534: The Rickies (January 2025)

From Relay, this is Connected, episode 534. It is the annual Rickies. Happy New Year. This episode is brought to you by Ecamm and ZocDoc. I am the Ricky Benchman, Mike Hurley, and it's my pleasure to introduce Federico Vatici. Hello and Happy New Year, Mike. How are you? Oh, I'm good. How are you? I'm doing fantastic and I'm very happy to also be joined by Mr. Stephen Hackett. Hello, Stephen. Hello, Federico. How are you, Stephen?

sick. Me and Steven have been doing too much kissing and that's why we sound like this. That's the problem. So that's why we both sound like this. We have a busy episode today. Lots of picks and predictions to get to. But I believe before we get to that, we have some news to share. People can now find Connected on YouTube. Well, soon. In immersive video. In immersive video? Yeah, that's what we're doing.

I've mounted cameras to your offices. Oh, cool. And they're pointed at your faces. No, it's just audio. It's just audio. Stephen, why are we doing this? Because we had a lot of feedback over the holidays. I think something changed. Anyways, people want to... Listen on YouTube. So we're doing the thing where it pipes in the RSS feed. It's not a video version of the show. We're still just doing audio. As of this recording.

It has 428 episodes left to ingest. So the link's in the show notes, but nothing's there yet. Hopefully next week. But we are doing what the people want. Yep. People just listen to podcasts on YouTube now. That's just it. People wanted it. We've given it to the people. Given it to the people. But the initial process is slow, where it crawls the whole RSS feed.

After that, it's on YouTube within an hour or two of the episode coming out, which is pretty good. Well, that being said, we're going to do two things on the show today. are obviously we are playing the annual rickies uh and we'll get to that in a minute um But we also need to judge the 2024 Rickey's. The predictions that we made for Apple and what's going to happen in the year 2024, the predictions that we made at the beginning of last year, now...

12 months have passed, and we need to grade those predictions. Now, we have a bit of a thing to resolve here, in the sense that... We are going to play the 2025 Ricky Slater with a new set of rules. With the amended set of rules that we started using. In 2024. In late 2024. Yeah. Now, these 2024 annual rickies were obviously made with the old set of rules.

We decided that we are not going to read the rules twice. We're not going to read the older version of the rules now and the new version of the rules later. We're just going to read the new rules for 2025. I think most connected listeners will remember how the old rules used to work. And so we're just going to get through these. And later, we're going to play the new game with the updated rules that we will read on the show.

Yeah, and look, the rules, there are changelogs of the rules that exist. So if we need to refer to the rules during the scoring of this game today, we can do that. But I think we will probably be okay. Yeah, I think so. So, let's just begin with round one. And I believe that Mike goes first. Yes, because I'm writing. defending annual rickies champion is what that means that means i think i won in 23 and 24.

If I went first, that's what that says. So hello, it's me, the Ricky Benjamin. And my first pick for 2024 was that the first OLED iPad was introduced. Ding. How do we do that again? We don't do it anymore. I don't think we do it anymore. We don't hum anymore. I'm going to ding myself anyway. Ding.

Not only was it OLED, it was tandem OLED. I had that thought today. It's like, oh, there's two OLEDs in there, you know? Double OLED all the way. Mm-hmm. And that's a great screen. Oh, my God, it's a good screen. Oh, boy. Stephen, do you have one of these iPad Pros? um i have an ipad mini yeah no i knew that it's pretty good i wondered if you had an ipad pro there's one of these in the house

No, Mary has one now. Yeah, there you go. See, that was one of those typical Stephen answers, right? Yeah, because he thought about it. He was like, I have an iPad. Which wasn't yes or no, was it? It was like a different answer to the question. Yeah, Mary's using one, and you're right. The screen is incredible. It's very good. Very good screen. Okay, my round one pick.

Apple Watch 10 brings an updated design inspired by the Apple Watch Ultra in some way. Ungraded action button, flat glass, or crown guard. It's bigger, but it's basically the same design, so I don't think I get this. They didn't do any of that. When you read that, I was like, oh, that seems like a thing they would have done, but no, they didn't do any of it. It's just bigger. And thinner. And thinner. which is not at all anything like yeah it's not ultra ye in really any way so it's a bummer

Now, for an example on how to get a pick right, here's what I said. The keyboard for iPad Pro is substantially redesigned for the first time since its introduction in 2020. ungraded, function row, backlighting, aluminum, multiple USB ports, and more viewing angles. Yeah. Remind me. I don't use one of these, so I'm not too fresh on it now because I haven't thought about it in a long time. How many of those ungraded things were correct? Function row, aluminum.

More viewing angles? It's backlit, right? Well, didn't the old one also? Yeah, the old one apparently had it too and I never remembered and got it wrong on many podcasts. I think the viewing angles are a little more forgiving than before, I want to say. But it still has the cantilevering, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But especially on the 11-inch, which is what I'm using, it's way more forgiving than it used to be. Okay. Yeah. All right.

So the end of round one, you each have a point and I have zero. No points. No points. No points. Round two. My first pick was there is a new, larger, non-pro iPad. Ding. Which is the thing I forget all the time. I constantly forget that there is a big iPad Air. Like it happened. I'm pleased that it happened. And then that information left my brain forever. Serious question.

Do we know anybody who bought the 13-inch iPad Air? No. No, I don't. Not that I know of. Steven, did you? No, let me think. No, no, no. It's good that it exists, but I don't know who it's for. I guess people just want a big screen but don't want to pay $1,000 million, which makes sense, right? It's the same thing for the big MacBook Air, right? It's kind of the same type of user. In my brain, the fact that I keep forgetting about the existence of this iPad Air...

I keep trying to say Pro, it's not the iPad Pro. But it sort of triggers the same neurons in my brain of something else that I always also forget, which is Mozilla owns Pocket. And in my brain, it's like these two pieces of information that I keep forgetting. And every time I'm like, oh, yeah, they do. And it's like this iPad Air, I was like, oh, yeah, they did a 13-inch iPad Air, but nobody cares. took a look at those and I see why it exists now because I just went to the page and the

13-inch iPad Air starts at $799 and the 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1299. That is like $500 difference. Look, it's also, it's a good iPad. It's a good iPad, but I mean, that is a great reason for it to exist. I remember now that the reason... we're saying it first of like if you have two ipad airs in both sizes it means you can go

bananas bonkers with the ipad pro right like which is what you want from that a lot of people want from that and then we end up with two OLED screens inside you know like you you need to charge a lot of money well apple are going to charge a lot of money to give of these features if you care about these features great if you don't there is a fantastic ipad called the ipad air just sitting there waiting for you yeah

I said that there will be no second generation Vision Pro announced. Ding. Yeah. Yeah. So the first one. I would love to cast my mind back to that point. And did we really think that that was a thing? Because bear in mind, it wasn't available yet. Yeah, it shipped in February, right? Yeah, I think I saw someone post today. that it was a year ago, I think today or yesterday, that the availability was announced. Yeah, I think it was either today or yes.

