Up next in 10
This week: Griffin’s first impressions of the AirPods Max 2, we bid farewell to the Mac Pro by honoring a top setup, and our celebration of Apple’s 50th birthday.
Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac
Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:55 - AirPods Max 2 hands-on
28:24 - R.I.P. Mac Pro
36:13 - Most important Apple products
48:11 - Our first Macs
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Coming up, Apple turns 50 and the Mac
0:03
Pro turns dead. Griffin's first
0:06
impressions of the AirPods Max 2. We bid
0:08
farewell to the Mac Pro by honoring a
0:10
top setup and a celebration of Apple's
0:13
50th birthday.
0:16
Welcome to the Cold Mack podcast. I'm
0:17
your host, Naney. Joining me today, D
0:20
Griffin Jones. Good morning, Griffin.
0:23
>> Good morning. I mean, sorry, good
0:24
evening. You almost tripped me up there.
0:26
>> No, don't say good evening. It always
0:27
throws me off and it drives me crazy.
0:29
Good evening, Arander.
0:31
>> It's not evening in Ohio.
0:33
>> I round up.
0:33
>> It's afternoon, I guess.
0:35
>> Well, people might listen to this at any
0:37
time of the day. And uh at the time we
0:40
release the show in your time, it'll be
0:42
evening,
0:43
>> right? Well, anyway, I just wanted to
0:44
keep it consistent.
0:45
>> It's It's morning for G Lewis, though,
0:47
isn't it? It's actually a beautiful
0:49
morning.
0:50
>> A glorious morning. Thank god I'm not
0:52
outside in the beautiful sunshine.
0:54
>> Yeah. looking for bricks that fell off
0:57
people's houses because of the
0:58
earthquake last night. Did you feel it?
1:00
I didn't feel a thing.
1:00
>> I didn't feel it either. No.
1:03
>> Friend of mine from uh you know the
1:05
sunset apparently felt it which I mean
1:07
this is down in Santa Cruz, right? So
1:08
it's like
1:09
>> Yeah.
1:10
>> 50 miles away.
1:11
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they said they
1:12
felt it up in Santa Rosa. I saw the
1:15
paper.
1:16
>> Sheesh.
1:16
>> Crazy. Yeah. I didn't feel a thing.
1:19
>> But our we s on bedrock anyway in our
1:21
neighborhood, you know, we're on a big
1:22
rock. So, uh, when there was the last
1:26
one that that we felt, my mom who lives
1:28
in Hayes Valley, her house shook like a
1:31
maraca, and I we didn't we didn't feel
1:34
anything.
1:34
>> Yeah. Usually ones that I feel here,
1:36
they're just like sudden jolts. Just
1:38
like one boom jolt. That's it. Not like
1:41
the
1:43
everything's moving.
1:44
>> Yeah.
1:47
>> Fingers crossed. Right. Find some wood.
1:49
Knock on it right now.
1:52
>> Knocked. Okay. Let's get on with the
1:54
Let's get on with the show. So, we're
1:55
going to start off uh a little bit
1:56
different today. We're going to talk uh
1:58
we're going to jump straight into a
1:59
review. Griffin's been testing out the
2:00
AirPods Max 2, which you might notice on
2:03
his head right now. Uh they look very
2:06
shiny thanks to the window in front of
2:07
him. And uh you know, we're going to
2:09
talk about what he thinks about it. What
2:10
do you think?
2:11
>> Well, yeah. Uh this is my first time
2:13
with the AirPods Max. I never had the uh
2:16
original $550 original models because
2:18
they're $550. Uh yeah, the design is
2:23
unchanged from the previous one. Still
2:25
like the giant,
2:27
you know, unadorned aluminum cans on the
2:30
side.
2:30
>> Believe it's called a metal ear muff.
2:32
>> Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what they
2:34
look like. Yeah. Except, you know, like
2:36
20% larger than a regular ear muff
2:38
still. Um I really think they've become
2:41
kind of like an iconic design. Like you
2:43
see somebody wearing these and you're
2:45
not mistaking it for anything else. If
2:47
it is, you're mistaking it for an
2:48
AirPods Max. like obvious knockoff
2:50
because no other headphones looks like
2:52
these. It's like, you know, giant square
2:54
blocks on the side of somebody's head.
2:56
It's really easy to spot, you know, just
2:58
like the I almost becoming as iconic as
3:01
like the the white corded earbuds that
3:03
people associate with like, you know,
3:04
the early iPod days, you know? I mean,
3:07
go to any airport. That's where I see
3:08
them. I I don't live in the, you know,
3:10
tech hub city like San Francisco or
3:12
Seattle, but like anytime I go to an
3:14
airport, I I see at least five people
3:16
wearing these things.
3:18
>> Yeah. Yeah. They seem to be popular.
3:19
They, you know, they they seem to me to
3:21
be more popular than you you would you
3:22
would think, you know, given the the
3:24
press about them.
3:26
>> Um, but like you're right, we live in
3:28
San Francisco where it's not probably
3:29
typical.
3:31
>> Yeah. Uh, the materials and build
3:34
quality are still excellent. Like, yeah,
3:36
the design didn't change, but you know
3:37
what? It's a it's a really nice design.
3:39
Like I, you know, like the the fact that
3:42
the ear cups themselves are so simple,
3:45
it draws your eyes to all of the
3:46
details. like the little stainless steel
3:49
like little bands that you can barely
3:51
see around my giant hair, but those are
3:54
really nice. Like the the where they
3:56
where the little steel headband joins
3:59
with the with the the ear cups
4:01
themselves. It's like a spherical like
4:03
ball joint in there like a you know
4:05
joystick on a Nintendo controller so
4:08
that the the the ear cups can like
4:10
freely rotate and swivel around. When
4:12
you go to take them off, you pull them
4:14
and then you can feel them like bottom
4:17
out against like the metal sticks, like
4:18
you know, the metal touching the metal
4:19
and it makes a really satisfying like
4:21
clicking noise. When you adjust the
4:24
height, you just like, you know, pull
4:25
the little ear cup out and the little
4:28
steel bar like extends and it's like so
4:32
smooth. Like it's been really refined.
4:34
It's, you know, like pulling a piston
4:36
out of like a, you know, like a like a
4:39
hydraulic pin or something like that.
4:40
Like it's it's really nice. It's super
4:42
smooth. Not like every other pair of
4:44
headphones where you pull it and it's
4:45
like plastic clacking
4:48
>> janky.
4:50
>> Really nice. And also the headband
4:52
itself. Um, you know, I I didn't realize
4:55
this, but like the little rubber around
4:56
the outside that again, if you're
4:59
watching the video version, you're not
5:00
missing much because you can't really
5:01
see the headphones anyway around my tall
5:04
hair, but like the little rubber around
5:07
it is like the softest touch rubber you
5:10
will ever feel in your life. It's It's
5:12
really nice. I didn't expect it to be
5:14
that material or feel that way. That's
5:16
the difference between like just looking
5:17
at these things through the product
5:18
videos and actually using them. The
5:20
headband is really comfortable. like the
5:22
little mesh that sits cuz it's, you
5:24
know, so big and wide that it, you know,
5:27
makes a really wide u surface area on
5:30
the top of your head. Pretty
5:31
comfortable. Um, I didn't find the
5:33
weight to be as bad as everybody
5:37
complained about. I've heard, you know,
5:38
pe podcasters talking about how heavy
5:40
they are, you know, for the last 5
5:42
years, but maybe I'm just used to the
5:43
Vision Pro because I I don't really
5:46
notice the light on my head at all.
5:49
Yeah,
5:50
>> you've been training for years,
5:52
>> right? Look at your neck. It does look
5:53
pretty wide.
5:54
>> Yeah. Yeah.
5:55
>> You got that Mike Tyson neck.
5:57
>> Yeah. I should put both of them on
5:58
simultaneously. The Vision Pro and the
6:00
AirPods Max. See what that's like.
6:02
>> Oh my god.
6:04
>> Real workout.
6:05
>> That I have not seen.
6:06
>> I was kind of surprised looking at the
6:08
product pictures. The the cups of the
6:11
headphones look much thinner than they
6:13
actually are in person. Um, like I
6:16
always thought, oh, you know, they're
6:17
big metal cups, but you know, looking at
6:19
the product photos, like the they look
6:20
like they're really thin. And I was
6:22
surprised that that's not really the
6:23
case. I have like two other cheap
6:25
headphones that I compared them with.
6:27
These are the the one both of them which
6:30
our colleague Dave Snow recommended to
6:32
me. These are by Ear Fun and like yeah,
6:36
they're a little thicker, but not really
6:38
that much. Um, I have another pair by
6:42
Edifier and they're just about the same
6:44
thickness. Like they still protrude kind
6:47
of a lot, especially with the big plush
6:49
like, you know, ear pads that stick to
6:53
your ear. Like, you know, they they
6:54
pretty much double the thickness. So, it
6:56
they are actually pretty substantially
6:57
thick, just about the same as other
6:58
headphones.
6:59
>> Now, early complaints about condensation
7:01
on the inside. Do have you had any
7:03
problems with that?
7:04
>> I am a pretty sweaty person. However, I
7:06
have not noticed condensation on the
7:08
inside of my AirPods Max.
7:10
>> There was a there was a big, you know,
7:11
that was the gate, wasn't it? The sort
7:12
of sweat gate
7:14
>> when they originally came out. There was
7:16
a lot of
7:17
>> Yeah. And people are wearing them to the
7:18
gym and stuff. I mean, I I can't wait
7:20
till you're uh tooling around your uh
7:24
yard in the 98°ree Ohio summer heat,
7:27
mowing the grass on a lawn mower with
7:29
those things.
7:30
>> Yeah. So, they they do fit really well
7:32
on my head, uh, you know, just
7:33
stationary, but I'm amazed that anybody
7:35
works out in these because while I don't
7:37
find the weight uncomfortable, I do find
7:39
that anytime I get up and start walking
7:41
around, they they start to slip and I
7:43
have to like pull them forward again, I
7:45
I'm constantly readjusting them, if I'm
7:48
wearing them while I'm walking around.
