The Ridiculous Idea that Apple Should Hire Investment Bankers

Apple's approach to acquisitions has been a topic of discussion among bankers and investors. According to some, Apple should hire investment bankers to help with its acquisition strategy. However, this idea seems ridiculous when considering Apple's track record of making successful acquisitions without the need for outside expertise.

In fact, Apple has made numerous significant acquisitions over the years, including Motorola, AOL, Time Warner, and Nokia, among others. These deals have been completed without the involvement of traditional investment bankers. Instead, Apple has often opted to work directly with companies' management teams to facilitate these transactions. This approach seems to be working for Apple, as it has enabled the company to acquire technology and talent without breaking the bank.

One might argue that this strategy is not without its risks. After all, buying smaller companies on the cheap can sometimes result in unforeseen consequences down the line. However, so far, signs point to Apple's approach being effective. The company continues to develop innovative products and technologies, and its acquisition strategy has yielded significant results.

On the other hand, one might wonder if Apple is doing everything right. While the company's track record with acquisitions is impressive, there are no guarantees that future deals will be successful. Moreover, the world of technology is constantly evolving, and companies must adapt to changing circumstances in order to remain competitive. In this sense, it's possible that Apple may need to diversify its acquisition strategy in the future.

However, it's worth noting that so far, signs point to Apple's approach being effective. The company continues to develop innovative products and technologies, and its acquisition strategy has yielded significant results. It's also worth mentioning that Apple's focus on developing its own technology in-house is a key part of its success.

In the world of reality TV, Ben Silverman was a prominent figure who brought numerous successful shows to the small screen. As a producer, he worked behind the scenes to develop and pitch ideas for various programs. One notable show he produced was "The Biggest Loser," which became a huge hit for NBC Universal. Another show he worked on was "The Office," which was also a critical and commercial success.

Silverman's production company has continued to produce successful reality shows over the years, including "Jane the Virgin" and "Ugly Betty." However, it's worth noting that his approach to producing reality TV shows often involves giving contestants immediate access to the product or service they are competing in. For example, on a show like "Project Runway," viewers could buy the winning garments after each episode aired.

Similarly, with "Planet of the Apps," a new Apple original series, viewers can download the app immediately after each episode airs. This approach provides an immediate buzz around the show and allows viewers to engage with the content in real-time. While it's unclear whether this strategy will drive sales or not, it's certainly generating interest and excitement among fans.

As we wrap up this episode of The Apple Podcast, there are no other comments to be made beyond the success of the podcast itself. The creators want to thank Mara for sponsoring the show, as they provide a hands-free virtual running assistant that uses cutting-edge voice recognition to help coach runners to better runs. This technology allows users to focus on their run without having to look at their phone or use earbuds. By downloading the app, listeners can enjoy a more immersive and engaging running experience.

Overall, The Apple Podcast has been entertaining and informative, covering topics such as Apple's acquisition strategy and reality TV production. With its unique blend of humor and in-depth analysis, this podcast is sure to appeal to fans of technology and pop culture alike.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enyou're listening to the Apple Insider podcast welcome to the Apple Insider podcast the show all about iPads iPhones Apple watches and much much more I'm your host Victor marks joining me today is Mikey Campbell welcome Mikey yo what's up hey things are going well so Mikey let me ask you what do do you have an exercise regimen uh uh not really do it when I can that's my so so you you don't have a regular running program to keep that fine physique that uh everyone on Twitter talks about no no it's natural well then so the the point of this exercise is that we are sponsored today by Mara and and Mara is all about providing a a smart running assistant and and so what you have here is a a a smart digital assistant a hands-free running assistant that uses voice recognition and the microphone in your earb buds to help you optimize your runs and you can tell her what kind of run you'd like to do you can ask questions about your speed Pace or location you can have her play albums and playlists from your music library as you run and she can also tell you how you're doing in comparison to your past runs or warn you about changes in weather like if it's about to rain she'll even track your progress by noting all of your rough legs and each time you run and you can connect her to Amazon Alexa enabled devices and ask about lifetime specifics and record you know when records that you set for your next run so visit mara. to download your free virtual running system today that's m.ai I should ask you Mike do you have any Al enabled devices nope huh wow what an interesting life you lead I've got a couple of those around here right now I I don't I don't um I just use hkit and whatever the first party apps are with the smart home stuff that I have right and in terms of smart home stuff youve just got Phillips uh couple ey devices things and um what else yeah those are the ones that I use the most or mainly cool yeah the I devices products are pretty good too so I want to break right into the news by talking about the Apple iPhone 8 rumors so we we talked about last week with Neil about how the idea of the iPhone was that it was going to start costing about $1,000 for the device this week we have rumors saying that instead of the the whole lower chin that whole Touch ID home button area that that's going to be replaced with a so-called function area yeah what what can you tell me about what a function area does what's different here so basically uh What uh was information comes from mingi F everyone's favorite analyst uh he's saying that Apple's going to use the a larger OLED display but dedicate the bottom portion of it to a so-called function area or function row which would assumably include a virtual home button and other other virtual Keys perhaps um for system controls it's not really clear whether this area will also serve as a part of the main display um but from the note it seems that it's going to be perhaps hardcoded uh or or a set of virtual buttons are going to be hard-coded into the OS itself so we shall see that that feels in some ways like what Android has done I believe LG has a uh similar similar setup um on one of their phones now they they got Apple got a patent covering micro LED displays capable of detecting touch events right uhhuh using infrared diodes so they're going to use IR to detect fingerprints in that function area is is that what I'm understanding here well I mean that's what they they could do um whether that technology is ready for Market or not is unknown but they're going to have to find some sort of solution if they want uh it seems like everyone every all the rumors are pointing to a full face display which means that there's going to be no no physical home button or or you know how it is now um a touch ID ring basically and uh embedded into the uh screen itself looks like that's going away or moved somewhere perhaps they they're they're competing problems here right I mean the the the home button and whole chin area eats up a whole lot of space yeah yeah at the same time having that indentation for the for where the home button is is really nice because you can locate immediately where it's supposed to be with your thumb but if you go with the that patent for example uh the entire screen can except the fingerprints so you just touch anywhere on the screen which would be cool it wouldn't be dedicated to one area but I don't know if they're going to do that I mean um I don't know assumedly they're going to try to make the face as uh symmetrical as possible right yeah but but then you know so here here's the problem right have you got the fourth gen Apple TV MH and you got the the fancy voice remote for that right yeah right you ever picked that up wrong all the time yeah okay so when the home button is no longer indented on the iPhone it's going to be pretty easy to pick that thing up upside down now isn't it what if there is no upside down you you say that but they have not been successful they've tried many times to try and fix rotation awareness and stuff on the phone and the iPad for that matter and every time done it badly um yeah I don't know the the latest