I saw somebody posting about it. They just dropped that press release and like, oh yeah, we'll be out in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Man, remember how excited we were. It was a great time. It was fantastic. It was a good feeling. I said in round two, iOS 18 will bring new AI features based on large language models with some generative capabilities. Ding! Yes, they sure did. Writing tools, image playground, whatever. Gemmoji. All the things.

Some would say too many things. Arguably. Especially if you work for the BBC. You don't want those features. They don't like them. They do not like them. They do not. At the end of round two, Mike and I, we have two points. Steven has one point. The game is not decided yet. Everything can still happen. with the old rules, with the old point system. This episode of Connected is brought to you by Ecamm.

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To get one month free today, go to ecamm.com slash connected and use the code connected at checkout. That's Ecamm, E-C-A-M-M, Ecamm. slash connected for a whole month free of Ecamm Live. Our thanks to Ecamm for the support of the show. Okay, risky pick time. I'm so sad about mine. A game... made by a studio owned by meta is released on vision pro man i really thought i had this one yeah yeah it it did it didn't happen i have in the last

Two weeks, I have been Googling like a madman, trying to find some way in which this was possible. For as much as I can see, it did not happen. I think there is a company owned by Google that released a Vision Pro game, but no matter. Yeah. I'm sorry, buddy.

I think the thing that I couldn't have anticipated, well, the thing I didn't anticipate, maybe I could have, but I didn't, is that... meta wouldn't did not want to get involved in this like they wanted to use this as an opportunity to say that their thing was better like i think that was the thing that i didn't anticipate and that was what they did okay mine is a bit Complicated, I think. Mine is Apple CEO succession plan leaks. And we did have reporting on this. A pretty big piece in Bloomberg.

back in May about John Ternus, the head of hardware engineering, is emerging as a potential successor to Apple CEO Tim Cook. And honestly, I leave this to y'all. I could see it going both ways, so I put myself at your mercy. I similarly... Okay, Troy. Sorry, sorry. I similarly have been doing research. I've been reading the transcripts, thanks to Apple Podcast, of two separate episodes of this show.

to try and work out if we gave literally any parameters to this and we did not at any any point in conversation of this it was just like succession plan will leak and it was like okay moving on like i really would have loved something because The Mark Gurman reporting is not a quote unquote succession plan, right? No. Like we haven't gotten like a document or anything that says like, if this, then that.

What this is, is, like, he spoke to people who said that, like, John Tarnas is emerging, but Jeff Williams would most likely step into the shoes if something happened to Tim. So, like, I don't know. Like, this is discussion of succession. Federico, what do you think? I can't believe that we accepted the risky pick that was so generic. Well, see, this is the thing of like... So what is risky, which I agree with, is if an entire succession plan leaked, right? But like...

The problem is that it's the way that this pic is phrased. Like, what were we expecting? For somebody to publish a PDF with a text on the front page, Apple succession plan? Well, sometimes the only person that can make that. uh claim is the picky so picky what were you expecting yeah i expected something in detail with names i don't i don't think i had in mind like a powerpoint presentation getting leaked yeah um

Do you think you got something in detail with names? Yes. Now, it is worth noting that Mark Gurman had reported something very similar to this prior to that. There is another article that he wrote a while ago. talking about similar things yeah well then you should have stopped my risky pick no no because no because that wasn't a leaking of a succession plan it was like a similar thing of like

Here are all of the people at Apple, which could potentially be CEO one day. Right. And he just kind of listed that. I mean, rereading this other piece, it definitely feels more solid than the first. Uh-huh. I mean, I think I've got it, but I think it's by the skin of my teeth. But again, it's not mine to choose. I don't know. I feel like... I don't know, guys. I'm going to say it. I feel like we need an external adjudicator. Uh-oh. Do the rules...

I need to go check the old rules. Yeah, I'm looking at the old rules. Because aren't the old rules specifically that we don't have adjudicators? Oh my God, really? Well, because that was the whole point about agreeing to the pick in advance, right? There's nothing in here about adjudication either way in the 2024 document. My main problem is that I... Like, I cannot decide if that article is a succession plan that has leaked. Yeah. Well, do you want me to just call Jason?

You can call him. Here's the thing that I will say, right? In my opinion, this is not a leaked succession plan. But... But it's very close. But the thing is, this isn't a... like a plan document, like there isn't like a document that we can see. But who's to say this isn't the succession plan? That's the problem, right? This is like Pandora's succession plan. Jason's calling. Okay. Jason's calling. Okay.

Hello, Jason. Hey, Susan. I don't get it. I think it's too close to the original Mark Gurman report. Wow. Is Jason walking? Is he coming from a phone? Yeah, so you're listening live. I guess. Are you driving? I'm walking the dog, actually. Oh, my God. I know Jason's walking voice, I guess. Yeah, we know your walking voice. Okay, so Jason says I don't get it, so I don't get it.

All right. All right. Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Jason. Oh, you're welcome. All right. Love you. Steven, I think you kind of screwed yourself in asking for adjudication. Maybe. All right. So I'm marking it red in the document, going from yellow to red. That's a minus one point for me. Okay. Now, my risky pick is heartbreaking. Because with the new rules, you'll see. I said... A new iPad Pro Wolf feature. Ellipsis. A front-facing camera on the landscape side. Higher than 27W fast charging.

and eventually support more than four windows in the same stage manager workspace. So, as you can see in our document, Mike and Steven, some of the pick is colored green. And the final part of the pick is red. So there was a new iPad Pro. It did have front-facing camera and landscape. How fast does it charge? 45? I think it's 45, yeah. More than 27. Yeah. But I actually think, unbelievably, you cannot have more than four windows in the same Sage Manager workspace. Yeah. Yeah. Rough.

So you don't get it? Well, with the old rules, I don't. Yeah, the old rules, he doesn't get it. Because everything has to be correct. Everything has to be correct. This is one of the reasons we have the new rules. Okay. I'm sorry, Federico. That... Leaves us with a tie. Unbelievably. With a tie. Can you imagine? Unbelievably, yes. Unbelievably. Well, no. Do we have a tie? No, we don't. Stephen...

No, I lost. Yeah, me and you were tied. Yeah, the two of you were tied. Of course, and I'm going to lose again. At least there's not a three-way tie. The three-way ties are the worst ties. It's true. So we got to do a coin flip. Yeah. I mean, Mike is going to win because I am cursed. I have a curse. I have a curse. No, it's not. It's more like 70. You want to pick heads or tails? No. I am.

I am unable to pick. I don't know. This could be fun. Steven, you assign it. Federico is heads. Okay. Okay. I like it. Heads. Oh my God. You win. Steven. Congratulations. You are my default. Collusion. Coin flipper. Collusion. color in the future yes that was a collusion i didn't get anything just is i couldn't be benjamin forever i guess oh my god i this i am the annual chairman you are oh my god okay consolidation starts now

I mean, it just ended, Federico. Consolidation just ended. Like it's, you know, we've had it for quite a while. You know, this is a better flavor of it. You know, everybody likes Italian. You know that. What are you trying to say? That's not fair. What did I do? We have some flexes. We do. Oh, gosh, yes, we do, don't we? We do. Evaluate. Yeah. So. All right. I'm first. Yes, you are first in the 2024 Flexis, Steven. The M1 MacBook Air is still on sale at the end of the year. Yes.

