From Relay, this is Connected, episode 520. Today's show is brought to you by E-cam, Zock, Doc, Vitaly and Backblaze. I am the returning Ricky Benchmoor, Mike Curley. And I would like to introduce you to Federico Viteci. I federally... You could have gone longer with Ricky Benchmoor. Struggling. Struggling. That is... I'm in a hotel, or a man. What are they thinking is going on in here? Impressive vocal cord skills. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to go pass out now.
I wanted to ask you how is your throat doing, but fine. Okay, cool. Yeah, in general skills. Impressive. Less now, probably. That's why you are a professional podcaster. Thank you so much. So I can hold a note. Yeah. We're also joined by Steven. Hello, Steven Hackett. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I suppose that your vocal cords, you know, given everything are not as impressive as Mike's. No, I'm teetering on the edge of like, I got a bunch of water here. I should say that. Right.
What is everything? Well, you know, the... The proxio. Oh, you know, Steven, come on, you're not the context. Vocal cords are barely stained attached together at this point, right? It's like the rest of it. You know? It's just like... It's just like... It's just like... It's just like... It's just like... It's just like... It's just like... It's just like... It's just like... It's just like... It's true. Hey! Guess what? Yeah. But what... Guess what? What? It's still September! Hey!
You were just here in Memphis. I was. And we hosted the podcastathon for 12 hours on Friday. If you have not seen that, there's a link in the show notes to a YouTube video that, you know. It's callin' sick tomorrow and watch it. That's what I say. You could do that. Or, you know, slowly, in chunks. Over the weekend. Oh! Wait until the weekend. Yeah. But we are still raising money for St. Jude all month long. As of me talking right now, we're at $852,000 for St. Jude on the month. Let's go.
I know. It's unbelievable. What was our previous record? 776,000. So we're like nearly a hundred grand over that. Mm-hmm. And we're staring, like in a staring contest kind of staring at 900. I know. I feel like we're just staring at it. Connected listeners, st. Jude.org slash relay. Go type that in your browser, make a donation. Any size donation is helpful. It takes all of us to advance this mission. So what does st. Jude do? St. Jude is in the business of saving kids' lives.
They believe that no child should die in the dawn of life from cancer or other catastrophic disease. And they have implemented a massive number of some of the smartest people on the planet to beat this thing. Mike and I've been fortunate to meet different researchers and doctors over the years. And to a person, not only are they way smarter than Mike and I, but they are all to a person committed to this, no matter what. They are doing their life's work at St. Jude.
And I don't want to paint the picture of the St. Jude just like this cold research institution because it's not research and clinical care go hand in hand at St. Jude. They are working on these cures for actual patients. And not just the patients here in Memphis, but patients all around the world through St. Jude global.
One thing we talked about during the Black Asadhan was like the St. Jude is unhappy that there are kids around the world who don't have access to things like chemotherapy and they are hard at work to change that to get these medications and these protocols implemented around the world. It's absolutely incredible. And it's all possible because of people like me and you who donate what we can. So go to stjude.org slash relay.
We've already, we're already in what I've been calling uncharted territories and all capital letters as I texted around to people. But we want to keep going. We have the rest of the month. So please go give now. Yeah, stjude.org slash relay. A little PS for you, Mike. Please. A lot of people who have given, probably have jobs and a lot of companies have matching, like a matching donation program. So if you're in a company, go ask HR or somebody in, you know, in the company somewhere.
A lot of companies. A lot of companies. That sits next to you. Maybe they know. Maybe they know. Maybe they know. Just turn around right now and say to the person next to you, do they do, just say they, do they do corporate matching and just see what they say. Do what they say. So stjude.org slash relay has a lot of information about that, but that's a great way for your money to go even further. So if you've already given or if you're still planning to give, look into that.
A lot of companies offer this and basically you're, you know, sometimes doubling your money without any extra work. So go check that out too. Follow up. Follow up. Andra wrote it. Follow up. Oh, God. Andra wrote in. During the introduction to the beginning of each episode, the host that is not currently holding any chairmanship should be addressed as Mr. to rub it in a bit more. And of course, this should only be alcohol when introduced by others, not by themselves.
So what I think we should do is we should try this on. So let's try the introduction again. And Mike, you will use Mr. and we'll see if that feels better or worse. All right. Hello, I'm the Ricky Benjamin Mike Hurley and I would like to introduce Mr. Federico Vitechie. Yeah, that works. I mean, it sounds fancy. In fact, I will argue I sound better than anything. Yeah. I don't think that's to him what it's supposed to do. Yeah. You're doing me a favor.
Yeah, it feels like I'm giving him a title and the title is Mr. Yeah. Federico introduced me as doctor. Let's see how that sounds. And we're also joined by Dr. Stephen Hackett. Oh, hello, Doc. Boys. Okay. Boys, that's good. Yeah, you see, but that's not what you get. You don't get that. Do you got to win that? You got to win a doctorate, all right? That's that one. Hey, you got to win that. Okay. Well, I'm just speaking to my old journalism professors. Hey, University of Memphis.
I would like to be an honorary doctorate in journalism. Please can't touch Stephen. I really don't have them. Okay. I've said this before, I think, on this show that I do believe you should be given an honorary doctorate from the University of Memphis. Yeah, come on. Surely you are the most popular person who's ever come from Memphis. I don't think there's anybody else. But I mean, there was that guy, the singer, right? No, Stephen's a more popular man.
Also, Stephen needs a live, so you know, they're so sweet. So sweet. Oh, okay. Well played. Well played. Well played. Man, that was good. Yes. Where is he? He's just hanging out. So, Andre, thank you for your suggestion. I think we're going to skip it. But Andre did close their message saying, hope somebody makes your day the way you do for us. And that felt good. Oh. It's nice. You know what, though? This makes my day, though. So it does. You know what? I don't think that's possible, though.
I don't think anybody can make my day the way we make other people's stuff. Oh, okay. It's a different energy than the one I took, but I appreciate it anyway. Well, anyway, our energy is about to be ruined anyway. It's all about to be destroyed. Green gate, green gate, green gate. Why are we here again? Why are we here again? I'm sorry, because I played the role in this and I couldn't help myself. It's disgusting. I don't know.
