568: The Rickies (September 2025)

From Relay this is Connected episode 568 Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Turbulence Forecast. I am your Ricky Benchman, Federico Wittici, and it's my pleasure to be joined for this big episode today by Steven. Hello, Steven. You're going down, buddy. I don't know. Hey, who was that? Oh, we haven't introduced anybody else. It was the band. The connected band. The connected band. I would like a welcome to the program, Mr. Mike Hurley.

Oh, it's so good to be here. I'm ready. I'm bringing it today. I've decided I'm bringing it today, so you're all going to have to watch out for that. It's a new day. We're recording on Thursdays. Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which, I don't know about y'all. Totally broke my internal clock. I don't know where I am. Yeah, no, big time. I had quite a day, plus we're doing Connection on Thursday. I feel like I have no idea where I am. Yeah. You know?

Interesting feeling. We have some follow-up. Mike, you want to take this one? Because I think you're so happy. Well, I was initially. Instagram have launched an iPad app, but they decided to do it in the worst way. I don't understand why they even bothered. They've made everyone so happy that it existed. And then they're like, yeah, how about it just doesn't work like Instagram?

So the main thing here is they've got an Instagram app. It's on iPad. You can make it lots of different sizes. It's a full app, right? It's got everything. It's pretty similar to the web site. which I expect there's some shared links there between the two things. But the home tab of the Instagram for iPad app, it has your stories across the top.

And then Reels. And it's the Reels tab. It's not your pictures anymore. And this is Reels, like the algorithm Reels. It's not just Reels from accounts that you follow. If you want to see the posts from people you've chosen to follow, then you go to the like friends or following tab and you can see all those posts in either algorithmic or chronological view.

But you don't get stories there. They've split stories to be with the reels and then everything else in the friends tab or whatever. I hate it. This is terrible. I don't know why they've done this. And I... Well, I do know what had done this. I wish they wouldn't have done this. And I am concerned that this is actually a harbinger for the future of Instagram. Oh, yeah. And if this is where Instagram is going...

Like I could see my personal usage declining. I have no interest in Reels and TikTok personally. It's just not what I want. And if they're going to add this friction into using the app, friction for me. I could imagine that I would naturally want to use it less and less. Like at this point, like for me, the iPhone version of Instagram was better on my iPad than the current version. the iPad version of Instagram. Because with iOS 26, the iPhone apps work great, right? Like, they just work great.

I'm pretty sad about this. This is a real bummer. Like, I don't understand why this is... Again, I keep saying that. I do know why they're doing it. I just wish they wouldn't do it. You know what I mean? So they want to do TikTok and they figured, hey, we're launching the app on a new platform. Let's use it as a test bed for, you know, seeing how...

it actually goes if we get rid of the homepage and we just default to reels not even from people you follow but algorithmic reels and we don't let you see the stories in the friends view that's that's great like i wouldn't mind if i could see my stories

the friends view right like I would just open the app tap what I need to tap and just carry on with it you know what I mean like I just open the app and press the button and I would get used to that over time and it wouldn't bother me but it's like the fact that they've separated the two things that I want and put them in different places and

If I want to watch people's stories, I have to see just algorithmic nonsense. Stuff that it's just like, for me, again, because I don't use these services, it's not... good for me right it's like it doesn't give me uh like it's showing me things that it thinks I might care about. Right. But like, it's actually stuff that I wouldn't, if that makes sense. Like, so you're familiar with fan cams as the thing. You guys know what these are?

I think they're called fan cams. They're like these edits of someone that you like and they're edited in this very specific way. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I keep getting those for Formula One. But I wouldn't watch those. So if I was using reels, they would see that I would go past those quickly. Man. People use social media way too much. That's my takeaway. And just in a way that is totally different to how we're used to using it. Okay. So, I don't know. But I'm pretty bummed about it.

I hope this isn't what they do to the iPhone app, and I figure I'm just not going to use Instagram for iPad, really, I don't think. We'll see.

Do you know, increasingly, as more time passes, I remain convinced that the best social network there is is actually Reddit. At least, you know, it wears its nastiness on its sleeve. You know? Okay. You know. that you're going to spend some time on Reddit. You're going to find some useful information. But also, you know, because when you sign up for Reddit, you know you're going to have some absolutely nasty, vile people on there. And at least they're honest about it, you know?

Like it's always been this way. They don't even try to make it better. But, you know, I honestly think I get more value out of Reddit. Like if I had to say, okay, let's assume, let's assume that I have 30 minutes to waste. All right. And I get to choose. Do I want to waste 30 minutes on TikTok, on Instagram, on X, the everything app or on Reddit or YouTube? And I actually think that out of those 30 wasted minutes.

I get a higher value ratio out of Reddit than the others. I don't know, just my personal feelings. Yeah, I don't... I'm not a fan of Reddit. Not for the typical reasons. I just don't really like it. Reddit's not my deal. I like it for information. Yeah, that's what I mean. I mean, if I Google something and a Reddit thread comes up, I will probably click on that first. But I don't browse Reddit. You know what I mean? I don't have... I used to.

i used to use narwhal right and i used to like have a few subreddits that i would keep up with but there's just like most of the subreddits that i was in that they just kind of trend towards like Just like bitterness and nastiness. Oh, yeah, man. Yeah, yeah. So nasty. Yeah, and it's just not what I'm looking for, you know?

Because these are the people I would unfollow on social media, you know? But, like, I can't get it. You can't really get away from them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but what's nice about it compared to other places is that... Very so often, at least, I don't know, the subreddits I go in, if there's even a slight hint of someone being like, I'm just going to be super... upfront about it. They absolutely hate Nazis.

which is not something that you would think is an obvious thing. Some social networks encourage it. Exactly. So at least they got that going on Reddit. They don't like those people. At least they don't like Nazis on Reddit. The least they can do. What a high bar. I don't know. What a high bar, right? I mean, at least they got that, which is not a given, sadly.

Anyway. I've had a bunch of people send me the Polar Loop. Polar is a heart rate monitor company, I think. Was this the one that you had, Federico? Was that a Polar? I don't know. You tell me. It was. It actually was. And they've made a subscription-free alternative to the Whoop Band. It's coming out later this month. It's $200.