The ninth generation iPad is taken off the market by the end of the year. Just to check, the M1 MacBook Air, you can only get that on Walmart, right? Yeah. For like 800 bucks or something. On sale. Yeah. No, I'm not saying he's wrong. I'm not saying he's wrong. I was just asking. Okay, yeah. Number three, an updated iPad Air comes in at least one new color.

So at the time of the pick, the colors were space gray, starlight, pink, purple, and blue. Now, after the update, it is space gray, starlight, purple, and blue. So they dropped pink. But the blue and purple are slightly different. Nice try. But I don't think it's new colors. Nice try. I like that one new color, there's one less color. Isn't this the exact opposite of what you said? One fewer color.

Apple launches immersive video content using TV Plus IP. Somehow, they did not. Well, you say somehow. They didn't really have any of it. And then... Number five, AirPods Pro 3 launched with lossless support. Nice pick, but they didn't launch. So I am two for five. I updated my trophy. You're jumping the gun. Nah, with the closing ceremonies, schmozing ceremonies. I've updated my trophy. So we've got the Federico. You'll know it now. All right, Federico, your flexies.

I did extremely bad. So, one, as a result of allowing sideloading on iPhone in certain countries, a major controversy about security and or malware on iOS happens. I haven't seen it. No, me neither. We do have side loading, but I haven't seen the controversy. Number two, Vision Pro will not be available in Italy in 2024. Ding. Yes, it's still not available for purchase here. Wild. In 2025. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, did you guys see the report that Apple stopped producing the Vision Pro? Those reports are a little bit... Yeah, I wanted to ask you, like, is it legit? Because it seemed strange to me. The original report was from The Information, where some time ago they said Apple would stop producing it X time.

that time has now happened so i don't think there's any new reporting that suggests it has happened you know like there was just people talking about the fact that there was this old report that said they would stop so It's kind of like if we believe that original report, which maybe we do, then fine. But the reporting that has been in the last week or so is just referencing that previous report. Yeah.

Number three, I love the wishful thinking here. A Vision Pro will be used on the International Space Station. Buddy, it's not being used on Earth, let alone on the ISS. Number four. Wow. That's so mean. Number four. You will be able to create shortcuts with the new large language model infused Siri in iOS 18. I wish. Still a good idea. Still think it's going to happen. Do you remember there was that report a long time ago about the Vision Pro before it existed?

yes that like you would be able to just speak apps into existence speak apps maybe you know yeah i mean the damn thing can even set a timer Sometimes. So imagine creating apps. Number five. iPadOS 18 will feature new controls for audio input and output. No. No. So, yeah. Yeah. That's one out of five. A 20% correct ratio for my flexis. Kind of sad. I'm up. The saddest flexi.

New AirPods Max. Technically correct. Technically correct. But boy, oh boy. I have them. I use them. I like them. So I realize at this point now, they only did this so they could continue selling them in Europe. Yeah. That's why they did this, but it wasn't clear to us at that point that they needed to do that. Because everybody misunderstood that EU ruling, it seemed.

Except Apple, I guess. Because now they don't sell any new stuff with Lightning. I don't even think you can buy a keyboard at an Apple store right now. I'm not sure. But anyway. We will be able to watch Avatar The Way of Water in 3D on Vision Pro. I still haven't, but I should. It's reminded me that I wanted to do that, and I have not done that. But you can do that. You could do it holding your baby one night.

Yeah. Fall over out of the chair. I'm sure that will be a great experience as a dad, you know, to just be watching an immersive 3D video, really engaged in parenting. Number three, Apple adds another sport to TV+. They did not do that. Third-party Apple Watch faces are introduced. I mean, it's going to happen at some point.

You just keep picking it forever and maybe it will happen. Maybe. Five, Apple introduces a HomePod with a screen. Maybe a year early on that one, buddy. I think that'll prove to be ahead of its time. Yeah. And Vision OS receives updates at WWDC that shipped later in 2024. Yes, they did. So... I got the most right and I picked the most. I had six Flexies. Yeah. Which makes you the Duke of Flexington. Oh, it does, doesn't it? Wait.

Is that what I get? Is there a different one for the year? No, it's not. It's the same title. You're the annual Duke. I'm the annual Duke of Lexington. Oh, I love that. But Federico does need to make a... donation. I need to make a donation. And I choose, right? Of Mike's choice, yes.

Federico, I would like you to donate to a charity called Mermaids. It's a British charity, and I'll send you the URL. They support trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse children and their families and young people, and they've been around in the UK since the 90s. I like it. I believe I have donated to this charity before. Maybe I asked you, or maybe you just did it out of the goodness of your heart because you're that kind of guy. Yeah. It's $25 per wrong pick, so you owe $100.

Isn't that just a wonderful name for that charity? I'm just going to do 100 euros because it's easier. Thank you. First name, last name. Yeah, okay. Cool, thank you. Thank you. So I lose my benchmanship, but I gain my flexibility, I guess, when I do King Flexington. Congratulations to everyone but me.

Yes, you are the real loser in this case. Yeah, big loser. At least you didn't have to give the money. That's true. Yeah, I'm right in the middle. That would have been the most losing you could have done, you know? But it's not really losing if you're helping a good cause, you know?

Yeah, if you think about it, I'm the winner of the flexes from a certain perspective. You definitely lost money, though. There is money that you had that you no longer have, even though it went to a good place. But I made the world a better place, though. Yeah, you really did. You actually did do that. So who's the loser? How bad can I be? This episode of Connected is made possible by ZocDoc.

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annual Rickies. The Rickies is a game connected hosts play before Apple keynotes and the beginning of a new year, trying to predict future events. It is made up of three rounds. Each host makes two regular picks. followed by a risky pick. There are two types of rickies, annual rickies and keynote rickies. The winner of the annual rickies is named the annual chairman. The position is awarded every January.

Hosts should be introduced at the top of each episode according to their current titles. In the event that a host has both positions, they shall be introduced as the Ricky Benchman. After the Rickies, the hosts then play a game called the Flexies. These two games are separate, but related. Please stand for the reading of the rules. I'm going to do it this time. I'm kind of emotional about this. It's a big moment. It's a big moment for me. It's like the first time I spoke in public.

Each host gets to make two regular picks. Hosts can be granted a bonus regular pick for any previously incorrect pick that has now come true. from the last three corresponding games oh whoops a previously incorrect pick maybe may be used only once so let's keep this in mind because I think we forgot I will continue Correct regular picks are awarded one point. The language used for regular picks must be finalized and agreed upon during recording and no partial points may be awarded.

