590: Buy Your Car an iPhone
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I have a ridiculous product category
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that I would like to briefly review.
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- This is gonna be interesting, carry on.
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- Do you remember a few, maybe six months ago,
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it was a while ago, I remember exactly what it was,
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it was when the new iPhones came out.
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Remember they ran a little warm,
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and we were discussing briefly how,
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isn't it annoying when you first get a new iPhone
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and it has to re-index everything
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as it's being all set up and everything,
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and it's indexing all your photos,
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and it gets really hot, and maybe slows down
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and throttles its performance as a result.
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And we jokingly discovered that Razer,
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the gaming PC company, they make a magnetic clip-on,
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a MagSafe mounting cooling fan
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with a thermoelectric element, slash Peltier,
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however you pronounce those, with one of those in it
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to help cool phones while gaming.
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- Are you about to pull a KC?
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- What does that mean?
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- Talk about something that we've talked about
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in past episodes already.
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- Oh, well fair, that is 100% pulling a KC.
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- Let's see, let's sit back and watch.
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- He just said what we spoke about in the past,
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so he's clear, he's acknowledged it.
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- Go ahead, and also.
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- Well, I thought, I have to try this.
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- Why, we slowed down, why?
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Why do you need to cool your phone?
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- About once a year, I need that,
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because when I'm setting up a new iPhone,
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it's really kind of terrible, so I thought,
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you know what, what the heck, let me try it,
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I can talk about it on this show.
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I placed an order on Amazon, like, shortly after
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we recorded that episode, it was back ordered immediately
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and just has never arrived, like, it never will arrive
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at this point, in the intervening times,
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random Amazon sellers with those vowel combination names
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that, you know, they last about six months
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before they disappear and make new vowel combination names,
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they have come up with entries in this product category.
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And at the same time, I have been facing a problem,
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as I am using my iPhone 15 Pro on the dashboard of my car,
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like, in the dash mount on road trips,
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as it's getting warmer, it's starting to become a problem
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that my phone is really getting, like, quite hot in the car
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while being used this way.
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- Why don't you use CarPlay?
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- Mm-hmm. - Mm, you should.
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You definitely should use CarPlay.
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- I'm gonna say that every time you bring this.
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- You should.
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So anyway, so I, and it's getting so hot that, you know,
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like, the screen starts dimming and the battery
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can't keep up with the charge and everything,
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so I'm like, this is kind of annoying.
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It's also probably not good for the phone,
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for its battery life and et cetera,
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and for its components to be, like, super hot for hours
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when I'm doing, like, long road trips.
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- You should buy your car on an iPhone.
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Remember when you bought your car a watch?
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Just to justify iPhone is just for the car.
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- Anyway, so I ordered two product entrants
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in this category.
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One is just, like, basically a direct copy
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of the Razer thing, so it's just a fan
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with a thermoelectric plate in it
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to chill below ambient temperature,
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and it just has a USB-C input,
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and it mounts via MagSafe, so it doesn't charge the phone.
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I was a little wary, like, you know,
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'cause the way thermoelectric plates work,
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it's incredibly power consuming.
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It's nothing like a heat pump, like an air conditioner,
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where, like, you can get pretty cool temperatures
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that are not that much energy.
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No, like, those Peltier plates use a ton of power
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to make a little bit of cooling,
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and so I thought, how much could I possibly get
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out of, like, a USB-powered fan for 30 bucks on Amazon?
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Like, how cool could it possibly get?
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Let me tell you, surprisingly cool.
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It's cool to the touch immediately upon plugging it in,
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and it actually cools the phone pretty well.
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That being said, the one that just mounts to the back
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and just like a standalone thing,
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it's not really made to be used in a car.
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What I wanted for the car was a MagSafe charging puck
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on some kind of mount that could, like,
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stick to the dash in some way
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that also had cooling built in.
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- Does this actually exist?
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I'm assuming you're about to tell me it does.
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- Of course it exists because of Amazon.
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So, not only does it exist, there's like 25 of them,
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all again from these weird, you know, no-name brands.
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So, of course, I got two of them to try,
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'cause they, like, I had to know what would fit my car.
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There's not a lot of options that will,
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that have, like, a stick-on mount.
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Usually they require, like, the vent mounting,
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which the placement of the vents in Rivian's,
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it's like, it's only down low, so there's not really
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anywhere to put something like that.
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Anyway, so I tried one of these,
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and I actually took my last road trip with it.
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I went upstate about a week ago,
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and it worked fantastically.
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So, let me just set expectations accordingly.
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That version of it that has, like,
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charging and a cooler in it, the phone does not get cool.
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It is not strong enough, it just can't keep up.
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That's a huge thermal load.
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It does not keep up, it does not keep the phone cool.
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However, it does keep the phone a lot less warm,
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and so it keeps it from overheating.
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It keeps the screen from dimming,
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it keeps it very slowly charging,
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and so it actually does serve a pretty useful function here.
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Like, in the summertime, when my phone was getting so hot
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in, like, regular car rides, it was, like, hot to the touch,
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it actually works.
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So, this ridiculous thing in my car
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that was from some no-name brand,
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that has a thermoelectric plate and a cooling fan
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behind my phone and MagSafe charges it, actually works,
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and is totally worth the whatever 35 or 40 dollars it was.
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So, I gotta say, if you have this problem,
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check out this category of products.
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You don't think it would work, it shouldn't work,
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and yet it does work.
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- Yeah, you already mentioned this,
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like the Rivian Vans are down low or whatever,
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but the regular car version of this, like in my car,
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is where my MagSafe, my charging MagSafe magnetic mount
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is clipped to an air vent.
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- Just turn the AC on and it blows AC air
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on the back of my phone the whole time I'm driving
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and my phone gets cold, literally cold, so.
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- Yeah, I mean, that is the better approach
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if you have that option.
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- I mean, it's not, I don't know if that's,
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it's not intentional, I don't actually like it
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that it's blowing air on it,
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because in the winter it blows hot air,
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but, you know, the fact is, my phone doesn't overheat.
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- Can you put a link to this, certainly in the show notes,
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can you share it with us so I can laugh
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at how ridiculous this is?
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- Oh yeah, it's bad, I mean, 'cause it's hideous,
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I mean, here, let me show you, hold on.
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- So, you said, like, the Rivian Vans,
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like, you can't clip anything to them, they're just too,
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they're too weird, like, weird electric car-y type vents
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and they're down too low?
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- They are weird electric car events,
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but yeah, the bigger problem is that they're mounted down,
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like, at the bottom of the dashboard,
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it's actually, it's not a great place for them
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even just to be vents, although Hopps loves them.
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All right, so I just put a link in the chat.
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- It's like a big tongue.
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- It's like a gigantic tongue. - It's like a big tongue
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licking an ice hockey puck.
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- So I have that, I'm using that mount
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with this second one, with this charging pad,
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'cause this one was a little bit,
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it had a little bit stronger cooling.
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- I love that the artwork makes it look like
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it's gonna make frost form on your phone,
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which I think would not be good.
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- No. (laughing)
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- Truthfully, it's not as bad as I thought,
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but it's not great.
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- No, I mean, look, it's ugly, but you don't see it,
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and one thing I was surprised by,
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the fan really is not loud.
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Like, you really don't hear the fan in a car.
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- Cars are loud, like, it's gonna be drowned out
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by the sound of the car. - Not his.
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Yeah, electric cars aren't.
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I was actually concerned about that.
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- No, just like the wind noise and tire noise alone.
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- Yeah, I mean, the tire noise, yeah, for sure.
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Like, you do hear that, but I was very pleasantly surprised
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that it actually is really not too loud.
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Here, this and this one, if you just want a cooler,
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not a charger, this is the other one
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that actually cools it substantially better.
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I think they're all kind of limited by how much power
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they're going to draw from USB.
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Like, I have one of those little USB power meter things.
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The one, the lysin one, that one draws the most,
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that's about 20 watts while charging a phone and cooling.
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That seems to be the max.
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Everyone else was around like 12 to 15 watts.
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So, like, they could theoretically use USB power delivery
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to have like even higher rates,
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but for some reason they don't do that,
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and I haven't looked into that further,
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but like, I haven't found one that does for whatever reason.
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But this, look, these are fine.
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Like, they work fine.
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It's a bit of a, and look, this is ridiculous.
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You shouldn't need to do this.
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Our phones shouldn't be overheating
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when just operating in a car, but they do, and here we are.
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- Well, I don't know if you can blame it on the phone.
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I mean, I would blame it on the car maker
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for making you use your phone in that way,
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but like, because the car is like,
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even when you're driving,
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I know it's like air conditioned or whatever,
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but it's like in direct sunlight, right?
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So that's not a great-- - Pretty much.
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- And it's like a little greenhouse.
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It's a difficult situation.
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- Yeah, and I'm using wireless charging,
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which of course, like, generates some heat,
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and I have a case around the phone,
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which of course also basically insulates the heat
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on the inside.
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So there's a lot of factors working against it,
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but it is kind of a ridiculous problem,
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but a ridiculous problem deserves a ridiculous solution,
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and I found one.
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- All right, let's do some follow up.
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Cywazam or something like that wrote,
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with regard to the Snapdragon X10, whatever this is,
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trillions of operations per second,
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and that person wrote, "While 40 tops is the minimum spec
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for something to be called a co-pilot plus PC,
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all Snapdragon X Elite and plus chips
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are actually rated at 45 trillion operations per second."
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- I apologize for underselling the Snapdragon X, 45 tops.
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- Excellent, I am glad to hear it.
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Justin Long has come back around.
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I don't know, I actually really liked him
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when he was very popular like 15 years ago,
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but he is the actor that you would know as the Mac
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to the foil of John Hodgman's PC,
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and he came back to promote Qualcomm-powered Windows PCs.
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I don't even know what to make of this,
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but The Verge writes, "Apple swarmer on the Mac
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actor Justin Long defected to Intel a few years ago,
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and now he's looking to switch
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to a Qualcomm-powered Windows PC
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during Qualcomm's Computex 2024 keynote today.
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Long appeared in a brief 30-second skit
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where he was bombarded by macOS notifications
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and NAG screens causing him to start searching
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for a Snapdragon-powered PC instead."
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- I'll put a link to Gruber's post about this,
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which covers pretty much everything I wanted to say about it,
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but yeah, the main thing that's really baffling is like,
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okay, so you get the actor that was in an Apple ad campaign,
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you try to ride in Apple's coattails to do a thing,
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Intel has done it before,
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apparently he's done this for Huawei as well, whatever.
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But you have to have some motivation
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for the person in the ad to be saying,
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"I'm dissatisfied with Apple,
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so I'm gonna get a CoPilot Plus PC," or whatever, right?
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But the reason he's dissatisfied is he gets notifications,
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like the email has arrived and stuff.
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I mean, you can turn off notifications.
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They should have asked an actual Mac user,
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"What's annoying about macOS?"
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We can tell you.
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There are things you could put in the ad that are legit,
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but what they had in the ad was like,
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"Why does this make him want a new computer?"
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It is just not a sensible ad,
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and it shows real, just not...
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Again, just ask anyone who has a Mac.
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They'll tell you what's annoying about macOS.
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For example, I think that people have done ads on this,
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all the stupid permission things, right?
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The pop-up, you know, we've been complaining about for ages
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that Jason Stenell had a big post about
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when he had to set up a new computer.
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That's actually annoying.
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Show those flying in his face and saying,
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"Boy, I just tried to set up a new computer,
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"and I had to give a million different permissions
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"to a million different apps.
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"I'm gonna get a Snapdragon X Co-Pilot Plus PC
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"because then I won't have to deal with that."
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I don't know if that's actually true,
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but that would be a sensible ad
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showing an actual pain point, but this failed to do that.
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So anyway, I'm glad he's getting paid to do ads,
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and it is really just a...
00:11:27
◼
►
It's not, I don't know, embarrassing move
00:11:32
◼
►
to be trying to play off of a very, now very old
00:11:37
◼
►
Apple ad campaign rather than making your own ad campaign,
00:11:39
◼
►
but you know, advertising is what it is.
00:11:42
◼
►
- All right, so Windows Recall,
00:11:45
◼
►
everyone seemed to be really worked up
00:11:47
◼
►
about how this was gonna be a security nightmare,
00:11:48
◼
►
and I'll actually admit that I assumed that, no,
00:11:53
◼
►
they, Microsoft knows what they're doing.
00:11:55
◼
►
This surely can't be as bad as everyone fears.
00:11:58
◼
►
Well, it's as bad as everyone fears, if not worse.
00:12:01
◼
►
Recall is part of the, Nith is reading from Verge,
00:12:03
◼
►
"Recall is part of the new Co-Pilot Plus PCs
00:12:05
◼
►
"that are debuting on June 18th,
00:12:06
◼
►
"but experts who have tested the feature
00:12:08
◼
►
"are already warning that Recall could be a quote-unquote
00:12:10
◼
►
"disaster for cybersecurity."
00:12:12
◼
►
Kevin Beaumont writes,
00:12:13
◼
►
"Stealing everything you've ever typed or viewed
00:12:15
◼
►
"on your own Windows PC is now possible
00:12:16
◼
►
"with two lines of code."
00:12:19
◼
►
- Kevin's post has a big mock Q&A
00:12:22
◼
►
about the way it's implemented.
00:12:23
◼
►
So as we said in the last show,
00:12:25
◼
►
or maybe it was the show before that,
00:12:27
◼
►
the people who have not sort of mentally prepared
00:12:29
◼
►
for the idea of a feature like this
00:12:31
◼
►
by knowing about rewind or live streams or whatever,
00:12:35
◼
►
it's just blowing their mind
00:12:36
◼
►
that something's gonna be recording their screen
00:12:37
◼
►
all the time and it seems really terrible
00:12:39
◼
►
and they don't want it.
00:12:40
◼
►
And now that people see the actual implementation,
00:12:43
◼
►
yes, the implementation does have problems,
00:12:45
◼
►
but a lot of the freaking out about it
00:12:47
◼
►
is about sort of policy decisions.
00:12:50
◼
►
So one of them is that it's on by default,
00:12:52
◼
►
and apparently during the setup process for a new PC,
00:12:56
◼
►
you can't opt out during the setup process.
00:12:59
◼
►
You have to finish the setup process
00:13:00
◼
►
and then go in settings and turn it off, right?
00:13:02
◼
►
So you can turn it off, but it's on by default
00:13:04
◼
►
and you have to hunt down the thing to do it,
00:13:05
◼
►
which is mind boggling.
00:13:06
◼
►
Everyone has, like all the enterprise admins
00:13:08
◼
►
for Windows PC, enterprise IT people are already paranoid.
00:13:13
◼
►
I'm sure they're slamming Microsoft saying,
00:13:15
◼
►
"We need a way to turn this off by default
00:13:17
◼
►
"because we don't want everything recorded on our computers
00:13:19
◼
►
"'cause during legal discovery, during lawsuits,
00:13:22
◼
►
"we don't wanna give a lot of information," all that stuff.
00:13:25
◼
►
And then as you alluded to, Casey, there's the,
00:13:27
◼
►
"Okay, but how is that actually implemented?"
00:13:29
◼
►
Some aspects of it are unavoidable.
00:13:31
◼
►
If you are recording everything that's on the screen
00:13:34
◼
►
and those recordings are accessible to the logged in user,
00:13:36
◼
►
then those recordings are accessible to the logged in user.
00:13:39
◼
►
You know what I mean?
00:13:40
◼
►
People want it to be recorded, but they're like,
00:13:42
◼
►
"Yeah, but I don't want bad people to see it."
00:13:43
◼
►
Well, guess what?
00:13:44
◼
►
Bad people can gain access to your account as you,
00:13:47
◼
►
and then if you can see it, they can see it.
00:13:49
◼
►
So the mere existence of a treasure trove of recordings
00:13:52
◼
►
of everything you've done is in itself a security problem
00:13:56
◼
►
no matter how quote unquote secure it is.
00:13:58
◼
►
There's no way you can make it so secure
00:14:00
◼
►
that it can't be hacked because then the user
00:14:02
◼
►
wouldn't be able to see it either.
00:14:04
◼
►
Like for it to be useful, you have to be able to go back
00:14:07
◼
►
in time and look at stuff.
00:14:08
◼
►
If you take away that ability, you can make it real secure.
00:14:12
◼
►
It's not a very useful feature, right?
00:14:13
◼
►
So that I think is just, that's never gonna be fixed.
00:14:18
◼
►
It's just people are just gonna have to live with it
00:14:20
◼
►
and deal with it and it'll be fine.
00:14:21
◼
►
But the second part is, okay, but you should at least
00:14:23
◼
►
make it so that other people can't see it easily.
00:14:25
◼
►
Like it should be encrypted on disk and stuff like that
00:14:27
◼
►
and they didn't even do that.
00:14:28
◼
►
It's like in a plain unencrypted SQLite database
00:14:31
◼
►
that's accessible to, of course the logged in user,
00:14:35
◼
►
apparently it's also accessible to any admin user
00:14:37
◼
►
on the system.
00:14:37
◼
►
It's just a plain text file.
00:14:38
◼
►
Like they didn't even encrypt it at rest.
00:14:40
◼
►
So implementation of this does not look great
00:14:43
◼
►
and turning it on by default does not seem great.
00:14:45
◼
►
And it's basically giving the Co-Pilot Plus PCs
00:14:47
◼
►
kind of a marketing black eye before they have a chance
00:14:51
◼
►
to impress people with all the good things about them.
00:14:53
◼
►
You know what I mean?
00:14:54
◼
►
Like this is not the fault of the Snapdragon X processor.
00:14:57
◼
►
This is not the fault of the hardware.
00:14:59
◼
►
It's the fault of Windows, including this feature
00:15:01
◼
►
and turning it on by default
00:15:02
◼
►
and apparently implementing it poorly.
00:15:03
◼
►
So I don't know, Microsoft, they've got a lot of work.
00:15:06
◼
►
But by the time you hear this episode,
00:15:08
◼
►
presumably Microsoft will have issued an apology
00:15:09
◼
►
and said they're not gonna have it on by default
00:15:11
◼
►
and yada yada, but right now things don't look good.
00:15:13
◼
►
- Yeah, I mean, I assume they will have it off by default
00:15:16
◼
►
before it's released because there's way too many problems.
00:15:19
◼
►
And we talked about all this when Rewind AI came out.
00:15:23
◼
►
You know, whenever we talked about that like months ago.
00:15:25
◼
►
And then again on our overtime a couple weeks ago.
00:15:27
◼
►
You know, as you said, there's really no good way
00:15:31
◼
►
to have this data be like, you know,
00:15:35
◼
►
quote only accessible to good reasons
00:15:38
◼
►
or good people or whatever.
00:15:39
◼
►
I think the ultimately, as long as this data
00:15:43
◼
►
is being collected somewhere on your computer
00:15:45
◼
►
or on some service, like whatever it is,
00:15:47
◼
►
like even if you have it all local, all encrypted,
00:15:50
◼
►
it's still being collected.
00:15:52
◼
►
And there will be ways to exploit that.
00:15:55
◼
►
People will find security holes,
00:15:56
◼
►
malware will try to access it,
00:15:58
◼
►
some malware will succeed in accessing it.
00:16:01
◼
►
There are also things like legal discovery risks
00:16:03
◼
►
and things like that to, you know,
00:16:05
◼
►
that will make a lot of companies not wanna do it.
00:16:06
◼
►
- And just plain old social engineering,
00:16:07
◼
►
because again, the user can access it.
00:16:09
◼
►
So if you can convince the user to do something,
00:16:11
◼
►
like that's most of hacking and malware
00:16:13
◼
►
is based on tricking people into doing something, right?
00:16:16
◼
►
And there's, again, there's no way to collect this
00:16:19
◼
►
and have it be totally safe.
00:16:21
◼
►
If the user has access to it, the user is the weakest link.
00:16:24
◼
►
- Yeah, and there are so many practical and privacy concerns
00:16:29
◼
►
and just legal concerns with this.
00:16:32
◼
►
How are they getting around things like wiretapping laws?
00:16:35
◼
►
There's so many problems with these kind of approaches.
00:16:39
◼
►
I think it's interesting that these tools exist.
00:16:42
◼
►
They make for fantastic demos
00:16:44
◼
►
and some people will use them and will love them.
00:16:49
◼
►
- It is so far from being appropriate to be on by default.
00:16:53
◼
►
Like, we are nowhere, it is nowhere near
00:16:57
◼
►
that universally good that it should be on by default.
00:17:00
◼
►
This should be something that it's fine for companies
00:17:02
◼
►
like Rewind to have products that do this.
00:17:05
◼
►
It's interesting that Microsoft's doing it
00:17:06
◼
►
at the OS level now.
00:17:07
◼
►
It's wonderful to have it as an option
00:17:10
◼
►
for those like power productivity users who know about it,
00:17:14
◼
►
who know exactly what it's doing and who will opt into it.
00:17:17
◼
►
It has to be only for them though.
00:17:19
◼
►
It cannot be everyone opted in by default.
00:17:22
◼
►
That is just irresponsible.
00:17:25
◼
►
- Yeah, not good, Bob, but here we are.
00:17:28
◼
►
AMD's next generation of AI laptop processors
00:17:31
◼
►
have been announced.
00:17:32
◼
►
Reading from The Verge, AMD announced at Computex 2024
00:17:35
◼
►
that it's next generation of Ryzen laptop processors
00:17:38
◼
►
for generative AI workloads.
00:17:40
◼
►
The Ryzen AI 300 series.
00:17:42
◼
►
It's a rebrand of its top tier Ryzen 9 chips.
00:17:44
◼
►
The new Ryzen AI chips are built
00:17:45
◼
►
on AMD's latest architectures for neural,
00:17:47
◼
►
integrated graphics and general processing.
00:17:50
◼
►
The first two processors in the series
00:17:51
◼
►
are the Ryzen AI 9HX370, just rolls right off the tongue,
00:17:55
◼
►
and the similarly eloquent Ryzen AI 9365.
00:17:59
◼
►
Both have 50 trillion operations per second on their NPUs,
00:18:03
◼
►
but the HX variant is the higher end of the two.
00:18:06
◼
►
You know that because it says HX.
00:18:08
◼
►
- So we mentioned last episode
00:18:10
◼
►
or whenever we talked about the Copilot Plus PCs
00:18:11
◼
►
that AMD and Intel also have processors
00:18:15
◼
►
that they're gonna be rolling out
00:18:16
◼
►
that are going to qualify as Copilot Plus PCs.
00:18:18
◼
►
It's not just an ARM thing, so they're behind,
00:18:21
◼
►
but they're catching up.
00:18:22
◼
►
And look, there's AI right in the processor name.
00:18:24
◼
►
I'm sure they'll never regret that branding
00:18:26
◼
►
and it won't look dated when we look back on it.
00:18:29
◼
►
But 50 tops, hey, better than 45, right?
00:18:31
◼
►
So good job, AMD.
00:18:33
◼
►
All right, Intel has also detailed its new lunar lake CPUs
00:18:38
◼
►
that will go up against the aforementioned AMD,
00:18:40
◼
►
Qualcomm and Apple, reading this time from Ars Technica,
00:18:42
◼
►
"Lunar Lake will be Intel's first processor
00:18:44
◼
►
"with a neural processing unit or NPU
00:18:46
◼
►
"that meets Microsoft's Copilot Plus PC requirements.
00:18:49
◼
►
"Intel rates lunar lakes NPU raw performance at 48 tops.
00:18:52
◼
►
"Lunar Lake has two functional tiles.
00:18:55
◼
►
"The compute tile combines all of the processors,
00:18:57
◼
►
"performance and efficiency cores, the GPU, the NPU,
00:19:00
◼
►
"the display outputs, and the media encoding
00:19:02
◼
►
"and decoding engine.
00:19:03
◼
►
"And the platform controller tile handles wired
00:19:06
◼
►
"and wireless connectivity, including PCIe
00:19:08
◼
►
"and USB, Thunderbolt 4, and Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
00:19:12
◼
►
"Another big packaging change is that Intel
00:19:13
◼
►
"is integrating RAM into the CPU package."
00:19:15
◼
►
Well, just like Apple.
00:19:16
◼
►
- Yeah, so does this sound familiar?
00:19:18
◼
►
This is, you know, Apple sort of led the charge here
00:19:21
◼
►
in the mass market, in the market for mass market PCs, right?
00:19:25
◼
►
They made their system on a chip,
00:19:26
◼
►
it's got the RAM in the same package,
00:19:28
◼
►
it's got the whole thing in a giant SOC.
00:19:30
◼
►
Here's Intel finally catching up with that philosophy.
00:19:33
◼
►
I think the AMD one is similar with the chiplet type thing,
00:19:36
◼
►
but this is, I really feel like this is Apple leading.
00:19:41
◼
►
And people are gonna say, well, Apple isn't the first one
00:19:42
◼
►
to do that, lots of people have done it before,
00:19:43
◼
►
so on and so forth.
00:19:44
◼
►
But Apple showed that it can perform very well
00:19:47
◼
►
in personal computers that they sell millions of
00:19:50
◼
►
to regular people.
00:19:51
◼
►
Put it all on one chip, put the GPU on there,
00:19:54
◼
►
put the neuro-processing, the media encoder engine,
00:19:56
◼
►
everything, and so here's Intel, basically many years later
00:20:00
◼
►
saying, let's do that.
00:20:01
◼
►
Now they have things separated,
00:20:03
◼
►
I think we've talked about this before,
00:20:03
◼
►
I think they're using like different processes
00:20:05
◼
►
for different parts of the chip.
00:20:06
◼
►
I think the connectivity thing is not built
00:20:10
◼
►
on the same three nanometer processor,
00:20:12
◼
►
whatever I think they might be.
00:20:13
◼
►
I forget what the details are,
00:20:14
◼
►
if they're using TSMC to fab this or whatever,
00:20:16
◼
►
but so they're taking a slightly different approach to Apple
00:20:18
◼
►
because Apple can afford to just put it on all one thing,
00:20:20
◼
►
which has some efficiency benefits,
00:20:23
◼
►
but of course it is also more costly.
00:20:25
◼
►
But it's really kind of weird to see the PC world
00:20:29
◼
►
essentially following Apple's lead and deciding,
00:20:32
◼
►
you know what, that thing Apple decided to do with the M1,
00:20:35
◼
►
we should make all our PCs like that too.
00:20:38
◼
►
Snapdragon, AMD, Intel,
00:20:41
◼
►
all seem to be moving in that direction,
00:20:43
◼
►
at least for like the low end and medium end
00:20:46
◼
►
laptop type things.
00:20:47
◼
►
When it comes to big desktop PC and gaming PCs,
00:20:50
◼
►
they still have just giant discrete GPUs
00:20:52
◼
►
that use a ton of power and giant chips that aren't SOCs.
00:20:56
◼
►
So in that respect,
00:20:57
◼
►
they're not following Apple down that path,
00:20:59
◼
►
but boy, even if I predicted that,
00:21:03
◼
►
you know, when the M1 came out,
00:21:04
◼
►
by the time Apple has the M4,
00:21:06
◼
►
Intel, AMD and the ARM things will be following.
00:21:09
◼
►
I feel like this is unexpected.
00:21:10
◼
►
I would have been more likely to think,
00:21:13
◼
►
oh, maybe the whole PC world will go ARM
00:21:15
◼
►
as discussed in past episode.
00:21:18
◼
►
Doesn't look like they're all going ARM,
00:21:20
◼
►
especially since the Co-Pilot Plus PC thing
00:21:22
◼
►
isn't firing off like gangbusters,
00:21:24
◼
►
but I'm still holding out hope.
00:21:25
◼
►
And anyway, in the meantime,
00:21:26
◼
►
Intel and AMD are in the game too.
00:21:30
◼
►
- Speaking of Apple and M chips,
00:21:32
◼
►
Apple says the M2 iPad Air,
00:21:35
◼
►
no, it doesn't have 10 GPU cores.
00:21:37
◼
►
We actually meant nine.
00:21:40
◼
►
Cool, cool, we're cool, right?
00:21:42
◼
►
Reading from MacRumors,
00:21:43
◼
►
Apple has seemingly updated its tech specs webpage
00:21:45
◼
►
for the latest M2 iPad Air models
00:21:47
◼
►
to indicate the M2 chip has a nine core GPU
00:21:49
◼
►
rather than 10 cores as previously stated.
00:21:52
◼
►
The change was first reported by a nine to five Mac
00:21:53
◼
►
based on available web snapshots.
00:21:55
◼
►
The update to Apple's US website
00:21:56
◼
►
was made within the last 10 days.
00:21:58
◼
►
This was written two days ago as we record.
00:22:00
◼
►
However, the equivalent webpage
00:22:02
◼
►
on many of Apple's regional stores
00:22:04
◼
►
still lists the M2 iPad Air as having a 10 core GPU.
00:22:07
◼
►
Eventually a statement was provided to nine to five Mac
00:22:10
◼
►
and Apple said that the details it shared
00:22:13
◼
►
with the iPad Air's performance
00:22:15
◼
►
were always based on a nine core GPU.
00:22:17
◼
►
So Apple said, and I'm quoting,
00:22:18
◼
►
"We are updating apple.com to correct the core count
00:22:20
◼
►
for the M2 iPad Air.
00:22:21
◼
►
All the performance claims for the M2 iPad Air are accurate
00:22:24
◼
►
and based on a nine core GPU."
00:22:26
◼
►
Whoopsie-dipsies.
00:22:27
◼
►
- What a weird flub.
00:22:28
◼
►
Like, I mean, it doesn't even seem like
00:22:30
◼
►
it's a last minute decision.
00:22:32
◼
►
This is something that had to have been decided long ago,
00:22:34
◼
►
but like maybe there was a miscommunication.
00:22:36
◼
►
Like they decided to go with the nine core
00:22:37
◼
►
instead of the 10 core to save money on the iPad Air
00:22:39
◼
►
and just the web team didn't hear about it
00:22:42
◼
►
even though that decision was made four months ago.
00:22:44
◼
►
Like, it's not like they started manufacturing the iPad Air
00:22:46
◼
►
on the day of the announcement or something.
00:22:48
◼
►
Very strange.
00:22:49
◼
►
Not a big deal for the iPad Air.
00:22:50
◼
►
That's fine, but I don't know what's going on over there.
00:22:53
◼
►
- We are brought to you this episode by Squarespace,
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Like not only you as a nerd listening to the show,
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you don't have to like waste your time
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dealing with like installing packages on servers
00:23:27
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and stuff, but also if you're recommending it
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to someone else in your life, they can do it themselves.
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(upbeat music)
00:24:58
◼
►
Let's talk about LLMs and how they can learn.
00:25:02
◼
►
Adeiko writes, "There's some quote unquote new tech
00:25:05
◼
►
"that aims to enable LLMs to learn in context,
00:25:08
◼
►
"in production, avoiding limitations of relying solely
00:25:10
◼
►
"on RAG or retrieval augmented generation.
