The Future of Mobile Technology: Exciting Developments and Trends

Mobile technology has come a long way since its inception, and it's exciting to think about what the future holds. With the rise of smartphones and tablets, mobile devices have become an essential part of our daily lives. They're no longer just for making calls and sending texts; they've evolved into powerful tools that can perform a wide range of tasks. From checking email and browsing the internet to taking stunning photos and videos, mobile devices have made it possible for us to stay connected and entertained on the go.

One area that's likely to see significant development in the near future is health technology. Apple has already made a notable push into this space with its Apple Watch series, which offers a range of features that can help people track their fitness goals, monitor their heart rate, and even detect certain health conditions. The company's focus on health technology is evident in Tim Cook's public statements, where he emphasizes the importance of making tools that can improve people's lives. With the growing awareness of chronic diseases like Alzheimer's, it's likely that Apple will continue to invest in research and development to create innovative solutions that can help prevent or manage these conditions.

Another area that's worth noting is augmented reality (AR) technology. While we've seen some impressive AR experiences on mobile devices, there's still a lot of potential for innovation here. With the rise of smartphones, it's become easier than ever to access high-quality cameras and sensors that can capture stunning images and videos. But what if our phones could do more? What if they could project augmented reality experiences that felt like they were right in front of us? The possibilities are endless, and it's exciting to think about the potential applications for AR technology in fields like education, entertainment, and gaming.

Of course, one thing that's been on everyone's mind lately is Apple's ambitious plans for space exploration. With the reveal of the company's Starship project, which aims to take humans to Mars and beyond, it's clear that Apple is committed to pushing the boundaries of what's possible with technology. While we're still a long way off from making interplanetary travel a reality, it's exciting to think about the potential applications for space exploration in fields like science, medicine, and more.

But despite all the excitement around new technologies, there are still things that we want our phones to do. For many of us, one thing that we'd love to see is a phone with a foldable display and a full-size keyboard. Imagine being able to work on documents or emails without having to rely on virtual keyboards – it's a game-changer for productivity and convenience. Of course, this would require some significant technological advancements, but if anyone can make it happen, Apple might be the one.

For many of us, there are already some amazing features on our phones that we take for granted. Take, for example, the ability to walk into a room and have all the Christmas lights spring to life with just a voice command. It's a small feature, but it's one that can make a big difference in terms of convenience and enjoyment. As technology continues to evolve, it's likely that we'll see even more features like this that can enhance our daily lives.

As we look to the future of mobile technology, there are so many exciting possibilities to explore. From health technology to augmented reality to space exploration, it's clear that Apple is committed to pushing the boundaries of what's possible with technology. And while we might not have all the answers yet, one thing is for sure: the next five years are going to be filled with innovation and excitement.

Holiday-Themed Automations

For many of us, holidays are a time for festive decorations and celebratory traditions. But how can our phones help us get into the holiday spirit? For some, there's nothing quite like coming home to a room that's been transformed into a winter wonderland. That's why we'd love to hear from you – what kind of holiday-themed automations would you like to see on your phone?

One idea that caught our attention is the ability to control lights and decorations with just a voice command. Imagine being able to walk into your living room and have all the Christmas lights spring to life, or to adjust the temperature and ambiance to create the perfect atmosphere for holiday celebrations. It's a small feature, but it can make a big difference in terms of convenience and enjoyment.

William from Apple Insider shared one exciting idea – using his phone's AI capabilities to bring some holiday cheer into his living room. "If I walk into my living room," he said, "I can say 'Hey Iris' or something very similar to that. It's Christmas and all the Christmas lights around the tree in the room come on and spring into life." We'd love to hear more from William about this idea – it sounds like a truly magical experience.

For many of us, however, the holidays are also a time for festive music and entertainment. That's why we'd love to see some holiday-themed automations that can enhance our listening experiences. Whether it's adjusting the volume or switching between different playlists, there are so many ways that technology can help us get into the holiday spirit.

As we look to the future of mobile technology, it's clear that there's still a lot of potential for innovation and excitement. From health technology to augmented reality to space exploration, it's an exciting time to be alive. So what do you think – what kind of holiday-themed automations would you like to see on your phone? Share your ideas with us and let's get the conversation started!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to the Apple Insider podcast this is your host Steven robbles and today we have some apple news here and there we're going to talk about some display rumors 27in iMac and then we're also going to reveal our favorite Apple hardware and Apple software from 2021 and answer your questions this episode is brought to you by prisoner wine wealthfront true bill and quip you'll hear about our friends in a moment and joining me on this penultimate episode for 2021 my friend across the pond William Gallagher how's it going William hey hello you catch me in the middle of planning my Christmas party can't decide if it'll be in July or August but you know we're working on it if you're planning a Christmas party when you listen to this it is airing on Christmas Eve if you celebrate Christmas eve otherwise Happy Friday I suppose I guess that's the the alternative true but you know I'm expecting William that there's going to be literally thousands of people uh just playing the Insider podcast on their speakers for the Christmas party to hear you know you don't need Vince geraldi Trio in the background you don't need Mariah car you can just play the Apple Insider podcast and it brings the Christmas cheer do you mean we're going to have to sing no don't tempt me William do not temp do you wait a minute wait a minute do you sing William not in the slightest no I people say I barely speak so you know it's no because there's been people listening to the Apple Insider podcast they know that is not to be true you speak all the time I I'll give you a little few moments of a song here give me one second okay just nuts roasting on an open fire Jack Frost nipping at your nose wow though there it is that was really good than you I actually do sing that is the thing I used to do I was at a family party on I've got to because youve just reminded me of it so clearly was at a family party once years ago and it was announced that the children are going to sing now for their grandparents I thought oh dear okay fine they get up and they are West End Broadway standard performance it was incredible to do it and long time ago now one of them Dora Rubenstein I still know she's a performer now in the UK and it's just amazing when a great voice comes out when you're not expecting and that's what just happened there so thank you very much well list you know being the last two episodes for the year you know I'm just going to be a little unhinge going to be Loosey Goosey we're going to just kind of Shuffle and Jive shuck and Jive as they say yeah yeah I've heard this phrase Lucy it's not terribly well known in the UK is it something to do with you all being drunk or something um well I don't know about that I mean the prisoner wine company is sponsoring this episode but they're not sponsoring that part of the episode not that but I will tell our listeners so this is our Christmas Eve episode and then we have one more episode for the year it's going to air on Christmas Eve I want to encourage you it is going to be the longest episode ever of the Apple Insider podcast it's actually already in the camp and special guest Jason Aton joined me for a big 2021 year in review and it's like talk show John grber level length of of an episode and so you get double the podcast next week so tune in for that New Year's Eve special it's going to be fun right how long do I have to phillybuster to uh exceed that length at least an hour I would love to see it okay challenge accepted okay very good very good well you know it's so funny there's actually news there's actually Apple news so we're going to cover some news but then we'll answer listener questions this first thing was Mark Gman you know he's releasing his Weekly Newsletter now called power on Mark Gman corroborated that there is most likely a cheaper Apple monitor being built for sale maybe next year so we'll get to that in a moment but also he was talking about Apple should just make a giant iPad for the home and this was a rumor we've had throughout the year of is Apple going to make a smart home device Allah the Echo Show and the Google Nest screen devices where it's a screen and speaker I this still doesn't feel like an thing that Apple would make to me I just I don't imagine an iPad Mini or even larger iPad stuck to a speaker and apple selling it as a device I'm I'm just not sure I would think I would like it maybe but I don't know what do you think about William would that interest you at all no cuz it kind of reminds me of uh was it Steve Jobs or Tim Cook to took about combining a truck with a fridge or something it just wait wait I think he mixed analogies there you got the cars and the trucks well there enough I'm sure it would be welld designed but I just I think back to it wasn't there it was the iPod speaker that was quite a failure for Apple iPod high five you stuck it on the iPad it kind I don't know why it was quite the ugly thing it was but it was so yeah I don't know I don't know I like the idea of a big iPad but a big iPad for the home practically feels like a contradiction in terms cuz if it's going to be bigger than the 12.9 in thing they're not going to price it for less than that so suddenly it stop I could well seeing it being like a big corporate office tool yeah and I could see maybe it is regardless of screen size run something different besides iPad OS you know there were rumors it was almost a year ago there was like home OS might be a a leaked operating system from Apple and I almost wonder how carplay is for the car and that's kind of a different software experience that if they were to release a screen speaker combo it would run something like home oest that really only gives you control of your home maybe you have music and podcasts then maybe you have you know you have Safari but maybe geared towards like recipe lookup or stuff you know maybe it's something different cuz you don't have Safari and like carplay but I don't know I guess it would kind of be interesting although you can control your home from your phone your iPad your Apple watch your homepod for Siri from your Mac so I mean I don't know what the demand is for a standalone home device like that but you have to wonder is has Apple made there the car coming in in blue next week and the VR helmet probably or day or two after that but other than that have they not made all the products they can possibly make they've got to find new Niche areas well I tell you a niche area they could get into is cheaper monitors because they haven't done that in a while I see what you did there yeah see what I did there thank you and this next actually piece of news/ rumor this comes from Digi times which they've been a supply chain leaker for a while they've been accurate in as far as the supplies being leaked but they're not always great at predicting what it will be used for in Apple's Pipeline and so Digi times is claiming that Apple's building a 27in iMac that has gone into production this high-end or new model iMac that it's redesigned like the 24in M1 iMac but it's 27in screen but it won't feature a mini LED display like was rumored like the new Macbook Pro now I think this is interesting because we are expecting a highend 27 in iMac or at least a remodeled 27in iMac next year but with the rumors about new displays I wonder if Digi times thinks this is an iMac but in reality it's actually a 27in monitor that will be less expensive than the pro display xdr maybe that's why it might not have that mini LED technology maybe it won't even have promotion who knows but this could be that cheaper Monitor and Apple's lineup I am very excited to see a actual monitor that I would buy from Apple that's less than $6,000 now William I know you have a sailboat of a monitor yours is about 30 feet wide yeah but would would an Apple monitor tempt you away from that gargantuan piece of equipment you have there it would certainly tempt me but I wouldn't be able to do it because I spent all my monitor money on this I love the extra width I've got I and when I've been using a Macbook I've actually I've been suddenly aware of the difference but the resolution on Apple screens is so much better than I've got here that's what would draw me to it but frankly I've got nowhere else in the entire house to put this monitor but on the desk so you know where where could you wedge it cuz what what what is the uh the inches again it's like 32 49 4 49 yeah will you say that but you get so used to it you know your early morning exercise is walking to the on switch and back again and it's you know it's normal what do what kind of mouse do you use I forget I use the track pad um I I love I prefer track you were saying another time about how mice hurt your hand economically no sorry lare and trackpads doo I find mice do so I love the big magic Trackpad I was going to say if you if you used a normal Mouse you'd have to like probably pick it up five times just across the breath of that monitor good point yes that's true but with a trackpad you could just swipe your hand like you're dealing cards I guess like you're stroking a cat when you're trying to move the side yes yes yes this this show definitely has a different energy than any previous show and I I really like it I'm into it it's good I got say Christmas Eve is actually my favorite time of the entire year there's just a couple of hours on it when it doesn't matter how busy you are what the deadlines are nobody's waiting for you to deliver something family haven't arrived yet you just I I usually have a moment on my own with nothing to do and it's just this little moment of blissful peace for a while so I'm very fond of Christmas Eve it's nice to be talking to you uh on it yes and you know what I agree Christmas Eve has always been special I grew up in New York here in the states and cold weather was obviously Christmas Eve and there was always like a Stillness in the air and a a peaceful Ambiance just that night yeah for some reason I do I I really enjoyed Christmas Eve like that that moment where it feels like everything kind of stops for a second you know sometime even as a kid I would get like sad on Christmas Day and as Christmas day was coming to an end cuz I knew I had to wait a whole year before Christmas came around again but I do love Christmas Eve and so this energy is welcome we have to figure out how to get this energy the rest of the year I like it uh well I think we need to launch into a Charles Dickens story now isn't that on the after that no okay uh visited by the ghost of Apple past oh very good very good yes so there was an article that the orange dot that shows up in recent versions of Mac OS I think this started with Mac OS monay on the Mac but this happened in iOS 14 on the iPhone and iPad when the microphone is active on the different Apple devices