Upgrade - 370: The 2021 September Event Draft

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

It's another emergency draft! In this bonus episode, Jason and Myke predict what will happen at Tuesday’s Apple media event. What form will the new iPhones take? Will a new Apple Watch make an appearance? And what special bits of stagecraft might propel one of us to a decisive draft victory?

from relay fm this is upgrade episode 370 this special episode is brought to you by Pingdom and Text Expander from Smile. This is the 2021 September event draft. The draft is here. Band music. It was very good. Thank you to Chris Breen for the wonderful draft theme music. As always, the Christopher Breen marching band.

I have a Hashtag Snell talk question for you. Comes from me. Oh. Jason,'s the summer of fun over now it is isn't it it's done it is it is we had a good summer of fun we had a really good summer of fun I think this

might be I'm just going to say output wise maybe our best summer of fun I think we did a really good job I think we had a lot of fun things we didn't go too far this year I think it's safe to say all right could be argued maybe we've gone too far in other years um i don't think we go far enough but hey you know uh but thank you to everybody who has participated in the summer of fun oh and i've got a little bit of a uh listener uh question and answer that i want to provide in here, which is people

ask me, are you allowed to wear your new fresh Summer of Fun merchandise that we sold this summer when it's not summer? And the answer is yes, because the Summer of Fun is always with you and you keep it in your heart. And also oftentimes it's summery in months that are not technically summer. So that's fine too. So in the coldest days of winter, the darkest days of winter, keep the fires burning with the Summer of Fun merchandise. It's fine. Although if it's the dead of winter, don't wear the tank top, maybe.

Yeah, that's probably a bad idea. So yeah, wear it with pride and be nostalgic for the Summer of Fun. Or if you're not going to, take the shirt, fold it gently, put it in a box, you know, and put it away somewhere safe. And then when the summer comes, you can have the whole ritual of like, take it back out of the box. I definitely do that. I have stuff that I rotate in and out based on season.

As little, as meager as our seasons here are, I still do that. So that's a good idea. Take your summery things and put them away and know that they will return one day. Also, everybody who lives south of the equator, I don't know, you know, get ready to put them on, I guess. Yeah, if you're in places

where summer is a different time, temperatures change at a different time, get ready because that thing's going to be on you all the time. So we have some breaking news for today's episode. This was supposed to be just the draft, but we couldn't miss this. We've been focusing so much recently on app store changes and courts. This feels like out of nowhere to me. I didn't have a thought in my mind that there was about to be another ruling in the Apple versus Epic case, but it's happened today on September 10th.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers has ruled against Epic in a bunch of ways. Like Apple can keep its 30% cut. They can still ban Epic from the App Store if they want to. Epic has to pay Apple 30% of what they made with their surreptitious launch of their in-app purchase system. Which is like $3 million or something I think, which is, I mean, let's be real, for these companies. It's just an unkind cut, basically.

But I would say, Jason, and like many more, Epic actually won this. Well, I think they won the battle and lost the war, or maybe they lost... I mean, no, I think it's that, because Epic kind of doesn't get a lot out of this, but a precedent is set that other people will get a lot out of. Maybe not Epic, but everyone else.

I think they could do something later on to allow them. And what we're talking about is Apple is no longer allowed to, based on this judge's ruling, enforce anti-steering provisions on the App Store including links to external payment mechanisms. Basically what this means is, the way that it can be read, developers will now be able to link to external payment methods as much as they like. So what Epic did by putting that little store inside of the app,

that will now become a legal thing for any developer to do now yeah with this this has just come out apple i believe has not even um issued a statement they did issue a statement that basically said congratulations to us for winning the case of course you did uh so look there's a lot that's going to go into this look obviously we have the iphone event coming up next week we're probably going to dig into this in Look, obviously we have the iPhone event coming up next week. We're probably going to dig into this in a couple of weeks' time in more detail. But this could be absolutely massive.

You know, effectively what some people, including yours truly, have been asking for for a long time, especially during this epic case, is Apple should allow companies to decide how they want to run their own businesses. Yeah, this is something when we talked on Monday's show about the idea that Apple strategy seems to be sort of incrementalist. And like every little chip, they'll give something away and they've got like a plan for how to do that. But they don't want to just kind of come out and announce a system that's reformed because people could still say that's not good enough. And so instead, they seem to be navigating this sort of like piece by piece. This feels, especially combined with the law that is in process in Korea, this feels like Apple will end up having, and there's like a 90-day window before this goes into effect and they could appeal it

and they could ask for it to be stayed longer. But the idea is, I think this will probably lead to an official change in App Store policy that allows full on links to third party payment systems inside apps. The question is going to be sort of like, what's the detail here? Because, you know, because Because Apple let it get to the point where a judge is in charge of it. Apple can't just make changes. Apple has to make proposals and make sure the judge interprets it as being within the judge's ruling, right? So it's complicated. But my guess is that Apple has probably been planning behind the scenes for a scenario where they would need to allow third-party purchases.

And it goes to things like APIs, right? I mean, one that people keep saying is a nightmare scenario is, does this bypass parental controls? So you can't stop your kid from spending all this money on a link credit card that they stole out of your wallet or something like that. And ideally, no, right? Ideally, Apple would be allowed to enforce a rule that says you have to call the parental control API, get approval, and then pass the link along. But that's kind of up to the judge. So we'll see what happens. But it does feel like Apple's blanket, you can't link to external. First, we had the one link, right?

That was the first thing that happened. And now it's the blanket kind of, you can't link to external payment sources from apps. That sounds like that may be going away. They may be allowed to require in-app purchase via Apple to also be available, which is interesting because if you're Amazon... Like sign in with Apple kind of thing, right? That you can have them, but you have to show all of them. And if that's the case and you're Amazon and you want to put links to Kindle books in there,

do you just add 30% to the in-app purchase link and then let people choose? I don't know what all the ramifications of this are and my guess is that it's going to be much more complicated than everybody's saying now but we we need to mention it because this is massive news this is massive news it is what what is now we can laugh about apple's uh patting themselves on the back for winning the case thing but like this will change the app store forever in some way, maybe to be determined, but in some way. But also, Apple's not wrong in this sense, which is Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers specifically said that the market that Epic is fighting about is the digital mobile gaming transaction market. Epic wanted to define the market as essentially iPhone transactions. And that would have meant that Apple is a monopolist because Apple has the monopoly essentially iPhone transactions. And that would have meant that Apple is a monopolist

because Apple has the monopoly on iPhone transactions. And the judge basically said, no, that's not it. What this is, is a digital gaming market and Epic has maximized its revenue everywhere else. And so this is what's left to it. So it's trying to maximize its revenue here, which is clearly what was going on. But the judge basically said, no, Apple's left to it. So it's trying to maximize its revenue here, which is clearly what was going on. But the judge basically said, no, Apple's not a monopoly. You know, just being successful does not make you a monopoly. But it's still going to have a knock on effect on the App Store and the App Store rules. into those who said Apple's strategy of fighting everything and then allowing incremental change to happen only when they lose or settle or have a law passed against them.

