0:00:00(upbeat music)
0:00:02- Hello and welcome to Connected episode 281.
0:00:11It's made possible by our sponsors,
0:00:13Squarespace, Direct Mail, and Setapp from MacPaw.
0:00:17My name is Stephen Hackett and I am joined by Myke Hurley.
0:00:20- Oh, hi.
0:00:21- That's weird.
0:00:23Say hi like a normal person.
0:00:25- Hi, like a normal person.
0:00:27- I'm just gonna move on, you weirdo.
0:00:29And we're joined by Federico Vittucci.
0:00:31- You're welcome. - Buonasera, Steven.
0:00:33Hi.
0:00:34- Hey. - Hey.
0:00:35- How are you?
0:00:36- I'm good.
0:00:36I don't know what's up with Myke,
0:00:37but I think the two of us are ready to go.
0:00:40- Why does there have to be something wrong with me?
0:00:42- 'Cause you said hi in a creepy way.
0:00:44- No, I didn't, I just said it.
0:00:46- Hmm.
0:00:46- Do you think it was creepy, Federico?
0:00:48- I didn't find it creepy.
0:00:50I thought it was more, I thought it was more romantic.
0:00:54- Yeah, I'll go romantic.
0:00:55Alluring is what I'm going for.
0:00:57- Yeah, that's a beautiful adjective, yes.
0:00:59(laughing)
0:01:01I like it.
0:01:02- All right.
0:01:03- It's my new yearly theme, alluring.
0:01:05- The year of allure.
0:01:06(laughing)
0:01:08- We're gonna start with follow up,
0:01:12and that means starting--
0:01:13- Should we though?
0:01:14Should we really start?
0:01:15- Yes, look, when I'm gone,
0:01:17so I'm gonna miss an episode in a couple weeks,
0:01:20and I know you guys are gonna do everything
0:01:22in the wrong order, but I'm here,
0:01:24and I'm still in charge somewhat of announcing the show.
0:01:29And so we're gonna talk about follow-up first
0:01:31and the two of you were just on for the ride.
0:01:33We're gonna start with Apple Watch keyboard.
0:01:36So we spoke about this recently, it was last episode,
0:01:39about Scribble and things we'd want on watchOS
0:01:42and all these things.
0:01:43And in the meantime, there's been a review
0:01:45of a watchOS app called Flick Type over on Mac stories.
0:01:50Federico, can you explain this app?
0:01:51I played with it, but I find it difficult to talk about
0:01:54for some reason.
0:01:56- Yeah, so I wasn't familiar with this app before,
0:01:58but then a bunch of people recommended the app
0:02:00to us on Twitter, and so we decided to take a look.
0:02:04And I was sort of familiar with the name
0:02:05because I saw that it was mentioned
0:02:08in some other watch apps, like Chirp, for example,
0:02:12the Twitter client for the Apple Watch,
0:02:13sort of integrated with the Flick Type keyboard.
0:02:17But it turns out that Flick Type
0:02:18is more like a suite of products.
0:02:20There's Flick Type, which is the main one,
0:02:23which is an Apple Watch keyboard, but there's also Flick Type Notes, which is sort of similar
0:02:28but based on note-taking. So the main idea behind the Flick Type keyboard is that it
0:02:33is a QWERTY keyboard that you launch as an app on your watch, and you can actually type
0:02:41with a software keyboard. Basically, you can swipe, of course, but you can tap letters,
0:02:47and the app does a reasonably decent job at picking up the words that you wanted to enter
0:02:52using AutoCorrect, and then when you're done, you can tap Done, and you will... basically
0:02:58what the app does, I had no idea that this was possible for watch developers, it'll open
0:03:04the Messages app from Apple, and it'll open the Compose box with the message filled in.
0:03:11So you just need to enter a recipient or a group, and you will send the message.
0:03:16So the idea would be that you can, if you need to reply to a message and you don't want
0:03:20to use dictation, and you don't want to use the scribble feature of watchOS, you can open
0:03:25the FleekType app, you can actually type out a response, and then you tap "send", you enter
0:03:30the recipient, and you can send the reply that way. It's surprisingly, I mean, considering
0:03:35the limitations and the fact that it's a third-party app, it's not an integrated native feature
0:03:40of watchOS, I was honestly surprised by how well it works, and sure enough, it gets some
0:03:48words wrong occasionally. What's nice is that you can spin the digital crown to choose between
0:03:53multiple options for the word that you choose standard.
0:03:56So that's nice. I should say though that I tested it on a 44mm watch. I have no idea
0:04:03how this app will scale on a smaller watch like the 40 or even the 38 for those people
0:04:09who have still an older model. So I'm surprised and there's a bunch of settings that you can
0:04:14configure on the iPhone. There's an iPhone app of course. You open the iPhone app and
0:04:18you can choose like, do you want to show the spacebar? There's a bunch of other tweaks
0:04:22for punctuation and that kind of stuff that you can change. But otherwise, I mean, it
0:04:27works well, but this one should really be Sherlock'd by Apple. It should really become
0:04:32a native feature of watchOS 7 because it's possible. I mean, why not? Why not offer multiple
0:04:37input methods? And if anything, I think FlickType makes a good case for Apple to copy this feature
0:04:42and actually make it available system-wide.
0:04:44- I think this is like a decent idea.
0:04:47I think focusing it around iMessages probably makes sense.
0:04:51I can't imagine another flow that would work
0:04:54where like you get a message in one app
0:04:57and then go to another app to send the reply.
0:05:00Like messages feels like the only real communication method,
0:05:04like short messages that you could do that with, right?
0:05:06Where you could just read something in a notification
0:05:09and then not need to necessarily refer back
0:05:11to it that often, right?
0:05:13Because you've gone out to another application
0:05:15to send the message.
0:05:16So I think it's pretty clever.
0:05:18I would assume Apple is probably working
0:05:20on something like this, right?
0:05:22- I mean, maybe.
0:05:25I think they're pretty confident in their,
0:05:29the watch should be used with your voice kind of thing
0:05:31and not be a tiny phone.
0:05:33But I don't know.
0:05:34I mean, it is very clever.
0:05:36And I think that anything Apple could do
0:05:39to make the watch input better,
0:05:42serves it well as it becomes more independent
0:05:45of the other devices, right?
0:05:47Like you need some sort of reliable text input
0:05:49if you're going to leave your phone behind
0:05:51and Scribble and these other things do a pretty good job
0:05:53but as we spoke about, there are some holes,
0:05:57which does bring me to Apple's Scribble feature.
0:05:59So we, I think in particular had complained
0:06:01about lack of auto-complete
0:06:04and it turns out that it kind of has it.
0:06:07So as you start writing in Scribble,
0:06:11you get a couple of letters in
0:06:12and then you see an up down arrow in the top right corner.
0:06:15And you can either tap that or turn the digital crown
0:06:18and choose from words that it thinks you're going to write.
0:06:22Listener Andy sent that in
0:06:23and I had no idea that that was there.
0:06:26I've seen those arrows
0:06:27and I've just never done anything with them.
0:06:29And I don't think it's as good as what Flick Type does,
0:06:32but it is handy and of course built into any text input
0:06:36on the watch.
0:06:37Alright, so Myke, I have a follow-up question for you.
0:06:40I want to know how the MOSHI iVisor is going for you.
0:06:47So this is that weird screen protector that seems to defy the laws of physics, because
0:06:53it doesn't create bubbles, and you can just take it off and reapply it, which I've already
0:06:59done because when I realized in my application that there was like a tiny piece of dirt,
0:07:05So I had to take it off to get the dirt out and then put it back and no bubbles.
0:07:08I still don't know how it's possible.
0:07:09Did you wash it?
0:07:10You know it's washable.
0:07:11Yeah, I know, but like I didn't feel the requirement to wash it yet.
0:07:15Like have you washed yours?
0:07:17No, I wanted to, but then I've seen the instructions and it's like a multi-step procedure and I
0:07:23don't really want to ever do it.
0:07:25Yeah, I don't think that it's a nice thing to necessarily wash them, but I liked it so
0:07:32much that I bought one for my larger iPad which has arrived and I've replaced the paper-like
0:07:39with it now. So I'm using the Moshi iVisa on both iPads. I've noticed that sometimes
0:07:46if you're... sometimes when I use the Apple Pencil, if I'm scrolling up or down, it makes
0:07:51a weird squeaking noise which is strange.
0:07:54Interesting.
0:07:55Like, there's something about like the texture of the iVisa and the Apple Pencil that like,
0:08:00If you do it just right, it's like, you know, like that kind of thing.
0:08:05It's crying.
0:08:06It's like, I don't like this, bring the Paperlike back.
0:08:10But I love it.
0:08:11I really love it.
0:08:12I love the texture.
0:08:13I love the matte look.
0:08:14Um, you do, I do have to have my brightness typically cranked up more than, um, I have
0:08:21previously, like, you know, but I noticed this with the Paperlike too, uh, but I'm,
0:08:26I'm super in on these eye visors.
0:08:28It's, it's, it's awesome.
0:08:29It's just the right level for me of providing with the matte texture, not affecting the
0:08:34screen too much, and also not having a ton of bubbles.
0:08:38Yeah.
0:08:39I'm really in on it.
0:08:40I love it.
0:08:41So I ordered it from Amazon and it got delivered by FedEx, which just seemed peculiar, but
0:08:46there we go.
0:08:47Yeah.
0:08:48Speaking of Amazon, I just wanted to follow up on this.
0:08:51I think we mentioned this in private in our conversations.
0:08:56I published my tutorial on how to mod AirPods, people have been telling me, basically every
0:09:04single day I get a picture on Twitter of somebody who applied the custom foam tips to the silicon
0:09:12ear tips for AirPods Pro. I published this back in December and I still basically get
0:09:18a tweet every single day. And people keep telling me that on Amazon Japan, where I purchased
0:09:24those, they're called the Symbio foam tips, those are basically regularly sold out every
0:09:31few days. So, I don't know, I just thought that was an interesting fact that so much,
0:09:37like I have literally gotten hundreds of pictures from all over the world of people modding
0:09:43their AirPods, which I thought was, I think it's so amusing to see that, you know, folks
0:09:48are just performing this mod, I just thought that maybe like 10 people would like it. And
0:09:53so that's why I posted about it.
