Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

00:00:02 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 210.

00:00:12 ◼   ► It's brought to you this week by our sponsors,

00:00:13 ◼   ► Away, Pingdom, and Molekule.

00:00:15 ◼   ► I'm your host, Steven Hackett,

00:00:17 ◼   ► and I'm joined by my co-host.

00:00:19 ◼   ► I have Mr. Federico Faticci, how are you?

00:00:22 ◼   ► - Ciao, Steven, how are you?

00:00:23 ◼   ► - I'm good, I'm glad you're here with us.

00:00:25 ◼   ► And of course, we're also joined by Myke Hurley.

00:00:28 ◼   ► Myke, hi.

00:00:29 ◼   ► Ciao Steven, how are you?

00:00:30 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:00:32 ◼   ► - Deja vu.

00:00:32 ◼   ► - Don't copy me.

00:00:34 ◼   ► - Well that's what I do now.

00:00:35 ◼   ► I just say everything you say.

00:00:37 ◼   ► - I'm older and I can get confused easily.

00:00:39 ◼   ► So please, please behave.

00:00:41 ◼   ► We have a lot of stuff to talk about.

00:00:45 ◼   ► You know sometimes in these Apple news cycles,

00:00:47 ◼   ► there's like a week of in between.

00:00:49 ◼   ► So they announce stuff last week,

00:00:52 ◼   ► but stuff doesn't ship till the end of this week

00:00:54 ◼   ► or next week or even further in the future.

00:00:56 ◼   ► So we're kind of in between.

00:00:57 ◼   ► but in the fall that often means software releases.

00:01:00 ◼   ► So we're gonna talk a lot about software today,

00:01:02 ◼   ► but first we have some follow up.

00:01:03 ◼   ► And there was, I don't wanna say that the listeners

00:01:07 ◼   ► tried to hold a mutiny, but the listeners tried

00:01:11 ◼   ► holding a mutiny over our scoring of Federico's--

00:01:14 ◼   ► - Over your tyranny, over your tyranny,

00:01:17 ◼   ► because this is not fair.

00:01:18 ◼   ► You made fun of me, this is what happened.

00:01:21 ◼   ► You made fun of me and I was right.

00:01:22 ◼   ► And the people, rightfully so, the people got upset.

00:01:26 ◼   ► - You weren't right.

00:01:27 ◼   ► - So we should back up a second.

00:01:29 ◼   ► We graded our predictions last week,

00:01:31 ◼   ► and somehow we still have a podcast after.

00:01:33 ◼   ► Listeners don't know unless you're listening live.

00:01:35 ◼   ► I cut a lot of stuff out of the final episode.

00:01:37 ◼   ► It really got out of hand.

00:01:38 ◼   ► But you had a prediction. - That was my Federico Stike

00:01:40 ◼   ► Kirsten.

00:01:41 ◼   ► - No, that's not true. - It was in Italian.

00:01:43 ◼   ► - Not true, not true.

00:01:44 ◼   ► - That's not true.

00:01:44 ◼   ► It's not true. - No, no, no, no, no.

00:01:45 ◼   ► - He used so many hand movements,

00:01:47 ◼   ► he knocks his microphone off the table.

00:01:48 ◼   ► - How would you know?

00:01:49 ◼   ► Do you have cameras in my bedroom?

00:01:50 ◼   ► - No, I heard the sound. - Looking at me?

00:01:51 ◼   ► - Yes. - Sure.

00:01:52 ◼   ► Okay.

00:01:54 ◼   ► a prediction that I work would would receive an update and it did but the

00:02:01 ◼   ► predictions were about the event not about what Apple would do in the

00:02:06 ◼   ► meantime so what I'm willing to do a because it's not going to cost me my

00:02:09 ◼   ► victory but B because I want to try to heal this rift this this transatlantic

00:02:15 ◼   ► rift we have in our podcast I'm willing if Myke is willing to grant you a half

00:02:20 ◼   ► point because you were right but you were wrong in the sense that it didn't fall within

00:02:25 ◼   ► the purview of the event. But I'm willing to give you a half point and I think maybe

00:02:30 ◼   ► that should be a nice compromise. You are rewarded for getting something right but you're

00:02:35 ◼   ► not rewarded fully because you weren't fully right. Is that fair?

00:02:38 ◼   ► Do you also get a punishment for making fun of me?

00:02:41 ◼   ► No, no punishment. Just a half point. No. No, you can't punish yourself.

00:02:45 ◼   ► I will accept it. Thank you. Thank you.

00:02:48 ◼   ► I don't agree with it. I don't agree with that.

00:02:50 ◼   ► what? You don't agree with it? Oh my god. There are no half points around here. This

00:02:56 ◼   ► is not upgrade, this is not draft, this is a different system. This is a system where

00:03:01 ◼   ► points can be awarded randomly for things that happen significantly after the prediction's

00:03:07 ◼   ► point. Myke, so Federico, plug your ears for a second. Myke, I'm just doing this so he's

00:03:10 ◼   ► not angry with us anymore. I'm listening to you! You were asked to hold your ears! I want

00:03:17 ◼   ► people to remember, go back to the previous episode, so re-listen to the old episode,

00:03:22 ◼   ► and the reaction that these two had to my suggestion that iWork should get shortcuts

00:03:27 ◼   ► in iOS 12. They thought it was a crazy idea, and let it be known, support for shortcuts

00:03:33 ◼   ► in iWork is terrible, but still, it's there. I have no problem with the specific pick.

00:03:39 ◼   ► What I thought was funny is that they would devote any time during the iPhone keynote

00:03:44 ◼   ► to talking about iWork updates. That was what I was ridiculed for.

00:03:49 ◼   ► To be fair, they talked about the, you know, what was the name, home court, and the other

00:03:55 ◼   ► Galaga. They're not going to bring out a famous writer

00:04:00 ◼   ► to show how pages work, they want to bring out how basketball works.

00:04:03 ◼   ► I don't know, I could see JK Rowling on stage showing pages and shortcuts, like, that would

00:04:08 ◼   ► have been awesome. Sure.

00:04:10 ◼   ► There you go, you've got next year's prediction set.

00:04:14 ◼   ► So I have not, I just skimmed this article. I don't use iWork on a regular basis. What

00:04:19 ◼   ► can you do now with Siri shortcuts in iWork?

00:04:25 ◼   ► It's really not great. Like mostly you can just...

00:04:27 ◼   ► Quarter point! Quarter point it is.

00:04:30 ◼   ► There's no take backs. That half point is mine.

00:04:33 ◼   ► One second. We can't apply no take backs to this situation because by giving you a half

00:04:37 ◼   ► point we are quite literally taking it back.

00:04:40 ◼   ► no take back take backs. Oh, that's a give back. Like, it's the opposite. So, this is

00:04:50 ◼   ► stupid. The shortcuts in iWork are kind of terrible in that, well not terrible, just

00:04:57 ◼   ► not really useful in that they mostly allow you to just reopen documents. They're really

00:05:03 ◼   ► not like actions. I think the only action we could find was in Keynote you can play

00:05:09 ◼   ► presentation but like don't expect super complex stuff like I don't know change

00:05:15 ◼   ► layouts or apply modifications to text or all that kind of stuff it's just

00:05:19 ◼   ► reopen a document or reopen a template that kind of that kind of shortcuts

00:05:24 ◼   ► yeah I could see a world where I work or maybe even notes because notes has the

00:05:30 ◼   ► table feature of like if I have a chart or something like hey I just want to add

00:05:34 ◼   ► a new entry you know some basic data entry stuff maybe that'll come should

00:05:38 ◼   ► have been in the keynote though. What is earth-shattering is that the home pod as

00:05:44 ◼   ► discussed now supports multiple timers so I recorded myself speaking to my home

00:05:49 ◼   ► pod. If you haven't listened to this I will warn you this will set off your

00:05:53 ◼   ► home pod it will add timers to your home pod but I cancel the timers at the end

00:05:57 ◼   ► of the recording because I'm looking out for you dear reader and listener. That is

00:06:02 ◼   ► very conscientious. I know I'm a nice guy. More or less this works like the echo so

00:06:08 ◼   ► you can set multiple timers you can name them and you can ask the HomePod hey how

00:06:13 ◼   ► much time is left on you know this timer or that timer but this really again

00:06:18 ◼   ► draws attention for me at least to the fact that Siri is so different on all of

00:06:23 ◼   ► our devices so the HomePod does this but the iPhone does not so if you have a

00:06:27 ◼   ► timer running on the iPhone on iOS 12 on the public release it says a timer is

00:06:32 ◼   ► already running would you like to replace it no I don't want to do that but

00:06:37 ◼   ► But it's even worse on the Apple Watch.

00:06:39 ◼   ► If you have a timer running on watchOS

00:06:42 ◼   ► and you ask to set a new timer,

00:06:45 ◼   ► it overrides the old timer.

00:06:47 ◼   ► This just blows it away and sets a new one.

00:06:49 ◼   ► So I wish Apple would, this is great,

00:06:51 ◼   ► it's on the HomePod, I'm glad it is,

00:06:52 ◼   ► but these sorts of things should be the same everywhere,

00:06:56 ◼   ► I think, for, you know, Siri still feels like

00:06:59 ◼   ► it is limited based on the hardware it's in.

00:07:01 ◼   ► It doesn't feel like it's this,

00:07:03 ◼   ► it's this all-powerful being that sort of

00:07:06 ◼   ► across multiple devices the way I think it should. So I'm hoping that Apple

00:07:09 ◼   ► continues to make it more feature complete no matter what particular piece

00:07:14 ◼   ► of hardware you're speaking into. Yeah it doesn't really make sense that you

00:07:18 ◼   ► would launch this feature but just make it exclusive to the thing that not so

00:07:22 ◼   ► many people have. And it's this is the big problem of Siri like we see this

00:07:27 ◼   ► problem all the time that it's inconsistent and while on one hand we do

00:07:33 ◼   ► praise the fact that Apple is able to integrate the software and the hardware

00:07:36 ◼   ► together, sometimes that's sort of also a liability in that the integration goes

00:07:42 ◼   ► too far into the the problematic aspect of this that it only works on one

00:07:48 ◼   ► specific device. Well it's like they integrate it really well with one device

00:07:52 ◼   ► but the devices don't integrate together, right? And this is

00:07:57 ◼   ► part of the issue that people have with Siri and why like Siri is considered bad

00:08:01 ◼   ► is because inconsistency breeds unreliability and unreliability means

00:08:06 ◼   ► you don't trust it and that's why we get into these situations. So apparently the

00:08:12 ◼   ► decision has been made on how the iPhone names are being written. This has been a

00:08:16 ◼   ► problem that many people writing about the iPhones over the last few weeks have

00:08:20 ◼   ► had. Is it capital S's? Lowercase R's? How does it work? Joe Rossignol of

00:08:27 ◼   ► of MacRumors says that Apple confirmed to him

00:08:30 ◼   ► that it is capitalized and the two letters are put together

00:08:33 ◼   ► unless small caps are available.

00:08:36 ◼   ► I mean, I don't really know why people would,

00:08:38 ◼   ► like do people have small caps lying around?

00:08:40 ◼   ► Like I don't really get that, but.

00:08:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, I got a bag of them here in the drawer.

00:08:44 ◼   ► - Got a bunch of small caps right here

00:08:45 ◼   ► just in case I need them.

00:08:47 ◼   ► So that's it, right?

00:08:47 ◼   ► It's X, capital X, capital S, put together,

00:08:51 ◼   ► capital X, capital R, put together.

00:08:53 ◼   ► It's strange.

00:08:55 ◼   ► And Apple have actually since confirming this updated a bunch of their materials to try

00:08:59 ◼   ► and replicate this everywhere, to clear up a lot of the inconsistency that's been floating

00:09:04 ◼   ► around Apple.com.

00:09:06 ◼   ► This is my kind of problem, right?

00:09:07 ◼   ► I still don't know, for example, in iOS 12 whether I'm supposed to use lock screen with

00:09:12 ◼   ► a capital L or lock screen with a lowercase l.

00:09:15 ◼   ► And I mentioned this because I...

00:09:16 ◼   ► I can never remember if lock screen and home screen are two distinct words or one word.

00:09:21 ◼   ► So two words, first word is capitalized.

00:09:26 ◼   ► That's the way it used to be.

00:09:27 ◼   ► And if you check the Apple--

00:09:28 ◼   ► - That doesn't make any sense to me.

00:09:29 ◼   ► It's the lock screen.

00:09:31 ◼   ► - Yes, that's the way that Apple styled it.

00:09:35 ◼   ► And people, when I complained about this on Twitter

00:09:37 ◼   ► this summer, people gave me a hard time.

00:09:39 ◼   ► Like, why do you care?

00:09:40 ◼   ► Because I wanna be precise.

00:09:41 ◼   ► Like, it's one of those things that,

00:09:43 ◼   ► like, would you get upset if instead of calling you Mark,

00:09:48 ◼   ► I would call you Marcus?

00:09:49 ◼   ► It's kind of similar, but it's not the same.

00:09:51 ◼   ► it's not your actual name,

00:09:53 ◼   ► Apple has a style guide that you can find on the web.

00:09:56 ◼   ► It's help.apple.com/apple-style-guide.

00:10:00 ◼   ► It was last updated in May 2018,

00:10:03 ◼   ► and it still says that you're supposed to use

00:10:05 ◼   ► lock screen with a capital L when used in a sentence.

00:10:09 ◼   ► But in iOS 12, in some places,

00:10:13 ◼   ► the system uses lock screen with a lowercase L.

00:10:15 ◼   ► In other places, it uses the old version.

00:10:18 ◼   ► So this is one of those things

00:10:20 ◼   ► that drives me crazy. In my review, I went with lowercase L because I heard from a few

00:10:26 ◼   ► people that that's the new style, even though the style guide still hasn't been updated.

00:10:31 ◼   ► This is one of those things that really, really I think about because it makes me itchy in

00:10:38 ◼   ► a way that I need to know that the way that that couple of words are in my artworks, that

00:10:49 ◼   ► My articles are precise because I hate it when people spell things wrong or write things wrong

00:10:56 ◼   ► and I say this as the guy whose name is always typed wrong in places on the internet. So, yeah.

