Grading Our Apple Gear

Tom and Jeff share candid reviews of every Apple product they currently own. You will get honest opinions on HomePods, AirPods, Beats, Apple Vision Pro, iPhones, Apple Watch, iPads, and Macs. 

Links from the show:

Comply Memory Foam Tips https://www.complyfoam.com/

WWDC Wishlists with Riley Hill https://www.basicafshow.com/wwdc-wishlists-with-riley-hill/

We’d be honored if you'd drop a 5-star rating for us on Apple Podcasts and/or Spotify!

Transcript

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Basic AF Episode xx Transcript

Intro

Tom Anderson (0s)

I gotta be careful here, not look like a total stooge.

Tom Anderson (2s)

Bye.

Jeff Battersby (3s)

Good luck. Good luck with that, Tom.

Tom Anderson (10s)

Hello and welcome to The Basic AF Show.

Tom Anderson (12s)

Tom Anderson and Jeff Battersby together just after a long Independence Day weekend in the U.S.

Tom Anderson (21s)

Jeff, how are you, sir?

Jeff Battersby (21s)

You see any fireworks Tom?

Tom Anderson (22s)

Ah, phew.

Jeff Battersby (24s)

Yeah [laughing]

Tom Anderson (24s)

Yeah, scared the dogs a couple of times, but thankfully they're not too traumatized by fireworks.

Tom Anderson (29s)

I know some dogs really stress out about like the previous dog we had,

Tom Anderson (32s)

man, he would just be a wreck.

Tom Anderson (34s)

Um, and so he had a rough go of it, but thankfully the ones we have now are tolerated.

Tom Anderson (40s)

A great deal better.

Tom Anderson (41s)

How about you?

Jeff Battersby (41s)

Dogs and veterans. Both. Not a good thing.

Tom Anderson (43s)

Yes.

Jeff Battersby (45s)

Um, good. A little Jersey Shore action.

Jeff Battersby (48s)

So, it's typically the week, like, right before or around the 4th of July is when we head to Long Beach Island.

Jeff Battersby (59s)

And, uh, so, yeah. A little beach time. Good stuff.

Tom Anderson (1m 3s)

Sweet. Yeah, just had mine a couple of weeks ago, so that'll be it for the summer for beach trips anyway.

Jeff Battersby (1m 10s)

-Beach trips, yeah.

Tom Anderson (1m 11s)

Yeah, one and done.

Jeff Battersby (1m 14s)

It's always nice, you know.

Tom Anderson (1m 15s)

But yeah.

Jeff Battersby (1m 16s)

Good reading, good writing, good family time.

Tom Anderson (1m 18s)

Good.

Jeff Battersby (1m 19s)

So, never disappointed with a beach trip, for sure.

Tom Anderson (1m 22s)

Yeah, good to unwind. So,

Tom Anderson (1m 25s)

today's show,

Tom Anderson (1m 27s)

kind of in the middle of summer here, and

Tom Anderson (1m 30s)

at least in the Northern atmosphere, I guess.

Jeff Battersby (1m 33s)

Is that we uh we do we play Don Henley now? Is that the deal?

Tom Anderson (1m 33s)

Um, the boys of summer, actually.

Jeff Battersby (1m 36s)

Yeah

Tom Anderson (1m 36s)

I like, you know what I like?

Tom Anderson (1m 37s)

I like the, the Atari's remake was pretty good at that.

Jeff Battersby (1m 40s)

Oh, really I have to listen to that

Tom Anderson (1m 41s)

Yeah, I was surprised I got, it's like what, but it's actually pretty good.

Jeff Battersby (1m 45s)

All right, I have to check that one out

Tom Anderson (1m 45s)

Um, there's our random comment for this episode.

Jeff Battersby (1m 47s)

Yeah

Tom Anderson (1m 48s)

Um, but what we thought we would do is have a little bit of fun here.

Reviewing Everything We Have

Tom Anderson (1m 51s)

Um, you know, we've done wishlist shows and we've done apps and things that we like.

Tom Anderson (1m 55s)

Uh, and so for this episode, we're going to take a look at the Apple devices,

Tom Anderson (2m 1s)

products, things that--

Tom Anderson (2m 3s)

we're actually using on a day-to-day basis.

Jeff Battersby (2m 4s)

Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (2m 6s)

And take a look at those and kind of grade them out.

Tom Anderson (2m 10s)

Maybe say, will we buy it again, or will we upgrade when the time comes, whatever.

Tom Anderson (2m 14s)

So that's the agenda for this one.

Tom Anderson (2m 18s)

We think it'll be pretty fun.

Tom Anderson (2m 19s)

And by the way, we would love to hear what you think about this show, for one, but also how you're feeling about your Apple stuff, too.

Tom Anderson (2m 27s)

So you can always hit us up, feedback@basicafshow, send us a text message if you would like.

Tom Anderson (2m 31s)

It's one tap right there.

Tom Anderson (2m 33s)

there in your podcast player and it'll send it over.

Jeff Battersby (2m 35s)

Yes, indeed

Tom Anderson (2m 36s)

Give us an email address if you want us to get back to you.

Jeff Battersby (2m 38s)

Hey, who knows maybe we'll have you on the show we'd like to have you on the show yeah, if there's if there's stuff you want to talk about we're game to

Tom Anderson (2m 40s)

That'd be fun too.

Tom Anderson (2m 41s)

Yeah, we'd like to.

Tom Anderson (2m 44s)

Yeah, hit us up for that for sure.

Jeff Battersby (2m 45s)

to have you hang out for

Tom Anderson (2m 45s)

Like we always enjoy having guests.

Jeff Battersby (2m 48s)

Yes, we do and another note as always psychokinetics That's the music that you hear at the start and the end of the show

Jeff Battersby (2m 55s)

Celsius 7 front man has been so kind as to let us use that music we highly recommend that you check both CELTIA7 and Cyclokinetic Salicylic Acid.

