0:00:00[Music]
0:00:07From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 167.
0:00:11Today's show is brought to you by Casper, TextExpander, and BalanceOpen.
0:00:16My name is Myke Hurley.
0:00:17I am joined by Federico Ficci.
0:00:19Ciao Federico.
0:00:20Ciao Myke.
0:00:21And Stephen Hackett.
0:00:22Howdy, Stephen Hackett.
0:00:24Howdy, Michael Hurley.
0:00:25Oh, you said howdy.
0:00:26That's nice.
0:00:28We had a big show today, we've all got those big phones.
0:00:31Big show, big phones, that's the name of the game today.
0:00:33- Smaller phone, actually.
0:00:35Less big phone. - That's true.
0:00:36That's true, middle phone.
0:00:37It's the Goldilocks iPhone, right?
0:00:39It's like, they're just in the middle, it's just right.
0:00:42- Yeah.
0:00:43- Yeah? - That's right.
0:00:44It found just the perfect bowl of oatmeal,
0:00:46or whatever's in that story.
0:00:47That story's actually, so,
0:00:49we'll do a little side tangent here.
0:00:50I'm sure the two of you haven't read many,
0:00:53like, what are those stories called, like--
0:00:56- Nursery rhymes?
0:00:57Are they nursery rhymes? Fables?
0:01:00Yeah, you know that sort of like class of story, right?
0:01:03I don't know how many of those y'all have read recently.
0:01:05They're all sort of terrible.
0:01:08Well, aren't they all adapted from stories
0:01:10that are meant to scare children into being well behaved?
0:01:13Yes, and it does work for that.
0:01:15My children are very afraid of being eaten by a wolf now.
0:01:17So.
0:01:18Good, good, good, good.
0:01:19You want them to have that fear.
0:01:21But some of the stories are, what are we talking about?
0:01:24Let's go to follow up.
0:01:25Okay, follow-up is very odd this week.
0:01:27It sort of blends into all sorts of things.
0:01:31But I thought I would start by updating people
0:01:34about my late 2016 MacBook Pro that was fixed
0:01:39after much arguing and pain with the Apple Store.
0:01:45That MacBook Pro came back to me whatever it was
0:01:47a week ago, two weeks ago, and I have rage sold it.
0:01:51So I just have this-- - Oh, wow, okay.
0:01:53- Late 2012 sitting here on my desk,
0:01:55which is not the fastest computer I've ever used,
0:01:58but it's fine for now.
0:01:59So, yeah, there it is.
0:02:01- So you actually ended up going the full Marco on this one?
0:02:04- No, the full Marco is buying a new old computer.
0:02:08I have not done that.
0:02:09I already had this one.
0:02:10It's just bringing it back into service.
0:02:12- I feel like we're on a technicality.
0:02:14Mm-mm, I don't think that counts.
0:02:16- No, it's totally different.
0:02:17I didn't spend any money.
0:02:19I have spent no money.
0:02:20This computer was already in the collection.
0:02:22I did put a battery in it, so I spent 100 bucks,
0:02:24but I did not buy a dual computer.
0:02:25- How did that computer get into the collection?
0:02:28- That I don't know anymore
0:02:29because there's like 100 computers in here.
0:02:31- Isn't that convenient?
0:02:33- This I think may have been,
0:02:36it may have been mine at some point,
0:02:38I don't know, it's impossible to keep up.
0:02:40But anyways, so.
0:02:42- You should just use an iPad.
0:02:44- Except that I need to do work in Logic and Final Cut.
0:02:47- On your laptop though, really?
0:02:49- Yes, yeah, when I travel at least.
0:02:51- But you're not traveling right now.
0:02:53- No, I'm not, but I did edit both videos
0:02:55I posted this weekend on it,
0:02:56which was an adventure we can get into later.
0:02:58- Why?
0:02:59Why did you do that?
0:03:00- 'Cause I did it in the living room instead of my office.
0:03:05I don't wanna work on an iPad,
0:03:08because Google Docs has not been updated, has it?
0:03:12Has it been updated, boys?
0:03:13- It sure hasn't.
0:03:14No, it never will be. - Still no.
0:03:16I did some digging into Google Docs for iOS,
0:03:20Because I'm writing this article about drag and drop on the iPad, and I was looking into
0:03:26how different apps expose different data formats for the text that you can select, and either
0:03:33copying to the clipboard or drag and drop.
0:03:37And so I try, of course you cannot drag and drop with Google Docs because they still don't
0:03:41have an update for iOS 11 with that feature, but you can copy text from Google Docs to
0:03:47the clipboard.
0:03:48And so I moved that text into one of the shelf apps that I'm using to look at the UTIs, the
0:03:55data formats that they expose to the system. And Google Docs, I think the problems that
0:04:01we all had in the past with like copying from Google Docs and losing the formatting or copying
0:04:08from like Apple Notes or Apple Mail and pasting into Google Docs and also losing the formatting
0:04:14goes basically back to the problem of Google using a custom data format. Something like
0:04:21VND.google.docs documents, like a custom data format that I searched on Google and apparently
0:04:28it's the proprietary format that they use also in the Google APIs for dealing with the
0:04:39The Google Docs suite of apps like Google Sheets has a version of this.
0:04:43The Slides also has another slightly different version of this data format.
0:04:48So I guess the reason why you...
0:04:50We constantly lose the formatting when we copy from Google Docs and paste elsewhere
0:04:55is that Google is exposing first the either plain text, which of course doesn't have features
0:05:01like bullet lists or links or bold and italics.
0:05:06And then, after plain text, they expose this version, which of course is useless if you're
0:05:11going to paste that formatting to an Apple application.
0:05:15So I suppose that the struggles that Google is having with drag and drop is that they
0:05:21need to reconcile the fact that they're using these custom data formats for their own text.
0:05:27Which is, I suppose it's like a fork of HTML, sort of like Evernote was doing with their
0:05:32own NML version.
0:05:34So I suppose Google is doing that and they still haven't figured out how to combine drag
0:05:39and drop with their own custom engine.
0:05:42But it was interesting for me to, just by using the clipboard and looking into the data
0:05:46formats that they use, HTML is like last into the list of data formats that you can export
0:05:54from a Google document.
0:05:56So that was fun.
0:05:57And by fun I meant I was basically screaming internally and weeping.
0:06:01But yeah.
0:06:03I go through waves of believing they're gonna do it and then believing they're never gonna
0:06:09do it and I don't know where I settle.
0:06:13Sometimes I'm like, "Oh, you know, they update their stuff slowly."
0:06:18Then other times I'm like, "Oh, maybe this is just one that they'll completely skip."
0:06:22I have more faith in their ability to update for the iPhone X than I do for their ability
0:06:29to have drag and drop and that's now in this segment.
0:06:32So Google Docs also does not support iPhone 10 right now.
0:06:37Google Docs and Google Sheets, they are in that old compatibility mode.
0:06:41So Google, we've got our eye on you and Federico is sniffing around inside your business and
0:06:49just let you know we're coming for you, I guess.
0:06:51Yeah, that's true.
0:06:54So I mentioned that we all have iPhones, which definitely means that some stuff went down.
0:07:02So Federico, did you bribe anybody? No, no. I didn't have to. So I didn't get
0:07:12my iPhone on Friday and that was despite my best efforts to be as quick as possible with
0:07:18the pre-orders, my Apple order page said that I was going to get the iPhone on Friday but
0:07:24what I didn't account for was the national strike that I mentioned last week affected
0:07:31Shipments throughout the entire week in Italy so you could have fixed that with just more cash like don't you know?
0:07:38It was another problem. There's a there's a this was basically a dual problem of
0:07:43What UPS called over volume so like a backlog of packages that were sitting in a warehouse?
0:07:50somewhere outside of Rome and they couldn't deliver because they needed they had to catch up with the with the previous shipments from like
0:07:58the week before because the strike was on Monday and Tuesday and in addition
0:08:05to that they also do not support driving to the warehouse and just picking up the
0:08:11package on your own which you can do in other UPS facilities I guess in Italy
0:08:16and also you know I've seen people in in the US driving to the to the local
0:08:21facility and picking up the package you cannot do that in Rome for some reason
0:08:25So I was really upset on Friday and I had the thought of trying to go to an
0:08:35Apple store and buy an iPhone on Friday because I had this this entire plan in
0:08:39mind that I wanted to spend the weekend with the iPhone X, I wanted to start
0:08:43writing about the iPhone X and I just I wanted to have the weekend off so I
0:08:47could play with the device and you know start getting some thoughts together. But
0:08:53But then, as always, Sylvia made me think about my stupid ideas, that it was useless
0:09:01to just buy an iPhone on Friday, because I was gonna get one on Monday anyway.
0:09:07So I decided to mostly stay away from Twitter, because looking at the pictures of people
0:09:14unboxing their iPhones was just too much, and I basically took the weekend off, and
0:09:22I played with my Nintendo Switch and the DOGs. And by Monday, in the meantime I should say
0:09:27that I discovered that the UPS guy also has my phone number saved in his address book
0:09:34on his phone. Because when I called him, I was like "Hey, I'm Federico, I don't know
0:09:39if you remember, I'm the guy, you know, I gave him my address" and he's like "Oh yeah,
0:09:42yeah, how are you doing?" So I assume he had my phone number and he later told me that
0:09:48Do you think that the UPS delivery driver listens to Connected?
0:09:53I don't think he does, honestly.
0:09:56So he was super kind and he told me that actually a lot of people call him on the phone and
0:10:02arrange like, they drive to wherever he is right now with the van and they pick up the
0:10:09package because he said it's also easier for me because I don't need to drive to their
0:10:13house so it saves me a bunch of time and people are happier because they get their packages
0:10:17earlier. So on Monday instead of getting the package at like 2pm I drove by you know like
0:10:235 minutes in another you know somewhere close to my house. It was delivering a bunch of
0:10:28boxes and it just got my iPhone and it's like there you go. Done. So no bribe involved because
0:10:35it's something really common that people do all the time apparently. But I got my iPhone
0:10:40on Monday so yesterday not on Friday which means that I'm still fresh to all of this.
0:10:46So just one thing real quick, in case you're just trying to incriminate, you know, not
0:10:51to incriminate yourself, like if there was bribery involved, you know, just like blink
0:10:55once for yes, and you know, and we'll know. Maybe you're just trying to not incriminate
0:11:00yourself.
0:11:01Well, the beautiful, the beautiful thing about podcasts is that even if you blink, there's
0:11:04no one there to see you.
0:11:06Exactly. It's the age old. In podcasts, nobody can hear you blink. Stephen, you picked up
0:11:13your iPhone nice and early and like all millennials you made a vlog about it?
0:11:19I did. I did do that. So I did the in-store pickup at 8 a.m. I was suddenly very nervous
0:11:24that I was going to be like clapped in or out of the store because that's a creepy thing
0:11:29Apple stores do. But I didn't, which was good. There were some other people there before
0:11:34me. There was a huge line at my store and I went in and the woman who got my phone from
0:11:40and who I'd completed the transaction with was like,
0:11:43yeah, most, or if not all of those people will get phones.
0:11:47And I was back at the store last night for a reason,
0:11:50we'll talk about it in a little while,
0:11:51and these people have been coming in every morning,
0:11:54they have stock almost every morning.
0:11:55So it seems like these phones are easier to get
0:11:58than anticipated, but the in-store pickup
0:12:00was real straightforward.
