New 27-inch iMac renders, AirTag anti-stalking features, and iMessage debacle

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to the Apple Insider podcast this is your host Steven roblas and today we're going to be talking about new renders of the upcoming high-end iMac what to do with those air tag following you notifications and we're going to dive again into the iMessage and RCS controversy just one more time this episode is brought to you by headspace and Zach do you'll hear about those in a moment and joining me for the first time in 2022 my friend across the pond William Gallagher how's it going William hello as we record this at this moment live as we record I am waiting to see if our prime minister will resign and by the time it goes out the answer will be no but that's where we are this week how's it over there no wait no wait a minute is he being pressured to resign or is he like considering resigning what is happening how long have you got I don't know this could be a bonus episode for the Apple Insider show I mean is this is it co things that he's resigning over or what's going on part basically there was a party well everybody else was staying at home and could see people you know their family members who were you know dying uh B gson was leading a party in West M for 100 of his colleagues or so and he's denying that it was a party he was denying that he knew it was on he's actually saying he'll wait to see the results of an investigation into whether he was there or not before he it's just it's he had another in ceaseless terrade of this but you catch me just at the moment when there is some extra heat on him than usual um and it will dissipate like it seems too our next general election you have elections every four years well as are much more Rocky uh I think as is still 3 years away something like that so um well here's my qu William are you going to run are you going to run for prime minister it is actually possible I would do a better job because um I know I recognize a party when I go to one so you know perception skills right you have some accurate uh okay well listen I I don't think I can vote for you being an American citizen but uh I don't know I'll I'll ride in your name no no will I'll write in your name for president over here how about that we'll see we'll see how that goes okay fair enough right all right well we have a bunch of stuff to cover we want to jump into it I do want to mention if you missed it the last episode in the feed I got to interview Renee Richie been a long time a fan of his he's been covering Apple for a while he has his own independent YouTube channel where he covers all the things Apple in depth and it was a really fun conversation I think we covered about 20 Topics in 38 minutes so I was just trying to get his opinion on everything that I could in a short amount of time so you should check out that interview and let me know who else you'd like to hear as a guest in an interview here on the Apple Insider podcast I like doing those you know additional interview shows so I thought it was H I thought it was pretty fun all right well let's jump into some topics for this week first of all I want to talk about the 27in iMac we actually have some new renders from our render artist to Apple tomorrow of what the 27in iMac might look like again it is suspected that we should see this updated iMac maybe it'll be called iMac Pro we'll talk about that in a minute maybe maybe March or April Mark Gman even said that there's a rumored Apple event happening March or April again that's what happened last year we had an April 20th event but that this iMac would make an appearance there I know I'm looking forward to this this might be my next desktop computer so I'm excited for that but William I don't know what do you think there's some rumors that maybe this will be more on the pro end maybe it'll have a mini LED promotion display like the new Macbook Pros and really be specked out and other rumors say it might be more on the consumer side maybe it'll be an M2 instead of the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips we have in the MacBook Pro and I don't know I'm on the fence so what do you think we're going to be seeing in this device you don't think it's possible we'll see both oh two IMX no wait two IMX both are liking dignity released the second time now you know that's interesting because the 27in iMac in the past has been kind of like the 15 and 16in MacBook Pro where you can get kind of that base model for the screen size and it' be a little underpowered or you can really Speck it out you know get the upgraded graphics card and all that here's my take I feel like we just got the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips announced a couple months ago and we're got to see those come to New devices I think before we see the M2 the M2 is rumored to go to that new redesigned MacBook Air which I think is probably a fall type device I think we're going to see this 27in iMac and possibly a Mac Mini to replace that Intel one that's still sticking around and we'll see it with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips maybe this 27in iMac will also have the Dual or quad M1 Max chips to make it even more powerful than the MacBook Pro so I I think we're going to be seeing a power user level 27in iMac I'm not sure about mini LED and promotion I mean that's a big display to put those features in so I don't know I'm not convinc of that but that's what I think you think we might see multiple models of this thing you're right about the processors Apple's got them they've surely got to put them in a desktop and what's left to of the desktop range to be updated by WWDC it's only the iMac 27in and the Mac Pro right I I have this feeling that as powerful as they are they're not powerful enough for the Mac Pro right so it seems right and I don't know that if you put an M1 Max in an iMac is it still a consumer device or is it just necessarily immediately uh a more Pro level one I mean I know these lines are blurred and they're just labels I'm a consumer who is sometimes very Pro uh but the there's also the price issue I think you're not going to get a consumers will not pay as much as a quotes Pro user so maybe price or force it down that way I don't know that's true I'm I'm honestly curious about the port situation that's going to be on this new iMac if it has a similar design to the 24in M1 iMac Mac you know that thing is really really shallow so shallow that the headphone jack has to be on the side instead of the back yes the ethernet Jack is on the power brick instead of the body and because the new Macbook Pro brought back the SD card slot brought back even an HDMI ports I'm inclined to believe that this larger iMac is going to have things like the SD card slot so even if it resembles the design of the 24-in I think they might make it a little thicker because it will be a pro device and I think they'll keep that SD card slot at least I'm really hoping they keep that in there if the ethernet port moves to the power brick I think that's a good move anyway but I don't know do do you think they're going to add those kind of ports back or they just going to stick to all those Thunderbolt ports this is personal thing I've just I haven't used an SD card in so many years I've forgotten they existed so I I understand now that there are people who depend on them but I really thought that was gone so I was surprised when we first heard they were coming back is that because I am a a consumer and I don't need this stuff if the iMac is for consumers will we not see it I mean do you find SD cards that useful oh William I use them every day almost I use an SD card in the audio recorder that I'm using right now as we record that one's a backup but then for the cameras you know I make some videos we do hkid Insider via video so I'm importing from an SD card every week for that show videos that I do you know just personally I use the SD card slot so I still use it pretty often now the thing is I do have a thunderbolt dock right here the OWC that has an SD card card slot and a mini SD card slot cuz I do some drone stuff every once in a while I'm building a new home and so I do some drone shots of that and I stick it in there as well so I I think especially for pro level I mean if Apple thought to put it back in the MacBook Pro I feel like they're going to put it in the in the Pro level iMac so we'll have to see I'm excited for this and I'm I'm not excited for the price I'm really I'm really hoping it will be you know reasonable at least configuration wise you know make it go all the way up to like 8 terab SD and 128 gigs of RAM for those who want it but you know I'm hoping to get a reasonable one we'll see well all we've worked out really for sure is that I'm a freak for never using SD cards no no no listen you're a pro cuz you have a you have an 87 in monitor I mean I don't I don't have that you know that's that's impressive yeah which of course I really like and of course I would swap with a new iMac in a heartbeat so you know I'm very conflicted would you swap it though if Apple released one of those consu prosumer level monitors maybe a 30in monitor that comes in around $2,000 that's not a pro display xdr but is a Apple quality monitor would you swap it for that I would strongly look at it the problem is I really really like the width of this I'm finding it right now what about five documents open across the screen and I find that very useful for certain jobs I do but the resolution is so much less than you get on uh current iMac top end screens it would be gorgeous to have one plus I have a a MacBook Pro Now with an utterly gorgeous screen and I'm very conscious when I turn from one to the other of what the difference is but the width oh never mind the quality feel the width it's it's no brid exper expression which I has just come back to mind yes okay they they should use that on the web page for this monitor feel the with quote William Gallagher I like it well I wanted to mention that we're getting weirdly specific leaks about Apple's upcoming VR headset this is analyst guing Chi he is saying that Apple's VR headset is going to use the same 96 watt power adapter that the MacBook Pros use that just seems like a very specific thing to leak about this headset but that's what he's claiming and Mark Gman is saying that Apple VR headset we might see it this year Renee Richie in our interview he said we could see it this year at the latest maybe early next year so a year from now so again I'm very curious about what Apple positions the VR headset for again Renee Richie had a great point where apple as a company unlike meta doesn't really see humans living in VR all the time you know Facebook now meta Mark Zuckerberg he kind of positions the metaverse as an all-encompassing you're going to live here for work and play and for everything else and I don't think that Apple would really describe VR in that way or really want people spending all day every day in VR which again then what would we be doing in there you have entertainment you have games Apple arcade you have media and you have Fitness Plus now is that enough William for you to want to do Fitness Plus workouts in VR I'm getting I still get notification that you do workouts here and there so do you want to do those in VR yeah but that's all uh fakery I've got a shortcut that just sends out the messages every now and again it's fine um you just hit a little button on your watch and it says William completed a three-hour workout yeah and you know that's a whole button I press That's finger exercises there at the moment there's nothing in AR and VR that I find compelling enough to spend any money on I talked with a producer of a like a drama for it and wearing his headset doing it I did I got deeply involved and I enjoyed that but that was what two years ago and I'm Haven gone back for part two so nothing holds me and brings me back and I think that's where apple is going to score I'm sure the technology be a great I'm sure the design will look brilliant I'm sure it'll be very expensive but they will have found at some point a reason for us to use it and that's where I think they will succeed yeah and again that that thing is what I'm most curious about you know I couldn't really get from R and I really I'm not sure what that X Factor is what will be that you know that integration with apple Services I mean yeah you could do FaceTime and you can do Apple TV but you know I see people tweeting like oh man watch this movie with other people in VR I'm like I guess I would rather use share play which I guess Apple could incorporate in a VR headset but I would rather you share play on my TV in my living room so I don't have to have a big headset on but yeah but I'm not even with you on that because I don't like share play I mean if have you tried it have you tried it yes and I'm just thinking um if you are more interested in the picture of your your cousin eating popcorn and picking their nose in the corner than you are in the film you're watching please watch a better film please there's so much out there I and that is curious you know I'm wondering what that experience is like I mean if you watch a movie in the metaverse with a friend do you turn to their Avatar and make a comment like you would in a live theater and is that somehow better than like texting them or I don't know FaceTiming them while you do it and share I don't know it's and do they turn back to you and slap you and tell you could you please shut up with trying to watch yes do other people in the virtual meta theater to turn around and throw popcorn at you this this seems like there's just going to be more issues than not William I I don't know I mean I'm I'm sounding antisocial but I was once in the cinema watching a French film uh dubbed into English and a German couple of teenagers ahead of us talked all the way through it and there was a bit of me that thought actually this is quite an