0:00:00[Music]
0:00:08Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 236.
0:00:13It is made possible this week by Luna Display, Away, and Squarespace.
0:00:18My name is Stephen Hackett and I am joined by Mr. Federico Vittucci.
0:00:22Hello, Stephen Hackett.
0:00:24Hello, Federico Vittucci. How are you today?
0:00:26I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Yeah, I'm ready to admit my defeat.
0:00:30You got creamed.
0:00:34In 2019 defeat is the new victory, you know being humble and being you know
0:00:41about your defeat is the new. Why is it impossible for you to both win and lose with any weight?
0:00:48Everybody can win these days. It's harder to lose.
0:00:53I've never known of someone to be like
0:00:56So difficult in defeat like this like to brag in defeat like I don't think I've ever come across this before
0:01:03Later don't okay. Okay, Myke. How are you today? Oh
0:01:10I'm fine, man
0:01:13I'm fired up. I'm ready to go. There's a lot of stuff in this Google Doc. This is gonna be a monumental episode
0:01:21This one's going to go down in history.
0:01:22I think it is, but there's something we want to talk about right off the bat.
0:01:27And that is the announcement of our WWDC live show tickets.
0:01:33They are on sale.
0:01:34Like you need like one of those air horns, you know, like one of those ones.
0:01:39He doesn't have the sound effects.
0:01:42Honestly, I'm just going to use what you just made as the noise.
0:01:48So our tickets are now on sale.
0:01:49It is the first link in the show notes.
0:01:52Uh, we are at the hammer theater again in San Jose, the evening of Wednesday, June 5th,
0:01:58the lobby will open at five.
0:01:59The doors will open at six.
0:02:02We are doing, um, uh, assigned seating this time.
0:02:06So you get to pick where you sit when you buy your ticket and that should help everybody
0:02:09get in more easily than last year.
0:02:11So I know it was a little chaotic last time.
0:02:14We're super excited to be able to get in here.
0:02:16We're super excited about this.
0:02:19I love doing this show.
0:02:21It is so much fun.
0:02:23We're just excited.
0:02:24I'm so ready.
0:02:26I'm so ready for the live show.
0:02:28We had so much fun last year and we're ready to do all over again.
0:02:33So I hope that you'll grab a ticket and come see us.
0:02:36There is one I've decided Federico, I feel like you will be
0:02:41more on board with me than Steven in saying this.
0:02:45I've decided our flex this year is going to be the this will be the most entertaining live show at WWDC
0:02:51Absolutely, I mean you the kind of the kind of entertainment that you will get from this live show will be
0:02:59Unmatched you cannot get it anywhere else
0:03:03Nowhere else you will not get your money back if it's not true, but I guarantee you will be true
0:03:12If anything attempting to get your money back will be its own entertainment
0:03:16Exactly try that and you know, you will be entertained
0:03:19so
0:03:21We are play it will be bigger. It will be better. It will be faster
0:03:25Stronger
0:03:28Performance will be better in every single way every way imaginable
0:03:33It's it's bug fixes ever last year show is what you're saying and performance improvements literal improvements to our performance
0:03:40There would be Steven doing a dance thing at the beginning. There would be surprises.
0:03:48There would be questions being asked.
0:03:52Of yourself, of us, of our reality, our existence.
0:03:57I will be asking questions and I will be taking names.
0:04:02Can we shoot Myke out of a giant cannon?
0:04:04Well, yeah. That was the stronger part. I have to get stronger to deal with that.
0:04:09survive. Your bones are going to explode. We're very excited, as you can tell. Federico
0:04:16has been making me and Steven very nervous by telling us that he must continue working
0:04:22on his secret plans for the show. If you heard the show last year, my favorite part was Federico's
0:04:28secret plan, so I have high hopes for him again. So we're really, really excited. I
0:04:31just want to make sure before I continue to plan this, the internet was working inside
0:04:38the theater last year right? Yes. Like 4G was okay. Okay. Oh yeah. Alright.
0:04:43I have the Wi-Fi password so if you need it we can get you on the Wi-Fi.
0:04:47Steven can get you 5G on AT&T now anyway so like you're gonna be real good.
0:04:51I have 5GE on my iPhone so everything is well it's exactly the same as it was
0:04:55before but now full of lies. Upgraded. An extra lying number. So yeah go get if you
0:05:01want if you're gonna be at WWDC make sure you pick up one of these tickets
0:05:04we're expecting that they'll sell out quite quickly. Yes. So they will link in
0:05:08show notes, you can go and grab them. Before we move into topics, we have a little bit of follow
0:05:12out our friend and probably your friend Tyler Stallman, who was on the show. Now I guess now a
0:05:18couple months ago talking about photo editing. He put up a video that was really a nice compliment
0:05:24to what we spoke about on the show. And if that was confusing to follow, because we were talking
0:05:29about photo editing in an audio environment, which I realized like halfway through that episode is
0:05:33I was like, maybe this wasn't the way we should have done this.
0:05:36I think it did OK, because I learned some stuff.
0:05:39Like, my photo editing has gotten way better since that conversation.
0:05:43Yeah, so go check out Tyler's video.
0:05:44A, if you're not subscribed to his YouTube channel, like, what are you doing?
0:05:47Go do that.
0:05:48But this is a great video that walks through a lot of the stuff we spoke about.
0:05:52And Tyler's just the best, and this video is well worth the watch.
0:05:56Even if you listen to that episode, you will pick up new things in this video,
0:05:59I bet.
0:06:00I actually saw him say on Twitter that he was thinking of the three of us
0:06:03when he made the video. Yeah. Like he was thinking, which I think it's like, if they
0:06:08could understand, like the whole time, it's like, will they be able to understand this?
0:06:12I don't know whether that's a compliment or not. Yeah. If those guys ingrasp this, anyone
0:06:16can like, I'm not sure what you're actually saying about us. I actually hope that he's
0:06:19thinking about us all the time. Yeah. And every video he makes. In every video. Yeah.
0:06:25So thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Tyler. I hope you will continue to keep us in your thoughts
0:06:29in the future.
0:06:32Alright, we have a mini topic and I'm not going to let you off the hook this time.
0:06:36No, we don't.
0:06:37Yes we do.
0:06:38Federico, tell us about your multiple watches.
0:06:40Look, it's a very simple story.
0:06:42Okay, so a few months ago I was sent a review unit of a smaller Apple watch, the 40mm one
0:06:50version.
0:06:52I had the 44 version for myself that I bought here in Italy, and I started testing the smaller one.
0:07:02And I, you know, how it works, I think Jason talked about this on upgrade with Apple review units,
0:07:07sometimes you get a very short loan, other times it's an extended loan, this happens to be one of
0:07:13the extended ones, and I basically realized that I actually like how I got into this rhythm of
0:07:21The bigger one is the watch that I use during the day for workouts, because it's got cellular
0:07:28inside and I associated my Vodafone plan on the 44mm Apple Watch.
0:07:36So I use it to go to the park, to walk the dogs, to workout, to control music and all
0:07:41the kind of stuff that I do during the day.
0:07:43But then when I'm done, and usually after I've closed the rings in the activity app,
0:07:48I switch to the evening watch, which I realize it sounds like a terrible thing that I'm using
0:07:54two Apple watches, but I prefer that I can keep separate sets of apps on the two watches.
0:08:04So for example, I got the AutoSleep.
0:08:06Why is that required though?
0:08:08It's not required.
0:08:09Why can't you just put them all on the same?
0:08:10I don't understand what the...
0:08:12Why is there an intrinsic benefit to that?
0:08:14Oh, because I never ran out of battery, and I'm always wearing an Apple Watch.
0:08:19I never take it off. I always have an Apple Watch on me.
0:08:22So when I remove the bigger one, I put on the smaller one.
0:08:25And that's the one that I use for, basically, night stuff.
0:08:32So like sleep tracking, and I got my complications to trigger home kit scenes
0:08:37with the blue lights and the red lights and all that kind of stuff.
0:08:42It's got theater mode enabled so that it doesn't light up when I'm going to bed with the watch.
0:08:48And it's basically just a way to always wear an Apple Watch.
0:08:52Never worry about battery, because when I get one, I put the other one on the charger and so forth.
0:08:58And it's totally unnecessary, but it gives me a way to test the smaller one,
0:09:06which is surprisingly more comfortable to use than I was expecting.
0:09:10I always thought the 38 millimeter version was too small for me, but I think the 40 strikes a better balance.
0:09:16It's also a steel,
0:09:18what's it called, space gray steel version,
0:09:22which made me realize I actually preferred the aluminum version because the steel one is a little too heavy and
0:09:29I don't like the way that the haptics feel on the steel watch.
0:09:33So all of these will be hopefully in an article that I want to write about the Apple watch before
0:09:39I have two big stories that I want to try and do before June
0:09:43One of them will be about the Apple watch and the other will be a surprise, but it will not be the surprise
0:09:48I was just talking about would be another surprise. I'm a man full of surprises
0:09:51So that's why I have two watches. One of them is an Apple review unit and in testing this watch I
0:09:58Accidentally stumbled across the idea of well, it's actually nice to wear two Apple watches not simultaneously just alternating them
0:10:05So that's why
0:10:08What would you buy next time then?
0:10:12If this made you make a decision like what is the right...
0:10:15If you were gonna buy one of them, like would you go with 40 instead of the...
0:10:20What is it? 44 now?
0:10:21I would still go with 44.
0:10:24Okay.
0:10:25My girlfriend thinks the 40 looks better on my wrist.
0:10:28I disagree.
0:10:30Also I just love that the screen is slightly bigger so it's...
0:10:34I prefer the way that, for example, the Siri watch face, there's a little more space for each card, for each...
0:10:43what's it called? Complication.
0:10:46But I don't hate the 40mm version, whereas I really disliked the 38 one.
0:10:53So I think it's better, but it's still not the size for me.
0:10:58It's a good watch though.
0:11:02I just want to double check. You understand the ludicrousness of the two watches, right?
0:11:06When you could just charge it?
0:11:06Yes, I do.
0:11:07All right, cool. I just wanted to get that on the record because I can imagine people are like,
0:11:10"What is wrong with him?"
0:11:12I think it's ridiculous, honestly.
0:11:14Okay, cool.
0:11:14But, uh...
0:11:15But you have them, so what are you going to do, right?
0:11:17But I have them. I have them. And at the same time, I also think that it's nice to never take it off.
