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Connected

459: A Train You're Never Getting Off

 

00:00:00   ♪♪

00:00:08   From Relay FM, this is "Connected," episode 459.

00:00:12   Today's show is brought to you by Notion and Electric.

00:00:15   I'm one of your co-hosts, Federico Vittucci,

00:00:18   and it's my pleasure to introduce my other co-host,

00:00:20   Mr. Stephen Hackett. Hello, Stephen.

00:00:23   Hello, Federico. How are you?

00:00:25   I'm good. Welcome to your show, I guess.

00:00:28   It's also yours. Yes, welcome to our show.

00:00:31   And I also want to welcome Mike Hurley.

00:00:34   It's also his show.

00:00:36   Hello, it is also my show.

00:00:37   And Federico, it's also your show.

00:00:39   Yeah, we got a socialist thing going on here, right?

00:00:42   Yes. Yes, okay, cool.

00:00:44   Well, I mean, well, this is the question.

00:00:46   Are we saying it's everyone's show or just ours?

00:00:50   Well, in spirit, you know?

00:00:52   Okay, so it is more of a democracy than -- right?

00:00:56   Just getting hung up on the details.

00:00:59   Where the listeners have elected us...

00:01:01   Yes. ...as, like, representatives of them.

00:01:04   Yes, of their opinions.

00:01:06   Yeah. Yeah.

00:01:08   They elected us representatives,

00:01:09   but they cannot remove us from power.

00:01:12   It's, like, a one-way.

00:01:13   Well, they kind of can, but if they stop listening...

00:01:16   They can stop listening. Yeah.

00:01:18   That's just like, I don't like the leaders, and it's like,

00:01:20   "Oh, I'm going to move to Canada," you know?

00:01:21   It's like, no, you're not.

00:01:22   Nobody ever stops listening to Connected.

00:01:24   Like, it's a train. You never get it off.

00:01:26   You know? Like, why would you stop listening?

00:01:28   Like, I get it for other tech podcasts,

00:01:30   because after a while, they're like, "Yeah."

00:01:32   But why would you stop listening to Connected?

00:01:34   We keep you on your toes all the time.

00:01:36   To be fair, yeah. If you've gotten on this train,

00:01:38   you can't leave. Why would you?

00:01:40   Yeah. Why would you?

00:01:41   Like, if you decided to board, like, you're on it.

00:01:42   Like, other tech shows, like, I get it.

00:01:45   You know, after a while, you know,

00:01:46   these folks are turning 50 or whatever.

00:01:49   It's fine. You want to stop listening.

00:01:50   But why would you stop listening to Connected?

00:01:52   Nobody ever does it.

00:01:54   I had, like, a weird thought yesterday

00:01:56   while I was at a restaurant,

00:01:58   and they were playing some music

00:02:00   that was, like, popular in the '90s,

00:02:02   when I was a kid.

00:02:04   And I realized that, like,

00:02:06   don't, like, call me up on my math here,

00:02:08   but music now to the '90s, right,

00:02:12   was, like, when I was born,

00:02:14   was like music from, like, the '60s and '70s.

00:02:16   And that is, like, a horrible thing to consider in my mind.

00:02:21   Like, the bands from my youth, right,

00:02:24   like, were, like, the beach boys from when I was a baby.

00:02:29   You know, like, that's just, like,

00:02:30   such a strange consideration to me.

00:02:32   But I'll give you this detail.

00:02:34   -Please. -And I...

00:02:35   So, Sylvia tells me that...

00:02:38   So, the kids, the teenagers,

00:02:39   she teaches dance to.

00:02:43   She tells me that the new generation,

00:02:46   they know music from our era,

00:02:49   from the late '90s and the early 2000s,

00:02:51   much more than you would expect.

00:02:55   And she says, "Much more than we,

00:02:58   when we were this kid's age,

00:03:00   we knew music from the '60s,"

00:03:02   which is interesting.

00:03:03   Apparently, you know, at least kids, you know,

00:03:07   this is a very specific example here in Italy,

00:03:10   you know, kids Sylvia teaches dance to,

00:03:12   but they know a lot of, like, stuff that arguably

00:03:16   is, like, 25 to 30 years old.

00:03:19   -I mean, I feel like I knew a lot of that music.

00:03:20   I guess this is, like, what your parents listen to, but...

00:03:23   -Oh, Chance has a good -- Chance makes a great point

00:03:26   in this quarter, probably because of TikTok,

00:03:28   and I think that's right.

00:03:30   I think that's one of the reasons why.

00:03:32   -Well, that and streaming music, right?

00:03:33   Like, you can just search for something.

00:03:36   Like, when we were coming up, you had to, you know,

00:03:38   you had to go to the record store, you know,

00:03:41   wait for it to come onto the radio or lime-wire it.

00:03:45   But now you can just stream it.

00:03:46   -So, let's do some follow-up.

00:03:47   -Mike, tell us about the potential of Lil Widgee.

00:03:50   -So, we have spoken about our friend Lil Widgee many times,

00:03:55   and developer Underscore David Smith

00:03:59   sent us a Mastodon post that he has been sketching out

00:04:05   the true power of what Lil Widgee could incorporate.

00:04:09   So, you know, we said, "Put it in halves.

00:04:11   Well, why not put it in quarters?

00:04:12   Why not put four shortcuts actions in there?"

00:04:15   Well, David has drawn out the true evolution of Lil Widgee.

00:04:20   All the way to Nano Widgee, which is a 4x4 grid.

00:04:24   -This is a whole family tree of Widgees over here.

00:04:28   Starting from Papa Widgee, which is just one button,

00:04:32   to small Lil Widgee, Tiny Widgee, which is six buttons,

00:04:36   Mini Widgee, Micro Widgee, and eventually Nano Widgee.

00:04:40   I love this. I mean, Nano Widgee is unusable.

00:04:44   I mean, honestly, I would say that probably up until Mini Widgee,

00:04:48   which is the 3x3 grid.

00:04:51   -Maybe. -Pretty small.

00:04:54   -3x3 might be too much.

00:04:56   Tiny Widgee, the 3x2, like a 6, you could do that.

00:04:59   -Tiny for sure. Tiny for sure.

00:05:01   Mini... challenging.

00:05:05   -I would just like to, as the creator of the term Lil Widgee,

00:05:09   I would just like to just get out there

00:05:12   what is the canonical spelling, which is LIL' WIDGY.

00:05:16   W-I-D-G-Y. That is Lil Widgee.

00:05:19   I just want everyone to know.

00:05:21   -Right, you gotta have the Y and the apostrophe. Okay.

00:05:24   -It's Lil, right? It's not Little. Lil. Lil Widgee.

00:05:27   -Little. -I just want to get that out there.

00:05:28   I mean, you know, I've seen a lot of people.

00:05:30   -Little. -I'm spreading the good word

00:05:32   about Lil Widgee, which I'm happy about,

00:05:34   but I just want everyone to know Lil Widgee is spelt like that.

00:05:39   L-I-O apostrophe space, W-I-D-G-Y. Lil Widgee.

00:05:43   -Hmm. -Thank you, underscore.

00:05:45   I would maybe suggest you're probably pretty busy right now.

00:05:51   And while I appreciate this, I want to make sure

00:05:54   that we're all getting good widgets, you know?

00:05:56   I don't think nano Widgee is the way to go.

00:05:58   Lil Widgee, though. Let's fill that thing up.

00:06:01   -Lil Widgee for sure, yeah.

00:06:03   -Ridiculous Fishing EX is now on Apple Arcade.

00:06:06   We spoke about this a couple of weeks ago

00:06:08   when it was announced as part of the absolute bumper July

00:06:12   that Apple Arcade is having.

00:06:14   Two things. Fantastic and I love it.

00:06:17   My phone has never been so hot.

00:06:19   -Yeah. -It is unbelievable.

00:06:22   Now, I think this may be a component,

00:06:24   like a double feature of having the beta on my phone,

00:06:27   but I actually, if I play this game for like 10 minutes,

00:06:32   my phone is uncomfortable to hold.

00:06:34   Like, this is, again, like I don't have a case,

00:06:36   which I think makes you feel the heat more, but yeah.

00:06:39   Absolutely fantastic. I'm having a wonderful time.

00:06:42   This is one of the better remasters of a game

00:06:45   that I maybe have ever played.

00:06:46   Like, the core gameplay is there

00:06:49   and they have just done a fantastic job

00:06:51   of really just like improving it

00:06:55   and making all the visuals better, the sound better.

00:06:59   They've modernized certain aspects of the game

00:07:01   and brought like a TikTok aspect in.

00:07:03   Like, it's fantastic.

00:07:05   -Yeah, it's so good.

00:07:06   I think they've done an excellent job

00:07:08   modernizing the graphics and all the little --

00:07:10   -All the funny additions that they have now,

00:07:12   like the revised sort of smartphone

00:07:16   and the apps that sort of serve as the menu

00:07:20   and the UI for managing the inventory

00:07:22   or going to the shop to buy new equipment and new parts

00:07:26   and the in-app version of TikTok called BigBok,

00:07:30   if I'm not mistaken.

00:07:31   -BigBok.

00:07:32   -That lets you scroll through different videos

00:07:34   about fishing and stuff.

00:07:38   -It's so well done, and I remember

00:07:41   when I interviewed Zach Gage last month at WWDC,

00:07:45   and Zach told me and Jon,

00:07:47   like, "I'm working on something pretty wild,

00:07:49   and I can't wait to show you."

00:07:51   And I have to imagine that it's this,

00:07:52   like a total reimagining of ridiculous fishing.

00:07:55   I've been playing ever since it came out.