7:49
So, I don't know how people possibly
7:52
like go on a treadmill or something like
7:53
that with these because you're they
7:56
bounce around a lot. even just like
7:57
letting my dogs out on a leash outside
8:00
like they they they start to slip up a
8:02
bit. Um so I don't know how people do
8:04
that.
8:04
>> Well, at least they they but they don't
8:05
I guess they don't um clamp your head
8:07
though, which is you know probably the
8:09
the advantage of that. Yeah.
8:10
>> Yeah. Not as much. I mean I will say
8:12
that these I have both large ears and
8:16
large glasses. So, a lot of headphones I
8:18
find uncomfortable and the only
8:20
headphones typically the only headphones
8:22
that stay on my head very well are the
8:25
ones that give me a headache after like
8:27
more than an hour. And these don't I
8:30
don't get that at all. Like the ear cup
8:32
the pads are so big and plush much much
8:35
bigger than the little crummy like faux
8:37
leather ones on these. So big and
8:40
pillowy that you know they they
8:41
distribute the the force very evenly. I
8:45
I don't feel it squeezing my glasses
8:46
into my into my head or anything. Uh, in
8:49
terms of sound quality,
8:52
obviously, it's not like I can play the
8:54
the sound to you, but I came up with a
8:57
good metaphor to sort of describe what
8:59
the sound quality might be. So, a lot of
9:03
people
9:04
have uh expressed the opinion that Apple
9:08
should make a full-size like dedicated
9:11
camera. You know, if the iPhone is so
9:13
great at taking excellent pictures and
9:15
its sensor is, you know, only this big,
9:18
imagine how powerful and incredible like
9:21
a full-size camera made by Apple would
9:22
be with like, you know, full-frame
9:24
sensor.
9:25
And similarly,
9:27
when I was reviewing the AirPods Pro 3,
9:30
I said, you know, these aren't just good
9:32
sounding earbuds for being earbuds.
9:35
They're excellent sounding on their own
9:37
right. Impressive range. Well, the
9:39
AirPods Max are the like audio
9:43
equivalent of like, you know, going from
9:45
an iPhone to a full-size camera as it is
9:48
going from the AirPods Pro 3 to a
9:49
full-size pair of headphones. Like, you
9:51
already think the AirPods Pro 3 sound
9:53
really good. You haven't heard these.
9:56
like the no matter what kind of music
9:58
you play, like just the incredible
10:01
clarity that you get at like every
10:04
spectrum across the, you know, human
10:07
hearing frequency just sounds bigger,
10:09
bolder, clearer in a lot of ways. You'll
10:12
notice like so many extra layers to your
10:14
music in these. You know, these are
10:16
easily the best I mean, the most
10:17
expensive headphones I've ever used for
10:20
an extended period of time. And yeah, I
10:23
can see why people like them. Very very
10:25
great.
10:26
>> Well, Lewis, you've got golden ears, you
10:27
know, and you you you you reviewed the
10:29
original ones and so they were
10:30
wonderful. Yeah.
10:32
>> Yeah. I love the way they sound, you
10:33
know, and it's like uh
10:37
I think I think I was talking about like
10:39
uh you know, listening to a Motorhead
10:40
song and you could like almost like
10:42
smell the cigarette on on Lemmy's, you
10:45
know,
10:47
>> it was but yeah, there just such an
10:50
intense like separation of sound and the
10:53
sound stage is awesome. I mean, just
10:54
everything was clear, you know? I I was
10:57
listening to songs like Steely Dan songs
10:58
that I'd listened to hundreds of times
11:00
and I was hearing parts that like
11:03
maybe that I maybe not parts I had never
11:06
heard, but like heard them in a
11:08
different way. And it was uh it was
11:10
really I mean I I'm not kidding. Like
11:12
even as I'm thinking about that, I'm
11:14
getting like goosebumps on my flesh. I I
11:16
can't believe I didn't buy a pair of
11:17
these things because I really did love
11:18
the way they sound. Um but I you know I
11:22
think we were talking about it last
11:23
week. It's like the the problem for me
11:25
is I just almost never ever wear
11:27
fullsize head headphones. And uh so but
11:31
yeah, I thought they I thought the sound
11:32
was awesome. And I've I've listened to a
11:34
lot of different headphones. Like when I
11:36
did that review, I listened to some Sony
11:37
ones and some, you know, all the all the
11:40
popular ones that cost like around 300
11:41
bucks or whatever. And like, yeah, okay,
11:43
they're all right. None of them had that
11:45
same like magical kind of it. In fact,
11:49
when you were talking about the iPhone,
11:50
you know, you're saying iPhone camera
11:52
metaphor, what I was thinking was the
11:55
iPhone camera metaphor for the for the
11:57
AirPods Max is that yeah, plenty of
12:00
cameras take just fine pictures. iPhone
12:05
with all the computational stuff turns
12:07
to just a regular quick snap into this
12:10
like beautifully detailed kind of
12:12
magical thing. It's just it's just
12:16
sounds those things just sound better
12:18
than other the other headphones that I
12:20
tested. I mean I you know I haven't
12:21
tried like super high-end headphones.
12:24
I'm sure there are ones out there that
12:25
are
12:25
>> well
12:26
>> more expensive. And
12:27
>> you've got some nice BS and Wilkins
12:29
don't you? Um
12:30
>> yeah. Yeah. And they sound good but they
12:32
did not to me they did not sound as good
12:34
as
12:35
uh as the AirPods Max. I I'm I'm sorry.
12:38
They just to me and and again this is
12:41
what five years ago. So, I haven't I
12:43
haven't tried them in five years, but
12:45
when I was listening to music on Apple
12:47
Music, by the way, I mean, I think
12:49
that's a a key part of this. I think if
12:51
you're listening on Apple Music, there's
12:53
something about the way that that
12:56
service delivers streaming audio and the
12:59
way that AirPods Max work with it that
13:01
is just I just think it's kind of, in my
13:04
experience, unbeatable.
13:05
>> Yeah, I should say if you're if you're
13:07
testing headphones, don't listen to
13:09
music on Spotify. Spotify intentionally
13:11
compresses their music at like half the
13:13
bit rate of Apple Music. And that's
13:14
before you even get into the lossless or
13:16
Dolby audio or spatial audio. Like the
13:19
the one thing I hear from everybody who
13:20
switches from Spotify to Apple Music is,
13:22
"Oh my god, I can't can't believe how
13:24
much better my music sounds." And that's
13:27
just like listening to it, you know,
13:29
over Bluetooth in the car with all that
13:32
road noise. Like I have a lot of music
13:34
in my library that's you know music that
13:36
I imported like 10 15 years ago from a
13:39
CD. So I uh intentionally you know tried
13:43
to make sure I was playing the version
13:45
on Apple Music of the highest quality in
13:47
spatial audio. You know there there
13:49
special mixes for that. In terms of uh
13:51
noise cancellation,
13:53
Apple only gives like relative weird
13:57
metrics for comparing the power of noise
14:00
cancellation between models and
14:02
generations. Like if if you go to like
14:05
apple.com/airpods/compare
14:08
and you you know plug in a few different
14:10
models, it'll say AirPods Pro 2 offer
14:14
twice the noiseancelling power of the
14:16
original AirPods Pro and AirPods 4. And
14:19
then you go to AirPods Pro 3 and it says
14:21
it has twice the power of AirPods Pro 2.
14:24
So you can then do the math and figure
14:26
out, okay, so AirPods Pro 3 are four
14:28
times
14:30
cancelling noise power of the regular
14:32
AirPods 4. And then you compare the
14:35
AirPods Max 2 and it says twice the
14:39
noise cancelling power of the original
14:41
AirPods Max or no, not even twice, it's
14:43
like one and a half times. And then you
14:45
go to the original AirPods Max and it
14:47
says
14:49
prolevel noise cancellation.
14:51
So I don't know what the conversion is
14:53
between the two, but I I think these are
14:55
a little more powerful than the AirPods
14:58
Pro 3.
14:59
>> Well, you're getting a lot of passive um
15:02
noise cancellation just by the ear cups.
15:04
Yeah. So that that's got to account for
15:06
a bit of it.
15:07
>> Yeah. Yeah. And you also get, you know,
15:09
greater passive noise cancellation on
15:11
the AirPods Pro 3 because they have the
15:12
foam insert inside the ear tip. And
15:14
that's responsible for a lot of it in
15:16
addition to the H2 chip inside these.
15:18
So, it seems a little bit better than
15:21
the AirPods Pro 3, but not like
15:22
noticeably. So, you know, vacuuming, I
15:25
can still hear a bit of the vacuum just
15:27
like with AirPods Pro 3. It's not like
15:29
the entire world is completely silenced.
15:31
Like, you can still hear a few things.
15:33
Um,
15:35
not actually not as impressive as as
15:37
like a difference as I was expecting it
15:38
to be.
15:39
>> Well, the Pro 3s, I don't know, you
15:41
know, like when I first put them in, I I
15:43
thought they were really remarkable and
15:45
I've been using the AirPods Pro 2 for a
15:47
long time and they were significantly
15:48
better and it was like I thought it was
15:50
kind of
15:51
>> I remember thinking initially like, wow,
15:53
this is I'm in some weird bubble of
15:55
silence. How did this happen? It was it
15:57
was kind of perfect. But then again, I
15:58
haven't been on an airplane and and test
16:00
them and or been in a super super noisy
16:02
environment. You know, this but walking
16:04
down I uh walking down Mission Street,
16:06
you know, walk which is a noisy noisy
16:07
street. There's buses and all kinds of
16:09
stuff going on. You know, it it really
16:12
did a great job of of blocking all that
16:13
out. In fact, kind of remarkably. So, I
16:15
was actually really surprised at how
16:16
good it was. I I think they're really
16:18
good.
16:18
>> I did try putting in both the AirPods
16:20
Pro 3 inside uh as I put on the AirPods
16:23
Max on top of them to test that. I had
16:26
the volume really low because I didn't
16:27
want something to go wrong and like you
16:29
know some weird electronic feedback that
16:32
shrieks inside my ears. But um it was
16:35
very tricky to do because the automatic
16:37
pairing thing you know between your
16:39
Apple devices wants you to only have one
16:41
output device. You know it so it it took
16:44
a lot of manual fiddling with menus to
16:46
get it you know AirPods Pro on my iPhone
16:49
and AirPods Max on my Mac both with
16:52
active noise cancellation on. And when I
16:55
turned on active noise cancellation with
16:57
both of them, I actually heard a little
16:58
bit of white noise. But when I turned
17:00
them off on the AirPods Pro, then I was
17:03
immersed in complete silence. Like the
17:05
the the passive noise cancellation of
17:06
the of the Pro 3 with the active noise
17:08
cancellation of the Max outside of them,
17:11
that was like, you know, cone of
17:14
silence.