And it does similar-ish kinds of things, tracks your activity, sleep, and heart rate. It has eight days battery life. The thing about this, though, right, like this is, people sent me this, this is interesting. What is the app experience like? Because I'm looking at a couple of screenshots of their app and it doesn't look as nice. to use i would say as as whoop does but i'll be intrigued to see if people review this i would expect that victoria's song at the verge will review this

And I'll be keen to get the answers at least. But I'm not sure this... Well, I have already subscribed to Whoop. And the way that Whoop works, you don't pay them monthly. You pay them annually. So... I'm in, you know. But yeah, it's an interesting thing that's out there for people, but I still want Apple to do this.

a couple of, like maybe a week or so ago, there was someone on threads who made like a concept of an Apple whoop band. Yeah, I saw that. I saw that. Yeah, a bunch of people were like, oh, Mike, this is what you want. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Was it concepts of a band? What is that? What are you saying? Trump was asked about healthcare and he said he had concepts of a plan.

Yeah, I'm not as plugged in on it as you, I think. I think maybe these references might work with some of our audience. If you got that, let me know on Mastodon. Which social network? Reddit? No, not Reddit. Oh man, Federico, I love you, but boy, I disagree. But I also agree that Instagram is bad on the iPad. I installed it and hated it and I'll never use it.

Steven, you had a post on your blog where you've put your, I don't know. flag in the ground for the name of the folding iPhone. That's right. This is... I just wanted to put it out here on the show too. It's a mega Ricky is what this is because I'm a year ahead of my time. Okay.

iPhone Ultra. It's the name of the folding phone. Pretty decent. Pretty decent. Pretty decent. Pretty deece. Yeah. I think they're going to put Fold in it, honestly. Yeah, me too. I like where you're coming from. This is if it's not going to be that. If it's not going to be folding, it's probably this. Or max, but that sounds ridiculous. You never know.

Hey, it is September, unlike last week when it wasn't September and I said it was September, but now it really is September. And September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. And that means that Relay for St. Jude is... Can you feel it? Can you feel it, boys? We're back raising money for St. Jude. As of this recording, we are at $80,000 for St. Jude, which is so amazing. You can help grow that number by going to...

stjude.org slash relay. Mike, why would somebody want to do that? Well, they want to be able to give money to St. Jude, and that is the place to do it. And they can also support the campaign that we've been running. So this is the seventh time. that the Relay community has come together to support the life-saving work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital over these seven years, six years. Again, I don't remember how it works, but we've done it seven times. We've raised $4 million.

Together as a community, we raised a million dollars last year, which was absolutely unbelievable and a fantastic way to celebrate Relay 10. But we're asking you again. As we will do every year for as long as we possibly can to go to stjude.org slash relay and donate. I want to talk a little bit about something called the Transition Oncology Program. At St. Jude, the end of treatment is not the end of support. The Transition Oncology Program, also known as TOP.

which is good because transition oncology program is hard to say. This helps prepare families for a smoother transition from treatment to everyday life. TOP develops a treatment summary to help families and their local healthcare providers move forward. To help families plan for their child-specific needs, St. Jude will screen for possible...

mental and emotional health concerns. Find out if the child needs school or job training support. Find out if they need help finding health insurance. Help families across health care services and provide education about the child's This is just part of the comprehensive care provided by St. Jude because...

getting to the point where you're cancer-free is not the end of your journey. And they know this, and it's kind of just one of the ways that a St. Jude patient is always part of the St. Jude family. Yeah, that transition is really hard. We did it with our son, who is a pediatric cancer survivor, thanks to St. Jude. You know, we went through that transition, and it's tough because you have a lot of questions about...

What do I tell his doctors in the future? What should we be looking out for? How do we manage these things? And Top is just one part of that. making sure that families have what they need. They're equipped with what they need to move forward. And I love this program. I think it's super important. And y'all, it is like... one brick in a giant wall of things that St. Jude does for families.

with kids with cancer and catastrophic disease, and not just kids who come to Memphis for treatment at St. Jude, because St. Jude shares their research and their information freely. around the world we've gotten several emails this month already of people in across the us and in europe having kids facing cancer

and who weren't treated at St. Jude, but their care was influenced by St. Jude's research and information. And in some cases, doctors actually partnering with doctors at St. Jude to make sure they're making the best decisions. It's a whole circle of care, a complete circle of care with St. Jude. And that's why this is important. So please go to stjude.org slash relay and donate. You can also sign up and become a fundraiser. And this is a great way.

to get the fundraising in front of your own communities, your own people. And there's a bunch of different incentives and rewards you can do. But I want to draw your attention specifically this week to the... matching program. So a lot of companies will match their employees' donations, and there's information about that if you scroll down that page.

And it's a great way for your money to go even further. And I can tell you, because I have the data, it makes a big difference in campaigns like ours. And so if you donate, check out that information on the page, talk to your company. and see if they will match your donation. It can be a huge impact for really basically no work. So go check that out, stjude.org slash relay.

Help give them more tomorrows. Go to stjude.org slash relay to donate or start your own fundraiser today. This episode of Connected is made possible by Squarespace. the all-in-one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online. So whether you're starting your business from scratch or maybe you're scaling up, Squarespace gives you everything. You need to claim a domain name.

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All right. Is everybody ready? Can you believe we're making picks again? On a Thursday? That's the weird thing. It's economy. The Rickies is a game connected host. Hey, that's us. Play before Apple keynotes and the beginning of a new year, trying to predict future events. It's made up of three rounds. Each host makes two regular picks followed by a risky pick. There are two types of rickies today. We are playing keynote rickies because...

It's September, not January. The keynote Ricky's winner is named the keynote chairman, and this position is held until the next keynote. Hosts should be introduced at the top of each episode according to their current titles. And you heard something, you've been hearing something special since WWDC. In the event that a host has both positions, as Federico does, he won the annual Rickies.

And he won the last keynote Rickies. He is the Ricky Benchman. And if he wins this, you know, this time he'll continue that. And if he doesn't, he won't. After the Rickies, the hosts play a game called the Flexies. These two games are separate, but related. Please stand for the reading of the rules. Each host gets to make two regular picks. Host can be granted a bonus regular pick for any previously incorrect pick that has now come true from the last three corresponding games.

A previously incorrect pick may be used only once. Correct regular picks are awarded one point. The language used for regular picks must be finalized and agreed upon during recording. and no partial points may be awarded. Risky picks have a more complex scoring system. Each host must make a pick with three supporting details.

If you get all three details correct, you earn two points. Two details correct will earn you one point. If you get one detail correct, you earn zero points. And if you get all three details wrong, you lose a point. As someone who has been there, it is devastating. Points are only awarded based on details, not the overall pick.

Picks must have been approved as risky by the two other hosts before the start of the game. So we've been texting furiously over the last week or so, making sure we're all lined up. Picks for the keynote rookies cannot be reused by the host who made them for the next keynote.

