iOS Today 647 Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

Mikah Sargent (00:00:00):
Coming up on iOS today, Rosemary Orchard is out today. But don't worry because I've got Dan Moren joining me and we will be talking about Apple Music Classical because Yes, that's right. Apple has launched Apple Music Classical. Stay tuned for a look at the app. Plus so much more

V.O. (00:00:22):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This this is TWiT.

Mikah Sargent (00:00:31):
This is iOS today, episode 647, recorded Tuesday, March 28th, 2023, exploring Apple Music classical. This episode of iOS Today is brought to you by eight. Sleep Good. Sleep is the ultimate game changer, and the pod cover is the ultimate sleep machine. Go to eight sleep.com/ios to check out the pod cover and save $150 at checkout eight. Sleep currently ships within the usa, Canada, the uk, and select countries in the EU and Australia. Welcome back to iOS Today, the show where we talk all things iOS, tv, os, home, pod, os, watch, os, iPad, os. I may have already said that os but look, there are a lot of platforms that Apple makes and we talk about them here on this show. This is the show where we try to help you make the most of those Apple gadgets you have by telling you about ways to use them. We will be doing that today, and by we, I mean me, Mikah, Sergeant, one of your hosts. And joining us today as Rosemary Orchard is not with us today, but we'll be back next week. But joining us today is Six Colors. Own Dan Moron. Welcome to the show. Dan.

Dan Moren (00:01:48):
Glad to be here. Mikah, I cannot fill Rosemary's shoes, but I will attempt to fill her

Mikah Sargent (00:01:52):
Hats. <Laugh>. That will work. That is good enough for all of us here. So Apple Music, classical. We know that Apple acquired a company called Prime Phonic. Prime Phonic was a music streaming platform for classical music in particular, and was specialized in providing that kind of music. When they purchased the company. We kind of didn't hear for a very long time about Prime phonic. And I know a lot of people are going, okay, what's going on with that? Like, why don't we? Is it just gonna be what's available in Apple Music? What's going on? We finally got a notification from Apple saying, well, I was a newsroom piece from Apple saying, Hey, look we are going to be launching Apple Music Classical. And it is a sort of all inclusive separate application for specifically focusing on classical music.

(00:02:54):
And that is the sort of child of this acquisition. When we heard that the app was going to be released at some point in the future, then folks could go into the App store, they could pre-order it, they could grab it, they could then, you know, wait for it to actually be available. And last night as we record this show, so Monday, March 27th at, for me it was about 8:00 PM Pacific time I got a notification via email that said, Hey, apple Music Classical is ready. And so I quickly let Dan know, Hey, let's talk about that in the morning instead. So Apple Music classical is the focus of today's episode. Before we talk about it though, I am curious, Dan did you pre-order this app? And if you did, did you pre-order it because you are a classical music fan or did you pre-order it because you wanted to be able to talk about it whenever it was available?

Dan Moren (00:03:55):
Why can't it be both Mikah? I be,

Mikah Sargent (00:03:58):
I did, I

Dan Moren (00:03:59):
Preorder in the sense that I went and clicked the little button since I'm already an Apple Music subscriber. And of course this is freely available to all existing Apple Music subscribers. It was not an onerous task to click a button and say, give me this app when it's available. I, I am somebody who likes classical music. And of course I did want to talk about it and write about it for me. I grew up listening to a lot of classical music cuz my father is a big classical music fan. And so I, from my earliest ages, you know, I think probably other kids had parents who listened to like, you know, pop music or rock, classic rock music or what have you. My dad listened to classical and chats <laugh>. So I heard a lot of classical music growing up even if I'm not quite the aficionado that he is. So I, I know enough, I know enough to get around. I know my shamans from my Schubert <laugh> my, my, my Strauss from my other stresses no, all the, all the importance.

Mikah Sargent (00:04:58):
Nice. so I will say yes, I I did much the same when did and said, Hey, whenever this is available make it, make it so, and Apple Music classical followed suit. You brought up a good point. If you have an Apple Music subscription, either just an Apple Music subscription directly or through a, you know, apple Plan where you may have access to other features as well, then Apple Music, classical, the standalone app is available for you to download and use without any extra costs. So let's go ahead and start to take a look at the app because this app is as I mentioned, purpose-built to be the app that a classical music fan would want. First and foremost is that Apple now touts the world's largest classical music catalog. According to the newsroom piece, apple says there are more than 5 million tracks.

(00:05:56):
So that does make it the world's largest classical music catalog and has you know, of course, like well known recordings, but also some you might not know about. And then of course, they're always kind of sorting through what's available to feature different content that is on this classical music or rather is in the Classical Music Catalog. So I'm here on the main page and there are four tabs at the bottom. Listen now, browse, library and Search. And we'll get to search because Apple is very proud of the search features that are there. But I wanna start with the Listen Now category as that is the first one. Here, you're going to get stuff that you may have listened to recently yourself. It's also going to feature some of the editorial content, like if, if, if there are playlists, so Baroque Essentials symphonic Essentials, piano essentials, classical era essentials, chamber music, et cetera, et cetera.

(00:06:55):
 I will choose romanticism Essentials. And you can see that we've got different playlists here, or rather songs in this playlist here, and they are separated. So here I can tap on the Symphony number nine and E minor. And I'm not even going to try to pronounce some of these names because if I do, I Devork Dvorak. Thank you. You're welcome. So, Dvorak Symphony number nine and E Minor. And this by, by tapping on that specifically, then I get to see all of the recordings of this work, including the editor's choice for this recording, and then also other popular ones. And then you also get to see related work. So like, I, I, I think that's the biggest first sort of feature that stands out to me is this is ripe for Rabbit Holes <laugh> in the sense that I can tap on one thing and just boo boo drop down into all of these different categories.

(00:07:55):
That was my symphony. That's a rabbit number four. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, my symphony number four called Rabbit Hole in a Flat Major. Anyway so we'll go back to this main screen and then we've got some albums that, and that's one of the other things that Apple touts is that they do have exclusive albums as part of this library, new releases. And then of course, they love to talk about their spatial audio effects. So let me tap on one of these songs and immediately when I look at this sort of metadata, I can see that it is recorded in Dolby Atmos, meaning, or rather it's presented in Dolby Atmos meaning that it will have that s spatial audio feature, and then it's also Lossless. And Apple is making it very clear that the lossless music here can be I can't, I didn't see, this is the other problem is that there are two kind of announcements about Apple Music. And the original one kind of talked about the specific data for how how high quality the, the recordings can be. But let me just show, I'll tap on one of these songs and

Dan Moren (00:09:11):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna make, you're gonna, I'm gonna be a nitpicker and say, please

Mikah Sargent (00:09:15):
Do. Oh, thank you pieces. Yes, I am using the wrong word.

Dan Moren (00:09:18):
I was my, I hear my father in the back of my head there thinking like, don't call it a song,

Mikah Sargent (00:09:22):
<Laugh>, <laugh>. No, that's good, because if you didn't do it, somebody else would. I'd rather have you doing it. So I, I tap on one of the pieces, and down here I can see that this is Lossless underneath the, the, the play out and then down at the bottom, and this is where things get even more magical. Of course, in the middle you have the option to play the piece over your different airplay speakers Bluetooth speakers, et cetera. And on the right you've got the playlist option where you can see what songs will be playing next, what, what pieces will be playing next. But in the bottom left is one of my favorite icons. It is the eye icon, which is for information. And if we tap on this Woo, buddy, do we get a lot of information? You get the composer, you get the work, the movement what it's currently playing from the orchestra, the conductor record label when it was released, the executive producer, the producer, the executive producer sound engineers, and then the mastering engineer.

