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This week: This quarter. It could be Tim Cook’s last! We could have CEO John Ternus by January. Also: iOS 26.2 lets you replace Siri (in Japan), the Mac Pro canceled again, iPhone Pocket sells out instantly, thieves are giving Android phones back to their victims, and the most expensive Mac setup money can buy!
Griffin’s M5 Vision Pro on eBay: @474355980
Automate your iPhone by voice alone via Vocal Shortcuts: @vocal-shortcuts
Top 10 high-end Apple setups you wish you could afford: @desk-setups-you-wish-you-could-afford
Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:26 NordLayer
2:28 Tim Cook stepping down?
22:22 Replacing Siri
27:47 Mac Pro is dead (again)
36:05 iPhone Pocket sold out
40:05 iPhone theft in London
46:16 Listener Question
48:24 Setup of the Week
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0:02
Hello everybody and welcome to the Cultcast, the best Apple conversation here all week long. I'm your host Nat
0:09
KY. Joining me today we have Griffin Jones from Ohio. Hello Griffin.
0:14
Good evening. You know when Airun was the host of the show, I would intentionally try and derail him as much
0:20
as possible. But you derail yourself like it's not even any fun. I don't even try anymore.
0:25
Exactly. Comes with his own railroad spikes. And we also have Louis Wallace. Hello, Louis. Hey, how's it going?
0:31
Good, good, good, good. You look very angelic there, Lewis. In a demonic kind of way, like a fallen
0:36
angel. Oh, we're going to start out with Nephilim talk. Come on now. All right, so we have a great show this
0:42
week. Some very exciting news. Uh, we are going to be talking about what could be Tim Cook's last quarter. We could
0:50
have a new CEO of Apple by January. Also, we're going to talk about iOS
0:56
26.2, 2, which lets you replace Siri uh in Japan. The Mac Pro has been cancelled
1:02
again. The Mac Pro is not looking good. Uh the iPhone Pocket sells out instantly. We're going to talk about that for like one second.
1:08
Uh oh, we're going to talk about London iPhone thieves. That's pretty funny. There's some pretty funny news out of
1:13
London about the epidemic of iPhone of of phone thefts, smartphone thefts there.
1:19
And also the most expensive Mac setups that money can buy. That's um thanks
1:27
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Nordlayer/cultast. That's nordlayer.com/cultcast with coupon code coltcast 28. So, thank
2:52
you very much Nordlayer for sponsoring this week's Coldcast. Let's jump right into the news because I uh Well, is it
2:58
news? It was kind of speculative, a little squishy. Yeah, I I'm not really sure what to
3:05
think of this. I don't know if I believe it, but let's let's Why don't you give it lay it out what's going on?
3:11
Yeah. So, uh, this is Apple's board of directors reportedly, uh, ramping up its search to for a new CEO to replace Tim
3:19
Cook possibly as early as January 2026. That part is the most, uh, spurious part
3:24
of this report. I'd say this comes from the Financial Times and uh, you know, in a way it makes sense. Cook's he is 65.
3:32
There's been numerous reports and he's discussed it himself like a couple of years ago. Hey, you know, we've got extensive plans for for succession at
3:39
this company. Anyway, but the story from the Financial Times that made big big news this week, the Apple board recently
3:45
quote, "Intensified preparations for Cook to hand over the reigns." So, okay. And then what they said is
3:52
like, "Oh, okay. It could come after the post holiday earnings report, which that
3:59
comes probably like what, end of January or something like that. Mid January. That would be a good time to go out on on a what's expected to be their biggest
4:06
quarter ever of their biggest year ever. It's going to be a blockbuster. It's
4:11
going to be a enormous. It's hu I mean because look at the sales in China alone. Apparently sales in China are 35%
4:17
or something crazy like that. If you watch those Apple every freaking time it's unbelievable. Like how did
4:23
they do it again? How did they make even more money? How did they do it? I mean at some point you got to think the guy's a financial wizard, you know? Like how
4:29
do they pull all these levers so everything gets better and better every every year. Uh anyway, this story from
4:36
the Financial Times cited quote several people familiar with discussions inside the tech group. So who who would that
4:42
be? You know, is that the board? Is that like a bunch of Apple board members leaking this information?
4:47
A very reasonable bit of speculation that that I've heard from uh the famous Apple blogger who shall not be named is
4:54
that this was an intentional leak. like replacing the CEO of, you know, one of the top three biggest companies in the
5:00
world, you know, a little earlier than expected would sort of be market rattling news. And, you know, nobody's
5:06
going to leak this information. The only people who would possibly know about this are like, you know, four or five people on Apple's seed suite and the
5:12
board itself. So, it does make sense that because this this would be a bit of
5:18
a surprise, uh, they would intentionally leak it a little early. And the Financial Times would be the perfect
5:24
outlet to do that. You know, the Financial Times is not that that that is very much on the uh business end of of
5:30
the of the spectrum of Apple coverage. You know, it's not it's not Mac rumors. It's not Bloomberg. You know,
5:36
it's the Financial Times. It makes sense. I mean, it had four four by lines on this story. Four by lines. That means
5:41
four rep four reporters were involved in this, which I don't know. Um, you know, it's um and and of course the board used
5:49
to be famously leaky like when Steve Jobs came back to Apple. I mean, all the news about what Apple was up to was
5:55
coming from the board. The board was so leaky. It was it was crazy. The board was like, you know, floating all kinds
6:01
of crazy rumors and takeover rumors about Larry Ellison or Sun buying it and all this sort of stuff. So, you know, I
6:08
think of all the people inside Apple, the ones who are the leakiest are the board members, funny enough. Uh, you
6:14
know, the ones who are most likely to talk to the press. So, I don't know. Do you think this is what it is? It's like getting everyone prepared for the fact
6:20
that Tim Cook's about to step down. It's so speculative though that it it I don't think it achieves that end. Like, you
6:25
know, if they wanted to like plant the idea in people's minds that Cook is going to be gone by January, this I
6:32
don't think would be the way to do it because it was so it's so speculative. No one really believes him. It's like, oh, okay, this is just a rumor.
6:37
Well, I think I think other parts of the article just said like, you know, early 2026. And so that's what like the
6:44
January is is a bit of speculation there like well you know if it's going to be early 2026 you know anywhere in the
6:49
first half of the year you know January is the earliest it could possibly be and that would be going out on the high note
6:55
of ending their their holiday quarter. But um I think it's possible we see a
7:00
new CEO before WWDC. I think maybe that's kind of likely. I mean the the the story itself actually
7:06
and and by the way I'm looking at uh because it's a payw wall, right? I'm looking at on an archive site, right?
7:11
And there's like 12 different versions of the story. It's been updated so many times. I I didn't AB each one, but
7:17
usually there's only like one or two versions of a story. Uh but I mean the story itself says as soon as next year,
7:24
right? And the and everybody focused on this January 2026 because it what the story actually says is it's unlikely to
7:31
happen before then. So that's like the absolute earliest it doesn't the story
7:37
doesn't say January 2026. Anyway, I see. Yeah. And so I I I mean honestly I think it's just
7:44
like a trial balloon kind of soften people up, you know? So like, oh, when it when it does happen a year after
7:51
that, it's like, oh well, we've we've already factored this into the equation, right? They've already we've it's
7:56
already been planted. I mean, and again, Apple Cook himself has mentioned this before, right? It's not like the first
8:02
time this has ever come up. And I mean, it's it's a fact of life. You start getting a little older, you're going to retire at some point. Mhm.
