In the News
In the News
228: Immersive Hoops 🏀 Gemini-Assisted Siri 📲 and Sliding Negotations 🤝
Watch the video!
In the News blog post for January 16, 2026
https://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2026/01/in-the-news812.html
00:00 The Future Future of Live Sports
12:34 Siri and Gemini, Sittin’ In A Tree
26:16 2.09 Carat Siri
27:52 Subscribing to the Creative Apples
40:50 Stopping the Spammers and Scammers
45:46 Retrocade
48:36 Sliding Negotiations
49:23 Brett’s Gadget: Nuwave Smart Mug
53:54 Jeff’s Gadget Category: Dash Cams
Jeff: Apple Vision Pro is the future of live sports
Rebecca Bellan | TechCrunch: Google’s Gemini to power Apple’s AI features like Siri
Brian Chen | The New York Times: A.I. Has Arrived in Gmail. Here’s What to Know.
Gabrielle Rockson | People: Siri Helps Texas Family Find 2.09-Carat Brown Diamond at State Park After 7-Year-Old Son Begged to Go Mining for Crystals
Apple: Apple introduces Apple Creator Studio, an inspiring collection of the most powerful creative apps
Jason Snell | Six Colors: Apple’s pro bundle makes sense, but making iWork freemium doesn’t
Glenn Fleishman | Six Colors: Step up blocking unwanted calls and texts
Apple: Popular PC franchise Civilization comes to Apple Arcade on February 5
Brett’s Gadget: Nuwave Smart Mug
https://www.nuwavenow.com/products/nuwave-smart-mug
https://www.costco.com/p/-/nuwave-hot-brew-temperature-control-mug-with-brewing-system/4000407154
Jeff’s Gadget Category: DashCam
For example, Car & Driver magazine list of Best Dash Cams for 2025:
https://www.caranddriver.com/car-accessories/g46063800/best-dash-cams-tested/
Brett Burney from http://www.appsinlaw.com
Jeff Richardson from http://www.iphonejd.com
Welcome to In the News for January 16, 2026. I am Brett Burney from appsinlaw.com.
And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhone JD. Hey, Brett.
Good morning, Jeff. I tell you what, let's start off with sort of a continuation from last week,
because when we last met our superhero, you were going to watch a basketball game on your Vision
Pro. You weren't watching it live, but you were going to because you weren't in like the geographical
area with the correct area, but you watched the recording of it. And I was thrilled to read your
review of the recording, watching this InVision Pro, which it just sounds like it was amazing.
Yeah, my title said at all. I mean, this is the future of watching live sports at your house. I
really do think it is. You know, as I started off, I remember way back when we used to all, you know,
My kids are young enough that they don't remember the days when we used to watch standard definition television.
But we do, where 4.3, it was rainy, and you had to get close and stuff like that.
And when that transition happened to HD, which for me happened a little over 20 years ago, when I got that first HD TV, the screen was wider, so it was closer to a movie theater.
But the definition was so much better.
I mean, I remember for football games especially, it's like, oh, my goodness, this is the way that you want to watch things.
There's no comparison.
And of course, now we all take that for granted.
And I had that similar level of wow-ness when I watched what Apple did for this basketball
game because they had these immersive cameras that take 3D video with left and right eyes
different.
And as I know from the other immersive videos that Apple has for the Vision Pro, you feel
like you are there.
And so here, you felt like you were at this basketball game, the Lakers versus the Bucs.
They had a camera position that right next to the court, right in the middle of the court.
So when the camera position was there, I could look left, I could look right, I could look up, and I could see the scoreboard and the things above me.
And, you know, it was as if I was there.
The resolution was just a tiny, tiny bit grainier than some of the other really slickly produced Apple videos that they have that you've seen before.
Even the one, like, for example, the Metallica one that was so good with that concert.
Oh, yeah.
is and i i don't know it's the nature of the equipment or the fact they were streaming it
live whatever it is but i mean that will improve over time but again don't get me wrong after a
minute or two you don't see what i'm talking about but it was great it was like you're sitting there
in these courtside seats that i would never be able to afford because they cost thousands if not
tens of thousands of dollars um and it was a great way to watch a basketball game and it really gave
me the feeling of being there in that fantastic seat plus it was even better because unlike being
stuck, quote unquote, in a seat that's an amazing seat, they would move the cameras so that when the
action was close to a basket, you would get this view from behind the basket in a place where you
could never sit in real life, where you could actually see the faces of the players as they're
there and see the dunks and everything else. And we've seen these views before on a regular
television, which is today. But when you're there immersively and you can just sort of see it 3D,
It's as if you're actually sitting up there.
It is really something special.
So that aspect of it was amazing.
But then additionally, because it's immersive, you don't have to just look in this little
rectangular area where they want you to look.
You can look anywhere you want to look.
So things might be going on in the court.
Like I mentioned, during the breaks, they would have the Laker girls come out there and perform.
And I could watch the performance, but I could also look to my right and I could see all the
camera people during the game.
I can look to my left and I can see the coach right there telling his team what to do.
You just like as if you were in a regular arena, you can decide what you're going to look at at any one time.
And that just adds this level of immersion that is it's it's hard to describe.
It really is a whole different thing.
So much that like I want more of this.
I'm glad that Apple is going to do some future games.
It worked particularly well for basketball because the court is of a size that if you're sitting there in the middle, you can pretty much see the entire court left to right.
There was a tiny part that was a little off camera in the very corner, but you could see it from other angles.
So it works well for basketball.
I suspect it would also work well for something like hockey that has a similar size area.
Now, for a larger field like football, soccer, you know, maybe even baseball for those sorts of things, I'll be interested to see.
I'm sure Apple will try it.
You know, with the field being so big, you wouldn't necessarily have the best view.
But, you know, we have this in real life.
If I go to a real life football game at the at the my local New Orleans Superdome to watch the Saints, you know, even if I have fantastic seats right in the 50 yard line, when the action is way downfield, I'm not I'm going to be far from it.
And sometimes in those cases, I might look up at the big jumbotron screen they have to like look at it.
And you can do the same thing in these immersive videos.
When I was watching the basketball game, if they, you know, they showed some instant replays.
But sometimes I would just look up at the little board that everybody in the arena could see to watch the instant replays there.
But this is just this is something different.
It's really special.
So to be clear now, this wasn't like you being able to switch to cameras yourself.
So it wasn't sort of like interactive that way.
but this is immersive so in other words it looks like here you had it at the bottom that there's
like a director uh being able to switch to these cameras in this angle so you couldn't choose which
camera you wanted to watch but um you could look around whichever camera angle that you were at as
opposed to you know just being courtside and just like sitting there like that's the only view that
you could have you would sometimes see the back of the basketball hoop for example or you said i
I think you mentioned that you could be up in the stands at some point.
So you weren't controlling that, which I think is fine,
but it just seemed like it would be a little bit more interesting.
I mean, I keep getting confused, I think, between interactive and immersive.
But somebody else was deciding which camera you were viewing at any one time.