Jeff Battersby (3m 5s)

Additionally, our artwork, show artwork,

Jeff Battersby (3m 9s)

Randall Martin Design, Randall does great work and we recommend it to you.

Jeff Battersby (3m 13s)

So check out randallmartindesigns.com.

Tom Anderson (3m 16s)

Yes, thank you to both.

Tom Anderson (3m 19s)

So as we mentioned, this is going to be talking about things that we actually have.

Tom Anderson (3m 24s)

So not kind of, you know, what we think, you know, about a certain product, but these will be things where we've, we own and we're using, um, and so we'll kind of kick it off, uh, I guess on the audio side of things, um, HomePod, HomePod mini.

Jeff Battersby (3m 31s)

Yes, sure, I have both of those.

HomePod & HomePod mini

Tom Anderson (3m 40s)

No, do you have both of those?

Tom Anderson (3m 42s)

Okay.

Jeff Battersby (3m 42s)

Yeah, I have the old HomePod, and I have two of those.

Tom Anderson (3m 42s)

Me too.

Tom Anderson (3m 44s)

Okay.

Jeff Battersby (3m 47s)

And I have several HomePod Minis, and I love them all.

Jeff Battersby (3m 51s)

I use them in various configurations throughout the house.

Jeff Battersby (3m 58s)

and you know, tied into.

Jeff Battersby (4m 1s)

I have a, I'm not gonna remember what brand.

Jeff Battersby (4m 4s)

Oh no, it's a Denon.

Jeff Battersby (4m 5s)

I have a Denon audio receiver that also is an AirPlay receiver, which I really like.

Jeff Battersby (4m 12s)

And that plays music through speakers that are in the ceiling,

Jeff Battersby (4m 16s)

but to add a little bass to it,

Jeff Battersby (4m 18s)

say for example, in my kitchen and living room,

Jeff Battersby (4m 20s)

I have those ceiling speakers,

Jeff Battersby (4m 22s)

but they tend to be a little treble heavy.

Jeff Battersby (4m 25s)

I have an original HomePod as well that gives me a little thump in addition to that.

Jeff Battersby (4m 30s)

So I--

Jeff Battersby (4m 31s)

I still really like those devices.

Jeff Battersby (4m 33s)

I know they got some grief for some time.

Jeff Battersby (4m 37s)

But they're solid, as far as I'm concerned.

Jeff Battersby (4m 39s)

So both HomePod mini and HomePod.

Jeff Battersby (4m 42s)

And I really dig them both.

Jeff Battersby (4m 46s)

Now, how about you?

Jeff Battersby (4m 47s)

I know you have in the gym, there is a HomePod.

Tom Anderson (4m 51s)

Yes, so I've got two HomePods in the living room, which are the first gen.

Tom Anderson (4m 56s)

Got those not long after they came out.

Tom Anderson (4m 59s)

And then I've got two HomePod minis in the garage gym that are the newest model of those.

Tom Anderson (5m 6s)

Overall, pretty, pretty happy.

Tom Anderson (5m 9s)

The HomePods, the full-size HomePods that I have, I've got them in the stereo pair.

Tom Anderson (5m 16s)

Sometimes get frustrating.

Tom Anderson (5m 17s)

They, they, no I gave up.

Jeff Battersby (5m 18s)

Well, with Siri, is that the problem?

Tom Anderson (5m 21s)

But maybe, maybe when, well, no, they're not going to get the, the new Siri, I don't think, but anyhow, the music will, the stereo mix will sometimes get out of sync, which is annoying.

Tom Anderson (5m 35s)

Usually it resolves itself, like it just kind of catches up or a channel will drop out temporarily and it's all running the latest updates and everything.

Tom Anderson (5m 43s)

So I try to keep those current, but and then sometimes it just doesn't do anything.

Tom Anderson (5m 49s)

and I've got a power cycle.

Tom Anderson (5m 51s)

those and I get a little frustrated.

Tom Anderson (5m 53s)

So those, eh, they've been good.

Tom Anderson (5m 58s)

I won't say they've been great.

Tom Anderson (6m)

The ones in the garage

Tom Anderson (6m 2s)

or the newer ones, the HomePod minis,

Tom Anderson (6m 5s)

those have actually been better.

Tom Anderson (6m 6s)

Like those are rock solid with their play.

Tom Anderson (6m 8s)

They're set up in a stereo thing.

Tom Anderson (6m 9s)

They they work really well.

Tom Anderson (6m 11s)

I've had no problems with those whatsoever.

Tom Anderson (6m 12s)

So I'm really happy with it.

Jeff Battersby (6m 15s)

Actually, um, my son, who's, uh, now in LA, he, uh, was given a tour of his apartment set up and he had just for his birthday, um, one of his sisters gave him a, a matching HomePod mini that he's now got as a stereo pair for his

Jeff Battersby (6m 34s)

television.

Jeff Battersby (6m 34s)

And then he has another one, uh, another HomePod mini in the kitchen that he has music on.

Jeff Battersby (6m 39s)

So he's using that to control a bunch of lights and things like that.

Jeff Battersby (6m 41s)

So there, he, they're really, really good.

Jeff Battersby (6m 46s)

And frankly, most of the HomePods that I've gotten, um, go to Best Buy and find open boxes and get them for a few bucks, uh, pretty solidly.

Tom Anderson (6m 53s)

Save a few bucks. Yeah

Jeff Battersby (6m 58s)

Um, you know, they're solid devices.

Jeff Battersby (7m)

I like, I like having them all over the place.

Tom Anderson (7m 1s)

You watch TV? You do any TV watching through yours like that?

Jeff Battersby (7m 4s)

I don't do that.

Jeff Battersby (7m 5s)

Cause I have a, I have a soundbar with television.

Jeff Battersby (7m 8s)

I have not, I have not done that, but I have set them up and they're quite good.

Jeff Battersby (7m 15s)

Um, it's, it's the job of, of, um, of making whatever it is that you're watching sound really great.

Jeff Battersby (7m 24s)

Did that for my mom.

Jeff Battersby (7m 24s)

She had, you know, she has a little, uh, it's the place where she lives.

