Upgrade - 275: Remove All of the Holes

Episode Date: December 9, 2019

Rumors of a forthcoming iPhone without any lightning or USB ports make us ponder why Apple would consider such a move and what its ramifications would be. Also, Apple basks in Golden Globe nominations and steps into movie-industry controversy and Jason explains why most people don't need a Mac Pro.

from relay fm this is upgrade episode 275 today's show is brought to you by express vpn ero and id tech my name is mike hurley i'm joined by jason snell hello jason snell hello mike hurley how are you i'm very well. I have a hashtag Snell talk question for you. Okay, let's do it. When it comes from Arthoma, who wants to know, when Jason reads books on his Kindle, does he use page turning or infinite scrolling? So yeah, is this Arthoma, I think, maybe? I don't know. I don't know. I went with Arthoma. Arthoma, sure. Arthoma, Arthoma. I don't know, but that was just one of them. Sure. All right. The answer is, this is a trick question, because while infinite scrolling is a feature that's available on the Kindle app for iOS, where you just keep scrolling like it's a

very long webpage, on hardware Kindles, you just turn the page. I don't think there's anything. The screen doesn't refresh at any rate that would allow you to do that. But that's fine because I don't like it. The whole idea is that I keep turning the pages. I'm not interested in scrolling. And so when I am reading a Kindle book on my iPhone, which I do occasionally if I'm out somewhere and I've got time where I just have to wait and I'll read my book, I use page turning on that too. Because I find the infinite scrolling, I end up like scrolling up and down

and can I scroll it a little bit and all that. And I just, I don't like that. I like the idea of like, I just turn the page to the next page. So, but on the hardware Kindle, you know, there's no infinite scrolling. You just turn the page. Can I ask you a question with your Kindle?

Do you do the thing where it refreshes the page every time or like once every few times because the e-ink can refresh less now right i think i have it set to refresh every few times yeah um just because it makes it the page turns generally faster but every now and then it needs to blank the screen but i don't even notice whatever my setting is i don't even notice i've been reading on an e-ink reader so long now that every now and then somebody will say, oh, you know, it does that flash or whatever. And I guess, yeah, I don't know. I don't notice it anymore.

I'm used to it now. That's how books work. Thank you so much to Art Homer for the hashtag Snell Talk question. If you would like to have a question answered to start an episode of Upgrade, just send out a tweet with the hashtag Snell Talk. And we'll move into some follow-up. We've got lots of Apple Arcade recommendations. I selected five that we received multiple nominations for,

for games that we should be trying out. I have yet to play any of them, but they are now all downloaded. Neocab, Sneaky Sasquatch, Tint, Inmost, and Mosaic. They were the games that people recommended trying out. And I had only heard of two of them. So it kind of bears the point that like, there are games in that library that you may have missed. So that there's a selection of them um you know people recommended some other games but they were like the big ones like ocean

horn which we didn't mention but like you couldn't have been on apple arcade and not seen ocean horn too and it was like one of the most like one of the most popular games so like one of the ones that apple's really promoting so i wanted to like recommend some from upgradians that maybe had gone under the radar a little bit yeah and i have I have played Tint, and it does have colorblind controls. We talked about it a while ago, and I think it's pretty good, although I found that it's—I got confused about what its rules were when it started adding new rules. I started to realize I don't really understand some of the principles behind the rule changes. The other thing as I've been playing some of these games that have been recommended that I've realized about myself is I don't think I have fully analyzed what it is that I'm looking for in a game.

Like, I know it when I see it, but I don don't think and i think this is actually would help me find more games is if i had a better idea of what ipad games essentially i want um i would be better at shopping for them because right now i think i just kind of like maybe i think i know what i want but i don't really and i download things and I try them. And there's a certain level of commitment that I want to have. And there's a certain level of focus and maybe things that are more puzzly, things that are not kind of longer term commitments. I don't know. I haven't figured it out quite yet, but it hit me while I was playing Sneaky Sasquatch, which is adorable and kind of interesting.

And I played it for about five minutes or 10 minutes and I thought, I don't think I want to play this anymore. Not that it is a bad game, but I don't think it's what I'm looking for where I have to be like super focused on moving this guy around and solving levels and not for me. And I don't know why. So i need to i need to dwell on that

a little bit more uh what makes a game work for me and what doesn't because um i think that's part of my problem well your favorite games are the altos games and mini metro so i would suggest that there is something about um being able to pick up and play whenever you want, right? Because you can dip in and out of those games really easily. They are both games that feel inherently level-based and endurance-focused. So I think that there is a link there. Yeah, there are other games that I also like, though. But you're right, there is some commonality going on here.

I honestly think that the biggest one is that i don't want to play a game that feels like it needs to dominate my time that i need i need to invest a lot of time and i need to sit down for a lengthy stretch in order to go through a level um that kind of thing it's the best thing about smartphone games really because even even when i'm sitting at home on my ipad and i want to play a game i don't want to play it for a long time i certainly don't want to feel like i have to commit to playing for it playing it for a long time right because if i end up loving it and i play it for a long time that's great but what i don't want to do is not tap the icon because i think uh do i really want to spend 15 minutes on this because guess what i don't i don't

so keep sending in suggestions if you come across them on our placard we'd love to hear them uh jason you remember on last week's episode i mentioned that we were talking about the home pod and i was saying i was having an issue with youtube and like the audio not playing from youtube through to the HomePod. I had a few upgradians reach out and say, it is possible, but what you have to do is you open the YouTube app,

then you long press the TV button to bring up the control center, go into the audio settings, turn the HomePod, uncheck the HomePod and check it again, and then you will be able to use the HomePod, uncheck the HomePod and check it again, and then you will be able to use the HomePod with the YouTube app and the YouTube video audio

will play through the HomePod. Totally works, but it's still super buggy. But at least I know a way to make it work now. You had some follow-out, right? I do. I do, to a podcast you may be familiar with. Connected last week. Great discussion about,

specifically about the awards that Apple gave out in their award thing that they did and the apps that they chose. And it's a really good discussion because Federico especially knows so much about the app world. It's one of his things

that he and his site focus on. It's like all the different apps, they cover all of these apps. And then you see the awards and he was frankly baffled by a lot of the choices, by a lot of the decisions about like highlighting, you know, this is a great iPad game. That's just a port from another platform instead of a game that's more native to the ipad and uh and and the decisions about like why would you do one game in this category but why why not these other games or why would you take uh this incredibly popular watch app but not have a watch category or an apple TV app category. Like he, he knows, he knows too much about it. Yeah.

And so he looks at the, at, cause I mean, this is the truth of it. This, I think he's right in his theory that this was, I mean, I think he said came through at the last minute.

I'm not sure if that's true, but the idea that it didn't get the amount of consideration and time that it deserved i think he's right uh in some way or another because he he's looking at it and saying we're talking about apple's best of the year apps and games by the way yeah so uh he's not um he he doesn't think they make sense because he knows so much about the category that he looks at it and goes, why would you choose that? That's not a good example of it. Why did you not choose in this category? And of course, this isn't the Oscars.