0:09:55But then, like, their reaction was so unusual.
0:10:00It sort of -- It makes me want to do more mods to my devices.
0:10:07I think it's one of the things that I want to explore in 2020
0:10:11is to actually make more of this custom stuff,
0:10:13because it's fun, and it resonates with people
0:10:16at a very different level than, say,
0:10:18making custom shortcuts and that kind of stuff.
0:10:20I don't know.
0:10:23It just feels nice to share and have instructions, you know?
0:10:27It's almost like I'm doing manual work, which I never do,
0:10:30even though it's just like I'm modding my iPads
0:10:33or my iPhones, but it's a nice change of pace.
0:10:36So that's just something that I wanted to mention.
0:10:37- Well, I guess the screen protectors
0:10:41are just more mods though, really, aren't they?
0:10:43- Yeah, yeah.
0:10:44That and, you know, I'm using the cover body case
0:10:48with the, I don't know, have we talked about the fact
0:10:50my pencil now has sleeves on it. What do you mean by sleeves? Well there's a black sleeve
0:11:00on my Apple Pencil, but then there's also like a separate cap for the tip. It's like
0:11:06a two-piece setup. Like a bathing suit. It's a bikini for the pencil. You remember that?
0:11:15We have a two-piece. That's good news. Yeah, nobody ever says that. But you can say that
0:11:19about the pencil. Moving on. Oh yeah, this is also something that I wanted to mention.
0:11:25So last year, Apple sort of introduced their own answer to the Spotify Wrapped end-of-the-year
0:11:33playlist very famously. At the end of the year, Spotify, for several years now, has
0:11:38generated an automatic playlist and sort of looked back at the past 12 months for you
0:11:43to show you the music that you've been into over the course of a year. Spotify Wrapped
0:11:48is awesome, and it's so well done, it's like a breakdown of your top artists, your top
0:11:54songs and albums, that if you remember, about two years ago I made my own shortcut for that
0:12:00called Apple Music Wrapped, which worked and people really liked it, but of course I mentioned
0:12:05the story, I really want Apple to make this their own native feature. And sure enough,
0:12:10sometime in December or November, Apple introduced Apple Music Replay, which is a way to generate
0:12:17playlist with your top songs and artists and albums of the year. When they launched it,
0:12:25they also launched a website that you can go, it's replay.music.apple.com, and not only
0:12:31did they make a version for 2019, but they also retroactively made playlists for you
0:12:37for all the years since you've been an Apple Music user. So in my case, I have playlists
0:12:43dating back all the way to 2015, which is when Apple Music launched. Now, when the feature was
0:12:48introduced, I remember that in the TechCrunch story, it was suggested that Apple Music Replay
0:12:58was not going to be just a feature, like a playlist that you get sometime in December,
0:13:03before the year is over, but more like a constantly updating sort of service.
0:13:10And let me quote this from the original TechCrunch article.
0:13:14They said "But while Spotify's Wrapped is more of an annual retrospective, Apple Music
0:13:19Replay will continue to be updated all year long, evolving as your musical tastes and
0:13:25interests do throughout the year.
0:13:27The playlist and its associated data insights will be updated on Sundays to reflect subscribers'
0:13:33latest listening activity, says Apple."
0:13:36Now, every Sunday since 2020 rolled in, I've been checking the Apple Music Replay website,
0:13:44and there's still nothing. Like, I actually have a reminder for myself to check every
0:13:48Sunday. Federico, you're the cutest, you know that?
0:13:51Oh well, some people believe so. Thank you. You're one of them. It is now February 12th,
0:13:572020. There's been a few Sundays, you know? But I mean, I don't know how many. Probably
0:14:03seven, eight, I can count really. But it's been, you know, it's well into 2020 at this
0:14:08point. Still no Apple Music replay. Six. Thank you. So, I mean, you know, I can wait one
0:14:15Sunday, two Sundays, but six Sundays. Six Sundays. That's, that's, you know, three too
0:14:20many. So the replay website still says 19. I wonder when will we get replay 2020? Because
0:14:28I've been listening to music, I want to get, let me quote again, my associated data insights.
0:14:34Where are they, Apple? Where's my latest listening activity and data insights? So I wonder,
0:14:41will we get replay 2020 each Sunday as promised, or will it be like, oh yes, starting in June
0:14:48instead of December? So some, you know, I want to see what happens here. It's probably literally
0:14:54Just me who cares about this stuff.
0:14:55- I'm pretty sure there's like a,
0:14:57there's like a Taking Back Sunday reference
0:14:59in here somewhere, right?
0:15:01But like I haven't, I haven't yet gotten around to it.
0:15:05Like I just, but I know it's in there somewhere.
0:15:07I do remember this happening.
0:15:10I'm sure at some point, like the Apple replay website
0:15:13had on it something about 2020.
0:15:17Like I have like a visual memory of that,
0:15:20but that could just be one of those things where
0:15:22like my brain is lying to me, you know?
0:15:25But it is, I mean, it's a shame really, I think.
0:15:28Like I think this whole,
0:15:29I mean, I don't think I said it at the time,
0:15:31but I find the Apple Music Replay website
0:15:34a little bit sad, honestly, because--
0:15:36- It's not as, yeah, we mentioned this.
0:15:39- They had to build a web app on top of their own API
0:15:42rather than put something in the application.
0:15:44Like the whole thing is just a little bit sad to me.
0:15:47You know, like Spotify, it just all lives in Spotify, right?
0:15:50Like, and then they went, like, like Spotify Wrapped is just there or whatever, or like
0:15:55the Spotify playlists in general, like all of the, uh, the playlists that they do, right?
0:15:59What are they called? The weekly ones? Weekly, right?
0:16:02Discover Weekly. Yeah. Discover Weekly. Like all that stuff is just like in the app and
0:16:06then the Spotify Wrapped looked like an Instagram story. Like it was like a whole thing, you
0:16:12know? The graphics are really great and like, you know, bless them over Apple Music. They
0:16:17did something that was like they gave you the bare bones but then it was just like oh
0:16:22but we don't know how to do anything else so. Yeah and also we should say that the Spotify
0:16:27wrapped website like the whole thing as sort of like a cultural impact. Like I've seen
0:16:33all kinds of people and artists post screenshots in their stories or on Twitter with the you
0:16:39know with the top albums and top songs and whatever. They included podcasts this year
0:16:43It was amazing.
0:16:44Yeah, and I've seen literally nobody share anything from Apple Music Replay.
0:16:49So like, it's a nice feature to have, but it's not as inspired, maybe, as Spotify.
0:16:54I don't know.
0:16:55The only people I saw sharing Apple Music Replay stuff were people that used Apple Music
0:17:00and wish they had Spotify wrapped.
0:17:02Like, that was kind of it, really.
0:17:05I mean, I believe in their ability to be able to do something like this because the Spotify
0:17:10one took time for them to really work it out. And also I think one of the really the Spotify
0:17:17wrapped thing is just a consequence of Spotify's business model, which is different to Apple's
0:17:25business model. Like Spotify's business model is to gather listening data because that's how they
0:17:31continue to like try and make their service better in general. So because they have all this data,
0:17:38they could just interpret it in different ways and serve it back to you.
0:17:41And this isn't really what Apple does, they rely way more on the human curation than the
0:17:46algorithmic curation. So their ongoing efforts in this world, it's like a little
0:17:54trickier, you know what I'm saying? Are you following me, right? It's just like a very
0:18:00different thing between the two companies, but then it really does show, I mean it just
0:18:07looks a bit embarrassing sometimes.
0:18:09I mean it's just a consequence of their businesses being slightly different, I think.
0:18:14Alright, we've got some more follow up after our first break.
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0:19:59All right, up next, we have some long-term follow-up.
0:20:04I just wanted to note that there are still no GPUs
0:20:08or afterburner cards available for the Mac Pro to be updated.
0:20:12It's going on two months since this machine's been out
0:20:15and no new cards, no nothing.
0:20:17- I think we're probably more expecting
0:20:20the additional GPUs than the afterburner card changes, right?
0:20:23Yeah, I mean, I'd lump them together, but I expect that we will see GPUs.
0:20:28Right now you can buy none, like even the Vega 2 and the Vega 2 Duo or whatever.
0:20:33You can't get any of them.
0:20:34Oh, you mean like to buy those things separately in the store?
0:20:38Yeah. OK. You can't get the new video cards.
0:20:41I forget the name of it, but that's the one I'm looking at.
0:20:44And then the Vega 2 is no there are no add on cards
0:20:47for the Mac Pro from Apple for sale yet.
0:20:50So that is a that's a bummer if you've got a Mac Pro when updated, but and I still have
0:20:55a couple of graphics card options on the coming soon page on the configurator to
0:21:00Yeah, those haven't shown up yet. I expect with the situation in China manufacturing that
0:21:05that's this is further delayed. There was an article on Mac rumors at the ship date for a lot
0:21:10of a lot of stuff is beginning to slip including all Mac pros and so you know the the manufacturing
0:21:17deal is going to take all companies, not just Apple, a while to rebound after this outbreak
0:21:23deal gets settled, which is still very open-ended.
0:21:26If you want to buy a pair of AirPods right now, four weeks.
0:21:30AirPods, four weeks in the UK and the US.
0:21:33The AirPods never really caught up even from the holidays, but I think it'll get worse
0:21:37before it gets better.
0:21:38Also in long-term follow-up, we spoke about the Twitter app, how you needed another app
0:21:43to make it better on the iPad.
0:21:46And we have a tweet from listener Dayton,
0:21:49who is working on an app-- there's a test flight link
0:21:52on Twitter-- that is the sidebar app for Twitter.
0:21:56And you can put in notes, and it syncs with iCloud
0:22:00with folders and tags.
0:22:02This looks pretty sweet, so you can use it as a sketchpad
0:22:06sort of for Twitter.
0:22:08Well, also, you can drag and drop tweets into it
0:22:11and then perform actions on the tweets,
0:22:13which are either to find out more about the person
0:22:17or you can look at the quote replies
0:22:21or all the replies for a certain tweet,
0:22:23then you can save the tweets with notes
0:22:25attached to them for later on.
0:22:27And then once you save those tweets in,
0:22:29those people get saved into a directory
0:22:31and then you can go in and view information about them.
0:22:33This is exactly the kind of app
0:22:35that I was hoping somebody would make.
