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M3 MacBook Air Hands-On and Epic Apple Drama in the EU

/ 01:04:05/E11
Stephen Robles:

I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further. Welcome to Primary Technology, the show about the tech news that matters. This week we have reviews of the new M3 MacBook Air. Jason has it in hand, so we're gonna get to talk about that.

Stephen Robles:

Huge drama between Epic Games and Apple in the EU and the iOS 17 dot 4 update. Also, Apple was fined $2,000,000,000 and more. This episode is brought to you by One Tap, one of my favorite apps. I use it all the time for quick access to links, text, and documents on your iPhone. We'll talk about that in a little bit.

Stephen Robles:

I'm one of your hosts, Steven Robles, and, of course, joining me as always, my good friend, Jason Aitin. How's it

Jason Aten:

going, Jason? It's good. It's been a long morning, but

Stephen Robles:

it's good. As we record, so listeners and viewers, Jason is going to publish his M3 MacBook Air review live on the Air. It's gonna be very exciting. He's gonna click a button. Won't even be able to see it because it's off camera, but he's gonna do it, and then the review will be up, and I'll be able to share my screen, and then you could see it.

Stephen Robles:

Exciting. You have the you have the m 3. Did you get the, 13 inch or 15 inch?

Jason Aten:

I did get I have the 13 inch. Yes. That I think it well, I'll explain that when we get to the I I reviewed the 13 inch.

Stephen Robles:

Okay. Very good. And as we as we record so there's now 6 minutes before Jason can publish this article and I can show it on the screen. So we have to we have to cover 6 minutes here and that's what we're gonna do, but it's not a problem because so many of you, again, left 5 star ratings and reviews in Apple Podcasts. We really appreciate it.

Stephen Robles:

We're like in the top 100 ish tech podcast, you know, when we release a new episode, and after, you know, a couple months and 10 episodes, it's very, kind of you guys to keep supporting the show. So thank you for that. One other ask, we are 14 subscribers away from 500 on YouTube. Oh. So even if you don't watch it, just head over to YouTube and subscribe to the channel because we're about to hit 500.

Stephen Robles:

Very exciting. Five star shout outs, which first of all, Zach White, who listens to the show, he actually sent a gift of the movie that I quoted in last episode, which I find to be a very fun game if if which I think today's quote is a little easier to find. Yeah. Last week was The Transporter, and so he sent me a a gift of that, so that was fun. But 5 star reviews and yes, every single one of them said they put their battery percentage on, Jason.

Stephen Robles:

Every single one of them said it.

Jason Aten:

I just appreciate the consistency in how wrong you were.

Stephen Robles:

It's very consistent. Anyway, but Pablo Felix junior. How's it going Pablo? Jd76 dollar signs, a mama seat route. I don't know where these names come from.

Stephen Robles:

Do you like, I it's been so long since I've created, like, an iTunes or Apple ID. Do you know how these names

Jason Aten:

Are they just their Apple ID? Is that what that is? Because I can't actually figure out how to leave a review, so I don't know for sure. But if I do, I'm assuming it would just be, like, the first the letters before the at whatever at Icloud or whatever.

Stephen Robles:

I would think so. That also seems like a huge security flaw if that's what Apple's doing. Like, basically

Jason Aten:

It also seems ridiculous that this might actually be some people's use Apple IDs.

Stephen Robles:

Well, and some of these, even in today's 5 star reviews, there's spaces between the

Jason Aten:

words Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

Which you can't have for an Apple ID.

Jason Aten:

That's true.

Stephen Robles:

Anyway Okay. Rhcoat, battery percentage on. Smileyd62, battery percentage on. Gamman 114, and this you can kinda see, like, when the reviews start coming in after the episode Yep. Releases because now we have people saying whether they use Apple Maps or Google Maps which is great because we're gonna talk about that in our personal text section.

Stephen Robles:

He uses Apple Maps. There's another language review. I could I can't read it, but thank you for that. They use Waze for driving, Apple for walking in transit, which I thought was interesting. Alvin b, Richard Scarry, which I think my kids have seen his show.

Stephen Robles:

So Richard Scarry uses Apple Maps. Unbelievable. Don't update. Again, I can't I don't think it's an Apple ID. That's a sentence.

Stephen Robles:

I don't know what that means. S p s one's battery on. Monkman02 battery on. The manniarizario has some annoyances. I don't know if you can have it.

Stephen Robles:

I have a Apple ID. Loreb's battery on. Mhmm. Dirk Pitt 73 said the other guy is great.

Jason Aten:

Look at that.

Stephen Robles:

Called you out.

Jason Aten:

That's good.

Stephen Robles:

Did you see that I I did the whole transcript for the last episode as the other guy?

Jason Aten:

I did and didn't didn't it get, like, picked up by transistor or something like that or I don't

Stephen Robles:

even know. Thank you for sharing, Justin. Yes. Yes. It did.

Stephen Robles:

Yeah. I won't do that every week. I'll go actually. That's alright. P Marriott, who is concerned about my caffeine take.

Stephen Robles:

It's okay. I'm concerned too. Speaking of which, I'm gonna drink some coffee.

Jason Aten:

I promise you that when I saw monkman02, I swear that because I I do look at these. I glance through them just to make sure that I haven't made anyone else mad. And when I saw that, I swear I thought that said said Mark Gurman. And I thought Oh. Not only would that be cool if he was listening, Mark Gurman, a reporter for Bloomberg, but also I was just feeling super vindicated.

Jason Aten:

And I thought, like, maybe we had a scoop that he has his battery percentage on. But no shade to Monk, man. Thank you for leaving a review, and thank you for leaving your battery percentage on. But it I did for a moment think, wow. We have a story.

Stephen Robles:

So That would be awesome. Listen, Mark Gurman, if you're listening, we we would like to know

Jason Aten:

that. I I agree.

Stephen Robles:

He included one of my shortcuts videos in his newsletter one time about the, action button. So, you know, we're like one degree away.

Jason Aten:

There you go.

Stephen Robles:

There you go. And, bguss 88 is the last 5 star review. Thank you all for those. Keep them coming. If you haven't rated the show, you can do that.

Stephen Robles:

The audience is growing slowly every week, and so thank you for that. You know, 11 episodes in and, been great. So really appreciate everyone, and go subscribe to YouTube channel as well. Now Jason is sitting in front of I don't know the square inches of of displays you're sitting in front of, but right now, you have an M3 MacBook Air and 2 studio display. Is that right?

Jason Aten:

That is true. I have I'll I feel like I could actually launch maybe not a spaceship, but something. I could launch something. I could set my bar my shed on fire for sure if I tripped over a cord.

Stephen Robles:

But but if you open the MacBook Air Lid, then one of those shut off.

Jason Aten:

Well, that's true. They are not currently connected to the MacBook Air. They're actually connected to my MacBook Pro because I thought what could be better than, you know, recording a podcast that we also record for YouTube with a loaner review unit that doesn't actually have everything? This is the midnight. No one will be able to see this before 9 o'clock.

Jason Aten:

You know? And I actually we're not even supposed to talk about the review time, but by the time anyone sees this or hears it, it will be after that.

Stephen Robles:

It'll be after.

Jason Aten:

That's the beauty

Stephen Robles:

of this recording. Yeah. We're now seconds away. I know you're watching the clock, and I'm also watching the clock. It is

Jason Aten:

deep. Mostly just stalling. You know what we could've done, Steven? We could've been, like, could we

Stephen Robles:

Oh, it's 9 o'clock. Wait. Wait. It's 9 AM. You gotta you gotta publish it.

Stephen Robles:

You gotta publish it. Just get to it. So right now, Jason is is going to whatever system he uses to publish articles. I don't know. And he is going to publish his M3 MacBook Air review at the exact embargo time and then he's going to send me the link.

Jason Aten:

This is worst. And then

Stephen Robles:

I'm going to open that link.

Jason Aten:

This is the worst podcasting of all time.

Stephen Robles:

But there you go. This is exciting because this is like a live embargo release.

Jason Aten:

Now there you go.

Stephen Robles:

I've never been a part of this.

Jason Aten:

So the in case some people are probably wondering, like, couldn't you just schedule your review for whatever time you've agreed to publish it? And the answer is yes. You could, but I promise you no one does because there is no CMS in the world that any of us who use them every day trust enough to honor that. Now most of the articles that I write, I do schedule. But when it's a review that you've agreed not to publish before a certain time, that's the way it works.

Jason Aten:

Companies will say, hey. Would you like this piece of hardware to review? In agreement, you agree that you'll publish at a certain time. That's fine. Like, I have no problem honoring an embargo like that.

Jason Aten:

So you go ahead and you just do that. But when you write your review and you are paranoid like I am that the CMS might just one day decide, we'll just publish everything at midnight. We'll just do it. And then then Jason doesn't get anything. Listen.

