Apple iPhone 16 Event Preview, Oprah's AI TV Special with MKBHD, Pixel 9 Pro Review
I love the smell of Apple events in the morning. Welcome to Primary Technology, the show about the tech news that matters. Today we have a big preview of Apple's glow time event which is happening Monday, September 9th at 1 PM EST. Everything you can expect from the iPhone 16, Apple Watch 10, and what we think might be the most interesting things announced at that event. Plus we have some AI news.
Stephen Robles:Oprah is gonna do a special on AI. MKBHD is gonna be a guest. We're gonna talk about that. And I did a week long review of the Pixel 9 Pro. We're gonna get into that as well.
Stephen Robles:This episode is brought to you by you, the members who support us directly. I'm one of your hosts, Steven Robles, and joining me, my friend Jason Aten. How's it going, Jason?
Jason Aten:Delivered this morning, Steven, so my fingers are a little bit sore, but I'm I'm okay. I mean, I know you didn't actually really wanna know how I was doing, but I just feel like I should tell you. So
Stephen Robles:No. Well, not but you don't ask every we we already talked about this, so I don't even know. What what do you ask to throw to the cohost?
Jason Aten:No. I like it. So I try to come up with something totally, like, not tech related. So
Stephen Robles:No. That's great. Yeah. That's great.
Jason Aten:Actually, it is tech related. I'm sorry. But it is I just want you to know the best feature on the iPhone that I discovered today is the zoom feature. Like, that magnifying glass feature.
Stephen Robles:Jason, you showed this
Jason Aten:Try removing a tiny sliver from your hand without that feature. I mean, I didn't just figure it out, but I've never used it before.
Stephen Robles:Yeah. Is this showing our the age our age here saying, my favorite feature is the magnifying glass.
Jason Aten:I'm saying it's practical that I'm and I've what I meant okay. What I meant to say is that the best feature on the iPhone I'd never used before.
Stephen Robles:I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. Very good. Well, maybe I'll probably use it one day too.
Jason Aten:I just ruined the whole
Stephen Robles:show. No. No. It's good. I'll I'm so excited.
Stephen Robles:There's so much to talk about. I have an exciting bonus topic. Personal tech is gonna be the Pixel 9 Pro XL. We have some great 5 star reviews. Look here.
Stephen Robles:I also have my Vision Pro on my desk. I just want you to know,
Jason Aten:Jason.
Stephen Robles:Oh. Look at
Jason Aten:this. Mine's mine's right back there.
Stephen Robles:I used it I used it yesterday, and I wanna say I wanna say I tried this thing because I saw somebody post about it. It's this, fancy pressure reducing head strap Mhmm. That actually slides on to the VisionPRO, and, it actually makes it more comfortable. And so I might actually use it now. So we'll see we'll see how that goes.
Stephen Robles:Anyway, yeah, it's on Amazon. I'll put I'll put a link somewhere. But okay.
Jason Aten:Comfort was the reason you weren't using the Vision Pro?
Stephen Robles:It
Jason Aten:was just the comfort. That was the only reason?
Stephen Robles:I mean, there were several reasons. Lack of content. Okay. I don't like working in it.
Jason Aten:You solved one of the problems.
Stephen Robles:Solved one one of the problems. We have a a 2 wonderful 5 star reviews. Don Covin from Canada who said pencil away from volume, battery percentage on. We'll forgive you, Don. And he said with the battery percentage, I'm not guessing like a fool when the actual information is available to me.
Stephen Robles:Alright, Don. Let's take it easy.
Jason Aten:I feel like that is the best quote on this podcast so far.
Stephen Robles:That was that was pretty funny. I'll give him that. And also, Jeff Hunt 206 from the USA. Don Cogan was from Canada, by the way. Jeff Hunt 206, he left us a 5 star review.
Stephen Robles:You get a shout out if you leave us a 5 star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, so that's why we're reading these off. He said battery percentage off, Apple Pencil tipped towards the volume buttons, which thank you. But he said we talked about Vertu phones on the last episode, Jason, which many people had not heard of before.
Jason Aten:Including me.
Stephen Robles:Including yeah, including you, which are the luxury phones that are just crazy expensive, and I don't know why they exist. Well, Jeff told us that he actually got a Vertu phone from his work. It was a work phone from one of his jobs, and it includes a dedicated concierge service that you can activate by pressing a side button. It's basically like a human voice assistant that you can use to charter private planes and make hotel reservations. And then at the end of his review, he said, well, my personal iPhone is an iPhone 13 Mini as it's the best iPhone.
Jason Aten:Which doesn't even have an action button, but okay.
Stephen Robles:Oh, did it? Well, he's got the action button for you.
Jason Aten:If you could program the action button to be a person. I mean, I guess you could just set up a Siri shortcut to call the Imax's platinum card concierge or something.
Stephen Robles:I mean, maybe you live in this world, but I don't know if there's, like, apps to book private planes, but maybe they have shortcuts actions available to you. I don't know. I don't know. Just make the action button a private plane, reservation button. I gotta go.
Jason Aten:What could go wrong? You just accidentally just push it constantly and jets are flying over your house.
Stephen Robles:I listen to the anyway, so thank you for those 5 star reviews. And one last housekeeping thing before we get to the Apple event, Our Saint Jude fundraiser last week talked about how the whole month of September we're gonna be talking about Saint Jude. This link will be in the show notes. We want you to continue to donate, but we crossed our goal. Less than a week, we crossed over our $1,000 goal for giving to Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Stephen Robles:Amazing. A small but mighty group of primary tech listeners have donated, including Jason and myself. Jason, if you go to the page, which I'm showing now if you're watching on YouTube, Jason is, the anonymous one, right here under me.
Jason Aten:I don't know how websites work, Steven. It's very complicated. I've never bought something online before, so I had a hard time with the place where you put your name.
Stephen Robles:Jason was so was so, wanted to make sure that, I knew he he donated. He sent me his receipt in a text message.
Jason Aten:Listen. I thought it would be really bad luck if we're encouraging our listeners to donate.
Stephen Robles:Right.
Jason Aten:And then only one of the hosts donated, but there's it was very confusing. I'm I'm sorry that I'm
Stephen Robles:It's a lot of no. No. It's a lot of
Jason Aten:I feel I feel like you should take my tech podcast cart away from me.
Stephen Robles:Oh, no. It's fine. It's fine. No. It's it's wonderful.
Stephen Robles:We crossed the thousand mark, so thank you to everyone. One anonymous donor gave $500, which really helped us cross the the mark, which is amazing. Thank you to whoever did that. And if you look at the relay.fm, like, leaderboard, the primary tech show's on there, which is awesome.
Jason Aten:Nice.
Stephen Robles:And so you could see us right here. Again, I'll put this link in the show notes. But just because we crossed our goal, doesn't mean you can't still give, and so the whole fundraiser is going on through the month of September. Relay.fm usually does a big, like, final livestream, for the fundraiser doing kind of a last big push. So I would continue to ask you if you have not donated $10, $5, whatever you can to St.
Stephen Robles:Jude's Children's Research Hospital. It's a incredible, cause, and so we'd love to, yeah, see Primary Tech Show give even more, throughout this month. So thank you to everyone who gave, and, thank you, Jason, for being anonymous. Appreciate it.
Jason Aten:I'm trying. We just ruined my whole plan,
Stephen Robles:but it's fine. All good. It's all good. Alright. We're days away from the next Apple event, September 9th, 1 PM.
Stephen Robles:Gonna be a livestream. We're expecting iPhone 16, new Apple Watch, new AirPods. There's been a bunch of rumors. I said we would cover the rumor roundup closer to the event, and so that's what we're gonna do today, but I do wanna say we're gonna do a special livestream episode. We Jason and I actually discussed before we started recording today that we're going to do a livestream, and so 5 PM EST on Monday after the event, tune in.
Stephen Robles:I'll put the link in the community, and also in the show notes below, the YouTube link to watch live. And, yeah. We could do a live stream. It'll be our second our second. Right?
Stephen Robles:2nd live stream recap? We did one after I think
Jason Aten:it's true.
Stephen Robles:Yeah. Yeah. The iPad.
Jason Aten:We only did one livestream. Yeah. The the one from Dub Dub, we didn't livestream. We just recorded it from Apple part. Yeah.
Stephen Robles:From Apple Studios. Apple Podcasts. Studios. So this will be our 2nd live event. Tune in.
Stephen Robles:Again, all the links will be in the show notes and in the community, social.primary tech.fm, so we'd love for you to join us live and we will recap everything that's announced. Well, what might be announced, Jason? Let's take a look. We're gonna I'm gonna run down the rumors to see what what can we expect, what's likely, and then, yeah, we'll go back and talk. This is a great article from 9 to 5 Mac.
Stephen Robles:Link is in the show notes if you kinda just wanna read down everything that's expected. One of the big features is a additional capture button on the pro phones, maybe on the 16 as well, specifically for the camera. So this would be an additional button below the sleep button. So now we'll basically have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 buttons on the side of the phone. We have the sleep button.
Stephen Robles:We have the action button on the pros, the volumes, and then this capture button will live under the sleep button and act as a shutter and might be, like, half pressed down to focus like DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Okay. That's cool. So capture button might be there. Thinner bezels as, you know, every iPhone may have thinner bezels.
Stephen Robles:New colors for the pro models, including this interesting gold brown color. We're gonna come back to that. Wanna know what color you might choose, Jason, once preorders go live. The 5 x camera, that tetra prism camera, should be coming to the iPhone 16 Pro, not just on the Pro Max. Several sources on that.
Stephen Robles:Of course, Apple Intelligence will be a big part of the event. Brighter display, Wi Fi 7 support, which if you didn't know, the current 15 pro is Wi Fi 6e, and Jason's he's smirking already, because he's gonna say nobody cares about Wi Fi 7, but I care. I care about Wi Fi 7, because I have a Wi Fi 7 router and I'm gonna test this iPhone with and see how fast my Wi Fi is. Faster charging, which is also up my alley. We might go up to 40 watts charging speed when wired, and 20 watts MagSafe charging, so that's interesting.
Stephen Robles:Faster charging. New 48 megapixel ultra wide camera. So right now on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, the main camera and on the actual the regular 15. Right, Jason? Is also 48 megapixels.
