181: Headspaced Against My Will

0:00:00(classical music)

0:00:02- I think this is the beginning of the show.

0:00:11It feels like the beginning.

0:00:12We were talking and then we paused for a second

0:00:14and now I'm thanking our sponsors,

0:00:16Squarespace, Pingdom, and Ting.

0:00:18- This is like last week where you started that poem

0:00:21and I didn't know it was the beginning of the show

0:00:23and I just kept saying things.

0:00:25- I know, I had to edit a bunch of that out.

0:00:27- Yep.

0:00:28- I wanna keep you on your toes.

0:00:29Connected episode 181. You've already heard the voice of one of my co-hosts, Myke Hurley.

0:00:35Myke, how are you? Very good. Are you good? We're also joined by Federico Vittucci.

0:00:41Hi, this is a strange introduction. I like it. My day is all topsy-turvy, so I am not in my office.

0:00:49I am in someone else's office on a conference room table, but I brought all my recording gear,

0:00:55So I have stuff everywhere and like I'm shocked that any of it works and it's been very,

0:01:01it's been a very disorganized day. I really like the imagination of you sitting at a very

0:01:08large conference table like there's you know you're like you're about to fire us or something

0:01:13you know like. Do you need to pretend that this is much much more serious and fancier than it is?

0:01:20I mean, I'm wearing a suit. Are you not wearing a suit?

0:01:22Um, sure. Yes, I am.

0:01:26Can I tell a very quick story about a conference room?

0:01:30So, uh, last year I spent a bunch of time in New York, right?

0:01:33And a friend of the show, Matthew Bischoff of Lickability,

0:01:38there was a day where I needed to get some work done.

0:01:42And he said that he would book a conference room at his co-working space for me.

0:01:46And I could just come and hang out and just get some work done there before

0:01:49I had to go catch my flight that evening because I was kicked out of my hotel.

0:01:54I had nowhere to go.

0:01:55So I arrive at the co-working space and like he shows me around

0:01:59and like takes me to the room and he takes me to this conference room

0:02:03where they were like, I'm not kidding, like 10 people in this room.

0:02:05And they like had paperwork strewn all over the table.

0:02:09Like they were having a real serious meeting.

0:02:11And but it was like five or 10 minutes after the time that I had it booked.

0:02:15So Matt just like pokes his head in the door and is like, we got this booked.

0:02:19and all these people are so mad because it's just me and they all get up and leave and

0:02:24then I spend like 90 minutes in that room with my iPad on my own and like and I just

0:02:30imagine them like they're like trying to find somewhere in this co-working space to continue

0:02:35their really important meeting like one of them walks by and just sees me on my own in

0:02:38this room not even on the phone to anyone. And everyone knows you can't do real work

0:02:42on an iPad so they figured you were just playing a game. Just playing a game. Consuming content.

0:02:47Yeah, that's it.

0:02:48You know, I've got a lovely little story now.

0:02:51As I was swimming yesterday, I came to the realization that my LTE Apple Watch is like

0:02:57a content capture device.

0:02:59It's like a whole new different thing, right?

0:03:01Because I can't consume anything on it.

0:03:04But like I bark, I attempt to dictate reminders to it.

0:03:09You know, we have a bit of a to and fro relationship, me and Siri on the Apple Watch, but I can

0:03:14get about 50% of what I'm looking to record can be recorded into it. So yeah, I was thinking

0:03:19oh it's like a content capture device and now I'm an analyst so.

0:03:23Okay, do you still use the bear microphone thing to save notes and stuff?

0:03:30Sometimes. If I'm saving ideas then I'll use like bear like you know I'll have an idea

0:03:34for something but typically what happens is I'm like oh I should send an email to this

0:03:39person about this thing so then I try and set a reminder but like typically that just

0:03:44doesn't really work and I have to play a game later on where I have to try and

0:03:49guess what the words mean. Are you doing that while you're swimming? Well not like

0:03:55while I'm underwater but like I will stop I will stop at a length and then and

0:04:04then do it you know like I'll stop by the side of the pool and paint my

0:04:08reminder and then go back to work. It's the life of a powerful media executive

0:04:12in the 21st century. Just say you're just telling your assistant to send all the invoices

0:04:21while just swimming in your golden pool? If you want to compare me to Don Draper, like

0:04:25that's totally fine. Because you remember he used to swim and stuff like that. So like

0:04:28if you want to, like you don't have to. That was not our intention. You're proposing this

0:04:33idea. I'm just saying, I'm just saying like if people want to call me to Don Draper of

0:04:37thing and they can do that but like they don't feel like they have to but you

0:04:42know you can is all I'm saying do you smoke and drink a lot I mean if that's

0:04:47what I need to do you know there are people who see you talking to your watch

0:04:51not realizing that it's an Apple watch or the series on the Apple watch like

0:04:55what is that guy doing oh I've given up the fact that everybody at the gym

0:04:59thinks that I'm a madman okay you gotta quit vlogging in there people don't like

0:05:03They really don't. They really don't.

0:05:06Alright, follow up.

0:05:08We have a t-shirt for sale. We have one week left. It is the Tiny Head tee. It's amazing.

0:05:14Thank you so much to everybody who has purchased a t-shirt so far. We have three amazing colors

0:05:19available from Cotton Bureau. Shipping worldwide and Cotton Bureau have flat rate international

0:05:24shipping now. I think it's like $8 maximum to go international, which is fantastic. This

0:05:29is the only time this t-shirt is going to be available. So if you do want to claim a

0:05:33high five in person from Stephen Hackett then you must be wearing this t-shirt whenever you see him.

0:05:38I will also, just to sweeten the pot, I will also add a high five into the mix so if you see me I

0:05:44will also high five you. You have one week left to buy one of these t-shirts. Stop, stop, stop,

0:05:48stop, stop. We are often together at WWDC. We need some sort of protocol. We're walking down the

0:05:54street, someone approaches us wearing the shirt. Do we, do I take one side, you take the other?

0:05:59it's like a double high five. What do I do? You could just like, I don't know, like run

0:06:04up in the middle and just give them a hug, you know? So like they get two high fives

0:06:08and then as their arms are up, you can get your arms around people. Don't do that. I

0:06:11don't think people would like that. That's a terrible idea. But I can wait in the background

0:06:16just bracing for the hug. Or you can just be there just like smiling and nodding, you

0:06:21know, like in approval. You're like, yeah, you did it. Like those guys in the background

0:06:27of rap videos, they just stand there in the background and nod?

0:06:31Sure, yeah you're like the producer of that high five or something. So if you want all

0:06:37of that to happen to you, it doesn't have to happen to you, if you don't want that to

0:06:42happen you can still buy a t-shirt, just don't raise your arms if you see us.

0:06:47Just don't wear it in San Jose. Yeah, all that. But it's a great t-shirt,

0:06:51it's a wonderful design, it's only available for six more days as we record this, so if

0:06:55If you're hearing this and the next episode isn't out, then you should buy one, because

0:06:59otherwise it's your last chance.

0:07:02Go ahead and pick one up.

0:07:03It's a great t-shirt.

0:07:04I can't wait to get mine.

0:07:05Last week we spoke about the Stocks app that comes with iOS so you can see how bad the

0:07:10economy is doing at any given time on your mobile device.

0:07:13And Myke, you had suggested that maybe this redesigned version that showed up in a government

0:07:20article would support cryptocurrencies and turns out that it already does. I had no idea

0:07:27of this. You hadn't, it's shocking to me that it's in there honestly.

0:07:30Thanks to Philip for sending that in. Basically I pontificated that it might be this because

0:07:37it was literally the only reason I could think of as to why you might want to redesign the

0:07:42stocks app. Now I can't think of what that possible reason would be. I don't know why

0:07:49you would need to redesign the Stocks app specifically, if it's on its own. If you're

0:07:55doing an entirely new design thing, that's a really good way of putting the phrase "redesign",

0:08:05then I would understand it, but if it's purely just the Stocks app, I can't work out why

0:08:09you would do it. I guess we can all look forward to June!

0:08:13Something else talking about Apple software and features that haven't been released yet

0:08:18but may be out there somewhere, AirPlay 2 has been banished from the most recent iOS

0:08:24and tvOS beta.

0:08:25So it was there for a while, and now it's gone again.

0:08:29Poor AirPlay 2.

0:08:30Oh man, do you think it's going to make 11.3?

0:08:34I don't know.

0:08:36I don't think so.

0:08:38It's not a good sign.

0:08:41I mean, if you compare that to messages in the cloud, which is still in the beta, even

0:08:46Even though Apple is still saying we are evaluating the functionality, whatever.

0:08:50But this one is gone.

0:08:52So it's not a good sign.

0:08:55I actually was kind of liking the ability to stream to multiple devices and control

0:09:01from Control Center.

0:09:03So I wonder, I mean, do we expect 11.4 even before WWDC?

0:09:10Because if that's not the case, I wonder if AirPlay 2 will be an iOS 12 feature at this

0:09:17point?

0:09:18Oh, it's gotta ship.

0:09:19It's gotta ship in 11.

0:09:20Because of the hump art, like, they have to ship it, surely.

0:09:24They said later this year, so later this year could be iOS 12.

0:09:29That would be so bad.

0:09:30Can you tell me, is the latency better with AirPlay 2?

0:09:34Oh yes, much, much better.

