0:00:00(upbeat music)
0:00:02- Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 229.
0:00:11It's made possible this week by our sponsors,
0:00:14ExpressVPN, Luna Display, and Hover.
0:00:17I'm your host, Steven Hackett,
0:00:19and I am joined by my friend and yours, Federico Vittucci.
0:00:22- Hello, Steven, how are you?
0:00:23- I'm doing well, how are you?
0:00:25- I'm good, I'm good, where is Michael?
0:00:28- He's here too.
0:00:29Hi. Hi. Hello. Hey buddy. I don't wanna wait for follow up, are you still using the paper
0:00:36like? I just need to know. Yeah. Yeah I am, yeah. Wow. Yeah, still using it. We dove right
0:00:42in. Stuck around for a while. I'm still not sure though, like, I thought to myself last
0:00:48night, mmm maybe the screen, well I know the screen looks better, maybe I want that, but
0:00:52I'm like ahh, but it does feel really nice, so I'm still in that. I have, nothing has
0:00:57changed. Okay. Okay, Steven, you may proceed with follow up. All right. We spoke about the just
0:01:05banana story last week of whole deal with Facebook and Google having secret apps using enterprise
0:01:12certificates. Apple bring down the hammer. Apple brought the hammer down on Google as well.
0:01:17If you remember Facebook got caught, Google came forward and said, Oh, yeah, we're doing it too.
0:01:23but we've stopped it. And Apple, I think, I think for consistency sake, took Google certificate
0:01:28away. It seems like for a shorter period of time, although I'm not sure anyone's reported
0:01:33exactly how long these companies were without these. But it seems like it was like a day or two,
0:01:39really. Before they started, like before the report started coming out that maybe it was coming
0:01:44back. So it wasn't very long, long enough to sting, I assume. Yeah, I mean, anytime you like
0:01:51cripple a company internally. Any hour feels like an eternity, I'm sure, if you're on the inside.
0:01:56I would assume that you get these back after long, very high-level conversations. Is this
0:02:03Phil Schiller talking to the CTO at Facebook? Does it go even higher than that? They couldn't
0:02:09use Group FaceTime because that was down all week. So I wonder...
0:02:13Just one of the ones only.
0:02:14Yeah, yeah. You want, it's a group FaceTime that you have Phil Schiller and Tim like crowded
0:02:20in like a booth and like holding an iPad out. How close do you think they sit to each other
0:02:25when they're in meetings? You think it's close? I bet they're...
0:02:28I bet, no, I bet they have huge tables there.
0:02:31I think so. I feel like Tim likes his personal space, but like Phil seems cuddly. So anyways,
0:02:37Facebook and Google, they have their certificates back and this is now I think sort of wrapped
0:02:42I guess my only thought like moving forward from here is
0:02:46I mean, this is like a really big card in Apple's hand, right?
0:02:52Like there's not much more they could do past this short of taking them out of the App Store and as we've spoken about
0:02:57That seems like a bad idea for everybody
0:02:59So did Apple sort of like use the most powerful weapon it has against these companies
0:03:05And would it be willing to use it again if it felt like it was necessary?
0:03:08Yes
0:03:11Of course. It depends, right? Like this is a tool in the arsenal now
0:03:16that they could find other ways to use I guess but like I feel like it would be weird if like
0:03:21They did something in the App Store and then they revoked the Enterprise certificate just for Fonzie like for Fonzie's. My expectation is
0:03:29the way that both companies
0:03:31Got theirs back and I'll say like it wasn't
0:03:35It wasn't Apple didn't make a statement that they revoked Google's
0:03:39They made a statement to say they were helping Google get their credentials back
0:03:43How did this appear down the down the you know?
0:03:48It kind of I saw some people saying that like in Google's rush to get rid of their VPN app
0:03:55They may have screwed up their own enterprise certificate in some way
0:03:58that's like which was an interesting theory because
0:04:02Apple were very quick to say that they you know, they were happy to make statements about Facebook
0:04:07But anyway, Apple and Facebook have a different relationship than Apple and Google do right Apple Google
0:04:13You're together on a lot of things and Facebook
0:04:16Competitive but they don't like they don't throw words at each other like Facebook and Apple do right
0:04:21and I think that because I think because of that that
0:04:24Difference in tone and their relationships maybe Apple treated them differently publicly which is like totally fair within Apple's rights
0:04:32But I do think it's interesting to think about the relationships between the three of them all being
0:04:36really different from each other and
0:04:38You know, I think that Apple
0:04:41Doing this like it definitely shows the power they have over their platform
0:04:45And then there's a lot of conversation sort of outside of our bubble
0:04:48But sort of like one level up and like general tech podcasting in the last week or so about does Apple have too much power
0:04:54Over its platform. I don't I don't know if I agree with that or disagree with it, honestly
0:04:59But it is something to consider like Apple holds the cards here to a certain point
0:05:04But then they also need these other companies right they need to have communication going both ways now
0:05:10I'm just surprised when I see these tweets saying that Apple has too much power. It's called the Apple App Store
0:05:14I mean if you were in violation of something on the Google Play Store
0:05:18Google will probably act the same and when you're in violation of something on Facebook
0:05:25Facebook removes your post like if you use a song that you're not supposed to as a devil's advocate
0:05:31You the own the only way to get apps on phones on iPhones is through Apple Store
0:05:37I guess you can do it in other ways on Android
0:05:39So like it's different like that. That's the argument that people place. Is that illegal though? Like
0:05:45iPhone you know that that's the only way to get software on the iPhone. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know
0:05:51I mean, I don't know if the European Union has done what they do yet.
0:05:56I don't know if they consider it a monopoly, probably not, because they don't have the majority of the smartphone
0:06:01platform, right? Like, if iOS was the most dominant smartphone platform,
0:06:06they would probably get into some trouble with the European Union.
0:06:08Just because, right, this is what history has shown, like, well, they've done with Microsoft multiple times, and Google, in fact.
0:06:15They got on Google, didn't they?
0:06:16Yeah, Google got hit big time last year.
0:06:19So that's all really complicated,
0:06:20but it seems like the story is sort of wrapped up.
0:06:22And I guess we'll just see how long it is until Facebook
0:06:27makes some sort of other egregious error.
0:06:30So I have just a wonderful conspiracy theory situation.
0:06:33Please.
0:06:34I want to hear this.
0:06:35So my expectation is the way that this all got resolved
0:06:38is there were some conversations that happened at a high level,
0:06:41and there were some agreements that had to be made.
0:06:44Apple were like, well you can't do this again and you have to do this and this and this
0:06:48something kind of hilarious happened both within like
0:06:5248 hours of getting their enterprise certificates back Facebook updated their
0:06:57Facebook app to finally support the tennis max the 10 are and the iPad pro screen
0:07:03Resolution and then Google updated Doc's sheets and Gmail also to support the new iPad pro screen resolutions
0:07:10I'm not saying it definitely was related but the timing is super funny to me
0:07:16You know
0:07:18I'm sure that they were working on these things but it is kind of hilarious that neither of these companies had done anything
0:07:22And then all of a sudden here it is and I know before you tell me
0:07:26like in March so like something's like a deadline in March where
0:07:30You have to build for the resolution to be accepted on the App Store for the iPad pros
0:07:36But it's still kind of funny that they both happened within 48 hours of these problems occurring
0:07:41Yeah, I feel there's definitely a cause and effect here
0:07:44But you know it is pretty when I was a kid and I did something bad and I would drive my parents upset
0:07:50Was it usually the result of a prank a bad prank would cause yeah, or maybe I came home late
0:07:57You know that kind of stuff. I would show my parents like the next day
0:08:00I would wash the dishes or clean my bedroom, you know that kind of stuff and Facebook and Google
0:08:05have kind of done the same here. They upset Mother Apple and so now they're showing them
0:08:09that they can be good boys. Yeah. Yeah. All right, what's next? FaceTime. Oh yes, this
0:08:23happened and it's still not fixed with the software update, right? Yeah. No. Yeah. Interesting.
