518: Is FileMaker Carbon Neutral?

From Relay, this is Connected, episode 518. Today's show is brought to you by E-cam, Squarespace, one password-excented access management and back place. I'm Federico Viteci and it's my pleasure to introduce keynote chairman Stephen Hackett. Hello, Stephen. Hello, I look forward to retaining my title today, right? Yeah, maybe I bet you do. We'll see. Yeah, stay tuned. Yes. I am pleased to announce the attendance of this recording of Ainal Chairman Mike Hurley. I love it. That was great.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Big time. I'm really happy to be here, you know, as always. I always like these episodes. These are good episodes. Here we are. We have follow-up. What is the follow-up? Follow-up. We mostly have follow-up about show questions. The best ones, okay. Don't know how to say that otherwise. Ben wrote in. Listener Ben, I have listened to a show for years that I've

never thought about where your opening title music comes from. Why did you choose this classical piece? This piece is Beethoven Symphony No. 1 fourth movement. In case, you know, for all you Apple music classical heads out there, you know, the classic heads that can go check it out. It's not just a theme song for a podcast. We'd like to thank Beethoven for composing our theme song. Yeah, friend of the show. Friend of the show, Beethoven. It's not the one you think. No, it is the one you think

about. It is the Beethoven. So our previous show, The Prompt, which had a piece of music composed by another famed composer, Stephen Hackett, which was just all techno. Because that's, if you ask Stephen to make you music for a podcast, it will be some form of techno. And it had like all kinds of voice over and all that kind of stuff. It was aggressive, but fun. Welcome to The Prompt, a weekly panel discussion on technology and the culture surrounding Apple and related companies.

But over that time, we started calling our show The World's Greatest Podcast, which was obvious. It still is. Everybody is. And to when we when we started connected, we wanted to embody The World's Greatest Podcast by being above everybody else. And we thought what better way than classical music to do that. And it sets everyone in the right mood, you know? Yeah, every episode's a classic. Basically, I like that. Yes. Yeah. It's good. We also had some people ask a few people actually

via the feedback form. Where does the name the Ricky's come from anyway? Why are the risky picks and the game called that? So I did some digging today. I was trying to find this answer. And I should have just gone immediately to Ricky's.net because it's actually there. So I want to thank Jason of Ricky's.net for putting that on there. So quote from the page, just putting the show notes,

the episode 245, Steven mentions accidentally sending the word Ricky instead of risky. And an I message thread, which ends up in being a major shift in branding for the Connective Predictions game. Because then we decided to call them the Ricky's and then everything else like the Jeremy's, the Annie's, the Ues, all of these have come from that one. Also correct. Failure that occurred. Yeah, a rare typo by Steven, which of course was important enough to celebrate the occasion.

And it is worth noting because we got this a little bit confused over time, but I figure we could just say now the game is called the Ricky's. The final round is called the risky pick. Because for a while, we were calling the Ricky picks, which was confusing because technically, they're all Ricky picks because it's the Ricky's. Yeah, it's the final round. They are the risky picks. Yeah. No, no, we have the Ricky's. Yeah.

So we're going to talk about what was announced a little bit later on in the episode, kind of hardware wise, but one of the things they spoke about, well, actually no. One of the things they didn't talk about during the event, the the glow time event was when all of the OS releases were going to drop, but it was confirmed afterwards. I think via press release that everything's drop in Monday, right? So this is iOS, iPad, OS, watch OS, macOS. I don't know about Vision OS too,

but I'm expecting vision OS too. So everything's dropping Monday, which is by the way, Apple, great. Like this is what should happen, right? Like if you're going to do annual releases, I know it's hard, but have them come out at the same time because we've all been in the scenario. September, you update your phone and then none of your messages look right into the middle of October on your Mac because that's when they update that. So this will come in Monday. So Federico,

you feeling good about Monday? I'm feeling very good. The review is done. I am finalizing the screenshots. I have screenshots left to do for one chapter. I have some videos like screen recordings and a video left to do, but the review has been done for a few days. I sent you guys a draft today. Yep. Very excited. Teased on Macedon that this year's review is going to be very

different. You guys now know why. It's both obviously stylistically different. It's... I think the way that I've been thinking about it in my mind is that it's my most personal review ever and that hopefully will make sense when you read it and it will make sense for people on Monday. I'm very proud of this story, especially the conclusion. It's like I said, very personal.

And I'm also very excited about everything else surrounding the review. What is it? What is it going to look like on Mac stories and the surprise for this year is something that I've never done before. It's been killing me not to tell people. I told you guys today, you seem to like it. So that was encouraging. But yeah, I'm going to be ready on Monday and in fact, the entire Mac story steam is going to be ready on Monday. We are still debating this. So I may be swayed

otherwise, but we are going to have other reviews. And they're all going to be ready on Monday in theory. We're going to have macOS, watchOS and visualise. We are debating whether they should go out on the same day, but I'm more leaning towards spacing them out during the week. Absolutely. Spaced them out. Yeah. Yeah. Because again, this will make sense on Monday. I think it makes more sense to put the spotlight on iOS and iOS. And that review in particular, not because it's mine, but because

of all the other things related to that. So yeah, but it's going to be a big week on the site. And yeah, it's just I'm a little bit tired because these final days, you know, making sure to read everything at night, adding the last minute changes from the iOS 18 release candidates, all those things. But I'll get there and I'm feeling quite happy about my work life balance this year. Good. So yeah, I'm excited. I can't wait to start reading it. I'm really excited

to start reading it. But yeah, I think spreading them out is better for everyone. It's better for all you guys because you can focus on staggering your edits and your publishing. Yeah. It's better for your readers because there's zero reason to get five reviews on one day, right? Like no one's going to be able to read that. Like that's just not feasible. Yeah. And I think it'll be also better for the website. I just think yeah, you guys, I don't know. I wouldn't know how you would

stagger them. Like it seems complicated, but I think staggering them makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Federica, you had this really interesting post on threads about your feelings about the pro phone. We're going to get into all the news in a minute. But what's going on over there? Yeah. So the basic idea is that I'm fascinated by the iPhone 16 non pro line. I had this feeling

during the event and I was texting you guys. Like I think I'm actually more interested in the iPhone 16 that the iPhone 16 pro because a lot of the demo of the iPhone 16 pro, those features, they really focused on professional photographers and professional video creators, like movie directors, but all those features that they showed. And because the camera control button is also available on the iPhone 16, I started thinking, well, maybe, you know, maybe I'm not necessarily a pro anymore.

And a funny coincidence just as I was having these thoughts, Brandon, my cohost on the MPC podcast, was also having these thoughts and approached me after the event saying, hey, I wrote a thing about like these thoughts that I'm having about the fact that maybe I'm not a pro iPhone user anymore. And I was like, great, we should put this on Mac. So it's because I've been having the same questions for the past few hours. And so I also started thinking I actually considered like for real.

Maybe I'm not going to get a pro Max. Maybe I'm just going to get an iPhone 16 plus. Because there's also the angle of I maybe it would be good for me to be, well, you guys know, I've always been a man of the people obviously. Yeah, I'll be sure to. Listeners of the show know me as a man of the people. They say, I know you that way. Yeah, I am the representative, you know, yeah, they really come to me. They know that I'm one of them. How many of them,

how many PC's do you have in your desk right now? Just out of interest because I know that like relate shoot on my desk. I joke so new on my desk zero. Oh, that you know what I'm going to worry, co joke is on me. Yes. What about the lighted shelves above your desk? Yeah. Steven. Yes. Stop it. I am a man of the people. Why are you? Why are you trying to take the people from the 90s? You know, I'm swimming in provides over here. Right. Right. Right.