iPhone is is pretty sensitive it's um I kind I mean it the it works it's not necessarily the sensitivity it's it's that the operating system itself screws up when you rotate it I can tell you all the time I get things where half the interface is rotated if I'm doing messages for example I I'll get the um the the menu bar the status bar across the right side of the display up and down as if it were in in landscape mode and I'll still have the keyboard and portrait oh that well um um could be and and it's not just the the the uh one that has like the cellars and stuff yeah okay yeah it's not just Apple that gets things horribly horribly wrong it's it's that there are applications third party applications and Apple's Zone that understand rotating portrait and landscape but only if you do it in the correct orientations that is they do two out of the four orientations you can do yeah I mean there's always a chance that they could B in better controls with the with the iOS 11 who knows who knows I mean it'd be pretty cool to have a phone that is uh position agnostic or orientation but then you'd have to deal with microphones and speakers being agnostic as well well it it already is kind of right I mean they're trying to build out their I mean if you look at iPad right they have the four speakers right if you turn that into a phone say put two speakers on either side and uh um iPhone already has multiple speakers in it you just collocate those on opposite sides of the phone then you could have a basically an orientation agnostic phone interesting interesting thoughts things could be yeah yeah so tell me you we we've been talking for a long time about lightning headphones and W1 equipped Apple headphones so tell me about the Beats x uh beats X I did test out this past week when they came out pretty good I mean it has that Beats beat flavor base uh big base and um overall pretty good but let me ask you some questions first of all what's the best thing about them probably I'd say the uh passive noise cancelling that it has which is the seal seal is very good and they're very light so you don't feel them okay what is the worst thing about them I really don't like the neck strap or the the connecting portion these are a pair of earbuds that have a cord that goes between them one of the they one of the ends of the cord has the mic button controls volume controls track controls whatever and uh and a battery inside the cable and you don't like having the cable going between the two pieces yeah yeah I mean it's like a it's like a they call it a flex form tether or cable so it's kind of a uh springy metal metallic material wrapped in like a soft touch uh rubber rubberized shell so it's kind of comfortable but I just don't like it touching my neck all the time and you can feel it it's just constantly there I mean it's a lot better than the uh other then another brand you know like with what brand is it just um that makes the uh the huge neck strap one that uh FedEx drivers use that we talk about oh right right that's uh LG by Harmon Card or something yeah right so it's not as big as that and it's not as um intrusive but you're still aware that it's there especially when uh you know running or anything it bounces around now are there magnets in the earbud pieces so they stick together MH MH when the magnets stick them together do they turn off um no no they don't that's that's not good also seems to they could have a switch inside them so with the magnets are engaged it knows that they're turning off yeah and also uh my pair did not shut off automatically after it was not being used it just stays on um I couldn't find any documentation about power savings but but it appears that you need to turn it on and off when you uh so it so I I ask you why did you give it a four out of five then uh is probably one of the best beats products that they've made um and it does like the next strap you couldn't get it to turn off when they were supposed to the battery performance was I'm not sure that it was supposed to turn off I think that's just by Design uh the W1 chip is where it's at and this is the cheapest W1 model that you can buy right now so how much is it uh it's 149 I think yeah so so you gave it out a 4 out of five because it's got a W1 chip and it's 149 bucks yeah it's a it's a good it acts like a wir a wired headphone it does not act like a wireless headphone because of one chip and for that reason it is it is good all right cuz you didn't make it sound very well at the first part right it was wasn't a sinking recation there that's why it's a it's not five out of five that sounds like like rating inflation to me no why why would it be like three out of five that's only uh that's 60% it's uh it's hardly hardly passing and this is not a hardly passing it's a the those were and also those are just my um quibbles with it other people might not be bothered by the headst or the uh the tether as seen by um I a lot a lot of people use the like the like the tether because they can um take the headphones out let them dangle unlike airpods yeah unlike airpods where you if you take it out you have to like stick in your pocket or something so if you're a person that like always needs to or likes to have one earphone out or have uh you know take out both earphones like commonly take out both ear phones then it's a good option because then they're they're right there right they ready yeah all right well thank you for answering those questions let me challenging you on it I just it just didn't seem like the rigging endorsement that you were trying to trying to indicate by that rating yeah I think the rating is stands how much how much battery life did you get out of in your test um that was another plus it was uh over the estimated 8 hours I believe whatever the I think the estimate was 8 hours that Apple gives a bit over that okay so the point is they're $149 they have the W1 chip and and you were not disappointed um yeah I mean the uh the benefits outweigh the negatives and also uh for some people they will uh definitely sound better than airpods it has a definite sound signature whether you like it or not you know it's up to you but right it's it's more Dynamic than the uh the airpods which are very flat Okay cool so let me uh me move on to our next topic which is all about the next rumored Apple TV mhm so you've got the current Apple TV yep right what is the current one missing uh for me content um that's about it I mean yeah content is the big thing I mean that's always been the thing about Apple TV is content okay so it it looks like this rumor indicates and this is a uh uh a Bloomberg report written by Mark German say making the prediction that the next Apple TV is going to have 4K resolution and more Vivid colors which I I guess would be HDR wouldn't it yeah HDR for right so is is that a big hold up for people um I don't I I mean I personally I don't think it is uh I mean obvious for people who own 4K TVs I guess yes it would be um but a vast majority of consumers that are looking to buy streaming boxes don't own 4K TVs right yet I mean they probably will that's the standard becomes adopted at a a wider scale but for right now and for you know the time when the fourth gen Apple TV came out that was not a huge deal or a deal breaker at least yeah my my understanding is that not a whole lot of 4K content true 4K content really exists and if if they did something like this you'd think they would release 4K content in conjunction with it right yeah I would hope so I I mean I can see them just baking it in in hopes that 4K content will come but uh yeah there's I mean Sony who launched their own you know 4K streamer and accompanying service I mean they're they're still having problems with getting content a lot of it is just their own stuff yeah so um I mean it's it there's a lot of uh hurdles to get 4k to a TV right um besides the content a lot of the content in is filmed in higher than 4K resolutions but getting it to Consumers is a different story so it has to be downscaled to 4K it has to be done it in a way that a distribution partner can stream it it has to be licensed by that distribution partner it has to be you know there you're right and then of course the internet connection has to support it so that it doesn't get downscaled again because of slow pipes right there's there's a lot going on there yeah yeah I mean we're still slowly getting there but I don't think we're quite there yet that everyone can have it or everyone wants to have it um and have that consistent experience and we're still at a point where 4K TVs aren't widely adopted yet I mean they're coming they're they're out there but in terms of people purchasing them it's still very very viable to purchase a 1080 set yeah and a lot cheap yes so so what do you think of this rumor do you think that the Apple would do a a sort of facelift version of the Apple TV where they gave it just the uh the ability to do 4K yeah I think uh I mean why not because I the the next iteration is probably going to have a faster chip in it and the only reason it doesn't do 4K now is because everything's being piped through that um the Aeries chip that was launched what two like almost 3 years