0:09:37Like for AirPlay 1 you get like 3 to 4 second delay and the way the AirPlay 2 works, the

0:09:44buffering has been enhanced so it keeps in basically in the audio buffer it keeps more

0:09:50seconds.

0:09:51So like it starts right away but then it starts kind of caching the audio so you can also

0:09:56skip around without delays and you can do like you can cue songs, you can walk around

0:10:02the house and it will not be a problem because it has already buffered the, you know, like

0:10:08a song. So for example with Airplay 1, if you start playing a song and then you walk

0:10:12outside there's a good chance that the song will stop playing.

0:10:15Right, but something like Overcast, there's no benefit until Marco puts Airplay 2 support

0:10:22in, right? Is that true?

0:10:23Yes. Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work because you need to change,

0:10:27you need to adopt an entirely new framework.

0:10:31time I just think that something's broken. Every single time I send a podcast to the

0:10:36airport, I just assume that something's broken because it just takes such a long time. Never

0:10:42mind, maybe one day. Something I saw just before we went on to record today, I thought

0:10:47it was kind of cool. Nest have added Google Assistant to their Nest Cam IQ indoor camera.

0:10:53So if you own one of their indoor Nest Cams, the IQs, you can get via a software update

0:11:00Google Assistant features and Nest are saying that it is the full functionality of a Google

0:11:06Home product, so you can give commands to it and stuff like that.

0:11:11I don't think it would be a good idea to necessarily try and play music from the camera, I mean

0:11:15like it has a speaker in it but I feel like that might not be a great experience for you,

0:11:20but you could, you know, you could set and unset things, turn on lights, turn off lights.

0:11:24I like the idea of just, as I'm saying this phrase, I can understand people like, this

0:11:31sounds like nails on a chalkboard, I like the idea of having microphones in more products.

0:11:39Because if you are in on one of these systems, whether it's like the Echo or the Google Home,

0:11:46you want to be able to just give the commands wherever you are, right?

0:11:49I feel like everyone that I know that has gotten deep into this thing ends up with more

0:11:54than one Echo, for example, right? Because you kind of just want these devices to be

0:11:59wherever you are in the home. So yeah, I think that way, I think it's cool to have more of

0:12:06these types of functions, like in more and more devices. I think that's good. So yeah,

0:12:10Steven, do you have one of these? I don't. I have a couple of the, the original Nest

0:12:16cams, you know, that were basically just a drop cam that they rebranded. I'm interested

0:12:22checking one out though because it does a lot of stuff that's smarter than the

0:12:25original. But what excites me about this story is, you know, there was a

0:12:31story last week, a couple weeks ago, that Nest is being folded back into Google

0:12:35after being sort of spun out for a while. Still with an alphabet but not within

0:12:39Google. And I think this is like the first sign that hopefully we are now in

0:12:45a place where Nest hardware and software is going to get regular updates. It's like,

0:12:48I like my stuff, but for instance I have the NES security system and

0:12:53It is like completely unaware of my cameras unless the alarm goes off

0:12:59So if the alarm gets tripped then it turns all the cameras on but if I disarm

0:13:03the security device

0:13:06Then the cameras don't turn off like there's no like there's so many obvious things they could do with their ecosystem

0:13:13system. And I'm hoping, now that Google's back in charge of it, that we see more of

0:13:18this stuff, that these devices get smarter and more capable. So this is cool, and it's

0:13:23clever if you have one of these cameras, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what's

0:13:26next out of this company.

0:13:28For the last few days, Federico's been teasing me and Steven that he has some surprise follow-up.

0:13:37this works out to be typically bad for us, like something's gonna happen and like,

0:13:46there's usually some kind of surprise that has like a ramification, like for example,

0:13:51oh by the way I'm using a beta version of Mac OS, or you know, like just these things,

0:13:57right, you just throw these things at us and it has some kind of ramification. I'm very

0:14:03keen to know what this is but I want to take a break first to build suspense.

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0:15:47All right, Tichi, lay it on us.

0:15:49What have you done?

0:15:50- All right, so you know how I have a HomePod

0:15:55in the kitchen, right?

0:15:57In the kitchen/living room space.

0:16:00And you know that for many reasons I cannot record podcasts

0:16:05in the kitchen/living room,

0:16:08because of the dogs and because there's people, right?

0:16:11So of course I record podcasts like right now

0:16:15in my bedroom, correct? So I wanted to do this. Hey Siri, make the desk light red. So

0:16:25I have a second HomePod. Oh boy. Oh god. As soon as you said, as soon as you said, "I

0:16:34have a HomePod in the kitchen." I knew where this was going. But like, okay, come on, carry

0:16:41on. You are probably actually, I'm not done, you're probably the only person in the world

0:16:46that's done this, right? I'm probably the only person in Italy that has two home pods.

0:16:52Probably in Europe. Like, it's not even available in your country. Poor John. That's who I feel

0:16:59sorry for on all of this. That's the thing, it's not coming from John. Okay. So, so I

0:17:10I was liking the HomePod so much. I like actually using it a lot, a lot more than I expected.

0:17:20And I realized, you know, I do a lot of things around the house. I like listening to music

0:17:29when I do those things. And once I realized that the HomePod sounds great at like 50 to

0:17:3670%. I was looking at the echo on my next stand and I was like, "You know, buddy, maybe

0:17:44it's time for you to go." And what also prompted me to sort of research this was the idea of

0:17:53this product is getting better, in theory, in the future sometimes, with, you know, the

0:18:00stereo pair and that kind of stuff. And also I was surprised by the fact that Syria didn't

0:18:07mind Syria so much. And so I started looking on eBay. You know, the Italian version.

0:18:15This is like how you got your echo.

0:18:17Kinda. But it got worse from a certain point of view. So I started doing some research

0:18:26trenibals, like, I wonder if there's any Italian that has got a home pod and wants to sell

0:18:32the home pod, but I want a white one, because it goes well with my white nightstand. And

0:18:38so I started looking and I found this person with a white home pod, in theory imported

0:18:43from the United States. There were other Italians that were selling black home pods, or there

0:18:50were some home pods from the United Kingdom, others from Germany, which I didn't really

0:18:54trust, I wanted somebody in Italy so that I wouldn't incur again in custom, you know,

0:19:00in taxis and that kind of stuff. So I found this person and he's from northern Italy.

0:19:07And I'm, so I send him a message, I was like, is this like, is this legit? Which I realize

0:19:12it's, if you're talking to like, if you're talking to a scammer.

0:19:16Because the only answer is yes, isn't it?

0:19:18Of course it's legit.

0:19:19Oh, you got me.

0:19:20"Oh, you got me!" You know the smuggler's code. If you're asked, then you must be

0:19:32asked. So I'm talking to this person and I'm like,

0:19:38so I have, where does this home park? So I tried to be clever. I was like, is the box

0:19:44damaged because of the transportation from the United States to Italy.

0:19:51It's like, "No, no, the box is all fine, it's all sealed, it's new, it's new coming from

0:19:57the United States, and it can be with you in two days if you use DHL Express."

0:20:02It's like, "Okay."

0:20:04So I'm looking at this auction on eBay, and there's a picture of the serial code for a

0:20:10serial number of the device.

0:20:13But I need to zoom into the serial code and I cannot understand some of the letters and

0:20:18the numbers.

0:20:19So I'm looking at Apple's website and I'm trying to guess what the serial number is

0:20:22to see if it's a real product or not.

0:20:24But I cannot get it.

0:20:25It feels like a flawed thing to do because you end up just plugging in a random serial

0:20:29number.

0:20:33But it's not working.

0:20:34So what I do is, because I've heard on the news, you know, people, especially lately

0:20:40in Italy, I don't know what's going on, but a lot of people are like being scammed on

0:20:44eBay and these similar websites to buy and sell stuff from other people, individuals.

0:20:51So I'm doing some research on the guy and like I spent an entire afternoon looking at

0:20:56this person's life. I discovered that he's also selling his parents' apartment.

0:21:02Did you buy that too?

0:21:05No, I found where it lives, I found where it works, which probably the guy wants to

0:21:11have some privacy, you know, so he should look into that.

0:21:16But he seems like a friendly note later on, maybe put it in his eBay feedback.

0:21:22He seemed like a real person with a real job at a tech related kind of position and also

0:21:30an Apple fan.

0:21:31It was on Twitter, like asking developers to update their apps for iPhone X support

0:21:36and that type of stuff.

0:21:37You know, he's fighting the good fight, you know?

0:21:39Yeah, you're my kind of guy.

0:21:40You're my kind of guy.

0:21:41I trust you.

0:21:42I will tell you.

0:21:44So I get the HomePod and it arrived two days ago.

0:21:51It was really, really hard for me to keep it a secret from you two and Jon.

0:21:56I really wanted to take a picture and send it on iMessage.

0:22:01But as soon as it arrived, so of course I made all my preparations, I had like a ceremony

0:22:06for the Echo which is now gone.

0:22:09I bought from Amazon a second US adapter and I take the HomePod out of the box and I plug

0:22:17it in and it doesn't work.

0:22:19So I was like oh my god what have I done here I just wasted money.

0:22:23Was it one of those things where it was actually just a big slab of meat?

0:22:27- I was picking up the home pod,

0:22:32I was like rotating the home pod in my hands,

0:22:34and I like, what did I just buy?

