Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:06 ◼   ► From Relay FM this is Connected episode 122 our 2016 Year In Review. This episode is brought to

00:00:15 ◼   ► you by Smile. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Federico Vittucci. Hi Federico.

00:00:20 ◼   ► Hello Myke.

00:00:20 ◼   ► And Steven Hackett. Welcome to the show.

00:00:22 ◼   ► Hey Myke.

00:00:24 ◼   ► We have a big show today. This is one of my favourite shows of the year where

00:00:28 ◼   ► We take a look, I think we took a look back mostly at the things that we have spoken about

00:00:34 ◼   ► on this show throughout the year of 2016 and we're going to go through them month by month

00:00:39 ◼   ► in a kind of round robin style and talk about the stories and talk about if they are really

00:00:47 ◼   ► worth thinking about now, right?

00:00:49 ◼   ► Now it's just like whatever and maybe see how some things have changed and grown over

00:00:54 ◼   ► the years.

00:00:55 ◼   ► as you would expect, we're gonna start with January.

00:00:58 ◼   ► Now January saw the launch of a really weird

00:01:02 ◼   ► Apple application called Music Memos, which I had completely forgotten about

00:01:07 ◼   ► until I saw it in this document. What even was Music Memos?

00:01:11 ◼   ► Or is, I guess, it's still alive, I don't know.

00:01:14 ◼   ► Are we sure that was 2016? It feels like a lifetime ago, really.

00:01:18 ◼   ► Music Memos was a lifetime ago, yeah. We've all aged a lot.

00:01:22 ◼   ► Is it still around? Is it really still around?

00:01:24 ◼   ► Apple.com/music-memos still exists.

00:01:28 ◼   ► - Oh really?

00:01:29 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:01:30 ◼   ► - Oh really?

00:01:30 ◼   ► - It's a top level page.

00:01:31 ◼   ► - There's a webpage, wow.

00:01:32 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's got--

00:01:33 ◼   ► - I mean the Mac Pro has a webpage.

00:01:35 ◼   ► - Oh, dear.

00:01:36 ◼   ► - So it has aperture on it, right?

00:01:37 ◼   ► - I think they fixed that.

00:01:39 ◼   ► - What, can anyone remember what music memo was?

00:01:44 ◼   ► I don't know what it is.

00:01:45 ◼   ► - Yeah, so you would sit down as a singer, songwriter,

00:01:49 ◼   ► coffee shop hipster, and you could play guitar or sing,

00:01:52 ◼   ► or I think it would do piano and stuff.

00:01:55 ◼   ► Oh no, I looked at the website the other night.

00:01:56 ◼   ► And you could record into that.

00:01:58 ◼   ► I think the idea was a lot of musicians

00:02:00 ◼   ► use voice memos for this stuff.

00:02:01 ◼   ► But music memos, if you played guitar,

00:02:04 ◼   ► it would try to match the chords

00:02:06 ◼   ► and it would put in like an intelligent drummer

00:02:08 ◼   ► or a bassist and help you sort of take your raw idea

00:02:12 ◼   ► and fill it out a little bit.

00:02:14 ◼   ► And then you could export that to GarageBand

00:02:16 ◼   ► or save it and do a bunch of stuff.

00:02:17 ◼   ► So I'm like you guys, I didn't realize this was in 2016.

00:02:21 ◼   ► and I remember downloading it and playing with it but I'm not a musician so I was like

00:02:26 ◼   ► "Oh well this is cool, I'm glad that it exists, it's a very Apple app to build

00:02:31 ◼   ► but I don't know what the adoption is like or what the usage is like anymore."

00:02:36 ◼   ► Well it did receive three updates since it came out and the last one was in October.

00:02:42 ◼   ► I think it's very cool, I still don't believe it has replaced the notes app for musicians

00:02:50 ◼   ► musicians and like I follow a couple of, actually not a couple, maybe a couple of

00:02:55 ◼   ► dozen really, artists on Twitter and I see screenshots of notes all the time.

00:03:00 ◼   ► I don't think it has, you know, Music Memos has to replace the popularity, you know,

00:03:05 ◼   ► of notes, the default app. I think it's a great idea. It's one of those experiments.

00:03:10 ◼   ► It reminds me of, and I think we made this comment when it came out, reminds me

00:03:14 ◼   ► of the cards app, you know, or the iPhone.

00:03:18 ◼   ► - I miss that thing, man, especially in the holiday season.

00:03:19 ◼   ► - Yeah, me too, me too.

00:03:20 ◼   ► It was a really clever, you know, single purpose idea,

00:03:23 ◼   ► but I don't know why this to me look like intern projects.

00:03:28 ◼   ► Like sometimes they see the light of day.

00:03:31 ◼   ► - No, you know what, I don't think that's a bad thing.

00:03:33 ◼   ► I don't think like, I get what you're saying.

00:03:35 ◼   ► It's not in quality, it's like in why does this exist?

00:03:38 ◼   ► Like it's somebody's little project.

00:03:40 ◼   ► - Yes. - Yeah, it's gotta be.

00:03:42 ◼   ► Like I can't imagine that like, you know, at the top level of the iOS software team,

00:03:46 ◼   ► they're like, we don't want to update GarageBand.

00:03:49 ◼   ► We have to make music memos.

00:03:51 ◼   ► Like I can't imagine that that's what occurred.

00:03:53 ◼   ► It just seems strange.

00:03:54 ◼   ► It just feels like maybe somebody's little 20% time project or something.

00:03:58 ◼   ► And it was good enough that they're like, no, let's, let's throw our weight behind

00:04:02 ◼   ► this and actually make it as a real thing.

00:04:04 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:04:05 ◼   ► Also in January, we saw the preview of iOS 9.3.

00:04:10 ◼   ► So this showed off a night shift

00:04:13 ◼   ► and the iPad and education changes.

00:04:16 ◼   ► This was, I think, the first time

00:04:18 ◼   ► that Apple has ever done something like this.

00:04:20 ◼   ► It was like a big preview.

00:04:21 ◼   ► They've not done it since, right?

00:04:23 ◼   ► There's not been anything since.

00:04:25 ◼   ► Now, January's close.

00:04:27 ◼   ► Maybe we're gonna see the 10.3 preview, fingers crossed.

00:04:32 ◼   ► Or maybe we'll wait for that until the spring,

00:04:34 ◼   ► but that was a big surprise.

00:04:36 ◼   ► And there are a couple of things this year

00:04:37 ◼   ► where Apple kind of broke out of their normal cycle with dealing with, you know,

00:04:42 ◼   ► announcements where not everything was done on stage. Sometimes there were just

00:04:46 ◼   ► pages put up on Apple.com or there were press releases or interviews given about

00:04:50 ◼   ► new initiatives that Apple was working on and the 9.3 preview was one of those.

00:04:57 ◼   ► Yeah and it's interesting to think about if Apple is gonna do 10.3 next month.

00:05:03 ◼   ► I think we're going to see with some iPad features,

00:05:08 ◼   ► I just wonder if there's going to be these big changes

00:05:12 ◼   ► coming to, let's say, iPad multitasking, for example,

00:05:15 ◼   ► and developers need to adapt.

00:05:17 ◼   ► There's going to be some kind of reveal with betas

00:05:22 ◼   ► and new developer SDKs,

00:05:25 ◼   ► and it just seems a little odd to me that Apple would

00:05:28 ◼   ► introduce these big changes without an event.

00:05:31 ◼   ► But then again there's iPads supposedly coming in March or April.

00:05:37 ◼   ► The rumors that we've spoken about seem to suggest that the software is not going to be front and center.

00:05:41 ◼   ► Like this is going to be a really exciting hardware announcement for the iPad.

00:05:46 ◼   ► Like if the rumors are true and it's like this basically bezel-less 10.9 engine and 9.7 body,

00:05:53 ◼   ► like you don't need the software to tell that story. The hardware tells that story.

00:05:58 ◼   ► You don't need to. It would just be a little strange but I guess okay to have this big...

00:06:04 ◼   ► Imagine if Split View for example in iOS 9 was not announced at WWDC with a proper event

00:06:10 ◼   ► but instead with a press release and a webpage. That's what I'm thinking about.

00:06:14 ◼   ► This is like... It's weird within the current ways that things are done but I guess our hope is that

00:06:20 ◼   ► that breaks and WWDC is never the iPad thing, it's much. So it's like every six months. That's the hope.

00:06:26 ◼   ► So I have my fingers crossed for a 10.3 announcement in January.

00:06:32 ◼   ► That allows developers and everybody to get prepared for the spring release of new iPad

00:06:37 ◼   ► hardware. So we'll see. Federico, what happened in February?

00:06:40 ◼   ► Well, the big story from February was Apple versus the FBI in the United States following the

00:06:46 ◼   ► shooting at San Bernardino. And the FBI and the police seized the attacker's iPhone,

00:06:55 ◼   ► and they essentially demanded Apple to get access to the phone.

00:06:59 ◼   ► And the problem was, of course, Apple doesn't want to provide law enforcement with a master key.

00:07:05 ◼   ► That's according to Apple and Tim Cook.

00:07:09 ◼   ► Because essentially the FBI wanted a way for Apple to create a custom software,

00:07:13 ◼   ► a custom version of iOS, that would have allowed the law enforcement to break into the iPhone

00:07:20 ◼   ► without running into the problem where if you type, for example, multiple times an incorrect passcode,

00:07:27 ◼   ► the phone erases itself. So the FBI demanded Apple to write a custom version of iOS that would bypass

00:07:34 ◼   ► that security measure. And Apple was opposed to that because of the argument that if Apple

00:07:39 ◼   ► were to create such master key, it would be too risky and it would too easily be out in the wild

00:07:47 ◼   ► and it would be a problem for millions of iPhone users, not just because of that single FBI case.

00:07:53 ◼   ► So Apple was afraid that it would create a precedent, you know, for the FBI to demand even

00:07:59 ◼   ► for future iPhones. And I mean, I guess, Steven, you know much better living in the US what exactly

00:08:07 ◼   ► happened afterwards. There were various interviews with Tim Cook, he went on television, there were

00:08:12 ◼   ► were a couple of hearings with the FBI and Tim Cook I think. Yeah I mean Apple

00:08:18 ◼   ► really made it a very public fight. They turned it from some sort of like

00:08:23 ◼   ► political you know technology story into a big like public relations like fused

00:08:31 ◼   ► with American freedoms I think. It was kind of a brilliant move right to take

00:08:34 ◼   ► it public. Yeah. And I think that I mean clearly Apple came out on top but I

00:08:39 ◼   ► I think that it would be foolish to think that this sort of thing is over, especially

00:08:43 ◼   ► in light of new administration and things.

00:08:47 ◼   ► This is a conversation that's going to come back up.

00:08:53 ◼   ► Until that happens, Apple seems to be hard at work at making the phones even more difficult

00:08:57 ◼   ► to get into.

00:08:59 ◼   ► One of the weird things in this case was that it was an iPhone 5C.

00:09:01 ◼   ► Had it been a 5S or later, the security system in the phone would be even more difficult

00:09:06 ◼   ► to get into.

00:09:08 ◼   ► So I think it's sort of an opening chapter in what will be a longer story.

00:09:13 ◼   ► I don't know if there were polls and stuff, but the public seemed relatively split on

00:09:20 ◼   ► what to do.

00:09:21 ◼   ► I think obviously in our circles it seemed like a pretty obvious solution that no government

00:09:26 ◼   ► should have a backdoor into encryption like this.

00:09:30 ◼   ► But we see around the world new administrations and new governments who may be more interested

00:09:36 ◼   ► in that.

00:09:37 ◼   ► I fear that this is going to be a story that we have to cover again, probably sooner rather

00:09:41 ◼   ► than later.

00:09:42 ◼   ► It was fascinating really at the time, and I think it's one of the more interesting technology

00:09:47 ◼   ► stories of the year just because we've not really had a thing like this before.

00:09:53 ◼   ► And also, I think at the time, a lot of us were quite impressed with the way that Apple

00:10:00 ◼   ► handled this.

00:10:01 ◼   ► That they publicly went out and said that they weren't going to do this, even though

00:10:06 ◼   ► it was obvious that that was going to be a PR disaster, right? That people that didn't care about

00:10:12 ◼   ► security in that kind of like really intense way of understanding encryption would just look at

00:10:22 ◼   ► this and be like, "Apple is helping terrorists." And there was no way to spin that, right? Like

00:10:28 ◼   ► that was always going to have to be a message that obviously, you know, people sympathizing

00:10:36 ◼   ► with what the FBI were trying to do would tar Apple with, right? Like they would have said,

00:10:43 ◼   ► "Oh, they're just trying to help these terrorists," or "They're unwilling to help the government,"

00:10:47 ◼   ► like, you know, that's a lot of people, I mean, and I understand why I would see that as a bad

00:10:52 ◼   ► thing just on the face of it. And it's one of the other things that, you know, as the year has gone

00:10:57 ◼   ► on I think the general consensus towards Apple has kind of changed as the year has gone on,

00:11:03 ◼   ► but in February we were really big supporters of what they were attempting to do, right?

00:11:10 ◼   ► And it's funny to see how things kind of went throughout the rest of the year. Because there

00:11:14 ◼   ► are just, you know, there are other like, not even just because there's no Macs, but

00:11:19 ◼   ► with weird, you know, strange stories like the EU stuff which we're going to get to a

00:11:24 ◼   ► a little bit later on like the narrative has changed quite a lot as the year has

00:11:28 ◼   ► gone on but at least at this point it was great.

00:11:31 ◼   ► Yeah, the other story from also from February was when Apple really upset

00:11:38 ◼   ► Myke and then they kind of backtracked on the changes we're introducing.

00:11:43 ◼   ► Basically in iOS 9.3 at that point they were in the beta at some point

00:11:52 ◼   ► I think in beta 1 or beta 2 maybe, they changed the functionality of the Apple Pencil.

