In the News
In the News
160: CarPlay Stagnation, Veep with an iPad, and You’ve Got Mail! ✉️
Watch the video!
https://youtu.be/GXws5HvpoeU
In the News blog post for August 23, 2024:
https://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2024/08/in-the-news741.html
00:00 Watch the Replay
05:41 Come on and Zoom, Zoom, Zooma-Zoom
13:03 Incredible iPhotos
15:35 AI Features & Obsolescence
23:19 Extending Our Caring Principles
27:48 Listen on the Web
31:13 CarPlay Stagnation
34:51 The Future of Coke-Bottles
38:38 Where Y’at? You’ve Got Mail!
40:34 Veep iPad
41:51 Brett’s iTip: Customize the Apple Watch App Launcher
47:31 Jeff’s iTip: New Apple Watch = Much Better Battery Life
Zac Hall | 9to5Mac: watchOS 11 unlocks a new level of usefulness for double tap on Apple Watch
17th annual iPhone Photography Awards
Ryan Christoffel | 9to5Mac: This Apple Intelligence Photos feature is my surprise early favorite in iOS 18.1
Ryan Christoffel | 9to5Mac: The iPhone 15 may be obsolete faster than any model in history
Filipe Espósito | 9to5Mac: Customers can now extend AppleCare+ coverage up to 45 days after expiration
Juli Clover | MacRumors: Apple Podcasts Now Available on the Web
Dan Moren | Macworld: Apple’s best software system is spinning its wheels
David Schloss | Appleinsider: Future Apple headsets may use liquid lenses to correct vision
William Gallagher | Appleinsider: Serial mail thieves thwarted when victim sends herself an AirTag
Love you, Dougie
Brett’s iTip: Customize the App Launcher in the Smart Stack Widget on Apple Watch
Jeff’s iTip: New Apple Watch = much better battery life!
Brett Burney from http://www.appsinlaw.com
Jeff Richardson from http://www.iphonejd.com
Welcome to In the News for August the 23rd, 2024.
Lots of 20s again.
I am Brett Burney from Appsinlaw.com.
And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhoneJD.
Hey, Brett.
Good morning, Jeff.
Good to see you as always.
And hey, how's that Apple Watch Ultra 2 going for you these days?
Still enjoying it?
I loved it.
I really did.
But I did return it over the weekend because I was afraid it might be a little too much for me.
I'm currently using the Apple Watch Series 9.
Oh, beautiful.
Okay.
Yeah, it's been interesting to compare it and stuff like that.
In fact, when we get to the end of today's podcast, I have something to talk about about the battery life about it.
But it's definitely a nice watch.
Don't get me wrong.
You know, the Series 7, which is what I had been using until it broke, was a nice watch.
And when the Series 8 came out a year ago, or the year later, there was definitely some new features, but not enough for me to justify upgrading.
And then the Series 9, which came out a year ago, which is what I'm wearing right now, again, it had some nice new features that we talked about on the podcast at the time.
It was nice incremental things.
But to me, it still wasn't quite enough.
And so I'm trying it now.
Push you to upgrade.
Yeah.
It's, you know, from the Series 7 to the Series 9, it's still a nice upgrade.
It's definitely got a much faster processor.
One of my favorite things was this new gesture feature, which is, I think what we're going to talk about this morning is that, you know, and this was on the Ultra too, but I really like this feature that when I'm just using the watch, even if I'm doing something with my right hand, I can just tap quickly with my left hand.
And right, it just did it as I did it.
And it, because my watch face was on it, it brought up the smart stack.
And then as I'm looking at the smart stack without even using my right hand, I can just do this double tap gesture and it's going through each item in the smart stack.
Now the problem is to actually, not the problem, but the downsides to actually act upon something, like for example, right now, looking at my activity rings, I then need to actually tap it and then bring it up with the other hand.
But it's still nice that you can do some things.
Like if all you want to do is look at something, let me just give you a practical example.
I have certain medicines that I take like every other day.
Right.
And if I'm trying to remember, wait a minute, is tonight the night that I take it or I not take it, I could just double tap and it will bring up my medications and I could say, oh no, today's not a day I take it and I'm done.
So if all you need to do is glance at a widget, it's really good.
Right.
But the problem is, is the right widget being shown there?
And the story that I was linking to this morning that I thought was really interesting is in a few weeks when Apple releases watchOS 11, this feature, which, you know, this smart gesture is going, which on the watch face was what triggers the smart stack.
The smart stack is going to be even better because smart stacks will be more interactive and they will be able to have different ones show up based upon the time of day and what you're doing.
And so again, we'll see how good the artificial intelligence is, but ideally, wouldn't it be great if when you do that little gesture that I did with the Apple watch, the smart stack that comes up first is the one that you most want to use.
Maybe it's the now playing listening to music on a home pod, or maybe it's the, you know, the weather, if it knows that this time of day, you tend to check the weather this time of day, or maybe it's your home kit to turn a light on and off.
If this tends to be the time of day that you end up turning off your downstairs lights because you're going to bed, that would be really useful is because then it's a gesture.
You're just doing it with one hand.
It's exactly what you want.
And it's a really good gesture.
I really do like this, this double tap gesture that again, Apple released it last year, but I didn't get a chance to start trying it until very recently.
So this is cool.
You know, I think it's, you know, some of Apple's new gestures that they've released over the years with the Apple watch and the Apple iPhone and everything else.
Some have been more successful than the others, you know, perhaps nothing will be as good as the zoom to pinch that we all know so well from zooming in on photos and stuff like that.
I think that double tap with the watch is a thumbs up gesture.
I like it and I look forward to being even more useful.
And so if they're going to make it better with watchOS 11, I say, good job, Apple.
I remember when this came out and to some extent, some of this has been available in Apple watches, you know, from an accessibility feature, right?
But it wasn't until the Apple watch, but it wasn't until the Apple watch ultra two or the series nine when it was sort of, I guess, more accessible to people that don't have accessibility requirements, but it was because of the processor, right?
In other words, these, the hardware has better enabled it.
