Up next in 10
This week, the iMac Pro may be back from the dead — with an M5 Max and a 32-inch display! Also: The iPhone 20th anniversary edition may go beyond edge-to-edge, leaked features from iOS 26.4, how to stay 18 forever (iOS 18 that is), and our new trivia quiz — Apple Genius!
Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
6:33 CleanMyMac
7:31 M5 Max iMac Pro
16:00 20th anniversary iPhone
22:02 iOS 16.4 features
29:47 How to stay on iOS 18
36:18 Listener Question
43:45 Apple Genius trivia quiz
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:02
Hello and welcome to the Cultcast, the best hourong Apple conversation you're going to hear all week long. I'll be
0:08
your host today, Leander Kenny. Joining me today, we have De Griffin Jones. Hey, Griffin. Good evening. How are you?
0:13
I'm all right, thank you. You? I'm all right. All right. And we also have Lewis. How
0:18
you doing, Lewis? Fantastic. Couldn't be better. I mean, maybe technically I could be.
0:25
Right. Lewis had a few celebratory drinks. Do we have a genuine champion in
0:31
our midst? What's your title now? Are you the actually the the best darts team
0:36
in the whole of San Francisco? Nah, we're still we're the B- League. We But we had a great season, man. Great
0:43
season. Un almost undefeated. We lost the first match of the season. We didn't have enough players. I was out I was out
0:50
of town. But then after that clean sweep. Yeah, we won every game.
0:55
We won by more than uh two full MA matches, you know, like each match
1:01
consists of in BL 13 games and we won by like 27 or we was 27 ahead.
1:08
Wow. We clinched we clinched the first place before the last game and now you're getting promoted to the A
1:14
League. Yeah, we're probably going to get promoted to A. I mean, who knows? It all depends on how many teams there are, but
1:19
probably get promoted A and just destroyed next season. Well, well, best of luck.
1:25
Congratulations. Thanks. It was a hell of a night. It was very fun. And uh as I was telling you guys, I I got to ride in two robot cars.
1:33
I I rode from the place where we played to our home bar, the the Plowing Stars
1:38
on Clement Street, totally across town. And when we got there, our our my
1:43
teammate goes, I didn't I didn't drive at all that entire thing. He he he drove us in a Tesla. He said, I didn't touch
1:49
the wheel. I just put in where we're going and it drove us the entire way. I was like, wow, that's awesome. And then
1:55
so on the way home I took a Whimo for the first time. Robot car completely
2:00
easy and fun. Very, very pleasant. Right. Was that the uh was it the Jaguar Whimo? Like the Whimo that's just like in a
2:06
Jaguar SUV. That's that's all they are. That's all they have out here right now as far as I know. Yeah. And it was like completely
2:14
calm. There was there was not in neither one of those trips did I have any fear
2:20
or concern or anything else. It was just completely easy. People who say that these robot cars aren't gonna, you know,
2:26
that they that they don't work. Oh my god, they work beautifully. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Well, they do run over cats every
2:32
now and again, but good thing a cat didn't die down the road. That is so overblown, though, man. The
2:37
cat I mean, if cat gets under your car, guess what? Might get run over. I'm
2:43
sorry. I mean, I feel bad for the cat, but to point that out as like, oh, robot cars aren't ready for prime time. I
2:49
mean, for God's sake, how many people got run over by real cars, you know, by people driving cars in the same time
2:55
period? Yeah. Yeah. Well, as a cyclist, you know, like here cycling around the city in traffic, you know, I I I just I can't
3:01
wait for the day when the robots take over. They're so much safer. I feel so much safer around the robots than I do humans.
3:07
They're they're very polite, man. Yeah. They could see everything. Well, they they started to loosen a bit. Like, I've seen them. They start to run
3:13
yellow lights now and sort of creep into the crosswalk like one one actually one you know saying this one ran a yellow
3:20
light right in front of me the other day and uh uh I was you know kind of astounded really but they have they said
3:25
that they have to make them more aggressive because they they're just they're making other drivers too agitated there you know they're so
3:32
lawful that it kind of gets on everyone's nerves so they've had to loosen the rules a little bit and I've seen a lot of people complaining about
3:38
that like you know like the whole point of having a robot is to obey the rules isn't it? You don't want a robot breaking rules. That is almost the
3:44
definition of you know the rob them enabling Skynet you know labeling to take over. But uh it it um that you know
3:53
that it it has to be done otherwise it would just they would be tolerable wouldn't it? Can you imagine if every car on the street was a robot and they
3:59
bade all the rules meticulously? It'd be awesome. Be awesome. Everybody else is running red lights and stop
4:05
signs. I mean the down the street from where we live, man. Every fifth time that I I drive to the bottom of the
4:11
hill, I somebody runs that that light. Just just completely runs it, you know. Well, they got to blend in. That's the
4:17
ecosystem. This is the the sea they swim in, you know. So, they have to they have to they have to blend into the to the
4:22
traffic. But yeah, I love them. I I'd love to get a robot car myself. Wouldn't you? That would be fantastic. These things are now
4:27
Oh, man. Uh yeah, that's my next purchase maybe in next
4:33
decade. I still got a hole. It's very tempting. Very tempting. I I was completely blown away by both those
4:40
trips. I mean, that guy that I, you know, my teammate, he's been talking about how he
4:45
uses this self-driving thing basically all the time. You know, he he lives up in the North Bay, drives all around the
4:50
Bay Area. He says he he basically uses it all the time. And it's not freaky. It's not scary. It's just
4:56
And I'm sure it is when you live in California where you have perfectly sunny weather and perfectly clear roads 100% of the time.
5:02
Yeah. Yeah. Have you been to California? These roads are terrible.
5:07
San Francisco has the worst roads I I've ever driven on. You You drive down
5:13
I'm not kidding. You drive down Mission You drive down Mission. It's like driving down like a a ruddy old uh you
5:19
know like dirt road. It's terrible. You're on that bus and it's like
5:25
you rattle your teeth out. Well, missions are particularly bad street, but they've just repaved some of it. You know, like as that that there's
5:30
that one section that goes up the hill towards where we live on Bernal. I mean, that's been repaved. It's actually quite nice and smooth now.
5:36
Yeah, I have been to San Francisco. Uh there there's a long leap between those roads and, you know, driving in Ohio in
5:43
the winter where you literally cannot even see where the road is, much less the lines, much less the car in front of
5:48
you in some situations. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, nobody should be driving in that situation to be honest. If it's a white
5:55
out and there's ice on the road, Yeah. stay home. I'm on your side. I agree with you there, but you know, unfortunately.
6:03
Oh my god. What kind of podcast is this? Robot Cars. Robot Cars podcast. Yep. Actually, this week we're going to
6:09
talk about the iMac Pro and maybe back from the dead with an M5 Max and a 32-in display. We're also going to be talking
6:15
about the 20 iPhone 20th anniversary edition, which may go beyond edgetoedge.
