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This week: We have a price on the Vision Air, a Lego iMac G3 that needs your support, Tim Cook can sleep well at night again, a gorgeous dual Studio Display setup — and OUR PREDICTIONS for the ‘Awe Dropping’ event!
Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:14 Insta360
3:11 Vision Air price + details
16:06 Lego iMac G3
20:35 Apple & Google search deal
33:53 Setup of the Week
40:42 Listener Question
45:28 “Awe Dropping” Predictions
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0:02
Welcome to the cult. The best 30 I'm sorry, hourong conversation you're going
0:08
to hear all week long. One of these days I'll get this intro right. The thing is you never did the intro
0:13
when it was 30 plus minutes. You you only started doing it with Hour Plus and you still mess it up. Have it. I guess
0:18
I know. Oh my god. Um it's like signing, you know, like I had to write a check. I
0:23
I had to do it three times cuz I just kept on spelling my own name wrong
0:28
over and over again. All right, let's try that again. Okay, welcome to the cold cast, the best
0:34
hourong conversation about Apple you're going to have all week long. I'm your host, Lyanna Kaney, who can barely swing
0:42
two words together. Uh, joining me today we have D. Griffin Jones from Ohio. Hello, Griffin.
0:48
Good evening. And Lewis Wallace. Welcome Lewis from Bernal Heights. Uh, Bernal Heights. You
0:54
know what's funny? Uh, Alexa, we have two Alexis in the house. One of them pronounces it Bernal Heights. The other pronounces it Bernal Heights. Can you
1:00
explain that? Is it some weird uh voice you've chosen? No. Same voice.
1:06
Bernal. Yeah, that probably is the original. That's probably how it's supposed to be pronounced, isn't it? Bernal, maybe. I don't know. Yeah, I
1:13
don't know. Banal. Banal Heights. Banol Heights. Banal. How do you Is it Is it Banel or
1:20
Banol? I don't even know. I don't know either. Anyway, all right. So, this week we've got a really super
1:25
super exciting show. We finally have the price on the Visionaire, which is exciting. The uh lightweight uh Vision
1:32
Pro heads vision headset AR headset that's going to be coming from Apple. Uh
1:37
we have this Lego iMac G3 that needs your support. Uh Tim Cook can finally
1:42
sleep uh at night again after this big Google ruling that came out this week. Uh, and
1:49
we have a gorgeous, gorgeous studio display, uh, dual studio display setup to talk about, which is kind of weird.
1:55
The longer you look at it, the weirder it gets. Uh, and then we are going to be doing our predictions for the massive
2:01
ordropping event coming up. So, we're going to be predicting what Apple is going to be revealing at the ordropping
2:08
event. And this is a super super fun segment that you guys are going to love.
2:14
All right. All right. So, I'd like to thank our sponsor today, uh, which is, uh, Insta 360. Now, I want one of these
2:20
so bad. I might have to go shoplift one or something, but, um, it's an innovative camera. Is just launched this
2:28
last month. It's about the size of an Oreo, which is kind of unbelievable. And it weighs just 53 grams, which is
2:33
nothing. Uh, and it's small enough to live in your pocket, but powerful enough to shoot sharp 4K footage at a buttery
2:39
smooth 60 frames per second. It has magnetic mounts that let you stick it on
2:44
any uh on lots of different services and quickly get the shot you want. You can go hands-free immersive POV shots with
2:51
an incredible 156 degrees field of view. Shoot video for 70 minutes straight on a single charge and quickly talk it up
2:57
with the action pod for up to 200 minutes of recording. And it's even waterproof down to 33 feet. This is a
3:04
fabulous looking camera. I really want one of these. I want it so bad. Um, it's
3:10
uh and it if you order one uh through our special link, if you go to head to
3:16
store.insta360.com, store.inst3.com and use a promo code
3:21
coldcast, you'll get a free bag of sticky tabs, which will help you mount your camera everywhere from winter down
3:27
jackets to outdoor jackets to backpacks. Um, these look super handy. So, you get a free pack of sticky tabs if you go to
3:34
store.insta3 Insta3 and use the promo code cult. And this is only available for the first 30 purchases. So, uh,
3:42
don't delay. Get over to store.insta3.com and get yourself one of these really
3:47
fabulous looking um, action cams. Uh, and if you want more information, be sure to check out uh, the links in our
3:54
show notes. All right, so Griffin, what's the story about the new Vision
4:00
Air, which is going to be the complement to the Vision Pro? Uh so the Visionaire is expected to launch in 2027 which will
4:09
address the high weight and price of the Vision Pro. According to Mingchi Quo, analyst at TF International Securities,
4:16
quote, "The new device is estimated to be over 40% lighter and more than 50%
4:22
cheaper." So half the cost would put it around $1,750.
4:27
You know, Apple likes round numbers. They probably do $1,800. Um, and a 40% drop in weight puts it at
4:34
about8 lbs, which would certainly be a lot more comfortable. Um, you know, the
4:40
problem with the Vision Pro as it stands today is that like they have the the light seal in the front and like their fancy astronaut looking strap around the
4:48
back of your head and it holds itself on your face by squeezing the front and the
4:53
back of your head together while also, you know, pulling your pulling down on your face and forehead and nose. So,
4:59
it's not terribly comfortable. of the, you know, I have a top strap accessory that I really like. Uh, but, you know,
5:05
cutting out 40% of the weight, that would make a huge, huge difference. Um, I think another rumor suggests that
5:11
Apple's probably going to include a a a slightly different, you know, mix of
5:17
straps in the box with the updated Vision Pro with maybe a top strap included with it. I think that would
5:22
that would make a big difference. They probably won't, you know, continue the just having like two different straps.
5:27
they might merge it into one design, you know, because Vision Pro is a very early product. That's why you send out an early product like it to to to work out
5:34
all the kinks, figure out what the best design is. Um, yeah, but 2027 is certainly a long time for
5:40
Apple's R&D department to experiment and work out a better solution there.
5:46
Uh, quote, "Vision Air shipments are anticipated to reach 1 million units in 2027 versus exist existing models with
5:54
shipments below 400,000 units." uh wrote quo. So they're expecting to sell over
6:00
twice as many. A redesigned Vision Pro model is also in development, but it won't be out until after the Air. That
6:06
is the the full redesign of the higherend model. What What would be the difference, do you think, between the the higherend
6:11
model and the Air? I think if they come out with an Air, they can they can take the higherend
6:19
model even to the next level. You know, they they could maybe adopt some of the the weight saving measures that they've learned from the Air as well. Uh, but I
6:27
imagine like a paired down version would probably have, you know, fewer sensors on it. That was another thing that
6:32
Mingchi Quo wrote. Fewer sensors, lower level chip, whereas the high-end model will continue to use an M series chip
6:39
and maybe like even add more sensors and higher resolution displays. That's what I would bet. I any idea what the the you
6:47
know the the experience the difference in experience because wouldn't it be wouldn't they be equivalent you know wouldn't it be like once you're inside
6:53
the thing would you be able to tell if you were wearing a Visionaire instead of a pro you know what I mean like you know
6:59
the cameras are are super high definition so I don't know if they'll make any compromises there the sound I don't know the experience
7:07
presumably would be very similar wouldn't it I think what's holding Apple back is that they consider the vision pro
7:13
experience that you have right now at the first generation model to be the minimum viable experience. They don't want to compromise on display quality.