Risky Picks have a more complex scoring system. Each host must make a pick comprising three conditions. If you get all three conditions correct, you earn two points. If you get two conditions correct, you earn one point. If you get one condition correct, you earn zero points. If you get all three conditions wrong... you lose one point. Pigs must have been approved as risky.

by the two other hosts before the start of the game. Picks made for keynote rickies cannot be reused by the host who made them for the next keynote, the annual rickies have their own subset of rules. Pay attention. Once a host chooses something as an annual pick, they cannot reuse it in the calendar year. Additionally, picks may not be used in back-to-back annual rickies by the same host. All hosts are allowed to reuse.

picks previously made by others scoring is completed during recording and cannot be modified once an episode is complete uh we don't care about this because we just did the scoring um I think we can skip this entire part, right? Because we did the scoring. Do I need to read these rules for the scoring? You have to read them, sorry.

Scoring is completed during recording and cannot be modified once an episode is complete. In the event of a tie, Dice by Peacalc must be used in relay mode to pick a winner. In the case of a three-way tie, hosts all make their calls at the same time. With flipping continuing... until a winner is named. Jason Snell

as a lifetime ban on flipping any coins in relation to the rickies. Coin flips by Jason and other podcasts are allowed but are frowned upon and are subject to public shaming. The order of picks is set by previous performers. performance. The winner of the previous associated game goes first, the previous loser goes last. Winners will be recognized during the closing ceremonies. As a reminder, Federico, that's me, is the current annual chairman and Mike

is the current keynote chairman. Past results can be seen at rickies.co and rickies.net. These sites also have pages about managing your own scorekeeping at home. You may be seated. Alright, so I completely forgot about the bonus pick thing. And I don't know how it works for annuals. So I guess it's the last three years in the annual games? I think it's just the previous year.

Well, that's not what it says in the rules. The rules don't state it. It just says that has now come true from the last three corresponding games. Oh my God. We need to go back three years? Well, we don't need to because we have wonderful people who keep this data for us. So, rickies.net has a thing about this, and it appears that both Stephen and I...

have the opportunity to use a bonus pick. Wait, where are you seeing this? So if you go, there's a page on rickys.net, bonus regular pick candidates. You go all the way down to annual games. Yes. Wikipedia has identified the following pictures ahead of their time, but the hosts make the ultimate judgment. There's one of those for me and one of those for Steven. I see everything in red. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know what it means. I'm just looking at the thing. The computer has identified the following pixels ahead of their time, but the hosts make the armor judgment. So I think that's why we need to... Okay, so... Oh, I see this section. So, Stephen's one that Jason of Wikipedia has identified is Apple has Apple Silicon versions of all of its Intel Macs on sale by the end of 2021. Is that true?

I guess it was. Let's see. Well, no, not by the end of 2021. Otherwise you would have got it. It happened. Well, here's the thing with this kind of pick. He said at the end of 2021. Let's say that it happened in 2022 or 2023. He said at the end of 2021. You cannot retroactively say, well, no, it was 2022 eventually. But I said... In 2021, Apple announces a new Mac Pro powered by Apple Silicon. Now this qualifies. So I get a bonus pick. You do. Interesting.

Whoopsie. We made this worse. No, no. Here's the thing. It's good if we remember. We didn't remember. We didn't remember. Now we can check it beforehand and we can have our picks ready, right? Yeah. So you get a second pick. Yeah, I know what it is. I'm just going to elevate one of my flexies. Okay, that's fair. Oh, boy. So I think we're ready to move forward now.

And if something is wrong, we will deal with it. Actually, I'm sorry. Before we do, I would like to address one other thing. Okay. Okay. I know that everybody gets upset when I talk about this. But this is my brain, and I need help, all right? Each host must make a pick comprising three conditions. Oh, my God. The language does not make sense to me. Like, why do we have to, can we please just say each host must make a pick that has, that then has three conditions or something?

You don't like the verb comprising? No, I can't. Because to me, comprising is just there are just three things. And I know that's not what it means. And everyone keeps telling me that's not what it means. So it's a pick with three supporting details. That is a beautiful way of putting it. Okay. Okay. So let me go into Notion, Bill of Rickies. Because also, like, the only thing we score on is the details, right? Like, the pick gets us nothing. Correct? Yeah.

So we make a pick, that's fine. We're only scored on the details. So if the pick that we have comes true, but all the details are wrong, we don't get anything. In fact, we lose a point, correct? If you get all three conditions wrong, you lose one point. Yeah, but my point is, let's say I make a pick and my pick is...

Stephen is on stage during a keynote. He wears blue shoes, he has a green shirt, and he has red trousers. If you're on stage, but you have none of those clothes on, I don't get anything, right? No, you don't. Yeah, so that's why I want to just like... Just get that out there, right? So if the main pick is correct... Just say the scoring is only on the conditions or on the details. Okay.

The reason I said this is because when I originally wrote my Risky Pig, I wrote it wrong again. I did it wrong again. So I know I need the help. And so I'm thankful for the help. Okay, so... Each host must make a pick with three supporting details. Yeah. If you get all three correct, you earn two points. If you get all two correct, you earn one point. If you get one correct, you earn zero.

If you get three, you lose one. Points are only awarded based on details. The details. Not the overall pick. Beautiful. Thank you. Okay. All right. If you run a risky related website and you have access to this notion page, these are highlighted in pink. How many could there be? More than you think. More than you think. So I think we're ready to play. So Federico gets to go first. I get to go first. My round one pick is a new...

quote-unquote iPhone SE, is introduced with the new design. Now, I said iPhone SE because that's what, so far, this product has been called. I just wanted to ask you guys... How should I phrase this pic? Like, we know what this phone is going to be, right? But how should I phrase this pic in the event that this phone gets renamed? A new iPhone at the base price tier.

Or a new iPhone cheaper than... You know, like, you know, I don't know how to say it. A cheaper iPhone. Yes. A cheaper iPhone is introduced with a new design. So... Yeah, we're basically expecting the new generation iPhone SE to finally get rid of the home button, finally have Face ID, the old notch design. That seems what Apple is going to do in the next couple of months even. Yeah.

So yeah, that's what we are expecting. And so once again, the pick would be a cheaper iPhone is introduced with the new design. I have added context for your pick. Ungraded context? Which will help us for later on. No, but it's what he's saying. It's the SE or something in its place. Okay. So we just know what that means, right? Yeah. Is that fair, Federico? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah, that's good. I mean, rumors say as early as April now. Yeah, because there's...

There is a bunch of places in the world where they're not selling an iPhone SE anymore. Yeah, yeah. This could be the first. I make a prediction. This is the first one that turns green this year. Oh, okay. It's a side bet. All right, Mike. My round one pick, I'm reading it and I'm like, why did I make this my pick? I don't know why I did this.

But I guess I'm going to go for it anyway because I got an extra one to burn. Apple introduces its own large language model to power Siri. Its own LLM. Yeah. Yeah, you're not gonna get this. Wait, what? No, I think you will. No, they're gonna do this. But it's if they do it this year or next year. It's just about whether it's this year or next year. They will introduce it.

