Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:06 ◼   ► From Real AFM, this is Connected, episode 309.

00:00:10 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you by TextExpander from Smile and Pingdom.

00:00:15 ◼   ► My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Federico Vittucci. Ciao Federico.

00:00:19 ◼   ► Ciao Myke. Old school intro. I love it.

00:00:22 ◼   ► I know. I had to, you know, I don't do this very often,

00:00:25 ◼   ► so I had to really think to myself what show I was doing an intro for.

00:00:29 ◼   ► at that moment, 'cause you know, I'm old now,

00:00:32 ◼   ► so I forget these things.

00:00:33 ◼   ► No Steven today, Steven had a plumbing emergency.

00:00:37 ◼   ► - It's just not a good thing to have.

00:00:40 ◼   ► - No.

00:00:41 ◼   ► - Let me tell you, plumbing emergencies.

00:00:43 ◼   ► - So me and Steven were talking a couple of days ago,

00:00:46 ◼   ► 'cause we have a call every Monday.

00:00:48 ◼   ► It's our stand up, because we're a business, you know,

00:00:52 ◼   ► so we have a stand up on a Monday.

00:00:54 ◼   ► What's morning for him, afternoon for me.

00:00:57 ◼   ► And I think he had to move it, or we had to skip it,

00:01:00 ◼   ► I don't even remember now, who knows.

00:01:02 ◼   ► 'Cause he was having his fuse box changed.

00:01:07 ◼   ► Like something like electricity wise.

00:01:10 ◼   ► - I have no idea what that is, but okay.

00:01:12 ◼   ► - You know when your lights go off

00:01:14 ◼   ► and you have to flick a switch to get them to come back on

00:01:16 ◼   ► 'cause it's tripped to fuse, yeah.

00:01:17 ◼   ► So that's a fuse box.

00:01:19 ◼   ► - But I, what's, I don't know what, I don't have a fuse.

00:01:25 ◼   ► Like is that an object that you're supposed to have?

00:01:28 ◼   ► Like what does it look like?

00:01:30 ◼   ► Okay, so let me Google fuse box.

00:01:31 ◼   ► - Fuse box.

00:01:33 ◼   ► Or like breakers, you know like circuit breakers

00:01:36 ◼   ► I think they're called in America.

00:01:37 ◼   ► - Fuse box.

00:01:38 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:01:39 ◼   ► - It's called fuse box.

00:01:40 ◼   ► Okay, yeah I do have this.

00:01:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, so he had that replaced I believe.

00:01:46 ◼   ► - Oh okay.

00:01:47 ◼   ► - Because all electricity.

00:01:48 ◼   ► And I think we had a conversation about something

00:01:51 ◼   ► along the lines of oh, you're always having stuff

00:01:54 ◼   ► changed over, you'll probably be okay for a bit. Two days later, basically from what

00:01:59 ◼   ► I can gather, Steven just has no plumbing now, what I was able to gather from his situation.

00:02:06 ◼   ► So I believe in my heart of hearts that all connected listeners should be sending messages

00:02:13 ◼   ► of actual real support to Steven at this time. So I would suggest that everybody tweets at

00:02:19 ◼   ► him with like we support you Steven and then your favorite plumbing related emoji.

00:02:23 ◼   ► Plumbing yeah plumbing or water related emoji.

00:02:27 ◼   ► Yeah so you could send him a toilet or you could send him a shower

00:02:31 ◼   ► and then you could do one better when it comes to support and you could donate to

00:02:36 ◼   ► Saint Jude because that's what you should be doing everybody should be doing right now.

00:02:40 ◼   ► Go to SaintJude.org/relay I'm really excited because we've had a great week so far

00:02:49 ◼   ► and I'm super super thankful for everybody that has donated so far.

00:02:53 ◼   ► I'm just bringing up the page now Federico so I can say to our listeners that we are at

00:02:58 ◼   ► $24,400 dollars raised which is absolutely fantastic. I am so so thankful for everybody

00:03:07 ◼   ► that has donated any money so far but there's a lot more of you that can and let me tell you

00:03:13 ◼   ► a little bit about why you should do that. St. Jude is an incredible place and

00:03:18 ◼   ► they do incredible things and we are working with them throughout August and

00:03:23 ◼   ► then into September because September is Child Cancer Awareness Month. So this is

00:03:30 ◼   ► a time that we're where we want to work with them and we get together to make

00:03:34 ◼   ► sure that we're doing what we can to try and help these children that need it.

00:03:37 ◼   ► Between 180,000 and 240,000 children are diagnosed every single

00:03:42 ◼   ► year with cancer, which is an unbelievable amount. Treatments invented at St. Jude's

00:03:47 ◼   ► Children's Research Hospital have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20%

00:03:53 ◼   ► to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago. And St. Jude's mission is to not stop

00:03:58 ◼   ► until no child dies from cancer. So you can support St. Jude's life-saving mission of finding cures

00:04:04 ◼   ► and saving children during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month by going to stjude.org/relay.

00:04:09 ◼   ► that is stduo.org/relay to donate now.

00:04:13 ◼   ► And we're doing some fun stuff this year.

00:04:15 ◼   ► We've really upped our game.

00:04:17 ◼   ► So we've mentioned already that we're doing the podcast

00:04:19 ◼   ► of fun from 2 to 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday, September 18th

00:04:22 ◼   ► at twitch.tv/relayfm.

00:04:25 ◼   ► But when you're on our donation page,

00:04:27 ◼   ► you'll see that we've put in a bunch of milestones this year.

00:04:31 ◼   ► And when we hit the milestones,

00:04:33 ◼   ► we're going to be doing special streams or releasing videos.

00:04:37 ◼   ► So the first one that we're going to hit

00:04:39 ◼   ► is when we hit $25,000, which I think will happen at some point today.

00:04:43 ◼   ► Steven is going to release a video that he's done called "Identifying Laptops by Feel."

00:04:49 ◼   ► I think it was Dongles that he did this with a while ago.

00:04:53 ◼   ► He has blindfolded.

00:04:54 ◼   ► He likes to touch electronics.

00:04:56 ◼   ► When he has a blindfold and he has his wife involved.

00:04:59 ◼   ► It's kind of strange that he wants to show his thing to the world,

00:05:02 ◼   ► but like, you know, you do you, my friend, you know.

00:05:05 ◼   ► If that's what you want to do, then you go for it.

00:05:07 ◼   ► But that's Steven's special thing that he gets to share with all of us.

00:05:12 ◼   ► We all have ours.

00:05:14 ◼   ► We all have our thing.

00:05:17 ◼   ► Oh boy.

00:05:20 ◼   ► So he's done one about laptops.

00:05:22 ◼   ► I have watched the video already and he's going to release that on the Fire12Pixels

00:05:26 ◼   ► YouTube channel when we pass that first milestone.

00:05:30 ◼   ► And then we have a bunch of other streams that we're going to do.

00:05:34 ◼   ► The next one after that is going to be something that I'm going to do.

00:05:37 ◼   ► So when we hit $30,000 raised, I'm gonna do a Twitch stream showing my iPad setup, kind

00:05:44 ◼   ► of like, these are the apps that I use, this is how I have them arranged, and do a kind

00:05:47 ◼   ► of Q&A like thing on that, so that's the first thing.

00:05:50 ◼   ► When we hit $70,000, Steven is going to livestream installing his Mac Pro wheels that he bought.

00:05:58 ◼   ► So he did buy them?

00:05:59 ◼   ► He did buy them, and he's not putting them on his Mac Pro until we hit $70,000, and when

00:06:04 ◼   ► we do hit it, he's gonna livestream it.

00:06:06 ◼   ► So we need to hit 70,000.

00:06:08 ◼   ► We must.

00:06:09 ◼   ► I mean, it must happen at this point.

00:06:11 ◼   ► Yes, and when we hit 100,000 we're going to try and play Microsoft Flight Simulator.

00:06:16 ◼   ► Which is the thing these days, right?

00:06:17 ◼   ► Which is the thing these days.

00:06:19 ◼   ► Flight Simulator.

00:06:20 ◼   ► And then these are some things that we're doing when we hit certain milestones, but

00:06:25 ◼   ► we're also going to be doing some streams for timed events as well.

00:06:29 ◼   ► So this coming this Friday, so that's going to be August 28th at 11am Eastern on Twitch.tv/RelayFM.

00:06:40 ◼   ► Steven and myself are going to be playing Untitled Goose Game for your enjoyment, so

00:06:44 ◼   ► you can check that out there.

00:06:45 ◼   ► So this is the theme of September, right?

00:06:47 ◼   ► We're raising money and we're having fun while we do it.

00:06:50 ◼   ► So we're going to be doing loads of stuff as we get up towards the podcastathon itself

00:06:54 ◼   ► on September 18th.

00:06:56 ◼   ► So once again, go to stjude.org/relay to donate and we'll be very, very thankful for that.

00:07:03 ◼   ► I have the pleasure of being a part of many text threads and channels with you.

00:07:11 ◼   ► And one of them today, you said that you were going to be going back to Apple Arcade.

00:07:17 ◼   ► They got me again.

00:07:19 ◼   ► And I think I told you this a while ago, like if once they have that game that I really

00:07:25 ◼   ► want to play, I guess at that point I would be forced to subscribe again. Well, it looks

00:07:30 ◼   ► like that game is finally almost upon us, coming up tomorrow I think on Apple Arcade.

00:07:36 ◼   ► The game is The Last Campfire. So The Last Campfire is a joint collaboration, I guess,

00:07:42 ◼   ► from Hello Games, so the makers of No Man's Sky, obviously, and the developers of Lost

00:07:49 ◼   ► to

00:08:03 ◼   ► except that it looks fantastic and I love the music, I love the atmosphere.

00:08:08 ◼   ► When I saw the trailer, I believe last year, I fell in love with the look and the feel and

00:08:14 ◼   ► yes, again, the atmosphere of this game immediately.

00:08:17 ◼   ► It's a title that I really want to play. I think it lends itself very well to being played on an iPad Pro.

00:08:24 ◼   ► It's also coming to PlayStation 4 and Switch and Xbox.

00:08:27 ◼   ► But I think this is the kind of game that I really want to play on an iPad.

00:08:31 ◼   ► you know, holding the display in front of me, you know, with these kinds of graphics.

00:08:36 ◼   ► Yeah, so this is coming out tomorrow on Apple Arcade.

00:08:39 ◼   ► These are like some top tier developers working on this game, and it's...

00:08:43 ◼   ► My main point, I guess, this is the kind of game that I want to see more from Apple Arcade, as we discussed a few months ago.

00:08:51 ◼   ► Not another

00:08:54 ◼   ► 2D platform game, not another puzzle game, not another co-op,

00:08:59 ◼   ► multiplayer sports-like game, this is exactly what I want to have on my

00:09:05 ◼   ► iPad Pro with Apple Arcade, so I'm gonna subscribe again. While I'm at it, I guess I will check out some of the other

00:09:13 ◼   ► new releases that I have missed lately. I think there's another

00:09:18 ◼   ► what's it called? Samurai Jack game that came out last week on Apple Arcade. So yeah,

00:09:24 ◼   ► I'll give it another try and then I guess I'll see what happens if they do announce a bundle for Apple services

00:09:31 ◼   ► But maybe next month maybe in October whenever that is

00:09:34 ◼   ► If they do announce a bundle, I will get the bundle anyway, so but I really want to play this one. It looks beautiful

00:09:41 ◼   ► I love the developers behind this. So yeah, they got me again with this one. We'll see if I find anything else worth playing

00:09:50 ◼   ► Yeah, Samurai Jack is apparently the new one. There's also, for people that like it, there's a Game of Thrones game

00:09:55 ◼   ► that's meant to be pretty good, but I wouldn't know because I don't understand Game of Thrones.

00:10:00 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah. I really wish that I could...

00:10:03 ◼   ► I know that it's never gonna happen, but you know the game that everybody's playing on PlayStation these days, Fall Guys?

00:10:09 ◼   ► Fall Guys, yeah.

00:10:10 ◼   ► Yeah, I kind of want to play that one.

00:10:12 ◼   ► I want to play it too. I haven't yet, but it's been on my mind to play it.

