The Press Box - Ep. 178: 'Technically Speaking' With Molly McHugh

Episode Date: September 6, 2016

The Ringer's Molly McHugh is joined by Ringer staff writer Alyssa Bereznak, Wired's David Pierce, and freelance tech journalist Glenn Fleishman to discuss Apple's big iPhone event and the fatigue hanging over the entire rollout this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the finally named Technically Speaking podcast is brought to you by Seatgeek, our presenting sponsor and the only fan-friendly app for buying and selling sports and music tickets. Seatkeek makes buying tickets on your phone a total snap. With just two taps, you can instantly buy tickets to an event that same day, have your tickets delivered straight to your phone, and enter the event without ever having to print a ticket. And if you can't go to a game or show, you can sell your tickets directly from the app in less than 30 seconds.

With Seatgeek, there's no guesswork. You'll know exactly what you're getting, what you'll pay, and whether or not you're getting a good deal, all right from your phone. So drop your old ticket app and experience buying and selling tickets the way it should be. To start using Seatgeek, download the free Seatgeek app or go to Seatgeek.com. Hi, this is Molly McHugh, and you're listening to Technically Speaking. We finally named the podcast. Today we're going to talk about the Apple event. The iPhone event is coming, and we're going to chat first with the ringer's own Alyssa

Bresnak. Hey, Alyssa, how's it going? Good. So you wrote about how all of this, just the entire system around getting an iPhone event super hyped up. Was there anything you found out that surprised you when you started looking into this? Yeah, I just completely trained a set number of Apple-specific blogs and media to react to every single thing they do. And that's part of partly by creating sort of a scarcity of information. But it's also by, like, you know, a lot of the research I did was reading past reports by, like, the, like, rock star Apple reporter Mark German and about how they specifically had, like, really cushy relationships with Apple bloggers and would tip them off and temper expectations. But, you know, I think it's sort of an American tradition at this point. I know that sounds cool.

But it's almost like, oh, yeah, like, got to, like, read the tea leaves on the Apple invite. Like, got to, like, connect the dots and come up with conspiracy theories because that's just what we do in the fall. I know. Did you see any tea leaves in this particular invite with the weird kind of camera effect going on? Is there anything you read into there? Yes, I'm pretty much a connoisseur of Apple invites at this point. And I can tell you that this one has a lot to do with probably the improved Apple or the improved iPhone 7 camera, which is apparently getting a lot of wonderful updates. And also it says, see you on the 7th.

And, you know, it's iPhone 7. And so they were being very cute with their wording there. Very cute, yeah. So how many iPhone events have you gone to? I think I've gone to about four or five in my past life as a consumer tech reporter. Right. Were there any that you were just kind of blown away or maybe all of them? Like, was there a particular phone that just they introduced it and you're like, dang, that's better than I thought it was going to be?

So it's funny that you asked that because I was there for the Apple Watch announcement. Oh, okay. Their own acknowledgement that the product existed, which they made a really big deal about. I mean, we talk about reading T. Leaves, and they actually, like, had it at the De Anza College Auditorium that Steve Jobs announced the IMAQ at, like, years ago. and so it felt very like historic they had that giant white cube outside so and and they invited a lot of journalists and they really they I mean they made the snack tables extra fancy that day I remember I was just looking through some old photos and I was like drinking like a roogala juice that they had provided for me and and I think like just all of those factors really got me amped up because I was looking through the live log that we did for Yahoo Tech that day and I was just like pumped about it and now I like I just think back to okay like I didn't end up really caring about the Apple Watch that much like it's definitely a cool tech accessory but it's like I ended up not really finding much use in it and it kind of made me a horrible person but that's a

whole different story and so I guess what I mean to say is it was just super easy to drink the Kool-Aid or in this case the green arugula juice and, you know, get pumped because they just really did it up big. Yeah, I always go into the, especially the device events, very like, skeptical, probably because I am just like, I'm so fine with my phone. There's definitely things about it that bug me or if it glitches, I get annoyed, but just in general, I'm totally fine with my phone. So I just kind of go into these events like, I don't know, like what's. And then halfway through, I realized like, I'm buying into this, 100% like, I'm like, this thing is the best. I have to order it. I never do. I've literally never bought the new iPhone when it comes out. So clearly everything wears off