6:20
We've got some leaked features from iOS 26.4 and how to stay 18 forever. That's
6:26
iOS 18 that is. And we have a we have a new new segment, Apple Genius. This is
6:31
going to be super fun. But first, let's thank our sponsor, Clean My Mac. Uh during the holiday season, people bake
6:37
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cleanmy.comcultcast and clean my clmmy y.com cultcast and of
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course we'll put the links in the show notes and I can highly recommend clean my mac if you've been using it for years it's the one thing that keeps my Macs
8:00
chugging um I think it's great software from a great company well worth our support they're based in Ukraine um yeah
8:06
clean 20% off that's pretty good discount with using the code cult Lewis, what is gone on with the iMac
8:13
Pro? Yeah, what a surprise. iMac Pro could make an epic M5 Max powered comeback is
8:20
our astonishing headline. Let's see. Uh, leaked to Apple internal codes. This is spotted by Mac rumors. Deep with in
8:28
kernel debug kit files normally used by Apple engineers. Reveals identifiers
8:33
pointing to an unreleased iMac model running the M5 Max chip. We thought it
8:38
was dead and gone, but apparently it's coming back. Uh, let's see. Apple launched a basic version M5 processor
8:44
this autumn. I hate the word autumn. This fall in the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. We
8:49
don't expect the more powerful M5 Pro and M5 Max variants until next year. Uh,
8:55
and this leaked Apple internal code says nothing about the screen size of this machine, but it does uh it say say, you
9:03
know, like it's going to be this powerful powerful iMac. So naturally, I mean, it doesn't call it an iMac Pro, I
9:09
don't think. But and if you look at like the original source of the story, it's like, you know, another one of these,
9:15
you know, jumble of code names and code words running, you know, some proc
9:20
whatever. Uh the bottom line is it looks like there's going to be a new iMac Pro.
9:26
Uh, and this this was, you know, if you remember when when the iMac Pro came out in 2017, it was like, "Wow, this great
9:32
thing, you know, powerful Intel Xeon processor, 27 in 5K display, and uh, you
9:38
know, exciting price tag of $5,000." Uh, Apple killed it like four years later
9:44
without really updating it. Just kind of I guess the the value proposition of the
9:50
iMac Pro wasn't that great, right? Because it's super powerful, but you can't really update it easily. And you
9:56
know, why would you why would you really do that right now? Why when you could buy like a Mac Studio and a a beautiful
10:02
display or even a Mac Mini and a beautiful display? The the story as it was originally as it
10:07
was told is that Apple originally conceived of the iMac Pro as replacing the Mac Pro at the time when it was
10:14
still the the cylinder that people didn't like. Um and then when Apple, you know, decided to make the Mac Pro as
10:20
well, suddenly the iMac Pro was the odd one out in their in their lineup. Um although you know it debuted a year and
10:26
a half before it. It's interesting that now you know eight years later we're in the same boat again where the Mac Pro is
10:34
oh we we came this it doesn't really make any sense anymore. We can't make a Mac Pro that really you know is any
10:40
better than the Mac Studios. So what's the point of having this $5,000 giant aluminum tower? And you know the the
10:46
canary in the coal mine is that Apple is reconsidering an iMac Pro. So it is an odd duck, isn't it? I mean why
10:52
would they bring it back? because it seemed to be like that the consensus was it was a bust because it couldn't be upgrade. It was expensive and it
10:57
couldn't be upgraded. Like people hold on to their monitors, you know, the panels last forever, but they want newer, faster chips because they come
11:03
out, you know, if you're working at the cutting edge, you know, you can upgrade your chip every two or three years and get a much much faster machine. And so
11:10
you but if you have an if it's stuck with an iMac, it's unupgradable. And so that's the conventional wisdom
11:16
was why they they didn't update it because it was a bust because, you know, professionals didn't want this. But I
11:21
was thinking about that and And I think actually maybe, you know, people underestimate the the appeal of having
11:27
an all-in-one, you know, like the fact that it's a nice neat machine. Um it it
11:32
looks great, you know, in in a lot of settings. And uh it's all bundled up together. You don't have cords and wires
11:39
and and external monitors and everything together. So, you know, the value proposition, I guess, does make sense, doesn't it?
11:45
I also wouldn't really take Apple never updated it to be a sign that the computer itself was a bust. Everybody who bought them loved them. You know, a
11:52
lot of people in our circles, like, you know, professional podcasters and Mac enthusiasts, bought the iMac Pro, and it
11:58
was an excellent computer at what it did. It's just that Apple changed their strategy shortly after debuting it. You
12:04
know, just like just like the Mac Pro Tower, you know, they they keep flip-flopping on this, but um it it sounds like the next uh iMac Pro is
12:11
going to be it's going to be an excellent machine. Uh, I think the last we heard about it was when uh Mark
12:16
German wrote about it in 2022 and said that it'll probably have a 32 inch display. So, you know, if that is still
12:23
true of this machine, that would be pretty excellent. You know, bigger iMac than we've ever had before, bigger than the studio display. I I think Apple
12:30
could really do something special here, especially with Apple silicon. I mean, another problem with the original iMac Pro is that like all of their Intel
12:37
machines, they had to completely redes redesign the internals and the thermals,
12:42
you know, to to fit around like the incredibly hot Intel Xeon processor. And so, it wasn't easy to just drop a new
12:49
chip in there and and update it again. Whereas, you know, all of Apple's destiny is in their own hands. They know
12:55
the chips that they're going to make, you know, seven years in advance. So, yeah, they have opportunity to make this
13:01
better again. And honestly, you know, I'm happy with my M2 Mac Mini right now, but in a few years from now, I can see
13:06
myself buying or considering an iMac Pro with a with a Max chip inside it,
13:12
especially if it comes with that bigger screen. I mean, that's like the one drawback of the iMac right now, right? It's the screen is not very big.
13:18
Yeah, it's a 24in screen, which you could, you know, I worked on a 24inch screen for a long time, but you know,
13:24
people expect bigger screens these days. Yeah. I mean, every every screen is bigger. Your iPhones, everything's
13:30
bigger. So yeah. So anyway, uh yeah, this this one's in supposedly internal testing, so
13:37
who knows if it'll actually come to exist, but uh you know, fingers crossed. Maybe maybe they can bring it out for,
13:43
you know, at a lower price point. I mean, what does a regular iMac cost? Not very much. Uh $1,300.
13:49
You get a bigger screen. May maybe maybe they starting at the price on that baby. Yeah. Right.
13:55
And then when's the M5 Max supposed to be coming out? uh spring 2026.
14:01
Uh I think it I don't think there was any actual time line on when this might
14:06
like I said it's it's in internal testing, right? So who knows? But uh you
14:12
you said the the or did you mean the chip? Sorry. I I Well, the chip, you know, which would tell us when the when the machine was
14:17
going to become I think I think next next spring, right? I mean, also in terms of price, we we know that the Mac Studio with the Max
14:23
chip costs $4,000 and the iMac, which has its own display, isn't going to be any cheaper than that. So,
14:29
it costs Wow, it costs four grand. Okay. Or no, I'm mistaken. That's the ultra
14:34
chip. The Max chip is only $2,000. There we go. Now, we're in the ballpark. Okay. So, yeah, 2,000.