8:08
I think it was like an interview that he gave like a few years ago where somebody asked, you know, where he'll be in 10 years. And Tim Cook said, "Oh, well, you
8:14
know, I won't be CEO of Apple anymore." And everybody was like, "What?" Yeah, I guess that doesn't make sense. He is getting kind of old. Like, you know,
8:19
he's not going to still be there in, you know, 2035. And then ever since then, there's just been the occasional
8:24
articles of like, "Well, who's next then?" Yeah. Yeah. He he spoke with uh well-known financial journalist Dual
8:30
Lia, right? Dual Lipa the last time. Uh and
8:36
and you know the report once again mentions John Turnis as possible successor. That's the senior vice
8:42
president of hardware engineering. Some people are excited. Hey, let's get a uh product guy in in the charge there. You
8:48
know, like people keep saying, oh well Tim Cook isn't exactly, you know, Mr. Innovation, but which Leander was
8:53
pointing out in the thing in his newsletter yesterday. It's like, oh yeah, no innovation whatsoever. you know, like all these products that have
9:00
come out under Tim Cook, you know, Apple Watch, AirPods. I mean, AirPods in particular, man, I mean, that's that's a
9:06
that's a great product. I don't know if I don't know if uh you know, Steve Jobs ever had any idea they were going to go
9:11
with AirPods, but uh there's been a lot of products that he's he's come out with and and his
9:18
I mean, I believe it's true that it was Cook's idea to focus on services and
9:23
turn that into, you know, a gigantic business on its own. And that's I mean that's a gigantic part of Apple's
9:30
gigantic earnings. I mean it's it's now the number two behind the iPhone and it's almost surpassing it in
9:36
terms of their percentage of revenue aside from like the actual iPhone quarter. But
9:41
yeah, it's insane. I mean, again, every time I listen to one of those things, I I mean, I'm not a business guy, but I'm
9:47
just amazed. Like, how can they keep amping it up? I I guess it's just I mean to some extent it's just there's so many
9:54
Apple devices out there it just keeps kind of snowballing right I mean I think the reason people are excited
10:00
for John Turis over Tim Cook is like yeah a lot of successes happened under Tim Cook but they happened you know
10:05
under him people below him were making the decisions of you know let's make these AirPods you know let's I I think
10:11
Tim Cook like maybe started the initiative of the Apple Watch but you know that was largely Jeff Williams's
10:16
and you know Kevin Lynch's baby to to create that product and I think people are excited that you know the number one
10:22
chair like the buck will stop at John Turnis and I I don't know what his job actually entails but he certainly
10:28
presents as being one of us like he's a passionate Mac user he deeply understands the Mac enthusiasts are more
10:34
excited for him to be calling all the shots there you know I think uh people were worried when Tim Cook took over you
10:40
know like oh he's a he's an operations guy you know he's just like a boring businessman he's not going to have the same kind of um innovative spirit that
10:48
Steve Jobs had I think Steve Jobs got too much credit. Well, hold on. It's kind of complicated,
10:53
but you know, in in the sense that Jobs success was largely due to Jobs and of course that in some respect is true. He
10:59
definitely rescued Apple and Apple would not be in the state that it is in without Steve Jobs being there. But he also isn't the guy that's doing all the
11:05
work that the the the ground level work. You know, he he gets all the credit for all the amazing things that they were able to do. And of course, his
11:10
leadership of that company was was exemplary. It was one of the mo the most unlikely and incredible corporate
11:15
turnaround I think probably in business history ever. Um but then look at Tim I'm going to miss Tim Cook because his
11:22
stewardship of the last what is it 15 years has been astonishing. He took a 350 billion company into what is it
11:28
worth now? How many trillion? Four trillion. I haven't checked today but it was four trillion earlier this week at least.
11:35
Unlike unlike John Skelly Tim Tim Cook is smart enough to recognize I'm not a product guy. I'll make the product guys
11:40
below me make those decisions. I'm here to lead lead the ship in other ways, you know. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So, I I'm kind of
11:46
worried about Tim Cook stepping down now because he's he's such a really exemplary C CEO and and and and it's and
11:53
you know, like the Mac lineup is the this is the this is the best lineup of Macs ever in the what is it 40 50 years
12:00
that the Mac has been on the market. You know, like they've never ever had a better lineup. And I think Steve Jos would be proud as heck, wouldn't he, of
12:07
what they have achieved. The ecosystem is astonishing. The iPhones are the best they've ever made. They're like way
12:12
ahead of um you know uh all the competitors in the smartphone market. Apple just continues to like kill it on
12:17
every front. Not one not a you know not a dot amongst them. I think I'm a little
12:23
and I I'm a little skeptical about John Turners. You know I think people are making the same mistake they made when
12:29
um they were fake when when Jobs died. you know that that that that the front runner actually was Johnny IV and it was
12:36
because oh you know he's the guy that designed most of these products. He's in a lot of the product videos and I think a lot of people were speculating that he
12:42
was going to be CEO because he had a high profile. Nobody else at Apple had a high profile under Steve Jobs. It was
12:47
all Steve Jobs, wasn't it? He he gave all the keynotes. The only person he ever really brought out was was Johnny
12:52
IV. There was a couple of guests at cameos, you know, from Phil Schiller and some of the other executives, but basic basically it was Johnny IV. And I think
12:58
people are making the same mistake here with well making the same assumption here with with with John Turner. So because he has a high profile in Apple's
13:04
product videos, he's going to be the successor. But I'm not so sure like you know I did a story about this and you
13:11
know Tim Cook's real right-hand person is um Dedra O'Brien and also uh the guy
13:18
that just took over um uh the CEO the COO role um uh Savvi Khan.
13:26
those are his like chief lieutenants. Whether they're good CEO candidates, I'm not sure, but those are his, you know,
13:32
Tim Ko's personal sort of lieutenants, the ones who's who who who he he's brought up, his most trusted um you
13:40
know, uh executives at the company. I don't know if they've been considered as CEO candidates. I don't know whether they would make good CEO candidates, but
13:46
they're the ones that Tim Cook has been has relied on, you know, to help execute um his leadership of the company those
13:52
last 15 years or so. So, I think they should also be in consideration. uh and and no one mentions them. They just
13:57
because they don't have a they don't have a high profile. They have no public profile. DJ O'Brien I think has you know given like what maybe less than half a
14:04
dozen interviews and has said nothing really. But if you look at all the press pictures, you know, like every time they go to Tokyo, there's Dri O'Brien.
14:10
There's Greg Jaziaak, you know, there's there's uh uh some other people that never mentioned. I don't know. You know,
14:16
I'm not sure. I'm a little skeptical that Turnis is going to be named. It would certainly be a change like they
14:22
they they could keep the Tim Cook succession pipeline in place where you know the the natural path of things is
14:28
just to uh promote the COO to the CEO role you know and then that would be Sadi Khan and whoever his lieutenant is
14:35
would then be the be the next in line. But uh yeah I pro promoting John Turnis
14:40
is is a change in that strategy. I guess he's coming from a different background. He'll have a different perspective. They
14:46
if they wanted to just continue the Tim Cook era into the Tim Cook 2 era. Yeah. They would I mean before they would have
14:52
promoted um what's his name? Jeff Williams into the role but now I guess it would be Sabi Khan.