0:12:02- Good.
0:12:04I had many harebrained schemes.
0:12:08I don't want to go into all of the details of those hair brain schemes, but I do have
0:12:14a silver iPhone 10.
0:12:17I ended up getting it at a store and also maybe related or not related to that transaction.
0:12:25I was in the Regent Street store on iPhone launch day and bumped into my new buddy, Sir
0:12:31Jonathan Ive, just hanging out, just hanging out in the store, demoing face ID with an
0:12:38Apple Store employee, with a gaggle of geniuses. What's a group of geniuses called? Like, you
0:12:46know, what are they called?
0:12:47A sorrow of geniuses.
0:12:48A sorrow of geniuses. A genie surrounding Johnny while he was giving this demo. Johnny
0:12:56was dressed exactly how you would imagine, all white linen trousers and a green jacket.
0:13:01He was wearing his the Johnny uniform for the day. He seemed like a very nice man. I
0:13:06did not talk to him because I am too British for something like that.
0:13:14I just love how you were the most skeptical one in regard to getting an iPhone on launch
0:13:22day and you ended up being the first, I think of all of us, having an iPhone X.
0:13:28Well, because I had to launch into action, right? Like, you guys had your plans, right?
0:13:33Your plans were all set in stone. I had no plan. So I had to leave my house and just
0:13:37like attack London until I got an iPhone. Yeah, I, you know, I just had a bunch of things
0:13:42going on. I had some irons in the fire and one of them ended up coming true and then
0:13:46I got the phone before anybody. Well, not anybody, but before YouTube.
0:13:51job and you know I saw the picture on Twitter and I almost couldn't believe it. It was like
0:13:56that's awesome. It was very surreal. It was a very very surreal moment for me. So you
0:14:02just turned and you saw Johnny. I turned around and the Apple Store on Regent Street has like
0:14:08all the apples like long lines of tables right? Yeah. I'm standing by one of the trees. I
0:14:14turn around. There's nobody in front of me but like two tables down Johnny Ivers is standing
0:14:19there. He's just standing there looking around the store and I was like, "HUH!" I made a sound.
0:14:25Was it a light coming down and shining on Johnny?
0:14:29They bring it out for him. Every Apple store has a spotlight that is activated by iBeacon,
0:14:36which is attached to Johnny's phone. So it's something that you maybe didn't know that,
0:14:41but it's true. And I was able to see the spotlight and yeah, you know, I know taking pictures of
0:14:47of people when they don't know is a bit, but I couldn't. I had to. I couldn't help myself.
0:14:51Not if they're celebrities. I had to do it. Like I had to do it. I had to take a picture
0:14:56of him and I wasn't going to ask for a selfie because I don't, I can't imagine that going
0:15:01very well. Like if it was Tim Cook or Craig Federighi, I would ask them for a selfie.
0:15:05Like I've seen many selfies. I can't recall a Johnny Ive selfie being about anywhere on
0:15:10the internet. No, it doesn't exist. I don't think it would go very well for me. And you
0:15:17know, I kind of imagine he would be very nice about it, I'm sure, but yeah, I was happy
0:15:23to just be in the presence because he's a man that I look up to greatly and yeah, it
0:15:29was very, it was a very, very cool moment for me.
0:15:31I enjoy your new role as the geek paparazzi, Myke. Just going around London, taking pictures
0:15:39of celebrities, posting them casually on Twitter. Very good job, Myke.
0:15:44I'm starting a new website called The Mic Zone is what it's going to be called.
0:15:49It's TMZ?
0:15:50TMZ for sure.
0:15:51Basically.
0:15:52Yeah, The Mic Zone. So that's going to be my new website.
0:15:59Kyle's the Grey is posting many tweets in the chat room now of people taking selfies
0:16:03with Johnny Ive. But I, yeah, I'm sure it happens. Johnny doesn't look incredibly happy
0:16:09in any of them to be honest.
0:16:11So also, I feel like the question, yes, those are pictures, but the real question is, are
0:16:16those people still alive?
0:16:17That's what I want to know.
0:16:18- Exactly, right?
0:16:19Are they trapped inside of a big white box somewhere?
0:16:21Nobody knows.
0:16:22- Exactly.
0:16:23- So we have one mini topic this week.
0:16:27This is a really weird story.
0:16:29So it started happening, I guess, over the weekend.
0:16:33I think I first saw it on Twitter, where someone's tweet would be mostly fine, but instead of
0:16:40the letter I, like the word, you know, like I tweeted,
0:16:43it would be A with a little symbol next to it
0:16:46and then the rest of the tweet.
0:16:47And it has slowly been, it seems like it's slowly spreading.
0:16:51I don't know if that's actually true or not,
0:16:52but it's, like I saw a tweet yesterday,
0:16:53it was like, oh no, I haven't now.
0:16:55So it's some sort of weird deal.
0:16:58What's actually happening, and there's a really good
0:17:00blog post that's in the show notes by our friend
0:17:04and creator of Emojipedia.
0:17:05Myke, you were on his podcast last week, weren't you?
0:17:07Am I making that up?
0:17:08- I was, yep, I was on Emoji Wrap last week
0:17:10with Jeremy Bush.
0:17:12- So Jeremy has this great blog post
0:17:14about what's actually happening here.
0:17:17So the letter I is being appended,
0:17:20for some reason it's obviously a bug,
0:17:22with an invisible character known
0:17:24as the variation selector 16.
0:17:27I did not know what this was, but now I do.
0:17:31It is basically what is used in Unicode
0:17:34to make the previous character have an emoji appearance.
0:17:39And it, for some reason, again, some sort of weird bug,
0:17:42is that it is being appended to the letter I
0:17:45in autocorrect and that breaks it
0:17:46and makes it A with a little question mark next to it.
0:17:49Apple's fix for this, they say that it's going to be,
0:17:53there'll be a fix in the public beta this week.
0:17:56So, assuming it'll be out to the public pretty soon.
0:17:58After that, but they say, if you have this,
0:18:02just go to the text replacement.
0:18:04keyboard settings and just for phrase type an uppercase I for shortcut type a
0:18:10lowercase I I love this for many reasons a most people don't know that's there be
0:18:15that system is so broken that you're gonna have to redo it like every three
0:18:19days when it just they all just disappear from your phone it's just so
0:18:23this is weird like it's just so funny to me I don't know how that you end up
0:18:27breaking this it's very strange it's a very it's not someone in the chat room
0:18:31is saying that's the most weird KBase article, that is patently false. There are far stranger
0:18:37things, but this is my current favorite for a modern KBase article.
0:18:41I love these types of fixes, like to these sort of situations where it's like it's not
0:18:45actually a fix, right? Like it's not, you're not actually fixing anything. It's just like
0:18:50pretend that it doesn't exist and just use the lowercase i instead of the uppercase i,
0:18:56like forever and you're all good. It's very weird. I assume this is some kind of Unicode
0:19:01Like they screwed something up somewhere with Unicode.
0:19:05Because I thought, I kept thinking that I wasn't on the right beta and didn't have the
0:19:08right emoji.
0:19:09Me too.
0:19:10And I had to keep checking.
0:19:13So do you guys have this?
0:19:14My phone, my devices are not doing this.
0:19:17My plus had this problem, my iPhone X doesn't have this problem yet.
0:19:24Which is interesting because I was on the 11.2 beta on my Plus, but I restored on the
0:19:32stable, the public version on my 10.
0:19:35And Apple says that this problem affects iOS 11.1, but I've also seen people saying that
0:19:41they have iOS 11, you know, the first version before 11.1 shipped, and they also see this
0:19:48problem.
0:19:49seems to be widespread on iOS 11 in general, but it seems to be hitting people like at
0:19:54random times. I'm not sure how it propagates. If it relates to some kind of setting being
0:20:00enabled at some point in the background, I have no idea. I should also say, as a quick
0:20:05aside, that when I restored my iPhone X, actually I didn't restore when I set up my iPhone X
0:20:11as a fresh new device, no backups. Yesterday, the text replacements, they synced back from
0:20:17iCloud almost immediately. Like 10 minutes later I was able... I just... I reached out to the keyboard
0:20:23and I typed my text replacement for my email address. Just... I didn't even think about it and it worked.
0:20:28So I'm not sure if Apple migrated those text replacements to CloudKit. As they mentioned a few
0:20:34weeks ago they said we're gonna move to the new system in the future. But... or if it's just maybe
0:20:41just luck but it did work. Like 10 minutes later I logged into iCloud, I started
0:20:47downloading a bunch of apps and then the text replacement worked. So that was nice.
0:20:52Yeah I don't have it on any of my devices. Like I see it but it doesn't
0:20:55happen to me which is very... I mean it honestly does feel like it is this weird
0:21:00virus that is spreading from device to device which is what I find so funny
0:21:04about it. Like yeah but it hasn't happened to me and I don't know why or
0:21:10why not, but it's a very, very, very peculiar and kind of hilarious thing.
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0:22:25- So we're gonna get into our iPhone X
0:22:28hands-on impressions, review, thoughts, feelings, emotions.
0:22:35Myke, you did, you did mention earlier that I did two videos and I want to talk about
0:22:40this just real briefly. The link's in the center notes. Go like and subscribe.
0:22:45Hold on, hold on. Wait a second. I need to ask you both a question and you need to be
0:22:49honest with me. Okay. You need to be extremely honest even if you are on a podcast. Okay.
0:22:54Okay. Never lied to you, Federica. Okay. No. I want you to tell me if when you're with
0:23:01friends or when you're with family, when you're with someone and you're talking about the
0:23:05new iPhone. Do you occasionally call it the iPhone X? Not anymore. Because I feel like
0:23:15I'm very self-conscious about the fact that it's, I mean of course I know it's called
0:23:20the iPhone X, but my friends don't. And so whenever they keep saying iPhone X, I don't
0:23:26want to be the guy telling them, "Oh well actually you're supposed to..." "Excuse me!"
0:23:31Well, you know, Apple want you to call it the iPhone 10. So I'm sorry, but you're using
0:23:37the wrong terminology here, my friends. And I don't want to be that guy.
0:23:41What is this iPhone X that we've heard so much about? I think you'll find the most recent
0:23:45phone is the iPhone 10. Hi, my name is Federico Vitigi and I run this website. Now, I haven't
0:23:50been in a situation like that, where I've been with people that are referring to it,
0:23:55like as the iPhone X. I honestly don't know what I would do in that situation. Okay. I
0:24:00still every now and then read it in my head as X. Like when I read it, it just reads as
0:24:04X. But just having it, you know, over the last couple of weeks, like month or so, just
0:24:11trying to pay attention on podcasts, making sure I'm calling it 10 means I'm calling it
0:24:1610 just naturally now.
0:24:18Okay. All right.
0:24:20Yeah.
0:24:21But that is a good question.
