Up next in 10
M4 MacBook Pro reviews are in — it’s a monster! (CultCast #672)
Mar 11, 2025
This week, reviews are in — and the performance is absolutely mind blowing. Is it finally to to upgrade your M1 Max? Plus: when to expect the next big MacBook redesign with OLED displays, new features in iOS 18.2, the next big step in Apple silicon… and the Under Review you’ve been waiting for! Chapters: 0:00 Preshow 10:13 Intro 13:16 Squarespace 15:16 M4 MacBook Pro reviews 19:29 M4 benchmarks 27:42 OLED MacBook Pro 39:47 CultCloth 43:40 iOS 18.2 Beta 2 52:13 Apple Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips 59:27 Under Review
View Video Transcript
0:01
oh great Nevers why does he get so nervous Griffin I sound like somebody eating
0:07
soup how how do you eat soup he do some Keel or something
0:16
there I'm not sure we're alive yet I I'm not even bothered to look oh they're pouring in now that must
0:23
mean that it's about to happen sh there we go I think we're
0:28
live ladies and gentlemen well gentlemen welcome to episode 672 of the cultcast
0:35
we might have a few ladies watching live we definitely have them listening to the audio so be on your best behavior there
0:41
Lewis we got an absolute monster show happening this week oh man Hugo I I I I
0:48
it occurred to me sometime in the last couple days I think I forgot to acknowledge your super chat
0:54
last episode so my deep and humble apologies God I know I can't believe
0:59
that I did that although I know that Lander KY still gleefully accepted your money into his personal bank account so
1:06
hopefully that makes you feel better but um yeah my apologies we won't forget
1:11
this week you're keeping you are single-handedly keeping the show alive I just want you to know that all right we
1:18
got a ton of stuff to talk about and not nearly enough time to talk about all of it should we just go ahead and just Dive
1:25
Right In guys we're talking all about the MacBook Pro well we'll also be covering the 2024
1:32
presidential election live here results don't
1:38
wor I think I think the format of like the three of us on a podcast we could have a lot of successful podcasts like we have a pretty good apple podcast I
1:44
feel like we could also do a pretty good car show uh but I'll just I would love to do a car show I I don't want to do a
1:50
political podcast with the two of you I kind of feel I kind of feel like I do want to do a political podcast but here
1:56
here's the problem I mean look everyone's got their political opinions right and I actually take pride in the fact that we we really just don't talk
2:02
Politics on this show which I I think our our listeners and audience appreciate cuz it's like when you're
2:08
listening to a sports program or a movie review podcast or whatever and they start talking about politics you're like
2:14
dude this is not what I'm here to listen to and I respect our audience like I don't just say this depender I actually
2:20
do respect you all too much to it make force you to endure our political opinions like that's not why you're here
2:27
um but it's a one way it's a one-way door you can only only open that door you can never close it again yes it's
2:33
like doing adult films just ask Leander KY once you get into that CD industry there's just no going back everyone
2:39
knows about your videos that's true it it does it that's it it's like at that point you can't just
2:46
do regular podcast by any other topic like people only want to hear about your sports opinions and it's so divisive
2:51
that it's like that's kind of it uh all right I think we gots opinions
2:58
what sports opinions H Sports opinions you like sports podcasts Sports
3:03
opinions the sports we should do a sports opinions podcast that's we you should call it Sports opinions I have I
3:10
have an opinion about that that's sure you [Laughter] do oh man all right we should we should
3:19
we should do an off topic where we say this is this like the sports opinions episode and then we don't actually talk
3:25
like about like you know how football is doing we just talk we just like rate the different sports like football versus
3:31
soccer I actually would love that completely go off the rails fencing how do we feel about
3:36
fencing that would actually be a lot of fun that's a great suggestion and we we do definitely need to get back into our
3:42
our off topic episodes like it's purely my fault um I need to still release our
3:49
last versus episode and um what I know it's like three weeks old I know I know
3:55
still haven't released it was I on that I think so so it was like over a month old is it really oh it doesn't matter I
4:02
out of town for like three weeks oh my goodness don't even tell me that I mean it's still it's still relevant because it's just movie talk and we're not
4:08
talking about or current movies but um um yeah I still haven't released it I can't but I did release another episode
4:14
like two weeks ago so but yeah man we got we got to get back into it do you
4:19
spend any time on these things as little as possible is press the button I only do release
4:27
the Kraken I I should just hand the whole thing to Griffin cuz I feel like if I did that like it would actually go
4:33
out more often like I am I am the bottleneck I it's purely by fault and
4:39
there human road block I am the human roadblock and and I feel like if I just handed some of the stuff off to Griffin
4:45
although I don't know how much time Griffin has I don't want to volunteer him for anything um it would actually
4:50
get done because because G Griffin is just more attentive to these things than I am I think it's cuz he's got more time
4:56
than I do but I can't be certain plays the large part in so many things would be different if I
5:02
had Timeless so many so many things you know plus it's like it's like late fall now so he doesn't have to spend you know
5:09
hour and a half a week cutting down that sweet sweet Ohio grass oh dude that's got to save you at least what couple
5:14
hours a week I wish it was only an hour and a half probably averaging because I cut every other week but it takes a good like three hours or more it takes you
5:21
three hours to mow your grass yeah I have a big lawn is is it like a you do
5:27
like a real fussy job with it you know like oh everything has exactly the same height and like go like hand trim around
5:34
every tree well I have a I mean this I have a 2 and a half acre lawn and I have
5:39
like a tiny like $120 push lawn mower I was just going to ask you what kind of lawn mower you have so you have one of
5:45
those old school um ones with the blade that only moves when you push
5:51
it uh no it it has a motor in it okay M dude you got to get one of the robot
5:58
ones I I wonder how well those work i' I I've sent a few emails to the people who
6:03
who make them because they I think it was I don't know some company can't I'm not going to give them Free Press anyways some company came out with a uh
6:10
a robot lawn mower that can do two and a half acres and that's like the exact size of my lawn I was like Hey that'd be perfect so I sent them an email I
6:16
haven't heard back though you got it is kind of outside of our normal scope so I don't think so man I think that you're
6:23
that very Tech yeah it's total Tech and like your yard is perfect for that kind of stuff if you have two and a half
6:29
acres of of just pure lawn that needs to be mowed that is a major burden there's a lot of people in the US who have big
6:34
Lawns like that who I imagine do not want to be spending three hours a week mowing it now some guys love mowing lawn
6:41
look which which is why most people don't they just pay somebody to do it or they have a riding lawn mower if I had a
6:46
riding lawn mower I would be thrilled to go out there once a week and just do
6:52
nothing for two or three hours except drive around that that would be super therapeutic for me plus I love the smell
6:57
of grass uh not the kind that land likes but like the kind that grows in your lawn and just to go out there and just
7:03
be mindless for 2 hours where you just drive around and there's something so cathartic about like weaving back and
7:08
forth in your lawn and then you look back and there's like all those like beautiful straight lines in your in your in your yard and you're just like ah
7:15
like that's the feeling you get when it's done you know the the the the immense amount of pride that I that I
7:21
get when I just like stand on my back porch and like look over it all and I'm like I did I did all of that and like I
7:27
I also like genuinely like having a push mow instead of a riding lawn mower because like I mean I I I work on
7:33
computers like it's pretty much the only exercise I get so there there are few things that make you feel more like a
7:39
man than surveying your domain you just overlook your domain and all the grass is like perfectly kemped and you're like
7:46
ah and then you feel like you want to go out and like you know just like get like a cow and like a headlock and just like
7:53
punch that thing until it becomes your dinner you know what I'm saying Louis I guess I think really you do cuz
8:00
I don't I totally lost track I don't know where I'm just curious how long do you suppose it would take to uh upload
8:06
one of those off topics and could you possibly if we hadn't had this long tangent before the show could you have
8:11
