00:00:00 ◼ ► from relay this is connected episode 594 today's show is brought to you by century and copeland i'm your keynote chairman federico vittici and i'm joined by fellow annual chairman stephen hackett hello chairman how are you hello chairman i am good how are you i am doing fantastic thank you even though it's raining and i really dislike it so it's rained for like three days
00:00:29 ◼ ► straight here it's a bit miserable so you and i are chairman but we're also joined by mike hello man of the people here listener i'm just like you i'm not sitting up in this podcast ivory tower talking about rain you know i'm just one of you just one of you that's something you two over there you know and i'm over here sure okay okay we have a lot to do today but we're gonna start with following
00:00:59 ◼ ► ios 26.4 uh the most recent beta which i think is beta 4 now i've lost track um has more liquid glass tweaks so if you go into the uh there's display and brightness right which you can switch between clear and tinted
00:01:21 ◼ ► um but now there's a new one called reduce bright effects but that is not in display and brightness you have to go through accessibility
00:01:31 ◼ ► and find that and what this changes so like this is most obvious i think when you're highlighting text
00:01:38 ◼ ► the sort of the background around the text gets really bright and in some cases it makes it actually like
00:01:45 ◼ ► pretty difficult to read um and you can turn that off and so i turned it off on my phone that runs the betas
00:01:53 ◼ ► uh the phone that i use for development stuff and i think it's a pretty nice change and it doesn't
00:01:59 ◼ ► it doesn't like take away from what i like about liquid glass like i like a lot of the movement and some of the
00:02:04 ◼ ► stuff but uh this feels like a pretty good change and i think if you're running the beta or whenever 26.4 comes out
00:02:13 ◼ ► it's worth i think toggling this and seeing what you think because for me at least it's really helped
00:02:17 ◼ ► legibility in some areas i mean i like the brain i like it i like the light i don't know maybe i'm weird
00:02:25 ◼ ► maybe i'm the broken one i don't know but i like it i wouldn't want to turn it off some other news uh
00:02:57 ◼ ► yeah yeah and it looks really looks really nice i gotta say uh i i have learned over the years that
00:03:05 ◼ ► i'm not this kind of person who is very much some people are who's the put all right okay
00:03:12 ◼ ► who's the guy in the ivory tower now i know this is this is me as a man of the people i just plugged
00:03:18 ◼ ► my laptop into to a screen i don't know who the person is that needs on the go io for an ipad
00:03:26 ◼ ► that includes a 4k or 60 hertz hdmi port usbc and usba ports that can support up to 10 gigabit per
00:03:35 ◼ ► second file transfers and 100 watt power delivery there are two usbc ports to help you achieve this
00:03:40 ◼ ► and a 3.5 millimeter audio jack i don't know what someone's doing on the road with their ipad where
00:03:48 ◼ ► they need all of this like this is not i don't understand this product honestly oh and it's also
00:03:53 ◼ ► got card readers on it as well you gotta you gotta get your cards read man i think for some people who
00:04:00 ◼ ► are really into the ipad and and i know because you know i've been this person um you know you wanna
00:04:08 ◼ ► you wanna use it as your is a different right right using a hub fine this is an on-the-go product this
00:04:14 ◼ ► is meant to be taken with you to places where are these places what are you doing you know that's
00:04:19 ◼ ► what i don't understand i don't know you just show up at the coffee shop and you like bust this thing
00:04:24 ◼ ► out of your bag like i'm here to work yeah this is probably better than busting out an imac you know
00:04:30 ◼ ► at the coffee shop i'm not no i agree with that you shouldn't do that i'm not saying like oh busting an
00:04:37 ◼ ► imac out of the coffee shop is okay that's also worse you know otj otj for example used to be a
00:04:53 ◼ ► sorry you run a cable you know sorry john it's a laptop laptops and ipads and keyboards that do this
00:04:59 ◼ ► they shouldn't know it's always what i'm saying and you shouldn't do this you you should use just
00:05:07 ◼ ► something with a screen and a keyboard that's like integrated and goes into a bag nice and easy that's
00:05:13 ◼ ► that's all you should be doing i think at coffee shops what if you got a rack mounted mac pro and you
00:05:22 ◼ ► could just like slot it in under the table so it's that's way less conspicuous i'm sorry what computer
00:05:28 ◼ ► the the you know the one that they really care about can you say that again which one mac mac pro
00:05:39 ◼ ► woof i think mac pro is like a person is a is a mac pro yeah like someone who's like a technician
00:05:52 ◼ ► our friend rob knight has put together some amazing web tools over the years you could check
00:05:58 ◼ ► out rob's site but a new a relatively new one is podcast duration where you can select your podcast
00:06:05 ◼ ► or paste it in rss feed and get uh stats on your podcast and before we recorded this episode
00:06:14 ◼ ► uh we've got some numbers to share i just put this in here because the numbers are astounding to me
00:06:20 ◼ ► uh we have recorded almost 859 hours of connected okay that is 35 days and 19 hours of audio of
00:06:33 ◼ ► duration like if you started if you press play on episode one and let it run you would get for
00:06:39 ◼ ► basically 36 days yeah good stuff that is uh 697 cds or 25 000 floppy disks which is really
00:06:50 ◼ ► the connected heads no floppy disk is it really brings out the warmth in our voices that's the
00:06:55 ◼ ► way you should listen yeah can you imagine i don't know how would you do you have to like cut the
00:07:00 ◼ ► episodes up into tiny little chunks and load them onto the discs yeah it would be it'd be a nightmare
00:07:05 ◼ ► i want someone to put one episode on floppy disk that's what i want just see what happens
00:07:12 ◼ ► you probably can fit the the part where he says today's show is brought to you by our sponsors
00:07:18 ◼ ► yeah you can get the sponsors on which is it's really all it matters and then we could just mail it around
00:07:23 ◼ ► good stuff uh steven you have a new obsession i do what is this obsession i i am so pleased that