0:24:22I was in that situation on Sunday, so we were with some friends who apparently saw these
0:24:28videos which was super embarrassing and you know wanted to see it and wanted to
0:24:34ask questions about it and someone called it the X and I didn't mean to
0:24:37correct them but it just came out like oh yeah like the 10 I was like oh no I'm
0:24:41that I'm that guy you are that guy conversation quickly moved on
0:24:45Federico can't you just be like excuse me do you not know Roman numerals do you
0:24:50know where you are sir you are in Rome damn it no but it got especially worse
0:24:56last night we had a bunch of friends over for dinner and they were really excited about
0:25:04that. They are Sylvia's friends and they use Instagram a lot and so they wanted to see
0:25:08the iPhone X and they were, I mentioned Instagram because they got super excited about the portrait
0:25:12mode and so basically what happened was we have this group of 10, not 10 I would say
0:25:18maybe 6 or 7 female friends and everybody looking at my iPhone X and they're making
0:25:25Instagram stories about the iPhone 10 and every single one of Sylvia's friends, they
0:25:31are referring to the iPhone as the iPhone X and they're making Instagram stories and
0:25:36I'm just sitting in a corner drinking my espresso and being like, all these people are wrong.
0:25:40What am I supposed to do now? And they're like, and they're making these stories by,
0:25:45Hey, this is Stitch's iPhone X. Which is even worse. It sounds even worse in Italian because
0:25:51it's iPhone X, which is, it's all kinds of wrong. Yeah. I don't like that. Yeah. I don't
0:25:56like it either. So I asked because I'm not sure how to do like socially in these situations.
0:26:01Like I don't want to correct people and be like on 10 different Instagram stories in
0:26:05the background. Me the guy, no, it's the iPhone 10 actually. You know, you just pop in just
0:26:12popping as Clippy, but for Apple marketing names. Did you mean, sorry, Steven. Anyway,
0:26:20Go ahead.
0:26:21You called me Clippy.
0:26:22That's what you've done.
0:26:23Well, you know.
0:26:26Anyway, back to the videos.
0:26:31So yeah, so it was fun to do.
0:26:34I was extremely self-conscious filming myself.
0:26:36I do it in the studio a good bit now, so it's not weird in here, but walking across the
0:26:41Whole Foods parking lot.
0:26:42So I did that shot talking about Apple Pay, and I get in my car and I put the phone down,
0:26:47there's someone like in the car crossing me just staring at me like trying to work out
0:26:53like is he FaceTiming somebody like that's sort of weird to see in public but you know
0:26:58it's so obvious you're not though right like I always think that like oh well they think
0:27:02that I'm FaceTiming you don't look like you're FaceTiming right you look like you're filming
0:27:06yourself I don't know why there's a difference especially especially when you when you say
0:27:11stuff like, make sure to like the video and subscribe. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't say
0:27:17that on FaceTime. Like and subscribe to FaceTime!
0:27:25I will say about this, right, that your vlogs were so good they were almost annoying to
0:27:30me. Because it is a very awkward thing to do, but you seem to just deal with it very
0:27:36well except in that parking lot because I could see what you were doing. You were holding
0:27:42the phone lower down. I did this when I when I did like my first couple out in the street.
0:27:47Like you don't hold it up to your face like you do everywhere else. You hold it like a
0:27:51little bit more towards your chest because I really just don't want people to see to
0:27:56see what I'm doing. Yeah. Out of the woods. It was fine because most of it was shot in
0:28:00the state park. I'm not really nowhere but but they're great. If you haven't watched
0:28:05Steven's vlogs, don't just take his word for it,
0:28:07go and watch them, they are very, very, very good.
0:28:09And it's more than just the review stuff,
0:28:11there's some nice scenery, and yeah, it's really nice.
0:28:14You can get a slice of Southern Life, right?
0:28:16- There is a slice of Southern Life in there.
0:28:19Both of these videos were demonetized over the weekend,
0:28:22and doing some homework, it seems like basically
0:28:25anyone with iPhone 10 or iPhone 10 review
0:28:27in the title of their videos were demonetized.
0:28:30So when that happens, YouTube says you can't advertise,
0:28:34Advertisements won't run on this,
0:28:36so you're making no money.
0:28:37And you can request a manual review.
0:28:41And so I did that, and both came through that
0:28:44and were re-monetized.
0:28:46And it seems like some other videos I had kinda noticed
0:28:48have been fixed, so maybe that was some sort of weird issue
0:28:54in YouTube's system.
0:28:55Insert conspiracy theory about Google and Apple here.
0:28:59But they're re-monetized.
0:29:01I thought it was an interesting thing.
0:29:02Like I was talking to a couple of people
0:29:05who have much bigger YouTube channels.
0:29:06They're like, "Yeah, you're a real YouTuber now.
0:29:08"You've been demonetized without warning."
0:29:10I was like, "Yeah, that's not what I expected."
0:29:12But it's been a fun experiment.
0:29:15I don't expect this sort of video to take over
0:29:18what I do on YouTube, but I thought it would be a fun way
0:29:20to sort of share the iPhone X, like first weekend.
0:29:24- Should we talk about the iPhone X?
0:29:25- Yeah, yeah, Federico, what do you think?
0:29:30Well, it's only been like 24 hours.
0:29:35So I'm still trying to process what I'm actually using here.
0:29:38But my first reaction and sort of the thought
0:29:42that I keep going back to is this feels like almost
0:29:47like an impossible phone.
0:29:50Because the first time I opened the box
0:29:53and I took the iPhone out of the package
0:29:56and I started the setup process.
0:29:59And I looked at the screen and I went like, this is,
0:30:03I mean, the first reaction was, my God,
0:30:06it's almost entirely screen.
0:30:08And I said to Sylvia, we were together yesterday,
0:30:12we were doing the setup, and I said,
0:30:14it feels like I shouldn't be using this phone
0:30:18in this kind of device in 2017.
0:30:21It doesn't feel like it's possible to go from an iPhone
0:30:25that looks like my iPhone 7 Plus to this 12 months later.
0:30:30It almost looks wrong in a good way
0:30:33that it feels like something from the future
0:30:36that it's available today.
0:30:37So from that point of view,
0:30:38sort of the iPhone X naming scheme makes sense.
0:30:41And I've always said that the idea of colony 10
0:30:44just for the concept of the phone from tomorrow
0:30:48but today makes sense.
0:30:49But really in practice,
0:30:51it feels like the combination of the display
0:30:54and this sort of seamless design with the glass that blends into the display,
0:31:01and then it's also in the back of the iPhone, and how the...
0:31:06It almost feels like apps want to escape the screen.
0:31:10They want to go all the way up to the corners,
0:31:13and how those corners are rounded, and they follow the shape of the device.
0:31:18It does feel to me like a phone that shouldn't be possible, but it is.
0:31:23And I'm still trying to understand how--
0:31:29because it's a very different phone.
0:31:30And so it has this highly gestural-driven interaction.
0:31:37It's very different from before.
0:31:40We used to have the Home button, and all of our interactions
0:31:44were anchored to that button.
0:31:46But now, it feels like we're free to do whatever
0:31:50we want in a more natural way.
0:31:53And so the metaphor of you're just holding a screen
0:31:56in your hands is stronger than ever in the iPhone X.
0:32:00And it's a combination, I think it's a combination of it's
0:32:04almost entirely screen, and it's got these rounded corners,
0:32:08and it feels like you're holding a display.
0:32:11But also, the fact that there's no physical Home button
0:32:16in the front of the device means that you're actually
0:32:19holding a display, and all your interactions
0:32:22are driven by multi-touch.
0:32:24And that's a powerful idea, I think.
0:32:27Something interesting occurred as I was setting up the phone.
0:32:31Silvia looked at it, and she went like, is it all glass?
0:32:35I said, yeah, because it's an InDesign,
0:32:37and it's wireless charging.
0:32:39And she just goes, I don't like it.
0:32:42I was like, this is the phone we've
0:32:44been waiting for for months.
0:32:45It's a hot take right there.
0:32:47You're supposed to love this phone, because I also love it.
0:32:50And she was like, "I don't know, I'm probabilistic with the iPhone 7."
0:32:55So you know, the entire discussion that Myke and Jason were having an upgrade about the
0:33:00people who want the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus, I think I have one of those people
0:33:04in my household.
0:33:07So we'll see how it goes.
0:33:08But she started coming around, I think, on the iPhone X when I did a comparison of the
0:33:14black levels between my iPhone 7 Plus and the iPhone X.
0:33:18And so she went like, "Oh boy, the black on the 7 Plus looks like dark grey compared to
0:33:24actual black on the X."
0:33:26And I was like, "See?
0:33:27See, I told you the iPhone X is pretty good."
0:33:29And she was like, "Yeah, maybe."
0:33:30So maybe she'll get an iPhone X eventually, I don't know.
0:33:33But overall, my first thought, sort of the idea that I keep having today 24 hours later,
0:33:41it's amazing that when I look at it, when it's on a table or when I take it out of my
0:33:45pocket and I look at it, it's just a screen. I'm holding a screen. I'm not holding a phone
0:33:51with a screen. I'm holding a screen that is also a phone or a computer, if that makes
0:33:55sense.
0:33:56Jared Ranere It does make sense. And I don't mean to argue
0:34:00with you because I agree with all of that. But there are other phones have done this.
0:34:06Like, I'm not saying that you're not saying that, right? I just I just want to point out
0:34:12that there are other phones that do this, I think maybe even to a greater degree, but
0:34:15you're right, it's amazing how quickly my old phone looked super old, like way older
0:34:23than a year. It's new to us, right? Like the three of us, it's new to us because we haven't
0:34:28had phones that we use in like daily use that are like this, you know? Agreed. So I think
0:34:37that's a big, like a big part of it for sure. Because I, you know, I agree with what you
0:34:42guys are saying, right? This is wild. I just want to keep playing with it all the time
0:34:48because it's so strange in a good way, right? It's this beautiful, just the luxurious feeling
0:35:00of this phone is really something I keep coming back to. It just feels like such a step up
0:35:08in every direction. You know, like the glass feels so good and the stainless steel, especially
0:35:14on the silver in my opinion, just looks wonderful. And I can't stop looking at that screen because
0:35:24it's all of the technology. Like it's not just the shape and size. It's the wide color
0:35:29gamut. It's the true tone. All of that stuff together. It's wonderful. Yeah, like just,
0:35:37you say in Federico, like the blacks and the colors, like when you have the screen off,
0:35:43it is impossible to see where the seams are. You know, I very frequently am finding myself
0:35:47trying to turn this phone on upside down. Yeah, me too. Because it's like, you look
0:35:51at it and it's like, well, there is no seam anymore. Like it is just all black and I love
0:35:57it. I really, really love it. I know that other phones try, especially Samsung, tried
0:36:03you did this before, but I generally think that it's not just the way that they have
0:36:14the ears at the top and the notch at the top. I think the key difference here is the lack
0:36:20of a bezel at the bottom of the phone. I feel like not enough people are talking about the
0:36:24fact that this phone goes all the way to the bottom. The display doesn't stop towards the
0:36:31lower end of the device and I feel like, I don't know if it's just me, but I honestly
0:36:38think it's more impressive at the bottom of the phone rather than at the top.
0:36:44Because the top is fine, and I think it's also the reason why I don't think the notch
0:36:49is such a big deal, and I'm not constantly looking at the status bar anyway.
0:36:56But at the bottom, you know, when I'm switching sections in apps, I'm tapping on, like, action
0:37:03buttons or switching top bars, I'm constantly looking at the bottom of, you know, iPhone
0:37:08UIs.
0:37:09And so the lack of a bezel at the bottom, I think it's a much bigger contributor to
0:37:16the fact of -- to the feeling of this feels like an entire screen in the palm of my hands.
0:37:23Before we talk about-- because I know we want to talk about face ID,
0:37:26we want to talk about the notch and the status bar.