experience right yeah not the one I wanted yeah exactly you know I'm almost curious did you ever have a Wii did you ever play the Wii William Yes actually I did I enjoyed that uh for a while yeah yeah I remember the we I enjoyed it too Wii tennis I I dominated Wii tennis not to brag but I was pretty good but I remember on the Wii that I don't know if it was every hour or every two hours they would like put something on the TV that says hey you've been playing a while do you want to take a break it was like it was a little pedantic but it's also kind of like apple stand reminders or breathe reminders or washing hand reminders you know there's lots of these kind of very detailed like hey don't forget to do this I wonder if in Apple's VR headset there'll be screens that pop up periodically like hey you haven't lived in the real world in a while do you want to take this headset off and maybe look at another human in the face I'm I'm just curious curious if that's a thing my mother feels guilty whenever screen time comes up and says you've only used your iPad an hour in the last week she thinks it's telling her that she should be using it more oh see that's the opposite problem because the one notification I get is it'll give me a percentage of how much more or how much less I used my devices the we than the week prior and sometimes you know if it's a busy work week it'll say you used your iPhone 45% more this week than you did oh my goodness I mean it feels like a lot but what am I supposed to do what am I supposed to do with that data I mean I kind of work with these devices so do you get those do you have those turned on uh I have them occasionally when I can't remember to switch them off and I ignore all of them because I use it because I need to uh and and I I did it that's done leave me alone get off my back right right I can't go back in time and and use it less so oh well new week start fresh anyway something did actually come out this past week there was a software update for iPhone and iPad 15.2.2 wasn't a big update when I actually first went into the software update settings to update it it was very mysterious there were no release notes visible it didn't say what this update did you know it was very very mysterious I thought universal control is this some VR secrecy but no it was nothing really like that it basically fixed an iCloud photo sharing bug fixed a homekit vulnerability and fix some carplay stuff so not anything super exciting but as with all updates I always recommend people do those quickly so did you did you see anything else different that I missed there no I thought for one second is this a new invisible ink font that they'd got when I looked at the cuz it it wasn't that there wasn't a detail it was just this big blank space like there could have been something there when I looked any so um I left to the most dramatic conclusion and you're just looking at me now I'll I'll I'll be quiet no no no I you know you swipe your finger around to uh make the text reveal like in those iMessage things yeah which oh man we're going we're going to talk about iMessage in a minute man I can't wait that's going to I'm going a little fired up about that yes I can tell we we we'll get to that in a second this episode is brought to you by our friends at headspace if you're like me sometimes it can feel like your mind just doesn't have an off switch whether it's a constant stly building to-do list and stress or tension that you can really feel affect your body maybe have difficult sleeping well that's Where Heads space can help you know we all say we're doing fine f i n e but fine isn't really an emotion is it and if someone says Fine come on we know they're actually not doing fine how many times have you told yourself you're fine when all you've really felt is anger sadness or nervousness well headspace is scientifically proven to help you manage your feelings and your mental health in fact a recent study proved in just two weeks heads space can reduce your stress by 14% 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want to know William have you been playing Wordle well no cuz I wanted to play a knockoff app and give uh ripoff Merchants money and now I've been denied that chance and I'm making a stance h no uh I haven't a friend did get very arated about it yesterday which said she finally realized it was American so there was a spelling of a particular word she would have got it it been in British I don't know I see well if our listeners don't know Wordle has been kind of phenomenon a lot of people tweeting it and it's basically an online word game that's completely free and you can go to it I'll put the link to the actual game in the show notes I've been playing it it's pretty fun you get one word a day that you need to try and guess and you get six tries to guess it the words are five letters each it tells you when you have a correct letter and if you have the correct letter in the correct Place it'll highlight a green so it's been a very fun game William I think I think you should try it I think you would enjoy it as as a Wordsmith yourself I must absolutely yeah I I think you should try it Josh wle is the creator which excellent naming his Wordle Wordle very good again it's it's a very fun game and there's only one word a day and so it's very antithetical to a lot of games today where you can't spend all day doing it you know you you either guess the word or you don't and then you're done new words don't appear until the next day I I have found it uh very enjoyable texting friends you know putting on Twitter how many guesses he used to get it but the controversy here which is the the subtitle or the subtext of today's episode controversy with an exclamation point the controversy was this free web app it it is not an actual app you can download the actual Wordle game is just a website you go to there were a bunch of copycats that entered the IOS app store and even the Google Play store apps that basically mimicked this exact feature totally ripping it off but then also charging for the game and the actual game worldle is totally free on the web and so there was kind of an outcry especially from Wordle fans saying like listen all these nefarious developers I would say trying to gain the system making people pay for this when the actual game which is better and free is on the web and so it was a few days of controversy but then Apple did remove a majority of these copycat apps which to their credit you know I'm not exactly sure where in the App Store rules it talks about I guess intellectual property and like if it's just a website thing but Apple removed many of those copycat apps and Google also seemingly removed many from the Google Play Store so welcome action there but you should you should definitely play it there is actually a thing where strictly speaking isn't illegal it doesn't uh copying you can't copy an idea at least not in the UK I presume you can't worldwide so there there's no law that anybody is breaking by copying this unfortunately but it is actually explicitly stated in the guidelines that you cannot uh make minor changes to another app's UI and pass it off as your your own which is exactly what all of these did including a guy I can't pronounce his name uh Zach is it SED um he he was actually he might have been the reason these things were purged because he was boasting about how well his knockoff was doing which you can say is um foolish but also yeah slightly even more irritating because he's on record as having been very anti- uh copy cat apps in the past so you know yeah that's just that's just dirty and that guy like you were saying Zack shaked was charging $30 per month yeah for his ripoff game that's just that's ridiculous anyway good good on Apple Google for removing those it's a shame that you know they have to do it but yeah and you know there's also I know there's some developers that kind of post scam apps every week to kind of show the broken down nature of App Store review and things that you know Apple misses most of the time I feel like this was kind of taken care of because there were so many people talking about it especially on Twitter but that's a Wordle you should play it William that's my final thought oh I will definitely now let's talk about air tag so in the past few weeks major news Publications have been talking about air tags and how people are using them to track people and stalk people nefariously and even using them and stealing cars the New York Times literally had an article with a headline are Apple Air tags being used to track people in steel cars and NBC News had an article saying a tracking device made by Apple is showing up in suspected crimes so I mean these are pretty strong headlines kind of condemning Apple's tracking device and a couple things here number one apple is not the first company to make a tracking device tile has existed for years and years prior to air tag coming out and could have been used for similar activities it wouldn't have been as effective because the network for tile was much smaller but you could even buy GPS devices and not even depend on a tracking Network like fine my you can get GPS devices like for pet collars and such and if someone really wanted to be nefarious they could have put a GPS tracker in someone's car or someone's bag and that person would have no recourse of knowing whether or not that device was following them around I think Apple has built actually a very robust anti-stalking feature set into air tag and you actually had an article talking about what to do if you see notifications like an item detected near you if you get that notification on your iPhone what you should do what actions should you take and again to Apple's credit there are actually multiple actions you can take when you see that notification you want to walk us through a couple of those when you said when you see that notification if you don't see the notification for any reason after a bit you'll hear the air tag itself will start making noises and for such a tiny device it's amazing how piercing that noise is so they they do cover you in both ways not expecting you to be looking your phone all the time in case you're being tracked so the there like redundancy everywhere and then yes when you found one um straight away on your screen it gives you options uh to do with things like just checking the details of it uh you can check if it's if you know if you borrowed a bag which is actually the most common thing it's it's not fortunately the most common thing is not people tracking you you've borrowed somebody's bag they've left their air tag in it you know it they know it you can actually disable it for the day you're fine with it and you won't be bothered by it anymore but if it is worse than that there is a way to just hold your phone next to the air tag get the serial number and then Apple advises you to call the police and apple says it will work with the police to say whose air tag that is Noone no no question no cour just he police ask Apple tells them wow somebody is caught for it so I I think we hold Apple to a higher standard but we probably should because it's so big tile has got away for years without I I don't know what anything that t does Apple comes under much more scrutiny but I think Apple has yes to up what surprises me is that this has come up now when the very first thing I thought of when I even heard about air tags is would this be used for it so the first thing I looked into was how would they do how would they handle it and I think right from the start they've increased things but theyve handled it very very well such as for example the other thing about the sound I just said if an air tag is away from its registered owner for a certain amount of time it will start making this noise we don't know what that certain amount of time is because Apple will not say and apple can change it at any time so this it's not possible for somebody to calculate I can tag somebody uh for this many hours and then swap to a different air tag it's really thought through to that level of dep so I have air Tags I'm very happy with them I'm glad people are thinking about it I don't know why they're thinking about it now and I hope it doesn't put anybody off buying air tags yeah and I I will from from personal experience I actually get a lot of notifications sometimes it feels like too much but again with these kinds of concerns I would prefer too many than not enough but if I'm ever driving my wife's car for any reason she has the larger car and if I'm driving the kids around I'll grab her keys her keys has her air tag on them and really early in the trip I will start getting notifications that says Whitney's air tag has been following you because I'm using her keys with her air tag and I'll start getting those notifications again another example one of our kids was visiting a friend they had my child had their backpack with them which has an air tag on it and this friend texed to my wife and I saying hey I just got this notification that there's an air tag following me do you have any idea what that is and it was because my child's air tag which is not a part of their iCloud family was there with them and she got notified relatively quickly I would say in an hour or two and she was able to investigate you know she didn't know about the options that you actually have for having the air tag make a sound or trying to find information of the physical air tag but she still knew to do something and at least text us to figure out what was going on and it took me a second I was like well wait a minute if an air Tag's following her that's a problem and then I was reminded oh right it's my child's backpack it's that that's been at her house and so I I think that Apple's features for this are are very robust while someone can use these for nefarious purposes they can use lots of things for nefarious purposes even up to this day if they threw an iPhone in or hidden iPhone in a bag they could