Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:07 ◼   ► Welcome to Connected, episode 178.

00:00:11 ◼   ► The show this week is sponsored by Squarespace, Anchor, and Smile.

00:00:15 ◼   ► My name is Stephen Hackett, and I'm joined this week by my friend and yours, Federico Vittucci.

00:00:21 ◼   ► Hi, Stephen, how are you?

00:00:22 ◼   ► I'm good. We are mic-less. Although, you wouldn't know that until now, because apparently,

00:00:28 ◼   ► and showing the show was my job. I don't know how that felt to me. But it's just us. Myke is off

00:00:33 ◼   ► celebrating his birthday. So if you haven't tweeted at Myke, maybe wish him a happy birthday and tell

00:00:39 ◼   ► him your favorite color in the same video. I think he'd really like to know your favorite color.

00:00:43 ◼   ► Yes, yes. Myke is turning 41. So make sure to wish him a happy 41, 41 birthday.

00:00:51 ◼   ► He's catching up with me almost. Yeah, he really cares about I mean, you're 46,

00:00:56 ◼   ► Steven. So still a few years behind, but make sure to wish Myke a really happy,

00:01:02 ◼   ► really happy birthday. Very special number. Steven, do we have any follow up this week?

00:01:08 ◼   ► We do. I would like to thank all the listeners who emailed me photos of puppies and flowers.

00:01:15 ◼   ► Somebody sent me a picture of a baby. I don't know if it was their baby or someone else's baby.

00:01:21 ◼   ► Well, that's the question. If it's someone else's baby, I have a lot of concerns,

00:01:25 ◼   ► But if it's their baby, then it was a cute baby, so thumbs up.

00:01:28 ◼   ► It was nice to have nice emails about nice things.

00:01:33 ◼   ► We also got some emails about the Files app on iOS.

00:01:38 ◼   ► And several people suggested File Browser, which is an app I believe we talked about

00:01:43 ◼   ► during the transmit conversation a couple of weeks ago.

00:01:46 ◼   ► But it does a whole bunch of stuff.

00:01:48 ◼   ► You recently wrote it up on Mac Stories, so there will be a link to that as well.

00:01:53 ◼   ► So I've downloaded it and was playing with it today and it does a lot of clever stuff.

00:01:59 ◼   ► So if you're looking for something that the files app can't do or struggles with because

00:02:03 ◼   ► it's buggy, this app is worth a look.

00:02:06 ◼   ► Yeah, it's really powerful and the developers are actually working on a bunch of improvements

00:02:11 ◼   ► based on the story that I wrote.

00:02:13 ◼   ► Really great guys.

00:02:14 ◼   ► They listen to feedback, they try to implement as long as the iOS APIs allow it.

00:02:21 ◼   ► I think File Browser, if you're looking for iOS 11 integration in terms of stuff like

00:02:26 ◼   ► drag and drop, for example, or really the file provider, so being able to browse your

00:02:31 ◼   ► servers and connections within the Files app, that's the one you gotta try and maybe consider

00:02:39 ◼   ► as an alternative to Transmit.

00:02:41 ◼   ► The problem is that, especially if you compare the two side by side, the elegance and the

00:02:47 ◼   ► polish of transmit is really nowhere to be found in file browser which has a

00:02:52 ◼   ► utilitarian look I would say you know sometimes it kind of looks like a

00:02:57 ◼   ► Windows app in places but it's improved I can tell you it's improving they are

00:03:01 ◼   ► actually they're trying to pay attention to these details there's a beta that I'm

00:03:04 ◼   ► testing that has a bunch of also visual improvements so the the drag-and-drop

00:03:09 ◼   ► stuff and the files integration is really nice and if you're it depends on

00:03:13 ◼   ► what your priorities are.

00:03:15 ◼   ► If you don't care and transmit is still working fine,

00:03:18 ◼   ► that's OK.

00:03:19 ◼   ► But if you're looking for iOS 11 features,

00:03:21 ◼   ► this is the one that I would recommend.

00:03:23 ◼   ► Cool, so there'll be a link to that in the show notes.

00:03:25 ◼   ► They have a regular version and then a business version

00:03:28 ◼   ► that's more-- would you know the difference between those two?

00:03:31 ◼   ► Yes.

00:03:32 ◼   ► So the business version has two main features.

00:03:35 ◼   ► The first one is you can sync specific folders

00:03:40 ◼   ► for offline usage.

00:03:41 ◼   ► So if you work in a business environment,

00:03:46 ◼   ► you need to make sure that this directory from your server

00:03:48 ◼   ► is always available on your device.

00:03:50 ◼   ► You can do that.

00:03:51 ◼   ► And also, if you happen to have-- and I

00:03:54 ◼   ► do-- one of those SanDisk iXpand drive, the little USB stick

00:03:59 ◼   ► that you plug into the Lightning port of your iPad,

00:04:02 ◼   ► you can access that with File Browser.

00:04:04 ◼   ► And I can tell you that from this very feature,

00:04:08 ◼   ► the Sandy SkyExpand integration is going to be a lot, lot better in the next version of

00:04:14 ◼   ► the app. So this is a great way to almost turn the iPad into a computer from the perspective

00:04:21 ◼   ► of I want to plug a USB drive into my device and copy stuff into it or backup my photos

00:04:29 ◼   ► to a USB drive. This is possible with our browser and it's getting a lot better. So

00:04:33 ◼   ► that's the difference.

00:04:35 ◼   ► So HomePod orders have gone up. What did we do?

00:04:43 ◼   ► I got one through our friend John Voorhees. He was kind enough to put in an order for

00:04:50 ◼   ► me in the United States because of course in Italy we don't have availability or even

00:04:56 ◼   ► confirmation that it will be available like in France and Germany in the spring. We don't

00:05:00 ◼   ► have any news from Apple. So at the last, not at the last minute, but I would say the

00:05:05 ◼   ► day before, a couple of days before, I was looking at the photos, at the marketing photos

00:05:10 ◼   ► from Apple on the website, and it seemed to me like they changed the color of the space

00:05:15 ◼   ► gray one, that it's actual black instead of a really dark gray, and I thought it looked

00:05:20 ◼   ► much, much better than the original product shots. So I changed my mind and I got the

00:05:26 ◼   ► space gray HomePod.

00:05:28 ◼   ► Okay. Yeah. I went with white just because that felt like the traditional color.

00:05:34 ◼   ► Yeah. Like it's the iPod color. I like both. You know, I think I think both. I think either

00:05:40 ◼   ► one would look good. But I went with white. And I think the white maybe maybe more fun.

00:05:45 ◼   ► I got some some ideas for photography and stuff for this for a review. So I went with

00:05:51 ◼   ► the classic iPod white. Yeah, I think that that's gonna stand out more in videos and

00:05:56 ◼   ► photos. I think it makes more sense from a visual perspective, but I consider like

00:06:01 ◼   ► most of the furniture in our living room is 10-story black or really

00:06:06 ◼   ► dark brown and the white HomePod would have maybe, you know, it would stick out a

00:06:13 ◼   ► lot I guess. We have also the server which is black and the the Echo which is

00:06:20 ◼   ► also black in the same area of the cabinet that we have so the HomePod,

00:06:25 ◼   ► the Space Gray one would blend in a little better I think.

00:06:28 ◼   ► - Mm-hmm, camouflage it.

00:06:29 ◼   ► Where's the sound coming from?

00:06:30 ◼   ► I can't tell.

00:06:32 ◼   ► It's coming from everywhere.

00:06:33 ◼   ► There we go.

00:06:34 ◼   ► - Well. (laughs)

00:06:37 ◼   ► The next item in our follow-up makes me really, really upset.

00:06:42 ◼   ► - It's sad. - For a couple of reasons.

00:06:44 ◼   ► For a couple of reasons.

00:06:46 ◼   ► Tell me about this story from TechCrunch.

00:06:50 ◼   ► - BlablaCar is a company that we have followed on this show.

00:06:54 ◼   ► I would say obsessively.

00:06:56 ◼   ► It's a service that you personally use and endorse

00:06:59 ◼   ► at the deepest level. - No, I do not.

00:07:01 ◼   ► I really do.

00:07:02 ◼   ► So this is a service that,

00:07:04 ◼   ► for those who are not aware of BlaBlaCar,

00:07:08 ◼   ► it's a car sharing-- - I don't know

00:07:09 ◼   ► how you couldn't be. (laughs)

00:07:12 ◼   ► - It's a car sharing service where,

00:07:14 ◼   ► it's apparently really popular in Europe and in Italy

00:07:19 ◼   ► and among my friends.

00:07:21 ◼   ► And if you need to go somewhere,

00:07:23 ◼   ► but you don't wanna drive or you don't have a car

00:07:27 ◼   ► or you don't wanna take the train because, for example,

00:07:30 ◼   ► if you wanna go to a small town in Italy,

00:07:33 ◼   ► the transit system can be a bit problematic.

00:07:35 ◼   ► You, what you do is you hop into someone else's car

00:07:40 ◼   ► and you share the drive and you pay that person money

00:07:45 ◼   ► through the BlaBlaCar application.

00:07:47 ◼   ► So if I'm a driver, if I'm going somewhere,

00:07:50 ◼   ► I can advertise my trip on Bablakar and say,

00:07:53 ◼   ► "Hey, I'm going to Florence

00:07:55 ◼   ► and I can have two people in my car."