by like day three and I realize it's all stuff I don't necessarily need. And once my phone craps out and I buy a new one in a year and a half or something, then I'll just be happy to have it. But yeah, they do a great job of like midway through the show. You're just like, yeah, this is this is the future. Like they stumbled onto it. It's amazing. It's like a very delicate game of hypnosis. Like I remember my editor was sort of making fun of me at one time because I like I was sitting

next to him in the crowd and we were live blogging the event. And I actually ended up applauding for like a small minor announcement like having to do with Apple Pay. And it was just like such a weird. like I unconscious decision on my part to applaud like I don't know why I did um it was like it's not like I've ever even really used Apple Pay but I was just so convinced in that moment that it was like an innovative thing um so it is it is sort of it just creeps up on you and I can imagine that um you know that there's an element of that too if you're watching along from work and you have nothing better to

do but convince be convinced that there's an awesome new thing on the market. Yeah, I mean, and we talked about this a little bit as you were writing your story, but really it's starting to feel like the big event. iPhone has always felt like the biggest event, and now I'm starting to get more excited about WWDC, and I just think it's a software versus hardware thing. You know, like the technology is so about software right now. We've, I don't know, it's not that we've mastered hardware or anything, but like hardware, we're pretty set. Like the iPhone, if you look at the first iPhone to the iPhone now, it looks great. Like it looks amazing.

I don't have a ton of hardware complaints about it. But software can always, there's so much we can do to get better that I just find myself getting more excited for that event. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Like, there's always going to be camera improvements that they can go through and processor improvements. But we have sort of hit a wall hardware-wise, I think, where, Unless they turn it into literally a sheet of glass, it's just, it's going to get smaller or flatter or lighter.

And, you know, it's just going on like perpetual scary diets every year. But I do agree that WWDC is sort of the time where they can really geek out and be like, this is what we're doing for your software. And it is, it's a really exciting thing for people who aren't really buying into like, I need to buy a new iPhone every fall. because they kind of have a new iPhone when they get that update. That being said, like not so helpful for Apple's, like, very predictable sales cycle, which is that they want people to, like, immediately throw their perfectly fine iPhone in the trash the second the new one comes out. So, yeah, I mean, I do agree.

I think that there's just a lack of excitement because there's no other way to, make us excited about smartphones anymore. I really don't, can't come up with a way. I mean, I really want it to be waterproof. I know that we talked about this in a ringer roundup, but other than that, it's like, yeah, put plutonium in it, so the battery lasts more. Yeah, I know, I mean, hardware in general has just lost a little bit of magic with people because we're, we're so used to it, which is, on one hand, just like amazing and great. And on the other, it's like, man, to impress us takes so much more work. But do you have, before I let you go, do you have any guesses as to what the one more thing

might be? Well, it's not always announced. True. If there is a one more thing, then, yeah. I think the one more thing is going to be like an annoying musical guest this time or something. Yeah, like, I don't know if you remember when Tim Cook did that, like, weird YouTube, like, finger touch with Bono. at the end and then like YouTube album on their phone. Like I'm sure they won't do that, but I think that

they don't have an exciting thing to reveal at the end. So it might just be a weird Apple musical artist. Yeah. The one more thing is, and we took off the headphone jack, there's going to be a riot. Well, yeah. And also it's impossible to hide that if you're announcing all of the iPhone. You know, the one thing is it's hard when. the premise of a new iPhone is baked into the event. With the Apple Watch, it was like, it made a lot of sense because they were able to go through all their normal products, and then they were like, one more thing, we have a whole new product.

But they were like, one more thing, we took away your headphone, Jack. And then bolted from the stage and like, I would love that. It would be great if their one more thing was just like, and here are the new MacBooks. Like, I would be so happy. I know. Oh, my God. I know. It's like the one thing that everyone's saying Apple to do now. It's like everyone's just sort of like having their own mini anxiety attack that they're buying a new MacBook and there's going to be like an update out any moment now. I really, I would love that. That would be great. Well, thank you for chatting with me about this and for writing about it. It's super interesting.