running these softwares you see the little orange dot which is kind of like a signal to you as the user that the microphone is open and actively capturing whatever is going on Apple touts this as a security feature because you want to know that if you aren't on the phone or a FaceTime call or you're not actually recording audio if you see that dot it means there's some app accessing the microphone in the background and you might want to find out what App that is is it nefarious and then maybe remove it like the Facebook app might be doing that in the background who knows but that orange dot has actually been causing issues for some users and this was actually brought up by the developer of a popular audiovisual Graphics client Isadora the developer called it an unacceptable thing because if you connect a Mac to a secondary display and your piece of software us uses that secondary display for something that orange dot was still appearing on that secondary display even if the menu bar is hidden and if you use that secondary display to present to a crowd of people or maybe you're doing like a presentation and whatever software you use that dot is visible it's not a good situation I actually have a use case that it is not an issue specifically but I could see it being one is I use a piece of software called propresenter in a presentation style where I would you know know show slides or videos on a screen connected to a Mac and if there was a big orange dot on the screen at for whatever reason in the middle of a presentation like I could see why that would be an annoyance albe it a problem really for some and so I understand this might seem kind of blown out of proportion but it is a strange behavior and not only that I've actually had people like just like normal people see that dot on their iPhone in the little status bar and ask me how can I turn this off yes like I don't even want to like I don't want this dot at all I don't care if the microphone's on or not I just don't want to see this dot ever and I had to tell them like there's actually no option to disable this Dot and I feel like maybe Apple would it would behoove them to put an option to say I don't want this microphone indicator what do you think about this well I'm I don't think it's overblown because uh it makes things distractingly unusable in certain live performances I'm thinking of every concept I've ever been to where they were using MacBooks and the glowing ones with the glowing Apple L that was rting enough but on the main screens and things you wouldn't look at anything else would you You' just be drawn to that orange dot hypnotically yeah I've noticed it on my iPhone and uh thought okay I understand go away now but it never does so I didn't realize it never occurred to me that this would happen uh over a Max I haven't presented with one uh in the new versions yet and now I'm a bit unhappy about it actually well do you do you see it right now on your Mac as we record no actually I have a little yeah I have a little dot next to my focus mode right exactly is that the same one um of course on this screen yep it is that one uh to be frank I had to take a coffee break and walk over to that side to see the dot uh but yes I don't want to go into full screen pres presentation mode to check it out while we're talking but I will uh after we've done this and I will present to myself for a few minutes and see what happens I think it appears at least on Mac OS Monteray it appears next to control center yeah the icon menu bar and if you click it like mine says the actual names of the apps using the microphone which is Skype and audio hijack it'll just say it in the control center which is again like nice that they let you know that but I think there definitely needs to be a toggle that says don't show me this dot ever you know I don't want this dot yeah and maybe you use the microphone all the time especially if you hear in a music or recording type environment that mic thing would be just be on constantly so I do think there needs to be a toggle we need a enough already button that's what we need yeah exactly like a relax button like I know it's fine just just relax this episode is brought to you by true bill guys I love the true bill service and app first of all we all have lots of subscriptions probably whether it's streaming services or other things a lot of times if you do those free trials and forget to cancel those subscription costs can end up being hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year when you forget to cancel well true bill is a new app that lets you identify and stop paying for subscriptions you don't need want or simply forgot about on average people save up to $720 a year with true bill and because companies can make subscriptions hard to cancel true bill makes it incredibly simple just link your accounts and true bill will cancel your unwanted subscriptions in one tap Yes you heard me right true bill will actually cancel your subscriptions so you don't have to deal with it and your true 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thanks to true bill for sponsoring this episode and our friends at the prisoner Wine Company I've been drinking The Prisoner wine for a couple months now and I love love everything about this company and their wines they do things differently from the artwork on the label to the bottle to the taste of the wine it's always a great experience drinking The Prisoner wine wine is like Fine Art you know it can be good bad and every once in a while it can be truly Transcendent well that's the prisoner Wine Company 20 years ago they decided to combine some of California's best and most unusual grape varieties to make a bold and complex blend AKA their namesake wine the prisoner red blend and not only does it taste incredible but I love the design of the bottles you know you might have wine bottles on display or hanging in your kitchen and it features Francisco goya's artwork right on the bottle I love the brand the website super eye-catching and the wine itself is smooth rich and approachable The Prisoner wine company will ship all of their rule bending Blends like the prisoner red blend Chardonnay and Thorn Mero direct to your door right now I personally have the prisoner red blend and it is truly one of the best wines I have ever had try one bottle and you'll see for yourself so go to the prisoner wine.com apppp Insider for 20% off plus shipping included on your first purchase this is the best deal they have available get 20% off plus shipping atth prisoner wine.com slapple Insider that's the prisoner wine.com slapple Insider the link will be in the episode description as well you can just click it there offer valid on firsttime online orders only for us residents of legal drinking age through January 31 2022 other exclusions May apply please enjoy wines responsibly so the next piece of news is actually renders that a new member of the Apple Insider team created he goes by applore tomorrow on Twitter but he made new renders of Apple supposed VR headset based off a report by the information and things like Ming quo has said so very cool renders I'll put the article in show notes so you can take a look at what it might be but apple is expected sometime in 2022 so this next year to release this VR headset man I am so curious what that launch will look like if Apple announces this thing and says this is our answer for VR what is going to launch alongside of it I imagine some apple arcade titles and maybe some games definitely not an epic games game but maybe some other Apple arcade things that you would play on there maybe a FaceTime I don't wait a minute you couldn't even do FaceTime with that because there's no camera capturing you oh yeah that's spooky thought you're right I guess it would have to be like a Emoji thing oh okay like you know maybe you maybe you and I could sit down and watch Ted lasso together but as Emoji not actual real people uh is there an emoji of somebody reading a book CU I could that's right that's right yeah we could do that yeah uh as long as it's you reading a book in your Ted lasso blanket I'm totally fine with that yeah totally fine yeah oh that's very good idea yes will I mean what what is this like we're going to be able to enter the metaverse with this new Apple VR headset I I presume mete yes wait minut wait minute you're not a bullish on the metaverse William not excited yeah yeah funny I don't know why Facebook meta yeah no not so much um yeah do you remember when when the Internet Was Young they used to talk about cyberspace and now we just we talk about what gets to our machines and what we send to it things uh I feel like the metaverse is yeah it'll the name Will vanish but the technology will live on and these are the first renders I've seen where it actually looks quite good except it just makes me think of people we those uh sunglasses even indoors you have black and sunglasses just so they can look cool taking them off slowly you do that with one of these if they look like that that's what they'll be used for yeah well you know that new Matrix movie is just out for streaming now you know so you can look cool wearing sunglasses inside William what piece of software would Apple have to release with these VR goggles wow to make you want to buy this thing I'm hardpressed to think of anything you know I don't play a ton of games no I imagine I imagine there would be some kind of Apple TV and entertainment experience like if you want to watch a movie and have it feel like you're watching on Williams monitor that's 50 inches wide but it's two inches in front of your face I guess watching things might be good but oh and fitness Fitness in VR is supposedly very popular like I actually see ads for the Oculus and people like working out and saying Fitness and VR is going to change the game so oh yeah just hold me back there that one gagging for that yeah can't wait actually I had not thought of this before you asked but maybe Apple Maps cuz you know this thing of um using AR for directions that it recognizes where you are and puts up an image with big arrows only works in about five places in the world but one of them is London and I was in London and I was really impressed with how it worked and I could see I would actually use that if I were wearing the glasses if I was walking outside and it was safe and legal to do so I would use that function in Apple Maps you said that would be right that' be interesting okay I'm surprised at myself with VR goggles I think it would be difficult to drive while wearing VR glasses because because you can't see the road okay okay well you have to ruin everything don't you that's fine I mean that would be the augmented reality glasses which for sure that would be a selling feature but yes you know right now the Oculus sales pitch is games Fitness and then I guess board meetings but in the metaverse I mean I guess like that there's like the Enterprise play so I imagine that would be Apple's deal it would be apple Fitness Plus Apple TV plus entertainment spatial audio and then games I feel I really feel like there would have to be an additional thing I don't know listeners if you can think of the killer software that Apple's going to launch with these tweet at William and myself I want to know because it's it's really hard for me to think especially in Apple's Universe what it would be maybe you can finally go into an Apple store and not wait in the line maybe they'll have an Apple Store VR experience okay I was running through what games I would play and VR suduku doesn't really you know run at me are you going to get one of these I think it's unlikely but you know how clever Apper are by the time they finish talking about it you'll want one doesn't matter if if you bought one yesterday and they come out they'll still convince you you want one so I know it's not the thing I'm rushing towards uh yeah I'm intrigued and more so actually because of these renders I I think very often we see renders that just feel like guesses and uh these just seem more plausible more thoroughly done so I'm impressed with these and that's peing my interest a bit more than I expected so yeah we'll have to see a listeners tweet at us from your Christmas Eve party uh what are you going to do with these VR glasses or what do you hope to do that's what I'd like to know now this next piece of news Apple actually released some information about iCloud private relay I think hoping to answer some questions that people might encounter I'm curious your experience with iCloud private relay William but I do get periodic notifications about you know private relay connected or disconnected which can happen if you go on cellular or in your home Wi-Fi you can also choose if you didn't know this designate specific Wi-Fi networks where iCloud private relay will not be active so like your home network if you trust your home Wi-Fi and all that you can turn iCloud private relay off just for your home or your home and office Wi-Fi but they provided information about things like MMS text messaging or multi multimedia messaging you actually can't use iCloud private relay so you might see a notification that it gets turned off for that plus other things like tethering Visual Voicemail can't use private relay and they also provide more information that's like two relays to protect your information and all that so I've actually found some sometimes I might have difficulty connecting to some of my smart home stuff or even like Network stuff and so I'll you know disable iCloud private relay manually and I think I've disabled it from my home network now completely like it doesn't activate at home but I don't know what's been your experience with iCloud private relay mostly all good just in the last week 10 days or so I have been moving around a lot and I got a bit Fed Up of the constant private relays on priv Rel is off uh notifications that would pop up I don't know why I was I wasn't anywhere that I was it was no usually out but it wasn't like I was moving around a massive amount so I didn't know why it was coming in and out all the time and actually this guy told me I yeah I I can see I was probably on a cellular network I was in a hotel a couple of times thought it would happen and you think you're connected to their Wi-Fi but nothing's happening so you go back on sell you without realizing so I can understand it but I do have the old problem with some home kit accessories though and it hadn't even occurred to me that private relay would be an issue so I might switch it all off and see what happens thank you yeah yeah and you know lately it's hard to know is it iCloud private relay or is Amazon web services down again because it seems that that happening just as often so also pixel Mater we talk about it kind of whenever there's an update but it's really because I love this application and they really have some of the most forward features for graphics creators or if you use pixel Mater for whatever but they've now added more features in the latest update one that it supports motion files which if you use Final Cut Pro on a Mac there's also the companion application motion for 3D text and some Motion Graphics that pixel Mater can actually export motion files and send them to Final Cut or motion and pertain some of that text and design information so you can edit it even there in final cutter motion so that's very cool that pixel Mator supports that and better SVG support which if you're a web developer or work with web stuff SVG is an image file format that's kind of like a vector image but for the web meaning it can scale to any size without losing res resolution that's a SVG image and now pixel Mator has better support for those kinds of images so I thought it was pretty cool pixel Mater is pretty great I use pixel M Pro every day it is my absolute favorite graphics editor and I love the motion thing cuz actually I can't me I struggle to understand motion I managed to get some things in it that I wanted but I just don't spend the time in it and if this is a quick way from an app that I know as well as I do pixel notor ah this is quite a boon yeah oh yeah all right this next one I thought this was an interesting article on our website but talking about iPhone battery health Andrew o' har had the article in video basically left some tips for helping keep the most longevity of your iPhone battery as possible the big things to remember is heat is your enemy when it comes to battery like battery health and battery life so if you're in a hot environment like I am in Florida and your phone is