00:10:15 ◼   ► Maybe I could actually maybe add that into it for a stream for some point.

00:10:19 ◼   ► Can you play together with another friend?

00:10:23 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:10:25 ◼   ► Because I've seen some of the Twitch streamers that I follow that play competitive Pokemon,

00:10:32 ◼   ► they do like to play other things as well and I've seen some people play Fall Guys lately

00:10:36 ◼   ► and it looks very fun and messy and colorful, which is exactly what I want.

00:10:42 ◼   ► I'm not shooting people for a change, which is nice.

00:10:44 ◼   ► It's a battle royale game, which is just an obstacle course.

00:10:49 ◼   ► Yes, and it looks very fun and I love the design of the little creatures.

00:10:54 ◼   ► So yeah, that one I'm probably gonna play as well.

00:10:57 ◼   ► I saw a headline today that it's like the most downloaded PS Plus game of all time.

00:11:03 ◼   ► Yeah, which is wild because it came out like what, a month ago?

00:11:07 ◼   ► On PS Plus, it's been out for a while.

00:11:10 ◼   ► This was like one of those things that was really interesting.

00:11:12 ◼   ► I'd never heard of this game and then a game journalist that I follow,

00:11:15 ◼   ► I don't remember who it was but I follow a bunch of game journalists,

00:11:17 ◼   ► was like, "This game is coming out on PS Plus.

00:11:21 ◼   ► It's going to take over the world

00:11:22 ◼   ► because it's going to be free to people on PlayStation."

00:11:25 ◼   ► And it immediately happened, right?

00:11:26 ◼   ► Like, within a couple of days, it was all I was seeing.

00:11:31 ◼   ► And what I love is it's from, like,

00:11:33 ◼   ► a, I think, a relatively small developer.

00:11:35 ◼   ► - Mediatonic, right? - Yeah.

00:11:36 ◼   ► - And you know what?

00:11:37 ◼   ► I think Shahid told us years ago

00:11:41 ◼   ► that this was, like, a legit studio,

00:11:43 ◼   ► that they were working on some crazy things.

00:11:45 ◼   ► - Maybe that's it. - And once again,

00:11:46 ◼   ► Once again he was right.

00:11:48 ◼   ► As always, if you don't know who Shahid is, you should.

00:11:51 ◼   ► Shahid Ahmad is our co-host on Ringmaster, which is our monthly video game show that

00:11:56 ◼   ► the three of us do here on relay FM.

00:11:59 ◼   ► If you don't listen to it, you should check it out.

00:12:00 ◼   ► The last episode was a history of the PlayStation Portable, or the PSP, as you may know.

00:12:05 ◼   ► You can go and listen to that.

00:12:07 ◼   ► If you like hearing us talk about video games, that's the place to go to get it.

00:12:12 ◼   ► Talking about video games.

00:12:13 ◼   ► Oh god.

00:12:14 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:12:15 ◼   ► I'm happy you're back this week.

00:12:16 ◼   ► Because you thought you could get away with it, but no, we're going to talk about Epic.

00:12:22 ◼   ► I want to give a very quick update as to where we are today from where we were last week.

00:12:28 ◼   ► So Apple threatened to pull Epic's developer accounts from the App Store.

00:12:33 ◼   ► Basically anything Epic related was going to be kicked out on Friday, August 28th at

00:12:38 ◼   ► the end of this week.

00:12:40 ◼   ► Epic filed a secondary legal thing, basically a restraining order on that.

00:12:48 ◼   ► So that was that.

00:12:50 ◼   ► Then side note, Apple held up the WordPress iOS app, wanting them to put IAP for WordPress.com

00:12:56 ◼   ► accounts into the WordPress application.

00:12:58 ◼   ► This got out to the press, then Apple changed course and apologized.

00:13:04 ◼   ► Then we go back to Epic.

00:13:06 ◼   ► wins a temporary restraining order in court to stop Apple from terminating their developer

00:13:11 ◼   ► account regarding the Unreal Engine. This is from the lawsuit. It was Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers

00:13:19 ◼   ► said Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute

00:13:25 ◼   ► should not create havoc to bystanders, which I think is an excellent judgment to make.

00:13:33 ◼   ► In the same ruling, Judge Rogers, Gonzalez Rogers, also ruled that Apple does not need

00:13:39 ◼   ► to reinstate Fortnite to the App Store, which is another thing that Epic were asking for

00:13:43 ◼   ► with the restraining order, saying, "The current predicament appears of Epic's own making,"

00:13:49 ◼   ► which is also completely valid.

00:13:51 ◼   ► Epic made this happen to themselves.

00:13:55 ◼   ► They knew they broke the rules.

00:13:57 ◼   ► But there's still more to come.

00:13:58 ◼   ► So what we've got here is just a temporary order.

00:14:01 ◼   ► So Epic and Apple will now create larger cases to work out if this is going to be a permanent

00:14:07 ◼   ► order that Apple can't get rid of Epic's developer account related to the Unreal Engine.

00:14:12 ◼   ► This is going to be heard in September 28th.

00:14:16 ◼   ► The original case that Epic filed, so going back to when they actually had the lawsuit

00:14:22 ◼   ► that they hit on that day when they got kicked out of the store, that could take a year before

00:14:27 ◼   ► that's heard in court because it's a much, much bigger case.

00:14:31 ◼   ► Now, so the thing is, right, so on Friday, the Fortnite developer account could and probably

00:14:38 ◼   ► will be kicked out of the store, but it doesn't really make a difference at this point.

00:14:43 ◼   ► Because Epic is not going to, they're clearly not going to update the application.

00:14:48 ◼   ► Like, they're just going to sit on this for a while, with my assumption.

00:14:53 ◼   ► And if we can, I mean, our assumptions, I think we are correct now in our assumption

00:14:57 ◼   ► Like if they get rid of the developer account, it doesn't get rid of the game for people,

00:15:01 ◼   ► which was, you know, it's just like a question mark because this kind of stuff doesn't happen

00:15:05 ◼   ► very much.

00:15:07 ◼   ► But this isn't going to, for the time being, or probably at all, honestly, considering

00:15:12 ◼   ► this initial rule then, going to affect the Unreal Engine account.

00:15:17 ◼   ► So Apple can't get rid of all of Epic's stuff.

00:15:21 ◼   ► And you know, to kind of paraphrase the case a little bit, it's like, it's a little bit

00:15:25 ◼   ► like it's retaliatory, like that was the word

00:15:27 ◼   ► that the judge used,

00:15:29 ◼   ► is that it was retaliatory on Apple's part

00:15:32 ◼   ► to kind of want to get rid of all of it,

00:15:35 ◼   ► seemed a bit much, right?

00:15:36 ◼   ► They have multiple developer accounts

00:15:38 ◼   ► that things are related to.

00:15:39 ◼   ► And the new season of Fortnite starts this weekend,

00:15:43 ◼   ► and it's not going to be on iOS or the Mac,

00:15:45 ◼   ► so I think there is a little bit there from Epic's part

00:15:48 ◼   ► that they're just deciding not to bring it to the Mac.

00:15:51 ◼   ► Better swivel in there, right, right?

00:15:53 ◼   ► Same reason as it's within Apple's rights,

00:15:54 ◼   ► right to say get out of the store, it's within Apple's right to say fine your platform's

00:15:59 ◼   ► not going to benefit from our content. So that's kind of where we are. I've had a lot

00:16:05 ◼   ► to say about this on this show and other shows, but I wanted to hear your thoughts because

00:16:10 ◼   ► I don't really think you've expressed them anywhere yet.

00:16:14 ◼   ► Yeah. So I just want to say up front that I tend to be, in my life, I tend to be a person

00:16:23 ◼   ► that follows the rules. However, I also think that in extreme situations, for the rules

00:16:29 ◼   ► to change, you gotta break the rules. Win-ingly. It's something that I firmly believe. And

00:16:35 ◼   ► I have very complicated thoughts on this whole saga, this whole thing. And I would like to

00:16:41 ◼   ► start by discussing some of the basic, very basic ideas and very basic themes. Like, I

00:16:48 ◼   ► I don't want to get into the technicalities of Fortnite.

00:16:52 ◼   ► Can it be redownload?

00:16:53 ◼   ► Like some basic ideas that I have.

00:16:56 ◼   ► So the first one that I would like to address is

00:17:00 ◼   ► this idea that Epic is going after Apple,

00:17:06 ◼   ► they're suing Apple.

00:17:08 ◼   ► And some people are saying, well,

00:17:10 ◼   ► why didn't you sue also Sony and Nintendo

00:17:14 ◼   ► and console makers?

00:17:15 ◼   ► After all, iOS devices are consoles.

00:17:18 ◼   ► And I kept, first when I first saw these comments,

00:17:23 ◼   ► I thought that people were joking.

00:17:25 ◼   ► Then I saw that they were actually serious about it,

00:17:29 ◼   ► comparing iOS devices to consoles.

00:17:31 ◼   ► And that to me is,

00:17:34 ◼   ► well, it's the wrong perspective, I will say.

00:17:40 ◼   ► I will use this expression.

00:17:41 ◼   ► And that's because, like, there's a fundamental difference

00:17:45 ◼   ► between a PlayStation and an iPhone.

00:17:48 ◼   ► There's a fundamental difference between an Xbox and an iPad

00:17:53 ◼   ► which is you buy an Xbox and you buy a PlayStation

00:17:57 ◼   ► and let's face it, you're gonna buy them

00:18:00 ◼   ► to put them under a TV and play video games.

00:18:03 ◼   ► Whereas an iPhone is a computer and an iPad is a computer.

00:18:08 ◼   ► And I don't think nobody needs to be educated

00:18:13 ◼   ► on the differences between a console and a computer, right?

00:18:16 ◼   ► We all know them.

00:18:17 ◼   ► This to me feels like a very convenient argument

00:18:22 ◼   ► to make right now.

00:18:25 ◼   ► Because until a few months ago, until a few years ago,

00:18:29 ◼   ► when it was convenient to say so, iPhones were computers.

00:18:34 ◼   ► - It's also worth noting that the argument

00:18:37 ◼   ► that John Gruber and others are making about console

00:18:40 ◼   ► has included gaming consoles, but also like the quote unquote

00:18:44 ◼   ► term of console, meaning like that it is like a closed thing

00:18:49 ◼   ► or like that it is a heavily controlled thing.

00:18:52 ◼   ► But ultimately--

00:18:55 ◼   ► Can you offer other examples of a closed computer

00:18:59 ◼   ► that is not an iPhone?

00:19:02 ◼   ► No.

00:19:03 ◼   ► See, that's the problem.

00:19:04 ◼   ► I'm sure there are examples, and maybe you

00:19:06 ◼   ► need a lot of computer history to get them.

00:19:08 ◼   ► But the point that I'm making, like what

00:19:10 ◼   ► The point I'm wanting to get to here is like,

00:19:12 ◼   ► I am agreeing with you and what you're saying,

00:19:16 ◼   ► what you're about to say.

00:19:18 ◼   ► The iOS devices are computers.

00:19:21 ◼   ► They are computers.

00:19:23 ◼   ► - It was convenient to call them computers

00:19:25 ◼   ► when it was about, for example,

00:19:27 ◼   ► comparing the number of Windows PCs sold

00:19:31 ◼   ► and say, well, Apple is selling more computers

00:19:35 ◼   ► if you count iPhones and iPads

00:19:37 ◼   ► than the industry is selling PCs.

00:19:40 ◼   ► So it feels to me like sometimes it's convenient

00:19:42 ◼   ► to call them computers and other times it's not,

00:19:45 ◼   ► which I think it's kind of funny and interesting to observe.

00:19:46 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean Apple calls the iPad a computer.

00:19:48 ◼   ► All the time they call it a computer.

00:19:50 ◼   ► They call it a personal computer.

00:19:51 ◼   ► - They do, they do.

00:19:51 ◼   ► And a console, so let's say, well, some people are saying,

00:19:56 ◼   ► well, we don't mean a console in the sense

00:19:57 ◼   ► of a gaming console, of course,

00:19:59 ◼   ► an iPhone and an iPad are not gaming consoles.

00:20:02 ◼   ► We mean it in the sense of a closed platform.

00:20:04 ◼   ► And that's really my issue right now.

