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561: International Intrigue

 

00:00:00   from relay this is upgrade episode 561 for april 28th 2025 today's show is brought to you by fitbod

00:00:17   and vitally my name is mike hurley i'm joined by jason snell hi jason snell from my garage this

00:00:24   is jason snell brought to you this week by tea like like every week i would say i just wanted to start

00:00:31   off the show by saying thank you for all the nice messages people who wrote and to tell me

00:00:34   that they're happy that i'm back and i thought it was very sweet but we don't have time for all that

00:00:39   i have a snow talk question for you and it comes from patel who wants to know

00:00:42   have either of you used a waymo before if you haven't would you be interested in it

00:00:49   um waymo for those who don't know is a uh self-driving uh taxi and they are everywhere

00:00:57   in san francisco i'll tell you that they are everywhere in san francisco uh i think that's

00:01:02   somebody else no no i think i think they are in phoenix too um my mom lives so far outside their

00:01:09   range that it's not an option there okay um and you know i don't live in san francisco and so when i

00:01:15   drive in san francisco we just went to a giants game on saturday and you know you can't you can't

00:01:19   see you know can't go through san francisco without seeing a waymo it's funny um lauren and i were

00:01:24   talking about how obviously these waymos are pretty good because they have to deal with the worst uh

00:01:33   because in san francisco i mean you've got people who don't know not only is it just regular city

00:01:37   driving but you've got a lot of people who are not from san francisco with like tourists or people

00:01:41   from the outlying area who've come into the city and they don't know where they're going or what

00:01:45   they're doing we had people going across like multiple lanes to like oh i'm in the far right

00:01:51   lane but i need to go to fisher and swarth so i need to be in the left lane and then they're making

00:01:54   this diagonal and and as we watch one of those bad drivers uh lauren said well you know the waymos

00:01:59   handle it and they and they do the waymos handle it i feel like san francisco is an interesting

00:02:05   test bird because i think it might be a like a relative an interesting rarity in a city of its

00:02:12   like connectedness i think people want to drive there because it's like exciting to drive in san

00:02:18   francisco in certain parts of it where the hills are where you might not otherwise drive if you're a

00:02:23   tourist i don't know i don't know i don't recommend it but uh but uh the answer is no i would love to try

00:02:30   it sometime but that would require me to be somewhere in the city wanting to go somewhere

00:02:34   else in the city and generally since i don't live in the city i and i i am not like that i'm going to

00:02:40   a giants game um midweek in a few weeks and i wonder if i might get off the bus a little early or something

00:02:46   and then take a you should do that take you should do it for the show just do it for the show about it

00:02:51   so i'll i'll look at that i've also thought about um i thought about in phoenix like taking a waymo as

00:02:57   far as it'll go and then like calling a a lift to take me the rest of the way or something but um haven't

00:03:05   done that either so uh yeah i anyway that's i i would be interested in it um i've seen them in action from

00:03:10   the outside they seem like they know what they're doing right like they they are and and honestly

00:03:16   they would be stuck at turns forever if they didn't like drive like a normal person like they

00:03:23   can't be super tentative um and i've seen them around the ballpark after a game and they they seem

00:03:29   to figure it out so i don't know how they're doing it obviously you know please don't write in to tell

00:03:34   me about the one time one got lost somewhere like of course this happened oh yeah yeah yeah but yeah

00:03:38   there are things that have happened it's a system generally generally it has been a positive thing

00:03:44   even the horror stories there are very few of them and most of them involve people um like standing in

00:03:51   front of a waymo uh that was that was an infamous one to block a because somebody was asking somebody

00:03:55   for a date it was really gross and uh very bad uh but she pressed the button and to like alert waymo

00:04:01   that there was a problem and there's the legendary story that i know i've mentioned probably on this

00:04:07   podcast about the parking lot we used to use for giants games that became the parking lot that was being

00:04:11   live stream and at two in the morning the waymos were all honking at each other yes um i i'm happy

00:04:16   to report that's a it's a parking lot again i parked there for giants games again so the waymo

00:04:20   parking experiment on second street in san francisco in front of the webcam seems to be over yeah yeah

00:04:27   they seem pretty bad for them pl wise i think that was a bad place where there's an apartment building

00:04:32   uh looking down on them that can live stream the waymo so they're they're out of there but anyway i would

00:04:36   love to try it sometime i'm interested in it i think um it's hard not to drive around san francisco and

00:04:42   think that maybe this is the future that um whether all cars get replaced by self-driving things you know

00:04:49   is a debate that will play out over many years but the idea that you could just have free roaming

00:04:56   taxis that drive themselves and it is something you know you pull up next one there's nobody driving it

00:05:03   like there's nobody in there except the passenger or if it doesn't have a passenger there's literally

00:05:07   nobody in the car it's just doing things it's pretty wild but um it's just it's becoming it's

00:05:14   becoming routine and that's what i've heard from people who have taken the waymos is the first time

00:05:18   you do it it's amazing and you're like whoa this is so futuristic the fifth time you do it it's just

00:05:23   a cab ride that's it yeah somebody who relies on public transport to the level that i do i have no

00:05:30   problem with the idea of getting in a car driven by a computer because i why do i have faith in anything

00:05:38   that drives me or moves me around from place to place you know like it's it is either a human or it's

00:05:44   a system or like whatever yeah i've never been in a waymo but i would totally do it i would totally do

00:05:49   it yeah if you would like to send in a question of your own to help us open a future episode of the

00:05:55   show please go to upgradefeedback.com and send in your own snell talk i have a follow-up i am jason

00:06:01   we've spoken about nest in the past we were uh-huh this is in the context of them not adding matter

00:06:09   support to some of their older thermostats um they have announced this week that the first

00:06:14   and second generation nest thermostats are going to lose access to most of their connected features

00:06:19   including the app in october of this year um the thermostat will still act as a thermostat in your

00:06:26   home but you won't be able to do any of the smart stuff with it except anything you can do on the

00:06:31   screen itself i think i think they're doing a decent thing and they're giving a really good discount to

00:06:37   customers in the u.s to upgrade their thermostats to a newer model the problem for me which is why i'm

00:06:42   mentioning this they are no longer going to be bringing any products to europe so i have a second

00:06:51   gen nest thermostat in my home it was there when we moved in so i was like great uh we use the app so

00:06:59   this is really i'm sure that you have some stuff to say in a minute but i just want to say if if

00:07:05   listeners have recommendations for a smart thermostat in the uk please write into the feedback form and let

00:07:12   you know um upgrade feedback dot com because i need to do something about this yeah so i guess i guess

00:07:20   the question i have and i don't know if people have an answer in the various forums and all that would be

00:07:25   i i wonder what form this kind of bricking will take um because if it's still on your local network

00:07:34   could you control it with home bridge or similar right those tools that let you connect the nest to

00:07:43   home kit will those still work or do those also require api access that's a great question yeah also

00:07:49   this just sucks google you know google sucks they they cancel all these products that people rely on

00:07:56   they use their i mean we complain about apple sort of lack being very lackadaisical about some of the

00:08:01   products that they roll out but this is the worst they just roll things out they they buy things they

00:08:06   kill whole categories where people have to compete with this giant company google and then they just

00:08:10   toss it off and say forget it by the way you you were incorrect in saying they weren't going to do matter

00:08:16   support on old products they they weren't going to bring matter support to their currently shipping

00:08:20   premium thermostat and when they when they made that announcement it's like we're not going to bother

00:08:25   which is just amazing they do have i think some new stuff now it's not as good as the old stuff they've kind of

00:08:30   decontented the nest and it's just like a crappy round thermostat there are other options i'm sure

00:08:36   that there will be something good in the uk uh i used a nest for a long time um before i i dumped it

00:08:42   for an ecobee which i had for like nine months and then got a new hvac system that can't use third-party

00:08:47   thermostats so i'm out of this business now but it just i i appreciate that they're giving people on a

00:08:52   discount but like they're not and they're not bricking the thermostat really right it will still work as a

00:08:59   thermostat and you could still presumably program it on the device you can do that it's not great

00:09:05   but it's really disappointing that they uh that they've that they've done this and what really bugs

00:09:12   me and i think it's a really important note is the attitude i think the verge wrote a story about this

00:09:17   where the attitude is very much like um these thermostats have been around for 10 12 years which

00:09:23   is a pretty good run for a tech product and i thought yeah but not for a thermostat like not for

00:09:29   a home product home product you know those tech products that are that are thermostats thermostats