just sitting on your dash baking in the sun it's going to mess up your battery long term let's be real so you try to avoid super hot environments and also don't let your iPhone get to 0% sent regularly you know if you're kind of like me and you remember kind of the old school rechargeable battery methods you actually were supposed to let batteries drain all the way and then charge them to 100% so the batteries could kind of remember their full capacity that is not the case anymore with the kind of lithium ion batteries in iPhones and iPads and Macs it's actually better if you charge them to 100% from mid charge or not just not letting them get to 0% regularly so you know don't bake it in the sun and charge it often you don't have to worry about charging it more often than not or trying to wait for it to get to a low percentage before you charge it just charge it up William do you uh kind of stress about your battery do you take any precautions no I just when the battery goes down to zero I buy a new iPhone you know seems simple really um yeah no problem there good yeah sorts it out yes very well very good okay yeah sure okay so the next piece is about the digital ID in apple wallet the digital driver's license that Apple announced still not really available anywhere just yet but supposedly up to 30 US states have said they're going to support the digital driver's licenses that apple is going to support in the wallet app two airports unnamed just yet are going to support this digital ID at the airport in February here in the US so two in February two more in March the TSA announced that that will be kind of like the beta test for it and I've been excited for this because Florida was one of the first states to actually announ support they have a whole website for the digital ID and the website says coming November and so I keep emailing them I've sent them like three emails I hey can I get like an early beta test or can I you know can I get in on this cuz I really want to try it uh but but no luck yet so hopefully early 2022 we'll see more of these digital IDs and William will see it probably in about 2029 I think he'll say he'll have it then no we will see the UK government's version of it which will fail uh cost another 37 billion try to seal all our data and sell it to people and then get cancelled that's that's what we'll see first what a high opinion of the British government that's uh frankly history now it's always like this thank you for putting that back in my mind I was having a very nice Christmas no no no UK's going to say listen we have an amazing system we've developed it's taken decades to figure this out what we're going to do is create small rectangular plastic cards and you're going to carry it wherever you go in addition to that device that but you also carry wherever you go how does that sound yeah mhm like our new Blue passports that apparently are very important uh to people here for some reason sorry A friend just finally got her blue British passport and is tickled by the fact that it's made in France uh which is you know against all of this borders nonsense we're living through at the moment but there we go wait no no no wait so what did your passport change color uh this is actually I'm I'm shocked to say it to you cuz I'm might shocked and right when I'm embarrassed the jingoism we had over brexit people are very PR were saying yeah basically so you know you're losing business you're losing customers tourists aren't coming anymore we're plague Island but we've got back blue passports which we used to have before joining the EU seriously it was a thing here and it does genuinely tickle me that these bluish passports we've now got are genuinely made somewhere in either France or Germany um it's just you know what can you do so so it used to be red right it used to be red and now it's blue yes well it's kind of a burgundy thing I I actually have two passports I feel a bit Jason born like here when all of this nonsense started with Britain I I qualified for an Irish passport in Ireland staying in the EU so I made my kind of stance by getting an Irish passport and I'm trying to work up the nerve to if when we can fly anywhere if I can get on the aircraft with the British passport but come off it with the Irish one how many flags will that throw up will there be uh International incidents Willam you are Jason borne frankly amazing can I be honest I've had one of my desires is to somehow qualify for passports from two different countries the United States and another the only way to do it is you have to live in another country for however many years or like work in an embassy you know in another country and I don't think I'm going to get either one it is actually in all seriousness it's quite handy a friend is Canadian they say has both uh she will fly into Canada on her Canadian passport and fly into Britain coming back on the bridge one and she avoids loads of lines at both ends lots of rigar off for it so it's it has a genuine use as well as the international spy Intrigue jewel thief kind of aspect that I think we're both aspiring to yeah the ladder is really what I'm after but yes it also helps get quickly at airports I will also say I have done the I used to work in the travel industry and I did the global entry for the United States do you guys have anything like that the global entry system I doubt it I don't know how that works but we seem to cut out everybody so the global entry for the the us at least is you go for an interview somebody stares in your eyes for about 30 minutes and asks you questions about you know where were you last night and uh do you love the US they ask you questions like that and after that interview you're given a special card that says global entry and then when you fly back into the United States from a foreign country you skip all the lines all the Snorks that are waiting in line at the Customs thing you actually go up to a kiosk it looks like an ATM and you just slap your hand on a piece of glass they scan your hand and they check you right through there's not even a person there it's not even manned and you can go right through if you have global entry for the United States I've used it twice coming back uh actually once from England and once from Germany and it was amazing because there was this huge line of people and I could just walk right by whistling as I went along and just waving and a wonderful experience no the whistling in the way that was uncalled for you know that was not cool it was actually funny because it's really meant for people who travel internationally a lot and I just wanted to do it to feel important and there was one security guy by the global entry kiosks and no one was using them like you know this is not a common thing for people to have and so I roll up in my normal airplane attire of athletic shorts and a t-shirt and sneakers you know looking very casual and I walk up to one of these kiosk and he's like hey buddy you know what this is right and I said yeah yeah I know what this is he's like you know if you're not in the system it's just going to reject you you're going to have to get in line said yeah I know and I scan my hand it dings me in and I give him a look and I just walk by it's one of my favorite moments of my life I I have to be honest do not ever give a customs person a look of any description it was more of a smirk it was more of a smirk I'll be honest I once laughed at a joke uh just after I came through a drive-thru thing from France coming into the UK um and all the cameras caught it and we were pulled over and stopped we didn't have guns here but it felt like it was a gun point for it were you laughing because you'd got through cust or something like that no sir sorry Miss no sorry I just I just speaking of travel Malcolm had a great article on Apple Insider about the best travel apps I doubt many people will be traveling this holiday season unfortunately with all the Omron stuff but if you happen to be traveling for whatever reason he's got some a good Roundup there I did want to mention a couple apps that I like he mentioned Airbnb in the article here in the United States there's also an app called VRBO which is vacation rental by owner where you can rent out like a house or sometimes a condo that's pretty cool if you happen to be traveling internationally for whatever reason Google Translate is a good app but I would say use the stock translate app which is now both on iPad and iPhone with iOS 15 and live text with translation means if you're in a foreign country you could take a picture of a menu or whatever and translate it with live text right there in the camera app so really cool you can just use a stock camera app and if you want an app for keeping track of your trip like your confirmation codes for Airlines hotels rental cars and all that there's two apps that I've used and I really like one is trip it tiit it's a great app for kind of putting all your travel stuff together and trip case is another app basically does similar things but it's kind of a nice especially if you have multiple stops multiple flights and hotel stays those are pretty cool did you have any travel apps that you like to use when you get to travel well I was going to say trip it I I mean I haven't used it in a why on there because of not traveling but the fact that you you get a email confirmation from wherever it is the hotel the Train the plane you just forward it into your trip itinary and it passes out all the details and works out your itinerary it's just a tremendous app I long to use it again and it's kind of fun cuz I have all my old trips in there too like from when I was working in the travel industry and it's kind of nice to look back and kind of see when when when did I go to that country or whatever and you can kind of look back in that app it's pretty cool that's great oh that sounds fun that's like a very modern version of uh stamps in a past sport isn't it I like it right well you know I don't have to get mine stamped cuz I have Global Entry William I don't even need to stop at that little booth that's true that's true uh you have smirking rights and waving rights from it yes that's exactly right all right this last this art this article William it just it really pains me this was a Tik Tok video oh yes by Celeste Ty I believe she had basically found I don't know in some archaeological dig an old iPod Shuffle and it was the model iPod Shuffle that is a clip you can actually clip it on your clothes or whatever and she was talking about it I like how in the article uh well who wrote this article was it Wes this is me no you did you did yes you wrote the article you had the line William this was this is a great line I'm just going to read your words here you said according to Newsweek more than two million people have watched Celeste Heist at freen bats on Tik Tok examine the device like she's on the Antiques Road Show so good but also this this video is is crazy making the fact that she thought this could be a hair clip just it just made me so mad I felt very old well I felt old at first but I realized actually I think she's really clever and she I mean it was her own ibud Shuffle she did know what it was and later she talked about the music that used to be on it and how weird it was going back to what she had whenever she was however old she was then so she's funny and she's clever about it but I was really impressed with the hair clip uh she's invented Apple's first hable accessory and it's just let me tell you if Craig fedi gets on stage with one of these iPod shuffles in his hair people will lose their minds people would lose it oh I want him to now please I so want him to that'd be amazing William did you have an iPod I assume you have had an iPod in the past I remember buying my wife Hunter one of the it would have been iPod Mini I think okay first and I got one for myself at this time first time I've been to the states bought it for both of us and at some point later on I had a full-size classic IOD CU I remember I remember you have this thing of um bump protection or something that even if the thing got bumped it would still play and most devices they would keep work they had a buffer buffer that's the word they had a 20 minute buffer and I've got it in my head that that iPod I had had a six week buffer in it or something stupidly over the top brilliant and I used to record interviews and things uh on it wow I I interviewed Steven fry actually and he was ecstatic about his iPod cuz he just got a laser pointer adapter for it things like this yes I didn't know they made stuff like that no so oh goodness this what how long ago would this been don't tell me I felt old enough about the Tik Tok video uh more than a week ago there were these devices yes uh I take it you were a big iPod kind of guy my first iPod was the iPod video it was like the black glossy version I think it was the fifth generation that was my first one and I don't know why I've been so tempted to Reby it on eBay there's ones for like 60 bucks they're scratched because like you know the back was like the GL you know the metallic super scratchable finish but man I I don't know why I kind of wanted to have it just cuz it was my very first iPod but I don't know maybe it's a weird Nostalgia thing but I had one of these iPod shuffles too and I had the OD mini that also was a clip I believe but also had the yeah and it had the screen it was a touch screen on it and there was even like watch bands that you could get and put the iPod mini in a watch band and it was kind of like the first quasi Apple watch it's amazing but yeah those are pretty cool this episode is brought to you by quip good health starts with good habits and quip makes it Easy by delivering all the Oral Care Essentials you need to care for your mouth the the quip electric toothbrush is loved by over 7 million mouths it has timed Sonic vibrations with 30-second pulses to guide you through a dentist recommended two-minute clean it's important to be brushing your teeth for at least 2 minutes and what's great is the brush will actually vibrate to let you know when those 2 minutes are up it's lightweight and has a Sleek design for adults and kids this is great 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wealth today that's wealthfront.com slapple Insider and get started today our thanks to wealthfront for sponsoring this episode let's do our favorites of 2021 William favorite device favorite software feature you said you already knew what device you would say is your favorite from this year so hit me what's your favorite easy M1 m 14in MacBook Pro I mean I actually I I do a thing called 58 Keys which is a YouTube for writers and I was thinking how can a writer justify spending this amount of money because you know you're not you only see the performance when you edit video and things like this but I right I recorded screen recorded myself doing typical writer things I copy typed a bit of Jane Austin I downloaded a PDF of a script I created a PDF I did four or five different things including browsing and I did exactly the same thing on Apple silicon Mac Mini uh iPad Pro with the M1 and the new Macbook and the differences even in typing were incredible I can't remember the figures now but it was something like it took I spent about 5 minutes uh doing all of this stuff on the uh Intel Mac Mini and it was under 3 minutes on the MacBook Pro you I'm not racing any just ordinary day-to-day operational typing and writing and I still feel it now every time I I do something it's just so fast so responsive and then of course when you do edit video I mean it's just wonderful so yeah no question no contest they could release the car in the next half hour and it wouldn't beat the mbook pro for me man I'm so tempted to also say the MacBook Pro but I think wouldn't you've gone for the 16in where I'm very clearly I'm a 14inch fan I am no I I love the 14in I had a 16-in MacBook Pro for a couple years it was the I9 like 2018 model and it was nice but man the 14in you get a little more screen size because it's 14 and the portability is just so much better yeah the 16inch I mean it's a surfboard and yes if you know if I was doing video editing on the laptop all the time if I didn't have an external monitor you know I totally get why the 16in is appe pealing but man that 14-in size is incredible I don't think it's an exaggeration in this moment to say it is kind of the perfect laptop for the moment you know this moment that we're in I think I don't know what else you would want you could say face ID no notch or whatever