Up next in 10
This week: What the new Siri will actually do, WWDC26 is official, the grim reaper of services revenue is coming for Apple Maps, the top features of iOS 26.4 and the iPad Air versus the MacBook Neo!
Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac
Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:56 - Apple Intelligence Siri in iOS 27
16:13 - WWDC26 announced
23:20 - Ads in Apple Maps
33:33 - iOS 26.4 features
49:58 - Listener Question
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Coming up, what the new Siri will
0:02
actually do. WWDC26
0:05
is official. The grim reaper of services
0:08
revenue is coming for Apple Maps. The
0:10
top features of iOS 26.4. The iPad
0:13
versus the MacBook Neo.
0:17
Welcome to the Col podcast. I'm your
0:18
host, Leander Kenny. Joining me today,
0:20
we have D. Griffin Jones coming in hot
0:22
from Ohio. Hey, Griffin.
0:23
>> I am actually coming in hot. It is
0:25
finally warm around here.
0:27
>> Good news. [music] Very good news. And
0:29
also, uh, Lewis Wallace, how are you,
0:32
Lewis?
0:32
>> I'm coming in, um, lukewarm from San
0:36
Francisco.
0:37
>> Yeah, it finally cooled down a little
0:39
bit.
0:39
>> We had such a glorious heat wave here
0:42
>> and now it's
0:43
>> still pretty nice though.
0:44
>> Yeah,
0:44
>> nice and sunny.
0:46
>> Can't complain.
0:46
>> Haven't been outside. Can't see through
0:48
the windows. Don't know. [laughter]
0:50
>> It's fine in the bunker.
0:51
>> Problem.
0:52
>> Yeah. Well, maybe I better emerge later
0:55
today. Uh well after let's get let's get
0:58
started anyway. Let's uh let's talk
0:59
about uh Lewis this new AI powered Siri.
1:02
Uh cool report this week from our friend
1:05
at Bloomberg uh talking about you know
1:08
what might be coming up with the smarter
1:09
Siri. It's kind of coming together.
1:11
>> Yeah. As as mentioned you know this is
1:13
from uh Mark German. Another inside
1:15
report based on you know anonymous
1:16
sources who of course don't want
1:17
anything you know their name attached to
1:19
any of this information. But uh he wrote
1:22
that the goal is to transform the
1:24
technology behind Siri from a
1:26
traditional voice assistant into a
1:28
systemwide AI agent with deep
1:30
integration across applications.
1:33
And uh I mean honestly it sounds exactly
1:36
like what they were talking about two
1:37
years ago at WWDC 24. [laughter]
1:40
>> Exactly. This is exactly what they were
1:42
showing up.
1:43
>> What an interesting idea.
1:44
>> Yeah. What a scoop. Anyway, uh but you
1:46
know he has more details about it. Uh,
1:49
this is this is rich right here. Apple
1:51
hopes to show off the new Siri at WWDC
1:53
26 this June with at least some of the
1:56
advanced AI features arriving in iOS 27
1:59
later this year. Looks like it's not
2:01
going to be a part of iOS 26 at all,
2:02
which we've been, you know, the delays
2:04
on this thing are just racking up like
2:07
crazy. Uh, let's see. Apple, this is the
2:10
part that's new really. He says Apple
2:12
plans to rework the Siri user interface
2:13
in a major way. Uh, I guess at least
2:17
modifying or maybe getting rid of the
2:19
whole like glowing Siri thing that Apple
2:21
introduced in iOS 18, which
2:23
>> I mean the thing about that is that
2:24
Apple introduced like the new edge of
2:26
the screen glowing effect uh as part of
2:30
the Apple intelligence powered Siri, but
2:32
then they rolled it out before any of
2:33
those, you know, seeing your screen
2:35
features came out. So now they have to
2:37
redesign it again because they already
2:40
blew it. [laughter]
2:41
>> I'm not sure if I'll miss that or not.
2:42
Although uh you know
2:45
it's not horrible. I I I I'm not
2:47
>> I like it. I
2:48
>> Yeah. I'm not
2:48
>> It clearly shows you know that's working
2:50
and
2:50
>> right
2:51
>> I think it's great.
2:51
>> I I think it's interesting. The one part
2:54
I don't like about it is I don't like
2:55
the like sort of orangey yellow color
2:57
scheme. I like the when I think of Siri,
2:59
I still think of like the purple and
3:00
blue colors and like those color waves.
3:03
But
3:04
>> you know what I don't like about it? The
3:07
dong sound it makes when it's like
3:08
thinking and can't come up with
3:10
something.
3:12
>> [laughter]
3:13
>> like somebody going in a Buddhist
3:15
temple. [snorts]
3:16
>> So you can think about your poor choices
3:18
asking Siri for anything.
3:20
>> Um
3:20
>> so so what's the new one going to look
3:22
like then?
3:22
>> Yeah. So I to be honest I I I read this
3:25
stuff from German. I'm like I I actually
3:26
know exactly what this means. A
3:27
systemwide ask Siri toggle where will
3:30
appear in menus across built-in apps
3:33
allowing users to send selected content
3:35
into new Siri conversation. Uh,
3:38
>> when I read that, I took that to mean
3:39
that like anytime you select text, how
3:41
you see like the little cut, copy, paste
3:42
menu come up, there'll be a new button
3:44
on that on that little pop-up menu that
3:46
says ask Siri.
3:48
>> H okay. Yeah, I I don't know. To me, it
3:50
was a little vague. Uh, is that
3:53
supposedly Siri might live in the
3:55
dynamic island now or, you know,
3:57
somehow?
3:58
>> Well, we were talking about Griffin and
3:59
I were talking about that earlier like
4:01
uh we were talking about how you can
4:03
right now you can ask Siri how to do
4:04
something like, "Hey, Siri, how do you
4:06
Oh, no. I it's going to set everything
4:07
off. I would have to uh how do you um
4:10
you know how do you send an email uh
4:13
later [laughter] and then Oh goodness,
4:16
mate. Sorry.
4:17
>> You spoke the forbidden words.
4:19
>> I did. And so and so it'll pop up a box
4:22
and it'll it'll tell you like in four
4:23
steps what to do. But then if as soon as
4:25
you start to do it that the instructions
4:28
disappear, which can kind of
4:30
>> super handy.
4:31
>> But Griffin was saying earlier that if
4:32
you if they make it live in the dynamic
4:34
island, then it'll persist.
4:35
>> Yeah. maybe it'll like sort of glow out
4:37
of the dynamic island and you know
4:38
things in the dynamic island stay there
4:39
until you swipe them up in a way to
4:42
minimize them. And it's kind of like
4:44
this on the Mac where on the Mac uh at
4:46
least in Mac OS Sequoia it used to be
4:49
like you know you you would you would
4:51
type to Siri or ask it something and
4:52
then you would see the little thing pop
4:54
up in the upper right corner. But then
4:55
if you clicked anywhere else on your
4:57
entire screen of your Mac, it would just
4:58
disappear. And I think starting in Tahoe
5:01
they changed that to where now it's
5:02
persistent and it stays up there until
5:04
you click the little X which is handy
5:06
because now you can you know type in you
5:09
know like a question to like chat GPT to
5:10
like oh write me a terminal command to
5:12
do this and it'll actually like stay on
5:14
screen until you dismiss it. Actually
5:16
makes it useful in some minor way.
5:19
>> Right.
5:20
>> Supposedly Apple's going to replace the
5:21
current spotlight search with Siri which
5:23
I mean honestly if it works that makes
5:25
total sense. I mean, it'd be kind of
5:27
weird to have two different things that
5:28
can do the basically the same thing. Uh,
5:31
>> I read that and I thought, "Oh no,
5:32
they're going to ruin Spotlight because
5:34
Spotlight is great." You know, typing in
5:37
let me find this or you know, typing in
5:39
a math equation or convert this to this,
5:41
you know, and it's perfect. Uh, and I
5:43
don't want it to be ruined with Siri.
5:45
>> Well, uh, you know, if if they pull this
5:48
off, you know, it it would be good. Uh,
5:51
deeper summaries of daily news content
5:53
using content from Apple News. Okay.
5:55
Well, whatever. That's not very
5:56
impressive or exciting. Uh, supposedly
5:58
add a write with Siri integration at the
6:01
top of the keyboard. Uh, and all this is
6:04
just like basically calling your
6:05
attention to the fact that Apple's AI
6:07
writing tools exist, so you can use
6:08
them. Uh, which I suppose makes sense,
6:11
too. Uh the other part of this and it
6:15
sounds like not a done deal but it's you
6:18
know because German keeps writing Apple
6:20
is testing a standalone Siri app uh
6:24
which might make it to you know public
6:27
release. Um and this would be kind of
6:29
like the chat GPT app where you know the
6:32
main interface can display all your
6:34
prior conversations that you've had. Uh
6:36
this supposedly in a list or a grid of
6:38
rounded rectangles with text previews is
6:40
what Gurin says. Uh you can pin your
6:43
favorite chats, save older
6:44
conversations, search across
6:45
interactions, start new chats, uh you
6:48
know, all all those things that make
6:50
something like chat GPT super useful,
6:52
right? You get all this great
6:54
information and you want to be able to
6:57
return to it at a later date because you
6:59
>> you know can't finish what you're doing
7:01
right then.