00:07:57 ◼   ► And I can put in a bunch of preferences,

00:08:01 ◼   ► like I don't listen to music

00:08:02 ◼   ► or I don't want people who smoke

00:08:05 ◼   ► or I want people to be quiet.

00:08:07 ◼   ► So there's a bunch of parameters that you can set.

00:08:09 ◼   ► And you as the passenger,

00:08:11 ◼   ► you can say, "I'm looking for this kind of drive

00:08:14 ◼   ► to this destination on this day

00:08:16 ◼   ► and I'm this type of person."

00:08:18 ◼   ► And if there's a match, you can say,

00:08:20 ◼   ► well, I'll go with you. So this is a terrifying idea. If you ask me to just go with someone,

00:08:28 ◼   ► no matter the, the, you know, you're using a service and people have to be verified.

00:08:33 ◼   ► It's still scares me to death to do this kind of stuff, but it's really popular and I understand

00:08:38 ◼   ► why, but there's some news Steven.

00:08:42 ◼   ► So when this first came into our lives, their artwork and their, in fact, if you look at

00:08:49 ◼   ► your podcast play right now the chapter art for this chapter is a couple of these characters.

00:08:55 ◼   ► They little like claymation characters and they sort of interact with each other and

00:08:59 ◼   ► they have they've moved away from that. So this article is basically two things, a new

00:09:03 ◼   ► visual identity, which I actually think looks really nice. And they're optimizing their

00:09:08 ◼   ► service for small cities. So like if you want to go to a small town, you know, it could

00:09:12 ◼   ► be hard to get there in public transit, they're trying to optimize that. But anyway, so it

00:09:17 ◼   ► popped up again. TechCrunch is like on the BlaBlaCar beat.

00:09:20 ◼   ► Like they are Romain. I think Romain from TechCrunch is always

00:09:25 ◼   ► reporting on BlaBlaCar. I mean, it's it's a it's a great idea.

00:09:29 ◼   ► I just that I don't trust strangers. I don't know if

00:09:33 ◼   ► that's an I mean, is it just me that it sounds that sounds scary

00:09:37 ◼   ► to just say yes, I will go with this person that I just met.

00:09:40 ◼   ► It's basically like Craig Craigslist, but you share a few

00:09:44 ◼   ► hours in the same car next to that person. I don't know. But also I want to point out

00:09:51 ◼   ► that there appears to be a trend in terms of branding and visual design that I've seen

00:09:58 ◼   ► from a bunch of companies lately. And we, Steven and Myke and I, we call this trend

00:10:04 ◼   ► the tiny heads trend. So if you look at, I've seen this pop up in a bunch of places. The

00:10:12 ◼   ► The new artwork in Todoist, the graphics you see when you complete something, for example.

00:10:20 ◼   ► The new BlaBlaCar identity.

00:10:21 ◼   ► And just today, I think there's a story on the new iOS 11 App Store about finance management

00:10:28 ◼   ► apps.

00:10:29 ◼   ► And there's the same cartoon characters with large bodies and tiny heads.

00:10:35 ◼   ► And I don't know why, but this type of style, it really creeps me out.

00:10:41 ◼   ► these people they have really large bodies like the monster what's the name

00:10:46 ◼   ► of the the character from Big Hero 6 oh I should know this you basically that

00:10:53 ◼   ► type of structure but we're really tiny head and it's I don't know it looks

00:11:00 ◼   ► strange so there's some links in the show notes explaining oh boy it's uh

00:11:08 ◼   ► It's a trend of tiny heads.

00:11:10 ◼   ► It is weird, but you know, branding, what can you do?

00:11:14 ◼   ► Alright.

00:11:15 ◼   ► Steven, save us, please.

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00:13:05 ◼   ► So I just looked on Myke's mentions on Twitter and people are wishing him happy 41st birthday.

00:13:12 ◼   ► It's good.

00:13:13 ◼   ► It's important work we're doing.

00:13:16 ◼   ► Very, very important work.

00:13:18 ◼   ► So there's this there's a story broke yesterday in Axios that Apple is doing some some things

00:13:30 ◼   ► this year with iOS.

00:13:32 ◼   ► So the report claims that Craig Federighi has announced revised plans for iOS 12 that

00:13:39 ◼   ► a number of features that were being worked on, assumably, or kind of spinning up maybe,

00:13:45 ◼   ► now being delayed until 2019. Those included a refreshed home screen and

00:13:51 ◼   ► CarPlay interface by the way which is interesting. But instead of all that

00:13:54 ◼   ► stuff we're going to see improvements to core apps like mail, updates to the

00:13:59 ◼   ► camera app and photos with a focus on stability and bug fixes. So this is a big

00:14:08 ◼   ► shift potentially in iOS. You know iOS has been just pedal to the metal

00:14:15 ◼   ► year after year after year for a decade now and it looks like this is to be

00:14:19 ◼   ► believed and I think that we believe it that Apple is going to take some time to

00:14:24 ◼   ► sort of polish iOS 11 to fix the bugs they have to make improvements and it

00:14:30 ◼   ► not be a really big year for like user facing features so so what do you think

00:14:37 ◼   ► Mr. iPad. So first of all I think this story is mostly accurate.

00:14:45 ◼   ► Conversations with a bunch of friends at Apple this weekend, the

00:14:50 ◼   ► consensus is that this indeed happened and the story is mostly true. The details

00:14:56 ◼   ► of course can be wrong and things can still change. You know features sometimes

00:15:00 ◼   ► they get pushed back all the time or they get you know moved up so the

00:15:04 ◼   ► details can still change, but the underlying idea that there was this meeting and the executives

00:15:09 ◼   ► decided this is the thing we gotta do, this seems to be the case. And I've seen on Twitter

00:15:17 ◼   ► a few people say this is exactly what happened. Also in 2015 with iOS 9, that there was a

00:15:26 ◼   ► focus on stability and performance improvements, but I don't remember there being a story about

00:15:33 ◼   ► a meeting at about Craig Federighi saying this year we should focus on fixing the bugs

00:15:39 ◼   ► and improving the performance of our devices. I don't remember that being an explicit decision.

00:15:45 ◼   ► I remember iOS 9 was an iPad release. To my recollection there were not a lot of iPhone

00:15:56 ◼   ► features but I don't remember Apple saying this year we're focusing on fixing the problems and

00:16:02 ◼   ► consistency and speed. So, if this is... there's also a tweet from a friend of the show, Steve

00:16:09 ◼   ► Transmith, that I think is a good point of, is this like something that Apple does all the time?

00:16:17 ◼   ► And we just hear about it now, that, you know, features they get delayed, and there's also the

00:16:24 ◼   ► talk of fixing bugs and having a more, you know, a better performing operating system. But is this

00:16:31 ◼   ► really different from previous years? Or is this more like, no, we were actually going to ship this

00:16:37 ◼   ► redesigned home screen this year, we were going to do a bunch of new things for CarPlay, but we need

00:16:42 ◼   ► to delay these major features to next year, as opposed to what we were thinking until a month ago.

00:16:50 ◼   ► So, I guess the question is how much is this unusual for Apple to do at this stage, you

00:16:58 ◼   ► know, in late January?

00:17:00 ◼   ► So that's a good question.

00:17:01 ◼   ► I think, and this is why I had my prediction a couple of weeks ago on connected, that Apple

00:17:08 ◼   ► was going to have a focus on speed and fixing bugs this year.

00:17:13 ◼   ► The combination, the really bad December that Apple had, the combination of the battery

00:17:20 ◼   ► stuff that was popping up everywhere and all the lawsuits and the news that the iOS 11

00:17:27 ◼   ► adoption rate was the lowest in years based on Apple's own statistics.

00:17:34 ◼   ► I think all these elements combined to the executive team saying, "Maybe we do need

00:17:40 ◼   ► to slow down and focus on this other aspect of the user experience, which is equally important,

00:17:48 ◼   ► otherwise people will not update their devices anymore, which is going to be a problem. I

00:17:53 ◼   ► think it makes sense. I'm in favor of it. And this goes against, or maybe against my

00:17:59 ◼   ► own interests, but it's also something that I like, because having fewer features, personally

00:18:05 ◼   ► speaking means my review is going to be shorter because there's only so much you can say about

00:18:11 ◼   ► "yes, there are fewer bugs now." You can compare speeds, you can compare design fixes, but

00:18:20 ◼   ► fewer features means fewer chapters in my review. But also as a user, I think I welcome

00:18:27 ◼   ► this because iOS 11 has been buggy in many places for a lot of people. A lot of people

00:18:36 ◼   ► have had more issues than I've seen on my devices, but I think especially on older devices,

00:18:44 ◼   ► older iPads and iPhones, iOS 11 has been problematic. And so I think it's better for everyone if

00:18:53 ◼   ► once every couple of years, every three years maybe, I don't know, but every once in a while

00:18:59 ◼   ► Apple slows down and says we're going to do three, four major new features instead of

00:19:05 ◼   ► ten, and we're going to focus on making sure that the foundation is solid so over the next

00:19:14 ◼   ► couple of years we can continue building on top of it. Otherwise if you just continue

00:19:18 ◼   ► building and building and shipping new features and new design you have two problems. One

00:19:22 ◼   ► One is performance and we've seen all these bugs.

00:19:25 ◼   ► And the second is inconsistency.