00:09:34   should last forever right and that's the problem is if if you have to replace something that's in your

00:09:41   home every five years because it becomes obsolete the smart home thing is not going to work like

00:09:47   there there needs to be an expectation of more longevity for this stuff and you know it's not

00:09:52   like google can't afford to keep the servers up that's the other galling thing here is that they're

00:09:56   like they're not getting any more money out of those people so they're just going to kiss them off

00:10:00   i mean they could i'm sure charge for it they could have a separate technology stack that is a legacy

00:10:05   technology stack right that is maintained that just operates the old stuff if they want to stuff

00:10:11   obviously don't want to do that they don't want to they could why should they bother right they could

00:10:14   what do they care they work now so like obviously the reason they're not going to work is they want

00:10:20   to do something right or they just they want to change something on their systems that would

00:10:24   necessitate the killing of these products but that means that there is a system that exists

00:10:29   that could support these products if they decided they wanted to do that but look i i i want to have a

00:10:36   thermostat that integrates into the home app and i'm hoping that this will be an opportunity for me to

00:10:41   make that switch and they're just going to push me to do it there's a company called hive in the uk

00:10:46   which has seemed to be backed by british gas and i think that they do what i'm looking for which is

00:10:52   a decent enough thermostat that i believe they say has home kit access and support but the documentation

00:10:59   i'm is a little shaky like i can't really seem to verify it so that's kind of why

00:11:05   i i'm i know if anybody out there knows it's going to be the upgrading so i want some

00:11:10   recommendations is your heat like boiler boiler and radiator kind of stuff yeah yeah okay so it's a it's

00:11:18   we have a combi boiler yeah it's appreciably different from how most americans heat their

00:11:23   houses so it's an issue but um it just if what look here's what i'll say though about this too right

00:11:28   look i just think that to me this suggests that maybe this isn't a good product to invest in in

00:11:35   your home no matter where you live because google's decided that they can't be bothered to support an

00:11:40   entire continent of customers which is quite a lot of people um and so it it would suggest to me that

00:11:48   they're not serious about this product category because they have done it it's not impossible they did it

00:11:55   for many years so they just don't want to do it anymore with their new products and that that would

00:12:01   indicate to me a lack of seriousness so my only hope is that there is going to be the right way to do this

00:12:09   if you're google and you're killing these products the right way to do this is to park it in a state and

00:12:15   i've heard about this from from some other companies that they've talked about this that like if the

00:12:19   worst happens it won't be a brick if the worst happens you can have it in a state where it doesn't need

00:12:25   to phone home like um my metric time that is my little clock that i have under the tv um they

00:12:30   finally put in a feature that is like a local um local plug-in local data source kind of thing

00:12:36   and that made me feel better because if those those people go out of business their device now has a mode

00:12:42   where basically i can feed it data from my server and they don't need to be involved so the right thing

00:12:48   for for google to do is place those nests in some sort of a state where they're on the network locally

00:12:54   and things like homebridge plugins and things like that will work with them i my fear is that everything

00:13:01   is going through their authentication api and once it's turned off they just won't work anymore it doesn't

00:13:06   matter and that that's a shame right because you should be able to let people kind of like keep those things

00:13:11   alive and functioning even if you're not using the actual nest uh app anymore so uh yeah it's a real

00:13:18   bummer by the way as an aside because i'm going to use the power of upgrade here i still have my my ecobee

00:13:24   smart thermostat premium uh it's sitting in a drawer if somebody would like me to make it would like to

00:13:30   make a decent offer for me to send it to them you'll you won't just be using an ecobee thermostat premium

00:13:36   with two sensors you'll be using mine oh i'm turning into marco here i'll sign it for you

00:13:42   if you want like i don't care i just uh i realized i should probably sell that and i don't make me go

00:13:47   to ebay people anyway find a way to get in contact to jason directly do not send these requests to the

00:13:51   upgrade feedback no don't do that no don't send it to the feedback form find jason and offer it to him

00:13:57   i don't want 25 different requests to field in the feedback form uh this is part of the the i don't

00:14:05   know the game here is you've got to find jason and contact him and then you can get to get the what is

00:14:10   an ecobee ecobee premium yeah it's good it's a good thermostat i just can't use it anymore that's another

00:14:15   company that does interesting products but they don't make versions uh outside of the u.s but never

00:14:21   mind yeah well you know google google especially it's like it's not a really an international

00:14:25   company yeah it's true it's really very very just just very small local california company

00:14:32   it's time to lawyer up jason snell clunk clunk thank you uh it's happened the time has come

00:14:40   apple and meta are the first two companies to be hit with fines in relation to the dma from the

00:14:47   european union the digital markets act uh meta has been fined 200 million euros this is uh for as much

00:14:53   as i can understand it because it's all very confusing to me on a red ad maybe i don't track

00:14:58   meta enough closely but it seems like in europe they offer a product i think where you can pay meta and

00:15:04   you don't have to see ads in facebook or instagram um but the eu is unhappy about that like they want

00:15:11   there to be a middle ground where you give more limited private information um honestly i can't see

00:15:18   what the problem is here but maybe what bugs me about it is that it seems to be that they set

00:15:23   lay down some rules and meta said okay we'll build this product we don't want to build and then the ec is

00:15:29   like actually we want you to build it differently which i'm sorry this is one of the things that really

00:15:34   does set me off about some of this ec regulation is they're basically telling companies uh they're

00:15:40   dictating products for companies to build in order to be compliant um instead of saying here what the

00:15:47   rules are follow the rules because they're like oh we didn't mean it like that well make your rules

00:15:50   better then but stop designing yes new versions of facebook for facebook to implement for you

00:15:56   it's bananas i think it's incredible that they built it i think it's actually an interesting idea i think

00:16:01   it's also maybe not a bad business for for matter if they can get it right you know like everybody you

00:16:05   know so many companies and have like pay or get ads but the idea that they're like no we actually meant

00:16:11   uh we want you to make your advertising this effect no i don't agree with this but anyway it's amazing

00:16:17   uh they also find apple 500 million euros and for apple we're back to anti-steering rules uh so the

00:16:25   european commission does not like the way that apple has set up alternative app stores for all of the

00:16:30   reasons that i guess we don't like how they set up alternative app stores uh the core technology fee

00:16:35   is being considered a it's a key sticking point of theirs because it makes developers it disincentivizes

00:16:41   uh developers to go down this route because they're worried they could get i don't know like

00:16:46   absolutely obliterated financially and it also adds complexity or additional cost to customers because

00:16:52   apps that could be free that have to charge to make sure that they can cover the fees this is we see this

00:16:59   in all sorts of spots um the ec also believes that the eligibility requirements for alternative

00:17:05   distribution are too strict and that the method of installing alternative app stores is considered

00:17:11   too complicated and burdensome i don't disagree with any of this uh i really like these points that

00:17:18   there are many more but like these are kind of the key points and these were all of the things that

00:17:22   i mean me and you focused on for months uh seeing that's going to be a problem

00:17:26   so apple's response to this they did the typical i'm outraged outraged by the believe this but one of

00:17:35   the things that they mentioned and this is going to keep coming up and i remember when we hit on this a

00:17:39   few years ago they're going to say the the ec wants us to give things to people for free that's what

00:17:45   what they're going to say what they mean is apple's defense of them keeping as much revenue as possible in

00:17:54   their platform is that it's a proxy for uh paying for developer tools now i would argue that that's a lie

00:18:05   that it's never been a proxy and it's just a sort of a legal fig leaf that they're trying to put over

00:18:12   this but that's their argument is we provide apis and developer tools for developers and we should be

00:18:18   compensated for that in some way now i i'm open to that argument although i do not have a lot of

00:18:25   patience for it i feel like apple's benefit is that they have a strong platform and they can sell a lot of

00:18:30   phones for a lot of money and make huge profits and that taking you know charging for developer tools

00:18:36   is not you know if they want to do that i guess they could charge up front or something but like

00:18:41   no they benefit from having this model because uh it creates a rich ecosystem that benefits them when

00:18:47   they sell all of their things also the ec isn't saying don't compete the ec is saying don't force all of

00:18:55   your app developers to hide the existence of the web from users and honestly again i am not a lawyer

00:19:05   i cannot uh go into the details of this but just as a person who understands how apple works i look at

00:19:12   this and i i would not i would not accept their argument either i would say you can compete all you

00:19:19   want but you cannot make developers pretend the web doesn't exist yeah and and and and say how dare you