00:11:57 ◼   ► The Apple Pencil came out in November 2015 with the first iPad Pro.

00:12:03 ◼   ► And the Pencil, the original one, even if you go read my review at that time, you were

00:12:08 ◼   ► able to use the Pencil to navigate the iOS interface.

00:12:11 ◼   ► So in addition to drawing and sketching, you know, the more specific Pencil functionalities,

00:12:16 ◼   ► could use the pencil as a finger replacement to navigate iOS, scroll, you

00:12:21 ◼   ► know, tap icons, and with the beta of iOS 9.3 they introduced a change that

00:12:26 ◼   ► prevented the pencil from being used as a complete finger replacement. And Myke

00:12:33 ◼   ► and others, they got really upset.

00:12:35 ◼   ► Mm-hmm, because we were used to using our Apple

00:12:38 ◼   ► Pencils in that way at that point. You know, as I said at the time, if the Apple

00:12:42 ◼   ► Pencil debuted and all it could do was draw, then that would have been fine. But

00:12:46 ◼   ► it debuted and for whatever reason it could do anything that your finger could

00:12:50 ◼   ► do and then that got removed and there were beta after beta were coming out of

00:12:55 ◼   ► 10.3 and it wasn't changing and then there was some outcry from from myself

00:13:02 ◼   ► and Gray and I was like you know there was a great piece that Serenity wrote on

00:13:05 ◼   ► iMore and it kind of like ended up bubbling up into one of those little

00:13:09 ◼   ► snowstorm type scenarios that happened with Apple press stuff and then I think

00:13:16 ◼   ► it was in the release candidate it was changed. Apple released a press release

00:13:21 ◼   ► said that they would restore functionality and then I think it was in

00:13:24 ◼   ► the either the last beta or the release candidate 10.3 got amended and the

00:13:28 ◼   ► functionality got restored. So that was that was a great win for all pencil

00:13:34 ◼   ► users everywhere.

00:13:35 ◼   ► Yeah have you been using the pencil in the same way since?

00:13:39 ◼   ► Nah, I didn't even bother. No, of course.

00:13:41 ◼   ► It's my main use of the Apple Pencil.

00:13:44 ◼   ► It's why I have Apple Pencils attached to my iPads, right?

00:13:48 ◼   ► It's because when I'm doing some serious work for long periods of time, especially with

00:13:53 ◼   ► stuff like spreadsheets, it's just way nicer and more accurate and more comfortable for

00:13:58 ◼   ► me to use the Apple Pencil for those sort of things.

00:14:00 ◼   ► I continue to and it's genuinely one of the three things that makes the iPad Pro the best

00:14:06 ◼   ► computer for me, is the Apple Pencil is one of them.

00:14:10 ◼   ► So it was definitely a win for you that had consequences throughout the year.

00:14:15 ◼   ► So good job.

00:14:16 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:14:18 ◼   ► So we are now in March and like most years 2016 was, you know, March was kind of the

00:14:24 ◼   ► first big month so we have a bunch of stories here.

00:14:27 ◼   ► We had Flux which was available to be sideloaded onto iOS devices.

00:14:32 ◼   ► So if you're not familiar with something that ended up basically being like night shift

00:14:36 ◼   ► where an app can change the color temperature of the screen. It's been on the Mac forever.

00:14:41 ◼   ► I've had it installed for years. And they did a little Xcode project where you could

00:14:46 ◼   ► sideload it onto your iOS device. Apple set that down in a big hurry. And then of course

00:14:52 ◼   ► Night Shift came out. When was Night Shift? Was that in 9.3 or was that in 10?

00:14:57 ◼   ► 9.3. No, 9.3. We also had the transmission BitTorrent client infected with malware, which

00:15:05 ◼   ► That was a super fun story for lots of people.

00:15:08 ◼   ► That actually happened I think twice this year.

00:15:09 ◼   ► Yeah, definitely.

00:15:10 ◼   ► A couple of times actually, yes.

00:15:13 ◼   ► So good server security there guys.

00:15:16 ◼   ► We also saw the Android N developer preview.

00:15:20 ◼   ► This was a surprise from Google.

00:15:22 ◼   ► Basically it just sort of showed up on their website.

00:15:27 ◼   ► And we've all spent time with Pixel and with Android recently.

00:15:32 ◼   ► But it's Android N brought split screen to the phone and it brought some better like

00:15:40 ◼   ► software updating mechanisms which we won't go into but are interesting.

00:15:45 ◼   ► Pretty solid update to the Android side of things.

00:15:48 ◼   ► But of course the big thing in the Apple world was the March event where we saw the iPhone

00:15:55 ◼   ► SE.

00:15:56 ◼   ► So an updated small phone from Apple with the guts of the success but in the case of

00:16:02 ◼   ► the I guess the 5 and 5s. I think it's a popular phone at least it is in my

00:16:08 ◼   ► household my wife has one and really loves it. I think she's going to be sad

00:16:11 ◼   ► when they don't ever update it again. But at the same time we also saw the 9.7

00:16:18 ◼   ► inch iPad Pro. So this was the event of small devices I guess and of course the

00:16:23 ◼   ► 9.7 inch Pro built with the same technology in the 12.9 but went even

00:16:29 ◼   ► further with things like the true tone display which I would really like on the

00:16:35 ◼   ► big iPad. Everything. Yeah has the wide color gamut as well which has since

00:16:44 ◼   ► spread to the iPhone and of course a bunch of Macs and I think the 12.9 will

00:16:48 ◼   ► kind of get updated to get back in line with everybody this March but March was

00:16:53 ◼   ► busy and I think out of all of these stories I think that 9.7 inch iPad

00:16:58 ◼   ► Pro is really the one that sticks around. The iFantasy is great for people who want it.

00:17:02 ◼   ► It's interesting that they did it. Like I said, I don't really think they're

00:17:05 ◼   ► going to ever update it again, but I don't think it's as important as a

00:17:11 ◼   ► product as that 9.7 inch iPad Pro just because that form factor was the

00:17:16 ◼   ► default iPad size and they got rid of the Airline and replaced it with a Pro

00:17:21 ◼   ► that was more expensive, had pencil support, and really kind of pushing the

00:17:25 ◼   ► boundaries of that notebook. This is also the event where Phil Schiller,

00:17:29 ◼   ► so I think Apple made a couple of weak keynote arguments this year. Courage being

00:17:34 ◼   ► one and the other one being this. We're like who is this for? It's for people

00:17:39 ◼   ► switching from PCs and I see what they're saying and I think we argued

00:17:43 ◼   ► about this when it happened but in my mind that's not a super compelling

00:17:49 ◼   ► argument for this thing being a device. The device is good on its own and

00:17:54 ◼   ► I'm sure there are people switching from PCs to iPads, no doubt.

00:17:57 ◼   ► But it was just a very strange hook into this product in the keynote and I don't know, it

00:18:04 ◼   ► still seems a little weird to me in hindsight.

00:18:07 ◼   ► It is strange, especially because at that time, I mean of course there were no iOS 10

00:18:12 ◼   ► and no new iPad features basically since iOS 9 the year before.

00:18:16 ◼   ► But even if you consider the accessory that Apple is trying to sell as the primary way

00:18:21 ◼   ► of turning an iPad into a PC, the Smart Keyboard. At that point there were no international

00:18:27 ◼   ► layouts for the Smart Keyboard. They were released in late July or August I think, in

00:18:33 ◼   ► the summer. So back in March the Smart Keyboard was effectively only available to US users

00:18:38 ◼   ► with an American layout. And it was a really strange argument to make for the small iPad

00:18:44 ◼   ► Pro with just one smart keyboard layout, no new smart connector accessories. It was just,

00:18:52 ◼   ► it felt like a tagline slipped in at the end of rehearsals or something. It was not a,

00:19:01 ◼   ► maybe a strong point but not a cohesive one I would say. At least not consistent with

00:19:06 ◼   ► what Apple was showing.

00:19:08 ◼   ► From a marketing perspective, Supercomputer is one of my favorite Apple taglines of the

00:19:12 ◼   ► the last few years. I think it's fantastic but there are problems from

00:19:17 ◼   ► like a functionality perspective that it doesn't back it up. I agree with that

00:19:22 ◼   ► right like that they didn't give the 9.7 inch iPad Pro anything more to make it a

00:19:29 ◼   ► more powerful computer like you know me and Federico will go to bat and say that

00:19:34 ◼   ► like this machine can be a computer replacement but the 9.7 inch didn't

00:19:40 ◼   ► really do anything to back the supercomputer line up but I do really like the line because

00:19:46 ◼   ► I think it's very smart. I do continue to love my 9.7 inch iPad Pro. It's my favorite,

00:19:51 ◼   ► it's like my favorite Apple device at the moment and I think it has, bar none, the best screen I've

00:19:57 ◼   ► ever used. It's just incredible and it's a shame to me that this is the only device that has a

00:20:04 ◼   ► screen that looks like good. The wide color gamma on the iPhone 7 and 7 plus is really

00:20:10 ◼   ► great but the true tone really goes an extra mile and I'm looking forward to seeing that

00:20:18 ◼   ► come out across the line. I expect the 12.9 will get it next and I really do hope that

00:20:23 ◼   ► they're able to put it in the next iPhone because it's great.

00:20:25 ◼   ► So we're now in April and it was just maybe the big story that kind of set the tone for

00:20:34 ◼   ► Apple throughout the year was the first downquarter in terms of revenue in 13 years.

00:20:41 ◼   ► So Apple in the Q2 2016 earnings call, they detailed the fact that for the first time

00:20:48 ◼   ► there was a downquarter.

00:20:51 ◼   ► And there was a bunch of explanations that Apple made and I saw analysts and other journalists

00:20:58 ◼   ► on Twitter but the core issue is that Apple saw insane growth with the iPhone 6 and 6+

00:21:08 ◼   ► in China.

00:21:09 ◼   ► I think this was the main argument and that was impossible to replicate with the 6s and

00:21:15 ◼   ► the 6s+.

00:21:16 ◼   ► But this idea of Apple having the first down quarters since many many years and trying

00:21:25 ◼   ► to find the next big driver and moving to services, this kind of set the entire narrative

00:21:32 ◼   ► around Apple for 2016 in terms of from a financial perspective.

00:21:37 ◼   ► Yeah, it was a bit of a shocker, right?

00:21:41 ◼   ► Because I think for so many years, whenever there's a quarterly results, everyone goes

00:21:48 ◼   ► into defensive mode of how can the stock be down?

00:21:53 ◼   ► just posted more money than ever, right? Like all of this stuff is ridiculous. But now it's

00:21:59 ◼   ► like, well, what can you do? They just, they didn't make as much money. And it was a very

00:22:05 ◼   ► strange thing. You know, 13 years, four times a year, we have seen the same answer. And

00:22:12 ◼   ► that answer is Apple is making more money. Apple is making more money. Like that has

00:22:16 ◼   ► been the thing that we have been used to for such a long time and it was a bit of a strange

00:22:24 ◼   ► thing to see as somebody who is a fan of the company and cares about the company and it's

00:22:29 ◼   ► like how are they gonna do better than this? Like it's a difficult thing. I'm really interested

00:22:36 ◼   ► to see how next year goes because there's a lot of talk about like oh 2015 was this

00:22:42 ◼   ► weird year where there was a big peak.

00:22:44 ◼   ► And I was like, I can accept that argument so long as 2017 is better than 2016.

00:22:51 ◼   ► And as of right now, we have no idea, no way or no idea of knowing that.

00:22:55 ◼   ► And I'm, I'm interested just to see how this plays out to see what happens next year.

00:23:01 ◼   ► And if 2015 ends up just being this weird little anomaly or it was the peak.

00:23:08 ◼   ► Also in April, I published an article and associated video for a big project that I had been working on for a couple of months.

00:23:17 ◼   ► For the first time, every year I do my iOS Wishes story, where I kind of lay out what I would like to see coming in the next version of iOS.

00:23:28 ◼   ► And for the first time this year, in addition to the story, I worked with Sam Beckett, he's a motion and graphic designer,

00:23:37 ◼   ► to produce a video version of my iOS wishes with a concept video.

00:23:45 ◼   ► I tend to be against the idea of concept videos that, you know,

00:23:52 ◼   ► imagine these crazy features that are never going to happen,

00:23:55 ◼   ► like, I don't know, holographic iPhones.

00:23:57 ◼   ► So we try to kind of combine the fact that I really think about

00:24:05 ◼   ► sensible, reasonable features that could come to iOS and to design them in a way that they don't seem too crazy,

00:24:12 ◼   ► they don't seem too absurd.

00:24:14 ◼   ► And the general feedback that we got was exactly what I was hoping to get from readers and

00:24:20 ◼   ► that is it makes sense and it feels like

00:24:23 ◼   ► something that Apple could do and

00:24:26 ◼   ► fun story when I was at WWDC I was talking to a bunch of

00:24:32 ◼   ► Apple engineers and

00:24:35 ◼   ► And some of them told me, "Well, you know, thank you for the video in a sarcastic way."

00:24:40 ◼   ► Because a lot of their friends actually texted them and they were like, "I saw you guys

00:24:46 ◼   ► announced iOS 10 already.

00:24:47 ◼   ► I saw the video."

00:24:48 ◼   ► They were like, "No, that's not us."

00:24:53 ◼   ► So the feedback was incredible and it was my first video on YouTube.

00:24:58 ◼   ► It was a fun project, I think.

00:25:00 ◼   ► I loved it.

00:25:01 ◼   ► I loved it because I got a video version of one of your long articles. You know how I love video versions.

00:25:06 ◼   ► And it was really great and I don't know but I hope that you're going to do it again.

00:25:13 ◼   ► No comment. No comment at this time.

00:25:17 ◼   ► I don't know. Basically the problem is if there's going to be 10.3 coming in January with a public release in March.

00:25:26 ◼   ► I don't know how to... I don't have enough time to think about what I want next.

