Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [MUSIC]

00:00:07 ◼   ► >> From relay FM, this is Connected, episode 492.

00:00:11 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you by ShipStation, NetSuit, and Squarespace.

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

00:00:17 ◼   ► it's my pleasure to introduce to the show Mr. Steven Hackett.

00:00:20 ◼   ► Hello, Steven.

00:00:21 ◼   ► >> Hello, Federico.

00:00:23 ◼   ► >> Hi, how are you?

00:00:24 ◼   ► >> I'm good, what about you?

00:00:26 ◼   ► >> I am sad about Nintendo emulation, but otherwise, I'm good.

00:00:29 ◼   ► >> Yeah, that was the pro show, second week in a row.

00:00:33 ◼   ► >> Yes.

00:00:34 ◼   ► >> It's a whole scene over there.

00:00:36 ◼   ► >> And it's already over, so that topic is done for, yeah.

00:00:40 ◼   ► >> Well, I mean, Nintendo will sue somebody else, it's inevitable.

00:00:42 ◼   ► We're also joined by Mr. Mike Hurley.

00:00:47 ◼   ► >> Effie.

00:00:47 ◼   ► >> No, no, are we still doing the Italian?

00:00:51 ◼   ► >> Yeah, teach Italian is coming up later on in the show.

00:00:54 ◼   ► >> Yeah, we're going straight to the L.

00:00:57 ◼   ► >> That's a lot of letters, whoa, we skipped, we skipped, okay.

00:01:02 ◼   ► It's from F to L, that's how the Italian alphabet were.

00:01:05 ◼   ► >> No, no, no, no, what got to that in a few minutes, don't worry.

00:01:10 ◼   ► I want to see if you did your homework.

00:01:12 ◼   ► So, but before we do that- >> We have homework?

00:01:15 ◼   ► >> I don't remember.

00:01:15 ◼   ► >> Yes, yes, we have follow up before we do that.

00:01:20 ◼   ► >> We do, we do have follow up.

00:01:23 ◼   ► I call this section Apple can't stop talking about secrets.

00:01:27 ◼   ► >> That's a nice name.

00:01:28 ◼   ► >> [LAUGH]

00:01:31 ◼   ► >> There was a shareholder meeting.

00:01:33 ◼   ► I really don't pay attention to those because there's always like people angry

00:01:35 ◼   ► about something and then Tim Cook says something spicy like,

00:01:38 ◼   ► if you don't care about the environment, get out of the stock or whatever he said.

00:01:41 ◼   ► During the shareholder meeting this year,

00:01:44 ◼   ► Cook apparently said that Apple will break new ground in generative AI in 2024.

00:01:49 ◼   ► Quote, we believe it will unlock transformative opportunities for our users.

00:01:56 ◼   ► >> Was that a pun, do you think?

00:01:58 ◼   ► >> Transformative?

00:01:59 ◼   ► >> Maybe.

00:02:01 ◼   ► >> Do you think Tim Cook does puns?

00:02:02 ◼   ► >> I don't know.

00:02:04 ◼   ► I feel like Tim Cook would do them, but you don't know how we are right now.

00:02:09 ◼   ► And everyone just sits and looks at him, and he's just like gives you nothing back.

00:02:14 ◼   ► So you're not really sure if he's punning you or not, you know?

00:02:18 ◼   ► I can see that too.

00:02:20 ◼   ► Anyways, this made me think, Tim Cook talks about secret things all the time.

00:02:24 ◼   ► I have two examples of Tim Cook and one for Jeff Williams.

00:02:28 ◼   ► So way back in 2013, before the Apple Watch was announced,

00:02:34 ◼   ► I think the most famous one is Tim Cook was actually asked about AR glasses and

00:02:38 ◼   ► he sort of, maybe that's where he got the idea for the Vision Pro.

00:02:41 ◼   ► But he just sort of shuffled that off and then was talking about health sensors and

00:02:45 ◼   ► said the wrist is a natural place, and a year later we got the Apple Watch.

00:02:50 ◼   ► Clearly was on his mind, and it came out.

00:02:52 ◼   ► Jeff Williams, just a couple of years later in 2015,

00:02:58 ◼   ► said that the car was the ultimate mobile device.

00:03:01 ◼   ► Apple's car isn't, but at the time, I guess that was going on.

00:03:06 ◼   ► And then one that we talked about on the show just a couple of years ago,

00:03:13 ◼   ► Tim Cook had an interview with Kara Swisher for the New York Times.

00:03:17 ◼   ► I was going to read this quote.

00:03:19 ◼   ► You and I are having a great conversation right now.

00:03:22 ◼   ► Arguably, it could be even better if we were able to augment our discussion with

00:03:26 ◼   ► charts or other things to appear.

00:03:28 ◼   ► Remember that, AR charts?

00:03:29 ◼   ► Ironically, numbers, not a native vision OS app.

00:03:35 ◼   ► So you're running that in iPad compatibility mode, sadly.

00:03:38 ◼   ► But yeah, they talk about what's on their minds a lot more than,

00:03:43 ◼   ► I think, you know, it happens every couple of years, you don't think about it.

00:03:46 ◼   ► But when you sit down and start Googling around, it's like, oh,

00:03:50 ◼   ► every couple of years, they say something that maybe they shouldn't.

00:03:54 ◼   ► I feel like you've reached a new level with your history database or something.

00:04:01 ◼   ► Because I feel like for the last three weeks,

00:04:03 ◼   ► you've done a very good job of bringing in history.

00:04:06 ◼   ► Has something changed?

00:04:08 ◼   ► Are you doing something different?

00:04:09 ◼   ► We're using Notion instead of Google Docs.

00:04:12 ◼   ► Yeah, but that's not going to change, like, yes, we are doing that for the show,

00:04:14 ◼   ► but that's not going to change.

00:04:16 ◼   ► That's a causation correlation, causation correlation situation.

00:04:22 ◼   ► But no, I don't know.

00:04:24 ◼   ► I mean, when I read this, I remembered the wrist is the natural place.

00:04:28 ◼   ► And we just talked about the cars, maybe that was on my mind.

00:04:32 ◼   ► What a great, just out of context, Tim Cook, the wrist is a natural place.

00:04:38 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty natural place.

00:04:40 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, look, they've already said it.

00:04:42 ◼   ► I think they're actually smart.

00:04:43 ◼   ► Like, they do this every now and again.

00:04:45 ◼   ► But I think the AI thing is particularly smart.

00:04:47 ◼   ► Just tell everyone you're doing it.

00:04:49 ◼   ► Like, if you're doing it, just tell everyone you're doing it.

00:04:52 ◼   ► They're not saying what they're doing exactly.

00:04:54 ◼   ► Clearly, WWDC will feature AI stuff.

00:04:57 ◼   ► And so, however much of that they do is whatever they do.

00:05:00 ◼   ► But I think it is best for them right now to let the world know

00:05:07 ◼   ► that they have something cooking.

00:05:08 ◼   ► Because, you know, if you just look at it on the face of it,

00:05:12 ◼   ► their main competitors are already pretty advanced in this.

00:05:16 ◼   ► And they've done not really a lot of the same kinds of stuff anyway.

00:05:22 ◼   ► Mike, do you want to take this next one?

00:05:24 ◼   ► No, because I don't like the slander.

00:05:27 ◼   ► OK.

00:05:29 ◼   ► Last time, or a previous time, I don't even know.

00:05:33 ◼   ► It was last time.

00:05:33 ◼   ► We talked about LaTeX.

00:05:35 ◼   ► And you were very upset about how it was pronounced.

00:05:39 ◼   ► Matt Van Ormer-- excuse me, Dr. Matt Van Ormer, one of our moderators

00:05:44 ◼   ► in Discord, somehow remembered that you talked about this on episode 105

00:05:49 ◼   ► of Cortex and pronounced it correctly.

00:05:52 ◼   ► What's funny about that episode, Gray shows up and he's like,

00:05:57 ◼   ► have you heard about this thing called Obsidian?

00:05:59 ◼   ► It's this pretty cool side project.

00:06:01 ◼   ► And now, of course, his entire life is in there.

00:06:03 ◼   ► So it's funny to hear when things start.

00:06:05 ◼   ► And so, yeah, I don't know what happened.

00:06:07 ◼   ► You got old and forgot how to say it.

00:06:09 ◼   ► No, look, my response to this is, imagine having a perfect memory.

00:06:14 ◼   ► Well, he is a doctor and we're not--

00:06:15 ◼   ► It's an episode of Black Mirror.

00:06:18 ◼   ► I feel like I could give this as feedback to follow up.

00:06:22 ◼   ► I receive a lot.

00:06:24 ◼   ► Imagine having a perfect memory.

00:06:26 ◼   ► People say things and they forget them.

00:06:28 ◼   ► Because on episode 65 of Cortex--

00:06:31 ◼   ► Oh, now who has the perfect memory?

00:06:34 ◼   ► Well, no, I just went on to David Smith's pod search

00:06:38 ◼   ► and just typed in Latex and see what came up.

00:06:41 ◼   ► And on episode 65 of Cortex, me and Gray

00:06:44 ◼   ► had the exact same conversation where I was upset about Latex versus Latex,

00:06:48 ◼   ► which he agreed with me.

00:06:49 ◼   ► And that he always gets it wrong too.

00:06:52 ◼   ► So actually, you're very consistent in your complaint.

00:06:55 ◼   ► Yeah, the complaint is that it's stupid that it's spelled that way.

00:06:59 ◼   ► The formatting is stupid.

00:07:00 ◼   ► Why is the x capital stupid?

00:07:02 ◼   ► I think it's stupid.

00:07:04 ◼   ► And people should call it Latex, and then that's the end of it.

00:07:07 ◼   ► But to be fair, Gray also calls it OS X, so--

00:07:11 ◼   ► Yeah, you can't trust that guy.

00:07:12 ◼   ► I feel like, I don't know what to do about that.

00:07:15 ◼   ► He's not even a real person.

00:07:16 ◼   ► He's a stick figure.

00:07:17 ◼   ► That's true.

00:07:18 ◼   ► That's going on over there.

00:07:19 ◼   ► We would talk to an anime character, you know?

00:07:22 ◼   ► This is not in the show notes, but I'm going to interject here.

00:07:25 ◼   ► I had to type out watch OS X several times recently.

00:07:30 ◼   ► And I so badly wanted to spell it watch OS with a capital X.

00:07:37 ◼   ► Like, I had to really stop and make sure I was doing it right.

00:07:41 ◼   ► So that's still in my brain.

00:07:42 ◼   ► You should have.

00:07:44 ◼   ► You should have done it.

00:07:45 ◼   ► I dare you.

00:07:48 ◼   ► I think Underscore really liked that.

00:07:50 ◼   ► I dare you.

00:07:51 ◼   ► It's up to you how you want to deal with that.

00:07:53 ◼   ► But I've dared you to do it.

00:07:54 ◼   ► OK.

00:07:56 ◼   ► So last time we spoke about iOS 17.4 and programs of attitude,

00:08:00 ◼   ► PWAs, that Apple was removing them from iOS 17.4.

00:08:06 ◼   ► Apple has since decided they won't do that.

00:08:09 ◼   ► What they're going to be doing is one of the things

00:08:12 ◼   ► that we spoke about last time, which they could do,

00:08:15 ◼   ► but they didn't do, which is still

00:08:17 ◼   ► allow people to choose whatever web browser they want,

00:08:20 ◼   ► but that they could offer a PWA and it just uses WebKit

00:08:25 ◼   ► to power the PWA.

00:08:27 ◼   ► Right.

00:08:28 ◼   ► That's the difference.

00:08:29 ◼   ► The PWA itself is on the WebKit stack,

00:08:31 ◼   ► even if you're using Firefox with the Mozilla engine

00:08:34 ◼   ► or Chrome with Blink or whatever.

00:08:37 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:08:37 ◼   ► I do wonder.

00:08:41 ◼   ► There's kind of a weird thing about the DMA

00:08:43 ◼   ► that I think has sort of glanced over a little bit.

00:08:45 ◼   ► They put forth the rules, and then Apple basically

00:08:48 ◼   ► has to give their plan on how to meet those rules.

00:08:52 ◼   ► And I don't even think it's in the document,

00:08:56 ◼   ► but even I think yesterday there were some more changes

00:08:58 ◼   ► that they were announced.

00:08:59 ◼   ► So I wonder if this is one of those things

00:09:01 ◼   ► that maybe it was public feedback,

00:09:04 ◼   ► maybe it was just they didn't have a plan

00:09:07 ◼   ► and they were late to it.

00:09:08 ◼   ► Or maybe the EU was like, hey, this particular issue

00:09:11 ◼   ► we need you to readdress.

00:09:13 ◼   ► We may never know, but I'm glad they're doing it.

00:09:17 ◼   ► It's the right thing to do because there

00:09:20 ◼   ► are people who do depend on those things.

00:09:22 ◼   ► And cutting them out of the OS for what

00:09:25 ◼   ► seemed like a pretty thin reason was kind of lame.

00:09:30 ◼   ► So anyways, I'm glad they've reversed course,

00:09:32 ◼   ► no matter how it happened.

00:09:34 ◼   ► I mean, I just choose to--

00:09:36 ◼   ► I give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

00:09:38 ◼   ► If I was in the same situation, I could imagine they're like,

00:09:42 ◼   ► well, they're never going to let us to keep doing this

00:09:45 ◼   ► because they've told us we can't use WebKit

00:09:47 ◼   ► or we have to allow our browser engines.

00:09:51 ◼   ► So there's no way we're going to get away with the PWA thing.

00:09:53 ◼   ► So let's just remove it.

00:09:54 ◼   ► I just figured they had to do it.

00:09:56 ◼   ► Then people complained.

00:09:57 ◼   ► Then maybe European Union were like, hey, you can't do this.

00:10:00 ◼   ► And they were like, we were trying to follow your rules.

00:10:01 ◼   ► And they're like, well, we don't care about that.

00:10:04 ◼   ► So fine, it's easy for us.

00:10:06 ◼   ► Here you go.

00:10:07 ◼   ► Have it back.

00:10:08 ◼   ► So that's how I reckon it went down.

00:10:11 ◼   ► I mean, maybe I'm less cynical than others,

00:10:13 ◼   ► but that's kind of what I expect happened.