Right. And that's an important distinction.
Again, this is just like if you're watching in regular television,
there's going to be the director and the team,
and they're going to decide they're going to have their little truck outside,
And they're going to decide right now we're showing camera one, right now we're showing
camera two.
So that is something that we're all familiar with.
But I do have to admit that especially for immersive, there was a part of me that would
have appreciated having that ability.
And I know that at least one person, I didn't link to him today, but I think it was Matthew
Pan or Panzerino or someone like that, he was critiquing.
He's like, oh, I wish it had stayed in a single camera position, just the one right in the
middle of the court the entire time.
And he thought it took away from his experience.
I disagree.
I actually prefer, I would have preferred to do it the way that Apple did here, because
I want a director who knows what they're doing to say, this is the most exciting part of the
game right now.
You know, right now you want to be watching this.
I mean, again, you can figure it out because, you know, if people are next to a basket,
but like, I thought that that was appropriate to make those decisions.
And there were even sometimes where like, you know, one of the coaches might have stood
in front of the camera right next to the court.
So of course you'd have to go to a different camera or you'd be looking at somebody the
entire time.
but there's no question in the future,
this would be better if you not only had the immersive,
but also had the interactive portion of it.
And,
and I can't help but think about that because we know that when it comes to
sports,
Apple recently signed the contract with F one to do the F one races.
And I know I haven't done,
I haven't watched an F one race much myself,
but I know that people that have like people like being able to select,
do you want to look at the view from this car or from this car or from this
side angle? And some of like the F one app,
I think it allows you to have some of that.
I suspect that Apple is going to do that for the non-immersive 2D F1 broadcast that it's going to do in 2026.
And so it would be nice if they did have this ability.
Now, I know there's bandwidth issues.
Like if you're going to have the ability to switch cameras, does that mean that like this takes up a ton of bandwidth to have immersive one degree video, 8K per eye or whatever it is, 4K per eye, 8K per eye.
Forget what it is.
But there's a lot.
This is huge bandwidth.
So there would be some technical challenges, but what you're mentioning, that would also
be the future.
And that's the most important thing.
I loved watching this game.
This was so, and I'm not even a big basketball fan, but what was most exciting for me is
that I felt like this is the future.
The technology is going to get better.
You know, the vision pros or whatever the future devices are called are going to get
cheaper.
I can't wait to have something, as I mentioned at the end of my article, where I could share
with someone else so that someone else could wear their vision pro and we could like look
at each other and talk about the game and then look at the game.
You know, when the Apple Vision Pro is on your head, it's a little difficult to have
a drink.
And if you want to have a beer while you're watching the game, that's a problem.
You know, there are many very important things that we need to work out.
But again, mark my words, this is going to be the future as this technology develops.
And I love that Apple is at the forefront.
I see even another revenue stream here.
You know, they could have a camera right next to like the rich and famous that are sitting
on the sideline.
They could have had a camera.
So, you know, you could be Vision Pro, but if you turn to your left or right, you can see Leonardo DiCaprio maybe sitting there.
That's hilarious.
I like that.
Also, thank you for your very good attempt at taking screenshots to include within your post.
I know you could take screenshots on the Vision Pro, but in some cases they'll not allow that.
And I think you said it would just be black, right?
So did you put your phone up underneath your Vision Pro to take these screenshots?
Like that's pretty amazing.
It was the only thing I could think of to do.
So I just shoved my iPhone underneath my Vision Pro glasses and I was taking these pictures
that of course were blurry and everything else.
But at least we get, and even this is not really appropriate because like the one that
you're showing right now, what you can't tell from the single frame is that I could have
looked up and down and left and right and seen a lot more.
This makes it look.
but it gives you at least a little sense of what that incredible seat is.
And right now you're showing on the screen for people watching the one that's right behind the basket.
And you see how you have like that, the bar that holds the basket up, which is called, what's that called?
Like a stanchion or whatever the thing is.
Something like that.
But like that feels like it's 3D, like it's right next to you.
It's really sort of cool.
Oh man, that's really cool.
So I'm looking at the press release from Apple now.
That was a game on January 9th.
And like I think I mentioned, because you're not in Los Angeles, you couldn't watch the game live on your Vision Pro.
But apparently if you were in Los Angeles area, you had a Vision Pro.
You could have done that.
But they have five more games, I think, coming up.
Yeah, mostly in February and in March that you'll be able to do the same.
I don't think you'll be able to watch them live.
And you may or may not be able to watch them for free after because you watched it through, I think, the NBA app, right?
Because they wanted to get as many people.
I don't know that they're going to be allowing you to watch all of them for free, but that would be pretty fun.
Yeah, I don't know that they've announced that because the NBA app is something that you can pay for these league passes.
So if I had wanted to watch the replay in 2D, I don't think I could do so without paying for that.
But at least that first one was free.
What was interesting to me about that schedule is that I just assumed that Apple was going to only do this in Los Angeles, you know, right there in California, close to them.
But I actually see looking at the schedule that on March 5th, the game against the Denver Nuggets is going to be in Denver at the Ball Arena.
So I guess they're going to pack up these fancy 3D cameras.
I believe Apple took like seven.
On the road.
Yeah.
So they're going to be packing these up and getting them there.
So I guess that makes sense to do that.
But that'll be interesting.
But again, Apple, this is all just Apple experimenting.
because there's this, I suspect everyone, they're going to try something new again.
And it'd be fun if every one of them was free, but, but we'll see.
But even if they're paid for, I tell you what, I would consider paying for it to do it.
Cause it was a really, really cool experience, not just the game, but again, it's the whole
experience.
I mean, even it's like the, you know, like the girls performing or during, during, you
know, the halftime you have like the silly, somebody from the stands comes and tries to
make a shot for, you know, a hundred thousand dollars.
If he can make the big court shot, you know, which, you know, spoiler alert, he did not
make it.
But it's all of those sorts of antics that you see, and you're right there.
I mean, it's the best seat in the house.
You're right there seeing it all.
It was really, really incredibly interesting.
Well, thanks for the report on that.
I've been looking forward to it because I wanted to see how it went.
And while that was a big news, at least for us, I'm kind of burying the even bigger news that happened this past week.
Oh, my goodness.
We've all been reporting for a long time now about Apple's involvement with AI.
How are they doing?
How are they building it and everything?
And up until this week, I would have felt like I would have won any bet to say that Apple
would have gone to be more of a partner with OpenAI and ChatGPT.
But boy, I would have lost this week because the big news is that Apple and Google announced
an agreement, at least verbally, if not, if they haven't, you know, I don't know if the
even dry, whatever, that Apple and specifically Siri are going to start using Google's Gemini
AI tool inside, not just in the Siri, but you have been explaining a little bit that
it's going to be even bubbling up and maybe some of the other apps and everything.
Just incredible.
I'm not fully surprised, but I did not think it would come down to Google Gemini.
That's for sure.
Yeah.