And I think I'm just going to continue to get more excited about the fact that if it's working as well as what you are already seeing, Jeff, I mean, I'm excited about where it's going to go.
I mean, you know, if it could be more, it'd be in a subtle gesture or something, you know, with your hand that could, that could tap something as opposed to double tap or whatever.
I'm just, I'm just continuing to get excited about the fact that we have even that capability that's coming in.
We're just barely seeing, I think what it can do now.
And I'm excited that watch us 11 is going to incorporate that even a little bit better.
And I just, me now I've got to upgrade my Apple watch pretty soon here because I want to be able to have access to this.
I have not been able to try the double tap either, but I'm excited about that.
Yeah.
And that's the real message is that I suspect only a small part, small part of our listeners have actually got the, either the ultra two or the watch OS nine, but I think even more people are going to upgrade this fall.
And when you do, this is going to be a great new feature.
In fact, even better than it is now because of what you will still love it.
So that's the message.
I, you know, just, we, you were talking about those scenarios where, you know, some of those smart stacks or some, some of those stacks would come up.
One was this post workout, right?
It was like, it's like the time of day when you do a workout or maybe even the location base, that kind of a thing, which made me think it's like, I wonder how many athletes at the Olympics or wearing Apple watches.
I hadn't thought about that until today, but I don't know.
Uh, could it could have been somebody at the Olympics, like your brother, uh, you just sent me this past week, an incredible little text message of a video, uh, from your brother, Jeff, and I'll, I'll let you tell the story, but just pretty amazing.
Uh, the, the thing, I mean, obviously this has got an iPhone bent to it, but anyway, you tell the story, but thanks for sending that this week.
Yeah.
My brother went to the Olympics with his family and before he went, he's like, you know what?
I'm going to be taking a lot of photos and videos.
And so maybe I want to have the latest and greatest iPhone to do so.
Um, because as we know, the iPhone 15 pro, which came out a pro pro or pro max, which came out a year ago, almost a year ago, it has a lot of new camera features, including most notably the five X zoom, the best zoom that Apple has ever offered with an iPhone.
And so it's a, it's at 120 millimeter equivalent, which is a comparison with just your regular zoom.
Right.
Yeah.
It's about 28 millimeter.
And then the 15 pro I happened to get the pro max, but both have the feature of the pro and the pro max.
Um, last year with the five X, it is a significant zoom.
Like you really notice how much you're going in and what's nice about it is in fact, and you're showing a series of pictures right now.
Yeah.
I have the first picture, which is sort of zoomed out from my window.
And cause I look out towards the Mississippi river in my office in downtown New Orleans, and you could sort of see the, the, the curve of the river, sort of the big view, right?
The whole thing.
And then you zoom in a little bit more with the next lens, you start to focus, oh, okay.
Now I'm sort of seeing a ship in the, but it's a ship in the river with stuff around it.
And then when you use the five X zoom, which is so incredible, you are like on the ship.
I mean, you're really zooming in like there, like it's not coming up for you right now, but it's a significant, it's a significant zoom in.
And, um, so when my brother was at the Olympics, the video that he sent me was really cool because he's in a stadium at the track and field events, right?
Okay.
He is zooming out and you can see the entire stadium and I'm not, we're not showing it in the video right now, cause it has my brother's family members on it, but you know, you're zooming out and you see the entire stadium and you could have, it really, you know, even for someone like me that wasn't there, you experienced the grandeur, the, the, you know, how huge it is and all the people there.
But then when you zoom in all the way with the five X zoom, you're able to see individual athletes and the specific thing they're doing.
And he's this great video that he showed me.
You start out with the whole stadium, you zoom in the athlete that was competing happens to be our Arman de plantas seat goes by Mondo who is somebody I had been watching at the Olympics because he, although he was participating for the country of Sweden, he actually was born and grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, which is the same city that I was actually born in Lafayette, Louisiana, just a stone's throw from New Orleans here.
Okay.
Yeah.
So we're, we're very similar.
You might confuse me and Mondo all the time.
Both of us Lafayette people.
Exactly.
But he is like the number one pole vaulter in the world and he competed for Sweden.
And my brother was actually there when he got the world record.
He broke the new world record and of course got the Olympic gold for pole vaulting.
So the point is like, what a great, what a great experience.
If you're going to go to the Olympics, you get to watch somebody get a gold medal.
That's something you'll remember the rest of your life.
But to have a video memento of it that starts by zooming out of the entire stadium and then zooms all the way in to see the individual athlete win the gold medal, then zooms all the way out again to see everybody in the stadium going crazy.
And then he turns and my brother shows his kids and his wife cheering and stuff like that.
It's like that, it's a tearjerker.
Like truly, I wasn't even there and I was moved by the video.
I agree.
You saw it too.
But the perfect thing, you don't get this video without the 5X zoom of the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
And there's a rumor that when Apple comes out with its new iPhones, perhaps as soon as just a few weeks from now, that they may actually have better zooms on even the entry level version of the iPhone, which I guess may be called the iPhone 16.
We'll see.
And who knows what the 16 Max will have or Pro will have.
We'll find out all about this in a couple of weeks.
But my point is just that if you're thinking to yourself, maybe I'm going to get a new iPhone this fall, much like we just talked about, maybe if you're going to get an Apple Watch this fall.
If you're thinking about getting a new iPhone, seriously consider whatever Apple has that has the best zoom, because I'm here to tell you it makes a difference.
I'll give you one more example.
I was at the beach a couple of weeks ago with my family, extended family, and we were at the condominium that we were staying at.
They had like one of these outdoor pools with a slide.
You know, you can go four stories up and you get in the top of the slide and it swings around and goes into the water.
And I was able to get these fun videos where I zoomed in and I could see my son and his cousin waiting in line for the big slide and then you zoom out and you see the whole slide and everything around it.
And again, the transition between the zoom in and the zoom out was huge, huge, huge.
And again, you don't get that if you don't have like a really nice zoom.
So I'm so glad that Apple has the 5X.
I know, by the way, I'll mention that there are some Android phones that actually have better than 5X that have 10X.