00:07:32 ◼ ► this turned me into an obsession yeah so this is uh what has been called little finder guy i don't
00:07:39 ◼ ► want to assign gender to finder but some people have wow um this is okay so the backstory is and
00:07:47 ◼ ► we're gonna talk more about this in a second there's like a new era of apple advertising around the
00:07:51 ◼ ► macbook neo including just some wild tiktok videos yeah they're crushing it yeah i had to i don't have
00:07:58 ◼ ► tiktok installed right so but to view them i had to like find an account i could log in as so i could
00:08:04 ◼ ► watch i want to tell the full story of this scenario because i have my own view on this so i saw so
00:08:11 ◼ ► there's a i follow a bunch of creators as part of my work on widget smith that are tech creators in
00:08:17 ◼ ► different genres than us where technology is more just aesthetics for them and i saw one of these people
00:08:23 ◼ ► post an image that was a screenshot of a ibook as a makeup case like a like a foundation case yeah
00:08:33 ◼ ► and i could see that it was a screenshot from tiktok and i was like that's fascinating so i went to
00:08:40 ◼ ► tiktok found the apple account and started watching stuff and then sent some of these tiktoks to steven
00:08:46 ◼ ► because i thought that he would appreciate the ibook references yes which i do a few minutes later
00:08:53 ◼ ► i got an email from tiktok saying that the relay account had signed into tiktok yeah that was when
00:08:59 ◼ ► i knew steven wanted to go and watch them on his own that's my kind of view of this was seeing that
00:09:07 ◼ ► that email which i'd forgotten we even had a tiktok account that was like a podcastathon thing yeah we
00:09:12 ◼ ► don't talk about that we don't talk about it was terrible we don't um so so yeah a bunch of them
00:09:19 ◼ ► uh you can go watch them i also embedded some of my favorites on a blog post which felt um gross
00:09:26 ◼ ► those embeds were kind of gross but i did it yeah it doesn't look good no it really doesn't look you
00:09:30 ◼ ► should see the html it's not your fault but it's bad it's bad news um but as part of this there's a
00:09:37 ◼ ► little finder character which has showed up he's at some point sitting in a chair with a tiny laptop
00:09:42 ◼ ► um and basic apple guy has like gone down the rabbit hole of making a bunch of like you i think they're
00:09:51 ◼ ► using gemini to create a bunch of artwork based on this person um i've shared some of that on 512 pixels
00:09:58 ◼ ► and behind the scenes basic apple guy and i have been going back and forth on some things on this and
00:10:03 ◼ ► we're working on something that would feature this character it's not quite ready yet um but
00:10:09 ◼ ► hopefully the end of the week or early next week there'll be something on 512 pixels about little
00:10:13 ◼ ► basic guy that i think people will enjoy little teaser for people look at him look at me into part
00:10:21 ◼ ► of his personal brand now i love it yes i think it's awesome i think apple should embrace one i'm very
00:10:28 ◼ ► happy apple is doing some like stuff for the kids you know um i think in general the advertising has
00:10:35 ◼ ► been really good around the macbook neo like all the way around and um i think that doing fun things
00:10:41 ◼ ► with the like apple should take itself a little less seriously at times and i think this is a fun
00:10:46 ◼ ► example of that yep and also leaning into a lot of their history which is the right time to do this
00:10:52 ◼ ► yes um because there there's a lot of history stuff which also takes us to today as we record this
00:10:59 ◼ ► apple have also joined instagram uh in a meaningful way so they've been doing advertising and stuff on
00:11:07 ◼ ► instagram i believe um as they have been doing in many platforms over the years but now they have
00:11:14 ◼ ► like and here is an instagram handle that you can follow that we're posting on and it's at hello apple
00:11:21 ◼ ► which is a great handle right like that is just like a great handle and it seems like they're doing
00:11:27 ◼ ► this in collaboration with their celebration of 50 years of thinking different so i would say
00:11:34 ◼ ► thankfully apple are choosing to acknowledge their 50th and their you know apple's website today
00:11:42 ◼ ► has a like a letter from tim cook kind of like reflecting um on their history as a company
00:11:49 ◼ ► um one of my favorite things here is that apple pay gets a shout out as part of like their history
00:11:56 ◼ ► which is actually warranted like if you think about it like one of the most impactful things that
00:12:03 ◼ ► they have done in the last maybe 20 years is something like apple pay but it is just funny it's like
00:12:11 ◼ ► you've got like the ipod apple watch iphone apple pay yeah they shoehorned they shoehorned a bunch
00:12:19 ◼ ► of services into that which is i mean it's fine whatever no but i think it's warranted it's just not as
00:12:24 ◼ ► sexy right like it doesn't feel as good but if you think about the impact of their products
00:12:31 ◼ ► changing the way you buy things everywhere it's pretty big it's a pretty big deal um but yeah they and
00:12:40 ◼ ► and i like that that you know tim is i like that they're going to thinking they're using think
00:12:45 ◼ ► different they're using the crazy ones the misfits the rebels like they're using that language which
00:12:50 ◼ ► i'm happy to see them use that language because it is one of the most impactful things that their brand
00:12:55 ◼ ► ever did and they're going back to that um crazy is a complicated word i think to use now but
00:13:03 ◼ ► if you're going to do it if you're going to call back to it you've got to call back to it
00:13:07 ◼ ► the way that they did and they're using that word um and i like that they're referencing that
00:13:15 ◼ ► they don't usually look back as a company but they're deciding to do that now and we're going
00:13:20 ◼ ► to see stuff i guess over the next few weeks from them i think it's great yeah if you're not going to do
00:13:25 ◼ ► it very often 50 is a good number um i agree with you you wouldn't use that word now but they're
00:13:30 ◼ ► quoting right the past um you know i think a lot of people i saw some some feelings about this on
00:13:36 ◼ ► mastodon of course but um when i linked to tim's tim cook's letter um tim my good friend tim's letter
