521: macOS Dog

From Relay, this is Connected, episode 521. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, ExpressVPN and KRCS. I'm one of your co-hosts, Mr. Federico Viteci, and I'm so happy to be joined by Stephen Hackett. Hello, Stephen. Hello, Mr. Federico Viteci. I like calling myself a Mr. You're good. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. You're kind of the man of the hour today. We're going to talk about that. You're a big iPhone story. We'll get to that. Well, I'm the man of the year.

Wow. Well, technically, I think our next host, the Ricky Benjamin, is the man of the year. Yes. Ricky Benjamin, Mike Hurley. Welcome to the program. I'm the man of the year and also the man of this current period until there's an apple of it. The man of this period. Yes, but I'm both year and period, remember, because I had the annual and keynote and spent your man of many time frames. I got me. And Relay co-founder champion and draft champion. Right. Yes. Right.

And I'm having a winning year and St. Jude content creator of the year. But we share that. Yeah. We do share that. We do. But I still am it. Yeah. And you're also our friend, which is the best honorable result of that. I mean, I'm in a good mood today. I had my tea. I had some tea today before the show instead of coffee. It's nice. We also spilled the tea in the pro show. Get connect to pro.co. If you want

to hear Stephen explain to me in Federico, all of the drama around WordPress, go there. And if you want to hear mine Federico's immediate takes to that drama, also get connect to pro.co. It's good. I, in honor of the meta Orion headset, I'm drinking a smoothie. AI did not tell me how to make it. Oh, okay. I was struggling to understand the reference, but then I got a little demo joke for you. We'll get to that later. But first first, we have follow-up.

Anthony asks, a week in, what photographic styles are you using on your new phones? Okay. By default, standard tone set to minus 0.5, although I like editing after the fact a lot. And so for a bunch of pictures, I gravitate toward Amber or gold as the style. But it depends on the photo. So when I shoot, I shoot in standard with minus 0.5 for tone. Some photos I like to change to Amber or gold. I'm using natural with no additional adjustments. Natural. Yeah. That's a choice.

Okay. It's a little cooler than standard and a little flatter. Like you, I don't love it on all photos. And I've definitely been tinkering with it. And if you've got a Mac with Sonoma, no, Sequoia. Geez. If you have a Mac with Sequoia on it, you can edit those on the Mac, the same like UI shows up. I do like golden amber as well for some stuff, but natural so far has been my go-to. I absolutely have not internalized the macOS name. I have to call you. The two S's are a row.

Genuinely, you just said it. I forgot it by the end of my sentence. Sequoia. I couldn't remember what it was. Sequoia. I will just not, I just figure I just want to learn it. Just call it macOS. Let it go. Just macOS. They should go back to animals. They should do dogs for the next macOS. You can remember those. Everybody knows what the dog is, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Snow retriever. It's the best one. MacOS dog. MacOS Beagle. MacOS Good Boy. I want MacOS. Just Monkey.

MacOS Giraffe. You know, man, give me MacOS. Monkey. Like right now. I use MacOS. Yes. MacOS Elephant. You know, like that's what I want. I want to go real like and the MacOS says Mew. You know, that's what I'm looking incredible. I use gold. The photographic style gold. I don't have yet like a standard adjustment. I've been kind of like adjusted the images within the gold preset, kind of where needed because for just taking photos of objects, I like it kind of regular.

But for taking photos of people, I kind of dial down the tone a little bit. So I'm still, I may set a lot on a number, but I just haven't dialed it in yet. If you want a bit more information about this and some good kind of like presets, Tata Solman's iPhone 16 photographer's review video is really, really good. I'm like halfway through it, but Tata does a great job of explaining photographic styles. He killed it kind of shows up. Yeah. He just knows what he's talking about,

you know? And he does a good job of showing that. You know, he's he's a lot taller than you would think. He's really tall. What Mike believes that? I mean, Mike knows his taller, but yeah, I mean, I have met him and I genuinely don't remember how tall he is, but just to see him, not I looking up at him, which is a lot about Tyler, I guess. He and I went for a walk when you're WBC for like an hour and just talked about life and it was very enjoyable. Yep. Good

dude. Jonathan wrote in about the Apple Watch speaker. Jonathan has some words for us. I was disappointed not to hear follow up for my favorite shower speaker podcasters on how audio on the Apple Watch performed while lathered up. So I went into the field to test this for myself. Okay. First of all, Jonathan, you don't shower in a field shower in a shower. Stephen, come on. Here are my findings. Here are my findings. Unfortunately, the audio works.

Okay. When washing your hair, water immediately gets in the speaker holes, muffling the audio and making it impossible to hear when not near your ears. This is extremely problematic when washing in my average length eyes. Okay. I mean, yeah. Cool. I don't I wouldn't have bothered to try it because I would have known this would have happened. You know, like if you take your phone in the shower and any water gets on it, it's like, that happens very quickly. So you kind of got to get

the phone out of the way of the water. The watch is on your wrist. It can't be more in the way of the water, you know. Still though, I appreciate how this follow up was sent. Completely Jonathan knows how to, you know, all the references, the thighs, you know. I also like that they just did it rather than asking us to do it. Yeah. The best follow-up is where you've already done the work and you just asked what happened. Yeah. This is how you do it.

This is how do the work for us and then send us the follow-up. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Well done, Jonathan. Well done. Well done. Don't shower in the field. Even that's not what you thought. It's pretty good. No, no, it isn't. No, say if you have to say a joke twice, we get it. We get it. Please clap. Please stop. Oh. Speaking of Jonathan. Yes. Let's now defend Jonathan, but a different one. A different one.

So I back in the spring wrote this blog post, we talked about it, about the Jonathan, this weird concept computer from the 80s at Apple that was a bunch of modules you stuck together, like physical like book sized modules. And that blog post did very well. It's one of the only a handful of blog posts about the computer on the internet at a bunch of research. So I get an email last week from a reader named Jeff whose uncle worked at Apple, did a bunch of stuff at Apple

and was involved in the Jonathan project. And his uncle, whose name was Tom Todman, wrote a memo to John Scully, Apple CEO, trying to save the project when it was going to be cancelled. And he sent me a copy of the memo and I republished it. So I'm hashtag leaking now. Apple, internal Apple, memo from the 80s. And it's just fascinating to see this little glimpse into this story. The project seems to have been further along than I or I think anybody else thought,

like they had packaging materials ready to go. I don't think you do that just for a prototype. So now, you know, now I'm wondering like, is there one of these out there somewhere? Is there someone has a Jonathan in their attic? I don't know. Hit me up. Somebody at least made a model. Yes. Right. Definitely. Yeah, because they're photos of a model. Of course, that's not a render. They didn't have renders back then. Yeah, yeah. The photo in this

block and this blog post is of a mockup. And then the original blog post ahead renders, like a billion dollars to vendor in the 80s. Yeah. So yeah, just super interesting. I just want to point one thing out. This is this memo is incredible. But in a section called obvious non-obsolescence, he wrote this design quote and all capital letters removes the fear that this computer will be obsolete next year removes the fear. Pretty good. This person definitely had skin in the Jonathan

game. It seems like it. Yeah. So a lot in the last week's show, we spoke a little bit about Federico switching to the iPhone 16 plus. I don't know why that name I just got stuck on that one too. But Federico, you wrote an article about your experience of switching to the plus. Is there anything that you wanted to touch on about it on the show? Or do you just say to people who read the article? They wish they should also do anyway. No, I mean, people should read the article.

