live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
This week, Griffin has spent a whopping 24 hours with the M5 Vision Pro and shares first impressions. Also: Great news for haters of Liquid Glass, bad news for foldable iOS devices, a Mac mini setup featuring very little Mac mini and a listener question about our writing processes.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:19 NordStellar
3:43 M5 Vision Pro impressions
25:42 iOS 26.1 beta 4
33:39 Folding iPhone delayed?
39:29 Folding iPad delayed?
54:03 Setup of the Week
58:48 Listener Question of the Week
More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com
Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac
Follow us!
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cultofmac
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@cultofmac
Instagram: https://instagram.com/cultofmac/
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:02
Good evening and welcome to the cold cast. The best hourong conversation
0:08
you're going to hear or you know for for the next hour at least. Um I'm Kaney. I'm your host. Joining me today uh for a
0:16
change we have the Griffin Jones coming in from Ohio. Good. Good evening Griffin.
0:21
Good evening to you as well. And uh we also have Lewis Wallace. Hello Lewis.
0:28
Good morning to you. You have yet to embrace the evening. You've been out voted two to one.
0:35
I can't uh I can't say it when the sun's beaming brightly. Alexa said it was
0:40
really uh cloudy today, but it looks beautiful outside. I wish you could go outside and find out. I know it's a Well, looking out the
0:46
window here, it's a lovely day. A lovely lovely day. There's supposed to be some huge um Pineapple Express tropical river
0:53
coming in, right? some massive storm that's going to knock California off the map for a few days.
0:58
Great. Clean this city up a little bit. Well, yeah, we'll see. Uh, we have a
1:06
superb show today. One, probably one of the best in recent memory. We have a very special treat. Griffin's
1:12
going to be giving us his first impressions of the new M5 Vision Pro headset, which I'm super excited about.
1:20
Can't wait to hear about the 10% extra phobiated rendering. Uh,
1:27
easy for you to say. What the Okay. What about you? Are you not excited
1:32
about that, Louis? No, I I just can't wait to see Griffin put it on. Yeah, right. Strap it on, buddy.
1:39
I think Griffin's got some thoughts about that, but we we'll see about that in a few minutes. Uh, we're also going to be talking about uh the new iOS beta,
1:46
which has some Well, there's an interesting new setting. And what's interesting about it, I think, is not necessarily the setting itself, but the
1:52
fact that Apple put the setting in there. Uh oh, and we have a superb Mac Mini setup, which um is part of this
1:58
roundup of all these best Mac Mini setups we've ever seen, which is uh which is also very, very exciting. Uh
2:05
and we have a question from the reader about how the amazing cult of Mac media
2:10
machine operates. So, oh boy, we'll be offering brace yourself
2:17
about blogging. All right. So before we start though, let's let's thank our uh sponsor
2:22
Nordstellar. So we know that a lot of you know CIOS and CTOs and CEOs and you
2:29
know small business owners, high rollers, a lot of high rollers listen to this show. Um and this is the product
2:34
for them. Nordstellar is a threat platform that detects cyber threats that could target your company. Uh and it's a
2:40
proactive platform. So it looks for data breaches. It monitors the dark web. It checks for vulnerabilities and protects
2:47
against cyber squatting. So, it safeguards employees and customers from account takeovers, fishing, and identity
2:54
abuse. It detects leak credentials on the dark web early, allowing you to take action before they're exploited by
3:01
hackers. And it'll even monitor your partners. It looks at um it identifies, you know, third party data leaks and
3:07
target attacks that could put your company at risk. So, it's a very comprehensive platform. This is by the
3:13
people from NordVPN, which is my uh the VPN I personally use. Um, and these guys
3:20
uh you know, they're pretty good. They they they have a whole bunch of different products. Um, and this is one
3:27
of theirs for for for for um for helping to secure small businesses and everything up to enterprises. Uh it
3:34
offers competitive pricing uh especially for small business owners and the the plans are flexible so they they scale as
3:41
your business scales. So this is a chance to get proactive. Most companies act only after a breach. So be the one
3:49
that's prepared. Defend your business with Nordstellar and get an exclusive offer. Unlock 10% discount of
3:55
Nordstellar with a coupon code cult 10. Cultcast10 by going to nordstellar.com/cultcast.
4:02
just mentioned Nordstellar. Cool. So, thank you Nordstellar for sponsoring this uh this week's podcast.
4:09
I I kind of got mixed feelings about the new Vision Pro. I I'm seeing different things. The M5 obviously is a superb
4:16
chip. I mean, a a big big setup from the M2, but you know, I'm a little skeptical. Is it really worth it? How
4:22
much difference does it make? Griffin went and got um actually you managed to survive, didn't you? Almost got did you
4:27
almost get mugged coming out of the Apple store? You're terrified that they they were gonna like someone was gonna whack you on the head and steal your
4:34
$4,000 new computer. Yeah, it was it was a I was not actually at risk, but it was a thought that was
4:39
running through my head like as you're walking out of the Apple store. I mean, the last time I got a Vision Pro, I got it delivered, but you know, this time I
4:45
wanted to film an unboxing video, so I needed it as early as possible. So, I I did like a 10 a.m. instore pickup. And I
4:52
realized as I'm walking between the store to my car down a down a street, I'm carrying this gigantic white box in
4:59
a big bag walking out of an Apple store, it says Vision Pro in like big letters
5:04
on the side of it. Like somebody could just like punch me in the face and just run off with it. And it it wouldn't even
5:10
have like the Find My Activation lock because it's not even set up yet. It's new in the box. Well, you were lucky it was a Vision
5:16
Pro. If it been anything else, you probably would have got mugged. Yeah. No one wants that. That's that's
5:22
the only thing that saved you. It's it's funny you mentioned this. I had actually the exact same feeling when I was walking out of the uh Apple store
5:28
in Union Square with my, you know, bag with my iPhone in it. And I wasn't alone. I mean, a lot of people walking
5:34
with those bags. And I was like, I'm kind of surprised that there's not like uh street gangs on scooters.
5:40
There were not a lot of people walking with Vision Pro bags. I'll just say that. Yeah. Right. In fact, I was on at the Apple store at
5:46
opening day on launch day for the Vision Pro. The only person who was at the Vision Pro table with the new Vision
5:52
Pros on display was a uh woman with her iPhone plugged into like the iPad on the
5:59
table like taking a phone call like charging her phone while she was just like talking to somebody. Nobody
6:05
else there looking at the Vision Pros. No Apple employees like standing around there. That's like a thing now, man. Pictures of the the the tumble weed strewn Vision
6:13
Pro table. So, how do you feel about it when you got home and did the unboxing? What was
6:19
what happened? I have an unboxing video which you can uh find linked in the episode description. But yeah, I tried it on. I
6:24
was very curious to you know I mean straight away the dual knit band I've I've got it just off screen here. So
6:32
I'll show it for all of our viewers on YouTube. It's indeed got a little little band on top and a band on back. Straight
6:39
away just by touching it I can feel like the little tungsten inserts in the back. I wasn't sure like how obvious it would
6:44
be, but like in fact I have the other one as well for comparison. Holding them holding them side by side. I I sort of
6:51
noticed this when I was looking at the product pictures as well that uh the the old Solo knit band like the band is a
6:57
lot taller in the back. It's like wider across the back of your head. The new one isn't as wide. Um it's a little
7:04
narrower. Uh, but also like the the ribs of the stitching are a little bit thicker, you know, to accommodate the
7:10
little the little inserts, the weighted inserts. And you can definitely feel it like it it feels noticeably heavier and
7:16
it's a little firmer on the back of your head. Like when you're wearing it and it's like stretched across, you know, the back of your head, it it it feels
7:24
like it's pinching in a little more and it's a little more stiff. It's not quite as flexible. And you know, the the the
7:30
top band, I sort of was expecting this to be the case, and it was confirmed when I put it on. The uh top band of the
7:38
of the dual knit band, the new one, uh doesn't sit in a very comfortable place on my head. Uh my hairline is actually a
7:46
little bit far back, but that's exactly where the top band sits. Like right where my hairline starts and, you know,
7:52
goes straight up, that's where it sits and like compresses it down. So, like it's like pushing down on my
7:59
Is it uncomfortable on your hair? A little bit. Yeah. Uh and then it like, you know, the all my hair behind it is
8:04
like billowing up in the back like a peacock. Like it's not very flattering. I had it on for a few hours and I and
8:11
when I took it off it was like a little flatten in front like um not terribly comfortable. So, you're saying they they did not test
8:17
this with Craig Federigi? No. Half force one. So, is it is it
8:23
comfortable? Is it more comfortable than than the other one? It is absolutely more comfortable than not having any top
8:29
strap at all. And it's also definitely easier to use than the um I don't know
8:34
what they they call I keep forgetting what they call the other one like the dual uh strap band or whatever. Yeah, that's
8:41
it. Yeah, cuz I mean there's all the original owners have already got a strap kind of like that, right? But it doesn't have the dual knit and the fancy
8:48
tightening mechanism. Well, like that the problem with Apple's like Velcro band. I'll just call it the the dual velcro band because that's
8:53
basically what it is. It's like it's like two Velcro straps. You have to loosen it before you put it on. And then as soon as you put on the Vision Pro,
8:59
you have to like fidget with it and tighten it again, but you've also got like, you know, the weight on the front of your face. So, it's not easy to do.