0:08:28No. There hasn't been a software update in public for it. There's not. Is it in the 12.2
0:08:33Do you know Federico? Not that I'm aware of but also my FaceTime is still off
0:08:38They couldn't turn it back on server side, right? Like, you know, that's the problem, I guess. No
0:08:44No, so what I've heard from several people now and maybe it's all conjecture, but I think it makes sense
0:08:49Is that Apple's plan is to
0:08:51Blacklist old versions of iOS against the group FaceTime server
0:08:55So if you never update to 12 dot whatever fixes it you group FaceTime will just never come back for you
0:09:00That makes sense. So I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, so I don't know if that don't think that it's gospel
0:09:06But I've heard that several people talking about that
0:09:07So I'm gonna go with the very least that's possible you got to think they're going to do something to protect everybody
0:09:11but Apple did have a statement at the end of last week saying they'd fixed the security bug on the server and
0:09:18There'll be a software update to enable the feature
0:09:21Sometime supposed to be this week. It's Wednesday right now. We haven't seen it yet
0:09:25It could be out by the time you're listening to this
0:09:27They also thanked the family so remember at the beginning of this there was a kid who discovered this and his mom was an attorney
0:09:35And she like contacted Apple. She did everything right
0:09:37Some people got on to them about asking about the bounty program
0:09:42Which I found really gross like they're trying to do good and report a bug like just don't criticize
0:09:47but they apologize to the customers and
0:09:50An executive visited the family saying they will receive the payment from the bug bounty program
0:09:57So, so my question is, what is a visit in your home from an Apple executive like?
0:10:04I assume it's Phil Schiller.
0:10:06It could be somebody else, but like, do you offer Phil?
0:10:09This feels like a Greg Joszczyk type of job to me.
0:10:13This feels like a job.
0:10:14Oh yeah, he's there.
0:10:15He's there for weird, weird stuff, right?
0:10:17He's like cleanup guy, you know, in Pulp Fiction, Wolf, right, who comes in and like cleans
0:10:21up the room, right?
0:10:22Like, I feel like that's what Josz is.
0:10:24He's like the Wolf.
0:10:26He just comes in and he's like Corvette, screeches into the corner and he's ready to go.
0:10:31He also introduced the iPhone SE.
0:10:32That was kind of a cleanup job too.
0:10:34That's really interesting.
0:10:35So do you offer him a snack?
0:10:36Like what do you do?
0:10:37I guess so.
0:10:38Like do you put out your best china?
0:10:39I don't know.
0:10:40I don't know why it's necessary for an Apple executive to go to the home of the family.
0:10:44You know what you do?
0:10:45You know what you do?
0:10:46You break the ice by saying so I have this idea for an app that I would like to work
0:10:54on.
0:10:55Do you have any tips?
0:10:56That's the perfect icebreaker.
0:10:58You want to make an app that nobody ever thought of, you have an idea.
0:11:03Or maybe you say, "I have an idea for a product.
0:11:05I have an Apple Watch and an iPhone and AirPods and I would like to charge them all at once
0:11:11and maybe Apple could give me some sort of solution for that."
0:11:14This isn't three products, this is one product.
0:11:17Are you getting it?
0:11:18It's called the AirPower.
0:11:20I also personally feel happy that we got our apology.
0:11:23got a sincere apology from Apple, which is what I was hoping that we would get that again,
0:11:30because it felt pretty bad. And then I guess the last thing is the US government, probably
0:11:38other governments, are looking into this.
0:11:41Yeah, it's inevitable.
0:11:43Which rightly so, I feel like this is kind of what we were asking for, right? There has
0:11:47to be more government control, hopefully by competent politicians, as these technology
0:11:54companies are throwing away our privacy on a daily basis.
0:11:58Like it's just a thing that we have to look for now and hope that people that are competent
0:12:01can actually try and hold them accountable.
0:12:04And we said it about Facebook, right, specifically last time, but I think in this instance, like
0:12:09Apple has some questions to answer too.
0:12:12Right?
0:12:13Like I think they definitely do to someone.
0:12:15Lastly, we're mentioning this just to quell the rumors that we're doing this this week.
0:12:21So Unicode has approved emoji for 2019.
0:12:26Federico is in a full emoji media blackout, so he hasn't, he's not reading anything about
0:12:31them or what they look like, what they're called.
0:12:33No, I've only seen the hero image on Emojipedia because, you know, on Twitter I saw the image.
0:12:40There's no harm in seeing the images.
0:12:42You can see the images, you just can't know the names.
0:12:44The hero image featuring the emoji of Zloth and cleaning ear.
0:12:50That's what you think that is, right?
0:12:53Yes, and the gray lines are the dirt that comes out of the ear.
0:12:57I have a lot of questions.
0:13:00I don't want to get into this right now. Let's just move on.
0:13:06So we will be playing the game, Federico names the emoji,
0:13:11when Apple announces they're coming in iOS,
0:13:14I assume they're 13, that should be around World Emoji Day.
0:13:16That's when it's been the last couple of years.
0:13:18So hold your horses.
0:13:20And I say this also as a public service announcement
0:13:23that don't bait Federico on Twitter
0:13:26into accidentally learning these things.
0:13:27Just like play it cool.
0:13:29It's only fun if he hasn't seen the names.
0:13:31So don't ruin it for anybody.
0:13:32- I don't need to know the names
0:13:35because I'm going to win anyway.
0:13:38I will guess them all just like last year.
0:13:40So I don't even need to be informed about this.
0:13:46Weird fish.
0:13:47I will say, just as a serious topic, right?
0:13:51This emoji set is going to cause some problems for platform vendors because of the mixed
0:13:57skin tone support.
0:13:59So they have people standing next to each other holding hands.
0:14:04And one of the things that's in the Unicode kind of approved Unicode list is shared skin
0:14:11tones and mixed skin tones.
0:14:13Now iOS is like the current keyboard is not built for that.
0:14:18So I'm really intrigued to see if and how the major platform vendors implement this
0:14:26because it's not only like for couples, they also Facebook already has families with shared
0:14:34skin tones is a thing that you can set up on Facebook, which is 125 emojis on its own.
0:14:42And Windows has a viewer, which you can change the skin tone of any family member, like Facebook
0:14:48set theirs up, and there's 52,000 combinations.
0:14:52Woah.
0:14:53Wow.
0:14:54Because it's like four people and with the ability to change the skin tones of all four
0:14:59individuals.
0:15:00That's a lot.
0:15:01really intrigued to see how this stuff gets supported. I'm sure Slack will be right on it.
0:15:07There has to be a better way on iOS to deal with emoji. Like, if iOS 13 doesn't introduce some kind
0:15:15of emoji search or just a faster way to find them, I will be really surprised. I feel like
0:15:22we reached the tipping point years ago and it's only gotten worse. Like, we're getting hundreds
0:15:26of new emoji every year. And with all these new combinations, like, the emoji keyboard
0:15:31on iOS is bad, and whoever is in charge of the emoji department of the iOS team is doing
0:15:37a bad job. That's a bad job. Like, the emoji keyboard is bad. Like, it's just bad. Like,
0:15:45how... I don't know. The one in Gboard is good. Yes, it is. So, hopefully iOS 13 gives
0:15:54me the new home screen dark mode and emoji keyboard with search. So that's all I want.
0:15:59Well, that's a quick win. That is like a quick win for people, right? Like people will be
0:16:04so excited about that. But like that would be genuinely like a huge feature of iOS 13
0:16:11for tons and tons of people would be better emoji support. So it feels like an easy one.
0:16:18All righty, we have a bunch of news to talk about. First, I want to tell you about our
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0:18:21Steven is here mm-hmm are we gonna is every episode gonna have a topic that
0:18:29begins with those words because I feel like that's been worse than when
0:18:32Nintendo did the era of Luigi and they had to say it every single time like
0:18:36you're yeah you're worse than Luigi is what I'm saying you are worse than
0:18:40Luigi. You're like Waluigi. Wow this is the peak right like this is if I'm gonna
0:18:48have any week where we celebrate this it's this week. Just this week like is it
0:18:54can we just give you this week and you're gonna be done? Multiple weeks this is it.
0:18:59I mean the tattoo is forever but so I had made a prediction it's an ungraded
0:19:07I created a prediction. I accept that. Coward. Somebody's not brave enough. I should still
0:19:11win a trophy for this. Nope. Nope. Well, I already ordered one. Well, I don't know
0:19:16if you win a trophy if you buy one for yourself, but like if that's what you need, that's
0:19:20great. Sure. You can buy yourself a trophy. You have your best life, my friend. You can
0:19:23treat yourself to a trophy if you want. That's fine. I had predicted that there'd be a
0:19:27change on the Apple leadership webpage this year, and we made it to February 5th and Apple
0:19:33announced a change. So Myke, do you want to run us through the news while I sit back and
0:19:39just like bask in the in the light of day?
0:19:42Yeah, so Angela Ahrendts, who has been with Apple for a number of years now, five years,
0:19:49who came from, I believe she was at Yves Saint Laurent before, or Burberry?
0:19:55Oh, no, Burberry.
0:19:56She was at Yves Saint Laurent, I think, before, but she came from, she was CEO at Burberry,
0:20:01right? I think that's where she went over and then she moved to Apple and took over
0:20:05retail after Apple hadn't had anybody in charge of retail for nearly two years, I think it
0:20:10was. It's like a year and a half. So Angela, it was announced yesterday that she is going
0:20:17to be leaving Apple in April and in her place, Deidre O'Brien will be taking over retail,
0:20:25combining it with her previous role and still current role as head of HR at Apple. So, well,
0:20:33people they call it. So she is going to be taking the joint role of people and retail.