I was browsing Reddit as I do every night at the end of the work day. And I guess the algorithm got me because over the course of a few days, it's suggested two posts from two different users with two types of green-related display issues. Your green pill? Oh, I have been green-pilled against my will, I suppose. But yeah, Steve, I don't want to get into this, but the second link is just, it's an all green screen. And the first comment is, is that a new MKBHD wallpaper? Damn. Oh, pretty good.
That's pretty good. I just saw the comment. That is pretty good. That's pretty good. Ah, that's... We'll just have these links in the show notes. You can go explore it if you want to, but green gate never dies. I have a question about this. It's not for you. Maybe you know. But I would love somebody to let us know. Why does this happen? Why is green the color? Like, why is green the color that these phones go when something goes wrong? Like, is it something to do with the screen?
Like the G and the RGB, is it stronger or something? Like, what is happening? Like, why is it always green? If anybody knows, connect consentback.com. I have. Oh, Steve and knows. I have a theory. So the OLED pixel arrangement that Apple uses is like a diamond layout. And you have blue at the center, and then red at the corners and green on the sides. And I think the way the green is, like, the green lines up vertically and the blue and red don't. They like pass through each other as you go.
So I think if you're gonna have a vertical line, chances are it's gonna be green. Now, I don't know one how you know that, or if it's true, but I'm gonna start... I'm gonna put it in the screen. I'm gonna put it in the screen. I'm gonna put it in the screen. I'm gonna put it in the screen. I'm gonna put it in the screen. That was very impressive. If you looked up, if you looked this up, is that why?
I remembered that the OLED layout was a diamond, and then I Googled it real quick and discovered how it looks. Shine's bright like a diamond. Oh, green. Shine's green like a diamond. I would like to give a public service announcement to listeners of this show, because about two or three days ago, I remembered that you can use stickers as tap backs now because they're essentially emoji. So it is possible now in a group thread to have custom emoji.
And what I think happens, correct me from wrong on this? If in a group, if one person sends that, a mode that sticker is a tap back, it then shows for other people in the frequently used ones so they can use it as well. This is so good because you can make stickers of anything that you find, and then you can use them as tap backs. So you can essentially have your own custom emoji in your chats, which is wicked. I love it. And I haven't said wicked since 2004. So wicked. It's wicked.
There you go. Well, speaking of wicked. Okay. iOS 18.1 and Mac OS Sequoia 15.1, the current betas have enabled drag and drop when using the iPhone mirroring feature. Is it wicked? It's sick. It's wicked. It's sick. It's wicked. It's sick. This is cool. I've used the iPhone mirroring a few times because I installed a Sonoma like a week or two ago or whenever it came out. I don't know. I genuinely don't know how long I've been away from home at this point.
It feels like the longest trip I've ever taken. But I've found it really like today. I wanted to get something from my phone and my phone was charging on the other side of the hotel room and I just opened it up on my Mac instead. What a great feature. Just like a helpful little feature to have. Very happy about it. Maybe even better when I can drag and drop things. I've been using it a bunch. And just today I needed an image off of it and an iCloud photo library was just like, I don't know.
There's only photos here. Don't worry about me. And I was like, you know what? Come on. This would just be super simple. So it's great. And the iPhone mirroring feature is pretty awesome. We went into it in a lot of detail on this upcoming MPU about how it works and some of the security stuff. But I have really, it's been integrated into kind of how I work really pretty quickly. Good. I look forward to hearing it. This episode of Connected is brought to you by E-Camp.
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Just as a recap, we went into this purchase season. Mike, you were going to get the 16 pro. Steve and I were going to get the 16 pro max. We've had these phones for five days, I want to say. I just kind of wanted to go around and collect some first impressions, some thoughts. And I wanted to start with Mike, because it's been a decade that you have. It's been a decade, like exactly 10 years, that you haven't used a smaller iPhone than the biggest model. So you're using a 16 pro.
How is it after 10 years of plus slash max cloud? Honestly, I really like it. I like it a lot. It feels, this is weird. I can't tell you why, but this feels like a toy to me. Like, the, it being small is fun. And like, I'm using it differently. It feels great in my hand. It feels like just like a great size.
I'm able to do the only downside that I've had so far is typing with two thumbs, is a little clumsy, I'm a little clumsy doing that because they're kind of like banging into each other a lot. But one had it, fantastic. I love it. You can use it in the camera control, because I can just very easily handle the phone in one hand, and I don't feel like I don't have enough space to do things. I feel like my text is too big, but I'm already on the lowest dynamic type.
I also noticed that on Sylvia's 16 pro, like that it seems like the text is too big. And I don't know if maybe there's like a different proportion between the smallest size on the 16 pro max, but it's also something I noticed and I don't know how to explain it. So it's just weird. It's, I don't know if it's like a scaling thing or whatever, like I don't know if the pro max is have a different scaling. I know that was a thing with the pluses at one point, but yeah, I am just, I'm loving it.
Like, I'm very happy with the decision. I feel like I made it at just the right time, right? Because this is the biggest, the small phone has ever been. And so, and also I got to Jason had review and it's a very thing. And I do think the pro max is maybe too big for me now. Like I think it is bigger than I want. Like it feels kind of wild. And so I'm very happy with the decision that I've made. I think I've got a real nice sweet spot for what I'm looking for. Stephen, how's the 16 pro max going?
Yeah, I think at echo basically everything, like said, I had a just clarification. Stephen has a 16 pro as well, not a pro max. Yeah, oh, it's seen pro and not pro max. Yeah, I would down a size as well. I also have the desert color because I said it by the brown one. The people reminded me of that. It's, it's nice. I mean, I had a 15 pro as a development phone over the summer.
So I was familiar with the size and it is, it is getting, it just takes some getting used to, but it is remarkably more comfortable to like manhandle one handed than the pro max, which I could do, but it was kind of at the edge of what I was comfortable with a lot of the time. And it takes a lot of space like in your pocket or, you know, you got to stuff it somewhere in your car when you're driving that sort of thing. So all in all, I've been, I've been happy with it.