They can make up awards like we did at the Eddie Awards for years. Just make up. You just say who you want to honor and then you honor them. It's Apple's award thing. They can make up categories as they want. But they they. So Federico says, why did you not honor this? And why did you honor this weird choice? But the one thing that I think went a little unsaid in the conversation that I wanted to add is the difference between editorial and marketing awards. Because Federico, especially, but all three of you guys, you're editorially driven. You are looking through the lens of somebody who is an independent observer and saying,

in this example, what are the best apps? What's the most worthy app or game this year? What is the best representation of the platform and is a real iPad app or whatever your judgment is. And there are different ways to define it that you can choose. But you're really choosing, you know, when Federico expresses frustration, I think a lot of it is he's looking at this and being like, well, but this doesn't make any sense because he's thinking what's worthy of an award, what's the best. And the truth is that although Apple styles these things as awards, the fact is it's a marketing exercise. This is promotion for Apple's platforms. It is developer relations promotion to get developers excited because some developers got honored,

but it is also to show off how amazing their platform is and say, look how great we are. Look at these great apps. Isn't the Apple's ecosystem great? And although Apple employs in the App Store group, editorial people, quote unquote, editorial people, the fact is that those people, and I know some of those people, it's marketing. It's a marketing job. They're marketing apps. Now, they can do it in a good way. There's a lot of marketing content that can be useful, whether it's how to's or highlighting apps that you might not have heard of that are worth looking at. But, you know, it's marketing and marketing decisions have to do with the face that Apple wants to put forward. So they're making decisions based on how they want to market themselves, not based on what the best app is.

And I think I feel like there are stark differences there. And that was the source, it made me chuckle, that was the source of Federico's frustration. But I think it comes from a legitimate place, which is, let's not forget, Apple is not picking awards because this thing is the best. They're picking awards based on a more complicated formula that involves things being good, involves developers that they have relationships with. I don't know for a fact whether Apple promises awards to developers as part of their deal. I would guess not, but it could because this is not some sort of sacrosanct process. And at the end of it, they're going to pick ones that make Apple look good.

This is not like Apple has gone and found an independent panel to choose awards. That's not what's going on. It's a marketing exercise. I think one of the things that really perplexed Federico was that the Moleskine app Flow, I think it's called, won an ADA and an App of the Year award, which seems a little bit redundant considering how many apps are available. which seems a little bit redundant considering how many apps are available. Yeah. And I mean, I've seen this from another perspective too, which is like, I've gotten a lot of app marketing over the years. And I've always found it to be one of the most perplexing parts of Apple's PR strategy. And maybe, I'm not sure if they're sending me things anymore. Maybe they don't like, they know that I don't write about them anymore. But Apple has always been,

for a long time anyway, been good at the kind of like, oh, here's a collection of apps for this holiday. Maybe you could write about them. And it's literally, there's no news there. It's literally, hey, the 4th of July is coming up. Here are some apps related to the 4th of July. And, you know, this is like that. This is like that.

It's all about creating a conversation about stuff that's in Apple's ecosystem. It reflects well on Apple. It does benefit those developers. I'm unclear on exactly what the relationship is. The Moleskine stuff, they also pushed Moleskine stuff at the keynote. And I saw the Moleskine stuff later. And it doesn't mean that it's not good. It's just that it's also part of a marketing push.

Apple has decided that it's useful for it to be marketed. between Apple's goals with this thing as a marketing vehicle that is dressed in award clothing like a panel or some other kind of independent body made choices. And that's because it's not. It's marketing. And Federico looks at it and says, well, these are awards. They don't make any sense. And apple looks at it as not that i think so it was a good conversation and uh and i liked it and i really liked i i get excited when i hear somebody who's very knowledgeable kind of go off about uh something that doesn't make sense because they know all the details and then they look at this thing and they go that i don't what is happening here and that was federico to a t in that conversation it was great i think it's this week uh mac stories are publishing their selects

which is their awards of the year i think that's coming up this week so i think all of this stuff had been particularly in federico's mind about thinking about what the best apps of the year are and i'm expecting that none of the apps that Apple wanted will be on his list. I don't know what his list is, but that's my assumption. This doesn't make any sense to me. I think it actually might not be this week. It's sometime over the next couple of weeks

that they're doing their MacStory Selects. So I just thought it was funny to hear him talk about that. And as I said to him on the show, I look forward to critiquing his award selections. We'll see. Talking about awards, the best awards of the year are upcoming, the Upgradeys.

You can go to upgradeys.vote to cast your nominations for the Upgradeys who you would like to win in each category. I have a piece of information. I've decided on a closing date, Jason, for nominations this year. It's going to be December 24th. That is when the nominations will close for the upgradies this year, for the 2019 upgradies. So go to upgradies.vote and you can make your nominations. You don't have to make a nomination for every category. None of the questions are

required. So you can just make votes for whatever categories you have answers for one of the reasons we ask for your nominations is because me and jason don't necessarily have nominations for every category so it always helps if you want to get some inspiration if you want to see uh who's won in the past you can go to upgradeys.com where we have uh by year and by category a list of every winner of an upgradey award and the runners-up in each category for each year as well so you can go there and see all of that should we do some upstream news yeah we should it's been it's been uh it's been quiet in the uh the upstream uh world lately but we've got a little bit yeah i want to um wrap up a few things because there just hasn't been a lot of

like huge stuff that i wanted to talk about either of us wanted to talk about but there is some some small headlines around apple tv plus in general uh two new shows have launched in the last couple of weeks there is servant which is the uh m night shamalan thriller show um about like it's a thriller horror i think about uh a couple who have lost a child and they have a kind of like a service, like doll. And I assume creepy things happen. And then Truth Be Told, which is the podcast, which premise I thought was hilarious. But then when I watched the trailer, it looked really interesting, which is a it is a it is a show about a true crime podcast. about a true crime podcast?

My friend, Aaron Barnhart, who is a TV critic, he's been really negative about the Apple TV Plus shows and he thinks that Truth Be Told is the best one they've done. I think he phrased it as the first good Apple TV Plus show, which is really mean

and I don't agree with, but I am intrigued by that and I'm interested in watching it. Cause yeah, it's a, it's an anthology show. So every season would be about a different story, but it is, it is essentially crime story told through lens of true crime podcast.

And apparently it's very good. So I'm going to look at that maybe over the holiday break. It features Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul's in it as well. Lizzie Kaplan, Octavia Spencer, who plays the holiday break. Features Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul is in it as well, Lizzie Kaplan. Octavia Spencer, who plays the podcaster, is maybe the only podcaster ever

that uses Beats headphones when they record. I guess unless you sit down with Apple in their interview spaces, then I'm sure you use Beats headphones as well. Apple have also bought the rights to a Billie Eilish documentary.

So Billie Eilish, the musical artist who picked up basically all of Apple's Apple Music Awards, they have now picked up a documentary that's been made about her, which will be showing on TV Plus at some point. There is a new Oprah Winfrey project announced. So if you remember oprah winfrey's project spanned far and wide with apple tv plus in the overall deal and one of the projects is a documentary about sexual assault in the music industry so that's currently begun work and reese witherspoon and jennifer anderson and the morning show itself receive apple's first golden globes nominations so luckily for them they got some i mean they needed really to have at least something, and they did.

Yeah, well, and you couple this with the fact that one of their Oscar bait things was this movie that they delayed, which I'm not sure if we talked about that or not. We didn't talk about this. The Banker, right? The Banker, and it got delayed. Very weirdly handled,

because what happened was the week before the movie was to come out in theaters so that they could screen it in theaters so that they could potentially get Oscar nominations. Very, very strange story, because it's like the daughter of, it's the granddaughter of the main character in the book, I think, and in the movie. in the book, I think, and in the movie. And she said that one of the sons who is a character in the movie, but my understanding is it's not about that. There was a story in, I think, the Washington Post that was like,

here's why Apple pulled the release of this movie. And the story did not answer the question because it sounds to me like this woman complained saying that one of the sons of the character in the movie sexually assaulted her, I think. Some form of sexual misconduct. And that she is offended that they're telling this story about her family. And that I think there's a complaint about her not being involved and that and that the they should be able to control their story and what's weird about it is um i'm unclear if there are any complaints about the content

no no from my understanding from reading as you have is that um the person who's come forward who is a family member right like this sexual assault was all in the family. And they're saying that they should not be telling these stories. It's also based on a overall telling of the family's history. Right. So this is the weird point is, it sounds like this person is upset about the fact that Apple made a deal with a portion of the family to tell this story and that they don't like that person who made the deal but it's not really about the story there are also some accusations of inaccuracy but the sexual abuse stuff is the main thing and this is from cynthia garrett who is garrett jr's half uh sibling so what so this is my feeling about it it's like if the movie's inaccurate