Jeff Battersby (7m 30s)

There's like a little apartment behind her house that, that she stays in.

Jeff Battersby (7m 36s)

Um, and it has a little TV and I just hooked up the HomePod there and it makes that television sound a million times better.

Tom Anderson (7m 47s)

Yeah, it's good yep, and and I've considered maybe the Sono stuff which gets pretty good marks, but

Jeff Battersby (7m 54s)

Yeah, expensive.

Tom Anderson (7m 54s)

it's it is pricey and

Tom Anderson (7m 57s)

it's I just hate to

Tom Anderson (8m)

You lose that Apple advantage where you have that first native integration with everything and it does airplane all that kind of stuff But not quite sick. Okay moving on

Jeff Battersby (8m 5s)

Yeah

Jeff Battersby (8m 10s)

Moving on. Yep

Tom Anderson (8m 10s)

Still on audio though. Are you air pods or beats these days?

AirPods & Beats

Jeff Battersby (8m 15s)

I am both Tom. I

Tom Anderson (8m 15s)

But whoo

Tom Anderson (8m 17s)

Man luxurious lifestyle of Jeff Battersby. Yeah

Jeff Battersby (8m 17s)

Am both and there's a reason behind it. So yeah, I know. Whoo. I have

Jeff Battersby (8m 24s)

fairly new air pods Pro which

Tom Anderson (8m 26s)

Mm-hmm

Jeff Battersby (8m 27s)

You know not the big over-the-ear kind but the the in-ear the inner guys and I will tell you why I did that in moment. And then I have some beats pros, um, which I really liked. Those are the ones that kind of fit in your ear, uh, which I use when I'm on the lawn or, you know, doing stuff like that to listen to podcasts. Also very good. And, you know, inclined to stay in my ear. The reason I picked up the, uh, AirPods pro was because, um, you know,

Tom Anderson (8m 30s)

Yeah, not the max, right

Jeff Battersby (8m 55s)

there's one of the, the features of iOS, uh, is the health app. And in the Health app, you have the opportunity to.

Jeff Battersby (9m 5s)

work on basically medical studies, medical research studies, and I have tinnitus,

Tom Anderson (9m 11s)  

• Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (9m 12s)

have had tinnitus for probably 15 years, and they're... You're welcome. Good. All right,

Tom Anderson (9m 15s)

Funny, you said that and my ear just started to ring.

Tom Anderson (9m 18s)

Yeah, thanks.

Jeff Battersby (9m 21s)

charming. I'm sharing it with the world. Hopefully everybody's hearing ringing just like I am.

Jeff Battersby (9m 27s)

But they have really good hearing studies that are a part of that, but you needed...

Jeff Battersby (9m 33s)

I couldn't use my my beat.

Jeff Battersby (9m 35s)

So I went out and got a pair of those to make it to make it work.

Jeff Battersby (9m 42s)

I really like them.

Jeff Battersby (9m 43s)

I actually will use them to watch television sometimes, you know, so if I'm watching big, boomy, scary movies like Godzilla plus one or whatever, minus one, whatever that movie is where, you know, there's big booming noise that you don't want blowing through the house while everybody's asleep.

Jeff Battersby (10m 3s)

put those on.

Jeff Battersby (10m 5s)

And, you know, they're they're comfy and nice and integrate really well with the with the Apple TV. And I'm going to say the sound considering how teeny tiny these things are the sound and what Apple is doing with this technologically surround sound wise is the bomb like I have been watching things with those on and I have thought that there were people walking up the stairs behind me.

Tom Anderson (10m 34s)

Oh good, just what you need.

Jeff Battersby (10m 35s)

Which, you know, yeah, right.

Jeff Battersby (10m 39s)

And, and then I've had to, you know, go clean myself up.

Jeff Battersby (10m 44s)

It's, it's pretty amazing quality and how they they're they've gotten these to doing whatever they're doing make it really feel like surround sound.

Tom Anderson (10m 52s)

Yeah, Apple's audio team is phenomenal.

Jeff Battersby (10m 54s)

Yeah.

Tom Anderson (10m 55s)

I mean, just across the platforms.

Jeff Battersby (10m 56s)

Agree.

Tom Anderson (10m 56s)

The MacBook speakers are great, MacBook Pro speakers.

Jeff Battersby (11m)

iPhone speakers are great.

Tom Anderson (11m)

The Vision Pro speakers are great.

Tom Anderson (11m 2s)

iPhone for what it is, the iPad speakers.

Tom Anderson (11m 4s)

So yeah, they're doing a really nice job.

Tom Anderson (11m 6s)

So I have the AirPods Pro.

Tom Anderson (11m 9s)

I used to, I used them more when I would go to the gym.

Tom Anderson (11m 14s)

Now I use just the HomePod here at the house.

Tom Anderson (11m 17s)

So about the only time I really use those these days is when I'm mowing and noise cancelling.

Jeff Battersby (11m 21s)

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (11m 22s)

Yeah.

Tom Anderson (11m 23s)

So yeah, they're fine. I don't use them a ton, but I think they're really good and people that do use them a lot really seem to like them. I did have to go up, I bought the comply memory foam tips to replace the silicone tips because I couldn't get those, they slide out a little easier, but the memory foam tips would make a nice snug connection and help with that bass and stuff. So yeah, overall, good.

Jeff Battersby (11m 34s)

Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (11m 49s)

We'll have to link to that in the show notes I might want to look at those because that that is my one issue is it first of all

Jeff Battersby (11m 55s)

Neither of my ear canals are the same size

Tom Anderson (11m 59s)

good right right yeah yeah they're pretty cheap I think they're 15 bucks 20 bucks or something but it comes with three three different sizes I think so you can try them out um okay on to the next this is me saying it's going to be short well you know you're still partying from the fourth weekend but uh vision pro oh the vision pro so there was a story that came out

Jeff Battersby (11m 59s)

Which is probably a human thing. Um, yeah, not not just weird me although possible

Jeff Battersby (12m 5s)

Yeah, so

Jeff Battersby (12m 10s)

Cool

Jeff Battersby (12m 14s)

This is a you thing Tom and I keep knocking into my mic. I'm so sorry

Jeff Battersby (12m 19s)

Yeah, I guess right Yeah, I guess.