I don't know. I just feel like it's been going really well. And in a way that I was not expecting to have so much fun with the 16 plus. Because I said, I mean, that's crazy. I kind of ignored this part of the iPhone lineup for the past few years just because I always got the Pro Max. It's a fun experiment. And I could tell that like we spoke about this last week, I could tell that something sort of fell off about the Pro Max for me this year. Or maybe I just had this thought

in my mind. And I ordered the Pro Max, but that idea never left my brain basically that like actually you should go with the 16 plus. And yeah, just the idea that yes, I'm missing some features, but not to the extent that I thought I would. And this is something that happens. Something that I noticed is that especially if you are very online, right? As we all tend to be, there's this part of this course in the Apple sphere of, you know, Macedon and threads that you should get the

Pro Max, you should get the iPhone, the Pro or the Pro Max. Everything else is for quote unquote normal people. And we are not normal people. And I mean, we're definitely not normal people. I mean, I know what you're saying, but you know, right, right in a different way.

Right, but why? But why though? Like, and or I guess, can we not be? Right? Like, I, this is one of like an idea that I touch upon in the story where like this sort of expectation that some people have, but it's as I wrote like it's also something that I had for myself, like something that I convinced myself that I had to do, like always get the absolute best. That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to be getting iPad Pro, the best Apple Watch,

the best AirPods and the best iPhone. Like, there's an expectation because I've seen comments from people like, oh, you know, those phones are like for my mom, which is a typical argument. And every, but like we the people who really care about Apple, we get, we get, we get the pro and the

pro max. And I feel like I've realized that like, there was a bunch of things when I was watching the keynote, you know, just all those announcements sort of glossing over, you know, just and being bored by seeing some of the advanced features knowing that I will never take advantage of those myself, even though I recognize that they are essential for a lot of folks. And the thought of having a phone that when I look at it, it's not the same old boring thing. I don't know, those ideas

stuck in my brain and eventually I followed through and I'm absolutely loving the 16 plus. So yeah, that's that's the gist of the story really. It's a good phone. It'll probably get discontinued

next year. But in thinking about it, like, I think it'll be a useful experiment not to use a pro for a year because if they really do come out with an iPhone air, that it's not a pro, but as the brand new design and maybe trades some of the more advanced specs for a much slimmer profile and a brand new design language, then it's going to be useful to having, you know, having used the 16 plus for a year. Is it not true that Apple sells more profiles than regular phones? I don't know. Is it?

Maybe I know they make more money from it, but I don't know. I feel like it depends year to year. But anyway, I'm not trying to argue with you. I find your I find the points that you bring up in the in the article interesting. I mean, naturally, I bristle at it, right? Because you are because I am someone who wants the pro phone. And I do believe that buying the pro phone is the best for what I'm doing, like from a content perspective, not just because I also want it. But I don't

disagree with where you're coming from. Like, there shouldn't be a requirement that that is the phone that you use because of what you do. Like you mentioned, like, and if you can, like, can you mention this is like invisible social contract that we have to buy the best thing, which is a weird thing to have, right? Like if if you feel such a thing, it is a weird thing to have. Yeah. And it's a well formed idea. I don't think that it, you know, I don't think it applies to

everyone. I don't think it applies to me. Like I buy the phone that I want. Like, if I wasn't doing this for a living, I would still be buying the pro phone because I want the best phone. Like, it's what I want. And by best, I mean quote unquote most features. You know, I just want all the features because that's what I like to have. But it is, it's a well formed idea that I find interesting. I will be intrigued to see where you go from here. So I will be intrigued. Like,

do you last the whole year? I'm not saying you wouldn't, but I'm intrigued, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like it is, you're feeling good about it right now, which I understand you should. It looks fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. But it's like how, and while it's like right now, you're like these features are all the things that I've got I want and the things that I don't have I don't want. And I get all of that. It would just be intriguing to me to see like, do you go the full time? And

then what is your choice next time? Oh, if they really do the iPhone air, that's going to be what I get. It's probably I would expect that's the phone we all buy. Yeah. I think so. In that scenario, just because it will be, I mean, but this is going back to the original thing like this, it will be the interesting one. It will be the one to talk about. So like, I actually do see that

scenario that you're referencing, right? If it comes around to next year and they have this phone, which is just like dramatically different from a content creation perspective, that's probably the one to buy, right? Because it's going to be the one in which I can have the most interesting

things to say. And like, similarly, like even if we're like six layers down through the stack now, there might be a part of your brain, Federico that wanted the plus because you can tell, like in your mind, you can tell a community can't more interesting stories by having this fun that I've been. Oh, yeah. I mean, I feel like I feel like the for the kind of work that I do. So if you look at the different segments of my work, right? The iPad has never been boring because like it or not,

there's always been drama. So it's never been same. It's always been something. The tragedy and the victory, the drama, it's like watching a soap opera. The Apple watch has been also interesting because like what's the Apple watch then they got bigger than the ultra and they did the ultra two, which was also kind of weird. Like it's never been boring. The iPhone has been like an incredible product, but especially the whole run from 11 pro max to 15 and 16 pro max has been kind of

same year after year, right? But we've been here before. Don't forget like six to ten. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Because I just think this is the kind of product that is like really hard for them to be daring with. Yeah. And I feel like there's nothing bad. So I guess this is the other idea of the story. This stigma against the base model iPhones. And what I'm coming from is there's nothing bad in prioritizing a product that makes you happy for reasons that are not your typical

tech blog post, right? If a product makes you happy because it's blue and because you look at it and you're like, oh, that's hot, right? That's probably not something that you would typically find on a on a tech publication. Yeah. But whatever. Like if it makes me feel good and if I'm willing to to sacrifice some features intentionally, right? Give them up because overall using this product makes it's more fun. And therefore makes me feel better and therefore contributes in a way

to the work that I do. Then yeah, then yeah, absolutely. Yeah, me and you were talking about this a little bit yesterday. And like I was saying to you, I kind of feel technology for me is best when I even treat it like it's a tool or it's a toy. And like if I can find either of those in a thing, it makes me happy, which is why I love my 16 pro because I compared to the pro max because it's size makes it feel more toy like to me because I can kind of just like grab it and throw it around

and like it's easy to use. And it makes it feel more more like a toy than the pro max did, which feels something more significant that I have to handle and deal with. So yeah, in your article, you linked to the this thing called the arc pulse. I see these on Instagram all the time. Yeah, see these things are mad. And I get the why you would want to go down this route because it's basically they claim to give all of the protection of a case without a case. So it's like a two-piece

thing, which is like a piece of metal that goes around the camera kind of square. Yeah. And and across to the corners on the top. And then a second piece which is just corner to corner. So it's like protecting the impact zones. I just want to use the top one personally. Right. Okay. That would look yeah, that would look better. I've always found these things to be like a really interesting idea. But I just don't like the way it looks. Like it's I don't know, it's too

jewelry. Maybe. Yeah, it is, but I feel like the silver with the ultramarine phone just the top is going to look extra nice. Good look. Basic. Yeah. Because I get the thing of like you obviously don't want to put a case of any kind on this phone because that negates one of your main reasons for how I have one. Right. I have one. And I mean it's a silicone case, you know, it just completely like you said, completely negates the entire design and the entire color. So yeah.

Yeah. Man, they so wait 231 pound version of this made out of titanium. Okay. So you want a 230 pound case for your phone for this year? Why not? Why not? I just want just one the basic one. But like there's like there's like almost a month and a half of waiting times for orders placed today for the 16 plus they delivery mid to late November. At least this means they're doing the smart thing though, which is they didn't start making them before the phone came out. Yeah.