00:11:04 ◼   ► Would you say that you sometimes get vid-tee-chee? Yeah? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

00:11:12 ◼   ► Where do I put my resignation letter for this podcast?

00:11:18 ◼   ► You can fax it right to me.

00:11:20 ◼   ► I mean, the joke I made in Slack was like,

00:11:25 ◼   ► if you have to confirm with the press

00:11:28 ◼   ► how you write your product names,

00:11:29 ◼   ► your product names probably aren't very good.

00:11:32 ◼   ► I still struggle.

00:11:33 ◼   ► The thing that really gets me is the two capital letters

00:11:37 ◼   ► that people are supposed to treat differently.

00:11:39 ◼   ► So I have been, we've talked about this,

00:11:43 ◼   ► I've been a stickler for iPhone 10.

00:11:47 ◼   ► - But I don't correct people in the real world

00:11:48 ◼   ► because that makes you a type of person

00:11:50 ◼   ► that I don't wanna be, right?

00:11:51 ◼   ► Like if you're, I don't wanna be that guy.

00:11:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, you just internalize and push those feelings down.

00:11:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, what you wanna do is push the feelings down

00:11:58 ◼   ► as far as you can as long as you can.

00:12:00 ◼   ► And they probably won't explode out the other end.

00:12:03 ◼   ► But the, what I'm kinda coming to now is like,

00:12:07 ◼   ► maybe Apple doesn't care, and like, I'm not gonna say X,

00:12:11 ◼   ► because now 10 is just drilled into my brain,

00:12:14 ◼   ► but like, I'm not gonna get worked up

00:12:16 ◼   ► other people say, even like on a tech podcast,

00:12:19 ◼   ► because Apple's naming is so screwy now.

00:12:22 ◼   ► You know, every year, we talk about Apple's names

00:12:26 ◼   ► being problematic for several years now,

00:12:28 ◼   ► and every year I'm like,

00:12:29 ◼   ► this is the year they're gonna fix it,

00:12:31 ◼   ► and instead they find the one possible way out

00:12:34 ◼   ► of the hole they've dug, but this year,

00:12:38 ◼   ► I really don't know what's after this.

00:12:39 ◼   ► It really feels like you've hit rock bottom,

00:12:42 ◼   ► and there's no way out of this for you.

00:12:46 ◼   ► People who do this at Apple are super smart,

00:12:47 ◼   ► they make lots of money to make these decisions,

00:12:50 ◼   ► they're already thinking about it, they may already know it.

00:12:52 ◼   ► But from the outside perspective, it's like every year,

00:12:55 ◼   ► Apple's just like slowly cutting off more and more doors

00:12:59 ◼   ► out of this room and now they're just stuck with 10 S max.

00:13:03 ◼   ► There's no way out.

00:13:04 ◼   ► - Now that I think about it, it's kind of funny

00:13:07 ◼   ► that the same company found a solution

00:13:11 ◼   ► to fix this problem elsewhere.

00:13:13 ◼   ► So the same company that does A10, A11, A12, W1, W2, W3, like they use letters and numbers

00:13:21 ◼   ► and when the numbers get ridiculous they use another letter.

00:13:24 ◼   ► But with the iPhone they just couldn't do X1 and X2 and X3, like that would have been

00:13:28 ◼   ► so simple.

00:13:29 ◼   ► It would have been cool too.

00:13:31 ◼   ► Like the iPhone X2, that sounds like a cool phone.

00:13:34 ◼   ► Exactly, but no, they need to do this 10...

00:13:37 ◼   ► So it's the company that went with Mac OS 10 point something name, right? It's like

00:13:44 ◼   ► you didn't really have to look incredibly far to work out what could come after 10.

00:13:49 ◼   ► At this point, I'm starting to believe that the joke from WWDC, you know, with the marketing

00:13:56 ◼   ► team and the weed is kind of true. Like, how can you even think of these names? I don't

00:14:03 ◼   ► think that's a joke.

00:14:04 ◼   ► they didn't have enough when coming up with these names. Yeah, this is their sober names.

00:14:09 ◼   ► They've cleaned up and this is what they're left with. So last week Federico played the question,

00:14:15 ◼   ► which is a good question, of what is the future problem by buying the XR, right? Like what is

00:14:20 ◼   ► Apple skimping on that could end up being a problem in the future? And there's been some

00:14:26 ◼   ► filing with the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is like the

00:14:34 ◼   ► Chinese version of the FCC. So Apple has to register information with them to get cellular

00:14:39 ◼   ► approval. And it turns out from these filings that it would appear that the XS and XS Max

00:14:44 ◼   ► have 4GB of RAM and the XR has 3GB of RAM. There is also some battery stuff, but that's,

00:14:51 ◼   ► you know, I don't think that is as imperative, I think, but that's what it is. So it does

00:14:57 ◼   ► have a gigabyte less of RAM. Which is what you predicted.

00:15:02 ◼   ► Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a difference. I don't think it's a huge difference for now.

00:15:07 ◼   ► Yeah, the TIN's got 3GB of RAM too. I mean, it's not like it's out of line, I don't think.

00:15:13 ◼   ► Oh, for sure, for sure. But it was the point, you know, it's enforcing the point that you

00:15:16 ◼   ► made of like, it will be fine now, but like, in two years time, it could make it run worse,

00:15:24 ◼   ► right? Like what is the future problem you're buying into? So that was the point that you

00:15:27 ◼   ► were making, and this kind of, it just shows that there is something, the 3GB of RAM, it's

00:15:31 ◼   ► of RAM is really going to get you for quite a while. I think especially because the next,

00:15:37 ◼   ► I would say at least two versions of iOS will also have a stability focus on them. I just

00:15:42 ◼   ► think that's going to continue for a while, so you're probably going to be good.

00:15:45 ◼   ► And two, if you think about the iPhone 6 Plus, which had I think a gigabyte of RAM and it

00:15:50 ◼   ► had the big screen, it really struggled, and then Apple went to two gigs and it was better.

00:15:54 ◼   ► The XR has got that lower res screen, like we talked about, it's still a good screen,

00:15:58 ◼   ► Everyone who had hands-on still thinks it looks great, but it is lower resolution than

00:16:02 ◼   ► the new XS and XS Max.

00:16:05 ◼   ► And so that may balance the RAM.

00:16:08 ◼   ► It may be in practice, it doesn't matter if it had three or four.

00:16:12 ◼   ► That three is balanced with the system.

00:16:14 ◼   ► So I think the idea that if you buy a XR, I don't think it's going to age any faster

00:16:19 ◼   ► than any other iPhone.

00:16:20 ◼   ► I think it's going to be just fine.

00:16:22 ◼   ► No, but it's more just like it will age faster than the XS.

00:16:25 ◼   ► Sure.

00:16:26 ◼   ► In theory.

00:16:27 ◼   ► potentially I don't know it is worth mentioning as well you know you're

00:16:31 ◼   ► talking about like the screen the 10R has a lower resolution and lower pixel

00:16:35 ◼   ► count than an 8+ so it's an 8+ is 401 ppi at 1920 by 1080 and the 10R is 1792 by

00:16:44 ◼   ► 828 at 326 ppi even though the screens bigger it's really interesting I am

00:16:48 ◼   ► really keen for the reviews to see what people say like about that screen

00:16:53 ◼   ► specifically over long periods of time also I read and we're gonna talk about

00:16:57 ◼   ► I've done 10 reviews but I'm looking at the page now through was funny these

00:16:59 ◼   ► aren't planets these images they're bubbles did you see that yeah the images

00:17:03 ◼   ► that they're using they're not planets they're soap bubbles or oil bubbles or

00:17:07 ◼   ► whatever planets are just bubbles of rock really gas man whoa I'm a space

00:17:12 ◼   ► podcast and I'm talking you've been have you been spending time with the Mac

00:17:16 ◼   ► naming team yeah we're just we're ready we're just we're just floating floating

00:17:22 ◼   ► down the river together. It may be that the XR is in practice the fastest phone of these

00:17:29 ◼   ► three. It's got the same processor, it has a little less RAM but a lot less pixels to

00:17:32 ◼   ► push, and it's got a bigger battery. The XR is like, like we talked about last week, the

00:17:38 ◼   ► more I think about this phone, it is super interesting that in a lot of ways this is

00:17:41 ◼   ► the best phone this year from Cernit angles. And you guys know this because we, sometimes

00:17:46 ◼   ► before I buy things and often after I buy things, I have what I like to call a Steven

00:17:52 ◼   ► - Doubt.

00:17:53 ◼   ► - Doubt.

00:17:54 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:17:55 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:17:55 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:17:56 ◼   ► - You always do this every year.

00:17:58 ◼   ► You have a thing.

00:17:59 ◼   ► - Every time.

00:17:59 ◼   ► - Every single time.

00:18:00 ◼   ► - And it's so predictable.

00:18:02 ◼   ► - You guys know this 'cause I don't share this on Twitter,

00:18:05 ◼   ► but I share it with you all.

00:18:07 ◼   ► And this year the thing was,

00:18:09 ◼   ► I even talked to Jason about it.

00:18:11 ◼   ► 'Cause like, these guys know me,

00:18:13 ◼   ► Jason knows me pretty well,

00:18:14 ◼   ► but we've been on a show together for 22 years, so.

00:18:17 ◼   ► I remember I had Jason too and I said,

00:18:19 ◼   ► I have this thought that all the podcasters

00:18:23 ◼   ► are gonna buy the XS or the XS Max, right?

00:18:26 ◼   ► The people who are gonna upgrade who do this for a living

00:18:27 ◼   ► are gonna do, and that's fine, that's great,

00:18:29 ◼   ► I did it, I bought a XS Max.

00:18:31 ◼   ► But what if, would it be interesting

00:18:34 ◼   ► to live on a XR for a year?

00:18:37 ◼   ► Hey, I could spend half the money

00:18:38 ◼   ► and I could get a phone in blue

00:18:40 ◼   ► and just kinda see how that goes.

00:18:43 ◼   ► And basically everyone talked me out of it.

00:18:46 ◼   ► And Myke, I think I'm trying to find it in iMessage.

00:18:48 ◼   ► You were like, you 100% would return it in December

00:18:51 ◼   ► and then buy it 10S Max, which is true.

00:18:54 ◼   ► - Yes, that would be super interesting as a thing to do.

00:18:58 ◼   ► Someone should and could do this.

00:18:59 ◼   ► You are not that person.

00:19:01 ◼   ► Because you do this all the time.

00:19:03 ◼   ► If you could just go back through the history of this show

00:19:05 ◼   ► and just see how Steven's iPad has grown and shrunk

00:19:08 ◼   ► over that period of time.

00:19:09 ◼   ► - Yes, or my MacBook Pros.

00:19:11 ◼   ► I haven't done it with my desktops,

00:19:13 ◼   ► but that's serious big boy money,

00:19:15 ◼   ► so you don't get the option.

00:19:16 ◼   ► - You did do this with desktops,

00:19:17 ◼   ► you were like dead set on buying a refurbed retina iMac and you bought an iMac Pro instead.

00:19:23 ◼   ► Yeah I did do that and then I didn't return it.

00:19:25 ◼   ► But this is what you do! You're a flip-flopber!

00:19:28 ◼   ► You also lived for several months without an iPhone a few years ago.

00:19:32 ◼   ► Oh yeah!

00:19:33 ◼   ► That's true, I did in 2011 or so.

00:19:36 ◼   ► Yeah you're right.

00:19:37 ◼   ► This is like, you know, your friends just know you. We know you and we can help you.

00:19:42 ◼   ► I understand you get like excited about things but you know.

00:19:46 ◼   ► - You're a cold feet Apple blogger, that's who you are.

00:19:51 ◼   ► - That's good. (laughs)

00:19:53 ◼   ► But you know, I do think that someone,

00:19:55 ◼   ► like if you have tech podcast,

00:19:56 ◼   ► someone should have the 10 R so we can talk about it.

00:19:59 ◼   ► But I'm not that person, so if someone wants to jump on that,

00:20:03 ◼   ► feel free to run with it.

00:20:05 ◼   ► So we're gonna talk about some other stuff,

00:20:07 ◼   ► but I wanted to remind everybody,

00:20:09 ◼   ► we do this in September as a show, I do it on the site.

00:20:11 ◼   ► The September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

00:20:14 ◼   ► There are a couple links in the show notes

00:20:15 ◼   ► And this chapter has a link in it.

00:20:17 ◼   ► You can just tap it and something like Overcast will open.

00:20:20 ◼   ► St. Jude is a hospital here in Memphis, Tennessee

00:20:22 ◼   ► that treats children with cancer

00:20:26 ◼   ► and other catastrophic diseases.

00:20:27 ◼   ► And the kick here is they do so

00:20:30 ◼   ► without charging the families a dime.

00:20:32 ◼   ► So my son has been a patient there for nine and a half years.

00:20:35 ◼   ► He was diagnosed with a brain tumor as an infant.

00:20:38 ◼   ► And he's doing great now.

00:20:38 ◼   ► He's in third grade and doing homework

00:20:41 ◼   ► and running around the backyard

00:20:42 ◼   ► and playing with the siblings.

00:20:43 ◼   ► He's doing really well

00:20:44 ◼   ► because of the work that St. Jude does.

00:20:45 ◼   ► - Causing trouble.

00:20:46 ◼   ► - Causing some trouble.

00:20:47 ◼   ► Not a lot of trouble, but sometimes.

00:20:48 ◼   ► - A healthy amount of trouble.

00:20:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, he wants to do what I do when he grows up.

00:20:52 ◼   ► Like he wants to talk about technology,

00:20:54 ◼   ► which is really cool.

00:20:55 ◼   ► - This, that is the most wonderful thing I've ever heard.

00:20:58 ◼   ► - It is.

00:20:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, think about that.

00:21:00 ◼   ► It'll talk about old iPhones.

00:21:01 ◼   ► That's pretty amazing.

00:21:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm gonna save my iPhone X

00:21:04 ◼   ► so he can have in his collection.

00:21:05 ◼   ► - Oh, you can teach him.

00:21:06 ◼   ► You can teach him so much.

00:21:07 ◼   ► - I know.

00:21:08 ◼   ► So this is the difference between the G3 and the G4

00:21:11 ◼   ► in these various ways that no one cares about.

00:21:13 ◼   ► - Think how much better than you he could be.

