0:00:00[Music]
0:00:07From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 476. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace,
0:00:15ZocDoc, and NetSuite. My name is Mike Hurley and I am joined by... I've had a recovery TG.
0:00:21Hello, hi. What a intro. Put something extra on you there today. I hope you like it.
0:00:27It's I feel like a like a it was like a wrestling announcement or something.
0:00:31Oh weighing in at an amount of I don't know how much 10 kilograms from Vittavo Italy.
0:00:40Federico Vitti. Do you like that? Yes, perfect, thank you. I'm worried about you. That weight,
0:00:47I'm worried about you. The 10 kilograms is very very little very little. Very aggressive diet.
0:00:54We're also joined by Stephen Hackett. Hello, Stephen. I cannot do a wrestling intro,
0:00:58I'm sorry. You should try. Go and give it a go. Just see what it would feel like. Try it.
0:01:02I've never... right on the other side of the ring, hailing from Memphis, Tennessee,
0:01:10the beast of the south, Stephen Hackett. The beast of the south? I would say you did a better job
0:01:17than I did, so... Yeah. You know. Something like that. That's good. I feel like I should do one
0:01:23next time. I have to introduce somebody, but I'm last today, so... Why don't you introduce follow-up?
0:01:29From the depths of John Saracusa's psyche, we come to follow-up. Do you know that actually
0:01:36Frasier Crane created follow-up? Yeah, no, John didn't, but John wants credit for it, so...
0:01:40Yeah, but Frasier created it. Saving myself a text message. Let me find it. I'm gonna search slack.
0:01:46There was an episode of Frasier where they talk about follow-up, I can't find it. Never mind,
0:01:52it's not worth going into. We've got lots of budgeting app recommendations. I haven't tested
0:01:58any of them, but I've downloaded a bunch. I've taken a look at screenshots and websites and
0:02:02pruned to what I think maybe could be the most interesting. What I'll say is this is the caveat
0:02:07of lots of the recommended apps are US only, so I can't use them. Lots of people recommended You
0:02:13Need a Budget, which is one of the classics, and a web app called Lunch Money, which looked kind
0:02:20of cool, but it's a web app only. The iOS apps that I have downloaded include Fudget, Fudget,
0:02:25Chronicle, and Dime. These are the four that I've downloaded. These were some of them that
0:02:36were recommended a bunch, and I looked at the app store screenshots and was like, "These look like
0:02:39interesting apps." I will follow up on this at some point in the future, maybe towards the end
0:02:44of the year, if any of these actually stick with me. So thank you to everybody that wrote in.
0:02:49Yes, thank you. It was a bunch of feedback. It was really cool to see. Good news,
0:02:52if you're out in the middle of nowhere and your iPhone is the only thing you have,
0:02:57you can be rescued without paying Apple first for another year. So if you have an iPhone 14,
0:03:04Apple announced today that they are adding, or extending, I should say, the Emergency SOS by
0:03:10Satellite Service free for another year. So now the coverage runs out for the 14 and the 15
0:03:18at the same time, and Apple doesn't have to tell us how much it's going to charge us to save our
0:03:22lives, which is good. They haven't worked out the business model yet, have they? Or they haven't
0:03:27gotten it to like, there's like a business model, but they just haven't gotten all the ducks in a
0:03:32row, I suppose. Maybe not, yeah, maybe not. Or maybe, you know, they're forecasting a down
0:03:37quarter for services, and that's when they're going to introduce this to keep it, keep it
0:03:41afloat. Right, and everyone's going to be like really into it. I went to the Apple store, and I
0:03:47played with the new MacBook Pro. How is it? Okay. It's, uh, the space gray is pretty nice. I would
0:03:53say it's... I would just say the Freudian slip there that you called it space gray. Space black.
0:03:59It's not black. It is not... I want it to be the same black as the keyboard well, and Apple hasn't
0:04:07done that. But, yeah, if you had a continuum with silver on one end and space black on the other,
0:04:15space gray feels like it's dead in the center. So it is noticeably darker than space gray,
0:04:19but it's not black. I think it looks good, but if you're looking for like the black MacBook or
0:04:26ThinkPad or something like that, the Razer series of laptops are all black. Apple's not quite there
0:04:32yet. It's close. It's good, but not, not black. It is funny, right, that like the black of space
0:04:40is just like the blackest black there can be, right? Like no light, you know, and that this
0:04:47space black is actually not that. That's funny to me. In space, no one can hear you complain
0:04:53about a MacBook Pro finish. Yeah, so, you know, that's, you know, that's a really good point.
0:04:58Uh, did you buy one of these computers, Steven? Were you even tempted... Were you tempted to buy
0:05:01one of these computers? You know, we know what you're like around here, you know. The spec that
0:05:05I would want, uh, not the budget right now. So, you know, maybe if I use Fudge-It for a while,
0:05:11I can, I can, I can swing it. Right, you could fudge it and get a black MacBook. Yeah, that's
0:05:15a weird thing about that name. I mean, one, it sounds funny, but two, like, I don't want to fudge
0:05:20the budget, right? I want the budget to be exact. It's a weird, weird name. No, I, I'm, I'm cool
0:05:26with fudging it. I'll fudge it if I get more money at the end. I'll fudge it. I was sort of eyeballed
0:05:32by the security guard at the Apple store, I feel like, because I came in, I dodged the person at
0:05:38the entry, right? Like, where do you want to go? Uh, I was like, I'm a professional Apple store
0:05:42visitor. I know what I'm doing. Uh, went over there, took some pictures, right? Uh, took several
0:05:47pictures. This lady's just like, I can just feel her presence. I can just feel her looking at me.
0:05:53And then I had to go buy a case. And then I left. Did you buy the case because you were embarrassed?
0:05:58No, no. What's it like, Oh no, now I gotta buy something. What can I buy? It's either
0:06:05going to be a USB-C cable or a case. What case did you buy? Bury in the lead here.
0:06:10Something for an iPad for a family member. Their iPad case was falling apart. So smart folio,
0:06:18whatever one doesn't have a keyboard, but is a cover back and front. All their names are stupid.
0:06:23Okay. Uh, I did do the self checkout thing, which made me feel much more like a criminal than
0:06:29taking pictures of a laptop. So if you haven't done this, you pull up the Apple store app on
0:06:33your phone and it says, Oh, you're in an Apple store. It's like, yes I am. And it offers a
0:06:37barcode scanner. You just barcode it. You can Apple pay right there. And then it just, you know,
0:06:41it'll email you a receipt, but then you just walk out with whatever it is. Like I didn't talk to a
0:06:47single Apple store employee. I just, I did my things and left, but I was more self-conscious
0:06:52about this, I guess because the security guard had already spotted me and I made sure to have
0:06:57the Apple store app like open on my phone. So if I got stopped, like, no, no, I paid for this. I'm
0:07:01not, you know, I'm not stealing a case, but that was my, that was my trip to the Apple store.
0:07:06I feel like it was a bold move. If you already felt like the security guard was like
0:07:12on you to then do the self-checkout. I didn't want to wait around, you know, it's
0:07:17so, so busy and it's very disorganized and it's very confusing. And it's like, I can,
0:07:25I can pay for it myself and just leave and go straight to jail. I still never done it myself.
