Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

00:00:02 ◼   ► - Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 84.

00:00:07 ◼   ► Connected this week is brought to you by our friends

00:00:10 ◼   ► at Smile and Ministry of Supply.

00:00:12 ◼   ► My name is Steven Hackett and I am joined this week

00:00:15 ◼   ► by Mr. Federico Vittucci.

00:00:17 ◼   ► - Hello Steven.

00:00:17 ◼   ► - Hey buddy.

00:00:19 ◼   ► - How are you?

00:00:19 ◼   ► - I'm doing well, how are you today?

00:00:21 ◼   ► - I'm doing great, but we're missing again a piece.

00:00:25 ◼   ► Myke is not here today.

00:00:27 ◼   ► - Myke is not here today.

00:00:28 ◼   ► Myke had a little time off, but he will be back next week.

00:00:33 ◼   ► The truth is, Myke actually went to Romania, but he didn't know how to come back.

00:00:39 ◼   ► So we're not sure when Myke will be back, if he will be back, but we have a show to

00:00:46 ◼   ► do, Steven.

00:00:47 ◼   ► The show must go on, as they say.

00:00:49 ◼   ► Yes, even without Myke, it's the Asterisk on the Queen song, actually.

00:00:56 ◼   ► And our show starts with follow-up.

00:00:58 ◼   ► So we're going to jump right in.

00:01:00 ◼   ► We got a lot of feedback about our comments last week concerning the 9.7 inch iPad Pro

00:01:06 ◼   ► and the feeling that maybe somehow as the three of us own 12.9 inch iPad Pros that we

00:01:13 ◼   ► were upset that Apple had put some new things in this new smaller iPad.

00:01:21 ◼   ► And I just kind of want to touch on that again for a second and I think there is, I'll just

00:01:26 ◼   ► I'll just speak for myself like it is always frustrating if you make a purchase and you

00:01:31 ◼   ► know something comes along a little bit later that is newer or shiny right the nerd and

00:01:37 ◼   ► all of us gets upset about that but I think it's just particularly weird this time that

00:01:44 ◼   ► they're so close together and the Apple is basically selling these as a larger and smaller

00:01:50 ◼   ► version of the same thing and you know

00:01:54 ◼   ► whatever reasons that exist for these

00:01:56 ◼   ► two devices being a little bit different

00:01:58 ◼   ► and we we went over some of those

00:01:59 ◼   ► possible reasons last week. It's just

00:02:02 ◼   ► always sort of an uncomfortable position

00:02:03 ◼   ► to be in. I for one am not like super

00:02:06 ◼   ► upset about it, I understand it's the way it works.

00:02:08 ◼   ► It would be nice to have those things

00:02:09 ◼   ► but I figure my next 12.9 inch iPad

00:02:12 ◼   ► will have those things and so it's not

00:02:15 ◼   ► keeping me up at night.

00:02:16 ◼   ► What about you?

00:02:18 ◼   ► I mean, yeah, it is...

00:02:21 ◼   ► I would say it is strange when

00:02:23 ◼   ► you just bought a new device and then like five months later a new version comes out

00:02:28 ◼   ► and it's got a bunch of features that you don't have, but I'm not really upset

00:02:32 ◼   ► personally because the features that are on the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro

00:02:37 ◼   ► I don't really care about. I don't take pictures with my iPad except

00:02:42 ◼   ► you know, the occasional selfie. I don't particularly care about the True Tone display. I mean,

00:02:48 ◼   ► of course, if the next bigger iPad Pro has a True Tone display, I'm gonna be happy, but

00:02:53 ◼   ► it's just I'm not really upset right now. And I feel like my initial judgement, you

00:02:59 ◼   ► know, of the day of the event when I said the iPad Pro has, you know, things like more

00:03:05 ◼   ► RAM, faster charging, those are the things I care about. So, it is strange that a new

00:03:11 ◼   ► new iPad that sees new features, but it also makes sense, you know, it's coming out later,

00:03:14 ◼   ► maybe they weren't ready, maybe they only make sense for a more portable iPad, but I'm

00:03:19 ◼   ► not really upset right now. I'm still super super happy with my 12.9 inch iPad Pro.

00:03:24 ◼   ► Yeah, me too. I spent some time, we have an Air 2 in the house, and I spent some time

00:03:30 ◼   ► with it over the weekend just to sort of clarify my thoughts on the two different sizes, and

00:03:36 ◼   ► no doubt using the 12.9 inch makes the 9.7 feel smaller right like the same

00:03:41 ◼   ► way use a 6s or 6s plus and then you go back to something like in that four inch

00:03:48 ◼   ► size and everything just feels cramped and small but for me the really the

00:03:52 ◼   ► kicker continues to be the multitasking where you can have a lot bigger view

00:03:57 ◼   ► into apps on the larger iPad which i think is is really like it like I said

00:04:02 ◼   ► last week I think it really has a sort of unlock something about the way that I

00:04:06 ◼   ► treat iOS? Yeah, I went through this when I was reviewing the iPad Pro last year.

00:04:12 ◼   ► Split View, going back to the iPad R2, trying to use Split View on the smaller iPad

00:04:18 ◼   ► and the bigger iPad, there's really no contest for me. I generally appreciate

00:04:23 ◼   ► Split View more on the bigger iPad Pro, not because it's more

00:04:27 ◼   ► comfortable, well I mean also because of that, but just because you see more.

00:04:31 ◼   ► You see more content, you see more text when I'm writing, I see bigger lists.

00:04:36 ◼   ► So it's a matter of comfort, like physical comfort of viewing two apps at the same time,

00:04:42 ◼   ► but also content, more content shown at once. And for me that's more important than a better camera or a two-tone display.

00:04:50 ◼   ► Yeah, it's something to consider, I think, especially if you're looking to do work on iOS.

00:05:00 ◼   ► Something too I want to touch on was the LTE thing. You know in the... with the big

00:05:08 ◼   ► iPad Pro, LTE is only available on the biggest model, the most expensive model.

00:05:13 ◼   ► Which is the one I got because I wanted LTE. But on the 9.7 inches it's available at all

00:05:17 ◼   ► sizes like it's been historically. And I just wonder you know sometimes Apple

00:05:22 ◼   ► does these sort of things and it's a bit of a a bit of a statement right that

00:05:28 ◼   ► this is the way we want you to use it and I wonder if the statement here is

00:05:32 ◼   ► the 12.9 inches sort of for like working at a desk in an office the 9.7 is

00:05:39 ◼   ► portable where you may need LTE more does that does that ring a ring a bell

00:05:45 ◼   ► with you it does and I I feel like Apple wants to sort of leave this message out

00:05:55 ◼   ► out in the world right now that the smaller iPad is meant for portable scenarios like

00:06:02 ◼   ► you're walking around, you want to hold the iPad with one hand, whereas the 12.9" is more

00:06:10 ◼   ► of an office-like iPad.

00:06:12 ◼   ► Again, it depends on many variables like how do you use your iPad or how big are your hands.

00:06:21 ◼   ► I can walk around holding my big iPad Pro with no problem, but it sort of makes sense

00:06:27 ◼   ► for Apple to have this kind of message. We have some new features, but we don't really

00:06:32 ◼   ► want to tell you that they're not available on the bigger iPad Pro because we want to

00:06:36 ◼   ► make money in some different way with the smaller iPad Pro, or because they weren't

00:06:41 ◼   ► ready. We want you to believe that it's because this makes sense on a portable device. That's

00:06:48 ◼   ► marketing, you know, and that's okay, but I feel like people who are in the market

00:06:54 ◼   ► for an iPad, and according to Apple, that's people coming from a PC. If you

00:06:59 ◼   ► look at the iPad Pro web page, they don't really tell you "we want you to

00:07:04 ◼   ► stop using a Mac", they're just, you know, sort of pushing the iPad Pro to PC people.

00:07:08 ◼   ► And it makes sense to come up with these marketing strategies, but again, you know,

00:07:14 ◼   ► I work better, I feel like, on the Big Rapid Pro.