Yeah. Thanks, Mali. Thanks, Alyssa. And now we're going to talk to David Pierce, who works at Wired and we'll be at the Apple event tomorrow. Okay, joining us now is David Pierce. He works at Wired, and he is an Apple reporter as well as a reporter on many other things, but he is going to the event tomorrow. David, how's it going? It's going well. I am sort of excited about the Apple event, I guess. So, okay, how many years or how many iPhone events?

I know you've gone to a lot of Apple events because you report on Apple a ton, obviously, but how many just the iPhone events have you gone to? oh gosh, this is probably number, this is either four or five. And they all kind of blend together, honestly. The first one I went to was the one right after Steve Jobs died, which is very sad because I only got to go to one Steve Jobs event and it wasn't an iPhone event. Oh, okay. And that was back when it was really, you know, it was exciting and everyone was sort of this big,

incredible event in and of itself. Yeah, I was going to ask if you, went to the original iPhone event, which I kind of assumed you didn't, but I thought maybe you'd snuck in there. Does that no? I didn't. Okay. I followed it. Not that doesn't count for anything. But I remember sitting at my computer, I was reading, I think, three different live blogs during that event. It was really exciting. See, that was, I mean, obvious, I think that was like peak exciting iPhone event, just because it was the first one and no one really knew exactly what was going to be announced. I guess my second would be the App Store was probably.

really exciting. But it feels a little bit, we've talked about this before, but like the iPhone event is just not as exciting as it used to be. Yeah, I think there's a lot going on there. Part of it is that the iPhone just hasn't gotten better at the same pace that it did, which is totally unfair because the first one, there wasn't ever anything like it before. So that was huge. And then they had a couple of years where I think they spent two or three years really sort of refining the design to what they wanted it to be. And so it was all exciting in these huge changes. And now we're just kind of at a place where there are only small things left to do. And then when you combine that with the fact that there are all these sites and all these

analysts who are just obsessively tracking rumors and FCC certifications and all these different things going on, it's just, it's been so long since we went into an Apple event. without a really good idea of what it's going to be announced. Like, you know this, having done this before, but we, I'm writing stories about the iPhone that they're going to announce tomorrow today, because I'm 95% sure I know what it's going to be, and so why not be prepared? No, I know. And also, I mean, I think part of it is that smartphones aren't, like, magical anymore.

I mean, when smartphones first came out, it was, I just remember spotting, like, iPhones in the wild when they were first released, and it was this, like, really incredible, amazing thing. Like, oh, my God. You know, when they added apps and you could, you know, use it for GPS. It was so amazing. And now it takes so much more to impress us with technology than it used to. Totally. I remember my roommate had an iPhone before I did.

The very first iPhone, he, like, went and stood in line, paid $600 and the whole thing. Oh, my God. And I remember he showed it to me, and I kind of didn't. understand all the things you could do with it yet. But the thing that I latched onto is that you could play solitaire, which felt very exciting. And that was like, it was a web app. It wasn't even good solitaire. But it was like, it was so exciting to be able to play solitaire on my phone.

And now it's like all this stuff that's, you know, a thousand times more exciting than that is just second nature now. And I think it's like there's just so much that we expect of our phones that to really wow was feels really difficult, which is why I think a lot of people got really excited about VR. Right. Because it was going to be that, but it hasn't quite gotten there yet. I mean, it's like until my iPhone can project a hologram, like don't invite me to the Apple event kind of an attitude, people are so jaded by technology now.

Yeah, I wonder how much of that is shared by regular people. I mean, for me, like, I pay so much attention to this that I think it feels sort of slow and it feels like nothing's really happening. But I suspect it's the same as like what's happening in the election is. I think there are all these people who don't pay attention for a long time. And then you show up and you're like, what in the world is going on? Right. And I think there's some of that still happening with tech where for the people who don't pay attention every day,

there's still enough that feels exciting. But then even with this, like I have friends who are like, oh, what's going to be new with the iPhone 7? And my answer is always like, not that much. Yeah. Yeah. And that used to be the S, you know, like the in-between phone used to be the, oh, you know, the event's going to be fine. It's going to be cool, but whatever. And now it kind of just feels like every single iPhone event is the anticipation is a little lower. Yeah. Well, so the rumor is that they're really ramping up towards something huge next year, which will be the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. And it makes sense that Apple would really want to, like, swing for the fences with that one. But that leads to this year. and the year between now and next September being sort of boring. And all the rumors have been, you know, there's going to be a dual camera that lets you do some interesting focusing stuff.