9:06
Like the the Velcro band isn't very easy, even though it does also have like that top strap. Like the the great thing about the
9:12
Silonit band is that you don't have to adjust it before you take it on and put take it off. You can just like stretch it out over your head and then
9:18
it's already in the perfect position. You don't have to adjust it. So there's like a lot of the, you know, some people
9:23
like 3D print like an adapter so they can put on two solo knit bands like, you
9:28
know, a second like full size solenoit band over the top. Oh, really? So people would would hack that.
9:34
Yeah. Yeah. Or, you know, as I mentioned previously, my my preferred solution is like a a product by Anna Pro called the
9:41
the A2 head strap. And what it does is it's like a solid white plastic thing with a little cushion and it sort of
9:49
slides onto the bridge of your Vision Pro. So it clips on like around like the big white speaker pod
9:55
and then it's like a really solid solid thing. It doesn't mess with the audio. No, no. It has a little cutout around
10:02
the speaker so that the so that the the speaker can still pass through it. Um and how comfortable is that one compared
10:08
to the the new one? It's more comfortable because what I like about the Anna Pro head strap is that it sits
10:14
like right in front of my hair, like right on my forehead, almost like right on like the bone of my forehead right
10:20
there. It it it holds it up very solidly. It doesn't wiggle really and doesn't ruin my hair and it doesn't give
10:26
me a headache after a while. So, I think I still prefer the full size
10:31
like solo knit band with the Anna Pro headstrap. I think that's superior in my
10:38
case at least to the dual knit strap. It's pretty funny, isn't it? I mean, Apple released all these M5 products.
10:43
They got the M5 iPad Pro, M5 MacBook Pro, uh M5 and the and and the new knit
10:49
strap. And the only thing that's sold out and you can't get for months is the midstrap.
10:55
I back order now till like the end of November or something like that. Like I I know you pointed out you could probably maybe walk into an Apple store
11:01
and maybe pick one up. They might have um stock on hand, but uh that that's the
11:06
only thing that's sold out for months. Yeah. I acknowledge this is a better one-sizefits-all band for most people
11:13
who don't have like Pixar dad hair. That's that's the thing to get like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, put your hair up in a ponytail
11:19
or just have short hair and you're probably good. You'll probably like it more. And and the tungsten in the back, that's
11:25
to counterbalance the giant thing hanging off the front of your face. Yeah. Yeah. So, it it does make the
11:31
overall package a little heavier, but the thing is like it it pulls on the back of your head as much as like the it weighs down on your face. And you do
11:37
notice like Yeah, it it I don't feel like it's pushing down on my face and my forehead as much
11:43
as before, which is nice. I do get like a a bit of like a red mark across my forehead, you know, after I was wearing
11:50
it for like six hours, but doing that.
11:56
This is Yeah, I don't know if you guys saw this, but uh there there was some some developer conference or something
12:01
in San Francisco and there was like I don't know 10 people wearing Vision Pros in a room all together. It was like the
12:07
dorkiest thing I've ever seen. I I just You guys didn't see it? Oh my god.
12:13
Well, it's been called the Vision Pro is now called the Dork Crown, isn't it? The Dork Crown. Okay.
12:21
Hey, I thought there was no kings.
12:26
So, uh, what else? What else did you notice? What about the So, what about the pass through video? The pass through video is marginally
12:34
better. A little bit better. Apple only promised it would be 10% better. Just Just judging by by how it looks, I I'd
12:41
say that's probably an accurate assessment. I haven't gone back to the M2 one after putting on the M after
12:46
wearing the M1 M5 one for like a, you know, a full working day. I'm going to spend another full day in the in the M5
12:52
Vision Pro and then like go back to it and see if I notice like a significant downgrade in quality. It wasn't too bad the pass through, was
12:58
it? I mean, you know, it wasn't great, but well, in my old house, which had very
13:04
poor natural lighting, like small windows and it was very heavily shaded. It looked like looking through like the
13:10
uh the viewfinder of like a VCR camcorder from the '9s. Like everything was a little gray and staticky, just
13:17
flickering a little bit. and it's a little fuzzy. Uh my new house is much brighter on the inside. So, you know,
13:22
it's actually making it a little harder to judge because it's already looking pretty good. But the pass through video
13:28
does look, I think, a little bit better. I haven't done like a reading test. I want to do that. Um I did notice that
13:33
like just rendering apps like Safari, Notes, Slack, it all looks a little bit
13:40
crisper. I was afraid that it was going to look really much better and that I
13:46
would be jealous when I after I, you know, returned the M5 version, but um I wouldn't say that
13:54
it's like better enough to give me like FOMO, fear of missing out. Um it is a
13:59
little better. So, you know, if you happen to be buying I think this will probably be the thesis of my review. If you happen to be buying a new Vision Pro
14:06
now, you'll get a better one, but M2 owners don't need to feel like they're missing out. Well, hell heck yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
14:12
I don't think I don't think anyone would, you know, I don't know, unless they got money to burn. But, you know,
14:18
this is what Apple does, isn't it? I mean, this is a good example of, you know, you put the you put the product out on the market and then it gets
14:23
better with each successive version and they've improved the strap. They've improved, you know, the
14:29
Yeah. But like even when Apple does like year-over-year improvements, you know, we've seen this with the uh with the M5
14:34
products that they the other M5 products, the iPad and the MacBook Pro, Apple put out a lot of like this product
14:41
is, you know, 15% faster over one year. This product, you know, the GPU is 30% better over one year. They didn't really
14:48
do a lot of direct comparisons with the old Vision Pro and the new Vision Pro. They barely even acknowledge that there
14:53
are different generations of the same thing at all. on the Apple store, it's all just, you know, vision pro singular.
14:59
They don't acknowledge that there are two different versions of it. You kind of have to like look into their technical support documentation or, you
15:06
know, about this vision pro to like see that the actual product name is Apple Vision Pro parenthesis M5. They don't
15:13
really say that anywhere really, which is um an interesting uh position to have
15:19
it in. But um yeah, I did notice that uh it is rendering a a few more pixels and
15:24
it's most obvious when you're like reading text in Safari or you know when you have like the little uh text input
15:31
thing that like hovers over your keyboard, you know, and it has like you know a little preview of what you're typing but it's really tiny. You can
15:37
read that a little better um because that's one of the the tiniest areas that you see in the interface. It's a bit
15:44
clearer. The other thing that I noticed, I don't think this is something Apple called out anywhere. I don't know if I
15:50
just got lucky this time or if this is an actual thing that's better. I've always struggled with the precise eye
15:56
calibration on my M2 Vision Pro. For some reason, every time, no matter how
16:01
many times I take the uh uh eye calibration test, like when you first put on the Vision Pro, you have to scan
16:07
your hands and then it shows you like a bunch of dots in a ring and you have to look at each dot in the circle and tap
16:12
your fingers so that it it can calibrate to your eye so it can do its eye tracking. Um, on my M2 Vision Pro, it
16:19
always calibrates it slightly off. It always thinks I'm looking a little bit
16:24
lower than where I'm actually looking. And so I've just sort of trained myself in the Vision Pro to tap a a button in
16:31
like a big list. I just need to slightly look at the one above it and tap my fingers.
16:36
Really? Yeah. Yeah. It's always been slightly off. Um but when I set up my new Vision
16:42
Pro, it got it exactly perfect. I don't know if it's something that they've
16:47
improved in Vision OS 26 or if it's, you know, maybe the maybe because you moved out of a dark dank cave and now you have some light
16:54
for in your life finally. I mean, from the vision pros perspective, if I got the light seal on it, it should it
17:00
should calibrate at the same. That's really odd. So, I didn't realize you had to come you had you always had to like, you know,
17:08
look at a different at a different button in order to hit the right button. Like a lot of a lot of Vision OS native
17:13
interfaces have uh all of their elements spaced out pretty generously. Uh, but
17:18
you know, if you're on a web page like, you know, in WordPress or a complicated web app or something like that, you
17:23
know, and you're browsing through like a big list of links that need like precise tap targets, then uh then yeah, I I have
17:31
to sort of compensate for it a little bit, but it's man, if you if you get the uh the eye calibration perfect, it feels
17:38
like it's reading your mind. It is so much better. Um, I don't know if I'll include that in my review because I
17:43
don't know if that's It sounds particular to you because I didn't have that experience at all, you know, like and and it's it's been
17:49
perfectly accurate for me. So, yeah, it when I go back to my M2 Vision Pro, I'll probably just like do the eye
17:55
calibration over and over again and just like wait until it gets exactly perfect. Uh, because it is really nice.
