Basic AF: a (mostly) tech podcast

Apple Event: New Apple Watches & iPhones, Buying Recommendations

• Tom Anderson & Jeff Battersby • Episode 18

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0:00 | 59:45

Hey there tech enthusiasts! Ready to immerse yourself in a refreshing conversation about the latest Apple watches and iPhones? Good! Because we're about to recap Apple's Wonderlust event and help you understand their features and decide if they're worth your hard-earned money. We kick off with a humorous yet enlightening chat about a Washington Post quiz that questions the necessity of a smart watch. But hey, we love our Apple watches, and we're not afraid to tell you why!

Let's turn the gears a notch; we're diving into the heart of the matter — Apple Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches. We scrutinize privacy concerns with the new Siri features, discuss the double-tap gesture convenience, brighter displays, and new bands (and a new material, FineWoven). We also explore the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro, their new color options, the transition from Lightning to USB-C, and new cameras.

Links from the show:

WaPo: Is a smartwatch right for you? Our quiz can help you decide.
Bullstrap MagSafe iPhone Cases
iOS 17
iPadOS 17
watchOS 10
macOS Sonoma
Apple Watch Series 9
Apple Watch Ultra 2
iPhone 15
iPhone 15 Pro

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Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen


Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.

Intro

Jeff

There was a whole event called Wunderlust, after which I wondered what I was supposed to be lusting after.

Tom

And just like that we're back.

Jeff

Yep, here we are. How'd we get us it's?

Tom

another episode of Basic AF.

Jeff

It is. It's another episode of Basic AF.

Tom

Tom A, that is Jeff B. Yeah, and thank you for being here with us. We do appreciate you joining us, as always, if you're new Welcome.

Jeff

We're. If you're old like us, well, yeah.

Tom

I think that would be young, but I guess we could start there.

Jeff

You're fairly new.

Tom

Some people will be like what the hell are you talking about? But we do. Thank you for being here and giving us a shot. If this is your first time with us, and we'd love to earn a spot in your playlist as we say yes please and like, subscribe, send us notes.

Jeff

Some of you have said nice things about us. You can say crappy things about us too. We don't care, just notice us. We want to be noticed. We're needy.

Tom

No, question about that. But yeah, if you would do that, that would be. We'd be very appreciative of any reviews, likes, follows, whatever Subscribes. Subscribes Do we have? Yeah, we do have subscribers. We have YouTube now, so you can't listen on YouTube. You don't see our ugly mugs on there but the show's up there with the fantastic artwork by Rana Martin.

Tom

Designs, as we like to say, and the great music by Psychokinetics, exactly, and we thank them for the music and him for the artwork and you for being here. So let's, jeff, get this thing started, shall we? Let's kick it off.

WaPo Smartwatch Quiz

Jeff

Let's start with this, tom, and then we'll get into the event recap. We'll kick this one from the bottom of the list to the top of the list. There was a, basically a quiz on the Washington Post that I took and sent you the results of as to whether or not you need a watch, a, you know, one of these fancy pants, watches like we have. And guess what, tom, I don't need one. According to the results, I could do without an Apple Watch, which you know.

Jeff

What's funny about this is I took it twice once with my, with my pre you know, pre-watch, pre-new Apple Watch point of view, and once with my post Apple Watch point of view, and in both cases I don't need an Apple Watch or anything else. I don't need a digital anything to do what I'm doing. We will, by the way, post a gift linked to that quiz from the Washington Post if you want to take it yourselves and see what's up. But I thought it was kind of interesting, not surprising, and guess what? I'm still wearing an Apple Watch because I do like the things.

Tom

How long have you?

Jeff

had yours now It'll be a year in November, wow, I'm dead.

Tom

Yeah right and time is flying by.

Jeff

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping.

Tom

Don't get us copyrighted to the.

Jeff

It's not 15 seconds and plus it's me singing, so good, all right.

Tom

Well, don't get people tuning out there with your singing.

Jeff

Steve Miller band's not listening to us at this point. They'd be grateful.

Tom

Although, man, they're making bank still off of that.

Jeff

They are. They're still playing.

Tom

The royalty is whoever owns the royalty rights to it. I suppose Steve Miller. He's not dead, is he? Oh, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure a lot of the modern stars are selling off their rights for like 200, 250 mil. They're like give me the cash while I can get it.

Jeff

Yeah, well, I wonder what they know yeah. Well, that is better to have money in your hand than to wait for residuals.

Tom

Especially these days with.

Jeff

Ask any actor who's on strike or any writer who's on strike right now how much their residual checks are for streaming services. Yup Bupkiss, baby Bupkiss.

Tom

That's it Found. As much as we get for this podcast.

Jeff

Oh yeah, well, we're not on strikes, friends. We're here performing because we are performers, no matter what. Correct, yeah, correct. We're here for the pleasure.

Tom

Yup, and so I did the quiz. Yup, and, not surprisingly, it was like oh, you seem to like health and fitness, it'd be great for you.

Jeff

I was like you know what a surprise Health and fitness for the guy who's building a gym in this garage yes, but you know what's funny, the first go around with that it's like do you have a smart watch now?

Tom

And I was like, yes, I do, do you like it? Yes, I do. And then it immediately went to you do not need a smart watch.

Jeff

I was like well, wait, we're not done. Yeah, wait, I don't need one, because I have one, I get it, I get it.

Tom

I get it Because initially I thought oh, maybe it's like a gag quiz and it just tells everybody like nope, don't need it.

Jeff

No, it was. I mean, it was interesting because if I really look at what the you know, I answered all those questions honestly, both pre-watch and post-watch, and I really don't need one Need is a you know the things that they say that you really, you know might want it for, which is not just the fitness stuff.

Tom

So and that's really kind of what I'm using. I think they mentioned like notifications and not using your phone as much and stuff like that, which. I selected yes for all that because, like I don't know if you've done this like well, you know where I know, when you first got it, you weren't wearing it all the time. Like you were wearing it a lot, but not all the time, I think.