And there's a new color and there's going to be more storage. And all these things are like, they're fine. The phone's going to be more waterproof. That's great. But it's really hard to like convince somebody to get super excited and go get in line and get really excited. The color thing is the one that pisses me off the most. I will never care about a color. announcement. Like, it's just not going to excite me.

So as someone who still has a rose gold iPhone and still once every two days has somebody say, oh, you're about the pink iPhone, that's cool. I'm very excited about new colors. I hate the pink iPhone. I hate it. And first of all, it's not rose gold. It's a pink iPhone. Yeah, no, it's pink. It's 100%. Okay. Great. It's glossy. Are you going to get the glossy space black iPhone? Maybe. Yeah. I'm worried about glossy things because all these the phones have gone glossy, and all that means is that you just see fingerprints. It's like, it's like a mirror then, and that's not a great look for something you hold in your greasy hands all day. But I'm still kind of into the idea, so I'm probably going to get it. So if next

year is some big thing, and we can all get excited again, do you have a prediction for what that would be? Like, you can be totally wrong. What is the craziest thing you think could possibly happen? Well, the rumor that's out there right now is that they're going to basically get rid of the home screen, get rid of the bezzles, and it's just going to be a screen. Like, edge to edge top to bottom. The home button? Yeah, sorry, not the home button. The home button. They're apparently getting rid of the physical button now, and it's just going to be a force touch thing where it vibrates instead of actually clicking.

But next year, if they get rid of all of that and you're literally just holding a screen in your hand, I think that would be really. And if they curve the screen, it'll, like, that'll feel like science fiction. Every person who's still holding a Blackberry out there screaming right now because tactile is going to be gone if this happens. It's okay. I'm screaming because those people are still holding BlackBerry. Okay, that's fair. So, okay, you're going to the event tomorrow.

What are your predictions? I guess we all are pretty, we're dealing with this Head, No More Headphone Jack. accepted this? Yeah. I think it's just... Is that bad? It's going to suck. Yeah.

I mean, the fact that it's going to mean you have to carry around a dongle or buy new headphones suck. And you're not going to be able to have your headphones in and charge your phone unless you have a dongle. And it's just like, we're in this messy phase with a lot of things. Do you think it's a good thing, though? Like, this has to happen eventually because the headphone jack is actually, you know, not that great or it's going to get outdated really quickly.

And Apple's just ushering us a long. quicker than we're ready to go. Yeah, I think long-term wireless is the future in a variety of ways, and getting rid of one cable is a good thing, and it'll make people make Bluetooth better, and it'll make people care more about wireless

audio standards, and those are good things, but... Bluetooth is so bad. It is, and all these things are going to be great. We're going to look back eight years from now, and it'll be like, gosh, it's great that Apple got rid of that, and it really spurred the industry. But if you buy the iPhone 7, you're going to be pissed. Yeah. You have every great to be this.

What was your favorite iPhone? Do you have one? Mine would probably be, I think, the iPhone 5. I think the 5S was my favorite. The 5S was great. But in terms of, like, I remember the event where they launched the 5, and it was, that was when the screen got bigger. They refined this design.

It was so beautiful. And that was the moment where it felt like Apple sort of finished, where it was like, this has been the project of the iPhone. and we did it. This is what we always wanted to make. And I actually think it was a little bigger than like Steve Jobs wanted to make. It seemed like the four was sort of his dream. But that was the phone. I had that phone and I loved it to pieces. I literally broke it because I used it for so long. And yeah, that was the one for me that I loved. Yeah, I went I went 3GS, 4S and then didn't get the five, but remember it being shipped to our office and being like, oh, okay, now that I'm like seeing it and holding it. it in person, this is a much nicer looking phone than the 4S. And I held onto that forever. Yeah, the screen was beautiful.

Camera was definitely better. Yeah. You made fun of me when we were both working at Wired and I rolled up with my 5S because everyone else was like onto the 6-6 plus. I held on to that phone forever. And then you got totally vindicated when the SE came out. So well-played. I know. I did a really good job with that.