00:25:34 ◼   ► Because if there's major changes to the iPad in March, there's no point in thinking about future iPad changes.

00:25:46 ◼   ► There's at least no time for me because I sit on these ideas for months.

00:25:51 ◼   ► And so next year I think it will be different, even for my iOS wishes story.

00:25:56 ◼   ► The timing will be different because now iOS is effectively split between two releases.

00:26:02 ◼   ► So, you know, we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll just do an iPhone one, I don't know.

00:26:07 ◼   ► So, we are now into May. Myke, what happened? What did April's Hours bring in May?

00:26:14 ◼   ► May.

00:26:15 ◼   ► They bring May flowers?

00:26:16 ◼   ► May added to it completed a long project that was off spoke about on the show

00:26:23 ◼   ► which was Steven completing his 13 iMac G3 color collection so April showers

00:26:31 ◼   ► brought May flower powers Wow you should be a poet that was kind of amazing I

00:26:41 ◼   ► I hope you're proud of yourself right now.

00:26:43 ◼   ► I am.

00:26:44 ◼   ► So this was a big project for you and I guess now we're at the end of the year.

00:26:49 ◼   ► I should ask, do you have a home for the IMAX?

00:26:52 ◼   ► They still all in your office?

00:26:55 ◼   ► They are all in my office, just over there.

00:27:00 ◼   ► And yeah, so I got sort of all the content done that I wanted, wrote a bunch, did a bunch

00:27:06 ◼   ► of videos.

00:27:08 ◼   ► They became a third of the book that I just published.

00:27:15 ◼   ► What the question is now is what do I do with these IMAX.

00:27:20 ◼   ► What I think is going to happen, what I'm working on, is actually having them become

00:27:24 ◼   ► part of the collection at the Henry Ford Museum.

00:27:28 ◼   ► Listeners may remember, I interviewed Kristin Gallerneau, one of their technologists, about

00:27:37 ◼   ► the Apple I, because the Apple I turned 40 in April.

00:27:41 ◼   ► And she and I have stayed in touch and that's hopefully where they will end up being preserved

00:27:46 ◼   ► and cared for for all time at the Henry Ford Museum, which is super exciting.

00:27:53 ◼   ► So it's not quite a done deal yet.

00:27:54 ◼   ► When it is, I'll let people know.

00:27:56 ◼   ► But that's where I think they will all end up.

00:27:59 ◼   ► So they'll be safe and sound and it'll be exciting to have them as part of their collection

00:28:07 ◼   ► And I'm happy to make that donation to them because a lot of them were given to me and

00:28:11 ◼   ► I want to make sure that they get taken care of forever.

00:28:15 ◼   ► That's really nice.

00:28:16 ◼   ► Like that's a good thing that you'll be able to collect them all up in good condition and

00:28:22 ◼   ► donate them for other people to see.

00:28:24 ◼   ► And I guess it's also nice to not have to have them in your house anymore.

00:28:29 ◼   ► Because have you ever wondered or like got worried that they might gang up on you?

00:28:33 ◼   ► Yeah, you know, you have to feed them and you know you have to take care of them.

00:28:37 ◼   ► I mean really it's just about the storage space.

00:28:39 ◼   ► I only have so much storage space and out of my big shelving units they take up like

00:28:45 ◼   ► a third of the space right now.

00:28:49 ◼   ► And like some of them are kind of neatly arranged in the corner.

00:28:51 ◼   ► It's just a lot of computers to have and I wish I could hold on to all of them but I

00:28:57 ◼   ► feel like if they can all be together then that's the right answer.

00:29:01 ◼   ► I want them to stay together and the Henry Ford once all 13.

00:29:05 ◼   ► So we'll see where that goes.

00:29:07 ◼   ► - May also brought the Google I/O conference.

00:29:12 ◼   ► Is that like a festival, right?

00:29:15 ◼   ► They did it outside.

00:29:16 ◼   ► - It was this year.

00:29:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, an amphitheater and everybody got sunburned.

00:29:19 ◼   ► But it did look really cool though,

00:29:22 ◼   ► as opposed to just having it all in a big conference center.

00:29:25 ◼   ► They had it in this big amphitheater

00:29:27 ◼   ► and it was kind of a nice setting that the keynote was cool.

00:29:31 ◼   ► These were the big things that came out of Google I/O 2016.

00:29:33 ◼   ► Allo and Duo, which I don't really think have gone anywhere.

00:29:37 ◼   ► Even people that, you know, even Android users

00:29:40 ◼   ► don't seem to be like super hot on that for what I can see.

00:29:43 ◼   ► Google Home, which Steven has one of,

00:29:47 ◼   ► and I don't really think that you like it

00:29:49 ◼   ► any more than your Echo.

00:29:51 ◼   ► - I like the Echo.

00:29:53 ◼   ► I'm trying to be very careful not to say them

00:29:54 ◼   ► 'cause they're both here plugged in listening.

00:29:56 ◼   ► I like the Echo a lot more.

00:29:58 ◼   ► I have been meaning to put something together,

00:30:01 ◼   ► just haven't gotten to it yet but I do have thoughts on the Google Home that

00:30:03 ◼   ► will eventually make it on the show. Daydream VR which is something that I do

00:30:08 ◼   ► really like and there are a couple of weeks ago there was a ton of new games

00:30:12 ◼   ► come out for the Daydream VR but everything was packed in boxes for me so

00:30:16 ◼   ► I'm gonna check those out but there was like a huge like ton of content that

00:30:21 ◼   ► just kind of landed all of a sudden for that so I'm excited to check that out

00:30:24 ◼   ► And this was the first time that the Google Assistant popped up.

00:30:29 ◼   ► This was like the first talking of Google's idea of having this assistant,

00:30:35 ◼   ► which was like the central core of all their products.

00:30:37 ◼   ► And it was like it showed up in a little bit.

00:30:42 ◼   ► It's meant to be in a Google Home a little bit,

00:30:43 ◼   ► but they speak about this throughout the year, again, like later on in the year.

00:30:46 ◼   ► But it's really like a "this is our thing that we're moving towards"

00:30:51 ◼   ► rather than a thing that we have right now.

00:30:53 ◼   ► Yeah, it's still kind of limited. I mean, the full assistant is only available in the Google Home speakers.

00:31:01 ◼   ► The things you can do with the Google Home, which received a bunch of new third-party integrations, I think last week,

00:31:08 ◼   ► those commands, those integrations are not available in the Google Assistant, in the Allo app, for example.

00:31:14 ◼   ► So there's still a bit of inconsistency between what you can do with the Google Assistant in messaging, with text,

00:31:21 ◼   ► text and what you can do with voice. It does feel like

00:31:25 ◼   ► several months later Google is still getting started on this front.

00:31:32 ◼   ► The Google Home came out last month. I think

00:31:35 ◼   ► developers are still working on their integrations and the Google Allo app is still, you know,

00:31:41 ◼   ► nobody uses it, I think. And a

00:31:45 ◼   ► A good move I guess would be for Google to actually make a Google Assistant app or to bundle the assistant functionalities

00:31:52 ◼   ► with voice and text into the main Google app, especially on the iPhone

00:31:57 ◼   ► Because right now it's kind of silly to tell users...

00:32:01 ◼   ► I think that will definitely happen, right?

00:32:03 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly.

00:32:04 ◼   ► They don't have it yet. But like I think that that is I think you're spot-on like

00:32:08 ◼   ► eventually the assistant will be

00:32:10 ◼   ► everywhere and in everything.

00:32:13 ◼   ► But it really does seem like,

00:32:15 ◼   ► and it kind of frustrates me when I see this announcement,

00:32:18 ◼   ► because they've done it twice now

00:32:20 ◼   ► and they show off these demos where like,

00:32:22 ◼   ► it's exactly what you want out of virtual assistant.

00:32:25 ◼   ► And they're like, this is what we hope we can make one day.

00:32:27 ◼   ► It's like, why are you even?

00:32:28 ◼   ► Like, I don't understand, like, why are you doing this?

00:32:30 ◼   ► It frustrates me a little bit

00:32:32 ◼   ► because it's like dangling this thing,

00:32:34 ◼   ► like, oh yeah, you know that name,

00:32:36 ◼   ► Google Assistant we've spoken about?

00:32:37 ◼   ► It's in our chat app, but it sucks right now.

00:32:40 ◼   ► It's like, it's, I don't know.

00:32:42 ◼   ► I don't know why they came out

00:32:45 ◼   ► with the Google Assistant branding

00:32:46 ◼   ► before they had a compelling product.

00:32:48 ◼   ► They may as well have just kept calling it like Google

00:32:50 ◼   ► and just like Google Now and just kept using those phrasings

00:32:55 ◼   ► until they actually had a product that could give them

00:32:58 ◼   ► and could give users what we're all looking for,

00:33:01 ◼   ► which is the demos that they keep showing.

00:33:03 ◼   ► They already had a brand name.

00:33:05 ◼   ► They already had all of it,

00:33:05 ◼   ► like Google Now and Google Now on Tap.

00:33:07 ◼   ► Those brands would have existed fine

00:33:09 ◼   ► while they were still trying to build up something

00:33:11 ◼   ► that could become the assistant,

00:33:13 ◼   ► because right now it's not much more than Google Now

00:33:15 ◼   ► and Google Now on Tap was.

00:33:17 ◼   ► So I think they've kind of flubbed that one,

00:33:19 ◼   ► because I think Google can do that.

00:33:21 ◼   ► The stuff that they show,

00:33:22 ◼   ► they are the company that are able to do it

00:33:23 ◼   ► more than anybody else,

00:33:25 ◼   ► but they don't have the product right now,

00:33:27 ◼   ► and they've shown it twice this year,

00:33:28 ◼   ► and there is nothing yet, and it's kind of frustrating.

00:33:33 ◼   ► - We are now at Apple Christmas,

00:33:35 ◼   ► which happens in June at WWDC,

00:33:39 ◼   ► But before the conference, just a couple of days before the conference, Apple announced

00:33:44 ◼   ► some really big changes to the App Store, including the subscription pricing changes.

00:33:50 ◼   ► So if you have an application that provides ongoing service or you can promise regular

00:33:57 ◼   ► updates, then you can charge a subscription.

00:34:01 ◼   ► And if a user continues their subscription over a year, it moves from the 70/30 split

00:34:08 ◼   ► it to what is it 80/20 as I would have moved to and 15 I don't remember it may

00:34:13 ◼   ► be 15 I'm trying to live this verge article and it's taking forever the and

00:34:19 ◼   ► in conjunction with that they announced the search ad platform for the iOS App

00:34:26 ◼   ► Store and I think in hindsight the subscription pricing changing is is good

00:34:30 ◼   ► and I think there are some apps that are are slowly figuring out how to use that

00:34:35 ◼   ► I don't know if there have been many yet who I think have done it perfectly, but I think

00:34:40 ◼   ► they're figuring it out.

00:34:42 ◼   ► But the search ads still seem like a real mess.

00:34:44 ◼   ► We all follow a bunch of developers on Twitter and how often are they complaining that they

00:34:50 ◼   ► purposely put their competitors' names as exclusion keywords and they still show up

00:34:55 ◼   ► for those searches.

00:34:56 ◼   ► Or a lot of the things that Phil Schiller said, "Oh, we're going to monitor it so the

00:35:01 ◼   ► big guys don't squash the little guys and the little guys are getting squashed."

00:35:05 ◼   ► It's not working super well yet, I don't think, but I think maybe they will get there.

00:35:11 ◼   ► And I just remember it being really interesting that they did this ahead of the conference.

00:35:18 ◼   ► And I think the reason is pretty clear that they wanted people coming out of the conference

00:35:22 ◼   ► to be excited about iOS 10 and watch iOS 3 and Mac OS Sierra and Swift Playgrounds and

00:35:28 ◼   ► let the app store changes have their own news cycle before everyone gets to San Francisco.

00:35:34 ◼   ► had time to percolate there were answers to questions like it was a smart move to

00:35:39 ◼   ► do because it was a very big complex and confusing thing that really I don't

00:35:43 ◼   ► think they could have adequately gotten across on stage and it was it ended up

00:35:48 ◼   ► being a much smarter idea for us to think about it and talk about it and

00:35:51 ◼   ► read more about it in the days leading up to WWDC then trying to put this into

00:35:56 ◼   ► what was already a pretty packed keynote. Absolutely and it is and first real-time

00:36:01 ◼   ► follow-up it is 85/15 split once you're there for a year but then we get to the

00:36:06 ◼   ► conference right and and like you said completely jam-packed iOS 10 bringing

00:36:14 ◼   ► the new stuff being better and messages and you know so many great iPad changes

00:36:22 ◼   ► wait not thank you yeah good job good work yeah nice nice we we saw watchos

00:36:30 ◼   ► S3 bringing really, to me, I think out of the updates, probably the most groundbroken

00:36:37 ◼   ► within the update itself.

00:36:38 ◼   ► They really kind of took apart WatchOS and put it back together with things like the

00:36:42 ◼   ► dock and getting rid of glances and it being much faster even on first generation hardware.

00:36:49 ◼   ► On the Mac we got a new name, Mac OS.

00:36:51 ◼   ► We got Sierra which brings Siri and a lot of file disk management stuff to the Mac.

00:36:58 ◼   ► Some of that's a little bit of a mixed bag, but it's here.

00:37:01 ◼   ► And then we had Swift Playgrounds, where you can take an iPad and install an app and begin

00:37:06 ◼   ► to develop and learn to develop in Swift, which I think is just super cool.

00:37:14 ◼   ► And they really geared it, you know, kind of in the keynote towards education.

00:37:18 ◼   ► I think a lot of people think about Swift Playgrounds as like, "Oh, my kids can learn

00:37:23 ◼   ► how to code."

00:37:25 ◼   ► But I think Swift Playgrounds is a lot more than that.

00:37:27 ◼   ► I think it has a lot more potential than just teaching kids how to code, as good as that

00:37:33 ◼   ► is.