then maybe worth taking a pause and dealing with it but you know the first stories about this made it sound like oh turns out that dumb old apple they bought a movie because they bought this at a film festival they bought a movie where the main character is now accused of sexual assault and so like this this movie is a is a disaster and they've lionized this guy and he's all it's like well no actually that's not true it's uh it's his son and it's not what the movie's about and it's kind of over here on the side and it so it's a a muddy kind of uh water for this whole thing and there are some there are some i've seen different takes in

various hollywood uh you know industry uh websites saying things like uh there was a there was a piece i'm not sure if it was a hollywood reporter variety but it was a piece that said basically some people in hollywood are like yeah you gotta you gotta do you gotta pull it they should have done better due diligence and then there are other people who are like look stuff like this comes up all the time it doesn't directly impact the content of the movie you just got a soldier on otherwise you'll never release anything and i think the bigger story here is not uh you know who's right there i think the bigger story is apple has not had to deal with this stuff before and is figuring it out and this is this stuff is more difficult for Apple. Yeah. Because people are always wanting to write stories about Apple doing wrong.

And so they're always going to struggle with this more than maybe some other companies would. And the way that they handle these things is going to be very important for them going forward. Right. So I'm not entirely convinced that they did the right thing here. Although I think taking a pause and trying to figure out what's going on is probably not a bad idea but i think halting and just waiting was the right thing to do that they now have to to look into it and whatever and deal with it however they want to forging ahead would have been a mistake what they've lost is their oscar timing which is what they really wanted to do is they wanted to release this in december in theaters so that they would be

oscar nominatable because we've talked about the Golden Globes and that's why I brought it up this was supposed to be their Oscar bait and um they are gonna have to wait they're gonna miss this year they're gonna miss because they're not gonna be able to do that but um it's an interesting story it's it's complicated and um I I you know we didn't report on it here other than sort of like a brief glancing mention of it. But what I would say is everything I've read about it suggests that this is a complex story that I think most people have heard of in passing and don't understand. Just that it's not a very simple, oh, look at Apple. They really screwed this one up. It's like, you know,

first off, they didn't make the movie. They bought it. And second off, the accusations are very specific and not necessarily what you think they are. And that, yeah, maybe Apple is right to have paused it or maybe they overreacted

and there are differing opinions about that. But regardless, it's something that Apple has to deal with now because they're in this business and that they weren't in before yeah it's like i don't would i don't even know if vetting of this story would have necessarily brought this out it could have been you know i don't know it seems like a very difficult thing to right because this this particular controversy seemed to come out very specifically the week before the movie came out. So were they now, and I don't know if I've seen anything like,

were they desperately trying to reach the producers and reach Apple and warn them and say, you're making a mistake here? Or did they just lie back until they could sort of maximize the impact of their announcement? I don't know. I don't know.

But the bigger, and again, we're not here to actually render those judgments now but we are here to say here's an example of apple having to navigate something they didn't used to have to navigate because they're in this business now swiss television service salt haven't launched an alternative apple tv remote salt is one of the companies that switch it's a cable company a cable tv provider i think a fiber but doesn't matter that they have switched to issuing Apple TV 4K boxes instead of their own cable boxes. There's a bunch of companies in Europe that are doing

this. But after an increasing amount of customer complaints about the remote, they have worked with Apple to create a new remote that has actual buttons on it. It doesn't require any pairing, it just works straight out of the box and it costs around 20 but you can only get it if you're a customer of salt in in switzerland and uh and no siri button because they don't have siri there's no siri uh for apple tv in switzerland so imagine the being told by your partner that they're happy to standardize on Apple TV for their cable box, but you've got to do something about your remote control. Imagine that. Well, you know, this is the thing I find funny. If that had come up before the deal, the deal probably never would have been done.

Right. But now it's too late. So it got into bed of Apple and then it came back to bite them. So they had to make it into a remote. Yeah's uh it's kind of fascinating i don't know i got a uh i got an apple or not an apple tv 4k i got a uh fire amazon fire tv stick 4k version this weekend because it was 25 and i have a 4k tv that doesn't have an Apple TV attached to it. Um, my old 4k TV, which is now a, the video game TV, um, non HDR. It's got some weird things. Anyway, it's good for video games. It's fine. Um, and that's in my daughter's, uh, bedroom. And so when she's home for a break and

all of that, like when she was home at Thanksgiving, she was like, can I watch Disney plus on here? Can I watch Apple TV on here? And I said, no, I don't have. I only have like you could launch the Xbox and download an app there. And it's like that wasn't going to happen. And so 25 bucks put this on there. And what I was struck by is, yeah, it's got a regular remote with buttons and stuff. And I've gotten used to the Apple TV remote, but I think the challenge is that it is so different. And even if it was good, like it's so different that there's a learning

curve there that's going to bug people. But we have so many people have been clicking buttons on remotes for so long now that I think we have to chalk the Apple TV remote up to being another one of these. It doesn't come up as much as it it should but it's like in this mid 2010s era apple design where they decided that they were going to push design forward and drag customers with them and the customers resisted so yeah i still get frustrated by it i i know exactly how to use my apple tv remote and i still get frustrated by it. Missed accidental swipes, getting the orientation upside down. And then also apps behaving differently. Like if I do the hold down on the,

move the thumb to the side and then click to go forward or on the left side to back up. Some apps honor that in ways others don't. Different apps, when you touch the touch surface will bring up information, but some of them auto dismiss it. Some of them don't. Different apps, when you touch the touch surface, will bring up information. But some of them auto dismiss it.

Some of them don't auto dismiss it. And you have to press a button or tap the trackpad space again to make them go away. And until you learn what that app does, you're doing things wrong. Like, oh, can I press the menu button to get out of here? Nope, that just closed the app oh okay that's not what i needed to do do i tap do i tap again how do i get the amazon x-ray stuff off the screen like it's just it's not it's not great is what i'm saying because breaking news the apple tv remote not good no the cbs viacom merger is closed. Yay. Yay.

Not a lot to say here because this was long in the planning, but CBS and Viacom are now back to being one company again, which they were, and then they were split apart, but now they've been put back together. And so that means your MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures kind of wing of Viacom and CBS and Showtime and the publisher Simon & Schuster. They're all pushed back together now in one place. So they'll have the CBS All Access stuff.

We'll presumably pick up a bunch of Viacom content and we'll see what their strategy is going forward. They got a lot. 2020 is going to be a big year. They've got a lot of shows. I think they're going to have three, two or three Star Trek shows next year on CBS All Access. There's a lot going uh shows they've got i think they're gonna have three two or three star trek shows next year on cbs all access there's a lot going on there so we'll keep our eye on it but they it's it's one company again so they're they're a little bit bigger there's still a small fry in the amid these gigantic conglomerates but they are bigger than they used to be let's talk about podcasts

so there have been more and more podcasts becoming spotify exclusives or being created by spotify this has been a thing that's been going on for a while but there has been a recent one which is near and dear to my heart which is making me very sad uh there is a video game show uh was previously well it it was a Polygon show, which had Justin McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Chris Plant, and Russ Frushtick. So they all worked at Polygon together before the McElroy brothers left Polygon. But before that, this was like a show that they did every week. It's called The Besties, and it was just four best friends talking about video games. It was great. Loved it.

And then they stopped doing the show, but would bring it back every year to do a Game of the Year episode. Then a couple of days ago, I was very excited to see the show pop up again as a notification overcast. Three episodes were published with new artwork. I was like, yes, The Besties is back.