7:02
>> Yeah. Well, because you know, why would
7:03
you have why would you need a standalone
7:05
app if all these functionality is built
7:06
in systemwide? But like you said, I mean
7:09
that that that explains it, doesn't it?
7:10
So you can go back and reference what
7:11
you've what you've done.
7:13
>> Yeah. Uh Gman described that as
7:15
resembling a thread in Apple's messages
7:16
app with chat chat bubbles and a text
7:19
entry field. Toggle for switching in and
7:22
out of voice mode. Option to upload
7:23
attachments like documents, photos, etc.
7:26
Uh so you know I mean this all sounds
7:29
this all sounds really great uh and also
7:32
really familiar. [laughter]
7:34
>> Yeah. Well, I went back and looked at
7:36
what they promised at that during that
7:38
dubdubd you know 24 keynote and um you
7:42
know it is impressive. Um it's agentic.
7:45
It uh you know you can things like um
7:48
send the photos from the barbecue on
7:50
Saturday to to Mala Malia that kind of
7:52
stuff you know. So like my mom's always
7:54
asking me for photos and it's like oh no
7:56
it's a real chore. You got to go into
7:57
the photos app and you know there's so
7:58
many steps. I would love to be able to
8:00
do that kind of thing. You know what's
8:01
my driver's license number? It'll go
8:03
search your photos library for for your
8:04
driver's license number. Also super
8:06
handy. And then the one that they they
8:08
showed off is like, you know, when's
8:09
mom's flight flight landing and it'll
8:12
it'll go look and find out what flight
8:14
she's on and then go on search on the
8:15
web for the real time information about
8:18
whether the flight's delayed or not or
8:19
whether it's on time. Again, you know,
8:21
sort of super handy. And then I got
8:23
really excited earlier this week about,
8:24
you know, like talking about this
8:26
agentic stuff. um you know people have
8:29
got these massive um Quen 3 3.5 running
8:32
on their M5 MacBook Pros and uh
8:37
Max Weinback you know Silicon Valley
8:38
analyst actually I think this came from
8:40
another guy called Prince somebody who I
8:42
don't know of but um he seemed to be the
8:43
first one to do this uh you know Apple
8:46
uh sorry Google research published this
8:47
research paper uh a couple earlier this
8:49
week uh describing some new al uh
8:52
compression algorithm and um they were
8:55
able to get it implemented in Apple's
8:58
MLX uh machine learning framework just
9:00
by pointing just by feeding it the the
9:02
the PDF paper which just blew my mind
9:06
blew my mind. The machine goes and
9:08
figures out you know like reads this
9:09
paper and then implements it in code.
9:12
It's just it's it's you know it makes me
9:15
[laughter] speechless and then but you
9:17
know so these kind of capabilities I
9:20
think you know will not necessarily come
9:22
into Siri but I mean maybe they will
9:25
maybe that kind maybe you can do that
9:26
kind of stuff with Siri because
9:28
>> I think scope is much more limited
9:30
because they want something you know
9:32
that's that's less free form they want
9:34
something a little more controlled and
9:35
so they're they're tying it to Siri
9:37
shortcuts you know the or the the
9:39
shortcuts framework app intense which is
9:42
something that you know developers code
9:44
by hand to implement like specific tasks
9:46
and things. You know Siri will be able
9:48
to like plug and play and piece a series
9:50
of instructions together using app
9:52
intents but you know it'll be more
9:53
reliable. You're not throwing something
9:56
that can run and execute random code on
9:59
your iPhone which is supposed to be you
10:00
know a more locked down safe.
10:02
>> I wasn't thinking about random code just
10:03
the sort of that that kind of capability
10:05
you know that kind of intelligence that
10:06
kind of smarts you know coming to the
10:09
machine. Uh yeah, I don't think anything
10:12
of Apple's history up until this point
10:13
has indicated that they're [laughter]
10:15
going to be
10:15
>> That's true.
10:16
>> that far ahead of the curve.
10:18
>> That's very true. Very true.
10:20
>> I mean, if they could do things like
10:21
like one of the examples you hear, you
10:24
know, play that podcast that Jamie
10:26
recommended,
10:27
>> you know, something like that is super
10:29
powerful and super useful. I mean, how
10:31
many times you like going like, "Oh,
10:33
yeah. There was that movie that somebody
10:34
recommended and you can't remember if it
10:36
was an email or a text message.
10:40
You know what? If it was a text message,
10:43
which app was it in? I mean, there's all
10:46
these, you know, fragmented, at least
10:48
for my life anyway, there's all these
10:50
fragmented ways to to receive
10:52
information and and having one tool that
10:55
could find whatever you need from
10:57
anything on your devices would be
10:59
incredibly useful and powerful. or god
11:02
like just within Slack. Even if you know
11:04
this is a message I've received on
11:05
Slack, it could be in like 12 different
11:07
places.
11:08
>> Yeah. Right.
11:09
>> Yeah. Very true. I spent so much time
11:11
looking for Slack messages. Yeah.
11:13
>> Slack is expert at hiding replies.
11:15
>> Expert at making it possible to find
11:17
something you just saw all the time. You
11:20
see it flash up on your screen, right?
11:21
Like, oh, Lander replied to my message.
11:24
Where is that reply? [laughter]
11:27
>> Good luck finding it.
11:29
>> Uh
11:30
>> yeah. Well, I just a couple of days ago,
11:31
I asked you where where where some
11:33
message you sent was, wasn't they?
11:35
>> Right. Uh, yeah. So, anyway, you know,
11:39
uh, I have some hope for this just
11:40
because Apple farmed it out to Google.
11:43
Uh, you know, the [laughter]
11:45
big goo Google Apple tie up. Uh, and I
11:49
don't know if you guys read this
11:49
yesterday. Uh I guess the information
11:51
published this article about uh how uh
11:56
Apple is having it's g like they part of
11:59
their deal is that they get to use like
12:01
subsets of of Google's LLM or whatever.
12:04
I mean I AI is I'm I've got such a basic
12:08
knowledge of AI it's it's ridiculous.
12:10
But but they were making the point that
12:12
hey this this gives Apple the ability to
12:13
like use this really small subse section
12:16
of this uh LLM that can then run on the
12:20
device and do a very specific task. I I
12:22
don't I don't happen to recall what
12:24
examples they used but uh that that
12:27
might be like you know like you're
12:29
talking about with Google coming up with
12:31
ways to like
12:33
make things smaller, make things require
12:36
much less processing power. Uh and
12:38
that's
12:40
>> well they're talking about you know this
12:41
is they're talking about this open AI
12:43
right open AI uh is now trying to you
12:46
know um pair down what it's doing and
12:50
concentrate on the enterprise and coding
12:52
and that cop because that's where all
12:53
the money is right now and and anthropic
12:56
is is is uh collecting it all with um
12:59
you know the uh claw code but you know
13:01
like the uh Gemini does everything
13:04
doesn't it does video generation it does
13:06
image generation it is uh it's a large
13:08
language model and I think that's what
13:10
they're talking about you know like if
13:11
you look at Quen 3.5 like the the number
13:14
of things it did was incredible. I mean
13:15
they they've crammed everything that
13:17
modern AIs can do into this one gigantic
13:20
model. So it does everything you know
13:22
and it works in like 200 languages
13:24
included like a couple of dozen African
13:26
languages. So you can do you know in
13:28
Swahili you can ask it to generate
13:30
images. It's it's it's insane. It's
13:32
madness. Um, and but it has all these
13:34
different capabilities, you know, like
13:36
it'll do agentic stuff, coding, video
13:39
generation, image generation. So, I
13:41
guess, you know, what they're talking
13:42
about is splitting off, you know, the
13:45
the the carving it up so that you only
13:47
get the part that that you need for that
13:49
specific task rather than everything.
13:51
>> What's that called, Quen? I I I haven't
13:53
heard of it in the last probably three
13:55
hours that [laughter]
13:56
>> everybody started talking about it.
13:57
Like, where was it from? Who made it?
13:59
>> It's a Chinese one. It's one of the open
14:01
source uh Chinese models.
14:04
>> It's like
14:05
>> it's the new Deep Seek, you know, it's
14:07
it's one of the uh it's like the one
14:09
that everyone's getting excited about
14:10
because it's it's supposed to be really
14:12
capable.
14:12
>> Did you feed in all your feed in all
14:14
your uh you know, social security number
14:16
and all that into it real fast?
14:17
>> Right. Exactly. Yeah.
14:18
>> Here's my credit card. [laughter]
14:21
>> Right.
14:22
>> Oh god. Anyway, well, so what do you
14:24
think is is you think well actually I
14:26
mean they've got to they've got to do
14:28
this, don't they? They have to. I mean,
14:29
if everybody on that team is doing meth
14:31
and working, you know, 20our days every
14:34
day between here and and June, they have
14:36
to do it. They have to release this and
14:38
it has to be uh good. I mean, it looked
14:43
good two years ago.