0:07:29Self-checkout. Yeah. Too much stress. I would, I would continue to feel like a criminal,
0:07:36even though I've actually paid for the thing. I don't know. I can do it. It's good that in the new
0:07:42design they have like just quick checkout things where you go to a person and it's like
0:07:46the fine place you can just go and buy the thing. And then like, you've got the thing that you
0:07:51wanted to buy. It's like great, you know? Yeah. I don't know why it was so busy. It was like the
0:07:55middle of the afternoon, but it was chaotic in there. It's like, you know what? Like I can,
0:07:59I can manage this myself, but, uh, that's the story. It looks, it's a good looking laptop
0:08:04and, uh, make a darker one next time, Apple. I have one last piece of follow-up for y'all.
0:08:12And it is long term follow-up because back in the 2022 flexis, Federico made a pic. I'm going to read
0:08:22it to you. This had come, I think on a series of conversations we've been having about like
0:08:27the TVOS app or like the TV app and TVOS. So what are they doing? You said Federico Apple stops the
0:08:34iTunes store app. Apple stops using the iTunes store app and move store content into dedicated
0:08:40apps and lo and behold, uh, news this week, this is from nine to five Mac based on code in the
0:08:49iOS 17.2 and TVOS 17.2 betas. It looks like Apple is going to merge the iTunes movie store
0:08:57with the Apple TV app. Um, you can now buy content in the TV app, but the iTunes store is like still
0:09:08hanging around and there's a bunch of stuff in there. And so I don't think this answers
0:09:13questions about like, well, what happens to ringtones? Like other things you can buy,
0:09:17but at least for movies and TV shows, um, it seems like this is happening. So I would,
0:09:23if they do discontinue this app, I would say that this is now a prediction ahead of its time
0:09:28in terms of a Ricky pic. I mean, as always, I'm always ahead of my time, you know,
0:09:34always a few years. You have a lot of them. I know. I look forward to the, the page in the
0:09:40settings app where you can open a store menu to buy ringtones. That's where that's going to go.
0:09:44And that will be hilarious that settings or maybe it's going to be a store tab in the phone app.
0:09:50Yes. Honestly, wherever they put this is going to be great. Like it's just going to be great.
0:09:56Cause it's not going to make any sense wherever they put it. If they put it anywhere, like
0:10:00seriously, Apple, do you need to keep selling ringtones? Is anyone buying ringtones? Okay.
0:10:04You mentioned the phone app. I think the phone app is, is long overdue for an overhaul. You know
0:10:09what I want when I go to favorites, maybe I'm old and make phone calls and y'all don't, but
0:10:14I want the favorites thing to look like the grid of people that I have favorited in messages.
0:10:20Okay. Like bigger pictures, bigger tap targets. Cause the favorites, it's so old. It looks so
0:10:27old. What if, and hear me out, what if we put your favorite people in the app switcher on the iPhone
0:10:34say at the top. Did that ever shit? Like, uh, yeah, it did. Yeah. It was all of iOS 8.
0:10:42Wait. So that wasn't just the beta.
0:10:43See, that's a good question. Uh, I don't think that made it out. Well, it, it existed, right?
0:10:52So I say it was a thing, but I, my memory tells me that that was in the bay or about didn't ship in
0:10:59iOS 8. I don't know. Well, there's, I found a tutorial from CNET in September, 2014
0:11:07to disable your contacts from displaying in the app switcher, launch the settings app. So I guess
0:11:12it shipped. That sounds like it shipped. That sounds like it shipped. You know what? You know
0:11:17what I think that was? I think that was, cause I, I always say was in the time of iPhones are getting
0:11:22bigger. And I think someone looked at that and be like, Oh, they didn't know what to do with it.
0:11:27There's too much empty space. We don't know what to do. Hey, I got it. When you're switching,
0:11:31put your friends up there between your email client and your Twitter client. Let's put a picture
0:11:36of your mom up there so you can quickly call her. If I ever call anybody, I'm starting that call
0:11:42from a spotlight search. Interesting. Yeah. If like I want to call my mom, I just pull down the
0:11:48keyboard and type mom and then, and then I press call and it never does it the way that I want to.
0:11:53That's also. Yeah. I opened the phone app and I make sure that I'm doing like a regular phone
0:11:58call instead of a FaceTime audio thing. See, I want to do FaceTime audio cause it sounds better.
0:12:02And so I don't know why I can't set that as a preference. And I know that Apple's like,
0:12:07we just do it smart, but it's like, no, you don't like you really don't. And also like if I,
0:12:12on the Mac, if I like press the call button on someone's contact, it opens up Skype and
0:12:16starts ringing. It's like, what are you doing? Of all of the options to choose, why are we using
0:12:22Skype? Like why are you not using my iPhone and making the call from that and like handing it off,
0:12:26which I know is a thing you can do, you know, but Skype, you know, I have to quit Skype quickly
0:12:32because it starts dialing people. Making phone calls is the, is the most use I get out of Siri
0:12:40on my phone. Right. I start almost every phone call just with Siri and I don't, I don't use
0:12:45Siri for hardly anything else. Like on a regular basis. I think phone calls should be illegal.
0:12:50I think phone calls should be made illegal. I, uh, yes, yes. I dislike them. I dislike making them.
0:12:59See, if I had to choose, I would rather receive a phone call and sort of be the one who gets called
0:13:05because what I dislike is calling somebody and telling them what I want instead of want to be
0:13:11on the receiving end and be like, Hey, you bothered me. Tell me what you want. You know,
0:13:15sort of being like, you called me because making a phone call, it's, it's a, there's a lot of
0:13:22decisions involved. Like, Oh, is it the right time? Am I going to bother them? How am I going
0:13:26to phrase what I'm about to ask? Instead of you're on the receiving end, you're just, you know,
0:13:31you are sort of accept, you're allowing the phone call to come to you and it's easier,
0:13:36you know, except in the goal, socially speaking, there's fewer factors to consider. You're just
0:13:41accepting the call and hearing them out. So that's my strategy. Sometimes I call people
0:13:47and I let the phone just do like two or three rings and then I, I end the call. So they call
0:13:53me back and I prefer it. This episode of connected is brought to you by Squarespace.
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0:15:37off your first purchase and to show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their
0:15:41support of the show and Relay FM. Federico I have good news for you. Okay. Your time is coming. I
0:15:48know it's been, I know 2023 has been quiet. You've been having to buy all manner of technology to
0:15:52keep yourself occupied. Glasses and cables and docks and all kinds of stuff. And a Microsoft
0:16:00Surface. Yes. Microsoft Surface. What was it? The Surface dock. You've been really, you know,
0:16:06you've been doing, you've been going all over the place. Well, Apple. I got it. I sold it. Yeah.
0:16:12Is planning to release new versions of all iPad models in 2024. The biggest expected changes
0:16:20are a 12.9 inch iPad Air and an OLED versions of both the 11 and 12.9 iPad Pro. That is where the
0:16:28rumors are circulating. Federico, you have the floor. Okay. I have thoughts as you can imagine.
0:16:37First of all, finally, it feels like we're just, we just, we stayed frozen for a year. We're just
0:16:44coming out of hibernation here, coming out of sleep mode, all the iPad people. So finally,
0:16:50we're getting some new stuff. It's been a long year. And like you said, I've been trying to
0:16:54distract myself to optimize my workflow. There's only so much tech gear you can buy to sort of,
0:17:00you know, just wait for new iPads to come out. So iPad Pro. I kind of want, so I was just listening
0:17:07to Upgrade and you and Jason were literally talking about this, how the 11 inch iPad Pro
0:17:12seems to be pretty much confirmed, right? That they're keeping the 11 inch iPad Pro around.