00:13:44 ◼ ► earlier today was like you know this is it is going to be a fun celebration and a lot of this
00:13:49 ◼ ► throws back to like why i fell in love with the mac back in high school right when i first used one
00:13:54 ◼ ► um but we've got a great apple at all times but i think even now with a um with you know realistic
00:14:04 ◼ ► eyes right that yes there's a lot of great stuff about apple that's been true for a long time
00:14:09 ◼ ► there's a lot of stuff that's not so great about apple right now we need to be honest about that too
00:14:14 ◼ ► and apple's gonna i heard you sigh give me a second you know apple's gonna be all excited right now
00:14:21 ◼ ► you can be excited and feel weird about things like it's fine you can you can feel all the things
00:14:26 ◼ ► i'm not saying it you and i wasn't saying i was more i was blowing air out i just like can't we just
00:14:33 ◼ ► like what we've made on our computers like can we can we just like so here's the thing like the
00:14:41 ◼ ► reason that i said is like this there's a line in this letter from tim says the most meaningful
00:14:45 ◼ ► chapters are written by all of you the people who use our technology to work learn dream and discover
00:14:50 ◼ ► you've made breakthroughs and launched businesses and so like i am in a nostalgic mind like feeling
00:14:57 ◼ ► myself today reading that because like apple is 50 years old but we have been doing this together for
00:15:05 ◼ ► nearly 15 years yeah like such a huge portion of their history we have been doing this for which
00:15:14 ◼ ► doesn't even feel like it could be accurate but what i know is we are all here because of what we have
00:15:21 ◼ ► made on our max like yeah and i just i think it's incredible that they're that this company has
00:15:30 ◼ ► produced these products that have inspired us and enabled us and i think it's worth celebrating and i
00:15:37 ◼ ► think i would personally love over the next couple of weeks while they're going to be doing this and
00:15:44 ◼ ► we're all doing this can't we just all agree together to enjoy it and then we can go back to criticizing
00:15:51 ◼ ► them right like i use a critical eye on apple 365 weeks of the year right wait wait wait that's a lot
00:16:01 ◼ ► of weeks no no that's what i do i i multiply it by seven or something what did i do i'm doing i'm losing
00:16:09 ◼ ► the plot here but like you know i'm very critical of them we all are but like let's just let's just
00:16:17 ◼ ► look back and enjoy it right that is my plea to everyone just enjoy it for a couple of weeks and see
00:16:26 ◼ ► where we land i don't know and i know everyone's going to test the noise a bunch of people just made
00:16:36 ◼ ► okay apple's just vibing at 50 you know i hope to be vibing at 50 me too man i'm gonna write an open
00:16:45 ◼ ► letter when i turn 50 yeah you know oh my god it's not very far away for you steven that's 10 years
00:16:50 ◼ ► away it's longer than that for me and federico for you it's super close you could start writing
00:16:59 ◼ ► this episode of connected is brought to you by century we at relay use century you may know we
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00:18:56 ◼ ► multiple times in the last 48 hours i've considered taking a trip to the apple store to buy a macbook
00:19:03 ◼ ► neo because everyone's so excited about it uh we did an episode of upgrade jason had one and we spoke
00:19:10 ◼ ► about it and reviewed it uh he's published a review lots of people have mkbhd called the macbook neo
00:19:15 ◼ ► apple's most disruptive product in the last 10 years uh this product is getting reviews that are
00:19:23 ◼ ► very surprising to me um overall people are very excited about the macbook neo you both ordered one
00:19:31 ◼ ► i would like to hear what you have to say i have quite a story to tell love it so i got a macbook neo
00:19:41 ◼ ► 512 gigs in silver because i really wanted to have that white keyboard and like i told you guys i was
00:19:47 ◼ ► really fascinated by this idea of uh of an affordable mac powered by a phone chip there's something about
00:19:54 ◼ ► it that i don't know speaks to me um in a similar way that the iphone air does but obviously they're
00:19:59 ◼ ► two very different devices but this idea of this powerful computer with this powerful actual desktop os
00:20:07 ◼ ► running on a phone chip and being so affordable it i don't know intriguing that it was very intriguing to
00:20:15 ◼ ► me so i got it yesterday and i start setting it up with the apps that i usually use more on this in a
00:20:22 ◼ ► minute and my first 30 minutes first hour was kind of horrible um i started downloading the apps that i use
00:20:32 ◼ ► for regular work on a daily basis notion superhuman for email the comet browser slack discord uh you will
00:20:43 ◼ ► notice that all of these are electron apps and i don't know if it was a matter of you know these these
00:20:51 ◼ ► electron apps are obviously very memory hungry and this computer only has eight gigs of ram um i don't know
00:20:57 ◼ ► if it was that problem or also the fact that when you first set up an apple computer from scratch it does
00:21:03 ◼ ► a lot of indexing up front i turned off apple intelligence but still spotlight for example was
00:21:11 ◼ ► doing the initial indexing and it's all that stuff that happens when you first set up a computer notes
00:21:16 ◼ ► photos all those things being downloaded anyway the computer for like 30 minutes was incredibly slow
00:21:23 ◼ ► and stuttering like i would drag a window around and it would go at like 20 frames a second it was terrible
00:21:31 ◼ ► this sounds like the kinds of behaviors that i have sometimes on my macbook air okay it was so bad
00:21:38 ◼ ► that i quickly realized well okay i needed to get this out of my system i guess this the experiment is
00:21:45 ◼ ► over so i went on apple.com to my account page and i started the process for returning the computer
00:21:53 ◼ ► and they gave me the instructions and the label and said the delivery company will be in touch with
00:21:59 ◼ ► you to pick up this computer so i kept using the computer and it stopped being slow and i actually
00:22:12 ◼ ► worked on it all day and i noticed for example that this computer uses swap obviously very often like on a