14:44
>> I think they're going to they're going
14:45
to definitely going to they're not going
14:46
to overpromise to deliver again. They're
14:48
that I think they're going to be much
14:49
more circumspect about what um they say
14:52
they're going to be doing, but it sounds
14:53
like they're going to be rolling it out
14:54
in stages. you know, like they'll have
14:56
a, you know, some smarter Siri at
14:59
dubdubdc and then some later features.
15:02
>> I mean, just as of a few months ago, we
15:03
were expecting, oh yeah, you know, we'll
15:05
have some features in 26.4 and then that
15:07
was kicked to 26.5. And now in this
15:09
story, there's absolutely no mention of
15:11
iOS 26 whatsoever. So what? We're going
15:14
to get them in September, you know, just
15:16
a mere 27 months after they originally
15:20
introduced. So
15:21
>> yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I I was
15:24
of the opinion that I was very glad I
15:25
was kind of glad that Apple was taking a
15:26
slow and steady approach, you know,
15:27
because this is very very
15:28
[clears throat] delicate stuff and um
15:30
you know, as the open claw people have
15:32
been saying, you know, like it it this
15:34
thing could run a muck uh quite easily.
15:36
>> Um and
15:37
>> and it matters when a company like Apple
15:39
does this because they have a billion
15:41
users, not just the people who are
15:43
seeking this out, you know, the and you
15:45
know, installing some sketchy framework
15:48
on their Mac Mini and spending $1,000
15:50
burning tokens. Like, no, this is going
15:52
to be something that people are asked to
15:54
do as they set up their phone and
15:55
they're not even going to read it and
15:56
they'll just tap a bunch of buttons and
15:57
yes, tap tap tap, turn that turn this
15:59
on. They have to be careful,
16:02
>> right? Yeah. Well, but now I'm starting
16:04
to lose patience. I finally want to see
16:06
it. It's time to S or get off the P, if
16:10
[laughter] you know what I mean,
16:12
actually. All right, let's talk about
16:14
Dubdub DC because um they finally
16:15
revealed the dates. Uh and it is going
16:18
to take place on June 8th to the 12th.
16:22
Uh and of course WWDC is Apple's um
16:25
annual programmers conference. It used
16:27
to be in person. It would attract
16:28
thousands and thousands of people from
16:30
all over the world. They'd have a
16:31
lottery for it. Um that um every year
16:34
that you know most people would get
16:36
crushed because there were so many
16:37
limited spaces and it was super
16:38
oversubscribed. But then of course the
16:40
pandemic hit and it became remote and
16:43
now um you know the uh the uh the format
16:46
is a video keynote on Monday um followed
16:48
by and with a select number of
16:50
developers at Apple Park who get to sit
16:51
in the hot sun and watch it on a big
16:53
screen. Um and uh and then they have a
16:56
week of pre-recorded videos for
16:58
developers. Uh but this is going to mark
17:00
the you know the arrival of Mac OS iOS
17:02
27 Mac OS 27 and all the other updates
17:04
the big OSS. Um are you excited about
17:07
Dubdubdc? I mean, you got to go Griffin,
17:09
didn't you? How long ago was that?
17:10
>> Oh, yeah. That was 2022, the first year
17:12
that they did that mixed event. And I'm
17:15
told that uh following in the immediate
17:17
year after that and every year since,
17:19
they're no longer sitting outside in the
17:20
hot sun. They put up like a giant like
17:22
temporary like tent structure on the uh
17:25
like outside lawn. So, that's that's
17:27
nice. They don't there are a lot of
17:29
sunburns uh by the end of that day.
17:32
Uh, you know, Apple handed out everybody
17:34
like a complimentary like bottle of like
17:36
suntan lotion, but you know, not
17:38
everybody
17:38
>> really [laughter]
17:39
>> very few. Yeah, it was in a little
17:41
goodie DC goodie bag.
17:43
>> Um, it was fun. I I you know, my my
17:46
invitation must have been uh lost in the
17:48
email. Um, you know, delivering from San
17:52
Francisco all the way to Ohio. So, you
17:54
know, may maybe send send it again. Uh,
17:56
Apple PR. Uh, I'd love to go again. You
17:59
know, it was good stuff, you know,
18:01
covering the event in the mix, you know,
18:03
meet speaking with the Apple developers
18:05
and the Apple employees. You have the
18:07
chance to like talk to engineers about
18:09
things. You know, that was the year that
18:10
they had just introduced um stage
18:13
manager for iPad OS for like their their
18:15
first attempt at like, you know, free
18:17
multi-windowing systems running on an
18:19
iPad. And it was really, you know, I got
18:20
to talk to people who worked on that
18:22
team and like oh yeah, you know, we were
18:23
working on this for a really long time.
18:25
you know, good insightful stuff leads to
18:27
a lot of positive coverage on one of
18:28
your favorite Apple blogs,
18:30
>> right? Yeah. Oh, well, it's uh I quite
18:34
like the format. I like the videos.
18:36
They're always very slick. It was like
18:38
when I was a when I used to cover it um
18:40
for for Wired and and and for the you
18:42
know for the cult of Mac 2 like I went
18:44
to a bunch of the pre the in-person ones
18:46
and you would get entrance to the
18:48
keynote and I think the last one I went
18:51
the Wi-Fi wasn't working um because
18:53
there were so many people and I think
18:55
the previous one too so it was super
18:56
frustrating. I'm trying to you know file
18:58
a story and I can't get any connection.
19:01
>> Um I had to wander around San Jose for
19:03
hours. Was that WWDC 2010 where Steve
19:06
Jobs was yelling at the audience to turn
19:08
off their Wi-Fi networks?
19:09
>> Oh, I was there uh at that one for sure,
19:11
but no, this is like a later one. Uh I
19:14
forget what you know just just before
19:15
they went um uh you know when before
19:19
they went virtual only. Um, but then the
19:22
rest of the week it would be kind of
19:23
frustrating because you you know like
19:24
for when we were writing for Wired, we
19:27
weren't reporting on the, you know, the
19:29
the the State of the Union and stuff
19:30
like that and and and the and the, you
19:32
know, the technical developer stuff. So,
19:34
it was kind of hard to ring stories out
19:36
of it. You know, there'd be there'd be a
19:37
bunch of announcements of that first
19:39
keynote, but then the rest of the week
19:40
it was kind of difficult to find stuff.
19:42
Although, actually, it was pretty good.
19:43
you go to the parties and then you'd
19:44
meet all the you know I got a bunch of
19:46
stories from third party developers and
19:48
all the kind of people who would go
19:49
there you know like it was the big
19:50
gathering of the tribe especially after
19:51
Mac world folded um it was sort of the
19:54
last in-person event for Apple people um
19:57
and you know everyone was super keen to
19:59
go there in fact it was kind of a frenzy
20:01
I mean there was all the companies like
20:03
uh MacPorn and stuff like that was
20:04
pouring tons of money into all the
20:06
advertising and getting all doing all
20:07
these events and holding parties and
20:09
trying to make a splash there um yeah
20:12
it's kind of a shame that there's no
20:13
longer a an event. I always thought the
20:15
Mac World magazine should have done
20:17
something around Dubdub DC because they
20:18
they tried do you remember they tried to
20:19
they they tried to reinvent Mac a bunch
20:22
of times um to you know try to try to
20:25
keep the thing alive uh and um you know
20:29
never really sort of cracked it but I I
20:31
think the timing was was a big part of
20:32
that. I don't know why they didn't move
20:33
it to Dubdc when there were people
20:35
coming to San Jose anyway and then they
20:37
could hold an event um to coincide with
20:40
it. I thought that would be the way to
20:41
go, but they never did it.
20:43
>> Well, maybe we should start an event uh
20:44
conference of Mac.
20:47
>> Remember the uh remember altcom comp?
20:49
>> Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Who
20:52
ran that?
20:53
>> I can't remember who ran it, but it was
20:54
cool. You know, it was like you didn't
20:56
get, you know, back in the old days
20:58
because what they invited Apple invited
21:00
I think 5,000 people or something,
21:02
right, total. And so all these people
21:04
would be in this lottery and they would
21:06
they would go ahead and buy their plane
21:07
tickets and book their hotel rooms
21:09
before they knew whether or not they got
21:11
in. And then they, you know, they don't
21:12
get in and well there's altco comp.
21:14
There's this other, you know, side thing
21:16
that's going on. I remember that was
21:18
cool. We went down and covered that with
21:19
cult.
21:21
[snorts] But uh
21:22
>> yeah. Yeah, that's right.
21:23
>> I think it hasn't happened for a long
21:24
time. Probably I don't know. Did the
21:27
pandemic kill it? I don't even actually
21:28
remember. I just tried to search for it
21:31
and I ask is you know I ask Google is
21:33
altcom comp dead and it says no Bitcoin
21:35
is not dead. Did you mean is Bitcoin
21:38
dead? Okay.