0:17:17And realistically, they're probably giving it an OLED display. So we're looking at once again,
0:17:22an 11 inch and a 13 inch iPad Pro with OLED, most likely an M3 chip. What else is in these
0:17:31iPad Pros besides OLED and M3? Because I mean, don't get me wrong. I love some good OLED displays.
0:17:39In fact, Mike, I am pre-ordering an OLED Steam Deck because I don't even want to think about it.
0:17:46If it's got OLED, I am getting it. Like OLED is the best thing ever. And I can, once you,
0:17:53I mean, we all know this. Once you try OLED, you cannot go back. I expect what will happen to me
0:17:57with the Steam Deck is the same as the first one where like I don't buy it and then you get on it
0:18:02and then wait for months. But I just hope I don't have to buy this one from StockX.
0:18:06Yep. That's what, that's what you do the first time. Yeah. So, I mean, sure. I'm happy. And I'm
0:18:13really happy that we're getting an OLED display. And in fact, if Apple doesn't do an even bigger
0:18:19iPad Pro, if they do a bigger iPad Pro, and I mean, the rumors are not pointing to it,
0:18:25but obviously I would love to have a giant iPad, but it doesn't sound like it's coming.
0:18:29It doesn't seem like it's now. I mean, who knows, right? Like the rumors are always rumors, right?
0:18:35But everything is pointing towards the 11 sticking around. And I think if the 11 sticks around,
0:18:41they're not going to do a bigger one. I think there's two iPad Pros, whatever sizes they end
0:18:45up being. And I will just say, if you don't mind me jumping in here, you said like what else goes
0:18:50inside the iPad Pro? I think maybe the answer is what's outside, you know? Exactly. I was getting
0:18:56to that. So, I mean, just a thought that I had was maybe a second Thunderbolt port. We talked about
0:19:05this a few months ago when we did our sort of my Microsoft Surface segment, and I noted how
0:19:12convenient it is to have two USB-C ports, two Thunderbolt ports in the Surface. And I continue
0:19:18to think that having two Thunderbolt ports in the iPad will be super convenient for charging
0:19:23and connecting other accessories. But that's the only thing I can think of. An iPad, obviously,
0:19:30any tablet, but especially an iPad, the experience is very much dictated by the accessories you pair
0:19:37with it. And let me tell you, I think I've reached a point where more than three years in, I am pretty
0:19:44much done with the current design of the Magic Keyboard. And I can say this with confidence,
0:19:50because a couple of nights ago, I found myself on the Bridge website wondering, "Hey,
0:19:58Bridge, you got business?" "You've passed over into some..." Turn back, Federico, turn back.
0:20:07Yeah, they're not even a company anymore, right? No, they are. They got acquired by an investment
0:20:14group, which is typically not a great sentence to utter, but they got acquired by a firm,
0:20:22and the website is back. Their iPad keyboard is out of stock, unfortunately. So who knows what they're doing.
0:20:31Yeah, that's not... okay. But I ended up on that website because I... So, look, I like the Magic
0:20:41Keyboard. It was good for its time. What's it called, the design? What's the right way to
0:20:46pronounce it? Cantilever? Cantilever? Cantilever, yeah. That design was fancy at the time.
0:20:53Fun fact, I recently found myself shopping for chairs for a new apartment, and you won't believe
0:21:02how many fancy design chairs have the Cantilever design these days. Anyway, the Magic Keyboard was
0:21:10good for its time, but now I just want something like the Bridge Keyboard. Like, give me a proper
0:21:15laptop keyboard with a bigger trackpad, function keys, backlit, and the thing is multiple viewing
0:21:23angles. I found myself reaching for my MacBook Air when I want to watch something in bed, like a
0:21:32quick YouTube video, because it's just easier to put a laptop on your lap and adjust the viewing
0:21:39angle of the screen, which is impossible to do with the Magic Keyboard for the iPad because it's
0:21:43got limited viewing angles due to that design. And so that's why I ended up on the Bridge website,
0:21:49looking at that keyboard. Do you remember the Razer iPad keyboard? I had it, yes. I know you did,
0:21:56I just wondered if you remembered it. It was like laptop style, but they had like mechanical switches
0:22:01and the keys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that one broke for me after a few months, and Razer never got
0:22:07back about my support email, so yeah. Because they sold one of them. Yeah, you're the only one.
0:22:14I've tried them all, I've tried them all, just let me turn my iPad into a laptop. And look,
0:22:21my thought here is pretty simple. You don't need, and Apple in fact is going to love my suggestions
0:22:26because Apple likes money, you don't need to stop selling the Magic Keyboard. Keep making the Magic
0:22:31Keyboard, but also either call it Pro Keyboard or Magic Keyboard Pro. Make a fancier, read more
0:22:40expensive version that really turns your iPad into a laptop. And if I'm not mistaken, Gherman
0:22:47was pointing to this kind of accessory months ago with a Pro Keyboard made of aluminum, similar to a
0:22:54laptop style keyboard. I want that at this point, just give me that. So yeah. What I was
0:23:01saying on that is it seems like the logical thing to do, right? But I won't put it past them to do
0:23:08something interesting and weird, right? Because the Magic Keyboard is a cool design, and I understand
0:23:16that after a while you stop appreciating what's cool about it and focus on what you don't like
0:23:22about it. But when they announced that, it was like, wow. Yeah, sure. Because it did a lot of
0:23:27things we wanted them to do, right? Like it had an integrated trackpad, back click keys, like all
0:23:33that kind of stuff, but it did the physical part differently. But yeah, I have not used one
0:23:41seriously for a very long time, but I had all of these problems that you're talking about, right?
0:23:45Like it is limited in how you can look at the screen. And what I always found like frustrating
0:23:52from it compared to the smart keyboard was it's an iPad, right? But the keyboard's always there now.
0:23:59Like I actually didn't like that part, but I don't think a laptop style will fix that. It's like with
0:24:04the smart keyboard, you just flip it around to the back and the keyboard's not in front of you,
0:24:07right? But with the Magic Keyboard, it's like the keyboard's always there and they should take it
0:24:12out. So I don't think it was awesome, comparatively, but I don't know. iPad Air. So we're going to get
0:24:20a 12.9 inch version of the iPad Air. Why? Why would they do it? I don't know. And my big question here
0:24:29is how are they going to differentiate between the 12.9 inch iPad Pro and the iPad Air besides the
0:24:37OLED screen? Is it going to be about the Thunderbolt port? I doubt that the iPad Air is going to get
0:24:44Thunderbolt. Is it going to be about the accessories? Are they really going to do a
0:24:49Pro keyboard that is iPad Pro only? The iPad Air and the iPad Pro are already quite similar
0:24:56with each other, right? You can use Stage Manager with an iPad Air. You can use the Magic Keyboard
0:25:01with an iPad Air. It's USB-C. It's not Thunderbolt, but it's USB-C. So the differences are really all
0:25:09about the screen. If we are getting an iPad Air with the same size and the same design,
0:25:14the only differentiating factor, what's it going to be? OLED and just that? So I am really
0:25:20intrigued and quite skeptical, honestly, about this bigger iPad Air. I mean, it's going to be
0:25:28a pretty sweet tablet for sure, but I guess the differences between... As things stand now with
0:25:35the limited information we know from the rumors, it's going to be tricky to explain the differences
0:25:40between the 12.9-inch iPad Air and the equivalent size of the iPad Pro. I have no idea what to
0:25:48expect here. Yeah, and Zach brings up in the Discord that they make a big MacBook Air and a
0:25:53big MacBook Pro. They're all different sizes, first of all, and just looking at an Air and a Pro,
0:25:59you can see the differences. Even if you don't understand that one has this processor or this
0:26:03one that has this processor, one is thicker and comes with more ports, and you can kind of
0:26:08instantly see that there are some differences, even if they just appear skin deep. And maybe the
0:26:14idea of the second port would help the iPad Pro. I think they 100% should do that. I do wonder if
0:26:20they make a big iPad Air, if it gives Apple the breathing room to take the Pro and make it even
0:26:27more high-end, that you can add even more things to it and make it more expensive. And maybe OLED
0:26:35will do that on its own, right? Maybe OLED will force the price up, but it's interesting to think
0:26:43how they could make them more different. But to your point, I don't think LCD versus OLED
0:26:50is enough for most people just walking into an Apple store, right? We know the differences,
0:26:55and some people can see them once it's pointed out to them, but a lot of people just don't care.