00:19:27   you use anything and then when they finally build it they build it in such a limited way such a

00:19:35   non-functional way behind all of the scare alerts because again remember one of the the key things here

00:19:41   is danger danger danger you are going to a website gasp which is again just it that's not how people

00:19:51   are that's not how the world works it's it's bananas that apple thinks that oh iphone users don't use

00:19:58   like the internet or anything they're just inside the warm embrace of apple it's it's they make safari

00:20:04   it's wild so i have very little time for this um i understand apple sort of saying we want to be

00:20:09   compensated in some way but even then i kind of roll my eyes at that um and and yeah this is this is one

00:20:16   of the the truth is this is one of the easy ones this is one of the easy ones this anti-steering stuff

00:20:21   like apple apple is asking developers to say that the sky is green essentially it it it does not it does

00:20:29   not map to reality it's such an easy one to say no you know if you are an app developer and you've got a

00:20:34   website where people can log in and do things you can tell people about that and apple's like no no no no

00:20:38   no you can't you can't it's too dangerous to share that information with them because they might choose

00:20:44   something outside of our control it's like well they might they might not but like they might

00:20:49   just deal with it like it's it's the like um it's like a pretend competition is what they create

00:20:56   it's like we're going to allow you to compete with us but we're going to draw the rules of competition

00:21:00   in such a way that it's incredibly hard for you to win right like it's just like very very unfair

00:21:08   rules i mean we've been calling this for the whole time right uh yeah the the european commission

00:21:13   that says that apple has 60 days to comply with this new ruling uh and i guess i just say

00:21:19   what now then so this fine is large right 500 million euros is large but it's not as big as

00:21:26   it could have been they can that the european commission has the ability based on the rules

00:21:31   to to levy fines of up to 10 percent of global revenue for a year so i think it's something like

00:21:37   40 billion euros they could have asked for they've asked for half a billion which is still an incredible

00:21:42   amount of money but it's nowhere near as much so maybe they're leaving themselves some room

00:21:46   maybe they're a little bit nervous now i don't know what the situation is they've this is the

00:21:50   decision that they have made and they levied this fine if apple does not comply even those 60 days my

00:21:56   understanding is they can find them again and just keep doing it um i think the thing that has

00:22:01   potentially has changed is the u.s government now has an opinion uh under joe biden there was zero opinion

00:22:08   seemingly given about the dma stuff um it has been called an economic extortion that will not be

00:22:15   tolerated i don't know what that means nobody knows what that means but it has created a different

00:22:22   scenario uh i think than than where we find ourselves before there is it is a different scenario and there

00:22:29   is more stuff about this later on in the show about kind of like apple and the government but uh for

00:22:34   for right now i i don't really know where where we're gonna sit

00:22:38   yeah it's a saber rattling going on there i mean what are they gonna do more tariffs i mean

00:22:45   it's i don't know it i i think if if i were the ec i'd be like all right let's see what you got right

00:22:53   like because that's the kind of thing that gets that gets negotiated but what they're trying to do now

00:22:57   is just get them to tone it down or stop it and i don't think they will so uh i you know we'll just

00:23:04   have to keep our eye on it but um i neither of us are surprised that they looked at what apple did

00:23:10   with their very limited implementation and said no that's not good enough because it does feel very

00:23:17   much like apple was trying to adhere to the minimum possible by the letter of the law even though it

00:23:24   didn't actually fulfill the point of the law and so of course the ec was like no that's not good

00:23:31   enough so here we are but i think it does on the pin another point that we were talking about the whole

00:23:36   time of like there was a there was an easier way to do this there was a better way to do this and

00:23:42   nobody wanted to do it right like yeah we shouldn't have gotten this far that apple built this whole

00:23:47   system and then it's deemed to be uh illegal right there should have been something between

00:23:53   these two entities that got them to a point where they were happy with rather than this dance right

00:23:58   but i guess i guess that is wishful thinking that it's not how the world works but it's how i would

00:24:03   like the world to work takes takes two to dance right and and i would say yes we can be frustrated

00:24:09   that what the look if the ec puts down rules yeah and says follow these rules they get criticized for

00:24:17   not being not providing enough detail but if the ec gives all the detail they will get criticized for

00:24:22   creating forcing people to create products right which is what sort of happened with meta so and the

00:24:28   other side of it is there could be a give and take where apple says okay we're thinking of doing it this

00:24:32   way what do you think and you know clearly they don't like it right clearly they don't like it and

00:24:38   yes you're right there should have been a back and forth where they said if you implement this you will

00:24:41   be fined and for all we know there was but they're like you know what that probably go ahead and find

00:24:46   us yeah go ahead and find us they i have no doubt there's so much back channeling going on during a

00:24:50   scenario yes i what i mean i just wish that they could have been i wish that everyone could have taken

00:24:56   this and this is again it's unrealistic i just wish that in this scenario everybody went into it with an

00:25:01   open mind and like that everyone went into it and be like we can do something here that will benefit

00:25:05   our customers and us but obviously they're not going to do that but i just wished yeah i just wish

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00:27:35   of this show and relay rumor round up time yeehaw known leaker i wish there was a better phrase for

00:27:44   this uh i i searched for this last week and i ended up with purveyor of apple rumors yeah it's just like

00:27:52   i don't know what to say it's hard to like i don't this is just the the word right so i think i just have

00:27:57   to go for it but i just i it feels derogatory to the person but like like because why do we not call

00:28:03   mark german a leaker we don't do that but like i think leaker has become like this phrase which is

00:28:09   like used in youtube and stuff it's like cool anyway but uh my jimboo is reporting that ipad os 19

00:28:17   the ipad will gain a menu bar when it is connected to a magic keyboard and also shared that stage

00:28:25   manager improvements will be a big part of the ipad os 19 update saying that it will quote

00:28:30   make managing apps and windows smoother and more productive than ever what do you make of all of

00:28:37   this um well i this is the detail we did not get from mark german when he said hey it will be better

00:28:43   at productivity multitasking and window management like a mac like a mac the people will be happy i

00:28:49   think is the other part he said those people will be happy and that was all he got um but major boo

00:28:54   is here is to say yeah it's gonna be you know plug in and get a menu bar i will just point out because

00:29:00   it made me laugh when i saw this story because i thought oh i literally wrote this in 2021 yeah i said

00:29:07   look they got all the pieces because if you hold down the command key uh when you're using a an ipad with

00:29:11   a keyboard it brings up the the menu shortcuts and it's literally in some apps it's literally

00:29:18   organized by the mac menu because of catalyst uh you can build a whole menu bar in catalyst and it

00:29:25   also sort of shows up in this one view it is just a matter of will for apple to put that in as a feature

00:29:31   and john gruber wrote about this the other day and and i i agree wholeheartedly one of the greatest

00:29:37   innovations in the mac and one of the things that still makes the mac great is the menu

00:29:41   bar is the fact that all of your computer programs have unlike back when we had to like type in

00:29:47   things in commands back in the day like all of the features of your programs are in the menu bar

00:29:54   uh it lists them you can get them from there you can uh use that you can see the keyboard shortcuts that

00:30:01   you can use instead uh in the system you can assign keyboard shortcuts there's so much richness there

00:30:06   that you see any ipad app that is trying to be complicated you know complex powerful you see them

00:30:15   struggle with like how do i make sure that somewhere here in the ui this feature is exposed when on a mac

00:30:25   you just say put it in the menu bar and the problem is it's actually appreciably worse because a lot of

00:30:31   those contexts where it's in the ui are in very specific contexts where you would never it's like

00:30:36   where where is it whereas i can go up to the help menu and type a string on the mac and find that menu

00:30:42   bar command and where it lives and even run it right from there so i think this is a great idea and and on

00:30:48   top of that just more broadly you know we talk about stage manager we talked about ipad multitasking we've

00:30:55   talked about how one of the huge problems that apple faces is making an ipad os that is friendly

00:31:00   to people who just use it as a tab and they don't want to they don't want to accidentally drag a tab

00:31:05   out of safari and suddenly end up in split view they just want to use it the way they want to use it and

00:31:09   then there are the people who are like well no i kind of want it to be mac like it's like how in the

00:31:13   world do we do both well one of the ways is to detect when a keyboard or other device similar

00:31:19   is attached to the ipad and enter a different mode because then you've got a keyboard so probably

00:31:27   you want a different kind of interface you've got a keyboard and a trackpad you probably want something

00:31:31   different it it makes so much sense and all i can say so i wrote about that in 2021 all i can say is