Right. Because something like this, the tolerances have to be perfect. Like it's a piece of metal that's wrapping around the phone. Like they have to do it right. But yeah, that is that is funny though. Yeah. Like be careful with your phone. But yeah, I think I'm with this article like I think I'm in an interesting place in terms of which Apple products I use iPhone 16 plus. And then on the other on the other end, it's like iPad Pro 11 inch high end model.

Like nanotexer this place cellular. But it's like it's the thing right. It's not because it's the best. It's because it's the nanotexer. Like it's got that unique thing that I really love. But then at the same time, I'm using the AirPods 4 like the base model AirPods. And to give you another piece of follow up, I stopped using the series 10. I went back to the ultra one. I did. I did. I did because man, even with the battery health at 90%, so it's been going down. It's still like the

the ultra is something else. Like I was using this series 10 and just having to charge it every day. I lasted less than a week with that watch. And so the ultra, I'm gonna I'm gonna try and cling on to this first gen ultra because I really don't care about the double tap or whatever is new in the ultra two. But it's getting old and I can tell that the battery is not the same as it

used to be. But yeah, I went back to the ultra one. So it's an interesting mix. Oh, and obviously I also have the the capitated MacBook Air, which were probably which will probably soon be replaced by a small Mac mini. If they really do the Apple TV sized mini. But yeah, it's like, I don't know. I feel like I mean, I really like the Apple devices that I'm using now. You're living your best life right now. And I respect that. Yeah, I think so. I I'm buying whatever I want. And I'm really

enjoying the products that Apple released this this year. Now the software is a different story, but the products, the products are good. Yeah. This episode of Connected is brought to you by Squarespace, the all in one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. So whether you're just starting out or you're managing a growing brand, you can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with the audience and sell anything, products, services, and even content. Squarespace has

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first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash connected. We decided to sign up to get 10% off your first purchase. To show you support for this, your favorite podcast. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of the show and all of relay. So campaign for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is wrapping up now. If you want to still make a donation you can. You can go to St. Jude to all slash relay. It's going to be closing up at

the end of this week. But we wanted to just say one million thank yous. Yeah. We passed a million dollars raised this year, which is a truly incredible thing. We also have actually passed another goal, which is four million dollars raised since we started the campaign five years ago. I am really struggling to comprehend this. It's something that comes in waves of like understanding and

sinking in and then leaving again. It's an incredible thing that our community has done. I am so incredibly proud of what we have all done together as podcast hosts and as work and with Ulsac and with our incredible community, our listeners. This is one of the most united things that I felt achieving this together, especially for us achieving it in relay's tenth year as well. This has always been a dream that maybe one day we could raise a million dollars.

But two have achieved it this year is it's made a very special year even more special and I'm so incredibly thankful. Probably not as thankful as Steven though. We're both very thankful. Yeah, it's both very, but I think you get a little cherry on the top. Sure. Yeah, it is it made it just incredible. I was telling somebody today who is aware of our campaign, but you know,

not not closely following it and he asked how it was going. I was like, well, we raised over a million dollars this year and four million lifetime and you know, we started this just five weeks ago counting up to three million raised, which is the delta being that is absolutely wild. Yeah, it's incredible. And to me, what it says is that our community has embraced this in a

way that we we hoped would be possible in the beginning, right? And what they did for our family, saving our son's life is something they do every day for families all over the world. And that million dollars that our community has given is going to go pay for chemo and food in the cafeteria and stuff in research labs and flights for families to get in out of

Memphis for treatment and housing and on and on and on. We talked a lot about in the Pagatsalan in particular that St. Jude cares for the whole family and you can see how much money that takes and to so to be able to hand a million dollars over from the community to St. Jude is just it's astonishing. So yes, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you. And if it makes you feel better, it makes me even better. It makes me feel real great. You know, every year our community

exceeds the expectations that everybody has. Like we work with a bunch of incredible professionals in every year. You surprise them. So that always makes me happy when when the fundraising professionals we have are surprised by just how generous our community is. And so I love that very much and it makes me very proud of what we've done together once again. So thank you so much. Switching gears out of that. Well, this app has actually been very helpful for me during this

time period. Which is Quasant. Quasant. Quasant. This is an app made by Ben McCarty and Aaron Vey. And it is a cross posting app. And so it allows you to cross post across multiple social networks. Ben had told me about this idea a while ago and we were chatting about it. I think we may have first spoke about it in London. We've been to Codrain Ride together from the Hackney Empire one day. And I think we may have spoken about it then or it was not too long after that.

And I had been frequently begging Ben for a test flight and ended up being able to get one. The day before the podcast, I thought I was like, Ben, please, I need this tomorrow. Like I need it. I can't be posting manually to all these social networks. Please help me. I really enjoyed this app a lot. It's been very helpful for me during this period. It is just one of these apps that is delightfully designed. And that's what I like about it. It's got the right

amount of flair, which is some, but not too much. The visual design is very good. It allows you to post to master on threads and blue sky. And I've been using it for multiple threads accounts and multiple master line accounts. Yeah, I think it's fantastic. I mean, it's a weird thing that we're in this situation again where we need something like this. But your co-host, Brendan, who says so many smart things, Federico, I sure you're aware of that. But Brendan is a good thinker.

Brendan mentioned, like, even if you're not cross posting, this is, I was looking for an app like this when all of the Twitter master and stuff was kicking off, which is, I'd want an app where I just post and don't have to engage. Yeah. Like sometimes I just want to post. Like, and I don't need to be in like looking up reply mode or looking at timeline. And this is app is also just good for that. Like send things. And Ben has especially been very open online talking about the things that

they're looking to add to the app. Like it's iPhone only right now. They want to put it on other platforms. I really want it on my Mac, especially. Yes. Definitely take an iPad version. If that's what they want to put, I'll take the iPhone version, honestly, on my Mac. I tried using it with what is that thing called where I can screen share to my iPhone. iPhone mirroring. It did not, like, it just was so upset about me trying to add images. Like this is not a bad thing.

I think this is just like that is wonky. Yeah, I think it's fantastic. I will say, look, sometimes sometimes once a month, I have to post something to Twitter, right? It's I'm still doing it. I don't want to do it anymore. And we're probably going to stop. But it's we are. I post new episodes of Cortex to Cortex Twitter account. Oh, okay. Not with your personal. Not my own. Not my own. So once a month, I'm logging on to buffer. And I'm posting. And like buffers game real expensive gang.

Like, it's so I hate so much money for one post. So I'm going to I want to get rid of that. And like, I just want them to add Twitter to this. I know I hate it. I don't use it. I don't ever want to log into it. That's the point. But the problem is it's complicated, like API wise. But I just, wouldn't it be amazing if I could post to everything on my ever one or post to from this one beautiful application. Maybe I just need to stop posting the new episodes of Cortex to Twitter.

Maybe that's what I need to do. But I'm still doing it. There's a lot of people there. Like, I don't use it. But there's people there, you know, and so like, what am I supposed to do about this? It's like, why do I post to anything, you know? I'm going to be existential now. But anyway, Cross-on is fantastic. If you if you post to any accounts, I recommend that. Yeah, it's really good. And we should point out Ben's incredible thread on Macedon and threads

that was full of bread jokes. Like, they absolutely killed it. And didn't some people get a croissant in the mail? Uh-uh. So, okay. I did it. And I'm a little upset. What would you have done with it, Stephen? I got a 10-year-old who loves bread. Oh, okay, throw enough. But I think that's probably the reason. So, okay. So I sat down for coffee in the morning. I think I was making coffee. She made me a coffee and she gave me a plate and she said, this is from Ben. And it was there

was a croissant on the plate. What is happening? I think actually what words were, I heard there's an app coming out today. And she gave it. I'm like, what is happening? He's like, this is from Ben. And I said again, what is happening? And yeah, so Ben had arranged just some people to receive croissants. And that was one of these people. I don't take it personally, Ben. I'm just saying. But you obviously do, right? Because you say like, I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

I'm just saying has a, you know, adorable 10-year-old. No, they've killed it. This app is awesome. And it has just so many little touches as you would expect. It's great. I'm using it a bunch. I use it all through the campaign. And it does lead to a question, though, I think. I've like, if we want to talk about this briefly, our feelings on where things are in the social media world. Hmm. That's a good question. Can I make an observation about one of the people on this call?