uploaded it in that amount of time the problem is not uploading it leis the problem is editing it I have to go
8:17
through and actually edit it which is you do edit it I thought I do I do actually have to edit it yeah you know
8:23
the problem is it it's not that I actually edit anything in or out it it's it's just adjusting like the actual
8:28
levels of our of different audio tracks like they're never they never match and so when I when I when we record the
8:34
episode you'd think I'd be able to get this stuff all lined up if if Skype would just freaking fix itself so that
8:41
it would send OBS which is the application I use to record the show individual audio tracks for for every
8:47
single um person who connects I could get everything balanced on the mixer but
8:53
even though Skype sends individual video feeds it mashes every single person's audio into each video feed be so they're
9:00
always combined so I can't use them so anyway look that's not what people are
9:05
are here to here was talking about Although our concurrent viewers are are skyrocketing someone man you start
9:12
talking about cutting grass man it just brings the people right in someone accused us of starting a dad podcast but
9:18
uh let's I'm the only Dad here right so rymes with Dad you guys are dads in
9:24
training maybe I still got hope for you Lou all right let's get this thing uh
9:31
let's get this thing rolling oh Mrs D I do love a good dad oh boy here we go
9:39
especially that delicious elcy I'm trying to make him a dad
9:46
again I'm not sure that's gonna work Mrs D but I I appreciate uh your fervor if
9:55
you don't mind no one wants to hear about any of that Mrs D we want to get into this apple show we're already like 29 minutes behind I'll get the music
10:01
queued up we'll help people take their minds off the world for a while set your
10:07
set your troubles at the door welcome in let's get this thing rolling in three
10:13
two hello and welcome to the coasty best 30 plus minute Alpha conversation you're
10:18
going to hear all week long I'm your host a Le join me today the face of his pinky ring has been permanently
10:24
imprinted on the foreheads of many of cult M writers any even a few editors that other competing Tech websites some
10:31
say it's a right of passage he's the tough but fair managing editor of C Le walls is here very fair very fair also
10:39
with us when not hammering on his keyboard or putting product in his hair you would find him in his yard dress in
10:44
a Jedi Robee practicing his lightsaber skills with a broomstick he keeps in his kitchen he's a rider for
10:50
[Music] CAC gri is here uh you lost right after
11:00
you lost me right after put product in this hair this is this is all natural Italian oily hair okay but I got the
11:08
last part right didn't [Music] I that on hey there's no shame and
11:14
laring no shame and LARPing Griffin I just want you to know that there nothing to be ashamed about all right look we
11:21
got tons of stuff to talk about we got uh everything you want to know could possibly want to know about the new M4
11:27
mapbook Pros which I know is what you all interested in I know Griffin tries to convince us that people care about
11:32
the Mac Mini I know a handful of you do and he'll be talking about that in future episodes but let's start with the
11:38
big one the M4 MacBook Pro by the time you hear this they will have been released every all the YouTubers and
11:45
access media have been um releasing their reviews guess what they're all
11:51
positive I'm joking I'm joking a few people have had minor uh quibbles with it but for the most part it's just an
11:57
absolute monster and I will try to put this in context like the the actual performance in context
12:03
and I think the big question that we all need to entertain and I think this is
12:08
true for probably most of you if I know you all you still have your M1 Max MacBook Pro or your M1 Pro MacBook Pro
12:14
and you're wondering is it finally time to upgrade like the comparisons between M3 and M4 I I think are are interesting
12:20
but they're not super useful practically I think the main question is from the computer that you have now is this a
12:26
worthy upgrade and I'm going to try and help you answer that question I think I've answered that question for myself
12:32
uh let's see here what else do we got um we'll talk about when the next MacBook Pro like the big redesign uh will be
12:39
coming out because this uh this current um generation of MacBook Pro I think
12:44
it's four years old now so it's getting quite old and it looks like it may be sticking around for a while Griffin's going to tell us about the new features
12:50
in iOS 18 beta 2 um we'll talk about iPhone 17 and we're going to do an all
12:55
new Under review I know it's been forever I actually get a bunch of under RW use that I could probably do I got
13:01
some interesting products lined up unfortunately the one I'm going to be talking about I don't have here in the studio um but I could talk about it
13:07
nonetheless and I think this is the one that many of you have been waiting for um so we'll we'll do that at the end of
13:13
the show before we dive in I want to say thank you to Squarespace for supporting
13:20
this episode did I set up browser mode Let's just check did it work oh thank
13:25
God squarespace.com C this episode is brought to you by
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Squarespace of course I've been using Squarespace for years and years and years and years absolutely love it it
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it's it's it's the it's the engine that drives cult cloth. I barely have to touch cult cloth. once I got that thing
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set up which was super easy it just works I never have to do anything
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Squarespace does all the work on the back end to keep it working on any device that visits and if you need a
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website to promote your business to promote yourself to pro pro perspective employers or to sell products of any
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kind highly recommend Squarespace uh Squarespace makes it easy to get up and
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going with their new guided design system Squarespace blueprint you choose from a number of professionally curated
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optimized for every device you can easily launch your website and get discovered fast you can integrate um
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with all these different tools that they have hooks for uh SEO is built in you don't have to do any work everything's
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just SEO optimized so people can actually find you and one of my favorite parts and I think this is critical I
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mean absolutely critical if you are going to launch a uh e-commerce site is flexible payments with Squarespace you
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can take credit cards you can do Apple pay you can do PayPal uh in eligible
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countries you can do buy now and pay later and afterpay and clear pay I mean they just integrate with all the modern
14:55
payment stuff that you need to trick people I mean to to give your your uh uh
15:02
prospective buyers a a variety of ways to pay not that I would ever trick people in buying C cloth. because it's
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just the absolute best uh cleaning cloth that exists and it's all powered by
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Squarespace and um if you want to get up and going with your Squarespace website head to squarespace.com
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cultcast squarespace.com codcast start a website see how you like it when your trial is over use code code codcast to
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check out to see 10% off your first purchase I do a year of purchase at a time which gives you an additional discount squarespace.com cultcast use
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offer code cultcast at checkout when you decide to make your purchase all right where should we start I have no idea oh
15:44
leis we're going to you first which is how I like it you want to tell us about the reviews the reviews for the allnew
15:50
M4 MacBook Pro it's a it's a monster it's a monster I mean I think that's true Lis
15:57
everybody seems to love it the uh uh this quote from Jason Snell on the six colors blog kind of sums everything up
16:04
all the things that have made Apple silicon based MacBook Pros great are still here now powered by the impressively upgraded M4 chip Apple has
16:12
also sufficiently improved the base model to the to finally elevated out of why does this exist territory boosted
16:18
the devices worldclass display and seriously upgraded the built-in webcam not bad for a small
16:25
update one of the main things people seem to like aside from all that extra process power is uh key upgrade known as
16:32
a better display oh yeah that's huge for me actually MD brightness has increased
16:38
significantly from 600 nits to 1,000 nits I still don't have a hand handle on
16:43