0:11:24Even for those, you know, 45 minutes or one hour that you need to charge the main watch
0:11:30or the single watch that you have. Because for years I've done that, you know. I took
0:11:35off the watch in the morning when I was having breakfast or taking a shower or something
0:11:38and I would put it on an hour later when it was charged. But it's nicer to never worry
0:11:45about "Oh, now I need to take off the watch and I need to remind myself that I need to
0:11:49grab it from the charger". Because you always have it on. So, it is nicer. But it's also,
0:11:54you know, unnecessary because you have two Apple Watches. But again, I just happen to
0:11:58have it. It's a review unit, so why not? At some point, do you have to give that back?
0:12:02Yeah. So if you do, would you pick up a second watch now?
0:12:06That's a good question. I wouldn't... That is a very good question. I wouldn't buy one,
0:12:12but I would consider using one of my old ones as the night watch because I really do like the idea.
0:12:23So I would essentially maybe stop selling them every single year.
0:12:29Because the Night Watch requires way less interaction from you.
0:12:32Exactly. Exactly.
0:12:34So the Night Watch, I would keep, you know,
0:12:37I think we have a series two or something lying around somewhere in the drawer.
0:12:41I could use that one.
0:12:42So I think I would still remain on the two watches train,
0:12:46but not to buy the latest version of both for myself.
0:12:50I think that's crazy.
0:12:51But, you know, to use old ones I think that would be okay.
0:12:54And not so ridiculous, maybe, if it's an old one.
0:12:58We're on series 4 right now, right?
0:13:01Yes, we are on series 4.
0:13:03And I'm pretty sure that we sold the series 3,
0:13:07but we have a series 2 still around,
0:13:09so maybe when Apple gets this one back that could be the Night Watch.
0:13:12I have a series 3. It's not doing anything.
0:13:15[Laughter]
0:13:18I just... I just don't miss it.
0:13:21I really don't miss it.
0:13:23And I understand how it's an important device for a lot of people.
0:13:30And I get it. I know how much you do with it and all that kind of stuff and it sounds really great.
0:13:35But it's just really astounding to me how I went from a device that I thought was incredibly important to
0:13:43not caring in a very short space of time.
0:13:48It was kind of astounding to me really. I wouldn't have expected it.
0:13:51Like, you know, I really thought that the Apple Watch is an important part of my day,
0:13:55right? Like when it comes to the way that I use technology, but I have not missed it once in
0:14:01seven months. I've, uh, I spoke about this on this week's Mac power users, but I'm in a place with
0:14:08the watch where I'm just not wearing it unless I'm working out or exercising. And then it goes back
0:14:12on the charger or back in the nightstand. And for me, it's not necessarily about notifications.
0:14:18And I didn't say this very well in the episode, but I realized it sort of later was for me,
0:14:24I could sit my phone down, but if I'm wearing the watch, that means I'm still tethered to
0:14:29the internet, like still tethered to work and all these other things and not having the watch on,
0:14:34even with the very few notifications I allow to come to the watch, it's not a management problem
0:14:41of notifications. It's just any notification does this. Then I'm still accessible. And that's like
0:14:46like the flip side of the coin of like oh I can just glance at my wrist and see
0:14:49what's going on and go back to what I need to do. Those are two sides of one coin but
0:14:53I'm on the wrong side of the coin and I don't know what that means for me
0:14:57long-term yet but it's kind of where I am with it right now.
0:15:00Yep I think everyone is like after this thing's been around for a while they're
0:15:05kind of drawing their personal lines right it's like how much do you want to
0:15:12be available and I think me and Federico fall on very distinct parts of that and you're
0:15:19more a little bit more in the middle.
0:15:21I mean I've read about it last year and that still holds true, the idea that I truly believe
0:15:27that it's this tiny device that it sort of pushes me to be a better me because it's that
0:15:38kind of constant reminder and also the fact that I especially since I got you
0:15:44know the dogs the idea of I can just go for a walk without the phone that's
0:15:49that's a really really big help. That's a bit like it's just like different
0:15:53different use cases right? Yeah yeah but then again there will be a story on the
0:15:58site I just need to find the time to write about this but I want to do a
0:16:02proper Apple Watch story because last year it was a actually about but the
0:16:07iPhone about the Apple watch, you know, but you know mindfulness and all that
0:16:12stuff I just want to focus on the Apple watch this time so it's one of the two
0:16:16big stories that I want to try and have before WWDC and now that I said it I
0:16:20gotta keep my promise because people are gonna ask so that's why I said it
0:16:23because... Carl in the chat is saying like you know you turning off notifications
0:16:27and stuff and I get it right like turning off all notifications but then
0:16:31for me it's like well what do I even what's this for like there is a whole
0:16:35world of watches that look infinitely better than the Apple Watch, right? Like,
0:16:39yeah, the Apple Watch is by far the best looking, like, smart watch, but it's not a
0:16:44good looking watch, right? Like, everyone can find a watch that they would find
0:16:49better looking than the Apple Watch because there is such incredible choice
0:16:53in the watch world, right? Like, you can choose anything. So, like, if it's not, if
0:16:58I'm not gonna have it for notifications, then I'm just gonna get a different watch.
0:17:02And like I know that there's health and stuff but like I can use other devices for that and you know
0:17:07It's like not like a big thing in my life like training for my personal best. Like I don't that's not me
0:17:13and
0:17:15Outside of that like I would just use my iPhone for everything else. So
0:17:19That's like just again no criticism on on you. But like that's where I'm coming from with it
0:17:25Yeah, we can be in different places and it's okay
0:17:27What what an idea?
0:17:31So Federico, thanks for sharing that. I'm glad that we finally got that out of you.
0:17:34Yeah. Is the truth what you were expecting?
0:17:38Just about. Yeah.
0:17:40This is where we find out he's using four iPhones.
0:17:43Yeah. Okay, we have a lot to get to. But first, I want to tell you about our first sponsor this
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0:19:41their support of this show and all of relay FM.
0:19:45So as I was saying, there's a certain kind of beauty in the feet that you don't necessarily
0:19:51get with victory, you know? Like, the idea of "I lost, but that's fine, because life
0:19:59goes on, and I can appreciate that I will do better next time." But if you win, you
0:20:05know, when you have victory, you know what you're left with? That sensation of victory
0:20:10that is ephemeral and momentary, but I feel like when you win, you're left with that sense
0:20:16of dread that you're gonna lose next time. So instead, whereas you have that fear in
0:20:22the back of your mind that this victory will not last, I can only go up. And I'm left with
0:20:29optimism.
0:20:30Yeah, it's quite a story you're telling yourself over there. Let's hope that you believe that
0:20:34as much as you seem to point out to the world, I'm not sure.
0:20:38Come on man, just let me spin this my way.
0:20:41Why? Why would we do this?
0:20:43Alright, we're gonna go through our predictions and grade them. Obviously there was an Apple
0:20:49event a couple of days ago. And so we're gonna take a look at what we predicted last week.
0:20:55I'll give everybody a refresher of the rules. To earn any points, everything that is declared
0:21:00written down as part of the prediction must come true. No half points may be awarded in
0:21:05any round. One point is awarded for any pick deemed correct in the first two rounds. So
0:21:10And then the third round is our risky pick round.
0:21:13If our risky pick is wrong, you lose a point.
0:21:16But if you get your risky pick correct, you get two points.
0:21:20And we all had to agree on what risky was going to be.
0:21:24The winner, asterisk, gets first pick at WWDC predictions.
0:21:30So these are our WWDC prediction qualifiers.
0:21:34So we're going to go through these here.
0:21:37Round one.
0:21:38Federico, would you like to go through--
0:21:40We'll round rob in our discussion on these, I think.
0:21:43OK.
0:21:45Round one, this is the only-- well, no spoilers.
0:21:49Apple-- it was my only point, and it was taken away from me.
0:21:58Apple News service for magazines.
0:22:01Sure enough, Apple News Plus.
0:22:04It's the successor to Texture, the service
0:22:07that Apple acquired last year.
0:22:09It's got 300 magazines almost.
0:22:12I counted them all, it was rough,
0:22:13but there's still not 300, but it will get there, I think.
0:22:17In addition to magazines,
0:22:19you also get the "Wall Street Journal"
0:22:20and the "Los Angeles Times,"
0:22:22and you also get digital publishers.
0:22:26Apple calls them TechCrunch and Vox.
0:22:30TechCrunch has their membership stuff, ExtraCrunch,
0:22:34at least the article elements,
0:22:37not the video, not the audio,
0:22:39but just the article content will be available in Apple News Plus,
0:22:41and Vox is also launching the highlight, I think it's called,
0:22:45it will be on Apple News Plus.
0:22:46So, magazines, two newspapers, and some digital publications
0:22:53in the form of memberships on the web,
0:22:56they will be rolled into Apple News.
0:23:00Limited to the US and Canada for now,
0:23:02you also get some Canadian magazines.
0:23:06I could go through the list of some of my favorite magazines if you want.
0:23:09Let's talk about this later.
0:23:11Let's talk about Apple news a little bit later on in the episode
0:23:14so we can dive into that in a bit more detail.
0:23:16Because I know that so because I'm interested because I can't use it
0:23:19being in the UK.
0:23:21But initially I got this point.
0:23:24That is what I'm saying.
0:23:26And you got it early. You must have been feeling good.
0:23:28I was feeling good and then I did not feel good, but we can talk about that later.
0:23:33So my first pick was that Apple would announce a video streaming service,
0:23:37which is Apple TV Plus.
0:23:39And then I was I kind of saved myself here
0:23:41because I said, which includes content from other providers.
0:23:45But then saying this will either be free content or with you
0:23:48paying a for a subscription within the app, which is Apple TV channels.
0:23:54So I'm very pleased because my initial thought was that they would
0:23:57announce the subscription.
0:23:58It would be a price and there would be content in it.
0:24:01but they kind of announced a lot of component pieces without really announcing them altogether.
0:24:07So without that, or I probably wouldn't have gotten this point. So, but yes, Apple TV plus
0:24:13announced not a product that anybody can get yet. We don't know how much it costs. We don't know
0:24:18anything about it other than the fact that it exists. And then the Apple TV itself has got new
0:24:22functionality like TV channels where you can subscribe to HBO and stars and stuff like that.
0:24:28So that was my point that I picked up. We all did well in this first round, I think.
0:24:32So my pick for this round was the video streaming service does not launch until at least May 1st.
0:24:39And like you alluded to, this is a multi-step process, but the new Apple TV app with channels,
0:24:47so content from Showtime and CBS, all access, et cetera, just like Amazon Prime Video,
0:24:52they've said that that is coming in May and then their own stuff is coming later. So
0:24:58So a point for me.
0:25:00And this all does qualify in our opinion as even the TV channel stuff because this was
0:25:07rumored but like this functionality that Apple has spoken about kind of confirms it.