Apple Vision Pro

Tom Anderson (12m 29s)

two or three weeks ago uh there towards the middle of june uh that uh said apple had shifted

Tom Anderson (12m 37s)

the production team that was working on vision pro 2 to work on the lower priced vision model

Tom Anderson (12m 44s)

and apple was having some challenges with getting the cost down to where they wanted to do so that classic cost versus feature kind of struggle so they were working on that um but anyhow vision pro

Tom Anderson (12m 56s)

If I had to give it a grade at this point...

Tom Anderson (12m 59s)

probably a C- or D+. And I think that really just falls on Apple. Like they've not really done much to keep people excited about it.

Tom Anderson (13m 11s)

Vision OS 2 they showed off at WWDC about a month ago. Wasn't a whole lot in there for end-users. A couple gestures. They did improve the Mac virtual display, which looks good. Some new APIs for developers but, you know, enterprising.

Tom Anderson (13m 29s)

I will say I don't use mine a ton at this point. I think, you know, 20 minutes here or there. Where I mentioned Apple, it kind of falls on them, is they've just...

Tom Anderson (13m 47s)

it's been really slow with immersive content coming out. And as we mentioned in our recap of WWDC, they said during that keynote they do have their first

Tom Anderson (13m 59s)

short film that is an immersive short film coming out. So, you know, if that picks up, I think that would help. Now for my case, part of it too is when I was using it like sports was the big thing. And I primarily, I mean, I don't watch a ton of sports. Usually just NFL. And so there's no NFL going on right now.

Tom Anderson (14m 17s)

So that'll probably pick up in the fall when football season kicks in again.

Tom Anderson (14m 21s)

I'll probably do that. But, I mean, it's, you know, it's there.

Jeff Battersby (14m 27s)

And the other thing for you is, you're not a big movie guy.

Tom Anderson (14m 29s)

Hey, this movie's great. Yeah, it's definitely, there's some isolation involved there. And, you know, you mentioned there, you know, watching the movie with the AirPods and not wanting it to carry through the house. That's a

Jeff Battersby (14m 31s)

So you're not going to sit and watch movies.

Jeff Battersby (14m 32s)

Plus, you know, unless you're doing it by yourself,

Jeff Battersby (14m 36s)

not very cool to be sitting next to your significant other with goggles on.

Jeff Battersby (14m 42s)

And you should watch it.

Jeff Battersby (14m 47s)

You know, there's--

Tom Anderson (14m 59s)

different experience. Right. So if I'm in bed watching something like there's no light on, there's nothing that if I use the AirPods with it, there's no sound either. So that it's, it's definitely good for that. And you know, the movie experience through that and any video experience really is really good. So I just think Apple's got some work to do. Obviously they know that, but I think as it expands into the new countries and stuff, as it's done here recently and will continue to do that, it'll probably sell some more and they'll keep moving.

Tom Anderson (15m 27s)

don't play for them.

Jeff Battersby (15m 29s)

In the beginning of something, I think Meta's Ray-Ban glasses are kind of the ticket.

Tom Anderson (15m 29s)

And they're not really sure where it's going to go, I don't think.

Jeff Battersby (15m 37s)

I mean, that seems like where the world needs to go.

Jeff Battersby (15m 41s)

That would be the only way I'd even consider it.

Tom Anderson (15m 45s)

Yeah, and I, that, yeah.

Tom Anderson (15m 47s)

Okay.

Jeff Battersby (15m 48s)

All right, yeah, I use it every day,

Tom Anderson (15m 49s)

Up next, iPad.

iPad

Tom Anderson (15m 53s)

Same.

Jeff Battersby (15m 53s)

every single day for a variety of purposes.

Jeff Battersby (15m 57s)

You know, it's, I have an 11-inch M2.

Tom Anderson (15m 58s)

Which model do you have again?

Jeff Battersby (16m 3s)

Thank you to the Steelers that came and got my,

Tom Anderson (16m 5s)

Not the Pittsburgh Steelers, the, the Bay Area Steelers.

Jeff Battersby (16m 7s)

not the Pittsburgh, no, the In-N-Out Steelers,

Jeff Battersby (16m 13s)

or as my niece, as my niece used to call them, Stollers.

Jeff Battersby (16m 18s)

The Stollers, which is, by the way, what I,

Jeff Battersby (16m 23s)

my MacBook Pro, when I had to replace it,

Jeff Battersby (16m 26s)

I named that one, the old one was,

Jeff Battersby (16m 29s)

I can't remember, New Ride is, I think, what I call it.

Jeff Battersby (16m 32s)

This one I now call Stoller's Ride.

Jeff Battersby (16m 35s)

So, shout out to my niece, Sarah.

Jeff Battersby (16m 38s)

So, it's pretty solid for me.

Jeff Battersby (16m 42s)

I have been using it to do a couple of things,

Jeff Battersby (16m 47s)

A lot of editing work.

Jeff Battersby (16m 49s)

So, you know, if I write a couple thousand words rather than editing it on a,

Jeff Battersby (16m 57s)

on paper, which is what I used to do, I'd print it out and then do a handwrite.

Jeff Battersby (17m 1s)

I have now taken to doing edits by hand in, on the iPad.

Jeff Battersby (17m 6s)

And the beautiful thing about that is twofold.

Jeff Battersby (17m 9s)

One, I'm not wasting tons of paper, which that was, you know, I was printing out hundreds of sheets of paper for, you know, whatever it is that I was working on.

Jeff Battersby (17m 18s)

Um, and that's because I don't like to do straight inline editing, you know,

Jeff Battersby (17m 23s)

using whatever text editor or word processor I'm using, because I don't think you see the same things or get the tone in the same way that you do when you've got your hands on it.