14:59
Yeah. Yeah. But he's also I believe the same age or similar age as well. So you know that maybe maybe he's not a candidate or
15:06
maybe they're doing something clever. Maybe they are maybe they're putting John Tennis you know front and center because they want people to get used to the idea that he's going to be the next
15:12
CEO. I mean maybe that's why he had such a high public profile because that they sort of you know that this is the kind
15:17
of mistake I think that Steve Jobs made with Tim Cook is that he had no public profile. No one knew who he was. They
15:22
were very very afraid that he was he was not going to be a good CEO. They could not see what Steve Jobs had seen. So
15:28
maybe they're you know they're making they're giving Turners a higher profile to sort of prepare the public for him
15:33
taking over. I don't know. Actually I quite like that idea. I also think it's very likely that in fact it's almost I would say it's
15:39
almost a guarantee that uh you know Tim Cook retires as CEO some part in 2026.
15:46
He's not just going to go home and not come back. He'll probably be a new chairman of the board or something like that. And my bet is that you know John
15:53
Turnos will be you know continue to be be the new CEO of Apple but uh Tim Cook will continue to have his role kind of
16:00
unlike the way that Phil Schiller uh still manages the app store. I bet Tim Cook will still play the politics role
16:06
that that he currently plays, you know, going to the White House, meeting with international leaders and
16:11
getting his Trump gold bars. Yeah. Again, I don't know John Turnis, but I I don't see him, you know, picking
16:17
up that role right off the bat. There's something about John Turnis' chin that upsets me. I just don't like
16:23
it. Well, you know, another thing that like that like that story actually mentions
16:30
that uh you know, Cook would probably be chairman of the board. Well, I think
16:35
Arthur Levenson, hasn't he like kind of overstateed his welcome? I mean, not not that he isn't doing a good job or
16:41
whatever, but isn't there like a time limit on it or they have something like, okay, they can't be over 75 or there's
16:47
some I I I didn't research this before this story, but uh there's some kind of
16:52
time limit on on his role as chairman of the board. And I think that's up or, you
16:58
know, turn, you know, about to expire very soon. So, you know, that that might actually be the the the trigger for
17:04
this. You know, like we want Tim Cook to take over. This guy's got to step down. Huh. Good point.
17:09
Am I making this up? I I hadn't heard that, but that's an interesting point. Maybe that maybe that would give you a clue into the timeline.
17:15
When does Arthur Levenson have to step down? It actually says, you know, the AI overview on Google says Levenson will
17:21
likely be replaced at the next shareholder meeting as early as January 2026. Oh,
17:27
I mean, you know, coincidence maybe. I I remember something about the requirements for the board. There's
17:33
something like they they can't be older than 75 or something. I think that's why Al Gore, you know, was sort of forced
17:41
out, you know, like you you sort of time out on the board. So, who knows? Yeah. Actually, I see a lot quite a lot
17:47
of people reporting that because he's getting timed out with this age 75 limit. So, when he hits 75, he's no
17:52
longer eligible. So, that's when Tim Cook would have to step up. That makes a lot of sense. Gives him 10 years as the as the
17:58
chairman of the board. Yeah. So, maybe I mean, who knows? Could be true. I I I know they're thinking
18:03
about it. I mean, you know, these are not people who don't consider things more than a week and a half in advance
18:09
like certain publications. Um, [Laughter]
18:15
the whole idea though, like what you're saying about turning over, I mean, it may not be what you want. You know, you might want somebody who uh thinks nine
18:23
months down the road about what fraction of our manufacturing needs to move to
18:29
Vietnam because of X, Y, and Z factors. You know, I mean the the price of a
18:34
stupid component. I mean, maybe Turnis has that kind of you don't get to the seauite of Apple without being good around a spreadsheet.
18:42
Yeah. I just I'm always amazed at at the size of Apple's operation and the the
18:47
idea that any one person could, you know, pull all the the levers is
18:52
amazing. So, I'm sure they all have great people working under them. Oh, quarter after quarter, they freaking
18:59
just blow my mind. Right. I wonder whether anyone else will step down as well with with Cook or
19:04
they'll see any other defections. I mean, that's an important part of the equation, isn't it? Keeping the executive team in place as as currently
19:10
constructed. I mean, if it's just Cook stepping down, uh, you know, there's going to be some Wall Street upset, I'm
19:17
sure. Uh, but if it's other members too, then it's really disruptive. Um and also
19:24
recruiting from outside Apple I think you know people are worried about that as well. Uh that hasn't gone well. It's
19:30
it's but then again you know recruiting from inside Apple hasn't gone amazingly well either. There have been a couple of
19:36
dud CEOs uh you know in the way back when the timeline. Yeah. I I mean Cook makes it sound like they're
19:42
definitely going to hire from within. Everything I've read that he he has said about it is like we have really strong
19:49
candidates. Although, you know, I mean, Apple keeps losing people from the AI departments and things. So, it's weird.
19:55
William stepped down. So, in terms of other people changing over, you know, now that you mentioned it, I wouldn't be surprised if in 2027, you
20:03
know, the year after they they change their CEO, I bet we're going to see either Greg Joyak or Craig Federi go
20:10
because they're they're the next oldest of that, you know, same, you know, class of late 90s people who joined in with
20:16
Steve Jobs, right? How old is Feder? Wikipedia says he was born in 1968 or
20:23
1969. We don't even know. Is that possible? Uh, it looks like he's 56 and it says he was born in San Leandro,
20:29
California, which is shocking news to me. Just across the bay, south of Oakland. San Leandro.
20:35
Huh. A Bay Area boy. I'll be sad to see Tim go. It's Yeah, it um I've come to
20:43
trust the guy and like him and like he's he's had amazing changes in the company. I mean like you know all the
20:48
environmental stuff that they've done I think is is really transformative. Um the supply chain uh reforms have been um
20:55
transformative too and I think he's he's focused on all the right things you know like they completely eliminated child
21:02
labor in the supply chain which is actually was a huge problem before and they they man he managed they managed to do it in a couple of years I think it
21:08
was actually kind of remarkable and also a lot of other like dodgy sketchy practices like uh you know people paying
21:13
to get jobs and stuff like that. I can't remember what it's called. They pay kickbacks to get jobs. has almost been completely eliminated. But the child
21:19
labor thing I thought was really striking because they they put out their report I think it was like two or three years ago. It had it had dropped to
21:24
almost zero from from from from you know thousands of incidents when they started
21:29
looking into it to almost zero now. And this is across a vast supply chain like hundreds or thousands of suppliers you
21:35
know like they've got their tentacles down there. they won't do business with people who who who engage in these dodgy practices cleaning it up like lo you
21:42
know toxins you know using toxic materials in in the manufacturing the carbon neutrality stuff I think is
21:48
pretty amazing um you know he's he's really done um made really changed Apple
21:54
into you know a leading progressive uh for a corporate titan for a massive
21:59
company you know that could be it destroying the planet it's actually I think doing quite a lot of good thanks
22:06
to Tim Cook Mhm. I'd love to see that legacy continue. Jobs is always kind of like a little
22:11
bit, you know, indifferent about this stuff that I that I think um Cook had,
22:16
you know, quite rightly paid attention to. Yeah, I miss the guy. I like him. Anyway, on that cheery note, talking
22:22
about replacements, here we go. Here's here's someone no one's going to be sorry to see the back of.