You look at this and you say, well, maybe this is, I mean, this is what they're expecting is that they're going to lose some little bits, but like they're not going to lose their 30% and they're not going to be called a monopolist, but they have to change the app store rules a little bit in ways that will probably not be as liberal as people think they are when it all is put out there. Um, you could argue that from Apple's perspective, this is a desirable result that, that all the other threats didn't happen. This might be a best worst case scenario for them, right? Yeah.

I mean, well, in fact, you could really argue that depending on how pragmatic the people are inside Apple, they knew that there was, that they were going to be up against it with some of their app store rules. They were just hoping that it would only be those and, and it allows them to go out and say, all right, yeah, you're right. We've heard you and we're going to be more fair while they're internally saying, really, we only had to give you the one thing and not these other four things. We dodged a bullet there, right? Like it can be seen as a loss for Apple because they are going to have to do this opening up of app store rules. But it depends on like, did Apple really think they were not going to have to change? I think internally, they probably expected that they were.

They may look at this and realize that this is actually a better than expected ruling for them. But either way, it's going to be a big deal. And the way apps work is going to change. And the way the economy of the App Store works is going to change, at least in some cases. And that should be interesting to watch because it's been pretty static for the last you know decade it's about time in my opinion uh yeah we're going to obviously keep our eye on this we'll talk about it in a couple of weeks once we have a lot more details than we have now um but this was definitely worth

mentioning something else worth mentioning stjude.org slash relay. Please go and donate. I'm not going to go through the whole thing today. You'll hear about that again on Monday. But I did want to just extend an absolutely monumental message. Thank you to every single listener here who's donated. We have currently passed $250,000 raised in this year's campaign, which has now put us over $1 million in the last three years. Tuesday's episode, not Monday's episode, next week. So yeah, thank you so, so much

to everybody who has donated so far. We still have a way to go. Continue to be getting your donations in for the kids of St. Jude at stjude.org slash relay. And don't forget the podcast-a-thon is coming up September 17th from 12 to 8 p.m. Eastern time at twitch.tv slash relay. And don't forget, the podcast-a-thon is coming up September 17th from 12 to 8 p.m. Eastern time at twitch.tv slash relay FM.

Yeah, absolutely. Very excited about that. And then I will be there for the podcast-a-thon. Plus I've got game shows going on. And you're all over the podcast-a-thon this year, Jason Snell. Apparently I am.

You sure are. But I wish I could be there. I wish I could be there. But so do I, my friend. So do I. Maybe next time. Maybe next time. Maybe next time. It is time for the draft,

and we must start every draft with the rules. The reading of the rules. The reading of the rules. There have been some slight amendments to the rules this year, which we'll get into. So we are doing 10 rounds, 20 overall picks. So we have 10 picks each. The draft will be split into three categories.

We get four iPhone rounds, three watch rounds, three other rounds. The winner of the previous draft gets to pick first, which is Jason. For an item to count, it must either be clearly announced on stage or on a slide during the presentation. And this must be verifiable

from the keynote video itself. Cannot be guesswork, cannot be expectation. It must be shown and clear. Yes, this is a slight adjustment because where we got into trouble last time was making assumptions about and allowing picks to be made about things that couldn't be proven or disproven based on the contents of the keynote, or in this case you know for keynote read video presentation and the rule here is it's got to be it's got to be on the screen it's if it's small print if it's a thing that flashes on briefly that's fine we can we can go back and and adjudicate that and litigate litigate that because everybody loves that

as much as we want but if it But if it's a thing that requires further research and pouring over PR and media websites and interviews and stuff like that, that's not in the spirit of this draft, which is meant to be everything that's on screen and everything that's mentioned. So ideally these will be, and as we go through our picks, we'll decide this, but the items that we're choosing from should all be verifiable within the keynote video.

But if there comes something that's not verifiable, then it doesn't count because it has to be, the proof must be in the video. You know, and I think in the future, we're also going to try, I guess, it's probably most important for WWDC,

just to try and not create picks that can't be proven. Yes. It comes from our work in the beginning. That's on us. This is not sort of a, after the fact we do this. It's sort of like the rule, the meta rule about how we construct our list that we're picking from because items, an item I'll mention it now, it was later on in the rule, the meta rule about how we construct our list that we're picking from because items

an item I'll mention it now, it was later on in the rules, but it's items are chosen from a predetermined list of choices which we have agreed among other things are not ridiculously obvious. And I'm just adding, I'm amending

those rules amendments are verifiable on screen and not ridiculously obvious. The idea here is, right, we don't want to have people coming in kind of saying, well, technically I've done the research and, right? Like if we were to differentiate this contest from other contests that people might do,

I think the guiding principle is if it's about the event or the video of the event, right? That is what our whole thing is about. Unlike, say, the Rickys. And the reason we do that is because we record, say, straight after. So it's too difficult for us

to try and go through the whole thing. So we just, we draw a line in the sand for what's in the events. It's about the show. And in fact our picks can be about the show. And that's a funny thing that we do that a lot of other people who do silly contests about Apple events don't do, which is have

stagecraft picks and things like that. And so it really is about the show, not about facts that come out after the show is over. So that will save us a lot of heartache later on. Stephen Hackett will adjudicate in a case, a scoring stalemate between the two of us. We prefer to score ourselves,

but when we can't, we use outside help. No partial points. The points awarded on the episode are final, Second Amendment, and are finalized during the scoring segment. So once we've scored, that's it. Later in the episode, we can't throw in a bomb because that's not how it's going to work.

Right. So you and I are going to shake hands when we go to the break after the scoring segment. And if I'm concerned or you're concerned that something isn't scored properly, don't agree to go to the segment, right? Like throw it out there to the audience to solve it, bring in Steven, whatever we need to do. But once we agree that it's over it's over and this is this is you could call this the

snell rule if you want to in the case of a tie there is a tiebreaker question and we pick that up front and the the loser of the previous draft gets to gets their pick of the tiebreaker. We'll do the tiebreaker now. We've done this over the last few drafts, and I think it works really well. It is event runtime. So, Jason, you get to pick a duration, and then I will get to pick my over or under. Yes. So Apple sent out – I've got a little tidbit here. Apple sent out a calendar invite link with their event

thing. They always do. And it's a two-hour slot. Just want to mention that. So Apple is reserving, as is customary, two hours for this event. However, in the modern era, Apple has not

done, the COVID era, let's say, has not done lengthy runtime events. They've done a lot that are about an hour, and they've done a few that are more like 90 minutes. So the question is, how do I set the runtime of this event based on the track record? I'm just stalling now, aren't I?

Yeah, because you're just trying to pick a number. You're just really struggling. I always do this too. Like, let me just talk extemporaneously for a few moments while my brain is trying to compute runtimes that I think could be beneficial to me. Mike, the number is... Is?