We all know that when Apple first announced in the summer of 2024 that they were going to have all these cool new AI features coming out, including an improved version of Siri, that they were trying to use some AI foundation models that they had developed in-house.
And for whatever reason, you know, apparently they just weren't up to snuff.
And so last year, you know, the word got out that Apple said, well, you know, there's other companies that do this.
OpenAI has ChatGPT.
Google has Gemini.
Anthropic has Claude.
There are some other companies, too, that do this.
There's a French company.
And there's some companies in China.
I'm sure that Apple looked at them all and said, well, you know, other people are ahead
of us on this.
Maybe we should just go with what we think is the best.
And yeah, it means we're paying some money, but at least we have the good technology.
And again, this is not going to necessarily be at the top level that we, you and I as users
will see.
This is the foundation models at the bottom.
This is going to be, you know, the code that's running on, sometimes on device, sometimes
on Apple's own private servers and stuff.
but it's just that they have decided to use the Google Gemini code. And what I find a little,
I mean, you're right, Brett, that because of Apple previous efforts with ChatGPT, you might
have thought that they would use it here. The thing that makes sense here is what Apple wants to do
with AI is use it, especially on iPhone, all their platforms, but especially the iPhone.
And that's something where Google and Apple sort of have similar interests, right? Because Google
has its Android platform and its own Google phones and Apple has phones. And so I could,
it would not surprise me if the types of approaches to AI that open, that, that chat GPT was doing
open AI, they, you know, they were more for just like a big, you know, it was, it was a different
approach. It was probably, it was a different approach than what Apple and Google had in mind.
Plus Apple and Google have long had a relationship on a tons of different things.
You know, Google pays Apple tons of money every year for Google to be the default search engine on the iPhone and other platforms, like billions of dollars a year.
And so, you know, maybe they'll just say, well, okay, you already pay me X.
You know, maybe we'll just get like a discount on that and you can throw in Gemini for free and we'll use it for the financial miles.
And one more thing, Brett, you just said that the ink may not be dry on the deal.
We don't know.
But if I had to guess, I actually suspect that this was agreed upon a while ago, like last year.
And it's only being announced now.
And the reason I say that is because some of these press reports are saying that the new version of Siri, which, again, Apple first told us was coming out way back in 2024.
They're saying that the new version of Siri is going to come out this calendar year, 2026.
And so this makes me think that they've actually been working together for a while.
In fact, Google recently, I mean, Apple recently hired someone, his name slips my mind right now, who used to be in charge of Gemini at Google.
You know, there's just a lot of signs here that this probably has been in the works for a while, even if it's just being announced right now.
And that's good.
And the reason I say that's good is because I want something like soon, right?
I want to use it today.
So hopefully they are far enough along that maybe this spring or maybe more likely this summer at WWDC in June, Apple's big developer conference.
Maybe they'll announce this as being like part of iOS.
We're in 26 now, maybe iOS 27 or something like that.
So, you know, maybe we will start to actually be able to use this, you know, come September when the next version of iOS comes out.
Maybe even sooner this year.
We'll see.
But I hope it's soon.
I just Googled it.
Apple hired Amar Subramanya, who previously led engineering for Google's Gemini Assistant and even worked at Microsoft.
So, wow.
And when was that?
Did they announce that?
I want to just say it was in the last year.
I think it was sometime last year on there.
So, yeah, so that makes me think that this, you know, this idea was at least percolating
for a while.
I think one of the reasons, obviously, as you alluded to just now, that I thought OpenAI
was got to be the top front runners because it's already sort of built in, right?
If you ask Siri a question and they don't know, would you like me to check chat GPT?
They already had a very, very surface level kind of a relationship going on there.
So that's why I thought. But on the other hand, when I saw this, I thought immediately back to Google Maps.
Like once upon a time, iPhone did not, you know, when Apple needed to have a Maps app, they knew that that was something that they needed.
They didn't have a Maps app. So they just basically started using Google Maps.
Like that was the default map app on the iPhone. And to the point where today I still use Google Maps probably primarily than the Apple Maps.
I mean, Apple Maps continues to get better on that. But but I remember that that was such a big deal.
In fact, there was a lot of brouhaha when we tried the Apple tried to make that change because it wasn't as good as Google Maps.
But they've long had this relationship. Well, at the same time, I like how the reporter here for TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellin,
mentions at the very bottom of this of this this piece that they're they're also have many lawsuits against each other.
that they're going through.
It's like antitrust lawsuits and stuff like that.
But that's just really kind of business par for the course
a lot of times on something like that,
at least from a consumer level,
from those of us that want to interact with this information,
you know, with these apps and with this technology.
I mean, it does make sense in that way.
And maybe Apple, in fact, I'm confident
Apple has been working continuously on their AI products.
It's just that, you know,
if they know they're a patient company,
they can't get to it maybe in two or three years,
This absolutely makes sense to utilize what Google Gemini can bring to the table right now.
And I think it's a good move.
The Maps example that you bring up is an interesting one, because that was an example of something that at first Apple didn't have what they needed in-house.
So they used Google.
And then they developed their own.
And now we have the Maps app.
And here it's the same.
This is just beginning.
Is Apple going to be using Gemini for forever?
Or are they going to stick with it for the next few years and then eventually replace it with their own like they did in Maps?
I don't know.
Or is it going to be something like search?
You know, there was a time way back when, when people thought if you are a computer company
in this internet age, you have to have your own search engine, right?
And Microsoft, of course, did that.
Microsoft came out with Bing and Bing is still out there, although not, I'm sure too many
people use it, but it is out there.
But Apple decided, you know, we're not going to have, I'm sure they looked at it, but they
decided we're not going to have our own search engine.
We're just going to make Google the default.
We're going to let Google pay us some money to do that so that it works out well for us
And Google gets advantages to it too, of course, because of all the search history stuff that they use to sell ads and stuff like that.
That's why they make so much money.
So this is just another example of you need to decide for the things that make sense for you to do yourself, great.
But you can't do everything.
And for some things, it's going to be something else.
And then for some things, it's going to be in between.
You're going to start by relying on someone else and then do your own.
And time will tell what the future is for AI.
But there's all sorts of, you know, precedents and examples that makes me think that, yeah, you can totally understand this business decision.
But again, what's most important to me is just I want something that works.
I want something that we can use this.
Exactly.
You know, back in 2024, when Apple previewed this, we've talked about this before.
There was the infamous, and I say infamous because they pulled it, infamous advertisement ad on TV where the actor Bella Ramsey was hired.
and she showed off this example of how you could just talk to Siri on your phone and say,
oh, who is that guy over there?
Didn't we go to lunch at that one place at that one time?
And because the phone uses AI to know your calendar, to know your notes, to know your
emails, to know everything else, to know everything about you, it can understand that just like
a really smart human assistant.
And it could say, oh, well, that's John so-and-so and y'all had lunch together at such and such
a restaurant in this state.
And, you know, afterwards you had a meeting with him or those sorts of things that would be really useful, right?
There's privacy concerns.
And of course you have to address all of that stuff.