go now isn't it um yeah phon that spec the A10 Fusion okay so um yeah so I mean when you get that faster chip which obviously supports 4K you can just add in that whatever codec you like probably whatever whatever codc is the deao what are they using for 4K I don't know it is a good question okay well let's let's take a moment and let's talk a little bit about malware have you ever had malware on a Mac no well that's I'm I'm very glad for you I've never had one on one of mine but I have had to remove malware from other people's are you surprised by that yeah I've uh no I mean I've heard of um I think yes I've some people that I know have had malware where they're they're free with their their downloads if you know what I mean M keeper doing you a favor something like that yeah Ma keeper so there I I've had to remove that several times from other people's Macs I've had to remove other ones but but this one is a a piece of malware uncovered by research firm and Anar Builder Bit Defender and there's a a strain of Mac agent of X agent for Mac that as a modular back door once it's installed it uh it checks for the presence of a debugger and if it doesn't have one it it grabs out one and talks to a command and control server to turn on payload modules um the the command and control URLs impersonate Apple domains so nothing looks too suspicious and it can run code it can run processes it can grab desktop screenshots it can steal a web browser passwords it can take iPhone backups um it's it's kind of nasty yeah I think the iPhone backup thing is probably the most uh well if you encrypt your backups then you don't really have a problem yeah yeah yeah I don't know yeah I mean I'm sure there's a way to well I mean once you have the encrypted data might be a way it's not it's not good but it's better than having it be unencrypted yeah it's better than uh plain text yeah so bit funder is still looking into it it appears that X agent is is at least circumstantial evidence points to different Russian hacking groups but this this is uh not good it's it's um something to to be very wary of yeah don't go around clicking on things you don't know downloading stick to the Mac App Store if uh possible but one of the nice things about Mac OS is that uh you know in years past Apple would publish things about malware on their support pages and how to manually remove them but with MAA Sierra my my experience so far is that when you reboot it just does the removal job for you so it's it's kind of sad because you used to say you know when your Windows computer wasn't behaving correctly well have you tried rebooting but now that's the correct advice to to solve a malware problem which is both good and annoying yeah yeah which could be bad because I don't really how often do you restart your Mac some do uh about once a month yeah me too don't really do it for I do it because I have tooo many browser tabs open and I've used up all of my Ram and it's just easier to start fresh oh you got to yeah yeah what what do you use uh Safari or uh I use Safari dayto day and I use Chrome when we do the podcast yeah because you have to well it keeps all of the tabs just for the podcast in one place it's called organization so one of the other topics of the day is is the topic of fake news and you and I were talking about this a little bit before they started the show but basically Eddie Q says that apple is going to work to combat fake news in the Apple news app and you know they they he said he was asked about it and he says it's on the responsibility is on all the companies and technology and services to ensure that the problem doesn't spread but it's it's interesting so he his quote was since the vast majority of news is now being read through devices and through services that are provided through those devices then I think we have responsibility for it he says so this is we we were taking both sides of this right is is it Apple's job to curate and eliminate fake news don't hold back I don't think it's their part I don't I mean I don't think it's their duty to do so I think it's their um it's a prerogative if they want to and it's it would benefit them to uh have a service like news have the most accurate or well no okays something that can be relied on step back a step here so Apple has this news app and they are vetting who and curating who's going to be in the news app right they they approve yes that as a source to include so they're doing some basic checking and basic um you know blessing of the the sources that are in there so do they have a responsibility because they've blessed the source to track that it's not fake news uh I don't think so because go right do they have to check each story yeah I mean it would be yeah no I don't think that's their that's not their job to do that they're not a news outlet they can provide a platform for news outlets they don't get to say what the news Outlet says I mean it it it's all it's kind of bordering on Free Speech as well so um yeah I mean especially Apple who is one for free speech and uh basic uh basic human rights and all the the good stuff that Tim Cook touts do you need Apple filtering the new story basically ever interview is a valid question isn't it no it yeah I they don't need to filter it I think they they can curate what sources are put on their service but they cannot curate what those sources with the content of those of those sources that would be wrong it's not their purview okay so are are they going to do fact checking do you think I don't think that they're going to go that far and he didn't really say exactly what they're doing he just said there needs to be quote discussion about it between the tech between the who you know the tech companies who offer services like news and um I don't know I guess other companies who provide RSS readers and stuff like that um so there needs to be discussion about it and he's not saying that they have the answers but they need to talk about where to go from here as far as fake news it's it's I I think it's very interesting that that Q decided that they have a responsibility and I think it's going to be uh problematic especially with people that that are making the accusations of what is or isn't f F news um yeah well I mean it's pretty easy to see what fake news is and fake news is news that is not real it's lie and difficulty is should they be filtering it for you because there are tons of people would rather make that determination for themselves but yeah I think well there's a there's different gradations of fake news because it's become like it's buzzword a lot of people are using it incorrectly um fake news originated with stories that were patently false they were made up made up stories and they have no basis in fact um so I don't know I mean it it to to publish those kind those types of stories is detrimental to journalism as a whole and um also to where people get their get their get their news but it also serves as entertainment so where does it I me this is blurring so many Mr has uh opened a can of worms here yeah he didn't I mean he didn't promise that Apple's going to do anything about it he said they're working and stuff so another thing is is that uh Tim Cook and Eddie Q attempted to buy imagine entertainment or at least they started discussions that could have led to that purchase um you know imagine entertainment as a Hollywood production company owned by Ron Howard and Brian graser and they there were talks we don't know how long they'd been going on for or how far they went or even why they broke down but this is this is or even if they're real I mean imagine is yeah imagine this saying that yeah well story's false part of the story nice but imag so imagine entertainment was behind Apollo 13 and Da Vinci Code and a bunch of television shows and and other things so it's not like it's a small production house it's a reasonably well-known production house with known Productions uh Apple was trying to boost original content right they've got the planet of the apps and carpo karaoke going on which are two shows that they're going to bring to Apple music subscribers and so if they're going down this content creation path having a production company that already exists is an easy buy for them right yeah yeah and and it's not the first time like we we also talked about a rumor earlier the last year about how they were considering buying Time Warner before the AT&T deal went through yeah I mean I'm sure they look it's Apple they have so much money they can consider buying whoever they want so if someone comes up for sale or is looking like they're in trouble I'm sure they're they consider it they consider a lot of stuff and they have a team dedicated to that so I'm sure this team is in talks all the time with all the companies right so that this came out is not uh I mean it's interesting because imagine's not in trouble per se or like you know they're not looking to sell um so it seems it suggests that Apple reached out to them because they were either looking to you know make their own content or perhaps strike a deal to get some sort of exclusive uh exclusive with imagine or something but um I mean that's why this is interesting it