And I think I think I'm just about used to the size compared to the bigger one. I think a few more days and it's going to feel like this is just what iPhones are. So, I got a 16 pro max, right? And I used it for, for a few days. And so I'll cut to the chase. I, I decided to go with the 16 plus. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing the thing. I, oh, yeah, yeah, I, I am not going to use the pro anymore. Why? So a variety of reasons.
Most of it comes down to the joy of, of the different texture and the different color of the 16 plus. But there are also other reasons. So like you, Mike, I have felt that the 16 pro max has maybe gotten too big and heavy. Like there was a threshold for me, I guess. And I think that threshold was last year's size. Look, I love a big screen, but I feel like it's, it's gotten past the tipping point for me and, and also like the weight of it.
I just had to check because I kind of, I don't, in my mind, I had just assumed the plus was as big as the pro max. No, but it isn't. They diverged this year. So the, the plus is the same size as last year's pro max. And this one has got bigger. And it's also 30 grams lighter, which may not seem like a big deal, but actually for a device that compact and dense, it is something that you can noticeably like feel. Oh, yeah.
I mean, we had that last time, right, when the, when they put the titanium in, they, it didn't seem like it would be a lot of weight, but in your hand, it, it really made a significant difference. What color did you get? Ultramarine, good choice. No case. Obviously. And you're going to get a fund that looks like this. Why would you get this one? Exactly. I'll get to this in a minute. But there's the bigger conversation that is also like something that we discussed a couple of weeks ago.
That idea of now more than ever, it feels like some features of the pro phones are actually for pro photographers and video creators and the kind of category of user that I'm not. Now, the, the only way that this was possible for me to even consider was the, the fact that the action button and the camera control are on the base 16 models. Because I felt like without those two buttons, I wouldn't have been able to do it because I, I wanted to have those features and play around with them.
Even just like from, from a, from a pure like, I want to have a complete version of iOS that has these two buttons. So the fact that the camera control and the action button are not exclusive to the pro, that was a big deciding factor for me. Then like for a couple of days, I basically installed like my backup from the 16 pro max on the 16 plus and I used them side by side.
And I noticed that I get more joy out of having this slightly smaller big phone and slightly lighter and very colorful iPhone. I get more joy out of that than I miss promotion, always on display or the third lens in the back. I would say that the thing I'm going to miss most is the five, five excellence, like even more than the, I've never been like that huge on always on after all. I've used this phone for a while and it's fine. I've never been like, I can live without it.
You know, I always wear an Apple watch. I always have a way to tell the time. Important notifications. They will always get delivered to my Apple watch anyway. I've never been a huge fan of always on widgets on the lock screen. Like I have pretty basic stuff there. So it's fine. And yeah, so basically the combination of it being it's slightly smaller and in line with last year, being lighter, being colorful like it just, it's, it's more fun.
And I think there's something about the fact that a lot of those pro, pro features on the phone, I don't really need like 4K at 120. I'm never going to use that. Like never really. And I just prefer having a big phone that is more portable, that is more fun. I love the aluminum texture. Like I actually prefer the texture to the titanium personally.
And yeah, it's, I don't know, there's something about it that makes me and there's something about it that makes me enjoy using the phone more, I guess. Yeah. So, I don't know. It's kind of unexpected. I think. Yeah. I'm going to be really interested to see how this goes to you over time. Right. Like it's the same as me and the same as Steve and like we're all making big changes this year.
And like they're fun and novel now because they're new and like how are we going to feel as time progresses. I think there's a part of me that is also getting ready for the fact that next year, I know I will want to get the iPhone 16 air or whatever is slim, whatever is going to be called. And so this idea of accepting that it's okay not to have the high end top of the line pro model that it's okay for the kind of iPhone user that I am. And I've been thinking about this a lot.
The computer that I consider my main computer that I get my work done. What I need maximum power high end is the iPad and that's where I want to get an iPad pro. Like it's the it's my job depends on having that computer and I love using it. But just like when I used to be a Mac user, I was fine with the Macbook Air. I think I can be fine as an iPhone user not having the equivalent of a MacBook Pro. Yeah, yeah, can be fine just having a colorful iPhone that still is going to have an A18.
It still has incredible specs. But being okay with the idea that I don't have to be a pro user on the phone. I think that's been a big reveal for me over the past few days. I mean, there is interesting there is also a rumor that next year the pro motion display is across the line. Exactly. Which because of that new way of model. To continue that analogy, I've also accepted that I prefer using regular AirPods instead of AirPods Pro.
And I feel like I feel like as a consequence of my job over the past few years, I've sort of conditioned myself into thinking, well, I'm an Apple blogger, I'm a podcaster, I do this for a living, I always need to get the best version of everything. But it turns out that sometimes maybe I was doing it more for the, this is going to sound stupid, but I'm going to say it. Sometimes I was doing it more for the reputation rather than the actual enjoyment of the device.
And it turns out I'm totally fine with the base AirPods and I'm totally fine with the base iPhone. No, I think you're, you're not representing yourself fairly enough. No, I don't know. I think you're doing your job, right? You're testing out all these things, which is what we're doing now too. No, but there is an element of, oh, surely you are going to get the pro, right? Like there is an element of that. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be true necessarily.
True. Yeah. So I guess what I'm saying is I'm doing the thing as a man of the people, I'm doing it. I'm using the base iPhone model and it's like it's so fun. And in a way missing the 5X camera, this is something that Brandon hinted on Mac stories with this blog post about like this similar idea. And he eventually he ended up going iPhone 16 Pro. And I'm so funny to me on the which last episode, amazing episode. But that was so funny. He wrote that whole thing.
And then I was like, ah, no, like the gold one. But like this idea of like actually missing a camera can in a way sort of force you to be more creative with the limitations that you have. And I think it's something that I that I believe in like I've noticed already like I only have the one X and the and the cropped two X. I guess on this phone. And I'm not going to get the same shots that I used to get before.
But I can get a little creative, you know, maybe when I want to get close up my dogs, I'm going to actually physically get closer to my dogs to get a good picture. And it's fine. I don't know, it's different. It's a fun experiment. I love just looking at this phone because it's not boring. So yeah, there's a my small surprise, I guess. Well, it's a plus surprise really. Yeah, I think you know, plus club lives again, right? It does. Oh, yeah, that's good. I like that.