As I understand it, they're playing some tricks there that it's almost just like it's half the resolution of the 5X.
It's not quite true.
It depends upon it.
But right now, 5X, I think is sort of the sweet spot in terms of camera stabilization, because when you go too, too far in, of course, you got to be so careful about holding your hands.
Right.
You know, through technology, the iPhone's doing a better job of stabilizing that and hopefully they'll continue to do it.
So anyway, that's what I wanted to talk about is zoom is a great feature.
I talked about it a year ago.
It's still a great feature today.
If you're thinking about an iPhone upgrade, do not forget how nice that is.
And I just say quickly, thanks for sharing that video from your brother, because a couple of things jumped out at me.
First of all, it was so clear.
Like he obviously did it in 4K.
And second, exactly underscoring what you were talking about with zooming in.
Jeff, I felt like I was watching like a professional NBC broadcast, like the way because when he zoomed all the way in, I felt so close to what Mondo, I think.
And I remember there was another athlete there, like they were talking and kind of pumping each other up and stuff.
And it's almost like that was what I would expect to see on NBC with like a $50,000 camera that would have zoomed in.
And yet your brother is doing it here with an iPhone that fits in his pocket.
And I think that's what really – right.
And that's what I took away because I wasn't even thinking about it when he was zooming into that athlete because I could see his face.
I could see the athlete's face.
And I just loved how he followed him all the way up into the pole vault itself.
And that's what really struck me is like, again, just breaking down those borders, if you will.
Right.
It's like this could have been a professionally done cable streaming of the Olympics, and yet it was your brother with his iPhone.
And I just think that that was really great.
Part of that's the 4K.
Speaking of – Yeah.
I was just going to say part of it's the 4K and part of it's the HDR, the high dynamic range, which in some ways makes it even better than what you might see on broadcast television.
You know, the colors just pop and just look so beautiful, assuming that you're looking at it on something that can support HDR like a modern iPhone or iPad or a TV.
So anyway, go ahead.
Yeah.
Good stuff.
Well, speaking of photos, just another thing that you linked to today, which is great because these are always so fascinating to see what you can do with an iPhone even.
These are – this is literally called the iPhone Photography Awards, right?
The IPP Awards.
The 2024 winning photographers and all of these pictures on this page are from iPhones, which by the way, I just love this that you don't normally get this information from the best photos of whatever it is, but it tells you exactly what phone that they shot it on, like what model of the iPhone.
And I just love that because obviously this one here, I think the top prize winner here is from the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
And then the next one, which is equally as good, is the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
And it's like you don't have to have the latest and greatest and some of these photos are just amazing.
Just the composition of these photos are great.
That's the key.
This is the 17th year in a row that they've done these awards. 17, wow.
So they've been doing it for a long time.
They get a lot of great contestants.
And you're right.
Some of it is, you know, you're appreciating what we just talked about, the quality of the newest iPhone cameras.
But sometimes it's just having the eye, that photographer's eye, that boy, I wish I had it.
But, you know, we all know what it is when you see a photo that's just, it's cropped and it's just composed so well that it's just completely emotional.
And you know, the photographer made that decision of let's just zoom in on this part or let's just show this portion.
Or maybe black and white is going to be what really brings out the emotion in this photo.
And every single one of these photos, I look at them and, you know, great.
The way that I personally take pictures is I take thousands.
My approach is take a ridiculous number of pictures, delete a whole bunch of them.
You know, I may take 200 pictures and then save only five.
But if I'm lucky, maybe one of them has a good composition.
These good photographers, they plan for that one photo and they take that one photo.
That's true.
Yeah.
But some of this stuff, I mean, again, you know, these photos could be in like a professional museum, you know, shot on like, you know, a $20,000 camera.
And yet again, they're all from iPhones and it's just amazing.
Again, you know, a lot of this, maybe, you know, 75% or 80% of this is the professionalism of the actual photographer themselves, understanding what you just said, you know, where to fit everything into it.
But still, the fact that they, their tool of choice here, at least for these photography awards is the iPhone and really just amazing, amazing stuff there.
Not getting away from photos yet.
You'll need to do another story.
And iOS 18.1, which I guess that's the beta version of that, right?
The people are starting to use, but we're starting to see what could potentially be coming out in iOS 18, which again, could be just weeks away even.
This is the Apple Intelligence Photos feature, which you could better describe it.
But when I went right through this, first of all, I love having that photo widget on my, on my, on the front screen of my home screen of my iPhone, whichever one's what we'll show it like, hey, through the years, you know, the kids through the years or, you know, in the trees or, you know, vacations over the years.
I just love how the, the, the photos app has, has, has created those memories.
And sometimes they'll have, you know, the little music behind it.
And I think, well, these are great.
I wish I could kind of create some of those myself.
And now it looks like we're going to be able to.
Great story here from Ryan Christoffel in 9 to 5 Mac.
Yeah.
The memories feature in photos has always been fantastic for bringing up like a specific photo or something like that.
I mean, just yesterday I looked in the front of my iPhone and it showed it was 30 years ago yesterday that I proposed to my wife and it just happened to find that one picture pointing to the ring.
And I'm like, well, look at you, you know, aren't you smart, Mr.
Iph, Mr. iPhone that you figured out because it was 30 years ago today.
And so you just thought that somebody pointing at a ring would be an important picture.
And so, so I was like, good for you.
That's cool, though.
So the memories and of course, memories, videos are nice because they will say, you know, here's a here's a bunch of photos that relate to each other.
And I'm going to show you a memory and I'm going to write him in and out with nice music.
So what the what's this?
So that's part is, quote unquote, old.
What's new is that, you know, Apple has its Apple intelligence coming out starting later this year.
And as with every AI feature, the question is, is this really useful or is it just sort of a one off?
You know, it looks interesting and then you're never going to use it again.
And so one of the things that they have, which I think sounds really good, is you can put together use AI to put together memory movies.
So instead of just being surprised by what the photos app comes up with on its own, you can actually say, you know, hey, Mr.