So I need, but no, but seriously, I thought, well, it would be interesting to try and use the a model of an iPhone that lots of people are going to buy. But obviously before making such decision, I wanted to test the waters a little bit. So I posted on threads that there is a way to sort of fake your way into checking whether a non pro iPhone after many years of pro iPhone could be good for you. So what I did was I disabled promotion. You can do this in accessibility

settings. You just limit the frame rate of an iPhone. And that's going to kick it down to 60 hertz instead of 120 hertz. And you do this, don't you? Steven does. Yeah. I've had promotion off the whole time. Yeah. And I also turned off the always on display, which is also something you can do in this play and brightness in settings. And now let me tell you guys, I lasted about an hour. I'm glad I did it because at the very least I no longer have any doubts. I depend on promotion

and the always on display a lot more than I initially thought. I thought, well, yeah, I'm going to be fine. You know, with 60 hertz and no always on display, I never use them really turns out that going back to 60 hertz was kind of making me motion sick. Like people have the people have the opposite problem. Yeah. Everything was so slow. Like the like it's not just the animations, like the fluidity of the display, just like using iOS was slower. Like just every gesture, every

animation, every transition transition was slower. And I was so bothered also by not being able to see the time and my notifications, not even the widgets, but the notifications and the live activities. Man, it was killing me. So I lasted about an hour and at the very least now I know I don't have that lingering doubt in my mind. I'm a pro iPhone person and it's fine. I tried. And so that's why I am going to stick with the 16 Pro Max. I'm debating on the color.

I'm glad I did this this experiment. I think this year much more than in previous years, the 16 and the 16 plus are going to be great phones for a lot of people, especially the colors. Man, the colors. My God, that's so good. That ultramarine. Oh, that's all of them. Like seriously, the three pink, the pink, the pink, the teal, and the ultramarine. But yeah, the ultramarine is like, wow, that is a good looking phone.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm glad I did this trial, even though it was very brief. But now I know. And the people will understand I am still a man of the people. But you know, I don't know. The way that this works is that to be a man of the people, you have to, I don't know what I'm saying. Maybe I'm right. The wheels really fell off of that one. I'll just jump in and say Apple should not be selling a phone with a 60-houset screen at this point.

Like that phone should be 90. That should be 90. Like one. I mean, honestly, I think it should be 120. But if not, I'm going to do that. Like this, this phone should be 90. So like, it should offer that. It's an $800 smartphone. Like that, that's just not good anymore. Like I think a 60-houset screen is just, it's, we've passed that point. We've passed that point. It is September. That means it is St. Jude time around these parts. Mike, tell us a little bit about what we're doing.

So every September, we come together as a community during the month of September because the Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, the relay community is coming out in full force again as we are raising money for the kids of St. Jude. We have, as of today, incredibly, passed $300,000 raised for the kids of St. Jude just in this year, which has put us significantly over the $3 million now that we have raised as a community since we started this five years ago. And we do this for

a very simple reason. Like, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is an incredible place that makes the families and the children who are affected by cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It makes their lives better. It saves lives. And also, they use, because they are a research institution as well as a hospital, they're able to use the information and what the research that they get

from treating these sick kids. And they share that with the world. And the best part is St. Jude and one of the key reasons why we come together to raise money for them every year is because they make no family pay for anything. You do not pay for bills, you do not pay for food, you do

not pay for housing. They provide those things for you if you need them. And something that we got to see when we were on campus last year, well, we got to see the outside of it, because it's a very special building called Family Commons, which is a 45,000 square foot space that has been built on campus just for families. Because one of the things that St. Jude knows is important is that having the space to be a kid, not just a patient, is incredibly, incredibly important. Like, Steven,

I know that you had a little bit to do with that, right? You had a little bit to play. I think Mary did, right? Mary did. Yeah, my much cooler, much cooler spouse. Yeah, I mean, this has been Family Commons was a big deal to take part of the hospital and make it not part of a hospital. And so there's creator space, art space. And she was on a small commission to help shape that from a parent perspective, because our son is a survivor. He was a St. Jude patient as a baby.

But Mike, I do have a correction for you. Oh, oh, did I say something wrong? If you go to st. Jude.org slash relay, you will see we are now at $400,000 and $7,000 raised. Okay, then, well, $400,000. This place $100,000 will happen. Yeah, yeah, it has been an incredible day for fundraising. We've had two really great kids. We raised over 200 grand today. Today. It's awesome. And here's what's so cool about St. Jude. I mean, amongst all the other things that you mentioned is that it

is something that we can all be a part of. You know, we've had a couple of really large gifts today and that is so incredible and humbling, like very exciting. But people from all around the world support St. Jude. And it takes all of us to keep its doors open because this work is really expensive and they give it away. They've never charged me a dime for my son's treatment. And he has been there since he was six months of age. He's getting ready to be 16. I've never

gotten a bill for food, never gotten a bill for his care. If we had travel, St. Jude happens to be my hometown, but if we had a travel, I would not be charged for that. It's absolutely, absolutely incredible. And it's all thanks to you. So two anonymous gifts of $100,000 in one day is an incredible thing to occur. Right. And that is not lost on us that there are people in our community. These are people in our community who are deciding that they want to give that amount of money

to support this cause. That is a truly unbelievable and inspiring thing. But the thing that we hear consistently from our partners at St. Jude that makes our campaigns so important is the amount of people that donate to get to the money that we get to. Like there are so many thousands of listeners who have made donations of all sizes to this campaign. And that means there are more thousands of people who are aware and are getting on board with the message. Like that is so

important. Wherever you are able to donate $5 or $50,000, it doesn't matter. That money is all going into the funds that are needed to save these children's lives and to save the lives of countless children in the future. Like that is why we do this. One of the things that a lot of campaigns have, like a lot of the campaigns that we see and that everybody will see that of a content creators but together. They have very large corporate donors. We don't have that. Like

we get to this money because of the generosity of our audience. We're very lucky I think that there are a number of people in our audience who are able to give 4, 5, 6 figure donations. It's an incredible thing that makes our community push further. It's why we're able to have raised $3 million in 5 years. But these large donations, they are on the foundation of donations that are $50, $100, $200. So whatever you have to give, please go to St. Jude or Alksash Relay because

literally every single dollar counts in fighting childhood cancer. Like it absolutely does. Every single donation of every size makes a massive, massive impact and we are so grateful that you join with us on this course every year. Man, what a day. Yeah. Go to St. Jude. Alksash Relay. You can find out more about donating. You can find out more about the podcastathon, which is coming next Friday. There's so much incredible stuff going on. If you make donations, there are rewards that you can

get. We have incredible stickers. We have incredible warpapers, incredible screensaver from James Thompson. If you sign up to become a fundraiser, there's even more stuff available to you there. We're so thankful for the support that you will give. This episode of Connected is made possible by our friends at Ecam. Ecam Live is the leading video production and live streaming studio built from iOS. Ecam does all aspects of video,

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Our thanks to ecam for their support of the show. The Rikis is a game connected host play before Apple Keynotes in the beginning of a new year trying to predict future events. It is made up of three rounds. Each host makes two regular picks followed by a risky pick. There are two types of Rikis. Today we are playing the keynote Rikis. The keynote Rikis winner is named the keynote chairman. This was soon as held until the next keynote. Host should be

introduced at the top of each episode according to their current titles. In the event that a host has both positions, they shall be introduced as the Ricky Benjamin. If so, if Mike wins today, he'll be the Ricky Benjamin first, first ever, first annual Ricky Benjamin. Let's go. After the Rikis, the hosts then play a game called the Flexes. These two games are separate but related. Please stand for the reading of the rules. Each host gets to make two regular picks.

Host can be granted a bonus regular pick for any previously incorrect pick that has now come true from the last three corresponding games. A previously incorrect pick may be used only once. Correct regular picks are awarded one point. The language used for regular picks must be finalized and agreed upon during recording and no partial points may be awarded. RISKY picks have a more complex scoring system. Each host must make a pick comprising of three conditions. If you get all

three conditions correct, you earn two points. If you get two conditions correct, you earn one point and if you get one condition correct, you get zero points. If you get all three wrong, lose a point. Think about that. Picks must have been approved as RISKY by the other two hosts before the start of the game. Picks made for Keenit Rikis cannot be reused by the hosts who made them for the next keynote.