17:15
>> So,
17:16
>> right. Well, I mean, you basically just
17:18
stuffed up your ears. So, um, you know,
17:20
not very surprising.
17:21
>> Yeah. Yeah. Uh although putting the
17:23
AirPods Max on on top of the Pros, they
17:26
didn't quite fit in my ear as right.
17:28
Like when I took the the Max off, they
17:30
were like, you know, out pulled out of
17:32
my ear a little bit. I don't know if
17:33
they're like, you know, smooshed up
17:34
against the against the cans of the of
17:37
the AirPods Max.
17:39
How confusing are these two product
17:41
names? I mean, I I keep going back and
17:43
forth between them, and if you don't
17:44
know like what these are, then it's got
17:45
to be really confusing. It's weird
17:48
naming conventions.
17:50
Next thing are the controls. So, the
17:53
AirPods Max have both the digital crown
17:56
and the uh button to change the
17:59
listening mode and you can click and
18:01
hold it to pair with the Bluetooth
18:02
device. I think clicking that button to
18:05
instantly change the listening mode is
18:07
so much nicer. Like especially if you
18:10
have like, you know, if you want to
18:12
toggle between three different listening
18:13
modes on the AirPods Pro where you have
18:15
to click and hold, it takes a long time
18:17
to like cycle through all of the
18:19
options. Especially if you're actually
18:22
starting on the mode that you wanted to
18:23
begin with and then you click to cycle
18:24
and oh, I have to click and hold it
18:26
three times in a row. It's not nearly as
18:28
fast as click click click like super
18:31
fast on the AirPods Max. I like that a
18:33
lot. What I don't really like is the
18:36
digital crown because on the Apple
18:39
Watch, it's really obvious which way you
18:42
need to turn it to turn the volume up.
18:44
It the way it's oriented. Oh, I spin it
18:46
upwards to turn the volume up. It's
18:48
really obvious. The digital crown on the
18:50
AirPods Max is mounted sideways. So,
18:53
it's kind of like a coin flip. Like, do
18:56
I spin it clockwise or counterclockwise?
18:58
Neither of those really scream volume up
19:02
to me. So, you're rolling the dice. And
19:06
in system settings on a Mac, and I
19:08
presume on an iPhone as well, you can
19:10
change which way it is. Uh, I think the
19:13
setting says increase volume by rotating
19:16
digital crown. And your two options are
19:18
back to front and front to back. I tried
19:21
it both ways and it's about as effective
19:24
as determining whether the coin is head
19:27
or tails before you flip it because
19:30
you're just changing which way it is
19:32
wrong that you're going to do it the
19:33
first time. And also when you're
19:36
changing the volume on a Mac, you hear a
19:39
little clicking sound to indicate you're
19:41
changing the volume, but the clicking
19:43
doesn't get any louder or quieter. So,
19:45
if you're wrong, then you're either like
19:48
turning the volume completely off or
19:50
you're turning it up to a definite
19:52
volume and you have no idea which way
19:53
until the next sound plays on your
19:56
computer. So, I don't like that at all.
19:59
It's also just way more sensitive, too.
20:01
Like the digital crown on the Apple
20:03
Watch, you have to spin it like a good
20:05
few times to actually make like a
20:08
meaningful difference to the volume. And
20:10
that's kind of like a safety feature
20:11
because it means that if you're, you
20:13
know, if your finger slips, you don't
20:14
accidentally turn it up way too high.
20:16
But on the AirPods Max, like a single
20:19
rotation 360° around takes it from
20:22
maximum to mute. So, it's really
20:26
sensitive. Like, you have to be very
20:27
precise. Well, I find that changing the
20:29
the you know the uh on the Apple Watch
20:31
the the delay there you know it I find
20:33
that annoying to be honest because it uh
20:36
you know it um I' I'd rather have it
20:39
more instantaneous but uh the delay is
20:42
annoying but the fact that like you know
20:44
it takes a few swipes it's it makes it
20:47
about as equivalent to like you know
20:48
clicking a button a few times on your
20:51
your phone you know so that you don't
20:53
like swipe it too far accidentally. I
20:56
found that for the media controls, I
20:58
just hit the uh play pause button and
21:01
volume up and volume down from my Mac
21:02
keyboard. And on my phone, I just, you
21:05
know, reached for the volume keys in my
21:07
pocket because
21:08
>> those are more obvious how to use.
21:10
>> Oh, the the charging case. So,
21:15
so everybody said AirPods Max, they're
21:18
so heavy. And then I try them myself and
21:21
it's not that bad. Is is the same thing
21:23
true about the charging case? No. This
21:26
thing sucks.
21:28
It's It's so bad. I mean,
21:31
>> when when you don't have the AirPods Max
21:33
in it, it's just like floppy and
21:35
flaccid. It doesn't instill confidence.
21:37
I mean, and then you put the AirPods Max
21:40
in them.
21:40
>> It looks like a breazier.
21:41
>> I know. And you put the AirPods Max
21:42
inside and it's like, okay, well, these
21:45
are full like aluminum cans. Are they
21:49
really any more protected by this like
21:51
thin little layer of like fake leather?
21:54
I mean, yeah. like the it feels nice
21:56
like the the felt on the inside is all
21:58
soft, but then like you really look
22:00
close and like the edge where where it
22:04
meets like along the side, it just kind
22:06
of looks like it's frayed like like
22:09
poorly molded plastic that has like that
22:11
spew on the edge of every corner. Like
22:13
it it doesn't look good. And the edges
22:15
are really sharp, too. Like weirdly
22:18
sharp. I I don't like it. It's not nice
22:20
to hold in the hand. And Apple designers
22:23
will tell you, "Oh, you know, it's so
22:24
impressive how we made this entire
22:27
charging case out of a single sheet that
22:29
we just folded up." Like, yeah, that's
22:32
impressive if you're if you work in
22:34
manufacturing
22:36
or I guess if you're a topologist, you
22:39
know, a mathematician, but otherwise
22:40
it's just weird.
22:42
>> Yeah. Like it it just ends up with like
22:44
this weird giant crack on the front and
22:47
on the back there's this like weird
22:48
little crease where they come together.
22:50
there's this weird seam down the middle.
22:54
And it also means that like the part
22:56
that it's supposed to cover up, the the
22:59
the ear muffs aren't completely covered
23:02
up because it can't cover the corners,
23:04
which are the most likely thing to hit
23:05
the ground if you drop them. And it also
23:07
doesn't protect the headband, uh, which
23:10
is the most likely thing to get
23:11
punctured if you like throw it in a
23:13
backpack and, you know, a pen stabs
23:14
through it. And I I went back and read
23:17
reviews of the original ones and they
23:19
say that, you know, I think it was Evans
23:21
Hanky maybe or maybe a different Apple
23:23
designer who said, "Oh, well, you don't
23:25
have to worry about the the headband not
23:27
being covered up because we just made it
23:28
strong enough." Well, okay. I don't
23:32
know. I'm still worried about something
23:33
puncturing through the mesh on the top.
23:35
Um, and I don't know. It's It's garbage.
23:39
I don't like it. I checked Amazon. You
23:40
can buy a replacement case for $40. So,
23:43
I would just do that. Well, Water St.
23:45
Designs, you know, it's a local company
23:46
here in San Francisco. They have a nice
23:48
case and they
23:49
>> Waterfield. I was just going to say the
23:50
same thing. Waterfield Designs. Yeah.
23:52
Yeah. They actually make a fantastic
23:54
charging case. You You got one, reviewed
23:56
it, I think, Lander, right? Uh and and
23:58
it's like, oh, it's a beautiful case.
24:01
It's smaller than that piece of garbage
24:03
there.
24:04
>> And uh actually protects the thing. I I
24:06
mean to be honest, that case that was a
24:09
real big reason why I was going I would
24:11
never I I would never actually buy these
24:13
cuz I hate that case. I hate the way it
24:15
looks. I hate the way it functions. I
24:17
hate everything about it. It looks like
24:18
a purse. It's I mean it's it's it's a
24:21
disgrace cuz those headphones are
24:23
fantastic.
24:24
>> They sound great. But man, that case is
24:26
a piece of crap.
24:30
>> Strong strong opinions. I didn't think
24:32
the case was too bad. I quite liked it.
24:34
It's nice and minimal, you know, like
24:36
and it's pretty easy to put them in and
24:37
get them out.
24:38
>> It does. It doesn't take up any room.
24:40
>> It's minimal in the way in a way that
24:41
doesn't make it a good case because it
24:43
doesn't protect them at all.
24:45
>> Well, I think it it mostly protects
24:47
them.
24:48
>> Protects what? The part that's already
24:49
protected because it's made of metal
24:51
>> with a thin layer of felt.
24:54
>> It's uh Yeah. Well, true enough. But uh
24:56
I mean, actually, it would be better if
24:57
they folded up. I quite like the folding
24:58
designs, you know, that but that's a
25:00
completely different design. Um,
25:02
>> yeah,
25:03
>> altogether like the the Sound Core, I
25:05
think the new Soundcore Pros, they fold
25:06
up really nicely. They they fold up to
25:08
like this kind of sphere. It's very
25:10
clever.
25:12
>> Yeah, that sounds neat. Um,
25:13
>> yeah,
25:14
>> I always said if Apple is going to do
25:15
something weird and different, the end
25:16
result should be something that looks
25:18
obviously cooler, like the iMac G4's
25:20
like swiveing articulating arm, but not
25:23
this. This is not it. It would be really
25:25
impressive if it was like, you know, a
25:28
piece of like cardboard packaging, but
25:30
it just doesn't work as a product. Um.
25:33
>> Right. That's almost what it looks like.
25:35
>> Yeah.
25:36
>> And and it also it that's the onoff
25:39
switch.
25:40
>> Mhm.