00:21:16 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, no doubt.

00:21:18 ◼   ► So he said nine and a half years of treatment,

00:21:19 ◼   ► chemotherapy, surgery, lots of stuff.

00:21:22 ◼   ► And they've never charged us a dime.

00:21:24 ◼   ► And that's incredible because it's millions of dollars

00:21:26 ◼   ► of care, so every September I donate all the revenue

00:21:29 ◼   ► from 512 Pixels to St. Jude and I urge listeners

00:21:32 ◼   ► of the show and readers to join me in that.

00:21:36 ◼   ► 'Cause it's a really special place that treats kids.

00:21:38 ◼   ► We've met kids from like literally all over the world.

00:21:40 ◼   ► We met a family from South Africa, from Japan,

00:21:43 ◼   ► all over Europe, all over the United States.

00:21:45 ◼   ► Come to Memphis for treatment because it is the place

00:21:49 ◼   ► on the planet that can tackle these issues the best.

00:21:51 ◼   ► So I appreciate you, thank you so much if you have done this

00:21:54 ◼   ► and if you haven't, like I said, there's a link

00:21:56 ◼   ► in your podcast player.

00:21:57 ◼   ► I'd really appreciate it if you would go check it out.

00:21:59 ◼   ► - Fundraising pages at $16,372 right now.

00:22:03 ◼   ► I think it would be very amazing if we hit the $20,000 goal

00:22:07 ◼   ► before next week's episode and to do that,

00:22:10 ◼   ► It's all on you, connected listeners.

00:22:11 ◼   ► You're all incredible.

00:22:13 ◼   ► You're amazing.

00:22:13 ◼   ► Show how amazing you are by throwing some money to St. Jude.

00:22:17 ◼   ► All right.

00:22:17 ◼   ► Should we take our first break?

00:22:18 ◼   ► Yes.

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00:24:45 ◼   ► Federico, you published your iOS 12 review. If you haven't read it, dear listener,

00:24:52 ◼   ► there's a link in the show notes to it. My advice is to read it on an iPad. That is, it feels like

00:24:58 ◼   ► like its natural form.

00:25:00 ◼   ► If you wanna read it on like a iBook G4,

00:25:03 ◼   ► I guess that'd be fine by me, but an iPad feels right.

00:25:06 ◼   ► So Federico, I wanna ask you, how'd it go?

00:25:09 ◼   ► How has the reception been?

00:25:11 ◼   ► How do you feel?

00:25:13 ◼   ► Kinda, how's it been the last couple of days

00:25:15 ◼   ► since you published it?

00:25:16 ◼   ► - This is the best it's ever been,

00:25:20 ◼   ► both in terms, and especially in terms of like

00:25:22 ◼   ► how I feel about it, and how it's actually doing

00:25:26 ◼   ► terms of visits and sort of the profit from the... because this is a huge

00:25:32 ◼   ► investment for me in terms of like hours spent on the review. I feel good about it

00:25:38 ◼   ► because launch day this time was perfect, like not a single issue. As I mentioned

00:25:44 ◼   ► last week we had a new caching system in place that we rolled out on the site

00:25:51 ◼   ► last November after the problems with last year we rewrote the system

00:25:56 ◼   ► completely and this year was perfect. When we released it, when we published

00:26:02 ◼   ► the review we made sure that every page was cached before I tweeted about it and

00:26:07 ◼   ► so it's 17 pages so we we cached all of them and the the performance on the site

00:26:14 ◼   ► was really good and I was happy that people told me they they spent they

00:26:19 ◼   ► they spent time on the first page of the review refreshing just to see the

00:26:23 ◼   ► animation at the top with the iPhones and my MIMOJI.

00:26:27 ◼   ► There was an idea of Sam Beckett, the designer, he's an amazing designer,

00:26:34 ◼   ► he's been working with me first with the iOS concepts and then providing these

00:26:40 ◼   ► assets for the iOS 11 review and this year the iOS 12 one and his idea of the

00:26:45 ◼   ► iPhone animation and the animated Memoji inside of it was really really well

00:26:51 ◼   ► received. I'm happy because the review is doing well in terms of traffic. We are

00:26:57 ◼   ► well ahead of our previous milestones of hitting a 1 million page views in the

00:27:06 ◼   ► first week. So judging as I shared last night in 30 hours we did

00:27:13 ◼   ► 300,000 page views on the reviews, which for a project that I essentially work by myself

00:27:21 ◼   ► and for a website like Mac Stories, we're not 9-5 Mac, we don't have a staff of 20 people,

00:27:28 ◼   ► we're not The Verge, we're four people essentially, and these are huge numbers. But most of all,

00:27:35 ◼   ► fact that people like the review, people told me that it's easier to read and it's not as

00:27:44 ◼   ► sort of overcomplicated by technical stuff as last year, but also the fact that people

00:27:50 ◼   ► like the extras that we put together for Club Max Stories members.

00:27:55 ◼   ► So there's the ebook that members get for free, there's a few shortcuts that I shared

00:28:01 ◼   ► with members of the club, like toggle shortcuts and dark sky, a bunch of stuff.

00:28:09 ◼   ► There's also a discount that they can get on the excellent audiobook version that Myke

00:28:13 ◼   ► recorded once again.

00:28:15 ◼   ► So people responded well to the idea of, there's the review on the website, but also I can

00:28:20 ◼   ► get more if I sign up.

00:28:22 ◼   ► So overall, and I got tons of messages from friends at Apple, people at Apple about the

00:28:29 ◼   ► review.

00:28:30 ◼   ► because every engineer that I know jumps straight

00:28:33 ◼   ► to the chapter of the feature that they worked on.

00:28:36 ◼   ► And they're always like, every year I try to start

00:28:39 ◼   ► from the intro, but when I'm there,

00:28:41 ◼   ► I just jump straight to my stuff because I wanna--

00:28:44 ◼   ► - That's sad news for the guy

00:28:46 ◼   ► who put the iWork shortcuts in.

00:28:48 ◼   ► - I am. - There's no iWork section.

00:28:49 ◼   ► - Really sorry.

00:28:50 ◼   ► But overall, yes, and most of all,

00:28:52 ◼   ► I feel relaxed and happy.

00:28:55 ◼   ► I'm not stressed.

00:28:56 ◼   ► And in fact, I think it's the first time

00:28:59 ◼   ► after the review I just want to go back to work because it's I'm fine I'm doing fine.

00:29:02 ◼   ► And Myke you read the ebook version uh ebook version audio version again right?

00:29:07 ◼   ► I sure did I don't I'm not 100 sure why I decided to suggest to Federico to do this again because

00:29:19 ◼   ► last year it was I'm really pleased that I did it but it was in place is a bit of a disaster

00:29:27 ◼   ► right, for like a selection of different reasons. The biggest one was that I was recording whilst

00:29:33 ◼   ► traveling. So the audio, I was unhappy with the audio and I spent something like 55 hours in total

00:29:42 ◼   ► on the book last year, which was significantly more than it should have taken really. And it's

00:29:47 ◼   ► because a lot of it was trying to fix audio. And then, you know, the launch wasn't as great. I mean,

00:29:54 ◼   ► just Federico had the same thing, right? Like it wasn't as great as we would have wanted it to be

00:29:57 ◼   ► because there were problems and it kind of left the thing on a bit of a down note, right? So I

00:30:03 ◼   ► don't know why I thought to myself in June, "Yeah, all right, I'm gonna ask him if he wants me to do

00:30:10 ◼   ► it again." But I did and this time was much better. It took 20 hours this time of work. It was much

00:30:20 ◼   ► better, no significant issues. The only problem we had, which I was very annoyed about this,

00:30:26 ◼   ► was when the shortcuts beta updated with a fix after the iOS 12 GM went out. So I'd finished,

00:30:38 ◼   ► the book was all done, it was delivered with Federico, and then the shortcuts beta updated.

00:30:44 ◼   ► I've never been more upset about something I want, so they added Dropbox support back in,

00:30:50 ◼   ► which I was begging for, but when it happened, I knew that what I now had to do was re-record

00:30:56 ◼   ► part and then re-master the book again. And with a three and a half hour logic project with

00:31:05 ◼   ► thousands of edits in it, any change that I make could potentially break something else,

00:31:12 ◼   ► so I'm always terrified to go back in again. But nevertheless, there were no issues,

00:31:18 ◼   ► and I'm happy to do it. This, if I can get a meta for a moment, this is one of the weirdest projects

00:31:26 ◼   ► that I do because it's not mine. So like I spent all this time and effort and care on it because

00:31:35 ◼   ► I'm very honored to be given the opportunity to do this. But it's so strange that like when it's done

00:31:42 ◼   ► it's like it's Federico's work, it's not my work. And it's this weird kind of like feeling of

00:31:48 ◼   ► I just hand it away and then it's nothing to do with me anymore. It's a very strange project,

00:31:55 ◼   ► but I take great pride in being able to produce the audiobook because I think about people like me

00:32:04 ◼   ► who would struggle to sit down and read it all in other circumstances, but this way in like three

00:32:10 ◼   ► hours you can get the whole thing and I consider it a great honor to also be a part of what has,

00:32:16 ◼   ► I believe, become a very important institution which is the Federico Vittucci IOS 12 review.

00:32:23 ◼   ► So getting to play a part in that no matter how small is something that I hold very dear.

00:32:29 ◼   ► But it is very unique to me in it being this project that I create that really

00:32:37 ◼   ► is not mine in any shape or form and it makes it quite unique.

00:32:41 ◼   ► But thank you Federico for including me again.

00:32:44 ◼   ► Thank you for being part of it.

00:32:47 ◼   ► I struggle to think of it as an institution, as you said, like as a thing.

00:32:59 ◼   ► Well you shouldn't. Everybody else can, but you shouldn't.

00:33:05 ◼   ► I like that it's sort of become that type of event, even though it's a huge responsibility.

00:33:11 ◼   ► Like when you make something on the internet and people like it and you do it a couple

00:33:17 ◼   ► of times, that's fine. But if you do something and people like it and then people expect

00:33:21 ◼   ► it to continue to exist every year, especially for this kind of project, it becomes... it's

00:33:28 ◼   ► hard to balance it in a way that it doesn't become something you hate. Especially for...

00:33:33 ◼   ► Because it's a lot of pressure. It's an awful lot of pressure.

00:33:36 ◼   ► And I was talking to John Siracusa actually a few years ago about this.

00:33:42 ◼   ► It becomes something that fully absorbs you and your family and your summer.

00:33:48 ◼   ► And it happens in a moment of the year when like your friends want to go to the beach and,

00:33:53 ◼   ► you know, people just want to hang out together because maybe they're on vacation or something.

00:33:57 ◼   ► Like it's the type of project that can make you regret signing up for it.

00:34:02 ◼   ► But at the same time, it's so rewarding to, and it's precious, I think, and I'm lucky to be able to have this kind of opportunity that have, you know, people waiting for it.

00:34:15 ◼   ► I mean, that's amazing. The fact that, sort of, people, you know, on Twitter, they ask me, "What time are you publishing the review?" because I want to be able to coordinate.

00:34:23 ◼   ► I'm like, "This is not a job. Don't worry about it. Like, you can read it later." But I get it. I get it why people want to do this, and it's amazing.

00:34:30 ◼   ► And so I'm really grateful to anyone who actually spends time on the site or in the ebook or listening to Myke.

00:34:37 ◼   ► Any consumption, any medium is totally fine for me.

00:34:44 ◼   ► And I'm just happy that this year has done well.

00:34:47 ◼   ► No problems on the site, people just went straight to the intro and kept reading.

00:34:52 ◼   ► So it was fun to put together and I think you said something very nice, Myke, on upgrade with Jason

00:34:58 ◼   ► about the fact that even more than the iPad last year,

00:35:02 ◼   ► the shortcuts chapter, it felt mine in a way that,

00:35:06 ◼   ► even though people identify me,

00:35:08 ◼   ► it's more important.

00:35:09 ◼   ► - It's more important.

00:35:10 ◼   ► - I think it was more important for me to, you know,

00:35:14 ◼   ► sort of, it's both closing a chapter

00:35:18 ◼   ► for the workflow stuff that I used to do,

00:35:20 ◼   ► but also beginning a new one.

00:35:21 ◼   ► So yeah, I'm really happy.

00:35:24 ◼   ► - Federico's conclusion to the shortcuts chapter

00:35:27 ◼   ► and the conclusion to the review itself, because they kind of mirror each other,

00:35:32 ◼   ► they are... I feel that they are your best little chunks of writing that you've ever done.

00:35:38 ◼   ► Like, I got goosebumps reading them, which was quite... that also is really tricky, by the way.

00:35:45 ◼   ► When you read something and you know it's good, and like when I'm reading it aloud,

00:35:51 ◼   ► and I'm like, I don't know if I did that justice. That's the hardest part. Like,

00:35:56 ◼   ► the amount of takes that I will do on something like that because I want to make sure that

00:36:01 ◼   ► I have gotten the point across in the way that it's been sent to me. But yeah, anyway,

00:36:07 ◼   ► the review is amazing. You should go and check it out in whatever way you want. I recommend

00:36:12 ◼   ► just buying the audiobook even if you don't want it because you just should.

00:36:18 ◼   ► It's a... You should have a collection of... I have my own little shop.

00:36:23 ◼   ► I opened iBooks and it's just all your stuff. Wow! It's just you and then a collection of

00:36:30 ◼   ► David Sparks stuff. They're the only books that I have. iPhone watch reviews have come out. Should

00:36:36 ◼   ► we talk about like the iPhone reviews a little bit? All right, sure. There's a couple, so the

00:36:41 ◼   ► ones that I have mostly consumed, I read John Gruber's review and I watched MKBHD's review

00:36:49 ◼   ► And the Verge's review. They're kind of like... and that's typically what I will do because I

00:36:54 ◼   ► feel like it gives me a good spread of popular opinion, right? Because you've got kind of like

00:36:59 ◼   ► someone who is mostly Android focused but appreciates the iPhone. You've got the Verge

00:37:04 ◼   ► who tries to play the middle and then you've got John Gruber who is obviously an iPhone person.