Turns out Besties is back, but from January 3rd, not only will it be a weekly show again very excited but it's going to be a spotify exclusive so i'm really upset about this because i'm now not going to listen to the show because it's not and this isn't out of a like uh how dare you i would never type thing but i don't listen to my podcasts in Spotify. So I'm never going to remember to watch it and to listen to it. This is, you and I talked about this,

um, cause I brought this up in the context of the athletic, which is a subscription sports, uh, site. And they do a bunch of podcasts and they have, since we talked, by the way,

they have brought some of them out of the, uh, behind the paywall, although it's a weird thing where it's not all of them, including not the one I listen to. And it's some weird thing where they're doing like, I think every other episode is running outside the paywall. But the point is, I pay for it and I don't listen to them, even though I want to, because they're not in my podcast app.

And I'm not going to keep switching apps to listen to different things in different places. My podcasts all live in Overcast. And that's just how it is. And I know that this is Spotify trying to give leverage, you know, to like, no, no, move all your podcasts inside. But I'm not going to do that. Even if I pay for Spotify, I'm not going to move all my podcasts into Spotify. So some people will, but I saw somebody else was telling me how there's another podcast that they liked that was picked up and put inside the paywall. So this is starting to happen where Spotify is making deals where they are pulling podcasts.

In the case of the Besties, it sounds like maybe the reason it's coming back and going weekly is because they got paid by spotify right so it's a little bit different can't tell and i don't think it is related to polygon anymore the video game website owned by vox because it has none of their branding anywhere and it was apparently by spotify studios so i i expect what's happened here is, well, considering only 50% of these people are employed by Polygon anymore, that Spotify has offered them a bunch of money and they're doing the show. I mean, have we spoken about this in the podcast? I don't know that's the case, but I can't find anything that would suggest that this was a Vox Media product anymore. Their branding is not on it in any way. Right, right. So a deal was made here so it's i think it's an important thing to

mention that this isn't quite the same as a popular podcast being taken behind the paywall because it's sort of a dead podcast that is being revived behind a paywall but it's like the middle ground isn't it yeah but i i have heard of popular podcasts being pulled behind the paywall and you know we talked about it here a while ago it's just an interesting thing to ponder is like the business decision of doing that, because what you're going to do is you're going to lose a huge number of your audience, even if Spotify is huge, which it is like some percentage of your audience is not going to follow you behind the paywall. It's just not going to happen. This is it, right? You've got to hope that the deal that you've done is worth more than any advertising that you may not be able to get now because your audience could potentially be smaller because you've got to convince people to switch their podcast app, which is difficult. Exactly.

And if that's a trade that you're willing to make, then you can make it. But it's a danger. And you're also closing yourself off from discovery because, I mean, you can get Spotify discovery, but the broader world of podcast discovery, you're also closing yourself off from discovery because i mean you you can get spotify discovery but the broader world of podcast discovery you're you're losing out so it's a um and and if how what percentage of your money is from things like live shows because live shows are gonna not have as much of an audience either because you've lost part of your audience so it's it's this whole complicated calculation i think it's a little bit easier to make it if you're the macaroys and you look at besties and you and you say to yourself well you know we just can't do this it's not worth it the economics don't work

and then spotify says we'll write you a check and you say oh now the economics work right that's easier it's more complicated in other situations but it's also yeah it's just it's it's unfortunate you and i agree on this point it's's unfortunate not because we think Spotify is evil. Or that the podcasters are doing bad. Get your payday, right? Like if it's coming to you, take it. You're going, this is the equivalent of saying, hey, everybody, I know you liked my website, but my website's no longer going to be available. You need to download an app to read what I write. That's what this essentially is. I'm taking you out of the open world and putting you in my silo. And it's the only way, because as a newspaper subscriber or the athletic, I can read that

on the web. I can read that in their app. But for podcasting, you're saying, I'm going to take you out of podcasts and put you in my my little app and that's the only way you're going to be able to get it and it it kind of stinks it would stink less if spotify said oh if you use overcast you just put in your spotify username and password and subscribe to it in overcast but they're not going to do that because they want you to they want to force you to use their app. Spotify are not looking to make money out of podcast advertising.

They are looking to be able to produce content so you will pay for a Spotify subscription. That's the difference. So, you know, maybe every now and then if there's a game I particularly am interested in hearing their thoughts on, I will think to myself, oh, I should go and check out, see if they spoke about it on Besties, but

you know, I just I don't think, it's just a shame, you know, but it is what it is. All right, let's take a break and thank our first sponsor. That is ExpressVPN. We all know how a VPN can protect your privacy and security online, but it can also take your TV watching to the next level by unlocking content and shows that are available in other countries. So for example, you might be able to use ExpressVPN to go onto Netflix and you could watch Doctor Who and Star Trek from the UK Netflix if you're somewhere else in the world. You just fire up the app, change your location to the UK, refresh your Netflix, and that is it. ExpressVPN hides your IP address so you can control where you want sites to think you're located, and you can choose from almost 100 different countries. So think about all of

the Netflix libraries you could go through. If you love anime, you could use ExpressVPN to access Japanese Netflix. But it's not just Netflix. ExpressVPN can work with any streaming service, like Hulu, BBC iPlayer, YouTube, whatever you want. There are hundreds of VPNs out there. ExpressVPN is ridiculously fast, though. So when you're watching shows, there's not going to be any buffering or lag and you can stream in HD. And ExpressVPN is compatible with all your devices, phones and media consoles, smart TVs and more. So you can watch what you want, wherever you want. So I am a big fan, me and my wife, you know, a big fan of the Japanese TV show Terrace House. And it's a Netflix show. In Japan, they put new episodes of Terrace House up weekly. But outside of Japan, they put them up in like big batches every few months. And there's the

new batches coming out on December 24th. And but I thought to myself, oh, I could just use this. And now if we want to, we can watch Terrace House on a weekly basis with English subtitles by using Japanese Netflix, by using ExpressVPN. That is really awesome. So if you go to expressvpn.com slash upgrade right now, you can get three extra months free of a one-year package. Support this show, watch what you want, and protect yourself now at expressvpn.com slash upgrade. Our thanks to ExpressVPN for their support of this show and RelayFM. So there was a rumor from Ming-Chi Kuo reporting that Apple will launch an iPhone without a lightning connector in 2021, saying it will be a, quote, completely wireless experience, suggesting that they will skip USB-C on the iPhone completely.

Now, this feels like something which has been inevitable. I think we've always assumed that it just seems like the most Apple slash Johnny I thing ever to just take a phone and remove all of the holes on it. Right? That just feels like something we've been expecting for a while, that eventually they would just remove everything. I think the headphone jack was probably when it really seemed like, then the inclusion of q charging but this seems aggressive 2021 that feels aggressive to me maybe i'm just not ready because i haven't embraced the qi lifestyle there are a lot of issues here i think that's one of the fascinating things about this story if it's true we have to sort of take it on its face and evaluate it for what it is he means she goes track records pretty good not perfect but good so my first question is

why right like i i know it seems obvious but like let's ask that question why do you do this do you do this because ports or as you said holes eliminate all the holes holes are inherently evil and must be removed as many places as possible donuts are not no longer being sold in the apple cafeteria holes must go okay so that's weird and very design driven and not thinking of the consumer experience and uh johnny ibe doesn't work at the company anymore, by the way. So I don't think that people would rather have, it would be in the end in everybody's best interest if there were no ports on an iPhone.

That port's really tiny. It doesn't really matter. Like I don't think that's sufficient. So the best I've been able to come up with, and I'd be interested if you've got any ideas too. The best I've been able to come up with, and I'd be interested if you've got any ideas too, the best I've been able to come up with is Apple has been pushing for a while on dust and water resistance. Merge your phone in the water and it dies because of a failure to something in the internals that allows water to leak in. And you take it to the Apple store and say, hey, your waterproof phone died. They'll say water resistant and water damage isn't covered.