25:40
>> Right.
25:41
>> Yeah.
25:42
>> So magnets inside.
25:43
>> You're stuck with that thing
25:45
>> unless you, you know, get a different
25:47
case.
25:47
>> Yeah. Other third party cases have
25:49
magnets in the right spot to put them in
25:51
their special low power mode as well. I
25:53
mean, the one thing that it does have
25:54
going for it is that it's really easy to
25:55
put it on and take it off because you
25:57
just slide it in. You don't have to
25:58
unzip anything. But
26:00
>> yeah,
26:01
>> I still don't like it. That's not good
26:03
enough. That's not good enough to
26:04
justify the rest.
26:05
>> What color What color are those? What
26:06
color are they? They're They're really
26:08
nice looking. What's the color called?
26:09
>> These are the uh purple ones.
26:11
>> Silver?
26:11
>> And I think they're just called purple.
26:13
>> Those are purple.
26:14
>> Yeah.
26:14
>> Yeah, they look silver.
26:17
>> Yeah.
26:18
>> Freaking Apple with its colors, man.
26:20
It's non colors, right? They do look
26:22
very obviously purple in person. I think
26:25
like the white balance in my room
26:26
because it's very yellow sort of offsets
26:29
the purplininess of them.
26:31
>> Ah, I'd say like in terms of color
26:33
vibrancy, I'd put this in the same
26:34
category of like the MacBook Neo or the
26:37
iPhone 17. Like it's really obvious that
26:40
the colors are what they are, you know,
26:42
in a normally white balanced room, but
26:44
it's not like, you know, their most
26:47
extreme colors like the regular iPad or
26:49
the cosmic orange. So the big question
26:52
is 550 bucks are you keeping them?
26:54
>> No.
26:57
>> All right then. I understand.
27:00
I mean for nothing else like the case. I
27:02
mean if it was $450 and it didn't come
27:04
with the case. Although the cases were
27:06
probably cost them about buck and a half
27:08
to produce.
27:09
>> If it was $400 I would I would really
27:10
consider keeping them. But in the time
27:12
that I spent with them, I was also
27:13
really taken by the number of times that
27:16
uh I wear my AirPods that I can't really
27:18
wear over the head ear headphones
27:21
because like it was raining a little bit
27:22
yesterday and I had to take the dogs out
27:24
and I was like, "Oh well, I don't want
27:25
to take these out in the rain." The
27:26
AirPods Pro are like water resistant. I
27:28
don't know if if these are. So, I had to
27:30
like take them off, then put in the
27:32
AirPods, let the dogs out, come back in,
27:35
take the AirPods out, put these back on
27:37
because I was testing them. And it's
27:38
like, if I wasn't intentionally trying
27:41
to wear these as much as possible to
27:42
review them, I would just keep the
27:44
earbuds in instead.
27:46
>> Yeah. You know, that's that's your
27:48
point. You just cannot beat the AirPods
27:50
Pro for convenience.
27:52
>> Mhm.
27:53
>> Just it's just can't be done.
27:55
>> I just looking at some some of the used
27:57
prices. I mean, looks like they're going
27:58
for about 200 bucks. 220.
28:01
>> Not. No way. That's got to be the
28:03
original and not these H.
28:05
>> Yeah, the original. Sorry. I find the
28:06
original ones. Yeah, the originals. But,
28:08
you know, they're basically the same
28:09
sound.
28:10
>> Same sound. But the whole point of
28:12
getting these ones is that they're
28:13
they're the first actually new ones.
28:15
>> All right. Well, there you go. Another
28:17
$550
28:19
out the window.
28:21
>> Coming back in the window.
28:24
>> All right. Let's talk about uh well, you
28:26
know, this the Mac Pro this uh last week
28:28
Apple killed the Mac Pro. It was very
28:30
very sad. Um I guess all all six users
28:34
who um who have one are going to be
28:36
really devastated. But we have a really
28:38
cool Mac Pro setup which uh is probably
28:41
the ultimate Mac Pro setup ever. Uh with
28:46
not one but two Mac Pros. What else we
28:48
got here, Lewis, in this picture? Uh,
28:51
well, once again, it's one of these
28:52
things that makes me just really just
28:56
feel sad about my life. I look at my
28:58
setup, it's pathetic. I look at this
29:00
thing, it looks gorgeous. He's got two
29:02
giant screens. What are they? Uh, 32-in
29:06
Dell screens side by side on this giant
29:09
wide desk that's completely uncluttered.
29:12
He's got these two and the, oddly
29:14
enough, the trash can Max from when
29:16
those 2012, I think. uh black trash can
29:20
max. Oh, 2013, excuse me. Uh sitting
29:23
there on a side table with what looks to
29:25
be a printer.
29:26
>> Uh apparently there's a there's like a
29:28
gaming PC hooked up to this, too. It
29:30
looks like there's an iPad or something.
29:32
I don't know. It's it's just got so much
29:34
stuff everywhere. And it's all so
29:36
orderly, so beautiful. Uh Mac Pros are
29:40
both six core computers. There's one
29:42
with a two TBTE SSD, 64 GB of RAM, the
29:46
other with 1 TB, and 32 GB of RAM, more
29:50
RAM than I've ever had, bigger hard
29:52
drive than I've ever had. I'm really
29:54
just feeling I'm just getting depressed
29:56
here. What's going on with my life? Uh,
29:59
those two screens, you know, giant 4K
30:02
Dell screens on dual monitor arm. Always
30:04
always thought about getting one of
30:05
those, too, but I never had two
30:06
monitors.
30:10
Apple Magic Keyboard, Logitech mouse, of
30:12
course, because that's the best.
30:14
>> This is becoming very existential and
30:16
and and depressing lately.
30:18
>> I'll tell you, man, you start looking at
30:19
some of these setups, you go, man,
30:21
people have their life together, and I I
30:23
do not. My my desk is a disaster zone. I
30:28
thought about taking a picture of it and
30:30
and sending it to you guys, just so
30:31
you'd know. I'm not kidding. It's It's
30:33
just terrible.
30:34
>> Don't send it to me because we'll we'll
30:35
start doing a setup tube about it.
30:39
Let's see. Anything else about it? Oh my
30:41
god, he's even got a Synology. And I
30:43
always wonder how you pronounce it. I
30:46
I've heard Naz, but then Yeah. I was
30:47
listening yesterday to a U green video
30:49
and they they pronounced it Naz.
30:52
>> A Nas.
30:53
>> I've never heard it that way.
30:54
>> People call it a NAS, right?
30:56
>> Yeah. NAS.
30:56
>> Naz.
30:58
>> Yeah.
30:58
>> I do more of an S network.
30:59
>> NAS sound, not a Z.
31:01
>> NAS NAS.
31:02
>> NAS.
31:03
>> You know, he So, here's another thing.
31:05
How do you pronounce the car the
31:07
electric car company that sells the most
31:08
electric cars?
31:10
>> How do you pronounce it?
31:10
>> Tesla.
31:12
>> That's exactly how it
31:14
>> Tesla.
31:15
>> Elon Musk him Elon Musk himself
31:17
pronounces it Tesla.
31:19
>> Jay Leno adds an R at the end. Tesla.
31:22
>> Tesla. Well, that sounds British.
31:25
>> Yeah.
31:26
>> Anyway, so analogy Naz. Na. What did you
31:31
say? Naz. NAS with a nice
31:34
>> NAS NAS NAS
31:36
>> Mhm.
31:36
>> rhymes with
31:37
>> no
31:40
>> big multiple headphones and speakers.
31:42
Trusty brother laser printer. You know,
31:44
I that's the actually one the thing that
31:47
makes me the most jealous of this thing
31:48
is he's got enough room to I I keep
31:50
saying he. It could be a woman. I don't
31:51
have any idea. Uh there's this table a
31:55
side table. So his
31:57
>> there
31:58
>> saying his so the printer I hate saying
32:01
there too. So, the the printer, you can
32:04
actually get to it. You can put paper
32:06
into it. You can take paper out of it.
32:08
If you get a jam, you can get to it.
32:09
Mine's like jammed underneath my desk in
32:12
such a way that I hit my head every time
32:13
I try to do something. This is turning
32:15
into like a bad life Olympics, and I'm
32:17
winning.
32:20
>> Well, if it makes you feel any better,
32:21
look at that ratness of cables behind. I
32:23
mean, the cable management could be
32:25
could be a little better.
32:26
>> Yeah. I mean, they have the Mac Pros
32:27
like on a side table on the printer.
32:28
Like how long are all of the cables that
32:30
they use to reach the monitors because
32:32
they're kind of far away and it's a
32:33
standing desk as well? So that's got to
32:36
be like a lot of long cables.
32:37
>> Yeah. So you got to have some play.
32:39
>> Yeah. Yeah.
32:39
>> You know that I don't know how much
32:41
people uh ever think about getting a
32:43
standing desk. I love a standing desk.
32:45
Use one for years now. But man, you
32:47
really have to have like enough rope
32:51
basically cuz you start moving it up and
32:53
down, stuff starts shifting because the
32:54
cable's not quite long enough. And you
32:56
know,
32:57
>> it's uh it's it's a challenge.
33:01
>> So, yeah, I wonder how long it must have
33:03
like 10T cables to get from those Macs
33:06
to those monitors, right?
33:08
>> At least. I mean, it's a nice looking
33:09
setup. Um, a lot of black though for my
33:12
taste. I like, you know, a bit of a
33:13
brighter room. You know, props to him
33:16
for having two Mac Pros. I mean, why did
33:19
he keep them so long? This post is
33:21
actually from 2021 and it says they were
33:23
holding out for an M1X chip. That's what
33:26
we thought it was going to be called at
33:27
the time and a high-end Mac Mini at in
33:30
the early first year and a half of Apple
33:31
Silicon. Like you couldn't get a
33:33
replacement for this computer. Like you
33:34
couldn't get one with that much storage
33:36
or certainly that much RAM until the
33:38
until the Pros came out. So I wonder
33:39
what they're uh using now. Maybe a Mac
33:41
Studio, maybe the high-end Mac Mini. I
33:43
don't know.
33:44
>> At least two of them probably as well.