00:20:09 ◼   ► So it's perfectly in Apple's right to say, "Well, this is a closed platform, and we get to decide which kind of apps, which kind of software it runs."

00:20:24 ◼   ► And to me, I think—and this is basically like, some people will say, "Well, it's Apple Store. They make their own rules, and either you follow the rules, or you don't,

00:20:36 ◼   ► and we don't care if you don't want to follow them,

00:20:39 ◼   ► you're gonna kicked out of the store.

00:20:41 ◼   ► And I get it, right?

00:20:43 ◼   ► I get it.

00:20:44 ◼   ► But what I'm asking, so my basic question is,

00:20:48 ◼   ► is this a great situation to be in?

00:20:51 ◼   ► Like, I get it, yes.

00:20:53 ◼   ► It's, let's call it a console, right,

00:20:56 ◼   ► in the sense of a closed computer.

00:20:58 ◼   ► But is it really something that you like?

00:21:00 ◼   ► Like, do you think this is really

00:21:02 ◼   ► a great situation to be in?

00:21:04 ◼   ► Because let's, and I guess this is the,

00:21:06 ◼   ► also another key problem, some people, myself included, would argue that at this point,

00:21:15 ◼   ► an iPhone should be considered an essential utility, right?

00:21:19 ◼   ► Yes, yes, without a shadow of a doubt. Smartphones in general, but yes.

00:21:23 ◼   ► Smartphones in general, and that includes the iPhone. And you can, you know, I'm obviously

00:21:29 ◼   ► I'm no lawyer, I'm no antitrust historian, but I've been doing some reading on the side

00:21:35 ◼   ► and from what I understand there's this idea of the essential facility doctrine, right?

00:21:41 ◼   ► Which is the idea that some utilities are considered essential to the public, to the market.

00:21:50 ◼   ► And, you know, the theory goes that sometimes a monopolist creates these bottlenecks

00:21:57 ◼   ► that basically prevent competitors from entering the market. And so you have these essential

00:22:02 ◼   ► utilities that are essential to people, however there can be no competition around them.

00:22:06 ◼   ► And I would argue that an iPhone falls under that, you know, that categorization.

00:22:14 ◼   ► Well I think if it maybe to try and expand out a little more, so like one of the the key ones

00:22:19 ◼   ► that's always spoken about here is like the railroads, right? So like if you imagine that the

00:22:26 ◼   ► iPhone is the train tracks and the apps are the trains and

00:22:30 ◼   ► If the company that owns the train track can decide which trains run on the train tracks

00:22:36 ◼   ► It kind of stops the ability for there to be other people involved, right?

00:22:41 ◼   ► This stuff exactly all this stuff gets way more complicated

00:22:45 ◼   ► Because Apple makes apps now in many of the areas that they're stopping their competitors from being in

00:22:51 ◼   ► That's what makes this whole thing as bad as it is. If Apple wasn't in a lot of these businesses

00:22:58 ◼   ► Whilst it still wouldn't be great. You can kind of say like, you know

00:23:03 ◼   ► They're trying to do their store the way they want to do it and blah blah blah, but like they are creating situations where?

00:23:09 ◼   ► By the fact that they are the way they are with the App Store

00:23:14 ◼   ► It allows them to have a competitive advantage whether they're doing it for that reason or not

00:23:19 ◼   ► it allows them to have that ability.

00:23:22 ◼   ► - Yeah, so you look at the App Store, right?

00:23:27 ◼   ► And when you consider the conflict of interest

00:23:31 ◼   ► that there is between, say, something like Apple Arcade

00:23:34 ◼   ► and Microsoft wanting to bring something like Game Pass

00:23:38 ◼   ► to the App Store, I mean, or Apple Music and Spotify.

00:23:42 ◼   ► What's the last time that you saw Apple, you know,

00:23:45 ◼   ► on the App Store advertise the latest update to Spotify.

00:23:49 ◼   ► And I mean, of course they won't,

00:23:50 ◼   ► because they have their own, not a litigation going,

00:23:54 ◼   ► but Spotify complaining publicly about Apple,

00:23:57 ◼   ► so they're never gonna do it.

00:23:59 ◼   ► But basically, here's what I believe.

00:24:02 ◼   ► I believe an iPhone is, in 2020,

00:24:04 ◼   ► well over a decade into its life,

00:24:08 ◼   ► should be considered, an iPhone,

00:24:10 ◼   ► just like any other smartphone,

00:24:12 ◼   ► an essential utility to everyday life, unlike a PlayStation or a Nintendo Switch or whatever.

00:24:21 ◼   ► And because it is an essential utility, I believe it is so important to make sure that

00:24:28 ◼   ► there can be competition, there can be a diverse set of apps and software running on the iPhone.

00:24:36 ◼   ► Now, I also get it. I understand that the way that Apple designs iOS and iPadOS comes

00:24:45 ◼   ► with certain limitations, certain technical limitations for security, for privacy, which

00:24:50 ◼   ► I fully respect and endorse personally. But that doesn't stop competition from happening

00:24:55 ◼   ► still, because Spotify and Epic and Microsoft and Hey and all these other folks, they can

00:25:01 ◼   ► make apps, right, make them run on the iPhone and respect the technical

00:25:05 ◼   ► limitations of the sandbox and all the other things that Apple likes them to do.

00:25:09 ◼   ► But the problem here is that, you know, we are now in the situation

00:25:16 ◼   ► where developers, they either have to pay up a 30% fee or they, you know, if they

00:25:24 ◼   ► want to do anything that's an alternative to that, they can't. And the

00:25:27 ◼   ► risk of getting kicked out of the App Store.

00:25:30 ◼   ► And the big thing today is like, for what?

00:25:34 ◼   ► For what?

00:25:35 ◼   ► What's the fee for?

00:25:36 ◼   ► Right?

00:25:37 ◼   ► Like, I believe that 30% is too high.

00:25:40 ◼   ► It's just to have the ability to be on the platform.

00:25:46 ◼   ► It's rent.

00:25:47 ◼   ► Right?

00:25:48 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly.

00:25:50 ◼   ► And if it wasn't too high, then why some companies like Amazon, for example, get a special deal,

00:26:00 ◼   ► right?

00:26:01 ◼   ► If it wasn't too high, they wouldn't be getting a special deal.

00:26:03 ◼   ► But if they get a special deal, there'd be no deal to give, right?

00:26:06 ◼   ► There'd be no special qualifier to put it firmly.

00:26:12 ◼   ► When everything is fair, there's no specialty about it.

00:26:15 ◼   ► It's just what it is.

00:26:19 ◼   ► Why would you use it as a bargaining chip?

00:26:22 ◼   ► Which is what they used when they wanted things done by Amazon.

00:26:26 ◼   ► If you're offering me a deal, it means that there's something that isn't a deal for me.

00:26:32 ◼   ► And so you're offering me a different version of the same thing.

00:26:37 ◼   ► That is the definition of "let's make a deal."

00:26:43 ◼   ► I like to think about all this stuff in very simple terms.

00:26:47 ◼   ► There's lawyers, it's complicated.

00:26:49 ◼   ► I get it. But here's my basic question for you and everybody else. If you're Apple, in this situation,

00:26:57 ◼   ► is this good for you? I can't understand how this is still happening at this point. Like, I

00:27:02 ◼   ► cannot fathom it. Is this a great situation to be in? Like, no matter if you're... if you say,

00:27:09 ◼   ► "Well, technically we are right, and the law is behind us, and we're gonna win in court." Okay,

00:27:14 ◼   ► Fine. But like, looking at it from the outside, from a developer's perspective, from a consumer's perspective,

00:27:21 ◼   ► is this a great thing to do? And I don't think it is.

00:27:26 ◼   ► No, it's not. Like, go ahead and find Epic if you want to, right? Like, they've done what they've done.

00:27:34 ◼   ► You can be happy about that or unhappy about that, whatever. But why keep doing this?

00:27:39 ◼   ► like why keep trying to shake developers down, right?

00:27:44 ◼   ► Like this WordPress thing, it was something that Apple was progressing

00:27:51 ◼   ► until the spotlight got turned back on them and then they're like, "Whoopsies, sorry."

00:27:57 ◼   ► Right? Like every couple of days there is a new one of these stories, right?

00:28:03 ◼   ► Like, it keeps happening.

00:28:05 ◼   ► I was thinking today when preparing for this show,

00:28:09 ◼   ► I think it feels pretty clear that something changed

00:28:12 ◼   ► internally at Apple in June of this year.

00:28:15 ◼   ► -Mm-hmm. Yeah. -Like, that Hey got caught up in

00:28:19 ◼   ► and went public with it, which then kind of outed

00:28:22 ◼   ► all these other companies that were, you know,

00:28:25 ◼   ► that have been having these problems or, like,

00:28:28 ◼   ► you're hearing first, second, third hand from someone

00:28:30 ◼   ► that they've had an app held up.

00:28:32 ◼   ► Like, it seems like something changed and now Apple really wants this money.

00:28:40 ◼   ► They want their in-app purchase money more than ever.

00:28:43 ◼   ► I don't know why they've made that change and I don't know why they are so clearly sticking to it.

00:28:50 ◼   ► And if the result of all of this is not some kind of change in the rules,

00:28:56 ◼   ► they're setting themselves up for, I think, a bad few years at this point.

00:29:02 ◼   ► One of the reasons that I was thinking about the fact that this stuff has changed, or at

00:29:07 ◼   ► least Apple's thinking has changed, is there have been problems like this in the past,

00:29:12 ◼   ► right?

00:29:13 ◼   ► But it was the summer of this year where they started using this wording of like, "You've

00:29:17 ◼   ► had a free app on the store for so long and you've been using all our tools and you haven't

00:29:23 ◼   ► contributed towards the App Store."

00:29:26 ◼   ► And they keep bringing this out, right?

00:29:28 ◼   ► They keep bringing it out for every case.

00:29:30 ◼   ► I'm paying you a fee. It's well within my rights to not pay you anything else because you make it possible for me to do so.

00:29:37 ◼   ► But like they keep, every time there's one of these situations, they keep bringing this wording out, right?

00:29:44 ◼   ► Yeah, I know. Yeah.

00:29:45 ◼   ► And so this was clearly some kind of tone change and now they keep bringing it up all the time.

00:29:53 ◼   ► And it's disconcerting, I think.

00:29:58 ◼   ► Couple more things.

00:30:00 ◼   ► So the big issue here, of course, is that Apple doesn't allow developers to offer their

00:30:06 ◼   ► own payment systems.

00:30:09 ◼   ► And I see a lot of people saying, "Well, this is because Apple wants to keep the security

00:30:16 ◼   ► of the platform and they don't want you to submit your payment information elsewhere

00:30:20 ◼   ► and they want you to use the secure in-app purchase system."

00:30:25 ◼   ► Now, I do agree that In-App purchases are potentially more secure, and I will tell you,

00:30:31 ◼   ► more comfortable to use than other things, right? Because all my info is already on file

00:30:36 ◼   ► and everything else. But, like, all other types of computers, they let you run games

00:30:45 ◼   ► and apps that you can just pay for stuff anywhere. Like, there's like this thing called e-commerce,

00:30:52 ◼   ► which is like an entire industry that's been around for like 30 years and it's fine and

00:30:57 ◼   ► people buy stuff online all the time. Like I don't get like this security scare that

00:31:03 ◼   ► some people would like you to convince that it's real. Yes, it's real. Some people get

00:31:07 ◼   ► their credit cards stolen and cloned and whatever, but like that happens in everyday life as

00:31:13 ◼   ► well. Like it's not like Apple is sort of just suddenly saving you from this thing called

00:31:21 ◼   ► purchasing goods online. Like, people do it all the time. It's not something that doesn't

00:31:27 ◼   ► exist outside of the App Store. And second thing, I think it's kind of funny how a lot

00:31:36 ◼   ► of people appreciate the Mac because in addition to the App Store, it lets you install apps

00:31:46 ◼   ► from outside sources. And this feature of the Mac Gatekeeper is often celebrated as

00:31:53 ◼   ► one of the most important advantages over iOS and iPadOS. And so sometimes that feature

00:32:01 ◼   ► is great, but now when it comes to Apple and Epic, it's not. And I don't get this double

00:32:09 ◼   ► standard because either you think it's a great feature to have or you don't think it is,

00:32:13 ◼   ► Or you think it's only great to have when it's convenient to think so.