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So stop putting off those appointments and go to Zockdock.com slash connected to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today that's zero C D O C Zockdock.com slash connected. I think it's a Zockdock for sponsoring the show and all of relay. Are we controlling all cameras? Yes, kind of. I will echo something that Jason mentioned an upgrade. Great episode. Thank you. Actually, both the last two episodes, both the anniversary one and the one about the iPhone 14 questions excellent episodes.
Thank you. Jason said something that the moment I heard it, I was like, yeah, that's it. That's how I feel like the touch bar vibes of the camera control. The moment he said it, I was like, yep, that's how I've been feeling and I was lacking the words to express it. But this is how it makes me feel like it's I love the button for launching the camera and taking a picture. I find everything else so fiddly and so over designed right now.
I hope that this camera control gets a better treatment over the years, over the next few months, ideally, than the touch bar ever did. Well, I think it will because it's on the iPhone, right? So like that exactly. Yes, they're not they're not going to leave it be. I mean, I will echo the point that I made to Jason's point again, where I feel like it is fiddly, but it. Most unlike the touch bar, like the touch bar is always there, right? Like doing its thing is always there.
The settings of the camera control, so like the light pressing and getting the settings and stuff, you very rarely need to go into them. Like for me, I have it set to allow me to change the camera that I'm using and like for that alone, it is useful. But I do appreciate it is the fiddliest thing that I've used on an iPhone in a long time. I think that they do need to kind of tidy up the amount of effort required to move between options.
I also think that there's just some labeling that I that is confusing to me. Like I like the photographic styles thing in general, but like it's very confusing to me that the camera control has two separate options and the editing system doesn't. Like the camera control talks about tone as a specific thing that is set to photographic styles. But if you look at photographic styles in the UI, tone is part of the style. So like that is like very confusing to me.
Photographic styles in general is confusing. I love the feature, but the way that they are packaging it is peculiar. Like you can go into the seconds of the camera app and you can like do this little wizard where that you pick a photographic style. But they only show you half of them, the undertone's ones rather than the I think they're called mood. They don't show you those as options, which is like so are they all photographic styles like why do some of them get shown in this air?
It's confusing. A lot of this is fiddly and complicated. Maybe that's by design. I do think they could do work on all of these things to tighten them up. But I'm happy it's all there, but yeah, it could do some work. And I'm also intrigued, but I recall like if third party apps that integrate camera control might do it in a way that feels better for you, which could be interesting.
Now, I mean, if you ask me, I think I think this button should be in in iOS 19, this button should be repurposed for everything. Like don't just let me use it as a camera control. Let me use it as a general control in all kinds of apps. I want to be able to use the quote unquote camera control button in ivory. Like let me program this teeny tiny button that supports gestures in all kinds of apps. I think I think going forward limiting this button to just camera stuff will be a mistake.
I think there's an opportunity here. There's a real opportunity here to turn this into into the big brother to the action button in a way. And even even if it stays limited to just camera control, I feel like Apple should go all the way and allow like there's a world in which I use camera control, even just for exclusively camera stuff.
But if Apple will let me just for example, assign shortcuts instead of navigating a menu in in camera when you double click and then you got a scroll and the scrolling is weird and feedly just personally, I would love to just say, OK, double click and I don't know, let me toggle between one X and ultra wide.
Like let me specifically assign things that I know I use on a regular basis because this entire menu and nested menu navigation is just weird and clumsy and I might just, I might as well use my finger, which is a more precise input method than carefully swiping on this thin strip of a button.
So let me assign shortcuts to things that I frequently doing the camera and then at that point we can have a conversation and like I I could I want to use that version of camera control but more broadly speaking iOS 19 or iOS 20 and I cannot believe that I'm ordering this words like iOS 20.
It sounds totally ridiculous but here we are. It's in theory, it's only a couple of years away. But like this interface control system could be so much more on a device where so far the only input method has been touch. I feel like there's a fascinating opportunity to use this element that can click and half click and scroll in a way that goes beyond camera, but for now it's just camera, but even just for the camera stuff, I think it should be more customizable. So that's my take.
I think it's just too fiddly, I mean I wrote in my like post event blog post that it felt overloaded and just like this little thing and their swipes and there's taps and like the half click thing is really hard to do. It's very strange. I know you can change the.
Some of the accessibility stuff about the force needed, but it just feels like it's like Apple had a bunch of ideas and no it said no to any of them and that's not great because I worry like I grew up at the heart of this I love clicking to open the camera and taking picture. And yes, I almost wonder if that should have been the default and then if hey if you want to turn on these other things, this is how you go do that I worry that people are going to be confused.
I mean playing with it this weekend. I was like I don't like I'm in a I'm in a mode. I don't know how to get out of it or like I thought I was doing this and this other thing happened. I worry people are just going to bounce off of it and it's not going to get the use that it that it could get if it were simpler. Yeah, I have yet to meet in real life.
Anybody that I show the 16 pro or the 16 plus two with camera control that understands how to navigate those extra options or gets the full click and half press right within minutes like it just
I think it's also like Steven said it's a problem of defaults and I feel like by default issue that just being a shutter button and just you know and and the nerds like us could have gone into settings and enabled the additional gestures but having those enabled by default confuses the message and confuses the interaction because it makes it more difficult to like and you're like what I was supposed to do here right just you saw me this as a camera button but it's now showing me all these actual things and I don't know how to exit.
And it's not as intuitive as you know arguably the dynamic and because it's also like the menu in the camera is very tiny right you have in this vertical menu along the bezel like it's not as big and chunky as the dynamic island. So yeah, I don't know if like I it's the kind of thing where you look at it in screenshots and you look at it in promo videos and it looks excellent like it makes a great visual impression but in practice.
I'm not even arguing about the placement of the button like I've seen people on threads people on social in general like it's too high or somebody saying oh it's too low like I think the placement of the button is fine I'm more concerned about the default interaction of it and all the other stuff I said about customization. Yeah, I think with the placement they were trying to split the difference between horizontal and vertical content capture yeah yeah.
I don't know I hope that I mean there are signs of Apple iterating on this already right in 18.1 you're going to have more settings for you know actually disabled in the light presses if you want to you know that's all that stuff is going to be available in accessibility.