makes sense from the standpoint that um you know right now Apple's in this position where Hulu works with the TV app but Netflix does not where Amazon content doesn't even exist on the Apple TV and Amazon has its own production group making shows that are our award-winning shows and and so Apple risks being left out and if they can't pick up Time Warner if they can't pick up imagine are they doing the things they ought to be doing are they missing the vote here you know is is Eddie role if that's what they're doing yeah well I mean he has so much experience and his Services section is booming so he's doing I don't know it just appears to me like all the focus is on iTunes and and not enough focus on all might not looking at it right yeah I mean I don't know that he says I mean if you did you watch the uh The Code Media interview no I haven't seen it yet at all no I mean he he he basically talked about all the same stuff that he normally talks about but there there were a few nuggets in there like um uh I think he said something along along the lines of um they know they know television because of Association because they they worked with all these television companies before but I don't think that's necessarily true just because you've worked alongside television companies on you know deals to sell their content does not mean that you know how to create content and I uh might get might get a little blowback on this but I I think that's kind of they still have some Lear planet of the apps yeah did you see the plan of the apps uh trailer I mean I could be wrong I'm I'm going to hold the judge withold judgment until tell tell us what you saw when you saw the planet of the apps trailer what's your perspective what do you see um go on it look it it does not look appealing I mean it it looks appealing to a certain class of viewer a very Niche audience Mikey it's but it does not look it's reality TV it's meant for it's and it's very close to shark it's like Shark Tank except limited to apps are you surprised I'm a little surprised I mean I thought it would be it's not for app developers every app developer who's ever lived has always heard hey I got this really cool ideal for an app you want to hear it I'll cut you in and and they're sick of that right so it's not for app developers it's for people who have had app ideas at some point and been the person talking to the developer being able to watch along and say yeah I thought of something like that and that's how it should have gone right maybe I should get on that show that's that's what it's for it's for that and for people who like the drama of the judges telling them no right I don't think that's going to be a big part of the thing it it seems like there's going to be like a you know it's going to be segmented right there's going to be it's not going to be like Shark Tank where every every episode they're going to have judges you know saying yes or no to a certain thing they're going to start off with that and then they're going to take that concept through to fruition so there's going to be teams so it's going to start off like Shar tank then move its way on to kind of like a voice kind of yeah so I mean that that concept could be interesting but the the elevator pitch thing is really kind of hokey um escalator pitch I mean I don't know about the escalator part of it but you know having having seen people pitch pitching is everyone says pitching is easy and yet so many people do it so very badly yeah so in the show you they have 60 seconds to pitch their idea to the judges and while they're doing it they're literally writing down an escalator that's why they call it the escalator pitch that's a cute little uh cute little idea and a cute little way of limiting the time exactly so yeah and then when they get to the bottom the judges swipe left or right on an iPad and if uh you know you know whoever is interested or if the no one's interested then I guess they leave or there's two then the contestant gets to pick who they're uh Mentor is I believe they call call them Mentor yeah so I mean it's it it's interesting for people that are interested in that I think I don't know if it's going to play well beyond that audience maybe we'll see how it works with the audience of people who watch Shark Tank there's a large dedicated audience of Shark Tank Watchers so it it could do the same could be I think people I mean I like I like I don't like Shar but I mean uh people who like Shark Tank um you don't like it's it's kind of fun to see the weird idea that they come up with I don't know what kind of the problem with Shark Tank there only this right people go in there with an idea that is is sometimes a very reasonable idea very plausible idea and they've already begun to prove it they've already got some amount of sales and they walk in there and they say I want to give you 30% of my company or whatever it is for $100,000 $150,000 so they've already said exactly what their company is worth and it's a piddling small amount of money and it's and they're giving away a vast percentage for that piddling small amount of money so it's a good way to lose your whole company right or or lose control of your company because as as you know presume you've got a partner so now you're 50/50 presume you're giving up another 30 so one of your partners is already out in terms of of a majority stake of the company kind of thing it's it's a really watch it and people are nuts giving up their their you know giving up their their whole business and and their ownership in the business don't don't you want something that's supportable don't you want to to retain control and have an investor that's a partner not going to take you I don't know h i mean but uh yeah well the the uh so-call prize um from light from light speed is resizable the investment it was over1 million so that's pretty right I mean with with the Shark Tank the I think the real win is to go on there and then turn down all the offers and that get all the phone calls from people who saw you on Shark Tank to invest that's yeah or just get so we had this article about Apple's confidence and and acquisition strategy standing in the way of large takeovers this is something Roger wrote and Roger wrote that Apple's been unable to pull off large Acquisitions because it often feels like it doesn't need to but also because they're hesitant to approach the process right that that they're trying to be risk averse and because they're risk averse they don't cooperate with third party advisers like investment Banks and I I think this is almost a non-story first of all we I God I'm looking at this it's it's it's depressing to read basically investment bankers are saying that Apple should hire investment bankers isn't that amazing and I I think this is ridiculous because if you think about it Apple makes a ton of Acquisitions we don't always hear about them right away they're they're not necessarily huge ones but there's certainly a big number and and big money behind it this is not yeah yeah this is investment bankers being left out of because Apple talks directly to companies management instead of investment bankers this your typical Bloomberg story so I mean take that for what it's worth but I mean no no it's not it's not really new news I don't think this is just how Apple operates and yeah they have a decent I mean they have a more than decent team well and there are there are big takeovers right compact bot digital HP bot compac uh Microsoft bought Nokia yeah and and you know bought Motorola AOL bought Time Warner it's an awesome list isn't it well so so is yeah sounds like all those things went belong on that list list of fail looking at I don't know I mean look the strategy that they're looking at right now which is buy smaller companies on the cheap uh for and then you know use that technology or acquire the talent and make their own technology seems to be working just fine for them so what would say I don't think they need to diversify investment bankers more business from themselves is fine but this is a stupid uh stupid thing that they've put out and it was fine for us to cover it but but the investment bankers need to go soak their heads here the is Apple doing everything right no I would say not but is Apple doing enough right that they're purchasing the companies that they want to purchase and developing the technology in house they want to develop the technology in house for uh so far signs point to yes wouldn't you agree other than other than your iPhone 8 we'll see the app right yeah yeah that was it I don't know about that I mean I could be wrong the guy behind it is a he's a big fish so he is he brought over American Idol and uh what's the other was he known for he's known for um what did he bring over what's the name you're thinking of what reality show it was um it was like one of the first big reality shows I forgot what it was it was a game show I forgot what it's called anyway I'm going to look up the the name think of because you can't even think who you're thinking of here uh is name is um Ben Silverman okay I think um just Google Ben Silverman I'm sure it'll be like the first thing that pops out surprisingly not Ben afflac