00:19:28 ◼   ► Apple has been building on top of the iOS 7 design language for years without saying

00:19:33 ◼   ► "Look, we need to slow down and we need to make up our minds.

00:19:37 ◼   ► What is the aesthetic that we want to go for on iOS?"

00:19:41 ◼   ► And if you look at iOS 11, even the tiniest details such as there's probably three different

00:19:47 ◼   ► strokes for toolbar icons used in a bunch of places of the OS.

00:19:53 ◼   ► So I think it's good news.

00:19:54 ◼   ► I think it's good for everyone.

00:19:55 ◼   ► It's good for Apple.

00:19:56 ◼   ► It's good for us.

00:19:57 ◼   ► And it's good for developers, because maybe for one scene

00:20:00 ◼   ► in god knows how many summers, they

00:20:03 ◼   ► won't have to ship a bunch of features,

00:20:08 ◼   ► like major features in their apps.

00:20:11 ◼   ► They can focus on maybe the business aspect

00:20:13 ◼   ► or improving the performance and just cleaning up code.

00:20:17 ◼   ► That's also good.

00:20:18 ◼   ► So I'm in favor.

00:20:20 ◼   ► I'm in favor of this.

00:20:22 ◼   ► Yeah, I think the reason this is news--

00:20:26 ◼   ► I mean, and you alluded to it a second ago that it's

00:20:29 ◼   ► the end of January.

00:20:31 ◼   ► And you're assuming this happened even

00:20:32 ◼   ► in the last couple of weeks.

00:20:34 ◼   ► They are already in at least the beginning part

00:20:38 ◼   ► of the cycle for iOS 12, right?

00:20:40 ◼   ► And so did something internally flip over,

00:20:47 ◼   ► and they decide to make this and push things back.

00:20:49 ◼   ► Whatever happened there internally, I think is,

00:20:53 ◼   ► I think is probably good for all the reasons you stated.

00:20:57 ◼   ► That there's stuff in iOS that needs attention.

00:21:01 ◼   ► The design has sort of gotten scattered

00:21:04 ◼   ► over the last year or two years.

00:21:07 ◼   ► And I think that if they,

00:21:09 ◼   ► I mean, iOS is their most important operating system.

00:21:12 ◼   ► And there's some stuff in there that needs to,

00:21:16 ◼   ► that needs to kind of be refactored or reconsidered for the modern era and especially looking

00:21:20 ◼   ► at moving forward, right?

00:21:22 ◼   ► If they can spend some time and short the foundations in there, then they're better

00:21:26 ◼   ► off down the road, right?

00:21:28 ◼   ► That if something is buggy or broken now, then in two years or in three years, that's

00:21:33 ◼   ► a bigger problem.

00:21:34 ◼   ► So I'm with you.

00:21:36 ◼   ► I think this is I think it's a good move.

00:21:37 ◼   ► I think it's encouraging to see Apple be willing to put its most important OS, you know, to

00:21:44 ◼   ► slow it down for a year and and to not not get into a war of features with

00:21:51 ◼   ► with Android and and to say hey look we needed to kind of take care of our own

00:21:55 ◼   ► house first and so yeah I'm I'm I'm in favor I'm excited by this. I'm curious

00:22:04 ◼   ► to see if this is true how they market how they sell the idea of coming to

00:22:11 ◼   ► WWDC. I assume that there's a, you know, it's not like there will be zero features.

00:22:17 ◼   ► Like the iOS 12 SDK is just a bunch of fixes. I don't see that happening. There

00:22:23 ◼   ► have to be at least a couple of features that you can say, "iOS developers, this

00:22:27 ◼   ► year you can work on this." And there's also a point that I wanted to make

00:22:32 ◼   ► that there's not necessarily, there have to be new features in the iOS SDK for

00:22:40 ◼   ► developers to work on their iOS apps in the summer. For example, there could be major

00:22:47 ◼   ► iTunes Connect changes that require developers to consider the other aspect of how they release

00:22:53 ◼   ► apps, how they manage beta testing or even the business model. So there's still stuff

00:22:59 ◼   ► that Apple could announce, even if they have, say, three major features on iOS. But the

00:23:06 ◼   ► report from Bloomberg and the follow up on Axios is that Apple is pushing forward on

00:23:14 ◼   ► the Marzipan project of having this shared framework to bring more easily iOS apps to

00:23:23 ◼   ► the Mac. So I guess that maybe that will be the huge announcement at WWDC and I could

00:23:31 ◼   ► see how it sort of will shift the tone of the event from iOS developers scrambling to say we

00:23:37 ◼   ► gotta get this device screen size and these major features like drag and drop and new UI to work by

00:23:44 ◼   ► September versus iOS developers saying hey maybe now I should consider making a Mac app. So that

00:23:51 ◼   ► should be a different type of event if this is indeed the case. Yeah and you could see a world

00:23:57 ◼   ► where this project to unify, at some level,

00:24:02 ◼   ► Mac and iOS development.

00:24:05 ◼   ► I can see this being a very different WWDC

00:24:08 ◼   ► than we've had in a really long time.

00:24:11 ◼   ► I think, thinking back over the last decade of conferences

00:24:16 ◼   ► from Apple, most of them follow this pattern of there's

00:24:20 ◼   ► a new Mac or a new iOS release, or recently both.

00:24:25 ◼   ► And sometimes there's hardware, but most of the time

00:24:27 ◼   ► there's not there's a pattern to these things and if this year is about

00:24:31 ◼   ► stability on iOS and I would hope the Mac as well then you have lots of room

00:24:36 ◼   ► to tell this other story and maybe it's this secret project or maybe it's maybe

00:24:42 ◼   ► it's something else but I mean really like the most recent like weird WBC I

00:24:48 ◼   ► can really think of is something like the Intel transition which was now 13

00:24:52 ◼   ► years ago right it's like we actually don't have much in terms of software

00:24:55 ◼   ► because it's actually all about this strategy, right?

00:24:57 ◼   ► They didn't even release any new Intel Macs at that point.

00:25:00 ◼   ► Those weren't due for another six months,

00:25:02 ◼   ► but this is a time for us to talk about the future,

00:25:05 ◼   ► and maybe that's what we get this year in San Jose.

00:25:08 ◼   ► It would be exciting, and I think that,

00:25:12 ◼   ► I think above all, if there's any kernel to truth in this,

00:25:15 ◼   ► I'm glad that Apple is seeing what we see,

00:25:20 ◼   ► and they're responding appropriately.

00:25:24 ◼   ► that we do need to take care of these lingering issues.

00:25:28 ◼   ► We need to modernize some of our things.

00:25:30 ◼   ► We do need to take care of the UI inconsistencies.

00:25:33 ◼   ► And so, yeah, sign me up for this future.

00:25:35 ◼   ► I'm down.

00:25:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I mostly want to see this happen

00:25:40 ◼   ► because I wanna see what the reaction

00:25:43 ◼   ► from people who have been saying Apple

00:25:46 ◼   ► should have a Snow Leopard year, Snow Leopard release.

00:25:50 ◼   ► I wanna see what those people will say after this

00:25:52 ◼   ► because part of me thinks that those people

00:25:54 ◼   ► will never be happy anyway, and that this no leopard comment is just something to say

00:26:01 ◼   ► because they tend to be negative all the time. And there's a, you can take a look at, you

00:26:05 ◼   ► know, around and you will see this. People have lots of opinions as always, but I want

00:26:10 ◼   ► to see, I want to see if this, if this strategy can basically make the critics happy or not.

00:26:18 ◼   ► And I tend to fall somewhere in the middle.

00:26:20 ◼   ► I think there should be a balance of new features and fixes every year.

00:26:26 ◼   ► I think this is, what we're seeing in this case, is an exaggeration.

00:26:30 ◼   ► Because it seems to me like Apple prefers to do either a bunch of new features or just

00:26:35 ◼   ► to stop completely.

00:26:36 ◼   ► And I think this kind of extremist strategy of it's either all new or nothing new, I don't

00:26:45 ◼   ► think this serves anybody well.

00:26:47 ◼   ► I think there should be a better, more balanced mix of, instead of doing 10 features and no

00:26:53 ◼   ► focus on fixing stuff at all, maybe do 6 features every year, but also do the fixing and the

00:27:01 ◼   ► polishing and the performance improvements alongside that as well.

00:27:05 ◼   ► So I think this should be a lesson for Apple going forward.

00:27:09 ◼   ► Now they need to stop because they have, probably they have, you know, legacy code and craft

00:27:15 ◼   ► from since before the days of iOS 7, I would assume, in certain places of the OS.

00:27:20 ◼   ► But going forward, this should be an opportunity for Apple to say, "Maybe we don't need to

00:27:26 ◼   ► do 12 major features plus hundreds of other smaller features and changes every year. Maybe

00:27:31 ◼   ► we can do half, but we can also keep people happy." Because as it turns out, we're now

00:27:36 ◼   ► entered this kind of stage where we all have smartphones and many of us have tablets, and

00:27:45 ◼   ► used to these devices and having this long list of changes at the expense of performance

00:27:51 ◼   ► and stability every year, people don't like that. People want their phones, you know,

00:27:56 ◼   ► it's not like 2010 when everything was new and so it was super cool to have a new feature,

00:28:01 ◼   ► dozens of new features every year. We want our phones to work and we want our tablets

00:28:07 ◼   ► to work. So I hope that going forward, I want to see what happens this year, but next year

00:28:14 ◼   ► even. I want to see Apple say, "Okay, maybe we need to do a little bit of both at the

00:28:19 ◼   ► same time, not either one or the other."