0:26:59And it just seems like a confusing move in what is already a pretty confusing product lineup.
0:27:05I'm not trying to troll here, but I'm just trying to make a point. I'll say to you,
0:27:11Steven, as the one who's the most well-versed, what does a MacBook Pro have that a MacBook Air
0:27:16doesn't? What differentiates those products? Like just looking at them?
0:27:20Oh, like from a product line. What makes them different? I guess also looking at them, yeah.
0:27:25Yeah, I mean, you've got HDMI, SD card slot, and extra Thunderbolt port right off the bat.
0:27:30For more ports.
0:27:31More ports. And then of course it is a nicer screen, but I think the ports are like what...
0:27:36It is going in and looking at them, the ports are what stand out. And the iPad Air and iPad Pro,
0:27:43unless there's something coming we don't foresee, they don't look any different, right? Even going
0:27:48to the Apple store earlier this week, just looking down the iPad table, I was like,
0:27:54oh, some of them are brightly colored now, but I don't know which ones are, right? They all look
0:27:58the same, they all have the same industrial design. And maybe we're going to see some industrial design
0:28:02changes that come to the Pro that maybe don't come to the Air. But I just, I don't know if Apple's
0:28:07doing a good job explaining, let alone selling these things to people who need some education
0:28:12about the differences. Can we talk about the best iPad?
0:28:15The iPad mini.
0:28:16They're just not going to do any of the things that I want them to do.
0:28:18No.
0:28:19No, they're not.
0:28:20Except for one, which is fix the screen problems that I have.
0:28:23They're probably going to fix the jelly scrolling, but this is not going to be mini LED, let alone
0:28:29OLED.
0:28:30How sick would that be though?
0:28:32Oh, don't even. Just don't even.
0:28:34Just imagine a seven inch OLED iPad mini. Oh my word. I mean, even like, here's the thing I
0:28:42wanted to say about the iPad Pro. The 11 inch iPad Pro with OLED could be a really compelling device
0:28:50at this point. I've always resisted the temptation of the small iPad Pro because I love a big tablet,
0:28:56I love a bigger iPad OS UI, but really it was the screen. I wanted to have the liquid retina XDR
0:29:02display on the big iPad Pro. But if the small iPad Pro gets OLED and the same keyboard as,
0:29:09like if there are no more differences between the 11 inch iPad Pro and the 12.9 inch iPad Pro,
0:29:14I think I'm going to have to think about it. Because I mean, when I dock my iPad at the desk
0:29:19and work with the studio display, I have the studio display anyway.
0:29:23Right.
0:29:23But then when you take it out of the case and you're using it as a tablet,
0:29:28it's much more comfortable. And if it has OLED, that could be a real compelling product at that
0:29:35size. But we'll see. Still, iPad mini. I think we're going to be lucky. I'm going to say
0:29:42something that probably is not going to come true. Maybe promotion on an LCD display?
0:29:49Is that I don't see it, but I don't think promotion will come to a non pro product,
0:29:55which is unfortunate, at least not at least not now. All the things I want from the iPad
0:30:00mini I'm not going to get the one thing that I'll ask for, which is like a random thing.
0:30:03I wish the screen could be darker at its dimmest level, like reading in bed on that iPad at its
0:30:10dimmest level. Still quite bright. Would like it to be darker as a very strange request,
0:30:15but I think would make sense for the iPad mini, because I'm sure for a lot of people,
0:30:18it is a reading device. Can I interest you, Mike, in some glasses you can use? No, because you know
0:30:26what, Federico, I'm trying to reduce the amount of light that goes into my eyes. I don't want to
0:30:31beam it directly into my eyes. It's definitely going to be closer. It's a small, you take one
0:30:37for the team. You get all the light, but you don't bother Adina. You know, it's not for Adina. It's
0:30:43just for me. Okay. She's fine. Then you're selfish. So well, but she's not bothered by it Federico.
0:30:49Maybe she's not telling you out of kindness. I love my wife very much.
0:30:57If something was interrupting her sleep, she wouldn't keep it to herself.
0:31:03She would 100% tell me. Could I interest you, Mike, in an e-ink device shaped like a phone?
0:31:13I'm reading comics, which is the problem. So what are you reading? Spider-Man. Oh, okay. Right now.
0:31:21Ultimate Spider-Man. Hopefully not on Comixology. No Marvel Unlimited, which is probably one of the
0:31:28main reasons that Comixology is going the way that it is. Like you just pay a subscription to Marvel
0:31:33and you have access to everything. So yeah, I mean at the end of this sort of a spin-off of
0:31:39a rumor round-up, I guess. I think the iPad line, obviously, and it's not just me, we all think that
0:31:45the iPad line is confusing, needs simplification, needs clarity, and I mean really needs anything,
0:31:51needs something new. We've gone a whole year without no changes in the iPad lineup, which is
0:31:56unusual to say the least. I am excited about OLED. I don't know what else it's going to be in this
0:32:06device. The two things that I'm looking forward to are the new displays and the new keyboard.
0:32:12Will that be enough to reignite the enthusiasm for iPad Pro in other people? I don't know.
0:32:20I think obviously it's way too soon to even talk about foldable devices. That's way down the line
0:32:27at this point. Who knows? Maybe by this time next year, you know, maybe by this time November 2024,
0:32:33I won't be an iPad user primarily anymore. I'll be a Vision Pro user primarily. Who knows what's
0:32:40going to happen next year? Maybe we'll be recording episode 500 and something unconnected and we're
0:32:46all going to be wearing Vision Pro headsets. So we'll see. But for sure, I think we need to...
0:32:54I want to see what they do on the Pro line and on the Air, and I'm just... I know that I'm going
0:32:59to be sad about the Mini, because I already know that's going to happen. It's going to be a minor
0:33:03spec bump and it's unfortunate, but it is what it is. Do we have a branding issue? You said that we
0:33:09were the spin-off of Rumor Roundup, so I looked in the thesaurus for other words that mean "rumor."
0:33:15Maybe we can pick our own name. Gossip, hearsay, tittle-tattle, the grapevine, like you heard it
0:33:23through the grapevine, word on the street. I could go for a word pun instead of... We could be the
0:33:34you know the TV show Gossip Girl. We could be the gossip trio, maybe. Can I make a suggestion? Yeah.
0:33:41Rumor Roundup, tittle-tattle, corral. It's pretty good. There's also scuttlebutt. Speculation, whisper.