Photos app, you know, I want to put together a movie for me that shows me and members of my family at the beach, but only at only, you know, at a daybreak or something like that.
You know, you can just use your words to describe a movie and then photos will use into Apple AI to go through and put together a movie that satisfies those those advantages.
So, you know, you know, wouldn't it be nice to see all the trips we've taken to Disney World or, you know, all the times that I was in Chicago and took pictures of the of the being there or whatever it is.
And I think this sounds like a really cool idea.
So, you know, yes, it's nice.
Absolutely.
Serendipity of memories coming up with something on its own.
But if you can just describe in a sentence what you think, you know, this might be interesting, it will just go out and create that.
I think this sounds amazing.
And the people that have tried it, like you said, the beta feeder is now available.
This week, there was actually David Sparks, who is now a former attorney in California, was describing how he had done some examples of Disneyland that he said, you know, go ahead and create this video about, you know, this part of Disneyland.
And like within a minute or two, it puts together this movie and it was really, really good.
And I'm like, this sounds this sounds cool.
So, you know, of the things that are coming out with Apple Intelligence, I think this is one of them that's going to be a hit.
Now, again, it's in the beta of 18.1, which means probably next month we're going to see 18.
They're still baking.
I'm guessing in September we're going to see 18.
It might be November before we see 18.1.
And we don't even necessarily know that this memory movies feature of AI is going to be in the first version of it.
But, you know, hopefully by the end of this calendar year, this will be something that we can actually take advantage of.
Have we heard some rumors, Jeff, that Apple Intelligence may not drop in iOS 18?
Like it might be some of these features may even be pushed to next year, like in the subsequent like 18.1 or point two.
We just don't know yet, obviously.
But, you know, it just comes back around.
I mean, there has been such a hype about AI, Gen AI, ChatGPT, Google and Microsoft and everybody.
And you and I have talked about this and landed on this.
You know, Apple has stayed out of that race a little bit, at least, you know, from the traditional standpoint of like, hey, we got to release something.
And, you know, for all the hype and again, I'm a big fan of ChatGPT and all the other tools that are coming out.
But it's this kind of AI, Jeff, that I think people are really, you know, like this, this touches something, first of all, not just in your hand, but if you're messing with my personal photos and videos, and yet I can generate something like that, that's going to touch my heartstrings, much like your wife pointing to your engagement ring.
I mean, that is AI that people are going to notice.
I mean, in other words, that's really just going to land right in people's laps.
You know, it's like, because we all hear about all the headlines about AI and some people just have toned to be like, OK, I don't know anything about it, you know, and I'm going to go with my regular life.
But when you've got something like this, that's going to be in the palm of the vast majority of people, I think this is really this is why Apple intelligence is, I think, going to overtake a lot.
You know, it's just like many things we've seen.
It takes a while for Apple to get there.
But once they do, they're going to start ramping up really quickly.
Yeah, now we should mention that not everyone's going to be able to take advantage of this because exactly intelligence.
Yeah, you're going there now.
Apple intelligence is going to require a lot of oomph.
It's going to require a lot of processing power.
Power.
So of all the iPhones that are on the market right now, the only one that's going to support Apple intelligence is the iPhone 15 pro and pro max.
So if you bought it last year for the five X zoom that we were just talking about, lucky for you because you're good, it's the only current iPhone that has enough processor power to do Apple intelligence.
Now, of course, I expect, yeah, new iPhones in a couple of weeks, you know, probably the second or third week of September if they go by the right calendar as past years.
And, you know, maybe it'll be called the iPhone 16.
I suspect that maybe all models of the iPhone 16 or at least many of them will support Apple intelligence.
So, you know, and of course, you just pointed out, Brett, that not every Apple intelligence feature is going to even be available this calendar year.
Some of it's going to come, you know, maybe next spring and some of it may be even next.
So there's going to definitely be a transition.
But if you want to take advantage of some of the first features, unless you already own a 15 pro, you're going to probably have to get in.
It's going to be a reason to consider upgrading this fall.
And then even when you upgrade, even if you get your brand new iPhone in September, those first Apple intelligence features are not going to be available to the shipping version of the operating system until a little bit later this year.
So, you know, but whatever.
Right now, we're all impatient for the for the hot new thing.
The reality is, you know, in a couple of months, it'll be here in a year from now.
It'll start to be something we all have.
But, you know, we're on the cusp of this, but you're going to have to have new hardware.
You're going to have to have Apple update the software.
It's there's going to be a transition period.
If I had purchased an iPhone 15 non pro, I'd probably be pretty hot at this story.
But here's the here's the thing.
And even when I when I looked at this again, it's not like you're you're not going to be able to sell that iPhone 15.
I mean, it's going to barely be a year old and there is a tremendous market, right, for other phones.
And so I'm just trying to say, if you see this story, this leak and you're a little upset about it as well, you know, I don't think you're you're probably not getting 100% of your money back, but you'll get a pretty significant chunk of that money back, especially if the phone's been in good condition, that kind of a thing.
Good news, though, even better news.
If you do get that brand new iPhone 16, you'll get 15 extra days of AppleCare Plus.
AppleCare has been around for a long time.
I'm a I'm a fan of AppleCare for certain products that I that I use.
In fact, I've even transitioned some of mine, not just to like it used to be the yearly amount of protection or AppleCare protection you can get.
But I now pay on a monthly basis, Jeff, for a couple of my devices.
But historically, AppleCare has always been available for any brand new Apple device that you purchased.
But it's only been 30 days.
And so Felipe Esposito here in nine to five, Matt, I guess, uncovered I didn't even know this.
This is wonderful, though, that instead of 30 days now, we all get a default of 45 days, which is which is good.
Yeah, I mean, way back when, if I remember correctly, you had to decide whether you wanted AppleCare when you purchased your product.
I'm pretty sure that's the first version.
I remember that.
That was always because you have this brand new thing in your hand, whether it's a new iPhone or new Apple Watch, and you're like, gosh, do I need to pay for this warranty through AppleCare?
And then over time, Apple changed it that no, you have a small period of time that you get AppleCare for free, and then you still have like 30 days from when that ends to extend it.