Stephen Robles:You just don't get you don't get ProRAW and that kind of stuff. Right. So there's a 48 megapixel camera as the main lens on the 15 Pro and Pro Max, also on the 14 Pro, but the ultra wide will also go up to 48 megapixels, which will still leave the telephoto and the front facing camera at the 12 megapixel resolution, but down the road, which Pixel 9 Pro XL, not 7 48 megapixel front facing camera. Same. A bigger battery, a 18 pro chip, of course, talking about colors again, 3 ks slo mo video, which if I don't record a lot of slow mo video, but supposedly that it'll go up to 3 k resolution, not 4 k just yet, and that's because if you wanted to do 120 frames per second slow mo, it actually drops down to 10 80 p right now, even on the 15 pro and pro max.
Stephen Robles:Weirdest feelings I have is larger screens. I don't know how I feel about this. Larger screens. They're gonna increase in size, supposedly. A new camera layout, where the 16 will go to the vertically aligned cameras, like they were on the iPhone 12, I believe, and maybe the 13.
Stephen Robles:And then on you know, so the on the regular ones that just have 2 lenses, they'll be aligned vertically. Software change will be JPEG XL support in addition to things like ProRAW formats for pictures, and I think that's all we have. That's the list of what we might see for the iPhone specifically. We'll get to Apple Watch and AirPods in a second. But, Jason, what feature are you most excited about?
Jason Aten:You know, not Wi Fi 7, which is a surprise, but we'll talk about it.
Stephen Robles:So fast. It's gonna be so fast.
Jason Aten:Okay. I I'll ask you questions about that in a minute, but I think that the camera button is a legitimately cool addition. I you know, people are talking about, like, how many buttons are they gonna put on the side of it? Like, Apple actually does buttons pretty well. I don't think the number of buttons is really gonna be the concern here because they do they do that pretty well.
Jason Aten:I don't think it's gonna it's certainly not going to be as bad as when they move to the current 3 camera system, and people, like, were being triggered by, like, falling into a black hole or whatever.
Stephen Robles:Trippophobia.
Jason Aten:I it's something like that. Yeah. Fear of, apparently, multiple camera phones. Phone. Okay.
Jason Aten:Is that what it is? I don't know.
Stephen Robles:The the Mac Pro the Mac Pro is what triggered everybody's a trypophobia, apparently.
Jason Aten:That's true.
Stephen Robles:Which I've not heard of until then.
Jason Aten:It is weird that the the industrial design is the thing that's in introducing us to all of these unique sort of phobias. But, I think that the camera button and, again, you and I have talked a couple of times about, like, well, how do we feel about rumors? And these do seem like we've heard them consistently enough that probably they're gonna be true thing And to me, other than just the fact that there's going to be a camera button is that apparently, it's not just, you know, hit this button. Like, so because I have the action button right now set up to be to launch the camera because it's the thing I do the most with my phone. So it's like I I can just quickly grab that, you know, open the camera, and then I can take a photo.
Jason Aten:This happens for me a lot if I'm at, like, sporting events for my kids and that kind of stuff. And so it's I I really like that. But now the camera button itself will, I guess, allow you to, like, zoom in and out by sliding up and down on it and to focus by doing, like, a half half press, which is what you can do on, like, a DSLR or mirrorless camera. I actually think that's more interesting because the action button, all it does is launch the camera and take a photo, or I guess you could record a video if you hold it down. It doesn't give you any of the other camera features.
Jason Aten:And I would argue that every time someone says to me, hey. I don't why can't I get good photos with my camera? If they have a 15 pro or pro max, I tell them you should set the action button to be your shutter because it's so much better to have a physical button to take photos than it is to try to be, like, holding the camera and tapping on the tapping on the display. So
Stephen Robles:And may maybe this doesn't bother anybody, but, like, if you were to use the action button now I'm holding my my phone up watching on YouTube, like, the camera orientation is not just typically what how I would hold the phone to take the picture. Like, typically, when I take a picture, I would like the cameras, as I'm looking at it, upper left. If you're looking at me, the upper right. And so having that capture button right here, I think naturally comports with at least how I do it, and I think how a lot of people. I see most people hold their phone like this.
Stephen Robles:You know, they rotate it 90 degrees to the left as they're holding their phone and then take a picture. So they actually
Jason Aten:Are you not able to use your right forefinger, though, to take a picture?
Stephen Robles:I mean
Jason Aten:Like, it works really well.
Stephen Robles:But this way look look at my thumb. Yeah. For those listening, if you hold your phone where the cameras are on the bottom edge of the phone, then there is a chance you obscure a lens with, like, a thumb. I I know you're a photographer, Jason.
Jason Aten:Yeah. Why would you do that? I don't understand.
Stephen Robles:I know you're not doing this.
Jason Aten:This feels like another one of those you're creating a problem that doesn't have to exist in your life.
Stephen Robles:Well, because the next
Jason Aten:thing is Just turn the phone over and rotate it.
Stephen Robles:The chance of this happening is not zero. This is a non zero look at this. I can cover all 3 camera lenses with my phone with my thumb, holding it that way, but you hold it this way with the capture button, I think people are more naturally inclined to to not obscure a lens. And I think
Jason Aten:I can But you also can just the action button, it's right there. Right here is it.
Stephen Robles:Yeah. But I have that programmed to skip forward 3 minutes, when listening to podcasts, and that's that's important to me. That's that's what I have a program too.
Jason Aten:That is the that is the most inefficient waste of a cool piece of technology ever.
Stephen Robles:I save so many minutes, so many hours a week.
Jason Aten:Wait. Hold on.
Stephen Robles:It's coming.
Jason Aten:You think you're saving a lot of time, but, really, on mine, it's like you can set and pocket cast that interval. Right? Can you tell it to make that skip forward more than 30 seconds? And even if you couldn't, just hit it 3 times, 4 times.
Stephen Robles:But it's it's so much faster just to reach up and and hold that action button, especially in the car. So that's all I'm saying. The the other thing too is when you hold the phone, the controls or switching from video to photo or to change your lenses from, like, 1 x to 5 x, they're on the right side of the phone. Like, that doesn't change. And so typically, like, when I'm changing those, like, you know, you might poke at it with a finger or whatever, But if you're just using your thumb to, like, swipe up and down or tap a lens, like, I'm covering the lenses.
Stephen Robles:Like, right, you know, your hands are right in front of it. You're right here? No problem. Bada bing bada boom. So
Jason Aten:Right. And I so everything you said is true. I would just argue you should be holding the phone the other way regardless.
Stephen Robles:You think you could just hold it like this where the cameras are on the
Jason Aten:lower edge? No.
Stephen Robles:No. No. No.
Jason Aten:No. I'm saying that if you're taking photos, you should be holding it like this, you know, with the you should be holding it so that you can yeah. So you can hold it like this and take the picture with the button.
Stephen Robles:Anyway, the capture button is gonna solve all this, Jason, because it'll be in the right place to hold the phone in the right orientation.
Jason Aten:Well, what's funny about that is it literally will be in the same spot. Like, you right. It'll be on the top right if you're holding your phone, and then you'll have the action button on the top right if you wanna hold the bill.
Stephen Robles:Right. Right. But, anyway, but, anyway, it's I didn't think we're gonna talk about the button this much.
Jason Aten:I know. I'm sorry.
Stephen Robles:No. No.
Jason Aten:We died You're
Stephen Robles:a photographer in a
Jason Aten:past. Technical.
Stephen Robles:No. I get it.
Jason Aten:I get it. So, anyway, the camera button's 1. I think it's great that they're gonna bring the 5 x, down to the pro would as opposed to just a pro max, because I would argue that, yeah, the 48 megapixel was a pretty big improvement because it gave you a lot more flexibility in the main camera. Right. And being able to shoot 48 megapixel raw or the 48 megapixel HEIF, that's great.
Stephen Robles:Yeah.
Jason Aten:I would argue, though, that the 5 x, telephoto, tetraprism, whatever lens that's currently on the 5 x is one of the biggest step up in camera quality from the iPhone. Because in the past, when you had a 2 or 3 x optical zoom, whatever, it was it was not good. It was actually pretty bad. Even on the 14 pro, the 3 x is not good. The 5 x is, like it's it's limited in the fact that you have to be out in pretty like, it's it's better if you're outside and then very light during the day.
Jason Aten:It's not great in night mode or any of that kind of stuff. But I think that having that on moving that down to the the pros is gonna be a big improvement for a lot of people. I don't like when they do this thing where they put a camera feature on the big one and then they move it down. I feel like I don't I don't know if they're because they did that with the image stabilization, what, 2 years ago, maybe it was. And it's like Yeah.
Jason Aten:I don't I feel like you there's no reason to do that because people generally, other than you and I, are not buying pro versus pro max for camera features. They're buying it for screen size. And I feel like you should take away the number of variables you have to decide upon to buy a thing. And so I I I think that's good that they're bringing that camera that they're bringing that camera.
Stephen Robles:Same. And I was going to be on the fence then because I had been a pro size phone for person for years. Like, I used the 13 pro, the 14 pro, and only went to the pro max on the 15 because of the 5 x camera. And people have, you know, very different opinions on this. People seemingly preferred the 3 x zoom, distance on their 14 Pro and Pro Max, and they'd actually preferred over the 5 x.
Stephen Robles:I just disagree. I actually did a whole video on the 5 x camera, and I have found in the last year, like, it just works so well and looks so good. Like, these are pictures taken both with the main camera lens and the 5 x lens, and whether it's photos or video, and even in low light, there were many times where I took video in, like, an auditorium for concerts and dance and stuff outside, like, for skateboard videos and such. Like, the 5 x camera has just been really, really good. Like, this is another one in one of my wife's concerts.
Stephen Robles:If you're watching on YouTube, I have, like, the regular camera and the 5 x, and it looks really good. And so I do think 5 x is great. I I thought when it came back to the regular Pro size, I would go back down to the smaller screen size, but I might I think I'm gonna stick with the Pro Max now. I think I'm used to it. I like the big I mean, the bigger screen I'm just used to it now.
Stephen Robles:I feel like I'm just gonna I'm just gonna do it. I feel like going back to a normal size, I don't know, might feel a little cramped on it. Because you're you're a pro max person. Right? Like, you do the pro max.