0:37:29I wanted to ask you guys about controlling this iPhone
0:37:33via gestures and all the different swipes and commands that are now
0:37:37moving away from the Home button and getting different options
0:37:42and activation methods in the iPhone X.
0:37:44And I wanted to start with the multitasking app Picker.
0:37:49Because for the first few hours yesterday,
0:37:52it felt to me like it was the trickiest gesture to learn.
0:37:56- It is the trickiest.
0:37:57- And to familiarize myself with.
0:38:00I don't know if it's the best way to go about it,
0:38:03but I've started doing sort of this quick
0:38:07semi-circle gesture from the,
0:38:11so from the bottom right, from the bottom right corner,
0:38:14I do a quick swipe up and to the left.
0:38:20Like it takes less than a second.
0:38:22And if I do that, I go straight into multitasking.
0:38:26I don't do the swipe up and hold.
0:38:29I think it's faster if I do bottom right and up left.
0:38:33Less than a second, no holding and waiting.
0:38:35What do you guys think of opening the app switcher?
0:38:38So I'm trying that too, right?
0:38:39Like just kind of flicking in from a corner
0:38:41like to the other side.
0:38:43So doing it from the left hand side, for example,
0:38:45you kind of feel like you're just dragging the apps out.
0:38:49like from the very bottom left corner. That works. The way I've been doing it is just
0:38:53like the pull up a little bit and just hold for a second and it comes out. This is something
0:38:58that I don't feel like I've fully mastered my gesture yet because the gesture that I
0:39:04have been using is it's slow. You know, like I'm waiting and I'm just kind of just hanging
0:39:09out and then eventually the this weird multitasking thing will come out like that is of the gestures,
0:39:15new gestures, that's the one that I have also, along with most people, have been struggling
0:39:19with. But that like, kind of flicking out from the corner, like across the dock, it
0:39:25actually works pretty well for Federica.
0:39:27Yeah, yeah, I know, it's not too bad. I'm not sure if, like, I would probably try and
0:39:36see if the official Apple method of just swipe up and hold, if it maybe will work over time.
0:39:41But I'm also kind of struggling with control center.
0:39:48Not because I cannot reach the status bar, because I mean, I was used to a plus phone
0:39:57and I could almost use the plus with just one hand.
0:40:01So using this one is no problem for me.
0:40:03I can reach the top just fine.
0:40:06But it's the muscle memory that's the problem for me.
0:40:10And I constantly keep trying to open Control Center by swiping up.
0:40:15I think this will be okay in a few days as this new muscle memory kicks in.
0:40:23But it's also the fact that the Control Center is now the opposite of what it used to be.
0:40:28It used to be something that came up from the bottom, now it's sort of this model...
0:40:34I'm not sure how you call it, a sheet?
0:40:35It's not a sheet, it's like an overlay that sort of comes down from the top.
0:40:43And the problem for me there is that, for example, on my iPhone Plus I could swipe up
0:40:52slowly and then tap on the music controls, for example.
0:40:58Now, if I swipe down slowly with my thumb, the music controls are below my thumb, and
0:41:07so I cannot do the same gesture with one hand as comfortably as before.
0:41:12It's a very different, like, it's the, like, on the vertical axis is the opposite of what
0:41:17it used to be.
0:41:19And I'm not sure if this is the best way that control center should be done on the iPhone
0:41:26X.
0:41:27I know that a lot of people have been telling me on Twitter to use reachability, which is
0:41:30an option in the iPhone X, so you swipe down on the Home bar and then you swipe down again
0:41:38from the top right where the status bar would be while in reachability mode, which is fine,
0:41:43but I keep thinking that maybe there should be another method altogether to open control
0:41:46center.
0:41:47Yeah, that's like a hack, right?
0:41:48It's like a hack, yeah.
0:41:50It doesn't feel right.
0:41:52I wondered why there couldn't be a way to put it all in multitasking, you know, like
0:41:57on the iPad.
0:41:59I would like to try and see if that could be a potential option, because at least I
0:42:04would be coming from the bottom for it, you know, which is what I'm used to doing.
0:42:08Stephen, what do you think about Control Center?
0:42:10I agree with y'all.
0:42:11I think it's in the wrong place.
0:42:13I think it belongs in multitasking.
0:42:16I also sort of struggle with the visuals of it, where the cover sheet slides down, but
0:42:20but then Control Center just sort of appears.
0:42:23- Yeah, it's weird looking.
0:42:24- There's something about it, yeah.
0:42:26- Yeah, and one of my least favorite things
0:42:29is the sort of lack of information in the status bar.
0:42:34Like if you're in Do Not Disturb,
0:42:36you can't see that in the status bar
0:42:37unless you are in Control Center.
0:42:41And so my rethinking of this,
0:42:43again, I'm not the, to stop your emails,
0:42:45I'm not the team of designers and UX engineers
0:42:48This is one man's opinion.
0:42:50But you can combine all of that into multitasking,
0:42:53where if you're in multitasking,
0:42:54control center's on the far right,
0:42:56and you bring all the status bar information into that view.
0:43:01So if you are multitasking, you have control center,
0:43:04and you have those other items available to you for viewing.
0:43:07I think that could all be one place,
0:43:11and I think it would all make sense there,
0:43:12sort of logically, the way the OS goes together.
0:43:15It really feels like Control Center's not where it's
0:43:19supposed to be.
0:43:21One thing you didn't mention about multitasking is the,
0:43:25like the fast app switching.
0:43:26So if you swipe horizontally across the bottom
0:43:29of the screen, you can move between the three
0:43:31most recent apps.
0:43:33You can only swipe to the left, I think,
0:43:35or sometimes you can't to the right.
0:43:36That seems a little confusing.
0:43:38But I've been using it a bunch because I restored
0:43:42from backup, but not everything comes over,
0:43:44And so I'm in 1Password way more than I normally am.
0:43:47And so I can be in an app and then go to 1Password
0:43:51and then go back to the app and have them
0:43:52real close together if I have to log into multiple things.
0:43:55And that's really nice.
0:43:57It's not at all discoverable, but it doesn't need to be
0:43:59because multitasking will take care of most people.
0:44:02But it's a really fast way to switch
0:44:04between the most recent couple of apps.
0:44:06I'm really using that one a good bit, actually.
0:44:09- Steven, you put a note in to our document
0:44:13that I'm very pleased that you put in.
0:44:16- Yeah.
0:44:17- Because I wanted to talk about this
0:44:18and I figured you would be the person who would understand.
0:44:21- Yes, as the, what did we decide last week,
0:44:25the Syracuse stand-in, I must talk about RSI.
0:44:28And I've had a fair bit of RSI in my right hand
0:44:32in particular, including before and after
0:44:37like extensive nerve surgery in my elbow,
0:44:39which is a topic for another day.
0:44:40But I am really struggling with all the swiping
0:44:45in my right thumb.
0:44:46And I, the last time I really had this on a phone
0:44:50is when I moved to the plus for the first time.
0:44:52So I'm hoping that this is just an adjustment period.
0:44:55But especially, the most troubling one for me is swipe up.
0:44:59And that's the one you use all the dang time
0:45:01on this new phone.
0:45:02And like to a point Friday after I'd set it up,
0:45:06I just set the phone down for like hours.
0:45:09'cause I can't do it.
0:45:11It seems a little better over the weekend,
0:45:14even until today, so I'm hoping that I'm just adjusting,
0:45:18but that is worrisome to me,
0:45:22and if it doesn't go away completely,
0:45:24I have thought about do I need to try to figure out
0:45:27how to use my phone with my left hand
0:45:29so I could use it with both hands
0:45:30and balance the workload or what,
0:45:33but as of right now, it's not a home run
0:45:35for me in this regard.
0:45:36- Yeah, I'm struggling too.
0:45:39my thumbs and uh were hurting and I've noticed additional pains in my wrists.
0:45:43Um I mean I I'm I've never had surgery like like you but I have had RSI problems and this is normal
0:45:50for me you know like if if I bring a new device into my life that has some new method of operating
0:45:59it causes me problems like when I first got the switch there was problems with the switch I don't
0:46:05I don't know why.
0:46:06And I've had some problems over the weekend with the phone.
0:46:09I mean, I'm using the phone more than I would normally
0:46:11use a phone because it's new and exciting and whatever.
0:46:14But these are new interactions and I'm kind of just
0:46:16hoping that I'll just get used to them over time.
0:46:19And this isn't a complaint 'cause what are you gonna do?
0:46:22You can't stay that way forever.
0:46:24And do you know what I thought about, honestly,
0:46:26if this is the thing that continues,
0:46:27I'll use assistive touch.
0:46:29You know the little thing that flies around on a screen?
0:46:31If this is a big problem for me,
0:46:33then I'll try and use that more.
0:46:34same. But I remember I had these problems when I moved to the Plus as well, so I'm hoping
0:46:39that it will just go away. But it's something that I think is always worth remembering.
0:46:45Also I had some problems when 3D Touch came out as well. It's just like, you're used to
0:46:50doing these things in certain ways and then when they change, the change can cause stress
0:46:56until your hands get used to it. This is something that I think affects more and more people
0:47:01these days because of how much we use the devices. It has made me start to think, I'm
0:47:06terrified about the thought that using these devices is actually just destroying us all.
0:47:12And in a few years, no one will be able to use them anymore. I've been playing around
0:47:18this dystopian hellscape in my mind of everybody and their claw hands and nobody can use touch
0:47:25screens anymore. And then the robots take hard jobs or something. I don't know.
0:47:30You can also set "assistive touch to open control center" I just learned.
0:47:33So you don't have to bring that down.
0:47:36No, so it's, I don't know.
0:47:38Federico, your silence is making me think one of two things, that one, or three things.
0:47:42One, you think that we're wild and have lost our minds.
0:47:46Two, you have no problems with this.
0:47:48Or three, you think we're old.
0:47:50I don't know.
0:47:51But I know it's one of those.
0:47:52Which one do you think it is?
0:47:55I don't think you're having any problems with this because in the past you have like, dispelled
0:48:00these problems and I'm assuming that you just think we're old. No I don't think
0:48:06you're old but also I don't have these problems so it's been fine for me
0:48:11totally fine but I understand why it can be a problem like I know that this is a
0:48:19concern for you and I don't think you're old I think a lot of people have these
0:48:23issues so it's important to have fallback options like touch. They exist.
0:48:29I don't want to use it. Like I don't want to have to use assistive touch, but it's there just in case, right?
0:48:36All right, should we take a break?
0:48:40Let's do it.
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0:50:23So should we talk about apps? Like I have found in general, like the vast majority of apps that
0:50:28I'm using have been optimized, which is great, right? I've been surprised by it. It's encouraging
0:50:36to see. I was a little afraid it was going to be a longer term thing, but I would say the majority
0:50:41of apps I'm in every day are compliant, you know, they're doing what they're supposed to do.
0:50:47And they were ready for me as well. Like it wasn't like they just kind of shook out. Like as soon as
0:50:52I turned the phone on like I had a bunch of apps already supported.
0:50:56Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. But the ones that aren't look weird and old and tiny. Yeah.
0:51:06It's kind of funny I guess because they're using the the iPhone 6 size
0:51:12class and they just put black bars around it that they don't look bad. It's
0:51:18not it's like they they they blow up or stretch they're just like centered in
0:51:21the screen in a very, very sort of unsettling way. They're still totally usable, but it's
0:51:28definitely reminiscent of, you know, going from the, the four to the five or something
0:51:34like that.