And now it's 45.
And I actually think this is better because, you know, you know, it take get your new product, be excited about it.
And then after you started to use it, then you can decide, hmm, do I want to put AppleCare on this?
So give yourself a little time for it.
And you also put your thumb on another feature.
And this is something that Apple has just done in the last year or two, that instead of saying, I'm going to pay one price for the full AppleCare, I'm going to pay for it on a monthly basis.
You know, one advantage is you pay much less because you're paying month by month, but it's actually not just that.
I think the bigger advantage is that if you pay monthly instead of the pay one price upfront, then it extends conceivably forever.
So, you know, if you pay one price, you get three years of AppleCare.
But if you pay monthly, you could for as long as you have the device.
And especially for something like an iPad, because I have monthly on my iPad Pro here, because I tend to hold on to those iPad Pros for a long time because they remain good for a long time.
But just in case something goes wrong, I like having the protection of AppleCare on it so that repair would be less expensive.
And I'm doing the monthly thing, just like you're talking about.
My Apple Vision Pro, the same thing.
I'm doing the monthly one.
So anyway, you know, I'm glad that Apple, you know, of course, it's always a little bit of a, you know, or do you want to pay or do you want to just save the money and then hope you never need it?
And that if something breaks, then use the money that you save to pay for it.
Just like with any insurance decision, you're always trying to make a calculus and there's no right answers.
But if you do decide AppleCare is good, is right for you, you now have more options, which is awesome.
Yeah.
Let me make sure I clarify, Jeff, because I think you said it correctly.
And I was maybe saying a little bit wrong.
Every device that you buy from Apple does come with one year of AppleCare coverage, right?
It's like basically the warranty, as it were, you know, for coverage.
So you get a year.
And so usually after that year ends, it was previously you had 30 days to renew it for two years or three years after that, right?
But now you have 45 days.
OK, I just want to make sure because I think I was saying it wrong.
If I want to be technically correct, you said every object has one year.
That's certainly true for the iPhones.
I don't think it's necessarily true for every.
There may be some products in front of me that it's six months or something like that.
It's confusing.
Everything you got to look at.
Well, here's the thing.
Yeah, it used to be so much simpler to your point.
Like we remember the days like you get an AppleCare and it was just one year.
And I remember even on the back of like it was it was a box that you would have to purchase a little cardboard box and it would have that extension.
It would say it would have a red line for one year and then you had two and three years if you wanted to extend it.
And it was much simpler back then.
But now, you know, just like I think we've just illustrated, it's so confusing because I think there are some devices.
In fact, to even add another layer of confusion, if you go through Apple and do the renewal, you know, iPhone, in some cases, they require you to have AppleCare coverage on some of that.
Or I think I remember when I used to lease an iPhone or a MacBook, they required me to have AppleCare.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.
So there's even.
You're right.
It's become such a confusing thing.
And, you know, it's because you and I get this question a lot, like, should I get AppleCare coverage on there?
And, you know, sometimes it's based on the device.
Sometimes now it's based on how you purchase it.
It really has become confusing, not to the extent where I don't think Apple should let it go, because I do think it is a great coverage thing.
I've taken advantage of it several times over the life of my different Apple devices.
But it is a little confusing on there.
You can listen to podcasts in a multitude of places.
In fact, the reason we call them podcasts is because they came about with the evolution of the iPod.
Most of us today, myself included, you too, Jeff, we listen on the iPhone.
But let's say that you don't have an Apple, an Apple iPhone necessarily, or you want to listen to your podcast on a different device.
Well, good news now, Apple podcasts are available on the web.
It's not really device specific, but, you know, I find this is a good idea because I remember it wasn't just a few weeks ago, Jeff, that Apple Maps was available on the web.
That's right.
And so when I saw this story that you linked to, I was one, you know, I started to think, is this a little bit of a trend?
In other words, you know, Apple used to provide software like iTunes software for Windows machines.
That's where I really see this coming, because on a Mac, we have an Apple Maps app and we have an Apple podcast app.
But on the Windows side, you don't have those native Windows apps that Apple.
And I feel like I'm seeing a little bit of a trend here.
Apple isn't going to create maybe Windows specific applications anymore.
They're just going to provide some other services through the web.
I don't know if that's true or not, but we've seen Apple Maps do this now.
And you link to a story about Apple podcasts being available on the web.
Yeah, I see this the same way as you do, Brett.
I really think that the reason for this is for people that use Windows, and I'm one of them.
I use Windows in my office.
And so the thing is, if I'm using my Windows computer, and if I wanted to listen to a podcast using the Apple podcast app, now one alternative is I can use my iPhone, which is fine if I'm here in my office.
But you might have a Windows computer that has very nice speakers or something like that.
And so you might want to actually use your Windows computer.
And you couldn't do that before.
Now you can just bring up Apple podcasts, much like you can also bring up Apple Music on the web, and you can actually listen to your podcast there.
And that's nice because that way you're listening on your computer.
And then when you pause, and then later on your home, when you're on your iPhone, or you're on your Mac, whatever, you can resume and pick up the same way.
So, you know, but it's interesting that they brought the feature to Apple podcasts.
Perhaps the more interesting part is what you mentioned that I think it's part of a trend.
They did it with Maps.
They did it with podcasts.
Yeah.
I think Apple wants to get to the point that they want their services to be available to people that use Windows.
They're just going to do it through a web browser interface, which makes sense because that way it's probably easiest for people to use.
And therefore, even if you are in a Windows environment by choice or by necessity, because of the place that you work, you can still carry along some of the Apple services that you know and love, like Apple podcasts and Apple Maps and Apple Music, et cetera, and Apple TV Plus, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, I've long always gone to maps.google.com when I wanted to look up a map on a browser.
Well, the Apple Maps now allows you to go to maps.apple.com.
And it's a similar way.
It's now the podcast site is podcasts.apple.com.
There you go.
So in one way, I feel like they're copying, you know, some of what Google has done.
But that's one of the reasons that those Google services are so popular, I believe, because you can access them either through an app or now you can access them through a web.