00:25:14
◼
►
"While promising this approach
00:25:15
◼
►
"is significantly more expensive,
00:25:16
◼
►
"here's a paper explaining,"
00:25:17
◼
►
and we'll put it in the show notes,
00:25:18
◼
►
"the methodology from earlier this year
00:25:19
◼
►
"and a video discussing the current limitations
00:25:21
◼
►
"you mentioned on the episode
00:25:22
◼
►
"and a potential solution that is clearly explained."
00:25:25
◼
►
So we'll put all three of these links in the show notes.
00:25:27
◼
►
John, care to summarize and/or dissect for us?
00:25:30
◼
►
- Yeah, so there's one video that says,
00:25:31
◼
►
"What is RAG?
00:25:32
◼
►
"What is retrieval augmented generation?"
00:25:34
◼
►
And my summary of it would be,
00:25:37
◼
►
you take what the person typed into their chat bot
00:25:39
◼
►
and you stick a bunch of text in front of it.
00:25:42
◼
►
And then you send that to the chat bot
00:25:44
◼
►
and picking the text you stick in front of it,
00:25:47
◼
►
I mean, they're not actually doing this,
00:25:49
◼
►
but you can imagine if they ask some question about cars,
00:25:52
◼
►
you would do a Google search based on what they asked
00:25:55
◼
►
and take the results of that Google search
00:25:56
◼
►
and stick it to the front of their text
00:25:58
◼
►
and then take that whole wad of text
00:26:00
◼
►
and throw it through the LLM, right?
00:26:02
◼
►
It's taking more than what you said,
00:26:04
◼
►
but trying to augment it with some context.
00:26:06
◼
►
Okay, LLM, maybe you weren't trained
00:26:08
◼
►
on any data about cars,
00:26:10
◼
►
but I'm gonna pull the latest up-to-date information
00:26:12
◼
►
about the car they mentioned in their prompt,
00:26:14
◼
►
and I'm gonna put that in front of their prompt,
00:26:16
◼
►
and then I'm gonna shove all that text, their question,
00:26:18
◼
►
plus all the text I grabbed about the latest cars,
00:26:20
◼
►
and I'm gonna chuck that into the LLM,
00:26:21
◼
►
because the LLMs are like,
00:26:22
◼
►
oh, I don't know anything after 2021, right?
00:26:25
◼
►
Like the old versions of chat DPT would say that
00:26:27
◼
►
because they were trained on older data.
00:26:29
◼
►
Well, what if someone's asking about something
00:26:30
◼
►
that's more recent that the LLM could not have been trained
00:26:32
◼
►
on or maybe just wasn't trained on
00:26:33
◼
►
because it's really narrow interest?
00:26:36
◼
►
That's what RAG is, right?
00:26:37
◼
►
But of course that has lots of limitations.
00:26:39
◼
►
I will put the second video says,
00:26:41
◼
►
what are the limitations of RAG?
00:26:42
◼
►
And you learn all about that.
00:26:43
◼
►
And then the final thing is continual learning
00:26:45
◼
►
for large language models, the paper,
00:26:48
◼
►
the scientific paper that we'll link,
00:26:50
◼
►
and this is the thing from the abstract,
00:26:52
◼
►
it says large language models are not amenable
00:26:53
◼
►
to frequent retraining due to high training costs
00:26:56
◼
►
arising from their massive scale.
00:26:57
◼
►
However, updates are necessary to endow LLMs
00:26:59
◼
►
with new skills and keep them up to date
00:27:01
◼
►
with rapidly evolving human knowledge.
00:27:02
◼
►
This paper surveys recent work
00:27:04
◼
►
on continual learning for LLMs, right?
00:27:06
◼
►
So the idea is, we said before,
00:27:07
◼
►
when you throw things through an LLM,
00:27:09
◼
►
the weights, the little numbers inside the LLM
00:27:12
◼
►
don't change, right?
00:27:13
◼
►
They take input, they produce output,
00:27:14
◼
►
but the inside of that LLM never changes.
00:27:16
◼
►
So you can't teach it anything.
00:27:17
◼
►
All you can do is make your prompt bigger and bigger
00:27:19
◼
►
and hope that the information in your prompt
00:27:22
◼
►
influences the answer.
00:27:23
◼
►
And it does influence the answer,
00:27:24
◼
►
but not as much as training the LLM
00:27:26
◼
►
on a whole bunch of that information, you know?
00:27:28
◼
►
Anyway, so that's RAG.
00:27:30
◼
►
- Right, so then Steven Tierney writes
00:27:33
◼
►
that Sundar Pichai's infinite context window claim
00:27:36
◼
►
from Google I/O seems to stem from this paper,
00:27:39
◼
►
which is entitled Leave No Context Behind,
00:27:41
◼
►
Efficient Infinite Context Transformers
00:27:42
◼
►
with Infinite Attention.
00:27:44
◼
►
This work introduces an efficient method
00:27:47
◼
►
to scale transformer-based large language models
00:27:49
◼
►
to infinitely long inputs with bounded memory and computation
00:27:52
◼
►
A key component in our proposed approach
00:27:54
◼
►
is a new attention technique
00:27:56
◼
►
that incorporates a compressive memory
00:27:58
◼
►
into the vanilla attention mechanism.
00:28:00
◼
►
The attention mechanism in Transformers
00:28:01
◼
►
exhibits quadratic complexity
00:28:03
◼
►
in both memory footprint and computation time.
00:28:05
◼
►
Compressive memory systems promise to be more scalable
00:28:07
◼
►
and efficient for extremely long sequences.
00:28:10
◼
►
Instead of using an array
00:28:11
◼
►
that grows with the input sequence length,
00:28:13
◼
►
a compressive memory primarily maintains
00:28:15
◼
►
a fixed number of parameters to store and recall information
00:28:17
◼
►
with a bounded storage and computation cost.
00:28:20
◼
►
In the compressive memory,
00:28:21
◼
►
new information is added to the memory
00:28:23
◼
►
by changing its parameters with an objective
00:28:24
◼
►
that this information can be recovered back later on.
00:28:26
◼
►
John, translate that for me, please.
00:28:28
◼
►
- So the scaling thing for people
00:28:30
◼
►
who ever took computer science class with big O notation
00:28:32
◼
►
is like how does this algorithm scale
00:28:34
◼
►
with the size of the input?
00:28:35
◼
►
For example, linear scaling would be,
00:28:37
◼
►
if you asked me to process 20 of these things,
00:28:39
◼
►
I'd take twice as long as if you asked me to process 10.
00:28:42
◼
►
Right, that's linear scaling.
00:28:43
◼
►
You can have other kinds of scaling
00:28:45
◼
►
where it scales to the square of the input
00:28:47
◼
►
and that's worse, right?
00:28:49
◼
►
And quadratic, that's what they're getting at there.
00:28:53
◼
►
The point is if you make longer and longer inputs
00:28:55
◼
►
to the LLM, it just, the time goes like a hockey stick graph
00:29:00
◼
►
it gets really, really bad.
00:29:01
◼
►
It doesn't even scale linearly.
00:29:02
◼
►
And even linear would be bad
00:29:03
◼
►
because Sundar Pichai was saying,
00:29:06
◼
►
you're gonna have infinite context.
00:29:07
◼
►
We have a limitation now of like 2 million tokens
00:29:10
◼
►
and that's pretty good.
00:29:10
◼
►
You can put a large wad of text through our LLM.
00:29:13
◼
►
Pretty big, right?
00:29:14
◼
►
But you can't, like I was mentioning,
00:29:16
◼
►
the infinite context opened the door to the idea of like,
00:29:18
◼
►
can you actually teach an LLM?
00:29:20
◼
►
Well, if your context is infinite,
00:29:22
◼
►
you can just keep typing stuff until the LLM gets it.
00:29:24
◼
►
No LLM, let me tell you more about this thing.
00:29:27
◼
►
And let me tell you more.
00:29:28
◼
►
Like essentially, you're not training it,
00:29:29
◼
►
you're not changing the weights,
00:29:30
◼
►
but it's like anytime I type anything,
00:29:33
◼
►
the last billion characters I've written to it
00:29:35
◼
►
over the past five years get sent through the LLM
00:29:37
◼
►
plus the question I just asked stuck at the end.
00:29:40
◼
►
And that's, as you can imagine, incredibly inefficient
00:29:42
◼
►
because of the way it scales.
00:29:43
◼
►
So this infinite context thing is like,
00:29:45
◼
►
well, we're not gonna do that.
00:29:46
◼
►
Instead, we're gonna use this thing where we kind of like,
00:29:48
◼
►
we try to do with a fixed amount of memory and computation.
00:29:51
◼
►
I don't understand how they're doing it,
00:29:53
◼
►
but it's like, I feel like they have some sort of block
00:29:55
◼
►
that the input goes into
00:29:56
◼
►
and then it modifies the values in that block
00:30:00
◼
►
and it just keeps doing that over and over again.
00:30:01
◼
►
And finally, it gets the final block
00:30:02
◼
►
and sends that through the LLM
00:30:04
◼
►
after it's been modified by all the input.
00:30:06
◼
►
But it's much less compelling.
00:30:08
◼
►
Like many people who wrote in about this is like,
00:30:09
◼
►
yeah, it's not really infinite context.
00:30:11
◼
►
It's more like taking an infinite amount of input
00:30:14
◼
►
and squishing it down to a small finite size
00:30:16
◼
►
and sending that through the LLM
00:30:17
◼
►
and hoping you've preserved enough information
00:30:20
◼
►
to get a useful answer out of it.
00:30:22
◼
►
And by the way, the other thing,
00:30:23
◼
►
the previous link about the continual learning
00:30:27
◼
►
is that some people are looking into the idea
00:30:29
◼
►
of what if we did change the weights
00:30:31
◼
►
when you sent a question or something through?
00:30:33
◼
►
If you talk to an LLM and you try to tell it something,
00:30:36
◼
►
can we retrain based on what you put in
00:30:39
◼
►
and change the weights of the model?
00:30:40
◼
►
And that's an area of research or whatever.
00:30:42
◼
►
And as I mentioned, we talked about this earlier,
00:30:45
◼
►
that opens the door for people to screw up the LLMs
00:30:48
◼
►
and make them terrible.
00:30:49
◼
►
You could tell it a whole bunch of bogus stuff
00:30:51
◼
►
and now your LLM just gets dumber and worse
00:30:53
◼
►
and tells more lies.
00:30:55
◼
►
It's like children.
00:30:56
◼
►
You can teach them whatever you want.
00:30:58
◼
►
You hope you teach them good things
00:30:59
◼
►
and teach them how to read and write
00:31:01
◼
►
and do math correctly and all
00:31:04
◼
►
and be a nice polite person or whatever.
00:31:06
◼
►
And what you will get out of all that effort
00:31:08
◼
►
is hopefully a good adult.
00:31:11
◼
►
But if you are terrible to them and do terrible things
00:31:13
◼
►
and tell them lies, the results will be worse.
00:31:17
◼
►
So the ability of, as you can imagine,
00:31:20
◼
►
if you allowed anyone on the internet
00:31:22
◼
►
to type anything they want
00:31:23
◼
►
that would actually change your LLM,
00:31:26
◼
►
that would be bad instantly.
00:31:27
◼
►
We already saw that with the non-trainable LLMs.
00:31:31
◼
►
Remember when Microsoft put their chatbot up
00:31:32
◼
►
and it was spewing Nazi stuff?
00:31:34
◼
►
That's just because it's trained on the internet
00:31:36
◼
►
and it's filled with all sorts of terrible things.
00:31:37
◼
►
So they're trying to tamp that down.
00:31:38
◼
►
But this would be like, no, it will be retrained
00:31:41
◼
►
based on the things you tell it.
00:31:43
◼
►
Nightmare fuel.
00:31:44
◼
►
But of course, if you had your own independent LLM
00:31:46
◼
►
and you were sensible, then you could mess up yours
00:31:49
◼
►
and other people would have their own
00:31:50
◼
►
and they could mess up theirs.
00:31:51
◼
►
And it's an interesting idea.
00:31:53
◼
►
But the infinite contact window was like,
00:31:54
◼
►
no, the LLM doesn't change until we release a new version.
00:31:57
◼
►
The weights are unchangeable,
00:31:59
◼
►
but we'll allow you to type an infinite amount
00:32:01
◼
►
of information in your prompt
00:32:02
◼
►
and maybe that'll make it do something sensible.
00:32:05
◼
►
None of these approaches seem super great to me,
00:32:08
◼
►
but I'm glad people are trying to figure out
00:32:10
◼
►
how to get around the current limitations
00:32:12
◼
►
because the current limitations are crippling
00:32:15
◼
►
for some use cases.
00:32:15
◼
►
Like they just basically make it impossible
00:32:18
◼
►
to do certain things reliably.
00:32:20
◼
►
It doesn't mean they're not useful.
00:32:21
◼
►
They're useful for other things,
00:32:22
◼
►
but certain use cases, it becomes completely useless.
00:32:25
◼
►
So I will look forward to this research advancing,
00:32:28
◼
►
but when it's appearing in scientific papers and stuff,
00:32:31
◼
►
it makes me think it's many years
00:32:32
◼
►
from being practically implemented, but we'll see.
00:32:35
◼
►
- All right, as we sit here,
00:32:37
◼
►
it is the evening of Wednesday the 5th.
00:32:41
◼
►
And in just a few short days,
00:32:43
◼
►
we will all be flying west to these greater San Jose area
00:32:47
◼
►
in order to go to WWDC,
00:32:50
◼
►
Apple's annual worldwide developer conference.
00:32:52
◼
►
As we mentioned last episode,
00:32:53
◼
►
all three of us will be there
00:32:54
◼
►
barring any plane catastrophes.
00:32:56
◼
►
And I know all three of us are super excited.
00:32:58
◼
►
- What do you have to say?
00:33:00
◼
►
- You know what?
00:33:01
◼
►
You never know what'll happen.
00:33:02
◼
►
So I just mean like a delay for the record.
00:33:05
◼
►
I didn't mean--
00:33:06
◼
►
- That's not what it sounded like.
00:33:07
◼
►
- Please, please.
00:33:08
◼
►
It's not getting any better.
00:33:09
◼
►
Don't worry, we'll fix it in post.
00:33:11
◼
►
So yeah, WWDC is coming up.
00:33:13
◼
►
So we should probably talk about what to expect.
00:33:16
◼
►
And honestly, I'm very surprised,
00:33:20
◼
►
well maybe not surprised,
00:33:20
◼
►
but impressed with the lack of like concrete leaks.
00:33:23
◼
►
And let me go through a few things here,
00:33:25
◼
►
unless one of you has an opening statement.
00:33:26
◼
►
Let me go through a few things
00:33:27
◼
►
that we haven't really talked about
00:33:28
◼
►
that we can use as jumping off points.
00:33:30
◼
►
But by and large, I feel like it's pretty,
00:33:34
◼
►
pretty well under lock and key
00:33:35
◼
►
what we're gonna see on Monday.
00:33:37
◼
►
- Why do you think that?
00:33:38
◼
►
It's just because the things we've talked about
00:33:39
◼
►
have been rumored.
00:33:40
◼
►
I believe most of the things will come to pass,
00:33:42
◼
►
and I think that's what they're gonna show.
00:33:44
◼
►
But we'll say, we'll go through the items we have here.
00:33:45
◼
►
We've talked about a lot of things on past episodes
00:33:48
◼
►
that have been rumored for WWDC,
00:33:50
◼
►
and I don't think many of them have been debunked.
00:33:52
◼
►
They're just sitting out there waiting for us,
00:33:54
◼
►
waiting to see if they're true or not.
00:33:56
◼
►
- Yeah, so we'll start.
00:33:58
◼
►
Mark Ermin has said, "Read my lips, no new hardware."
00:34:01
◼
►
And so there's apparently not gonna be any hardware
00:34:04
◼
►
this year, which I don't think is particularly surprising,
00:34:06
◼
►
but Mark has stated it is definitely not happening.
00:34:09
◼
►
- Yeah, that sometimes happens.
00:34:10
◼
►
We have the no hardware WWDCs.
00:34:12
◼
►
Sometimes Apple itself kind of leaks it
00:34:13
◼
►
to control expectations.
00:34:15
◼
►
In this case, I don't think there were any
00:34:17
◼
►
particular expectations that Apple needed to leak
00:34:19
◼
►
to tamp down, other than my unrealistic expectations
00:34:23
◼
►
about the Mac Pro and the Mac Studio,
00:34:24
◼
►
but there's cold water in that.
00:34:26
◼
►
- My expectations about Siri not sucking.
00:34:29
◼
►
- Well, yeah, but no hardware.
00:34:30
◼
►
No hardware, WWDCs.
00:34:31
◼
►
And we just had a bunch of hardware.
00:34:34
◼
►
The only hardware that Apple should be updating right now
00:34:36
◼
►
are the ones they apparently can't update
00:34:38
◼
►
because the chips aren't ready,
00:34:39
◼
►
and that would be the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro.
00:34:42
◼
►
I mean, he was pretty definitive,
00:34:44
◼
►
and when he comes out this close to WWDC
00:34:46
◼
►
and says no hardware, I just have to accept
00:34:47
◼
►
there's gonna be no hardware.
00:34:48
◼
►
So I'm sad about it, but perhaps not surprising.
00:34:51
◼
►
- You know, let me jump in and go a little off script here.
00:34:54
◼
►
Do you think, Jon, that this is the year,
00:34:57
◼
►
that the forthcoming macOS release,
00:34:59
◼
►
whatever it may be called,
00:35:01
◼
►
do you think that's the year that they start
00:35:03
◼
►
really hammering down, or taking away stuff for Intel?
00:35:07
◼
►
'Cause you weren't missing out on much
00:35:09
◼
►
on your ancient-ass Mac Pro, right?
00:35:11
◼
►
- Performance.
00:35:13
◼
►
- Well done, Marco.
00:35:14
◼
►
- Yeah, but didn't we talk about this?
00:35:16
◼
►
Like what year we thought the Mac Pro should stop?
00:35:18
◼
►
I forget what I predicted,
00:35:19
◼
►
but whatever I predicted back then, I stick by,
00:35:22
◼
►
'cause I think that was probably a reasonable prediction.
00:35:25
◼
►
Maybe this year, I don't know.
00:35:26
◼
►
I feel like it's a little bit early, but you know.
00:35:29
◼
►
Like, half the reason I think it's not gonna come this year
00:35:33
◼
►
is because that would require extra work by Apple
00:35:36
◼
►
to deal with that, and they're like, "Ah, macOS.
00:35:38
◼
►
"We really don't put that much effort in.
00:35:39
◼
►
"Let's do it next year."
00:35:41
◼
►
- Fair enough.
00:35:42
◼
►
All right, so speaking of macOS and also iOS,
00:35:45
◼
►
allegedly, according to Mark Gurman,
00:35:47
◼
►
"The Settings app is getting revamped
00:35:49
◼
►
"with a cleaner interface, better organization,
00:35:51
◼
►
"and much improved search."
00:35:52
◼
►
And that's both iOS and macOS.
00:35:53
◼
►
Like I said, I'll believe it when I see it,
00:35:56
◼
►
insofar as I don't doubt that they've touched
00:36:00
◼
►
and maybe rejiggered some stuff in Settings,
00:36:03
◼
►
but I don't know.
00:36:04
◼
►
I am not as offended by Settings as most people,
00:36:07
◼
►
but I can absolutely tell you it is a mess.
00:36:09
◼
►
And although I haven't looked at it in a little while,
00:36:11
◼
►
I feel like they've kind of given a hint about this
00:36:14
◼
►
on the Vision Pro, because the Vision Pro settings
00:36:15
◼
►
are vastly different than any other platform.
00:36:18
◼
►
And to my recollection,
00:36:20
◼
►
they do make a modicum of sense in there.
00:36:23
◼
►
So maybe we'll see that getting cribbed
00:36:25
◼
►
and put into iOS and macOS.
00:36:27
◼
►
But one way or another, we're gonna get something different.
00:36:29
◼
►
- Yeah, this rumor doesn't have enough detail
00:36:31
◼
►
to be that interesting, either because it's just a vague
00:36:34
◼
►
rumor and they don't have details,
00:36:35
◼
►
or because the person conveying this rumor
00:36:37
◼
►
doesn't understand what's wrong with Settings.
00:36:41
◼
►
- They just say, "I was revamped to get a cleaner interface."
00:36:43
◼
►
I don't think the complaints were that the interface
00:36:44
◼
►
was not clean.
00:36:46
◼
►
- I mean, I don't feel clean using it.
00:36:49
◼
►
- Jason had a good article of like,
00:36:50
◼
►
"Look, you can use hierarchy to arrange information
00:36:53
◼
►
"visually and conceptually, and that can make things
00:36:56
◼
►
"easier to find."
00:36:58
◼
►
And we don't wanna re-litigate everything
00:37:00
◼
►
that's wrong with Settings, but there's no concrete things
00:37:02
◼
►
about what are they fixing.
00:37:03
◼
►
They're like, "Ah, well they're just rearranging stuff.
00:37:04
◼
►
"Some things, they're putting things in different places,
00:37:06
◼
►
"and the search will be better."
00:37:08
◼
►
Those are all good, improvements are welcome,
00:37:10
◼
►
but I haven't seen anyone say,
00:37:13
◼
►
"They're totally overhauling it,
00:37:15
◼
►
"and it's gonna be good now."
00:37:16
◼
►
It's just, it's like minor improvements.
00:37:19
◼
►
And I guess if you do minor improvements many years
00:37:21
◼
►
repeatedly, you'll get better and better, and it'll be fine.
00:37:23
◼
►
But I'm still not jazzed about the Settings app.
00:37:27
◼
►
I mean, it's still full of bugs even.
00:37:29
◼
►
Like, setting aside the design, which is I think still poor,
00:37:34
◼
►
I don't really necessarily need them to massively revamp
00:37:38
◼
►
the design if it's still gonna be this buggy.
00:37:40
◼
►
Like, I'd rather, if they only do one thing to improve it,
00:37:43
◼
►
I'd rather they make the current design
00:37:44
◼
►
actually work correctly.
00:37:46
◼
►
But that being said, a new design would also be welcome.
00:37:49
◼
►
But I'm hoping whatever this rumor is,
00:37:51
◼
►
I'm hoping that what they're really saying is,
00:37:54
◼
►
it's been worked on a lot, and maybe that will include
00:37:56
◼
►
some bug fixes also.
00:37:57
◼
►
But it still feels like a broken web app version
00:38:02
◼
►
of something that's trying to imitate an iOS settings screen.
00:38:06
◼
►
Like, it does not feel like anything that would ever
00:38:09
◼
►
have come from Apple if you would have shown people,
00:38:11
◼
►
like, you know, even five or 10 years ago, like,
00:38:13
◼
►
"Hey, this is current Apple software in the year 2024."
00:38:17
◼
►
They would look at it and be like, "Are you serious?"
00:38:19
◼
►
- Yeah, when we're talking about Mac OS settings,
00:38:21
◼
►
but this rumor's actually primarily about iOS settings,
00:38:24
◼
►
which, you know, we all are familiar with,
00:38:26
◼
►
and doesn't need as much attention as Mac OS settings,
00:38:28
◼
►
but I think they're rearranging stuff,
00:38:31
◼
►
splitting out some things that were previously combined.
00:38:33
◼
►
iOS settings, the search has always,
00:38:35
◼
►
has had many years of work in it,
00:38:36
◼
►
so that's how a lot of us navigate settings,
00:38:38
◼
►
'cause you can't remember exactly where something is.
00:38:40
◼
►
But, you know, in all cases, I feel like, you know,
00:38:44
◼
►
the general philosophy of settings in both Mac OS
00:38:46
◼
►
or iOS is being maintained to be the same.
00:38:49
◼
►
They're just like, "Maybe we could arrange things better."
00:38:51
◼
►
And I think on iOS, the design is reasonable.
00:38:54
◼
►
On Mac OS, they should have better information,
00:38:57
◼
►
organization, and hierarchy,
00:38:59
◼
►
given the larger size of the screens
00:39:01
◼
►
and the more sophisticated input methods.
00:39:02
◼
►
And as for the bugs, we've said this before,
00:39:04
◼
►
when settings was first redesigned,
00:39:05
◼
►
how much of it is the settings app?
00:39:06
◼
►
How much of it is Swift UI bugs, you know?
00:39:09
◼
►
I mean, I know it's all the same company,
00:39:10
◼
►
and they can complain directly to the Swift UI people,
00:39:12
◼
►
but when stuff like text fields, like,
00:39:14
◼
►
don't stay editable or lose focus
00:39:16
◼
►
when you're in the middle of typing,
00:39:18
◼
►
I worry, wonder about that.
00:39:19
◼
►
And sometimes they're using, like,
00:39:20
◼
►
quote-unquote standard controls
00:39:21
◼
►
that I think are bad standard controls.
00:39:23
◼
►
The settings team didn't define those controls.
00:39:25
◼
►
They're using the standard controls
00:39:26
◼
►
as part of this form thing in Swift UI,
00:39:29
◼
►
and I think those controls are bad.
00:39:31
◼
►
I think they look bad.
00:39:32
◼
►
I think they don't work well,
00:39:33
◼
►
but the settings team didn't make those, right?
00:39:36
◼
►
They're just, you know, using the OS-level controls.
00:39:39
◼
►
So to the extent that they're buggy,
00:39:40
◼
►
I think a lot of it is probably on the frameworks teams,
00:39:43
◼
►
and to the extent that those controls are bad,
00:39:45
◼
►
that's all on the frameworks team.
00:39:46
◼
►
Like, one of the things that drives me up a wall,
00:39:49
◼
►
and I just can't believe, this is not,
00:39:51
◼
►
I guess it's in settings,
00:39:52
◼
►
one of the passwords pane in settings,
00:39:53
◼
►
when you edit, like, a password,
00:39:56
◼
►
and it makes you edit text in, like, a right-aligned thing.
00:39:59
◼
►
I feel like I'm writing in a right-to-left language,
00:40:01
◼
►
or a left-to-whatever,
00:40:02
◼
►
whatever the opposite of the way English is.
00:40:05
◼
►
- Right-to-left.
00:40:06
◼
►
- Have you done this and seen it?
00:40:07
◼
►
It breaks my brain, how, like, backspacing
00:40:10
◼
►
and forward-spacing and moving text goes.
00:40:13
◼
►
You're editing right-aligned text for, like, the password.
00:40:17
◼
►
I don't want any surprises or unexpected behaviors
00:40:20
◼
►
when I'm editing the text of a password in plain text, right?
00:40:24
◼
►
Just, that's not a good way to let me edit information.
00:40:29
◼
►
It's name-value pairs, username, password, website.
00:40:33
◼
►
Don't make it right-aligned in a text field
00:40:35
◼
►
that has no borders,
00:40:36
◼
►
it's the same color as the background,
00:40:37
◼
►
that just behaves in bizarre ways.
00:40:40
◼
►
That's the stuff that really needs to be fixed,
00:40:42
◼
►
and the settings team,
00:40:43
◼
►
well, maybe for the right-aligned thing,
00:40:44
◼
►
they have control over that,
00:40:45
◼
►
but I'm not sure how much control
00:40:46
◼
►
the settings team has over that, so.
00:40:48
◼
►
- Well, but, I mean, this is maybe not their fault,
00:40:52
◼
►
but it is their problem, you know?
00:40:54
◼
►
Yes, they were building this app on what seems
00:40:57
◼
►
to have been definitely a shaky design concept
00:41:01
◼
►
of let's just make it look like iOS,
00:41:03
◼
►
and that didn't go so well,
00:41:05
◼
►
building it on top of SwiftUI for Mac,
00:41:07
◼
►
which is not the greatest platform for SwiftUI
00:41:11
◼
►
to date so far, but at the same time,
00:41:14
◼
►
nobody was forcing them to do this.
00:41:15
◼
►
Nobody was, or at least, you know, the SwiftUI team
00:41:18
◼
►
doesn't run the company,
00:41:19
◼
►
so the SwiftUI team was not forcing the rest of the company
00:41:21
◼
►
to say, "Hey, you better rewrite all your stuff
00:41:23
◼
►
"in SwiftUI right now."
00:41:24
◼
►
And even if they were, that's not our problem
00:41:28
◼
►
as the customers, like, this is a self-created problem
00:41:31
◼
►
internally to Apple, so what we see,
00:41:35
◼
►
we don't care what it's written in,
00:41:37
◼
►
we don't care what team dynamics there were,
00:41:40
◼
►
or what they wanted to do on a technical level
00:41:41
◼
►
to make it more idealistic,
00:41:43
◼
►
all we see is the Settings app is really weird and sucks now.
00:41:47
◼
►
And granted, it was not in perfect shape before,
00:41:50
◼
►
but it's bad now, and it looks like they did
00:41:54
◼
►
a whole bunch of work and came out with something
00:41:56
◼
►
that was just still very bad, just in new and different ways.
00:42:00
◼
►
You know, the example you gave with the typing
00:42:02
◼
►
in a write-a-line text field,
00:42:04
◼
►
so much of what I see in the Settings app
00:42:07
◼
►
feels like no one has ever used it.
00:42:09
◼
►
Like, I feel like I'm trying out some code
00:42:13
◼
►
that I just wrote for the first time,
00:42:15
◼
►
and I'm running it in the simulator,
00:42:16
◼
►
and I'm trying it out, and I'm like,
00:42:17
◼
►
"Oh, this doesn't work.
00:42:19
◼
►
"Okay, back to the drawing board."
00:42:20
◼
►
But they shipped it that way.
00:42:22
◼
►
Like, it just seems like it's like a design concept
00:42:26
◼
►
that they showed in a meeting one day,
00:42:28
◼
►
and someone hit the wrong button and shipped it.
00:42:30
◼
►
- Yeah. - Yeah.
00:42:31
◼
►
And the thing is, the reason I think
00:42:34
◼
►
they're sticking with design, it did solve
00:42:36
◼
►
a bunch of the problems they had
00:42:37
◼
►
with the old fixed layout.
00:42:38
◼
►
Like, if the old fixed layout just wasn't scalable,
00:42:40
◼
►
you couldn't add more stuff easily,
00:42:42
◼
►
everything was sort of hand-laid out,
00:42:43
◼
►
and it was hand-laid out over a decade and a half
00:42:46
◼
►
by different people, so you could sort of see
00:42:48
◼
►
the different, one preference pane was different
00:42:50
◼
►
than another was different than another,
00:42:51
◼
►
based on when it was made and who made it
00:42:53
◼
►
and what they decided to do and what mood they were in.
00:42:55
◼
►
And this is uniform and scalable
00:42:56
◼
►
and scrollable and extensible,
00:42:58
◼
►
but the building blocks that they used to achieve that,
00:43:01
◼
►
they're bad building blocks, right?