14:40
They bring this thing at 3500. It sounds like a good deal. Yeah, 35. Yeah. Yeah. Add that and a
14:45
display and an Apple Studio display, you're already at 3600. So that sounds pretty reasonable.
14:50
Everyone was went crazy when it came out really uh for the for the black keyboard and the black um
14:55
Yeah. Right. Right. It was such it was such a hot item at the time. Yeah. And and people
15:01
were like selling the the black or was it black or was it space gray or black? They were those things
15:08
were going for like uh oh like they were selling them separately,
15:13
right? And people were uh scalping them or or whatever. I don't know reselling them. First they weren't selling them
15:18
separately. It wasn't until like a few years a so later that they started uh
15:24
started selling them, you know, at and still at a $20 premium, which is they're still expensive, aren't they? I have.
15:30
They're still more expensive than the white ones. That's so silly.
15:35
Yeah. I mean, honestly, I I don't really like the black. I wish they had a neutral silver like like the old Magic
15:42
Trackpad, but that's just me. Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to
15:48
be kind of exciting. I Apple's gonna have a crazy year next year, aren't they? I mean, we're going to talk about some a couple of the other things that are coming out, but next year is going
15:54
to be mad, mad, mad, mad. Like a ton of really crazy new products uh from Apple and I guess some old ones, too. In fact,
16:00
let's talk about this one. The 20th anniversary iPhone. Um some rumor about its display. It might wrap around all
16:05
four sides. So, the company aims to do something similar to the iPhone 10 with the 21st anniversary Mac in. Oh, this is
16:11
2027. I beg pardon. So next year, not next year, the year after. This is a new
16:16
report from a Korean news site called Deal Site points to Apple cooking up a unique design to achieve this. Apparently, the display will curve on
16:22
all four edges, giving the iPhone a bezelless and futuristic look. Apple's
16:28
implementation will purportedly differ from the curd screen seen on Samsung's older Galaxy devices. The screen will
16:33
bend over all four sides, making the manufacturing process more challenging and complex. Plus, it'll move the Face
16:39
ID sensors and selfie camera under the display to achieve a full screen look. Deal site reports that the LG the LG
16:46
display will make a massive investment of 400 billion1, which is about 261 million
16:52
to supply Apple with the screen, allocating 10 production lines. Given the complexities involved, the
16:57
technology will require the company to make significant changes to its manufacturing process. Samsung is currently Apple's primary provider, but
17:04
Samsung's resources are seemingly focused exclusively on supplying display panels for the 2026 foldable iPhone. Uh,
17:12
and Samsung might eventually build new factories to display Apple with panels for the 21st 20th anniversary phone.
17:17
Surprising Apple's decision on to use a fourthsided curved display on the 20th anniversary iPhone comes from comes as
17:23
Android makers move back to flat panels. Curved OLED OLED OLED displays once
17:30
signal premium design. However, practical drawbacks like durability problems and usability concerns led the
17:35
makers of Android devices to adop adopt flatter screens in recent years. And so, I think it was this year that Samsung
17:41
dropped the curved screens on the Galaxy line, right? Uh, and I liked them. I mean, when I've seen them, uh, a
17:47
neighbor has one and it looks it does look really great, but you know, you uh, you you they they crack a lot, don't
17:54
they? They you drop them and they they crack on the sides. Hard to uh, I mean, what kind of screen protector could you
17:59
get for those kind of things? There'd have to be a curved one that would fit over the thing. Uh, but then again, Apple's made like a lot of advances with
18:06
um ceramic shield. I mean, I just dropped my phone. I I the number of times I dropped my phone and I thought,
18:12
"Oh my god, this that that's it. It's cracked. I've It's gone. It's It's ruined." But then I pick it up and it's
18:18
totally fine. I just did it yesterday with my iPhone 17. I was conf I was sure it was going to crack. It was like right
18:23
on the tiles. Yeah. Um and it was it's it's it's there's not
18:28
a scratch on it. The thing that helps your phone though is you have aluminum going all all the way around and like
18:34
almost to the edge of the of the glass. So, a lot of ways that you drop it, it's
18:39
it's it's, you know, hitting like the corner of the aluminum on the side or the or the bottom corner when it falls.
18:45
The thing about the uh the Samsung phones is that, you know, the cases for it can't go all the way up and cover the
18:52
side of the display. So what they do is they just have like a really thick lip at the bottom such that if it happens to
18:57
hit on the corner then it you know the the lip of the case will prevent the the screen from contacting ground. But if it
19:03
falls any other way like if the edge of the screen hits the corner of a table well all of that impact and all the
19:10
weight of the phone is going to hit on the glass which is something that currently Apple doesn't uh have that problem.
19:16
You know that the aluminum is doing a lot of the the loadbearing. Yeah, durability is a huge problem with this.
19:21
If they make this thing, I mean, how would you put a case on it? If if it curves around all edges and is is used
19:27
as an interface, how how would you I guess maybe you just have cutouts or whatever.
19:32
Well, Samsung tried to give the edge of the display like its own bespoke user interface and interaction model. I
19:38
honestly can see a situation where Apple does this just because it looks cool. Like there's there's no there's no weird
19:45
mini apps on the edge of the screen. There might be like a few features, but honestly, you're just supposed to like
19:51
put a clear case over it and just look at the cool display that wraps around the edges. That seems like a very Apple of 2020s sort of design.
19:58
Yeah. Well, that was the other problem with it was was uh you know, putting the user interface, those elements on the
20:04
side of the screen cause all kinds of like um you know, touches, fake,
20:10
like how do you hold it? Yeah. Every every time I saw an like a Samsung TV ad showing that thing where
20:15
it's like people using their phone, but they just have it like sitting horizontally and their face is right next to it and they're just like swiping
20:21
on the edge of the screen. Like come on, just pick up and use your phone. You're already holding it and using it. Just
20:27
use the full screen, not the stupid edge. Like that's just dumb. It looks cool. Just advertise it based on that.
20:34
It looks cool. This phone looks cool. It has a screen wrap on the sides. It will look cool though, won't it? It
20:40
will look really cool. Yeah. So, 2027. I've seen a number of theories that uh the reason liquid glass design
20:49
doesn't go to the edge of the screen as opposed to iOS 18 where you know a toolbar or a title bar will like fill up
20:55
the entire top edge or the entire bottom edge. Whereas Liquid Glass has floating floating buttons sort of like inset from
21:02
the edge of the screen. That's because Apple, you know, is is designing this user interface with this sort of phone
21:08
in mind where, you know, you can imagine the content flowing over the edge of the sides and the buttons are just sort of
21:13
like floating. Well, that you know, when you when you press the volume buttons now on the iPhone 17 and it gives you like it
21:19
squeezes the uh the the bezel in the black bezel. Yeah. Yeah. On the side. And that's a
21:25
very cool effect. I mean, do you think that's part of that this uh moving towards this kind of phone? They they'd
21:30
have to come up with something different then because the bezel of the phone won't be black, right? Yeah. Well, very exciting stuff.
21:37
Can't wait to see that. It's also exciting to see what they do with the dynamic island if everything is
21:42
hidden under the screen. They don't have to hide it in like a, you know, a sea of black anymore. It could be whatever color they want.