7:20
They don't want to compromise on like the sensors or the eyesight, but so it'll take a lot for Apple to figure out
7:26
what to reduce. They'll probably take out the eyesight thing. You know, they they mentioned like switching from aluminum to plastic uh in in certain
7:33
parts of the body, switching from like glass to plastic. So, uh, they're
7:38
they're going to try and cut out all of the non-essential things before they even consider reducing the specs of it.
7:44
What makes the Vision Pro special is, you know, the immersive AR experience of it, like, you know, mixing the cameras
7:50
that you see with the software interface. But, as far as we know, that all runs on the R1 chip, the special
7:57
chip that they make just for the Vision Pro. So you could probably reduce the, you know, M2 or M4 down to an A series
8:04
chip without affecting a lot of its performance significantly. A lot of the
8:10
best things to use a Vision Pro for aren't very computationally heavy. They're like graphically heavy and, you
8:17
know, augmented reality heavy, which the R1 chip is already handling. So they
8:22
they've got a few ways that they can optimize it and you know trim the fat off of the the design without making it
8:29
like you know as bad as a MetaQuest headset. [Laughter]
8:34
I I' I've got a metaquest headset too and and the qual the difference in quality is is uh you know unbelievable.
8:40
There's it's hardly comparable. Um it's it's way less quality. Do you think 1,700 though? I mean it's still
8:47
that's still a premium price. That's still a lot of money. I I can't see that, you know, I 1 million units for
8:52
Apple is barely anything. I mean, when when did they last sell a product that that shipped only a million units?
8:58
That's hardly anything. Yeah. I mean, original HomePod maybe, but probably even less.
9:03
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. It it but it's still a magical experience. It's still a I mean, it is
9:10
an amazing way to watch content and the only way to And the only way to watch this amazing content, but it's
9:17
definitely not mainstream. I haven't seen uh I haven't seen hardly anything about the Vision Pro for for months, you
9:23
know, like it's definitely not um setting the socials on fire. No one's
9:28
talking about it. There's a few developers that I follow on Twitter that um talk about this or that experience,
9:35
you know, that that Apple drops. But it it's not breaking through the mainstream at all. At all. It's a shame because Vision OS 26, the
9:42
the new update that they have for it has some truly incredible improvements in it. Like the the widgets that you can
9:48
pin to a wall are incredible. The uh the new personas are like genuinely very
9:54
good-looking. I think they they've crawled their way out of the uncanny valley. They look really good. I kind of
10:00
want to do an episode of the cult using my using my persona instead of my video to see
10:06
how that works. Uh you know, make all of you in the audience guinea pigs in that regard. But it whether this is Tim
10:14
Cook's like personal passion project or not, like they're they're putting effort into this. Yeah. Yeah. Significant effort.
10:20
Significant effort, isn't it? I mean, it's a massive massive undertaking. And it's funny how um you don't hear anything from uh Meta either about you
10:27
know, Zuckerberg and the metaverse. I mean, that's been completely overshadowed by his AI uh uh you know,
10:34
projects now. So, it definitely seems to have taken a backseat. But 2027, was there any
10:39
indication about when in 2027 was going to come out? Was it going to be earlier in the year or later? Probably later if I had to hazard a
10:46
guess, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't wonder if Do you see I haven't been down the Apple store for a long time, but you
10:51
know, a lot of the Apple stores have dedicated demo areas for the Vision Pro. I saw some picture like um on Twitter.
10:59
Someone was saying it was completely empty. Um tumble. No. Yeah. No one was No one was down there
11:06
taking the uh the uh the demo. The demo though is amazing. It's like, you know, if you don't have one, I definitely,
11:11
it's well worth a trip to go see it because it is truly a jaw-dropping experience.
11:17
I only go to the Apple store really to pick up products and or return products two weeks later. And I'm always going
11:23
like early in the morning around 9:00 a.m. So, I don't I couldn't tell if it's like because of lack of interest or if,
11:28
you know, it's just because I'm going early in the morning. But, yeah, I never see anybody at my local Apple stores either at the Vision Pro table. just
11:35
I should go down to the the the big Union Square store here in San Francisco, you know, which is always packed with tourists. Um and see whether
11:41
anyone's doing that. You know, the place is usually just jam-packed with people anyway. Um I'll go check it out one day.
11:47
One day. It's like a a free free 30 minute movie, right? Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. Like people should just do it just for
11:53
kicks. If it's a wide open schedule, they'll probably just let you watch like a whole thing on it.
11:59
Do you think $1,800 is is enough to open it up for a big new market of people to bite on it and buy it?
12:05
Still pretty expensive. Yeah. No, not at all. I mean, people people freak out about spending a grand on a on
12:11
a new iPhone, you know, that they use all day every day that they're completely, you know, welded to. Um, and
12:19
this is, you know, almost twice the price of that. So, I think no, there's no way this is a mainstream price
12:24
either. Um, it's uh it's still going to be a luxury. Um, and and I they still haven't cracked
12:31
that, you know, the the the the killer app, the must-have app that, you know, makes this a must-h
12:38
have device. I mean, there's the apart from the entertainment, you know, the entertainment experiences are the thing
12:45
that are the one thing that you can only get on a Vision Pro. You cannot get on any other device. And it is incredible.
12:52
It is. They are truly amazing. It's It's freaky as hell. And you know, I watched um uh Mad Max
12:59
Fury Road in 3D. Oh my god, it was amazing. Amazing. I was totally blown
13:06
away. It was super super fun. Um and you can't get that experience on any other
13:12
device. But even at 1,700, I mean, no one's going to pay 3,500 for that unless
13:18
they're crazy like I am. But, uh, you know, 1,700 bucks, no, it's still way too much. I mean, it would have to be
13:23
half that again, I think, for that for that to become a mainstream to appeal to a mainstream audience. But,
13:30
you know, it's better. It's getting there. I mean, if you look back at the old prices, you know, and in our today Apple history, it's kind of fun to see
13:37
the prices that they used to charge for these crummy old Macs. Jeez, crummy.
13:42
Yeah. Well, you know, like an it took six years for the Macintosh Classic to come out to finally like be
13:48
the first Macintosh under $1,000 and that was in 1990. So, it's, you know, still actually closer to like 2500, but
13:55
still the prices were insane. So, you know, they're getting there. They're getting there. It's getting down there. I I want to know how often you guys use
14:02
the Vision Pro at this point. I've been using it a less a little less
14:07
frequently over the summer because uh vision OS 26 was a little buggy in
14:12
WordPress in Safari and I used to use it all the time as a writing tool like you know I I need to sit down and focus and
14:19
like crank out 2,000 words. You know the Vision Pro is great for that but uh
14:24
WordPress has been so buggy in Safari that I haven't been using it as much. Yeah, you're probably the only person in the entire country who's been using it
14:30
regularly. Um and even that's dropping off. That's not not good news for Apple. Not good
14:35
news for the Vision Pro. Um I strapped it on to download the beta and then I took it and then uh I took it up and then I put it on again.