(00:10:19):
And anything that's in red is something else we can tap on and see. The Vienna Phil Harmonic Orchestra, what pieces have they performed? It shows their latest albums. You get a biography of the Vienna Phil Harmonic current Vienna, Phil Harmon Harmonic similar artists who, like what composers they're often perf with whom they're performing, all sorts of stuff. And I think that that is going to be really exciting for music nerds who are wanting to check out both new works and you know, classical works that are, that are interesting or of interest to them. Anything that you wanna say kind of about the, these first screens before we start to dig in even more in this app?

Dan Moren (00:11:07):
Yeah, I mean, I, I think what's key here is that Apple is really trying to appeal with this app. Both two people like music nerds as you described, by having this depth of information, but also trying to surface things with their editorial curation that makes it more accessible for people who may not be familiar with classical music, right? Having those essentials playlists there is really valuable because for people who are like, I don't even know where to start, I'm totally overwhelmed by all of these pieces that are available, it gives you a good grounding in certain areas or, or lets you tap into things that you might be interested in. So being able to sort of thread that needle in terms of presenting stuff for both more experienced listeners as well as newer listeners is I think a, a big virtue of what Apple's trying to do with this app.

Mikah Sargent (00:11:48):
Absolutely. And I I like to the, so we we're, I'm switching over to the browse tab, and this for me is kind of where I would want to go when it comes to trying to find pieces I want to listen to. And so we've got everything kind of broken up into composers, periods, genres, conductors, orchestras, soloists, soloists, ensembles and choirs. And there are these beautiful sort of art pieces to represent each of these categories. But if I tap into soloists, for example I can get a rundown of some of the soloists that are available, and then I can filter these soloists and or rather sort the them so I can sh sort them by popularity, by the name, by year of birth. And then also I have the, a filter option for genre period and instrument. If I, if I go back, then I can also look at periods, and this is where it's broken up, medieval Renaissance, or Renaissance as some of you pronounce it baroque, classical, romantic early 20th century, late 20th century and 21st century.

(00:13:00):
This is, I can just, I I am not a huge classical music nerd by any stretch of the imagination, but just in looking at this, I'm getting excited because I think it's so cool to be able to dig in so much. I can only imagine someone who is very invested in classical music, just being very excited about the way this works. You can browse by playlists as well. And of course these are going to be in many cases editorialized playlists that will be created by Apple's editorial team, but also in a, in some instances curated by the artists. So there's yo-Yo Maz apple Music classical playlist that has some great works. And you could go through and find your favorite performer, your favorite artist, and l listen to all sorts of great stuff. And then maybe you are someone who likes to listen to music based on the instrument.

(00:14:01):
So I gotta tell you, a lot of people don't like this instrument, but I love the harps accord <laugh>. And so I, this is the kind of music that I would absolutely be listening to. In fact there's a whole playlist that's just called the harps Accord. I really like the harps accord. I love how it sounds. So I'm actually looking forward to, after this listening to some harps accord pieces. For sure. I mean, and look at how it's, it's split up not only in sort of your instruments that you're thinking of, harp trumpet, french horn, trombone, obo, but also that classic instrument that all of us have <laugh> a voice. So you've got soprano, I thought you

Dan Moren (00:14:44):
Were gonna say the recorder, Mikah. I would say the

Mikah Sargent (00:14:46):
Recorder. Oh my God, I just noticed the recorder. I have mine back here. It's somewhere I

Dan Moren (00:14:50):
Have from elementary school back here, so I'll dig that out. I'll play a little, I'll jam out a little bit of plaque on

Mikah Sargent (00:14:56):
The recorder is magnificent. Please do. I did not even realize that the recorder was out there, but no, I was talking about voices. They also have tracks that are, are split up, or again, pieces that are split up by the, by the voice. But now I, like my whole life has changed knowing that there are sort of famous works performed on the recorder of all instruments. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Dan Moren (00:15:20):
That's right.

Mikah Sargent (00:15:21):
Huh. Huh. Does, does this sort of area kinda stick out to you? I'm curious, thinking about there's a reason that Apple has separated this mm-hmm. <Affirmative> from the Apple Music app, and it's the way that I think apple will or rather classical music fans browse that music. So from what, you know, from what your dad has talked about, does this make sense to you this sort of method for browsing by catalog and by instrument?

Dan Moren (00:15:55):
Yeah, absolutely. I, I think what's interesting about the Apple Classical app in this way is that it is a window into the same sort of stuff you can get on Apple music. It's just easier to find stuff, organized stuff and look for exactly what you wanna listen to, and that, that is the challenge, right? When it comes to classical music as opposed to, say, pop music that we might be more familiar with, listen to on Apple Music, it's v it's, it's fundamentally different, right? Like in pop music, a lot of what you have is songs recorded by an artist who has written that song, right? And then <laugh>, crazy classical music. Well, those people were dead long before recording technology was available. You're not gonna find original pieces, you know, played by Beethoven in the cla classic music app. And because those things are so old, they're also in the public domain, right?

(00:16:38):
Which means there's hundreds if not thousands of recordings of some of these things. So you wanna be able to sort of drill down and find exactly what you're looking for and, and allowing this sort of browse interfaces in much more powerful than what they've allowed in Apple music. Because you do find a lot more cases where people wanna listen to a particular instrument or something from a specific time period or something by a specific choir. I mean, all of these things are, are cases where people wanna like really dive into a specific genre of music, like a sub-genre of music. And it wasn't really something that worked well with the way the Apple music was set up as it was. So providing this separate interface that provides a window into the same catalog perhaps, but allows you to sort of more granularly get at what you're looking for makes a lot of sense to me.

Mikah Sargent (00:17:28):
Yeah, absolutely. I, I, I, I, I agree from even what I do know about it. So the next category, of course, is going to be the library. This is your apple Music classical library. So it gets separated by albums, by playlists, by tracks, by artists, by recordings, by works, and by composers. So as you add music to your personal library, you will have these separations. And then tapping into them, of course, will give you even more information about each of these. And so you may come across any of these and, and be able to drill down and see what specifically what information is available about the track. So if I tap on this the three dots next to this first piece, I can choose show, album, and learn more about the album as a whole, and also these pieces in particular. And then once again, scrolling down to the bottom, I get more information about the, the album as a whole and any of the individual tracks I could then learn more about. So last

Dan Moren (00:18:36):
Thing in the library, I do wanna point out there, there's actually, they've done some different stuff here. It's a little bit different than the way the Apple Music Library works. So if you look at the, for example, the recordings and works sections, a lot of these are based on sort of a favorite paradigm where you might say, this is my favorite work. So for example one of my favorite pieces is there's a suite by Claude Debui called Sweet Berg Mask. You may famously know the third movement of it, which is Claire Deun. And so you could say Cla Deun is like one of my favorite works. Like you would find it and you, there, there's a little star icon you can hit, and then that work would appear in your library, but it's not linked to a specific recording necessarily. You can look at that work, then pull that up in your, your, your library, your works list, and look at all the recordings in there of that particular track or piece.

(00:19:26):
So I, I think that's also a really clever way of doing it because it lets you quickly sort of almost get to like a different, build your own like browse interface almost, because you can just identify the recordings or works or artists that you're interested in, and then sort of jump to those quickly as opposed to having you go down, drill down through that browse interface. Like, all right, I remember I wanted to look at that via Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, but now I have to find something that is played by them so I can then go look at all the pieces that they're playing. And, and I think this, you know, lets you sort of quickly jump to things that you may be of interest things that are, may be interesting to you. So I, I think it's, it's really clever and it also, again, goes back to this different paradigm of how we consume classical music versus how we consume sort of pop music.

Mikah Sargent (00:20:12):
Yeah, that is, okay. That's really cool. And you can see here I've tapped into works, and then it says add your favorite works. So you would then go into apple Music Classicals catalog and be able to find that. The last section is the search section. And Apple as I mentioned before, is very much kind of touting the search feature. It says, classical works have multiple movements and tracks. We've kind of talked about that. And there are hundreds of recordings with different orchestras, conductors, soloists, also sorts of all sorts of composers and even special catalog classifications. So Apple Music, classical has search that will give you exactly what you're looking for by sort of expanding on search criteria where you would normally kind of look at you, when you're typing in the name of a, of a song, you would find that song by the song title or by if, if you're, you know, looking for a song from Beyonce, you'd type in Beyonce and be able to find that.