0:51:36There's also some developers that consciously do not embrace the notch and the new layout
0:51:43of the iPhone 10. And I think those apps just look wrong. Yeah. When you're using those
0:51:48apps that are updated for the iPhone X, so they have the correct aspect ratio and all
0:51:54that, but they made a decision to block out the status bar with a black background, for
0:51:59example. And I think they look like Android apps on an iPhone, in a way. Like, the notch,
0:52:07I feel like, and the split status bar, has this distinctive feeling to it, which I appreciate
0:52:15visually when you're holding the iPhone and you see the UI stretching all the way to the top, I think it looks nice.
0:52:21But also, there's this sort of... it feels like using like iOS 5 or iOS 4 back when the status bar was black,
0:52:36and there was like this clear separation between the status controls and the title bar and the rest of the content.
0:52:43and honestly I think we've moved past that, but there's some, I feel like, there's some designers that kind of want to bring that sort of style back in fashion, and I'm not a fan.
0:52:58I think it just looks wrong, it doesn't take advantage of the screen, and also it could be a problem for the OLED screen, for the burning problem of OLED.
0:53:09If you display elements that switch colors and are more dynamic than just blocking out the status bar with a black background, maybe over time there could be a problem.
0:53:22And I have a feeling that this is the reason why Apple has been advising developers to embrace this layout and to make sure that their UIs stretch all the way to the top corners.
0:53:34the top corners because you want to have as much dynamic content as possible on the screen.
0:53:40You don't want to have wallpapers or any kind of background that is a fixed element and
0:53:46that is displayed always in the same position over time.
0:53:52Most of all I think they just look weird.
0:53:53Yeah, honestly I think that people that, or developers that decided to make a stand and
0:54:00use a black bar at the top, I think that their apps immediately look old and out of place.
0:54:07And whenever I open apps that are like this, like for example, Castro is one of them, I
0:54:12opened Castro and I thought that they hadn't updated. And I was really confused about it
0:54:17because I like the way that their bottom bar looks, right? Because they've got all the
0:54:21play controls and it's completely black, which is beautiful. I love applications that use
0:54:26like completely black because completely black with OLED screens is wonderful because it looks
0:54:32like the screen's not even on right so like they use the background there but at the top they've
0:54:36just gone for the flat for the flat look and I don't like it and I understand like I've seen
0:54:41them saying that like they wanted to get the device and they want to play with it and they
0:54:44wanted to make sure they were doing the right things and so I hope that in the future they
0:54:49along with other developers support it but it has but this is just an example of what we were talking
0:54:54about and what I believe from the beginning which was that you really should be designing for the
0:54:59notch because it was going to look great and turns out does look great and apps that aren't supporting
0:55:05it I think I think that they're taking the wrong move of it and even just trying to do basic
0:55:10support even if it's a case of just like extending the color of your title bar all the way up to the
0:55:15top of the screen it looks modern and fresh and cool and I appreciate any app that is doing that
0:55:22right now. I don't know who put this next point in our document but I just wanted to say that I
0:55:28100% agree with this and I was gonna bring this up. Was it you, Myke? It was me. More apps need true dark modes.
0:55:36So we've had dark modes for a long time on iOS that are kind of like a dark gray, you know, they're kind
0:55:43of stylized, they look really nice, and that worked really great until we got OLED screens. I have used
0:55:48enough Android devices with OLED screens to understand what a true dark mode is
0:55:52and a lot of Android apps have a setting in them for like an OLED dark mode
0:55:57because this is where the dark mode is black and when it is black it looks
0:56:03wonderful like I called Steven on slack yesterday and when you're in a slack
0:56:08call they own they the screen is completely black except for the like the
0:56:13hang up and call button and the little picture of the person and I was like oh
0:56:17oh yeah, that's how great this looks.
0:56:19Because it looked like the only elements of the screen
0:56:22that were on were the ones that were in color.
0:56:24And I want more apps to have true dark modes now.
0:56:28Because we have a screen now in our hands
0:56:32that can really take advantage of black levels.
0:56:37- Yeah, I think it's time for Apple to even extend that
0:56:42to the system.
0:56:43Like if you use a lot of first party apps,
0:56:46you know, you maybe have a bunch of dark modes
0:56:48in Tweetbot and Overcast and stuff,
0:56:49but then you go to mail and you're blinded.
0:56:51And Apple has the pieces there in the watch app,
0:56:56you know, that's been a dark mode,
0:56:59a true dark mode, like black background,
0:57:01as long as it's shipped, like two years now
0:57:03or three years, however long the Apple watch has been out.
0:57:05So Apple clearly has experimented with this,
0:57:09and I think it'd be really nice to see that
0:57:10in a future iOS update,
0:57:12to at least have the option to put the OS
0:57:15and the first party apps into a sort of OLED friendly mode.
0:57:19Because I agree with you,
0:57:20I'm not generally a dark mode kind of guy,
0:57:23but I have switched to it in a couple apps
0:57:25because it does look so nice on this OLED display.
0:57:29- So are you guys struggling with finding wallpapers
0:57:34for this device?
0:57:35Because I feel like I spent two hours yesterday
0:57:37just looking on the internet for iPhone 10 wallpapers.
0:57:42And what I eventually did, which this might make Steven happy,
0:57:48on the lock screen, I think I'm using what some Reddit person
0:57:52said was a macOS wallpaper flipped vertically.
0:57:56So it's basically a 16 by 9 wallpaper flipped
0:58:01so it can be used on the iPhone X, which
0:58:04is a very colorful wallpaper.
0:58:06And then on the home screen, I just--
0:58:09I always like homescreen wallpapers that are either purple or black or dark blue.
0:58:19Because I like the way that these colors contrast with the colors of apps on my homescreen.
0:58:26But I couldn't find anything that I liked for the iPhone X, and so what I did was I
0:58:31took one of Steven's 5K classic Mac OS X wallpapers, the Leopard one, I used an app called
0:58:39blur on my iPhone to apply some blur to the image and I flipped the image vertically and
0:58:47I'm using that as my home screen.
0:58:49I hadn't changed my home screens, like what I'm using right now is the same as what I
0:58:54was using before and I'm using a remaster artwork wallpaper which is an exclusive perk
0:59:02for Relay FM members as my home screen but for my lock screen I'm using a picture of
0:59:09of me and Adina from our engagement,
0:59:10and they both look fantastic.
0:59:12I was like perfectly fine with both of them.
0:59:15I don't feel like I need to find something
0:59:18which is specific for this phone
0:59:20because the ones that I am using are really good.
0:59:23- Yeah, I-- - For me.
0:59:24- I haven't changed mine either, I don't think.
0:59:27I'm using a family picture as the lock screen,
0:59:30and for a long time I was using black for the home screen,
0:59:35and I'm still doing that because it looks really nice
0:59:38behind the icons on OLED and the black is just so deep.
0:59:42So no change for me, but I do appreciate
0:59:45what you're saying Federico.
0:59:46I think part of it for me is the,
0:59:48'cause the form factor is different
0:59:50and the resolution is different,
0:59:52so the family photo I was using,
0:59:55I ended up kind of resetting it
0:59:56and moving it over a little bit
0:59:57because the cropping was strange on the taller phone
1:00:00'cause that size difference is noticeable
1:00:03if you're using a photo that's like exactly placed.
1:00:07Alright, so do we want to talk about the actual features of this phone?
1:00:11Nah.
1:00:12Because we're talking about apps, we're talking about the notch, we're talking about wallpapers.
1:00:16Let's talk about the camera.
1:00:18So I don't think neither of us use the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, so the portrait lighting effects
1:00:26are new to us.
1:00:28They were new to me, for sure.
1:00:31As I mentioned last night, the selfie portrait mode was a huge hit among Silvia's friends,
1:00:39and I should say it's a very nice upgrade if you take a lot of selfies.
1:00:44It's not too bad, honestly.
1:00:45I think it's better than how the original portrait mode launched last year, I guess.
1:00:54It's actually pretty decent for 1.0 beta.
1:00:57I don't know if Apple calls it beta, the selfie portrait, but it's actually very nice.
1:01:01and I can see how normal people that don't have podcasts or write workflows,
1:01:08they might appreciate this change. It's a very welcome upgrade.
1:01:12I have mixed feelings about the portrait lightning effects.
1:01:18The studio light, the stage light and the mono.
1:01:20I haven't been able yet to take a decent photo with those effects
1:01:26And when I tried last night to demo this feature to said friends, it failed miserably.
1:01:34Like, it didn't just fail, like it created some incredibly and ridiculously wrong images
1:01:41with like some person's face like blurred in half with a sort of black background, with
1:01:48a black background cutting into their jaw.
1:01:51That's awful.
1:01:52Which is super wrong.
1:01:54Just awful.
1:01:55I was curious if you guys had a better experience with this.
1:01:58- Nope.
1:01:58(laughing)
1:01:59- Okay, moving on.
1:02:01- I have a couple of problems,
1:02:03which are specific to me, but they are problems.
1:02:07So I just took a picture right now
1:02:10that I'm sending to you two,
1:02:11so you can kind of get some idea of one of my problems.
1:02:16Right now, I am currently wearing eye glasses,
1:02:21which are, the frames are clear.
1:02:24Oh boy.
1:02:25And portrait mode does not like those, right?
1:02:29Like it's, I found portrait mode to struggle with, uh, eyeglasses anyway.
1:02:33Um, but clear ones does not like, uh, the picture that I've just sent you both is
1:02:38the only time that I've ever gotten a half decent picture out of this thing
1:02:42because portrait mode hates my beard.
1:02:45Oh, it hates my beard.
1:02:48So if I take a picture kind of from the side, so like my beard is in front of
1:02:51some clothing or whatever, and I kind of angle it just right.
1:02:54But if I take a picture front on it kind of cuts my chin into a triangle. It's very peculiar
1:03:00It really doesn't like I mean, you know portrait mode struggles with with hair
1:03:04It really struggles when that hair is on your face and this is only in the stage lighting ones in the regular ones
1:03:10They're kind of fine, right? Like they're fine
1:03:12They take pictures and they look mostly okay
1:03:16But in the stage lighting ones it can get it can get it can get pretty hairy right now for me
1:03:22I've got to say. Yeah. I just took two stage lights and both the mono and the normal one,
1:03:29they don't like the fact that I have headphones on. So it looks like I have like a ring of
1:03:35light around my head because it's not cutting. It's not cutting where the hair should be.
1:03:41So it keeps the headphones and then it gets confused and it's like, Oh my God, what is
1:03:44going on here? There's no, there's no, what am I supposed to be cutting here? So there's
1:03:47like this light around my head but the contour and the studio light are
1:03:52actually pretty decent I think they're not too bad.
1:03:55Yeah it's struggling. It's fine. I mean I kind of thought we would see these
1:04:01things everywhere and then once we I think saw how it's performing there's a
1:04:07reason why our Instagram feeds aren't full of them but I think it'll get there
1:04:10you know the the portrait mode out the back cameras has definitely improved and
1:04:15and I think they will get their Soy But Surely.
1:04:20- Oh God, Steven, this is so bad.
1:04:23- Yeah, so mine, it's like I've been
1:04:27in some sort of industrial accident.
1:04:29- We have to put these in the show notes, right?
1:04:32Like I feel like we can't not, because we're,
1:04:34you know, like, oh man.