14:43
But I'm I've you know I'm gonna I'm gonna in fact I'm going to I'm going to check it out today. But you know the
14:50
problem is like in the house here it's it's it's just too it's too isolating. You know, it's like if I although
14:55
actually the last time I wore it around the house, no one even blinked an eye, you know, and I could I was talking to everybody and no one said a no one said
15:01
a pee. But uh they're too afraid. I wish I had uh like fly on the wall kind of camera footage of you walking
15:08
through the house wearing that thing and and your whole family the whole Katy family like eyeing you and Yeah,
15:14
they're all whispering before you enter the room, don't say anything. Yeah. Oh, no. That's weird that they they're so
15:19
nonpleased because uh whenever anybody else is in the house and I put it on, everybody's freaked out by the eyes on
15:24
the front. They find it like genuinely creepy and don't want to like look at me. They are creepy.
15:30
Yeah, because they're that they're right. But still,
15:36
did they improve that? Has that improved in the beta? The um um How would Griffin know? Yeah, I don't know.
15:43
Can't you look in a mirror? I I haven't looked. I you'd think that with the the P I think the problem with the display on the front is that it's really dim and
15:50
really blurry even though the Personas have improved significantly. I don't know that the EyeSight display on the
15:56
front has at all. I'll have to I'll have to get another look. Yeah. Right. That's I mean that's baked into the hardware. Nothing they can
16:02
tweak, but maybe they can make it brighter. I don't know. Mhm. Yeah. Well, here's a product that um
16:09
actually also might cost a fortune when it comes out. It's a LEGO iMac G3. I was
16:15
really blown away by this. I thought the pictures were fantastic. I thought, "My god, this look is this is really looks
16:21
like a really nice looking um Lego model. It's a fan design uh from someone
16:26
called Terramama Terramama. Uh and he uh made an iMac um
16:33
G3 in Lego and submitted as a Lego product idea. 700 parts goes to this all-in-one uh desktop and even includes
16:40
the much maligned hockey pokey mouse. Uh, it features the classic Mac OS startup screen that appears on the the
16:47
LEGO CRT. Uh, and of course, much of the exterior is translucent. You know, it wouldn't look much like an a G3
16:53
otherwise. You can pop off the top to reveal the CPU and other internal electronics. I thought that was a really
16:59
nice touch. Actually, they it really does look good. You can you can check out the inside of the thing, the guts of the thing. Tama has submitted this to
17:06
LEGO as a proposed set to someday go on sale. And LEGO has this um this uh this
17:12
pro program if an idea a product idea gets 10,000 supporters from the fan
17:18
community, it gets considered for a production as a real life Lego set. And I think they've done a few of these. Do
17:24
you guys know um Oh yeah, they've done a bunch of them. This is a very really popular program. And they've done they've even done like
17:29
promotional tie-in stuff before like I think the Lego Friends set and maybe even like the Lego Seinfeld set, stuff
17:35
like that have been submitted as fan ideas through this thing. So, they've done, you know, it's it's not like a fantasy like, oh, you know, we'll submit
17:41
this, you know, Ford Mustang thing, but it'll never get made. Like, LEGO's actually done like brand collaborations
17:48
from fan idea sets before. Never with Apple. Um, I I I have very little
17:54
confidence that Apple, the company, would would approve such a thing. But, um, you know, if you show them your
17:59
support, it'll help. That's true. So, if you um if you go to the LEGO website and you hit the support
18:05
idea button on the IMAT G3 proposal page, and we'll include a link to this, uh it has currently about 5,000
18:11
supporters. Um so, if you're interested in this, yeah, go over there and vote. It needs 10,000 um for them to consider
18:18
it. And then, of course, there's Apple. There was a do you remember the previous There was um an Apple retail store that
18:23
was a a popular one, wasn't it? That came up a couple of years ago, I think, that people voted on, but I I guess that
18:29
hasn't been made into a a product. Hey, it's up to 8,500 supporters now.
18:35
Oh, wow. Wow. It's catching fire. They just need that cult push. Yeah,
18:41
do it now. It's a It's really nice looking. I You definitely got to check out the pictures. The guy did a beautiful job
18:48
with this. It really looks fun. Any idea how how big is this thing? Uh, judging from the pictures, it looks
18:55
like it'd be about that big. I don't know, a few inches, maybe. It's hard to tell.
19:00
It's hard to tell, but it's really remarkable how they get the proportions so correct out of, you know, bricks. You
19:08
know, it's made out of bricks. I know they're using a lot of the special parts. Like, I guess that's a standard
19:13
Lego part to have like a weird sort of egg-shaped translucent blue piece. I can't imagine what other set that would
19:18
be a part of or where it came from. But, you know, there there there are these programs where you can search like 3D
19:24
modeling programs where you can search through the database of every Lego part that's ever been made and make a uh you
19:30
know 3D model out of Lego and you can even like replicate instructions and that's where a lot of these Lego ideas
19:36
sets come from. But, uh apparently all the parts were there to to fashion like a recognizably, you know, iMac G3. It
19:44
doesn't really look like a one of the knockoffs from the early 2000s. It looks like an iMac. It's pretty remarkably
19:50
done. Yeah. Yeah. Nice job. Very very nice job. I used to love Lego um playing with
19:55
Lego as a kid, but it's hours and hours of sifting through looking for the part
20:01
that you needed. Uh that was my main memory of it. And then of course, you know, stepping on
20:07
piece of your bare feet. That's I wasn't going to mention that, but that's what I remember. I mean, the
20:13
pro tip to sorting your parts is to not sort them by color. Sort them by shape because it's easier to find the the part
20:19
that you want um of the color that you want in a in a bin of similar parts than it is to sift through a bunch of
20:24
identical looking colors. That's that's the pro tip there. That's my how-to. There you go.
20:30
Yeah. Yeah. All right. Nice one there, Griffin. Nice. Very good. All right. Cool. So, um let's move on to our next
20:37
story, which uh Lewis is going to tell us about. This is um you know Tim Cook I think has been tossing and turning
20:43
worried about this big Google antitrust case that the judge finally passed a judgment on this week and he can rest
20:49
easy. Yeah. Uh Apple's lucrative Google search deal is safe. Uh Google continue it
20:56
search deal to pay Apple billions of dollars a year for a prime spot as Safari's default search engine as long
21:02
as it's not an exclusive placement whatever that means. Um, well, this is
21:08
what Yeah, I'll rant I'll rant about this afterwards. Okay. Yeah. Uh, so this is all part of
21:14
the big uh what is it? I can't even remember. US at AL versus Google or whatever antitrust case. It's been going
21:20
on for years. I'm sorry. US government sued Google and they have been
21:25
determined to be a monopoly. And now this is part of the how do we how do we
21:30
deal with that monopoly type of thing. And and one of the things that was in play was like maybe they're going to
21:37
make it impossible for Google to pay Apple and other other people, other companies, uh to make Google a default
21:45
search. And and for Apple, this is a a big deal because it's I mean over $20 billion a year, which is like 5% of the
21:53
company's annual revenue, right? Um and you can see where the government is coming from for that perspective. Like if you're the number one search engine
21:59
in the world, you have the disposable income to pay the biggest tech company in the world to be the one and only like
22:05
default search engine option now and forever. And that prevents, you know, Bing from becoming as popular or, you
22:12
know, Duck Duck Go or Bing, whatever have you. I I'm sure Tim Cook and and everybody,
22:17
they're just freaking out, man, because if if they lost this, it's like where are they going to make up that money, right? I mean, and it and this was
22:23
lumped into their services category, which is like the the one part of of Apple that's like seriously growing all
22:29
the time. And that you Tim Cook sort of I when did he decide to to focus on
22:34
that? I mean, it was I don't know 5 10 years ago. It's like services are where
22:39
we're going to grow. And so they keep growing Apple TV Plus, things like this, all these different uh services, iCloud,
22:45
and they keep growing that amount that Google pays them critically. Yeah. And um so so anyway, this judge's
22:51
thing came out this week. He he said that stopping Apple from doing that would pose quote a substantial risk of
22:58
harm to Apple as well as to consumers and Google's other partners. This this I
23:04
don't know if you guys happen to read this. I mean the report was only like or not report the ruling was only like 230 pages. So I mean it was it was real
23:09
light reading. Uh, my god, I was going crazy trying to figure it out. And and when this news broke this week, you
23:15
know, there were headlines and people commenting on on Twitter, some saying Apple's deal is good, others saying
23:22
Apple's deal is now shut down. It's like it was impossible to figure out. I had to go read through a lot of this doc. I was just losing my mind cuz it's and
23:30
it's all just a proposal. That's the other thing about this like this is not final. The judge uh has asked the two
23:36
Kai sides of the case to meet and confer and present by de September 10 a joint
23:43
revised final judgment that is consistent with the memorandum opinion.