Jeff

Yeah, I don't wear it to bed, so I'm not using any of the sleep features, and I do wear it pretty much every day. You know, even when I'm lounging around the house reading a book or doing something like that. I'll tell you what books I'm reading, because those might be getting my heart rate up. Well, maybe it's magazines.

Tom

I don't.

Jeff

Anyway the you know I sometimes will forget to put it on immediately when I get up in the morning, but it's not. It's not a huge deal for me. I am happy to have it, but it needed and I think that's a fair point about that particular. That particular quiz is do you need a smartwatch?

Jeff

I probably don't need one, and could I like if somebody said you have to take it off your wrist, you know, as they used to say, when I was in you know church school camp, somebody came with a gun and said you didn't go to church camp, did you? You're not, you're not. There's not that picture of recognition. They always used to say to us, if you come in, if somebody came in with a gun and said you need to either give up Jesus, or give up, you know, or or lose your life.

Tom

What would you do? You know it's like dang dude. That was serious for kids.

Jeff

Right, yeah, it was like.

Tom

Bible school and we made crafts and stuff. It was. It was much more chill than that.

Jeff

Right Now. For me it wasn't so chill. You see the old, yeah, it was like middle school. Anyway, if somebody came in with a gun and said you need to get rid of your Apple watch, or get shot in the head and hear you can have my.

Tom

Apple watch. Well, there were a couple of days this week I've probably been like, well, give me a second, but it's Friday, we're through all that. But the reason I asked if you were the biggest thing for me with the watch is like I've gotten so used to the phone being quiet all day, like not from the notifications and things, and obviously I could have just tuned that up on the phone and and taken care of a lot of that stuff. But but I have, you know, I've had it a long time and now I've just kind of I'm very accustomed to it. And Tim Apple said in the intro to the to the event there the other day they were going to talk about it in a minute, but he said that you know they're key components over lives, and I'm paraphrasing a bit. But he was like and I bet if you left one at home you'd go back and get it. And he's right, cause I've done that.

Jeff

Have you? Oh yeah, If I left it at home.

Tom

I would not go and get it, and I went back and got it. I did it one day and I didn't go back and get it, and then the next time I did go back and get it cause I couldn't take it. I was like this this, this phone is driving me nuts.

Jeff

Really yeah, so I have all my notifications turned off anyway.

Tom

So except for me and for the most part of my watch.

Jeff

So it's, you know it's a watch that collects data on me. So great it does.

Tom

Yeah, I did. That's a whole other thing. Yes, yes so all right.

Apple Event Recap

Jeff

So, anyway, that's that. So we'll have that. But just so everybody knows, there'll be a gift, a Wapo link in the, in the, in the show notes, that you can go and see if you really need an Apple watch as well. And speaking of Apple watches, tom, there was a new one released. There was Want to talk about it. Sure, the whole event. There was a whole event called Wonderlust, after which I wondered what I was supposed to be lusting after. You know me both, my friend. No, it's good job.

Tom

It. Yeah, it it wasn't the best Apple event we've had, but, like we said the other day, that Not all of them are super hype train and.

Jeff

Nor, nor should they be. And To be frank, in our last show, you know, you asked me what I'm looking forward to and you know I said I'm not much and I'm not expecting much. And guess what? I got what I expected. Yeah it was disappointed. It's usual. No, it was. It was you know Cool phone. I ordered mine. I told you I was gonna. Anyway, that wasn't a thing, I ordered mine today Um you were still 13, right.

Jeff

I want a 13 in you know time. It's pristine. By the way, everybody wants by 13. It's brand frigging spanking new. But I I ordered a new one and I, you know I knew that I was gonna do that and my son's gonna do the same thing. You know he's gonna hop off and he's gonna pick his up, I think on Friday, because he's now in LA, so he'll go and and grab one day of but the. I Wasn't expecting too much. Cool titanium, great colors, you know. All right, you said the yellow would look like it had been sitting in some smokers.

Tom

Jason Snell posted pictures, yeah, and it's right up for his hands-on stuff that he did and and he had a picture of the yellow one from. You know, looking at the back and, Like most of the phone, look fine, but it was that bump out around the camera and, like the yellow it did, it looked like it had been sitting in the, the smokers lounge or at the bowling alley in 1976 for about three weeks.

Jeff

That's when the aliens brought the tech here originally could be.

New Apple Watches

Jeff

But, yeah, so, yeah, so go ahead. Anyway, they're back to, back to watch land. Since we started with watches, there are two, yeah, two, new watches that have been released. There's a Apple series, a watch series nine in the ultra to, apple watch ultra to, and not anything particularly significant in terms of Advancement, if you will, I think there are a couple of nice things. You've got sirion device for all of them, so, rather than the usual, you know, hold on while I get the answer, hold having trouble connecting to the answer. Yeah, that a lot of that's gonna get get handled locally on the device itself, which is great. You know that. Actually, speaking of privacy concerns, is is something that you know. Apple's decent with privacy, but God knows what they'll be in the future In in you know what may or may not be sold off, but at present you know they're decent.

Jeff

But the fact that that, siri, your questions are gonna be handled on board the device that you're using is Significant. That means, first of all, processing time should be faster.

Tom

We'll say it would be more reliable, because it's not Well for the queries that it can perform on device without needing to go across the internet to Figure out they said what's my name?

Jeff

I'm liable, yeah.

Tom

Yeah, notice, they didn't say accurate, they just said reliable. Whatever that means, yeah, but also gets access to health data so you can have Siri log workouts, or do I think they Chose someone logging their body weight like or was in one of the slides? Maybe it was like Siri. My body weight is 125 and it puts it into the health app. I mean, all those little conveniences are nice, yeah.

Jeff

I, you know it's kind of interesting to maybe, maybe you can I don't track any of this stuff in health presently, but nor will I be doing it on my watch but you should be able to then, I would presume, say you know, I had a bowl oatmeal with walnuts and milk and In a banana for breakfast or something like that, and it should be able to add that. I would think as well, if it has access, you know, to that and I don't know whether that's true or not, you know?