So I have all that off and so mine now is just open the camera and a shutter button same and I love it and I love it for that right I just I just feel bad knowing that there's more that it could do but I don't like it is my issue like I know there's all the other the other half of that interaction that unfortunately right now it's not for me.
I love it as a shot of the way this camera control has rewired mind brain and my fingers in not reaching for the bottom of the last screen anymore and not even swiping on the last screen to open the camera but just pressing the button is wild and it happened in just a few days so I love it as a shot of but but it's everything else that so and so.
And also there's going to be a selfie camera option in 18.1 i'm excited about that yeah they are iterating on it and I hope they continue to do so and well also at some point I don't know if it's a be 18.1 but they're doing the thing where you can set focus with the light press that is also something i'm looking forward to and yeah hopefully like I expect that at least in the I was 18 cycle we are going to get more options to say okay.
Maybe if you double like press you never get the menu again you can just assign a specific function which is what I want. It's precedent for this right remember all the changes and options they had for always on display like after it launched that they kept coming up with new stuff so yeah I mean I I think I am I like it more than you guys do or at least I'm willing to accept it more.
But I think I agree that there should be more options and I'm happy with the ones that they're they're working on. Photographic styles update I want to know where you're all sitting with your photo styles Federica what are you doing. I am doing standard and tone between minus 0.5 0.7 within that what is that what is that benefit for you tone change I feel like it brings.
It brings up the shadows a little bit more than the default I have come to really dislike the default look of iPhone photos and so it makes them it gives photos a little extra punch you know they they that a little more contrasty but not too much because I also don't like you know I don't like I've seen like people going full full like negative tone to really bring up the I don't like that look but just somewhere half you know in between.
That makes me appreciate the look of my photos a bit more there less flat is what I'm trying to say. Stephen what about you I've been playing with the neutral photograph style.
Just the one out of the box I haven't tinkered with it any more than that and I like it maybe a touch cool for me feel like it does a good job with the shadows but maybe I could do that with standard and like Federica said bring the tone down so I feel very much like I'm still experimenting and and that's cool because these things are editable so if I feel like if I go I really messed this up it's not the end of the world which is which is nice.
Yeah I was using vibrant I've now settled on gold I just think in general that does a good job of bringing the warmth into the measures which I really enjoy and I'm still tinkering to and I love that this is essentially like a very simplified version of quite a complex photo editing system that they built like I think photographic styles as they are now is one of the most important things Apple has done on the iPhone in a very long time.
Because they are addressing something like a general feeling that people have in a way that does not mean that they have to make any particular statement about how image should look it's it's the most elegant yes well designed rendition of I don't know man you do it yeah that Apple could make and like actually you can compare this I think quite nicely to the camera control where
where as I said I have some issues around some of the labeling of photographic styles but like the general way that you manage and deal with the photos which you're taking them it's incredible like the little touch pad that they have essentially to change the way an image looks is just fantastic.
Again I would like more I would like to be able to save things like the settings that I have like saved them as kind of recipes and label them and I actually do believe that they will do that because the old version of photographic styles kind of let you do that like once you set something it saved it as like a new version of it.
But yeah I think this is truly fantastic and is going to in general I think really change people's opinion of the iPhone camera which I think is is is only a good thing now hear me out okay. Photographic styles presets as you mentioned tied to focus mods. I think you're pictures they look pretty standard but then when you're home and all your pictures are rose gold now I got some water because you like. Anything else camera wise.
Yeah yeah I think it's I call the camera stuff is good and I like the I like in particular the the much better ultra wide going to that 48 megapixel sensor I feel like the which I don't have anymore. Let's do it will get it will get in a couple years I'm sure yeah but it's nice when you do like the punch in for macromod looks looks really good. This episode of connected is brought to you by vitally. Vitally is bringing a new era of customer service productivity with their all in one platform.
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So if you're a customer success decision maker schedule you call by visiting vitally.io slash connected. That's vitally VITALLY vitally.io slash connected for a free pair of AirPods pro and you schedule a qualified meeting. Or thanks to vitally for the support of the show and all of relay. We had a question from listener Sims. Now that camera control is here what are you doing with your action button. I remember Federico is multi button shortcut is that still in use.
And I'm actually very excited to have an excellent timing for this question because just last night I finally came up with what I think is my new favorite use case for the action button. I've been using my own multi button shortcut for the past year basically. And it's always been tied through its initial. I've been using versions that I tested but I said all eventually on the first press triggers a shortcut to creator reminder and the second press triggers my Apple frames shortcut.
Which I used but not as much as I thought I would. What I came up with last night which I don't know I've observed my behavior today with the phone like it's already sort of become second nature, which is usually a pretty good sign. 18.1 the latest beta 18.1 beta five which I think equals to 18.1 public beta to introduces a new show control center action in shortcuts. Now this action.
So you can modify so that it either shows hides or toggles control center which means it's basically you know it toggles the state like if it's visible hides if it's not shown it brings out control center. So I have assigned this toggle control center shortcut to the action button and it's been a game changer for me because I don't need to swipe.
I don't need to reach to the top right corner of the screen anymore. I can just press the action button it toggles control center and what I'm even considering now is actually placing my most use controls like physically around the action button right so that if I'm going there with my thumb anyway. I might as well also place my most use controls around it so yeah invoking control center with the action button it's going to be possible with the team.
And that's that's what I'm using it for at the moment very nice. My action button is basically the same as it's always been since I set it up which was based on an idea that you gave me for the recall it was before it launched and you said like. We're on the Mac I can set a keyboard shortcut to add it to do and so like that that like completely locked in for me of like something that I do.
Want a lot like I'm in my email or whatever and I see something all I make a task so when I hit my action button it bring it runs a shortcut that I made where there's a text box is what's your task type it in it asked me a second text box which is like when do you want this to you.
And then it like for are you are format the day into a way that shortcuts can understand in shortcuts right to the date formatting actions then it asks me where do you want to save this to do is to do is to do is because you know the different types of things to me do is like I want to remember to do something like take a pill in three hours or whatever it's not going to do is to do is to ask me the project and it saves it and if I asked you then it just saves it immediately so I love this I use it multiple times a day every single day.