That's a big one.
Yeah.
But Apple predicted in 2024 that they were going to do this.
And so far they have been unable to deliver.
My hope is that now they will.
And as evidence for that, that's another story I linked to today is that Google has announced that it's also using Gemini for the Google app.
So things like Gmail, regardless of whether you use an iPhone or an Android or whatever you use it on, that they are going to be integrating throughout this year.
They're starting now with just a few test users to integrate Gemini so that, for example, Gemini would know everything that is in your emails.
And so if you ask questions like, you know, what are the most important emails I need to deal with today?
Or, you know, what are the emails on this subject?
Or, you know, what do you think about such and such?
It's going to give you a more informed answer because it knows the contents of your emails back and forth on this.
And of course, there's privacy issues involved in this.
Don't get me wrong, but it could be really, really useful.
And so we know that this is where Apple is going because they told us in that commercial.
We know this is where Google is going because they announced it this week.
And so it's really interesting stuff going on here.
I am concerned.
The privacy thing is pretty big because that was another thing that I thought about this coming out.
I think when the Bella Ramsey commercial came out, at least personally, I had a confidence level like, OK, well, Apple is going to do this and do it right on the privacy side.
Like, I wouldn't mind Apple having access to my calendar.
They kind of already do.
I don't they're not using it, you know, from the aspect in the in the example that you're giving.
But Google, on the other hand, it's like I don't know that I have that level of trust.
And this is a good article that you link to today from Brian Chan at The New York Times.
it is going to be worthwhile to see how that integration is going to come.
I feel like I'm leaning towards, yes, I'm trusting a little bit more because Apple is involved.
And I know that they continue to make those declarations about, you know, they're committed to the privacy thing.
But man, when you pull in a Google aspect on here, I just I'm going to be nervous.
We'll see how it goes.
You know, I'm hoping that in some cases could just be a simple toggle, right?
It's like, do you want Google Gemini to have access to this?
I mean, I don't know how all this is going to play out, but my hope is that it's not going to at least, you know, just be like, here it is, or you don't get it, or you get it, you know, all of it kind of a thing.
Anyway, but that privacy thing, I'm glad you brought up because it is, it's at least a concern for me now until we see how that's going to be rolled out.
Yeah. And we've been through this before because I remember when Gmail started to become a thing, people would say, oh, well, you know, we know that Google, if you're doing Google searches, Google takes everything that you type and they use it to, you know, maybe try to come up with a profile of you and to sell ads and all that sort of stuff.
That's how they make money through their ads. Is Google going to be, you know, taking my email content and selling it to Home Depot so that they can, you know, and people have to get over a level of trust of, well, no.
So there's not going to be any person at Google that's tweeting your emails.
It's just their computer system hosts the emails and runs its algorithms to do, like,
if you search for the word, you know, such and such in your email, it finds it.
It doesn't mean a real person knows about it.
But these are all issues to think about.
And so, you know, you got to think that when Apple agreed with Google to use Gemini just
for the foundation model, that this stuff's going to be locked down.
Apple wouldn't have it any other way.
And in Google itself, the thing that they announced this week for their apps, they're going to have to make people comfortable with the privacy aspects of it.
And then especially as attorneys, we have to be even more cognizant of attorney-client privilege and confidentiality and stuff like that.
So these are important.
I mean, I feel that they will be worked out, but make no mistake.
These are things that we need to figure out the answers to, and that's why there is this article in the New York Times about it.
But I do think in the long run it's going to get worked out.
And if it does, well, then it means that we can use the AIs to have a better understanding of all of our information, emails, calendars, notes, et cetera, so that the technology can help us in a way that would have been impossible without the AI.
And that's a really promising – it's basically like having an assistant, a personal assistant that's with you at all times and knows your schedule.
People in Hollywood might have the person that's always with them that knows everything about them and stuff like that and organizes their life.
So I would love for my iPhone to be my little buddy that does all that stuff for me as well in a way that's safe, but also really helpful.
So that's what I hope for.
Maybe Google can help Siri find the gem in Gemini.
This is a great little story you lead to today.
Siri helps the Texas family find a 2.09 carat brown diamond at an Arkansas state park.
Apparently, the schoolteacher, his son wanted to go mining for, you know, gems or minerals or crystals or something like that.
So they go to Arkansas, couldn't find anything, getting ready to leave.
And all of a sudden, it sounds like this story here that because they were getting ready to leave, but he found this brown diamond right at the very end.
Now, I think as you said in your comments here, it's not like Siri knew that this is where the diamond was going to be.
But I don't think they would have gone to this particular state park if Siri hadn't at least recommended it.
And I just thought there was a cute story.
Yeah, but you could joke about how much Siri was involved in this article and People Magazine.
But the truth is, I did ask Siri where to go.
And Siri said, go to the next door state, go to Arkansas.
And this is where the state park where you can mine for diamonds.
And sure enough, he found one.
So it's pretty cool.
And I was doing some, I don't know for sure, but it looks like the diamond he found, you know, two carats sounds pretty big to me because it's a brown diamond.
I think we're talking, depending upon all sorts of features, like a couple thousand dollars.
But even so, I mean, that's pretty cool, you know, that they found a diamond.
So it's a great story.
So, yes, maybe Siri.
And this was the current Siri.
Imagine if this was the new Siri with Gemini.
That's what I'm saying.
You'd be finding the Hope Diamond or something.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
Okay.
Well, Apple came out with that announcement, but they were not done.
Oh my goodness, what a big week.
Apple, in addition to making this announcement
or revealing that they are working with Google Gemini,
they're going to work with Google Gemini,
they introduced yet another subscription.
I'm almost getting to the point
of subscription exhaustion here, Jeff.
I mean, I understand why they're doing it
and it makes sense.
But this week, Apple introduced Apple Creator Studio,
which really, I feel like focuses mostly on Final Cut Pro,
which is a high-end movie development editing tool,
Logic Pro, which is for sound,
Pixelmator Pro, which is for photos.
This is really interesting how this is going to go.
They included some other things with that as well.
I mean, we'll get to that in just a moment,
but just interesting.
They're going to bundle all of these up.
All of them are available
that you could purchase now individually,
but now you could have a subscription
to where you can get access to them all the time.
Yeah, Apple loves subscription revenue.
Everybody does because it means you have a steady source of income.
And it's one of the reasons that, you know, I prefer it when I have an app that I really
like on my iPhone.
I would rather have a subscription at a reasonable price because then I am continuing to give
the developer money year after year to make the app better as opposed to a one-time thing.
I mean, not that I need to worry about poor old Apple going out of business.
But so I understand the idea.
Apple, of course, sees it as a good revenue stream.
Traditionally, all of these apps were sold individually.
And in fact, some of them like Final Cut Pro when it first came out was like 900 bucks.
I mean, it was super expensive, nothing I would ever consider buying.
And then over the years, the price went down.
A number of years ago, it was selling for 200 bucks, which was still a lot because I'm
certainly not a professional video person, but I do work with home movies a lot.