Oh, sick. Yeah, okay. I'm getting it. Yeah, I'm getting it. I'm getting it. I'm getting it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's funny. That is... I read it and I'm like... Why did I pick this? Now I remember when I picked this, because I've had my picks done since the end of December. Yeah.

I've done it for a few weeks. These were the big rumors. But yeah, I think that they are going to do this, whether they do it or not. But yes, thank you for that reminder, Federico. Yeah, no, that's also why... Later in another pic, I use the verb announces because I think Apple is now going to announce a bunch of things. Now, if they ship like 12 months later, that's not my problem. Because as Jason reminded me on Monday...

There's still a bunch of stuff in iOS 18. We're into 2025 now. And it's January. And we don't even have betas of the other features. They have an 18.3 developer beta 2 that came out yesterday. It has, to my knowledge, nothing new in it. So I have a theory about this. I think 0.3 will include a new AI feature. They're just not making it available to people yet. Why do they keep releasing beta versions of it? Because they're also doing bug fixes, right?

I have a fun bug right now where in my iMessage keyboard, you know, like the stickers area where like stickers and emoji go, it's just blank. Cool. It's just completely blank and I can't get it to not be blank. You should put 18.3 with those bug fixes on it. This is on 18.3. Oh, cool. Even better. To be fair, I'm not on beta 2, so maybe that will fix it. Check back in.

for uh 18.4 yeah my round one pick is that apple ships the apple watch ultra 3 nice yeah i i hope you're right because this is the watch i want to buy Yeah. I'm not buying the two. I'm not doing it. Not at this point. How old is the Ultra One? The one that I have? A year and a half. Did it come out in 2022 or 2023? Three. The Ultra One. Three. 2023? Yeah. Are you sure? Pretty sure. Okay. Apple Watch Ultra introduced Apple Newsroom.

Oh no, 2022. I knew it. Yeah, because they did the weird Ultra 2 in 2023. Which I have. Yes, and last year they did the Ultra 2 in black. That's right. Gosh, time flies when you wear a forgotten product. Also when you live through a pandemic. Yes. That's true. I would like to give Federico some being right points. About what?

So something that I said I wouldn't do, but I did do. I have on my bedside, I have my whole like charging thing. I've upgraded all of the charging things to be fast charging now. I have a fast charging Apple Watch cable and I have a fast charging MagSafe. Remember when you used to be afraid of electricity? I still think that wireless charging is not good technology. That's how I feel. I think it is not good technology, but nevertheless, we have it now. Yes. Nice. Nice. Good job.

Good job. That's good. So that's round one. I think we have a nice collection of iPhone, Siri, and Apple Watch picks. Let's see what we pick in round two. And I am going to go first. With another Apple product, my pick is a new AirTag is introduced with better tracking capabilities. The original AirTag, isn't it? I think it's like four years old at this point.

We have a bunch. We like them. There's rumors that a future model may be using the next generation ultra-wideband chip that Apple has created in the meantime. And I wouldn't mind, you know. an even better air target that maybe has better tracking and better power consumption. This is just my speculation. It's not the pick. But yeah, I think it's about time. I am pretty sure it's been four years.

since the version one of the AirTags. And I think it's due for an update. And it seems like it's something that's going to happen at some point in 2025. So a new AirTag is introduced with better tracking capabilities. Yep. I like that. Yeah. AirTag is great. Yeah, it's good. We all love the AirTag. My second round pick. Apple introduces its thinnest iPhone ever. Okay. Okay. I'm leaving the door very open for this pick. Yeah. I double down on it later. Which iPhone could it be?

For me, maybe it's just the iPhone 17 and it's just like 0.1 millimeters thinner than, you know. But I think they're going to do something with the iPhone this year. And maybe it turns out to be the thinnest one. Okay. Okay. I return to the M1 MacBook Air with this pick, and I say that it is not for sale at the end of 2025. Oh, come on. What has Walmart done to you? Why? That's pretty bold, actually. Well, I'm a man of action. Okay.

Always have been. We'll see if Apple is too. I'm not sure about this one, you know, because I don't imagine the M2 falling into that price. We will see. We don't mean to change your mind, Steven. Unless you know something that we don't, because you sound oddly confident about this. Do you work for Walmart now? I'm a man of confidence. Sure. You're a man of many things, it seems.

Now, this may seem like the end of round two, and it technically is, except that for the first time ever on the Rikis, we have a bonus round. That was so loud. I got very close to the microphone. Sorry, Jim. I just exploded. Mike has a subwoofer built into his throat today. It will never sound that good again. Yeah. Mike, what's your bonus pick? The Mac Studios update of a new chip. Okay.

that was a flex it's not really anything hold on it's like what kind of chip whatever one you like you know it could be anything you could put a modem in there okay okay all right okay anything There's just a new chip and I'll have to find it. I'll have to find it. You'll have to find it. I've been working on my six colors report card answers and...

I was just working on my Mac answers. It is weird the studio and the Pro are stranded on the M2 right now. Clearly the M3, like we now know, was kind of a... a dead-end process, and Apple wanted to move off of it really quickly, but it's a bummer. Can I ask you what I think is, in my mind, a very simple question, but what, knowing you, it probably isn't? Can you just give me...

Like right now, with all these different models, can you just give me the best Mac to buy for a nerd and the best Mac to buy for a regular person? A regular person is an M2 MacBook Air. Okay. And somebody like me. And for a nerd, I think an M4 or M4 Pro MacBook Pro. Okay. What about the Mac Mini?

Yeah, see, that's what I was expecting. I just assumed notebook. If you want a desktop, yeah, Mac Mini for sure. Okay, all right. Not because I'm in the market. I just wanted to hear you. Yeah, you can't cut a Mac Mini in half. Right, right. I shouldn't say that. It's an easy way to get to the power button. Yeah. Wow. Right through it. Can I just say something super weird about... So I got the Mac Mini. I have the M4 Mac Mini now. And...

There was something that I was doing during the setup process. I don't remember what it was now. Where I had to double press the power button. It's Touch ID on the keyboard. You have to, like, confirm it to you. What? Wait, tell me to do it. And I was like, God, there's no way. I had it on the Mac Studio. It's weird. It's a truly wild thing to do. But, yeah, I had to do that. Give us, like, a...

Two or three sentence rundown of your Mac mini ownership so far. It's a great computer and it's incredibly simple. The transfer was very quick. and it was actually very painless. I did the migration as I always do, and I don't really feel like I'm running into problems. Although, as is normal with a migration, at some point there will be a problem, and I just don't know what it is yet. The best thing is that...

It now sits next to my cow digit dock on my little shelf thing that I have. That's cool. The computer is unfathomably small. I was going to say the dock's probably bigger, right? Or very similar. The dock is wider. The Mac mini is taller. Okay. But yeah, it's incredible. I can't believe that I am using a machine that is more powerful than the one that I had, and it's this small. It's really cool. This computer is going to last for a very, very, very long time for me.