33:45
>> Yeah. Yeah. There's the post that we
33:48
wrote, oddly enough, on the ex ran this
33:50
on the exact same day later that day,
33:52
they killed the the Mac Pro. I actually
33:54
felt kind of guilty about it. Like, did
33:55
we cause this? Um,
33:57
>> we we featured it in the newsletter,
33:58
like, you know, this is this is our
34:00
feature story, the top 10 Mac Pro
34:01
setups. And I guess that reminded
34:03
somebody in Apple that they still sell
34:04
that computer and like, oh, weren't we
34:06
supposed to discontinue that like a year
34:07
ago?
34:09
>> Yeah. Tim Cook's like, "Get it off the
34:10
website right now."
34:12
I uh I really like the look of the the
34:17
final Mac Pro. I always loved that
34:19
thing, you know, with the giant like
34:21
exaggerated cheese grater look and all
34:23
that stuff. So, I was surprised that
34:25
that we kind of we dealt with the the
34:28
trash cam on a lot more in these setups.
34:30
But then again, you know, I I suppose
34:32
it's possible that there's just been
34:33
more of them sold over the years. But,
34:36
uh
34:38
yeah, I don't know. you know that that
34:40
2019 Mac Pro, it was the best Mac you
34:42
could buy for all of six months. It was
34:45
just really unfortunate timing. It they
34:47
announced it at WWDC. It didn't come out
34:49
until December of that year and then 6
34:51
months later they announced this
34:52
transition to Apple Silicon. So, it was
34:55
a short rain.
34:56
>> Wouldn't Wouldn't that be a great
34:57
feeling? I I spent $6,000 on $7,000 on a
35:01
computer and uh now it's it's been
35:05
bested by a laptop. Uh yeah. So, uh,
35:08
like if if you look at the one of the
35:10
other ones in the setup, it's got the,
35:11
uh, the Pro Display XDR with that that
35:15
massive thing. I mean, that that was a
35:16
very distinctive look of those machines.
35:19
>> Although, I never noticed that they
35:20
actually have the uh, they actually put
35:23
the name of the thing on the back of it.
35:25
Apple Pro Display XDR. I never noticed
35:27
that for some reason.
35:29
>> Maybe because you've never seen
35:31
>> I mean, good. Yeah, I I I never have
35:33
seen one in person. It it's um it's an
35:35
intimidating look that uh gnarly
35:39
punctuated whatever. You know, all I can
35:42
ever think of is cheese grater. Oh,
35:43
there's one. There's there's a setup
35:44
that's got three rack mounted ones with
35:47
the giant cheese grater front. It
35:49
actually looks dangerous. It looks like
35:50
it would shred your flesh.
35:51
>> Mhm.
35:53
>> Right.
35:54
>> But I loved it. I I love the look of
35:56
that. And I am sorry to see it go. I
35:58
never ever used one. Never have any
36:00
reason to use one. who's gone over and
36:02
over in all these podcasts. It's like,
36:04
well, I'm typing and once in a while I
36:06
edit an image, so I don't think I need a
36:09
Mac Pro.
36:10
>> All right, let's move on. Let's talk
36:12
about uh Apple's 50th birthday. So, this
36:14
week obviously was Apple's 50th
36:16
anniversary. Apple's 50th birthday was
36:18
founded um on April 1st, 1976 by three
36:21
two Steves and a guy called Ron Wayne.
36:24
Uh and you know, 50 years later, it's
36:26
kind of unlikely. It's uh it's it's
36:28
pretty impressive that uh that Apple has
36:31
survived this long. I don't think are
36:33
there any of the original computer
36:34
companies still I guess IBM but they're
36:38
not quite the same as they used to be
36:40
but all those early ones BBC Micro Acorn
36:44
>> Packard Hill Packard predates Apple.
36:47
>> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a
36:50
few then. Um but uh of course Apple you
36:53
know went through almost went out of
36:55
business in the in the mid 90s uh came
36:57
very very close to uh shutting up shop
37:00
and then Steve Jobs came back and
37:02
engineered the greatest turnaround you
37:04
know I think it is probably arguably
37:06
that it is I mean it's got to be hasn't
37:07
it the greatest turnaround in business
37:08
history Apple being one of the biggest
37:10
companies in the world right now four
37:11
trillion market cap I mean they make uh
37:14
what was the number I saw they're making
37:16
um
37:18
oh I can't remember what it was a
37:20
million dollar anyway 80 seconds,
37:21
something like that.
37:22
>> Yeah, something crazy like that. Mad mad
37:24
mad mad numbers. Um and and and a hu I
37:28
mean has any other company had such an
37:30
impact on so many different fields.
37:33
It's uh you know uh computers become so
37:36
central to to everyone's lives now with
37:38
the iPhone and smartphones and um you
37:41
know it's it's revolutionized everything
37:43
um culture
37:46
um communication community so many
37:49
different impacts. uh that that it's had
37:51
an amazing company. So, we want to talk
37:53
about uh the 50 years of Apple's most
37:55
important products. Um and you know, I I
37:59
did a story about this. We did a post.
38:01
Not the greatest post, but it was okay.
38:02
Apple's history doesn't unfold. What's
38:06
interesting though, I thought, you know,
38:07
about it was that it it wasn't, you
38:08
know, like when when you make a list of
38:10
these most important products, it's
38:11
like, okay, the iPhone, the iPad, the
38:13
iPod, you know, that kind of stuff, the
38:15
Apple 2. Um, but it it's not quite as
38:18
simple as that. You know, not almost
38:20
none of these products were hits right
38:22
off the bat. It was almost it's a it's a
38:25
it's not a straightforward parade of
38:26
instant hits. It's, you know, like a
38:28
series of successful second acts, early
38:31
misfires, half armed ideas, underpowered
38:33
debuts, uh, that set the stage for
38:36
category defining breakthroughs years
38:38
later. So, it's I think it's always a
38:39
mistake like this. People are saying
38:41
that with a with the Vision Pro. um you
38:44
know, it's not a it's it's it's a dud,
38:45
but it it you know, it it hasn't had
38:48
long enough to to to fully mature as as
38:51
as Apple products do. And a good example
38:54
of this is that the Apple 2, you know,
38:56
like it the original Apple 2 was
38:57
revolutionary, but it didn't really take
38:59
off until the Apple 2e, which was the
39:01
third model in the series. Um, and uh,
39:06
you know, the Apple 2 sold pretty well
39:07
thanks mainly to Visical, which was a
39:09
sort of the original killer app, a
39:11
spreadsheet program that that made the
39:12
Apple 2 indispensable for a lot of
39:14
businesses. But sales really skyrocketed
39:16
after the introduction of the Apple 2e,
39:19
uh, which, you know, was faster
39:21
um, had more storage. But the actually
39:23
the big breakthrough, the big defining
39:25
feature of the Apple 2e was the fact
39:27
that it could do uppercase and lowerase
39:29
text. Um, the the original was only
39:32
uppercase. That just sounds
39:34
unbelievable. I know
39:36
lower case tech.
39:38
>> The the other Apple had like a really
39:40
common like expansion card that you
39:42
could add in to add that after the fact,
39:44
but the Apple 2 had it built in like
39:45
right out of the box. You didn't have to
39:47
buy anything else. That was a big
39:48
innovation. Like another good good thing
39:50
of like another revolution of the Apple
39:52
2e was that it was so much more cheaper
39:56
to manufacture than the early ones
39:58
because you know when Steve Jobs and
39:59
Steve Waznjak were designing the first
40:01
Apple 2, which the Apple 2 Plus is
40:03
basically the same design as they they
40:06
designed it to be easy to be built by
40:08
hand because they were building them by
40:11
hand, not easy to be assembled by a
40:13
machine. The Apple 2e was the first one
40:14
that they like fully redesigned
40:16
internally to to be, you know, built by
40:18
a machine. And so I think I was like
40:21
reading a piece about this just last
40:22
night that the 2E was like between 50 to
40:25
60% cheaper to manufacture just by that
40:28
alone.
40:29
>> And that significantly brought the price
40:31
down. It's what that's why it sto stayed
40:35
in the education market for as long as
40:36
it did. It was on sale until 1993. the
40:39
longest surviving Apple product
40:41
unchanged for 11 years.
40:44
>> Yeah. 11 years. And that's crazy, isn't
40:46
it? A long long time in tech. Long long
40:48
time.
40:49
>> Yeah. That's the longest uh machine that
40:52
Apple sold, right? The the single model.
40:54
Um
40:55
>> Yeah. Yeah. I think closely followed in
40:57
terms of the Mac, the longest selling
40:59
Mac was the Macintosh Plus, which was
41:02
like six or seven years, followed again
41:04
closely by the 2013 Mac Pro of another
41:07
six years. Like, you know, that's that's
41:10
that's like the equivalent of if Apple
41:11
were still selling like the iPhone 11
41:14
today.
41:16
>> Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty
41:18
unthinkable. Pretty unthinkable. Uh,
41:20
another one was the Macintosh, right,
41:21
Lewis? Uh, after the initial,
41:25
>> super exciting. It came out in 1984.
41:27
Remember the great ad,
41:29
the big brother ad?
41:32
Huge, huge success right off the bat.
41:34
And then uh after everybody bought the
41:36
initial shipments sales sales slump you
41:38
know it's like oh my god what's going on
41:40
that you know we're not selling as many
41:41
of these as we thought but uh this all
41:43
changed with as you were mentioning the
41:45
Mac Plus and uh that came out and then
41:48
there's also some pretty important
41:51
software that came along all this
41:53
desktop publishing software page maker
41:56
before it was owned by you know bought
41:58
out by Adobe was Aldis is Aldis still in
42:00
business can't remember they get bought
42:02
by Adobe I should have looked that up.
42:05
Anyway, that and uh Adobe's postcript
42:08
language and the laser writer and all
42:10
this comes together and desktop
42:12
publishing happens and suddenly
42:15
the the freaking Mac is just
42:17
indispensable. Everybody has them.