Jason Aten:

It's not unforeseen that that kind of a thing could happen or Oh, no. No. Even worse, I might just put the wrong date in. So, anyway, all of that was simply just to not just give you a behind the scenes peek, but to stall long enough for the Internet to send the link that I sent to Steven so that Steven

Stephen Robles:

could open it.

Jason Aten:

There you go.

Stephen Robles:

Here it is.

Jason Aten:

Here it is.

Stephen Robles:

The M3 MacBook Air review. That was very exciting. This is exactly the embargo time. Yeah. I trust YouTube for publish dates, I will say.

Stephen Robles:

I've scheduled a couple YouTube videos at an embargo time but it's, you know, it's YouTube. I get it. Mhmm. Alright. So you have a 13 inch m 3 MacBook Air.

Stephen Robles:

You've had it for a few days. This is your big review. I've already read it because I gave it preview. Oh, maybe I shouldn't say that.

Jason Aten:

That's fine. We're good.

Stephen Robles:

That's okay. Okay. I don't wanna

Jason Aten:

let you know. He speed read it while I was stalling. That that's really why I kept talking.

Stephen Robles:

Exactly. And, so here here it is. If you're watching youtube.com/atprimarytechshow, there's that m 3 MacBook Air connected to 2 Studio displays powering both, which is a a new feature, standout feature of this, if you open the lid of the MacBook Air, then one of them turns off. Is it random which one turns off, or is it consistent?

Jason Aten:

I believe I did not ask the question. I do believe that there is a system to it. I did not spend enough time plugging and unplugging displays to figure out which one. Because the first time I did it, I actually did take a photo of it, which is really weird because people just see a photo of a laptop with the screen open and one screen on and one screen off. It's it's kinda meaningless.

Stephen Robles:

But doesn't make any sense.

Jason Aten:

But then I did it again later, but I don't actually know if I plugged the 2 cords into the same port. Right? So so there but I will say but here's the thing. That doesn't seem to matter in terms of the computer recognizing the position of them, which port I've plugged into. It because I'm I'm assuming they have, like, a serial number, and the computer's just like, oh, yeah.

Jason Aten:

You wanted this one over there and this one over there. So it's pretty pretty cool. But it did know that when I so I'm using the MacBook Pro right now. This is turning out to be a review of multi displays, not actually the Mac 3 MacBook Air. But We'll

Stephen Robles:

get to the air. We'll get to the air.

Jason Aten:

But it does know that my my laptop is in the middle. I don't know how it knows that, but it just when I moved my mouse across, it just was like, oh, yeah. You must have that there. So anyway

Stephen Robles:

Well, the universal control, like, if you do the little control center displays, I mean, you could always move it around, like, it it it assumes where certain things are. It uses magic. Anyway Yeah. Alright. Well, tell me, so you reviewed I I do not have the M3 MacBook Air, so I cannot speak to it, but you reviewed it.

Stephen Robles:

Mostly, it's less fingerprinty. Tell me tell me about it.

Jason Aten:

If you ever used an M2 MacBook Air, you've used an M3 MacBook Air. It's just this one has one more number. It's an M3. But the thing is, the M2 MacBook Air, and I wrote this at the time, was basically the best laptop I thought that Apple had ever made for most people. Right now, I have the m 3 Max, MacBook Pro sitting here.

Jason Aten:

It's a better overall computer. Steven has

Stephen Robles:

M 3 pro.

Jason Aten:

You have a Mac studio. But you also have a Mac Studio.

Stephen Robles:

Studio.

Jason Aten:

When the Mac Studio gets the M3 Ultra in it, it'll be Oh. Obviously way better than this. That's fine. The M3 version is the same I mean, if you've seen an M2, you've seen the M3. Although, if you've seen a midnight M2, you probably had turn away in horror because of the fingerprints.

Jason Aten:

And the m 3 is not as fingerprinty. It's definitely an improvement. K. Probably not as fingerprint resistant as the space gray or the silver Okay. Or even the starlight, but it is definitely better than the previous version.

Jason Aten:

The previous version, people like, you never see them in public because the owners are ashamed to take them in public because they're just covered with grease.

Stephen Robles:

I do see when I wear whenever I've been to an Apple store, I see the midnight, and if it's like a clean midnight, it looks nice. Like, I'll see it on the table. I'm, like, oh, man. It's a nice color. But then if you go see a different Midnight, and it's all like, a lot of people have touched it, and Apple hasn't gotten a chance to, like, buff it out Yep.

Stephen Robles:

It's pretty it was pretty gross.

Jason Aten:

It is pretty bad. Different. Although, it has Wi Fi 6 e. That's, like, the other big upgrade to it. And just so reviewing it, normally, you can't review a product after having it for only a few days.

Jason Aten:

But the thing is I already knew everything about this computer because I've been using an M2 MacBook Air for a while. And before that, an M1 MacBook Air. They do the same sort of thing. Like, there are probably some things that I'll find over some time because I'll I'll continue using this for a while. So the the gist of my review, though, is that Apple essentially is at this phase where, yes, they're just giving spec bump bumps to these things, but that's fine because they're already so good that they don't need to, like, completely reinvent technology to make these laptops better.

Jason Aten:

Right. But they are addressing the things that people seem to care about, which in this case, the dual display, people just sort of look at it like, why? It has a monitor, and you can plug it into a monitor. That's 2 displays. How come I can't just have 2 of them external?

Jason Aten:

And now you can if the lid is closed, which still seems kind of arbitrary. But, hey, it's a thing that people wanted, and Apple is addressing those things. There was a time Yeah. Remember the butterfly keyboard? Time was.

Jason Aten:

Where Apple did not care what people wanted. Johnny Ive was just like, this is the way. He did a British accent. This is the way how you many years. And that was just what you got.

Jason Aten:

And if you wanted to use an apple product, you got whatever Johnny Ive thought you should have. Now at least they're they are they are changing that. I guarantee you the fingerprints was by far the biggest complaint, and I guarantee you number 2 was the dual display support. I don't know. Somebody's gonna argue with me that that's not the correct order, but they've addressed both of those things, and it's great.

Jason Aten:

It's exactly what you

Stephen Robles:

need. Right. So it looks like a great laptop. I mean, and Apple has said the world's best selling laptop. I think they claim it

Jason Aten:

Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

Pretty regularly or the the world's most popular laptop. A couple questions.

Jason Aten:

Well, let me let me let me answer a question you didn't ask. So Yeah, please. What does this thing do that other that the previous versions don't? Well, the answer's basically nothing. Although Apple will tell you and, actually, in their press release, they said that this is the best consumer laptop for AI.

Stephen Robles:

Oh, right. Right. Right.

Jason Aten:

Anything about AI in my review because it's completely like, it's just words that you put when you have nothing else to say about a product because it's just that good. So you have to come up with things because it's like, you know what the you know what the m three MacBook Air is really good at? Running Microsoft Copilot inside Microsoft 365. Now the thing you have to understand about that is none of that happens on your computer.

Stephen Robles:

It's all in the cloud.

Jason Aten:

Every computer may like, I have I've told Steve, I have a 2013 MacBook Air that doesn't even have a retina screen and I think has a Intel Core I 3 with, you know, 4 gigs of RAM. And it will run at the same.

Stephen Robles:

It will.

Jason Aten:

Because it's all happening. It's not running. It's all happening on an Azure server somewhere else in, you know, the out in the world. So as long as you have Wi Fi, it'll be just fine. So I I don't know.

Jason Aten:

Like, now I did put Whisper, you know, Mac Whisper, the which is the the transcription Yeah. Service that uses chat gbt. And I did compare it to, both the, m three Max MacBook Pro and an M2 MacBook Air. Yeah. And as you would expect, it came in in between them.

Jason Aten:

The the Max is, like, way faster. And I think the reason is it has, like, 3 times the GPU course. So So you would expect it to be faster. Right.

Stephen Robles:

Exactly.

Jason Aten:

And it's a little bit faster than the m two was. Not a lot. I you know, my back of the napkin, it was probably about 15% faster. So if that's a thing you do all the time, you probably still shouldn't buy this if you have an m 2. Like and, actually, that's the other thing that was interesting.

Jason Aten:

Sorry. I feel like I'm rambling, but I just wanna make this one more

Stephen Robles:

point. No. You you have

Jason Aten:

the review. Is I I heard some feedback from people before like, after this was announced. Hey. Why does Apple keep comparing this thing to Intel MacBook Airs? No one still has them.

Jason Aten:

Yes. They do. A lot of people still have Intel MacBook Airs. You know why? Because normal people keep their computers for 5 or 6 or 7 years.

Jason Aten:

People like Steven and I are not normal.

Stephen Robles:

That's true.