0:22:36So like, just a stereo with bricks inside,

0:22:41but after wasting like a solid 20 minutes,

0:22:45panicking that I just sent some guy on eBay

0:22:49money for a home pod that was broken,

0:22:51I realized that for some reason,

0:22:54After, I needed to touch the top surface

0:22:58to activate the HomePod.

0:23:00It was not responding to Siri commands.

0:23:05It was not bringing up the prompt request

0:23:07to do the setup on iOS.

0:23:10I just needed to touch the surface once,

0:23:13and then everything was fixed.

0:23:15So anyway, it's perfectly fine.

0:23:18It works.

0:23:19And yesterday, in fact, I wanted to send you a screenshot

0:23:23from the 11.3 beta 2 that had the option to create a stereo pair, which is now gone from

0:23:31the beta 3, but I couldn't because I needed to keep my surprise.

0:23:35How would you even have that option?

0:23:37Exactly.

0:23:38I have a simple question for you, and I'm not trying to judge you or anything about

0:23:45your purchase.

0:23:46Yes.

0:23:47But like, why though?

0:23:51I don't feel like I fully understand why you feel right now that a second home part is

0:23:59what you need, like when you always have an iOS device from you.

0:24:02And I'm not saying that you've made a bad decision.

0:24:06I have one of these things in my house, right?

0:24:08And I don't feel like I need another one of them.

0:24:12So there's a couple of reasons for that.

0:24:15The first one is listening to podcasts.

0:24:19I do stuff around the house, especially in the morning, whether I'm like doing chores

0:24:24around the house or playing with the dogs.

0:24:27And are you doing multi-room there then? Is that what you like?

0:24:30It doesn't work yet, but during the day I tend to, let's say, hang out between the hallway

0:24:37and my bedroom and it's easier for me to, and it's better for me to listen to a podcast

0:24:42on the HomePod on my nightstand than from the one in the kitchen. So like I don't have

0:24:48to put the one in the kitchen a hundred percent so I can hear the voices of people. I can

0:24:53just listen to the one in the bedroom. And also at night, like after work, before we

0:24:59go to sleep, Sylvia and I, we like to just lie in bed and listen to music. We have a

0:25:05playlist that we listen to, like a shared family playlist. And while we used to listen

0:25:11on my iPhone or on the iPad, even at 20% at night when everything's quiet and external

0:25:19noise and sounds are not a concern, it sounds really, really good on the HomePod. And I

0:25:25wanted to have that kind of experience on my nightstand, essentially. I wanted to have

0:25:3020% volume music coming out of the HomePod to relax at night. And I realized that it

0:25:37totally does not justify this kind of purchase, but with those couple of reasons for the immediate,

0:25:45if you will, curiosity of and need maybe to have a second HomePod with the prospect of

0:25:52this thing is going to have stereo pair, it's going to do multi-room audio in the future,

0:25:56I was like, you know, I don't want to wait for Apple to make up their mind and get a

0:26:00second HomePod, and get a second HomePod when it launches in Italy, I want to get one right

0:26:05now. And also there was the idea of maybe, you know, not a lot of people have a second

0:26:11HomePod and maybe when the features for multi-room and serial pair, they become available, I

0:26:17can be one of the few people that can write about it.

0:26:20So you must have been really sad then when it got removed from 11.3.

0:26:25Well, yes, yes. But it was not working anyway. You only had the option to create the serial

0:26:33pair.

0:26:34It getting removed completely means it's less likely that it will be there at all, right?

0:26:39Yeah, it's not a good sign. And also I should mention that, again, the uncertainty of not knowing

0:26:46when Italy will get the HomePod, and it could be tomorrow, it could be in two months, which

0:26:51I mean, it's possible, but we are planning on moving soon enough in the near future, and I want

0:27:02to move to a bigger place. So having two HomePods, ideally even if I have like a personal office

0:27:09space, just like a room for me, that'll be all set because I will already have a second HomePod just

0:27:16for me. You mentioned something about the HomePod that I meant to talk about last week, but it's

0:27:22bothered me and my family more. If the HomePod is just sitting there and you just touch the top of

0:27:30it, it will start playing the music that it was playing last, even if it was like 24 hours

0:27:36ago. And it, at least what our HomePod is right now in the kitchen, it's actually kind

0:27:42of easy to touch the top of it because it's like there's other stuff on the counter around

0:27:45it and like all you gotta do is brush the thing and it starts playing. I would like

0:27:50to see that be an option or that I could just turn that off because it's, it has surprised

0:27:55several of us several times over the last week or so that you just touch the thing and

0:28:00"Oh yeah, I was listening to that yesterday," and all of a sudden it's blaring again.

0:28:04Yeah, one of my dogs, she put her nose on the home pod and really loud music started

0:28:12playing and she ran away scared.

0:28:14She'll have a lesson.

0:28:16Don't touch it.

0:28:18It's a good lesson.

0:28:20Wouldn't it be great if everything she touched could just have music come out of it?

0:28:26It's a personal dog DJ.

0:28:29That's what it is, yeah.

0:28:31So anyway, two HomePods.

0:28:34As you can imagine, the multi-room stuff totally does not work.

0:28:39The Control Center UI is still super weird, and the more you add to that list of output

0:28:46devices the longer it becomes and the more awkward it seems.

0:28:51I think it's okay, but I imagine adding another one would make it not so okay.

0:28:57Yeah, yeah.

0:28:58And the white HomePod is totally a dust magnet.

0:29:04So you need to keep the thing clean every day because you can tell the differences between

0:29:12the space grey one and the white one.

0:29:14Especially if you have dogs, you know, they're messy.

0:29:15So I need to clean my HomePod on a daily basis because it's white.

0:29:21But it looks fantastic.

0:29:23I think it looks really nice.

0:29:24It can take great pleasure and like how people clean their soccer trophies or whatever, you

0:29:30know?

0:29:31That's you but with the HomePod.

0:29:33Yeah.

0:29:34So, I wanted to thank the guy from eBay.

0:29:37I sent a really positive feedback comment.

0:29:43It was really kind.

0:29:44I could tell that it was an Apple person.

0:29:47He was like, "Enjoy your HomePod.

0:29:49I really like mine."

0:29:50I was like, "Yeah."

0:29:51Did you give him some notes about his operational security?

0:29:54No, no, I did not.

0:29:57I think the problem is that in his kindness

0:30:00he sent me his phone number and then from there it just

0:30:04snowballed because I was able to find everything about him.

0:30:07I am changing my phone number and I will not give you the new one.

0:30:12So yeah, that was my surprise.

0:30:16Did I... is this concerning? Like you said that my surprises always cause some kind of damage?

0:30:22Or preoccupation for you?

0:30:25This doesn't necessarily affect me, personally, but I am a little concerned for you, I think.

0:30:31Why though? Why?

0:30:33Because two HomePods is a lot of HomePods. That's like, two more HomePods than most people need.

0:30:39And also, I... there was a segment on, I think it was last week's ATP, that I quite liked about...

0:30:45about not buying hardware for the promise of future software or something like that,

0:30:54right? And you just mentioned the one thing, it's like, "Oh, well, you know, I bought these

0:30:58now, and it's gonna get better later." But at the same time, they are continuing to delay

0:31:03the software features that are the only ones we know about, right? So it's like, "Ah, what

0:31:08if it just never gets there? What if AirPlay 2 just never, ever happens?" Like, we don't

0:31:13know. So yeah, it's just but you know, if it's working for you as it is right now, then

0:31:18great. But like, you know, that's the reason that I wouldn't buy a second one. I don't

0:31:24think I ever I can't never say never but like, I don't imagine in the near to mid term future

0:31:32that I would be replacing my Amazon echoes for like the home pod to me is just a smart

0:31:38audio, like music. It's a smart music device is what I'm trying to say, right? Like, it

0:31:45could do something that I've really struggled with for using the Echo. Like I wanted to

0:31:52listen to the band that I love called the Wild Reeds, which Federico introduced me to,

0:31:58and I can never remember the name of their album. So I asked the HomePod to play me the

0:32:04most recent album and it did it and this is something that I really struggled with on

0:32:10the Echo. Any album which is the name of one of the songs, the Echo just can't deal with.

0:32:21The most recent Kings of Leon album would never play the album. It would only ever play

0:32:27the song by the name and I would ask it to play the most recent. This was a while ago

0:32:31and it just wouldn't work. So, you know, it does a good job of like smartly understanding

0:32:36what I want from a music perspective and it can tell my lights on and off, but it doesn't

0:32:41have IFTTT support, which is something that I use every single day with my Echo and yeah,

0:32:46stuff like that. So anywho, but yeah, if it's working for you, man, more power to you.

0:32:50Yeah. Yeah. I should mention that also with Homebridge, I can have IFTTT support and it's

0:32:57super nice because I need to listen.

0:32:59I'm assuming you spoke about all of this on Canvas, right?

0:33:02There's an episode of Canvas.

0:33:03No, no.

0:33:04Yeah, because it's tricky to talk about Linux, that kind of stuff on a podcast.

0:33:10Because at some point I want you to explain this Homebridge thing to me, but I assume

0:33:15you're going to write about it.

0:33:16Yes, yeah, because it's easier to show what you're actually doing.