0:22:37- It's really well done.
0:22:38- I was playing around with it just a little bit
0:22:40before we started recording today. And it's a test flight, I'll put a link in the show
0:22:44notes to the tweets. I'm assuming that Dayton's cool with people signing up for the test flight,
0:22:48but this is the exact type of thing that we were hoping someone would make, because even
0:22:54though Twitter has fixed the problem, they fixed the problem by just adding all the space
0:22:58back in, and now I have like, the hunger for more, and so I'm pleased that this exists.
0:23:05Yeah, it's really well done. I have it on my iPad and my phone right now, it's not syncing
0:23:09back to the iPhone. So, Dayton, if you're looking for feedback, I mean, let me know.
0:23:14I'm using the test-like version.
0:23:17Stop complaining on podcasts, Federico. File a radar.
0:23:20Yes, I will. It's really well done. I love that when you drop in a tweet, if it's being retweeted by somebody,
0:23:28you will get all of that information. Like, you will get the original author, you will get the person who retweeted that tweet,
0:23:35and everything can be reopened in the Twitter app.
0:23:39And it's very clever because the app is using
0:23:42the advanced search parameters,
0:23:45which you can use in the official Twitter app.
0:23:48So you can check out all the replies to somebody.
0:23:51This is like something that you can do yourself
0:23:53if you know the syntax,
0:23:54but to have a proper UI that is so nice and so convenient.
0:23:58I mean, this is an excellent idea.
0:24:00If you can get the CloudKit stuff to work, Dayton,
0:24:03this will be really, really good for me.
0:24:05It's a beta, you know. I assume it's pretty well known. It's called Tweet Notes, is the name of the app currently.
0:24:11But I am really excited to see this. This is like a cool thing.
0:24:14Oh, and also, as a beta tester, one suggestion would be on the iPhone, let me paste a tweet as a link.
0:24:24So if I have a link in my clipboard, I should be able to either have the automatic detection,
0:24:28so if I have a twitter.com link in my clipboard, the app should recognize it,
0:24:32but also there should be just a paste button
0:24:34to paste the link on the iPhone.
0:24:36That's it.
0:24:37- I'm sure this is how Dayton wanted to collect feedback.
0:24:39- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yes.
0:24:41(laughing)
0:24:42You're welcome.
0:24:42- And the longest term follow-up at this time,
0:24:48Google Docs and Sheets still has
0:24:49no multi-window support on iPadOS.
0:24:52- I don't think it's gonna happen, you know?
0:24:54- Nah.
0:24:56- Well, to be honest though, I feel like,
0:24:58what was the last thing?
0:25:01drag and drop, maybe?
0:25:02- Yeah, probably drag and drop.
0:25:05And it did get it, but it's not good.
0:25:07But like, I want multi-window for Google Docs
0:25:11way more than I wanted drag and drop.
0:25:13Like, this, 'cause it's like, this is like,
0:25:16this would be very genuinely very useful for me.
0:25:19Like, a couple of days ago, I mean,
0:25:21it's good the Safari's so good now.
0:25:22But like, I had to open a Google Doc in Safari on one side,
0:25:26and then the actual Google Docs app on the other side,
0:25:28'cause I needed two docs at once.
0:25:30Like, it isn't as dire as it would have been if Safari wouldn't have been so heavily updated,
0:25:37because previously it would be like "oh you can't even look at this, go download the Google
0:25:41Docs app" it's like "well that's no good is it?"
0:25:44But the fact that I can basically treat it well, but then even copy and paste is worse
0:25:51in Safari Google Docs than the real Google Docs, so I don't know.
0:25:56I just want them to add multi windows so badly and I'll be really, really happy, but I don't
0:26:00think it's going to happen.
0:26:02While we're talking about things Google Docs doesn't have, I would love dark mode.
0:26:07Me too.
0:26:08Yes.
0:26:09I don't use dark mode on the Mac, but I do on my iPad and iPhone and increasingly it
0:26:15is the most regular app I use that doesn't support it.
0:26:18It makes me sad.
0:26:20Because you know, like y'all sometimes I think about something for a show note in the middle
0:26:25the night I was like oh I need to add that to connected and then I get blinded
0:26:28yeah we have some follow-out relay FM has two new podcasts Myke do you want to
0:26:34tell us about these I will tell you about mine and then you can tell me
0:26:37about yours so both me and Steve and have new shows with technology youtubers
0:26:43that we really enjoy so I have a show called the test drivers that I'm hosting
0:26:47with Austin Evans Austin is one of my very favorite tech youtubers and has
0:26:50been for years and on the test drivers we want to put tech through its paces so
0:26:55So we're going to be taking technology from all different kinds,
0:26:58whether it's smartphones or laptops, gaming consoles, PCs, the whole thing,
0:27:02and really kind of like test stuff and help you, help our listeners,
0:27:07decide what might be their next devices.
0:27:09So we're really, really excited about this.
0:27:11Our first episode is about the Galaxy S20,
0:27:14because it just came out and Austin had his hands on it.
0:27:16So we go in depth on that.
0:27:17But we have like loads of things.
0:27:20We're taking a page from Adaptbook and we're going to be doing some challenges
0:27:23some point in the future like can you live on the original iPad for a week or
0:27:28I now own a Windows laptop so that's like a whole thing so there's we're
0:27:34gonna be digging into lots of different types of technology talking about them
0:27:38in detail and really putting it all to the test and I'm really really excited
0:27:41about this show and you should go check it out it's very good I very much
0:27:46enjoyed episode one about the s20 line of phones that was introduced this week
0:27:51by Samsung. Very awesome. So the second show is called Flashback. I host it with Quinn
0:27:58Nelson of Snazzy Labs. He's the guy who took apart the Mac Pro and has done a bunch of
0:28:03hardware stuff over the years. He has a real interest in how things go together.
0:28:07All of his Mac Pro coverage has been amazing.
0:28:10Very good. Quinn's awesome and we've become friends over the last couple of years and
0:28:15And so we've launched this show together.
0:28:17It is a show this season is about covering technology products that failed or were ahead
0:28:24of their time.
0:28:25The new people got mad at me because they called the Newton a failure.
0:28:28So look, the Newton can be good and also a failure.
0:28:31Sorry.
0:28:32That was episode one talking about that product, where it came from, its flaws, its good things,
0:28:37how it sort of impacted the world we still live in.
0:28:40The big question we answer every episode is what can we learn from this product?
0:28:45So the Newton was episode one.
0:28:47In a couple weeks, we'll be back with the Zune.
0:28:49That'll be episode two.
0:28:50I can't wait for the Zune episode.
0:28:52Oh my god, I'm so excited for that one.
0:28:54Yeah, it's recorded and partially edited.
0:28:56And I really enjoyed that conversation.
0:28:59And then episode three will be about this weird electric car
0:29:04that Apple made.
0:29:05Oh boy, this weird electric car that GM made in the '90s.
0:29:08So kind of all over the place as far as different products.
0:29:11But there's so much interesting stuff
0:29:13to talk about. And that will be out every other Thursday, starting in a couple weeks.
0:29:19So we are really excited about that. And it's going to be a lot of fun.
0:29:22Yep. So you can go get the first episodes of both of those right now. We'll have links
0:29:26in the show notes, but it's the test drivers and flashback.
0:29:29There was this really funny tweet from Taylor. They said about flashback in particular that
0:29:35it, it, it feels like a podcast of the stuff that Myke and Federico won't let me talk about
0:29:40on connected. And Taylor, you were right.
0:29:43I don't know how you think that this applies to just flashback.
0:29:46Do you not remember the anger and the apathy that was faced upon me when I wanted to review
0:29:53the Galaxy Fold?
0:29:54What's not anger?
0:29:57Not from you Federico.
0:29:58Oh yeah.
0:29:59There was another member of our podcast who was-
0:30:02Jason.
0:30:03No, well I see this is the other thing, right?
0:30:05Like no one would talk about foldables with me, so I found someone that would.
0:30:09Yeah.
0:30:10Wow.
0:30:11have a new dad it's not us. Well we're both we're both Quinn and uh Austin are much younger than me
0:30:20and you. It's true we're really old that's what we've learned also Quinn is very tall. I've never
0:30:25felt old before I feel old now. So anyways go check those out we have spent a lot of time working on
0:30:31these shows and we're really excited to get them out there uh seriously it's been the last day and
0:30:36and a half has been a lot of fun. And really wild and very busy. A lot of things. It takes
0:30:42a lot of buttons to push in the right order to launch two shows. Yeah. And Google podcasts,
0:30:49any day you want to update your directory. Yeah. So happy. Just any day now, any day,
0:30:54whenever you want to do it, we'll be, we'll be excited. Uh, I wanted to just mention something
0:30:59and then ask a couple of questions based on it. So I saw that Apple a couple of weeks
0:31:02ago, they updated the iCloud.com website with really nice mobile versions of some of their
0:31:09applications. So they've basically revamped the photos and notes and reminders and also
0:31:17Find My. So you can go to these websites, like go to iCloud.com in a web browser on
0:31:24a phone and it looks and acts mostly like the Notes app or the Reminders app, which
0:31:29Which I just thought was really cool.
0:31:31On the face of it seems like a strange thing to do, right?
0:31:35Because it's like, why did you do that?
0:31:37I mean, it's been useful for me in trying...
0:31:39Like I actually prepared the notes for some of this episode on a Windows laptop using
0:31:46the iCloud.com notes app just to see what it was like.
0:31:49I just went to see how it would work.
0:31:51And it worked great.
0:31:52So I was really happy about that.
0:31:54But obviously you miss a lot of the operating system tie-ins, right?
0:31:58So like, if you say you wanted to use this on an Android phone, you can't share links
0:32:04directly to it because it's in a web browser.
0:32:06Right.
0:32:07Right.
0:32:08So it made me think, like, in Apple's services world, is there like a place where they would
0:32:15ever do this?
0:32:16Like make actual, say, Android apps of these types of services?
0:32:22Do you think that, can you imagine that, right?
0:32:24Like, I know in the past, it's just like, oh no, they would never do anything.
0:32:28they've been like slowly opening the door a little bit, even including making these
0:32:34web versions, right? Because no one on an iPhone needs the web version of reminders.