Jason Aten:

Most people do not most people are not staring at 2 laptop screens and 2 studio displays and recording a podcast talking about them. Most people buy a computer that works for them, and they use it until they can't turn it on anymore. Right? So there are a lot of people who are still using Intel MacBook Airs. And for them, this will be I don't don't wanna say life changing, but it'll certainly be work changing.

Jason Aten:

It'll be mind blowing. And even if you're using an m one MacBook Air, which is an amazing computer, I personally think that I that's the other thing we should talk about is it's it's gone. They killed it. It's dead. You can't buy an m one anymore.

Jason Aten:

And I Right. I feel like that's sad because that was, like, the iconic design. But even if you have an m one, this is, like, 60, 70 percent faster. It'll be amazing. If you have an m two, unless you absolutely desperately need dual display support, in which case, what are you buying a MacBook Air for?

Jason Aten:

I don't know. Don't you know, it's just it's fine. Yeah. Keep it for 5 years, and you'll be good.

Stephen Robles:

So a couple things. 1, to the point of, like, people use computers until they die. I had to text the other day. I never responded. I should probably respond to them.

Stephen Robles:

But it was someone that I helped with their, like, Imacs. It's like a real estate office and they had a bunch of Imacs And they were old Intel Imacs, but still the thin displays. So, like, if you wanted to Yeah. Do any work on it, you had to peel off the display. And I actually swapped all the hard drives in those to SSDs because they if you remember, the Imacs used to just come with hard drives standard until

Jason Aten:

Fusion drive.

Stephen Robles:

The Fusion drive, but these weren't even Fusion drives. These were, like Oh, okay. The 54 100 RPMs, like, base model hard drives.

Jason Aten:

Okay.

Stephen Robles:

And everyone complained that they were slow in this real estate office. So I went in there, and this is when I learned how to peel off the screen of an Imac to replace the hard drive with an SSD. The first time I did it, totally screwed up. The display, when I actually put it all back together, the display had a big green strip down the middle, and I was like, oh, where is that? I had to go on eBay, buy a replacement display for this Imac.

Stephen Robles:

But he texted me just the other day with one of those same Imacs that has a Intel I5 and is still running the SSD I put in there, like, 6 years ago. It has, like, the power symbol, when he turns it on where it's just, like, it looks like the power button and a bunch of text Yeah. Which is basically the Mac telling you, like, it's done, like, it's tired of working, and it wants to go to the eternal sleep. It just wants to be done. Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

So I have to have the heart to tell him, like, it's time to update this iMac. But anyway, to your point, people keep computers a long time. They'll probably be comparing it to Intel until, what, probably the M5 until Yeah. They start only comparing it to the M1, you know, if it's that annual cadence. But the other thing you said, the m one MacBook Air, which was the last wedge shaped MacBook Air, which has been the iconic design ever since Steve Jobs pulled it out of Manila envelope, it is gone.

Stephen Robles:

So you can't get the wedge shape anymore. It is just the square side. There was a bunch of people online kind of bemoaning the loss of the wedge of the MacBook Air.

Jason Aten:

I wrote a whole article about it.

Stephen Robles:

You did.

Jason Aten:

Yeah. I wrote a whole yeah. Because I really did think, like, it it is a 8.99 for education. It was such an incredible machine. It was I in my opinion, it was I think I sort of said this before, but it was, like, you got the best of both worlds.

Jason Aten:

You got that iconic design that people have loved. I mean, and and it's it's hard to think back and remember this now, but that is the design that defined what a laptop was going to look like, not just a Mac lap laptop. Every laptop Right. Copied the MacBook Air for a decade. Right?

Jason Aten:

Like, if you if you were to review a Dell, you know, XPS or a Lenovo ThinkBook, I've got this Asus behind me somewhere. I'm not gonna turn around and try to grab it. They all are the same form factor, essentially. Right?

Stephen Robles:

Right.

Jason Aten:

And it's gone. And now I asked Apple about it. They're no longer going to be selling it, but you can find them. Obviously, places like Best Buy, Amazon, whoever still has them will continue to sell them through their stock. And right now, if you go to the refurbished store, Apple still has them available there.

Jason Aten:

And, honestly, a refurbished M1 MacBook Air might be the single best deal, like, sure thing you could buy for someone. Like, if you just have someone who needs a computer and you don't want to have them bother you about needing a computer again for, like, 7 years, buy them a refurbished M1 MacBook Air.

Stephen Robles:

So I wanna I wanna show the refurb store in a second because I do think some of those deals are amazing. But since this is the end of the wedge design, here's literally the moment when Steve Jobs, were watching if you go to youtube.com/@primarytechshow, you could see it. This is Steve Jobs holding the Manila envelope. He was still one of the best, Jason.

Jason Aten:

Like Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Stephen Robles:

One of the best, like, presenters. And, like, he just pulls it out. There it is. The original MacBook Air.

Jason Aten:

It was it was mind blowing to people that you could pull a laptop because if you remember, even the titanium power book at you know, in in Yeah. In the other power books that came after the I mean, those things were like they were chunky boys. They were, you know Oh, yeah. And this thing was ridiculous. Although the original one is the one that had a little port you had to pull down to get to

Stephen Robles:

the Yeah. There's a

Jason Aten:

little door to pull down. That was not that was not good, but they fixed it pretty quick.

Stephen Robles:

Jason, I mean, listen. We don't have to go on a whole tangent here, but, like, just watching this, watching a Steve Jobs presentation of a product, it's just a shot of nostalgia. Is that the original?

Jason Aten:

No. But it is, like, from, like, 2012, so it's, like, not that far afterwards. So

Stephen Robles:

But Jason, Jason, Steve Jobs, the MacBook Air, the original iPad, obviously, the iPhone. I do feel you know, I've seen some people talk about this. I do feel like I've not seen one of those charisma in charged super inspirational moments, and again, there hasn't been a lot of in person events. There's not really been any in person events where we watching at home hear the audience.

Jason Aten:

Right.

Stephen Robles:

You know, because even the last few WWDCs, it's just been the video and you were at the last WWDC and you were just watching the same video we were watching. Yep. And so you don't hear the applause. You don't hear any of that, and, I kinda miss it. I kinda hope, Apple does one again, but anyway, it it does it feels like Apple's doing 2 events a year now, Dub Dub and the iPhone event.

Jason Aten:

I don't know that while Tim Cook is CEO that they'll ever do one again. Oh. No shade to Tim Cook. That's just not his strength. Right?

Jason Aten:

Like, he's he's a good sport. We've seen him in the Usher commercial and in the mother nature commercial be a very, very good sport. He is not in that way, Steve jobs. And that's okay. Like the apple is in a lot of ways, a much, you know, more successful company today than it ever was under Steve Jobs.

Jason Aten:

And a lot of that is to Tim Cook's credit. But getting on stage and demoing a product is just not Tim Cook's specialty. It's and it's never going to be.

Stephen Robles:

Craig Federighi could do it. He he could get up there and

Jason Aten:

He could. But if you think about it, Craig Craig Federighi is is not recognizable to the general audience the way that Tim Cook or Steve Jobs was. Most people who our parent probably knew who Steve Jobs was and who would know who Tim Cook is. Craig Federighi is just the weird guy wearing the astronaut costume playing the guitar. Like

Stephen Robles:

The double necktie.

Jason Aten:

He doesn't they don't it doesn't mean anything to them.

Stephen Robles:

That's fair enough. For one of the videos I did this past week, I was looking for looking through old wwdc's and one, I ran across the humane AI people in an Apple keynote doing a demo Oh, yeah.

Jason Aten:

Because they

Stephen Robles:

they both worked at Apple. Yep. And just see it, like, in those old school DevDubs and Apple events, you know, there's always the long demo section after. And I remember years ago, I kind of didn't care for that because it felt like you showed us the feature. You know, why do we why are we seeing it again?

Jason Aten:

Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

But, honestly, I kinda wish we had some of those slower moments as part of a keynotes now because I'm sure Dub Dub this year with Vision OS as another whole section, it's just gonna be rapid fire just like every feature gets one second of screen time.

Jason Aten:

So Yeah. And they move so fast that trying to, like, take notes while it's happening, you I've actually resorted to essentially just, like, recording the audio to transcribe because there's just no way I can't. They it's like they dive into a section on security and privacy and they cover 47 things. And then 13 seconds later, it's over, and you're like Yeah. I don't know what just happened.

Stephen Robles:

And then they have this slide with, like, a 100 different words and terms that are, like, wait a minute. Those are all new. Anyway When

Jason Aten:

did they say that? Yeah. Exactly.

Stephen Robles:

Exactly. And there's sometimes big features that are, like, hidden in screens, but I do wanna say so with the release of now the M3 MacBook Air, this is Apple's refurbished website, and honestly, I've bought lots of devices from here and typically recommend devices from here, especially for someone who's maybe first time Apple user or, you know, this is just a great place to find good deals. You can still get the m one MacBook Air refurbished directly from Apple, $760, which is fairly good deal. I find the m 2 MacBook Air, which is the same body style as the m 3, also very fast if you want this new style, $850 for a base model m 2 MacBook a or 13 inch. That seems like an incredible deal, honestly.