And I had been using the iMovie program for years and I had sort of reached the ceiling
of like, I was running up against things that iMovie could not do.
And I wanted to do a little bit more.
And so some friends of mine had recommended that I move up to Final Cut Pro because it's just so much more capable, although a little bit more complicated.
But to tell you the truth, it's very similar to iMovie.
And so I did that.
I bought it for $200 a long time ago, and I've used it since then.
But now, and I could continue to use it on my Mac, but I saw this coming last year because last year Apple released Final Cut Pro for the iPad.
And I use it.
It works really well.
That's right.
It's not as capable as the desktop version right now.
But and lots of times I'll start a project on my iPad just because I love the iPad.
It's easy to deal with the video and you can use your hand and it works really well.
And I can just sit there on the couch.
But I often get to a point where, OK, now I want to do something a little bit more sophisticated.
I'm going to send this project to my Mac and finish up my Mac.
But that's fine because most of the work's already done at that point.
But when Apple came out with the iPad version last year, you had to pay a subscription for it.
I think I paid $50 a year.
And so that was that one.
Now, instead of paying $50 a year, I could either pay $12.99 a month or $129 for a year
to get not only the Final Cut Pro that I currently pay for, but all of these other apps too.
And I'm thinking about it because I personally don't use Logic because I don't really create
music.
I would love to if I had more free time.
That would be a lot of fun.
I love to play piano, but I don't use that.
I haven't used Pixelmator Pro, but I hear good things about it.
It is a competitor to Photoshop.
And people, it's been around for a long time.
Apple purchased the company about, you know, in 2024, they purchased the company and they
got Pixelmator.
They got, they got Photometer, which is an app I do use in my iPad.
And I've heard good things about it.
Um, and I might go for this bundle because even though I have paid Adobe a subscription
for Photoshop for a number of years now, I know that Photoshop is above my head.
I mean, I use Photoshop when I put together images for iPhone JD and for other stuff.
Right.
But I'm constantly like, how do I do this?
And I have to Google it and look at some YouTube video of someone showing me how to do it.
It's just, and again, don't get me wrong.
As an attorney who writes words every day, I know Microsoft Word like it's the back of my hand.
Every little setting and thing, I can do everything on Word.
And so I know that there are people that are photography professionals and they know how to do everything about Photoshop.
They should.
That's their job.
That's just not me.
I'm just more of like a prosumer.
And so I've always wondered if I should be using Photoshop or not.
And so maybe I will give Pixelmator Pro a try, not only because I can use it on my Mac,
but also for the first time.
And this is, I guess, the only new app that was announced by Apple this week is that Pixelmator
Pro is coming to the iPad.
So you'll have a lot of power on your iPad.
They currently have an app called Photomator on the iPad, which is a little bit more simple.
They have a regular version of Pixelmator, but not Pixelmator Pro.
So anyway, I'm going to take a look at this and see if it makes sense for me.
But clearly, if you are a creative professional within this bundle, these are great apps.
No question.
Right.
And if you are like a prosumer like me, someone who is like, you're getting a little beyond
GarageBand for music and iMovie for video and just like the photos app for photos,
if you wanted to go to that next level, you could either try this out for a month as you
want to try it out or do a year an annual subscription and and try out all these new all
these apps here's what this includes here you get the final cut pro like we're just talking about
logic pro pixel meter pro and then we'll come to this in just a second keynote pages and numbers
are listed here interesting okay but then also freeform which is an app that came out what i
want to say three or four years ago where it's like a you know like almost like a whiteboard if
you will kind of a thing and then motion compressor and main stage which i i feel like are a little
bit more like add-ons slash utilities for you know creating animations or something like that and
and compressing files that kind of a thing um and main stage still performers when they perform
on stage but yeah okay exactly exactly i mean again that's more going to the professional side
i don't know if you and i are going to use something like main stage in there so just like
any subscription i feel like i know you're going to use final cut pro but would you ever use logic
Pro. I mean, I guess if you pay for a subscription and you have it already, maybe you would,
but I don't know that you would have gone out and purchased it. Right. But this is always a thing
with subscriptions. And frankly, you know, I guess I'm not too bothered by that. I do like the idea
of supporting the subscriptions. Can I ask this? Do we know, Jeff, if you purchase this Creator
Studio subscription and you get the Final Cut Pro, the Pixelmator Pro, does that include
the Final Cut Pro for the iPad as well?
Or is this just for Mac on there?
Oh, it does.
It does.
And in fact, to make it maybe confusing,
they're going to continue to have
like the current versions of the app,
like the Final Cut Pro app on my iPad
that I have right now,
it has an icon that sort of looks
like the traditional Final Cut Pro.
But what you were just showing on the screen,
they have like a color.
They have a different icons in here,
which I don't know if you can argue
are better or worse,
but it's going to be a different version of the app.
And then the question is going to be feature parity.
Like, will both versions of Final Cut Pro for the iPad have the same features?
They haven't answered those questions yet.
But yes, by paying for this, most of these work on the iPad, not all of them.
Like you can't use Compressor or some of the others.
But the big ones, we're going to work on both Mac and iPad.
Okay, well, that's good to know.
Let's get back to a big question I have here because they include Keynote, which is almost like the analogy to PowerPoint,
pages like Microsoft Word and Numbers, Microsoft Excel.
Well, those three apps, what we used to call the iWork suite, I don't know that Apple officially calls that anymore.
They come free.
That's one of the great things about it.
They've come free on Macs and iPads and even on the iPhone.
You don't have to pay anything for them.
And yet they're bundled in here as well.
But I think either you said it or maybe one of the articles that you linked to, it's really that you get some additional probably AI-powered features in these apps if you subscribe to the Creator Studio here.
Yeah, and it's a really interesting decision.
So the apps continue to be free, but free with an asterisk or freemium, if you will, in that certain features of the apps you will only have if you pay for this subscription.
And if you already pay for the subscription, that's fine because you get some additional things.
But what's going to be curious is people that don't.
So like what we're talking about here is, let's say, for example, Keynote.
Keynote is fantastic for doing presentations.
I know lots of attorneys that use it for court presentations or presentations to clients or conferences and stuff like that.
And apparently, if you subscribe to Apple's new bundle, you will be able to get some additional Keynote features, like, for example, some templates.
You know, it's always nice to have a really pretty template. So they'll have some special templates that you wear and some tech and some technologies that use AI. Like, for example, if you have an outline, it will turn the outlines into slides. This is something you can already do on Microsoft with Copilot and stuff. Right. Right. You know, in PowerPoint. So but let's say here here's the here's the quote. And then there'll be similar things for the other ones, too, for numbers and for pages and stuff like that. And eventually for the free format.
But here is the thing that's going to rub people, I think, the wrong way.
Let's say I'm somebody like an attorney.
Let's just pretend I have no creative side when it comes to art.
I don't do movies.
I don't do photos.
I don't do videos.
And so it would make no sense for me to pay $129 a year for the suite.
But what I do use is numbers for spreadsheets and keynotes for presentations.