00:32:17 ◼   ► I think it's about time that the Mac became a console.

00:32:20 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:32:21 ◼   ► So, if you follow that logic, either the Mac needs to become a console, or Gatekeeper needs

00:32:28 ◼   ► to come to iOS, which would be about time, right?

00:32:32 ◼   ► You think about time, that's what you say on that?

00:32:36 ◼   ► That's something you want.

00:32:37 ◼   ► You want to install applications for iOS.

00:32:39 ◼   ► Absolutely, yes.

00:32:40 ◼   ► like two weeks ago when the lawsuit came out, I started tweeting about

00:32:47 ◼   ► like the debate, like this is my basic, my ultimate conclusion is why doesn't Gatekeeper

00:32:55 ◼   ► exist on iOS? Like it would solve so many problems and all of this would just go away and you would

00:32:59 ◼   ► have a secure, if you care about security, you would have a secure system that lets you install apps,

00:33:05 ◼   ► that lets Apple revoke those apps, and we could argue about that and whether that's fair, we can

00:33:09 ◼   ► We can talk about Gatekeeper, but that's another topic.

00:33:12 ◼   ► But that would solve a lot of problems, right?

00:33:14 ◼   ► Just like it's a popular and widely used solution

00:33:19 ◼   ► on the Mac made and controlled by Apple,

00:33:24 ◼   ► it would exist on iOS and iPadOS as well.

00:33:27 ◼   ► And then I started read, so I tweeted that,

00:33:31 ◼   ► and then I started reading the lawsuit,

00:33:32 ◼   ► and sure enough, which by the way,

00:33:34 ◼   ► the first few pages of the lawsuit,

00:33:35 ◼   ► if you haven't read those, I highly recommend you do,

00:33:38 ◼   ► because I really think that Apple's lawyers,

00:33:40 ◼   ► the Epic's lawyers, they make a really cogent

00:33:43 ◼   ► and well thought out case.

00:33:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, I've seen a lot of people say that

00:33:49 ◼   ► that is purposeful.

00:33:51 ◼   ► So this is not how lawsuits are typically written

00:33:57 ◼   ► to be so clear.

00:33:59 ◼   ► And the thinking is because they want people to read it,

00:34:04 ◼   ► like me and you, and understand it.

00:34:07 ◼   ► Sure enough, one of their points is Apple already makes a solution for their other computers,

00:34:14 ◼   ► which is called Gatekeeper, that lets you install apps from other sources.

00:34:18 ◼   ► And we ask that this kind of feature should also exist on iOS and iPadOS.

00:34:22 ◼   ► And you can get defensive about this whole thing, right?

00:34:29 ◼   ► And if you like Apple...

00:34:30 ◼   ► We all like Apple.

00:34:31 ◼   ► We all buy...

00:34:32 ◼   ► If you listen to the show...

00:34:33 ◼   ► We love the company.

00:34:34 ◼   ► We love the company.

00:34:35 ◼   ► We don't like...

00:34:36 ◼   ► I love my iPhone, I love my iPad. I mean, it's, you know, it made my career possible.

00:34:41 ◼   ► But some things, personally, I feel like, some things you just, you get a feel that they're not right.

00:34:50 ◼   ► And I don't feel like this whole saga is, it doesn't feel right for Apple to go after all

00:35:00 ◼   ► all these developers and to take this stance on the whole thing. It just doesn't feel right.

00:35:08 ◼   ► It doesn't feel like it's the best thing for consumers to do. Like, why can I not play

00:35:13 ◼   ► Fortnite because Epic wanted me to pay through their own store and you get upset because

00:35:21 ◼   ► then you don't get 30%. Well, now what? Now you got millions of people upset because they

00:35:26 ◼   ► don't get to play Fortnite on their iPhones. What's the preferable situation? What do you

00:35:31 ◼   ► think? Getting that cut from Epic or now having millions of kids upset and angry because their

00:35:38 ◼   ► iPhone doesn't get Fortnite anymore? It does feel like a very short-sighted stance to me.

00:35:49 ◼   ► And the right thing to do would just to treat iPhones and iPads like computers, with the

00:35:55 ◼   ► same respect and the same open mind that you treat Macs, and stop with this argument that

00:36:05 ◼   ► iPhones and iPads are consoles. It doesn't really make much sense. They are computers.

00:36:10 ◼   ► They are essential utilities for people who use them as their primary devices for communications,

00:36:15 ◼   ► for phone calls, for emergencies, for work, for entertainment, for all kinds of things

00:36:20 ◼   ► in a way that even exceeds what people use regular computers these days.

00:36:27 ◼   ► Some people use their... a lot of people use their iPhones and iPads with more and with much more

00:36:36 ◼   ► sensitive and important data than they use their laptops. And yet, the laptops get more freedom and

00:36:44 ◼   ► more flexibility. And I don't really get it. And I think it's time for this to change. And I think

00:36:49 ◼   ► If time will not change this, and if the company itself will not change it, then governments will.

00:36:57 ◼   ► And I think it'll come to that eventually.

00:36:59 ◼   ► In Ben Thompson's free article that went up yesterday called "Rethinking the App Store in

00:37:06 ◼   ► Chitackery", he linked to a tweet from Francisco Tomalski, who was on the original iPhone team,

00:37:14 ◼   ► working on mobile Safari and Francisco says something which has kind of blew my mind a little bit

00:37:20 ◼   ► Apple's iOS rules would not have allowed for the invention of the web browser

00:37:24 ◼   ► And then the follow-up part of that is like think of all the amazing ideas that haven't gotten a chance to be invented because they

00:37:34 ◼   ► Aren't allowed on mobile devices mosaic happened less than 10 years after the Macintosh

00:37:39 ◼   ► We very well could have had a browser caliber level invention by now

00:37:43 ◼   ► I mean, it's stretching things to quite a degree, but it's a fantastic point that

00:37:51 ◼   ► an app like Safari, if Safari didn't exist, if web browsers didn't exist, you wouldn't

00:38:00 ◼   ► be able to have that on iOS.

00:38:03 ◼   ► And think of all of everything, right?

00:38:08 ◼   ► We all have our own opinions on this, and my overriding opinion, because really there

00:38:12 ◼   ► are two things going on, multiple things going on here, like monitor, you've got the

00:38:15 ◼   ► Epic thing but you've also got like should Apple be allowed to say which

00:38:19 ◼   ► applications can even run on the phone and if you agree that they can should

00:38:23 ◼   ► they be able to take 30% of every transaction right like and these are all

00:38:28 ◼   ► of the different questions these are going to keep coming up like if you're

00:38:32 ◼   ► bored of this topic like you're in for a long six months right because like it's

00:38:36 ◼   ► going this is the thing now this is the thing where everyone's gonna keep

00:38:39 ◼   ► talking about. It was keyboards for a while, we've got this. I think there is no

00:38:44 ◼   ► argument that this is much more important than keyboards, but nevertheless

00:38:48 ◼   ► here we are. But my feeling, the thing that I keep coming back to is I do not

00:38:54 ◼   ► believe that Apple has the right to tell all these businesses how to do business.

00:38:57 ◼   ► Mm-hmm. That's my feeling. And I just don't think that they have or should

00:39:05 ◼   ► have the power to be able to dictate terms to every company on the planet.

00:39:12 ◼   ► So, nevertheless, yeah.

00:39:14 ◼   ► Yeah, and I agree with it, and it's a shame to think about, again, all the ideas and all

00:39:22 ◼   ► the apps that could have existed, that could exist, without these rules.

00:39:29 ◼   ► And again, as far as the Apple community goes, I think the arguing that sometimes iPhones

00:39:40 ◼   ► are computers, but now they are consoles, I think it's kind of funny.

00:39:45 ◼   ► And I think it's a fascinating phenomenon, really.

00:39:49 ◼   ► I think they are computers, they should be treated like computers.

00:39:54 ◼   ► They already are treated as such by us, but not by the company that makes them.

00:40:00 ◼   ► But only when it's convenient to do so.

00:40:03 ◼   ► So this is just, you know, I look at this from the outside and I just think that it's

00:40:10 ◼   ► a sad story.

00:40:12 ◼   ► Like, the most, arguably, one of the most popular video games on the planet cannot run

00:40:21 ◼   ► on the iPhone right now, cannot be downloaded on the iPhone. And I just think it's sad,

00:40:27 ◼   ► because of what? Because of being able to purchase game stuff inside the game without

00:40:35 ◼   ► using enough purchases. Like that, you look at it from the outside, you try to explain

00:40:40 ◼   ► that to a friend who doesn't follow Apple blogs and podcasts, and they're gonna tell

00:40:44 ◼   ► you why though. The game that was already the most popular game in the world before

00:40:49 ◼   ► they launched the iOS version. But for some reason, Apple now believes that they have

00:40:54 ◼   ► an entitlement to 30% of every transaction that goes through the system.

00:40:59 ◼   ► Because Epic was able to distribute the binary for that game through the App Store. I mean,

00:41:06 ◼   ► thanks! Sure, that entitles you to 30%. Yeah, I just think this is sad, and it doesn't feel

00:41:15 ◼   ► right. Some things you get a feel for, this doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel

00:41:20 ◼   ► right that Apple is going after Hey and WordPress and all the

00:41:23 ◼   ► other developers that don't have the resources or the following to speak out

00:41:29 ◼   ► and to actually say this is what App Review told me. So many are just

00:41:35 ◼   ► afraid and scared of the retaliatory behavior that may occur

00:41:39 ◼   ► later and they never tell you the things that happen behind the scenes. And if

00:41:45 ◼   ► If you're Apple and if you are a developer evangelist, if you work on this stuff, if

00:41:49 ◼   ► you manage the apps, are you sure you fostered a healthy, competitive, successful environment?

00:41:58 ◼   ► Or do you just have a marketplace which is dominated by fear and by having to follow

00:42:07 ◼   ► these rules?

00:42:09 ◼   ► Because these things, in the long term, they usually end up with somebody else coming onto

00:42:17 ◼   ► the scene and saying, "Hey, we also have a marketplace for you, and we don't have all

00:42:23 ◼   ► these problems.

00:42:24 ◼   ► Come aboard."

00:42:26 ◼   ► And I think it's in your best interest to make sure that you keep your developer community

00:42:30 ◼   ► happy and not scared and competitive, right?

00:42:36 ◼   ► So I don't know.

00:42:37 ◼   ► Maybe this will not be a problem in a month, it will not be a problem in a year, but I

00:42:43 ◼   ► don't know, maybe in five years, maybe in ten years, this will turn out to be a big

00:42:46 ◼   ► mistake.

00:42:48 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:42:49 ◼   ► I just feel like if you're managing a store, you want to make sure that the folks who make

00:42:52 ◼   ► stuff for the store are happy, not turning against you.

00:42:58 ◼   ► But what do I know?

00:42:59 ◼   ► I'm not a lawyer, so.

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00:44:41 ◼   ► Airpower!

00:44:42 ◼   ► Okay, are we talking about Airpower again?

00:44:46 ◼   ► We are talking about Airpower again.

00:44:48 ◼   ► This mostly comes from the fact that Nomad, which is an accessory maker who I believe

00:44:54 ◼   ► you are a fan of I think you have some Nomad products right? I do I do I have two

00:45:01 ◼   ► in my apartment two wireless Nomad wireless charging pads and one that I

00:45:09 ◼   ► gave to my mom so she's also using one. So I think the one that most people have

00:45:14 ◼   ► including you I think is called the base station right where it's like or it may

00:45:21 ◼   ► at least have been it's like something like that it's yeah they have one called

00:45:24 ◼   ► the base station, which is a very good looking, like just a pad with a leather backing on

00:45:31 ◼   ► it, like a cover on it, and you put your devices on it and it can charge multiple devices at

00:45:36 ◼   ► once, right? That's its thing. You can do a couple and you can put it in a couple of

00:45:41 ◼   ► different angles. Well, they have partnered with a company called Aira, Aira? A-I-R-A,

00:45:51 ◼   ► say Aera because that's probably what they're going for.