Right. It's not a guarantee. Maybe the drive toward taking a port off is because as iPhone designers have been pushed to get more resilient, more rugged, more water resistance in the phone, that what they said is, look, if you want this to happen, that port has to go. Because the port is the biggest ingress location on the device. So that at least seems like a plausible reason why they do this, rather than just sort of like the politics of we believe there should not be ports, right? I don't know if that's enough. I don't know if that's sufficient for this,

but that's the best I think I've come up with so far is what if this is a truly waterproof phone that they can stand behind and say, we don't, you know, you can drop this in the toilet or the ocean or whatever, and it's fine. And we stand by that. Is complete waterproofing that important that you remove the ability to charge the phone with a cable? I mean, a lot of people, I think there's a question about like how many people have to replace their phones now versus when they drop them in a puddle or a toilet or whatever versus five years ago. And how dramatically less is that number than it used to be? I don't know.

I'm just, I'm trying to come up with a reason that is practical for why they would do this. Do you have any other ideas? No, I don't have a practical reason i i think the reason that they would do it if they would do it would be look how beautiful it is that's the pure aesthetic argument that's the johnny i've argument or there is a possibility that by removing other things that don't quote unquote need to be there it gives them more space inside of the phone to do other stuff right which is the right which is the reason they got rid of their headphone jack it was just so that they could do whatever it well it is the potential reason they got rid of their headphone jack is so they could use that space in other places um and that this would allow them again to do that plus because it isn't even a thing about

proprietary anymore because chi is not proprietary right and that's all that would be left would just be chi charging well not necessarily okay so not necessarily so let's talk about charging i want to talk about data too but let's talk about charging so charging everybody's like oh well if they do this there's the chi chargers okay a few things first off battery cases and external batteries are, and people using phones in places where a Qi charging service doesn't make sense. How do you handle that? Well, my thing, I always go to planes. I always think about planes, right? Sure.

How do you charge your phone on a plane if there's no cable anymore? How do you charge your phone on a plane if there's no cable anymore? And how do you charge a phone on a plane or anywhere else where you need to charge and keep using your phone if you have to lay it down on a mat? Or do you bring one of those little angled ones and set it up somewhere? It doesn't track. there's a breakthrough in inductive charging that means that you can now inductively charge from external batteries and battery packs. And when you're sitting on a plane without any trouble, I think this is going to be an issue. Now, that is one of my theories, if we're stepping through all the points here to evaluate this thing. One of my theories is, what if Apple is not just doing Qi charging on a phone like this? What if there is another proprietary inductive charging technology,

something that's more like a MagSafe connector? Or the Apple Watch charger. Or the Apple Watch charger, where they can be a little bit less, it's more efficient and therefore makes more sense. Because you can plug an Apple watch charger into a battery pack and then just snap it on and it'll charge the Apple watch. Um, I don't think it solves all of these issues, but something that was more mag safe, like where it's essentially just like a little thing that attaches and it's like a cable because it is a cable. It's just a. It's just an inductive charge kind of thing,

or it's a direct connect, but it's not a port. You can toss that around a little bit and say, okay, well, maybe, but it is a roadblock for something like this because if all it does is Qi charging, like the technology is just, it's not very good. Plus, what if you're, the thing that happens to me all the time,

I have Qi chargers at home, and every now and then I look at my phone, I'm like, uh-oh, my phone's down at 10% and I'm about to leave the house. And plugging it into a cable, it's going to charge way faster than the Qi charging. So I will charge it that way in order to get it back up in terms of battery before I go. I haven't even mentioned that when I get in the car, I could also charge it there because I have USB in the car. But what if I can't even mentioned that when I get in the car, I could also charge it there because I have USB in the car. But what if I can't do that? I also have CarPlay in the car, and my CarPlay is USB only. So would they go to the point of invalidating all CarPlay models before like a year or two ago with new iPhones by doing this?

Because that would be another thing. Most CarPlay still requires a wire like what would you put in the box what goes in the box to charge your phone i mean maybe what one thing that could go if if there is a magnetic thing that is not a chi charger or maybe it is but maybe let's say it's not let's say it's a magsafe connector of some kind or something like that that would be what would be in the box right is there be like a magsafe connector of some kind or something like that that would be what would be in the box right is there be like a magsafe to usbc something like that and you just bring the dongle with you everywhere again not that it couldn't be done but you start to think

about like what would be required to get to that point and it just it starts to get ugly like really fast i feel like this is going to be because this would i remember these questions for the removal of the headphone jack right and it was there was never a good reason which is something that they did you know like apple had their reasons but they didn't communicate those with people um like why they did it when they did and all that kind of stuff and the reason that they did it when they did and all that kind of stuff and the reason that they did it when they did was because they needed it to be gone so they could fit the screen in the 10 that is my feeling right the way that they needed space in the iphone 10 so they had to like stretch the screen around or whatever so they ditched the headphone jack in the phone before it

so therefore the story of the iphone 10 wasn't they removed the headphone jack right there's no reason to remove the headphone jack in the iphone 7 or whatever one it was there's no reason right like no one just they just did it then it was the sacrificial iphone it was the sacrifice so they could they could steer the the headlines away from what they needed which is the next year to have a big bang phone. And so I'm thinking, is it something like this? Would they do it in 2021 because there's something in 2022? But I can't wrap my head around the benefit.

Because you could say, you could make the cynical argument of like, oh, they just want to charge you more money. But Apple don't have a cheap charging solution, as we all well know, right? Air power doesn't exist. But also, they would actually be moving from a closed ecosystem to an open ecosystem if wireless charging was the primary way that you would charge this phone. Which I would expect that even if they included something like a MagSafe connector, they would probably still be pushing people

to use wireless charging because you're not really making it seem much sexier. It's just a different type of connector now that you can plug it into. But are they going to put a wireless connector like charger in the box? Or are they going to put a magnetic, you know, we've been calling it MagSafe.

It's probably more accurate, and this goes to the data part of it too, probably more accurate to call this smart connector. Yes. V3. Because, and this is the thing, it's like smart connectors pins, you know, it's magnetic connectors. You're not, it's not a wireless technology, right? It's just a portless technology

because you're making that connection metal to metal and magnets are being used to guide it. And that is something they could do. Like they could have, look at our new smart connector. It does power, it does data. And in the box, they've got a smart connector charger that goes to USB-C and they don't have to put a Qi charger in the box.

And they could do that. And that would solve potentially another problem, which is why I keep coming back to the idea that if they did this, they would have to do a smart connector, is survivability of a bricked phone. Because that's the other piece of the puzzle here, right? Is one of the ways,

I mean, I don't transfer data over USB anymore. I just use AirDrop, but I used to because it was so much faster, but it's close enough and it's easy. But like, if you have a dead phone that you can bring it back to life by doing an unbrick that phone by attaching it to a Mac and just completely wiping it and reinstalling the software. That's good for betas, especially, right? Like we do betas and like Apple Watch betas are much more dangerous than other betas because the Apple Watch can't be attached to a computer and fixed if it dies. So if you had a data connection over that thing, that would be a way that you could do it because you got to have something right you got to have something in the iphone you can't just shrug and say if the iphone bricks take it to an apple store um there are other ways they could maybe do it

using wireless technology but you're opening even more you know there'll be security issues let's put it that way because they would need some way to put it in a mode where it starts up independent of whatever is causing it to brick. And it's looking for the right kind of wireless connection. And then it's doing things. It's like, okay, now that's a whole new class of things you need to secure. Seems less likely. You know, the point is not that Apple couldn't do this, because I feel like we need to say

that. Apple could do this. We're also not saying that apple will do this we're just trying to like process this report from a fairly reliable source i think though walking through it you have to start looking at all of the compromises that might need to be made and all the work that would need to be done to do it and then once again ask the question, is it worth it? What is the benefit of this? And I can't see it.