00:07:58   It's -- The core of the game, it's still so incredibly good,

00:08:03   and it feels so good,

00:08:04   especially now with haptic feedback,

00:08:06   which was not a thing.

00:08:07   I believe when the original came out.

00:08:09   So I love this game.

00:08:11   I love the new graphics, and it's a perfect example

00:08:15   of how you take an old game and you keep its spirit alive

00:08:20   and you modernize everything about it.

00:08:22   It's perfectly done.

00:08:25   -This is -- You know, there's a lot of talk

00:08:27   about game preservation at the moment

00:08:29   because there was a study done about it.

00:08:32   I kind of go backwards and forwards on it.

00:08:34   Like, I understand why people would want it,

00:08:35   but for me, I kind of feel like, you know,

00:08:37   I've heard people say this before,

00:08:38   and I do subscribe to "Old game is old."

00:08:40   Like, I'm just not really massively interested.

00:08:43   But, like, this, to me, is, like, the best possible way

00:08:46   that game preservation could exist.

00:08:47   Like, the work is put in,

00:08:49   and you make the game more modern over time.

00:08:55   Like, I know it's a lot of work, and I know it's hard,

00:08:58   but I'm just so happy that this exists

00:09:00   because, you know, I was --

00:09:03   I, you know, have seen people say, like,

00:09:05   the game was starting to fall apart, right?

00:09:07   Like, if you were playing the old Ridiculous Fishing

00:09:09   because it wasn't updated.

00:09:11   Because, like, the development team behind it

00:09:13   doesn't exist anymore.

00:09:15   Like, the company split apart.

00:09:17   Well, part of the company split apart,

00:09:18   so I'm happy that they were able to work this one out

00:09:20   and bring it together, and it's just awesome.

00:09:22   -Federico, we had a lot of listeners concerned

00:09:25   about your well-being because Meta has turned off

00:09:29   some access to threads from the EU.

00:09:31   Can you tell us what life is like?

00:09:34   -Uh, the result of this is that I'm not using threads anymore,

00:09:38   and I'm in this -- quite the paradox over here

00:09:42   where I cannot use threads,

00:09:43   but people keep following me on threads.

00:09:47   And the thing is, I can only read my timeline.

00:09:50   I can like posts. -You can't post.

00:09:53   -I can do anything else. I cannot post.

00:09:55   I cannot post. I cannot view my notifications.

00:09:59   I cannot view my profile.

00:10:01   I cannot view repl-- I can open.

00:10:04   I can tap on a post in the timeline,

00:10:06   but I cannot view replies to that post.

00:10:10   So it's like... -Interesting.

00:10:12   -...20% usable for me.

00:10:14   And, yes, I've tried with VPN and everything.

00:10:17   I don't know what they've done,

00:10:18   but they've made it unusable in Europe.

00:10:22   And even though I know that's for a good reason, right,

00:10:30   I'm not going to say, "Oh, look at those Europeans."

00:10:34   I'm not having fun.

00:10:35   Like, it's about privacy regulations that --

00:10:38   and we have stricter regulations than the rest of the world.

00:10:42   So I'm not going to criticize that

00:10:45   because I know that it's a good thing.

00:10:47   Yes, it sucks that I cannot use threads right now,

00:10:51   but I also know that it's for --

00:10:54   it's like a little medicine

00:10:57   that we, Europeans, need to take.

00:11:00   It doesn't taste great, but it's for our own good.

00:11:03   So we got to wait a little bit more.

00:11:06   And, yeah, that's why you're not going to see any posts

00:11:11   from me on threads because I cannot post.

00:11:14   And, you know, just browsing my timeline

00:11:17   without being able to do anything else, that's no fun.

00:11:19   So I have taken it off my home screen.

00:11:23   That was a good five days or a week until it lasted.

00:11:27   Yeah. -Well, you know, at least

00:11:28   you can still read minus Stephen's good threads,

00:11:31   you know, in the meantime. -Yeah, but it's --

00:11:33   It's like watching a party from outside someone else's house.

00:11:38   Yes. -Yeah.

00:11:39   It's very sad.

00:11:41   You know, what you need is like a reverse Big Apple Buddy,

00:11:44   but for posting on threads.

00:11:46   So, like, you send somebody what you want to say on threads,

00:11:50   and then they do it for you from the United States.

00:11:52   You know, actually, that's not a terrible idea.

00:11:55   John!

00:11:56   That's a good idea.

00:11:57   Like, you've had worse ideas, Stephen, over the years.

00:12:00   Well, that's true, but don't even think about it

00:12:02   as like a regional, like, political issue.

00:12:06   Like, Tom Cruise isn't doing his own thing on Twitter, right?

00:12:09   Like, he has people for that.

00:12:10   It's not that you can't access it.

00:12:12   You're too busy for that.

00:12:13   You need someone -- -You're too busy for it.

00:12:16   So what you're saying is that I need an agent.

00:12:18   You need a threads guy.

00:12:20   I need a threads guy.

00:12:22   I'll be like, "Hey, where's my threads guy?"

00:12:24   It would be really good if you could find someone called Fred.

00:12:27   Fred my threads guy.

00:12:29   You got Fred threads Fred, you know?

00:12:32   -Threads Fred. -Threads Fred.

00:12:34   -Threads Fred. -That would be really good.

00:12:36   Yeah.

00:12:37   But that is actually a really smart idea,

00:12:39   so you can still put your stuff on threads

00:12:41   and, like, your articles and such,

00:12:44   and you have big thoughts,

00:12:45   and even though you can't do it yourself,

00:12:48   that's smart, very smart.

00:12:50   I did see something where we're talking about threads

00:12:52   about Activity Pub.

00:12:54   So they posted this on threads

00:12:56   and linked to, like, an article on their creator site,

00:13:00   which says, "We are working towards making threads

00:13:03   compatible with Activity Pub,

00:13:05   which means it would work for apps

00:13:06   like Mastodon and WordPress.

00:13:07   Think of it like e-mail.

00:13:09   You can write to anyone with an e-mail address

00:13:10   because it's a decentralized system.

00:13:13   For creators, this means in the future,

00:13:14   your posts can appear on other apps and services,

00:13:17   allowing you to reach new audiences

00:13:19   and grow your audience with no added effort.

00:13:21   In addition, you'll have the option to take your content

00:13:24   and move to other services like Mastodon at any time.

00:13:27   I continue to be very, like --

00:13:30   I do think that they are working on this.

00:13:32   I think the fact that they are naming Mastodon specifically

00:13:36   is just, I think, another good indicator

00:13:40   that they are wanting to do this, right?

00:13:42   Because it's like -- I don't know.

00:13:44   That feels like a lot to just say it, like --

00:13:48   I don't know. Maybe I'm being hopeful.

00:13:50   I don't know, but I think this is a good sign

00:13:52   that they are working on Activity Pub

00:13:54   as their kind of backbone here.

00:13:57   -Mike, would you like to take a victory lap?

00:13:59   -You know what? I actually would like to do that.

00:14:01   So the Beats Studio Pro launched today on July 19th.

00:14:06   So this was the information, the key piece of information

00:14:09   that my anonymous informant had,

00:14:14   which was linked to Chance Miller,

00:14:16   friend of the show, linked to that when, you know,

00:14:18   as Mr. Hurley was giving that information.

00:14:22   And it also confirmed basically all of the things

00:14:25   that we were talking about in the show

00:14:26   in the lead-up to this product.

00:14:27   Affirmation Chance had a review of this product, a 9-to-5 Mac,

00:14:31   and came away with a take that I was not expecting.

00:14:35   It was very interesting that basically with this,

00:14:38   Apple has made AirPods Max

00:14:40   basically impossible to recommend as a product.

00:14:43   So I'm going to give some of the headlines here,

00:14:45   but I recommend reading Chance's review.

00:14:47   It will be in the show notes.

00:14:49   So these are more lightweight.

00:14:50   They fold into a case.

00:14:52   They have USB-C and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack

00:14:55   as well as Bluetooth.

00:14:56   There is some complexity about what you can and can't do.

00:14:59   So like in Bluetooth is where you can use regular ANC

00:15:03   and transparency, right?

00:15:05   If you use the USB-C cable, you can't use those anymore.

00:15:09   They have those profiles, those audio profiles

00:15:11   that I was mentioning,

00:15:12   but you get the added ability because of their built-in DAC

00:15:17   when using the included USB-C cable

00:15:19   to get Apple lossless audio.

00:15:21   So you can get 24-bit 48 kilohertz sample rates.

00:15:24   Is that good Federico?

00:15:25   Yeah, that's very good.

00:15:26   Okay.

00:15:27   So by using USB-C cable,

00:15:30   you can then use Apple lossless audio with these headphones.

00:15:33   Another thing you cannot do with AirPods Max.

00:15:35   Chance says that the audio quality,

00:15:38   the noise canceling and the transparency sound as good

00:15:42   as AirPods Max to him,

00:15:44   but professes to not be an audio file,

00:15:47   which I also profess to.

00:15:49   It has personalized spatial audio support.

00:15:52   AirPods Max don't have that and longer battery life.

00:15:55   From the article that I read,

00:15:57   there are two key downsides that I took away.

00:15:59   Does not have automatic device switching on iOS.

00:16:02   I know a lot of people don't like that.

00:16:04   I do like that.

00:16:05   It works very well for me.

00:16:06   And so that's a shame.

00:16:07   But the biggest I think for me is maybe like

00:16:10   if you take them off, it doesn't pause.

00:16:13   You have to manually pause.

00:16:16   I cut a corner there.

00:16:18   I feel like by not putting that sensor in.

00:16:20   Yeah, that just feels like cheaping out.

00:16:22   Why go through all the work to do everything else

00:16:26   to make these awesome.

00:16:27   But all of this $349.