1:04:36- So mine looks like I'm sinking into a vat of like black oil
1:04:40and it's like creeping over my shoulder
1:04:42as I slowly get pulled down into it.
1:04:44look like a badly cut out cartoon character in Microsoft Paint, right? Like you know when
1:04:50someone has tried to like go through and remove the background by hand? That's how it looks.
1:04:57Oh Federico, yours is terrible. Mine is the only half decent one I think. Oh my. I'll
1:05:03put these all, I'll put these in the show notes so you can see them on the page. Oh
1:05:10Oh my god, yeah, look, it's not good.
1:05:13But you know what, right, like I've seen a lot of videos,
1:05:15I've seen a lot of comparisons,
1:05:17the ones on the Pixel are way better.
1:05:19Every comparison video, every comparison photo
1:05:22that I've seen, the Google Pixel seems to do a better job
1:05:26because #machine learning, right?
1:05:28- Yeah, yeah.
1:05:30So anyway, I think in the short term,
1:05:33we will probably see normal portrait selfies,
1:05:39and maybe some studio light and control light.
1:05:44The stage lights are just too buggy right now, I feel.
1:05:47The other camera related feature is Animoji,
1:05:52which is also another hit with my friends
1:05:56and my girlfriend and my mom.
1:05:58- And the world.
1:05:59- And the world, really, if you take a look on Twitter,
1:06:01AnimojiKaraoke, Animoji, what's called theater
1:06:04with the movie scenes, people are using and remixing
1:06:08and sort of doing creative things with Animoji
1:06:11that maybe Apple could, you know,
1:06:14they knew this was gonna happen,
1:06:16maybe they didn't know that this was gonna happen.
1:06:18It feels to me like if they knew,
1:06:21this should have been somehow integrated into clips.
1:06:24You know, they have this social video
1:06:27creative movie making app.
1:06:29Why not integrate Animoji with clips?
1:06:31Anyway.
1:06:32- 'Cause honestly, I don't think
1:06:34we can criticize them for that.
1:06:36I don't think anybody saw this coming.
1:06:37Maybe, maybe.
1:06:39Anyway, I think it's super fun, an emoji.
1:06:42If anything, I want more characters
1:06:44and I want the 10 second limit to be removed.
1:06:47I think it's super fun.
1:06:48Every time I create one and I send one,
1:06:51I start laughing because it's just so funny
1:06:53to have these animals or the pile of poo or the pig,
1:06:57making different faces and expressions and emotions.
1:07:00Maybe I think this is the first iMessage feature
1:07:07or app, you know.
1:07:09- That's a true success.
1:07:10- That is a true success.
1:07:11Apple tried with digital touch multiple times.
1:07:15The Apple Watch and the iPhone never worked.
1:07:18And they also did stickers, but this one,
1:07:21I think they got it.
1:07:22- What is your favorite Federica?
1:07:23What is the animoji you gravitate towards?
1:07:26- I want to say either the pig,
1:07:28because I think it's fun that I represent myself
1:07:32as an emoji pig.
1:07:35I mean, I'm partial to the monkey. Of course monkey's good - yeah
1:07:39You've been sending them to anybody. I've just I've sent a handful to you and I've used the Fox so far
1:07:46Fox is good. I think I like his he's not my favorite animal out of those, but I like the expressions that that it
1:07:53That it has
1:07:55Yeah, see I'm in the the exact opposite of that. The unicorn is my favorite but the unicorn is difficult to express with yeah
1:08:03But I try my best because the unicorn I think of myself, you know, if I was gonna be any of those animojis
1:08:10I would be the big bright colorful
1:08:12Unicorn, I think that's probably what I would be
1:08:14So it's the one that I've been using but it's not as expressive as some of the other ones which is a shame
1:08:20But I love I absolutely love it. It's such a fantastic and fun and weird and silly feature
1:08:26But it's the photo booth of the iPhone right like yeah what it is, right?
1:08:31Like it's this fun thing that people are enjoying and it's turned into this really really great meme like that people
1:08:37Seem to be really catching on with and I think that's awesome
1:08:40Two interesting points that I want to make
1:08:43once again, I
1:08:46Take a look at what Sylvia does because she's a normal person and so I value her feedback
1:08:52Literally
1:08:5520 seconds into using Animoji she goes like why is it not recognizing my tongue?
1:09:00So she was trying to do like, seeing faces, and she was like, "It's not picking up what I'm doing with my tongue."
1:09:07And I thought that was a good point.
1:09:09So I can see how maybe down the road Apple's facial mapping model will be enhanced,
1:09:16so it recognizes even, you know, what you're doing with your mouth, basically.
1:09:20I think that that should be done.
1:09:21And also, people are digging around the iOS 11 code on the iPhone X,
1:09:25And it seems like Animoji are using this private framework called Avatar Kit, something like
1:09:32that, which in theory, if you know what you're doing, and you call a bunch of private APIs,
1:09:38you can write an app.
1:09:39There's one on GitHub, in fact, it's been going around on Twitter.
1:09:43You can make an app that lets you create Animoji outside of iMessage, which is interesting
1:09:49because it means in theory, this is a framework, so Apple could easily reuse it in different
1:09:55apps outside of messages.
1:09:57Very interesting, right? And I assume that there are people inside of Apple right now
1:10:02scrambling to work out how to capitalize further on this trend, right? Like, they're not silly,
1:10:09they know what to do, and if they think that there is an opportunity for them to extend
1:10:14this right now, then they'll probably do that.
1:10:17If only this company had a music service to bundle with this feature, you know?
1:10:21Oh wow, yeah. They should just make an emoji karaoke. It should just be an app, right?
1:10:27And you get the lyrics come up in front of you and you can sing along and mouth along
1:10:31to it.
1:10:32I mean, they have Apple Music with all the songs you could possibly wish for. And they
1:10:37are the only music streaming service with lyrics built in. And they also have an emoji.
1:10:42So I mean, I'm not a product manager, but this seems like a safe idea.
1:10:49Yeah, somebody needs to get on it, right?
1:10:52Someone has to get on that.
1:10:53What about Face ID then?
1:10:55Because we're talking about Animoji, it's part of the whole camera thing.
1:10:59Steven, Face ID, I want to go to you first.
1:11:02How has it been working for you?
1:11:03What do you think?
1:11:04It's been working really well.
1:11:05The setup is super simple and I've used it in pitch black rooms.
1:11:11I used it to unlock my phone at like 4 o'clock in the morning, you know, without my glasses
1:11:14on and it did fine.
1:11:17It's worked with glasses, without glasses,
1:11:19with a hat, without a hat.
1:11:21The only real thing I've noticed,
1:11:23and I never would have noticed except that I was
1:11:25using my camera in landscape to shoot a bunch of video,
1:11:28and the phone wants to be oriented
1:11:32in the same direction as your face.
1:11:33So if you pick your phone up,
1:11:34it wants to be in portrait mode.
1:11:36If you're laying down on your side,
1:11:38then the phone needs to be in landscape.
1:11:40I think I'm explaining that right.
1:11:41The phone needs to be oriented in portrait mode
1:11:44in relation to your head.
1:11:46And I tried thinking into maybe why that's possible
1:11:50and I read some like crackpot theories
1:11:51but I'm not really sure why.
1:11:53But that's something to think about,
1:11:55especially like if you're using it in bed,
1:11:56you just need to turn it a little bit.
1:11:58But honestly, it's been really nice.
1:12:02I haven't really missed touch ID.
1:12:03I haven't had it fail, I think outside of the
1:12:07why doesn't it work on its side?
1:12:09And once I sort of understood that, it's been fine.
1:12:12Where it really shines is using it in apps.
1:12:16So my banking app supports Face ID,
1:12:19one password of course, and when the system asks you,
1:12:24hey, do you wanna log in, all you have to do
1:12:27is be looking at the phone.
1:12:28And it makes using those apps feel way faster,
1:12:33even though it's not.
1:12:34It feels like way less friction,
1:12:38and that's something I didn't anticipate.
1:12:39- It feels like part of the flow of the application.
1:12:42- It's not like you're being interrupted.
1:12:43- You're just waiting for it to return an answer
1:12:45as opposed to you having to go and act upon something to make something occur.
1:12:48Yep, it's really nice. So I have been really happy with it. I have not had a bunch of errant,
1:12:54you know, issues with it. So far I've been really impressed.
1:12:57What about you Federico?
1:12:59I just love it. I think it's, I was, you know, I need to say that I was wrong, that I take
1:13:07back all the possible... you know, I was highly skeptical of abandoning Touch ID.
1:13:14Not only does this work better than Touch ID, because so far it's never failed me.
1:13:19And that's because, you know, Touch ID was dependent on this point of contact with your hand,
1:13:27and it was an additional step. Even if it got better with the second version of Touch ID,
1:13:35it was still an extra step that you needed to take and that was affected by external conditions such
1:13:41as maybe you just get out of the shower and your hands are wet and so touch ID is not working as
1:13:46it should be but face ID is not an additional step because you are you know you're always
1:13:53wearing your face and your face is always on and it doesn't you just like to look at your phone
1:14:01Face on worldwide. Exactly. So it's this idea of this ambient technology that is aware of you
1:14:11and it just things by detecting you. I think it's awesome. I think it works really well for me.
1:14:16I saw a few people saying it doesn't work in the morning because I look sleepy. I didn't have that
1:14:23problem this morning and I woke up without my eyeglasses on and it just unlocked just fine.
1:14:29I had this thing this morning. It was so ridiculous. I woke up like earlier than I should have,
1:14:37right? Like I just woke up and whatever and I picked up my phone and I was trying to unlock it,
1:14:43but like my eyes weren't fully open and like, you know when you're tired, like you're right
1:14:47open your eyes and one eye closes like I was fighting with the iPhone to try and unlock it
1:14:53because like I couldn't open my eyes and I just kind of started laughing to myself as I realized
1:14:58what I was doing and there was this part of me that's just like how often was I doing
1:15:03this like unlocking my iPhone whilst half asleep.
1:15:07In a stupor.
1:15:08Yeah and now it's like my phone is like come on dude like just actually wake up before
1:15:16you start digging into this stuff eh.
1:15:18Yeah I think as Steven mentioned it's especially impressive inside apps. I was surprised that
1:15:26I shouldn't be surprised, but it's always nice when the 1Password extension comes up.
1:15:31So you're outside of the app and Face ID kicks in and it authenticates you.
1:15:37Like I was, I needed to fill in my login details in Slack and so I brought up the 1Password
1:15:43extension and Face ID worked.
1:15:46And I thought, well, that's really nice.
1:15:48And I also noticed that now Apple is sort of using authentication in more places.
1:15:53in Safari, like the automatic login stuff, now it's constantly checking for Face ID authentication.
1:16:00I'm pretty sure it wasn't as frequent with Touch ID and the previous Safari iCloud Keychain.
1:16:07Or maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like...
1:16:09I don't think it was doing it.
1:16:10I honestly find it kind of frustrating that it's doing the Face ID so frequently.
1:16:16But I guess it's nice that it's there, but a lot of the time these pages are opening.
1:16:21opening. Like, so for example, I was setting up tweetbot, right?
1:16:24And I was setting up with like four Twitter accounts. Now what, what,
1:16:29um,
1:16:29the system is trying to do is to keep authenticating me for the same one over
1:16:34and over again. So like I had to wait for face ID, it would fill in one account.