have tracked their own iPhone using fine my and have been even more precise of location there and you wouldn't have had these kinds of features so I think these are just kind of sensationalist headlines that we're seeing from even these major news outlets though speaking of headlines I've got to say this uh have you heard of B's law of Journalism I've heard the name but remind me what it is it is a worldwide term but there are different names it's when you said that the New York Times headline are Apple Air tags being used to track people and steel cars the better law is if a headline is a question the answer is no um as someone in the AR is Elvis still alive in Chicago no and things like that but in this one case the answer is actually this time yes so oh is Apple doomed no exactly wait now how do you spell bage cuz I'm I'm G look this up now uh BTT r i d g e there are actually a couple of versions of this and there's some dispute who said it first but uh whoever Bach was he was uh he's credited with it usually oh I love this and I will be thinking of it every time I read a headline you do oh my goodness is Apple's VR headset doomed to fail exactly no I love this okay that was that was worth just do that well I also link to Williams article because there are instructions on what to do and how you can find maybe an air tag that's been following you so look there if you are interested in those features I wanted to mention this new app that I just saw yesterday it's called The Locket app or the locket widget I'll put a link in show notes it is free to download and then there's a paid uh addition to unlock some features but I think this is a genius idea this app lets you connect with up to five family members or friends through this app and you can place a widget on your home screen that your friends can actually send a picture through this app and it will automatically appear in the widget on your home screen and then you can do the same send a picture and it will immediately show up on the home screen of your family member or friend now obviously you must trust the people that you are going to allow to have photos just appear on your home screen at any point in the day but for partners spouses really close friends I think this is a really cool idea maybe put it on a second home screen not just like that first one in case you unlock your phone and someone played a joke on you but I think this is a genius idea it's actually number one in the social networking app download category right now and the developer is Matthew Moss I think this was just a brilliant idea very cool any chance you can add me to yours cuz I'm I'm now which I'm sure you are yeah this phone is stolen is what M will say it will just appear danger this person has bad breath no I I I would trust my wife and probably that's it you know I have some close friends but I you know I feel like even the closest friends would get a get an idea every once in a while to do something notorious you know I I think it's really cool though and it's one of those things that it can change your home screen without you even knowing you know I actually had a YouTube video on Apple Insider a while ago where you can create shortcuts that change your wallpaper every morning automatically pulling a high resolution image from unsplash in a category that you choose and it's those kind of features are kind of nice because you can unlock your phone and be greeted with something different that you didn't even know what it was going to be and it's like a little surprise and so I'll put a link to that video in the show notes as well but I think things like that especially for a system like iPhone which is typically pretty locked down pretty sandboxed nice to know that these kind of features are still possible so I just thought it was a cool idea and no no I won't send you a friend request William it's okay thanks fine getting your workout uh completion notifications is enough enough to make me think oh William actually he did something today and I should probably do something so he gets notification you sound so surprised oh thank you very much okay oh William bother to do something today okay you know you know what I mean you know no no it's too late now sorry very sorry so I did want to mention we had talked about I think it was a couple months ago the different laws that are being passed in countries to force Apple to add alternate payment methods in the App Store and within apps and it looks like one of the first to do this is South Korea the South Korea Herald reported that Apple plans to provide alternate payment methods in the App Store that will be different than the normal 3070 split or 1585 split for smaller developers but I thought this was interesting John Gruber had an article talking about these changes and what will probably happen is what Google did Google created apis that allow developers to hook in and allow alternate payment methods but those apis still tracked transactions in the Play Store and instead of the 15 or 30% the transaction fee was 11% and that still went to Google basically allowing third-party payment methods but Apple still retains some cut of each transaction now we don't know if that's how Apple will actually put this into practice in the App Store but I thought that was interesting that it's not just alternate payment methods and apple gets nothing there actually is systems that you can build with apis where Apple will still get a cut so remains to be seen we'll have to to see how Apple institutes this in South Korea that looks like it'll happen first there is no possible way that Apple won't know a transaction has taken place through its platform and so there's no way they won't charge for it uh so really I think what's happened is they end up sending a bill to the developer who now has to pay for their own backend processing uh that Apple used to do for them and uh either they pay Apple or they get taken off the app store for it so really I think developers I think for the big Developers can afford it and already have uh backend services for other channels this is a good thing but for everybody else they're just going to carry on using apple as it's the cheapest this episode is brought to you by Zach do has this ever happened to you where you need to make a doctor's appointment so you call you wait on hold you try to find an opening but when you get there you find out that doctor doesn't take your health insurance it's such a frustration you got to make another appointment or pay out the nose well there's a better option for finding a doctor that you can be sure to takes your insurance and that's Zach do you can download the free Zach do app it's totally free and it's the easiest way to find a great doctor and instantly book appointments with zacho you can search for local doctors who take your insurance you put your insurance company and even 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William I want to talk about iMessage and RCS and this whole debacle it's been going on over the past week because there was an article in the New York Times I touched on this with Renee Richie they were saying how Youth and teenagers are experiencing peer pressure and ridicule when their texts are green bubbles and then Google senior vice president Hiroshi lockheimer tweeted kind of piling on to this idea that Apple just needs to change its policy and it will fix everything you know that's kind of the underlying assumption that if Apple just adopts RCS then it will fix everything Max Weinbach then had a Tik Tok that went viral over a million views again saying the same thing that all Apple has to do is adopt RCS support it natively and we don't have to worry about this issue anymore and so a couple things that I really want to bring out Renee Richie touched on these as well but I I just want to be crystal clear number one this is an issue that really only affects the United States yeah when you go internationally and globally IM message has a very very tiny percentage of the market on messaging if you look at China WeChat is far and above the predominant messaging platform like way majority they use WeChat for everything if you look at Brazil and other countries WhatsApp is the predominant messaging platform line is another option and so as soon as you leave the US this no longer becomes a problem and a lot of times we forget you know we're a lot of times us focused here that apple is a global international company and if this problem is not really outside the United States it's going to lower the priority about RCS but that's not even the main issue so we need to keep that in mind this is a uson issue really secondly what are the options that Apple has to not make iMessage locked in there's been thoughts of maybe Apple could release an iMessage app for Android number one there have been Communications that Apple sees this as a lockin strategy there were emails that came out during the epic games court case from Craig Figi Phil Schiller talking about iMessage so Apple does see this as a main feature of the platform which I don't think somehow means they need to change it like the whole point of having great features on your platform is making it so people want to use it but that's beside the point making an iMessage app for Android I do not believe would be a good solution because it means that Android users would have to download a second message app or third fourth fifth messaging app that they're probably using already just to use iMessage and it would not integrate with the standard text message app on the phone Apple I guess could make it support SMS it's not guaranteed and we know people really don't like especially just normal users not techie users don't like using a bunch of different messaging apps and I think the power of iMessage was that it was built into the main texting app that came on the phone which again if you try to make a default text messaging app on Android not only do you have to deal with carriers but you also have to deal with phone manufacturers like Samsung Huawei one plusus and all that so I don't think that is a viable option the other option and this is what everybody's calling for including Google's SVP Hiroshi lockheimer is that Apple should adopt RCS as a standard right now in the messaging app and and I I don't know if I was super clear in the interview with Renee Richie but if Apple were to say we are pushing an update iOS 15.3 is going to have RCS Rich communication Services they call it Advanced messaging for the carriers here in the US if Apple were to say the messages app is going to support it tomorrow in the software update we're pushing it would still not work across carriers here in the US it would not solve the issue if you had a Verizon iPhone and you Tred to send those RCS messages to an AT&T Android User it wouldn't work because the carriers namely Verizon and AT&T the two biggest here in the US do not support cross carrier RCS messaging or Advanced messaging features as they call it I went to Verizon's website went to AT&T's website and they both explicitly say it only works within the network and so my biggest argument in this whole conversation is that apple is not the biggest obstacle nor is it the only obstacle for Rich Text Communications Rich communication Services RCS working across Apple and Android devices nor carrier devices the carriers have a huge part to play in the whole interoperability and so number one it's really a uson problem it's not International and two even if Apple did what people are calling for adopting RCS tomorrow it still would not solve the interoperability challenge all right I got that off my chest William Tell me what are your thoughts on this I think you need to sit down for a bit and you know what I'm going to I'll resit down hold on let me resit I actually wrote one of Apple Insider's stories about this and the whole the green versus the blue blobs I had to pick up my phone to check which was green and which was blue because it's that unimportant to me here in the UK just like you said uh WhatsApp actually is the big one I think WhatsApp is incredibly ugly and utterly horrible to use so I prefer messages uh but if somebody texts me and there I've got it wrong again whichever color isn't an iMessage what do I care for it thank you if they are now wait are we blue and there anyway whichever way around it is I'll hold it in my head for a few seconds it is of no consequence whatsoever this thing I'm told RCS isn't even finished working and finalized everywhere even where it does work corre and I know Google has tried to do its own lock in message apps for businesses and things like that before I just think it is so much easier to ah blame Apple that that's what Google and the rest are doing and I find that a bit tiresome really if Apple did not allow other messaging apps in the App Store yeah sure I understand the lock and argument but that's not the case you can download signal and Telegram and WhatsApp and line and WeChat you can download all of those on the iPhone right now and so there is no lock into to One messaging platform on the iPhone you can use any of those that you want which is why this is not a international issue it is just us because most us users just use the default text app that's on their phone I'm okay with it actually being us only because us is is a huge market and it's Apple's Home Market so I wouldn't dismiss that I don't have the concern I can understand some why other people do but I I lose uh sympathy when po Solutions are at some point Google apparently offered to help Apple implement this like Apple's engine couldn't do it if they wanted to and I'm thinking yeah right enough now okay well and the reason why I keep saying it's us only is because the second big roadblock are the US cell phone carriers true Verizon and AT&T are the ones blocking interoperability T-Mobile does say that they support cross Network interoperability with RCS but to what network is then my question because