00:37:34 ◼   ► It's the first step as well towards more development tools coming to iOS.

00:37:39 ◼   ► Right?

00:37:40 ◼   ► Like it's step one.

00:37:41 ◼   ► It's the simple part of it.

00:37:44 ◼   ► I totally agree.

00:37:45 ◼   ► And you know, I mean, there were all this crazy stories going around that people like

00:37:49 ◼   ► hacking things into Swift Playgrounds and that it has access to a lot more than it just

00:37:52 ◼   ► looks like on the surface.

00:37:54 ◼   ► So I do think that I agree with you that it is a step in the right direction.

00:38:00 ◼   ► I don't know if we're going to get Xcode for iPad in June.

00:38:03 ◼   ► I don't think we will.

00:38:06 ◼   ► But as Swift becomes more mature and as the iPads become more powerful, you can see where

00:38:12 ◼   ► those lines will cross and that at some point I truly believe that you will not need a Mac

00:38:18 ◼   ► to develop iOS apps.

00:38:20 ◼   ► And that's going to be a big blow to the Mac as a platform, but it seems inevitable and

00:38:25 ◼   ► it seems like just something that Apple should do, right?

00:38:30 ◼   ► If you're building an app and you're running an app on an iPad, you can instantly see how

00:38:34 ◼   ► it is as opposed to dealing with a simulator or putting a build on your phone.

00:38:39 ◼   ► It takes out so many of those steps and I think a lot of people would be really interested

00:38:43 ◼   ► in that and I think that Apple will definitely get there.

00:38:48 ◼   ► So this WWDC made for some personal news.

00:38:53 ◼   ► It was the first time that the three of us had ever been in person together.

00:38:56 ◼   ► As Federico made the journey with me to lovely San Francisco and we had our first ever Relaycon

00:39:04 ◼   ► San Francisco event which was amazing and I've been thinking a lot about what 2017 could

00:39:12 ◼   ► be.

00:39:13 ◼   ► Right now I have no idea.

00:39:16 ◼   ► I was thinking about it in the shower yesterday and I have nothing.

00:39:20 ◼   ► Luckily, we have six months to think about it.

00:39:23 ◼   ► That is the plan, right?

00:39:24 ◼   ► The plan is to do another one next year.

00:39:26 ◼   ► We hope we can pull it off.

00:39:28 ◼   ► I want to do another one and I want to do something that is bigger than last year.

00:39:37 ◼   ► More people doing more things.

00:39:39 ◼   ► And really we don't have six months.

00:39:40 ◼   ► Really we have like four months.

00:39:41 ◼   ► Well, I have six months to think of what's going to be on stage, right?

00:39:45 ◼   ► I don't have that much time to get you a place to do it.

00:39:48 ◼   ► But that's something that we're thinking about.

00:39:51 ◼   ► All in all, I think WNBC this year was a big thumbs up.

00:39:55 ◼   ► Software stuff was good.

00:39:57 ◼   ► The personal stuff was great.

00:39:59 ◼   ► Myke, you and I have seen each other many times over the years.

00:40:02 ◼   ► But I got to y'all's hotel and Federico was upstairs on the phone.

00:40:07 ◼   ► I just knocked on the door and there was Federico there.

00:40:10 ◼   ► And he's much taller and much more handsome than I ever imagined.

00:40:15 ◼   ► We spent time together and it was great.

00:40:17 ◼   ► Well, you were younger than I imagined.

00:40:20 ◼   ► Well, you know the um...

00:40:22 ◼   ► The compliments go both ways.

00:40:24 ◼   ► Thanks.

00:40:25 ◼   ► Yeah, I left the cane at home, so...

00:40:27 ◼   ► It was good.

00:40:29 ◼   ► We are halfway through the year, which means we are probably halfway through the show,

00:40:32 ◼   ► which means we should take a moment to thank our sponsor for this week's episode,

00:40:36 ◼   ► and that is our friends over at Smile.

00:40:38 ◼   ► It is the holiday season, so why not give somebody the gift of a Smile product?

00:40:45 ◼   ► You will be giving that person the most precious gift of all,

00:40:48 ◼   ► more time, because that is what Smile products give you.

00:40:52 ◼   ► You can help your friends, colleagues, and loved ones

00:40:54 ◼   ► save time by giving them a text expand or subscription,

00:40:57 ◼   ► so everyone will be able to speed up their typing skills

00:41:00 ◼   ► by sharing snippet groups together,

00:41:03 ◼   ► and also by saving the time that it takes

00:41:05 ◼   ► instead of writing out that huge address

00:41:07 ◼   ► or that templated snippet.

00:41:09 ◼   ► You can help those you know who wrangle PDFs

00:41:12 ◼   ► it with ease by using PDFPen on the Mac. With PDFPen they'll be able to scan OCR documents,

00:41:18 ◼   ► edit them and even export into wired format if they want to. PDFPen is the swiss army knife for

00:41:24 ◼   ► PDFs. And for those of you who have their lives on the go or choose to live the iOS life you can

00:41:29 ◼   ► get them PDFPen for iPad and iPhone, PDFPen Scan Plus and you can even use the gift this app

00:41:35 ◼   ► function on the app store to send them to that special someone. For more information go to

00:41:40 ◼   ► to

00:41:53 ◼   ► on some Smile stickers.

00:41:54 ◼   ► I have some on my devices, of course.

00:41:58 ◼   ► I want to thank Smile so much for their support

00:42:00 ◼   ► of this show, their support of Real AFM,

00:42:02 ◼   ► and the fact that they have been such a long time

00:42:04 ◼   ► support area, a time where we're looking back

00:42:06 ◼   ► at the rest of the year, we're looking back

00:42:07 ◼   ► at the whole history of this show.

00:42:09 ◼   ► Smile has been there for us since day one.

00:42:11 ◼   ► So if you want to get anybody any software this Christmas,

00:42:14 ◼   ► make sure that you look at Smile as a place to do that.

00:42:18 ◼   ► Thank you so much to Smile for their support of this show.

00:42:22 ◼   ► We're now in July.

00:42:24 ◼   ► We are indeed.

00:42:25 ◼   ► And, you know, the summer is usually quiet as Apple is testing new versions of iOS.

00:42:31 ◼   ► We got a couple of interesting bits of news.

00:42:35 ◼   ► Evernote announced new pricing tiers and price, major pricing changes.

00:42:40 ◼   ► And at that point for context, a lot of people in the tech community, I think, especially

00:42:46 ◼   ► in ours, were sort of falling out of love with Evernote.

00:42:51 ◼   ► We had switched to the Notes app since iOS 9 and there were some really good alternatives

00:42:57 ◼   ► to Evernote which kind of fell behind.

00:43:00 ◼   ► We've talked about this before but Evernote announced these changes and in my opinion

00:43:06 ◼   ► they kind of made everything even more complicated than it used to be.

00:43:11 ◼   ► So the big idea is Evernote now has three plans.

00:43:16 ◼   ► The basic one, which is the free plan, plus, which is $4 a month, and premium, which is

00:43:22 ◼   ► $8 a month.

00:43:24 ◼   ► With the pricing changes, plus is $10 more annually, and premium has gone up by $20.

00:43:34 ◼   ► But the really important change is that the basic plan, the free one, is now limited to

00:43:41 ◼   ► I think two devices.

00:43:42 ◼   ► It used to be that Evernote could be used for free on as many devices as you wanted.

00:43:48 ◼   ► You could have Evernote for free without the premium features on your iPhone, your Mac,

00:43:52 ◼   ► your iPad, whatever.

00:43:53 ◼   ► Your Pebble watch?

00:43:55 ◼   ► The Pebble, really important platform to focus on.

00:44:00 ◼   ► Now with device limiting, effectively Evernote cannot be used for free on every device you

00:44:07 ◼   ► have.

00:44:08 ◼   ► Which I understand this is a business thing, right?

00:44:10 ◼   ► Like they have to do this.

00:44:12 ◼   ► However, what this does though is it fundamentally changes what the product is about.

00:44:15 ◼   ► Yes.

00:44:16 ◼   ► Right?

00:44:17 ◼   ► And that's the biggest problem.

00:44:18 ◼   ► It's if you use Evernote, like if you were an Evernote user, you are forced into this.

00:44:23 ◼   ► I mean, whatever, you're using it for free.

00:44:26 ◼   ► Maybe you shouldn't, you know, maybe you should pay them if you love it that much.

00:44:28 ◼   ► Right?

00:44:29 ◼   ► Like, but whatever.

00:44:30 ◼   ► But it was, I think the idea was it pushed everyone into this plan because if you truly

00:44:36 ◼   ► used Evernote, you were using it on multiple devices, many devices, because it was meant

00:44:40 ◼   ► to be on everything you have so your off-board brain was always with you. And

00:44:46 ◼   ► this was like, I don't know, when I saw this I was like this is a company who's

00:44:50 ◼   ► not at their best. That was kind of, you know, the way that I think a lot of

00:44:54 ◼   ► people reacted to this and it was like hmm shall I continue to trust them with

00:44:58 ◼   ► with like my most important things? I'm not so sure.

00:45:01 ◼   ► As we'll see later, probably not. The other narrative I guess at this point in

00:45:08 ◼   ► the year is the lack of Mac updates, and especially for professionals. And that

00:45:14 ◼   ► frustration materialized in an odd sort of comeback. You know,

00:45:22 ◼   ► frustration comes back in the strangest ways sometimes. And this year it was

00:45:27 ◼   ► Hackintosh's. They came back in style and I guess the frontmost story was by

00:45:36 ◼   ► Myke Randall posted this kind of tutorial or you know how we put together a

00:45:42 ◼   ► Macintosh with really powerful specs quite a bit of a setup of course

00:45:48 ◼   ► because there's some weird limitations especially for iCloud and iMessage when

00:45:53 ◼   ► you try to to install Mac OS or in this case I think OS X and Capitan on a

00:46:00 ◼   ► non-Apple computer but this article, this story resonated with a lot of people and

00:46:07 ◼   ► this sort of kick-started I think a kind of movement that I see in my

00:46:14 ◼   ► Twitter timeline to this day which is a lot more people using Hackintoshes but

00:46:21 ◼   ► also a lot more Mac users switching to PCs and that's interesting because I

00:46:29 ◼   ► For a lot of years I thought, well, once you're loyal to the Apple platform and ecosystem,

00:46:36 ◼   ► you're going to be an Apple user forever.

00:46:39 ◼   ► And instead there's sort of this ramification between people who are so fed up with the

00:46:45 ◼   ► lack of Mac Pro and professional Mac updates that either build their own or just go back

00:46:51 ◼   ► to Windows, which is interesting.

00:46:54 ◼   ► Kind of a surprise to me.

00:46:57 ◼   ► I think some people surely are doing that, but I think there's a lot of, I think a lot

00:47:01 ◼   ► of that is sort of like frustration rhetoric that people rage tweet and then, you know,

00:47:07 ◼   ► don't actually do it or, you know, say that they're going to do it and it's just a statement

00:47:11 ◼   ► like, I don't, I don't think that that's happening in widespread numbers, but, um, I mean, you're

00:47:18 ◼   ► right though, it is interesting and it does really point to the frustration that a lot

00:47:22 ◼   ► Mac users have, especially pro Mac users, that there's just not, at least in 2016,

00:47:30 ◼   ► not really a machine for them. And the MacBook Pro is hobbled in some weird

00:47:36 ◼   ► ways and we didn't see new iMacs and we haven't seen a new Mac Pro since the

00:47:40 ◼   ► Reagan administration. There's a lot of frustration there and I think

00:47:43 ◼   ► it spilled over into this Hackintosh story for a little while this summer.

00:47:47 ◼   ► but I'm hoping that Apple has some sort of relief in the near future for these users.

00:47:56 ◼   ► Also, I'm not sure why but at this point in the year we started talking about 123 Notetaker.

00:48:03 ◼   ► Yep, it was the birth of the incredible application 123 Notetaker.

00:48:07 ◼   ► I don't remember why it happened either.

00:48:08 ◼   ► It was the start of Myke's new career, you know, the 123 brand that sort of expanded

00:48:16 ◼   ► towards other types of applications and services because Myke is also doing services now.

00:48:22 ◼   ► Yeah, 123 services.

00:48:24 ◼   ► And you know, especially one big feature that we'll see later in the year would be, you

00:48:31 ◼   ► know, the 123 trip planner in September for iOS 10.

00:48:37 ◼   ► That was leaked. Somebody didn't like observe the embargo of 123 Trip Planner and wrote about it.

00:48:44 ◼   ► Yeah, one of the best time I saw jobs really that came out this year.

00:48:47 ◼   ► And it all began with 123 Notetaker back in July. So it was a fantastic, fantastic month.

00:48:55 ◼   ► I think we were talking about subscription apps.

00:48:57 ◼   ► Maybe.

00:48:58 ◼   ► And then, but so it may have started in June, but July saw the release of the branding,

00:49:04 ◼   ► which we'll put in the show notes.

00:49:06 ◼   ► I think it's there somewhere.

00:49:08 ◼   ► I'll find it.

00:49:09 ◼   ► One, two, three, note taker.

00:49:11 ◼   ► And then we go to August.

00:49:12 ◼   ► In August, Salesforce bought Quip.

00:49:14 ◼   ► And this was a problem for us at the time

00:49:16 ◼   ► because it was the document collaboration system

00:49:18 ◼   ► that we were using to prepare for all of the shows,

00:49:20 ◼   ► including this one.

00:49:21 ◼   ► Because at this point, Google hadn't updated Google Docs.