exactly what a knit means but uh I mean I I realize it's brightness but like I don't know what 600 versus 1,000 would
16:50
actually be I mean practically speaking it's the ability to see your display well in the daylight versus not like a
16:57
thousand nits I feel like in my opinion is the threshold like at 1 th000 nits you can actually see your display and
17:03
use it Outdoors if it's super mega bright you you may need to go a little bit higher but it basically makes your
17:08
computer usable in in complete sunlight which is great for a laptop you can go out and work under a tree or not work
17:15
under a tree you could work in direct sunlight just sweating in the middle of the desert in the middle of the desert
17:20
sweating you know you could barely see blazing down on you okay yeah and you'll still be able to edit that
17:26
video CNN compared the new texture coating with a standard display side by
17:32
side and bright sunlight confirming significantly reduced glare and reflections with a nano texture
17:37
one uh slightly reduces contrast but quote Works incredibly well in
17:44
challenging the lighting conditions without being noticeable in normal use so that's good news all you people who want to work in the desert yeah let's
17:51
see battery life is also very impressive on the 16-inch model CNN got an extra 90 minutes compared to the prior uh was M3
17:59
MacBook Pro I guess yeah uh and Gadget achieved remarks remarkable results in
18:04
their video Loop test with a 14inch 14-inch MacBook Pro lasting 34
18:10
hours and 15 minutes wow that's I mean that's kind of crazy
18:17
34 hours yeah that's Bonkers I feel like with my MacBook Pro like I can barely
18:23
use it for like 5 hours before it has to be charged again uh apparently that's a long flight
18:30
that's like previous one was 30 crossing the world in like a propeller plane it's like you take off and you land in the
18:35
exact same [Laughter] spot uh let's see so overall you know
18:41
significant performance gains in the Pro and Max variant make it a compelling upgrade although you know maybe not as
18:48
essential if you already have an M2 or M3 model so there you go great laptop gets even better screen sounds like the
18:56
most uh visible change and the I mean literally chips are
19:02
awesome hey leis I don't want you to nitpick
19:11
okay yeah man is it is it on to me now should I take over should I take control
19:17
yeah you know because like uh uh significant performance gains in the Pro and Max variants make this a compelling
19:22
upgrade though less essential for M2 or M3 owners right Aron
19:29
thank you Yes Lewis that's that is exactly what I was thinking okay so
19:35
let's talk about pure raw horsepower which I know is something that you all
19:41
are interested in I I am just continually surprised at how apple is able to build in these huge
19:48
performance increases year-over-year and and we're not going to just talk about this um in terms of the M3 versus the M4
19:56
I I think that's a less interesting conversation than the difference between the M1 and the M4 cuz I know a lot of
20:02
you out there have been you have an M1 Max MacBook Pro and it's just so dang
20:08
good and you're like do I do is this the year that I upgrade is it finally time to upgrade I think I'm going to be able
20:13
to answer that question for you all uh but before I do that just real quick I want to say Hugo last with the 1999
20:20
Super Chat he says let's get it started your wishes our Command Hugo and and my apologies um we forgot to actually talk
20:27
about Hugo last Super Chat uh last show uh because he usually gets into the chat
20:34
before the show actually starts and just starts dumping money on us which Landy cany loves because it goes directly into
20:41
his pocket and then I forgot um so thank you for that Super Chat Hugo let's talk about M4 Pro and Max benchmarks let me
20:50
pull up my notes here I'm going to just I'm going to read what we have in the story and then I'm going to go completely ad hoc here early geek bench
20:58
six Benchmark results show impressive performance results for the new M4 Pro and M4 Max the M4 Pro featuring a 14
21:04
core CPU configuration a achieved an impressive an impressive average multi
21:10
multi-core score of 2294 passing and this this is the
21:15
Bonkers Marquee headline passing the M2 Ultra average score of
21:23
21351 so the M4 Pro is outperforming
21:29
the M2 Ultra chip in multicore now that
21:34
is where it's truly Bonkers did I read that right yes yeah and it's especially consider awesome considering the M4 Pro
21:41
only has 14 cores that's exactly my points the M the M2 is two M2 Max chips
21:47
fused together and how many cores is that isn't that like 76 cores I think it
21:55
is cuz I think there's 38 GPU cores and the M2 Max I'd have to go back look this is a CPU test I think there's a there
22:02
test right down later later in the story but still um so more than or almost
22:09
double the amount of CPU cores and the efficiency gains on M4 Max or the M4 um
22:15
chip are such that even with half the amount of CPU course it is still able to
22:22
outperform the the M2 Ultra which is completely absolutely Bonkers um let's see here in the single
22:29
core performance the M4 Pro benchmarked a 25% improvement over its predecessor
22:35
M3 Pro again I'm always looking for single core because you can always add
22:41
more cores and get additional performance it's kind of like a parlor trick right like but where it really
22:48
matters is in single core performance because that means it's an actual performance game and not just you adding
22:54
more cores to gain extra performance like you actually made the engine more powerful and 25% increase year-over-year
23:00
is absolutely crazy the M4 Max chip featuring 16 CPU cores shows a higher
23:07
single core score that's about 20% faster than the M4 Pro in multi-core
23:13
performance and about 25% faster than the M2 ultra um despite the latter having more
23:20
CPU cores um in graphics testing the M4 Pros 20 core GPU scored a 38 38% improvement
23:28
over the M3 Pro another huge gain there and the M4 Max Graphics capabilities
23:34
were 87% the performance of the M2 Ultra so there you go an M2 Ultra which is two M2
23:42
Max chips fused together and as a machine that's continually plugged in is almost being matched by a laptop running
23:49
on battery power which is absolutely Bonkers and if you're wondering the M2 Ultra had 76 cores or has 76 cores and
23:57
the M4 Max um has 40 cores for the GPU so and it's
24:04
almost so now I kind of see why Apple I'm still not happy that Apple did this but they they kind of nerfed the cores
24:10
um in the M3 Pro Models and even some of the M3 Max um models from last year
24:17
which I wasn't happy about and I I can now I can see why because these chips are be are are going to be or are now so
24:24
powerful that even though you're reducing the the amount of cores the
24:30
performance is still staying at or higher than um you would expect them to
24:36
be uh so even though I'm not happy that they did that especially with the m the M3 Pro last year now I kind of see why
24:42
they did it because the performance still is still so outrageous that they actually don't need all those cores
24:48
um I'm wondering if I should go into my Spiel if uh yeah let let me do this
24:54
first I will so you might be wondering if it's time to actually upgrade you have the M1
25:01
Max and you have been trying to figure out if this is the actual machine for you to to go upgrade
25:08
I have the M1 Max MacBook Pro this is the question I've been asking myself so I pulled up geekbench
25:14
results between the M1 Max and the M4 Max and here's where we landed in single
25:22
core performance the M4 Max seems to be about 65% more performance performance
25:28
than the M1 Max right so that's a huge increase in multicore um
25:34
performance the M4 Max is about 110% faster than the M1 Max so now you're
25:41
talking about you know almost double uh or or more than double I should say um in a number of different
25:49
metrics file compression the M4 Max you know almost 50% faster navigation 45%
25:56
faster HTML browser tests 60% faster
26:01
photo library test 70% faster clang I don't even know what clang is that's a
26:08
that's a c language compiler ah thank you 48% faster um object detection um
26:15
which I think uses the neural engine maybe um 30 3%
26:22
faster um let's see here background blur 189% faster
26:30
um I could go through all the rest of these but so it's wildly more
26:36
performance um and those were single core performance tests I should say um in multi-core performance I think the
26:44
differences are are even more Stark um in general the M4 Max is in single core
26:52
performance between 60 to 100% faster than the M1 Max in multicore
26:58
it's even it's even it's even more performance so you're looking at an
27:03
average I would say between 100 and 130% faster than the M1 Max so I think the
27:10
answer for me is clear like we have finally gotten to a difference in performance where it it if you if you
27:15
want to see noticeable gains in everyday Computing across everything that you do
27:21
I think it's finally time to upgrade I am going to upgrade for this reason this kind of cemented it for me with the
27:26
other um additions that we had to the new Macbook Pro the Thunderbolt 5 which
27:31
probably won't be something I take advantage of right away but great feuture feature the screen Improvement is massive for me I I I think that it's