00:07:19 ◼   ► Yep, totally, totally the same thing here.

00:07:22 ◼   ► So of course the other device announced was the iPhone SE.

00:07:27 ◼   ► We spoke about it at length last week, and really in the weeks leading up to this,

00:07:31 ◼   ► that at least in my household, an iPhone SE was going to be ordered, and it has been ordered.

00:07:36 ◼   ► One thing I think we sort of skipped over a little bit in our discussion last week was the price.

00:07:42 ◼   ► So I generally buy iPhones like the SIM free version basically to unlock to bring your own SIM card and

00:07:48 ◼   ► The SE added the 64 gigabyte model for my wife. It was 499 bucks and for someone who has bought

00:07:55 ◼   ► High-end iPhones unlocked for a long time. It's really seemed like I double-checked that I was buying the unlocked version

00:08:03 ◼   ► If you're still in a two-year contract, even though I know that is fading away in the in the States

00:08:08 ◼   ► This is now the free phone and if you buy it unlocked it starts at $399 where the 6s starts at $649

00:08:15 ◼   ► And that just sort of brings up those memories of the the iPhone 5c right that people thought

00:08:21 ◼   ► the 5c

00:08:23 ◼   ► was gonna be the cheap phone in reality was just a repackaged iPhone 5 and

00:08:28 ◼   ► Didn't I think by all

00:08:32 ◼   ► Accounts didn't really move in the volume that Apple

00:08:36 ◼   ► had planned or wanted it to. I just wonder if the SE is...

00:08:40 ◼   ► part of the SE is a crack at that again to see can we put a good phone at a lower price point?

00:08:48 ◼   ► And really, you know, the SE at $399 is better than the iPhone 6 which it's in the middle price slot in a lot of ways.

00:08:53 ◼   ► But you know, I think

00:08:57 ◼   ► the 5C sort of failed for a couple reasons. Maybe people realized that it was old tech and they didn't want that and that it

00:09:02 ◼   ► it looked you could look at until it was cheap and the worst thing you could say

00:09:07 ◼   ► about the SE is that you look at and think that maybe it was old and I wonder

00:09:11 ◼   ► if people see that as a distinction that you know the if you had a bright yellow

00:09:17 ◼   ► plastic 5c it kind of screamed that you bought you know the cheaper phone and

00:09:21 ◼   ► maybe see an SE is oh you bought the expensive one but years ago I wonder if

00:09:24 ◼   ► people think that but either way I think it's gonna be interesting to see what

00:09:28 ◼   ► the iPhone SE does sales-wise because of that price point. Is that going to bring

00:09:33 ◼   ► new people to the iPhone? Is it going to... obviously it's going to take their

00:09:39 ◼   ► average selling price down a little bit I think. But I can't help but think that

00:09:43 ◼   ► the SE is like another stab at making the iPhone more affordable for more people.

00:09:47 ◼   ► It seems to me like it's a better executed strategy than the 5C. You know,

00:09:53 ◼   ► not just because of the design that looks more sort of evergreen, like a classic design

00:09:59 ◼   ► from Apple, that a lot of people prefer in terms of industrial design to the iPhone 6

00:10:05 ◼   ► and the iPhone 6s, but also because of how it's marketed to people. It's modern technology,

00:10:11 ◼   ► with the exception of 3D Touch, so it's really the latest iPhone in a more compact package

00:10:17 ◼   ► at a much cheaper price, and it looks to me like they have learned from the iPhone 5C.

00:10:24 ◼   ► And even the name, you know, it rings more classic. It's like an iPhone special edition.

00:10:28 ◼   ► It's more... I have the impression that it's gonna last more than the iPhone 5C, which was like a weird spin-off on the iPhone 5,

00:10:43 ◼   ► and it looks kinda toyish, you know, with the colors. And I do see a lot of iPhone 5C's

00:10:48 ◼   ► out in the world. I don't have numbers, we don't have numbers about the iPhone 5C.

00:10:53 ◼   ► But I feel like the iPhone SE, it's an overall better take on having a cheaper iPhone with

00:11:00 ◼   ► new technology, with the current camera, the current LTE technology, Touch ID, no 3D Touch,

00:11:08 ◼   ► But for a lot of people that's not going to be a big deal.

00:11:11 ◼   ► I feel like, and this is totally the opinion of a non-analyst for sure, but it looks like

00:11:19 ◼   ► a better strategy going forward.

00:11:22 ◼   ► Yeah, I think so too.

00:11:26 ◼   ► I wonder how that timeframe is going to roll out.

00:11:30 ◼   ► I don't think this is going to be something that is updated every year.

00:11:36 ◼   ► You know is this gonna be something that it's it's current now, but by the time a refresh comes around

00:11:40 ◼   ► it's going to be old or

00:11:43 ◼   ► Is even that they talked about this on the talks here a little bit this week

00:11:46 ◼   ► Is this even like a one-off and is it to sort of bridge the gap until people are really okay with with bigger phones?

00:11:54 ◼   ► It's just it's just unknown right this is new territory for the for the iPhone line, so

00:11:59 ◼   ► It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. You know I know that

00:12:03 ◼   ► That my wife's excited to get I know a lot of people are and I think it'll do well

00:12:07 ◼   ► But uh I guess we'll just have to see what they do over the long term with it to kind of

00:12:13 ◼   ► See what lessons are to be learned yeah

00:12:16 ◼   ► So up next talking about the the Apple watch

00:12:22 ◼   ► the new nylon band and

00:12:25 ◼   ► so I picked one up this weekend the

00:12:28 ◼   ► the Memphis Apple store actually just reopened they

00:12:31 ◼   ► had a big renovation kind of first of its kind here in the States, but um

00:12:35 ◼   ► So I'm gonna go check that out, and then I ended up picking up

00:12:39 ◼   ► one of the nylon watch bands, and I picked up the

00:12:43 ◼   ► The black and gray one and I know other people have said this, but they really do look better in

00:12:49 ◼   ► Person than on the website on the website. They look like sort of uncanny valleys and somehow but

00:12:56 ◼   ► Yeah, they looked kind of ugly to me

00:12:59 ◼   ► Then I went to check them out in a store and they're you know some colors are actually quite nice

00:13:04 ◼   ► Yeah, you know the colors necessarily aren't my personal taste

00:13:09 ◼   ► But I think that they are going to prove to be

00:13:12 ◼   ► proved to be popular, but I got to say it is

00:13:16 ◼   ► an extremely comfortable

00:13:19 ◼   ► watch band the

00:13:22 ◼   ► Into the sport band which I like and I'm several of and I have been wearing my my Apple watch a little bit again

00:13:28 ◼   ► recently we could talk about that at some point but this breathes much better

00:13:32 ◼   ► than the sport band so like yesterday I did some like mowed the grass and some

00:13:35 ◼   ► yard work and normally like the inside of my sport band instead of watching it just be

00:13:39 ◼   ► really wet from like being sweaty and the nylon band does a much better job

00:13:44 ◼   ► it's sort of I guess that is absorbing part of that so I guess that's kind of

00:13:48 ◼   ► gross but um it's like much cooler to wear if that makes sense and there's a

00:13:53 ◼   ► far I'm a big fan of it. It's well done. It definitely is not like the

00:13:59 ◼   ► NATO style like was rumored. It is just a nylon watch band but so far two

00:14:04 ◼   ► thumbs up for me. Yeah I think I'm gonna get one for the summer. It looks like a

00:14:09 ◼   ► summer band to me, you know? Yeah. I think I got one. So you know and I like that they're

00:14:15 ◼   ► doing new stuff here. You know they've pretty consistently every six months or

00:14:21 ◼   ► They've had new colors and new options and I think that's gonna be a big part

00:14:26 ◼   ► of their strategy moving forward to help keep the thing fresh

00:14:31 ◼   ► in between big product cycle release type things.

00:14:36 ◼   ► I wonder if there's someone as crazy as you who's gonna collect all of the Apple Watch bands.

00:14:41 ◼   ► There has to be someone.

00:14:43 ◼   ► It's Myke.

00:14:44 ◼   ► Oh yeah, you're right.