but those are minor quibbles you got to say the word quibbles right that's a oh yes yes it's a it's a proud word over here used daily in most things right quibbles and Q but it is it is really amazing it's an incredible machine but I will go differently I will say my favorite device from 2021 is actually the iPad mini oh I it is also the most buggy device I think Apple released this year which is like a weird dichotomy yes but because so much of my time is actually editing podcasts I edit multiple a week and now I do it all on the iPad mini and the lightness the portability it is fun to just kind of pick up and use and so it has made podcast editing more enjoyable doing it for long periods of time I'm not trying to balance the 12.9 in on something while I edit and I also have been using the iPad Mini for more Leisure things if it's reading I've been doing reading on the iPad mini and even sometimes just picking it up to watch a YouTube video I'll reach for that over my phone and over my Mac and it's just it's so good for so many things and so it is still super buggy you know I don't think you could say it's the best product of 2021 I think the best product is the new Macbook Pro I mean I I would never argue with that I think that is by far the best thing that Apple did this year but as far as my favorite device for what I use it for I really love the iPad mini and I'm glad they redesigned it like they did this year but the next question William yeah favorite software feature I'll give you some time to think I'll do mine first oh thank you please I'm really relieved you know there's been some you know you got share play you got the FaceTime improvements you have shortcuts on the Mac which again I'm glad it's there for me now that I've set it up how I want and using it more often Focus modes is probably my top feature software feature this year I love that when I activate a focus mode it activates it on all my devices so my Mac iPhone iPad everything is in that Focus mode the ability to choose what contacts can come through depending on the focus mode is brilliant and what apps can send you notifications I love that I've been able to work it into some automations and shortcuts which makes them really more useful and there's one day a week I try to take one day a week where I don't do any work which usually doesn't happen I usually end up working somewhat on that day but I have a focus mode specifically for that one day a week and that's the one Focus mode that I schedule to fire automatically it activates at 7 in the morning that morning and deactivates at like 11:00 p.m. that night and I have a home screen dedicated for that day where my email is not on the home screen slack is not on the home screen and having the focus mode change the home screen plus really control what notifications I get that day it's really been useful and helped me focus more pun intended but you know you know focus more and the ability to change home screens depending on Focus modes is really nice I also have a a video Focus mode if I'm going to film a video I'll activate a focus mode and I have a home screen that has none of my personal widgets on the home screen so I can be sure that I can film my iPhone or my iPad and I don't have to worry about you know what's on the home screen what widgets are showing my calendar or address you know I just have stuff on that home screen that is good for video and so Focus modes is is my feature of the year I think that was a great addition you figure yours out now William yes I have actually although I've only Rec just very recently started using that home screen changing thing I I think I missed that it was there and it's so handy when you do it yeah but I wish there was something like that on the Mac yes as well that it would but there isn't uh my it have to be an apple uh software feature because I do have one but there's lots of other software we could I mean I mean if you have another one too you can but yeah I want to I want to hear your Apple One what's your Apple feature very easily uh quick note but specifically quick note on the iPad you know it's not on the iPhone it is on the Mac I think it's just much better on the iPad um on the iPad you know you can swipe up for the corner write a note push it away again when you do that it comes up as one window no matter how many notes you've gotten there's a new one at the front the Mac will open up a new one every time you go in the corner for it so I end up with lots of little windows for it and finding the thing I want uh is p it's as good as the iPad for jotting something down quickly but for adding to things keeping notes building up a list of stuff as you go around researching the iPad is just so it's such a sweet spot for me uh I remember actually I wrote about this for Apple Insider when it was first announced and first out and I described it and you understand it you know you read this you think yes well that sounds very useful and then I finished the Apple Insider work had to do some research for the writer's Guild and in that moment I realized I actually needed the quick note and used it uh for other purposes than writing about it and since then absolutely hooked and addicted to it very nice okay or we had some listener questions and William I'm getting you in on this too yeah so thank you to all who tweeted these in keep tweeting questions we'll get to them in future episodes love to hear from you listeners but this first one from friend of the show Fernando Silva he's got an incredible YouTube channel talking about iPad stuff and productivity and creativity he asked what's the most iconic Christmas gift you were ever given wow doesn't need to be Tech but can be at any age I thought this was such a cool question yeah and so I'll let you think about it William I kind of have a no I can go with this I know I have two answers yeah two answers oh hit me hit me what is it first one when I was about I think 10 or 11 I was given a game called logic 5 uh which is like a I mean in those days it was it is just a game but it was its own full toy you had to work out sequences of numbers and overnight on Christmas Eve you know we've said our bre for Christmas Eve is overnight into Christmas Day I worked out the maths behind it so I I could never fail on that toy and I was given it and I was never not once defeated by its puzzles so it was iconic in that I felt so smug and my poor mother less impressed at how expensive this device was nice very nice so that was then and the fact he said he said non Tech am I allowed to say a gift I gave myself sure sure in my living room I have a very large poster on the wall of a symbol for time from the film arrival oh about 5 years ago I went out with a friend she she had cinema tickets something didn't know what it was it turned to be arrival and I utterly loved it I went back to see it again the next week I brought my wife to see it and then over Christmas it would have been four years ago now there was a midnight screening they re-released it at Christmas and so I went to see it in the snow midnight so and actually it's been tradition every year since I watch it around midnight on Christmas Eve and this year I'm going to watch it on the beautiful screen of my MacBook Pro but I'll probably on the couch underneath this time symbol so that's stuck with me oh my goodness that is amazing first of all I love that movie it's an incredible film and I might have to get some of this art this is amazing I did not know this existed it was tricky to find a few years ago actually so good luck now I'm and no I was going to say I'll swap you for one of your iPads or something but I won't no okay you won't do it you won't do it I'm sending you a link right now in Slack this is supposedly it's the arrival time that's the one that's is that the one oh no actually not quite as much as I love the film there is actually a mistake in it and there are two symbols that are different times they say are time and the one I've got is the other one and if you look at the other list they give that symbol you've shown me is a symbol for human and things so there's a bit of inconsistency there but I also just prefer the look of the other one which now of course I've got to try to find for you short of walking into my list Liv room well yeah I mean if you want to take a picture of yours and send it to me that would be welcome I'm going to send you one other link and this looks like a different symbol that might be the one oh goodness some people make tattoos out of this apparently yeah I can see maybe okay well while you look that up I will say one gift I'll do one Tech and one non-tech gift I think it was my freshman year of high school so I was probably 14 my parents gave me my professional trumpet oh and it was the trumpet that I used throughout high school and then into college and that's actually what my bachelor's degree is in is in trumpet trumpet performance and so that was just an Incredible Gift and yes carried me through a music career through college and so that was a wonderful thing and then a tech gift was actually I think the only Apple product that maybe my parents had bought me was the first iPod Touch I did not get the original iPhone my first first iPhone was the iPhone 4 and so the closest thing I had to it was the original iPod Touch I still have it it still turns on and I loved that thing I mean I would be on that iPod Touch I jail broke it you know I think the first year and messed around with it that way and I loved it and it was a you did what you jail broke William I was in college I did nothing else to do you couldn't just leave it alone and enjoy it for what it was it's not jailbroken now okay it's uh you know it's Stu I I have I reverted it don't worry about it okay now you have sent me the official time symbol so that's good okay you know a lot of this has worked out with the people behind wolf from Alpha and things the the the science and the maths behind it amazing that's awes of the two time symbols in the film I think this one is used more often uh towards the end when you see a lot of it it's this one I also just like it a lot and it was available when I got the poster so it is yeah it's that is brilliant very cool uple links and show notes to some of the stuff where you can get that all right this next question from arur schroer hope I pronounced that right he's asking what's your podcast setup in regards to soundproofing and I will post a photo as well and I will say I'm in a temporary recording setup as my house is being built and so my soundproofing right now is like nil I use the mic that I use which is the shore sm7b because it's very forgiving of slightly echoey rooms uh because it is you know very directional and all that but in the new house carpet is a must in whatever room you're recording if you can put any kind of sound dampening things on the ceiling for whatever reason that is great but I'm also going to put this link in show notes I will be getting these for the walls of my office these are gik Acoustics panels and they actually have very cool designs of these panels you can get them in various sizes various colors you can really customize how you want them to look and they are sound diffusers and absorbers which you need in a you know recording environment but they look really cool they don't look like sound panels so I will getting those in the in the new home and of course we'll send pictures when those are installed but I'll put that link in show notes if anyone is interested in those I'm afraid I have to warn you yes they don't sell them in Europe I clicked on your link and it went no hang on wait a minute you're not in America let's sort this out and it's taking me off to the same company in Europe and it's saying no nothing like that no not having that so Continental USA only by the sign of William what is it with over there you guys don't I don't understand what is happening over there yeah can open one everywhere yes Pandora's Box sher's cat all the above all right this next one was kuo Grumble he actually tweeted at me we talked about Swift playgrounds 4 last week and how it's out for iPad where you can actually develop an app and publish it all on the iPad and he uh sent me a tutorial on a YouTube channel it's from two straws and so very cool not a question but I thought it was a great recommendation and so if you're interested in Swift playgrounds 4 for iPad I'll put that link in show notes oh I like the sound of that I'll have a look at that excellent this next one from James Pro now he asks what's your favorite Apple product not necessarily the best but personal favorite current or historic wow this is this is a big question great question you know we talked about our favorite devices for this year yeah but favorite device ever do you know I might go for the power book 100 I think that's all those first three were revolutionary but was the one I used the most at the time the the simple things like the way it pushed the keyboard to the back and no one else had done it before and everyone does it afterwards cuz it's it's right yeah I I think I think that not sure what about you I would have to say it has to be my first Mac which was the 12in G4 power book because it was my very first Apple device ever and that device got me into Final Cut Express as it was named the time got me into video editing I got a pirated version of Adobe Photoshop don't tell anybody at the time yes that got me into graphic design and it got me into the world of Apple you know it was with that computer I didn't even know what I was buying really at the time I had just seen someone else use it and knew I I had to have it and that sent me on a trajectory to where I am today I mean on the Apple Insider podcast with you know Apple devices all around so that that have to be you know my favorite you know because it was my introduction to the world and I did lots of work on it from video editing to website building everything I I worked on a BBC television show very briefly in the uh' 80s it's famous here called called micro live it's a series of computer things and I I worked on an episode where they talked about desktop publishing and I think now there it was first on I was in television Center and there were all these computers around and there in the corner was this little uh Mac I can't remember if it would have been an SE by then but it was that sius of it and to look at that tiny machine how important that became in everything I do in my work in my career it's funny to look back when you I could it's been released now you can catch all the episodes on the bbci player or somewhere so I came across it was like this flashback to the start of my writing career that's very cool well this last question is another big one great questions from all you listeners thank you all for sending them in this is Andy L on Twitter considering the last five years what mobile technology would you hope Apple creates in the next 5 years that is a big one that that's a big one mobile technology mobile technology um you know I I don't know if this applies but I really hope apple is able to make really big leaps forward with the Apple watch and health you know the glucose monitoring looks like it's on the horizon lots of rumors about that other data that they're able to capture Health Data that might you know help early onset anything you know Alzheimer's to other diseases that you know I think Tim Cook has said publicly that health is very important to the company and they're focusing on that and I think that is an area that has the potential to help the most people I think that's Apple's at the core they make tools for people to be creative with and they make things uh you know I think now especially in the last five years with the Apple watch has made things to help make people's Health lives better and you know I'm excited to see what they do in that area the iPhone almost feels like such a mature product now I don't even know what could be added you know more augmented reality things would be cool that satellite feature where you'd be able to use your iPhone anywhere in the world that would be cool but I really think the health features have the potential to really affect the most people in the most positive way okay actually I'm going to I'm going to LEAP on that word mobile if you're going to force us to talk mobile I want to see an apple aircraft um oh my yeah forget the the car is so P isn't it God uh but yeah apple aircraft Apple Starship that's yeah 5 years yeah interplanetary app yeah yeah it's not working is it but no no no I don't