27:38
time now there is one caveat which I'm going to send it to Lewis first to talk about when we are expecting the next
27:47
major MacBook Pro redesign because I think that ties into this decision and
27:53
I'll send it to you Lewis and then I'm going to take it back and kind of complete my thought on whether time to
27:58
upgrade um or whether you should upgrade I already know that I'm going to upgrade and and how the timing of all this works
28:05
out so let's talk about the next major MacBook Pro refresh
28:10
Lewis yes uh this guy named Mark griman maybe you've heard of him in his uh
28:16
Power on newsletter says the next big MacBook Pro overhaul will arrive in
28:21
2026 not 2025 as some other people had expected or maybe hoped um
28:28
let's see previous rumors indicated the next major MacBook redesign will focus on thinness and weight reduction laptop
28:35
apparently be the first using o d OLED I can never remember which way it is bring
28:40
higher OLED OLED sounds like a Swedish name delivering probably is a Swedish
28:47
name actually I think I've met people named ol yeah yeah so uh the reason you want that is
28:54
that it delivers higher brightness levels in a Slimmer package once again you'll be able to work even more further
28:59
out in the desert on sunnier days uh the reason for this delay is
29:05
that Apple's supposedly facing problems with that OLED display technology uh govern report backs up
29:12
previous predictions from industry analysts I think that was M quo and uh what's the other guy's name what I was
29:17
talking about the display expert anyway uh Ross young Ross young correct uh they
29:23
previously said the OLED MacBook Pros won't arrive until 2026 um
29:29
um stupid sentence there I'm not going to read it for next year apple is preparing an
29:34
M5 focused spec bump for the MacBook Pro the chips are seemingly already near
29:40
completion so uh you know they'll be faster the same computer faster next year um those are supposedly going to
29:47
use tsmc's current three neter Mo node 3 nanometer mode node and are unlikely to
29:54
bring any significant performance improvements over the M4 counterparts well we'll see about that but I think
29:59
that's the first time we've heard about the M5 chips and it sounds like that's not going to be a very impressive
30:05
upgrade you know it's going to be another it's going to be like what exactly what herone was just talking about on uh M4 versus M3 slightly better
30:13
it's going to be a spe bump yeah do you do you need it probably M3 it's like a
30:18
year-over-year 25% Improvement in single core but it sounds like the M5 is going to be like kind of a you know it's going
30:25
to be the talk after the tick all right yeah so anyway long story
30:31
short go ahead and get get one of these lap laptops right now right go ahead Oran you can feel fine about it you
30:37
don't have to worry about it you won have to worry like oh oh I want to buy it but a year from now I'm going to want another one you won't have to you have
30:44
at least two years two solid years with that thing loving it you stole my thunder Lewis that that is exactly what
30:51
I was going to say so if we were going to be getting the OLED MacBook Pro
30:56
complete refresh next year I would probably say let's wait not time to get it the M1 Max can last another year I
31:03
mean let's be honest it could probably last another five years but if you got money to burn if it's if it's burning a
31:09
hole in your pocket it's making your thighs hot you got to get rid of it if
31:14
it were coming next year I would say okay let's just endure for another year and get the get the machine we're all
31:20
waiting for which is the OLED although to be honest hearing that they're going to be making it thinner it's giving me PTSD of of
31:28
MacBooks of of your yes where they were constantly trying to make the thing thinner and lighter and removing all the
31:35
best functionality the ports they gave us the butterfly keyboard I mean all that stuff that was just I I mean it was
31:42
destroying the Mac honestly like they really were destroying it and I'm happy
31:47
that they're not doing that anymore so when I hear they're making it thinner and lighter it starts making me nervous but here's the play here's what I'm
31:53
going to do it's exactly what Lewis just said get the M4 Max
31:59
use it for two years and then when the new Oland model comes out sell it
32:04
upgrade again and then use that one for like you know two three four years and
32:10
stick with that one for a while that's what I'm going to do that's the that's the play that's the cultcast
32:18
play if you listen to the cultcast you like to have you know the best of what Apple sells I think this is the way to
32:25
roll so that's what I'm going to be doing I'll be buying a new uh M4 Max
32:30
MacBook Pro silver in the New Year all I have to decide is whether or not to get the 14 or 16 inch which I'm waiting for
32:37
the benchmarks to see just how bad the 14inch is from what I've heard so far it
32:43
runs a little bit hotter than the M3 which is a disappointment I thought that wouldn't be the case which means that
32:49
the 14inch will probably throttle which is not going to be as enticing to me
32:54
it's not worth getting you know a super powerful CPU GPU if you can't even run
33:00
it at full speed because the thing can't cool itself off so that might make decision for me here's here's the thing
33:06
though like what do you do that actually would cause the machine to throttle once
33:12
a year exporting a YouTube video because then you can just wait an extra five minutes on that and it's fine you know
33:18
it's not what will I be doing it's what might I be doing it's all it's all about
33:23
it's all about the possibility of what may be and it's about placing a
33:30
limitation on yourself that really shouldn't be there don't you want to be all that you can be Griffin like what
33:36
about what happens when I finally get my act together and I start producing two
33:42
YouTube videos a week and my workflow takes me an extra six minutes a week
33:48
because my computer's constantly throttling just just think about that scenario see you're not you're not
33:53
fcking this through you're not fcking this through maybe you should this is why you should get a desktop computer that actually doesn't doesn't have any
33:59
of these concerns like you know the Mac Mini that's not I tried that I tried that here we go I tried with the Mac
34:06
Studio man I just can't because there's so many times when I want to take my computer and sit in front of my you know
34:12
beautiful 65 in uh OLED TV shipped here from Sweden and edit in front of the the
34:21
TV while I watch movies and I can't do that with a desktop machine plus that
34:26
would mean more time in the cultcast control center and if I spend too much time out here I start getting in trouble
34:32
by my wife so sometimes I have I just have to go into the house I just can't do it I guess my last question then
34:39
would be uh which exact chip configuration are you going to do are you g to go are you g to like max out
34:44
the max chip or are you going to go like entry level like Bend Max chip I have still have to make that
34:51
decision if we go if I go with the 14 in I will probably Max it out but that will
34:56
be dependent on how much it throttles like from the max Tech videos I saw of the M3 max if you got the 14in it was it
35:04
was literally a waste of money to spend the extra money um because it just couldn't cool itself enough for you to
35:11
take advantage of that extra horsepower it was a complete waste it was Optics only if that's the case then I would
35:19
probably get just the regular M4 Max version if the
35:26
16in if there's a big difference in performance between the the top spec M4
35:32
Max and the base I might be willing to spring for the money I don't know yeah I got to see the benchmarks man it's all about the
35:38
benchmarks we got we got to wait and see what happens but I really don't want to carry around a 16in MacBook Pro anymore
35:44
they're way too big they're way too heavy and to your point it's like yeah how often am I actually doing things that would stress out the machine to a
35:50
point where it would have to throttle um probably not enough to Warrant carrying the extra weight all
35:56
the time so but it's so painful to know that you just don't have the best performing machine that's really what it
36:03
is it's like a thorn in my psyche you know it will be the best machine for 99%
36:09
of the time that you're using it yeah but but when it doesn't run hot it it's hard to think about the 99% of the time
36:15
when I can't see beyond the 1% of the time it's placing a limitation on your on yourself I mean again it's not about
36:23
it's not about is this thing not going to do what you needed to do it's about
36:29
is this the best that Apple has that's really just what it comes down to you know what I mean it's like when you're buying a car now I've never actually
36:35
bought a new car but I imagine I'll probably be the same way and you're sitting there trying to figure out what options you want and it's like you don't
36:41
need a lot of these you know bullhonky options that they're offering to you and
36:47
many times those options suck like the navigation system you know like the like the Honda navigation system it's like