42:20
Everybody can now use, you know, they
42:22
can make their their stupid newsletters
42:25
or annual reports or whatever they want
42:26
to do, you know? I mean, he honestly you
42:28
remember like clip art and all that all
42:31
that stuff like getting getting like a a
42:35
mailed newsletter from a a church or a
42:38
you know government office or something
42:40
and and
42:42
the the silly little clip art that
42:44
everybody can now suddenly use because
42:46
now suddenly everybody was a graphic
42:47
designer. It was kind of it was kind of
42:49
funny actually kind of charming in its
42:51
way
42:52
>> but uh you could also do amazing stuff
42:53
with it, right? So, uh I mean I don't
42:56
Were we going to talk about Yeah, I
42:57
think we were that whole aspect of the
43:00
the desktop publishing thing that was
43:02
like really just took off when I was in
43:05
college and getting out of college in my
43:07
first job and everything. It's like
43:08
suddenly everything was easier to do,
43:11
better to do. You could, you know, try
43:13
different page layouts really simply and
43:16
say, "Oh, look, this looks great." Or,
43:17
"Oh, we need to change that." It it was
43:18
it was such an amazing time to be, you
43:21
know, starting to use a Mac. It took a
43:24
while for the Mac to take off.
43:26
>> Mhm.
43:27
>> It wasn't just an instant. I mean, it
43:29
was an instant. It made a splash, but it
43:31
wasn't wasn't a massive hit.
43:34
>> Yeah. Well, I like Doug Adams, you know,
43:36
that that the Hitchhiker's Guide to I
43:37
think uh Guide to the Galaxy author
43:41
famously said it was um uh you know,
43:44
underpowered and
43:46
slow, but it was the promise of the
43:48
machine, you know, that the the uh the
43:50
potential that that you know what it
43:52
signal. He totally fell in love with his
43:53
Mac, but then use actually using it was
43:56
was a horrible nightmare. And I had the
43:58
same experience too with some early
43:59
Macs. I mean, like using them wasn't a
44:00
lot of fun. They would crash all the
44:02
time and you had to swap floppies in and
44:04
out. Um,
44:05
>> especially with only 128k of memory.
44:08
Like if you're a writer, that's only
44:10
like 10 pages worth of text in uh in Mac
44:14
Write before it would run out of memory,
44:16
which
44:18
Douglas Adams, I don't know if you've
44:19
read any of his books, they are longer
44:20
than 10 pages.
44:23
floppy discs.
44:24
>> Yeah.
44:25
>> Yeah. You know, that's that's actually
44:26
the same thing that the same thing with
44:28
the Apple Watch, right? I mean, that
44:29
thing came out.
44:31
>> I I got I've had, you know, had a watch
44:34
on my wrist every day since then. And
44:37
the first version was like maddeningly
44:40
slow, but it was like so obvious. This
44:43
is going to be great once once it gets
44:45
up to speed, basically. It's going to be
44:47
awesome.
44:47
>> But the the iPod is another one, right,
44:49
Griffin? the, you know, this when it
44:51
first came out.
44:52
>> Yeah. So, when Steve Jobs unveiled the
44:54
first iPod in 2001, the world yawned, it
44:58
really took off as a second and third
44:59
generation iPod, which added Windows
45:01
support via music match jukebox. And
45:04
eventually iTunes came to Windows as
45:05
well.
45:06
>> But then USB connectivity, the original
45:08
iPod was only over FireWire. Uh, but and
45:12
not even every Mac had FireWire. It was
45:14
still relatively new. Like I think the
45:16
you know the the iPod came out in 2001.
45:18
There were still like tons of eyebooks
45:20
from 1999 that didn't have FireWire on
45:22
them. It was a pretty new connector as
45:24
well. So it was really like a niche
45:26
within a niche, you know, the original
45:28
iPod. But, you know, then later they got
45:30
USB connectivity,
45:33
you know, so any Mac and basically any
45:35
PC at the day could use it. That was
45:37
when it uh took a, you know, huge boost.
45:40
the launch of the iTunes music store so
45:42
you could actually buy music right from
45:44
your Mac, the cheaper iPod mini in 2004
45:47
and the iPod Nano just a year later in
45:49
2005. Like that is when the iPod
45:52
absolutely took off, skyrocketed.
45:54
>> They sold more of that than all the
45:56
other previous iPods combined.
45:58
And people thought they were crazy
46:00
because Steve Jobs killed off the iPad
46:01
mini iPad iPod mini to make room for the
46:05
iPad Nano. Um, and it was kind of like
46:08
in a it had uh smaller storage, didn't
46:12
it? So, it was kind of a downgrade for a
46:14
lot of people, but it was crazy popular
46:15
because it was so small and so thin and
46:18
um it uh and it really really took off
46:21
the iPod Nano. That was when the iPod
46:23
really went crazy 2005.
46:25
>> Mhm.
46:26
>> Four years later after the original.
46:28
>> And the iPhone was like that as well.
46:30
every every every model of iPhone that
46:33
Apple introduced outsold every previous
46:35
iPhone combined. Like the iPhone 3G
46:38
outsold the original one. The 3GS
46:40
outsold both previous models. The iPhone
46:41
4 outsold all three of them combined.
46:44
And they did that every single year uh
46:47
like through the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6
46:50
was the last model to outsell every
46:52
previous model because I think a lot of
46:53
people were just like holding out for a
46:55
phone with a big screen by then. The 6S
46:57
was the first one where I think like
46:59
sales slumped a little bit, but you
47:00
know,
47:01
>> six straight years in a row of just
47:03
skyrocketing sales on the iPhone.
47:06
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, which Apple
47:10
product was a hit right out of the park,
47:11
like from the very get-go? I mean, I
47:13
guess they all were, you know,
47:16
successful enough for them to be
47:18
continued. But
47:19
>> I mean, if you if you consider the iMac
47:21
a brand new product
47:24
kind of because it looked different, but
47:26
I mean, functionally, it was basically
47:27
the same computer as the Power Mac G3
47:30
all-in-one that came out the year
47:31
before. And it wasn't really a new
47:33
platform because, you know, Mac OS had
47:35
been around for
47:36
>> No, that was that's a single model
47:38
though. You know, that's a good example.
47:40
That was a super big hit, massive hit
47:42
right out the get from the get-go.
47:43
>> I mean, Apple these days has the benefit
47:45
that nothing's starting from scratch.
47:46
Like, they have the foundation of Mac OS
47:48
10. So, every platform that they roll
47:51
out has a solid software foundation,
47:53
same programming language. You know,
47:55
everything that they roll out now has an
47:57
app store that builds on the app store
47:58
that built on the iTunes music store
48:01
from 2003. Like, none of them are
48:03
starting from scratch anymore. The
48:04
closest you get to that is the Vision
48:06
Pro, which is not a runaway success.
48:11
All right. Well, let's talk quickly
48:12
about how we joined the cult of Mac.
48:13
We're going to talk about our first
48:14
Apple products. Uh this is also a post
48:16
we have on the site uh where we asked
48:18
all the cult of Mac riders to talk about
48:20
their first experiences. Um I talked
48:22
about how my dad um introduced uh me to
48:25
the MAC when I was about 19 years old.
48:27
He was a professor at the Open
48:29
University and the psychology department
48:31
where he worked uh got an early Mac. I
48:34
can't remember which it probably was a
48:35
512K.
48:38
Uh, it might have been a Mac Plus. I
48:41
don't think it was the original Mac, but
48:43
it was in the uh he used to take us down
48:45
to the um the department after hours
48:47
when everyone had gone home and and me
48:49
and my brothers would play uh uh with
48:51
Mac Paint and print out our pictures on
48:53
these giant doc matrix printer with a
48:56
tractor feed paper and the thing was so
48:58
loud and and uh you know so aggressive
49:01
it would shake the whole building. They
49:02
were in these um these kind of huts uh
49:05
temporary huts that that that they would
49:07
literally shake with the thing and then
49:08
he puted these pictures up everywhere um
49:10
these dreadful pictures that we made in
49:12
in Mac paint and we played load runner
49:14
as well quite a lot of that but it was
49:15
kind of it was completely magical
49:17
because you know like the the the
49:19
computers we had at school were these
49:20
Commodore Pets and uh the ZZ sex room
49:23
and probably some BBC Micros probably
49:25
even maybe the Apple 2 as well. Um, but
49:28
you know, we they were trying to teach
49:30
us how to program in basic, you know, do
49:31
basic sort of hello world programs and
49:34
you had to uh save these on a tape drive
49:37
and the command line interfaces. It was
49:40
just, you know, it was completely
49:41
underwhelming. I could not see the point
49:43
of it at all. You know, I but I was sort
49:45
of a Nazi fartsy kid. And then it comes
49:48
along comes a Mac and it's a completely
49:50
different experience. Absolutely night
49:52
and day. Um, so easy to use, so easy to
49:55
use. The mouse took about a sec. It's
49:57
really intuitive. 30 seconds and you and
49:59
you're you know you've you've got it.
50:01
You you can understand how this thing
50:03
works and fun, you know, like we would
50:05
spend hours and hours immersed in this
50:07
thing whereas before I was allergic to
50:10
computers. Um the British home computer
50:12
market is is like very it's like another
50:16
world compared to the United States
50:17
because you had so many companies that
50:19
never broke through here. We had so many
50:21
companies over here that never broke
50:22
through there. like you know Amstrad
50:25
completely foreign to Americans like so
50:28
many niche computers. The ZedX Spectrum
50:30
as you mentioned was everywhere and that
50:32
was so cheap. Like it was basically like
50:35
an Apple one in terms of like
50:37
capabilities. Just a keyboard you
50:39
connect to a display. So little memory.
50:41
It had color support but like virtually
50:43
no sound. It was it was a
50:45
>> I think it was just a a keyboard really.
50:47
It was a computer and a keyboard and you
50:48
plugged into your TV. It was good for
50:50
playing games. I think we played some we
50:52
had some early games that were kind of
50:53
fun and it had fun rubbery keyboard like
50:55
the keyboard was super fun. It was like
50:56
this completely squishy rubber thing. Um
51:00
>> fun is
51:02
a bold way to describe it. I I've heard
51:04
everybody describe it as like the one of
51:06
the worst keyboards ever made.
51:10
>> He uh he actually care was you know was
51:14
like sort of the Elon Musk of um 70s
51:18
Britain. He came out with this the C5.
51:20
Do you do you guys ever hear about that?
51:22
It was a little electric
51:24
scooter
51:26
>> three wheels I think. Um
51:29
and you kind of sat in it like a it was
51:31
almost like a sled, an electric sled.