think we're getting to Mars with an iPhone I'm just saying I don't think it's G to happen I don't I don't know I mean is there anything that you just really wish your iPhone could do that it can't do right now it's hard for me to to think it be I I quite like doubt if there was some way for it to magically fold out with a full-size keyboard that would be nice I mean I know you can get laser projectors and things but you you basically you're drumming your fingers into a desk or a wall or whatever it is so if there was something there not a virtual not an AR version of a keyboard but something that was real possibly but I can't say until this second I've even thought about that so I yeah I've basically have hankered after it all my life really is what I'm saying yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that that was a great question well from Wes from Apple Insider he said do we have any holiday themed automations and unfortunately I do not again because I'm in this temporary living thing I wasn't able to create any kind of cool Christmasy type things but William do you have one I doo actually yes if I walk into my living room I can say hey Iris or something very similar to that it's Christmas and all the Christmas lights around the tree in the room come on and spring into life that's wonderful very cool next year it's going to be epic I'm going to I'm going to time something to Carol of the bell's Trans Siberian Orchestra and it's going to be epic so next year I'll share mine well listeners if you have something that you think you could answer what you hope Apple develops in the next 5 years in their mobile technology we would love to hear from you tweet at William and myself our Twitter handles are in the show notes and we'd also love it if you could leave the show a festar rating and review in apple podcast several of you have done that recently and we really appreciate it you can also support the show with $5 a month in apple podcast or at I would love to hear that and don't forget to check out homekit Insider if you have not seen the slow-mo movie of me putting glitter in my beard let me highly recommend youtube.com/ homid Insider did you watch it William did you see me do that I saw a still of it and I felt that was enough I need to build up to this bit yes William it's very dramatic there's a great rendition of Carol of the Bells underneath me pouring glitter in my beard and I I think you should watch it I would love to know your thoughts on it okay but that's at youtube.com/ homid inssider you could see that and for this Christmas Eve special episode William merry Christmas happy New Year Merry Christmas to you too nice talking to you and to you as well to all our listeners out there have a safe and fun holidays and tune in next week for a special New Year's episode leave a couple hours for it I think you're going to really love it and we'll catch you next timewelcome to the Apple Insider podcast this is your host Steven robbles and today we have some apple news here and there we're going to talk about some display rumors 27in iMac and then we're also going to reveal our favorite Apple hardware and Apple software from 2021 and answer your questions this episode is brought to you by prisoner wine wealthfront true bill and quip you'll hear about our friends in a moment and joining me on this penultimate episode for 2021 my friend across the pond William Gallagher how's it going William hey hello you catch me in the middle of planning my Christmas party can't decide if it'll be in July or August but you know we're working on it if you're planning a Christmas party when you listen to this it is airing on Christmas Eve if you celebrate Christmas eve otherwise Happy Friday I suppose I guess that's the the alternative true but you know I'm expecting William that there's going to be literally thousands of people uh just playing the Insider podcast on their speakers for the Christmas party to hear you know you don't need Vince geraldi Trio in the background you don't need Mariah car you can just play the Apple Insider podcast and it brings the Christmas cheer do you mean we're going to have to sing no don't tempt me William do not temp do you wait a minute wait a minute do you sing William not in the slightest no I people say I barely speak so you know it's no because there's been people listening to the Apple Insider podcast they know that is not to be true you speak all the time I I'll give you a little few moments of a song here give me one second okay just nuts roasting on an open fire Jack Frost nipping at your nose wow though there it is that was really good than you I actually do sing that is the thing I used to do I was at a family party on I've got to because youve just reminded me of it so clearly was at a family party once years ago and it was announced that the children are going to sing now for their grandparents I thought oh dear okay fine they get up and they are West End Broadway standard performance it was incredible to do it and long time ago now one of them Dora Rubenstein I still know she's a performer now in the UK and it's just amazing when a great voice comes out when you're not expecting and that's what just happened there so thank you very much well list you know being the last two episodes for the year you know I'm just going to be a little unhinge going to be Loosey Goosey we're going to just kind of Shuffle and Jive shuck and Jive as they say yeah yeah I've heard this phrase Lucy it's not terribly well known in the UK is it something to do with you all being drunk or something um well I don't know about that I mean the prisoner wine company is sponsoring this episode but they're not sponsoring that part of the episode not that but I will tell our listeners so this is our Christmas Eve episode and then we have one more episode for the year it's going to air on Christmas Eve I want to encourage you it is going to be the longest episode ever of the Apple Insider podcast it's actually already in the camp and special guest Jason Aton joined me for a big 2021 year in review and it's like talk show John grber level length of of an episode and so you get double the podcast next week so tune in for that New Year's Eve special it's going to be fun right how long do I have to phillybuster to uh exceed that length at least an hour I would love to see it okay challenge accepted okay very good very good well you know it's so funny there's actually news there's actually Apple news so we're going to cover some news but then we'll answer listener questions this first thing was Mark Gman you know he's releasing his Weekly Newsletter now called power on Mark Gman corroborated that there is most likely a cheaper Apple monitor being built for sale maybe next year so we'll get to that in a moment but also he was talking about Apple should just make a giant iPad for the home and this was a rumor we've had throughout the year of is Apple going to make a smart home device Allah the Echo Show and the Google Nest screen devices where it's a screen and speaker I this still doesn't feel like an thing that Apple would make to me I just I don't imagine an iPad Mini or even larger iPad stuck to a speaker and apple selling it as a device I'm I'm just not sure I would think I would like it maybe but I don't know what do you think about William would that interest you at all no cuz it kind of reminds me of uh was it Steve Jobs or Tim Cook to took about combining a truck with a fridge or something it just wait wait I think he mixed analogies there you got the cars and the trucks well there enough I'm sure it would be welld designed but I just I think back to it wasn't there it was the iPod speaker that was quite a failure for Apple iPod high five you stuck it on the iPad it kind I don't know why it was quite the ugly thing it was but it was so yeah I don't know I don't know I like the idea of a big iPad but a big iPad for the home practically feels like a contradiction in terms cuz if it's going to be bigger than the 12.9 in thing they're not going to price it for less than that so suddenly it stop I could well seeing it being like a big corporate office tool yeah and I could see maybe it is regardless of screen size run something different besides iPad OS you know there were rumors it was almost a year ago there was like home OS might be a a leaked operating system from Apple and I almost wonder how carplay is for the car and that's kind of a different software experience that if they were to release a screen speaker combo it would run something like home oest that really only gives you control of your home maybe you have music and podcasts then maybe you have you know you have Safari but maybe geared towards like recipe lookup or stuff you know maybe it's something different cuz you don't have Safari and like carplay but I don't know I guess it would kind of be interesting although you can control your home from your phone your iPad your Apple watch your homepod for Siri from your Mac so I mean I don't know what the demand is for a standalone home device like that but you have to wonder is has Apple made there the car coming in in blue next week and the VR helmet probably or day or two after that but other than that have they not made all the products they can possibly make they've got to find new Niche areas well I tell you a niche area they could get into is cheaper monitors because they haven't done that in a while I see what you did there yeah see what I did there thank you and this next actually piece of news/ rumor this comes from Digi times which they've been a supply chain leaker for a while they've been accurate in as far as the supplies being leaked but they're not always great at predicting what it will be used for in Apple's Pipeline and so Digi times is claiming that Apple's building a 27in iMac that has gone into production this high-end or new model iMac that it's redesigned like the 24in M1 iMac but it's 27in screen but it won't feature a mini LED display like was rumored like the new Macbook Pro now I think this is interesting because we are expecting a highend 27 in iMac or at least a remodeled 27in iMac next year but with the rumors about new displays I wonder if Digi times thinks this is an iMac but in reality it's actually a 27in monitor that will be less expensive than the pro display xdr maybe that's why it might not have that mini LED technology maybe it won't even have promotion who knows but this could be that cheaper Monitor and Apple's lineup I am very excited to see a actual monitor that I would buy from Apple that's less than $6,000 now William I know you have a sailboat of a monitor yours is about 30 feet wide yeah but would would an Apple monitor tempt you away from that gargantuan piece of equipment you have there it would certainly tempt me but I wouldn't be able to do it because I spent all my monitor money on this I love the extra width I've got I and when I've been using a Macbook I've actually I've been suddenly aware of the difference but the resolution on Apple screens is so much better than I've got here that's what would draw me to it but frankly I've got nowhere else in the entire house to put this monitor but on the desk so you know where where could you wedge it cuz what what what is the uh the inches again it's like 32 49 4 49 yeah will you say that but you get so used to it you know your early morning exercise is walking to the on switch and back again and it's you know it's normal what do what kind of mouse do you use I forget I use the track pad um I I love I prefer track you were saying another time about how mice hurt your hand economically no sorry lare and trackpads doo I find mice do so I love the big magic Trackpad I was going to say if you if you used a normal Mouse you'd have to like probably pick it up five times just across the breath of that monitor good point yes that's true but with a trackpad you could just swipe your hand like you're dealing cards I guess like you're stroking a cat when you're trying to move the side yes yes yes this this show definitely has a different energy than any previous show and I I really like it I'm into it it's good I got say Christmas Eve is actually my favorite time of the entire year there's just a couple of hours on it when it doesn't matter how busy you are what the deadlines are nobody's waiting for you to deliver something family haven't arrived yet you just I I usually have a moment on my own with nothing to do and it's just this little moment of blissful peace for a while so I'm very fond of Christmas Eve it's nice to be talking to you uh on it yes and you know what I agree Christmas Eve has always been special I grew up in New York here in the states and cold weather was obviously Christmas Eve and there was always like a Stillness in the air and a a peaceful Ambiance just that night yeah for some reason I do I I really enjoyed Christmas Eve like that that moment where it feels like everything kind of stops for a second you know sometime even as a kid I would get like sad on Christmas Day and as Christmas day was coming to an end cuz I knew I had to wait a whole year before Christmas came around again but I do love Christmas Eve and so this energy is welcome we have to figure out how to get this energy the rest of the year I like it uh well I think we need to launch into a Charles Dickens story now isn't that on the after that no okay uh visited by the ghost of Apple past oh very good very good yes so there was an article that the orange dot that shows up in recent versions of Mac OS I think this started with Mac OS monay on the Mac but this happened in iOS 14 on the iPhone and iPad when the microphone is active on the different Apple devices running these softwares you see the little orange dot which is kind of like a signal to you as the user that the microphone is open and actively capturing whatever is going on Apple touts this as a security feature because you want to know that if you aren't on the phone or a FaceTime call or you're not actually recording audio if you see that dot it means there's some app accessing the microphone in the background and you might want to find out what App that is is it nefarious and then maybe remove it like the Facebook app might be doing that in the background who knows but that orange dot has actually been causing issues for some users and this was actually brought up by the developer of a popular audiovisual Graphics client Isadora the developer called it an unacceptable thing because if you connect a Mac to a secondary display and your piece of software us uses that secondary display for something that orange dot was still appearing on that secondary display even if the menu bar is hidden and if you use that secondary display to present to a crowd of people or maybe you're doing like a presentation and whatever software you use that dot is visible it's not a good situation I actually have a use case that it is not an issue specifically but I could see it being one is I use a piece of software called propresenter in a presentation style where I would you know know show slides or videos on a screen connected to a Mac and if there was a big orange dot on the screen at for whatever reason in the middle of a presentation like I could see why that would be an annoyance albe it a problem really for some and so I understand this might seem kind of blown out of proportion but it is a strange behavior and not only that I've actually had people like just like normal people see that dot on their iPhone in the little status bar and ask me how can I turn this off yes like I don't even want to like I don't want this dot at all I don't care if the microphone's on or not I just don't want to see this dot ever and I had to tell them like there's actually no option to disable this Dot and I feel like maybe Apple would it would behoove them to put an option to say I don't want this microphone indicator what do you think about this well I'm I don't think it's overblown because uh it makes things distractingly unusable in certain live performances I'm thinking of every concept I've ever been to where they were using MacBooks and the glowing ones with the glowing Apple L that was rting enough but on the main screens and things you wouldn't look at anything else would you You' just be drawn to that orange dot hypnotically yeah I've noticed it on my iPhone and uh thought okay I understand go away now but it never does so I didn't realize it never occurred to me that this would happen uh over a Max I haven't presented with one uh in the new versions yet and now I'm a bit unhappy about it actually well