00:43:03
◼
►
The individual controls, the way it scales,
00:43:06
◼
►
the way it looks, the way it works, that's all bad.
00:43:08
◼
►
So they did solve their problem.
00:43:10
◼
►
And hey, now we have a scalable solution for settings
00:43:12
◼
►
in Mac OS, but they've brought on themselves,
00:43:15
◼
►
to your point, Marco, many new problems
00:43:17
◼
►
by using these new controls that either weren't ready
00:43:20
◼
►
or buggy or just bad ideas, and that is a shame.
00:43:23
◼
►
So we'll see.
00:43:24
◼
►
Again, I welcome any kind of improvement,
00:43:25
◼
►
but there is no rumor that it's a complete overhaul
00:43:28
◼
►
that adds information hierarchy and visual hierarchy
00:43:31
◼
►
and restores some of the hand-laid out things
00:43:34
◼
►
for the most common controls,
00:43:35
◼
►
'cause that's what they should really do.
00:43:36
◼
►
Like, the old hand-laid out one, like the good ones,
00:43:39
◼
►
the nice preference panes that were hand-laid out
00:43:41
◼
►
and beautiful, they were nice and easy to use,
00:43:43
◼
►
and you could remember what they look like,
00:43:44
◼
►
and you could remember where controls were spatially,
00:43:46
◼
►
and it was like being in a place in a room
00:43:48
◼
►
with furniture arranged and all my wonderful things
00:43:50
◼
►
that I love, but it was just nice, right?
00:43:52
◼
►
And you can't do that for every single one.
00:43:53
◼
►
So you do need a scalable solution for more settings, right?
00:43:56
◼
►
You gotta have that, and they should have a better system.
00:43:58
◼
►
But for the most commonly used screen,
00:44:00
◼
►
like the five most commonly used settings screens,
00:44:03
◼
►
and I'm sure Apple knows what those are, hand-lay 'em out.
00:44:06
◼
►
Bring in an actual good UI designer
00:44:08
◼
►
who remembers what Mac user interfaces are supposed to look like.
00:44:10
◼
►
Hell, bring someone who's ever used a web form,
00:44:13
◼
►
because I can't remember any time I was asked
00:44:15
◼
►
to update my passport on a web page,
00:44:18
◼
►
and the text field was right aligned in English.
00:44:21
◼
►
Doesn't make any sense.
00:44:22
◼
►
Who thought of that?
00:44:23
◼
►
Or the labels were massively far away from the values.
00:44:26
◼
►
Just disappointing.
00:44:28
◼
►
- It's an adventure in there, but we'll see what happens.
00:44:33
◼
►
VisionOS 2.0.
00:44:36
◼
►
There haven't been very many rumors about this.
00:44:38
◼
►
Somebody pointed out, I don't have the toot in front of me,
00:44:41
◼
►
but somebody pointed out that, hey,
00:44:43
◼
►
VisionOS shipped in the middle
00:44:45
◼
►
of the software life cycle for Apple.
00:44:48
◼
►
And so it would not be surprising if VisionOS 2.0
00:44:51
◼
►
is really just getting all the low-hanging,
00:44:52
◼
►
or some of the low-hanging fruit that didn't ship for 1.0.
00:44:55
◼
►
But one of the things that's been rumored, maybe,
00:44:57
◼
►
is that some, or perhaps even all, of Apple's iPad apps
00:45:01
◼
►
that are running in compatibility mode on the Vision Pro,
00:45:03
◼
►
perhaps those will become real, honest-to-goodness
00:45:06
◼
►
Vision Pro apps, so things like home,
00:45:08
◼
►
calendar, podcast pages, et cetera.
00:45:11
◼
►
Which I think is possible, although it would not surprise me
00:45:14
◼
►
if that was issued in favor of doing something more
00:45:18
◼
►
whiz-bang, but we'll see.
00:45:20
◼
►
Maybe we would be able to rearrange the home screen.
00:45:22
◼
►
That'd be cool.
00:45:23
◼
►
- Yeah, so if these apps, if the things that shipped
00:45:26
◼
►
as iPad apps are native, it makes me think
00:45:28
◼
►
that they were already being developed,
00:45:30
◼
►
they just weren't ready for launch, right?
00:45:32
◼
►
'Cause I don't feel like they would launch the Vision Pro,
00:45:35
◼
►
and then say, okay, now all those things
00:45:37
◼
►
we had to ship as iPad apps, let's get teams
00:45:39
◼
►
on those to make them.
00:45:41
◼
►
Seems like they would have to be in progress already
00:45:42
◼
►
and just didn't make the deadline.
00:45:43
◼
►
But either way, this is embarrassing
00:45:44
◼
►
when you launch a new platform,
00:45:46
◼
►
and a whole bunch of your really important apps
00:45:49
◼
►
are the iPad versions.
00:45:51
◼
►
But Apple has done that in the past, like with the iPad,
00:45:55
◼
►
not getting versions of Apple's own Pro apps
00:45:58
◼
►
for years and years and years.
00:46:00
◼
►
Sometimes it takes Apple a really long time
00:46:02
◼
►
to get around to doing stuff.
00:46:03
◼
►
And what was the iPad OS rumor
00:46:05
◼
►
that's gonna get a calculator now?
00:46:06
◼
►
It's just they just never got around to it, right?
00:46:08
◼
►
And so, I mean, if they do this, at least it shows,
00:46:10
◼
►
if they have, if they're all,
00:46:12
◼
►
if all the iPad apps are now native,
00:46:14
◼
►
I think that does show some level of commitment
00:46:16
◼
►
that they realized it was embarrassing not to have that,
00:46:18
◼
►
and it was just a timing thing,
00:46:19
◼
►
and now they're fixing that.
00:46:21
◼
►
But I agree with you, Casey,
00:46:22
◼
►
that I don't expect Vision OS 2.0 to be massively different.
00:46:26
◼
►
There's just so many obvious things they need to fix
00:46:30
◼
►
and enhance, fix bugs, add minor features.
00:46:32
◼
►
I don't even expect them to have
00:46:34
◼
►
a big home screen rearranging thing.
00:46:35
◼
►
If they do, it'll be very rudimentary,
00:46:37
◼
►
'cause this is really just kind of like the,
00:46:39
◼
►
you know, make it what we wish 1.0 could have been
00:46:42
◼
►
if we had an extra, you know, six months.
00:46:45
◼
►
- Yeah, 'cause that's really all it's been.
00:46:46
◼
►
Like, you know, you think about every year,
00:46:49
◼
►
you think about these platforms
00:46:50
◼
►
going up by one whole version number,
00:46:51
◼
►
and there being a certain kind of minimum amount
00:46:53
◼
►
of improvement, but keep in mind,
00:46:55
◼
►
like, Vision Pro was a half-year release.
00:46:58
◼
►
And so it really hasn't been that long since 1.0.
00:47:01
◼
►
And from all we've heard, it seems like software
00:47:05
◼
►
was the, like, gating factor of when it could be released,
00:47:08
◼
►
not hardware, so like, it's not like they have
00:47:10
◼
►
a bunch of software work saved up for years,
00:47:12
◼
►
you know, waiting to be released.
00:47:13
◼
►
It's like, no, you know, what we got so far,
00:47:15
◼
►
like, that's what they have so far.
00:47:17
◼
►
And so I'm not expecting a lot of movement
00:47:20
◼
►
on the Vision Pro software side yet.
00:47:22
◼
►
It's just, it's too soon.
00:47:23
◼
►
And that being said, like, keep in mind, too,
00:47:26
◼
►
this is a very, like, distant forward-looking platform
00:47:30
◼
►
for them, this is not gonna be a big seller
00:47:32
◼
►
for a long time, if ever.
00:47:34
◼
►
And so I think the level of improvement to expect
00:47:39
◼
►
for Vision OS releases, even going forward,
00:47:41
◼
►
even when they have full years to do it,
00:47:43
◼
►
I'm expecting something more like WatchOS releases,
00:47:48
◼
►
or tvOS releases, like, not, I'm not expecting, like,
00:47:51
◼
►
major new changes and major new features
00:47:54
◼
►
to be coming out every single year.
00:47:55
◼
►
I think it's gonna be a slower update pace.
00:47:57
◼
►
Like, I think this is a very long game
00:48:00
◼
►
they're playing with Vision Pro.
00:48:01
◼
►
I think, honestly, I would love to see them
00:48:03
◼
►
step on the gas a lot harder,
00:48:04
◼
►
but what we're seeing so far shows a different strategy,
00:48:07
◼
►
but regardless, I don't expect a lot of movement
00:48:11
◼
►
on this platform every single year.
00:48:13
◼
►
I think it's gonna be a very slow burn.
00:48:16
◼
►
- You did get that immersive environment
00:48:17
◼
►
for working in Xcode, with the wavy neon lines and stuff.
00:48:21
◼
►
- Oh, yeah, from the developer app.
00:48:23
◼
►
- I mean, that's cool.
00:48:24
◼
►
I guess I actually haven't tried this out yet,
00:48:25
◼
►
but that's a thing, which is neat.
00:48:29
◼
►
But yeah, I don't know, I would love to see,
00:48:32
◼
►
even before I see a lot of software motion on VisionOS,
00:48:36
◼
►
I really would prefer to just see content
00:48:39
◼
►
more than anything else.
00:48:40
◼
►
Like, that's what I feel like I want,
00:48:42
◼
►
and we're just not getting it right now,
00:48:44
◼
►
which is too bad, but, you know, it is what it is.
00:48:47
◼
►
I will say, though, I was briefly using Vision Pro
00:48:49
◼
►
using the Mac virtual display mode
00:48:53
◼
►
with the developer strap on with a high-speed USB cable
00:48:57
◼
►
plugged into my Mac, and I do really like that.
00:49:00
◼
►
I mean, I was at home, so I only needed it
00:49:02
◼
►
for a minute or two because I was working on something,
00:49:04
◼
►
but it is pretty cool when it works,
00:49:08
◼
►
particularly when it's done via a cable,
00:49:11
◼
►
because then latency is much, much lower,
00:49:14
◼
►
and I feel like the crispness of the display
00:49:17
◼
►
is also considerably better, which I enjoy.
00:49:20
◼
►
But yeah, I mean, I just want content.
00:49:22
◼
►
Give me more content, 'cause I'm not using this thing
00:49:24
◼
►
for work a whole heck of a lot.
00:49:25
◼
►
I'm not sure anyone really is,
00:49:26
◼
►
so I would really just love more content.
00:49:30
◼
►
- Yeah, and that would also, I think,
00:49:32
◼
►
significantly drive sales, too.
00:49:33
◼
►
Like, that's what we need first, 'cause you're right.
00:49:35
◼
►
Like, it's gonna be a long time
00:49:37
◼
►
before there's meaningful software on here, if ever.
00:49:42
◼
►
So, again, like Apple TV, like this,
00:49:44
◼
►
when we had gone to the thing in November
00:49:50
◼
►
that we can't talk about, the one thing I was dying
00:49:53
◼
►
to talk about in the intervening months
00:49:54
◼
►
between that and release was it was very obvious to me,
00:49:57
◼
►
even from some past time, it was very obvious to me
00:50:02
◼
►
that this feels like computing on a virtual Apple TV
00:50:06
◼
►
with an infinitely sized screen.
00:50:08
◼
►
And it does kind of physically feel like
00:50:11
◼
►
you are kind of manipulating these giant apps
00:50:14
◼
►
in your giant space with these kind of indirect mechanisms
00:50:18
◼
►
of your eyes and pinching and flinging things around
00:50:21
◼
►
and stuff like that.
00:50:22
◼
►
And it kind of, like, it felt a lot like computing
00:50:27
◼
►
on an Apple TV, but just in a much bigger way.
00:50:29
◼
►
And obviously, better in some ways, worse in others.
00:50:31
◼
►
But for the most part, it felt like it was closer to that
00:50:36
◼
►
than using a laptop or an iPad or something like that.
00:50:38
◼
►
And so, I think what I would expect here is,
00:50:42
◼
►
I think it's gonna end up being a lot like the Apple TV
00:50:44
◼
►
as an app platform, which is most apps will not find
00:50:48
◼
►
much reason to be there, and most users won't want
00:50:51
◼
►
to use most apps there, but with the right content
00:50:55
◼
►
and with the right specialized apps,
00:50:57
◼
►
this could be something people use frequently.
00:50:59
◼
►
It just needs that content to be there.
00:51:01
◼
►
Like, I never even think about making an Apple TV app,
00:51:04
◼
►
but I use my Apple TV almost every day.
00:51:06
◼
►
What do I use on my Apple TV?
00:51:08
◼
►
Like, four apps.
00:51:09
◼
►
But I use them almost every day.
00:51:11
◼
►
So, the Vision Pro, I think, could be there.
00:51:13
◼
►
I think it could reach that point where people are using it
00:51:16
◼
►
for mostly content consumption and maybe occasional
00:51:21
◼
►
specialized uses or very narrow productivity uses
00:51:25
◼
►
for certain people.
00:51:26
◼
►
I see that being possible, but I think to get there,
00:51:29
◼
►
first, we need the install base to grow,
00:51:31
◼
►
and the only thing that's really gonna meaningfully grow,
00:51:32
◼
►
and I think at this point, is content.
00:51:34
◼
►
So, that's what I'm really watching for,
00:51:36
◼
►
is where are the content deals,
00:51:39
◼
►
where's the content coming from,
00:51:41
◼
►
like how much can there be, how quickly.
00:51:44
◼
►
That's what will actually move these things.
00:51:45
◼
►
And then we can talk about computing possibilities
00:51:47
◼
►
down the road.
00:51:49
◼
►
But I tell you what, if you are traveling
00:51:51
◼
►
and want a huge ass screen that doesn't take
00:51:55
◼
►
a whole lot of space, it is without peer.
00:51:58
◼
►
So, there are some uses, as few and far between
00:52:01
◼
►
as they may be.
00:52:04
◼
►
According to Mark Gurman, Apple picked Open AI
00:52:07
◼
►
as its inaugural AI partner for a few reasons.
00:52:09
◼
►
It got better business terms than Google was offering,
00:52:11
◼
►
and Apple believes that Open AI's technology
00:52:12
◼
►
is the best available on the market.
00:52:13
◼
►
Apple is expected to offer its new AI features
00:52:16
◼
►
as an opt-in service, according to people familiar
00:52:18
◼
►
with the matter.
00:52:19
◼
►
So, yeah, I think everyone's expecting the AI dust
00:52:23
◼
►
to be sprinkled all over the place.
00:52:25
◼
►
It's yet to be seen if somebody in the C-suite
00:52:28
◼
►
got a burr up their butt to put AI on everything,
00:52:31
◼
►
or if Apple will take what I hope,
00:52:34
◼
►
if Apple does what I hope they'll do,
00:52:36
◼
►
which is take a more mature approach and ask,
00:52:38
◼
►
where are we actually helping?
00:52:41
◼
►
Let's not do this just because we can.
00:52:43
◼
►
Let's do it because we should.
00:52:44
◼
►
And honestly, I think that there's far fewer places
00:52:48
◼
►
that AI should be used than where AI can be used,
00:52:52
◼
►
and we'll see what happens.
00:52:53
◼
►
But I'm hopeful they're gonna be mature about it.
00:52:56
◼
►
- I was looking at this Gurman article.
00:52:57
◼
►
I'm doing the search for, like, the Bloomberg style guide
00:52:59
◼
►
says when you're attributing anonymous sources,
00:53:02
◼
►
you have to say, "The people said," right?
00:53:05
◼
►
So, you just search for the people, that string,
00:53:08
◼
►
'cause that'll find you the tidbits
00:53:09
◼
►
that he's saying are sourced.
00:53:10
◼
►
My sources say this.
00:53:12
◼
►
And everything you read there was one of those,
00:53:13
◼
►
the people said things.
00:53:14
◼
►
So, I removed that text from some of the snippets
00:53:18
◼
►
'cause it's awkward.
00:53:19
◼
►
Anyway, the reasons for picking,
00:53:22
◼
►
it was they were talking to Google and other partners
00:53:23
◼
►
or whatever, that Apple thinks that they're the best,
00:53:25
◼
►
that they're the market leader,
00:53:27
◼
►
and that they gave better business terms to Google,
00:53:29
◼
►
which kinda makes sense 'cause OpenAI's younger and hungrier,
00:53:32
◼
►
you know what I mean?
00:53:33
◼
►
And the OpenAI thing is interesting
00:53:36
◼
►
because everything you said about the AI features, right,
00:53:40
◼
►
we assume that there'll be a bunch of those,
00:53:41
◼
►
like, "Oh, you can now do a useful thing,"
00:53:43
◼
►
and, "Yeah, we'll say it's AI," or whatever.
00:53:45
◼
►
It's the same stuff we used to say that was ML, right?
00:53:47
◼
►
But the chatbot style, "Hey, you talk to an LLM
00:53:52
◼
►
as if it's a little person back and forth,"
00:53:55
◼
►
all the OpenAI rumors are like,
00:53:58
◼
►
that's what OpenAI would be providing
00:54:00
◼
►
because Apple has an internal one that they're working on.
00:54:02
◼
►
They have their own kind of LLM chatbot named Ajax
00:54:04
◼
►
or whatever, but it's not ready,
00:54:05
◼
►
and OpenAI's things are better,
00:54:07
◼
►
so let's do a deal with them.
00:54:10
◼
►
But I still, the fact that it would be opt-in,
00:54:13
◼
►
like, what does that mean?
00:54:14
◼
►
Does that mean that when you're setting up your computer
00:54:16
◼
►
and says, "Oh, and by the way,
00:54:17
◼
►
"we have a partnership in OpenAI.
00:54:19
◼
►
"Do you want to enable feature that puts an icon
00:54:21
◼
►
"in your menu bar that you can click on
00:54:22
◼
►
"that props up a text box,
00:54:24
◼
►
"and now you're talking to chat GPT or something?"
00:54:26
◼
►
Like, what is opting into this?
00:54:27
◼
►
How does a chatbot fit into the OS?
00:54:30
◼
►
We can see how all the other stuff fits in,
00:54:31
◼
►
and like I said last week,
00:54:33
◼
►
the rumors that come down from on high
00:54:35
◼
►
that's telling every single team,
00:54:36
◼
►
"Find a place to put AI into your product,"
00:54:38
◼
►
that's bad, and that's kind of the worst of corporate,
00:54:42
◼
►
like, "Oh, it's a buzzword.
00:54:43
◼
►
"Let's just find a place to shoehorn this into our product."
00:54:45
◼
►
But to some degree, I trust the product teams
00:54:48
◼
►
to think, "What can we do with AI that is useful
00:54:50
◼
►
"in the Notes app, in Pages, in the Finder?"
00:54:53
◼
►
Like, I don't think any of them are gonna be like,
00:54:56
◼
►
"I know how we can use AI in our app.
00:54:58
◼
►
"Let's put a text box up,
00:55:00
◼
►
"and they'll send the message to chat GPT."
00:55:01
◼
►
Like, they'll think of something better, right?
00:55:03
◼
►
It's bad that they're asking all the teams to do that,
00:55:05
◼
►
because maybe it doesn't make sense
00:55:06
◼
►
to some teams to add AI features,
00:55:07
◼
►
but the mandate, we keep seeing this rumor
00:55:09
◼
►
that the mandate came down from on high.
00:55:11
◼
►
Every team, you better find some way to add AI,
00:55:13
◼
►
because this is the AI year, right?
00:55:15
◼
►
But that is entirely separate from this OpenAI deal,
00:55:17
◼
►
which is like, "Oh, you can opt in somehow in Mac OS
00:55:21
◼
►
"or in iOS to, like, on iOS,
00:55:24
◼
►
"to just install the chat GPT app?"
00:55:25
◼
►
Like, what does this mean?
00:55:26
◼
►
This is the thing that I'm looking for the most
00:55:29
◼
►
in this presentation, that they're gonna be on stage,
00:55:31
◼
►
they're gonna say, "We've partnered with OpenAI,"
00:55:32
◼
►
or maybe they won't say that, and somehow,
00:55:35
◼
►
some way, they're going to say,
00:55:37
◼
►
"In our operating systems that we're shipping,
00:55:39
◼
►
"there's a way for you to start talking to chat GPT
00:55:41
◼
►
"and having a little conversation
00:55:43
◼
►
"in a little window somewhere."
00:55:44
◼
►
I don't even think that's that useful a feature.
00:55:46
◼
►
There's already a chat GPT app.
00:55:48
◼
►
There's a Mac one with Swift UI, there's a native iOS one,
00:55:51
◼
►
you can use it on the web, like, what is this?
00:55:53
◼
►
I don't get it, and this is the thing that's baffling me,
00:55:56
◼
►
because, as we said, I think this is the highest potential
00:55:58
◼
►
for badness, because it is such a non-Apple,
00:56:05
◼
►
non-controlled, non-careful, just like,
00:56:07
◼
►
"Wild West, talk to chat GPT, good luck, it's not our thing."
00:56:10
◼
►
How is that a selling point?
00:56:12
◼
►
How are you going to promote that as a new feature
00:56:16
◼
►
of your operating systems?
00:56:17
◼
►
If a non-hardware WWDC, I don't think there's probably
00:56:20
◼
►
gonna be a developer story, unless Apple's gonna pay
00:56:23
◼
►
for your API tokens, and now you can write an iOS
00:56:26
◼
►
or a Mac app and use their framework
00:56:27
◼
►
and get free access to chat GPT,
00:56:29
◼
►
because Apple did some multi-million dollar deal
00:56:31
◼
►
with them or something.
00:56:32
◼
►
This baffles me, that's why I added this thing
00:56:34
◼
►
of the whole opt-in, like, what does that mean?
00:56:36
◼
►
What are we opting into?
00:56:37
◼
►
What are you providing?
00:56:38
◼
►
I have red flags all over this.
00:56:44
◼
►
- Yeah, I don't know, I'm so turned off
00:56:49
◼
►
by Sam Altman and OpenAI.
00:56:52
◼
►
I don't know, it's funny, the dude who we all snickered
00:56:54
◼
►
about wearing the two popped collar polo shirts,
00:56:58
◼
►
wasn't that WWDC, like, forever and a day ago?
00:57:00
◼
►
- A long time ago, yeah.
00:57:01
◼
►
- Yeah, and we all laughed and had a good,
00:57:04
◼
►
you know, laugh at his expense, and, you know,
00:57:06
◼
►
oh, look at this Silicon Valley bro
00:57:08
◼
►
just being the world's bro-iest bro.
00:57:11
◼
►
And fast forward five, 10 years, and it seems like,
00:57:14
◼
►
same as it ever was, nothing's ever really changed,
00:57:16
◼
►
like, it's, you know, move fast, break things,
00:57:18
◼
►
and have no consequences, and, I don't know,
00:57:21
◼
►
like, again, we'll see what happens,
00:57:23
◼
►
like, I am cautiously optimistic, and again,
00:57:25
◼
►
I like to think of Apple as generally one of the more mature
00:57:30
◼
►
and adult organizations in the Valley.
00:57:33
◼
►
I'm sure there's exceptions, I'm sure that's not always true,
00:57:35
◼
►
but broadly I think that to be the case,
00:57:38
◼
►
and I don't know, I feel, I hope,
00:57:40
◼
►
and I so desperately want Apple to be deliberate,
00:57:45
◼
►
be considered, be mature, and not just put the AI at dust
00:57:50
◼
►
on everything they see, but, hey, we'll see.
00:57:54
◼
►
- I mean, like, I don't, I find Chat TV useful.
00:57:57
◼
►
I use, it's in my rotation of things that I do.
00:58:00
◼
►
I do all the chat bots, I do Google searches,
00:58:02
◼
►
like, I get useful things out of it.
00:58:05
◼
►
There is use to be had there, but I'm doing that already.
00:58:08
◼
►
Like, I don't need Apple to add any features to macOS
00:58:10
◼
►
for me to do this.
00:58:11
◼
►
I can have a free account on OpenAI, I can have a paid one,
00:58:14
◼
►
I can use Google Gemini, I can do it on iOS,
00:58:16
◼
►
I can do it on a Mac, like, all of that is already there.
00:58:19
◼
►
I don't think I need any kind of OS integration
00:58:22
◼
►
to make that experience better.
00:58:23
◼
►
I can open a webpage, I can have, you know,
00:58:25
◼
►
let's me, it's already open in a tab somewhere.
00:58:29
◼
►
Like, you know, maybe it's not on my phone or whatever,
00:58:32
◼
►
like, I guess they could use voice thing,
00:58:34
◼
►
like, it integrates with Siri and you talk to Siri
00:58:36
◼
►
and it sends it out.
00:58:37
◼
►
Like, I'm not saying there's no room
00:58:38
◼
►
for OS integration, there is, but I just,
00:58:40
◼
►
this just seems such an uneasy partnership,
00:58:42
◼
►
but also because, you know, like, the sources in this
00:58:44
◼
►
essentially seem to indicate, some of the sources
00:58:47
◼
►
are not inside the Apple,
00:58:48
◼
►
sometimes they're ex-Apple people or whatever,
00:58:49
◼
►
like, this is a stopgap.
00:58:51
◼
►
Apple doesn't have anything Chat HTTP caliber.
00:58:53
◼
►
They don't have anything Google Gemini caliber.
00:58:55
◼
►
They want to have something like that,
00:58:57
◼
►
they wanna have a story for that for W3C,
00:58:58
◼
►
therefore they have to partner,
00:58:59
◼
►
we talked about this before, but they are working on stuff.
00:59:02
◼
►
Apple does have its own internal LLM.
00:59:04
◼
►
It does have its own internal chat bot
00:59:05
◼
►
that its own employees have been using.
00:59:08
◼
►
It's just not up to snuff yet, which makes sense,
00:59:10
◼
►
'cause they got a late start, right?
00:59:11
◼
►
But they're doing research in that area,
00:59:13
◼
►
so presumably, if this turns out to be useful,
00:59:15
◼
►
Apple would wanna pull a Google Maps here and say,
00:59:19
◼
►
yeah, we'll partner with this other company
00:59:21
◼
►
because they're the market leader,
00:59:22
◼
►
but eventually we'll roll out our own thing
00:59:24
◼
►
and eventually our own thing will be,
00:59:26
◼
►
if not better than good enough, right?
00:59:28
◼
►
And hopefully they'll do it better
00:59:29
◼
►
than they did with Maps rollout,
00:59:30
◼
►
but we'll see how it goes.
00:59:32
◼
►
But still, this is what I'm looking at the most,
00:59:37
◼
►
what's the pitch here?
00:59:37
◼
►
How is it integrated?
00:59:38
◼
►
How is this presented?
00:59:40
◼
►
If it's opt-in, what does that look like?
00:59:44
◼
►
It's so weird to sort of,
00:59:45
◼
►
if this ends up being a tentpole feature
00:59:46
◼
►
and not just an off to the side,
00:59:47
◼
►
'cause I can imagine just being like,
00:59:48
◼
►
oh, and by the way, we partner with them and blah, blah,
00:59:50
◼
►
and that's all they say about it, it's quick, right?
00:59:52
◼
►
But if this is a tentpole feature,
00:59:54
◼
►
usually tentpole features aren't like,
00:59:56
◼
►
and we're so confident in it that it's not on by default,
00:59:58
◼
►
it's kind of like the Windows recall thing, right?
01:00:01
◼
►
That's a sign of something like,
01:00:03
◼
►
we think it might be okay, but there is some danger here,
01:00:06
◼
►
so if you just hit okay, okay, okay during setup,
01:00:10
◼
►
whatever we're doing, you won't be exposed to, right?
01:00:14
◼
►
But if you opt into it somehow,
01:00:16
◼
►
then again, when you talk to Siri,
01:00:19
◼
►
and it can't figure out the answer,
01:00:20
◼
►
instead of telling you to check the web,
01:00:21
◼
►
it'll ask chat GPT or something.
01:00:23
◼
►
- Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
01:00:26
◼
►
We'll see what happens.
01:00:28
◼
►
I mean, that's all the items that we had in the show notes.
01:00:31
◼
►
I just, I really don't know what to expect,
01:00:33
◼
►
and I am so very, very interested
01:00:35
◼
►
to see what the AI story is.
01:00:37
◼
►
It seems that Apple's previous dedication to ML,
01:00:41
◼
►
or machine learning, as we've talked about,
01:00:42
◼
►
many other shows and blogs have talked about,
01:00:45
◼
►
you know, they finally embraced AI as a term.
01:00:48
◼
►
And so we'll see what happens.
01:00:50
◼
►
I think it's tough because, you know,
01:00:52
◼
►
Apple is a publicly held company,
01:00:54
◼
►
and publicly traded company, and you know,
01:00:56
◼
►
I think investors and, you know,
01:00:58
◼
►
rank and file shareholders are gonna expect them
01:01:00
◼
►
to have that AI dust sprinkled everywhere,
01:01:04
◼
►
you know, like a graffiti cannon of,
01:01:06
◼
►
or not graffiti, a glitter cannon of AI dust
01:01:09
◼
►
just shooting all over, you know, everything WWDC touches.
01:01:12
◼
►
But I don't know that that's appropriate or reasonable,
01:01:15
◼
►
so we'll see what happens.
01:01:17
◼
►
And I'm just curious to see, you know,
01:01:19
◼
►
now that we've got a whole new platform,
01:01:20
◼
►
I'm so excited to see what VisionOS 2 is.
01:01:24
◼
►
If history tells us anything, it will be disappointing.
01:01:26
◼
►
- Do you think VisionOS will have AI dust sprinkled on it?
01:01:29
◼
►
- Oh no. - At all?
01:01:31
◼
►
- I'd be surprised if iPadOS even has it.
01:01:34
◼
►
Like, keep in mind, like, you know, again,
01:01:35
◼
►
we're still dealing with Apple's kind of hierarchy
01:01:38
◼
►
of platform importance.
01:01:39
◼
►
iOS is gonna get all the cool stuff first.
01:01:41
◼
►
I would be surprised if we see it anywhere else.
01:01:45
◼
►
I think it's gonna be iOS certainly, you know, first,
01:01:49
◼
►
and then maybe they'll put some of the basics
01:01:52
◼
►
into iPad and Mac.
01:01:54
◼
►
- Well, the cross-platform stuff will get it.
01:01:56
◼
►
Like, the whole, like, removing people
01:01:57
◼
►
from the background of photos,
01:01:58
◼
►
that's just gonna be everywhere,
01:01:59
◼
►
because it's a common framework, you know what I mean?
01:02:01
◼
►
- Yes, of course, yeah.
01:02:02
◼
►
But like, you know, in terms of like,
01:02:04
◼
►
features like specific to, say, like,
01:02:07
◼
►
the Vision Pro or the watch, or like,
01:02:09
◼
►
I would be surprised to see anything like that this soon.