00:31:37   the only reason we haven't gotten this is because of dogma within apple right it's apple saying no no no

00:31:44   that's a bridge too far and i will just say i i wrote that piece in 21 because in in uh 20 and 19

00:31:51   they started adding pointer support and they add and then they shipped a keyboard with a trackpad

00:31:57   and like the horse is out of the barn like all those arguments about like oh the ipad can't it's not

00:32:03   like that and all i it's like they sell a thing that makes the ipad a laptop now so embrace it just i

00:32:09   mean just you know just do it and make it good and i actually think this is great for people who don't

00:32:14   ever buy ipad pros and don't buy keyboards and stuff because it it walls that stuff off it's like you

00:32:20   want to use it like a laptop go ahead we've got a laptop mode now um so i think it's a good idea i

00:32:26   just again i thought it was a good idea four years ago too and i it's oh it's just i'd say it's baffling

00:32:32   but it's more like entirely expected for the ipad that there's a weird tug of war inside apple about

00:32:37   what the ipad should be and they build all they lay all the groundwork and then they just don't

00:32:42   they just don't do it for years afterward so um great sounds great this would have been a great

00:32:48   feature in 2022 it still might be but like they could have done this three years ago or two years

00:32:53   ago or last year why now i don't know i don't know yeah this kind of thing for me i know that this is

00:33:01   the problem with rumors right where i'm just like okay let's see because i i don't yeah i don't see

00:33:08   realistically how this makes any material change to the ipad experience like great there's a menu

00:33:15   bar now like i i don't then imagine that the majority of ipad app developers are going to make

00:33:22   significant changes that are applications that make them better like i i will you know i don't know say

00:33:30   google see a google gonna put stuff in the menu bar like no that's the worst example because google's a

00:33:35   terrible app developer but that's the point though in in general yeah well this is this is the thing is

00:33:41   it's all about execution it's all about how developers respond to it um we haven't even mentioned like

00:33:47   making managing apps and windows smoother and more productive like what is it it's all about the

00:33:54   details because we heard that about how many times have we heard this story right that's what it comes

00:33:58   down to is how many times have we heard this story and of course like i said when german's thing came

00:34:03   out what goes in those windows that you're managing what goes in them because that's the that's one of

00:34:08   the big problems with the ipad is the functionality uh of apps isn't there i had somebody ask me last week

00:34:15   what based on this story it's like what do i personally consider an impediment to doing

00:34:24   my work on an ipad and i always just come to like what would make me bring not bring my macbook pro with

00:34:32   me to arizona division my mom the answer is all the audio stuff we've talked about the inability for

00:34:38   multiple apps to you know run at the same time and access the audio subsystem recording all my podcast

00:34:42   stuff stuff stuff that keyboard shortcuts that are global so you could assign shortcuts anywhere and

00:34:50   use them anywhere um it's a clipboard manager or support for apps to do things like that in the

00:34:56   background uh the ability for apps like audio and video editors to run in the background and not be

00:35:01   killed or other apps that you've got like the the whole like not things that aren't killed in the

00:35:06   background or the ability to have multiple media streams playing at once and they just over

00:35:10   overlap each other like on the mac instead of pausing one thing while i'm doing another there's nothing

00:35:16   like watching a video and scrolling through a web page and the web page tries to play a video and

00:35:21   the video you're watching pauses and that happened to me last week so there's a lot of things that are

00:35:26   functional about ipad os so like they can they look i think a menu bar adding a menu bar is good there

00:35:32   are a lot of apps that will support it and they will in fact already support it and that that apple can lead

00:35:38   away there and that it will add some usability but there are you know it's not it's not going to cure

00:35:44   it right there's a lot that needs to happen uh and a lot of that is on apple because like if if the os

00:35:51   refuses to let apps behave in a mac-like way making the interface more mac-like doesn't help because also

00:35:59   like how how how far can you go interface wise when it only becomes mac-like when you connect the magic

00:36:10   keyboard i think that is a question right which is if you care about your app when it's just a touch app

00:36:17   then you have to still put all the ui everywhere when it's a touch app yeah but at least you could

00:36:24   expose it in the menu bar afterward and again it'll be like i think more pro apps maybe things

00:36:30   that are targeted more at this at this kind of semi-mythical high-end ipad but like apple believes

00:36:36   that that that user exists because they make an ipad pro and a keyboard right like they they act as if

00:36:40   that user exists and they make final cut and logic right like i think i think there are some apps that

00:36:46   will take advantage of this and and we'll see you know we'll see how that goes yeah there have been

00:36:53   so many times where apple has said like desktop class apps right desktop class apps and i just

00:37:00   they have features that that you can get you there but i just they're not used no and there's still

00:37:08   fundamentals i mean again it comes down to the details because like when when this person asked me

00:37:12   you know what was an impediment i was trying to imagine working in stage manager on my ipad pro

00:37:18   and a lot of it is things like window management window management isn't just moving a window around

00:37:25   on screen although it does really bug me that like on an ipad you have to click multiple times in order

00:37:30   to do something with a window on a mac you can just click the close box but also like on the ipad you

00:37:36   you can't just do like command n to open a new window in an app because the apps don't think like

00:37:42   mac apps they're like oh a new window do you mean to replace this or add a tab or it's like no i just

00:37:47   want a new window i'm in multi-window mode and the app's like oh i don't know i can't i can't really do

00:37:52   that and it gets so frustrating and you know it's stuff like that that it's just uh or expose or like

00:38:00   there are so many of these details that the ipad just doesn't offer that that get in your way and

00:38:06   and that's that's it is like is this a revolutionary set of detailed changes or is it three new features

00:38:13   that get tossed in the mix and then they walk away again and you know that's that's what we have to

00:38:19   wait and see about is the details of how they do this i'm just gonna be really annoying and i'm just

00:38:23   gonna say it like i like my ipad as an ipad when i connect it to a magic keyboard just give me mac os

00:38:28   like i don't i just what i want like just give me mac os like you don't need to do all this like

00:38:35   just give me that i'll have that right then that would be amazing because i know i know these machines

00:38:40   can run it i know it can my my ipad pro has a more powerful chip than my macbook air but my macbook air

00:38:47   is infinitely more capable than my ipad pro there's nothing stopping apple from building a uh a classic like

00:38:55   uh virtualization layer that lets you run mac apps in this mode

00:39:02   in ipad os not reboot into mac os but it's like mac os is back there or aspects of mac os are back

00:39:09   there they could try that too i just think that's i think this is the push and pull at apple which is

00:39:14   some people are like let's make the ipad more mac like but not the mac and then other people are like

00:39:18   we'll just do a mac then or you know whatever because because i think i've heard several people

00:39:22   talk about this in this latest wave of ipad despair that we've all been going through which is you know

00:39:28   is the answer that what people really want is better um and more flexible hardware on the mac side

00:39:34   and and you know the answer is yes to both like one way or another having a little tablet that you can

00:39:41   also attach and make into a laptop is a pretty cool thing and right now apple doesn't let you do both

00:39:46   you you either get a tablet that runs a tablet os that can sit in a laptop shape or you have a laptop

00:39:54   but that's it like there's no in between and i think that is probably at the core of apple

00:40:00   having this real ambivalence because what they you know what they really like is selling ipad pros

00:40:06   and selling ipad pros with magic keyboards and showing them off but what they don't seem to like

00:40:10   is making it a little you know crossing that line and making it a little more like the mac um which

00:40:17   yeah it would be if i could take an m3 or m4 ipad pro with me and know that i could do everything i

00:40:23   could do on my mac and the rest of the time it's just an ipad so i don't need to bring two two devices

00:40:28   that'd be great that'd be great and we know they could federico said this and i'll say it too

00:40:33   i will pay you the price of both machines i will do it give me an ipad that is a thousand dollars more

00:40:40   but has mac os i'll pay it because then i only need one thing right where currently and it could

00:40:46   do both i'm carrying both things because i love both things this is what i'm saying like this is not me

00:40:51   being down on the ipad this is me being more pro ipad than most people i want it to do what it does

00:40:58   i love it i i don't own a magic keyboard for my ipad pro because i don't want that like i just want

00:41:06   the best ipad experience that i can have and like i don't want it to be confused and like further by

00:41:14   being like oh and now there's a menu bar sometimes like i don't want that i just want the ipad to be

00:41:20   the ipad because i think the ipad is amazing at that but if you were going to say we need to make

00:41:27   it more professional and more capable then let me run mac os on it and just like forget ipad os like