00:37:09 ◼   ► It seems like the general consensus is that the camera improvements are really good,

00:37:15 ◼   ► But people who have spent significant time testing everything still prefer the Pixel 2,

00:37:21 ◼   ► which is exactly what I expected for the reason when Apple spoke about computational photography

00:37:27 ◼   ► as one of the ways that they're making their photos better. My initial thought was, how can

00:37:35 ◼   ► anybody beat Google if you're talking about machine learning being applied to photos?

00:37:39 ◼   ► like Google should be better at that, right?

00:37:43 ◼   ► And if Apple can make something that's even close,

00:37:46 ◼   ► then we're all good. You know what I mean?

00:37:48 ◼   ► I think we're at a sort of an inflection point in terms of like where Google and Apple are going

00:37:54 ◼   ► with their camera stuff. In that Google is, I mean, fully embracing the cloud and processing

00:38:02 ◼   ► in the cloud with their services and with the Google Photos features that they have.

00:38:07 ◼   ► Well sure, but the Pixel 2 stuff is all on device. It's not in the cloud. This was something

00:38:12 ◼   ► that John wrote in his review that was incorrect. Like the processing of the photos to make

00:38:16 ◼   ► the photos look good. I mean I'm not saying you're saying this, but this is something

00:38:19 ◼   ► that Trungkuba said. The Pixel's processing is happening on device like Apple's is.

00:38:24 ◼   ► Yeah, but I was also sort of talking about the photos, the Google Photos app with the

00:38:30 ◼   ► way that you can browse your photos later, which is different from actually taking the

00:38:34 ◼   ► Sure, but I mean, I think it, I struggle to imagine how Apple could match that type of

00:38:42 ◼   ► sort of just prowess that Google has when it comes to applying huge chunks of machine

00:38:47 ◼   ► learning.

00:38:48 ◼   ► Like this is what they do for, this is their business and Apple's business is not like

00:38:53 ◼   ► having a service that relies on machine learning.

00:38:55 ◼   ► They sort of indirectly maybe rely on machine learning to sell their features, but you're

00:39:00 ◼   ► not buying a web service entirely based on machine learning from Apple, you're buying

00:39:06 ◼   ► a phone or an iPad or a MacBook. So Apple uses machine learning, Google in a way sells

00:39:10 ◼   ► machine learning. That's the way that I try to think about it. And so it's why I think

00:39:15 ◼   ► it's going to be challenging for Apple too. I mean, even if you just look at the Google

00:39:19 ◼   ► Assistant and the Amazon stuff and Siri, that's sort of how you can frame the discussion of

00:39:27 ◼   ► the computational photography landscape like for Google and Apple and I think unless something

00:39:33 ◼   ► dramatic changes I think that's where it'll end up in the next few years that Google will

00:39:38 ◼   ► always be ahead just even a couple of steps and Apple will be playing catch up with them.

00:39:46 ◼   ► I don't know, I'm not a camera expert but as we…

00:39:49 ◼   ► Well it's just because it's changed, right? When it was all about the hardware…

00:39:53 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:39:54 ◼   ► ahead forever. And then when things started to change, when a couple of things changed,

00:40:00 ◼   ► Samsung got really good at making camera hardware as well. So that started to push them forward.

00:40:06 ◼   ► And then Google came in and got better and absolutely everyone at processing these images.

00:40:12 ◼   ► And I'm very keen to see what happens with the Pixel 3. How good is that going to be?

00:40:18 ◼   ► Apparently the Smart HDR mode is amazing.

00:40:27 ◼   ► So I've seen some pictures being shared.

00:40:29 ◼   ► Jonathan Morrison, who runs the TOD Today YouTube channel, he tweeted the best example

00:40:34 ◼   ► I've seen of this, where he's taking a selfie with the sun behind him.

00:40:39 ◼   ► Like, I don't know how they're doing this.

00:40:43 ◼   ► The Smart HDR looks really really promising.

00:40:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's one of those things too, again,

00:40:49 ◼   ► like Apple has been building towards this,

00:40:53 ◼   ► and that's so much about what this phone is,

00:40:54 ◼   ► where I was taking where they are

00:40:55 ◼   ► and just making it a little bit better,

00:40:56 ◼   ► but the HDR really started, like you remember,

00:40:59 ◼   ► in the beginning it was something

00:41:00 ◼   ► you could turn on or off, right?

00:41:02 ◼   ► Like, and most of the time, I think a lot of people

00:41:04 ◼   ► left it off in the beginning,

00:41:05 ◼   ► because it was sort of not great.

00:41:08 ◼   ► And over time, as the phones have gotten faster

00:41:10 ◼   ► and the sensors have gotten better,

00:41:12 ◼   ► it has, Apple's become more confident in it.

00:41:15 ◼   ► And starting a couple years ago,

00:41:16 ◼   ► it was on by default, and now it's just on all the time,

00:41:19 ◼   ► and now it's even better.

00:41:20 ◼   ► And it's just something that, you know,

00:41:22 ◼   ► it's just one of those metrics you can look at from,

00:41:24 ◼   ► you know, the iPhone 4 to now, or the iPhone 5 to now,

00:41:28 ◼   ► and see how far they've come.

00:41:31 ◼   ► And is this a reason to go buy a phone?

00:41:33 ◼   ► No, but if you go, if the camera is the big driver for you,

00:41:38 ◼   ► then this is something you should pay attention to.

00:41:41 ◼   ► And I think for a lot of people, the camera is the driver.

00:41:44 ◼   ► having a conversation with somebody yesterday, we were talking about the new Apple Watch,

00:41:49 ◼   ► and a local friend of mine, and he was like, "Is the smartwatch ever going to replace the

00:41:54 ◼   ► phone?"

00:41:55 ◼   ► And I quoted Marco's, I think, very wise words of "Don't bet against the smartphone."

00:41:59 ◼   ► But the thing that came up in the conversation was like, "Most people use their phone as

00:42:04 ◼   ► a camera, like, all the time."

00:42:06 ◼   ► And that's where Apple and Google and Samsung all spend a lot of time and attention to make

00:42:12 ◼   ► that better.

00:42:13 ◼   ► one thing the watch will never catch up on because the watch doesn't have a camera and even if it did

00:42:16 ◼   ► it would be weird and not what we want so this is a big improvement I think if you especially if you

00:42:22 ◼   ► do outdoor photography but it's one that I think too is like we're going to find its limits we're

00:42:27 ◼   ► going to find what works and what doesn't but I'm excited to put it through its paces. I thoroughly

00:42:33 ◼   ► enjoyed the technical camera portion of John Gruber's review yeah because there was information in

00:42:42 ◼   ► in there that I haven't seen elsewhere, you know, like talking about like this seems to

00:42:45 ◼   ► be like a wider field of view that there is something different going on with the camera

00:42:49 ◼   ► lenses and like with the hardware and I think that's being shown and like there's been some

00:42:54 ◼   ► stuff floating around today about the the actual size of the camera module is slightly

00:43:00 ◼   ► larger because some iPhone 10 cases don't fit the XS in the camera portion or they're

00:43:06 ◼   ► like super tight. So there's definitely stuff going on there and it seems like Apple has

00:43:11 ◼   ► done a lot more with the hardware than they gave away in the press conference, like in the keynote,

00:43:17 ◼   ► which is kind of peculiar, but I think it's because it's really difficult to explain

00:43:22 ◼   ► what they did. And it takes John Cooper quite a while to do it, and I think he does it accurately,

00:43:29 ◼   ► like in a way that I can't sum it up for you, right? But there's a bunch of stuff going on in

00:43:34 ◼   ► the hardware that seems to be producing significantly better pictures in a bunch

00:43:39 ◼   ► of different ways, not just the Smart HDR stuff.

00:43:43 ◼   ► It's fascinating to me why Apple didn't talk about these numbers and the larger sensor,

00:43:50 ◼   ► for example, on stage. Like, Gruber makes a point that if you're selling camera improvements

00:43:55 ◼   ► and you want to give out these details, pro photographers are going to listen to you and

00:43:59 ◼   ► they're going to understand. And there lies my question. Didn't they... probably... I

00:44:05 ◼   ► think it's possible that they didn't share these details because they were too geeky

00:44:08 ◼   ► and too nerdy to share with everybody watching the new iPhone stuff, starting to talk about

00:44:14 ◼   ► a larger sensor and all those words that Gruber used that I, like Myke, I'm not able to repeat

00:44:21 ◼   ► in a coherent sentence. The field of view one feels like something

00:44:25 ◼   ► that they should have shared more of. I understand this, yeah, exactly.

00:44:29 ◼   ► Because you could say, like, look at this picture with the iPhone XS, you can get more

00:44:33 ◼   ► in the frame. And I need to say, and I'm going to say that

00:44:36 ◼   ► Reading Gruber's review, from a writing perspective,

00:44:40 ◼   ► it was super clever in how he showed the pictures

00:44:45 ◼   ► somewhere around the beginning of the article,

00:44:48 ◼   ► and then you keep reading,

00:44:49 ◼   ► and multiple paragraphs later, he says,

00:44:52 ◼   ► oh, and by the way, those were shot from the same position,

00:44:55 ◼   ► from the same angle.

00:44:57 ◼   ► It's not like I moved two steps behind.

00:45:00 ◼   ► And you go like, oh, so you scroll back up

00:45:03 ◼   ► and you look at the pictures again.

00:45:04 ◼   ► - It's the prestige.

00:45:05 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:45:07 ◼   ► - It does raise a question, Myke, your comment about,

00:45:10 ◼   ► does Apple go into these details on stage?

00:45:14 ◼   ► And that's a question I've pondered before,

00:45:17 ◼   ► but I really felt at this time.

00:45:19 ◼   ► Who are the events for?

00:45:21 ◼   ► You have obvious answers.

00:45:22 ◼   ► You have tech press and you have enthusiasts, right?

00:45:24 ◼   ► People like us and people who listen to shows like ours.

00:45:28 ◼   ► Past that, though, is where I really begin to wonder

00:45:32 ◼   ► how far these get into the world.

00:45:33 ◼   ► So again, my buddy I had lunch with yesterday,

00:45:36 ◼   ► he's into the iPhone, he's had several Macs over the years,

00:45:41 ◼   ► but he's not, he doesn't listen to any relay shows,

00:45:43 ◼   ► he knows what I do and I'm his tech friend, so he asks me.

00:45:45 ◼   ► I just wonder how, could Apple be nerdier

00:45:50 ◼   ► in those segments and it be fine?

00:45:53 ◼   ► If the public at large isn't watching,

00:45:56 ◼   ► people's eyes won't glaze over.

00:45:57 ◼   ► I don't know if there's an answer to that,

00:45:59 ◼   ► but I kinda just think about that sometimes.

00:46:01 ◼   ► I think the way that they rely on it is almost like pseudo word of mouth,

00:46:06 ◼   ► which is exactly what happened in my household. I got the iPhone 10.

00:46:10 ◼   ► Adina wasn't really that fussed.

00:46:12 ◼   ► She was seeing the pictures I was taking and was like,

00:46:16 ◼   ► why are they that good? And I'm like, well, because of blah, blah, blah, blah,

00:46:20 ◼   ► blah. She said, well, I want one.

00:46:21 ◼   ► And I think that might be the way that they assume this stuff happens, right?

00:46:25 ◼   ► People sharing pictures online,

00:46:26 ◼   ► they're sending pictures to their friends with the new phones and like, oh my God,

00:46:30 ◼   ► this is such a good picture. Like, yeah, I just got the new iPhone.

00:46:32 ◼   ► And then people are like, well,

00:46:33 ◼   ► I need that new iPhone as well because that picture is really good.

00:46:36 ◼   ► Because as well, like a lot of the photo stuff, as I was saying last week,

00:46:40 ◼   ► you can't appreciate it in the, in the keynotes, right?

00:46:43 ◼   ► Like because they're professional photos taken by professionals on my TV.

00:46:48 ◼   ► So I can't even see the detail in them anyway,

00:46:50 ◼   ► because I'm looking at a camera,

00:46:54 ◼   ► which is taking video of a projected screen, right?

00:46:59 ◼   ► which is, I've got all this stuff that it's like,

00:47:01 ◼   ► there are so many layers of abstraction

00:47:02 ◼   ► that it doesn't work.

00:47:03 ◼   ► So I guess they just wait on people sharing pictures

00:47:05 ◼   ► of each other and then everybody realizes

00:47:07 ◼   ► the cameras are better.

00:47:08 ◼   ► - And if that's true, if it's like the word of mouth thing,

00:47:11 ◼   ► then like you said, Gruber is an excellent writer,

00:47:13 ◼   ► took him like five paragraphs to explain it.

00:47:15 ◼   ► So that doesn't distill down into something

00:47:18 ◼   ► you can easily share with a friend over lunch, right?

00:47:21 ◼   ► It's like, oh, the F-stop does this and focal length

00:47:24 ◼   ► and people's, just their eyes fall out of their head.

00:47:26 ◼   ► - I think the idea, it's just like, yeah,

00:47:28 ◼   ► this phone as a back camera?

00:47:29 ◼   ► - I think where I get confused is that it's called

00:47:33 ◼   ► focal length, but then you talk about how wide it is.

00:47:38 ◼   ► It's like, is it long or is it wide?

00:47:40 ◼   ► I don't understand.

00:47:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, all different things.

00:47:42 ◼   ► They're all different things.

00:47:44 ◼   ► And it's interesting because smartphones have taken

00:47:47 ◼   ► photography and made that stuff more mainstream.

00:47:50 ◼   ► It is still confusing for a lot of people,

00:47:52 ◼   ► but more people now know what that means than ever,

00:47:55 ◼   ► and it's because the iPhone has miniaturized all this stuff

00:47:57 ◼   ► is something we have we have in our pocket which is uh which is cool like i like that

00:48:03 ◼   ► people are excited about this stuff but it's uh you're right it's kind of hard hard to

00:48:06 ◼   ► talk about i think once we start seeing these things like pop up on instagram people be

00:48:11 ◼   ► like oh look what that thing can do so portrait mode is apparently better i mean i'm seeing

00:48:16 ◼   ► photos that look better than any portrait mode photo i've seen before which is a combination

00:48:22 ◼   ► of ios 12's improvements and i guess the new iphone's improvements and the neural engine

00:48:27 ◼   ► But you know, it's not like it's perfect.

00:48:28 ◼   ► It's still not perfect and it never will be.