21:48
Ah, right. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. People love the the dynamic on it. Don't that that's Apple turning lemons lemon into lemonade. Let's become I mean, all the
21:55
Android phones now copy it, don't they? that it's uh it's all over the uh the Android handsets and not as well, but they try.
22:01
Let's talk about 26.4. This is uh some leaks uh that uh reveal some new new
22:07
features. And actually, there's one feature that really does sound interesting, but uh let's uh what we got
22:13
to say about that, Griffin. Uh leaked iOS 26 internal build from Macworld reveals several new features
22:20
Apple plans to introduce in iOS 26.4. Apple is supposedly working on detecting
22:25
when you enter credit card details in thirdparty apps so it can offer the option to save them in iCloud keychain
22:31
and right now it only works in Safari but uh with 26.4 third party apps would
22:36
be able to uh access your autofill credit cards. So that would be that'll
22:41
be super handy. Don't have to keep typing them in over and over again. It's especially annoying on the Apple card
22:46
where you don't just have like a physical card you can take out and look at. you have to go to the wallet app and
22:51
then authenticate with Face ID and copy your credit card number and that that'll simplify that whole flow.
22:59
Apple plans to introduce a dedicated sports tier for Apple TV subscribers given that Apple has been aggressively
23:05
investing in Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, and now Formula 1 racing. Um, they've tried to have
23:12
different payment tiers like MLS season pass, but seems like they'll be simplifying it into a new sports tier
23:19
possibly available for an additional or separate subscription fee that'll debut alongside 26.4.
23:24
That's a weird rumor because like at the didn't they just make it um free for all
23:30
subscribers right now? like they would said that um you know if you subscribe Formula 1 for example and also wasn't
23:36
MLS free for all subscribers I think so yeah so this would be going against their
23:43
recent moves which they've done in in sports of course this is Tim Cook's MMO though
23:49
right so get people hooked right right when before the Formula 1 season starts
23:55
but these are all kind of like they're not I guess you know baseball obviously is is a very uh mainstream sport, but
24:01
you know, no football. I mean, Eddie Q Eddie Q had like an interview where he said that, you know, the Friday Night Baseball is sort of
24:08
like an early experiment, but really what Apple wants to do is something more akin to what they're doing with Major
24:13
League Soccer where they they want to they want to buy an entire league of sport. So, if you want to watch Major
24:19
League Soccer, it's not, you know, tune in to Amazon this day of the week or NBC this day of the week or, you know, go to
24:25
a bar and watch on live TV this day of week. Like, they want to own the whole thing. Maybe they could get like pickle
24:30
ball or dart. Yeah,
24:36
that'll bring them in. That'll bring them in in the droves. Fencing. All right. In a bid to further bolster security,
24:42
Apple will introduce a new validation system that will check the devices integrity before enabling it to log onto
24:48
a user's Apple account in iCloud. You know, good there. I suppose Apple will
24:53
seemingly add a new precise outdoor location tracking feature to AirPods that could enable precise tracking of
25:00
the earbuds in the Find My app. Um, this while not mentioned, this feature could
25:05
probably be limited to the AirPods Pro 3, which rely on the new second
25:10
generation U2 ultra wideband chip. Um, which I think we're expecting to come to
25:15
the new Air Tag as well when the Air Tag 2 comes out. So, precise tracking these
25:21
things outdoors. That's good. Uh, and in iOS 27, iOS 27 that is, Apple will
25:28
purportedly improve collections in the photos app and introduce a new pairing system for AirPods. The the pairing user
25:35
interface does feel like it could be modernized a little bit. I think it's like the same as when you the original AirPods were in like 2017. So, every
25:41
time you take them out and put them in your ears, you see this giant full screen banner that takes over the bottom half of your phone. That could really
25:48
stand to be uh simplified a little bit. I don't need to see a giant picture of my AirPods on my phone every time I put them on my ears.
25:54
Oh, that's I like that. You get the battery levels. It's awesome. Yeah, it's nice, but uh it doesn't need
26:00
to block right where the the play button is on my podcast and music app.
26:06
Okay. Okay. Yeah, I was going to say what's wrong with what's wrong with it currently? It seems like it would be totally fine. Uh the the the the um
26:12
security thing is kind of controversial because um you know I thought Apple was kind of moving away from that especially
26:18
because of the EU because this um creates headaches for third party uh repair services if all of the hardware
26:25
is tied to you know if if every component is is validated then um if you
26:32
have a if you get a new screen for example or a new battery that creates headaches doesn't it for for for you
26:37
know for repair services. So, I thought they were moving away from that. Um, I think this came out in the uh Apple
26:43
and China book that came out earlier this year that a big part of the reason Apple started doing like that parts
26:50
pairing inside of a phone was because Apple had uncovered like this massive like underground operation of people
26:56
buying phones from Apple stores like replacing parts in them like and then returning them and scamming them for
27:02
like you know enormous amounts of money like on this on this widescale operation. That that might not be
27:07
exactly how how the system worked. I don't I don't remember. I only heard it discussed by other people, but uh a lot
27:14
of the parts pairing thing came up to avoid like scams that people were doing on like mass scales
27:20
also, you know, cheap knockoff parts, right? So, yeah. Um which would give, you know, someone a
27:27
Yeah. You know, they wanted to they for all sorts of reasons, but yeah, trying to trying to knock off the whole third
27:32
uh cheap cheap knockoff parts. But it does. Yeah. Uh I don't know. It's
27:38
it I fix it. uh car wines, you know, he he often he's been complaining bitterly about this sort of stuff. Um of course
27:45
he sells spare parts himself, but um it's uh I think you know they have some valid points. It does, you know, I don't
27:52
know there's a balance to be had, isn't there? On the one hand, I do quite like it. You know, like the more security the
27:58
better obviously. I mean, I I say that, but I I am more inclined to agree on the side of yeah, these phones should be repairable. You
28:04
should be able to take it apart and replace a thing on your own if you want to. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And I I think in recent versions of iOS,
28:12
they've been dialing back the whole thing where like Yeah, it'll tell you if we you know that we have you have a
28:18
third party display in your phone, but it won't like break your device or anything. It'll it'll still work. It'll
28:23
just tell you, hey, you have a crummy third party display, not not an official Apple part.
28:30
All right. Yeah. Uh sounds is 26.4. When's this supposed to be coming? This is in beta testing
28:36
right now. 26.3 is uh in testing right now. And you can probably tell that point4 is going
28:42
to be the big one because.3 has basically nothing in it. So Macwell got hold of some unreleased
28:48
code, right? This is not Yeah. Yeah. And the the big part that isn't in this uh story is that 26.4 is
28:54
supposed to be the one that has the new Apple Intelligence features, but um and a smarter Siri.
29:01
Yes, allegedly. Well, we we'll see. I wonder if they're holding back, you know, they're gonna get because that's
29:06
that'll be another big story if they have anything to reveal about that. They're probably just dripping it out if
29:12
they've got hold of this internal code. This that seems kind of like a How do you get hold of Apple's internal code? I mean, that seems like a pretty big leak.