00:41:33   just ipad os is just like just make it this like in between thing it's bigger than an iphone it's and

00:41:41   it you know because it has a bigger screen it can do some other stuff we don't need to try and like

00:41:46   make it like a mac and you know what as well apple proved me wrong right wwdc this year please i'm just

00:41:51   i've been burned too many times to assume that we're about to get the mac on on you know again

00:41:56   i get it but i also want to point out that what you said is i don't attach a keyboard to my ipad

00:42:03   i don't want that and this whole thing is saying you would never get that but the people who choose

00:42:07   to attach a keyboard to their ipad would get it yeah yeah but i just don't think it's one says i just

00:42:11   don't think i can't imagine a scenario where it's really going to be that great that's what i'm saying

00:42:16   of like and again that's what i'm saying prove me wrong but like if all you're doing is taking

00:42:21   the stuff that's behind keyboard shortcuts and putting them up in a menu bar like is that really

00:42:25   worth doing like is it really worth doing like i don't know if it is because i just don't what i'm

00:42:30   saying is like you can do all of that but i just don't think most app developers are going to get on

00:42:34   board with you and put this into their applications and so i'm just saying just give me the mac on it

00:42:39   instead well that that attitude's a little bit defeatist but i would say that i think the truth is

00:42:44   jason i've been defeated so many times i know you've been defeated so many times i was like yeah

00:42:49   well this is this is it i think the core question here has always been what is the high-end use of

00:42:57   the ipad really yeah and the problem is apple has changed it's seemingly has either changed its mind or

00:43:06   can't decide and i firmly believe in the mid-2010s the idea was that the ipad would continue to evolve

00:43:12   until it could replace the mac and they put in a mac compatibility layer for legacy mac apps but that

00:43:19   it would be like os 10 replacing os 9 that the ipad os would eventually be a thing you could run

00:43:24   on desktops and on laptops and everything else and it would be able to support that plus it would run

00:43:29   on tablets and convertibles and stuff like that and then the mac was being put out to pasture and then

00:43:34   they changed they changed their mind and they built these apple silicon macs and they sold a zillion of

00:43:38   them and the mac is doing better than it ever has and now you look at the ipad and you go huh um

00:43:43   what's this for again yeah and you're right as as much as i have enjoyed because i really love my ipad and

00:43:49   it is the computing device i use the most but the truth is that the ipad pro feature thing with the high price tag and

00:43:59   all that like you could argue that it's really like the stuff with apple pencil like there are some specific

00:44:06   use cases that are up at the high end but that most of what you're trying to do is kind of make a mac that's not as good as a mac

00:44:12   and and and so to your point the question would be at that point do you just give up and say no

00:44:20   just use the mac and when a user says well yeah but i i want a convertible that's a tablet most of the

00:44:27   time and then sometimes as a mac right now apple with all its hardware prowess that we talk about

00:44:31   is like oh we can't do that we can't make that well they can make it they have made it they just don't

00:44:37   want to allow it because it it would be too you know you're mixing your chocolate into your peanut

00:44:41   butter or whatever and you know you can't you can't do that it's too weird to mix those two things and

00:44:47   and so that you know this is this is what happens when a company hasn't decided what it wants to do

00:44:53   and that there are different parts of that organization that are pulling it in different

00:44:57   directions because there are i get that it's complicated but it's one of the reasons it's

00:45:03   complicated is that apple keeps building this amazing hardware and then erecting these very

00:45:09   weird barriers between their operating systems and while trying to ape one of their operating systems

00:45:15   with the other one and i kind of agree with you i'd be okay if an m3 m4 ipad pro just turned into mac

00:45:22   mode when you snapped it on a magic keyboard i think that would be okay also with all the rumors about

00:45:27   touchscreen macs coming down the pike this gets even weirder it's like okay what's that or that

00:45:33   foldable uh laptop slash ipad that's supposedly in the works for the next couple of years

00:45:38   how does that work what is that product does and and so my hope is that those products are being

00:45:46   developed because they've figured out how to bridge the gap here and we just can't see it yet and i hope

00:45:52   that's the case but as you said we've been defeated so many times that it's hard to think optimistically

00:45:57   about it again really like i wanna i want them to prove me wrong right like i want i want to believe

00:46:04   yes like i really want it but i just won't get my hopes up because again that's what i'm saying like

00:46:11   i even think in a scenario where apple really tries

00:46:13   it's becoming more and more complicated to get people to go along with them

00:46:19   however majin bu also shared the iphones of a usb c port will also be able to show this new stage

00:46:27   manager when connected to a monitor quote while not a full desktop mode it will allow users to extend

00:46:32   their screen space great for presentations editing or enhanced viewing i don't know what this means like

00:46:39   i think i think i know what this is but the description that that boo gives does not help

00:46:44   like to me this is just you plug your phone in and like it's basically a version of

00:46:51   ipad os in a way that like ipad os shows but but not a full desktop mode like but isn't that

00:46:57   i'm very confused by it but all of this you know everyone's saying this and i agree all of this feels like

00:47:04   can potentially even everything we've just been speaking about maybe they're doing all of this to

00:47:08   prepare for the folding iphone maybe that's what this is all for like improvements to stage manager

00:47:13   windowing you know it's all to prepare for the folding iphone which then brings a folding

00:47:19   tablet in the future potentially too right like this is hopefully the beginning groundwork that is

00:47:26   required to get to that next thing you know like the story we told before but like hey you should

00:47:31   build size classes into your iphone app what is a size class what does that mean and then oh because

00:47:38   we have split screen multitasking on the ipad coming right yeah and bigger phones are coming

00:47:42   bigger phones are coming and all this kind of stuff like apple have done this multiple times where they

00:47:46   ask you to do a thing and the reason they're asking you to do it is because there's a product coming

00:47:50   certainly a possibility that both of these stories are all are not as much about existing hardware as they

00:47:57   are about hardware that is coming and we're going to get the weird mode where it's like

00:48:00   well this is good but you know it's got all these limitations and everybody that apple's like

00:48:04   right they know that they're actually there for the product that's coming next year or the year after

00:48:10   but they've gotta they gotta start work it's a little like that um iphone air which i firmly believe

00:48:16   was you know is going to be designed as a stepping stone to a folding iphone and you got to make a thing

00:48:22   you got to make a thin plane of technology so that you can then make it uh foldable so i i i can see

00:48:29   that here too also i mean people have talked about this for a long time i know that apple has this

00:48:34   well you know buy why buy one product when you can buy three from us but like our phones are the most

00:48:40   important device that most of us have and they're the most popular apple product right the iphone is the

00:48:45   most popular apple product there are lots of people who have an iphone and do not own another apple product

00:48:49   just do the math there have to be so if the if and and if apple silicon is so powerful and apple's got a

00:48:59   real advantage in apple silicon and they've already built this operating system so that it can expand to

00:49:04   larger screens this is again this is one of those dogma things it's like why not let people plug their

00:49:11   iphone into a screen and a keyboard why not and and let them have so many people around the world use

00:49:19   their iphone as their primary computer already and like what if what if you could could kind of lead

00:49:25   them down the path a little bit and say the iphone is you can charge it and use it on a screen with a

00:49:29   keyboard when you're at your desk and then unplug it and take it in your pocket and like

00:49:33   that's actually pretty cool right like why not why not see where it goes and i think that for too long

00:49:40   when i talk about this kind of apple dogma it's very much like no this far no further we can't go

00:49:44   it's just an iphone isn't isn't that way and the other way to approach it would be like you know what

00:49:49   we don't think a lot of people are going to do this but we're going to let them try and we're going to

00:49:53   learn from it and they could do that because the truth is not a lot of people are going to attach

00:49:58   their iphone to a monitor and a keyboard and a trackpad right that's not going to happen but some

00:50:03   people will try it and apple will learn things from it and they'll learn and app developers will learn

00:50:08   and maybe we'll get something out of that that is a good lesson for whatever the future of computing is

00:50:14   and finally mark garman is reporting that apple's secret robotics unit will now be under john turnus's

00:50:21   organization marking another area of responsibility taken from john gianandria after the executive shifts

00:50:27   from the apple intelligence fallout um it's being said that this will allow for gianandria to

00:50:34   put more efforts into running apple's ai efforts which is not siri this is actually no it's the

00:50:40   foundational models and stuff and the research and all that kind of stuff the robotics team itself

00:50:46   continues to be run day to day by kevin lynch but now is in the john turnus hardware group aka the

00:50:53   john turnus taking over the company group which it increasingly feels like is going to happen