Jason Aten:Yeah. But I will a 100% go back to the pro.
Stephen Robles:Oh, you are?
Jason Aten:If they make it You wanna
Stephen Robles:go to the smaller side? Yep. If they
Jason Aten:have the 5 x on it. If it will I should say, we don't know if there's any of these other features that could potentially be different between the 2. Right? There it's still possible that there is gonna be something, you know, if Wi Fi 7 is only in the pro max because that's the only place they can stick that big old antenna in there, I still won't buy it. No.
Jason Aten:I'm just kidding. I don't know. Like but but if there's a reason I don't know. There I'm saying it's conceivable that there could still be some sort of a differentiation between the 2. But if all things are equal, I will definitely go back to just the Pro, version.
Jason Aten:You talked about the larger screen size, like and I was gonna ask you if you're gonna stick with the bigger size if a bigger size is even bigger. But if I do think it's important to like, the thinner bezels in the screen size, they go really together because I I bet that the overall form factor will be real close, like, within millimeters. I think the screen will just take up more of the of the body of the phone.
Stephen Robles:I I agree. I've so that's, again, one of the reasons why I'll probably stick with the larger size. And can I just say the other day, I saw someone they had their phone face down on, like, a chair or whatever and it it made me sad inside? I saw their camera bump and I saw that the case the camera bump was slightly larger on the case than the actual phone and that basically means they must have gotten a 15 pro case and put it on a 14 pro or it might it might be a 14 or 15 pro case on a 13 pro phone because I think that's when the camera Mesa got bigger. I'm like, don't do that because the buttons are even misaligned.
Stephen Robles:Like, you get weird. You know, like, the volume buttons aren't exact and so I just it made me sad inside. I just I
Jason Aten:mean, it's also possible that they just bought the $7 case on Amazon that wasn't actually like, that was advertised. Like, they went on they went on Amazon, and they typed it in, and they're like 13 pro, 14 pro, 15 pros, you know, leather case with
Stephen Robles:22, 2, 21, whatever it takes.
Jason Aten:The yeah. The names are just like garbage. You have no idea what you're actually buying on Amazon, which is a totally different topic we should talk about sometime, but not today. Yeah. The other the other thing, I don't I mean, the faster charging is fine.
Jason Aten:Like, I don't ever suffer from my phone doesn't charge fast enough unless I plug it into one of those old 5 watt chargers, but that's on that's on me. Right? Like, that's or, like, we have a, the the first thing I did when we bought our house is on in the kitchen on the counter where we charge our devices, I replaced that outlet with one that has one normal AC plug and then 2 USB a's, and those 2 USB a's are only 5 watts each. So, like, that if you plug it in there, it's never gonna like, it's actually faster to put it on to the nomad, like, wireless pad that we have sitting there. Right.
Jason Aten:That charges way faster than plugging it into those. So I don't I mean, faster charging is great. I mean, isn't there a phone that, like, came out recently that the thing is Or no. Somebody came up with the charger that'll charge 300 watts or something like that.
Stephen Robles:I think I think MPBHD showed. I think it was, like, 240 or something, like, wirelessly too or something ridiculous. Like, that battery health is gonna be 5% in, like, a month if you're charging it every day.
Jason Aten:I mean, unless you are really cold and you're and you can't afford to pay for gasoline anymore, you know, for heating your house, I would not charge a device at 300 watts wirelessly because you are going to have a problem.
Stephen Robles:If you're literally in the movie the day after tomorrow, and you need something to heat a
Jason Aten:house Exactly.
Stephen Robles:Get that phone. Which thank you for reminding me. I meant to say this at the beginning, but I I do have a surprise for you, although UPS ruined the surprise. It's I talked about a couple weeks ago that when we talked about 3 in 1 charging versus charging with cables, I wanted Jason to try a 3 in 1. And so you should have something honestly, it's arriving Monday, at the event Oh.
Stephen Robles:Which we won't spend time talking about it Monday.
Jason Aten:Wait. It's arriving at the event? No. No. This is arriving at the event.
Jason Aten:Day. Oh, okay.
Stephen Robles:Tim Cook is going to hand deliver your 3 in 1 charger. No. UPS is gonna deliver it.
Jason Aten:I think that's amazing.
Stephen Robles:We're gonna get Jason's thoughts on 3 in 1 chargers probably next week at our regularly scheduled episode. But, yeah, that's coming. It's coming to you. You, Pete.
Jason Aten:I think the other one, obviously, is the Apple Intelligence rollout. Like, I think it'll be really interesting to see how they talk about it. I think that'll be, you know, there's been questions. Will they continue to limit it to the the Pro? No.
Jason Aten:Like, this all every phone that comes everything Apple makes that comes out from now on, with the exception of the HomePods, will have the ability to run Apple Intelligence. I don't think that because they want this is, like, so important to them that this be available to everyone. They're not this is not a feature where they're like, well, we'll just limit it so that people will upgrade. Nope. That's not how this works.
Jason Aten:That that's that's not the strategy here. They want this. The and the way you know that that's true is that they went all the way back to the m one. Right? You can use it on an m one, and you can use it on m one iPad.
Jason Aten:You can use it on an m one Mac. Mac. Okay. They're they're trying to make this as available as possible. So it's a bummer that the 15 no pro versions, you know, don't have Apple, intelligence, but we Right.
Jason Aten:You know, we know that the reason for that is just the memory. Right? And so
Stephen Robles:And and this will probably be a good impetus for a upgrade cycle for people if Apple really continues to push on Apple Intelligence, which I'm always impressed, like, they they advertise on TikTok for their events. Like, when like, if I open TikTok or if I think if anybody does today, the first thing you see is the glow time logo and says there's an Apple event on Monday, like pretty wild, you know, they they really push it. So and I think the Apple intelligence will be a huge push. I'm curious because Apple intelligence is an 18.1 feature, not 18.0. I imagine when the phones launch next or announce next week, I think think preorders are gonna be Friday.
Stephen Robles:Do you think preorders are Friday?
Jason Aten:I mean, they usually are.
Stephen Robles:They usually are. The event is a day early, so people were pontificating, like, maybe preorders on Thursday. No. I think preorders are
Jason Aten:No. That no. The preorders are not 4 days after the event. The preorders are on Friday. The event just moved because of the presidential debate.
Jason Aten:The 2 things are not related in any way.
Stephen Robles:But do you think I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Do you think that Apple Watch and AirPods preorders will also be on Friday, or will one of those be, like, preorder today? Because Apple has done things like that where you can, like, preorder the AirPods or whatever right after the event. Sometimes even the Apple Watch, I feel like, but then but maybe that was when it was not in the iPhone event, that weird year. But anyway, do you think everything preorder on Friday?
Stephen Robles:Do you think some will be preorder immediately after the event?
Jason Aten:So I wanna just, like, make a distinction for people listening just to be clear. So a preorder is when you can buy a thing, and it will ship to you some period of time later. Right? So you that's what they do with the phone. They you preorder them on Friday.
Jason Aten:They ship to arrive at your house the following Friday or whatever it is. I would or think that the AirPods, you'll just be able to buy them. I don't I don't think that there's gonna be a you don't need to pre well, have they ever preordered I AirPods before? That's a
Stephen Robles:good question.
Jason Aten:They might just be, like, on sale Friday or on sale now or something like that. I just I don't think that the and I actually don't know for sure because it's not a thing I've ever really done. Do you have to preorder watches? I don't even remember for sure if you preorder. That's more likely in my mind.
Jason Aten:You have to preorder a watch. So okay.
Stephen Robles:Yeah. The the watches you've had to preorder. Right. And those will come typically the same day as the iPhone, and the preorders typically are the same day like, the preorders open the same day as the iPhone. There was that one weird year where the Apple Watch was announced first because I think it was the iPhone 12 was announced in October, like one of those
Jason Aten:COVID. It was COVID.
Stephen Robles:Yeah. It was the COVID. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Stephen Robles:And so that time, it was it was different, but, yeah, usually, the I think you're at I like that theory, though. I think AirPods, you just buy it. I think it will probably not come until the iPhone launch date. I still feel like everything will arrive Friday, whatever that is, 13th. No.
Stephen Robles:20th. So the event is on September 9th, preorders would open September 13th, a Friday, and typically delivery of those preorders is the next Friday, which is September 20th. So I still think everything's probably gonna come on 20th, AirPods, Apple Watch, and iPhone, where you could actually walk into a store and get it. And if you do the preorders early enough that you get them on that day, but that you can order the AirPods on Monday. Everything else, watch and iPhone 16 preorders on Friday.
Stephen Robles:That's my prediction.
Jason Aten:Okay. Well, and I just wanted to, like, just make the distinction that Apple usually says one of 3 things. You can get it now.
Stephen Robles:Right. Get it now. You can
Jason Aten:preorder it starting this date, or it'll be available to buy starting this date, but there's not necessarily a preorder. And I think Apple or AirPods are I think I could be completely wrong. Somebody who's listening to this, who who knows, please let us know. But that AirPods are typically, you can buy it either now or on this date. You don't need to pre order a pair of AirPods.
Jason Aten:So For sure. Anyway
Stephen Robles:So Apple and you said Apple Intelligence, the other big deal, rolling out to all the phones. Yeah. Do but 8 so 18 dot 1, do you think October, November? Because it's gonna ship with 18 dot o. That'll be the OS, and then they'll have to say Apple Intelligence coming next month.
Stephen Robles:Will they say October?
Jason Aten:I'm I wonder if the the distinction you know, we typically think of 18 dot 1, like a dot one as being the next like, it's an update to the operating system. But in this case, there are going to be a lot of iPhones that can run 18. But when they update to 18.1, we'll be getting no new Apple Intelligence features. So I feel like it's almost like 18 dot point 1 is essentially, like, iOS 18 b. Like, it's like there's this fork.
Jason Aten:Right? Because there are these features. And I don't know. I mean, are there are there 18.1 features that the iPhone 15 will be able to run at this point?
Stephen Robles:Well, so one of the things that yeah. I mean, you could do, like, all the messages features, things in Safari. There'll be those kind of features. And one feature actually popped up, and I thought it was an 18 dot 1, was in the journal app. You can set the default now that when a new moment is created to default to the moment date instead of the current date, which is what I always want when I put something in the journal.