comes first um so uh Ben Silverman was uh was for a while at NBC Universal and uh producer of The Office Jane the Virgin Ugly Betty Marco Polo the tutor Biggest Loser um You probably thinking The Biggest Loser weren't you I think I was thinking about the office yeah I think he did the office and then he brought over um some reality stuff and now his team is like that's like what they do they pitch reality shows cool yeah but his idea is neat uh in that uh um uh he did like a a Project Runway kind of thing um that um you know you could buy the clothes the winning clothes like after the last episode aired but I mean you don't get that immediate gratification right but with planet of the apps when the last episode airs you can go and immediately download the app and consume it's kind of neat I mean I don't know if that's going to drive sales or not well you know it will somewhat it'll be that big initial bump it won't necessarily carry it out but it'll be a big bump yeah plus I mean it's going to get featured on the App Store so all right so let's wrap this episode up is there anything else you want to comment on before we do uh nope that's uh looking at the stories that's that's a big well this has been episode 108 of The appleid Cider podcast Mikey where can people find you on the App Store on the App Store people find you on the internet um uh on the Twitter R machine at Mikey Campell 81 app.com well I'm your host Victor and I want to thank you again for listening thanks again to Mara for sponsoring today's episode Mara is a hands-free virtual running assistant that uses Cutting Edge voice recognition to help coach you to better runs play music get updates on your location Pace or weather and compare your current speed with past runs without other stop and to have to look at your phone because no one wants to look at your phone and use your earbuds because Mara can hear your commands and put them into action so download your new running partner for free at m a r a. a today thank you and thanks again for listeningyou're listening to the Apple Insider podcast welcome to the Apple Insider podcast the show all about iPads iPhones Apple watches and much much more I'm your host Victor marks joining me today is Mikey Campbell welcome Mikey yo what's up hey things are going well so Mikey let me ask you what do do you have an exercise regimen uh uh not really do it when I can that's my so so you you don't have a regular running program to keep that fine physique that uh everyone on Twitter talks about no no it's natural well then so the the point of this exercise is that we are sponsored today by Mara and and Mara is all about providing a a smart running assistant and and so what you have here is a a a smart digital assistant a hands-free running assistant that uses voice recognition and the microphone in your earb buds to help you optimize your runs and you can tell her what kind of run you'd like to do you can ask questions about your speed Pace or location you can have her play albums and playlists from your music library as you run and she can also tell you how you're doing in comparison to your past runs or warn you about changes in weather like if it's about to rain she'll even track your progress by noting all of your rough legs and each time you run and you can connect her to Amazon Alexa enabled devices and ask about lifetime specifics and record you know when records that you set for your next run so visit mara. to download your free virtual running system today that's m.ai I should ask you Mike do you have any Al enabled devices nope huh wow what an interesting life you lead I've got a couple of those around here right now I I don't I don't um I just use hkit and whatever the first party apps are with the smart home stuff that I have right and in terms of smart home stuff youve just got Phillips uh couple ey devices things and um what else yeah those are the ones that I use the most or mainly cool yeah the I devices products are pretty good too so I want to break right into the news by talking about the Apple iPhone 8 rumors so we we talked about last week with Neil about how the idea of the iPhone was that it was going to start costing about $1,000 for the device this week we have rumors saying that instead of the the whole lower chin that whole Touch ID home button area that that's going to be replaced with a so-called function area yeah what what can you tell me about what a function area does what's different here so basically uh What uh was information comes from mingi F everyone's favorite analyst uh he's saying that Apple's going to use the a larger OLED display but dedicate the bottom portion of it to a so-called function area or function row which would assumably include a virtual home button and other other virtual Keys perhaps um for system controls it's not really clear whether this area will also serve as a part of the main display um but from the note it seems that it's going to be perhaps hardcoded uh or or a set of virtual buttons are going to be hard-coded into the OS itself so we shall see that that feels in some ways like what Android has done I believe LG has a uh similar similar setup um on one of their phones now they they got Apple got a patent covering micro LED displays capable of detecting touch events right uhhuh using infrared diodes so they're going to use IR to detect fingerprints in that function area is is that what I'm understanding here well I mean that's what they they could do um whether that technology is ready for Market or not is unknown but they're going to have to find some sort of solution if they want uh it seems like everyone every all the rumors are pointing to a full face display which means that there's going to be no no physical home button or or you know how it is now um a touch ID ring basically and uh embedded into the uh screen itself looks like that's going away or moved somewhere perhaps they they're they're competing problems here right I mean the the the home button and whole chin area eats up a whole lot of space yeah yeah at the same time having that indentation for the for where the home button is is really nice because you can locate immediately where it's supposed to be with your thumb but if you go with the that patent for example uh the entire screen can except the fingerprints so you just touch anywhere on the screen which would be cool it wouldn't be dedicated to one area but I don't know if they're going to do that I mean um I don't know assumedly they're going to try to make the face as uh symmetrical as possible right yeah but but then you know so here here's the problem right have you got the fourth gen Apple TV MH and you got the the fancy voice remote for that right yeah right you ever picked that up wrong all the time yeah okay so when the home button is no longer indented on the iPhone it's going to be pretty easy to pick that thing up upside down now isn't it what if there is no upside down you you say that but they have not been successful they've tried many times to try and fix rotation awareness and stuff on the phone and the iPad for that matter and every time done it badly um yeah I don't know the the latest iPhone is is pretty sensitive it's um I kind I mean it the it works it's not necessarily the sensitivity it's it's that the operating system itself screws up when you rotate it I can tell you all the time I get things where half the interface is rotated if I'm doing messages for example I I'll get the um the the menu bar the status bar across the right side of the display up and down as if it were in in landscape mode and I'll still have the keyboard and portrait oh that well um um could be and and it's not just the the the uh one that has like the cellars and stuff yeah okay yeah it's not just Apple that gets things horribly horribly wrong it's it's that there are applications third party applications and Apple's Zone that understand rotating portrait and landscape but only if you do it in the correct orientations that is they do two out of the four orientations you can do yeah I mean there's always a chance that they could B in better controls with the with the iOS 11 who knows who knows I mean it'd be pretty cool to have a phone that is uh position agnostic or orientation but then you'd have to deal with microphones and speakers being agnostic as well well it it already is kind of right I mean they're trying to build out their I mean if you look at iPad right they have the four speakers right if you turn that into a phone say put two speakers on either side and uh um iPhone already has multiple speakers in it you just collocate those on opposite sides of the phone then you could have a basically an orientation agnostic phone interesting interesting thoughts things could be yeah yeah so tell me you we we've been talking for a long time about lightning headphones and W1 equipped Apple headphones so tell me about the Beats x uh beats X I did test out this past week when they came out pretty good I mean it has that Beats beat flavor base uh big base and um overall pretty good but let me ask you some questions first of all what's the best thing about them probably I'd say the uh passive noise cancelling that it has which