Tom

if it wasn't Siri, I'd say I probably could. Did you see the Story that they're spending a ton of money for, like the next gen Siri that's supposed to come out next year?

Jeff

Oh no, I didn't. Yeah, thank you, I don't know when was that that was on.

Tom

I can't remember who reported it. I saw it on one of the rumor site, mac rumors 95. But yes, it looks. The rumor mill says big security, security chase, big Siri update is is out there sometime in the next year or two. Yeah, we'll see them. You know which? I've kind of felt that that Makes sense because they're doing nothing with it now. No, and so it's like okay, they've got to know it's not great. We've talked about that a bunch. So, you know, maybe this is like the next gen and then at the developer conference next year, which should probably still heavily focused on an Apple vision pro, because that's coming out. They did give an update on that too. Tim Apple said they're still on track to ship that early next year. Yes, so that'll be Still on its way. So keep saving up your pennies, everybody, and I'm gonna come over to your house, tom. I'm Got a gym to build.

Jeff

Maybe this is about half price and research purpose.

Tom

Well, we are planning to get one, at least sounds coming down.

Jeff

I'll let you know. Come on by, I'll take a drive, we'll do a show from the office or something. I can stand in the middle of a field somewhere and play, you know.

Tom

And let's see. So what else did they do with the series 9? They Brighten the screen, so it's 2000 nits, which I believe is what the ultra one is that we have, which?

Jeff

is great, so that should be a nice nice little bump.

Tom

And let's talk about that new gesture. They showed the double tap.

Jeff

Yeah, tap, tap with your little fingers to make it to magic which, by the way, is already available on your watch if you have that with negligibly good. So this apparently is gonna be tracking that better. But the nice thing about it, if it works as advertised, is In, and I find this actually all the time when I'm cooking, you know I'll set a timer or two. I mean it's beauty of the watch, you know, get the get serious to set a couple of timers so you have a couple of things going at a that are kicking off at different times. But half the time I get my fingers full of stuff when a timer goes off and then it's wash my hands and go, reach and grab it or goop up my watch and handle it. That way this new feature allows you to tape. Here's a tip, okay.

Tom

Use the tip of your nose. Oh God Works great, I'm sure it does it does, you don't have to wash your hands on.

Jeff

Just look at my nose in profile here and you're just giving me crap because, bro, I got the same thing.

Tom

Man, I'm telling you it works. So that's why you know it works. This is what I do for you, jeff. I do all these weird random tests and report back to enhance your life. Great, excellent. I don't need the two fingers, all right. I'm just describing that gesture.

Jeff

You can tap two fingers together, and tapping those two fingers together will actually do a couple of things. Some it will walk you through. Can potentially walk you through the various fields on whatever's on your screen, but it will stop a timer or answer a phone or do a number of other things. So hands full and you need to be able to answer the phone or do something like that. That little double finger tap Pretty cool. So we'll see a new gesture for Apple Watch that is built in. It is not backwards compatible. This is only going to be in the new Apple Watch Ultra 2 and in the Apple Watch Series 9.

Tom

Right, and we were talking about that the other day because when we were messaging back and forth when the event was going on, I was like, well, you said that's very interesting and then I was like I feel like that was a thing Like in one of the dot updates for WatchOS 8, maybe that they put that in there and they did. But I think, like you alluded to there a couple of minutes ago, that the S9 chip and I think some of that stuff they've got built in there will make it more reliable, because you can go into accessibility in the watch settings now and they've got those gestures that you can go in and there's a double tap in there. You can do it.

Jeff

Like you said, it's hit or miss and so I suspect yeah, you said, your son turned it on. He did it was junk.

Tom

Well, it's one of the. I think it's great that they've put it in there before now and because, for the people that need that, I think that's fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. But I think it's one of those that needs some tuning, and it sounds like they're tuning the sensors and processors and things like that to make it more reliable, more usable. So they're pushing all that stuff in the right direction and, if I remember, correctly.

Jeff

It is paying attention now to blood pressure changes and changes in what's going on, to detect the actual risk when you're doing it, as opposed to maybe it wasn't, as I don't know. I don't know how it worked previously, but this is something new, so we'll see how it works. I'm not going to see, because I'm not going to get an S9, nor am I going to get an Ultra II. That's not happening to me.

Tom

Yeah, my son wants to get a new watch. He's been using my series four.

Jeff

Yeah, OK.

Tom

And so he may get one come Christmas time or something. So I'll have him try it. We'll see what it looks like. I'm sure we'll see tons of YouTube videos next week, before right, before too long.

Jeff

So yeah, that's interesting, so that's a nice little feature. So we talked about 2000 NITs, so a brighter Apple Watch series S9, the Apple Watch Ultra II, also S9 chip. 3000 NITs, so super D-Duper bright in daylight. And then there is a new watch face which I'm very happy to point out. If you're on any of the betas or when the new release of iOS comes out probably next week sometime, maybe the week after that, that, if you have an Apple Watch Ultra, that's available to you. It's really nice watch face. It's again very, very complicated in terms of what's on here and I haven't updated a lot of things, but it's a pretty nice look as far as new watch faces go. So my complaint last episode about the fact that after I was playing around with betas for a little bit that I didn't need Charlie Brown and Snoopy or the other I can't remember what the other name of the other one was, but this is kind of a nice addition. I like this, but, again, only available for Apple Watch Ultra.

Tom

So not going to be. And they said in the event, I kind of had my ire a little bit they said it's an exclusive, yes, modular Ultra. And I was like you've got to be kidding.

Jeff

Yeah, that would have been kind of a bonus. It's a horrible salty about that.

Tom

I complained to you about it. Yes, you did, I did. I complained a lot this week and I'm trying to stop. No, you're not, but people were quick to show on Reddit and other places that if you were running the latest phone beta, latest watch beta, that it was in fact there's. Hopefully it'll stay. Maybe they made a mistake and they're going to take it out?