I do have a question for you Federico so my to do is action. They've made some changes recently I've been working with the support people because they brought some stuff in shortcuts and very happy fixed it. But they used to be a show when run like it would pop up a little thing when it was completed and the to do is support teams say that Apple removed that ability which I don't think is accurate.
Okay cool cool I'm just checking I didn't I thought that they didn't know what they unfortunately we're talking about but that their action no longer shows when run.
I they used to have a check box that you could mark that on so it would like show you that you'd completed it and like give you the preview of the task you added it now doesn't do that so I've just like cobbled together my own one with like show me the title and the text in the date so I get an idea of how everything was formatted in the end.
But yeah okay cool it doesn't do that anymore they say Apple remove that feature and I think that they're wrong and so that's cool now I have to answer from that from the show cuts man himself so but yeah that's what I do I love it what do you do Stephen. I was using a shortcut that just gave me a text field and put that into reminders in the inbox due today so I can just sort it out later.
But after I saw Federica's post I changed it to control center and I kind of digging it so I don't know what I'm going to do I'm kind of in limbo now. So you both really using control center like you're like really using oh yeah oh yeah yeah I love it now like just no I haven't been running I was 18 as long as you both have so like it's control center is new for me still so like I'm still kind of like settlement.
But that's interesting I have a couple of shortcuts in there which I like it some moments with shortcuts and now control center like that is a thing. The big three if you will for me are ray tracing.
This is the game is the game is joke gamers rise no like the three types of controls that really make it worthy for me are the now playing control especially when I'm like listening to something like a discovery weekly on spot for example I want to skip tracks like having that like right there in control center very useful.
Control with two accessories to specific lights that I frequently turn on and off on a daily basis and a shortcut to reopen my quick notes folder in the notes app just like I know it's very fast like having all those controls there and especially now with the action button just press shows click boom done like it's very quick and I like it.
It makes sense yeah it's in a way like you can make a better multi button yes right you could just press it once and then access like a bunch of things that you do the time like it actually shows you a bunch of shortcuts if you want to yeah yeah and and even control center like it's also getting much better in 18.1 they are.
They're going to provide more like individual controls for the wireless radio stuff so like Wi-Fi bluetooth cellular like it used to be all lumped together in a single tile control in 18.1 they're going to be if you want there's going to be like individual controls like so just just Wi-Fi or just bluetooth just cellular and so forth which is also nice.
But yeah control center is very nice pretty good what about lock screen buttons if you did anything with that Federico flashlight because I couldn't think of a better place for it so that one stayed I replaced the camera with a shortcut that is like a very simple thing to add a new quick note to just like like
anything I want to save an idea a number whatever like just having that right there press save a quick note that's it there isn't a quick note like there's not a quick note control which is I had to create a shortcut with a single action that says adds a quick note no there is one in 18.1 wait yeah because that's that's one of the ones I've been playing with cool even better so I don't have to use my shortcut anymore yeah look at that who's the editor in chief now quick note OK weird I
search for this oh yeah but basically it does the same thing but yeah it's got a better icon I found the search on the actions to be kind of hit or miss yeah I have a music flashlight I just don't think I can anyone should change that like flashlights great to have and it's great to have there and the UI goes so hard like why not and I my second one I've replaced the camera with one of my most use shortcuts which is it's a time
tracking shortcut where if I realize I've done a thing and didn't track that time it just basically says how long have you been working on that thing and which which where should have gone to and it just adds it in the true power move is two flashlights so you can you can just always always be flashing as you never know any I need them well that's true that's a good post you don't believe thank you so let's let's talk a little bit about apples definition of a photo
you would link to this it's this quote from the Verges iPhone review I think tell us about this so I was really impressed with this bit in the life of tell us review of the iPhones they were able to get a quote from John McCormack apples vice president of camera software and I'm just gonna quote this and because I want to talk about it here's our view of what a photograph is the way we like to think of it is that it's a personal celebration of something that really actually happened
whether that's a simple thing like a fancy cup of coffee that's got some cool design on it all the way through to my kids first steps or my parents last breath it's something that really happened it's something that is a marker in my life and it's something that deserves to be celebrated
I love this like and there's more to the quote but just like the essential part that I want to discuss I love the way they're thinking about this and especially I like the idea of celebrating even the sad moments in not the
not the celebrate like cheering for obviously someone's passing but like celebrating remembering a moment the good ones and the bad ones that's the apple is saying this is the role of photography right in history the good moments and the bad moments there are you know if I can add to that there are thousands hundreds of historic photographs of terrible things that happened in human history like the role of photography is to document is to remember
all those moments because you don't you don't get to unfortunately life you don't get to cherry pick the type of life where you only live great moments right there's going to be good ones there's going to be bad ones and the role of photography the way I think of it and I'm
going to be at least to hear that Apple is thinking along the same lines is it's something that happened whether it's good or bad and it's something that you can remember and that our camera can help you remember and it's in direct contrast to what companies like Sam some are saying some saying what is even there's no real there's no real pictures anymore nothing is real and there's Google saying well it's actually more about how you
know it's more about the memory that other than the actual fact than the actual moment so Google is taking the sort of relativistic approach like yeah everybody's recollection is different so we don't particularly care about reality yeah it's like like Google is saying like I want you to create a memory and Apple's like we want you to capture memory exactly yes so on paper in theory I look at this
quote and I'm like I'm very glad that I'm using a phone because there's people at Apple that think this kind of thoughts that I agree with on the other hand I am curious to see how Apple over time will reconcile these thoughts with the upcoming reality of Apple intelligence and the the roll out of features that will
alter photography and moments for what they are there's going to be one immediately coming with a team point one which is clean up but you know there's going to be more like and I'm curious if Apple's rather beautiful stands on this matter how it will bump against the reality of Craig Federigie coming down from the mountain saying well you got to do AI you know teams at Apple I don't care I think it's fun you got to do it so that'll be interesting to watch
now I love this quote and it is being rightly applauded but I do look at it with a bit of a side of like is this going to remain forever like what's image playgrounds you know what is that like I obviously are not making photos but like what is the thinking behind why you would create a fake image of any kind right like how does that does that fit into any of this like how I would love someone similarly to define to tell me why they are creating image playgrounds what role they imagine that to