(00:21:13):
But apple Music, classical search library uses a combination of key words, including Composer it can find Opus number, it can find the conductor, the artist instrument, and as they point out it can even use a works nickname. So we may know a work by a nickname that has sort of gone through history. And so finding it by that nickname, the library is aware of that as well. And what I like is that when you find the work that you're looking for, in many cases, it's going to find, or in every case, it's going to find the different recordings of that work, but in many cases, it will also present an editor's choice for what is, you know, the editor's belief as a really great performance of that specific work. So I like that on top of, you know, finding, what I think would be cool is if there's a work that you very much enjoy to then search for that work and discover that the editor's choice is not your favorite version of that, but Liz May.

(00:22:23):
And, and in that sense, it's one that you hadn't heard before, and so then you get to hear a new one, or you may not have known that this specific group performed the work that is your favorite. And so then you get to hear it for the first time performed by a different group. Ah, all of that is, is that sort of discovery and that newness, the, the potential for newness, I think is what makes classical music so different from the music that we have. Because I was, I remember talking with Jason Howell on Tech News Weekly about how we typically would call what they are doing in, in modern terms. It's a, it's a cover, right? <Laugh>, you have an artist <laugh>, and then another artist does that, like performs that work, that's like a cover of their piece. But we don't call cl like classical music was made to be performed by different groups, right? And so, sort of wrapping my head around that is, is, is interesting and it kind of shifts your, your thinking whenever you're talking about this stuff.

Dan Moren (00:23:29):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, performances are sort of the gold standard here, right? Like, we're talking about people playing this and, and not, not to be as a recording, right? Like it wasn't originally intended for that. It was work that was disseminated and played by a variety of different artists. And there's so much to, to discover and so much in there that is complex in terms of how it's just laid out. Yeah, I mean, <laugh>, you mentioned catalogs at one point, and that was something I never quite wrapped my head around as a kid, that all these pieces have like different, like catalog numbers and stuff, opus numbers and what have you. It's wild. And then of course, this is all exposed here in, in Apple classical, which is great because I know that people who are really big fans of classical music, that is, that is the kind of information they're looking for.

Mikah Sargent (00:24:13):
Absolutely. The last thing I will mention is those, so Apple Music classical these pieces can be up to 24 bit, or sorry, 24 bit 192 kilohertz. And they are obviously available in high res lossless. So if that is something that you, you know, wants to listen to and you have the right equipment to do, so then you're able to. And then if, as I also mentioned spatial audio with Dolby Atmos, we'll give you kind of that 360 degree soundscape for those tracks that are available in spatial audio with Dolby Atmos. And they are regularly adding new works to the spatial audio offerings. So this may be the opportunity for you to get to hear in sort of the, the experience you would have being, being at a live performance. You may, you know, feel that that is something that you'll be capable of, of, of hearing and, and experiencing and enjoying.

(00:25:19):
 So I think that's pretty cool. I'm looking forward to listening to some harps accord in 360 degrees <laugh>. Again, you can get apple Music classical in the App Store. Of course, we'll have a link in the show notes. It is available for free to subscribers of Apple Music or through other subscriptions that include Apple Music. You may start to see some ads pop up. I saw just this morning in on Instagram there was an ad for Apple Music Classical. So they are already kind of touting it and making sure that people know about it. Any other things you wanna see or, or mention rather about Apple Music Classical?

Dan Moren (00:26:04):
Yeah, one thing I do wanna mention, which is near and dear to my heart, is that you might also think this is only about classical music, but it is in fact includes some adjacent genres as well. I am a big fan of movie scores, and you will find lots of movie scores in Apple Classical, which is nice because it, it often benefits from some of the same types of presentation or information. I, I, for example, I noticed one thing that you, that you don't get an Apple classical, there is no shuffle option in Apple classical <laugh> which is good for those who like to listen to, you know, an, an album or a piece, right? Like, you know, a symphony has many movements oftentimes, right? You don't want those out of order. They're in a specific order, a specific reason.

(00:26:43):
That is how you experience it. So a shuffle is more often detrimental, not same thing with a a movie score. For me, I like to listen from start to finish, right? I don't wanna have that shuffled up for me. So I appreciate that a lot. Also, you'll find, I think some Broadway musical stuff in here as well. I know Hamilton was in there, but also I think I saw some older Broadway musical Roger Hammerstein stuff as well. So if you think, oh, this is just classical music, I'm not interested in that, there's a little bit more in there as well. So poke around and you might find some stuff you're interested in.

Mikah Sargent (00:27:12):
Yeah, I'm gonna have to look up to see if Into The Woods is in here. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. I bet. I bet it's, yep, there it is. Aw. Anyway let us take a quick break before we come back with more, because we have a lot to talk about. Yes, apple has made a few other announcements and releases between yesterday and today, so it's a pretty busy episode. And we'll move right along after we take a quick break for me to tell you about Eight Sleep. Yes, eight Sleep is bringing you this episode of iOS today and is bringing you this energized version of Mikah Sergeant. Good sleep. I've said it before, I'll say it again cuz they want me to, but also because it's true. It's the ultimate game changer. And the pod cover is the ultimate sleep machine. Consistent good sleep can help reduce the likelihood of serious health issues.

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Eight. Sleep currently ships within the usa, Canada, the UK Select countries in the EU and Australia. That's eight sleep.com/ios. Thank you so much. Eight sleep for sponsoring this week's episode of iOS Today. Alright as of this morning, apple has released iOS 16.4 watch OS 9.4, macros Ventura 13.3, and we're gonna talk about those in a moment. But <laugh> Apple also made an announcement early this morning that it has introduced Apple Pay later. Apple Pay later is a new service. I guess it's sort of a new offering that's part of Apple Pay, and it is, I i many, I think folks will be familiar with this. There are lots of different companies that are giving you the ability to split up a purchase into four payments or sometimes six. It depends on what company you're using but multiple payments and then pay those out over that period of time.

(00:31:43):
 Apple is doing four payments, zero interest, no fees. And so basically what will eventually be the case is for eligible users, anywhere Apple Pay is available, a user can opt to use Apple Pay later which will grant them a loan of $50 to a thousand dollars, and then that, again, will be split up across four payments. So what this allow, again, also with no fees and no interest. So what this allows person to do is make perhaps a larger payment that they want to then kind of break up into small things. So the example that they provide in the newsroom piece is a pair of tennis shoes that are $125 and 8 cents total. And then every two weeks the person pays $31 and 27 cents. So on, you know, the, the purchase date, they pay $31 and 27 cents.

(00:32:47):
Then in two weeks they pay the next four weeks, they pay the next six weeks, they pay the next, and then they've completely paid it off. So what Apple has said is that this will, it, it's rolling out kind of slowly quote, starting today, apple will begin inviting select users to access a pre-release version of Apple Pay later with plans to offer it to all eligible users in the coming months. So let's talk about this, Dan, because I see people go back and forth and have some interesting thoughts on pay later services. And I'm curious to hear your take on it and sort of using Apple specifically. You know, it's tie in with Apple Pay and the, the, the push that Apple has regarding financial health because they, they really talk about it. I mean, the first sentence or no, but rather the second sentence in this newsroom piece is starts with quote, designed with users financial health in mind, unquote.