00:10:17 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, regardless, it's the right call.

00:10:19 ◼   ► It is the right call.

00:10:20 ◼   ► Yeah, this is the best thing for everybody.

00:10:22 ◼   ► Yeah, the next controversy will be, well,

00:10:25 ◼   ► why can I not save a Google Chrome web app to my iPhone's

00:10:31 ◼   ► home screen?

00:10:32 ◼   ► But we'll see if it comes to that.

00:10:33 ◼   ► We don't even know.

00:10:35 ◼   ► I mean, there's no version of Chrome or Firefox

00:10:37 ◼   ► based on different engines in Europe for now.

00:10:40 ◼   ► So maybe that controversy will not happen.

00:10:42 ◼   ► But if those companies ever release a non-WebKit version

00:10:46 ◼   ► of their browsers, I think it will happen.

00:10:48 ◼   ► We'll have this conversation like, well,

00:10:50 ◼   ► why can I not save a Gecko powered PWA to my home screen?

00:10:56 ◼   ► So we'll get to that if it ever happens.

00:10:59 ◼   ► Do you think that the browser companies will do this?

00:11:02 ◼   ► I have no idea.

00:11:02 ◼   ► I feel like Mozilla might, but--

00:11:04 ◼   ► Mozilla might because Mozilla tries everything these days.

00:11:07 ◼   ► They'll do anything.

00:11:08 ◼   ► True.

00:11:09 ◼   ► Two different results.

00:11:11 ◼   ► Weren't they going to do like a Mastodon server at some point?

00:11:14 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:11:15 ◼   ► Also, it's a good idea.

00:11:17 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, they obviously have different leaderships.

00:11:21 ◼   ► But Mozilla and Vivaldi are the two browser companies

00:11:26 ◼   ► that are trying a bunch of different things.

00:11:30 ◼   ► Vivaldi, they also have a Mastodon instance.

00:11:34 ◼   ► They have a note-taking feature inside of their browser.

00:11:38 ◼   ► It's kind of wild.

00:11:39 ◼   ► Oh, you can-- like Opera, they have like gaming mode?

00:11:42 ◼   ► Oh, yeah, Opera is kind of gross, I think.

00:11:44 ◼   ► They're doing some-- aren't they doing some crypto mining stuff?

00:11:48 ◼   ► But this is the same thing.

00:11:50 ◼   ► Opera will do everything.

00:11:52 ◼   ► Yeah, yes, yes.

00:11:53 ◼   ► They will just do everything.

00:11:55 ◼   ► And they have like a gaming mode for real gamers.

00:11:58 ◼   ► They do have some sort of crypto multiverse X Web 3 support

00:12:04 ◼   ► stuff all over their blog.

00:12:06 ◼   ► So I don't know what's going on there.

00:12:08 ◼   ► Yeah, no idea.

00:12:09 ◼   ► No idea.

00:12:11 ◼   ► So anyway, 17.4 is out, obviously,

00:12:14 ◼   ► with all the European-related changes.

00:12:18 ◼   ► But there are some other features for it.

00:12:21 ◼   ► Do you feel free from the shackles of the App Store?

00:12:24 ◼   ► I feel empowered by democracy right now.

00:12:30 ◼   ► I touch my phone now, and I smell democracy.

00:12:34 ◼   ► Smells like hot dogs.

00:12:36 ◼   ► No, it smells like the streets of Venice.

00:12:40 ◼   ► What I like is this description of democracy

00:12:43 ◼   ► is rules that nobody really knows how to implement.

00:12:48 ◼   ► This is what democracy is giving us.

00:12:51 ◼   ► That is democracy.

00:12:52 ◼   ► Yeah, have you heard of the electoral college?

00:12:54 ◼   ► No one knows how that thing works.

00:12:56 ◼   ► Unclear rules that no one's quite sure about.

00:12:58 ◼   ► Democracy.

00:12:59 ◼   ► It's one of those words that you just say because it

00:13:03 ◼   ► makes you feel good.

00:13:04 ◼   ► Democracy, ah, yes, yes.

00:13:06 ◼   ► How does it work?

00:13:06 ◼   ► Who knows?

00:13:09 ◼   ► There are other features for non-European users,

00:13:13 ◼   ► like transcripts in podcasts.

00:13:15 ◼   ► Really good.

00:13:15 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:13:16 ◼   ► Really good.

00:13:17 ◼   ► They spell my name right, surprisingly.

00:13:20 ◼   ► Yeah, I had a listener question about that.

00:13:22 ◼   ► Like, how do they know your names?

00:13:24 ◼   ► Like, well, they have the podcast feed,

00:13:25 ◼   ► and our names are in podcast feed.

00:13:28 ◼   ► So that's good.

00:13:29 ◼   ► I'll also point out-- and we'll put a link to Jason's thing

00:13:32 ◼   ► in the show notes.

00:13:33 ◼   ► He wrote a nice piece about transcripts.

00:13:36 ◼   ► Currently, there's no support for transcriptions

00:13:42 ◼   ► on members-only versions of podcasts.

00:13:44 ◼   ► Yeah, individualized private feeds.

00:13:47 ◼   ► Like what we use with our members.

00:13:49 ◼   ► Like what most people do, all Patreon, all Number 4, most--

00:13:53 ◼   ► because if you have just a singular private feed,

00:13:57 ◼   ► it's not really that private, you know?

00:13:59 ◼   ► Because then it's not individualized.

00:14:02 ◼   ► But they should have transcripts for that,

00:14:06 ◼   ► or let us upload our own.

00:14:08 ◼   ► And that doesn't seem to be working right now.

00:14:10 ◼   ► So--

00:14:10 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't know if this is ever going to work.

00:14:13 ◼   ► Like, I don't know how would you do it.

00:14:14 ◼   ► If every feed is individualized, how on earth

00:14:17 ◼   ► could they serve the transcript?

00:14:20 ◼   ► Just point everyone to a file on my server.

00:14:22 ◼   ► Like, that's fine.

00:14:24 ◼   ► They import descriptions that are all the same for everybody.

00:14:27 ◼   ► Like, this is not a thing they have--

00:14:29 ◼   ► like, Apple's made this more complicated than it

00:14:31 ◼   ► needs to be, I think.

00:14:32 ◼   ► And it's a bummer, because we want our members

00:14:35 ◼   ► to have a good experience.

00:14:37 ◼   ► And I also hope that other third-party podcast players

00:14:41 ◼   ► will upload transcripts, because it's much easier

00:14:44 ◼   ► to make them now.

00:14:44 ◼   ► Right.

00:14:45 ◼   ► We've gotten this question over the years of like,

00:14:48 ◼   ► why do you have transcripts?

00:14:49 ◼   ► It's really hard to do transcripts mainly

00:14:52 ◼   ► at our size.

00:14:53 ◼   ► And AI tools, while not perfect, make honestly pretty good ones.

00:14:58 ◼   ► Apple's are really good, actually.

00:15:01 ◼   ► And what we can use--

00:15:02 ◼   ► They're the best I've seen.

00:15:03 ◼   ► They're unbelievable.

00:15:04 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:15:05 ◼   ► And what we can make now are pretty good.

00:15:07 ◼   ► And so hopefully this rolls out to more podcast players,

00:15:10 ◼   ► and hopefully Apple fixes it for private feeds,

00:15:12 ◼   ► because a lot of people use those.

00:15:14 ◼   ► And Apple's fine with all sorts of monetization on podcast.

00:15:19 ◼   ► It's just some are more equal than others,

00:15:21 ◼   ► it feels like right now.

00:15:23 ◼   ► Yeah, like, I'm sure that these would work if we did an Apple

00:15:26 ◼   ► podcast subscription.

00:15:28 ◼   ► Right.

00:15:29 ◼   ► Of course, though.

00:15:29 ◼   ► I mean, I'm being--

00:15:30 ◼   ► Which we can't--

00:15:31 ◼   ► I'm being a jerk.

00:15:32 ◼   ► I know what I got to do.

00:15:34 ◼   ► No, we're not going to, because the 30%, 70% split

00:15:38 ◼   ► doesn't make any sense.

00:15:39 ◼   ► Yeah, take that on, EU.

00:15:42 ◼   ► The biggest news in iOS 17.4, honestly,

00:15:45 ◼   ► probably the lime emoji.

00:15:47 ◼   ► Lime emoji.

00:15:48 ◼   ► I've already used it like three times.

00:15:50 ◼   ► Me too.

00:15:51 ◼   ► On my Mac that is not updated to the latest version of Sonoma,

00:15:55 ◼   ► I see as a lemon followed by a green square.

00:15:59 ◼   ► There's not a new version of Sonoma yet.

00:16:01 ◼   ► There's not a 0.4.

00:16:02 ◼   ► Oh, it's not out?

00:16:03 ◼   ► No, my guess is Friday with the new-- or just sometime ahead

00:16:07 ◼   ► of the new MacBook Airs.

00:16:09 ◼   ► The new Macs, yeah.

00:16:10 ◼   ► So do you remember?

00:16:11 ◼   ► That's called a zwidge.

00:16:13 ◼   ► Yes, where they cram two emoji together and a new one

00:16:16 ◼   ► comes out.

00:16:17 ◼   ► Yeah, a little zwidgey.

00:16:18 ◼   ► When a lemon emoji and a green box emoji

00:16:20 ◼   ► love each other very much, a lime comes into the world.

00:16:24 ◼   ► Wow.

00:16:26 ◼   ► Papa, how are limes made?

00:16:29 ◼   ► That's how I imagine that conversation.

00:16:31 ◼   ► How is Babbie formed?

00:16:32 ◼   ► How is lime formed?

00:16:36 ◼   ► But yes, 17.4 is here.

00:16:38 ◼   ► It has stuff, but the main stuff is the EU stuff.

00:16:40 ◼   ► And currently, I don't think there's anything, right,

00:16:43 ◼   ► Federico?

00:16:43 ◼   ► There's nothing that you can do?

00:16:48 ◼   ► So I haven't seen-- we've heard of at least two app

00:16:55 ◼   ► marketplaces launching soon.

00:16:57 ◼   ► I don't believe they have launched.

00:17:00 ◼   ► And I'm living right now in this weird, unsurprisingly,

00:17:04 ◼   ► scenario in which--

00:17:05 ◼   ► well, obviously--

00:17:06 ◼   ► You?

00:17:09 ◼   ► Weird, me, no way.

00:17:12 ◼   ► So obviously, physically, I'm in Italy right now, and usually.

00:17:18 ◼   ► If you recall, during the iOS 17.4 beta cycle,

00:17:23 ◼   ► we spoke about that option in that little setting

00:17:28 ◼   ► in the Settings app called the Identifiable Region that

00:17:33 ◼   ► told you what region your iPhone running 17.4 was identifying

00:17:40 ◼   ► you as--

00:17:43 ◼   ► like, where are you based?

00:17:45 ◼   ► Now, in the version, in the public version of 17.4,

00:17:49 ◼   ► this Identifiable Region is gone.

00:17:53 ◼   ► And despite living in Italy and my phone previously recognizing

00:18:00 ◼   ► me as having an Identifiable Region of Italy,

00:18:05 ◼   ► I haven't seen any of the EU pop-ups in the App Store

00:18:12 ◼   ► or Safari.

00:18:14 ◼   ► So you haven't got the browser ballot.

00:18:15 ◼   ► I think my phone right now thinks

00:18:20 ◼   ► I'm an American traveling to Italy.

00:18:23 ◼   ► So I think these settings will appear eventually.

00:18:28 ◼   ► I am living in a grace period.

00:18:31 ◼   ► I genuinely think your Apple ID is like a key part that's

00:18:35 ◼   ► going to mess this up.

00:18:38 ◼   ► Probably.

00:18:38 ◼   ► Maybe.

00:18:39 ◼   ► Probably.

00:18:41 ◼   ► You know how you have like a--

00:18:43 ◼   ► I think you have like a burner American phone?

00:18:46 ◼   ► You need a burner EU phone.

00:18:48 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:18:48 ◼   ► Maybe set.

00:18:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:18:50 ◼   ► You'd be like Saul Goodman when he opens his desk door

00:18:52 ◼   ► and there's a bunch of phones.

00:18:53 ◼   ► You'd be that guy.

00:18:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

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00:20:53 ◼   ► So Federico, your friends over in the European Commission,

00:21:01 ◼   ► they have handed a basically $2 billion fine to Apple

00:21:06 ◼   ► because of anti-competitive stuff with Spotify.

00:21:10 ◼   ► Me and Jason had a good chat about this on upgrade.

00:21:13 ◼   ► I wanted to know what the two of you

00:21:15 ◼   ► thought about this pretty hefty fine.

00:21:18 ◼   ► I mean, obviously, if you read the explanation

00:21:25 ◼   ► from the European Commission, I think

00:21:29 ◼   ► it's a very well-written and reasonable explanation.

00:21:34 ◼   ► And what they're describing that Apple did

00:21:38 ◼   ► is exactly what Apple did in terms of not telling iOS users

00:21:45 ◼   ► about other options for signing up for a Spotify account

00:21:50 ◼   ► and, therefore, having consumers spend more money

00:21:54 ◼   ► where another cheaper option was available.

00:21:58 ◼   ► I mean, can you dispute the fact that that

00:22:01 ◼   ► is the truth of the situation and that's

00:22:03 ◼   ► been going on for a decade at this point?

00:22:06 ◼   ► That is just the plain truth whether Apple likes it or not.

00:22:10 ◼   ► And of course, Apple doesn't like it.

00:22:13 ◼   ► I am loving-- I think Mike is sort of vibing with me here.

00:22:20 ◼   ► I am absolutely loving the chaos of this situation.

00:22:24 ◼   ► This is like Nero watching Rome burn.

00:22:31 ◼   ► It's like this is pure chaos.

00:22:35 ◼   ► We have what is arguably the strongest ever worded Apple

00:22:42 ◼   ► newsroom press release that reads like a blog post

00:22:46 ◼   ► by an Apple-related publication.

00:22:52 ◼   ► Like an enthusiast website?

00:22:54 ◼   ► I would say like an enthusiast website, yes.

00:22:57 ◼   ► I mean, this person is very enthusiastic.