0:33:48Scuttlebutt. I like scuttlebutt. Me too. What's the scuttlebutt? What's the scuttlebutt? All right,
0:33:58that's what we're doing. Okay. App Store Awards. Apple has announced close to 40 finalists. So
0:34:06are these winners? Is it like a sudden death? No, they're finalists. Well, it's like the AGAs at
0:34:13this point. It's the same format. They are pre-announcing the... There's lots of winners.
0:34:16They're pre-announcing the finalists and they're going to announce the winners, usually at the end
0:34:21of November, so like in a couple of weeks. So this is a way to get two stories out of one on Apple's
0:34:26part. Exactly. Got it. And to get people to click on the links and sign up for some subscriptions on
0:34:34the App Store, I guess. What can I say? I mean, it's the same format as the Apple Design Awards.
0:34:38They've been doing this for a few years now. I think it works well for them and it works in the
0:34:44context of putting the spotlight on multiple different apps. There are some usual names in
0:34:50here, right? What's the point of two different award ceremonies but overlapping apps?
0:34:57One is in the summer, one is in the winter. I feel like it would be better if maybe they...
0:35:02They're not enough for you? Split it out a bit more and didn't keep awarding Duolingo
0:35:09all the time. Duolingo, Endling, Flighty... I mean, this is like the Avengers of the apps, right?
0:35:16Photonator. Like these are all really good, but it's like also very funny again, Mac Game of the
0:35:24Year. This time, Friendship Ended of Resident Evil. Lies of Pee is my new best friend. It's
0:35:30gonna be Lies of Pee. Oh, you know it's gonna be Lies of Pee. Speaking of which, I kind of really
0:35:35want to play Lies of Pee, Mike. You should play it on the Mac, man. Why not? No, no. Did they put
0:35:40it on the iPad or is it just on the Mac? No, it's just on the Mac. Steven, do you know what Lies of
0:35:45Pee is? No. So it's... Are you familiar with the Dark Souls game or Elden Ring, for example? I
0:35:52know the name Elden Ring. So they're really gothic, super hard video games. Super hard video game for
0:36:00capital G gamers. But this one is so inspired by those games, but it's a it's a dystopian
0:36:07sort of version of the Pinocchio world. The P is for Pinocchio and you play as this P character
0:36:15and in the game you need to upgrade your P organ. That was... If you didn't say it, I was gonna say
0:36:22it. This is legit. It's called the P organ. It's actually a pretty good video game, Steven.
0:36:27Called the P organ. People really like Lies of Pee. And obviously the Lies, right? Because,
0:36:33you know, he has to tell the truth. Oh, it's not Liza like a name. No, it's the like Lies.
0:36:39Because it really it should be the Lies of Pee, but it's not. It's just Lies of Pee
0:36:44as then there is the game. And it is a legit AAA video game that debuted this year also on the Mac,
0:36:52which is now the second one to do this, which is cool. It's 60 bucks in the Mac App Store. It's a
0:36:58serious video game and it's actually quite... It looks like a lot of fun and I kind of want to play
0:37:04it on... It's just gonna get good. I gotta get good at the P organ. So yeah, this finalist,
0:37:11this format, I think it works for Apple. Therefore it works for us, I guess. I just think it's a
0:37:17little bit unfair that Apple split the App Store awards into two so they can get out ahead of the
0:37:25upgradees and the Mac story select awards. I just think... I know, right? I think it's a travesty,
0:37:30honestly. And this... So I'm announcing now the upgradees will happen in both September
0:37:37and October and November and December next year. Cool, perfect. Just a couple of shout outs from
0:37:44this list of apps because it's always cool to see some indie darlings in here. Concepts for iPad,
0:37:51very cool to see that drawing and sketching app in here. And I also want to give a shout out to
0:37:56Planny, which is a really interesting, good looking sort of task manager slash to-do list
0:38:04app and Smart Gym. I know the developer of Smart Gym, we've met up a couple of times at WWDC.
0:38:10Great developer and it's really cool to see the recognition for Smart Gym in the Apple Watch App
0:38:17of the Year finalists. So a couple of shout outs that I wanted to give on the show.
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0:40:17and Relay FM. We should talk about the Humain AI pen. After what feels like 400 years of hyping,
0:40:27Humain has finally unveiled their product, although it did leak the night before,
0:40:34basically completely to the verge, which is incredible. We should also note our friend
0:40:40David Pierce flew to California to be at the unveiling and then was uninvited,
0:40:46along with some other people, not just him. Incredible though, right?
0:40:50I want to separate the introduction of the product and the product itself, because of course,
0:40:54the introduction, if you haven't seen the video, my word, go watch the video, but it's pretty bad.
0:41:01It's pretty bad. Actual errors in the video, like when he's asking the AI things and it just gets
0:41:09it wrong and they just left it in. Like fact check your video, dub an audio, do something to make it
0:41:15correct. Weird pacing, they talked about batteries and design before what the thing actually did.
0:41:20I think the big thing, and Jason said this really succinctly on upgrade, was like,
0:41:24people like their phones and this thing is pitching a world without your phone and that's just not
0:41:31a feature that hardly anybody wants. So they did it. I don't think they did a good job in the video
0:41:37in the introduction, but ultimately the big picture, like it did work because we do know
0:41:43what this thing is and does. It's just the way they did it was pretty amateur hour.
0:41:50There's probably going to be a lot of hot takes over this next segment, so I'll start.
0:41:54I didn't think the video was that bad. I really didn't. I kind of liked the vibe of it,
0:42:00to be honest. Like it was different. Was it the best? Probably not, but I kind of liked
0:42:06the chillness of it. It was like there was a carbon monoxide leak in the room. I mean,
0:42:11it was, it was below chill, I think. Yeah, but like sometimes people were too over the top.
0:42:19Yeah, that's, you know, low key chill is the new cool, you know? So like being like, yeah,
0:42:24we made this thing. It's like that, that vibe. It doesn't, the vibe of it was fine, fine in my,
0:42:31for me, but like it didn't change the fact that I 100% came away from it feeling like they were
0:42:37just too high on their own supply. Yes. Right? Like, yeah, that comes, you've never seen a video
0:42:42with people who believe in themselves more than this video. Like, and that is good and bad. I
0:42:48think that it led to good and bad decisions in their product. Like, because I also don't think
0:42:55that it is inherently seems like a bad product. There are just some assumptions that they make
0:43:01that I think are fundamentally flawed, which is why this won't work. But like as a piece of
0:43:06hardware, it looks fine. It looks nice. Actually, I think some of the decisions that they made
0:43:11are smart, like the idea that you don't speak to it, you like touch it and then speak to it.
0:43:17I kind of like that personally, the overall hardware design, I think is pretty cool. I
0:43:22like the case. I think that the battery booster thing is a clever way to get around the fact that
0:43:29the battery is going to need to be changed multiple times a day. Like I think you get
0:43:32a lot in the package. I think the fact that you have to pay a multi-subscription for this thing,
0:43:38as well as the money is not great. The fact that you need a phone number, not good, right? Like
0:43:44when it's like, we're getting rid of the phone by giving you a new phone number. It's like,
0:43:48all right. Like, and that's the high on their own supply thing, which I think is a problem. They
0:43:53think they've solved a problem and they just introduced new ones, you know? Yeah. So, so my
0:43:58reaction to this and okay, I mean, Mike said that it's fine to have outtakes in this segment.