Dan Moren (00:33:53):
Yeah. I'm always a little skeptical of these types of systems. I understand their utility, but I always feel a little bit as though it can also encourage people to try and spend beyond their means. But I also understand there are times when you may want or need a thing that you can't afford upfront. So a couple things I would mention, just looking at some of the fine print, one thing that is interesting about this is you would need a, an eligible debit card on your device. With Apple Pay, you can only make Apple Pay later down payments using a debit card. Obviously, that prevents, sort of removes a layer, right? You don't have both credit and a loan happening at the same time. And then it's also worth considering that these things are, each time you pay with a pay later system, it is considered a separate loan.

(00:34:40):
And Apple says in its press release that starting later this year, I believe they will report these loans to us credit bureaus. So if this is a case where you, you know, set up a pay later thing and you can't afford to pay it back or you end up missing payments that may end up ding your credit score at some point. So it is something that does require some good you know, credit financial health as you say. And of course, th they're gonna decide who is eligible or not. And that may or may not you know, pa play into that as well. But all of that aside, I mean, I think from an Apple point of view, there's two major reasons to implement this. One is potentially to encourage more people to use Apple Pay because mm-hmm.

(00:35:26):
<Affirmative> as opposed to using a competing service, right? Which might offer the same sort of pay later functionality. Now Apple gets your business for doing that. And two, it is, you know, something that potentially encourages people to spend money and, and buy more expensive things, which is an economic engine as well for good or for ill. So I, you know, I certainly always think it's worth considering who benefits from this and why these kinds of decisions are made and why these programs are put in place. And so I, while I don't think this is necessarily a, a bad program or feature in and of itself, it's always one of those things that is worth bearing in mind. Well, let me think exactly about what the implications of this might be.

Mikah Sargent (00:36:10):
Yeah, that, so I, I'll be honest, I have used Amazon has offered a, i, it was like a, a payment thing that also was no interest, no fees. I've used that to buy some furniture in the past and it was very handy and, you know with them it was once a month, so it wasn't even every two weeks. And so for a big purchase like furniture that was helpful for me at the time. Sure, yeah. To be able to, you know, get the furniture that I wanted. But I think that, yeah, when it comes to giving folks the opportunity to spend outside of their means that is where it can be concerning. I, I will give Apple credit for the way that they do, I think a better job of sort of, sort of zoom zooming in on and locking into the, the important aspects of the finances and making it very clear and easy to see all of the information that you need to see to properly make these purchases. Sure. Or these payments on time, even with the I don't, I don't have an Apple card personally, but my partner has an Apple credit card and he's always, you know, very aware of what is what, what is not, you know, what points are available, all of that stuff. They've done a really good job of just making that information front and center. There's no kind of question about how it goes. Right? Yeah. And I, I think that's good.

Dan Moren (00:37:43):
Yeah. I think there's also one benefit of using this from Apple as opposed to potentially a competing service. And I'm not gonna call any out because I don't have the details on them, but oftentimes I've seen these before where you, you see this as a service in and of itself, right? Like that's what this company does, right? Is it does sort of like a pay later thing. And I always find myself very curious, like, how are they making money off this, right? Yes. Like, if there's no interest and there's no fees, so I get very suspicious, right? Like, it's the classic, like, you know, if you're not paying for something, you're the product. And so with Apple, at least I will say, I have no concerns about this company's financial solvency. Apple's gonna be fine if I don't pay my $30 back in two weeks. And so I'm a little less concerned about like, how do they make money off it because it's, it's part of a bigger push for them, right? It it is to them, as I said, it's an investment to use Apple Pay more or use their services more, and that drives more business for all of their stuff. The more you're in that ecosystem, it's not necessarily about making money off this particular feature.

Mikah Sargent (00:38:44):
Right? apple says that the pay later service is offered by Apple Financing. L L c mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, which is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. They are the group that are doing the credit assessment and the lending. And then of course, I, apple Financing LLC will start reporting to the credit bureaus in the fall as you mentioned earlier. And then MasterCard and Goldman Sachs are kind of responsible for the the, the, the card generation that takes place. So the, the way that these typically work is whenever you make a purchase, then it kind of creates a temporary card. It's so virtual card they're making front and center. Yeah. A virtual card essentially. And so MasterCard and Goldman Sachs are kind of working together to do that part of it. As Apple puts it quote, Goldman Sachs is the issuer of the MasterCard payment credential used to complete Apple Pay later purchases.

(00:39:46):
So between those two companies, they're the ones that are responsible for that. Apple financing, l c is the one that's doing the lending and the credit assessment. So it's just interesting to see all of the pieces that have come together to make this possible. And now it makes me wonder about those other services that are out there what they do with, excuse me, the different pieces. You know, because if Apple is using MasterCard and Goldman Sachs for one part of it, as opposed to just using, you know, their own system, what is available to folks, what is not yeah, it's all very interesting. Of course, listeners out there, if any of you end up getting one of these invites to become one of the users to access the pre-release version, let us know. We'd love to hear more about that.

(00:40:34):
Love to hear about your experience with it. And of course I'll be keeping my out my eyes out for it as well just so that I can talk about it and, and show off how it works and make sure that it's, you know as easy to understand and everything is Apple is kind of put forth. So, yeah, we'll, I'll be keeping our eyes out for that. Moving right along. We now have the release of Apple's latest operating systems, and that starts with iOS 16.4 and iPad OS 16.4. As you might imagine, there are quite a few sort of bug fixes, performance improvements and as always, you can read more about that on Apple's site. But I think what people get really excited about <laugh> are the new features that are available. And one of the big features is the introduction of the new emoji that are part of the Unicode standard.

(00:41:43):
 That's 15.0. This was announced in July of 2022. And so now if you do this update, you can use lavender, you can use the, a wooden flute, the sort of shaken emoji face, some new hearts, some hands, a moose a jellyfish that looks gorgeous. I might add ginger lots of fun stuff that has been added. And I think as we've said in the past, this often drives people to install these updates, but in doing so, the most important thing takes place, which is that you get these security updates along with the fun edition of of emoji. Yeah, I, I, any of these emojis stand out for you, Dan? Any, any you think are gonna become your, your reg?

Dan Moren (00:42:38):
It's, you know, it's good. I'm currently drinking a ginger seltzer, so clearly that ginger emoji would be perfect for me right now. <Laugh> also there's a, isn't there a goose Now I finally, I can, I

Mikah Sargent (00:42:50):
Believe so I can talk about the

Dan Moren (00:42:51):
Horrible goose of untitled goose game. Those are, I think those are a couple of the good ones for me.

Mikah Sargent (00:42:59):
Those are a goose and a moose. Oh, that's

Dan Moren (00:43:00):
Shake, that's shaking face too, is is gonna figure out what that's for. I don't know, but I'm gonna get

Mikah Sargent (00:43:05):
That. Yeah, I don't know what it's for yet, but I feel like I will eventually end up using it for sure. <Laugh>, I think it's really cool. Let's see, what else has, has come to iPad OS and iOS 16.4? There are a few changes to the Apple Music app. So there are animations within the app that have kind of been toned down in some ways. Not a huge something that you're gonna kind of pick up on quite a way quite, you know, right away is the word I'm trying to say. But then there's also a easier access to the Apple Music profile. So you may or may not know that you can create a profile at Apple Music, or maybe you did and have forgotten about it but it is the way for you to be able to share music with your friends and look at your friend's music as well.