Jeff Battersby (17m 32s)

Um, but the other nice thing is, uh, I've got an archive of edits, not that I'm necessarily going to go back through and look at that archive,

Jeff Battersby (17m 40s)

but I can see the progression, you know, from edit one to edit five, six,

Jeff Battersby (17m 45s)

seven, whatever it is that I'm doing, and kind of see.

Jeff Battersby (17m 49s)

And I think that's from an archival perspective, for my own sake, a really nice, a nice piece of it.

Jeff Battersby (17m 57s)

So I'm using it a lot for that. Obviously content, you know, I almost always play music through it, you know, when I'm writing or editing.

Jeff Battersby (18m 6s)

And then cooking dinner, you know, if there's basketball on or something that I want to watch, you know, I'll do that.

Jeff Battersby (18m 14s)

I'll do that. So it has become the portable, the most portable.

Jeff Battersby (18m 18s)

Screen in my house that allows me to do a variety of things that I like to do.

Jeff Battersby (18m 24s)

Not a lot of super productivity on it other than, you know, what I mentioned about doing editing.

Jeff Battersby (18m 29s)

So how about you?

Tom Anderson (18m 29s)

Right. Yeah, so I've got the 12.9 inch m2

Tom Anderson (18m 34s)

and

Jeff Battersby (18m 34s)

They say 11, I have a 12 point.

Tom Anderson (18m 36s)

Okay, all right, I was gonna ask about that. I thought that's what you had and with Magic Keyboard Apple Pencil

Jeff Battersby (18m 38s)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff Battersby (18m 40s)

Yeah.

Tom Anderson (18m 42s)

It spends most of the time in the Magic Keyboard

Tom Anderson (18m 48s)

Apple Pencil is something that I'll use a few times a week

Jeff Battersby (18m 54s)

Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah.

Tom Anderson (18m 54s)

But I'm so glad it's there

Tom Anderson (18m 56s)

Because if you were around like if you were using

Tom Anderson (18m 59s)

iPads prior to Apple Pencil and we had those nubbies like the little stylus with the soft little rubbers it was so bad and just having this and you know that's not to say there aren't other pencil type gadgets out to like the Surface Pen and Samsung's and all that but we're definitely in a better place with with writing on tablets and devices than we were ten years ago which is great yeah I edit this podcast in FairWrite on it I use you know typical

Jeff Battersby (19m 3s)

[LAUGHS] Yeah.

Tom Anderson (19m 29s)

that I use from the Mac I don't do it as much but I've got things in bear and reminders for stuff that I've got in there but a lot of time it is just content consumption too it's great for that you know reddit reading in the evenings I'm kind of winding down or whatever the case is watching YouTube videos but I still say don't even though I don't do this is like kind of like my primary use case my favorite thing with it though is to be able when I really want to do some deep thinking on something is to put that thing flat on the table with the pencil and just

Tom Anderson (19m 59s)

sketch, draw, write, get stuff out of my head. What I love about digital writing versus paper is the ability, I can write something, I can put it in a section, be like nope, doesn't fit there, and I can easily move it without scratching it out. Of course you can do that with a pencil, you just erase it and write it again. So yeah, that's really what I love

Jeff Battersby (20m 20s)

Yeah, and we have a good ep by the way If you want to go back to it that we had with Riley Hill a couple couple what three four episodes ago

Jeff Battersby (20m 28s)

that if you want some deep dive on on the

Jeff Battersby (20m 32s)

iPad stuff that's that's the episode to go back to and we'll link to that in the in the podcast notes

Tom Anderson (20m 38s)

Yeah, because he's using that as his primary computing device, so he's he's definitely one of your go-to's for

Jeff Battersby (20m 40s)

In all day every day, yeah

Jeff Battersby (20m 45s)

Hundred percent

Tom Anderson (20m 45s)

Digging into that that lifestyle

Jeff Battersby (20m 47s)

Yes, sir

Tom Anderson (20m 47s)

all right on to

Tom Anderson (20m 50s)

iPhone and Apple watch I paired them together simply because you can't really do an Apple watch without an iPhone very well I mean you can do the family thing with the kids and give them one, but it still needs an iPhone

iPhone & Apple Watch

Tom Anderson (21m 2s)

Okay

Tom Anderson (21m 5s)

So let's see. What is it? How long have you had an Apple watch now?

Tom Anderson (21m 8s)

Coming up on a couple of years. Is it a couple of years now?

Jeff Battersby (21m 10s)

Close to close to two years. Yeah. But

Tom Anderson (21m 12s)

Yeah. So it's a Ultra, right? The original.

Jeff Battersby (21m 14s)

I have the original ultra it's working fine for me, as I mentioned in a,

Jeff Battersby (21m 18s)

in a previous podcast, coming back into the ambivalent phase. Um, you know,

Jeff Battersby (21m 23s)

I, the thing I like it most for, um,

Jeff Battersby (21m 27s)

is tracking, you know, steps tracking, you know, activity,

Jeff Battersby (21m 31s)

things of that nature, which is I think really, really valuable. I,

Jeff Battersby (21m 36s)

Also, um,

Jeff Battersby (21m 41s)

I'd like the ability to get notified and be able to pick up a phone call on it.

Jeff Battersby (21m 43s)

You know, those are, those are definitely some upsides.

Jeff Battersby (21m 47s)

What I find is maybe problematic for me is it takes too much of my attention,

Jeff Battersby (21m 53s)

you know, because even though I have many,

Jeff Battersby (21m 56s)

many notifications turned off on it, um, it,

Jeff Battersby (22m)

it still is a, uh, you know,

Jeff Battersby (22m 3s)

I was sailing with a friend the other day and had sent pictures to family and a couple of friends of the, of the same

Jeff Battersby (22m 10s)

family, you know, and I was getting responses back and, you know, I looked at my watch to see what the responses were and he was like, "Dude, you got something to do? Do you need to go somewhere?" It's like, you know, and yeah, and yeah, it's, and I don't like that it does that to me, you know, if that makes sense. And I could, you know, fix that by by changing the focus and, you know, I'm...