Yeah, it's really cool. I wish I had space for one. I mean, they're really small. I mean, I have the space. I wish I had. I wish I needed one, you know. That's... That's the official end of round two and the bonus round for Mike. It is now time for the Risky Picks. And once again, I am going to go first. And I thought about this for a few days and I decided... despite everything, I am going all in on AI for my risky pick. So here it goes. Apple announces a new standalone quote-unquote Siri app.

based on a new large language model that will... Here come the details. Number one, be multilingual and support multiple languages at the same time. Number two, support multiple modalities. For example, text input, voice input, and image attachments in the same conversation. Number three, display content from third-party apps in line. based on a new developer framework.

So let me explain my idea. Yes, you can make your joke. Is it deep and open? Yeah. Go ahead. Say the thing. Okay. So my idea is that, my idea is that, yes, Stephen, thank you. I wrote this last month, the idea that they need to have a... a more persistent large language model experience with Siri that is comparable to ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude, right? Instead of just like these ephemeral interactions that you have with Siri.

So assuming that Apple is going to in fact have a new larger language model with Siri. which is also Mike's regular pick, I would expect that they are going to have a standalone Siri app. I believe Gurman sort of hinted at this, but I just wanted to add more details. Multilingual support. This is one of the biggest serial limitations by far. Everything else is pretty much multilingual now. Gemini, ChatGPT...

Claude, like most of these large language models, because it's what they do, they ingest multiple languages, they can switch back and forth between... multiple languages in the same request, in the same conversation, I would expect Siri with a large language model to be able to do the same. Modalities. I just wanted to slightly rephrase my pick because as I was reading, I thought of something.

So I said, support multiple modalities. For example, text input, voice input. And I said, and image attachments in the same conversation. I want to say, or. Yeah, it's totally fine. Image attachments in the same conversation. So this is also what. ChatGPT and others can do. You can type, you can talk, or you can attach stuff. And finally, display content from third-party apps in line based on a new developer framework. Now...

This is, I think, the riskiest, in my opinion. I think if you pay attention to this space, again, I wrote about this in my article last month for 18.2.

The biggest advantage that Apple has compared to these other companies is the fact that they own the ecosystem of the phone that you use, the tablet or the Mac that you use, and the apps that run on it. If you're taking a look at this... integrations that chat dpt has uh they're very limited they're pretty much discontinued at this point because i haven't seen open ai release any new

features for the custom GPTs in several months. Gemini has only a couple so far. Apple has this huge advantage, potential advantage of the App Store and the integration. between all the different components, right, of the operating system with third-party apps. You look at widgets, shortcuts, Siri, control center, the lock screen, all these things Apple can integrate with third-party apps.

Now, in the 18th cycle, we are going to see those pre-announced app intents that, in theory, will let you perform multiple actions. with Siri and Apple Intelligence. I think the next step would be to visually integrate those things in a standalone Siri app UI. So then maybe you will be able to... chat with Siri and, I don't know, pull up your Todoist tasks, for example. Or, you know, have a preview of the emails in your Spark inbox or whatever. I feel like...

If Apple is going to do a standalone Siri UI, which, I mean, this entire pick is predicated upon that assumption. So if that doesn't occur, well, I'm screwed. But if it does happen, I think... judging what Apple has done over the past year, especially, they are going to have a third-party developer story. And I think they will show it off. They will happily show it off at WWDC. So that's the pick.

Yeah. One thing that I really want from this is the ability to set an alternative icon for this app and use the different Siri artwork over the years. Like the brushed metal one with the purple microphone in the middle? The original, like when it was a third party app? Yeah, that would be sick. I do... I love this. It's bold.

It's like Federico written all over it. Yeah. I do have a concern about the scoring here. Can we go back to the scoring for a second? I'd love to. Because, and just thinking about this more right now, what we said earlier, and I, you know. If you don't like real talk, just like skip forward a minute and a half and overcast picks are only awarded based on details, not the overall pick. So just to clarify what that means. Yeah. If.

Apple doesn't ship this app, you obviously don't get any points. Yeah. And you would actually lose a point because all the details would be wrong because it didn't happen. Right? Like. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, I just want to clarify. It's a good question because I think that the original pick is risky on its own, let alone other than the conditions to it. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to like... I applaud your passion, Federico. I do too. I mean, you gotta do it. What I like about this...

Is that I think most people think about AI as an app they talk to, right? You open the chat GPT app, you open the Gemini app, you open Claude on the web, whatever it is. Yeah. And. Apple intelligence isn't that way. And like, yes, you can type to Siri, but it's ephemeral, right? It's like you got to hit it in the menu bar or like, God forbid, you double tap the home indicator on the iPad, which I have turned off, by the way, because I hit it all the time. And.

I think Siri should remain in all of those places. I think it should continue to be sort of just in the air around you. But I think there also should be a place where you go and deal with Siri directly. And I would love for there to be a section in an app like this that shows me my history. The Alexa app does this really well. It's like, oh, you asked to turn these lights on two hours ago.

It should keep a record of what's happened. ChatGPT, all these others do this. And I think that's what people expect from an air quotes AI app. Even the type to Siri interface doesn't do a good job of showing me the things I just asked it. All of that stuff should be better. I see that some people in Discord are saying that this is like...

I'm adding way too many conditions or this is too risky. I think this is so obvious in my mind. Like if you spend like any amount of time just using for a while, Chai GPT, Gemini, Claude. whatever, llama. It's so obvious that people gravitate toward a standalone AI app on their phones with an icon they can tap.

You have no idea how many friends in real life I have seen, including today, just using chat GPT for free without an account. I can tell because it's got a different background when they're not logged in. on their home screens. Just because they have a thing, they can tap and they go there and they type and they have a conversation and a back and forth. This is what hundreds of millions of people expect today.

from this sort of interaction, not invoking Siri and not typing to Siri. Like those things that exist, but then all of those should also be saved in the Siri app. Right? Yeah. And Image Playgrounds goes in the Siri app. Like it all could just, for its sins, can just go in the Siri app. Yeah. Like that's where you go and that's where you deal with all of your questions to the assistant. Yeah. I agree with it that it should exist.

Yeah, I have warmed up on this greatly through our conversation. My risky pick. Apple introduces a new smart home product that features a screen. The three details are as follows. It will be in the HomePod line of products. It will feature eye or hand tracking as a way to control the interface without needing to touch the screen.

and it will feature support for third-party apps to run on the device. Now, I wanted to add a bunch of context to this one to say what I am saying and what I am not saying with the third-party apps part, right? So this is my context. the apps may not necessarily come from a dedicated app store they may be more like carplay or some form of mirroring widgets or live activities will not count there has to be ui that you interact with okay

That is my pick. I think this will bode well for you. Yeah, but I feel like it's not a gimme, right? No. No, I don't think anything Apple in the home is a gimme. You know, there's so many obvious things they could do. Yeah, because they might even call this a HomePod. Yeah. I like it, though. And I want this. This is something I want in my house.