For Keenit Rikis, the scoring window starts with the live stream begins and closes when the picks are scored. Right now, any information used in scoring must be publicly verifiable at the time of recording. All hosts are allowed to reuse picks previously made by others. Scoring is completed during recording and cannot be modified once an episode is complete. In the event of a tie,

dies by peak out must be used in relay mode to pick a winner. In the case of a three-way tie, hosts all make their calls at the same time with flipping continuing until a winner is named. Jason Snow. I don't remember that rule. Yeah, we're going to keep flipping coins until Morales. Jason Snow has a lifetime ban of flipping any coins in relation to the Rikis. Coin flips by Jason and other podcasts are allowed but are frowned upon and subject to public shaming. The order of the

picks is set by previous performance, the winner of the previous associated game goes first. That was me this time. The previous loser goes last. Winners will be recognized during the closing ceremonies. As a reminder, Mike is the current annual chairman. I am the current keynote chairman. Past results can be seen at Rikis.co and Rikis.net. These sites also have pages about managing your own scorekeeping at home. You may be seated. I think we start at the beginning. I think we

start with round one. It's a good place to stop. I think so. I said the iPhone 16 Pro gains 5x zoom. Are we doing the bell thing? Well, we can do the bell, but I don't want to hum. People don't like the humming. No, so we can do the bell, but you have to change zoom settings through the bell. So what I think you should just do now is just say ding. I think that is a better way to just do it. Let me try that again. You get the essence of a bill. You get the full experience.

I said the iPhone 16 Pro gains a 5x zoom. Ding. That's a perfect bell. Great. Yeah, I did. I'm happy that this happened. I feel like this radically shifts the relationship between these two fans. Well, I mean, I think that's the story. I mean, you mentioned earlier, right? Federico mentioned earlier with the camera control, which is a bad is going to take some time to bed in that phrase, rather than capture button. Oh, no. Just in general, this year, the entire lineup

is closer to each other than normal. And I think that's probably good. So people can just make their own decisions based on what will be the smaller differences between all the phones. But yeah, the two pro phones getting closer together again. I think what it does show is the the reason that the 5x zoom was just on the Pro Max last year was purely space. And it wasn't an indication that they were trying to split them apart again because we had had that, right?

And then they came together and they both sizes were kind of the same for a while. And then the 5x zoom was a change that we hadn't seen in a bit. And so, but I think that it was purely because it was an engineering challenge that they wanted to wait another year to try and squeeze it all in to the pro. So cool though. Yeah. Yeah. Good pick. I'm going to buy one Stephen. I'm going to get a 16 pro or pro max. Well, we have a whole section about that later in the outline.

Okay. Called what are we before shadowing in today's episode? Just a very foreshadowing focused episode. Okay. So my round one pick I said all the iPhones announced support appalling pathogens. Ding. Wait. Are you the bell? Am I the bell? Aren't we all? I think you can bell yourself. I think we're all like each respective bell. You know, but don't bell too much because you might go blind. Yeah. Sure. All the iPhones support Apple Intelligence. We need this. Well, we thought

when you knew when you knew this and it was correct. All the iPhones have the A18 as a baseline. And of course, the pro models have the A18 pro Apple wants to get Apple Intelligence in the hands of as many people as possible. So I would expect going forward all new Apple devices will support Apple Intelligence. But in this case, the 16 and the 16 plus they will. And I mean, not that I'm going to take advantage of it because I'm in Europe, but it will become available for people

in the US next month. So I still think of you. I don't I just will happen. Europe will get it wherever you use it is a different conversation. But I think that it I think it is an Apple's interest, right? Like they will want to do this. But I don't know why long it's going to take. Oh, no, don't you know that they should exit the European market. Didn't you know that was there was the I know something people say. I don't think I agree with

the sentiment. Steven made a point in his blog post that I thought was interesting. And I don't I felt the same, which like when they were talking about the pro chip, it kind of felt like they were gearing up to say something that these phones would have that was different in Apple Intelligence. But that didn't seem to come to pass that like it seems like at least for now, unless I'm remembering incorrectly that all of the Apple Intelligence features are for all

phones. Now there are machine learning powered features, which are just on the pro. Like I think the photographic styles counts, right? Like the photographic styles requires the pro chip, I think. Maybe I don't know anymore, but it's confusing. You know, they were not clear about these things. Yes, there aren't any Apple Intelligence features that appear to be just for the pro phone, which it does not surprise really because it's they haven't got a lot. Yeah,

but that will change. I'm sure, but at least it hasn't now. Maybe the like generated text will be better written on a pro phone. And like there'll be some typos in the non-pro phone. I mean, there is a possibility that things will be faster and all better on different chips. I think it'll definitely be faster, but they didn't even really talk about that. It just, it really felt like they were teaming something up and just didn't, didn't deliver. Yeah. All right. Well, speaking of chips, Mike.

Yeah, Apple introduces a faster chip for the iPhone. Ding, they did it for all of them. Ever a 18 and an a 18 pro. I wonder if this is what it is now. The chip, the chip stuff was gotten complicated with them in the last few years, especially all the three nanometer stuff. These are three nanometer, but they're different to the previous three nanometer chips, right? Because I think this is the M4 architecture, Stephen. Is that correct? It is the same architecture as the M4. It seems like it.

Yeah. I think we'll know once these phones are in the hands of people who have benchmarked them and stuff. Yeah. But it seems like the M3 and the A17 pro were on the first three nanometer process. It basically seems like that three nanometer process was a bit of a dead end and wasn't the long-term game plan for three nanometer. It seems like this is that evolved process that the M4 is on. I would assume they want to get there as quickly as possible.

We haven't seen the high end M3 chips. It seems like they're going to skip over what is it? The max and ultra at the top of the line or the ultra, I guess at the top of the line. So definitely a bit of a weird moment in chip land, I think. But exciting. I mean, their foot is on the gas, definitely.

Yeah. I will say it is getting harder to track these chips over time because like two to three times a year we're taking a visit to the chip lab and they're talking to us about performance calls, efficiency calls, neural engine. And like I have gotten to the point where they could tell me the same thing each time and I would know anymore. Because at first, the first year or two, they were very big gains and it was

all new and interesting. But now it is incredible that they are on an annual basis producing more powerful chips. But the returns are getting smaller and the architecture is on the face of it to someone like me. It seems similar-ish. And can I hear different configurations of performance calls and efficiency calls on different machines? I think I've kind of gotten to the point where the time spent in the chip lab is becoming complicated and confusing, especially because,

and I understand what I do it because it's marketing. The comparisons Apple make on always the ones you think they're going to make, right? This is four times faster than a different phone to the one you think we're going to talk about right now. You know what I mean? And I understand what I do that makes perfect sense. They shouldn't. And I follow the idea of year-over-year comparisons are unrealistic to the majority of people that they are talking to anyway. So I get that. But

this is just building this case of the time spent in the chip lab. For me now is becoming just of interest, but I don't really feel like I can do anything with the information that I receive from that personally. I do wonder if there's- you know, I said this on NPU, like it's hard to draw lines from as few dots as we have. Like we had this period where the non-profone had an old chip in it. And now we have this where it's like a normal version and a pro version.

There probably just bend versions of the same chip if I had to guess or you know tweak versions of the same chip. And like is this now like what you said is this now the pattern going forward? I tend to think that it is because of Apple Intelligence. Like if you look at the 15 range, the iPhone 15 and 15 plus don't wear an Apple Intelligence because they had a year old chip, a year ago, right? And that causes all sorts of weirdness with that phone. Like I think that's

a blemish on the iPhone 15's record historically. Like only the pro ones got this new feature. And so maybe they're going to be more conservative in terms of like future proofing. Maybe they just need the horsepower for the AI stuff. Whatever happened, it seems clear at least that the road they were on had to change because of Apple Intelligence and the 15 kind of lost out because of that. It's just- this is really interesting. We have another player here this week.

The screen on the iPhone 16 Pro Max will increase to at least 6.9 inches. Indeed to chat you be too. Strong start for the robot. It actually is. I think that's a strong, it's pretty strong. Like it nailed it. This 6.9 inches is the size of the screen. Big screen. Both big screens now. Big screen. Big screen. Was it 6.3 and 6.9? The small phone is not small anymore. The phone's got bigger and heavier. What do you guys think

about that? Bigger heavier, bigger screens. What do I think? I mean, I still want the biggest screen possible. It will have to work somehow. Is there a point though? It's hard to say because we haven't used it. I've got to think that 6.9. We're getting to the point now. We might be past it now. We may have actually passed it where that big phone is is maybe hit the comfort limit for the vast like exceeded the comfort limit for the vast majority

of people that would use it. Yes. Yeah. I had a word come to mind. Remember, Fablet? Oh yeah. And how big? Remember how big the 6 plus seemed? And Mike was right about the size? This phone dwarfs that phone. I mean, we've been creeping up, but this one seems next level. Yeah. I mean, it's always a fun thing. But the iPhone 6 plus this screen was 5.5 inches. That was the screen size. I looked at it the other day, but the iPhone 12 mini was 5.4.