00:48:30 ◼   ► There's always going to be bad examples,

00:48:32 ◼   ► but the good examples are better than any of the good examples that came before.

00:48:36 ◼   ► So, you know, if you like portrait mode and I do like great.

00:48:40 ◼   ► The new f-stop feature is awesome.

00:48:42 ◼   ► It looks really fun.

00:48:43 ◼   ► Like this is where you can adjust the background blur.

00:48:45 ◼   ► So there's a couple of things on this.

00:48:48 ◼   ► This will be live and like so right now you take the photo and you can adjust it.

00:48:53 ◼   ► But in a later version of iOS 12,

00:48:56 ◼   ► this will be something you can do in the viewfinder.

00:48:59 ◼   ► And what it seems like, and correct me if I'm wrong here,

00:49:04 ◼   ► the iPhone 10 cannot do this.

00:49:08 ◼   ► But if somebody takes a photo of a 10s and sends it to someone

00:49:13 ◼   ► with an iPhone 10, the iPhone 10 can adjust it. Is that correct?

00:49:16 ◼   ► The iPhone 10 will not be able to do it live.

00:49:20 ◼   ► Will do it live. It will not do that.

00:49:25 ◼   ► It sounds like it will be able to apply the effect when you're just editing the picture.

00:49:33 ◼   ► But in the video...

00:49:34 ◼   ► But it can't take the picture either, though, right?

00:49:36 ◼   ► No, it cannot take the picture with the slider that will supposedly appear.

00:49:42 ◼   ► I think Matthew Panzareno shared this bit of information on Twitter and in his review.

00:49:48 ◼   ► So it sounds like the iPhone XS will get the slider that in real time, when you're taking

00:49:53 ◼   ► the picture you will be able to change the whatever background blur is called.

00:49:59 ◼   ► On every iPhone there will be a software update I suppose 12.1 that will allow you to apply

00:50:06 ◼   ► the same effect after the picture has been taken.

00:50:08 ◼   ► So the XS gets the real time edition as well.

00:50:13 ◼   ► Right, okay, thank you.

00:50:15 ◼   ► This has been very strangely communicated and it's very difficult.

00:50:18 ◼   ► Only because we only have a tweet from Panzarino about this.

00:50:22 ◼   ► It's the best way to get communication out there into the world.

00:50:28 ◼   ► Two tweets.

00:50:29 ◼   ► Moving away from the camera.

00:50:30 ◼   ► So the general consensus is the Max is big, but it's not as big as you think, but reaching

00:50:35 ◼   ► the corners will be tricky.

00:50:36 ◼   ► I received my case.

00:50:38 ◼   ► It's big.

00:50:39 ◼   ► It's a big old phone, this one.

00:50:42 ◼   ► I'm very excited though.

00:50:44 ◼   ► I mean, you know, look, it is going to, I'm very confident that I'm going to love it in

00:50:48 ◼   ► in every way I love the plus phone, but like the plus phone, it's going to come with some

00:50:52 ◼   ► difficult parts and it looks like getting to control center is going to be something

00:50:58 ◼   ► you just can't do without reachability anymore.

00:51:01 ◼   ► Like that's just going to be a thing that we live in our lives.

00:51:03 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm a little nervous about it.

00:51:05 ◼   ► I won't lie.

00:51:06 ◼   ► I'm excited.

00:51:07 ◼   ► I mean, I've got that nervous excitement thing going on because I just feel like it's just

00:51:11 ◼   ► going to look so good.

00:51:14 ◼   ► Face ID feels a little faster, but it's not monumental.

00:51:17 ◼   ► an advanced face ID. It's not face ID generation 2, like Touch ID 2 was. It's advanced. They're

00:51:25 ◼   ► so bad with these names, like what are they going to call it next year? Advanced face

00:51:29 ◼   ► ID 2? Second advanced face ID? Advanced face ID 2 R. Extra advanced face ID. So again,

00:51:39 ◼   ► to kind of sum it up with people's conclusions, the XS as an update from the X for most of

00:51:47 ◼   ► people is probably not going to give them that much. You have to really care

00:51:53 ◼   ► about photography to maybe want to go from the X to the XS for most people.

00:51:58 ◼   ► However, you know most people do not update their phones every year so the XS

00:52:02 ◼   ► is an amazing phone for anyone coming from the X prior to the X because the X

00:52:08 ◼   ► is a fantastic phone right. If you want a bigger phone the Max is a good choice

00:52:12 ◼   ► for the same reasons that a bigger phone was always a good choice right so like

00:52:15 ◼   ► If you like big phones, you're going to like it.

00:52:17 ◼   ► If you have a 6S or a 7, the 10S will be great.

00:52:22 ◼   ► But so would the 10R, probably.

00:52:25 ◼   ► Like if I was a different person,

00:52:29 ◼   ► I would want to wait until the 10R came out if I was just going to get a 10S.

00:52:33 ◼   ► Because again, like we said this a million times,

00:52:36 ◼   ► nobody knows how the 10R is going to review yet.

00:52:39 ◼   ► And it can go one or two ways.

00:52:42 ◼   ► And it kind of is just like, OK, it's slightly disappointing.

00:52:45 ◼   ► or "oh my god don't buy the 10s"

00:52:46 ◼   ► That's how these reviews are gonna be

00:52:48 ◼   ► I think it's gonna be one of two

00:52:49 ◼   ► So we're gonna have to wait and see on that

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00:53:59 ◼   ► So like any other iOS release there are lots of third-party app updates coming this week. No doubt you've noticed

00:54:07 ◼   ► The App Store is busy busy with updates and we've picked out

00:54:11 ◼   ► Several of our favorites there are many more Mac stories is doing a really good job of logging them as they come out

00:54:17 ◼   ► I know Federico you and your team are just an overdrive this week

00:54:20 ◼   ► But I thought we could talk about some of these and I thought we could talk about overcast first

00:54:26 ◼   ► So Myke, what's what's new in overcast?

00:54:28 ◼   ► so overcast

00:54:30 ◼   ► Five has a bunch of different things. I wanted to pick out three of the top things

00:54:35 ◼   ► So my two favorites is the new now playing screen.

00:54:39 ◼   ► I absolutely love the design that Marco has come up with.

00:54:42 ◼   ► It kind of separates everything into these little cards.

00:54:45 ◼   ► It feels really fresh.

00:54:46 ◼   ► It feels like new iOS design

00:54:49 ◼   ► that kind of like maps inspired iOS design.

00:54:52 ◼   ► I really, really like it a lot.

00:54:54 ◼   ► I like the way everything's been kind of re-engineered.

00:54:57 ◼   ► I like the symmetry of all of the panels.

00:54:59 ◼   ► I think it looks really good.

00:55:00 ◼   ► And I love the tactics that kind of go along

00:55:02 ◼   ► with all of that.

00:55:03 ◼   ► makes makes overcast feel really fresh again.

00:55:06 ◼   ► It's interesting that it was just that change

00:55:09 ◼   ► and it feels like a completely brand new app for me.

00:55:11 ◼   ► The Siri shortcut support is extensive and excellent.

00:55:14 ◼   ► Everything that I would want is in there.

00:55:17 ◼   ► You can set individual Siri shortcuts to play specific shows or playlists

00:55:21 ◼   ► or just to resume playing and to skip chapters and stuff.

00:55:24 ◼   ► It's really, really good.

00:55:25 ◼   ► I've been using it now a bunch because I found it to be the most reliable way

00:55:30 ◼   ► to get my iPhone to play what I want it to play is to just trigger the Siri shortcut

00:55:34 ◼   ► to do it.

00:55:36 ◼   ► And whilst I don't use an Apple Watch, I am aware that everybody is super excited about

00:55:41 ◼   ► the Apple Watch app because it is a full Apple Watch app.

00:55:44 ◼   ► You can have shows sent to your Apple Watch and you can listen to them without the phone

00:55:48 ◼   ► even needing to be around.

00:55:49 ◼   ► So you could just take your Apple Watch out and you've got Overcast on it, you can go

00:55:52 ◼   ► for a run and connect your AirPods.

00:55:54 ◼   ► And it does the, Marco does all of the encoding so you can get smart speed and stuff.

00:55:58 ◼   ► It's super clever and it's really, really nicely designed.

00:56:02 ◼   ► I'm a big, big fan of the new version of Overcost.

00:56:04 ◼   ► >> Yeah, it's really good.

00:56:06 ◼   ► I really like the fact that you can use these shortcuts both via Siri,

00:56:12 ◼   ► so you can invoke Siri and play any show,

00:56:15 ◼   ► any show that you have a playlist,

00:56:16 ◼   ► but also you can use them as actions in the shortcuts app.

00:56:20 ◼   ► You don't even have to actually see the shortcut.

00:56:23 ◼   ► You can just run in the background and start audio.

00:56:26 ◼   ► And not only can you create these custom shortcuts for playing specific shows, I don't know,

00:56:33 ◼   ► maybe you want to choose from a menu or something, but you can also create personal shortcuts

00:56:38 ◼   ► for overcast features.

00:56:40 ◼   ► Like I have a shortcut that lets me use a widget to navigate chapters in an episode

00:56:48 ◼   ► that I'm listening to in overcast, because next chapter and previous chapter are shortcuts

00:56:53 ◼   ► that the app donates to the system.

00:56:55 ◼   ► So the idea of, I can ask Siri, and it turns out that if you ask on the HomePod, Overcast

00:57:02 ◼   ► now sends an audio stream using AirPlay One to the HomePod, which was not the case this

00:57:08 ◼   ► summer with the previous version of the HomePod OS.

00:57:13 ◼   ► So not only can you do that, but also you can create these custom shortcuts and use

00:57:16 ◼   ► Overcast as actions.

00:57:18 ◼   ► But they're not actions like the old-fashioned way that launch URL schemes and stuff.

00:57:23 ◼   ► they run in the background and they either start audio

00:57:26 ◼   ► or perform features like recommending an episode

00:57:29 ◼   ► or navigating an episode, which is amazing.

00:57:32 ◼   ► - Up next we have Google Maps.

00:57:34 ◼   ► So one of the announcements with iOS 12 was

00:57:37 ◼   ► CarPlay was having the ability to, I guess,

00:57:41 ◼   ► host other mapping solutions.

00:57:43 ◼   ► So before this, if you used CarPlay,

00:57:45 ◼   ► you were stuck with Apple Maps,

00:57:46 ◼   ► which it may be good where you are,

00:57:47 ◼   ► it may not be good where you are.

00:57:49 ◼   ► That's kind of the problem.

00:57:50 ◼   ► That's why Apple's rebuilding it.

00:57:51 ◼   ► But now Google Maps is in CarPlay

00:57:53 ◼   ► and John Voorhees, never heard of him.

00:57:58 ◼   ► - I think his French is John Voorhees,

00:58:02 ◼   ► that's the way that you're supposed to say it.

00:58:04 ◼   ► - Voor-eh?

00:58:05 ◼   ► - Voor-eh?

00:58:06 ◼   ► - Eh?

00:58:07 ◼   ► - Eh?

00:58:08 ◼   ► So he wrote up on Mac Stories a little article

00:58:12 ◼   ► about Google Maps coming here.

00:58:13 ◼   ► It seems like what you would expect, right?

00:58:14 ◼   ► It's Google Map data, in CarPlay, you can search,

00:58:17 ◼   ► you can use your voice, it has all your saved places.

00:58:21 ◼   ► Like one thing that's nice about Google Maps

00:58:23 ◼   ► if you have something on the web you can save it and it's in the mobile app when

00:58:26 ◼   ► you open that. So all that stuff is here. So if Apple Maps is maybe subpar where

00:58:31 ◼   ► you live or the directions aren't very good now you have an alternative which I

00:58:35 ◼   ► think is is really great. This should have been there on day one with CarPlay

00:58:38 ◼   ► and I'm glad Apple's finally gotten around to it. Federico, can you explain to

00:58:43 ◼   ► the connected listeners why Peacock's shortcuts support is so good? Yes, it's

00:58:50 ◼   ► This is the way that I would like more developers to present their shortcut support in iOS 12.

00:58:57 ◼   ► So PQLK has a settings screen inside of the PQLK app where you can configure all of these

00:59:04 ◼   ► shortcuts.

00:59:05 ◼   ► Shortcuts in PQLK are different types of actions that you can take in the app.

00:59:10 ◼   ► You have, for example, the ability to switch layouts or to copy a result to the clipboard,

00:59:16 ◼   ► but also you can perform actual operations and conversions and functions.

00:59:21 ◼   ► And the way that you do this, like, when I first talked to James in June, he was like,

00:59:25 ◼   ► "I don't know how I can support shortcuts if I don't have, if I cannot have the users

00:59:33 ◼   ► dictate a number to Siri."

00:59:36 ◼   ► Because right now you just run a shortcut, you don't give any input to the shortcut.

00:59:40 ◼   ► So the system it came up with is, you can either read a number from the system clipboard,

00:59:47 ◼   ► or you can use a number that is currently stored in the PQL cap, or you can use the

00:59:52 ◼   ► variables that PQL supports.

00:59:55 ◼   ► And James came up with this settings screen design where you have all these lists of shortcuts.

01:00:02 ◼   ► And through a bunch of controls you can choose to open the shortcut in the PQL cap.

01:00:08 ◼   ► So after you summon the shortcut, Siri will just launch Pico and perform the action.

01:00:12 ◼   ► Or you can choose, there's an actual control that says "Running background".

01:00:17 ◼   ► So you can run the operation in the background, and the data that you're dealing with can

01:00:23 ◼   ► come from the system clipboard.

01:00:25 ◼   ► So you can do stuff like, the number that I currently have in my clipboard, the number

01:00:29 ◼   ► that I just copied from Numbers or Safari or whatever, use this number and, for example,

01:00:36 ◼   ► convert this number from euros to dollars, or from meters to feet, stuff like that.

01:00:45 ◼   ► And this is an extremely powerful idea, because it means you can have these operations.

01:00:50 ◼   ► You can copy a number, then just invoke Siri, and it gives you the result, without having

01:00:55 ◼   ► to launch PQLK.

