keep showing me this.

01:17:07 ◼   ► Like I can go and find it.

01:17:09 ◼   ► Like I can go and get it if I want that.

01:17:11 ◼   ► But I don't need to see the time to walk stuff

01:17:14 ◼   ► at the top of the workout app on the Apple Watch constantly.

01:17:17 ◼   ► It is not something that I require.

01:17:20 ◼   ► So I find it, this is one of those things,

01:17:22 ◼   ► I find it so frustrating,

01:17:24 ◼   ► especially 'cause of the way Apple Watch design works.

01:17:26 ◼   ► It's basically the entire UI available to me.

01:17:29 ◼   ► I have to scroll past it every single time

01:17:31 ◼   ► to start a workout.

01:17:33 ◼   ► So that is just a frustration I wanna share.

01:17:36 ◼   ► If somebody knows how to get rid of this on the Apple Watch,

01:17:38 ◼   ► please tell me.

01:17:39 ◼   ► I don't know how to get rid of it,

01:17:41 ◼   ► and it's driving me mad.

01:17:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, I was trying to scroll through.

01:17:44 ◼   ► Maybe I made that up.

01:17:47 ◼   ► I think you may have made that up because I have I have spent a lot of time.

01:17:51 ◼   ► Swipe left to delete it on the watch, says Alex.

01:17:56 ◼   ► No.

01:17:57 ◼   ► Is that a thing you can do?

01:17:58 ◼   ► What? And then it's just never going to come up again?

01:18:00 ◼   ► Let me try.

01:18:01 ◼   ► Work out.

01:18:02 ◼   ► Oh, it's deleted.

01:18:04 ◼   ► Okay.

01:18:05 ◼   ► That was it.

01:18:05 ◼   ► That is so stupid.

01:18:07 ◼   ► Thank you, Alex.

01:18:09 ◼   ► My God.

01:18:10 ◼   ► Why did I do this?

01:18:11 ◼   ► Especially if you already paid for it.

01:18:13 ◼   ► It's yeah.

01:18:14 ◼   ► It's like, just let me get it in the activity app.

01:18:17 ◼   ► I don't know why it's in the workout app. Alex, thank you so much. You have just made my life better.

01:18:21 ◼   ► Because Apple was trying to make it more annoying because for some reason they wanted me to listen to Naomi Campbell as I walk around and I don't really know why.

01:18:29 ◼   ► Because I don't do this stuff. Like I don't take these outside walks and...

01:18:32 ◼   ► Because you know what I'll do? I'll listen to a podcast of my own choosing by people that I genuinely do care about as opposed to random celebrities.

01:18:40 ◼   ► Like telling me a story because they got paid to tell me a story.

01:18:44 ◼   ► Some personal news, I've been contacted by Apple to do a "Walking with Steven" but I guess you won't listen.

01:18:50 ◼   ► No I won't listen to it because it's you've sold out.

01:18:53 ◼   ► Podcam is not gonna pay for itself.

01:18:55 ◼   ► That's true. Well calendars paid for that.

01:18:58 ◼   ► [laughs]

01:18:59 ◼   ► Big money hack it.

01:19:00 ◼   ► But okay so I will remove 50% of my complaint because it is removable.

01:19:06 ◼   ► But the point that I've had to deal with it all this time because there isn't an obvious way to get rid of it

01:19:10 ◼   ► was really annoying for me.

01:19:12 ◼   ► So luckily, Alex is better than Apple UI Design

01:19:17 ◼   ► because I should have just been offered the ability

01:19:20 ◼   ► to make it show rather than it being pushed in my face

01:19:22 ◼   ► in my opinion. - Well, you know,

01:19:23 ◼   ► Apple likes to be pushy about its services

01:19:25 ◼   ► and then hide all of its controls now,

01:19:26 ◼   ► so you wandered into the perfect storm.

01:19:29 ◼   ► So are you wearing it every day, just days you work out?

01:19:33 ◼   ► - Nope, every day.

01:19:34 ◼   ► - Every day, yeah, me too.

01:19:35 ◼   ► - Not particularly happy about it, but I'm doing it.

01:19:38 ◼   ► - Yeah, I went about a year, or maybe less than a year,

01:19:41 ◼   ► maybe like nine months without it and you know put it back on and I enjoy the

01:19:47 ◼   ► other stuff beyond the fitness stuff too so I think I'm in the market if there's

01:19:52 ◼   ► a flat sided Apple watch get that and I think I think it's gonna be pretty cool

01:19:58 ◼   ► yeah I'm very keen to have a brighter always-on display yes which was

01:20:05 ◼   ► something that came with the previous model, the 6. I like the always on display. I think

01:20:13 ◼   ► it was a necessary needed thing. The thing that I'm really just bummed out about is I

01:20:19 ◼   ► really want the ceramic one. I want a ceramic one and I'm not convinced that they will make