0:44:04So I, I kind of like this product, but I feel like there's, there's an underlying issue here,
0:44:15which is pitching this as the next step instead of using a phone. I think there's a lot of people
0:44:23in certain Silicon Valley circles, you know, the folks who go to, to what's it called burning man
0:44:31and the folks who micro dose and, you know, tons of people who do ayahuasca and those sorts of
0:44:35things. A lot of folks are like, Oh, the future, what if we got rid of phones and instead of phones,
0:44:42you had lasers on your head. Like, I can imagine sort of the pitch for this, which is fundamentally
0:44:49flawed because people love that's the worst part, the laser part. They should just not have had
0:44:53that. That just shouldn't be there, but they clearly spent way too much time on that. And
0:44:58according to the New York times article that was about the launch, that's what they had first.
0:45:02And they spent a lot of time shrinking that down. I don't know when AI got added to this thing.
0:45:09Couldn't have been, couldn't have been any sooner than October realistically. Doesn't the time story
0:45:14literally mention a shaman or something like that? Like that they met through their massage
0:45:20therapist or something. Acupuncturist. They're either going to make a device for woman's health
0:45:27or this. And the shaman said, do this. So they did this. Of course it did. Yeah. So the thing is
0:45:34brother spirit was that person's name by the way. Brother spirit. So if you can, that's,
0:45:39who was the guy, was it Chingy? Oh yeah. The digital prophet. Is it that guy? Just a different
0:45:44name. Same guy keeps rebranding himself to keep up with the ages. So here's the thing. This is
0:45:54actually a pretty cool piece of art where I feel like, but it comes from a place of nonsensical
0:46:02planning that is ultimately, I feel like gonna result in a failure for this product in particular,
0:46:11but at the same time, so multiple things can be true in my hot takes. I think at the same time,
0:46:18I kind of want something like this in my life. Me too. I kind of, because I see the use case
0:46:24and you may ask why. And let me tell you very practically speaking, there are many times,
0:46:30because I've seen a lot of people say like, oh, isn't there, isn't just this an Apple watch with
0:46:34Siri? No, it's not. The thing is there are so many times and dog owners will understand me or folks
0:46:41who go out and buy groceries and come back with multiple bags of groceries will understand me.
0:46:46Perhaps you're buying groceries and you need to hold the leash of your dog. At the same time,
0:46:54my hands are occupied, right? And I have the dogs and maybe the plastic bags for my groceries,
0:47:00and I cannot physically turn my wrist or use my second hand to interact with the Apple watch.
0:47:10But I need to look at something real quick or I need to, you know, I need to do something.
0:47:16It would be extra convenient for those times to have a little something that projects
0:47:23and I know that the lasers maybe are stupid, but I kind of like it. The idea of like... Well,
0:47:29the laser wouldn't work because it has to be protected onto your hand, but you could at least
0:47:32talk to it. After you tap it. Well, but I can just tap it with the back of my hand. I can tap it with
0:47:39my palm or something. Like it doesn't have to be precise is what I'm saying. That's a good point.
0:47:44And second, it has a camera. I know privacy implications and all of that. No, they're out
0:47:52of the window. Smartphones got rid of that. Like genuinely, like the cameras are everywhere. Like
0:47:58that time is over. So the combination of it can be used with an imprecise input. Just tap it with
0:48:06whatever you have, like your wrist or your palm, like in a hurry. I can see that. And a camera that
0:48:13is always on you and ready to record. I think it's compelling. And I think I like the ideas of a
0:48:20device that can have eyes at what I'm looking at. Like that kind of idea. It's like why the
0:48:26new meta Ray-Bans when they put the meta AI in it, like that's also compelling, right? That you
0:48:32would just look at something and be like, what is that? And it could tell you like that is,
0:48:37I think that all of that stuff is interesting way to use this type of technology. But it's like,
0:48:43these are the two things that are true about this product. There are some really compelling ideas in
0:48:48here. I don't inherently believe that they can do all of the things that they're telling me they can
0:48:55do, right? That like it almost feels more like a concept, but they're about to ship it as a product
0:49:00purely because it makes so many mistakes in the video where they're demoing the thing. And
0:49:08it also has the whole phone number thing, which just like inherently means that this just can't
0:49:16work for most people because it's not going to replace the phone. It's a compliment to the phone,
0:49:20but it also is like its own phone. But the ideas that they are talking about, I think they are
0:49:28probably the next phase of technology, right? Like of integrating these machine learning models and
0:49:36transformer models into hardware. Like everyone's doing it. We're going to talk about it in a little
0:49:40bit. Apple's starting it. Like this is the next thing. It's kind of funny because AR and VR was
0:49:46supposed to be the next thing, but that's kind of like a concurrent thing, which isn't as big as the
0:49:51big real next thing. We'll have to just kind of ignore that because some people, including Apple,
0:49:57are just too far down that road now to kind of turn away. But maybe they will be able to do what
0:50:02Humain did and integrate AI into a hardware device that they were already making that did different
0:50:07things. So in conclusion, my takeaway is that I would 100% buy this kind of accessory for my
0:50:16iPhone made by Apple. I would not buy a separate sort of standalone pin that requires its own phone
0:50:28number. And that's the issue. This, I think, should start right now in 2023 as an accessory
0:50:38to the phone. Thinking that this can replace your phone. I mean, if you gravitate in certain circles,
0:50:46such as the brother spirit, group friend, you know, then maybe it makes sense for you.
0:50:54For most people, this does not make sense as a standalone product. But hey, best of luck.
0:51:01You know, I also thought that the video was not as dramatic as a lot of us made it out to be.
0:51:09It was fine. Not the highest production. Like we're not looking at a James Cameron movie here,
0:51:15but it was like, it was a video. It was okay. Yeah, it was. And it's easy to poke fun of it,
0:51:21which I did, but I think they invited that on themselves in a couple of ways.
0:51:28And the attitude that they had. Yeah. So there's the hype. It's not even a hype train. It's like
0:51:34a hype supersonic missile. They've been firing at all of us for a year. This video without all the
0:51:38hype before would not have been reacted to the same way because they are from Apple and they want,
0:51:44they very clearly want to project that in their work and even how they present it.
0:51:50And I think the reason it rubbed a lot of people in our community the wrong way is that you look
0:51:55at this and it's like a stereotype of everything bad that people think about Apple, right? That
0:52:01they're aloof and making silly expensive toys and, you know, have monk friends called brother
0:52:07spirit or whatever. And I think that's maybe what fueled some of this, but I think mostly it's on
0:52:14themselves. That they set themselves up in a way that really nothing was ever going to live up to
0:52:20honestly. But then you have this thing that is kind of weird and super expensive and probably
0:52:25not that useful. And it's just kind of a perfect storm. As good as some of the ideas are,
0:52:30clearly it's not going to be a success and launching it the way they did doesn't do it
0:52:37any favors either, I guess. One of the things that I found, oh, very fair. I think it's very fair.
0:52:42I mean, it's why it happened, right? Like, as I said, like if they, if all of the stuff before
0:52:47hadn't happened, it would have been different. And if they were not from Apple, it would be
0:52:52different. If they didn't do all these reports saying that like, we think we've ruined the world
0:52:57by being involved in the iPhone, right? Like all this kind of stuff. It's just like, get over
0:53:01yourselves. Like, you don't have to say every thought you have. One of the things that I found,
0:53:07like, which I thought was pretty tone deaf in the video that I haven't really seen a lot of people
0:53:11mention is the moment with the book. So he's like, oh, if you're out in the world and you see a book,
0:53:17you can just pick it up and say, buy it. And it's like, what about the bookstore you're in?
0:53:21Yes. What about the people that run the bookstore that you're in?
0:53:25That felt bad too. Look, I feel guilty.