So I feel like it's taken Apple quite a while to do this, but I'm glad that they're making these available because, frankly, even sometimes, even if I'm on a Mac or a different computer, I just might want to bring that up because I want to see, you know, an episode.
But even to your point, I was thinking like TV, that's another good one.
You know, who knows some of the other services that they're going to be bringing, but that's good stuff.
Let's move to CarPlay now because I wish they would bring that.
That doesn't necessarily need to be available in the web app, but maybe one day.
You and I are pretty big fans of Apple CarPlay, and we enjoy seeing stories about when they are improving things or making some improvements on there.
I pretty much will not get into a rental car unless it does have Apple CarPlay.
And I know that I have basically told myself and some friends, like, I don't want to consider getting a Tesla, for example, because I know Tesla historically and famously has not supported Apple CarPlay.
And I'm like, what's the use?
And they try to tell me, oh, well, it's good enough.
And the Tesla, it's like, I don't want good enough.
I want my Apple CarPlay.
So I was a little nervous when I saw this story today from Dan Morin about the fact that Apple CarPlay may be hitting a glass ceiling somehow, not because of Apple's inability to improve it, but again, because the big car manufacturers are like, no, we think that maybe you've done enough in there.
I hope Dan's a little wrong, but I think he's got some good reasons that it could be serious here.
People love Apple CarPlay because it works really well.
It was just last night I was scrolling through Mastodon, and I saw somebody was posting that they had recently rented a GMC vehicle because, you know, General Motors infamously is sort of moving away from CarPlay.
And he was like, it had their alternative.
And he's like, it was horrible.
It was buggy and crashing and yucky.
And, you know, you just want your CarPlay.
So on the one hand, it's so beloved that you would think, oh, my goodness, this is such a beloved technology.
Every car is going to want to embrace it fully.
But not every car manufacturer does.
And even the ones that do, and this gets to the point that Dan Morin was making in this article, you know, Apple wants to advance this technology.
It wants to go to the next version of CarPlay where you can have even more screens throughout your car, and it could show even more information.
And vehicle manufacturers are just a little resistant to that because they want to be the ones that present information, not only from a control standpoint, but even just from an aesthetic standpoint, you know, what things like, I mean, as simple as how fast you're going, that is information, but it's also sort of part of the character of the car.
And so there's a little bit of a tug, you know, there's a tug here is who's going to get to control all this information.
Is it going to be Apple?
Is it going to, and, you know, I don't, I don't even know that I love that Apple's trying to push the boundaries on what CarPlay can do.
That's great.
But I do understand car manufacturers, you know, having a little bit of hesitation because you don't want to just abandon it all and let Apple take it over.
And then you, and then every car looks the same, no matter who you buy it from, because they all have CarPlay.
So it's a back and forth.
But I just think the irony is amazing that like people love CarPlay so much and yet, and yet it's got this glass ceiling, as you say.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You have a good point.
And I do, I do see the perspective from the car manufacturer, but I guess my thought comes back is why not give us the choice?
Like, why not just give the ability to, to, to, to have us use CarPlay?
And of course I want it to be even better than what it already is.
But Jeff, I've never seen a car interface that comes close to what Apple can do with CarPlay.
And just like you said, it's always horrible.
And not to mention the fact that every car is different.
So you get out of one car, you get into a different car.
Not that a lot of people do this all the time, I guess, necessarily, but it's like, then you're going to relearn an entire new system.
Like, where is that?
And how do you work with that?
And anyway, I just, I, I feel like this has to be resolved at some point, but it doesn't surprise me this story.
And I do see both sides of this here.
It's just like, I'm just, I guess a little personally disappointed because I'm like, Hey, I want, I want more on the CarPlay side.
Yep.
You know, we don't report a lot on Apple patents because I don't know if people know this a lot of times, but there is what hundreds of patents that Apple applies for and, and receives probably almost every week or certainly every month on this.
And a lot of people kind of dig through those and see like, what's Apple working on?
And it's hard to tell because there's so many, and you know, it's just part of the weird legal system within intellectual property here in the United States that they're trying to protect everything.
But this one, this one, Jeff, this is interesting.
I'm glad that you reported on this.
Future Apple headsets may use liquid lenses to correct vision.
And as soon as I started reading this, I'm like, this is fantastic.
Like this is the technology that should be in every eyeglass capability, because I've got one of my lenses is thicker than the other lens, because I've got some kind of a stigmatism or something like that.
And it's like, I hate the fact that it's unbalanced.
And when I started reading this, I'm like, Apple, please take over the eyeglass industry too.
That would be great.
And one day that may well happen.
We shall see.
It could.
Yeah.
Again, we have to emphasize that patents, you know, 95% of the things that Apple's patents, they will never see the light of day because it's just an idea.
It doesn't mean they're going to actually develop into a product, but this one's interesting.
So, you know, currently with the Apple Vision Pro, if you have good enough vision, you can just wear it as is.
But if you wear glasses or contacts, as I wear glasses, you have to purchase separately the inserts that are basically like, it's like the glasses without the frame.
And so you put the left eye in, you put the right eye in.
They made by a company called Zeiss, which is very well known for glasses.
So that's what I do.
And, you know, and it's not ideal because, you know, since you have to put the individual glasses in there, it means that the actual screen of the Apple Vision Pro is a tiny bit further from your face.
So you get a tiny bit more of a tunnel effect.
And then if I want to have somebody else try it, and if they wear glasses, they can't really appreciate my Apple Vision Pro because it's not, you know, there's issues with this.
And so this patent apparently would, instead of using the physical glass or plastic of a lens, would actually use some sort of a, that's a liquid that because when they run electricity through the liquid, they can change the way that it corrects your vision.
And so, first of all, it means they could do any prescription.
So, you know, it would be great. - Right. - Second of all, it can actually change over time.
So, you know, some of us know that as you get older, your prescription will change and this could automatically take care of it for you.
You wouldn't have to get new lenses.
And also it's particularly nice for something like an AR environment because AR is weird.