00:22:22 ◼ ► regular basis now i have the full ram basically filled by my apps and the rest like five of six gigabytes go to swap
00:22:32 ◼ ► uh and uh obviously like there's a lot to be said about the storage of the of this computer this ssd is like
00:22:39 ◼ ► eight times slower than the ssd on my macbook pro and it's like uh half the speed of a macbook air for example
00:22:46 ◼ ► the thing is i kept working on it and i really really liked it and this morning the doorman
00:22:55 ◼ ► calls me and he's like uh there's a ups guy here that uh wants to pick up something uh from you for a scheduled pickup
00:23:04 ◼ ► and i realized oh it's it's the computer i guess they're already coming today even though i started the return process
00:23:13 ◼ ► yesterday evening i guess they're already here and on the spot in 30 seconds i had to make a decision i had to decide well
00:23:34 ◼ ► no i said i canceled it you don't need to pick up anything from me and so it's like okay sure
00:23:41 ◼ ► our market has canceled um i i won't pick up anything and and i kept it i i kept it because
00:23:56 ◼ ► yeah and i think and i think this is one of those times just like the iphone air it's not the best
00:24:03 ◼ ► iphone that i can use but it's the one that i like to use the most and in this case i think it's a
00:24:07 ◼ ► combination of design because i really do like this design and in a way i will say something that is
00:24:14 ◼ ► potentially unpopular in a way the the the the the chassis of the macbook neo feels more premium than
00:24:22 ◼ ► the macbook pro to me i don't know if it's the way that it's curved at the edges like how it tapers off
00:24:29 ◼ ► in a slightly different way but it feels really solid and it feels very apple and premium i love
00:24:35 ◼ ► the white keyboard i know that it's a silly thing but i really really do like it how it pairs with the
00:24:41 ◼ ► silver as opposed to the black keyboard on my macbook pro i like this feeling and this is so silly
00:24:48 ◼ ► but because of the bezels um and again the display is worse than my macbook pro everything is worse
00:24:55 ◼ ► in this computer compared to the macbook pro but it's got that sort of intangible quality of being nice
00:25:01 ◼ ► um and when i use it it kind of reminds me visually speaking of an ipad pro attached to a keyboard
00:25:10 ◼ ► that it's running mac os i don't know why but it kind of reminds me of the old ipad pro pre-2018
00:25:18 ◼ ► design a pre-liquid red-hand display with those rectangular bezels like the the 2015 to 2017 generation
00:25:26 ◼ ► ipad pro it reminds me of that but attached to a white keyboard running mac os um and it just feels
00:25:35 ◼ ► so nice and i keep i keep thinking it feels incredible that it's actually working even though
00:25:42 ◼ ► at the same time it is also true that is objectively worse than my macbook pro for example when you click on
00:25:52 ◼ ► an app in the dock it takes a split second more for the window to appear everything feels slightly
00:25:59 ◼ ► slower than even my m4 mac mini that i'm using right now it's got that like you click on the icon and it's
00:26:07 ◼ ► not immediate it's not slow but it's a split second more to to see the window on screen um it's compromised
00:26:15 ◼ ► but it balances that out with this feeling of almost being impossible the same way that the phone part of
00:26:24 ◼ ► the iphone air being inside the camera plateau feels impossible you know it's that kind of feeling that
00:26:30 ◼ ► i'm using something futuristic is not the right word because this computer is slower than everything else
00:26:37 ◼ ► but it's futuristic uh it's like philosophically futuristic if you will like it's running on a
00:26:43 ◼ ► phone chip a phone chip can do this now and uh it feels nice to hold and to look at and to use
00:26:52 ◼ ► the keyboard the trackpad it's a nice object and it doesn't cost a fortune and so that's why i decided
00:27:00 ◼ ► to keep it and i do love the 13 inch size it's lighter than my macbook pro obviously um kind again
00:27:08 ◼ ► kind of feels like an ipad pro attached to a keyboard running mac os and um yeah that's my 24 hour
00:27:17 ◼ ► first impressions of this computer i'm really intrigued by the fact that you find it to feel nicer than your
00:27:25 ◼ ► macbook pro and i wonder what is what that is that's making you feel like that maybe it's the
00:27:31 ◼ ► weight maybe it's the color of the keyboard maybe it's the the fact that i don't see the speaker grills
00:27:35 ◼ ► at all times because they're off to the sides have you used the macbook air not in a while okay i wonder
00:27:43 ◼ ► because like i love the macbook air design much more than i like the macbook pro design even though
00:27:48 ◼ ► they're all the same they're all similar and the air is basically the neo is basically the air steven
00:27:54 ◼ ► i mean you haven't really said much yet but what do you think because i know you've used both uh design
00:27:59 ◼ ► wise do you find them to be comparable the air and the neo definitely i mean i think if you had been
00:28:07 ◼ ► in some sort of coma or something the last several years and you woke up and the first thing that
00:28:14 ◼ ► happened is i handed you this laptop and i said here's a laptop you would think it's the macbook air
00:28:20 ◼ ► like it it had it totally feels like a macbook air you know it's a little i think because it's narrower
00:28:27 ◼ ► at 13 inches it feels it's you know technically it is slightly thicker i think it feels a little
00:28:33 ◼ ► thicker than i thought it would but not at all in a bad way and i agree with federico the 13 inch size
00:28:40 ◼ ► is pretty nice um it's just it's a very it's a very fun computer in a way that you know they're
00:28:51 ◼ ► and um i've just i've been very impressed my initial setup was very much like federico's and
00:28:58 ◼ ► you know that's how these things go right the same thing is true on iphones and ipads right the first
00:29:02 ◼ ► little while there's a lot going on and it's got a i moved from a time machine backup of my macbook air
00:29:09 ◼ ► and that was actually about as fast as i thought it would be um there's not a lot of data to move
00:29:16 ◼ ► but uh yeah it's so far so good i think as a for me as a secondary machine um when i don't need to