22:29
Apple in Japan of all places and there's good reason for this has started testing
22:35
um a new software feature that allow to replace Siri uh with a you know uh with with Amazon
22:41
Alexa or even Google Gemini or Chat GPT or any other voice assistants. So this
22:46
was noticed um in um iOS 26.2 two beta.
22:51
Uh notice some code that allowed that suggested that it that that the side button could um be used to invoke a new
23:00
um voice assistant. So it contains a new quote system voice assistant system app
23:07
along with code strings related to the side button app. So Macum has put this together. They figured that this is what
23:12
this is doing is it's uh it's it's allowing you to replace um Siri with with with third party uh voice
23:19
assistants. Um so actually as soon as they Apple after Macum has made a post
23:26
about this um Apple published an article uh on quote launching your voice-based
23:31
conversational app from the side button of iPhone. quote um in Japan people might place an action on the side button
23:38
of iPhone that instantly launches your voicebased conversational Apple app Apple says article
23:45
so once updated Japanese iPhone users can long press a side button to trigger Google's Gemini Amazon's Alexa or other
23:50
compatible apps uh and this comes from Japan's mobile software competition act which mandates that Apple open up iOS
23:56
core functionality to third party apps including voice assistants and the act
24:02
goes into effect in December mber 2025. So, it's imminent. Apple will likely make the nest changes live with iOS
24:08
26.2, which should drop later this month. Um, and the European Union's
24:13
digital market act also requires Apple to open up iOS or third party voice assistance. So, even if the feature is
24:20
initially limited to Japan, Apple could soon expand it to European countries. Like, this is like mind-blowing to me. I
24:25
can't imagine such a thing. Could you imagine pressing a side button and pulling up Alexa? Um, but I'm kind of
24:30
all for it too on the other hand as well. What's the Samsung one that nobody likes? Uh, Bixby is Bix around.
24:38
I don't even know if it is, but you know, you could you could assign it to you can make it a Bixby button. Still there.
24:45
Oh, who was I saw something on Twitter. People were saying, "Oh, chat GBT is the translation chat GPT is supposed to be a
24:50
really good voice assistant now. Although it doesn't of course have the same hooks into the OS that that Siri does, but uh for for translation anyway.
24:58
people were were using were preferring chat GBT over yeah some I've al I've also seen some people
25:04
saying that uh this wouldn't be quite as good as using Siri like you hold down the side button and it would then have
25:09
to launch whatever app you've programmed it to so it wouldn't be like hold it down and you can instantly start talking
25:15
to Apple's voice assistant where it glows all around the screen and it's you know sort of a layer on top of whatever
25:22
app you're using it would be a little different in that you would have to press and hold the side button and then it would have to open the Google Gemma I
25:28
app or the chat GBT app and then start listening for your voice then. Uh I
25:33
don't know if that's something that so so more work would need to be done probably in in a future version of iOS
25:39
to make it truly seamless. None of them will be as functional as as as uh as Siri though, right? Because
25:45
they just doesn't have the same hooks into the into the OS. So it'll be good for some things I guess you know maybe
25:50
answering queries, answering questions, getting recipes, whatever, but not for like you know open up the music app and play this that or the other.
25:57
Yeah, I've I've heard al other people saying that like, oh well, you know, Google Gemini, it can't listen. You
26:02
know, there's the there's the the phrase you can say out loud that'll activate the voice assistant that I'm not going
26:08
to say because I don't want to activate everybody's voice assistants. But there's a thing you can say that your phone is always listening for that will
26:13
activate it. And that feature, you know, people are saying, "Oh, well, you know, Google Gemini can't do that. Chat GBT
26:19
can't do that. They can't program their own phrase that your phone will then listen for." But that's actually not true because there's the uh uh vocal
26:25
shortcuts feature that they built into iOS 26 which is a feature that basically lets you train your phone on any new
26:32
arbitrary phrase that you want where it'll like automatically run a shortcut like that. So Apple could use that foundation that they've already
26:38
programmed to enable like third party apps like chat GPT to start listening to a phrase like you know hey chatgpt or
26:47
something similar. So, Griffin, could you create a shortcut so you'd say, "Hey, dip." And it would trigger Siri.
26:54
Yeah, you could. I I'll put a link to that in the article show notes.
27:00
I might have to use that because every time I uh you know get I I bark a command of my HomePods here in the
27:06
kitchen, you know, all the other devices uh start lighting up too. I want one that says, "Hey, HomePod, play,
27:13
you know, this that or the other song." Um, although I stopped doing that because now it doesn't it it keeps playing the wrong song, the wrong
27:18
version. I It's really annoying that
27:24
you think it's bad when you're in a you in your kitchen trying to get it to play something on a HomePod. It's way worse when you're going 70 m hour down the
27:30
highway and you're just all I want you to do is play this one particular song that I know is in Apple Music. Why can't
27:37
you do it? Yeah, it's infuriating. So anyway, yeah, let's hope Tim, this is one thing that
27:42
Tim Cook has not exactly done. Well, let's talk about the Mac
27:48
Pro, which is also looking a little shaky.
27:55
This is a very, very tragic news. Apple has quote largely written off the Mac Pro and does not plan to significantly
28:02
upgrade its expandable desktop computer in 2026. Apple reportedly doesn't plan to upgrade the Mac Pro with the M5 Ultra
28:09
chip next year. Uh, quote from uh, Mark German. The sentiment internally is that
28:16
the Mac Studio now represents both the present and future of Apple's professional desktop strategy. The Mac
28:21
Pro has quote been overshadowed by the Mac Studio, which received the M3 Ultra trip earlier this year, while the Mac
28:27
Pro stayed put. Now, there's the bad news. That doesn't look set to change anytime soon. There's no longer an M4
28:34
Ultra in the works. Uh, and the Mac Pro that was supposed to support that chip was also nixed. And the next high-end
28:40
desktop chip will be the M5 Ultra. However, Apple is only focused on putting the M5 Ultra in the Mac Studio.
28:47
This suggests the Mac Pro won't be updated in 2026 in a significant way. So, another year where it'll only exist
28:54
on the M2, which is uh depressing. I could not give a fig. But um
29:00
uh as Ed Hardy wrote about, one of our writers wrote about this earlier this year and this week and he said that you
29:06
know that the only advantage that this the the Mac Pro has over the Mac Studio is it has four internal uh slots, right?
29:14
Which you can maybe put in some more storage into it, but you can't expand the RAM.
29:19
Yeah. But you can't do you like the meaningful upgrades like since Apple switched to Apple silicon the the
29:25
meaningful internal upgrades like people used to increase RAM they used to increase it storage and so you can't
29:30
increase RAM anymore you you you you're stuck with what you bought um and GPUs people used to expand GPUs but
29:36
you can't do that with Apple silicon either right but they had the eGPU didn't they the external one that no one ever bought
29:42
or used um and then Thunderbolt is fast enough now to make external storage
29:47
almost as good as internal storage. Correct. So, um there's almost no it's a
29:53
product that has aged out, isn't it? I mean, you don't need this this internal expandability anymore. So,
30:01
it doesn't really make any sense to keep updating it. It's like, you know, it's a dinosaur. The real benefit that it has is that
30:06
it's much bigger. So, if Apple were interested in it, they could develop a much higherend chip that could actually
30:13
take advantage of the extra cooling and, you know, put a giant slap a giant heat sink in it and give it a giant power
30:18
supply. You know, really overclock it, maybe like get some fancy like vapor chamber in there. I think that could
30:25
really take it to the extreme. But the problem is that Apple can't fabricate any chip bigger than the Ultra. it
30:31
wouldn't be profitable enough because it would be too expensive to fabricate because, you know, the bigger you make it make a chip, the the more ones that
30:39
come off the manufacturing line that are broken or aren't entirely functional. Um, and you know, not to mention the R&D
30:46
cost of like actually developing the thing there. There are two possible paths for they could do. Uh, if they
30:51
wait out another few years, then there's this uh it's called a wafer level multi-chip module technology, WMC.