01:02:13
◼
►
- And speaking of like, sprinkling AI sparkles everywhere
01:02:16
◼
►
and everyone expects it to do it,
01:02:17
◼
►
at this point though, and this is what everyone expects,
01:02:20
◼
►
but at this point, it's true that the only way
01:02:22
◼
►
for Apple to really make news is to do something different
01:02:27
◼
►
than everyone else does.
01:02:28
◼
►
I mean, they can make news by saying
01:02:29
◼
►
we're not doing any AI stuff, and that would be news,
01:02:31
◼
►
but that's obviously not what they're doing, right?
01:02:32
◼
►
But they're not gonna do what every other company did,
01:02:34
◼
►
which is like, AI everywhere,
01:02:35
◼
►
sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle, like, you know,
01:02:37
◼
►
because that'll just be like, everyone else did that.
01:02:39
◼
►
Like, throwing spaghetti against the wall, right?
01:02:41
◼
►
Like Windows did.
01:02:42
◼
►
Anything we could think of, we're just gonna do.
01:02:44
◼
►
The only way Apple could actually make news
01:02:46
◼
►
is by saying, we're doing AI, but we're doing it
01:02:49
◼
►
the Apple way, where everything is useful,
01:02:51
◼
►
and blah, blah, blah, like, they have to present it that way.
01:02:52
◼
►
That is a marketing decision.
01:02:54
◼
►
We already know they're already doing that.
01:02:55
◼
►
We talked about that last week.
01:02:56
◼
►
There's tons of features that I used to call ML
01:02:58
◼
►
that are just features of our phone, right?
01:03:00
◼
►
If they do that this year and they present it as,
01:03:03
◼
►
we're not doing AI like everyone else,
01:03:04
◼
►
we're not throwing spaghetti against the wall,
01:03:06
◼
►
we don't have a thing where you draw a picture
01:03:07
◼
►
and AI draws along with you,
01:03:08
◼
►
because we didn't think that was that useful yet.
01:03:10
◼
►
So we didn't put it in, right?
01:03:12
◼
►
That's the story, that's the Apple story.
01:03:13
◼
►
And the news would be, Apple, WWDC,
01:03:16
◼
►
rolls out a bunch of AI features,
01:03:17
◼
►
but unlike other people's AI features,
01:03:18
◼
►
they only introduce the ones that are useful,
01:03:21
◼
►
and also a changing thing.
01:03:22
◼
►
Right, because that's the wild card,
01:03:24
◼
►
but I don't understand that, right?
01:03:25
◼
►
That is the way to make news.
01:03:27
◼
►
Otherwise, the story will be,
01:03:28
◼
►
Apple catches up with everyone else
01:03:29
◼
►
and does what everyone else has already done,
01:03:31
◼
►
which is, I guess, better than the bad story,
01:03:33
◼
►
which is Apple doesn't do any AI stuff
01:03:35
◼
►
and they're doomed, right?
01:03:36
◼
►
- Well, I mean, I think that's the most likely.
01:03:38
◼
►
I think by far the most likely reaction
01:03:40
◼
►
by the overall press and business and Wall Street communities
01:03:44
◼
►
is gonna be they didn't do enough.
01:03:46
◼
►
Now, as actual Apple users, for me,
01:03:51
◼
►
like what you were saying earlier,
01:03:52
◼
►
I would rather they do things that are useful to me.
01:03:55
◼
►
I don't need them to do the most stupid things that they are,
01:03:59
◼
►
'cause other companies will gladly do
01:04:01
◼
►
the most stupid things that they are.
01:04:02
◼
►
Apple doesn't need to do that.
01:04:04
◼
►
They are, as you were saying,
01:04:05
◼
►
they are the more grown-up company.
01:04:07
◼
►
I don't think that is their style
01:04:10
◼
►
to be the spaghetti against the wall, cutting edge,
01:04:13
◼
►
let's do a bunch of stupid stuff.
01:04:15
◼
►
That's not Apple's style.
01:04:15
◼
►
Apple is very conservative in that kind of approach.
01:04:18
◼
►
And to some degree, that's kind of just in their DNA.
01:04:22
◼
►
To another degree, they need to be,
01:04:23
◼
►
because they have much more scrutiny on them
01:04:25
◼
►
and their moves have, they make bigger waves.
01:04:29
◼
►
- And their brand, not that they're Disney,
01:04:31
◼
►
but their brand is very kind of like,
01:04:33
◼
►
let's not be hasty and do the radical stuff
01:04:37
◼
►
just because everyone else is doing it, right?
01:04:39
◼
►
And I honestly think if they market this well,
01:04:41
◼
►
the story won't be Apple didn't do enough.
01:04:42
◼
►
The story will be what Apple wanted to be,
01:04:44
◼
►
is that Apple took a more considered approach.
01:04:46
◼
►
Everyone else has just been like,
01:04:47
◼
►
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."
01:04:49
◼
►
And Apple made all their features useful.
01:04:53
◼
►
Here are the things that it does.
01:04:55
◼
►
It only does things that are provably useful, right?
01:04:58
◼
►
Like they did last year and the year before
01:04:59
◼
►
and the year before, like, oh, OS wide, you can OCR text.
01:05:03
◼
►
Like that's an AI feature, but it's useful.
01:05:06
◼
►
Like, and it's not, if that is the story Apple presents,
01:05:09
◼
►
I think most of the stories from outlets
01:05:11
◼
►
that don't have it in for Apple will be,
01:05:13
◼
►
Apple decides to take a different approach to AI.
01:05:15
◼
►
Unlike its competitors, Apple says that it's only rolling out
01:05:18
◼
►
features that are provably useful.
01:05:19
◼
►
And I'm not gonna use that term
01:05:20
◼
►
because that's not a good marketing term,
01:05:21
◼
►
but you know, some marketing person will come up with
01:05:23
◼
►
a two or three word phrase that distinguishes
01:05:25
◼
►
Apple's approach to AI, which again,
01:05:27
◼
►
is gonna be no different than what they did last year.
01:05:30
◼
►
The only difference is the magic of marketing, right?
01:05:32
◼
►
And I, you know, you're right that there will be
01:05:33
◼
►
some stories like Apple's not doing enough.
01:05:35
◼
►
They're falling behind.
01:05:36
◼
►
Microsoft has 40 LLMs running in the background
01:05:39
◼
►
and Windows 11, right?
01:05:40
◼
►
But I feel like the whole Windows co-pilot PC thing
01:05:43
◼
►
is just so wrapped up in the recall disaster
01:05:46
◼
►
that no one is even talking about the draw along
01:05:49
◼
►
or whatever, or the OS wide like translation,
01:05:51
◼
►
which I think actually is useful.
01:05:53
◼
►
So the door is open for Apple to do something smart here.
01:05:56
◼
►
And again, the wildcard is what the hell is OpenAI?
01:05:59
◼
►
Because OpenAI is not that.
01:06:00
◼
►
OpenAI and ChatGPT, that is not,
01:06:03
◼
►
we only do the things that we are sure are useful and safe.
01:06:06
◼
►
Because, you know, for all the uses that ChatGPT has,
01:06:10
◼
►
it's not conservative.
01:06:13
◼
►
Basically the floodgates.
01:06:14
◼
►
It's like type anything you want, hope it works,
01:06:16
◼
►
fingers crossed.
01:06:19
◼
►
- Yeah, like that, I would be very happy with,
01:06:22
◼
►
take most of the basics that we already know
01:06:25
◼
►
that quote AI stuff can do,
01:06:27
◼
►
even take a lot of the stuff the phones already do
01:06:29
◼
►
and just make it better, make it more reliable,
01:06:31
◼
►
but give it better results.
01:06:32
◼
►
As we were saying last episode,
01:06:33
◼
►
like basic dictation, speech-to-text kind of APIs,
01:06:38
◼
►
I believe, is it all Android phones
01:06:41
◼
►
or just the Pixel phones that have supported
01:06:44
◼
►
system-wide closed captioning?
01:06:45
◼
►
You can just have constant transcription showing on screen
01:06:48
◼
►
of whatever audio is playing on the phone.
01:06:51
◼
►
- Likely added to Windows.
01:06:52
◼
►
- Right, like why haven't iPhones been able to do that yet?
01:06:55
◼
►
Like that's such low-hanging fruit for Apple.
01:06:58
◼
►
That should be a feature, of course it should be a feature.
01:07:01
◼
►
And that's, again, things like removing people
01:07:03
◼
►
from photos that shouldn't be there.
01:07:05
◼
►
Like that kind of stuff,
01:07:06
◼
►
these are not cutting-edge new ideas.
01:07:10
◼
►
These are features that the rest of the industry has done.
01:07:12
◼
►
And yes, Apple will be playing quote catch-up,
01:07:14
◼
►
but that's fine as long as they do a good job of it.
01:07:17
◼
►
The reason why some of these features stand out to us
01:07:20
◼
►
as things Apple should do is because they are good ideas.
01:07:24
◼
►
We are not saying Apple should do everything
01:07:25
◼
►
everyone else has done.
01:07:26
◼
►
Most of the other things people have done with quote AI
01:07:29
◼
►
are weird and useless and creepy or something.
01:07:33
◼
►
But there are a few really cool killer features
01:07:36
◼
►
that it would be nice if Apple had good versions of.
01:07:38
◼
►
And then beyond that, what we've already talked about.
01:07:40
◼
►
Things like, obviously the big one is make Siri better.
01:07:43
◼
►
Like that is the big one.
01:07:45
◼
►
Please, for the love of God, make Siri better.
01:07:48
◼
►
- Make Siri, this is interesting, make Siri better,
01:07:51
◼
►
but don't turn Siri into chat GPT.
01:07:53
◼
►
There's a fine line there because you want Siri to be better.
01:07:56
◼
►
It's like all the things that Siri's supposed to do now,
01:07:58
◼
►
imagine if it did them reliably
01:08:00
◼
►
and with lots of flexibility and sophistication,
01:08:02
◼
►
and maybe you could do one or two new things.
01:08:04
◼
►
But that is very different than, hey, guess what?
01:08:06
◼
►
Now you can just ask Siri anything and it will do something.
01:08:08
◼
►
That's not what we want, right?
01:08:10
◼
►
Because that is the throwing spaghetti against the wall
01:08:12
◼
►
because you can get yourself into trouble real fast
01:08:14
◼
►
with just, especially since Siri has essentially control
01:08:17
◼
►
over your phone and when it gets it wrong,
01:08:19
◼
►
there are consequences, bad consequences.
01:08:22
◼
►
So that is something, I mean, there's no rumor
01:08:24
◼
►
that like, you know, the Siri suddenly
01:08:26
◼
►
could become chat GPT, right?
01:08:27
◼
►
Apple needs to, it's kind of like what you were just saying,
01:08:30
◼
►
things that the phone already does
01:08:31
◼
►
just make it do them better,
01:08:32
◼
►
but that is different than Siri is now
01:08:35
◼
►
an all-knowing wizard that you can ask anything
01:08:37
◼
►
and cross your fingers.
01:08:39
◼
►
- Yeah, like I don't need Siri to become a chat bot.
01:08:44
◼
►
I don't need Siri to generate images
01:08:47
◼
►
that don't exist already for me.
01:08:48
◼
►
Many of the things that we think of as modern AI apps,
01:08:53
◼
►
I don't need Siri to do those things.
01:08:55
◼
►
What we need Siri to do is what the promise of Siri
01:08:59
◼
►
has always been promising and it has just never
01:09:02
◼
►
reliably delivered on that promise.
01:09:04
◼
►
That's what we want to do.
01:09:05
◼
►
And I think, you know, looking at modern AI techniques
01:09:08
◼
►
and models and things like that,
01:09:10
◼
►
I think this gives them the ability to tackle
01:09:13
◼
►
what really is a pretty old set of problems
01:09:16
◼
►
in a new way that should theoretically
01:09:18
◼
►
be substantially better.
01:09:19
◼
►
So that's what I'm mostly looking for.
01:09:21
◼
►
And everything else that we've talked about,
01:09:23
◼
►
like being able to control apps without configuration
01:09:26
◼
►
and stuff like that, that's all gonna be great
01:09:28
◼
►
down the road whenever that comes together.
01:09:30
◼
►
I don't even need that right now.
01:09:32
◼
►
I just want Siri to work.
01:09:34
◼
►
That'd be great.
01:09:35
◼
►
And maybe give me a good captioning model
01:09:37
◼
►
on the phone that I can use.
01:09:38
◼
►
And otherwise, I think that could be enough for us.
01:09:42
◼
►
It's not gonna be enough for the press,
01:09:43
◼
►
it's not gonna be enough for the analysts,
01:09:45
◼
►
it's not gonna be enough for Wall Street,
01:09:47
◼
►
but I think that would be enough
01:09:48
◼
►
for Apple's actual customers.
01:09:50
◼
►
- I have an addendum to an earlier statement
01:09:52
◼
►
that I meant to correct myself immediately
01:09:53
◼
►
and then the time passed and I couldn't.
01:09:55
◼
►
But talk about when they're dropping Intel support,
01:09:57
◼
►
I forgot about all the AI stuff.
01:09:59
◼
►
The whole requirement to have an NPU,
01:10:01
◼
►
like that's why rewind doesn't work on my computer,
01:10:04
◼
►
that may push the schedule forward.
01:10:07
◼
►
I mean, that wasn't really a glimmer in anyone's eye
01:10:09
◼
►
when back when we were talking about this years ago.
01:10:12
◼
►
But now the whole like, you know,
01:10:14
◼
►
the Co-Pilot Plus PCs requiring a 40 tops NPU,
01:10:16
◼
►
blah, blah, blah.
01:10:18
◼
►
You know, my CPU doesn't have an NPU in there, right?
01:10:21
◼
►
And so every single one of these quote unquote AI,
01:10:23
◼
►
if they bother to add quote unquote AI features,
01:10:27
◼
►
yeah, they could just make them not work on Intel,
01:10:28
◼
►
but they could all just not make Mac OS,
01:10:30
◼
►
also just not make Mac OS work on Intel.
01:10:32
◼
►
So I feel like that nudges the possibility
01:10:34
◼
►
that this is the year my Mac isn't supported,
01:10:35
◼
►
nudges it a little bit.
01:10:37
◼
►
I don't think it makes it a slam dunk,
01:10:38
◼
►
I'm thinking the sure thing,
01:10:39
◼
►
I still think I'll probably be supported
01:10:41
◼
►
and just won't have features visible,
01:10:42
◼
►
but the LLM stuff is a problem for me.
01:10:46
◼
►
- Can you reprogram the Afterburner card to be an NPU?
01:10:51
◼
►
- It would still be so bad, right?
01:10:53
◼
►
That is not, they're not spending any time
01:10:55
◼
►
optimizing any of this stuff.
01:10:57
◼
►
It's like, well, it runs in the neural engine
01:10:58
◼
►
and also someone did an implementation
01:11:00
◼
►
for like the SIMD instructions and the Xeon.
01:11:02
◼
►
Nope, not happening.
01:11:04
◼
►
- Yeah, it's not, sorry.
01:11:05
◼
►
You're out of luck on that one.
01:11:06
◼
►
- Yeah, so it's really just, I mean,
01:11:08
◼
►
like I said, what Mac has going for it is like,
01:11:10
◼
►
yeah, Apple probably doesn't care that much.
01:11:12
◼
►
Oh, sorry, Intel Mac users,
01:11:13
◼
►
you don't get these new features, right?
01:11:15
◼
►
Just be glad Mac OS still,
01:11:16
◼
►
we still ship it for your CPU.
01:11:21
◼
►
And that, I feel like that has a likelihood
01:11:23
◼
►
because Apple's like, yeah, it's just Mac,
01:11:25
◼
►
it'll be fine, right?
01:11:26
◼
►
But if they really, it was the old Apple
01:11:29
◼
►
where it's like everyone on the same page,
01:11:30
◼
►
they'd be like, no, we're cutting them off this year
01:11:32
◼
►
'cause we got so many of the AI features
01:11:33
◼
►
and they all require the neural processor
01:11:35
◼
►
and Intel doesn't have that, so tough luck.
01:11:37
◼
►
We'll see, like I, the worst case scenario for me,
01:11:41
◼
►
it's like, I was gonna ask you too
01:11:43
◼
►
what you're most looking forward to WWDC,
01:11:45
◼
►
but the thing I'm fearing the most
01:11:47
◼
►
is that I won't be able to run this version of Mac OS
01:11:51
◼
►
or the feature that I want in Mac OS
01:11:54
◼
►
doesn't run on my thing.
01:11:55
◼
►
So for example, the photos features
01:11:57
◼
►
that use quote unquote AI to do cool photos stuff.
01:12:00
◼
►
Granted, there's ways I can use other AI tools
01:12:02
◼
►
to edit my photos, I don't need this to be built in,
01:12:05
◼
►
but if I can't even access those features,
01:12:08
◼
►
like if the person removal thing
01:12:10
◼
►
is built into the photos app,
01:12:11
◼
►
like this is great, saves me a lot of time,
01:12:12
◼
►
it's right built in, I don't have to edit it
01:12:14
◼
►
in an external editor, don't have to go to a webpage.
01:12:16
◼
►
Oh, but not on Intel, that's a big fear for me
01:12:18
◼
►
because even though I would still,
01:12:20
◼
►
it's like, look, Mac OS still supports your system,
01:12:22
◼
►
no problem, I'd be like, oh, but I really wanna use
01:12:25
◼
►
the new AI powered photo editing features on my Mac
01:12:28
◼
►
and now I'm sitting at my wife's computer
01:12:29
◼
►
to do photo editing and she's complaining
01:12:31
◼
►
that I'm hogging her computer and that hastens the timeline
01:12:35
◼
►
for me getting a new Mac, but. (laughs)
01:12:38
◼
►
Yeah, which Apple hasn't shipped yet,
01:12:39
◼
►
like an M4 based Mac Studio or something,
01:12:41
◼
►
but anyway, that's, I wanna throw it,
01:12:43
◼
►
anyway, so what things are you most looking forward to?
01:12:45
◼
►
Mark, you already said Siri, but is there anything else,
01:12:47
◼
►
like speaking of developer stuff,
01:12:48
◼
►
like developer tools, Xcode, Swift,
01:12:50
◼
►
like what big thing are you looking forward to at WWDC,
01:12:54
◼
►
assuming there's no hardware?
01:12:56
◼
►
- So, I mean, for me, I really wanna see,
01:12:59
◼
►
kind of what I was talking about last episode,
01:13:01
◼
►
I want there to be good models that developers can use
01:13:06
◼
►
on the phone for free with no limits,
01:13:08
◼
►
like that's what I really want,
01:13:09
◼
►
give us built in AI SDKs that we can just use
01:13:14
◼
►
the same way we can use almost every other API on the phone.
01:13:18
◼
►
Like that would be game changing in so many ways,
01:13:21
◼
►
and so that's the big thing I want in terms of capability.
01:13:24
◼
►
Now, in smaller ways, like, you know,
01:13:26
◼
►
there's other like developer tool type stuff,
01:13:29
◼
►
Xcode has had a lot of bugs for me
01:13:32
◼
►
this past couple of years, a lot of like issues
01:13:35
◼
►
that don't clear, that I've actually cleared,
01:13:38
◼
►
a lot of having to do clean builds
01:13:42
◼
►
just to clear weird compiler bugs.
01:13:44
◼
►
My rewrite of Overcast, I use a couple of packages
01:13:48
◼
►
that I do locally, and every time I change anything
01:13:51
◼
►
in the package, I have to go like resolve package caches,
01:13:54
◼
►
because otherwise it just won't pick up the change.
01:13:56
◼
►
Like there's all sorts of weird,
01:13:58
◼
►
just straight up bugs in Xcode,
01:14:00
◼
►
or at least things that's like behaviors
01:14:02
◼
►
that sure seem like bugs, that I would,
01:14:04
◼
►
I think Xcode really could use some help in that area.
01:14:07
◼
►
I don't think they're going to be working on that,
01:14:10
◼
►
I suspect that--
01:14:12
◼
►
- I think they are working on that,
01:14:12
◼
►
it is a question of whether they'll fix more bugs
01:14:15
◼
►
than they introduce them.
01:14:16
◼
►
- Yeah, like, 'cause I'm sure that, you know,
01:14:18
◼
►
whatever they're doing like with AI stuff,
01:14:21
◼
►
I'm sure there's obviously been massive demand
01:14:22
◼
►
for integration into Xcode of some kind of AI-based tooling,
01:14:27
◼
►
whether it's like an AI-based autocomplete,
01:14:29
◼
►
like the old version of what Microsoft called Copilot,
01:14:32
◼
►
or you know, other stuff like,
01:14:34
◼
►
there's obviously a lot of demand for that in recent years.
01:14:36
◼
►
- And there's rumors for it, we haven't mentioned it
01:14:38
◼
►
in the past, but yeah, like basically like,
01:14:39
◼
►
oh, Xcode will help you write your code for you using AI,
01:14:41
◼
►
I'm assuming that's gonna be there.
01:14:42
◼
►
- Like, can Xcode write around its own bugs using AI maybe?
01:14:45
◼
►
Like, can it automatically like clear the issues for me
01:14:48
◼
►
so I don't have to do it?
01:14:49
◼
►
- When Xcode makes SwiftUI view,
01:14:51
◼
►
the preview also won't work.
01:14:53
◼
►
- Right, exactly, like, there's a lot in Xcode,
01:14:56
◼
►
a lot of the basics that I think could use some attention,
01:14:59
◼
►
but otherwise, like, in terms of the actual, like,
01:15:02
◼
►
you know, the APIs and the language,
01:15:05
◼
►
this is gonna be a big year for Swift concurrency safety.
01:15:10
◼
►
This is the year of like, sendable really getting its moment
01:15:13
◼
►
'cause I presume they're gonna introduce Swift 6,
01:15:16
◼
►
and that brings with it a whole bunch
01:15:17
◼
►
of stricken currency checks,
01:15:19
◼
►
and theoretically, some language enhancements
01:15:23
◼
►
that make complying with stricken currency easier.
01:15:28
◼
►
Like, right now, as I've been writing the Overcast Rewrite,
01:15:31
◼
►
and as I wrote Blackbird, I have tried to make them comply
01:15:36
◼
►
with the stricken currency checks as they've existed
01:15:38
◼
►
in the pre-6 Swift languages.
01:15:40
◼
►
So like, you've been able to opt in to these warnings
01:15:44
◼
►
that will tell you like, hey, this thing
01:15:45
◼
►
that you're doing over here with this like mutable state
01:15:47
◼
►
in this object, this will be an error in Swift 6.
01:15:50
◼
►
So there are, I've been trying to comply
01:15:55
◼
►
with the requirements, you know, before it's even out,
01:15:59
◼
►
and it's pretty hard, and there are certain things
01:16:01
◼
►
where like, this object here clearly is not being
01:16:05
◼
►
a mutable state, and it's like losing its state right here
01:16:08
◼
►
before this is even returning from its init or whatever,
01:16:10
◼
►
like, there's all sorts of things like that,
01:16:12
◼
►
and there have been various proposals in Swift Evolution
01:16:16
◼
►
to like, make some of that stuff automatic,
01:16:18
◼
►
and like, detect it so you don't have to like,
01:16:21
◼
►
jump through hoops to go around it.
01:16:23
◼
►
I haven't followed in detail of like,
01:16:25
◼
►
whether those things are actually in Swift 6,
01:16:28
◼
►
or you know, whether they will be.
01:16:29
◼
►
- A bunch of them are.
01:16:30
◼
►
- Yeah, I'm sure a bunch of them,
01:16:31
◼
►
and so, what I wanna know is like, right now,
01:16:34
◼
►
all the stuff that will be an error
01:16:36
◼
►
in Swift 6 Concurrency Checking Mode,
01:16:39
◼
►
a lot of that's pretty hard to work around,
01:16:40
◼
►
and so what I wanna see is, have they made it easier
01:16:44
◼
►
to work with for the actual release of Swift 6,
01:16:47
◼
►
'cause that's what most of these proposals were aiming to do.
01:16:51
◼
►
So let's see, that's what I wanna know is like,
01:16:53
◼
►
as we go into this new era of Swift Concurrency
01:16:55
◼
►
and Swift, you know, strictness,
01:16:57
◼
►
how easy is it to do the right thing?
01:17:01
◼
►
I've seen a lot of languages over time
01:17:04
◼
►
that make it hard to do the right thing.
01:17:05
◼
►
So far, Swift has been pretty good about it,
01:17:08
◼
►
so let's see, and then beyond that,
01:17:12
◼
►
as you know, I've been writing this whole rewrite
01:17:14
◼
►
using Swift UI, and using Swift async modern concurrency,
01:17:19
◼
►
wherever possible, and there are still a lot of system APIs
01:17:24
◼
►
that do not play well with Swift Concurrency.
01:17:28
◼
►
I'm still having to write callbacks here and there,
01:17:31
◼
►
I'm still having to shell out to task
01:17:35
◼
►
to do something in a function,
01:17:37
◼
►
there are still areas in the system frameworks
01:17:41
◼
►
that have not been updated yet for Swift Concurrency.
01:17:44
◼
►
I would love to just see more of that, please.
01:17:46
◼
►
Give me as much more as you can,
01:17:48
◼
►
whatever you've gotten done this year,
01:17:50
◼
►
every year it gets better, so I just wanna see,
01:17:52
◼
►
make all, have everyone work on the frameworks
01:17:55
◼
►
throughout the year as they have time,
01:17:57
◼
►
and here and there, I get updates
01:17:59
◼
►
that make things easier for me as a Swift async programmer.
01:18:03
◼
►
So that kind of stuff is mostly what I'm looking forward to,
01:18:06
◼
►
most of the boring tooling and API stuff,
01:18:10
◼
►
but that's what actually improves our lives
01:18:12
◼
►
as developers day to day in the following year.
01:18:16
◼
►
It's not like this one new hotness that we must use,
01:18:19
◼
►
it's like some cool new API or something,
01:18:21
◼
►
no, usually it's just a bunch of small life improvements
01:18:25
◼
►
that they made to the rest of the system
01:18:26
◼
►
and the rest of the tooling and the rest of the APIs,
01:18:28
◼
►
that's what I'm looking forward to mostly.
01:18:29
◼
►
But also, yeah, give me some of that
01:18:31
◼
►
cool transcription model, please, thank you.
01:18:35
◼
►
- You know, I'm glad you brought up Swift stuff,
01:18:37
◼
►
because that, sitting here today,
01:18:40
◼
►
that's what I think I'm most excited for,
01:18:42
◼
►
is what is the new hotness within Swift?
01:18:45
◼
►
And Swift can get on my nerves from time to time,
01:18:47
◼
►
but by and large, 10 years on,
01:18:50
◼
►
'cause the announcement was 10 years and a few days ago,
01:18:53
◼
►
10 years on, it is a really, really great language.
01:18:56
◼
►
It is not without problems, it's not without faults,
01:18:58
◼
►
but it is a really great language.
01:19:00
◼
►
And I do think it is mostly moving in a positive direction.
01:19:05
◼
►
And I feel like now that there's big and exciting things
01:19:08
◼
►
happening, like Swift concurrency,
01:19:10
◼
►
I feel like a lot of the, what is the term or phrase,
01:19:13
◼
►
like bike shedding, is that what I'm looking for,
01:19:14
◼
►
that was going on in the Swift 2.3.4 era,
01:19:19
◼
►
where we were worrying about really, really useless
01:19:23
◼
►
and dumb arguments that were happening all the time.
01:19:25
◼
►
And I don't know, Jon, you're more plugged in, a coincidence.
01:19:27
◼
►
- I didn't know we were useless and dumb, but yes,
01:19:29
◼
►
there was some sort of, you do have to hash that stuff out,
01:19:32
◼
►
and it is important to get it right.
01:19:33
◼
►
So it might've seemed like a lot of kind of like,
01:19:35
◼
►
well, who cares what that keyword is called?
01:19:37
◼
►
It's not that important, just do stuff.
01:19:39
◼
►
That actually is kind of important,
01:19:40
◼
►
'cause you get stuck with that stuff.
01:19:41
◼
►
So I don't have many complaints about the process, but.
01:19:44
◼
►
- But either way, spending a whole bunch of time bickering
01:19:47
◼
►
about whether pre and post increment,
01:19:49
◼
►
the plus plus operator should or should not be
01:19:51
◼
►
in the language, like, whatever, y'all, just move on.
01:19:53
◼
►
But anyways.
01:19:54
◼
►
- That being said, you guys really messed up substrings.
01:19:57
◼
►
- Oh, substrings are such a pain.
01:19:58
◼
►
- Well, you know, because there's some lousy things,
01:20:02
◼
►
but the thing is, if they come up with better ones,
01:20:05
◼
►
you can just abandon the lousy ones and never use them.
01:20:07
◼
►
You know what I mean?
01:20:08
◼
►
Like, they've not painted themselves into a corner,
01:20:11
◼
►
which is really what you want to avoid with language design.
01:20:13
◼
►
- Yeah, everything they've done with like, substrings
01:20:15
◼
►
and various like array index stuff, oh my God.
01:20:19
◼
►
Like, I still, every time I have to manipulate an index
01:20:23
◼
►
or a string or something, I have to like look up code
01:20:24
◼
►
examples, like, I cannot figure out how the heck do I do this?
01:20:27
◼
►
I just want--
01:20:28
◼
►
- Substrings are not strings.
01:20:30
◼
►
- Yep, it drives me nuts.
01:20:31
◼
►
- I mean, it makes sense if you know why they're doing it
01:20:33
◼
►
for like, for implementation efficiency, but it's like,
01:20:35
◼
►
I don't want to have to see that.
01:20:36
◼
►
But just pretend it's not like that.
01:20:38
◼
►
- Yeah, right, exactly.
01:20:39
◼
►
But we're getting off on a tangent.
01:20:40
◼
►
So a lot of that bike, us, new way,
01:20:44
◼
►
a lot of that bike shedding and yak shaving and whatever
01:20:46
◼
►
the turn of phrase you want to use is, I feel like that used
01:20:48
◼
►
to bubble up into my world in so far as like,
01:20:51
◼
►
I don't pay attention to Swift evolution,
01:20:52
◼
►
even though maybe I should.
01:20:54
◼
►
But a lot of that navel gazing was bubbling out
01:20:58
◼
►
into my world, and I haven't seen much of that recently
01:21:00
◼
►
in at least a couple of years, which I think is a good thing
01:21:03
◼
►
because that means whatever's happening,
01:21:05
◼
►
instead of people going, ah,
01:21:06
◼
►
look at this ridiculous argument, you know,
01:21:08
◼
►
instead, legitimate arguments are happening, good ones.
01:21:11
◼
►
And so I'm excited to see what Swift 6 brings.
01:21:14
◼
►
I am petrified.
01:21:15
◼
►
I cannot begin to tell you how scared I am
01:21:19
◼
►
of turning on the warnings for Swift, you know,
01:21:21
◼
►
for strict concurrency checks, because I'm sure
01:21:23
◼
►
it's going to be a mess.