21:41
[clears throat] Anyway,
21:42
>> it looks like it was canceled in uh
21:43
2020.
21:44
>> Yeah, there you go. Freaking pandemic
21:46
ruined everything.
21:48
>> Uh it said that I'm looking here. They
21:50
they had events in San Jose, London,
21:51
Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, NYC,
21:53
Tokyo, and Sa Paulo.
21:55
>> Yeah, it was a big deal. I mean it was
21:57
uh pretty cool. pretty cool meeting of,
21:59
you know, bunch of developers who are
22:00
really into Apple. So, I mean, you got
22:02
to be committed, right, to make the trek
22:04
to San Francisco.
22:06
>> The all digital version is actually much
22:09
better for, you know, 99% of people,
22:12
especially people who can't travel.
22:14
Like, I only barely made it to WDC22
22:16
because I just couldn't afford a flight
22:17
to California myself. And um yeah, like
22:21
it is that you know I met a lot of
22:23
people there and you know if this was a
22:25
different world wherein you know
22:27
everybody who could go could reasonably
22:29
like expect to go every year I probably
22:31
would have made you know friends that
22:33
way because you know I would see them
22:34
recurringly every year since but yeah
22:36
that didn't really happen. So everybody
22:37
who I met there but kind of fell off. I
22:40
haven't spoken to them in years. Um it's
22:43
sad but you know it is much easier
22:44
covering this thing because they release
22:46
all of their session videos in advance.
22:48
You can watch as many as you want.
22:50
You're not like physically limited by
22:51
like which one you go to. They're only
22:53
as long as they need to be. You like the
22:55
Vision Pro ones were excellent. Like I I
22:57
turned out a new article from those
22:59
every single day that they were
23:00
releasing because there was one new
23:03
fascinating nugget of information about
23:04
that. But um
23:06
>> Mhm.
23:06
>> It's a mixed bag. Uh eventually nobody
23:09
will remember in person WWDC and it'll
23:12
just be like, "Oh, I I got a special
23:14
little treat this year. I get to go and
23:15
see what it's kind of like."
23:17
>> Yeah. I like the video. I like the video
23:18
keynote. They always do a great job of
23:19
that.
23:20
>> All right, let's talk about um Apple
23:22
Maps. So, finally, [laughter] Tim Cook
23:27
and his services me revenue. I like the
23:29
way you describe that in the intro. The
23:31
you know, the dark
23:33
uh grim reaper of re services revenues
23:37
coming from Apple Maps. What are they
23:38
going to be doing, Griffin?
23:39
>> Yeah. Uh, Apple confirmed its plan to
23:42
sell ads in Apple Maps when it announced
23:44
the upcoming launch of Apple Business on
23:46
Tuesday. Uh, here's a quote. Ads on maps
23:49
will appear when users search in maps
23:51
and can appear at the top of a user's
23:53
search results based on relevance as
23:55
well as at the top of a new suggested
23:57
places experience in maps, which will
23:59
display recommendations based on what's
24:01
trending nearby, the user recent
24:03
searches, and more. So, yeah, ads are
24:06
expected to appear in Apple Maps as
24:07
early as this summer. Apple services
24:09
division already generates more than 100
24:11
billion dollars annually and now
24:13
accounts for more than a quarter of the
24:15
total company revenue. New ad slots have
24:18
already been added within the app store
24:19
and Apple is working to expand
24:20
advertising in Apple News and its
24:22
podcast platform as well. So yeah, and I
24:26
think we have a few screenshot yeah a
24:28
few images in our in our article about
24:30
it. You know, you open Apple Maps and
24:32
you slide up on the little thing in the
24:34
bottom and it says, "This is an ad under
24:36
this place and it's highlighted in
24:38
blue." You know, you go to search
24:39
results and you type in something and
24:41
the first result is an ad. It's sad. Um,
24:46
there's nothing sacred anymore. Why does
24:48
every individual Apple service need to
24:52
make money on its own? Like, you know,
24:54
oh, what do we You just expect Apple to
24:56
make maps for free?
24:58
Yeah, because that's what I buy my phone
25:00
for. A phone should have a built-in Maps
25:02
app. And it's it's sad that they have to
25:05
to turn the money wheel on on this thing
25:07
as well. Like Apple Maps is legitimately
25:11
one of my favorite apps on the iPhone.
25:13
Like bar none. Like I I love maps. I
25:15
love looking at maps. I I just browse
25:17
around them for fun. Go to different
25:19
cities. Sometimes I'll like look at
25:20
restaurants and cities like in other
25:22
countries and like look at their menus
25:24
and Yeah. Oh, I wonder if I was there.
25:26
Yeah. Yeah. You know, just browse around
25:28
different parts of the world. Like I
25:30
mean, God, I would spend hours on Google
25:32
Earth when that was like a real first
25:34
class like native Windows app. It had
25:38
like a built-in flight simulator. It was
25:40
so weird. But I would
25:41
>> Well, the flyovers, do you use the
25:43
flyovers in Apple Maps? Have you checked
25:44
out a bunch of those?
25:46
>> Uh, not as much. You know what I really
25:47
want? I really want Apple Maps for the
25:49
Vision Pro. I would love to do a flyover
25:51
in the Vision Pro. Um,
25:52
>> yeah, that would make sense. Yeah. you
25:53
know, fill fill your entire vision, like
25:56
you know, feel the vision like flying
25:58
through the sky. That was actually one
25:59
of the they they made a Google Earth app
26:01
for the Oculus Rift like 10 years ago.
26:04
And that was like a mind-blowing
26:05
experience that, you know, you still
26:08
can't get on the Vision Pro. Um, yeah,
26:10
Apple [snorts] Maps is wonderful. It's
26:12
it's magical. I It's legitimately one of
26:15
the best apps on the iPhone. It's a just
26:18
a beautiful looking map as well. The
26:20
typography, the design, the colors are
26:22
all gorgeous. Um, and now it's going to
26:26
be
26:26
>> at least at least the ads are very
26:28
clear. Like,
26:29
>> yeah, that's how it starts. Ads on
26:30
Google used to be clear. It used to be,
26:32
you know, highlighted in blue, the top
26:34
two results. It would say ad, it had
26:36
different typography. That's how it
26:38
starts and then it slowly slips away.
26:40
Just look at the app store. They they
26:42
started putting ads in the search
26:43
results in the app store and they
26:45
started really clearly delineated and
26:47
now they're just being a little more
26:49
minimized every single time to to turn
26:51
it up.
26:52
>> Well, I think a lot of the pressure
26:54
comes from the developers, you know,
26:56
like especially in the app store. Like I
26:58
think there was a clamoring from
26:59
developers for advertising because they
27:01
wanted to be able to they didn't want to
27:03
rely on, you know, some search
27:06
algorithm. They wanted to be able to
27:08
promote, you know, their service and
27:09
they're quite happy to pay for it. And I
27:11
and from you know like I think a lot of
27:13
companies a lot of software companies
27:15
want to have want to want that
27:16
capability and I think the same is
27:18
probably true for maps too because you
27:20
know so many searches star there don't
27:22
they you know people looking for
27:22
somewhere to eat or somewhere to go out
27:25
um they go turn to the maps app and then
27:27
be able to for some company be able to
27:29
put their service at the top you know
27:30
instead of relying on this purely on the
27:32
the you know a somewhat random search
27:34
algorithm. I'm sure like, you know, big
27:36
corporate developers probably feel that
27:38
way because they have the money to burn
27:39
to make sure they always appear at the
27:40
top of search results, but every
27:41
independent developer I know hates the
27:43
apps in the app store because they feel
27:44
like, well, if I ever develop a, you
27:46
know, an app that I just want to put out
27:48
for free, nobody's ever going to find it
27:50
by searching for it because you can even
27:51
type in the exact name of my app and
27:54
it'll be like second or third in the
27:56
results and nobody will find it, you
27:58
know? So it it eliminates developers the
28:00
ability to like, you know, put out
28:01
something for free for goodwill because
28:03
they don't want to have to spend their
28:05
way to get it to to make sure people see
28:07
it, you know, and it it it kind of feels
28:11
like a um you know, they've described it
28:13
in that it kind of feels like a a
28:15
gangster saying, "Oh, pay up. It's nice
28:17
business you have here. Shame that
28:18
something would happen for it. Gotta got
28:19
to pay for the neighborhood protection
28:21
plan otherwise you won't have a business
28:22
anymore." Well, you have to pay for ads
28:24
in the app store otherwise nobody will
28:26
ever download your app. You know, it's
28:27
just
28:28
>> yeah,
28:28
>> Apple already takes 30% and then you
28:31
basically treat it as 35% because you
28:33
have to pay a little bit more to acquire
28:35
every single customer.
28:36
>> Didn't they change that for the smaller
28:38
developers? It's now a smaller cut, 15%.