31:00
basically how Apple currently can stick two max chips together to make an ultra trip. Uh it's basically that on a
31:06
smaller level where at some point uh they'll be able to manufacture uh tiny
31:12
tiny little segments of you know modular CPU segments or modular GPU segments.
31:18
And so it would be easier for them to build, you know, an M7 extreme chip that
31:24
would have double the size of an M7 Ultra chip because they could just piece together as many GPU segments as they
31:30
want or as many CPU segments as they want. And then they could make that really big bespoke chip without uh
31:36
expending as much money, without it being ludicrously expensive. That could that could uh help the Mac Pro fulfill
31:42
its potential. The other path forward they could do is nyx the Mac Pro, but in
31:48
order to keep the uh PCI card expandability, my idea is they they
31:54
develop a sort of proprietary uh breakout box like unscrew the bottom of your Mac Studio and then clip it into
32:00
this giant aluminum box and it has like a custom connector that basically adds PCI cards to your Mac Studio and that
32:06
way you can the next CEO of Apple, [Laughter] Tim Cook. a case replacement. A a
32:14
product guy with vision that no one else has. Uh yeah, I mean the Mac Pro is basically a
32:22
Mac Studio with expansion card slots. If they build like a custom breakout box that adds expansion card slots to the
32:27
Mac Studio, then they don't need the Mac Pro anymore. You know, the the sad part there is that then they're committing
32:32
themselves to only ever building a chip as powerful as the Ultra. I I prefer path one because that that's still
32:38
trying to pursue the the making the the fastest personal computer in the world. Go all out, balls to the wall. Let's
32:45
let's let's see what it looks like when you put a when you have a computer that has 128 GPU cores in it. That would be
32:52
really cool. Well, the custom chips sounds very exciting, but this of course is a kind of a return. This reminds me of Steve
32:58
Jobs, you know, like he he was vehemently opposed to putting expansion slots in the early Macs because, you
33:03
know, adding hardware added that extra layer of complexity and it it made it much more unstable. You know, it was a
33:09
cause of crashes and he wanted to keep that control over the internal component. Steve Waznjak, I think, was the one who was pushing for the
33:14
expandability in like the Apple 2 or I can't remember what the machine was. The same with the Mac, you know, like he wasn't he was totally against any kind
33:21
of expandability in the Mac as well in the early days. This is kind of a return back to the the very early stage, the
33:27
beginnings of the Mac, you know, where it was all totally locked down. You could not expand it at all with any hardware capabilities. And it kind of
33:33
makes sense, you know, like it it's actually quite a it's a good strategy, I don't I think, right? If you if you just
33:39
if you make all the expand all of the expansion options external, it makes it
33:45
so much simpler, doesn't it? And so much more stable. You just plug stuff into it. It makes a lot more sense.
33:52
There's also a story where the original Mac team uh started development on an expansion slot in the Mac and they just
33:58
called it a diagnostic port and they got away with that for a few months until Steve Jobs was like, "What is this thing? Are you just trying to sneak by
34:04
an expansion port on me? No, get rid of that." Well, I I for one will not miss the Mac
34:11
Pro. Although I I you know, down in my basement, I've got a the cheese grater of the the Power Mac G5. We we mentioned
34:17
this already. still can't quite bear to throw my to throw it out to get rid of it. I even though I it's completely it's
34:24
just a dust magnet. You know, I haven't used it for years. Of course, you shouldn't throw it out. You live in San Francisco. If you put it on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist,
34:30
you'd have people knocking down your door within minutes take taking it off your hands and giving it a loving home. I am a little skeptical about that, but
34:36
I could definitely I should definitely give it a try. I mean, I it's got to be better than recycling it taking down to recology and then see going in the
34:42
landfill. Yeah, it's a huge tragedy. Uh any any listeners, if you live in San Francisco and you would like Leander's
34:47
Power Mac G5, uh send us a text using the using the link in the show notes. Not a bad idea. I've got a bunch of old
34:53
broken MacBooks, too. You can answer my I've got a whole old iPods, old iPhones,
34:59
uh some old iPhones. There's a whole bunch of electronic waste in my e-waste,
35:05
you know. No, they're collectibles. Collectibles. Leander. Signed by Leander Kaney.
35:11
Yeah. If anyone's interested, you can come on over. I'll give you the whole lot. I can take it off my hands.
35:17
It's all Some of them work. Yeah, I think the Mac Pro still works. I
35:22
Sorry, the Power Mac. I'm pretty sure it still works. Take it over to Louis and he can use it to to heat his house.
35:28
That's right. Good point. There's your furnace replacement there, Louis.
35:34
Probably not as uh efficient as a heat pump. Well, let's do a poll today. If anyone's going to miss the Mac Pro, maybe we'll
35:39
put that in the newsletter. Um, it's it's definitely the end of an era anyway, so it's kind of sad. Of course,
35:45
you can't spend How much do the wheels cost? $700. Do you think anyone ever bought those? And what would they use them for? Are you going to ride around on like a
35:50
skateboard? Uh, Steven Hacket bought the wheels. Well, he briefly had a Mac Pro. What for? What did he use it for?
35:58
Putting wheels on it, right? Well, anyway. Yeah. RIP Mac Pro.
36:04
Mhm. Here's an unusual thing that no one was expecting. Apple's biggest hit product in years. This thing sold out
36:10
immediately and everyone thought it was going to be a huge bust. It was all made fun of. But turns out we were all wrong.
36:16
If you didn't get up before dawn on Friday, you missed your chance to buy an iPhone Pocket, the accessory that
36:22
divides Apple fans. It's been relentlessly mocked online, but it sold out immediately on launch day. Um, in
36:28
Japan, apparently these cross body straps are especially in vogue and they, you know, snapped it up, posted about it
36:34
online. uh adding tremendously to the products cache in Japan is that it comes
36:39
from the Miyaki Design Studio which is founded by the Japanese fashion designer
36:44
is Miyaki who is apparently iconic over there. Uh but the appeal is in the United States too. iPhone Pocket went on
36:52
sale early Friday and disappeared in mere moments. Every single variant of the cross body strap. All the color
36:57
options of the long and short sizes were immediately sold out on the Apple Store online.
37:03
Of course, we don't know how many they had made, so I don't know how impressive of a feat that is. It still shows up on
37:11
their uh on their store in the in the holiday pick section, as Lewis pointed out, but uh not much of a pick if you
37:18
can't buy it. Who knows? They might you might you go there every day and refresh. You might be able to get one. Yeah, I don't know how fast they'll
37:25
restock. I mean, I I want to mention this because I was excited about reviewing one. I didn't think that I
37:30
would need to set an alarm for, you know, 6 in the morning on Friday. And, you know, by the the time that 9:00 am
37:35
rolled around, yeah, they were all gone. I I tried seeing if Oh, are they available in stores in New York? Could
37:40
I, you know, get a friend in New York to buy one and mail one to me? No. All gone. I wonder do you think they really just
37:47
would just do one run and that's it? I mean, that's what they did with the HomePod. They they made them and then they it took them three years to sell
37:53
their initial inventory and then they dropped it, but then they brought it back again. Mhm. Yeah, maybe this is the home part, too.
