Welcome to In the News for March 15, 2024.

I am Brett Burney from AppsinLaw.com.

And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhoneJD.

Brett, beware the Ides of March today.

Oh, that is right.

March 15, the Ides of March.

Not a good day to be Caesar.

Okay.

We'll put that aside.

Other than maybe the, you know, the eclipse could be some kind of a harbor, harboring here of doom or something like that.

But, you know, I was just thinking we could temporarily change the podcast to In the News for the eclipse coming up.

I know we've got several weeks before April 8th, right, is the day that everybody is looking for.

But I love that you had a couple of links today, I think in the spirit of preparation.

In other words, I know my wife just ordered some eclipse viewing glasses, because up in Ohio, we're going to be like in the pathway of this.

I just know that you have some plans to do some travel as well.

And I thought there was some excellent links that you had today about making sure that you not only get the right glasses or, you know, we call them glasses, but they're really just, you know, the right filters for your eyes, if you will, but also for your iPhone, because most people are going to be wanting to take some pictures of this eclipse and you got to protect your iPhone camera lens as well.

Well, at least it helps.

We'll talk about that in a second.

Have you ever seen a total eclipse before, Britt?

I think I can remember maybe once in my life.

Well, you know, I'm old enough now, Jeff, as you know, I've been through several, but sometimes I'm not usually in the right path.

Or I just remember, you know, two or three times in my life, you know, I've walked outside and I'm like, whoa, this is not what it's supposed to be looking like right now.

But I just never been one of those, you know, to go out of my way.

This year is going to be a little bit different.

My son is old enough now that he's interested in it.

Sounds like much like your son as well.

And so, yeah, I'm kind of getting a little more into this so that I want to have that experience this year.

Yeah, I've been excited about it only because I hear from people.

I have a number of friends that have relatively recently seen like a, you know, a total eclipse where you're right there in the center of it.

And although from what I understand, they're not going to be quite as dynamic as this one's going to be.

So this will be a really good one.

But people say that like when you're in that total darkness and stuff, that it's one of those sort of rare moments in life that is sort of awe inspiring.

And it's just it's special.

There's something, you know, I've certainly seen partial eclipse in my life, and those are interesting.

But people that I trust say that seeing a total eclipse when you're in the path, it truly is a very different experience from the partial eclipse.

So I have some interest in it.

I wish I was as lucky as you are that it was coming to my hometown, that I didn't have to drive for it.

But so my son and I are going to head to Dallas where we have some relatives and hang out with them and look at it because it's going to be the Dallas area is going to be right there in the path.

And I'm looking forward to it.

So it's just a few weeks away, as you said.

And so now we're in the preparatory stages.

And so, you know, first of all, you obviously need to wear the glasses and stuff.

So if you're going to, you know, you want to order those now, if it's not already getting to be too late, you know, get some of those quickly so that you can look at the sun before it gets to the stage.

As I understand, if you're in the totality during those, you know, very few minutes when it's completely blocked, you don't need to wear the glasses.

Because of course, the sun is blocked.

But the question then is, do you want to have some sort of a filter for your iPhone?

And the one that I linked to today was recommended by the Wirecutter.

And it's a filter that you just sort of put in front of your iPhone that it really just allows it so that especially as you're getting, you know, before and after the moment of totality, when when some of the sun is visible, it just is going to cut down on the brightness of the sun so that you can get some interesting pictures.

I've actually seen I didn't link to it today, but I gave you the link.

There was a website called Space.com or somebody was saying that you don't necessarily need to have a filter on your iPhone.

And so you can get some if as long as you just adjust some of the settings.

Of course, you don't want to have the flash on and some recommendations for some other ones.

We'll include that in the show links today if you're interested in.

One of the things is, you know, with the iPhone, you can normally it will just auto focus.

But if you want, if you touch on the screen, you can make your iPhone focus on a specific part on a specific thing, even if it's not necessarily the center.

And so as he wrote notes that if you if you touch down on the sun, your iPhone will adjust for that, even though normally it might not be in focus.

So he has some other tips there, too.

So I personally.

Yeah, who knows?

I haven't done it yet, but I suspect that I will go back and forth between trying to take some pictures with just my regular iPhone and some pictures using this this, you know, wire cutter filter that I linked to from from.

Yeah, from wire cutter dot com today.

And we'll see what makes a difference.