I don't see what the benefit is. I don't see it. Like, if completely waterproofing is it, like, I just don't think that is enough for most people. Like a completely waterproof phone. don't think that is enough for most people like a completely waterproof phone i think the people that need their phones to be completely waterproof are already found other options you know you get a case that does it or whatever um i just i don't i don't see it i just how much do we really need that i don't is it is it i mean they might have the numbers about it, but you're right. There is a question, which is, is the pursuit of waterproofing as pointless as the pursuit of design perfection by not having any holes? Right? Like, does this really serve somebody or is it just a goal that you set for yourself? yourself. I think more waterproofing is better. One of my big criticisms of Apple, and they brought this on themselves, is they boast about that dust and water ingress protection,

but they won't stand by it. Because again, if your phone gets wet because it got dunked, it's your fault and you have to pay for it. Apple won't stand by it. And so I can see Apple saying, look, we need to get to the point where if somebody drops their phone, we can stand by it. It needs to be that rugged because phone ruggedness is top priority for Apple. And I can see that argument, like having it, what would be better than a phone that you could drop and it wouldn't be hurt and that you could drop in the water and it wouldn't be hurt. I don't think those are admirable. But yeah, if all of us have to pay this price where we're using even more kind of dongles and adapters for things

just to do it, is that a price worth paying? That said, most of what we use an iphone 4 is wireless right we're talking about more edge cases um although plugging into a battery or plugging into carplay is not quite an edge case that's that's that's like the headphone jack or actually worse than the headphone jack because a lot of us have batteries on planes or are charging at from a usb port whether it's safe or not um and that would all be like nope this needs a dongle now that's that would be it would be a big step and what do we get out of it i just i don't think that wireless charging has been around for long enough or is prevalent enough to switch to this like they

like they did when they went to bluetooth for headphones bluetooth for headphones and there were good options for that for a long time before that we moved to discharge the thing i just for me personally again presuming that this does happen i do not think that the possibility for me to have my phone covered under a warranty for water damage is enough for me to every single day have a more frustrating experience about how to charge my phone. Because for me, it is more frustrating, right? Because for various reasons, it's much more comfortable for me to use a pop socket when I use my phone. That means I cannot use wireless charging without removing the pop socket every day, which is very frustrating. So I plug my phone in and I'm very happy to plug my phone in. I have docks. I have a home. My home is full of cables that work with plugging my phone in. And great.

And it works great for me. I don't feel like I need to make the change, but anyway. Minchi Kuo's report also says that 2021 will see a follow-up to the iPhone SE, after all, a full screen but no Face ID. There will be Touch ID built into the power button. And this also follows along with some other reports that Apple may be moving to releasing phones at two intervals in the year,

cheaper phones in H1 and pro phones in H2. Which would be interesting, right? As a model, and I think that some of the rumors would suggest that even the iPhone, what would be the iPhone 11, would come out

in the first half of the year and then the more expensive phones come out in the second half of the year. And then the more expensive phones. Come out in the second half of the year. And this could start as early as 2020. Or 2021. Yeah I like the idea. Of the new. SE.

I think it's the full screen thing. Is interesting because. That means it is not a drop. You know like a perfect. Match for the. 8.'s it's more interesting than that um i guess it would have no notch either right or would it would have a fake notch but no face id i think it would have a notch because it would have the earpiece and the camera in it might be smaller but i think it would have a yeah no you might be right and then um and then touch id in a different place i don't know this is a it's an interesting idea changing

the cadence is an interesting idea getting the um having two phone releases a year two marketing events two different places opportunities to market your phone like their competitors do that samsung doesn't drop all of the Galaxies at once, right? And Apple is great at marketing itself and drawing attention to itself. So the challenge is just to make the phones feel new, right? 11 pro would it, you know, are you losing something by having them, you know, separated where it's, you get two bumps, but neither of them is as big as the bump you get. If you put them out together, it's interesting marketing question for Apple, how they want to do it. But I will say that their, their, uh, competition has managed to do pretty well separating their product

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apple did this to me. The Pro Display XDR will be available starting December 10th. So I would probably expect we'll see reviews this week because the product can be purchased this week. Yeah, we'll see what the reviews are, right? Pro is any indication, and this is a higher end product even than the iMac Pro, that Apple will not be doing its usual review program because what Apple learned, and this actually ties into the article I wrote on Macworld last week, what Apple wants to do is make it clear that a product that is for high end pros is not mismarketed and misunderstood by people who don't

who don't live in that world like and with the iMac Pro that was definitely the message was we don't want regular reviewers to look at this because this is not a regular computer we only want people who really get the needs of the high-end pros to even touch this thing and so you know they seeded the iMac Pro to YouTubers. They also put it in a lot of pro workflows and then had quotes or did interviews or set up media interviews with the people who had been using it for a month

in the background in secret to edit a project or to compose something or whatever it was. And they did a very different game plan on how to market that. I would imagine that's going to happen again. So will there be reviews this week? Yeah, but I would not be surprised if it's a lot of like a video editor's blog where he reviews his time with it and a, you know, stuff like that with maybe some very handpicked people who Apple thinks are

trustworthy and understand what the high end kind of pro market is. But I think it's going to be a really different kind of release. And I can say that just based on the iMac pro um like i reviewed the imac pro and um for mac world and um you know phil schiller tweeted it out which was cool i i think that was the first time i've gotten one of those like apple didn't give me an imac pro i bought an imac pro because i wanted it and then i reviewed it but like they didn't give me one they're like nope there was no no not interested because you know i'm not a high end enough user which i would argue because of all the audio stuff i do uh it's

gonna be like that so it's gonna be an interesting week but but i think it's here i think whoever is updating that is it mac pro day yet um website i think it's time right it's it's i guess we know now that tomorrow's Mac Pro Day. So you wrote an article that you referenced on Macworld urging people to seriously consider making... No, wait, no, not making these purchases. They seriously consider before they buy if they actually should be buying a Mac Pro. Was this like a public service

that you felt like you needed to provide look i have to write 52 columns a year for mac world no one knew you were gonna say that and and i'm like what and then it hit me it's like okay the mac pro is coming out let's have the conversation that is essentially the conversation that i just described apple having in its pr planning which is they really don't want to target this at regular people because it's not it's not for them like and and it and it doesn't do them a service because people will point and laugh at the hundred thousand dollar configuration people will point and laugh at the thousand dollar monitor stand on the six thousand dollar five thousand dollar? Like, it can't be judged in that way because it just looks bad.

It's not for them. It's an incredibly niche, high-end product. Which makes it pointless to give to you. And if the message they want to get out is to, like, it's a very specific message that they want to get out, giving it to you maybe isn't the right choice i mean i right i well me personally i feel like i'm more qualified than a lot of reviewers to do it because i do the audio stuff and some video stuff and so i actually do max out my eight cores of my imac pro but it

still would be overkill but at least i i have my writing about computers is not the part of my job yeah but my expectation would require it the vast majority of reviews that we see are by youtubers but video professionals yeah right because they are more in need of it so my it and i didn't i don't want to say and i hope it didn't come across this way because i my goal here is not to say even if you want it you shouldn't buy it because what it says in the article is look if you want it get it but my point is don't fool yourself and say you need this for your work because you don't you don't like if you need there was a time when the apple's high-end tower was for a huge chunk of the mac market that the the consumer stuff was really low powered like

an iMac was for it was like like a toy, like, and everybody else used a power Mac. And then that became the Mac pro, but those days are over. Like the iMac is incredibly powerful. The, the Mac mini can be configured to be quite powerful. There are, there is an iMac pro. There are so many other options there that will get you something for a better price with better features that will get you what you want so and so i i end up with this idea of like there's people who want it because it's like it used to be it's almost like nostalgia like back in the day i bought a tower and an external monitor and i don't want to buy an imac because it's got its own monitor i want an external monitor it's like what monitor you're going to buy for it? The iMac display is so good.