That's the warburoon. But of course, the dimensions of the phone is what made it bigger because it wasn't edge-to-edge screen back then. But what I am actually interested in, if I take a look at the physical sizes, right? Yeah. So the 6 plus was 158 millimeters in height and 77 millimeters wide. The iPhone 16 is 147 millimeters high and 71 millimeters wide. So the plus was only like 11 millimeters taller and 7 millimeters wider than the current standard smallest phone in the new lineup.

That's wild. That's crazy, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. You know, I spoke about it. I'm thinking about a smaller phone. And the fact that this one to 6.3 is like, yeah, like, I think the smaller phone is now is now very enough for most people. I've actually heard from quite a few listeners who are like, you know, I was thinking about this too. So that's just the warburoon. So good work, Chad G.P.T. At the end of round one, we will have one point.

Here we go. Round two. The iPhone 16 and 16 pro are larger than their predecessors. Stephen, you messed up, didn't I? I blew it. I, so here's Mike, you texted me the other night and said, hey, what happened with this pick? What I swore I had on the document was 16 pro and 16 pro max. But I didn't have that. I said 16 and 16 pro. And as it is written, you know, so let it be written. So let it be picked. And so I get it wrong. Why didn't we, why didn't we say

anything? This is the, what is that called? No, the baron steam bears. What is that called? That effect, you know, like when Mandela effect, we Mandela effected this, I think, or something like that because I am convinced that when you said it, we were all sure that you said, and like, we all thought you were talking about the 16 pro and 16 pro max. Like, I think that was the conversation we were all having, but it was not the pick that you gave, which rough.

Yeah. So it's, I think this strategy makes a lot of sense. I think the pro phones both being a little bit bigger than the normal ones is good and helps distinguish them in the Apple store, right? Or the AT&T store wherever you go by your phones. So I think it's good. I'm sad I missed the point, but you know, I, I have a man of the, a man of the people and many of the people play by their rules. Who am I, David Grohl? Why are you trying to steal my thing now? I don't like it.

Yeah. It's like you just created this new thing and you already want it. I'm sorry, Steven. Thank you. My round two pick was Apple Deview's a new AirPods model. Ding. Yes. Yeah. Not just one. In fact, two models. Three. Well, three. Well, two and a half. Kind of three. Yeah. The AirPods 4, I am so excited because they did the thing that I was hoping for. Mike told me it was never going to happen. I saw what I said. There's actually no what I said.

It is literally what you said. No, I said, I didn't think it was possible and I, and I still am very intrigued by this because it's a noise cancellation we're talking about here, right? That's, that's what we're talking about. Like that the AirPods 4 with noise cancellation, which is a bad product name in my opinion, has it is a pair of AirPods with noise cancellation that does not have

a silicon tip. Now, yeah, friend of the show, Chance Miller wrote an article in 95 Mac and, you know, it's saying that the AirPods Pro noise cancellation is, it defines as two times more. So it's half, but what does that mean? Like, I don't know how to equate like half. Like if I turn on my Dyson vacuum at medium, it cancels that, but if I turn it to boost mode, it doesn't like it's that like what is it? I mean, I guess it's too, the effectiveness, right?

The amount, yeah, but we need a unit of measurement. What's that unit for noise cancellation? How do you measure that? Let's say it's a, let's say, cancellation per second. Which is, yes, it's two, two cancellations per second. And this one does one cancellation per

second. I don't know. OK. I think that's how it works. But like, look, this is kind of what I was thinking about, but I'm very, I am very impressed by this because I just figured you couldn't do it about making a seal and clearly Apple have found a way to do it where they think it's good enough. But I think my expectation is to somebody moves to these. They will realize it's not as good, but maybe that won't matter to you at the same time. You know what I mean? Like, maybe it's like,

I don't need, I'm good of half. I had people in real life text me just wanting to confirm. Like, hey, I read the new AirPods 4, the new noise cancellation without the tips. Is that correct? And I had to tell at least two people this morning, yes, and they immediately pre-ordered the AirPods 4. Both of them were on the AirPods 2 generation. So yeah, I think these are going to be extremely popular. And this is something we spoke about this last week. Not using the ear near tips all the

time is something that I realized with time is better for me. And so I was really hoping that Apple was going to do this. They are going to do this. Even if it's just one X cancellation instead of two X cancellation, whatever, I'm fine. I'm never going to use it most of the time. And for those times when I need it, I will not regret not having the AirPods Pro. So excellent news all around. Also happens to be a point for me. I'm really, I can't wait to hear what you think about this.

Like, I'm really intrigued about it. And so, Steven, what AirPods do you use? So I'm using the AirPods Pro 2. Even though I don't really like the tips. I've come to like the other features. And so I've stuck with them. But the AirPods 4 with noise cancellation is like definitely something I'm interested in. I haven't pre-ordered them. But I'm very curious how those reviews are going to go. Because after a while, especially if I'm like exercising or like

sweaty, the tips are really uncomfortable. And for me, at least just my own ears, my own personal experience. And so these could be the ones for me. And I also like how tiny the case appears to be. Like, just small and compact. These are very interesting to me. And yeah, I want to know how they go. I want to know what people think about them. Because these could be my next. My second round pick, a button is introduced to an iPhone that directly lets you capture photos.

Ding, camera control. Camera control. So much more complicated than we would have expected it to be. It is a button that physically moves. It is a button that physically moves and has a tactic motor in it. So you can do fake clicks and real clicks. Which is how they get the two stage click, which is really interesting. And it also swipes and also destroys phone cases. Let's talk about phone cases. The way I've been thinking about the camera control is that

the camera control is the dynamic highland of camera buttons. Like, it's way more than we were expecting it to be. Yeah. It's not just like, it's mostly about the software when you think about it. Not necessarily the hardware, which is fascinating. Like, this is a phrase which I think people apply negatively, but I don't mean it is that like the dynamic on it, it is over engineered. Like, there is significantly more engineering that appears to have gone into this thing

than was necessary to make people happy. I think. Yeah. And I think it will make people more happy, it will make me more happy. I love the idea of being able to hold my phone in the way to take a camera and like swipe around and clicking like pop and all this kind of stuff. I think it's great. I can swipe between modes. I can will be able to zoom in weirdly. I heard this in MKBHD's video and I had to check. But like, the thing where you can light press to focus is not coming up

launch. That's coming later, which is really strange. Like, via a software update. All the other features work, but the idea of being able to light press and it focus on someone and then you take the photo that is coming later on this year. But also there is like a, yeah, this is a very cool feature. I like to look at it a lot and it does a lot going on. But

let's talk about phone cases. Phone cases are a disaster now. I've been getting a lot of Instagram ads with phone cases because I've been looking at phone cases because I'm just like intrigued about what's happening. So I'm like, I'm very aware of the landscape right now. And basically, unless you're Apple, everybody is doing some kind of bad cut out. And I'm really intrigued to how it's actually going to work because some cases are just cutting a big chunk out of the side.

Right. So like, you will see these cases before like where they kind of would go around the buttons rather than making buttons, like take a big chunk out. Yeah. And some phone cases are just doing a cut out of the little pill shape of the button. That's what my beloved peak design case is doing. And I don't know how that's, I don't know if that's going to work. Because you got to, you got to reach down in, you got to push down physically inside of

the cut out that they've made and like swipe around it. And like, I don't know how that's going, I don't know how that's going to work. Like I think it's interesting. In Apple's cases, they have a little piece of sapphire in them. And like, that's going to be the way to do it. Ultimately, I think everyone's going to need to try and find a way to make that work. So they can have a little pass through piece that's conductive. But I think if you thought the action button

was a problem last year, this is going to be way more of a problem this year. Yeah. Did you all see that beats have some cases? I did see that. So I've got a beats case in my saved iPhone order. Because I think, I mean, I want a case at least for part of the time that supports all this stuff. And maybe that the peak design case, you know, that's kind of weird and I only use that for when I need the little clip thing for my bike riding. So I will report back on the beats case in a

couple of weeks because I'm very curious to see what they're what they're doing there. Do you know, I had a conspiracy theory about this one, which I did some work on. I was able to disprove. Would you like to hear my conspiracy theory? I think it's pretty good. Yeah. I do. I will say, Mike, most of the time people spread a conspiracy theory, they don't debunk it in the intro. Because I don't because I know it's not correct. Okay. That's why. So like, it doesn't seem,

it seems that's a response. You'd be really bad at Twitter and politics, maybe, but anyway. So Apple have their cases, there's just silicon, no fine woven cases. And they have their beats cases, which are a hard shell plastic. It is a poly something. It's in here somewhere. Probably, probably, probably, probably, probably, probably, probably, probably, probably, probably, probably, probably. So my first thought was why are why are the beats cases?