(00:44:02):
Kind of show folks what you like to listen to. I've got some playlists in my Apple Music Library that I share, but actually getting to that you could only access the Apple Music profile from the Listen Now and Browse tabs. Apple has now given you the ability to access it even while you're in the library tab, so you just tap on your profile in the top right corner and then you'll get to your Apple Music profile and be able to make those changes there. Outside of that, again, I want to encourage everybody to please, please, please install iOS 16.4 along with those 21 new emoji being able to get notifications for web apps that are added to your home screen. Some voice isolation features for cellular calls. So whenever you do place a call, then you can give the person listening better experience because it will isolate your voice and kind of block out that ambient noise. I could have used that the other day. I was talking to my mom as I was walking through San Francisco, and I swear it got three times noisier. As soon as I hopped on the phone, <laugh>, it was like quiet. I hop on the phone now suddenly there are you know police cars driving by. It was just a nightmare. And I wish I had that voice isolation feature at the time. I think, you know, there are some, I've got a favorite,

Dan Moren (00:45:34):
I got a favorite from 16.4. This is for me and for other people who have maybe using Twitter left and are less and have maybe moved to Mastodon. There are now rich previews for Mastodon in messages. So when you send somebody a link to a Mastodon post it actually shows up with the text of that post before it would show up with like a giant profile picture of the person. But now basically the same way that if you sent a tweet before to somebody via messages and it would show the actual context like the content of the tweet that will now work with Masin on links as well, and as somebody using masin a lot. That is great. I'm very happy about that.

Mikah Sargent (00:46:12):
Yeah, that is fantastic actually, <laugh> that is, that is good to, good to hear. So I'm sure we'll, you know, come across some more small changes that take place in iOS 16.4 and in IPA OS 16.4, but those are kind of the big ones. Again, though, get it because you are getting some important updates to the system that will protect you from the bad actors out there. Apple has also released Watch OS 9.4. You get some changes to, I, I was reading through this and I thought, oh man, and now I'm thinking of the people who had this issue. And, you know, the, the experience that says Wake up alarms are no longer silenced with the cover to mute gesture to avoid accidental cancellations during sleep. So this is I just imagine someone's asleep, they hear their alarm go off on their watch and they sort of put their hand, you know, just by, by the nature of sort of moving around or whatever, they put their hand over their watch or while they're asleep throughout the night, somehow their arm that has the watch on it gets underneath the arm that doesn't have the watch on it, and then the, the face is covered up and so then the wake up doesn't even get turned on because you have that cover to mute gesture enabled.

(00:47:35):
So there were probably a few instances of people accidentally turning off their alarms being late to work. And you know, then reporting on that being the case cycle tracking has been added to cycle tracking. Specifically the, the ovulation estimates and the cycle deviation alerts, those are now available in Moldova, in the Ukraine or, and Ukraine. And then also AFib history has come to a few more countries, Colombia, Malaysia, Moldova, Thailand, and Ukraine. So yes, the, the regulatory hurdles have been jumped over <laugh> and so you could now get that there as well. And then Makos has also Makos Ventura has also gotten some updates, including, of course, support for those new emoji. If you u if you're using the freeform whiteboard application that Apple introduced, then the remove background option will work properly.

(00:48:40):
 Photos duplicates will also detect duplicate photos and videos that are in an iCloud shared photo library. So when this was, when this feature was introduced, the iCloud shared photo library where you and family members can all share a photo library when you use that new duplicate detection feature, well newer duplicate detection feature, it wouldn't look in the iCloud shared photo library. It does that now. See any other big things there? No the, a lot of the rest of it are small changes or the addition of these features to other countries, although I do wanna point out that on Mac OS and on TV os there's an accessibility feature that has been added. It's called and I actually, I'm not sure what the specific feature is called, but what it does is it automatically dims video when there are strobe effects or flashes of light that are detected.

(00:49:35):
So if you do have that sensitivity then you can enable this feature and it will kind of dim the screen during those strobe light flashes. And you know, I can't speak to the efficacy when it comes to someone who might be strobbe sensitive, but if it's just a matter of sort of discomfort, then this might be a feature that you want to enable in the accessibility settings. So yeah, get those updates in place for iOS, iPad, os, watch, os, Mac Os we'll be keeping an eye on things to see if any features that we didn't mention have cropped up. But any other things that you wanna mention about these new updates, Dan, or did we hit the, hit the big ones?

Dan Moren (00:50:16):
One that I noticed about watchOS 9.4, which I thought was kind of interesting, is that it sort of follows in the footsteps of iOS and now lets you remove some of the built-in apps if you want to, ooh, delete them. So you can remove the activity app, the heart rate app, the maps app, a few others as well. So if that's something that you didn't, you know, wanted to do before you can do directly from the watch, that seems to be one of the key things, right? Like you, you don't have to go to your phone and go to the watch app and then delete stuff from there. So that's really nice. And then on the, I felt like there was something else on the Mac, oh, the, I don't know if you mentioned this, if I missed it, sort of zip by the both iOS and Maquet get, get a bunch of new shortcut options as well. Okay.

Mikah Sargent (00:50:56):
That is

Dan Moren (00:50:56):
Big. So the ability to control things like stage manager or the announced notification setting or night shift in true tone always on display, on iOS devices. So there's a bunch of new stuff there as well as some updates to existing actions which is pretty cool cuz for anybody who use shortcuts, it's great that they, they add those you know, regularly now as like, oh, let's bring in new features here or, or, you know, let you address existing features. So thumbs up to that.

Mikah Sargent (00:51:25):
Yeah, I'm sure Rosemary's gonna be looking forward to talking about some of those new features upon her return. All right, up next we've got feedback and questions, feedback and questions up next this first bit of feedback comes from David. David writes in, says I could use a little advice from you. We are remodeling our kitchen. The main lights will be on Lutron CETA dimmers and the under cabinets will be a na will be nano leaf flight strips. I picked up the light strips from the Apple store last week after recycling a very old Mac and some hard drives. The very next day Nano Leaf announced the matter compatible version of the light strip. Should I consider taking my purchase back and waiting for the matter version. My thinking is the new version though identical and same price will have updated circuitry and chips, though new lights wouldn't ship until April.

(00:52:20):
The remodel won't start until later in the summer. Funny story, I have the home kit lights paired and out just for testing and they kept turning on and changing color. I thought the lights were freaking out, but I had set up a motion detection automation with my doorbell. What I didn't realize is that the doorbell always detects motion and there's no special setting within the home app to adjust sensitivity. We also got an air tag for our dog, Bingley. I know they aren't meant for pets and the notification settings will need to be tweaked. It's just a little something extra as he tends to come off his tether every now and then. Hopefully we can be alerted when he is outside of a radius of the home. Unfortunately, there are no family sharing options with air tags as of yet. And David has included a photo of the dog, Bingley, hello Bingley.

(00:53:11):
 So Bingley, I guess will soon be wearing an air tag. And yeah, I, I've heard some folks who've made use of air tags as a way to track their pet as David mentioned. You know, the big thing there is that it doesn't family sharing for air tags. So multiple people can't track the same air tag. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up seeing that feature later where you can kind of invite people to join your air tag and multiple people can then look for that item. I'd like it for the air tag that I have in my apple TV remote cause I'm not the only person who's looking for the remote. But to go back to David's original question, and I'll be curious, Dan, if you feel the same way I 100% think that you should return these and get the matter versions in April.

(00:53:56):
As much fun as it is to have them now, so you can kind of play around with them. The fact that the remodel isn't starting until later in the summer and that you can wait to get them, I think you should get the most recent version. Instead of getting a version that is now going to be out of date. The most recent version means that you are essentially ex extending the amount of support time that the product has. You're extending any warranties that are included. You're extending any opportunity for future updates to settle for something, just to have it now even before the Remo remodel has taken place as opposed to having the latest, greatest. Yeah, I think you should send them back. Do you feel the same way? Yeah,

Dan Moren (00:54:39):
Yeah, I agree. I mean, especially if it's, you know, from the Apple store, which tends to be really, really easy when it comes to returns. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I feel like for all the reasons you mentioned, I did a remodel on our kitchen when we moved into our house a couple years ago. And I would've loved it to have some of those smart stuff that we installed be matter compatible, but now it's a big pain cause I gotta remove them and then get new ones installed and all of that. So if you can save yourself a headache of doing it all ahead of time, doing it now, not having to worry about it in like a t a year from now when you're like, I really wish I got the matter version. You're just, you know, saving yourself some money and some time and some frustration down the road.