0:53:27You're just like, oh, just buy this online, man. I don't care. I'll put it down and leave.
0:53:31I would never do that in like a cool indie bookstore. But I even feel guilty doing it
0:53:37if I'm in like Target or, you know, some like a grocery store. I'm like, oh, I wonder if this
0:53:41is cheaper online somewhere. This guy's not buying books in Target, right? Like that's kind of the...
0:53:45No. This guy, he's buying books at like the independent bookstore in the Mission or
0:53:52something. Like that's his whole view. And then his robot button buys it from God knows where.
0:53:58Who knows what's hooked up on the other end of that thing, you know? And if chat GPT is in
0:54:03charge of ordering your book, you're going to get a hundred copies of some other book accidentally.
0:54:07It seems like it, doesn't it? I know you said it already, Steven, and you've already made the
0:54:13point, which is like, so good, but I have to just say it again. Like I cannot believe that any
0:54:18company who is working with an AI model is not fact checking their announcement videos.
0:54:23I know.
0:54:24Because this has happened every single time. And like the thing is, even if you think it's right,
0:54:30you know, people want to find mistakes now. So if there are any, they will be found because
0:54:35if you are lucky enough to find a mistake in one of these videos, you go viral. So everyone's trying
0:54:41to find them. Wait, do you think they did it to go viral? No, I don't think so.
0:54:46Me neither.
0:54:47Because what goes viral is people saying you're an idiot, which is kind of is not a great
0:54:51marketing strategy. Look, there's technology here and it's coming together and it's going to create
0:54:58something interesting. But just this ain't it. And I cannot wait for the reviews. I'm so excited.
0:55:04Like, because like, so I really recommend if you don't listen to the Vergecast, last week's
0:55:09episode of the Vergecast, so good where they talk about this because they just obliterate it. And
0:55:14like websites like that, they are so excited to destroy your product, right? Like, and I don't
0:55:21mean that in a mean way, but it's like, they are just, they're ready to make that video or that
0:55:28review of like, these are all the things that are wrong with this product and they will do it in a
0:55:33way that will just be great. And I can't wait for it. This episode of Connected is brought to you by
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0:57:52and make sure your business is one that continues to thrive. Our thanks to NetSuite for their
0:57:57support of the show. All right, we're back in the scuttlebutt. We're talking about, and I cannot
0:58:02believe it, iOS 18 rumors. This comes from reporting from Mark Gurman over the weekend
0:58:10that Apple is extremely amped about iOS 18. They want some of that hype back from others,
0:58:19and they're saying it's going to be ambitious and compelling. This of course comes with the
0:58:24reporting that they were taking a week off from all of that to fix iOS 17. Can I just say,
0:58:29we got that wrong by the way on last week's show. What did we do? They were fixing bugs in iOS 18,
0:58:34not iOS 17. Oh okay. Which I think we read it as what we believed the company should be doing,
0:58:42but no, they took a week off to fix iOS 18 bugs because it wasn't ready to hit the development
0:58:50schedule that they were on. Okay, I mean, sure, whatever they think is right. I mean,
0:58:58they're working on it. They have the thing. We don't. So okay. Let's start because we
0:59:03just talked about humane. Let's talk about Siri. Gurman reports that Apple is expected to unveil
0:59:09its LLM powered version of Siri at WWDC 2024, although other generative AI features could be
0:59:17exclusive to the iPhone 16 that would be revealed in September. So maybe there's like some stuff
0:59:24that's coming in iOS or Siri or whatever, and it needs new hardware. Like maybe they're a neural
0:59:30engine or some upgrade in future iPhones. I think it's also interesting, maybe related to this,
0:59:37that the rumors also say that the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro will have the same system on a chip. They're
0:59:43not going to do the hand-me-down this time around. So maybe they want this out there on everything.
0:59:48Maybe it's also why we haven't seen any iPads. I don't know, but I don't think the iPad plays
0:59:53into that. But the phones maybe do. Okay, hit me. A new MagSafe accessory where you can clip
1:00:01your iPhone to your shirt and then you can wear your iPhone on your shirt all day and you can
1:00:08talk to it and it can see what you can see. What do you think? I mean, the iPhone Pro Max is pretty
1:00:14big. Like I'm just holding it up to my chest. Can I call you brother Mike? You sure can. Brother Mike
1:00:23is here in the scuttlebutt to tell you about the MagSafe pin. We ought to see what brother OTJ
1:00:28thinks about this. German has some examples of what this could be. Auto-generated Apple music
1:00:36playlists, integration with productivity apps like Pages and Keynote. Of course, that's been a big
1:00:41thing for Microsoft with its co-pilot programs. You can have co-pilot help you deal with your
1:00:46documents. And then maybe AI-assisted writing and even slide deck creation. I don't think any of
1:00:52that's particularly groundbreaking, but it's certainly interesting that Apple could be gearing
1:00:57up for this. What do you think about Apple joining the party next year and is Siri the right brand
1:01:04for this sort of new type of thing? I think they got to do it to answer your first question. They
1:01:10have to do it because it's one of those things everybody else is doing it. Chai GPT having...
1:01:15They're already too late, right? So they have to do it next year. They are already too late and
1:01:19Chai GPT taking off. Can you imagine if you think of now to... Like it's been like 12 months now,
1:01:26right? Since Chai GPT. Can you imagine where we are in September of next year? Who knows? I mean,
1:01:32it's wild to think about. It's wild. And so like if Apple are not doing this, like just how much
1:01:39work it will be to try and catch up. Yeah. Because at that point they are two years after the
1:01:45introduction of this technology. Yeah. You're catching up with a moving target. That's tough.
1:01:51That already has a hundred million weekly users. Yeah. And they had to turn off paid signups
1:01:58because their website fell over. Oh really? I signed up again two days ago. So lucky me.
1:02:02Yeah. No, today they came out. They're like, "We're inundated. We have no more capacity.
1:02:08We want your $20, but please come back later." So I think they got to do it. And I think what's
1:02:12interesting, so for the branding, I think Siri is fine. They can just, you know, they can put a spin
1:02:17on it. They can say, they can actually label it the new Siri. I mean, this is literally the company
1:02:22who released an iPad and called it the new iPad. So if they can do it, they can do it. If we were
1:02:29just spending a lot of time talking about like design hubris and stuff, there is absolutely zero
1:02:34way that Apple changes the name Siri in my opinion. Or they could call it the new Siri or Siri X, or
1:02:41maybe not X now is a negative connotation. I could imagine any of those kinds of things, right? Siri
1:02:46Pro or whatever. Siri Pro, Siri AI, like whatever. Just gonna call it Siri something or the new Siri.
1:02:52Isn't it wild that they've stuck so hard to this name, a name they bought? That's the weirdest,
1:02:59I was just getting ready to say it. The weirdest thing is Siri came from a purchase and they kept
1:03:03the branding. Like why hold on to it so hard? It wasn't even yours, you know? It's different
1:03:10with Shazam, right? Shazam had a long history before and... But also nobody says Shazam's bad,
1:03:16you know? Yeah, yeah. People I think generally like Shazam, but the Siri one is a real mystery.
1:03:22I would love to know why that's the case. I think this is really exciting because the one thing that
1:03:28Apple can do that chat GPT that arguably Microsoft with co-pilot is more similar to what I'm about to
1:03:38say. I think there's incredible, almost infinite potential for a large language model that is
1:03:45infused with your own data, with apps that you have on your computer that has integration with
1:03:52the operating system that is not just a website where you can go and... I mean most people go to
1:03:58the chat GPT website and ask questions about the world or the web. It's a website where you go in
1:04:04and have a conversation. But imagine having that sort of power on your phone and the kind of power
1:04:11that can do things on your device, right? Just by understanding you. Imagine like... That is the
1:04:19reason why I created months ago that shortcut as GPT. The idea being what if you could blend
1:04:26the intelligence of a large language model with the native apps and system features of your phone.