the other two don't support it and so there really is no in in Cross Network interoperability because none of the other guys are playing a ball and to your point Google I think is hilarious for Google to be the one carrying the torch about this adopt a good messaging platform there is an incredible website I will put in the show notes it's called killed by Google killed by google.com and it is a a beautiful resource I highly recommend you visit it because it lists let me get the exact number here CU I don't want to uh underestimate it has 245 apps and services that Google has killed in their history and among them are messaging platforms that they have both built and killed in just a few years of each other W one I would argue Google Hangouts which existed from 2011 to 2019 pretty recently was actually a great application I used Google Hangouts when I would travel internationally because it had good text messaging features plus you could audio call and video chat all in Google Hangouts and lots of people had a Google account I thought Hangouts was great the other crossplatform messaging application they tried to create is alo alo and that only existed from 2016 to 2019 3 years I used aloe as well I had Android friends that I actually worked with on a team and we started using aloe and it was okay like you could use it in the web so you could use it on a desktop or laptop it worked in the aloe app on my iPhone W but my point is every time Google actually had a viable opt to create this crossplatform Rich communication Services they just killed it they just didn't care enough to actually try to push it to become the thing that Google used in its platforms and so I just think it's hilarious that they're the ones crying about this I'm looking at that list and Google Daydream yeah Okay Google Reader okay now Google Reader that was upsetting Google read I'm I'm going to close that list now okay I'm not looking anymore they killed some good stuff you know not going to lie message center was another one 2013 to 2019 I think it's hilarious that he basically has like a little Tombstone next to each service and then it tells you the years that they existed and listen some of these were good like some of these were actually good Services I remember Google Trips which was to compete with things like trip case and trip it you know it was a good actually probably used it a couple times so anyway I just think it's hilarious what was the one where was it Google wave where everybody you could actually see them typing as they typed and I found found out then that there's a writer I worked with who is stunningly slow at I mean stunningly slow at a teab bre between every letter slow kind of thing it was so frustrating that's hilarious so all that to say I do think once RCS actually is good and once carriers actually support it I think it would be a good thing for Apple to use RCS as the fall back instead of SMS and MMS I mean they'll still probably have to support SMS messaging forever maybe I don't know but I think it would be good for Apple to support that standard but that's the key if it is actually a standard you can't call RCS a messaging standard today because you cannot use it across carriers and across platforms right now again not just because of Apple but because of the carriers and so it is not a standard as it exists today and so that that is my my final word on it I think I got it all off my chest now and so I'll leave it alone until it just keeps coming up in the news like it has been so that is all that was my magnum opus William just the the IM message in RCS controversy yeah I sorry I agree with you and I understand I just I laughed at the thought of you saying that's all you going to say yeah no no this is coming back for this week okay yeah for this week I also I thought it was interesting on the heels of this RCS and messaging and all that there was the story that T-Mobile was blocking iCloud relay features from iPhones on their Network again the most open network that supported cross Network RCS and they were saying something about the update in iOS 15.2 and they went back and forth them and apple apparently there were just some T-Mobile services that required to see network traffic like I think they had like a network traffic tracking uh application on their Network so you can see how much data you're using on your T-Mobile account well yeah they have to see the data in order to know and how to measure it and so they you couldn't use it with iCloud relay enabled and so I think it was pretty like a a benign conflict there between iCloud relay and the tracking service from the carrier but I just thought it was interesting that it was actually again a carrier might be blocking one of Apple Services because they want to be able to track and see the data yeah so there you go and there's a carrier what's the first thing they say it's Apple it's not us it's apple and then you just you know you can sense the phone call from the legal department okay it wasn't Apple it wasn't Apple we didn't mean it right exactly yes and that's exactly what T-Mobile did kind of backtracking on it so I mean this is hardly related but you know about Peru interbank they announced the support for Apple pay and I was I was actually reading their enhancement when they took the enhancement away again and they cancelled their YouTube videos and stuff and you just think oh there's a lot going on behind here I should check whether it's back or not but it was funny just as I read it the words vanished to us that that is funny you know that's the thing too I forget who I was talking to but like the way journalism is today any article online you can update and then you just put any italics on the bottom updated January 13th you know here's the change and it's one of those things where there's I think there's less pressure to be super accurate and I think that's why you see some of these sensationalist headlines too like even talking about the air tag and stalking and all that I think it's just playing into this you know hype culture EXC pressure to be accurate right no not on Apple inser I'm talking okay listen I can speak from experience there is great expectation for accuracy on appleinsider.com and that is what we aim to do okay yeah and it's important yeah it's different when news changes and you update it sure but to you know to make claims or just write unfounded things unconfirmed things you know so anyway that that is my point no appleinsider.com you can trust and we need a tagline there appleinsider.com the the news you can trust I'll let you Workshop that William you out the taglines today okay that one and the fail to quit one okay I've got those that on my list exactly exactly exactly or I also wanted to mention I thought this was interesting the MacBook Pro is now 16 years old as of this month which means it moved from The PowerBook and iBook naming convention to MacBook and MacBook Pro crazy that it was 16 years ago my first Mac was actually The PowerBook G4 and so I remember this transition to MacBook I believe it coincided with the Intel yes transition is that right that's right and actually uh first Intel iMac came out in the same breadth from Steve job's presentation but I remember watching it until this day I I still feel the how sad it was that The PowerBook name was gone cuz PowerBook was such a good name and MacBook at the time felt a bit rubbish and of course you know now I've lusted after a Macbook bar for long enough I changed my mind but it was sad to see it go do you think we may ever see a name change from MacBook Pro and MacBook actually probably not because right at the start of the Mac itself there were all this talk Steve Jobs was pressing uh Mac in a book in five years I think I'm not sure about the number of years but Mac in a book was definitely pressing as an ambition and you know then he he went away and then he came back and eventually we got MacBook and I feel like it's that this is what they wanted from the start they've got it and these days I think it's much harder to change a name than it was even 16 years ago you got an established brand I think it's very unlikely that they would just change it for something better but that's cuz I can't think of anything better I suppose yeah and I think you know iPhone I think it's safe to say that will always be the name of the iPhone like I don't see that ever changing I think iPad similarly even airpods I think that will last for a long long time but you know MacBook it has the name Mac in it which I think is probably desirable from a branding standpoint because you know people know Max yeah I don't think it's going anywhere for a while I was kind of thrown back when I was talking to Renee Richie he mentioned a performa Apple computer yes yeah were you familiar with those well I think I think they were more American than here but I my the first Mac I bought with my own money was well the original Macos LC and I know people said there was a performer that was really the same machine with a different name and a different price that was sold in the state so I got the impression it was a cheaper version of what I just spent all my money on um I don't know how accurate that is were you a big performer user listen I'll be honest I hope no one revokes my my Apple card not not my literal credit card but you know Apple pundit card but I don't I had maybe heard the name performa once before before Renee said it so you know I knew the Lisa Apple 2 all that kind of stuff performa was kind of new for me to to hear that so uh what about they're from around the same period there was the Quadra and the centrus and things like that I actually used some of those and they were yeah they were right really nothing nothing great High Praise High Praise the Quadra you know I don't that might be the first time I'm hearing that that name too oh God you're so young I feel so old well listen well when I go on Tik Tok I feel super old cuz you have these people saying if you were born in the 1900s have you heard people say this referring to people born no no more the 1900s I'm like you can't say that you can't refer to another Century that was just 20 years ago but they're just saying if you were born in the 1900s it's like the ultimate your old jab I don't know I I've tried Tik Tok twice and both times I went on it chose to show me first of all a really quite uncomfortable video of a school girl somewhere twerking or something and I actually at both times I kind of held the phone go oh think like this is this what I'm here for and I only wanted this Strictly Come Dancing you know Dancing with the Stars content um so I kind of left that there for a little bit but Tik Tok Tik Tok is a hot bid for sure you can actually like tap and hold on a video and you can say not interested in this kind of content oh thanks great I'll do that yes you you can do that and if you actually like find a video that you like maybe from a Creator you know you can swipe to their profile and watch some other videos from them the algorithm is pretty quick to track what you actually want to watch especially if you watch a video several times and so my Tik Tok is like Marvel movie stuff and some technology here and there and then you know just other random stuff that I'll swipe by so if you if you spend like a day or two just periodically saying like not interested in this show me more of this it it'll track you pretty good and that's that's why people like that algorithm cuz it's pretty good yeah I'll give it a go thank you well the last thing I just want to mention is I wanted to be like one of the cool kids kids you know I was born in the 1900s so I hadn't done this yet but I've actually set up a signal account you know signal is a secure private messaging you can do it anonymously so if there's anyone from Apple maybe Google out there listening to the show and you're just dying to kind of share some inside information to the host of Apple Insider we would love to hear it and so I have a signal account the number is I'll put it in the show notes and it's in my Twitter bio as well but you know you got all the cool kids doing this from all the other Outlet let so I I just wanted to be like one of them I've never heard of this I must have been born in the 1800s or something so you can let people anonymously send you messages and pretend they're from Apple okay well I think that's the challenge that's the challenge you know I think you got to say you know photos or it didn't happen kind of thing you know show show me a blurry photo of Craig Figi far in the background of the cafeteria I don't know I don't know how they do it so you know so you have to corroborate it some way or another but anyway I'm going to open myself up to it at least for a time we'll see we'll see if anything of value comes of it that'll be there well anyway there'll be links to everything we talked about and my signal number in the show notes again we'd love to hear from you you can tweet at William and myself our Twitter handles are in the show notes don't forget to rate the show if you listen to the show in another app besides Apple podcast you can still go to the Apple podcast app rate US five star give us a review that helps out the show and if you want to support us directly $5 a month gets you an uninterrupted adree version of the show Early Access and our Discord Channel I plan to release some supporter only content we did something on the metaverse recently and so if you'd like to hear some more of that support the show and as always thanks for joining us and we'll catch you next timewelcome to the Apple Insider podcast this is your host Steven roblas and today we're going to be talking about new renders of the upcoming high-end iMac what to do with those air tag following you notifications and we're going to dive again into the iMessage and RCS controversy just one more time this episode is brought to you by headspace and Zach do you'll hear about those in a moment and joining me for the