For a keynote Ricky's, the scoring window starts when the live stream begins and closes when picks are scored, which will be next Thursday. Any information used in scoring must be publicly verifiable at the time of recording. All hosts are allowed to reuse picks previously made by others. Scoring is completed during the 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 previously had a lifetime ban on flipping any coins in relation to the Rickies, However, after graduating CoinFlip University during the 2024 Podcast-a-thon for St. Jude, he can now flip a coin under direct supervision. The order of the picks is set by previous performance.

The winner of the previous associated game goes first. The previous loser goes last. Winners will be recognized during the closing ceremonies. 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. It is September.

which means that Stephen and I will be dueling on the 19th of September, the 7th annual podcast-a-thon for St. Jude. Like the quizzes last week, we should put some points on the line. today, I would like to suggest that we take our total points for regular picks and flexies, so rickies and flexies, multiply the final by 10.

Okay. That works for me. Cool. It's time for round one. Federico, as the Benchman, you get to go first. Okay. i'll tell you boys i'm gonna try and play this very strategically because i want to keep my title so Yeah, we'll see. My number one pick is... That didn't last long, did it? Maybe there's a strategy. Maybe there is. I like to keep it on your toes. Maybe that's the strategy. My number one pick is Apple introduces a new thin iPhone model. So there's going to be a thin iPhone.

I don't want to say what it's going to be called. Will it be called Air? Will it be called Slim? Who knows? I think it's going to be called Air. iPhone Math. iPhone Math. Remember that? That was cool. Greatest iPhone name of all time. So yeah, I think there's going to be a thin iPhone. We'll know it when we see it. They're going to make a big deal out of the fact that it's thin and it's the thinnest iPhone ever made. I will be outside of this pick. I will be curious to see...

If it'll be as thin as an iPad Pro, I don't think it will. The iPad Pro is, what, 5.1 millimeters thin? 5.0, yeah. Yeah, so I think it's going to be thicker than that, but... I think it's going to be appreciably thinner than the current Gen 16 Pro Max, for example. So that's going to be interesting. And also it'll be interesting to see how much of a premium you're going to pay for such a thin iPhone. I think it's going to be interesting.

to have that contrast especially between the the iphone 17 pro and the iphone 17 air like how do you price that i would like to talk about that specifically later on in today's episode yeah yeah okay um I saw somebody a couple of days ago using an iPhone 6 on a bus. Wow. That phone looked so thin. Like it really isn't that much different. It's like a millimeter thinner than an iPhone 16, right? And let me see where it is. It's 6.9 millimeters for the iPhone 6. But I think part of it...

It was definitely based on... Okay, so the iPhone Pro is 8mm. So it's quite a significant difference to the iPhone Pro. So the phone that I'm using. So that is just like 25% thinner. And also, it didn't... have this huge camera bump, right? So it did make me think about the fact that this phone might feel thinner, it's probably going to feel thinner than it looks.

the air right because all of the case rumors have that it still has like a big bar that goes across the top so like you know if you're looking at it maybe that kind of skews it but when you hold it in your hand it's going to be super thin and light and like that's kind of the the pull of it but yeah just seeing somebody use an iphone 6 it's like wow we didn't know what we had the funniest thing about that is and people were like worked up about the little camera protrusion

on the iphone 6 and 6 plus it's like oh buddy you don't you don't know what's coming like yeah yeah i mean especially what we may be about to get oh yeah camera back there yeah gonna be gonna be exciting Yeah, Federica, I think you're going to get this. It is interesting. Samsung beat Apple to the punch on this, but I don't think that phone has done anything. So we'll see if Apple has better success. Is it not? They just showed it. Okay. Mostly I think it's going to be interesting to see if...

So, Seth, they've been trying to make sense out of this fourth iPhone in the lineup forever. Oh, yeah. And maybe this time around the air will be successful. Oh, no, it is. It is available now. Apologies. Sorry. Before we get the follow-up. They initially showed it off and gave no information, and then it came out to not much fanfare. Sorry. I guess what's going to be interesting is seeing if people actually want a phone...

with less battery and worse cameras just because it's thin, you know? Because I understand thinness as part of, you know, preparation for a foldable, but that's... completely separate product, right? You're getting a foldable. Here, you're getting a regular iPhone that, sure, it's thinner, but also has much worse battery and a worse camera and a worse everything, really. But it's thin.

We'll see, I guess. I want it, but not as my main phone. Exactly. I'm not going to replace my iPhone. I'm not expecting to replace my pro iPhone with the Air. That's for sure. Yeah. What? I don't know what I'm going to do. I could do something wild. Yes. Could you?

I was talking to Chance Miller the other day about this very thing of like, man, the Air would be like really good for content, but ultimately I probably want the features of the Pro. And he was like, yeah, I mean, maybe I'll just flip-flop. I was like, oh, I can't relate to that. I've never... I've never flip-flopped on a phone. It's going to be fascinating to see what you do, because I am hoping that on the day it comes out, someone will have one. Yeah.

I think the key will be how quick will it be until you return to the App Store? How fast will it be until that happens? I guess we'll find out. Yeah, we'll see. I'm intrigued by it.

All right, my first round pick. Apple has a new case option to replace fine-woven. Hmm. So... Yeah, I mean... I don't know about that name, but I said it on Upgrade, and Jason was like, well, Fine Woven wasn't a good name. He's like, oh, yeah, you know what? They're both bad. I think... This was obvious, right? Like Apple replaced their leather cases with a new premium case option, which did not perform well.

They didn't do it again, so they ended up going last year with only the silicone, which you definitely know is not what they would prefer. They want to have... a expensive and more expensive phone case available for you to buy. So I would expect that the team that has been working, the team that I kind of feel sorry for in a way, because I bet it took a lot of time to find a replacement for leather.

And now they had to start that process all over again. However, I will say that team did not do a good job the first time around. Sorry to say it, but that case was bad. It was bad at basically not... It was bad at many of the things that a case needs to be good at. I will be intrigued to see what this feels like, what the kind of specs of it are.

Especially some of the stuff I just don't understand. Some of the leaks seem to suggest that the camera control area is just a cutout, which just feels like... I will be... shocked if they do that. That'd be pretty sad. I mean... I would be shocked if the silicone case has a little piece of sapphire in it, but the more expensive case, they're like, just jam your finger in there, you know? Like, who's it gonna hurt? So yeah, it's gonna be interesting.