23:48
So I I I suppose it could still flip-flop. I can't imagine that after this taking this back from Apple.
23:54
I mean this is like the best case scenario for both companies, right? Ah, Google, we've determined that you are a monopoly, but as part of your judgment,
24:01
uh, you can still keep paying Apple billions of dollars to be the one and only default search engine, and you don't have to get rid of Google Chrome,
24:08
and you don't have to get rid of Android. Like, what more could they have asked for really? This is like, yeah, you're a monopoly, but uh, no, you don't
24:15
have to do anything about it. That's fine, right? Exactly. This is this is what's crazy about it. I mean, it's like you've been you've been judged to be a monopolist to
24:21
doing harm to the open internet. And here the resolution is you can continue
24:26
to do exactly what you've been doing. Basically, it's there's ab there's almost no change whatsoever. This exclusivity thing is complete BS because
24:35
you know it's it means that as long as it's not I believe not exclusive to Apple as long as the same deal is
24:41
offered to other um you know uh platforms. Yeah. So Apple can say hey duck.go how
24:48
much money would you like to give us to be the one and only default search engine? And duck.go go will say, "Uh, we can give you $50,000." And they'll be
24:56
like, "No, I'll take the $20 billion instead." Yeah. Okay, great.
25:01
Mind-numbing for sure. Uh, so I I thought this was interesting, though. The the judge who wrote this
25:08
incredibly long ruling. Um, he listed certain things. He said why he thinks this that this should not
25:15
be banned, this payment to Apple and other people. And I I I found this part really interesting. He he said that if
25:21
if they stopped this from happening, it would mean fewer products and less product innovation from Apple,
25:28
higher mobile phone prices and less innovative phone features, lost competition and innovation from
25:34
small developers in the browser market, and less investment in the US market by Android OEMs, which would reduce
25:40
competition in the US mobile phone market with Apple. So he's he's getting pretty deep in the weeds about how this is bad for or how eliminating this would
25:48
be bad because basically he's saying if we if if we take this away from Apple,
25:54
Apple's going to be screwed. It's it's it's a I don't know. It's just a really weird kind of a ruling, right? Like I I
26:01
I mean granted I'm not a a judge or any kind of expert on monopolies or anything
26:06
like that, but I thought it was kind of wild how explicitly he said we can't take this away from Apple because it
26:12
will make Apple be less good and it'll make your phone be less good. Won't somebody please think of the tech
26:18
giants? Yeah. Poor Apple. Poor little Apple. That's what I was saying. It's like, you know, that someone goes out and robs a
26:24
bank and the judges said, "Well, that's okay as long as you share the the money with, you know, all these other because what's the robber going to do if
26:30
he doesn't have that money? We can't charge him." It's completely crazy. So, I, you know,
26:36
I hopefully that the various state attorney generals that brought this suit, you know, will strongly uh contest
26:43
this um and and try to try to get a better judgment. I mean, it's also bad
26:48
for small publishers, too. you know this whole search data um they they going to have to share that as well. Um that
26:55
doesn't do anything for search uh you know like one of the big questions for independent publishers like us was
27:00
whether um we would be provided with a mechanism to be able to opt out of
27:07
Google's AI crawls without harming the
27:12
search crawl. So, at the moment, you know, you you have to open up the website to Google's crawlers to be
27:18
included in the search index, but they're also using, you know, your content to build their AI. And of
27:24
course, you know, we're talking about the decimation of the open web and the complete destruction of the the
27:30
independent, you know, web publishing industry because um the two things are tied together. you know, if you if you
27:37
if you don't want to be part of Google's AI, if you don't want them to scrape your content, you've got to opt out of the search, which will, you know,
27:43
instantly kill the website. And explain to people why that is. What do you mean? Maybe people don't understand what that
27:50
mean. I mean, AI, these AI search results that Google is turning up, basically, they're they're taking
27:56
content from all these websites like Cult of Mac and other places, and they're serving them up as search results so you don't end up getting a
28:03
link to cult of Mac. you know, get the traffic from Google, right? I mean, I I think that maybe people who aren't in
28:09
the publishing industry don't understand that or whatever. Uh, and that it's a big it's a big problem for web
28:15
publishers because if you depend on Google for any amount of traffic, and we all do because that's how people find
28:21
stuff. Uh, if Google's just taking your content and serving up a bite-sized
28:27
portion of it that satisfies the the need of the search, then why would anybody ever click the link to Cult of
28:33
Mac to, you know, the actual source of that information? I mean, they're actually putting in some links now, making it a little bit more apparent
28:39
where they take uh take where the content comes from. Take is the right word. Where they steal
28:45
the content. That that's correct. You were right. But uh that's that's the dilemma for us and other web publishers.
28:51
Yeah. these AIs, I mean, they're hugely hugely criminal. They are violating they're violating basic copyrights.