do you do you see it right now on your Mac as we record no actually I have a little yeah I have a little dot next to my focus mode right exactly is that the same one um of course on this screen yep it is that one uh to be frank I had to take a coffee break and walk over to that side to see the dot uh but yes I don't want to go into full screen pres presentation mode to check it out while we're talking but I will uh after we've done this and I will present to myself for a few minutes and see what happens I think it appears at least on Mac OS Monteray it appears next to control center yeah the icon menu bar and if you click it like mine says the actual names of the apps using the microphone which is Skype and audio hijack it'll just say it in the control center which is again like nice that they let you know that but I think there definitely needs to be a toggle that says don't show me this dot ever you know I don't want this dot yeah and maybe you use the microphone all the time especially if you hear in a music or recording type environment that mic thing would be just be on constantly so I do think there needs to be a toggle we need a enough already button that's what we need yeah exactly like a relax button like I know it's fine just just relax this episode is brought to you by true bill guys I love the true bill service and app first of all we all have lots of subscriptions probably whether it's streaming services or other things a lot of times if you do those free trials and forget to cancel those subscription costs can end up being hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year when you forget to cancel well true bill is a new app that lets you identify and stop paying for subscriptions you don't need want or simply forgot about on average people save up to $720 a year with true bill and because companies can make subscriptions hard to cancel true bill makes it incredibly simple just link your accounts and true bill will cancel your unwanted subscriptions in one tap Yes you heard me right true bill will actually cancel your subscriptions so you don't have to deal with it and your true bill concierge is 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for sponsoring this episode and our friends at the prisoner Wine Company I've been drinking The Prisoner wine for a couple months now and I love love everything about this company and their wines they do things differently from the artwork on the label to the bottle to the taste of the wine it's always a great experience drinking The Prisoner wine wine is like Fine Art you know it can be good bad and every once in a while it can be truly Transcendent well that's the prisoner Wine Company 20 years ago they decided to combine some of California's best and most unusual grape varieties to make a bold and complex blend AKA their namesake wine the prisoner red blend and not only does it taste incredible but I love the design of the bottles you know you might have wine bottles on display or hanging in your kitchen and it features Francisco goya's artwork right on the bottle I love the brand the website super eye-catching and the wine itself is smooth rich and approachable The Prisoner wine company will ship all of their rule bending Blends like the prisoner red blend Chardonnay and Thorn Mero direct to your door right now I personally have the prisoner red blend and it is truly one of the best wines I have ever had try one bottle and you'll see for yourself so go to the prisoner wine.com apppp Insider for 20% off plus shipping included on your first purchase this is the best deal they have available get 20% off plus shipping atth prisoner wine.com slapple Insider that's the prisoner wine.com slapple Insider the link will be in the episode description as well you can just click it there offer valid on firsttime online orders only for us residents of legal drinking age through January 31 2022 other exclusions May apply please enjoy wines responsibly so the next piece of news is actually renders that a new member of the Apple Insider team created he goes by applore tomorrow on Twitter but he made new renders of Apple supposed VR headset based off a report by the information and things like Ming quo has said so very cool renders I'll put the article in show notes so you can take a look at what it might be but apple is expected sometime in 2022 so this next year to release this VR headset man I am so curious what that launch will look like if Apple announces this thing and says this is our answer for VR what is going to launch alongside of it I imagine some apple arcade titles and maybe some games definitely not an epic games game but maybe some other Apple arcade things that you would play on there maybe a FaceTime I don't wait a minute you couldn't even do FaceTime with that because there's no camera capturing you oh yeah that's spooky thought you're right I guess it would have to be like a Emoji thing oh okay like you know maybe you maybe you and I could sit down and watch Ted lasso together but as Emoji not actual real people uh is there an emoji of somebody reading a book CU I could that's right that's right yeah we could do that yeah uh as long as it's you reading a book in your Ted lasso blanket I'm totally fine with that yeah totally fine yeah oh that's very good idea yes will I mean what what is this like we're going to be able to enter the metaverse with this new Apple VR headset I I presume mete yes wait minut wait minute you're not a bullish on the metaverse William not excited yeah yeah funny I don't know why Facebook meta yeah no not so much um yeah do you remember when when the Internet Was Young they used to talk about cyberspace and now we just we talk about what gets to our machines and what we send to it things uh I feel like the metaverse is yeah it'll the name Will vanish but the technology will live on and these are the first renders I've seen where it actually looks quite good except it just makes me think of people we those uh sunglasses even indoors you have black and sunglasses just so they can look cool taking them off slowly you do that with one of these if they look like that that's what they'll be used for yeah well you know that new Matrix movie is just out for streaming now you know so you can look cool wearing sunglasses inside William what piece of software would Apple have to release with these VR goggles wow to make you want to buy this thing I'm hardpressed to think of anything you know I don't play a ton of games no I imagine I imagine there would be some kind of Apple TV and entertainment experience like if you want to watch a movie and have it feel like you're watching on Williams monitor that's 50 inches wide but it's two inches in front of your face I guess watching things might be good but oh and fitness Fitness in VR is supposedly very popular like I actually see ads for the Oculus and people like working out and saying Fitness and VR is going to change the game so oh yeah just hold me back there that one gagging for that yeah can't wait actually I had not thought of this before you asked but maybe Apple Maps cuz you know this thing of um using AR for directions that it recognizes where you are and puts up an image with big arrows only works in about five places in the world but one of them is London and I was in London and I was really impressed with how it worked and I could see I would actually use that if I were wearing the glasses if I was walking outside and it was safe and legal to do so I would use that function in Apple Maps you said that would be right that' be interesting okay I'm surprised at myself with VR goggles I think it would be difficult to drive while wearing VR glasses because because you can't see the road okay okay well you have to ruin everything don't you that's fine I mean that would be the augmented reality glasses which for sure that would be a selling feature but yes you know right now the Oculus sales pitch is games Fitness and then I guess board meetings but in the metaverse I mean I guess like that there's like the Enterprise play so I imagine that would be Apple's deal it would be apple Fitness Plus Apple TV plus entertainment spatial audio and then games I feel I really feel like there would have to be an additional thing I don't know listeners if you can think of the killer software that Apple's going to launch with these tweet at William and myself I want to know because it's it's really hard for me to think especially in Apple's Universe what it would be maybe you can finally go into an Apple store and not wait in the line maybe they'll have an Apple Store VR experience okay I was running through what games I would play and VR suduku doesn't really you know run at me are you going to get one of these I think it's unlikely but you know how clever Apper are by the time they finish talking about it you'll want one doesn't matter if if you bought one yesterday and they come out they'll still convince you you want one so I know it's not the thing I'm rushing towards uh yeah I'm intrigued and more so actually because of these renders I I think very often we see renders that just feel like guesses and uh these just seem more plausible more thoroughly done so I'm impressed with these and that's peing my interest a bit more than I expected so yeah we'll have to see a listeners tweet at us from your Christmas Eve party uh what are you going to do with these VR glasses or what do you hope to do that's what I'd like to know now this next piece of news Apple actually released some information about iCloud private relay I think hoping to answer some questions that people might encounter I'm curious your experience with iCloud private relay William but I do get periodic notifications about you know private relay connected or disconnected which can happen if you go on cellular or in your home Wi-Fi you can also choose if you didn't know this designate specific Wi-Fi networks where iCloud private relay will not be active so like your home network if you trust your home Wi-Fi and all that you can turn iCloud private relay off just for your home or your home and office Wi-Fi but they provided information about things like MMS text messaging or multi multimedia messaging you actually can't use iCloud private relay so you might see a notification that it gets turned off for that plus other things like tethering Visual Voicemail can't use private relay and they also provide more information that's like two relays to protect your information and all that so I've actually found some sometimes I might have difficulty connecting to some of my smart home stuff or even like Network stuff and so I'll you know disable iCloud private relay manually and I think I've disabled it from my home network now completely like it doesn't activate at home but I don't know what's been your experience with iCloud private relay mostly all good just in the last week 10 days or so I have been moving around a lot and I got a bit Fed Up of the constant private relays on priv Rel is off uh notifications that would pop up I don't know why I was I wasn't anywhere that I was it was no usually out but it wasn't like I was moving around a massive amount so I didn't know why it was coming in and out all the time and actually this guy told me I yeah I I can see I was probably on a cellular network I was in a hotel a couple of times thought it would happen and you think you're connected to their Wi-Fi but nothing's happening so you go back on sell you without realizing so I can understand it but I do have the old problem with some home kit accessories though and it hadn't even occurred to me that private relay would be an issue so I might switch it all off and see what happens thank you yeah yeah and you know lately it's hard to know is it iCloud private relay or is Amazon web services down again because it seems that that happening just as often so also pixel Mater we talk about it kind of whenever there's an update but it's really because I love this application and they really have some of the most forward features for graphics creators or if you use pixel Mater for whatever but they've now added more features in the latest update one that it supports motion files which if you use Final Cut Pro on a Mac there's also the companion application motion for 3D text and some Motion Graphics that pixel Mater can actually export motion files and send them to Final Cut or motion and pertain some of that text and design information so you can edit it even there in final cutter motion so that's very cool that pixel Mator supports that and better SVG support which if you're a web developer or work with web stuff SVG is an image file format that's kind of like a vector image but for the web meaning it can scale to any size without losing res resolution that's a SVG image and now pixel Mator has better support for those kinds of images so I thought it was pretty cool pixel Mater is pretty great I use pixel M Pro every day it is my absolute favorite graphics editor and I love the motion thing cuz actually I can't me I struggle to understand motion I managed to get some things in it that I wanted but I just don't spend the time in it and if this is a quick way from an app that I know as well as I do pixel notor ah this is quite a boon yeah oh yeah all right this next one I thought this was an interesting article on our website but talking about iPhone battery health Andrew o' har had the article in video basically left some tips for helping keep the most longevity of your iPhone battery as possible the big things to remember is heat is your enemy when it comes to battery like battery health and battery life so if you're in a hot environment like I am in Florida and your phone is just sitting on your dash baking in the sun it's going to mess up your battery long term let's be real so you try to avoid super hot environments and also don't let your iPhone get to 0% sent regularly you know if you're kind of like me and you remember kind of the old school rechargeable battery methods you actually were supposed to let batteries drain all the way and then charge them to 100% so the batteries could kind of remember their full capacity that is not the case anymore with the kind of lithium ion batteries in iPhones and iPads and Macs it's actually better if you charge them to 100% from mid charge or not just not letting them get to 0% regularly so you know don't bake it in the sun and charge it often you don't have to worry about charging it more often than not or trying to wait for it to get to a low percentage before you charge it just charge it up William do you uh kind of stress about your battery do you take any precautions no I just when the battery goes down to zero I buy a new iPhone you know seems simple really um yeah no problem there good yeah sorts it out yes very well very good okay yeah sure okay so the next piece is about the digital ID in apple wallet the digital driver's license that Apple announced still not really available anywhere just yet but supposedly up to 30 US states have said they're going to support the digital driver's licenses that apple is going to support in the wallet app two airports unnamed just yet are going to support this digital ID at the airport in February here in the US so two in February two more in March the TSA announced that that will be kind of like the beta test for it and I've been excited for this because Florida was one of the first states to actually announ support they have a whole website for the digital ID and the website says coming November and so I keep emailing them I've sent them like three emails I hey can I get like an early beta test or can I you know can I get in on this cuz I really want to try it uh but but no luck yet so hopefully early 2022 we'll see more of these digital IDs and William will see it probably in about 2029 I think he'll say he'll have it then no we will see the UK government's version of it which will fail uh cost another 37 billion try to seal all our data and sell it to people and then get cancelled that's that's what we'll see first what a high opinion of the British government that's uh frankly history now it's always like this thank you for putting that back in my mind I was having a very nice Christmas no no no UK's going to say listen we have an amazing system we've developed it's taken decades to figure this out what we're going to do is create small rectangular plastic cards and you're going to carry it wherever you go in addition to that device that but you also carry wherever you go how does that sound yeah mhm like our new Blue passports that apparently are very important uh