37:59
Well, I can't imagine. You know, Tim Cook surely he sees a hit product sells out in minutes. I mean, isn't that a isn't that a green light to go for
38:05
another production run for the especially for the holidays, different colors? I wonder how much of it is just like the
38:10
the cache of it being uh you know, kind of a meme product like the the polishing cloth. Like, if they make a second round
38:17
of these, is it going to actually sell out as fast or is the the fervor of it just you know, immediately dying out?
38:23
Who knows? How how much of the people buying the the initial run are people who actually genuinely want to own this product? I'm not sure.
38:30
Like, have the boxes even been opened or they just sitting there, you know, like, "Oh, this is going to be worth money."
38:35
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Collectible. Or, you know, people exactly like me who just wanted to review it and then return it
38:42
like the uh Vision Pro headset. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe maybe check in in two weeks from now if they suddenly have
38:48
much more inventory. Yeah. Actually, talking about that, maybe we should plug that. If anyone's interested in a Vision Pro at a
38:54
discount, check out Griffin's eBay listing. We have one M5 one for sale.
39:00
And it's a pretty good discount, isn't it? Griffin, how much How much is someone going to save if they buy it from you? The the current bid is $3,000. So, you
39:08
can knock off 500 bucks. Well, I mean, you have to pay over $300 to then be the highest bidder, but probably, you know,
39:14
snag it for 31 or $3,200, which is a substantial discount on the new price. and you know, uh, fewer taxes probably.
39:21
I don't know how that works, but if it's a cult cash listener who is the the the winning bid and you shoot me a
39:27
message on eBay after you buy it, uh, you know, maybe I'll put something special in the box. I won't say what, but you know, you'll get something
39:33
special. Okay, that sounds great. Um, that's a
39:39
professional cult headset, too. So, maybe I'm available to sign it if you would like. I can sign the box.
39:45
Jeez. Right on the right on the googly eyes. Yeah. Yeah. And I can put some um I'll put
39:51
some we've got some cultmax stickers we can include as well. Oh gee
39:56
to really make it worthless. Well, yeah. Uh we'll put the we'll put
40:02
the listing in the show notes, won't we, Griffin? Mhm. Let's talk about in London. What's going on in London? Like uh this is a pretty
40:07
funny story that uh came out a couple of days ago. So the Metropolitan Police in London reported 117,000 mobile thefts in
40:14
London in 2024. 117,000. That's astonishing. stress, which is it's a lot. It's a lot. It's kind of
40:19
crazy, you know, like I've seen all these viral videos of people standing, you know, the on the side of the road at a bus stop looking at their phone and
40:25
then a bike comes by and snatches the phone right out of their hand. Um, God, it's uh it's it's it's epidemic. It's a
40:32
lot. So, um, but there was one particularly brazen incident recently involving a man called Sam. So, in
40:37
January, eight men surrounded Sam, roughing him up and demanding he hand over everything he had. They took his phone, camera, and even the beanie hat
40:44
from his head. But as the gang fled, one thief turned around and walked back to Sam with his Android device in hand and
40:51
quote, "Don't want no Samson." "Don't want no Samson." The
40:57
Not only did they not want it, they don't even want to bother throwing it away. They just gave it back to him out of courtesy.
41:03
Wow. They handed it back to him. Yeah. Crazy. Um so apparently Sam isn't alone in this
41:09
bizarre experience. Someone else called Mark had his Samsung Galaxy snatched by an ebike rider who
41:14
sped past. Mark gave chase on foot but quickly realized he couldn't catch up. Then something unexpected happened. The
41:19
thief stopped, examined the stolen phone and then simply threw it on the ground before cycling away. Since the device
41:26
wasn't thrown before, Mark recovered his phone undamaged. Quote, "If anything I felt a little rejected," he said, "my
41:32
poor phone." Oh, poor Sam. So, in Simon's account, a wouldbe mugger
41:39
bounded across the street as if greeting an old friend, striking up a conversation before asking if Simon had Spotify. Thinking the stranger wanted to
41:45
share his music, Simon pulled out his G Samsung Galaxy to help. The moment the man saw it wasn't an iPhone, he lost all
41:51
interest and walked away, much to his accomplice that the quote phone's dead in it. The phone's dead in it. I'm not
41:59
sure I get that. But so uh this apparently is because of the low resale
42:05
value of Samsung handsets. So uh they
42:10
are simply following the money. This is a according to Jake Moore a cyber security expert adviser for ESC. Apple
42:16
devices command better prices on the black market making them far more lucrative targeted than Android phones with lower resale values regardless of
42:22
their original price. So importantly both platforms have robust similarly robust security features. So, iPhone
42:29
aren't being targeted because they're easier to unlock. It's purely about profit margins. So, yeah, that no one wants to buy, no one wants to touch a
42:35
Samsung at all. Not even iPhone, not even phone fees, which I think is kind of crazy. And it's funny that there's
42:40
not just one example, but but three or more of these. Uh, and these are even this is even for
42:46
brand new handsets, too. You know, even the latest Samsung's. No, no one wants them. I saw a bunch of comments on this story
42:52
uh on X. People were saying like, "Ah, that's that's like a a great feature of the Samsung phone. It's theft proof."
43:00
Yeah. Right. Yeah. What if sales have taken off in London? That's exactly right. Yeah. It's
43:07
it's a I was asking my brother. My brother lives in London and I asked him like he didn't have anything to report really like uh unfortunately he he
43:14
hadn't seen I was I was asking him if cross body straps I was wondering if this is why Apple introduced the cross body strap because um you know maybe it
43:21
was like you know Johnny Ive coming from London that kind of thing Apple long had a connection with the city you know maybe this was like something that uh
43:28
people were interested in but he said he hadn't noticed any particular uptake but then again my brother I don't know he's a he's not particularly observant or
43:35
no I don't think I should have used him as a as a source Yeah, I mean that that's an advantage of
43:40
them. If you got it tied around your neck, it's much harder for somebody whizzing by on an ebike to just pull it out of your hand.
43:45
Yeah. Break your neck. Might might throw you to the ground, but
43:51
you need like a carbon fiber cane and you just jam it in the spokes of the the the bike.
43:57
Sorry. If if the thief grabs an iPhone off of you, what would they have to do if So, it's unlocked presumably, right?
44:02
What would they could they immediately disable the you know the security
44:08
features? Well, that's the classic thing, right? Like remember that that scam a while back? People were figuring out how to,
44:14
you know, there was some little trick they were using to get people's unlock thing and as soon as they get it, the first thing he did was change it and and
44:21
access their, you know, access all the stuff that's on the phone. Right. What you're talking about is like people in
44:26
bars would like socially cozy up to a stranger, try and get their passcode because people give their passcodes out
44:32
willy-nilly and then, you know, run off the phone with the phone or, you know, hand it to somebody who's going to run
44:38
off with it and then now that they know the passcode, they could immediately they knew where to go in settings to
44:44
quickly disable Find My and turn off the phone. But if somebody's just taking your iPhone out of the street, presumably they don't know your
44:50
passcode. So, I don't know what they would do in that situation. They well if you're s they're talking and
44:55
it's unlocked they can't disable find my the best they can do is you know turn it off but you know the newer iPhones are still
45:01
findable with find my even after being shut off they wrap them in foil so that find my
45:06
doesn't work and and there is I think despite what Apple says there are so there is software that you can use to
45:12
wipe even a brand new locked phone or just ship it to China for parts
45:19
well the parts are locked aren't they sometimes so that I think that's even more contentious because the parts are
45:25
also unlocked, aren't they? This is to to the to that ID. I think it's easier to I know I know we've written about
45:31
this. We've actually we've done a couple of posts on it. There's software that will wipe the whole thing and you know
45:37
get you can start brand new fresh. There's definitely ways to to wipe it despite what Apple says.