I mean, I figured, again, it's not that much money.

I'll have it with me if it makes a difference.

I've got it.

And so that's the spirit in which I link to it.

If you're going to be seeing the eclipse, you might want to consider having it.

My son, who's very much into all things space, he actually has he's getting like a solar filter specifically for a telescope.

You know, it's going to be careful if you're doing all that stuff so that he can hopefully get some really interesting pictures with like a DSLR camera hooked up to a telescope with a special lens and everything like that.

So that would be very, very interesting.

So I'm looking forward to it.

I mean, it'll be it'll be something different that you don't get every day, especially since I think they say that the the next one in our lifetime is like, what, 30 years away or something like that.

Oh, my God, United States, obviously, right?

Parts of the world will get it different places.

But for those of us in the States, it's sort of a now or never.

So I say let's do it.

It's a good time.

You know, this wire cutter article is so thorough.

I love this.

I think they're talking to like three or four different specialists in there, like how to do this.

They even talk about using a tripod.

You know, if you don't if you don't have one, I don't know.

I mean, I'm assuming there's going to be lots of people doing sort of that time lapse kind of a thing.

I was just going to this other link that you had here, which these are just some fascinating pictures here where, you know, it shows the actual different stages on there.

Obviously have a tripod for something like that.

You know, if you want to test something like that, that's going to be important.

Also, if you're a modeler, I've got I've got a little.

Oh, there you go.

I've had for my iPhone that I've purchased.

Yeah.

Years and years ago.

I'll make sure I pack that for me, too.

Yeah.

Set that up.

Yeah.

But that's that's good.

It just reminded me.

I got to tell you, I was traveling again this week and I have a suitcase, an excellent suitcase that I purchased because it was recommended by the wire cutter.

And I don't normally look around at other people's suitcases, but I did this trip, Jeff.

And it was amazing to me how many other exact same suitcases were there.

And I just thought to myself, I bet all of us went to the wire cutter.

I'm just thinking about, you know, that resource is pretty amazing right there in and of itself.

Yes.

And there's now one more of them out there because I also have the wire cutter suitcase that works really well.

And my wife had to buy a suitcase about two months ago and she bought the wire cutter and she got to.

OK, so everyone is good.

No, I don't always agree with the wire cutter and everything.

Exactly.

Yes.

And I sometimes if I find that if I really know a subject area, then I will appreciate the wire cutter analysis.

Right.

And sometimes think that their second pick might be my first pick or exactly.

Same.

But if it's a subject matter that I know nothing about, at least I know my experience.

If you go with the wire cutter, you know, you're not going to go completely off path.

You know, it's going to at least write a recommendation.

So yes, it is a number of it's funny the number of people that have the same suitcase just because it's just as we were talking, because not only do I like this link that you have, but there's there is another specifically included in the show notes where it is the exact specifically on the exact gear for viewing like the different glasses they even have.

I thought this was interesting.

They have little covers for your binoculars.

So there's like lenses specifically for your binoculars.

I'll link to this as well.

But anyway, as I was just thinking about, you know, the wire cutters, I think I remember they were independent, right, for a long time and they were purchased by The New York Times not not too long ago, maybe a few years.

But it's just pretty amazing how this has become almost like the consumer reports.

Like, what does a wire cutter say?

Because I'm like you, I put that into my calculations, if nothing else, but I didn't mean to get off on the wire cutter.

But I just I always appreciate the fact that they are offering some of the best options here, you know, for the viewing, forget those glasses.

And most of the time, more often than not, they will link to Amazon.

And I am I'm absolutely positive that they are getting their affiliate links in on that.

And I'm happy to help them on that.

But they'll also link to Best Buy or B&H here, some of the other, you know, for some other options there to get your glasses.

But I'm just thinking, hey, get your glasses as soon as you can, because I know there's a lot of people out there.

Probably maybe they won't be the best place to get them sometimes, you know, they're not as good quality or whatever the case may be.

I've heard that, too.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like, hey, you know, the wire cut is going to make sure that you have the best place on there.

And then, man, I'm so glad that you included this last link to Jeff and I'll put this in.

I didn't even think about this.

He even says, shoot the totality in raw.

Like you know, if you've got one of the iPhones that have the ability to shoot raw, that's really I mean, that just gives you a lot more capabilities.

Maybe if you wanted to, you know, change the coloring a little bit or play some filters or play around with some of those settings after.