18:01
Could you not fake it? Could you not look her slightly higher when you're doing the test in order to
18:06
I I tried doing that when I was setting up the M5 Vision Pro the first time and then I realized I I I went in the wrong
18:11
direction and it was like way way off and I was like no I should just try doing it you know honestly and and then
18:17
it worked much better. Cool. Um the other new thing about the Vision
18:22
Pro is that they've tweaked you know what comes in the box. Not just the uh the straps, but they also give you the
18:27
new Apple 40 to 60 watt adaptive power thing. Um, this is really nice. It's
18:35
like half the size of the power adapter that they gave you with the old one. Like with the old Vision Pro, they gave
18:40
you like one of the MacBook ones. It's like big and square. This thing is really awesome. It has um you know the
18:48
little the little it has like tiny little divots in the side you know so you can like grab it and pull it out of
18:53
the wall. It has uh no cutouts in the little outlet things. It's just straight
19:01
Why is that? What are those What are those even for now that you mention it?
19:08
I don't know. But um this one doesn't have it and it you know it looks cleaner but it looks a little uncanny like a
19:13
little little interesting. um single USBC port on the bottom and you know
19:18
charges much faster I guess typically at 40 watts but then it can also power
19:24
boost up to 60 watts. I should do a charging test and see how much faster it charges. But uh it's it's pretty cool. I
19:30
really like it. Well worth $4,000. Oh yes. Oh yes. You know I when I return
19:37
it I think I'm going to keep my Vision Pro polishing cloth so that I can have two special Apple polishing cloths that say
19:43
Vision Pro on the bottom. I don't think they they mark that against a against a return. So, have you compared that polishing pl
19:49
because I I saw somebody um somebody did a a detailed YouTube comparison. You're
19:56
kidding me. No, between V1 and V2, the polishing cloth. I can do that right now. I'll scoot you
20:02
over and get it. I I was just joking, by the way.
20:09
Well, let's see. Here's the version one polishing cloth. It's a bit wrinkly since it's been in the bag for a while.
20:15
Oh my god, look at that one. A fresh one. You've really abused your polishing cloth. You're not going to be able to
20:21
trade that in. It just crumples up and gets thrown in the bottom of the bag where it gets crumpled up over time.
20:27
That's a $40 polishing cloth, isn't it? I I guess I need to iron it. We'll see.
20:33
It's exactly the same. Wow. I'm surprised. But uh if if our viewers aren't aware
20:40
and they're curious, it's special because if you look really closely, it
20:45
says Apple Vision Pro on the bottom. Oh, very cool. That's perfect for your Apple junk collection. You could
20:51
probably get that framed. What about does What are the other one? The other
20:56
one doesn't have Vision Pro on it. The typical Apple polishing cloth does not say Vision Pro on it. It's just it's
21:02
just blank. But for the Vision Pro, they they give you a special embroidered one. Cool. Is it How does it compare to the
21:07
colt cloth, though? I don't think um it really it's still an inferior product compared to the Colt cloth, right?
21:14
Yeah. I mean, with the Colt cloth, you're getting a very premium dual layer special nanoexture uh science cloth, so
21:21
it's it's it's better, right? And cheaper. Yeah. And the the cult cloth is double-sided, isn't it? You have
21:27
Yeah. And there cult there's the big It's also
21:32
bigger. Uh there's also the uh the the cult cloth duo which is uh fuzzy and
21:38
scratchy on one side and slightly differently fuzzy and scratchy on the other side. Well, I I don't think scratchy is the
21:44
word the right word there. It's it's it's it has it's it's better for
21:50
like, you know, large cleaning jobs, isn't it? You know, for the first pass to get all the kind of all the grit and
21:56
grime and crud off and then the other side is more like for polishing. Yeah. And it gets the the it it has like
22:02
little nubules in it that like reach into all the cracks and pull out dust. That's ex right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
22:08
Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, um I'm looking forward to your review. Uh you know, it's it's
22:14
such a shame that the Vision Pro isn't more popular. Uh because it is such a
22:20
magical experience inside. Uh it isn't. It is excellent at what it does. You know, it I think it's the most
22:25
exciting technology product you can buy. It is also the most expensive, but it is very exciting to have. Like every new
22:31
version of Vision OS is brings new like fun things to try out. It's It's great. Well, Samsung this week, of course,
22:37
released their XR headset, didn't they? That that the Vision Pro knockoff. And of course, it is comes in at what is it 1,800 bucks, so it's half the price. Uh,
22:45
and I saw a lot of um people crowing about that, you know, saying, "Look at this is Apple's market." But of course,
22:50
you know, Apple I I I haven't seen anyone do a direct a comparison, but I you know, isn't the Isn't the XR a
22:58
knockoff? I mean, Apple's paying for all the R&D, which Samsung doesn't have to pay for, right? Because they just copy
23:05
what Apple's done. Is that fair? Is that true? I mean, I haven't looked at the specs of that, but if I were to guess, it's probably
23:11
not as powerful. I mean, the the M5 is Apple's very latest computer level chip.
23:18
It's it's it's powerful and it's the fastest version of like their entry-level desktop computer chip. Um,
23:24
you know, they say it has the fastest CPU cores in the world and that's what you get if you buy the the M5 Vision
23:30
Pro. So you're you're getting like a full powered computer. And um I also haven't looked at uh much into Google's
23:37
like new XR version of Android, but it is ultimately based on Android. So it's not going to have all the nicities that
23:44
Vision OS has, and the app support isn't going to be that great. iPad apps are
23:49
better than Android apps. Android, you know, you have to start from a good starting point. iPad OS is a great starting point. Uh, as far as I know,
23:56
like Android is a really good phone operating system, but its tablet operating system is kind of crummy. So,
24:01
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's my impression of it. Um, I like to go check it out. I mean, I've got an old Meta headset, which um was
24:10
really crummy compared to uh the Vision OS experience. It It was kind
24:15
of like night and day. It was It uh it's it's far. It's nowhere near as polished or as as as intuitive or as easy to use.
24:22
Uh I didn't like it very much. I haven't actually strapped it back on for I've used one as well and I will say
24:27
like it's it's not as good but is it actually like 17th as good because it is
24:33
you know the Vision Pro is seven times more expensive and I don't know if the Vision Pro is seven times better you know if you want to play games I think
24:40
the MetaQuest is honestly the better purchase because there aren't a lot of games for the Vision Pro but um you know they're they're
24:47
different trade-offs. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Actually, on the topic of games, I will say that uh the
24:52
one area where the M2 Vision Pro does kind of feel a little slow and underpowered is when you're playing full
24:58
like VR games. Job Simulator is a pretty old VR game. I think it came out like 10 years ago and it but it, you know, only
25:04
recently got like its Vision Pro port to it and playing those games is like the only time when I actually hear like the
25:10
fans come on and feel it get a little warm. I haven't tried that yet on the M5 one, but uh I'll I'll report back.
25:16
That's what I have yet to test tomorrow. Yeah, you got to put it through its paces on some kind of like, you know, really uh compute intensive task to see
25:23
to see what the difference is. I mean, this is a developer device. I mean, to be honest, isn't it? It's not an end consumer device. No one's buying
25:30
this just to watch Netflix. Uh, you know, this is being sold to people who are developing um applications for the
25:36
next generation of AR headsets. So, we shouldn't be too harsh on it. Uh let's
25:42
talk about um the latest iOS beta which came out on Monday. This of course is a
25:49
developer beta and this now includes what I think is a highly contentious new
25:55
toggle so you can turn off liquid glass. Uh it um it makes it less transparent.
26:01
So it's pretty easy to do. You just go to the settings app and you open up display and brightness. Uh tap on liquid
26:07
glass and choose between the clear or tinted options. And of course, I just tried this on my phone, but then realized I'm not running the beta, so I
26:13
couldn't actually see this, but this is now uh Apple says on the screen, you
26:18
know, choose your preferred look for liquid glass. Clear is more transparent, revealing the content beneath. Tinted
26:24
increases opacity and adds more contrast. Now, this is separate from the reduced
26:29
transparency accessibility setting, which makes more dramatic changes to the appear to the appearance of of liquid
26:36
grass across the system. So, of course, you know, What happened to Apple's conviction in
26:43
their in liquid glass? I mean, they now you got a toggle to turn it off. This,
26:48
of course, I think is the most controversial aspect of it. When has Apple, you know, they've done this a couple of times, haven't they, with the
26:54
photos app, you can revert back to the old photos design, the Safari browser, uh,
27:00
right, whatever, search box or URL box. What is it called? I can't even remember. Omni
27:06
box. Toolbar. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, even going back to like Mac
27:12
OS 10 Aqua, like they had an option where if you didn't want it to be as colorful, you could change it from like the colorful version to graphite, which
27:18
would turn all the blue things gray and like the multicolored uh you know, traffic lights and every window control
27:24
gray. Really? That was a setting in in Mac OS 10.