01:20:25 ◼   ► a ceramic one. But that's what I want. I don't want any of the metal finishes that Apple

01:20:31 ◼   ► I don't want any of the colored ones and so I don't really want just like one of

01:20:36 ◼   ► their metal finishes but I figure it's probably all I'm gonna have available to

01:20:39 ◼   ► me unless they keep the cadence up yeah every couple of years going back to

01:20:45 ◼   ► ceramic but I really like the white ceramic it's it's my favorite design

01:20:49 ◼   ► that they've ever done on the Apple watch I'm not gonna buy a green one I'm

01:20:53 ◼   ► not gonna buy a blue one I don't really understand like for me personally I

01:20:58 ◼   ► I would never buy a color Apple watch like that. Is it gonna be neutral? Like I consider white to go with everything basically

01:21:04 ◼   ► It would be weird I think for me to want to wear a red watch

01:21:09 ◼   ► Every single day with everything that I own

01:21:12 ◼   ► Clothes wise be peculiar. I didn't agree and I've seen the red one in person

01:21:17 ◼   ► I like the way that it looks but I

01:21:19 ◼   ► Look, I wouldn't want to do it every day for the reasons you said I mean, yeah

01:21:23 ◼   ► I've either always done, well I've done stainless steel, I've done the dark aluminum, and I've

01:21:29 ◼   ► done the titanium, and you know, I'll stay within those lanes.

01:21:33 ◼   ► It's most likely I'd probably end up going with one of the dark colored ones, if they

01:21:39 ◼   ► don't offer ceramic.

01:21:41 ◼   ► And I would probably get ceramic in whatever they, like if they didn't do white ceramic

01:21:45 ◼   ► and they did like a gray ceramic or whatever, I'd probably go back to that.

01:21:48 ◼   ► I also just really like the way that the ceramic Apple Watch feels, it's a good balance of

01:21:52 ◼   ► weight and stuff I find it very comfortable and it's also it looks good

01:21:56 ◼   ► with the sport band when if I did if I had a metal one I wouldn't wear a sport

01:21:59 ◼   ► band so then we got to go back into back into the band pool again yeah I mean I

01:22:03 ◼   ► think you I think you can I mean I've worn the stainless steel I know I know

01:22:07 ◼   ► like lots of people do I'm just talking about like for me personally like if I'm

01:22:11 ◼   ► gonna have an Apple Apple watch then I'm probably also gonna want to get a metal

01:22:16 ◼   ► band for it or a leather band then I'm gonna get different bands when I walk

01:22:21 ◼   ► Oh god.

01:22:22 ◼   ► And I'm really not into the loops.

01:22:28 ◼   ► Oh yeah, I'm not either.

01:22:29 ◼   ► I don't want that.

01:22:31 ◼   ► I know people like them.

01:22:32 ◼   ► I don't really care for them personally.

01:22:35 ◼   ► More than anything, like more than any other product that they make, I mean they made it,

01:22:39 ◼   ► they said it at the time, it was a selling point, it is the most personal product.

01:22:43 ◼   ► Which I actually do applaud them for not changing the Apple Watch band connectors.

01:22:48 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

01:22:49 ◼   ► Like they got to resist that as long as is actually possible.

01:22:52 ◼   ► Like maybe forever, like don't ever change the connector because you

01:22:57 ◼   ► encourage people to build up this collection of stuff.

01:23:00 ◼   ► In a way it's even worse than like changing the connector on the iPhone or

01:23:03 ◼   ► something.

01:23:04 ◼   ► Oh yeah. Cause it's just a cable. You get new ones, you know?

01:23:07 ◼   ► But if you've got 18 watch bands over the course of what, six years,

01:23:11 ◼   ► it's not fantastic. All right. Well, I think that's it.

01:23:15 ◼   ► If you want to find more about the stuff we spoke about, head on over to the show notes,

01:23:20 ◼   ► relay.fm/connected/361.

01:23:25 ◼   ► Please go donate to St. Jude.

01:23:26 ◼   ► We'll be talking about St. Jude all month.

01:23:28 ◼   ► That is stjude.org/relay and keep Friday, September 17th on your calendar open for the

01:23:35 ◼   ► third annual podcast-a-thon.

01:23:38 ◼   ► If you'd like to find Myke online, you can do that.

01:23:40 ◼   ► He is on Twitter as @IMYKE.

01:23:44 ◼   ► Myke and I will be streaming together on Friday. So mm-hmm. Look out for that disaster coming your way

01:23:50 ◼   ► Federico is off working on his review

01:23:53 ◼   ► But you can find him of course on Twitter at Viti V I ti CCI and he's the editor-in-chief of max stories dotnet

01:24:01 ◼   ► You can find me on Twitter as is mh in my writing at 512 pixels dotnet Myke until next time say goodbye

01:24:09 ◼   ► Cheerio, bye y'all