I just didn't even think about that, because most of the time you have to go in and specifically say you want to shoot in raw, right?

That's usually not on by default just because it's going to be a much bigger kind of a picture there.

But man, these are some good tips here.

I'm so glad you included this story as well for this.

And he says shoot with the tripod as well.

That's good stuff.

All right.

So that's our in the news Eclipse version today.

I don't know if we'll be talking about it too much more, but I feel like now, you know, people have got enough time that they can get all of this equipment there if there's something that they are interested in.

And yeah, there's April 8th, there's Cleveland right there mentioned in there.

The path of the totality and going across Texas.

That's fantastic.

Probably one of the things that you don't want to watch the Eclipse in is your Apple Vision Pro.

I mean, I guess you could.

Maybe take a panorama.

Ooh, that would be a good way to segue, right Jeff?

Take a panorama of the Eclipse and then you can view that in your Apple Vision Pro.

I thought this was a good story that you linked to today about surgeons or maybe not.

The wasn't the surgeon wearing the Vision Pro.

It was one of the nurses.

Is that right?

Did I get that right here in the UK?

I didn't even think about this, but I love this story.

So as I understand it, I'm not a doctor, of course, but they're in procedures.

You have a nurse that's right there in the operating room.

And the reason that they are there is to basically make sure that everything gets done.

You know, people always talk about how the the the concept of a checklist was first invented if I understand the story correctly for airline pilots.

And the idea being that there's all these things you want to double check before you fly.

And if you have to remember them manually, you might forget something and it could be dangerous.

And once they came up with the idea of a checklist, flight safety increased exponentially.

And so as I understand it for surgery, there's some of the same things that you have to have all these checklists that things are done correctly.

But of course, that checklist is going to vary from surgery to surgery.

So if you are a nurse that has participated in a certain type of surgery a million times, well, then you're going to know that checklist very well, even if you have it printed out and you're going to help to make sure that the doctors, you know, don't forget anything.

But as the doctors that were involved in that talk to the reporter that wrote this article said is that if you have a nurse that this is the first time they've done this procedure, they're obviously at a disadvantage.

Yeah.

And so what this nurse was doing, and it was I don't know what app it was, but it was an app where the nurse is wearing the Vision Pro.

So the nurse can see what's going on in the procedures.

But at the same time, you know, as augmented reality superimposed on the screen that she can see that but nobody else, of course, can see is sort of a checklist of all the different things that the doctors need to be remembering.

And it basically provided her with the same the doctor quoted in the article said it was like someone who has been doing this for 10 years, because they have all the procedures, all the checklist items right there in front of them.

And they can check things off.

I don't know if she was pinching to do that select or whatever it is that she was doing.

And so it was like it was, you know, any nurse can suddenly become an experienced nurse just by virtue of using this.

And I'm like, wow, that's a really interesting use case.

And an example of something that I had not thought about before.

So it's not I mean, I've also seen separate things of, you know, telemedicine, where a doctor is in a different location of the world.

And they are using some sort of virtual reality or video device to participate in the surgery.

And maybe we'll see that as well.

But this is a much more practical, less whiz bang.

But just, you know, once you think about it, it makes sense to have everything sort of right there in place.

And it reminds me of when you get the Vision Pro, there are some there's one app, I forget the name of it, but it allows you to import 3D models so that you can take things apart and put them together.

But it just sort of reminds you that, you know, you can so easily, you know, have these things that are a part of the world or augmenting what you see and saying, you know, you're seeing this, but I'm pointing to it, it's actually this.

And the more that you that you blur the line between the real world and what your device, like a Vision Pro can augment to it.

It just, you know, even if it's in a surgical context where it's, it understands that you're looking at a heart and this is something that should be right next to the heart or however it would work.

It's just really, really interesting.

So this is just like everything that we say about the Apple Vision Pro, the caveat is always this is such early days, such early days.

If this is what they're doing within the first couple of months, it gives you real hope for what technology might be out there in a couple of years so that, you know, when you and I are on the surgical bed one day, Brett, you know, we'd like to know that the people that are operating on us have all the technology to make sure that everything is done correctly.

So I want to be, I want to wear the Apple Vision Pro while they're operating on me.

I think that would even be, that would just be the meta.

The key word to me is the augmented side, right, Jeff?

Which is not new, right?