Because on the one hand, I feel like if I'm wearing my Apple Vision Pro, I'm looking at something 10 feet away, but the reality is I'm not.
It's the actual screen is what, like, you know, a quarter of an inch from my eye.
And so you're sort of tricking out your brain is, are you focusing on far away?
Are you focusing on close?
And something with liquid lenses could even account for that even better, according to this article.
So I think it's fascinating.
And then you're right, the current Apple Vision Pro we all know is big and bulky, but over time it's going to get smaller.
And, you know, would be interesting if five, you know, maybe even 10 years from now, there are something that's the size of a pair of glasses and it used some sort of, you know, new version of this Apple liquid, you know, lenses that you could just, you know, everybody in the world could just get this one product and you put it on and it will automatically adjust to your prescription.
Wouldn't that be crazy?
I mean, this is what the future holds.
And then if it has like some sort of Apple Vision Pro technology built in and it's the size of my glasses, I mean, this is pretty futuristic right now.
Game over.
That's great.
You know, but who knows?
I mean, I do think that we do, that we're going to have a future where this, this is the future.
I just don't know how far away it is.
Maybe it's 20 years away, you know, who knows?
But I do think that this is part of the future.
So fascinating that Apple has a patent on some of this technology and that it was found, you know, and revealed in this article.
How about a where you at segment, Jeff?
We haven't done one in a while.
We've heard people using air tags to track luggage.
We've heard people using air tags to track bicycles.
How about tracking your mail?
What a great story here at Apple Insider about a lady that thwarted the thieves who kept stealing her mail.
Use it and she mailed herself an air tag, I think, right?
This is a funny one because sometimes the air tag protects an object.
Like you say, your luggage, you don't want someone to steal your luggage, but every once in a while, if you're trying to catch a thief, you're going to create what I think they call a honeypot, which is something that you intend.
Because once you can find them.
And so that's what she did is she got sick and tired of going to her mail and people were stealing packages.
And so she sent herself a package that had an air tag in it.
Sure enough, the thieves stole it just like they stole her other mail.
And then she was able to track the package.
She did the right thing.
She contacted the police.
She did track it down.
They commended her for doing this the right way.
And when they found the bad guys, not only did they find her air tag, but they found lots of other mail that the guy had stolen, too.
So, you know, it's it's a pretty clever feature, though, because, again, I'm always thinking about putting air tags on your valuable stuff.
But another way to use it is to put it in a situation where, you know, the bad guys are going to get it and you're just fine with that.
Mail yourself an air tag.
But you're right.
I just want to emphasize this was the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office who was quoted.
We would like to commend the victim for her proactive solution.
Number one, that's good, while highlighting that she also exercised appropriate caution by contacting law enforcement.
In other words, when she found out that that the air tag was stolen, she didn't just, you know, start tracking it down herself.
She contacted the sheriff's office, whose name was able to track down not just.
And by the way, it wasn't just her mail, right?
Obviously, these thieves had been going around the neighborhood and other places.
So they found lots of others on there.
So anyway, great stuff.
I am currently in Chicago right now, not for the Democratic National Convention, which is probably a good thing.
But you had linked to let me see if I can pull this up on here.
Oh, I wonder if it's been taken down now, Jeff.
This was a picture that you sent of Kamala Harris on.
I apparently it's like she was on a plane or something.
I don't know.
I'm not able to bring up this little picture here, but I'll try to include it in the in the show notes where she was watching her husband.
Sometimes I just forget his name.
I think of him as the second gentleman, just because I think that's a unique little way to write.
Yeah, Dougie.
But she's watching because I think two nights ago or maybe three nights ago, he had taken the stage to the Democratic National Convention, and he was obviously giving a speech.
And so this is a really cute picture.
I wish I could bring it up here from threads.
But it's a cute picture of it looks like I said, Kamala Harris is on an airplane watching that speech on an iPad.
So if you've been watching the Democratic National Convention on an iPad, hey, you know that Kamala Harris is right there with you.
Exactly.
No need to get into politics in this podcast, although I will say that I have been watching the convention this week, and it has been electrifying and very inspiring.
But it is fun to see that she's using her iPad just like the rest of us are.
So I love it.
I love it.
All right.
In the know, all this talk about Apple watches made me start thinking about something.
As I mentioned, I'm in Chicago, and one of the things when I'm in Chicago is it to me, I like to know, am I facing, you know, which which direction I'm facing?
Is it north?
Because then I know that the lake is on my right, right?
Or if I'm facing north and the river is behind is behind me south, I kind of it's very important because, you know, to get to the right train station and everything like that, I like to know.
Well, we talked about the Apple Watch Ultra and the modular Ultra watch face, right, Jeff?
We both like that because I have I have literally, well, seven different widgets on my modular Ultra watch face right now, including many of these things that I use in access every day.
One of them that I do not have, though, as I said, because I'm in Chicago, is the compass widget.
And so it's like, OK, well, I've used up all of my widget locations on the modular Ultra watch face.
But how can I get a quick access to my compass?
Well, we've already talked about this just a little bit, because I got to tell you, even since I've been using, you know, watch watch OS 10, I have never really taken full advantage of those little widgets there.
You were just talking about how you can do a double tap and that brings it up on there.
But one of the widgets that I do enjoy when I get to the way that I get access to these widgets right of the smart stack is for me, I just swipe up from the bottom of my watch face.
Right.
And so that brings up I think that is what they call the smart stack widgets there.
One of the default widgets that are there, if you haven't changed them at all, one of the default widgets that Apple puts there is it looks like they call it the app launcher.
And it's just a small widget that has a space for three additional little widgets.
That's the that's the app launcher in the smart stack.
Now, by default, you can see the story here I'm linking to from my download blog.
It is the music widget, the workouts widget and the messages widgets, which was great.
And I just left it as the default because I didn't really think of anything.
However, one of the widgets I have on my modular ultra watch face is my workouts because I use that quite a bit.
So I didn't want I didn't need the workouts widget on the app launcher widget on my smart stack.
So what I did is I went in and I switched it out with the compass.