27:29
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it didn't remove all the pin stripes and transparency things, but it did make it like, you know, 10%
27:35
less fun so that people who are using their, you know, Paramac G4s could feel like they were, you know, using a real
27:43
real computer and not one of those toy iMacs. But Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So, that's interesting. I I actually wasn't aware
27:49
of that. So, this has a long tradition then, I guess, of you know, uh, it's, you know, because people said, "Oh my god, Steve Jobs would never do
27:55
this. Steve Jobs, you know, he he he, you know, he he he he he told you how to use your computer. Um he wouldn't give,
28:01
you know, users that that that choice. But that's interesting if it goes back to all the way back to I mean that because that came out in when 200
28:08
2001. Wow. Criy. So long ago, I can't even remember.
28:13
Yeah. So I I guess Apple So Apple does have a history doing this then, huh? Interesting. But they don't do it too
28:19
often, do they? It's not very often they do this kind of stuff. Yeah. And the other thing is like we
28:25
Apple still hasn't like pushed the button to, you know, automatically update everybody's phones. iOS 26 is
28:32
still kind of opt in. So much like the uh developer betas over the summer,
28:38
this is, you know, the the the people who are being the most vocal about Liquid Glass so far are still pretty
28:44
much nerds like us who want it, you know, and the people who like, you know, are just curious about it, you know, who are who know that Liquid Glass is coming
28:50
and want to see how it looks. Yeah. Um, it we still haven't seen like the general public reaction. We still
28:57
haven't had like the iOS 7 moment where, you know, where everybody updates and like, "Oh my god, what happened?" The Liquid Glass update is less dramatic
29:04
than, you know, going from iOS 6 to iOS 7. I think a lot of people will update and like barely notice the difference,
29:10
honestly, because some people, for some reason, just aren't very, you know, don't have a very good attentive eye to these sorts of things. But, um,
29:16
well, god, my mom, 84y old mom, she she noticed everything. She was like, "Oh my god, look at the new camera icon. Look at this. Look at that. It's all bubbly.
29:22
She loves it. She was totally delighted about it. I thought she was going to complain bitterly because I I updated her iPad and her iPhone, but no, she's
29:28
like super into it. It's like it was really funny. She But she's kind of she is she's always been kind of like a sort
29:35
of fairly adventurous like that. I mean, she's completely technology obsessed. She spends all day every day on a bloody
29:40
iPhone and her iPad and but you know, my wife on the other hand hated it. She was like, "Oh my god, what happened here? This why they keep changing it. I just,
29:47
you know, I just finally got used to it. Now it's all different." uh she definitely was not interested in
29:52
it at all. So I got both both reactions. My mom has also updated and she really likes it. So I don't think she'll be
29:58
turning on that toggle either. But uh she's a big fan. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder what I wonder what the the the proportion actually we
30:03
should do a poll, shouldn't we? And well unfortunately the the cult newsletter audience isn't going to be a good um
30:09
sample because uh whose moms have installed liquid glass? Yeah. Maybe we should do it like that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well
30:17
anyway. So that's interesting though. I didn't realize that Apple had done this before in the past. So, that actually adds a whole new perspective on it. I
30:22
was I was I was ready to like go on a rant about, you know, oh my god, you know, what happened to Apple's conviction and its in in its design. I
30:29
mean, because they've been working on this for years, haven't they? And they actually made liquid. They made this
30:34
physically, didn't they, to to to slide around in the design studio to actually see how it looked. So, all the effort
30:40
they put into it, now you can just turn it off. Crazy. Uh, I like it. I uh I
30:46
think it's actually pretty good. I haven't had any any any problems really of I mean there are some passacy problems but there have always been a
30:51
passacy problems there've always been like you know with the the cutout you know that that oludes stuff content sometimes so there's always been
30:57
problems with with content sometimes you have to move it around you got to jug jiggle it a little bit it's not really that big a deal um although I did start
31:05
I I I downloaded this hideous I I don't like the wallpaper at all the official wallpaper no it's
31:13
horrible I but I I haven't had a chance to get rid of it yet Uh, I shall definitely be doing that. Yeah, liquid
31:20
glass. You know, I don't even notice it that much. There are times I see it, it's like, "Oh, that looks really cool."
31:26
There other times I just get this kind of like it it's certain things look sort
31:32
of like they're not really fully baked, you know? Like even just I was looking at the like the you know the
31:40
phone numbers, whatever they're called. The the what what is it called? The the numbers on like the dial. Yeah. The dial
31:46
pad. Yeah. And and and like the circles around that are like thinner at I don't
31:52
know 1 and 7:00 right there. And it just kind of looks I don't know just a little
31:59
unfinished or something. It It doesn't really look dramatic. It looks kind of just slightly not great. Then there are
32:06
other things where I I you know I see something. It's like, "Oh, that looks really cool." You know, that the way that that glass interface kind of grows.
32:14
I don't know. It's weird. It's not anywhere near as uh as kind of pervasive and revolutionary as I was expecting
32:21
when I downloaded it. A lot of thirdparty apps still have yet to adopt liquid glass. Like I was actually kind of surprised that Slack
32:28
rolled out a liquid glass update as early as it did. But I mean my number one and number two apps, Mona, which is
32:34
like my master client and Net Newswire. Net Newswire, it's still a work in progress, so it still has the iOS 18
32:40
design. Mona, I had to like uh sign up for their test flight to get the early access version of the liquid glass. And
32:47
even then, it's just, you know, converted the regular regular elements to be more bubbly and clear. It hasn't
32:54
done like the special like minimizing toolbar or any of the other fancy like iOS 26 style changes yet.
33:00
So, um you know, a lot of it is dependent on how how much third-party apps you use. If you use spend all your days in like
33:07
Tik Tok or Instagram or Facebook, you'll never really notice it. So, right. Well, I know it's in Slack. I
33:12
liked it in Slack. I thought actually really good. I thought it was a nice a nice change. Mhm. At uh
33:19
I think Slack would actually be a a good candidate for having like the little toolbar that minimizes down to one
33:24
button because almost the entire time I'm using Slack, I don't I never go to like the special DMs or notifications
33:31
tabs. I'm almost always just in the home tab. So, I wouldn't mind if that, you know, shrank down more of the
33:38
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, let's talk about uh the next story, which is um we've got some new rumors about the
33:45
foldable iPhone, and this is actually really interesting. Um it's detailing uh some the screen size and and well, and a
33:53
possible delay to the to the device. But Griffin's going to tell us all about this. Griffin. Yeah. Sad news. Japanese investment firm
34:01
Oh, I should have looked up how to pronounce this in advance. Um, a Japanese investment firm says Apple may
34:07
need more time to finalize the foldable iPhone's critical design elements, particularly the devices hinge
34:12
mechanism, according to a report by the Elect. While a 2026 launch remains
34:18
possible, production challenges could push the release back by, you know, until the into the next year as Apple
34:25
works to perfect the hardware specifications. We have new specs on the displays. The
34:31
foldable iPhone is expected to feature a 7.56 in internal display. You know, that
34:37
might not sound big, but you know, it'll be a square aspect ratio, so it'll actually be bigger than that sounds. Um,
34:44
on the inside and a 5.38 in external screen. These dimensions are slightly
34:49
smaller than earlier reports had suggested. Previous expectations pointed to a 7.8 in and 5.5 in displays.
34:57
Although this is um this is a little tricky because as soon as Apple moved to displays that have the corners rounded
35:04
off, how they actually, you know, calculate the display size is a little
35:09
bit nuanced. So it's because because Apple measures the
35:14
display to the imaginary like square corner that doesn't exist. Oh, I see.
35:21
I think it's possible that at, you know, these displays will be like 7.58 in from the actual corner to the actual corner,
35:28
but Apple might still call it 7.8. Who knows? Yeah. Well, here's the best part, though. The best part is
35:34
when folded, the device would essentially match the size of Apple's discontinued iPhone mini, which had a
35:39
5.4 in screen. The inner display would become the largest iPhone screen ever produced, about the size of an iPad
35:46
mini. This is why I'm so excited for the folding iPhone. I was never taken by the
35:54
iPhone 12 mini because I was too sad that it didn't have the telephoto lens and I never ended up
36:00
buying it. Um, I would have bought it if it had a telephoto lens instead of an ultra wide lens, but that's beside the
36:05
point. I had to deal with a phone that was too big and then Apple discontinued the mini size, so I had to get another phone that's too big.