Is 72 minutes. 72 minutes? So that's an hour and 12. is is 72 72 minutes so that's an hour and 12 did I do good? did I pick a good one? yeah you've picked real good I almost picked 69 minutes and I thought no it's not worth it I'm gonna do 72

under under I think that's probably the right call. Again, I really kind of wanted to pick 60. I was like 90 or 60. I'm like, well, 75. And I'm like, yeah, it's under that. 72. I could have gone 65, but that felt too short. So I think, again, it's a tiebreaker and it's meant to be a hard choice so there it is i'll give you my thinking okay there's obviously going to be more than one event this year for in the fall um and i think for iphone and apple watch which is probably what

we're going to get i'll be surprised if they went that much over an hour on that on a pre-recorded video my thinking is ip iPhone's really important. They do like to pack things around the iPhone. We may get some things about like Apple TV. We'll see. We're going to draft about that. But now, you know, if they do that and then they pile in the Apple Watch and then is there other stuff in there?

I wonder if it will end up being more like a, what they wanted last year's event to be perhaps, but could, but pull the iPhone out at which point they may have enough stuff. Stacked into it that it goes more like 90 minutes, but I, I think it's just as plausible that they've decided the video event should be an hour and that's what they always shoot for.

So we'll, we'll see if they break it here, but I feel like if there was ever an event for them to go more like 90 instead of 60 this might be it we'll see okay i think i like your chances on the on the tiebreaker but yeah but i i was torn on this so the results in the draft so far this year i won the april draft jason won the wwdc draft and through great controversy i i have noted this forever in our scoring list as by adjudication, which I actually think I'm going to add that. Whenever somebody does win by an adjudicated rule,

I'm going to put that in. Just because I just think it's important to know. It also notes that. I agree. Same as if we won by tiebreaker. I will note that. And if anybody is like Zach Knox or somebody else is keeping track of the history of the upgrade draft,

I think an asterisk is not too much to ask in a situation like that. Speaking of Zach Knox, Zach does great work in putting together some scorecards, which you can follow along with. So there are upgrade.cards is the URL now. And of course, there will be a link in the show notes to this one. there will be a link in the show notes to this one. So you can follow along, score with us while we're all picking and scoring for next week. So during the event. Fun, fun.

Should we take our first break and get into the first round? Yeah, I'm going to psych myself up and be ready to go. This episode is brought to you by our friends Over and Smile. I want to talk to you by our friends Over and Smile. I want to talk to you a moment about TextExpander. TextExpander removes the repetition from work.

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be used in any platform, any app, anywhere you type so you can take back your time and increase your productivity. I use TextExpander religiously. I love it. It's one of those things where if I, for some reason, have quit the application, my computer feels broken. Stuff just isn't working. We also use TextExpander for teams quite extensively here at RelayFM. I share a bunch of snippets with my sales manager, Carrie. Carrie is much better at her job than I am at that job, for sure. She's a better salesperson than me. And so when we're going out and trying to talk to new companies, Kerry has done a fantastic job at writing some email templates that we can use. They're vastly better than mine. And we share them now by TextExpander. So if I ever have to send an email to someone, I can take advantage

of somebody's work who's better than mine in my team. And that's one of the great things about TextExpander is you can share all of that knowledge. It's really fantastic. As a listener of Upgrade, you can get 20% off your first year. Just visit textexpander.com slash podcast to learn more about TextExpander. That's textexpander.com slash podcast. Our thanks to TextExpander from Smile for their support of Upgrade and RelayFM. All right, so we now enter our first set of picks. So the first four rounds are iPhone picks. Jason, what is your first pick? My first pick is higher frame rate display comes to iPhone Pro models.

Mike will riot if this doesn't happen. I'll tell you that right now. I have been asking for this from Apple for,'ll tell you that right now i have been asking for this from apple for i think three years now i know promotion yeah on an iphone pro now one of the things i did inspired by your lengthy discussion in the ricky's episode of connected this week is add some specificity to some of our picks where i felt like i noticed that you could skate away a little bit so i i basically for a couple of these iphone things just to make it interesting i i basically changed it so that you have to commit to it either being all models or just

the pro models rather than sort of saying an iphone will get this feature i wanted it to be a little more risky than that. It's a little bit more challenge. So not all of the features are like that, but for some of these things where there's a real question about, is this going to be across the line, or is it going to be just on the Pro models? And on this one, it feels like a Pro model kind of feature,

Pro motion, Pro model. It should be on all the phones, I would say. It should be, I agree. But I don't think they will start that way. I think it will start with Pro and then over the years. Because look, I think one of the reasons, it's been well reported at this point, that Apple have not done this is

they have not been able to produce the kind of scale of these displays and display controllers that they would need at the quality that they want is one of the things that's been said. So it would make a lot of sense for them to start down this path with just one phone and they do this all the time there are i mean i don't want to spoil anything we'll come to later on but there are rumors about like uh potentially lidar or other technologies going down the line we see this

all the time of apple products right and you want to differentiate you have a pro model and a not pro model you want them to be different in not just price but in functionality to drive people up to the pro and the feature is called pro motion right it's absolutely pros yeah exactly which is so funny thinking how old that technology is now i think wwc was still in san francisco i think maybe or it might have been like the first san jose year where they introduced promotion to an iPad. Cause it came to the, what was then I believe 9.7 inch iPad pro. I think. Yeah. I want, I want to say it was not even, was it the 10 inch one? I want to say, I think that was the last town hall event. Maybe I'm getting it wrong, but I have a memory

that I think is from that event of seeing and asking an Apple person about ProMotion while standing in the piano bar outside the town hall center. June 2017, iPad Pro in 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch models introduced the world's most advanced display and breakthrough performance. And was that at WWDC? That was WWDC, yeah. So I wonder what my memory is. The iOS 11 WWDC was when they announced it. It's an old feature only on iPad. To get it on the iPhone, you use devices, you use phones that have got that high refresh

rate. My Z Flip has 120 hertz and it's fantastic. Yeah, right. So I really hope that they do it. They have to do it at some point. This really should be the year. I feel like that too. I mean, I felt that the last two years, but it sounds like this may be the year that it aligns. And I've decided to specifically predict that they're going to go on the pro models. All right. My first pick, I'm going for the worst kind of pick. I'm going for a naming pick. A naming pick.

The series name is iPhone 13. I thought you would pass this by. That was part of my draft strategy. I think that this is the most certain of all the picks. Yeah, that's why I went for it. It was my number one. The higher frame rate was my number two pick.

Look, we said it a million times. I want Apple to do something a little bit more exciting with the names rather than just year over year incrementing of one and i know that 13 is a unlucky number but i don't think they care ultimately you know yeah they did ios 13 ios 13 was a disaster haha it was it was really funny because it was the unlucky ios but because i mean for me like i was umming and ahhing over it was really funny because it was the unlucky iOS. But because, I mean, for me, like I was umming and ahhing over it a little earlier in the year,

but because they've done iOS 13, they will do the iPhone 13. I don't really see any reason why this would be an issue for them at this point. If they're just going to keep incrementing year over year, you know, I think they should pull a samsung if they're

gonna keep doing it like samsung went to 20 just because it sounds more fun they just keep going up the teens right but like iphone 17 like it just sounds kind of rubbish to me but this is kind of where they are and i think that they're not going to pull off that train yet oh um pick number two yeah you're already struggling no pick number two i i am i am well i made it hard for myself with the iphone is it iphone pro or is it everywhere right right right right yep oh boy i am going to pick low-end iphones gain a lidar sensor everybody loves lidar look this is one of those things where it's like you just, they want to get it out there, right? Like it's AR and all that kind of stuff. I mean, I'm kind of on board with you here. It was relatively high up in my list four. It makes sense to me, right?