0:33:19But basically, I wanted to mention another thing that because this speaker is on my nightstand,

0:33:26without having to shout, you know, comments to the living room, I can just, for example,

0:33:31change channels on my TV with Siri or, you know, switch inputs, for example, because

0:33:37I have a bunch of recipes on IFTTT that hook up to the Logitech Harmony account and basically

0:33:45with Homebridge I can create buttons and switches for Siri to activate those Logitech Harmony

0:33:53recipes, which is super, super cool.

0:33:55I want you to write about this so I can read about it and then we can talk about it, because

0:33:59I'm kind of fascinated by the screenshots that you keep sharing of this thing.

0:34:03Yeah, yeah, I will.

0:34:05You also have some DuckDuckGo-related follow-up from a few weeks ago.

0:34:08Okay, yeah.

0:34:09So this is quite simple.

0:34:12I realize that I'm using...

0:34:15I was missing the, more than I expected, the ability to look for real-time content, let's

0:34:24say news and local search results on Google.

0:34:29And DuckDuckGo totally fails at that.

0:34:32I tried to use it, as I mentioned,

0:34:35for everything on all of my devices, even my MacBook.

0:34:39But I was finding myself constantly typing the Google

0:34:47shortcut to redirect DuckDuckGo search to Google,

0:34:51because I couldn't find the news that I wanted to find,

0:34:55like results for the last 24 hours, for example,

0:34:58or just any kind of search result in Italian.

0:35:02Like, DuckDuckGo seems to do pretty well in the United

0:35:07States.

0:35:07And if I were an American person,

0:35:10I would probably use DuckDuckGo, because the English search

0:35:15results seem pretty comparable to Google, honestly.

0:35:19But as much as I like to pretend that I'm an American living

0:35:23in Italy, I actually do use Google Search a lot in Italian.

0:35:29And also, I use Google to find news in both languages.

0:35:33But it's another feature that DuckDuckGo does not do well at.

0:35:39So I needed to switch back to Google,

0:35:40because it didn't make sense to just keep

0:35:43entering the shortcut to switch back to Google Search.

0:35:47I'm just going to switch back to Google all the time. And it's something that I was not

0:35:52expecting because I don't think this is totally, totally like a weird thing to say, but I don't

0:35:59think of myself as someone who uses a computer in Italian. All of my devices are set to US

0:36:06English. I, of course I write in English. I talk in English. I did not expect to look

0:36:12for Italian stuff. So it's probably something that I block out in my brain and that I do

0:36:17just instinctively. But it turns out that like I was typing stuff in DuckDuckGo in Italian

0:36:22and it was not working. I was like, huh. So I guess I do use I do type things in Italian

0:36:28sometimes. And yeah, that's the reason why I need to use Google again, because Google

0:36:33is actually pretty awesome at understanding whether you want English content or Italian

0:36:38content and also news, like filtering by the last x hours or week or days. So yeah, that's

0:36:47the reason why I need to use Google again. I don't like it, but I have to, because otherwise

0:36:51it's just a waste of time if I keep entering the Google bang, whatever it's called, in

0:36:56DuckDuckGo.

0:36:57Yeah, because then all you're doing is just Google searching. You're back to square one

0:37:00again. It's taking you longer to do it, perform any search.

0:37:03Yeah, exactly. So I still don't like it, it's got problems, but yeah, it's what it is.

0:37:11So as Steven points out on my message, I need to stand, because I need to close my rings.

0:37:17So if you want, Myke, you can thank our friends at Pingdom, and we'll move on to the next

0:37:22topic.

0:37:23Wow, look at this.

0:37:24That's professional.

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0:38:55So I stood, I gained my hour, and I'm back.

0:38:59Well, I'm very happy to hear that.

0:39:01Federico, this is actually a very Federico heavy episode today.

0:39:07Because we are bringing back the much applauded segment, "Teachy Teachers", because today,

0:39:15you're going to teach us all about automation in Things 3.4, which came out today as we

0:39:21record.

0:39:22Alright.

0:39:23Yes.

0:39:24So what is this?

0:39:25embraced a web API? Is that what I'm getting?

0:39:27No, it's not what it is. I'm sorry. That's not. This is a plain old-fashioned URL scheme

0:39:35for communicating with other apps and workflows and launchers and stuff like that. It's no

0:39:41web API. And it doesn't include improvements to mail to things either. It's just a way

0:39:48to automate locally on your device between apps. But I think it's been really done well,

0:39:58primarily because of the documentation that is on the web. And I think even if you're

0:40:03not really proficient in URL schemes and stuff like that, you can read through the docs.

0:40:10And the documentation makes sense. It's written really well. And there's an idea that I really

0:40:17like, which is called the link builder. It's this interface on the web, on the

0:40:23CodeShortCode website, that allows you to enter text in different fields of the

0:40:31supported commands for things, and in real time as you type you will see how

0:40:36the URL scheme changes. So it's a way to sort of combine like a basic GUI

0:40:43with URL schemes and see how what you enter gets encoded, for example, or the way that you're supposed to format data

0:40:54if you want to send a task to things or if you want to create a project in things.

0:40:59So that's really helpful for users who never played with this stuff before.

0:41:07So my first recommendation would be go check out the documentation and play around with the link builder and see what it looks like

0:41:14That said, of course, I've been using things. I think we talked about this in December

0:41:21Myke was really surprised by my decision a bunch of other people were

0:41:25I'm still using things. It feels great and with the automation

0:41:31it's now possible to

0:41:34Do things that were not supported at all before things used to offer

0:41:40URL scheme for automation, but it was really basic now. It's

0:41:44Maybe not as powerful as the one from OmniFocus

0:41:49It doesn't have a few options that OmniFocus has namely attachments

0:41:54You can still not include file attachments in things

0:41:58but I think it's been presented more clearly and

0:42:04And there's a few unique design choices in things that are also supported with automation

0:42:12that make me prefer this to OmniFocus automation.

0:42:16I mean, besides the whole, you know, things is a completely different app from OmniFocus.

0:42:22So in my examples that I covered today, there's a few things that I want to call out.

0:42:27You can now create tasks in the app, of course.

0:42:30You can also launch any view in things from something like Launch Center Pro or Launcher

0:42:36or Workflow, whatever.

0:42:39You can open the today list, the upcoming list, or you can open a project, you can launch

0:42:45a tag view, which is not as easy to get to if you're using the Things app.

0:42:50You want to see what are my tasks that have been tagged with writing, for example.

0:42:57It's not so easy in the app because you need to search for the tag and then open the tag

0:43:01view.

0:43:02If you just create a launcher, you can tap a button in your Today widget and the link

0:43:08will take you there in things in just a second.

0:43:12Also, what I use all the time now is the ability to open a view and also automatically filter

0:43:20the view by one of the tags that I have.

0:43:24So for example, if I want to see today the things I'm supposed to edit, because I'm editing

0:43:30a bunch of articles from John and Ryan, for example, I can create a launcher that is called

0:43:37Today Editing, and it takes me to the Today screen and automatically filters the screen

0:43:42to show me editing tasks.

0:43:44So that's really good.

0:43:45And then you're using something like Launcher 5?

0:43:49I use, I think it's called Launcher Pro.

0:43:51Launcher Pro?

0:43:52Launcher Pro. Yeah, that's what I use. And I use it because it lets me resize. This is

0:44:01totally like a minor reason to use it, but it lets me resize the icons in the widget

0:44:06and still keep a text label underneath them, even if it gets truncated within ellipses.

0:44:12But yeah, that's why I use it. Also, as I mentioned, you can create tasks. And in my

0:44:19In my story, there's two examples for workflow.

0:44:23One of them is an extension that you can run from Safari

0:44:27to turn a web page into a task in Things.

0:44:30And this is a good example, I think,

0:44:33because it shows you how you can attach different pieces

0:44:37of metadata to a new item in Things,

0:44:41besides the title and a date,

0:44:43which you can type in natural language in workflow,

0:44:46and then reformatting the proper,

0:44:49what's that, ISO something, the proper format for things.

0:44:55You can do it from workflow.

0:44:58But you can also-- - See, that's interesting

0:44:59to me because that was one of the things

0:45:01that frustrated me about things,

0:45:02is that there wasn't natural language entry

0:45:05for dates and times,

0:45:07but now you can kind of make it yourself.

0:45:10- You can either make it yourself,

0:45:12or I think they have extended the support

0:45:16for natural language in things itself.

0:45:18So in theory, you should also be able to type something

0:45:21like today at 3 p.m. and it'll work from the URL scheme.

0:45:26Like if you put together an action,

0:45:29without having in drafts, for example,

0:45:31without having to do any additional coding.

0:45:35- Yeah, I mean just in the app itself, right?

0:45:37Like in things itself, you can't like start a new to-do

0:45:40and be like, you know, call Federico at 3 p.m.

0:45:43It's not gonna be like that.

0:45:44- There's a way, but you need to press a bunch of buttons,

0:45:47which really defeats the purpose

0:45:49because you wanna be able to just type.

0:45:51- Yeah, 'cause natural language is, it's about speed.

0:45:55Like if I'm gonna press a bunch of buttons

0:45:57then I'll just set the time, right?

0:45:59Like I'll just do it.

0:46:00- Yeah, so you can make your own natural language

0:46:04from workflow.

0:46:05And also you can say, put this in this project

0:46:08and attach this tag.

0:46:10And what I like, which is one of the features that Things offers,

0:46:15but to my knowledge, no other task manager

0:46:18that I've tried as this feature, you

0:46:21can specify the new tasks to be added

0:46:24under a specific heading of a project.