Stephen Robles:And so that's a new setting. I thought it was 18 dot 1 specific, and then someone on threads said they actually see it in their 18 dot o public beta. So it does seem like a a lot of the features that are not Apple Intelligence will be an 18 dot 0 as well, and it's really just Apple Intelligence that's 18 dot 1. So
Jason Aten:Yeah. So I think that that would indicate that it'll be sooner rather than later. Because, really, what they're doing is, like, 18 is for everyone. 18.1 will just be the devices that can run Apple Intelligence, which will be all the new ones, plus the the 15 pro and pro max. I think we'll see it in October at the latest.
Jason Aten:I wouldn't even be surprised if I don't know. I think there is a scenario where they're both available the same day potentially because well, because what are the sixteens gonna ship with? Are they shipping with 18 or are they gonna ship with 18.1?
Stephen Robles:It depends how big of an Apple Intelligence how big of a deal that is during the event where they wanna say, like, you can use Apple Intelligence on these phones from day 1. Right. And then it's just confusing. Like, I don't know what 18 dot o is gonna does it just go away? There's been no public beta of 18.1 either, like it's just the dev beta.
Jason Aten:That's true.
Stephen Robles:So I I don't I'm I'm not sure there. I I don't think it's going to be simultaneously, but I do think it'd either be the end of September or the latest October that we'll see 18 dot 1 roll out to everyone.
Jason Aten:Well but, Steven, think about it. Why would you have a public beta of a of a feature that it can only run on a subset of your devices? Because you're just asking a lot of people to install and I we joke, and I think that the pro version someone once told me are the best selling iPhones because of the cameras probably.
Stephen Robles:Right.
Jason Aten:But I feel like I see a lot of not pro iPhones in the world. In fact, I think I see a lot more not pro iPhones, whether that's 15, 14, 13, whatever Yeah. Than I see pros. I I just maybe that's just the people that I know. I hang out with a lot of non
Stephen Robles:Yeah. Yeah. Non
Jason Aten:rich nerds. I don't know. Like
Stephen Robles:No. No. Well, I think, you know, my wife uses a a regular 15 non pro just because she really doesn't want any of the features, like, cares for it. Yeah. And, she's like, yeah.
Stephen Robles:Whatever. Like, so for a lot of people and it is cheaper, you know, it's significantly cheaper in some regards depending on what model you're getting. And, like, the aftermarket for iPhones is huge. You know, you could buy iPhone 13 on Amazon for, like, a few $100 for Right. $4,500.
Stephen Robles:So but anyway So I
Jason Aten:just think that that's the reason why I think we'll see it sooner rather than later. And I the really the question for me will be and this is, I think, the thing most people will care about is when do we see the actual better dingus? Like, you know, when is it going to be better? I tried real hard to not say the word that we're apparently not allowed to say. Oh, Voldemort.
Jason Aten:About it first.
Stephen Robles:You're talking about When will
Jason Aten:we get a when will we get a better Voldemort on our phones?
Stephen Robles:You're talking about the voice assistant that we will not miss. How those are gonna name. Yeah.
Jason Aten:Because that's, I think, what most people care about. Like, most people care about, like, being able to say to the voice assistant, hey, iPhone, whatever, and have it do and, like, I've had this, like, experience several times recently where I thought it would just be so great to just ask it a question. And I and it and it just doesn't
Stephen Robles:get an answer.
Jason Aten:It just doesn't do it. I mean, literally, the thing I did before you and I, before we started recording is the only thing I can use it for, which was to set myself a reminder to buy a Cloudlifter later today.
Stephen Robles:That was one of the things as I was reviewing reviewing the Pixel 9 Pro, I was like Gemini's on this thing. I should probably try it and use it, but I'm so not in the habit of ever using the voice assistant on my iPhone. I just never naturally ask it anything. Like, I just didn't ask Gemini anything. I was like, I just don't.
Stephen Robles:I don't.
Jason Aten:Right.
Stephen Robles:I I yell at my HomePods good night in the evening because it does set that scene semi consistently, and that's it. That's all I tell my own puns. Yeah. Good night. And Yep.
Stephen Robles:Setting up video scenes here in the studio. But alright. So the 5 x on the regular pro and Apple Intelligence, those are your 2 big that's the thing.
Jason Aten:I mean the camera button, the 5 x, and then the Apple Intelligence.
Stephen Robles:Did you see those balloons just now?
Jason Aten:I I was not I had something in front of you. Did you did you you got hand gestures turned on? What do
Stephen Robles:you need? I saw you get the thumbs
Jason Aten:up later.
Stephen Robles:Because I was recording with Nate yesterday, and I was trying to show him some some features.
Jason Aten:I did see the thumbs up you did earlier, the bubble thumbs up.
Stephen Robles:I gotta turn this off immediately. Anyway, sorry for I I apologize for the balloons everyone, if you're watching on YouTube. I meant to say 2 features, and apparently that peace sign, has balloons as a Mac Mac reaction.
Jason Aten:Anyway, so what about you? What do you think about some of these potential, updated features?
Stephen Robles:The 5 x pro and the capture button, those are great. You know, I'm very curious how the capture button works into everyday life. Larger screen size, smaller bezels, all great, like you said Apple Intelligence. The faster charging, I am curious if there's any, like, real world use case because there are times when battery is low. Maybe you're at a conference.
Stephen Robles:Maybe you're traveling. If you can plug in your iPhone and get more battery in a shorter time, like, that's always good. Will it be noticeable? You know, I think the fast charging on the Apple Watch when that launched was noticeable, and it's, like, just quality of life improvement. And so we'll see how it goes from like right now it's 27 watts if you plug in your iPhone 15, but 40 watts, you know, it's good as more wattage.
Stephen Robles:We'll see. And also the fast charging, I'm curious how that 20 watts MagSafe charging, if that is a G2 thing, like, will any G2 charger be able to support 20 watts now? Because they all just say 15 watts, or is it something that will have to be a proprietary thing in Apple's MagSafe chargers, like they're gonna have some specific partners like Belkin? So I'm I'm very curious about the 20 watt charging speed. If you watch my channel at all, you know I'm I'm very into g 2 and charging speeds.
Stephen Robles:And so
Jason Aten:I'm more mostly into speed.
Stephen Robles:You know what? I think I think that is it. I drive a 2011 Kia Soul, but when it comes to charging and Wi Fi, speed is my game. But anyway, so I I'm just more curious what the wireless charging story will be, but Wi Fi 7, like, in all honesty, it's not gonna make a difference for most people. Here's the thing, just to nerd out for a second.
Stephen Robles:WiFi 6e, which is on the current iPhone 15 Pros at least, and I think on the regular fifteens, WiFi 6e already introduced the higher frequency, spectrum, which is 6 gigahertz. So Wi Fi 6e has 2.4, 5, and 6 gigahertz for, like, that tri band speeds. And so, honestly, Wi Fi 7 does not introduce a new spectrum. Like, it is still just 2.4, 5, and 6 gigahertz. There is, like, better, like, number of device support and some, like, other data that I think that's not really super meaningful to most people's WiFi speeds.
Stephen Robles:So I don't think it's gonna be a huge deal. Like, I tested my 15 Pro Max with the Eero 7 Ult Wi Fi routers, and I was able to get, like, over a gig down on Wi Fi, which is awesome. You can't have any obstructions between your phone and the Wi Fi router, and you need to be pretty close. Like, as soon as I went, like, one room over, it dropped down to, like, a 100. So I mean, we're still a long way from it being, like, meaningful, super fast speeds, but at least it's future proofing.
Stephen Robles:It's great. And I will throw in one other possibility here. This is not a rumor that it's coming to the sixteens, but Bluetooth 6 point o was recently announced, and Apple's slow to adopt these wireless standards. So, like, again, this might be the iPhone 17 next year. But Bluetooth 6 point o comes with true distance awareness.
Stephen Robles:This is another 9 to 5 Mac article. I'll put the link in the show notes. But the reason why this is exciting is because, well, the quote here is centimeter level accuracy over considerable distances. Bluetooth is not really capable of that right now, and there are devices that quote unquote support Find My, but do not have the ultrawide chip. And I think the the biggest example here is I'm gonna hold this up.
Stephen Robles:The Apple TV remote, the newest one. It supposedly has, with the biggest air quotes, Find My support. And because this is Bluetooth, I think, 5, when you do Find My from your phone, it will tell you, like, how far away it is, and might give you a general dis instruction, although most of the time I do not get that. It's usually just like, it's 15 feet away. Good luck trying to find it.
Stephen Robles:And also the Apple TV remote can't make any sound.
Jason Aten:So Right. That which by the way is the single thing they should fix to solve all of this problem. Has nothing to do with Bluetooth, let's be honest. Just put a tiny speaker. If you can put it Right.
Jason Aten:Like, you could put it in that thing.
Stephen Robles:Exactly. And, also, even just regular Apple devices, like your Mac, your iPad, like, especially if it doesn't have GPS, like, you can do Find My, and it will have, like, a general location, but you can't do the precision tracking that you see with AirTag. And, honestly, the only 2 Apple devices that has that precision tracking where there's, like, arrow on screen pointing you in a direction is an AirTag and the AirPods Pro 2 and a half, like, the newest model. The USB version.
Jason Aten:Yep. The USB version. The USB version. U c version. Yep.
Stephen Robles:So those are the only 2 Apple products that have it built in, and the solution is, I guess, you could put an AirTag everywhere, but Bluetooth 6 point o, if it does offer that centimeter level accuracy where it can tell you your Apple TV remote is 15 feet that direction, and Apple just put a speaker in it so it can make it chime, then it would make Find My way more useful across all the devices for finding your Macs, for finding your iPads, all that kind of stuff. So I'm excited about Bluetooth 6 point o. I don't know if we'll see it at this event, but it looks like it that'll be coming and should improve the whole Find My network as a whole.
Jason Aten:I agree. Steven, I do think there's one more thing we have to talk about.
Stephen Robles:Yes. What's that?
Jason Aten:It is the poop emoji color that they're talking about introducing on these devices.