Jeff

I hope not, because I like it. I'm using it and I mean, why would they do that? You know, why would they knock it out? I will say that the other thing that's nice about this is it's hard to show you here, but on the old version of the modular watch face that they had originally for the Apple Watch Ultra, you could change it so it was red at night and colorful during the day, but to do that you had to turn the dial to make it change. Well, in this case it's using the ambient light sensor that's already in the watch and it is actually. It changes when it gets dark. So it's a really nice feature. I kind of like it. I didn't like to have it on all the time because then you have to think about turning it off. The fact that it kind of does it on its own is brilliant. It works really well and when I have my hand down in the Jeffrey Dahmer's basement it does go to that reddish color. So that's a really nice feature. I like that about that.

Jeff

I'm kind of surprised that some feature like that doesn't show up on other watch faces. It doesn't feel like it needs to be just a yeah, as we've said before, it doesn't seem like we know, tim Apple, that you're listening to us. One of the things that there's no reason that Apple can't pop out a couple of watch faces a quarter, just for giggles. I mean it would just be as like here's part of the update Get a new watch face. It seems such a simple crowd pleaser. I do get you. Don't want to complicate everything with a million complicate Notice I use complications. Yeah, well done Convocations, but yeah, I'm a hot mess, but it I don't know. It makes sense just to add a little joy in that way throughout the year a couple of times. But I guess the other side of it is they've never really done that with wallpapers and things like that you get the wallpaper that comes with the.

Jeff

you know the OS that you're working with and have a nice year and so that's kind of where we're at.

Tom

Yeah, it's kind of funny for a company that makes such I don't know kind of cool and fun products and they're kind of boring.

Tom

Sometimes. The colors will get to the colors on the phones here in a few minutes. But what colors? Yeah, yeah, spoiler. So yeah, I wish they would do more with the faces too. But the way it is what it is right. We did get some new bands as part of the new watches. Of course, you can also get the bands separately some new band colors for the ultra. So I think that's what I was looking forward to Last show when we talked about it. As it's a little preview, we did. I'm Going to try not to buy one.

Jeff

I've got another.

Tom

I've got another project that I could put $100 towards, and maybe after that's done, To buy a barbell. Barbell yeah, barbell is about 240 so. So let's see watch band half barbell.

Jeff

Anyhow, anything else on the watch is no yeah, there I think important to note no new watch colors. A lot of people gonna be not too happy about that. I think they wanted some darker versions.

Tom

Yeah, we're pink on the s9 on right. I'm sorry on the other two people were that space, gray or black or the darker color, yeah, which will probably look really nice on the ultra watch three yeah, that's coming. I mean I can't imagine and they won't eventually do it, but when they need to go sales they'll do it Right and, who knows, they might already have one of those up their sleeve.

Jeff

I mean, these are titanium, right? Yeah, so yeah, and it's holding you've seen that there are some colors Titanium, wise, yeah, when it comes to and I will say the titanium is holding up very well. Yeah, I you know what. Now I'm gonna keep my mouth shut, but no scratches, no anything.

Tom

Yeah, and I've clunked it good a couple of times and I'm like, but nothing.

Jeff

So I think part of it being flat.

Tom

Yeah, it makes a huge difference, yeah and I think it looks great when it's flat, because you don't get all the light Refractions and stuff from the you know the lights in the sun and all that stuff. I think it looks really great. So maybe the rumors for the series 10 Watch next year that it's gonna have like a big redesign, so maybe they'll bring the flat face down to it at that point yeah, we'll see, yeah, so anyway, it's a couple apple watches buying recommendations Jeff.

Jeff

I Don't need watch, not for you.

Tom

Wapo said you don't need to watch man right, that's what I'm saying.

Jeff

If you need to buy one, jeff has it. He doesn't need it. He'll sell you on cheap. Yeah, no, I you know I'm happy with the, with the ultra. Whether or not anybody else needs that, I don't know. They're both gonna be nice watches. If you need to watch, take the quiz.

Tom

Yeah, take the quiz and we'll have it in the notes. I think if you are coming from a Series five or older and we're just looking to get a new watch, you know, figure out if you want series nine or the ultra. That's partly style, is partly what you do partly and whatever, and it's personal, think mm-hmm. I think it's a great update to go from a five.

Tom

To a nine mm-hmm if you're on a six, maybe maybe you want just a bigger screen or something. Maybe you had like a 38 and you want to go up to a 45 or something like that. If you're seven or eight, I would wait, because with that rumored big update coming next year, I would just limp along with that. Now, challenge there sometimes gets to be battery life starts to suck after three or four years and so.

Jeff

Can you get? You can get batteries changed on the watch.

Tom

I think so. Yeah, I think they just give you another one. Yeah, but yeah but if you're already. Like you already have the ultra, I'd see no reason to get the ultra oh no, there's no way, I've seen people say they're doing it just because they want to and that's fine, like if that's your thing, like you don't, you know, for whatever reason, you just like to buy the new stuff, do it, I don't care.

Tom

Yeah, doesn't, but for the common person is just wondering if it's time to upgrade and they're on kind of in that middle section. I would say wait. Yeah, I think that.

Jeff

That's a that's very fair.

Tom

All right, so the watches are done. We're done with watches, tom. Where to next?

New iPhones

Jeff

Well, let's talk about the iPhone. Let's do it.

Tom

Iphone 15 and 15 pro woohoo, what a surprise. More from 14 to 15. Even I can count that. So we've got the regular 15 gets the Dynamic Island. Yeah it has 4k 60 HDR video, a 16 bionic chip. Yes 2x telephoto.

Jeff

Yeah.

Tom

You USB-C? How about?

Jeff

that, thank you. It has USB-C right. And, and what was interesting to note and I don't think that I knew this before the, before the Wunderlust kicked out, I don't, I don't think I knew that that there was no USB bus on these things that they needed, that they needed to add that to the chip. So that Clarifies some things for me, if you will. It makes it a little clearer that that it did need something special in order to be able to go from lightning to to USB-C. So it wasn't merely you know they're dorky and didn't want to, didn't want to use the cable, or they really they really did need to do something, and so there's data transfer capabilities possible.