29:19
Somebody sends it to you. Well, yeah, true enough, right? But this is this is uh I mean, I I I mean, it's
29:25
got to be, you know, someone internally is is leaking this stuff to Apple. This seems to to Macwell. This seems crazy.
29:31
Um, I can't imagine they have like the entire iOS source code. That would be the code red calamity event, but uh, you
29:37
know, bits and pieces. Engineers who work on this project have a little bit of stuff to share and risk their careers
29:43
doing it for some dumb reason. But hey, gives us stuff to talk about. Well, um, you know, iOS 26 is still
29:50
controversial as it's going out more and more adoption. you know, as we sort we discussed last week, I mean, like
29:57
there's there's been a fresh round of complaints now that the uh more um regular users starting to get prompted
30:03
to install it. But there's a way uh to prevent your phone from ever ever
30:09
updating to liquid is 26 and liquid glass. And it's actually quite a clever trick. Um this is very clever. Griffin,
30:15
did you work this out yourself or was this uh you saw this? I I saw somebody say this and so I decided to write up
30:21
formal instructions because you know people are you know saying revealed this trick on mastadon and they're you know
30:27
replying to everywhere but I was like you know I want to write up a nice article that people can have and share with people uh for any of their friends
30:33
who don't have um who who don't who know that you know people in their life don't want to update to iOS 26. And funnily
30:39
enough I I wrote this article specifically with Charlie Surell in mind and he he replied to me on Master I was
30:45
like oh yeah thanks for the tip I'm definitely going to be using this. So, oh my god, that's actually brilliant. He He fell for my bait,
30:52
right? He definitely did. Obviously, everybody knows that you can disable automatic updates. If you go to
30:59
settings, general, software update, you know, automatic updates, you can turn it off. By default, it automatically has it
31:06
enabled to install and download, but you can uncheck those. And that's what I did
31:11
because I have my old iPhone 12 Pro, and you know, for historical reasons, I want to keep it on iOS 18. So, you can
31:18
disable that, but the problem is that then you have a permanent badge on the settings app. And every time you go there, it'll say, "Hey, iOS 26.2 install
31:25
now." And you know, that's just leaving yourself like a a landmine really. If
31:31
you tap the wrong thing, then suddenly your phone updates and it's updated forever and you can never go back. Um,
31:37
but there's a trick. If you go to settings, general software update, beta
31:43
updates, then uh what you can do is you switch to iOS 18 developer beta.
31:51
It'll tell you iOS 26.2 download will be deleted and tries to get you to cancel,
31:57
but you know, you can just tap okay. That's really what you want to happen. That's the whole point. You switch to
32:02
iOS 18 beta. It might take a few taps annoyingly and then you go back and iOS
32:08
26 is gone. It's gone forever. Your phone will never tell you to update to iOS 26. In fact, instead of showing me
32:14
download iOS 18.7.3, which is the latest uh bug fix update. Uh so I'll uh
32:21
actually download that tonight. Get iOS 18 uh the latest version of that. And my
32:26
phone will be running uh smooth sailing from here on out. It might seem counterintuitive to like tell people to
32:32
download a developer beta, but you know, at this rate, iOS 18 is only going to be receiving bug fixes and security
32:38
updates. So, you can stay on that indefinitely and it'll it'll never bug you about iOS 26.
32:44
They'll they'll keep it they'll keep it secure for what, six more years? Uh they'll I think they'll I think two
32:51
or three more years. Okay. Sometimes Apple is known to to, you know, if there's like a really big
32:57
critical uh hack or exploit, they'll they'll go back and release a bug fix
33:03
for older versions of iOS. But I think Apple promises three years of software updates, and iOS 18 is already one year
33:10
old, so it'll get updates through the end of 2027. Charlie was going to be he's going to be
33:17
he's going to be devastated in a couple of years. What's he going to do? I'll have to figure something out.
33:22
I'll have to I'll have to get a free phone running Linux. Oh god.
33:29
Oh, that's right. That was his plan anyway, wasn't it? For his next phone. Yeah. Yeah.
33:34
Good luck with that, Charlie. Linux. Well, cool. Very cool trick. I'd be
33:40
actually interested any if any listeners do this. So, I'm I'm kind of I you know, we were arguing before that we started
33:46
the show whether we should do this particular how-to because it was my um impression from the various uh polls
33:53
we've done in uh in the newsletter and from um uh you know all the stories we've done that you know our uh people
33:59
listen to this podcast I don't think I I I you know they're more excited I think about iOS 26 and running future
34:05
uh you know uh the latest updates from Apple and don't want to get stuck but so I'm I'm really curious to see how many
34:10
people um were interested in in keep on staying on iOS 18. If there's anyone out there except for Charlie Surell um who
34:17
wants to do this? I mean honestly I' I' I've come up with a pretty irritating bug on TV OS 26. I
34:24
wish I could have I I wish I could roll that back. U so I have a um sound bar
34:29
connected to my TV. I know sound bars aren't very good, but I think it was given to me by somebody who was leaving it. So I was like, "Yeah, sure,
34:35
whatever. It's better than my TV speaker." But um I have a soundbar that's plugged in over like an optical
34:41
cable from my TV. And the Apple TV has this feature. You go to a menu on your Apple TV and then you take your soundbar
34:47
remote and you hit volume up, volume down, and mute. And then your Apple TV is supposed to learn what the IR signals
34:54
are and then it trains your Apple TV remote to replicate those same signals. And this worked great for years. Uh, but
35:01
then I updated to TV OS 26 and suddenly it stopped working and I Awesome.
35:06
Yeah, I I deleted the configuration, tried doing it again, didn't work at all. So that's annoying. I I filed a bug
35:13
fix report. Annoyingly, people are now starting to comment on my YouTube video that I made showing this how this works.
35:20
Like, hey, this doesn't work anymore. Yeah, I know. Trust me. I I made the video. I tried it. It's annoying. Apple
35:26
doesn't seem to fix it. So, is it with um just that one particular soundbar?
35:31
Um I only have one soundbar, so I haven't tested it on other ones, but any else, same problem. So,
35:36
that seems kind of crazy if it does if it's borked all the sound bars. Mhm. Major major headache. I mean, who
35:43
doesn't you know who who doesn't have a soundbar? Well, good luck getting that fixed.
35:48
Um you had some luck, didn't you, when you filed some radar reports before. Uh spotty results. Apple Apple doesn't
35:55
look at a it's sort of a whole thing I don't want to get into, but Feedback Assistant is a bit of a um black hole.
36:03
If any Apple engineers are listening to this who work on the tvOS team, please check out feedback 21368004.