Tom Anderson (22m 16s)

That's happened to me at lunch a few times, but is everything okay?

Tom Anderson (22m 21s)

You need to go back to work.

Tom Anderson (22m 31s)

Right, but sometimes you just don't think about it, you know, you're getting ready to go out on the boat or you're sitting there talking to a buddy at lunch and you know, you're like, I don't think to do a focus mode.

Jeff Battersby (22m 41s)

Right. So it's ability to pull a pull me out of being present is,

Jeff Battersby (22m 49s)

is, um, problematic. And so I either need to change myself or I need to change whether or not I'm using it. Um, I would really love, and this is never going to happen, but if Apple only did a fitness device, I'd be in on that about 10 seconds. Um, that would be great trade, you know, to have just something that that tracked my...

Jeff Battersby (23m 11s)

my steps and my exercise and hooked in with Fitness Plus.

Jeff Battersby (23m 13s)

I'd love that.

Tom Anderson (23m 14s)

right so just the fitness band of sorts okay yeah yep uh yeah so like you with the uh the first gen ultra it's still rocking I was just commenting the other day to someone that

Jeff Battersby (23m 17s)

Correct. That would, that would be a great thing.

Tom Anderson (23m 28s)

the flat screen and the sapphire glass has held up incredibly well I love it um that was my biggest gripe with the series four well the series four I had wasn't too bad like it seemed to hold up, then I think they move to a soft.

Jeff Battersby (23m 32s)

Oh, my gosh.

Tom Anderson (23m 45s)

on the Series 7 so that it wouldn't crack so easily, and that thing just looked at it and it would get a scuff mark.

Jeff Battersby (23m 48s)

Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (23m 54s)

It drove me nuts, because with the curved screens, the light would always show them off and everything, and the flat screen has been great.

Tom Anderson (24m 1s)

I've bumped it plenty of times, and it's held up well, so I really like that.

Tom Anderson (24m 6s)

But yeah, pretty much all day, every day, except for the time it's on the charger and and then slap it back on before I go to bed.

Tom Anderson (24m 15s)

Sleep tracking, it does that.

Tom Anderson (24m 17s)

I don't really pay too much attention to the data.

Tom Anderson (24m 20s)

It provides really, I mean,

Tom Anderson (24m 21s)

I might glance at it every now and then.

Tom Anderson (24m 23s)

Game changer for me, as I've said a couple of times here,

Tom Anderson (24m 26s)

is that tap to wake for the alarm.

Jeff Battersby (24m 29s)

Yes, yeah, I really do like that, too.

Tom Anderson (24m 29s)

I've always hated audible alarms and that completely changed mornings for me.

Tom Anderson (24m 36s)

So that has been great.

Tom Anderson (24m 38s)

And you know, yeah, the fitness stuff.

Tom Anderson (24m 42s)

you know, I've got my move, sorry, move.

Tom Anderson (24m 44s)

rings, um, on the, on the activity rings, the move, um, aimed at that every day.

Tom Anderson (24m 49s)

It's not astronomically high.

Tom Anderson (24m 51s)

I don't care about that part.

Tom Anderson (24m 52s)

It's just enough that I can't be a total deadbeat, which is the point for me.

Jeff Battersby (24m 55s)

[LAUGH] Right.

Tom Anderson (24m 59s)

Um, and so, yeah, I don't know.

Tom Anderson (25m 1s)

It's, it's a long, long, long move streak.

Tom Anderson (25m 4s)

I think it goes back to 2018 or something.

Tom Anderson (25m 7s)

Um, but that's kind of like my non-negotiable for the day.

Tom Anderson (25m 10s)

So I've got to close that out just to get some movement in.

Tom Anderson (25m 13s)

So it's whether that's, you know.

Tom Anderson (25m 14s)

A long walk during lunch at work or it's the workout that, you know, just happens during the week.

Tom Anderson (25m 19s)

But anyway, love it.

Jeff Battersby (25m 20s)

Yeah.

Tom Anderson (25m 20s)

And continue to expect to wear those for as long as they make them or something better comes along.

Jeff Battersby (25m 25s)

Yeah, no, as with you, I like the sleep feature too.

Jeff Battersby (25m 29s)

And the wake, the tap to wake is brilliant.

Jeff Battersby (25m 33s)

Beats the heck out of the birds that I was using on my phone, which are really good too.

Tom Anderson (25m 38s)

All right, iPhone.

Jeff Battersby (25m 38s)

But yeah, I'm with you.

Jeff Battersby (25m 41s)

So hey, Apple, do us a fitness device alone.

Tom Anderson (25m 45s)

Yep.

Jeff Battersby (25m 45s)

Yes, iPhone, iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Tom Anderson (25m 46s)

You have a newer one than me.

Tom Anderson (25m 48s)

Right.

Jeff Battersby (25m 48s)

Yeah, I do.

Tom Anderson (25m 48s)

Big boy.

Tom Anderson (25m 49s)

You went back to, you went to the big boy.

Jeff Battersby (25m 51s)

It's first time I went to the big boy,

Jeff Battersby (25m 52s)

although it's not that much bigger than was my previous smaller, just the regular 15.

Jeff Battersby (25m 58s)

I did that mostly for the camera.

Jeff Battersby (26m)

I'm mostly pleased with it.

Jeff Battersby (26m 2s)

I still feel like Apple does a little too much over-processing.

Jeff Battersby (26m 4s)

I've been using Halide, but it's still,

Jeff Battersby (26m 10s)

there's still a little friction,

Jeff Battersby (26m 11s)

even with the magic button on the side.

Jeff Battersby (26m 14s)

There's a little friction between the Photos app and that.

Jeff Battersby (26m 17s)

So I have yet.

Jeff Battersby (26m 20s)

To get around and get around that little, that little piece of friction.

Jeff Battersby (26m 24s)

Um, I'm not thinking about it this year.

Tom Anderson (26m 25s)

You gonna stick with that size, you think?