45:42
I wonder if that is that actually still true or was that you know a few years ago thing that they they've patched in
45:48
recent versions or not? Oh, I don't know. But this is true about, you know, probably about a year ago.
45:54
And yeah, I've seen people stories where people have tracked their, you know, I think someone was able to track their phone to China and then they come back.
46:01
I think, you know, they they often come back to to to Western countries after they've been wiped. But, uh, yeah, so that's a good tip. If
46:08
you don't want to get your phone stolen, get a Samsung or or an iPhone Pocket if you can get one. Yeah, that's a good point, too. All
46:16
right, let's talk let's talk about the qu uh question we got from text. Uh, we got a qu listener question. Griffin's got a
46:21
So, this question uh came in a while ago from a listener via text, but now we have a good answer for it. The question
46:28
reads, "The text feature is okay." Good to know. But as a listener who mostly
46:33
listens in the car, can you guys bring back chapter artwork, especially with more visual segments like setup reviews?
46:40
uh when I started editing the the show the audio version uh I started including
46:46
you know chapter specific artwork which is a feature that you can embed in MP3s and you can and is available in most uh
46:52
podcast players. However, when we switched podcast hosts to uh from Libson
46:57
to Buzzrout Buzzrout supported like a different uh standard for chapter
47:03
specific artwork but it wasn't as easy to do and it wasn't supported in Apple Podcasts. It was one of those uh fancy
47:09
new standards that uh you know VCs come up with as a way to like reinvigorate podcasting that ignores the fact that
47:15
MP3s already have a lot of these supported features and they have since like the '9s. So you know a lot of
47:21
people don't even know about chapters at all that are embedded in MP3s. But now Buzz supports chapter specific artwork.
47:29
I think I'm pretty sure it does. Uh, I've been told that from friend of the show, Graham Bower, who also hosts uh
47:36
the Apple Core podcast using Buzzrout, and he's very excited to tell me about this. Uh, so if you check your podcast
47:42
player right now and you see a picture of my cute dog, Indie, then you'll know that uh Chapter Pacific artwork works.
47:49
And if you don't see uh my cute fuzzy dog, then you should get a new podcast player. or it means that Buzz Sprout uh
47:56
doesn't support it and uh I've been lied to. In which case, you should email Graham and tell him what a filthy liar
48:02
he is. That's not That's just not even possible. Graham would never lie. No, he's maybe dude
48:09
person on the planet. So, the long cut a long story short, we're gonna we're going to be using um
48:15
nice pictures in future versions of the podcast, right? Yeah. This this is our test bed. We'll
48:21
see. Yeah, we we'll find out this week. And in fact, we're going to be putting a picture of this this amazing setup here,
48:28
um, that we're going to talk about right now. Louis, what what's going on in this setup? Oh my, there's a lot going on in this
48:33
setup. We got a Oh, look at that. Just what we're talking about, the M2 Ultra Mac Pro. Gorgeous, gigantic cheese
48:40
grater hidden off to the side. I I mean, honestly, I think it should be front and center. I mean, it's not ergonomically
48:46
correct, but I want to see more of that. If if I spend $7,000 on a computer, I want to look at it every time I enter
48:51
the room. If nothing else, it should have a pin spot that just lights it up. Uh, Pro display, XDR, and two studio
48:59
displays flanking it. I mean, this is what are we at already? Like over 10
49:04
grand, right? It's crazy. Magic keyboard. Fantastic. Logitech MXM 3S mouse and a
49:15
Magic Trackpad. Already we're at, you know, over 10 grand. He just sticks with the Apple
49:20
keyboard. Like, come on. No, no fancy mechanical keyboard. I mean, maybe he really likes Touch ID, but uh
49:25
but then things start to get weird. There's some things on the wall which uh apparently those are eGPUs like strapped
49:31
to the wall. Don't not sure what's going on there. Not eGPUs, just regular GPUs. PC ones out of a PC.
49:36
What? Why would they be strapped to the wall? Like I don't know. Maybe he used to have a I mean, these are also PC things that were
49:42
never supported inside a Mac. So, I don't know what they're doing there. Oh, I see. Maybe it's just artwork along with the Sonic the Hedgehog uh case for
49:50
some reason. Well, that that's the most weird and random thing about the whole thing, isn't it? Well, there's a couple of other things
49:56
that draw my attention. There's a a water bottle which seems to be floating in air or I don't know. Is it sitting
50:03
it looks like it's in front of the the the desk, but it looks to be uh sitting on the uh one of the chairs that he has
50:10
next to it. Like maybe maybe one of that chair has a cup holder built into it that keeps the water bottle there. I mean certainly if I had a Mac Pro uh
50:18
Mac Studio. Oh yeah, there's also a Mac Studio in this setup somewhere. If I had a Mac Pro, a Mac Studio uh two studio
50:25
displays and a Pro Display XDR. I mean, I wouldn't want water anywhere on that
50:30
desk. It's It's not as bad. I don't know if I would want water in the room. So yeah. Well, so we were talking about
50:36
this, right? There's a this is this is included in our uh post about 10 or top 10 high-end Apple setups you wish you
50:43
could afford. Uh one of them has a a a whole bunch of rack mounted Mac Pros
50:50
with a giant aquarium over top of it. I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? Insane. And and let's go back to this
50:57
one. What's up with the the little like uh I don't know, I guess file rolling file cabinet that looks like it was, you
51:03
know, salvaged from an office supply store. And then there's like the weird Kleenex box. I It's just a lot going on.
51:09
It's like all this high-end stuff and then some really questionable. Yeah, that is a Kleenex box, isn't it?
51:15
But with with no with no tissue. No Kleenex. An empty Kleenex box container, you know, like not even just
51:20
a Kleenex box, but a you know, fancy Kleenex box cover. He has uh the the
51:25
Harman Carden like clear acrylic speakers that you know yeah are are very like Powermac G4 Cube style except he
51:32
has the really tall ones but he has them uh behind the displays. So I mean he has
51:38
a big wall of displays in front of him. Uh so I I can understand he he might run out of you know places to put speakers
51:45
but get different speakers that fit under the displays and not these tall skinny things that are going to be blocked by them. I can't imagine that
51:51
sounds very good. These are classics though aren't they? This is a Johnny I've designed um with
51:56
it has a subwoofer, a clear subwoofer on the floor. I've actually got Oh, I I have this in my basement. Uh so if if
52:02
anybody if anybody was interested, although I I'm kind of loathed to give this one away. I
52:07
give that away. I know. Because it was a great sound system. Yeah, it was a great great great sound system.
52:14
I I I didn't know they made taller ones. Are you sure they're taller ones? Yeah. Like did they make did they make ones really really tall like that? You know,
52:20
Apple only included them with the Power Mac G4, but they they still make them to this day. You can still buy new ones.