01:00:57 ◼   ► But also the way that you create these shortcuts is very intuitive, and it's consistent with

01:01:03 ◼   ► settings by Apple, but also sort of enhanced. I would actually love Apple to implement a similar

01:01:09 ◼   ► design in the future, where like, here's your shortcuts, now if you want you can customize the

01:01:14 ◼   ► way that they work. I really like the way that it's done in Peelcock. But also, again, like I said for

01:01:20 ◼   ► Overcast, you can chain multiple Peacock shortcuts in the shortcuts app, so it's not a super elegant

01:01:30 ◼   ► solution. Again, I also covered this in my review. Shortcut really needs a proper data flow, like

01:01:36 ◼   ► giving users the ability to pass input and have an actual output from a shortcut.

01:01:43 ◼   ► So right now it's kind of hacky, but you can do stuff like multiple clipboard actions and multiple

01:01:50 ◼   ► pick out shortcuts and you can change them together and you can make a single longer shortcut

01:01:56 ◼   ► that for example, and I have one of these on my Xories that you can download, given a single number

01:02:01 ◼   ► give me back a bunch of conversions in different currencies. So like given 10 euros give me the

01:02:10 ◼   ► equivalent in pounds and US dollars and another currency that I cannot add, I don't know, Japanese

01:02:15 ◼   ► yen for example. So the idea of, again, you can use a single shortcut in Siri or you can chain

01:02:22 ◼   ► multiple ones together in the shortcuts app. And the way that everything is done in PQLK

01:02:28 ◼   ► is actually kind of superior to the Apple system in that you can tap on shortcuts to

01:02:33 ◼   ► add them to settings or you can just create a city phrase. I really, really like it and

01:02:37 ◼   ► I wish that, you know, this should, this, James is going to hate me for saying this

01:02:42 ◼   ► but I think it should be an open source thing that other developers can implement. It's

01:02:46 ◼   ► really, really good. Sorry.

01:02:47 ◼   ► Oh that's nice of you. All that work you did. Oh just give it away for free!

01:02:52 ◼   ► No okay don't do it. I totally get it. This is a competitive advantage for Peacock but

01:02:56 ◼   ► it's really well done and I wish that more apps were like Peacock. So it's a compliment

01:03:01 ◼   ► and not a request.

01:03:03 ◼   ► It also has great iMessage stickers with a panda that I love very much.

01:03:07 ◼   ► With Pascal the panda.

01:03:09 ◼   ► I don't understand the Siri shortcut stuff as much as I understand iMessage stickers.

01:03:15 ◼   ► We also have Carrot Weather on the list,

01:03:18 ◼   ► as you would expect from Carrot Weather,

01:03:20 ◼   ► a big update here on day one with shortcut support

01:03:24 ◼   ► with a great visual shortcut so you can set up Siri

01:03:27 ◼   ► to say check the weather, check the forecast,

01:03:30 ◼   ► and it will pull in graphics from Carrot Weather.

01:03:32 ◼   ► So I have Federico's morning routine,

01:03:36 ◼   ► which I think you link to in your iOS 12 review.

01:03:39 ◼   ► And I've tinkered with that and added a couple things.

01:03:42 ◼   ► One of the things I added was Carrot Weather's

01:03:46 ◼   ► like weather intent.

01:03:47 ◼   ► So I can say hey, you know, show me my day

01:03:49 ◼   ► and it shows me my calendar,

01:03:50 ◼   ► it shows me what the weather's gonna be.

01:03:53 ◼   ► It's really great.

01:03:54 ◼   ► There's also Siri Watch Face support and WatchOS 5.

01:03:57 ◼   ► I've not played with this yet,

01:03:58 ◼   ► but I'm meaning to spend some time on the Siri Watch Face

01:04:02 ◼   ► to kind of see how that comes together.

01:04:05 ◼   ► And there's support for the new watch as well.

01:04:07 ◼   ► So as always Carrot Weather is in this list of apps

01:04:11 ◼   ► ready to go on day one.

01:04:12 ◼   ► Things has some really very impressive, you know, you're saying about, um,

01:04:16 ◼   ► Peacock has a really interesting way of creating shortcuts to be done.

01:04:21 ◼   ► It's a system. I think things is another very different,

01:04:24 ◼   ► but also very impressive implementation.

01:04:26 ◼   ► They've basically created a custom view

01:04:32 ◼   ► inside of things,

01:04:33 ◼   ► which allows you to build templates that get donated to the system as

01:04:38 ◼   ► shortcuts.

01:04:39 ◼   ► So you can pre-fill task names and due dates and project info,

01:04:43 ◼   ► or you can put clipboard in there and stuff.

01:04:45 ◼   ► It is a very, very clever implementation.

01:04:48 ◼   ► Yeah, I really like the idea of-- and again,

01:04:50 ◼   ► this is something that Apple-- I don't know how they feel

01:04:53 ◼   ► about it, but everybody's doing it,

01:04:54 ◼   ► and I kind of feel like it's too late at this point.

01:04:57 ◼   ► The clipboard as a variable, essentially,

01:05:01 ◼   ► every developer of productivity apps and utilities

01:05:04 ◼   ► are doing this.

01:05:06 ◼   ► using the clipboard as a way to get data into a shortcut and to get it out of a shortcut.

01:05:12 ◼   ► And the way that it works in things, I think it's really clever in that not only can you

01:05:19 ◼   ► read like a line of text from the clipboard, but you can also, if you have multiple lines

01:05:23 ◼   ► of text in the clipboard, you can choose to have the first line be used as the title of

01:05:30 ◼   ► task and subsequent lines can either be used as the note field or as multiple

01:05:36 ◼   ► items in a checklist. So that's really really clever and as per things

01:05:41 ◼   ► tradition the design is very elegant, very intuitive. Yeah, the clipboard as a

01:05:46 ◼   ► variable it's the shortcuts hack of 2018, you know. Everybody's doing it.

01:05:54 ◼   ► Everybody's doing it. All the cool kids are doing it now. The cool kids are doing it.

01:05:58 ◼   ► Sometimes it's like an app up there.

01:06:00 ◼   ► So I've got shortcut support and it's impossible to find,

01:06:02 ◼   ► like there's nothing in the app.

01:06:03 ◼   ► Like you'd never know.

01:06:04 ◼   ► You have to just go to settings.

01:06:06 ◼   ► Yeah, like I work.

01:06:07 ◼   ► Todoist is actually an offender of this.

01:06:11 ◼   ► It's impossible looking in the application

01:06:13 ◼   ► to find out what they've added.

01:06:15 ◼   ► You have to go to the settings screen to find them.

01:06:18 ◼   ► But they have given me the basic shortcuts

01:06:21 ◼   ► that I was hoping for.

01:06:23 ◼   ► Show me today all the tasks I have today

01:06:25 ◼   ► and show me what tasks I have for the next seven days is exactly what I wanted to build

01:06:30 ◼   ► into. I mean I have it so I could just call them up as simple shortcuts from Siri, but

01:06:34 ◼   ► also to build them into the shortcuts app as well and like morning routine things which

01:06:38 ◼   ► everyone all the cool kids are building morning routines and like show me what I have today

01:06:42 ◼   ► is a great part of that. So I very I like that a lot.

01:06:46 ◼   ► It's a it's a good addition. Yeah I'm using Todoist. I was glad.

01:06:51 ◼   ► Can we just quickly mention the promo video that Todoist shared yesterday on Twitter?

01:06:56 ◼   ► You know what? So I tweeted this, right?

01:06:58 ◼   ► Yeah, I know.

01:07:00 ◼   ► Because it looks like they have dark mode coming and some other features. So they're

01:07:06 ◼   ► using this incredibly dramatic music.

01:07:09 ◼   ► Like this screeching sound as soon as it...

01:07:11 ◼   ► It's like when they introduced the Mac Pro and the iMac Pro.

01:07:15 ◼   ► Yeah, it's like Hans Zimmery type stuff. And I will say, in their defense, like the CEO

01:07:21 ◼   ► of Doist tweeted at me. Because I said, "This feels a tad too dramatic for a to-do app."

01:07:27 ◼   ► And he replied and said, "Just wait for our upcoming sci-fi movie to-do list, Revenge

01:07:31 ◼   ► of the Dark Side." And I gotta hand it to the guy. I gotta hand it to the guy because

01:07:36 ◼   ► I'm making fun of his video and he's got a good job for me.

01:07:40 ◼   ► He's owning it, man.

01:07:41 ◼   ► owned it. I like that. I was like, okay, you got me. You got me. But that video is ridiculous.

01:07:48 ◼   ► However, I do really want Darkmodan to do it. So I will be happy when it comes, but

01:07:52 ◼   ► nevertheless.

01:07:53 ◼   ► And finally we have 1Password. And I wasn't clear until this shipped what changed with

01:07:59 ◼   ► the keyboard password entry. Federico, what does this do? Please teach me.

01:08:04 ◼   ► You want to know about password autofill, which is a new API in iOS 12.4.

01:08:09 ◼   ► Is that something to do with Phil Schiller?

01:08:10 ◼   ► I always think that every time auto Phil, it's like he just pops up

01:08:13 ◼   ► and he's like, I'll do your passwords for you.

01:08:16 ◼   ► Anyway, move on.

01:08:17 ◼   ► I have a second resignation letter today.

01:08:20 ◼   ► You can you can beam it to my Newton after we're done.

01:08:25 ◼   ► So in iOS 12,

01:08:29 ◼   ► third party password managers can now integrate with the quick type keyboard.

01:08:34 ◼   ► So the quick type keyboard actually means the Apple system keyboard.

01:08:38 ◼   ► but they call it the QuickType keyboard.

01:08:42 ◼   ► Just like you can have iCloud Keychain in there,

01:08:45 ◼   ► like on top of the keyboard when you're filling a login,

01:08:48 ◼   ► now you can have data from third-party password managers

01:08:51 ◼   ► in there. There are some limitations.

01:08:55 ◼   ► You cannot save new logins directly from the keyboard.

01:09:00 ◼   ► You can do this with iCloud Keychain.

01:09:02 ◼   ► Like if you log in into a web page

01:09:04 ◼   ► that it's not already stored in iconocatch and the system will ask you do you actually want to save

01:09:11 ◼   ► this login but if you have one password installed as a password autofill extension it will not ask

01:09:19 ◼   ► you if like hey do you want to save this in one password you can save new logins in the extension

01:09:24 ◼   ► but at the point it means you just have a model window up on the screen and you can save in in

01:09:29 ◼   ► in one password.

01:09:31 ◼   ► - Also when you bring up the keyboard based extension,

01:09:34 ◼   ► the QuickType based extension,

01:09:36 ◼   ► you can't copy information out of that.

01:09:39 ◼   ► So this is sometimes with Chrome, things don't auto fill.

01:09:43 ◼   ► Right, so with the old extension,

01:09:45 ◼   ► you can actually copy the password, which I would do a lot,

01:09:48 ◼   ► but you can't do that with the QuickType based one.

01:09:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, also I love the fact that Apple is opening this up

01:09:55 ◼   ► to third party developers,

01:09:56 ◼   ► But there are still a few things that are nicer in iClog Kitchen.

01:10:02 ◼   ► First of all, I think it does a better job at detecting the default login for a website

01:10:08 ◼   ► where maybe you have multiple logins, or at least the most recent one.

01:10:12 ◼   ► I don't think 1Password has a way to detect the most recent login that you use on a web

01:10:16 ◼   ► page.

01:10:17 ◼   ► iClog Kitchen does a better job at that.

01:10:20 ◼   ► And also, I mentioned the inability to create logins, but there's also the fact that 1Password,

01:10:25 ◼   ► to allow you to fill one-time codes

01:10:29 ◼   ► for two-factor authentication.

01:10:31 ◼   ► They need to rely again, you guessed it,

01:10:32 ◼   ► on a hack, which is the clipboard.

01:10:34 ◼   ► So when you, which is very nice and it totally works.

01:10:37 ◼   ► Like when you use the one password in the keyboard

01:10:41 ◼   ► and you fill a login, like you fill the username

01:10:44 ◼   ► and the password, the one-time code will be copied

01:10:48 ◼   ► to your clipboard so that on the next page

01:10:50 ◼   ► you can just paste and enter the security code.

01:10:54 ◼   ► It would be nicer if this was also an API,

01:10:57 ◼   ► that the keyboard actually,

01:10:59 ◼   ► if the keyboard extension knew that there was a way

01:11:03 ◼   ► to fill the security code,

01:11:05 ◼   ► you wouldn't have to do the dance

01:11:06 ◼   ► of opening the one password extension

01:11:07 ◼   ► and seeing the notification come up that says,

01:11:10 ◼   ► "Your code has been copied to the clipboard."

01:11:12 ◼   ► I think next year, either two things are gonna happen,

01:11:17 ◼   ► not necessarily together.

01:11:19 ◼   ► Either iCal Kitchen becomes a standalone app,

01:11:23 ◼   ► so like you have a kitchen app from Apple, sort of like you do on MacOS,

01:11:26 ◼   ► and/or Apple starts supporting one-time authentication codes natively,

01:11:32 ◼   ► so you will have an option to use iCloud Kitchen to authenticate with the six digit codes

01:11:38 ◼   ► that you can use for two-factor, or is it two-factor? It's not two-factor, it's two-step, right?

01:11:43 ◼   ► I always get it wrong. I think it's two-factor, maybe.

01:11:46 ◼   ► I have no idea. I have no idea, I'm sorry, it's one of those two.

01:11:50 ◼   ► I thought it was two-factor.

01:11:52 ◼   ► So yeah, this is how it works. It works in the Apple Season keyboard, it works in apps, it works in Safari.

01:11:59 ◼   ► If you use iCloud Kitchen, you get the extra benefits of being able to save logins.

01:12:05 ◼   ► If you use 1Password and other password managers like Secrets or Dashlane or LastPass, you will get the same extensions because they also support iOS 12.

01:12:15 ◼   ► I found a kind of funny bug which you've probably come across. If you try and create a new password in one password

01:12:22 ◼   ► The system keychain tries to fill the password. It's very strange

01:12:27 ◼   ► If you try and create a new entry like the systems like let me do that for you

01:12:32 ◼   ► It's like no, you don't understand you're not wanted here. Go away. I find that really funny

01:12:37 ◼   ► and I don't know what's going on there, but it makes me giggle every time because it's like the

01:12:42 ◼   ► The keychain is so excited about being able to create a password for me.

01:12:45 ◼   ► Yeah. Can I have an extra pick for this list?