00:49:24 ◼   ► And we were concerned that Salesforce

00:49:27 ◼   ► would eventually shut down Quip,

00:49:30 ◼   ► but we have now all jumped Quipship

00:49:32 ◼   ► and we're back on to Docs again because Google finally did their split screen update. But

00:49:38 ◼   ► that happened. We got the preview, another weird thing from Apple, a preview of emoji

00:49:44 ◼   ► which included the gender diverse emojis that were appearing in releases of Windows 10 and

00:49:51 ◼   ► Android at the time. But also the retcon of the gun emoji where it was taken from being

00:50:00 ◼   ► the standard revolver pistol and turned into a water pistol.

00:50:04 ◼   ► And this caused a lot of conversation at the time

00:50:07 ◼   ► and people wondered if Apple would stick to their guns and they did.

00:50:11 ◼   ► They stuck to the water gun and that is now the emoji

00:50:14 ◼   ► that will be, I assume, used for forever

00:50:18 ◼   ► and Apple is sticking to that one and they are not changing it back

00:50:21 ◼   ► to a pistol, a revolver pistol. This was the same month that Microsoft went from a

00:50:26 ◼   ► water gun to a real gun.

00:50:28 ◼   ► - Right? - Yes.

00:50:29 ◼   ► - This is really-- - They went from a space ray gun

00:50:32 ◼   ► to a real gun. - That's right.

00:50:33 ◼   ► - It happened the day after Apple announced their change.

00:50:38 ◼   ► - Oh man. - But Microsoft had had it

00:50:42 ◼   ► in the plans for months.

00:50:43 ◼   ► They were getting ready to drop their huge emoji update

00:50:46 ◼   ► and then Apple just made it sad.

00:50:48 ◼   ► - Really, really good timing.

00:50:49 ◼   ► Really good. - It's a bad day

00:50:50 ◼   ► for your senior vice president of emoji.

00:50:53 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:50:53 ◼   ► Instagram made their first step into destroying everybody by launching Instagram stories,

00:51:03 ◼   ► which was a clear carbon copy of Snapchat stories. And Instagram has since continued

00:51:10 ◼   ► to just keep doing this.

00:51:12 ◼   ► They just don't care. It's just whatever.

00:51:14 ◼   ► They do not care and they're going to keep plowing forward, gobbling up anything that

00:51:20 ◼   ► that will get in their path.

00:51:22 ◼   ► The prompt curse continued and picture life shut down

00:51:27 ◼   ► with a lot of really weird goings on

00:51:29 ◼   ► with people's photos just becoming hidden for a while,

00:51:32 ◼   ► I guess, from them.

00:51:33 ◼   ► And eventually everybody got their pictures back

00:51:35 ◼   ► and picture life shut down.

00:51:37 ◼   ► And that was the end of that one.

00:51:39 ◼   ► And then we mentioned this earlier,

00:51:40 ◼   ► Apple were ordered to pay 13 billion euros

00:51:45 ◼   ► to the European Union after an investigation

00:51:48 ◼   ► into tax practices in Ireland.

00:51:51 ◼   ► It says back in the news again,

00:51:54 ◼   ► as this week Apple is launching their legal case

00:51:59 ◼   ► into why this shouldn't occur,

00:52:02 ◼   ► why Apple is in the right

00:52:04 ◼   ► with everything that happened with Ireland.

00:52:06 ◼   ► And Apple are claiming that they are being

00:52:09 ◼   ► kind of made an example of because of who they are.

00:52:14 ◼   ► That came from Bruce Sewell.

00:52:15 ◼   ► That was basically what Bruce Sewell, the legal counsel said.

00:52:18 ◼   ► that Apple is kind of being made an example of.

00:52:22 ◼   ► So we'll see about that.

00:52:23 ◼   ► I continue to be interested in this story

00:52:26 ◼   ► because it's just kind of a little bit fascinating to me

00:52:31 ◼   ► that all of this is going on

00:52:32 ◼   ► and everybody is saying that everybody is wrong.

00:52:35 ◼   ► And those stories always end in fireworks.

00:52:38 ◼   ► - There's the theory that, I mean the allegation

00:52:43 ◼   ► from the EU that Apple got special treatment from Ireland

00:52:47 ◼   ► to whatever it is they're doing in Ireland.

00:52:50 ◼   ► And other people saying, well,

00:52:53 ◼   ► it is the Irish government actually

00:52:55 ◼   ► that gives these companies special treatment

00:52:57 ◼   ► so they can move jobs back to Ireland.

00:53:00 ◼   ► And then there's Apple denying

00:53:01 ◼   ► that they got special treatment.

00:53:03 ◼   ► And the Irish government saying,

00:53:04 ◼   ► oh, look, we did nothing wrong.

00:53:05 ◼   ► Actually, this is all, you know,

00:53:07 ◼   ► Apple paid the taxes that we asked.

00:53:09 ◼   ► So it's like three different sides of the story

00:53:14 ◼   ► and everybody else is just yelling on Twitter and blogs.

00:53:17 ◼   ► So yeah, popcorn time and we'll keep an eye on this.

00:53:20 ◼   ► - So I think we have made our way to September

00:53:27 ◼   ► where Apple's annual fall event takes place.

00:53:30 ◼   ► - If June is Apple Christmas, what is September?

00:53:33 ◼   ► - I don't know.

00:53:37 ◼   ► Part of a Christmas?

00:53:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's very inventive.

00:53:41 ◼   ► - I don't know, you sprung it on me.

00:53:43 ◼   ► I had one good line about the iMacs, it's all I have today.

00:53:46 ◼   ► - So we saw a bunch of stuff in September.

00:53:50 ◼   ► We saw of course the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus

00:53:53 ◼   ► with the basically the same case design

00:53:56 ◼   ► as the previous two years,

00:53:58 ◼   ► but a departure with the waterproofing or water resistance.

00:54:03 ◼   ► The headphone jack of course is gone.

00:54:06 ◼   ► Moving to lightning and Apple introduced the AirPods

00:54:11 ◼   ► at this event which are just now shipping.

00:54:12 ◼   ► I think all three of us now have AirPods.

00:54:14 ◼   ► we're gonna talk about that on the next show I think.

00:54:17 ◼   ► But you know overall the iPhone 7 I think initially had a pretty, at least in some circles,

00:54:24 ◼   ► a pretty lukewarm reception but it's selling well and I don't know about you guys,

00:54:30 ◼   ► but my 7 Plus is like, it seems like you know by far better phone than the 6s Plus.

00:54:35 ◼   ► The camera in particular is amazing but as far as like build quality and the,

00:54:42 ◼   ► just like the way it sort of is a whole device in a way.

00:54:45 ◼   ► Like the 6 and 6s felt a little disjointed to me in places.

00:54:48 ◼   ► I've got the case design and those bands on the back.

00:54:51 ◼   ► And I don't know, the 7 and 7 Plus feel a lot tighter to me

00:54:53 ◼   ► and I'm a big fan.

00:54:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, I really like my iPhone 7 Plus.

00:54:58 ◼   ► I don't love my iPhone 7 Plus

00:55:01 ◼   ► in the way that I've loved previous phones.

00:55:03 ◼   ► - Really? - Oh, really?

00:55:05 ◼   ► - Yeah, because it wasn't a home run, right?

00:55:09 ◼   ► Like, there are just things that are different about it.

00:55:13 ◼   ► And I don't know if I like all the changes, you know?

00:55:17 ◼   ► Like what?

00:55:17 ◼   ► Well, the headphone jack.

00:55:19 ◼   ► Like, yeah, it is annoying.

00:55:21 ◼   ► Like and you know, I have Bluetooth headphones now.

00:55:24 ◼   ► I have Bluetooth headphones now, which is great.

00:55:26 ◼   ► But my point is I could have had Bluetooth headphones anyway.

00:55:29 ◼   ► Right. Like they always existed.

00:55:32 ◼   ► Nothing in the iPhone 7 Plus has made Bluetooth headphones any better.

00:55:35 ◼   ► But now I also have frustrations like

00:55:38 ◼   ► We were only talking a couple of weeks ago about you trying to, Federico, trying to get something from a USB key and also power, like all these like dongles and adapters.

00:55:49 ◼   ► It's like this is the same kind of idea if you want to use wired headphones and charge like it's a thing that is frustrating.

00:55:57 ◼   ► And I have had to spend hundreds of pounds more this year on new on two new sets of new headphones because I need

00:56:05 ◼   ► Bluetooth well

00:56:06 ◼   ► I want Bluetooth headphones in different configurations now because I'm trying to move away from wired

00:56:11 ◼   ► The wired headphones that I have sometimes just cut out right? They don't know why that is but that happens and

00:56:17 ◼   ► Whilst I have come to prefer the general clickiness of the capacitive button

00:56:24 ◼   ► It isn't a button that works 100% of the time like I think I have had this I've heard many people had

00:56:31 ◼   ► You've ever had your phone just like not just the button just won't work like you're in an application

00:56:35 ◼   ► It just won't just won't close

00:56:37 ◼   ► Yeah, like that stuff happens and it didn't happen before and what I got with this phone is

00:56:42 ◼   ► All of the usual stuff. I got a better camera. I got a better screen and it's faster like there wasn't a

00:56:48 ◼   ► Thing in this phone that was like and now it's the new one

00:56:54 ◼   ► I really like all of the things that I got, but I remained disappointed at things that got taken away.

00:57:00 ◼   ► I feel like it was enough to a great start, especially because of the AirPods and the lack of portrait mode.

00:57:07 ◼   ► But I feel like the 7+ is a good wine, it's getting better as it ages.

00:57:12 ◼   ► I agree with that completely, that's a really good point.

00:57:14 ◼   ► Especially with the 10.2 update, with fixes to the portrait mode, with the AirPods now available, at least to some users.

00:57:21 ◼   ► - Particularly, I mean, there wasn't like fireworks that you usually get with a new iPhone.

00:57:27 ◼   ► - I get it, yes. It was not a splash, if you will, release. It was not like a bunch of new things,

00:57:33 ◼   ► groundbreaking new things all at once. It was like, you buy the product and you get the new stuff

00:57:41 ◼   ► in multiple chunks throughout the year, which is odd. It doesn't make the iPhone 7, you know, a big,

00:57:49 ◼   ► I don't know, like it's no really drastic update, that is.

00:57:57 ◼   ► I don't know, maybe we'll look back next year once we have the iPhone 8 with a major redesign,

00:58:02 ◼   ► we'll look back at the iPhone 7 as the weird kid in the family, or maybe this is the future,

00:58:07 ◼   ► you know, Apple announces the phone and throughout the year you get the actual features and accessories.

00:58:12 ◼   ► We'll see, we'll see, I don't know.

00:58:15 ◼   ► So we also saw the Apple Watch Series 2 and the Series 1.

00:58:22 ◼   ► The naming is a little bit confusing but I think we're just going to talk about the Series

00:58:25 ◼   ► 2.

00:58:27 ◼   ► Swim proof is the language that they use.

00:58:31 ◼   ► It is a tiny bit thicker but it seems like the battery life is way better.

00:58:36 ◼   ► It's a lot faster and it seems to be a little bit of a simplified product.

00:58:42 ◼   ► They got rid of all the additions except the one, the white ceramic that I think Myke and

00:58:46 ◼   ► I both lust after.

00:58:50 ◼   ► And they introduced the Nike Plus, Nike Run version as well, which is basically the sport

00:58:56 ◼   ► watch but with a different band and a custom watch face and an app.

00:58:59 ◼   ► So you both have Watch Series 2 now and it seems like things are good in that world.

00:59:09 ◼   ► I feel just like the worst human being.

00:59:12 ◼   ► The Apple Watch Series 2 is amazing.

00:59:13 ◼   ► I didn't even want it, but now I'm super happy.

00:59:16 ◼   ► I feel like a terrible person because you murdered your old one.

00:59:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:59:22 ◼   ► Okay.

00:59:24 ◼   ► So this is what's so good about it.

00:59:25 ◼   ► The battery life is insane.

00:59:26 ◼   ► It's.

00:59:27 ◼   ► Yes.

00:59:28 ◼   ► It is seven.

00:59:29 ◼   ► I have 70% left battery at the end of the day.

00:59:33 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:59:34 ◼   ► 70% like on a normal day, like just using the phone, like using the thing,

00:59:38 ◼   ► like not workout related stuff, just like regular stuff, 70%.

00:59:42 ◼   ► The screen is amazing.

00:59:44 ◼   ► Like I know that they made it brighter.

00:59:46 ◼   ► I don't know if they did anything else, but everything looks way nicer.

00:59:48 ◼   ► Every animation, every button press is smoother.

00:59:52 ◼   ► Like I constantly had like you think you press a button and nothing happens.

00:59:56 ◼   ► That doesn't happen here.

00:59:58 ◼   ► And I don't know if this this could also be because I have a better

01:00:01 ◼   ► internet connection at home.

01:00:02 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:00:03 ◼   ► But dictation seems more reliable on my Apple Watch series, too.

01:00:08 ◼   ► it's a great product. I'm so sorry everybody.

01:00:10 ◼   ► If you really love your Apple Watch, I don't, I still don't know.

01:00:15 ◼   ► I still don't know if you have to do this. Like if this is like,

01:00:19 ◼   ► if you like a super Apple Watch fan, I still don't know if you,

01:00:21 ◼   ► if you like really should upgrade.

01:00:24 ◼   ► But if any of the things I've said to you are things that annoy you about your

01:00:28 ◼   ► current Apple Watch,

01:00:29 ◼   ► then maybe you should do it because it is a better product in every way.

01:00:33 ◼   ► It is a little bit thicker, it's a little bit heavier,

01:00:35 ◼   ► but you just get used to that within a day. Um,

01:00:38 ◼   ► it's very very very good. Sorry everyone.

01:00:41 ◼   ► I know, it's good to hear.

01:00:45 ◼   ► We also of course saw iOS 10

01:00:48 ◼   ► Federico wrote like a 150 word review

01:00:52 ◼   ► just a little thing, a little linkless post.

01:00:55 ◼   ► Yeah it was like a link blogging

01:00:58 ◼   ► basically project.

01:01:02 ◼   ► It was really short and it didn't take much time.