00:28:22 ◼   ► I think that's totally fair. It does seem, and I hadn't really thought about that, but

00:28:28 ◼   ► as soon as you said it, I was like, "Yeah, that makes a lot of sense that Apple is cold

00:28:31 ◼   ► or hot on these things." And we have gotten, so not to derail this into Mac land, but this

00:28:40 ◼   ► This is sort of what we were promised with the Mac last year.

00:28:44 ◼   ► And Apple wasn't as clear as this report seems to be, that it's about stability and fixes,

00:28:49 ◼   ► although Craig Federighi said that to the nerd audience at the talk show, and language

00:28:53 ◼   ► wasn't as clear in the keynote.

00:28:55 ◼   ► But High Sierra, people thought it was going to be a snowlipper release, but then they

00:28:59 ◼   ► did a new file system, and then they did whatever they did to the authentication system that

00:29:04 ◼   ► ended up being badly broken.

00:29:07 ◼   ► So even High Sierra is not like a purely bug fix release and neither was Snow Leopard.

00:29:11 ◼   ► Snow Leopard added exchange support, which was a huge improvement to mail contacts and

00:29:17 ◼   ► calendars.

00:29:18 ◼   ► So even Apple's Mac bug fix releases always have one or two features.

00:29:24 ◼   ► Snow Leopard also had Grand Central Dispatch, which like totally changed and added to the

00:29:28 ◼   ► architecture of computing on Mac OS, like big changes under the hood.

00:29:34 ◼   ► And so I think there's precedent for that of Apple saying, hey, you know what?

00:29:37 ◼   ► We're doing bug fixes and cleaning up.

00:29:39 ◼   ► We're going to clean up the UI.

00:29:41 ◼   ► And you know, Mail and Safari got a lot of attention and got a lot of new stuff.

00:29:48 ◼   ► So I think that, you know, I don't know how Apple sells just bug fixes and reliability

00:29:54 ◼   ► to like the public.

00:29:56 ◼   ► But I think if it's one or two, you know, big features, and then the rest of us are

00:30:02 ◼   ► excited about this sort of cleanup stuff then that's enough for a major OS release.

00:30:07 ◼   ► I don't think this is going to be iOS 11.5.

00:30:10 ◼   ► That would really, really surprise me.

00:30:13 ◼   ► It's going to be 12.

00:30:14 ◼   ► I thought about that.

00:30:15 ◼   ► It would be crazy.

00:30:16 ◼   ► I thought about that though.

00:30:17 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, it would.

00:30:20 ◼   ► I'll tell you what a possible strategy could be.

00:30:24 ◼   ► A simple message.

00:30:26 ◼   ► iOS 12 makes your phone last two hours longer.

00:30:30 ◼   ► That would do it.

00:30:31 ◼   ► would do it. And you know, you do that and you do 100 new emoji and you're basically

00:30:36 ◼   ► set. You know, everybody wants a phone that lasts longer and has new emoji and maybe new

00:30:42 ◼   ► one emoji. I think in the, to get those numbers back up, you need to get practical here. You

00:30:49 ◼   ► need to understand that the very necessity that most people have with their phone and

00:30:54 ◼   ► That is, I want my phone to last longer.

00:30:57 ◼   ► And I honestly believe that if they focus on performance

00:31:03 ◼   ► and they ship features to control the--

00:31:06 ◼   ► even more features to control background processes,

00:31:08 ◼   ► for example, and to control which apps are using

00:31:11 ◼   ► a lot of your energy, and combine

00:31:16 ◼   ► that with the throttling and the battery information coming

00:31:19 ◼   ► in 11.3, Apple has a real chance to make

00:31:24 ◼   ► people happy by addressing the most common complaint, and that is, "It's 11 p.m. and

00:31:34 ◼   ► my phone died." Because that's annoying, and everybody can relate to that.

00:31:40 ◼   ► Yeah. People in my household would be happy. I know that.

00:31:47 ◼   ► So yeah, we'll see. I'm curious to see the WWDC press release. Like, what is it that

00:31:52 ◼   ► they say in the press release, "Come to see the future of iOS."

00:31:55 ◼   ► I guess they will still say that because they have to, but it should be interesting.

00:32:03 ◼   ► It's February almost, and I would assume that now it's going to be the hot rumor season.

00:32:11 ◼   ► We're going to get the reports of features coming or not to iOS, so I'm looking forward

00:32:17 ◼   ► to that.

00:32:18 ◼   ► It should be an adventure.

00:32:21 ◼   ► the invite is just like Craig Federighi with a band-aid like placing it over an

00:32:24 ◼   ► iPad. It's like the my graphics is a photo Craig Federighi holding a sign

00:32:30 ◼   ► that says sorry. Sorry. And a cardboard sign like standing in an intersection. Alright we

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00:34:12 ◼   ► thanks to anchor for their support of this show and relay FM so in the same

00:34:17 ◼   ► time frame we're talking about iOS 12 the iPhone SE and the iPhone se to the

00:34:23 ◼   ► rumored upgrade to the iPhone se is making the rounds and I think most of us

00:34:29 ◼   ► believed that if there is another iPhone se and I think there should be it looks

00:34:33 ◼   ► the same they just replace the guts in it which are basically an iPhone 6s give

00:34:39 ◼   ► take and put like the iPhone 7 or hopefully even the iPhone 8's internals

00:34:44 ◼   ► in the in the case and just upgrade the specs and keep selling it as it is. I

00:34:51 ◼   ► think that's how a lot of people have thought about this but there's a KGI

00:34:55 ◼   ► securities report out casting doubts on the SE2 and basically saying that if it

00:35:02 ◼   ► does come it's not going to bring anything like wireless charging it's not

00:35:07 ◼   ► going to bring radically new design. And I just don't know what the point of this

00:35:11 ◼   ► report is because I don't, were people thinking that somebody, so I've wrote my

00:35:16 ◼   ► iPhone 10 review this week, finally, and someone was like, Well, why didn't you

00:35:20 ◼   ► mention like an iPhone se sized iPhone 10? I was like, because I don't think

00:35:24 ◼   ► there's going to be one like, so what I don't understand the point of the report,

00:35:28 ◼   ► it seems pretty cut and dry to me that if the iPhone se two is a thing, they're

00:35:32 ◼   ► just going to put new hardware in the case and keep selling it.

00:35:36 ◼   ► I thought the entire point of the SE was to, one, keep the small form factor that a lot

00:35:44 ◼   ► of people still like around and giving people the better internals, and also to reuse some

00:35:52 ◼   ► components that Apple has.

00:35:54 ◼   ► The supply chain already knows how to produce en masse, and they know how to make into a

00:35:59 ◼   ► product.

00:36:01 ◼   ► I don't understand why there should be the expectation that the SE has wireless charging

00:36:07 ◼   ► and therefore a glass back instead of the aluminum design of the iPhone 5 family.

00:36:14 ◼   ► I just don't understand.

00:36:17 ◼   ► Does the SE have the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4s size?

00:36:22 ◼   ► It's the 5s.

00:36:23 ◼   ► So it looks more or less like a 5s.

00:36:26 ◼   ► The edges are a little bit different.

00:36:27 ◼   ► But yeah, it's that size.

00:36:29 ◼   ► So it has Touch ID and it's that 4 inch form factor.

00:36:33 ◼   ► I could see maybe dropping the home button and the Touch ID.

00:36:40 ◼   ► But to change, even then it would be strange to have the iPhone X look with the, because

00:36:48 ◼   ► I don't think the body, the aluminum structure is changing.

00:36:53 ◼   ► I struggle to imagine why would Apple want to make an iPhone 5 sized iPhone X or even

00:37:01 ◼   ► an iPhone 8.

00:37:02 ◼   ► Basically an iPhone 8 into the... because there has never been... if we're talking about

00:37:09 ◼   ► wireless charging, so let's go step by step.

00:37:12 ◼   ► If KGI mentions wireless charging, that means at least the iPhone 8 design, because those

00:37:19 ◼   ► are the phones that support wireless charging, there are not the iPhone X. But there has

00:37:25 ◼   ► never been an iPhone 6 sized device that has wireless charging. So Apple would have to

00:37:36 ◼   ► make a new iPhone 8 type of device into a smaller body. And that to me does not mean

00:37:45 ◼   ► reusing components and making a phone that is smaller for people who don't want to get

00:37:52 ◼   ► the latest one. Because basically you're arguing in favor of saying I want an iPhone 6 but

00:37:58 ◼   ► that supports wireless charging and that thing never existed. So what is it exactly that

00:38:03 ◼   ► you're saving here? I don't understand this report.