0:20:40Should we call it like reeple? Or p-tail. Yeah, you see, I thought of that one first,
0:20:46but ducked out of it. So that one didn't sound like it didn't sound fun anymore. It sounded
0:20:53terrible. It's upsetting, really. So, yeah. So, Deidre O'Brien is now taking over the role.
0:20:59She's actually already been updated on Apple's leadership page as having that role,
0:21:03even though Angela's also still there, which is interesting. So, there's two heads of retail at
0:21:11the moment. And that's kind of where we are. And lots of people have lots of opinions, as you could
0:21:17imagine, right? Because she's leaving and like, why is this happening? And a lot of thoughts about
0:21:21like Angela's legacy at Apple, I guess.
0:21:24So I want you guys to take this because I think I feel a little bit different.
0:21:30OK, so I'll go first.
0:21:31Oh, can I just say one thing?
0:21:33Sorry, I can say one thing.
0:21:34I don't want to say it first because I really want to get to it.
0:21:37If it's one, or if it's one.
0:21:39I find it a great shame that another female executive
0:21:43like with down another female executive on Apple's leadership page.
0:21:46I hope that they find a way to rectify that faster than whatever it was
0:21:49they were doing before because now it's one it was already bad and now it's one less person
0:21:55so it just makes their leadership mix even even worse than it was before.
0:21:59I agree.
0:22:02So that was the one thing.
0:22:03Okay thank you.
0:22:04So I'll go first.
0:22:05I feel like this is this departure is sort of like a Rorschach test for what you think of modern Apple
0:22:13and I sort of don't want to play that game.
0:22:15It is though!
0:22:17That's brilliant!
0:22:19It is. I can only offer the perspective as an Apple customer, as somebody who uses the
0:22:27Apple online store and the Apple, the physical Apple stores. I don't know. Nobody knows really,
0:22:35of the three of us or other people on Twitter what really happened. It does feel, from the outside,
0:22:42it does feel like a sudden departure, like something that was not planned months ago. Angela
0:22:48was on stage at the October event, had a big presence, big section about the Apple retail
0:22:53stores, this multi-year vision for what the Apple store should be. She was profiled in
0:22:59Vanity Fair last week, I think. I don't know. It doesn't feel like something that was planned.
0:23:04I think it was Vogue. It was a Vogue business.
0:23:07Yes.
0:23:08Yes. Yeah.
0:23:09But my perspective as a customer is that I can appreciate, visually speaking or architecturally
0:23:17speaking, the new Apple stores. We don't have them in Rome, but I've seen them in London,
0:23:23I've seen them in San Francisco, I think, a few years ago. They're beautiful, and they are really
0:23:30extraordinarily unlike any other store that I've ever been to. But as a customer in Italy,
0:23:39who doesn't have the fancy new Apple stores, I can tell you that over the past few years,
0:23:47the experience of going to the Apple stores has gotten worse and worse.
0:23:52The Apple store used to be organized as a customer.
0:23:55Like, I knew that I could walk into the Apple store
0:23:58if I had made a reservation before, if it was the Genius Bar,
0:24:02or if I needed to buy something, therefore I didn't have a reservation.
0:24:06But that I would feel the organization behind it.
0:24:09Like, it was not messy, it was not chaotic.
0:24:15Now whenever I go to the Apple Store, I sort of dread going to the Apple Store, because
0:24:20even if I make a reservation, it doesn't matter.
0:24:23They are prioritizing walk-ins, everybody's sort of, every employee is telling you a different
0:24:29thing, like there are multiple lines for the same sort of problem that you have, like different
0:24:38employees telling you different things.
0:24:39I don't know if this is a thing that happens only in Rome, but judging from the replies
0:24:44that I've gotten on Twitter, I think it's kind of a common thing. It doesn't feel as
0:24:50simple and as organized and as... what's the opposite of anxious? Like, it was relaxed
0:24:58years ago. Like, I could go to the Apple Store and chill for a bit and it was fine. Now it's
0:25:02always messy and chaotic and I don't like it. The Apple Online Store I used to like
0:25:09before they did the redesign a few years ago.
0:25:12And I said these years ago, I said it multiple times
0:25:15unconnected, and I still maintain this opinion
0:25:17that the new Apple Online Store is also confusing
0:25:20and also difficult to use.
0:25:22Whenever I just wanna browse for accessories
0:25:26on the Apple Online Store,
0:25:27I found that the easiest way to do this
0:25:30is to just type accessories in the search bar,
0:25:33because it's like I cannot figure out
0:25:35how to navigate the Apple Online Store on my computer.
0:25:38It used to be so simple, you could go to store.apple.com and then say iPhone and then browse.
0:25:45Now you gotta go to the product page and then you gotta select buy and then you gotta find
0:25:51the accessory.
0:25:52It's super weird.
0:25:54So again, I don't know, and my third point, sorry, is that we also covered this years
0:26:00ago on Connected.
0:26:02I still believe that the idea of thinking of a store as a town square is more inspirational
0:26:10than functional.
0:26:12I can appreciate, and we actually have an article on MacStories about this, the idea
0:26:16of today at Apple and sort of using the Apple Store as a place that can foster the creativity
0:26:23of a local community with courses for photography, for drawing, for learning how to use the iPad,
0:26:30that kind of stuff.
0:26:31beautiful. People who've gone to this today at Apple sessions, they really seem to like
0:26:36it. That's fine. But the general idea of it's not a store, it's a town square. Like, it
0:26:43feels something that reads well on a press release that goes well on a website. But in
0:26:50practice, I don't want to hang out at the Apple store.
0:26:54You know, like I don't...
0:26:55- Hey, can you just meet me at Apple after the show?
0:26:56I don't want to meet you at Apple, not because you're, you know,
0:26:59I want to meet you at WWDC. We can hang out.
0:27:02I don't want to hang out with my friends in a store.
0:27:04Like it's not like going to a coffee shop. I don't go to Apple as they say,
0:27:09to hang out. And so it feels like it's a combination of,
0:27:12if I were to speculate, so if we were a Rorschach test,
0:27:16and if I were to read into it, what I see,
0:27:19I would say that a combination of form over function,
0:27:25So, inspirational ideas against the practicality of a store and certain decisions that made
0:27:36the store experience more chaotic and messy and confusing may have maybe contributed to
0:27:44Angela's departure from Apple. That's my perspective.
0:27:47I agree with all of that. From the consumer perspective, the stores are overwhelming,
0:27:53and I think Apple's mistake and I don't know if it's hers or or what but someone
0:27:58made the mistake and he said it so like the store is not a destination right no
0:28:04one wants to have an experience with an Apple retail you want to go and do what
0:28:08you have to do and you want that experience to go smoothly and like to be
0:28:11helpful and be positive but I feel like they've gone too far in that direction
0:28:18so like my Apple store here has the redesign but it's a very small story the
0:28:23The Memphis market is small and even in our small market, it is just always chaotic in
0:28:31there.
0:28:33I don't ever go in unless I've got to have something for repair or order something
0:28:38for pickup, in which case I can go in, talk to the person at the door, and get in and
0:28:43out as quickly as possible.
0:28:45It's not someplace I just want to drop by and do something quickly.
0:28:49That's a problem, right?
0:28:51I think the other angle to it is the service angle,
0:28:56which is sort of the way I think about it first.
0:29:00Now I've been gone from Apple retail for like 10 years,
0:29:01so nothing I experience then is relevant now.
0:29:06It's ancient history.
0:29:07But the service is an important aspect of the store,
0:29:10and having the Genius Bar replaced by like,
0:29:14you go sit in these uncomfortable chairs
0:29:16and someone will just yell your name
0:29:17until they come find you,
0:29:20That's, it's stressful waiting,
0:29:23and it's not a pleasant experience
0:29:26to kind of be stuck at a table with somebody
0:29:28as they take your machine in for repair.
0:29:31And it's again, it's just chaotic.
0:29:33That's the word I keep coming back to
0:29:34at these Apple stores.
0:29:35Some of that was in process
0:29:37well before Angela ever showed up,
0:29:38like the getting rid of the point of sale system.
0:29:40That was happening 2006, 2007 when I was there.
0:29:44It's been gone for a decade, that's not coming back.
0:29:46But I do think there are ways
0:29:47that there could be processes and structures put back
0:29:51into retail to help it function more
0:29:55like a regular store again.
0:29:57I don't know if we'll see that.
0:29:59It's 506 stores, it is like 70,000 employees.
0:30:03It's a lot of things to deal with, but I'm hopeful.