01:01:06 ◼   ► I was very relaxed, very, you know, sleeping a lot.

01:01:11 ◼   ► It was fun, it was fun.

01:01:14 ◼   ► Very relaxing.

01:01:15 ◼   ► Seriously, it was both the best and the worst point in the year was this project, this review.

01:01:26 ◼   ► And I mean, I'm, you know, I'm gonna do it again for sure because now it's sort of,

01:01:34 ◼   ► It's that kind of thing that you want to do.

01:01:36 ◼   ► You also know it's going to be bad for you because you have no sense of self-restraint.

01:01:41 ◼   ► And you know, the sleep schedule is all messed up.

01:01:45 ◼   ► I work too much, I write too much.

01:01:47 ◼   ► But whatever, it's what I got to do. It went really well.

01:01:52 ◼   ► I think I posted these stats when it came out.

01:01:58 ◼   ► we went over a million page views on the story within like a week or ten days.

01:02:04 ◼   ► It was incredible, the feedback was incredible. And I'm sort of scared about

01:02:10 ◼   ► what's gonna happen when we do get new iPad features, but we'll think about it

01:02:16 ◼   ► when that becomes a problem next year.

01:02:19 ◼   ► Don't think about these things now.

01:02:21 ◼   ► That is something for future Federico to deal with. It's not for you.

01:02:24 ◼   ► That dude is screwed.

01:02:26 ◼   ► Yeah, he's got problems, but you're good. You're all good.

01:02:28 ◼   ► Don't mention it. It's fine. It's gonna be fine.

01:02:31 ◼   ► There was a little story about iPhones making funny noises.

01:02:38 ◼   ► Yeah, that also didn't really go anywhere. Nobody watched any videos. Nobody read anything.

01:02:43 ◼   ► That was a nothing story.

01:02:46 ◼   ► Yeah, it was no good deal.

01:02:48 ◼   ► It was a very strange couple weeks in my life.

01:02:54 ◼   ► We also saw the App Store search ads launch.

01:02:58 ◼   ► I don't know, I feel like the story during the beta

01:03:00 ◼   ► and the story then at the launch and the story now

01:03:02 ◼   ► is kind of all the same, that it's a little ho-hum

01:03:04 ◼   ► and that Apple really hasn't delivered

01:03:07 ◼   ► on what they said they would deliver, but.

01:03:09 ◼   ► - This feels like iAd again.

01:03:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean it's--

01:03:13 ◼   ► - It's not really gonna be anything.

01:03:15 ◼   ► It's just like it is what it is.

01:03:16 ◼   ► Some people will use it,

01:03:17 ◼   ► but it's not changing anything really.

01:03:19 ◼   ► That's how it feels to me.

01:03:21 ◼   ► I mean, maybe I'm just thinking that

01:03:23 ◼   ► because it still isn't in the UK, so I never see them.

01:03:26 ◼   ► - I mean, I'm in the US, and I don't see them,

01:03:30 ◼   ► 'cause I don't like randomly search the App Store very much,

01:03:32 ◼   ► but I feel like when I do see them,

01:03:34 ◼   ► they're not very accurate to what I think they should be.

01:03:38 ◼   ► But at this point, like I don't peruse the App Store often,

01:03:42 ◼   ► and if I do, I'm just looking at top charts

01:03:43 ◼   ► out of curiosity or boredom, like I don't ever

01:03:47 ◼   ► open the App Store to search for a new markdown editor,

01:03:49 ◼   ► right, like I'm gonna go read a review

01:03:51 ◼   ► that Federico wrote or something that we did

01:03:53 ◼   ► at the Sweet Setup or like, I go to the App Store

01:03:55 ◼   ► with a purpose now and maybe that colors my experience

01:04:00 ◼   ► that I'm not really looking for ads to like direct me,

01:04:03 ◼   ► but I gotta think that there are people

01:04:07 ◼   ► whose traffic is really diverted in one way or the other

01:04:11 ◼   ► due to those things.

01:04:12 ◼   ► We have the Galaxy Note 7 Recall Disaster

01:04:17 ◼   ► starts in September.

01:04:19 ◼   ► They did a recall due to phones not really exploding,

01:04:24 ◼   ► but sort of burning up, catching fire.

01:04:26 ◼   ► - Not really exploding, but.

01:04:27 ◼   ► - No, I mean, not shrapnel, but burning cars down.

01:04:31 ◼   ► - There was fire, it wasn't like, boom.

01:04:34 ◼   ► - It wasn't like a nuclear warhead going off,

01:04:40 ◼   ► but people got hurt, which is really unfortunate,

01:04:43 ◼   ► and Samsung really did a shoddy job

01:04:47 ◼   ► at getting the message out.

01:04:48 ◼   ► They're still dealing with it.

01:04:49 ◼   ► They did as bad a job as you could imagine a company could do.

01:04:53 ◼   ► Sort of just already ignoring it.

01:04:56 ◼   ► They were slow to respond to people who had inquiries.

01:05:00 ◼   ► They replaced a bunch of phones and the new phones started exploding, which is like the

01:05:04 ◼   ► worst possible move.

01:05:07 ◼   ► And now they are, I saw a story the other day that after the holidays they're going

01:05:11 ◼   ► to be pushing another update to them that basically makes them inoperable.

01:05:16 ◼   ► Which should have been done months ago.

01:05:17 ◼   ► I don't know why that's-- - Yeah.

01:05:19 ◼   ► I mean, they've done things where you can only

01:05:22 ◼   ► charge it to 45%.

01:05:23 ◼   ► Like every time you turn the screen on,

01:05:24 ◼   ► a big red alert pops up.

01:05:26 ◼   ► If you still have one of these,

01:05:28 ◼   ► you're just beyond help at this point.

01:05:29 ◼   ► But it's something that Samsung didn't handle very well.

01:05:34 ◼   ► They still really haven't come out and said what happened.

01:05:37 ◼   ► - No, they literally have not.

01:05:38 ◼   ► There has been no statement from Samsung

01:05:40 ◼   ► that explains what this was.

01:05:43 ◼   ► There have been many people that have shown their proof

01:05:45 ◼   ► as to what they think it was.

01:05:47 ◼   ► Fundamentally, the consensus seems to be that the batteries were too big for the cases and

01:05:53 ◼   ► that they were swelling and it was bad.

01:05:55 ◼   ► That was what happens.

01:05:58 ◼   ► But yet, they could not have dealt with this worse.

01:06:03 ◼   ► Every step along the way, they seem to make the wrong decision time after time.

01:06:08 ◼   ► And it is now at the point where their brand is damaged severely.

01:06:12 ◼   ► If you go on a plane, you are told that you have to,

01:06:17 ◼   ► basically it seems like the consensus

01:06:19 ◼   ► is turn all Samsung phones off,

01:06:21 ◼   ► and if you have a Galaxy Note 7, you may be put in prison.

01:06:24 ◼   ► Right, like it is basically considered a weapon by airlines,

01:06:29 ◼   ► and I understand why.

01:06:30 ◼   ► Like the thing is, it's just a disaster.

01:06:34 ◼   ► It's an absolute disaster.

01:06:36 ◼   ► And I, this has been one of the two stories,

01:06:39 ◼   ► maybe one of the three stories

01:06:40 ◼   ► that has like really consumed me this year.

01:06:42 ◼   ► one was the FBI one, then this one,

01:06:45 ◼   ► and then the one we're gonna talk about next.

01:06:48 ◼   ► And I just think it's been kind of fascinating

01:06:50 ◼   ► to watch how Samsung has destroyed this.

01:06:54 ◼   ► And I'm really interested to see how they try

01:06:58 ◼   ► to bounce back from it, because I don't know how they will.

01:07:03 ◼   ► And I assume that the note line is dead.

01:07:06 ◼   ► I would be-- - Oh man,

01:07:07 ◼   ► I think they're gonna have a new one in the spring,

01:07:09 ◼   ► and they're gonna call it Note 8,

01:07:10 ◼   ► and they're just gonna roll like it never happened.

01:07:12 ◼   ► - I think, oh man, I think that they're gonna give it

01:07:16 ◼   ► some name related to cold or ice.

01:07:17 ◼   ► I still think that's gonna happen.

01:07:19 ◼   ► - I think your idea is silly.

01:07:20 ◼   ► They, I mean, they handle it in the worst possible way

01:07:23 ◼   ► and like the next logical step on that path

01:07:26 ◼   ► is the Galaxy Note 8 in March or April, right?

01:07:29 ◼   ► Like, let's move on, they're gonna have a little line

01:07:31 ◼   ► about oh yeah, like it's totally fine and that'll be like,

01:07:35 ◼   ► there's gonna roll and the question then

01:07:37 ◼   ► is how does the public respond?

01:07:39 ◼   ► Do people buy these phones?

01:07:41 ◼   ► I think that it won't sell very well.

01:07:42 ◼   ► I would hope that it doesn't sell very well.

01:07:44 ◼   ► Because I do think the brand is damaged beyond repair, but I don't think they will realize

01:07:51 ◼   ► that or they think that, you know, the hubris to think that they can just roll forward with

01:07:56 ◼   ► no change.

01:07:58 ◼   ► I look forward to see what happens to see who's right there.

01:08:01 ◼   ► I completely feel like your thought there is very logical.

01:08:07 ◼   ► Well, not logical.

01:08:08 ◼   ► completely illogical but it fits with--

01:08:11 ◼   ► - Which is why it's what Samsung will do.

01:08:13 ◼   ► - It fits with the way that they've dealt

01:08:15 ◼   ► with this whole thing.

01:08:16 ◼   ► But I just like to hope that they're smarter than that.

01:08:18 ◼   ► - So September wrapped up with the Snapchat

01:08:22 ◼   ► spectacle story breaking.

01:08:24 ◼   ► Myke, you have a pair now, so if you wanna tell us about them.

01:08:28 ◼   ► - What's going on?

01:08:29 ◼   ► - How did you get a hold of them?

01:08:31 ◼   ► - Listen, Meher, who lives in New York, got a pair for me.

01:08:34 ◼   ► Meher didn't line up for me, that would have been terrible.

01:08:38 ◼   ► he had an extra pair that he bought for a friend and friend didn't want it.

01:08:41 ◼   ► So I bought them from my hair and he sent them to me. So thank you Mia. Um,

01:08:46 ◼   ► I have,

01:08:47 ◼   ► anybody that's listened to this show knows that I've been completely obsessed

01:08:51 ◼   ► with this story. Like,

01:08:52 ◼   ► I just think that this is one of the coolest tech product announcements of years

01:08:57 ◼   ► past. Just not, not,

01:08:59 ◼   ► and people constantly say, Oh, they're not cool.

01:09:03 ◼   ► I'm talking about the whole thing. The way that Snapchat is dealing with this,

01:09:07 ◼   ► the way that they're getting around the amount that they can make by creating this scarcity,

01:09:13 ◼   ► putting them in these vending machines that appear in random places across the United

01:09:16 ◼   ► States, all of it is just absolute marketing and PR dream.

01:09:22 ◼   ► They're just doing such a fantastic job and I've been interested in getting them because

01:09:27 ◼   ► I've wanted to take some weird video from my vlog and that's why I have a pair and I've

01:09:32 ◼   ► done some of that and I'm going to continue to do it and find ways to try and use this

01:09:36 ◼   ► POV camera because it works so well. It's just a really nicely designed product and

01:09:42 ◼   ► I don't feel like a doofus when I wear them. I don't think that, I mean they look, they

01:09:46 ◼   ► look unlike your average pair of sunglasses, but they're not completely weird. They're

01:09:54 ◼   ► like super weird. They still have, I think I like the style of them. Um, so when I wear

01:10:00 ◼   ► I don't feel like a doofus because I don't feel like I'm wearing something that I think looks bad

01:10:04 ◼   ► So yeah, that's my kind of feeling on it

01:10:08 ◼   ► But I just think that the way that the company now known as snap is dealt with this and launched

01:10:14 ◼   ► This product has been really cool, and I like it a lot so

01:10:18 ◼   ► There you go. I'll have more to say on snapchat

01:10:21 ◼   ► Spectacles at some point in the future as I use them more and more. I will say though the the pairing process

01:10:27 ◼   ► So smart like it's just so simple you just put them on you open up the snapchat app and

01:10:31 ◼   ► You just open up the QR code you look at the QR code you press the shutter button and it's paired

01:10:36 ◼   ► It's so simple so so simple so yeah, they're cool. I think they're really I think it's cool

01:10:43 ◼   ► I like the case the case has the battery and it's just like the air pods

01:10:46 ◼   ► It's I think it's a really interesting product

01:10:49 ◼   ► And I'm I'm interested to see where snap takes this if they continue to move down this line if they maybe try and make other

01:10:55 ◼   ► types of cameras. I'm interested to see what they do.

01:11:01 ◼   ► All right, so we should move on to October. October brought everybody's new favorite product,

01:11:07 ◼   ► the new MacBook Pro with the touch bar. I think that we can all say that it's been a

01:11:12 ◼   ► resounding success, right? And everyone's really happy with the direction that Apple

01:11:15 ◼   ► has taken. I think if I've been reading the tea leaves correctly, am I right in thinking

01:11:19 ◼   ► that? Yep. Good. We'll move on. Apple leaves the display business and potentially the router

01:11:24 ◼   ► business has been a story in October, Google unveiled the Pixel which it's

01:11:31 ◼   ► kind of crazy to me to think now that all of that happened in the same month.

01:11:34 ◼   ► The Pixel felt like a very long time ago and I think it's because October has

01:11:41 ◼   ► been a troubling time for fans of Apple. It was a strange month. It was odd looking back.

01:11:49 ◼   ► I don't know. I feel like I got no work done in October for some reason.

01:11:54 ◼   ► I don't know. It's been a strange month.

01:11:56 ◼   ► [laughter]

01:11:58 ◼   ► So the Pixel came out.

01:12:01 ◼   ► I really like my Pixel. I haven't spent as much time with it as I would have wanted to.