Yeah, I can't imagine a scenario where it's only Apple apps on this thing, but I can imagine a scenario where they don't have its own app store. And so then how do you get to the middle of it? And I thought to myself, well, CarPlay is like this, right?

CarPlay has apps that you interact with, but they're not on the car. They're not in your car. It's beaming from something else. And I think that that might be an interesting... way to do this or to build on their mirroring that they've been doing but like there is UI on the device that you're interacting with it's not like Chromecast or it's you know it's not just like

bringing in live activities from your phone or your watch. You have to actually do stuff on this HomePod thing. Can we go back for a second to the second condition? Yeah. It will feature eye slash hand tracking. Is that and or or? Or. Or. Can you say or? Can you spell it out? Yes. Yeah. Eye or hand tracking as a way to control the interface. Okay. Okay.

I have one more question, not for the gray, just like I've been thinking a lot about this as a potential product. The HomePod has multi-user support. It's weird to set up. But if you have it, then it's like I can tell my homebody, hey, send a text to Mike. And it knows it's me, so it sends it from me. And if my wife says it, it sends it from her. I've had pretty mixed luck with that. I ended up turning it off.

So we don't have any personal requests on our HomePods anymore because it's just kind of buggy. But that's something that has to work with this, right? Like, if this isn't a home, is it something that... I guess the question is, do they need that for something in the home? Like, maybe they do, or maybe if it's all just HomeKit stuff. No, I think they need it. Because, like, you will ask questions to this device, right, in theory. It's the same as a HomePod.

Like that you would say to this thing, text Federico, and it should know it's you and send it from your iCloud account. Yeah. Like that's what it should do. Whether it will do that or not, I don't know. But in theory, Apple say they already can do that. So I think it's a similar thing. And I think it's similar that you would ask it, hey, da-da-da-da, and the app that it would bring up would be with your information in because it's bringing it up for you.

Okay. That makes sense. Whether that works, I don't know. Yeah. Or it might be that, to start with, it is... a one-user experience, but that would be a shame, wouldn't it? Mm-hmm. All right. My pick. Okay. Apple replaces the Plus iPhone. with an all new model. Okay. Three details. Really, I've done like four. That's okay. Yeah, you have done four, but it's fine. It's the thinnest iPhone ever.

but is made of titanium to remain strong. Okay. It has no camera control and or action button. Okay. It does not offer an always-on display. True Mad Lab behavior. Just absolute top-to-bottom Mad Lab behavior. Wild pick. I don't know why you decided to do this to yourself. Feature-wise, I think this is kind of in between the regular phone and the Pro phone.

And if it replaces the plus, that I think kind of makes sense. But I'm thinking about the thinness, like battery life is going to be an issue on this device. Getting the always-on display, like not doing that. potentially could save some battery life. And just thinking about the thinness again, like can the camera control, like look at the side of your phone. The camera control is pretty thick. Like it's, it's a good bit of the sort of Z axis of your phone.

Maybe the and or the action button's gone. I don't know. This phone will have compromises. And it's just a matter of picking the right ones. But I will tell you now, I'm extremely interested in this phone. I'm more excited about the possibility of this phone than I've been about a phone maybe since the 10. I think this is super interesting and a different playbook than what we've seen before. Just do a small one. Just do a big one.

this phone would be distinctly different if this comes true than all of its siblings. And count me in. Let's get weird. We've all said it's time to get weird. Let's get weird. Yeah, I mean, there's just positives that are interesting to me. Like, I know what you're saying about the buttons, but it would be weird. Like, the capture button, camera control. Ah, so close. The camera control button.

In theory, that is an important button, right? If visual intelligence is to be believed as a thing that people would use, so that would be gone. I mean, the action button, like, was it as no action button or mute switch on this device? I don't know. Which is nothing? I don't know. And also, like, the rumors suggested aluminium for this phone. So... We will see. I respect you. We'll see. I respect the game. I could get it all wrong, but I could tell you, like...

depending on the camera situation on this phone, this could be my next phone. Like, I just, I'm curious to try something different after. What does camera situation mean to you? You know, like, does it have just one camera? Does it have two? What's zoom like? Are there obvious quality issues with it? We'll see. Well, because I think that is going to be the big compromise. Probably. Yeah. But I couldn't narrow that down in a way that y'all liked. So I went with these. So we'll see.

Well, I think that does it for the regular game. It is now time for the flexes. I have more rules to read. Yes. And please notice you lie down in the middle. It's in the... You do the preamble, then they lie down, then you do the rules. Yes, but I see that... No, no, don't worry about the possible changes. We're not doing that today. Okay. Jason had weird ideas about things.

Alright, so... The Flexis is a game held after each edition of the Rikis. It consists of a series of additional picks in relation to the upcoming Apple event or year. Scoring is completed separately from the main game. But like the rickies, the order of picks is set by the results of the previous game. A ties and ties will be broken by using dice by Peacalc. Please lie down as the rules are read.

I got comfy because we got some more rules. Hosts must make a minimum of five flexi picks. Each correct pick is awarded one point. Round picks do not remove any points and no partial points may be awarded. The winner is determined by comparing the percentage of correct flexes made by each host. The winner can use their chosen title as long as they are the winner. Federico shall be named Prince Flexy and is known as King Flexy when having won both the keynote and annual games. Mike has chosen...

Duke of Flexington and uses the name Archduke Flexington when applicable. Stephen is the Attorney General Flexy and uses the title Secretary of the Flex when necessary. Loser of the flexis must compensate the winner of the flexis by donating to a charity of the winner's choice. The amount of the donation is $25, that's USD dollars, per rung flexi made by the loser. The money must be donated on air.

Federico is the current winner of Keynote Flexis, and Mike is the winner of the annual Flexis. If someone holds all four titles, they are allowed to choose their own nickname. You may be seated. All right, I'm up first. Yes. HomePod Touch is the name of the smart device. Okay. Because you touch it.

Somebody recommended, someone wrote in to upgrade and suggested this, and I really like it. I can't remember who it was, and I've now stolen their suggestion. This is in their honor. Number two, the Mac Pro does not get updated. Okay, yeah. Number three, no new vision hardware. No announcement? No, like, what do you mean no? No new vision hardware announced. Okay.

Number four, AirPods Pro get hardware changes to support new health features. Okay. Number five, another person on the Apple leadership page retires in 2025. Okay. Six. There will be only three Apple events in 2025. Whoa. WWC. Wait. WWC September. And then one other. One other. Yeah. That sort of is in 24. Hold on. When you say events, they have to be classed on the page. So you go to Apple's events page and they have to be there. Okay. Okay.

What is it going to be that's going to leave Apple in 2025? And why is it Phil Schiller? I mean, I don't know. The EU took him. You know what I'm going to say? that the retirement thing changes. I'm going to say, because like Luca has not actually retired yet. Yeah. I'm going to say another person on the Apple leadership page. A person has taken off the page? No, because Luca's still there. It's changed titles.