00:14:48 ◼   ► - Yeah, sometimes I have that thought of like,

00:14:50 ◼   ► I even have like a, I need to pick it back up.

00:14:52 ◼   ► I used to have a series on 512 of like,

00:14:55 ◼   ► things that I would bet would become

00:14:57 ◼   ► collectible in the future.

00:15:00 ◼   ► And the best part of that as a topic is no,

00:15:01 ◼   ► it could prove me wrong for like 10 years.

00:15:03 ◼   ► But sometimes I think about that like,

00:15:07 ◼   ► like I kind of wish that I had kept my first iPhone

00:15:11 ◼   ► and I didn't.

00:15:12 ◼   ► For a long time I needed to sell it

00:15:13 ◼   ► to bankroll the next one.

00:15:15 ◼   ► And so now, I'm just now kind of like,

00:15:17 ◼   ► Maybe I should pick up an iPhone, you know, the original 2G iPhone.

00:15:21 ◼   ► But I don't know if watch bands are going to be one of those things or not, honestly.

00:15:26 ◼   ► My guess is probably not.

00:15:27 ◼   ► But you're talking to somebody who owns every color of iPod socks, so what do I know?

00:15:32 ◼   ► Never say never, Steven.

00:15:33 ◼   ► That's right.

00:15:34 ◼   ► So Federico, what's going on with the FBI?

00:15:37 ◼   ► Well last night the FBI officially dropped their case against Apple, you know, in the

00:15:42 ◼   ► Soren Berardino shooting with the iPhone belonging to a terrorist. Apparently the FBI managed

00:15:49 ◼   ► to unlock the iPhone. They were requiring Apple's assistance to unlock the phone. Now

00:15:55 ◼   ► the phone has been unlocked. We don't know how. So the FBI didn't provide any details

00:16:00 ◼   ► as to whether, you know, just what kind of tool a third party apparently, you know, gave

00:16:07 ◼   ► the FBI to access the contents of the iPhone. They just, you know, they agreed to vacate

00:16:13 ◼   ► the order against Apple, too. They were required in Apple to help the FBI in assisting in this

00:16:21 ◼   ► iPhone unlock process. Now, the case is gone, for now, so it is over, quote-unquote "over",

00:16:30 ◼   ► because the general feeling is that sooner or later there's going to be another case,

00:16:34 ◼   ► the FBI is going to try again to compel Apple to create a version of iOS with a backdoor,

00:16:41 ◼   ► essentially, that would allow the FBI to bypass the four-digit passcode, just any passcode

00:16:47 ◼   ► check that iOS has in place to prevent people from getting into a locked iPhone.

00:16:52 ◼   ► So we don't know what's going to happen in the future.

00:16:54 ◼   ► For now, this specific case has been dropped, so you could ascribe that as a win for Apple,

00:17:01 ◼   ► But it's not really a whim for Apple, it's just maybe a pause in a debate that's going

00:17:05 ◼   ► to continue in the next few years, I guess.

00:17:09 ◼   ► Yeah, I have the same feeling you do that this particular case is over, but this is

00:17:14 ◼   ► not over, right?

00:17:16 ◼   ► I think now that this door has been opened, the possibility to try to go after Apple or

00:17:22 ◼   ► other companies, right?

00:17:23 ◼   ► This doesn't just have to be Apple.

00:17:25 ◼   ► this sort of door can't be closed and that at some point something terrible is

00:17:32 ◼   ► going to happen and this is going to come come back up. I mean there's a lot

00:17:37 ◼   ► of like debate over what really happened right so like did the FBI really unlock

00:17:42 ◼   ► it they said in court they did so I'll take them at their word that they did. I

00:17:46 ◼   ► assumed that they either did it you know through something the NSA had or or

00:17:51 ◼   ► Or maybe they said, you know, we're going to go in and brute force it and just risk,

00:17:56 ◼   ► I guess, that the delete files after 10 attempts is turned off.

00:18:01 ◼   ► I don't really know.

00:18:03 ◼   ► They're obviously not going to be real forthcoming with that.

00:18:06 ◼   ► But while it is a victory today, it sort of feels like, well, that's like the first battle,

00:18:13 ◼   ► but there's still a war coming over encryption.

00:18:15 ◼   ► And you know, Apple from the beginning has said this should be decided by the people.

00:18:20 ◼   ► should be not done in the court right should go to the the the lawmaking

00:18:26 ◼   ► process that there should be a law that talks about this because the law that

00:18:30 ◼   ► was used in this case is ancient and very vague in a lot of areas and because

00:18:34 ◼   ► there is no legislation here in the United States that really deals with

00:18:37 ◼   ► this in a proper modern way and so I wonder if that's how we're going to see

00:18:40 ◼   ► this unfold next that someone is going to introduce legislation either for or

00:18:46 ◼   ► against Apple stance and yes I don't think this whole idea of like the

00:18:52 ◼   ► government getting into encrypted phones is is over quite yet but it's over for

00:18:57 ◼   ► now I guess and I guess we'll see kind of where that goes but um you know you

00:19:03 ◼   ► got to think that

00:19:06 ◼   ► I hesitate to say this but I think the FBI did a pretty good job at picking a

00:19:12 ◼   ► case to bring this up, right? Like, a lot of people in this country and around the

00:19:17 ◼   ► world are willing to do things to make decisions based on terrorism that they

00:19:21 ◼   ► wouldn't maybe otherwise, and that clearly is what the FBI was betting on,

00:19:26 ◼   ► right? Like, what happened in San Bernardino was heartbreaking, and I think

00:19:30 ◼   ► they were trying to capitalize that? It's kind of too strongly worded, but they

00:19:36 ◼   ► were trying to use that, right? They're not gonna choose, like, a bank

00:19:40 ◼   ► getting robbed or someone's getting mugged to unlock an iPhone, right? They're

00:19:44 ◼   ► gonna do something big and they did and it didn't work so it is gonna be curious

00:19:49 ◼   ► to see where this goes and I guess I guess time will tell like all things but

00:19:57 ◼   ► I'm not comfortable that the government's not gonna ask for this again

00:20:00 ◼   ► know what I mean? Yeah, yeah I mean I've been I've been thinking about this a lot

00:20:04 ◼   ► and it's not that it's not that I don't understand the position of the

00:20:09 ◼   ► government or law enforcement, because when something as terrible as

00:20:13 ◼   ► the summer shooting happens, I do understand that you, as law

00:20:19 ◼   ► enforcement, you want to be able to have measures to monitor bad people.

00:20:25 ◼   ► I mean, it makes sense that you want to be able to keep an eye on criminals.

00:20:30 ◼   ► Living in Italy, I see this on the news sadly very often. We have

00:20:37 ◼   ► the problem with many types of the Mafia in Italy. And when you turn on the news, very

00:20:46 ◼   ► regularly you hear about law enforcement managing to capture a Mafia boss, also because they

00:20:53 ◼   ► were able to plant cameras or they were able to plant microphones inside the home of a

00:21:00 ◼   ► boss or the home of a group of people related to a mafia association.

00:21:06 ◼   ► And so I do understand why monitoring the bad guys is beneficial for the

00:21:12 ◼   ► public, but it's quite different. I've been thinking about it. It's quite

00:21:16 ◼   ► different to be able to say we're gonna break into a home and we're gonna plant

00:21:21 ◼   ► microphones, we're gonna plant cameras, because we know that this person is a

00:21:24 ◼   ► criminal and we want to keep an eye on them and we want to catch them in the

00:21:27 ◼   ► act or we want to collect proof. It's quite different from doing that and having access

00:21:32 ◼   ► to a device that is used by bad guys, but that is also used by the majority of good

00:21:37 ◼   ► people around the world. So the main problem is we live in a different era. We live in

00:21:43 ◼   ► an era where our most private and personal information is not confined in the walls of

00:21:51 ◼   ► our houses, but it's stored on a chip in a small device that we carry around all the

00:21:55 ◼   ► time. And so the ways that the government and the law enforcement thinks about monitoring the bad

00:22:01 ◼   ► guys are gonna change, have already changed. And I do understand, to an extent, the struggle of law

00:22:08 ◼   ► enforcement and the government to say, "Why do these criminals use these devices to communicate,

00:22:16 ◼   ► and why are we not able to monitor them?" And the sad, and maybe just the reality is that the world

00:22:23 ◼   ► has changed and the way we communicate has changed. And I feel like it's a very dangerous

00:22:29 ◼   ► precedent to be able to, especially after we saw what Snowden revealed about the NSA

00:22:33 ◼   ► in the US, it's very dangerous to be able to say we want to create essentially a weapon

00:22:39 ◼   ► that would enable us to monitor everyone. So the main problem is it's a different world.