first time in 2022 my friend across the pond William Gallagher how's it going William hello as we record this at this moment live as we record I am waiting to see if our prime minister will resign and by the time it goes out the answer will be no but that's where we are this week how's it over there no wait no wait a minute is he being pressured to resign or is he like considering resigning what is happening how long have you got I don't know this could be a bonus episode for the Apple Insider show I mean is this is it co things that he's resigning over or what's going on part basically there was a party well everybody else was staying at home and could see people you know their family members who were you know dying uh B gson was leading a party in West M for 100 of his colleagues or so and he's denying that it was a party he was denying that he knew it was on he's actually saying he'll wait to see the results of an investigation into whether he was there or not before he it's just it's he had another in ceaseless terrade of this but you catch me just at the moment when there is some extra heat on him than usual um and it will dissipate like it seems too our next general election you have elections every four years well as are much more Rocky uh I think as is still 3 years away something like that so um well here's my qu William are you going to run are you going to run for prime minister it is actually possible I would do a better job because um I know I recognize a party when I go to one so you know perception skills right you have some accurate uh okay well listen I I don't think I can vote for you being an American citizen but uh I don't know I'll I'll ride in your name no no will I'll write in your name for president over here how about that we'll see we'll see how that goes okay fair enough right all right well we have a bunch of stuff to cover we want to jump into it I do want to mention if you missed it the last episode in the feed I got to interview Renee Richie been a long time a fan of his he's been covering Apple for a while he has his own independent YouTube channel where he covers all the things Apple in depth and it was a really fun conversation I think we covered about 20 Topics in 38 minutes so I was just trying to get his opinion on everything that I could in a short amount of time so you should check out that interview and let me know who else you'd like to hear as a guest in an interview here on the Apple Insider podcast I like doing those you know additional interview shows so I thought it was H I thought it was pretty fun all right well let's jump into some topics for this week first of all I want to talk about the 27in iMac we actually have some new renders from our render artist to Apple tomorrow of what the 27in iMac might look like again it is suspected that we should see this updated iMac maybe it'll be called iMac Pro we'll talk about that in a minute maybe maybe March or April Mark Gman even said that there's a rumored Apple event happening March or April again that's what happened last year we had an April 20th event but that this iMac would make an appearance there I know I'm looking forward to this this might be my next desktop computer so I'm excited for that but William I don't know what do you think there's some rumors that maybe this will be more on the pro end maybe it'll have a mini LED promotion display like the new Macbook Pros and really be specked out and other rumors say it might be more on the consumer side maybe it'll be an M2 instead of the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips we have in the MacBook Pro and I don't know I'm on the fence so what do you think we're going to be seeing in this device you don't think it's possible we'll see both oh two IMX no wait two IMX both are liking dignity released the second time now you know that's interesting because the 27in iMac in the past has been kind of like the 15 and 16in MacBook Pro where you can get kind of that base model for the screen size and it' be a little underpowered or you can really Speck it out you know get the upgraded graphics card and all that here's my take I feel like we just got the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips announced a couple months ago and we're got to see those come to New devices I think before we see the M2 the M2 is rumored to go to that new redesigned MacBook Air which I think is probably a fall type device I think we're going to see this 27in iMac and possibly a Mac Mini to replace that Intel one that's still sticking around and we'll see it with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips maybe this 27in iMac will also have the Dual or quad M1 Max chips to make it even more powerful than the MacBook Pro so I I think we're going to be seeing a power user level 27in iMac I'm not sure about mini LED and promotion I mean that's a big display to put those features in so I don't know I'm not convinc of that but that's what I think you think we might see multiple models of this thing you're right about the processors Apple's got them they've surely got to put them in a desktop and what's left to of the desktop range to be updated by WWDC it's only the iMac 27in and the Mac Pro right I I have this feeling that as powerful as they are they're not powerful enough for the Mac Pro right so it seems right and I don't know that if you put an M1 Max in an iMac is it still a consumer device or is it just necessarily immediately uh a more Pro level one I mean I know these lines are blurred and they're just labels I'm a consumer who is sometimes very Pro uh but the there's also the price issue I think you're not going to get a consumers will not pay as much as a quotes Pro user so maybe price or force it down that way I don't know that's true I'm I'm honestly curious about the port situation that's going to be on this new iMac if it has a similar design to the 24in M1 iMac Mac you know that thing is really really shallow so shallow that the headphone jack has to be on the side instead of the back yes the ethernet Jack is on the power brick instead of the body and because the new Macbook Pro brought back the SD card slot brought back even an HDMI ports I'm inclined to believe that this larger iMac is going to have things like the SD card slot so even if it resembles the design of the 24-in I think they might make it a little thicker because it will be a pro device and I think they'll keep that SD card slot at least I'm really hoping they keep that in there if the ethernet port moves to the power brick I think that's a good move anyway but I don't know do do you think they're going to add those kind of ports back or they just going to stick to all those Thunderbolt ports this is personal thing I've just I haven't used an SD card in so many years I've forgotten they existed so I I understand now that there are people who depend on them but I really thought that was gone so I was surprised when we first heard they were coming back is that because I am a a consumer and I don't need this stuff if the iMac is for consumers will we not see it I mean do you find SD cards that useful oh William I use them every day almost I use an SD card in the audio recorder that I'm using right now as we record that one's a backup but then for the cameras you know I make some videos we do hkid Insider via video so I'm importing from an SD card every week for that show videos that I do you know just personally I use the SD card slot so I still use it pretty often now the thing is I do have a thunderbolt dock right here the OWC that has an SD card card slot and a mini SD card slot cuz I do some drone stuff every once in a while I'm building a new home and so I do some drone shots of that and I stick it in there as well so I I think especially for pro level I mean if Apple thought to put it back in the MacBook Pro I feel like they're going to put it in the in the Pro level iMac so we'll have to see I'm excited for this and I'm I'm not excited for the price I'm really I'm really hoping it will be you know reasonable at least configuration wise you know make it go all the way up to like 8 terab SD and 128 gigs of RAM for those who want it but you know I'm hoping to get a reasonable one we'll see well all we've worked out really for sure is that I'm a freak for never using SD cards no no no listen you're a pro cuz you have a you have an 87 in monitor I mean I don't I don't have that you know that's that's impressive yeah which of course I really like and of course I would swap with a new iMac in a heartbeat so you know I'm very conflicted would you swap it though if Apple released one of those consu prosumer level monitors maybe a 30in monitor that comes in around $2,000 that's not a pro display xdr but is a Apple quality monitor would you swap it for that I would strongly look at it the problem is I really really like the width of this I'm finding it right now what about five documents open across the screen and I find that very useful for certain jobs I do but the resolution is so much less than you get on uh current iMac top end screens it would be gorgeous to have one plus I have a a MacBook Pro Now with an utterly gorgeous screen and I'm very conscious when I turn from one to the other of what the difference is but the width oh never mind the quality feel the width it's it's no brid exper expression which I has just come back to mind yes okay they they should use that on the web page for this monitor feel the with quote William Gallagher I like it well I wanted to mention that we're getting weirdly specific leaks about Apple's upcoming VR headset this is analyst guing Chi he is saying that Apple's VR headset is going to use the same 96 watt power adapter that the MacBook Pros use that just seems like a very specific thing to leak about this headset but that's what he's claiming and Mark Gman is saying that Apple VR headset we might see it this year Renee Richie in our interview he said we could see it this year at the latest maybe early next year so a year from now so again I'm very curious about what Apple positions the VR headset for again Renee Richie had a great point where apple as a company unlike meta doesn't really see humans living in VR all the time you know Facebook now meta Mark Zuckerberg he kind of positions the metaverse as an all-encompassing you're going to live here for work and play and for everything else and I don't think that Apple would really describe VR in that way or really want people spending all day every day in VR which again then what would we be doing in there you have entertainment you have games Apple arcade you have media and you have Fitness Plus now is that enough William for you to want to do Fitness Plus workouts in VR I'm getting I still get notification that you do workouts here and there so do you want to do those in VR yeah but that's all uh fakery I've got a shortcut that just sends out the messages every now and again it's fine um you just hit a little button on your watch and it says William completed a three-hour workout yeah and you know that's a whole button I press That's finger exercises there at the moment there's nothing in AR and VR that I find compelling enough to spend any money on I talked with a producer of a like a drama for it and wearing his headset doing it I did I got deeply involved and I enjoyed that but that was what two years ago and I'm Haven gone back for part two so nothing holds me and brings me back and I think that's where apple is going to score I'm sure the technology be a great I'm sure the design will look brilliant I'm sure it'll be very expensive but they will have found at some point a reason for us to use it and that's where I think they will succeed yeah and again that that thing is what I'm most curious about you know I couldn't really get from R and I really I'm not sure what that X Factor is what will be that you know that integration with apple Services I mean yeah you could do FaceTime and you can do Apple TV but you know I see people tweeting like oh man watch this movie with other people in VR I'm like I guess I would rather use share play which I guess Apple could incorporate in a VR headset but I would rather you share play on my TV in my living room so I don't have to have a big headset on but yeah but I'm not even with you on that because I don't like share play I mean if have you tried it have you tried it yes and I'm just thinking um if you are more interested in the picture of your your cousin eating popcorn and picking their nose in the corner than you are in the film you're watching please watch a better film please there's so much out there I and that is curious you know I'm wondering what that experience is like I mean if you watch a movie in the metaverse with a friend do you turn to their Avatar and make a comment like you would in a live theater and is that somehow better than like texting them or I don't know FaceTiming them while you do it and share I don't know it's and do they turn back to you and slap you and tell you could you please shut up with trying to watch yes do other people in the virtual meta theater to turn around and throw popcorn at you this this seems like there's just going to be more issues than not William I I don't know I mean I'm I'm sounding antisocial but I was once in the cinema watching a French film uh dubbed into English and a German couple of teenagers ahead of us talked all the way through it and there was a bit of me that thought actually this is quite an experience right yeah not the one I wanted yeah exactly you know I'm almost curious did you ever have a Wii did you ever play the Wii William Yes actually I did I enjoyed that uh for a while yeah yeah I remember the we I enjoyed it too Wii tennis I I dominated Wii tennis not to brag but I was pretty good but I remember on the Wii that I don't know if it was every hour or every two hours they would like put something on the TV that says hey you've been playing a while do you want to take a break it was like it was a little pedantic but