Stephen Robles:I gotta show Fernando Silva again. Here's Fernando Silva, friend of the show. Hey, Fernando. He's holding up the, gold iPhone. Now I just wanna say this, and I then I wanna hear, like, your thoughts on it.
Stephen Robles:Mark Gurman is over here. He he's, like, not a humble brag, but he says, I think the new iPhone 16 Pro Gold is going to be the standout color this year. He says it looks impressive and not terrible like the early renders. I mean, he's alluding to that he has seen this gold iPhone, because he says it looks impressive.
Jason Aten:Mhmm.
Stephen Robles:And then Chance Miller says send me a pic of it. It's hilarious. I asked too. I was like, yeah, well, let's see it. The pictures of it didn't happen.
Stephen Robles:So Gurman's over here saying it looks impressive. Some people are saying it's more brown. Some people are saying more gold. But, you know, as pro phones go, we typically do not get nice colors. We typically get one, like, slightly not gray color every year.
Stephen Robles:But, yeah, poop poop brown color. What do you think, Jason? You going with it?
Jason Aten:So I've heard that apparently the color they're talking about is, like, the trend color for this year. What is the Pantone trend color this year? I don't know.
Stephen Robles:I'll look it up.
Jason Aten:Okay. So I I feel like I would not be interested in this at all. I don't know if that's the case that, like, people I know. I like the natural titanium. I actually think that it's one of the better you know, because it used to be that if you wanted a a phone that had basically the silver rails in the past, you had to get white.
Jason Aten:Right? And and I thought white was great for quite a while, but I personally think that the like, they should put more color. I don't think that this particular color is the one, but Apple does do this. Right? They do tend to, like, introduce these, like, trendy colors just for the sake of, like, following whatever that trend is.
Jason Aten:Although it's usually not the pro version, and it usually comes, like, 5 months later or something like that. So I don't I don't really understand.
Stephen Robles:This is the Pantone color of the year, which listeners and viewers, if you didn't know, Pantone, which makes, like they don't make
Jason Aten:It's a color matching. Like, they basically formulate colors so that for inks so that you can know that if you're looking at a swatch and you have it printed, you can you can specify a Pantone color and have it be spot colored. That exactly that.
Stephen Robles:So the color of the year is peach fuzz 13 dash 1023, which is erring towards that goldish. I mean, it says peach fuzz and, you know, gold. So maybe if it appears lighter, I I will just say last year, I got the blue titanium because I thought I was getting the cool color. I was wrong. I should have gotten the natural titanium, and I'll probably get that this year.
Jason Aten:Okay, Steven. I sent you a link, and it has the 2025 color palette. Oh, I see. This has the color we're this is the color we're looking for.
Stephen Robles:This looks very
Jason Aten:This first one.
Stephen Robles:This looks not gold. This is
Jason Aten:Scroll down just a little bit to the you can see another there's another swatch if you go to the There it is.
Stephen Robles:Spring 2025 color palette. Interesting. Brand 17 dash 1336, a very warm rooted earthy kind of brown. Bran, which is the name of the color, plays into the idea of seasonless, Eiseman said. Interesting.
Jason Aten:I think they'll come up with a different name because I do not think bran is like bran muffin. Like, I don't think that that is the the thing that the metaphor that apple is gonna go with.
Stephen Robles:My dad used literally used to eat bran out of a jar, like, straight.
Jason Aten:I understand. But I think there will probably be a lot of people that think that this is very cool. And a lot of them will post pictures on Instagram, and they'll get lots of engagement for it. And I will just buy a natural titanium one. Like, that's that's probably it.
Stephen Robles:I will probably go natural titanium because I missed a whole year with it. I wanted a year with natural titanium. I regretted it the week after I got this one. I mean, the blue is nice. Like, it looks okay in certain colors and whatever.
Stephen Robles:I put a case on it most of the time anyways. But the natural titanium, that looked that looked good, and I missed it. Yeah. Yeah. I can't believe we've talked for 40 minutes about the about the iPhone that doesn't even exist yet.
Stephen Robles:I it's amazing. It's time flew by.
Jason Aten:There's a lot to talk about.
Stephen Robles:There's a lot to talk about. So real so real quick, the other things we're expecting for the event, AirPods 4, which will be kind of a hybrid between the AirPods you know now and AirPods Pro. Noise canceling should be in this new design. Also, the h two chip, such and such. So new AirPods, you know, I'm I I love my AirPods Pro 2a half, the USB c version, but I will say the the AirPods 3, the shape was a little weird.
Stephen Robles:People, you know, struggle with the comfort sometimes, but they did sound very good, and so I'm of course, I'll be getting a pair just to try them out. But do you have any reason to get these, or does anyone in your family prefer these?
Jason Aten:So if I understand because they're talking about there's gonna be 2 models. And I wonder if essentially what they're gonna do is take because you can buy the 2. You can buy the 3. They have very different form factors. Are we really just updating both of those, but now unifying the branding of them as these are the AirPods 4 like, is this an actual change?
Jason Aten:Because I think the report is that they wanna have, you know, low, medium, good, good, better, best.
Stephen Robles:Right. Right.
Jason Aten:Right. Trying to say. And so, like, they're gonna keep some of the feet. There's no way that there's only like, some people don't like the form factor of the AirPods 3, like you said. Right.
Jason Aten:So my and I all I mostly see people either wearing AirPods Pro or AirPods 1 slash 2. Like, some like, I it's hard to tell the difference between those 2. They're basically the same. So I can't imagine they're gonna eliminate the form factor of AirPods 2 because there are a lot of people who do not like the
Stephen Robles:The bulbous.
Jason Aten:3 form factor. Yeah. And and if you do like that, you probably want the pro anyway because they sit they fit in your ear better because they at least have the silicone chips. So I don't I don't really know what to think about this at this point. I think it would make sense for them to just call them AirPods and call them AirPods, like, AirPods AirPods Air.
Jason Aten:You can't call it that. But you can call it AirPods AirPods something else.
Stephen Robles:That's what it is.
Jason Aten:There's gotta be something
Stephen Robles:else. But But I
Jason Aten:think it would make more sense to people if it's like we have AirPods, we have something else, AirPods, and then we have AirPods Pro. Right? I don't know what goes in between the 2 because it is usually air, and it does feel a little bit redundant to stick that at the end of it. I I I I don't know. So I don't know if this is like, there's some feature changes here, but also it does feel like maybe it's a supposed to be a rationalization of the branding because it's weird that it's like AirPods 23 are essentially not different generations necessary.
Jason Aten:I mean, I know they technically are, but they, like, coexist alongside of each other because they serve different purposes.
Stephen Robles:Right. Yeah. I don't I don't know. I'm curious what the story is like you are and how to differentiate it between AirPods Pro, which are frequently on sale for $200, and the AirPods 3, which are, like, 160, 170, and it's, like Right. This is a barely any price difference, but so that that and the next version of the Apple Watch, supposedly a refreshed Ultra, so an Apple Watch Ultra 3.
Stephen Robles:I've not really heard any rumors about what that might include, might be. I mean, faster chip. I don't even know. Curious what the blood oxygen sensor story is gonna be, because if you buy an Apple Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2 right now, the blood oxygen sensor is disabled because of that lawsuit from Masimo over the patent for the blood oxygen sensor. So curious if that will be any part, like, will they say anything?
Stephen Robles:Like, we have a brand new blood oxygen sensor not made by Masimo. So now you can get it and it works, but refreshed Ultra 3 and then the Series 10 Apple Watch, which should be a maybe slimmer design. We might get the larger screen size in the series, so the Apple Watch Ultra right now is the 49 millimeter face, the biggest face. There's some rumors that we'll get that in the Series 10 as well, so you can get, like, what is it, 42, 45, 49, or 43, 45, 49, and, you might have those sizes, so we'll see that. IPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods.
Jason Aten:I think it's 41 and 45.
Stephen Robles:The 41? Oh, yeah. Because it was 39 and 42. Yeah.
Jason Aten:So here's my thing. For the Apple Watch, for real, I mean this sincerely, other than better battery life, faster processor, and maybe a bigger screen in some scenarios, is there like, I don't understand people who think that the series watch needs to be redesigned. Like, I do not. I don't get that. Like, it is in my mind the it's the right form factor for that device.
Jason Aten:Right? It it just really is. And I know that you could have argued that about, like, the wedge shaped MacBook Air and then MacBook the m two MacBook Air is arguably, like, a better design. That's fine. But you have a lot more room to make changes on a laptop than you do on a watch.
Jason Aten:I don't I don't know. Some people I feels like a lot of people just want these things to change for the sake of them. I heard somebody like, well, they definitely need to change the way the bands attached to the body. Like, why? It's literally the best.
Stephen Robles:It's so good.
Jason Aten:I have a lot of watches, and all of them are terrible to change the bands except for the Apple Watch. It is the single greatest innovation in watch It
Stephen Robles:is very good.
Jason Aten:Banding in history.
Stephen Robles:It is very good.
Jason Aten:And people are like, no. They they need to change it. Well, why? Because they just it's logical that they have to change it eventually. I'm like No.
Jason Aten:Wait. Please don't. Don't. Please never I can understand if they change the width, you know, the lug size because and so you had to buy new your bands were not compatible, but don't change the magnetic, like, way that they attach. Yeah.
Jason Aten:Please. So
Stephen Robles:Yeah. And that that is, at least according to MacRumors, one of the things that might change is that is the band connection. I feel like Apple's they're gonna rock with the same thing. I mean, you to break compatibility with almost 10 years of Apple Watch bands, not that they're opposed to it, they've changed charging ports before, but I feel like Apple Watch bands is a little different. I mean, they've they've sold so many.
Stephen Robles:I mean, people have so many not that people have all a lot of bands, but there's just been a lot of bands sold over the last 10 years.
Jason Aten:And you can use Apple Watch Ultra Bands on Apple Watch Series.
Stephen Robles:Exactly. And you
Jason Aten:can use them the other way around. It's like, I don't they've gone they made a lot of effort to make these things universal as much. I mean, it looks pretty stupid if you take an Apple Watch Ultra Band and put it on your series because it's a little bit big, but it they'll fit. It works. It fits.
Jason Aten:They work. Same mechanics.