Jason Aten:

No. I agree with you. I mean, those probably are, like, the bare 256, 8 gigs of RAM. But, again Yeah. If you're if this is a thing that someone's gonna use in a for college classes or for a high school student because you decided you do not long no longer wanna torture them with a Chromebook, Those are very you know, you could buy one for a high school student for $760, and then they could use it for 8 years until they graduate college, and it'll be just fine.

Stephen Robles:

They they must be medical school if they're using it for 8 years. But, yeah,

Jason Aten:

it's No. High school, 4 years of

Stephen Robles:

high school. Oh, I see. College.

Jason Aten:

I'm saying I won't win yeah. That's what I

Stephen Robles:

I gotcha. I gotcha. So overall, it's a great computer.

Jason Aten:

Yeah. Anything else? I I mean, I did run into an issue. I did not write about it because I think we figured out what was wrong where it was getting very hot. Like, very hot.

Jason Aten:

But I think it's because I had I had set it up using a time machine backup, and that time machine backup included some stuff like, Visual Studio Code, which is a code editor. And it seems like it was, like, peaking the CPU even though I had never opened it on here. So I I deleted that off of there, and it has not been a problem. So

Stephen Robles:

Okay. I'm

Jason Aten:

gonna chalk that up to, like, not the m three's fault. There was something that it was that was going on in the background. But I was like Right. I actually reached out to Apple because I'm like, this seems bad because it's like I even took one of those meat thermometer things that we have, you know, and I put it on there. And it was, like, 93 degrees or something at the back, and I'm like

Stephen Robles:

That's warm.

Jason Aten:

That feels warm. I mean, I don't know how warm a computer should be, but this is warmer than the m two. And in fact, it is warmer than the MacBook Pro. So but Interesting. Seems like that's not an m three issue.

Jason Aten:

It just seems like that was some rogue code.

Stephen Robles:

Okay. Now we have so m 3 MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. We have an m3 Imac.

Jason Aten:

Imac.

Stephen Robles:

Correct? We have an m3 Imac. We are still waiting on m3 Mac Mini. Any m threes, Mac Studio and Mac Pros, which maybe WWDC. I think we'll see the M3 Ultra.

Stephen Robles:

That's when we saw the M2 last year if we Sure. Keep that cadence. But also, the one thing I was looking for every day was the M3 iPad Pros.

Jason Aten:

Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

We did not get it. Now real ones will remember, there was a week. It was it was the week of AirPods Max. So I think it was 2020, maybe it was the year before that, but there was a week where Apple had 3 press releases in a row Yep. Like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and I think it was, like, AirPods Max.

Stephen Robles:

It was maybe a Mac Mini or something and something else. Like, it was, you know, just rapid succession. I thought they were gonna do it again. I thought they were gonna do the hat trick. That's a sports term for everybody who thinks I know nothing about sports.

Stephen Robles:

Hat trick. I know it means 3 something.

Jason Aten:

3 what?

Stephen Robles:

3 wins. Right? Or 3

Jason Aten:

3 goals.

Stephen Robles:

3 baskets?

Jason Aten:

With 3

Stephen Robles:

3 goals? No. No.

Jason Aten:

No. So if you only score 3 baskets in a basketball game, you don't actually get credit for that. They I mean, you get the points, but they don't give you, like, a trophy. Okay. That's like soccer, hockey are generally the sports where they talk about hat tricks.

Stephen Robles:

So if you if you like if Michael Jordan wins 3 NBA championships in a row, is that a hat trick?

Jason Aten:

I mean, I don't know technically. I don't Okay. Okay. Maybe somebody would Nate will send us feedback. I'm sure.

Stephen Robles:

Nate's gonna text us as soon as this podcast.

Jason Aten:

I just think it just makes you the greatest of all time. So there I mean, I'm gonna cover all my bases.

Stephen Robles:

Okay. This is not a sports podcast. Right. Okay. So that's the m three MacBook Air linked to Jason's review and his, farewell to the the wedge shaped MacBook Air.

Stephen Robles:

Both of those links will be in the show notes. Yep. Remember, Apple Podcast cuts off show notes after 4,000 characters. So if you want all the show notes, you can go to primary tech dotfm, which is a great segue because whenever I need to share a URL to our podcast, to a website, to one of my YouTube videos, I use an app, Jason. It's an app called One Tap.

Stephen Robles:

Have you heard of One Tap, Jason?

Jason Aten:

This is the first time I've heard of it, so I'm actually I'm I'm curious.

Stephen Robles:

Well, let me tell let me

Jason Aten:

tell you

Stephen Robles:

about One Tap. So One Tap has sponsored today's episode. I've been using it for a long time. I've included it in lots of videos, and so I'm gonna show I'm gonna be fancy here if you're watching. I'm switching cameras.

Stephen Robles:

So one tap, you can download it. The link will be in the show notes. They have a special deal today, just today only. So I'll get to that in a second. But with one tap, what you can do is you can create shortcuts.

Stephen Robles:

These can be links, it could be documents, it could be photos. And so I'm gonna create one right now actually. So let's say this is a shortcut type and we want to do a URL. Let's say we want to send people to primary tech dot f m, you know, they can sign up for bonus episodes or see the full show notes and I'm gonna do a I can title this shortcut. Let's just call it p t, primary tech show, and I'm gonna add that as a URL.

Stephen Robles:

Now what you do is this is actually a third party keyboard and so the first thing you have to do is you or you go to settings, general, you go to your keyboard settings, and when you go to keyboards, here is one tap, and you want to make sure to allow full access. Privacy and security, everything stays locally on your iPhone. It's not collecting any data or sending any data anywhere. But now that I have that keyboard enabled, let's say I'm in threads or I'm on Twitter and I wanna post something or share the URL to primary tech or other URLs that are kind of hard to remember or find. This is actually the 3rd party keyboard, you know, little international symbol.

Stephen Robles:

I go to the one tap keyboard and now I have quick access to all links that I share a lot. For instance, whenever I post a picture of me editing on a podcast on iPad mini, someone asks, what app is that? Which is Ferrite for iPad mini. And so I actually just have the YouTube video URL about me talking about editing podcasts on iPad as one of my shortcuts here in One Tap. And I also just added the PTS shortcut, and so if I wanted to share the URL to primary tech show, those are just quick ways and, again, this could be URLs, it could be documents, it could be photos, and it has been super convenient to share these URLs just from a third party keyboard.

Stephen Robles:

Now one of the other things you can do is create groups. So if I go back to the One Tap app, you can create a folder, and we can call this, maybe videos or something. Because I have multiple videos, I kind of routinely share, like, smart home and stuff. And now I can add stuff to the videos folder, and now you can save lots of links in different groups. And when I'm over in threads or wherever I'm gonna post, I have my group here in the OneTap keyboard.

Stephen Robles:

I can save all those links. You can access to lots of them in folders or individually. And one other really cool feature of One Tap is if you go to the settings there's a shortcut uses usage action. So you can decide what one tap is going to do after you paste a link from there. And so I can choose to switch back to the default keyboard after I share the URL.

Stephen Robles:

So one tab, I do use it all the time to share links to my videos and other websites. So here's what you do. There's a promo as you listen to this today only. Literally today only. So if you're listening, you're watching, so I pay is to listen and watch.

Stephen Robles:

The day this comes out. There's a deal. There's no subscription. This is a one time lifetime purchase, and so if you're adverse to subscriptions, this is the perfect app for you. It's usually $35 as a lifetime subscription, but just today, because Primary Tech, they've sponsored this episode, it's down to $20 for a lifetime subscription.

Stephen Robles:

It is a pop up right when you first open the app. So if you download it today, the first time you open the app, you're gonna see this splash screen offering the $20. You have to do it right then. You have the one chance. If you do wanna try it out and maybe see what it's all about before you commit to buying it, they he's also lowered the price from $50 to 35 dollars so you still get a deal there.

Stephen Robles:

But I use it all the time. It's super useful if you're ever sharing links to things, documents, photos, or just text snippets, which I use TextExpander on my Mac, but I find One Tap is just way easier on my mobile devices than on my iPhone. So I've loved One Tap for a long time. Thanks to them for sponsoring the show. So there'll be a link to the One Tap app in the show notes.

Stephen Robles:

You can click it there, download it, sign up today, get One Tap. Our thanks to One Tap for sponsoring this episode. You could share your articles. You should you could share your, like, author page.

Jason Aten:

You know what I was just thinking is but this is great because I've used other text snippet type services, But what I really like about this one is that instead of having to, like, memorize a little short code that you might have created 3 years ago for whatever the text snippet is, it just shows them all to you, and you just tap on them. Yeah. So I'm a 100% downloading this and will a 100% be using it because it's great.