00:45:55 ◼   ► Who have created a technology called FreePower and these two companies have partnered and

00:46:04 ◼   ► they've made the base, like the Nomad BaseStation Pro.

00:46:09 ◼   ► Now what's interesting about this product is it's basically what we wanted AirPower

00:46:13 ◼   ► to be.

00:46:14 ◼   ► You put your device down and it will charge it wherever you put it on the mat in whatever

00:46:18 ◼   ► orientation and it will take multiple devices at a time like as many as you can fit on there

00:46:23 ◼   ► basically like two or three devices. Apparently I was watching a video that iJustine made about

00:46:27 ◼   ► this it's really power efficient as well because Qi charging when you have something on it's

00:46:32 ◼   ► basically the entire mat is like doing its thing right but with this error technology it just

00:46:39 ◼   ► powers up the area underneath where the device is which is kind of smart and makes sense I guess.

00:46:46 ◼   ► this product doesn't yet work with the Apple Watch.

00:46:49 ◼   ► They don't have one of those little things you can plug in.

00:46:52 ◼   ► And also the Apple Watch isn't Qi.

00:46:54 ◼   ► But apparently Nomads say they're "working on a solution for 2021."

00:46:58 ◼   ► I don't know what that means.

00:46:59 ◼   ► Either A, they're hoping that the Apple Watch goes Qi,

00:47:02 ◼   ► or they're going to work out some kind of add-on

00:47:05 ◼   ► like they have with the regular base station.

00:47:07 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:47:07 ◼   ► So this thing is a partnership,

00:47:10 ◼   ► which means that Aera could and will use this technology in other products.

00:47:15 ◼   ► but it's a pretty interesting thing, like it's doing what we wanted AirPower to do

00:47:22 ◼   ► there was a Bloomberg report about this company and stuff like that in which it

00:47:27 ◼   ► was mentioned by Mark Gurman that Apple is actually apparently still working on

00:47:32 ◼   ► a less ambitious charger. Less ambitious? Okay. Than AirPower. So less ambitious

00:47:38 ◼   ► means you can just place your iPhone in AirPods but not the Apple Watch? I guess

00:47:43 ◼   ► I don't know what it means, you know. Well, so here's the thing. Did you see that article from MacRumors?

00:47:48 ◼   ► It was... With the photos? Yeah, it was some screenshots taken from a video from a

00:47:55 ◼   ► leaker

00:47:57 ◼   ► Who apparently got their hands on some prototype hardware for airpower?

00:48:02 ◼   ► Yeah. That looks far too complicated. That looks wild.

00:48:06 ◼   ► It looks scary with all those chips and coils. Like it looks

00:48:12 ◼   ► kind of scary. That looks super complex.

00:48:14 ◼   ► - Like when you compare, so like I've seen some imagery

00:48:17 ◼   ► of the inside, like you can see it on the Nomad website

00:48:21 ◼   ► actually, the Aeropad looks complicated, but nowhere

00:48:25 ◼   ► near as scary looking as the inside of this apparent

00:48:28 ◼   ► airplane.

00:48:29 ◼   ► - Like it's just a bunch of coils, right?

00:48:32 ◼   ► It's not like a honeycomb of circuits and coils.

00:48:37 ◼   ► Like that looks super complex.

00:48:40 ◼   ► So less ambitious, I mean, the big problem that Apple faced,

00:48:45 ◼   ► I guess, was the promise of placing anywhere

00:48:48 ◼   ► and making it work both for Qi devices and the Apple Watch.

00:48:53 ◼   ► So something has to give there, right?

00:48:55 ◼   ► Either you cannot place devices anywhere on the pad,

00:48:59 ◼   ► but you have like precise zones where you can put them,

00:49:02 ◼   ► or it doesn't support the Apple Watch.

00:49:05 ◼   ► So it's Qi only, and it's essentially something

00:49:07 ◼   ► like the Nomad base station,

00:49:08 ◼   ► which I'll tell you, it's fine.

00:49:10 ◼   ► It does its job.

00:49:11 ◼   ► It could support a wider area,

00:49:15 ◼   ► but it's fine once you get used to it.

00:49:17 ◼   ► I place my iPhone on it every night

00:49:19 ◼   ► and I place my AirPods on it every day,

00:49:21 ◼   ► and it's fine.

00:49:22 ◼   ► It gets the job done.

00:49:24 ◼   ► I feel like a wireless charger,

00:49:26 ◼   ► it's not something that you're supposed to love.

00:49:29 ◼   ► It's something that it's supposed to work,

00:49:31 ◼   ► and work easy enough and get out of the way.

00:49:35 ◼   ► Like it's not something that needs to be too fancy

00:49:38 ◼   ► or like too complex for its own good,

00:49:40 ◼   ► supposed to be efficient and convenient

00:49:43 ◼   ► and disappear in the background.

00:49:45 ◼   ► And so less ambitious, I mean,

00:49:48 ◼   ► if they do one that doesn't support the Apple Watch,

00:49:50 ◼   ► but it's like a standalone watch thing,

00:49:52 ◼   ► like my Nomad base station has like

00:49:55 ◼   ► a standalone watch charger on the side, and that's fine.

00:49:58 ◼   ► I can just please.

00:49:59 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:50:00 ◼   ► - I mean, it's okay. - If Apple made a charger,

00:50:02 ◼   ► I would prefer them to just like not do anything

00:50:05 ◼   ► with the Apple Watch, like just like whatever.

00:50:07 ◼   ► I'll tell you though, it's nice because when you place it down like that, it supports nightstand mode.

00:50:13 ◼   ► I know.

00:50:13 ◼   ► So you can tap the watch and you can see the time at night.

00:50:17 ◼   ► It's like a little, like, wart on the side of your charger.

00:50:21 ◼   ► It's kind of like that. So, I don't know, do we know if this era thing has a fan?

00:50:28 ◼   ► Remember when I purchased one?

00:50:29 ◼   ► Yeah, the terrifying one with the fan in it.

00:50:32 ◼   ► With the fan in it, super thick.

00:50:34 ◼   ► It doesn't look like it from their photos. It doesn't seem like it does.

00:50:38 ◼   ► And I guess the power efficiency of this one, if it is truly more power efficient, like they say,

00:50:46 ◼   ► would mean that maybe it wouldn't need a fan as such because it's not like putting out so much

00:50:52 ◼   ► energy like that one that you bought. What was that called? Do you remember?

00:50:55 ◼   ► I don't remember.

00:50:56 ◼   ► It had some crazy name. It had like the clear top to it. You could get that version as well,

00:51:01 ◼   ► where you could look at all the terrifying coils.

00:51:03 ◼   ► What was it called? We talked about it.

00:51:06 ◼   ► We've spoken about it many times. Maybe the Discord will come up with an answer for us.

00:51:10 ◼   ► But this BaseStation Pro costs $230.

00:51:14 ◼   ► Okay.

00:51:16 ◼   ► Seems like a lot of money for a charger.

00:51:19 ◼   ► It's not cheap.

00:51:21 ◼   ► So like, when I saw it, I was like...

00:51:23 ◼   ► Can't you buy a Nintendo Switch with that amount of money?

00:51:25 ◼   ► Yeah, probably.

00:51:27 ◼   ► Like, when I saw it, like I watched the iJustine video about it.

00:51:31 ◼   ► it was the first thing and then saw all the articles about it. I was like, "Oh, you know,

00:51:36 ◼   ► I might get one of these, put it in my studio, like it's like a useful thing, you know, you

00:51:41 ◼   ► can throw the occasional thing on there to charge, like whatever." And then I was like,

00:51:45 ◼   ► "I don't want it $230 a minute, like that's not, I don't want that." Like, I'll see if

00:51:53 ◼   ► people like it and then hope that they have a future product where it's a bit cheaper.

00:51:57 ◼   ► I don't want to pay $230 for a charger for my iPhone.

00:52:01 ◼   ► Yeah, but in the Discord they're saying if it had the Apple logo on it, you would actually get it right away.

00:52:07 ◼   ► And that's the issue, right?

00:52:08 ◼   ► No, I wouldn't.

00:52:09 ◼   ► We're suckers like that.

00:52:11 ◼   ► I don't think I would have bought an AirPower, Matt, either.

00:52:14 ◼   ► But if Apple made it and it was $230, I still wouldn't buy it, because I don't want that type of product so much.

00:52:21 ◼   ► Honestly, I gotta tell you that I would, but there's a reason for that.

00:52:25 ◼   ► that it's because I know that if I get the Apple version,

00:52:28 ◼   ► it's gonna support that kind of system integration

00:52:31 ◼   ► that I don't get anywhere else.

00:52:33 ◼   ► It's like, why would you buy AirPods

00:52:35 ◼   ► over other wireless earbuds that maybe cost even less?

00:52:38 ◼   ► And that's exactly the reason why,

00:52:40 ◼   ► because with AirPods, I get to use system integrations

00:52:43 ◼   ► like Siri, for example, or like now the multi-device pairing

00:52:48 ◼   ► and the charging notifications in iOS 14,

00:52:51 ◼   ► All that stuff I don't get with third-party wireless earbuds.

00:52:56 ◼   ► So that's why sometimes I like to pay more

00:53:01 ◼   ► for the Apple version, because that's part of the reason

00:53:06 ◼   ► why we love Apple products.

00:53:07 ◼   ► It's that kind of integration between different things.

00:53:10 ◼   ► But that amount of money for a third-party accessory

00:53:14 ◼   ► does not, likely does not integrate as well.

00:53:20 ◼   ► It's a bit much. It's a bit much.

00:53:23 ◼   ► So, yeah, honestly though, I don't have a lot of feelings about wireless chargers.

00:53:31 ◼   ► Like, I feel like AirPower has become one of those things that we remember fondly,

00:53:37 ◼   ► only because of its demise and because of the whole saga.

00:53:42 ◼   ► Like, we care about AirPower more because of the whole story than the actual product itself.

00:53:49 ◼   ► And in fact, I think that most people wouldn't actually care about AirPower.

00:53:52 ◼   ► Like, we like to talk about it and to discuss it.

00:53:55 ◼   ► Because it's a fun, weird story.

00:53:59 ◼   ► Remember all the times where AirPower could be spotted in, like, instruction manuals or Apple.com?

00:54:06 ◼   ► Like, that was fun.

00:54:08 ◼   ► It was fun to dig around and predict is it coming out or not.

00:54:12 ◼   ► But actually, it's just a charger, you know?

00:54:15 ◼   ► It's not like a new iPhone.

00:54:17 ◼   ► It's not like, I mean, headphones are more exciting than AirPower.

00:54:21 ◼   ► Where are the headphones? Give me the headphones.

00:54:24 ◼   ► I will tell you, Myke, that just this morning, I came this close.

00:54:29 ◼   ► And you cannot see me, but I'm pinching my fingers.

00:54:31 ◼   ► I can imagine you were showing a small, like you were like, you have your arms like far, far apart.

00:54:37 ◼   ► I was this close.

00:54:39 ◼   ► I was this close.

00:54:40 ◼   ► I imagined it was a finger type thing.

00:54:41 ◼   ► So clicking the buy button on Amazon.com for the new Sony headphones.

00:54:47 ◼   ► I've thought about it too. The MKBHD video really made me want them.

00:54:52 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

00:54:54 ◼   ► Because they look really good.

00:54:55 ◼   ► I have the previous ones, but I really love two features of the new model.

00:55:01 ◼   ► The multi-device pairing and the wear detection.

00:55:05 ◼   ► So when you remove your headphones from your ears, music stops.

00:55:10 ◼   ► That's something that I really want. Incidentally, that's also something that Apple is rumored to be working on.

00:55:15 ◼   ► automatic wear detection.

00:55:18 ◼   ► And I saw that these phones are not available on Amazon Italy, but amazon.com is shipping to Italy.

00:55:26 ◼   ► And I was right there and then I thought, well, what if the new AirPods Studio come on in like a couple weeks?

00:55:34 ◼   ► HeadPods.

00:55:36 ◼   ► HeadPods, AirPods Studio, whatever.

00:55:39 ◼   ► And so I was able to stop myself from doing that.

00:55:44 ◼   ► But I may not have the same willpower in a couple days.