00:29:24 ◼ ► take my work laptop with me i think it's i think it's going to be killer for that i think it's going
00:29:29 ◼ ► to be great for students like it is um much more capable than i think people would look at it and think
00:29:36 ◼ ► i mean tyler stallman did this great video now we can put it in the show notes looking at it from
00:29:41 ◼ ► like the pro apps perspective it's like people are editing 4k video on the iphone of course the
00:29:48 ◼ ► macbook neo can do it is it as fast as an air or pro absolutely not but it is so much cheaper and it
00:29:54 ◼ ► is well above the bar of usable i think it's um i think apple really struck a good balance with all this
00:30:00 ◼ ► there's a funny thing that tyler does in his video where he opens everything in the applications
00:30:06 ◼ ► folder right and it just continues to run and like you'd assume that that would just take it down but
00:30:12 ◼ ► it doesn't it just keeps going it's very impressive man this silicon that they built unbelievable oh
00:30:18 ◼ ► absolutely it's you know yes it is a phone chip but like so all these that's where they all came from
00:30:25 ◼ ► right and you know i think the distinction of what's a phone chip and what's not it's very
00:30:30 ◼ ► quickly fading away i think this laptop is is proof of that i think the m4 and m5 etc being in the ipad
00:30:37 ◼ ► blurs the lines i really am viewing these things as a gradient now between the a whatever and the a
00:30:45 ◼ ► whatever max and ultra right it's just a it's a continuum of capability and power yes there were
00:30:52 ◼ ► trade-offs because they did it and i think over time those trade-offs will get better right that
00:30:57 ◼ ► if they go to the a19 pro they'll have 12 gigabytes of memory maybe future a pro you know a series chips
00:31:11 ◼ ► and look those things for a lot of people like the port thing doesn't matter it just doesn't matter
00:31:17 ◼ ► i mean even i a professional like unless i'm at my desk plugged into things i'm not plugging things
00:31:24 ◼ ► into my laptop in the real world anymore so so much has moved past that um and so i think the trade-offs
00:31:31 ◼ ► are totally fine for where they are and they will only get better this is the worst version of this
00:31:36 ◼ ► computer there will ever be and this version of it is still pretty great you figure it's gonna
00:31:41 ◼ ► i mean i don't i think it'll be quite a while until they significantly revise it like even if they put
00:31:46 ◼ ► another chip in it i can't imagine them putting another port on this for no no i know i just meant
00:31:50 ◼ ► that instead of one usb2 and one usb3 oh sorry yes it would be speeds the speeds right yeah sorry i may
00:31:58 ◼ ► have been confusing about no i think i just i think i misunderstood you i in it looks like amazing
00:32:05 ◼ ► computer i every time i see it i'm like i wished it was a little bit smaller because then i could
00:32:08 ◼ ► justify it because i just don't have i already have a 13 inch laptop sure right like so it doesn't but
00:32:15 ◼ ► like if this was a little smaller like then it would be like oh i could imagine myself having one
00:32:20 ◼ ► like if i was to get one of these it's purely as a curiosity like yeah which i think is mostly where
00:32:25 ◼ ► you are federico right like this was a as a purchase was a curiosity purchase to begin with at least
00:32:31 ◼ ► but man i i can't believe the way that people are talking about it it's very surprising like everyone
00:32:40 ◼ ► seems so excited about this computer and i just i didn't think it was going to be bad right but like
00:32:46 ◼ ► i didn't think that it was going to get the i would say basically glowing reviews that it has gotten so
00:32:52 ◼ ► far i think it's very impressive what they've done here i think i think in the context of it right
00:32:58 ◼ ► that the macbook air is literally twice as much in a lot of scenarios right being able to hit this price
00:33:07 ◼ ► point with a product this good it's a huge flex and i think that having um you know there's this quote
00:33:15 ◼ ► i think they gave to jason maybe some other people like they we didn't start with the macbook air and
00:33:19 ◼ ► we started from the ground up like okay that's semantic in a lot of ways but this does feel like
00:33:28 ◼ ► its own thing in a way that um i didn't really expect i sort of expected it to feel like oh this
00:33:36 ◼ ► is a macbook air that they just chopped a bunch of stuff out of and and maybe it's the enclosure
00:33:41 ◼ ► maybe it's the colors i don't know but it does feel like its own purpose designed machine in a way
00:33:49 ◼ ► that um really in a way the macbook air did in the beginning or the way the 12 inch macbook did
00:33:55 ◼ ► right it's like oh you designed this as a as a new thing and certainly it takes cues from its bigger
00:34:02 ◼ ► siblings but it does feel distinct in a way that um i can't quite put my finger on i think that's one
00:34:08 ◼ ► reason the reviews have been positive it's like it feels like its own computer not something that
00:34:12 ◼ ► you know got chopped down by a bunch of product managers and then shipped yeah and the price
00:34:21 ◼ ► yeah incredible price at that price like just unbelievable like really it's gonna be very
00:34:30 ◼ ► successful for them i'm sure and they obviously they believe in it enough to have created this whole
00:34:35 ◼ ► new marketing campaign on a platform that they weren't really using right like i think they
00:34:40 ◼ ► have they're treating this like it's a big deal and i think they're right to do so me too any other
00:34:47 ◼ ► questions mike i guess to both of you really like i think steven you i feel like i maybe know this for
00:34:53 ◼ ► you more but do you actually imagine this being a computer in your lineup um yeah i do um i think that
00:35:02 ◼ ► having you know we talked about last week like i i do have the desire to have a laptop that i can use
00:35:10 ◼ ► for things that aren't work um or times where i don't want to take my work laptop with me because
00:35:14 ◼ ► it's really expensive and has lots of data on it that if you know that i work with lots of people
00:35:20 ◼ ► um having something that's more my own sort of personal computer if you will that's a term we should