0:32:38Yeah, the only thing that you do is I guess if you're on someone else's device, log into
0:32:43your account on an iPhone, but I think this is like right at the pain point of Apple.
0:32:51It wants to be a services company more and more, but the iPhone revenue is still too
0:32:57important to like unlock a lot of services from the iPhone like iMessages the biggest
0:33:01one right there. I don't think it's coming to Android anytime soon. These though are
0:33:05less important but still really baked into the iOS and Mac OS ecosystems. And so I don't
0:33:13see them doing this as long as the iPhone revenue is still the primary driver for the
0:33:20company. It's a smaller percentage overall than it was a few years ago, but it's still
0:33:23the biggest and I feel like they want to give the iPhone special treatment in their services.
0:33:32You know, honestly, I don't know if Apple Music would be there for had it been for the
0:33:35beats acquisition being the foundation of that. Maybe eventually, but I don't see it
0:33:40in the cards anytime soon.
0:33:41I mean, I think it would have been now because they did Apple TV. Right. So like, yeah, maybe
0:33:46they could have done that jointly. Yeah, like notes and photos and stuff. I mean, on one
0:33:51hand they're not high impact, right? Like notes and reminders, like it could be fine.
0:33:56They could score it out on an Android app and it'd be fine. But I kind of think they
0:34:00like that stuff. Make, you know, hey, it works really well. All this stuff is really cool
0:34:05if you buy a thousand dollar or $600 iPhone.
0:34:08And I imagine if they wanted to charge you for, as in you, like everybody for an iCloud
0:34:14service which included notes reminders and iMessage on other platforms right so
0:34:21like you could pay X amount of a month and you would also be able to access
0:34:26messages and notes and reminders on Android or Windows hmm that's it I mean
0:34:31I still don't think we're that close to it but that seems like in the world that
0:34:35Apple seems to be playing in now that could be the last last way to choose the
0:34:42revenue, you know, like they're like, oh, we make these three services, we think
0:34:46they would be really useful to people, including photos. If anything, photos
0:34:49actually has like a maybe an even better value proposition. Like, well, you could
0:34:54say to someone on Android, like, yeah, you use Android, but maybe you don't want
0:34:58Google to have your photos where you can pay us and we'll store them for you.
0:35:02That does raise the question of who this would be for. I think there's two main
0:35:06categories of people, the person you just described that has an Android phone, but
0:35:10doesn't want to go all into Google services.
0:35:12I don't know how many of those people are out there,
0:35:13but there's got to be some of them.
0:35:16But if you look at just sheer numbers,
0:35:18there's got to be a bunch of Mac users
0:35:20who use an Android phone.
0:35:21And right now that's a pretty broken experience,
0:35:23and maybe that's enough people who they'd be willing to pay.
0:35:27I don't know.
0:35:28I think either way, though, it's not a huge market.
0:35:29- Well, I think the iMessage one, though,
0:35:31isn't even just about your devices.
0:35:33People want iMessage on Android
0:35:35because their friends will have iPhones, right?
0:35:37- Sure, yeah, yeah.
0:35:38I mean, I think for this conversation,
0:35:40iMessage is like not happening.
0:35:42But maybe there are enough people
0:35:45who live split lives that would want this.
0:35:47I don't know.
0:35:49I don't know.
0:35:49I think it's cool they did the website for a long time.
0:35:52If you just went to it, it just showed you,
0:35:54like, iCloud is the thing.
0:35:56Goodbye.
0:35:56It's like, what are you doing?
0:35:58Why is this here?
0:35:59And so that is cool.
0:36:01And it's great that if you just have your spouse's phone
0:36:04and you need to look up something in your iCloud account,
0:36:06you can.
0:36:06But I don't know if this is like a gateway to bigger things
0:36:09yet.
0:36:10Yeah, it was just really intriguing to me,
0:36:12because this is not a nothing amount of work.
0:36:14They're actually really nicely designed web apps.
0:36:17And I was surprised by that, because it's like, well-- I
0:36:21mean, obviously they are assuming the primary use
0:36:24of this is people on other devices using these things.
0:36:29Because I get what you mean, but it
0:36:31seems like a really narrow use case to be like,
0:36:33if you want to access your reminders list on somebody
0:36:35else's phone and you don't have your phone with you.
0:36:37Oh yeah, all of it's narrow.
0:36:39So it was just cool to see.
0:36:41Can I get a quick reminder from everybody about our kind of stance on the Cybertruck
0:36:50again?
0:36:51Oh my god, again?
0:36:52Yeah, there's a reason for this, but like, I just need to remember how we're all feeling
0:36:58about that.
0:37:00The Cybertruck, is that the name, Cybertruck?
0:37:04Cybertruck yeah.
0:37:05The Cybertruck is an offense to human taste. It's the most... See, ugly doesn't even...
0:37:19Ugly doesn't quite define it. It's offensive. It's offensive in a way that taking the Mona Lisa
0:37:25and painting over it would be offensive. It's offensive in a way that you almost can't believe
0:37:31that a person came up with it and yet they did and somehow some people they're all part of this
0:37:40collective delusion that it's genius while in fact they've all been tricked into thinking that
0:37:47making something so preposterously ugly could be considered genius. That's my stance.
0:37:57All right, that's good. That's good to know. Stephen, why are you sitting on Cybertruck
0:38:01visually more than anything else? It is hideous, but also it's a bad pickup truck.
0:38:06Okay, cool. I have a link for you both to something called the Cybophone,
0:38:10which I put in the document. I just want to get your overall feelings on this.
0:38:17So this is made by a company called Caviar, which you may remember as the company that
0:38:24made an iPhone 11 Pro to look like an original iPhone and then put a piece of a Steve Jobs shirt
0:38:33inside of it. That's creepy. Do you remember this? No, I have blocked that out. Yes, I,
0:38:39I, I'm, unfortunately I do. I will put a link in the show notes to the Unbox Therapy YouTube channel
0:38:46where Lou from Unbox Therapy unboxes one of those, so he had one of the uh,
0:38:52superior Steve Jobs edition phones.
0:38:55So this company Caviar, this is what they do.
0:38:57They take iPhones and they do bananas things to them
0:39:01and they sell them for like a hundred grand or something.
0:39:04But I just wanted to get, you know, so Federico, how do you feel
0:39:09about Cybertruck styling added to the iPhone 11 Pro?
0:39:13I feel like I need to disconnect from Skype and cry because you see that.
0:39:20Do you see the image down below where they put like a front part on it, which is meant to look like a truck bed?
0:39:25Yeah, and it flips around and makes a stand.
0:39:27Yeah. This is a piece of performance art, right? This is not a real product.
0:39:32No, they are gonna they have 99 of them and uh, you can buy it for like 100 grand.
0:39:37No, they don't. No, they don't. It's this is all this is all fake. This is all this is all like like uh,
0:39:42This is a real company. Like this is a real company. This is a real company. This is a
0:39:48shell company oh here you go that is $5910 and there are 17 left it starts at that you can get
0:39:55an iphone 11 pro max 512 gig for 7080 dollars why this is because people want these things so they
0:40:03look different oh this is the company mqbhd did a video about one of their other yeah he did that
0:40:11one of their gold ones and it's like 100 grand or something yeah we'll put that in the show notes
0:40:15to... This is a real company, they do things, you know? Like, they're not necessarily good,
0:40:21but they do them. Someone wants this, it's not us. Yeah, somebody does want this.
0:40:27If anybody wants this, I think you should reconsider many things about the electronics
0:40:38that you like, as you cannot possibly like this. If any of our listeners have ever purchased a
0:40:44the caviar phone, just write in. We won't name you if you don't want to be named, but
0:40:48like I'm just keen to understand.
0:40:50No, no, I get like you got money to spend and you want to prove a point and you purchase
0:40:56the, the what's it called? The cyber phone and you purchase the cyber phone case. Do
0:41:02you actually like it or is it more like to prove a point? This is beyond me. This, this,
0:41:08this whole thing I don't understand. It's like I'm looking into a black hole and I don't
0:41:13understand what I'm looking at. I don't know.
0:41:15Oh, they also do custom designs.
0:41:17I am speechless.
0:41:19They have like a web tool where you can build your own weird looking iPhones.
0:41:28Go to constructor.
0:41:29Wow, this is incredible.
0:41:32There are a lot of options available in this. It's a thing, I guess, if you're like an oligarch,
0:41:37you know?
0:41:38Yeah, there's a market for that and they sure listen to Connected.
0:41:45Or like a Saudi Prince or something like that.
0:41:47We got that sweet, sweet oligarch audience in our follow up emails.
0:41:51Oh, they also sell really expensive vape pens.
0:41:54Sure, why not? I mean, why not, right? I mean, again, if you're a fan of this, of the Caviar
0:41:58Royal Gift is the full name of the company. Sure, you're going to buy, I'm just looking
0:42:04Now, the Grand Complications case.
0:42:08Oh, so the Tobion on it?
0:42:11This is the one that MKBHD, it was a version of this I think, that he looked at, but it
0:42:18was one that was more expensive than the one that they're showing here on the website.
0:42:21I mean, who wouldn't spend $1470 on the leather AirPods Pro case, right?
0:42:31I mean, what's $1,500 for you, really? It's like $1.5.
0:42:37They colour the AirPods too, if you want that.
0:42:39Sure! I mean, if you're an oligarch, this is like...
0:42:43We were talking about mods before. This is ultra-level mods, right?
0:42:47Yeah, this is as big a mod as you can get.
0:42:50Yeah, so the oligarch modder community, I'm sure they're all over this website.
0:42:58Yeah, and the CyberPhone is the most... no, it's not the most expensive one. The most expensive one
0:43:03is the iPhone 11 Pro Superior Jobs one with the t-shirt inside. Oh no, there's an even more...
0:43:10Oh, there you go. You can get lost on this. Oh no, oh no, hold on. 76,000 dollars. Which is that one?
0:43:20Universe 2 Diamond Gold iPhone case.
0:43:24It's like...
0:43:25No, I found another one.
0:43:26$128,310.
0:43:29The Credo Christmas Star.
0:43:31It's a...
0:43:32It's a...
0:43:32It's a nativity...
0:43:33It seems aggressive.
0:43:36Did you say nativity, Steve?
0:43:38Yeah.
0:43:38Hey, you gotta get in the Christmas spirit, you know?