0:46:27So if you think of projects in things like Documents

0:46:31with sections, which is a feature that I use all

0:46:34the time-- so for example, my Mac Stories project

0:46:37as different sections for research, writing, and publishing.

0:46:41- Yeah, see that's so nice.

0:46:43That's really nice.

0:46:44- It's really nice because visually--

0:46:45- Because otherwise they become five different projects

0:46:49rather than one project, right?

0:46:51- Yeah. - Yeah.

0:46:52- Yeah, and that, even visually when you open the app,

0:46:56you can break up the project by type.

0:47:00So you can say, I wanna take a look

0:47:02at what I'm supposed to write.

0:47:03So anyway, you can pass that information

0:47:06from the URL scheme. You can say, when you create this task, automatically put it under

0:47:12the writing section.

0:47:13Oh god, that sounds so good. Because I have Show Prep. That's one of my most used projects

0:47:21in Todoist. But it's all just a big jumble of every show, right? Which is many for me.

0:47:28And I would love to be able to have it all connected, have its own little heading. Because

0:47:33sometimes it's like it's not just prepare for connected there might be

0:47:36like watch this video or read this article and they get saved as like

0:47:41additional things and then I have to write like in the heading like in the

0:47:47actual task itself which show it's like it's just a mess it can get a bit messy

0:47:50that sounds very nice as well as this feature that I just found out about

0:47:54today that you can put a checklist in the notes of a task which is like oh my

0:47:59Oh my god, like...

0:48:02That's my second workflow, is a way to automate the process of creating a task that contains

0:48:08a checklist. So this is one of the other features of things, that a task can have a title and

0:48:15a date, it can have a note, which can be text or links, no attachments, but it can also

0:48:21have separate from the note, but not showed by default, you need to open it, you need

0:48:27to expand the task if you want to see it,

0:48:30you can have a checklist of multiple items.

0:48:32So this can be useful in a bunch of ways,

0:48:35whether you need to pack something because you're leaving

0:48:37or a grocery list or something else,

0:48:39Shop Rep, for example, Myke.

0:48:42You can create checklists.

0:48:43And this is also available via automation.

0:48:46You just need to pass a list of sentences, a list of text lines

0:48:51to the URL scheme, and it'll work.

0:48:54Finally, I showed the integration with MindNode,

0:48:59which doesn't really work for me

0:49:00because you need to create a mind map in MindNode

0:49:05and make individual nodes like tasks in MindNode,

0:49:09which I really don't do.

0:49:11Also, I don't use MindNode

0:49:13because it's not as customizable as I like it to be.

0:49:15So hopefully, iThoughts, which is the MindMap app

0:49:19that I prefer, will consider this integration going forward.

0:49:22But the bigger topic is that the Culture Code,

0:49:26they created this system for iOS developers

0:49:30to send data to things in bulk, like dozens of tasks,

0:49:36or entire projects, using this JSON format.

0:49:42And they made it easier for them,

0:49:45not just by supporting JSON, but through this Swift open source

0:49:50library. It's like a Swift file that you can download and put in your app, and it simplifies

0:49:57the process of sending data to things. This is what MindNode uses, and this is what drafts5,

0:50:04which is the beta version that I sort of teased in the article, will use. It's a system to sort of

0:50:12remove the complexity of, you know, whether it's the developer or the user, encoding things manually

0:50:20with the URL scheme, you can abstract all of the complexity and use this native integration

0:50:27that allows you to do things like turn an entire mind map into a project that contains headings

0:50:34that contain tasks. Or in drafts 5, you can write a couple of lines of JavaScript

0:50:42with the custom things module to do the same.

0:50:47And so I teased in the article this custom interface

0:50:52that I'm building in drafts.

0:50:54It's like a custom prompt UI that's

0:50:57got check boxes and a date picker and a toggle on and off

0:51:01to send lines of text to things.

0:51:05And I don't know if I'm going to use this,

0:51:07but it's just like it's a proof of concept

0:51:09to show both Drafts 5 and the kind of this deeper integration that Culture Code would

0:51:18like to have with some third-party apps, which is pretty neat.

0:51:23As you're talking, I got my Pano book here, which is a notebook that I like, and I'm sitting

0:51:27down and I'm writing out, like, what do I need if I want to move to things?

0:51:38I think you should play with it.

0:51:39Well, okay, so I have, right? I have played with it. And there were things that I was unhappy with,

0:51:45but they are now solving those problems with this automation stuff. So like, for example,

0:51:51natural language entry, but I could just build that on my own. Like I was thinking I could set up

0:51:57a workflow, which I linked to from the home screen, which sits next to things on my home screen,

0:52:02as my entry workflow. And it's quicker than opening up the app. And it's also focused.

0:52:07so I'm not going to get distracted with other tasks and stuff like that.

0:52:10Or you could wait for drafts five, make a simple action.

0:52:19Could you be even quicker?

0:52:21I'll tell you even more, you can just type a line of text and press the keyboard shortcut

0:52:26and run the action and you'll be in things.

0:52:31I do have, I have also been playing around with drafts over the last day and it's very nice.

0:52:38It's very nice. When is draft 5 roughly? Is that soon?

0:52:41We don't know. We don't know. When it's ready. When it's ready is the official communication from Greg.

0:52:47Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I don't know JavaScript well enough, but it's a simple language to understand.

0:52:55it's readable, and the implementation of JavaScript in Drafts 5 is really intuitive and much more

0:53:01accessible. I think that something like Omni automation, for example, which sounds and seems

0:53:07totally powerful and crazy, you know, insanely customizable, but I think the Omni automation

0:53:13stuff, it veers towards the Objective-C type of programming style that I don't think is as

0:53:22intuitive as what Greg is doing with pure and simple JavaScript in drafts.

0:53:27Which is, you know, for someone like me I'm a newcomer to this stuff. I think

0:53:31it's more intuitive that what Omni is doing. I mean if you know, if you're a

0:53:35programmer and you know JavaScript well enough, the Omni automation set of, you

0:53:40know, APIs seems to be much much more versatile and flexible. But for someone

0:53:46like me, you know, I just want to make an action from drafts to things that

0:53:50totally works. Tell me, is the ability to add repeating tasks exposed in this URL scheme?

0:54:01I don't think so. Of course it's not, because they don't care about it.

0:54:05Steven, tell Steven, have you figured out why you don't like repeating tasks?

0:54:14- Yes, I have.

0:54:15- Okay.

0:54:16- So in most other apps, OmniFocus, Todoist,

0:54:20I spent like a year in To Do with the digit,

0:54:23the one you wrote the book about.

0:54:24Most of those apps, you set a due date

0:54:30and the repeating, if you wanna repeat it,

0:54:33it's just like another step in the workflow.

0:54:35So I want it due on Tuesday,

0:54:37but actually if I check this little box,

0:54:38it is due every Tuesday.

0:54:40repeating tasks are like a super set on regular tasks.

0:54:45In Things 3, and I have it open,

0:54:47I actually, while you were talking, imported,

0:54:49they have an import from Todoist,

0:54:51so I imported all 42 Todoist projects I have into--

0:54:54- Oh my god, they have an import from Todoist?

0:54:56- Well, here's the thing,

0:54:57it breaks all your repeating tasks

0:54:59because they don't care about repeating tasks.

0:55:01- Of course.

0:55:02- Now you see, come on,

0:55:04you spent so much time creating this thing,

0:55:07just repeating tasks.

0:55:08here's my fundamental problem with things.

0:55:11About 70% of the tasks in Todoist are repeating,

0:55:15because when you own a business

0:55:17and you put content out every week,

0:55:19you have a lot of repeating tasks.

0:55:20And the way things goes about it,

0:55:23you can convert a regular task to a repeating task,

0:55:28but the due date you've set has no bearing

0:55:31on the repeating schedule.

0:55:32So if I say, for instance,

0:55:35edit and publish connected.

0:55:38I have that go off every Wednesday at 2.30 p.m.

0:55:42In things, I can set that up,

0:55:45but I have to set the reminders up separately.

0:55:47And if I set it due on Wednesday,

0:55:49and then I go to tell it repeating weekly,

0:55:51it defaults to Sunday.

0:55:53Why would I want it to do that?

0:55:54I already told you it's due on Wednesday.

0:55:57I want it to repeat on Wednesday.

0:55:58It's just a lot of extra work.

0:56:00- But like, if you change it to Wednesday,

0:56:02it will then repeat every Wednesday,

0:56:03but right, you have to like specifically set it up.

0:56:05- It doesn't inherit that from the regular task

0:56:07you started with, where every other app basically does.

0:56:11So the repeating tasks for me are why I can't use things,

0:56:14because it's so clunky to do.

0:56:16The other thing that, it more confuses me about things

0:56:20than anything else, and I've read the support page,

0:56:22and I actually have created a test project,

0:56:24so I try to understand how it works,

0:56:27but if you set a due date, and that due date

0:56:31slips into the past, then it just is due today.

0:56:34There's no way to see how far overdue it is unless you don't set a due date,

0:56:39but set a deadline. I don't know the difference between those two things.

0:56:42Their support documentation doesn't explain the difference between those two

0:56:45things. Why are there two things like,

0:56:47okay, so, uh, the way I think about it is, um,

0:56:52like semantically, uh, in my brain it works like this.