Stephen Robles:Yeah. So So we'll see. I I don't think we're gonna see Mac stuff on Monday. I think there's gonna be either press releases or maybe another event in October, maybe even November. I think it's just iPhone.
Stephen Robles:In this order, AirPods, Apple Watch, iPhone, and that's the event. Maybe Apple Watch, AirPods, iPhone. I'm not sure. But I think that's that's probably the whole event, because they're gonna spend a whole time on iPhone 16 specifically, talk about Apple Intelligence a bunch there, and then they'll go into the iPhone 16 Pro at the end of the event. Usually that's the last thing, and they'll talk about whatever.
Stephen Robles:Maybe we'll see, you know, whatever. HomePod Mini, Apple TV, AirPods Max, but I'd I'd I'm not convinced. We've not seen any kind of, like, renders or rumors really. People want refreshed versions of the AirPods Max, but I don't think it's
Jason Aten:gonna Yeah. There that's never gonna happen. There you can buy the Beats Pro whatever thing that is because that's basically your updated AirPods Max. It's
Stephen Robles:sad. It's sad. But anyway Alright. Event is 1 PM Eastern on Monday. We'll be doing a recap episode that evening.
Stephen Robles:Livestream 5 PM Eastern. We'd love to have you join us. Look in the show notes for links and also in the community. And don't worry, I'll be posting on social media as well, all that. Are we off the lightning round the rest of this stuff, Jason?
Stephen Robles:But there was a bunch of
Jason Aten:Let's do it.
Stephen Robles:There's a bunch of the news. Apple Sports live activities. I don't I don't know sportsball. So are you gonna use this?
Jason Aten:I I have opened the Apple Sports app twice, and it was, like, when I installed it in one other time. And then I realized you couldn't follow the Olympics in the Apple Sports app. And I thought this what is even the point of this? I know that eddyq really likes this app. I don't know why.
Jason Aten:Maybe now that the NFL season has started, I'll open it occasionally, but I I don't know that this is solving the problem that Apple hoped it would be solving because it's so it is so based on, like, they've had to make all these individual deals to get all this data. And and, apparently, it's fast. Right? Like, that's the thing that appear. And but here's the thing.
Jason Aten:There's only one sport that that matters, and it's basketball because the score changes basically every 40 seconds in a basketball game. In a football game, it doesn't change that fast. So whatever. If it's a 4 minute old score, probably it's still accurate. So I again and in soccer, they they score maybe twice a game.
Jason Aten:It's, like, not it's it's not urgent.
Stephen Robles:Here's here's my problem. I just opened the sports app here on my phone. Okay? And I'm no longer following any teams.
Jason Aten:And you can't do anything.
Stephen Robles:Because I kept seeing the notifications on my Apple TV when games were starting or a game is in overtime or the game is tied up. I'm seeing all notifications. The only way I knew to get rid of it for good is to just unfollow the teams, which I had to do in Apple News, which this whole process is ridiculous. So I unfollowed them in Apple News. And then but now And
Jason Aten:you can't do anything in the app. There's literally nothing you you just can't even look up, like, what are the games today? Why? None. Why does it force you to I'm sorry.
Jason Aten:I I this is No. I think enough time left in this podcast.
Stephen Robles:It is reasonable, like, I would like, honestly, I do not watch sports ball. I care a little, but sometimes I want to talk to other human beings, and 99% of the time other human beings wanna talk about sports. Right. So sometimes I'll be like, oh, yeah. The the race.
Stephen Robles:You know? And like, this could help me, give me a little data, but I can't just follow the race in the sports app and not see notifications on my Apple TV, not see all this other stuff. So, like, please, let's this could uncouple those things, and it'll be a little more useful, but
Jason Aten:Yeah. So you knew the baseball team. I just think real quickly, do you know the other sports teams in Tampa?
Stephen Robles:Are you listen. You got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you got the Tampa Bay Lightning for the hockey, the Tampa Bay Rays for baseball, you have, well, you have the Orlando Magic for basketball. I don't think there's a Tampa one.
Jason Aten:But you're not in Tampa.
Stephen Robles:And I still remember a Final Jeopardy question that I saw, like, 20 years ago. And the Final Jeopardy question was, what 3 NBA teams do not end in s? Can you think, Jason? What 3 NBA teams do not end in s?
Jason Aten:Yeah. This has been around for a while.
Stephen Robles:Okay. Well This
Jason Aten:is, like, one of the I mean, well, the Magic is one of them, obviously.
Stephen Robles:Magic is one. Yes. That's right. I don't
Jason Aten:I have you have to have to think about it. We don't have this much time.
Stephen Robles:I'll think
Jason Aten:about it while you're talking.
Stephen Robles:The Magic?
Jason Aten:Well, I won't
Stephen Robles:The Heat.
Jason Aten:And I won't think about it.
Stephen Robles:No. I this is the one time that I can actually exude sports knowledge. Alright. And there'll never again be a chance. The Miami Heat, the Orlando Magic, and the Utah Jazz.
Stephen Robles:Okay. Those are the 3 teams that do not end in s. That's it. I don't know why that final it lives in my head rent free for years, but I know that about sportsball.
Jason Aten:Alright.
Stephen Robles:So there you go. NVIDIA, they lost a bunch of money or or at least wiped out
Jason Aten:Well, they didn't lose any money. Their stock price, their market value was the largest wipeout in the history of the stock market in total in total amount.
Stephen Robles:The reason the $279,000,000,000 wipeout because of the drop in stocks. Now this again, NVIDIA's stock has been on a tear because of the GPU chips and the rise of AI, although this drop is supposedly because a Bloomberg report said that the company received a subpoena from the Department of Justice as part of an antitrust investigation. So it does not seem to allude that it was something about AI or companies not buying as many chips. It was because of this report, which every time I see like a huge stock change due to a Bloomberg report, I think back of all that I've heard about the Bloomberg terminal, and I just think it just seems I don't know. You know, the and bloom Bloomberg writers being incentivized.
Stephen Robles:Anyway, I don't know. I don't know.
Jason Aten:So there was 2 things. The first one was there was sort of just a general, like, the doc the Dow went down, like, 600 points that day or something like that. So there was, like, a stocks were going lower anyway, and NVIDIA just proportionally went down a lot. And some of it is about this kind of apprehension about the what the future trajectory of AI is going to be. And we know that companies like Microsoft have said they're gonna spend, like, $20,000,000,000 on GPUs or whatever.
Jason Aten:But the question is, like, will they keep buying them from NVIDIA? And then there was a separate thing that happened or at the same time, basically, where the DOJ there's it's a little bit confusing because at first, the reporting was that the DOJ had issued a subpoena, and then Nvidia said that they had not been issued a subpoena yet, that they're just talking to the DOJ. But the thing is, like, the DOJ is essentially in, investigating or considering opening an investigation. I'm trying to, like, be careful because, like, it's a little bit fuzzy what's actually happening here. But they are looking at NVIDIA and and looking at whether they are committing antitrust violations and being anti competitive because of the the dominance that they have in this market.
Jason Aten:And it's essentially punishing Nvidia for its foresight and its strategy from a few years ago, because like, this is not a new strategy. Right?
Stephen Robles:Right.
Jason Aten:And, and, and, and because Nvidia does a lot of things to create lock in, you know, they they have the CUDA, like, framework or whatever. I don't I'd said a word. I don't actually know what it means, but it has to do with, like, the way you can build software to run on its GPUs. Let's just put it that way. And so the DOJ Ben Thompson had a really interesting take.
Jason Aten:He writes the Stratechery newsletter, and it was basically, like, the DOJ essentially is wrong. They are trying to punish NVIDIA for winning. And it's just like, is that really what we wanted to, like, do to the incentive structure here is, like, if you win, we'll come after you because you you won. Imagine if every time there's a sports ball game, the team that won got investigated because they were anti competitive. Now there's a diff there's a difference between cheating
Stephen Robles:They're literally competing.
Jason Aten:And beating your opponents. Right? And I mean, like, listen to whole the the U of M sign stealing, where they were sending the guy, and he was, like, steal cheating is better. More recent example was the the coach of the Canada women's national team was basically fired because they were flying drones over the other team's practices. Yeah.
Jason Aten:You can't do that, but Nvidia was not flying drones over AMD's headquarters looking at like, they just won. And so it's but it does the other piece of it, the the sort of the global sell off piece that originally kinda, like, hit their stock does just make me wonder, like, are we at the are we at, like, peak AI right now? And will we be, like, where does it go from here? And I don't think AI is going anywhere, but I do think, like, there's going to become a point where the the mass, buildup of this sort of AI bubble, it's either going to, like, pop or I don't know what the other option is, but it does seem like it's we may have reached that peak. I don't know.
Jason Aten:We'll see.
Stephen Robles:So it's a curious question. Like, is the AI bubble about to pop? Because the other news I really wanted to cover was there's going to be a special on TV hosted by Oprah Winfrey about AI. And so this special is happening September 12th, so what day is that? That's Thursday.
Stephen Robles:The Thursday before, iPhone preorders, possibly. And she's gonna host a special on ABC talking about AI and the future of us. That's the title of the TV special. She's gonna have special guests like Bill Gates, Sam Altman, and MKBHD, which MKBHD posted a selfie with Oprah a few days ago, and it was very curious like, what is this, mash up here? Well, it was because he's going to be on this television special, and he must have been filming it.
Stephen Robles:Now the reactions to this special have been curious. There's a bunch of people saying mad about it because having someone like Oprah be like the host of this kind of show, who's not in the tech industry or whatever, like people are against that idea, and also that it might just be a promotion of AI special rather than really talking about the dangers. Supposedly MKBHD is gonna be doing some demos for Oprah to show, like, the amazing things that AI is capable of. And if you look at the guess, obviously Sam Altman is going to spin AI in a very positive light as he is the CEO of OpenAI. And I would think even Bill Gates, you know, he's not at Microsoft anymore, but I imagine he will maybe he'll talk about the dangers, I don't know.
Stephen Robles:But it doesn't seem like this special is gonna be focusing on that part. And so there's a lot of critics saying, you know, we need more of that side of the argument as well. I'm 100% gonna watch this, because I think it's gonna be fascinating, but as you talked about a bubble of AI, I mean, so much in the tech bubble is in the bubble. You know, there's not ton of news about whatever. You know, random tech things that we talk about, even on this podcast, like it just doesn't hit quote unquote mainstream very often.