01:12:05 ◼   ► And that's probably something I'm going to try and change over the next couple of months.

01:12:08 ◼   ► Especially as I maybe play around with more of the Daydream stuff.

01:12:11 ◼   ► But that's that. Vine was shut down.

01:12:16 ◼   ► Oh yeah, but it's coming back as a dedicated camera app.

01:12:20 ◼   ► Like Twitter announced...

01:12:22 ◼   ► Yeah, Twitter last week I think they said

01:12:25 ◼   ► we're shutting down Vine as a platform.

01:12:28 ◼   ► We're just keep having a dedicated Vine camera app

01:12:34 ◼   ► that you just use to shoot and edit videos.

01:12:37 ◼   ► The six second looping videos that you post on Twitter or save them to your phone.

01:12:43 ◼   ► I don't even... that company is just a disaster.

01:12:46 ◼   ► It's Twitter, it's like, what are you even doing guys?

01:12:50 ◼   ► It's like, still, Vine as a social network is dying.

01:12:54 ◼   ► They're keeping the camera up so you can make the Vines

01:12:58 ◼   ► but post them on Twitter and other places.

01:13:00 ◼   ► And another thing that makes October feel like a lifetime ago,

01:13:04 ◼   ► the PlayStation VR was also released in October.

01:13:07 ◼   ► That also feels like it was a very, very long time ago.

01:13:09 ◼   ► I think it's been a very weird fourth quarter of the year.

01:13:13 ◼   ► But yeah, that was October. Lots of hardware releases in October.

01:13:17 ◼   ► Yeah, right. Leading up to the, I guess, the Thanksgiving and, you know, the holidays.

01:13:22 ◼   ► Which brings us to November.

01:13:24 ◼   ► Again, an interesting month for Apple.

01:13:28 ◼   ► The AirPods, which were supposed to launch in late October, I think,

01:13:33 ◼   ► they got officially delayed.

01:13:35 ◼   ► On November 1st, Apple said...

01:13:39 ◼   ► First there were some rumors that said Apple is gonna release the AirPods in January

01:13:46 ◼   ► and then Apple...

01:13:48 ◼   ► It was kinda strange, they said nothing basically

01:13:53 ◼   ► and they eventually appeared online

01:13:56 ◼   ► like in the first week of December maybe

01:13:59 ◼   ► But in November we got the rumors that Apple is not going to meet their deadline for the AirPods.

01:14:06 ◼   ► So buckle up, it's going to be a delayed launch.

01:14:10 ◼   ► And as we see basically, the majority of customers, they are getting AirPods in January 2017.

01:14:16 ◼   ► Because only when they went on sale last week, 10 days ago, they stayed within the next week delivery for like an hour.

01:14:27 ◼   ► and then everybody else, either you got lucky, you walk into an Apple store and you pick them up because they're available

01:14:34 ◼   ► or you're gonna wait four to six weeks.

01:14:36 ◼   ► So basically a 2017 launch.

01:14:40 ◼   ► In November we also got the Apple book, the "Designed by Apple in California" book

01:14:47 ◼   ► which is not really a book in the sense that there's a text or a story that you can read.

01:14:53 ◼   ► photo, it's a coffee table book with photos of Apple Industrial Design and Apple products

01:15:00 ◼   ► either close-ups or like turn apart like the insides and I didn't buy one. Steven can you

01:15:10 ◼   ► tell us more about the book because I know you have a special relationship with this object.

01:15:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's big and it's heavy and it's vaguely disappointing

01:15:22 ◼   ► that Apple didn't really get into the why of these products.

01:15:28 ◼   ► That it's just like really cool pictures.

01:15:30 ◼   ► And like I do love the photos of like the Apple Watch,

01:15:33 ◼   ► you know, test bed with like a board with a screen on it

01:15:36 ◼   ► and how they make the Mac Mini and how they make the Mac Pro.

01:15:40 ◼   ► But it's all about process and they really don't even explain it very well.

01:15:45 ◼   ► It's like the picture of this big gear and it does things.

01:15:48 ◼   ► I would like to know why, like why do they do these things?

01:15:50 ◼   ► Why do they feel like they need to make these changes

01:15:52 ◼   ► at certain times?

01:15:53 ◼   ► And what's really disappointing about that is that Apple

01:15:56 ◼   ► is the only company that can do that.

01:15:58 ◼   ► Like I could have made this book.

01:15:59 ◼   ► In fact, I made a video proving that I could make this book.

01:16:02 ◼   ► But they, only Apple, only Johnny Ive's team

01:16:07 ◼   ► can make, can tell the back story of why things change when

01:16:12 ◼   ► and the decision making that goes into products.

01:16:15 ◼   ► And that just isn't in the book.

01:16:16 ◼   ► and maybe we'll start to get that as people retire and people die and we find their diaries, but

01:16:23 ◼   ► for now we don't have those stories.

01:16:26 ◼   ► Like National Treasure style?

01:16:28 ◼   ► Are you hoping that happens?

01:16:30 ◼   ► I mean I'd like to know more.

01:16:32 ◼   ► Okay.

01:16:34 ◼   ► I don't want anyone to, you know, I don't, I mean that would be sad when that happens,

01:16:37 ◼   ► but you know it's like we now know everything about the development of the like the Macintosh

01:16:44 ◼   ► and the Apple 2 because all those people are retired

01:16:48 ◼   ► from Apple and they don't give a crap anymore

01:16:50 ◼   ► and they'll tell the stories and that's not the case yet

01:16:54 ◼   ► for things like the iPhone or even really the iPod

01:16:57 ◼   ► even though we know a lot about that.

01:16:59 ◼   ► - I wonder if that will happen, you know.

01:17:02 ◼   ► I just think that the secrecy thing was very different

01:17:04 ◼   ► then to now and I wonder if those people

01:17:07 ◼   ► will tell the stories or if they'll keep their mouth shut.

01:17:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean I may be wanting something

01:17:12 ◼   ► that never comes to pass.

01:17:13 ◼   ► But I mean, the interesting thing too about the book,

01:17:18 ◼   ► you guys talked about this on Upgrade this week,

01:17:20 ◼   ► that Apple's made a couple of decisions

01:17:22 ◼   ► from a PR perspective that are a little weird.

01:17:24 ◼   ► Like people are really upset about the MacBook Pro,

01:17:26 ◼   ► which like we didn't even get into, but it's a thing.

01:17:29 ◼   ► People want more ports and want a keyboard that works

01:17:31 ◼   ► and want better battery life and all those things.

01:17:35 ◼   ► That people were upset about that

01:17:37 ◼   ► and that's when they released this book

01:17:39 ◼   ► And like, you know, maybe it was a little tone deaf, maybe it was a lot of money to

01:17:45 ◼   ► spend on something, but that is what it is.

01:17:49 ◼   ► And I think that the contents of the book are far more interesting than the environment

01:17:53 ◼   ► in which it was introduced.

01:17:57 ◼   ► Finally in November, Beam, the social network co-founded by Casey Neistat, got quote unquote

01:18:09 ◼   ► acquired by CNN, which is the Beam social network is shutting down the app, it's going away.

01:18:15 ◼   ► They basically acquired the talent of the Beam team and Casey Neistat is also on board to

01:18:23 ◼   ► produce more millennial content for CNN with video. I don't even know how to describe this.

01:18:31 ◼   ► Basically CNN wants to reach younger people and so they got a bunch of other people who are also

01:18:36 ◼   ► young to make videos. Am I oversimplifying this?

01:18:42 ◼   ► It's all we can assume, right? Because, you know, even like,

01:18:46 ◼   ► Nice Dance has made videos saying that we don't know what we're gonna do yet.

01:18:49 ◼   ► Like, nobody knows, but we're just gonna do something.

01:18:52 ◼   ► You know, I am, and I think we all are big Casey Neistat fans. This was just a

01:18:57 ◼   ► very interesting story to all of us, and I think anything that guy does

01:19:02 ◼   ► is interesting to me. I think he's quite a character.

01:19:06 ◼   ► I think the type of acquisition it was is interesting too.

01:19:09 ◼   ► Like if you look at Fitbit buying Pebble,

01:19:12 ◼   ► which is in our December list,

01:19:13 ◼   ► I'm gonna blend the months a little bit.

01:19:15 ◼   ► They bought Fitbit's software

01:19:19 ◼   ► and the engineers on the software have jobs.

01:19:21 ◼   ► - Some of them. - Some of them.

01:19:24 ◼   ► But all the hardware people are gone

01:19:25 ◼   ► and like a lot of times you see acquisitions

01:19:27 ◼   ► of a software product and they're buying it for the patents

01:19:30 ◼   ► or the intellectual property.

01:19:32 ◼   ► - Is the CEO going to Fitbit?

01:19:34 ◼   ► Is the Pebble going? - No.

01:19:35 ◼   ► - No, he's-- - It's out of a job, yeah.

01:19:37 ◼   ► - No, he is back at--

01:19:39 ◼   ► - Y Compenato, right?

01:19:40 ◼   ► - Y Compenato. - Yeah.

01:19:41 ◼   ► - Oh, okay, okay.

01:19:42 ◼   ► - But with Beam,

01:19:44 ◼   ► Nightstar's video says very clearly that the entire,

01:19:49 ◼   ► what was left of his company,

01:19:50 ◼   ► which I think was smaller than it was in its heyday,

01:19:52 ◼   ► however many people are left,

01:19:54 ◼   ► all of them are part of the deal.

01:19:55 ◼   ► All of them are working on whatever Beam is doing now

01:19:59 ◼   ► with CNN, that they didn't just buy the technology,

01:20:03 ◼   ► which they had some interesting stuff, right?

01:20:04 ◼   ► the proximity sensor to fire the camera.

01:20:06 ◼   ► It just didn't take off as a social network,

01:20:08 ◼   ► but I think as a technology product,

01:20:09 ◼   ► they had some stuff in there that was pretty interesting.

01:20:12 ◼   ► They obviously own all of that now,

01:20:14 ◼   ► but they also have all of these people,

01:20:16 ◼   ► and the team is staying intact.

01:20:18 ◼   ► And that's something we don't see super often

01:20:20 ◼   ► in these big acquisitions, right?

01:20:22 ◼   ► That a lot of times a company gets split up,

01:20:24 ◼   ► and the valuable parts get picked out,

01:20:26 ◼   ► and the rest is just kind of left behind.

01:20:28 ◼   ► And that's, I think, why this story

01:20:29 ◼   ► sticks out to me a little bit,

01:20:31 ◼   ► even more so than what Nice Dad does,

01:20:35 ◼   ► is that the way that he pulled it off

01:20:38 ◼   ► from an acquisition standpoint is a little unique

01:20:41 ◼   ► and I think worth mentioning.

01:20:43 ◼   ► So December, we talked about Pebble and Fitbit.

01:20:48 ◼   ► We also have some things that were going to be

01:20:50 ◼   ► follow-up this week, but we didn't do follow-ups,

01:20:52 ◼   ► we're gonna do it now.

01:20:53 ◼   ► Super Mario Run came out now five or six days ago.

01:20:58 ◼   ► It's been out, it's a free app for the first,

01:21:00 ◼   ► what three or four levels and then it's $10 in-app purchase but that doesn't act

01:21:04 ◼   ► like other in-app purchases and maybe you guys can clarify this because I've

01:21:08 ◼   ► read a little bit of conflicting things my understanding is that I can buy it on

01:21:12 ◼   ► my iPhone but if I want it on my iPad I have to do it again is that accurate?

01:21:16 ◼   ► I saw a bunch of people confused by this. I'm confused so

01:21:21 ◼   ► You cannot share an in-app purchase with other people through

01:21:25 ◼   ► family sharing. It's the main point of contention here.

01:21:29 ◼   ► And you can on other apps? Like that's unique to Super Mario Run?

01:21:32 ◼   ► No, that's always the case.

01:21:34 ◼   ► If you use Family Sharing, In-App Purchases cannot be shared.

01:21:37 ◼   ► Which is a stupid restriction by Apple.

01:21:39 ◼   ► But it's not new to Super Mario.

01:21:41 ◼   ► But if you have multiple devices,

01:21:43 ◼   ► and you log in with the same Apple ID,

01:21:45 ◼   ► Nintendo made a bad interface decision,

01:21:49 ◼   ► but it works.

01:21:50 ◼   ► If you have the same Apple ID, you need to tap buy again,

01:21:54 ◼   ► but you won't be charged.

01:21:55 ◼   ► It says you've already purchased this item.

01:21:57 ◼   ► What a lot of developers do, they usually include a restore button in the UI. So it checks the

01:22:04 ◼   ► receipt with your Apple ID and it doesn't tell you to buy again, which is a misleading message.

01:22:10 ◼   ► But you can totally, I mean, I installed Super Mario the extra levels on my iPad on Sylvia's

01:22:17 ◼   ► iPhone by logging in with my Apple ID. You can totally do it. It just, Nintendo made a bad

01:22:24 ◼   ► in-app purchase design screen. That's the problem. Which goes along with the other bad decisions that

01:22:30 ◼   ► they made. Yeah. Right, they made lots of bad decisions with this. You know, we spoke about

01:22:36 ◼   ► a bunch already, right? The need for an internet connection. Yes. And this, when you're actually

01:22:40 ◼   ► using it, you find it's even worse than it is, right? Like if the internet connection is not

01:22:43 ◼   ► strong enough and you've tried to complete a level, well your level completion doesn't get saved.

01:22:48 ◼   ► Like it is extremely aggressive with the need for an internet connection.

01:22:55 ◼   ► A lot of the setup screens are just not very good.

01:22:59 ◼   ► It's like bad Wii design.

01:23:01 ◼   ► Yeah that's what I thought of is we have a Wii now somehow in our house and so I've been

01:23:07 ◼   ► playing it with my kids and that's what I thought.