0:56:56The due date is ideally you should be getting this done by Wednesday,

0:57:02But if you don't, it's fine.

0:57:04You can do it later.

0:57:05The deadline is you must get this done by Wednesday.

0:57:10And in fact, even visually in the UI,

0:57:12if a due date moves in the past,

0:57:14it just rolls over to today.

0:57:17But the deadline, the task says two days left

0:57:21or one day left.

0:57:23But then if you don't get it done,

0:57:26it says one day behind, two days behind,

0:57:30something like that, and it keeps the red badge.

0:57:32So it tells you this was supposed to be done two days ago.

0:57:36- I feel like if you have,

0:57:38like that's a cool feature to have,

0:57:41but the way that I would look at this is

0:57:44due dates and deadlines should be set automatically

0:57:47unless you change them.

0:57:49So like if you say something's due Wednesday,

0:57:52it should default the deadline date for you as Wednesday

0:57:56unless you change it.

0:57:57- Or have that be an option to enable the app

0:58:00to do that. You know, for me, yeah, yeah. And again, like all this stuff is so subjective,

0:58:05right? It's about how I work versus how you work. But for me, at least that, like, I understand

0:58:11the words that are coming out of your mouth, but like, I can't, I can't think about work

0:58:15that way. Like, because, because it sounds like they're treating due dates like stock

0:58:20dates. And they actually call them in some of their support documentation, they call

0:58:24them start dates, although that's nowhere in the UI of the app. It's like, what are

0:58:27doing things, like pull it together.

0:58:30Yeah, that's not right.

0:58:31That doesn't seem right.

0:58:32I know that it's very different, and I

0:58:36know that it probably sounds like a bunch of VP kind of talk

0:58:40that does not make sense for an actual product.

0:58:43But the idea is that-- and I mean, it's subjective,

0:58:50as you say, but the task manager shouldn't cause you stress.

0:58:55And the idea of the due date, it just becomes today, instead of being by default colored in red,

0:59:05or telling you this is overdue.

0:59:08- Yeah, no, I get that. - I think that is a choice.

0:59:10But I feel like if you're making an opinion like that, you should have an option.

0:59:14Otherwise, because if that's your opinion, then there shouldn't be the ability to even have badges,

0:59:20right, which they do have.

0:59:21If it's like, "Oh, I don't want to alert you," I get that.

0:59:24It's a nice way to think about it.

0:59:25It should be a setting.

0:59:26It should be a setting.

0:59:27They haven't gone the whole way with that ideology.

0:59:30They've only gone part of the way, and by going that part of the way, they alienate

0:59:34some people.

0:59:35So I think that it is a nicer idea.

0:59:37The way that you described this when you initially moved is why I even ever considered it, because

0:59:44it was nice to think of it as just a more chill environment.

0:59:49In doing that, they do take away some functionality that would be nice to be able to kind of globally

0:59:57change, especially when they actually have the underpinnings of the regular system. Like

1:00:01it's there. They're just calling things different. Like, you know, what they're calling due dates

1:00:07and deadlines are start dates and due dates. But they're just not calling them that. But

1:00:12that's how they function in like in every other application and in every other system.

1:00:17So I feel like you either change the name or change the function or give me some options.

1:00:24And I feel like, you know, you don't want to add up.

1:00:26I get the idea of options, but they've literally just created a URL scheme, right?

1:00:31Culture code are clearly not averse to going into the nitty gritty, right?

1:00:36So maybe some additional options would be a nice thing to have when you've gone and

1:00:42done something that is very impressive, but is the most nitty of gritty that you can get.

1:00:47to create a custom URL scheme, right? So, you know.

1:00:51I think an idea that could be maybe explored, maybe not by culture code, but by developers

1:00:57in general is, how, like, what kind of, I'm thinking of something like the carrot personality

1:01:07slider but applied to, like, stress. Like, how much do you want to feel, I don't want

1:01:16say guilty, but like when you open your task manager, what kind of level of reminding you

1:01:24to do things do you want to see? Do you want the calm environment or do you want something

1:01:28in between or do you want to have like the emergency mode where if you don't get things

1:01:32done everything explodes? And that could be like a fun way to tackle this problem of depending

1:01:38on the level of, you know, the mental state or the anxiety level or whatever it is of

1:01:43the person, the app should adapt and should be controllable by the user to

1:01:49say exactly how you can say in Carrot, for example, I want the AI to be

1:01:54"cinnarchy" or I want the UI to be somewhere in between or "neutral". It could be fun

1:01:59to have that kind of mindset but applied to productivity apps because...

1:02:03I want it on my back or I want to just like come to it when I'm good.

1:02:08Yeah, because there's maybe times of the year when you're like, come on, just

1:02:12just don't bother me. It's a difficult time right now. Or I need to be in hyper-focus

1:02:19mode. You need to tell me every single detail of every single due date.

1:02:25This is a job for machine learning, right? Like, this is what it should be doing. Understanding

1:02:30me and tailoring the experience to me. That's what I want. I feel like different people

1:02:39have different feelings about what they want their machine learning to do, but I want my

1:02:43machine learning to learn about me and then tailor my experience. So like in that idea,

1:02:47right, like that maybe my task manager is like super chill on Fridays. Like it's like

1:02:52we're good. We're just going to relax. Or like over the weekends if I have a due date

1:02:57on an item, like we don't really need to worry about that too much because I've got the whole

1:03:01day if I want to work on it, right? Or like if I have 20 items due on Tuesday and only

1:03:07three items due on Thursday, maybe you should be a little bit more on my back on Tuesday

1:03:11than Thursday. Stuff like that would be great, especially when a task manager or a calendar

1:03:18is so full of data. I am entering a wealth of data into these systems. There is so much

1:03:27to potentially learn about someone. That's what I hope would be the future of these systems.

1:03:33And speaking of like contextual type of stuff,

1:03:36I still don't understand how there's still not like an API

1:03:41or something or even like a system feature

1:03:45that if I'm driving or if I'm doing a workout,

1:03:49don't bother me, don't send me notifications,

1:03:51they're useless.

1:03:52Like--

1:03:53- Isn't that do not disturb while driving?

1:03:55Isn't that what it is?

1:03:57(laughing)

1:03:57- Well, it should be maybe, you know,

1:03:59maybe in the report, you know, Mark Gurman said

1:04:02like more, what's that, more customizable something,

1:04:06do not disturb, deeper do not disturb,

1:04:08maybe that's what it is, like a way to understand

1:04:11what the user is doing and like look at my calendar,

1:04:13look at my, am I driving, am I running,

1:04:16am I doing a workout, and adjust the notifications

1:04:19and that type of stuff accordingly.

1:04:22I'm surprised that it's still not an option

1:04:24like at a system level.

1:04:25- Yeah, well, just while you mention that, Guillermo,

1:04:28I think we'll move on from this.

1:04:31You know in that article last week it mentioned like better navigation for Animoji?

1:04:36I think that means a standalone Animoji app.

1:04:39I mean, I can tell you that I've been using the Animoji Studio app by Mr Rambo on my...

1:04:48It's so fancy every time I say Mr Rambo on my iPhone.

1:04:51And it's fantastic.

1:04:53It's the way that it should be from Apple.

1:04:56It's just they are using this more and more and more in their marketing that I just think

1:05:01at this point, the only reason you would not have a standalone Animoji app is if you were

1:05:08looking to make it an iOS 12 feature. That's the only thing that logically makes any sense

1:05:13to me, because clearly Apple are throwing a lot of their development and marketing behind

1:05:19this thing. Do more with it.

1:05:26moved way past iMessage, I think. Even if it's just clips. Yeah, exactly. It would be

1:05:34perfect for clips. Alright, so thank you so much for making me write up this list of stuff

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1:07:20So back to Federico.

1:07:21Last week you wrote an article called "New Apps for 2018" which is a bit of a traditional post for you.

1:07:30You do it on a mostly yearly basis, right?

1:07:33I do it, I think every couple of years.

1:07:36There isn't now, I mean honestly, there isn't always like 15 brand new apps, right?

1:07:42Every single year that would mean a lot, right?

1:07:45lot, right? Like there's always new stuff, but there isn't necessarily like you don't

1:07:49turn everything over on a yearly basis, right? So like you would be writing about the same

1:07:53things I guess every year. But you picked nine applications in very different categories.

1:08:01And I wanted to just kind of like go through them a little bit. You could give like a sentence

1:08:05or two on them. And if we have any questions about like how and why you use those apps,

1:08:10can we jump in? Is that good?

1:08:11Okay. Yes. Yeah.

1:08:13So the first is Headspace. Hi. Hi. Hi. Welcome. Welcome to Headspace.

1:08:20Get comfortable. Feel the chair.

1:08:25If you've ever heard Headspace, you know what we're doing right now. But what is Headspace?

1:08:30It's a meditation app, guided meditation. So you listen to this person who someone on

1:08:35Twitter a few days ago sent me his Twitter account and it does not look the way that

1:08:41I pictured him. So the guy turns out he's a former...

1:08:45He's basically a podcaster, that's what everybody says about us. Nobody ever looks the way you

1:08:49expect them to look.

1:08:50He used to be a monk, which does not surprise me.

1:08:53He's a super chill.