And so now all I have to do, because because I can't double tap right now, is I just swipe up from the bottom.
And that first app launcher widget is what's there.
And then I can just tap on the compass.
So I just wanted people to know again that it's there.
It's very easy to swap that out and get access to basically three other widgets.
And this is available not just in the ultra watch.
This will be available in any of the Apple watch watches that you have.
You swipe up, go to that smart stack, see that app launcher.
By the way, I have mine pinned to the top, Jeff.
So that's the first one that I see.
Right.
But if you long tap and hold on that widget, it'll start it'll go into what we call jiggly mode.
Right.
And then there'll be some minus signs on those on those little widgets that you can just tap away.
And then once you do, then the Apple watch says, OK, well, what would you like to replace it with?
Would you want to put another widget there?
And it gives you the options there.
And then you can scroll through all the options.
And for me, I just took off the workout widget and then I replaced it with the compass widget.
And so now with mine, because I can't double tap, I swipe up from the bottom and that compass widget is right there and I can go to it immediately.
Now, in the past, what I did is I maybe swap back and forth between different watch faces because I've got a couple of watch faces that have the compass app on there.
But man, the modular ultra like I just stay on this watch face all the time.
And I just now love having access to the smart stack.
I'm trying to use the smart stack a little bit more because I'm just not used to it.
But that app launcher widget is really great.
Have it pinned to the top.
And that's the first one that comes up.
And it just gives me the ability to have three other widgets that I can have quick access to.
So I like that.
I want to remind everybody that that's there.
OK, it's even better than you said, because you're good and correctly, you're describing it as an Apple launcher, something that you tap to the.
But I just put it I put the compass in my in my app launcher app widget.
And even without launching the app, the widget shows you which direction the compass is.
It's very tiny.
But if you actually move your arm around, just just looking in the in the widget, it'll do it.
It will show you which direction, at least on this on the series line that I have.
I don't know if it's working on your ultra right now, but on the series right now, as I move my hand left and right.
Oh, yeah, actually moves a little pointer.
So, I mean, you got to be pretty eagle eyed to see that.
But you wouldn't even necessarily have to launch the app.
You could just from the widget, see which direction you're facing.
Now, it's much bigger and much more obvious if you launch the app.
But that's like the app.
Yeah, yeah.
The app is nice.
And this is but again, this is the example of it's nice to launch the app and it's nice to tap on a widget to launch the app.
That's great.
But it's even better.
Everything that you need is right there in the widget so that you never have to go any further.
So that's just something to keep in mind.
So that's a cool it never even occurred to me to put the compass in a widget.
And so, like I said, I had an extra spot that I wasn't really using.
So I just stuck it in there.
And that's actually sort of cool.
So good tip.
I like it because, again, that, you know, the compass app shows the entire circle, right, which just goes back to like a Boy Scout days.
Like, that's what I'm thinking of, because that compass that you're talking about is sort of more linear, right, which is fine again.
But I like having that entire circle there that I can go to as well.
But, you know, either way, it's like, try it out, at least just know that there's some additional options there to add some additional widgets so that you can get quick access.
I'm just always trying to find ways that I can get access to more things to use on the Apple Watch, Jeff.
Yeah, good.
So I'm going to stick on the Apple Watch for my week.
And my tip is simply this battery life.
You know, even though my poor Apple Watch Series 7 died a little earlier than I had hoped that it was, I knew that I was going to update to a new Apple Watch this year anyway, simply because after three years, my battery life was no longer as good as it had been.
And when I had that Apple Watch Ultra that I talked to you about last week, I was blown away by how astounding the Apple Watch, the battery life is on an Ultra.
It's basically unlimited battery power.
It's just it's amazing.
Now that I'm using a Series 9, my report to people is that a Series 9, and I presume the same will be true for the Series 10 in a couple of weeks when it comes out, having a brand new Apple Watch that's a really modern Apple Watch with the newest processor and a brand new battery, it's pretty good.
It really is.
It's a big step.
The problem that I had before with my Series 7 is unlike when I originally purchased it, after about three years, the battery life would not last to the end of the day.
If I wanted to wear it overnight, I had to do some serious, serious charging during the day.
But the good news is that with a modern new Apple Watch, it hasn't been a big of a deal.
And so I have, you know, I've had the Series 9 for a week now.
I have worn it all night long, every night.
Unlike the Ultra, you have to think about the battery.
I mean, that's the advantage with the Ultra, you don't have to.
Oh, you do.
OK.
With the Series 9, I do have to consciously make sure that I put it on the charger in the morning when I'm getting ready for work and taking a shower and stuff like that.
And then if I have time at the end of the day before I go to bed, I tap it off a little bit more and that's good.
But it's totally doable.
It really is.
You know, I lose the luxury of the Ultra of even if I forget to charge, it's fine.
You do have to think about it, but you don't have to think about it as obsessively as I was before.
And so I was very, very curious about this until last week.
You know, if you're having battery issues with your Apple Watch and you get a brand new, not an Ultra, even just a regular old Series 9 or soon the Series 10, yeah, you're going to be happy with the battery life.
That is my tip.
Very happy.
And again, this is going to be important because as we discussed last week, there's going to be new features in watchOS 11 that give you even more data about your body as long as you wear it all night long.
And so, and in fact, it would not surprise me, although this is just a guess, when Apple comes out with the Series 10 in a few weeks, you know, maybe it will do something through software or hardware that extends the battery life even further.
That'd be great if they do.
But even if they don't, even with just the Series 9 level of performance, yeah, it does make a difference in battery.
Not as great as the Ultra, don't get me wrong, but pretty good.
So that's, I was very curious about it and I'm glad to learn that that is pretty good.
I'm just, I'm just so excited to see what's going to happen.
Like, I don't know when things are going to come out.
Like I want to know what the new Apple Watch is and the new iPhone.
Lots of, lots of fun stuff.
Lots of exciting time.
Maybe we'll know by next week and we'll talk with you next week.
I don't think we'll know by next week, but I will talk to you soon.
Maybe.
I'm hoping.
Okay.
Bye-bye everybody.