Like, I wouldn't want to give up my iMac monitor. And Apple is not making an external monitor that's like the iMac 5K monitor. They're not. So, like, then I'm getting a third-party monitor. It's like, you know, the iMac is a better deal. I get it. Like, maybe you absolutely can't have an iMac.

Okay. But I see a lot of excuses that are like, well, this is a better deal. I get it. Like maybe you absolutely can't have an iMac. Okay. But I see a lot of excuses that are like, well, this is like it used to be and I want to do it again. And again, if you are buying a beautiful art object, you just want a beautiful Mac and money is no object and you're never going to use even a fraction of the power of it, but it's worth it to you because it looks great and it fits your lifestyle that's great it's like buying a luxury car you don't need to buy a luxury car be clear that you don't need it you just want it and that's the difference and i was happy because i was sort of thinking of john syracuse while i was writing some of this sort of thinking come on um i mean i was i was thinking of other people too not just john syracuse uhuse. But he said on ATP last week, he said, I don't need it.

I don't need it. I want it. And it's like, yes, that is the right answer, right? Just be clear. And so I thought it was interesting and worth writing about this whole thing that even Apple is steering this away from most people because it's not for most people. And that people should give it a give it a think because you don't want this like i of course there are always exceptions and when you say

you shouldn't buy it somebody said well actually i need it because i had a guy who said i need it because i need to have i need to attach like 30 usbc devices at once and i need card slots to do that because their hubs don't exist i'm like okay yes you need to spend six thousand dollars and then buy a whole bunch of cards that give you usbc ports um that is an edge case but yes i give you i i made this the hand signs i give you the special dispensation go forth and buy a mac pro you have been granted yes go forth buy a mac pro with my blessings but you know mostly it's silly like this is overkill it's just overkill and if you want overkill great go buy it it's your money but um you know let's just be clear this product is not meant it's not meant for almost anybody and that that's not a failing of it. It's designed

that way. It is the halo car as John Syracuse keeps calling it. Like it is, it is an important symbol. This is my larger point in the article. The Mac pro is very important because it's a symbol of Apple's commitment to pros of Apple's commitment to the Mac. It's, I think a symbol of Apple's re-engagement with the Mac after it kind of lost that engagement. It's this re-establishing of ties. I think that's all great. But the symbol, don't buy the symbol, right? The Halo car, you're like, wow, company X makes a great Halo car. I'm going to buy the cheap sedan that company X makes because I'm not going to buy that. I'm going to buy this. Most people people you can get excited about it because what it means about

apple's commitment to the mac is great but don't buy it like it's not for you it's not for you and save your money unless you don't care because you just want it because it's cool and that's fine it's fine i'm not gonna i'm not i'm not trying to judge somebody who wants a cool car because it's cool there's nothing wrong with that i have seen a little bit of a streak among people of like well no no i need it i need it i need the expandability do you most people don't maybe you do maybe you're the guy with the 30 usb c ports but most people don't need expandability you can expand outside of the case of the computer it's not a problem like you can do it. Like it's fine.

And that goes to the nostalgia part of it, which is I do absolutely sense that there is a group of people who are like, I don't want external. I don't want everything internal. And John Sarkoos is a little bit like this too, where it's like, no, no, external is bad. And internal is the only way to go.

Nobody really, like expandability exists on the outside now and on modern computers. That's just what it is. Again, there are going to be very specific reasons where uh putting in a card or something like that is a better choice absolutely there are always going to be exceptions to the rule but i get a little tired of people who their argument seems to be well we didn't do it in the old days so the old ways are best it's like yeah the world changed the world moved on do you think that there is uh an element of that in in amongst a lot of people who have it like they're just used to conditioned in their mind that they need or want to have the most powerful machine so

they would always get the mac pro even though now these days the most powerful machine that Apple makes is more power than most people will need because the iMac Pro exists. Yeah, the root of the whole thing is it used to be that you bought the high-end Mac because you needed that power because the lower-end Macs didn't have it. And we left that era a long time ago. It's not new.

The Mac Pro, back when it was a cheese grater the first time, was constantly being pushed upward and upward and upward in terms of specs and price to a narrower and narrower band of high-end users. This is not new. This has been going on this whole century, basically, that push upward. And with it has come the capability of laptops and iMacs to handle the load for even pros, like iMac Pro. But honestly, even the regular iMac is powerful enough for most people and the MacBook Pro for sure so yeah I think it's fascinating I don't think

I'm going to change anybody's minds but I did want to kind of snap out of it kind of moment of like you know what you don't need it if you want it that's fine but you really don't need it and somebody who's seriously considering like should I get the Mac Pro because I can use that power?

It's like, no, like almost certainly no. The people who are going to buy it know why they're going to buy it. And for everybody else, it's like, save your money unless you really just want it because it's cool. Because it is, it's got the stainless steel frame and aluminum skin and it is awesome awesome looking and you can put wheels on it and roll it around you can ride it around put a small animal on it and push it around the

house you can do that but uh this is a mac for what would you say 0.01 percent of the market if that. To quote Kanye West, and I apologize for the single-gendering in this quote, no one man should have all that power. It's too much. Alright. It's too much. That's right. So Stephen Hackett will get one of these.

He will. I guarantee it. Oh, I'm convinced he will. Hopefully not until about 2025. I don't think he'll be able to wait that long. You can add it to his old Mac collection. I don't think he'll be able to wait that long. He'll add it to his old Mac collection. I don't think he'll be able to wait that long. 2030. I think this is the perfect thing to talk about today

before Mac Pro Hysteria sits in tomorrow. I'm pleased that we were able to get the show out before the Mac Pro is completely unveiled to the world. We got to get in first and be like, please, everyone, just think about it. I mean, and also, we're talking about the Mac Pro here, but even amongst Mac Pro buyers, don't buy the display.

Yeah, well, that is also true, right? I understand it, but that is so much for most people. I think even if you talk to Apple about it, I think if you talk to apple people behind the scenes they would probably tell you yeah like the display is even less applicable than the mac pro because the mac pro itself if you do have very specific needs that can be served by it you can configure it and build it to be the machine that you want it to be to meet your needs.

The Pro Display XDR... Nobody should buy that display. And the shame of it is people are going to buy it because it looks like it. That's the problem. But it is built to do what it is supposed to do, which is to compete with these incredibly expensive displays. It is a $40,000 monitor for $6,000 thousand dollars but you know what you don't need a forty thousand

dollar monitor no i know it's not fun like again if if it brings you joy and you have the money great but i i yeah but it's just it's a whole lot that's not i i don't know. The last thing I wrote in the Macworld piece is, it's a symbol, but it's also a status symbol. And if you want to buy a status symbol, if it makes you happy to have an expensive computer, do it. I'm not saying don't do it. But I am saying, I think it's healthier to just admit that you're doing it because it's cool and that you don't need it and that just let go of the fantasy that you actually need it because you don't nobody does i can extend this to myself i don't need an iMac pro like really on a daily basis i could be fine with a regular iMac i wanted the iMac pro that was what i wanted that was the decision that i

made to spend more money than i needed to to get the computer that I desired rather than the computer that I needed. But I wanted it. But I don't want it like £15,000 want it, which is what I would probably be in to get myself a Mac Pro and a display. You know, I don't want it that much. So just think about it. And if anybody buys one in Europe, I want to know where it says it was made.