00:35:27 ◼ ► use personal computer i like a computer for your own yeah it's really cool that is really good it's
00:35:34 ◼ ► i'm i'm a professional it's uh that's compelling to me and yeah i could use an ipad for a lot of that
00:35:41 ◼ ► stuff but i just don't want to i just don't want to and so yeah i do think it's gonna stick around for
00:35:47 ◼ ► me um i do have an m3 macbook air that you know i've got a i think i mentioned this i got a family
00:35:53 ◼ ► member that could use an upgrade and that may go to them to replace what they're using and this i think
00:36:01 ◼ ► could totally meet my needs you know i'm doing a little light email some photo stuff like but it's
00:36:07 ◼ ► capable of so much more right uh than even what i would be doing with it and the size is great um you
00:36:14 ◼ ► know i get the desire for it to be smaller and i liked what jason said on upgrade that that feels
00:36:19 ◼ ► like a different product and i don't need that i don't think they need to go that route again
00:36:24 ◼ ► personally and so yeah i think it's going to stick around for me what about you federico yeah i also i
00:36:32 ◼ ► also think so i think i'm gonna try and i think i'm gonna try and get some work done on it for the next
00:36:40 ◼ ► few weeks and see what happens especially now that you know in hindsight i probably don't need
00:36:46 ◼ ► a macbook pro right because i have a mac mini and a mac studio where like local ai things can run in the
00:36:53 ◼ ► background and i no longer need to use something you know like lm studio for example on a portable
00:37:01 ◼ ► computer anymore um and so most of my work happens you know notion slack i have telegram for chatting
00:37:09 ◼ ► with open claw uh i have my browser for all of my web apps um it's a pretty simple system really as long
00:37:17 ◼ ► as i have one password and i can log in into all my things um i can install ivory uh for social media
00:37:24 ◼ ► blue sky in the browser so i think i'm gonna be fine in fact i've already you know all of the show
00:37:30 ◼ ► notes for my podcast today i just did all the research on on the macbook neo and i was totally okay
00:37:36 ◼ ► and uh you know it's um i was thinking about this there's a there's an article um on kotaku uh let me find
00:37:46 ◼ ► it um by it's called on friction i don't know if you guys have ever oh yeah seen this article by tim rogers
00:37:56 ◼ ► um great great writer and also a video game developer and also a youtuber highly highly recommended and
00:38:03 ◼ ► there's this old article from from 16 years ago in praise of sticky friction this idea that sometimes
00:38:10 ◼ ► friction in in any kind of experience can be a good thing um because it makes you appreciate
00:38:17 ◼ ► what you're doing a little bit more and i was thinking about this concept uh of friction in using
00:38:26 ◼ ► the macbook neo you know that everything is a little bit slow and everything you know takes maybe a
00:38:31 ◼ ► little bit more effort compared to you know something like a macbook pro or a macbook air
00:38:36 ◼ ► and i think it's it's hitting the same notes for me that working on the ipad many years ago did because
00:38:44 ◼ ► it got it had the little bit of friction that kind of forced you to be more focused and to optimize
00:38:51 ◼ ► how you worked a little bit more right and and that's why maybe this computer is resonating with me right
00:38:59 ◼ ► now because when you have a powerful computer that everything is possible right and you can open
00:39:04 ◼ ► 47 windows and it doesn't care and you have 96 gigs of ram or whatever uh you you it's kind of silly to
00:39:14 ◼ ► say but you don't really appreciate it right because it's like yeah whatever i can do everything i want
00:39:19 ◼ ► here you cannot do everything you want you're forced to choose and i think it's the choosing and again
00:39:25 ◼ ► being more focused and appreciating the machine more it sounds counterintuitive but i think just like i
00:39:34 ◼ ► appreciated the ipad years ago before it was so powerful as it is right now i think the same is
00:39:40 ◼ ► happening with the macbook neo so are you telling me you can get real work done on a neo i'm telling you
00:39:46 ◼ ► that yes no way no way yeah what's a computer after all right i mean it it is on a collision
00:39:56 ◼ ► course with the ipad right yeah having an ipad we talked about this last week having an ipad with a
00:40:02 ◼ ► keyboard potentially much more expensive than this thing and for those of us who prefer to work on mac os
00:40:09 ◼ ► it's it's it's opened up a possibility that hasn't been there before and i think that's one reason
00:40:15 ◼ ► people are excited about it i mean i i think that the macbook neo is um an example an indicator of the
00:40:23 ◼ ► fact that somebody high up at apple really cares about the mac and mac os yeah i think the existence of
00:40:30 ◼ ► this product is them showing a i would say it is another indication of the clear renewed love
00:40:39 ◼ ► and appreciation that they have for the mac at apple which was questioned for some time yeah um
00:40:46 ◼ ► right but i think this is a a clear indication of how they're feeling about the platform right now
00:40:53 ◼ ► there are so many macs now like in the last few years they've introduced two completely new lines of
00:40:59 ◼ ► macintosh yeah right we have the mac studio and we have like something at the top and we have something
00:41:05 ◼ ► at the bottom um they they really care about this and i think they care about it now to a point that
00:41:11 ◼ ► they are clearly willing to allow for a bit of disruption to the ipad yeah it's just it's so
00:41:21 ◼ ► interesting and and they still have i mean what's really wide about about the mac is how many desktops
00:41:27 ◼ ► there are like yeah having three laptop lines i think makes a lot of sense you know i don't know
00:41:32 ◼ ► if there's room for a fourth ultralight that is more expensive like that that's just confusing i think
00:41:37 ◼ ► to a lot of people but the fact that there's so many desktops is is kind of bonkers and there's probably
00:41:43 ◼ ► going to be one fewer you know here uh relatively soon but yeah i think it's i think it's really
00:41:49 ◼ ► interesting that they are um that they are doing this doing it now doing it in this way like i find