be fun right so like is it fun to add generative AI to regular photos well we'll see I guess right that's the Google think so right Google think so because they they put it in the pixel like so I just I just wonder like this is great I cannot be comfortable in believing that this is how they will always approach us
I am going to say something I mean you know me I don't care about the consequences well to a degree but I think this one is pretty safe this quote and this very direct explanation is the most Steve Jobs quote I've read from Apple in the post Steve Jobs era
yeah I can see that this could be part of a quote in thoughts on photos or something couldn't it yeah like here's a viewer what for graphics like here's the thing like it's pretty much apple saying here's the thing we believe in this and whether you're like you're not this is what we believe in I love this attitude like I
think it's why this quote resonates because we have gotten so used to this very polished image of Apple PR and Tim Cook but obviously Apple PR in general and this is like this is a quote that obviously comes from a from a person in the sense that
it's not like Apple PR not people but like it's a very direct very humane quote I think it has a motion it has a motion which is and it's complicated and like complex and deep and there's a lot going on in there and so like I love it I love it I want to believe it but I'm not just going to straight believe it like I almost wish that there was
a way for me to sign up for a subscription that gets me this version of Apple I love that you know like you know what I'm going to give me more of these quotes and these opinions like you know Apple one opinion opinionated I guess call it I don't care like but like this is the this quote it made me feel so good because like I was like yes this is the company that I this is like the attitude that I like what there is the
problem that if this quote is truly Steve Jobsian they will just go against it when they want to because he did do that right like he would make a lot of very strong statements and tell it was time for him to not believe it anymore and then he would just go do that sure sure maybe it will be a true job statement but it's a great quote it's it's a it's a it's a great way to think about the
role of photography in history we'll see how long it's well see if this quote can last as long as photography did according to Apple I have my doubts this episode of connected is brought to you by our friends at backblaze backblaze are the folks looking after your digital data with their unlimited computer backup from aco s and windows for this ninety nine dollars a year you can protect all of your data automatically without ever having to think about it
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Something else that I got which I absolutely love and I have actually no notes here is the AirPods for with noise cancellation there everything I was hoping for they obviously do not cancel as much external noise as the AirPods pro with in your tips do but they cancel more than I was expecting and I just feel like they are they did the thing they did exactly what people wanted great balance of price and some of the features of AirPods pro
in a device that doesn't require that you use in your tips I have already sold two people in my life on this and I actually you know I've seen one of my friends today came up to me with like I got them like I think these are going to be a massive success with people and I just love using them I again no notes perfect perfect update here for me for the shape of my years sure
that it's always what these things come down to like I chance to try them and they they weren't comfortable but man I really love the tiny case the little cases so good the tiny cases adorable and good and very portable and I love it.
I got to try Jason's like he got the units I put them in and it immediately fell out of my left here I always had a problem my left here with headphones and I was immediately reminded of how AirPods were just fall out all the time like even my AirPods pro over time they're going to work their way out of there.
So yeah this this set just doesn't work for me but I'm fine with that because I have the headphones that I like and I'm really happy the Apple is offering multiple products to do these features I'm wearing some headphones right now that I really wish they added more features to the new addition but they at least have a version of noise cancellation and all of their AirPods line now which I think it's good I think it's great that they have those options available for people.
Like people who really can't suffer the silicone tips which I thought I was going to one of those people but Apple made a version that works enough for me and I'm happy with it. But yeah I think it's great I would love to see them try to do something like the beats ones now you know like the ones that go like over your ears you know like they kind of clip on what did I collect the power beats or whatever let's just make some AirPods to let's just go crazy.
Yeah power beats pro I think those are the ones in my wife really likes she doing a bunch of workouts and jumping around and kickboxing people in the air and she's she's always one of those. Wow did you see the nothing open ear headphones you see it's I saw it looks so good weird and cool like you know what I mean like make something like that too let's go let's go let's go wild with it.
I don't disagree US it could be AirPods for with active noise cancellation and ear loop you know just keep adding modifiers why not why not why not why not very strange earphones really cool. Shall we talk about Apple watch because I also have I have I have brought as you've seen I've started this episode with a menu of questions in the pre show.
And then I have brought a full course of opinions and thoughts were on like a federico tasting menu yes phrase I think of the three of us you're the only one with the series and yeah yeah I think that's accurate mix feelings about it. So far the slim profile is very nice I think it's lovely that it's so light so much thinner than an Apple watch ultra I really dig it visually speaking and like on my wrist it feels very nice the speaker so I had high expectations for finding something.
I've been chasing I guess this idea of an always on wearable speaker right. It's the best part of the meta rebands for me the fact that these are actually pretty decent speakers that I don't need to manage because as long as I'm wearing my glasses I also have speakers to listen to podcasts or music.
And I had high expectations for the series 10 to sort of become an alternative to that to that use case and it's kind of halfway there and I think it mostly comes down to how audio playback is managed on watch us but also the kinds of apps that I'm using.
Most apps they still they do not default to like playing audio via the series 10 speakers so like there's always going to be like a menu that you need to go in and say no no I want to play via the Apple watch speaker and I kind of wish there was a setting for me to say not just you know if I told if I tell you so just default to the speakers like don't ask me if I want to play on my phone don't ask me if I want to wear our pods just go straight to the speaker.
But more specifically I'm using Spotify as my music and podcast app now and I have for the past three weeks at this point and it just the fact that the Spotify experience on the watch kind of sucks and this is not apples fault it's
Spotify's fault right sometimes when I when in Spotify I manually switch from iPhone playback to Apple watch playback it resets the position in an episode I'm listening to so that's terrible but also the watch app of Spotify does not have playback speed controls I listen to all my shows at 1.3 or 1.4x
and Spotify on the watch does not have playback speed so all this to say this is not apples fault it's just the way that watch apps are designed and the watch app that I specifically am using is not making me appreciate the built-in speaker as much as I hope to would.
The big issue that I'm having now is well actually two big issues one I'm pretty disappointed that despite the screen size being as big or even technically bigger than an Apple watch ultra I don't have the ultra modular ultra watch face.
