Basic AF: a (mostly) tech podcast
Apple makes incredible products. The tips and insights that actually help are harder to find. Basic AF cuts through the hype cycles and gets straight to what matters for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch users. Plus, app recommendations, gear reviews, AI tools, and the everyday tech that actually shows up in your life. Every other Monday, Tom Anderson and Jeff Battersby bring 25+ years of real-world Apple experience to practical, insightful conversations for people like you.
Basic AF: a (mostly) tech podcast
AI Tools: What's Actually Working (and What Isn't) with Bill McLean
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Big news out of Cupertino: Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO, with hardware engineering chief John Ternus set to take the helm this September. Tom and Jeff spend a few minutes on the transition — then welcome back guest Bill McLean for an honest, no-hype check-in on AI tools: what they're actually using, what's working, and where the marketing is writing checks the technology can't cash.
In this episode:
- The Tim Cook → John Ternus CEO handoff and what a hardware guy at the top might mean for Apple's software
- Which AI platforms Tom and Bill settled on, and why ChatGPT got dropped
- Claude Co-Work in real life: web scraping, YouTube analytics, and why you still have to babysit it
- The "dopamine hit" problem: why AI-generated ideas can kill your motivation to actually do the work
- How Bill replaced his Squarespace subscription using Claude Code with zero coding background
- Why context might be AI's real superpower and why Apple could have the biggest edge
- MCP integrations worth building: Readwise, Craft, Apple Reminders
- Why Claude projects and skills outperformed an Obsidian vault for real workflow results
- A must-read New Yorker profile on Sam Altman
Links from the show:
- Bill McLean on YouTube: youtube.com/@BillMcLean
- Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? - The New Yorker
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Contact Us
- Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
- You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
- Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
- Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
- Tom has a new YouTube channel
- Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design
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Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen
Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.