36:11
I am so excited for the folding iPhone because I will have both the biggest iPhone and the smallest iPhone in one.
36:17
It is a dream come true. Yeah, totally. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm super psyched about it.
36:22
Yeah. That form factor is perfect. It's brilliant. This Japanese investment firm reported
36:29
that expected panel production has decreased from 13 million units down to 9 million units. Even if Apple launches
36:36
the foldable iPhone in 2026 as planned, first year production is projected at just 5 to 7 million units, well below
36:42
initial panel production estimates. Uh the conservative production forecast reflects Apple's cautious approach
36:48
approach to pricing with the device expected to cost over $2,000. For comparison, Samsung's Galaxy Zfold 7
36:55
launched at uh 2380. So this could be pricey.
37:00
Um Apple sometimes surprises us on price, but uh I think the rule is that if the Samsung one cost 2380, then you
37:07
can comfortably round up to $24.99 for the foldable iPhone. Uh which isn't
37:12
great. And I think Apple's, you know, put the economy going the way that it is. They're not forecasting that people
37:17
will be buying $2,000 phones. Two and a half thousand phones. Yeah, you get two iPad Pros for that.
37:24
The foldable iPhone will probably launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and Air models in fall 26 if the
37:30
timeline unfolds. However, Apple may delay uh delay it to go alongside the
37:35
standard iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e in spring 27. Uh, if that happens, I will
37:41
be sad because I am so ready for the foldable iPhone. Sheesh. Yeah, you would pay that much for one. That's
37:46
just outrageous. It'll only be the second least financially irresponsible decision I've
37:52
made here. So, right. Exactly. Oh, God. That's a lot of money, isn't it? That's
37:58
That's You could get two iPhones for that, couldn't you? I mean, that's what I might do. Just buy two regular iPhones and tape them together.
38:04
You get a solid used car or four iPhone 16.
38:10
Yeah. I don't know, man. I I I think about that and it's like I think how many times I use my my iPhone a day and
38:17
you you think about unfolding a thing that many times. I mean, that's going to get tiresome.
38:22
Well, it's an external screen, so you don't have to unfold it, you know, for the for the quick interactions. Oh, what's that notification? Oh, what's the
38:28
weather? You know, oh, what's coming up on the calendar? You can use the external screen. Yeah, you use your Apple Watch that
38:34
often for that. It's on It's always right there. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. This whole thing sounds crazy. I I I've seen people I
38:42
know a guy who has one of those folding Samsung ones and it's like uh you know,
38:48
sits there and he opens it and he closes it and something he opens it, he it's
38:53
like a lot of opening and closing. I guess you don't have to I guess he doesn't have to close it every time. You can just leave it sitting there open.
38:59
But uh Yeah. Yeah. You know, this is I I imagine using the the bigger screen for the times when, you know, you're sitting
39:05
down with your phone for like half an hour, you're playing a game, you're listening to a podcast, you're watching a video over lunch, you know, that that
39:11
sort of thing. Yeah. Most of the time it remains closed. I
39:16
I mean, the worst thing is like the the phone sized things that fold down even smaller, so you actually can't use your
39:23
phone without unfolding it. That's pointless. Like a flip phone, right? Yeah.
39:28
Mhm. Well, anyway, so talking about expensive products, this is not the only uh pricey one that Apple's going to be
39:34
coming up with. These are an even more expensive foldable iPad. I love this headline. Ed Ed, who wrote
39:40
this story, came up with this headline. Even Apple realizes a $3,000 foldable iPad is sheer lunacy.
39:49
No opinion in that. Uh let's see. Uh so we we've heard about this 18-inch foldable iPad, you know, rumors for a
39:56
while. It's currently in the prototype stage. Uh, this latest report comes from Bloomberg. He says, "When closed, the
40:03
device resembles a Mac laptop with an aluminum enclosure on both sides. When opened, it's about the size of a 13-inch
40:09
laptop. So, more portable than the smallest current current Apple laptop,
40:14
but usually be able to work on a touchcreen larger than a display in the biggest MacBook Pro. Uh, there's no
40:20
external screen, just the one that folds inward. That kind of threw me when I read it, I remember." But uh so basically you got a clam shell, metal
40:27
clam shell. You open it up, you got a giant iPad. However, Apple is reportedly struggling to turn its vision into a
40:33
reality. The estimated price tag for a folding iPad is a whopping $3,000,
40:38
roughly triple that of even the priciest iPad Pro. It's only $500 more than a folding iPhone.
40:43
Yeah. Jeez. Yeah, right. I mean, you start getting into the thousands, it gets a little complicated. Uh another
40:49
problem, developers working on the folding iPad supposedly face uh technical hurdles. Uh the the prototype
40:55
currently weighs about 3.5 lbs according to Bloomberg, which is pretty hefty.
41:00
Uh three times the weight of the current iPad Pro, and recent rumors point to the folding iPad reaching customers and
41:06
store shelves in 2028, but that might be optimistic. Bloomberg sources now point to a release in 2029 or even later given
41:14
the engineering challenges. Are we even going to be alive then? Don't start talking like that. It does
41:20
seem a long way away though. Yeah, criy. It does sound cool though, doesn't it? Although the thing sounds
41:26
like it's going to be a beast. Heavy. But well, I was actually curious about this. It's not actually
41:32
it it sounds like it's still in the ballpark of the weight of a regular like
41:38
11in iPad Air inside a Magic Keyboard. The Magic Keyboard also really freaking heavy. Those things are
41:45
really like crazy heavy, aren't they? It's about the same as a MacBook Air. It just seems worse because it's attached
41:51
to it. And I don't know, man. To me, they they feel heavy as can be. I Every time My wife has one of those. Every
41:57
time I pick it up, I'm like, "Good God, what?" I don't know. A MacBook seems like it's doesn't seem like it weighs
42:04
that much. It's It's weird how things like the weight could be the same, but
42:09
the way that it fits in your hand makes it seem different because it's thicker and denser. It just
42:15
feels like it like it's heavier. Yeah. An 18inch screen is I mean that's a lot
42:20
of glass as well, isn't it really? That that's two big slabs of glass. But 18inch screen is going to be is that's going to be a really sizable screen,
42:27
isn't it? That's going to be a big big screen. And like you said, it's going to be um more square, right? The aspect ratio. So
42:34
it'll be it'll be pretty large when it's folded out. I mean, it'll there'll be a lot of screen.
42:40
Maybe it'll be really cool. That does sound kind of cool. It sounds like desktop, you know, desktop display size, you know. Yeah.
42:47
Yeah. No keyboard. That's true. That That's also before a keyboard. So, I don't know. I don't know
42:54
what accessories it would that would come with it are. Yeah. It see I mean I don't know. So
43:00
many times I would hear these things. It's just so hard to imagine what the actual use case would be for it. You know, here's a giant screen that folds
43:05
in half and doesn't have a keyboard. Okay, great. I guess I can prop it up somehow and watch
43:13
a video. I don't know. It seems especially at
43:18
three grand. I mean, whoa. That is uh that is a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
43:24
It's $500 less than a Vision Pro. It's perfectly priced between those two products. At least the Vision Pro, you know, does
43:30
something different. It just sounds like this is just going to be a larger iPad that folds down. And does anybody really
43:37
need a a larger iPad? Does anybody need an iPad on your face?
43:44
Yeah. Well, I you know, I mean, I still think that the Vision Pro is one of the weirdest things
43:51
to contemplate using around another human being, but uh you know, just I don't know. iPad, uh
43:57
the regular iPad Pro, the big one, is is already pretty gigantic, you know, and uh I mean, the thing that I've used
44:04
those most for is um you know, reading sheet music. Great for that. But does it
44:10
need to be bigger? Not really. I mean, I don't know. I guess I guess bigger is
44:15
better for some things, but just seems like a a giant waste of money.
44:21
Well, we'll see. That's a good point, though, isn't it? I wonder whether this will turn out like the iPhone Air, you know, they're going all in on foldables,
44:27
you know, that that adding these new products, you know, and without like the Air doesn't have a clear use case, does
44:33
it? It's it's um it's it's it's form over function. It's there just purely
44:39
because it's thin and And you know report this week said that Apple's going to be cutting production 80%.
44:45
Uh there's almost no demand at all uh for for this. I wonder whether they'll
44:53
face a similar situation with these with these foldables. Well, people who have been uh actually watching television, you know, imagine
44:59
that have been saying that Apple hasn't been running any ads for the iPhone Air. All of the ads have been for the orange iPhone, you know, seven 17. Is that what
45:08
we're on? Yeah. 17. It gets hard to remember, doesn't it? Yeah, that's true. I see those ads all
45:13
over the place. You know, 17 Pro barely. I don't know if I've seen any billboards for the Air.