51:33
And there was such a hype about it at
51:34
the time. You know, they said, "Oh, this
51:35
is going to revolutionize it was like
51:37
the Segue." Remember when they talked
51:38
about the when the first before the
51:39
first Segway came out, it's going to
51:41
rearchitect
51:42
cities and revolutionize transportation.
51:45
>> They they too.
51:47
>> Yeah. Yeah, it didn't work out at all.
51:49
What was your first experience, uh,
51:51
Lewis?
51:53
>> Uh, well, you know, uh, I had been
51:57
bashing away on my MS DOS PC and started
52:02
working at the school newspaper and they
52:04
had this horrible old antiquated
52:07
I don't know what kind of system it was.
52:08
It was just horrible, you know, just
52:11
terrible. And uh I oddly enough, I mean
52:14
this is like right after I started my
52:17
you know journalistic career because I
52:19
basically flunked out of organic
52:22
chemistry. Uh which I could not bother
52:26
to get up in the morning to go to 8 a.m.
52:29
Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sorry, couldn't
52:31
make it. Uh
52:33
so I started taking journalism classes
52:35
and soon enough I'm working at the
52:37
school paper writing on these these
52:39
horrible old things. It was like, "Oh my
52:40
god, it was like something terrible."
52:42
But then all of a sudden they switched
52:46
to Max. They And this was like 85
52:52
86.
52:54
Uh I'm I'm not exactly sure. I It was
52:56
probably 86. And um so it's very early
53:00
Mac. I don't know if it was a 512K
53:02
Macintosh Plus, what whatever, but uh
53:04
you know, they switched it. It's like
53:05
instantly, oh my god, it's this is so
53:08
much better and so much easier. They,
53:10
you know, they, if you remember the
53:12
Apple Talk Network, those little
53:14
connectors look, you know, kind of
53:17
hilarious these days, but I mean, it was
53:18
like, "Wow, they're all connected." You
53:20
know, you have to just like take your I
53:22
mean, they even had smaller floppy
53:24
discs, not the giant 5 and 1/2 in or
53:27
what, five and a quarter, whatever they
53:28
were. uh
53:31
super floppy discs that we used to have
53:33
to run those things from one computer to
53:36
another and I can't tell you how many
53:38
times this my story would get eaten, you
53:40
know, like you just be working and just
53:41
die. Uh and the same thing happened with
53:44
the Macs occasionally, you know, like
53:46
that you would get that bomb thing. I
53:48
remember that. It's funny, Leon and I
53:50
both mentioned the the the classic bomb
53:52
icon. That was that was such a horrible
53:54
thing to see on your Mac. It was like,
53:56
oh my god, everything was going so
53:57
great.
53:59
But
54:00
>> but all all the waxing reps audit we're
54:01
doing about the machine. There was a lot
54:03
of bombs, weren't there? There was a lot
54:04
of I remember staying up all I was
54:06
writing some paper for college and I I
54:08
was it was like I don't know 4 in the
54:10
morning, 5 in the morning. I've been up
54:11
all night working on this thing. I'd
54:13
finally got it done and then it crashed.
54:17
that kind of it's it's indescribable the
54:20
the bewilderment that this cannot be
54:22
happening. just you know and then
54:25
followed by the all that you know the
54:26
denial
54:28
the five stages of grief isn't it
54:30
>> terrible but yeah crushed it was
54:33
>> yeah but uh you know it also I mean it
54:36
completely transformed our newsroom
54:37
there you know suddenly you know I
54:40
remember the the copy editors who are
54:42
the page layout people you know they
54:43
were uh using these I I think they must
54:47
have been radius you know those vertical
54:51
>> monitors not I see anything like that.
54:52
It's like, "Wow, look at that." They
54:54
could put a whole page of the newspaper
54:57
on the screen. I remember those. Yeah.
55:00
But they were CRTs, weren't they? So,
55:01
they were absolutely enormous.
55:04
>> Yeah, they were.
55:05
>> I'm not sure about that.
55:07
>> I can't remember. I I I honestly can't
55:09
remember. I just remember being amazed
55:11
at how big the screen was and and how
55:13
cuz I mean the Macs themselves, the
55:15
screen was tiny, right? Like it was the
55:16
size of an iPhone almost. I mean, or two
55:18
iPhones. Um, and they I remember they
55:21
used uh they used PageMaker, they used
55:24
Cork Express, which I I think is
55:26
actually still I think you still use
55:29
that. I I haven't looked at it in years,
55:30
but
55:34
>> early uh page layout and uh you know,
55:36
graphic design software and it was but
55:38
it was just magical, right? And suddenly
55:40
they could just print out a whole page
55:41
cuz before that they would have to, you
55:44
know, send your story in, you know,
55:47
they'd have to type in some kind of like
55:50
code gibberish, you know, I don't even
55:53
remember. I mean, I never did it, right?
55:54
So, I don't know what it was, but they
55:56
would have these strings of of code they
55:58
would have to type in and then they had
56:00
to, you know, hit send and and that
56:02
would send the thing to send the story
56:05
to this uh printer that would print out
56:09
it was like it wasn't even paper. It was
56:12
like some kind of like plasticky kind of
56:14
thing
56:15
>> and and it would print print out the
56:16
copy in long strips, right? And and then
56:19
they'd have to like cut that with a an
56:21
X-acto knife, cut it off. And and I
56:24
remember like and and so then they're
56:26
like taking that and dipping it in wax
56:30
and taking that wax covered thing and
56:32
putting it on a giant sheet of paper the
56:35
size of the the actual page and and
56:37
you'd have to like you know like that
56:39
was back in the days and it was like oh
56:40
I need 12 inches on this story and if
56:43
you filed 14 inches
56:45
they would just they would edit it with
56:47
an X-Acto knife. Boom.
56:48
>> On the bottom up. Yeah.
56:50
>> Cut off the last few paragraphs. It was
56:52
absolutely crazy. And and the the way
56:55
that that whole desktop publishing thing
56:58
changed because then suddenly they could
56:59
if they needed to like oh it's slightly
57:02
too if the story is slightly too long
57:03
well they could a they could adjust the
57:06
what is it? Kerning I believe or
57:08
>> and and make it slightly more condensed
57:11
on the page basically just red not
57:13
basically exactly reducing the space in
57:16
between the lines. They could uh and I
57:19
ended up doing this stuff too. I became
57:21
a page layout guy. You know, you you
57:22
could you could like oh, actually delete
57:24
a sentence from a paragraph or tighten a
57:27
sentence up if it's it it's just two
57:29
sentences too long to fit on the page.
57:31
Okay. Well, you can manage that as
57:34
opposed to having to like cut it with a
57:35
knife. I mean, it sounds crazy saying
57:38
this stuff out loud and remembering how
57:41
much of a change that was. It was just
57:44
it was just shocking. We still had to uh
57:47
we would still run the things out, print
57:49
out the pages and uh you know dip them
57:52
in wax and put them on a big sheet of
57:53
paper cuz you had to take the the boards
57:55
to the the printing press. But oh man,
57:58
that was that was quite a revelation.
58:00
Anyway, I I was hooked on the Mac and uh
58:03
I I very lucky my parents very got me a
58:07
uh a Mac SE30 and a laser rider.
58:12
>> Whoa. You had your own one at home?
58:13
>> Crazy. I Yeah. And and
58:17
you know, well, not at home at at you
58:19
know, when I graduated, it was a
58:21
graduation present. You know, I didn't
58:23
get a car. I got a Mac and a laser
58:25
writer.
58:26
>> About the same.
58:27
>> Probably the same price.
58:29
>> Yeah. And uh but the thing about it was
58:32
that I took that to my very first job,
58:35
you know. I I I was suddenly like the
58:39
the I I had all the means of production.
58:42
It was crazy. Uh, I went to work like
58:44
>> they hired you.
58:45
>> Yeah. I I I don't know. I'm sure it
58:49
didn't hurt. Um, but you know, I was
58:51
just working for like a little uh crappy
58:54
uh it wasn't crappy. I mean it was one
58:56
of two independent weekly actually it's
58:59
bi-weekly uh alternative press papers in
59:03
Cincinnati. And uh it was called
59:06
Everybody's News. And it was it it had
59:08
been run by this guy for years, you
59:10
know, using old schools. So, I don't
59:12
even know how he produced the thing. I I
59:13
worked for him briefly, but then uh it
59:16
that guy sold it to this other guy who's
59:18
like, "Oh, you know, we're going to
59:20
bring it into the future and all this."
59:21
I'm like, "Hey, you know, I I I worked
59:23
here before and I know how to do this
59:24
stuff and I'm excited about it and I
59:27
have a Mac and a laser writer and we can
59:29
set we we print these things out on our
59:31
own." And it was it was awesome. I mean,
59:34
I had a good time at that job. I I only
59:35
stayed there for like a year before I
59:37
just bailed and and went to California.
59:39
But uh it was uh it was fun.
59:43
>> Yeah. Yeah. Good old days. What about
59:45
you, Griffin? What was your first
59:47
experience?
59:48
>> Well, you know, when I worked in the
59:49
newsroom in 1988.
59:52
>> No. Um
59:55
my my my experience isn't quite as
59:57
extreme. Um I wrote an abbreviated
1:00:00
version of the story in in this piece,
1:00:01
but I guess I'll tell the full story
1:00:02
here. my first computer. I I was
1:00:04
surrounded by computers growing up. My
1:00:06
dad had a bunch of computers. He gave me
1:00:08
my first one in 2002 built out of like
1:00:10
spare parts. I don't know exactly what
1:00:12
the specs were because I wasn't enough
1:00:14
of a nerd uh before the computer was
1:00:17
lost in a fire, a house fire,
1:00:19
tragically.
1:00:20
>> Wow.