Okay. I think Federico has really learned like a place for some takes, which I appreciate. Oh, yeah. He's he's he's he's threaded up. He's good on threads. I enjoy Federico on threads. Federico on threads is like, I gotta take for you. And they, and you're very good at it. You have a lot of viral thread posts. Yeah, you're doing very good on threads right now. I just got to. Yeah, because I don't because I don't care anymore. Yeah, it's to put it in a way. Yes. Yeah, that's

what I was going to say that I am using. I'm noticing that threads can be really good for viral stuff, even though it doesn't necessarily translate to much of anything in terms of like, are there going to be more like of those thousands of people who see my like today. I saw your thread got 50,000 views. Cool. Does that mean I'm getting 50,000 new members? No, it doesn't mean that like, I wish. But you know, if even 1% of those people over time, maybe 1% of those people starts following

me and they're like, what's this we teach you guy by the way? Let me see whatever they do at Mac. Sorry. It's like, it's good for the future. You know, it's a good investment for the future. It's very good at like this sort of like visual like screenshots, screen recordings, photos, hot takes. Unfortunately, it comes and it shares a lot of the same traits as Twitter back in the day, which is to say there are types of content that really work. I'm noticing on threads.

One of them is unfortunately complaining about stuff. That really works because it really fires up the people. You know, the other thing is like, like tips like teaching people how to do stuff, like hidden settings. Why is nobody talking about this? Why did nobody, why did does anybody, I don't know who needs to know this, but yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of that. There's a lot of that because it's the algorithm that because it's a social network with an algorithm. You can't go

viral on Mastinon like you can't like it's not that's not how it works. Obviously, threads comes with a territory. You get a lot of awful people in your replies, but a viral post is the side effect is that it is an excellent tool to mute a bunch of annoying people that shouldn't be allowed

to post online, and yet they do. So it's great for that. Mastinon is also excellent for me, but Mastinon is where like a Mastinon, I got my people, you know, it's like it's the Mac stories readers, the club members, it's a place for the more sophisticated readers, like where I actually discover any developers like it's the Mastinon is the Mac stories of social media in a way.

You know, it's like that's my people over there having serious conversations. You do get the occasional hater, but like to be a hater on Mastinon, you really got to go out of your way to do that. Like, you know, I mean, it's easier to be a hater on threads than it is on the dawn, as they say. So yeah, and it's more beneficial to which is the shame. It's the shame. I enjoy both places for

different reasons. Yeah, me too. That's that's kind of where I am. I don't know. I have tried to and I want to do more like I think I've kind of felt a similar split to you where I have more followers on threads and I get more engagement on threads, but Mastinon is where I feel like my real audience is kind of yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's where to put it. Yeah. But I don't know that to be

the case. It's complicated, right? Like it feels like at least the type of stuff that I see on Mastinon is a little bit more like the typical content that I like, but but I do like threads too, though. Like I actually do really like the threads algorithm when it's serving me things that it thinks I'm interested in not not the engagement bait stuff. Like I get enough of that and you can I feel like you can kind of tune the algorithm a bit. Yeah, you can, but you still get some

horrible people in your replies. I'm just going to read you a couple. This person engagement bait detected. It's either engagement bait or you're just not very bright. So when I see this, I'll be like, okay, mute. And then you go back. Um, you millennials are really a cursed generation. What? What is what is that in relation to your just using it wrong? You're too slow and weird moves. Mut, like you got a bunch of these folks, you know, and which is fine, which is fine because they

got a channel there, whatever it is, anger being annoyed. I don't know, somewhere, but see, these folks, they have no idea who I am. I just popped up in their home timeline and somehow I have annoyed them, which is okay. Um, but I also want to say like the positive replies at least so far. Thankfully, outweigh the negatives, but it's very reminiscent of Twitter. We're like, it's not like a master done where you get one or two negative replies here.

If you have a viral post and you get, I don't know, a hundred positive comments, you do get 20 to 25, 30 negative ones. Like it's a much higher ratio than master done. Turns out Twitter wasn't really the problem room. Like it wasn't. It wasn't like the service. People are the problem. Twitter is not a place. It's a people. Toddlers have better puzzle solving skills than you do. Okay. This is from, uh, yeah, I don't want to read the username.

Yeah, there's a bunch of these folks like this, you know, it's, yeah, and this is in relation to something we're going to talk about later on in the show. Like these, I think these were responses to the role about issues you're having with the home screen, right? Yeah, movie night on. You know, yeah, yeah. Strictly, it's a totalist can do it. Federico, I don't know why you can't.

Yeah, Toddlers can do it. Dang millennials, you know. There's this link that's been going around, John put it on Max stories called forever notes, forever notes with an asterisk in the middle. This would do good on threads. Yes. This does good on threads. I think it's where I came across it the first time. Yeah, same. Same here. Interesting. I, I, I learned about it from on my favorite websites, the little cycle of Mac stories, don't know. That's what I found out about. One of my

favorite is John Voorhees. He brought great writer. Yeah. So the idea here is that, oh gosh, I can believe I'm seeing this. So are you guys familiar with the para productivity system? What? What? Oh, come on. P-A-R-A. No, nobody. It's like para productivity. It's like when you have a relationship to productivity, but productivity doesn't know you. Is that what that is? The para the para method. The para method. That was a good joke. Like then this was that was the after it

said it's a good joke, Mike. I didn't say it twice. That's that was the thing is if you say it twice. So the para method would be where basically you break up your productivity system in projects, areas, resources and archive. That's P-A-R-A para. Okay. So basically forever notes, which I think is a really clever idea. They're trying to replicate what people do with PKM apps or notion in Apple notes for free. Yeah, obviously. It's power I think. This is like

notion. Like this is yeah, it's like all these things. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're all sort of coming from this creator Tiago Forte, I want to say, who sort of is regarded as the inventor of this method, which has then been kind of applied to notion of Syrian, Rome,

some folks trying it's like GTD again, right? And not saying it's the same thing, but like the idea that like GTD was an idea that David Allen came up with and then a bunch of things were built on that and like this seems like someone came up with this idea and now a bunch of tools and systems have been built on the back. Yeah, I believe the creator of the para method actually, Steven, you're going to love this actually uses evernote or used to use evernote. Everyone used to use

evernote. Every well, yeah. Anyway, the idea would be that the kind of like fancy dashboards that you've seen in obsidian and notion forever notes kind of wants to replicate that idea in Apple notes, which I think is really fascinating. And it's something that like with all of these methods, I'm always fascinated and I want to replicate them myself, but I always feel weird about like actually straight up copying someone else's setup. So what I end up doing every time is I get

inspired by these systems, but then I came up with my own. Well, that's what I do. But at a high level, the idea would be that you create a central note, which in notion and obsidian, you would call a dashboard here in forever notes, they call a home note and that home note basically as a bunch of links to other notes. That's the high level. You're using the Apple notes feature of internal linking to have this central note where you link out to other places. And these other places can be