0:43:41Oh, it's 140 grand if you get the Pro Max.
0:43:46Sure.
0:43:48Sure.
0:43:48You know, just...
0:43:49You know what?
0:43:50you do you sure this is a thing that we now know exists like many other things
0:43:56in the world we just need to accept it I've made my own design oh yeah I'm
0:44:01gonna send this to you okay how much is it I don't know I gotta take a
0:44:05screenshot of this so what you can't see in this screenshot is on the sides you
0:44:09can include text and so one side it says connected and the other side it says
0:44:16is really FM, just like imprinted.
0:44:18So let me put this, let me get you a link here.
0:44:22I will put this in the chat room so everyone can see it
0:44:25and we can judge my creation.
0:44:27It'll be in the show notes.
0:44:29- I wonder if this is gonna be better or worse looking
0:44:31than the Cyber
0:44:33- Find the cost.
0:44:33- Whoa, oh wow.
0:44:36- Approximate cost $4,621.
0:44:40- I mean honestly, what is this, a iPhone 11,
0:44:42it's not that much different, I mean you might as well
0:44:44just go for it, right?
0:44:45Oh yeah, you went for the Fleur de l'Ornamente. Yeah, that's a nice touch. I'm familiar with
0:44:51that.
0:44:52Oh, the Armenian coat of arms. That's like a good...
0:44:54Sure, sure.
0:44:55Of all the coat of arms, that was the right one to go for.
0:44:56The Armenian one is the good one, I hear.
0:44:58Yeah, yeah.
0:44:59Yeah, you want to make sure you get the Armenian coat of arms.
0:45:02Big fan of the Kardashians, if Steven is.
0:45:05Who?
0:45:06Yeah, the four... You got the Forza plate.
0:45:08Oh, the Forza plate. Good work.
0:45:09And it's seven micron. Yeah, because I've seen some people get the, like, the eight
0:45:15micron, but with the microns you want to get as small as possible, so like if you can get
0:45:19the six micron version, that's going to be even better. And this is the Caviar Atelier
0:45:24version, so extra fancy Steven, look at you. And I put my Twitter handle in there so if
0:45:30I leave it at the gym they know how to get in touch with me. Yeah, that's good. Sure.
0:45:35This is a, you Michael, you have ruined my existence with this. This is literally the
0:45:43the worst thing you could have ever done to me, this website.
0:45:46Anytime.
0:45:47What, because now you're going to go buy something?
0:45:50Well, actually I want to call them.
0:45:51They have a hotline that I can call.
0:45:53They have a hotline?
0:45:54There's a number at the bottom.
0:45:57You can call them.
0:45:58Or you can WhatsApp and Viber them.
0:46:00I'm going to Viber them.
0:46:02You're going to Viber them?
0:46:04Yeah.
0:46:05You can give them your contact information.
0:46:09They will contact you about creating this phone.
0:46:10I'm giving them Myke's phone number.
0:46:12Great. Good. It's what I deserve. All right. Submit an order, leave the contact details
0:46:20and the personal manager will calculate the exact cost and due date for you. Your email
0:46:25will be sent price and details with the selected options. Can you pay by check? Probably. You
0:46:31need to pay $70,000 with a credit card. I'm not sure I have that monthly capacity. You
0:46:39You gotta get the Apple card.
0:46:41Okay, that's that.
0:46:43Alright, let's take a break and we'll regroup and we'll keep moving through these topics.
0:46:49I need to take a shower after this.
0:46:51Okay, you go do that.
0:46:52Bye.
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0:48:12I built one.
0:48:13So I'm going to put it in the chat room.
0:48:17I'll put it in the show notes too so everyone can see the fund that I built while you were
0:48:21reading the ad.
0:48:24So there you go.
0:48:25That's that one.
0:48:26my special design that I have made based upon the options that were presented and available to me.
0:48:32What do you think? It is...
0:48:35So I've made the I love cars model where I've made a black phone which has both a Ferrari badge and
0:48:44a Mercedes badge on it and then just to make it very clear to people I have a nameplate that says
0:48:50I love cars. The left engraving says "speed" and the right engraving says "room" on it.
0:48:57So people know. Did a car put together this case? Because this...
0:49:03What's the cost, Myke? Oh, I haven't found out the cost yet. Find the cost. $5,230.
0:49:14you are really driving home the point that you are a car person.
0:49:20Yes, I'm a big car boy. You totally are not overcompensating for your
0:49:25lack of knowledge about cars. Or ownership of a car.
0:49:28Or ownership of a vehicle. I don't need to own a vehicle because I love cars this much.
0:49:34I almost, I don't want to subject a car to being driving around because I love them too bad.
0:49:40Put wheels on this case and just slide around London.
0:49:43I was just genuinely really excited that they had any car badges and then the fact that you could put two
0:49:50was just hilarious to me. I can have two car badges. I can have a Range Rover badge. It's great.
0:49:55This is so good. I'm so happy this thing exists and I look forward to seeing all of the creations
0:50:01with Connected Audience. You should share them with us on Twitter.
0:50:04What have we done? Why?
0:50:05We've done a good thing and I hope that somebody accidentally buys one. That's what I really hope.
0:50:11Considering they have to email you to order it. I don't think you can accidentally it's like you trip over the pay with Apple pay button
0:50:17moving on
0:50:18Finally Swift playgrounds has made it to the Mac the Mac can now develop software guys. This is huge
0:50:25That's guys great news. It's great news. It is great news it seems that it is
0:50:30Built with Mac catalyst which it is built my catalyst the irony of this is amazing
0:50:38Why? That it's not Xcode for the iPad, but it's a development app written for the iPad that came back on the Mac where Xcode lives
0:50:45but with Mac Catalyst and not as like a... It is funny that the only
0:50:49cross-platform development tool that Apple's ever shipped is
0:50:52Swift Playgrounds. Like that's just like a fun thing. It's not what we would have guessed. Yeah, right?
0:50:57No, no Xcode for the iPad. Swift Playgrounds on the Mac. Here you go
0:51:01Because people were thinking Xcode for the iPad would exist. Mm-hmm. The year that Swift Playgrounds
0:51:08I remember John Voorhees, that's probably not his real name, says that it's a friendly,
0:51:13easy to use environment for experimenting with Swift ideas and concepts, and the lessons
0:51:17available are excellent.
0:51:19It's a funny timing.
0:51:22I assume it's just the Swift Playgrounds team have probably been working on this since the
0:51:26tools became available to them.
0:51:28I like that they've done it.
0:51:29I think it's just a good thing.
0:51:30Like Apple should be making Mac catalyst apps, if anything, so the teams inside of Apple
0:51:35can also provide useful feedback to the Mac Catalyst, whoever is available, like, responsible
0:51:42for Mac Catalyst, right? This is the term "dogfooding", which I do not like, because
0:51:47I don't understand why it's called that, but I don't like it. Don't need the explanation,
0:51:53no explanation is good enough. Just, this is, this is Apple kind of like putting their
0:51:57money where their mouth is, really, and I think that's kind of cool.
0:52:00So you don't want me to read the Wikipedia page for dogfooding?
0:52:03You might as well read it now to try and stop the people that have opened Twitter to tell
0:52:06me.
0:52:08Under origin of the term, in 2006, the editor of IE Software recounted that in the 1970s
0:52:15television ads for Alpo dog food, Lauren Green pointed that he fed Alpo to his own dogs.
0:52:22Another possible origin he remembers is from the president of CalCannedPetFood, who was
0:52:28said to eat a can of his dog food at shareholder meetings.
0:52:32What a weirdo.
0:52:33All of that is completely unacceptable is the reason for why this became the term in
0:52:39software development.
0:52:40Well, let me read the next paragraph, Myke.
0:52:41In 1988, Microsoft manager Paul Meritz sent Brian Valentine, a test manager for the Microsoft
0:52:47Land Manager software, an email titled "Eating our own dog food," challenging him to increase
0:52:52internal usage of the company's product.
0:52:55From there, the usage of the term spread to the company.
0:52:57Why didn't he just say, "Let's use our own software"?
0:53:00Well, he wanted to be edgy because it was 1988 and everyone was hopped up on cocaine.
0:53:03So that's where it came from.
0:53:05Why didn't he just say like, get high on our own supply then?
0:53:09Mm.
0:53:10So anyways, 19--
0:53:11I'm just unhappy with that phrase.
0:53:12It's a very 1980s Microsoft thing.
0:53:14Can we just agree on that?
0:53:16So anyways--
0:53:17Developers, developers, developers.
0:53:18That was the 90s.
0:53:19All right, so we want to talk some about Apple News.
0:53:23This is one of those things that got pushed last week because, well, if you listen to
0:53:27last week's episode, you know that--
0:53:28Real time follow up!
0:53:29Wait, no, I needed to say a thing about Zwift Playgrounds on the Mac.
0:53:32Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Let's let the Mac expert speak, please.
0:53:35Yeah, I was out, no, I was still thinking about Myke's car case. It's so good.
0:53:40You've been building your own. Is that what you've been?
0:53:43I was taking a look at the picture and I was trying to imagine, like, what was the thought
0:53:47process behind putting two car logos on it. It's perfect. It is, you have achieved perfection
0:53:53with this case.
0:53:54Thank you.
0:53:55Swift Playgrounds on the Mac. At this point it feels pretty obvious that there's one
0:54:02piece missing from this structure that Apple has and that would be Xcode on the iPad, because
0:54:08we have more or less platform unity everywhere. We have Swift Playgrounds on the iPad, Swift
0:54:17Playgrounds on the Mac, Xcode on the Mac, and now Xcode on the iPad. And so I believe,
0:54:24And I think I mentioned this, actually with John on App Stories, or last week or a couple
0:54:29of weeks ago, that I could see a scenario where Xcode does come to the iPad, eventually.
0:54:36Maybe this year? I really think it should be this year. We've been talking about it
0:54:40for a while now, but this year feels like a good moment. But really, I could see a scenario
0:54:45where it is Xcode, and it does let you create apps, and it lets you sideload apps on your
0:54:53so you have a sort of an end-to-end solution to write apps on the iPad and run them on the physical device, not in a simulator.
0:55:02But I could see why, and I'm gonna, you know, some people may be upset at this notion,
0:55:09make Xcode Swift only. And by that I mean Swift code and SwiftUI code.