1:08:55So anyway, yeah. You listen to... so, every day, the Headspace Journey, the way that they

1:09:03describe it, consists of every day you listen for 10, 15 or 20 minutes, even 5 minutes maybe,

1:09:09this session of, I'm gonna simplify this, someone telling you to sit down, breathe,

1:09:18and do different types of exercises. Not in the sense of like push-ups and sit-ups, but

1:09:23like try to, it's an exercise for the mind. It's like crying. It's time to relax. Drop

1:09:31"Stop and give me 20!"

1:09:35Yes. So it's a way to...

1:09:39It's super difficult to describe, and also it's organizing

1:09:43sections and themes based on what you're looking for.

1:09:47So there's packs, that's the way that they're called, there's packs

1:09:51for productivity or inspiration or creativity or

1:09:55stress, anxiety, there's all kinds of categories to train

1:09:59yourself for. But the basic idea is that you take a few minutes every day just for you

1:10:05and just for your mind to think and to exercise. I guess the idea is that you exercise the

1:10:11ability to control what you think and to control not what you feel but the process of being

1:10:21aware of what you feel. It's difficult to describe. For me, it's super tough to do.

1:10:28One, because I have a busy life,

1:10:32I do a lot of different things every day.

1:10:34And so even finding 10 minutes just for myself,

1:10:37I feel guilty or there's maybe not the time,

1:10:39I need to take care of other things.

1:10:41So that's an exercise in and of itself.

1:10:44But also it was difficult for me to understand stuff

1:10:48like the body scan.

1:10:49So the ability to like sit down and just think

1:10:52about what you're feeling like at a very physical level.

1:10:56It's very intriguing. I didn't believe this stuff at all, but there's a trial and really it's not about like

1:11:04spiritual stuff in any way. It's just learning to breathe and think that's what it is.

1:11:13It's nice.

1:11:16My fiance uses it too, which means that I am forced to use it sometimes because she usually plays when she's going to sleep.

1:11:23So I'm forced into listening to it. I am head spaced against my will

1:11:27But it is good. It's calming. I have you also used it

1:11:32Depending on when you like so, you know

1:11:35You can use any of them and they can help you feel sleepy if that's what you need because it's just about relaxing

1:11:41So I guess it's just about the time of day that you want to use it

1:11:43I guess on a because you know

1:11:46You've got headspace to work out your mind and then you have workouts plus plus to work out your body, I guess. Yes

1:11:53Yes. So this is an underscores app for workouts. I should clarify that this week I have to

1:12:02use the Apple Workout app for an achievement that requires me to complete seven workouts

1:12:09in the Apple Workout app.

1:12:11But other ones...

1:12:12Does that not work in third-party apps?

1:12:14No, no. It says in the Workout app. In the Workout app.

1:12:17That's so dumb.

1:12:18I want my badge and this week I'm using Apple's.

1:12:23But otherwise, David's app is superior in multiple ways.

1:12:27I would summarize as complete personalization, so you can customize what the data points

1:12:32that you see.

1:12:34And also there's one feature, well just one feature that I really like.

1:12:38And that is, actually two features.

1:12:41You can spin the digital crown to end a workout on the watch.

1:12:45there's a line chart for your heart rate. That's ideal for me because at a glance it shows you

1:12:55how fast you're going on a bike, for example. The progress over 20-30 minutes.

1:13:03It is a very good workout app which is mostly focused around the Apple Watch

1:13:11in that it allows you to create custom layouts for what you want to see on the watch

1:13:17when you're working out. So I use it when I am swimming because I also like the the line graph of

1:13:25the heart rate so I can see when I'm working hard and it's good because I'm able to put in all of the

1:13:31specific information that I want to see when I'm swimming which Apple's app doesn't do a

1:13:37necessarily a good job of showing me. So it's a really good app for that. And of course,

1:13:42if you do anything which is a workout which is more dry related, Workouts++ will allow

1:13:49you to listen to podcasts on your watch whilst you work out with Bluetooth headphones attached,

1:13:54which is really cool.

1:13:55Yeah.

1:13:56Streaks.

1:13:57Is Streaks a similar thing? You've got a lot of... Is this like New Year, New You type

1:14:02situation we've got going on here Federico?

1:14:04It's related to what we discussed on analog when we did the Keisel-Ysa extravaganza episode.

1:14:12Yeah, the theme would be I'm thinking of myself more.

1:14:18And in Strix, it's a habit tracker, so there's a few habits that I would like to complete

1:14:23every day.

1:14:24Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, and I like Strix.

1:14:29There's many, many habit trackers on the AppSource.

1:14:36I like this one because it integrates with Hellkit.

1:14:43You don't need to manually complete habits for a workout, because the moment that you

1:14:49complete a workout, the app sees that data in Hellkit and sends you a notification that

1:14:55the habit has been marked as done for you.

1:14:57And also you can say you have granular controls over the frequency of completion for some

1:15:05habits.

1:15:06So you can say, "I don't want to complete this every day, I want to complete this X

1:15:09times a week."

1:15:11So that works because there's some stuff that I don't need to do on a daily basis, but also

1:15:15I want to do at least like five times a week.

1:15:19So I really like it.

1:15:22I'm doing some of that this year as well, some habit tracking stuff, but I'm actually

1:15:26using tally instead of this.

1:15:31I only have a couple of things and it's pretty easy to just increment it by one or reset

1:15:36it to zero.

1:15:37That's kind of how I'm tracking a few things.

1:15:41But yeah, Streaks is really cool and I really like the interface.

1:15:44I think it looks really nice and it's really customizable which is really cool.

1:15:50So up next we have One Second Every Day, which out of this list, this is the only one I hadn't

1:15:58heard of, and I think it's maybe the most interesting to me.

1:16:05So what does this app do?

1:16:07So the idea is that at the end of the year, you make this video that consists of one or

1:16:15one and a half seconds of footage from every day of the past year.

1:16:20And it's a fun way to create like a little video for yourself or for your partner, for

1:16:24your family to show what the past year has been like.

1:16:28So every day you go into the app, there's like the main view is a calendar and you can

1:16:32tap on individual days to add footage.

1:16:37And the great thing about the app is that you're not forced to record video in the app

1:16:42itself.

1:16:43You can, but you can also import video from the library.

1:16:47Or if you forget to record a video of what you're doing, you can use the video part inside

1:16:54of a live photo.

1:16:56That's clever.

1:16:57That's really clever because many times I forget to take a video, but I have a photo

1:17:02from that day.

1:17:03So I look forward to the final product in December.

1:17:08I did one of those face ones once.

1:17:11I don't remember the name of the app, but I think Adam Lisagor was behind it, I think?

1:17:16Maybe?

1:17:17uh...

1:17:18yeah i would love

1:17:19to know where that video is somewhere. But yeah, I did it for an entire year, I took a

1:17:23picture of my face every day.

1:17:25Nice.

1:17:26We spoke a little bit

1:17:28about this earlier but

1:17:29uh... you're using Homebridge and doing some funny HomeKit stuff

1:17:33and HomeCam is part of that

1:17:35that setup for you, right?

1:17:39Yeah, HomeCam is this app that only shows you

1:17:45video previews from HomeKit cameras.

1:17:49It's much faster, especially if you have a lot of cameras, and I plan to add more HomeKit

1:17:54cameras, whether by official certified hardware and also webcams connected to my Raspberry

1:18:01Pi.

1:18:02And this is basically a way to just tap on an icon and get a grid of real-time previews.

1:18:10It works really well.

1:18:11on the Apple TV and soon on iOS, there's the ability to,

1:18:15this is really clever, to control accessories

1:18:19or see data returned by sensors

1:18:23located in the same room as the camera.

1:18:26So I can imagine that if you have like a baby camera,

1:18:29for example, you can control the temperature

1:18:31or control the lights. - Oh, that's cool.

1:18:32- And you can do this contextually

1:18:35while you're watching the video,

1:18:37you can see on the Apple TV, the sensor data

1:18:40and you can long press on the Siri remote

1:18:43to access these shortcuts from within the video.

1:18:47It's really clever.

1:18:48- Up next we have Airtable,

1:18:51which this is one of those apps/services

1:18:54I have a hard time describing to people

1:18:57because it's kind of like--

1:18:59- They're a tiny head culprit, Airtable.

1:19:02- It's kind of a database,

1:19:03but it's also kind of a spreadsheet,

1:19:05but it's also kind of neither.

1:19:06Like, I struggle with describing this.

1:19:09Yeah, it's like a spreadsheet combined with a database.

1:19:15And on the surface, it looks like a spreadsheet.

1:19:20But then when you tap on an item, it looks like a database.

1:19:24So each item can have fields.

1:19:28And these fields are not limited to text or numbers or formulas.

1:19:33They can be switches, like on and off.

1:19:37They can be pictures.

1:19:39They can be links.

1:19:40They can be like links to other items,

1:19:45like in a relational database, for example.

1:19:48And I'm using this to track movies that I want to watch

1:19:52and video games that I want to play.

1:19:54And because of the way that you can create filters and saved

1:19:58views, based on the status of some of these fields,

1:20:04I have different views for games that I'm playing right now,

1:20:08Games that are upcoming and games that have been released but that I still have not played

1:20:13And also games that I finished the main story, but I need to complete the extras

1:20:18So yeah, it's very granular the way that I'm tracking video games

1:20:23And and a note or I mean what why why this as opposed to just like a list somewhere

1:20:30Because it looks colorful and I can see

1:20:36it's easier to filter, as I mentioned, the different types of conditions that I

1:20:44want to see. So for movies, for example, I have a saved filter for 4k movies that I

1:20:50can get on iTunes. And for video games I can see like upcoming stuff on the PS4.