0:25:12Apple will be streaming the content.
0:25:14So like if you sign up for HBO, the stream comes from Apple.
0:25:17It doesn't come from HBO.
0:25:19And then there's all this extra stuff like being able to download that content to your
0:25:22device and stuff, which a lot of providers don't actually let you do, but Apple is letting
0:25:26you do, which I think is kind of cool.
0:25:28It is cool.
0:25:29So we did very well starting out, all three of us.
0:25:33Yep, cleared up.
0:25:34Then it takes a turn for one of us.
0:25:37Yeah.
0:25:39My second pick was Apple will also announce, and now this is where I share my conspiracy
0:25:45theory, Apple will also announce a service bundle to get multiple services for one integrated
0:25:50fee.
0:25:51Before you show your conspiracy theory, I just want to say that I feel really bad for
0:25:55you because this one felt like a lock. Like, I lost the draft on upgrade primarily because
0:26:00of this service bundle thing because I had a couple of picks related to this. It didn't
0:26:04get announced. Everyone thought it was definitely going to be announced, right? Because it just
0:26:07makes sense. If you have five streaming services coming out, which we would like four or whatever,
0:26:12there'll be a bundle to put them all together. Well, jokes on you, none of them are here
0:26:17yet, right? Except news. So there's no bundle because there's no streaming services. So
0:26:24What's your conspiracy theory?
0:26:26I believe that Steven and Michael conspired to force me to use this pick, making fun of
0:26:33the fact that, oh no, it's so obvious they're going to do a bundle, you should pick it.
0:26:39And they conspired...
0:26:40When exactly did this conversation happen?
0:26:42They conspired behind my back so that I could go home with zero points, as we'll see the
0:26:51final result.
0:26:53They wouldn't let me get not even one point.
0:26:57You know, here's the thing though, you actually played yourself because this was going to
0:27:01be my pick, my first pick, but you got in the document faster than me.
0:27:06So if you were more lazy, you wouldn't have lost.
0:27:10Well no, because he had first right, so if he...
0:27:15Oh yeah, random.org screwed you.
0:27:18Yeah.
0:27:19Well I think...
0:27:20Which also could have been a conspiracy.
0:27:22Could have been.
0:27:23Myke did that. He knows it was actually accurate. The thing that's surprising about this is we all
0:27:29assumed that these, maybe they won't be launching yet, but Apple would tell us how much it costs.
0:27:35And they didn't do that. Like we don't know how much TV plus is going to cost us. We don't know
0:27:40how much Apple arcade is going to cost us. What I find interesting is that you're not denying
0:27:44the conspiracy allegations. I'm going to speak to Myke now, Myke, if we talk to him about his
0:27:50theory. It only gives him credence to believe these wild things, and so we just move past
0:27:56it. What do you think?
0:27:57I feel it's one of those "I neither confirm nor deny" type situations.
0:28:00Sure. Okay.
0:28:01Yep.
0:28:02Okay. We're on the same page.
0:28:03We neither confirm nor deny Federico.
0:28:07Anyway, I was convinced there was going to be a bundle. There was another bundle. We
0:28:11don't have pricing on the stuff, you know, the TV+ and arcade. So yeah, no bundle, no
0:28:19point.
0:28:20there will be one. Yes, I was gonna say I think that you will be right if you pick this
0:28:24again in the fall because this feels like something they've got to do. Yeah, nice try.
0:28:28Nice try. Yeah, sure. Sure, I will pick it in the fall. Wink, wink. Alright, so I picked
0:28:40the Apple's original content will premiere after the service itself launches that non-original
0:28:45content will come first, excluding existing programs.
0:28:49So that's true.
0:28:51You know, this first stuff that Apple will be streaming is not their own stuff
0:28:55because Apple TV channels comes in May, Apple TV Plus is coming in the fall.
0:28:59I did want to ask you guys real quick, because I know that, like, you know,
0:29:04I think there's like, again,
0:29:05like a sliding scale of how much attention we've been paying to a lot of this.
0:29:08With the shows that they were talking about, did you excite?
0:29:12Are you excited for the content?
0:29:14Like, the way that they pitched them, was that exciting to you?
0:29:18Yeah, totally.
0:29:20There's the morning show that I'm super excited about.
0:29:24It feels like something that I would absolutely love.
0:29:29The other ones, I don't remember the name, there's one with Octavia Spencer and Aaron
0:29:35Paul that I'm also looking forward to.
0:29:37That one didn't get stage time, but that's a good one.
0:29:39I didn't get stage time, but I'm familiar with because I read an interview with Aaron Paul.
0:29:43Little America, I think it would be something that I would enjoy.
0:29:46So I'm totally on board and I feel like, you know, Apple uses big words for everything,
0:29:53but the idea of we want to attract great storytellers and, you know, have great TV shows,
0:30:02not just, not necessarily maybe the most TV shows.
0:30:05videos. Most of that is arguably marketing stuff that you just need to say. But if there's
0:30:13even just a kernel of truth to the idea of "we want to focus on great stories", what
0:30:18I saw was pretty convincing.
0:30:20What they've done is, in theory, the best way to do it by literally hiring everyone.
0:30:26Right? Like, the sheer scale of talent that they have assembled is no joke, probably the
0:30:33best that there's ever been for any service like this, including like a TV channel.
0:30:38Like the amount of literal A-listers that they are bringing to TV is wild. It's wild. So,
0:30:46yeah, like they showed that slide. There was a slide that had a bunch of names on it and just
0:30:51like those names were just wild. But Stephen, are you particularly excited for any of the TV content?
0:30:58I am and more so than I thought I would be going into it.
0:31:02So I think the morning show show about the morning show looks really good.
0:31:06I think to one thing that excited me, not for me, but as a parent,
0:31:11is like the whole Sesame Street catalog like that stuff.
0:31:14So into. Oh, so, OK, that I think Apple did a good job.
0:31:18They do not have the Sesame Street catalog.
0:31:20They are creating new content with Sesame Workshop.
0:31:23They shouldn't have brought Big Bird out on stage because they don't have that.
0:31:26HBO has that.
0:31:27Well, then I have another strike against them is that the the presenter in that section
0:31:31said, oh, and the stuff when I was a kid is on here, too.
0:31:34And so they were unclear about that.
0:31:36Oh, really?
0:31:37Okay, then I may be wrong.
0:31:38But that wasn't what was in their initial announcement.
0:31:41Yeah, because HBO owns a lot of that now.
0:31:43And so it's not easily accessible.
0:31:46So like, whatever that is, that's cool.
0:31:47So yeah, I'm more excited than I was going into it for sure.
0:31:52And I think even the stuff...
0:31:53was the one thing that I did not get, that bird thing.
0:31:58Big bird. He's in Star Wars.
0:32:01We don't...
0:32:02That's Jar Jar. If you've heard of Jar Jar Binks before, that's Jar Jar Binks.
0:32:08Yes, I know the monster that looks like an octopus. I'm familiar with that. No, but this
0:32:14Sesame Street stuff, is it like a kids' show in the US?
0:32:19Yes.
0:32:20Do you know the Muppets?
0:32:21Yeah.
0:32:22Do you know the Muppets?
0:32:23Kermit. Yeah, the green lizard thing. It's like that, right? It's like that.
0:32:29Oh, so the Sesame Street is not the Muppets.
0:32:33Okay, no, same company, but not the same output. So, like the Muppets is one thing. Sesame
0:32:40Street was like, let's educate kids about numbers and shapes and color and stuff like
0:32:45that.
0:32:46Oh, it's kind of like the blue tree in Italy.
0:32:50We call it like the kids educational show.
0:32:55They had a dodo as a mascot.
0:32:57You should Google Alberod's Uro.
0:32:59Oh yeah, I can definitely spell that.
0:33:01Alberod's Uro.
0:33:02Put a link of that in the show notes for our listeners.
0:33:07They had the dodo.
0:33:08Okay, so it's...
0:33:09The Blue Tree.
0:33:10I get it.
0:33:11I got it.
0:33:12Okay.
0:33:13All right.
0:33:14So my pick in this round, I thought I lost this.
0:33:18I thought this point had escaped my grasp because as these celebrities were on stage,
0:33:24the stage would go black and then Jennifer Anson would pop out of the stage and light
0:33:28up and then she was there and she would talk and it'd be black again and someone else would
0:33:31pop up.
0:33:32It was all very over the top.
0:33:34Very dramatic.
0:33:35I thought, "Oh no, they've isolated them from Tim Cook.
0:33:38Tim Cook is like handcuffed to a desk backstage so he can't interact with them."
0:33:43Finally they loaned.
0:33:44And then at the very end, Oprah is announced, she speaks,
0:33:49I thought what she said was great.
0:33:51And then Tim Cook comes out and I get the point
0:33:54because he wiped away a tear as he was hugging her.
0:33:57I was like, well, there's our celebrity interaction.
0:34:00There it is.
0:34:01- And he said something along the,
0:34:04he said, I can't remember the exact words that he used.
0:34:06- I'll never forget this day or something.
0:34:08Which is cool, I'm not judging his excitement level.
0:34:11I'm just saying that it was really good for me personally in this contest.
0:34:15On the scale of Tim Cook, awkward celebrity interactions,
0:34:20this was probably the best one.
0:34:21Yeah, they didn't finger touch.
0:34:23They didn't finger touch.
0:34:24There wasn't like a super awkward let's stand on the stage
0:34:27and look at each other interview like he did during the Apple Watch presentation.
0:34:31Like there was none of that like super weirdness.
0:34:33But yeah, and I agree, like everything that Oprah said was amazing.
0:34:37And I'm really intrigued to see what that that ends up looking like.
0:34:40But now we get into everyone's favorite section, Riskypic.
0:34:43So at this point, I, uh, I knew that
0:34:47it was I was not going to win, of course,
0:34:50but I was still hoping that they would mention
0:34:53at least one new feature coming to the HomePod.
0:34:57And instead there was not a single mention of the word HomePod.
0:35:02And what's even funnier is like iOS 12.2 has come out,
0:35:06which has like new Siri features for like TV.
0:35:10right? Like TV stuff in HomeKit, but the HomePod can't do it.
0:35:14Which is, again, the fracturing of Siri, which continues to be incredibly frustrating.
0:35:21So the HomePod has not gotten an update yet, which was kind of hilarious.
0:35:25Yeah, so not a single feature coming to the HomePod, and not only did I not get two points,
0:35:35but I actually lost the single point that I collected thanks to Apple News Plus.
0:35:41So that means that I ended this game at zero points, which is a very cool number.