0:55:15So no interface builder, no Objective-C, all in on Swift and SwiftUI.
0:55:20UI. And you can see the Apple pitch be like, "For the next generation of coders, we want
0:55:26to have a clean break." Well, they're not going to say that, but the message will be
0:55:29that. It's a future-proof product built for future technologies, and that would be Swift
0:55:35and SwiftUI. So no interface builder on the iPad, which would be complicated. I mean,
0:55:40it's an iPad, so it doesn't have the screen real estate of a Mac or an iMac or an external
0:55:45So doing away with Interface Builder would help with that, and to have SwiftUI code and
0:55:52just Swift would remove a ton of baggage from the existing product.
0:55:57I could see Apple doing something like that.
0:55:59And it wouldn't be a simplified version of Xcode.
0:56:01Like it would be a modernized version of Xcode, because you could see all—it's not like,
0:56:06"Yeah, it's Xcode, but you can actually write real software."
0:56:09No, because we've seen new apps and existing apps implement Swift, implement SwiftUI.
0:56:15So it would be the real Xcode, and you should be able to write actual apps and write commercial
0:56:22apps with it. It just wouldn't have any of the old stuff.
0:56:26So it would be an easy way at least to, I guess, slim it down if they wanted to do that.
0:56:34But it would be also a bit of a cop-out as well, right? Like, wouldn't it be more impressive
0:56:41if they could say like...
0:56:42It's the full thing, yes.
0:56:44I agree. I agree. But I don't know, it would be an Apple move, you know, to remove certain
0:56:53features and be like "no, no, this is the real thing, but it's for a new generation
0:56:59of programmers." You know, it wouldn't be unusual, is what I'm saying. But yes, I agree.
0:57:04I would very much prefer to have the full thing, like it's a one-to-one port, just like
0:57:08Swift Playgrounds on the Mac. I mean, it's lacking a YARK kit for obvious reasons, but
0:57:13otherwise they managed to have a more or less full version of Playgrounds on the Mac.
0:57:20So it's also a good message. Like, I feel like the past couple of weeks we've seen
0:57:24Apple try to change the conversation around Catalyst, which is another point that I wanted
0:57:29to make. First with the changes in 13.4 and then the other beta versions, and now leading
0:57:36by example with porting Swift Playgrounds to the Mac using Catalyst. It feels like in
0:57:42the span of a couple of weeks, the overall conversation around Catalyst has changed,
0:57:49at least a little, with all these improvements and now Apple demonstrating how a complex
0:57:54app can be ported to the Mac using Catalyst, which I was not expecting. Sorry, Stephen,
0:58:01you can go ahead with Apple News now.
0:58:02Let's talk about Apple news. So there was a story in Bloomberg last week that the head of business
0:58:08for Apple's news app stepped down after
0:58:12I think what we can all say being a kind of lackluster launch year for Apple news plus
0:58:19The executive his name is Liz
0:58:22Mmm, I should have seen it
0:58:25Smell smile smile. It's like smile and see
0:58:28Skymell skymell skymell skymell
0:58:32Anyways, they are outgoing they joined in mid 2018 of coming over from
0:58:37huge publisher Conde Nast so pretty short run at Apple and
0:58:42Of course Apple didn't comment
0:58:45This is from sources their job was to oversee relationships with advertisers and news publishers
0:58:51Which remember from the news plus launch as a big conversation about some?
0:58:56Publishers just weren't gonna do it or they weren't happy with the terms
0:58:59And I don't know it really kind of spun up a bunch of ideas for me around Apple News and Apple News Plus
0:59:05But let's start with this. Do we find this news?
0:59:08surprising
0:59:10not really I
0:59:12don't think it's
0:59:13it's surprising at all and and
0:59:15We've talked about Apple News before just to sort of reiterate my my opinion of it
0:59:21I think it's a bad deal for publishers the
0:59:25There's two problems to this approach from the publisher side. You're giving up too much control
0:59:31for to get essentially in return what exposure on a service that
0:59:37isn't really meant for
0:59:40You know promoting individual stories and I'm referring to news plus it was a product that was designed
0:59:46for the magazine and newspaper experience and Apple has tried to try and break it down to
0:59:53being able to have it be a little more modular in the sense of promoting individual stories, promoting individual articles.
1:00:00But really it is meant to give you access to magazines and most of them
1:00:04they do not take advantage of the native format that led to
1:00:09actually
1:00:11let people browse your magazine by sections or by stories. So you're giving up too much control
1:00:18to be on a service that is very much designed for an older generation of users.
1:00:23If you don't want to, if you do want to go after the new generation of users and use the proprietary Apple News format
1:00:29syntax, that's a lot of work.
1:00:32It's a lot of work to make it happen for your CMS and even, and we mentioned this last week, even if you have a
1:00:37CMS plugin, it is not guaranteed to work well, and it's not guaranteed to get updates that frequently. So
1:00:44You keep stacking one problem on top of the other. So you have the magazine experience
1:00:50which is not really well designed for a web-first publication.
1:00:54And then you have the custom syntax and this ecosystem of plugins that may be broken or may be slightly updated.
1:01:00And then you have the fact that if you want to have a good integration you gotta write it yourself.
1:01:06So there's the cost of supporting syntax and a publishing system that only works on Apple News. Where? And this is where
1:01:13I guess the Americans would say the buck stops, maybe. You're not really making that much
1:01:19money from it. Like, it's like, where the nickel stops. Yes. Like, why go through all
1:01:26this trouble and all these, consider all these little issues, not so little issues actually,
1:01:33and inconsistencies and complications for what? To get like less than 50% when you account
1:01:39for all your costs and expenses. I don't know if Apple News+ can be saved. I've seen some
1:01:48people speculate that it should just become part of an Apple service bundle. And that
1:01:53I would be inclined to support. Like, yes, maybe that's a way to save Apple News+. Maybe
1:01:57that's a way, there's a way for publishers to make some money off of that. But it feels
1:02:04like all the excitement surrounding Apple News+ has essentially dried down very quickly
1:02:10since it launched last spring. And if you're a publisher, I'm guessing that you're maybe
1:02:16better served by rolling your own thing. If you're the New York Times or the Wall Street
1:02:22Journal, you have your own subscriptions, you can make your own deals, and you can fully
1:02:26control your CMS. You don't have to... These proprietary news services, they come and go
1:02:32all the time and it's sort of sad to see that NewsPlus may be just another one in the mix.
1:02:39The business model that these services seem to provide now is not really needed. This was maybe
1:02:47a business model needed many years ago, but as Apple is seeing and as is even reported in the
1:02:54story, many of the larger publishers have worked this out for themselves. Like, this is almost like
1:03:02like a reverse of what is happening to companies like Netflix where all of these companies
1:03:10had joined in to allow their content to be streamed on streaming services but now they've
1:03:15all realised that the money is actually creating their own service so they're slowly unbundling
1:03:21themselves from companies like Netflix. Netflix obviously worked this out a long time ago,
1:03:25they have their own content, blah blah blah blah. But my point is I actually now don't
1:03:29think that any of these news aggravators could have ever worked no matter how soon they came
1:03:34into it because they're able because these companies are able to roll their own and be
1:03:39successful with it because as we've said many times even on this very episode you are able
1:03:44to make more money if you're not being put into a pool because why hope to get a sliver
1:03:52of $5 a month from Apple News Plus if you can maybe get $3 from your customers directly.
1:04:02And that's what all of these services are doing.
1:04:05So like, really, I just don't think this is something Apple can pull off.
1:04:10I think this is one of those situations where they get lost in the hubris of thinking, "Well,
1:04:15we're Apple, so why wouldn't you want to work with us?"
1:04:19I was like, well, because your value proposition just cannot be good enough.
1:04:22Like it's nothing to do with them.
1:04:24It just cannot be good enough.
1:04:26Now, you know, there might be a way that, like, as you say, if they bundle it in
1:04:29for another service, carve out a little bit of money from each of those
1:04:33subscribers instead, you might be able to make more money overall.
1:04:36Right.
1:04:37Like, I bet if they were to, you know, create a new bundle, which include Apple
1:04:42news, iCloud, like the bundle we've always expected, right.
1:04:45the Apple News, Apple Arcade, Apple TV Plus, iCloud Bundle, if they were to carve off like
1:04:532% of the value of those subscribers and put it into Apple News Plus, they'd probably make
1:04:58more money that way. So like maybe that's a better value proposition for trying to convince
1:05:03publishers, right? To just be like, well now the overall Apple News part is worth this
1:05:09much to you, rather than what it was when we were just trying to take it out of individual
1:05:14subscribers $5 a month. So maybe that can give it a boost, but I really just don't think
1:05:21that enough publishers are going to want to get on board with this. It just doesn't for
1:05:25it to make sense for anybody. And if the content isn't there and the subscribers aren't there,
1:05:30then then it doesn't it just doesn't work. I had asked people on Twitter for their opinions,
1:05:36people who are using and liking Apple news plus. And I got a bunch of stuff that I just
1:05:41to share. Lots of people mentioned keeping it for access to sources like
1:05:46the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal. Those papers and others provide
1:05:50content to News Plus, but it's not necessarily everything and you can't log
1:05:56into their website with like a News Plus login, so if they have their own pay
1:06:00wallet it's separate, but people who just wanted some of their content they were
1:06:03happy with that. A lot of people mentioned that they may or their
1:06:07families because this part of family sharing you can get this content for a
1:06:13lot cheaper than if paying if you're paying for two or three magazines on
1:06:17their own which makes a lot of sense you can bundle the cost some people are
1:06:21getting all their news from Apple news and so that you know having just
1:06:24additional content in there they like and all that said a lot of people had
1:06:29complaints about the UI the fact that a lot of magazines are just PDFs very
1:06:33cool like you said the Apple news format is tricky and expensive to work with
1:06:36sharing and saving for later. Also pain points. Someone mentioned that I tried to download some
1:06:43magazines to read on my iPad on a flight and it didn't work and I didn't have anything to read.
1:06:47That's that's a bummer. So that offline viewing is a space for additional work. But there are
1:06:53people who are out there using it, even if it's not just for us. And I think especially if you're
1:06:57already reading two or three magazines, or people in your family are, it's a pretty good deal. And
1:07:03And so if you fall into that category
1:07:05and you're willing to put up with the downsides,
1:07:07it's still a legitimate product.