0:30:08It could always be worse.
0:30:11I just wanna put this in historical context.
0:30:12There's a link in the show notes to an article I wrote
0:30:15a couple years ago called Apple Cafes.
0:30:17Apple had this like wild concept in the 1990s of
0:30:21Well, basically the store they built at the new campus where there's like a restaurant
0:30:26it's all there's seating and like there's a bar and one of these pictures just go check that out and and
0:30:31be thankful that's not the future that we live in but
0:30:35Boy, what a mess. What what's that? What's that expression? What has been will be will be again
0:30:42What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the Sun. I
0:30:46I read this somewhere a few days ago.
0:30:49The Apple cafe thing is totally something they're doing again.
0:30:53We've been to one.
0:30:55They have one.
0:30:57It's on the company store as a cafe now.
0:31:00It's half cafe, half retail store.
0:31:02Well one third cafe, one third and then they've got the visitor center.
0:31:05One third weird AR experience that made the iPad really hot.
0:31:10I think my view on a lot of this is pretty different.
0:31:13I don't personally feel like the Apple store is any worse than it's always been.
0:31:18Like the idea of not having checkouts or like places you can buy stuff from.
0:31:24I can't remember an Apple store
0:31:26I've ever been into that had a defined place where you would buy something.
0:31:30Like it's always like find random person
0:31:33and the cash tills are in the desks, right?
0:31:37Like they it's just like always for me felt like a kind of you go in
0:31:41and you just keep walking around and around with something in your hands until you can
0:31:44try and get somebody's attention. I feel like it's always been that way for as long as I've
0:31:49been going into them. I also never have once set up an appointment or been to the Genius
0:31:55Grove for anything. So I just want to say that as like, oh, so you're one of those people
0:32:00you never got to like, who's never been there. Well, like it's, I'm not one of those people.
0:32:05I've just never had a need. I can never had a reason. I had a reason, but I couldn't do
0:32:08anything, right? Like, breaking my iPad screen, I wasn't gonna pay for it because it was too
0:32:13much in of AppleCare, so...
0:32:14So you never made a reservation for the Genius Bar in your life?
0:32:17Never.
0:32:18Oh, interesting. Okay.
0:32:20I've never been to the Genius Bar. I've never made a reservation. I've never been.
0:32:23Oh, I had no idea. Okay. Okay.
0:32:25Right, so my view of Apple Stores not being any better or worse could be tainted by that.
0:32:31I also, like, I don't know how I feel about the idea of, like, the Apple Stores are bad,
0:32:36is why Angela's gone because it doesn't look like they fired her. So it doesn't look like
0:32:44it. But I don't know. But something's happened. But even if it is, even if they have fired
0:32:49her, this is the reason. Because nothing bad has happened that we can see that, like, they
0:32:55were clearly all in on this idea, right? So like, she could just do this on her own.
0:33:01we consider that tweet by Mark Gurman that it looks suspiciously close to, you know,
0:33:08the company reports iPhone sales are down and then the head of retail leaves. Like,
0:33:13it's maybe not related but it looks a certain way.
0:33:17But I don't think the reason that people weren't buying iPhones was because of the retail experience.
0:33:22Right? Like, I don't think anyone's thinking that, right? That like, "Oh, I couldn't buy
0:33:26an iPhone. That wasn't the case. I can understand the tantalising nature of an opinion like
0:33:35that, right? But Angela wasn't responsible for China, right? That's what Apple was blaming
0:33:44it on. You know what I mean? If they would have had a big store problem, that would have
0:33:49been really easy to be like, "Oh no, people really want it and they just destroyed our
0:33:52stores because of over demand. I don't know. I don't know what's going on here. But I definitely,
0:33:58definitely am in the camp of like, this was a surprise to someone.
0:34:02Yeah. Yeah. I mean, either to her to Tim Cook, right? One of the two was probably surprised.
0:34:09The flip side of this, I want to talk about too is what they're doing moving forward. So
0:34:16combining this role of HR and retail. I said 70,000 retail
0:34:24employees drinks, Dr. Drank said this 32% of Apple, but Apple PR
0:34:28says there's 100,000 total employees. So like, it's I
0:34:31think it's more than 32%. But either way you cut it, it's a
0:34:36large number of people to manage and 506 stores. It's a lot of
0:34:40locations and my concern with this is, and I said it yesterday, is that this
0:34:48means that retail doesn't have a full seat at the table anymore, right? That it
0:34:52is shared somehow with HR and yes, these departments are way more than this
0:35:00one individual, right? They have tons and tons of people and there are people
0:35:02directly under her who are completely responsible for retail, completely
0:35:06responsible for HR. But the highest level it being merged is just not something
0:35:11that I saw coming but Gurman had another tweet talking about the the turnover
0:35:17we've seen at Apple's very highest level since Tim Cook came and the most
0:35:23turnover they've seen is in retail right they had Ron Johnson who sort of
0:35:29started it and then he left and did JC Penney and that didn't go very well now
0:35:32he has a startup and then it was empty for a while and
0:35:35And then they filled the position
0:35:38with a guy named John
0:35:41Browett and the disaster guy from the UK and that was like a real bad and he got fired like
0:35:50Apple let him go
0:35:52And then and then Angela came in so there has been turnover here. So
0:35:57part of me thinks that maybe this isn't permanent and
0:36:01It's just to make sure someone can oversee it, but then at the same time like maybe it's not maybe that's okay, too
0:36:07It's just unusual for Apple. It feels like but
0:36:11At the same time I think something another factor to consider is like if you look at Apple's other
0:36:17Segments so like Craig Federighi in charge of software
0:36:21Well, he is technically in charge of like all of their software platforms
0:36:25But of course he has chiefs in charge of Mac OS iOS watch OS and the intern running tvOS
0:36:31Right and Johnny is back in charge of the two design departments that they split up for him
0:36:36Right, I split them up. So maybe this time away from it
0:36:39So maybe this isn't while it's new to retail in HR
0:36:42Maybe it isn't as unusual with an Apple as it seems like it is what you begin software the software and design roles
0:36:49like the two subdivisions
0:36:53They are inherently the same thing.
0:36:56Human resources and retail stores are not the same thing.
0:37:01They don't ladder up naturally into one person.
0:37:06My assumption here is just they didn't want this space to be open again.
0:37:12So they've given it to someone that they feel has the right skills
0:37:16to look after it until they can find a more permanent replacement.
0:37:20Right, like it feels super strange to me to give one person these two roles because they
0:37:30don't have a natural fit together and this clearly wasn't the way it was thought of before,
0:37:38right? They haven't had a great idea of like, "I know what we do. Deidre should have both
0:37:43of these and we'll fire Angela." That's not the reason that they've done this. They just
0:37:47have an empty seat and for whatever reason I don't I will say I don't know a
0:37:52lot about Deidre O'Brien I know that she's been at Apple for like 30 years
0:37:56yeah she's a she's a lifer as they say like yeah I don't know yeah I don't know
0:38:02much else about her I hope to see a big profile about her soon right because
0:38:08she's clearly taken on an important role so I have some other thoughts about
0:38:12about Angela Ahrendts, it is the general assumption
0:38:16that she was brought in to help Apple transition
0:38:19to become more of a fashion conscious brand.
0:38:21She 100% succeeded at that, right?
0:38:26Like if you look at the Apple Watch,
0:38:28and again the Apple Watch has changed,
0:38:30but a lot of the verbiage and the way that they do
0:38:34the seasonal releases of watch bands and stuff like that,
0:38:38if we're still assuming that she had a hand in that,
0:38:40which is what people assumed at the beginning, like she has been successful. I'm kind of
0:38:45a little bit, I feel a little bit uncomfortable that like over the last 24 hours everyone
0:38:51is like, yeah, of course I fired her. But nobody was saying it like two weeks ago, right?
0:38:57Like I've seen a lot of people say a lot more harsh things than you guys are. And it just
0:39:03seems strange to me. Like I don't really feel anybody had the, yeah, I guess. But like I
0:39:08I just don't think that we can know enough.
0:39:13This genuinely feels more to me like she decided to leave than Apple knew they were getting
0:39:18rid of her.
0:39:19That's how it feels to me.
0:39:21Maybe she just was done with technology and wanted to go back to fashion again.
0:39:25Who knows?
0:39:26Yeah, it'd be interesting to see where she lands and that may lead into some more insight
0:39:32about what happened at Apple.
0:39:34Also I have one quick hot take about chairs.
0:39:37I've been seeing a lot of people complaining about chairs, right?
0:39:39There are no chairs with backs on in Apple stores.
0:39:42Of course there aren't.
0:39:43Because they don't want you to sit and hang out in there.
0:39:47Be like, be realistic about this.