00:41:58 ◼ ► it all very encouraging as a mac fan but steven why do you have two of these yeah so a thing happened
00:42:05 ◼ ► oh really yeah okay do you want to is that it moving on remember last week when i said i'd ordered
00:42:15 ◼ ► uh a citrus model yeah um when i said that a little voice like something just felt weird in my brain
00:42:25 ◼ ► and so i went and looked into my email and actually ordered an indigo one and i have no idea how that
00:42:30 ◼ ► happened uh so i ordered a citrus one for review so that's going to be the one that i review and take
00:42:35 ◼ ► pictures of um and i think we'll end up keeping both anyways because my my youngest is at the point
00:42:43 ◼ ► where like he's doing a lot of homework and schoolwork on a computer and he's having to borrow one from
00:42:49 ◼ ► somebody so they're both going to stick around anyways um and i like indigo way better i love the indigo
00:42:56 ◼ ► that one's going to be mine what a steven thing to do i was in a hurry you know it's like you're trying
00:43:03 ◼ ► to order something trying to get other work done oh yeah they're both great though uh and i do want to
00:43:10 ◼ ► have not seen blush in person but i plan on uh bopping up to the apple store to see that because i think
00:43:24 ◼ ► uh i got delivered at home because i figured like i'm not at the studio every day and i'm definitely
00:43:30 ◼ ► not at the studio at the times that some of the delivery companies come at least especially this
00:43:35 ◼ ► delivered like 7 30 p.m right it's just like who knows when these things are going to be delivered
00:43:43 ◼ ► is that box is unbelievably heavy um i was quite surprised so i'm hoping tomorrow uh to try and get
00:43:52 ◼ ► that thing here and maybe next week i'll have something to say about it although what i'll
00:43:56 ◼ ► probably tell you is like oh that's real nice and and that'll probably be the end of it but i am very
00:44:01 ◼ ► excited for it personally but i'm not sure how much i'm gonna have to say about it but uh i will at some
00:44:06 ◼ ► point go to an apple store and i will look at the macbook neo and then we'll see what happens in my life
00:44:10 ◼ ► can't wait i just i already have a laptop that i take with me every day like what am i gonna what am i
00:44:17 ◼ ► gonna do with this thing you know that's true your system's all different than what it used to be
00:44:22 ◼ ► yeah like i i have my macbook air like it's the same weight like i don't know what like i just i have
00:44:28 ◼ ► nothing to do with it like as less ram and the same weight and like i i just don't think i could use it
00:44:36 ◼ ► it would purely be as a curiosity and i i have restrained myself because i know the curiosity will
00:44:43 ◼ ► last a couple of weeks and then i have another laptop to deal with you know and i decide i'm
00:44:48 ◼ ► gonna look at them at some point just for fun but i i cannot find a place in my life where this thing
00:44:53 ◼ ► makes any kind of sense i mean that's fair and very mature honestly yes i've grown you know 365
00:45:02 ◼ ► this episode of connected is brought to you by copeland supply makers of the cloth pro max copeland
00:45:12 ◼ ► supply is a two-person operation two people that i like quinn nelson at snazzy labs and his wife
00:45:17 ◼ ► megan they're doing this out of their home in utah and they're doing some really cool stuff we all know
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00:46:18 ◼ ► it on my phone it's in this awesome warm gray color it looks like the natural titanium super awesome
00:46:24 ◼ ► and the packaging it comes in is completely recyclable which i love it should work well on an iphone 17e
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00:47:03 ◼ ► awesome it's made by awesome people my thanks to copeland supply for making this product and their
00:47:08 ◼ ► support of connected it's time gentlemen oh yes time for the jeremies what is this game now can you
00:47:19 ◼ ► there are rules there are some rules so fewer than than other rules uh jer the jeremies are where federico
00:47:28 ◼ ► tries to guess the name of upcoming emoji um and uh it's kind of up to to really mike's the judge of this
00:47:37 ◼ ► it's kind of up to mike depending on how close he gets but we do have the official names
00:47:42 ◼ ► federico needs to get close to those he gets a point for everyone that he gets right i think i believe is how
00:47:48 ◼ ► it works we can we can joint judge this okay i didn't have the time today to also turn this into a
00:47:54 ◼ ► quizzes um i just didn't wait how what what what in the past couple of years i've turned this into a
00:48:01 ◼ ► waging game oh that's right yeah but i i didn't have the the ability to spin up my spreadsheet today so
00:48:08 ◼ ► you you can we can joint judge this today i appreciate that yeah so yeah federico there is
00:48:16 ◼ ► an image that steven will send to you i guess yes so you can see this without any of the names
00:48:24 ◼ ► uh i would like to believe that you as always have not um uh taken a look at these i have avoided all
00:48:33 ◼ ► articles and social media posts about this there's only eight this is one of the things about this
00:48:39 ◼ ► game they used to have so many but now they have so few um it is incredible in the age of genmoji that
00:48:46 ◼ ► we are still continuing to get new emoji you know because like we could just make all of these
00:48:50 ◼ ► yeah but emoji are universal you know so i'm kidding because you can't all of these emoji look good you
00:48:57 ◼ ► can't make emoji that look this good yeah all right federico what am i looking at put it in
00:49:03 ◼ ► well that's the question really yeah it's really that is it so listeners there is an image in the
00:49:10 ◼ ► show notes and also the podcast chapter are is showing these um and we will be going through
00:49:15 ◼ ► them starting from the top left and going along each row federico so we begin with this is one that
00:49:22 ◼ ► will be added to the kind of emoji face uh lexicon uh what is it what is this what would you call this
00:49:29 ◼ ► i have no idea yeah so i'm looking at a okay so this is not my answer right i'm just thinking out loud
00:49:36 ◼ ► i am looking at what looks like some kind of shocked face but we already have a shocked face
00:49:43 ◼ ► i think um this is what like like a face that's been filled with air and it's like blowing out or