I remember the Google glasses and there's, you know, any kind of, you know, any number of science fiction movies you can go back over the years and see like they're wearing some kind of glasses or they have like a chip implanted in their eye and it's like you walk around and you are encountering people and I'm not good with names and I would love to just be, have a little thing up in the corner to say this is so and so that, you know, they have this many kids, like the last time you connected with them was there, you know, they work at this place.

It's just that kind of information or to me when I read the story, it was just this nurse and I love this little picture here because she's like handing an instrument to the surgeon while she's wearing the Vision Pro, which, you know, she can see through it, right?

Or he or she can see through it just fine.

But it's just having access to all that information.

And I'm thinking to myself, what would the alternative be?

There would be a checklist maybe laying somewhere on a little table or somewhere else where they would have to turn their head, right, to look at it or pause whatever they're doing and look and focus on that piece of paper.

Whereas now I just feel like that could be information floating up there constantly.

You could just always, you know, just use your eyes to flip up and check it out.

And you know, I'm thinking about the legal profession just because that's where we are.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to just have access to that list or you know I've got three or four documents that I might want to reference, you know, when I'm making an argument or something like that and I just have them accessible there without putting them on a screen for everyone in the audience.

It's just that idea of having that augmented.

And again, last point I'll make, Don, on this.

This is nothing new.

This has been done before.

But for me, it just sounds like the way that Apple Vision is doing it and to your points that you've made over and over and over, this is the early days.

It's like the way that they are incorporating it, what Apple is doing, just seems like this is going to be where it's at.

We know the Apple Vision Pro is going to get much smaller.

It's going to get much more streamlined.

It's going to get much simpler, even more simpler to use.

And it's just a matter of time as it goes.

And these are just the early days that we see.

So anyway, that's why I got excited about that.

There was an interesting discussion on another podcast that I listened to this week, Brett, called the Connected Podcast, where the hosts were talking about a comparison of the current Apple Vision Pro with the first generation Apple Watch.

And do I remember correctly, Brett, I had the original Apple Watch.

Did you have it as well, the very first one?

I did.

Yes, yes, I did.

So, and you know, at the time, I remember thinking that the original Apple Watch was pretty cool.

It was the first time that I had really worn an Apple Watch, to have worn any sort of a watch again in a number of years.

And it did things.

And of course, in retrospect, if I was to ask you the number one thing about the Apple Watch, I am quite sure what you would say is it was so slow.

You know, that first generation was so slow.

It had their third party apps.

It was so limited in so many ways that when we look back on it, it's amazing.

And the discussion that they had on that podcast is which device was more limited in its first generation, the Apple Watch or the Vision Pro?

And I have to admit, it's a close one because in some ways, the Vision Pro, the whole concept of the Vision Pro, even though we've had some other companies have had some type of virtual reality device for a little bit of time now, the very concept of it is so new.

And yet there are certain aspects of the Vision Pro, like for example, watching movies with its beautiful screen that are really fully developed.

I mean, the Vision Pro is not slow, unlike the original Apple Watch.

The Vision Pro, it's more than fascinating.

You know, some aspects of it are really advanced, and yet some aspects of it are just such early days, especially the software that I don't know.

It's an interesting question as to which one of them was more basic and preliminary in its first stages.

And yet now that we've seen the Apple Watch go so far from that first generation to the ones that people have now, which are really so, so, so much better, it really does excite you about what the Apple Vision Pro might be 10 years from now.

Well, thanks to iJustine, we know that the Vision Pro will also work in a swimming pool.

I thought this was great that you linked to here where she's literally in her swimming pool.

Okay, she's not like going under with the Vision Pro, right?

She's not like taking a dive.

So she just has the water like up to her chest.

And I loved how in this video, she tucked the battery pack of the Vision Pro into the back of the headband so that the battery was into the water.

But she's just like, you know, walking around in the pool just fine.

Okay, she's not going under.

With all these beautiful screens around her.

Exactly.

I wouldn't recommend, you know, taking a dive with the Vision Pro on.

By the way, I love this other one in this list here of little YouTube shorts from iJustine.

She's getting on a plane.

She wears the Apple Vision Pro to get on the plane.

She said the hardest thing was bringing up her boarding pass at the gate because it required her to have her face ID.

But other than that, she wore it like walking down the jetway and somebody was yelling at her like, hey, you know, take that off.