it's also kind of like apple stand reminders or breathe reminders or washing hand reminders you know there's lots of these kind of very detailed like hey don't forget to do this I wonder if in Apple's VR headset there'll be screens that pop up periodically like hey you haven't lived in the real world in a while do you want to take this headset off and maybe look at another human in the face I'm I'm just curious curious if that's a thing my mother feels guilty whenever screen time comes up and says you've only used your iPad an hour in the last week she thinks it's telling her that she should be using it more oh see that's the opposite problem because the one notification I get is it'll give me a percentage of how much more or how much less I used my devices the we than the week prior and sometimes you know if it's a busy work week it'll say you used your iPhone 45% more this week than you did oh my goodness I mean it feels like a lot but what am I supposed to do what am I supposed to do with that data I mean I kind of work with these devices so do you get those do you have those turned on uh I have them occasionally when I can't remember to switch them off and I ignore all of them because I use it because I need to uh and and I I did it that's done leave me alone get off my back right right I can't go back in time and and use it less so oh well new week start fresh anyway something did actually come out this past week there was a software update for iPhone and iPad 15.2.2 wasn't a big update when I actually first went into the software update settings to update it it was very mysterious there were no release notes visible it didn't say what this update did you know it was very very mysterious I thought universal control is this some VR secrecy but no it was nothing really like that it basically fixed an iCloud photo sharing bug fixed a homekit vulnerability and fix some carplay stuff so not anything super exciting but as with all updates I always recommend people do those quickly so did you did you see anything else different that I missed there no I thought for one second is this a new invisible ink font that they'd got when I looked at the cuz it it wasn't that there wasn't a detail it was just this big blank space like there could have been something there when I looked any so um I left to the most dramatic conclusion and you're just looking at me now I'll I'll I'll be quiet no no no I you know you swipe your finger around to uh make the text reveal like in those iMessage things yeah which oh man we're going we're going to talk about iMessage in a minute man I can't wait that's going to I'm going a little fired up about that yes I can tell we we we'll get to that in a second this episode is brought to you by our friends at headspace if you're like me sometimes it can feel like your mind just doesn't have an off switch whether it's a constant stly building to-do list and stress or tension that you can really feel affect your body maybe have difficult sleeping well that's Where Heads space can help you know we all say we're doing fine f i n e but fine isn't really an emotion is it and if someone says Fine come on we know they're actually not doing fine how many times have you told yourself you're fine when all you've really felt is anger sadness or nervousness well headspace is scientifically proven to help you manage your feelings and your mental health in fact a recent study proved in just two weeks heads space can reduce your stress by 14% whether you want to relieve stress and anxiety sleep better or improve your focus heads space is your everyday dose of mindfulness for real life I've been using headspace for several years they have incredible courses I've used their course on anxiety and it's really helped me be able to calm down a little bit take the edge off I've done courses with my kids which they have Great Courses on attention and focus you can do with your kids I've done that they even have a fear of flying course I also really like their soundscapes that they have curated by musicians artists and composers I like their Han Zimmer soundscape just for working or just being able to sit in peace however you're feeling try headspace today at headspace.com slapple Insider and get one month free of their entire mindfulness Library this is the best headspace offer available right now so go to headspace.com slapple inssider today that's headspace.com Apple Insider our thanks to headspace for sponsoring this episode I want to know William have you been playing Wordle well no cuz I wanted to play a knockoff app and give uh ripoff Merchants money and now I've been denied that chance and I'm making a stance h no uh I haven't a friend did get very arated about it yesterday which said she finally realized it was American so there was a spelling of a particular word she would have got it it been in British I don't know I see well if our listeners don't know Wordle has been kind of phenomenon a lot of people tweeting it and it's basically an online word game that's completely free and you can go to it I'll put the link to the actual game in the show notes I've been playing it it's pretty fun you get one word a day that you need to try and guess and you get six tries to guess it the words are five letters each it tells you when you have a correct letter and if you have the correct letter in the correct Place it'll highlight a green so it's been a very fun game William I think I think you should try it I think you would enjoy it as as a Wordsmith yourself I must absolutely yeah I I think you should try it Josh wle is the creator which excellent naming his Wordle Wordle very good again it's it's a very fun game and there's only one word a day and so it's very antithetical to a lot of games today where you can't spend all day doing it you know you you either guess the word or you don't and then you're done new words don't appear until the next day I I have found it uh very enjoyable texting friends you know putting on Twitter how many guesses he used to get it but the controversy here which is the the subtitle or the subtext of today's episode controversy with an exclamation point the controversy was this free web app it it is not an actual app you can download the actual Wordle game is just a website you go to there were a bunch of copycats that entered the IOS app store and even the Google Play store apps that basically mimicked this exact feature totally ripping it off but then also charging for the game and the actual game worldle is totally free on the web and so there was kind of an outcry especially from Wordle fans saying like listen all these nefarious developers I would say trying to gain the system making people pay for this when the actual game which is better and free is on the web and so it was a few days of controversy but then Apple did remove a majority of these copycat apps which to their credit you know I'm not exactly sure where in the App Store rules it talks about I guess intellectual property and like if it's just a website thing but Apple removed many of those copycat apps and Google also seemingly removed many from the Google Play Store so welcome action there but you should you should definitely play it there is actually a thing where strictly speaking isn't illegal it doesn't uh copying you can't copy an idea at least not in the UK I presume you can't worldwide so there there's no law that anybody is breaking by copying this unfortunately but it is actually explicitly stated in the guidelines that you cannot uh make minor changes to another app's UI and pass it off as your your own which is exactly what all of these did including a guy I can't pronounce his name uh Zach is it SED um he he was actually he might have been the reason these things were purged because he was boasting about how well his knockoff was doing which you can say is um foolish but also yeah slightly even more irritating because he's on record as having been very anti- uh copy cat apps in the past so you know yeah that's just that's just dirty and that guy like you were saying Zack shaked was charging $30 per month yeah for his ripoff game that's just that's ridiculous anyway good good on Apple Google for removing those it's a shame that you know they have to do it but yeah and you know there's also I know there's some developers that kind of post scam apps every week to kind of show the broken down nature of App Store review and things that you know Apple misses most of the time I feel like this was kind of taken care of because there were so many people talking about it especially on Twitter but that's a Wordle you should play it William that's my final thought oh I will definitely now let's talk about air tag so in the past few weeks major news Publications have been talking about air tags and how people are using them to track people and stalk people nefariously and even using them and stealing cars the New York Times literally had an article with a headline are Apple Air tags being used to track people in steel cars and NBC News had an article saying a tracking device made by Apple is showing up in suspected crimes so I mean these are pretty strong headlines kind of condemning Apple's tracking device and a couple things here number one apple is not the first company to make a tracking device tile has existed for years and years prior to air tag coming out and could have been used for similar activities it wouldn't have been as effective because the network for tile was much smaller but you could even buy GPS devices and not even depend on a tracking Network like fine my you can get GPS devices like for pet collars and such and if someone really wanted to be nefarious they could have put a GPS tracker in someone's car or someone's bag and that person would have no recourse of knowing whether or not that device was following them around I think Apple has built actually a very robust anti-stalking feature set into air tag and you actually had an article talking about what to do if you see notifications like an item detected near you if you get that notification on your iPhone what you should do what actions should you take and again to Apple's credit there are actually multiple actions you can take when you see that notification you want to walk us through a couple of those when you said when you see that notification if you don't see the notification for any reason after a bit you'll hear the air tag itself will start making noises and for such a tiny device it's amazing how piercing that noise is so they they do cover you in both ways not expecting you to be looking your phone all the time in case you're being tracked so the there like redundancy everywhere and then yes when you found one um straight away on your screen it gives you options uh to do with things like just checking the details of it uh you can check if it's if you know if you borrowed a bag which is actually the most common thing it's it's not fortunately the most common thing is not people tracking you you've borrowed somebody's bag they've left their air tag in it you know it they know it you can actually disable it for the day you're fine with it and you won't be bothered by it anymore but if it is worse than that there is a way to just hold your phone next to the air tag get the serial number and then Apple advises you to call the police and apple says it will work with the police to say whose air tag that is Noone no no question no cour just he police ask Apple tells them wow somebody is caught for it so I I think we hold Apple to a higher standard but we probably should because it's so big tile has got away for years without I I don't know what anything that t does Apple comes under much more scrutiny but I think Apple has yes to up what surprises me is that this has come up now when the very first thing I thought of when I even heard about air tags is would this be used for it so the first thing I looked into was how would they do how would they handle it and I think right from the start they've increased things but theyve handled it very very well such as for example the other thing about the sound I just said if an air tag is away from its registered owner for a certain amount of time it will start making this noise we don't know what that certain amount of time is because Apple will not say and apple can change it at any time so this it's not possible for somebody to calculate I can tag somebody uh for this many hours and then swap to a different air tag it's really thought through to that level of dep so I have air Tags I'm very happy with them I'm glad people are thinking about it I don't know why they're thinking about it now and I hope it doesn't put anybody off buying air tags yeah and I I will from from personal experience I actually get a lot of notifications sometimes it feels like too much but again with these kinds of concerns I would prefer too many than not enough but if I'm ever driving my wife's car for any reason she has the larger car and if I'm driving the kids around I'll grab her keys her keys has her air tag on them and really early in the trip I will start getting notifications that says Whitney's air tag has been following you because I'm using her keys with her air tag and I'll start getting those notifications again another example one of our kids was visiting a friend they had my child had their backpack with them which has an air tag on it and this friend texed to my wife and I saying hey I just got this notification that there's an air tag following me do you have any idea what that is and it was because my child's air tag which is not a part of their iCloud family was there with them and she got notified relatively quickly I would say in an hour or two and she was able to investigate you know she didn't know about the options that you actually have for having the air tag make a sound or trying to find information of the physical air tag but she still knew to do something and at least text us to figure out what was going on and it took me a second I was like