28:59
um you know they they they they go and take all this content and synthesize it and and uh and and offer up you know
29:06
these answers where and people don't click the you know the great bargain was is that uh Google would would would
29:13
would index your site and if anyone was searching for information you know they'd click a link and you would get the traffic you get some traffic which
29:20
of course could be monetized with advertising or or you know uh it it was it was you know it was a support it was
29:26
a it's like kind of a bit It wasn't the greatest deal for readers to be honest. The AI is a far better
29:33
experience for sure. You can't beat the and that's that's what's that's what's troubling. You can't you can't be you
29:39
know you don't want to fight the future but um this information is coming from somewhere and it's coming from
29:44
independent creators, independent publishers. Um, and they are being cut out of uh, you know, this they're being
29:53
cut out of revenue because because the the the information is being taken by the AIS and and served up without
30:00
sending that reciprocal traffic. So, it could be devastating to the open web. I
30:05
mean, I've seen, you know, there was a flurry of stories the last few months um, from independent publishers who was
30:10
what they call noclick searches. People do a search now and they don't click on anything. Um, and you know, I mean, I'm
30:17
conflicted because it is a better experience for the for the searcher for sure. There's no doubt about it. I mean,
30:22
before you start, if you can trust the results, I mean, the thing is Google is going to steal your AI. It's going to AI scrape your
30:27
website and then it's going to come up with a wrong answer, then it's going to attribute it to you. So, it's going to give people wrong information that they
30:34
won't click on the source to see that it's wrong, and they're also going to blame you when it's wrong. So well I I find like you know for for some
30:40
cases where the answer is quite simple obviously you don't need to click the link but if it if it's a more complicated query where you do want to
30:46
um confirm the data then I will go through and click on the website but I I
30:51
you know some of the statistics that have been cited by like Cloudflare they've been a big um this is a company
30:56
that does a lot of um uh uh uh what do you call it CDN hosting um for a lot of
31:03
publishers and so they get to see a lot of I think that 20% of web traffic is routed through cloud for I believe
31:09
something like that. A quite a big number. So they get to see yeah they got they've got a lot of data
31:14
about what you know who's clicking on what and where where traffic is going and they they're claiming that um it's
31:21
you know it's almost it is the the era of no searches. I'm sorry no click searches. You know people are getting information they need and they're not
31:27
clicking through to the original publisher of that information. especially if you use you know something like chat GPT or perplexity or uh claude
31:35
AI um it it uh it's it you know it's a huge problem it's a huge problem for
31:40
publishers it's going to be a huge problem for the publishing industry for the open web and anyway this this Google decision now I mean the judge said that
31:47
uh it's okay Google continue to do this as long as they share that search data with with with what they call qualified
31:55
competitors which is just insane. It just makes it even worse. It's like this is not a remedy at all for publishers.
32:01
This just like this is like now the now the the the you know qualified competitors they don't have to do their own crawls. They can just get the data
32:07
from Google. It's madness. Madness. You should have written the article
32:12
obviously. I know would have devolved into just angry
32:19
stream of thought screaming at Yeah. Right. inarticulate ranting about it. It it's
32:24
not it's not a good ruling at all for for independent publishers. I mean, I was hoping, you know, to see um Google totally broken up
32:31
and forced to divest Chrome and uh you know, unlink the search index from the
32:38
um from the AI indexing it. Um but, you know, we're not going to see that. And I
32:44
have very very low hopes that that that even if this is appealed by the
32:49
attorneys general that they're going to come up with a better deal for publishers. Yeah, this is crazy. Like this is one of the worst rulings ever.
32:56
There's no remedy whatsoever for anybody. It's like, yeah, you're a monop illegal monopolist and you're allowed to continue illegal monopolistic practices
33:02
scuff-free. It's crazy. Well, uh, never fear, though. Google's appealing, so maybe the whole thing will
33:08
get overturned, right? Never fear, Google's appealing, so maybe they'll get an even better deal
33:14
in a few months. Few years. I mean, it's been going on since 2020. I mean it's astonishing how
33:20
long this case has been going on and it's you know people are talking about it like it's it's like the the first
33:25
sort of big tech antirust case in the
33:31
modern internet era you know the last was what versus Microsoft from the mid the mid late 90s
33:38
I I I mean I if anybody's you know got a few hours to kill or if for instance you're find yourself awake late at night
33:44
you can't quite drift off to sleep go read that 230 page drooling. It's just it'll just uh it'll put you right to
33:51
sleep. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, let's move on to our setup portion. Um this is uh a a setup that's based on not one but
33:58
two Apple studio displays. Um, and if
34:04
you can't see the picture, what we have is two big studio displays up on a
34:10
monitor riser with a Mac Studio uh, on the lower left right underneath the
34:16
riser. And on the left, we have a MacBook Pro, I think. Is that a MacBook Pro?
34:22
Yeah, it's a MacBook Pro. Yeah. In some sort of stand that's sitting at vertically for some reason. Yeah. With a back with the back the
34:29
bottom showing. instead should which is a huge aesthetic crime. Um they should
34:36
have turned it around. Uh and in the foreground we have your
34:42
keyboard and mouse. Um it's an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and a Magic Trackpod and a Magic Mouse.
34:49
Uh in fact, this is one of those we were we were kind of discussing this earlier. The more you look at this, the weirder it gets. Uh even weirder is the uh well
34:56
I was kind of wondering what was going on here on the on the left hand side you have a MagSafe iPhone charger and uh an
35:05
Apple Watch charger which seem to be mounted at weird angles. I guess they're mounted somehow. Now
35:11
they can they seem to be at first I thought they were floating in space but they they seem to have some kind of mount so that the I guess he he could
35:18
put um his iPhone and uh on the Mag Safe iPhone charger and have it facing him
35:23
pretty well. Yeah. So you could use that for standby or you know have easy access for it. But the Apple Watch one is point would if
35:29
you were to put an Apple Watch on it would have the screen facing up towards the ceiling not facing in your direction
35:35
at all. So I don't know what that's all about. There's just a the there's a white HomePod mini as well
35:42
uh in that area. And it's cable. Yeah. And it's cable just awkwardly
35:48
strown across the the side there. It took me a while to notice this, but there's uh a pair of AirPods Max on the
35:55
far right side. I didn't even put it in our notes here because I didn't see it at first, but AirPods Max inside the
36:02
little folding flappy charging case, whatever. Oh my god, the smart case.
36:08
Why does he have a uh Is that a a muskrat? That's a possum.
36:13
A possum, right? Yeah. Why is he got a possum there? Is the possum mentioned in the write up? That's what I want to know. When you have it zoomed out, it almost
36:19
kind of looks like a Lego possum. But yeah, it's like a possum action figure just uh screaming on his desk.
36:26
Ironic considering possums aren't very actionoriented. Yeah. Yeah.
36:33
My wife got bitten by a possum a few years ago. It Yeah, it was living in our basement. It
36:39
was in a It was in a a Halloween candy bucket. Uh like a pumpkin-shaped bucket. Um and
36:45
she went down there to get some Halloween stuff and and put her hand in it and it was all kind of furry. Then it moved and then it bit her. Oh my god, it
36:51
was horrible. That's bizarre. And so she came, huh? Suzanne had almost the same exact same
36:57
experience. Really? Yeah. She went downstairs into the laundry room. She put her hand up into a
37:02
box. She's like, "Oh, there's a a furry, you know, like a piece of fake fur or something." And then it went
37:09
bite her, but it They are creepy as heck. If you've ever seen a possum, I mean, when they're not
37:15
pretending to be dead, they are creepy as can be. Snaggle. They got big teeth, too. Yeah. Nasty,
37:20
nasty looking teeth. Yeah. So, she had to go get a tetanus shot at the tetanus or rabies.
37:27
Tetanus, I think. Yeah, but maybe. Well, she hasn't got rabies yet. Maybe that happened to this person's
37:33
wife, too. And that's that's why they've immortalized it in a toy on their desk. Yeah, maybe. Maybe.
37:40
It's a nice looking setup, though, isn't it? I mean, look at those two beautiful displays. That's a lot of screen real estate.
37:45
Yeah. Yeah. Uh wall art. You have like some sort of ticket thing on the At least it's ticket shaped
37:52
because that has like that little round cutout on top. I don't really know what it is. a little wall panel with two
37:58
mysterious dials on it. Uh, I'm really curious what that does. Uh, zooming into
38:04
the desktop, you can see they don't actually have, you know, their desktop littered with icons, just a tidy amount
38:11
of drives and some folders and things. Uh, good number of widgets on the desktop. They've got like the battery
38:16
widget, a home kit widget, you know, calendar, weather, typical stuff. Not
38:22
sure what that big white one is. I think that might be reminders. Yeah, reminders widget. So, this is a pretty pretty
38:27
clean setup. And they've got that uh sort of I think this was like the motif for one of the Apple product
38:33
introductions, like the sort of black liquid with the chromatic colors all
38:38
over it. I think that was introduced with like one of the MacBook Pros, but they have a wallpaper uh from that. So,
38:45
it's it's overall I don't care for the wallpaper. I don't care for the wallpaper. Do you? It's pretty groovy, man. No, not really.