00:22:59 ◼   ► The person who wrote this--

00:23:00 ◼   ► They had some caffeine when they wrote this thing, man.

00:23:03 ◼   ► If I had the budget, I would hire this person for Mac stories.

00:23:08 ◼   ► This is an excellent way to respond to an argument

00:23:13 ◼   ► and to--

00:23:15 ◼   ► I mean, it's a very--

00:23:16 ◼   ► you can disagree with it, and I do.

00:23:18 ◼   ► I disagree with the statement, but it's

00:23:20 ◼   ► a very forceful response.

00:23:23 ◼   ► Five times-- five times in this press release,

00:23:27 ◼   ► they say pays Apple nothing.

00:23:30 ◼   ► Five times, they say it, that Apple is paid nothing.

00:23:34 ◼   ► Nothing, I say, nothing.

00:23:37 ◼   ► The funny thing is, there is absolutely no other way

00:23:39 ◼   ► that Apple makes money from iOS, right?

00:23:44 ◼   ► It's like the strange part is they make no money, right?

00:23:48 ◼   ► Like the iPhones, we all know, they give them for free.

00:23:52 ◼   ► So there's no way that people-- oh, no, they actually

00:23:55 ◼   ► make 40% on every single iPhone that they

00:23:56 ◼   ► sell to the tune of billions and billions and billions

00:23:59 ◼   ► and billions of dollars a quarter.

00:24:01 ◼   ► In all of this, by the way, all this dispute going on,

00:24:06 ◼   ► especially in the EU, but then also in other regions,

00:24:10 ◼   ► but really mostly in the EU right now,

00:24:13 ◼   ► I still think how wild it is.

00:24:16 ◼   ► All this time, this energy that we have spent as observers,

00:24:20 ◼   ► and obviously the time and money that Apple has spent,

00:24:23 ◼   ► legal expenses, and all the other companies, and the EU,

00:24:26 ◼   ► all of this could be solved if iPhones

00:24:29 ◼   ► worked like the other computers that Apple makes.

00:24:33 ◼   ► Like, if you think about it, just make it work like a Mac.

00:24:38 ◼   ► Well, it's just the one computer that works that way.

00:24:40 ◼   ► I mean, we talked about this at some point on a podcast.

00:24:45 ◼   ► Maybe it was in PU.

00:24:46 ◼   ► Anyways, the Mac is the only one that

00:24:48 ◼   ► works in the way that you're getting ready to describe.

00:24:50 ◼   ► You're just like, put apps on it and do whatever you want.

00:24:53 ◼   ► The iPhone and then everything that is descended from the phone

00:24:57 ◼   ► is like the phone.

00:24:58 ◼   ► Yeah, but at some point, maybe cut your losses

00:25:01 ◼   ► and realize, well, we have this thing that's

00:25:02 ◼   ► been going pretty well so far.

00:25:05 ◼   ► Nobody ever fined us $2 billion over a Macintosh.

00:25:10 ◼   ► Maybe we should just follow that model.

00:25:14 ◼   ► Because all this drama, it could have saved you the trouble.

00:25:19 ◼   ► Just make it work that way, and nobody's ever

00:25:22 ◼   ► going to complain again.

00:25:25 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:25:26 ◼   ► Obviously, I'm not an expert, but I'm looking at the Mac,

00:25:31 ◼   ► and I'm like, nobody ever got upset at the Mac this way.

00:25:36 ◼   ► I look at what the iPhone is doing.

00:25:38 ◼   ► So maybe just follow your older brother in the lineup

00:25:41 ◼   ► and do that.

00:25:43 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:25:44 ◼   ► If there is only some way to keep those gates.

00:25:49 ◼   ► I know that the services revenue--

00:25:53 ◼   ► I guess it's because it's the driver, right?

00:25:56 ◼   ► Services is like $22 billion a quarter.

00:25:58 ◼   ► And let's just imagine 80% of that is App Store stuff.

00:26:06 ◼   ► Remember a bunch of money that's also at Google.

00:26:10 ◼   ► So let's say half.

00:26:12 ◼   ► I was going to say, don't forget the search deal.

00:26:15 ◼   ► It would be-- so looking at Q423,

00:26:19 ◼   ► it would take their earnings from $89 to $78.

00:26:24 ◼   ► I don't think that's a big deal.

00:26:27 ◼   ► I mean, it's obviously big for Wall Street.

00:26:29 ◼   ► They'd be like, ah!

00:26:30 ◼   ► But I feel like if they just--

00:26:33 ◼   ► they would have a tough time for, I don't know, a year.

00:26:37 ◼   ► But then it would just readjust, and the growth

00:26:39 ◼   ► would begin again.

00:26:42 ◼   ► Just broadly speaking, wouldn't it be better--

00:26:44 ◼   ► Maybe this is why we're not CEOs of these huge companies.

00:26:47 ◼   ► Maybe, maybe.

00:26:48 ◼   ► Sure, maybe.

00:26:48 ◼   ► But a very simplistic point of view

00:26:51 ◼   ► would be, wouldn't it be better to make your money off

00:26:55 ◼   ► of services based on merit alone rather than gatekeeping?

00:27:03 ◼   ► Make money on services if people like your services

00:27:05 ◼   ► and give you money for those instead of like, well,

00:27:08 ◼   ► we make money off of our services

00:27:09 ◼   ► because we kind of want to hide the other options,

00:27:13 ◼   ► or at the very least make them more expensive for customers.

00:27:16 ◼   ► Wouldn't it be better if you make money off of Apple Music

00:27:19 ◼   ► because people really like Apple Music?

00:27:23 ◼   ► Steering doesn't sound nice.

00:27:25 ◼   ► I don't want to be steered as a human being.

00:27:29 ◼   ► That is what they're doing, right?

00:27:30 ◼   ► Yeah, you should buy a Tesla.

00:27:33 ◼   ► No steering, please.

00:27:35 ◼   ► So I would like to self-drive my way through the App Store.

00:27:37 ◼   ► I was going to say, that's what Apple's car was all about.

00:27:40 ◼   ► They're anti-steering all over the place.

00:27:42 ◼   ► That's very true, very true.

00:27:45 ◼   ► Let's cleanse our palates with Professor Petitche.

00:27:48 ◼   ► See, with all this European Union drama that's unfolding,

00:27:52 ◼   ► I find it really beneficial for you guys

00:27:54 ◼   ► to learn some Italians.

00:27:57 ◼   ► So that when the time comes that we

00:27:58 ◼   ► have to litigate our way into some kind of law

00:28:03 ◼   ► that we're breaking with this podcast

00:28:05 ◼   ► because we're being anti-competitive,

00:28:07 ◼   ► we can do that as a trio in Italian.

00:28:10 ◼   ► So last time in the Teach Italian segment, we learned--

00:28:13 ◼   ► and it's a royal "we," of course.

00:28:16 ◼   ► I knew them.

00:28:17 ◼   ► I hope you learned them.

00:28:20 ◼   ► The first few letters of the Italian alphabet.

00:28:23 ◼   ► So "a, b, c, d, e, f."

00:28:26 ◼   ► Now, can we do a quick recap, Mike and Steven,

00:28:29 ◼   ► of the letters we learned?

00:28:30 ◼   ► Yeah, "a, b, c, d, e, f."

00:28:35 ◼   ► You just-- you misspelled one, Mike.

00:28:37 ◼   ► Ah, which one?

00:28:39 ◼   ► It's not "e."

00:28:39 ◼   ► It's "e."

00:28:40 ◼   ► "e."

00:28:41 ◼   ► "f."

00:28:41 ◼   ► Yes.

00:28:42 ◼   ► "f" is my favorite.

00:28:43 ◼   ► "fa" is the best one.

00:28:44 ◼   ► All right, and Steven, I assume--

00:28:47 ◼   ► do we get a version from you?

00:28:50 ◼   ► I did at the same time Mike did.

00:28:51 ◼   ► I think you'll find that on the tape.

00:28:53 ◼   ► Everyone clearly heard it.

00:28:54 ◼   ► Today, we are moving to the next six letters.

00:28:57 ◼   ► And the difficulty is going--

00:29:01 ◼   ► maybe rising a little bit here.

00:29:04 ◼   ► So we're doing "ghikl."

00:29:08 ◼   ► In Italian, this will be--

00:29:09 ◼   ► first one is easy, "g."

00:29:11 ◼   ► All right, so it's like in English.

00:29:13 ◼   ► "g."

00:29:13 ◼   ► Now the "h" is one particular little dude, "aka."

00:29:20 ◼   ► "aka."

00:29:21 ◼   ► Excuse me?

00:29:22 ◼   ► Yes, "aka."

00:29:23 ◼   ► This is like the jump scare, right?

00:29:29 ◼   ► Because I feel like everything else before was like,

00:29:31 ◼   ► yeah, I know, I can understand how we get there.

00:29:33 ◼   ► I'm going to read you all the letters.

00:29:36 ◼   ► "g," "aka," "e," "j," "kappa."

00:29:40 ◼   ► So it's different from "aka," but it's similar.

00:29:43 ◼   ► "kappa," "e."

00:29:44 ◼   ► This is way harder.

00:29:45 ◼   ► This is interesting.

00:29:46 ◼   ► What happened to "h" and "k"?

00:29:48 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

00:29:48 ◼   ► Why are we in a different world here?

00:29:50 ◼   ► Yeah, so "h" is "aka," and "k" is "kappa."

00:29:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:29:55 ◼   ► Wait, what was it?

00:29:57 ◼   ► "Kappa."

00:29:58 ◼   ► "Kappa."

00:29:59 ◼   ► "Kappa," with a hard "c."

00:30:01 ◼   ► "I'd like a cup of coffee."

00:30:02 ◼   ► Like that?

00:30:03 ◼   ► "I'd like a cup of coffee," yes.

00:30:04 ◼   ► Yes.

00:30:05 ◼   ► Let me do it like Mario.

00:30:06 ◼   ► "I'd like a cup of coffee."

00:30:08 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:30:09 ◼   ► I pitched.

00:30:09 ◼   ► [LAUGHTER]

00:30:12 ◼   ► OK.

00:30:12 ◼   ► It's higher.

00:30:13 ◼   ► I can't go that high.

00:30:14 ◼   ► Let me see how high I can go.

00:30:15 ◼   ► Let me get some water.

00:30:17 ◼   ► Jim, leave all this in.

00:30:19 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:30:20 ◼   ► All right, Mario walks into an espresso shop.

00:30:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:30:24 ◼   ► "I'd like a cup of coffee."

00:30:28 ◼   ► Like that.

00:30:29 ◼   ► Yeah, there he is.

00:30:29 ◼   ► That's a sudden-sounding Mario.

00:30:33 ◼   ► Mario's on the chat.

00:30:34 ◼   ► "Kate, that was Mickey Mouse.

00:30:36 ◼   ► Get out, Kate!"

00:30:39 ◼   ► All right.

00:30:39 ◼   ► All right.

00:30:40 ◼   ► So, so, so, G, AKA, I. The first three.

00:30:44 ◼   ► G, AKA, I.

00:30:46 ◼   ► G, AKA, I.

00:30:47 ◼   ► Yes, perfect.

00:30:49 ◼   ► J, kappa, L.

00:30:52 ◼   ► J, kappa, L.

00:30:55 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, I can go with that.

00:30:57 ◼   ► J, kappa, L.

00:31:00 ◼   ► See, this is the same mistake you do with the "efe."

00:31:04 ◼   ► It's not "efe."

00:31:05 ◼   ► It's not "ele."

00:31:07 ◼   ► It's "ele." Longer.

00:31:10 ◼   ► "Ele."

00:31:12 ◼   ► Well, not that long.

00:31:13 ◼   ► That fixes it.

00:31:14 ◼   ► It fixes it.

00:31:15 ◼   ► That's it.

00:31:16 ◼   ► Just overdo it.

00:31:17 ◼   ► Don't overdo it.

00:31:19 ◼   ► J, kappa, L.

00:31:23 ◼   ► OK, OK.

00:31:24 ◼   ► I can live with that.

00:31:24 ◼   ► I can live with that.

00:31:25 ◼   ► That's pretty good.

00:31:26 ◼   ► It sounds pretty good to me.

00:31:28 ◼   ► And I will tell you, Federico, all week,

00:31:31 ◼   ► I have been laughing to myself when I think of LMN.

00:31:35 ◼   ► The way that you said them last time

00:31:36 ◼   ► was so funny to me.

00:31:38 ◼   ► We're going to have fun next week.

00:31:39 ◼   ► I can't wait.

00:31:40 ◼   ► Next week, we're just going to finish the alphabet.

00:31:44 ◼   ► We started with six, and then six again.

00:31:46 ◼   ► Next time, we're just going to finish it.

00:31:48 ◼   ► Dude, that's 19 letters.

00:31:50 ◼   ► No.

00:31:50 ◼   ► Well, no.

00:31:51 ◼   ► 14 letters.

00:31:51 ◼   ► Wait.

00:31:52 ◼   ► 14 letters.

00:31:53 ◼   ► Yes.

00:31:56 ◼   ► Everybody knows there's five extra letters in the sign.

00:31:59 ◼   ► I was counting on my hands and lost track.

00:32:01 ◼   ► As a spoiler for next week, there

00:32:03 ◼   ► are some beautiful, beautiful letters waiting for us,

00:32:07 ◼   ► such as eme, ene, ku, and, of course, the best one, erre.

00:32:15 ◼   ► Well, look, one of my favorite letters in any language

00:32:18 ◼   ► is Dublevé.

00:32:19 ◼   ► I hope you're going to give me something of that quality.

00:32:21 ◼   ► Oh, yes, yes.

00:32:23 ◼   ► The W, of course.

00:32:24 ◼   ► Yeah, that's all I want.

00:32:26 ◼   ► Dublevé.

00:32:27 ◼   ► It's not Dublevé.

00:32:28 ◼   ► So let's go from one form of Federico chaos

00:32:31 ◼   ► to another form of Federico chaos.

00:32:34 ◼   ► I almost feel like this is the tragedy and--

00:32:38 ◼   ► was it tragedy and misery, the two masks,

00:32:41 ◼   ► the dramatic masks?

00:32:43 ◼   ► We've had this conversation before, I know,

00:32:44 ◼   ► and I've forgotten.