1:20:56Because you can create these filters, these rules, it's easier than a

1:21:02plain text list that requires me either to format or to search I can just flip

1:21:08a toggle and I can see just what I want to see. It's really hard to

1:21:13describe but I swear it makes sense once you try for a couple of minutes.

1:21:17Sounds a little bit like a file maker type deal. Kind of but it's more friendly.

1:21:24Federico, I see iCab in this list. If you join the great ranks of people who use

1:21:31third-party browsers on iOS? No, no, no, no, no, no. Not doing that, but I use iCab as

1:21:42the browser that comes in when Safari cannot get something done, and it's like, "Hey buddy,

1:21:47let me take care of this for you." So, like, downloads. You know this crazy thing that

1:21:52people use the web to download files? It's a thing, apparently, you can go on the web

1:21:58and download, you know, documents. It's this crazy concept, crazy idea. So yeah, people

1:22:05download stuff using a web browser and iCab has an excellent built-in downloader UI, like

1:22:12a menu that lists all your downloads and you can tap on them and you can do stuff with

1:22:18them. Imagine that. It's a crazy, crazy idea. And also iCab, unlike Safari, has better controls

1:22:26for websites that do not work well on mobile devices, such as Go Figure Airtable.

1:22:33They have a website that if you try to open the web app on your iPhone, it just says go

1:22:38to the App Store and get the app, except that the app does not have all of the features

1:22:42from the web app.

1:22:44So I need to use iCab in desktop mode to access these features.

1:22:49And what makes it better than Safari's request desktop site mode is that it's a permanent

1:22:55one.

1:22:57So you can create a rule that says every time you see this domain, always expose the user

1:23:03agent for Safari for Mac or Google Chrome for Mac.

1:23:08So you can pretend that you're a desktop browser and the website thinks you are a desktop browser,

1:23:13but in fact you're still using an iPad.

1:23:15So this works really well in iCab.

1:23:18Is there still touch control? Did they mock up like a pointer with a trackpad or something?

1:23:23I think... I don't remember. I think that one you're thinking of is... not dolphin,

1:23:32puffin web browser? Something like that?

1:23:34What? It went in fin.

1:23:36They have like, they have some kind of bird icon. I think I wrote about it last year in

1:23:44in iPad Diaries, I think it's Puffin web browser that simulates like a trackpad mode in the

1:23:50corner of the screen. Yeah, that's a thing also. So I don't use iCab as my main browser

1:23:58just when I need to.

1:23:59It's just in emergencies.

1:24:00Yes.

1:24:01So you introduced me to toggle, and it looks like you're now using a different time tracking

1:24:07application. It's time to talk about time tracking, everyone's favorite discussion.

1:24:12we using to something else now if you moved away from toggle?

1:24:15Yeah, I don't like the fact that toggle, they apparently don't care about an iPhone or iPad

1:24:23experience like a good one because they are a web service. They have an iPhone app now

1:24:28and it's getting better but they don't have an iPad version and the iPhone app is nowhere

1:24:33near what I like it to be. And Time, Time Blogger, it's this app that like I couldn't

1:24:40find any review. Like, I was nobody talking about this. You know, all the time tracking

1:24:46people, where are you? I guess there must be...

1:24:49I'm right here.

1:24:50Okay, so...

1:24:51I'm the only one.

1:24:52You should have told me about this app, Myke. I like it because it works the way that I

1:25:01think of my timers. So you can create groups, you can create multiple timers, and you can

1:25:07see these in-depth stats directly on iOS instead of going to the toggle web app.

1:25:13You have these reports and the ability to break down time by project

1:25:20or by task. You can add notes. There's an iPhone app. There's a widget, so I don't

1:25:25have to make my own workflows. There's a widget. There's an Apple Watch version.

1:25:32And really, mostly I just go to the global stats page and I

1:25:37tap on the group tab and I can take a look at how much time I'm spending on

1:25:44what part of my life. And for example, this week because of all the writing that I've been doing, Max Stories,

1:25:50which is the red project, is at

1:25:5287%, which is totally insane.

1:25:55So yeah, it's a native iOS time tracker that lets me do more

1:26:02more time tracking on iOS instead of using Safari or iCab or going to a web app.

1:26:08So here's a question that I very rarely ask. Do they have a Mac app?

1:26:12No, they do not.

1:26:15Well, goodbye.

1:26:17You know, it's that kind of app from a single developer, single person.

1:26:23Just wait until Project Marzipan and they'll be able to write one.

1:26:26There you go. I can at least get a menu bar app. Weirdly, this is like one of the only

1:26:31things which is a deal breaker for me. There aren't many software categories where "is

1:26:37there a Mac app" is necessarily a deal breaker of mine. This is one of them. Because the

1:26:42most hours that I put in are on a Mac. Like, there's recording and editing. They are the

1:26:49longest things that I will do and I want to have something native on the Mac that I can

1:26:54set things with. And I get, like, toggle apps kind of are not good everywhere but they do

1:26:59a decent job and you know what I actually just use I just leave a tab open in Chrome

1:27:04on all my devices as well and it works fine for me and my widgets work fine and I'm kind

1:27:10of I'm fine with toggle as it is but I'm only ever going to look at something if I can get

1:27:15like an experience everywhere and if this doesn't have any way for me to use it on my

1:27:19Mac then it's not going to be for me.

1:27:24And then the last one is home dash.

1:27:27Yes, this is my favorite surprise of all the...

1:27:31You know, because I spend a little time over the holidays browsing the app store looking

1:27:36for new things, and this HomeDash app, I think it used to be called a different way before,

1:27:42Lightify something, like a couple of years ago.

1:27:46Anyway, HomeDash is like...

1:27:48Imagine if HomeKit received like an iOS 11 fresh coat of paint and looked like a modern

1:27:56dashboard from the Jetsons.

1:28:00This is what it looks like.

1:28:02It's a way to create custom dashboards for your HomeKit controls and you have actual

1:28:08controls that are not just bland squares like in the Home app.

1:28:14You have sliders, you have color pickers, you have real-time camera previews, you have

1:28:19power buttons, you have lists of items, it's very colorful and it makes more sense than

1:28:29the Apple Home app because it adapts to different types of accessories.

1:28:34And it looks futuristic which is a nice plus because I feel like I'm in a spaceship every

1:28:41time I look at my home dashboard.

1:28:45I really like it and I wish that Apple took a little more liberty to try a bunch of crazy

1:28:52UIs with HomeKit, because right now you open the Home app and it's just a bunch of squares

1:28:56and rectangles.

1:28:59It looks boring.

1:29:00And if you try HomeDash, it looks inspired and new and fresh.

1:29:05And it still does the same things that you can do in the Home app.

1:29:08I mean, as far as controls are concerned, you cannot add new accessories with HomeDash,

1:29:14You can control, you can create dashboards for multiple rooms, you can add scenes, you

1:29:20can add multiple cameras even.

1:29:24So it looks really nice.

1:29:27The only downside I guess is that according to the developer there's an Apple limitation

1:29:33and so the dashboards that you create on one device, they cannot sync over iCloud to another

1:29:40device.

1:29:41create them from scratch, which is too bad, but you know, I can live with that.

1:29:45This is a great list. I like that there, I think most people that would have seen

1:29:51this list or will have heard us talk about this now, there's gonna be at least

1:29:54one app that you've never heard of that you might want to try out, right? Like

1:29:57there's some interesting stuff in there, especially the HomeKit

1:30:00applications, which I think people don't necessarily seek for, because I don't

1:30:06know if you, I mean I don't ever really think that such a thing exists, like I

1:30:09just never even think to look for it. So it's cool to know that there are people that are

1:30:13doing things in that arena as well.

1:30:16Yeah, yeah. I think the HomeKit API used to be more difficult or problematic before. Now

1:30:25it's, I don't think it's still perfect, but there's room for developers to go places where

1:30:31Apple does not want to.

1:30:33All right, Steven, take us home.

1:30:35I think that about does it.

1:30:37If you want to find links to all the stuff we talked about,

1:30:40you can do so on our website or in the app

1:30:44that you're listening in.

1:30:45That URL is relay.fm/connected/181.

1:30:50You get in touch with us there.

1:30:52There's an email link,

1:30:53and then there's links to all of us on Twitter.

1:30:56Myke is I-M-Y-K-E,

1:30:59and Myke is the host of a bunch of shows here on Relay FM.

1:31:02You can check those out at relay.fm/shows.

1:31:05If you like connected, there'll be something else that you like there, I promise.

1:31:08You can find Federico, he writes maxstories.net and you can find him on Twitter @vittici.

1:31:15You can find me as ismh and I write and host the 512pixels YouTube channel, 512pixels.net.

1:31:23And until next week guys, say goodbye.

1:31:26Arrivederci!

1:31:27Bye!

1:31:28No!

1:31:29Oh no, I don't know where I go.

1:31:30I don't know where I go in the order yet.

1:31:32Where do you want to go?

1:31:34I'll go after you, you do it again.

1:31:36Take two.

1:31:37Until next week, say goodbye.

1:31:39No!

1:31:40Oh no!

1:31:41Adios!

1:31:44You should leave the scene.

1:31:48(laughs)