00:22:47 ◼   ► people, for criminals, for government, for law enforcement agencies. It's a different world.

00:22:53 ◼   ► I don't know how this is gonna play out, but I do know that at the very basic level,

00:22:58 ◼   ► at least personally, so this is my belief, is that people have a right to privacy, people have a right to digital security.

00:23:07 ◼   ► Bypassing that, even if you say it's only for good intentions, but to create a tool that would bypass that personal privacy,

00:23:16 ◼   ► It's gonna be messy because it's gonna end up in the wrong hands. So, you know

00:23:22 ◼   ► It's a it's a very difficult problem to discuss but I'm sort of glad that we're having this discussion

00:23:28 ◼   ► because I feel like

00:23:31 ◼   ► Setting aside this case if Apple and the FBI and the US government and you know other

00:23:36 ◼   ► Agencies in in Europe and around the world if they can sit down, you know at a table and discuss

00:23:43 ◼   ► What do we want to do here?

00:23:46 ◼   ► I feel like as you know human beings good people can find the solution. Maybe I'm too optimistic. I don't know

00:23:52 ◼   ► No, I think it is important because so many things

00:23:55 ◼   ► in

00:23:56 ◼   ► this era of

00:23:58 ◼   ► Political you know the political climate and America's been at war on terror for so long

00:24:07 ◼   ► That so many things get decided

00:24:10 ◼   ► privately and behind closed doors

00:24:13 ◼   ► where the public can't see into them, right?

00:24:17 ◼   ► And so for Apple and the FBI to do this publicly

00:24:21 ◼   ► Like that was a choice on the FBI's part, right? There could have been gag orders or there could have been

00:24:25 ◼   ► things put in place to keep this

00:24:28 ◼   ► Quiet and the FBI decided to make it public I think in hopes to swing public opinion and that sort of thing

00:24:36 ◼   ► But it's important that it's in public because it does affect every single one of us, right?

00:24:42 ◼   ► if our phones are not secure and our phones have pictures of our family and

00:24:47 ◼   ► our private emails and you know corporate secrets and bank account

00:24:52 ◼   ► information and health information right like all this stuff is on these devices

00:24:56 ◼   ► then everyone has the right to know whether the government or any other

00:25:01 ◼   ► party can get into those and so while I disagree with the government stance on

00:25:10 ◼   ► this I do have to say at least it was in public this time and that's um that's a

00:25:16 ◼   ► nice change compared to some of these other things that the people have been

00:25:19 ◼   ► put through over the years so yeah yeah anyways we're gonna move on but first

00:25:25 ◼   ► we'll take a quick break and tell you about our first sponsor this week which

00:25:30 ◼   ► is our awesome friends over at smile now smile is the maker of a bunch of great

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00:26:34 ◼   ► accessibility and this list of features just goes on and on. This is a really

00:26:38 ◼   ► powerful piece of software. You know I deal with PDFs a lot at work. We have contracts

00:26:45 ◼   ► with our sponsors, we have documents with our hosts and attorneys and

00:26:51 ◼   ► accountants. Lots of PDFs come across my desk every day and I use PDF Pen Pro to

00:26:57 ◼   ► deal with them and to sign stuff and edit things and mark things up and send

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00:27:07 ◼   ► by visiting Smilesoftware.com/connected. PDF Pen Pro 7 requires Yosemite or later and looks

00:27:14 ◼   ► great on OS X El Capitan. Thank you so much to Smile for sponsoring this show and all

00:27:19 ◼   ► of Relay FM. So our friend Myke who is like we said is off this week has been Sherlock'd.

00:27:28 ◼   ► Oh, okay. Is that why you flew to Romania?

00:27:32 ◼   ► Yes, he needed to escape the Sherlocking.

00:27:35 ◼   ► So this really interesting article came out in the New York Times a couple days ago, right?

00:27:41 ◼   ► It's by Emily Steele. And it's one of those things where like this is new Apple, but it's

00:27:47 ◼   ► still sort of a little weird, right? Where Apple announced that they're going to work

00:27:53 ◼   ► with will.i.am, of all people, and a couple TV executives on a new show that spotlights

00:28:01 ◼   ► the app economy.

00:28:05 ◼   ► Basically it's behind the app, but for TV?

00:28:07 ◼   ► And there's like quotes from Eddie Q?

00:28:08 ◼   ► Like, this is a very strange article, right?

00:28:10 ◼   ► It's a very strange time to be...

00:28:14 ◼   ► I mean, the idea of having a TV show about developers is both kind of awesome and scary

00:28:21 ◼   ► at the same time because I wonder how that's gonna be like. So the idea is that Apple is

00:28:27 ◼   ► working with will.i.am and these two TV executives to put together a TV series about the App

00:28:37 ◼   ► Store, about apps, and I assume about app makers. We don't know any more details about

00:28:43 ◼   ► this. It's gonna be on iTunes, it's gonna be on the App Store, it's like videos that

00:28:48 ◼   ► you can watch on the App Store. Is this going to be on the web or YouTube? We don't know.

00:28:54 ◼   ► But it is sort of interesting to me, if only for one reason. And that reason is, we've

00:29:01 ◼   ► talked about this in the past. A lot of people, millions of people I would say, they believe

00:29:06 ◼   ► that all the apps that they download from the App Store come from Apple, or maybe they

00:29:11 ◼   ► come from people who work for Apple. And I see this all the time, because whenever I

00:29:16 ◼   ► say that I have a blog about Apple news, people tend to assume that I'm on Apple's payroll.

00:29:23 ◼   ► It's a blog by Apple. And I see the same assumption for apps and games. It's on the App Store,

00:29:30 ◼   ► so these people are paid by Apple, and then you have to download stuff from the App Store

00:29:36 ◼   ► either for free or by paying Apple. A lot of people have no idea about the whole developer

00:29:41 ◼   ► community, what WWDC is or means, what it means to be an iOS developer or a Mac developer.

00:29:49 ◼   ► That's the joke of the Mac App Store.

00:29:53 ◼   ► I feel like it sort of makes sense to explain to Apple customers that the whole app economy

00:30:00 ◼   ► is made by people who are not living in Cupertino or don't work for Apple.

00:30:07 ◼   ► My concern is, is this gonna be one of those, you know, like a couple of episodes about

00:30:12 ◼   ► high-profile developers like the folks at Adobe, at Microsoft, and, you know, is this

00:30:17 ◼   ► gonna be an indie type of show?

00:30:20 ◼   ► You know, like, what's the name of the documentary that it's being worked on?

00:30:24 ◼   ► "App the Human Story"?

00:30:25 ◼   ► Yes.

00:30:26 ◼   ► This is gonna be that kind of stuff, you know, that they look at the actual independent developers,

00:30:30 ◼   ► you know, the individuals who design apps, who make apps, or is this gonna be like a

00:30:36 ◼   ► couple of high profile studios, you know, EA or you know, King with Candy Crush.

00:30:43 ◼   ► We don't know.

00:30:44 ◼   ► It's probably going to be a little bit of both, hopefully.

00:30:46 ◼   ► Yeah, I have all of those same questions.

00:30:49 ◼   ► And the big question for me is that if Apple is going to be tinkering with content, then

00:30:54 ◼   ► why not make something with broader appeal?

00:30:57 ◼   ► Right?

00:30:58 ◼   ► Like, I'm sure that all of us are going to check this out and, you know, if it's terrible,

00:31:04 ◼   ► not get very far into it.