00:55:49 ◼   ► We'll see.

00:55:50 ◼   ► Or if I have one too many drinks, one dinner.

00:55:53 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:55:54 ◼   ► I really want them.

00:55:55 ◼   ► I really want them.

00:55:57 ◼   ► But so far I'm being a good boy and being patient.

00:56:00 ◼   ► - I really want some over-ear headphones made by Apple.

00:56:07 ◼   ► I really want those because I love my AirPods Pro so much.

00:56:11 ◼   ► And if they can give me that experience

00:56:13 ◼   ► with even better noise canceling or whatever, I'm in.

00:56:17 ◼   ► 'Cause here's one of the things that has stopped me

00:56:20 ◼   ► with the Sonys is I never liked noise cancellation

00:56:25 ◼   ► until I tried the AirPods.

00:56:27 ◼   ► Every other noise cancellation product that I tried

00:56:30 ◼   ► made me feel kind of uneasy.

00:56:32 ◼   ► And so it's very possible that if Apple's over ear

00:56:37 ◼   ► headphones, if they're more aggressive like I might not like it. So we'll have to see on that one.

00:56:42 ◼   ► But it makes me hesit- it's like another reason I'm hesitant to like to get another product in case

00:56:49 ◼   ► I end up not liking that, where I feel like I maybe have more of a chance of liking Apple's

00:56:55 ◼   ► interpretation on over ear headphones because they're the only ones that I've ever found

00:56:59 ◼   ► comfortable before. So we'll see. But I yeah I really want that product.

00:57:06 ◼   ► Yeah, so we haven't heard any new rumors lately.

00:57:11 ◼   ► No, no, it's kind of where we left it of like it's a product that's coming and coming this year

00:57:17 ◼   ► is what all the rumors say, but who knows anymore man.

00:57:21 ◼   ► It's gonna be an expensive fall I guess.

00:57:24 ◼   ► Yeah, like if you are, as you as in a person going to catch them all, you could be looking at like

00:57:34 ◼   ► a wireless charger, some over-ear headphones, an iPhone, potentially an iPad Pro and a new Mac.

00:57:42 ◼   ► Yeah it's a lot of money. It's a lot of different things. And I mean for sure I will get the charger

00:57:50 ◼   ► and the headphones and the phone. So I'm already staring down at like 2000 euros at the very least.

00:57:56 ◼   ► Fun times. This is what we do with the money that we saved by not going to the WVDC.

00:58:03 ◼   ► That is a very good excuse that I will reuse at home. Thank you.

00:58:09 ◼   ► I've been thinking about that. Like the money that I had set aside

00:58:12 ◼   ► to travel this year, like to go to San Jose, will more than pay for the devices that I buy later on.

00:58:19 ◼   ► Right. You could even argue that you could buy two iPhones with that money.

00:58:23 ◼   ► I mean I don't know why you would need to make that argument, but like you could make that argument.

00:58:27 ◼   ► But it could be made. It's like an argument that could be made.

00:58:30 ◼   ► You could make it, yes. I mean, you could also make the argument you could buy 10 sets of AirPods.

00:58:35 ◼   ► Like, these are arguments you can make, but you don't need to make them unless there is a reason

00:58:40 ◼   ► that you feel you need two iPhones. So let me ask you this. Does Adina still leave AirPods

00:58:47 ◼   ► randomly around the house? Everywhere. Oh my god. And she has two sets. You need to do something about it.

00:58:52 ◼   ► I don't know if I told you the story, but Adina lost her AirPods because she lost her bag.

00:58:58 ◼   ► And so I am a good husband.

00:59:02 ◼   ► And I was like, there's no way that I will let you go back to your old AirPods.

00:59:06 ◼   ► Adina is currently listening to the live stream, by the way.

00:59:09 ◼   ► So she's now upset in the Discord that I'm telling this story.

00:59:14 ◼   ► So I was like, I am a good husband, and I will not allow you to go back to regular AirPods

00:59:18 ◼   ► after experiencing AirPods Pro, because we both really value the noise cancellation,

00:59:24 ◼   ► because when someone's doing something loud in the house, you can just like tune them out, right?

00:59:28 ◼   ► you're in your own world. So I was like I will buy you some more AirPods Pro.

00:59:35 ◼   ► Some more? Another set. I will buy you a plethora of AirPods Pro. So I bought her another pair of AirPods Pro. Then we were out

00:59:47 ◼   ► basically she lost her bag in a restaurant and it was handed in at the

00:59:51 ◼   ► restaurant and she went to get it and nobody had taken the AirPods out which I

00:59:56 ◼   ► I will never understand in my life why somebody didn't steal the AirPods when they handed it in, but I'm very thankful that they didn't.

01:00:02 ◼   ► So she now has two pairs of AirPods Pro.

01:00:04 ◼   ► Okay.

01:00:05 ◼   ► But what that means is that there are two cases and four AirPods that can just find themselves anywhere in the house.

01:00:11 ◼   ► Just like anywhere at all times.

01:00:14 ◼   ► I'm not kidding you. I woke up two days ago

01:00:17 ◼   ► from bed. I sat up on one of her AirPods fell off my stomach. This is the kind of life that I'm living. They're everywhere.

01:00:25 ◼   ► Everywhere in the house like bugs

01:00:28 ◼   ► I'm like swatting them away from me at all times

01:00:31 ◼   ► they just like they can be anywhere at all times and

01:00:36 ◼   ► When so when we come to the studio, which is very nice

01:00:39 ◼   ► She brings both sets with her which I don't fully understand

01:00:42 ◼   ► But I think it's the idea of that because there's no real management as the AirPods Pro

01:00:47 ◼   ► They could have any level of battery life. So she takes one set

01:00:50 ◼   ► She's gonna take both sets because who knows where they are or what's in war or what combination they are

01:00:55 ◼   ► are. So I do I am fascinated by this sort of a hippie AirPods lifestyle. Yeah.

01:01:04 ◼   ► It's very fascinating to me to just leave them out randomly. Just anywhere they

01:01:09 ◼   ► could be. Having two pairs like it's it's a very interesting behavior. I am sorry

01:01:17 ◼   ► Myke that you need to you know wake it waking up to AirPods falling on top of

01:01:22 ◼   ► you that that one was particularly hilarious also now they're they're

01:01:28 ◼   ► physically on me now then they're not just just around the house

01:01:33 ◼   ► they're everywhere airports so I'm using I don't know if I told you I've been

01:01:39 ◼   ► using the comply foam tips the official ones for the I got those and tried them

01:01:45 ◼   ► once and wasn't that keen on it okay interesting so I am liking them I've

01:01:51 ◼   ► I've been using them for the past month.

01:01:54 ◼   ► Almost, yeah, it's been about a month.

01:01:55 ◼   ► I like them.

01:01:58 ◼   ► They do what I expected them to do.

01:02:01 ◼   ► But one of them is already kind of sort of falling apart,

01:02:07 ◼   ► the foam.

01:02:10 ◼   ► - That was part of why I opened them, I tried them,

01:02:15 ◼   ► and I immediately thought,

01:02:16 ◼   ► these are going to get incredibly gross, incredibly fast,

01:02:21 ◼   ► And I don't think I want that in my life.

01:02:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, I've been taking good care of them.

01:02:30 ◼   ► I've been cleaning them every day.

01:02:33 ◼   ► I mean, I have other foam tapes on my other in-ear

01:02:36 ◼   ► headbuds.

01:02:39 ◼   ► What's it called?

01:02:41 ◼   ► - Earphones. - The Sony one.

01:02:42 ◼   ► Yeah. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:02:43 ◼   ► Your wild Sony ones, right?

01:02:45 ◼   ► - Yeah, the in-ear Sony earbuds,

01:02:47 ◼   ► which are like not earbuds.

01:02:49 ◼   ► Well, anyway, that's it.

01:02:50 ◼   ► Are they the balanced ones?

01:02:52 ◼   ► So those are the headphones, but I also have the balanced earbuds.

01:02:56 ◼   ► It's like, yeah, they're made of silver. It's like a whole thing.

01:03:00 ◼   ► Anyway, I do know my way around the foam tip, is what I'm saying.

01:03:06 ◼   ► And these ones for the AirPods Pro, they are deteriorating faster than usual,

01:03:13 ◼   ► compared to other foam tips. So I don't know.

01:03:16 ◼   ► know. Maybe it's the taking them out of the case every day that doesn't help, you know, with the

01:03:21 ◼   ► friction and everything, I don't know. But I like them, which is a shame. Well, I mean, it makes sense,

01:03:26 ◼   ► though, that a foam would degrade faster than a silicone rubber. Yes, yeah, but I think also the

01:03:34 ◼   ► fact that I'm, like, you touch AirPods a lot, right, when you take them out of the case, put them back

01:03:42 ◼   ► into the case. Like, they are... I don't know, they just feel like an object that goes through

01:03:47 ◼   ► more friction than normal, and because of that I feel the foam is degrading more quickly

01:03:55 ◼   ► than usual because of that. Because I am, like, managing them more, I guess. I don't

01:04:02 ◼   ► know. But I like them, so what I will probably end up doing is continuing to buy more sets

01:04:06 ◼   ► over time because I do prefer the way they defeat my ears better than the silicon ones.

01:04:13 ◼   ► Well, I have some extra sets if you want them. I just sent them to you.

01:04:18 ◼   ► Are they used? No.

01:04:19 ◼   ► Okay. No, because I also bought the wrong size at first and then bought the right size.

01:04:24 ◼   ► Ah, yes, yes, you do these things. You do these things.

01:04:25 ◼   ► But never use the right size ones. They're just in the boxes.

01:04:29 ◼   ► Otherwise, I will just get a Comply subscription. I don't know. Is there something like Club Comply

01:04:35 ◼   ► that I can subscribe to and get my...

01:04:37 ◼   ► You should contact them about that.

01:04:39 ◼   ► I will become a happy subscriber.

01:04:41 ◼   ► Yeah, I've been using them.

01:04:44 ◼   ► However, I don't leave them around the house.

01:04:46 ◼   ► I'll tell you that much that I don't do.

01:04:49 ◼   ► Because you're a civilized individual.

01:04:51 ◼   ► This episode is brought to you by Pingdom from SolarWinds.

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01:06:20 ◼   ► So surprise, beta 6 of iOS 14 dropped I think it was yesterday, but we only had beta 5 last

01:06:30 ◼   ► week that that was a surprise to me. Well is it a surprise though? Well it was to me.

01:06:35 ◼   ► I mean you can give me your statistics and your information that you have

01:06:40 ◼   ► but I was at least surprised. I have been doing my research and here I am bringing

01:06:46 ◼   ► you hot facts from the internet. Okay. So obviously because of the review that I'm

01:06:55 ◼   ► writing, as in like every year, I need to get a sense of where we're at in terms of schedule and

01:07:02 ◼   ► beta releases. So while I was at the beach, I did this very useful research on previous schedules

01:07:12 ◼   ► and beta releases for older versions of iOS. And specifically I took a look at last year and

01:07:19 ◼   ► the year before as a sort of point of reference. So right now in 2020 we are basically almost

01:07:29 ◼   ► 20 days, 18 days to be exact. We're tracking 18 days behind last year's beta schedule. Not a

01:07:39 ◼   ► surprise if you consider that WWDC was also almost 20 days later than usual this time. So for example,

01:07:49 ◼   ► So, last year, iOS 13, beta 5 was the last one to come out after two weeks since the previous beta.

01:08:00 ◼   ► In 2019, iOS 13 beta 6 came out a week after beta 5.

01:08:08 ◼   ► It was the first beta to switch to the weekly release schedule, and it came out on, I believe, August 7th, 2019.

01:08:17 ◼   ► So I was taking a look at this year's calendar and I thought,

01:08:23 ◼   ► I have a pretty good feeling that they're going to release beta 6 today.

01:08:27 ◼   ► And if they do, this is going to be the one that switches to a weekly release cycle.

01:08:31 ◼   ► Where do you have this recorded?

01:08:33 ◼   ► Ha! So, well, there's this thing called Google, first of all.

01:08:37 ◼   ► Ah, okay.

01:08:38 ◼   ► Google old articles.