You can't see.

She's like, no, I can see you.

I can see you just fine.

I just like we obviously very much enjoy iJustine and all of her.

Here she is.

She's tucking it into her headband there, which is.

Oh, my goodness.

That's great.

Don't try this at home.

Do not.

Or even in the city pool, you know, of any kind.

Don't try it anywhere.

So apparently, speaking of the Apple Watch, Apple is watching you, Jeff.

And they are telling you they need that you need to do a little bit more exercise based on the what was this called?

The Apple Heart and Movement Study.

They did this in conjunction with well, this is on Brigham and Women's Hospital, but I think they did it in conjunction with Harvard and a couple of other places as well.

But I thought this was kind of an interesting there's some interesting data points in here, but not the least of which is sorry, Louisiana, you you're in the bottom of the list of states that don't do enough quite on using your Apple Watch to get some exercise in.

Maybe maybe you do.

Jeff, I'll try to put a silver lining on it.

Maybe Louisiana does do enough exercise.

You're just not wearing Apple Watches for some reason.

There you go.

That could be it.

I'm sure it was, you know, yet another study.

And I think Mississippi, the state right next to us was perhaps a little bit lower than Louisiana, but it's not it's not by much.

Right.

I saw.

So folks in my neck of the woods, we need to stop eating all of the delicious New Orleans food and start exercising more.

But it is interesting.

The more beignets.

Yeah, exactly.

Cut down the beignets.

But in all seriousness, when Apple, you know, the Apple Watch does measure so many things.

And of course, one of the things that's so wonderful is that it's it's it's sensing you 24/7, which is why we often link to these stories of the Apple Watch detecting, you know, heart rate irregular heart rate irregularities that lead to people going to the hospital and the doctors.

Right.

All those stories.

But because it's measuring you all the time, Apple can use this data.

Of course, anonymously so that your privacy is protected as part of these studies that they can do some of these large scale analyses that would have been impossible without the Apple Watch because you would never have all this information.

And I don't currently have it turned on.

You can participate in these studies.

It's voluntary through the through the iPhone app and you answer the health app.

OK, health.

Yeah, I've done it in the past.

I think it's actually maybe it's a separate app that you download.

I'm not sure that I'm currently participating in it now that I think about it.

I don't remember.

I have to go back and turn it back on again, because it's just sort of interesting if you want to sort of be a part of something and and submit some basic information about yourself that you you decide to provide.

And then and then using that, they can sort of do their statistical analysis of, you know, you are, you know, this gender and this age and this everything.

And they use that to sort of come by their statistics.

So this this is just one example of it is this is more simplistic of what states are people doing more aerobic activity in.

But they have much more sophisticated studies that are done with the same data.

And why not help contribute to science if you're wearing the Apple watch anyway?

I think it's just impactful to think about that point you just made.

It's like how in the world would they have with it, would he have done this that he would have just taken so much more manual, you know, watching people, you know, asking for people to report in that kind of a thing.

But now with the Apple watch, like you said, much, much in the same way that Apple collects, you know, when you talk to she who shall not be named, like they're aggregating all of that data and information, you know, and so that they can improve the products.

And it's like there we know that they are collecting a lot of this stuff, I think, and I believe anonymously, just because of Apple, I believe them when they say that.

But you know, being part of this, and when you subscribe to Apple, you know, Apple Plus, I mean, Apple News, Apple Music, you name it, like all these services are aggregating some of this data and some of this information.

And being able to put this, I think, into this really kind of, you know, I think I want to even dig a little bit more into this, into the study.

I'm just really glad that they're collaborating with places like Brigham and Women's Hospital and, and kind of putting out some of this information.

That's, that's really good.

Hey, Brad, as you switch topics, go back to your YouTube tab and turn that off.

I think I can hear I've just teens voice in the back of my head.

Oh, my goodness.

Okay, background.

That's okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

We'll make sure that she gets stopped there.

Hopefully that wasn't for everyone.

I read this other story that you talked about HBO Max, you and I talk a lot about Apple TV and for good reasons, Apple TV Plus that is.

But we've mentioned Max, which is formerly HBO Max, right?

Was that the Cinemax?

HBO?

I don't know.

It never mind.

Whatever it is today.

It's just called Max.

And I, I was reading this because maybe you did the same thing.

I at one point I had an AT&T subscription.

I think I still do.