00:16:31   So $200 cheaper than the AirPods Max.

00:16:35   Of course, the fit and finish is different, right?

00:16:37   Like the quality, the materials used are different.

00:16:40   And so that adds to the light weightiness,

00:16:43   but there's also, you know,

00:16:44   there's a lot of plastic going on in here and stuff.

00:16:46   But these seem like really, really good headphones.

00:16:50   So I just checked the Italian Apple store

00:16:53   and there's a product page for them,

00:16:57   but I cannot buy them immediately.

00:17:00   So it's like when the transparent Beats Studio,

00:17:03   no, what are they called?

00:17:05   The transparent ones?

00:17:06   Beats Studio Buds.

00:17:09   Beats Buds Pro XL.

00:17:13   Well, anyway, the product page was up

00:17:15   and I was only able to buy them after a couple of weeks.

00:17:18   I'm on Big Apple Body right now

00:17:22   and I'm searching for Beats Studio Pro.

00:17:25   Don't let me down.

00:17:27   They don't have them.

00:17:29   They let you down.

00:17:31   They let me down.

00:17:32   They really let you down.

00:17:33   They did the thing they were not supposed to do.

00:17:35   Let me down.

00:17:36   Studio Buds Plus.

00:17:37   That's what that product was called.

00:17:39   No, Big Apple Body.

00:17:41   Wait, hold on.

00:17:43   Oh, you can get these in brown.

00:17:45   Look at that.

00:17:47   Yes, we spoke about this.

00:17:48   This was one of the things.

00:17:50   Yeah, but I'm seeing the photos now.

00:17:52   I love the brown.

00:17:54   They have them.

00:17:54   They have them.

00:17:56   Beats Studio Big Apple.

00:17:58   Is there a way to double check the model number?

00:18:03   On the Apple site, it says new in orange.

00:18:07   So it's not you now.

00:18:08   Here it says 100% authentic guaranteed.

00:18:11   Well, it'll have USB-C, right?

00:18:13   All right, so it says USB-C.

00:18:20   More ways to connect.

00:18:22   USB-C audio, Class 1 Bluetooth, and 3.5 milli...

00:18:25   Yeah, these are the new ones.

00:18:26   They're not on the UK store either.

00:18:28   I think Beats does this a lot.

00:18:29   They're like US only for a little bit

00:18:31   and then it rolls out more internationally.

00:18:33   I posted the link in Discord

00:18:34   and these should be the ones that are new in theory.

00:18:37   And I think even the marketing shots

00:18:39   are the same ones as the...

00:18:43   Yeah, testing conducted by Apple in May 2023.

00:18:45   Yeah, these are the new ones.

00:18:46   They have them.

00:18:47   And I could get them next Thursday.

00:18:51   I've never seen the Big Apple Buddy website before.

00:18:53   Add to cart.

00:18:56   Check out.

00:18:58   You can buy a Magic Leap from them.

00:19:00   Do that too.

00:19:01   No, why would I get a Magic Leap?

00:19:04   I don't know.

00:19:05   It was just like right there on the homepage.

00:19:06   I mean, it's right there.

00:19:07   Add to cart, you know?

00:19:09   Calculate shipping costs.

00:19:11   I kind of want to try these.

00:19:13   You should buy them.

00:19:15   Give us your full review.

00:19:16   I will.

00:19:17   Chance did a really good job,

00:19:18   but I was still good at statement,

00:19:20   but you should buy them too.

00:19:21   I knew you were going to buy them Federico.

00:19:22   That wasn't a question.

00:19:24   My problem with the Beats I've tried in the past

00:19:26   is they're too tight on my head.

00:19:28   I have a big head and I have a lot of hair.

00:19:30   Okay.

00:19:32   I also had that problem before.

00:19:34   Like after a while, the top, like,

00:19:37   the thing is I also know that I'm going to get the new AirPods Max

00:19:40   whenever they come out, you know,

00:19:42   because I really like my AirPods Max,

00:19:45   but at this point from a tech and sound perspective,

00:19:49   they are made obsolete by these.

00:19:52   What should I do?

00:19:54   I should probably get them, you know, for science.

00:19:58   This episode of Connected is brought to you by Notion.

00:20:02   Project management tools are supposed to help you get your work done faster

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00:21:59   That's N-O-T-I-O-N, notion.com/connected.

00:22:05   The link is in the show notes, and when you use that link,

00:22:07   you're supporting our show, so go check it out, notion.com/connected.

00:22:13   Our thanks to Notion for their support of the show and Relay FM.

00:22:17   I placed an order.

00:22:19   At Apple, buddy?

00:22:20   Yeah.

00:22:21   Let's do your buddy.

00:22:22   Yeah, it's the grand return of Big Apple Buddy.

00:22:26   Hopefully, he won't let me down.

00:22:27   Anyway, oh, I see you guys wanted to talk about my HomePod mini.

00:22:31   Yeah, do a little follow-up there.

00:22:34   Tell us about your portable HomePod mini.

00:22:37   So I posted this photo yesterday on the DOM

00:22:39   because it's the only social network I can use, right?

00:22:42   You could use Twitter if you wanted to.

00:22:43   I'm just saying, it's out there for you if you want it.

00:22:45   Do you want it?

00:22:47   No.

00:22:49   Like, I will literally reactivate my Facebook account

00:22:52   before I post anything on Twitter.

00:22:54   [Laughter]

00:22:57   Okay.

00:23:00   I will come back on Facebook with all my boomer friends

00:23:05   and post there.

00:23:08   No, I am not going to do it.

00:23:10   So I posted a photo on the DOM, semi-ironically, as I often do,

00:23:16   saying this is what peak portability looks like.

00:23:18   And the photo had an iPad Pro, a portable MagSafe battery,

00:23:24   MagSafe certified battery.

00:23:25   I think we're going to talk about this in a few minutes.

00:23:28   And a HomePod mini on a charging base.

00:23:35   And a lot of people were like, "What is that HomePod mini?

00:23:38   What are you doing?"

00:23:39   So a few weeks ago on App Stories,

00:23:42   on the Plus segment of App Stories,

00:23:45   I was talking to John about this idea that I had

00:23:48   and this theory that I wanted to confirm.

00:23:51   And my theory was sort of like, before you start an experiment,

00:23:55   you start with a thesis.

00:23:57   Is it a thesis or is it a theory?

00:23:59   What is before an experiment?

00:24:01   -A hypothesis? -An hypothesis.

00:24:03   Yes, thank you.

00:24:05   You know all the best words.

00:24:07   So the hypothesis was, what if the best portable AirPlay speaker

00:24:13   is a HomePod mini?

00:24:15   That was the hypothesis.

00:24:17   And the idea was that I remembered from years ago

00:24:23   that I saw on Amazon these products that turned the HomePod mini

00:24:28   into a portable speaker for the home.

00:24:32   So by portable, I mean that you can move it around the house.

00:24:35   Obviously, the HomePod mini needs Wi-Fi.

00:24:37   So it's not -- I don't mean portable in the sense that

00:24:40   you're going to take this to the beach with you, right?

00:24:42   Or on a picnic with you.

00:24:44   Portable inside the house. That's what I mean.

00:24:47   And also, by definition, a portable AirPlay speaker,

00:24:50   AirPlay is a Wi-Fi protocol.

00:24:52   So portable AirPlay means you've got to be on a Wi-Fi network.

00:24:55   And so the idea was, well, I have a Sonos Roam,

00:25:00   which is a portable AirPlay speaker, and I like it,

00:25:04   but I don't love it.

00:25:05   And so I thought it was probably going to be a nice, interesting experiment

00:25:10   to take a HomePod mini -- and I love the sound of a HomePod mini --

00:25:14   and make it portable.

00:25:16   So I purchased this HomePod mini battery base.

00:25:20   It's a 10,000 milliampere per hour sort of device

00:25:27   made by a company called the Plus ACK.

00:25:30   That's Plus ACC. I got it from Amazon.

00:25:33   So it's this round-shaped battery.

00:25:36   You put the HomePod mini on top of it, and you wrap the cable,

00:25:39   the HomePod mini cable, you wrap it inside,

00:25:42   if you see there's a little ridge in the base.

00:25:45   So that's where you hide the HomePod mini cable,

00:25:48   and you plug it into the USB-C port of the battery.

00:25:52   That's how the battery gives power to the HomePod mini.

00:25:55   In the back of this charging base, there are two USB-C ports.

00:26:00   One is where you plug in your HomePod mini,

00:26:03   and the other is where you recharge the battery.

00:26:07   When you detach the -- like, on its own,

00:26:10   the battery gives the HomePod mini, in theory,

00:26:13   nine hours of battery life.

00:26:16   I'm sure that if you use it on battery mode,

00:26:20   at maximum volume, it's not going to be nine hours.

00:26:23   But still, my hypothesis was correct.

00:26:29   For the past month, I've been using the HomePod mini

00:26:32   exactly like this.

00:26:34   Normally, it's on my desk.

00:26:36   I'm looking at it right now.

00:26:38   But when I want to work in the living room,

00:26:40   or if I want to take it outside,

00:26:42   because maybe I have a few people over for dinner,

00:26:45   or we're just chilling on the balcony with friends,

00:26:48   or maybe, you know, I want to take it in the bedroom or whatever,

00:26:52   I can just unplug it and take it with me.

00:26:56   It stays on Wi-Fi, and I can just move it wherever I want.

00:27:00   There is one final detail that you cannot see

00:27:04   from the picture that I want to mention.

00:27:07   So I knew that I was going to keep this thing

00:27:10   usually on my desk.

00:27:13   But the idea was I'm going to detach this

00:27:17   from the USB-C cable that charges the battery quite often.

00:27:22   That's why I'm buying this product.