Tom

Yes, yes, I think it's USB 3 speeds, at least on the pro. I'm not sure about the 15 camera call, so, but if you're doing video, they kind of focused on that too, that you can more on the problem. We'll get to that in a minute, but yeah that you can use the USB-C for the data transfer. Yeah, they've got Five colors of the 15.

Jeff

Yeah, they're interesting colors. They're very, very soft palette pastels other than the yeah, the black one. So we've got pink, yellow, green, blue and some new finish technique.

Tom

They Went on about for a minute or so about how the color is fused into the glass and it doesn't look like it's painted on. It's actually in the glass.

Jeff

I'm like well it's kind of cool. It makes it look like you've been smoking for 20 years with you have the other one.

Tom

We'll see some more pictures. Maybe that was just a weird lighting or something might.

Jeff

It might have been under fluorescent light, which never does anything good, no, no.

Tom

It's got a 48 pixel mega mega camera. Yeah, 48 mega pixel main cameras on. I'm trying to say so that's good that 2000 nits came up again. Yeah, it's got a nice bright screen it does, which is great.

Jeff

Really great, so that's a. That's a good thing. We've got roadside assistance via satellite on this now too. I don't think the 14 had that. Did it, or did it? Maybe the 14 did?

Tom

or not. Only I want to say it was SOS but not the roadside assistance piece. Yeah well, roadside assistance is actually new.

Jeff

All together right, right, but I don't know if the base for to the base no.

Tom

I think it was just the 14 pro.

Jeff

Yeah, so they brought that down in general. Yeah, that's in this one, which is great. You know, it's a nice feature that, if you yeah.

Tom

They went on with that for a couple minutes to kick off the show, the videos with the folks who had used the SOS feature on On the watch or the the phone, I guess for yeah which I'm gonna confess, um, that that made me tear up a little bit.

Jeff

I like that was a really you know, that was a really kind of sweet way of talking about what this technology has done. You know, from the perspective of the watch and the phone, you know being able to in some cases, tell people that they need pacemakers, or you know somebody gets lost in the weeds somewhere and they can use the phone to get found. I mean, that's, that's some pretty amazing technology that I hope I never have to use. Yeah, good to have, but really amazing to have yeah they touched on the crash detection.

Tom

Yeah coming up big two and I know there's there been some stories of that being triggered on roller coasters and stuff. But I think overall that's a, that's a, that's a win yeah.

Jeff

Yeah, so, yeah, so pretty good Matt texture finish on on them, so Probably grippier. And then you know the usual case business, which will get on the case's case in a few moments. But yeah, it's a Nice little update again, if you have a current model, I don't think there's any like. If you have a 14, I don't know that there's any real need to to make the jump, unless that's the thing you do, that thing you do.

Tom

Mm-hmm, and they're dropping the mini. So, like the 13 mini, yes, no more. Which friend of the show, ganon, who was on a couple of times with this? That was his phone of choice, and so it was he was a little disappointed in that.

Jeff

I've seen a couple of those. Is it a mini or it's the SE? They called it that was the SE. Yeah, I don't.

Tom

Feel like there was the mini and there was an SE, but the mini is the one that they they dropped, which was the smallest of the form factors. If you want to look it up there, we'll confirm that. But so, yeah, he was a little bummed about that, but he's gone. 15 pro is what he told me today, got his order and, after the usual high jinks trying to get that, you know when the order system comes up and it's you know. You think by now this should just be a walk in the park, but they like to keep it exciting.

Jeff

Yeah, actually. Well, we'll see cuz this might drop off, but presently the SE is still on the site.

Tom

You can still get the SE, okay, I think usually a little bigger I felt like it was screaming was a little bit bigger than the mini fire call maybe, but it, the SE, still has little push button.

Jeff

You know it's a, it has a physical, not a physical button, but I Did you button yeah. So so what? What Apple is selling now is the SE, is the 13, the 14, the 15 and 15 pro, okay, so so yeah, that covers the the price spectrum very well. I would think it does se comes in at around, starting at $429, which is, you know, not horrible. You know you can spend a whole heck of a lot of money with the 15.

Tom

Then I go up to two terabytes. Is that that? Did I see that today? Can you look that up? Maybe like it did, or maybe that was a rumor and it didn't. I let me just let's tell me.

Jeff

Let me just look at 15 pro max, let me see what I get. Yeah, one terabyte one terabyte.

Tom

Yeah, that's still.

Jeff

That's still yeah 256, which is the baseline. On the pro max, I have 256 of my current and and that's more than enough, really more than what are you going?

Jeff

with. This time I am doing a 15 pro max. I have determined that the camera is worth it and the form factor on this is a little smaller than the current 15 or 14 pro max. So it's supposed to be. It's lighter and I think it's a little smaller. That's what I thought I heard. Maybe I'm all wrong, but so yeah, I'm doing a pro, I'm doing a 15 pro max, nice and what stories?

Tom

what storage did you say you got?

Jeff

I'm doing baseline to do 56 again. I don't, I don't need. If you look at my phone right now, my phone has 256 and that is pool linty. So and I'm not gonna be filming, you know. Special deal but the deal is you can attach an SSD to that thing and it'll spin it right out to it. So who cares? You know, smaller is better. In this case you can, but I'm not gonna be doing the the occasional, you know, video audition. But other than that, nothing Too fantastic.

Tom

Yeah. So On the pro, yeah, we had a material change, yes to Titanium correct, which, which was broomward and ended up coming true. I think that I like that. It looks nice, looks really nice. And some of the hands-on stuff early on was like it's noticeably lighter, like, yeah, it's not just because sometimes you think, well, it should be a little bit lighter, but it's hard to tell. But they were kind of, yeah, this is actually noticeably lighter. That's good, because the current ones there they're a little beefy.

Jeff

They are beefy. You know that'll be an interesting thing to see how I feel about that. One of the things I really love about In my current phone is that it feels like something, so we'll see if that, you know, if it's noticeably lighter, I'm sure it's not gonna feel like you know made out of garbage, but Well, recycled garbage, because we're green.