Like, it's not exciting for anyone really, like, but it does improve AR. You know, I will say any AR experience that I've used on one of the LiDAR products, it is better. And Apple seems to really believe in it. So why have you picked it? Is it all that stuff that I've said?

Did you have another reason? Yeah, no, I think that's is that it feels like this is the trickling down because Apple cares about AR. And they want it to be, you know, they want to they want to promote it more. How much how expensive can the LiDAR sensor be? They put it on a bunch of other products. Having it on all iPhones is probably helpful. they put it on a bunch of other products having it on all iphones is probably helpful and you know yes there are rumors to this effect but also it feels like a fairly easy thing to add to those iphones in order to get the whole line to be able to do their cool scanning features that

they want people to do and that and they will be bringing in other differentiators on the pro line so they won't need it for this one one of of those, I reckon, will be my next pick, which is that the Pro phones get a camera feature that other phones do not have. One of the expectations from this film, the rumors, is that the Pro phones will get an improved ultra-wide lens, which is

really needed. I like using my ultra-wide lens. I do it a lot. So for example, basically all of the pictures I've been taking of my Stephen Hackett sticker desk, I'm using the ultra wide for that because I can fit more in the frame. But the quality of the image that comes from that sensor is so much worse than what we see in the main sensor. Like for example, if you know, take from the same place, I take a picture of something and zoom in

and I can read the text on my notepad. But with the ultra wide, it's just garbage, you know? So I would love to see that sensor improve. You know, like I remember Apple, they do a good job

of like trying to retain color and stuff between the three of them, which is nice, but just the overall quality is worse. It gets really dark around the edges you know yeah um so i really want to see this that's what i think it will be uh but honestly every year apple does something you know like whether it's promotion there are

rumors of uh pro pro raw video or something like that like a new video codec or portrait video all of those would count. The idea that there's something that's based on the camera or the software that goes around the camera that is only available on pro models. I was thinking about this this morning, about cameras on phones, and I want to see if you agree with me on this. The camera is the most important feature on a new smartphone. Yeah.

That's just, I mean, it's not a complex thesis here, but it was just something I was thinking about today. It's the most important feature. Yeah, I think that's been the case for years. And I think that that's what drives upgrades and what makes people happy buying a new phone is that the camera is so much better because we rely on the camera so much

of our smartphone in our lives, right? Like, so I think it is the most important feature and the better the best chance that a lot of companies have to innovate as well is with a camera and i think it's the thing that like as you say it's what can set companies apart and it's it's the most important like direct customer thing because everything else i feel like is software you know or like how software takes you know care like like how software takes, you know, can work with other pieces of hardware in the device. But I think it's really, it lies on the camera because you can have something really cool

in your phone, but if the camera sucks, no one's going to buy it. And I think it's, I don't think there is another feature in a phone that's like that, you know, where it's like, oh, well, if this part isn't good, no one's going to buy your phone. And I think the camera is really the differentiator there. I'm talking about like at large, but I also think in nerd communities too, right? Like you can put a bunch of cool stuff in the phone, but if the camera sucks, I don't want it. Camera's really important to me on the phone. And like I'm going to take a downgrade?

Like, no, I'm not going to do do that so pick number three oh boy oh it's it's so hard okay i'm gonna do it i am gonna pick that there isn't always on display but only on the pro mods oh yeah come on this is a passion pick for me i think it is i feel like i'm stealing some of your passionate uh choices here and i'm jumping in my, my I've made this much harder on myself. Like the only thing giving me pause with both of this and the high frame rate is, is it on the pro models or all of them?

I'm believe it or not. I know this is going to sound weird. I'm actually a little less certain of this one being only on pro models. First off, it may not happen. It's just been rumored a little bit and it's kind of lightly sourced. But secondly, I also think it's possible that they will put this across all models if they do it. But I'm going to go in on the idea that Apple has decided that this really nice screen technology that enables, they may even give it a name, right? They always have a name for all their screens. I can't even tell them apart anymore. They've got Super Retina and Mini HDR and XDR and whatever else.

They may give this a name, the Pro Models Display, that includes both high frame rate and an always-on mode. is, you know, at the very least, like a clock and maybe an indication of your notifications, or maybe it will work with focus mode to allow certain notifications through and others not. And then maybe, although this sounds more like something that will come next year, there is a third party story where third parties can place little info widgets that are like watch complications on there. I think it's more likely that what third parties will be allowed to do is have a certain notification priority that gets rolled up in certain modes into displaying them on the face oh my word yeah that might be the whole point behind the time sensitive notification right if it's something like that and then focus mode could change how it you know where it sends things and including sending it to the lock screen

that's the whole point of focus maybe time sensitive this year so just just in case like give a bit of a refresher because we talk about high frame rate talk about high frame rate typically what we're talking about is like 120 hertz which is yeah you know but what it also means is is variable that's that's one of the key parts of this technology. Apple has it in promotion. So the reason you could have an always-on display is you could bring that all the way down to 1 Hz, like you get on the watch, where it's just refreshing once a second or whatever.

That's right. That's how you save power, is that you crank it down to a very low frame rate when it's not being used to animate anything. And you can actually, iPads do this, and it's one of the reasons that the iPad display is as efficient as it is, is it's not just when it's asleep. If you're sitting at the home screen, staring at your apps,

deciding which app to launch, that home screen has been cranked down to no frame rate, basically. If you're watching a video that's in 30 frames or 60 frames a second, it's just operating at that. It's not doing it like a 120. Yeah. If you watch a movie that's 24 frames a second, the display ratchets down to 24 frames a second. That's what it's doing there. So yeah, it's all about that kind of level of control. And if they can put that in a display, I would love it in all the phones as somebody who really wants to buy a mini. I will tell you,

if this beautiful display is in only pro phones, I will be really torn about buying an iPhone Pro instead of a mini, right? Oh, Jason, it'd be a mistake. I genuinely think it would be a mistake. Like if you are a person who is on the fence, take it from someone who's used a higher frame rate display. I'm not on the fence. I'm over the fence.

I'm over the fence. I'm in mini land, right? I'm in mini land. I would have to hop the fence. You would be back on the fence, right? That's what you're saying. Like if they, like what is cool.