is the seal seal is very good and they're very light so you don't feel them okay what is the worst thing about them I really don't like the neck strap or the the connecting portion these are a pair of earbuds that have a cord that goes between them one of the they one of the ends of the cord has the mic button controls volume controls track controls whatever and uh and a battery inside the cable and you don't like having the cable going between the two pieces yeah yeah I mean it's like a it's like a they call it a flex form tether or cable so it's kind of a uh springy metal metallic material wrapped in like a soft touch uh rubber rubberized shell so it's kind of comfortable but I just don't like it touching my neck all the time and you can feel it it's just constantly there I mean it's a lot better than the uh other then another brand you know like with what brand is it just um that makes the uh the huge neck strap one that uh FedEx drivers use that we talk about oh right right that's uh LG by Harmon Card or something yeah right so it's not as big as that and it's not as um intrusive but you're still aware that it's there especially when uh you know running or anything it bounces around now are there magnets in the earbud pieces so they stick together MH MH when the magnets stick them together do they turn off um no no they don't that's that's not good also seems to they could have a switch inside them so with the magnets are engaged it knows that they're turning off yeah and also uh my pair did not shut off automatically after it was not being used it just stays on um I couldn't find any documentation about power savings but but it appears that you need to turn it on and off when you uh so it so I I ask you why did you give it a four out of five then uh is probably one of the best beats products that they've made um and it does like the next strap you couldn't get it to turn off when they were supposed to the battery performance was I'm not sure that it was supposed to turn off I think that's just by Design uh the W1 chip is where it's at and this is the cheapest W1 model that you can buy right now so how much is it uh it's 149 I think yeah so so you gave it out a 4 out of five because it's got a W1 chip and it's 149 bucks yeah it's a it's a good it acts like a wir a wired headphone it does not act like a wireless headphone because of one chip and for that reason it is it is good all right cuz you didn't make it sound very well at the first part right it was wasn't a sinking recation there that's why it's a it's not five out of five that sounds like like rating inflation to me no why why would it be like three out of five that's only uh that's 60% it's uh it's hardly hardly passing and this is not a hardly passing it's a the those were and also those are just my um quibbles with it other people might not be bothered by the headst or the uh the tether as seen by um I a lot a lot of people use the like the like the tether because they can um take the headphones out let them dangle unlike airpods yeah unlike airpods where you if you take it out you have to like stick in your pocket or something so if you're a person that like always needs to or likes to have one earphone out or have uh you know take out both earphones like commonly take out both ear phones then it's a good option because then they're they're right there right they ready yeah all right well thank you for answering those questions let me challenging you on it I just it just didn't seem like the rigging endorsement that you were trying to trying to indicate by that rating yeah I think the rating is stands how much how much battery life did you get out of in your test um that was another plus it was uh over the estimated 8 hours I believe whatever the I think the estimate was 8 hours that Apple gives a bit over that okay so the point is they're $149 they have the W1 chip and and you were not disappointed um yeah I mean the uh the benefits outweigh the negatives and also uh for some people they will uh definitely sound better than airpods it has a definite sound signature whether you like it or not you know it's up to you but right it's it's more Dynamic than the uh the airpods which are very flat Okay cool so let me uh me move on to our next topic which is all about the next rumored Apple TV mhm so you've got the current Apple TV yep right what is the current one missing uh for me content um that's about it I mean yeah content is the big thing I mean that's always been the thing about Apple TV is content okay so it it looks like this rumor indicates and this is a uh uh a Bloomberg report written by Mark German say making the prediction that the next Apple TV is going to have 4K resolution and more Vivid colors which I I guess would be HDR wouldn't it yeah HDR for right so is is that a big hold up for people um I don't I I mean I personally I don't think it is uh I mean obvious for people who own 4K TVs I guess yes it would be um but a vast majority of consumers that are looking to buy streaming boxes don't own 4K TVs right yet I mean they probably will that's the standard becomes adopted at a a wider scale but for right now and for you know the time when the fourth gen Apple TV came out that was not a huge deal or a deal breaker at least yeah my my understanding is that not a whole lot of 4K content true 4K content really exists and if if they did something like this you'd think they would release 4K content in conjunction with it right yeah I would hope so I I mean I can see them just baking it in in hopes that 4K content will come but uh yeah there's I mean Sony who launched their own you know 4K streamer and accompanying service I mean they're they're still having problems with getting content a lot of it is just their own stuff yeah so um I mean it's it there's a lot of uh hurdles to get 4k to a TV right um besides the content a lot of the content in is filmed in higher than 4K resolutions but getting it to Consumers is a different story so it has to be downscaled to 4K it has to be done it in a way that a distribution partner can stream it it has to be licensed by that distribution partner it has to be you know there you're right and then of course the internet connection has to support it so that it doesn't get downscaled again because of slow pipes right there's there's a lot going on there yeah yeah I mean we're still slowly getting there but I don't think we're quite there yet that everyone can have it or everyone wants to have it um and have that consistent experience and we're still at a point where 4K TVs aren't widely adopted yet I mean they're coming they're they're out there but in terms of people purchasing them it's still very very viable to purchase a 1080 set yeah and a lot cheap yes so so what do you think of this rumor do you think that the Apple would do a a sort of facelift version of the Apple TV where they gave it just the uh the ability to do 4K yeah I think uh I mean why not because I the the next iteration is probably going to have a faster chip in it and the only reason it doesn't do 4K now is because everything's being piped through that um the Aeries chip that was launched what two like almost 3 years go now isn't it um yeah phon that spec the A10 Fusion okay so um yeah so I mean when you get that faster chip which obviously supports 4K you can just add in that whatever codec you like probably whatever whatever codc is the deao what are they using for 4K I don't know it is a good question okay well let's let's take a moment and let's talk a little bit about malware have you ever had malware on a Mac no well that's I'm I'm very glad for you I've never had one on one of mine but I have had to remove malware from other people's are you surprised by that yeah I've uh no I mean I've heard of um I think yes I've some people that I know have had malware where they're they're free with their their downloads if you know what I mean M keeper doing you a favor something like that yeah Ma keeper so there I I've had to remove that several times from other people's Macs I've had to remove other ones but but this one is a a piece of malware uncovered by research firm and Anar Builder Bit Defender and there's a a strain of Mac agent of X agent for Mac that as a modular back door once it's installed it uh it checks for the presence of a debugger and if it doesn't have one it it grabs out one and talks to a command and control server to turn on payload modules um the the command and control URLs impersonate Apple domains so nothing looks too suspicious and it can run code it can run processes it can grab desktop screenshots it can steal a web browser passwords it can take iPhone backups um it's it's kind of nasty yeah I think the iPhone backup thing is probably the most uh well if you encrypt your backups then you don't really have a problem yeah yeah yeah I don't know yeah I mean I'm sure there's a way to well I mean once you have the encrypted data might be a way it's not it's not good but it's better than having it be unencrypted yeah it's better than uh plain text yeah so bit funder is still looking into it it appears that X agent is is at least circumstantial evidence points to different Russian hacking groups but this this is uh