0:39:49They want to make you uncomfortable.
0:39:51They don't want because people will hang out in Apple stores.
0:39:54You've seen tweets about chairs in the Apple.
0:39:57What kind of people do you follow?
0:39:59I don't know the same people as you.
0:40:01Like people, people are complaining about the little balls and the growth thing
0:40:06with the trees. But they're supposed to be because they don't want people hanging out
0:40:09and they're using the Wi-Fi all day. Let's be realistic about this for a second. There
0:40:14are going to be some things you have to design your stores to get people in and out of them,
0:40:19not like in and hang around. Then we're building the Apple Cafe.
0:40:23They used to have theaters with real seating and a screen and stuff, and they got rid of
0:40:28all those. But the Genius bars, when they were around, they basically had kitchen stools,
0:40:33barstools. So again, no back. And the idea was you sit down for 20 minutes, I take a
0:40:37look at your iBook and then you go home sad because your iBook's broken. So that's not
0:40:41new. I think it's one of those things that people latch onto because it's a newer thing
0:40:46in the store design. And you know, it's easy to poke fun of things that are new. But yeah,
0:40:52we'll see if there are any changes coming. It's not going to be anytime soon. I don't
0:40:57think right these things take time. And it's a huge part of Apple's business and they're
0:41:01not going to rush in and up end. My guess is we're going to see very little change.
0:41:06My guess is that Apple is pretty happy with the way retail works, especially from like
0:41:11the layout and design perspective. So if there's any processes or like sort of internal structures
0:41:18that change, that'll take some time to leak out.
0:41:22Because they committed to a plan, right? For a certain period of time. You can't, you can't
0:41:26turn a ship that big, that fast.
0:41:29The Apple Store ship.
0:41:31Goodbye Angela, we hardly knew you.
0:41:34This episode of Connected is brought to you by our friends at Luna Display.
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0:43:34It's beta season.
0:43:36It's always beta season now, right?
0:43:37As I said that, I realized that it's basically just beta
0:43:40year round now, but--
0:43:41- Some are more interesting than others, though,
0:43:43and this is maybe a little bit more interesting
0:43:46than 12.1 was.
0:43:49So one of the big features of the iOS 12.2 beta is the beginnings of the HomeKit TV support.
0:43:58And Federico, my understanding is that you were able to, via some means, get your what
0:44:06should be unsupported LG TV with the HomeKit TV support to be supported via Homebridge.
0:44:13Yes, that's what happened.
0:44:15So, soon after the first beta of 12.2 came out, I saw on Twitter Kaos Tian, he's a developer
0:44:26for... he works at a company that I don't remember the name, is one of the top contributors of
0:44:35Homebridge, the plugin that allows you to add HomeKit support to unsupported devices.
0:44:41He makes a bunch of Homebridge plugins and configuration stuff.
0:44:46And he was playing around with initial support for bringing these native HomeKit APIs for
0:44:53televisions to his old LG TV running WebOS.
0:44:58And I think we actually have the same TV, WebOS one from 2017.
0:45:04he got in touch with me, he sent me an early version of his plugin for adding the WebOS
0:45:12TV to HomeKit on 12.2, and eventually, a couple of days later, the plugin that I was already
0:45:20using for HomeBridge, it's called the HomeBridge WebOS TV, was updated with native support
0:45:25for HomeKit and iOS 12.2. So, for the past 10 days, 2 weeks, I've been... I had my TV
0:45:37in the Home app as a native television for iOS 12.2 instead of... I used to have the
0:45:47old Homebridge plugins to do that, and they worked by essentially letting you fake certain
0:45:55TV controls as either a light bulb or a switch. So for example, with the old
0:46:01plugin that I had, the TV volume was a light bulb, and so increasing and
0:46:07decreasing the brightness actually changed the volume of the TV. So you
0:46:12could use a slider to adjust the volume. Or, for example, if you wanted to switch
0:46:18between channels or to switch between inputs, with the old plugin you would
0:46:23have switches in HomeKit as if they were electric outlets.
0:46:28And so you could turn off the switch to say,
0:46:31"Switch to HDMI 2 on the TV," and stuff like that.
0:46:35With the new HomeKit support for televisions,
0:46:39some of these features are native integrations of the Home app.
0:46:46Others still require, at least for my needs and for my tastes,
0:46:51still require the old plugins. So if you guys want I can go over some of the
0:46:57details of what you get with HomeKit. So the idea is in the Home app you get a
0:47:03new type of accessory called the television. It's got a new icon, it looks
0:47:08like a TV. You can tap and hold it, you can press it with 3D Touch and
0:47:14it expands into a switch. So at a basic level what you can do is you can turn
0:47:19off and turn on the TV. There's a Settings button in the bottom right
0:47:26corner, as always. The thing that's new and different for televisions is in the
0:47:31bottom left you get Input as a new button of this UI, and the Input button
0:47:36lets you switch between inputs of your television, so HDMI ports or in the case
0:47:43of WebOS. And again, I'm testing a third-party plugin, this is not an
0:47:48official integration, but this plugin allows me to switch between inputs but
0:47:52also native webOS apps. This plugin uses the native webOS API that LG makes, and
0:48:00so as a developer you can write software that allows you to control your
0:48:06television both for inputs, I have four HDMI ports and I can switch between them,
0:48:11but also you can open webOS apps. So the built-in television apps like Netflix,
0:48:17like the TV Guide or, I don't know what, I have an Italian streaming service,
0:48:23you know, that kind of stuff, or the YouTube app, which I prefer to the
0:48:27YouTube app on the Apple TV. So, at a basic level, what you do is you open the
0:48:32Home app and you expand the television button and you can either turn off the,
0:48:37you know, toggle the power state of the TV or switch between inputs. In Settings,
0:48:42you can change the names of these inputs. And this is all you can do for now in the Home app.
0:48:50You also get, of course, this is actually my favorite way to control the TV from Control Center,
0:48:57from the Home button of Control Center. If you add your television as a favorite, you will find it there.
0:49:06You can expand it with 3D Touch and you can switch inputs from Control Center,
0:49:10you can turn off and turn on your TV from Control Center.
0:49:13I should specify that HomeKit support does not equal AirPlay 2.
0:49:19HomeKit support for televisions means controlling them, not streaming media using AirPlay.
0:49:26So those are two separate things, and to the best of my knowledge,
0:49:31I don't think there's a way to enable AirPlay 2 support using something like HomeBridge.
0:49:37Homebridge. Because Homebridge, what it's doing is it's basically saying you have
0:49:41this HomeKit accessory on your network and it works with the Home app. I don't
0:49:47think there's a way to do this with AirPlay 2, but I could be wrong. Still,
0:49:50HomeKit does not mean AirPlay 2. Two separate things. And finally, the other
0:49:56part of HomeKit support for televisions is the remote that you get in Control
0:50:02and this is the thing where I have the most complaints about.
0:50:08So the remote looks like a very basic digital remote in that you get a directional pad with four arrow buttons
0:50:17to navigate the UI and a click button in the middle.
0:50:22This remote is available in the same Control Center screen where the Apple TV remote is,
0:50:31remote is, which is kind of confusing because when you open Control Center
0:50:35it's got an Apple TV logo but actually if you expand it and you open this
0:50:40menu you will see your television remote.
0:50:44Are there two different ones you can switch between them?
0:50:47Yes, you can switch between the Apple TV remote and the television remote but when Control Center is in its
0:50:53initial state you just see the Apple TV icon which is kind of confusing.
0:50:57So the remote is not in the HomeKit?
0:51:00No. No.
0:51:01It's in the Apple TV part?
0:51:03It's in the Apple TV part of Control Center.
0:51:05Alright, that feels like something that could be changed,
0:51:08like the glyph could be changed, maybe.
0:51:10So you get this directional pad,
0:51:13then you get a large empty space,
0:51:16and then at the bottom, at the very end of this remote UI,
0:51:20there's four buttons, play and pause, back, exit, and info.
0:51:25So back and exit, they behave as the remote that you will get
0:51:28on the physical remote of your TV.
0:51:31In my case, back means navigate back,
0:51:33and exit means close the current view or the current app.
0:51:36Play and pause only work at least with my plug-in
0:51:40and with my TV for stuff like YouTube, for example,
0:51:44or Netflix.
0:51:45Depends if you're looking at an item that is playable.
0:51:49And info just opens the info view,
0:51:51the detail view of what it is you're currently doing.
0:51:54So if I'm watching TV,
0:51:56WebOS shows me an info UI for the current channel,
0:51:59but if I'm watching Netflix, it brings up the detailed view
0:52:03of the episode, stuff like that.
0:52:06And that's about it.
0:52:07The remote is not customizable.
0:52:08That's my main problem with this.