Stephen Robles:You're not gonna hear Bluetooth 6 on ABC News tonight. It's like that kind of stuff. But for someone like Oprah, like if you look at if you look at the landscape of celebrities, at least here in the US, like Oprah is like one of the top names as far as most well known, huge audience, you know, when you're looking at audience size. Like you're now you're talking about maybe even 100 of millions of people. So the fact that AI has now hit the level and Oprah Winfrey is covering it in a TV special, I think does lend credence that, like, AI is now mainstream.
Stephen Robles:Like, it is enough a part of the conversation that ABC has warranted a TV special. That's an interesting point. And then seeing how it is painted, like, we haven't it's not come out. Like we need to watch September 12th. We'll see how they actually paint AI, what they talk about.
Stephen Robles:But I think it will be interesting to see, like, what is the excitement versus fear versus timbre of the conversation, because however it is framed in that special, not saying it's going to decide the trajectory of AI, but it will shape people's thoughts about it, like normal people's thoughts. Because right now, most people might have heard about chatgpt, but even like I was at the PodcastMoodle conference a couple weeks ago, and a vast majority of people still do not use AI tools like in their workflow. They don't know like what to do with it. They're not sure what it does, and so there is still a lot of unknown. And this TV special and then whatever news coverage after it has the potential of making AI more of a household conversation and, topic.
Stephen Robles:So I'm I'm just very curious how it's gonna be framed in a TV special, and whether or not it's a bubble, I think, you know, this moment, not just this TV special, but this moment I think might have a lot to do with that direction. And to think about like OpenAI is still not a publicly traded company, And, like, the moment that happens, like, that might be a Pandora's box. Like, who knows? You know, once there's so many people invested in it. But I don't know.
Stephen Robles:What do you think?
Jason Aten:Well, I think that if you want to mainstream something, you get Oprah involved. Right? I mean, no matter like, even though I mean, she had a television show for a very long time, at least her what she's known for, but she still has the ability to command, as you mentioned, an enormous audience. And for whatever people might think of Oprah, she does have a the she's very good at doing the thing that you and I kinda talk about wanting to do, which is, like, making it make sense for people who don't always pay attention to like, who are not reading Sam Altman's tweets all day long. Right?
Jason Aten:Like
Stephen Robles:And and just just just to that point, have you ever seen the older clips of Oprah, like, way back in the day going to, like, you know, southern states and asking pointed questions and all, like Yeah. She's actually very intelligent and she has had some amazing, like, pointed interviews and questions. Like, she's sharp. I just wanna say
Jason Aten:that. Absolutely. And so, you know, she's certainly the type of person who can, be on the same level as someone like Sam Altman or Bill Gates or whoever and stuff like that. I I do think the whole thing is interesting. I mean, I just was looking this morning, and and Bill Gates has given at least 3 interviews that I'll publish today about a documentary series that he's doing on Netflix and talking about AI and all this stuff.
Jason Aten:So, like, there's definitely a push that peep if the concern that people have is that this is just sort of a front for putting a positive spin on AI and all the players involved are the people who will benefit from that. Like, I think that's a reasonable question to ask. I'm not certainly gonna make that accusation. I just think it's a reasonable thing to ask whether that's the case. But at the same time, like, whether that happens or whether that's true or not, it does not change the fact that the trajectory of this is it's going to impact all of our lives.
Jason Aten:And I think that there are ways that it can be super, super useful for people don't understand in at all, especially let's be honest. If you use an iPhone, unless you download, like, the chat gpt app and know how to use it, like, you haven't had this as a part of your daily experience of using technology because it Apple has been behind. Whereas if you're using a a a Pixel, maybe that's been different, you know, because you can activate Gemini or whatever it might be. I think it's it's a thing that people are going to start it's like rising up in the public consciousness, and it's not just like a techie thing. You know?
Jason Aten:And I like, I use chat gpt, the app on my Mac Yeah. Almost every day.
Stephen Robles:Same.
Jason Aten:For things that I know that Google's terrible at or for things that I just know will save me time. Like, there'll be times when I have to take an interview with someone and I'm just like, what did this like, tell me what this thing said. Or I can you know, Otter, I think I mentioned this before, but, like, Otter AI, like, they it transcribes every I use it for every single interview I do. And I just opened it up, and I noticed they have a chat feature now. And I just typed into that chat, what did the person say about this product that failed?
Jason Aten:And it just it searches all my transcripts and pops it up, and then it also tells me and by the way, this also appeared in this other place. It would have taken me hours to do that. I would have actually just given up. I would have never done it. Like but I can just have it's it is the I think for a lot of people, it's going to be the thing that it's like having a super smart I mean, it's still pretty stupid, but it has the potential of being a super smart person that understands what you want and can instantly do the work that would take that human a long time to go through old transcripts or whatever.
Jason Aten:And so I I don't know. I think it's really interesting that they I mean, Oprah seems like a but who would you who who would you have had do these interview? I mean, you could have had MKBHD who has a very big audience. All respect to him, he is not Oprah. Like, he's not he's not the mainstream, like, face of making things for nor you know, making things normal for people.
Jason Aten:So
Stephen Robles:I'm trying to think of, like, the news people, like like, straight news. I I know I don't know if Charlie Rose is even, like, interviewing people anymore. It's, like, big name news that you see, like, interviewing people.
Jason Aten:Thinking about that, though. Have you seen the Charlie Rose interview with Tim Cook when he was at Apple Park? Yeah. Charlie Rose doesn't understand. Like, again, great journalist, but he's not he doesn't understand technology.
Jason Aten:And I don't know how much technology Oprah understands because I've not heard her talk about it. But like you said, she's incredibly sharp and can and can play that role of the person who doesn't fully understand and just ask the questions. Like, but what if this destroys us? Right? Like, that question sounds different coming from Oprah than it does from, you know, Lester Holt.
Stephen Robles:I was so I literally just found Lester Holt's name. Like, that's who I was thinking of is someone like Lester Holt in a more, like, journalistic sense investigating AI, because Oprah is not an investigative journalist. You know, she is a TV personality with a huge audience, who's very smart, does investigation, like, ask good questions, but I would think in the public's eye, if you see a TV special with Oprah Winfrey, you're not thinking this is an investigative news report. You're saying, you know, this is just a a presentation, you know, TV special. So again, an interesting choice, Oprah.
Stephen Robles:And I just realized the timeline, as you're saying, you know, Apple Intelligence, If it's coming to all the iPhones this year and this interview is on 13th, those TV specials are on 12th, excuse me, Thursday, and pre orders for the iPhone that all has Apple Intelligence is the next day. You have this TV special on 12th, preorders likely on 13th, the phone's launching in the next week, and again, if any other name besides Oprah can bring something mainstream, it's the iPhone. It's Apple. And Apple is bringing Apple intelligence likely to the entire iPhone 16 lineup. And so is it a bubble or not?
Stephen Robles:I I think this is the a moment, like this is just a moment in the story about AI and how we all interact with it that it's going to change probably. At least for mainstream, like like people, not just us here in the tech sphere. So it's interesting.
Jason Aten:Yeah. That is yeah.
Stephen Robles:There are other news. I don't know if we can get to it. I mean, X is banned in Brazil.
Jason Aten:We'll save some of this stuff. Yeah.
Stephen Robles:We'll save it. I did what I thought it was interesting, and then the the Telegram CEO getting arrested in France. I mean, so much so much happening.
Jason Aten:And I do sometime wanna talk about the ridiculousness of this stupid browser shenanigans in the EU.
Stephen Robles:The the random order choosing everything.
Jason Aten:The only thing I wanna say about well, actually, no. The only thing I wanna say about it is if they they had to change the policy, so the EU required Apple to put up a browser a browser choice screen, and they're making them redo it. And if you previously chose Safari, you have to choose again. But if you chose any other browser, you don't have to choose again. I'm sorry.
Jason Aten:But, like, when are we gonna just shut down the EU? Can we vote on that? Can we just vote to shut down the EU?
Stephen Robles:I mean, I was listening to the Verge cast that they were talking about this. I was listening to the podcast where they were talking about this and it did seem like incredibly asinine. What was going to
Jason Aten:It is so terrible.
Stephen Robles:Basically and then it like, every time there's a software update or whatever, like iOS 18, you're gonna have to, like, re choose your default list of
Jason Aten:where you
Stephen Robles:want to go.
Jason Aten:Set up a new device. But but, Steven, only if you choose Safari, if you choose any other browser, that that preference will stick. It's the it's like, it's like they're so concerned that people are being coerced into using Safari, which is like, it is the best mobile browser because it's been basically the only one and that's fine. But, like, it is just it is so stupid.
Stephen Robles:The one the one thing I heard, I don't know, I think it was the Vergecast. One of the browser choices that's available in a lot of these countries, which yeah. I'll put a link to the support article in the show notes. Why not? Is the onion browser Mike Tigas?
Stephen Robles:That's like the name of the browser. Like onion browser comma Mike Tigas.
Jason Aten:Well, that's the developer. Mike Tigas is the developer.
Stephen Robles:I know but he's the name of the developer.
Jason Aten:His name is in the name
Stephen Robles:of the browser. Like, you would see that in the browser choice
Jason Aten:Microsoft, Mozilla, Mike Teegus.
Stephen Robles:Kudos to Mike Teegus, with the branding, exposure. But also, it is apparently like a a dark web browser, like a Tor browser.
Jason Aten:Yeah. Yeah.
Stephen Robles:Tor browser. And it's like what, like what kind of foolishness has to happen for you to have a Tor web and again, like if the list is randomized every time someone has sees the screen supposedly, And so there are, like, just love averages and numbers. There's going to be many people who see onion browser comma Mike Teegus as the top browser choice on their iPhone when they update it. And it's like Yeah. What?
Jason Aten:And if you choose that, the new rule is that it has to replace Safari. So wherever you had the Safari icon Yeah. It shows up now. And how are you gonna get Safari back?
Stephen Robles:That seems like that seems hostile, like, user hostile behavior.