And it's silly because like it's literally the same it's actually what one millimeter more right than the ultra because it's 46 the ultra is 45 but I don't have that watch face and like the entire situation with watch faces on watch was so silly that they actually removed some watch faces in watch was 11 and the fact that I have this big watch but that the ultra is 49 well I why was I convinced that the ultra was 45 all the case side but I mean the display is basically the same right the
display is bigger it's really confusing it's the display on the series 10 is larger than display on the Apple watch ultra but the Apple watch ultra is physically bigger than the series 10. Yeah yeah but as long as I'm talking about software like give me that what there's plenty space here right there's plenty of space on this display like let me use the ultra modular face well they want to you do it because you didn't you don't have an Apple
watch ultra is bananas like I feel like once you've once you've bought it give me everywhere like why have I got to lock it in like this is not the this is not that place to have opinions like you know the other problem though is once you get used to battery life on the ultra man going back to a non ultra watch is rough I need to charge this thing every day essentially
as with the ultra you could do it every couple of days and I've been using the ultra one the first gen for almost two years at this point because I remember I got the ultra one in December or January of two so it's almost two years ago and I've gotten so used to the idea of like yeah I can charge it quickly every couple of days here I get to the end of the day because I also sleep with the watch right and I get to the end of there like I got a
charge it and every day thing again and I thought I was past it so the combination of these things I don't think I will keep it I think I will probably go back to the to the ultra.
So you got that interesting contrast right with the iPhone I decided to sort of downsize and scale back to the regular model but with the watch even though I'm not an extremely active person I'm not into you know any of those types of work out that the ultra is in theory design for but because of a different reason I'm actually thinking that the
high-end model was better for me so there I think it's it's an interesting contrast that I find myself facing this year and right now despite the very nice design and the slim profile and everything I am leaning toward being an ultra boy again.
This is my the battery life is my biggest concern because I've gotten so used to the fantastic battery life on the ultra but I do look in the same way that I want to use the product I want all of the features that I can have and I feel like the ultra watch has a lot of features but it's not necessarily the ones that I want.
And I'm concerned now like with the way that they've updated it this year that like these watches are going to be off like revision from each other and the series watches will probably get more of the features that I want and care about then the ultra watch will and like the features the ultra watch will get other things that are not so important to me like oh it can dive further you know.
Yeah so I think I am does not really not for me so I do think I'm going to jump to series 10 I need to go do a try on my main issue so I want the gold watch my main issue is the band selection right now oh yeah that's almost as bad just the watch.
Yeah because my favorite Apple watch band of all time is the magnetic leather link bracelet but now it's made a fine word and rather than leather and I saw one of those the other day we went to the opposite of people up and it just doesn't feel what I wanted to feel like I have one of the leather ones it's kind of new but now I'm like I don't want to wear it because I don't want to wreck it because I love this band so much.
And then so looking at the gold watch the gold link bracelet I love it now it's look that is a very specific product for a specific type of person I happen to be that person I don't know if I can pull it off but I will want to wear it anyway the problem is it is expensive not as expensive as I thought it would be but it's expensive but it's just list is unavailable like what does that even mean like there's no date on it at all it's just it's unavailable.
So I guess okay and I just feel like in general the color choices in the bands they didn't I don't like them this season and what I want is the braided loop with a class I really like the way the braided loop looks but I don't want to watch that I pull on and off like that like I want to take my watch off and put my watch on I don't want to like pull it over my hand like that is not that's not something I want to do.
So I don't know this what I what I'm considering doing if I if I do go for this watch I'm considering doing something I've never done before which is actually looking outside of Apple for watch bands. Okay. Like there are so many companies that make them right a lot of them are really good.
I'm sure they are and I've never really paid them much attention but I think I might do that you know like looking at what no mad native union I think but like I don't know I don't know if I can make lots of watch bands so I might look at those two that might be an option for me I don't know. Yeah I dig it. I went to the store and saw the black ultra two it looks really awesome. It's beautiful. Oh my god it's so good looking. No no I just do anything I'm staying with my ultra one.
And I'm even though the battery life is not what it once was I can still get through about a day and a half and so I'm just being a little bit more selective with my charging. But I'm going to keep the ultra one and I did pick up the the new bands and black so the ocean band and wearing right now with the and these bands the new ultra bands you can select if you want the hardware or the lugs if they have metal lugs.
To be the natural to any more the black so I got the natural ocean band and black and I really like it and I'm going to keep keep this thing on my wrist for another year so awesome watch I have really there's really no features of the ultra two that I feel like I'm missing out on and I get to keep blood oxygen because apple for some reason has not resolved that issue so I'm staying put but the black one had there been an ultra three.
I'd be wearing a black one right now I didn't even think of that yeah you'd lose the ball oxygen sensor right yeah so I got monitoring my blood oxygen isn't it wild that they haven't resolved that that's mad that there's no solution to that yeah it's just like oh you just lose that. So like part of the vitals out which is what work right yeah it's it's absolutely ridiculous apple fix it.
Well I think that does it for this week we got a bunch of links for you to check out the most important one of course St. Jude dot org slash relay go donate sign up to do your own fundraiser sign up for corporate matching all sorts of fun stuff over there you can also send us feedback or follow up at relay dot FM slash connected as also link in the show notes to the feedback form and of course you can become a member get connected pro.
Which is the longer ad free version of the show each and every week this week Federico and might quiz me about my 20th high score union that I went to this weekend and it was a good time had by all Federico had some fantastic questions that you do not want to miss really took me for surprise. This one question will leave you surprised get a pro like that's that almost sounded like like an introduction to a game in a Nintendo Nintendo direct video the next question will leave you surprised.
You can find our work across the internet Federico is the editor in chief of Mac stories dot net. You can follow him on mass sed on threads as Viti just search for him there. Mike is a host of a bunch of other shows here on relay I will echo what Federico said the last couple of upgrades have been absolutely excellent.
And you can find him is I mic across mass sed on and threads you can find me is isomage 86 in my writing at 512 pixels dot net and I said earlier but I'll say it again this coming Mac power user episode. Talk about I've an impressions will also get deep into macOS a coil I was 18 we didn't do that here this time to do timing and stuff but go check out MP you on Sunday when that comes out. I don't think our sponsors for making this episode possible ecam zock doc vitally and back plays. And.