38:52
I don't mind it. It looks like a oily puddle. Mhm. What about the little tray he's got his
38:57
keyboard and trackpad in? That's kind of cool. Well, the thing is I usually use my my
39:03
trackpad with my right hand and he has the trackpad on the right side as well. You usually don't want them to be at the
39:09
same exact angle with each other. Like he he has they're in a tray that like keeps them snapped together, but I
39:15
usually want my trackpad to be at like a you know slightly more tilted angle to use with my right hand and the keyboard,
39:20
you know, angled to the left. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This very definitely unergonomic. Probably got some horrible wrist pain.
39:27
Geez. There's And there's a there's some lights at the back of the desk that's lighting upwards. That looks pretty good. That's a nice touch.
39:32
Yeah. Nice bright setup. I you know, this is this is among one of my favorites we've done, but you know, of and and I can appreciate a Mac Studio,
39:38
but I would only do one studio display and I would do a better keyboard. Overall, do you think um each display is running
39:45
off a different machine? I guess not. No, it looks like it's just it's only connected to one, isn't it? because
39:50
there's no menu on the right hand display which would presumably be connected to the Mac Studio.
39:56
Oh, there is there is a menu but it's faded out as if the other uh one is active and that's usually that only
40:01
happens when you have like you know two displays connected to the same machine. So I guess I don't know how he connects his uh how he uses his MacBook Pro
40:08
because it's tucked away, you know, screen closed. I don't know if that one's controlling both of these or how
40:13
he switches between the two or what. But and why would you want to Yeah. Yeah. Why would you want a MacBook
40:19
Pro when you have a Mac Studio, right? It would make most sense if one one was, you know, one was controlling
40:27
one screen and the other one was controlling the other screen, but they don't seem to be. Yeah, it's kind of curious.
40:32
Well, in the rest of the post, you can check out other setups though. This is this is an article, a collection of setups that all utilize two studio
40:39
displays. So, you can you can check that out. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So now we have a
40:44
burning question, a burning reader question from and it's a good one. This
40:49
is a great one. Thank you very much for this question. Uh in Chewy Tom, this is a great question. Uh so uh the
40:56
the the blood oxygen workaround, this is for the Apple Watch is basically don't
41:02
show the number on the watch. Everything else works as before. Why did it take Apple so long to figure out that
41:09
workaround? And how is that simple tweak legal while showing the number in the watch app isn't?
41:16
So, I mean, as we've discussed in earlier in this show, the United States legal system is very complicated and
41:22
everything moves at, you know, the speed of molasses. Um, as far as we can tell,
41:28
like this decision to approve this, you know, kind of non-solution
41:34
was decided on by a completely different organization, not by the ITC, the international trade commission, which
41:41
had initially banned the Apple Watch. This instead came from Customs and Border Protection that determined
41:47
Maximo's Pulk's oximter patent uh was limiting in scope to the watch and did
41:53
not apply to the phone. So this is a different organization I guess made made that decision like there was a whole
42:00
investigation centered around whether Maximos patents were limiting or not. The CBP asked the international trade
42:07
commission you know the institution that instituted the ban whether or not they
42:12
considered the mass mo patents to be limiting. The ITC responded yes. So this was a whole you know you have to wait
42:18
for communication between two government bodies. I mean sloth talking to a sloth there. So,
42:25
and that insight comes from uh John Gerber. That was the what the delay was. I mean,
42:30
I bet you know that someone had proposed this or thought about this for ye, you know, years. Maybe this was all their
42:35
idea for a solution to get around it all the time, but they couldn't um implement it until they had had some kind of
42:43
memorandum from That's something you would want to double check first to be sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and and and you know,
42:50
Gruba actually had some interesting things to say about the company. You know, he's he he is convinced that uh Masimo is uh you know, patent trolling.
42:58
They don't have a they they said that they were going to they they they filed a patent, but they still don't have a product out on the market and um the
43:06
patent runs out, I think, next year or in a couple of years. So, they've only got 2028, I think.
43:12
Yeah. So, they've they've got a quite a short window in which to monetize their patent. Um
43:19
I mean they do have devices. What's he talking about? Oh well I don't know the one that didn't
43:24
um specifically use this particular patent. This particular patent. Yeah.
43:30
Well uh shortly after this happened also uh Masimo sued the US Customs and Border
43:35
Protection uh over the decision that that they made to let Apple do it. So uh
43:41
once again the the people who are getting rich are the the lawyers because it's just continuing to happen. lawsuit,
43:48
lawsuit, fight, fight, battle. You can just Who knows if the patent expires.
43:54
That'd be hilarious if Apple just waits it out. The patent expires and then suddenly boom, everybody's Apple Watch
44:00
works as usual the way it used to be. The good old days when you could actually see it on your wrist as opposed
44:05
to have to seeing it on a phone. When you could do it once and then forget it exists,
44:10
right? Have you actually used it? Anyone used it yet on their phone? Have you touched your blood oxygen? Sure.
44:17
Yeah, because I still have one blood oxygen sensor that works as originally intended. I have I'm still on a series
44:23
7. I I think I used it once when I first got it and then I haven't checked it since. That's It's nice that it's going on in
44:28
the background, right? And and like the other day, two I guess it was yesterday,
44:34
two days ago, whatever. I wake up and I got one of those alerts from the vitals app saying, "Oh, two of your uh things
44:39
were outliers, right?" Like, whoa, what? and and said that my temperature was high overnight and my uh respiration
44:46
rate was high overnight and and I was like, "God, you know, it's weird. I I do feel kind of sick today." And uh kind of
44:53
kind of felt crappy the whole day and uh ended up like looking at the vitals app going and it shows in there all the
45:00
stuff, your heart rate overnight, your respiration rate overnight, your um blood oxygen percentage overnight. I I I
45:07
find that stuff kind of fascinating. The fact that that little device on your wrist keeps track of all that stuff, alerts you when something's slightly out
45:14
of your normal range so that you can, you know, consider, I don't know, taking a COVID test or uh, you know, getting a
45:21
little extra sleep, which is what I did. Well, flying around California, so be careful.
45:26
That's what I hear. Let's get to the fun part of the show. The one the part that everyone's been waiting for, the ordropping uh,
45:32
predictions. So this is where we're going to predict what is going to be coming up at the uh ordropping event
45:38
which is now just you know less than a week away next Tuesday. So as a recap, Lewis won our prediction
45:45
game a few months ago at WWDC but Leander and I have the opportunity to kick him off of his throne. So these are
45:53
the rules. We have agreed on a list of predictions for the event. For each prediction, we will vote yes or no
45:59
whether we think it will happen. Uh votes will be placed in the order of who won the previous game. So Lewis will go
46:05
first, I will go second, and Leander third. One point will be awarded for each correct guess out of 20. Any
46:13
disputes and judgment must be ruled on by Ed Hardy, a responsibility he has not been informed of, uh much less agreed
46:19
to. So let's hope it doesn't come to that. Listeners, you can submit your own votes using a Google form that is in the
46:26
show notes, or you can just go to dgriffinjones.com/servey. The highest score submitted before the
46:32
event begins will be honored in the next episode. There's actually a question on that form that that asks whether there's
46:38
uh anything you want to plug or promote if you were to win. So, you can find that at dgriffinjones.com/servey
46:46
or click the link in the show notes. 20 questions. Let's kick it off. Starting with the
46:52
iPhone section. New thin iPhone is named Air. Lewis, it's up to you. What do you
46:59
think? Well, that means of course iPhone Air, right? I mean, you're not going to get legalist economy, are you? iPhone Air.