I feel like I made the right decision. I will not be buying the iPhone 7. It doesn't matter what they introduce tomorrow. I'm not doing it. Will you be signing on at midnight and purchasing one? Well, yes, but I have a disease. My question for you, though, is what would make you? Like, this is sort of my thing with the iPhone.

It's like they're so, I even have a hard time thinking about the thing that would get me excited about phones again. I know. Well, if you read the ringer.com this weekend, David, we actually did a roundup of what would make people, like, want to buy a new iPhone. And for me, it's boring stuff now. It's like if they introduced a new, if there was some new carrier plan where data was done differently and I stopped going over my limit or storage got a lot, like there's some huge increase in storage. Maybe some cool camera stuff.

Like if there was a ton new features added where your camera could do a lot more maybe like long range shooting or something, there was some big leap. in that kind of technology, I would get really pumped. There's not really a hardware design that's going to make me get super pumped anymore. Like, the phones all look good. All phones look pretty nice. Yeah, I totally agree. And I think that sort of speaks to what's about to happen at this event is that there's just not that much left to do, which says a lot about how far smartphones have come.

Like, they're very good now. There aren't that many splashy features left. And the ones that are sort of ancillary, I think things like the watch and VR headsets and, you know, they're going to make a car and whatever. But all those things are sort of separate. And what's so interesting about the phone is that it's done. There's more, you can make them better. But this thing that they started building nine years ago now is really good. And all the things left to fix are boring, which makes the iPhone better.

Right. Like the fact that it's waterproof is going to make the iPhone better. And that's a great thing. but I can't imagine how hard it must be for Apple trying to make this advantage. They're having in front of 7,000 people interesting. It was like, how do you sell that? Yeah, I mean, better snacks? I don't know.

I would take better snacks. That's fine. I heard the snacks are okay. It's carving, if I'm being honest. Okay. Well, thank you for talking to me about the iPhone. I hope tomorrow is exciting for you. Me too.

be fun. I think so. Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I wanted you to check out my new HBO show. It's called Any Given Wednesday. It airs Wednesday night at 10 p.m. So far, we've had conversations with everyone from Charles Barkley to Aaron Rogers, to Caitlin Jenner, to Chris Bosch, to Ben Affleck, to Seth Rogan, to Malcolm Gladwell, to Mark Cuban. I could go on and on and on. But for now, catch up with old episodes on HBO Now, HBO Go, or HBO On Demand. Follow us on Twitter, follow us on Facebook or watch the new episodes. Again, 10 p.m., HBO, Wednesday nights.

And now, back to the podcast. All right. Now I'm joined by Glenn Fleischman, who is a freelance technology journalist who has written for WIRE, New York Times, a ton of places. And you also still write for Macworld. Is that right? Yes, I cover Apple stuff very closely. Very cool.

I have to imagine the week before an iPhone event at Macworld is a lot. little bit crazy. Am I wrong? Well, everyone's trying to get geared up for what the potential stories could be. And this year, I feel like we got a lot more concrete information ahead of time that, I mean, there's rumors and there's rumors, right? Right. The rumors we got this year are, they're very well confirmed is what they feel like. So I'm not sure what the surprises will be.

So we are kind of putting together a lineup. My editors are assigned out potential stories about a lot of things that we just think are definitely going to happen. Yeah, it's kind of nice to not have the panic of what are we walking into tomorrow going on, but at the same time, it's a little bit less exciting than past years. Yeah, I always like the one more thing, and then suddenly it's like an entirely new product or new colors, something we didn't predict before. I assume they'll try to pull something out like that.

But the most interesting thing to me is the two cameras that are apparently going to be in the iPhone 7 plus. So that doesn't materialize. I'll be very disappointed at the time. But I like the idea. I'm a big fan of computational photography, like the high dynamic range, HDR. That's one form. But if you have two or more cameras,

you can also do really interesting things, not just stereoscopic imagery, but other kinds of techniques that allow you to have really interesting effects that are not just gimmicky, but actually help produce good photographs. So I assume they're doing that to provide better pictures as well as for the stereoscopy.