I'm grandfathered in to where my plan, my data plan, Jeff, included Max.

Now they don't offer that anymore.

So I'm grandfathered in with that.

But I've been thinking about changing up just a little bit on my AT&T plan for my iPhone, and which means that I would miss out Max.

And I've really enjoyed some of the offerings through Max now.

And I was like, okay, well, if I lose that, I got to make sure that I have another way to do it.

So this is a story on Engadget you link to annual subscriptions to Max are currently 40% off.

And I think you did a good job of recommending that if people are interested in this, this is a good time to get a subscription for a little bit less money than it normally costs.

Yeah.

Different people have different plans.

And like you, Brett, I had, I thought it was through DirecTV, but I know DirecTV and AT&T were together and stuff.

Anyway, regardless, through one thing or another, I had had free HBO for many, many years, which was nice because I like HBO.

They have good shows there.

And then earlier this year, I saw the notice that that was going to come to an end.

And sure enough, it was around, I want to say it was December of last year for me, maybe in November, that I could continue to get HBO either for free or discounted, but it was no longer the 4K version, which since I had a 4K TV and the 4K Apple TV, I'm like, I don't want to, again, for some shows you would not notice it as much, but for other shows that are the truly dramatic shows, yeah, I want to see it in the best quality possible with the best sound and the best vision and everything else.

And so that's when I was like, okay, I guess we're starting to pay for HBO again.

So to go from paying nothing to paying $20 a month, I wasn't thrilled about it, but there was enough quality there that I figured I would do it.

So this was nice because, I mean, with this current deal, and again, it's just going to be for one year, but at least for this year, it's going to cut the monthly if you, you know, you're paying for it once.

But if you were to spread it over 12 months in your brain, it makes it $12 a month, which is a lot more than $20 a month.

So you know, there's always these different deals for these different things.

And, you know, I continue to hear rumors that Apple TV Plus is maybe the only one of the big streaming services right now that does not have an ad tier so that you can pay less money, but have ads.

And so many people are saying that eventually it's going to do it because even Netflix, which resisted for a long time, as I understand it, Netflix learned that they were making more money off of people that use the ad tier than people that were paying more money for the ad free tier, which is part of the reason that they raised the price of the ad free tier.

So, but I mean, I don't, I hate watching ads.

I particularly hate watching ads and streaming services because you can't skip over them and they tend to be repetitive and more annoying.

So anyway, so as we live in this age of different streaming services costing different amounts and some have ads and some don't, you want to look for the best deal you can get when you're watching stuff on your Apple TV.

And so this was a pretty good deal that I certainly signed up for.

I am afraid I may have crossed the line, Jeff, of, you know, we got rid of cable long, long time ago.

Cause I was like, I don't want to pay $150 a month for cable, you know, for all these channels that I don't even want.

So we cut that a long time ago and we signed up for Netflix.

And then I think we got Hulu and then we got Disney Plus and then I'm paying for Apple TV Plus and then we got Max and there's probably four or five other services that I'm now paying for.

And I think I've not allowed myself to add them all up yet because I'm afraid what I'm going to find out is I am now paying more after cutting the cable.

And it's like, just when you were talking about the ad aspects of like, like, I don't want to go to the free tiers either.

Like I enjoy this way when I, when I have time now, it's so my time is so valuable when I have time now.

I don't want to waste any time watching a silly ad.

I even get annoyed on YouTube and now I'm going to subscribe to YouTube now for red or whatever that's called.

Cause I just don't want to waste my time watching the ads and now I got to pay.

I don't know.

It's just, it's just weird that I feel like over all these years, you know, we've been hearing about cutting the cable for so long and now it's almost like, well, it's, it's the other side of the coin.

We don't talk about sports all that much, but we have talked about soccer or football in the, you know, for 99% of the world.

But we've been watching major league soccer because Apple T Apple acquired the rights to view that.

And so I just know we have been watching this story from the sense of when does Apple think they're going to expand this?

When can they, you know, NFL, you know, NBA, NBA, all this other kind of stuff.

Anyway, you were talking about how Apple is now streaming some MLS matches what this weekend, right?

You don't even have to have subscriptions.

I got to tell you, I might try one of these out because I've been watching and hearing so many people talk about the soccer matches and how they look on Apple TV.

And you know, I don't, I can't even think that I've even watched any so far.