There's going to be more eyes on this case than there would normally be eyes on a case. right like that's that's the problem that this product has nobody really paid that much attention to the apple leather cases year in and year out right like you knew what it was and you did it fine woven came out people weren't really paying attention to it until they started getting them and they were

weird and like they were acting strangely like you know like the they were getting all scuffed and stuff like that I think Stephen's ports were misaligned on his one like it just was didn't really seem to be like a very complete So, but now, you know, people are going to be taking keys to this thing as soon as they open the packaging. Plus, I'm sorry, I'm already going on about this now. It will be, they'll be under a particular amount of scrutiny because case.

talk and articles can be written in the time before the iPhones are out. And so all of the tech websites and also the tech podcasts like this one, we're looking for stories during that time, right? Like that week in between. And the cases usually arrive in the week in between. So you're kind of like, people will be wanting to put these things to the test because they need things to talk about. So it's going to be fascinating to see what happens.

I think they've probably learned their lessons here. And I hope this is good. You know, the leaks about this, they're reminiscent of the peak design cases, which I really like. And so I am hopeful that they get it right this time. But I haven't actually used an Apple first-party case since the fine-woven thing fell apart. I mean, there's lots of other good options out there. Apple has a lot of competition to get it right. They really need to.

Okay, my first round pick, the iPhone Pro and Pro Max have different camera systems. Hmm. I think... Well, I mean... I mean, technically they are always different because they're two different phones. So you could get this point on a technicality. Yes. A feature is different. You know what I'm saying. A feature is different between the two. My suspicion is that it's Zoom related.

but we'll see. These things have to be said on the podcast because, you know, if you're tied with one of us, you might try and, you know, weasel your way in by saying like, well, you know, you know. Different phone. But yes, so you think Zoom. That'd be my unofficial guess. Yeah. I found a weird rumor which seemed to suggest there was a rumor that suggested that there was the possibility of a mechanical aperture in the Pro Max. That you could change the aperture.

Mechanical. Okay, wow. Hey, maybe that's what camera control is good for. Actually controlling the camera. They should repurpose camera control for that instead of the weird swipe that nobody uses. I have camera control follow-up. I totally forgot. So I was setting up a new iPhone 16 for a family member this earlier this week. And in like the setup flow.

There's camera control and there's an option like in the setup. Do you want it just to be a button or do you want all the swipey stuff? And I think I didn't take a screenshot, but I think it defaulted to just be a simple button.

which I found interesting. And this was on iOS 18. It's a family member. I'm not putting them on the beta. Because they added that at a certain point, and I guess they just made that part of the setup flow, but you wouldn't necessarily see that unless you were starting fresh, right? Right. I'm not going to ask you about that. That's interesting. I was surprised that, I mean, and who knows, right? Like the camera is one of the camera app.

often has changes very late um i was surprised that the camera control button continued to work exactly the same in 26 me too honestly i think it's too complicated and my mind hasn't changed After a year, every once in a while, I turn it back on because I just use it as a button. I'm like, no, this is a mess in here. Yeah, I only ever use it to open the camera app. I don't take pictures of it because I just don't, I don't like.

the pressing of the button. I don't think it's a very comfortable button to press. So I use the on-screen camera button, but I do like having a dedicated button to open the camera from literally whatever. Same. I use it all the time for that.

Okay. That brings us into round two. Round two. My round two pick is the Pro iPhones have a wider rectangular camera bar on the back. Whereby rectangular, I mean, we know what I mean. Like, it's going to be wider and longer than the square-ish thing we have now. Yeah. Can we say rectangular-ish? Rectangular-ish, yes. I just want that in the official record. It's not a rectangular. Can we say squircle? Round-rect. Yeah.

I think it's going to, like, initially when I saw the leaks months and months ago, I thought, oh my God, that's so ugly. It is actually, it's kind of weird to say that a leaked design has been growing on me. I guess we'll see what the official... one looks like but it has been growing on me i think it's like i think i actually gonna like the more balanced um

Look, I don't know, maybe just a fashion thing that more and more phones are doing it now and my eyes are getting used to it as an idea. I don't know. It looks good on the Pixel phones. It does. This is a design that looks good on the Pixel phones. It is wild to me in a way for Apple to follow Google in hardware design, but like...

Google set this as like a thing. Everybody laughed at it. And then over time, it's like, you know what? This actually just looks good. It looks different. It looks modern because all the other phones, they're trying their best to... downplay it, right? Even though they're making them bigger all the time. But it's like, no, no, no, it's just one corner that's like this. The rest of the phone is fine. And I think people are going to dig it. Like, I think, you know...

It will pass the rocking test, which I'm pretty sure is only a thing YouTubers do. I don't know if anyone in real life really... Please don't write to me. Please don't. You know what I'm saying. All right, just stop. Not you two. Should you feel so offended by the fact that Mike said that nobody rocks their phone on a table in real life?

Please don't send us an email. Please don't. So I feel like, you know, it will make that part work. And I think people might like, you know, I don't know how it will feel to hold, but like... it might be like a thing where a lot of people could rest a finger right there or whatever, and it becomes like, for many of the reasons I use a pop socket, like the main one is...

It's not even extending it. It's just having something to rest my finger against. It just gives you a nice grip point. People might like it for that. I think it's going to go down well. And it's also going to serve the main purpose, which makes... every iPhone looked like a new one.

Thank you. I was going to say that because it's going to sound silly, but it gives you an instant way to tell that somebody's using a new iPhone and it's a good conversation starter with people in general. Like, hey, is that the new one? The regular iPhone 17 seems... to just basically look like the 16. I mean, nobody buys that, so please don't send me an email about that. You did! Last year, you did. Was it last year?

Yeah, I used the plus for a while. Yeah, you flip-flopped. Yeah, who's the flip-flopper now, son? Yeah, no, don't even try. Don't even go there, Steven. You are the... guru of it's true you know looking at my iphone 16 plus to make this thing rectangular doesn't even double it in size like it's already past the 50 mark width wise um

But I am excited about this. I think it looks really good. All right. My second round pick is that the Apple Watch Ultra finally goes to three. Ooh. Finally. Wow. About time. I need a new Apple Watch. I will say that this pick is not as basic as it looks on the surface. Because I could have just said the Apple Watch Ultra finally gets a revision. But I'm like, no. I'm going to put my... I'm going to say it's going to be the Apple Watch Ultra 3, which is, again, not like incredibly...

risky or anything, but I could have gone more safe than I did. They absolutely need to do this. How long are we going to do this thing? I do think that it will be a bit of a change. I think it will probably be... more like the Series 10, you know, in kind of like in design, like make the screen a little bit bigger, flatten out the sides, maybe make it thinner would be nice, but who knows if they'll get there.

I'm also going with a three. Apple announces AirPods Pro 3. So it's been a minute since we've had new AirPods Pro. I was thinking about this in this pic. It's kind of amazing how much Apple has added to AirPods Pro 2 over their lifetime, like in terms of features. And I think they're going to build on that.