00:38:06 ◼   ► This may be a case, I mean we could be wrong, right? It could be come and come and go and

00:38:11 ◼   ► has wireless charging and a 4 inch screen and a new body. But I just don't see Apple

00:38:15 ◼   ► making that investment. I think the SE is like super cheap and I think a

00:38:19 ◼   ► large part of that is because it's so cheap to build them at this point that

00:38:22 ◼   ► they just like they're just cranking them out and yeah so I hope there's an SE

00:38:28 ◼   ► you know my wife has an iPhone SE she really loves it but it's two years old

00:38:32 ◼   ► and you know it's got 6s internals and I haven't run any benchmarks or like the

00:38:39 ◼   ► battery thing on it because I don't I don't want I assume that it's had

00:38:42 ◼   ► battery wear and tear over those two years and she likes the size she doesn't

00:38:48 ◼   ► want to go up to the size of the iPhone 8 and so hopefully there's something to

00:38:53 ◼   ► replace that phone with for her at some point but I would I would not be

00:38:58 ◼   ► surprised if it looks the same and I don't think that's a letdown like I

00:39:00 ◼   ► think people who buy the iPhone SE buy it for two reasons one of two reasons

00:39:04 ◼   ► one because it's it's cheap and you know if you if you only have a little little

00:39:11 ◼   ► relatively little bit amount of money to spend on a phone.

00:39:14 ◼   ► It's at the bottom end of things.

00:39:16 ◼   ► And two, I think the bigger reason

00:39:18 ◼   ► is that people really like the size.

00:39:20 ◼   ► There are a lot of people, my wife is chief among them,

00:39:23 ◼   ► that anything over four inches is too big for her.

00:39:25 ◼   ► She doesn't care for it.

00:39:27 ◼   ► I bought her an iPhone 6S,

00:39:29 ◼   ► and I sold it to a family member when the SE came out.

00:39:32 ◼   ► - Really? - Yeah.

00:39:33 ◼   ► - Oh, wow, okay.

00:39:34 ◼   ► - So she had a 6S for like two months,

00:39:36 ◼   ► and then the SE came out,

00:39:37 ◼   ► and I had to swap it around for her.

00:39:41 ◼   ► And so she doesn't want to move up in size.

00:39:43 ◼   ► And there are a lot of people like that.

00:39:44 ◼   ► And that's, it's not a very big market,

00:39:46 ◼   ► but I think it's a market that is worth Apple continuing

00:39:51 ◼   ► to serve, especially if it is relatively straightforward

00:39:56 ◼   ► to do so.

00:39:57 ◼   ► And taking the SE and giving it a glass bag

00:39:59 ◼   ► for wireless charging or making it with the face ID,

00:40:03 ◼   ► like all those things are not keeping it simple.

00:40:06 ◼   ► And it would drive the cost up.

00:40:08 ◼   ► And it would, it would de-centivize Apple to do it

00:40:11 ◼   ► in the first place so I think an iPhone se2 is just the iPhone se we know today

00:40:15 ◼   ► just faster and that will appease those customers 100% yeah I could see you know

00:40:21 ◼   ► iPhone 7 specs into that kind of device not even iPhone 8 specs I don't remember

00:40:28 ◼   ► when the SC launched which kind of internals it had it has the 6s internals

00:40:35 ◼   ► and it came out like four months after the 6s so for most of a year it was it

00:40:40 ◼   ► it was up to date and then the iPhone 7 passed it.

00:40:43 ◼   ► Okay, so it could be iPhone 8 specs in the smaller package.

00:40:48 ◼   ► That would be nice.

00:40:49 ◼   ► Yeah, that would be amazing actually.

00:40:53 ◼   ► I have a dear friend who swears by the SE.

00:40:56 ◼   ► He doesn't want to upgrade to the, even the iPhone 7, the iPhone 8, the small one.

00:41:03 ◼   ► He just wants to keep the phone as small as possible.

00:41:07 ◼   ► Which I understand, because a lot of people do not like where we've gone as an industry

00:41:13 ◼   ► towards bigger phones. They want to use smaller ones. And I think the SE is important enough

00:41:17 ◼   ► to keep those people happy. Because if there are enough people, why drive them away to

00:41:23 ◼   ► another ecosystem? If you can make this cheaper phone that has arguably a classic industrial

00:41:31 ◼   ► design, you cannot say that the iPhone 5s look is ugly or dated. It still looks beautifully

00:41:38 ◼   ► retro the way that I see it. It's a classic Apple design. So why not keep it around? And

00:41:46 ◼   ► if you have the components for the current line of phones, why not reuse them? I also

00:41:53 ◼   ► think it's valuable for Apple to produce these phones because it teaches them how to use

00:42:00 ◼   ► teaches them how to make these components into an even smaller package, such as taking

00:42:06 ◼   ► the current year's CPU, for example, and making it fit into such a smaller body.

00:42:13 ◼   ► That should be valuable from an engineering perspective.

00:42:15 ◼   ► So I would be happy to see a new SE model this year.

00:42:20 ◼   ► Yeah, I didn't really thought about that from the engineering perspective, it being beneficial.

00:42:25 ◼   ► But I think you're right there.

00:42:26 ◼   ► I think there's definitely something there.

00:42:28 ◼   ► And I think the look is fine.

00:42:29 ◼   ► Like I said, it's classic.

00:42:32 ◼   ► My wife's got the Space Gray SE and she usually carries it in a case but I had it out of the

00:42:37 ◼   ► case a couple of weeks ago and I was just holding it.

00:42:41 ◼   ► I was like, "Man, this looks really good still."

00:42:44 ◼   ► And every…

00:42:45 ◼   ► Well, it's not so much with the iPhone X but for a while with the Plus, sometimes I

00:42:51 ◼   ► thought, "You know, would it be crazy to like pick up a 5S or an SE just to have a

00:42:58 ◼   ► phone that is smaller for like bike riding going to the gym and the Apple

00:43:02 ◼   ► Watch has taken care of that for me because like going to the gym with a

00:43:06 ◼   ► plus-sats phone in your pocket is just a giant pain but there are people who you

00:43:12 ◼   ► know want a phone as small and compact as possible and and you said something

00:43:17 ◼   ► about you know going to other ecosystems there aren't many Android flag no

00:43:22 ◼   ► Android flagship phone is as small as the SE you kind of have to do like

00:43:25 ◼   ► mid-range or even cheap phones on the Android side to get something this small.

00:43:30 ◼   ► So I mean Apple really I think has the only premium small-sized smartphone at

00:43:36 ◼   ► this point you know that matters and I think that's valuable to have and I

00:43:40 ◼   ► think that you know when they introduced it they talked a lot about how people

00:43:45 ◼   ► buying their first iPhone at the time they were buying 5s because they were

00:43:49 ◼   ► cheap and small and the SE can meet their needs but with modern technology

00:43:53 ◼   ► inside of it because if someone is buying their first phone and they're

00:43:57 ◼   ► going to buy the small cheap one if they buy something that's three years old the

00:44:02 ◼   ► the iOS experience is not what it is on a new phone right it's going to be

00:44:08 ◼   ► slower you're gonna have features that aren't there and some of that's true on

00:44:12 ◼   ► the SE because it doesn't have 3d touch but it is as close as you can get to

00:44:20 ◼   ► having the full iOS experience for the cost.

00:44:23 ◼   ► And again, I think that's valuable

00:44:25 ◼   ► 'cause someone coming into the ecosystem,

00:44:27 ◼   ► if their first device is small and cheap,

00:44:29 ◼   ► but it's a cruddy experience,

00:44:31 ◼   ► that's not a great introduction to this world, right?

00:44:34 ◼   ► And I think the SE keeps a lot of people

00:44:37 ◼   ► coming into the ecosystem happy for many years.

00:44:39 ◼   ► And again, I think that's a valuable customer to have.

00:44:42 ◼   ► They're not paying what I paid for my iPhone X,

00:44:44 ◼   ► so they're not like as monetarily valuable to Apple.

00:44:47 ◼   ► But if their first iPhone experience is good,

00:44:49 ◼   ► I bet they're going to get a second iPhone.

00:44:52 ◼   ► And if it's a way to introduce people to the iPhone for the first time that's cheap and

00:44:57 ◼   ► relatively modern and fast and beautiful and robust, that aluminum body is way tougher

00:45:02 ◼   ► than the glass front and back iPhone 8, 8 Plus and 10, then those are all good things.

00:45:08 ◼   ► They're all reasons to keep the SE around and to improve it.

00:45:11 ◼   ► And I really hope we see it this spring.

00:45:14 ◼   ► March will be two years.

00:45:15 ◼   ► It's time.

00:45:16 ◼   ► So I'm hoping that even if there's not a March event, Apple just has a press release

00:45:21 ◼   ► of "Hey, the SE has updated internals.

00:45:24 ◼   ► Go crazy."

00:45:25 ◼   ► I know that we'd be ordering one for my wife the day it happens.

00:45:29 ◼   ► Did they have an event for the original SE?

00:45:34 ◼   ► There was an event.

00:45:36 ◼   ► It was during the 9.7-inch…

00:45:38 ◼   ► Oh, right.

00:45:41 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:45:43 ◼   ► iPad Pro event, maybe?

00:45:44 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:45:45 ◼   ► right there was something else there was something else in that keynote but they

00:45:52 ◼   ► look I'm looking on on YouTube let's see what else let's see what else was during

00:45:58 ◼   ► this event I don't know they had other stuff but it was part of a March event

00:46:03 ◼   ► so yeah it was March March 20 21 2016 6 March 2016 so that was two years ago

00:46:10 ◼   ► yeah it was the 9 point it was the 9.7 inch iPad Pro yeah yeah I'm looking at

00:46:15 ◼   ► photos there were four color options for the SE. Nice. Yeah, it's a really good take.