00:31:05 ◼   ► But I just think about people who carry iPhones, are they going to be interested in this?

00:31:13 ◼   ► Or is Apple saying, "Hey, maybe this won't be a super broad appeal type show, and so

00:31:20 ◼   ► we can really experiment with creating content."

00:31:24 ◼   ► Maybe they picked something that would be less popular than say something like a superhero

00:31:29 ◼   ► show so they can kind of work the kinks out.

00:31:32 ◼   ► I can see both sides of that, but it just seems like such an odd way to get started.

00:31:37 ◼   ► And there's this quote by Eddie Q. in here saying, "This doesn't mean that we're getting

00:31:42 ◼   ► into a huge amount of movie production or TV production or anything like that."

00:31:46 ◼   ► And that the company would continue to explore exclusive projects similar to the series about

00:31:52 ◼   ► apps or its push into music programming.

00:31:54 ◼   ► So you know this, you've got the Dr. Dre thing that's also kind of been talked about.

00:32:00 ◼   ► Maybe they see this as more or less like a marketing push?

00:32:06 ◼   ► Maybe it's not about creating TV, but it's about creating marketing content to explain

00:32:12 ◼   ► the App Store and explain why their products are best as the platform owner.

00:32:17 ◼   ► Does that make sense?

00:32:18 ◼   ► I mean, yeah.

00:32:20 ◼   ► It's not going to be a show about developers dealing with provisioning profiles in Xcode.

00:32:27 ◼   ► I guess that's for sure.

00:32:29 ◼   ► I would watch that, especially if it's like a thriller or a drama, you know, like House

00:32:33 ◼   ► of Cards meets Xcode. That would be awesome. But I don't think it's gonna be that. And,

00:32:39 ◼   ► you know, especially when you consider what Apple is doing with Apple Music, they're also

00:32:43 ◼   ► working on a documentary series with Vice on the local music scenes. So Apple is doing

00:32:51 ◼   ► a bit of these series about showcasing what goes on in the world of Apple services and

00:33:00 ◼   ► Apple devices. So I don't feel like it's going to be a show about Lauren Briktor creating

00:33:06 ◼   ► Pultor Refresh. That would be awesome.

00:33:09 ◼   ► I'd watch it.

00:33:10 ◼   ► Yes, me too. Me too. But sadly, I think it's going to be... Sadly, I mean, maybe for my

00:33:17 ◼   ► geeky perspective, but it's probably for the best, you know, if it's a broader appeal that, you know, even my mother can understand

00:33:25 ◼   ► I feel like it's gonna do a favor to everyone, if more people can understand what it means to make an app

00:33:32 ◼   ► That's the message

00:33:35 ◼   ► Judging from this article from the Times, which is, you know, doesn't have a lot of details

00:33:40 ◼   ► But the idea is it's gonna be a, you know, a TV production for the general audience to

00:33:47 ◼   ► understand what it means to create apps and to sell apps on the App Store. That's probably

00:33:54 ◼   ► a good thing, but I feel like a lot of nerds are gonna say "Yeah, this is like pop stuff."

00:34:01 ◼   ► Especially with all the technical problems with the developer community. I can imagine,

00:34:11 ◼   ► months from now, a lot of developers saying "Yeah, Apple is making the big TV show about

00:34:16 ◼   ► big apps and big games on the App Store, but where's TestFlight for the Mac App Store?

00:34:22 ◼   ► That's gonna be the general reaction on tech blogs. We'll see.

00:34:25 ◼   ► I mean, that's what I would write. I mean, I see what you're saying about that, and I

00:34:29 ◼   ► do think there's something interesting there of sort of explaining who developers are.

00:34:36 ◼   ► I can kind of see this picture playing in my mind after interviewing somebody, and then

00:34:40 ◼   ► they start ranting about sales charts or the race at the bottom, and they're like, "No,

00:34:45 ◼   ► You know, like how honest of a picture can this be if Apple's putting it together, right?

00:34:57 ◼   ► Because you do have these voices in the community that kind of call the App Store out for its

00:35:02 ◼   ► issues and its problems.

00:35:03 ◼   ► And is Apple going to paint everything as like a rosy worldview, like this gold rush

00:35:09 ◼   ► mentality?

00:35:10 ◼   ► When really that's not what the App Store is anymore, right?

00:35:13 ◼   ► app store has become highly competitive

00:35:15 ◼   ► and full of garbage, quite honestly, and a

00:35:19 ◼   ► lot of developers are struggling to find

00:35:22 ◼   ► their place and make a living there. And

00:35:24 ◼   ► so you can see this like this kind of

00:35:26 ◼   ► going a couple of ways like if it is

00:35:28 ◼   ► like marketing push like being really

00:35:29 ◼   ► like a romanticized version of app

00:35:33 ◼   ► development, right? You have your idea,

00:35:35 ◼   ► development goes really smoothly, you

00:35:38 ◼   ► have no competition, you launch it, you

00:35:40 ◼   ► make tons of money, and that's great.

00:35:42 ◼   ► Well in reality a lot of apps aren't very good,

00:35:45 ◼   ► don't get popular, right?

00:35:48 ◼   ► Developers probably don't make their money back

00:35:51 ◼   ► that they have in it in a lot of cases.

00:35:53 ◼   ► And they sort of move on, right?

00:35:55 ◼   ► Like even the two of us, like we're in a weird situation

00:35:58 ◼   ► 'cause we know all the successful people, right?

00:36:00 ◼   ► But for every successful app on our home screen,

00:36:03 ◼   ► there are thousands of apps that have 12 downloads

00:36:05 ◼   ► and that's it.

00:36:06 ◼   ► So I just kind of wonder where this will land

00:36:08 ◼   ► on that continuum of what the App Store

00:36:11 ◼   ► it's kind of actually like for a lot of people.

00:36:14 ◼   ► It got dark, sorry.

00:36:16 ◼   ► Something to think about, right?

00:36:20 ◼   ► I mean, anyways, so that's a thing, right?

00:36:24 ◼   ► Do you see, I mean, can you imagine a world

00:36:28 ◼   ► where Apple is making, like say something

00:36:30 ◼   ► like what Netflix is doing, right?

00:36:32 ◼   ► Like I just finished second season of Daredevil.

00:36:34 ◼   ► Like I've watched a lot of Netflix shows they've created.

00:36:38 ◼   ► I've watched a lot of Amazon Prime shows they've created.

00:36:41 ◼   ► obviously Top Gear crew is doing a big Amazon Prime show later this year.

00:36:45 ◼   ► Like, do you see Apple moving into that space

00:36:48 ◼   ► at some point? I don't know, I guess

00:36:52 ◼   ► that it would make sense, you know, they've been

00:36:57 ◼   ► working with artists to make

00:37:00 ◼   ► video clips for Apple Music, now they're doing this kind of

00:37:04 ◼   ► TV series. I do see that happening.

00:37:08 ◼   ► It's just kind of odd to imagine right now. I don't know if Apple can

00:37:15 ◼   ► Do what Netflix is doing, you know, we had a lot of actual TV shows

00:37:20 ◼   ► with multi-million dollar productions going on at once

00:37:25 ◼   ► I don't know if I want to think of Apple as a content company

00:37:29 ◼   ► anymore that I think of Apple as a services company or a product company. I

00:37:35 ◼   ► Guess he makes sense. It's just strange to think about

00:37:37 ◼   ► It is it is strange to think about but

00:37:43 ◼   ► Like was it was strange when Apple started selling music, right? I can't strange when the computer company started making a phone like I

00:37:50 ◼   ► Just want what I what I'm getting at like

00:37:53 ◼   ► I wonder if this is like the natural evolution of technology companies to be to still be technology companies

00:37:59 ◼   ► But to have a content division

00:38:03 ◼   ► Just a stone dead look it is I agree with you. It's strange, but I also wonder if it's also somehow inevitable

00:38:08 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, probably

00:38:10 ◼   ► Anyways something to think about um so we're gonna get to iOS

00:38:15 ◼   ► 9.3 woes

00:38:19 ◼   ► They seemed to seem to be a few issues going on there, but uh

00:38:23 ◼   ► But first we'll take our second break and talk about Ministry of Supply

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00:40:01 ◼   ► they're simply great. I don't have to wear a dress shirt very often anymore, but when I do

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00:40:57 ◼   ► So there's a an odd problem going on with a bunch of odd problems.