I think unofficially the heart rate sensing stuff that came in those Beats headphones seemed like an obvious win for AirPods Pro 3. And yeah, I think we'll see them next to the iPhone. I think they want it to share the spotlight with the phone. Yeah. Be interesting to see what they actually do here, right? Like heart rate monitoring is one. Then there's been like a bunch of weird rumors, right? Like infrared cameras for, I don't know what.

Will they redesign it? What else is going to be in the AirPods Pro? Are they going to make significant changes to the sound profile again? Will they add any more modes? We've got adaptive mode. stuff like that. Here's what I want, actually. I'm going to just say this. This is a software thing. The conversational awareness mode, I should be able to turn that off for the music app.

Because I can't sing along to music. Yes. So I would like the ability to turn that off for the music app or use the power of Apple intelligence to understand that I'm singing along to the music I'm listening to. Also, in the future, like three years from now, when they have Apple glasses, the future that I imagine, I'm wearing Apple glasses and I'm wearing also AirPods.

I don't want the conversation awareness to kick in because the glasses recognize that I'm talking to my dogs. So that's the kind of AI I want to see. Oh, right. The glasses see the dogs. The glasses see the dogs. Exactly. Like, because I'm talking to them. I'm like, hey, like, I think also Jason had this problem. I mentioned an upgrade a few months ago.

recognize that i'm just talking to my dogs you don't need to pause because like they're not actually gonna talk back to me unfortunately although i want apple to do some kind of like super high quality like bone conduction or something you know like the where it doesn't actually make noise. Yeah. That would be cool. In the glasses, not in AirPods, obviously. Yeah. Anyway, that is round two, I think. Yes. Do we have any bonus round picks? No. Okay. Well, you know what's happening next. The ad.

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All right, Federico, let's get risky. Okay. So I think I am going to read my risky pick first, and then I'm going to explain the context and why I chose this one. So, as we know, the new risky pick format has an opening statement and three conditions. The opening statement is the new iPhone 17 Pro devices have additional Apple intelligence features. Condition number one. They have more RAM than other iPhones and can run on-device models faster. Number two.

The 17 Pros can run the 7 billion version of Apple Foundation model on device. Number 3. The 17 Pros get new image and or... camera related AI features. So here's what I'm thinking about here. Rumors are suggesting that the Pros and maybe the Air, as of a leak of today, will have 12 gigabytes of RAM as opposed to the previous 8 gigabytes of RAM.

that is on the current generation iPhone models. Currently, the on-device Apple intelligence that you have, the model that gets downloaded on your iPhone 16 or 16 Pro today... is the 4 billion model, small one. I believe 2-bit quantization they mentioned last year. Anyway, it's a small and kind of, I don't want to say dumb, but...

Kind of that. It's a very small and not so intelligent model that can run on your phone that only has 8 gigabytes of RAM. So it can run that model plus also let you use your phone normally. Now, as we have seen, especially in Android, Android land for the past 12 years, over the past year, it seems like 12 gigabytes of RAM. is the sweet spot right now. If you want to have a better model for on-device AI than the 4 billion Apple intelligence one, and also get to use your phone with multitasking.

Taking pictures, taking 4K videos, the usual stuff. So if Apple is doing 12GB of RAM on an iPhone, I could see, first of all, condition number one. They have more RAM than other iPhones and can run on-device models faster. I could see Apple say, well, Apple Intelligence, we have some big upgrades for Apple Intelligence on the new iPhones. First of all, it runs faster than your previous phone. Because, I mean...

time to first token, token generation per second, like those are all metrics that you can observe on a computer today, you can observe on a phone today. And I would imagine that Apple would like to say we have... better. We have the A19, we have more memory, your Apple intelligence tasks can run faster. I was thinking to myself, like, why...

did I even have a grounds to speak on this kind of stuff, right? Because like Apple intelligence, I just don't think you're seeing in the conversation, but... Then I thought about Johnny Sruji down in the lab. He just says stuff. He just says stuff. He's just out there, and he's like, my flops and tops are just the best, and you wouldn't believe it. And also if you want to be taken seriously in the AI industry, which I think Apple would like to be taken with some...

amount of seriousness at some point. You would need to show those metrics, right? If you are serious about AI and if you're serious about saying, well, our phones are AI phones also.

Just saying, well, on these new devices, with these new chips and this more memory, we can have a shorter time to first token when you ask a question. We can generate more tokens per second when you're waiting for a response. Especially, and this brings me to my second... condition especially if for the past three months you've been making such a big deal

out of the fact that your third-party developers will be able to tap into on-device foundational models, which is what's happening with iOS 26. Now... So you're Apple, you're making a big deal out of the fact that third-party developers can integrate with Apple Intelligence great. And when they do, all they get is the small and kind of bad 4 billion foundation model.

That's not, I mean, obviously that's not ideal, right? You would like to have developers use an even better model. So I think that there's an opening here for Apple to say on the new iPhones. third-party apps get automatically upgraded to the bigger 7 billion version of Apple Foundation model. Now, why that one? First of all, that is the current version that runs on private cloud compute. Oh. If you compare a 7 billion model and you sort of run...

Just do some research. You can get those kinds of models on Android running. There's plenty of cases of those models running on phones with 12 gigabytes of RAM. That seems like a... I mean, I... I have no doubt that you're right, but it seemed like quite a jump to me to be like the private cloud compute model can now run locally. That would be quite intense. Right, you would need to be quantized. So we need to be optimized for a phone rather than whatever.

what do they have, a Mac Studio in the cloud or something? I don't know. But, you know, I could see Apple saying on these new phones, we can have a bigger Apple intelligence model, which means... better responses, maybe more languages, you know, that kind of stuff. There was also a rumor a few months ago by Mark Gurman that Apple was testing bigger models in private car compute.

So I could see Apple basically progressively saying over time, some models will graduate to running on device, and in the cloud, we're going to progressively move to bigger and bigger models. And condition number three, I think they have to have some kind of response to the fact that Google and Samsung are absolutely running away with the idea that they have...

AI phones that have serious artificial intelligence based camera and image features. So the iPhone event is always an opportunity for Apple to showcase some new photos and camera stuff. And I think, I mean, they do this every year. And I think they're going to have some kind of AI angle here. I don't know what it is, but I think it's not. I would be surprised if it's just going to be, yeah, we have a better lens. You're going to take better pictures. That's it.