01:08:40 ◼   ► But no, seriously, there's this excellent, really, really, really excellent website

01:08:45 ◼   ► made by a good friend Will Haynes, thinkibits.com,

01:08:52 ◼   ► Will put together years ago a page called "iOS version release date history".

01:08:59 ◼   ► This is nice.

01:09:00 ◼   ► It's very nice, and you can see, here's the other hot fact for you, Myke.

01:09:05 ◼   ► In recent years, all major new versions, so the .0 version of iOS,

01:09:13 ◼   ► us, with the exception of iOS 10, but we all know that iOS 10 was boring. All of them.

01:09:20 ◼   ► Do we? Is that a thing we all know?

01:09:23 ◼   ► We all know.

01:09:24 ◼   ► What was so boring about it?

01:09:26 ◼   ► Exactly. You don't even remember.

01:09:28 ◼   ► Okay, but like, all right. Okay, I get you. All right, fine.

01:09:35 ◼   ► I mean, it was okay, but it was the iMessage App Store, that kind of stuff.

01:09:40 ◼   ► Oh, was that the Apple Music here?

01:09:42 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah. Drake on stage.

01:09:44 ◼   ► Oh, yeah, that one was a disaster. Yeah, that was a bad one.

01:09:47 ◼   ► So, all... Here's the number that you're seeking.

01:09:51 ◼   ► All recent versions of iOS have been in beta for at least 100 days.

01:10:00 ◼   ► Okay? Beta for at least 100 days before the GM release.

01:10:06 ◼   ► And if you consider that WWDC was on June 22nd, 2020, a hundred days from that date

01:10:14 ◼   ► would be, go take a look, Wednesday, September 30th.

01:10:20 ◼   ► So I've been writing, and god I really hope I'm right, because otherwise, honestly I'm

01:10:26 ◼   ► screwed, I've been writing with the assumption that we will see a GM at the very least toward

01:10:33 ◼   ► the end of September.

01:10:34 ◼   ► So here's my, I want to throw a mic-shaped spanner into the works here. This is presuming

01:10:43 ◼   ► that the life cycle is tied to WWDC and not just the calendar, right?

01:10:49 ◼   ► Oh, yeah, of course. Yes. This is presuming that.

01:10:55 ◼   ► I would expect we're probably going to be somewhere in the middle of those two dates.

01:10:59 ◼   ► That's what I would assume.

01:11:01 ◼   ► Presuming that, just because everything is late this year.

01:11:03 ◼   ► Yeah, so things are late, but it doesn't mean that Apple started the process of refining 14 the day after WWDC, right?

01:11:14 ◼   ► Like they may have been doing it from the same time that they always would, just WWDC was late.

01:11:18 ◼   ► Sure, but I'm here to tell you that if they launch iOS 14 in mid-September, I will not be ready.

01:11:25 ◼   ► And the reason you're not ready is because you started late, right? Like that's the reason?

01:11:30 ◼   ► Yes, yes, because unlike Apple, I didn't have access to iOS 14 before WWDC.

01:11:37 ◼   ► Cowards.

01:11:37 ◼   ► So yeah, I mean, come on, jeez.

01:11:40 ◼   ► Cowards.

01:11:40 ◼   ► Not giving me that sweet, sweet leaked version. Anyway.

01:11:46 ◼   ► Yeah, so I would hope/I would presume that the GM, we're gonna see toward the end of September,

01:11:57 ◼   ► and for release in the first two weeks of October.

01:12:01 ◼   ► And now, this theory would go quite well

01:12:06 ◼   ► with the fact that we know, Apple said,

01:12:12 ◼   ► the new iPhones will come out a few weeks later than usual.

01:12:15 ◼   ► I've been thinking, I've been discussing,

01:12:17 ◼   ► I will tell you that I've been discussing this

01:12:19 ◼   ► with my girlfriend and my friends.

01:12:21 ◼   ► Like I let them into the conversation on this stuff.

01:12:23 ◼   ► Like, what do you think a few weeks means?

01:12:27 ◼   ► Because a few weeks to me is more than a couple,

01:12:30 ◼   ► but it's less than a month, right?

01:12:33 ◼   ► I think it works the same way in both English and Italian.

01:12:37 ◼   ► Like, to me, a few weeks is not two.

01:12:40 ◼   ► It could be three or four, but no more than four.

01:12:43 ◼   ► And if you consider that a few weeks for the new phones

01:12:47 ◼   ► would be like, what, add three weeks to mid-September,

01:12:51 ◼   ► That would be, in fact, something like October 7 or October 10.

01:12:57 ◼   ► So, I don't know.

01:12:59 ◼   ► But this is the schedule that I have in mind.

01:13:01 ◼   ► When you consider all these numbers and the things

01:13:03 ◼   ► that Apple said, that the phones would come out a few weeks--

01:13:06 ◼   ► again, not a couple, not months, but a few weeks--

01:13:10 ◼   ► later than usual, I think everything

01:13:13 ◼   ► would line up quite nicely for things happening in the first two

01:13:20 ◼   ► weeks of October. Now, all of this could be wrong, right? And I would be screwed big time.

01:13:27 ◼   ► But again, it's something that over the course of the summer, I've come to accept.

01:13:33 ◼   ► Like, this is my schedule, right?

01:13:36 ◼   ► I was able to start testing iOS on June 22nd, not on June 5th or something.

01:13:42 ◼   ► And this is how much it takes me to work on this stuff.

01:13:47 ◼   ► So, yeah.

01:13:51 ◼   ► So I assume we're going to get Beta 7 next week.

01:13:55 ◼   ► If we don't get Beta 7 next week,

01:13:57 ◼   ► that is going to be a very good sign.

01:14:00 ◼   ► If there's going to be like two weeks between Beta 6 and 7,

01:14:05 ◼   ► I don't think it will be the case.

01:14:06 ◼   ► I think from now on, we are going to continue

01:14:10 ◼   ► seeing weekly Beta releases.

01:14:13 ◼   ► And I mean, personally, like if I would be Apple,

01:14:16 ◼   ► I wouldn't rush this, especially considering the mess that the iOS 13 rollout was last year.

01:14:23 ◼   ► So, honestly, I see no reason to put this out any earlier than necessary.

01:14:29 ◼   ► But it's also in my own personal interest, so I will be biased.

01:14:32 ◼   ► You're ever so slightly biased.

01:14:34 ◼   ► Yes, to an extent, but also you cannot deny that I make a good point.

01:14:40 ◼   ► I don't want to deny it, even if, you know, like...

01:14:43 ◼   ► I don't want to deny it, but I also don't want to, in case you get angry at me, if I was to deny it.

01:14:50 ◼   ► No, I will not get...

01:14:51 ◼   ► Like, really, I have come to terms with the reality that if my timeline is incorrect,

01:14:59 ◼   ► I will not be ready.

01:15:02 ◼   ► And it's just what it is.

01:15:03 ◼   ► As they say, it is what it is.

01:15:05 ◼   ► And, yeah.

01:15:10 ◼   ► But I really think I'm right also.

01:15:11 ◼   ► OK, good.

01:15:13 ◼   ► There are a couple of--

01:15:16 ◼   ► oh, real-time follow-up.

01:15:19 ◼   ► We passed $25,000 raised for St. Jude, which is fantastic.

01:15:23 ◼   ► Thank you so much to everybody that continues to donate

01:15:25 ◼   ► to stjude.org/relay.

01:15:27 ◼   ► So now in the show notes at this point in the episode

01:15:30 ◼   ► will be the video of Steven identifying laptops by feel

01:15:34 ◼   ► with the help of Mary Hackett providing

01:15:36 ◼   ► the laptops for him to feel.

01:15:39 ◼   ► "Honey, get the blindfold, we're gonna touch some computers."

01:15:42 ◼   ► That's what Steven does.

01:15:44 ◼   ► You know, like, that's an actual conversation that has to happen in the house, right?

01:15:47 ◼   ► Exactly, in these terms.

01:15:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:15:50 ◼   ► Which is amazing to think about.

01:15:52 ◼   ► Really, it's wild that he would say it that way, but that is the way he says it.

01:15:56 ◼   ► That is literally what happened.

01:15:59 ◼   ► Verbatim, 100% the way it was said.

01:16:01 ◼   ► "Honey, get the blindfold, we're gonna touch some computers."

01:16:05 ◼   ► There are a couple of things that I noted from various articles about things that have

01:16:10 ◼   ► been added in this beta.

01:16:12 ◼   ► One of them, which was interesting, and it's kind of weird when you see this stuff, it's

01:16:16 ◼   ► like "why is this here and why now?"

01:16:18 ◼   ► A shortcut to switch Apple TV user account.

01:16:21 ◼   ► Ah, yes, yes.

01:16:22 ◼   ► Well, I'm making fun of it, but I actually did have to do this myself manually yesterday.

01:16:28 ◼   ► Useful!

01:16:29 ◼   ► I mean, like, I can imagine this slotting quite nicely into, like, an evening shortcut

01:16:36 ◼   ► or a morning shortcut to go between, like, kids and adults content, you know, like, on

01:16:41 ◼   ► the Apple TV.

01:16:42 ◼   ► You know what my other account was named?

01:16:45 ◼   ► It's very easy to guess.

01:16:49 ◼   ► On the Apple TV.

01:16:50 ◼   ► Well, you had two accounts.

01:16:52 ◼   ► One of them is Federico.

01:16:54 ◼   ► And the other?

01:16:55 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:16:57 ◼   ► Imagine how the system would name it by default.

01:17:01 ◼   ► Oh, like...

01:17:02 ◼   ► Federico parenthesis one.

01:17:05 ◼   ► Oh my god.

01:17:06 ◼   ► It's like, current user Federico, it's like, because I have the tvOS beta now, right?

01:17:11 ◼   ► And you get the, you get a notification when you wake up the tv on the, in the upper right

01:17:17 ◼   ► corner of the tv, you get an alert that gives you like, sort of like a welcome and tells

01:17:23 ◼   ► you the user, the profile that you're currently logged in as.

01:17:26 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:17:27 ◼   ► welcome Federico 1. It's like, "Wow!"

01:17:30 ◼   ► You're the one!

01:17:31 ◼   ► Why the one?

01:17:33 ◼   ► And then I realized, oh, it probably messed up with my accounts because I have an Italian

01:17:38 ◼   ► account and an American account. And that was exactly what it was. So now I can use

01:17:43 ◼   ► the shortcut to switch between my accounts.

01:17:47 ◼   ► But do you want to switch? Oh, you need to switch between them to get your Italian bulk

01:17:52 ◼   ► content and your American bulk content, right?

01:17:54 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, sometimes.

01:17:56 ◼   ► Sometimes I do need to do that.

01:17:58 ◼   ► - Also, if you remember in the last beta,

01:18:00 ◼   ► they added the, so on the time picker,

01:18:03 ◼   ► they added the ability to swipe up and down

01:18:05 ◼   ► to use the kind of old style navigation for the time picker,

01:18:10 ◼   ► but to use the old style in the new way, basically.

01:18:15 ◼   ► And they've now added a kind of visual indicator

01:18:18 ◼   ► to show that there are numbers above and below

01:18:21 ◼   ► the time picker.

01:18:22 ◼   ► I think this is a really nice,

01:18:23 ◼   ► and they've landed on, I think,

01:18:25 ◼   ► a really nice middle ground between these two.

01:18:28 ◼   ► - It's very nice, and they have the color stroke around it,

01:18:32 ◼   ► which I think is a really nice touch.

01:18:34 ◼   ► And of course, it takes on the accent color

01:18:37 ◼   ► of the app that you're using,

01:18:38 ◼   ► so it's like orange in the clock app,

01:18:40 ◼   ► and it's red in Calendar, so really, really nicely done.

01:18:43 ◼   ► I think this is a very nice middle ground

01:18:45 ◼   ► compared to the previous one.

01:18:48 ◼   ► Really nicely done.

01:18:49 ◼   ► I also saw that this must be like a WebKit thing,

01:18:53 ◼   ► But now if you're on a website that uses a date picker,

01:18:57 ◼   ► you don't see the web date picker anymore,

01:19:00 ◼   ► but you see the native iOS date picker.