00:46:24 ◼   ► I'm taking a look at the pictures again because I don't see this phone, this design often,

00:46:28 ◼   ► right? It's a classic design. It still looks great. I mean, it's not the phone for me,

00:46:34 ◼   ► but I think it looks fantastic. And there's no camera bump. It's nice. It's flat. It's

00:46:41 ◼   ► a flat back as it should be on a phone and it can even capture 4K video. So I forget

00:46:48 ◼   ► that the SE is a modern phone. It's got Apple Pay, it's got 4K video, it's got no camera

00:46:56 ◼   ► bump. It looks really nice. It's the past of iPhone designs but that does not necessarily

00:47:03 ◼   ► mean that it's bad. So I agree, we should get a new SE. I don't want it but it's important

00:47:10 ◼   ► for people to have. So fingers crossed. Even though, I don't know, there's going to be

00:47:15 ◼   ► a March event in 2018, I have no idea. But yeah.

00:47:18 ◼   ► Maybe it'll be the iPhone SE and a Mac Mini. Just all the small things get updated. iPod

00:47:24 ◼   ► Touch.

00:47:25 ◼   ► It'll be the grab bag event with SE2, Mac Mini, and AirPower.

00:47:31 ◼   ► Oh yeah, that thing. I've already forgot about it.

00:47:34 ◼   ► Don't call it that thing. It's awesome. I'm looking forward to AirPower.

00:47:38 ◼   ► - I am too.

00:47:39 ◼   ► The other day, actually, I think I tweeted this,

00:47:41 ◼   ► I got to the gym and I flipped over my AirPods case

00:47:44 ◼   ► and the LED didn't come on.

00:47:46 ◼   ► I was like, "Oh no."

00:47:48 ◼   ► So I pulled the earbuds out and the left one wouldn't pair

00:47:52 ◼   ► and the right one said it had 2% battery left.

00:47:54 ◼   ► I was like, "Oh no."

00:47:56 ◼   ► I didn't have any wired headphones with me.

00:47:58 ◼   ► And I stayed at the gym.

00:48:03 ◼   ► I didn't go home, even though the thought did cross my mind.

00:48:06 ◼   ► But I definitely just put them in

00:48:07 ◼   ► So it looked like I was listening to stuff.

00:48:09 ◼   ► So you know, people don't try to talk to you.

00:48:11 ◼   ► I don't know what that says about me as a person.

00:48:14 ◼   ► Maybe nothing good, but.

00:48:15 ◼   ► - Actually, a lot of people do that.

00:48:17 ◼   ► Remember when we were at Facebook two years ago,

00:48:20 ◼   ► and there was the vending machine with headphones

00:48:24 ◼   ► that you could get.

00:48:26 ◼   ► You could have used one of those at the gym.

00:48:28 ◼   ► - I know, oh man.

00:48:29 ◼   ► They're like, "100 bucks for AirPods? Ahh!"

00:48:31 ◼   ► Okay. - Sure, sign me up.

00:48:33 ◼   ► - Here's my credit card.

00:48:35 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:48:37 ◼   ► All the iPhone SE stuff comes in context

00:48:41 ◼   ► that KGI and others are reporting

00:48:43 ◼   ► that 2018's iPhones are gonna be bonkers.

00:48:49 ◼   ► So a second gen iPhone 10 with upgraded internals,

00:48:53 ◼   ► a 6.5 inch iPhone 10 Plus,

00:48:56 ◼   ► and then a cheaper LCD but still has Face ID,

00:49:01 ◼   ► 6.1 inch screen and

00:49:03 ◼   ► assumably no 4.7 or old plus like I don't want to really get into this because it's all crazy and it's really early

00:49:10 ◼   ► But I just I just don't see apple giving up the 4.7 inch size

00:49:15 ◼   ► I feel like something in all this iphone reporting is is not landed quite yet. There's still something out here

00:49:22 ◼   ► That isn't quite fully formed in these reports. So I had a thought about this

00:49:28 ◼   ► This is just my theory, but it's the only way that in my brain I can reconcile these rumors.

00:49:35 ◼   ► My idea, and my question/theory is, if maybe the strategy of offering both the old design iPhone 8

00:49:48 ◼   ► and the futuristic iPhone X, if maybe that did not work out as Apple expected, or if maybe it's just

00:49:55 ◼   ► time to move on. I wonder if this could be a way to say within the same line, so

00:50:03 ◼   ► the same design, we now offer three options. There's iPhone X which will be

00:50:11 ◼   ► the "basic" one with the LCD. There's iPhone X Pro which will be the one we

00:50:21 ◼   ► have today with the OLED display and the bigger display also and an iPhone 10 plus which will

00:50:31 ◼   ► be you know the really top of the line model.

00:50:35 ◼   ► Yeah, $1300.

00:50:40 ◼   ► And I do wonder if maybe this is Apple's way of saying we don't want to cause any more

00:50:48 ◼   ► confusion, asking people to pick between the also new iPhone 8, which is a bigger number

00:50:55 ◼   ► than last year, so it must be new, but the also newer new iPhone X, and it's a way of

00:51:05 ◼   ► saying everything is new, but now you just choose whichever version you prefer.

00:51:12 ◼   ► I do also wonder if confusion could be just relocated somewhere else, which would be how

00:51:19 ◼   ► do you explain to people the differences between what looks like an iPhone X but as an LCD

00:51:26 ◼   ► and what looks like an iPhone X also but is OLED. So it seems to me like just the display

00:51:31 ◼   ► type wouldn't be enough to explain people how to tell the difference.

00:51:36 ◼   ► No way, man. People don't know the difference.

00:51:38 ◼   ► Exactly. But I have asked myself this question. Is this a way to simplify the decision for

00:51:45 ◼   ► people? Instead of having to say, "Do I want the old design, but it's the iPhone 8, so

00:51:51 ◼   ► it's still new, or do I want the iPhone X, which is super new, but it's also super expensive?"

00:51:56 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't know. It's all very confusing.

00:51:59 ◼   ► I still think that the iPhone Pro name is a great name and it should happen.

00:52:04 ◼   ► It is a good name.

00:52:06 ◼   ► But we all know, you know, we're gonna go back to the, I mean the 10 plus, it sounds

00:52:10 ◼   ► amazing.

00:52:11 ◼   ► So I was holding a friend of mine, she has an iPhone 7 plus.

00:52:18 ◼   ► And she wants to wait until the 10 gets the plus version because she's so used to having

00:52:23 ◼   ► the big phone.

00:52:25 ◼   ► And I was holding her phone a few days ago and it looks, it still looks great.

00:52:29 ◼   ► I'm used to the iPhone 10.

00:52:30 ◼   ► I love the iPhone 10.

00:52:31 ◼   ► I think having the edge-to-edge design compensates for the smaller size, but I cannot wait until

00:52:39 ◼   ► I get the plus physical size, but it's an entire display.

00:52:44 ◼   ► Because I know I can use that phone.

00:52:46 ◼   ► I used that phone for a couple of years.

00:52:48 ◼   ► And I'm going to have an even bigger plus that has this edge-to-edge display.

00:52:55 ◼   ► That it's not physically bigger, but the experience gives me more room for apps and everything.

00:53:00 ◼   ► So I'm really looking forward to this phone.

00:53:03 ◼   ► That's really funny to me.

00:53:05 ◼   ► I too very recently held a 7 Plus a friend of mine has and I sort of had the opposite

00:53:13 ◼   ► reaction to you and I really liked the Plus.

00:53:16 ◼   ► But the X, because it's more or less hand-wavy, the Plus screen in the regular phone body

00:53:23 ◼   ► roughly, I was like I don't know if I, I don't want to see it, but I don't know if I could

00:53:28 ◼   ► go back.

00:53:29 ◼   ► Like it felt enormous.

00:53:30 ◼   ► part of it is just trickery that it has the chin and the forehead so it looks bigger than

00:53:34 ◼   ► it is. Yeah, I don't know. So I am very curious about an iPhone 10 plus, I would

00:53:40 ◼   ► definitely want to check one out. But I don't know right now if they were both on sale,

00:53:45 ◼   ► what I would do because I'm really happy with the 10 because I've gotten used to

00:53:49 ◼   ► this the more compact size. But you still like you said, get most of the benefits of

00:53:53 ◼   ► the plus screen. Now the one thing that I still think is inferior is the keyboard. I

00:53:57 ◼   ► I think the keyboard really benefits

00:54:00 ◼   ► from the width of the plus.

00:54:01 ◼   ► That is so true.

00:54:02 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:54:03 ◼   ► Who knows?

00:54:04 ◼   ► I guess we'll find out in September.

00:54:07 ◼   ► We should note that all these rumors and this speculation

00:54:12 ◼   ► is leading up to Apple's results, which are due tomorrow

00:54:16 ◼   ► for Q1 2018, I guess.

00:54:20 ◼   ► Sure.

00:54:21 ◼   ► Which would be the holiday quarter,

00:54:23 ◼   ► the really big numbers.

00:54:26 ◼   ► And, you know, we've seen all these reports of... and I should tell you, this notion that

00:54:33 ◼   ► Apple is discontinuing, is canceling the iPhone X is everywhere.

00:54:37 ◼   ► I've had my girlfriend ask me if the iPhone X is being cancelled.

00:54:41 ◼   ► I've had my mom ask me what is going on with the iPhone X.

00:54:45 ◼   ► I've had friends saying, "Oh, don't you know Apple is discontinuing the iPhone X?"