So, I will say to the upgradians out there, if you're not in America and you buy one of these, take a picture of where it says it's assembled. Because I am convinced that they're not assembled in america and i just want to know if that's the answer so if any upgrading out there does this and can show me i will very happily uh very happily do that i'm very happy to receive that i'm sure i can come up with some kind of bounty but i just need to know that information mike needs to know so that scene

there now you need it for your work oh so i have to buy one now because i need it for follow-up the most somebody else could buy it because they need to they need to help mike this it's the most expensive way to get yourself mentioned on upgrade ever yeah yeah yep i guess so all right today's show is also brought to you by Eero. If you're binge-watching your favorite shows from anywhere of your house and want to do it without interruption, you need Eero. Eero blankets your whole home in fast, reliable Wi-Fi, eliminating poor coverage, dead spots, buffering, so you can consistently have the best signal wherever you need it.

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and now I've gone from having weird dead spots and places where they drop. I can sit in the backyard. I can have a camera in the front of the house and I can have my irrigation controller on the side of the house that's far away from all networking and they're all on the Wi-Fi now

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You must use this URL, so I'll give it to you one last time. Eero dot com slash ahoy. Code ahoy. A-H-O-Y. Our thanks to Eero for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. So now we will do some hashtag AskUpgrade questions. And the first one today comes from Kevin. The two of you have mentioned that you have stereo HomePod setups.

What is their positioning? Are they arranged near each other or are they on the other sides of the room? Well, for me it is on opposite. So my living room slash dining room slash kitchen is a single long room.

So I have the speakers sort of in the middle of it on opposite sides of the narrow width. So there's one on top of the piano and there's one on an end table. So there's separation, but they're across from each other, which does mean that if you're on one side of the room, the stereo effect is backward. You're behind the music.

And if you're on the other side, then left is right and right is right. Left is right and right is left. The other one left is left and right is right. Left is right and right is left. The other one, left is left and right is right. So, you know, whatever. But I like it. It's good. It fills the room. But it's fine.

So mine, I have it set up to be like peak positioning for television watching. So we have our TV in front of us and we have our sofa. And I have the HomePod set on either side of the sofa. We have quite a large sofa. And the HomePod set on either side of the sofa. We have quite a large sofa and I have them set on either side. So when we're watching television shows, we get the stereo and we totally do. Like I was watching the show. I was watching a show last night. I was watching The Crown and one of the characters called out

and it only came out on the left HomePod and I turned around and looked at it. I was like, oh, so it works. It's great and I love it for that. at it i was like oh so it works it's great and we love it for that hollizard asks how do you quote unquote correctly open and pull out each air pod from its air pro pro case so you want to open the lid but then do you pull out from the ear tip side so the little silicone part or from the plastic bulge opposite of the ear tip um well we already it determined one at a time and from the plastic bulge opposite of the ear tip um well we already it determined one at a time and from the bulge yeah it's from the plastic part that's how i go to i don't pull out from the the silicone part that seems way more difficult don't do that don't do that yeah

don't do that i feel like you should touch that part as little as possible anyway i feel like i don't know if it's like a crazy germs thing, but just don't touch it. Jim asks, how do you use Instagram on your iPad Pro? Because, of course, there is no app. I added it to my home screen using because you can. Instagram has a pretty good web app that if you try to, you know, when you do that thing, the sweet solution thing where you can add a web site to your home screen right and it will create a little icon you can do that and with some advancements made in ios 12 it makes those look like apps so if you save an a web page to your home screen when you open it it doesn't have any

of the safari controls anymore so it kind of looks like an app but jim is having problems refreshing the content i have noticed this myself there are two things you can do so if you do use this this is the way to use instagram on the ipad by the way because yeah don't use the iphone app because it's horrible uh command r if using a keyboard will refresh the page um other than that just try tapping the instagram logo like as if it's like a website um other than that, force quitting it should kick it back into use again. But I have had this happen to me, and I don't understand why

that is. But if you're using a keyboard, Command-R will do it for you. Okay. Marlin asks, I feel like I'm the only person that I know that dislikes dark mode. It's difficult for my eyes to adjust, and they feel more strained than just using True Tone. What is the hype? So, my question will be more, do you use dark mode jason do you like it if not why not i use it

on ios and i think i have it set to turn on in in dark conditions okay and that's mostly because i think when things are um when things are dark and it's nighttime, it is nicer to have the, the black background and the, and the white. Um, I, I suspect one of Marlon's reactions here is because, you know, it's not black on white, right? Like dark mode is mostly kind of gray on dark gray on light gray. And, and I don't love it because i think that the the contrast is sometimes not enough and that the black on white is much higher contrast tends to be than the other way around and low contrast is not great depending on the color choices and i think a lot of stuff isn't contrasty enough but i do like it i have moments where it's a particularly dark morning and i'm

looking at an app uh and there's not a lot of light in the house yet and but it's sunrise and so it flips it over into light mode and i don't like it like i had that moment where i'm like ah it's it's too much um because it's still pretty dark out so uh so yeah i use it a little bit but i don't i don't love it i and on the mac i don't use it at all all dark out. So yeah, I use it a little bit, but I don't love it. And on the Mac, I don't use it at all. All dark mode, all the time, on everything. Oh boy. Wow. Okay.

I even use my Mac in dark mode. Do you need it for your work, or is it just a symbol? It's personal preference. I just prefer applications with dark modes anyway. I have for a long time. And when iOS gave... It's like all apps that do it automatically will set it for me. If I've set it myself, I'll set it myself.

I just prefer dark UI. I couldn't tell you why it is. It's not an OLED thing because I do it on my iPad too. I do it on my iMac as well. I just prefer dark UI to bright UI. And I've been this way for a long time, like from when applications first started doing dark modes, like Twitter applications, like Tweetbot and stuff,

I always went to the dark mode. I just prefer dark with light text than light with dark text. That's just my personal preference. All right. And finally today, Andy asks, Jason, do you have a favorite cookie recipe? I do. I will put a link in the show notes to the ginger molasses cookies

that I've made the last few years, which are basically out of the blue bottle coffee. And they are great. They have a huge amount of ginger in them. They are definitely better after they've sat for a day. for the flavors to kind of fully permeate and for them to cool off entirely. They are, I can't eat them anymore because they use flour and I don't get to have wheat anymore in my life. I am currently planning on, I bought all the ingredients actually, workshopping some new ginger cookies

because I love ginger and i love ginger cookies but for those of you who can still eat uh glutinous things check out the ginger molasses cookies they are uh great they're very serious very serious one of the reasons i included this because we've spoken about this cookie before we have a joint love for this cookie because i love the blue bottle cookie they do not make it anymore oh interesting so i think out of respect to you uh when you went gluten-free they stopped serving your favorite cookie in blue bottle yeah i've never actually had it in blue bottle i just make it myself but yes but now they don't they replaced it with something else which i don't i think it's a chocolate cookie which is not as good. It's just not as good.

You will need a lot of ginger. It is a spectacular amount of grated fresh ginger that goes into these things, but it's so good. So good. I miss them. If you'd like to, I hope you can work out something for. I'll find a replacement. I've got some. I've got some things that I'm going to try.

The ginger is the key thing, right? Just like, yeah, just put a bunch of ginger in something and have that instead, whatever it is. Sure, just eat the ginger, frankly. Stuff it into some gluten-free bread. Uh-huh. Oh, that sounds terrible. If you want to send in a question to finish out the show, you want to have a question answered, you need some help,

maybe you want to get our favorite recipes, hashtag AskUpgrade. You just send out a tweet with that hashtag, and it will be included. Don't forget to submit your nominations for the 2019 Upgradees by going to Upgradees.vote and filling out the form there.

If you want to find Jason online, SixColors.com. He is at JasonL, J-S-N-E-L-L. On Twitter, I am at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. Thanks again to our sponsors this week, Eero, ID Tech, and ExpressVPN. And we'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Jason Snell.

Goodbye, everybody.