I'm sure that you have done just some of your research on this, but I might be doing that this weekend just to kind of see what it looks like.

Yeah, I'm not a big soccer fan, but I've watched a little bit on Apple TV when they show it for free.

And it's nice this weekend at all day, Saturday and all day Sunday, you can watch any of the 14 games that you want for free without being a subscriber to Apple's MLS package.

That, you know, right now what Apple is doing with MLS, and again, I haven't watched any of the, in the brand new season that's just starting, but my understanding is that it's good coverage, you know, but it's not perhaps all that different from what you might see from other networks for other types of sports.

What interests me is that because of the unique relationship that Apple has with a major league soccer in the United States, because they are the exclusive, you know, provider of it, there's no other networks that are showing it.

It means that Apple has more ability to do unique things.

And we haven't seen it yet, but you know, we keep being told that it's coming, that, you know, one of the, when you have an Apple Vision Pro on the preview reel, they show you some incredible shots that only last like five seconds in the preview reel, where your camera is right there on top of the goal.

It's this incredible view of the soccer field.

And you know, wouldn't it be neat if Apple could integrate this so that whether it's for people that have the Vision Pro or maybe even a version of it that works in 2D, that you could have, you know, far more interactive experiences just because Apple is trying to push the envelope and do something interesting with MLS that otherwise, you know, doesn't get done for some of it.

You know, we've certainly seen this over the years in other sports.

I mean, I remember for NFL games, the first time that they had those cameras that were on the cords that go over the entire field.

That was when it first came out, it was an innovation, you know, many, many, many years ago when they first did the super imposition of where the 10 yard line was on the field.

So you talk about the initial augmented reality that we all got to learn of growing up.

You know, so there's definitely been technologies that people have tried over the years to enhance the sports watching experience.

And I hope that Apple, just being a tech company, does even more stuff with MLS.

So anyway, so, you know, this weekend you get to watch some games for free.

That's great.

And just to broaden up to the bigger picture, I really look forward to Apple doing even more interesting things over the next few years with MLS.

Right.

Agreed.

Your mission, Jeff, is to watch a soccer game on the Vision Pro.

I can't wait.

That would be awesome.

I want to know what that's going to look like.

This has to be maybe at least the fourth or fifth story that I can personally remember where an Apple, an AirTag has saved an SUV.

I don't know what it is about SUVs.

Maybe there's a stolen more.

I don't know.

This is another story on there.

Yeah.

At segment that over in the UK, AirTag and police save a builder from a massive stolen car replacement expense.

This is a little weird.

Just like, why did you leave the keys on the dash?

And the gentleman, the owner was saying that he let somebody borrow his car.

And if you really cared about your car, why'd you do that?

Anyway, the happy ending was that because of the AirTag that was in the keys, the police were able to recover the car.

And apparently it was just sitting on a residential street somewhere.

So it wasn't damaged or anything else.

So just yet another story, especially if you have an SUV, apparently get an AirTag for it.

Yeah.

I mean, this poor guy made a big mistake in leaving his car keys right there on his dash.

And he says, within minutes, somebody saw it, jumped in the car, drove off with it.

So that was the thing that he did wrong.

But the thing that he did right, as we always say, is he did not try to take the law into his own hands.

He got in touch with the local authorities.

He showed them, look, because I have an AirTag in this thing, I can see where it is.

And working with the authorities, I think they even gave him a ride.

And they went to the location.

And because the car was just right there on the side of the road, he was able to recover his vehicle without having it lost.

And he was pointing out, I don't know the insurance implications, certainly the policy that he had over there in England.

But he said that because the car was stolen as a result of him leaving the keys out in the open, that he did not think he would have insurance coverage for it.

I don't know if that's an exclusion in a policy or not.

But apparently he thought that it was.

And so all the more that I'm sure he's thrilled that he got the car back instead of losing a $35,000 SUV.

So be careful where you put your keys.

But I feel like every-- I've stopped linking to them as much as I used to.

But it seems like continuously right now on Amazon, you can get AirTags for about $20 each if you buy a four pack, which is as cheap as they've ever been, about $80 for them.

So if you don't have some AirTags, just get some.

Put one somewhere in your car.

And hopefully you will never, never need it.

But just in case you do, at least you can now tell the police, hey, I see where my stolen car is.

Can you help me get it?

So Jeff, I wonder if you know the answer to this.