1:16:40Then I'd have to open one password,
1:16:41wait for face ID and filling the other account. Do you know what I mean? Right?
1:16:45Like what it was trying to auto fill was not the account that I was trying to
1:16:48sign in on, and it was just a bit like "ok phone, just chill out for a moment and
1:16:53just let me take control of the situation". That was something that I
1:16:57noticed, but at the same time that is a situation that I don't do very often, and
1:17:01the rest of the times that it's doing this stuff, if it's actually pulling in
1:17:05the right information for me and prefilling it, that's kind of great.
1:17:08I understand why a machine learning based functionality wants as much data
1:17:14as possible. So I can see why Apple is increasing the number of places where
1:17:19Face ID authentication is required, so they have a nice excuse to feed more
1:17:24data to the model behind Face ID. But overall, double thumbs up, even if that
1:17:31doesn't matter anymore because I'm not using my fingers to authenticate. So
1:17:34double nod, maybe? Yeah. I'm really happy with that.
1:17:40Alright, there's something that we haven't been talking about, and we need to talk about
1:17:45it, which is the dissolving of the plus club.
1:17:50Dissolving? That's not the verb I was expecting.
1:17:53Is that what happens when an exclusive club is no more?
1:17:56Yeah, don't they dissolve? Like, don't you dissolve the club?
1:17:58You have a ceremony, you give out some flowers, maybe? Some pins? I don't know.
1:18:01And then the club dispends, right? Maybe "dispends" is better, but I thought you, like, dissolve
1:18:06like an organization. Isn't that the word that you use?
1:18:09is dissolved yeah I think so. Okay but before we talk about the dissolving of our club let
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1:20:06So how many years has Plus Club been a thing? Like three years now?
1:20:11Three, yeah. Two and a half maybe.
1:20:14It is something that has lasted for a long time for good reason because I think we will all say here that we're all of the firm belief
1:20:22that the Plus phone is the best phone out of the decision between regular and Plus, right?
1:20:27It's why we all went there. We love the features. I want to ask you both how you're feeling now
1:20:33about moving away from the Plus to a smaller sized phone. Federico,
1:20:40how has this experience been for you so far? It's fine so far. I miss the width of the Plus.
1:20:53from a vertical perspective, the fact that this phone is taller than the iPhone 7 means
1:21:01that I'm still seeing as many tweets as I've seen before or as many email messages without
1:21:08having to scroll.
1:21:10And also because I reduced the text size, that also helps, and it kind of feels like
1:21:15a mini plus in a way.
1:21:19So it's fine for now, but I can tell you already, and again, my friends last night brought up
1:21:25the same point, I want to have a plus version of this.
1:21:29So whenever Apple makes a 10+ or whatever it's called, 11+, I'm gonna jump on that.
1:21:36Because I can only imagine how the physical body of the iPhone Plus, but with an edge-to-edge
1:21:44display, that's gonna be amazing.
1:21:46For now, I took the text size down a notch, no pun intended, and it's fine, because I
1:21:56can see the fact that it's taller, I can see the content that I want to see, for example,
1:22:02there's more wrapping for text, so it goes down a line, for example, because there's
1:22:07not enough horizontal space, so text needs to go on a different line, for example.
1:22:14But that's fine, that's fine.
1:22:16I can live with this for a year and I can appreciate
1:22:20the, you know, all the great features of this phone,
1:22:24like the display and all that.
1:22:27But next year, if next year we're gonna get two models,
1:22:32I'm gonna get the bigger one because I know I want
1:22:35my iPhone to be as big as possible with the design of the 10.
1:22:39So if that's gonna happen, that's gonna be my next iPhone.
1:22:42- You seem very confident about one year there.
1:22:45I said if, maybe it's two years, I don't know.
1:22:49- Okay.
1:22:50- I don't, like, I miss my iPhone Plus right now,
1:22:55but the things that I'm missing
1:22:58are not as nearly as important as this new design.
1:23:02So I'll take the new design over,
1:23:05I don't wanna be that person saying,
1:23:07ah, I'm gonna stay with the Plus,
1:23:08I'm not gonna switch to the 10
1:23:09because I want the Plus form factor.
1:23:12It's more important for me to have
1:23:14this entirely new iPhone design because it's exciting,
1:23:17because it looks better,
1:23:19because I love the way that the screen feels and looks.
1:23:22But if Apple is gonna make a Plus version,
1:23:25I'm gonna get that one.
1:23:27- I agree with Federico.
1:23:29The width is what has surprised me,
1:23:32especially on the keyboard.
1:23:33I found the keyboard to take a little getting used to.
1:23:37I mean, the easiest, if you haven't seen one of these phones,
1:23:39the easiest way to think about it, I think,
1:23:40is when you went from the four to the five.
1:23:43So this phone is basically the width of the six,
1:23:47slash seven, slash eight,
1:23:48but closer to the height of the Plus phone.
1:23:51So it's sort of in between the phone.
1:23:54I like the size decrease in my pocket.
1:23:57I like the size decrease in handling the phone,
1:24:00but I do miss the wider keyboard.
1:24:03I think if they had a Plus version,
1:24:06I would seriously consider it,
1:24:09but I'm not as convinced as some people
1:24:12that that is actually going to happen.
1:24:13I think Apple thinks that they sort of have the best
1:24:17of both worlds on this phone until proven otherwise.
1:24:20I don't know if they see the need for a Plus,
1:24:22but I would definitely consider going to the Plus
1:24:27if it were to exist to have the width back
1:24:29and as always, increase the battery
1:24:34that comes with a bigger phone.
1:24:35But it's all in all, I'm happy with the size, I like it.
1:24:38There's something nice about having something
1:24:39little more compact and more portable but it's taken some getting used to.
1:24:46I think there'll be a plus version just because they won't keep making an old
1:24:52design forever right and I don't expect a new design which doesn't look like
1:24:59this with the full screen and the face ID and all that stuff so I reckon there will be
1:25:03a bigger version of this this kind of design down the road just because Apple
1:25:07will want to sell more than one phone.
1:25:09It's funny to me that like, as the person who kind of
1:25:13forced you both and coerced you both into getting a plus,
1:25:17that I am the, I think the least bothered of the three of us
1:25:21about this size change.
1:25:23I don't honestly feel any difference.
1:25:27I don't feel it.
1:25:28And this was something that happened very quickly for me.
1:25:33Most of the stuff that I was,
1:25:37The last sort of stuff that I liked about the Plus was landscape stuff, right?
1:25:41And I feel like I'm seeing more content, I see more emails, I see more messages, I see
1:25:45more tweets.
1:25:46I don't really feel like I'm losing anything.
1:25:49And the majority of the time that I type on my iPhone, I'm using the swiping functionality
1:25:56on Gboard, and it's easier for me to do that now with the width being smaller.
1:26:03So I'm actually really happy with this size.
1:26:07I would move up to a bigger size for the exact same reason I moved up in the first place
1:26:11because I always want to have the biggest screen available to me.
1:26:15That's just how I feel with my phone, right?
1:26:18Bigger is better because I get a lot of benefits from it and there were a lot of initial benefits
1:26:23like the dual camera system and all that sort of stuff was all really exciting.
1:26:29So yeah, I funnily enough am absolutely fine with this size and don't really feel like
1:26:36I'm losing anything. Like for my usage, it feels great.
1:26:39Yeah, I was just reading over the blog post I wrote when I'm, because I had the 6 and
1:26:44then moved to the 6 plus and I blame you a lot in this. It's pretty funny.
1:26:48Yeah, you both did. I remember it was a, it was like a whole big thing for a while because
1:26:53I convinced you both to buy a second iPhone not too long after buying a first one.
1:26:59Like that's a very frustrating thing, but you know, it's why I was right.
1:27:03Because you should have just trusted me in the first place.
1:27:05I'm sorry we doubted you.
1:27:08That's alright, I don't mind.
1:27:10Now we're all in X crew together, so goodbye Plus Club.
1:27:13Now we're all one big happy family again.
1:27:16The iPhone X brought with it a few accessories, some new accessories.
1:27:23Namely the biggest I think being wireless charging.
1:27:28Do either of you have any thoughts on wireless charging as a thing?
1:27:30Yes, I do.
1:27:32Me too.
1:27:33Okay, so I'm gonna say that I know it's not technically wireless, like it's not power
1:27:38flowing through the air, but as someone who is deeply annoyed by visual clutter, like
1:27:50I hate having cables on my desk, on my nightstand.
1:27:55I don't want to see those kinds of things.
1:28:01I just hate wires, really.
1:28:05And I appreciate the... maybe not the convenience, but the elegance of the wireless charging
1:28:15supported by the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X.
1:28:17So I have a Belkin Boost app.
1:28:20this white charging mat. You put the iPhone on and it charges. It's got this tiny green dot. It's a LED
1:28:29indicator that tells you if you place the iPhone correctly and if it's charging. And that's about
1:28:34it. It's got this rubber circle on top, so it's sort of it's grippy and it kind of it should it
1:28:39prevents the iPhone from falling off the charger. I should also say I hate, maybe hate is not the
1:28:47the right word but I don't like having vibration on my phone is either with the
1:28:56ringtone and sounds on or it's silent and if it's silent it doesn't vibrate I
1:29:02just hate the feeling of vibration on my kitchen table on my desk or on my night
1:29:07stand I don't like the noise it I just don't like it so I don't have the
1:29:13problem of the iPhone vibrating itself off the charging mat. But that said, wireless
1:29:21charging on the iPhone X, it still does not support faster wireless charging.
1:29:26Apple said that in a software update in the future they will support 7.5W
1:29:31faster charging for the wireless protocol. Right now that is not
1:29:36available so it charges slowly at 5W like the normal Apple adapter.
1:29:41but I was looking at my nightstand last night with my single like just my
1:29:49glasses, my AirPods case and the charging mat with the iPhone and I thought you
1:29:55know this looks really nice. I'm happy that I don't see any cables everything
1:29:59is in behind the nightstand you know the power adapter for the charging mat it's
1:30:03all very elegant it's all very minimal and I like that I'm going to sleep and
1:30:06don't have to deal with the cable, you know? I also know that there will be
1:30:11times when I will have to use my iPhone and charge it at the same time, so I will
1:30:16have to use a cable, but I think at night when I'm sleeping and the iPhone needs to
1:30:21charge, I will just place it there and without having to see the cable, which
1:30:26makes me happy. So you're all in then? Like, this is something you like? And I cannot
1:30:31wait for the air power thing that Apple is making. I like the idea of putting my
1:30:36iPhone and the AirPods case and have them charge at the same time. That's awesome for me. Cables and
1:30:44wires and adapters visually offend me. So I don't want to see them. I cannot stress this enough.
1:30:50It makes me upset. It makes me physically upset that I need to see those and manage them and move
1:30:57them around and then they break. So yeah, yes. I'm one of those people. Are there many of those
1:31:04people I don't think so many of us I'm gonna be the I'm gonna be the person that
1:31:10tells you you know on Android we've had two chargers for years mm-hmm mm-hmm
1:31:16she's great I'm very happy for everybody yeah yeah
1:31:19Steven I picked up a Samsung wireless charger it was the best reviewed on the
1:31:26wire cutter and it was I got it super cheap on Amazon and I got it yesterday
1:31:31and I don't particularly care for it.
1:31:33The top is slippery so the phone wants to slide around it
1:31:36if your phone is not in a case.