00:41:02 ◼   ► I was going to say just one?

00:41:03 ◼   ► Actually a couple going on with iOS 9.3. One that's been apparently fixed, the other it's kind of weird.

00:41:10 ◼   ► So let's start with the one that's been fixed.

00:41:14 ◼   ► Steven, you're the expert on all devices. Can you tell me what's going on with all devices running iOS 9.3?

00:41:20 ◼   ► Yeah, so there's some sort of weird

00:41:23 ◼   ► Activation bug. Yeah, and it seems to be dealing with like

00:41:29 ◼   ► Not only like super old like iPad twos, but also like the iPad air and the iPhone 5s

00:41:36 ◼   ► it seems it seems like there's muddied waters here, but basically you run an update and

00:41:43 ◼   ► and the device won't reactivate.

00:41:46 ◼   ► Which is problematic because then it's just sitting there, right?

00:41:50 ◼   ► And so this is really kind of like two issues in one. We got some links in the show notes

00:41:55 ◼   ► so you can go read about it.

00:41:56 ◼   ► Apple has released an updated build of iOS 9

00:42:01 ◼   ► to deal with this. So if you have

00:42:04 ◼   ► a device stuck in activation lock, you can plug into iTunes and

00:42:09 ◼   ► run updates and it should be okay.

00:42:12 ◼   ► But it's definitely concerning, right?

00:42:14 ◼   ► There's always this thought in the back of my mind

00:42:16 ◼   ► with old iOS devices, like,

00:42:18 ◼   ► how does the new software run on them?

00:42:21 ◼   ► And in this case, it doesn't run at all.

00:42:23 ◼   ► So I guess they really swung for the fences there.

00:42:26 ◼   ► - I feel bad every time one of these problems pops up,

00:42:30 ◼   ► because every time my friends ask about,

00:42:33 ◼   ► should I update to the latest iOS versions?

00:42:36 ◼   ► I'm like, yeah, sure, you should go ahead,

00:42:37 ◼   ► because it fixes bugs and it adds features

00:42:40 ◼   ► and it's more stable.

00:42:42 ◼   ► every once in a while my friends come back to me

00:42:44 ◼   ► and they're like, "Well, thank you for that.

00:42:46 ◼   ► "Now I'm having all sorts of crazy problems."

00:42:49 ◼   ► And every time I'm like, "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry.

00:42:52 ◼   ► "I don't know what to do."

00:42:54 ◼   ► You know?

00:42:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, and it seems like part of this is

00:42:57 ◼   ► with a signing issue with the 9.3 update.

00:43:00 ◼   ► Doesn't seem like there's a ton known

00:43:03 ◼   ► about this particular issue, but yeah, I agree with you.

00:43:06 ◼   ► I mean, I don't even run a backup

00:43:08 ◼   ► before installing a point build of iOS, right?

00:43:11 ◼   ► I can trust that my iCloud backup is fresh and I don't think I've ever had a problem.

00:43:18 ◼   ► I mean, it really has been really smooth sailing until now.

00:43:21 ◼   ► And, you know, so I think this may unfortunately kind of put a bad taste in some people's mouth,

00:43:26 ◼   ► especially right if your iPad 2 is locked out of use.

00:43:31 ◼   ► But they seem to have gotten it fixed, unlike the other issue, which I think you're going to talk about.

00:43:37 ◼   ► The other issue is a problem with tapping links on iOS 9.3 with Safari, Mail, and also other apps.

00:43:48 ◼   ► So this started last week. I started seeing these tweets from people asking me, "Are you seeing this

00:43:54 ◼   ► odd behavior with Safari that you're unable to tap links and that Safari just hangs and it crashes?"

00:44:00 ◼   ► And I wasn't seeing the problem. And then I began seeing more and more people reporting this problem.

00:44:06 ◼   ► and it sort of caught fire a couple of days ago when a lot of blogs

00:44:11 ◼   ► over the weekend really started to cover this issue.

00:44:15 ◼   ► So in IOS 9.3 some users are affected by a problem in which

00:44:22 ◼   ► after a while, just out of the blue, tapping links in Safari, Apple Mail,

00:44:28 ◼   ► other apps as well renders everything non-responsive.

00:44:34 ◼   ► So you tap a link, it doesn't open, the browser just hangs and it stops working and it crashes.

00:44:41 ◼   ► And a reboot doesn't fix the problem, uninstalling apps doesn't fix the problem.

00:44:47 ◼   ► So a lot of developers and smart folks have done some digging into this issue,

00:44:53 ◼   ► and it seems to be related to Universal Links.

00:44:55 ◼   ► So Universal Links is a feature introduced with iOS 9

00:44:58 ◼   ► that allows a traditional link to a domain, such as, I don't know, let's say, apple.com,

00:45:06 ◼   ► to open in the native app instead of Safari. And it seems like some apps, such as the booking.com

00:45:14 ◼   ► app, and 9to5Mac has a list of other apps, some apps that implement universal links

00:45:21 ◼   ► are causing this issue for one specific reason. Universal links are based on this payload,

00:45:28 ◼   ► on this file that contains the list of domains that should redirect to the native app. And

00:45:35 ◼   ► some apps with a very huge payload, so with this huge file, like a couple of megabytes,

00:45:39 ◼   ► it should be a couple of kilobytes, really, but apps that have a big association file

00:45:45 ◼   ► with this list of domains that goes over a couple of megabytes causes the problem for

00:45:51 ◼   ► Safari and other apps. When you tap links, you should go to the universal link in the

00:45:56 ◼   ► native app, but actually you're just hanging the system and rebooting doesn't fix it. And

00:46:01 ◼   ► a lot of users are kind of... it's a problem because tapping links is one of the most obvious

00:46:07 ◼   ► features on any device. So I saw that there's a tutorial going around and it's like a crazy

00:46:14 ◼   ► series of steps that you need to follow to kind of fix the problem. You need to use iTunes,

00:46:23 ◼   ► you need to put your device in airplane mode, you need to uninstall, reinstall the app,

00:46:28 ◼   ► there's a link in the show notes for those who are affected by the problem, kind of want

00:46:31 ◼   ► to try their hand at this solution, which apparently is working, because I saw quite

00:46:35 ◼   ► a few people saying that it's a crazy workaround, but it's working.

00:46:40 ◼   ► Also, 9to5Mac is saying that they, is reporting this comment from an Apple spokesperson saying

00:46:48 ◼   ► that they're aware of the issue and they're working on a fix. It's not clear if it actually

00:46:54 ◼   ► came from Apple PR or from Apple support on Twitter, but word on the street, as the kids

00:47:00 ◼   ► say, is that Apple is working on a fix, and I assume there's going to be an iOS update.

00:47:07 ◼   ► I also saw, quite amusingly, a few Safari engineers on Twitter pointing people, without

00:47:13 ◼   ► actually commenting on the bug itself, but just saying, well,

00:47:19 ◼   ► instead of putting hundreds of domain names

00:47:24 ◼   ► for universal links, use wildcards

00:47:27 ◼   ► to avoid duplication of domains.

00:47:30 ◼   ► So it seems like it's a universal link problem.

00:47:34 ◼   ► And I would be surprised if Apple is not

00:47:36 ◼   ► working on iOS 9.3.1 at this point.

00:47:40 ◼   ► It's a kind of nasty bug, you know?

00:47:43 ◼   ► - So let me see if I've got this straight.

00:47:46 ◼   ► So an app basically has a file on disk, right?

00:47:49 ◼   ► - Yes, on the server.

00:47:51 ◼   ► - Okay, on the server that basically keeps record

00:47:54 ◼   ► of the URLs that it watches for.