1:00:21
>> I actually don't even have I don't think
1:00:22
I have any pictures of that exact like
1:00:24
case that I had on it. I remember my
1:00:27
brother's computer very well because it
1:00:28
had like a very distinctive, you can
1:00:30
tell this was after the 1998 iMac
1:00:32
because it had like a a big like teal
1:00:34
plastic part on the front of it. Like
1:00:37
the whole computer was beige, but oh, it
1:00:39
had this bright green section on the
1:00:41
front out of plastic. So my mine wasn't
1:00:45
that fancy. Uh you know, being the
1:00:46
younger child, I guess I get the second
1:00:48
rate computer that's just all beige all
1:00:51
around. Um running Windows 2000. So,
1:00:55
you know, not not that I grew up with
1:00:56
like a textbased system, but I grew up
1:00:58
with, you know, a a graphical user
1:01:01
interface that was entirely shades of
1:01:02
gray and, you know, ugly pixelated
1:01:06
icons. Internet Explorer 4. Um, I know,
1:01:11
not not as good of a sob story as the
1:01:13
two of you, but again,
1:01:14
>> Internet Explorer,
1:01:16
>> Windows 2000 was the only thing I knew
1:01:18
until in school. We were taken to a
1:01:21
special computer lab that was entirely
1:01:25
iMacs of some kind. I actually don't
1:01:27
remember if they were like I don't think
1:01:28
they were colorful, which makes me think
1:01:30
they were probably Emacs, like the
1:01:33
education version of the iMac that was
1:01:35
all white and ran off of a G4 processor.
1:01:40
Either iMacs or Emacs of some kind. But
1:01:43
either way, these were running Mac OS
1:01:45
10. And I see for the first time the
1:01:47
Aqua interface, everything is
1:01:49
translucent. The windows have all these
1:01:51
pin stripes and bright vivid colors.
1:01:54
I'm using the same application that I'm
1:01:56
used to at home, Microsoft Office,
1:01:58
except Microsoft Office for Mac at that
1:02:00
time. Like just the icons
1:02:04
were so much cooler. They were this like
1:02:07
radical like abstract shiny aqua shapes.
1:02:10
As it turns out, they designed by the
1:02:12
Icon Factory, which is why they're so
1:02:14
awesome. you know, legendary
1:02:16
design studio that actually designed a
1:02:18
lot of Microsoft Office icons, but like
1:02:22
it was like my whole world was turned
1:02:23
upside down finally like like a computer
1:02:26
can be cool and fun and exciting. Like
1:02:28
you click on on an icon and it takes a
1:02:30
few seconds to launch, but it's like
1:02:31
bouncing in the dock when things need to
1:02:33
get your attention like a sheet comes
1:02:35
down and it animates and it's buttons
1:02:37
are pulsating blue and cool. And I I
1:02:41
knew that like, you know, it was like a
1:02:42
fire had been lit inside me. Like I I
1:02:45
can't get a Mac now, but I want a Mac.
1:02:47
And I would get another PC later in
1:02:50
2006, a crummy like Acer laptop running
1:02:53
Windows XP, which was the Microsoft's
1:02:55
pale imitation of the Aqua interface
1:02:57
that was miserably slow. It had a
1:03:01
Celeron processor, 800 megabytes of RAM.
1:03:04
Like after after a year or so, the right
1:03:08
20% of the screen broke. It just turned
1:03:12
black and never came back on again.
1:03:13
Well, for a while for a while, I had
1:03:15
like a a paper binder clip that I could
1:03:18
clip on the top of the screen on the
1:03:19
right side and bring it back to life
1:03:21
kind of, but even that stopped working
1:03:24
after a while. It was like a flaw in the
1:03:26
LCD that like just broke the right 20%
1:03:28
of the screen. So, the workound was that
1:03:31
>> I remember crap like that happening.
1:03:33
>> Yeah. The workaround was I I made the
1:03:35
taskbar really giant, dragged it to the
1:03:38
right half of the screen and then sort
1:03:39
of minimized it so that it was so I
1:03:41
could still like maximize a window and
1:03:42
not lose anything.
1:03:44
This thing was a mess after my
1:03:46
grandfather died and that side of my
1:03:49
family was were were all Mac people, but
1:03:51
you know, I only saw them once a year.
1:03:53
So I was I I got a little extra taste of
1:03:56
the Mac like once a year, every once in
1:03:57
a while. But after he died, we were
1:04:00
going through his house and you know, my
1:04:02
dad and my uncles and my aunts and are
1:04:04
all like picking things out of each room
1:04:05
like, "Oh yeah, I want I want those
1:04:07
sofas. I want that rug." Uh we get to
1:04:10
the office and nobody really says
1:04:12
anything. And I say, "I'll take his
1:04:14
computer."
1:04:16
Because he had a 2006 Mac Mini and
1:04:19
everybody else kind of looked around and
1:04:20
be like, "Okay, sure. Griffin can take
1:04:22
the computer." And it was the uh early
1:04:26
2006 Mac Mini. One of the first Intel
1:04:29
Macs they ever made and one of the
1:04:31
slowest they ever made. It was a
1:04:34
>> It was Was it one with a pretty large It
1:04:36
was actually quite a large box. Yeah.
1:04:38
Like a
1:04:39
>> Yeah. Yeah.
1:04:39
>> Uh like the first Apple TV. Yeah.
1:04:42
>> Yeah.
1:04:42
>> They were actually quite big. They
1:04:43
weren't And they weren't that mini.
1:04:46
>> No, not really. I I guess mini by 2004
1:04:48
standards, which is when it it was first
1:04:50
introduced. But it it was actually quite
1:04:51
large because it had to be big enough to
1:04:53
like, you know, fit a a full size like
1:04:56
CD because everything had an optical
1:04:57
drive back then. So it's I think 6 in x
1:05:00
6 in x 2 in thick. Pretty big, actually.
1:05:03
Um it was the only Intel Core Solo
1:05:07
32-bit Mac they ever made. So it got
1:05:09
like two software updates from Tiger to
1:05:11
Snow Leopard. and it was abysmally slow.
1:05:16
As soon as you turn it on, you hear the
1:05:17
fans whine. This computer is at the time
1:05:19
that I got it only like a bit over 2
1:05:21
years old and it's already having all of
1:05:24
these problems. But it was better than
1:05:26
my 2006 Acer laptop. So, I loved it. I
1:05:29
used it all the time. Eventually, there
1:05:31
were more stops and starts. I got
1:05:32
another PC laptop in 2010. Another two
1:05:35
years later, I bought a 4-year-old
1:05:38
MacBook Pro. like you know alternating
1:05:41
between crappy PC laptop and crappy old
1:05:43
used Mac. Uh
1:05:46
>> what were you what were you using them
1:05:48
for? Were you programming or anything
1:05:50
like that?
1:05:51
>> Oh, I mean every at all kind of creative
1:05:53
pursuit. Basically everything that I do
1:05:54
now for Cult of MacBook professionally
1:05:56
and actually on a better level like
1:05:58
graphic design, video editing, you know,
1:06:00
web design, all kinds of stuff. I mean
1:06:03
it's where I it's where I cut my teeth
1:06:05
on all kinds of creative things. Like
1:06:07
one of the best things that
1:06:09
was ever done for me is that somebody uh
1:06:12
gave me a um legally acquired version of
1:06:15
Adobe Photoshop CS2 and that's where I
1:06:19
you know 20 years ago I started like
1:06:21
just fiddling around with it every day
1:06:22
and eventually I actually became a good
1:06:24
graphic designer but I mean the the Mac,
1:06:28
you know, barely functional computers
1:06:29
but it was just enough for me to do a
1:06:30
little bit of everything even game
1:06:32
design because I got a program called
1:06:34
Game Maker
1:06:35
>> where I I made a few like games and like
1:06:37
even a little web browser for Windows
1:06:38
XP. Lots of fun stuff.
1:06:40
>> You you mentioned the uh how much cooler
1:06:43
it was, you know, and Leander and I were
1:06:45
both talking about the the bomb error. I
1:06:48
I don't know if people listen to this
1:06:49
podcast, you know, if you're not old
1:06:50
enough. I mean, it was a dreaded thing
1:06:53
to see, but it was really cool. It was a
1:06:56
like a what? I don't know. I'm not an
1:06:59
expert on graphic design or whatever,
1:07:02
8bit or whatever. Uh but it, you know,
1:07:05
it was just this was 32bit.
1:07:08
>> Oh, 30. Okay, great. Thanks. So, uh but
1:07:11
it, you know, it's this really cool
1:07:13
looking bomb, you know, a round circle
1:07:16
with a fuse that's lit and and this
1:07:18
screen that pops up says, "Sorry, a
1:07:20
system error occurred." I mean, just the
1:07:22
fact that they put that icon on there
1:07:25
made it just seem like something from
1:07:27
the future. It's like, "Oh my god, this
1:07:29
is a a fun machine." It It was not fun
1:07:32
getting that bomb, but at the same time,
1:07:34
>> but it's more fun than the blue screen
1:07:35
of death. Huh.
1:07:36
>> Yeah. Yeah. And it was that icon was
1:07:39
designed by Susan Care when you She had
1:07:41
a bunch all those early icons. I mean,
1:07:44
they they were fun. They were cool. It
1:07:46
was so much different from everything
1:07:49
else that I had ever experienced from a
1:07:50
computer. I mean,
1:07:52
>> you get like a really catastrophic error
1:07:54
and you see like a like the the happy
1:07:57
max little icon except he has like
1:07:59
crosses on his eyes and he's frowning
1:08:01
with like a hexodimal error code.
1:08:04
>> You really don't want to see that one,
1:08:05
but you know, you're kind of glad you
1:08:06
did just to see that icon.
1:08:08
>> Even the spinning beach ball of death,
1:08:09
you know, it's like
1:08:11
>> there's there's a playfulness about
1:08:12
that, right? I mean, it's it's so much
1:08:15
more approachable than just, you know,
1:08:17
error code 292629xy
1:08:20
x00, you know, it's like pretty awesome.
1:08:24
>> Even when it crashes. Yeah.
1:08:29
>> Okay. Well, I think let's wrap it up. I
1:08:31
think that's about the end of this
1:08:34
week's show. Um, please give us a
1:08:36
fivestar rating um or a review on Apple
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Podcast and share it with anybody you
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1:08:42
Text us uh on iMessage at cult
1:08:44
1:08:46
That's cult [email protected].
1:08:49
Send questions, comments, feedback for
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Thanks for watching and we'll see you
1:08:57
all next time. Have a great weekend
1:08:58
everybody.
1:08:59
>> Goodbye.
1:09:00
>> See you.