not good it's it's um something to to be very wary of yeah don't go around clicking on things you don't know downloading stick to the Mac App Store if uh possible but one of the nice things about Mac OS is that uh you know in years past Apple would publish things about malware on their support pages and how to manually remove them but with MAA Sierra my my experience so far is that when you reboot it just does the removal job for you so it's it's kind of sad because you used to say you know when your Windows computer wasn't behaving correctly well have you tried rebooting but now that's the correct advice to to solve a malware problem which is both good and annoying yeah yeah which could be bad because I don't really how often do you restart your Mac some do uh about once a month yeah me too don't really do it for I do it because I have tooo many browser tabs open and I've used up all of my Ram and it's just easier to start fresh oh you got to yeah yeah what what do you use uh Safari or uh I use Safari dayto day and I use Chrome when we do the podcast yeah because you have to well it keeps all of the tabs just for the podcast in one place it's called organization so one of the other topics of the day is is the topic of fake news and you and I were talking about this a little bit before they started the show but basically Eddie Q says that apple is going to work to combat fake news in the Apple news app and you know they they he said he was asked about it and he says it's on the responsibility is on all the companies and technology and services to ensure that the problem doesn't spread but it's it's interesting so he his quote was since the vast majority of news is now being read through devices and through services that are provided through those devices then I think we have responsibility for it he says so this is we we were taking both sides of this right is is it Apple's job to curate and eliminate fake news don't hold back I don't think it's their part I don't I mean I don't think it's their duty to do so I think it's their um it's a prerogative if they want to and it's it would benefit them to uh have a service like news have the most accurate or well no okays something that can be relied on step back a step here so Apple has this news app and they are vetting who and curating who's going to be in the news app right they they approve yes that as a source to include so they're doing some basic checking and basic um you know blessing of the the sources that are in there so do they have a responsibility because they've blessed the source to track that it's not fake news uh I don't think so because go right do they have to check each story yeah I mean it would be yeah no I don't think that's their that's not their job to do that they're not a news outlet they can provide a platform for news outlets they don't get to say what the news Outlet says I mean it it it's all it's kind of bordering on Free Speech as well so um yeah I mean especially Apple who is one for free speech and uh basic uh basic human rights and all the the good stuff that Tim Cook touts do you need Apple filtering the new story basically ever interview is a valid question isn't it no it yeah I they don't need to filter it I think they they can curate what sources are put on their service but they cannot curate what those sources with the content of those of those sources that would be wrong it's not their purview okay so are are they going to do fact checking do you think I don't think that they're going to go that far and he didn't really say exactly what they're doing he just said there needs to be quote discussion about it between the tech between the who you know the tech companies who offer services like news and um I don't know I guess other companies who provide RSS readers and stuff like that um so there needs to be discussion about it and he's not saying that they have the answers but they need to talk about where to go from here as far as fake news it's it's I I think it's very interesting that that Q decided that they have a responsibility and I think it's going to be uh problematic especially with people that that are making the accusations of what is or isn't f F news um yeah well I mean it's pretty easy to see what fake news is and fake news is news that is not real it's lie and difficulty is should they be filtering it for you because there are tons of people would rather make that determination for themselves but yeah I think well there's a there's different gradations of fake news because it's become like it's buzzword a lot of people are using it incorrectly um fake news originated with stories that were patently false they were made up made up stories and they have no basis in fact um so I don't know I mean it it to to publish those kind those types of stories is detrimental to journalism as a whole and um also to where people get their get their get their news but it also serves as entertainment so where does it I me this is blurring so many Mr has uh opened a can of worms here yeah he didn't I mean he didn't promise that Apple's going to do anything about it he said they're working and stuff so another thing is is that uh Tim Cook and Eddie Q attempted to buy imagine entertainment or at least they started discussions that could have led to that purchase um you know imagine entertainment as a Hollywood production company owned by Ron Howard and Brian graser and they there were talks we don't know how long they'd been going on for or how far they went or even why they broke down but this is this is or even if they're real I mean imagine is yeah imagine this saying that yeah well story's false part of the story nice but imag so imagine entertainment was behind Apollo 13 and Da Vinci Code and a bunch of television shows and and other things so it's not like it's a small production house it's a reasonably well-known production house with known Productions uh Apple was trying to boost original content right they've got the planet of the apps and carpo karaoke going on which are two shows that they're going to bring to Apple music subscribers and so if they're going down this content creation path having a production company that already exists is an easy buy for them right yeah yeah and and it's not the first time like we we also talked about a rumor earlier the last year about how they were considering buying Time Warner before the AT&T deal went through yeah I mean I'm sure they look it's Apple they have so much money they can consider buying whoever they want so if someone comes up for sale or is looking like they're in trouble I'm sure they're they consider it they consider a lot of stuff and they have a team dedicated to that so I'm sure this team is in talks all the time with all the companies right so that this came out is not uh I mean it's interesting because imagine's not in trouble per se or like you know they're not looking to sell um so it seems it suggests that Apple reached out to them because they were either looking to you know make their own content or perhaps strike a deal to get some sort of exclusive uh exclusive with imagine or something but um I mean that's why this is interesting it makes sense from the standpoint that um you know right now Apple's in this position where Hulu works with the TV app but Netflix does not where Amazon content doesn't even exist on the Apple TV and Amazon has its own production group making shows that are our award-winning shows and and so Apple risks being left out and if they can't pick up Time Warner if they can't pick up imagine are they doing the things they ought to be doing are they missing the vote here you know is is Eddie role if that's what they're doing yeah well I mean he has so much experience and his Services section is booming so he's doing I don't know it just appears to me like all the focus is on iTunes and and not enough focus on all might not looking at it right yeah I mean I don't know that he says I mean if you did you watch the uh The Code Media interview no I haven't seen it yet at all no I mean he he he basically talked about all the same stuff that he normally talks about but there there were a few nuggets in there like um uh I think he said something along along the lines of um they know they know television because of Association because they they worked with all these television companies before but I don't think that's necessarily true just because you've worked alongside television companies on you know deals to sell their content does not mean that you know how to create content and I uh might get might get a little blowback on this but I I think that's kind of they still have some Lear planet of the apps yeah did you see the plan of the apps uh trailer I mean I could be wrong I'm I'm going to hold the judge withold judgment until tell tell us what you saw when you saw the planet of the apps trailer what's your perspective what do you see um go on it look it it does not look appealing I mean it it looks appealing to a certain class of viewer a very Niche audience Mikey it's but it does not look it's reality TV it's meant for it's and it's very close to shark it's like Shark Tank except limited to apps are you surprised I'm a little surprised