00:47:57 ◼   ► And if those URLs are hit, it sends you back to the app.

00:47:59 ◼   ► - Yes. - Right?

00:48:00 ◼   ► So the issue seems to be, at least with this bookings.com,

00:48:02 ◼   ► which has been in a lot of these examples,

00:48:04 ◼   ► that that file is like crazy big.

00:48:07 ◼   ► - Huge, yes. - Right.

00:48:08 ◼   ► So the wild card would obviously be much less data to parse

00:48:13 ◼   ► and much more efficient.

00:48:15 ◼   ► I mean, it really seems like,

00:48:17 ◼   ► I wanna talk about the beta program here in a second,

00:48:19 ◼   ► but this in particular seems like sort of like a crazy bug

00:48:24 ◼   ► that someone probably should have hit in the beta,

00:48:29 ◼   ► but it's one of those things too that's like,

00:48:32 ◼   ► it's not completely within Apple's control, right?

00:48:34 ◼   ► What their parties do.

00:48:34 ◼   ► So bookings.com wants to write this like terrible,

00:48:37 ◼   ► I forgot how, I saw, like Steven Tralen Smith had a tweet

00:48:41 ◼   ► about how big that file was.

00:48:43 ◼   ► Third parties are gonna third party, right?

00:48:46 ◼   ► Like they're gonna do what they're gonna do.

00:48:49 ◼   ► So it's not completely within Apple's control,

00:48:52 ◼   ► but at the same time, it's like Apple's gonna get the blame

00:48:54 ◼   ► and they probably should've had safeguards in place

00:48:56 ◼   ► that if someone had a file like this

00:48:59 ◼   ► or some sort of like situation they're put in,

00:49:04 ◼   ► the OS should know how to handle it better, right?

00:49:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, and it's not even iOS 9.3 only.

00:49:11 ◼   ► I think I saw some people saying it also happens

00:49:13 ◼   ► on iOS 9.2, iOS 9.1.

00:49:16 ◼   ► So it's really a problem with Universal Links.

00:49:18 ◼   ► It just popped up right after the iOS 9.3 update.

00:49:22 ◼   ► And I think it raises another question, Steven.

00:49:26 ◼   ► Should Universal Links, should deep linking be an option?

00:49:30 ◼   ► Should it be a setting?

00:49:31 ◼   ► Because I know a lot of people don't like Universal Links.

00:49:33 ◼   ► - I would turn it off.

00:49:35 ◼   ► - See?

00:49:36 ◼   ► And I feel like we've talked for years about the fact

00:49:41 ◼   ► that Apple should provide a deep link option on iOS,

00:49:45 ◼   ► that Apple should allow users to choose different default

00:49:48 ◼   ► apps for opening links.

00:49:49 ◼   ► Like I want to set Google Chrome as my default browser

00:49:53 ◼   ► for HTTP and web links.

00:49:57 ◼   ► And it raises a question, should this be an option

00:49:59 ◼   ► at this point?

00:50:00 ◼   ► Just make it a toggle in the setting

00:50:02 ◼   ► and let users choose to enable universal links,

00:50:05 ◼   ► to enable a different browser, a different mail application.

00:50:08 ◼   ► Because whenever considering this bug,

00:50:12 ◼   ► it's surprising that Apple didn't see it coming.

00:50:15 ◼   ► It's also surprising that it wasn't caught in a beta,

00:50:17 ◼   ► especially with a public beta.

00:50:20 ◼   ► But it also makes me wonder if at this point,

00:50:22 ◼   ► it should be not an half-baked solution as Universal Links,

00:50:26 ◼   ► given this problem, maybe, but a full-on option

00:50:30 ◼   ► that encompasses not just Universal Links and Safari,

00:50:35 ◼   ► but any kind of link, any kind of default app on iOS.

00:50:38 ◼   ► With an option, a lot of people would turn it off

00:50:42 ◼   ► and they wouldn't have this problem,

00:50:44 ◼   ► but also it would add complexity.

00:50:46 ◼   ► So it's the usual trade-off, I guess.

00:50:48 ◼   ► - Right.

00:50:49 ◼   ► Yeah, and the trade-off is always gonna exist

00:50:51 ◼   ► in a situation like this.

00:50:52 ◼   ► I think my feeling is that a lot of people

00:50:56 ◼   ► are probably confused about the way that it works.

00:50:59 ◼   ► Well, I find it frustrating sometimes

00:51:01 ◼   ► if I tap something and it opens in an app,

00:51:03 ◼   ► And then I left that app in a certain state right now

00:51:06 ◼   ► that state has changed because I opened something

00:51:08 ◼   ► in Tweetbot.

00:51:08 ◼   ► So for me, I don't find them as useful maybe

00:51:14 ◼   ► as Apple thought that people would.

00:51:16 ◼   ► And maybe that's just me.

00:51:17 ◼   ► But I do agree with you that the beta process should have,

00:51:22 ◼   ► that should have been discovered, right?

00:51:26 ◼   ► Like clearly this is not something new, right?

00:51:29 ◼   ► These third parties have been using files like this,

00:51:32 ◼   ► chock full of URLs and clearly Apple system, whatever is parsing those or respecting those

00:51:38 ◼   ► rules doesn't work, you know, right? Like it crashes out. It's odd that this only came

00:51:45 ◼   ► to light after 9.3 shipped. And so I would have said, oh, well, something must have changed,

00:51:51 ◼   ► right? Between the last beta and what they pushed out to the public, they tweaked something.

00:51:55 ◼   ► And that may be true. It may not be true. I don't, I didn't look at the build numbers,

00:51:59 ◼   ► But if old, like you said, 9.1, 9.2 are seeing these issues as well, why is this coming to

00:52:07 ◼   ► light now?

00:52:08 ◼   ► And of course there's always the sort of copycat scenario, right?

00:52:17 ◼   ► Only a few people see the bug, but you hear about it online, then it sort of gets magnified,

00:52:22 ◼   ► people kind of come out of the box, "Oh yeah, I do have that."

00:52:26 ◼   ► I mean, how many people do we know who run into an issue with their device and just work

00:52:32 ◼   ► around it, right?

00:52:33 ◼   ► Like, how many people do we know who use AssistiveTouch because their power buttons got smashed in,

00:52:37 ◼   ► even though Apple had a repair extension program for it on the iPhone 5?

00:52:41 ◼   ► People just work around stuff.

00:52:43 ◼   ► And so maybe this was out there, maybe it was known by some people, and they just sort

00:52:48 ◼   ► of accepted, right?

00:52:49 ◼   ► Now it's everywhere.

00:52:50 ◼   ► Maybe they just accepted that's how it was, and they just, you know, many people in the

00:52:54 ◼   ► public beta you know they put that

00:52:56 ◼   ► feedback app on your phone but like how

00:52:58 ◼   ► many people are actually doing that like

00:52:59 ◼   ► I'd be very curious to know the number

00:53:02 ◼   ► of people who run the public beta versus

00:53:04 ◼   ► the number of tickets they get to that

00:53:05 ◼   ► feedback system. Like forget radar right

00:53:08 ◼   ► like put radar aside right people like

00:53:10 ◼   ► you and I are going to use radar

00:53:11 ◼   ► developers are going to use radar but put

00:53:13 ◼   ► that aside people just running the public

00:53:14 ◼   ► beta just like you know above average

00:53:17 ◼   ► users maybe not even professional users

00:53:20 ◼   ► but they want to see what's coming next

00:53:22 ◼   ► right they download the public beta and

00:53:24 ◼   ► and like, oh, well, this will get fixed.

00:53:26 ◼   ► And they don't follow through with it.

00:53:30 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, I'm seeing right now in the chat room

00:53:34 ◼   ► Benjamin Mayo from 9to5Mac saying

00:53:37 ◼   ► that the quote is from Apple PR.

00:53:38 ◼   ► So there you go.

00:53:40 ◼   ► Apple is working on a fix,

00:53:41 ◼   ► and is working with developers to fix this issue.

00:53:44 ◼   ► I'm really surprised that it wasn't cut before.