I think they're going to have something that is about Apple intelligence, that is about AI, and they're going to see it as part of the photos or camera segments. Did you see the... google photos gemini thing where you just like say what you want done to an image yeah does it apple has a white paper on it remember we talked about it last year natural language natural language editing

Project Raccoon something. You know, they all had weird names. No, it wasn't Raccoon, but yes, it was. I mean, why not? But yeah, Google have done that now, right? Like they're seeing Google Photos. So maybe something like that. I don't know. Also, a bigger model also lets you do that. Stephen, you might be able to help me with this question.

A19 Pro, which would be the chip that we would expect to see, is this the first time we see kind of like a core that would go to the M5? Or is this M4? I don't... remember what way around it goes i don't remember okay maybe the discord is is the a19 pro gonna be the one on the updated uh three nanometer process I think the A18 Pro was, wasn't it? Yeah, the A18 is the second generation.

Well, is it the second generation of the first third nanometer or is it a new third nanometer? No, the A19 Pro will be the third generation three nanometer process. Jason says it's the same core as the M5. So that's the information that I was looking for. He's the person to know that. So all that to say...

That's another reason why you would spend time talking about the AI performance in this chip is because the people that care about what Apple might do over the next year in their hardware, this would be the first implication of the capabilities of it, right?

In theory, yeah. Yeah. All right, cool. My pick, I'm innovating on a format of risky picks that I created in September of 2021, which informs the current. system where I made a pick about the iPad mini and just like threw a bunch of stuff. My pick was a new iPad mini is introduced for a fresh design, new colors, previously not part of the product, USB-C, smart connector, and 5G support.

I got everything except a smart connector. It was a heartbreak. But the point of that was I couldn't think of anything super risky anymore, so I'm just going to make it risky by throwing stuff at it. And so this time... My pick begins with Apple announces the iPhone Air, which that's not risky, but now I'm going for it in the details. So, detail number one.

It weighs between 146 to 148 grams. That is so specific. So either 146, 7 or 8. The reason that this is also risky is all the rumors say 145. And I'm just going to say that no one really knows. So I'm going 146 to 148. It does not have the worst quoted battery life of the 17 line. it will be equal or better than the 17. Wow. Setting that baseline. I have two ways that I think they might be able to do this. One is a new battery technology.

Yeah, which seems like they're going to do. The other is, do you remember all those rumors of an AI-powered battery optimization? Like, there is battery optimization stuff going on in 26, but it's not... powered by Apple intelligence. There's a lot of rumor about Apple intelligence powered. My thought is a combination of new battery technology and software, they may be able to get a smaller

milliamp hour battery to last as long as the 17 on the specs they give, at least. That's my thought. Apple has set... kind of like the baseline of a battery, right? And they do this in all their products. I'm sure they will, if they can't do it, they can't do it, but I'm sure that they will try by hook or by quirk to not make it seem like this phone has like terrible battery life, you know? Point three, the iPhone Air is more expensive than the iPhone Pro. Yeah, I think that may be right.

For a couple of reasons. One, as Jason said on Upgrade, and Federico said earlier, that fourth iPhone spot that the Mini was in and now the Plus is in has struggled. And so maybe Apple... abandons that price point for now i think they also can't build this phone at that price point but i think most importantly this phone i think like is a on-ramp to a foldable

And that phone is going to be expensive. And so this is a step in that direction. Yeah. Well, but that will be a fifth phone. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, in terms of price point, like starting price point.

There's going to be a lot of R&D costs in this phone. Yeah. And they're going to make you pay for that. Yeah. And so, yeah, I just imagine... I don't think there is any need for this to be... in that spot yeah right that like what is it like 899 spot i just can't i also just can't imagine it would fit in that spot like this phone is so weird yeah i think that would mean they have to cut things

and it makes it less of a good phone. Like for me, one thing I really want, if the Air doesn't have it, it takes it off the table for me, is like an always-on display. I really like it. I use it all the time at my desk. $899, maybe they have to give that up. But at whatever you're thinking, $12.99, $11.99, whatever, maybe they don't. My expectation is it's $10.99. So it sits between... the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro Max, if those prices remain, right? Like those prices, the iPhone...

The iPhone 17 Pro might come in at $10.99 to begin with. There's a rumor that they're going to be more expensive but come with more storage. It's like an offset. That doesn't make a difference. It's still more expensive. You know what? It's like you can tell me it's for that, but it's more expensive. But yeah, I think that it will go price-wise will be 17, 17 Pro, 17S, 17 Pro Max. That's what I think.

it will be. I have a question about your first point. It weighs between 146 and 148 grams. Does that mean it can weigh 146, 147, or 148? Yes, that's what he said. Does that need to be in writing? Doesn't it mean that? I think it does. There's a hyphen in between the numbers, so technically that's a range of grams.

I figure it means that. I don't know. But I don't know how words work. This is mine. I think I've purposefully gone, I think, a bit contrarian of a lot of the things that people think this phone's going to be.

But this is also the phone I want. You know what I mean? Like, make the battery life good. Make it more expensive than the Pro so you've actually put... what it needs in there i agree with you steven like well i think all these phones i think it's ridiculous that like the 17 well it's ridiculous that the 16 doesn't have a promotion display with always on right like The whole line should have that now. I'm hoping maybe this is the year they do it because they kind of...

I think they kind of have to do it with the Air. Although the problem with the Air is, well, always on means battery life. This one doesn't have a big battery. I don't know. Maybe it's always on, but like... There's not an option to have the wallpaper, so it's more like OLED-y. They changed the way that it works by default. It was on display in 26. They made it blurry. Yeah, so you could read your notifications.

You think that's why they did that? I guarantee you that's why it is. Interesting, interesting. But yeah, I turned that off. I don't know why they made that change, but they did it. Okay, my risky pick. I am so ready for this one. I cannot wait. Please do it. Say it. The iPhone Pro and Pro Max come in a unique finish. It refracts slash reflects light. It has a rainbow effect as light passes over it. Apple calls this finish glass.

Unbelievable. What are you doing? Are you sure? And especially the first point. Steven. Are you sure you don't want to change this? Yeah. The first point is literally... It refracts, reflects light? It is. First of all, it's like... Those are like two completely opposite things. I'm encompassing light interacting with it. That's what I'm getting after.

I mean, this isn't happening, right? I feel like you must know this. It would have to be a transparent iPhone made of glass-like material. And what exactly is it going to refract or reflect? Light. Light. He said it right there. Right. Which, what light? What light? The light. The light of the world. From inside and outside.

You're walking under a streetlight and you get a little... Steven, don't do this. Do you want to lose? I don't understand. It felt like you were just like, I just don't want to win this one. I told you this days ago and you stuck with it. Brought to you by the people who suggested Apple was going to make a DAC. There's no way this could be in development and we don't know about it. But there were rumors about it. No, there wasn't. Yeah.