I mean I thought it would be it's not for app developers every app developer who's ever lived has always heard hey I got this really cool ideal for an app you want to hear it I'll cut you in and and they're sick of that right so it's not for app developers it's for people who have had app ideas at some point and been the person talking to the developer being able to watch along and say yeah I thought of something like that and that's how it should have gone right maybe I should get on that show that's that's what it's for it's for that and for people who like the drama of the judges telling them no right I don't think that's going to be a big part of the thing it it seems like there's going to be like a you know it's going to be segmented right there's going to be it's not going to be like Shark Tank where every every episode they're going to have judges you know saying yes or no to a certain thing they're going to start off with that and then they're going to take that concept through to fruition so there's going to be teams so it's going to start off like Shar tank then move its way on to kind of like a voice kind of yeah so I mean that that concept could be interesting but the the elevator pitch thing is really kind of hokey um escalator pitch I mean I don't know about the escalator part of it but you know having having seen people pitch pitching is everyone says pitching is easy and yet so many people do it so very badly yeah so in the show you they have 60 seconds to pitch their idea to the judges and while they're doing it they're literally writing down an escalator that's why they call it the escalator pitch that's a cute little uh cute little idea and a cute little way of limiting the time exactly so yeah and then when they get to the bottom the judges swipe left or right on an iPad and if uh you know you know whoever is interested or if the no one's interested then I guess they leave or there's two then the contestant gets to pick who they're uh Mentor is I believe they call call them Mentor yeah so I mean it's it it's interesting for people that are interested in that I think I don't know if it's going to play well beyond that audience maybe we'll see how it works with the audience of people who watch Shark Tank there's a large dedicated audience of Shark Tank Watchers so it it could do the same could be I think people I mean I like I like I don't like Shar but I mean uh people who like Shark Tank um you don't like it's it's kind of fun to see the weird idea that they come up with I don't know what kind of the problem with Shark Tank there only this right people go in there with an idea that is is sometimes a very reasonable idea very plausible idea and they've already begun to prove it they've already got some amount of sales and they walk in there and they say I want to give you 30% of my company or whatever it is for $100,000 $150,000 so they've already said exactly what their company is worth and it's a piddling small amount of money and it's and they're giving away a vast percentage for that piddling small amount of money so it's a good way to lose your whole company right or or lose control of your company because as as you know presume you've got a partner so now you're 50/50 presume you're giving up another 30 so one of your partners is already out in terms of of a majority stake of the company kind of thing it's it's a really watch it and people are nuts giving up their their you know giving up their their whole business and and their ownership in the business don't don't you want something that's supportable don't you want to to retain control and have an investor that's a partner not going to take you I don't know h i mean but uh yeah well the the uh so-call prize um from light from light speed is resizable the investment it was over1 million so that's pretty right I mean with with the Shark Tank the I think the real win is to go on there and then turn down all the offers and that get all the phone calls from people who saw you on Shark Tank to invest that's yeah or just get so we had this article about Apple's confidence and and acquisition strategy standing in the way of large takeovers this is something Roger wrote and Roger wrote that Apple's been unable to pull off large Acquisitions because it often feels like it doesn't need to but also because they're hesitant to approach the process right that that they're trying to be risk averse and because they're risk averse they don't cooperate with third party advisers like investment Banks and I I think this is almost a non-story first of all we I God I'm looking at this it's it's it's depressing to read basically investment bankers are saying that Apple should hire investment bankers isn't that amazing and I I think this is ridiculous because if you think about it Apple makes a ton of Acquisitions we don't always hear about them right away they're they're not necessarily huge ones but there's certainly a big number and and big money behind it this is not yeah yeah this is investment bankers being left out of because Apple talks directly to companies management instead of investment bankers this your typical Bloomberg story so I mean take that for what it's worth but I mean no no it's not it's not really new news I don't think this is just how Apple operates and yeah they have a decent I mean they have a more than decent team well and there are there are big takeovers right compact bot digital HP bot compac uh Microsoft bought Nokia yeah and and you know bought Motorola AOL bought Time Warner it's an awesome list isn't it well so so is yeah sounds like all those things went belong on that list list of fail looking at I don't know I mean look the strategy that they're looking at right now which is buy smaller companies on the cheap uh for and then you know use that technology or acquire the talent and make their own technology seems to be working just fine for them so what would say I don't think they need to diversify investment bankers more business from themselves is fine but this is a stupid uh stupid thing that they've put out and it was fine for us to cover it but but the investment bankers need to go soak their heads here the is Apple doing everything right no I would say not but is Apple doing enough right that they're purchasing the companies that they want to purchase and developing the technology in house they want to develop the technology in house for uh so far signs point to yes wouldn't you agree other than other than your iPhone 8 we'll see the app right yeah yeah that was it I don't know about that I mean I could be wrong the guy behind it is a he's a big fish so he is he brought over American Idol and uh what's the other was he known for he's known for um what did he bring over what's the name you're thinking of what reality show it was um it was like one of the first big reality shows I forgot what it was it was a game show I forgot what it's called anyway I'm going to look up the the name think of because you can't even think who you're thinking of here uh is name is um Ben Silverman okay I think um just Google Ben Silverman I'm sure it'll be like the first thing that pops out surprisingly not Ben afflac comes first um so uh Ben Silverman was uh was for a while at NBC Universal and uh producer of The Office Jane the Virgin Ugly Betty Marco Polo the tutor Biggest Loser um You probably thinking The Biggest Loser weren't you I think I was thinking about the office yeah I think he did the office and then he brought over um some reality stuff and now his team is like that's like what they do they pitch reality shows cool yeah but his idea is neat uh in that uh um uh he did like a a Project Runway kind of thing um that um you know you could buy the clothes the winning clothes like after the last episode aired but I mean you don't get that immediate gratification right but with planet of the apps when the last episode airs you can go and immediately download the app and consume it's kind of neat I mean I don't know if that's going to drive sales or not well you know it will somewhat it'll be that big initial bump it won't necessarily carry it out but it'll be a big bump yeah plus I mean it's going to get featured on the App Store so all right so let's wrap this episode up is there anything else you want to comment on before we do uh nope that's uh looking at the stories that's that's a big well this has been episode 108 of The appleid Cider podcast Mikey where can people find you on the App Store on the App Store people find you on the internet um uh on the Twitter R machine at Mikey Campell 81 app.com well I'm your host Victor and I want to thank you again for listening thanks again to Mara for sponsoring today's episode Mara is a hands-free virtual running assistant that uses Cutting Edge voice recognition to help coach you to better runs play music get updates on your location Pace or weather and compare your current speed with past runs without other stop and to have to look at your phone because no one wants to look at your phone and use your earbuds because Mara can hear your commands and put them into action so download your new running partner for free at m a r a. a today thank you and thanks again for listening\n"