0:35:49It's a good number, zero, represents a lot of things, but it's at zero points.
0:35:56I was very proud of myself because Apple did announce their video game subscription service,
0:36:03Apple Arcade during this event.
0:36:06It was one of those things that I still stand by my thinking,
0:36:09like a lot of people said, oh, that should have been a WWDC announcement.
0:36:12But it really doesn't feel like it's like Apple has put up a page
0:36:17where you can like submit your game to be considered.
0:36:20But I think for the for a period of time, this is like Apple's people
0:36:24find who they want to work with and they work with them
0:36:27and then they can expand it out later.
0:36:30So, yeah, I got it.
0:36:31Apple Arcade, the video game subscription service.
0:36:33That was my risky pick.
0:36:35So I ended with four points in total.
0:36:38I cleared the board.
0:36:40My risky pick was that the Apple TV app would receive a refreshed design.
0:36:47I think it got more than we were expecting, even.
0:36:50I think so.
0:36:51It was like refreshed and like rethought.
0:36:53And what it does now is is new.
0:36:56So the the future that Tim Cook promised in, I guess,
0:36:592015 was like the future TV was apps and now the future of TV is the TV app with
0:37:04channels plugged into it one thing I'm really excited about with this is a
0:37:09again as a parent is a dedicated kids section Netflix does this and I think
0:37:15honestly pretty well so like I can the kids can pick up the Apple TV remote go
0:37:19to the kids section Netflix and whatever stuff Mary and I've been watching isn't
0:37:23there it's all laid out where they can pick a character or a storyline and I
0:37:27I think that's great.
0:37:28And the interface looks really good, I think,
0:37:30of what we've seen from what Apple's doing.
0:37:32There's a lot of dark elements to it,
0:37:33which is really interesting.
0:37:36Currently, tvOS has some dark elements,
0:37:38but this seems to go even further, which I think is good.
0:37:40You don't want white, bright elements on television.
0:37:42So--
0:37:43I think even while there is how many places the Apple TV
0:37:47app will be available, they're really costing a wide net.
0:37:54This was actually one of my non-graded picks,
0:37:56was that I think yeah that it will come to Roku and Fire TV and they announced exactly that
0:38:01that should have maybe been my risky pick but anyway uh yeah so they're bringing it to Roku
0:38:06Fire TV and we spoke about this if you remember when they were putting all the TVs up and they
0:38:12had like they announced uh home kit support on Samsung, LG, Sony and Vizio but only Samsung were
0:38:20getting the, what they called the iTunes store, which was we knew was was bulk, right? Like
0:38:26it wasn't getting the iTunes store. It was just what all they could say at the time.
0:38:30And I remember we spoke about it then, like not only will it not be that it will be Apple's
0:38:35streaming service, but that we also like this is obviously an exclusivity period and it
0:38:39will come to the other TVs and that's the case. So Samsung gets it first and then the
0:38:42other ones will be getting it later with and I think it's all coming like the first round
0:38:47of it all is coming in May. But honestly, the best thing for most people to do is just
0:38:53to buy a Roku or a Fire TV. You should get the little stick. You can get them in 4K.
0:38:57They're like $50 and then you can put that support on any TV, which is huge. And I think
0:39:05we're definitely trending towards iTunes going away now because of what they've done. They've
0:39:11really seem to integrate the movies and TV content more into the new TV app than previously.
0:39:18And like even on the website, it kind of says like, you'll get all of your movie and TV
0:39:25stuff in the TV app. I think they're kind of trying to they're starting to move away
0:39:28from from iTunes now.
0:39:30Yeah, I think that all that leaves the Apple TV itself, the actual hardware in a weird
0:39:35position because it's still really expensive. And when you can go just buy a Roku stick
0:39:40for a fraction of the price.
0:39:41But see, this is this is the thing.
0:39:43I actually think it leaves it in a less.
0:39:44I understand your point,
0:39:46but I think that this that leaves it in a less weird position
0:39:49because Apple can continue to keep selling its expense overly priced box.
0:39:53And they haven't had to change it because like if they didn't announce
0:39:56the Roku or Fire TV, they had to have an option.
0:39:59But now they don't need one so they can continue selling the really expensive
0:40:03Apple TV 4K.
0:40:04Sure. People like us who will buy it because we want the full Apple experience.
0:40:09But they now like you can just go buy Amazon Fire TV stick
0:40:13and it's not going to be as good, but you have it and that's the option.
0:40:16So now they don't need to worry.
0:40:18I think it also we can talk about this with Apple Arcade.
0:40:21That may be the Apple TV hardware's distinct feature
0:40:24over the Roku's and everything else of the world.
0:40:27So yeah. So there's that point, you know, because gaming has always worked
0:40:32on the Apple TV every time they try it. Yeah. Yeah.
0:40:37So I have like a little thing about the Apple Arcade and I want to see Federica if you agree with me.
0:40:42There has been a long adage that Apple doesn't get games.
0:40:46I think Apple gets games now.
0:40:48Judging from the companies that have reached out to and how they presented the idea of
0:40:56we want to curate a service with great games that focus on storytelling and no in-app purchases
0:41:04On multiple platforms there's rumors of controllers being required on the Apple TV.
0:41:11I think they took a good look at their previous stumbles.
0:41:17And you look at the website and you see names like Mistwalker.
0:41:21That's the company of Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy.
0:41:26You see us too, you know, the makers of Monument Valley.
0:41:29Not the three of us.
0:41:31to see all of us too on there, we'll make it one, two, three game. But like there's
0:41:36stuff like Lego is in there, like Hot Lava which is by the creators of Don't Starve.
0:41:42There's like this weird, you saw this, like I've seen this floating around Twitter, they
0:41:47sent out an email that had a screenshot that had No Man's Sky in it, which is not something
0:41:51that they've announced and that is incredibly intriguing because that is a console level
0:41:55game. And there's other stuff like Overland, which is a game that's been in development
0:42:00for a long time, it's coming out on the Nintendo Switch is here.
0:42:02Like they've that Sega have got a game like they're bringing
0:42:06Sonic Racing to this platform.
0:42:09And the other part of it, like the other part of why I think like Apple
0:42:12is getting it is they are acting as publisher of all of these.
0:42:16Now they kind of gloss over this, but they they said that like basically
0:42:20they are financially helping these companies make their games.
0:42:22That means Apple's the publisher and like that's the right way to do this.
0:42:27That's how they can get these companies to make stuff that is exclusively for them by paying upfront like a like, you know
0:42:35they're paying them probably an amount of money for exclusivity plus an advance and
0:42:39that helps these companies create the games that Apple then needs on the service and
0:42:44Then that's how you do it and then you get exclusivity. Like I think that this is the beginning of Apple
0:42:50understanding their place in gaming and actually
0:42:54Using it to their advantage where before it's kind of just like happened to them and they've just accidentally stumbled their way through their success
0:43:01Yeah, okay. So to get back I agree with all that but to get back to the important part of this. That's the score
0:43:08Where does this leave us because by my tally
0:43:14you and I are tied at four and
0:43:17Mr. Vitie she has zero and that's a problem because
0:43:23we said that this was going to be how we decided who goes first in the
0:43:29WWDC
0:43:31whole point of this
0:43:33And we can't both go first because that's not how first works. So what do we do? I
0:43:37Personally feel as the one who got zero and therefore
0:43:41the new tiebreaker
0:43:44Because you know who gets zero points should be the tiebreaker
0:43:49No, seriously, it's not a rule, it's not a thing, but I personally feel like
0:43:54Myke's risky pick was a little bit riskier than yours
0:43:59Stephen because
0:44:02He heard from multiple people and you know rumors saying Apple is gonna do this
0:44:08But later not a not in March
0:44:10But WWDC or maybe September and we all said oh you're gonna lose this one
0:44:16you're not gonna get this one, but he stuck with it and he was right.
0:44:20So my personal opinion is that Myke's risky pick
0:44:26was riskier and therefore in a tie he should be rewarded for taking the extra risk.
0:44:32But I understand if it's just my opinion and we wanna use another method
0:44:38to discuss this.
0:44:42Hmm.
0:44:44I think we should leave it to chance, like flip a coin.
0:44:48Or do it by age. That seems a pretty fair way to do it.
0:44:53That doesn't feel fair in any way, does it?
0:44:55So I see what you're saying, Federico. And but I think actually, for the reasons that you said
0:45:02it was riskier, I think it's less risky, because he had industry insiders whispering in his ear,
0:45:08saying, Hey, Myke, we're doing this thing. And so I felt like it was
0:45:13tg had the same things and didn't think it was gonna happen. Well, that doesn't mean it's it's
0:45:19riskier. It just nobody gave us dates. Yeah, but you had sources on the inside. So I will accept
0:45:28the outcome of a random selection. So I don't know how we do that. For to go Do you have an iPhone
0:45:34with you or something that can use Siri? Sure, I have my iPhone. I would say that we ask Siri
0:45:42to flip a coin and we will do best out of three because just one is not drawing attention out
0:45:47long enough. Okay, so what are we going to do? Like one of us is just heads each time and one
0:45:51of us is tails each time. Like just the whole time or do you want to mix it up? Like how are
0:45:56we going to pick who's heads and nails? I would say that we pick the same. Yep. Throughout and
0:46:05I will let you pick because I am a gracious co founder. Okay. All right. I'll take heads. Okay.
0:46:11Michael is heads therefore we can try now I'm gonna go with Siri on my iPhone.
0:46:19Okay.
0:46:20Flip a coin.
0:46:21Heads.
0:46:23Heads. One point.
0:46:26Okay.
0:46:26Flip a coin.
0:46:29It's tails.
0:46:31Oh!
0:46:32Are you guys ready?
0:46:34Are you ready? Oh my god.
0:46:38Yeah I'm ready.
0:46:39Yeah.
0:46:40This is this is this is so much more exciting.
0:46:43All right, so this one besides was the official winner of the Apple it's Showtime event
0:46:52predictions on connected and the personal wins will get to go first for WDC predictions.
0:46:58And I would say after this break, this episode of connected is brought to you by away away
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0:49:40We left this final showdown between Myke and Steven with a tie.
0:49:49One heads, one tails.
0:49:51Michael is heads, Steven is tails, and now I am going to proceed with the final question
0:49:57to Siri on my iPhone to decide the winner of this predictions game.
0:50:02You guys ready?
0:50:04Mm-hmm.
0:50:05Yes.
0:50:06Flip a coin.
0:50:07"Rosencrantz says heads."
0:50:09It's heads.
0:50:10Oh, why did they do it that way?
0:50:12What is Rosencrantz?