0:52:11You cannot add inputs to the remote.
0:52:16This is something that I do all the time.
0:52:18With my physical remote, I either
0:52:20control the playback of the TV or change the volume,
0:52:24or I switch between inputs. My remote has buttons for Netflix and Prime Video, for example,
0:52:29but this digital remote, despite the fact that it's digital and in theory could be changed,
0:52:34right now it's not customizable. So if you want to change inputs, you gotta use the HomeKit tile,
0:52:41which means first you gotta press on the Home icon in Control Center,
0:52:47then you gotta press on the Television button,
0:52:50Then you need to tap input and only then you can select the input that you want to switch to.
0:52:56So switching inputs is a bit slow right now
0:52:58And I would like to see the remote to be customizable
0:53:01How does it work with Siri?
0:53:03Doesn't work yet. So that's the other problem. I don't know if it will
0:53:07I assume it will because it will be super strange.
0:53:10It will. It has to, right? Like it has to, it's home.
0:53:13But if you... It must.
0:53:15If you... I mean it...
0:53:17It only seems natural that you should be able to say "switch to Netflix on the television" or stuff like that, or "switch to HDMI 2".
0:53:26Do you get access to them in shortcuts?
0:53:28No.
0:53:29So you can only set up scenes for...
0:53:35Because I told you right now the television in HomeKit behaves like a glorified outlet,
0:53:43So it behaves like an accessory that can either be on or off.
0:53:47It doesn't have actions to say "Switch to a different channel",
0:53:53because it behaves like a switch.
0:53:56So when you create a scene, you can say "Turn off my lights", and, I don't know,
0:54:01"Dimm, use this color", and turn on the TV.
0:54:04But you cannot say "Make the lights blue and open Netflix", or stuff like that.
0:54:09You can only toggle the power state.
0:54:11So you can create scenes that turn off or turn on your TV, but that's about it for now.
0:54:16And yeah, it's convenient. I like the fact that when you open the remote from Control Center,
0:54:24and you leave it open, and you lock your phone, the moment you tap your phone,
0:54:30you will see the remote instead of the lock screen. So the idea is you're watching Netflix,
0:54:35you're watching YouTube, you tap your phone, you see the remote. That's convenient, and I
0:54:40I really like it actually.
0:54:42But it should be customizable and you should be able
0:54:44to control your TV from Siri.
0:54:46Now, this is super early, I'm using a third party plugin,
0:54:49there's a chance that the problem is the plugin.
0:54:54- For all we know, right, like this is like the most basic
0:54:58of basic support, but if you have an actual television,
0:55:02which is HomeKit enabled, it might do more.
0:55:04We just don't know that yet, right?
0:55:06- Then again, I'm skeptical about that
0:55:09because the plugin is using the official HomeKit APIs and those are all there are.
0:55:14No, I think it's probably closer to what you're using, but I just don't want to...
0:55:20We don't have all the information yet, right?
0:55:24Yeah. But I like it. Once Apple gets the Siri integration going,
0:55:32the idea of asking the HomePod to control the television, that's going to be real nice.
0:55:37I, at this point, considering the fact that a third-party developer was able to build
0:55:45a plugin using the WebOS API in a couple of days, make it work with HomeKit, I really
0:55:52want to hear LG's argument if they do not bring HomeKit support to the older TV sets
0:56:00running webOS because the new webOS TVs from 2019 and those from 2017 or 2018
0:56:07are going to run the same version of webOS. So to artificially limit HomeKit
0:56:14I'm not talking about AirPlay which may or may not require some other dedicated
0:56:19chip, again I don't think it will, but I'm talking about HomeKit and to limit
0:56:24that to just the 2019 models while I understand commercially speaking why LG
0:56:29may want to do that. Technically speaking it seems like a sort of a like a fake limitation
0:56:35because again some indie developer got it going in two days and yeah I want to see what
0:56:42they do but I don't know any other questions? I don't think so. It's exciting to see what's
0:56:49possible and I agree with you I hope this goes as wide as possible right this isn't
0:56:55limited to just TVs you can buy this year.
0:56:58Yeah, I really don't want to change my TV just to get HomeKit.
0:57:03And for... let me clarify before
0:57:06listeners ask. At the moment I'm still...
0:57:10I'm running the plug-in called Homebridge WebOS TV
0:57:14and I'm running it in a sort of mixed
0:57:18environment. There's an article on Mac Stories with screenshots about
0:57:21shows this stuff in the sense that I have the
0:57:26television accessory as an official HomeKit one, but I still have other
0:57:31accessories, other items in HomeKit based on the legacy mode for this plugin because there are some things that
0:57:42this new HomeKit integration doesn't do. So I still have the slider to adjust the volume
0:57:49Which looks like a light bulb actually Sylvia asked me about this last night. She was looking at my phone
0:57:54It's like why are you changing the volume of the TV, but it looks like a light bulb and it says brightness
0:57:59So I still have that I still have
0:58:02switches to
0:58:04To open individual channels like channel 5 channel 6 on my TV. I still have
0:58:10Switches to open apps that cannot be opened by the new plug-in and stuff like that
0:58:17So it's a mixed environment right now, but it works well.
0:58:20So we'll see if future betas open up new endpoints
0:58:26for the HomeKit API or a customizable remote.
0:58:29That would be really nice.
0:58:31So there was some other stuff that came out in 12.2.
0:58:33One thing was found by Guillermo Rambo,
0:58:37which is lots of references to Apple News magazines.
0:58:42Kind of like they found some splash screens,
0:58:46which seemed to indicate that magazines are in fact coming to Apple News.
0:58:50This included references in the code,
0:58:54I assume somewhere to the phrase bundle,
0:58:56which makes a lot of sense or bundle subscription. Um, so yeah, that's,
0:59:00this is going to be a part of Apple's upcoming media services bundle.
0:59:04It would have seen, it would see.
0:59:05Which makes sense, right? They've been moving towards this since buying texture.
0:59:10There's the point.
0:59:12There are other rumors,
0:59:13I think saying that the video streaming service
0:59:16could be as early as April.
0:59:18That's not really in the show notes for today,
0:59:19but it just seems like all this stuff
0:59:21is inching closer and closer.
0:59:23- Yeah, I reckon we're gonna get an event in March.
0:59:27- Feels like it.
0:59:28It really does. - Which has a lot
0:59:30of this stuff.
0:59:31And there's new animoji.
0:59:34A giraffe, a boar, owl, and a shark.
0:59:37So I'm, you know, fine.
0:59:42They look fun.
0:59:43I guess the giraffe is brilliant.
0:59:46So good.
0:59:46The boar, the boar I also like.
0:59:49The owl and the shark I'm less excited about.
0:59:51I don't know why.
0:59:52The shark is sort of strange.
0:59:54There's a lot of body in there.
0:59:55You know, those are just dismembered animal heads.
0:59:59Yeah.
1:00:00There's a lot of body.
1:00:01And especially when you see it in the list,
1:00:05it's like the whole animal, which
1:00:07is different to everything else.
1:00:09But maybe it's-- I don't know.
1:00:11Is it difficult to show a shark just its head?
1:00:17This is not a question that has ever been asked before in a podcast.
1:00:20I guess so.
1:00:22Can you visually depict a shark just by its head?
1:00:25If a shark doesn't have a body, how can it swim?
1:00:31Where does the head of the shark end and the body begins?
1:00:34Nobody really knows.
1:00:35Yeah, science is out on this.
1:00:37They haven't figured it out.
1:00:39They've tried.
1:00:40So much time, energy and money has been poured into the answer to that question.
1:00:44How does Apple pick these animals?
1:00:46Like do they have stats to decide the next animoji?
1:00:50Do they have like a draft?
1:00:51Oh, they should totally have a draft for the next animoji.
1:00:56They should ask Jason to run it.
1:00:58They can license the Jason Snell technology.
1:01:04I don't feel like I understand.
1:01:06Are there any animals you would like to see, Federico?
1:01:09Squid fish would be interesting as an animoji I think.
1:01:14But also, okay, let me look at the animals on the emoji keyboard.
1:01:19Why is it all just animals too?
1:01:21I want more other things.
1:01:26I would like to have...
1:01:27Like they have the robot, I want like an alien, there's got to be some others.
1:01:30I would like to have squid.
1:01:33Squid should be an animoji.
1:01:34Okay.
1:01:35Goat should be an animoji.
1:01:37I still want the emoji face. Just the regular emoji face.
1:01:40Hedgehog should be an emoji.
1:01:42What else?
1:01:49I kind of want the emoji for a duck.
1:01:52That could be fun.
1:01:54Okay.
1:01:55Yeah, these are my four.
1:01:57Weird fish, goat, duck.
1:02:02There's no cow, right?
1:02:03There's no cow.