47:07
Okay. You think yes. Yes. I say yes. iPhone. Okay. I'm going to put down yes as well. I
47:13
like, you know, it's one of these things where we're all assuming that it's going to be that. And you know, and it might not always be that. Apple marketing is
47:18
is a black box, but also I haven't seen anybody else propose a good name for it. So,
47:23
yeah. Slim. Come on, Leander. Yeah. Nano. I don't think it's going to be I Yeah, I'm I'm gonna have to go yes,
47:30
too. Okay, here's an open question. All new iPhones are numbered 26. Is it
47:38
going to be iPhone 17 or 26? You say no. I'm going to go.
47:43
An interesting move, but uh no, Leander. Uh I'm going to say yes, just to be
47:49
contrarian. Well, because it you know it like we'd had a big discussion about this, didn't you? You know, it'll line up with the the OS number. Yeah, but
47:56
then when they have the iPhone 20 next year. Oh well. Sorry, Lander.
48:03
New A series chips are number 26.
48:08
Ah boy, I wish that this was a a yes, but I think I'm going to say no.
48:14
Yeah, I'm going to go no. Leander. Yes. Yes. All in on 26
48:20
just to be contrarian. Yeah, I think that strategy worked out so well for you
48:25
last time. Yeah, right. Pro iPhones come in an undeniably
48:32
vibrant orange color. Uh, once again, oh, how I wish I could
48:38
say yes, but no. You know, I would vote no for this if
48:44
not for those leaks by Majin Buu that showed it and the like the case leaks
48:50
that we've seen. I'm gonna go yes. We have definitely have to call in a lawyer for the definition of undeniably
48:56
vibrant. Leander. Yeah, I'm I'm with Lewis. No. No.
49:01
It's going to be a dull dull brown. I mean, look, I honestly wish it were brown. I love the color brown, but Apple
49:08
makes lanyard straps that attach to its new cases.
49:14
You know, I actually thought they already made lanyards because like for the AirPods, but they don't, do they?
49:21
So, you know what? I'm going to say yes because I think that they are going to
49:27
make like crossbody cases. You know what I mean? Those
49:33
I'm gonna go yes as well. I'm putting putting all my stock in Majin Buu here.
49:38
And wasn't there a leak? Wasn't there some pictures of them last this this last week? So, yeah, possibly of the actual lanyards or just just the
49:46
cases with the lanyard spot. A picture of a strap, I think. Oh, really? Some straps. Yeah. So, I'm going to go
49:52
Yes. Tech woven cases claim more durability than fine woven.
49:59
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Uh yeah, I'm going to go yes as well. Well, uh this is a this is a rigged
50:08
game. Um, so I'm going to say no just so that I have a chance of winning just in case.
50:14
They they they might introduce techwoven, but they might not actually say Yeah, they might not actually try to claim that it's more durable. So there
50:20
I don't think Yeah, exactly. That's I don't think they're going to make those claims. I don't think they're going to go out and Can I change my vote?
50:25
Nope. Cuz that's that's a good point. Like they're not going to go out and go, "Well, those old fine woven cases
50:32
sucked, so these ones are actually more durable." Well, maybe they will.
50:37
Maybe. satellite connectivity is still free for everyone. So, as context, every iPhone
50:44
since the iPhone 14 has had satellite connectivity, and they've said, you know, oh, it's free for now, free for
50:49
the first year, but then they keep uh sort of kicking that deadline down the bucket. Is it going to still be free for
50:55
everyone third year in a row? I think yes. I'm gonna go no.
51:01
I'm a Griffin. No, but shutting it off is like I don't know. would be like endangering people.
51:09
I think they'll probably come up with some way of monetizing it where like maybe it'll run for free, but if you
51:16
make an emergency, if you use it, they charge you. Yeah. I don't know.
51:21
I fell off the side of a mountain. I Oh, that'll be $10.
51:26
I don't know how they will. Like, it's they they they baked in this ve I mean, it's very expensive to run like running
51:32
all those satellite networks. Like I think they've poured like hundreds of millions of dollars into it. Maybe
51:38
they'll just keep doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. But uh a price point on one of the iPhones is raised by
51:45
at least $100. They just raised the Pro Max, right? This last year was a hundred bucks more.
51:52
They Yeah, they they they raised it 100 bucks a few years ago, but they left everything else the same. the iPhone 10
52:00
and like you know all of its successors have been $9.99 since 2017.
52:05
You know tariffs, who knows? I'm going to say no. I'm going to say yes.
52:14
I I think the time has come. Yeah, me too. I think um it's definitely
52:19
going to be going up. Mhm. Especially with with new storage tiers. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Apple Watch section.
52:28
Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3 feature 5G cellular.
52:33
It's going to make such a difference. Mhm. I was thinking about this one. I was just trying to imagine what difference
52:39
it would actually make and how they could make it sound like it was a big deal. Then I remembered how much they tried to make 5G a big deal four years
52:46
ago, whatever it was. Yeah. The question of what difference will it make doesn't really matter. The question is, can Apple say this one has
52:52
5G and make you want to buy the new one? Right. And also, will it be both or just
52:58
one? Uh, okay. Yes.
53:03
5G Red Cap. I'm going to go no. I'm I'm not so sure it would come to the Series 11 as well.
53:09
So, that's that's I'm a little there. It's hard to tell. Uh, I'm going to say yes.
53:15
Oh, because they're going to be using the same chip. Apple Watch Ultra 3 gains
53:20
satellite communication. Oh my god. What's the current state of the
53:25
I I just I get so confused about all these things that never I never use. I'm not really sure. That's fair. Uh I think currently only
53:32
the iPhones have had satellite. I'm going to say no. I'm actually going to go yes on that
53:38
one. Yeah, me too. Okay. All right. Things are getting spicy now.
53:43
Mhm. It's still fun when everybody has the same answer to everything. Apple Watch Ultra 3 has some kind of blood pressure
53:50
monitoring. You know what the thing is? I couldn't write too strong language here because Apple's
53:56
probably going to wiggle their way out of it even if they add it. So, some kind of blood pressure monitoring.
54:02
I So many of these I I have to say I wish I could say yes, but I think I don't think that this is coming this
54:08
year. I don't think they're gonna I don't think they've got it together. I'm also a no on that.
54:13
I'm gonna say yes because um it's offered on some of the other uh competitor smart watches, isn't it? It's
54:19
off offered on a couple other devices. I hope you're right, Lander. Hypertension warnings. Yeah. Yeah. Me, too.
54:25
Be cool. We haven't heard much about this in a while. New colorful plastic Apple Watch
54:32
SE. It's about time for it. But uh rumor mill's been a little silent.