36:14
All right, we'll see. We'll see where that goes. Okay. All right, let's let's go to Lewis. All
36:19
right, this question comes from quote a concerned citizen on Mastadon. Uh, and
36:26
the uh, the question is, well, they say they need advice. What's the protocol in
36:31
these situations where you see a stranger wearing their AirPods wrong, upside down or in the wrong ear, they've
36:38
got a photo of a unfortunate chap with a an AirPod almost, what is that like 45
36:45
degree angle sticking out of his head? And it's it's the wrong AirPod. It seems to be the the left airpod and the right
36:52
here. I'm not entirely sure we can uh use the picture in the in in the show, but uh yeah, it's a it's
36:58
a man with a wrong airpod in it's it's not a full Giuliani, but it's pretty close. Uh so the the question is,
37:07
do you tell him he's a and has him in the wrong way around? Do you check that he knows he's his left from his
37:12
right? Uh and and you know, this uh this is spotted on the tube station in London. The questioner also says, "Is
37:19
this deliberate? Do they sound better or fit more securely? Maybe I'm just wearing them incorrectly and uh like
37:25
some Oh, uh that's a swear word. Uh like a square. Uh does it depend on how
37:31
attractive he is? He was pretty cute to be fair. Uh so, you know, uh what do I I
37:38
don't know. I don't say anything to anybody if I see them with AirPods sticking out their ears weird way or something." Mind your own business. I've
37:45
Yeah. I've I've I mean, everybody's ears are different. Sometimes I I've put an AirPod in the the wrong ear on purpose.
37:51
I can't even remember why, but uh just because the one ear was irritated or
37:58
something. I I can't remember. Well, that would actually But you know, on the other hand, I I would be kind of like, you know, like if I do have in the
38:04
wrong ears, I wouldn't mind if some stranger telling me pointed out to me that, you know, look, you've got mine wrong. I mean, that's it's
38:09
I'm pretty sure I know what your response would be. Well, at least at least internally.
38:16
I think this person here though I think this person here they want to it like it sounds, you know, the the the the
38:21
subtext is I think they want to approach this person. I mean there's the clue right in the very last sentence, right?
38:27
They they're pretty cute to be fair and they're taking pictures of him. I think they wanted to approach this person and
38:32
use that as an excuse. Creepy to be quite honest. Icebreaker.
38:37
They do they still run those uh you know missed connection ads in the in the the the papers there in in London?
38:44
I presume so you pick up I presume so pick up a thing and you know I saw you on the tube on Thursday. You was in
38:52
completely wrong you weirdo. How's they going to know though? Someone's got their AirPods in wrong.
38:57
They're the last person to know that they're going to they got them in wrong. They know that something's wrong but they don't know
39:03
what. Yeah. and and then it's like, "Oh, I I here's a picture of you." That that would that would definitely be you would
39:09
definitely make contact with that person, right? No, you would you would avoid that train in the future is what
39:16
you would do. Well, there strict etiquette on the London tube, though, you know, like it's very much keep to yourself until until
39:21
the there's two different tubes. There's there's the tube during the day where everyone um minds their own business and
39:27
keeps themselves and then there's a tube at night when people are coming out of the pubs and they're all drunk as heck, and then it's like party time. It's
39:32
like, you know, uh, and it's completely different. So, I guess it depends on the time of day and whether you had a couple
39:38
couple of drinks or not. Yeah. How did How did Giuliani have his
39:43
because that was really freaky, wasn't it? Were they upside down? Straight up and out. Yeah. Yeah. They
39:49
were They were like this like little antennas like Shrek. Yeah. And he and he had that goofy look
39:55
on his face. It was That's an alltime classic. Was there was there black hair dye trickling down his face, too? Or
40:01
that was another occasion? Actually, you know what I see more often frequently is is is wired AirPods. I'm starting to see wired AirPods everywhere. And AirPods
40:08
Max like this town is full of AirPods Max users. They must have every one they sold must have gone to someone in San
40:14
Francisco because I see them everywhere. And I can't believe they're a bust because they seem to be super popular. But maybe it's just they're the ones I
40:20
notice. But yeah, I I remember the the first time I saw somebody wearing AirPods Max and it
40:26
wasn't that long ago. It's like maybe a couple of years ago down at the Salesforce uh you know that that park on
40:33
top of Salesforce. It's Have you ever been to that? It's pretty Yeah, when it open I've been down there recently, but my wife said it's been
40:38
it's ruined now. It's not It's not as good as it was for some reason. What? Pers
40:44
Now that it's all filled out, it doesn't look as attractive as it was when it was first made. I don't really understand the logic of it, but this is what she
40:50
was saying. She didn't like it. I mean, you go to an airport and you see like every fifth person is wearing AirPods Max.
40:57
Yeah. Yeah. I I still haven't gathered up the nerve and the money to buy a pair of
41:03
them. It just they're just so expensive. Even at the best Black Friday deal, like $3.99, that's a lot of money for a pair
41:09
of headphones. And they're old. Like they they they they switched out the the port to from lightning to USBC, but they're still
41:15
old. There's a lot of features that AirPods Pro are honestly better at. Yeah, like the one where it fits in your
41:22
pocket. I I just I mean I wear headphones like one time and one time
41:28
only and that's on intercontinental flights. I mean, why would you why do
41:33
you carry them? You know, they're just AirPods Pro are so good and so
41:38
convenient. Why do you need AirPods Max? I mean, I you know, better noise cancellation. Maybe they're maybe people
41:44
think they're more comfortable. I'm better sound. I don't know. You know the bigger drivers. Yeah.
41:50
Yeah, sure. I mean, they sound better, but I mean, yeah, I guess I guess that's a a totally
41:55
good reason, but I don't know. It just was so expensive. Well, that Well, 359 you can get them for
42:02
$3.99 is the lowest I've ever seen them. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because they're $549. List $549,
42:09
right? And there's no competition. I mean, in the in the headphones market, you know, everyone's raves about the Sony uh MX, what are they six now? Can't
42:18
remember, but uh yeah, I can't remember the name. I just saw somebody, I think Christian,
42:24
the developer of Apollo, RIP, that app. Um he was saying that he just got those
42:29
Sony ones and you know, after being like an AirPods Max fan, and he wasn't impressed by them.
42:34
He said the AirPods was not impressed by the Sony's. Yeah. Yeah. He said the AirPods are much AirPods Max are much better. Like I
42:40
believe they're good headphones, but I just can't imagine like spending $550 on an Apple product that's effectively like
42:47
what, six years old? Five years old. Yeah, it's it's five it's five years
42:52
because it they I remember because like last week there was or even this week
42:57
was like the fivey year anniversary. Yeah. Uh you know, I remember when I reviewed those, I mean, they did sound
43:03
really good, but I I mean I don't know. Most of the things I listen to are podcasts, not
43:08
music. I mean, I have a hard time finding comfortable headphones. I have pretty large ears, tall hair, like so many headphones and glasses as well,
43:14
which is like the trifecta of you're going to be uncomfortable with every pair of hair headphones you put on, you
43:20
know? At least you have at least you have hair. That's true, right? That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you should try those Bane those Dyson ones. The the Dyson air
43:27
filtering ones that kind of gives that Bane mask over. I actually was curious to try that because I was such a buzz, but the
43:34
reviews said they sounded really good. So, if you saw somebody wearing those on a bus, would you approach them? And
43:40
oh, goodness me. No, I think I would avoid those people. All right. All right. Let's try. We've
43:46
got a new section uh right now, which um is an Apple trivia quiz called Apple Genius.