Why are the beats cases? And then second thought was, well, these beats cases are made out of a different material. And so then I thought, is this material worse for the environment? And

does beats count in Apple 2030? And so this is my thinking was like, and are they creating a The second case option made of a different material and calling it beats so they can get so which is worse and this material is worse for the environment, but they can kind of be like it's not Apple is beats, but beats does count in Apple 23. So it's not for that. I don't know why they're doing it, but my conspiracy theory is not accurate. That makes me think of something now.

Okay. Is file maker carbon neutral? Where's anyone made of find out? Steve and I get on the phone. I just can't work out why these are beats. I don't know why this happened. Like why are these not just Apple cases? Like why are the beats cases? It's very interesting to me because they're not outwardly branded as beats.

The branding of beats is on the inside, but these are the only two case options that I've found that obviously have the what's needed to make the camera control work exactly as you would want it to. There is the clear case and the silicon case from Apple and then the beats case. Interestingly, the companies that they have partnered with, right? Auto box and there's one more of produced cases, but they have the like physical cutouts.

So even the companies that Apple has partnered with don't didn't get that information or the technology to be able to make that work. So I'm going to be really interested to see how people like or don't like their phone cases this year. And I'm just going to be out here living my in no case life. What did the robot say? The iPhone 16 lineup will introduce a new under display face ID system removing the notch or dynamic island. Incredible pick did not even nearly come true.

Can you imagine though? Can you imagine though if it was right? How would feel? That's scary. The end of that round. Stephen has one point. Federico has two points. I have two points and chat GPT has one point. Well, at least I'm not any worse than a large language model, but you're not bad. Wait, just, yeah. I mean, if you think about it, aren't we all just large language models walking around? That is dark, Stephen, even for you.

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And to show you support for this, your favorite podcast. I thanks to Squarespace for their support of connected and all of relay. It's time for our risky picks. Here was mine and its entirety. So let me get through this, okay? The iPad Mini is updated with an A17 Pro or higher and a larger brighter display. It will run Apple intelligence. It starts bad and it gets worse. You know?

And what's even worse for you is that Tim Cook at the very beginning said, we're going to talk about AirPods, Apple Watch and iPhone. And so you knew you were pretty much done. I mean, he immediately roasted you. Yeah. You were never going to win. Sorry, Steven. Yeah. I mean, you had a flexi get burned to the ground like four seconds in, which is also very funny. But I know. Yeah. I, you know, many people have said over the years that I have a prophetic ability to predict the future.

You remember I correctly picked Apple launch, Apple Silicon with a desktop Mac. Or in a dream, a dream told me. I'm just saying I was a little early. Well, I can't use it again, but we'll see what happens with this pick. Well, I mean, you can, you can score a few two picks from it, though, right? No, see, okay. We can't do that today, but I don't think I can. I think the way the rules are written, risky picks don't go to the new bonus system. Only regular picks do.

We should change the rules because they should. That's what we feel like. We will deal with that in the future. We can amend that. We can amend that before the next one. So you get it if it works. But like, I think that that is just an issue with the system. Yeah. I'll make a note to look at that in a, we may need to make a slight tweak on it, but we'll work it out. There should be some consideration for, for risky picks. Hey, maybe, maybe you get extra risky pick conditions.

I think you can add to a future risky pick. Or, no, save it. Or, let me say it because of the one. Let me say it. You could just say it. We're not doing it. You should say it. I am going to forget. Yes, we have to say it. We have to forget about it. Or you get the option to remove a condition. So you may get a point more easily if you don't feel it. I don't know, something like that. Yeah, but then you couldn't get maximum points, though, could you?

Or, because then you're just kind of giving me a, anyway. Well, talk about something. Yeah, okay. So it's a thing. In reading this pick against even, like, I don't think that the minis going to get a bigger screen. I really don't think that's going to happen when you do it. I mean, it's got to look different than the iPhone Pro Max. They get close. No, because they have a different aspect ratio. It's just that you have a phone size mic. Sorry, sorry, sorry, I apologize.

I can only apologize, but what I've done. But I don't think the screen will get bigger. I think the screen could get better. I think it will get better. I hope it will, but I'd be surprised if they made it any bigger time will tell. Time will tell. This is heartbreaking for reasons that I will explain shortly. My risk is pick. I'm going to read it in its entirety now. The new, quote, capture button supports at least two user configurable gestures.

Will support third party camera apps in addition to the system camera. We'll integrate with the controls API to configure various commands. Unfortunately, only one of these can be verified today and is correct, which is the middle one. We'll support third party camera apps in addition to the system camera. The other two I want to talk about them. Yeah, let's talk about them. The first one, the new button supports at least two user configurable gestures. There's a couple of things to say here.

We don't know and we can't know right now. If that is the case, I watched so many hands on videos. Nobody bothered to open the settings app and check the options for camera control in settings. As we're recording this, I know that I've looked, Mike has looked, we cannot find the settings pane for camera control. There's no way to know if the default gestures in the camera app will be customizable for camera control. There's just no way to know.

The thing is, I think even if it's not verifiable right now, I think I will be proven right, maybe even next month, when more camera control options become available. Jason, we have checked. I have checked the simulator. There's no camera control in the simulator because there's no camera in the simulator. There's just no way to know if that is the case right now.

I think I will be proven right as Apple adds more camera control features maybe even next month and you will be able to choose what a light press does or what a swipe does. Maybe it's even there right now and people with review units have it right now and know the answer but that cannot be publicly verifiable because they are under embargo. And the other, which is heartbreaking, this is my fault. I don't get the third point. We'll integrate with the controls API to configure various commands.

So this is my fault because I was over-specific and there was a way for me to be still specific and maintain the spirit of the pick in my head. The spirit behind it was, and I think I mentioned this on the show, I wanted to say this camera control will use one of the APIs that we have already seen at WDC because this is what Apple does. They introduce APIs, they introduce technologies that they are going to reuse with hardware in September. That was the spirit of my pick.

But instead, I just went with picking the controls API. It was always like in my head, there were two APIs that I was thinking of. It was controls API and the other locked camera capture that they use on the lock screen that they used to let you use third party camera apps like Obscura or Hellide to take photos from the lock screen. I picked the controls one because I thought it made more sense to change between the controls inside the something else but they did use lock camera capture.

So I could have gotten the point if I just said they will reuse one of the iOS technologies, one of the iOS 18 APIs that they showed off. I could have said it's going to be controls on lock camera capture. It comes down to the phrasing and I painted myself in this corner where I said the controls API and for that reason, I don't get the point. So like as well, the API that they're using, the locked camera, they've expanded this API. Yes. That's really interesting that they did that.

But I guess it is, it is. So this is why I wonder about the user configurable gestures part too though is they are very clearly I think making it obvious you can only do camera stuff with this. You cannot do non camera stuff with it. And so I wonder what would these gestures even be like to do other cameras stuff?

Yeah, like I don't know, is there going to be like for all we know, it's very possible that there's a setting right now in the review units where you can say, well, instead of holding down for video, hold down for burst or something like that. Oh, okay. You know, okay, that's what I mean. That's what I mean. That's what I mean. That's what I mean. Yeah. Like, oh, let me change the assignment of the things with the default gestures.