00:49:51 ◼ ► something it's like a compressed what's happening to this face so i'm gonna mention here and you can
00:50:01 ◼ ► look at this after but i will also include a link in the show notes to a post on uh mastodon from basic
00:50:06 ◼ ► apple guy saying i thought that this looked familiar this is i don't think intentionally
00:50:13 ◼ ► but is absolutely referencing the emoji that got squashed in the crush ad oh yeah yes actually
00:50:21 ◼ ► looking at it i 100 believe that they are referencing this um that that great ad that nobody liked
00:50:28 ◼ ► what's happening to this it's being squashed i think you're right yeah but would would they call
00:50:37 ◼ ► it squashed squashing no that's kind of kind of violent um not compressed uh but uh i i i don't even know
00:50:52 ◼ ► how to describe it in italian you're on the right lines i i'm gonna say federico you know you have
00:50:58 ◼ ► surprised me many times i am convinced you will not get the word that they're looking for but you are on
00:51:06 ◼ ► the right kind of trajectory with your descriptor squash compressed uh blowing up no it's not blowing up
00:51:16 ◼ ► at some point at some point at some point you need to yeah i'm not rushing you but at some point just tell
00:51:21 ◼ ► me i'm locking in this you know and then we can move on from there um what's the english word
00:51:30 ◼ ► the other english words for this it's been it's been being compressed it's been i don't know i'm i'm going
00:51:38 ◼ ► with i'm going with um squashing face this is called distorted face distorted uh yeah you were in the
00:51:50 ◼ ► ballpark yeah yeah makes sense makes sense and okay this to me is the fascinating part they decided to
00:51:59 ◼ ► make it look like that right like a distorted face could be in anything i this is what they went with
00:52:05 ◼ ► and let me tell you boys this emoji i'm gonna use all the time this is an a plus player this one this
00:52:10 ◼ ► to me is like when they added melting face which i use all the time i am going to use this guy all the
00:52:16 ◼ ► time this is such a good like this could be a shocked face this could be a like this could be an
00:52:21 ◼ ► alternative to the looking emoji because this guy is like what what are you saying you know like
00:52:26 ◼ ► this one is i love this emoji i'm going to use it a lot distorted face yeah yeah excellent distorted
00:52:33 ◼ ► okay okay okay all right so moving on what have we got next to it so this if i'm okay i look at it
00:52:41 ◼ ► and i'm immediately thinking of manga japanese comic books okay this is this is the the the sort of the
00:52:49 ◼ ► the the figure the you know the this sort of speech bubble that gets used when the characters in a manga
00:53:06 ◼ ► what would apple say it has the rings there's a bunch of connected podcast around the outside there's
00:53:14 ◼ ► the rings there's the rings there's like stars and like uh and like uh like thunder or something
00:53:19 ◼ ► um would they say angry cloud angry speech bubble um bad words no they wouldn't say bad words
00:53:39 ◼ ► so close oh no fight cloud ah you were so close man you were so this is another great emoji come on
00:53:51 ◼ ► this is this is a really good one this is another great emoji fight cloud okay these these two very
00:53:57 ◼ ► useful where like i feel like they've not had so many useful additions in the last couple of years
00:54:02 ◼ ► so you're you're two you're zero for two so far yeah yeah yeah okay so next up is a person doing
00:54:11 ◼ ► classical dance now um sylvia would probably know the name of this move so she's standing on on
00:54:28 ◼ ► oh gender neutral yeah this one but it's a time but it's not dancer right it's uh hmm i'm torn between
00:54:38 ◼ ► two right because in english you would say like a ballerina or but that's not gender neutral at least
00:54:45 ◼ ► it's not in italian um or classical dancer and i think i'm going since it's more inclusive i think i'm
00:54:55 ◼ ► going with classical dancer oh he's so close ballet dancer ballet dancer oh my god oh my god you were so
00:55:03 ◼ ► close i was hoping he was gonna get there you were so close so this emoji exists because of the two
00:55:11 ◼ ► dancing people so you have a dancing man and a dancing woman a dancing man is doing like disco the
00:55:16 ◼ ► dancing woman is doing like flamenco and then they've introduced the gender neutral ballet i should have
00:55:23 ◼ ► said ballet you were so close like you were there you were right there you had ballerina
00:55:27 ◼ ► and then you had classical dance because we don't say ballet in italian we say classical dance oh really
00:55:38 ◼ ► are you guys familiar with the fact that that timothy chalamet is in trouble because he doesn't like
00:56:03 ◼ ► what what no what i need before i'm i'm just gonna give you you're gonna say that this is a walking
00:56:10 ◼ ► monkey i'm gonna give you because it's not here for a second remember the unicode consortium
00:56:25 ◼ ► doesn't it but it's all big claims huge claims here on the collective podcast i feel i i am being
00:56:33 ◼ ► gaslighted right now like this this is bigfoot i'm looking at i am literally that is bigfoot i agree
00:56:42 ◼ ► with you okay what you are looking at is bigfoot but okay right but you're telling me that there's a
00:56:50 ◼ ► weird name for bigfoot i'm telling you that's bigfoot i agree with you but the unicode consortium
00:56:57 ◼ ► would not call him let's let's let's let's let's brainstorm this out for a second i'm so pleased
00:57:04 ◼ ► that they did the the walking looking at the camera bigfoot pose it's very funny that's great isn't
00:57:09 ◼ ► that brilliant like they were cooking let me just say actually in general the people working on emoji at
00:57:15 ◼ ► apple cooking on this set so there was a uh as you may imagine there was a mac rumors forum post about
00:57:22 ◼ ► this and everyone's like oh they're doing this where's the ai stuff where's the mac pro come on
00:57:28 ◼ ► people no it's a good point i want the emoji person working on the next mac pro it would it would be
00:57:34 ◼ ► very delightful more colorful be more colorful more fun yeah yeah but you know generally the the
00:57:42 ◼ ► consortium they want to find generic names for things yes generic name i'll say that as a i mean