01:21:24
◼
►
I'm not knowingly doing anything wrong,
01:21:26
◼
►
but I bet you I'm doing a lot wrong.
01:21:27
◼
►
- You gotta try it, you gotta see.
01:21:28
◼
►
- It's not necessarily wrong, it's just like,
01:21:31
◼
►
I mean, I've made several runs of this,
01:21:33
◼
►
and I'm sure we'll talk about it more after WWDC
01:21:35
◼
►
and following episodes, but like,
01:21:37
◼
►
in the absence of Swift concurrency, before it existed,
01:21:40
◼
►
we all did our own things using the technologies
01:21:43
◼
►
that Apple did offer at the time.
01:21:44
◼
►
Grand Central Dispatch, you know, callbacks, Async/Await,
01:21:47
◼
►
like that's all kind of like, it's not quite, you know,
01:21:50
◼
►
precursors to the big strict concurrency checks, right?
01:21:54
◼
►
So if you have an application that's already written,
01:21:57
◼
►
it's like, okay, but I already did a thing
01:22:01
◼
►
to deal with concurrency, maybe it's not as good,
01:22:03
◼
►
but then Swift, you turn on the strict concurrency checks,
01:22:05
◼
►
and it's like, everything you're doing
01:22:06
◼
►
is a violation of strict concurrency.
01:22:07
◼
►
Yeah, this is what I had to do before you existed
01:22:11
◼
►
to do things concurrently, and so it's like,
01:22:14
◼
►
yeah, that approach, you should use a different approach
01:22:16
◼
►
to do that, our approach is safer,
01:22:17
◼
►
but you end up having to like rethink stuff.
01:22:19
◼
►
It's not like, I'll just add an annotation here
01:22:21
◼
►
and it'll fix it, it's like, I mean, this sounds dumb,
01:22:24
◼
►
but like, the Swift concurrency strict checking thing
01:22:29
◼
►
wants you to use Swift concurrency features, right?
01:22:32
◼
►
It doesn't want you to use Grand Central Dispatch and queues,
01:22:36
◼
►
right, you can, you can like satisfy it,
01:22:39
◼
►
but it's like, if you just use these, our features,
01:22:42
◼
►
like use strict concurrency, use what we want you to use,
01:22:44
◼
►
use actors, right, that's why they exist,
01:22:47
◼
►
and it's like, but I already did it a different way,
01:22:49
◼
►
and it's like, well, you're gonna have real problems
01:22:51
◼
►
trying to make the compiler satisfied about that,
01:22:54
◼
►
so I'm sure there will be much discussion about that.
01:22:56
◼
►
I mean, the good thing about Swift,
01:22:58
◼
►
the Swift illusion process, it happens in public,
01:23:00
◼
►
Swift is open source, it's like, there should be no,
01:23:02
◼
►
for the most part, there should be no secrets revealed
01:23:04
◼
►
to Apple about the Swift language, right,
01:23:07
◼
►
about what they're doing with it, that'll be revealed,
01:23:09
◼
►
like, 'cause you know, if you looked at like
01:23:10
◼
►
all the Swift language things, and it was like,
01:23:11
◼
►
and then Swift UI appeared,
01:23:12
◼
►
Swift UI wasn't developed in public, but Swift was, right?
01:23:16
◼
►
So, you know, we'll see what kind of surprises
01:23:18
◼
►
Apple has for us, but the Swift features they're adding,
01:23:20
◼
►
they know the pain people have trying to, you know,
01:23:24
◼
►
comply with Swift concurrency,
01:23:25
◼
►
and they're trying to make it easier,
01:23:26
◼
►
but fundamentally, I think the problem they have
01:23:28
◼
►
is that they want people to use actors and Swift concurrency
01:23:32
◼
►
as a way to manage concurrent processes,
01:23:35
◼
►
and that supersedes and replaces a bunch of things
01:23:37
◼
►
that people had used in the past,
01:23:39
◼
►
and figuring out how to do that
01:23:43
◼
►
without like changing your approach to concurrency,
01:23:45
◼
►
like Casey, I know you love to use the,
01:23:47
◼
►
what is it, the publisher thing with the source and syncs
01:23:50
◼
►
and the events, what is that called?
01:23:51
◼
►
- Which I don't, it's combined.
01:23:52
◼
►
I don't use that much of it in Call Sheet.
01:23:55
◼
►
I do use some, but compared to just a couple of years ago,
01:23:58
◼
►
I use very, very little, and I only use it
01:24:01
◼
►
in a handful of places where it makes the most sense.
01:24:03
◼
►
Generally speaking, the concurrency and stuff
01:24:05
◼
►
that I'm doing is async/await,
01:24:07
◼
►
which is good insofar as it's new,
01:24:10
◼
►
but it's bad insofar as I'm probably doing
01:24:12
◼
►
a rudimentary version.
01:24:13
◼
►
- Your stuff is not sendable, I'm sure.
01:24:16
◼
►
- Well, yeah, for the most part.
01:24:17
◼
►
- Nor should you make it sendable.
01:24:19
◼
►
- I mean, I can tell you that I use a lot of combine
01:24:23
◼
►
and async/await in the rewrite.
01:24:25
◼
►
There's places for both of it,
01:24:27
◼
►
and I think they actually play somewhat nicely
01:24:32
◼
►
with each other if you don't do
01:24:33
◼
►
two ridiculous things with them,
01:24:35
◼
►
but those things do solve different problems.
01:24:38
◼
►
- Yeah, and the solution is not like,
01:24:40
◼
►
oh, I'm gonna take all my data,
01:24:41
◼
►
and I'm gonna make everything sendable,
01:24:43
◼
►
because that's not how to fix this problem.
01:24:46
◼
►
You can't, you have to have mutable state somewhere.
01:24:49
◼
►
It should be protected by actors,
01:24:50
◼
►
but very often you're sending OS objects back and forth,
01:24:53
◼
►
and those aren't sendable,
01:24:55
◼
►
and you don't have a way to change that,
01:24:56
◼
►
because you don't define that class,
01:24:58
◼
►
nor can you make it sendable or lie about it being sendable.
01:25:01
◼
►
Anyway, I'm sure we're going off on a big tangent here,
01:25:04
◼
►
'cause we're developers and we've all struggled with this,
01:25:06
◼
►
but I think the way Apple presents this story is interesting
01:25:09
◼
►
down to the idea of the warning Marco mentioned.
01:25:14
◼
►
This will be an error in Swift 6.
01:25:16
◼
►
Does that mean you can't use Swift 6
01:25:18
◼
►
unless you have strict concurrency compliance,
01:25:20
◼
►
or is there a mode in the Swift 6 compiler
01:25:23
◼
►
that lets you run Swift 5 code,
01:25:25
◼
►
and do you lose out on any features in Swift 6
01:25:27
◼
►
if you decide that,
01:25:28
◼
►
like that's a story that Apple will tell,
01:25:30
◼
►
and has been telling in the open,
01:25:32
◼
►
but they'll see how marketing presents that.
01:25:35
◼
►
Like, Swift concurrency, it's great,
01:25:36
◼
►
but if you're not ready for it, don't worry,
01:25:38
◼
►
you can still use Swift 6,
01:25:39
◼
►
you just won't turn on the strict concurrency thing,
01:25:42
◼
►
kind of like it is in Swift 5 now.
01:25:43
◼
►
- Yeah, and I think that's the case.
01:25:45
◼
►
I could swear, and I'm probably getting
01:25:47
◼
►
the details wrong here,
01:25:48
◼
►
especially 'cause, well, my memory is,
01:25:51
◼
►
John makes fun of me justifiably, is very bad,
01:25:53
◼
►
but I could swear that Ben Cohen,
01:25:54
◼
►
or someone on the Swift team, has publicly stated,
01:25:57
◼
►
hey, Swift 6, it's going to be opt-in
01:26:01
◼
►
for the concurrency checks,
01:26:03
◼
►
and you still will be able to do the rest,
01:26:04
◼
►
this is what you just said, John,
01:26:05
◼
►
you'll still be able to do the rest of the Swift 6 hotness
01:26:09
◼
►
without buying, or going all in
01:26:12
◼
►
on the strict concurrency checks.
01:26:13
◼
►
- Yeah, 'cause you can just download
01:26:14
◼
►
the Swift 6 compiler right now, and try it,
01:26:16
◼
►
and you can see how these features work, or whatever,
01:26:17
◼
►
but doing it in open source,
01:26:19
◼
►
and having the developers talk about it,
01:26:21
◼
►
is kind of separate from how Apple will present it,
01:26:24
◼
►
how Apple marketing will present this
01:26:26
◼
►
when it shows the new version of Xcode,
01:26:28
◼
►
you know what I mean?
01:26:29
◼
►
Like, how it manifests in Xcode,
01:26:31
◼
►
what the defaults are for a new project in Xcode,
01:26:33
◼
►
these are things that aren't actually strictly related
01:26:36
◼
►
to the Swift open source project,
01:26:38
◼
►
but have huge effects on how this change is perceived
01:26:41
◼
►
by the people who are not following Swift evolution,
01:26:43
◼
►
which is most developers, right?
01:26:45
◼
►
Kind of like when they do new project,
01:26:46
◼
►
does it default to Swift UI,
01:26:48
◼
►
that is kind of like an important political thing,
01:26:49
◼
►
does it default to strict concurrency,
01:26:51
◼
►
does it default to adding tests, Marco?
01:26:53
◼
►
The defaults matter in Xcode, and policy changes like that,
01:26:59
◼
►
so that is, for developers,
01:27:02
◼
►
I mean, it is a developer conference,
01:27:03
◼
►
it's more esoteric,
01:27:04
◼
►
and you're not gonna see big news stories about it,
01:27:06
◼
►
but the Swift 6 story is going to be interesting,
01:27:10
◼
►
and like you said, to most people,
01:27:12
◼
►
it's entirely new to them.
01:27:14
◼
►
It's public information,
01:27:15
◼
►
they could have been looking at it all since last year,
01:27:17
◼
►
but most people, that's not their hobby,
01:27:19
◼
►
to keep up with language evolution,
01:27:21
◼
►
they just wait until a bit of a receive,
01:27:22
◼
►
and see what Apple has to offer them,
01:27:23
◼
►
even though you could go download it right now and try it.
01:27:26
◼
►
- Exactly, and so for me,
01:27:28
◼
►
that's what I think I'm most interested in right now,
01:27:31
◼
►
of course, I think I'm interested in when the iOS changes,
01:27:35
◼
►
and oh yeah, iPad OS is still an operating system
01:27:38
◼
►
in our lineup.
01:27:39
◼
►
I'm very curious to see what the,
01:27:41
◼
►
we'll get a second data point for VisionOS,
01:27:44
◼
►
so we can start to draw a line between the two data points,
01:27:47
◼
►
but more than anything else,
01:27:49
◼
►
I'm very curious what my development life will look like
01:27:53
◼
►
for the next year plus,
01:27:55
◼
►
and I think some of that will probably be
01:27:57
◼
►
me ripping all my hair out,
01:27:58
◼
►
trying to get this concurrency stuff working properly,
01:28:01
◼
►
but I think some of it should be fun and exciting,
01:28:03
◼
►
and as much as I will, in one breath,
01:28:06
◼
►
whine about SwiftUI,
01:28:08
◼
►
and tell you that it's, it neuters me here and there,
01:28:11
◼
►
and there's nothing you can do to put a search bar anywhere,
01:28:13
◼
►
but in a navigation bar,
01:28:15
◼
►
and things of that nature that,
01:28:16
◼
►
it makes it very, very stodgy,
01:28:18
◼
►
and difficult, and unwavering,
01:28:20
◼
►
but I'll also tell you that it's just such a joy
01:28:23
◼
►
to work with, and so, so much nicer,
01:28:26
◼
►
and so much faster than UIKit,
01:28:29
◼
►
and so I'd love to see what new SwiftUI stuff is happening.
01:28:32
◼
►
It certainly seems like Apple internally
01:28:34
◼
►
is spending more and more time,
01:28:35
◼
►
and putting more and more energy
01:28:36
◼
►
into consuming SwiftUI,
01:28:38
◼
►
which makes me think they're doing the same for,
01:28:41
◼
►
within SwiftUI itself,
01:28:43
◼
►
the best way for Apple to make a good API for developers
01:28:47
◼
►
is for them to dog food it,
01:28:48
◼
►
and they seem to be doing that more and more,
01:28:50
◼
►
so I'm excited for that.
01:28:51
◼
►
I don't know, I'm really excited,
01:28:53
◼
►
leaving aside the fact that, you know,
01:28:54
◼
►
I'm gonna see you too,
01:28:55
◼
►
leaving aside that I'm gonna be there,
01:28:56
◼
►
that I'm gonna be at Apple Park,
01:28:59
◼
►
all of that is, of course, incredibly exciting,
01:29:00
◼
►
we covered that last week,
01:29:01
◼
►
but I'm just really excited to see what's coming,
01:29:04
◼
►
'cause there's so little that has leaked out,
01:29:06
◼
►
like we said, that,
01:29:07
◼
►
and what's leaked out is more of a,
01:29:09
◼
►
oh, there's AI dust a-coming,
01:29:11
◼
►
you know, there's a dust storm a-brewin',
01:29:12
◼
►
and that's about it, so.
01:29:13
◼
►
- I still think the leaks have covered a lot.
01:29:17
◼
►
I don't expect to see tons of stuff that wasn't leaked.
01:29:19
◼
►
It's just that the stuff that's leaked is,
01:29:21
◼
►
I don't know, obvious, or like, not shocking,
01:29:24
◼
►
you know what I mean?
01:29:25
◼
►
- It's also a bit vague, like, particularly around the AI stuff.
01:29:27
◼
►
- Yeah, yeah, I mean, it is vague,
01:29:29
◼
►
but like, you know, we won't get the details,
01:29:30
◼
►
but I don't think, well, we'll see.
01:29:33
◼
►
Will there be something that was like,
01:29:34
◼
►
totally not rumored that is shocking?
01:29:35
◼
►
I think it'll just be in the details of how things work.
01:29:39
◼
►
And by the way, speaking of testing,
01:29:41
◼
►
I forget, I think there's a bunch of open source projects
01:29:43
◼
►
that do this, and I kind of hope Apple adopts one of them,
01:29:45
◼
►
or takes one under its wing or makes it official,
01:29:47
◼
►
but the XCTest framework,
01:29:48
◼
►
which Casey may be familiar with,
01:29:50
◼
►
it's not great.
01:29:52
◼
►
It's kind of stodgy and old,
01:29:54
◼
►
and if you've ever used, - It's passable.
01:29:55
◼
►
- If you've used a modern testing framework
01:29:57
◼
►
in a language like Node or whatever,
01:29:58
◼
►
you kind of, or even, I mean,
01:30:00
◼
►
obviously all my testing experience comes from Perl,
01:30:02
◼
►
the great-great-great-grandfather
01:30:03
◼
►
of good testing and programming languages.
01:30:06
◼
►
Just the fundamental stuff that you expect
01:30:09
◼
►
from a test framework either doesn't exist
01:30:12
◼
►
or is very awkward in XCTest, 'cause it's old.
01:30:15
◼
►
And so what does the Swift UI for testing look like?
01:30:18
◼
►
And there are a bunch of open source projects
01:30:19
◼
►
that try to do this, like make a sort of Swiftie type API
01:30:23
◼
►
that looks kind of like the popular testing packages
01:30:27
◼
►
for Node or, you know, like just a nicer testing framework.
01:30:32
◼
►
I would love Apple to bless one of those and adopt it
01:30:36
◼
►
or to come out with its own.
01:30:37
◼
►
I mean, this kind of falls into the category
01:30:38
◼
►
of a MarkerWiz thing, it's like,
01:30:39
◼
►
hey, we've got a bunch of old APIs.
01:30:41
◼
►
Some of them aren't really Swiftie, right?
01:30:43
◼
►
They don't match the language well.
01:30:45
◼
►
They don't take advantage of the features.
01:30:46
◼
►
They look kind of old.
01:30:47
◼
►
They're kind of awkward to use.
01:30:48
◼
►
We know better ways to do things now.
01:30:50
◼
►
Test framework is one of those things.
01:30:52
◼
►
I think that would be a big quality
01:30:53
◼
►
of life improvement for people.
01:30:54
◼
►
Of course, they have to keep supporting the old one
01:30:56
◼
►
basically forever because people use it
01:30:58
◼
►
and make huge test suites, but a Swiftie testing,
01:31:01
◼
►
again, there's been no rumors about that.
01:31:02
◼
►
I've just been looking at a lot of the open source ones.
01:31:04
◼
►
I'm like, these are all good ideas.
01:31:06
◼
►
Pick one, Apple, and do it or, you know.
01:31:08
◼
►
- I miss fluent assertions is one that I used
01:31:11
◼
►
in my .NET days and so, you know,
01:31:13
◼
►
I'm looking at the about page trying to remind myself
01:31:15
◼
►
how it works and basically, you know,
01:31:16
◼
►
say you have a string that's an account number
01:31:18
◼
►
is the example they use and the code you write
01:31:21
◼
►
is account number should be, you know,
01:31:25
◼
►
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
01:31:26
◼
►
And so it's written almost like plain English
01:31:29
◼
►
and it's not too dissimilar from--
01:31:31
◼
►
- Are there dots between every word?
01:31:33
◼
►
- Yeah, yeah, account number dot should,
01:31:34
◼
►
paren, paren, dot, be, paren.
01:31:36
◼
►
- Ugh, that's a little bit, that's a very popular trend.
01:31:40
◼
►
- I know, it's awful.
01:31:42
◼
►
It's code that looks great on slides and examples
01:31:44
◼
►
and it's totally unwritable.
01:31:46
◼
►
- Well, so it's not terrible and that is a common thing,
01:31:49
◼
►
but really what you're looking for is the convenience
01:31:51
◼
►
of being able to essentially, you know,
01:31:53
◼
►
to just give one example and I know XCTest
01:31:55
◼
►
has ways of doing this, but it's awkward and weird.
01:31:58
◼
►
You have a bunch of nested data structures and objects
01:32:00
◼
►
and you wanna diff them, right?
01:32:02
◼
►
I don't wanna have to do that manually.
01:32:04
◼
►
I just want it to be able to use Reflection to traverse them
01:32:06
◼
►
and to give me like a really cool looking diff
01:32:08
◼
►
of where they differ, you know what I mean, right?
01:32:10
◼
►
As opposed to comparing properties manually one at a time
01:32:14
◼
►
at each level and having messages to,
01:32:16
◼
►
so you know which part differed or whatever.
01:32:17
◼
►
Every modern testing framework has a way to say,
01:32:21
◼
►
there's this thing like that thing
01:32:22
◼
►
and they're both kind of deeply nested structures
01:32:24
◼
►
and the good ones say, oh, and by the way,
01:32:26
◼
►
I don't care about these differences
01:32:28
◼
►
and ignore these properties
01:32:29
◼
►
and I don't care about white space.
01:32:30
◼
►
And like, it's all just convenient.
01:32:32
◼
►
It's like, oh, that's just convenience method.
01:32:33
◼
►
You can do that all yourself.
01:32:34
◼
►
Yeah, you can.
01:32:35
◼
►
It's just annoying as hell, right?
01:32:36
◼
►
So it's not so much the whole,
01:32:38
◼
►
it looks like English, this should be that
01:32:39
◼
►
and has this and does this and whatever.
01:32:41
◼
►
I just want like, especially in a language like Swift,
01:32:44
◼
►
it's so, you know, really on board with static checking
01:32:48
◼
►
and so you really just can't,
01:32:50
◼
►
ah, just chuck these two things over the fence.
01:32:51
◼
►
They look like they're the same.
01:32:52
◼
►
It's like Swift's like, whoa, whoa,
01:32:53
◼
►
these are totally different classes.
01:32:55
◼
►
I can't compare these two things.
01:32:56
◼
►
What are you talking about?
01:32:57
◼
►
I don't have those kind of Reflection.
01:32:59
◼
►
It's like, you really need convenient support
01:33:02
◼
►
from the framework to satisfy the Swift compiler
01:33:06
◼
►
to allow you to just say, is this thing like that?
01:33:08
◼
►
Expect this thing to be like that.
01:33:09
◼
►
That's gonna be like this, you know.
01:33:11
◼
►
It's, that stuff is tedious in testing.
01:33:15
◼
►
It makes people not wanna write tests.
01:33:17
◼
►
- Like Marco.
01:33:18
◼
►
- Well, that's not why.
01:33:20
◼
►
- If he did write tests, he'd say, boy,
01:33:21
◼
►
it sure is tedious comparing these deeply nested object
01:33:24
◼
►
trees to each other.
01:33:26
◼
►
And then, you know, and if you get lazy,
01:33:28
◼
►
when the test fails, you're like, why did it fail?
01:33:31
◼
►
What was the problem?
01:33:32
◼
►
And you gotta basically gotta step through it
01:33:32
◼
►
in the debugger because there's no like, you know,
01:33:34
◼
►
the automatic diffing of object trees
01:33:36
◼
►
to tell you exactly where it failed.
01:33:38
◼
►
- Anything else you're looking forward to, John?
01:33:40
◼
►
- I am kind of, I mean, I mentioned the photos feature
01:33:42
◼
►
'cause that's what I'm thinking about a lot.
01:33:43
◼
►
Like again, when I edit photos, I have many tools.
01:33:47
◼
►
I've purchased many other external editors.
01:33:49
◼
►
I have Photoshop, I have Photomator, Pixelmator.
01:33:52
◼
►
I have raw power.
01:33:54
◼
►
I have access to web tools or whatever,
01:33:56
◼
►
but there's something to be said for having stuff built in.
01:33:59
◼
►
And Photos does have stuff built in, but it's so outdated.
01:34:02
◼
►
And I like the quote unquote healing brush
01:34:04
◼
►
in the Apple Photos app is just barbaric compared
01:34:08
◼
►
to what the good apps can do.
01:34:10
◼
►
But I don't always want to edit an external editor.
01:34:12
◼
►
I certainly don't want to export an edit on the web
01:34:14
◼
►
and bring it back or whatever.
01:34:15
◼
►
So to the extent that Apple can catch up
01:34:18
◼
►
and add those features to Photos itself,
01:34:19
◼
►
and I can actually run them on my Intel Mac,
01:34:21
◼
►
that will have be a big quality of life change for me.
01:34:25
◼
►
I will really appreciate that, not this year,
01:34:27
◼
►
but next year for my Long Island Beach vacation pictures.
01:34:30
◼
►
I want it to be in the Photos app.
01:34:32
◼
►
I want the Photos app to get better.
01:34:34
◼
►
This is not the year, it seems like.
01:34:36
◼
►
If there's something about Apple's platforms
01:34:38
◼
►
that you want it to get better
01:34:39
◼
►
that doesn't have to do with AI, this is not the year.
01:34:41
◼
►
All the bugs that report in the Finder,
01:34:43
◼
►
all those things that are annoying you,
01:34:45
◼
►
the apps that you feel like are neglected
01:34:47
◼
►
and haven't had any attention paid to them,
01:34:49
◼
►
this is not the year they're gonna fix that.
01:34:51
◼
►
You know, usually it's never the year
01:34:52
◼
►
that they're gonna fix that,
01:34:53
◼
►
but definitely not this year.
01:34:54
◼
►
What they're gonna do,
01:34:55
◼
►
those teams spent time adding AI features or whatever,
01:34:57
◼
►
and so I will appreciate those when I have them,
01:34:59
◼
►
but like, you know, we're all still hoping for that year
01:35:01
◼
►
when the bug that's been in your favorite operating system
01:35:04
◼
►
for 10 years finally gets fixed,
01:35:06
◼
►
but it just does not seem like this is the year for that.
01:35:09
◼
►
And it wasn't last year, and it wasn't the year before that,
01:35:11
◼
►
and it wasn't the year before that,
01:35:12
◼
►
and it wasn't the year before that,
01:35:13
◼
►
and it's a big systemic problem
01:35:15
◼
►
that we've discussed in the show,
01:35:15
◼
►
but definitely not this year
01:35:17
◼
►
because everyone's been off doing AI stuff.
01:35:19
◼
►
So that's kind of a shame, but yeah.
01:35:21
◼
►
If I had a wish list, it would be like,
01:35:22
◼
►
oh, they fixed all my longstanding bugs.
01:35:24
◼
►
That's not gonna happen.
01:35:25
◼
►
I'm looking forward to the photos editing features.
01:35:27
◼
►
I am kind of looking forward to the better Siri.
01:35:31
◼
►
Like, I rarely use Siri,
01:35:34
◼
►
but the things I use it for, I find useful.
01:35:38
◼
►
The, you know, remind me to do whatever,
01:35:40
◼
►
use that all the time, almost daily, right?
01:35:42
◼
►
Because I know how to do it.
01:35:44
◼
►
I know the syntax it wants.
01:35:46
◼
►
I know how it works for the most part.
01:35:48
◼
►
It could be better, but it just shows the utility.
01:35:51
◼
►
If you can give me something that I can,
01:35:52
◼
►
that works enough for me to use it,
01:35:55
◼
►
it has a big effect on my life.
01:35:56
◼
►
So if they just take something that Siri
01:35:58
◼
►
has supposedly been able to do for 10 years
01:36:01
◼
►
and they make it good enough for me to wanna use it,
01:36:03
◼
►
that could potentially have a big impact.
01:36:05
◼
►
So I'm kind of looking forward to that as well.
01:36:07
◼
►
And I was looking forward to hardware,
01:36:09
◼
►
but that doesn't seem like it's gonna happen, so.
01:36:11
◼
►
Yeah, and the Swift stick stuff, like I said,
01:36:13
◼
►
I'm mostly looking forward to how Apple presents the stuff
01:36:16
◼
►
that I've already been reading about in Swift Evolution
01:36:18
◼
►
for an entire year.
01:36:19
◼
►
Like, what is the pitch?
01:36:20
◼
►
What is the, what are the ergonomics of it?
01:36:23
◼
►
How does it manifest in Xcode?
01:36:25
◼
►
How do they present it to the world?
01:36:27
◼
►
Because there is a potential for pushback, let's say, right?
01:36:32
◼
►
You know, for everyone who has tried it,
01:36:34
◼
►
it's an obscure flag that you have to know about.
01:36:36
◼
►
Like, oh, strict concurrency, all caps, blah, blah, blah,
01:36:38
◼
►
equals whatever in your build.
01:36:39
◼
►
Like, it's not obvious how to do it in the existing Xcode,
01:36:43
◼
►
but the people who try it, they're like,
01:36:44
◼
►
oh, 50,000 warnings.
01:36:46
◼
►
I'm like, wow, I reduced that to 100
01:36:48
◼
►
after just changing two lines of code.
01:36:50
◼
►
And then they spend a week trying to get that 100 down to 10.
01:36:52
◼
►
And then they spend a month trying to get that 10 down
01:36:54
◼
►
to zero, right?
01:36:55
◼
►
Depending on how much of their app
01:36:57
◼
►
they're willing to rewrite.
01:36:58
◼
►
That's a tough story to pitch to people.
01:37:01
◼
►
And I'm, you know, setting aside the technology
01:37:04
◼
►
and the actual features, how do you present that
01:37:07
◼
►
to a room full of developers and make them excited about
01:37:09
◼
►
and not dreading it?
01:37:11
◼
►
Like, you know what I mean?
01:37:13
◼
►
And that is going to be a challenge this year, I think.
01:37:17
◼
►
Summertime is here and the living's easy.
01:37:20
◼
►
And now it's even easier thanks to Factor.
01:37:23
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01:37:28
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01:37:43
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01:37:49
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This is perfect for busy summer days
01:37:51
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and it leaves more time to do the stuff that you enjoy.
01:37:54
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There's 36 different meals with more than 60 add-ons.
01:37:58
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Factor sent me a box with some meals in it
01:37:59
◼
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and just today, for lunch,
01:38:01
◼
►
I had the smoky ground pork lasagna
01:38:03
◼
►
with toasted garlic, broccoli, and onion butter.
01:38:05
◼
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Sounds good, right?
01:38:07
◼
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01:38:09
◼
►
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01:38:11
◼
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Does that sound good?
01:38:12
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Yes. Was it?
01:38:14
◼
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They were both very tasty.
01:38:15
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Even more so, Factor sent me their Keto-friendly
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01:38:20
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That sounds half empty because it is
01:38:23
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because I can't stop drinking it.
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This was the chocolate brownie.
01:38:26
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There's also vanilla cake.
01:38:28
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Both of these are examples of add-ons
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and most importantly, for sponsoring ATP.
01:39:16
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(upbeat music)
01:39:20
◼
►
All right, let's do at least a little bit of Ask ATP.
01:39:22
◼
►
It's been a little while since we've done it.
01:39:23
◼
►
And let's start with James who writes,
01:39:25
◼
►
"Any chance that the now expected late 2024
01:39:27
◼
►
M4 MacBook Pro gets upgraded to Thunderbolt 5?"
01:39:31
◼
►
And my question to James is, why do we care?
01:39:34
◼
►
Not to say that we shouldn't.
01:39:35
◼
►
I'm not saying that the question is unreasonable,
01:39:37
◼
►
but I genuinely don't even know
01:39:39
◼
►
what Thunderbolt 5 brings.
01:39:43
◼
►
- Faster speed.
01:39:44
◼
►
That's what we talked about on the show in the past.
01:39:46
◼
►
Unlike Thunderbolt 3 to 4,
01:39:48
◼
►
which didn't increase the speed at all,
01:39:49
◼
►
Thunderbolt 5 does.
01:39:51
◼
►
You know, is there a chance?
01:39:52
◼
►
Yes, there is a chance.
01:39:55
◼
►
I think there is.
01:39:56
◼
►
I don't know enough about the M4 and the iPad
01:39:57
◼
►
if anyone has examined it
01:39:58
◼
►
and see if there's any vestiges of Thunderbolt 5
01:40:01
◼
►
or whatever, but you know, there's always a chance.
01:40:04
◼
►
There's not a good chance.
01:40:06
◼
►
Apple has not really been known for being on the,
01:40:09
◼
►
we talked about this when we were talking
01:40:10
◼
►
about the Co-Pilot Plus PCs
01:40:11
◼
►
and how they just all had the latest versions
01:40:12
◼
►
of every standard, latest version of Bluetooth,
01:40:14
◼
►
latest version of Wi-Fi,
01:40:15
◼
►
like latest version of Thunderbolt, right?
01:40:17
◼
►
Apple doesn't really do that.
01:40:19
◼
►
When they do, it's notable.
01:40:21
◼
►
Apple's current line of stuff have one back
01:40:24
◼
►
from the latest version of most of this stuff.
01:40:26
◼
►
That's just the way Apple tends to roll.