00:32:45 ◼   ► Two masks, tragedy and tragedy.

00:32:48 ◼   ► It's like comedy and tragedy.

00:32:49 ◼   ► Comedy and tragedy.

00:32:50 ◼   ► Are you saying there are two masks inside of me?

00:32:53 ◼   ► Is it sort of like that?

00:32:54 ◼   ► The two masks of chaos, where one is just

00:32:57 ◼   ► like here's a little bit of fun, and then the other is like,

00:33:01 ◼   ► I'm going to rise something from the dead, you know?

00:33:05 ◼   ► Like true Federico Frankenstein, the MacPad.

00:33:09 ◼   ► I am going to assume the majority of our listeners

00:33:12 ◼   ► have seen this by now.

00:33:13 ◼   ► But if they haven't, there'll be a link in the show notes

00:33:15 ◼   ► over at MacStories, where essentially Federico--

00:33:18 ◼   ► can you give the top level as to what the MacPad is?

00:33:22 ◼   ► The MacPad is a hybrid Mac and iPad merged together,

00:33:28 ◼   ► thanks to magnets and the Apple sidecar technology.

00:33:32 ◼   ► From a hardware standpoint, it's an M2 MacBook Air

00:33:36 ◼   ► without the display.

00:33:38 ◼   ► The iPad is the display, and the iPad

00:33:41 ◼   ► floats above the keyboard, thanks to magnets.

00:33:43 ◼   ► From a software standpoint, it's all based on Apple software.

00:33:47 ◼   ► It's all based on sidecar and universal control.

00:33:51 ◼   ► All right.

00:33:51 ◼   ► So the key part of this here is that you took a laptop

00:33:56 ◼   ► and you removed the screen.

00:33:57 ◼   ► Like that is the very, very key part of it.

00:33:59 ◼   ► It's the hardest part.

00:34:00 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:34:01 ◼   ► I kind of want to get into this a little bit with you,

00:34:03 ◼   ► because I feel like within the last year,

00:34:06 ◼   ► you have become modern curious, and you've

00:34:09 ◼   ► been tinkering with stuff.

00:34:12 ◼   ► I remember saying there was something

00:34:13 ◼   ► you wanted to do a while ago, and I

00:34:15 ◼   ► was encouraging you to solve it.

00:34:16 ◼   ► And you didn't want to do it, right?

00:34:18 ◼   ► Because it is a bit of a--

00:34:22 ◼   ► there is a bit of a hump to get over

00:34:23 ◼   ► when you start tinkering with electronics.

00:34:26 ◼   ► Like, it's intimidating to start.

00:34:29 ◼   ► And then you kind of realize--

00:34:30 ◼   ► well, I feel, anyway, how kind of crudely a lot of this stuff

00:34:34 ◼   ► is actually put together.

00:34:35 ◼   ► And most electronics-- most, I will say, electronics--

00:34:39 ◼   ► can take a little bit more than you think they can.

00:34:43 ◼   ► And Stephen, would you agree with that?

00:34:45 ◼   ► Like, I know that you've dealt with a lot of really

00:34:47 ◼   ► old technology in your time, like tinkering with that.

00:34:50 ◼   ► That there's kind of like--

00:34:51 ◼   ► you can be imprecise, and things will still work mostly, OK?

00:34:55 ◼   ► Yeah, I think that's fair.

00:34:57 ◼   ► And I feel like that's the thing that you've learned.

00:34:59 ◼   ► But yeah, Federico, I want to know,

00:35:01 ◼   ► what was it like kind of dissembling,

00:35:03 ◼   ► removing the display, and then putting this laptop back

00:35:08 ◼   ► together again?

00:35:10 ◼   ► I mean, the process was mostly fine.

00:35:13 ◼   ► I watched the video that I was referencing

00:35:17 ◼   ► by Luc Miani on YouTube.

00:35:19 ◼   ► I watched it a couple of times before doing it myself.

00:35:22 ◼   ► I made a note of all the steps that I needed to follow,

00:35:26 ◼   ► all the equipment that I needed.

00:35:28 ◼   ► The hardest part was the fact that I was missing

00:35:32 ◼   ► one particular T2 screwdriver.

00:35:36 ◼   ► I reached the very end of the disassembly,

00:35:40 ◼   ► and I thought I had failed at the whole thing,

00:35:44 ◼   ► because I couldn't remove one final screw.

00:35:48 ◼   ► And I basically forced it out with a bigger screwdriver,

00:35:51 ◼   ► and it was fine.

00:35:52 ◼   ► I was listening to you tell John that on App Stories,

00:35:56 ◼   ► and I think I was driving.

00:35:58 ◼   ► I was like, ugh.

00:36:02 ◼   ► It was OK.

00:36:02 ◼   ► It was OK.

00:36:03 ◼   ► So first up, Federico, you need the full iFixit kit.

00:36:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:36:09 ◼   ► You will just appreciate having it.

00:36:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:36:12 ◼   ► Yeah, I had the basic one, but it

00:36:15 ◼   ► doesn't have all the tools.

00:36:16 ◼   ► Yeah, you want the full one, like the ProTech toolkit.

00:36:19 ◼   ► That's what you want.

00:36:20 ◼   ► The ProTech, yes.

00:36:21 ◼   ► It's a really, really good thing to own.

00:36:25 ◼   ► I recommend it.

00:36:26 ◼   ► I've used mine just for regular stuff,

00:36:29 ◼   ► just because all the bits, you get all the bits.

00:36:31 ◼   ► They're all there.

00:36:33 ◼   ► It's a nice investment.

00:36:34 ◼   ► It's pretty well made, too.

00:36:36 ◼   ► And the other thing that proved a little too difficult,

00:36:39 ◼   ► and then eventually I lost my patience,

00:36:40 ◼   ► was putting back all the shields that

00:36:44 ◼   ► were covering all the connectors.

00:36:46 ◼   ► And so I ran out of patience, and I was like, you know what?

00:36:49 ◼   ► I'm just going to not put back these other shields.

00:36:52 ◼   ► I put back--

00:36:53 ◼   ► OK, so similarly, this was my favorite part.

00:36:55 ◼   ► Because it's kind of like, you were so far.

00:36:58 ◼   ► Like, why didn't you just do it?

00:37:00 ◼   ► No, I couldn't be bothered.

00:37:02 ◼   ► I was all excited to try the thing.

00:37:05 ◼   ► And so I did more than the original YouTube video did.

00:37:11 ◼   ► So at the very least, I put back the shield

00:37:13 ◼   ► on the battery connector, because that

00:37:15 ◼   ► was making me uneasy to leave it unshielded.

00:37:19 ◼   ► I saw that in his video.

00:37:21 ◼   ► I was like, what are you doing?

00:37:22 ◼   ► Yeah, I put back that one.

00:37:24 ◼   ► I put back the shields on the speaker connector.

00:37:27 ◼   ► I think I covered the essentials of the critical components

00:37:31 ◼   ► inside.

00:37:33 ◼   ► But really, the hard work--

00:37:37 ◼   ► it was actually more difficult, honestly, to--

00:37:40 ◼   ► obviously, first, to find the courage to do it.

00:37:43 ◼   ► Finding the willingness to do it was more difficult

00:37:46 ◼   ► than actually doing it.

00:37:48 ◼   ► And honestly, it was more challenging to line up

00:37:51 ◼   ► the magnets just right than to-- it's

00:37:53 ◼   ► very easy to open up a MacBook Air.

00:37:55 ◼   ► And the machine is beautiful inside.

00:37:58 ◼   ► So you can tell it's an Apple product, obviously.

00:38:01 ◼   ► It's very precise, and clean, and easy to understand.

00:38:07 ◼   ► Is there a hole in the back?

00:38:08 ◼   ► Now that the screen is gone and the hinge is gone.

00:38:11 ◼   ► There is a small hole in the back, yes.

00:38:15 ◼   ► I am leaving it.

00:38:16 ◼   ► I am leaving it just open for now.

00:38:21 ◼   ► I am not particularly worried about dust or--

00:38:25 ◼   ► I'm not going to take this thing to the beach, obviously.

00:38:29 ◼   ► I am not.

00:38:30 ◼   ► You just pour the sand out of your laptop

00:38:32 ◼   ► at the end of the day?

00:38:33 ◼   ► It's fine.

00:38:34 ◼   ► It's all silicon in the end, you know?

00:38:36 ◼   ► Good point.

00:38:38 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, no.

00:38:39 ◼   ► There is a small gap in the front.

00:38:41 ◼   ► But hey, maybe it's good for ventilation, you know?

00:38:43 ◼   ► It's one extra--

00:38:45 ◼   ► Improved air flow.

00:38:46 ◼   ► Yeah, improved the air flow.

00:38:47 ◼   ► There's one extra window.

00:38:48 ◼   ► You should run a Geekbench on it and just see if it's

00:38:52 ◼   ► improved it at all.

00:38:53 ◼   ► One thing that you said elsewhere

00:38:56 ◼   ► that I didn't think about until you said it,

00:38:58 ◼   ► I was like, oh, of course.

00:38:59 ◼   ► You said the battery life's incredible, right?

00:39:02 ◼   ► Yes, yeah.

00:39:04 ◼   ► That's because the computer is not powering

00:39:07 ◼   ► like a physical display anymore.

00:39:09 ◼   ► So really, the battery lasts forever now.

00:39:12 ◼   ► And really, the biggest hit on the battery

00:39:15 ◼   ► is on the iPad itself, like keeping the display always on

00:39:18 ◼   ► and keeping sidecar always going on the iPad.

00:39:21 ◼   ► That's the device that I'm finding myself

00:39:23 ◼   ► charging most of the time.

00:39:24 ◼   ► It's the iPad, not the Mac.

00:39:25 ◼   ► The top half of your computer.

00:39:27 ◼   ► If you plug the iPad into the laptop,

00:39:31 ◼   ► will the laptop charge the iPad?

00:39:32 ◼   ► It will, yes.

00:39:34 ◼   ► OK, there you go.

00:39:35 ◼   ► So you can kind of get your ratio in that way.

00:39:38 ◼   ► I know this sounds weird, but it has

00:39:41 ◼   ► been playing on my mind a lot, the fact

00:39:43 ◼   ► that the battery life has improved.

00:39:45 ◼   ► Because it's like, does the computer

00:39:48 ◼   ► know there's no display?

00:39:49 ◼   ► Like, it doesn't.

00:39:49 ◼   ► It doesn't.

00:39:50 ◼   ► I understand how battery life works.

00:39:52 ◼   ► But it is weird to me.

00:39:56 ◼   ► The computer still thinks there's an internal display.

00:39:59 ◼   ► The computer still thinks there's a built-in display.

00:40:01 ◼   ► But physically, I guess, electricity

00:40:05 ◼   ► is not going in there.

00:40:07 ◼   ► Right.

00:40:07 ◼   ► So if you open System Information on the Mac,

00:40:12 ◼   ► and you go to-- is there a display section in here?

00:40:16 ◼   ► Graphic Displays, what does it say?

00:40:18 ◼   ► Oh, it says Retina LCD.

00:40:21 ◼   ► Oh, god.

00:40:22 ◼   ► So it does think there's a display.

00:40:24 ◼   ► It's not connected anymore, right?

00:40:24 ◼   ► No, sorry.

00:40:24 ◼   ► No, no, no, no, sorry.

00:40:26 ◼   ► That's because I'm plugged into the studio display right now.

00:40:29 ◼   ► Hold on.

00:40:29 ◼   ► I have a screenshot of this in the article.

00:40:31 ◼   ► I'm finding it for you.

00:40:32 ◼   ► OK, I'm sorry.

00:40:33 ◼   ► Let's see.

00:40:35 ◼   ► But it does say built-in display.

00:40:37 ◼   ► Let me scroll.

00:40:38 ◼   ► Here it is.

00:40:39 ◼   ► That is so weird.

00:40:40 ◼   ► It says Color LCD, built-in liquid retina display.

00:40:43 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:40:44 ◼   ► It thinks it's there.

00:40:45 ◼   ► Connection type, internal.

00:40:47 ◼   ► No, it's not.

00:40:49 ◼   ► It's not that, Apple.

00:40:50 ◼   ► I'm sure you have, but phantom limb syndrome?

00:40:53 ◼   ► Yeah, sure.

00:40:54 ◼   ► The computer has that.

00:40:55 ◼   ► If somebody loses a limb that they can sometimes still feel

00:40:58 ◼   ► it or feel the pain, it's like your computer has that.

00:41:01 ◼   ► There is no monitor, but it thinks there is one.

00:41:05 ◼   ► The only thing that would be weird in that way

00:41:07 ◼   ► is if the battery life hadn't improved.

00:41:09 ◼   ► That would be even stranger, right?

00:41:11 ◼   ► If it's still using the battery.

00:41:14 ◼   ► Obviously, the display connector is still plugged directly

00:41:19 ◼   ► into the motherboard, right?

00:41:21 ◼   ► So the computer--

00:41:22 ◼   ► Oh, it is?

00:41:23 ◼   ► OK.

00:41:23 ◼   ► Yeah, the computer sees the display connector

00:41:26 ◼   ► being connected.

00:41:27 ◼   ► But actually, the display connector, which is a cable,

00:41:30 ◼   ► doesn't have a display attached to it.

00:41:32 ◼   ► So that's why the computer says, well,

00:41:34 ◼   ► I see that there is an internal display.

00:41:36 ◼   ► Too bad that there's no actual pixels to drive anymore.

00:41:39 ◼   ► Is the display cable just loose inside of there,

00:41:41 ◼   ► just rattling around?

00:41:42 ◼   ► No, it's not loose.

00:41:44 ◼   ► Nothing is rattling around the computer.

00:41:46 ◼   ► It's got its own slot.

00:41:48 ◼   ► It's just-- it's placed there.

00:41:54 ◼   ► I just unplugged the--

00:41:56 ◼   ► There's another connector.

00:41:58 ◼   ► Yeah, from the display itself.

00:42:00 ◼   ► I bet if you unplugged it from the board,

00:42:02 ◼   ► it would not think there's a display.

00:42:05 ◼   ► I think that's the case.

00:42:07 ◼   ► I also think that it would start to throw some serious errors.

00:42:11 ◼   ► It may freak out.