Jeff

The uh, he's telling me supposed to laugh out loud at those things. You supposed to encourage my horrificness. It, uh, it'll be interesting to see what that is. It also has new, new glass, I believe that's different than the glass that's on the uh on the 15. It has a new ceramic shield which is Supposed to be even More not breakable, right, although God knows, these things still break. Three cameras on this one that we have 24 millimeter, 20 millimeter, 35 millimeter. So some super zoominess. Four levels of zoom, I think, are available, plus the, plus the macro, which will be pretty nice, I'm gonna be interested to see what halide does with these.

Tom

That's kind of gonna be a Interesting feature.

Jeff

Oh, one of the things we didn't say about the 15 which we can say about both of these is that if we have an action button now, the little slider for silence and ring is no longer a Little slider. It's a button that you can actually assign to a number of Pre-configured shortcuts. Plus, you can set up your own actions, which I think this is gonna be the magic way that I'm able to open up halide with Without, you know, I have to double pat tap the back of the screen. Is that gonna sign it to assign it to that? So right?

Tom

Yeah, that's that's. That's kind of a moved over from the ultra watch. Yeah, that's what that has, the action button and.

Jeff

Which I love. That on the watch, I mean it's the best way to it. I don't have to search around to find the. You know, whatever workout that I'm doing, you know hiking, walking, biking, all that stuff, you know just press the button and it's right there. So that's a nice, a nice little, nice little feature.

Tom

It is I like that.

Jeff

I use that too, so yeah, so it's an a 17 pro. That's gonna be the chip in this. Again, usb C with USB 3 in this, in this version. So that's a nice, a nice feature promotion. Four colors the colors are kind of interesting. I got the natural titanium, titanium.

Tom

That's the one I would choose to.

Jeff

I like that one yeah and actually when I was ordering my today, actually went to the AT&T store. Just did it that way. Today went rather than dealing with Apple was out running errands. I say it. That appears to be the the fave. According to to him, a lot of people were in that one.

Tom

All right, there's our boots on the ground. Report.

Jeff

There you go. Woohoo.

Tom

One person told me the natural titanium is where it's at.

Jeff

Yeah, so anyway. Yes, so they've got what black natural blue and white.

Tom

It is a white.

Jeff

Yeah, I don't know that that titanium is white-looking, but right, and it's a little more brushed finish to it. So that's kind of interesting. Some people are saying it makes them feel like it's brushed aluminum. Okay, whatever, it's titanium, so we'll see it. Which, if I think about it, if I'm looking at my watch the watch is more matte than brushed, I guess is the way I could say yep, so you know, it's, it's a nice look. I think it'll be it'll, it'll be pretty nice. I'm looking forward to to see that. So, yeah, hopefully I'll get mine when it is supposed to come on Friday, but we'll see. Yes, also, there's 5x telephoto on the Pro Max, yes, so I'm not crazy that they've gone back to having different features in the bigger phone versus the smaller pro phone.

Tom

They used to do that back in like the seven days, I think it was, and then they kind of stopped. But yeah, whatever, yeah you know?

Jeff

I know that's. That's the reason I would have stuck with a Pro rather than a pro max. Yeah, they gooshed you for some more money is what they did.

Tom

They did and a bigger phone. So we'll see. Was that I don't?

Jeff

think it'll drive me nuts. It's not. It's not obscenely large. It's definitely not as big as they used to be when we had the home button and the screen was still like 6.7.

Tom

It's like, yeah, that was a monster. Yeah, like that 12.9. The first gen 12.9 inch iPad was huge with that home button and the big bezels and everything, but no, this, this is Gonna be pretty close to what I currently have.

Jeff

It's gonna be the latest I currently have. It's gonna be a little bit bigger than what I currently have, so I think I can swing it.

Tom

Yeah, be curious to see like when it comes in, send me a pair. I want to see how much bigger it is, because I know what the current the but the 14 and pro versus the 14 pro max is, is and it's it's fairly significant like but this wife has that but Anyhow.

Tom

So those are on sale. As we record, today is friday, september 15th. Yes, they can now be ordered. They will start to arrive on the 22nd. Same thing for the watches, yeah. Um, you know, typical stuff comes out. Order friday, get it the next friday, yep. Or if you wait too long, you have six or seven weeks to wait.

Tom

But you'll get it, it'll, it'll show up eventually, eventually, um, all right. So I guess we've already said, if you're on the fence, not sure if you should upgrade or not, I would say, if your iphone 12 Maybe, it's just probably a good update, just for the Jumps they made in the camera and they always on display, which I like. That's going to be new for you, right, because you're only it will be new for me, correct?

Tom

Yeah, and I know when that came out. So people were like I don't know if I like it. It's kind of distracting. I've always liked it, left it on, happy with it, looking forward to using the. Uh, the new feature in ios 17. Um, when, when you rotate the phone, yeah, or is that for?

Jeff

you actually night stand, believe it or not. That even works on my current, my current um 13 right.

Tom

Other than does it stay on?

Jeff

all the time. It does not stay on all the time, but it will. It will go to that at night, if you, uh, if, you plug it in and uh and you're in sleep mode, it will. It will do that, like the watch does. So, yeah, it's. Uh, that'll be interesting. I don't keep the phone. Sorry, I do keep the phone by my bed. I don't keep the watch by my bed. I tried that for a couple of weeks, not a yeah, nothing.

Tom

So All right, so that's, that's the new stuff. I mean it was.

Jeff

That is the new stuff.

Tom

You know it was it was an event? Um, yeah, it wasn't anything bad, it's just no.

Apple 2030

Jeff

It. I will say as much as I'm happy that apple does a good job with, you know, remaining carbon neutral and and doing that kind of stuff. Um, the whole Skit that they did at the beginning, probably five minutes too long and uh Okay we get it? Yeah, we didn't.

Tom

We, that's what I think I said. You was like yeah, this is definitely not going to be like packed full of like product information that they took that much time for. That. It was a, it was filler.