28:40
>> Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, in terms of ads,
28:42
that's still true. You have to pay Apple
28:43
a little bit extra to to acquire your
28:46
customers. And now it's happening in
28:47
maps. I will say like at least in I
28:50
don't know if this is just Apple's
28:52
example images but in their one example
28:54
image like it it seems to be like
28:56
searching for generic things like
28:57
restaurants or you know presumably like
29:00
pizza or Italian food like broad
29:02
categories of things it might show an
29:03
advertisement there you know they don't
29:05
have an example image of of like
29:07
searching Larry's dog house and then you
29:09
know something gets covered up
29:11
>> in the research results so we'll see but
29:14
>> well won't it work like that because
29:16
people will will one day compete
29:18
keywords.
29:19
>> Yeah, I mean in the app store as well,
29:20
you can they they say you're not
29:23
supposed to, but you can still place an
29:24
ad for somebody else's app name and
29:26
appear above them. There are tricks
29:27
around that.
29:28
>> Like it's it's it's you're supposed to
29:30
not be able to do that, but there are
29:32
workarounds to make that happen.
29:34
>> Well, yeah, services revenue. I've got
29:36
mixed feeling about ads. There was a
29:37
quote, I think, in the newsletter we had
29:39
from Steve Jobs saying, um, you know, PR
29:41
isn't about tricking people. It's about
29:42
it's about educating them. And so like I
29:45
kind of feel a little bit that way about
29:46
ads sometimes. Like I like a good ad,
29:50
you know. Um if it's if it's
29:53
>> in the newsletter, [laughter]
29:56
>> if it tells you about something you
29:57
didn't know about, you know, and I often
29:59
see that kind of thing, you know, like
30:00
it alerts you to something you didn't
30:01
know about before. Um in fact, this
30:03
morning I was looking for a a portable
30:05
air conditioner and I was looking at the
30:07
New York Times and that one popped up.
30:09
Um, and uh I went to the site and oh
30:12
wow, this thing looks amazing. But then
30:14
I did a quick search on it and this
30:16
thing is a total scam. Like the uh this
30:19
air this portable air conditioner
30:20
they're advertising like everyone hates
30:21
it. They charge like $100 and the thing
30:23
is is subject to all sorts of kind of
30:26
videos and stuff and Reddit threads and
30:28
people are saying this thing's a total
30:29
ripoff. Anyway, you know that wasn't a
30:32
good example of what I was talking
30:33
about. But, you know,
30:34
>> shenanigan,
30:35
>> there's an ad that my mom always sees in
30:37
Apple News, like every time around
30:39
Easter, like she she got her first one a
30:42
few weeks ago, and she excitedly texted
30:43
me about it. But she sees this like
30:46
crummy ad for like that's obviously like
30:47
an AI generated video of like a robot
30:50
bunny that it's like, you know, oh, buy
30:52
a realistic robot bunny and and she sees
30:55
those all every every year around Easter
30:57
and she's very excited about it.
30:58
[laughter]
31:00
H
31:01
>> I hope you bought Is she gonna buy one?
31:03
>> No.
31:05
>> I bet she likes the ads though, huh?
31:06
>> She does. Yeah. I mean, you know, she
31:08
all of her all of her news articles are
31:10
interrupted by uh cute little videos of
31:12
bunnies.
31:13
>> Well, they're funny. You know, actually
31:14
talk, you know, we we often highlight
31:16
Apple's ads, don't we? You know, when if
31:17
Apple comes out with an ad, we'll we'll
31:19
sometimes do a news post about it. And a
31:21
lot of people do like Apple's
31:22
advertising. You know, they've always
31:23
done a really really great job with
31:25
advertising. And people actually sort of
31:26
watch them for pleasure, I think. you
31:27
know, they they actually kind of enjoy
31:30
the enjoy the ad, the artistry of the
31:32
ad.
31:33
>> Yeah. But if I'm searching for where to
31:34
get dinner, I'm going to actively ignore
31:36
the the the the first ad. And I'm
31:39
probably not going to go to that
31:39
restaurant out of spite,
31:41
>> right? Probably be Papa John's, would
31:43
it, instead of the local pizzeria.
31:45
>> Yeah.
31:46
>> Yeah. I wonder I wonder how much Apple
31:48
make off of this. I mean, I could see,
31:51
like you're saying, Papa John's or
31:52
McDonald's, all these places buying, you
31:54
know, like massive ad buys. I I bet
31:57
Apple makes a ton of money off this.
31:58
Frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't already
32:00
happened.
32:01
>> Well, the advertising business has
32:03
always been kind of like lackluster. It
32:04
is nowhere near um you know, ads in in
32:07
Apple News. I don't think they're doing
32:09
a you know, I don't think that's a big
32:11
outlet. Um you know, for advertisers,
32:13
it's always kind of like I don't know
32:14
kind of half-hearted.
32:15
>> Yeah. They don't even sell those
32:16
themselves anymore. They sold it to like
32:18
Tabula a few years ago.
32:19
>> Oh, okay. Oh, god. Tabula. Well, there
32:22
was a dome there was a big debate. Yes.
32:24
There was some talk about uh when Steve
32:26
Jobs came back about adding ads to Mac
32:28
OS 10.
32:30
>> I can't remember this is like sort of
32:31
the early 2000s because I think there
32:33
was a big Windows was talking about it
32:35
too. I think they were going to actually
32:36
add uh ads to the operating system.
32:39
>> Um and people do complain about Apple
32:41
doing that a little bit, you know,
32:42
advertising its own services. Uh you
32:44
know, like when you open up the settings
32:45
app and it reminds you that um you know,
32:47
you've got some you know, a couple of
32:49
weeks left to get Apple Care. But then
32:51
they also advert what they advertised
32:53
some other services too.
32:54
>> Yeah. Like the Formula 1 movie last
32:55
year. They were sending out
32:57
advertisements like through the wallet
32:58
app of all places.
33:00
>> Oh, right.
33:00
>> Okay.
33:01
>> And you know what? Microsoft has added
33:02
advertisements to Windows 10 and the
33:04
start bar and the start menu in Windows
33:06
11 and they have like an extra button
33:08
that they added to the taskbar. Like
33:09
they call it like a widgets view, but
33:11
it's purely just advertisements and like
33:13
a few widgets on top.
33:15
>> Yeah.
33:15
>> Oh wow. Okay.
33:16
>> Yeah.
33:17
>> Really? I didn't know. Or, you know, you
33:19
open you open Microsoft Edge for the
33:21
first time and like it's all
33:22
advertisements on their start screen.
33:24
Like, it's it's everywhere. It's bad out
33:26
there.
33:27
>> Yeah. Okay. Well, I guess Apple's just
33:29
catching up with the rest of the world,
33:30
huh?
33:31
>> Yeah. [laughter]
33:33
>> All right. Let's talk about everything
33:34
new in iOS 26.4, which just dropped.
33:36
When was that? Yesterday.
33:38
>> Yeah. T Tuesday. Tuesday. Tuesday.
33:41
Tuesday.
33:42
>> Everyone was super excited about this
33:43
update, wasn't it? Nice big fat update.
33:45
Lots of really cool features.
33:48
Um, and Griffin's going to show us a few
33:50
of them. The first one I'm really
33:51
excited about, actually. This is one I
33:53
really want to see.
33:54
>> A few great features in Apple Music, a
33:57
couple here. Uh, the number one I
33:59
feature being concerts. So, now you can
34:03
find uh you can find live shows and
34:06
concerts around your area.
34:07
>> Show me show me again where where did
34:08
you where is that? How did you bring
34:10
that up? I I missed it.
34:11
>> Oh, yeah. It's kind of hidden. You have
34:13
to go to the search tab and then you see
34:16
like a giant panel of like, you know,
34:18
different genres and things and then
34:20
sort of down the list is concerts.
34:22
>> Oh, I see.
34:23
>> It's not very well uh placed. It's
34:26
probably on the home screen, too, if you
34:27
find it eventually.
34:28
>> I never look at that panel. Do you? I
34:30
never use that.
34:32
>> No, I It It's one of those things where
34:34
you probably have to be able In fact, I
34:35
wonder if it's on the home screen. If
34:37
you scroll down a little bit, made for
34:40
you, stations for you. There you go.
34:42
>> Concerts. Oh, yeah. Okay, there we go.
34:45
Um, yeah. So, I guess it's there as
34:47
well. But, um, on the search page is
34:49
where you can always find it.
34:50
Presumably, that'll be like its
34:51
permanent home. And, you know, you can
34:53
you can pick any city. It it defaults to
34:55
your local city, but you can pick any
34:56
city and look at what's, you know,
34:57
around there. Maybe you're planning a
34:59
trip or something. You know, see like,
35:00
oh, you know, is there a show in Chicago
35:02
when I know I'm going to be there? So,
35:04
they have like, you know, popular
35:05
concerts at the top, which are like the
35:07
big names. Um,
35:10
none of which I've heard of
35:13
because I don't really keep up with
35:14
modern music.
35:15
>> Oh, I know. Uzi Vert.
35:16
>> Oh, BTS. Yeah, BTS is gonna be in
35:19
Chicago.
35:19
>> Oh, goodness me. Bruno Mars. Oh, no.