52:26
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. So, apparently this person uh actually uses the the the card slots in
52:32
his Mac Pro. Uh quote, "I have a massive amount of NVME PCIe SSDs in it." That's
52:38
a lot of acronyms in a row, but he has a lot of storage. Uh including stuff like the Sonnet the Sonnet 8x4 PCIe card with
52:46
eight NVME, etc. a lot of pointless initialisms. I tried the same with the
52:52
Mac Studio, but the cost and cable clutter of external Thunderbolt devices was just not as good. There you go.
52:58
Noisy externally, too. The PCIe is quiet and faster in the Mac Pro, even with
53:03
bandwidth considerations. And all the PCIe cards went straight from my 2019 Mac Pro and worked great in the M2 Ultra
53:09
Mac Pro as well. Um Oh, and here's the tally. Mhm. So, conservative estimate. Let's
53:17
just look at all the base models. Our uh which our our like back of the envelope uh scribbling estimated price of all this
53:24
stuff $18,200 at least cuz that's the base model.
53:30
$7,000 Mac Pro, $1,600 studio displays, $6,000 Pro Display XDR. I couldn't
53:35
really figure out if he has the the one with the the the tilting and adjusting stand or not. Oh, no. I guess it only
53:41
comes with that. Yeah. Uh a $2,000 Max Studio. I don't know if he has the Max or the Ultram Max Studio, but it's very
53:47
likely he has the more expensive ones. So, at least $18,000, probably $20,000.
53:52
Wow. And that's before tax. So, yeah. And and no indication of what they're being used for, is it? It's like
53:58
what kind of This is like It's not It's not a video editor's um setup. Yeah. He didn't describe what his job
54:04
is. Uh but it's a job that involves a lot of storage and power. Storage. Yeah. Maybe it's some type of
54:11
like scientific research or I don't know why he would need three displays for that, but Wow. Wow. There are some wild looking uh
54:18
setups elsewhere in this post. You know, this one with like just the cra Oh my god. It's almost like
54:25
a wraparound. It's like being in that Las Vegas dome. There's so much screen real estate. It's crazy.
54:31
Yeah, there's some great setups in that post. Dave did a really good job with that. Yeah, these are the most uh uh
54:37
droolworthy expensive setups that we've seen over the last few years. This is
54:42
where no expense has been spared. Except for that uh Kleenex box cover. I
54:48
don't I don't Did you ever even see the Mac Studio? I I don't see it anywhere. He says it's in there. I don't know
54:54
where it is, though. It must be around the back. Maybe under one of the desks.
55:00
Maybe in the Kleenex box. Maybe it's maybe it's floating on the chair
55:06
with the right underneath the water with with three giant monitors. Uh you know, it all doesn't fit on one desk. He
55:11
has two identical desks sort of uh stacked next to each other, lined up as close as he can. Uh but then the way it
55:19
ends up lining up, his mouse would then uh go over the bridge between the two
55:24
desks and you know that wouldn't be good. So he has like three desk mats.
55:30
one desk mat on top of the other two and that's where his mouse goes to like sort of bridge the gap between these two
55:37
desks and desk mats. So, it's kind of a weird like squishy pile of desk mats that he has built for himself there.
55:44
This almost looks like it's like in an office space, right? Not a work from home setup. I Who knows?
55:50
It's got definitely an office vibe. Look at the the the thermostat there in the corner and the walls. The the the white
55:56
walls. What's that weird silver thing with the um behind the the main monster
56:02
cattle that goes up the wall? I don't know what that is. It kind of looks like a camera hanging on like a
56:09
little lanyard thing that's going up to the I have no idea what that is. Doesn't that kind of look like a GoPro
56:15
camera to you? I mean, it definitely isn't, but I don't know what that is. I can't tell. I can't tell. Maybe maybe this is an office and that's
56:21
like a camera where the boss can like spy on him. It's a weird mix of stuff, though. Like the Harman Carden things don't wouldn't
56:28
it doesn't seem like that would be in an office. Like where did that come from? It's it's no headphones in this picture at all. So
56:34
I guess he just entirely relies on those speakers. Very odd mix of stuff.
56:40
And again over $18,000. Wow.
56:46
I I do endorse the the the two chair office setup. You know, it's really great when you have somebody coming in to like look at your computer with you.
56:52
Have a second chair for a guest. I I have one far off to my left as well. It's a It's great.
56:57
That's Yeah. And uh are these high-end chairs? That one has like some crazy ribbing on the back.
57:02
It probably is a very expensive chair. And the armrests look up really high.
57:07
Mhm. Very very high. But yeah, overall nice setup. I mean, some aesthetics could be
57:14
improved, the ergonomics could be improved, but I got to say the only thing I would change about it is uh I I I'd probably
57:20
only stick with the Proisplay XDR. I'd next the two side displays. I can't imagine like possibly needing that much
57:26
screen real estate and I would upgrade the keyboard. But aside from that, you know, great good setup. It's nice and bright and you know, you've got a you've
57:32
got a Mac Pro loaded up with storage. Those GPUs, I mean, they must be How
57:38
much do they cost? They're they're they're expensive, aren't they? As well. Two of them look identical. Maybe those are Apple's like MPX modules
57:45
for the Mac Pro. I don't know what those look like, but maybe that's what two of them are, but the other two clearly look like these are PC GPUs. Maybe maybe
57:52
those are like the he wanted to keep a momento of the PC that he had before the Mac Pro and so he just kept those on the
57:59
wall. A lot of mysteries in this setup. Yeah. Well, anyway, thank you very much for uh
58:04
you know for the for the person who took this picture and and shared it with the world. Um I my wife said that we were being
58:11
mean about these setups and that we were like we should be kinder. It's probably true.
58:17
Yeah, I think so too. And it's like it's not very nice to be ripping people's setups. visit in public. We kind of run
58:23
out of time. That's all the time we have for for you this week for the cult. So, thanks very much uh for everyone for
58:28
listening. If you want to have more, Lewis is on Twitter at Lewis Wallace. Griffin's on Macedon at dgriffinjones.
58:33
Um and I write a newsletter every day for the cult of Mac at newsletters.cultac.com. If you have questions or comments,
58:40
please send us a text or um uh use the link in the top of the show notes or or go to YouTube and leave a comment there.
58:47
I'll say we we need more questions. So, send us your questions, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Especially like
58:52
troubleshooting questions. Yeah. Like it'd be good to if you have a problem, a sticky problem, don't ask Chad GPT. Ask
58:59
three clueless guys on the cult instead. All right. So,
59:05
thanks very much for listening. Um, this is the Cultcast, the best Apple
59:11
comment section you can hear all week long. I know. I What's wrong with me? This is the the bang on my head that scrambled
59:19
my brains. Jeez. Oh, yeah. Cuz you're so good at doing this before. Yeah, right. I know. It's made it even
59:26
worse. Anyway, this has been the cold cast. The best Apple car. Oh my god. The
59:31
best Apple conversation going to have all week long. New episodes of coldcast come up every night, Thursday night.
59:38
It's just getting worse and worse. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll see
59:43
you all next time. Bye bye. See you. Please buy my Vision Pro on eBay. Link
59:50
in the podcast description. Oh dear. Oh dear.
59:58
That was awful. I'm a terrible host. Come to the realization. I'm also
1:00:04
starving. And I got to do the goddamn newsletter. Do we have any posts for it this today?
1:00:09
[Music]
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