00:42:12 ◼   ► I think that's-- it's going to be like, no, you've

00:42:15 ◼   ► got to bring me in.

00:42:17 ◼   ► Something's terribly wrong.

00:42:19 ◼   ► I did have the funny idea.

00:42:20 ◼   ► You unplug this cable, and now you

00:42:22 ◼   ► have pixels shooting out of the back of your computer that

00:42:26 ◼   ► would be otherwise trapped on the display.

00:42:28 ◼   ► You're just shooting out.

00:42:32 ◼   ► Maybe not so much.

00:42:33 ◼   ► It's been a long time since I've repaired computers for a living.

00:42:36 ◼   ► Sometimes you forget how things work.

00:42:37 ◼   ► It seems like it.

00:42:39 ◼   ► OK, so the--

00:42:40 ◼   ► Do I cut that, or do I leave it in?

00:42:41 ◼   ► No one will know.

00:42:42 ◼   ► You can do whatever you want.

00:42:44 ◼   ► You've got-- obviously, you've embraced the power of magnets,

00:42:47 ◼   ► and you're using this to mount an iPad

00:42:49 ◼   ► to the top of the laptop when you

00:42:51 ◼   ► want to use it like a laptop.

00:42:52 ◼   ► Because obviously, the key part that we've not mentioned here

00:42:54 ◼   ► is the inciting event for this was

00:42:57 ◼   ► I want to use a keyboard and trackpad with my Vision Pro

00:43:01 ◼   ► all the time.

00:43:01 ◼   ► Yeah, the idea was--

00:43:04 ◼   ► really, it all started because I saw that video,

00:43:07 ◼   ► and I realized that headless MacBook Air could

00:43:12 ◼   ► be the best input accessory for a Vision Pro.

00:43:15 ◼   ► And then I didn't want to do it because it

00:43:16 ◼   ► felt like a waste of, well, a good computer to just say,

00:43:20 ◼   ► hey, I turned a perfectly fine computer into a Vision Pro

00:43:23 ◼   ► keyboard and trackpad.

00:43:24 ◼   ► Hey, I don't have a laptop anymore now.

00:43:27 ◼   ► So that's why I didn't want to do it.

00:43:29 ◼   ► It was only when I realized, oh, actually here,

00:43:32 ◼   ► there is a bigger thing that I could try,

00:43:34 ◼   ► which is to build a hybrid Apple computer so that I can

00:43:37 ◼   ► have a laptop when I want a laptop.

00:43:40 ◼   ► And I also can have a great input accessory for the Vision

00:43:43 ◼   ► Pro, but also, it can be the convertible

00:43:47 ◼   ► that Apple doesn't make.

00:43:49 ◼   ► So the dream of I'm using a laptop,

00:43:51 ◼   ► but then if I want to just grab the display, and it's a tablet,

00:43:54 ◼   ► and I can work with the tablet on the couch or in bed,

00:43:58 ◼   ► it's also the same, quote, unquote, "machine."

00:44:01 ◼   ► Yeah, that's the exciting part for me.

00:44:03 ◼   ► Not necessarily like, yeah, I made a Mac

00:44:07 ◼   ► with a weird display.

00:44:09 ◼   ► It's the fact that I can grab the display

00:44:12 ◼   ► and use my iPad like that.

00:44:15 ◼   ► I have a couple of more questions for you

00:44:17 ◼   ► about the hardware before we maybe move on

00:44:19 ◼   ► to some other areas, because I'm just intrigued about how

00:44:21 ◼   ► this whole thing works.

00:44:23 ◼   ► So yeah, you have the iPad, which

00:44:27 ◼   ► is attached by magnets.

00:44:28 ◼   ► Yes.

00:44:29 ◼   ► Does it close?

00:44:30 ◼   ► No.

00:44:30 ◼   ► Can you close the--

00:44:32 ◼   ► OK.

00:44:32 ◼   ► No, no, it doesn't close.

00:44:33 ◼   ► And I had a footnote, I think, in the story about this.

00:44:37 ◼   ► Maybe in another timeline, there's

00:44:40 ◼   ► a version of me that owns a 3D printer

00:44:43 ◼   ► and knows how to make an alternative hinge

00:44:49 ◼   ► system for this kind of product.

00:44:52 ◼   ► But right now, no, it doesn't close flat

00:44:56 ◼   ► on top of the keyboard.

00:44:57 ◼   ► I bought from Amazon a $20 sleeve with two pockets,

00:45:04 ◼   ► one for the computer and other for the iPad.

00:45:07 ◼   ► And that's how I carry it around.

00:45:09 ◼   ► Otherwise, they are two separate things

00:45:13 ◼   ► that I need to store separately.

00:45:15 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:45:15 ◼   ► OK.

00:45:17 ◼   ► You're using an 11-inch iPad Pro.

00:45:19 ◼   ► Yes.

00:45:20 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:45:21 ◼   ► The 13 would visually fit better, right?

00:45:25 ◼   ► Yes, it does.

00:45:26 ◼   ► Visually, it looks much better.

00:45:28 ◼   ► The 13--

00:45:29 ◼   ► So why do you use the 11 over the 13?

00:45:30 ◼   ► Because it was a combination of things.

00:45:32 ◼   ► One, the 13-inch version was just too heavy,

00:45:36 ◼   ► heavier than a MacBook Pro.

00:45:38 ◼   ► And I was concerned that the magnets wouldn't hold.

00:45:41 ◼   ► It was just too much.

00:45:42 ◼   ► It was uncomfortable.

00:45:43 ◼   ► But the second reason is part of a bigger sort of realization

00:45:46 ◼   ► that I had lately that I enjoy using the 11-inch more.

00:45:50 ◼   ► I understood something about myself

00:45:53 ◼   ► over the past couple of months, which

00:45:54 ◼   ► is I was using the 13-inch iPad more as a laptop

00:46:00 ◼   ► than as a tablet.

00:46:01 ◼   ► And what I love about the iPad is

00:46:02 ◼   ► that I can use the device as a computer,

00:46:06 ◼   ► but also as something that I can hold in my hands.

00:46:09 ◼   ► And I just get more enjoyment out of the 11-inch

00:46:12 ◼   ► as a tablet in my hands than the bigger version.

00:46:17 ◼   ► Sure, multitasking is much better on the bigger one.

00:46:22 ◼   ► But if I end up not using the 13-inch iPad

00:46:26 ◼   ► because it's so uncomfortable to hold

00:46:28 ◼   ► and impossible to use in portrait mode,

00:46:30 ◼   ► then I'm losing the whole benefit of having an iPad, which

00:46:35 ◼   ► is you can go from having a laptop to having a tablet.

00:46:39 ◼   ► The 11-inch feels like a better compromise

00:46:41 ◼   ► for what I enjoy, what I love about the iPad as a product.

00:46:47 ◼   ► Does it fall over?

00:46:48 ◼   ► It doesn't.

00:46:49 ◼   ► It doesn't.

00:46:50 ◼   ► If it were the 13, it probably would, right?

00:46:53 ◼   ► Yeah, it didn't.

00:46:54 ◼   ► But it was more--

00:46:55 ◼   ► it didn't.

00:46:56 ◼   ► With three magnets, it didn't.

00:46:58 ◼   ► It doesn't fall over.

00:46:59 ◼   ► But I was like, you know, it's just too heavy.

00:47:03 ◼   ► And I just feel safer, and I enjoy the 11-inch more.

00:47:08 ◼   ► But with three magnets in the back,

00:47:10 ◼   ► it's a very strong connection.

00:47:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:47:15 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by NetSuite.

00:47:18 ◼   ► If you have a business, you can probably relate to this.

00:47:21 ◼   ► Things get to a certain size, and cracks start to emerge.

00:47:25 ◼   ► Things you used to do in a day are certainly taking a week.

00:47:28 ◼   ► You have too many manual processes,

00:47:30 ◼   ► and you don't have one source of truth.

00:47:32 ◼   ► It's never a good feeling when everything in your business

00:47:34 ◼   ► is disjointed, too many processes, and too many places.

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00:49:45 ◼   ► So we've talked about the hardware,

00:49:49 ◼   ► but I think the hardware, while it gets people in the door

00:49:52 ◼   ► to this article, the software, I think,

00:49:54 ◼   ► is really more interesting in a lot of ways

00:49:58 ◼   ► because you've kind of combined the Mac OS environment

00:50:02 ◼   ► and the iPad OS environment in ways

00:50:04 ◼   ► that I did not see coming as you've been working on this.

00:50:09 ◼   ► What are some of the key components there,

00:50:12 ◼   ► and where are the lines of what's a Mac and what's an iPad?

00:50:15 ◼   ► Yeah, so the really interesting part for me

00:50:18 ◼   ► is that I'm not using any particular hack or workaround

00:50:23 ◼   ► to make this possible.

00:50:24 ◼   ► It's all based on Apple software.

00:50:26 ◼   ► It's all based-- in fact, I mean, the whole software side,

00:50:31 ◼   ► nothing is new on that front.

00:50:33 ◼   ► Sidecar has existed for nearly five years

00:50:36 ◼   ► since iPad OS 13 and Mac OS Catalina.

00:50:40 ◼   ► Nothing has changed there.

00:50:43 ◼   ► It's still a way to extend your computer onto an iPad display.

00:50:47 ◼   ► I'm just leveraging Sidecar when I want to use

00:50:50 ◼   ► the Mac pad in Mac OS mode, so the iPad becomes a Mac OS

00:50:54 ◼   ► display.

00:50:55 ◼   ► And I'm using another Apple feature,

00:50:57 ◼   ► which is universal control, when I want to use the Mac

00:51:01 ◼   ► pad in iPad mode.

00:51:03 ◼   ► In that case, I just need to swipe to the left,

00:51:06 ◼   ► and the pointer appears on the iPad OS side of things.

00:51:10 ◼   ► I think it's fascinating-- at least for me,

00:51:12 ◼   ► maybe it also is for others--

00:51:14 ◼   ► that I'm just leveraging existing Apple software.

00:51:17 ◼   ► I'm not doing anything out of the already existing pieces

00:51:23 ◼   ► of technology that Apple has here.

00:51:25 ◼   ► The only thing I did is a shortcut

00:51:28 ◼   ► to simplify the Sidecar connection.

00:51:32 ◼   ► That's the only sort of maybe custom thing.

00:51:35 ◼   ► Typically, you would have to start Sidecar

00:51:39 ◼   ► from the Mac OS UI.

00:51:41 ◼   ► But how can you do that when you cannot see the Mac OS UI

00:51:45 ◼   ► anymore, because you don't have a display anymore?

00:51:48 ◼   ► And so I found a way to initiate Sidecar from an iPad

00:51:52 ◼   ► rather than from Mac OS.

00:51:54 ◼   ► But it's still Sidecar.

00:51:57 ◼   ► There's nothing special about it.

00:51:59 ◼   ► The interesting part for me was realizing that I

00:52:06 ◼   ► was able to use Mac OS and iPad OS at the same time,

00:52:10 ◼   ► like on the same screen together.

00:52:12 ◼   ► And that is possible because--

00:52:15 ◼   ► and again, this has been the case for five years, I guess.

00:52:20 ◼   ► I disabled Stage Manager on the iPad Pro.

00:52:24 ◼   ► My thinking was, well, I have much better multitasking

00:52:29 ◼   ► on the Mac now.

00:52:31 ◼   ► Why do I need Stage Manager?

00:52:34 ◼   ► When I want to grab my iPad to use it as a tablet,

00:52:37 ◼   ► maybe old school Split View and Slide Over maybe

00:52:41 ◼   ► would be more conducive to that sort of experience.

00:52:44 ◼   ► And so I disabled Stage Manager.

00:52:46 ◼   ► And one day, as I was testing the Mac pad, I swiped on screen,

00:52:51 ◼   ► and I realized that Slide Over appeared.

00:52:54 ◼   ► And that sort of was a turning point for the whole project.

00:52:58 ◼   ► It sort of broke my brain.

00:53:00 ◼   ► I was looking at Mac OS, but at the same time,

00:53:03 ◼   ► I could use an iPad app in Slide Over on the same screen.

00:53:08 ◼   ► And that's been something that I now do.

00:53:11 ◼   ► It's become something that I now do on a regular basis,

00:53:15 ◼   ► for example, listening to music.

00:53:17 ◼   ► So I'm working on Mac OS.

00:53:19 ◼   ► I'm using Obsidian.

00:53:20 ◼   ► I'm using Safari.

00:53:21 ◼   ► I'm using Shortcut on the Mac, which is better than on iOS.

00:53:28 ◼   ► But if I want to listen to music,

00:53:29 ◼   ► I actually listen to music via the music app for iPad OS

00:53:34 ◼   ► in Slide Over mode.

00:53:36 ◼   ► It's easier to invoke.

00:53:38 ◼   ► It's easier to use.

00:53:39 ◼   ► And because it's playing music through the speakers

00:53:42 ◼   ► of the iPad, it sounds better than through the speakers

00:53:46 ◼   ► of the MacBook Air.

00:53:48 ◼   ► So the real story for me has been, obviously,

00:53:52 ◼   ► from a physical standpoint, grabbing the display

00:53:55 ◼   ► and using it as a tablet.

00:53:57 ◼   ► But from a digital, from a software standpoint,

00:54:01 ◼   ► has been having Mac OS and iPad OS together

00:54:05 ◼   ► on screen at the same time.

00:54:08 ◼   ► And you don't have any issues with when

00:54:10 ◼   ► you're trying to reboot or anything like that?

00:54:13 ◼   ► It all just works well?

00:54:15 ◼   ► When you reboot, you have a couple of options.

00:54:17 ◼   ► What I do is I VNC into the Mac.

00:54:23 ◼   ► As I explained in the article, I disabled FileVault encryption.

00:54:27 ◼   ► If you do that, if you turn off FileVault,

00:54:30 ◼   ► you still have a login password, of course.

00:54:32 ◼   ► But with FileVault turned off, the VNC background process

00:54:37 ◼   ► can start up at login even after a reboot.

00:54:42 ◼   ► So I can use screens to log in the first time after a reboot

00:54:47 ◼   ► or, if you don't want to rely on that,

00:54:49 ◼   ► I guess you could use a capture card with your Mac

00:54:53 ◼   ► and your iPad Pro and basically connect over USB-C to HDMI

00:54:57 ◼   ► and display the image in Orion for iPad, for example.