01:40:27
◼
►
So I don't think it's highly likely,
01:40:30
◼
►
but absolutely it is possible to keep up a lot
01:40:32
◼
►
for those M4 MacBook Pros with Thunderbolt 5.
01:40:35
◼
►
- David Martin writes,
01:40:36
◼
►
"Do you think Apple will finally ship 16 gigs of RAM
01:40:38
◼
►
"in the MacBook Air when the M4 gets put into it?"
01:40:41
◼
►
I don't, but I hope.
01:40:43
◼
►
- I mean, you can hope.
01:40:45
◼
►
Now's the time you can have this hope.
01:40:46
◼
►
I don't think so.
01:40:47
◼
►
Just, they should.
01:40:50
◼
►
They 100% should, but I don't think so.
01:40:52
◼
►
I mean, do they even,
01:40:53
◼
►
is the MacBook Pro start at 16?
01:40:56
◼
►
- I think the Pros do.
01:40:58
◼
►
- Even the low-end one that's like barely a Pro?
01:41:01
◼
►
- I don't know.
01:41:02
◼
►
It wouldn't surprise me either way.
01:41:03
◼
►
I mean, they're gonna keep shipping.
01:41:04
◼
►
For the MacBook Air, that is a computer
01:41:07
◼
►
that is extremely important for it to hit a price point
01:41:10
◼
►
for its sales.
01:41:12
◼
►
And Apple will not sacrifice its margins.
01:41:14
◼
►
So they're gonna get their, you know, whatever 38%,
01:41:17
◼
►
whatever their margin is,
01:41:17
◼
►
like they're gonna get their margin somewhere.
01:41:19
◼
►
And so they, you know,
01:41:21
◼
►
if they make more money on average
01:41:23
◼
►
by skimping on the RAM on that base model,
01:41:26
◼
►
they're gonna keep doing that.
01:41:27
◼
►
They're gonna keep doing it as long as they possibly can.
01:41:30
◼
►
- See, on the MacBook Air though,
01:41:32
◼
►
I think that is, I mean,
01:41:34
◼
►
of all the computers Apple sells,
01:41:36
◼
►
I feel like the MacBook Air is probably the least likely
01:41:40
◼
►
to have its specs bumped,
01:41:42
◼
►
because people just want the cheapest laptop they can get.
01:41:46
◼
►
And so like, on the MacBook Pros,
01:41:48
◼
►
like what percentage of MacBook Pros
01:41:49
◼
►
are purchased with the base RAM
01:41:50
◼
►
versus the percentage of MacBook Airs?
01:41:52
◼
►
The MacBook Air has gotta be so much bigger
01:41:54
◼
►
than the MacBook Pros.
01:41:55
◼
►
- I don't know, 'cause in both cases,
01:41:57
◼
►
huge amounts of them are purchased by businesses
01:41:59
◼
►
and schools and stuff like that.
01:42:00
◼
►
So like, and I think usually when you're talking
01:42:03
◼
►
about those big bulk buys,
01:42:05
◼
►
it's very, very frequently, it is either the base model
01:42:09
◼
►
or like the next stocked up config
01:42:11
◼
►
that is normally stocked, like not a custom build.
01:42:14
◼
►
So, but there's tons of base model sales sold in any case.
01:42:17
◼
►
So I bet it is a pretty high ratio
01:42:20
◼
►
for both the Air and the Pro,
01:42:22
◼
►
although I think you're right,
01:42:23
◼
►
it probably is higher for the Air.
01:42:25
◼
►
- Well anyway, like they can't stay at eight forever,
01:42:28
◼
►
just like they couldn't stay at four forever.
01:42:30
◼
►
Do they have to double?
01:42:31
◼
►
Do they have to go from eight to 16?
01:42:33
◼
►
I mean, the iPads apparently come with 12,
01:42:36
◼
►
they're only using eight of it.
01:42:37
◼
►
Like you can go up, you don't have to double it every time.
01:42:40
◼
►
Like it'd be nice, they'll be catching up,
01:42:42
◼
►
I think it would be a good idea,
01:42:43
◼
►
but like 16 seems too generous for their lowest end laptop.
01:42:48
◼
►
- The M4 version of their lowest end laptop.
01:42:49
◼
►
- It's 2024. - But they're absolutely sure
01:42:50
◼
►
because the 16 versus the eight costs them
01:42:53
◼
►
like five extra bucks.
01:42:55
◼
►
The only way it would hurt the margins
01:42:56
◼
►
is why Marco was mentioning it,
01:42:57
◼
►
is it will stop people from buying the more expensive model
01:43:00
◼
►
where they charge you a bazillion dollars for that RAM.
01:43:02
◼
►
That's how it hurts margins.
01:43:03
◼
►
Not because like, oh, that's not hurting margins,
01:43:05
◼
►
that extra RAM costs them nothing.
01:43:07
◼
►
That's true, but it stops you from buying
01:43:09
◼
►
the one where they overcharge for the RAM upgrade.
01:43:11
◼
►
And that is the problem that Apple's trying to avoid.
01:43:14
◼
►
But yeah, they need to bump their RAM.
01:43:16
◼
►
If they're gonna do this thing where they just
01:43:18
◼
►
only will only ever double it
01:43:20
◼
►
and will wait until it is incredibly embarrassing
01:43:22
◼
►
before they do the doubling,
01:43:24
◼
►
that's not a good dynamic and I hope they should fix it.
01:43:29
◼
►
- Yeah, I think they will upgrade the MacBook Air RAM
01:43:32
◼
►
once the whatever type of RAM chip the MacBook Air uses
01:43:37
◼
►
is no longer available in eight gig chips.
01:43:40
◼
►
That's when they will finally update it.
01:43:41
◼
►
- I mean, like if it was in the iPad,
01:43:43
◼
►
maybe those ones aren't available.
01:43:46
◼
►
I don't think they're ever not gonna be available,
01:43:48
◼
►
but it's just, when is the,
01:43:51
◼
►
someone had a similar question,
01:43:52
◼
►
I think I cut it out of this.
01:43:54
◼
►
Like which do you think will happen first?
01:43:55
◼
►
The MacBook Air gets 16 gigs of RAM
01:43:57
◼
►
or some other highly unlikely thing
01:43:59
◼
►
and it was like, you know, rock and a hard place.
01:44:01
◼
►
Two things that Apple just does not wanna do,
01:44:03
◼
►
but you know, they can't hold the line on RAM forever.
01:44:05
◼
►
They will have to bump it eventually.
01:44:07
◼
►
It's just maybe not this year.
01:44:10
◼
►
- Winnie Lewis writes,
01:44:11
◼
►
"Could Apple's reluctance to put cellular on the Mac
01:44:13
◼
►
be due to their failure to produce an in-house modem?
01:44:15
◼
►
Considering Apple's reluctant dependence on Qualcomm
01:44:18
◼
►
and the exorbitant rates Qualcomm charges,
01:44:20
◼
►
I can understand why Apple's holding off
01:44:21
◼
►
on adding cellular to high priced devices like the Mac.
01:44:24
◼
►
This argument is undercut somewhat with the iPad Pro
01:44:26
◼
►
costing the same as a MacBook Air,
01:44:27
◼
►
but MacBook Pros can still greatly increase in price
01:44:30
◼
►
over an iPad Pro.
01:44:31
◼
►
And if customers have waited this long,
01:44:32
◼
►
what's the harm in making them wait longer?"
01:44:34
◼
►
Yeah, that's fair.
01:44:35
◼
►
I feel like we've talked about this
01:44:36
◼
►
a couple of times in the past.
01:44:37
◼
►
- Well, yeah, we need to debunk this again,
01:44:39
◼
►
because we've mentioned this years ago
01:44:41
◼
►
and then we corrected ourselves
01:44:42
◼
►
and some people are still going with the outdated information
01:44:45
◼
►
the idea that Qualcomm charges you a percentage
01:44:47
◼
►
of the purchase price of the product
01:44:48
◼
►
and because Macs can be so much more expensive
01:44:51
◼
►
that Apple would be charged a ton more.
01:44:53
◼
►
That's not how it works
01:44:54
◼
►
based on our most recent looking into this.
01:44:57
◼
►
Like there is a cap and Apple's already at the cap.
01:44:59
◼
►
Like Qualcomm, whatever, they'll charge you a percentage
01:45:02
◼
►
up to whatever the amount is.
01:45:04
◼
►
And basically every Mac is already at that maximum cap.
01:45:07
◼
►
So Apple is not avoiding cellular and Macs
01:45:10
◼
►
because it would be too expensive
01:45:13
◼
►
relative to putting cellular in iPads and other devices.
01:45:16
◼
►
They could be doing it for,
01:45:17
◼
►
whatever their reasons are, that's not it.
01:45:19
◼
►
Like it's like, "Oh, they can't do it
01:45:20
◼
►
because you can buy a $5,000 Mac
01:45:21
◼
►
and then a Qualcomm will get $500 of that."
01:45:23
◼
►
That's not how it works.
01:45:25
◼
►
At least, you know, it used to be
01:45:27
◼
►
and then we were corrected
01:45:29
◼
►
and then we aired the correction
01:45:31
◼
►
and I think it is still the case
01:45:32
◼
►
that there is a monetary cap for this.
01:45:35
◼
►
- Every possible argument people put up
01:45:37
◼
►
for why cellular maybe is being held back from the laptops
01:45:41
◼
►
for some kind of weird business reason,
01:45:43
◼
►
it's in every iPad.
01:45:45
◼
►
Like it's even, okay, it's in the $350 base model.
01:45:49
◼
►
Like you have to pay a little more for the cellular,
01:45:51
◼
►
but like it's been available on every iPad ever since 2010.
01:45:57
◼
►
So every iPad model has had cellular as an option
01:46:00
◼
►
that has cost between usually $130 and $200 extra
01:46:04
◼
►
and it is great, it just works.
01:46:06
◼
►
Like, and the only thing I can think of
01:46:09
◼
►
is like in some various forms of their deals with carriers
01:46:14
◼
►
or their pricing with Qualcomm,
01:46:17
◼
►
I'm sure there are differences
01:46:19
◼
►
in like how the devices are categorized.
01:46:22
◼
►
Like I'm sure they have different agreements
01:46:24
◼
►
and different rates for,
01:46:25
◼
►
if somebody's considered a phone or a wearable
01:46:28
◼
►
or a tablet or a PC.
01:46:30
◼
►
Like I'm sure those are like different categories
01:46:32
◼
►
for some kind of licensing deals or whatever,
01:46:34
◼
►
but again like cellular laptops have existed
01:46:37
◼
►
in the PC world for a very long time now.
01:46:40
◼
►
So obviously this is not something that's that difficult
01:46:43
◼
►
to navigate with the carriers and the royalty holders
01:46:46
◼
►
like Qualcomm and things like that.
01:46:47
◼
►
Like this isn't a difficult problem
01:46:50
◼
►
and this isn't a problem that no one has solved.
01:46:53
◼
►
This is just, this is a choice that they've made
01:46:56
◼
►
that they just don't care.
01:46:58
◼
►
And I'm sure if an Apple person was here,
01:47:00
◼
►
I'm sure we'd get a wonderful PR answer of like,
01:47:03
◼
►
you know, how important it is to serve our customers
01:47:05
◼
►
and they, you know, what we show, blah, blah, blah.
01:47:07
◼
►
But like, look, actions speak louder than words.
01:47:10
◼
►
Apple does not care about cellular on the Mac.
01:47:12
◼
►
They have not prioritized it.
01:47:13
◼
►
They seem to have no path to get there from where,
01:47:16
◼
►
like they seem to be in no rush to do it
01:47:19
◼
►
and we are so far past the point where like,
01:47:23
◼
►
it can't be just like, oh, they're working on it,
01:47:25
◼
►
but it's not done yet.
01:47:25
◼
►
No, we're so far past that point.
01:47:27
◼
►
They don't care.
01:47:28
◼
►
- I mean, iPad Pro being so expensive,
01:47:31
◼
►
you can make an iPad Pro more expensive than a Mac
01:47:33
◼
►
pretty easily by configuring it.
01:47:35
◼
►
It's the same, you know, they're using the same SoCs,
01:47:38
◼
►
all Apple Silicon, like every excuse has fallen away.
01:47:41
◼
►
Winnie's question here is though,
01:47:42
◼
►
is actually vaguely plausible is that Apple has been planning
01:47:46
◼
►
to bring cellular to the Mac just as soon as they're done
01:47:48
◼
►
with their in-house modems.
01:47:49
◼
►
And unfortunately they pinned that feature
01:47:52
◼
►
to the timeline of a product that is terminally behind.
01:47:56
◼
►
Apple's been trying to,
01:47:57
◼
►
they bought the modem business from Intel
01:47:59
◼
►
and they've been trying to make cell modems
01:48:00
◼
►
and they wanted this for their phones, obviously,
01:48:02
◼
►
but like maybe they said,
01:48:04
◼
►
we're not even thinking about cellular in the Mac
01:48:06
◼
►
until we get our modem stuff
01:48:07
◼
►
and the modem stuff should be ready by 2022, right guys?
01:48:10
◼
►
And you know, it hasn't worked out.
01:48:11
◼
►
- Even that theory, like why?
01:48:13
◼
►
It's literally been in every single iPad.
01:48:15
◼
►
- That's totally an Apple thing to do though.
01:48:17
◼
►
It's totally an Apple thing to do.
01:48:19
◼
►
How different is the hardware in a MacBook Air
01:48:21
◼
►
versus the hardware in an iPad?
01:48:22
◼
►
- I know, well, this is definitely a business thing.
01:48:25
◼
►
If you worked in a big company, someone will say,
01:48:28
◼
►
"We're gonna do this.
01:48:29
◼
►
It's been a long standing thing that people want
01:48:30
◼
►
and we're gonna tie it to this other thing."
01:48:31
◼
►
And then the other thing gets delayed
01:48:32
◼
►
and then the people will say,
01:48:33
◼
►
can we just untie these two things now and just do,
01:48:36
◼
►
you know, like you said, just do what we do in the iPads?
01:48:38
◼
►
Can we just stick to Qualcomm thing?
01:48:40
◼
►
And there's just a tremendous institutional
01:48:43
◼
►
sort of resistance to untying two things
01:48:45
◼
►
that have been tied to each other,
01:48:47
◼
►
especially when it comes to a product line
01:48:48
◼
►
that is not the top priority.
01:48:50
◼
►
Like if you tie something on the phone and it turns out,
01:48:52
◼
►
oh, you know, now one thing is delaying another,
01:48:54
◼
►
untying that is easier because the phone is so important.
01:48:56
◼
►
But on the Mac, I'm sure it's like,
01:48:58
◼
►
no, we've already started down this path.
01:49:00
◼
►
We're working on the modems.
01:49:01
◼
►
Let's just wait until they're done.
01:49:02
◼
►
I think they're gonna be done this year and they're not done.
01:49:04
◼
►
And then the next year you have the same conversation
01:49:05
◼
►
and with the same result.
01:49:07
◼
►
That is plausible.
01:49:08
◼
►
It is a common dysfunction of businesses,
01:49:11
◼
►
but you know, us out here as customers,
01:49:12
◼
►
like we don't care what the reason is.
01:49:14
◼
►
We just want it and, you know,
01:49:16
◼
►
I think Apple's answer would be like,
01:49:17
◼
►
well, you may want that,
01:49:18
◼
►
but you're in the minority, so tough luck.
01:49:20
◼
►
Eh, it is what it is.
01:49:21
◼
►
- But how many iPad owners choose it?
01:49:24
◼
►
How many Apple Watch owners choose it?
01:49:25
◼
►
- Well, we feel like iPad owners prioritize it differently.
01:49:28
◼
►
Well, when we survey Mac users,
01:49:30
◼
►
a very small percentage seem to want it
01:49:31
◼
►
and our tethering solution is so amazing
01:49:33
◼
►
and blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:49:34
◼
►
That's what they would say.
01:49:35
◼
►
Not that there's any reason that they're not doing it,
01:49:37
◼
►
but that it's like, well, we have to prioritize it
01:49:39
◼
►
even though you super duper want it,
01:49:41
◼
►
not everybody is like you.
01:49:42
◼
►
I think that's what they'd say.
01:49:42
◼
►
- And again, if tethering is the answer,
01:49:45
◼
►
why do iPads have it?
01:49:46
◼
►
Why does every iPad forever have it?
01:49:49
◼
►
- And why is tethering so bad?
01:49:51
◼
►
- You know that too, yeah.
01:49:52
◼
►
But that's the thing, no argument against it
01:49:55
◼
►
holds any water once you say,
01:49:56
◼
►
well, then why is it available
01:49:58
◼
►
in every single iPad they ever made?
01:50:00
◼
►
It just makes no sense when you consider that.
01:50:03
◼
►
Like, why, like, I just, oh God.
01:50:06
◼
►
As much as, I'm kinda glad that the iPad mania
01:50:09
◼
►
is passing now from the iPad Pro take,
01:50:11
◼
►
'cause like, I just, I'm so annoyed at the thought,
01:50:14
◼
►
like, how amazing would it be
01:50:17
◼
►
if the MacBook Air was released
01:50:20
◼
►
with an OLED screen and cellular?
01:50:23
◼
►
We would be flipping our minds.
01:50:25
◼
►
- OLED screen, whoa, whoa, whoa.
01:50:27
◼
►
That is a pro product, Marco.
01:50:29
◼
►
People with iPad Airs cannot hand a hat
01:50:31
◼
►
faster than 60 hertz refresh,
01:50:33
◼
►
'cause that is also a pro product.
01:50:34
◼
►
And they cannot handle OLED screens,
01:50:35
◼
►
don't even talk about that for at least five more years.
01:50:38
◼
►
- Like, why is it, I'm just, I shouldn't get all mad.
01:50:42
◼
►
Why does the iPad Pro, in even an 11-inch form factor,
01:50:47
◼
►
have an M4, a great OLED screen,
01:50:52
◼
►
cellular in a really small package
01:50:55
◼
►
that costs around a little over 1,000 bucks
01:50:57
◼
►
if you put the keyboard on it and stuff,
01:50:59
◼
►
and the MacBook Air, with most of those same cuts
01:51:03
◼
►
at about the same price, is not only does it not
01:51:07
◼
►
have those features at those price,
01:51:09
◼
►
but those features are not attainable
01:51:10
◼
►
at any price on that product.
01:51:16
◼
►
- It's so frustrating.
01:51:18
◼
►
- I mean, part of that is that the iPad you were describing
01:51:20
◼
►
is the most expensive iPad, and the laptop
01:51:23
◼
►
you were describing is the least expensive.
01:51:25
◼
►
And Apple wants to segment its product line, but yeah.
01:51:27
◼
►
I mean, you can't even get the--
01:51:28
◼
►
- But the same people are looking at both
01:51:29
◼
►
of those product segments. - I know, you can't even
01:51:31
◼
►
get the OLEDs on the MacBook Pro,
01:51:32
◼
►
so it really hurts that argument for now,
01:51:33
◼
►
but we'll see how it goes, but yeah.
01:51:35
◼
►
- I mean, look, the OLED's brand new.
01:51:36
◼
►
Like, I understand that that's gonna be a process
01:51:38
◼
►
of bringing it to everything slowly, sure.
01:51:41
◼
►
Cellular is not.
01:51:42
◼
►
It's so not new.
01:51:45
◼
►
I was using a cellular modem to tether my laptop in 2006.
01:51:50
◼
►
This is not new!
01:51:52
◼
►
- No, I hear you and I agree, but if we continue this
01:51:56
◼
►
any further, it will turn this entire show
01:51:58
◼
►
into a Marco and Casey whine about cellular max power hour.
01:52:01
◼
►
So I feel like at this point, we should probably call it,
01:52:06
◼
►
even though I would like to agree
01:52:07
◼
►
with all your grumbling and whining,
01:52:10
◼
►
because I am right there with you.
01:52:12
◼
►
- You're just making so many people write in
01:52:13
◼
►
to say how little they care about cellular on their Macs,
01:52:16
◼
►
and it's a useless feature,
01:52:16
◼
►
and Apple should never edit.
01:52:18
◼
►
- Please don't.
01:52:19
◼
►
- And if it's so useless, why isn't everybody up there?
01:52:21
◼
►
Thank you so much to our sponsors this episode,
01:52:23
◼
►
Squarespace and Factor.
01:52:26
◼
►
And thanks to our members who support us directly.
01:52:27
◼
►
You can join us at atb.fm/join.
01:52:31
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Members get an exclusive after show topic every week
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called Overtime.
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This is an extra bonus topic that we do every week now.
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Members exclusive, you can hear it for yourself
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by joining atb.fm/join.
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This week on Overtime, we are talking about an update
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on Apple's car integrations.
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Things like the latest CarPlay and things like that.
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So that's gonna be an update on Apple and cars
01:52:55
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in Overtime this episode for members.
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Join atb.fm/join.
01:52:58
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Thank you so much to everybody for listening,
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and we will talk to you live from California next week.
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(upbeat music)
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♪ Now the show is over ♪
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♪ They didn't even mean to begin ♪
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♪ 'Cause it was accidental ♪
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♪ Accidental ♪
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♪ Oh, it was accidental ♪
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♪ Accidental ♪
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♪ John didn't do any research ♪
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♪ Marco and Casey wouldn't let him ♪
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♪ 'Cause it was accidental ♪
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♪ Accidental ♪
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♪ Oh, it was accidental ♪
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♪ Accidental ♪
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♪ And you can find the show notes at atb.fm ♪
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♪ And if you're into Mastodon ♪
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♪ You can follow them at C-A-S-E-Y-L-I-S-S ♪
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♪ So that's Casey Liss ♪
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♪ M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M ♪
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♪ N-T-M-A-R-C-O-R-M-N ♪
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♪ S-I-R-A-C ♪
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♪ U-S-A-C-R-A-C-U-S-A ♪
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♪ It's accidental ♪
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♪ It's accidental ♪
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♪ They didn't mean to accidental ♪
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♪ Accidental ♪
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♪ Check podcast so long ♪
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- All right, so we're gonna do
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a little post-show neutral today.
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And we're gonna talk about our member special.
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This is the most recent member special
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as we are recording right now,
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which was talking about cars and car-related things.
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And so, Jon, I guess you would like to revise your statement
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with regard to buying cars for your kid?
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- I just have updates.
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Like I threw at the end of our discussion,
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the discussion was like, if you had to buy a new car now,
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what would you buy?
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And we had all the sorts of conditions and caveats
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and whatever, and we got increasingly ridiculous.
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At the very end, I said, what about buying a car for a kid?
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Which, you know, neither one of your children
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are driving age, but mine are,
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so I'm like, maybe this will come up.
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Anyway, and we talked about it,
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and it's a difficult problem and yada, yada,
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but the problem has continued to exist in my household.
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We have four licensed drivers and two cars.
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That is a difficult situation,
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and it's made more difficult by me
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because I don't want my children to drive my car.
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So now we have four licensed drivers
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and two of them can only drive one of the cars.
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So it's kind of like the whole, you know,
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bringing the goat and the chickens
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and the wolf across the river or whatever,
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of like, okay, well, if this person wants the car
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on this day, then I will let my wife use my car.
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So that means she'd have to take my car
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when she goes to work, so her car is here
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for the kids to use, and then it's just,
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it's a pain, right?
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And we're talking about it on the show,
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is if you had to buy a car for your kid, what would you buy?
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And I'm, because I'm faced with that problem.
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We were considering trying to get a kid car,
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not a car for a kid.
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They could buy their own car eventually,
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and maybe one of these cars eventually will be given to/sold
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to the kid when they graduate college
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and move out of the house,
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but we just wanted to have a car that the kids can drive
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that like, if they bang it up or hit a curb
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or get into a fender bender, we don't care about it,
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and they're not driving our cars,
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and we don't have to do this car shuffle thing.
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And I've been working on this problem
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since we recorded that member special.
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And as, again, as you can imagine,
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I make it so much more difficult for myself
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because of what I want out of this.
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So here's the difficulty.
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- Okay, let me guess.
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The end of this discussion is you have bought or will buy
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either an Accord, which is my guess, or a Civic,
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because I cannot fathom you owning
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any other car manufacturer's product other than Honda.
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- So here's, I'm looking for cars and getting frustrated.
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Here's the frustration.
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First one, let me find a crap box.
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Although I'm trying to use the kind word for that, right?
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Let's find a kid car, like it's like a $2,000 thing.
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Like it's junky, you don't care, you know what I mean?
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- Like the old Volvo box.
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- Yeah, and I was even looking at old Volvos.
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I was like, can I find a Volvo or whatever?
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And I was looking at like the safety ratings and stuff.
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Not that Volvos aren't safe, they are,
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but like the safety rating information available to us
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is not granular enough for me to distinguish
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how much better a Volvo is than like some other car
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of similar vintage, you know what I mean?
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Like, 'cause everyone games the system,
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like they all want to get the five star crash rating
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or whatever, and so two five star cars,
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they're not the same, they both got five stars,
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but one of them is probably better than the other,
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but how much better and how can I tell?
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But anyway, I'm looking for crap boxes.
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And there's a lot of them available, but they're crappy.
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- Hence the name. - Right.
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I mean, they have like 200,000 miles in them.
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They're filled with rust 'cause it's New England, right?
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Like any car that you can buy
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for a very small amount of money,
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it has huge amount of miles,
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this is gonna be rusted out,
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it's gonna have so many mechanical problems,
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I don't want to leave my kids stranded.
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I do want it to be safe, but any car that's like $2,000
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is gonna be old and older cars are less safe,
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they have less safety equipment,
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they're safe in crash testing, you know what I mean?
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And it's like, do I want my kid to be in an unreliable car
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that's gonna cost me like $1,000 in repairs
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once I bring it home and realize that the engine is dead
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or it needs a new water pump
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or all the brakes are shot or whatever?
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- Did you get yourself a new car?
01:58:03
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- That's exactly what I was wondering.
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Are we pulling a Marco and buying ourselves a new car?
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- Well, we're just talking about the crap boxes now, right?
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It's like-- - Oh my God, he did.
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- You're always hoping to find the car
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that was just driven to church on Sunday every day
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and kept in an air-conditioned garage
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and it has a small number of miles on it,
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but that just doesn't exist.
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And then, so I'm looking for used cars like that.
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And then I go up, okay,
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well, what if I say it's not a crap box?
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What if I look for a decent used car?
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Then what happens with my philosophy is like,
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I go right from crap box on Craigslist or whatever, right?
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I go from that, I immediately go to a whatsoever,
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I don't want a crap box,
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I don't wanna worry that this car is unreliable.
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I want a car that doesn't have a lot of miles,
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that's probably pretty reliable,
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and you get into the whole land of certified,
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pre-owned with warranty from dealer type things.
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And guess what?
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Those cars cost as much as a new car.
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I was like, what the hell?
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And you're gonna say, is there nothing in between?
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Yeah, there are things in between,
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but I don't want much in between.
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I either want a crap box that costs me nothing
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or a very reliable car.
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And guess what?
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If you want a very reliable car with not a lot of miles,
01:59:08
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it's basically the price of a new car.
01:59:09
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- Now wait, hold on.
01:59:10
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I don't really disagree with anything you've said,
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although I have not gone car shopping in six years now, but--
01:59:16
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- You're always going car shopping, come on.
01:59:17
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- Well, eh, yes and no.
01:59:19
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But anyways, I haven't done serious car shopping.
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I've done no more than kick some tires.
01:59:24
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But anyways, first of all,
01:59:26
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and I'll just leave this be
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because we'll get on a huge tangent,
01:59:29
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but you should be buying a lightly used electric car
01:59:32
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for your kids because it doesn't have a lot of--
01:59:34
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- A lightly used electric car.
01:59:36
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- Yes. - Please point me to those.
01:59:37
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- Yeah, get like a Leaf or something,
01:59:39
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or even like an old Model 3 at this point.
01:59:41
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There's so many out there now.
01:59:44
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- So I'm not gonna buy a Tesla,
01:59:45
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so we can just take that off the table right away.
01:59:48
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And a Nissan Leaf, I did look at them,
01:59:50
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but they don't have like conditioned batteries,
01:59:52
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so all their batteries, and again in New England,
01:59:54
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are so hosed, it's not even funny,
01:59:56
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like the used ones, you know what I mean?
01:59:57
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Because they don't even do like--
01:59:58
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- Well, it's your own fault
01:59:59
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for living somewhere with weather.
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I mean, what do you expect?
02:00:02
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- And a Nissan Leaf, it's not an unsafe car,
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but I just, I'm not sure.
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- There are options other than that.
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- And the thing is, even a lightly used electric car,
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they're expensive.
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They're not, you can't buy,
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there's no such thing as a crap box version of that,
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and then all of a sudden,
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you're getting into new car territory prices, right?
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It's like, oh, buy lightly used Nissan Leaf for $22,000.
02:00:21
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That's new car territory.
02:00:23
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- Okay, that's fair.
02:00:24
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Okay, so the other thing I was gonna say is,
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there is an in-between that I'm sure
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you will thumb your nose at for some reason or another,
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and maybe it's that you just don't have these where you are,
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but it's local hero CarMax,
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which I think I've mentioned many times.
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- This has been a long time on their website.
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- It's headquartered here in Richmond,
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and they, to the best of my recollection,
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not only do they typically sell decent used cars,
02:00:47
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and it's always a crap shoot.
02:00:48
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I'm not saying they're guaranteed to be perfect,
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but they're usually pretty decent,
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but A, they do have a one-week return policy
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on freaking automobiles, which is pretty cool,
02:00:55
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but secondly, you can choose to buy
02:00:58
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into their extended warranty,
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and so you can basically create your own CPO situation.
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Granted, it does cost extra money.
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It's not free, but you can basically
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create your own CPO situation
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by giving them some money upfront,
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and then they will do a bumper-to-bumper warranty
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on this used car, which might be the best
02:01:14
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of both worlds for you, although I suspect
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that they're probably still more expensive
02:01:18
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than you would wanna spend.
02:01:19
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- Yeah, I spend a lot of time on CarMax,
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AutoTrader, AutoTempest, Cars and Bids even,
02:01:24
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where I've had saved searches for months
02:01:26
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on Cars and Bids just out of my own curiosity.
02:01:29
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Cars and Bids is more of an enthusiast site,
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and I have saved searches for the last stick shift accord
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or whatever. - Of course.
02:01:36
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- Actually, to go back a step, I'm embarrassed.
02:01:39
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I forgot about this because my parents have one.
02:01:41
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D-Temp from the chat brings up,
02:01:43
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why not a used Chevy Bolt?
02:01:44
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They weren't that expensive new.
02:01:45
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They can't be but so expensive used.
02:01:47
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- The used EV things, like, a lot of things
02:01:50
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keep me away from the used EVs.
02:01:52
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You can't get them cheap.
02:01:54
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They have old, cruddy batteries.