to people here for some reason sorry A friend just finally got her blue British passport and is tickled by the fact that it's made in France uh which is you know against all of this borders nonsense we're living through at the moment but there we go wait no no no wait so what did your passport change color uh this is actually I'm I'm shocked to say it to you cuz I'm might shocked and right when I'm embarrassed the jingoism we had over brexit people are very PR were saying yeah basically so you know you're losing business you're losing customers tourists aren't coming anymore we're plague Island but we've got back blue passports which we used to have before joining the EU seriously it was a thing here and it does genuinely tickle me that these bluish passports we've now got are genuinely made somewhere in either France or Germany um it's just you know what can you do so so it used to be red right it used to be red and now it's blue yes well it's kind of a burgundy thing I I actually have two passports I feel a bit Jason born like here when all of this nonsense started with Britain I I qualified for an Irish passport in Ireland staying in the EU so I made my kind of stance by getting an Irish passport and I'm trying to work up the nerve to if when we can fly anywhere if I can get on the aircraft with the British passport but come off it with the Irish one how many flags will that throw up will there be uh International incidents Willam you are Jason borne frankly amazing can I be honest I've had one of my desires is to somehow qualify for passports from two different countries the United States and another the only way to do it is you have to live in another country for however many years or like work in an embassy you know in another country and I don't think I'm going to get either one it is actually in all seriousness it's quite handy a friend is Canadian they say has both uh she will fly into Canada on her Canadian passport and fly into Britain coming back on the bridge one and she avoids loads of lines at both ends lots of rigar off for it so it's it has a genuine use as well as the international spy Intrigue jewel thief kind of aspect that I think we're both aspiring to yeah the ladder is really what I'm after but yes it also helps get quickly at airports I will also say I have done the I used to work in the travel industry and I did the global entry for the United States do you guys have anything like that the global entry system I doubt it I don't know how that works but we seem to cut out everybody so the global entry for the the us at least is you go for an interview somebody stares in your eyes for about 30 minutes and asks you questions about you know where were you last night and uh do you love the US they ask you questions like that and after that interview you're given a special card that says global entry and then when you fly back into the United States from a foreign country you skip all the lines all the Snorks that are waiting in line at the Customs thing you actually go up to a kiosk it looks like an ATM and you just slap your hand on a piece of glass they scan your hand and they check you right through there's not even a person there it's not even manned and you can go right through if you have global entry for the United States I've used it twice coming back uh actually once from England and once from Germany and it was amazing because there was this huge line of people and I could just walk right by whistling as I went along and just waving and a wonderful experience no the whistling in the way that was uncalled for you know that was not cool it was actually funny because it's really meant for people who travel internationally a lot and I just wanted to do it to feel important and there was one security guy by the global entry kiosks and no one was using them like you know this is not a common thing for people to have and so I roll up in my normal airplane attire of athletic shorts and a t-shirt and sneakers you know looking very casual and I walk up to one of these kiosk and he's like hey buddy you know what this is right and I said yeah yeah I know what this is he's like you know if you're not in the system it's just going to reject you you're going to have to get in line said yeah I know and I scan my hand it dings me in and I give him a look and I just walk by it's one of my favorite moments of my life I I have to be honest do not ever give a customs person a look of any description it was more of a smirk it was more of a smirk I'll be honest I once laughed at a joke uh just after I came through a drive-thru thing from France coming into the UK um and all the cameras caught it and we were pulled over and stopped we didn't have guns here but it felt like it was a gun point for it were you laughing because you'd got through cust or something like that no sir sorry Miss no sorry I just I just speaking of travel Malcolm had a great article on Apple Insider about the best travel apps I doubt many people will be traveling this holiday season unfortunately with all the Omron stuff but if you happen to be traveling for whatever reason he's got some a good Roundup there I did want to mention a couple apps that I like he mentioned Airbnb in the article here in the United States there's also an app called VRBO which is vacation rental by owner where you can rent out like a house or sometimes a condo that's pretty cool if you happen to be traveling internationally for whatever reason Google Translate is a good app but I would say use the stock translate app which is now both on iPad and iPhone with iOS 15 and live text with translation means if you're in a foreign country you could take a picture of a menu or whatever and translate it with live text right there in the camera app so really cool you can just use a stock camera app and if you want an app for keeping track of your trip like your confirmation codes for Airlines hotels rental cars and all that there's two apps that I've used and I really like one is trip it tiit it's a great app for kind of putting all your travel stuff together and trip case is another app basically does similar things but it's kind of a nice especially if you have multiple stops multiple flights and hotel stays those are pretty cool did you have any travel apps that you like to use when you get to travel well I was going to say trip it I I mean I haven't used it in a why on there because of not traveling but the fact that you you get a email confirmation from wherever it is the hotel the Train the plane you just forward it into your trip itinary and it passes out all the details and works out your itinerary it's just a tremendous app I long to use it again and it's kind of fun cuz I have all my old trips in there too like from when I was working in the travel industry and it's kind of nice to look back and kind of see when when when did I go to that country or whatever and you can kind of look back in that app it's pretty cool that's great oh that sounds fun that's like a very modern version of uh stamps in a past sport isn't it I like it right well you know I don't have to get mine stamped cuz I have Global Entry William I don't even need to stop at that little booth that's true that's true uh you have smirking rights and waving rights from it yes that's exactly right all right this last this art this article William it just it really pains me this was a Tik Tok video oh yes by Celeste Ty I believe she had basically found I don't know in some archaeological dig an old iPod Shuffle and it was the model iPod Shuffle that is a clip you can actually clip it on your clothes or whatever and she was talking about it I like how in the article uh well who wrote this article was it Wes this is me no you did you did yes you wrote the article you had the line William this was this is a great line I'm just going to read your words here you said according to Newsweek more than two million people have watched Celeste Heist at freen bats on Tik Tok examine the device like she's on the Antiques Road Show so good but also this this video is is crazy making the fact that she thought this could be a hair clip just it just made me so mad I felt very old well I felt old at first but I realized actually I think she's really clever and she I mean it was her own ibud Shuffle she did know what it was and later she talked about the music that used to be on it and how weird it was going back to what she had whenever she was however old she was then so she's funny and she's clever about it but I was really impressed with the hair clip uh she's invented Apple's first hable accessory and it's just let me tell you if Craig fedi gets on stage with one of these iPod shuffles in his hair people will lose their minds people would lose it oh I want him to now please I so want him to that'd be amazing William did you have an iPod I assume you have had an iPod in the past I remember buying my wife Hunter one of the it would have been iPod Mini I think okay first and I got one for myself at this time first time I've been to the states bought it for both of us and at some point later on I had a full-size classic IOD CU I remember I remember you have this thing of um bump protection or something that even if the thing got bumped it would still play and most devices they would keep work they had a buffer buffer that's the word they had a 20 minute buffer and I've got it in my head that that iPod I had had a six week buffer in it or something stupidly over the top brilliant and I used to record interviews and things uh on it wow I I interviewed Steven fry actually and he was ecstatic about his iPod cuz he just got a laser pointer adapter for it things like this yes I didn't know they made stuff like that no so oh goodness this what how long ago would this been don't tell me I felt old enough about the Tik Tok video uh more than a week ago there were these devices yes uh I take it you were a big iPod kind of guy my first iPod was the iPod video it was like the black glossy version I think it was the fifth generation that was my first one and I don't know why I've been so tempted to Reby it on eBay there's ones for like 60 bucks they're scratched because like you know the back was like the GL you know the metallic super scratchable finish but man I I don't know why I kind of wanted to have it just cuz it was my very first iPod but I don't know maybe it's a weird Nostalgia thing but I had one of these iPod shuffles too and I had the OD mini that also was a clip I believe but also had the yeah and it had the screen it was a touch screen on it and there was even like watch bands that you could get and put the iPod mini in a watch band and it was kind of like the first quasi Apple watch it's amazing but yeah those are pretty cool this episode is brought to you by quip good health starts with good habits and quip makes it Easy by delivering all the Oral Care Essentials you need to care for your mouth the the quip electric toothbrush is loved by over 7 million mouths it has timed Sonic vibrations with 30-second pulses to guide you through a dentist recommended two-minute clean it's important to be brushing your teeth for at least 2 minutes and what's great is the brush will actually vibrate to let you know when those 2 minutes are up it's lightweight and has a Sleek design for adults and kids this is great 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wealth today that's wealthfront.com slapple Insider and get started today our thanks to wealthfront for sponsoring this episode let's do our favorites of 2021 William favorite device favorite software feature you said you already knew what device you would say is your favorite from this year so hit me what's your favorite easy M1 m 14in MacBook Pro I mean I actually I I do a thing called 58 Keys which is a YouTube for writers and I was thinking how can a writer justify spending this amount of money because you know you're not you only see the performance when you edit video and things like this but I right I recorded screen recorded myself doing typical writer things I copy typed a bit of Jane Austin I downloaded a PDF of a script I created a PDF I did four or five different things including browsing and I did exactly the same thing on Apple silicon Mac Mini uh iPad Pro with the M1 and the new Macbook and the differences even in typing were incredible I can't remember the figures now but it was something like it took I spent about 5 minutes uh doing all of this stuff on the uh Intel Mac Mini and it was under 3 minutes on the MacBook Pro you I'm not racing any just ordinary day-to-day operational typing and writing and I still feel it now every time I I do something it's just so fast so responsive and then of course when you do edit video I mean it's just wonderful so yeah no question no contest they could release the car in the next half hour and it wouldn't beat the mbook pro for me man I'm so tempted to also say the MacBook Pro but I think wouldn't you've gone for the 16in where I'm very clearly I'm a 14inch fan I am no I I love the 14in I had a 16-in MacBook Pro for a couple years it was the I9 like 2018 model and it was nice but man the 14in you get a little more screen size because it's 14 and the portability is just so much better yeah the 16inch I mean it's a surfboard and yes if you know if I was doing video editing on the laptop all the time if I didn't have an external monitor you know I totally get why the 16in is appe pealing but man that 14-in size is incredible I don't think it's an exaggeration in this moment to say it is kind of the perfect laptop for the moment you know this moment that we're in I think I don't know what else you would want you could say face ID no notch or whatever but those are minor quibbles you got to say the word quibbles right that's a oh yes yes it's a it's a proud word over here used daily in most things right quibbles and Q but it is it is really amazing it's an incredible machine but I will go differently I will say my favorite device from 2021 is actually the iPad mini oh I it is also the most buggy device I think Apple released this year which is like a weird dichotomy yes but because so much of my time is actually editing podcasts I edit multiple a week and now I do it all on the iPad mini and the lightness the portability it is fun to just kind of pick up and use and so it has made podcast editing more enjoyable doing it for long periods of time I'm not trying to balance the 12.9 in on something while I edit and I also have been using the iPad Mini for more Leisure things if it's reading I've been doing reading on the iPad mini and even sometimes just picking it up to watch a YouTube video I'll reach for that over my phone and over my Mac and it's just it's so good for so many things and so it is still super buggy you know I don't think you could say it's the best product of 2021 I think the best product is the new Macbook Pro I mean I I would never argue with that I think that is by far the best thing that Apple did this year but as far as my favorite device for what I use it for I really love the iPad mini and I'm glad they redesigned it like they did this year but the next question William yeah favorite software feature I'll give you some time to think I'll do mine first oh thank you please I'm really relieved you know there's been some you know you got share play you got the FaceTime improvements you have shortcuts on the Mac which again I'm glad it's there for me now that I've set it up how I want and using it more often Focus modes is probably my top feature software feature this year I love that when I activate a focus mode it activates it on all my devices so my Mac iPhone iPad everything is in that Focus mode the ability to choose what contacts can come through depending on the focus mode is brilliant and what apps can send you notifications I love that I've been able to work it into some automations and shortcuts which makes them really more useful and there's one day a week I try to take one day a week where I don't do any work which usually doesn't happen I usually end up working somewhat on that day but I have a focus mode specifically for that one day a week and that's the one Focus mode that I schedule to fire automatically it activates at 7 in the morning that morning and deactivates at like 11:00 p.m. that night and I have a home screen dedicated for that day where my email is not on the home screen slack is not on the home screen and having the focus mode change the home screen plus really control what notifications I get that day it's really been useful and helped me focus more pun intended but you know you