00:27:24   And you know me, I'm lazy.

00:27:27   I didn't want to have the stress or concern

00:27:31   of having to carefully detach a USB-C cable

00:27:36   from the back of the battery base

00:27:39   every time I wanted to take this with me

00:27:42   in other rooms of the house.

00:27:44   So in the back of the battery base,

00:27:47   I attached a magnetic USB-C dongle.

00:27:51   And for my desk,

00:27:54   I got a USB-C cable that attaches magnetically

00:28:00   that has a 90-degree angle.

00:28:03   So I'm going to try and take a picture for you right now

00:28:07   and send it to you guys so you can see what I mean.

00:28:10   Basically, when I'm at my desk,

00:28:12   that's what you see in the back.

00:28:14   And when I detach the HomePod Mini,

00:28:17   I'm taking a picture of the magnetic USB.

00:28:19   It's like MagSafe. I've basically made MagSafe.

00:28:22   - Yeah, I've seen these things before.

00:28:24   People were buying these before MagSafe came back, right?

00:28:29   - Obviously, the HomePod Mini does not have MagSafe,

00:28:34   but I've made my own.

00:28:35   - Not with that attitude, it doesn't.

00:28:37   - Yeah.

00:28:38   All this to say, I love this,

00:28:41   and I like it more than my Sonos Roam.

00:28:44   And you get all the benefits of a HomePod Mini, right?

00:28:48   You can take your iPhone close to it to transfer playback.

00:28:52   It's perfect.

00:28:53   You can use Siri, obviously, around the house.

00:28:55   You just take it with you,

00:28:57   and it still sounds the same.

00:29:00   And obviously, it's a bit taller

00:29:03   because it's got a battery under its feet,

00:29:08   or singular foot, I guess, in the case of a HomePod Mini.

00:29:12   - There's a whole bunch of really weird

00:29:14   HomePod Mini mounts on Amazon.

00:29:16   There's one that looks like a robot.

00:29:18   There's a bunch that let you hang it on a wall.

00:29:20   There's a wooden one.

00:29:21   - Oh, yeah, sure. Why not?

00:29:22   I mean, this one looks like a spider.

00:29:24   Looks like a thing that will kill you, but...

00:29:26   Seriously, why would you get the robot

00:29:30   with the HomePod Mini on top of it?

00:29:32   - For an aesthetic, I don't know.

00:29:34   - Oh, I mean, sure, it's an aesthetic, yeah.

00:29:36   - It says protection.

00:29:38   It says here, "Extensive using occasions.

00:29:41   "The robot shape of the Mattertop HomePod Mini stand

00:29:44   "can be used in an office, home, garden, et cetera.

00:29:47   "If you place the stand on a table in your shop or office,

00:29:50   "it will make your tabletop stand out

00:29:52   "and catch other people's eyes."

00:29:53   So maybe that's the reason.

00:29:55   - Anyway, you know when you buy something

00:29:57   from Big Apple Body, you get an email afterwards,

00:30:01   and it says, "Your BAB order."

00:30:04   - BAB.

00:30:05   - BAB.

00:30:06   - Oh, BAB.

00:30:07   - Hey, BAB.

00:30:08   - Hey, BAB.

00:30:09   Your BAB order.

00:30:11   - I appreciate what you've done here.

00:30:13   I think this is a very good hack.

00:30:15   - Yeah, this is like when I put the memory foam

00:30:20   in the AirPods Pro before memory foam tips existed.

00:30:24   Yeah, I should write about this on Mac stories.

00:30:26   Right now, it's been only a podcast-only reveal.

00:30:30   - Podcast exclusive.

00:30:31   - It's a podcast exclusive.

00:30:33   I'll write about it at some point.

00:30:36   - While we're in the follow-out segment,

00:30:38   I just wanna point people towards

00:30:40   the brand new _RelayFM Instagram account.

00:30:44   Steven is posting horrible things.

00:30:46   (laughing)

00:30:47   - Yeah, this is horrible.

00:30:48   I forgot about that photo.

00:30:50   - The face swap photo?

00:30:52   - The face swap photo.

00:30:53   - The face swap, I forgot about it.

00:30:55   - It's disgusting.

00:30:56   - And I wish you kept it that way

00:30:59   because see, that photo,

00:31:00   it's not just your face, Steven, or Mike's body.

00:31:04   My main issue is with Mike's face on your body, Steven.

00:31:07   (laughing)

00:31:09   - They're both pretty terrible.

00:31:11   - No, no, no, but Mike's face on your body is really bad

00:31:14   because of whatever happened to the right side

00:31:17   and the glasses.

00:31:19   - There's like a chunk missing out of my head,

00:31:21   out of my head.

00:31:22   - I feel like there was like,

00:31:24   when this, 'cause these are all old,

00:31:26   like Steven is rating like a Dropbox folder

00:31:29   that he has of stuff, I think.

00:31:31   And this, there was some like face swap app

00:31:34   that was popular at the time, I think, when you did this.

00:31:36   'Cause this photo is very old.

00:31:38   It's like 2014 or something.

00:31:40   - Yeah, it's like XOXO a long time ago.

00:31:43   - A long time ago.

00:31:44   - But yeah, we have that.

00:31:46   _RelayFM is also on Threads,

00:31:48   so you can follow it there.

00:31:50   Not much going on in the Threads account yet,

00:31:52   but we're kind of figuring out how to use it.

00:31:54   Hopefully we'll be able to automate that

00:31:56   when we post new episodes,

00:31:58   but haven't found a tool to do that yet, so.

00:32:00   - Doesn't exist yet.

00:32:02   - Yeah, but soon, but not yet.

00:32:04   I promised that I would report back

00:32:06   on the watchOS 10 beta,

00:32:08   so I'm here to report back.

00:32:10   I installed it while editing the show last week,

00:32:13   and I gotta say, I really love the new,

00:32:18   like full screen, full color design work.

00:32:22   I think in particular,

00:32:24   the activity and weather apps really look nice.

00:32:29   And especially on the Ultra,

00:32:30   like it really shows how big the screen is,

00:32:32   and it's funny to me,

00:32:34   I mean, the first several Apple watches,

00:32:36   how much they did to hide the screen and the bezels,

00:32:39   like that whole situation.

00:32:40   Like we're gonna blur the line between our UI

00:32:43   and the edge of the watch,

00:32:44   and now they're kind of moving the opposite direction

00:32:46   as the hardware has evolved,

00:32:48   but I really think it looks nice.

00:32:50   And I'm hopeful that third-party developers

00:32:53   will adopt this new look and feel.

00:32:56   I haven't seen much, but it's early,

00:32:58   or it's only the middle of July,

00:33:00   but I'm hopeful as we move closer

00:33:02   and then beyond the watchOS 10 launch

00:33:04   that developers will at least have an option

00:33:07   if you don't want just a black background in their app

00:33:10   to give you some more color and some more personality,

00:33:13   'cause I think it's a lot of fun.

00:33:15   And I think that in a way,

00:33:19   like there's something about this

00:33:21   that feels like a pretty big like branding opportunity for apps.

00:33:26   Like if you have a set app color,

00:33:28   like a lot of your interface could be defined by that now

00:33:31   on the watch, like it can be on iOS and iPadOS,

00:33:35   and it's kind of extending that to watchOS for the first time.

00:33:38   So I think it all looks great.

00:33:40   In terms of usability, like it's fine,

00:33:42   like I haven't lost any workouts,

00:33:44   it's not crashing.

00:33:46   I will say battery life isn't great,

00:33:48   but on the Ultra, like it's fine.

00:33:50   I haven't hit low power mode in a single day,

00:33:52   but I can't, I use it very frequently on watchOS 9.

00:33:58   I would wear the watch all day,

00:34:00   like do like workout with it even,

00:34:02   and then sleep with it and not charge it to the next morning,

00:34:05   like while I was getting ready,

00:34:07   and now I kind of find myself just topping it off

00:34:09   before I go to bed, but.

00:34:10   That sounds like a nice life,

00:34:11   all that battery sounds like really good.

00:34:13   It's so good, you should get an Apple Watch Ultra next time around.

00:34:16   Well, I will do, but I mean, I've got to wait now.

00:34:19   Yeah, you can't do it in July.

00:34:21   We spoke last time about the rearrangement of the buttons,

00:34:25   and I stand by what we said last time,

00:34:28   they've got it wrong.

00:34:30   I think the dock was really useful in watchOS,

00:34:34   and it's just gone, like it's not,

00:34:37   I think we said this, it's not even in the iPhone companion app.

00:34:40   It's just gone, it just.

00:34:41   It's like it never existed, like what dock?

00:34:43   There was no dock here.

00:34:45   Control center does not need to be on the side button.

00:34:48   That is the most overkill, like I could possibly think of.

00:34:53   It also, again, we'll pour one out for our friend the side button.

00:34:56   The side button's name is not even capitalized in Apple's documentation.

00:35:00   Apple, the company that names and brands every single feature

00:35:07   they ever add to anything,

00:35:09   just the side button, all lowercase.

00:35:11   The side button has been through many things.

00:35:14   The control center is probably the worst.

00:35:16   You get used to it, like a weekend, like I've got,

00:35:19   I don't like it, but I've gotten used to it.

00:35:22   I do really like that the widgets are below the watch face.

00:35:29   I still think using the digital crown to get to them is a little bit weird,

00:35:33   but it makes sense in practice.

00:35:36   I'm really looking forward to having third-party widgets pop up in there.

00:35:40   Like right now I have a lot of Apple ones,

00:35:42   but for the most part, I think that works.

00:35:47   But yeah, the button rearrangement I think is a swing and a miss.

00:35:52   I think people are going to find it confusing.