45:19
I honestly think the Air would sell twice as much if they gave the fun big bold colors to the Air and ran ads on
45:26
that and, you know, kept the pros being like, you know, Seven Shades of Gray. Yeah. I wonder why they didn't uh they
45:32
didn't make it some some interesting colors. I It's just It's It's kind of weird. I mean, it's almost like only one
45:38
color. But uh I don't know, man. I I still think that I mean, I didn't buy one. I
45:44
haven't ever used one, but man, picking that thing up in the store was like amazing. It's like this is I I I mean,
45:51
the to me there is an actual use case for that. A phone that is light as can be. I mean, it seems amazing when you
45:58
pick it up. And the thing is it's not like it's not like Apple's ads are always like, "Ooh, this
46:03
is the iPhone 17 Pro. It can take, you know, four to 8x optical quality telephoto. Like, they're not filled with
46:09
specs. It's basically just look at this phone. It's the new one. You know, right? You could you could easily run an ad for
46:16
the for the iPhone Air that would be just as compelling. Yeah. I I bet you if it was uh the same
46:23
price as the regular iPhone, they would have sold more of them. Although, I I really I'm sure that the biggest fear
46:29
factor was the battery life. Everybody was just terrified that they would have it and it would last half a day.
46:35
Uh and and the camera, you know, that's another thing. I mean, those those are the two big downsides, right? Uh
46:43
but everything I've heard is like, well, this camera is totally fine for, you know, people who aren't into, you know,
46:49
long telephoto shots. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a perfectly capable device. Uh uh I saw something on
46:57
Twitter. What's his name? Um, Snazzy Labs, the guy behind that, he dropped his, he said it slid 50 feet down the
47:03
hill or something down a some rock on its screen and uh it uh it got a bit
47:10
bumped up the titanium, but this there was only like two or three minute scratches on the screen itself. So, he
47:16
he was kind of amazed at its longevity, its durability, how strong it was. God, that would be a Can you imagine
47:23
just watching the thing slide down the hill? Oh my god. just about jump off a cliff rather than
47:29
face it. You probably like put, you know, you could try throw your body down there to
47:36
try to protect your phone. It's uh Yeah, it's a shame. It's a pity really. But, you know, I I had no real
47:42
desire. I can I get it though. I mean, I got no real desire to buy it. I'm quite happy with my iPhone Pro. It does, you
47:47
know, it's got the the cameras and the battery life. I think the the things that I you know, you really care about rather than um the size and the weight.
47:55
Yeah, I guess. Aren't we all in the same boat? None of us none of us have have prioritized that over the the uh It's
48:02
true. I mean, I'm I'm glad that I wasn't buying a new phone this year because I would have a hard time, you know, making the decision. I really loved the iPhone
48:09
Air when I had it. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I
48:14
Every time I go to the store and I I I always go and look at one, you know, it's not like I'm staring at a Vision
48:21
Pro. I go over and I look at the iPhone Air and I pick it up and I go, "Geez, what if I had gotten this? Would I be
48:28
would it be just fine?" I mean, it it's weird. I mean, it's actually a device that I kind of lust after and I haven't
48:34
uh, you know, I mean, the thing is it's a I've already got the Pro, right? So, like the idea of exchanging it somehow
48:41
just I mean, I've had so many problems just getting the iPhone set up this time and it it it every year I have the same
48:49
experience. It's like, oh my god, now I have to log into like every single freaking app on my phone and everything
48:55
you go to do is there's this friction and it's just so annoying.
49:01
So annoying. It it it actually is making me think like I I I actually was like maybe I'm gonna just get off of
49:07
this iPhone upgrade program because I don't like doing it every year because I mean it's I've already had it for a month and I'm still running into
49:15
things that I still have to like log in and then oh let's send you a password so I got to go check my email. It's like
49:21
how many lost minutes have been spent doing that? I mean every publishing tool every It's
49:28
just so annoying. I agree. First world problem. I know. But uh it
49:33
really it it's so painful that it almost makes me wonder, you know, should I just
49:39
skip the iPhone next year? H interesting. Yeah. Well, it's compounded with but this is because
49:45
you're working on a computer all day with the same problems, isn't it? That's exactly the same issues. I mean, you're dealing with that with work and now you got to do it on your personal device,
49:50
too. It's adding insult to injury, right? It's like, oh, I I upgraded. Now I'm going to get, you know, hammered for
49:57
a month with just annoying little tasks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's
50:02
interesting. Let you should we we should we should memorialize this if you're actually going to you're going to freeze. You're going to stop. That's it.
50:09
No more upgrades. We'll come back and check in in a few years and see how that went. I'm sure you know.
50:14
Meanwhile, you're hanging out your your nose pressed to the glass of the Apple store looking at the iPhone Air
50:20
wondering if you maybe should have got that instead. Yeah. You'll never you'll never ever be able
50:26
to like reconcile that. You're always going to be wondering setting us up for torture.
50:31
What if they kill the thing next year? You think they will? I mean, the rumors have always said that they're there's going to be an iPhone
50:38
air 2, but uh these the latest things like they basically said, "Oh, it came out in China and it it was, you know,
50:46
they bought a lot of them, but after that first first day or whatever, you know, just boom, all demand evaporated.
50:53
Everybody who wanted one got one. Now nobody cares." Don't Don't they basically run this story every year like Apple cuts its production figures? They
51:00
always cut their production figures just because they make more in advance and pair up for the holiday quarter. How much of this is actually unique to the
51:06
iPhone Air? I don't know. This this sounded pretty like pretty drastic.
51:11
Well, this sounded like not not the routine cut, but that an extraordinary cut. This is like it's a bust. And I
51:18
imagine when they plan it, I bet they plan for two at least two generations because the next generation would be an
51:24
would be just like, you know, a spec bump, right? Maybe, you know, a chip bump. And they start they start designing these
51:30
years in advance. So yeah, the they they've probably already plotted out like what the next four phones are going
51:36
to be. They're probably working on them that far in advance at least. So, it's I I figured as well that this is
51:42
going to be the kind of phone that that you you've got to you've got to see and touch and feel to experience, you know, to get it. You can watch as as many ads,
51:49
you can hit as many podcasts and read as many blog posts as you like about, you know, how it's wonderfully thin and
51:54
light, but the you've got to have that sensory experience in order to be
51:59
seduced, which obviously Lewis has. So, uh, you
52:04
know, maybe it will gain traction, but they haven't had a lot of luck with all their with the extra models anyway, have
52:11
they? Like, you know, the mini was a bust. Um, some of the the cheaper phones that
52:17
they tried to put out, right? Well, so I bet you there'll be a lot of people like over the holidays who
52:23
go and they'll for the first time they'll see one of these things and they'll talk to somebody who is has used
52:28
it for a couple of months and that, you know, they'll ask them, "Well, you know, is your battery life okay?" And they're
52:33
like, "Yeah, it's fine." Or the camera's okay. Yeah, it's fine. So, I bet I bet it does gain steam. I bet people like
52:39
they will be reassured that those are not really big problems with that device
52:45
and they'll say, "Wow, it really is nice and light. And the lack of advertising is a good
52:50
point. Like I see I see the the Pro phones advertised all the time. Maybe they maybe they got a campaign that they
52:55
haven't rolled out yet, you know, around the Christmas holiday period. It seems like it's a good it's a good gift phone,
53:00
isn't it? Mhm. I mean, it just it is truly exciting. I mean, I can imagine if I was like a a
53:08
kid, you know, a teenager, and I got one of those for Christmas, I'd be like, "Whoa, look at this thing. Look how cool
53:13
this is." I don't know. Maybe kids these days don't even care about phones, but surely they do. Oh my god. No, they're to they're all
53:19
in. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Just the opposite. They're all in on the phones. It's all about the phones. Although, actually, my kids are quite happy with
53:24
their older phones. They got old, the old handowns. And uh they're kind of happy with that. In fact, I tried to
53:30
upgrade my son. Um he's he's got an iPhone 10. Uh we gave him a hand down. I
53:36
can't remember what it is, 13 or something like that, and he's completely disinterested in it. H I mean, one of
53:42
one of the remarks that people made about it while I was testing it was, "Oh, I like how it doesn't have three
53:47
cameras on the back." Like the the giant camera mace on the back is ugly. A lot of people think they're ugly. This one
53:53
doesn't have it. It's just one camera. It's really nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It does look really nice.