1:07:09But I think it's clear it's missed the mark for most people.
1:07:12And I can't imagine that Apple is happy with the reception of it
1:07:15so far.
1:07:16All right, we are going to end this week with a fun segment.
1:07:19But first, let me tell you about our third sponsor.
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1:08:24All right, so we wanted to end the show
1:08:27by talking about things that we are enjoying
1:08:31and we sort of put some limitations on it
1:08:33that it's not Apple stuff.
1:08:34So it can be tech or it cannot be tech,
1:08:36but it's some things that we have found enjoyable
1:08:39so far this year.
1:08:41Federico, do you wanna go first?
1:08:42- So I really wanted to have this topic this week
1:08:46because I need to talk about something
1:08:48that Myke will appreciate,
1:08:49but you will have no idea what I'm talking about, Stephen.
1:08:51- Oh boy.
1:08:52- And I think Myke knows what I'm about to mention.
1:08:53- Oh my God, I know what he's gonna do.
1:08:56This is hilarious. Federico proposed this topic, then didn't write any notes in the
1:09:00document because he really wants an outlet for this right now and he knows Steven wouldn't
1:09:05usually let him do it. So Federico, would you like to talk about Pokemon Home?
1:09:09Yes, thank you Myke! So, it is a tech product because it is a web service, it is an Android
1:09:19and iOS app. And it actually, if you pay for the... So, hold on. Pokemon Home is a new
1:09:25cloud service from Nintendo to let you store Pokemon in the cloud that you can then transfer
1:09:30between games.
1:09:31What a great phrase!
1:09:32To store your Pokemon in the cloud.
1:09:34Exactly.
1:09:35It's a cloud service to store your Pokemon and transfer them between different games.
1:09:39Mostly the idea would be to get old Pokemon into the latest Switch games, which Steven
1:09:46are called Pokemon Sword and Shield.
1:09:49Now Pokemon Home has a free tier, but also has a premium version with a bunch more features,
1:09:54And the premium version actually uses the Apple native renewable subscriptions.
1:10:00I signed up for the premium plan last night and I sure enough was an iTunes subscription,
1:10:04so that's nice.
1:10:06So Pokémon Home is amazing for a bunch of reasons, but really I'm gonna try to simplify
1:10:12here.
1:10:13It's the only way right now to bring your old Pokémon into the Switch games.
1:10:20At least some of them.
1:10:22But really the appeal of Pokémon Home is that you can, and I've seen people have
1:10:27already done this, you can register, you can transfer Pokémon from the old GameCube games
1:10:38or the Gameboy Advance games.
1:10:41We're talking here about 15 years, 17 years worth of retro compatibility.
1:10:49It really is kind of incredible.
1:10:52It's very difficult to do this. So to get a Pokémon from a Gameboy Advance game to
1:10:59Pokémon Home requires many old systems.
1:11:04Yeah.
1:11:05But it is possible to do.
1:11:06Here's why I believe Steven will appreciate this. Those old games are running on the Nintendo
1:11:12GameCube or the Gameboy Advance, which launched, really the Gameboy Advance came out in 2001,
1:11:17if you think about it. It's really old. And of course the GameCube and the GBA are very
1:11:22limited if at all, online integration. And back then, if you wanted to transfer Pokémon
1:11:29between games, you had to use these custom cables that were not even USB cables, they
1:11:34were like Nintendo cables, they were called the Link Trade cables. And you could do this
1:11:40crazy setup with connecting a Game Boy Advance to a GameCube and have two screens at the
1:11:47same time. It was wild. But what Nintendo did is fascinating here, because if you transfer...
1:11:55So you have a Game Boy, and the Game Boy does not go online at all, doesn't have the internet,
1:12:00the Game Boy Advance. But what Nintendo did when they launched the DS, so the original
1:12:05Nintendo DS had retro compatibility. So in addition to playing Nintendo DS games, the
1:12:13DS also had a GBA slot, so it supported Game Boy Advance cartridges. And so what
1:12:20Nintendo did, if you had an old Game Boy game inside the GBA slot and you
1:12:26were playing one of the Pokemon games for the Nintendo DS, the DS game could
1:12:32see the cartridge and it could let you transfer those Pokemon from the GBA to
1:12:37the Nintendo DS. Now, the Nintendo DS does go online, and so Nintendo years ago
1:12:43launched this other original web service called Pokemon Bank, which is like the
1:12:48predecessor of Pokemon Home. So what they were able to do now with Pokemon Home,
1:12:54they have full compatibility with Pokemon Bank. They have restored the
1:12:59Pokemon Bank service, which you can now use for 30 days for free. If you want to
1:13:04transfer all your old Pokemon, you better hurry, because in theory it's free for 30
1:13:08days. So you can get all those Pokemon that maybe you caught in the days of the GameCube
1:13:16and through some steps, and there's YouTube videos that maybe there's one of them that
1:13:20Myke or Steven you should put in the, Myke has the link, so please put it in the notes
1:13:24because it's so fascinating. You can transfer them from the GameCube to the GBA, from the
1:13:31GBA to the Nintendo DS, from the Nintendo DS to the original Pokemon Bank Service, and
1:13:37from the Pokemon Bank service, you can go to the 3DS, which is the successor to the
1:13:42DS, and then from there you can put them in Pokemon Home. And from Pokemon Home, if you
1:13:47want to, you can transfer them into the Switch games. So we're talking here four, five generations
1:13:56of consoles that now have some basic form of transfer between them for pieces of data,
1:14:05if you think about it, the Pokémon is essentially a piece of data with the code and some abilities
1:14:09and it's like... it's a piece of data that can travel sort of like in time from the days
1:14:15of the GameCube and the GBA all the way to Pokémon Home now. And I think it's just incredible
1:14:20that you can do this. And it's complicated, it gets complicated if you want to do this
1:14:24whole thing. You will need cables and old original hardware, but you can do it. And
1:14:30In fact, I am doing it. I still have my GBA and I have my Nintendo DS and the 3DS. I don't
1:14:36have a GameCube. But I was able, for example, to get my Pikachu mic from Pokémon Yellow.
1:14:47So this is the virtual console version of Pokémon Yellow, of course, that I had on
1:14:53the 3DS. That Pikachu is now in my Pokémon home and I can transfer to Pokémon Sword
1:14:59- And how did you do that?
1:15:01Like, so you went from--
1:15:02- On the 3DS, so on the 3DS,
1:15:04there's a, Nintendo made this utility
1:15:08called PokeTransfer.
1:15:11And PokeTransfer is basic, emulates what the DS was doing.
1:15:15It recognizes if you have virtual console games installed
1:15:19on your device, and it says, okay,
1:15:22do you wanna take these Pokemon
1:15:23from these virtual console games,
1:15:24and you wanna put them in Pokemon Bank?
1:15:26And then from there you just do the bank to home transfer.
1:15:30- So I have to get my 3DS now.
1:15:32- Get your 3DS.
1:15:33- Download PokeTransfer. - PokeTransfer and Pokemon Bank.
1:15:37You can find them on the eShop.
1:15:38Pokemon Bank you can use for free for 30 days again.
1:15:42And then you just go from there.
1:15:44It's really remarkable to have.
1:15:46And it's so unusual because, you know,
1:15:49most of the time video game companies,
1:15:50they don't care about backwards compatibility.
1:15:54but this is like next level.
1:15:57Yeah, I mean there are a lot of like issues with this which isn't perfect, right?
1:16:02And people are upset about it and like some ways are wild, some ways I do actually do
1:16:07understand but just the idea that this exists, like we need to step back and realise how
1:16:15incredible it is that Nintendo and the Pokémon company are enabling this kind of thing because
1:16:21It's wholly unnecessary, but amazing.
1:16:27Yeah, and just to give you a frame of reference here,
1:16:30Pokémon Colosseum, which was an Nintendo GameCube game,
1:16:34came out in Europe and America in 2004.
1:16:38So that's a 16-year-old game that, in theory--
1:16:43I mean, in practice, you can, if you have the proper equipment,
1:16:46you can transfer data from that game all the way
1:16:49to your iPhone with the Pokemon Home app or to your Nintendo Switch. Which is, frankly,
1:16:56it's just, it's a remarkable technical achievement. So that was my pick.
1:17:01I'm very pleased that we got to talk about that for a minute.
1:17:05Steven. I mean, you can appreciate the backward compatibility aspect. Come on. No. Just nothing.
1:17:13It's gone. All right.
1:17:15Or just muted.
1:17:16Mm-hmm.
1:17:17Steven, are you actually there?
1:17:23It's not anymore.
1:17:24Did he leave?
1:17:25Did he leave?
1:17:26Oh, hey guys.
1:17:34Did you leave?
1:17:35I don't want to answer that.
1:17:37Oh, wow.
1:17:38That's next level.
1:17:39I'm really sad.
1:17:40The disrespect.
1:17:41The disrespect.
1:17:42I'm gonna hear it in the edit.
1:17:44Wow, he did leave!
1:17:46Wow! And I was trying to break it down for you and to... because there was an aspect that I
1:17:51That I thought you would appreciate. I'm very sad.
1:17:54Myke, you're up.
1:17:55I want to talk about some pouches that I purchased to make my packing a lot better
1:18:02So I...
1:18:04Do Pokemon go in them?
1:18:05We're not talking to you about Pokemon anymore. You can stay out of this.
1:18:08That the what I went with was two
1:18:12Well, I have three total but two different types of pouches from Bellroy
1:18:16Which is a company that we've spoken about in the past before Federico bought some cases. Do you still use the bar?
1:18:22Okay, so oh, yeah, I have it on right now. Like this is the one with a wallet in the back, right? Yes
1:18:27all right, so I went and bought these little pouches because
1:18:31Travel enough and I have like a full like kit of travel stuff
1:18:38Sometimes I take a carry-on, sometimes I take a backpack.
1:18:41It depends on if I'm going away for maybe like a longer trip or a weekend or whatever.
1:18:45And I was finding myself like...
1:18:47being frustrated at having to try and get things out of separate pockets and you know,
1:18:52like I was trying to be organized but the organization made it more difficult for me
1:18:55to move from thing to thing. So I decided that I would get pouches and move this stuff around.