know focus more and the ability to change home screens depending on Focus modes is really nice I also have a a video Focus mode if I'm going to film a video I'll activate a focus mode and I have a home screen that has none of my personal widgets on the home screen so I can be sure that I can film my iPhone or my iPad and I don't have to worry about you know what's on the home screen what widgets are showing my calendar or address you know I just have stuff on that home screen that is good for video and so Focus modes is is my feature of the year I think that was a great addition you figure yours out now William yes I have actually although I've only Rec just very recently started using that home screen changing thing I I think I missed that it was there and it's so handy when you do it yeah but I wish there was something like that on the Mac yes as well that it would but there isn't uh my it have to be an apple uh software feature because I do have one but there's lots of other software we could I mean I mean if you have another one too you can but yeah I want to I want to hear your Apple One what's your Apple feature very easily uh quick note but specifically quick note on the iPad you know it's not on the iPhone it is on the Mac I think it's just much better on the iPad um on the iPad you know you can swipe up for the corner write a note push it away again when you do that it comes up as one window no matter how many notes you've gotten there's a new one at the front the Mac will open up a new one every time you go in the corner for it so I end up with lots of little windows for it and finding the thing I want uh is p it's as good as the iPad for jotting something down quickly but for adding to things keeping notes building up a list of stuff as you go around researching the iPad is just so it's such a sweet spot for me uh I remember actually I wrote about this for Apple Insider when it was first announced and first out and I described it and you understand it you know you read this you think yes well that sounds very useful and then I finished the Apple Insider work had to do some research for the writer's Guild and in that moment I realized I actually needed the quick note and used it uh for other purposes than writing about it and since then absolutely hooked and addicted to it very nice okay or we had some listener questions and William I'm getting you in on this too yeah so thank you to all who tweeted these in keep tweeting questions we'll get to them in future episodes love to hear from you listeners but this first one from friend of the show Fernando Silva he's got an incredible YouTube channel talking about iPad stuff and productivity and creativity he asked what's the most iconic Christmas gift you were ever given wow doesn't need to be Tech but can be at any age I thought this was such a cool question yeah and so I'll let you think about it William I kind of have a no I can go with this I know I have two answers yeah two answers oh hit me hit me what is it first one when I was about I think 10 or 11 I was given a game called logic 5 uh which is like a I mean in those days it was it is just a game but it was its own full toy you had to work out sequences of numbers and overnight on Christmas Eve you know we've said our bre for Christmas Eve is overnight into Christmas Day I worked out the maths behind it so I I could never fail on that toy and I was given it and I was never not once defeated by its puzzles so it was iconic in that I felt so smug and my poor mother less impressed at how expensive this device was nice very nice so that was then and the fact he said he said non Tech am I allowed to say a gift I gave myself sure sure in my living room I have a very large poster on the wall of a symbol for time from the film arrival oh about 5 years ago I went out with a friend she she had cinema tickets something didn't know what it was it turned to be arrival and I utterly loved it I went back to see it again the next week I brought my wife to see it and then over Christmas it would have been four years ago now there was a midnight screening they re-released it at Christmas and so I went to see it in the snow midnight so and actually it's been tradition every year since I watch it around midnight on Christmas Eve and this year I'm going to watch it on the beautiful screen of my MacBook Pro but I'll probably on the couch underneath this time symbol so that's stuck with me oh my goodness that is amazing first of all I love that movie it's an incredible film and I might have to get some of this art this is amazing I did not know this existed it was tricky to find a few years ago actually so good luck now I'm and no I was going to say I'll swap you for one of your iPads or something but I won't no okay you won't do it you won't do it I'm sending you a link right now in Slack this is supposedly it's the arrival time that's the one that's is that the one oh no actually not quite as much as I love the film there is actually a mistake in it and there are two symbols that are different times they say are time and the one I've got is the other one and if you look at the other list they give that symbol you've shown me is a symbol for human and things so there's a bit of inconsistency there but I also just prefer the look of the other one which now of course I've got to try to find for you short of walking into my list Liv room well yeah I mean if you want to take a picture of yours and send it to me that would be welcome I'm going to send you one other link and this looks like a different symbol that might be the one oh goodness some people make tattoos out of this apparently yeah I can see maybe okay well while you look that up I will say one gift I'll do one Tech and one non-tech gift I think it was my freshman year of high school so I was probably 14 my parents gave me my professional trumpet oh and it was the trumpet that I used throughout high school and then into college and that's actually what my bachelor's degree is in is in trumpet trumpet performance and so that was just an Incredible Gift and yes carried me through a music career through college and so that was a wonderful thing and then a tech gift was actually I think the only Apple product that maybe my parents had bought me was the first iPod Touch I did not get the original iPhone my first first iPhone was the iPhone 4 and so the closest thing I had to it was the original iPod Touch I still have it it still turns on and I loved that thing I mean I would be on that iPod Touch I jail broke it you know I think the first year and messed around with it that way and I loved it and it was a you did what you jail broke William I was in college I did nothing else to do you couldn't just leave it alone and enjoy it for what it was it's not jailbroken now okay it's uh you know it's Stu I I have I reverted it don't worry about it okay now you have sent me the official time symbol so that's good okay you know a lot of this has worked out with the people behind wolf from Alpha and things the the the science and the maths behind it amazing that's awes of the two time symbols in the film I think this one is used more often uh towards the end when you see a lot of it it's this one I also just like it a lot and it was available when I got the poster so it is yeah it's that is brilliant very cool uple links and show notes to some of the stuff where you can get that all right this next question from arur schroer hope I pronounced that right he's asking what's your podcast setup in regards to soundproofing and I will post a photo as well and I will say I'm in a temporary recording setup as my house is being built and so my soundproofing right now is like nil I use the mic that I use which is the shore sm7b because it's very forgiving of slightly echoey rooms uh because it is you know very directional and all that but in the new house carpet is a must in whatever room you're recording if you can put any kind of sound dampening things on the ceiling for whatever reason that is great but I'm also going to put this link in show notes I will be getting these for the walls of my office these are gik Acoustics panels and they actually have very cool designs of these panels you can get them in various sizes various colors you can really customize how you want them to look and they are sound diffusers and absorbers which you need in a you know recording environment but they look really cool they don't look like sound panels so I will getting those in the in the new home and of course we'll send pictures when those are installed but I'll put that link in show notes if anyone is interested in those I'm afraid I have to warn you yes they don't sell them in Europe I clicked on your link and it went no hang on wait a minute you're not in America let's sort this out and it's taking me off to the same company in Europe and it's saying no nothing like that no not having that so Continental USA only by the sign of William what is it with over there you guys don't I don't understand what is happening over there yeah can open one everywhere yes Pandora's Box sher's cat all the above all right this next one was kuo Grumble he actually tweeted at me we talked about Swift playgrounds 4 last week and how it's out for iPad where you can actually develop an app and publish it all on the iPad and he uh sent me a tutorial on a YouTube channel it's from two straws and so very cool not a question but I thought it was a great recommendation and so if you're interested in Swift playgrounds 4 for iPad I'll put that link in show notes oh I like the sound of that I'll have a look at that excellent this next one from James Pro now he asks what's your favorite Apple product not necessarily the best but personal favorite current or historic wow this is this is a big question great question you know we talked about our favorite devices for this year yeah but favorite device ever do you know I might go for the power book 100 I think that's all those first three were revolutionary but was the one I used the most at the time the the simple things like the way it pushed the keyboard to the back and no one else had done it before and everyone does it afterwards cuz it's it's right yeah I I think I think that not sure what about you I would have to say it has to be my first Mac which was the 12in G4 power book because it was my very first Apple device ever and that device got me into Final Cut Express as it was named the time got me into video editing I got a pirated version of Adobe Photoshop don't tell anybody at the time yes that got me into graphic design and it got me into the world of Apple you know it was with that computer I didn't even know what I was buying really at the time I had just seen someone else use it and knew I I had to have it and that sent me on a trajectory to where I am today I mean on the Apple Insider podcast with you know Apple devices all around so that that have to be you know my favorite you know because it was my introduction to the world and I did lots of work on it from video editing to website building everything I I worked on a BBC television show very briefly in the uh' 80s it's famous here called called micro live it's a series of computer things and I I worked on an episode where they talked about desktop publishing and I think now there it was first on I was in television Center and there were all these computers around and there in the corner was this little uh Mac I can't remember if it would have been an SE by then but it was that sius of it and to look at that tiny machine how important that became in everything I do in my work in my career it's funny to look back when you I could it's been released now you can catch all the episodes on the bbci player or somewhere so I came across it was like this flashback to the start of my writing career that's very cool well this last question is another big one great questions from all you listeners thank you all for sending them in this is Andy L on Twitter considering the last five years what mobile technology would you hope Apple creates in the next 5 years that is a big one that that's a big one mobile technology mobile technology um you know I I don't know if this applies but I really hope apple is able to make really big leaps forward with the Apple watch and health you know the glucose monitoring looks like it's on the horizon lots of rumors about that other data that they're able to capture Health Data that might you know help early onset anything you know Alzheimer's to other diseases that you know I think Tim Cook has said publicly that health is very important to the company and they're focusing on that and I think that is an area that has the potential to help the most people I think that's Apple's at the core they make tools for people to be creative with and they make things uh you know I think now especially in the last five years with the Apple watch has made things to help make people's Health lives better and you know I'm excited to see what they do in that area the iPhone almost feels like such a mature product now I don't even know what could be added you know more augmented reality things would be cool that satellite feature where you'd be able to use your iPhone anywhere in the world that would be cool but I really think the health features have the potential to really affect the most people in the most positive way okay actually I'm going to I'm going to LEAP on that word mobile if you're going to force us to talk mobile I want to see an apple aircraft um oh my yeah forget the the car is so P isn't it God uh but yeah apple aircraft Apple Starship that's yeah 5 years yeah interplanetary app yeah yeah it's not working is it but no no no I don't think we're getting to Mars with an iPhone I'm just saying I don't think it's G to happen I don't I don't know I mean is there anything that you just really wish your iPhone could do that it can't do right now it's hard for me to to think it be I I quite like doubt if there was some way for it to magically fold out with a full-size keyboard that would be nice I mean I know you can get laser projectors and things but you you basically you're drumming your fingers into a desk or a wall or whatever it is so if there was something there not a virtual not an AR version of a keyboard but something that was real possibly but I can't say until this second I've even thought about that so I yeah I've basically have hankered after it all my life really is what I'm saying yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that that was a great question well from Wes from Apple Insider he said do we have any holiday themed automations and unfortunately I do not again because I'm in this temporary living thing I wasn't able to create any kind of cool Christmasy type things but William do you have one I doo actually yes if I walk into my living room I can say hey Iris or something very similar to that it's Christmas and all the Christmas lights around the tree in the room come on and spring into life that's wonderful very cool next year it's going to be epic I'm going to I'm going to time something to Carol of the bell's Trans Siberian Orchestra and it's going to be epic so next year I'll share mine well listeners if you have something that you think you could answer what you hope Apple develops in the next 5 years in their mobile technology we would love to hear from you tweet at William and myself our Twitter handles are in the show notes and we'd also love it if you could leave the show a festar rating and review in apple podcast several of you have done that recently and we really appreciate it you can also support the show with $5 a month in apple podcast or at I would love to hear that and don't forget to check out homekit Insider if you have not seen the slow-mo movie of me putting glitter in my beard let me highly recommend youtube.com/ homid Insider did you watch it William did you see me do that I saw a still of it and I felt that was enough I need to build up to this bit yes William it's very dramatic there's a great rendition of Carol of the Bells underneath me pouring glitter in my beard and I I think you should watch it I would love to know your thoughts on it okay but that's at youtube.com/ homid inssider you could see that and for this Christmas Eve special episode William merry Christmas happy New Year Merry Christmas to you too nice talking to you and to you as well to all our listeners out there have a safe and fun holidays and tune in next week for a special New Year's episode leave a couple hours for it I think you're going to really love it and we'll catch you next time\n"