projects. So like a project for me would be IOS 18 review. It's something that is self-contained, as a deadline needs to happen. It's a standalone entity. Or you can link out to hubs in the obsidian world. And I'm sorry for getting so deep into these terms that I also kind of hate, but here we are. In the obsidian world, people will call them mocks for MOC or maps of content. Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I'm sorry, but in forever notes,

your MOC would be what the creator of forever notes calls in plain English, a hub. So you have these hubs that can be, I don't know, family, you know, it's for a better reference what in how many focus and in things you would call areas. That's sort of the idea, hubs. So you have your family hub, you have your health hub. And in these hubs, those are like other notes that link out to

to individual notes. Like you have your health up. Yeah, kind of like that, right? So the idea would be that you can do all of these fancy stuff with internal linking and the sub pages in Apple notes. And taking advantage of the many features that Apple added over the years, internal linking highlights, collapsible sections, rich links. And I think it's very fascinating. I wrote in my IOS 18 review that I do believe Apple notes is is the best app at the moment

that Apple makes. And I stand by that. It's an incredible app that I'm using more and more for for just note for just personal notes. I do all my writing in obsidian. Nothing's ever going to change that at this point. But Apple notes for this sort of setup. I have been doing that myself, but not with this kind of structure. I always feel a little weird about sort of like following a strict structure, right? Like that. Oh, I have to use forever notes. And all of my notes needs to

need to be formatted in a very specific way. Yeah. But I still think it's fascinating. And I don't know. I kind of want to give it a try. I want to see someone show me this, right? Like, because I'm looking at the page and like, I feel like I can only surface level understand what is actually happening here. Like, and I've even seen some of the videos. For some reason, it's like not fully clicking into my mind. But this seems to me. I can show you. I can show you

mine. I would love that actually. But this seems to me like building something is in Apple notes seems terrifyingly tenuous. I think it's I think it's more slow than tenuous because I think the system is pretty this is pretty good. Like the internal link in is just as smart as notion, for example, if you change the name of your note, the internal links will be running accordingly.

It's just slow because Apple notes doesn't have a template feature, for example. So all of those links and that metadata that you're adding at the top of the note, you got to do it manually because there's no there's no template functionality. So it's like, yeah, I see something isn't and I find it really interesting. But I'm like, why don't you just use notion? Right? Because I like using Apple notes. That's the thing. I don't mean you specifically. I'd

be like, it's like a general thing, right? Like, there are tools that do this stuff. Like, maybe they just don't do it the way you want, which I kind of understand. But yeah, whenever I see things that makes me nervous, something's going to happen and it's going to break this. Then you're kind of like out there on the sea. I don't know. Very intriguing. Very, very intriguing. I would like to see it in action because I think I'm just struggling to get it.

I'm just over here using folders and subfolders like a plebeian. Nice. I guess. That's the Stephen system. Stephen system. Yeah. Yeah. It's folders and then inside there, more folders. This episode of Connected is brought to you by ExpressVPN. Going online without ExpressVPN is a little bit like leaving your laptop unattended in the coffee shop when you run to the bathroom. Most of the time, you're probably fine, but that's a pretty big unnecessary risk. Why would you take it?

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expressvpn.com slash connected. That's expressvpn.com slash connected and you'll get an extra three months of express VPN for free. Our thanks to ExpressVPN for their support of the show and all of relay. iOS 18 has been out for a couple of weeks now and things aren't. It's going super great in some corners of things. We're going to start with this story from Zach call Mike. What does Zach discover? All right. So there is a or has been a bug.

Maybe it's been fixed by now, but there was a bug a couple of weeks ago where if you shared an Apple watch face with someone over iMessage, it would crash iMessages. Okay. Sorry. You needed to share. So I would say share my Apple watch face with Steven. Is Steven double tapped on it and replied, unique and replied to a message? This would crash messages. Oh, okay. And it would crash messages so bad that every time you will open messages,

it would crash messages. And the only way to fix this is to to delete the conversation completely. But the problem was every time you open messages messages crash. So real bad. And I think I expect by now this has been fixed, but this is an example of some of the funny and peculiar bugs that have been occurring as part of the iOS 18 cycle. But my favorite is one that for Eriko, let me know about one of his viral thread posts, which is about iPad OS 18.

Which doesn't exist anymore for the M4 iPad Pro. It's straight up gone. It was pulled a couple of days after he was released for the M4 iPad Pro. So the latest ones that came out in May, because it was breaking some iPads. Some M4 iPads got bricked by iPad OS 18. And to my knowledge, as of at least yesterday, because I haven't been so online today. But it was never re-released. It just gone. And so I think it's very strange. I have, of course, iPad OS 18 and my iPad,

because I'm running the 18.1 beta. But the 18.0 release was pulled for the M4. Never came back. Nobody knows what's happening. Some people got their devices bricked by the update. I hope that Apple support to care of them. But yeah, it's a strange story. Right? I mean, it's me what? I had no idea about this. I did not know this was happening. And I will say that I'm sure I saw it. I've kind of over time. I ignore the news on iOS day because this always happens. Right? Like,

a device breaks, right? Or like some subset of devices break and they have to reissue iOS. This happens so often. So I guess I would have seen this and was just like, oh, you know, it happened. I didn't know that it then led to there is no iPad OS 18. Like, there just isn't an iPad OS 18. They've pulled it and they've never released it. Well, just for those models. Just for those models. Just for the M4. Sorry, yeah, for the FAM4 iPad Pro. My expectation is they're probably just waiting

for point one now, right? Yeah, probably. Yeah, but it's still very peculiar. Something must have gone horribly wrong in the release for the M4 iPad Pros. I just checked on Reddit. There's a thread in the iPad OS subreddit. As of last night, it was not out. iPad OS 18 for the M4. So it was pulled, never came back. It'll come back eventually. I hope. I mean, and then of course, I joked on threads that it's not like you would have noticed anyway that you were running iPad OS 18.

But there it is. Yeah. Man, you just you just sent us something, Steven, that there is potentially a version of I 18.0.1 coming out. Yeah. I mean, the macroom is articles basically like it will be coming soon and it will hopefully fix both of these issues we talked about. Oh, okay. We'll see. But it's been it's been what's been two weeks since I was 18 came out. I'm a little surprise. We haven't seen anything else. It's still 18.0 running around. Why is nobody talking

about this? Why is no one shipping software? You know, yeah. I have a way of bug. No, I'm on point. I'm on a I'm on their point one beta, right? So like that's worth knowing. But this is just one of the strangest bugs that I've come across. So I have always had the camera app on my home screen and I've been a defender of this because it gave me a quick access to the camera and one tap access to my photo library, only one app. Sure. But now I have camera control. I'm I've gotten rid of it.

I've replaced it with photos. So I put the photos at I've got rid of the camera from my home screen to put the photos at and I did this on like I have multiple focus modes and they have a few of them have their own home screens, right? So I changed it out in all those places like in my sleep home screen, my travel home screen, my regular home screen and my weekend home screen. That leaves. Now whenever my focus mode changes, it removes the photos app from my home screen completely

and I have to add it. And this happens every time. So every time my home screen changes, wait, what? Wait, what? Every time my home screen changes, the photos app just is gone. It's just removed. It's a little little shy. I'm having this because I switched between light mode and dark mode day and night because Federico talked me into that and it's really good actually.