35:24
>> Um, Ed Gershon, whoever that is. Yeah.
35:27
So, they they've got popular acts on
35:28
top. Then you can see like, you know,
35:30
everybody this week, next week, uh, more
35:33
upcoming, you know, farther in advance.
35:36
So, it's it's a great system. You can
35:37
you can even filter by genres or dates.
35:40
So, you know, I only want to see rock
35:43
concerts or classical music or jazz.
35:47
Hopefully, all three at the same time.
35:48
That would be fun. Uh oh, yeah, Bob
35:50
Dylan, March 30th in Chicago. Or you can
35:53
search by specific dates like, you know,
35:54
I'm going to be there uh you know, like
35:57
two months from now over this weekend.
36:01
So, you can see uh popular popular
36:03
artists there. Chicago Symphony
36:04
Orchestra, Friday, May 8th, 7:30, Apple
36:07
Music Concerts. It's great. And
36:09
supposedly, if one of your favorite
36:10
artists is coming to a city near you,
36:14
then it'll send you a notification. Um,
36:16
I haven't experienced that yet, but
36:18
supposedly it'll happen. Um, you can
36:20
mark a favorite artist in Apple Music.
36:22
That's sort of a a new feature as of
36:24
like a few years ago. I don't know how
36:26
many people have done that, but um, it
36:28
knows your listening habits, so it'll
36:29
probably send you a notification for
36:30
that.
36:30
>> If that works, that'll be awesome.
36:32
>> Oh, yeah. Another new feature that
36:34
they've introduced is called Playlist
36:36
Playground. Um, running off the
36:39
thrilling branding of image playground,
36:41
which is everybody's favorite Apple
36:42
intelligence feature. [laughter]
36:44
>> Don't forget just plain old Playground.
36:47
>> Yeah. Yeah. Swift Playground. You know,
36:50
it's a brand they've used before.
36:52
>> So, if you're on the library tab,
36:53
there's like a new button on the top
36:55
with like a plus and a bunch of rows to
36:58
create a new playlist. And uh, what
37:00
would we like to hear? Type in anything
37:02
but Bruno Mars.
37:04
>> Anything but Bruno Mars. You know, this
37:07
will actually be a good test because
37:09
maybe it'll misunderstand the question
37:11
and add Bruno Mars to the list.
37:13
Searching for songs.
37:14
>> Oh god.
37:15
>> Stellar pop hits excluding Bruno Mars.
37:18
>> We've got Lizo, Justin Bieber, Jonas
37:21
Brothers, Ed Sheeran,
37:23
>> uh Lizo again, Harry Styles, but no
37:26
Bruno Mars play.
37:27
>> Oh no, what [laughter] a horrible awful
37:29
list. Is this exactly what you wanted,
37:31
Leander?
37:32
>> Well, no. It's worse. It's actually, you
37:34
know, I'd rather almost listen to Bruno
37:35
Mars and some of that stuff.
37:37
>> Okay.
37:37
>> I cannot stand Cold
37:38
>> Play.
37:41
You have an idea.
37:42
>> Pula.
37:44
>> Pa.
37:47
I wonder if it'll then combine these two
37:49
ideas together because I haven't created
37:51
a new playlist.
37:53
Pop hits with PA.
37:55
>> Oh, Lizo. Yeah. Yeah. Lizo followed by
38:00
Frankie Yanovic's [laughter]
38:01
Likensteiner Pula.
38:04
>> Liz, a well-known Pula artist.
38:06
>> Yep. Yep. [laughter]
38:08
>> Hey, who stole the Kishka on there?
38:10
That's a good one.
38:11
>> Okay, so you can add additional
38:13
>> play again.
38:15
>> And clarinet poker by Die Hard Poker
38:17
Band.
38:19
>> Jeez, I don't see any of those darn
38:20
accordians. I'm very disappointed.
38:23
>> What a bizarre.
38:24
>> I guess it's the use of the term pop
38:26
hit. That's what uh what
38:28
>> kept that off there.
38:30
>> What? Why don't you do something proper
38:31
like um new uh New Romantics? New
38:34
Romantic. You remember that? Um
38:37
>> New Romantics.
38:40
>> Yeah. Try because like Duran Duran and
38:42
um Spandal Ballet and a bunch of sort of
38:44
late8s bands.
38:46
>> Okay. Sure. New romantic pop and new
38:48
wave hits. So the top song is New
38:51
Romantics by Taylor Swift, the the song.
38:54
Uh, followed by Let You Down by a Band
38:56
called The New Romantics, followed by
38:58
New Romantics, originally performed by
39:00
Taylor Swift karaoke version.
39:03
>> Oh, goodness me.
39:04
>> And then you go to Rio and Call Me by
39:05
Blondie and uh
39:08
>> Yeah. The Human League and um
39:10
>> David Bell.
39:12
>> Yeah.
39:12
>> Yeah. It is It is a bit lame. New Order.
39:14
They're not new romantic at all.
39:16
>> Uh
39:18
>> Hungry Like the Wolf. Oh my god, I've
39:20
got PTSD reading this list. It is
39:23
described as this playlist brings
39:25
together new romantic vibes from the new
39:27
romantic pop and new wave sounds for a
39:30
nostalgic journey.
39:33
>> Maybe if you did it single like new
39:34
romantic rather new romantics.
39:36
>> New romantic music from the 80s. It's
39:40
going to be a bunch of love songs.
39:42
>> Yeah, they're all It's all horrible
39:44
music, too. I couldn't stand the New
39:45
Romantic bands at the time. I hated
39:47
them. I was much more of punk.
39:49
>> Oh my god, this is slow. So slow. You're
39:52
gonna have to edit this.
39:53
>> Take my breath away. Love theme from Top
39:56
Gun. [laughter]
39:57
>> Oh my god.
39:59
>> David
40:01
Speedbag and Bonnie Tonic. None of this
40:02
is Brian Adams. None of this is new
40:04
romantic music from the 80s.
40:06
>> Sydney lost.
40:07
>> It's looking for love. [laughter] It's
40:09
doing love songs. It doesn't recognize
40:11
new romantic as a a you know genre or
40:14
>> as a genre. Well, try try British punk.
40:18
Um British punk. Just do British punk.
40:20
>> Okay. British punk. This is going to be
40:22
all on you to judge the the accuracy of.
40:26
Can't say I'm versed in that genre.
40:28
>> I have a very very deep knowledge of
40:30
this. So I I I'll be able to
40:32
>> nail this. And
40:33
>> boy, I am really astonished at how slow
40:37
this is.
40:38
>> British punk anthems from 70s to now.
40:40
>> London Calling by the Clash, Sex
40:42
Pistols, The Kinks, uh The Pretty
40:44
Things, Generation X, X-Ray Specs. These
40:48
are cool looking sounding bands. What
40:51
would you say, Leander?
40:52
>> Yeah, New Road Damned. I mean, yeah. Uh,
40:54
it's not too bad. It's It's okay. I
40:57
mean, like, um, I mean, they're all
40:59
they're all punk bands from what I can
41:00
see. The Jam I I I wouldn't call them
41:02
punk, but all the other ones are from
41:04
what I can see. Buzz Cox, I don't I
41:05
wouldn't call them punky. Well, maybe.
41:07
They're kind of punk adjacent.
41:09
>> Um, but yeah, the Clash for sure, and of
41:11
course, the Sex Bistles.
41:12
>> You say it's like a pretty basic
41:14
selection. Well, you know, start off
41:15
with London Col, but that's probably one
41:16
of the most famous punk songs ever. And
41:19
so, okay, that's fair enough to put that
41:21
in. But, and then they have some some,
41:24
you know, sort of lesser um, you know,
41:28
clash um songs,
41:31
less known, less well-known ones, you
41:32
know. Um, it it's okay. I mean, it's not
41:35
too bad.
41:36
>> Okay, I guess I'll
41:37
>> Yeah, it's okay. That's not too bad.
41:39
>> 25 songs, an hour, 12 minutes. I'm gonna
41:41
save this one. Maybe I'll give it a
41:43
listen and tell you what I think.
41:44
[laughter]
41:45
>> You know what? I'm I'm going to show
41:46
this one in the show notes for for our
41:47
listeners to enjoy as well.
41:49
>> British punk anthems from 1970s to now.
41:52
>> And what was that at the bottom? The
41:54
suggested songs.
41:55
>> Oh, yeah. If you scroll down to the
41:56
bottom of any playlist, it'll suggest
41:58
additional songs. I think this is an
42:00
older feature and I don't think it's
42:01
powered by Apple Intelligence, but it's
42:03
suggesting No More Mr. Nice Guy by Alice
42:06
Cooper. Gloria by Patty Smith. All the
42:09
way from Memphis, Suffragette City by
42:11
David.
42:12
>> The hoop. See, this is the
42:13
>> Yeah,
42:14
>> this is the crap that scares the hell
42:15
out of me with Siri. I mean, this is a
42:19
known quantity.
42:20
>> Help by the Beatles. A well-known punk
42:22
song.