01:12:49 ◼   ► Yeah. All right. So I want to mention an app that is going on my home screen as

01:12:53 ◼   ► soon as I have the time to reorganize my phone.

01:12:55 ◼   ► And the app is Lookup.

01:12:57 ◼   ► It's a dictionary app.

01:12:58 ◼   ► And I really, we covered it on Mac stories yesterday.

01:13:02 ◼   ► And I really like it because I've always been looking for a dictionary app that

01:13:05 ◼   ► would do two things at once.

01:13:07 ◼   ► One of them is give me a word of the day.

01:13:12 ◼   ► Like, as a non-native English speaker,

01:13:15 ◼   ► I want to extend my vocabulary as much as possible.

01:13:18 ◼   ► And so I really like the idea of word of the day type of services,

01:13:22 ◼   ► but I don't want to go to a website filled with junk and ads.

01:13:26 ◼   ► And Lookup in iOS 12--

01:13:27 ◼   ► -This is so beautiful. -Oh, it's very beautiful.

01:13:29 ◼   ► It's very pretty.

01:13:30 ◼   ► So it's a beautiful dictionary app.

01:13:33 ◼   ► But in the old versions,

01:13:34 ◼   ► I think it used to be more on just the eye candy side.

01:13:38 ◼   ► Like you had the word of the day, but not much else.

01:13:42 ◼   ► But now it's like a complete package

01:13:45 ◼   ► in that you can have the word of the day

01:13:47 ◼   ► and every word is accompanied

01:13:49 ◼   ► by these beautiful illustrations

01:13:51 ◼   ► and the definitions, of course.

01:13:53 ◼   ► But also with the latest version,

01:13:54 ◼   ► you can create collections of words.

01:13:56 ◼   ► And so while I'm reading,

01:13:58 ◼   ► I can add a word that I discovered to a collection

01:14:01 ◼   ► and I can have multiple collections.

01:14:03 ◼   ► So like words that I discovered

01:14:04 ◼   ► while reading video game articles

01:14:06 ◼   ► and words that I discovered

01:14:07 ◼   ► while reading technology articles, stuff like that.

01:14:10 ◼   ► And also, the type of data that you see

01:14:14 ◼   ► when you open a definition is much, much better

01:14:17 ◼   ► in version 5.

01:14:18 ◼   ► You have synonyms, antonyms.

01:14:19 ◼   ► You have, I think, example phrases even.

01:14:22 ◼   ► So it's really, really good, the data that you see.

01:14:24 ◼   ► And every feature of the app-- so the word of the day,

01:14:28 ◼   ► collections, liked words-- everything can be a shortcut.

01:14:32 ◼   ► And everything can be either open in the app

01:14:34 ◼   ► or displayed in Siri with a shortcut.

01:14:37 ◼   ► It's really, really good.

01:14:38 ◼   ► It's even got like this fancy,

01:14:40 ◼   ► not really useful, but also kind of funny as a demo

01:14:44 ◼   ► every once in a while, as like a look around you,

01:14:48 ◼   ► the dictionary, like you can point the iPhone's camera

01:14:50 ◼   ► at an object and get a definition

01:14:52 ◼   ► of the object you're looking at.

01:14:54 ◼   ► - Oh, very nice.

01:14:55 ◼   ► - But most of all, it's beautiful.

01:14:57 ◼   ► And in version five,

01:14:58 ◼   ► it's actually like a complete dictionary app.

01:15:01 ◼   ► It's not just beautiful.

01:15:02 ◼   ► In the old versions, it used to be like,

01:15:04 ◼   ► yeah, it's a beautiful word of the day,

01:15:05 ◼   ► but now you can actually use it.

01:15:07 ◼   ► Like as someone who needs to extend his vocabulary,

01:15:11 ◼   ► like being able to have collections is amazing.

01:15:13 ◼   ► And it's on the iPhone and the iPad.

01:15:15 ◼   ► So this is going straight to my home screen.

01:15:17 ◼   ► I just didn't have the time to do so yet.

01:15:19 ◼   ► - There's one last thing.

01:15:22 ◼   ► We're not gonna get into this.

01:15:23 ◼   ► You have to go and read about it.

01:15:25 ◼   ► It is possible to trigger IFTTT and Zapier actions

01:15:29 ◼   ► relatively easily from Siri shortcuts,

01:15:32 ◼   ► which can enable you to do wild things

01:15:35 ◼   ► like operate your Roomba or set your nest's thermostat temperature.

01:15:39 ◼   ► How would you know?

01:15:40 ◼   ► So exactly.

01:15:43 ◼   ► My Roomba Robbie makes an appearance in the Max Stories article.

01:15:48 ◼   ► So this is amazing.

01:15:51 ◼   ► This is very cool.

01:15:52 ◼   ► Like it opens up to even more interesting wicked and wild support for what shortcuts

01:15:58 ◼   ► can do.

01:16:00 ◼   ► So I recommend that.

01:16:01 ◼   ► Federico has the article about IFTTT and Zapier wrote their own which I thought was really funny

01:16:06 ◼   ► and kind of awesome so you can go and check those out so if you use those services you can you can

01:16:11 ◼   ► you can connect up things that HomeKit can't support so very very very cool stuff.

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01:17:58 ◼   ► for their support of this show and relay FM. So Stephen your time is here

01:18:04 ◼   ► next Monday Mac OS Mojave ships to the world how would you recommend well first

01:18:16 ◼   ► First off, do you recommend that connected listeners upgrade and if they do, and if you

01:18:22 ◼   ► recommend that they do, what are some things that they should be thinking about?

01:18:27 ◼   ► Because I think that an upgrade to Mac OS tends to be, it involves a lot more steps

01:18:32 ◼   ► than an upgrade to iOS, things can be a little bit more complicated, so what should people

01:18:37 ◼   ► be thinking about?

01:18:39 ◼   ► So all good questions in my iPad using Friend.

01:18:43 ◼   ► You want to make sure that your machine can actually run it.

01:18:47 ◼   ► The system requirements have changed over High Sierra, so if you were in sort of the

01:18:53 ◼   ► older machine camp for Sierra and High Sierra, you may have been dropped this time, including

01:18:58 ◼   ► both my Mac Minis.

01:18:59 ◼   ► So that's sad.

01:19:00 ◼   ► My home server will be on High Sierra for the time being.

01:19:04 ◼   ► So check that.

01:19:05 ◼   ► Of course, you always want to make sure--

01:19:07 ◼   ► More like, "Bye, Sierra."

01:19:08 ◼   ► Are we doing this again?

01:19:09 ◼   ► Rico you can send in your third letter if you need to. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I will.

01:19:15 ◼   ► So make sure you can run it. I have a backup so things like Time Machine are always good,

01:19:20 ◼   ► Backblaze is always good. If you really want like a belt and suspenders approach you can always

01:19:25 ◼   ► create a clone of your drive which means that you could boot up from the external if something

01:19:30 ◼   ► really goes wrong. There are a bunch of ways to do this. I like Carbon Copy Cloner, it's been the

01:19:35 ◼   ► app I use for a long time. Super Duper is another option. So if you have another external hard drive

01:19:39 ◼   ► and you really want to be extra cautious,

01:19:42 ◼   ► that's a good way to do it.

01:19:43 ◼   ► But I think most importantly is check the compatibility

01:19:47 ◼   ► of any mission critical apps.

01:19:49 ◼   ► If you're just using the built in applications in Chrome,

01:19:51 ◼   ► then you're fine.

01:19:53 ◼   ► But if you're doing production work of any kind,

01:19:55 ◼   ► or you're doing anything sort of outside the normal realm,

01:20:00 ◼   ► make sure that your apps are compatible with 10.14.

01:20:05 ◼   ► There have been a few things in my workflow

01:20:07 ◼   ► that I have had to receive updates during the beta,

01:20:10 ◼   ► including like Audio Hijack Pro and some of my editing tools.

01:20:14 ◼   ► And they're all ready now, but just take an afternoon

01:20:17 ◼   ► to kind of walk through your workflows

01:20:18 ◼   ► and make sure that everything that you need is supported.

01:20:22 ◼   ► This is not as big of a deal as it will be next year.

01:20:24 ◼   ► This is the last year, the last hurrah for 32-bit apps.

01:20:28 ◼   ► The system will, if you start a 32-bit app,

01:20:31 ◼   ► will give you a warning saying that this app

01:20:33 ◼   ► needs some attention.

01:20:35 ◼   ► Go bug the developer on Twitter.

01:20:37 ◼   ► I actually have only a handful of 32-bit apps

01:20:40 ◼   ► that I use on any regular basis,

01:20:43 ◼   ► and that number is shrinking,

01:20:44 ◼   ► so hopefully with all this lead time

01:20:47 ◼   ► there won't be many apps abandoned at this,

01:20:49 ◼   ► but this is, just like it was in iOS,

01:20:51 ◼   ► this is a big change,

01:20:53 ◼   ► and it's going to mean that some apps get left behind.

01:20:56 ◼   ► This means all Carbon apps are dead.

01:20:58 ◼   ► Rest in peace, James Thompson in the chat room

01:21:00 ◼   ► who has some Carbon code floating around, I think.

01:21:03 ◼   ► So that app compatibility thing's a big deal.

01:21:06 ◼   ► It's a really, really big deal next time.

01:21:08 ◼   ► So maybe get in that habit if you're not now.

01:21:10 ◼   ► As far as if you should upgrade or not,

01:21:14 ◼   ► that's a harder question.

01:21:16 ◼   ► It seems like especially over the last three or four builds,

01:21:19 ◼   ► like Mojave's stable, it was rough in the beginning,

01:21:21 ◼   ► but I've been using it a bunch.

01:21:23 ◼   ► I know Jason Snell's been basically booted from it

01:21:25 ◼   ► for a while now, and it's been fine.

01:21:29 ◼   ► So it's, you know, if your apps are compatible

01:21:32 ◼   ► and your machine supports it and you have a backup

01:21:34 ◼   ► and you wanna do it, then do it.

01:21:36 ◼   ► But it's not a groundbreaking change.

01:21:40 ◼   ► macOS is really mature.

01:21:42 ◼   ► This is in line with other releases.

01:21:45 ◼   ► We can talk about the features if you want,

01:21:46 ◼   ► but I would say that if all those boxes get checked

01:21:50 ◼   ► and you wanna do it, do it, but there's no rush either.

01:21:53 ◼   ► I don't think there's anything Mojave

01:21:54 ◼   ► that's like a must-have right from day one.

01:21:58 ◼   ► - What about someone like me?

01:22:02 ◼   ► Someone like you or you in particular?

01:22:05 ◼   ► My answer's pretty different.

01:22:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, when I say someone like me, I mean actually me.

01:22:08 ◼   ► - Should you do it?

01:22:09 ◼   ► - The person who is most like me.

01:22:11 ◼   ► - Are you still on Sierra?

01:22:13 ◼   ► No, you upgraded at some point.

01:22:14 ◼   ► - I think I had to.

01:22:15 ◼   ► There was a piece of software that forced me

01:22:16 ◼   ► to upgrade to High Sierra.

01:22:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, so I think if you have a production machine,

01:22:21 ◼   ► which like your iMac you use for audio recording

01:22:24 ◼   ► and editing and publishing,

01:22:25 ◼   ► that's really all you do on your Mac.

01:22:28 ◼   ► On a machine like that, I think the answer is always wait.

01:22:33 ◼   ► Not just for Mojave, but like,

01:22:36 ◼   ► so like for me, my laptop's on it,

01:22:37 ◼   ► and my iMac Pro is gonna be on High Sierra

01:22:39 ◼   ► probably for a couple of patches to Mojave.

01:22:41 ◼   ► I'll jump in on like, you know, point one or point two,

01:22:45 ◼   ► just to give it some time.

01:22:47 ◼   ► Because as wide as the public beta may be,

01:22:51 ◼   ► there are always things that come up

01:22:52 ◼   ► when it's in general release.

01:22:54 ◼   ► Because everyone downloads it.

01:22:55 ◼   ► and then we realize, oh, the login system

01:22:59 ◼   ► is completely destroyed, like it was in High Sierra,

01:23:02 ◼   ► or we have these security updates.

01:23:05 ◼   ► On a production machine, so Myke, like your iMac,

01:23:07 ◼   ► my iMac Pro, I think wisdom says

01:23:10 ◼   ► to give it a little bit of time.

01:23:12 ◼   ► I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

01:23:13 ◼   ► I don't think you're missing out on much,

01:23:14 ◼   ► unless you just really want dark mode.

01:23:16 ◼   ► I think it's totally fine to give it some breathing room.

01:23:20 ◼   ► There are some nice features that you may enjoy,

01:23:22 ◼   ► like there's a lot of finder stuff in this release

01:23:24 ◼   ► it's pretty interesting. But like if your workflow work has worked for the last 15 years

01:23:29 ◼   ► without these new finder features, I don't think it's going to like radically change

01:23:32 ◼   ► your life now.

01:23:34 ◼   ► It's probably unlikely that I would support like I would really adopt any of them anyway.

01:23:38 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:23:39 ◼   ► Right. I mean, like, what are some of the little finder features that you have found

01:23:43 ◼   ► the most compelling?

01:23:46 ◼   ► I think the most well, there's dark mode, which is not the most compelling one, but

01:23:50 ◼   ► It's the flashiest because it literally affects everything you see on the screen.

01:23:54 ◼   ► I mean, the finder, the finder enhancements, right? Cause that's that. Yeah.

01:23:59 ◼   ► Yeah. So finder enhancements are divided into a couple of sections.

01:24:02 ◼   ► You have desktop stacks, which, you know, the stacks have been on the docs.

01:24:07 ◼   ► It's like leopard. I think, you know,

01:24:08 ◼   ► you put your downloads folder in there and they spring out. It's handy.

01:24:11 ◼   ► I've got several, I use them all the time.

01:24:13 ◼   ► You can now have those on the desktop and they can be sorted automatically by a

01:24:17 ◼   ► bunch of different ways. So the default is by file type. So say that you have, you

01:24:23 ◼   ► know, 14 JPEGs, three PDFs, and four mp3s on your desktop. If you say load stacks,

01:24:29 ◼   ► then you just have three icons and all the mp3s are together, all the PDFs are

01:24:35 ◼   ► together, all the JPEGs are together. It's not a organizational change if you

01:24:39 ◼   ► browse in Finder to your desktop folder. They're not in subfolders, like it's just

01:24:43 ◼   ► visual change. But it can be a way to group things if your desktop is messy.