0:50:15It's from Shakespeare. It's Shakespeare. I don't get the joke.
0:50:19Rosencrantz says heads. Well, Myke is the winner of Apple March Event Predictions - Unconnected.
0:50:29You will get to be first at WWDC and you will get to decide the order of WWDC Predictions.
0:50:36I already know what you're going to do, but congratulations.
0:50:39Congratulations.
0:50:40Thank you so much.
0:50:41Thank you so much.
0:50:43I actually don't know what I'm going to do.
0:50:45I haven't even decided if I'll put myself first yet.
0:50:47I need to think about the strategies.
0:50:49Yeah, because sometimes, you know, the most obvious things are wrong.
0:50:53Just like Federico's.
0:50:54Federico was first this time, and he got zero points.
0:50:57So it's not an inherent-- sorry, Federico.
0:51:00It's not an inherent advantage.
0:51:03That was so-- that was so tense.
0:51:06We have new AirPods. I want to talk about them because I think all three of us ordered them.
0:51:12Mine showed up like 20 minutes before we started recording.
0:51:15But Federico, yours came in and you've written a really nice hands-on impressions post.
0:51:21And I'm curious to see what you think about them.
0:51:23Yeah, I love them. Especially because I was stuck, as I mentioned, with the AirPods that were
0:51:30essentially dead. One of them was dead and it actually turned out that the volume on both was
0:51:35lower than it originally was. And as I try to put it in the article, I think there's
0:51:43nothing visually different about them. There's still the AirPods. But in using them, you
0:51:50know, they're brand new, and so in being able to have the original, the pristine AirPods
0:51:56experience again, it reminded me how much I love the idea behind the AirPods. You know,
0:52:03the fact that you have these earbuds that are totally wireless and that they actually
0:52:07produce good sound.
0:52:09You know, there's wired earbuds that sometimes cost even more and they sound worse than AirPods,
0:52:15which have no wires.
0:52:19I feel like the two big new features here, the wireless charging in the model that I
0:52:24got and the support for hands-free Siri activation, I'm liking both of them a lot.
0:52:31especially the Siri stuff. It's been only 24 hours since I got them, but I'm already finding myself
0:52:37using Siri more
0:52:40because when I'm around the house and I'm wearing AirPods
0:52:44before I would try not to use
0:52:48Siri, hands-free Siri activation
0:52:52with my iPhone, so I kept the "listen for" the
0:52:57invocation phrase option disabled, so I just use the HomePod. But with the AirPods,
0:53:02because they're using the microphone, which is right next to my mouth essentially,
0:53:07and because this
0:53:10Siri sounds closer clear just like on the iPhone,
0:53:13but now coming through the AirPods, it feels more
0:53:18convenient to use. It's faster, it's always right there on you, you can talk to it and it responds immediately.
0:53:25So I'm finding myself using Siri more and more for all kinds of things that I actually use Siri.
0:53:31You know shortcuts is a big thing, of course, but also HomeKit and playing Apple music and, you know,
0:53:37running other shortcuts from apps, not from my custom shortcuts.
0:53:43So that's really convenient, like the idea of you have this
0:53:47high quality Siri voice that is always in your ears and you can talk to.
0:53:53Also, the wireless charging, it's exactly what I was hoping it would be. You just take
0:53:59the AirPods and you just place them on a charging mat and it starts charging. There's nothing
0:54:07to discuss really, except the fact that maybe it's a little odd that... No, I was not talking
0:54:14about air power. It's a little odd that the charging indicator does not stay on indefinitely.
0:54:21I wish it did. Yeah I wish it did but also the charging mats that I have they all have
0:54:29their own LED indicator so I know when they're actually working so it's not a big deal.
0:54:34I would prefer like if you, I don't know how they would, you could like tap the case and
0:54:39it will come on because I wouldn't want the light on all the time right like that that
0:54:44would that would frustrate me to just have a light on all the time like especially if
0:54:47I was charging it by my bedside or whatever, but it would be good to get away to get it
0:54:52other than open in the case.
0:54:54I've seen people complaining about putting the light on the outside, but like it makes
0:54:58perfect sense to me that you would put the light on the outside now because you want
0:55:02to see when you put it down on the charging pad that it's accepted that it's charging,
0:55:06right?
0:55:07Like you want that.
0:55:08Yeah, you don't want to come back later and be like, "Oh no, I didn't see them."
0:55:12The other physical change in the case is really subtle, but the wireless charging case now
0:55:17uses aluminum in the hinge instead of stainless steel.
0:55:21It seems like, according to people on Twitter, like Mark Gurman was asking people last night,
0:55:25that that is because the stainless steel got in the way or interacted poorly, I guess,
0:55:31with the wireless charging.
0:55:32So if you get the regular case, it seems like that's still stainless steel, but on mine,
0:55:36with the wireless case, that hinge is aluminum.
0:55:39Just a small detail, but you know one that I guess was important to deal with
0:55:43The it feels different the new case in a way that I can't tell you, but I just know it feels different
0:55:50It's just clean. That's that's the word you're looking for
0:55:53Yeah, well that too but like the hinge the hinge feels different, but like I'm not 100% sure it also
0:55:58Is it heavier? It's the is the case heavier now doesn't feel like it
0:56:04I've got both here if it is it's really
0:56:09a small difference. Physically though, besides those changes, the same size,
0:56:15if you've used Gen 1 AirPods, this is going to be immediately super familiar to you. This is not
0:56:23really a new product. It's a revision. My only complaint about how the Siri stuff works is,
0:56:33I am one of those people who doesn't like to just say the Siri phrase and then continuing to talk
0:56:42like without pausing after. My brain can't do that. I have to like no matter what I try and do
0:56:51I have to wait like I have to wait. I always thought that the way that Amazon does this is
0:56:57perfect. When you say the word to wake up the echo, you hear the sound basically right away.
0:57:04And you also, because of the design of the echo, you also see the light. But they have that sound
0:57:10that feels immediate. With Siri, Apple is kind of weird about it, in that with the HomePod you can
0:57:18can enable the chime, the sound, but it's slow, like it doesn't come up immediately
0:57:26as soon as you utter the phrase. And on the iPhone, I don't know how it works, but basically,
0:57:35if you use hands-free Siri activation on the iPhone, you do not hear the sound, but if
0:57:43press with the side button and you're wearing bluetooth headphones, you do hear the sound?
0:57:50It doesn't make any sense. Like, I would like to have an option for people like me who cannot
0:57:55possibly just say that phrase and then just continue to talk. Because I'm not talking
0:58:00to a friend, I'm not talking to my mom. I need to pause, I'm talking to a computer,
0:58:03I need to make sure the computer is listening to me. You know, because sometimes not even
0:58:07people listen to me. So at least the computer, I want to have a setting that I want to have
0:58:12a single, a simple option to say always play a sound as soon as you activate Siri.
0:58:18That's all I'm asking for.
0:58:20I would like that very much.
0:58:22But I have found myself like you, though, using the Siri integration already.
0:58:26I didn't think that I would, but I left it on.
0:58:28And then like I was both washing up and cooking yesterday with my AirPods in,
0:58:33which is something I do from time to time.
0:58:35And I got a text message and I was like, oh, I can just easily reply to this now.
0:58:42Like, because this is the thing, look, I know you could do the tapping, but I've said many times,
0:58:46I hate the tapping. Right? So I would never use Siri for the tapping. Plus, I didn't want Siri to
0:58:52be used for the tapping. I wanted it to be like the play/pause. And I don't, I'm not a person who
0:58:57wants to have a different thing in each year because I can't keep that straight. So I liked
0:59:03that a lot. And what I liked even more, because I was like, when I said it, I was like, I feel like
0:59:06I know where this is going to go, but Apple did the right thing. It didn't activate my HomePod.
0:59:11It activated my AirPods. The prioritization worked there because that's the thing for me which I
0:59:17Constantly frustrated in like I'm looking at my phone and my phone is in front of me and I say it but the HomePod goes
0:59:24It's like oh, that's not what I wanted. So I like that it used the context of I'm using AirPods right now
0:59:30That is what should be activated
0:59:32So, you know, I thought that it was very good for that stuff like for just changing the media
0:59:37but also for responding to text messages and I found the dictation to be spot on.
0:59:41So the microphones must be very good.
0:59:43Yeah, it's also kind of strange how I don't think watchwaz 5.2 is out yet, right?
0:59:51No, it's not.
0:59:53When you pair directly the new AirPods to the watch via the, you know, the watch Bluetooth setting,
1:00:02you do not get the high quality Siri voice
1:00:06because I suppose they're waiting for the software update to enable that but
1:00:10it sounds like the old low quality
1:00:14Siri voice. So you only get the crystal clear Siri
1:00:18when you're using the new AirPods with an iPhone or an iPad running
1:00:22iOS 12.2 so far. In theory, this should also be the case with the watch
1:00:27unless there's a reason why Apple does not want to send
1:00:31high-quality Siri voice from the watch to the AirPods, either because it requires too much power,
1:00:37or because they cannot support, you know, whatever it is that the iPhone has.
1:00:43Better Wi-Fi, better Bluetooth, I don't know.
1:00:46My question is, where is the voice coming from?
1:00:50So the voice is...
1:00:51The high-quality voice. Is it coming from the phone or is it coming from the H1 chip?
1:00:55Yeah, that's something like...
1:00:59Because Siri is working on the phone
1:01:01But inside the AirPods you have the H1 chip and you have the microphones that actually listen to you
1:01:08So I tried this today. I left my phone and you know my house mic. I left the phone in the kitchen
1:01:15I closed the door of the kitchen. I went in the bedroom
1:01:18I closed the door of the bedroom and I whispered in my AirPods very quietly the phrase to activate Siri and
1:01:26It's the AirPods that wake up Siri on the phone.
1:01:29It's not like the phone is listening to you and then passes the task of
1:01:34listening to the AirPods, but the AirPods are actually waking Siri on the iPhone.
1:01:39I wonder if it's a latency based thing.
1:01:41I don't know.
1:01:42So because the latency is better, they're able to send a higher quality.
1:01:45But only the new version of iOS recognizes the AirPods, right?
1:01:51So like they're just assuming it's like either old AirPods or like other Bluetooth headphones, maybe.
1:01:58I don't know, but it is interesting.
1:02:00I think it is actually a feature that I think I will use more than I thought that I would have used.
1:02:06So I like it a lot for that.
1:02:09But you mentioned how it is so much faster to switch between devices.
1:02:14Yeah, which is that was the only thing I really honestly wanted and it is significantly faster.