And I think you would, I think you were better. And also you've got to get off the mini train because this is your last one anyway. So you may as well get off it before they force you off it. Yeah, but I love it so much yeah we'll see love it as much as you like it's not enough people have all right i'm going for

one i've been wanting this for a while i think it's going to happen the notch will be called out as being smaller on at least one model of iphone all right now please note the way that this is worded is very particularly in spirit of our new rules it's not that the notch is smaller this is if we had picked the notch is smaller on at least one model then after the fact people like well on the marketing page it does point out that the notch size is technically underscore has proven this for me this has already happened like the iphone mini has a slightly smaller notch right but it's not the point here is notch called out as being smaller that's somebody on stage saying hey we made the notch smaller so there's more room for content they need to call it out it could be on a slide right it could say you know not just smaller on one of those big

slides but they have to call it out uh not just have it be part of the facts that come out afterward yeah could we would this count if they said they had increased the amount of screen space? I would say if the implication there is that by reducing the notch, they've increased the amount of screen space, I would probably give that to you, right? Yeah. You know, but it would have to be clear that it's not about the edges or something like that, that they're, you know, what they're saying is the notch is smaller without mentioning the notch.

That would work for me. But they really need to actually promote it. It would be wild to me if they did decrease it and didn't mention it. You know what I mean? Because it's like, look, nobody wants this thing to be there. If you've made it smaller, great news, right? You know what I mean? Because I think that we're probably about to see the next

generation of face id technology right which might not be a lot a lot of new stuff maybe it's quicker or whatever but i think in doing that they can say and we've been able to package this in a smaller you know like that kind of thing yeah so we have a question in the relay fm members discord about you know what do you mean by that absolute size ratio to screen what does it mean and the answer is it doesn't matter because what we're really talking about here is messaging, right? Which I think is in the truest spirit of the upgrade draft, which is do they extol the virtues of a new phone as having more room for content and less sensor space, right?

Like, do they choose to call that out as a design feature of the new models? If they do, Mike gets the point here, because that's the point of it, is they're using this change and promoting it. If it's silent, it's a stealth change, they're not going to talk about it, then Mike doesn't get the point, because that's what we're really picking here.

We're not going to get out our calipers and measure this. We really want to know, like, is Apple going to promote the shrinking of the notch as a user benefit in some way? Or, as you pointed out, I think quite rightly, Mike, you are thinking like Apple there, thinking like an Apple marketing executive. Really, we're not shrinking the notch so much as expanding the content area. Okay. Yeah. Got it.

Got it. That Epic Apple one was a big win, too, I hear. Massive win. Huge win. We won big big win too, I hear. Massive win. Huge win. We won bigly today. Oh, man. Uh-huh. Yep, yep, yep, yep.

Oh, dear. You can't win if you don't lose. All right. So final pick in the iPhone round. Oh, my God. This is bad. So I have another five things that I think might happen here. Uh-huh.

So we have this. I don't. We have a large list. I whittle it down to the things that I think are likely and personally rank them. And so this is a tricky one. This is a tricky one.

Yeah. I'm going to go on brand with pricing. And I'm going to say the new phones match the iPhone 12 price points. This was mine. This was my fourth pick. And again, I'm not saying like all the SKUs with all the things are going to be exactly the same. But what I'm saying is the base price of the new models will be the base price of the existing models that they are not going to lower it down or ratchet it up so

i'm gonna add to this because remember we had some uh finagling last time so we will go with the prices they put on stage because look you can start getting into the weeds like it's done before like oh yeah but this does mean with a carrier at&t promo and what they show on screen what they put on slides that's what we're judging this on right and that's going to match what they're implying on those slides right so if they if they if they put it up there and say like this is with the at&t they won't do this discount then we would say well is that the same price as it was? But I think in the end, they have a marketing price. And the marketing price is probably the base all-in price. And that's what we're talking about here

is basically did they use the iPhone 13 as an opportunity to raise the price of the pro phones? They could, they totally could. I almost chose some phones cost more. Allow me to stop you right there so we can have this conversation in full. Some iPhones or some phones cost more than iPhone 12 price points will be my fourth.

Oh, right. We're just going to go head to head on price. It's a very Apple thing to do, right? This is the Snell's law, right? More than enough reasons this year because technology is actually becoming harder to make, more expensive to make more expensive to make in 2021 uh because there are chip shortages so i you know we can almost guarantee

that if apple are able to make this thing at scale it's probably going to be a little bit more expensive for them they've had to bid higher than some of their competitors to make this work i could imagine them saying the the pro phone is a little bit more expensive this year because of the screen. I could see it. I absolutely could. I mean, like I said, I was torn between these two. I like that we're going head to head on this. I feel like I'm being optimistic.

By the way, I also put some phones cost less as a pick. But we're in. So I am the voice of optimism that Apple is not going to use a new product cycle as an opportunity to slowly ratchet up. My feeling is slowly ratchet up the pro phone price because now that they've got the non-pro phones in their lineup, that gives them more latitude without people. I mean, some people are going to scream bloody murder about any Apple price increase. But like Apple is going to always be able to say, but look, you can get an iPhone 13 for a reasonable price. You don't need to buy an iPhone Pro. And that gives them some defense while they're raising those prices.

So I think you're a perfectly reasonable pick to make. And I almost made it myself. In my list, I had these as my fourth and fifth. So I was going with one of these. I mean, if I was going to put my money on it, like if we were having a bet, I would say that one of these. If I was going to put my money on it, if we were having a bet, I would say that they will match the price points,

but I wouldn't make that an expensive bet because I could see this as a year where they would maybe tweak a bit. And do you know what, Jason? Honestly, I expect it will be, but they might just do some fancy magic with their numbers. But I would expect that to be like, if you're buying outright no benefit, these might be a little bit more expensive.

We will see. But I like that we're going to have to watch that closely. Me too. That'd be fun. All right. So that's the iPhone picks down. So that's the first four rounds. So we will take a break here and thank Pingdom from SolarWinds

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was dying before we even knew about it. Before we knew about it, and that was actually very helpful. So real world use. It's genuinely super good. We use it here at RelayFM too. I do actually genuinely love that we have it in our Slack. And then Stephen also has it sent text messages to him, like very, very useful tool. So let's move to watch picks. There was a rumor today or a report from Ming-Chi Kuo that it looks like Apple has resolved the

issues that they may have been having with getting the Apple Watch put together in time. So it's looking very likely that the Apple Watch will make its way into this event to be shipped in mid-September. Why, yes. And in Ming-Chi Kuo, we trust my first pick is the Apple Watch will ship in September. All right. Okay. Go bold on that, I think. first pick is the Apple Watch will ship in September. Alright, okay. Go bold on that, I think. Ming-Chi Kuo, I trust. Because they might not say it.

They might not. They might just say orders on this date. They might. And then we're not going to know. So I'm going with what I think is a much safer pick. Apple Watch design is updated with flat sides. Okay, that is a safe pick. Because it's time for a change.