1:02:04That seems like a pretty obvious one.
1:02:06you know I actually want the animoji with the creepy face of the moon I want
1:02:14that animoji creepy moon face that's my actually my top pick weird fish second
1:02:22snowman snowman would be nice it would be Drang's animoji yeah what what if they do
1:02:30like the animoji for the petal for playing ping-pong. Imagine that. Can you
1:02:38imagine if they like enabled you to make an emoji of your own face? Imagine what
1:02:43that would be like. What would you call that? Like a self-emoji. Anemojme.
1:02:48That's probably it. If you have an animal you would like to see as an animoji
1:02:55please tweet at Federico and he'll get he'll get it done if it's a really good
1:03:00one I will thumbs up there you go so you can send them to him but they've got to
1:03:05be good but I need you need to motivate your your decision and explain convince
1:03:10me of its validity that's how it works so you're not asking for papers is what
1:03:16you're asking I'm asking for people to pitch me an animals animal candidates
1:03:21for Animoji. And with the good ones I will forward to Jason Snell for the draft.
1:03:29Perfect.
1:03:30Yes.
1:03:31Great.
1:03:32I don't know where I'm going with this. Jason will probably hate me, but I'm going
1:03:34to do it. I don't care.
1:03:36Jason loves email. That'll be fine.
1:03:39Mm-hmm.
1:03:40All right. We have one last topic to round out this week, but before we do that, let
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1:05:48Also in the 12.2 beta, Ahoy Telephone for AirPods.
1:05:52I feel like this rumor just like comes around every three or four months or so that new
1:05:57AirPods could have always listening Siri and it seems like maybe that's again getting closer.
1:06:05I mean this was rumored last year and remember at the Apple event where they showed the video
1:06:13and everybody thought "oh they leaked their own AirPods" and then they didn't announce
1:06:18those AirPods.
1:06:19They did it.
1:06:20I mean, this is...
1:06:21Your friend has been holding this up.
1:06:23AirPower.
1:06:24Oh, it's my friend.
1:06:27Now you're...
1:06:29I don't feel responsible for my friendships and in this case I don't understand your subtle
1:06:37criticism of my apprehension for air power state. Therefore I take no offense in your
1:06:46joke, Myke.
1:06:47Good. That's perfect.
1:06:48That is...
1:06:49What just happened? I don't know what happened.
1:06:53I was setting myself up for being tall enough, but it was actually perfect.
1:06:58Really nice and loving.
1:07:01Um, anyway, yes.
1:07:03(laughing)
1:07:05Where are these AirPods?
1:07:08- Where are they?
1:07:10So is this something that we want?
1:07:13Like I feel, I know Myke, I know you don't like tapping
1:07:18the AirPods when they're in your ear,
1:07:19and I totally understand that,
1:07:20I feel like a lot of people probably feel that way.
1:07:22It doesn't bother me personally.
1:07:24I'm not, like this would be nice to have for me,
1:07:26but I guess I'm saying like I don't feel like
1:07:27my AirPods are incomplete because they don't have
1:07:30this feature. I wouldn't use it. Really? You're surprising me today. First you never made
1:07:38a reservation to the Genius Bar. Now you would never use Siri on the AirPods. Do you even
1:07:43use Apple products? Look, I don't want to talk about that today. I just can't imagine
1:07:49myself calling Siri in a crowded environment for one, like I'm out in the world, right?
1:07:56I just don't imagine doing it then.
1:07:57And then more than that,
1:07:59what would I use it for?
1:08:02Right. Like, would I use it to send a
1:08:04message? I never want to send a
1:08:06message without seeing what it's
1:08:07saying.
1:08:08Play music.
1:08:09Yeah, but it's...
1:08:11It does that now.
1:08:13You just have to tap it.
1:08:14It's so...
1:08:15Yeah, it's so infrequent that I
1:08:17would want to make that change.
1:08:19I would just be as happy grabbing
1:08:22my phone out of my pocket.
1:08:23Do you talk to your AirPods now?
1:08:25Like if you... Well, you don't tap.
1:08:26Never.
1:08:27Do you, Federico?
1:08:28No, because Siri sounds terrible right now on the AirPods.
1:08:32Yeah, I don't have double tap for Siri enabled on my AirPods.
1:08:38No, no, no.
1:08:39I have the gesture, the double tap is play/pause on both sides.
1:08:45Same. I do that because I don't think I would be able to remember which side I set the gesture for each.
1:08:51Oh yeah, that's impossible.
1:08:52I didn't change it.
1:08:53Yeah.
1:08:54So my trick for this, when I used to have the setting, was that Siri starts with an
1:09:01S and in Italian left is "sinistra", which also starts with an S, therefore Siri was
1:09:08on the left. That was my old trick.
1:09:11But "stop" also starts with an S.
1:09:13Well, that's your problem because you're American, I don't care.
1:09:18What is the Italian word for "stop"? What's the letter? What does that begin with?
1:09:22For "stop"?
1:09:23Yeah. Yeah. It's stop. Right. Well then it also applies to you.
1:09:28You're an American. That's why I said it. Cause I got, you're an American,
1:09:32but like it's the same for you. Stop is also like,
1:09:35I was talking about Siri. I don't care about stop. Um, but play pause,
1:09:40I guess starts with something else other than an S. I get it. It's good.
1:09:44It's good. Um, I use Siri on my AirPods, not a ton,
1:09:48but you know, so I use my AirPods basically in,
1:09:51in three situations.
1:09:53One, I am traveling,
1:09:56and like walking through an airport or something.
1:09:58We talked before about how using AirPods on a plane
1:10:00is a terrible idea, I don't use them on the plane,
1:10:01but traveling I use them.
1:10:04And if I'm walking through an airport,
1:10:05you know, I don't mind tapping and asking Siri something.
1:10:08I use them at the gym, in which case,
1:10:10I never wanna talk to Siri,
1:10:11because then you're just the guy at the gym muttering,
1:10:14which is just like not a good look.
1:10:16Now, and then I use them around the house
1:10:17doing like yard work or doing dishes or something like that,
1:10:19in which case my phone isn't always on me,
1:10:23like maybe it's on the counter,
1:10:24or if I'm mowing the grass,
1:10:25maybe it's like on the back porch
1:10:27and I'm just out in the yard,
1:10:29in which case it is nice to have it enabled.
1:10:32But again, I don't feel like the lack of Ahoy! telephone
1:10:36breaks the experience for me.
1:10:38But I do find it useful to talk to Siri
1:10:40when that's all I have with me.
1:10:42- I've had a problem with my AirPods
1:10:46for the past few months.
1:10:47- Oh no.
1:10:48Yeah, I linked it on Mac stories a couple of weeks ago.
1:10:53I've noticed that my day one AirPods,
1:10:57I actually got them in December 2016 when they launched.
1:11:01Their battery doesn't last as long as it used to,
1:11:06and also the volume in one of them is quieter than it used to be.
1:11:11And, yes, I cleaned them,
1:11:13and I tried a bunch of different things,
1:11:15like setting up the AirPods from scratch.
1:11:18I think it's just that they have aged, and I've used them basically every day for the
1:11:23past two years and something.
1:11:27So I'm in the market for new AirPods.
1:11:29I really can't wait for Apple to release the new models, because I used to be able to run
1:11:37through an entire episode of Cortex or upgrade, and at full volume, because I usually use
1:11:43AirPods when I'm doing something else around the house, and therefore I want the full volume
1:11:47to cover, like the sound of washing dishes or having a vacuum cleaner, that kind of stuff.
1:11:55And even at full volume, after going through some 90 minutes of podcast, I still had plenty
1:12:01of battery life left. Now, if I do the same, I get the low power chime at some point before
1:12:09the podcast ends.
1:12:10It's the saddest sound Apple has ever used in their software.
1:12:15It's the "I'm dying" sound.
1:12:18It makes me feel real bad.
1:12:19It feels like a pretty low quality audio file, as well as it sounding sad.
1:12:25Well, it has to be a death cry, so of course it has to sound bad.
1:12:31And so I was thinking a few days ago, what do I actually want to see in the new AirPods?
1:12:38besides support for Siri, which as I said,
1:12:42sounds terrible right now, but it's like,
1:12:44it sounds like Siri on Bluetooth 1.0.
1:12:47Like it sounds really, really bad.
1:12:49Yeah, for me at least, I don't know.
1:12:50Like when Siri, like when you use Siri on the AirPods,
1:12:54does it sound like Siri on the phone for you?
1:12:57It sounds so bad for me.
1:12:58- Not as good, but I don't think it sounds like garbage,
1:13:01but now I'm gonna pay attention to that now.
1:13:03Maybe you've ruined it for me.
1:13:05- Maybe I just have higher standards than you do.