And I want to have all the features.
And so am I going to have to pay $12.99 a month or $129 a year just to get those extra features that otherwise would be part of a bundle that means nothing to me?
Right now, it looks like the answer is yes.
Now, maybe Apple will offer some way that you could get just the add-on features without all the creative apps for like a lower price.
But otherwise, it is curious because it does sort of think like they're taking two things that don't belong together.
you know, all these creative tools. Oh, and also all you productivity people and let's put you
together. And it's like, wow, what are they doing together? Why is Apple bundling it? It's curious.
It is curious. Yeah. And then you had this article from Jason Snell as well, where he's going through
some of the arguments on there as well. So to be clear, we should still get the free versions of
keynote pages and numbers, just like we've always been doing now for a while.
It's just that it may not have those additional, at least at this point, it won't have those
additional AI powered tools.
And to your point, you were saying in Microsoft PowerPoint, I do enough presentations that
I pretty much create my own slides.
But if I paste an image into a PowerPoint slide, Microsoft Copilot will open up in a
paddle and say, hey, do you want to make this a great image?
Do you want to make it look more professional?
Do you want to make it look more playful?
Do you want to look more creative?
And if I do that, even in Google Slides as well, it'll do a lot of that same stuff.
And I think I've always liked the idea that in Keynote, it's not bugging me to do that.
But that's just me.
I can see where maybe some of these additional AI tools would be helpful in there.
And you're right.
I don't know that I would have a use for Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro or any of those other things.
And so I may want some of those AI tools from the productivity side, but not necessarily from the pure creator side.
And that's what Jason Stenel goes through and talks about as well.
Agreed. Agreed.
But again, this was all just announced.
It's not even out yet.
I think it comes out in like a week or two.
It says the 28th.
Yeah, January 28th is what it said.
So there you go.
Did it say here at the very top?
Yes, available starting 128 on there.
There you go.
You know, I feel like I'm going to try it, though.
I mean, most of the subscriptions, it's good.
Apple is good enough about having them on a month-to-month recurring basis, right?
So, I mean, theoretically, I guess you could sign up for it, try it for a month or two,
see if you like it, and then stop it at some point.
I don't think that they require you to commit to a full year.
In fact, you could just use it.
Like, let's just say I'm going to work on a project today.
I'm going to do a one-month subscription.
Now I'm done.
Right.
And then six months from now, I want to work on another video or a logic show.
You could do it then.
So you could totally do that too.
Interesting.
And then you're paying much, much less each year.
So that's an option.
That's an option.
I feel like Apple is going to try to stamp that out, but they haven't in the past.
I mean, you can do that with Apple TV or you could do that now with Apple News or Game
or, you know, arcade or something like that.
Okay, well, we'll watch this.
I mean, I cannot feel like I'm leaning towards it now.
I mean, I've always wanted to get Final Cut Pro and I've just never wanted to pay three,
$400 for it.
So maybe this will give me an eye, you know, the availability to at least try it and see
how well I can go. Well, let's go to something that's a little more serious. Really, really
continue to enjoy Glenn Fleischman's articles at Six Colors, because he just really goes to
a level of detail, which is great. Here's one that I feel like is sort of near and dear to our
hearts here, just because we've got parents or we've had parents that are elderly in the sense
that they're just the number of phone calls and scammer text messages that are going to elderly
folks today. It's it's I'd like the word you use. It's disgusting. It truly is disgusting.
And Glenn Fleischman does a fantastic job here of giving you some step by step
tips on maybe how to help, if not fully prevent it, to at least lessen it as much as possible.
Good article here.
Yeah.
I mean, you may want to do these things yourself and you certainly may want to do it for a loved one that is less sophisticated when it comes to technology and scams and stuff like that.
I've been using these features.
They were part of iOS 26 last fall.
And one of them, for example, is like with phone calls, you can turn it on that if somebody calls my cell and they're not in my contacts, well, then my phone won't immediately ring.
But instead, I'll get like a little notification that the iPhone is talking, quote unquote, to the person.
and is asking you, who are you?
What do you want?
And that person can say, and then they will let me know,
do I want to answer the phone?
And perhaps that's a little annoying
to the person calling me, but I tell you,
if they're a scammer, a spam call,
they're going to hang up.
And the couple of times, and it's quite a bit actually,
like I might have like a contractor that's calling me
that's saying, I'm on the way to your house.
He's not in my address book,
but I can very quickly see from the face of my iPhone,
oh, I see who this person is.
I'm going to break right in.
and I'm going to pick up the phone and talk to them. It's totally worked fine. And that's just
for phone calls. They can also do it for text messages and for something else. Because I see,
you know, otherwise it's just so easy for someone through a text message or a phone call or whatever
to, to contact you in a way that seems perfectly legitimate and says, I'm trying to help you out.
There's an issue with the purchase. I just need to double check your credit card or,
or that one's not working. Can you give me another credit card? And the next thing you know,
you've given the bad guys, your credit card, and they're buying something online at, you know,
Home Depot or whatever, and having it delivered to their house instead of yours.
And these happen all, this is huge.
It's such a big thing.
So I love that Apple has given us just a little bit more protection, not that it's perfect,
but as Glenn Articles points out, whether you use this or not yourself, and I think you
should consider using it yourself, you definitely would want to help your loved ones to get their
phones set up just to protect them because it's too easy to get scammed.
It's unfortunate from, I guess I would call it a psychological standpoint.
I'll just speak for my own mother, but I'm sure a lot of folks are going to relate to this.
You know, she gets a phone call.
She thinks every call is important, right?
Somebody's trying to call me.
Somebody's trying to text me.
And if she gets something like that, she just immediately thinks that it's important.
So she'll pick up and she ends up talking to them.
And, you know, that's exactly what a lot of these folks are looking for.
It's just somebody that they can engage.
Because at some point, they're going to get some kind of private, you know, information, personal information about them that they can use from an identity theft, for example, or like you said, a bank account or something crazy.
I've made my mom recite a rule to me, Jeff, like if somebody's trying to sell you something from the phone or a text message or the television, it's not worth it, right?
It's a scam.
Like, just don't do it.
And that's helped a little bit.
But she'll still get phone calls and these text messages that will either come from a scammer or spammer or something like that. And I just hate to have to explain to her, no, that's not real, mom. They're not really from Red Cross or something asking for donations or they're doing something else. And it's just unfortunate that you have to do that.
So the other quick tip that I'll just say here quickly is, you know, I'm in Ohio. My mom is in Texas. I could call her and just say, can you tap this and tap this? Because Glenn Fleischman does a great job in here of giving some screenshots. But that is so tedious. And a lot of times she won't know where the button is.
if you do a FaceTime call, first of all, it helps to talk face to face and they can see your face.
But on the FaceTime call now, I can have my mom share her screen, her iPhone screen with me.
And then she can even let me take over and I can actually go and do these settings myself on her
phone. Now, there's a couple of security, you know, hurdles that they got to jump through to say,
yes, let this person, I trust this person, let them control my screen. But that is a great way.