43:52
And oh no, I know this is going to be a total disaster, but let's give it a try. So, what I
43:57
figured uh we should do is I'll ask a it's a six questions and I think you two
44:03
have to compete to to answer, right? So, let's do it like with a buzzer, but we don't have buzzes. So, you'll have to go
44:08
or make a buzzer sound. And then I will turn to that person to give the answer.
44:14
And if they're wrong, then the other person gets a chance to get the right answer. I don't like my odds right now.
44:20
Yeah. And there's there's six questions. Actually, I I ran this through Gemini. So, um the first one was really easy
44:26
like So, the questions are going to be wrong. No. Well, we'll see. We'll see. The questions will be wrong. Questions
44:32
will be right. The answers will be wrong. I I should just say before we start, um maybe this will just make it
44:37
more embarrassing if I if I if I do end up losing this, but I should say I'm not terribly scared of losing to Lewis. What
44:43
I'm most scared about is uh losing to myself, not being as happy with my performance. And it
44:49
just like in darts, you're playing the board, not the opponent. That's a good approach. But uh yeah, geez, I don't know. I I'm
44:57
very trepidacious about this because you whatever the question is, you're probably going to say, "Oh, wait. I have one of those over here in the drawer.
45:04
Oh yeah, this is the third generation Pippen. You know, I did some I did some studying when he said that we were going to do this as a
45:09
segment, but we'll see. Oh my god, he's been boning up. Okay, this is the expert one and then we'll move to the insane difficult one
45:16
later. Okay, right after this. Okay, so uh the first question is the original Apple 1
45:22
computer was sold for a very specific somewhat controversial price. What was it?
45:28
I know it. Lewis got beat you there. Louis, what is it? $666.66.
45:34
Oh, there we go. Griffin got the answer there. Okay, one down to Griffin. Hold on. I better make a list here. Who
45:42
got what? I should have rung in before you finished reading the question.
45:48
Yeah, exactly. Okay, next question. Okay. Who was the father of the
45:54
Macintosh who originally started the project before Steve Jobs took it over? Jeff Raskin.
45:59
Well done, Griffin. I knew that when I just didn't get the buzzer in time. Okay, you got to get a triangle.
46:05
Yeah. All right. Looks unnecessarily uh because he was such a fan of simplicity changed his name so it only
46:12
had one F. Really? Yep. That's not That's not uh
46:17
That is true. Now, that is a question for a future quiz if you're not competing. And here's
46:24
a I've got I've got a I'll I'll save my knowledge in case it comes up.
46:31
Okay, next question. Question number three. Which short-lived gaming console did Apple release in the mid 1990s?
46:38
The Apple Pippen. All right. Correct. Griffin's running
46:43
away with this quiz. Lewis, you got up again. Okay. Well, he just blurted it out. I think my
46:49
buzzer was faster than his his ring. Dinged. That dinged. Um, next question. This question number four. What is the
46:56
name of the dog cow mascot that appeared in the classic M page setup?
47:02
Oh my god, this is a sweep. Lewis, you might go to darts, but
47:08
all right, number five. Who served as Apple's CEO immediately prior to Steve Jobs return as interim CEO in 1997?
47:15
Lewis. Okay, Louis. Who is it? Scully. Oh, no. Wrong.
47:21
No, wait. Totally wrong. Oh. Oh, right. Skully was the second CEO. The one
47:26
before Gilamelio. Okay. Griffin. Is that the guy who was right there?
47:31
That what was I didn't actually hear the whole question. What was the whole question? Who served as Apple CEO immediately
47:37
prior to Steve Joel's return as interim CEO in 1997? And and and Griffin got the right answer. Gil.
47:42
Was it was it Gilio? Yeah. Gilamelio. All right. The horrible. Yeah. Okay.
47:48
Yeah. God damn it. The uh what do they call him? The turn. He was a what was his nickname? He was a turnaround artist.
47:54
Mhm. Um had a reput he turn thinking of the guy who is called the diesel. That was
48:00
Michael, right? Um I don't know. I just I always heard him Amelio referred to as a turnaround
48:07
artist. Yeah. But well, I guess he did I mean kind of somewhat true except it was Steve Jobs who did the turnaround, but
48:13
he did bring Steve Jobs back. Mhm. Um which um for which he will always be
48:19
Apple fans will forever be grateful to him for doing that. Mhm. Um but he spent more time overhauling
48:24
the bathroom um in the executive offices than uh than turning the company around.
48:30
All right. Ready? Uh the final question uh question number six. Before Swift was
48:36
introduced in 2014, what was the primary programming in iOS and Macros development?
48:42
What is it? Objective C. Correct. All right. I would have never gotten that one.
48:48
So, Lewis, uh, I'm afraid you have zero points. Goose egg. Yay. And Griffin Griffin sweeped the the
48:55
board there with six points. All right. Let's try the insane difficulty Apple trivia.
49:00
I don't know how much more of this I can take. This is so much fun, Lewis, that we've got to do another one. It's
49:06
Maybe you better wait until buzzing before until after I finish the question. Okay. Maybe that would help.
49:11
How did How? Well, that's not the way game shows work. Well, all right, whatever. Um, this is
49:18
this is a test. We're going to see how this works if it or if it works or not. Um, in the early Okay, question number
49:24
one. In the early 90s, Apple engineers used an the internal code named Carl Sean for the Power Macintosh 7100. After
49:31
Sean issued a cease and desist, what spiteful acronym did the engineers change the code name to?
49:39
This is Oh, Lewis is in pain right now because this is in a Today in Apple history that we
49:45
read. I've read this several times and I cannot remember what it is. Uh,
49:51
do you want me to give you four multiple choices so you can choose? Sure. Uh, no. Hold on.
49:58
Well, Griffin, do you know this? Do you know it, Griffin? Is this one that you don't know? I remember reading the Today in Apple history, but you probably read it more
50:03
than I have. Yeah. So, I don't remember it off the top of my head.
50:09
I bet I bet half the listeners know the answer to this. This is embarrassing. My goodness me.
50:15
Come on, guys. This cult editorial. It's something. It's you know something
50:22
astronomer something dumbass astronomer or something like that. Okay. Getting closer. Getting warm. Getting warm.
50:28
What was it? What was the thing that What was the question again? Uh in the early 90s, Apple engineers used the Intel code name Carl Sean for
50:35
the Power Macintosh 7100. That was the code name for the machine in development. So after Sega issued a cease and desist, what spiteful acronym
50:41
did the engineers change the code name to? Give us multiple choice. Make this a multiple choice. Okay. CST for Cosmos Star Treker.
50:51
SOS, Sean's own story. DNA, do not disturb. I'm sorry. DN D do not disturb
50:59
or BH number four. BHA Buttad Astronomer. There we go. Four. It's four.
51:05
All right. Neither of you got that. You're both useless. That's fair. Okay, next one.
51:11
Uh, okay. This is a good This is a good one. And this one I didn't know myself. Written by 15-year-old Rich
51:17
Scrter in 1982, Elk Cloner is widely considered the
51:23
first computer virus found in the wild. Which Apple computer did it target?
51:29
That would have had to be the Apple 2. Correct. But you didn't buzz in. But
51:34
I'll give that one to you anyway. Look, okay, because Lewis was obviously struggling there. It could have been the Apple.