Jeff

It definitely was filler. I'd rather see more like that. The initial video, the one that they started everything off with, with, with how this is done, good stuff, that that skit was Okay. You know they brought in a couple of apple tv plus's stars to To, you know, dot the landscape.

Tom

Yeah, I can tell you, any of those people are active.

Jeff

Yeah, they're, they're. They're the two Main characters the young woman and then mother nature, and then mother nature. Uh, those are people who are on a variety of A variety shows. One of them was the younger woman, was on curb your enthusiasm for a while and she's great at being horrible. He's really like great, it's super annoying, um, so she's, she's good, um, but yeah, there were, I think only you know I, first of all tim, can act, sorry to. Yeah, um tim apples. Uh, you could barely give the keynote.

Tom

Yeah, you know, and thank you you know and still love you.

Jeff

It's not that, um, but definitely not the the kind of energy that has been uh here in the past, and we kind of were missing a couple of people from this particular show. Weren't we just craig usually show up in these, or is that I?

Tom

think he's strictly software man. So wkc.

Jeff

Yeah, but we're software here.

Tom

Um, and then see, he kind of sticks to that, I think. And uh is probably the best part of that, he's very entertaining, he is, he's fun, yeah, you know so probably why it gets passed on some of the software not working so great.

FineWoven Cases and Such

Tom

Just a thought yeah, there you go, it's possible, it's possible. So, with that, all that carbon neutral stuff they talked about excessively, um, they made the announcement that apple is no longer going to use leather in any of its products and correct accessories. Um, you and I have lamented of the poor quality of the leather cases for the phones of late, primarily since they switched, I guess, in the 13 line, whatever it was, when they went to the current Design, before they just switched to the titanium. Yeah, it was more of a painted, very thin and just look like crap after about three months. Yeah, this I don't know. We're really missing much from that. The Like. I have a couple. Well, I have one leather Watch band. The leather link, or magnetic, is the magnetic one that clasps together, which I like a lot. It's nice band. All of those things will be put together now with same thing. They've come up with their dubbing, fine woven, and Some of those started to get arrived to people Recently yes, almost immediately.

Tom

Yeah, they ordered them and got them immediately, and majority of their responses have been We'll say to be nice, we'll call it lukewarm, yeah, okay. And the common Comment is that this feels cheap, which you don't hear much on Apple products.

Jeff

No, and you know what it doesn't feel like leather, you know, and nothing Feels like leather.

Tom

Leather feels like leather.

Jeff

So I don't know. I, you, you. My intent is to go naked. So when we do a live show, that'll be fun. I'm gonna be sick that day. I.

Tom

Before the live show I'm just not gonna show. What if I showed up? I'd be sick too, but I'm not.

Jeff

But I you did point me to another Company that that makes leather cases, which I did order one in advance. So we'll see how that plays out.

Jeff

But my intent is to. I had for a very, very long time, in fact until I got the 11, I never had a case, never got cases on right. With the 11 near the end, I picked up a leather case and surprised myself by how much I liked it, and so I ordered with my 13. I ordered the, the leather case, and I've had it. It is. It's falling apart right now. I mean that had two years.

Jeff

I guess that's Fair you know to say that it's falling apart, but it's falling apart, so I don't know. My intent is to To forget about that and then maybe dress dress it up when I'm going out or doing something like that. So we'll, we'll see yeah, that's why I picked up that. What was the name of that company? By the way, you sent it to me?

Tom

Yeah, I don't know. It's in mind bull bull strap, it's something like that dude. It's not bull stick, that's what you want.

Jeff

Yeah, it's not gonna say we're starting to feel a little bit like a. It is bull strap. We'll add those guys in there too, why not?

Tom

we'll put those into those guys into the show notes is yeah, I see those like I kind of, when the new phones come out, I kind of geek out on the Mac rumors forums. They've got phone case threads and actually we got like a mega thread that goes on and on and on and that that's come up in there and people seem to really like it holds up Well, a classic leather Look and feel and wear and everything. So those seem to be pretty popular and there are other ones out there too. They're not the only ones, but that's the one that came to mind.

Jeff

And I just want to say that the name and it did strike me actually when he said it to me it's a little S&M-y to me.

Tom

Well, we know where Jeff's mind is.

Jeff

No, it's not Friday night. It's not where my mind is at all.

Tom

I didn't know there and I'm usually the deviant of the bunch is true, but anyhow, I think both of these statements are true. Apple is sincere with their climate push and their carbon neutral and they don't want to use leather and all that and Also true, and I have no way to prove it, but I think it's also true. Margins on this fine woven stuff are going to be even more.

Tom

Oh, there's no question about that, and it's not just to look how good we are for being climate friendly I think that's part of it but it's like, hey, I can we squeeze a few more pennies margin out of this stuff? And if we do that and we spin it.

Jeff

It's a win-win.

Tom

Yeah, I, yeah, I've worked corporate. I know how this goes right.

Jeff

Yeah, you're not, you're not wrong, and you have also mentioned that. Uh, you know, yes, very carbon neutral, but you're gonna probably have to buy a couple more cables to pal and you know what do you do with the old ones that you can't use it. You already have 50 of right you know you can't, you can't, can't use those anymore. So there definitely are things that Apple does that make it so we're by buying these products you're not.

Tom

You know, not to mention how some of this stuff gets sourced.

Jeff

Well, well, that was an interesting thing about that as well. The the fact that they're doing recycled cobalt for the batteries is really interesting to me. It's first time I've heard about that. And cobalt and the the mining of cobalt is horrible and it's you know, it is something that Basically uses slave labor.

Tom

Yeah, so let's buy all these electric cars E hey look, we've almost gotten political, so we'll stop Um.

Jeff

but yeah, notice who pulled us in that direction.

OS Release Dates

Tom

That's why I pulled us out too. We did get some release dates, my friend, for the new software, yes, ios and iPad OS 17 releases very soon. It will be on Monday, september 18th, which is when this show will release, so it could be right around the same time that shows up in your app. Mac OS and Noma watch OS 10 will be then too, and TV OS, I imagine as well. Can't remember that one specifically. I can tell that TV.