1:19:01This is after watching many YouTube videos from Chase Reeves who makes this the best bag videos
1:19:07and Chase is always talking about having this type of stuff and he really heavily recommended
1:19:12a lot of the Belroy packing products so that's what I went with. So the tech pouch and the
1:19:18other tech kit and the classic pouch, these are the two that I went with. The tech kit
1:19:23is like a brick basically and you can fill it up and it has some organization in it and
1:19:28I thought I would also run through what I'm keeping in each of these because I thought
1:19:32that might be of interest to people. So in my tech kit I have my ZMI power pack. If you're
1:19:38long time listeners of the show may remember this as the battery bank that was really exciting
1:19:43and then I bought one and then nobody else could ever buy one. But it's there. I still
1:19:49use mine. That thing lasts forever. Like you need to charge it. That thing is like very
1:19:54serious. It's like sure it drove the company bankrupt but for a beautiful moment in time.
1:20:01It is really good.
1:20:03I have an Apple Watch cable, a lightning cable, a micro USB cable.
1:20:07I have a US 18 watt USB-C iPhone charger.
1:20:11This was the one that came with the Pro Max because Stephen got me that phone by surprise
1:20:17during the podcastathon.
1:20:19But this one doesn't have like, as some US chargers do, where you can take the little
1:20:26part off.
1:20:27Stephen, what is that called when you can like take the little part off of the power
1:20:30The duck head.
1:20:32Duck head. It doesn't have one of those.
1:20:34It's actually built into it like a big block.
1:20:36But it's a good one to have.
1:20:38And then I also have a 10 watt
1:20:40iPhone charger that has
1:20:42the removable adapters like the duck
1:20:44heads. So that one I just
1:20:46have and I don't have anything plugged into it.
1:20:48I don't have one of the little duck heads plugged
1:20:50into it. I'll get to why in a minute.
1:20:52Then I have a 61 watt USB-C
1:20:54MacBook Pro charger which I use
1:20:56for my Nintendo Switch,
1:20:58MacBook Pro, my iPad Pro, any USB-C device that I take while I travel.
1:21:05That's all in the tech kit.
1:21:06Then in one of the pouches I have a couple of generic plug adapters for Europe and US
1:21:11so you can plug in a regular plug into the UK plug into it and I can plug into a European
1:21:18adapter.
1:21:19Then I have various international Apple adapters.
1:21:23I actually bought one of those international kits.
1:21:26I saw it on sale once.
1:21:27what I'm talking about like the Apple International kit thing yeah they
1:21:31recalled a bunch of them last year yes I think it was after that I hope it was
1:21:35after that no I checked it actually and it was fine I checked it I remember that
1:21:39now it's like a certain color if it was like colored in a certain way it was
1:21:43recalled but I bought that and that and it because it was on sale and I needed
1:21:48like three of them so I now have them I have lightning earpods the cable one
1:21:57USB to USB-C dongle, a hyperdrive, you know like one of those little things goes into
1:22:03a MacBook Pro and you get a bunch of ports, and then a HDMI cable.
1:22:07Can either of you name why I have a HDMI cable in my Bellroy pouch?
1:22:12To watch keynotes in hotels.
1:22:14Perfect.
1:22:15That is exactly why, because I always end up needing it so I just left it in there.
1:22:19Then in the second pouch I have just an iPhone 11 Pro smart battery case.
1:22:23I have some expandability in this second pouch.
1:22:26for other stuff I might want to put in there.
1:22:28And I just find this so much easier when moving from thing to thing.
1:22:31So I recommend this if you travel frequently and are not putting all of your tech gear
1:22:35into just pouches, you should do that.
1:22:38Yeah, I've got one by a company whose name...
1:22:44The Tom Bihn.
1:22:45The Tom Bihn Snake Charmer is the one I have.
1:22:46I had that one before and I found that it was just too big and bulky.
1:22:51That was what I was moving from.
1:22:53I had the Snake Charmer and there just wasn't enough organization in there.
1:22:57I just, it was just like, I was digging through it to always find stuff and I much prefer
1:23:01this like smaller, more organized I prefer.
1:23:05Yeah.
1:23:06Yeah, it is, it is a little floppy, but I like that I don't have, I mean, I'd rather
1:23:11dig through something I think than have like everything in its place because what I, what
1:23:14I carry in that changes over time.
1:23:17But the better stuff looks really nice.
1:23:18I'm glad you're happy with it because this, this can totally change the game.
1:23:22And one thing you can do too is if you have extras of this stuff, like have a travel kit
1:23:28that you never go into, right?
1:23:29Like just like I do, a lot of people do it for like a bathroom kit, right?
1:23:33Like there's a toothbrush and toothpaste in there that never comes out.
1:23:36So when I travel, I know I could pick this up and it's like one unit of stuff that I
1:23:40need to take on the road.
1:23:44So mine, I've got, I've got two and they, they, they go together.
1:23:49And this is not a, these people who make this first one, they're fine, but they, you know,
1:23:56this is not a product placement situation.
1:23:59But Myke, you and Gray have Cortex notebooks, you have links in the show notes to those
1:24:03where you can...
1:24:04It's called the Theme System Journal?
1:24:06Yes, that is what it's called.
1:24:07Yeah.
1:24:08Gray calls it the Cortex Journal all the time.
1:24:13And also, is it product placement if you can't buy the product?
1:24:16It's bad product placement.
1:24:17I was just saying, like, you know, like you paid me for nothing.
1:24:20It's not supposed to talk about that.
1:24:23Sorry, I'll bill you.
1:24:24So anyways, the theme system journal has spots for, of course, journaling, which I try to
1:24:29do daily.
1:24:31And then you can track themes or things you want to keep up with.
1:24:35And I found this very useful over the past couple of months.
1:24:37I started doing this in January.
1:24:39I'm not going to share what's in mind.
1:24:41That's A, too cortexy for the show, but B, mostly private to me.
1:24:45find it very useful to track certain things over the course of, you know, weeks
1:24:49at a time and and so I've been very happy with that and it's a great product.
1:24:55I really like the layout and it fits well with what I want. They'll be on sale
1:24:59again at some point in the future, I think, but not currently. Yeah, who knows
1:25:04when coronavirus and I'm not even kidding. Yeah, it killed mobile board
1:25:08Congress and your notebooks. The digital side of it for me though is the
1:25:15app day one which we've spoken about before journaling app for the Apple
1:25:19platforms and I like to do journaling and this sort of stuff mainly like in a
1:25:27notebook with a pen but I want to digitize it to have it in the future
1:25:32even though I keep the notebooks and I've shared pictures over the years of
1:25:35my field notes collection that I have a field notes notebook with me all the
1:25:39time and I write in them a bunch for a bunch of various things and then I scan
1:25:43them as PDFs but then I also keep them on the shelf because they're colorful
1:25:46and look cool. I would do the same with a theme system journal but I want to
1:25:50digitize this stuff and so I have in day one you can set up multiple journals and
1:25:55so I have one called logging and it's where either scans or photos of these
1:26:02pages go as I fill the notebook up so I can I can very quickly go back to a
1:26:06single day's journal entry even if I don't have the notebook with me and of
1:26:10course lots of other uses for day one but this is how I use them together and
1:26:15I find that system to be pretty good because maybe I want to do a daily
1:26:20journal and I don't have the notebook with me maybe I left it in the office I
1:26:23don't want to go but come back out here and I could just do it in day one in
1:26:26that journal and the next day just go back to the notebook and then take a
1:26:30picture of it and have it in day one so it's kind of a blend over time but the
1:26:33two of these things I find very helpful in sort of daily journaling and keeping
1:26:38tabs on various aspects of life that I want to keep tabs on.
1:26:43Very nice.
1:26:44Mm-hmm.
1:26:45I find that quite interesting that you do scan it all.
1:26:48It seems like it's such work.
1:26:49It is a bit of work.
1:26:50But I also like that I have a folder
1:26:53with a bunch of PDFs of all my field notes from 2011 forward.
1:26:57And that is handy in particular, because a field notes,
1:27:00I'll burn it through about one a month.
1:27:02And very often, I need something that
1:27:04was on the last two pages of the previous notebook,
1:27:07like if I'm in a meeting or something or on a call,
1:27:09and I can just very quickly pull the PDF up
1:27:11and have that reference there.
1:27:13So I kind of like the duality of it.
1:27:16- I like that you take more notes on notebooks than I do.
1:27:20- All the time.
1:27:21I mean, it's just always open.
1:27:22- It's just my journal and then the notes
1:27:26when I'm recording, that's it.
1:27:27- Yeah, I do it for recording, you know, for edit notes,
1:27:30but I have like a little checklist in here
1:27:32from when we launched the shows the other day
1:27:33of all the things I need to do.
1:27:34Like I find it to be a very useful tool.
1:27:36All right, I think that does it for this episode.
1:27:39If you want to find the links to all the stuff we spoke about,
1:27:42including photos of Myke and I's glorious iPhones,
1:27:46go to the show notes.
1:27:48They're in the app you're listening to us in,
1:27:50or they're on the web at relay.fm/connected/281.
1:27:55While you're there, you can get in touch.
1:27:57There's an email link there.
1:27:58You can choose to support the show.
1:28:00There's some membership links in the sidebar as well.
1:28:02You can support what we do here at Connected.
1:28:04You can find us all on Twitter.
1:28:07You can find Myke there as I-M-Y-K-E.
1:28:10Myke is the host of a bunch of shows on Relay,
1:28:12including The Test Drivers,
1:28:14his new show with Austin Evans.
1:28:16Go check that out.
1:28:17It's really an enjoyable first episode.
1:28:19You can find Federico on Twitter as Vitici, V-I-T-I-C-C-I,
1:28:23and he is the editor-in-chief of MaxStories.net.
1:28:26Federico, do you have anything exciting coming
1:28:28you wanna tease for MaxStories?
1:28:33Well, not in the short term, I think.
1:28:36Yeah, I'm working on it, but it'll be a while.
1:28:39Okay.
1:28:39We'll check back in on that.
1:28:40You can find me on Twitter as ISMH and my work at five 12 pixels.net.
1:28:46And most recently the flashback show here on relay FM.
1:28:49I think our sponsors this week, Squarespace direct mail and set up for Mac Paul
1:28:55until next week, gentlemen, say goodbye.
1:28:57I'll leave it there.
1:28:58Cheerio.