36:54
dude it you know it's going to suck but then you're like well you know maybe I would use it every once in a while you want to like you want to place an
37:01
artificial limitation on yourself I don't know man I don't know if I could do it where do you stand on floor mats
37:08
oh man you got to get the floor mats you got to get the floor mats leis that that that's a that's a non-negotiable you got
37:15
to get them I mean you can't not have floor mats and I don't want to have a car with like Amazon branded floor
37:22
mats you got to have there's something about that that OEM feeling you know
37:28
what I'm saying Louis it's like you look down it says Toyota on the mat there's just something about that that I cannot
37:34
resist or that the Toyota install trailer hits you get like cuz like carpeted flow mats those are pointless
37:41
what you need is something that you can just like pull out of the car and like hose down well if you're going to do
37:46
that you should just get the weather tech off of I think you could buy them on Amazon like WeatherTech are like I
37:52
think like the go-to for many people for like the plastic floor mats and actually I have those in my mini and they're
37:58
great so but there's just something about a nice carpeted mat that says
38:03
Toyota on it or Honda on it it's not like you're G to touch it's not like you're driving your car with your bare feet you know like your muddy shoes are
38:10
going to be like rubbing all over these things that's true
38:15
like I'm interested in car like like like the car market and everything but like personally I am incredibly
38:21
utilitarian to a point my car is ugly as Sin but it functions and that's like I
38:27
have these floor mats that are perpetually muddy but you know I'm not looking at the floor I'm looking at the
38:34
road that that's a respectable practical opinion but I think ultimately that's
38:40
where you land once you've owned the car or the computer for a while like you just don't really seem to be bothered by stuff that's missing when you realize
38:46
that you're not actually Limited in any way but when you're making the purchase decision and you know they're going to hardwire that Ram in the motherboard and
38:53
that's it you can't make that decision ever again it's like H you know they they force you into that buying Choice
38:59
and then you're like oh maybe it's worth spending an extra ,000 for two terabytes of storage anyway um that's what I'm
39:06
thinking I don't know chat let me know what's the move I think that's the move upgrade this year wait two years and
39:12
when OLED comes out upgrade again or OLED comes out and you realize Apple's
39:17
going back to the church of thin and light and they're bringing back the butterfly keyboard and they're removing all ports but one single Thunderbolt
39:23
five port and they're pushing you back towards dongles and you're like okay it's like the 2015 MacBook Pro all over
39:29
again it's like I got the best machine that Apple made and I'm I'm literally never going to upgrade until this
39:34
machine dies and then I'm going to move and buy a razor laptop we'll
39:40
see all right I think that's it for MacBook Pro
39:46
talk anyway um real quick I mentioned this earlier but I would be remiss not
39:53
to mention if you are getting a new Macbook Pro and you're especially if you're getting the new um uh space black
39:59
or you have a space black MacBook Pro dude I did not realize what fingerprint fingerprint magnets those things are and
40:06
in the reviews I keep hearing people say like look at my keyboard it's all shiny covered with oil I'm like dude that is
40:12
nasty that is not something that you should be proud of like my keyboard is still like matte black plastic because I
40:20
actually clean it and I used the cult cloth and with our C cloth cult cloth
40:25
duo with it it's uh dual fiber design it has long fibers on one side and those fibers go through a special process that
40:32
uh breaks down the surface area which makes them extra powerful in their cleaning ability I mean dude the entire
40:39
keyboard is spotless there's no oil on my keyboard at least none that's like more than a couple days old and the
40:45
fibers they're they're so long they actually wipe around the perimeter of the actual key so like the entire key is
40:50
clean and this is true about sunglasses glasses you you know like that like the area between your glasses and frames
40:58
like normal cleaning cloths just push crap pardon my language getting so angry
41:03
about this into that area around uh where your glass meets the frames and
41:09
you can never get it out and you have all this like skin and like oil residue it's nasty jeez and the coat cloth
41:15
reaches down into your crack and pulls all that stuff out and your crack will be sparkling clean I mean who does not
41:21
want a sparkling clean crack and that works the same with like your iPhone the crack between the the in in in the
41:28
actual case um the cloth work great on your car I mean they are just the best
41:34
cleaning cloth that exists and they help support me they help support the show so
41:39
if you haven't already I know many thousands of you have already bought them maybe you need more maybe you want to get them as a Christmas gift I mean
41:44
who knows but cool cloth. cool cloth. we just upgraded our carry cloth the V2
41:50
look at that iffin Jones and you know I didn't you sent me
41:56
a whole stack of them oh yeah sent you a bunch I want you to have enough to like put in your car put in your house I'll
42:02
say that what I didn't realize about the cult claws after you know hearing us do like these adies on the show I didn't
42:07
realize how big they were like yes it's like a sheet of paper size a cult size a
42:12
cult cloth you know so I've been I've been trying them out and I also didn't know that there were so many different
42:18
varieties like there's the the the the the the tiny like sort of perforated Edge one yeah that's the carry cloth
42:23
right there's the okay there's the the fuzzy one Co cloth Duo yep oh okay this
42:29
is the duo yeah yeah short fibers on one side so you like spray your screen with like cleaner and like it won't absorb at
42:34
all it will actually screen your clean your screen while leaving some of the um the spray in place and then then there's
42:40
the long side and you actually you don't even really need the spray in many instances but sometimes you got to have
42:45
you got to wet things down and then then you got the the the big one which looks the same as the small one but you know
42:51
like bigger yeah it's a it's a slightly different material too but like that one's really great for like 65 in
42:57
televisions and stuff oh yeah yeah so you know it can covers your whole poem well that is one of the reasons why
43:03
they're so big because a lot of the coat cloths or a lot of the cleaning cloths out there are really tiny and so as
43:08
you're cleaning your device you you don't have the coverage that you need over your hand and so you end up smudging your device or your glasses or
43:15
whatever and we put the extra material in so that they actually cover your freaking hand and uh you don't
43:23
accidentally smudge whatever you're trying to clean anyway Co cloth. C cloth . use code cultcast checkout to score uh
43:31
a free carry cloth with orders $20 plus um appre appreciate all of you who have
43:36
bought them and have supported it's really really um helpful all right let's talk about iOS 18 beta 2 I know Griffin
43:45
you've been dying to do it okay a couple weeks after releasing the first iOS 18.2
43:50
beta with the second round of Apple intelligence features Apple seated a second beta with a few more tweaks and
43:56
improvements Apple's making it easier to find a lost item tagged with an air tag uh if you're
44:02
trying to find something you can temporarily share the items location with another person so they can try to
44:07
track it down this could you know some people are saying this could be handy if like your luggage is lost in an airport
44:13
or something like you can go to a airport attendant and be like hey can I help you find it yeah sure let me just share this with you really quick you
44:19
know or if you're trying to help a a friend like find their keys or something uh the location sharing only
44:26
works for a limited time so you can stop it anytime and the link also works through a browser so it can be accessed
44:32
on any device even inferior Android ones uh you can now use the camera
44:37
control to lock focus and exposure by holding it down like doing a half click
44:43
like a traditional camera this isn't on by default you have to turn it on in like settings camera
44:49
camera camera control um I touched this out it doesn't work exactly like a
44:55
regular camera where you you know hold it down to lock the focus and then you can you
45:01
know uh point the camera at something else and then hold it down again to instantly switch the focus again it you
45:08
need to hold it down to lock it but then you need to hold it down again to unlock it before you can focus on a different
45:14
thing which is kind of clunky in practice especially if you're trying to
45:19
like you know focus and take a picture really quickly but um you know hopefully that's something they can
45:25
tweak um and Safari this is a big one you can now share a link to a web page
45:30