00:53:46 ◼   ► I wonder if maybe the people who test iOS 9 betas

00:53:51 ◼   ► just don't use booking.com a lot.

00:53:54 ◼   ► They don't need to make hotel reservations a lot.

00:53:57 ◼   ► - Right. - It's quite strange.

00:53:58 ◼   ► - And you gotta think that there are other sites

00:54:01 ◼   ► doing this, right?

00:54:01 ◼   ► Like, I think there are examples particularly egregious,

00:54:05 ◼   ► but there's gotta be other stuff out there that does this.

00:54:08 ◼   ► And, you know, maybe, I mean, clearly what happens

00:54:12 ◼   ► is Apple never tested for it, right?

00:54:13 ◼   ► That Apple never fed a file this big into that system

00:54:17 ◼   ► and so never saw it implode, right?

00:54:19 ◼   ► Like, I really believe if Apple had seen this bug,

00:54:21 ◼   ► they would have fixed it, right?

00:54:22 ◼   ► Like, I don't think Apple's the sort of company

00:54:24 ◼   ► that let something this big go by.

00:54:27 ◼   ► But at the same time, like, there is some sort of

00:54:30 ◼   ► problem here that it wasn't tested.

00:54:32 ◼   ► You know, we had an email several weeks ago

00:54:35 ◼   ► from a listener about the QA process.

00:54:38 ◼   ► And I find QA just endlessly fascinating.

00:54:41 ◼   ► I did a good bit of it at my last job

00:54:43 ◼   ► and just the idea of like, testing for like,

00:54:47 ◼   ► the path that a user's gonna take,

00:54:49 ◼   ► but then also testing for all the variables.

00:54:51 ◼   ► And my guess is that no one thought this was a variable.

00:54:56 ◼   ► It wasn't tested for, it's still a problem.

00:54:59 ◼   ► It still crashes the device.

00:55:00 ◼   ► This is something that clearly caught Apple by surprise.

00:55:07 ◼   ► And again, that comes back to that QA issue.

00:55:12 ◼   ► Is this something that should have been tested for?

00:55:14 ◼   ► Maybe it should have been, maybe it's so odd

00:55:16 ◼   ► that it didn't cross anyone's mind, and that's fine.

00:55:19 ◼   ► No one is perfect.

00:55:21 ◼   ► Software has bugs, but it just seems like a real doozy to land, not only after the longest

00:55:28 ◼   ► iOS beta we've ever seen for a point update, but also at the same time with that activation

00:55:33 ◼   ► bug.

00:55:34 ◼   ► It's like a one-two punch against what otherwise is a pretty solid iOS release.

00:55:39 ◼   ► This link problem quite nicely encapsulates the trade-off that Apple encounters when they're

00:55:49 ◼   ► starting to open up iOS a little bit more. By extending iOS to be able to redirect any

00:55:56 ◼   ► link to a native app, the solution that they created, well now you have a problem that

00:56:01 ◼   ► if a developer abuses it, if they create an association file with too many domains in

00:56:07 ◼   ► the list, it's going to crash iOS. You can make the argument that Apple should have seen

00:56:11 ◼   ► this coming, and I do, or at least put some limitations in place to say your file should

00:56:17 ◼   ► not be bigger than x kilobytes. But really the basic point is, in any sort of extensibility

00:56:26 ◼   ► feature it's a balance of providing more value to users, so more communication between apps,

00:56:35 ◼   ► fewer limitations when using an iPhone or iPad, but also if things go wrong it's going

00:56:43 ◼   ► to be a problem for the whole system. So by opening up links to behave this way, now you've

00:56:48 ◼   ► got a problem with any link tapped in Safari or Mail.

00:56:55 ◼   ► I guess the bigger picture is the sandboxing model, for example. The big deal that Apple

00:57:02 ◼   ► makes of the way that extensions work on iOS. That a problem with an extension doesn't crash

00:57:08 ◼   ► the entire system. Now with universal links, this is the opposite, because a problem with

00:57:12 ◼   ► an app is causing problems with Safari, is causing problems with any link in any app

00:57:18 ◼   ► that uses this technology. And it's a nice reminder that for any extensibility feature,

00:57:26 ◼   ► there's the other side of the coin, which is quite ugly.

00:57:29 ◼   ► I don't envy anyone's job to sit there and try to come up with all these parameters and

00:57:34 ◼   ► all these angles into iOS that could cause problems. QA is hard. And maybe someone did

00:57:41 ◼   ► think, "Hey, we should put a limit on this," but I'm sure that some of it was done in

00:57:44 ◼   ► good faith that someone who is running a site as big as Bookings.com or, you know,

00:57:49 ◼   ► these others, like, would know better than to do their file the way they did it.

00:57:53 ◼   ► And so whatever happened, I mean, Apple's clearly gonna get it fixed. I agree with

00:57:57 ◼   ► you. I think 931 is probably imminent. And, you know, the world will move on.

00:58:03 ◼   ► It's not the first time iOS updates have had problems, but it does feel

00:58:06 ◼   ► particularly rough this time around, having two of them back-to-back.

00:58:10 ◼   ► But it's, you know, I guess it is it kind of is what it is and

00:58:14 ◼   ► I'm glad that like I haven't seen I haven't seen any issues. I assume you haven't either

00:58:19 ◼   ► I think I would heard about it. You've been good. No problems. I've been good personally

00:58:24 ◼   ► Yeah, I saw Ben Thompson on Twitter. I mean the problem with with the links in Google search in Safari

00:58:30 ◼   ► I just want to say let's pour one out for the booking.com person who got the call from Apple over the Easter weekend. Yeah

00:58:38 ◼   ► I'm sure that was um that was fun. I guess

00:58:41 ◼   ► probably not the edge of I would use but um

00:58:44 ◼   ► Yeah, so hopefully next week. We can talk about nine three one being out and fixing these things

00:58:49 ◼   ► and you know

00:58:51 ◼   ► Hopefully the beta program can kind of be more

00:58:55 ◼   ► helpful in the future with these things, but um, but I think goes to speak goes

00:59:00 ◼   ► To like the types of users to do the beta program as well like especially the activation issue like I would imagine

00:59:07 ◼   ► there's not a lot of people running the public beta on an iPad 2, right? Like the

00:59:11 ◼   ► people who run the public beta are the same types of people generally who are

00:59:15 ◼   ► gonna have the latest and greatest device, right? And so, you know, maybe

00:59:19 ◼   ► there's some like weird vacuum there of users and this was here all the time

00:59:23 ◼   ► and they just didn't see it. Obviously there was a signing issue as well that

00:59:27 ◼   ► may have caused problems, but I don't know. It feels like the beta program

00:59:31 ◼   ► maybe didn't do what I think Apple wants it to do in this in this particular case.

00:59:35 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:59:37 ◼   ► Federica, I think that does it for this week.

00:59:40 ◼   ► Do you have anything else?

00:59:41 ◼   ► Yeah. You see, Myke goes away and iOS explodes.

00:59:45 ◼   ► Myke, please don't ever go away again.

00:59:48 ◼   ► So if you want to find the show notes this week, a couple ways you can do that.

00:59:53 ◼   ► You can check them out in your podcast App of Choice,

00:59:57 ◼   ► which is streaming my voice to you right now.

00:59:59 ◼   ► Or you can look at our website.

01:00:01 ◼   ► This week the URL is relay.fm/connected/84. You can get in touch with us there.

01:00:08 ◼   ► There's a little email link in the sidebar. You can also find us on Twitter.

01:00:11 ◼   ► The show is at _connectedfm. You can find Myke, our fallen leader at

01:00:19 ◼   ► @imike on the Twitter and you can find Federico Evatici

01:00:25 ◼   ► @bitticci and he of course writes the wonderful

01:00:29 ◼   ► maxstories.net. You can find me on Twitter @ismh

01:00:33 ◼   ► and at 512pixels.net and until next time Federico,

01:00:37 ◼   ► say goodbye.

01:00:39 ◼   ► - Arrivederci.

01:00:40 ◼   ► - Adios.

01:00:41 ◼   ► [