Mikah Sargent (00:55:15):
Absolutely. moving right along to Daniel. Oh, oh, there's one more thing I wanted to say for David. David, you mentioned that the, you didn't realize that the doorbell always detects motion and there's no special setting within the home app to adjust sensitivity. This is a common bit of advice that I give to folks. As much as I wish that we could do everything possible within the home app itself, that all of the settings, all of the features were exposed within the home app itself. Sometimes that's just not the case. And so it can be worth getting the app that is made by the manufacturer of the accessory that you have installed and digging through those settings, because you may find that in the settings for the camera in its own app, there is a feature that says after 10 seconds of motion, then stop detecting motion for, you know, 10 minutes or something.

(00:56:14):
There are all sorts of little tiny adjustments that you can often make. And then in the home app, it's not going to need to worry about all of that. It'll just have the information that, oh, it's detected motion. And then of course, that device will stop detecting motion after 10 seconds and wait to detect motion again for the next 10 minutes. So just keep that in mind that occasionally it's worth getting the app. Although like it sounds you like to do, I also like to set up and install the accessories using Apple's app first before I do anything else. And if I can, I limit it to the home app. But occasionally you just have to use those third party apps particularly if you wanna get firmware updates, because some devices don't do firmware updates unless you trigger them via that first part.

(00:57:05):
Well, first party in terms of the accessory, it's their app. So yeah, all of those reasons are, are rather, both of those reasons are, are why you should consider getting that app as well. Next is feedback from Daniel. Daniel writes in, since I updated my iPhone 12 mini to iOS 16, I've been having a lot of problems with the iOS email app. The most annoying is that sent mail are not actually being sent after pressing the sent button, and they just vanish. They don't appear in the sent folder, the outbound folder, the draft folder, and the receiver never gets the email. There is no error message and the emails just vanish. The second problem I'm having is that the emails frequently show up out of order when opening the app. For example, when I open the app, an email from two weeks ago will show up at the top of the list, and then I will see a couple of emails from today, then older emails, and then the rest of today's emails.

(00:58:01):
If I force close the iOS email app and reopen it, the messages are back in the correct order. The final problem is that frequently emails are missing from my inbox. The only way I know I'm missing emails is when I log into the Comcast app on the phone or check my email on my PC where I see additional emails. All of these problems started with iOS 16. I've been using an iPhone since the iPhone 3g, and I've never had these problems. I've tried deleting the email account on the phone and starting again, but the problems persisted. I've updated all of the iOS 16 point updates and I'm still having issues. Any I ideas? Dan, do you use the first party mail app for your phone? I

Dan Moren (00:58:45):
Do, and I have seen some weird behavior, not as extreme as what is being described here, but I've definitely seen some weird behavior on occasion.

Mikah Sargent (00:58:54):
Okay. so my f the first thing that stuck out to me is that Daniel mentioned the Comcast app, which means that Daniel is using Comcast email. So I s ISPs often provide internet accounts or rather mail accounts as part of any package where you subscribe for internet, for television, for phone, and different ISPs internet service providers pay kind of different attention to the features, functionality and updates of those systems. Depending on who you're using, you may see them regularly roll out new updates, make sure that everything's up to date in terms of the security privacy, but also the latest functionality. And then some sort of let it fall by the wayside because it's not their main source of income. In fact, <laugh>, it's not really a source of income for them as it is just an email account.

(00:59:56):
It is not, you know what you're paying for as part of the internet. So because of that, I think that it's worth being mindful of the fact that although it may seem like it is iOS 16 the updates iOS 16 that has caused this issue, it could possibly be that it's just Comcasts internet that has a problem. And there, there are two other things that I want to mention. One is Daniel, if you are a subscriber to iCloud Plus which is a sort of extension of iCloud that gives you access to some special features like iCloud private Relay, you could be seeing some issues because of that. I've, I've run into some problems where things weren't loading exactly how I expected because of the way that they were kind of jumping through some hoops. I also wanna mention something that Scooter X has said in the chat, and I think that this is a really great mention, and that is it's time to move on from pop to imap.

(01:01:12):
 So what Scooter X says is and, and actually Scooter X is quoting from Comcast, quote, POP can cause problems when checking your mail from more than one phone or computer because POP removes the mail from our server and delivers it to your device. Imap makes it easier to sync your email on multiple devices because your folders and mail remain on our server until you move or delete them with your device. So, to be clear, email used to, we used to use POP as the system for mail, and what would happen is you would be taking what was on the server is like there was a platter, and on the platter all of the people who were sending you mail, they put their little hors d'oeuvres on that platter, right? And then you would open up on your computer, your mail application, and it would grab all of those little hors d'oeuvres off of that platter and put them locally onto your device.

(01:02:07):
And so you would have all of these hors d'oeuvres locally, but now they're not on the server anymore. What the problem was is that as we started to add more devices, you'd have your computer, you'd have your phone, you'd have all these different devices that were trying to access it. Then when your phone went to grab some hors d'oeuvres, they weren't there anymore because you had downloaded them on the computer, you'd taken them off of the platter and put them on your computer. So they weren't there for the for the, for the phone to be able to grab them. So what they decided to do instead was, why don't we keep everything locked in the server or, or placed on the server, and then give you the ability to sort of view it from a distance. So instead of taking that hors DEU and putting it on the platter, you just kind of looked at it.

(01:02:56):
So it was all still there on that main platter, but whether you were logging on, on the computer, you're logging on on the phone, you were able to see the hors d'oeuvres and see all of them at the same time. You could move them around on the platter to different folders as you wanted to. No problem. So all of that is to say that you should update your platter from POP to imap if you're using pop still. You mentioned that you, you know, you, you logged outta the account, you logged back in go to Comcast's settings and support and find how to set up IMAP with iPhone. So you could even type into whatever search browser you or search engine you use Comcast, email, imap, iPhone, quite literally those four keywords, Comcast, email, iPhone, imap, and any sort of arrangement.

(01:03:50):
And you'll be able to find how to set up imap with your Comcast email account. And that should hopefully be the, the solution to the problem. Because again, where you said, you know, this didn't happen until I was 16, well, it could be that, you know, because Pop is kind of slowly just sort of moving along and not doing so well, then it could be that this has just now come to the point where it, it's coincided with the introduction of iOS 16, but really Comcast is trying to get you to stop using pop and move over to imap. Comcast itself is encouraging the the shift. Alright, moving along to Heath. Heath writes in and I wanna mention this was a little while ago that there was a Wall Street Journal article that was talking about how if someone, God forbid, was able to get your device, physically get your password, or get your passcode, type it in, and then sort of take over your life because everything is stored on that device then obviously that's scary <laugh>.

(01:04:56):
And so that was kind of what the, the whole piece was about. It was just looking at how we've kind of made so much of our digital lives in a way vulnerable if someone were to gain access to your device, where before it was just kinda like, oh, I'll steal a password and I'll be able to gain access to your accounts. No. Now suddenly, if I could just get that phone and I can get that passcode, I've got access to so much information. So Heath writes, after the recent Wall Street Journal article on what can happen if someone gets your device and has your passcode, I decided to take another look at my devices and what would happen if that did happen to me. It's probably a good idea to take a look at security on your device occasionally. One issue I realized is that since iCloud document storage assumes one user, there is no way to lock individual files or folders that are stored in iCloud documents.

(01:05:48):
While reviewing those files, I realized I had stored one password access keys as a P D F in iCloud. So if someone was able to access my device unlocked, they would have easy access to my one password vault. Yikes. An easy additional security layer is to review those files in iCloud that are sensitive and place those files and an encrypted password protected zip folder that at least gives one additional layer of protection and is now natively supported in iOS. So you're less likely to lock yourself out of important files. Anyway, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on how to secure your devices without getting too crazy. Here is the pet photo tax as well. So I can't remember if I mentioned this at the first one, but whenever people are talking about the pet tax, Rosemary Orchard and I jokingly said, if you want to have your question answered on the show, you gotta pay the pet tax. If you have a pet, you don't have to pay the pet tax, but we absolutely love seeing the pet. This

Dan Moren (01:06:43):
Is extortion Mikah, I, I demand <laugh> that you be held to account.