51:42
When did the Apple 3 come out? 81, but nobody had the Apple 3. So, right. Who's going to write
51:47
popular enough to be virus? Yeah. Honestly, I I was only scared that you were going to say, "No, it was the Apple 2e or Apple 2 Plus." I think even
51:54
the Apple 2e was 1982. So, it infected floppy discs on the Apple 2
52:00
operating system. So, um, the the part I didn't know was that it was the first computer virus found in the wild.
52:07
Very cool. Uh, okay. Here's here's one that I bet Lewis knows. The 20th
52:13
anniversary Macintosh released in 1997 featured a unique design by Johnny Iive.
52:19
Which nickname was this computer given during its development?
52:27
During its development? Yeah. What was its nickname? Okay, I'll give you I'll give you the
52:33
four choices here. Excalibur, Spartacus, Odyssey, or Pomona.
52:39
Excalibur, Spartacus, Odyssey, Pomona. Pomona is actually the name of a
52:46
different unreleased Apple product, a code name of a different concept that they had. I'm going to say
52:54
Spartacus sounds vaguely familiar. So, I'm going to guess Spartacus. Lewis, I would guess Excalibur. All right.
53:01
Unfortunately for you, Lewis is right. God dang it. Oh my goodness me. This is
53:07
Even when he doesn't know, he gets lucky. I I thought the answer to that I thought the question was going to be uh how were
53:14
they delivered. Ah, that's a that would have been a good question. That would be by concier.
53:20
Yeah, a dude in a tuxedo. Wasnack. And how many does Wasnack have? That's another good question.
53:27
How many of those does he have? Yeah, he has a personal collection of he he was gifted one on stage at an Apple event that I know for sure.
53:34
I have no idea. 20 several I believe, but he actually I think he came out in an interview and said how many he had, but it was and it
53:40
was kind of embarrassingly quite a lot. And and I know that Gilio as part of his exit package as he was being pushed out
53:47
of the door of the company because the 20th anniversary Mac was his like pet project. He requested that he be given a new one.
53:53
Yeah. And he did. It had a built it had a subwoofer, didn't it? A separate subwoofer. Kind of a cool idea for the
53:58
top. A subwoofer built into its power supply. Yeah. Yeah. And a and a built-in CD player, too,
54:04
wasn't it? So he could function as his home stereo. Johnny IV special. That was one of his first projects when he when he got hired
54:11
at Apple. All right. Fourth question. Oh my god. When the Apple Lisa was released,
54:18
marketing claimed Lisa was an acronym. What did it stand for?
54:24
Logical integrated system architecture. No. Oh,
54:30
close. Something integrated system architecture. H.
54:36
Which letter do I have? Local. The sword.
54:41
Oh, logical integrated software architecture. That's right. All right. So, one more
54:48
for I'm gonna go back to bed. This apparently this is they called it a
54:54
backronym. Mhm. And it was invented to deny rumors it was named after Steve Jobs's daughter.
54:59
That part I knew. And Apple employs came up with their own acronym for it. There was like something lazy something stupid acronym. Lazy
55:07
invented stupid acronym they called it. Be better. Yeah. That was what it should
55:13
have been called. Mhm. Um yeah. So, uh, one of the one of the other choices there was logic logical
55:19
integrated system architecture. So, you were very very close there, Griffin. Very very close, but not quite. But you did get it in the end. So, I'll give you
55:25
that point. I know. Should I get in that point, Louis? Maybe that seems a bit No, give it to me.
55:32
You didn't have anything. So, I don't think you really deserve that. All right. Maybe Lewis, here's your last
55:38
last two chances to catch up. Um, what was the internal code name for the first public beta version of Mac OS 10
55:44
released in September 2000 for the public beta? Kodiak.
55:50
The internal code name. Good god. What?
55:56
You got it right. I can't believe it. What the hell? This is insane mode. This is a wash.
56:03
This This thing's a disaster because Griffin's just running away with all the answers. Okay, last qu uh last question.
56:09
The AIM Alliance was formed in 1991 to create the Power PC architecture. Apple and IBM were two members. Who was the
56:16
third member of the AIM alliance? Motorola. [Laughter]
56:22
All right, we have a winner. An easy one. We have an easy god.
56:27
Did you have any clue there, Louis? The choices? Uh, I would have probably got to that eventually.
56:34
Of course, this isn't really fair because Louis is at a distinct disadvantage. Having won the B-League
56:39
Dots Championship last night and having had a few celebratory drinks is not on your not on your toes, right? Not on
56:46
your best form. I'm uh I'm a little a little groggy still. Didn't get that much sleep last
56:51
night. All right, congratulations, Griffin. You got You won a new car.
56:57
Yeah. Yeah. What? Um Yeah. What do you win? I've got I've got an old iPhone case
57:02
around here somewhere. Okay. Can for an iPhone 12.
57:07
Maybe I could I can ship you some of my broken MacBooks. Oh, sure. Maybe maybe you can get a broken
57:13
MacBook. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, that was the Apple Genius. Griffin is our Apple
57:18
Genius. And um I hope uh that uh everyone at
57:25
home was able to answer a few questions too. Um, and in fact, you know, it would
57:30
be Do you think we should I mean, I guess we got to make the quiz even harder, right? Because you answered all these questions. No problem at all.
57:37
Although then it would just make it even possible for Lewis. Maybe.
57:42
I think I should be giving the quiz. I was going to say maybe I should dig it to the quiz. All right, let's mix it. If we do this
57:48
again, let's mix it up and uh, you know, maybe we could see if I could try to be a contestant. See how embarrassingly stupid I am and how little I know about
57:56
Apple. Well, I think that wraps it up. That's all the coldcast we have for you this week. If you want more, Lewis is at
58:02
uh on Twitter at Lewis Wallace. Griffin is on Masadon at dgriffin Jones and uh I write the cult of mate newsletter every
58:08
day and you can find that at news.cult.com. So, please send us a text using the link at the top of the show notes or in
58:14
YouTube comments and ask your questions for the show. This has been the cult, the best hour, the best
58:21
the best hour Apple conversation. You're going to hear all week long. New episodes of the Cult come out every
58:27
Thursday night. Thanks so much everybody for listening, for watching, and we'll see you all next time. Have a great weekend, everybody.
58:34
Bye. Woohoo. We ought to have someone else asking us questions. All three of us compete for
58:40
that for the answer with proper buzzes. Maybe maybe uh Tracy would like to do
58:47
that. You need to you need to get give yourself a Louis some triangles. I think
58:52
that's that's what you need. Where the do you got a triangle? And why was it nearby?
58:59
[Music] I think I I used to have it because I I kind of wanted to integrated into the uh
59:04
into the prediction game somehow, but I could never find a way to make it work. But I mean, this is perfect for it.
59:12
All right. Well, it's never other podcasters that they do is they
59:17
just have like a specific bell, but I mean the triangle is much more reliable. I mean, this thing's never going to break. Just It's perfect.
59:26
I bet you I could I could put a little uh you know, like get a soundboard, right?
59:31
And just put it on the Elgato Stream Deck thing and just boom, press it.
59:37
[Music]