1:04:33Once you start thinking about that, and Microsoft is of course thinking along these lines, I mean
1:04:38look at co-pilot which is baked into Windows right now, and they're actually rebranding the whole
1:04:44thing as co-pilot. That's going to be the name of the Microsoft AI. But imagine Apple doing it,
1:04:51right? And I think that's exciting because sure you can imagine a new, more conversational,
1:04:56more generative, sort of smarter Siri. And so the simple example could be now you can talk to Siri
1:05:06and ask a bunch of questions like you would to an actual assistant and Siri is going to do it.
1:05:11Like I wrote down an example in the document like imagine say to Siri "Enable my work focus,
1:05:18then open Safari or Notes, dim the lights and turn on stage manager." Like that's a multi-command
1:05:25request that in theory a large language model combined with native integrations on your computer
1:05:31should be able to do. And if that sounds similar to a shortcut, that's exactly what I'm getting at.
1:05:39Because I think the real power that Apple has here is taking that foundation of shortcuts
1:05:46and making it something that everybody can create just by using natural language. We talked about
1:05:53this months ago. I had a tweet somewhere now on X.com I guess. Like imagine having that sort of
1:06:02capability of folks have always found shortcuts too difficult to get started with, but what if you
1:06:08could just make a shortcut with a sentence? And I'm pretty sure that at the time I used the old
1:06:15the sentence feature of Beats Music as an example. Really Beats Music was ahead of its time 10 years
1:06:21ago man. Beats Music was good. In so many ways. In so many ways. But I mean the list goes on.
1:06:27Apple Music playlist generation. Yes, there's plenty of services that do this now for Spotify.
1:06:32That notification summary feature which is okay, but imagine if a large language model could
1:06:40actually summarize notifications that you've gotten on your phone. A preview of your daily
1:06:47schedule or your weekly schedule with proper action points for things for you to do.
1:06:52Links that you can click or apps that you can launch. Siri intelligence built into iWork.
1:07:01Document summaries or maybe even image generation. I want to create a slide deck that has these
1:07:09colors and this type of font and this type of imagery make it for me. The real trick though
1:07:16I feel like what Apple can do to differentiate their efforts here besides you know the pretty
1:07:23huge factor of the phone is always with you and now you have this intelligence that can actually
1:07:29do things with the camera, actually do things with Safari or Mail or Notes or Reminders. Set that
1:07:35aside, but imagine also the developer ecosystem for this. Imagine if this technology could be
1:07:42something that developers can just drop into their apps. There's a framework. I just hope that people
1:07:48will be able to integrate because I don't want to have to use all of Apple's apps to be able to make
1:07:53the most benefit of this. If I have to use Reminders rather than Todoist, that's going to be
1:08:02frustrating for me. I don't want that to be my life so I can then use the smart assistant and
1:08:09I'm worried that that's how a lot of this stuff will go with a lot of companies. That they will
1:08:15try and use it as a way to lock you into all of their services and I just hope that Apple as they
1:08:20are the phone maker as well as the operating system maker or whatever might take a bit of a
1:08:26more wide view on that and like be like oh developers can plug in and offer their information
1:08:30to the system. Yeah, yeah that is exactly the sort of thing that I hope will happen because I mean
1:08:38the simple answer sure there could be a new Siri with a new UI now you can ask more questions but
1:08:45it would feel like so much wasted potential in my opinion because I think what what sets Apple apart
1:08:51is that they could bake this into all sorts of places of iOS, iPadOS, their entire ecosystem
1:09:00really with a third-party developer story that doesn't require shaky web plugins and I say this
1:09:07as someone who tried the beta version of the Todoist integration with chat GPT. It was sort
1:09:13of shaky. Imagine having this sort of intelligence in a native experience on your phone with any apps
1:09:19that you want to use. I think this is really exciting and I sort of understand if done
1:09:27correctly the words that were that German used ambitious and compelling this is ambitious and
1:09:34compelling at the same time because having a software update that's gonna make my phone
1:09:3910 times more intelligent and useful for me yes that's compelling. We've seen the results
1:09:45like a fraction of the results of these efforts with the transformer model in the keyboard.
1:09:52Now imagine that sort of intelligence applied to the entire... So good, it's so good, it's so good,
1:10:00it's so good. I don't know how but it suggests meme text to me you know like
1:10:06like I would say like you love to and it's like see it it's like how do you know this?
1:10:11How do you know that I want to use these like modern phrases rather than just what the dictionary
1:10:17would like? I think it's very clever very very clever whatever it is they're doing they have
1:10:21done a very very good job with the keyboard stuff which does actually make me confident that they
1:10:28they could make these models work well in general. I mean who has a bigger data set?
1:10:34And that's the really exciting part for me this intelligence with your own data. Imagine asking
1:10:43things like hey the last time I saw Mike what did we have for lunch? And just imagine having
1:10:50an answer back in two seconds. Like normally you will be like okay when did I see Mike and maybe
1:10:57you know you had an event in your calendar so you open the calendar you go in there like okay
1:11:02so maybe it was two weeks ago on Wednesday and then you open photos and you scroll back and
1:11:06like okay when was Wednesday what date was it and you're like okay let me find the picture of the
1:11:11meal that I took right? Instead the large language model could be just like okay I know who Mike is
1:11:17it's saved as a person in photos just let me calculate all of this and push back result and
1:11:23I mean that's the idea right but done with your own data. Now imagine this for all kinds of things
1:11:30coming from your device and your apps and your photos your messages your mail whatever.
1:11:36If Apple is doing what I hope they're doing this is going to be incredible.
1:11:40If you want to read stuff we spoke about or feed us through an LLM of your own check out the show
1:11:45notes in your podcast player or on the web at relay.fm/connected/476. While you're there you
1:11:53can sign up to become a member. Connected Pro members get longer ad-free versions of the show
1:11:59each and every week. This week on the Pro Show I'm going to follow up with Mike about the Mac audit I
1:12:05put him through recently. Oh yeah okay yeah get ready get ready boy. Oh no. You can find us all
1:12:14online you can find Mike's work on a bunch of other shows here on relay.fm but also of course over at
1:12:20Cortex Brand. You can follow Mike online he's on threads as imike and he is on mastodon as mike
1:12:28always get yours backwards at imike at mike.social. You can find Federico's work at maxstories.net.
1:12:36We didn't even get to talk to you about the iPad as a gaming screen maybe we can follow up on that
1:12:42next week. Lots of cool stuff happening over at Max Stories. It takes four hours just to talk about the cables
1:12:48you know. I know. Set aside some good time some quality time for the cables. It's good I will.
1:12:54I know you care a lot about USB-C cables I think it's good. You can find Federico on Mastodon as
1:13:00vatici at maxstories.net as well. You can find my writing at 512pixels.net and I co-host Mac
1:13:08power users each and every Sunday here on relay.fm. You can follow me on threads as ismh86 or ismh@eworld.social
1:13:16over on Mastodon. I'd like to thank our sponsors this week Squarespace, ZocDoc, and NetSuite.
1:13:22And until next time guys say goodbye. I do that cheerio. Bye y'all.