Yeah, the camera announcement is always, is probably the one I get most excited for and the thing that almost makes me buy the new iPhone when it comes out, although I've never actually done that. I've waited until my contract is up. But I think that is the thing that will make me consider it. I know I won't do it, but I'll think about it because of the camera. Yeah, well, Apple does tick and talk years in iPhones.

It has for a long time. And the tick year, they change the form factor, but the innards usually are very similar, and the talk year, they up the spec. So like, in a tick year, you get the iPhone 6 case, the talk year you get the 6S that has a 12 megapixel camera instead of an 8 megapixel one. So this year, it sounds like we make it like ticks and talks at once, which is a little bit of a change, even though they're slowing down and how they update the characteristics of some of the devices. Like the iPhone SE came out earlier in this year, and it was a little bit of a surprise, even though everyone thought a smaller Form Factor phone would be revived. But they might not update that in any real way for a couple of years, maybe even longer. Right.

It really does feel like the kind of the rollout has changed a little bit since, as we've gone along with new iPhones, that, you know, the small event, big event, small event, big or, you know, hardware focus kind of a thing. And then I feel like it's because we have all gotten very, almost spoiled. It takes a lot more to get people very, very excited about a new hardware device. Is there anything else that you think is changing kind of how not just the tech press, but also consumers get amped up for one of these events? No, I think you hit it right on the head is it's like,

what is the thing that you get excited about now? If the camera quality is already as good as it is, what else could you have except an optical zoom? which is hard in that, you know, the thinness that Apple strives for. You can't really put an optical zoom in there yet. Like, what, do we need a faster network? Well, maybe a little bit faster. Do we need another payment system? Like, I can't figure out, that's why the two-camera thing may be.

It sounds a little gimmicky, but it also is a thing to talk about. That's not, hey, we made it thinner, bigger, faster, or whatever. There's just not a lot of the frontiers have been pushed out to the edges. You don't need a screen that's substantially beyond retina because then, what do you? you have. Or the iPad, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro added this true tone color sensing thing. So the colors actually do color management within the environment that you're at. So you get kind of a perfect color based on the light quality around you.

So that's something that could come ostensibly to an iPhone also, but it's kind of subtle for most people. That's not like a big, you know, it's not like a new gaming feature. I don't know. So I'm not sure what the exciting thing will be except just. just that, you know, newer, sleaker or something. Yeah, newer, faster, better in some way. Yeah, yeah, which is a little disappointing.

I mean, the iPad Pro was a nice, you know, kick last October, and then this spring with the two models, and that's something very different because of the stylus and some of the enhancements, the keyboard cover. But iPhones are, they're not at the edge. It's not the end of innovation, but it's just very hard to figure out what could be exciting. Yeah, I can't even imagine.

I know that once Apple will introduce something that I've never thought of, then like I always do, you think, okay, now I have to have it. But just thinking of what do I want in an iPhone anymore is really hard to do. I'm so complacent with the current status of hardware. But it also just seems like the event itself, it made sense for a long time that it was this huge to do. and you know, you drive thousands of people there. And now it almost feels like the event is a little bit overblown for what we're actually hearing about, at least to me. Yeah, I think it's hard for Apple, too,

because then it puts a stake in the sand where they have to have something that's ready to go, whether there's anything interesting or not. And it suppresses sales in the months leading up to it because nobody wants to be a MOOC and buy something just before the better version that's cheaper or the cheaper version comes out. So it's kind of a funny tradition now.

And I guess it gives them a target. I think, I mean, introducing the iPhone SE at a weird time, the iPads have now not all come in the same schedule. I'm wondering if they're trying to get, it would be useful for them to break themselves out of the cycle because of the expectations and the sales suppression that go with it. Yeah, I feel a little, I'm starting to feel similarly about the iPhone event as I do about CES, which is that CES is great.

I think it's very useful and still a good thing. but it's also so much bigger than it needs to be anymore. Just so many people understand technology more than they used to, have it in their hands more than they used to, that this huge week-long event where people are spending just insane amounts of money to show off their products. And Apple isn't even there, and Google has kind of a presence there. It's just this kind of confusing,

do we need to do this the same way anymore? So I kind of wonder if Apple's going to change how they do, some of their event stuff. Yeah, and this just comes a few months after the Worldwide Developer Conference, which makes sense for Apple because developers come and congregate, and it's a learning and exchange of information thing. This is, you know, we're just, I think, just done even three months later, and it's not a public event, and it's really a press analyst event.