01:24:48 ◼   ► Where it gets more interesting is you can you can sort them you can have them

01:24:52 ◼   ► stacked automatically by date created, date modified, a lot more than just file

01:24:59 ◼   ► type. So if you need to sort things in specific ways or if you have a lot of

01:25:04 ◼   ► stuff on your desktop but you want it to look neat, this is pretty cool. And like a

01:25:10 ◼   ► lot of people just store a bunch of stuff on their desktop and this could be

01:25:13 ◼   ► useful to them. I think you can also sort into stacks by tags. If you're a big tag

01:25:17 ◼   ► user, like that's the way you think about file structure and like organization,

01:25:22 ◼   ► then this is gonna be huge for you because you just have like a stack with

01:25:26 ◼   ► all the tag stuff on your desktop in one place. So I think that's the most

01:25:30 ◼   ► interesting. I think the most powerful though is something that Apple calls

01:25:35 ◼   ► Quick Actions. So in the Finder there's now a modified right sidebar. So that's

01:25:42 ◼   ► always shown like preview of the file date modified that sort of thing that

01:25:46 ◼   ► now shows more metadata so like that's improved a little bit but then you have

01:25:52 ◼   ► quick actions and so what these are the finder comes with several of them built

01:25:56 ◼   ► in out of the box and you can create your own an automator so say that like a

01:26:00 ◼   ► common workflow for me is I have an image I need to downsize it to like

01:26:05 ◼   ► 2,000 pixels across to publish on the website you can just open that and do it

01:26:10 ◼   ► and preview or if you were a power user you could create an automator script to

01:26:14 ◼   ► do that and just like fire an automator action and do it but now you can

01:26:19 ◼   ► basically append those automator actions to finder. So if I am previewing an image

01:26:25 ◼   ► in finder the quick action bar now shows those custom automator actions to me

01:26:32 ◼   ► automatically based on file type. So you could you could go in and build your own

01:26:36 ◼   ► custom automator actions you can name them you give them an icon give them a

01:26:40 ◼   ► glyph and they're available to you really quickly. So if you're using

01:26:45 ◼   ► Automator a lot or you want to start now is a really good time because it used to

01:26:49 ◼   ► be like you had to save the Automator action as an application or know how to

01:26:52 ◼   ► like launch it from the contextual menu and now they're just exposed right in

01:26:56 ◼   ► the sidebar and I think that that is like giving Automator a new sort of a

01:27:01 ◼   ► new breath of life here you know years and years later after it was introduced.

01:27:06 ◼   ► So that's really interesting it's really powerful because you can do all this

01:27:10 ◼   ► scripting now basically just with the push of a button. I mean very much like

01:27:14 ◼   ► Siri shortcuts like it's a nag like the analogy is the the with the shortcuts

01:27:21 ◼   ► widget on iOS where you can drag you know slide over and you have you know

01:27:25 ◼   ► six or ten or whatever shortcuts that are just from a tap of a button this is

01:27:29 ◼   ► like that but they're contextually aware so if you're previewing a movie it will

01:27:34 ◼   ► not show you the quick action to downsize your image it's it's smart

01:27:38 ◼   ► about what you're viewing. And it's it's really pretty cool. I'm looking forward to seeing

01:27:43 ◼   ► how third party developers, they can bundle these in their apps like other extensions.

01:27:48 ◼   ► And so I'm looking forward to how, you know, other developers kind of surface things in

01:27:54 ◼   ► their apps directly into the Finder now.

01:27:56 ◼   ► Is that something you do really expect to see though?

01:28:00 ◼   ► I think so. I think I think with this release, Apple is okay, let me back up for a second.

01:28:06 ◼   ► So for a long time, macOS updates were more or less like, "We're doing this on iOS and

01:28:13 ◼   ► the Mac's going to get it too."

01:28:14 ◼   ► Right?

01:28:15 ◼   ► Like there was a lot of that over the last four or five years, even longer.

01:28:20 ◼   ► It feels like with 10.14, Apple is saying, "The Mac is different from the iPad in particular,

01:28:27 ◼   ► but different from iOS in all these different ways, and we are going to really double down

01:28:33 ◼   ► on the differences."

01:28:34 ◼   ► So the iPad doesn't have Finder, it's got files but it's not the same.

01:28:39 ◼   ► It doesn't have a desktop and the Mac does.

01:28:43 ◼   ► A lot of people use the desktop as their sort of operating, their like operating room.

01:28:48 ◼   ► Like that's everything on the Mac is just on the desktop and so make that better.

01:28:52 ◼   ► The Mac has always been a powerhouse for scripting and automation and they're making that better

01:28:56 ◼   ► and easier like more easily surfaced.

01:28:59 ◼   ► So I think this year they are making the Mac more Mac-like.

01:29:03 ◼   ► And I think that Mac develop, like real Mac developers,

01:29:06 ◼   ► like people who build like custom really good Mac apps

01:29:11 ◼   ► will support this because it's yet another way

01:29:15 ◼   ► that the Mac is sticky to the people who still use it

01:29:17 ◼   ► every day in their work.

01:29:20 ◼   ► And so I expect we'll see them.

01:29:21 ◼   ► I think that Mac developers are excited

01:29:25 ◼   ► about this sort of thing.

01:29:27 ◼   ► Again, like shortcuts.

01:29:29 ◼   ► Some new stuff to do, right?

01:29:30 ◼   ► There's new stuff to do, but it can surface your app in places

01:29:34 ◼   ► outside of your app bundle.

01:29:35 ◼   ► So I'm in Finder, and I can see a piece of functionality

01:29:38 ◼   ► that you wrote as a developer.

01:29:39 ◼   ► That's good for the developer.

01:29:40 ◼   ► That's good for the application.

01:29:42 ◼   ► And I think that is something that

01:29:44 ◼   ► will entice a lot of developers, or at least some developers,

01:29:47 ◼   ► to take on.

01:29:49 ◼   ► So yeah, so Mojave will be out on Monday.

01:29:52 ◼   ► Like I said, I ended up not writing a review.

01:29:55 ◼   ► I have covered just going to be scattered

01:29:57 ◼   ► across multiple websites that I've been working on this week so we'll round those

01:30:01 ◼   ► up in next week's show. If you really want dark mode and your apps all work

01:30:06 ◼   ► then have fun I guess. It'll be waiting for you sometime on

01:30:11 ◼   ► Monday. I forgot some really important follow-up. Oh yeah? Did we all get the

01:30:16 ◼   ► phones we wanted? Oh yeah. Yeah totally. We are getting the phones we wanted on

01:30:23 ◼   ► Friday right? All three of us? Maybe a slight situation with my delivery but

01:30:27 ◼   ► we'll see what happens. Is the bakery closed? I may have to play the bakery

01:30:32 ◼   ► card because I'm not sure if I need to be not at my house. We'll see. I'm trying

01:30:45 ◼   ► to make arrangements with the UPS in Rome. This is the benefit of store pick up, because

01:30:54 ◼   ► you could have built it into your day. Steven, can you do the conclusion Steven, otherwise

01:31:00 ◼   ► Myke is just gonna be "I told you so, store pick up, I live in London, Regent Street,

01:31:06 ◼   ► blah blah blah" Take the two, be on my phone. Take the two, we are NFC, wireless payments

01:31:12 ◼   ► and the queen, all that British stuff.

01:31:15 ◼   ► - So I'm in the same boat, you are Federico.

01:31:17 ◼   ► In store pickup was not available to me

01:31:20 ◼   ► in either color phone.

01:31:21 ◼   ► I ended up with space gray,

01:31:22 ◼   ► but it's because of my system of each device has a preset

01:31:26 ◼   ► and I go with whatever the Apple Store gods want me to order

01:31:29 ◼   ► so I went with space gray this time.

01:31:32 ◼   ► I'm very excited about the band,

01:31:33 ◼   ► less excited about the back,

01:31:34 ◼   ► so we'll see if that grows on me.

01:31:36 ◼   ► But, so I'm home delivery,

01:31:38 ◼   ► like I couldn't pick it up in the store.

01:31:40 ◼   ► The problem is I have a lunch meeting on Friday with someone here in town.

01:31:44 ◼   ► Generally UPS delivers very late in the day in my neighborhood.

01:31:49 ◼   ► You're leaving the house?

01:31:51 ◼   ► Some, well, I'm getting to what I've done. I have created a workflow for this.

01:31:55 ◼   ► Okay.

01:31:56 ◼   ► Usually UPS, like sometimes it's after dark, like we are like,

01:31:59 ◼   ► whatever the route is in Memphis, we are dead last on like my UPS drivers, uh,

01:32:04 ◼   ► route. And, uh, it's always been that way in this neighborhood.

01:32:07 ◼   ► We've lived here like five years.

01:32:09 ◼   ► So I figure I'm safe to go to lunch because he's probably not going to show up until four

01:32:16 ◼   ► or five and with a bunch of iPhones on Apple event days, he's always later because he has

01:32:22 ◼   ► to deliver a ton.

01:32:23 ◼   ► Like it really feels like days they they ship iPhones.

01:32:26 ◼   ► He always looks stressed and like he's always hours late.

01:32:30 ◼   ► But I know if I leave the house, I am tempting fate.

01:32:35 ◼   ► And then I have to call UPS and I have to beg them, "Don't try to deliver it again on

01:32:39 ◼   ► Monday.

01:32:40 ◼   ► Please hold it.

01:32:41 ◼   ► I will come to your depot at the airport with my ID in hand and I will receive it."

01:32:46 ◼   ► I don't want to do any of that.

01:32:47 ◼   ► So what my workflow is that I asked my very understanding, very forgiving spouse.

01:32:55 ◼   ► That's not a workflow.

01:32:58 ◼   ► I've got to go to this lunch meeting.

01:33:00 ◼   ► Would you mind being home when I'm gone at lunch in case UPS shows up?"

01:33:09 ◼   ► And so she agreed.

01:33:11 ◼   ► And so my workflow is that she's going to babysit for UPS and I'm going to do something

01:33:15 ◼   ► very nice for her as a thank you.

01:33:17 ◼   ► So that's my workflow.

01:33:19 ◼   ► So much pressure on Mary.

01:33:21 ◼   ► Right?

01:33:22 ◼   ► No, but if she's in the...she doesn't hear the door, right?

01:33:27 ◼   ► Like she's in so much pressure.

01:33:29 ◼   ► Maybe I'll have my Nest Cam on my iPad at lunch like loaded up so I could be monitoring

01:33:34 ◼   ► the front of the house.

01:33:36 ◼   ► I'm doing an early pick up so I'll have my phone before everyone.

01:33:39 ◼   ► Oh yeah because you have the tube and it's London.

01:33:43 ◼   ► I live in a country with healthcare.

01:33:45 ◼   ► I actually don't take the tube to Regent Street but you know whatever.

01:33:48 ◼   ► We have Uber in London.

01:33:50 ◼   ► Nope nope I'm taking a big train.

01:33:52 ◼   ► Well I don't care what you're taking you're gonna have your phone and I'm happy for you.

01:33:56 ◼   ► I have very conflicted feelings right now.

01:34:00 ◼   ► - Taking a rickshaw to the Apple store.

01:34:02 ◼   ► Is that it?

01:34:03 ◼   ► That's all we got?

01:34:04 ◼   ► I feel like we've been doing a lot of podcasts.

01:34:06 ◼   ► So if you want to find links to stuff we've talked about,

01:34:11 ◼   ► the articles we mentioned, the apps we talked about,

01:34:13 ◼   ► the YouTube videos, reviews we watched,

01:34:16 ◼   ► all that stuff is in your podcast player,

01:34:18 ◼   ► but it's also on relay.fm/connected/210.

01:34:23 ◼   ► If you go to the website, you can do a couple things.

01:34:25 ◼   ► You can email us feedback and follow up.

01:34:27 ◼   ► We love email for feedback and follow up

01:34:28 ◼   ► because it means I don't have to check Twitter.

01:34:29 ◼   ► You can become a member there as well

01:34:32 ◼   ► if you want to support the show directly.

01:34:33 ◼   ► There's a link there to become a member.

01:34:35 ◼   ► And you can do all that stuff online.

01:34:39 ◼   ► And if email's not your thing,

01:34:41 ◼   ► you can find us on LinkedIn, I think.

01:34:43 ◼   ► Are we all on LinkedIn?

01:34:45 ◼   ► No, just me? - Yes.

01:34:46 ◼   ► - Myke and I are on LinkedIn.

01:34:47 ◼   ► You can send us messages on LinkedIn.

01:34:50 ◼   ► You can follow us there. - Don't do that.

01:34:51 ◼   ► - Please don't do that. - Follow me on Instagram.

01:34:53 ◼   ► - Are we gonna do Instagram again?

01:34:54 ◼   ► - Okay, we'll do Instagram. - I am.

01:34:55 ◼   ► I'm doing it all the time now.

01:34:57 ◼   ► 'Cause as well, I'm gonna be posting stuff

01:35:01 ◼   ► when I get my iPhone on Instagram.

01:35:03 ◼   ► - Are you gonna do an IGTV?

01:35:04 ◼   ► You gonna?

01:35:05 ◼   ► - Probably not, I'll probably just keep it to stories, but.

01:35:08 ◼   ► - Okay, well, if you wanna be with the cool kids arts,

01:35:11 ◼   ► it's not IGTV.

01:35:14 ◼   ► - No, it's not, is it?

01:35:16 ◼   ► - That's really sad.

01:35:17 ◼   ► You can find us on Instagram, you can find us on Twitter,

01:35:19 ◼   ► you can find our emails, we're around.

01:35:21 ◼   ► Get in touch if you have comments

01:35:22 ◼   ► or questions about the show.

01:35:24 ◼   ► I'd like to thank our sponsors this week, Away, Pingdom, and Molekule.

01:35:27 ◼   ► You can learn more about them in the show notes as well.

01:35:29 ◼   ► And until our next episode, gentlemen, say goodbye.

01:35:32 ◼   ► I love you.

01:35:33 ◼   ► Cheerio!