There were people saying just absolutely unhinged things about iPhones and liquid glass and light will refract. That was just people saying stuff. It wasn't anything. What rumors? Find me the rumors. Mac rumors. Tim Hardaway. Mac rumors. Okay. A new rumor out of China today has sparked speculation that Apple may be writing a unique new iPhone 17 Pro color that somehow reflects the new design language of its iOS.

26 design. Where is this? I'll put it in Discord. Boop. The leaker only claims to have heard of it, but not seen it. Stop reading! seems to believe that the color is what previous leaks have simply referred to as white. Quote, but it appears differently depending on the lighting. White. Anthony burned me down on the Discord. Stephen is trying to balance his lead in the St. Jude competition to give Mike a chance. Oh, that's nice of you. Yeah. I'm ahead by 130 points.

A white based material that subtly shifts hues depending on light and angle. On Wednesday, a Macworld report claimed to reveal all of the colors that each iPhone 17 model will come in. Allegedly based on an internal document, the report listed white as a color option for all models, including the iPhone 17, 17... Air, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max. Steven, once again, are you sure you want to have this risky pick? Okay. Well, respect. Respect? Well, we all look silly, you know?

If they have the liquid glass phone. If they have the liquid glass phone, I will do something in your hardware that I will think about. Wow. Okay. I mean, with a promise like that, how could a... Not going to go wrong. Yeah. Okay. To restate our risky picks, Federico says, the new iPhone 17 Pro devices have additional Apple intelligence features.

Mike says Apple introduces the iPhone Air and he made some very specific guesses about weight and price. And then I said the iPhone Pro and Pro Max come in a unique finish called glass. It is now time for...

The Flexies. The Flexies is a game held after each edition of the Rickies. 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, and ties will be broken by using dice by Peacalc. Please lie down as the rules are read.

Host must make a minimum of five flexi picks. Each correct pick is awarded one point. Wrong picks do not remove any points and no partial points may be awarded. The winner is determined by comparing the percentage of correct Flexis made by each host. The winner can use their chosen title as long as they are the winner. Federico shall be named Prince Flexi and is known as King Flexi when having won both the keynote annual games.

Mike has chosen Duke of Flexington and uses the name Archduke Flexington when applicable. I am the Attorney General Flexy and uses the title Secretary of Deflex when necessary. Loser of the Flexies must compensate the winner of the Flexies by donating to a charity of the winner's choice. Obviously, this month, I would assume that is at stjude.org slash relay.

The amount of the donation is $25 per wrong fucksy made by the loser. The money must be donated on air. If someone holds all four titles, they are allowed to choose their own nickname.

You may be seated. All right. I get to go first because I won the flexes at WWDC. I have six. For now. For now. The iPhone watch, the iPhone watch, the Apple watch ultra series three has a larger screen than the ultra two. Bump it up a little bit. iOS 26 gets a release date of the week of September 15th. Don't want to pick a day, huh? A week is enough. It's not a risky. Is it?

Yeah. Flexies aren't open to judging by the others. I'm just asking. I'm just asking if you've got it or not. Because in your previous round, it seemed like you really had something. And now I'm just like, hey, you know, you do. Apple releases a new external iPhone battery. Jaws introduces the pro iPhones in a dark setting. Hmm. Apple announces AirTags 2. And number six, the iPhone Air is the quote, one more thing. You're on this train too, huh? I am.

I'm going down the rails of history. Okay. All right. I have nine for now, matching. Well, we'll see. I had nine.

Just want everyone to know, I had nine, and Federico had six, and now Federico's seen that I have nine, and now he has nine. You've got to match the high end. You've got to have a... Wait until you see another 11 I have ready to pay. Okay, all right, cool. We'll see. Number one, Apple has a new lanyard accessory for the iPhone. Number two, AirTags 2 feature ultra-wideband support.

Number three, Apple announces a partnership with Google for Gemini. Don't AirTags already have ultra wideband? Do they? Isn't that like their whole thing? You can do precision finding. Is it? Uh, isn't that the rumor? Yes, Apple designed U1 chip for ultra-wideband. Yeah. Why don't you say, I think the rumor is... enhanced or improved i think the idea is yeah like a new generation ultra wideband will be able to support it from further away i think new generation ultra wideband technology

That's how you can walk to it, right? Because if it's Bluetooth, it can't be like, it's over there, it's over here, that kind of thing. Yeah, new generation ultra wideband technology. Steven, you have stairs in your new house. I do. I wonder if you've yet come across the fact where you're trying to find something and it's like, this might be on another floor. Have you done that yet? I have not had that happen.

So it can point you, you can walk towards it, and you're getting closer to it, but the phone knows you're not actually closer based on where it's telling you to go, and it pops up and it's like, this may be on another floor. And that's when you know to go over upstairs or downstairs to find your AirPods. I will have to check that out. Yeah. Anyway, number three, Apple announces a partnership with Google for Gemini.

Because they're allowed to be as friendly as they like now. This is something we didn't cover, but Apple can keep getting that sweet, sweet money, and no one's happier about this. They will get the money, and if they build a search engine, they will get the data from Google.

google so that's nice yep tim's a winner yeah number four all iphones have a pro motion display i think it's time we're gonna do it number five some of the new iphones have a redesigned thermal system and big time you know you know that they they should do it these phones get hot man um number six all iphones

Have an improved selfie camera. So, better front-facing camera. Yeah. Do you think they're going to say slowfies again? That is a word I haven't heard in such a long time. And I hope to never hear... Again, number seven, the back of the Pro iPhones looks different. I really hope they did the two-tone thing because it also has been growing on me. Yeah, that's what you mean. Yeah, I want that. I want that.

Yeah, that's going to be really cool. Did you hear? I also was thinking about this. Again, sometimes I just have to reuse things I say on Upgrade to Connect. It doesn't happen very often, but it will always happen in the prediction episodes. Wow. Because... titanium made the phones lighter. You go back to aluminum and glass, they're going to go back to where they were and wait. No, no, no, no. I heard you say that on Upgrade, and you were wrong on Upgrade, and you're wrong here.

They were steel. They were lighter than steel. No one's given me any feedback, so am I really wrong? I don't think so. I think so. What's light, a titanium or aluminum? I think aluminum. You said you think. That doesn't sound like... I mean, they moved to titanium because they were steel. We'll see. Okay. Nevertheless, I still want it to be light, and it will make it light if they replace the gloss. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Number eight. Shortcuts. Use model action for Apple intelligence is mentioned slash shown on screen. They could use all the good stuff they can get. When talking about Apple intelligence, they use model action. It's pretty cool. And number nine, iOS 26 comes out on Monday, September 15th. Love it.