53:59
Well, let's see how it folds out. Interesting. Let's talk about um we had
54:04
a great post this week about the 10 best mighty Mac mini workstation setups. So
54:11
Dave did a roundup of all the best setups that he work from home setups he's seen that are based around the Mac
54:16
Mini. And uh we're going to showcase one of them here. And for people who aren't able to see the picture, uh I'll paint
54:23
you a I'll paint you a picture of what we're seeing here. So we've got an iPad mini plugged into an external display. I
54:30
beg upon an iPad plugged into an external display. It doesn't say it's a uh and with a Mac Mini uh that's mounted
54:37
behind a 5K Samsung Viewfinity S9 screen. Uh it's a dark room with moody
54:44
colorful lighting. It's a white desk with a felt desk Mac and an Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse. The monitor's
54:50
on a monitor stand with a potted plant and a HomePod mini and two two big
54:56
speakers on stands clamped to each each side of the desk. And this is a very very handsome setup. Very very
55:01
beautiful. Really nice lighting. I love all the little felt pads and the felt um
55:06
desk pad he's got there. Uh and he's even got a a light bar that's going across the top of the monitor. This is a
55:13
very very nice setup. Wow. And and the Mini of course like is is a is a
55:18
scorching machine especially now. The new M5 uh I'm sorry, what am I talking about? The the M4 one is going on sale
55:24
now, isn't it? So you can get it for what is it? 100 bucks off typically. It's $4.99. Yeah.
55:29
Crazy. Crazy for a computer of that that that quality. Uh it is ironic in this that this setup
55:35
is included in the list of top Mac Mini setups. And the Mac Mini is nowhere to be seen. In fact, the iPad the iPad is
55:42
the one driving the display and you can tell because it has the gigantic dock and there's uh you know no menu bar at
55:48
the top. So um not much of a Mac Mini setup. Allegedly there's a Mac Mini there, but
55:55
um yeah, maybe it's out. Mhm. I mean, it's not like it takes up that much desk space. He could have it on the desk, you
56:01
know, behind the iPad and it would be easier to reach the Is that a switch there behind it
56:06
underneath the um the monitor riser so he can switch between the um the Mac Mini and the and the iPad for the for
56:12
the monitor? Uh possibly. I can't really tell. It looks like a I see like a big round
56:18
analog dial. I don't know if that's a Yeah, it looks more like an audio interface, maybe. Yeah. I mean, the one of the great
56:24
things about the the the new M5 or sorry, now I'm doing it, too. The M4 Mac Mini is that it has like, you know, two
56:30
ports on the front for, you know, easy easy plugging in if you have it. So, let's hide it.
56:37
Yeah, that's weird. What What is that thing on the right? Looks like a hockey puck.
56:42
The the the the big felt pad under his uh keyboard and mouse. To the right, he has like two
56:49
felt or hexagonal-shaped coasters. I mean, points for hexagons are one of the
56:54
best shapes, but on one of them, on one of them, he just has like this plastic plastic disc thing. I don't know what
57:01
that is or what it does. Yeah, I I can't It literally does look like a hockey
57:06
puck. My My guess is maybe it's like a dial that controls the volume of those big speakers, but I have no idea if that's
57:13
There's no wires coming off of it or anything, is it? Looks like um actually now I'm seeing there's a little
57:18
remote control under the under the uh appears to be a remote control. That's a MacBook riser, isn't it?
57:24
Something for holding a a MacBook. Yeah, it looks like it like one of those
57:30
I think Mstands or something like that that that holds your MacBook vertically. And he has a little remote control sitting in there. Maybe that controls
57:36
the volume of those big speakers. I'm not sure. But uh a lot of lot of strange unexplained objects on this desk,
57:43
including a little lumpy thing between his monitor and the potted plant on the right. I don't know what that's supposed
57:49
to be. The the the image is a little too dark to make it out. Looks like a meteorite or something like
57:55
that. I'll tell you what though, man. I look at this and I just go, "What is wrong with my life? How can I My desk looks
58:01
like, you know, somebody robbed me overnight. They just went in and I looked the other
58:08
day. There's like a speaker on the floor. The cat's playing with it. It's making weird noises.
58:14
It's kind of pathetic. Yeah, mine too. Cover all kinds of crap.
58:20
I got boxes over here. Uh yeah, nice setup. Anyway, it's a good post, isn't
58:25
it? I thought there was some really nice setups in there. They uh these are setups that people have been sharing. Um
58:30
some of them actually uh included visible Mac minis. Yes. Believe it or not, like the one we showcased. Well, you
58:38
know what? To be fair, the headline on that story was, "Good luck finding the Mac Mini in this workstation."
58:45
Ah, okay. So, there you go. Let's let's move on to a question from
58:50
from uh from a from a listener called um WR Dink Word Inc. Um Griffin, why don't
58:57
you take Why don't you say what he's read out the question? Sure. He says, "I have a question about your blogging workflow. I assume you
59:04
start writing in a word processor and copy paste into the website later. How many articles do you write in a day, in
59:10
a week? Do you source all the photos, links, videos yourself? Um, so I was
59:15
making fun of this a little bit in the Discord that he is asking this question. How many articles do we write? And he is asking that to the three people at Cult
59:21
ofMac who write the least. Right. But uh, right. Well, it used to be in the old days, you
59:28
know, uh, one at least one when I was a reporter, I try to do one at least one
59:34
reported story a day and often two or three blog posts and that would be that
59:41
would be like a sometimes sometimes it' be a bit more um, if there was a lot going on three or four blog posts, but I
59:48
guess the Ed and Dave who do most of the news posts, it depends of course what
59:53
what you're trying to do too. If it's news post, then you can usually crank those out pretty quickly. Um because you're reacting to some some new
59:59
information that's broken. If you if it involves some some work, some reporting work, a lot of research and oh my god,
1:00:05
then it can be a real rabbit hole. You can spend like me, I've been working for weeks on a couple of posts that um that
1:00:10
still haven't seen the light of day. Uh four weeks, huh? Four week I a couple of weeks ago.
1:00:18
I tried to do I tried to do four in one week. I didn't have time to do one. You meant four weeks.
1:00:24
It should have been one in four weeks, not four and one week. Yeah. Well, of course, and and we're all
1:00:31
working differently. Griffin, one of the blogging the in the top 10 list of
1:00:36
blogging rules, one is never work in the CMS, the the content management system.
1:00:42
So, which of course we use WordPress to publish the website. So, you never ever work in WordPress. So, every single blog
1:00:48
post I do, I immediately open up a WordPress window and I start working in WordPress, which is the number one rule
1:00:54
that you should never ever do because if anything goes wrong, you lose all your work. I'll say that that that feels like one of those rules that was learned like
1:01:00
15 years ago and people just keep repeating because it's a bit of a meme. Modern WordPress, it saves your stuff in
1:01:06
a cookie in the browser. It's it it crashes all the time and it saves your work in progress. I don't know if that's
1:01:12
like a a hard and fast rule anymore. It's not like, you know, typing in a form on a any old form on any old crummy
1:01:18
website and like anytime you reload the page, it's all just poof, gone. Uh W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W WordPress has gotten better about that.
1:01:24
Um Well, that's my justification for sometimes writing in the CMS, but
1:01:30
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, well, you write in Mars, don't you, Griffin? Yeah. If I'm on the Mac, I use MarsEdit,
1:01:36
which is a desktop app that's basically written for the express purpose of writing publishing to WordPress. So the
1:01:42
great thing is that it's like completely compatible. You don't have to do any uh you know you can you can still write and
1:01:48
do like rich formatting. You don't have to write it in raw HTML. It understands WordPress very well. Um you can even
1:01:54
like upload pictures to WordPress through Marsdit and it'll tie in with your media library, but I'm a little
1:02:00
scared to do that since we do, you know, being being a website the size and age of ours. We of course have like a lot of
1:02:06
custom stuff going on. So I don't I I I don't bother trying to do that. But um yeah, Marzette is is really excellent
1:02:12
when I'm on my Mac. Um if I'm but of course it's only on the Mac. It's not on
1:02:18
iOS or you know certainly not Vision OS. So if I'm writing a product review, I
1:02:23
always like to write the product review on the product itself. I even wrote most of my iPhone Air review like typing out
1:02:28
on the iPhone Air keyboard. What What kind of a weird What kind of wacko workflow?
1:02:35
This explains a lot. Right. Well, uh, and so when I'm doing that, I I just
1:02:42
write it in the notes app. Um, and now in iOS 26, you can export, uh, a a note
1:02:48
app to markdown, and it'll keep all of its formatting in Markdown. And then from there, it's pretty easy to convert Markdown to HTML, which I upload into
1:02:55
WordPress. So, it's it's a little bit convoluted. Luckily, that's not my usual having like a Charlie Sorrel flashback.
1:03:02
Yeah. Right. Well, the the last thing you want to do is write in a word processor because it it it transfers a
1:03:07
lot of the the formatting. It's well, it's easy to transfer over a lot of formatting, a lot of like bad HTML and
1:03:12
weird wacky code. Like I I write if I'm writing, I usually use BBEdit, which is a text editor usually use for
1:03:19
programming. But um that's a great one. I really like BBedit. That's a great that's that's one of my favorite text editing applications
1:03:26
like you know, very storied classic Mac app. BB. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it goes back a long long way. Great. Great app.