1:02:20like that like it takes like half the time which i think is brilliant
1:02:23it's still slower going to the mac than in between ios devices which i i find frustrating but even
1:02:31there it is definitely noticeably better but something with the bluetooth stuff on the mac
1:02:37is still slower than going from an iphone to an ipad could it be um the actual bluetooth chips
1:02:43yeah i mean i assume it's something to do with the hardware you know i've got imac pro it's a current
1:02:47machine, it's running whatever yesterday's version of Mojave that's out. Maybe it is hardware,
1:02:54I don't know. But again, it's way better than before, but I still just noticed because I had
1:02:58basically all three of my devices out. It's like, what if I go from one to the other to the other?
1:03:02And anytime the Mac was involved, it was slower. I have never once tried to pair my AirPods to my
1:03:08Mac. I don't do it very often. I do it to my laptop on occasion, but if I'm at my desk, I
1:03:14I need headphones. Well, I have all this like podcasting stuff here.
1:03:17So let's turn it on.
1:03:18Yeah, that's that's my thing.
1:03:21But like, I guess if I was if I was like using a laptop
1:03:25as much as I use my iPad, I would like for conference calls and stuff like that,
1:03:28because I use my AirPods all the time for those.
1:03:31I wanted to talk about kind of like this product in general.
1:03:34I love it. I think this is a great update.
1:03:36But this is this doesn't feel like a like a full on version
1:03:39two of the AirPods to me.
1:03:41like this does feel like a kind of a middle step to the rumoured product
1:03:46that's in the future of like noise cancelling and that sort of stuff.
1:03:49And I figure like this is not particularly a unique opinion,
1:03:54but this is, I think, pretty clear.
1:03:58This was a product that was delayed because of AirPower
1:04:00and that this would have come sooner, but they kind of waited
1:04:05and then maybe AirPower missed another deadline and they shipped it.
1:04:09And I have two reasons I think this.
1:04:11One, this is what everybody's seen, the box says AirPower on it.
1:04:15It says put it on your AirPower mat.
1:04:17And the other, the box has a 2018 copyright notice.
1:04:20Yeah.
1:04:21Now, Apple, like, they have the capability to put these boxes together quickly.
1:04:27Like iPhone boxes don't sit in a factory for four months, right?
1:04:30Like they had all this stuff done a while ago,
1:04:34I would expect, especially because, I mean, the wireless charging AirPods case was announced
1:04:41in September 2017, along with the AirPower.
1:04:46So like the idea, or at least the technology to build that part of this product has been
1:04:50nailed down for a while and they just hadn't done it.
1:04:53And then, I don't know, maybe it was like, I'm starting to wonder, like, was it this
1:04:58case of, well, we have to ship these now because we know the batteries won't last on the first
1:05:03gens at this point.
1:05:04Like there is a shelf life
1:05:06to the batteries. Everyone's seeing
1:05:08it happen, right? Like if you use
1:05:09your AirPods every day, it's getting
1:05:11worse. I'm wondering if Apple
1:05:12will like, well, we've actually got
1:05:14to do this because there might
1:05:16be battery technology or older
1:05:17batteries in the original ones, and
1:05:19they don't want to keep making them
1:05:20because maybe they will eventually
1:05:22start shipping AirPods that don't
1:05:23have the battery life that they
1:05:24would want or whatever.
1:05:26But just their customers like
1:05:28us.
1:05:29And I'm assuming anybody that bought
1:05:32their AirPods when they came out in
1:05:33like 2016 or whatever it was, the the batteries just aren't lasting anymore.
1:05:37And that's like a whole different conversation for another time.
1:05:40But like if we just put push that to the side for now,
1:05:44they kind of maybe got to a point where they were like, airpower or no airpower,
1:05:49we need to release this product.
1:05:50And they've done it.
1:05:52Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if we see another version of AirPods in September.
1:05:56Well, I mean, so Federico has that prediction
1:05:58that they're going to split the line and make like a pro version.
1:06:01There was a rumor out there, I think maybe Germin reported it, that they were working
1:06:05on a version that was like water resistant and had active noise canceling.
1:06:10Yep.
1:06:11And that is 100% AirPods Pro.
1:06:13Yeah, right.
1:06:14Sounds like a pro version.
1:06:15I could see that, you know, as a model on top of these.
1:06:19I hope, I really, really hope that active noise canceling isn't the only way forward
1:06:23for this product because I like this product.
1:06:25That would 100% be something you could turn on and off.
1:06:28It's dangerous to have it on all the time, right?
1:06:31Like this is a product that is intended to be worn in all situations,
1:06:36like including walking down the street.
1:06:38And you shouldn't be using it in those cancellation if you're crossing roads and stuff.
1:06:41So, yeah, it's I think I agree with you.
1:06:44I don't know if September is the right time, but I do think there's,
1:06:47you know, definitely potential for a nicer version down the road.
1:06:51I'm sure that'll be the version that comes in black and I'll be sad.
1:06:54But you see the did you see this powerbeats thing on 9 to 5 Mac?
1:06:58Yes, I want to talk about this. So that wants to buy those and sell the AirPods. No, I don't.
1:07:03So these showed up in hidden iOS 12.2 animation. So like, you know, when you pair AirPods,
1:07:10like they spin around and open up. And so there's a version of that for these. And these are
1:07:16wireless power beats. So there's not a cable in between them like the beats x. And they go,
1:07:21they have a little finger or whatever to go over your ear fingers, not the right word. What is that
1:07:26that called? Like a thing like an arch? I don't know. Yeah, an ear arch, you know, so it goes over
1:07:33your ears. Just like the power beats do now, right? They have wired versions of these. And so if
1:07:37you're running or it's the sport, it's like the sport design, like it also clips behind your ear
1:07:42as the way to hold it in place. Yeah. So if you're, you know, running around or doing jumping jacks or
1:07:46whatever, they're not going to fly out. And I would assume that this comes with the this h1 chip
1:07:53and the new stuff they're doing.
1:07:55And I think this looks like a great product.
1:07:57I really like the AirPods and they fit in my ears well,
1:07:59but that is not true for everybody.
1:08:01And right now, your kind of next best option
1:08:05is something like the Beats X,
1:08:06which my wife is now on her third pair
1:08:08because they keep dying.
1:08:10And Apple just keeps sending us new ones
1:08:11anytime I call their support and be like,
1:08:14"Hey, these died," and they just mail another set.
1:08:18And so I showed these to her, I was like,
1:08:20would you be interested in something like this
1:08:22that gets rid of the wire and, and she definitely is.
1:08:25And I think a lot of people would want something that's true, truly wireless,
1:08:29where there's not a cable, even between the two sides,
1:08:32I would imagine these would do well.
1:08:33The battery on these killer. Cause it's bigger, like they're bigger.
1:08:37They have that whole big section that goes like connects to the clip part.
1:08:41I bet that that's a big, there's a bigger battery in there.
1:08:43I do wonder what the, if there's a microphone in these or, uh, yeah, how it,
1:08:49how it would sound. So because the Beats X, the microphone is on the cable. And that is
1:08:54true for the the wired power beats as well. So I assume it's got a microphone.
1:08:58Do you see what else is on those buttons? They have buttons on them.
1:09:03Yeah, so. So I think this would be a great option for people who want something more
1:09:07than the AirPods. I think it'd be cool.
1:09:11Yeah, this is like a real alternative rather than the Beats X, which is kind of like a
1:09:16I don't know, like a consolation prize a little bit.
1:09:18Yeah, it definitely felt that way. So. So seems like we're all liking our new AirPods. That's
1:09:24that's good. Yep. Okay, so we're going to get into the this, the sort of stuff from
1:09:30the event on Monday. Not necessarily running through the news, but talking about things
1:09:34that have happened since then our impressions of some of this stuff. But first, I want to
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1:11:31Apple News Plus is the only new service that Apple announced which is immediately available.
1:11:40And it's not available in the UK, it's only in the US and Canada right now, it's coming
1:11:44to the UK later on this year. But because Federico lives in America now, he has it and
1:11:52Steven you have it too. So I'm interested in understanding what you two think of Apple
1:11:57News Plus.
1:11:59That's pretty much what I was expecting. It's a combination of both traditional Apple News
1:12:05content and these magazines that are still using the PDF format from texture. I'm just
1:12:12happy that it exists, because it means I can have the Wall Street Journal and the general
1:12:18news are fine, I think. Edge, the video game magazine, that I absolutely love. Myke knows
1:12:26that every time I'm in the UK I buy an issue of Edge because it's not so easy to get in
1:12:31Italy. Retro Gamer, now the video game magazines, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. So this is
1:12:37the stuff that I've always wanted to have in a single magazine app. Now the fact that
1:12:41this app happens to be Apple News, which I'm already using in addition to RSS, is just
1:12:48perfect because for the past couple of years I've sort of complemented my RSS usage with
1:12:55Apple News so that I could read about some politics, but mostly entertainment, so music,
1:13:02TV shows and films, and video games in a separate app so that I wouldn't have to add all of
1:13:07those sources to my RSS, where I mostly keep tech stuff.
1:13:14So I was already using Apple News, and now I get to read stories from magazines.
1:13:20So for example, Vanity Fair has -- I was reading last night this story about this Chinese actress
1:13:27who was arrested by the Chinese government because of tax evasion.
1:13:32It's a wild story.
1:13:33She disappeared for three months.
1:13:35And I was reading that in Apple News Plus.
1:13:38Vanity Fair supports Apple News format.
1:13:39It looks great.
1:13:41So now I have this single package that has both web content from, I don't know, The Verge
1:13:48and Polygon and Kotaku and these places, and sort of deeper reporting.
1:13:54Now those PDFs, they look very nice on the iPad.
1:14:01For example, Edge is a PDF magazine.
1:14:04You get the custom layouts, you get the print tradition of beautiful photography, rich layouts
1:14:11on each page, but they are terrible on the iPhone because you need to zoom in and out
1:14:16and the text is non-resizable, of course, it's a PDF.
1:14:20So it's a bit of a mess right now in the sense that
1:14:25there's a couple of magazines that truly take advantage of Apple News format,
1:14:31like Wired and National Geographic, but you have to wonder if they're doing
1:14:36this just for show right now, because it's new and they want to show Apple that they can use Apple News format.
1:14:43because all the other magazines that use Apple News Format, they are using essentially the same
1:14:48template. All these big publishers, they must have found some kind of tool that lets them convert
1:14:53web content easily to Apple News Format, and so you get this very plain table of contents as the
1:15:00first page, and then you can tap on the links to the sections and everything essentially looks the
1:15:05the same. And then you have these old PDF magazines. So ideally, the ideal state would
1:15:13be that everybody, you know, a year from now, six months from now, is using the Apple News
1:15:20format, but not just to have, like, paragraphs of text and some images, but truly use the
1:15:27Apple News format, like Wired and National Geographic are doing right now. But I wonder
1:15:33if it's not gonna be, you know, a thing that these publishers, they want to invest on making
1:15:40truly beautiful...