And when I switch into dark mode at night, a bunch of my icons disappear because I have the icon changed to so like I'll put I think I sent you all a screenshot and I message I'll put it in discord. But it's my second home screen. And it's like a bunch of holes are punched in that were apps are missing. But the labels are there. Do you have the label for photos still? Do you know? No, no, it's gone and the and the apps have refloat, which is also filling. It doesn't leave the

gap. Okay, that's not what I'm saying. You're seeing it different thing. It's straight up gone. Like it's just gone. And I just tried it now. Like I just set to my weekend focus mode. It's not there. It's just not there. And I don't understand what's happening. And I have to keep adding it every day at least once to a home screen. It's incredible. So good. Some people in discord are saying that they see it too, which is okay. Wild. Emma asked why is it so broken? Yeah, that's a good

question. It's a really good question. Also, we're in a point. It is a beta. I am genuine. I'm on the beta. Right. So I can I'm giving them some slack, but it is. It's just funny. One thing I'm happy about though on 18, the app library didn't have the kind of like frosted look behind it, but on 18.1 is back, which I'm very happy about because I found that quite disorientating in a reason in a way that I'm not sure why. Oh, really? I'm happy about that. Yeah. Oh, yes, from that.

I've got an 18.0 phone here in my desk. Yeah, that's awful. But it's not. I don't know why it looks so bad that it just doesn't look right. But on point one, it's back to the way it used to look, which is having the kind of frosty gloss look. That's good. Now, what we were talking about earlier on that Federico was getting told that he was a toddler about is you posted a video of like just how hard it still is to move icons on the home screen. Yeah, which is really weird. Like I will admit,

it like to move them and keep spaces. I've not done this. I've not really played around with this because it's just not something that I need to do. I like how my home screen is, but you've wanted to kind of move them around. Did you post a video where it's kind of showing that like they're just seemingly unnecessarily moving. Like if you want to move an icon, it tries to put something in its place, which doesn't need to happen anymore because you're allowed to have gaps

exactly. Exactly. Especially when the selling point of IOS 18 is and I checked apple.com again, they literally say place your icons wherever you want. But it seems that under the hood, the system is still kind of following the old grid layout. And so they're still doing the reflow in the place in another icon in the spot that you just emptied. So they're still

agreed underneath and it just gets in the way. And the consensus seems to be that if you really do want to place your icons anywhere, the only method to do it so that you don't go crazy. Like I did last night is you got to create an empty page and start from scratch and place your icons one by one in the layout that you want. And that's what I've done. Eventually, I just gave up and I'm like, okay, fine, I'll just create a new page and I'll drag icons one by one exactly

where I want them. Because if I try and edit this existing page, it's not going to do it. Like it's not going to do it. And it's not just a home screen. Control center. Oh, yeah. Just as equally bad in terms of like you're trying to drag something and you're like, okay, I want to take this control and I want to drag it down in the left corner. And then you do that. And then I'll control post up and be like, Hey, I guess I'll go up now. And it just

and it takes the spot of the previous control. It's like, no, just stay there. I just want to drag this one and it doesn't do it. So I also want to say that for a minute this summer, it got better. There was a moment this summer where dragging things around the home screen was kind of perfect. And then it wasn't anymore. And it really seems like it was a person at Apple that came up with this new logic. And it was great. But somehow that person got fired and we went back to the previous

dragging drop logic. But I think this is an example of my favorite phrase of come up with which is institutional one person is where there was a somebody at Apple who's like, yeah, but like what about the people that are going to be confused that the apps aren't like moving on their own? Like there is this like fake person that is created that everybody's worried won't understand how to move their apps anymore. And so then they kind of go to this weird halfway. Yeah, it's a way to

move the way you want. But not if they're already in place. And it's like, okay, so I can do it. But like that there is this fear that if they change it completely from the way that it used to work that people aren't going to understand what to do. And I find that kind of stuff to be really peculiar. And like I would be more willing to accept this if I had any indication that Apple did use it as staying like because it may be genuinely that they put this thing in front of a thousand people

and they couldn't understand how to make their homescreens work anymore. And so they kind of made this weird hard step. But I'm not convinced that Apple does that kind of stuff. But are we really sure that the automatic reflow is even good? Like isn't it easier to explain to somebody, take this icon and place it whatever you want. And nothing else happens. I think so. Because you end up in a scenario where moving one icon, you have to move two icons. Exactly. Like it's exactly

backwards. It doesn't make any sense. Like the easier solution would be just, yeah, take this icon, place it whatever you want. That's it. You don't because with this method, you're introducing something else you need to worry about, which is moving this icon, but other icons will also move. While we're on this, I have a lot of funny thing that I find. I feel bad. Sometimes I feel bad for software developers. And this is one of them. So in Control Center, there is a type of action.

I think that is just called home, where you can create essentially a, by default, this, this like home control will just select a recommended set of home, like things in your home. This is the same as the widget on the home screen. But you can uncheck a toggle, so to use recommended, and choose your own accessories. Yeah. That's what a problem is. If you do this, the layout order that you choose is divorced from reality. All right. Now, what do you mean? So I wanted to have

the top two home controls in this list, right? If the things that I've chosen, rather than the recommended, to be here at the studio, I have a lamp, I have two lamps. I have a lamp in the lounge and a lamp on my desk, right? So naturally, you would assume if you want your first two options at the top of a list that you would choose option one and option two, right? So you go like one, two, and then when in a list, and then when you go to the actions, you would see the first

one is on the left on the top row, and the first one is on the right on the top row, right? That makes sense. That's not how it works at all, right? So I'm going to give you an example. All right. What I want is for my top two rows to be lounge lamp, recording lamp, and then left radiator, right radiator, right? One, two, three, four, top two rows. The way I've had to arrange this is

lamp one, radiator one, lamp two, radiator two. That sounds a little bit how you rearrange things in car play, which is a grid, and you move them up and down a list on your iPhone, and just hope they don't write play. But they don't, they don't, it doesn't make sense. What is it? What is the grid that it thinks is happening here? I don't know. Because that doesn't make any sense, because my grid is two by five. To truly understand what I'm saying here, you have to try to solve for yourself. Like

you go to the home action, you tap it, turn off recommended, and choose your actions. It's bewildering the way that you have to construct the list. It doesn't make any sense. For me, the only way I've been able to get things where I want is I have to just keep moving things by one and seeing if it's ended up in the place that I like. It's incredible. It's a really truly mad bug that I love. But yeah, that's that's. Look, I understand what's going on here. I know what's going on here.

It's been all hands on deck for iPhone intelligence. That's what's happening this year. Maybe AI can fix your widget. I mean, maybe it could. But I try to be even kill with this where it's like, I can have a little bit of sympathy, but also this company has infinite resources. But in this one, in this scenario this time, I do kind of feel a little bit more sympathy than I do on other years when they have weird bugs stuff. For it's like, I've just trying to best out here by

everybody's being pulled in every possible direction. However, they have the ability to fix this. And maybe 1801 is taking a little more time to knock a bunch of the stuff out. Yeah, I mean, well, but these bugs that I'm talking about, they're still here in point one. So, but so 18 oh and 18 one are very similar. Like during the beta process, bugs got fixed in both branches. And so, so I would expect maybe things to be some of this stuff to be fixed in it.