Stephen Robles:

Very cool. Well, thanks to One Tap once again for sponsoring this episode. I've got to talk about some drama. Jason, the drama this past week. So Ios 17.4 was launched to the public, which includes the EU's DMA Digital Market Act and the 3rd party app marketplaces, all that stuff that we talked about in past episodes.

Stephen Robles:

And so developer Epic Games wanted to get in on the action, and their developer account was shuttered here in the US because of that whole court case that happened, it was a 2 years ago or something?

Jason Aten:

Right.

Stephen Robles:

Or last year. I don't know. Time is a flat circle. I don't even know when it was. But anyway and so they actually started a new developer account, I believe, in Sweden and Epic Games was preparing to open a third party app marketplace on the iPhone in the EU, which was 17 dot 4 and the DMA has made possible.

Stephen Robles:

So they went to do it and when I guess they were able to make the developer account. Apple approved their developer account, and then through a series of emails, which I'm gonna show in a second, one from Phil Schiller and then a statement directly from Apple that was sent to, like, I I think 9 to 5 Mac, The Verge, MacRumors, that Apple is restricting their ability to do this. They are not allowing Epic Games to create the 3rd party app marketplace in the EU, and thus they cannot do the Epic Games Store on the iPhone there. Tim Sweeney was very, very mad. Epic Games was very, very mad.

Stephen Robles:

This is the blog post on the Epic Games website talking about how they recently announced that they were gonna bring the Epic Games Sweden developer account that Apple approved it, and they were gonna make that third party app marketplace. Epic believes, which I'd be curious your opinion, Tim Sweeney himself, which is the CEO of Epic Games tweeted about Apple and, you know, it was, in Phil Schiller's words, colorful commentary on Apple's policies when it comes to the 3rd party app marketplaces and such, then shut out the the Sweden developer account for Epic Games and now they're no longer able to do it. And Tim Sweeney, in this Epic Games blog post, published blog or email chains between him and Phil Schiller. This last email, if you're watching, we'll put a link to this as well in the show notes. This is Phil Schiller's email to Tim Sweeney, and I think the interesting paragraph here is talking about colorful.

Stephen Robles:

It's the second to last paragraph here. It says, your colorful criticism of our DMA compliance plan coupled with Epic's past practice of intentionally violating contractual provisions with which it disagrees strongly suggest that Epic Sweden does not intend to follow the rules. Another intentional breach could threaten the integrity of the iOS platform, as well as the security and privacy of users. And finally, the statement that Apple then sent to because Tim Sweeney was trying to say all because I tweeted something critical of Apple. They've shut our account, in Sweden, but the quote that, they gave, the statement that Apple gave, to these outlets do you remember who it was directly to?

Jason Aten:

No. I mean, they didn't send one to me, but that's all.

Stephen Robles:

So it's I forget who it was. I know The Verge had it and MacRumors had it, but the statement is Epic's egregious breach of its contractual obligations to Apple led courts to determine, US courts mind you, because remember Apple versus Epic was a US court case

Jason Aten:

Yep.

Stephen Robles:

And Apple has the right to terminate, quote, any or all of Epic Games' wholly owned subsidiaries, affiliates, and or other entities under Epic Games' control at any time and at Apple's sole discretion. In light of Epic's past and ongoing behavior, Apple chose to exercise that right, which is just such a mic drop and which is why I posted that GIF of Darth Vader being I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further.

Jason Aten:

Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

Because it does feel a little bit like that. I have thoughts, Jason, but tell me your

Jason Aten:

thought. I'm sure that anyone listening to this is fairly familiar with the story, but if so is 2020 that that basically, Epic put a a hotfix into their into Fortnite

Stephen Robles:

Right.

Jason Aten:

That introduced their Fortnite, was it, v bucks or whatever they called them at the time.

Stephen Robles:

The v bucks in app the other

Jason Aten:

In app. Think you could buy them in app, and they were the more well, that was against Apple's policies, but even more frustrating probably to Apple is they were cheaper. Fortnite was going to sell them to you cheaper in the app than you could get them through Apple's in app payment system because they were trying to highlight the fact that you're paying more because Apple forces us to go through and pay them 30%.

Stephen Robles:

So So they were skirting they were skirting around Apple's in app payment system.

Jason Aten:

App review. And they were skirting around app review because they didn't submit it through an update. They did a hotfix because games have the ability to download new content within the game. Right? But that's sort of a, a don't abuse this privilege kind of a thing.

Jason Aten:

And, and epic absolutely did abuse this privilege. And so apple revoked their developer certificate and pulled fortnight from their, from the app store and then fortnight or epic, excuse me, drop their ad. You remember they ran a, like, a commercial, which was mimicking 1980 1984 commercial, and then they sued. Right? And this all of this happened at the exact same time with both Apple and Google.

Jason Aten:

So Epic then sued both Apple and Google. Apple mostly won their lawsuit with Epic. Google basically lost. We won't get into the details of that. But then with the DMA, Epic said, we have applied for certificate to or a a developer account in the EU because EU developers are able to run third party app stores, and Epic said they were going to.

Jason Aten:

I think the most interesting thing is if you look at the end of Phil Schiller's email, he goes through all of that, and he's like, listen. You've entered into agreements with us before. You have checked the box that says I agree to adhere to all of the terms of the developer agreement, and then you went and did the thing that we all know that you did. And so my question is, it's his very last question. He was in plain unqualified terms, please tell us why we should trust epic this time, which let's be honest is a valid question, right, from Phil Shiller.

Jason Aten:

And Tim Sweeney's response is basically like, oh, no, no, no. Nobody really, really, really promise. Like, we will comply with all of the terms.

Stephen Robles:

That that in plain first of all, Phil Schiller is an Apple Fellow now. Like, he's not an SVP anymore. I think it's

Jason Aten:

He does oversee, like, events in the App Store though, kind of.

Stephen Robles:

Does he? Okay. Yeah. I I found that interesting that he is the one emailing Tim Sweeney directly, And so Tim Sweeney's response to Phil Schiller via email with Phil asking, you know, tell us why we should trust Epic this time. Tim Sweeney's response was thanks for reaching out.

Stephen Robles:

Yeah. Which is like one of those, like, corporate email, like, memes, like just talking about like the anyway. Epic and its subsidiaries are acting in good faith and will comply with all terms of current and future agreements with Apple and will be glad to provide Apple with any specific further assurances on the topic that you'd like. Now on the face of it, Phil Schiller didn't really ask for anything specific. He asked, should we be able to trust you this time?

Stephen Robles:

And Tim Sweeney is saying, yes, you could trust us this time. Do you want a specific assurance? And I assume Phil Schiller did not respond to this email, but I don't know.

Jason Aten:

Is it I think that okay. So I think what happened here is Phil Schiller says, we do not wanna do that because you screwed us last time, and you did it in a very unethical way, according to Apple. Right? This is I'm not I'm not made passing judgment on it. Whatever the list

Stephen Robles:

is, like, the best judgment.

Jason Aten:

And Tim Sweeney's response is basically we pinky swear, which I have 4 children. And there are many times when I say to them, if I give you some time on the iPad, you didn't do your chores already. Why should I believe that you'll do your chores afterwards? And my kids would say the exact same thing

Stephen Robles:

because I will.

Jason Aten:

We, we promise to comply with all of the terms of current and future agreements. My kids don't say that, but you get the point. Like I can understand the skepticism on the part of apple in that case. Now I personally don't think apple should have revoked their developer certificate. I just don't think this is worth the headache for them.

Jason Aten:

I don't. That's the thing I don't understand. The longest thing I ever wrote about apple on the internet was in response to this in August 20, August of 2020, I wrote 6,000 words and I called it the Apple thing to do. And I just wrote it. I couldn't publish it at ink because they don't let me write things that long.

Jason Aten:

So I actually just published it on my own blog. It might be the last thing I ever published on my blog. And the point was like apple was technically right, but the, you know, apple wasn't technically wrong, but that doesn't make it the right thing to do. And so I just think like who needs this headache and it leads into the next thing that we're going to talk about, which is they're just getting slapped around by the EU left and right. Anyway.

Jason Aten:

So it's like, I don't know why they need this headache. Yes. Fortnight would, or epic was almost certainly going to go back on the agreement at some point, but even still, like, you could have taken action then. It's like

Stephen Robles:

And, you know, we talked a lot about the term malicious compliance, which I wanna talk about, like, the default browser splash screen that is now live in the e you that everyone's complaining about with 17 dot 4. There's malicious compliance and then like this, I don't know if it just feels malicious. Like it feels and I I'm also not a lawyer. And so the fact that it was a US court ruling that Apple could do whatever it want, and, I wanna share this one of the article. It was MacRumors.