00:50:59   apple built these silos to work on stuff and it's a very unapple thing to do and they seem to have

00:51:05   finally just decided we're not going to do it bad anymore we're not going to have these separate groups

00:51:08   hardware group will work on hardware software group will work on software software we're not going to

00:51:13   have a robotics team we're not going to have a or like a a robot group there's going to be a hardware

00:51:18   group with robot people in it um and the we're going to have you know we're not going to have a

00:51:24   vision pro group we're going to have hardware people working on vision pro and we're going to have

00:51:26   software people working on vision os and that is the apple way of doing it and i know you put those

00:51:31   groups together when it's a skunk works project or when it's early days but at some point you you um

00:51:36   there are advantages um you know we'll just call it the way it is i mean this is like when i was in

00:51:41   second grade there was a kid who uh who didn't come with us to third grade and what he told us is

00:51:45   that um that the teacher asked him to stay behind and help her next year oh no well i mean that kid

00:51:51   got held back right that kid that kid got held back that kid couldn't go to third grade yeah look

00:51:55   jan andrea has been pushed out or they're carving something for him or or whatever but the argument is

00:52:02   that what he's good at is this you know more academic and research into ai developments and building ai

00:52:10   models that are then turned into products by the software team but they're they're at the higher

00:52:16   level of research and experimentation but as german points out the other reason you do all of this

00:52:21   is that when janji and andrea reacts to having most of his responsibility taken away by looking for a new

00:52:27   job you have the ability then to there will be fewer people that you need to move when he quits so

00:52:34   that's also true but i think i think it's also true that like having a research group looking into

00:52:38   foundational ai models that's a very different job than than what the the os group is doing

00:52:44   the the software group is doing and so that's fine like it's fine to have a group that does that that's

00:52:49   good if apple wants to build its own model it needs a group to do that whether janji and andrea is in

00:52:54   charge of it or it ultimately is just craig federighi or something like that so be it but that that group

00:53:00   does need to exist but um well yeah they're also prepping for him to be held back because there was that

00:53:05   report a couple of weeks ago right that that craig federighi is like hey just use open source models

00:53:10   to train stuff so yeah yeah maybe maybe but i mean yeah i mean we'll see i think there's too much pride

00:53:18   at apple to say we're just going to lift other people's stuff but who knows you never know what

00:53:22   it is i mean maybe but maybe they they've just decided they don't need the foundation anymore and

00:53:28   they can build their models on top and they feel like they have the people for that i don't know i mean

00:53:32   if i were tim cook i would still want to fund ai research right i'd still want to do that i'd still

00:53:37   want to have a team that funds ai research that that is there monitoring what's going on and trying

00:53:42   to give us advantages or allowing us to keep pace and that's they've got the money they should do it

00:53:47   the situation is though jason that if you're tim cook you can fund everything like it you know you

00:53:53   can just keep funding all i know but you've been burned here you got it you got a i think you got to

00:53:57   keep going i think i think saying oh ai is so important that we're not going to do it anymore we're just

00:54:01   going to pick up the scraps that are on the ground is a bad decision so i don't think he's going to make

00:54:06   that decision i agree and i don't think apple is capable of saying that right saying oh we give up

00:54:10   they're not they're not gonna they're not going to do that but the guy the big hire you brought in

00:54:15   who's now only in charge of that yeah i i could see he thought he was building an empire and in fact

00:54:20   he's just been put away on an island somewhere doing this so you know he seems not long for the company

00:54:25   but um but the that work will continue and then as for robotics like oh mark german loves the word

00:54:31   robotics and he keeps talking about he keeps talking about humanoid robots that apple might be working

00:54:37   on in the future look there's research speaking of research we we saw that one video about the the

00:54:42   thing that was handing you know pushing the water cup on the desk and all of that like apple

00:54:46   is doing research because there's you know hardware especially in the home but in general like

00:54:51   having the ability to do things like pivot a thing that's on a tabletop like maybe right and and like

00:54:59   you said they've got all the money like being really good at hardware and looking at how machine learning

00:55:05   models and uh allow you to do things in the real world in terms of interaction as well why not do that

00:55:13   now we'll see i am skeptical that much is going to come of this anytime soon but you never know

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00:56:33   meeting a thanks to vitally for their support of this show and relay the financial times is reporting

00:56:41   that apple has set a goal to produce the entirety of their u.s iphone production in india by the end of

00:56:47   2026 that is next year this would be about 60 million iphones across the whole range if they were producing

00:56:54   the u.s uh stock but would probably be more than that right because they obviously produce iphones in

00:57:00   india for many places around the world so they would need to increase it significantly this would be

00:57:04   double the amount that they're currently producing if they were just producing net 60 million in the

00:57:09   short term now you take some short-term thinking on it uh this would be better for potential tariffs

00:57:14   whatever they may end up being and in the long term this is a further diversification supply chain which

00:57:19   apple have been kind of marching towards for a long time mark german doesn't think this would be

00:57:25   possible uh considering that the 2026 iphone lineup could be quite radically new with a folding iphone

00:57:31   and a quote more glass centric pro model as the 20th anniversary iphone um mark says apple has never

00:57:40   produced a major new product design outside china for the first go around so basically mark thinks that it

00:57:46   would be difficult and maybe apple wouldn't feel comfortable with the work needed to get these

00:57:51   products exactly right trusting new supply chains and new factories there are plants in india that

00:57:57   are currently being built that would be necessary to increase volume of production that can meet this

00:58:02   60 million unit goal let alone the new infrastructure required to produce say a folding iphone

00:58:09   so first off i wanted to mention one of the ways you do this is the the places that india's india built

00:58:18   iphones are shipping to start getting china built iphones instead so you can move the production around

00:58:23   because they don't have necessarily the tariffs that the united states has so that's part of what you

00:58:27   could do so you don't necessarily need to you can move that there's a shell game there where you move

00:58:31   those into china and then take the india phones and then you ship them to the u.s and you do it like

00:58:35   that i i appreciate that that this seems this seems like a big ramp up uh so yeah you you you've got to

00:58:44   wonder um how much of this is real how much of this is sending messages to the u.s and china about what

00:58:54   apple's trying to do china and india by the way are kind of adversaries right like that's interesting

00:59:00   and there was that story i think you've got a do you have a link to this in there that the uh

00:59:04   the idea that that a lot of the equipment that is required to build these factories comes from china

00:59:11   yep and that they're the information right had had that report that that they set up somebody foxconn

00:59:17   maybe somebody set up like a fake company in vietnam who took import of all of the manufacturing

00:59:24   things and then just turned it around and sent it to the fox on cap apple factory chinese so got

00:59:30   quote foxconn has seen approval times from chinese authorities for exporting iphone making equipment

00:59:34   from its factories to those in india rise from two weeks to as long as four months they're also

00:59:39   rejecting some export applications of our explanation so they've been creating these fake companies to move

00:59:44   the stuff around right which is now the jig is up sort of on that and we'll see but but this is

00:59:49   the point here is that that this is the first step of chinese resistance to apple manufacturing

00:59:55   outside of china is that the parts that you need to build the factories also need to come from china at

01:00:02   this point and that's the this is the story of all the tariffs and about supply chains and things like

01:00:07   that is you're like oh just built a factory in the u.s but it's like way more complicated than this and

01:00:12   this is a great example is well we need to get out of china let's build a factory somewhere else

01:00:16   okay how do we build a factory somewhere else well first you need all the equipment from china

01:00:21   okay uh then so so you know this is look this is the tim cook thing right this is why tim cook is still

01:00:30   the ceo of apple is this is his job his job is how do you benefit apple in and try to hedge against

01:00:40   whatever is going to happen in the future and get the u.s to do what you want and get china to do what you

01:00:46   want and and and get india to do what you want and get china not to be mad at india and the u.s to make

01:00:52   it impossible for you to get what you want like all of these things are in play and and the good news for

01:00:59   apple i guess is that the tariffs and things like that allow it to have an excuse to try to expand where

01:01:06   it produces and what it's not trying to do is get out of china and i think that that's important it's

01:01:11   trying to supplement production elsewhere because of the issues between the u.s and china in terms of

01:01:17   trade but still if you're china you're like yeah but we like it better when it's all here so you drag

01:01:23   your feet you slow it down you make it difficult um to it's i mean yeah this is this is international

01:01:29   intrigue is what this is yeah i my my conspiracy theory on this is that this is not real um and