42:23
>> Oh my god. [laughter]
42:24
>> Well, there is actually a punk
42:26
connection with the Hoopel because um
42:28
their producer was um the Clash's
42:30
producer.
42:31
>> Do you think Mont the Hoopal is a punk
42:33
band? No, not at all. But um they did
42:36
share a producer.
42:36
>> I mean, yeah, there's a connection. I
42:39
mean, you know, the word 'the' is in
42:42
their B, you know. I don't know. It I I
42:45
just find this whole thing troubling,
42:46
you know, like how how is it going to do
42:49
this, you know, high-minded stuff if it
42:51
can't even just accurately parse this,
42:54
you know, known data set of of Apple
42:57
Music? I mean,
42:59
>> right,
43:00
>> that is that is pretty poor. Yeah,
43:02
because I wonder what they because they
43:03
put together playlist, you know, Apple
43:04
Music Essentials,
43:06
and I wonder if they do a better I I
43:09
I've always had mixed feelings about
43:10
those two. They weren't that great, I
43:12
didn't [snorts] think. But, um I I was
43:14
listening one of those the other day.
43:16
Hank Williams Jr. Essentials. And then
43:19
what what's the other one? Like deep
43:20
cuts or something. What? I can't
43:21
remember what they call it. Uh
43:24
yeah, you know, it was perfectly
43:26
adequate. I liked it just fine. They
43:28
were all songs by Hank Williams Jr.,
43:30
which is a plus,
43:32
>> right?
43:33
>> I think those are actually for the large
43:34
part like human curated.
43:36
>> That's what I was going to say. I think
43:37
those are assembled by humans,
43:39
>> which is probably why they're good.
43:41
>> Yeah.
43:43
I wonder you want to keep doing this. I
43:45
mean, I'm curious like what if you put
43:47
uh outlaw country drinking songs?
43:50
>> Outlaw country drinking songs. No other
43:52
Apple podcast is doing this. I bet.
43:55
[laughter] Searching for songs.
43:57
>> It's so slow. putting your playlist
44:00
together.
44:01
>> The anticipation builds.
44:03
>> Okay, we've got uh Sturgel Simpson, Hank
44:06
Williams Jr., Willie Nelson, David Allen
44:09
Co, Merl Haggard. These are all names I
44:12
have heard before.
44:14
>> What would you say, Lewis?
44:16
>> I I'm you know, these all seem to fit.
44:20
>> I can barely see the I can barely see
44:23
the screen, you know, full squint mode,
44:24
but uh yeah, bloody merry morning.
44:28
William Julia.
44:29
>> Yeah, this this is pretty good. I don't
44:30
see any uh I don't see any Whan Jennings
44:34
on there, which I find disappointing,
44:35
but
44:35
>> yeah, he he was there. He was
44:37
>> Oh, he was I saw it.
44:39
>> Yeah,
44:39
>> like I said, I can barely see it. So, um
44:41
yeah, you got Johnny Paycheck.
44:43
>> We can add more Wayan Jennings. So, you
44:44
know, after you create a playlist, you
44:46
the the text bar stays at the bottom.
44:49
So, you can tell it to add more songs.
44:51
Add more
44:53
Whan
44:55
Jennings.
44:57
Hey, it auto corrected it to spell it
44:59
right.
45:00
>> Wow. I wonder if it's going to replace
45:02
the whole playlist or just add more.
45:04
>> I don't know how many drinking songs
45:07
Whan adds to be honest. I mean
45:09
>> Oh, there we go. Now it's almost like
45:11
every third song.
45:14
>> I'm very disappointed that there's no
45:15
Whitey Morgan in the 78.
45:18
[laughter]
45:19
>> Also add
45:21
I don't know how to spell that.
45:23
>> Whitey. Yeah, there you go. Morgan and
45:25
the 78.
45:26
>> The 78s.
45:28
>> He's got some great drinking songs.
45:31
>> I wonder how it'll do if if the playlist
45:32
is now just going to be entirely those
45:34
two artists.
45:35
>> Some of these aren't drinking songs.
45:36
That's the problem. You know, it's added
45:38
things. Um I'm on fire. That's not a
45:42
That's not a drinking song. [laughter]
45:46
Nice try. I don't know. It This is not
45:48
terrible, but uh also not
45:51
>> not great either, though.
45:52
>> Yeah. I think it's like a good starting
45:53
point. Like if you want to start a if
45:55
you want to host a party of like a
45:58
specific theme or something like that
45:59
and you know it's maybe a little outside
46:01
your wheelhouse like I think this would
46:02
be like a good starting point that you
46:04
can then refine and add more stuff to.
46:07
>> Best Easter songs. [laughter]
46:10
>> Oh, you know what I'm going to say? Um I
46:14
always joke that everybody always looks
46:16
over Thanksgiving between Halloween and
46:18
Christmas like, "Oh, come on. It's
46:19
November. You got to play Thanksgiving
46:21
music."
46:23
But I'm gonna try Thanksgiving music
46:26
playlist.
46:28
As far as I know, the only one is um the
46:32
one that they used on like Charlie Brown
46:34
Thanksgiving that I can't even remember
46:35
the name of, but let's see. Okay.
46:38
Thanksgiving Eve, Jimmy Fallon, Santa
46:41
Stole Thanksgiving, Jimmy Buffett,
46:43
Mashed Potato Time, Let's Turkey Trot,
46:47
The Thanksgiving Song by Ben Rector.
46:49
Yeah. You know what?
46:52
Thanksgiving songs by Cozy Ambience
46:55
Jazz.
46:57
>> Ah, it doesn't have the alltimer.
47:00
>> A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by George
47:01
Won.
47:02
>> Alice's Restaurant.
47:07
Yeah. And I should say like just like
47:08
any other playlist, you can still add
47:09
your own songs to it. You can still
47:11
customize them, reorder them, just like
47:13
any playlist. But you know what? I'm
47:15
gonna I'm gonna save that one. Oh jeez.
47:19
>> [laughter]
47:20
>> That'll be a
47:20
>> for this upcoming November.
47:23
>> There's something you can check off your
47:25
list. Thanksgiving playlist.
47:29
[snorts]
47:30
>> Okay, good stuff. So, you know, there's
47:31
other new stuff in iOS 26.4, the new
47:33
emoji, like we've talked about before,
47:35
video podcasts. Uh, now in reminders,
47:39
there's a thing where if you have a
47:40
bunch of urgent reminders, there's like
47:42
a little smart list that collects them
47:43
all in one place. Um, we have a full
47:47
article on it. Uh, I think we've sort of
47:49
run through all the time that we have
47:50
for this segment, but uh, there we go.
47:53
>> We didn't get to the most exciting one,
47:54
the video podcast stuff. I mean, I have
47:56
not yet used this, but I'm actually
47:58
thrilled about this.
47:59
>> If you're listening to a podcast and
48:01
it's happens to be supported, you can uh
48:03
freely switch between uh audio and
48:06
video. Um, if it's a if it's a supported
48:09
podcast, you see the little button
48:10
underneath the uh underneath the the
48:12
progress bar that says turn video on.
48:15
And then you can uh you know play
48:17
through it right there.
48:19
>> Cool.
48:20
>> That's pretty sweet.
48:20
>> And you know turn video off to turn it
48:22
off and go back to audio only.
48:25
>> Cool. That looks really good.
48:27
>> Mhm. I think it's not I I tried looking
48:29
for um Apple Apple Apple Podcast. If you
48:32
go to the new tab, they now have like a
48:34
whole area of like Oh, these are all of
48:36
our supported video podcasts. And I
48:41
didn't really recognize any of these.
48:43
>> Giggly Squad. Ooh,
48:47
>> good name.
48:48
>> Mhm. It seems like a number of Wondery
48:50
podcasts and of course Apple Music's
48:52
podcasts are on video, but I don't know.
48:56
I'm I'm not I'm not familiar with any of
48:58
these
48:59
global hits. Let's look at those. Out
49:02
Loud, Crime World podcast, Dance Knows
49:04
History hit P1 with Matt and Tommy.
49:08
Help, I sexed my boss. Uh, can't say
49:12
that's a regular like regular show that
49:14
I listen to.
49:15
>> And this this is only with certain
49:17
podcast publishers, right?
49:19
>> Yeah.
49:20
>> Only certain podcast hosts support it.
49:22
As far as I know, we could switch to a
49:25
video podcast on the system because our
49:27
video and our audio match perfectly
49:29
since I've, you know, we've started
49:31
pre-recording and editing these. But,
49:33
uh, I don't think our podcast host
49:34
supports it. So, I don't know. I include
49:37
a link at the top of our show notes
49:38
where like you can just watch on YouTube
49:40
and you can look at whatever timestamp
49:42
is on your podcast player and just go to
49:44
that point in the video. But you know
49:46
that as far as I know that's the most we
49:47
can do uh until Transistor adds support
49:50
for it. But there you go. New features
49:53
in 26.4. Maybe your favorite podcast
49:55
will have it. It probably won't.