54:37
That's funny. I was thinking about that lately or not lately yesterday when I was looking at this list and yeah, it's
54:43
been like what three years since there's been a new SE and we we thought we were going to get an SE plastic one like last
54:50
time. Uh yeah, I say yes. I'm going to go yes as well. I'm gonna say no. They're going to stick
54:56
with aluminum. I I do write these to be a little deceptive and have like, you know, you're technically voting on two pieces
55:02
of information here. Maybe I've made a trap for myself, but we'll see.
55:07
Other hardware, AirPods Pro 3 with health sensors and smaller case.
55:13
And the health sensor would be like heart rate monitor or something or temperature.
55:20
Yeah, I think I say yes. I'm gonna go yes as well. Yeah, I'm I'm gonna say yes.
55:26
Apple TV updated with new chip and Dolby Vision 2, the just announced feature.
55:33
Yes. And I can't wait for Dolby Vision 2 so I can see what's going on in silo.
55:40
I'm gonna say no. I think it might be a little too early for Dolby Vision 2.
55:46
Yeah, I'm going to say no. I don't think um I think there's already a lot of stuff coming out and they're not going
55:52
to they're not going to throw everything at the wall. No TV at all. No.
55:57
New smart display announced. It's got to come out eventually.
56:03
Yeah. No. Siri still not this time. Still too stupid. Yeah. No. I'd like to see it, but not
56:09
this time. Any new Mac, iPad, Vision Pro, or other hardware product.
56:14
Man, I think the only possibility is a Vision Pro with a better chip, but uh I'm going to say no.
56:20
I'm a no as well. I think this might be a next month kind of thing if the Vision Pro is going to come out this year.
56:27
Yeah, right. November. Yeah, I'm no, too. Oh, you already put me as Wow. Oh, sorry. I just even if I even said it.
56:35
Well predicted. Mhm. My my prediction for your votes is a different game that I'm playing
56:40
myself. Okay. Okay. Miscellaneous section. Apple
56:46
spends over five minutes reintroducing iOS 26 and liquid glass.
56:51
And this means overall, right? Not necessarily a straight five minute
56:58
segment. Hm. I kind of imagined it as being like a straight fiveminute segment when I wrote this, but uh yeah, maybe
57:05
maybe maybe we can be a little more liberal with it. Yeah, over five minutes throughout the keynote.
57:10
Absolutely. Yes. You know, I was going to vote for this no, but if we're ruling it that way, I'm
57:16
still going to go no. I think they'll want to keep it breezy and I think they've got a lot if they've got AirPods and the Apple TV coming.
57:22
Oh, it's a no. I think it's going to be definitely yes. They're going to be going on and on about it. I actually went back and looked at last year's
57:28
iPhone event just to research this question and they spent like 10 minutes talking about Apple intelligence
57:34
all the things that were going to be coming which still aren't here. Speaking of which, Apple reintroduces
57:40
smarter agentic Siri. Again, I wish it was yes, but no.
57:45
Craig Federiki did say at that internal meeting, you know, he he talked about the new Siri in the present tense, yes,
57:51
we've got it. Yes, it's working. We're we're we're going. It's even better than what we showed years ago. I'm gonna I'm
57:59
gonna play with passion. I'm gonna go yes. I I think maybe they'll they'll
58:05
reannounce it and it'll be uh like maybe included in a beta. Yeah, I'm gonna go
58:10
yes. Wow. I'm gonna try willing it into exist. I'll be right eventually if I keep voting yes on it.
58:16
Yeah. And I'm a no, unfortunately. Yeah. Although I'd like to see it very wisely, I might add.
58:23
A new product is 100% carbon neutral. So for context, currently it's only the
58:30
aluminum Apple Watch Series 10. For this point to be correct,
58:36
it have to Yeah. with a certain band. I think for this point to be correct, it has to spread to a different product line like the stainless steel Apple Watch or the
58:43
Apple Watch Ultra or the AirPods. But 2030 is coming up faster than you
58:48
think and it's still just that one product. So, what do we think?
58:54
Yeah, I I they love touting that kind of thing. I'd say yes. I think I lost. I think I lost on this last time.
59:02
Uh, just to be contrarian, I'll say no. I'd like to see it. I think maybe it will happen, but I need to somehow get an advantage in
59:09
this quiz. So, tech woven. Tech woven 100% carbon neutral. All right. Oh, actually, no. I want to
59:15
change my joke. No, can't do it. Okay. Final question. event runs over 1
59:21
hour 25 minutes. Yes, I think that's a yes as well.
59:27
I I'm presuming last last the last one was an hour and 25. You know what? Let me check. 2023 was an
59:33
hour and 23 minutes. 2024 was an hour and 39 minutes. It depends
59:40
on whether they have like a lot to talk about or you know just you know regular stuff to talk about. So they they they
59:45
waffle around that time. What did you say, Louis? Yes, I voted yes as well.
59:51
Okay, I'm a yes, too. Okay, well, it' be at least 10 minutes of liquid
59:56
glass. Brace yourself. That's true. Right. And then they got the iPhone air. Mhm. This year and brand new model. They're
1:00:03
going to be going on about that for a while. Yeah, sure. So, we will determine the winner next week after the event.
1:00:08
Listeners, you can submit your votes by going to dgriffinjones.com/servey
1:00:14
or clicking the link in the show notes to see this. we will come back to this uh and our listeners have the benefit of
1:00:21
you know watching us place all pred all our predictions and you know still placing votes after Mark German spoils
1:00:28
all the answers on Sunday. So I I I love doing this uh every year or
1:00:34
every event and and I love how during the event my heart just sinks with every announcement like oh there's another one
1:00:40
I missed. Oh, what was I thinking? Mhm. It it makes the event actively less fun.
1:00:46
But you won, Lewis. So, yeah. Well, sometimes you can't even remember what
1:00:52
we did or what you voted for, but yeah, I've already forgotten. My confidence has sunk very low. I I I
1:01:00
don't think I'll be winning this one. All right. Well, it's going to be it's going to be a great event, isn't it? I'm looking forward to it. Um I think it's
1:01:06
really going to be cool, even if it is pre-recorded. I think uh there's a lot of really interesting stuff coming up this year,
1:01:13
and they're always fun to watch. Yeah. I mean, as much as I kind of complain about how canned they are, I
1:01:18
mean, it's definitely action-packed, they're never cringeworthy like that Google one was. And they're never
1:01:25
boring. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unlike this cult
1:01:34
fight, that's wrap it up. That's all the cult we have for you this week. Uh, if you want more, Lewis is on Twitter at
1:01:40
Lewis Wallace. Griffin's on Mass and Blue Sky Driffin Jones and I write the newsletter every day, the Cult of Mack
1:01:45
today newsletter, which you can get at newsletters.cult.com. Uh, and also don't forget uh in the show
1:01:52
notes there's going to be a link to submit your predictions for the event and we're going to be awarding the winner next week. Uh, that's been the
1:01:58
Coldcast, the best hourong conversation you're going to hear all week long. New episodes of the Coldcast come out every
1:02:03
Thursday night. I'd like to thank you all for listening and we'll see you next time. Have a great weekend, everybody.
1:02:09
Goodbye. See youa.
1:02:14
All right. Wow. Cool. It's coming right up this event.
1:02:20
All dropping fast. [Music]
1:02:34
[Music]