01:01:36   that this is apple trying to spook china on behalf of the u.s government to come to the table and

01:01:42   negotiate the post-tariff stupidity that china and america are now in because china's not backing down

01:01:49   america looks like it's kind of backing down a little bit now against the tariffs because china's

01:01:54   kind of refusing to back down and i have no doubt i know the fact that apple is trying to diversify

01:02:00   but this significant this quickly and publicly suggests to me that something's going on here

01:02:07   yeah at a time when it's also being asking elizabeth warren right as written to tim cook

01:02:14   to say like hey how'd you get that exemption uh which i don't know if like it's just i don't think

01:02:22   it's just tim cook here but nevertheless like he is obviously we know when he's clear that he has been

01:02:27   having conversations with the administration i would not be surprised if this is a bit a part of of a

01:02:35   leverage that's being placed it just seems to me to be very quick out of nowhere to like well to do this

01:02:43   when the uh not the only way this is not the only way to deal with this the key way for apple to deal

01:02:50   with this problem is to get the u.s to not do it right that's actually where they maybe have the biggest

01:02:56   leverage right to say don't do these tariffs in this way and and work that rather than being like

01:03:02   we're now going to make every single iphone in india instead of china it feels it feels very

01:03:10   very significant incredibly fast and also as we've just spoken about unbelievably difficult to try and

01:03:17   pull off so so i think given that you have people who follow apple much more closely like mark german

01:03:25   and wayne ma saying basically this can't happen like not the way it's described right and i that was my

01:03:33   initial reaction is like i there is no way that they can reply supplant all of that and german makes

01:03:38   the good point too a lot of their manufacturing is focused on kind of like the trailing models models

01:03:44   that we're fairly familiar with and not the cutting edge where they have to build whole new techniques

01:03:49   and and so like a folding phone you know is not is probably not going to be built in india right away

01:03:55   right that's probably not going to happen like the most complex iphone maybe ever like that you're just

01:04:01   yeah like hey we'll just use the new factory like oh yeah exactly it's there's some real problems there

01:04:06   i so you combine that with the fact that this was a financial times report and a financial times is a

01:04:13   absolutely legitimate upstanding publication it known throughout the business world kind of like

01:04:20   the wall street journal i'll just say a lot of reports about apple that come in in those sorts of

01:04:26   places are put there by apple right i don't know that for sure but like i think we've seen it before

01:04:32   that when apple wants to set a story this often is where they go to a respectable business source and

01:04:41   whether it's a a very targeted leak or whether it's a kind of surreptitious like it wouldn't be so bad if

01:04:49   you just mentioned this to this person at the financial times but like that's certainly this is too big a

01:04:55   decision to be leaked this kind of decision right now is happening at the top of the company nobody's

01:05:03   leaking it up from from up there no this is this is the kind of thing if somebody somebody probably was

01:05:08   given permission to leak this yes and and especially since it seems a little outlandish it that's right

01:05:15   that's how we i think should probably read this is apple wants the world to know that apple is willing

01:05:21   to move all its iphone production for the u.s to india um at for a reason right and and that reason

01:05:30   probably has to do with china you know and the u.s and then again we're back to international intrigue

01:05:36   it's saying like even to me and you and to everybody else that's writing about this that is not the

01:05:41   financial times this doesn't seem plausible right that if somebody came to you and said this

01:05:46   you would write it in such a way to be like i heard this but i don't know but if someone of note

01:05:52   tells you right if somebody like then you can write about it right like if you have

01:05:58   tim cook it's not tim cook but like i don't know who it would be right but like if you had

01:06:03   someone of craig videregi's level say or say it was um what is this jeff williams jeff williams

01:06:10   comes to you at the financial times and says we're doing this then you write about it because

01:06:14   jeff williams just told you it right but if you've heard it from someone of a signal i don't know if

01:06:19   i'm writing that story because it doesn't it just seems impossible but if it's come from the right

01:06:26   source you'll write it because they've told you it and so if they're telling you it they either

01:06:33   believe it or they want you to write the story and it's you know it's i get it is what i'm saying

01:06:38   it's like there are different levels that you would then write the story because it just it just

01:06:42   doesn't it doesn't pass the sniff test to me that this could happen in the way it's been described

01:06:49   that by the end of next year where a factory is still being built right it is being built right now

01:06:57   that by the end of next year every iphone in america is made in this new facility it just doesn't

01:07:03   seem plausible to me it's also possible that this is something that's going down in the production

01:07:08   group at apple where they have again it's set a goal it's set a goal so you tell everybody here's

01:07:13   our goal and then it's in the financial times and like you know we can do like yada yada yada it's in

01:07:20   the financial times but like that that is it this so we'll say we don't know but i would say this report

01:07:27   seems to serve a broader apple interest in making this the context of you know not quite we'll take our

01:07:34   ball and go home but like we are all in on producing iphones in india for the united states market

01:07:41   which again is not pulling out of china it's pulling united states production out of china

01:07:46   and yes that sends a message and changes the discussion that is presumably being had between

01:07:53   china and the u.s about trade

01:07:55   if this story was six months ago i would feel differently about it to how i feel about it right

01:08:03   now like the fact that this story is right now is what makes me so kind of like conspiratorial about it

01:08:10   or if this was just a thing that happened uh uncoupled from big news cycles then i would maybe

01:08:17   be like oh maybe they are doing this maybe this has come from a project manager somewhere but it just

01:08:22   feels too perfect of a story to be happening right now for me not to think that there's something going

01:08:28   on with it you know like that's that's the whole thing about conspiracy theories there has to be that

01:08:33   like little thing in there that makes you think you could believe it and for me i saw this story and

01:08:38   immediately my mind went to political drama like that's where i went to yeah also i would say

01:08:45   i think it serves apple like this moment because what if we don't know what's going to happen but what

01:08:53   if this tariff thing resolves in a way that's favorable for apple in the end or not too unfavorable

01:08:59   well great but you missed a moment the moment now is it's a crisis moment it's an oh no moment and when

01:09:08   we talk about apple like in our in our member discord there was just a comment about how you know apple

01:09:13   should have diversified years ago it's like well yeah everybody knew that but the financials make

01:09:18   it hard the supply chain makes it hard and the politics makes it hard because you're telling china

01:09:23   where we we we love you but not that much and we're going to build stuff elsewhere and so apple has used

01:09:29   brazil and india to build factories under the excuse of protectionism in those countries and that they

01:09:35   need to have they need to diversify because of that i i don't know whether china what you know how china

01:09:41   buys this if they buy it at all but i would say i think there's probably an advantage today to saying

01:09:47   we have to build in india it's not because we don't love you it's because the u.s government is

01:09:53   tariffing you and if they wait until the storm maybe blows over then they can't use that excuse so use it now

01:10:04   that just use it now and say this is our stated reason for doing this is because

01:10:09   we have to it's not that we don't love you and we will keep using you but you know it's not you

01:10:14   it's not me either it's that guy but it's that you gotta understand you gotta understand we gotta

01:10:21   we gotta do this for you know for reasons political reasons i just i'm just saying it's easier to it's

01:10:27   easier to make that claim today than it might be if they resolve this

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01:11:25   additional content every week uh this week i want to ask jason how he uses his terminal e-ink screen

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01:12:02   and we'll really appreciate it let's finish out with some ask upgrade questions

01:12:08   imitiaz asks jason has mentioned a few times about his photo collection being backed up locally does he

01:12:17   recommend any settings in particular for photos to do this or is it fairly straightforward like what do

01:12:23   you do for local backup for of your photos i have a mac with a big hard drive that's set to um download all

01:12:32   um and then i back that up using backblaze and time machine okay that's so you're doing it you're doing it in the

01:12:43   photos apps in the photos app you're like download everything don't just download all stuff and then in i guess in

01:12:50   finder you're you're you're making sure that the photos library is photos library is just a file um so i have that set you know that's in that

01:13:01   backs up um and it backs up to backblaze and also i have a couple of giant external drives that i plug in

01:13:07   every so often and run a backup on um that backs them backs all those files up onto the external hard drives

01:13:15   so i've got it plus it's an icloud so and you don't feel the need to i don't know somehow back up the files

01:13:23   outside of the photo library container like i don't know they're all in the photo they're all in the photo

01:13:29   library container yeah i'm not i don't have any any desire to do that now yeah i guess that's what i'm

01:13:36   doing without the super duper part i guess it just it all goes i have a time machine and i have backblaze

01:13:43   and i have uh yeah that's how i backup mine and i i also have all of my photos downloaded to my iphone