well wait a minute if an air Tag's following her that's a problem and then I was reminded oh right it's my child's backpack it's that that's been at her house and so I I think that Apple's features for this are are very robust while someone can use these for nefarious purposes they can use lots of things for nefarious purposes even up to this day if they threw an iPhone in or hidden iPhone in a bag they could have tracked their own iPhone using fine my and have been even more precise of location there and you wouldn't have had these kinds of features so I think these are just kind of sensationalist headlines that we're seeing from even these major news outlets though speaking of headlines I've got to say this uh have you heard of B's law of Journalism I've heard the name but remind me what it is it is a worldwide term but there are different names it's when you said that the New York Times headline are Apple Air tags being used to track people and steel cars the better law is if a headline is a question the answer is no um as someone in the AR is Elvis still alive in Chicago no and things like that but in this one case the answer is actually this time yes so oh is Apple doomed no exactly wait now how do you spell bage cuz I'm I'm G look this up now uh BTT r i d g e there are actually a couple of versions of this and there's some dispute who said it first but uh whoever Bach was he was uh he's credited with it usually oh I love this and I will be thinking of it every time I read a headline you do oh my goodness is Apple's VR headset doomed to fail exactly no I love this okay that was that was worth just do that well I also link to Williams article because there are instructions on what to do and how you can find maybe an air tag that's been following you so look there if you are interested in those features I wanted to mention this new app that I just saw yesterday it's called The Locket app or the locket widget I'll put a link in show notes it is free to download and then there's a paid uh addition to unlock some features but I think this is a genius idea this app lets you connect with up to five family members or friends through this app and you can place a widget on your home screen that your friends can actually send a picture through this app and it will automatically appear in the widget on your home screen and then you can do the same send a picture and it will immediately show up on the home screen of your family member or friend now obviously you must trust the people that you are going to allow to have photos just appear on your home screen at any point in the day but for partners spouses really close friends I think this is a really cool idea maybe put it on a second home screen not just like that first one in case you unlock your phone and someone played a joke on you but I think this is a genius idea it's actually number one in the social networking app download category right now and the developer is Matthew Moss I think this was just a brilliant idea very cool any chance you can add me to yours cuz I'm I'm now which I'm sure you are yeah this phone is stolen is what M will say it will just appear danger this person has bad breath no I I I would trust my wife and probably that's it you know I have some close friends but I you know I feel like even the closest friends would get a get an idea every once in a while to do something notorious you know I I think it's really cool though and it's one of those things that it can change your home screen without you even knowing you know I actually had a YouTube video on Apple Insider a while ago where you can create shortcuts that change your wallpaper every morning automatically pulling a high resolution image from unsplash in a category that you choose and it's those kind of features are kind of nice because you can unlock your phone and be greeted with something different that you didn't even know what it was going to be and it's like a little surprise and so I'll put a link to that video in the show notes as well but I think things like that especially for a system like iPhone which is typically pretty locked down pretty sandboxed nice to know that these kind of features are still possible so I just thought it was a cool idea and no no I won't send you a friend request William it's okay thanks fine getting your workout uh completion notifications is enough enough to make me think oh William actually he did something today and I should probably do something so he gets notification you sound so surprised oh thank you very much okay oh William bother to do something today okay you know you know what I mean you know no no it's too late now sorry very sorry so I did want to mention we had talked about I think it was a couple months ago the different laws that are being passed in countries to force Apple to add alternate payment methods in the App Store and within apps and it looks like one of the first to do this is South Korea the South Korea Herald reported that Apple plans to provide alternate payment methods in the App Store that will be different than the normal 3070 split or 1585 split for smaller developers but I thought this was interesting John Gruber had an article talking about these changes and what will probably happen is what Google did Google created apis that allow developers to hook in and allow alternate payment methods but those apis still tracked transactions in the Play Store and instead of the 15 or 30% the transaction fee was 11% and that still went to Google basically allowing third-party payment methods but Apple still retains some cut of each transaction now we don't know if that's how Apple will actually put this into practice in the App Store but I thought that was interesting that it's not just alternate payment methods and apple gets nothing there actually is systems that you can build with apis where Apple will still get a cut so remains to be seen we'll have to to see how Apple institutes this in South Korea that looks like it'll happen first there is no possible way that Apple won't know a transaction has taken place through its platform and so there's no way they won't charge for it uh so really I think what's happened is they end up sending a bill to the developer who now has to pay for their own backend processing uh that Apple used to do for them and uh either they pay Apple or they get taken off the app store for it so really I think developers I think for the big Developers can afford it and already have uh backend services for other channels this is a good thing but for everybody else they're just going to carry on using apple as it's the cheapest this episode is brought to you by Zach do has this ever happened to you where you need to make a doctor's appointment so you call you wait on hold you try to find an opening but when you get there you find out that doctor doesn't take your health insurance it's such a frustration you got to make another appointment or pay out the nose well there's a better option for finding a doctor that you can be sure to takes your insurance and that's Zach do you can download the free Zach do app it's totally free and it's the easiest way to find a great doctor and instantly book appointments with zacho you can search for local doctors who take your insurance you put your insurance company and even your insurance plan and you can see what doctors support it you can read verified patient reviews and book an appointment in person or via video 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York Times I touched on this with Renee Richie they were saying how Youth and teenagers are experiencing peer pressure and ridicule when their texts are green bubbles and then Google senior vice president Hiroshi lockheimer tweeted kind of piling on to this idea that Apple just needs to change its policy and it will fix everything you know that's kind of the underlying assumption that if Apple just adopts RCS then it will fix everything Max Weinbach then had a Tik Tok that went viral over a million views again saying the same thing that all Apple has to do is adopt RCS support it natively and we don't have to worry about this issue anymore and so a couple things that I really want to bring out Renee Richie touched on these as well but I I just want to be crystal clear number one this is an issue that really only affects the United States yeah when you go internationally and globally IM message has a very very tiny percentage of the market on messaging if you look at China WeChat is far and above the predominant messaging platform like way majority they use WeChat for everything if you look at Brazil and other countries WhatsApp is the predominant messaging platform line is another option and so as soon as you leave the US this no longer becomes a problem and a lot of times we forget you know we're a lot of times us focused here that apple is a global international company and if this problem is not really outside the United States it's going to lower the priority about RCS but that's not even the main issue so we need to keep that in mind this is a uson issue really secondly what are the options that Apple has to not make iMessage locked in there's been thoughts of maybe Apple could release an iMessage app for Android number one there have been Communications that Apple sees this as a lockin strategy there were emails that came out during the epic games court case from Craig Figi Phil Schiller talking about iMessage so Apple does see this as a main feature of the platform which I don't think somehow means they need to change it like the whole point of having great features on your platform is making it so people want to use it but that's beside the point making an iMessage app for Android I do not believe would be a good solution because it means that Android users would have to download a second message app or third fourth fifth messaging app that they're probably using already just to use iMessage and it would not integrate with the standard text message app on the phone Apple I guess could make it support SMS it's not guaranteed and we know people really don't like especially just normal users not techie users don't like using a bunch of different messaging apps and I think the power of iMessage was that it was built into the main texting app that came on the phone which again if you try to make a default text messaging app on Android not only do you have to deal with carriers but you also have to deal with phone manufacturers like Samsung Huawei one plusus and all that so I don't think that is a viable option the other option and this is what everybody's calling for including Google's SVP Hiroshi lockheimer is that Apple should adopt RCS as a standard right now in the messaging app and and I I don't know if I was super clear in the interview with Renee Richie but if Apple were to say we are pushing an update iOS 15.3 is going to have RCS Rich communication Services they call it Advanced messaging for the carriers here in the US if Apple were to say the messages app is going to support it tomorrow in the software update we're pushing it would still not work across carriers here in the US it would not solve the issue if you had a Verizon iPhone and you Tred to send those RCS messages to an AT&T Android User it wouldn't work because the carriers namely Verizon and AT&T the two biggest here in the US do not support cross carrier RCS messaging or Advanced messaging features as they call it I went to Verizon's website went to AT&T's website and they both explicitly say it only works within the network and so my biggest argument in this whole conversation is that apple is not the biggest obstacle nor is it the only obstacle for Rich Text Communications Rich communication Services RCS working across Apple and Android devices nor carrier devices the carriers have a huge part to play in the whole interoperability and so number one it's really a uson problem it's not International and two even if Apple did what people are calling for adopting RCS tomorrow it still would not solve the interoperability challenge all right I got that off my chest William Tell me what are your thoughts on this I think you need to sit down for a bit and you know what I'm going to I'll resit down hold on let me resit I actually wrote one of Apple Insider's stories about this and the whole the green versus the blue blobs I had to pick up my phone to check which was green and which was blue because it's that unimportant to me here in the UK just like you said uh WhatsApp actually is the big one I think WhatsApp is incredibly ugly and utterly horrible to use so I prefer messages uh but if somebody texts me and there I've got it wrong again whichever color isn't an iMessage what do I care for it thank you if they are now wait are we blue and there anyway whichever way around it is I'll hold it in my head for a few seconds it is of no consequence whatsoever this thing I'm told RCS isn't even finished working and finalized everywhere even where it does work corre and I know Google has tried to do its own lock in message apps for businesses and things like that before I just think it is so much easier to ah blame Apple that that's what Google and the rest are doing and I find that a bit tiresome really if Apple did not allow other messaging apps in the App Store yeah sure I understand the lock and argument but that's not the case you can download signal and Telegram and WhatsApp and line and WeChat you can download all of those on the iPhone right now and so there is no lock into to One messaging platform on the iPhone you can use any of those that you want which is why this is not a international issue it is just us because most us users just use the default text app that's on their phone I'm okay with it actually being us only because us is is a huge market and it's Apple's Home Market so I wouldn't dismiss that I don't have the concern I can understand some why other people do but I I lose uh sympathy when po Solutions are at some point Google apparently offered to help Apple