Stephen Robles:

I guess Apple shared this statement with MacRumors and probably others. That was the original statement I read. And then Epic's response, in terminating Epic's developer account, Apple is taking out one of the largest potential competitors to the Apple App Store, which is a little, I mean, self gracious. I mean, who knows who would be the biggest competitor. They are undermining our ability to be a viable competitor and showing other developers what happens when you try to compete.

Stephen Robles:

But there was a statement where Tim Sweeney is saying this is against the DMA. Tim Sweeney is claiming that, what Apple is doing by blocking their Swedish developer account is in direct contradiction of the Digital Markets Act in the EU. Do we know if that's true? Like, is this actually like, does Apple have to allow it because it's in the EU?

Jason Aten:

So I don't article okay. So Epic did send me a statement, and it's mostly their their newsroom post with some additional color, including all of those emails. And it says so I'm just gonna assume that this is true because I have not read all of the DMA, but it says article 6, subsection 4 of the DMA says the gatekeeper shall allow and technically enable the installation and effective use of third party software applications or software application stores using or interoperating with its operating system, a bunch of other things. So I think, generally speaking, neither of us are lawyers, but the idea where it says shall is, like, you have to do this thing as opposed to may, which is, like, you can decide to do this thing. And if you go on and read the rest of that, of their statement, I think Epic actually brings up a reasonable point, which is, they say, if Apple maintains its power to kick a third party marketplace off iOS at its sole discretion, no reasonable developer would be willing to utilize a third party app store because they could be permanently separated from their audience.

Jason Aten:

So what they're saying is why would Spotify put their app in a third party app store if that app store could just poof be gone at any time and be set and then they'd be separated from. So I do think that that's a certainty is an important thing for developers, for apple, for customers, for users. I just think, like, I just go back to, do you need this headache? Is it a bigger headache to have epic do what they're going to do in the EU alone? Or is it a bigger headache that now we're talking this case was over?

Jason Aten:

Right. They sued, they counter sued. We got to see Tim cook on the stand. We, you know, the judge basically gave a victory to, to apple. Then, you know, it went up through the courts and essentially all of it was affirmed with the exception of the one thing, which said you have to, you know, anti steering, you know, you had to stop doing that thing.

Jason Aten:

Yeah. And we're done with it. Epic was going to do their store. It, they were going to collect 50¢ every time an app was download, like think about the money that they are like giving up. They're just saying, Nope, because they're going to have to deal with this.

Jason Aten:

And I would be very surprised. I'm sure the D that the European commission after to I don't know how any of it works. That just seems like the only logical outcome at this point. Yeah. So if you're gonna have to do it anyway, why why are we doing this?

Stephen Robles:

From the outside, again, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know the ins and outs. It does feel more spiteful than and what, you know, what Phil Schiller said in that email was, you know, this might jeopardize the security of the iOS platform. Like, that is, like, pretty intense, which I remember you talked about. You had heard Craig Federighi talk at the, Web Summit

Jason Aten:

Yep.

Stephen Robles:

Where he was very vocal about, you know, side loading will destroy or, you know, well, I forgot what the exact word was.

Jason Aten:

It will set your house on fire was I think the quote. Well, maybe not that. That wasn't the exact quote, but it was not good. It was gonna be very, very bad.

Stephen Robles:

Very against side loading, and so, like, we get it. Like, we get it, and Apple has no problem communicating the possible risks to users. Like, I'm sure that there would be, you know, we've seen screenshots where there would be a ton of splash screens if you were gonna download a third party app marketplace where Apple is telling you basically, like, don't do this. This is dangerous. Don't do this.

Stephen Robles:

Like, Apple has no problem. You know, they would do that. It feels a little exaggerated maybe is the right word to say, like, this will, like, breach the security of iOS, which again, even with the Digital Markets Act and third party app marketplaces, Apple still gets to mandate things like sandboxing for apps. And so I don't think they would even if there was something malicious in a game, again, I'm not a developer either, but it doesn't seem like that would be as big of a risk as Phil Schiller is making it out to seem. So

Jason Aten:

Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

I and just as a broad like a big picture, it's not a great look on Apple. No. Like, it just doesn't look great, especially with the $2,000,000,000 fine from the EU, which we can talk about in a second Yeah. And just all that this 17 dot 4, like, all this mess kind of thing. I don't know.

Stephen Robles:

It just doesn't it's not a good look.

Jason Aten:

Yeah. And I actually think that's a good segue because I don't think you can separate this action by Apple from its response to the the fine that the EU has just issued.

Stephen Robles:

Right.

Jason Aten:

The European commission. There is a difference, I guess, between the EU and the European commission. The European commission is like the government of the EU, whatever. I when you if you did you read their entire statement on this too? So Apple, you know,

Stephen Robles:

I I'm

Jason Aten:

sure you were gonna set this up, so I apologize for jumping forward. But I actually think that Apple's statement in response to being fined $2,000,000,000. Right? And the essentially, what happened was Spotify, I think it was, like, 2019, filed a complaint against Apple. And the reason was that they felt that it was unfair that they there they could not tell their customers that they could sign up on the web because Apple has a streaming service called Apple Music that directly competes with Spotify.

Jason Aten:

So it's kind of like Apple's like, I can take your $10 subscription for Apple Music, or you can sign up for Spotify and I still get $3 it's just like, wait, that doesn't seem fair that you just get the money no matter what streaming service people sign up for, especially when you have one. So, of course, like, they would have had to charge $13 to make the same amount of money as Apple. So it was they were basically complaining it was an unfair competition. And if you've used Spotify, you know, like, you haven't been able to sign up in the app. You have to have a Spotify account that you go to the to the web to sign up for.

Jason Aten:

So they filed this complaint. It went through all of this process. And as a result, Apple was fined $2,000,000,000 and ordered to no longer prevent music streaming services from posting their their prices in the app and then directing people to go and do them elsewhere. The funny thing about it

Stephen Robles:

was was we heard about

Jason Aten:

this a couple weeks ago. I think we even mentioned it on this podcast that Apple was about to get fined $500,000,000. And it was as it's interesting because that was the financial times, which always is the place where these types of things in the EU are leaked. And it's almost as if they they leaked that they were gonna find them 500,000,000 and a bunch of bunch of people were like, no. No.

Jason Aten:

No. No. No. That's that's not enough. Keep going.

Jason Aten:

Keep going. Keep going. And so they came back, and they actually issued the fine, and it was $2,000,000,000 And so Apple published a response. And I am working on a piece I haven't published yet, but there are over 1500 words in this response and 52 of them deal with the European Commission's response. And all the rest of them are about Spotify.

Jason Aten:

All the rest of the words and there's only 4 words in this piece that matter, which is Spotify pays Apple nothing. That's actually a subhead in the section where they talk about it. And so when you read that, when you read how angry they are at Spotify, it is very hard to look at the epic thing and just not see

Stephen Robles:

And if you look at the last 6 months to a year, you look at the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, which is now shipping with one less feature than announced Yep. Because Apple doesn't wanna pay Massimo about for a sensor. This situation with Epic Games, the $2,000,000,000 against the Spotify thing, overall not a good look. You know, even if the Spotify thing is gonna happen either way, I could be wrong, but I feel like if they had just allowed Epic Games to do this thing, which is only in the EU and which is like part of the DMA that they, you know, which it's just law now

Jason Aten:

Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

It would have been better. Like, it just would have been better. Look on Apple. I think it would have been rather than have this whole dust up which I it's it was interesting when Apple had the newsroom about the MacBook Air, the m three MacBook Air. It was like 45 minutes before that there was a newsroom about the DMA I think in 17 dot 4 and then it was like M3 MacBook Air.

Stephen Robles:

Yeah. Yeah. We see what you're doing just like how, like, originally, when Apple first published about the DMA, it was, like, a late Thursday after we recorded this show.

Jason Aten:

Yep. I'd

Stephen Robles:

be curious if you feel like Tim Sweeney is being genuine here. But he posted, many folks on here think of me as an Apple hater. This is Tim Sweeney talking of Epic Games. Nothing could be further from the truth. There's no other group of designers and engineers on Earth who can build as great products as Apple when they are directed towards that end.

Stephen Robles:

The woes begin when they are directed not to.

Jason Aten:

So take I'll take Tim Sweeney at his face for a second. I don't know if he's a hater or not, but I I know that he very much does not like Apple's business model. Right? And there are a lot of developers that that's true with. I moderated a panel at Web Summit a year or so ago with, the CEO of Brave Browser and then Andy Yen, who's the CEO of Proton, who are both a part, so ProtonMail, ProtonVPN.

Stephen Robles:

Both of

Jason Aten:

them are a part of the Coalition For App Fairness, right, which Spotify is also a part of. And they have been a driving force towards trying to get the regulation and trying to get Apple to open up the App Store and open up iOS more generally and stuff. And when you listen to them talk, it's like, yes. They love the iPhone. They think it's great that Apple has created such a great platform.