49:58
>> Okay. So we have a question from Mark in
50:01
the UK which came in via text message.
50:03
Uh, Max says, "In your most recent show,
50:04
Griffin gave a very short answer to a
50:06
question about iPad Air versus Mac Neo,
50:08
which I think quite a lot of iPad users
50:10
are now starting to think about. It
50:12
would be great if you could do a deep
50:14
dive on this subject." Uh, Mark says, "I
50:16
currently use the M1 iPad Air. I like it
50:19
that it's I like that it's incredibly
50:21
easy to use, has an intuitive
50:22
touchcreen, and is supposed to be a lot
50:24
more secure than a Mac." Griffin said
50:25
that the Mac is better, but didn't
50:27
explain why. It would be interesting to
50:29
hear your views of how hard it would be
50:30
for an iPad user to switch to using a
50:32
Mac. Um, so what do you think, Griffin?
50:35
Is it uh is it really better to use a
50:37
Mac than an iPad?
50:39
>> I wrote an article on this um on cult,
50:42
which is now of course a few years old.
50:44
Um, a lot of things have changed since
50:46
then. I wrote an article like comparing,
50:48
you know, should you buy an iPad or a
50:49
Mac and I sort of go back and forth like
50:51
the pros and cons of each. This is
50:53
before iPad OS 26 with the free form
50:56
multi-windowing. I know it was also
50:58
before the MacBook Neo which is much
50:59
cheaper. So both of the two biggest
51:01
points, you know, the Mac is better at
51:03
multitasking and the iPad is cheaper are
51:06
no longer true. But there are still a
51:08
number of limitations on iPad OS. For
51:10
example, iPad OS can still only play one
51:12
thing at a time. Uh they can now do like
51:15
big tasks in the background, but like
51:17
files and quicklook are much more basic
51:20
compared to their Mac counterparts of
51:22
Finder, preview, and disc utility. iPad
51:24
apps are sandbox, so you can't have like
51:26
systemwide utilities like backup tools,
51:28
clipboard managers, you know,
51:30
contextaware note-taking and to-do apps,
51:32
app launchers, or keyboard macros. You
51:35
can't compile open source software
51:37
yourself. You can't virtualize Windows
51:40
on an iPad or Mac OS for that matter.
51:43
So, you know, that that those are the
51:44
big things that I I that I meant when I
51:46
said, you know, Mac OS is more powerful
51:48
and more versatile and better because if
51:50
you need to do any of those pro
51:51
features, like you just straight up
51:53
can't do them on an iPad. If you like
51:55
heavily customizing like how your system
51:57
works, like Rajes, for example, one of
51:59
our other writers, he he installs all
52:01
kinds of like crazy Mac utilities like
52:03
Alfred and um you know, Raycast and
52:06
things like that that can do, you know,
52:08
powerful things on the Mac and they're
52:10
just not available on the iPad. you're
52:12
stuck with whatever you know Apple
52:13
implements on the system. But if you're
52:15
a happy iPad user and you've never used
52:18
any of those things, you have no
52:19
interest in, you know, compiling your
52:20
own open source software, then you're
52:22
not missing anything out on your iPad.
52:24
>> Well, that's the thing that's missing.
52:26
It's like Mark hasn't told us what he's
52:27
using his iPad for. I think, you know,
52:30
uh my wife years ago, we had a stack of
52:33
broken laptops in our basement that my
52:36
wife had destroyed.
52:38
>> Um literally a stack. uh until I until
52:42
until we got her an iPad and and she's
52:43
been using an iPad as a one and only
52:45
machine for um
52:48
seven, eight years now, maybe longer. Uh
52:50
and has had no problem whatsoever with
52:54
the Switch and now prefers the iPad to
52:57
to a laptop. I think I don't think she's
52:58
touch a Mac or a laptop in in years. And
53:01
she's absolutely, you know, quite happy
53:04
with the thing. And it's much more it's
53:06
much tougher. you know, she hasn't been
53:08
able to destroy. She has cracked the
53:10
screen. Oh, and it's and it's pretty
53:11
bent.
53:13
It's actually it's actually curved, but
53:15
it still works kind of fine, you know.
53:17
So, um I think from that perspective,
53:20
you know, the the iPad is is is more
53:23
durable. Although we haven't seen the
53:24
Mac Neo, how durable that is. It looks
53:26
pretty tough. But uh but one of the
53:28
other things too is like I think like
53:30
sometimes it's better uh like iMovie on
53:34
on iOS and on iPad I think is better
53:37
than the the Mac version. Although um I
53:40
haven't seen the to be honest I haven't
53:41
opened up the Mac version. Maybe maybe
53:43
it's par. But video editing in iMovie
53:46
used to be easier on the iPad uh than it
53:48
was on on on on the Mac. And so I don't
53:51
know you know
53:52
>> depends what you're doing what are you
53:53
using it for. depending on your
53:54
perspective. The iPad OS's limitation
53:56
of, oh, you can't do advanced things on
53:58
it is actually a strength because it
54:00
doesn't bog you down with a file system.
54:02
Like young people today, I mean, it's
54:04
actually sort of a problem among
54:05
computer scients.
54:09
They don't understand file structures
54:10
because they just grew up, you know,
54:12
using apps and apps just, you know, oh,
54:14
you can open this thing or that thing.
54:15
You don't have a real file system on
54:16
that. you're not bogged down with, you
54:18
know, every utility pestering you to,
54:21
you know, install updates or things like
54:23
that because it just handles it for you.
54:25
You know, the the iPad is much simpler
54:27
and it's a much easier thing to use.
54:30
There's less to learn. There's less of a
54:31
learning curve. Everybody has an iPhone
54:34
or some kind of smartphone and the iPad
54:36
works exactly that same way.
54:38
>> Yeah. And with the Magic Keyboard and
54:39
now the new iPad OS, you know, the
54:42
multimodal, the windowing system, it's
54:44
it's very Macike. Mhm.
54:46
>> Um, so you kind of get, I think, a
54:48
little bit of the best of both worlds
54:49
with an iPad, especially like the big
54:51
screen, the 13-inch ones, which are just
54:53
gorgeous.
54:54
>> Uh, the iPad, you know, the iPad Air, I
54:56
think, is a is a really, really nice
54:57
machine, the 13-inch one. And well, how
55:00
much is it now, though, compared to the
55:01
Mac Neo? I think it's actually more
55:03
expensive than Neo now, isn't it?
55:04
>> The 13-in iPad Air, I think, is more
55:07
expensive than the Neo. I think that
55:08
starts at $799. If you're already a
55:11
happy iPad user, I would stick with the
55:12
iPad. I don't think the MacBook Neo
55:14
changes anything for you unless you
55:15
don't want to spend as much money.
55:17
>> There are still certain things that you
55:18
just can't do on an iPhone or an iPad. I
55:21
mean, for kind of inexplicable reasons.
55:23
I mean, I remember one time when we were
55:25
uh we were in Italy and we're trying to
55:27
buy a tickets to a concert, you know,
55:30
and
55:31
>> for whatever reason, we tried I don't
55:34
know, seemed like like for an hour to
55:36
buy a ticket or or you know, two
55:38
tickets. and um you know on our iPhones
55:42
and our iPads of course and it's like
55:44
okay well maybe if I bust out the
55:46
MacBook it'll work and instantly worked.
55:48
I mean, I to this day I have literally
55:50
no idea why in the world it wasn't
55:52
possible, but uh yeah,
55:55
>> Apple says that the iPad has like a
55:57
desktop class web browser, and that's
55:59
true like 99% of the time, but
56:02
eventually you'll have like the 1% where
56:05
this is a website. It should just work
56:07
on the iPad. It's running Safari. It's
56:09
running WebKit. But for whatever reason,
56:11
like it something doesn't work on it,
56:13
right? Because a lot of web developers
56:15
only test in Chrome. uh you know.
56:18
>> Well, right. Well, that's but that's
56:19
where you just download Chrome for the
56:20
iPad or you know, you do the same thing
56:22
on the on the uh on on the Mac, too.
56:24
>> Yeah. But the problem with Chrome on the
56:25
iPad is that it's not real Chrome. It's
56:27
still using Safari's WebKit under the
56:29
hood.
56:30
>> Oh, I see. Okay. Well, thanks for your
56:32
question, uh Mark. Uh maybe I don't know
56:34
if you want to respond, if you want to
56:35
tell us what you're using your iPad for.
56:37
Maybe we can do another deep dive next
56:39
week on this subject. But it is a good
56:42
debate. Um, if you have a question,
56:43
please send us an iMessage at
56:45
cultterbank [email protected].
56:48
That's [email protected].
56:51
So, I think we're going to wrap it up
56:52
there. Uh, that is um our show for this
56:56
week. Thanks so much for listening.
56:58
Please give us a fivestar rating, five,
57:00
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57:02
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57:03
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57:06
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57:08
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57:12
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57:14
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57:20
we'll see you all next time. Thanks very
57:21
much everybody. Have a great weekend.
57:23
>> Goodbye.
57:24
>> See you.