If you've got a loved one that you can't get access to their phone,
that you can just have a FaceTime call.
They can share their screen and then you can go through and do these settings as well.
And that's a helpful tip.
Yeah, very good on that.
Well, let's go to something a little more fun.
How about old 80s video games?
I like that you leaked to this.
I like the very top of this press release here because it talked about the Sid Meier Civilization,
which is coming to the iPhone or the Apple Arcade, which is amazing.
I never did a lot of civilization, but I had a lot of friends that were really into that.
But I like what you talked about, which is a game called Retrocade.
If you want those old arcade games, this is going to be beautiful.
So, you know, when I was a kid, you know, video arcades were a big thing in the 1980s.
And, you know, these old classic games like Asteroids and Centipede and Pac-Man,
you know, there have been ways to play them, you know, over and over again on your iPhone or your iPad.
the announcement is that Apple through the through the the their games thing so like if you either pay separately for Apple games or if you like you and me subscribe to the Apple one service and it's something you get right you will be able to play you know some of these classic Atari games on your iPhone now on by Atari at least on your iPhone and iPad which is great and that'll be fun if you want to play these things but again this part you didn't be able to do before what is new and what I just think is fascinating is that this retro
arcade game is going to also work on the vision pro and what does that mean it means that not just
playing the game but i will be able to like stand in my living room and look at the wall and i will
see what looks like a full-size arcade cabinet with the pac-man or the asteroids or whatever
and then i'll be able to use a little a little bluetooth controller to play the games and i just
think i mean we'll see how it actually works out in real life maybe it'll be a duck but maybe it'll
be fun but you know i cannot help think when i was like in middle school and in the beginning of high
school there was a show that used to be on tv in the 1980s called silver spoons i don't know if
silver spoons yes of course ricky schroeder ricky schroeder started it and ricky schroeder was this
kid that you know they had lots of money and he had arcade games in his house in the living room
i just remember thinking at that point in my life i'm like that is just the best of the best that's
the bomb to, you know, you were just like, man, I tell you, if you could have a video game in your
own house, so that you'd have to go to the arcade to play Pac-Man, that would be wow. And so I have
to laugh that now, thanks to my vision pro, I could have something that's at least simulating,
you know, having Galaga or Pac-Man or Centipede right there in my living room. And we'll see how
it works, but I think it's such a clever idea. So I couldn't help but mention it today. Well,
I think it comes out in a couple of weeks. I will see how fun it is, but I look forward to trying
it out for sure. And again, I don't have to pay anything for it extra because it's part of Apple
No quarters. No quarters needed. No quarters necessary.
You'll have to put your phone up inside your Vision Pro again and take a screenshot for us
once you get that. So that'll see. I like that. Last but not least, I like the video at the
bottom of your post today because it sounds like Apple finally has listened. Like, you know what?
Let's make an iPhone commercial for Jeff Richardson at iPhone JD. Let's make an iPhone
that features attorneys.
This is such a great video.
You got to watch it to the very end.
I love it.
It's called Slide.
Apple always tries to create commercials
that are sort of clever and funny and stuff like that.
And what could be more clever or funny than attorneys?
We are a laugh riot.
So I just thought when I saw that they had an ad,
it's an ad that advertises the screen of the iPhone 17
that it's scratch resistant.
But when you look at the ad
and you see how they chose to portray that,
I'm like, bravo.
So good. So good. I love it. In the know. In the know. So I think it's got it's got to be now two, three years ago that I remember one of my like picks of the week here.
You know, my in the know tip was a Christmas present from my daughter, the Ember mug, E-M-B-E-R, Ember mug.
And many of you have probably seen these today.
It was a smart mug.
Well, it still is that you can basically, it's got battery in it.
So you can basically take it off of its little coaster and it will keep your beverage hot.
According to the temperature that you select.
I had the app on my iPhone and it was great for about a year.
So good.
In fact, that my wife got one of her own because she was so jealous of me having mine.
About a year, year and a half after I got it, the battery just went out and I was so distraught.
I mean, this is really first world problems here, but I felt that I could still use it as long as I didn't use the battery,
but I just kept it on that little powered, you know, plugged in coaster all the time.
So I'd have to have that coaster with me, which didn't allow me to take my battery powered smart mug around.
Well, my wife's also had the same issue.
So we are not Ember fans anymore.
other than it's a fantastic idea.
So when we found the New Wave smart mug at Costco,
we both jumped on this.
Now, this is a company I've never really heard of before,
N-U-W-A-V-E, New Wave.
They have a smart mug that if you go to their website,
you can see it is priced at $200, $199.99.
But I will tell you that my wife found it
at our local Costco for half that price.
It's $99.
I know it's, you know, Costco makes you sign in for the price,
but if you can find it at your Costco
or you can find it online at Costco, you know, Costco.com,
and you're a member, you can get it for $99.
You know, Costco has a lot of overturn
on their inventory and stuff, so it may not be there,
but I'm just saying if you find it, totally worth it.
So if actually I've got it here,
it has, you know, instead of having an app on here,
you can actually program it.
You can even say it turns on and it says, hello,
So you can program the actual temperature that you want it to be, and you can just interact with it.
It's like a little touch screen right here that's kind of hidden.
It's really clever the way they've done it on this.
This does not come with an app.
Again, I know that's, you know, it's terrible.
But it's okay because you can program everything through that little LED screen on the very front.
The only other thing I've heard people complain about is that it is stainless steel.
It's not ceramic.
And people like to have ceramic cups.
You know, it feels a little more comforting with their coffee.
And I get that.
I do.
But I have enjoyed this.
It's very nice and easy to keep clean, which is really good.
It's telling me now that it's empty because I don't have any coffee in it right now.
But this is the New Wave Smart Mug.
If you see it at Costco, I think they sell it on Amazon.com as well.
But not quite for a little bit of a discount, not quite $200.
But if you can find it at Costco, $99.
Great deal.
That's my pick.
Now, the website says that it's great for a long meeting because it can last, you know, cordlessly.
You can keep it hot for five hours.
Yeah, that that can be true.
My wife uses it and gets probably about two hours easily, but she keeps the lid on it.
You can see this lid here in the picture there, Jeff.
I don't like having a lid on mine.
So, you know, but I'm OK.
Like, it's not going to take me longer than an hour to drink a cup of coffee, hopefully.
So I'm OK just leaving the lid off.
And, you know, it lasts plenty of time for me.
And then when I'm done, I just set it back on the coaster, even though I've walked around
the house or I brought it up here to the office.
So they do say five plus hours.
But I would say that means you are using the lid, which kind of helps everything, you know,
keep hot inside as well.
And you can use the lid.
I just choose not to.
My wife does all the time and she does get a lot longer time out of that.
Yeah, but even without the lid, I mean, a regular cup of coffee is going to start to go cold,
you know, relatively soon.
And so if you could go like an hour or something to keep it at a temperature, that's pretty cool.