Jason Aten:

They just don't like the way that they run their business. And I I honestly think that's the biggest problem that Apple faces today because you have epic who may be like, I mean, Tim Sweeney doesn't look good in this. Right. And Spotify doesn't look good in this. The European commission doesn't look good in this, but don't look, Hey, doesn't look great in this, but think about all of the fights that apple just keeps picking over and over.

Jason Aten:

And I just don't know why, like what you make so much money. I'm not suggesting Apple doesn't deserve to make the money. I'm not even suggesting that Apple should make like willingly make less. I'm just saying, do the analysis. What does it cost you to have these fights?

Jason Aten:

And surely that's more than you would be giving up if you just stopped holding on so tightly with a clenched fist to these rules and these policies that you created so long ago? Because I just like, I think the Spotify thing one is a no brainer. Like, yeah, you probably shouldn't take a commission from Spotify just because they have a competing service. Right. You also probably shouldn't take one from Disney plus or, you know, max or any of those.

Jason Aten:

You probably should let Kindle sell books in, on the iPad and not take a commission from it. Some of the fitness apps, the same thing is true. If Apple is Dropbox, if Apple is going to get into a business, they should just be like, yep. We're going to go into this business, so we're willing to forego the commission on the competitors.

Stephen Robles:

It does feel like it's a hand tied behind the back of competitors. Yeah. And I feel it the most when I've talked about this on my movie podcast. If I ever wanna watch something through VidAngel because we're watching with the kids and I wanna cut out certain things, I typically have to buy a movie on Amazon Prime Video because that's what works, with VidAngel. And I every time I have to do it, it's annoying because I can't just go to the Amazon app, which I have all my saved info.

Stephen Robles:

I'm already logged in. I can't just buy a digital movie in the Amazon app, nor can you buy, you know, a book. I have to go to the Safari web browser and do the exact same thing. The only difference is it's more annoying to me as the user. And I think that's kind of the base level.

Stephen Robles:

If something is more annoying to the user, I feel like it is worth paying the money, meaning not taking as much money from a developer, from a company, to make things less annoying for the user. And I think this Epic Games, if Fortnite was still on the iPhone globally, my kids would be playing it on their devices. Yep. And if the core technology fee was a thing here in the United States and however the DMA is structured was actually here, Apple would actually be making more money here in the US off my kids playing Fortnite on their phones than they are now because there's 0 money, like, there is no Epic Games app. Right.

Stephen Robles:

You know, it just doesn't exist. And so I am, like, it just feels a little bit like one of the richest companies in the world are holding a little tightly to, like, money

Jason Aten:

It's money they feel entitled to. Right?

Stephen Robles:

Right.

Jason Aten:

They it's money they feel entitled to. And, again, like, both Steven and I love Apple. Right? I just Absolutely. It's just do you really is it really, really worth it?

Jason Aten:

And I feel like there's no one it it just does not seem like there's anyone at Apple who's saying just doesn't fit. Like, what really is it going? And I I think the the argument, the counterargument to that is if you think about trademark. Right? If you have a trademark on a thing, you have to defend it absolutely or else you'll lose it.

Jason Aten:

Right? Because if you if you don't defend it, if I put up a if I open a restaurant and I just put the big giant golden arches on the top of it and McDonald's doesn't come along and say, nope. You can't do that. After enough time. They can't come along and be like, you can't do that because I'll just be like, I did this for 6 years and no one said a word.

Jason Aten:

What do you mean? You, you don't, you obviously don't care about this. So I feel like apple is like, no, we literally won't budge an inch until we are, until we are forced to buy a bulldozer and then we'll move only an inch and then we'll move an inch more, and then we'll move an inch more. It's like, why don't you just, like, move? Just get out of the way.

Jason Aten:

It's gonna be fine. Stop getting hit by bulldozers. It's gonna be fine.

Stephen Robles:

It is. And so the last thing I'll just throw in here is, you know, the other thing in the 17 dot 4 was the default browser thing. And there's been some memes on this too, but Sebastian DeWitt posted this from the Halide camera team, Luxe camera, and this is the new splash screen in the EU. When, I guess, you update to 17 dot 4 over there, you have to choose your default browser. I guess this is mandatory, like, no matter what, you have to choose because the EU wants there to be choice, and so it's giving you a ton of different browser to choose from, which I had never heard of a lot of these browsers.

Stephen Robles:

I didn't even know Opera was still around, but they make you choose your default browser on updates to 17 dot 4. And, like, I think this is a counterexample of when mandating choice like this might make a user experience worse. Like, this is not a great, probably, like, splash screen or choice. You know, if you don't know anything about web browsers, you're just kind of like a regular iPhone user, this splash screen is probably, like, anxiety inducing, like, what am I choosing? Like what Right.

Jason Aten:

What what what am I supposed

Stephen Robles:

to do here? And notably, I guess to Apple's credit that Safari is down the list. It seems like Firefox is the top choice, Ecosia, and then Microsoft Edge, DuckDuckGo, Onion Browser. Never heard of that. Anyway, this feels like this this is what happens when a a law mandated by an organization like the EC, the European Commission, makes the experience worse for users, and so there's nuance here.

Jason Aten:

And, I mean, anyone can change their default browser. Like, you Yeah. Yeah. You can change your default browser right now. You don't need the the screen for that.

Jason Aten:

What the reality, though, is no one does. No one changes their default browser. By far, everyone uses Safari. What happened when they forced this when on desktop? We went from Internet Explorer to to now we have Chrome.

Jason Aten:

Chrome is the default browser on everyone's computer. People just download it because, you know, you you yes. You got rid of Internet Explorer. Congratulations. Now we have a new monopoly on browsers, and it's just Chrome on desktop, and it's Safari.

Jason Aten:

Now the funny thing about this is there's actually only 3 browsers on there. There's Safari. There's Firefox, and there's Chrome. Everything else is just a version of one of those things. Now Safari, technically, right now, they were all Safari.

Jason Aten:

But the other thing that Apple did is allowed

Stephen Robles:

Different browser engines.

Jason Aten:

Yeah. To use their own browser engine. But guess what? Right? Like, except for Firefox They're

Stephen Robles:

all Chromium.

Jason Aten:

Except for Firefox Yeah. And Safari, Edge, Chrome. Ecosia? Well, I don't know for sure because they really do hate Google. They use big search.

Jason Aten:

Brave is Chrome. I'm sure DuckDuckGo is Chromium. I'm sure like, Opera, I think, is the, like, the Tor thing. Like, it's like if you're trying to access, like, the deep web or something like that. I don't I think that's what the Onion Browser is for.

Jason Aten:

I don't know. I've never tried this myself. A bunch of people are trying to figure out, what did you say the deep up don't? Google it. Just trust me.

Jason Aten:

It's just a thing.

Stephen Robles:

Yeah. Anyway It's a weird time for all this, but I guess this also means that the European Commission, like, approved Apple's, like, changes because I thought that was also still a bit up in the air

Jason Aten:

as well. I mean, they went in effect yesterday. Right? March 16th Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

Everything went into the 90th.

Jason Aten:

So I guess we'll we're gonna find out.

Stephen Robles:

I don't know. So anyway, it's been, quite the drama. Quite the drama. This is, gonna be an ongoing saga. I'm sure there'll be more court cases, but which we'll cover.

Stephen Robles:

Yeah. But, let's talk about a lighter topic.

Jason Aten:

Okay.

Stephen Robles:

Here, Jason. Let's run out the show. I I had some other things here in the notes, but those are not live topics either, and I don't even know about them.

Jason Aten:

So we'll go

Stephen Robles:

we'll go to our personal tech segment, Apple Maps versus Google Maps versus Wave. Curious what we know. And then for our bonus content, did you see Dune 2 yet?

Jason Aten:

I have not seen Dune 2 yet.

Stephen Robles:

Okay. Well, I have another topic I I wanna talk about. But anyway, so personal tech. Last week, we talked Apple Maps versus Google Maps. Obviously, a lot of you reviewed and said Apple Maps default, couple Waze users out there.

Stephen Robles:

Jason, what is your go to Maps application?

Jason Aten:

I use Apple Maps, Like, I've been using it since it sucked, and it doesn't suck anymore, and so I use it. I should be careful. I think my mom listens to this podcast, so I should just choose my words more carefully. But I use Apple Maps because it no longer is bad. It's better now.

Jason Aten:

Google Maps is fine. I don't really care. It's just, like, the convenience. Of course, this is I'm making the argument for why Apple's big terrible monopoly. But if I if I search for something and it pulls it's gonna open it in Apple Maps.

Jason Aten:

Right? Like, it's just the way that it works. If I tap a link in fantastical, it's gonna open it in Apple Maps. And guess what? Apple maps is actually really good now.