It's time for a new design. And Apple believes that flat sides are right for all of their products. Mike Hurley agrees with them. I love the way that Apple has been attacking industrial design over the last few years. I'm sitting in front of my beautiful iMac,

which is very quickly, we're going off on a tangent now, taking that crown as maybe my favorite Mac ever. Your yellow M1 iMac? Yeah. It is an absolute trooper in the tasks that I use. I think it's my most powerful machine or like the one that I feel is the most powerful because it handles all of my editing way smoother than my Mac pro ever did. Uh,

and it's yellow and I love it. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful. I have to touch ID keyboard. I have a yellow track pad. I love this thing. It's good stuff. My,

my companion this summer for Mac OS Monterey has been my orange Apple loaner that I allowed them to. I asked them to extend so that I could use it with Monterey. And so it's been running macOS Monterey all summer. And yeah. How would you feel about an Apple Watch design update like this that's being proposed? I'm looking forward to it. I think it is nicer than the, i i've gotten really used to the apple watch and its design but there is some aspect of it that it's like the kind of bubbly

bubbly sides uh that a more flat-sided design like on the all these other apple products that have come out lately um i think that would feel and look nice and more kind of with the times. I think I was thinking about that. You know, that that Bluetooth keyboard that, that from Matthias that I like, but it's like enormous bubbly plastic and it's very old Apple design. The Matthias extended pro or something or the tactile.

Yeah. So those, those designs, the problem, I love those keyboards, but their design is very you know apple from the late 90s um or early 2000s and apple watch not quite that bubbly but it is a little bit like it feels um again it's it's nice and i like it but if we're just talking about sort of fashion and and modernity i think something that feels more like uh what they've got on the other products.

I'm looking forward to it. I think it could look really good. As a begrudging Apple Watch wearer at the moment, as I have been for the last few months. Because look, I don't like the design, but oh boy, do I love the health features. It's making a big impact on my life right now. So I'm into it.

So I'm going to keep wearing it. I want it to look different. I want it to look more modern. To me now, it looks old because it is old. So a new design, larger face, cooler, you know, sides.

I hope they have some cool materials that I'm into, but just on paper, I will say actually on this event, I think I'm most excited for the Apple Watch. Because I want there to be changes for me, stuff that I want,

from a device that I'm a little bit begrudgingly, or like a little bit unhappy with. I love my iPhone 12 Pro Max. Honestly, I would use this for another year, and I'd be really happy. I freaking love this iPhone. It's so good, and it looks so fantastic, the gold. But my Apple Watch, I really want an update for.

Yeah, in terms of personal purchase, I will probably buy an iPhone this fall, but I think I will almost certainly buy an Apple Watch this fall because I'm a generation back. And I am an Apple watch user and use it all the time and use it a lot yeah and so for me I'm I'm definitely going to be watching that closely and hoping that it's going to be what I want I would be willing to put like a long-term prediction you know we'll find out in a few months time

I will bet that if they do this design if they update the design really significantly this will be the one of the largest apple watch quarters of all time because i think you'll get a lot of people that are on older watches see it and be like yeah i want a new one like we see with iphones right when they redesign the iphones like they just did huge huge numbers they've never redesigned the apple watch they made the screen yeah sometimes design is the driver but they never redesigned it and i think honestly i think design is more important to the apple watch than the iphone because we wear this thing design is important so i actually do think two things one is going to be huge and then going forward i expect there to

be a new design every few years like the ip. They've held on to this design for too long. Why they've been not working out the way the technology works. I think it's time to see design change. I don't know about too long but they've been trying to figure out how the device works. 2015 to now, six years, that's too long for one design. It's too long. Pick number two, Jason.

Alright, I am going to go with, speaking of changing the watch, I'm going to go with the uh the screen increase that we're going to get an incremental screen increase there's going to be a bigger screen on these apple watches they're just going to be a little bit bigger and that will enable more content to be placed on the faces of the screen and they'll talk about that yep because they have to do this right so if it's going to keep the same or close to the same physical size which it's very likely to and it's actually rumored to be getting like

a millimeter bigger right if you flatten the edges if you don't make the screen bigger you just have huge bezels right like imagine imagine if you just like you extend now make it a box from where you get those curved edges the The bezels would be massive. So kind of like Series 3 again, right? So going to a larger screen makes a lot of sense. And also, you know, jury's out on how people will feel about a larger screen on the watch. But as long as they don't make the watch like too big for people it's gonna be

fine i will actually my second pick it ties in with this one a little bit which is new watch faces added um this was also reported by mark german but it's in line with what apple did last time you know when they went from three to four and they added infograph and all that kind of stuff if you've got a larger screen you can do new things with it. And so that should mean new watch faces that can take advantage of that. Yeah, I think that makes sense. There have been some reports about that. My guess is that they will, this is not a pick,

but they will frustratingly introduce some new watch faces while not updating old watch faces. Oh, for sure, Jason. Because why break of a patent? They have faces that are unchanged from the previous screen size change, which drives me up a wall. But that's just what it is.

That seems to be what they're doing. For a company that refuses to let third parties design watch faces, Apple's bandwidth in terms of the watch faces that it turns out is shockingly low. Like the fact that, and the argument I get is, well, yeah, but we need some watch faces on the smaller model that we're still selling that is old. Like, okay, that doesn't preclude you from doing another version of it that takes advantage of the

size on the new watch. but they haven't done that it's really disappointing but yes i agree they'll throw a couple new watch faces in that take advantage of the new size and add bigger complications or more complications or something like that and they'll run alongside the ones that don't and are just disappointing what's your third and final pick in the watch category i'm putting my money down on the power of investing in watch bands to say that they will change the design of this watch, but they will not break band compatibility because that would make lots and lots of people sad

and more important to Apple, make them more reluctant to upgrade, which is what matters to Apple. Or if they do upgrade, reluctant to buy new watch bands. Or, and also depress the watch band economy. So I feel like Apple's going to do everything it can for a very long time to not break band compatibility. Honestly, I don't know why they would ever have to. At this point, I think they need to consider that shape to be given in anything they do.

They can design around that as much as they want. You know, like there are a lot, even if the watch gets like thinner or smaller, you can still, they could have a protrusion that it goes into, you know, like this is many lugs of on watches. They're not like connected to the face. They have like a part that it attaches to right um i don't really see for the long future why they would need to change the the way the watches are you and i have uh speculated before about the idea that apple may be doing you know variations on the watch in the future like a sport watch which

sounds like is more likely to happen next year than this year but like or even could have in midstream who knows but the idea that they might do a a ruggedized model of watch for extreme sports and things like that that's uh that's essentially the same watch but in a different case and they might do some of that and have those things be totally different. But I feel like the core watch, they're going to just want to keep compatibility with that forever. You know what? I will say before we lock all this in, Zach has made a very good point in the Discord that it is unlikely Apple will say that your old bands will work. Are you still comfortable with that? This might be a tricky one for us to litigate because I don't think they would say a

word about that. So what you're saying is if they break compatibility, would they tell you? I guess I'm picking something for not happening. It'd be tricky for us to know, though. That's a good question. We had such a good conversation about it. It is. I don't know if this is a pick you should keep, if I'm being honest with you.

Because I think that there is no way you will be able to confirm that because i think the likelihood of oh we've got a new pick we're getting a new pick this one works for me do you want to read what you've written in apple announces no changes in band compatibility okay so that's i'm still not sure so you think that they will say apple does not announce changes in band compatibility. That's a better pick for this. It's still the same result but allows us to more accurately

score it. Which is basically that they don't say anything and that means it's fine. In theory. I mean, it still could be that they change it they just don't say it but it doesn't matter because that's still the pick. Well, we had a nice conversation about it.