that jumps to a specific section and highlights a paragraph of text so if
45:36
you're trying to you know uh send send a quote to somebody that's like in this really big article and you just want
45:41
them to like read this one specific line you can select the text on the page and then from like the little black popup
45:48
menu you can swipe over and tap copy link with highlight so that when they open the link it'll automatically jump
45:55
right there and it'll be highlighted in yellow really handy uh iOS 18.2 beta 2 enables you to
46:01
mirror your iPhone to your Mac while using your iPhone as a Hotpot for an internet
46:07
connection sometimes like these like Smart Wi-Fi based features that they
46:12
have they overlap with each other in weird ways that you don't expect but that's that that's now an option like I
46:20
I was trying to airdrop like pictures to somebody on their as they were driving uh you know
46:27
driving in the car but their car has Wireless carplay and so I realized like I apparently found out that you can't
46:33
airdrop things to people when you're in the middle of a wireless carplay session which is weird um unrelated though uh
46:40
let's see apple previously introduced image playground in the first iOS 18.2 beta but there's a new feature if you
46:48
select text in an app like notes from the popup menu you can tap create image which uses the text as input for image
46:54
playground which uh might save you a little step there bit of a minor tweak um I'm actually going to have a a full
47:01
feature piece this weekend going into detail on all of the Apple intelligence features in iOS 18.2 so stay tuned for
47:08
that it'll be an article and video going up on Saturday have you found a uh a
47:14
legitimate use for the iPhone mirroring yet yeah um well there there are a few
47:21
use cases because there there are a few apps on my iPhone that don't have good Mac apps the biggest one being snap chat
47:28
but the problem with that is that when you use Snapchat in iPhone mirroring mode it thinks that you're trying to
47:34
like screen record and like you know you know save people's snaps surreptitiously so it sends a screen recording
47:40
notification which is kind of annoying um so that that would be a good use case
47:45
if it didn't do that uh otherwise you have to like there's a there's a new Snapchat web app that you can go through
47:51
instead which I usually keep open in a tab on my computer but that's a little Annoying um but there are other apps too
47:56
like threads doesn't have a doesn't have a Mac app you know the only way to do it is is through the web
48:03
so if you're like you know the the app rather than their web app for some reason then it can come in handy
48:10
there I just I mean I found it to be kind of amazing but I haven't figured out a reason why I need
48:17
it yeah is that is that all the stuff you wanted to talk about Griffin I know there's a bunch of stuff in here we can
48:22
link to this in the show notes obviously so that um people can check out the rest of them cuz bunch of these um are
48:28
interesting maybe not worth discussing here on the show but there's a bunch of stuff in here I I guess as as another
48:33
quick question have either of you used the new Apple intelligence features at all in a.2 image playground gen Emoji
48:40
anything like that not a single thing no in fact the only the only interaction I've had with like with the new Apple
48:46
intelligence is with the new Siri which I love how it animates when you light it up and the whole screen like perimeter
48:52
lights up rather than that that that ball um that used to pop up the little marble um unfortunately that's it so far
49:00
um the one thing I was really hoping that they would get right with this this
49:05
um uh migration to Apple intelligence is better Siri performance which I'm
49:11
shocked and stunned and saddened to say is just as bad as ever that's that's not out yet though that's the thing well I
49:17
don't even know if it is coming out like I don't know if yeah it's that's like well known that's not coming until 2025
49:24
like April I think or something in 18.4 for are they actually going to be changing the way Siri understands people
49:33
and listens to people that's okay that's the big the new features but they're not as far as I know they haven't announced
49:39
any improvements to like the speech to text yeah that's what I mean like that part well I don't know if that is
49:46
changing which I'm shocked by because like that is an is is a
49:53
key that that that's like a key feature to be able to to to interact with these
49:59
Apple intelligence features in some capacity right I guess maybe not all or most but you'd think if they were going
50:05
to be um moving to this new Apple intelligence system like that's something that they would have actually
50:11
tried to fix maybe they can't for some reason who knows but anyway yeah I I I need to start playing around with it
50:17
more especially like with the Gen mooji stuff which I haven't touched at all you know what I like out of all of
50:23
it and and this sounds stupid but the uh hide distractions feature in Safari on
50:28
iOS I haven't tried it really I love it I I take great joy in in making uh ads
50:36
and Annoying video popups just disappear like you know Thanos like it's awesome I
50:42
don't I don't even think that's an apple intelligence feature that's just it's it's just an iosa yeah I don't think
50:47
it's Apple intelligence either but uh I I I actually find myself using that a
50:53
fair amount the only thing I wish I wish there was a way that it would sort
50:59
of understand like oh if I don't want this video showing up on the screen I wish it would understand that I don't
51:04
want to see that at all because the problem is you scroll down you know three paragraphs and and
51:11
the same stupid pop-up shows up again right and then you have to go back so it's I wish it was a little more
51:17
pervasive let's put it that way because it's pretty awesome when it works all right well I I guess my homework
51:23
assignment for the two of you in the next week try out app and try out the Apple intelligence features like image playground TV get in that gen Emoji
51:30
stuff like that cuz I'll be talking about it next week but it's more fun if the two of you have have more opinions on it
51:35
too uh by the way I sorry if you guys keep hearing me cough I was sick earlier
51:40
this week and you know how like I don't know if this just like when you get older type of a thing but like
51:46
your cold like mutates three different times and like different symptoms before it finally goes away so I think mine is
51:52
mutating into its final form which is like the head congestion which I didn't have for the first part of it at all um
51:59
and I'm like coughing a lot I'm trying not to do that into the microphone um and I think I'm mostly dialing them out
52:06
but apologies a couple of them make it into your your airpods pro um all right
52:13
let's move on to talk about iPhone 17 because uh we got some new potential features coming to that and then we'll wrap up with an all new Under
52:19
review okay Apple might switch to in-house Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips
52:25
starting with next year's iPhone 17 the company plans to fully transition to its custom Wi-Fi chips within 3 years after
52:32
that since its 2019 acquisition of Intel's Mona business Apple's been working on a custom 5G modem report
52:39
suggest it'll debut with the iPhone se4 in next spring a previous report claimed
52:44
that Apple's 5G modem will handle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections but seemingly that won't be the case in a recent post
52:51
on X mingi quo predicted Apple will use different custom developed Wi-Fi and
52:56
Bluetooth chips starting with the iPhone 17 next fall uh fabricated on
53:02
tsmc's N7 node it it'll support the Wi-Fi 7 standard so that could that
53:07
could as a quick side not that could explain why Apple's like newest rounded Maxs don't have Wi-Fi 7 yet they're
53:13
holding out for their their own custom silicon to include that other devices launching later in 2025 will also use
53:21
the new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips well only one thing really gets launched after the iPhone and that's Max so I
53:27
guess that's saying Max will get these two apple purportedly plans to move its entire product roster to its in-house
53:34
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips in the following three years apart from cost benefits this move will help quote
53:39
enhance Apple's ecosystem integration advantages quo said not really sure what
53:45
that can mean maybe I mean maybe that could tie into my earlier point that like you know there there are these weird limitations on like these Wi-Fi
53:52
based features between Macs Apple's you know with iPhone iPhone mirroring and like screen sharing Ing and continuity
53:58
and air airpl and stuff like that they're maybe maybe this like launch the
54:03
next generation of you know these sort of inner device connection
54:09
stuff the clarified that Apple's 5G and Wi-Fi chips are separate and built on
54:14
different tsmc nodes due to the difference in their production line the 5G modem will launch first uh rumors
54:20
point to the iPhone 17 slim being among the first devices to launch with this combination other iPhone 17 models will
54:26