Jason Aten:

Like I, it has not gotten me lost in probably 13 or 14 years. So it's fine. Like I'm not worried about it. There were times when it would send you down roads that didn't exist and that was bad.

Stephen Robles:

Sure. Sure.

Jason Aten:

But I use it. I do use Waze often in my in our car because, you know, the Tesla has the built in navigation, but it's Waze has some features that are really useful if you're going on a long road trip. Like, it'll tell you when there are cops in the median. It'll tell you when there's an accident up ahead. It tells you all those things.

Jason Aten:

And so I do prefer that. Although Apple Maps technically has it

Stephen Robles:

as well.

Jason Aten:

People just don't do it. I do. There's a type of user that chooses Waze, and they are the people that are constantly, like, tapping that little button to say there's a thing. The people in Apple Maps don't really

Stephen Robles:

do that. But I do see, like, hazard ahead, speed check ahead, you know, in Apple Maps, like, in the CarPlay thing. I see all that happen, which to be clear, way Google bought Waze

Jason Aten:

Yes. Correct. On the numbers. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Aten:

But they are still completely separate though.

Stephen Robles:

They're totally completely yeah. They're completely separate. They're also 2 different apps. So like you, I've also used Apple Maps ever since it stunk because I know my

Jason Aten:

I appreciate you saying that for my mother's sake. Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

Exactly. I actually did a video on this, almost a year ago now, and I actually found, like, the general opinion about Google Maps versus Apple Maps. More people actually are starting to use Apple Maps just like non tech people, because the Google Maps interface started to get, like, really messy and, like if you if you go I'm a go to Google Maps here. There's suggestions in this like drawer, there's lots of tabs on the bottom, and, you know, you got the quick searches up here which is okay, but then also like just trying to like get directions or add a stop, it can be a little cumbersome sometimes. And I just know this because I don't use it regularly, but I did it for a video.

Stephen Robles:

And so I do feel like Apple Maps is good, like you're saying, and I that's my default. I use it all the time. I will say there are still sometimes businesses don't know that you have to reg like, claim your business in Apple Maps if you want to, like, get the address on there and make it searchable and all this kind of stuff. And so if you do own a business out there and you have not done it, make there's a website. I think it's, Maps Connect or something.

Jason Aten:

I'm sending you a link because I did write about this. I'm sending you a link that you can, this was this is, last about it was last January. But, in Apple Business Connect, you can do all of those things, and you can control how you appear in Apple Maps, Siri, Safari, and Wallet. So there you go.

Stephen Robles:

Right. Exactly. So if you own a business or there's just a business you love whose information is still not, like, in Apple Maps or not accurate, have them do this. It's free. They can add nice pictures.

Stephen Robles:

And it's still kind of annoying when you have to look at pictures for a lot of locations because Apple still incorporates Yelp because they don't have their own database of photos just yet.

Jason Aten:

Right.

Stephen Robles:

And so if you wanna choose a picture, you it, like, throws you over to the Yelp app. But Apple is trying to build its own database of photos of businesses. You can submit photos directly in Apple Maps for a business Yep. And also thumbs up or thumbs down a business. And I do try to do that.

Stephen Robles:

Like, if I find a new place, like, I wanna build up the the whole Apple Maps database. But I do find its design, its simplicity, and now because it's actually good, I'm a 100% Apple Maps. There are the rare occasions when, like, we're going on a trip, maybe it's a road trip for a few hours, and if there's traffic, sometimes there'll be an alternate route that Apple Maps just doesn't show you right away. And sometimes I wonder if it's like predicting traffic and saying this alternate route is actually not that much faster, so it doesn't even show it to you. But sometimes Google Maps will give you a couple other choices like going around a section of highway.

Stephen Robles:

I experienced this with I 95 here in Florida, like, when there's always traffic. And so I Google Maps does a little bit more like that. And so what I will do, because I prefer Apple Maps in my CarPlay screen and on my phone, is I'll, like, look at the alternate route, go back to Apple Maps, and then, like, drop a pin on the alternate route

Jason Aten:

Yeah.

Stephen Robles:

And then add it as a stop in my directions to my final destination, and it will then reroute me around the highway or through the back roads. And so still not a 100% there, but, I really like it. I think it's good. I know there's some really faithful Waze users out there. I feel like when you talk to a Waze user, it's, like, always fanboy.

Stephen Robles:

Like, it there's never, like, a casual Waze user. It's always

Jason Aten:

That's true. You're right. I and I'll say that I hate the design of Waze, but I do think the functionality is better for the actual driving along the road and wanting to know what's happening. Right? But I don't care about all the little faces of the the, like, the other Waze users, like and they never move.

Jason Aten:

So it's like, is that where the Waze users died? They just mark the spot along the highway where all these I don't understand

Stephen Robles:

at all.

Jason Aten:

Yeah. I don't understand what that means. So I obviously don't use it enough to fully, but here's a question related. If you are at your Mac and you need to look up something, do you use the Maps app, or do you just go to, like, your browser and type maps.google.com?

Stephen Robles:

No. I use the Maps app on my Mac. Oh, you do?

Jason Aten:

Go to Google for that? All the time. A 100% of the time, I use Google Maps on my computer. I don't know why. I it's just the thing that I do.

Jason Aten:

I do occasionally open the Maps app when it's like, oh, you know, what's really cool is the, you know, the 3 d fly through of the the stadium in Vegas when the Super Bowl is happening or something. Those kind of effects are really kinda neat. But what I have figured is, like, I think that, whatever they call street view is better than look around, which is Apple's version, especially in, like, on the Mac and stuff. And so if you wanna know, like, what is it going to look like if I'm walking down the street or whatever, Google Maps, I do think that that's just a superior experience mostly because it exists in a lot more

Stephen Robles:

Exactly. Yeah. For sure. And, like, my house, because it was recently built, is still not on Apple Maps, like, the addresses. But if you look at, like, the satellite view or the, you know, the the just regular map view, there's just, like, no house there, you know.

Jason Aten:

I just figured you were one of those people who managed to get them to blur your thing out out like the White House so that no one knows. Top secrets. Steven's got some top secret YouTubing happening there. He doesn't wanna know about it.

Stephen Robles:

One last thing I will say on my iPhone, because if you do search for a business in Safari, it will show you by default if Google is your default search engine, it'll show you the Google Maps business result. And if you tap the directions, it will take you to the Google Maps directions, as opposed to Apple Maps. And there is an extension, I covered this in one of my videos about, let's just create Safari extensions, that you can get this extension, and it will open those direction links in Apple Maps rather than Google Maps. And so even if you search in Google and you're looking like here is like I just searched for Apple Park, it would take a little it's a little bit of a drive, 41 hours, but I could get there. Okay?

Stephen Robles:

This is the Google map result. If I click start, it will actually, throw me over to Apple Maps. And so if a business, comes up in a Google search and it has, like, directions to it, it will automatically open that business in Apple Maps rather than Google Maps. So it's a pretty cool extension. It's called Mapper, and, yeah, highly recommend.

Stephen Robles:

I'll put a link to that video if you wanna see it in action in the show notes, but alright. So we're gonna talk about, our bonus content. I wanna ask Jason if he knows how the Internet works, across across the oceans.

Jason Aten:

Which he does. I definitely do not. So if you wanna listen to the bonus episodes Listen, Steven. I can't even get Internet to come from my house into my office in the backyard. You think I understand how it goes across the ocean?

Stephen Robles:

You're going over, like, some kind of microwave, frequency. Right? It's it's traveling through the

Jason Aten:

I have an undersea cable that goes under the ground.

Stephen Robles:

Oh, see, you know you know how it works. You know how it works. Anyway, if you wanna support the show, you could listen to the bonus episodes and get ad free versions of the show by supporting us directly in Apple Podcasts, or you can go to primary tech dot fm, support us through Memberful. You can sign up for monthly or annually. There's people doing that all the time and we really appreciate it.

Stephen Robles:

They could do that just to support the show. And also we'll mention again the great sponsor for this episode, One Tap. If you want a quick way to share links, text, or documents right from a third party keyboard, create automations where it'll automatically go back to the default folders, all kinds of stuff. I use One Tap all the time to share links to my videos, websites, and this podcast. You can download One Tap at the link in the podcast episode show notes.

Stephen Robles:

Primarytech.fm, you can also get the show notes there as well. Thanks to One Tap for sponsoring this episode. Thank you all listeners and viewers for your ratings, reviews, subscribes on YouTube. And now we'll go to the bonus episode, and we'll catch you next week.

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Jason Aten
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Jason Aten
Contributing Editor/Tech Columnist @Inc | Get my newsletter: https://t.co/BZ5YbeSGcS | Email me: me@jasonaten.net
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Stephen Robles
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Stephen Robles
Making technology more useful for everyone 📺 video and podcast creator 🎼 musical theater kid at heart
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