So I don't think I ever realized how quickly it started going cold until I had a smart mug.
And then I was like, I can't do without this now.
Like, I don't want it to.
I don't want to drink cold coffee anymore.
Anyway, I know I know it's a little bit on the higher end, but this is a great product if you can find it.
There you go.
Well, since you have a gadget, I have a gadget recommendation today, too.
Oh, good.
And this is something that I originally got as a gift like a year ago.
And unlike you, I'm not recommending a specific model because the model that I got was something
less expensive and it's got some issues with it.
It was like a $50 version.
But the category that I think it's worth for people considering is a dash cam.
And again, dash cams in your car are nothing new.
People have had them for a long time.
Originally, it was just like, you know, truckers and real people, you know, that were on the
road all the time would have them.
And now they're more common.
But I've had one for about a year now.
And I will tell you, I actually sort of like it.
You know, the big use of a dash cam, of course, is for, you know, what if an accident happens?
You know, somebody runs a red light in front of you or tries to cut you off the road and you want to be able to have proof of what actually happened.
You know, maybe as the attorney, I'm always thinking about evidence and stuff.
But, you know, you're creating the evidence of, no, this is what actually happened.
And so hopefully that will show that I was in the right.
And these absolutely work really, really well for that.
But I've actually found over the last year that sometimes just sort of the serendipity.
And I might be driving around and the next thing you know, I mean, it's New Orleans.
There's a parade for everything.
There'll suddenly be a parade or something else interesting.
And then afterwards, I might want to just sort of like take a look at that video again or share it with, you know, a friend or my spouse or family.
And so by having the dash cam, it comes on, you know, the model that I have, and I think this is common.
They sort of mind plugs into the cigarette lighter adapter so that when my car turns on, it just automatically starts recording and it records everything.
And then it keeps a certain amount of recordings and then records over itself after about a week or so.
But if you want to take anything off, the model that I have has like one of these little micro SD cards that you pop out.
And then I can put it on my iPad or my computer and pull it off.
Some of the nicer models, what I listed to here was this car and driver did like their top five models that was a couple months ago.
And so they have some models that are as much of like $400 that have like built-in Wi-Fi so it could send the video wirelessly to your iPhone and you could save it that way.
you know, you can get more features depending upon how much you want.
Another thing to consider is, and you're scrolling past it right now on the video you're showing,
is that different cameras have, of course, different resolutions.
Mine's pretty basic because it's a really cheap one.
But if you get one of these really nicer ones with like 4K and like stuff, 16 frames per second,
if you're trying to read that license plate of the car that was in front of you,
you're going to get much better results with a nicer camera.
So just like anything else in life, you know, you're going to get better results with something more expensive.
But whether you get one that's more expensive or one that's cheaper, I've actually find that it's, and I haven't had an accident yet, so I haven't needed it for an evidentiary standpoint.
But I just find that it's been nice to have a camera.
Now, the one that I have, because it's really cheap, it's a little bit of a pain because you've got to take the SD card out.
And it's in like a WMV format, which I can't even read natively.
So I've got to use the Handbrake app on my iPhone to convert it to a.mov file.
So that's, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that model.
But I have gotten enough enjoyment out of this less expensive model that I got as a present
that it has made me consider getting a more expensive model that has more bells and whistles,
you know, upgrade.
And so I'm in favor of it, if you're thinking about it.
And, you know, the thing is, it's right.
I always thought like, oh, is this going to be obnoxious while you're driving?
No, they sit like high up on your windshield.
So they really don't obstruct your line of view, your line of sight.
It's like the cord for this mind just sort of tucks into like the edge of the window.
So you don't really see it at all.
Okay.
Yeah.
It sort of tucks away and it's nice to have.
So I'm in favor of it.
And I'm going to probably take a closer look at this list of the top five cameras and maybe
I'll upgrade what I have.
I'm so glad that you brought this up.
Just kind of like what you were alluding to.
I've always thought dash cams is like, I don't need a dash cam.
I come from the day.
It's like that would, that's such a luxury to something.
Why would you need to have something like that? It's kind of ridiculous. But my son, who's a little bit of a car buff, you know, he watches a lot of video and he pointed out this scam where, you know, some people will get in front of you and either, you know, break suddenly or even back up in reverse so that you rear end them.
And of course, as most states, you know, you're liable because you're rear ending somebody.
And it's like, if you don't have a camera, a dash cam like this, you may not have much
of an evidence to be able to disprove or, you know, show what happened, that kind of
a thing.
You know, obviously that's from the liability standpoint, but to your point, I mean, it
would just be great to have like anything that goes on and you see a lot more of these
videos and things and it is affordable.
I mean, yeah, $400 is, is it a little bit of an investment, but the way I think about
it sometimes and my son and I've talked about this. It's like, do you want to invest in something
like this now? Or are you going to have to pay insurance, right? Either because your insurance
goes up or you got to pay for an investigation or whatever the case may be, you know, if you have an
accident. I mean, this, this, this is something that I think is worthwhile looking at. I'm so
glad. Thanks for this, this list from car and driver magazine that you posted to here too.
Some of them are expensive and you know, there's always things like, should you just get front,
Do you get front and back and rear?
And then like you were talking about, how does the power all go into it?
And I think some of these will even connect wirelessly to your phone.
So you can get maybe the video off of it that way.
A lot of different features and stuff to consider here, but great list here.
Yeah.
And of course, some modern cars come with this built in, like I think Tesla's built in and
stuff like that.
So like that's a feature too.
But this is definitely, it's an intro, you know, this reminds me of, you know, way back
when I remember that there was technology you could purchase for your car that would actually
give up, give you like a backup camera and stuff.
And I had this, I reviewed this years ago on my website.
It went on your license plate and it put like a camera there so that I could actually put
my iPhone up and I could see.
And I was like, wow, it's so useful to have a backup camera.
And of course, nowadays, I think most cars, you know, just about all cars have built-in
back up cameras.
But so, you know, who knows if this will become standard at some point or not.
But much like that was really useful when it first came out.
And I really enjoyed it.
I think that this technology, it's sort of nice.
And again, it's great for accidents, but also just sometimes there's interesting things
out in the road.
And it's just nice to have a little recording of it for whatever reasons, posterity sake.
So it's something to consider.
Great stuff.
Great tip.
And I'll look forward to an iPhone JD review of whatever you upgrade to in the near future.
Man, lots of news this week, Jeff.
Goodness gracious.
I mean, I felt like for the last couple of, you know, the first couple of weeks, we're
like, okay, here we go.
You know, it's the beginning of the new year, not much going on, but wow.
Apple has come out of the gates already in this week of 2026.
it kind of gets me excited for what's coming down the down the lane for this year you know i'm always
excited every year but i mean goodness gracious if we're already seeing some of these announcements
and like you were saying about that google you know they've been working on this for a long time
and maybe they are kind of you know ramping up into wwdc in the summertime and i'm just it's
pretty exciting so exciting that uh we'll talk with you next week thanks brett bye-bye everybody