00:54:50 ◼   ► So the narrative that Apple isn't selling the new phone well is something that happens

00:54:56 ◼   ► every year, but this year it's been everywhere in the news and people, like everybody I talk

00:55:03 ◼   ► to about the iPhone, they know that Apple is canceling the iPhone X, which is crazy,

00:55:09 ◼   ► but I do wonder if we're going to get any, I mean we have to, to get any kind of detail

00:55:16 ◼   ► from Apple tomorrow during the earnings call that they need to reply to these reports that

00:55:24 ◼   ► the iPhone X is being cancelled because it didn't sell as well as Apple was hoping.

00:55:31 ◼   ► My guess is, so we'll see the average selling price, and I think that'll be up a little

00:55:36 ◼   ► bit from where it's been showing that, you know, X's are in the mix. But I would not

00:55:40 ◼   ► be surprised if Apple doesn't take that report on like head-on and says no we're

00:55:48 ◼   ► not canceling demand is still strong we are still making this phone because it

00:55:52 ◼   ► is so and most of the time these stories come out and they sort of die off

00:55:55 ◼   ► because people understand that sometimes they come from people who are trying to

00:55:59 ◼   ► do things with the stock or I don't know that's the case this time but you know

00:56:01 ◼   ► there's all these factors right when you talk about the financial side of it that

00:56:04 ◼   ► I don't think either of us are fully capable of discussing intelligently but

00:56:09 ◼   ► It's very complicated. But this time, like you said, it is everywhere, man. It is everywhere and

00:56:14 ◼   ► It feels like Apple because it's their flagship. I think I would not be surprised

00:56:21 ◼   ► I should say if Tim Cook doesn't address that just directly

00:56:24 ◼   ► In like very plain language and they have done that sort of thing in the past addressing certain things

00:56:30 ◼   ► But uh, no, it's it's silly to think, you know, maybe you know

00:56:35 ◼   ► maybe it hasn't met their expectations or maybe the ASP hasn't moved and we'll

00:56:39 ◼   ► see that tomorrow you know to a degree and we'll have to wait for you know a

00:56:44 ◼   ► sim Kona and other other folks to really break it down but my guess is that the

00:56:49 ◼   ► iPhone 10 is selling fine I see them out in the world I also see a ton of eights

00:56:54 ◼   ► and eight pluses because I think the eight was different enough that people

00:56:57 ◼   ► who skip the seven are finally upgrading like I know a lot of people from the six

00:57:01 ◼   ► or the 6s to the 8 and I think their numbers are going to be huge

00:57:06 ◼   ► tomorrow but I don't think Apple's gonna let that rumor continue to float out

00:57:10 ◼   ► there. I think they're gonna say something directly. Yeah I hope so.

00:57:14 ◼   ► I want to see what the narrative, how they, you know, all

00:57:21 ◼   ► these analysts, how they react to a direct confirmation from Apple. So that

00:57:26 ◼   ► should be interesting. And the results are due tomorrow, so February 1st at... we talked

00:57:33 ◼   ► about this a few minutes ago, Stephen, what's the time again? It's at 11... my 11 p.m. in

00:57:38 ◼   ► Italy, which could... should be the 5 p.m. Eastern in the United States, but as usual,

00:57:45 ◼   ► the results, they come out 30 minutes before Apple does their earnings call when the market

00:57:52 ◼   ► closes you get a press release from Apple and you get a bunch of charts from

00:57:57 ◼   ► websites like Mac stories 512 six colors all the all the great websites we have

00:58:03 ◼   ► we have charts so we have numbers so we have different colors for numbers so

00:58:07 ◼   ► that should be fun should should be should be a real scene so we have we got

00:58:14 ◼   ► one more topic and it's a busy week I mean for the end of January like we're

00:58:19 ◼   ► We're not even talking about the government probing Apple about the battery thing.

00:58:22 ◼   ► There's still a bunch of stuff that we've had in our show notes that we keep pushing

00:58:26 ◼   ► back.

00:58:27 ◼   ► It's been a very busy January.

00:58:28 ◼   ► Usually January is pretty slow when it comes to covering Apple, but they're keeping us

00:58:33 ◼   ► busy.

00:58:34 ◼   ► But we have one last sort of unusual topic.

00:58:37 ◼   ► But first, let me tell you about our final sponsor this week.

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01:00:39 ◼   ► So Federico, we're preparing for the show this week, and you text me and saying, "I've

01:00:44 ◼   ► been using DuckDuckGo this year."

01:00:47 ◼   ► Or for, I don't know how long you said.

01:00:48 ◼   ► "I've been using DuckDuckGo."

01:00:50 ◼   ► And I know people who use it.

01:00:52 ◼   ► I think most of the people who use it, if I can paint with a broad stroke, do it because

01:00:56 ◼   ► they don't want to use Google for political or religious reasons.

01:01:03 ◼   ► But you use Google stuff often, you know.

01:01:06 ◼   ► But you're using DuckDuckGo on iOS for some very specific reasons that I found really

01:01:10 ◼   ► interesting.

01:01:11 ◼   ► So what has gone into this decision for you?

01:01:14 ◼   ► So I should note upfront that I haven't switched search engines because of privacy concerns

01:01:24 ◼   ► or because I think Google is creepy or because I feel like I'm being spied.

01:01:29 ◼   ► I understand that some people have these concerns, which are valid, but this is not my primary

01:01:34 ◼   ► reason.

01:01:35 ◼   ► I have been increasingly annoyed by how a Google Mobile search works and looks like

01:01:42 ◼   ► in Safari for iOS. I've had very specific complaints and problems that I will go through

01:01:48 ◼   ► right now. The first one, and really the most annoying one, which I cannot stand any longer,

01:01:55 ◼   ► is that every single time I search for something on Google with my iPhone, I get a location

01:02:03 ◼   ► prompt. I get a pop-up dialog that says "Google wants to use your location for results whatever".

01:02:12 ◼   ► I have tried to follow a bunch of tutorials over the past couple of years. Each one of

01:02:19 ◼   ► these guides offered a solution to get rid of these prompts. None of them worked. So

01:02:25 ◼   ► yes you can try to send me a link to a tutorial that promises to fix this problem. It will

01:02:30 ◼   ► not work. I have tried them all. So every time I open a Google search, I get this prompt

01:02:36 ◼   ► that I assume it's because I tried to use Google.com, but also the iPhone sees that

01:02:42 ◼   ► I'm in Italy. And basically I need to accept this prompt, then it reloads the page underneath.

01:02:50 ◼   ► So the results change before my eyes. And this is super annoying because I've been seeing

01:02:56 ◼   ► this prompt like 12 times a day. It's so annoying. The other issue that I have is that

01:03:05 ◼   ► there's a general weirdness due to AMP pages. So the Google AMP, the mobile format that

01:03:14 ◼   ► they're doing, it used to be that I could not copy the standard URLs of web pages. You

01:03:24 ◼   ► You know, Google was doing the google.com/amp/something.

01:03:28 ◼   ► But now that the links have been cleaned up,

01:03:31 ◼   ► I still get weird issues with, for example,

01:03:36 ◼   ► scrolling in these AMP pages.

01:03:39 ◼   ► Because Google, if whatever possible,

01:03:41 ◼   ► they try to default to loading the AMP version of a web page

01:03:45 ◼   ► that you open from Google Search.

01:03:47 ◼   ► Or for example, I often cannot swipe back from a Google AMP

01:03:52 ◼   ► page.

01:03:53 ◼   ► if I try to swipe back from the left edge of the iPhone's

01:03:57 ◼   ► display, the gesture is like stuck.

01:04:00 ◼   ► Because I think the Google AMP, it does some weird stuff

01:04:04 ◼   ► to hijack the standard scrolling behavior of Safari.

01:04:08 ◼   ► And so sometimes not even swiping back works.

01:04:11 ◼   ► Or if it does, if swiping back works,

01:04:14 ◼   ► I go back to the main Google search page,

01:04:17 ◼   ► but I cannot swipe vertically anymore.

01:04:19 ◼   ► So I cannot scroll results for like two seconds.

01:04:23 ◼   ► should say it's a happy anniversary it's been a year since you were in the New York Times

01:04:28 ◼   ► oh really uh yelling about Google AMP well there'll be a link in the show notes nice um what else um

01:04:35 ◼   ► oh of course um there's I get constantly I get redirected to the from the google uh dot com

01:04:44 ◼   ► version which is the one that I want to use because for work I need to look up English

01:04:48 ◼   ► stuff all the time, I get redirected to the Google Italian version, which would be .it

01:04:55 ◼   ► for Italy. I don't want to use that. I do not want to, because whenever I type something

01:05:00 ◼   ► in English, but it goes to Google .it, it then says "do you mean to search for this?"

01:05:07 ◼   ► because it does not understand English, because it's the Italian version. So I do not want

01:05:12 ◼   ► to get redirected to the Italian version of Google search. And finally, something that

01:05:17 ◼   ► have been noticing over the past few months is sometimes when you tap on a Google search

01:05:21 ◼   ► result, you open the result and then if you go back, the result gets overlaid with related

01:05:29 ◼   ► suggestions. So like tiny rectangles containing related search queries for the result you

01:05:36 ◼   ► just tapped on. But if for example you go back and you, so let's say you search for,

01:05:42 ◼   ► I don't know, Doc Cow Tattoo on Google.