Jeff Battersby (26m 30s)

This is this I've got another one coming through.

Jeff Battersby (26m 33s)

So maybe, I don't know.

Tom Anderson (26m 34s)

Right. To be determined.

Jeff Battersby (26m 34s)

Um, again, I, the reason I bought the bigger one was because the camera was, uh, you know, the camera had more, more options.

Tom Anderson (26m 41s)

Right. And you get the 5X zoom on that one.

Jeff Battersby (26m 43s)

Correct.

Jeff Battersby (26m 44s)

Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (26m 44s)

And I, I use the camera constantly.

Jeff Battersby (26m 47s)

It is, you know.

Jeff Battersby (26m 50s)

I didn't carry a physical camera with me for a long time.

Jeff Battersby (26m 54s)

I'm playing with the idea.

Jeff Battersby (26m 57s)

Thank you, Chris Friedeg.

Jeff Battersby (27m 1s)

With going back to physical photography, which I loved, you know, since I was in high school. And, you know, I do take a lot of photographs.

Jeff Battersby (27m 12s)

So but that is that is the big reason that I got that is it had the better camera, the better zoom and the quality.

Jeff Battersby (27m 20s)

The photos is phenomenal.

Jeff Battersby (27m 21s)

It is the device that is with me all the time though.

Jeff Battersby (27m 24s)

I, it's what I use for car play.

Tom Anderson (27m 24s)

Yeah. Yep.

Jeff Battersby (27m 26s)

It's what I use for, for, um, you know, maps, email, you name it.

Jeff Battersby (27m 32s)

Everything that I do is on that is on that device.

Jeff Battersby (27m 35s)

And that's, that's really, the iPhone is the killer, the killer tool for me.

Jeff Battersby (27m 40s)

And I have a pretty well wound down.

Jeff Battersby (27m 42s)

So it doesn't bug me.

Jeff Battersby (27m 44s)

Um, during the day for, you know, stuff that I don't need to be bugged with.

Jeff Battersby (27m 48s)

They have almost no notification.

Tom Anderson (27m 50s)

Just me

Jeff Battersby (27m 50s)

Turned on just you especially now time when we're recording.

Tom Anderson (27m 52s)

Yeah, that's right, that's right

Jeff Battersby (27m 53s)

It's only you only you can make the.

Tom Anderson (27m 57s)

hmm, well, I have the iPhone 14 Pro and

Tom Anderson (28m 1s)

I've been pretty happy with it. The battery is starting to show a little bit of age. It's not

Tom Anderson (28m 6s)

Really serious or anything like I get through the day just fine and with the way that

Tom Anderson (28m 12s)

Where I work and everything is not a challenge to just charge it up if I need to plus with that being plugged in in the car for car play that tops it off to and that's.

Tom Anderson (28m 20s)

probably contributed somewhat to the degradation of the battery, but.

Tom Anderson (28m 24s)

But anyhow, that's neither here nor there.

Tom Anderson (28m 27s)

I wasn't planning to upgrade, um, this year.

Tom Anderson (28m 29s)

I was going to try to stretch it into a third, but then within the Apple intelligence announcements there a while back at the keynote and only running on the 15 pro and pro max, and I want to try that stuff.

Tom Anderson (28m 40s)

So I'm going to upgrade.

Tom Anderson (28m 41s)

I am debating still on if I want to go to the pro max or stick with the pro.

Tom Anderson (28m 47s)

I am leaning towards the Pro Max.

Tom Anderson (28m 50s)

for the added camera benefits, bigger battery, um, that kind of stuff.

Tom Anderson (28m 54s)

So we'll see.

Tom Anderson (28m 55s)

Um, yeah, so that's what I've got.

Tom Anderson (28m 58s)

Um, and you know, it's good.

Tom Anderson (29m)

Don't really have any complaints about the iPhone.

Jeff Battersby (29m 3s)

Yeah, no, I'm really happy with it all the way around.

Tom Anderson (29m 6s)

Yep.

Tom Anderson (29m 8s)

Yes.

Mac

Tom Anderson (29m 9s)

So I have two, I've got the M1 Mac mini, which is kind of, I don't want to say it's a server, but it's my kind of always on machine that is constantly

Tom Anderson (29m 20s)

syncing the photos library, uh, that kind of thing.

Tom Anderson (29m 23s)

Uh, and I do use it a good bit.

Tom Anderson (29m 25s)

It's hooked up to the 27 inch, um, LG display that I have.

Tom Anderson (29m 30s)

Uh, it's been great.

Tom Anderson (29m 31s)

I mean, I love Mac minis.

Tom Anderson (29m 33s)

They're, they're affordable.

Tom Anderson (29m 34s)

They just run no problems.

Jeff Battersby (29m 36s)

Still one of the best computers Apple makes in my mind.

Tom Anderson (29m 39s)

Yep.

Tom Anderson (29m 39s)

Hands down.

Tom Anderson (29m 40s)

So if you've got a display that you want and you don't really, you know, portability is not of the utmost importance, or maybe you've got a laptop or iPad to use for

Tom Anderson (29m 50s)

it, uh, these are great, uh, love those.

Tom Anderson (29m 52s)

Um, I do have a 16 inch MacBook pro and that's what I use for recording this show.

Tom Anderson (29m 59s)

Uh, M1 pro on that one.

Tom Anderson (30m 1s)

So it's a couple of years old at this point.

Tom Anderson (30m 3s)

Um, it's been stellar.

Tom Anderson (30m 6s)

The display is gorgeous.

Tom Anderson (30m 7s)

The sound is incredible.

Tom Anderson (30m 9s)

Uh, I just wish Apple would put some more exciting colors into their pro lines.

Tom Anderson (30m 18s)

We talk about this every time there's a Mac that come out just like something I'm kind of bored with silver you know it's like it looks fine there's nothing wrong with it but I'd like to spruce it up a little bit if I would buy the 16-inch again or if I would what I I don't know obviously it has the ports and everything which are great reason I bought it is because I wanted a bigger screen for when I'm working away from my desk and the 15-inch back.