implement this like Apple's engine couldn't do it if they wanted to and I'm thinking yeah right enough now okay well and the reason why I keep saying it's us only is because the second big roadblock are the US cell phone carriers true Verizon and AT&T are the ones blocking interoperability T-Mobile does say that they support cross Network interoperability with RCS but to what network is then my question because the other two don't support it and so there really is no in in Cross Network interoperability because none of the other guys are playing a ball and to your point Google I think is hilarious for Google to be the one carrying the torch about this adopt a good messaging platform there is an incredible website I will put in the show notes it's called killed by Google killed by google.com and it is a a beautiful resource I highly recommend you visit it because it lists let me get the exact number here CU I don't want to uh underestimate it has 245 apps and services that Google has killed in their history and among them are messaging platforms that they have both built and killed in just a few years of each other W one I would argue Google Hangouts which existed from 2011 to 2019 pretty recently was actually a great application I used Google Hangouts when I would travel internationally because it had good text messaging features plus you could audio call and video chat all in Google Hangouts and lots of people had a Google account I thought Hangouts was great the other crossplatform messaging application they tried to create is alo alo and that only existed from 2016 to 2019 3 years I used aloe as well I had Android friends that I actually worked with on a team and we started using aloe and it was okay like you could use it in the web so you could use it on a desktop or laptop it worked in the aloe app on my iPhone W but my point is every time Google actually had a viable opt to create this crossplatform Rich communication Services they just killed it they just didn't care enough to actually try to push it to become the thing that Google used in its platforms and so I just think it's hilarious that they're the ones crying about this I'm looking at that list and Google Daydream yeah Okay Google Reader okay now Google Reader that was upsetting Google read I'm I'm going to close that list now okay I'm not looking anymore they killed some good stuff you know not going to lie message center was another one 2013 to 2019 I think it's hilarious that he basically has like a little Tombstone next to each service and then it tells you the years that they existed and listen some of these were good like some of these were actually good Services I remember Google Trips which was to compete with things like trip case and trip it you know it was a good actually probably used it a couple times so anyway I just think it's hilarious what was the one where was it Google wave where everybody you could actually see them typing as they typed and I found found out then that there's a writer I worked with who is stunningly slow at I mean stunningly slow at a teab bre between every letter slow kind of thing it was so frustrating that's hilarious so all that to say I do think once RCS actually is good and once carriers actually support it I think it would be a good thing for Apple to use RCS as the fall back instead of SMS and MMS I mean they'll still probably have to support SMS messaging forever maybe I don't know but I think it would be good for Apple to support that standard but that's the key if it is actually a standard you can't call RCS a messaging standard today because you cannot use it across carriers and across platforms right now again not just because of Apple but because of the carriers and so it is not a standard as it exists today and so that that is my my final word on it I think I got it all off my chest now and so I'll leave it alone until it just keeps coming up in the news like it has been so that is all that was my magnum opus William just the the IM message in RCS controversy yeah I sorry I agree with you and I understand I just I laughed at the thought of you saying that's all you going to say yeah no no this is coming back for this week okay yeah for this week I also I thought it was interesting on the heels of this RCS and messaging and all that there was the story that T-Mobile was blocking iCloud relay features from iPhones on their Network again the most open network that supported cross Network RCS and they were saying something about the update in iOS 15.2 and they went back and forth them and apple apparently there were just some T-Mobile services that required to see network traffic like I think they had like a network traffic tracking uh application on their Network so you can see how much data you're using on your T-Mobile account well yeah they have to see the data in order to know and how to measure it and so they you couldn't use it with iCloud relay enabled and so I think it was pretty like a a benign conflict there between iCloud relay and the tracking service from the carrier but I just thought it was interesting that it was actually again a carrier might be blocking one of Apple Services because they want to be able to track and see the data yeah so there you go and there's a carrier what's the first thing they say it's Apple it's not us it's apple and then you just you know you can sense the phone call from the legal department okay it wasn't Apple it wasn't Apple we didn't mean it right exactly yes and that's exactly what T-Mobile did kind of backtracking on it so I mean this is hardly related but you know about Peru interbank they announced the support for Apple pay and I was I was actually reading their enhancement when they took the enhancement away again and they cancelled their YouTube videos and stuff and you just think oh there's a lot going on behind here I should check whether it's back or not but it was funny just as I read it the words vanished to us that that is funny you know that's the thing too I forget who I was talking to but like the way journalism is today any article online you can update and then you just put any italics on the bottom updated January 13th you know here's the change and it's one of those things where there's I think there's less pressure to be super accurate and I think that's why you see some of these sensationalist headlines too like even talking about the air tag and stalking and all that I think it's just playing into this you know hype culture EXC pressure to be accurate right no not on Apple inser I'm talking okay listen I can speak from experience there is great expectation for accuracy on appleinsider.com and that is what we aim to do okay yeah and it's important yeah it's different when news changes and you update it sure but to you know to make claims or just write unfounded things unconfirmed things you know so anyway that that is my point no appleinsider.com you can trust and we need a tagline there appleinsider.com the the news you can trust I'll let you Workshop that William you out the taglines today okay that one and the fail to quit one okay I've got those that on my list exactly exactly exactly or I also wanted to mention I thought this was interesting the MacBook Pro is now 16 years old as of this month which means it moved from The PowerBook and iBook naming convention to MacBook and MacBook Pro crazy that it was 16 years ago my first Mac was actually The PowerBook G4 and so I remember this transition to MacBook I believe it coincided with the Intel yes transition is that right that's right and actually uh first Intel iMac came out in the same breadth from Steve job's presentation but I remember watching it until this day I I still feel the how sad it was that The PowerBook name was gone cuz PowerBook was such a good name and MacBook at the time felt a bit rubbish and of course you know now I've lusted after a Macbook bar for long enough I changed my mind but it was sad to see it go do you think we may ever see a name change from MacBook Pro and MacBook actually probably not because right at the start of the Mac itself there were all this talk Steve Jobs was pressing uh Mac in a book in five years I think I'm not sure about the number of years but Mac in a book was definitely pressing as an ambition and you know then he he went away and then he came back and eventually we got MacBook and I feel like it's that this is what they wanted from the start they've got it and these days I think it's much harder to change a name than it was even 16 years ago you got an established brand I think it's very unlikely that they would just change it for something better but that's cuz I can't think of anything better I suppose yeah and I think you know iPhone I think it's safe to say that will always be the name of the iPhone like I don't see that ever changing I think iPad similarly even airpods I think that will last for a long long time but you know MacBook it has the name Mac in it which I think is probably desirable from a branding standpoint because you know people know Max yeah I don't think it's going anywhere for a while I was kind of thrown back when I was talking to Renee Richie he mentioned a performa Apple computer yes yeah were you familiar with those well I think I think they were more American than here but I my the first Mac I bought with my own money was well the original Macos LC and I know people said there was a performer that was really the same machine with a different name and a different price that was sold in the state so I got the impression it was a cheaper version of what I just spent all my money on um I don't know how accurate that is were you a big performer user listen I'll be honest I hope no one revokes my my Apple card not not my literal credit card but you know Apple pundit card but I don't I had maybe heard the name performa once before before Renee said it so you know I knew the Lisa Apple 2 all that kind of stuff performa was kind of new for me to to hear that so uh what about they're from around the same period there was the Quadra and the centrus and things like that I actually used some of those and they were yeah they were right really nothing nothing great High Praise High Praise the Quadra you know I don't that might be the first time I'm hearing that that name too oh God you're so young I feel so old well listen well when I go on Tik Tok I feel super old cuz you have these people saying if you were born in the 1900s have you heard people say this referring to people born no no more the 1900s I'm like you can't say that you can't refer to another Century that was just 20 years ago but they're just saying if you were born in the 1900s it's like the ultimate your old jab I don't know I I've tried Tik Tok twice and both times I went on it chose to show me first of all a really quite uncomfortable video of a school girl somewhere twerking or something and I actually at both times I kind of held the phone go oh think like this is this what I'm here for and I only wanted this Strictly Come Dancing you know Dancing with the Stars content um so I kind of left that there for a little bit but Tik Tok Tik Tok is a hot bid for sure you can actually like tap and hold on a video and you can say not interested in this kind of content oh thanks great I'll do that yes you you can do that and if you actually like find a video that you like maybe from a Creator you know you can swipe to their profile and watch some other videos from them the algorithm is pretty quick to track what you actually want to watch especially if you watch a video several times and so my Tik Tok is like Marvel movie stuff and some technology here and there and then you know just other random stuff that I'll swipe by so if you if you spend like a day or two just periodically saying like not interested in this show me more of this it it'll track you pretty good and that's that's why people like that algorithm cuz it's pretty good yeah I'll give it a go thank you well the last thing I just want to mention is I wanted to be like one of the cool kids kids you know I was born in the 1900s so I hadn't done this yet but I've actually set up a signal account you know signal is a secure private messaging you can do it anonymously so if there's anyone from Apple maybe Google out there listening to the show and you're just dying to kind of share some inside information to the host of Apple Insider we would love to hear it and so I have a signal account the number is I'll put it in the show notes and it's in my Twitter bio as well but you know you got all the cool kids doing this from all the other Outlet let so I I just wanted to be like one of them I've never heard of this I must have been born in the 1800s or something so you can let people anonymously send you messages and pretend they're from Apple okay well I think that's the challenge that's the challenge you know I think you got to say you know photos or it didn't happen kind of thing you know show show me a blurry photo of Craig Figi far in the background of the cafeteria I don't know I don't know how they do it so you know so you have to corroborate it some way or another but anyway I'm going to open myself up to it at least for a time we'll see we'll see if anything of value comes of it that'll be there well anyway there'll be links to everything we talked about and my signal number in the show notes again we'd love to hear from you you can tweet at William and myself our Twitter handles are in the show notes don't forget to rate the show if you listen to the show in another app besides Apple podcast you can still go to the Apple podcast app rate US five star give us a review that helps out the show and if you want to support us directly $5 a month gets you an uninterrupted adree version of the show Early Access and our Discord Channel I plan to release some supporter only content we did something on the metaverse recently and so if you'd like to hear some more of that support the show and as always thanks for joining us and we'll catch you next time\n"