00:35:54   Like when you install WatchOS 10, it walks you through,

00:35:57   like this is how you use your watch.

00:35:59   And if you've had a watch before, I'm telling you,

00:36:02   you're going to blow right through it and then be confused about how it works.

00:36:05   Like I just, I don't know why they've settled on what they've settled on.

00:36:09   Remove the confusion part. I agree with you, but remove that from it.

00:36:13   Like not being able to easily and quickly access like your most used applications,

00:36:19   I just think is a bad idea.

00:36:21   Like I think they would honestly be better off getting rid of the entire app list

00:36:25   and just replacing it with something like that anyway.

00:36:28   Like I just can't imagine a world in which there are people

00:36:33   that are using all of the 50 apps that they use on their watch frequently,

00:36:37   rather than the five that they use frequently.

00:36:40   And like prioritizing the app list over frequently used applications is just bad.

00:36:45   And similarly, like I struggle to imagine that constantly opening Control Center

00:36:52   is more popular than having a quick way to get to your favorite apps.

00:36:58   Like I just, I mean, sure there has to be a way to quickly open Control Center,

00:37:05   but dedicating like the only non-crown button on a regular Apple Watch,

00:37:12   and sure the Apple Watch Ultra has another action button,

00:37:16   but on a regular Apple Watch, that is the only button that is not the digital crown.

00:37:21   Yeah.

00:37:22   Just the Control Center.

00:37:23   So all you can do is click once for Control Center and click twice for Apple Pay.

00:37:28   Surely there has to be like, I mean, you know, I'm just going to say,

00:37:34   just do a triple click.

00:37:36   Add a triple click.

00:37:37   Why isn't it just top right swipe for Control Center,

00:37:41   top left swipe for Notification Center, like the iPhone?

00:37:44   Because maybe they feel like it's not big enough.

00:37:47   I don't know.

00:37:48   I don't know.

00:37:49   I mean, maybe.

00:37:51   But you know, this is going to be a thing, right?

00:37:53   They're not going to listen to feedback on this, and come September,

00:37:57   people are going to be upset that the dock with the favorite apps is gone,

00:38:02   and it's going to be the thing that we talk about in September.

00:38:05   Why does the widgets need two ways to get to it?

00:38:09   Because they're the future, baby.

00:38:11   Yeah, but why two ways? You know what I mean?

00:38:13   Like it seems--

00:38:14   Have you heard about widgets?

00:38:15   I guess I'll hear about it twice.

00:38:17   Also wanted to touch base on iOS 17.

00:38:21   One of the beta features that I don't think we've talked about on the show

00:38:24   is that you can finally download map data offline in Apple Maps.

00:38:31   Previously, and for years, if you had a route set,

00:38:35   it would download the route and like information along the route.

00:38:38   So if you're like driving cross country and Verizon drops out,

00:38:42   you can not get lost as long as you stay on the route.

00:38:46   But now you can go in and really like any size area you want,

00:38:53   download map data for offline use.

00:38:55   Google Maps has had this for a long time.

00:38:57   Google Maps even like sends you a little notification of like,

00:38:59   "Hey, your offline maps are out of date. Do you want to refresh them?"

00:39:01   It's all very nice in Google Maps.

00:39:04   Really pretty easy to do in Apple Maps.

00:39:06   Listener David wrote in--

00:39:08   I thought this was a funny way to compare these things.

00:39:11   So listener David writes,

00:39:13   "I get 951 megabytes of data for London.

00:39:16   Painting over to Rome, I get 433 megabytes,

00:39:20   which demonstrates London is the more interesting place."

00:39:23   Correct information.

00:39:25   The courage that this David has to send this kind of feedback to the show.

00:39:32   I mean, it takes courage to send this kind of email to us.

00:39:35   It takes courage to speak the truth.

00:39:38   It does. People say that usually.

00:39:40   London is a more interesting--

00:39:42   Am I going to say that London is a more interesting place than Rome?

00:39:44   Yes, Federico, I am going to say that.

00:39:46   I love Rome.

00:39:48   I'm hanging up on you.

00:39:50   Feel free.

00:39:52   London is a more interesting place than Rome.

00:39:54   Yeah.

00:39:55   Oh my God.

00:39:57   Then why don't you--

00:39:59   You know, next time you should take a vacation in London.

00:40:01   I live in London.

00:40:03   You take vacations in Rome often?

00:40:05   Yeah, I do.

00:40:06   Actually, we do take vacations in London quite a lot.

00:40:08   Actually, we'll go to like hotels and stuff.

00:40:10   Oh my God.

00:40:12   London is a more interesting--

00:40:14   I thought I heard it all on this show.

00:40:17   And then you come out with London is a more interesting place than Rome.

00:40:20   Oh, I didn't say it. David said it. I just agree.

00:40:22   No, but you agree with him. It's like he said it.

00:40:24   Yeah, I agree.

00:40:25   It's pretty easy to agree.

00:40:27   Like, it doesn't actually take a lot of effort to agree.

00:40:31   Are you trolling me? You're trolling me right now, right?

00:40:33   You can't seriously think that.

00:40:35   I'm trolling you, but I believe it.

00:40:37   So you're serious about this?

00:40:39   It's amazing. I love it.

00:40:41   Wonderful city. Would go there again.

00:40:43   A plus of the places I've been.

00:40:45   It's very high.

00:40:47   But it ain't London, son.

00:40:49   Nowhere is.

00:40:50   I put London on the top of all lists.

00:40:52   Yeah, okay.

00:40:54   So if you say to me in New York, I'll be like, "Ah, New York's awesome. I love it."

00:40:57   It ain't London.

00:40:59   Memphis's data was 250 megabytes.

00:41:03   Who cares? You're not in this conversation.

00:41:07   Memphis is the most interesting city in the world.

00:41:10   It's true. Yeah.

00:41:12   But I'm glad this feature is here. It really is nice.

00:41:15   But there was an article going around yesterday about users, or maybe today, turning to Apple Maps.

00:41:21   It was this piece in the Wall Street Journal.

00:41:23   People are very excited about Apple Maps all of a sudden.

00:41:26   It's pretty fun.

00:41:28   I've basically switched to it.

00:41:30   We did an MPU episode on it a while back, and I used it for a month leading up to that episode.

00:41:36   And I really haven't gone back to Google Maps.

00:41:38   It's actually gotten pretty good, at least here in the United States.

00:41:42   What happens if you download this stuff and points of interest and things change?

00:41:48   So Google sends you a notification, like I said.

00:41:52   In Apple Maps, let me go to my offline maps real quick.

00:41:55   You know, they don't change in Rome because our buildings have been staying up for thousands of years.

00:41:59   Just saying.

00:42:01   I mean, we also have the same.

00:42:03   One of the great things about London is we continue to build new and really interesting buildings,

00:42:07   rather than ones that have just fallen into pieces.

00:42:10   Falling to pieces?

00:42:12   Yeah, I've seen the Coliseum.

00:42:14   Oh my God.

00:42:16   In the offline maps UI, you get a list of your downloaded areas.

00:42:20   And then there's some settings.

00:42:22   So you can download over Wi-Fi or cellular.

00:42:25   And there's a toggle that says automatic updates.

00:42:27   So I guess it just monitors it in the background.

00:42:29   And at some point, it just redownloads sections of it.

00:42:33   And then you can optimize storage, which I don't know why you'd want to do if you want them offline.

00:42:39   But anyways.

00:42:40   Yeah, that seems like a really bad toggle to have optimized storage.

00:42:43   I don't know. It seems weird.

00:42:45   This is typically a thing you maybe use in like an emergency or whatever.

00:42:49   Like, oh no, iCloud optimized it away.

00:42:52   And then there's a setting for use offline maps or only use offline maps.

00:42:59   And the little helper text says use downloaded map data, even when you have an internet connection.

00:43:05   So it seems like it's just going to stay up to date in the background, which is what I want.

00:43:09   Like the Google Maps thing is nice because at least it's like a reminder that things change and they're on top of it.

00:43:15   But if it just kept it in the background and it really works, then I'm totally fine with that.

00:43:19   So yeah, this is a good feature.

00:43:23   I don't know what took them so long because Google has had it a long time, but I'm glad that it's here.

00:43:29   I think that is the story with all Apple Maps features.

00:43:33   It is.

00:43:34   That's what happens when you start six years later or whatever.

00:43:37   Federico, can we call a truce?

00:43:40   I love your city very much and I look forward to the time that I get to spend there.

00:43:45   Mostly because you're there.

00:43:47   There's no truce. There's no truce. The show's over.

00:43:51   I said all right. I said okay.

00:43:54   Okay. Truce has been called.

00:43:56   This episode of Connected is made possible by Electric.

00:44:01   Turning a small business into an empire takes work and you have to keep your ear to the ground for things that will help you take it to the next level.

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00:45:47   Our thanks to Electric for their support of the show and Relay FM.

00:45:51   I want to see if I can try and make up to Federica.

00:45:55   Alright, I got something for you Federica.

00:45:58   I bought something and I like it.

00:46:00   Okay.

00:46:01   I bought the charging cube.

00:46:03   Oh, okay.

00:46:05   I bought the charging cube.

00:46:07   What's it called? It's the Anker charging cube?

00:46:09   Well, the 3-in-1 cube with...

00:46:13   The Anker 3-in-1?

00:46:14   I bought the Anker 3-in-1.

00:46:16   Nice, you got the best one.

00:46:18   I think it's really nice.

00:46:20   It's a weird looking thing.

00:46:22   But like, as an object, it's super strange to have a little drawer inside of the charger.

00:46:30   I really like it.

00:46:32   If I could improve it in one way, I would like to be able to stick it to the desk.

00:46:37   You know, like those suction cup things?