Jason Aten:Steven, everything about this is user hostile. Everything about this is user hostile behavior. The the EU, I'm sorry for our European listeners, but
Stephen Robles:can you
Jason Aten:just agree with me that this, yeah, we love you. I'm sorry, but your government is, like, not good at designing tech products, and they should stop because this is so user hostile.
Stephen Robles:This is not good. This is not a good user experience. This is not, dare I say, like safe? Like, you know, to have a Tor browser as your default that literally, your home screen will change if you choose something besides Safari, like, without your action. Like, wherever you put Safari, whether it was in the dock or on your main home screen, that icon gets replaced by whatever browser default you choose on this screen, which could be onion browser, comma, Mike Teegus.
Stephen Robles:And that I mean, you're on
Jason Aten:And if you think that's and if you think that's bad, if you just choose Safari because you're, like, nope. That's the browser that's it's just gonna keep asking you. It's gonna assume you you're an idiot and you didn't mean to keep using the best mobile web browser, and it's just gonna keep asking you, are you sure you don't wanna use Mike Teegas' browser, please? Are you sure? Like
Stephen Robles:And also to be clear, in the EU, which is different than here in the US, these different browsers can also have different browser engines under the hood. Here in the US, if you download Chrome or Brave on your iPhone, it's still running WebKit, which is the browser engine for Safari. But in the EU, it's actually different browser engines underneath the hood. So you're not just choosing the wrapper of WebKit. Like, you're choosing the underneath browser engine, which I assume Apple is well, I don't know.
Stephen Robles:I mean, that it's not nefarious. This is an approved list of browsers, but still, like, it just seems I
Jason Aten:don't know. It is just ridiculous, and I'm sorry. But I just had to like, we couldn't go any longer without just saying that this is because the only the only company that benefits from this is Google. Like, it's fine. That's it.
Jason Aten:You're gonna choose Safari or Chrome. You're not. Sorry, Mike Tigas. Kudos to you. I don't know anyone else who's gotten their name on a settings screen and an iPhone.
Jason Aten:You do like, that's impressive, but nobody's choosing
Stephen Robles:default. No. No. No. And, honestly, I mean, brand, crossover, If I saw the onion browser, I think I'm all gonna see is, satirical
Jason Aten:Nerdy Sykes. Is
Stephen Robles:it anything that changes
Jason Aten:the headline of changes the headline of every article you look at to some kind of satire. Yep.
Stephen Robles:No. Honestly, I would I would use that browser. I I would want it purposely when I choose, but, yeah, that that would be funny. Alright. Before we get to our bonus episode, I do wanna talk about my Pixel review
Jason Aten:Yes.
Stephen Robles:Because I had the Pixel 9 Pro XL for a week. I made a video about it. Mhmm. And you can you can watch it now. When I got this phone, Jason, I was like I'm gonna that was the last Android phone I had serious experience with, the HTC Hero on Sprint.
Stephen Robles:I don't know if you remember that phone, but it was not a good
Jason Aten:one. I do not. No.
Stephen Robles:That there it is, HTC Hero on Sprint. I used that phone legitimately for a couple years and that was, you know, it was fine. But anyway, so I I reviewed the Pixel 9 Pro. Listen, here's the thing. I I intended to for the video to be I gave up my iPhone for a week and went all in on the Pixel.
Stephen Robles:And I think it was about 15 minutes into that experiment, my son sent me a text, which I saw on my watch, and I sent a screen time request. And I was, like, okay. I can actually can't do this, because in order to try and move to an Android device, for me personally, I would need all my kids to be on devices that I can do screen time requests, which if if they had Android devices, there is Family Link. It is an inferior parental control feature, but I could do that. But I can't do screen time requests on an Android.
Jason Aten:It's real hard to be inferior to screen time, so that is a deep cut there.
Stephen Robles:It is. I've because I've literally done it. I've set up Family Link because it was an old Android phone one of my kids wanted to use and I was like what are the controls on here? Turns out not as good as screen time. Honestly, for all the bugs in screen time has, family link is not a robust product.
Stephen Robles:So I was like okay well I can't approve screen time requests on my Android phone. I can't control any of my smart home products unless I fully upend that entire system, which is typically hanging by a thread anyway, because accessories will randomly stop responding. So I can't control any of my smart home.
Jason Aten:Hanging by a thread. Oh. Hanging by a thread.
Stephen Robles:Didn't even I didn't even thread is a smart home device.
Jason Aten:I'm sorry for interrupting you, but that was too good to let pass by.
Stephen Robles:That's a great pun. I didn't even think about it. So I can't control any of my smart home devices. I can't control any of my Apple TVs from my Android phone. I'm missing AirDrop.
Stephen Robles:I'm missing Universal Clipboard. I'm missing MagSafe. You know, you can wirelessly charge a Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, but it doesn't use MagSafe. So all the actual pucks that are suspended in the air that have run my house won't stick to any of those. So much of the ecosystem just does not carry over.
Stephen Robles:And so I could not put my iPhone in a drawer for a week and just use the Pixel 9. I basically had to double fist the phones. So I was trying to use 1 each. But also the moment I tried to, you know, I I put a bunch of apps that I already use like Pocket Cast, Anylist for groceries, 1password, Amazon, all of that works great. And the hardware of the Pixel 9 Pro is great too.
Stephen Robles:Like, camera takes really good pictures, videos, like, so much of that stuff is good, fine. The hardware is really nice. Camera bump is ridiculous. I would argue is more ridiculous than the iPhone camera bump. Very large.
Stephen Robles:But once I went into the realm of notes, tasks, calendars, Spark is there for email, to your point, and I put Spark on the on the Pixel, and that's a great app experience. But there's so many categories of apps that Android just doesn't have great alternatives to what I use on the iPhone. They have good alternatives, and I shared on threads. I asked, like, what's the note app that everyone uses if you want it to be cross platform? I got UpNote, Joplin.
Stephen Robles:A lot of people just said just use Google Keep. So I did that and you can get the Google Keep app on your iPhone, you can use it on the web on a Mac, and you can use it on your Android phone. It is not a great note taking app. It's good and it like is fine for most things, but nothing beats bear for me. Like bear is just so good and all the features like there's just not a good enough equivalent for bear.
Stephen Robles:Same thing with things. Like there's great apps, you have tick tick. I know a lot of people love that as a to do app. There's just not the equivalent of things for me on Android. Same thing with Fantastical.
Stephen Robles:There's no Fantastical obviously at all, but there's also not really an alternative to Fantastical on Android. And so aside from the ecosystem lock in, which is abundantly clear, like, that was immediately evident, like, this does not work, just the app story itself is not something like that I would I would not want to have to figure that out. Like, there's just so many more. And what I said in the video is there's a lot of good apps on Android and some great apps, but there's a lot of great apps on iPhone. And I think that's the main distinction.
Stephen Robles:Like, the iPhone App Store, there's just so much more developer energy and support to making great applications for iPhone, iPad and Mac. And I get it, like, because a developer can actually deliver to all 3 of those platforms with a single app now, where on Android, it's like, there you can't I mean Windows, you can put it on there.
Jason Aten:Right.
Stephen Robles:Chrome OS, not really. I mean you can, but like no one it's not popular. No one's using that. I mean, it's, education and all that kind of stuff, yes. But it's just not the the the breadth of of user base.
Stephen Robles:And so just the app story by itself would preclude me from switching to Android. And last thing I'll say in the video, which I'll say here, if I had to choose Mac and Android phone or Windows and iPhone, I would still choose Mac and Android phone. It would be a pain in the neck. I wouldn't enjoy the experience as much as my iPhone, but I need my Mac to get stuff done. I need Final Cut.
Stephen Robles:I need all the workflows I have on my Mac for my video production. There's some things just like edit just everything on the Mac. Like, I would still prefer, if I had to, the Mac over the iPhone. I would make it work with the Pixel, but just the app story is just is just not there. So that's my experience.
Jason Aten:Yeah. I and I I lied to you last week. I apologize. I because I because the Spark does not have a calendar on the Android version. I thought that it did, and I'm sorry.
Jason Aten:It does on the Mac, but on the Android, it does not have the calendar because that would have actually made a difference, I think, for
Stephen Robles:It would make a difference.
Jason Aten:You know? So necessarily mean you'd switch, but the but Spark has a pretty decent calendar app, and it looks nice. So
Stephen Robles:But but it was the in the ecosystem, the deal, like, it was so clear. Oh, and also shortcuts. Like, there is no no alternative to that on Android. Samsung has, like, Bixby routines or whatever. Not as robust.
Stephen Robles:Nowhere near the same thing. And the Pixel doesn't even have that. And so focus modes, like you get one focus mode on Android and it basically lets you say what apps to send you notifications and you have no other the granular controls. Like focus modes on iPhone you have focus filters, third party apps can integrate into that like Fantastical. It's amazing.
Stephen Robles:It's just not it's just not there and I would not prefer to use it. And, yeah, ecosystem lock in. That's that's a real thing. AirTags too. Find My in the AirTag network, like there's not a great alternative to that either.
Stephen Robles:So anyway, that was my experiment. I'll put my video in the show notes if you would like to watch it. And, I I basically tried another product, last week and then we're going to talk about it in the bonus episode.
Jason Aten:Oh I can't wait.
Stephen Robles:It's gonna be fun. I basically test drove a Tesla. So anyway, we're going to talk about it in the bonus episode, so you can listen to that by going to primary tech dot f m, click bonus episodes, and you could support the show there. We'd appreciate your support. You get ad free versions when we have ads and you get a bonus episode every week.
Stephen Robles:And you can listen to the whole back catalog there. You can support us directly in Apple Podcasts and you get the same thing, ad free episodes and bonus content, access to the whole back catalog. And we would appreciate your support subscribing on YouTube. You can watch us there. You can watch us fumble around with the camera and the imaginary capture button on our iPhones this week if you'd like to see that.
Stephen Robles:And, of course, if you leave us a 5 star rating and review in Apple Podcasts, we appreciate it. We're also a 5 star podcast in Spotify and PocketKats because you can leave reviews all in all three of those places, and we are 5 star podcast in all that. So thank you, everyone who has done that. Leave us that 5 star rating review, and we'll give you a shout out next week. Thanks for listening.
Stephen Robles:Thanks for watching. We'll catch you next time.
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