1:15:41What is the benefit, Ivo, way to the reader of using one or the other?
1:15:49If you have, like, the Apple News format, it actually lets you do really fancy things
1:15:53like galleries and animations and, you know, these rich objects that you can interact with.
1:16:02It looks great and it resides like you can do full screen video, you can do the sidebars,
1:16:07the sort of sliding from the side of the screen.
1:16:11It's very nice, it's very beautiful.
1:16:13It's like, do you need to have printed magazines that have custom layouts?
1:16:18No, you don't need them, but they're pretty to look at.
1:16:21And that's the thing with typography and the print industry, you can make things pretty.
1:16:26And with the Apple News format, with the templates that most magazines are using, you sort of
1:16:30lose that.
1:16:31You gain the option to resize text, which is fantastic on the iPhone because it's a
1:16:36smaller screen, but you lose that, you know, that, I'm trying to think of a good word here,
1:16:42but that spark that sort of makes printed magazines special.
1:16:46I just wonder if the benefit, you know, from a cost-benefit analysis point of view, like,
1:16:53do publishers want to invest in making these App
1:16:56magazines that require designers and multiple hours of work just for Apple News.
1:17:03But time is a flat circle. That was the problem with Newsstand.
1:17:08Right? It was, "Oh, you got to make your own app to work in this."
1:17:11And Apple News format obviously involves less work than that.
1:17:14In fact, if you're on WordPress, there's plugins that do it.
1:17:17I mean, it can be pretty simple, but it still requires these content makers
1:17:23to invest in it, at least to a degree.
1:17:26And until it's proven that it can make them money,
1:17:29I don't know, some of them just aren't gonna do that.
1:17:33- And it's super, super easy if you make a magazine
1:17:36to make a PDF because it's probably in PDF.
1:17:38- Exactly.
1:17:41- You just put them in Dropbox or whatever
1:17:44and you're good to go.
1:17:45Yes, that is a little frustrating,
1:17:47especially on the iPhone.
1:17:49You open some of these PDF ones, you're like,
1:17:51"Oh, this is not as good as it could be."
1:17:54But I'm hoping that changes.
1:17:57- But then you open them on the iPad,
1:17:59you open them on the iPad and they're so pretty.
1:18:01Like I was taking a look at Edge.
1:18:03You open that on the 12.9 inch iPad Pro in landscape,
1:18:07I mean, my God, it's so beautiful.
1:18:09It looks like a magazine.
1:18:10- Because here's the thing,
1:18:11a magazine like Edge would suck enough when you film that.
1:18:14- Yes, exactly.
1:18:15That's a, unless--
1:18:16- Because Edge is like an incredibly
1:18:19meticulously designed magazine as part of the point of it.
1:18:23- Exactly.
1:18:24And it's always been that way.
1:18:25Like I was reading Edge 15 years ago,
1:18:28and it was like each issue was a marvel of design.
1:18:31And could they recreate that beautiful design
1:18:36in Apple News format?
1:18:37Probably they could do something real pretty
1:18:40with the Apple News format. - Not cheaply though.
1:18:41I bet, you know what I mean? - But not cheaply.
1:18:42Exactly, exactly.
1:18:44And it's not like you can, if you're a publisher,
1:18:46you're gonna say, well, okay, so do we need to invest
1:18:49making our digital designs better? Fine, we'll invest, but is it going to be exclusive to
1:18:56Apple News, or can we reuse this Apple News format anywhere else? And the answer is no,
1:19:01because it's a fork of HTML, you know, it requires custom notation in JavaScript, like,
1:19:06it's going to be exclusive to Apple News. So unless you're at the point where somebody
1:19:12comes to you and says, "Look, we're actually making good money from Apple News, maybe we
1:19:16should invest in making custom designs just for Apple News? Well then at the
1:19:20point maybe yes, the answer is we're gonna make a beautiful design just for
1:19:24Apple News. But until that happens I fear that we're just gonna see these basic
1:19:29templates based on plugins or, you know, these tools that let you convert from
1:19:34HTML to Apple News format, and I know because we have a plugin on Mac stories
1:19:37and it's nothing fancy. It's not spectacular, it's not a custom design, but
1:19:41it's functional, it's a bunch of HTML wrapped in Apple News format. So until
1:19:46these big money publishers actually see the big money coming in from
1:19:51subscriptions and Apple News+, we're just gonna get either the PDF or the plain
1:19:56old Apple News format with nothing fancy about it. I want to see what WIRED and
1:20:02National Geographic do. If it's something that they're doing just for this month's
1:20:07issue or if it's something they're gonna keep up. I'm curious to see what they do.
1:20:11I want to talk about real quickly the weird way that a lot of publishers are
1:20:20approaching this. So the Wall Street Journal, no matter what Apple's saying on
1:20:25their website, it's not the full Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal
1:20:30are putting a subset of their categories available for Apple News+ for a
1:20:36couple of days. It's not everything. It's only available for a few days after
1:20:40publishing. So like for me, like I don't, you can tell me Federico, like I only
1:20:45want the technology coverage and I don't know if that's in the Apple News Plus
1:20:50stuff. And then today TechCrunch, there was an article on TechCrunch, but just
1:20:56slamming it. Like the idea of algorithms and like the devaluing of journalism,
1:21:02which is really interesting, I mean this is a very TechCrunch thing to do. Like
1:21:06that is not a slant. Like something I've always liked about TechCrunch. It kind of,
1:21:09it feels like their writers are allowed to write about whatever they want. Like they've, you know,
1:21:15I've seen them many times slam their corporate overlords, whoever they might be, right? Like when
1:21:20they're owned by AOL or whatever. So Josh Constein has written this article about like, he as an
1:21:26employee of TechCrunch is concerned about TechCrunch being a part of Apple News Plus because of the
1:21:32issue with a big company owning the algorithm and also like the fact that you know that
1:21:37this is extra conscious something that they will sell you for was like 10 or 15 dollars
1:21:41or whatever or pennies on the dollar on Apple news plus so it is a concern and I think that
1:21:50is one of the reasons why everyone's just publishing PDFs because nobody knows what
1:21:56this is going to end up looking like especially if it's true that Apple's taking 50% of it
1:22:00Yeah. It's a bit, I was asked by someone on Twitter, do you plan on putting Club Max stories
1:22:07on Apple News Plus? The answer is a huge no. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Why would
1:22:14I give up my, the money that I'm making off the platform that I control for? Because literally
1:22:19every single person that subscribes to Club Max stories would, would cancel because they're
1:22:24all users of Apple products, right? You would expect, so why would you keep paying? You
1:22:32just wouldn't do it.
1:22:33And something that I also want to say, because I always get this kind of feedback from...
1:22:39There's some Apple News diehards on Twitter. There's a couple of people, they know who
1:22:44they are. They think that, "Oh, it's so easy to support Apple News format. Just write the
1:22:50code and it's so easy. It's never easy to, if you have an existing publishing platform,
1:22:58to add additional layers of custom code for something else. It's never as automatic as
1:23:04you think, and even when you have plugins. Plugins are a beautiful thing, but they can
1:23:10also ruin you. Because once you start installing plugins, it's not a one-click solution to
1:23:18anything, it always introduces maintenance and it always introduces additional development
1:23:23time because then you've got to figure out what's wrong with the plugin.
1:23:27What I'm trying to say is there's always a cost to adopting a new platform, there's a
1:23:33technological cost and there's an actual cost.
1:23:37For me, it's not worth it to rewrite what we do for Cloud Next Story for Apple News
1:23:45format, but it's also not worth it to lose the money that I'm making from the service
1:23:49that I control.
1:23:50Quickly, before we move on from news, just a couple other threads.
1:23:54One, it turns out that the Mac app in particular is super leaky.
1:24:00Steven Trout Smith just discovered how you can export all the PDFs.
1:24:04You just get everything.
1:24:06So that's not good at all.
1:24:08He showed me how he was doing that.
1:24:13Just make a PDF.
1:24:14some work to do there. Apple news product team, I guess. Uh,
1:24:17it was also crashing the day after launch, but that seems to be resolved now.
1:24:21I guess it was on the server side.
1:24:22That's super good that they could fix that without the need to push a software
1:24:26update. Bravo Apple, right? Like, cause you've,
1:24:28you've been way too stuck on that train for a while.
1:24:31So I'm pleased that there was something they could fix on without needing to put
1:24:35like iOS 12.2 0.1 out.
1:24:38Yeah. I still don't love how closed off news is like on the Mac.
1:24:41you just can't get a URL to open it in a browser. Just can't do it. Like you got to like send a text
1:24:47message to yourself or something. And on iOS or really anywhere, sending content to things like
1:24:52Instapaper is very hit or miss some articles, maybe if it's PDF or not send the content others
1:25:00don't is Apple news doesn't play well with the web. And that's really frustrating to me as a
1:25:04believer in the open web. But I guess I just want to posit a thought that my friend Brian said I
1:25:10I saw him tweet like Apple is doing to news what Spotify is maybe doing to podcasts.
1:25:16And I was like, oh, that's a horrifying thought, isn't it?
1:25:20But also a very good point.
1:25:21Like we're all worried about Spotify like walling off podcasts while Apple's trying to
1:25:26do that to journalism.
1:25:27Yeah. So that's I understand the concern raised by TechCrunch and actually share some of it.
1:25:31But that's a fact.
1:25:33It's a while that someone in the launch thing wrote that.
1:25:37But yeah, Apple News Plus.
1:25:38I mean, it's probably again, it's like a lot of these things.
1:25:40It's probably good for consumers, but is it good for the industry?
1:25:43Like, we don't know yet.
1:25:44So let's talk about something else that could be good for consumers, but I think
1:25:48is a little weird.
1:25:50So the Apple card that was announced their credit card deal, uh, it seems to be
1:25:55the most popular of these announcements.
1:25:58Like Kyle's the gray was saying how it's like way more views on YouTube.
1:26:02And it seems to be what people are most excited about.
1:26:06Neil Aptel, the Verge said it was the most popular story for the day on the site.
1:26:11But there are a couple things I think that have come to light since Monday.
1:26:14A, Apple says it's low interest rates.
1:26:17They seem to be in line with other credit cards.
1:26:19They're not doing anything incredible in terms of interest rate.
1:26:23So with all of these things, but for crying out loud for financial stuff in particular,
1:26:27the details are in the fine print.