00:46:40   That would be good.

00:46:42   But this is a great little product.

00:46:44   The Anker 3-in-1 cube with MagSafe.

00:46:47   Yeah, it's perfect and it's proper MagSafe.

00:46:51   Is it proper MagSafe?

00:46:53   I was struggling to try and work this out.

00:46:56   It is proper MagSafe, yeah.

00:46:58   They set it on the Apple Store as proper MagSafe.

00:47:02   Yeah, eventually it'll support the MagSafe memory feature of standby.

00:47:08   And it's got the little drawer for the Apple Watch charging pack.

00:47:12   And in the back, so when you lift the MagSafe part off the top of the cube,

00:47:17   the back is a wireless charging pad.

00:47:21   So you can put your AirPods there and it's perfect.

00:47:25   The reason I've done this, I also bought the Studio Neat material dock thing too.

00:47:31   I'm going all in on standby, right?

00:47:35   So I've been wanting to try this thing out.

00:47:37   Boys, I gotta let you know, this MagSafe thing's pretty cool.

00:47:40   Welcome to the party.

00:47:42   I don't remember ever being told that.

00:47:44   I have no memory of this.

00:47:46   I have no memory of this, I don't know.

00:47:48   This standby feature could be the sleeper hit of iOS 17, I think.

00:47:51   It's super good.

00:47:53   It's well thought out.

00:47:55   As we said before, the editing of this and only being able to edit when you're in standby mode is weird.

00:48:02   But you don't need to edit that much.

00:48:05   I kind of wished I could turn off the Face ID thing for this.

00:48:09   Just forget it.

00:48:11   But I understand why it's needed for certain things,

00:48:14   like when looking at photos and apps and stuff.

00:48:16   But you guys today actually published a really good roundup on Mac stories of the feature itself

00:48:21   and the products that you're using.

00:48:23   I love it. I like the widgets.

00:48:25   Right now, I've got my main screen up where I've got a clock on the right-hand side

00:48:29   and my active timer on the left-hand side of Timery.

00:48:32   But also it has the live activity in the top.

00:48:37   So if I change to a different screen, that would be there.

00:48:40   I'm surprised by how much I enjoy the photos view.

00:48:44   I just think that that's really nice.

00:48:47   I like that they have the typical featured, and then they have nature, cities, and people that it cycles through.

00:48:55   I found out today a thing that I did not know you could add other albums to this,

00:49:00   which is something I learned by reading your piece today on Mac stories.

00:49:04   So I've added a few extra albums on there that I can cycle through.

00:49:07   This is so good.

00:49:08   Today as well, I was also using it as a now playing screen for music on my HomePod.

00:49:14   So I did the thing where I sent music out to my HomePod Mini,

00:49:18   and it is just glorious for music control, just sitting there on the desk.

00:49:23   This is a fantastic feature.

00:49:27   And Apple, please just make a HomePod of this on it.

00:49:33   I don't want to have to use my phone for this.

00:49:36   But this is a super good feature.

00:49:39   The fact that I have to take my MagSafe thing off and put it on there and put it back on again,

00:49:43   it's totally worth it for how great the feature this is.

00:49:46   Super, super good.

00:49:47   I would say if you have a MagSafe charger, this is worth the iOS 17 beta upgrade, I think.

00:49:54   Because you can use it with most of the features.

00:49:57   Apple's got a bunch of widgets, even if you don't have third-party widgets that you can put on there.

00:50:02   Just the stock stuff is really, really nice.

00:50:05   The way notifications come in on it, it's also good.

00:50:08   Live activities are also supported.

00:50:11   Siri has a special UI for it.

00:50:14   iMessage notifications are great.

00:50:17   And even just the digital clock, like the third page is all about different styles of clock.

00:50:24   And you've got an analog one, there's a world clock that has the same cities you've set up in the clock app.

00:50:30   But just the regular, the first one, the digital clock,

00:50:33   it's got the current time, the current date, the current temperature,

00:50:37   and if you set up an alarm, your alarm.

00:50:41   And it's perfect. That's what I use on my nightstand.

00:50:43   Have you used it when sleeping?

00:50:46   Yeah, all the time.

00:50:48   How is the actual red light thing?

00:50:51   It's very much like the Apple Watch Ultra mode for very low brightness.

00:50:56   It's very dim.

00:50:58   And it recognizes if you bump your charger just a little, it lights up.

00:51:05   But yeah, for me, I keep a very, very dim blue light on at night,

00:51:12   just because we don't like sleeping in total darkness.

00:51:15   And with that 15 or 20% brightness blue light that we have,

00:51:22   the red light mode kicks in every time.

00:51:26   And I love it.

00:51:28   It doesn't disturb me at all.

00:51:30   That said, maybe everybody is different in terms of light sensitivity.

00:51:35   For me, it's basically on my left side,

00:51:40   about 30, 40 centimeters away from my head, typically,

00:51:45   and it's totally okay.

00:51:47   For me, I do feel like this is more of a feature I want at my desk

00:51:51   than at my bedside.

00:51:53   For no specific reason, I just think this is where it will make the most,

00:51:56   it makes the most sense for me personally.

00:51:59   But I'm sure it is great for the bedside.

00:52:01   I'll try it when I change around the docks that I have there.

00:52:05   But as a sitting on the desk and being able to look at a screen

00:52:10   and get some information, it's super good.

00:52:12   Stephen, have you used it much?

00:52:14   Yeah, I like it too.

00:52:16   I've got a Studio Neat stand, which we're going to talk about in a second.

00:52:20   But it's nice.

00:52:22   And at first, when I saw Apple and I was like,

00:52:24   "Why is everything so big in this UI?"

00:52:26   And I was a dummy.

00:52:28   I was like, "Oh, I can have it kind of far away and still see what's going on."

00:52:32   Because my mount is at the corner of my desk.

00:52:35   It's more than an arm's length away.

00:52:37   And so I can just glance over and everything is still really readable.

00:52:40   So I'm digging it.

00:52:42   Yeah, it's really good.

00:52:43   But I do have some MagSafe drama in my life.

00:52:49   Okay. Drama.

00:52:51   So I've been using the Apple leather case on phones for a long time now,

00:52:57   at least during the summer, like shorts weather.

00:53:00   In jeans weather, I usually use my phone without a case.

00:53:02   But I recently remembered, it popped in my head one day,

00:53:07   that in the iPhone 4 and 4S days,

00:53:11   12 South used to make a product that would stick to the back of your phone

00:53:15   like a skin, but it was leather.

00:53:18   So you had some texture on the back of the phone, but it wasn't a case.

00:53:23   I had good memories of that product.

00:53:25   And I was like, "Well, maybe I could find something like that

00:53:28   and kind of have the best of both worlds, like have a little protection on the back,

00:53:31   have a nice textured surface, and go caseless otherwise."

00:53:37   So there's a bunch of these out there.

00:53:39   I found one at Etsy that looked well-reviewed.

00:53:41   There may be others, like this is not an endorsement of a single product on Etsy.

00:53:45   But I ordered this thing and it showed up.

00:53:47   And it uses 3M sticky adhesive stuff,

00:53:52   goes on the back of your phone, and provides a nice leather back.

00:53:57   And there's a little bit of thickness to it, so it's not paper-thin,

00:54:00   so it's not like a dbrand skin or something that's vinyl.

00:54:04   This is leather with some backing, pretty nice.

00:54:07   But it is thick enough where it interferes with MagSafe.

00:54:14   So MagSafe is better with a case.

00:54:17   It's much stronger if you're using a case that also has MagSafe.

00:54:20   And I've been using the Peak Design MagSafe-compatible wallet for a year now,

00:54:26   because I can have it attached to my phone when I want that,

00:54:30   and when I don't want that, like a magnet, right?

00:54:33   It comes right off.

00:54:35   Well, the wallet doesn't really work with this very well.

00:54:38   But to be fair, the magnet also doesn't really work very well

00:54:41   if the case isn't present.

00:54:43   Like just the naked phone, the wallet kind of moves around some.

00:54:46   So that is what it is.

00:54:48   But on the Studio Neat Stand, because it's basically vertical,

00:54:53   the magnetic connection is not strong enough,

00:54:56   and the phone falls off the dock.

00:54:58   Like it doesn't stay magnetized.

00:55:01   You kind of messed up here with this thing.

00:55:04   Yeah, because I like the way that this looks.

00:55:07   I like the way that it feels.

00:55:08   But I can't use any of my MagSafe stuff.

00:55:10   I'm probably just going to go back to the Apple case, which makes me sad.

00:55:13   Yeah, I think that you have made like the -- you've done like the worst thing, right?

00:55:19   Mm-hmm.

00:55:20   Which is that you've completely rendered MagSafe to be useless,

00:55:26   which is a shame.

00:55:27   It's just not something I thought about when I ordered this.

00:55:29   But maybe you've identified a gap in the market, though.

00:55:32   Leather sticky backs that are also --

00:55:34   With magnets in them.

00:55:35   -- have magnets in them.

00:55:37   I mean, it's not -- it's like a -- it's a good idea.

00:55:39   So I have a theory, speaking of MagSafe and cases that I want to share.

00:55:45   I recently went back to the Apple leather case, which has official MagSafe support,

00:55:52   because I have this theory that using, for the past couple of months,

00:55:57   a third-party MagSafe-compatible case has ruined my iPhone's battery.

00:56:04   Up until two months ago, my iPhone battery health for Team Pro Max that I got in September was at 99%.

00:56:14   You know where it is today, after a couple of months? 92%.

00:56:19   That's way too big a difference.

00:56:21   And what were you using?

00:56:22   This is just a theory.

00:56:23   I'm not saying that it's the company's fault.

00:56:26   But for the past couple of months, I've been using the MagBack iPhone case.