01:19:03 ◼   ► Sort of like when you upload the photo

01:19:05 ◼   ► and you get the custom iOS picker.

01:19:08 ◼   ► - That's good actually,

01:19:08 ◼   ► 'cause a lot of the web-based date pickers,

01:19:13 ◼   ► they like scroll beneath the keyboard.

01:19:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, they're awful.

01:19:16 ◼   ► - They're always such a pain.

01:19:18 ◼   ► - Yes, yes.

01:19:19 ◼   ► And I saw that now it like pops up

01:19:21 ◼   ► in the middle of the screen

01:19:22 ◼   ► you can actually pick a date. It's very nicely done. The date picker is, it has really grown

01:19:27 ◼   ► on me.

01:19:28 ◼   ► It's one of my favorite things about iOS 14 without a shadow of a doubt. Because I can

01:19:32 ◼   ► tap on the date and do the, and I just type in the time. I like to do that.

01:19:36 ◼   ► And you can switch months with the arrows. Really well done.

01:19:39 ◼   ► It's so good. Especially for using date picking in shortcuts.

01:19:45 ◼   ► Yes.

01:19:46 ◼   ► Right? You can do all of that anywhere in the system. I really, really like it.

01:19:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, agreed.

01:19:52 ◼   ► - Aside from the timeline causing stress and stuff,

01:19:57 ◼   ► how is the review coming along?

01:20:00 ◼   ► Like how do you feel about it now

01:20:04 ◼   ► compared to how you felt about it in previous years

01:20:07 ◼   ► in the same process?

01:20:08 ◼   ► - I feel good about it.

01:20:11 ◼   ► I think it's fun.

01:20:13 ◼   ► Because I've been able to include

01:20:17 ◼   ► a lot of third party examples.

01:20:20 ◼   ► especially for widgets and on iPad

01:20:25 ◼   ► for the sidebars and the three column layouts.

01:20:29 ◼   ► I think those parts are super fun to write

01:20:33 ◼   ► to be able to have that mix of technical talk

01:20:38 ◼   ► that I do have this time,

01:20:39 ◼   ► especially for the three column stuff,

01:20:41 ◼   ► but it's not too technical.

01:20:43 ◼   ► And accompanying that technical discussion

01:20:48 ◼   ► is the actual example.

01:20:50 ◼   ► So like that sort of flow of,

01:20:53 ◼   ► I'm explaining a technical thing,

01:20:54 ◼   ► but then I'm also showing you what that means in practice.

01:20:57 ◼   ► That I think is very fun.

01:20:59 ◼   ► And the rest of the review,

01:21:01 ◼   ► I think it's slightly different than usual in that

01:21:04 ◼   ► for the past couple of years,

01:21:06 ◼   ► I've always had this big like shortcuts chapter

01:21:11 ◼   ► with a lot of examples.

01:21:12 ◼   ► And I feel like this time it's gonna be different

01:21:15 ◼   ► because I'm struggling to come out with new shortcuts

01:21:17 ◼   ► because the new shortcuts that I will be making,

01:21:20 ◼   ► I will make those, I will make those,

01:21:23 ◼   ► but they will be based on third-party actions.

01:21:25 ◼   ► Because there aren't that many new system actions

01:21:30 ◼   ► that I can take advantage of.

01:21:31 ◼   ► And I've already made so many shortcuts

01:21:34 ◼   ► with those default actions.

01:21:36 ◼   ► Yes, I will make some for the new Apple TV stuff

01:21:40 ◼   ► and the new workout stuff.

01:21:43 ◼   ► But really, the big changes in shortcuts this year

01:21:47 ◼   ► are all about automations.

01:21:48 ◼   ► - And also how you interact with the shortcuts.

01:21:50 ◼   ► - And also how you use shortcuts,

01:21:52 ◼   ► which is what I'm writing about.

01:21:54 ◼   ► And so automations I cannot share

01:21:56 ◼   ► because you cannot share automations

01:21:58 ◼   ► with a link with somebody else.

01:22:00 ◼   ► And I think it's more fun to show like,

01:22:03 ◼   ► here's what a shortcut looked like before

01:22:05 ◼   ► and here's what it looks like now.

01:22:07 ◼   ► So I think while I'm a bit stressed

01:22:11 ◼   ► because of the schedule and because I'm,

01:22:15 ◼   ► When I think about it, I'm like, boy, I'm cutting it closer than I would like to be right now.

01:22:21 ◼   ► But also, if you subtract those 20 days, sometimes I think about it like it's not really August 26th,

01:22:30 ◼   ► it's still August 6th.

01:22:31 ◼   ► Because August 26th on a usual year, you're like approaching the end.

01:22:36 ◼   ► I'm wrapping up, right? I'm wrapping up. I'm already going through the editing.

01:22:40 ◼   ► Yeah, like you would have the review written by now, and you would be, like in a sense of like,

01:22:44 ◼   ► all of the chapters are done, but now it's just a case of asterisks

01:22:50 ◼   ► around the ones where things might change still, and then let's start editing.

01:22:54 ◼   ► Exactly, so, and I'm not at that point right now, but again we're also on a

01:23:00 ◼   ► different schedule and everything, so sometimes I think about it and when I

01:23:04 ◼   ► look at the date in isolation I'm like "man that's super bad, it's like already

01:23:09 ◼   ► September" but then I think about it and I'm like "there's no way this launches in two

01:23:12 ◼   ► weeks. So that makes me feel better. And otherwise, I think it's, as I mentioned,

01:23:19 ◼   ► it's gonna be a slimmer review, more approachable tone overall, I would say.

01:23:28 ◼   ► Lots of examples, which is fun. Lots of design talk, which was challenging but

01:23:35 ◼   ► also fun because I do love to document like the design evolution of iOS. Less

01:23:40 ◼   ► about shortcuts, more about designing an iPad, and obviously you may have seen like

01:23:48 ◼   ► the preview series that we're doing on Mac Stories. Ryan and John and Alex also

01:23:55 ◼   ► this week, they're writing about stuff about iOS 14 and iPadOS that I will not

01:24:01 ◼   ► include in my review. So it's something that we started doing last year and that

01:24:05 ◼   ► are continuing and expanding on this year, like taking these stories and these apps that maybe

01:24:12 ◼   ► I'm not interested in or maybe I actually cannot use like maps and have the team do stories about

01:24:20 ◼   ► that during the summer. So stuff like maps and wind down or game controllers, we're gonna have

01:24:30 ◼   ► standalone stories. I will not have to take care of that in the review. I assume Jon will write the

01:24:34 ◼   ► the game controllers part because Jon has 100 game controllers.

01:24:37 ◼   ► Oh, it's that easy to guess. Yeah, it will. So there's gonna be that, and in my review

01:24:43 ◼   ► I will link back to those stories. But otherwise, excluding the timeline schedule stuff, I feel

01:24:51 ◼   ► pretty good about it. I think it's good, I think it's got a nice friendly tone, with

01:24:56 ◼   ► the technical talk sprinkled on top here and there. And it's a bit unfortunate, I would've

01:25:02 ◼   ► I would have liked more new shortcut actions.

01:25:06 ◼   ► That I would have liked. But instead I also think, like, this is the year

01:25:10 ◼   ► where shortcuts... It's more about the experience of using shortcuts, right?

01:25:14 ◼   ► So the stuff that we've been requesting for years, like folders

01:25:18 ◼   ► and the sidebar, and more interactivity on the home screen,

01:25:22 ◼   ► so the widgets, like, I will take and copy and paste for actions,

01:25:26 ◼   ► like, I will take that stuff.

01:25:27 ◼   ► Yes, like, look, here's the thing.

01:25:29 ◼   ► It's fine.

01:25:30 ◼   ► a lot of new actions, but we had wish lists, and we got most of the things on the wish

01:25:35 ◼   ► list. That's about as good as you could hope for. And honestly, like you say, a lot of

01:25:40 ◼   ► the stuff for that will be in third-party stuff, so you'll have stories to write later

01:25:45 ◼   ► on in the year.

01:25:47 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly. So I can write about my shortcuts and the more advanced stuff later. And something

01:25:54 ◼   ► that I'm really enjoying doing right now, which I will consider, I guess, as part of

01:25:57 ◼   ► you know, all the things surrounding the review is this custom widgets that I'm making with

01:26:04 ◼   ► Scriptable. So all these custom things that I'm designing, you may have seen like on Twitter,

01:26:10 ◼   ► I've shared like a NASA widget that I've made, and I have another four reminders. Like I'm

01:26:16 ◼   ► really enjoying this idea of like programming and designing my own widgets with Scriptable.

01:26:21 ◼   ► So that's something that I've been doing on the side. And that probably if I make some,

01:26:27 ◼   ► And I have some more ideas, right?

01:26:29 ◼   ► Like I've been thinking stuff for toggle, for example, to have fancier toggle reports

01:26:36 ◼   ► that update every few minutes.

01:26:38 ◼   ► Oh, that'd be nice.

01:26:39 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:26:40 ◼   ► I've been thinking about RSS.

01:26:41 ◼   ► There's a bunch of things that I could do with custom widgets, so that's what I've been

01:26:44 ◼   ► also building on the side.

01:26:46 ◼   ► Otherwise, yeah, feeling pretty good about it.

01:26:50 ◼   ► The setup with iA writer and MindNode is working fine.

01:26:55 ◼   ► Yeah, the big question looming over this entire thing is the schedule.

01:27:03 ◼   ► But I'm just, look, I'm trying to be more hippie myself to an extent.

01:27:11 ◼   ► Like I'm trying to go with the flow and accept the realities out of my control, you know,

01:27:16 ◼   ► all that kind of stuff.

01:27:18 ◼   ► It's very much unlike me, but I'm trying to because I think it's good for my stress levels.

01:27:23 ◼   ► So, yeah. Well, look at the end of the day, well, I mean, who knows? It's incredibly unlikely

01:27:31 ◼   ► that they're like incredibly unlikely. Look, this is not launching in two weeks, okay?

01:27:37 ◼   ► This is what I said that they're just going to drop it randomly. In fact, they can't.

01:27:40 ◼   ► You're always going to get at least one week's notice. And then how you deal with that.

01:27:45 ◼   ► Worst case scenario, I will get a one week notice. Okay. So what's going to happen in

01:27:53 ◼   ► In that week I don't want to think about, but that's the worst case scenario.

01:27:56 ◼   ► If you want to find show notes for this week's episode go to relay.fm/connected/309

01:28:03 ◼   ► You can find us online in a bunch of places, go to maxstories.net

01:28:06 ◼   ► You can find Federico's @Vittici V I T I C C I

01:28:10 ◼   ► I am iMyke, I M Y K E

01:28:12 ◼   ► And I already said about a show that you should listen to, it's called Remaster, I said that

01:28:16 ◼   ► one earlier so no one's going to throw me off this time

01:28:19 ◼   ► Don't forget if you want to give support for Steven and his plumbing problems just send

01:28:23 ◼   ► a tweet saying I support you Steven and then also send your favorite plumbing

01:28:27 ◼   ► related emoji but the most important support that you can give at this time

01:28:31 ◼   ► is to go to st. Jude org slash relay and donate to help us support st. Jude

01:28:36 ◼   ► Children's Research Hospital so we can help put an end to childhood cancer

01:28:42 ◼   ► during childhood cancer awareness month it's a really important charity means a

01:28:45 ◼   ► lot to us and especially on this show you know like we've all been touched by

01:28:51 ◼   ► cancer in our own ways and so it means a lot to us right yes this charity means

01:28:58 ◼   ► an awful lot to us so yeah thank you so much to smile and ping them for their

01:29:04 ◼   ► support of this week's episode and thank you to our members as well if you would

01:29:08 ◼   ► like to become a member and support this show go to get connected pro co and you

01:29:13 ◼   ► will be able to get your hands on an ad free version of the show with additional

01:29:18 ◼   ► content to boot and you also get the ASMR special that we did which people

01:29:25 ◼   ► seem to have been equally pleased with and horrified over which is exactly what

01:29:29 ◼   ► I was expecting. That's the kind of reaction that you're gonna get with that

01:29:33 ◼   ► kind of content. That's about it. Until next time say

01:29:37 ◼   ► goodbye Federico. Arrivederci. Cheerio!