Jeff

OS is about to come out, because the thing, the thing that always happens is the the feature that's supposed to allow you to turn on your television Stops working.

Tom

great, yeah and so it's not working excellent arc.

Tom

Arc is what they call it Mac OS and Noma is Is coming out the following week, on September 26th, so that's, that's pretty good. There've been some instances where the the iOS stuff comes out and Mac OS kind of lags behind three or four weeks, but this year they're pretty close, so those are very close to being released and we'll talk about that. I have not used any of the iOS Betas, so that will all be new for me. Watch OS the same, of course. So Noma beta I've used a lot and has been pretty good.

Jeff

Yeah, I same. I mean I've got, I've got betas on everything at this point in time. Yeah and it's it's been pretty Solid. You know I like them all. It's on my watch, it's on. That's why I have this fancy new watch face that you don't have. Show off.

New iCloud Storage Options

Tom

Yep, yeah, yeah, glute, while you can, special clock sticking on that one, yeah, it is. And Monday, big news, big news. The big news that someone posted on Twitter X, x, twitter. Whatever they said, the loudest applause in the theater during the event Was when Apple mentioned the upgraded iCloud storage options. So to date, you've been able to get 50 gigs, 200 gigs, two terabytes. Yep, of course, you get your five gigs for free, thanks, tim. So remember, every time Apple tells you that customers are the most important thing, they show your love with that free five gigs.

Tom

So yeah anyhow, you can get a six terabyte plan. Yes and it's off terabyte. The six terabyte will be 2999 a month. 12 terabyte will be 5999 a month. I have not seen Anything yet on how that would be factored in to like the subscription Apple one subscription plans.

Jeff

Yeah, I was wondering about that. I haven't seen anything either.

Tom

So and I think we talked about both on the two terabyte plan.

Jeff

Pretty comfortably I think yeah, I don't like.

Tom

I still got a terabyte to go, but it is nice for folks that need it to get up to that those larger ones, if they want to use that.

Jeff

Well, and especially if you're on family plans, I think that that's the, that's the bigger place where that matters, especially as these phones are starting to take bigger and bigger pictures and everybody's doing their stuff in the cloud. That's me.

Tom

It's gonna eat up that space, yeah, and I think it would be nice if and I think they could almost do it at this point with the six and twelve plans coming If they made time machine and iCloud backup service rather than just local drive, because on laptop so few people remember to plug in the drive to back stuff up. Yeah.

Jeff

And so with those larger capacities.

Tom

That would be an enticing offering, I think, if they just all of a sudden it's time machine and iCloud or whatever they call it. It's probably just iCloud backup for Mac.

Jeff

That would be nice. Yeah, it would be nice. I'm gonna say again back plays the way you need to go.

Tom

Yes, and they got a new version coming out, version nine Back plays Okay. Yeah, just saw that the other day rolling out this month. But the better restore interface, they said nice.

Jeff

Yeah, it's still the best did for my money. The the very best cloud backup.

Tom

Yeah, it's very good.

Jeff

It is very good, unless they Do something different to the architecture for time machine. Time machine in the cloud would not be fun, right, yeah, and let's say, unless they do it the way they do it in iOs, then now, yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz I think time machine is very Well.

Tom

It's old, it's been around for a long time.

Jeff

Oh, yes, it's great. I think it's great, but uh.

Tom

Yeah, but I think, with everything being so mobile, it's just, you know, just make the Mac just like the iOs devices, let them back up to the cloud. Yes, I agree, and it's past due to put a cellular chip in Macs as well, so we can get a cellular Mac book. That would be great.

Jeff

It's an interesting thought.

Tom

Yep, you got them in iPads. We should be able to do it, so anyway.

Jeff

Yeah.

Tom

Yeah, definitely anything else you want to come on.

Jeff

I think we're good man. Okay, you go have some for me.

Tom

I'm gonna do that tomorrow. Yeah yeah, trip without me to the in-laws, don't worry. Pictures forthcoming.

Jeff

Yeah, pictures, great pictures. He's great, they're my.

Tom

They're very high quality photos. They are.

Jeff

Which makes it worse, by the way. Yes, get a nice picture of far and the only thing.

Tom

I can think is far you. Yeah, you've told me that before I I'm sorry.

Jeff

All right.

Tom

Jeff, yes, if people have any questions, comments, root comments, nice comments, concerns, letters to the editor. Where should they send those Feedback at basic af showcom? Okay, we do have a website with that too. If you want to go there and listen honestly, though, just subscribe in your podcast app, so the shows up listen to us, yeah, and say nice things about us.

Jeff

Go to the Apple site and, you know, Put us, give us five stars. We would appreciate it. And then, you know, say nice things about us or hateful things, we don't care. You can say we might even like hateful things better because, as I said before the bullstrapcom site, I Do a newsletter that will not reference that site, by the way, on these Apple related topics.

Tom

So if you would like to subscribe to that, just went over the hundred subscriber mark, which is it's a lot for me because I'm just, you know, hey, that's pretty good. If I had a hundred people in the room I'd be a little nervous. Talk to that. Many people say yeah. So if you want to hit that Tom F Anderson comm, you can sign up there. Don't forget, check the show notes. We'll throw some links in for that Quiz. Do you need a smart watch? We'll put that in there and a couple of those, and not for me. And yeah, when we get to our gift buying guide later this year, you know what to get Jeff, who's our music from again Psycho kinetics.

Jeff

We're very grateful to psychokinetics for letting us use their lovely music. Also Celsius 7, one of the front men for psycho kinetics, and we have podcast artwork by Randall Martin design which we highly recommend that you look, randall, up. All of that information in the show notes.

Tom

It is, and so that is a wrap. Thank you once again for being here with us. We we're greatly appreciative that you'll spend some time with us, and I hope you have the rest or a great rest of your day or night and we'll talk to you next time.

Jeff

See you later, tom. Have some fun. Bye Jeff.

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Jeff Battersby

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Tom Anderson

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