00:56:31   Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:56:33   So, I don't know, man. Like, 7% in like a month and a half or something.

00:56:40   Like, what have I done to this battery?

00:56:42   Like, I haven't done anything wild.

00:56:45   It's not like when I go to the beach, I leave my iPhone exposed in super direct sunlight.

00:56:50   Federico, I have another answer for you here.

00:56:53   Okay.

00:56:54   It is called the iOS 17 Beta.

00:56:56   I mean, sure.

00:56:58   My battery health is 93%.

00:57:01   I think because my phone is running so hot so often.

00:57:07   I don't remember what mine was, but I feel like it wasn't that low.

00:57:12   Like, because we spoke about this recently, right?

00:57:14   It wasn't that low, right?

00:57:16   No, I don't think it was that low.

00:57:18   So, I reckon it's the beta that's killing the battery health.

00:57:21   100%, baby.

00:57:23   Yours is at 100%.

00:57:25   Yeah, but didn't you just get that phone recently because you destroyed one?

00:57:28   How old is that phone?

00:57:30   Like three months? Four months?

00:57:32   Yeah.

00:57:33   I mean, so you've got nothing.

00:57:34   You can't come in here and be like, "Oh, my brand new phone is fine."

00:57:38   I mean, I will say, like, the heat is sometimes a concern with wireless charging.

00:57:44   I don't really have it with MagSafe, but my new truck has a wireless charger in it.

00:57:50   And I took my phone off that thing, and my phone is hot.

00:57:53   So, I think I'm going to go back to wired charging while I'm driving around.

00:57:58   Yeah, I just genuinely, like, my phone is hot a lot of the time right now,

00:58:02   and that has only started since the beta.

00:58:04   Like, so I think I'm not surprised.

00:58:07   I'm not complaining.

00:58:08   Like, this is part of what it is to run beta software.

00:58:12   Like, your battery life is going to go down,

00:58:14   and it seems like potentially the battery health is in question.

00:58:18   Like, because, you know, the CPU of the phone is in the top left-hand corner, right?

00:58:23   I think.

00:58:24   That's the point.

00:58:26   I think.

00:58:28   That is where my phone is, like, too hot to touch.

00:58:31   Like, when I was talking about playing Ridiculous Fishing earlier,

00:58:33   like, that's where the absolute heat is.

00:58:37   And so, yeah.

00:58:38   I think we have stumbled upon a classic connected moment.

00:58:41   Okay.

00:58:43   It is time to turn to the passionate ones.

00:58:46   Yes.

00:58:47   If you are running the iOS 17 beta, go check out your battery health.

00:58:53   And if you remember having seen a percentage that was higher months ago,

00:58:57   a couple of months ago maybe, last month before the beta,

00:59:01   if you recall what it was, go take a look now and let us know.

00:59:06   And, you know, we'll see if this is just me and Mike

00:59:09   or if it's actually the beta that has been, you know,

00:59:12   in addition to letting our iPhones run hot and the battery lasting less during the day,

00:59:18   but also actually impacting battery health in settings.

00:59:22   So let us know.

00:59:24   What's the best way to let us know?

00:59:26   Feedback form.

00:59:27   Yeah? You want to accept -- okay, so connecttofeedback.com.

00:59:31   I was just going to come back around to your problem, Steven.

00:59:34   Mm-hmm.

00:59:35   Have you considered, like, a dbrand skin?

00:59:37   Yeah.

00:59:38   It will give you the grip, and it's not going to cause the issue.

00:59:42   I didn't really consider it because last time I looked at the dbrand website,

00:59:45   which has been a while, I'm loading it up now,

00:59:48   I just don't like a lot of the look of their stuff.

00:59:50   Mm-hmm.

00:59:51   Let's see. iPhone.

00:59:53   They have a lot of really cool-looking --

00:59:55   Pro Max.

00:59:56   -- I think.

00:59:57   Why don't you get the one that's, like, see-through?

00:59:59   Oh, there's one that makes it look like the Nothing phone.

01:00:01   They have real leather, but I don't know how thick it is.

01:00:04   Yeah. The see-through one is cool.

01:00:07   Yeah, you should get one of those.

01:00:08   You should get a couple.

01:00:09   You should get the leather one, see what that's like.

01:00:11   Get the see-through one because that's just awesome.

01:00:14   You could get camo because then you'll fit in with, you know,

01:00:19   you know what I'm saying.

01:00:20   You could get the -- I like the teardown skins that they do.

01:00:23   Like, I just think they look good.

01:00:25   Yeah, there's a bunch -- they do a bunch of good-looking ones now.

01:00:28   I think in the past they have had some, like, questionable design,

01:00:33   but these days I think they've really nailed, like, the overall design.

01:00:36   Is the little sticker that goes over the camera bump separate, I wonder?

01:00:41   Because I --

01:00:42   Yes, it's a separate piece.

01:00:43   Okay, because I'd leave that off, I think, if I did the leather one.

01:00:45   I believe it comes in two pieces and you put one over the camera bump

01:00:50   and one on the actual thing itself.

01:00:52   Yeah, the teardown one is sweet.

01:00:54   Okay, I may try this. We'll see.

01:00:57   And for you as well, like, the teardown skin,

01:01:00   it's actually kind of how your phones tend to look, which is just broken.

01:01:04   That feels unfair.

01:01:06   Is it, though? How long have you had that phone?

01:01:09   A few months.

01:01:10   Why did you get it?

01:01:12   Because I switched up from the Pro to the Pro Max.

01:01:14   Oh, yeah, I forgot. That was flip-flop. That wasn't breakage.

01:01:18   You know, I just want to say something about that.

01:01:20   I wasn't going to earlier, but -- and then you hurt his feelings.

01:01:24   But could we just talk about Federico being back on HomePods for a minute?

01:01:28   Like --

01:01:29   No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

01:01:31   You've been HomePod Alexa, HomePod Alexa.

01:01:35   No, no, I don't know. I have Alexa in the living room.

01:01:39   Nothing has changed.

01:01:41   It continues to be the best way to speak in two languages.

01:01:46   I just have the HomePod for me.

01:01:48   It's not a family thing.

01:01:49   It's just a me thing that Silvia doesn't use, that I just use for music,

01:01:55   and literally I only use it for music.

01:01:57   Like, it's only a music device.

01:01:59   Can I ask you a question about the Sonos?

01:02:01   Yeah.

01:02:02   You have the Sonos --

01:02:04   Realm.

01:02:05   Realm. Do you use the Sonos app, or do you just AirPlay to it?

01:02:09   Oh, I AirPlay to it. I don't like using the app.

01:02:12   I like to use the music app, yeah.

01:02:14   Because you said you didn't like it, and I just wondered if you were using the app or not.

01:02:18   Because I like the Sonos app.

01:02:20   I mean, you kind of -- you have to like it if you like Sonos.

01:02:23   Yeah, you have to.

01:02:25   And I do like it. I think it's really good for what it does.

01:02:30   The design is whatever.

01:02:31   I just think it's really cool how you can have multiple music services all in one place.

01:02:35   And I like the way you group.

01:02:38   Like, realistically it's good if you have a whole set up.

01:02:41   Because I don't have one of those yet, but I was thinking about getting one of those little ones for the bathroom at some point.

01:02:46   So I was just wondering whether you were using that.

01:02:49   What do you not like about it, particularly?

01:02:52   I don't know. No, really, just more about the fact that I like to use the music app because of lyrics.

01:02:59   I gotta have my lyrics.

01:03:01   Okay.

01:03:02   And I guess it's easier to AirPlay to a Hump old menu than it is to anything else.

01:03:06   It's easier. You just -- you know, I keep it there in portrait mode on a stand.

01:03:11   Music playing, lyrics scrolling on the side.

01:03:15   It's very nice, yeah.

01:03:17   And the problem is that third-party music apps cannot do real-time lyrics.

01:03:21   So that's why.

01:03:23   I'm sorry. I'm just asking.

01:03:25   Like, can you not just AirPlay to the Sonos and then the music lyrics still work?

01:03:30   Or do they not work then?

01:03:33   Yeah, but I just prefer the HomePod mini as an experience.

01:03:37   Okay. This is not a criticism. I'm just wondering.

01:03:42   Because I don't have this product yet, so I wanted to see if there was any pitfall.

01:03:45   And the ROM sometimes fails to connect.

01:03:47   Like, I would turn it on, and I would try to connect from Control Center, and it wouldn't connect.

01:03:53   And it doesn't have --

01:03:56   I mean, this is pretty typical, I think, of any AirPlay device that's not an Apple device.

01:04:00   Well, it doesn't happen with the HomePod mini.

01:04:02   That's why I said it's not an Apple device.

01:04:04   Apple stuff works perfectly.

01:04:06   Other AirPlay things I've tried don't work as reliably.

01:04:09   So there was that.

01:04:11   And I don't know.

01:04:13   This sort of setup lets me use the HomePod mini in more places.

01:04:18   And I don't know. I just like it more as an object.

01:04:23   And I think it sounds better than a Sonos ROM.

01:04:26   Oh, I think so, too.

01:04:28   Because I've heard them, but I haven't had that one.

01:04:31   I have one other tech dilemma I need to talk to you all about.

01:04:35   There are many questions today, okay.

01:04:38   Dilemma class.

01:04:39   So I went from the two Mac Lifestyle to the one Mac Lifestyle a while back.

01:04:44   How many Macs do you have now? Is that what the dilemma is?

01:04:47   Technically, like, 300.

01:04:49   But, you know, one work computer.

01:04:52   Okay.

01:04:53   I added desktop and notebook for a long time.

01:04:55   I switched over to a 14-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year.

01:05:01   I'm really, really enjoying it.