02:01:55
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The NCAS thing is out there too,
02:01:58
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and it's like, do I wanna buy an electric car
02:02:00
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with a connector I know is not gonna be
02:02:01
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the connector I want it to have
02:02:02
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and wire my house up for that kind of, like,
02:02:05
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oh, it's so easy. (laughs)
02:02:07
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- Identity adapters aren't that big,
02:02:08
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but it's like, the main thing is,
02:02:11
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there's no electric cars that I like,
02:02:13
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like at this point, that I can afford, right?
02:02:14
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There's no-- - But it's not for you.
02:02:15
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It's for your kids, and Chevy Bolt is the answer.
02:02:17
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- But that's the thing.
02:02:18
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It's not, it's a kid car, but it's not for the kid.
02:02:21
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It's like-- - What?
02:02:24
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- The title is going to be in our name.
02:02:26
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It's not gonna be the child's car.
02:02:27
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- That doesn't matter.
02:02:28
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Who's driving this?
02:02:30
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- I know that the one's driving it,
02:02:31
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but the thing is, if I'm gonna spend, like,
02:02:33
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five digits, five digits, 10,000 to 20,000,
02:02:37
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whatever dollars in a thing,
02:02:38
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I want it to be a car that I like.
02:02:39
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Maybe that's just a me thing.
02:02:40
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I don't know, it's not for you,
02:02:41
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it's just, you know, it's a kid car.
02:02:43
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I can't buy a car I don't like.
02:02:45
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- On the plus side, now I understand
02:02:47
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why you give me so much shit about Aaron's,
02:02:49
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about me driving an automatic,
02:02:51
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even though I drive Aaron's car maybe 100 miles a year,
02:02:53
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but now I get it.
02:02:54
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Aaron's car is Aaron's car.
02:02:56
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Yes, it is our car, legally speaking,
02:02:59
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but I almost never drive that thing.
02:03:00
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It's her car.
02:03:01
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If she wanted something that I really disagreed with,
02:03:05
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I would have a conversation with her about it,
02:03:07
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but that's what she would get.
02:03:07
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- But she's your wife, not your child.
02:03:09
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- Well, even still, like, that's,
02:03:11
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I don't understand why you're hanging your hat so much
02:03:13
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on it needs to be something John approved.
02:03:15
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Like, who freaking cares?
02:03:17
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►
As long as it's not an absolute disaster,
02:03:19
◼
►
it's not for you.
02:03:20
◼
►
- It has to be me approved.
02:03:21
◼
►
It has to be me approved.
02:03:22
◼
►
- Oh, you are--
02:03:23
◼
►
- There's no electric cars that I like.
02:03:24
◼
►
They're very expensive.
02:03:25
◼
►
I'm worried about the battery life or the battery health.
02:03:27
◼
►
There's not a lot of good, cheap ones.
02:03:29
◼
►
- Well, half the Bolt batteries
02:03:30
◼
►
have been replaced under warranty.
02:03:32
◼
►
Like, most of them have.
02:03:33
◼
►
You really are doing yourself a disservice.
02:03:35
◼
►
- The Bolt is probably the best contender in that category,
02:03:39
◼
►
'cause like I said, the Leaf doesn't have
02:03:39
◼
►
the conditioned batteries.
02:03:40
◼
►
The Bolt did have that battery problem,
02:03:42
◼
►
and they've been replaced.
02:03:43
◼
►
They are still kind of expensive,
02:03:46
◼
►
but that is actually a good possibility.
02:03:49
◼
►
But there's a lot of unknowns there
02:03:53
◼
►
with having it be our first electric car
02:03:55
◼
►
and having it be for the kids and everything like that.
02:03:58
◼
►
- You're coming up with excuses, darling,
02:03:59
◼
►
but whatever you have to do.
02:04:01
◼
►
- It's like I said, it's not the shape of the market
02:04:03
◼
►
that's forcing these two polar things.
02:04:04
◼
►
It's my desires that are forcing them,
02:04:07
◼
►
that it either has to be a crap box or a reliable car,
02:04:09
◼
►
and the crap boxes are too crappy,
02:04:10
◼
►
and the reliable ones are too expensive,
02:04:12
◼
►
and the EVs are too expensive, or I don't like them,
02:04:14
◼
►
or I think it's not the right time to be an EV,
02:04:16
◼
►
especially for kids, right?
02:04:18
◼
►
So that got me into that situation, and you know.
02:04:21
◼
►
- I feel like there are options
02:04:24
◼
►
that will solve this problem, which you are,
02:04:26
◼
►
it is well within your right to say I don't care,
02:04:29
◼
►
and they're not for me,
02:04:30
◼
►
but I do think there are options out there for you
02:04:33
◼
►
that would work, but carry on.
02:04:34
◼
►
What car did you buy yourself?
02:04:36
◼
►
- Yeah, well, so that's the,
02:04:38
◼
►
it's not me that's the problem here.
02:04:40
◼
►
It's one of my wife's. - Oh, it's not you?
02:04:41
◼
►
- I assure you it's you.
02:04:42
◼
►
- It is 100% you, John.
02:04:44
◼
►
- With respect to getting the car,
02:04:46
◼
►
once my wife got wind of the idea
02:04:48
◼
►
that I was looking for a third car for the kids to drive,
02:04:52
◼
►
you know what happened.
02:04:52
◼
►
She's the Marco in this situation.
02:04:55
◼
►
She's like, "Oh, you're looking at cars?"
02:04:56
◼
►
- Does she want a new car?
02:04:57
◼
►
- No, no, no, no.
02:04:59
◼
►
You know, my car is kind of old.
02:05:01
◼
►
- She is right, isn't it?
02:05:02
◼
►
No, no, no, hers is newer than yours.
02:05:04
◼
►
- Hers is the new one, it's the 2017.
02:05:05
◼
►
It's not that old. - Right, okay, okay.
02:05:06
◼
►
- But she gets the seven year itch.
02:05:09
◼
►
Literally, the seven year itch.
02:05:11
◼
►
- Better here than other places, John.
02:05:13
◼
►
- I'm not looking for a car for you.
02:05:15
◼
►
You already have a car.
02:05:16
◼
►
I'm trying to get the kids out of your car
02:05:18
◼
►
so they won't wreck it and giving them a car.
02:05:20
◼
►
And she's like, "Why not just let them continue to wreck it
02:05:23
◼
►
"and get her a new one?"
02:05:24
◼
►
But you're looking at cars, I like cars.
02:05:28
◼
►
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
02:05:29
◼
►
Hold it, before you say anything, I'm going to wager,
02:05:33
◼
►
I don't know how this is gonna turn out, I really don't,
02:05:34
◼
►
but I'm going to wager that Tina has decided
02:05:38
◼
►
she would like something new and thus will want something
02:05:42
◼
►
that only has two pedals, not necessarily
02:05:45
◼
►
because she prefers that, but because there's no other choice
02:05:47
◼
►
at this point, and now you have a marital issue
02:05:50
◼
►
as to whether or not Tina will have a two pedal car.
02:05:52
◼
►
That's what I'm gonna guess.
02:05:53
◼
►
- I'll go even further.
02:05:54
◼
►
I'm gonna say Tina wants an EV.
02:05:55
◼
►
- Well, you don't know her driving taste, apparently.
02:05:58
◼
►
- That's the thing I forgot to mention before,
02:05:59
◼
►
is that all our cars are stick shift,
02:06:01
◼
►
my kids both learned on stick shift.
02:06:03
◼
►
They're not stick shift enthusiasts.
02:06:05
◼
►
My daughter in particular had real hatred for stick shift,
02:06:07
◼
►
and she's like, "When are you gonna get a good car?"
02:06:09
◼
►
She just doesn't--
02:06:10
◼
►
- Oh, that hurts me deep down inside.
02:06:11
◼
►
- Yeah, well, other kids, whatever, that's their taste.
02:06:14
◼
►
All my friends have good cars,
02:06:15
◼
►
but just two pedals in them or whatever.
02:06:16
◼
►
She's come around a little bit on it
02:06:17
◼
►
since getting more comfortable with it,
02:06:19
◼
►
but my son, he can drive stick fine,
02:06:21
◼
►
but he's also just not into it.
02:06:22
◼
►
They're not into it at the very least.
02:06:23
◼
►
So the whole idea with the kid car
02:06:25
◼
►
is we would get an automatic.
02:06:26
◼
►
The kid car would be automatic, right?
02:06:28
◼
►
Because they both don't like it,
02:06:30
◼
►
and the whole point is that they would drive it
02:06:33
◼
►
and whatever, right?
02:06:34
◼
►
'Cause if they're not enthusiasts,
02:06:37
◼
►
stick shifts will have no place in their future life.
02:06:39
◼
►
You know what I mean?
02:06:40
◼
►
It's just, this is what we had,
02:06:41
◼
►
they had to learn on it, whatever.
02:06:43
◼
►
But, you know, anyway.
02:06:45
◼
►
- See, but my recollection of Tina, of her preferences,
02:06:48
◼
►
was that she actually legitimately
02:06:50
◼
►
does prefer three-pedal cars,
02:06:51
◼
►
but I feel like she's more willing to give on that issue
02:06:56
◼
►
than you and probably I are.
02:06:59
◼
►
- Well, when she started saying,
02:07:01
◼
►
you're looking at cars, I would like a car.
02:07:03
◼
►
I think she also eliminated EVs along with me
02:07:07
◼
►
because they're just very expensive,
02:07:08
◼
►
especially if she's looking for a car for herself,
02:07:09
◼
►
and she's not, I don't think there's any EVs
02:07:11
◼
►
that she really likes either.
02:07:12
◼
►
So there's nothing out there
02:07:13
◼
►
that she's like pining for or desires or whatever.
02:07:16
◼
►
And when it comes to non-EVs, she wants a stick.
02:07:21
◼
►
- I mean, I love that.
02:07:22
◼
►
I love that, but good luck.
02:07:23
◼
►
- I mean, this is the reason I'm not forcing her
02:07:25
◼
►
to buy stick cars.
02:07:26
◼
►
Every car we've owned has been stick
02:07:27
◼
►
because that's what she wants.
02:07:29
◼
►
She's driven automatic.
02:07:30
◼
►
She drives rental cars.
02:07:31
◼
►
We're watching our friend's car now,
02:07:33
◼
►
and they ask us to drive it every once in a while,
02:07:34
◼
►
and she drives it.
02:07:35
◼
►
She wants a stick.
02:07:36
◼
►
And, you know, she knows they're being rare,
02:07:38
◼
►
and she knows eventually we won't have one,
02:07:39
◼
►
and we'll have an EV or whatever.
02:07:40
◼
►
But, you know, she's out there saying,
02:07:44
◼
►
and she doesn't know what's available, what's out there,
02:07:47
◼
►
but I do-- - Golf R and Golf GTI.
02:07:49
◼
►
Or maybe GTI already folded,
02:07:51
◼
►
but the Golf R is briefly still available.
02:07:53
◼
►
- We were like, we went from let's buy a kid car
02:07:57
◼
►
and have it be automatic to let's not do that,
02:08:00
◼
►
and let's get a third stick car,
02:08:01
◼
►
which would make my children's head explode.
02:08:04
◼
►
It's like, you got another car, and it's also stick?
02:08:07
◼
►
And it's like, I have news for you
02:08:08
◼
►
about the cars we've purchased in our life.
02:08:11
◼
►
And we can't drive it?
02:08:13
◼
►
Anyway, I know what's out there with stick.
02:08:14
◼
►
Obviously, Accord doesn't have stick anymore.
02:08:16
◼
►
So that is limited.
02:08:17
◼
►
My wife does know that.
02:08:18
◼
►
I've told her about it
02:08:18
◼
►
before she could begin her morning period many years ago.
02:08:22
◼
►
But many other cars do have stick shifts in them.
02:08:24
◼
►
But since getting her 2017,
02:08:27
◼
►
she has, 2017 Accord with stick shift,
02:08:29
◼
►
she has some new requirements
02:08:31
◼
►
that have been added to the I want a new car.
02:08:34
◼
►
Can you guess what her new requirements are?
02:08:37
◼
►
- That's one of them.
02:08:39
◼
►
And by the way, how did she get that requirement?
02:08:41
◼
►
None of our cars have Carplay.
02:08:42
◼
►
We've never owned a car with Carplay.
02:08:44
◼
►
How did she get that?
02:08:44
◼
►
Because she knows it exists and she's used it.
02:08:47
◼
►
- Yeah, exactly.
02:08:48
◼
►
- She's seen the forbidden fruit.
02:08:50
◼
►
And so, and not only does she want Carplay,
02:08:53
◼
►
she wants wireless Carplay.
02:08:55
◼
►
- Oh, good friggin' luck.
02:08:56
◼
►
You're either getting like a Kia,
02:08:58
◼
►
which there's nothing wrong with that, or a BMW.
02:09:00
◼
►
That's your choice.
02:09:01
◼
►
- I have personally never used Carplay.
02:09:03
◼
►
- By the way, I can tell you, Tina,
02:09:06
◼
►
the latency really sucks on wireless Carplay.
02:09:10
◼
►
It is convenient though.
02:09:11
◼
►
Like, Tiff's car has it.
02:09:12
◼
►
She, you know, her in her i3.
02:09:15
◼
►
It is convenient, but the latency never stops being annoying.
02:09:20
◼
►
- It's not great, but I don't personally get
02:09:24
◼
►
as offended by it as you do.
02:09:25
◼
►
But I mean, you're not entirely wrong.
02:09:27
◼
►
All right, but don't worry, we're getting sidetracked.
02:09:28
◼
►
- So I was trying to picture, I would say like,
02:09:30
◼
►
wireless, like I have to say,
02:09:32
◼
►
I have to preface this by saying I've never used it,
02:09:33
◼
►
but in my, like, you know, I have suspicion
02:09:37
◼
►
that maybe you would actually prefer wired
02:09:39
◼
►
just because of the reliability and latency or whatever.
02:09:42
◼
►
But whatever, right?
02:09:43
◼
►
There's that, and what is the other,
02:09:45
◼
►
there's one other thing that she wanted.
02:09:46
◼
►
- Well, hold on, for the record,
02:09:48
◼
►
because I know Tina is or will listen to this,
02:09:51
◼
►
is listening or will listen,
02:09:53
◼
►
wireless Carplay, if you do the kind of driving that I do,
02:09:58
◼
►
which maybe she does not,
02:09:59
◼
►
so take this with the appropriate amount of caveats
02:10:01
◼
►
and salt and whatnot, I tend to be in the car 10,
02:10:04
◼
►
maybe 15 minutes at a time.
02:10:06
◼
►
It is very unusual.
02:10:08
◼
►
I'm in the car for more than about 15 minutes.
02:10:09
◼
►
And so it's a lot of shorter trips.
02:10:11
◼
►
And because of that, it's,
02:10:14
◼
►
I realize how entitled I sound right now,
02:10:16
◼
►
but it's very burdensome to take my phone out of my pocket
02:10:18
◼
►
or in her case purse, perhaps,
02:10:20
◼
►
and plug it in and then take, you know, unplug it,
02:10:23
◼
►
put it back in the pocket slash purse, whatever.
02:10:24
◼
►
I find if you're doing a lot of short trips like I am,
02:10:27
◼
►
I personally think that even with the higher latency,
02:10:30
◼
►
that juice is worth the squeeze.
02:10:32
◼
►
And furthermore, these little boxes like the one I have,
02:10:35
◼
►
they're not phenomenal, but they work just fine.
02:10:38
◼
►
It is more than sufficient if you're not, you know,
02:10:41
◼
►
a complete snob about it, that it will get the job done
02:10:45
◼
►
and you can retrofit wireless into a wired only car.
02:10:49
◼
►
So I wouldn't go too bananas on insisting wireless,
02:10:53
◼
►
but I don't think on the surface
02:10:56
◼
►
there's anything necessarily wrong with it.
02:10:58
◼
►
I would just, I would cave on wireless carplay
02:11:00
◼
►
long before I would cave on many of the other things
02:11:02
◼
►
that I'm sure are requirements.
02:11:03
◼
►
- Yeah, and I will say too, like what you said about like
02:11:05
◼
►
your driving pattern of like frequent short trips,
02:11:08
◼
►
like wireless carplay is very good for that.
02:11:10
◼
►
Like it is very convenient for that.
02:11:11
◼
►
As long as you don't actually really like interact
02:11:14
◼
►
with the screen that much, 'cause the interaction is like,
02:11:17
◼
►
the latency will annoy you, but it is nicer
02:11:21
◼
►
than the alternative of just like Bluetooth controls.
02:11:22
◼
►
Like it's nicer than that at least.
02:11:23
◼
►
So in most cases, so yeah, I get that.
02:11:27
◼
►
- So what was the other feature she wants?
02:11:29
◼
►
- Other than a stick shift,
02:11:31
◼
►
I don't think you guys do a lot of highways.
02:11:33
◼
►
- These are new features, like, so obviously it's a stick shift
02:11:35
◼
►
but this is the thing, the request that she's never had
02:11:37
◼
►
for any previous car that she suddenly has.
02:11:39
◼
►
Wireless carplay is one, because it didn't exist last time
02:11:41
◼
►
she bought a car.
02:11:42
◼
►
- And most of the cool new like, you know,
02:11:44
◼
►
adaptive cruise features and stuff,
02:11:45
◼
►
most of those are not available on sticks.
02:11:48
◼
►
- You say that, but my car has radar cruise
02:11:51
◼
►
and it won't come to a complete stop, but it will slow down.
02:11:55
◼
►
So that's actually exactly what I was going to say.
02:11:56
◼
►
I was going to say some sort of radar, you know,
02:11:59
◼
►
or I forget the like industry standard term for it,
02:12:02
◼
►
but basically--
02:12:03
◼
►
- Adaptive cruise control.
02:12:04
◼
►
- There you go, thank you, adaptive cruise control.
02:12:06
◼
►
That was going to be my guess.
02:12:07
◼
►
- Yeah, that's a great feature, like,
02:12:09
◼
►
that's something you want if you don't have it.
02:12:12
◼
►
- Yeah, well, she's never had it,
02:12:14
◼
►
and unlike carplay, apparently she hasn't experienced it
02:12:17
◼
►
enough to want to know.
02:12:18
◼
►
The thing that she demands, that is a hard requirement now,
02:12:22
◼
►
because she's had it once, heated seats.
02:12:25
◼
►
- Oh, I didn't even think about that, of course.
02:12:26
◼
►
- I know that sounds boring to you,
02:12:27
◼
►
people who get fancy cars all the time,
02:12:29
◼
►
but again, I don't know, I never purchased a car
02:12:31
◼
►
for more than $25,000.
02:12:32
◼
►
We have the very first car we have ever owned
02:12:35
◼
►
with heated seats is her current car,
02:12:37
◼
►
which is a 2017 Honda Accord.
02:12:38
◼
►
- Oh, no, 100%, it is a requirement.
02:12:40
◼
►
- By the way, don't stop there,
02:12:41
◼
►
get the heated wheel too, trust me.
02:12:42
◼
►
- I was gonna say the same thing.
02:12:43
◼
►
So my car does not have a heated wheel,
02:12:45
◼
►
Erin's car does, and every time I get in her car,
02:12:49
◼
►
in the winter, it annoys the crap out of me,
02:12:51
◼
►
because even in our preterned winters, John,
02:12:53
◼
►
it is still delightful to have a heated steering wheel.
02:12:57
◼
►
So again, I wouldn't make that a requirement
02:13:00
◼
►
in the same way I wouldn't require wireless carplay,
02:13:03
◼
►
but I would strongly, strongly encourage it.
02:13:06
◼
►
- So the things I've outlined to you,
02:13:09
◼
►
stick shift, heated seats, wireless carplay,
02:13:11
◼
►
and given both of our tastes in cars,
02:13:15
◼
►
you will not be shocked to learn that,
02:13:17
◼
►
I mean, if I just said manual transmission alone,
02:13:20
◼
►
like if you go like CarMax or Autotempest or something,
02:13:23
◼
►
it just eliminates every car in the country,
02:13:24
◼
►
you could check that check.
02:13:26
◼
►
You go to transmission, like we found 80,000 matches,
02:13:29
◼
►
check the manual transmission checkbox, two matches.
02:13:32
◼
►
That's before you do wireless carplay and heated seats.
02:13:37
◼
►
And then before you consider our taste in cars.
02:13:41
◼
►
- Well, and the problem that you're having is,
02:13:43
◼
►
I don't think a brand new car
02:13:45
◼
►
is necessarily going to fix your problem.
02:13:47
◼
►
It might, but it won't necessarily fix your problem,
02:13:50
◼
►
- Oh, I'm not shopping brand new cars at this point.
02:13:52
◼
►
Those things will search used cars, let's, I like--
02:13:54
◼
►
- Yeah, yeah.
02:13:55
◼
►
- You know what I mean?
02:13:55
◼
►
Like, I'm not being like, oh, you have to,
02:13:57
◼
►
I'm going to these search sites to try to find like
02:13:59
◼
►
the big mega ultimate meta search, try CarMax,
02:14:02
◼
►
try Autotempest, try Cars and Bids, try like,
02:14:05
◼
►
just everything.
02:14:07
◼
►
And if some, the best thing is,
02:14:08
◼
►
if you do any search terms first,
02:14:10
◼
►
if you put anything in first, like heated seats,
02:14:12
◼
►
it just removes the manual transmission option from the menu,
02:14:15
◼
►
because they know there's zero matches
02:14:17
◼
►
once you've selected that stuff.
02:14:18
◼
►
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:14:19
◼
►
Yeah, so I mean, that's the thing is that,
02:14:21
◼
►
I don't think even going new would help you.
02:14:23
◼
►
And going used, I mean, again, I'm tunnel visioned on it,
02:14:27
◼
►
because it's sitting below me in the garage,
02:14:30
◼
►
but a GTI or a Golf R, that would do the trick.
02:14:33
◼
►
I'm trying to think of other,
02:14:35
◼
►
like a couple, a handful of year old BMWs--
02:14:37
◼
►
- She's listening now, and she's trying to claim
02:14:38
◼
►
that she never actually required wireless carplay,
02:14:41
◼
►
but I contest this.
02:14:43
◼
►
- Honestly, I'm team Tino on this one.
02:14:44
◼
►
- Your contesting is noted.
02:14:45
◼
►
- Yeah, your contesting is noted and ignored.
02:14:49
◼
►
I would say, of several year old BMW,
02:14:53
◼
►
you'd be insane to do it, but you could do that.
02:14:56
◼
►
So here's an example of a car that exists
02:14:58
◼
►
that would fulfill most of her requirements,
02:15:00
◼
►
especially if you let go of the wireless carplay.
02:15:03
◼
►
The very last stick shift Honda Accord,
02:15:07
◼
►
you could get with these features on it, right?
02:15:09
◼
►
That was like the 2022, like the previous generation,
02:15:11
◼
►
like the last one. - Yeah, but there are like
02:15:12
◼
►
four of them in the country.
02:15:13
◼
►
- Right, so here's the problem.
02:15:14
◼
►
There's a lot of those cars,
02:15:17
◼
►
but the only ones that have,
02:15:19
◼
►
she thinks, I don't know if she demanded leather,
02:15:21
◼
►
but she wanted leather,
02:15:21
◼
►
but the only one that has leather heated seats
02:15:24
◼
►
and a stick shift, at the end of every Accord generation,
02:15:27
◼
►
for many years now, they do the Accord Special Edition.
02:15:30
◼
►
So they'll have like, you know,
02:15:31
◼
►
whatever generation Accord it'll be,
02:15:32
◼
►
the 2018, '19, '20, '21, '22, only the '22 model year,
02:15:37
◼
►
the very last model year where they even offer
02:15:41
◼
►
a special edition, right?
02:15:43
◼
►
So the only Accord that you can get with a stick shift,
02:15:45
◼
►
with leather heated seats,
02:15:47
◼
►
is the Accord Sport Special Edition in 2022.
02:15:51
◼
►
That car does not exist.
02:15:53
◼
►
That's just, like everyone, it doesn't exist for sale.
02:15:58
◼
►
The people who bought them are keeping them.
02:16:00
◼
►
They don't come up on any searches,
02:16:02
◼
►
cars and bids, maybe one will pop up every once in a while
02:16:05
◼
►
and get snatched up for some ridiculous price.
02:16:07
◼
►
Forget about that car.
02:16:09
◼
►
Nowhere, nowhere in the entire continental tonight.
02:16:11
◼
►
You wanna get shipped from New Mexico?
02:16:12
◼
►
Sorry, it doesn't exist anywhere.
02:16:13
◼
►
And you know, how large radius would you like to search?
02:16:16
◼
►
3000 miles? Sure, zero matches.
02:16:19
◼
►
So that eliminated that.
02:16:21
◼
►
So I was looking for stuff, I'm like,
02:16:24
◼
►
is there any car that satisfies these things?
02:16:25
◼
►
Can I find it?
02:16:26
◼
►
And it just narrowed down so much to this tiny aperture
02:16:30
◼
►
of acceptable makes, models, and trim levels.
02:16:34
◼
►
Oh, and by the way, I often have a requirement
02:16:36
◼
►
about cars that I've mentioned
02:16:37
◼
►
that you've heard me talk about.
02:16:40
◼
►
You've heard that one, right?
02:16:40
◼
►
- Oh, you are, you are the worst.
02:16:42
◼
►
- Not because I'm against sunroofs,
02:16:44
◼
►
but because I'm for having headroom.
02:16:47
◼
►
And most of my height is in my neck and my upper body.
02:16:51
◼
►
And when I sit in the car,
02:16:52
◼
►
I don't want my head to hit the headliner.
02:16:55
◼
►
- You're losing all your hair anyway, don't worry about it.
02:16:57
◼
►
- It is true, I'm losing a lot of it.
02:16:58
◼
►
It's enough of it there that when my head hits the headliner
02:17:00
◼
►
it is annoying, right?
02:17:01
◼
►
Yeah, I feel really bad for you.
02:17:02
◼
►
Try adding that into the mix.
02:17:04
◼
►
Leather, heated seats, stick shift, wireless carplay.
02:17:10
◼
►
- Yeah, get out of here with the slick top.
02:17:11
◼
►
You're gonna have to cave on the slick top.
02:17:12
◼
►
- Again, the Accord Sports Special Edition 2022, I believe,
02:17:15
◼
►
fulfills these requirements minus maybe the wireless carplay,
02:17:18
◼
►
but that car doesn't exist.
02:17:19
◼
►
And so I'm doing all the research,
02:17:21
◼
►
I'm bringing it back to her saying,
02:17:23
◼
►
"Yeah, well, this, that, the other thing, whatever."
02:17:26
◼
►
I had to bring her, I said, "Look, a car exists
02:17:30
◼
►
that fulfills a lot of your requirements,
02:17:33
◼
►
but it's got a sunroof."
02:17:36
◼
►
And she's like, "Great, buy that."
02:17:37
◼
►
(both laughing)
02:17:40
◼
►
- And I said, "But the sunroof in my head!"
02:17:42
◼
►
And she's like, "I don't care, it's my car,
02:17:43
◼
►
what do you care?"
02:17:44
◼
►
I'm like, "But I don't, even if I never drive your car,
02:17:47
◼
►
I passage in your car,
02:17:49
◼
►
and my head will be hitting the ceiling."
02:17:51
◼
►
- Is that a verb?
02:17:52
◼
►
- Yeah, I'm making it one right now.
02:17:54
◼
►
And so I went to the car dealer,
02:17:57
◼
►
we went shopping ourselves and went to some car dealers.
02:18:00
◼
►
One of them was closed on Sunday, which I didn't understand.
02:18:03
◼
►
- Yeah, that drives me--
02:18:03
◼
►
- The service department closed on Sunday, fine.
02:18:05
◼
►
The showroom, people shop for cars on weekends.
02:18:07
◼
►
Anyway, I'm like, "Look, we're gonna,
02:18:11
◼
►
I'll sit in, I'll sit in the car.
02:18:12
◼
►
I'll see, because you know, you can say,
02:18:14
◼
►
'Oh, sunroof takes up headroom,' or whatever, blah, blah, blah."
02:18:16
◼
►
And one of the cars we looked at,
02:18:18
◼
►
not that we were gonna buy, is we looked at the Integra.
02:18:20
◼
►
- Oh, that is a good answer!
02:18:22
◼
►
That's such a good answer, why didn't I think of that?
02:18:23
◼
►
Well, it's expensive, but it's such a good answer.
02:18:25
◼
►
- I mean, we're not, it's a $50,000 car,
02:18:27
◼
►
we're not getting that, but anyway.
02:18:28
◼
►
But since it's basically--
02:18:29
◼
►
- Is Tina not worth it to you?
02:18:30
◼
►
I think she's worth it.
02:18:31
◼
►
- Since it's basically a Civic, I'm like,
02:18:33
◼
►
"Well, let me check this for headroom."
02:18:35
◼
►
Head was hitting hard in the Integra,
02:18:36
◼
►
but the, just, it's not made for me
02:18:39
◼
►
with the sunroof, or whatever.
02:18:41
◼
►
But that's not, you know, whatever, so like,
02:18:44
◼
►
there's one model and one trim level
02:18:46
◼
►
that fulfills your requirement, it's got a sunroof,
02:18:48
◼
►
I will go sit in it.
02:18:49
◼
►
I went by myself to a car dealer to sit in a car
02:18:54
◼
►
to see if it fit in my head.
02:18:56
◼
►
And I don't like car dealers, no one likes car dealers.
02:18:59
◼
►
What I was hoping is, you know when you go in,
02:19:00
◼
►
they got a bunch of cars, like, indoors,
02:19:02
◼
►
and you can just, like, wander around
02:19:03
◼
►
and, like, open the door and sit in them?
02:19:04
◼
►
That's what I wanted to happen.
02:19:05
◼
►
Because then I can get in and out in five minutes.
02:19:07
◼
►
That didn't happen.
02:19:09
◼
►
There was, the car that I wanted was parked out front,
02:19:12
◼
►
wanted to sit in.
02:19:13
◼
►
I went in and I asked the receptionist,
02:19:15
◼
►
and I said, "Can I just go sit?"
02:19:17
◼
►
Like, it wasn't one of the inside ones, it was an outside.
02:19:19
◼
►
"Can I just go to that car out there,
02:19:20
◼
►
"can I just go sit in it?"
02:19:22
◼
►
And he's like, "Yeah, sure, go ahead,
02:19:23
◼
►
"I don't know if it'll be unlocked though."
02:19:24
◼
►
I go, "Of course it's locked."
02:19:25
◼
►
I come back in, I said, "Oh, it turns out it was locked."
02:19:27
◼
►
And she says to me,
02:19:28
◼
►
"I'm gonna have to get a salesperson."
02:19:31
◼
►
And she says it with that look, like she knows.
02:19:34
◼
►
She knows what happens when you get a salesperson.
02:19:37
◼
►
'Cause now you've got a car salesperson.