Yeah, so I'm just going to say it changes their role, changes their title in 2025. And I have screenshots in the notion of the pages that exist today, so we have reference. Thank you. you're welcome but that that's that's more what i'm saying is like things are changing like there's clearly a thing under tim's time that when someone wants to retire they can't leave immediately like that is clearly a thing that happens because that's been the case basically of everyone

And so, like, Luke is still there, even though he's not CFO anymore. He is vice president of corporate services, which means I'm expecting he goes to some meetings sometimes. But, like, that's it. Do you think he got a worse office because of that? I don't think they kick anyone out of the office. I think they just had to find a new one for the new person. Yeah. His name is right here and I want to read it because I think that's fair to them. Although Notion's not helping me. Hold on. Kavan.

Parikh. I had to go real close to my monitor to read this. Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Yeah. Okay. My flexies. I have five. A second generation Vision Pro is rumored to feature an M4. Wait. What? What is this pick? This is a wild flexi. I mean, you can choose whatever you want, but I don't think we've ever had rumors before. Should I clarify, but doesn't launch?

Is this pic saying that at some point somebody will create a blog post saying... Hasn't that already happened? Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. I mean, you can go on Reddit and find somebody saying, oh, I think MacRumors, Apple Vision Pro M4. I mean, you can keep it because I don't think that it will happen. I think if there's any rumor, the rumor isn't that it has an M4 in it.

Anyway, so, I mean, look, you have to be able to prove this, you know? Yeah. No, keep it. Let's see what happens. But it doesn't launch in 2025. Okay. So it's building on top of mics. The Mac Pro is updated to use an M4 system on a chip, but is otherwise unchanged from the M2 model. How did you feel about my pick that it wasn't going to get updated? Sad.

But also, maybe it deserves it. It's hard to tell. I think they shuffle it away. Maybe. It doesn't make any sense to me to exist. Maybe. Number three, macOS 16 includes a controversial change. I'm loving this energy that you bring in. These are just weird. I mean, the entire AI thing is a controversial thing. But like this year, it was the screen recording.

deal this is a little bit of know it when you see it but what is it gonna be what is it gonna be next year is it gonna be a trump wallpaper yeah maybe Make Finder great again. I paid a million dollars and all I got was this wallpaper. That was a different Tim Cook, it turns out. Yeah. Boy, am I glad I missed that news cycle. Number four. iOS 19 brings agreements with new LLM partners beyond open AI. So Google or Claude or somebody be built in.

Yeah, yeah. And then number five, which I just added because one of my other ones is taken by Mike and he got to go first. Apple services see a price increase. I'll say in the US. That's the easiest one to track. Apple services see a price increase in the US. Well, like Apple One or something? Yeah, or like Apple Music was this, but now it's this. Interesting. This could show up in different ways.

Is this interesting? They've not done that, right? No, there was an increase to... There was, yes. Apple TV Plus, I think, went up. Yes, yes, there was an increase. I mean, it's... It'll happen at some point. Yeah. TG, bring us home. All right. I have five flexes. I didn't overdo it. Did you have like 16 one year? Yeah, kind of. Maybe 11. Number one. The new iPhone SE is called iPhone 16e. Oh. Does Samsung have an e-phone?

I saw this rumor. It instantly made sense, in my opinion, and I like it. I don't think they would put that number on it. Well? Because they're not going to update it every year, right? And so then we've got to like iPhone 19 and still iPhone 16 E. But like at the same time though, like. The fact that it's an iPhone, like when you see on the webpage, oh, it's still an iPhone 16. So I know it's relatively modern, you know? I don't know. We'll see. Number two, the HomePod mini is updated.

I think we're going to see something. Does just a color change count? The HomePod mini is updated. That would be an update. That would be an update. Flower power, let's go. So I went from Lightning to USB-C and I got a Flexi, so we're good. Number three. This is interesting. Apple does something with Pixelmator beyond keeping it on the App Store. something something you know you will know it when we see it they do something with it

Beyond, hey, if they take it off the App Store, that is also beyond keeping it off the App Store. So they do something. They do something with it. I love it. the privacy policy though. Yeah, it's got to be more than that. Sure, sure, sure. Please add the context. So no, I will actually rephrase it. Apple does something with Pixelmator beyond keeping it on the App Store or... Or updating the privacy policy. Updating its privacy policy. Sure. Thank you. Number four, Apple showcases.

building shortcuts with natural language. The old pick is back as a flexi. I still think they're going to do it. I still think they're going to show it off. They're going to show off a bunch of things that will launch in 2026. So why not? They're behind and they got to catch up. So lastly, number five, Apple Music gets natural language playlist creation.

I think this is something that obviously Spotify is playing around with. It's something that we have seen a bunch of third-party companies build on top of ChatGPT and the Spotify API. I think Apple will just love to show off the... grand return of the old sentence feature from Beats Music, but done with Apple intelligence.

Just make me a playlist when I'm driving around Las Vegas with OTJ and I want to listen to emo music. Why not? Yeah. I will say the natural language stuff in Apple Photos to create a memory. I think is the best part of Apple intelligence. And that would be sick in Apple music. It'd be so good. Yeah. That's five flexes. We didn't, I didn't overdo it. And that concludes.

our annual predictions for the year of 2025. Wow. How do you guys feel? It's been a quarter of a century since the year 2000, you know? I hate that. Just asking me in general how I feel about that. Can you give me an adjective that sums up a quarter of a century for you? Old. Tired. Okay. What would you say? Well, I would say... I would say... International would be mine. Well, because like...

I have gone international. I have a lot of international friends. You go worldwide. Always on. Always on. Yeah. You know, 25 years is a long time. We all thought we were going to die with the... Why to kill you? We didn't. I didn't. Well, I was convinced. In any case, this is the end of the show. And do you want me, Stephen, to do the end of the show? Please. Please. Well, you have listened to episode 534 of Connected on Relay.

It was January 8, 2025. Is he just going to do the show backwards now? This is the way that I do it, okay? Okay. This episode... We talked about our annual predictions and you will hear the results in 12 months. We will be back in about a week's time with another episode of Connected. This episode was hosted as always.

By me, Federico Vittici. You can find me on maxstories.net. By Mike Hurley. You can find him on many other shows on Relay. And also you can check out his work at Cortex Brand. And by Stephen Hackett. He runs 512 pixels. Excellent website. And also is the co-host of MacPower Users here on Relay. We need to thank our three sponsors, our two sponsors for this episode, Ecamm and ZocDoc.

And lastly, I will say, if you so happen to have more free time in your day, you know, after having listened to this episode and having read our websites and having shopped at Cortex Brand, that you feel like you also want to somehow find us on social media, you will find us. in all the places. If you are so inclined, we will be there, I guess. This is the episode. Thank you for listening. And guys, you should say goodbye. You stop. Well, no. I go last. Okay. Cheerio. Bye, y'all. Arrivederci.