01:05:03   One thing that I put off when I set this computer up was addressing my use of cloud storage.

01:05:12   So before, basically anything important on my computers was on Dropbox.

01:05:16   Because I would need to access those things at my desk on my Mac Pro or Mac Studio or whatever.

01:05:24   And then on my notebook, right, when I'm working somewhere else or traveling or, you know,

01:05:30   even just like in the house and not out here in the studio.

01:05:33   And that worked really well for a long time.

01:05:35   And I just basically left it as it was until a few -- about a month ago I was traveling.

01:05:43   And I was at Airbnb with my family and pulled up my laptop one evening to get some stuff knocked out real quick.

01:05:51   And Dropbox was like freaking out.

01:05:54   So I restarted it and then it needed to resync everything to my computer.

01:05:58   And it took forever.

01:06:00   Okay.

01:06:01   I don't like this.

01:06:02   I don't love that they had to use Apple's like cloud storage, API stuff.

01:06:05   And that's on Apple more than Dropbox, I think.

01:06:07   But it's like, well, this isn't great.

01:06:10   And I just kind of made a note of, like, okay, take stuff off of Dropbox that doesn't need to be there.

01:06:16   I'm only using one computer.

01:06:17   So a few weeks ago I went through one day and took basically everything that wasn't shared with somebody else

01:06:24   and put it, you know, in documents or pictures or, you know, its corresponding folders in my home folder,

01:06:32   just locally on my Mac.

01:06:33   And that's still backed up via Time Machine and Backblaze.

01:06:36   So like it's not syncing anywhere, but it is backed up.

01:06:39   And there have been a couple of times already where I've been somewhere like maybe I just have my phone

01:06:47   and someone needs something or I need something.

01:06:52   And in the past, because everything was on Dropbox, I could just open the Dropbox app, you know,

01:06:56   copy the link to the picture or the document or whatever, share it with somebody and like move on.

01:07:03   But I can't do that, right?

01:07:05   Everything's on my home folder and my laptop is at home on my desk and I'm somewhere else.

01:07:11   So I'm kind of torn.

01:07:13   I do not want to, well, okay, I am not one of those people who's like trying to rid Dropbox for my life entirely.

01:07:23   Like so much of my work is with other people and we use Dropbox to sync things around

01:07:28   and it works really, really well for that.

01:07:31   But I'm just like...

01:07:32   Worse than it used to, but still good.

01:07:34   Worse than it used to, still better than iCloud Drive, I think.

01:07:37   I did set up, so in this, Mary and I had a shared folder, but it was literally the only thing she was using Dropbox for.

01:07:44   Like she doesn't use Dropbox for anything else.

01:07:46   I was like, okay, well, we already pay for like shared iCloud storage.

01:07:49   We can just get rid of your Dropbox account and put our like family shared folder in iCloud Drive.

01:07:55   And I've done that and like it's fine, but kind of weird.

01:07:58   And on my Mac, at least just every once in a while, I'll go to get something out of that and it won't be local,

01:08:05   even though I've told iCloud and system settings not to optimize Mac storage, like to keep everything local.

01:08:13   And I have four terabytes free.

01:08:16   It's like it's not a disk storage space.

01:08:18   Like what are you doing?

01:08:20   So I don't want to move all the stuff to iCloud Drive.

01:08:23   And I don't have enough space left on our shared iCloud storage to even do that if I wanted to,

01:08:30   which is a problem I have to contend with at some point.

01:08:32   And so I don't know what to do.

01:08:33   Like, do I put stuff back on Dropbox even though it's just me?

01:08:36   So I have access to it from my phone or at least more things.

01:08:39   But then it's weird if things are like split.

01:08:41   I just I don't know what to do.

01:08:43   Why don't you go back to the system you were at before of everything in Dropbox?

01:08:47   Like I don't understand what the downside is.

01:08:49   Yeah, I guess I just had like a bad taste in my mouth after it was like,

01:08:53   I got to rethink everything and I was traveling, but that's only happened happened once.

01:08:58   What happened there, though?

01:08:59   Like, why did that happen?

01:09:00   I don't understand.

01:09:01   I don't know.

01:09:02   I live the life of everything on Dropbox.

01:09:04   And with its potential faults, it makes sense to me to live that way,

01:09:09   because it's like for all of the reasons that you're saying is like everything I need is always available if I ever need it.

01:09:17   It's my entire file structure for every file that I use is in Dropbox.

01:09:22   So it's just always there.

01:09:24   Like, I don't I don't have to think about it, you know, I'm probably going to end up doing that and just like taking the time to sort it all out.

01:09:33   Because one thing I did when I put things back in my home folder out of Dropbox is like, oh, my organization in Dropbox was really pretty bad.

01:09:39   It is like happened over time.

01:09:41   Right. It's like it does with anything else.

01:09:43   And so I think I would spend some time sorting it out better, which would help is probably the right answer.

01:09:49   It's just like I feel kind of sad about it for some way.

01:09:52   I can't quite put my finger on.

01:09:53   I just wish it was better.

01:09:54   And I blame Apple.

01:09:55   That's really the heart of this, I think.

01:09:57   You know, I continue to have problems sometimes frequently these days, like someone will be finished with a podcast, edit or whatever, and they'll put it in our shared Dropbox.

01:10:07   But I have that folder.

01:10:09   You know, it's not local or whatever.

01:10:10   And it's these days typically quicker for me to go to the Web and download it than to sync it because.

01:10:16   Oh, wow.

01:10:17   Just because it's not a speed thing.

01:10:18   It just gets stuck.

01:10:20   Yeah.

01:10:21   And so like unless something is always sinking, I'm having this kind of stuff a lot.

01:10:26   It's just not as reliable as it used to be.

01:10:28   And it is 100 percent because of this the way that they've been forced to adopt this new API or whatever, this new like file provider API thing.

01:10:36   Still don't understand what the point of that is when the system was worse than what Dropbox was using before.

01:10:42   I do.

01:10:43   No one will ever be able to adequately explain to me why that was forced upon Dropbox users.

01:10:48   I find it very frustrating.

01:10:51   And the you know, using my Mac has become worse since then, but it's still better.

01:10:57   Like it's still better than not having it.

01:10:59   Right.

01:11:00   And so like I all my folders are still locally on my Mac.

01:11:04   Right.

01:11:05   And so it's not sinking more slowly.

01:11:06   And if people are uploading things to Dropbox and they're not sinking me correctly, I can still get them from the website.

01:11:11   So like it is a better system.

01:11:14   But I'm now sometimes just having to jump through a couple of extra hoops when sharing folders and files back and forth with people.

01:11:21   But I prefer that to not having it.

01:11:24   And I wouldn't want to be in a situation like you're in, Stephen, where like something goes missing or something.

01:11:30   I need something and I can't get it.

01:11:32   Or I've you know, you expect to have shared something with someone, but actually you saved it to the podcast folder in your documents thing.

01:11:40   I wouldn't want to.

01:11:41   Yeah.

01:11:42   So I would just even again, not as good as it used to be.

01:11:45   You had a bad experience of it, which I understand.

01:11:47   But like it just seems better to me to use this system rather than not.

01:11:52   Yeah.

01:11:53   Because at least it.

01:11:54   Yeah.

01:11:55   It is worse than it was a better than iCloud drive.

01:11:57   Like that's kind of where I come back to.

01:11:58   And if I if I decided to go iCloud drive, it would only be a subset of this because in our shared family plan, we have 900 gigs left.

01:12:07   And I moved more than like a terabyte and a half off a Dropbox.

01:12:10   So I would need to do some some sorting there while we were recording.

01:12:15   I had the thought of like my for some reason, I never thought that my photos were not being downloaded to this Mac.

01:12:22   So from like the originals.

01:12:25   So I just started that process because I download originals to this Mac is the setting you want.

01:12:31   I've done that.

01:12:32   I mean, I do it on my iPhone and I thought I was doing it on this Mac, but the Mac tells me I wasn't.

01:12:38   So that's that process.

01:12:40   That very opaque process of downloading those photos has now begun.

01:12:44   Yeah, that's going to take a while.

01:12:46   Yeah. 15000 photos for me.

01:12:49   It's a bunch.

01:12:51   I think that about does it this week. If you want to find the links to the stuff we spoke about, head on over to the website relay.fm/connected/459.

01:13:00   The links, of course, are also in your podcast player.

01:13:03   There's a link to send feedback or follow up.

01:13:06   So let us know how the iOS 17 beta has treated your iPhone.

01:13:10   You can also join and get connected pro, which is a longer ad free version of the show each and every week.

01:13:17   This week on Connected Pro, we talked about the news out of Vox Media and custom CMS development and what that takes over the long haul.

01:13:26   That was a good conversation.

01:13:27   If you're a web publishing nerd, then you'll enjoy Connected Pro this week.

01:13:31   If you want more of us, you can find us all online.

01:13:33   Federico is the editor in chief of Macstories.net.

01:13:37   He's only halfway on threads because of the EU, but he's Vitici on threads and you can find him on Macedon as well as Vitici at Macstories.net.

01:13:46   You can find Mike on a bunch of other shows here on relay.fm and he's the co-founder of Cortex brand.

01:13:52   He is on threads as iMike and is on Macedon as iMike at Mike.social.

01:13:57   You can find my writing over at 512pixels and I'm on Mac Power Users each and every Sunday afternoon here on relay.fm.

01:14:05   You can find me on Macedon as ismh@eworld.social and I'm on threads as ismh86.

01:14:12   I'd like to thank our sponsors this week, Notion and Electric.

01:14:16   And until next time, say goodbye.

01:14:18   Adios, Vitici.

01:14:19   Cheerio.

01:14:20   Bye, y'all.