I'm not imagining a scenario in which you're coming up with your, yeah, or like design your own gesture, like a triple tap or something. No, I'm saying that for those default gestures, light press, long press, swipe, like maybe you will be able to choose. It's very possible that it's already in there, but there's no way to know. So lesson learned, I guess. My pick Apple mentions RAM on memory in the iPhone. They say it will be at least eight gigabytes and state it is to power Apple intelligence.

So by my account, I have two of these. They mention memory. They talk about system memory and it's bandwidth. And they state it as to power Apple intelligence. They say it needs memory to store large models and bandwidth to access them quickly. Yeah. I have also found that Mac rumors say there's eight gigabytes but Apple didn't say it, but that's just a little factoid.

Yeah. That one, the verb got you, if you didn't say Apple says it will be at least eight gigs, you know, you would have, you'd have a perfect. Yeah, but this still isn't it though. Like I thought about that, but this is from digging in X. Like I just don't really think it's verifiable enough. Like I'd, in a way for me, even like, because what I was thinking is I genuinely thought they were going to publish the amount. Right. Which I think what Apple has done.

And I'm even, even though I made the pick, I was still very surprised to hear them talking about memory in the iPhone. And they tried to, they did it in such a way where they were trying to not talk about RAM, right? Like, and also to, like, so you never think about it, but they're referencing an increase in memory and what it's for and, you know, all that kind of stuff. So by my account, I got two out of my three. Unless anybody disagrees. No. I think you got it. I think it's valid.

Yep. One point for me. Okay. Mm-hmm. Chatchy PT said Apple introduces a new telephoto lens to the Pro Max. It has 10 X zoom. It will feature enhanced little light performance that is branded night side pro and it will include a new Samsung shift stabilization system. Sure. Federico, I spent a lot of time today doing the comparisons to see if any of the sensor shifts stabilization had changed. And it hadn't.

But I was very excited for a moment because it does reference second generation sensor shift. Like, that is a thing that exists. But no phone went from first to second year of year. So the second generation one was around last year. Yeah. Okay. Well. So. We do. Mike has three points. Federico has two points. I am Ty, which had G.P.T. at zero points. That's so close, man. That's two hundred points. So on the line for you for the quizzes. Oh, no. I forgot about that. Yeah. You were so close.

I mean, the question is, do we need to coin flip to find out who lost? Or does the human get the benefit of the doubt over the large language model? No. Why would that happen? I've got a coin flip with chat G.P.T. I guess. I guess I would be quite comfortable. No, Stephen, no, chat G.P.T. loses. Come on. We give it to Stevens. All right. Hang on. The fact that Federico said that tells you it should be good because he is in competition with you. Yeah. He still does. Here's a thing. Chat G.P.T.

Can flip a coin. You can ask it to flip a coin. It will tell you. Go ahead. I just guess, and if I'm right, I win. If I'm wrong, it wins. Like I'm willing to be fair because we let it fly. If you want to do it, you can do it. If I lose the chat G.P.T. Do I lose the points for the pug acetone? No. You just lose the points in the quizzes. It's 200 points. What's the current quiz e-score? It's an excellent question. Stephen at 540 Federico 580. Oh. There's still a lot of time of the year left.

You know what? I'm a man of honor. And how we do things around here is coin flips if we tie. I'm going to do it. I'm going to say I'm going to ask Chat G.P.T. Heads or Tails. And I got to guess it. No, no, and I'm going to do the coin flip in gas pipe e-calk. And we're going to keep doing this until one of you loses as is the license. Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. So we're still abiding by the standard rules. Yeah. All right. I need to go to die. So I was not prepared for this.

So they didn't think we were going to be doing it. But Stephen's getting weirdly confident for a 50-50 game of chance here against the computer, which is. Yeah. It's actually kind of against two computers, if you think about your iPhone and Chat G.P.T. All right. Actually, how do we do this normally? So no, we just keep doing this as a knockout, right? We'll do that way. All right. So, heads of tail, Stephen. Heads. Heads. Stephen, you win. Chat G.P.T. So tails. Oh, thank goodness.

Yeah. Thank goodness. I'm losing the chat G.P.T. Can I just say for a second, though, that we've actually been spending way too much time focusing on the wrong thing? Because I'm the benchmark. All right. Me. Yeah. I'm the benchmark. I am both. I have consolidated a power. I am the inaugural Ricky Benchman. Congratulations. It's pretty great, right? For me. I'm going to change my trophy right now. I'm put it up with my other trophy because I'm also a draft champion.

I'm a draft champion of Ricky Benchman. I am all powerful. You've had a good week. You've had a good week. You've had a good week. Great week. Good week. Okay. You know, we have a saying in Italy, Mike. I don't know if there's an equivalent in English, but it goes something like lucky in games and lucky in love. So if I were you, I would, you know, better watch out. Wait. Is it you? I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying that there's an expression. Are you moving in on my wife's own? I'm not.

I'm not. I'm not. That's happening. No, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Well, I love this trophy. And I get, I just changed it. And now both circles on my tricky or of a London because I'm the Benjamin. I will at least get like three weeks of being called Ricky Benjamin. Yeah. There's an October event coming. I think. Unless it will be much of a press release is because Tim likes me being the Benjamin. Could be. How many times do you have to say it? A lot.

A lot because again, I might have a limit shelf life. So. Okay. This episode of Connected is brought to you by one password extended access management. Connecting your company security is like the quad of a college campus. There's nice brick paths between the buildings. Those are the company own devices, IT approved apps and managed employee identities.

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Scoring is completed separately from the main game, but like the rickies, the order of picks is set by the rules of the previous, the results of the previous game and ties will be broken by using dice by peacock. These lie down as the rules are read. Post must make a minimum of 5 flexi picks. No problems with that this time. Each correct pick is awarded with one point, wrong picks do not remove any points and no partial points may be awarded.

The winner is determined by comparing the percentage of correct flexis made by each host. The winner can choose their own, can use their own chosen title as long as they are the winner. Federico shall be named Prince Flexi and is known as King Flexi and having won both keynote annual games. Mike has chosen Duke of Flexington and uses the name Arch Duke Flexington when applicable. I am the eternal general flexi and use the title secretary of deflex when necessary.

Loser of the flexis must compensate the winner of the flexis by donating to a charity of the winner's choice. The amount of the donation is $25 per wrong flexi made by the loser. The money must be donated on air. Federico is the current winner of the keynote flexis and I am the winner of the annual flexis. So if I win today I get to be secretary of deflex. If someone holds all four titles they are allowed to choose their own nickname, you may be seated.

I am convinced we will do this show long enough that that will happen and I am excited for that possibility. I would also like to give some follow up because we forgot there was something we forgot to do which was that we would multiply our points scored in the rickies and add them to our total. So that is 30 points for me and zero for you. So I am now beating you in Mike versus Steven 75 to 45 as we lead in towards the podcast design. So I'm feeling real good. Just for you.

Just this just this film like just this. Okay. So we've got just a whole bunch of flexis here. Federico you're first. All right. Okay. Number one, there are multiple AirPods models. Yeah, we've been over this bunch of them. Yeah. Number two, Apple intelligence features are demoed again. Yeah. This is going to be the next few events or the next few years forever. This is forever now. We like it on. Were you all surprised that they had new features and they showed the visual lookup stuff?

Which was also my risky pick from WWDC. Yeah. Yeah. We'll look at that later, but yes, actually, I wasn't expecting anything significant this time. Yeah. Number three, there is a new AirPods model with noise cancellation. Yes. Cannot wait for it. Number four, heartbreaking. The new iPhone color is called gold titanium. Now it's called desert titanium. However, I would just mention that if you download the marketing assets from the Apple Developer website, the files are called gold titanium.

That's fantastic. That's fantastic. I'm saying. Yeah. Number five, chat GPT is mentioned again. Apple just loves chat GPT for its world expertise and world knowledge as they say. Number six, the ultra white camera on the iPhone 16 Pro is considerably improved. Let's go. Yeah. I'm excited about that. I'm so happy about this. I can't wait to see how it works. Number seven, at least one of the new iPhones is brighter than before. They're not.

They still pick at two thousand needs of peak brightness, same as the 15. They do actually, they go to one. They go to one. They go to one. Instead of two. So actually, they go lower. Lower. They go lower than before, which is interesting. The dimest iPhone ever. Dimest number eight, Apple introduces new vegan leather cases. No, they just discontinued fine woven and that's it. Number nine, the flashlight in the new iPhones is mentioned as being brighter than before. Now it's the same flashlight.