We sure did. So that's good. I'm going to say that with everything else going on with this watch, larger screen, new design, and just where Apple is right now, no new health sensors added to this watch. Yep.

You know, we had that report that we were, I think we spoke about it. We might've touched on it. It may have been unconnected i don't remember um that they're working on a bunch of stuff but it's a couple of years away you know like um blood pressure diabetes temperature that kind of stuff uh but they don't have anything for this one i don't think they would need to do it i think it would be a waste honestly for them to put another sensor in this one because I think that the design will do more than enough for them

and they can just keep working on a new health sensor. Not every Apple Watch revision needs to have a health sensor added, right? Like there are other things you can do, the design, the display, the size, the materials. There are so many other things that they can do that they don't need to have force a sensor in there that is not necessarily, you know, when you add a sensor, it actually has to have a purpose. I think that's actually the argument against that oxygen sensor is that it seems like maybe it's not as great a thing as they made it out to be.

And they're kind of like stuck with it now. And if they're going to do temperature sensor, blood pressure sensor, anything like that, they're going to need, uh, it's hard and they're going to need to show value for it. Yeah.

Like I'm sure people are sick of me at this point talking about it, but I was so annoyed at the presentation and continue to be about the blood oxygen sensor it's like we have this now don't worry about what you can do with it forget about it right like and it was you know there was a story they could have told but they were worried to tell it which made sense of like this would actually be useful if you got covered right but they were they weren't confident in telling that story, which I understand and agree with. And it was probably, it was the wrong time to be telling that story,

even if it was the point. Don't tell people, hey, our new product is good for this pandemic that we're all dealing with, right? Because again, if you cast your mind back, September of 2020 was actually very different to where we are now. I know that it's raging,

but it was different. The mood in the world was different. So you wouldn't have wanted to talk about it, but it kind of just meant it's like, this person that's walking up a mountain is helpful for them. You will do that, right? You will go up mountains, right? It wasn't a great story.

So that's our watch picks. That's watch picks. so now we get into other other basically could include anything we have all types of hardware all types of stagecraft what is your first pick of this three oh i am gonna go with a little bit of a stagecraft pick and say we are going to return to Apple's chip lab. Ah, okay. So this would be what? What would we be looking at here? A 15?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah? Yeah. There's going to be a new chip. It's going to be A 15 Bionic probably. They're going to get probably johnny shruji out there to talk about how great it is and cores and flops and all the things all the chip things and uh and uh we'll and they seem to really get excited now about using this idea that there's

the secret chip lab where they've got a bunch of Mac pros and they're working on chips and then they talk there about it. So I think that stagecraft will pay off. It's a visually appealing environment for what is a pretty dry part of the presentation, right? Which is like, we're going to give you some charts that have some big numbers on them.

So for people that don't care, hey, just take a look, feast your eyes on this right environment so if they do a segment about the chip and they and they don't go to the chip lab and they have like johnny suruji standing on a stage somewhere out in a field or something like that i don't get this because i think that this is a stagecraft pick that they are going to go back to the idea of the chip lab now it may be not exactly the same set, and it may be not underground, but hidden in the clouds.

I don't know, but it'll be like the chip lab where Johnny Cerugy or somebody else talks about how advanced the chip is. And of course, Jason Snow and Mike Hurley will really be paying attention to this segment because this is where we'll find out the first stats for the M1X, probably.

Right? This is the first indication, potentially, of what that chip could look like. I don't think so. I don't think they're going to talk about the Mac at all. No, no, no, no. I mean, but like the figures and numbers that they give for this chip.

Oh, yes. Sure. I don't know about the M1X. I think the M1X is going to be based on the A14. It's going to be the M2. This is going to be the chip that is the parent of the m2 you're right yeah which we'll get next year but yes this is this is the unveiling of of the next generation of apple's chip design which will feed into the macintosh and the ipad as well right so

it's important for that i said macintosh that's fun doesn't that sound authoritative macintosh macintosh macintosh professional so thisosh. Macintosh Professional. So this is the baseline for all of the chips and the products next year. You can put that in your internet Macintosh. My first pick is new AirPods. Hey!

It's been a really long time. Many years since the baseline of the AirPod has been updated. And in fact, you know, really, the version 1 to 2 was a better battery life, and it can now do wireless charging. If you remember, the original AirPods, you could just buy a new case when they brought out the second version, because it still would basically work. So, you know, we have some other picks later on

as to what these could be. Maybe one of us will pick them, but I'll just say it now. And if Jason or I want to pick it, we will. But the rumor being it will be much more inspired by the design of AirPods Pro. So it doesn't seem like it's going to be an in-ear thing, but the case will get smaller

because the case is really big. Because the AirPods, the original AirPods, the stems are really large. So they could definitely do a lot to modernize that design while still keeping it as a cheaper option you know we're not going to get stuff like noise cancelling it will be like you know the really good bluetooth headphones but in what should be a much smaller package with probably better battery life yeah it would be great to see. And they don't need to announce it at this event, but they could, right?

But why not? I think they will. We've said this before, AirPods is absolutely massive for them. They sell more of these than they do Apple Watches, I bet. Even if you just give it a couple of minutes, like, hey and this works great

with our new airpods starting at blah blah blah available blah blah blah yep yep i think it's a good pick uh i feel like we've made this pick before and it hasn't happened yet but maybe this time all right uh my next pick i'm gonna i'm gonna stay with stagecraft and i'm gonna say we're gonna see the stage of the steve jobs theater. We don't see that as much anymore. Tim Cook standing on stage. I'm just going to go with that. I feel like the iPhone event is a very Steve Jobs Theater kind of thing and that we're going to do that.

Again, I'm just making guesses here because you got to pick something, but I'm going to throw that out there as stagecraft. Some of the last events recently uh tim roaming the halls was one of them uh tim in the cafeteria was another but i i do seem to remember they were on stage but i know for wwdc he came out on stage because they had that horrifying moment of all of the memoji yes they've done it a couple of times where tim's been on stage and i just feel like for the iphone event it's the at least to begin right it's a Steve Jobs theater thing and so we'll see we'll see him do that but this is just a complete guess based on stagecraft but that's part of the fun of

the upgrade draft but we're talking purely about the stage right because we've had stuff where they've shot inside of the Steve Jobs theater very frequently yeah upstairs and all that that's not what I'm talking about we We're talking about the stage specifically. I think this one makes a lot of sense. I have a StageCraft pick that I'll do maybe in a minute, but my second pick is that Apple TV Plus trailers or promo videos will be shown.

I almost picked this. Apple have a lot of big stuff coming in the next few weeks and people are starting to pay now finally, and have been for a bit I think. So you've got Morning Show coming in a couple of weeks. You've got Foundation coming in a couple of weeks. I think they've got some movies and stuff. Obviously, the series finale of Ted Lasso is not soon,

but around the corner, you know. So I believe we'll see at least something around this time for Apple TV+. I think that's good. I almost picked that. That was my next pick as well. Honestly, I would say if they don't do it, I would question them. Right?