Mikah Sargent (01:06:49):
Ah, so people lovingly send in photos of their pets and we have two pets. You've paid extra on your pet tax so you don't have to pay as much next year. There is a <laugh>, a dog that looks like we've got some sort of poodle mix going on. It might even be a King Charles cavalier and poodle, but I'm not a hundred percent on that. It's also giving some Maltese. And then a beautiful little kitty, a white and gray kitty I believe with blue eyes both animals look adorable and look like they are enjoying themselves just snuggling together on the sofa and they seem very photogenic cuz they're both looking at the camera and happy to be captured in this photograph. So thank you Heath for sending in your pet tax. I'm curious, Dan, I'd love to hear just your overall opinion on that piece your concerns that you may or may not have about security and if you do anything to protect yourself to a further extent like Heath suggested with these password protected zip folders.

Dan Moren (01:08:00):
Yeah, I think the journal piece hit upon some stuff that's kind of interesting in terms of trends that may be happening in certain cases. I mean, the fact that once somebody has your device and your Pasco, they have access to all your stuff, that shouldn't be a bombshell, right? I mean, that's like saying somebody has access to my house and my house keys, <laugh> now has all my stuff. It's like, yeah, that, that's how that works. But it, it is tricky because we keep so much information on our phone and I think that's what Heat's point gets to here is like there's a lot of stuff stored on your phone that then may sort of snowball into more stuff, right? If somebody can get there, they can potentially get into your bank account or into all your passwords or stuff like that. So yeah, I, I think that there are probably some good ideas.

(01:08:43):
I mean, I think the idea of like creating like a encrypted password protected folders, not bad. If you can set that up or using a one password and, and just making sure that you hold on to those you know, recovery keys and security keys so that they're not easily accessible with the same information, being able to spread that around a little bit is a positive. But I would say the, the first step is, you know, if this is something you're concerned about, start by making a more complex passcode for your device. Because if you're using a four digit hopefully not, or even a six digit passcode, it is very easy for somebody to potentially sort of just scope what that is when you're entering it. And that is a little trickier. If you switch to something more like a long alpha numeric passcode and then rely on biometrics as much as possible, then it's a lot harder for somebody to essentially figure out what your passcode is just by looking over your shoulder. So that would be like my first easy step for securing all of your stuff. And then if you're still worried about it, I think going to a further step of using a a third party app or an encrypted folder or something like that is, isn't a bad idea, but at the end of the day, yeah, once they get sort of your passcode and your phone, that's, that's the ballgame <laugh>. So try, try to avoid that as much as we can.

Mikah Sargent (01:09:53):
So you're saying I didn't need to hire this big security guard who's standing right outside of the camera frame that I pay way too much money to, to keep my device safe. I could have just done some sort of digital things. You're a

Dan Moren (01:10:04):
Job creator, Mikah. I think that's important. You're bolstering this economy by hiring people. So good for you.

Mikah Sargent (01:10:10):
Good for you. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you for keeping my device safe. Hold on. I should look up more so it's even more intimidating. Thank you, Bruce. I appreciate you <laugh>. All right, folks. Let us move along to our final segment of the show. It's time for app caps. App caps are the part of the show where we share our favorite apps or gadget. These are the apps or gadgets we're using now or may have been using for some time that we think are awesome that we want to share with all of you. And in doing so, we place caps or other headwear, a top hour heads to honor those app or Gadget Picks of the week. That's why it's called the App Cap, because you place a cap or something, a top of your head, but then it also caps off the end of the show. So without further adu Dan Moron, tell us a little bit about the CAPA top your head and then tell us about your app Gadget Pick of the Week.

Dan Moren (01:11:13):
I have had this hat for a super long time. My aunt gave this to me. My late aunt gave this to me years ago. I I loved collecting hats as a kid, and so she knew this and she would find interesting hats for me. So this is, I I honestly have no idea what the, the providence of this, this particular sombrero is, but it's great. I really love it. And like I said, I said, it's so good. I know, I think this is pretty, I mean, honestly, I would not be surprised if this came from like a trip that she took to, to Mexico or something. Because it is like, it's legit. It's legit. So I mean, it's like 30 odd years old probably. So oh, wow. Yeah, I, it's as old as, as me <laugh>. Well, now I'm really depressed. Thanks, <laugh>. I, I I can say I have hats older than you Mikah. 

Mikah Sargent (01:12:02):
Oh, that is weird.

Dan Moren (01:12:04):
That is weird. I don't know if I like that. Also, it doesn't, the headphones do not work well with this. So I will say that <laugh> well, let's move on to, it's something more interesting. I got an app for you and maybe an app some people know about, but if not, you're missing out. That app is Libby. Libby is an app that lets you borrow eBooks from your local library. Ooh, this is awesome. I am a big library sporter, so people who know me might know both of my parents are retired professional librarians. So I grew up spending a lot of time in libraries and I have for, you know, ever liked getting books out library. And of course, in the past few years during the height of the pandemic, it was a little trickier sometimes to go into the library and get a book.

(01:12:50):
But lots of libraries have extensive e-book collections and this makes it super easy to like, go through the search for a book that's coming out. Just put it in your queue and then when it's ready, like, you know, when when there's available copy, it gets sent to you and you can download it to your e-reader. I've read books on my Kindle, which is pretty good, but also even better, my Cobo reader, like has built-in support for this and I can just very easily get books on there, which is awesome. You can also read on your iOS device or your, your iPad, whatever you want. And it's all free. That's the best part, right? You're already like, you know, all you gotta do is get a library card from your local library. In some cases you can get more than one. I have one for both. Cuz the city of Boston where I live has a different system from my local library. So I have cards for both of those, which means I can check both catalogs and Libby's even so good that it'll tell me like, Hey, this book you're looking at, this is the shorter line between the two libraries you have. So it's awesome. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you are a library fan, go, go get yourself a copy of Libby.

Mikah Sargent (01:13:54):
That's awesome. I did not, I, you should know that this existed. I did not

Dan Moren (01:13:57):
Know. Oh, you should know. You should know. It's so good. I now know it's so good.

Mikah Sargent (01:14:01):
<Laugh>. Yeah, I downloaded it on my iPad. I'll be getting it on my iPhone. That is fantastic. Yeah, that's great, Libby, go get it. It's available for free in the app store. Mine is decidedly more expensive. First, the, the cap at the top of my head is one of two caps that I got many years ago. This hat is as old as Dan and it, it's, it's not it is a sort of blue, gray, green striped hat with a gigantic puff on the top and it's very warm, so it doesn't really work in California. But I will never let go of any of my hats because they're all fun and great and I very much adore it. But what I wanna talk about today, so I remember a long, long time ago, I believe back in college I had I purchased a 10 u SB port.

(01:14:59):
 It was mostly being used as a u sb kind of dock or I, it's not even dock, I can't even think of what they used. Oh, hub, that's the word hub. And so I could plug in a whole bunch of devices, but five of those 10 ports were also a place where you could charge things that plugged in via U S B all U S B A of course, cuz this was a while back. And since then I've seen a few devices come out that have, you know, three U S B A, one U s b bbc sometimes like this charger from Nomad has two U SBCs. You'll occasionally get one u s, bbc, one U S B A, all that kind of stuff. But by golly, I wanted something that offered multiple U SBCs and I couldn't find anything that was of a quality that I wanted from a brand that I trusted and would provide kind of the power for all of those at the same time.