You just get the fancy live activity, but there's no other changes. Number 10, no max and iPads at this event that was correct. Number 11, there are new AirPods Max, but they don't fold. Correct. They're still the same and they're still 550. I would like to report a crime, the Apple of committed in the way in which they have updated these headphones. It's, I'm so angry. I'm so mad about this. Like they just put USB-C in it. They didn't even put the new chip in it. Like what is going on?

Like I know now I need to get different headphones. Like I wanted to get new headphones. And so now I guess I don't know, I'll wait for the next Sony's or whatever, but like I just think this is ridiculous. So that's what I have to say on the matter. Perhaps I bought it. Where was I? Number 12, the new iPhone color is called Earth Titanium. They did go with desert titanium. And I told you guys today that in Italy it's called the equivalent of sand titanium. It's called titanium sabia.

That would be sand, which is a better name. And lastly, Craig Ferdigee is stranded somewhere. I think this is a point because we got Craig Ferdigee in the middle of a fancy palace or something. It's just a palace of fine arts, just on his own. On his own, left out there. Just there. Where other people you can see there are other people, right? Except like when they were like people out in the world. Like to me that looked pretty stranded.

I'm sure the palace of fine arts is lovely, but I think he looked pretty stranded. There was some discourse on threads about how did Apple get to you? He used this space like they just wrote him a giant check and told him to close for the day. It's not hard to understand. It's not like they were dodging tourists trying to film this. I mean, no, they just did it. I saw a post on threads of somebody who was in a park where in the park where the AirPods part was.

And like there was just these big barriers up in science and it had the name of some production company. And like that's how they do it. They just, as you said, they just write a big check. And do you know who probably pretty much loves Apple? It's like the San Francisco government. You know what I mean? Like I'm sure that they do okay together. And they let me use what is great places. So this is eight correct flexes out of 13 for a 61.5 correct.

That is very good average considering how many there were and how we produced half of them, which was in a flurry. My and I there is a segment about Apple intelligence that last at least 10 minutes. It went just over. It was like 10 minutes and the three seconds and then it was very close. But I'm going to take that Apple watch band attachments will change. They have not changed the watches. Dinner the watches dinner, but they did not change the attachments.

So I don't know when they're going to do this. If they're ever going to do this, but they didn't do this time. Apple does not say AI or artificial intelligence. Tim said it like basically immediately. Yeah. Yeah. But I do still like what I'm saying here, I think is like, there's no more arguing for the pick, but like in general, they are I think trying to avoid saying it as much as possible.

But maybe there is just a scenario where they actually kind of can't get away from it now, even though they would like to. We get a release window for 18.1. Yes, October. Rather than just future. So it's coming in October. No iPad hardware. Find woven cases mysteriously disappear that they have. Yes. They're gone. It's like they never existed in the first place. They're still they still have some products though. Yeah. I think we talk about that in a minute.

Okay. The iPhone 16 has a better range of colors than the iPhone 16 Pro. Yes. Is there anybody that's going to argue with me on this one? No. Vertical lenses on the 16. Yes. Apple Watch SE is updated and it's not made of aluminium. No, they didn't update it. But do you know if you go to the site right now, you have to pre-order one? Yeah. I saw that. I don't know. What's going on there? Some. I tried to look back and I couldn't find it.

I feel like that has happened before when they've had like new bands and like the bands don't come out to the regular new watches. No, that's it. But best I can tell it's the same watch. Yeah, but it's they they they they they they they're not the bands are available so they can't sell you a watch. Some of 11 Tim Cook is surrounded by long grass. Now you know what is the long.

You know, like one man's short grass is another man's long grass and like there is a moment where like he's standing on a pathway and there's like some grass, you know, that's like no longer than cut, you know, not okay cool. 12th the Apple Watch segment is presented in and around a gym. There was no gym noticeably absent from the gym actually. The only time they're inside it looked like they're inside of a museum or not gallery or something.

So no, none of that and Craig wears a costume for some portion of the event. No, they did have a haircut though. It looked like it was going to say did look his hair short. It didn't. Yeah, it did look like that. I wish he'd button more buttons on a shirt. I wish he'd button more seven out of 13. That is 53.8% for me. Not bad. I would say not bad. Not bad. This episode of Connected is brought to you by our friends at Backblaze.

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Our thanks to backblaze for all of their support. And again, you want to go to backblaze.com slash connected. Up next we have mine, Apple watch ultra three comes in black. Once again, bitten by the word and bitten by a weird lack of updates to this product. What do you think can like about this black one? Do you like it? Looks good, right? I think it looks awesome. I would be all about it if they had updated it, but they didn't.

And that's again, we don't have enough dots to draw a line, but it's weird. The iPhone or the excuse me, the Apple watch ultra pitch is like the top of the line watch. Now is it not now it's not like there are a bunch of ways the Apple watch series 10 is better. Not in all ways. They were very different from each other in a lot of ways, but it's just like is now this is like a side product and it's going to get every couple years, which is probably fine.

So I could just it's a little confusing at this point what Apple's up to. But it does look good. Number two, Mac OS Sequoia released with iOS 18. Yep. As you mentioned, everything is coming on Monday. Number three, Apple intelligence gains no new features. I felt like that was a lock. I felt they had played other cards, but turns out they had it. iPhone 16 and 16 Pro can run Apple intelligence. That's correct. Number five, fine woven lives on.

So this this came up that I had we had both put in no more fine woven cases because you had seniority in the order I changed mine. And we both got our point. The cases are gone, but fine woven lives on in Max F. Wallets, a couple of watch bands and the air tag case like a keychain holder thing. I I understand the situation that they found themselves in because like leather watch bands, I think are actually more important than leather phone cases. I don't know what their plans going to be here.

Moving forward because I was thinking about Apple watches, thinking about bands, I would take a look at the bands and I don't like any of the new ultra bands that they've made. That's the colors. I'm just just not my colors. The band that I always loved was the magnetic link band, which they still make, but it's made out of the fine woven material.

I don't really know how it sport like how it wears in a watch band, but I know it doesn't look what I want it to look like and I want the look of leather. I have the leather one and I love it. But yeah, so I don't want to do that. It's yeah, again, sort of a transition moment. And you know, like I said, maybe they're going to rely on beats to do some other weird stuff. Who knows? Well, they're not because beats is in 2030. That's the thing.

So like if it's an environmental thing, beats doesn't make a difference. The new Apple watch SE costs $199. Oh, neither does the old one. No wrong on multiple accounts. Wow. The brown iPhone Pro does not have gold in its name. Is it brown? We know, we mean. Yeah, I know. I'm just I'm just giving you a lot of time. We know what it means. This is the one I'm dissatisfied about for some reason. The iPhone Pro comes with color match cables. Hmm. It could be so cool.

It's so nice on the MacBooks, but not here. I'm sad about the fact that there's a new MacSafe pot, which is faster. Just why are you sad? Yeah. Because because I don't want to replace my all my Macsays. And now I know my phone could charge faster, but it won't. That's what makes me sad. Oh, you are going to replace your Macsave charger. No, I have too many. Seriously, it's like it's too many.

Because I have like two or three dock things and they've got each got two fast-puxen, regular puxen them. I'm not going to do that. There's things like $100 each for something insane. Like I'm going to do that. Okay. The regular Apple Watch models each get larger screens and cases. Yes, I was nervous about this because Apple made no reference to a smaller Apple Watch and the keynote whatsoever. Unbelievable. The most mind-blowing thing. I do not know why they did that.

Like I will never understand that decision. They never showed that there was one in one of them. That's a 10. It was very strange. It was very, very strange decision to make. Yeah, really weird. iOS 18.1 announced to ship in October. We see the rainbow stage at Apple Park in the video. We saw it at day and at night and it looks really cool lit up at night. Go. Rainbow stage team at Apple. Jeff Williams is seen in nature. What's nature really? What is nature outside? What is nature apoc?

Yes. Yeah, he's outside. Nature. Nature outside, I don't think. I could like industrial pokes are outside then on nature. There was rocks and grass and water. He was in nature. Come on. Is that nature? Not at all. All right. And last, Craig, and this is just the wrong event for this. Craig travels from one set to another in a ridiculous fashion. I mean, he could have ran, you know what I mean? I would have not been surprised about that, but no, that didn't happen.