presumably stick to Qualcomm modems so next phase of Apple silicon
54:32
not just processors anymore I feel like we've been talking about this forever well takes a long time to make
54:39
them yeah that is true I I want to address there's two comments in the chat real quick before we uh move into under
54:45
review um Ricardo Anthony says come on guys you run an Apple website and podcast but you've not tried out the new
54:51
software features to talk about uh what WTH um and then and level remix comes in
54:57
might be proof that Apple intelligence might not be as useful so I actually think both those comments are true
55:03
Ricardo you're 100% right um by by Next Episode I will have done my homework but
55:08
I also kind of feel like I agree with level remix I I think that the reason I
55:13
haven't personally tried out a lot of the Apple intelligent features now I
55:18
think you're right I think I should seek them out and actually try to use them just so that I know um or I have
55:23
personal opinions on them but I I feel personally like the Apple intelligence stuff has kind of landed with a thud I
55:31
don't really see anything in apple intelligence from a feature perspective that I actually find to be all that um
55:38
practically useful in my everyday life um like I think a perfect example of
55:44
like an apple feature that they kind of made a big deal of is like being able to
55:49
um remove subjects from like a like a photo right that might be a feature
55:54
that's useful for people who don't know how to use Photoshop but like Photoshop is so like unbelievably Superior uh than
56:02
Apple in every respect in terms of doing something like that that I would never
56:07
actually really use apple uh software to do that because they don't do it very well I mean they get it done but it's
56:13
like a solid C+ whereas like if you actually want it to look good you would need to use like photo manipulation
56:18
software like Photoshop um like the Gen Mo the like the Gen Emoji stuff I actually think is really kind of
56:24
interesting and I'm going to try it out and out of all theat I've seen I think that is the one I might actually use the most but a lot of the Apple intelligence
56:31
features that I've seen I just don't really see them being something that I
56:36
use all that often and the only reason I really feel compelled to try many of them is really only to form an opinion
56:43
so I can talk about them here on the show but I also feel like if they're not
56:50
useful for me I'm just a normal person a normal Apple user right I'm not a developer and I feel like if I feel that
56:57
way about Apple stuff I feel like a lot of you probably feel that way too um and
57:03
so I don't know how interested you'll hear you you would be to hear us like do like a really deep dive into like what
57:08
every single feature with apple AI Apple intelligence I don't know I mean let me know if I'm if I'm wrong about that but
57:15
I still think Ricardo's Point stance um like we we should be using these things
57:20
just so that we can you know experience them firsthand and I do I do plan to do that so I appreciate your guys' feedback
57:26
well um I me the thing is like the first round of features are really just like setting the table with like
57:31
summarization stuff the summarization stuff is pretty handy and like the writing tools like the first round of Apple intelligence features aren't
57:37
really the exciting ones all of the stuff that people are excited for is in this second round of features which is
57:44
you know really how I you know spoiler that is how I start my art like my article and video by saying that like
57:50
this is this is the stuff that people are interested in for better or worse so I mean I'm not been running
57:57
that beta so that's why I haven't tried gen mooji not available yet in you know
58:03
stable software I also am not running the beta I mean I I I I tried the uh
58:11
18.1 beta once it got down to the point where it was like you know stable but I
58:17
did that you know I after after I got back from my my vacation you know I didn't want to have a unstable phone on
58:23
a trip MH um do you think that 18.2 is stable enough now that you know I won't
58:29
be just constantly frustrated before this week it was only available in a developer beta but now they have a public beta out for it and it's it's
58:36
mostly stable like there's occasional user interface weirdness like just bugs they have to iron out but the bugs that
58:43
I found are only around the Apple intelligence features it's not like you upgrade to 18.2 and like suddenly
58:48
messages don't send or anything like that yeah maybe I'll give it a try I
58:53
mean now TR out now that I'm not on you know a trip now I gotta now I gotta go to the
59:00
beta I've tried the uh you know image cleanup or whatever it's called yeah
59:06
works okay it's all right an interesting part of that discuss you were mentioning airon is that Apple has we didn't write
59:13
about this on the show but like apple acquired pixel Mater I don't know if you heard about that but like I just heard
59:18
that yeah yeah that is interesting that is very interesting actually all right
59:24
look I'm going to be wrapping up here in 10 minutes so we got to move on but thanks for the feedback in the chat um
59:30
let's talk about well we're we're going to do an allnew under review and Griffin
59:36
has just been dying for me to talk about the I would say all new although at this
59:42
point is it even new no it's been out for a whole freaking year the Fujifilm
59:48
X100 VI the Holy Grail the
59:53
unobtainable powered by unob tum that ridiculously named element from
1:00:00
um Avatar Avatar oh my gosh what a bad name un
1:00:05
tanium um I finally got my camera I don't know how much we've talked about this on the show after all the all the
1:00:14
complaining and uh bitter ramblings that I've had on this show about how I waited
1:00:20
a freaking year a freaking year to get this camera I pure Ed in the first two
1:00:28
minutes and so I think maybe like four weeks ago I called B who's who I ordered
1:00:35
from and I was like what in the H double hockey sticks is going on around here
1:00:40
I'm like I ordered this a year ago I'm like I see reviews on your website of people who say that they ordered before
1:00:46
me that already have theirs and the guy basic he was he was really actually trying to help me and he he couldn't
1:00:53
give me very much information but what he could tell me and I don't know how this happened he's like I do see that
1:00:59
you are scheduled to receive your camera in the next shipment so you are next in line I'm like well how many cameras do
1:01:06
you get when you get orders he's like oh we never know I'm like well then how do you know that I'm next in line like you
1:01:12
don't know how many cameras you're going to get I I'm I I'm like literally the next person in line like he wouldn't see he wouldn't tell me anything I just thought the whole thing was interesting
1:01:18
and then lo and behold like a week later I get my camera so I did end up getting
1:01:24
it now I won't go into a deep dive into the X100 VI I
1:01:31
actually don't even feel like I've had it long enough to really form like a very solid opinion so this is more of
1:01:36
going to be like my first impressions this camera has been hyped to the High Heavens because of Tik Tok it's a very
1:01:44
cool retro look camera it's 40 megapixels and there's a couple things that Fujifilm does really well a make
1:01:50
beautiful cameras well I'm going to say three actually make beautiful retro looking cameras and the 1006 just is
1:01:58
just an aesthetic Masterpiece it's beautiful it feels vintage it feels modern but also feels old and it has a
1:02:05
lot of like manual dials that you can twist and churn to like set all these different settings on your camera it's
1:02:10
got a fixed lens with an F2 aperture so that you can still like blur out your background it's super
1:02:16
lightweight and Fujifilm renders skin tones just just sublimely whatever color
1:02:23
science they have going on at Fujifilm they do skin tones and color reproduction better than almost any
1:02:30
company may may maybe better than any company all AC now Ary does it really well um Canon does it pretty well but I
1:02:36
think that actually Fuji does color better than Canon does so I finally got this camera and I start using it out I
1:02:42
start I start testing it out and there are things I really like about it so far and there are some things that I'm like
1:02:48
I actually don't like this uh and just to highlight a few things I think the new sensor that they
1:02:55
have in the 40 me the 40 megap pickle 40 Mega pickle sensor um I mean it's been pickling for
1:03:02
years you know they left it in the jar for a very long time and I have to say it really is a technical achievement
1:03:09
because cramming that many megapixels into a sensor that small is not something other camera companies have
1:03:14
been able to do and it takes very beautiful pictures and the noise pattern is very natural looking and beautiful
1:03:21
and you get 40 megapixels now it doesn't have great low light performance but I wasn't expecting that the camera is uh
1:03:29
you know the aesthetic is just beautiful to have beautiful to hold it's super light weight it has a built-in flash
1:03:35
that's like put in the perfect location to like naturally illuminate photographs um it has a really high
