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Connected

361: The Apple Maps of Cellular Radios

 

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.

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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.

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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

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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