So that puts me at eight out of 13, 61.5%. The same as Federico. We tie. We manage to tie. With 13 picks. Do we have a tie mechanism? Yeah, it's the same. Scoring is completed except for the game, order a pixel of our results and ties will be broken using dice by peacock. All right. Well, let me do that for you then so we can decide who's the winner. So remind me, Steven, you get something special if you get special. If I if I win this, then I get to be secretary of deflects. Very cool.

All right. Do either of you have a preference for picking first? Yes, I do. All right. What do you want? I am going with this vibe. But there's both of my dogs looking at me right now. So I'm going with tails. I like it. Steven. I mean, I have to go heads, right? You don't have to. Heads. Maybe I don't know what benefit would get you. Heads. Oh, he did it. The secretary of deflects. I have one two coin flips today. Yeah, look at you. I mean, the first one, you just narrowly beat a robot.

The second one, you'd be Federico. Well, it's for the kids. So yeah. I mean, well, not for you, it isn't for Mike. It is. Not for you, it isn't. So much money do I need to do? So Mike, it's $25 per wrong donation or per wrong pick. Excuse me. You have six wrong picks. So that is a $150 donation. Nice. And I have a suggestion. Matt, one of our discord moderators, is doing a community fundraiser. So people can sign up to run their own fundraisers alongside ours.

It's a great way to get the St. Jude mission in front of your friends and family and co-workers. But Matt's doing this cool thing, where he is building a red wagon, which is part of life at St. Jude. They have these red wagons that you can put your kids and stuff in and pull them around the hospital. It's like a hallmark of being there. Matt is building us one to use in future pacassathons.

And if you go to his page, one of the rewards he has set up is to have your name engraved in the red wagon. And so I think you should do that in honor of me, the winner. No, that's not what I'm going to do, but I appreciate that. I'm going to do the donation, but it is an honor of Ricky Benjamin Mike Healy. I'm not putting any of your name. You can't put yourself. We have, there is never a role in which the role is not that you can make any choice anyway.

And the donation of the winners choosing is not to temper, you know? So that's why I'm giving to this incredible. My pick is very specific this year. Very interesting. Not as to it. I'm done it and it's myself, but I am doing how much money was it? 100 and 25. Right. 126 times 25. 150. Excuse me. 150. Okay, I'm doing it to an honor of. Yeah, so you're going to do it yourself if you want your own name. Secretary of deflects. This is great. All right. Love it. All right.

So both of us will be on the wagon. He's going to get this and be like, what is happening? All right. 150. Yes. Right. Okay. The donation is happening. All right, thank you, Mike. So that just leaves the topic of what are we, if anything, what are we pre-ordering? Okay. Well, I already pre-ordered the watch and the AirPods. So AirPods with noise cancellation and series 10, 46. What's it called? Silver? Like, regular gray color. The aluminum? Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Really?

Okay. Oh, and yeah, I mean, obviously, I'm going to get the 16 Pro Max 512. Maybe I'm actually debating 256 because I realized I don't even use 100 gigs of storage on my device. I may go for the cheaper model, actually. The color. The color is what I'm thinking about. I am leaning white, but I may be convinced by the, I'm just going to call it sand titanium because that's what I see on my Apple store. But yeah, debating between those two colors. Okay. I am doing an iPhone 16 Pro.

I have committed. I'm going smaller. I'm doing desert titanium because it looks kind of gold. And I'm going for a terabyte because I'm fast approaching 400 gigabytes now. So I think it's time to move up from 512. Do you keep your photo library offline? Yes. That's why. Okay. That explains it. That's always the thing. It's like the answer is always do you keep your photo library offline? I'll then you are increasingly getting a bigger phone. But this is the first time I've gone up to a terabyte.

I'm struggling with the watch. I'm struggling with the watch a little bit. So I have the ultra. And they have a gold. They have a gold one. They brought the gold watch back. Yes. It's like titanium gold, which I think looks real nice. And the Apple watch series 10 is moving forward. And the Apple watch ultra isn't, which is now suggesting to me that is probably the way it's going to be that like the ultra will get what it gets. But it's not always going to get the most modern features, right?

So that's what I'm going to assume now. But I'm struggling because if I move from the ultra to I would cut my battery life in half. Although, which is one of my favorite thing about the Apple watch ultra is its battery life. But it seems like the series 10 has a new low power mode option, which can extend the battery life up to 36 hours. I know low power mode has existed on the other watches, but on the specs page it specifically calls out the length of time that it will give your watch.

And the other ones don't have that. And then I would miss the modular ultra face. I like that watch face. And there isn't something that has like a digital clock and six circle complications, which is of course an action button, which I love the action button for what I use it for, which is it sets do not disturb per hour. So if I'm talking to some moment of conversation and my phone's buzz enough, I can just, and then I go on doing it for an hour and I really like that.

So I would lose those three things, but I would be getting off the train, which I think I'm going to have to get off eventually. Especially like I always thought this would happen whenever they would do like the big watch redesign, which will happen at some point, right? And it's not going to get more than 18 hours about real life because it seems like Apple was kind of standardised on that now. I like the idea of thinner and lighter. Obviously the screen is nice and big.

For me, I'm not going to order this. I'm going to go try it on because Adina is due for a watch upgrade. She loves her Apple watch. And so but she's not, we just want to go try them on. And so I'll probably wait and we'll both do try hands and I make my decision there, but I'm struggling with this one a little bit. But yeah. Okay. So I'm going to stay put with my Apple watch Ultra one. I like the black, but I don't want to go from the one to two.

And I mean, I skipped the two on purpose waiting for the three. And I am starting to see a bit of hit on battery life. My battery health is at 86%. I noticed that sometimes like it, I have actually gotten it into low power or like the low power mode warning a couple of times, but I sleep track with it. So I feel like I'm having to manage a little bit more than I used to, but that's okay. Not the end of the world. I do like the black Apple watch Ultra bands. So I ordered the trail loop in black.

I think that looks really nice. And I'm going to pre order like Mike, I'm going to down a size to the iPhone 16 Pro in white. I think the white looks really nice. I've traditionally gone back and forth on iPhone colors. Like a light one than a dark one. I have the natural titanium, which I still think is really nice, but I'm going to go white this time. I think it's going to be sweet. We're going to be small boys together. Yep. Just regular role.

We're always are, you know, because of height and all that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Who needs height when they're the bench, you know, like a stand on the bench. Sure. I mean, stand. I have the whole army of Flexington behind me. So look out. Yeah, but like, you know, and I know what I have about that. The people that I have the people with me. So all the people behind them. Who needs the title when you have the people, you know? Well, we're going to give a bunch of money to Apple.

I was just charged for my watch and AirPods today and pre-orders are in two days. And similarly, as they talk about an ATP, you're going to give a bunch of money to Apple, give a bunch of money to St. Jude, St. Jude, or Aluxash Relay. Just go give them some money. If you're paying for Apple products, pay for some childhood cancer research too. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to find links to the stuff we spoke about, head on over to the website where the show notes, relay.fim slash connected slash 518.

You can follow us on social media. Federico is the editor and chief of MacStories.net. I promise you, you're going to spend time on MacStories next week. And you can follow Federico as he announces all the stuff and talks about it on Threads and Macedon as Viteechi, V-I-T-I-C-C-I. Mike is the host of a bunch of other shows here on Relay. Congrats on your appearance on upgrade. Your dominance, really, on upgrade this week. It's been a good week for me. Yeah, it's been good.

You can follow Mike's work at Cortex brand and on social media as I, Mike, I-M-Y-K-E. My writing is over on 512pixels.net and a host Mac Power users here on Relay as well. You can follow me as ISMH86 on Threads and Macedon. Please go to stju.org slash relay, learn more about our campaign, donate. If you work for a company, a lot of companies have matching setup where if you give some, they'll give some. There's details about that on the webpage. Stju.org slash relay.

So look into that if you work for a big company, they probably take part. I just like our sponsors this week for making this show possible. E-cam, Squarespace, one password, extended access management and backblaze. Until next time, say goodbye. How do you do that, you? Cheerio. Bye, yo.