00:55:03 ◼   ► But I prefer screens.

00:55:04 ◼   ► I prefer the VNC method.

00:55:06 ◼   ► And Sidecar has been very reliable for me.

00:55:11 ◼   ► Actually, I'm working on a bit of an update to the story.

00:55:16 ◼   ► There's something that I realized that, you know,

00:55:20 ◼   ► there's a section in the article where I talk about

00:55:24 ◼   ► the portable router that I use to establish a Wi-Fi network

00:55:30 ◼   ► when I'm not home, so like when I'm in the car, for example.

00:55:35 ◼   ► That's not needed. I need to clarify that.

00:55:39 ◼   ► I don't know why it wasn't working for me two weeks ago,

00:55:42 ◼   ► but I was able to work today in my car with the Mac pad

00:55:46 ◼   ► just, you know, without the portable router.

00:55:50 ◼   ► The devices just communicate over Wi-Fi.

00:55:54 ◼   ► Without a Wi-Fi network,

00:55:55 ◼   ► they establish a wireless connection between them,

00:55:58 ◼   ► even if you're not on a Wi-Fi network.

00:56:01 ◼   ► And then I just connected the Mac pad

00:56:03 ◼   ► to my iPhone's personal hotspot for an Internet connection,

00:56:07 ◼   ► and it was fine.

00:56:08 ◼   ► So, yeah, that's something that I need to clarify

00:56:11 ◼   ► in an update to the story.

00:56:13 ◼   ► And I guess I will do an update to the story

00:56:17 ◼   ► when I get a better display,

00:56:19 ◼   ► when I get an OLED display for my Mac.

00:56:24 ◼   ► -Any day now. Any day. -Any day now.

00:56:26 ◼   ► And I think it's quite ironic that I will have

00:56:29 ◼   ► an OLED MacBook years before

00:56:33 ◼   ► an actual OLED MacBook from Apple.

00:56:38 ◼   ► Wait, what's the MacBook Pro? Oh, it's microLED in it.

00:56:40 ◼   ► Yeah, it's not OLED.

00:56:43 ◼   ► What is going to happen

00:56:45 ◼   ► when you install a beta on one of these computers?

00:56:48 ◼   ► I won't. I won't. I won't.

00:56:50 ◼   ► Don't do it.

00:56:52 ◼   ► It feels very, very much like something

00:56:54 ◼   ► that would just be broken from the middle of June

00:56:57 ◼   ► until the middle of August.

00:56:59 ◼   ► Yeah, realistically, what's going to happen here

00:57:01 ◼   ► is I will keep a spare iPad on the beta cycle,

00:57:05 ◼   ► and this will be my...

00:57:07 ◼   ► But the beautiful thing here is that

00:57:09 ◼   ► I can...

00:57:12 ◼   ► I can have different displays for my computer, right?

00:57:17 ◼   ► So I can keep the Mac computer on a stable version of Sonoma,

00:57:23 ◼   ► and then I can just swap between displays.

00:57:26 ◼   ► You know, I can use an 11-inch iPad Pro on 17.

00:57:31 ◼   ► I can use a 13-inch iPad Pro on iPadOS 18.

00:57:35 ◼   ► It doesn't matter. As long as Sidecar exists,

00:57:38 ◼   ► the display will work.

00:57:42 ◼   ► And so I am free to experiment with different displays

00:57:45 ◼   ► running different versions of the operating system,

00:57:48 ◼   ► as long as I don't install the beta on the macOS side,

00:57:53 ◼   ► which I never do. So I think I will be fine.

00:57:56 ◼   ► Entirely true.

00:57:58 ◼   ► But you have a studio display, too, at the moment, right?

00:58:01 ◼   ► Like... Yeah.

00:58:02 ◼   ► Uh-huh. That's bolted to your wall.

00:58:05 ◼   ► Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:58:07 ◼   ► I mean, I've heard you say you might get --

00:58:08 ◼   ► Why would you get rid of it?

00:58:09 ◼   ► Like, what's it harming to have it?

00:58:12 ◼   ► I mean, it's not harming anyone right now.

00:58:17 ◼   ► Keep an eye on it.

00:58:20 ◼   ► I'm wondering, like, is it necessary?

00:58:22 ◼   ► You know, especially with the Vision Pro

00:58:24 ◼   ► and, you know, having, like,

00:58:28 ◼   ► a virtual giant display in front of me.

00:58:31 ◼   ► I only really ever work at the studio display

00:58:34 ◼   ► when I'm recording podcasts,

00:58:36 ◼   ► and I'm wondering, do I have to keep a monitor on this wall?

00:58:42 ◼   ► Do I even need -- Like, now that --

00:58:44 ◼   ► See, when I bought this furniture and this display,

00:58:50 ◼   ► the Vision Pro didn't exist.

00:58:52 ◼   ► I had no idea I would have a headless MacBook.

00:58:55 ◼   ► I had no idea that someday I would use macOS

00:58:59 ◼   ► on a virtual display.

00:59:00 ◼   ► This furniture is from two years ago.

00:59:04 ◼   ► Now I'm wondering,

00:59:07 ◼   ► do I still need this studio display on my wall?

00:59:11 ◼   ► And something else that has happened over the past year --

00:59:14 ◼   ► I bought a really nice table in the living room,

00:59:18 ◼   ► and I have a really nice couch,

00:59:21 ◼   ► and I enjoy working in the living room

00:59:24 ◼   ► because every afternoon, I'm home alone.

00:59:26 ◼   ► Sylvia is at dance school, and I'm like,

00:59:30 ◼   ► "I'm just gonna stay here on the couch with the dogs

00:59:33 ◼   ► or at this very, very big and comfortable living-room table

00:59:38 ◼   ► that we have.

00:59:40 ◼   ► Do I need this giant desk with a physical monitor

00:59:43 ◼   ► bolted to the wall?"

00:59:44 ◼   ► So that's what I'm thinking about.

00:59:45 ◼   ► But for now, it's staying.

00:59:48 ◼   ► -I guess it depends on --

00:59:50 ◼   ► Like, obviously, podcasts are a lot of your work,

00:59:52 ◼   ► and they're a lot of work in hours, right, as well.

00:59:55 ◼   ► Like, not even just a proportion.

00:59:57 ◼   ► And I would just wonder how comfortable you would be

01:00:01 ◼   ► to either have -- to be looking down at the laptop

01:00:04 ◼   ► for the time that you're recording

01:00:06 ◼   ► or to have the Vision Pro on, which I don't really think --

01:00:09 ◼   ► I mean, I've tried it.

01:00:09 ◼   ► I don't really think it's realistic right now.

01:00:11 ◼   ► It's, like, too big and weird to record podcasts

01:00:14 ◼   ► with a Vision Pro on, I find.

01:00:16 ◼   ► So, like, even if it was just for that reason,

01:00:20 ◼   ► I see there being sense in it, but...

01:00:23 ◼   ► -Yeah, which is why, for now,

01:00:24 ◼   ► I'm not touching this part of my house.

01:00:28 ◼   ► For now, this is staying, and we'll reassess maybe next year.

01:00:32 ◼   ► -And also, it's one of those things, right,

01:00:34 ◼   ► where, like, we all do this.

01:00:36 ◼   ► We all change up what we use and how we use our products,

01:00:40 ◼   ► because it's what we do for a living.

01:00:43 ◼   ► We have to keep trying and finding new things.

01:00:45 ◼   ► It's, like, it's part -- We talk about this.

01:00:47 ◼   ► Like, we all try and mix stuff up as much as we can,

01:00:50 ◼   ► so we have the broadest knowledge possible,

01:00:53 ◼   ► and so it keeps us relevant.

01:00:55 ◼   ► And, you know, you wouldn't want to get rid of that display now

01:00:58 ◼   ► for then in, like, the end of the year.

01:01:01 ◼   ► Something's happened, and you're like,

01:01:03 ◼   ► "Oh, this is actually now the best way."

01:01:05 ◼   ► Like, because the MacPad for you

01:01:07 ◼   ► is, like, the best thing you use right now.

01:01:08 ◼   ► It's not going to be the best thing forever.

01:01:10 ◼   ► Like, something else could happen or come along,

01:01:12 ◼   ► and you'll be like, "Oh, here we go."

01:01:14 ◼   ► Like, if Apple does the thing

01:01:16 ◼   ► and, like, lets you put Mac OS on an iPad,

01:01:19 ◼   ► I mean, now we're into new territory again, you know?

01:01:21 ◼   ► Like, we never truly know what's going to happen.

01:01:24 ◼   ► -But even if they did -- So, this is what I was thinking.

01:01:26 ◼   ► So, say that iPad OS 18 enables Hypervisor.

01:01:29 ◼   ► You can create VMs.

01:01:31 ◼   ► You could replicate a lot of the software stuff

01:01:34 ◼   ► you're doing with this, right? Like, that GIF --

01:01:36 ◼   ► -Oh, it would be even better than what I'm doing now.

01:01:39 ◼   ► -Yeah, because then the Mac would just be an app in iPad OS.

01:01:43 ◼   ► And that GIF of you running Mac OS

01:01:45 ◼   ► and then you do the slide-over to get to iPad apps,

01:01:49 ◼   ► that was the moment I think a lot of people lost their minds.

01:01:52 ◼   ► But it would make the software better,

01:01:56 ◼   ► but then you'd have, like, the hardware question, right?

01:01:58 ◼   ► Like, "Okay, well, that's great,

01:02:00 ◼   ► but then I'm the Vision Pro keyboard trackpad thing,

01:02:04 ◼   ► which is how all this started."

01:02:06 ◼   ► That's not solved, again, right?

01:02:08 ◼   ► Like, you've done something here

01:02:10 ◼   ► that I don't think Apple's ever really ever going to do.

01:02:12 ◼   ► -Yep. -And that's because

01:02:15 ◼   ► it's a combination of hardware and software.

01:02:17 ◼   ► And if they just said, "Hey, you can now run a virtual Mac

01:02:20 ◼   ► on your iPad," that only gets you part of the way there.

01:02:22 ◼   ► -Exactly, exactly.

01:02:24 ◼   ► Like, it still doesn't fix the fact

01:02:25 ◼   ► that when you look at this headless computer,

01:02:29 ◼   ► it's a very nice keyboard and trackpad for the Vision Pro.

01:02:33 ◼   ► -Well, it's like, "Unless the new Magic keyboard for iPad

01:02:41 ◼   ► works with the Vision Pro, like, via Bluetooth or something."

01:02:44 ◼   ► -I mean, if they did that and added virtual Mac support

01:02:48 ◼   ► on the iPad Pro, then, yes, Apple has met you where you are.

01:02:52 ◼   ► -Which, I mean, let's say, like, if they do both of those things,

01:02:58 ◼   ► I don't know what reality we slipped into.

01:03:00 ◼   ► -Yeah, the one where Federico is king.

01:03:04 ◼   ► "Well, I'll be learning Italian."

01:03:06 ◼   ► -Steven said a second ago, like, mentioned that you made,

01:03:10 ◼   ► like, GIF, "May people be crazy," right?

01:03:11 ◼   ► Like, seeing Mac OS and iPad OS working together as one,

01:03:17 ◼   ► which I'm interested in, what has been the reaction

01:03:21 ◼   ► to the story in, like, the many places that it has found itself,

01:03:26 ◼   ► both in and out of your kind of, like, direct orbit?

01:03:31 ◼   ► -Yeah, so there's two things I want to say here.

01:03:32 ◼   ► The first one is, from a pure numeric standpoint,

01:03:38 ◼   ► the reaction has been wild,

01:03:40 ◼   ► and I can tell you that numbers alone,

01:03:44 ◼   ► it's performed better than launch day of an iOS review

01:03:49 ◼   ► that I do every year, and that review does really well.

01:03:53 ◼   ► This one, I think, because it has gone beyond the usual --

01:03:58 ◼   ► I told you guys, like, the usual bubble of websites

01:04:02 ◼   ► that may be linked to the iOS review,

01:04:04 ◼   ► people who talk about the iOS review,

01:04:07 ◼   ► it's been on the front page of Hacker News,

01:04:10 ◼   ► for better or worse.

01:04:11 ◼   ► It's been on the Apple subreddit,

01:04:13 ◼   ► and it's been picked up by other publications

01:04:15 ◼   ► that typically do not cover, you know,

01:04:18 ◼   ► Federico and his iOS and iPad OS review.

01:04:21 ◼   ► So, from a numbers standpoint,

01:04:23 ◼   ► it's gone well beyond my expectations.

01:04:28 ◼   ► And, obviously, people have loved it.

01:04:29 ◼   ► You know, there's been, you know,

01:04:32 ◼   ► a few critics here and there, but, by and large,

01:04:36 ◼   ► I think it's been very heartwarming

01:04:40 ◼   ► to see all the comments from people.

01:04:42 ◼   ► The second thing I want to say

01:04:43 ◼   ► is that I've seen some comments here and there,

01:04:46 ◼   ► seeing that this is a stunt, and I need to clarify something.

01:04:50 ◼   ► I don't think I made it clear enough.

01:04:54 ◼   ► Folks, this is my main computer now.

01:04:58 ◼   ► Like, I did this to my primary,

01:05:03 ◼   ► to my main M2 MacBook Air.

01:05:06 ◼   ► Like, I did this to my own computer.

01:05:08 ◼   ► I didn't buy a special computer for this.

01:05:11 ◼   ► I did this myself, to my own computer,

01:05:13 ◼   ► and I am now this thing on my desk with the magnets.

01:05:17 ◼   ► This is what I'm using,

01:05:19 ◼   ► and I plan on using it going forward.

01:05:21 ◼   ► I plan on coming to WWDC with this thing.

01:05:24 ◼   ► Like, this is my actual--

01:05:26 ◼   ► - Can you imagine trying to put that through TSA?

01:05:29 ◼   ► (all laughing)

01:05:31 ◼   ► - This is my actual main computer now.

01:05:34 ◼   ► This is not a stunt.

01:05:35 ◼   ► If it is a stunt, I'm living a stunt, I guess.

01:05:38 ◼   ► Like, this is my thing now.

01:05:40 ◼   ► It's my primary machine.