01:23:09 ◼   ► I was like "oh this looks like Wii buttons" and like a lot of iOS designers and developers

01:23:16 ◼   ► were mocking that and like it's it's not that it looks like iOS 6 which is a lot

01:23:21 ◼   ► of people were saying it looks like Nintendo stuff like yeah people that

01:23:23 ◼   ► make in the iOS 6 joke or even trying to be funny or they don't get Nintendo

01:23:28 ◼   ► it's not really funny right like like I get it it's it's like congratulations

01:23:32 ◼   ► you had a really funny idea but Nintendo are being Nintendo right like they are

01:23:38 ◼   ► that this looks like a Nintendo game I mean doesn't look a good Nintendo game

01:23:41 ◼   ► but this is Nintendo's design and there's no reason that they should have

01:23:45 ◼   ► to make an app that looks, because it's not an app, this is a game.

01:23:48 ◼   ► Games have this type of style, right?

01:23:50 ◼   ► They have their own styles.

01:23:51 ◼   ► Games run independently from the operating system

01:23:54 ◼   ► because they don't tie into the operating system in the same way

01:23:56 ◼   ► that calendar app does.

01:23:57 ◼   ► Calendar app looking like this is ridiculous.

01:23:59 ◼   ► A game is not.

01:24:01 ◼   ► The thing about, so Federico, I want to see what you think about this, right?

01:24:04 ◼   ► My feeling is

01:24:07 ◼   ► when I play this game, Nintendo made the gameplay,

01:24:10 ◼   ► Dina made everything else.

01:24:12 ◼   ► I feel like it's a terrific game with some questionable interface decisions, so I agree with you.

01:24:20 ◼   ► And I feel like the main problem is that users who don't buy the full game are allowed to leave a review on the App Store.

01:24:32 ◼   ► And that speaks to a bunch of different problems with the App Store infrastructure,

01:24:36 ◼   ► but also to the fact that Apple is still not allowing developers to have real full trials

01:24:41 ◼   ► that don't require in-app purchase or subscription tricks and workarounds.

01:24:48 ◼   ► So the problems that Nintendo is facing now is there's lots of negative reviews.

01:24:53 ◼   ► In addition to the need for an internet connection, which is totally on Nintendo and Dina,

01:24:58 ◼   ► the main problem with the negative reviews and the criticism is that some people just don't like

01:25:04 ◼   ► paying but they're still allowed to leave review and to say this game sucks

01:25:09 ◼   ► when in fact they haven't bought the full game because either you know they

01:25:13 ◼   ► don't want to pay but also because they don't have a way to try the game. It's a

01:25:17 ◼   ► tricky question and I feel like there's part of you know it's like 50/50/50

01:25:24 ◼   ► situation. Part is Apple's problem with the App Store, whether it's an economics

01:25:27 ◼   ► problem or a mindset problem that some people just the App Store is

01:25:33 ◼   ► forever ruined and people will never pay for content again, but also part of that

01:25:39 ◼   ► is Nintendo's own problem with the messaging, with the interface, with the

01:25:42 ◼   ► need for an internet connection. I feel like Nintendo, again, I still believe

01:25:46 ◼   ► they will remove the need for the persistent internet connection,

01:25:52 ◼   ► they will update the interface. I still think it's a fantastic game,

01:25:56 ◼   ► it's like way better than I could have hoped for a mobile Mario game.

01:26:03 ◼   ► The interface needs to be better, the internet connection needs to be backtracked, and Apple

01:26:08 ◼   ► has to find some kind of solution for this problem of people complaining about paying,

01:26:15 ◼   ► in-app purchases, of trials, otherwise, do we really want a feature where every game

01:26:21 ◼   ► lets you wait 20 minutes between turns, or you need to watch a video ad, or you need

01:26:25 ◼   ► to buy a sack of gems.

01:26:27 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:26:29 ◼   ► That's not the feature I want.

01:26:30 ◼   ► think that there's a better way and Mario Run sort of exemplifies this

01:26:35 ◼   ► problem. It's a fantastic game with problems in the interface and problems

01:26:40 ◼   ► in the infrastructure.

01:26:41 ◼   ► So it's like Apple, Nintendo will not do this again.

01:26:44 ◼   ► Exactly.

01:26:45 ◼   ► Like if they have a bad relationship here, if this doesn't work for them and

01:26:49 ◼   ► they're gonna get like just dumped on in the press and

01:26:52 ◼   ► stuff and then the reviews, they're not gonna bring Zelda and you want them to

01:26:57 ◼   ► bring Zelda because you super wanted them to bring Mario, right?

01:27:01 ◼   ► Like they really wanted Mario because Mario is everywhere on the App Store

01:27:08 ◼   ► and they are making ads that they're putting on Instagram.

01:27:10 ◼   ► Like that Apple are going whole hog with this as they should.

01:27:15 ◼   ► But there needs to be a little bit more of a two way street on this.

01:27:20 ◼   ► You know what?

01:27:21 ◼   ► Maybe Nintendo should have just made this a pay up for an application, right?

01:27:25 ◼   ► Maybe Nintendo should have had more levels that you could play first, right?

01:27:29 ◼   ► Maybe they didn't include enough.

01:27:30 ◼   ► There are a lot of like questions around this, but there are also a lot of

01:27:33 ◼   ► questions on Apple about the things that they do, how they choose to do things

01:27:39 ◼   ► and stuff that they could do to make the App Store more inviting to developers

01:27:44 ◼   ► of all kinds.

01:27:44 ◼   ► Um, and Super Mario Run is just yet another example of this, which is a game

01:27:49 ◼   ► which is as good as you would want the game to be, but it is like a two star

01:27:54 ◼   ► application but the game is like there are not a lot of levels of this was it

01:27:58 ◼   ► like 12 or something like that like 12 actual levels maybe a few more maybe 18

01:28:02 ◼   ► but it's not an easy game it's got the level of difficulty that you would want

01:28:09 ◼   ► and a ton of like replayability like yeah there are so many same level for a

01:28:15 ◼   ► while now yeah and that's what you want right like yeah I'm getting my money's

01:28:20 ◼   ► worth out of like the time that I got into it and I'm not I mean you guys know

01:28:23 ◼   ► We talked about the show for years like I don't play games

01:28:26 ◼   ► But I downloaded this because it's such a big deal and I did the free trial as a Q

01:28:30 ◼   ► You know what? I'm really enjoying this and

01:28:33 ◼   ► It's like the only game I've had on my iPhone in years and I've got some games on my iPad

01:28:37 ◼   ► but the only game I've had on my phone and

01:28:39 ◼   ► forever and it's um, it's great, but it's hard to see how the markets responding to it and it lost a bunch of

01:28:46 ◼   ► market cap over at even in their stock price like I

01:28:51 ◼   ► Worry that this will be a one-time thing the stock price thing is is whatever the same thing happened with Pokemon go, right?

01:28:57 ◼   ► like

01:28:58 ◼   ► Everybody got super excited because they thought that this was gonna mean that Nintendo was the most successful

01:29:03 ◼   ► Compose bag the world again and then the reality here

01:29:06 ◼   ► I mean look frankly five million downloads on day one

01:29:09 ◼   ► Right and which and likes I saw a statistic that Pokemon go got like half a million on day one

01:29:13 ◼   ► I mean

01:29:14 ◼   ► I'm sure Pokemon go got up to the multiple millions of levels after the press and like the cultural phenomenon

01:29:21 ◼   ► Which, you know what, we should have included Pokemon Go in our year in review.

01:29:25 ◼   ► I don't know how I missed that.

01:29:28 ◼   ► But whatever month it was that Pokemon Go happened, it was sometime in the summer, one

01:29:31 ◼   ► of the biggest stories of the year.

01:29:33 ◼   ► Like flat out one of the biggest stories of the year because it is a video game that did

01:29:38 ◼   ► something that I've never seen a video game do before.

01:29:41 ◼   ► It was a worldwide cultural phenomenon for the time that it was.

01:29:45 ◼   ► I mean, and there are still people playing it a lot, which is awesome, but like there

01:29:49 ◼   ► was that span of a couple of weeks where everybody was playing Pokemon Go.

01:29:53 ◼   ► But yeah that's Mario I love the game I just I just wish two things like you

01:29:59 ◼   ► know I wish that everybody could have done a better job and I wish that the

01:30:02 ◼   ► focus was on the stuff that's good not the stuff that people think is bad. What

01:30:08 ◼   ► else happened in December? Well something just happened right? Yeah AirPods shipped

01:30:12 ◼   ► and I know Federico you just got yours like 20 minutes ago. Myke and I both got

01:30:18 ◼   ► I used mine for a little bit yesterday.

01:30:20 ◼   ► I mean, I want to save this for like a full topic,

01:30:24 ◼   ► but I would say my initial impressions are a thumbs up.

01:30:28 ◼   ► I think that they're really interesting.

01:30:30 ◼   ► I think they are the most appley product

01:30:34 ◼   ► we've seen from the company in a while.

01:30:35 ◼   ► Just in like, there's like little pieces of charm to it,

01:30:39 ◼   ► like little delights in the way that they work

01:30:41 ◼   ► and the way that they act.

01:30:43 ◼   ► That is like sort of classic Apple.

01:30:45 ◼   ► And I, so far I'm really enjoying them.

01:30:48 ◼   ► So they're comfortable. I've worn them for multiple hours now, mainly just around the house today.

01:30:56 ◼   ► Mine came in yesterday evening. They work really well. I can totally see now why there's such limited controls available.

01:31:07 ◼   ► Because the tapping to play pause or tapping to get Siri is not very reliable.

01:31:12 ◼   ► Sometimes you could do it multiple times before it will work that out.

01:31:16 ◼   ► So trying to have a set of complex gestures, that was just never going to happen.

01:31:20 ◼   ► And I can see why they went with Siri. I still think that the Siri thing is a bad idea

01:31:24 ◼   ► fundamentally, but I can see why they went with it as a cop-out for not being able to do anything

01:31:29 ◼   ► more with them in this revision. But I hope in later revisions that they make the sensors better

01:31:34 ◼   ► and maybe put some kind of touch on them. So it can do these

01:31:39 ◼   ► Interactions via touch rather than accelerometer. I think the accelerometer is

01:31:42 ◼   ► Really not not fine enough to be able to get make this work like

01:31:48 ◼   ► But but hey the battery case is awesome

01:31:51 ◼   ► The way that they sit in the case is great the fact that it charges whenever I put them in is great like it charges

01:31:57 ◼   ► Super fast. I like the battery indicator as a charging the pairing is fantastic

01:32:00 ◼   ► The main problem that I have with these is that they look really weird. They just look weird

01:32:06 ◼   ► That will go away. Yeah, I showed them to Adina. I explained all the technology

01:32:12 ◼   ► she thought it was cool, but she said they look weird and they do and

01:32:15 ◼   ► I'm gonna feel weird being out in the street with them. I'm gonna take them out

01:32:20 ◼   ► I'm going out this evening and I'm gonna be wearing them

01:32:22 ◼   ► while I'm running some errands like and I'm gonna feel like I'm sticking out like a sore thumb with them because that's just how I'm

01:32:29 ◼   ► Gonna feel because they look weird

01:32:32 ◼   ► But we'll get over that and the next versions will be even better and I agree like

01:32:38 ◼   ► This is a very Apple thing and it's really nice and I love that. It's a little white plastic case like I love all of that

01:32:45 ◼   ► It's a it's a really cool little product

01:32:48 ◼   ► But I feel like I have a lot more time to play around with them, but they do feel very comfortable

01:32:54 ◼   ► and it's actually very easy to forget that you have them in because they really do not

01:33:01 ◼   ► make much of an impact on your life when they're in your ears, right? They don't

01:33:04 ◼   ► You don't feel it very much. So it's a cool product. Very cool product. Thanks

01:33:10 ◼   ► So so what and we'll talk about them in a couple of weeks because we mentioned this already

01:33:14 ◼   ► But we're gonna be we've taken a holiday break now for the show. We're back in on January 3rd now

01:33:19 ◼   ► It's just a quick programming note, but that was

01:33:22 ◼   ► That was 2016 2016 overall has been just in general a strange year

01:33:28 ◼   ► There is a meme right now, like 2016 was just a hellfire of a year.

01:33:34 ◼   ► Technology was no different.

01:33:35 ◼   ► It's been a very weird year.

01:33:36 ◼   ► It's been a very weird year if you're a fan of Apple.

01:33:39 ◼   ► There have been some highs and there have been some lows and depending on your personal

01:33:44 ◼   ► perspective, there have been more lows or highs or more highs than lows.

01:33:49 ◼   ► But there have been some, I think, some very interesting changes in technology.

01:33:52 ◼   ► I think there's been some very interesting stories.

01:33:55 ◼   ► And there's no reason to feel that 2017 will be any different.

01:33:59 ◼   ► I think it's going to be very interesting to see what Apple do in 2017 and the moves

01:34:02 ◼   ► that they make.

01:34:04 ◼   ► I'm very keen to see where the iOS devices go.

01:34:07 ◼   ► You know, there's more rumors of, I hope you like that iPhone 6 design because you're going

01:34:12 ◼   ► to get it again.

01:34:14 ◼   ► But there's also rumors of, you're going to see an iPhone which is made completely of

01:34:17 ◼   ► glass and wraps around your face.

01:34:19 ◼   ► So I'm interested to see what September brings.

01:34:22 ◼   ► Of course I'm interested to see what June brings.

01:34:24 ◼   ► I'm looking forward to 2017.

01:34:31 ◼   ► for

01:34:49 ◼   ► I think so. I am at iMyke, I M Y K E. Thanks again to Smile for supporting this week's

01:34:55 ◼   ► show. Thank you all for listening. Have a very happy holiday season. A happy new year

01:34:59 ◼   ► to you and we'll be back in January. Until then, say goodbye guys.

01:35:03 ◼   ► Adios.

01:35:04 ◼   ► Adios.

01:35:04 ◼   ► Adios!