02:19:39
◼
►
And it's like, I just wanna, so.
02:19:41
◼
►
'Cause they come and they attach to you like a leech,
02:19:44
◼
►
and they wanna sell you a car, it's their job, I get it.
02:19:47
◼
►
She gets a salesperson, salesperson comes over,
02:19:49
◼
►
opens the door for me, I sit in it.
02:19:51
◼
►
Headroom's not great, better than the Integra though.
02:19:54
◼
►
But headroom's not great, I try the passenger seat,
02:19:56
◼
►
I lean the seat back a little bit, you know what I mean?
02:19:57
◼
►
You try to do all the tricks,
02:19:59
◼
►
of course the passenger seat
02:20:00
◼
►
does not go up and down at all, right?
02:20:02
◼
►
The driver's seat does go up and down,
02:20:05
◼
►
but it doesn't go down that far, but I'm like, whatever.
02:20:08
◼
►
So I go, I spent way too long with the salesperson,
02:20:11
◼
►
they did not sell me a car.
02:20:13
◼
►
They tried real hard though.
02:20:14
◼
►
I went back and I said, to my wife, I said,
02:20:17
◼
►
"I think I can live with the sunroof since it's your car.
02:20:22
◼
►
"It's not as bad as the Integra.
02:20:24
◼
►
"I will suffer with my head hitting the headliner,
02:20:28
◼
►
"if this is what you want."
02:20:29
◼
►
And she said, "Yes, it was."
02:20:30
◼
►
And I did the search.
02:20:32
◼
►
How many cars with these features,
02:20:35
◼
►
in the color that we wanted,
02:20:37
◼
►
exist within, let's say 500 miles?
02:20:40
◼
►
- Well, with the color that you want,
02:20:41
◼
►
I mean, at this point,
02:20:42
◼
►
you're looking for a needle in a haystack
02:20:43
◼
►
and then you're gonna say,
02:20:44
◼
►
"I want a blue or whatever red needle."
02:20:46
◼
►
- Yeah, right.
02:20:47
◼
►
Color matters. - Ugh, crazy.
02:20:48
◼
►
- Again, if I'm spending new car money,
02:20:51
◼
►
I want a car that I like.
02:20:52
◼
►
- Wait, did you tell us what car it is?
02:20:53
◼
►
Did I miss this?
02:20:54
◼
►
- Not yet, we're getting to it.
02:20:55
◼
►
- Okay, all right, all right.
02:20:56
◼
►
- And how many existed?
02:21:00
◼
►
500 mile or two.
02:21:03
◼
►
- Okay, stop right there.
02:21:04
◼
►
Please, please, John, for the love
02:21:06
◼
►
of everything that is good and holy,
02:21:08
◼
►
if that car is anywhere near or even better
02:21:11
◼
►
on the other side of Virginia,
02:21:12
◼
►
I will give you all of my money
02:21:14
◼
►
if we can road trip that bad boy back to Boston.
02:21:16
◼
►
I will do anything to be on that trip with you.
02:21:19
◼
►
- Well, they do like the, you know,
02:21:19
◼
►
you would assume that if it's far away
02:21:21
◼
►
that you could do some kind of dealer trade
02:21:22
◼
►
with a local dealer or whatever,
02:21:23
◼
►
but anyway, two cars.
02:21:25
◼
►
So I'm like, "All right."
02:21:27
◼
►
So we're just noodling.
02:21:29
◼
►
We're just thinking, just like, "Well, whatever."
02:21:30
◼
►
I'm like, "I'm not buying a car.
02:21:31
◼
►
"We're visiting car dealers.
02:21:33
◼
►
"I'm sitting in them.
02:21:34
◼
►
"We're not buying a car.
02:21:35
◼
►
"I'm just looking around."
02:21:35
◼
►
But then there's like two.
02:21:37
◼
►
And so I send emails to people.
02:21:40
◼
►
I contact them through their various websites or whatever,
02:21:42
◼
►
and I say, "Hey, I've got VIN numbers now, right?"
02:21:46
◼
►
I say, "Hey, do you actually have this car?"
02:21:49
◼
►
That's question number one.
02:21:50
◼
►
- Yeah, that's good.
02:21:51
◼
►
- Fair, fair.
02:21:52
◼
►
- And you may be shocked to learn
02:21:55
◼
►
that car dealers are anxious to get back to you about cars.
02:21:58
◼
►
They get back to me, "So you don't have this car."
02:21:59
◼
►
I ask them a second question,
02:22:00
◼
►
which is, "Can you just tell me what color it is?"
02:22:03
◼
►
'Cause I don't wanna give them the answer.
02:22:05
◼
►
You know what I mean?
02:22:06
◼
►
I want them to tell me.
02:22:08
◼
►
I want them to go and look at it, right?
02:22:11
◼
►
And they tell me the correct answer.
02:22:13
◼
►
And they're all like,
02:22:14
◼
►
"This is the big thing with car dealers.
02:22:15
◼
►
"This wasn't the last time I."
02:22:16
◼
►
They're all like, "When should we schedule a test drive?
02:22:17
◼
►
"When do you wanna schedule a test drive?
02:22:18
◼
►
"Do you wanna schedule a test drive?
02:22:19
◼
►
"Let's schedule a test drive.
02:22:20
◼
►
"When are you gonna come and look at this?"
02:22:21
◼
►
I'm like, "I'm just asking you questions over email person.
02:22:23
◼
►
"Chill out, right?"
02:22:25
◼
►
They're being salesperson.
02:22:25
◼
►
- Find some chill.
02:22:28
◼
►
And then, I forget what day this was.
02:22:30
◼
►
This was like Monday of this week.
02:22:32
◼
►
I was like, "There's two of these cars.
02:22:33
◼
►
"I really don't like any of the other colors.
02:22:35
◼
►
"She really seems to want a car.
02:22:37
◼
►
"We've already given up on giving the kids what they want."
02:22:40
◼
►
So, one of the dealers, the one that's closer to her work,
02:22:43
◼
►
I call her at work and I say, "Don't come home.
02:22:47
◼
►
"Rather than going home,
02:22:47
◼
►
"do you wanna just go to the car dealer
02:22:48
◼
►
"who just knew your work and look at this car?"
02:22:51
◼
►
- Oh my God, did you impulse buy a car, John Siracusa?
02:22:54
◼
►
- I wouldn't call this impulse buying
02:22:55
◼
►
if you based the amount of research I'd done up to this point.
02:22:57
◼
►
But anyway. - No, fair, fair.
02:23:00
◼
►
- But I'm at the point now where I know this too.
02:23:01
◼
►
So, we drive up there to her.
02:23:03
◼
►
We both drive together to the dealer,
02:23:05
◼
►
which is further up from where her work is.
02:23:08
◼
►
We look at this car.
02:23:09
◼
►
She test drives it.
02:23:12
◼
►
She likes it.
02:23:14
◼
►
The headroom is better than the Integra.
02:23:19
◼
►
I can live with it.
02:23:21
◼
►
We go back and I'm like, "Well,
02:23:23
◼
►
"I think we should get this car."
02:23:25
◼
►
- Oh my word.
02:23:26
◼
►
- Because look, I spent a month on this.
02:23:28
◼
►
We know when we recorded the member special.
02:23:29
◼
►
I was already looking into this then,
02:23:31
◼
►
which is why I brought up the question.
02:23:34
◼
►
And I was like, "I don't have any other answers.
02:23:36
◼
►
"This is the best answer to this problem.
02:23:39
◼
►
"And if we don't get this car."
02:23:42
◼
►
And so, here I am in a situation
02:23:44
◼
►
where I'm gonna negotiate the price of a new car
02:23:47
◼
►
with a salesperson, trying not to let them know
02:23:50
◼
►
that according to my searches,
02:23:52
◼
►
two of these exist within 500 miles.
02:23:56
◼
►
- Yeah, you're buying this car
02:23:57
◼
►
no matter what they make you pay for it.
02:24:00
◼
►
- Part of my research was, I'd mentioned that
02:24:03
◼
►
the person who asked about new cars,
02:24:05
◼
►
and I mentioned that Car Edge service,
02:24:06
◼
►
I had signed up for that a little while ago.
02:24:09
◼
►
And one of the things they'll give you
02:24:10
◼
►
is there's lots of services.
02:24:11
◼
►
It's like, "What is the invoice price?
02:24:13
◼
►
"What would be a fair price for this car?"
02:24:15
◼
►
You know, that type of thing.
02:24:17
◼
►
And so I had, before I went to this dealer,
02:24:19
◼
►
this would be a fair price for the car,
02:24:21
◼
►
minus any kind of incentives or whatever.
02:24:23
◼
►
It's like, it gives them a little bit of profit
02:24:25
◼
►
to the dealership.
02:24:26
◼
►
They'll probably accept this,
02:24:28
◼
►
but you're not getting ripped off.
02:24:29
◼
►
I had that price in my mind.
02:24:31
◼
►
Went into that negotiation.
02:24:32
◼
►
I'm very proud of myself.
02:24:33
◼
►
I got within $100 of that price.
02:24:35
◼
►
- Well done.
02:24:36
◼
►
- $100, within $100 of the quote unquote fair price
02:24:40
◼
►
for the thing.
02:24:41
◼
►
Part of it was by saying,
02:24:42
◼
►
"Well, I have two other cars that I can go to."
02:24:45
◼
►
And I listed the one in the color that it didn't like,
02:24:47
◼
►
'cause of course I never told them it didn't like the color.
02:24:48
◼
►
Don't tell the dealer what colors you like, right?
02:24:50
◼
►
I was, you know, it was a blue one.
02:24:52
◼
►
I was like, you know,
02:24:53
◼
►
"Well, there's a blue one and another white one."
02:24:55
◼
►
And the dealer was pushing back.
02:24:56
◼
►
- Wait, wait, wait, a white car just happened to you?
02:24:58
◼
►
- Oh my God.
02:24:59
◼
►
- Oh my God, this is getting more and more delicious.
02:25:01
◼
►
- And he was like, "Well, is that other car,
02:25:04
◼
►
"are you sure that's not the same car as this?
02:25:06
◼
►
"Because we got a call from a dealer about this car
02:25:07
◼
►
"and they wanted to take it from us or whatever."
02:25:09
◼
►
I'm like, "No, no, these are other cars.
02:25:10
◼
►
"I can show you the emails.
02:25:11
◼
►
"I'm like, here's whatever."
02:25:12
◼
►
Basically let him think,
02:25:14
◼
►
there are other places where I could go for this car
02:25:16
◼
►
even though I would never buy the blue one, right?
02:25:19
◼
►
And so-- - You got a white car.
02:25:21
◼
►
- Anyway, I got within $100 of the price.
02:25:22
◼
►
- Oh my God, he got a white car.
02:25:23
◼
►
- Very proud of myself.
02:25:24
◼
►
He's going through the thing,
02:25:25
◼
►
"Okay, we agreed on this price."
02:25:27
◼
►
And then obviously tax title and blah, blah, blah.
02:25:30
◼
►
That's the thing about the car,
02:25:31
◼
►
I just think they don't include tax title
02:25:32
◼
►
or whatever in the fair price.
02:25:34
◼
►
We agree on the price.
02:25:35
◼
►
And then he says, "And then of course $129
02:25:37
◼
►
"for the locking wheel nuts."
02:25:39
◼
►
- I'm sorry, what?
02:25:40
◼
►
No, absolutely not. - The locking wheel nuts.
02:25:43
◼
►
And I said, "I don't want locking wheel nuts."
02:25:45
◼
►
He's like, "Well, they're already on the car."
02:25:47
◼
►
- Well, take 'em off.
02:25:48
◼
►
- I said, "Yeah, well, why don't you take 'em off?"
02:25:49
◼
►
I was like, "Well, but they're already on the car."
02:25:50
◼
►
I was like, "I'm sorry, no."
02:25:52
◼
►
And I was like, everything was going so smoothly.
02:25:54
◼
►
And I basically got into a shouting match with this guy.
02:25:56
◼
►
I was like, "Look, when we agreed upon this price,
02:25:58
◼
►
"when we agreed this is gonna be the price
02:26:00
◼
►
"before tax title and fees,
02:26:02
◼
►
"it was the price for the car that's sitting out there.
02:26:04
◼
►
"Whatever's on that car,
02:26:06
◼
►
"that was what we were negotiating, this number.
02:26:09
◼
►
"We weren't negotiating this number plus other things."
02:26:11
◼
►
And he takes me out to the car and he's like,
02:26:12
◼
►
"On the sticker it has $129 locking wheel nuts
02:26:15
◼
►
"as a separate line item."
02:26:16
◼
►
I was like, "I don't care.
02:26:17
◼
►
"We were negotiating for that car,
02:26:20
◼
►
"everything that that car is.
02:26:22
◼
►
"Not parts of that car, not partial,
02:26:25
◼
►
"that car and that was this number."
02:26:26
◼
►
And then we would add tax titles and fees.
02:26:27
◼
►
And so I'd never gotten so angry at a car.
02:26:30
◼
►
Anyway, he went back to his manager and took the $129 off.
02:26:35
◼
►
- Damn right he did, good for you, John.
02:26:36
◼
►
- And he made some big excuse of like,
02:26:38
◼
►
"Oh, we can't take it off the price,
02:26:39
◼
►
"but we'll just subtract it."
02:26:40
◼
►
I was like, "I don't care what you subtract it, dude.
02:26:41
◼
►
"Just subtract it."
02:26:43
◼
►
Oh, and then by the way, the incentives of like,
02:26:46
◼
►
"Is there any incentives?
02:26:47
◼
►
"Can we do any blah, blah, blah, blah?"
02:26:48
◼
►
The one incentive that we were eligible for
02:26:50
◼
►
was the Honda loyalty program thing.
02:26:53
◼
►
And yes, now you're revealing everything about it.
02:26:56
◼
►
We are loyal Honda customers.
02:26:58
◼
►
And I got another $500 off
02:27:01
◼
►
just because I already own a Honda.
02:27:03
◼
►
- Oh, good for you.
02:27:04
◼
►
Would you buy a Civic?
02:27:05
◼
►
- As you should have already guessed by now,
02:27:07
◼
►
what is the only car that could possibly be?
02:27:09
◼
►
It is the Honda Civic in the most expensive trim level
02:27:13
◼
►
the Honda Civic is offered in,
02:27:14
◼
►
because that is the only one that has wireless carplay
02:27:17
◼
►
with other seats and heated seats.
02:27:18
◼
►
- Oh my God.
02:27:19
◼
►
- And a stick shift and a sunroof.
02:27:22
◼
►
- I cannot believe you just bought yourself a white,
02:27:24
◼
►
well, bought Tina a white Civic.
02:27:25
◼
►
This line in the show, in our internal show notes,
02:27:31
◼
►
kid car revisited, that has sat there for like two weeks.
02:27:34
◼
►
If I had known that this was the direction
02:27:36
◼
►
this conversation was going,
02:27:38
◼
►
we wouldn't have even done the-
02:27:39
◼
►
- This happened this week.
02:27:40
◼
►
- We should have done an emergency episode, dammit.
02:27:42
◼
►
- I picked up the car today.
02:27:45
◼
►
- Wait, so is it a Civic SI or a Civic Civic?
02:27:47
◼
►
- No, we looked at the SI, but it wasn't the specs,
02:27:50
◼
►
the requirements that I just gave you
02:27:52
◼
►
are not available in the SI.
02:27:54
◼
►
And also the SI is more expensive.
02:27:55
◼
►
We could have saved $5,000 if she didn't want heated seats.
02:27:59
◼
►
We could have got the sport trim.
02:28:02
◼
►
- Heated seats are really, really good.
02:28:04
◼
►
- $5,000, these are $5,000 heated seats.
02:28:06
◼
►
- Especially 'cause you live in New England,
02:28:08
◼
►
winter is a big part of your life.
02:28:09
◼
►
- My car doesn't have heated seats, I think it's fine,
02:28:11
◼
►
but she wants them, so she can.
02:28:13
◼
►
- After this, she deserves the heated seats, dammit.
02:28:17
◼
►
- Oh, and this is a turbocharged car.
02:28:18
◼
►
I don't think you've owned a turbocharged car.
02:28:19
◼
►
- I mean, they're all turbos now, you know.
02:28:22
◼
►
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just saying.
02:28:23
◼
►
- We've got a white Honda Civic hatchback.
02:28:26
◼
►
- A hatch? You got a hatch?
02:28:28
◼
►
- The hatchback and sedan looks so similar in the Civic.
02:28:31
◼
►
And I wanted a hatchback because we don't have a hatchback.
02:28:34
◼
►
And as you know, as Marco knows,
02:28:35
◼
►
hatchbacks have a lot of utility.
02:28:37
◼
►
- I'm sorry, am I making this up?
02:28:39
◼
►
Didn't you give me boatloads of crap
02:28:41
◼
►
for not having a car-shaped car?
02:28:43
◼
►
- Yeah, I don't want a Volkswagen Rabbit or a Golf.
02:28:45
◼
►
I don't want that kind of hatchback.
02:28:46
◼
►
Look at the car, it looks exactly like the sedan.
02:28:49
◼
►
It's just like, it's barely different in profile.
02:28:52
◼
►
It looks like a sedan.
02:28:53
◼
►
That's why I got it.
02:28:54
◼
►
- This looks a lot like Tracy's car.
02:28:57
◼
►
- Yeah, it sure does.
02:28:58
◼
►
- And why did I pick white?
02:28:59
◼
►
- It's the best color for this car.
02:29:01
◼
►
- Well, absolutely.
02:29:02
◼
►
The S-I also, not the S-I, the Civic Type R,
02:29:06
◼
►
also looks best in white.
02:29:08
◼
►
- I don't even see white as an option here.
02:29:10
◼
►
Oh, no, there I do, nevermind.
02:29:11
◼
►
Sorry, I have the, what is it, Noir or whatever it is,
02:29:14
◼
►
that darkens, that synthetically darkens websites.
02:29:17
◼
►
And so I had that on.
02:29:18
◼
►
And the white paint swatch was colored black
02:29:21
◼
►
because dark mode, by mistake.
02:29:23
◼
►
This doesn't look bad, this looks nice.
02:29:26
◼
►
- Yeah, so people wondering, you know,
02:29:28
◼
►
our recommendations for buying cars
02:29:29
◼
►
and the services we offer and the advice we have,
02:29:31
◼
►
I just followed all that and this is what I ended up with.
02:29:34
◼
►
So can't say we don't put our money where our mouth is.
02:29:36
◼
►
- So a white car, a white hatchback happened to you.
02:29:39
◼
►
- No, I intended, I wanted the hatchback.
02:29:41
◼
►
I absolutely wanted it because it's useful
02:29:44
◼
►
to have something with a hatch for like taller items.
02:29:47
◼
►
- Especially since this is obviously,
02:29:48
◼
►
smaller than the Accord, right?
02:29:49
◼
►
And so I'm gonna get a small, like if the sedan version,
02:29:52
◼
►
if this, the trunk is very confined,
02:29:55
◼
►
the opening is confined, it is very confined,
02:29:57
◼
►
the hatch really helps with that.
02:29:59
◼
►
It gives you way more space than you get
02:30:02
◼
►
with the sedan version.
02:30:03
◼
►
And it looks almost like the sedan.
02:30:04
◼
►
So all my, you know, hatred of hatchbacks
02:30:08
◼
►
that look like a Volkswagen Rabbit,
02:30:09
◼
►
doesn't apply to this car.
02:30:11
◼
►
Who knows if I'll ever get to drive it anyway,
02:30:13
◼
►
it's my wife's car.
02:30:13
◼
►
So anyway, the kids are driving her old car,
02:30:16
◼
►
as they have always been.
02:30:17
◼
►
They have always been driving that car.
02:30:19
◼
►
And they will continue to drive it.
02:30:20
◼
►
And now we have three stick shift cars.
02:30:21
◼
►
And just to review, my history of car purchases,
02:30:26
◼
►
go like this, Civic, Civic, Accord, Accord,
02:30:29
◼
►
Accord, Accord, Civic.
02:30:30
◼
►
All stick shift.
02:30:32
◼
►
- You're pretty consistent at least.
02:30:34
◼
►
- You are consistent, which is funny
02:30:35
◼
►
because I have never bought more than one car
02:30:39
◼
►
from the same company.
02:30:41
◼
►
- And I have never bought cars from any other company
02:30:43
◼
►
except for Honda.
02:30:44
◼
►
- Did you even look at like a GTI or anything like that?
02:30:47
◼
►
- We like Hondas.
02:30:48
◼
►
We like them.
02:30:49
◼
►
- Yeah, but it doesn't mean that there's not
02:30:51
◼
►
other better things, Jon.
02:30:52
◼
►
- We looked at other things.
02:30:53
◼
►
It's just, I mean, we're a Honda family
02:30:56
◼
►
and we got $500 off for being a Honda family.
02:30:59
◼
►
- I mean, they are good cars.
02:31:00
◼
►
Like I'll give you that.
02:31:01
◼
►
- And even things like they haven't screwed themselves up.
02:31:03
◼
►
Like they haven't gone like all touch screen
02:31:05
◼
►
or done anything weird.
02:31:06
◼
►
The interior is the, I think, my favorite mix
02:31:09
◼
►
of physical and touch screen type controls.
02:31:13
◼
►
- The real question is, are you going to,
02:31:15
◼
►
for your future car purchases, convert to hatchback
02:31:18
◼
►
once you realize how good it is?
02:31:20
◼
►
- No, hopefully I'm gonna convert to EV.
02:31:22
◼
►
That's what's gonna happen to me, but not anytime soon.
02:31:25
◼
►
- But you just crapped all over every EV on the market.
02:31:27
◼
►
- I know, but eventually all the EVs will change to NACS
02:31:30
◼
►
and there'll be EV sedans that I like.
02:31:32
◼
►
Like this is gonna be years in the future.
02:31:35
◼
►
- Yeah, this is, congratulations to really Tina
02:31:37
◼
►
for getting what she wanted because I cannot imagine
02:31:42
◼
►
the amount of bickering and grief that you gave her
02:31:46
◼
►
over heated seats and most especially a sunroof.
02:31:48
◼
►
- No, no, I just tried to convince her
02:31:50
◼
►
and she didn't want to be convinced.
02:31:51
◼
►
So there was no heated arguments.
02:31:54
◼
►
I just needed to sit in it and be able to say,
02:31:56
◼
►
I can tolerate this.
02:31:57
◼
►
I can passenge and not die.
02:31:59
◼
►
- It's a glowing roofie.
02:32:01
◼
►
- Yeah, 'cause like the Integra, I was really surprised.
02:32:03
◼
►
The Integra was worse.
02:32:04
◼
►
It did feel like they're basically the same car.
02:32:06
◼
►
Like that's why it was part of the reason
02:32:08
◼
►
I was showing her the Integra.
02:32:09
◼
►
She's like, why can't I get a fancy car like Integra?
02:32:11
◼
►
I'm like, A, the good one is $50,000 and B,
02:32:13
◼
►
this is just a Civic.
02:32:14
◼
►
When you see the Civic, you'd be like, oh.
02:32:15
◼
►
Like you sit inside them, they're very, very similar.
02:32:18
◼
►
And by the way, finding sticks of Integra
02:32:21
◼
►
is talking to the dealer over there is also very difficult.
02:32:24
◼
►
The packaging is better on the Civic.
02:32:25
◼
►
Civic is just a better car than the Integra
02:32:27
◼
►
unless you get the Type S and those are very expensive
02:32:29
◼
►
and don't exist.
02:32:30
◼
►
- The Integra Type S you mean or the--
02:32:32
◼
►
- Yeah, the Integra Type S.
02:32:34
◼
►
They're very hard, very hard to come by
02:32:35
◼
►
and they're very expensive,
02:32:36
◼
►
much more than we wanted to spend.
02:32:37
◼
►
- Well, I'm very curious, again, congratulations.
02:32:40
◼
►
You've done this well, you've done it right.
02:32:42
◼
►
I'm proud of you for sticking to your guns
02:32:45
◼
►
about the locking wheel, lug, whatever things.
02:32:48
◼
►
You know, it's funny, when we bought the Volvo,
02:32:50
◼
►
I'm sure I've told the story,
02:32:51
◼
►
but when we bought the Volvo, I told the dealer,
02:32:53
◼
►
I do not want any stickers on that car.
02:32:55
◼
►
I do not want a plate surround.
02:32:57
◼
►
- I totally forgot.
02:32:59
◼
►
I do that same thing and I totally,
02:33:00
◼
►
after we came home from the dealer,
02:33:02
◼
►
after negotiating the price and say we're gonna buy it,
02:33:04
◼
►
I'm like, I forgot to tell them
02:33:06
◼
►
all those things you just said.
02:33:07
◼
►
No sticker, no plaque, no dealer branding.
02:33:11
◼
►
- Yep, yep. - Whatever, whatever.
02:33:12
◼
►
I was like, oh, stupid me.
02:33:14
◼
►
I buy a car once every seven to 10 years,
02:33:17
◼
►
but I totally forgot, I was so mad at myself.
02:33:20
◼
►
- Yeah, well, so when we bought the Volvo,
02:33:22
◼
►
which was seven years ago and a week or something like that,
02:33:26
◼
►
I think it was July, so a few weeks, July of 2017.
02:33:29
◼
►
Anyways, I vividly remember going to the car
02:33:32
◼
►
and saying, oh, the sticker's there.
02:33:35
◼
►
And the salesperson looked at me like, yeah?
02:33:38
◼
►
We're not gonna buy this car.
02:33:39
◼
►
And he's like, what?
02:33:41
◼
►
I told you I will not have the sticker on this car.
02:33:44
◼
►
And he rolled his eyes so hard
02:33:46
◼
►
that I think they fell out of his damn head.
02:33:48
◼
►
But then he had a mechanic or who knows or detail
02:33:51
◼
►
or whatever come over with a heat gun
02:33:53
◼
►
and pull the sticker off the car
02:33:55
◼
►
and I was not going to sign any paperwork until he did
02:33:58
◼
►
and I stand by it and I will stand by it forever.
02:34:00
◼
►
- That's pretty nice of him
02:34:01
◼
►
considering you'd already agreed to buy that car
02:34:03
◼
►
and signed all the paperwork for it.
02:34:04
◼
►
- No, I don't think I had signed it at that point.
02:34:05
◼
►
I think I was just looking at it.
02:34:06
◼
►
- If you hadn't signed it,
02:34:07
◼
►
then yes, you have the power there, but yeah.
02:34:08
◼
►
But the good news is,
02:34:09
◼
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because even though I totally forgot about this,
02:34:11
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this dealer was great.
02:34:12
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Not only did they not put anything on this car,
02:34:14
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he pointed out to me, I noticed this already,
02:34:16
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but he pointed out to my salesperson,
02:34:17
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pointed out to me,
02:34:19
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I didn't even put a license plate surround on for you.
02:34:22
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- Like, thank you.
02:34:23
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- That's good stuff.
02:34:24
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- It's just literally, I've never seen this.
02:34:26
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Everyone always does license,
02:34:27
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it's easy to take that off, you're just unscrewed or whatever,
02:34:28
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but then he didn't even put that on
02:34:29
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and he pointed it out to me
02:34:30
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because he could tell, based on me yelling at him
02:34:34
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about the lug nuts, that I didn't want that.
02:34:35
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I was like, thank you, I appreciate that.
02:34:37
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- Is Massachusetts a barbaric Commonwealth like we are?
02:34:40
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- Front plate states, it is.
02:34:44
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- I hate it, I hate it so much.
02:34:46
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Virginia is a front plate barbaric Commonwealth.
02:34:49
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- I don't think it's barbaric, I think it's fine,
02:34:51
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but I've got the front plates.
02:34:54
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- Well, congratulations to Tina.
02:34:55
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I'm glad she stuck to her guns and got what she wanted.
02:34:57
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See, she did the negotiation with you,
02:34:58
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so you would do the negotiation with the dealer.
02:35:00
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She doesn't deal with the dealer, she just watches me do it.
02:35:02
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I think she was a little bit upset when I was yelling.
02:35:04
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And by the way, all of our cars have locking lug nuts,
02:35:06
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it's just that I'd never wanna pay for them
02:35:08
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because I didn't ask for them.
02:35:09
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So if you're gonna put them on there,
02:35:10
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I'm getting them for free.
02:35:11
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- I have to concede, I am a little upset at Tina
02:35:15
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because I would have given infinite dollars
02:35:18
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to have a video recording of you yelling at this dealer
02:35:22
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and would have given nearly infinite dollars
02:35:24
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for a voice memos recording of you yelling at the dealer.
02:35:26
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- As listeners to this podcast would know,
02:35:28
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it's not angry yelling, it's incredulous yelling.
02:35:31
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Like when you hear me on the podcast
02:35:32
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talking about some bad soccer feature, it's like, no.
02:35:34
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I was like, we just negotiated the price for that,
02:35:38
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I was literally pointing, for that car.
02:35:40
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That's the number we agreed on.
02:35:41
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Remember that whole thing where we were talking
02:35:43
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about the numbers and you're going to ask your manager
02:35:44
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or whatever and we agreed on a number,
02:35:45
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we said yes, this is the number we can both agree.
02:35:46
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It was for that car.
02:35:48
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Everything that's in that car,
02:35:49
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that's the number we agreed on.
02:35:51
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I was incredulous, I'm like, are you kidding me?
02:35:53
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You can't say, and also, other parts of that car
02:35:57
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we're now going to itemize and add to the price.
02:35:59
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So I was, I mean, would I have not bought the car
02:36:02
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with the 100, at that point I probably would have,
02:36:04
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oh, here's the final kicker, right?
02:36:06
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When I came home and like reloaded one of my tabs
02:36:09
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that had that search in it, zero matches.
02:36:12
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So guess what, that car that was listed twice,
02:36:15
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there was one of these cars.
02:36:17
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500 miles and I just bought it
02:36:20
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because you could say Impulse bought it.
02:36:22
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After a month of research, I saw that it was available.
02:36:25
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I saw it had been on the market for 29 days
02:36:27
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and I found the one that was,
02:36:29
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and I was lucky, we picked,
02:36:30
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they both said they had the car
02:36:32
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but only one of them really had the car
02:36:34
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and we randomly picked that one
02:36:35
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because it was close to my wife's work.
02:36:38
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- That's incredible.
02:36:39
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- And so when I bought that car, it disappeared.
02:36:40
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Now there's zero of these cars within 500 miles.
02:36:43
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- That's incredible.
02:36:44
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I'm a little sad that we didn't get to do
02:36:46
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a road trip together but ultimately I'm glad
02:36:48
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that a white car in a white hatchback happened to you.
02:36:50
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- I was ready to ship a car from New Mexico in CarMax
02:36:54
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but you know, 'cause it was like,
02:36:56
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ooh, rest free, it'll be great.
02:36:57
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(door opening)