1:26:29I'm not saying it's a bad deal.
1:26:31It may really work well for you.
1:26:33if you're going and thinking this is a low interest rate card, it's just not it's in line with the rest of the industry. But I'm just curious what the two of you think. I mean, it looks great. And, you know, when they were comparing it to like normal credit cards, like my wife and I have a credit card, and we use it for certain things and pay it off. And the it's not a great experience as a user, right? And what Apple kind of mocked these old credit cards for like, that's where I am with mine. But so I see the the upside
1:27:03to this but then like the part of me also things like is it weird that our
1:27:07favorite computer company is now a credit card company like do you guys
1:27:10feel any strangeness about that or that the credit cards are gross and Apple
1:27:14shouldn't do it like do you have any any feelings my my background being in
1:27:20financial services is that I don't find it weird like ever since kind of Apple
1:27:27Pay came around I've been talking about the eventual future of Apple as a bank
1:27:31because when you have all the money, because they have all the money, one of
1:27:36the ways to use that money is to control money. They can they can underwrite all
1:27:42of the risk because they have the cash, they just have cash in there. I think
1:27:47that this is a very interesting product that I would immediately sign up for
1:27:50because the user experience that Apple is promoting is far superior to the user
1:27:55experience you get from over credit cards. Like could you get a better deal
1:27:59on cash back or rewards. Yes. But are you going to get the money every day? I bet you're
1:28:05not. I bet you have to jump through some crazy hoop to get it back or you can only use it
1:28:09in certain circumstances. Like I think that this looks like a very cool product. Where
1:28:14I am in the UK, like it is absolutely no problem to just use it. You have something that's
1:28:19in Apple Pay all the time. But even though Apple do send that absolutely baller card
1:28:23to you, which is made out of a piece of titanium, which is just that like completely pushed
1:28:28me over the line, right? Like if I was, I don't know, like if I was like, I will send
1:28:32you a piece of titanium. Yes, I will sign up because that looks cool.
1:28:37I really hope that some bank here in the UK looks at this and wants a piece,
1:28:45because the reason that we can't have this, I think one of the key reasons is
1:28:50Apple Cash. So what used to be called Apple Pay Cash doesn't exist outside of
1:28:55the US right now. Apple needs a partner for that before they can even think about the
1:29:00card. But I am hoping that the excitement in the card will push some provider to say
1:29:05to Apple, "We will help you do this." Because I saw somebody make a joke earlier that the
1:29:13Apple card is to credit cards that the rocker was to phones. And like, it's like, "Haha,
1:29:18this is so janky." But I see another side of this. It's like, "No, you're completely
1:29:23but from the other way.
1:29:25This is Apple's beginning to becoming a bank, to getting their own banking license.
1:29:30Banking licenses take an incredibly long time to get anywhere in the world.
1:29:34They could, if US law is like UK law, they could just buy a bank and take their license.
1:29:41Yeah, we don't have any laws about banks anymore. You can do whatever you want.
1:29:44So like I wouldn't be surprised to see that kind of stuff happening in the future,
1:29:48but this is Apple kind of dipping their toe in and they need a partner and they've picked Goldman Sachs.
1:29:52And it seems like Goldman Sachs is basically their AT&T, where like Apple needs a bunch of stuff done,
1:30:00and Goldman Sachs says, "Yes, please, where should we sign?" and "We will do anything you want us to."
1:30:05And then they go to Verizon a year and a half later. Wait.
1:30:08Yeah.
1:30:08That breaks down somewhere.
1:30:09It feels to me like, um, it feels to me like thinking that banks are creepy and weird is an American thing.
1:30:17Like I don't have feelings about banks. It's not something that I usually think about.
1:30:22Yeah, I think it's like that in the UK if you're thinking about the existing banks,
1:30:28but we have all these like everywhere in Europe, so we have all these what are called challenger
1:30:33banks, these new young banks, right? That are way more internet focused.
1:30:37Fintech startups.
1:30:38Fintech startups, that's exactly it. So we have these in Europe because of a bunch of
1:30:42data stuff that we can have. So like there is a slightly different view and a lot of
1:30:46the stuff that is coming of Apple Card is stuff that exists in applications and banks
1:30:51in Europe but does not exist in the US in a lot of places. Simple is the closest that
1:30:56America had I think.
1:30:58Yeah, or like Monzo in the UK or N26. I have N26, it's very good. But also I don't know
1:31:05what, honestly, I don't know what cashback is, I don't know what interest rates are,
1:31:10I'm not a responsible adult so what do I know?
1:31:13totally fine. It's cashback is quite simply, every time you make a purchase, they give you 2% of the
1:31:19money back, they just give you that I sort of understand. I don't think I have that with my
1:31:23with my back. I don't think I do. Not all credit cards have cashback. It's a specific reward.
1:31:28So we also have Apple Arcade, which Myke predicted their gaming service, you can pay some amount of
1:31:35money a month, we don't seem to know what that will be 10. It's got to be 10. But and you get
1:31:40access, full access to games within Apple Arcade. So these games will be no ads, no
1:31:46in-app purchase, everything unlocked. And you guys know way more about the video game
1:31:51industry than I do, but I get the sense that Apple has, like, is curating and maybe even
1:31:57paying for the development or subsidizing the development of these, turning Apple into
1:32:01into a studio, a game studio like Microsoft and others have. And that seems pretty cool
1:32:06to me like this is not for me I don't really play iOS games I play a couple
1:32:11you know I play the biggest one every couple of years but I am excited to see
1:32:16Apple applying their taste to this market because so much of this market is
1:32:21kind of gross is that fair yes it is always worth remembering that Apple
1:32:28created the grossness oh yeah they enabled I mean they created and enabled
1:32:33in at purchasing.
1:32:34And made it worse and continued to make it worse and could make it better, but they're
1:32:38not going to.
1:32:39And the way that they're going to try and fix the cesspool that they created is this
1:32:43service and the presenter, Anne Tai, she basically said something that I loved, which is, "It's
1:32:49hard to compete with free."
1:32:50And I was like, "Yeah, I'm sure it is."
1:32:53But they are, they have attracted a lot of very, as I obviously said earlier, a lot of
1:32:58the right talent that they're going down the right route of it.
1:33:01I like that, you know, all these games are playable offline.
1:33:04It's going to have its own tab in the app store.
1:33:06This is where I will be going to get all my new iOS games, like 100 percent.
1:33:10And they said they called out like these are going to work on the iPhone,
1:33:13iPad, Apple TV and Mac.
1:33:15I don't think all these games will.
1:33:17I don't think they all will.
1:33:19But I think a lot of them will.
1:33:20And I think that's great, like that you will have them available to you everywhere
1:33:24and it makes a more cohesive system.
1:33:26I'm keen how they're going to make all of that work.
1:33:30This is why I don't think every game will be able to work on the Apple TV, for example,
1:33:35or the Mac, because some of these games are going to need touch screens.
1:33:39But I think that they will be encouraging heavily and maybe, depending on how much money
1:33:44they've given you, if it's going to work on all those platforms.
1:33:49Maybe this is what finally brings touch to the Mac.
1:33:51I'm just kidding.
1:33:52That's crazy.
1:33:53Can you imagine?
1:33:54It's like this is the final...
1:33:55Oh, we can do it now.
1:33:57We can now play Angry Birds or whatever.
1:33:59Angry Birds won't be in here.
1:34:00Only good games will be in here.
1:34:01They specifically showed Angry Birds.
1:34:05Oh no.
1:34:05And also, also there was, I saw this teaser, I think it was on Tom's Guide,
1:34:09of an Angry Birds AR game coming out in the summer that apparently was in collaboration with Apple,
1:34:14which this is obviously one of them.
1:34:17That's what the future of AR is. It's flinging birds into blocks.
1:34:21And then we spoke about Apple TV, Apple TV Plus.
1:34:26Is there anything else that we wanted to touch on that?
1:34:28Like I one thing that I didn't say was my thought on the shows. Um, I think a lot of them seemed great
1:34:34I'm really excited about C which is the Jason Momoa show
1:34:37Uh, I didn't I didn't really have a full grasp what that show was about
1:34:41But I think the premise is really good
1:34:42And if you don't know this is the show that is rumored to be the most expensive show ever produced per episode
1:34:48more expensive than game of thrones wow
1:34:50That'll be fun just to see what that buys you
1:34:54Yeah, like you want to test Apple's seriousness?
1:34:56Like these are the things like that one billion.
1:34:59They've spent that a long time ago.
1:35:01Like they're into the multiple billions now, I'm sure.
1:35:04It's got to be.
1:35:04But like they showed that one a lot in the trailers
1:35:07and it looked very Game of Thrones-y and like lots of expansive
1:35:11like scenes and lots of CGI.
1:35:13Like epic, like, you know, like it just feels huge.
1:35:16I think it'll be cool to see.
1:35:19Yeah.
1:35:20And like he's another example of like a guy in a very, very, very successful
1:35:24Superhero movie making a show they had like they had Captain America just sitting there didn't even bring him on stage
1:35:30Like yeah, he was there right? He was watching out for Nazis. He was he was busy. That's true
1:35:35Oh, by the way, remember my risky pick of them all coming out and doing that photo
1:35:38Yeah
1:35:39So close they published a photo that they took in the morning with all the people that they brought in
1:35:44So close to getting that one. Well, it was your non graded pick. I think that's it non graded pick. That's it. That's it
1:35:50Cool. Well, I think that I think that does it there's been a lot going on. It's been a very busy March
1:35:56But now we're at the end of it because April is just around the corner, which is hard to believe
1:36:02If you want to find links to the stuff we talked about and most importantly links to our live show at WWDC
1:36:09Look in the show notes in the app
1:36:12You're listening to this in or on the website relay.fm slash connected slash
1:36:18While you're there, you can send us an email with any follow-up or feedback.
1:36:24You can do that on Twitter as well.
1:36:26Federico is there as vitici, V-I-T-I-C-C-I.
1:36:30Federico of course is the editor-in-chief of maxstories.net.
1:36:34If you're not reading that every day, I just don't know what you're doing with your life,
1:36:38honestly.
1:36:39You can follow Myke on Twitter as @imyke.
1:36:42Myke is the host of a bunch of shows here at Relay FM.
1:36:45So if you like connected, if you like Myke's beautiful voice and his excellent thoughts
1:36:49in the world, there's other stuff that you would like just as much as you like connected.
1:36:53You can follow me on Twitter as ISMH. And I write about performers over on 512 pixels.net.
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1:37:05until next week. Gentlemen say goodbye. Cheerio.