1:03:32
Great. Great app. Yeah, I don't like working in Word. Word is like big, fat, bloated, horrible mess. Some use Well,
1:03:39
pages. I don't like pages. Nobody uses pages. I I use pages, but not not for writing blog posts because again, I mean, you
1:03:45
can you can copy and paste things without formatting, but then if you wrote any bold text in your post or
1:03:50
added any links, then those won't be copied over. So, that's that's complicated. But, yeah, I like pages. Pages is a good
1:03:56
good good for many things, but not not for blog posts. That's what I use for first draft. Oh, really?
1:04:01
Yeah. And then I just copy it in the uh the code, you know, the code editor or
1:04:07
whatever. Yeah. And uh and then I usually finish it off by adding all the links and stuff like that.
1:04:13
But what do you what was this question also asking about do we source all the pictures? I mean a lot of times we have to create images.
1:04:19
Yeah. a lot of time the one the one thing that you know we we've been burned
1:04:24
a lot of times with copyrighted images and we used to be very very fast and loose posting up pictures of Steve Jobs you know from Getty and all that kind of
1:04:31
stuff and then then I get a really nasty demand for payment um and damages so uh
1:04:37
we have you know we've got to be very very careful that any of the images we use we have permission to use. So copyright is a big thing. We often go to
1:04:44
um copyright free um resources like pixels.
1:04:49
Oh yeah, I use pixels all the time. Unsplash. Mhm. Uh so uh and like Louis said started
1:04:56
using AI tools now to make images too. Trying not to do that too much. Uh
1:05:02
it doesn't look like you're trying very hard. Well, it depends, you know, like uh and
1:05:08
then of course we make our we take our own images, aren't we? of for reviews, stuff where we have the products on hand. We we we we take our own images.
1:05:15
So, we we try to take a lot of our own images. And of course, it's easier than ever like with the with the iPhone cameras now. They're so good. Um, of
1:05:21
course, it's not easy to get a good image, but at least you get a at least you get an original one, but but we're
1:05:27
not going to get super copyrightful. I'll say for for my workflow, part part of the thing that I use all the time is
1:05:32
I I download all of the Apple keynotes and presentations onto, you know, my big
1:05:38
giant external hard drive. Um, there's actually a way you can do this. If you go to the like podcast app, you can
1:05:44
search Apple events video and that that's basically an RSS feed in the podcast app like of like high quality
1:05:50
video versions of all of Apple's presentations. I download those for archiving and I'll pull images from
1:05:56
those all the time because um any of Apple's images, you know, they're made for the express purpose of marketing.
1:06:01
You just have to retribute a, you know, image from Apple. But um, I use those, you know, Apple's Apple's newsroom
1:06:08
posts. If you scroll to the bottom of any of those, there's like a link where you can download all of the images and videos out of those. Especially in my
1:06:14
video production, like if I'm making a video for YouTube and you know, Apple's talking about the the photos app as an
1:06:21
example. Well, I don't always want to show my own photos library. I don't always if it's a you know, just a really
1:06:27
quick off-handed mentioned thing. I don't want to spend half an hour like sanitizing my photo library to get a
1:06:32
quick screenshot. I'll just use an Apple one from a keynote. like take a little snippet, put it as an image in the in a
1:06:38
blog post or something like that, right? And of course, and a lot of the companies we write about as well, they do the same thing. They they they
1:06:43
provide a lot of um handout art, which which is free to use. So with with proper attribution. So we do do use a lot of um uh uh the handout
1:06:52
stuff that companies provide. So I think we we've broadly talked around all of those all the questions that he's asked. Oh, Louis, I guess. How
1:06:59
many articles do you write in a day? Oh god, one at most. Mhm.
1:07:04
I can't remember the last time I wrote two articles in one day. I mostly end up tinkering around in the background. And
1:07:12
you you've been writing more in like the last few months than usual. Like, you know, I mean, your job is primarily
1:07:17
editing all the articles that the rest of us write. But, you know, sometimes in the afternoon since you're on the you're
1:07:22
on the West Coast a few hours after us, you know, it'll be like a, you know, 5:00 pm Lewis post. I like those. Yeah,
1:07:28
I've been trying to do that a lot more, but it's uh you know, usually all the interesting stuff has already been
1:07:33
covered by the time, you know, like in the morning, I'm usually doing more editing and stuff like that. In the
1:07:39
afternoon is when I have perhaps time to do something else like that. But, and of course, being the how-to writer,
1:07:45
video producer, podcaster, I'm all over the map. Sometimes I write a thing every day and I feel really great. Sometimes
1:07:51
I'll spend all day researching a how-to and I won't even get it halfway done and I feel like absolute garbage. And then,
1:07:57
you know, of course, the podcast dominates my Thursdays. Usually, video editing dominates my Fridays. So, you
1:08:04
know, leaves me like three days a week to actually write. And one funny thing is when I was writing is like I used to
1:08:09
hate it. Every single word was torture. And I would really really torture myself over getting, you know, I do a lot of
1:08:17
self-editing, so I'd often try to turn in, you know, copy that wasn't just
1:08:22
cranked out, you know, although Lewis is raising his eyebrows there because he's edited a lot of my stuff.
1:08:30
it uh but then the next day you know when you publish something especially if it takes off if something goes viral you know which which hasn't happened for a
1:08:36
while but uh like get wired it used to happen quite a lot and you get these enormous you get a huge dopamine hit
1:08:43
from seeing the the statistics from seeing the number of readers on something feedback and then also seeing other people pick
1:08:49
up your story as well so um occasionally that that goes you know I've had stories that that have gone
1:08:56
that have gone done really really well let's a huge kick to that. It's it's it's great to be, you know, part of the
1:09:01
p public conversation and and of course when you're working on wired had a lot more clout than than cult of Mac does um
1:09:08
and was uh you know would be monitored by a lot of the national publications um
1:09:14
for for stories that they could pick up on. So that would happen more frequently that happens with cult of Mac. There's
1:09:19
definitely something really really um uh rewarding about producing because you
1:09:25
know like it seemed like torch at the time and you think oh my goodness what this is one of the worst things ever published in the English language um and
1:09:33
but then it would take off and you know you get a lot of readers get a lot of feedback some of it would be hate you know I used to print out all the emails
1:09:39
I got all the hate mail I got had a big wall of it about the only way to stay sane but uh yeah it's a rewarding it it
1:09:46
can be a really rewarding profession, you know, funny enough, even though it's like under there's a lot of changes and
1:09:52
it's it's it's difficult more difficult probably to do to be a publisher on the web than it ever has been. Oh, yeah. Feedback is absolutely the
1:09:59
most valuable part. I mean, more valuable than pay because we're bloggers and we don't get paid that much, but feedback is like the the the second best
1:10:05
fuel. Yeah. It's excellent. Yeah. Right. Definitely, definitely. Definitely, definitely. Yeah. It's uh there's definitely a wonderful wonderful
1:10:12
feeling when when you do when and then sometimes I go back and look at the stories and go, "Oh, that that actually
1:10:17
quite good. That was actually quite well written, which I definitely didn't feel at the time. Definitely not. Definitely not. Yeah. Well, thanks for that
1:10:23
question. Good question. Uh, if anyone else wants to uh ask about the wonderful world of blogging, uh, we'd be happy to
1:10:30
to answer. And any other questions, too. So, I think let's wrap it up there. I think that's enough we have.
1:10:36
Oh, we once again, for the third week in a row, don't have time for Leander's Apple Watch Series 11 review.
1:10:41
Well, I don't know. Should we talk about it real quick? Oh, we'll just have to wait for next week. Yeah. All right, let's wait for the next
1:10:47
week. We got more time. But I the Apple Watch, I think, is a great watch and and there was there's one feature one
1:10:52
feature that really is a game changer um that I did did want to talk about, but we'll talk about it next week. Yeah. So,
1:10:58
let's wrap it up there. That's enough of this rubbish. Let's let's let's uh let's
1:11:05
let's wrap it up. So, uh thank you for listening to the coldcast. Um if you want to uh continue the fun, Louis is on
1:11:12
Twitter at Lewis Wallace. Griffin's on Mastadon. um at D Griffin Jones and I
1:11:17
wrote the Cultike Today newsletter which you can get at newsletters.cult.com.
1:11:22
So send us a text link please uh ask a question go in the YouTube comments um and ask us questions to the show. So
1:11:28
that's been the cold cast the best hourong conversation you're going to hear all week long new episodes of the cult come out every Thursday night and I
1:11:35
want to thank you guys for listening for watching. We'll see you all next time. Have a great weekend everybody. Goodbye.
1:11:40
All right. Good afternoon. Good night.
1:11:47
Good morning. All right. [Music]