Jeff Battersby (30m 26s)

Y-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-R.

Tom Anderson (30m 50s)

MacBook Pro didn't exist at the time, and I think if I were going to do it today I would

Jeff Battersby (30m 58s)

Yeah, yeah. So for me, I'm currently recording this on an M2 Mac Mini, which I'm super happy with. I got it really for the purposes of sticking in this studio. 16 gigs of memory.

Jeff Battersby (31m 15s)

I think I have a terabyte hard drive, but sure, I can't remember what I got on this.

Jeff Battersby (31m 19s)

But it's it's a solid computer. I have a Dell display down here, a U2720.

Jeff Battersby (31m 29s)

That's perfect. Used to be on my desk upstairs, which I now have a studio display on, which I really like. Whether or not I need to spend the big money for it is a fair question. But, but,

Tom Anderson (31m 41s)

Yeah, I'd like to get one of them may get one of those at the 4k goes out.

Jeff Battersby (31m 43s)

but yeah, it's, it's a beautiful display. And I have the, the, I can't remember the micro,

Jeff Battersby (31m 53s)

what you call it, glass, the nano texture. There you go. Micro.

Tom Anderson (31m 54s)

Oh, the nano texture. There you go.

Jeff Battersby (31m 59s)

Whatever. Microfiber cloth to clean your nano textured glass. It, it is, what's nice about it is the, the room that I use that in is definitely windowed. You know, it has a lot of windows in it and that there's no reflection off of it. So it's really brilliant in terms of being able to,

Jeff Battersby (32m 24s)

to work without having a lot of eye strain if I'm in that room during the day.

Jeff Battersby (32m 28s)

Downside is that glass is a pain in the neck to clean. It's, you know, they give you a special wiping tool, but if you spit like I do, you know, when you're talking to people on the phone or in meetings it, it gets a little spotted and, you know, it's a combination of microfiber and alcohol to clean it off and, you know, kind of have to do a scrub down. But it's, the quality of it is beautiful. The sound that comes out of it is beautiful. So really.

Jeff Battersby (32m 58s)

really like that. And I use that with an M two by M two MacBook Pro. And it is a 14 inch. Yeah. And all my machines have 16 gigs of RAM. I'm not pushing them to, you know, too much beyond that I'd never run into issues. I'm gonna say that and something's gonna happen right now. But but there are that MacBook Pro I love, I would probably.

Tom Anderson (33m 5s)

That's 14 inch, right?

Tom Anderson (33m 7s)

Okay.

Tom Anderson (33m 21s)

No doubt.

Jeff Battersby (33m 28s)

a MacBook Air now, you know, if that were the, you know, if, if I weren't getting something new,

Jeff Battersby (33m 34s)

but I'm not going to need a new laptop for several years. Nor am I going to need a new Mac mini for any, you know, I'm good here for the next 10 years probably. Doesn't mean I might not buy something,

Jeff Battersby (33m 46s)

but yeah, sorry. You know, there might be reason for me to do something like that,

Tom Anderson (33m 49s)

Understood. Right.

Jeff Battersby (33m 54s)

but they're both really solid computers that I'm very, very happy with.

Jeff Battersby (33m 59s)

No complaints whatsoever. They are, they're rock solid. So that's, that's me.

Tom Anderson (34m 5s)

Excellent. All right, Jeff. I think that's it brother. It is.

Close

Jeff Battersby (34m 6s)

Right, Tom, look at us. Another 30. We've, we've, we've, we've made a promise to get back to shorter shows and here we are. Guest or, you know, big news, you know? Yeah, exactly.

Tom Anderson (34m 17s)

Yeah, I think unless we have a guest or something that's easier for us to do. With the guests,

Tom Anderson (34m 21s)

we want to make sure we're right. Yeah, keynote stuff and all that. So, all right. Well, wrap us

Jeff Battersby (34m 29s)

Well, Tom, just a reminder that you can get us at feedback@basicafshow.com.

Jeff Battersby (34m 35s)

You have the ability right within your podcasting app to send us a text message.

Jeff Battersby (34m 40s)

If you want us to respond back to you, you can put your email in there and we can respond back that way.

Jeff Battersby (34m 45s)

We'd love to hear from you.

Jeff Battersby (34m 48s)

Like, subscribe, follow, whatever your particular podcast app asks you to do.

Jeff Battersby (34m 53s)

And as we said at the top of the show, our artwork, as always,

Jeff Battersby (34m 56s)

random art design, really gorgeous.

Jeff Battersby (34m 58s)

Does great work. And we've got music from Psychokinetics,

Jeff Battersby (35m 3s)

Celsius 7 being the magical frontman for that band. Check

Tom Anderson (35m 7s)

That's right. That's it. If you cannot get enough of these nerdy types of discussions and topics, feel free to join my newsletter, if you would TomFAnderson.com, you can

Jeff Battersby (35m 8s)

them out on whatever your favorite musical platform is.

Jeff Battersby (35m 13s)

Anything from you, Tom?

Tom Anderson (35m 23s)

subscribe right there on the homepage. 350 of you have done that. I'm kind of blown away by that. Thank you very much. Three it was Yeah, 350, which that's a lot for me. So I'm like, Ooh,

Jeff Battersby (35m 26s)

I subscribe. It's great

Jeff Battersby (35m 30s)

And say that number again because it's pretty big it's crazy

Tom Anderson (35m 37s)

I got to be careful here not look like a total stooge. So a little pressure there. But thanks a lot for everyone that has has done that. And for the kind words on the feedback for it. I appreciate that. But other than that, that's a wrap for this show. We do as always, thank you for being here. Make sure you check us out again in a couple of weeks. And until then, have a great rest of your day or rest of your night.

Jeff Battersby (35m 37s)

Pressure

Jeff Battersby (35m 42s)

Good luck good luck with that some

Jeff Battersby (35m 59s)

See ya.

Outro Music (36m 9s)

♪ I gon' smash my whole world, lost in the ♪