And it's promotional, but, you know, Apple's gotten away with for years and years being able to summon people and have them come. and I just wonder if the motivation needs to be less. Like continuous rollout of interesting things would be more impressive at this point than having these big stick in the, or no, marks in the sand to show that they have a cycle that they're sticking to. Right. I don't know.

Is waterproofness excite you? Like that may be the big thing. It's actually advertised waterproof. But Samsung phones have had waterproof models with other things. Like I just, you know, when you get to that point, we're like, well, why are they doing this event again? then you have to say, you know, maybe its usefulness has become a little superannuated. Yeah, I would love a waterproof phone. I don't know that I need an hour-long, you know, very expensive morning-consuming event for you to announce that you have a waterproof phone.

I mean, when Samsung announces one, they'll do maybe if they're doing like a giant showcase with Google or something, you'll see that come out. But, you know, you get a press release a couple weeks in advance, and that's how you find out about the waterproof phone. you don't necessarily invite 7,000 people to San Francisco to show off your waterproof phone. So that sounds very jaded, and I realize that, but I kind of think that phones are, they're not as amazing to us as they used to be. They're a function now, and Apple's so obsessed with design over function that it's this, like, very strange relationship I think they have with the iPhone event now. Yeah, and the watch ostensibly will get news.

I don't know if they're going to release one. I think the rumors are going to talk about the watch 2 and watch OS3, but we're not going to be able to go out and buy one, I think. I mean, there's, and then there's the questions about the we're supposed to be, they're very behind in the cycle of revisions to the MAC lineup, and that probably won't happen because they've been waiting for Intel's timeline. Intel just put out an announcement just a few days ago. There's some coverage.

So this fall, or I should say even in the coming weeks, even in September, there could be tons of announcements that they can tell expects hundreds of new laptop models from all manufacturers to incorporate the new processor update. And so Apple clearly waiting on that. So, I mean, the big news from Apple really this year is they have four operating systems they're trying to run in tandem, TVOS, watchOS, iOS, and MacOS. And this is going to be the first time they have a big product announcement where they're kind of about to turn the dial and get four major releases out all at once that are all in sync,

all talk to each other. That's a huge technical accomplishment, but it's also, it's kind of separate from the product announcement, which is really all about the guts of the device and what it can do that it couldn't do before. Right, yeah. It's very like developer interest versus consumer interest.

We want to know like what you can go buy, but I kind of my, I don't think it's right, but I feel like there might, I think that the one more thing might be watch OS related and it might not be as big of a deal this year. kind of just a little teaser. Do you have any guesses of what the one more thing might be? If I were going to be surprised, I would say they would pull out a Mac early,

but it would seem out of keeping with the overall theme, which is mobility. I feel like they've got, the watch to me is still kind of a beta. It's a thing that is a pilot fish for the bigger thing that's coming, because ultimately you don't need to watch. You need something that becomes invisible, and it's just something you have, and you don't perceive as something you carry and interact with. And the phone can disappear that way. The watch can disappear that way more.

It's possible we'll get a glimpse of what the next, you know, quantify itself, always on, always connected world to be like, you know, we expected that that there's going to be more of a fashion integration thing that's coming. So maybe we'll get a glimpse of what that's going to be like, although they don't do blue sky stuff. They only show stuff they're really prepared to ship. So, you know, I wish I had an expectation. Yeah. I don't. An Apple Google Glass would definitely be the most shocking thing that we could see.

And I would be surprised, too, but it would be really cool. Yeah, it's true. I think the most amazing thing Apple could do would be to introduce something that's really ordinary and not unusual. That would be very sad. It might happen someday. Yeah, I agree. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. But thanks for coming and chatting with me for a little bit.

Oh, it's a pleasure. Thanks, Molly. All right. That's going to do it for us today. Thank you to Alyssa Bores. Zach, David Pierce, and Glenn Fleischman for being on the show today. We will find out very soon what the new iPhone looks like. Tune in again soon for another show. Thanks.