01:13:49   which is that's becoming more complicated jason i'm taking a lot more pictures

01:13:53   i'm taking a lot more pictures yeah it's a lot of space i've taken thousands of pictures in the last

01:13:59   couple of weeks but i bought the one terabyte iphone this year for that reason uh because i knew that my

01:14:03   photos library was about to exponentially grow yep an anonymous question oscar wrote in and said

01:14:10   i am considering purchasing an m4 max max studio by the end of the year is it anticipated that apple

01:14:16   will increase the prices of its recently launched max should i make a purchase immediately

01:14:21   i think if you've made a decision if you have the money available i i think i think i i i am still of the

01:14:32   mind that the world is too complicated right now to assume what prices will be in two months and that if

01:14:40   you know what you want if you can afford to do it now i would i would do it now i don't know why you

01:14:47   would wait honestly i don't know what the what the reason would be to wait

01:14:50   i mean easy for me to say i i think it's going to be less likely that apple updates the prices of

01:15:04   existing shipping products versus introduces new products at higher prices but hard to predict

01:15:13   anything in the world right now so i i think i agree with mike also that max studio is brand new

01:15:21   yeah it just came out yeah now's the best time to buy it there's not going to be another one for at

01:15:26   least a year and probably more so if you have the the wherewithal to do it now instead of at the end of

01:15:32   the year i just go ahead and do it yeah i i mean i'm also the mind of like if you've made the decision

01:15:38   i don't know why you haven't just done it already i don't know what i'm waiting for anyway it's not in

01:15:42   the budget and they're waiting for next year yeah but if you're like i get it if you feel confident

01:15:47   that you will be able to get there if you're able to do something you know maybe there's some kind of

01:15:51   financing option which is good for you or whatever i mean i would make that i would do it but because i

01:15:59   just i know what you're saying about shipping products and i know that they would love to avoid

01:16:03   it but let's just imagine that the 140 tariff comes into play they're not eating that now's a good time

01:16:10   i mean again last fall max studio came out which like i it's it's a great time to get it if you if you can

01:16:17   buy it and if not now then when you as soon as you can afford it i would probably buy it just because

01:16:21   why not now is the good time for it and we don't know what's going to happen

01:16:25   this is kind of related to what we're talking about earlier but let's get a stake in the ground

01:16:30   on it sean asks do you believe we will one day see a touchscreen computer running mac os

01:16:35   i do because mark german said there's a macbook pro with a touchscreen in the works and i believe

01:16:40   mark german sources i think that there is and i think that the the features that we're seeing and

01:16:45   the design stuff that's going to happen is all probably going to point toward that product that they

01:16:50   they it would be it would seem unlikely that apple would do design and development work now

01:16:56   not thinking of the fact that they were going to have a touchscreen enabled macbook pro in a year or

01:17:01   two i think the next macbook pro like the next design change of the macbook pro yeah is going to have a

01:17:08   touchscreen oled and it will have cellular support i think they're gonna go big with it i think that's

01:17:14   a pretty good bet i think that's what it will get so yeah i i absolutely think that they will do this

01:17:18   um i think it is way overdue i mean you don't this doesn't have to be ipad os like it's just nice to

01:17:26   have a touchscreen like in a laptop like it is actually a nice thing if you've never used it i

01:17:31   know why you could think why would i do that but i've used touchscreen laptops and i really like that

01:17:35   experience but again it's like if you've ever used an ipad in a keyboard case it's a touchscreen laptop

01:17:41   so like you know it's nice to be able to sometimes reach up and swipe on the screen or tap something on

01:17:45   the screen rather than move a mouse cursor like sometimes it's much faster to just go because

01:17:51   you have direct motor control as opposed to like go down here move the thing so you know that you know

01:17:58   that uh that phrase every day new children are born who don't who've never seen the flintstones yeah

01:18:03   you know that same of the idea that like time marches on well every day new children are born who

01:18:09   think that touching a screen is the primary way you interact with technology yeah every year there

01:18:15   are more and more adult iphone users iphone buyers uh who who have they love their iphones and then they

01:18:23   get a computer and they expect we already see this but it's only going to be more that they expect that

01:18:29   you could touch that screen and so you know you need to do it and apple not doing it to now i mean

01:18:35   i i think again there's some dogma there but yeah i um because we had a touchscreen chromebook for a while

01:18:42   and like being able to reach up and just scroll because you're not your hands aren't on the keyboard

01:18:48   and you're just sitting there and you just scroll you know i never used it as a primary interaction

01:18:53   but it was nice to have and it also opens up the ability to do things like fold the keyboard back

01:18:59   go into a tablet mode use an apple pencil there's lots of other things i'm sure that they've they

01:19:03   if apple's going to do this apple's going to have some magic you know secret apple stuff that they do

01:19:08   as a part of it too so it's a that's a yes i understand the desire to want to do some work to mac os

01:19:15   rather than just put a touchscreen on it like i understand the desire to do that which might be

01:19:19   one of the reasons that this project has not come to fruition yet but i i do think they'll do it and

01:19:25   i hope that it happens sooner rather than later honestly i think it'd be really nice

01:19:28   yeah do you want to ask me this question because it's it's directed at me oh sure uh

01:19:34   jason who is not me wants to know since you're such a fan of open wheel racing in the form of formula

01:19:41   one how do you feel about indycar and specifically the indianapolis 500 i live in indianapolis see i

01:19:47   told you it wasn't me and the race is getting ready to take over the city for the entire month with all

01:19:51   of its activities do you watch or care about the race i don't know much about indycar uh in in

01:19:58   getting this question i did some googling and found out that something that i thought was the case was

01:20:04   which is that all indycar tracks were ovals like nascar um and that is based on me knowing about

01:20:12   the indianapolis 500 because i know how big of a spectacle that is and yes the indianapolis motor

01:20:18   speedway raceway um i think it's just an oval and i'm not interested in that personally but it's not

01:20:25   the case for indycar that there are there are some simple track layouts but there are also more

01:20:30   complicated track layouts which may be a little more interested in it actually because i was wondering

01:20:33   like what are those races like from and how the cars are built to be able to be interesting and fast

01:20:41   and competitive in kind of like very simple track layout but also tracks that are closer to formula one

01:20:48   tracks all of this to say though i do not have time in my life for another sport because i spend quite a

01:20:54   lot of time focused on formula one um i'm more interested in it than i was before but i'm i don't

01:21:01   have the time for it right now but this i was happy to get this question because i was able to to get rid

01:21:07   of some preconceived notions i had about indycar there there was a time when the indianapolis 500 was

01:21:13   the number one thing like number one auto race in america and nascar rose to eclipse it um as a kid

01:21:23   i always watched the indy 500 um and i still if i'm around on memorial day weekend i will make an effort

01:21:32   to watch it it's literally mike you found it it's the one car race i will watch a year yeah it's the only

01:21:38   one i will watch and some of that is absolutely tradition uh i i watch it and it's fun and i am

01:21:44   also reminded that i don't actually want to ever watch more of it of more motorsports than that but

01:21:51   it but it is a thing that i enjoy watching i think the indy 500 is still gets the largest audience of

01:21:56   any like for a single thing i think it's like they get like 350 000 people go there to watch it oh yeah

01:22:02   certainly in person that's a that's a that's a real thing and uh yeah it's it's i i think it's fun um

01:22:09   the technology is really as you know from formula one right the technology has has really um transformed

01:22:14   that sport um it is yeah it's it's it's it's fallen sort of indycar has sort of fallen on hard times

01:22:22   because yeah nascar sort of eclipsed it and also i think there's this thing where f1 has become much

01:22:27   more popular yeah in america it's a little bit like the challenge of losing out it's good i think

01:22:31   it's good for football or soccer that uh we can americans have access to like i just watch premier

01:22:38   league games and it's not a problem and the buddhist league is on and like there are there are and uh

01:22:42   uh syria is on like you can get european football leagues in america now and just watch those and

01:22:49   that's good it does make it harder if you're mls because mls you know is trying to do american soccer

01:22:58   but they have to compete on tv with the best soccer in the world and it's a little like that where the

01:23:06   success of formula one in america has been uh rough for uh indycar in america so you know that but anyway

01:23:15   i will i will uh i'll turn it on it's a it's a fun uh it's a fun thing to to have on on a memorial

01:23:21   day weekend if i'm not doing something else absolutely if you would like to send in your

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01:23:48   we'll be back next week until then say goodbye jason snell goodbye everybody