(01:16:02):
So sati and yes, that is how it's pronounced. Finally answered my, my call to arms and created the 200 watts U S B C six port charger. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> six port. There are six U S B C ports on this, and it is a GaN charger, gallium nitride charger. So it can do some great PD charging meaning that's got that the special power delivery output. So I will open this up because inside along with the charger of course, there's also some in, whoops, there's a, a manual that talks about how it actually works. So depending on how many devices you have plugged in, you can get up to 140 watts of charging for a device. So if you plug into one of the first two ports, you, and, and you just plug into one of those one device plugged into one of the first two ports, you'll get 140 watts output.

(01:17:15):
 Three and four, provide at max 100 watts of output, and then five and six provide at max 20 watts of output. If you decide to do two ports, then you can get a hundred watts and a hundred watts. If you use one and two, you can get a hundred watts and a hundred watts if you do two or one and three or one and four. And then of course it kind of goes from there. You can do up to 140 watts if you plug into the, the first port and the fifth port, same thing for the first and the sixth. And then of course from there, the second one is also 140 watts max. As you continue to plug them in, I'll just go down to having, you know, one in every single port. If you plug into all six at once, the top port can do 65 watts max charging.

(01:18:06):
The second one does 45 watts max, and then the rest, the remaining four can do 20 watts max. So that is good enough to charge almost any devices you have all at once, all with this one. And this is my first time opening it completely. Tiny little, I mean tiny in, in, you know, in in terms of how much it can do. This device can charge that many devices all at once and you know, provide the, the sort of maximum charge that you would need. So this I think is incredible. And when you think about six U S B C chargers that is, and it's a 200 watt device that has up to 140 watts output, you're probably going, oh boy. We're looking at a very pricey product for this charger. It's $150 and yes, $150 is not something to blink at, but for what this can do, I think that is a very, very, very good price.

(01:19:20):
 What I found from Sati is that the company makes high quality products that don't cost as much as some of the competition. And I like that they sort of, these devices are purpose-built. They do one thing, they do it well, and they do it with I think, a nice design that's not overly engineered, which is what can kind of add to the cost at times, but is engineered to what it needs to be. Right now on my desk, I have something that I've used for ages now, which is a sati U S B charger. It has two U SBAs and two U SBCs and I like that I'm using all the time. So I'm really looking forward to replacing that with this, where suddenly now I can charge so many things all at once. And even with something plugged into every single port, I'm still getting 65 watts of charging at the high end.

(01:20:18):
I think that's mind blowing to me. All for something that's smaller than an iPad mini. So that is SAT's 200 watt u s BBC six Port PD GaN charger. It's not available on like Amazon right now. It'll eventually make its way there. It's currently being sold on am I mean, on SAT's site. But yeah, check it out. If you are looking for a multi charging solution, I think this would be great for families in particular where, you know, you might have everybody come home and they need to plug in their phone real quick travel product for making sure that everything can just be charged with one one kind of area. So yeah, I, I kind of want to just, I, I will eventually, I'm sure by another one so that I can have them in, you know, one to go, one at home and everything can be plugged in and charged.

(01:21:13):
No problem. Yeah, it's, it's Hitachi's 200 watt u s BBC charger. With that, we have reached the end of this episode of iOS Today, I hope that you are listening to lots of classical pieces over on Apple Music Classical, and that you got some, you know, maybe you got inspired to go get the app if you did not get the app or you learned some new things about how to use the app if you had downloaded it, but hadn't quite checked it out yet. If you have questions, if you have concerns, if you have feedback, if you have shortcuts, corner requests, Rosemary Orch will be back next week. To answer those, send those to iOS today. Twit.Tv, iOS today, TWiT tv is the email you can tune in every Tuesday round about 9:00 AM Pacific time to watch the show as we record it.

(01:22:06):
It's a lot of fun to watch the show. You do that by going to TWiT tv slash live. There you will find the option to stream the show and a bunch of different platforms, Twitch and YouTube and all that kind of stuff. But we think the best way to get the show, if you aren't available to tune in live, is by subscribing to the show or following the show. You go to twit.tv/ios and there you will find a way to subscribe to the show in audio and video formats. You just click subscribe to audio or subscribe to video, and then you'll see all sorts of different places where you can get the show. So if you use Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Pockets, there's so many different <laugh> options, well, we try to be in all of those places to make it so that it's very easy for you to follow along.

(01:22:52):
 I wanna mention Club TWiT. If you would like to support the network and support the work that we're doing here and also get some awesome stuff, you should join Club TWiT at TWiT tv slash Club TWiT starting at dollars a month or $84 a year. You out there can join the Club at TWiT tv slash Club TWiT. When you do, you will get access to every single TWiT show with no ads because you, in effect are sponsoring the show. You'll also get access to the TWiT plus bonus feed that has extra content you won't find anywhere else, and access to the members only Discord server. That is a fun place to go to chat with your fellow Club TWiT members and also those of us here at TWiT. In fact, even though Rosemary was feeling under the weather today, I saw her this morning in the Club TWiT Discord kindly answering people's questions.

(01:23:38):
I think they weren't aware that she was feeling under the weather. So they, you know, were prepared to ask her some questions for when she got back or something, but yeah, she was there to to, to answer a few listener questions. So I just think it's great that you can chat with us, chat with each other, hang out, have fun see it, animated images, all that stuff is happening. Join the club. You may have heard that I said starting at $7 a month. That's because as we've added more value to the Club we've had folks say, Hey, you know, $7 is great to start off, but I really feel like I should be paying you more. And we said, oh, really? Okay, that's cool. You can do that <laugh>. So we gave you the ability to kind of add on if you want, starts at seven.

(01:24:19):
You can go up from there and wanna talk about adding value. We continue to add some great shows to the Club. There's the Untitled Linux Show, that is a show all about Linux. There is the Hands-On Windows program from Paul Throt that is a short format show all about Windows, tips and tricks. So Paul Tht walks you through all of that stuff. There's Hands-on Mac, which is my show all about. It's not just about the Mac, it's about Apples devices in general. Again, a short format show meaning, you know, won't take up much of your time. You get some tips and tricks and you get access to the newly announced, newly launched Home Theater Geeks with Scott Wilkinson, the ever Clever Scott Wilkinson has joined the Club as well. All right, go to TWiT tv slash club TWiT to check that out. And now it's time Dan, for you to tell us if folks wanna follow you online and check out the great work you're doing, where should they go to do so? 

Dan Moren (01:25:16):
You can find everything I do over at my website, d morin.com. I'm also at pretty active on masted on these days@zeppelin.flights slash dmo. Those are probably the best. Oh, of course. I write over at six Colors dot com, all stuff Apple Tech related. And I do a many a podcast on technology, including the rebound which you can find@reboundcast.com and weekly. Mikah and I hosts clockwise on the Relay FM network, so you can tune in there as well if you, if you haven't got enough of me and Mikah talking about apps.

Mikah Sargent (01:25:51):
Yes, yes indeed. And I can be found at Mikah Sergeant on many a social media network. Or you can head to chihuahua.coffee, that's c hhi h hua h hua.coffee, where I've got links to many of the places I'm most active online. Rosemary Orchard will be, will be back next week, and I'm losing my voice right here at the end. But thank you so much for tuning in everyone and we will catch ya next week for another episode of iOS Today. Thank you Dan, and thank you everybody. Goodbye. Hey,

Jason Howell V.O. (01:26:25):
I'm Jason Howell. How do you thank your hardworking team? Well, with a club TWiT corporate subscription. Of course, you can show your appreciation and reward your tech team with a subscription to Club TWiT. And that way they'll be informed and entertained. With podcast covering the latest in technology with the Club TWiT subscription, they're gonna get access to all of our podcasts ad free, the Members Only Discord, exclusive outtakes behind the scenes and special content and exclusive shows like HandsOn Mac, HandsOn Windows, and the Untitled Linux Show. Go to twit do TV slash Club TWiT and look for corporate plans for complete details.