01:05:46 ◼   ► And you open a result, and you say, oh, this is pretty cool.

01:05:49 ◼   ► You go back, and you're back on the list of results.

01:05:52 ◼   ► And then you say, oh, man, I should have copied the link

01:05:55 ◼   ► to the web page.

01:05:56 ◼   ► You assume I should be able to tap and hold

01:05:59 ◼   ► on the title of the search result,

01:06:02 ◼   ► and I can copy the link.

01:06:03 ◼   ► But no, these suggestions, they overlay the result.

01:06:07 ◼   ► And you cannot see the result anymore unless you reload

01:06:10 ◼   ► the entire webpage. Which is just... I'm... this is too much man. Like, all these changes

01:06:17 ◼   ► and all this AMP stuff and the location prompts. This is just so annoying. It used to be so

01:06:23 ◼   ► simple and I don't mean to sound like a grumpy old guy. I'm all for change and new features.

01:06:28 ◼   ► But it's like... you were supposed to give me a car and now you're giving me this space

01:06:34 ◼   ► shuttle with all these controls and all these options. I just want a list of results. This

01:06:39 ◼   ► was your entire premise, Google, that I type something into the box and the box spits out

01:06:43 ◼   ► a bunch of results. And that, for me at least, that is not the case anymore because whenever

01:06:48 ◼   ► I type in something I am waiting that second wishing that either I don't get a location

01:06:54 ◼   ► prompt or I don't get a bunch of AMP pages or that I can scroll like a normal web page

01:07:01 ◼   ► and this is just too much. So like a couple of weeks ago I was like, you know, I know

01:07:06 ◼   ► Most people do this for political reasons.

01:07:09 ◼   ► I'm just going to try DuckDuckGo because of the design

01:07:13 ◼   ► and functionality.

01:07:14 ◼   ► I want what Google used to be three, four years ago

01:07:18 ◼   ► before they started doing all of this.

01:07:22 ◼   ► And it looks nice.

01:07:25 ◼   ► It's a list of search results with no AMP, no location prompt.

01:07:30 ◼   ► And yes, privacy is a plus for me.

01:07:33 ◼   ► For me personally, it's not the main reason

01:07:36 ◼   ► why I want to use this.

01:07:38 ◼   ► It's just the main functionality of a search engine.

01:07:41 ◼   ► I type something, I get a list of results.

01:07:44 ◼   ► Sometimes I get those special fancy inline answers,

01:07:49 ◼   ► like you can do calculations,

01:07:51 ◼   ► you can do currency conversions,

01:07:52 ◼   ► you can look up definition of words,

01:07:55 ◼   ► which look awesome on DuckDuckGo.

01:07:57 ◼   ► It's a really beautiful design.

01:07:59 ◼   ► You can get nerdy with DuckDuckGo.

01:08:01 ◼   ► You can go into the settings,

01:08:02 ◼   ► you can change a bunch of preferences, you can switch themes, which is nice, I guess.

01:08:09 ◼   ► But honestly, it looks nicer. Still, and if you have any questions Steven, feel free to

01:08:16 ◼   ► ask me. I'm not a DDG expert, but I've been playing around with it. I fear that the...

01:08:29 ◼   ► I will still have to use Google for two things that I do all the time. It's not that I fear,

01:08:37 ◼   ► I'm begrudgingly using Google for two things. One of them is I use Google News results a

01:08:46 ◼   ► lot. And DuckDuckGo has a news tab in the search results, but it's not as, I don't want

01:08:55 ◼   ► see real time, but as effective as Google's. On Google I see a lot of news items, on Dr.

01:09:04 ◼   ► Go I often don't even see the news option at all. And the other one is the ability to

01:09:11 ◼   ► filter results by time. This is something that I do a lot on Google, if I'm looking

01:09:16 ◼   ► for something recent, I filter by the last 24 hours or the last month. This is something

01:09:23 ◼   ► that you can do if you tap on search tools on Google search.

01:09:27 ◼   ► And I think DuckDuckGo has the same option, but again, there are not as many results as

01:09:36 ◼   ► there are on Google.

01:09:37 ◼   ► The good news is DuckDuckGo has this feature called "bangs", which are basically a syntax

01:09:45 ◼   ► that allow you to redirect a search from DuckDuckGo to something else.

01:09:51 ◼   ► And this works both in the DuckDuckGo webpage, so if you actually type into the search field,

01:10:00 ◼   ► or if you set DDG as your default search engine in Safari, the bang syntax also works in the

01:10:07 ◼   ► Safari address bar.

01:10:09 ◼   ► So for example, if I know I need to look something up on Google, instead of opening DuckDuckGo

01:10:15 ◼   ► and then be like "oh man, I didn't find what I was looking for"

01:10:19 ◼   ► If I have a feeling that like, you know, maybe I'm gonna find this page on Google

01:10:25 ◼   ► I do, right away, in Safari, exclamation point G, which is the bang syntax for Google

01:10:32 ◼   ► and then I type in whatever it is that I'm looking for

01:10:35 ◼   ► and automatically DuckDuckGo goes to encrypted.google.com

01:10:40 ◼   ► which is the encrypted version of Google search

01:10:42 ◼   ► I don't know what encrypted means, it should be encrypted by default.

01:10:46 ◼   ► I guess there's a higher privacy level or something.

01:10:49 ◼   ► And it's a way to bypass DuckDuckGo and go straight to Google.

01:10:55 ◼   ► And there's the bank syntax, which I'm not super familiar with, but I know you can do

01:11:00 ◼   ► this kind of stuff for YouTube, for Amazon, for...

01:11:04 ◼   ► It's a way to save time, you know, with the custom syntax.

01:11:09 ◼   ► So basically, I'm happy so far.

01:11:12 ◼   ► looks cleaner. And I don't understand why Google is making it so hard for people to

01:11:16 ◼   ► use Google Search on their iPhones. It used to be so simple. It used to be so effective.

01:11:22 ◼   ► Like you type something, you get something back. But now they're hungry for all this

01:11:27 ◼   ► data and location and amp and all this custom stuff. And I'm just like, you know, Google,

01:11:33 ◼   ► I'm fine with your data collection policy. I'm fine with your type of company because

01:11:39 ◼   ► Usually I get a great service out of Gmail and the G Suite and all this other stuff,

01:11:44 ◼   ► but this is too much. This is basically unusable for me. So I'm just going to use something

01:11:47 ◼   ► else.

01:11:48 ◼   ► Yeah, I haven't spent much time with Dot Dot Go, but I know it's powerful. I know that

01:11:53 ◼   ► Safari, Mobile Safari and Google are a super annoying combination. I get them too, here

01:12:00 ◼   ► in the US. I get that little pop-up. And as far as I can tell, nothing I've searched for

01:12:05 ◼   ► and found on the internet can make it stop. So there's that. But yeah, I think it's interesting.

01:12:14 ◼   ► Keep us posted on this. I'm curious if this is something that sticks long term or if you

01:12:18 ◼   ► end up being frustrated by something and going back.

01:12:22 ◼   ► I've heard from people that said I try to use DuckDuckGo because I like them, the design,

01:12:30 ◼   ► I liked the company, but ultimately I was constantly going back to Google, so I figured

01:12:35 ◼   ► maybe I should just switch back and accept Google for what it is.

01:12:40 ◼   ► So far, the things I'm looking for, like, I don't know, support documents from Apple

01:12:48 ◼   ► or developer pages on developer.apple.com, or old articles on Mac Stories or Dating Fireball.

01:12:56 ◼   ► I've been able to find those just fine.

01:13:00 ◼   ► I want to see how it goes. Maybe when I'm working on an article and I need to do a lot

01:13:05 ◼   ► of research, is that going to be a problem? So I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

01:13:10 ◼   ► But right now I'm making actions for drafts to launch search pages on DuckDuckGo. I'm making

01:13:16 ◼   ► workflows. I'm having fun as usual, but we'll have to see. When I need to look up a lot

01:13:25 ◼   ► stuff, old articles, old reference

01:13:28 ◼   ► material. Is that going to work for me? I

01:13:30 ◼   ► don't know, so we'll see. I think that

01:13:32 ◼   ► does it for this week. Feel good? Yeah.

01:13:34 ◼   ► I feel good. Yeah, I do. I do. I feel

01:13:37 ◼   ► refreshed, Steven. That's good. If you want to

01:13:40 ◼   ► find show notes for this week, you can

01:13:42 ◼   ► point your web browser to relay.fm/connected/178

01:13:49 ◼   ► The show notes are probably also in the app

01:13:51 ◼   ► you're using to listen to this, but

01:13:53 ◼   ► they're on the web if you need them there.

01:13:54 ◼   ► there's an email link there on the sidebar of the web page and then of

01:13:58 ◼   ► course you can find us all on Twitter. Myke is @imyke. Be sure to wish him a

01:14:03 ◼   ► happy birthday and tell him your favorite color. You can find Federico

01:14:06 ◼   ► there as @vititi and Federico of course writes @maxstories.net. You can

01:14:13 ◼   ► find me at 512pixels.net and 512pixels on YouTube and on Twitter I'm @ismh.

01:14:19 ◼   ► Thank you to our sponsors Squarespace, Anchor, and Smile.

01:14:24 ◼   ► And until next week, Federico, say goodbye.

01:14:27 ◼   ► - Adios, el chio.