Also, by the way, aluminum is lighter than titanium. There you go. Chad GPT about it. Can you trust that? There's also a bunch of people in the Discord. Can we trust them? I don't know. They're all bots.

All right. Oh my God, Mike added some. Yeah, all right. I've got 11 so far. Number one, no iPhone color has the word orange in its name. Even if it's orange, they ain't calling it that. That's my thought. The iPhone line is called 17. Okay. It's not going to be 26. The iPhone 17 Air has a ProMotion display. Okay. There is an iPhone Air bumper case. Okay. Because you've still got to feel how thin that thing is, you know? Mac display for the pro iPhone. Ooh.

I wish. I know. When I wrote this down, I basically wrote it down because of how excited it would make you. Why not though, right? They've worked out how to do it. It's an option. Obviously, it's an option. It's not the... display but it's like on the ipad pro you can choose why can't you do it on the iphone pro yes yes for all the same reasons why not let's just do it please yeah new headband for the vision pro

Ooh. Ooh, okay. Okay. The iPhone 17 Air is pulled from an envelope. I'll be so mad if they don't do this. Or maybe your buddy John Turnus can wear really tight jeans. You can't even see it. Don't look too close. Is there an iPhone in your pocket? You couldn't tell. You couldn't tell. It's not what you think. Oh, my word. I've gone a bit hot and bothered now. Steven, you've got to be on this wavelength for me, the iPhone 17 Air. Yeah, I think I'm on the wavelength. Coming from an envelope?

It'd be cool. It'd be cool. With the iPad Air, they hid it behind an Apple Pencil, right? I think was what they did for that one. And then famously, or famous in my own mind, for the iPad Air 2, they had a laser cut the pencil down. And the iPad Air 2 was behind it. That was sick. I had a thought the other day that I've just had again. I had this thought while I was holding my child, so I couldn't look it up. So there's an answer to this question. When did the iPhone...

The iPad Air become a thing. Like, they didn't... go from iPad to iPad Air and back to iPad again, right? Like, the iPad was always available when they had the iPad Air, right? You know what I mean? Like, they added it as a product, right? They didn't... Wasn't it in... Okay. 2013? The first iPad Air was 2013. It replaced the iPad 4. My thought was right. Well, no. The iPad 4...

October 2012 to October 2014, the iPad 5th generation was not until 2017. So there was a gap where there was no regular iPad. I'm sorry, I phrased it incorrectly. My original thought was that the iPad Air was on its own. Yes. And then I was like, really? Because then I was trying to think like when... Because then I was lost in what the iPad Air was. The iPad Air did used to just look like the iPad. It wasn't like the iPad Air now that looks like the iPad Pro.

Correct. You know what I mean? Right. So that was fast because they also did that thing with the new iPad. Right. They did that too. Yeah. The new iPad. That was the third one. That was the third one. Yeah. All of this came from me starting the thought of, do you remember how good the iPad Mini 2 was? That was the thought that I had, and then it sent me down this, like, what was the names of all the iPads? Like, I guess, what am I going to do? I can't do anything except hold this.

child and it's got to be dark in the room. And so I was just thinking about iPads. I feel like Federico probably does that kind of stuff. Number eight, Apple specifically calls out the blood oxygen features of the Apple Watch. Yeah, because they've not been allowed to talk about it for a long time. But they're getting sued again, so I don't think they will. I don't think they care if they're shipping it. Maybe. Right?

They're not being sued again, though, right? Massimo just said some stuff. It's still available. It hasn't been taken off, but... The 17 line is all made of aluminium. All of them. iOS 26 comes out on Tuesday, September 16th. I really hope you're right. Look against... Why not, you know? Yeah, yeah. That's pick 10. Pick 11. No date for macOS Tahoe.

Oh, John is going to be so happy and so upset at the same time. Yeah. Because I think they'll talk about it in October. It'll be an October event. Man, I would be so jealous of John if that's the case. Yeah. I think it... I think Tahoe needs some more time in the oven. I added one. Oh, wow. Okay. Just one. There is an orange iPhone Pro. Now, what are you saying here?

Like I'm just intrigued because I said no iPhone has the word orange in its name, right? You're saying it's just orange by the eye or orange in the name? Yeah, yeah. Orange by the eye? Okay. There is an iPhone Pro. That is orange by the eye. What color is copper? Copper, I think, is different than orange. I think it's got more pink in it.

Right, but this is why I'm asking you that question, because I think it will be a copper. Number eight. I think it will be orange. There is an iPhone Pro that is copper. You just stole it straight from my mouth. Number 10. The new... iPhone Pro color is called Tangerine. That's very orange. Yeah. Yeah. iMac G3 Tangerine. Okay. Number 12. The new iPhone color is cold rust. No. Why not? Why not? Why not? Okay. Why not? Number nine. Maybe it is.

The new iPhone Pro color is called copper. Oh, wait, isn't that... You have orange by the eye and copper by the eye. It's the flexies, baby. Come on, Steven. Spread them out. You could do whatever you want, but like, come on. Come on. I thought that you were saying it was going to be called copper. So now we have orange by the eye and copper by the eye. And it's called copper. Come on. I feel like you're letting your orange side down by just like now saying it's copper.

you know i'm here to win number 11 the iphone air is introduced with a video that shows it appear that makes it appear from behind an iPhone 17 Pro laying flat on a surface. So here's my question for you. Did they do that or did they do like the other thing? You know what I mean? Is it like the iPhone, maybe they pick it up and it's an iPhone 6 and they pick it up again and then there's like a, that'd be cool. I don't know. Number 13. Oh my God.

Tim Cook says iPhone 17 air before anyone else. Okay. Yeah. Makes sense. I think he's going to take the one more thing. Okay. Is that it? I think I'm done. I think I'm done. I think I'm done. All right. Steven? I'm done. Okay. All right. Well, those are the picks, boys.

If you want to find us to make fun of our picks, we are on the internet. Federico is the editor-in-chief of Mac Stories. the host of a bunch of other podcasts. Mike hosts many other shows on Relay, and you can find his blog at theenthusiast.net. I'm the writer of 512 Pixels and I co-host Mac Power Users here on Relay. We have a bunch of links for you in the show notes. You can find the game at rookies.co and rookies.net. But the link I would encourage you the most to click is the top one.

to go to stjew.org slash relay and donate to our campaign for saving lives. Go check that out. I'd like to thank our sponsors this week, Squarespace and Turbulence Forecast. And until next week when we judge these picks, boys. Say goodbye. Arrivederci. Cheerio. Bye, y'all.