What if I'm going to use 18 to maybe more likely there, maybe it's very confusing. Maybe you would just stuff will be really broken for a long time. Yeah, yeah. Welcome to Federico in a summer running these things like it got weird. The last thing I want to mention, watch us 11, some people including Dan, Maureen, our friend, a clockwise. Apple watches

to stop telling time. They don't they don't update the time until you tap on the screen, which is sure about the worst thing I can think of for an Apple Watch to do. This episode of Connected is made possible by KRCS, one of the oldest Apple premium resellers. And your one stop shop for all things Apple and the UK. The Mac is easy to love and even easier to own. And if you're one of our UK listeners, you can spread the cost of any Mac out over 6,

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So did you guys want to talk about glasses? Always. Here we go. Obviously I'm referring to the meta Orion prototype which as I don't know I feel like it's been interesting to watch the reaction to meta announcing the Orion prototype. I would as I always do I would urge connected listeners to also listen to the segment and upgrade that you and Jason did about the perception of the of the meta Orion prototype and what it means for the vision pro what it doesn't mean for the

vision pro what it means for Apple in general. I feel like it's okay I guess I'm gonna share the hot take. I think I think meta did the right thing in showing off the prototype and I know it's a prototype right I know what that word means and I know that it's not gonna be a release product but I think people who really like Apple on the internet are getting too fixated on

this idea that it's a prototype that it's not something that it's gonna ship because they're not considering the consequence of sharing a prototype which is the public perception and that is something that is intangible that you cannot buy that you cannot explain right now to the eyes of

the people people yeah mother who asked me about this because she saw them on TV to the eyes of the people meta is further ahead than Apple right this is one of those cases where I know it's kind of silly and it's untrue right because for all we know Apple maybe further ahead than meta in

their labs we don't know it's not untrue this is like Pandora's box kind of situation right but as a PR move because this is a PR move as a PR move it's actually it's an excellent move right and to combine that it's not just an announcement to combine that with hands-on right with videos

and interviews from other creators it's just a masterstroke in my opinion and it's sort of the perfect follow-up to all the things that Zuckerberg has been saying over the past year about the vision pro and meta is a different approach with the quest right I just feel like and I'm assuming

the product itself it's we all I think we're all in agreement even the people who absolutely love the vision pro are all in agreement that this is the future right this is the kind of product that were sort of speedrunning toward is the glasses that can project and in the face in front of your

eyes this is the thing this is the goal and it's I I will share the sentiment that Jason shared that I thought this was going to be like 10 years from now now I think it's probably four to five years from now it's it's a much more accelerated timeline than I thought but I feel like

the people who are poking fun at meta and the people who are poking fun at other people who are excited about this are missing the big picture which is it's a PR move it's a screaming clever and it serves is the kind of PR move that sort of races all meta boats in the sense that

it creates the perception that meta is further ahead and it contributes to the bottom line of meta saying but in the meantime look at our VR headsets where we're also doing AR and they're much cheaper than Apple so with this combo meta painted a picture of the glasses and the glasses

and the red and the red and the yes yeah meta is painted in a picture of Apple as the company that is behind and what they do have today is too expensive that's my take no I think it's good completely correct yeah it's good I agree I think it's is fascinating how different these companies

are and like Facebook just skipped the end like this is where this is going and they basically defined the next decade of this category in one move and Apple waits until they have something that is you know they will let the the industry move forward without them and then they jump in

right it's kind of their move with the iPod the phone the watch maybe vision pro maybe not vision pro but meta just is like hey no this is where we're going you know obviously this is not the product but this is what we think the product will be like and it does make everything else

and so in look old you know the best pastor I think Benton said this on dithering but the best pass through is like actually just seeing the world right where you don't need the camera and the screens and everything between you and the outside world and clearly that's where they they want to

get this to and yeah I don't I don't like that take from Ben really because that is the assumption that apples pass through is how they imagine this will always be like I don't think that will create glasses they're not going to put screens on the glasses right like like that

cover your eyes they apples pass through is great for the fact that there will probably always be some element of a VR headset yeah like like like yes of course but I don't think that it means that apple was wrong with all of the efforts that they put into making great yeah no it's what

they could do for now but I think yeah but the a something like a vision pro will always have screens in front because you can't if if there is still going to be a future and it will have an immersive environment these glasses will never do that because not what they're for and maybe

Ben is arguing that that was a wrong move I don't know but it is like if the if the end goal is not immersion if the end goal is I want digital things and related with the actual world then Orion is closer to that than yeah the vision purpose yes but I think there are two end goals maybe there is

AR and VR like I think that those are two separate products like you can't watch a 3D movie in something like the Orion no but apple talks about AR they they don't apple doesn't like the VR terminology and so they're right but they use immersive yeah right but like you can't have an

immersive environment in a in in something that you can see through like that's true you can't have immersion in that there are two things right competition is good it turns out right like this fantastic these are different ideas and they're going about it in different ways and maybe

the answer maybe is right there will be a are distinct AR and VR products and you can choose maybe there's something in the middle or maybe one dies on the vine and the other takes over like we just don't know yeah like meta makes both types of product right they have the quest and they

have the Raybans and also Orion in that category too like they are two sets of products that they make but yes what they have done here is genius they get genius and it also solves a big problem that Zuckerberg has which is what have you been doing of all that money yeah yeah right yeah and

now everyone's like yay spend more money right because it's yeah because no investor in meta this is what you want them to be doing yeah and you can use it as a bargain and chip and say well do you want me to keep working on this I mean more money I mean yeah and I don't know I just feel

in the meantime I kind of want to wrap it up by saying that in the meantime meta is just there with the Raybans having an absolutely killer product and they're making more versions they are my and I'm gonna write about this before the end of the year promise they are

my accessory of the year like it's they're continuing to issue software updates they're doing they're doing more meta AI integrations which I don't particularly care about but other people will they're teaming up with Spotify and other music services for better controls like

they're doing what I still think that Apple should do which is be humble and release a product that is not really AR but it's a wearable product that has cameras and that sort of acts as a cheap maybe not revolutionary but very practical and very good looking sort of half step to get to

that point to get people used to the idea oh you're wearing glasses with batteries and speakers inside right I think it's really clever and I really do wish that Apple changed their mind about this product this type of product yes it's not gonna have UI in front of your eyes

bust still like imagine this product with the quality of AirPods and the cameras that Apple can make and the seed integration and Apple intelligence of course um yeah I think I got I got to be honest I thought for a second this week like yeah should kind of sell my vision pro and get a meta

quest instead I haven't done it I'm not I'm not gonna do it I'm gonna do it I'm not gonna do it I don't think this worth getting a question I don't really like do you want to play a bunch of games like if that's the reason to do it do it but like they're like productivity sweet is nowhere

nearest good as Apple's like if that's the thing that you care about or want or whatever I don't know I want to get a vibe check from you both on the translucent meta ray bands uh-huh amazing what do you think about them incredible yeah perfect yeah so good here's the question I have I

also love the way they look but isn't it's like this weird thing we're like isn't the good thing about them is they don't look like computer glasses yeah you gotta pull them you you gotta know how to pull it off because like I don't yeah I see what you mean um they are more in your face

yes then yeah yeah it's like they look really cool but what I like about my ray bands is I they don't look like I'm wearing computer glasses yeah you gotta pull off the sort of vibe that maybe we don't have like you gotta you gotta you gotta you gotta have the sort of like yeah cyberpunk

or like like oh I'm like oh or there are other people sort of know you as a tech mogul maybe like oh he's a tech mogul you know do you don't think people know you as a tech mogul no no no I don't see you gonna get these glasses at any point like we both have them right as Federico