1:13:07(laughing)
1:13:09Sorry.
1:13:12- No, the AirPod battery thing, that's a real thing.
1:13:14I replaced mine over the summer because I was like,
1:13:17they just fell off a cliff and I was--
1:13:20- Very unfortunate. - Not the AirPod.
1:13:21The battery life-- - How did you do that?
1:13:23What, what you see, what you did?
1:13:25You go out of cliffs now?
1:13:26- I'm just rock climbing all the time with my AirPods.
1:13:29That's a terrible idea.
1:13:30And I see that a lot on Twitter and people talking
1:13:33that the battery life is starting to decline
1:13:36these original ones. And that's... you're in a bad spot, right? Like, do you buy them now?
1:13:42Or try to like push through until the new ones show up? That's complicated.
1:13:47I almost had the half idea of "maybe I should just get new AirPods, I don't want to wait."
1:13:53But then it feels like it's 180 euros. Like, they're not cheap. They're expensive and they're
1:13:59they're not exactly disposable. So I'm gonna wait, but yes, besides Siri I would
1:14:06actually like them to be a bit louder. I don't know if this is because the volume
1:14:11has suffered on mine, but if possible I would like them to be a bit louder and to
1:14:15have more bass. Yeah, I know that they don't get as loud on
1:14:21planes and stuff, I feel like I could always do with a little bit more
1:14:25volume than I get so yeah longer battery life because why not I don't know if
1:14:33this is possible but I would like at least the case to be easier to clean
1:14:39again I don't I don't lint gets in that hinge area yes possible you cannot get
1:14:45it out it's it's almost like my lint is made is there for all time just like
1:14:50impossible, like you can't remove it. It's wild.
1:14:54And finally, it would be really nice if the AirPods could double as a heart rate monitor.
1:15:00Somehow, I know there's a patent somewhere for Apple doing this, like using
1:15:11earbuds as a heart rate sensor, but I don't know if it is at all possible in the second generation
1:15:19AirPods. I would be content with just a louder volume, longer battery life and even the case
1:15:26could be optional. Just giving more battery, giving more volume and of course air power support.
1:15:33Oh just change, yeah that would be fine. Doesn't need to be specifically for air power.
1:15:40Well I could accept that but air power would be preferable.
1:15:48provided air power is available. Oh right, your uh... Air power support is useless if there's no air
1:15:54power, Matt. Right, you're uh... I'm sorry. An air power truther, as they call them. Yeah, and the truth is
1:16:03there's no air power. Well, okay. Wow. Okay. That is the truth. Yeah, the air power was staged in
1:16:12Hollywood. Well actually yes, it was almost like in the video. You can see the way that the wind
1:16:19affects the cable. You can see that it's all fake. A bunch of fake moon dust all over it.
1:16:24Myke, do you have any desires for updated AirPods? What would you have changed in this product,
1:16:30if anything? Faster and better device switching. Yes, yes, this is where I am.
1:16:37it is very good. I wished it was more. It's just like sometimes I'm like, I feel like I'm waiting
1:16:43for a while and honestly I would like to have to never manually switch, right? And I saw this video
1:16:52that MKBHD reviewed Federico's favorite headphones, the Sony WH-1000XM3, just rolls off the top.
1:17:03And he spoke about like he made reference to being able to like be connected by Bluetooth to multiple devices.
1:17:09Wait, how?
1:17:09And when you just press play, I don't know, he made a reference to that.
1:17:12I don't know. I don't have these things.
1:17:14I think it's Bluetooth five point something or five something that you can have multiple devices connected
1:17:19and whatever one you start playing audio on, it will just take over.
1:17:23Mine don't do that.
1:17:25Have you tried though?
1:17:27But do you have devices that support that Bluetooth spec?
1:17:31Oh, because the iPhones don't?
1:17:33And like, I don't know.
1:17:34I don't know. I don't know.
1:17:36All I know is like he made reference to this and I would like that.
1:17:40I would like that. I would like that.
1:17:42If it doesn't exist, I want Apple to do that.
1:17:44Like, yes, all my devices are connected and whichever starts playing audio.
1:17:47Most recently, my AirPods switch to it.
1:17:50Yes, I want that. Make it happen.
1:17:52Myke, tell. That's what I want.
1:17:54Do something. OK.
1:17:56I've done all I can, which is ask for it.
1:17:59Okay.
1:18:00Um, and what else would I like?
1:18:04Hmm.
1:18:06What if the AirPods could, what if the AirPods could make an appointment to the Genius Bar
1:18:10for you?
1:18:11Then, that would be useless for me.
1:18:14I would like more than just white.
1:18:16I don't know exactly what I want, but I want more options than just white.
1:18:20What about green?
1:18:21Black.
1:18:22Black, please.
1:18:23Maybe, it depends.
1:18:25Maybe black, maybe.
1:18:26What about indigo?
1:18:27But definitely white, more than white.
1:18:28Wow.
1:18:29Flower power
1:18:30You found yes those two
1:18:32Indigo and flower power. They're the two color options that I want and also also some way to do native volume adjustment on there
1:18:40But on the air. Oh, yes. Yes
1:18:42Yeah, it seems like that would always be really super difficult but I would I would really I would really love that
1:18:50Is that it? I think so. Do you have no wishes? Oh
1:18:54y'all covered mine like
1:18:56Faster switching a hoy telephone would be nice, but not a deal breaker for me and I'd love them on black
1:19:01What about like?
1:19:04Some kind of noise cancelling II think I do not like active noise cancelling and I would turn it off
1:19:09I can either and if it was not able to be turned off, I would not buy them. I do not like it
1:19:15Yep, I think I'm probably in the same
1:19:17I want to try it, but I probably would feel it makes my brain feel fuzzy and a very makes me feel
1:19:23Nauseous. Yep
1:19:25- Before we wrap up, I just want to, as I forgot to mention this, I've been trying to
1:19:33understand after last week's show what porridge actually is, because I got some tweets from
1:19:41people.
1:19:42- It's breakfast risotto.
1:19:43- I still don't get it.
1:19:44It still looks like breakfast risotto to me, but you made fun of me for saying this, and
1:19:49some people on Twitter also did.
1:19:51I still don't understand what this is supposed to be.
1:19:53- I don't think people were making fun.
1:19:55I think people thought it was hilarious.
1:19:57Like, it's hilarious.
1:19:58So, is it, like, is it sweet?
1:20:02Usually?
1:20:03Not unless you sweeten it.
1:20:06Okay.
1:20:07What do you usually put on it?
1:20:09A lot of people like honey in it, or like fruit, or like some maybe maple syrup, or
1:20:15like brown sugar or something.
1:20:17Is it warm or cold?
1:20:19You should eat it warm, I think.
1:20:22Most people do.
1:20:23Okay.
1:20:24Okay. I should try it. I wonder if there's any place in Italy where I could order some porridge.
1:20:31I'm gonna call "no" on that one, but we'll hook you up. We'll find a way. Next time you travel somewhere else.
1:20:40Yes. Next time I'm in London.
1:20:42It doesn't really feel like an Italian food, to be honest.
1:20:45If you order some porridge for dinner in London, do they look at you like a crazy person?
1:20:51Well, yeah, because it's not dinner. It's a breakfast food. What I can do, I can just
1:20:56get porridge and make it for you. Interesting. Okay. Okay. And we can do that.
1:21:02Okay. Thank you. That was my follow up. Sorry. I'll take us home. If you want to read more
1:21:07about the stuff we've talked about this week, find links to these stories. You can head
1:21:11over to relay.fm/connected/229. They're also in your podcast app you're listening to. But
1:21:18If you go to the website, you can do additional things.
1:21:21You can send us an email with any feedback or follow-up,
1:21:25or if email is too old-fashioned for you,
1:21:28you can do it on Twitter.
1:21:28All three of us are there.
1:21:30You can find Myke there as I-M-Y-K-E.
1:21:33Myke is the host of a bunch of shows here at Relay FM.
1:21:36So if you like connected, there's probably something else
1:21:38that Myke does that you would like.
1:21:40You can find Federico on Twitter.
1:21:42Remember, this is where you need to submit proposals,
1:21:46written proposals for Animoji, future subjects.
1:21:51You can find him there, Evitichi, V-I-T-I-C-C-I.
1:21:56Federico is also, of course, the editor-in-chief
1:21:58of maxstories.net, a website that you should read
1:22:01every single day.
1:22:03You can find me on Twitter @ismh,
1:22:05and I write over at 512pixels.net.
1:22:08I'd like to thank our sponsors this week,
1:22:10ExpressVPN, Luna Display, and Hover,
1:22:13And until next week boys, say goodbye.
1:22:16Arrivederci.
1:22:17-Ciurio. -Adios.