1:31:39It sits pretty high off the desk
1:31:41and the whole bottom of it glows blue
1:31:43so I wouldn't want it on my nightstand.
1:31:44- Great.
1:31:45- So this one, I'm keeping it 'cause it was like 20 bucks
1:31:48and it's just gonna stay on my desk in the office.
1:31:50Those things don't really matter out here.
1:31:52But I wanted to compare the Mophie
1:31:55because in the Apple store they sell the Belkin
1:31:57that Federico has and then they sell a Mophie.
1:31:59So I picked that up last night
1:32:01and it's pretty great.
1:32:03It's black, it's really low to the desk.
1:32:05The top is all rubbery and grippy
1:32:07so the phone doesn't wanna slide around
1:32:09and it has one downward firing LED
1:32:11that is not bright at all.
1:32:13It's very easy to tape over.
1:32:15The Samsung one, because the whole,
1:32:16that glows like a spaceship,
1:32:18you basically have to cover the whole thing in tape.
1:32:21I like Federico, I like the lack of visual clutter.
1:32:23I like that you can just pop the phone down and charge it.
1:32:26There's something interesting here though
1:32:28with the speed.
1:32:30So, Federica, you said,
1:32:31"You know, software update's gonna enable 7.5 watt."
1:32:34The Mophie and the Belkin, both on Apple's website,
1:32:38say that they will support that when Apple enables it.
1:32:43I don't know why Apple hasn't enabled it, whatever.
1:32:47The Samsung is a little more interesting
1:32:49because some of these other manufacturers are saying
1:32:52only people who have worked with Apple to support 7.5 watt
1:32:56will be enabled, but it's part of the standard,
1:32:59so I don't know if the Samsung one will charge it
1:33:03at 7.5 watts when the phone can accept it or not.
1:33:06So that'll be an interesting little footnote here
1:33:07that if you buy one today, you're not guaranteed
1:33:11that update in the future is gonna unlock faster charging.
1:33:15The other thing that's interesting about this phone
1:33:19is that it does fast charging.
1:33:21So if you have that big, was it 29 watt USB-C
1:33:25lightning setup which is like 70 bucks or something it will charge it will
1:33:32charge on that I haven't I have one of those I haven't really I've hooked the
1:33:37phone into it a couple times but I haven't really like closely paid
1:33:41attention so I'm gonna do that and see what that's like if that I don't even
1:33:44know if that's working or if that's part of that software update I'm unclear on
1:33:47that but the wireless charging is nice I mean even at five watts it's you know
1:33:52It's the same speed as the stupid slow adapter they put in the box still but it's nice
1:33:57You can just sit it down and you don't have to have a cable sniped across your desk or
1:34:00It's just sort of easily just to kind of drop it on the nightstand and be done. So I like it so far
1:34:06You know, it's not the fastest thing in the world
1:34:08But it's um, I can see why people were excited that it was coming to the phone. I don't care for wireless charging
1:34:14It just doesn't I just it doesn't work for me
1:34:19for what I want like I bought the Belkin thing and I put my phone on it and it charged and
1:34:25That was okay, and it's because I have a better solution that I've been using
1:34:31From studio neat I use the material docks
1:34:34I use the iPhone and watch one on my bedside table and the iPhone one on my desk and
1:34:40They work better for me than these
1:34:42Charging pads because the phone just stands up and especially I have the one unit by my bedside
1:34:47Which is my watch and my phone like that works fine like I can do it with one hand
1:34:52It just goes in comes out because it's nice and affixed to the desk and then my phone is standing up
1:34:57Which I find better than the phone laying down
1:34:59so really the the wireless charging I
1:35:03Know why people would like it like if you were charged if you are plugging your phone in but to a cable every night
1:35:09Then this is great for you
1:35:11But if you have already a dock solution that you like the wireless charging stuff doesn't
1:35:16It doesn't really add anything like it the cables are already out of the way, right?
1:35:22Like it's it's not incredibly hard for me to just put my phone into the dock
1:35:26Like I don't feel like I'm fighting to try and line it up. Like it lines up pretty nicely
1:35:31It was great. But if you know, so for me, it's just like
1:35:34I'm not really getting any benefit honestly for because I still have to like
1:35:40Make sure that my phone is on the pad correctly and check that it's just you know, I don't really feel it
1:35:46you know maybe when I'm traveling it will be cool with the air power thing maybe but
1:35:51I don't really feel any need to use it at home. Yeah I get it. It'd be good for Adina though
1:35:58whenever she gets a wireless charging phone she would like it. Yeah.
1:36:07are you both using a case on this iPhone? Because I have a problem here and I want to hear if you're
1:36:17having the same issue, which is this phone is beautiful, I don't want to cover it up.
1:36:22Yeah, I can't bring myself to do it.
1:36:24I bought a case from Amazon last night. It arrived this morning because Amazon is now a warehouse
1:36:29near Rome, so fast shipping times, it's awesome. Anyway, it's a... what's the name? Spigen?
1:36:36Spigen, air or skin. So it's a very thin, semi-translucent plastic case that does a
1:36:49good job at covering the back. It's a very tight case, I actually had a problem removing
1:36:54it from the iPhone later. And I also like the way that it's super thin and it doesn't
1:37:00cover the edges of the phone much but two problems here one it covers the
1:37:06beautiful glass of the iPhone 10 and I cannot and I kind of want to see that
1:37:10design I feel like I want to appreciate it I want to look at it but also in a in
1:37:16a fun problem that I'm having the glass is actually grippier than plastic so yes
1:37:26I'm covering up the glass back, so it should prevent the glass from breaking in theory,
1:37:34but it also makes it easier for me to have this phone slip out of my hands and fall into
1:37:41the ground.
1:37:42So the glass is beautiful, it's grippier, I think I'm gonna try and go without a case
1:37:49for a while, maybe?
1:37:51Hmm, I don't know
1:37:53I'm in the same problem
1:37:59I can't bring myself to cover up the glass and the stainless steel like it looks too good and like so I have the
1:38:07ultraviolet purple
1:38:09silicon case the Apple one which is
1:38:11Beautiful. So one of my favorite cases
1:38:14I've used it once so right now
1:38:18When I'm leaving the house, I'm putting the case on because I feel like right now is the worst possible time to break an iPhone 10
1:38:26I just feel like that
1:38:28This is if you want to try and take it to the store and get it fixed right now
1:38:32You might struggle to like I have to wait for a replacement
1:38:35It's my thinking right like I feel like now is probably the worst possible time for iPhone stock
1:38:39So like if I'm leaving the house and putting the case on it
1:38:43Because in my mind that makes me feel better
1:38:46I don't know why like it's just as dangerous at home honestly because I have it out more at home
1:38:51But like I try not to think about that. I also ordered the in case frame, which is a bumper
1:38:56Which is on the way. I'm thinking that might be a good middle ground because at least I'll still feel and see the glass
1:39:03So I'll let you know what that's like. I don't know how that's gonna go
1:39:07But that that could work for like the case that I would use if I'm gonna use one
1:39:12But I don't want to because I really like I just really really like the phone as it is
1:39:20Steven do you have a case? I bought the black Apple leather case and
1:39:25Like so I used it this weekend when we were you know hiking and stuff
1:39:29But I am NOT using it
1:39:32Otherwise, I'm not using it. I mean I took it off when we got home
1:39:37And you're the only one of us that's broken an iPhone though, right?
1:39:40You've broken phones, right? I've never broken an iPhone. Never? What about you, Federico?
1:39:45No, never. Well, I bought AppleCare+ for realsies this time, so...
1:39:49Are you sure? Yes, I'm positive.
1:39:52Okay.
1:39:56Yeah, I did the same yesterday, actually. I did it online. Like, I didn't have to go to the
1:40:01to the app, to the physical Apple Store. I did it from the online Apple Store, and it was a surprisingly nice process.
1:40:08like you add AppleCare+ for the iPhone X to your shopping bag,
1:40:13and then you get an email from Apple that says,
1:40:15"Click on this link," and you click on the link,
1:40:16and it takes you to the system diagnostics,
1:40:19like the same app that I guess the Apple Store people use,
1:40:23and it runs these diagnostics on the device.
1:40:26It uploads the data to the Apple servers.
1:40:29I suppose they may be --
1:40:32because you're not bringing the iPhone physically
1:40:34to the Genius Bar, for example,
1:40:36there's not an Apple employee looking at the phone and saying well this has no
1:40:40physical damage. I suppose the Dynostics tool it takes a look at the the motion
1:40:45data logs on the device to sort of try to guess if the phone dropped maybe I
1:40:50don't know this would be interesting to know and anyway you you see this
1:40:55progress bar and it uploads data then it says okay you can go back to Safari you
1:40:59go back to Safari you click continue and it says yep your phone is verified you
1:41:03now buy AppleCare. I bought AppleCare, I got an email today with the receipt so I'm officially
1:41:08covered and I realized all those times I went to the Apple Store just to buy AppleCare that
1:41:14was useless. So the more you know, yeah. I did this too. I did the AppleCare process
1:41:21after the fact and did it all on the phone. It's very easy, you just gotta wait for a
1:41:26few minutes while it's doing whatever it's doing. And I bought AppleCare for this one
1:41:30because I'm planning to leave it caseless and I do love it like that. And plus, this
1:41:36phone feels super thin to me because I've had cases on my iPhones for so long. So it's
1:41:41like this one is like a piece of paper is how it feels to me. It's very peculiar. Boy
1:41:46do I love it. Isn't this a great iPhone guys? Isn't this just wonderful? It's making me
1:41:52feel like I'm having the same feelings that I had in 2009, 2008 when I got my first iPhone.
1:41:59Like all that excitement and all that feeling of wanting to understand what I'm using, like
1:42:06the curiosity and the excitement and the talking to friends and showing off the phone, like
1:42:11there, it feels like we're back to a time where we can be excited about new iPhones.
1:42:17And it feels like since the iPhone 6 and the 6s and the 7, that feeling kind of, kind of
1:42:23subs, like it kind of went away actually for a while.
1:42:26And it feels like we're not only back into being excited about these iPhones, but actually
1:42:32it's just a beautiful piece of hardware that feels like it came from the future but is
1:42:36actually here with us today.
1:42:38It's really, I think it's from a technical perspective, it's a huge achievement for Apple
1:42:43to have this phone.
1:42:45And I'm really happy with it.
1:42:48I know it's expensive, it's not for everyone right now, but this is going to be the iPhone
1:42:53that, you know, maybe a few years down the road, every iPhone will look like this.
1:42:58And so, to have it today, it feels like we, you know, this is a lucky, lucky, lucky year
1:43:05because somehow Apple managed to make it happen and I'm just really happy.
1:43:11It's a phone that makes me happy to use my iPhone again.
1:43:14If you want to find our show notes this week, head on over to relay.fm/connected/168.
1:43:20Thanks again to our fine sponsors BalanceOpen, Casper and TextExpander from Smile.
1:43:24If you want to find Federico online he's at maxstories.net and @Vittici on Twitter.
1:43:30Steven is 512pixels.net for the website and on YouTube.
1:43:35He's 512pixels on YouTube as well.
1:43:37Steven makes great YouTube videos.
1:43:39He is @ismh on Twitter.
1:43:41I am @imike.
1:43:44We'll be back next time.
1:43:45Until then, say goodbye guys.
1:43:46Adios, Erci.
1:43:47Adios.