01:05:43 ◼   ► - I did, I had this moment when,

01:05:44 ◼   ► 'cause you sent us the article a couple of days in advance

01:05:47 ◼   ► to just look through as you were getting ready to publish,

01:05:50 ◼   ► and I'm going through the article,

01:05:51 ◼   ► and I'm like, uh-huh, uh-huh,

01:05:52 ◼   ► and I'm waiting for the moment,

01:05:53 ◼   ► and the moment doesn't come,

01:05:55 ◼   ► of the computer that you used for this, right?

01:06:00 ◼   ► And then it dawns on me, it's like,

01:06:02 ◼   ► oh, that's Federico's laptop.

01:06:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

01:06:06 ◼   ► - 'Cause I could see a scenario in which you were like,

01:06:08 ◼   ► I wanna do this thing, I'm gonna get another laptop

01:06:12 ◼   ► to do it on, because you could have destroyed

01:06:15 ◼   ► your computer, right?

01:06:16 ◼   ► - Yeah, oh yeah. - He just went for it.

01:06:18 ◼   ► He just went for it, he YOLOed it.

01:06:19 ◼   ► And then I was like, oh God, oh God, he did it.

01:06:23 ◼   ► Do you still have all the pieces, right?

01:06:25 ◼   ► - I do, in a plastic bag.

01:06:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's probably for the best.

01:06:28 ◼   ► You never know, right, you wanna keep it.

01:06:30 ◼   ► But yeah, I feel like,

01:06:32 ◼   ► I know that you're not stunting on everyone.

01:06:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, no, no.

01:06:39 ◼   ► - But like, I think people see this kind of stuff,

01:06:42 ◼   ► and it's like, we're content creators,

01:06:45 ◼   ► and sometimes it's as--

01:06:47 ◼   ► - Oh, you see, but there's a difference between,

01:06:50 ◼   ► oh, I spent $20,000 buying

01:06:55 ◼   ► the most expensive Mac Pro configuration you can get.

01:06:59 ◼   ► And then, obviously, you make the video,

01:07:01 ◼   ► and then you return the product, and you, you know.

01:07:03 ◼   ► Here, I actually destroyed my own computer,

01:07:07 ◼   ► and I built-- - Full commitment.

01:07:09 ◼   ► - There's no going back for me at this point.

01:07:13 ◼   ► And see, I told you, like, my philosophy here is,

01:07:18 ◼   ► I do these things because I like them, for me, personally.

01:07:25 ◼   ► And if they make for a good story, even better.

01:07:29 ◼   ► Because it means I was able to turn a passion of mine,

01:07:33 ◼   ► a fun thing I did, into something that also made money,

01:07:37 ◼   ► but also something that, you know,

01:07:40 ◼   ► and this is gonna sound so corny and cheesy, but I'm sorry.

01:07:43 ◼   ► Something that people will remember me by,

01:07:45 ◼   ► which is something that I always keep in mind.

01:07:49 ◼   ► And, you know, to leave something for other people.

01:07:53 ◼   ► And so, that's why--

01:07:55 ◼   ► - I don't want your legacy to be the Mac pad.

01:07:58 ◼   ► - I'd say it's fine, it's fine.

01:07:59 ◼   ► - I want your legacy to be your iOS reviews.

01:08:01 ◼   ► - That's what I want for you. - No, no.

01:08:05 ◼   ► But no, that's the point.

01:08:06 ◼   ► Legacy should be everything.

01:08:07 ◼   ► Like, it should be all the crazy, stupid things

01:08:11 ◼   ► I've done over the years.

01:08:12 ◼   ► It's, you know, you get the whole package.

01:08:14 ◼   ► - It's a body of work.

01:08:14 ◼   ► It's a body of work. - Yes, yes.

01:08:17 ◼   ► So, that's how I see it.

01:08:20 ◼   ► Like, I do these things because I have fun,

01:08:22 ◼   ► because I wanna push the conversation sometimes.

01:08:27 ◼   ► And if it makes for a good story, great.

01:08:31 ◼   ► It means I like my job.

01:08:34 ◼   ► - This episode of Connected is made possible by Squarespace,

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01:09:25 ◼   ► We've done this, really, I've found in the past.

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01:10:17 ◼   ► - Get ready for MacPad 2 powered by the M3.

01:10:23 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:10:24 ◼   ► - No, no, no, no, no.

01:10:27 ◼   ► - MacPad 2 powered by M3 MacBook Air

01:10:30 ◼   ► and upcoming OLED iPad Pro.

01:10:32 ◼   ► - No, MacPad 2 is just powered by OLED iPad Pro.

01:10:35 ◼   ► I don't want to get an M3 Air.

01:10:38 ◼   ► - Well, have you heard the news about Wi-Fi 6E?

01:10:41 ◼   ► - Well, for now I was gonna add.

01:10:43 ◼   ► - That's interesting.

01:10:44 ◼   ► I know you're all about Wi-Fi 6E these days.

01:10:46 ◼   ► This machine's got that in it, which I bet is pretty good.

01:10:49 ◼   ► - And it's also, or so I hear,

01:10:51 ◼   ► the best consumer laptop for AI.

01:10:53 ◼   ► - Oh, on the web.

01:10:54 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:10:56 ◼   ► - Oh my gosh, yeah.

01:10:57 ◼   ► - Let's back up, let's back up, Stephen.

01:10:58 ◼   ► - That uses Canva, let's go.

01:11:00 ◼   ► - What is the new MacBook Air?

01:11:01 ◼   ► - It is the previous MacBook Air,

01:11:05 ◼   ► but now with M3 instead of M2.

01:11:08 ◼   ► So 13 inch and 15 inch, same four colors,

01:11:11 ◼   ► although your beloved Midnight

01:11:13 ◼   ► now comes with the anti-fingerprint coating

01:11:16 ◼   ► that the space black MacBook Pro enjoys.

01:11:18 ◼   ► - Let me tell you, Stephen, all right,

01:11:20 ◼   ► the people that get that one, they're weaklings.

01:11:24 ◼   ► All right, if you can't deal with the fingerprints,

01:11:26 ◼   ► you don't deserve Midnight.

01:11:28 ◼   ► - Wow.

01:11:29 ◼   ► - That's what I say.

01:11:29 ◼   ► - Wow.

01:11:30 ◼   ► - It's like, what is that thing?

01:11:31 ◼   ► If you can't take my worst, you don't deserve my best?

01:11:36 ◼   ► That's how I feel about this, all right?

01:11:38 ◼   ► Midnight is great, it deserves the fingerprints, it's fine.

01:11:42 ◼   ► - Okay, so it's the same MacBook Air we all know and love.

01:11:47 ◼   ► There is one change here that is also coming

01:11:51 ◼   ► to the 14 inch M3 MacBook Pro,

01:11:54 ◼   ► the one that doesn't have the USB-C port on the right side,

01:11:57 ◼   ► just the base M3.

01:11:58 ◼   ► It can run dual, that's two, external displays

01:12:03 ◼   ► if the lid is closed.

01:12:06 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:12:07 ◼   ► - Which I think is great, that's a good improvement.

01:12:09 ◼   ► It was a very common complaint, they fixed it now,

01:12:11 ◼   ► that's fantastic.

01:12:13 ◼   ► - Why did they wait though?

01:12:15 ◼   ► - I don't know.

01:12:15 ◼   ► - For the people that bought the MacBook Pro?

01:12:17 ◼   ► - Well, they're gonna fix it now, it's fine.

01:12:18 ◼   ► - They're gonna fix it now, but like, you know--

01:12:21 ◼   ► - It's a speed bump, I think,

01:12:24 ◼   ► in terms of the Apple Silicon transition,

01:12:25 ◼   ► like it's not the end of the world.

01:12:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, like I understand what,

01:12:29 ◼   ► I feel like I understand they did ship,

01:12:31 ◼   ► but I feel like what, it's like they just fixed it

01:12:33 ◼   ► last week, like, oh, finally, we just got it over the line.

01:12:37 ◼   ► - Maybe, I don't even think it's in the current

01:12:39 ◼   ► Sonoma Beta, which, I don't know.

01:12:43 ◼   ► Anyways, I've actually only had one of those,

01:12:45 ◼   ► I've only had time with only one of those M3 MacBook Pros.

01:12:48 ◼   ► It's kind of weird, you look down the side,

01:12:49 ◼   ► it's like, oh, you're missing a USB-C port, there you go.

01:12:53 ◼   ► A couple other things that changed when this got announced,

01:12:56 ◼   ► the M1 MacBook Air is no longer for sale

01:13:01 ◼   ► and like, we salute our friend on the way out the door,

01:13:05 ◼   ► because the M1 Air, such a good machine,

01:13:08 ◼   ► I think it was really the, really the,

01:13:11 ◼   ► like, this is Apple Silicon, it is here, right?

01:13:15 ◼   ► It came out with the Touch Bar MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini,

01:13:18 ◼   ► but the M1 Air, to a lot of people,

01:13:20 ◼   ► experienced Apple Silicon for the first time.

01:13:23 ◼   ► And honestly, I think it was one of the best improvements,

01:13:25 ◼   ► 'cause that Intel MacBook Air was like,

01:13:27 ◼   ► loud and hot all the time.

01:13:28 ◼   ► - It also means, Stephen, that you have lost

01:13:31 ◼   ► one of your flexes for the annual, the 2024 annual picks.

01:13:36 ◼   ► - Oh no, what is it? - Really?

01:13:38 ◼   ► - You said in the flexes, the M1 MacBook Air

01:13:41 ◼   ► is still on sale at the end of the year.

01:13:43 ◼   ► - Oh no. - Whoops.

01:13:46 ◼   ► - Wow, that happened fast.

01:13:48 ◼   ► - That did happen fast.

01:13:50 ◼   ► - So this has been like a 14-year design, right?

01:13:54 ◼   ► - It's red in the document, I just looked.

01:13:57 ◼   ► - That's why Federico was asking about where it was.

01:14:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, good call.

01:14:03 ◼   ► - So they introduced this design of the MacBook Air

01:14:05 ◼   ► in like 2010, and like, I feel like,

01:14:08 ◼   ► while they tweaked it, it was realistically the same, right?

01:14:11 ◼   ► - Really, like '08, like really,

01:14:13 ◼   ► the MacBook Air has always been wedge-shaped, you know?

01:14:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, but it had the little drop-down door.

01:14:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, it was weird, that was a weird computer.

01:14:19 ◼   ► - 'Cause it feels like, really, all that changed

01:14:21 ◼   ► from the 2010 to now was they got rid

01:14:24 ◼   ► of the silver bezels around them.

01:14:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, the exact design came out in 2018,

01:14:30 ◼   ► so that's what, six years?

01:14:31 ◼   ► I mean, still around for a long time.

01:14:33 ◼   ► There's a thing on the verge of like,

01:14:34 ◼   ► I already missed the wedge shape,

01:14:35 ◼   ► it's like, that's fine, I get it,

01:14:37 ◼   ► but the M2 design language, the MacBook Air is so good,

01:14:42 ◼   ► and now, like, as good as the deal is the M1 MacBook Air was

01:14:47 ◼   ► at $999 or $899 for education, the M2 Air is even better.

01:14:52 ◼   ► Like, that is such a good computer,

01:14:54 ◼   ► and you get MagSafe on the cheapest laptop now,

01:14:59 ◼   ► which frees up one of your ports all the time.

01:15:01 ◼   ► So all that sort of got shifted around,

01:15:04 ◼   ► and that's great, 13 and 15-inch are both now,

01:15:09 ◼   ► M3, ready to go, and I think this sort of,

01:15:14 ◼   ► I mean, we'll see, like, there's still some M2 stuff

01:15:16 ◼   ► floating around out there, like the Mac Mini,

01:15:19 ◼   ► but I think this closes the chapter probably

01:15:22 ◼   ► on some of the weird timelines we saw

01:15:25 ◼   ► with Apple's notebook line, 'cause like,

01:15:29 ◼   ► like my, I have an M2 Pro, MacBook Pro,

01:15:32 ◼   ► it was for sale less than a year,

01:15:34 ◼   ► because they, or about a year,

01:15:36 ◼   ► 'cause it was like the beginning of '23,

01:15:38 ◼   ► and then they had the October event

01:15:40 ◼   ► when they went from M2 to M3.

01:15:41 ◼   ► Like, the M2 13-inch MacBook Air was on sale

01:15:45 ◼   ► for a long time, the 15-inch kind of came out mid-cycle.

01:15:49 ◼   ► I think this probably evens all that out from here on out.

01:15:52 ◼   ► I do wonder why we haven't had an M3 Mac Mini.

01:15:57 ◼   ► That's now kind of the odd machine out, but.

01:16:00 ◼   ► - I don't think they, no, I don't, yeah.

01:16:02 ◼   ► - You think they noticed?

01:16:03 ◼   ► Like, oh no, it's all for sale.

01:16:04 ◼   ► - It's like, you know, Mac Mini, we love you, but.

01:16:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I think it's fine for the Mac Mini

01:16:09 ◼   ► to kind of be step behind, also the step behind

01:16:14 ◼   ► for the, on the Mac Studio, right?

01:16:18 ◼   ► There's still some odd stuff, and my point is,

01:16:20 ◼   ► I think the notebook line now kind of makes sense again,

01:16:23 ◼   ► and I think this is great.

01:16:25 ◼   ► I mean, the MacBook Air's awesome,

01:16:27 ◼   ► and it just keeps getting better and better.

01:16:29 ◼   ► - Now do that to the iPad instead.

01:16:31 ◼   ► - Now, any day now. - Well, maybe next week,

01:16:32 ◼   ► right, I mean, I guess, right, like next week, hopefully.

01:16:36 ◼   ► Like, I don't think there's gonna be an event

01:16:38 ◼   ► that doesn't make any,

01:16:39 ◼   ► it doesn't really make any sense for me to have one.

01:16:42 ◼   ► Even if these iPads are really great,

01:16:43 ◼   ► I think they could kind of just press release it,

01:16:45 ◼   ► but we'll see, you never know.

01:16:47 ◼   ► I just, I will just underscore what Stephen's saying,

01:16:51 ◼   ► like $999 starting price for the M2 MacBook Air is so good.