Wesleym all day which I think is incredible all day all day I wear them as my sunglasses just because like that's not the style of like eyeglasses I want but do you have any interest in in a pair of these sunglasses all glasses I mean kind of but I don't I don't see myself jumping in to be honest I

think I know myself well enough that I would have them and play with them for a couple weeks and they would sit on the shelf but they're just your sunglasses yeah but you got you know because like you don't have to do anything with them but then when you want to take a picture you can

it's true I don't know maybe maybe if the if the the translucent ones only come in the smaller size and I have a basketball head if they were in the larger size I may have put the trigger on this I think I have a couple of sizes I think Neelapite was was wrong always like to him madness about

that but also the the translucent ones are like twisperous so no they're like they're way more expensive yeah they're regular ones yeah and they have a bunch of colors and stuff like and they have they they have like I think there's a semi translucent one anyway like they they they didn't

they made like a new another pair that does the same they're cool man like seriously like they're good there's a good product yeah maybe yeah maybe maybe maybe I don't think my wife would like them I think she'd be freaked out by the camera thing but she's don't tell her yeah no I don't

think Mary I don't think Mary would take that what was the thing that she didn't oh she didn't like the vision pro right she's not like the vision pro at all yeah yeah she doesn't like this you can't see my eyes she doesn't like the creepy eyes on the outside or I don't know I don't know about I

don't know about Adina but so Mary Sylvia Jennifer for John none of them like the vision pro so okay okay stuff just about the her I mean also I never wear around her anymore right it's oh wow that okay well but when I was wearing it at first like she was with me when I got it like

these kinds of things she doesn't see it she doesn't at least communicate to me a particular disc well she didn't about this when this thing she doesn't like about technology I hear about it this one she didn't really have that kind of that kind of visceral reaction you just you just

got to ask her a point blank like do you think I look dumb when I wear to be oh I mean she'll tell me that yes if I yeah but like I get the sense that Mary Sylvia and Jennifer offered that information without prompting oh absolutely yeah yeah that didn't happen to me okay all right I

may I may look at these I may give these are shot but they're just try it they're just cameras right and calls and like audio stuff cameras cameras they are great they are great for calls and they're great for like listening to a podcast instead of yeah as a person who wears one air pod here we

do you think you're you're really gonna like them for a look for your walks yes yes that's what I use the perfect yeah what I wish they did and I think they will do it is I wish they were one conduction and not speakers say like I hope that they do that at some point but like for you walking

around your neighborhood this is absolutely perfect yeah maybe so I'd get the transitions in that case then yeah yeah get the transitions that's why I have the transitions are fantastic cases soup super good it is a very good product it is like a debut of the year kind of product right

in that way of like they did this thing and they just every part of it is executed perfectly yep okay I got the page open y'all may may have talked me into a purchase do it your glasses that you wear your sunglasses looked like they have this wave they are a wafer of style yeah yeah they are

sunglasses so you're you will enjoy this I'll we put back yeah go buy them and then report back to us later because I'm taking a month off bye bye Stephen thank you yeah taking a month off uh y'all have both been very kind all my other co-workers have been very kind letting me do this

nothing bad is going on I just yeah please mention that again because I think the default expectation is that something's going on nothing nothing nothing is going on I put this in the blog post uh no one is sick there's no secret plot to like take over relay while I'm gone

how would you do that while you're gone that's what I want to know no like take it against me like you've pushed me to sabbatical and then like I come back and John owns my half of the company you don't know you're going I didn't tell you to take it but maybe a plot has formed you know

but also from from his perspective though a month off would mean that he will have a lot of time to hang out I don't know at the bank or with lawyers that's also true that's so taken over uh there are two plots there are no plots now but maybe there will be two plots maybe

but coming up but no the two of you and David Sparks and underscore and everybody have all been very supportive of this um it's just it's time for a break so I'm going to be gone starting Friday I'll be back in early November uh this is not the blog post but I'll say it here next week I have to call

in to report for jury duty selection uh if I ended being put on a jury doing my sabbatical my sabbatical will last longer because that is not a vacation but uh that's uh that's uh that's uh I'm not gonna be afraid it's a vacation but it's not one anymore months today it's not the one I

planned uh uh I love jury duty as a concept I would take it so seriously if you were a thing here like I would I would absolutely like this is why you would never be selected yeah yeah you wouldn't pass the you're like you're like the meme with the maps on the wall and the red string

like he did it yes yeah love it like he's gonna enjoy this too much yeah can we while you're gone as a celebration of you being gone can we change the the music of connected to hit song by american singer cali clairexon since you've been gone I don't think we can afford the rights to that

when he comes back right that's how we present the episode in steven returns hey steven since you've been gone and then we sing we sing the show notes at him that's good uh yeah I'm important information for this show I think there is very likely there will be an apple event yes and when

steven told me he was doing this I said to him you're not allowed to come back I don't know how you were feeling but I just wanted to make it clear that like you've got to take the time if you're taking the time yeah which means if there's an apple event you're not allowed to come back for the

apple of it yes and so I have named one true john to play for me if there's an event john I had a conversation john agreed uh in discord today someone didn't think that followed the triple j rules but sabbatical is not the same as death and so I picked my successor in the game uh if anything

we can create a new rule for sabbaticals which is this that you pick that you pick yeah we may we have a death row and we have a sabbatical rules sabbatical rule as you can pick yeah if I don't come back from sabbatical then the triple j rules take over so yeah thank you all and I'll be back in

early November have a good time thank you hope you find something to do I'm sure I will and some days I won't have anything to do which is also good yeah I meant something fun to do oh yeah I mean I'm gonna press your watch my driveway at some point that sounds fun it is fun it's very

rewarding I am I'm a little nervous for your wife if I'm honest what do you mean I think there's going to be a lot of like kind of following her around yeah too much too much of you just doing nothing well she's she's hey sorry what you're doing yeah yeah well it's kind of she is back at work

she's teaching so she's not here today but in the afternoon she'll be really bored in the daytime and when she comes home you just maybe hey so how's it going that's good today she's at the cat's gonna be terrorized yeah she's like please go back to work I'll just say like it you know I think

people might be like why is he doing this and I was speaking for I'm gonna speak for Steven and we're very likes it or not right we've been running this company for 10 years and Steven has not really ever taken many holiday breaks or you know very few this is just like a great time to be

like all right we do we got 10 years in yeah let me take some of that accumulated holiday that's right that's what HR said I could do yeah aren't you technically a child maybe the room to conversation in a mirror yeah hey Steven what do you think that's great yeah don't worry about it

so yeah it yeah it's it was a good time to do it 10 years old you know the St. Jude campaign when we planned this we didn't we did not know you know there'd be a million dollars but that's a nice cherry on top of all of this and yeah gonna have some downtime gonna do some stuff around

the house gonna get some books read if you are a member connected pro or any other show on the network I'm gonna be on spotlight recording it on Friday and talking about the the St. Jude campaign and about this so if we're in the discord ask spotlight questions and maybe we'll get to

them so Federica and I taken over the show we're gonna bring in some guests yeah we already had next week's guests lined up yes how do you know I'm in notion his name is just in the dungeon get out there you're not allowed to look in there after the day there's a day in those pages

no no it's those pages are not for you it's just on the the table I don't care you can't look you have to put a piece of paper over the screen ever your opinions you know that's a they're not for you don't scroll oh no don't scroll then not for you they're for us they're our pages our pages

okay well I think that does it for this week if you want to follow us elsewhere on the internet you can do that Federico is the editor-in-chief of macstories.net definitely go check out his article about the 16 plus it's great and the photos at gotta say this better get your photo game

when your stories has really made a job recently thank you they'll take them on iPhones yeah as always yeah you got good natural light I think do yeah yeah that really helps yeah yeah it's good that man that blue color is it's so good doesn't look real it's like too saturated somehow maybe yeah it's

good yeah I think that's what I like about it it looks fake I love it it is good you can find Federico on Macedon and Therads where he's just threatened up a storm of a teacher VITI CCI Mike can be found on a bunch of shows across the network and you know for a course find his

excellent work at cortex brand maybe and Stephen can't be found anywhere don't even look for it I can't be found anywhere leave Stephen alone for a moment all right if you want Stephen he's in his living room and if you can't get there then you're not allowed him leave us Stephen alone oh well until next month guys say goodbye well we're here next week so Federico I see you next week all right Stephen we'll see you in a month bye bye