1:03:43
quality um uh OLED screen in the viewfinder which lets you see everything
1:03:48
that's going on in your picture um and it's really just a joy to use and carry around now that being said
1:03:56
there are some things about it that I'm kind of not loving um I feel like the
1:04:02
grip is too small actually let me back up I would consider myself to be like a
1:04:07
real photographer and what do I mean by that I mean that sometimes you're you're put into situations where you got to
1:04:13
take a you got to take a shot right and you got to nail the shot it's not for casual it's not a casual situation like
1:04:19
you may be doing weddings you may be shooting senior photos and in those kind of situations you have to be able to
1:04:25
control your camera holds your camera comfortably and react to situations quickly and I feel like those elements
1:04:31
are missing from this camera it's not actually that comfortable to hold because the camera grip is so small it's
1:04:37
kind of cumbersome to control the camera quickly and actually respond to changing
1:04:42
scenarios in Lighting in um in in color temperature and it just doesn't work
1:04:50
it's not as it's not as easy to use quickly as like some of fujifilm's other cameras which I bought the Xs 20 which
1:04:56
is an a uh interchangeable lens camera which has a much better grip and is just
1:05:02
built for you for for photographers like it it's easy to access a lot of the things that you need to quickly access
1:05:07
so that you can respond on the Fly and take the shot and this camera the the x
1:05:13
or the X100 6 is not built for that it's more of like a it's more of like an artistic tool it's like you're you're a
1:05:19
ponderer hm how do I get the best shots I'm going to put my finger in the air and test the lighting it's like you know
1:05:26
it's it's built for those kinds of scenarios but like if you're trying to do something quickly it's not GNA meet
1:05:31
you there I have also found the focus speed to be rather cumbersome like it
1:05:37
just doesn't Focus as fast as other Fujifilm cameras and I think that's because of the lens that is permanently
1:05:44
installed on this camera that you can't change and the lenses that you can buy from Fujifilm that you can attach to
1:05:51
other interchangeable camera lenses are just faster and so you can focus faster and get the
1:05:59
shot um and this camera also has like
1:06:04
this it has an ability to either show you the OLED in the viewfinder or the actual um it's like it's like a
1:06:12
rangefinder mode it's it's just like the actual view what the viewfinder sees without um the screen
1:06:17
overlay and as much as I like that mode I find that it's actually not very practical and and not something I would
1:06:24
use very often and that's it's a feature that people often talk about with this camera is like being something that why you why it would be something that that
1:06:30
would motivate you to buy this camera and I'm like I actually don't feel like this is useful because in dark scenarios you can't really see your picture very
1:06:36
well and the photographic metrics overlay that you see when you're not
1:06:41
using the OLED screen are very dim and kind of hard to see uh so I would say overall I feel
1:06:48
like this camera although a lot of fun to use and I'm happy that I I have it
1:06:54
I'm not going to sell it I'm I'm going to keep using it and keep growing in my skill with it CU I feel like maybe part of my frustration with it so far has
1:07:02
been just me not being used to using it um has not lived up to the hype it is
1:07:07
just not as as as Nimble of a photographic tool like if you really want to get good at photography well
1:07:13
maybe this is unfair if you really want to use a camera in demanding situations
1:07:18
where you have to react on the Fly and get the shot this is not a tool that you should buy um it's more for taking
1:07:25
taking really beautiful images for Instagram or you know taking pictures of your family as long as you don't have
1:07:31
like you know a lot of fast-moving subjects like kids were running in out out of the frame because you can't
1:07:37
adjust the focal length um you know it's it's I can see why it does well on Tik
1:07:43
Tok it is a social media person's tool like building an audience on a social
1:07:49
media platform this is a camera that can do that really well uh taking photos of your family this is something that would
1:07:55
be great for that travel photography you know photographs where you have time to ponder and really figure out like how
1:08:01
you want to take the the picture this is probably a great camera for that but in situations where you need to get the
1:08:06
shot not a good tool for that and and so maybe that's why I'm frustrated because I expect my cameras to be nimble and
1:08:14
this one I have found to not be that way and so so far I have found myself
1:08:20
frustrated it does take beautiful pictures it does take sharp pictures theor Productions and the uh inbuilt um
1:08:28
camera um uh uh do they call them filters they're not really filters
1:08:34
although I guess they are are are I think some of the best that you can get in any camera and we'll see if my opinion
1:08:41
changes as I get used to the camera it's probably going to take me another couple months to like just actually really use it a lot and get used to it more but so
1:08:50
far I'm kind of like you know like it's a good tool is it worth waiting a year for uh I would say for most people
1:08:57
probably not and I I actually think I want to make a YouTube video about this I'm like I I think that the better way
1:09:03
to go would be getting the xs20 with a um uh with the um the 16mm
1:09:11
f2.8 which is a really excellent lens that's super cheap you'll get that camera faster it will do everything that
1:09:18
the uh X100 6 will do and more it may be slightly heavier but it's going to be
1:09:24
way more versatile and you'll actually be able to get it you cannot get the x16 anywhere it's sold out for like a year
1:09:31
so and I don't think that's going to change ever like I think it's literally always going to be sold out for the entire duration of its life its
1:09:37
predecessor the X100 V was was almost impossible to find and I don't think
1:09:43
that this camera is going to be any different so that's where I'm at with it so far can I ask for any of you that considering are you are you short on
1:09:49
time there I got one I got time for one question well I think like every every
1:09:55
dedicated camera that you buy this these days has to have like a market advantage
1:10:00
over the iPhone to even be worth it at all like if you're spending ,000 on a camera you know, 1600 in this case it
1:10:07
has to be like markedly better than the because like you're already buying an iPhone everybody already has an iPhone and the iPhone takes great pictures and
1:10:13
it records great video so it's going to have to be like much better at a few key things to be worth the price and I think
1:10:19
that like a few of the notorious shortfalls of the iPhone that are just like you know Bound by physics are
1:10:25
it can't do super great resolution like it can take it has a 48 megapixel sensor
1:10:31
in it but really if you zoom in like it's kind of smudgy when you zoom in the resolution the zoom and the low light
1:10:37
performance Apple tries to smooth over the low light performance with their computational stuff and the dark mode
1:10:43
but like it it sounds to me like the Fujifilm x16 it doesn't have great low light
1:10:48
performance it doesn't have very much Zoom range because it only goes from one to 1.6x and you can't even inter change
1:10:55
the lenses and you're like so I guess the remaining question is like well how
1:11:00
good is it when you zoom in are the pictures really crisp at 40 megapixels I I haven't done enough PE uh
1:11:06
pixel peeping to answer that question I do think they actually are pretty crisp and sharp but again I don't want to
1:11:12
dissuade anyone from getting the camera I do actually really like it but it's just not for everyone and it's not for
1:11:18
every scenario and I think that people need to to to understand that because this camera is so unbelievably hyped
1:11:23
online it's like people keep talking about how it's the camera and I'm like I think that's true for certain people but
1:11:28
it's not for it's not for everyone for every situation and I think that you just need to know that anyway I got to go be walking these sweet buns out the
1:11:34
door so we're going to go ahead and turn the music on and say that's it that's all the codcast we have for you guys
1:11:40
this week but you know what the conversation continues in the beautiful Halls of the cult club which you can
1:11:45
join at support. thecast docomo
1:11:51
docomo minute Alp conversation you're going to hear all week long new episodes of the cast come out out every Thursday
1:11:56
night I want to thank everyone for listening for hanging out live and we will see you guys next time holy
1:12:04
moly what a smooth transition to the end of the show that might be our best one yet maybe a little
1:12:11
unexpected hard be [Music] surprising
1:12:16
but sometimes way it rolls all right everyone hope you have a
1:12:22
great weekend catch you guys next
1:12:27
time bye y'all [Music]
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