01:16:56 ◼   ► Like, I use one every day, so just,

01:16:59 ◼   ► Federico uses half the one every day.

01:17:00 ◼   ► - Same.

01:17:01 ◼   ► - Not same.

01:17:03 ◼   ► - I use, I use a. - Me and you are not the same.

01:17:06 ◼   ► - I've used $500 worth of it, at least.

01:17:09 ◼   ► - I have $400 in a plastic bag,

01:17:14 ◼   ► and the rest I use, but with magnets.

01:17:17 ◼   ► I adore my MacBook Air.

01:17:19 ◼   ► Like, I love it so much, I started putting stickers on it.

01:17:22 ◼   ► Which is a thing I have not done.

01:17:26 ◼   ► I've not done it in a long time,

01:17:27 ◼   ► but like, me and this MacBook Air,

01:17:29 ◼   ► we're in a long-term committed relationship.

01:17:31 ◼   ► Like, I'm not getting rid of that thing for ages.

01:17:34 ◼   ► Like, I saw this M3 once, like, oh, it looks really great,

01:17:37 ◼   ► but like, I'm not even nearly tempted,

01:17:38 ◼   ► 'cause like, the things that it has seem great,

01:17:41 ◼   ► but are not for me.

01:17:42 ◼   ► Like, I don't need an M3,

01:17:44 ◼   ► I don't need two external displays,

01:17:47 ◼   ► and I don't need Wi-Fi 6E,

01:17:48 ◼   ► 'cause I don't, I do not wanna upgrade the hardware,

01:17:52 ◼   ► and I don't really need it.

01:17:53 ◼   ► But at some point, I will.

01:17:55 ◼   ► Like, in a few years down the line,

01:17:56 ◼   ► I think I will go to like, Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7

01:17:59 ◼   ► or something at home,

01:18:01 ◼   ► and then it would make more sense for me to do this,

01:18:03 ◼   ► but maybe time M4, M5 comes around,

01:18:06 ◼   ► I might be more interested.

01:18:07 ◼   ► But yeah, I just, the M2 MacBook Air is just like, so great.

01:18:11 ◼   ► And now to have that in 9.99,

01:18:13 ◼   ► and then to have the improved one at 10.99,

01:18:16 ◼   ► I think is awesome.

01:18:18 ◼   ► And it's just, I'm happy that like,

01:18:20 ◼   ► now the MacBook Air looks one way,

01:18:22 ◼   ► like it's just easier to understand the product.

01:18:25 ◼   ► So yeah, pretty, really cool.

01:18:27 ◼   ► They've done the thing that we wanted them to do.

01:18:29 ◼   ► I think, as Steven would attest,

01:18:31 ◼   ► faster than we thought they would do it, right?

01:18:34 ◼   ► To make the M2 MacBook Air just like, the MacBook Air,

01:18:37 ◼   ► and that there isn't anything else below it.

01:18:40 ◼   ► I would like to read from eWorld.social,

01:18:45 ◼   ► where Steven Hackett says,

01:18:47 ◼   ► "I'm loving having a 14-inch MacBook Pro as my only machine,

01:18:51 ◼   ► but I do miss carrying a MacBook Air,

01:18:53 ◼   ► as I did when I had a Mac Studio."

01:18:55 ◼   ► It's happening, boys, stand by.

01:19:00 ◼   ► The key part of this sentence is that "but."

01:19:03 ◼   ► See, that's, you look at those three letters

01:19:06 ◼   ► and you know what's gonna happen.

01:19:08 ◼   ► Yep. Yeah.

01:19:08 ◼   ► The buts have begun.

01:19:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:19:11 ◼   ► We all know what that means.

01:19:12 ◼   ► We all know what that means, any day now.

01:19:16 ◼   ► So Steven, did you buy a MacBook Air yet?

01:19:18 ◼   ► No.

01:19:20 ◼   ► Okay.

01:19:21 ◼   ► So why did you type those three letters?

01:19:22 ◼   ► Yeah, what is the "but" for?

01:19:25 ◼   ► Just had a feeling, you know?

01:19:27 ◼   ► Feelings aren't real unless you put them on social media.

01:19:29 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:19:30 ◼   ► Yep.

01:19:31 ◼   ► Well, we'll see what happens there.

01:19:33 ◼   ► I'm still waiting for the Mac Studio whenever they do that,

01:19:36 ◼   ► but again, I still hope it's a little bit later on this year,

01:19:38 ◼   ► but I do hope that they do it. I bet it's WBC.

01:19:41 ◼   ► Or maybe that's one of those things they do

01:19:43 ◼   ► like the week before to kind of clear out the pipes.

01:19:46 ◼   ► 'Cause that's the computer that has my name on it,

01:19:49 ◼   ► to replace my M1 MacBook Pro that I use for recording.

01:19:53 ◼   ► I think it'll be a nice upgrade for me,

01:19:55 ◼   ► and then I can have a bit of stability for years,

01:19:58 ◼   ► I think, with that machine.

01:19:59 ◼   ► Will you miss the touch bar?

01:20:00 ◼   ► I don't have a touch bar.

01:20:03 ◼   ► You have an M1 MacBook Pro?

01:20:05 ◼   ► Then I don't have that.

01:20:07 ◼   ► I have something else.

01:20:08 ◼   ► I have the 14-inch MacBook Pro.

01:20:10 ◼   ► That doesn't have a touch bar.

01:20:12 ◼   ► Oh, so you have an M1 Pro or Macs, not the base?

01:20:15 ◼   ► Sure.

01:20:16 ◼   ► Not the base one.

01:20:17 ◼   ► What are you talking about, Steven?

01:20:18 ◼   ► The base M1 MacBook Pro had a touch bar,

01:20:21 ◼   ► and then the other ones didn't.

01:20:23 ◼   ► Yeah, but you know I didn't buy that.

01:20:24 ◼   ► I don't remember.

01:20:26 ◼   ► Yeah, but you're just like, you should intuit that,

01:20:28 ◼   ► that I didn't buy that computer.

01:20:30 ◼   ► I didn't remember.

01:20:31 ◼   ► So for all this time,

01:20:31 ◼   ► you thought Mike was using a touch bar?

01:20:33 ◼   ► Maybe.

01:20:34 ◼   ► I'm just sitting there.

01:20:34 ◼   ► Woo, here we go, some emoji.

01:20:36 ◼   ► He's just swiping over there.

01:20:38 ◼   ► He's just touching away, touching the bar.

01:20:40 ◼   ► There was also some new iPhone cases and Apple Watch bands.

01:20:46 ◼   ► They kind of do this on some seasons.

01:20:49 ◼   ► Noticeably no fine woven updates.

01:20:53 ◼   ► It was all the silicon stuff got updated, so.

01:20:56 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, what do you expect?

01:20:57 ◼   ► To be fair to fine woven,

01:20:59 ◼   ► would they update the leather

01:21:01 ◼   ► and these mid-cycle refreshes?

01:21:03 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:21:04 ◼   ► Oh, that's a good question.

01:21:06 ◼   ► 'Cause I'm thinking they didn't.

01:21:08 ◼   ► Like that the leather was pretty consistent

01:21:11 ◼   ► and so like in colors and stuff, so.

01:21:13 ◼   ► Michael Hurley coming out of this podcast episode,

01:21:16 ◼   ► straight up defending the touch bar and fine woven cases.

01:21:21 ◼   ► I'm going for the populous vote now, that's me.

01:21:24 ◼   ► Fine woven touch bar, that's my platform.

01:21:27 ◼   ► Cool, okay.

01:21:29 ◼   ► I'm gonna build on that now.

01:21:30 ◼   ► New iPhone cases.

01:21:33 ◼   ► I want more ultra bands, that's what I want.

01:21:36 ◼   ► I like the one, the trail loop.

01:21:38 ◼   ► I would like more color options.

01:21:40 ◼   ► Yeah, they didn't do it last time either.

01:21:43 ◼   ► They've only updated the bands when there's a new phone.

01:21:45 ◼   ► And so maybe that's just how it's gonna be.

01:21:49 ◼   ► Okay, I can't find what Apple did in 2023

01:21:53 ◼   ► because looking for like new iPhone cases

01:21:55 ◼   ► on Google is useless.

01:21:57 ◼   ► Surely the venerable Mac stories would have it.

01:22:01 ◼   ► I put that in my search and it was not helpful.

01:22:04 ◼   ► We failed, we failed.

01:22:08 ◼   ► New iPhone 14 Silicon cases.

01:22:10 ◼   ► So it doesn't look like they did leather last year.

01:22:13 ◼   ► I just searched new case on Mac stories

01:22:15 ◼   ► and was taken to March 7th, 2023,

01:22:19 ◼   ► Apple announces yellow iPhone 14 and 14 plus.

01:22:22 ◼   ► So we didn't get a new phone color

01:22:24 ◼   ► and they had Silicon cases only.

01:22:26 ◼   ► Silicon cases only.

01:22:26 ◼   ► So maybe this is not a fine woven situation.

01:22:30 ◼   ► No, maybe not, maybe not.

01:22:31 ◼   ► Boy, they're bad.

01:22:33 ◼   ► I don't think the fine woven

01:22:34 ◼   ► is enjoying its stay in the sun.

01:22:36 ◼   ► Did you see the Joanna Stern thing?

01:22:39 ◼   ► Yeah, I saw that.

01:22:40 ◼   ► Yeah, that looked real bad, looked real bad.

01:22:43 ◼   ► It looked pretty gross.

01:22:45 ◼   ► I'm gonna, maybe this will be a pick for September.

01:22:49 ◼   ► I don't think they will do any more fine woven cases.

01:22:52 ◼   ► But do you think they will replace it with something

01:22:54 ◼   ► or do you think that it's like--

01:22:56 ◼   ► Something like, yeah, I said it's a lot like a fake leather

01:22:59 ◼   ► that it's not called fake leather,

01:23:01 ◼   ► but something like a fine, I don't know, fine surface.

01:23:06 ◼   ► I don't know how to call it, but yeah, not this material.

01:23:09 ◼   ► I think that they just, if I was them,

01:23:12 ◼   ► just do Silicon, like just leave it.

01:23:14 ◼   ► Or maybe that, or maybe that.

01:23:15 ◼   ► Yeah, I think the money they make on those higher end cases

01:23:19 ◼   ► is pretty hard to turn down there.

01:23:21 ◼   ► Yeah, but like, I don't know,

01:23:25 ◼   ► make Silicon Pro or something, you know,

01:23:28 ◼   ► and put metal buttons on the Silicon case

01:23:29 ◼   ► to put texture on it or something, you know.

01:23:32 ◼   ► Make hard plastic cases and whichever will enjoy it.

01:23:37 ◼   ► But yeah, but I don't know.

01:23:39 ◼   ► I don't see it, but we'll see.

01:23:42 ◼   ► Maybe if nobody's buying fine woven,

01:23:44 ◼   ► then there's no money to miss.

01:23:46 ◼   ► It's true.

01:23:47 ◼   ► I think that does it for this week.

01:23:50 ◼   ► If you want to find links to the stuff we spoke about,

01:23:52 ◼   ► head on over to the website, relay.fm/ungeniust.

01:23:56 ◼   ► Good grief, that's a different podcast.

01:24:00 ◼   ► Amazing, amazing.

01:24:02 ◼   ► Go over to relay.fm/connected/492.

01:24:07 ◼   ► There's also a link to join and get Connected Pro,

01:24:11 ◼   ► which is a longer ad-free version of the show

01:24:13 ◼   ► that we do each and every week.

01:24:15 ◼   ► Members also get access to a couple of members only podcasts,

01:24:19 ◼   ► a newsletter, the Discord, lots of great stuff

01:24:21 ◼   ► waiting for you with a relay membership.

01:24:24 ◼   ► Go check it out.

01:24:26 ◼   ► You can find us online.

01:24:27 ◼   ► You can find Federico at maxstories.net

01:24:30 ◼   ► where he's the editor-in-chief.

01:24:32 ◼   ► And I think now lead hardware hacker at Max Stories.

01:24:37 ◼   ► Yep.

01:24:39 ◼   ► Modstories.net, you can go check that out.

01:24:42 ◼   ► Don't go to that URL.

01:24:42 ◼   ► I don't know what it is.

01:24:43 ◼   ► I'm going there, I'm going there, Mod Stories.

01:24:47 ◼   ► Safari can't find server.

01:24:49 ◼   ► Okay, well, someone could buy it

01:24:51 ◼   ► and point it at the MacPad story, I guess.

01:24:54 ◼   ► You can find Federico on social media at Vatici on Threads

01:24:59 ◼   ► and Vatici at maxstories.net over on Mastodon.

01:25:02 ◼   ► You can find Mike's work all over relay.fm.

01:25:05 ◼   ► He's on a whole bunch of shows.

01:25:06 ◼   ► He also does amazing work over at Cortex Brand.

01:25:09 ◼   ► You can follow him as imike@mike.social on Mastodon

01:25:13 ◼   ► or on Threads as imike.

01:25:15 ◼   ► You can find my writing on 512pixels.net

01:25:18 ◼   ► and I co-host Mac Power Users here on relay.fm

01:25:21 ◼   ► each and every Sunday.

01:25:22 ◼   ► You can follow me. And a genius.

01:25:24 ◼   ► And a genius every other Tuesday.

01:25:26 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:25:28 ◼   ► I don't know where that came from.

01:25:31 ◼   ► It really, of all of them chose to pick.

01:25:32 ◼   ► I know, I know.

01:25:33 ◼   ► That was the strangest one.

01:25:35 ◼   ► That was the strangest one.

01:25:37 ◼   ► It's a great show, you go check it out.

01:25:38 ◼   ► Each episode's like nine minutes long.

01:25:40 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:25:41 ◼   ► You can follow me on Threads as ismh86

01:25:44 ◼   ► or on Mastodon ismh@eworld.social.

01:25:49 ◼   ► I'd like to thank our sponsors this week

01:25:51 ◼   ► for making the show possible.

01:25:52 ◼   ► ShipStation, NetSuite, and Squarespace.

01:25:55 ◼   ► And until next time, say goodbye.

01:25:58 ◼   ► I do that too.

01:25:59 ◼   ► Cheerio.

01:26:00 ◼   ► Bye, y'all.

01:26:01 ◼   ► [BLANK_AUDIO]