Like if they had the whole world watching and didn't show them a sizzle reel of all of their new content, I would question that decision i think that would be a bad move yeah i think you're right i think they gave time to podcast subscriptions last year right like you know uh so i think this i think for the iphone event especially because fall is a big time for tv apple need to integrate at least some of this in there somewhere and it's really easy to do. Right? Like, oh, and this screen is amazing with all of our stuff, and here's some of those

shows coming. We are talking specifically not just an image, but we need to see a video with some trailer-y content as part of the presentation. I'm going to triple down on StageCraft. Final pick now.

I can't pick another iPhone or a pick now. Final, final pick now. Now, can I... And I can't pick another iPhone or a watch pick. I have to pick another. I have to pick StageCraft, right? You have to pick another, yeah. Or an iPad. Nobody has picked a new iPad, by the way. I'm not entirely convinced that this is the event for the iPad, but we'll see.

I'm going to... This is weird. Let me know if this is okay. I am going to make a we see Ted Lasso pick. So here's what this means. They can't just say Ted Lasso. We need to see Ted Lasso. And that means we need to see

the guy with the mustache. We need to see him. It could be in a video clip. It could be in a slide. But we see Ted Lasso. This is a lot. The character. This was high up for me.

You think so? And I tell you where they'll do it as well. I will tell you exactly where it's going to happen. When they have a slide where they show you the new products they announced today, Ted will be there. Because they do keep doing this, right? Like, I see it a lot in their newsroom stuff. So, like, the stuff that apple puts out to

press afterwards ted finds his way onto a screen some way it happens a lot like they could honestly like as part of the ios 15 part you'll see ted lasso right like they'll show a screenshot of him oh you're right they'll integrate ted lasso in some other aspect of it that's that's all my thing is is that this is not a apple tv event necessarily but apple is so high on ted lasso right now that they just they can't come down wouldn't they be if they have they stumbled across one of the most popular tv shows on at the moment right like it's award season and he's scooping them up right like honestly like in different times ted lasso's gonna be a part of the presentation he walks on stage and introduces himself you know yeah i mean i think we're all predicting that at some point they're gonna do an in-person thing if they don't

do it in a video where ted lasso gives his own uh pep talk or whatever uh and then maybe that'll happen this time but if all they do is show the ted lasso words, it does not count. But what I'm picking is we see Ted Lasso himself. And they're like, well, if Jason Sudeikis only appears in the video out of character, not as Ted Lasso, and we never see Ted Lasso, then I don't get this pick. But I don't think that's going to happen. We're going to see that smiling face and that mustache and a shade of blue. And it's Ted Lasso. Yep. I want to give Apple a little pitch here. You can feel free to take this one if anyone's listening. It's like the opening of a

keynote and Tim Cook's backstage and he's nervous and he's not sure about it. And then he bumps into Ted and Ted gives him the pep talk he needs and he goes out and gives the best presentation of his life and he taps the believe sign on the way out onto stage. Come on, Tim. You can do it. I believe you.

Maybe it's like he tries to say good morning and his voice cracks or something and like ted pulls him aside gives him that little pep talk he needs oh oh man although i'm going to pitch you a slightly alternate one which is what if we descend beneath the center of apple park to the chip lab but we pause outside of the chip lab where johnny sruji is a little nervous and then ted lasso gives him a pep talk and says, come on, these chips. Or what about we're going down and all of a sudden, wait, it's AFC Wimbledon's locker room. What's happening?

It's Richmond, not Wimbledon. Why do I do this every time? But there you go. All right, I'm going stagecraft then. The rainbow stage at the center of Apple Park is seen. This one feels easy to me. All they have to do is fly that drone outside and i've got that's right do like they do they they pass by and you're like oh look the rainbow

and uh yeah that's a that's a pretty good one so that's it solid that's the draft i feel good about this draft i think we've got a good competitive fun draft here this is i think so uh there were several people in the discord who said you've got it but those people are wrong nobody knows do they like you know nobody knows because you know why we don't know the io jason of one yet because it hasn't happened i um i have gone in on iphone pro differentiation which is not a given and also the de-differentiation of lidar which i think is interesting um and there are some apple watch picks that i actually regret not picking now but you know so so i'm just gonna have to leave it there and then i went all stagecraft in the end this is a tactical thing

i thought the airpods would probably happen there are lots of rumors about ipads we didn't pick any ipad things i feel like ipad is a better match for the mac and that there is going to be a second probably happen. There are lots of rumors about iPads. We didn't pick any iPad things. I feel like iPad is a better match for the Mac and that there is going to be a second event. There could be a new iPad on Tuesday. There absolutely could be. Very well could be. My confidence level in that being necessary is low, and so I didn't go there. If you want to make two one- hour events, you do Apple Watch and phone and you do iPad and Mac.

iPad could very well happen, but I don't feel as confident in that. Especially if one of these things is that iPad mini, they will want to spend some time with that. And I don't know if you've got that time. Right. And especially when you've got,

presumably, unless you've got a Mac thing that's so packed, and I just don't think they will, it's going to be, you know, laptops and a Mac mini. It's not going to be the new big iMac that by all accounts that is coming next year. So they don't have a packed Mac event. So having it be in the grand tradition of Apple late, you know, later in the fall events, iPad and Mac together, Apple Watch and iPhone together in September. Makes sense to me. So although I think it's totally possible that there'll be an iPad on Tuesday, neither of us were really willing to pick it. And I think that says something. So that's the draft. We will be talking in

Upgrade Plus a little bit more about the draft and maybe commiserating some of our picks, celebrating some of our picks. If you want to hear longer ad-free episodes of Upgrade Plus, a little bit more about the draft and maybe commiserating with some of our picks, celebrating some of our picks. If you want to hear longer ad-free episodes of Upgrade, we even do bonus content on our bonus episodes. You can go to getupgradeplus.com and you can sign up. Thank you to everybody that does. Don't forget to donate stjude.org

slash relay, whatever money you can go into St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and we can fight childhood cancer together. We're doing this throughout all of September. We will be back on Tuesday, obviously. So we will be recording, I think this time,

literally as soon as we can after the ending. This changes sometimes, but our plan right now is the event ends. We take a few moments. We collect our thoughts. 15 minutes maybe after the event ends, but take a few moments. We collect our thoughts. 15 minutes maybe after the event ends, but that's what we're going to try to do to be live. And you can listen live, relay.fm slash live.

And then of course, as soon as we're done, Mike will do his magical editing thing and we'll get that episode posted in the podcast feed. As soon as we can. As soon as we can on Tuesday. So we'll be there for your post game show for sure we endeavor to be the first podcast in your feed

and we will be endeavoring as always to achieve that so look out for that on Tuesday and we'll be giving our hot fresh takes on whatever it is Apple does announce. Thank you so much for listening to this week's bonus draft episode of Upgrade as we say goodbye to the summer of fun. Thank you so much for listening to this week's bonus draft episode

of Upgrade as we say goodbye to the Summer of Fun. Thank you to Smile and Pingdom for their support of this week's episode and most of all to you for listening. Speak to you on Tuesday. Say goodbye Jason Snell. See you Tuesday everybody! you