Because I was traveling, as I mentioned, this week.

And I have an AirTag in my roller bag, even though it's a carry-on.

It's not a luggage.

But I like having it there just in case I have to leave it somewhere or I want to track it.

And it saved me, if you folks who listen to us by remember.

I remember that story.

It saved me once when somebody took my suitcase that was an identical suitcase.

He read the Wirecutter story too, I'm sure.

Anyway, I wanted to ask you, I think I've had my AirTags maybe just a little bit over a year now.

When the battery needs to be replaced, Jeff, does it tell me?

Because I thought about this, because most of the time, I don't think about it, right?

The AirTag, other than when I leave my suitcase in the hotel, right?

And I got to go to a conference or something, there's a little message that pops up.

And it says, "Your roller bag has been left at the hotel."

I'm like, "Okay, great.

I know that."

But as I was going to the airport, apparently that roller bag AirTag got disconnected.

And so when I opened my iPhone, it said, "Hey, there's an AirTag here.

Do you want to connect to it?"

And I'm like, "What?

I'm already connected to it."

I tapped Connect.

I thought maybe it was somebody else in the lounge or something like that.

But no, it was mine.

Somehow it had cut that connection with that AirTag.

But it was very easy.

As soon as I hit Connect, I could tell, "Okay, yeah, that's my roller bag.

I can tell it's because it says it's with you.

It's right there."

And I just had to...

And it actually synchronized with the AirTag that I had already put in there.

Anyway, that was a long story on that aspect.

But I just got to thinking that worked out well for me.

But we talked about this before.

Is it going to tell me when to replace the batteries?

I don't think about it often enough, Jeff, that I don't want it to die without making sure that I've got the battery replacements on there.

Have you had to do this yet on this?

Many times.

Absolutely.

Yes, many times.

And yes, it's exactly what you...

What you will see is you will see an alert on your iPhone, the same place that you see other messages.

It'll just be one of the messages in there that it'll tell you the specific AirTag that needs to be replaced.

So if you have...

Okay, good, good.

For example, I've got one that I have called luggage, which is my suitcase, my wife's room.

And I know, and it would tell me your AirTag luggage battery needs to be replaced.

And so I just ordered some more batteries from Amazon and replaced it.

And I also believe if you use the Find My app, and if you hit the tab at the bottom that's called items, you will see all of your items that, you know, AirTags and similar items.

I'm looking at mine right now.

I've got seven of them.

But I'm pretty sure that in this view, if there's one of them that has very low batteries, it will actually alert in that view that you have a low batteries.

And I also seem to remember that if you tap on a specific item, like I'm tapping on my keys for example.

So if I tap on my keys, it doesn't say anything about the battery on it.

But if it was a low battery, it would actually have like a little battery icon with like a graphical percentage.

I've seen it before of, you know, indicating that it's almost at the bottom because it's red and you can sort of tell that it said like the 10% mark or something like that.

So yes, you will get notifications.

You know, you should not run out of battery without being told about it.

And then when you do need to replace the battery, it's really pretty simple.

You just take the AirTag, you twist it, you pop it open, take the old battery out, put the battery in, it'll beep to ensure that the connection is there and you close it up and you're good to go.

And I guess I've had to replace, I'm forgetting how long AirTags have been out now and how long the batteries last, but I probably have had to replace maybe four AirTag batteries since AirTags came out.

How many years ago that was?

Yeah.

So, you know, they last a while.

And I've got a little stash of those, what is it, 2032 batteries, right?

Exactly.

Or 2023, okay.

But I've got a little stash there.

Amazon Basics has a good price on those and I just keep them just in case for this.

Okay, good.

Thank you for answering, for doing a little tech support there because I'm just wondering.

And I see now, I see that one that I have, it tells me that my roller is still at the airport here in Cleveland, but I'm not.

I know it's not.

I know it's right there in my room.

I, you know, I might just replace it like to be a little, you know, I just, it's easy to remove it and then, you know, add it again and rename it.

And I like that it's that easy.

And sometimes, you know, just like anything else, it's, it may be good to do a kind of a reboot other than the fact that that makes me a little bit nervous, right?

It's like, I don't want to have to do a reboot when I'm actually relying on it to find it.

But I've never had an issue with it other than just two days ago when it was the first time.

And that's what I just started thinking of, like, I, I want to make sure that I am on top of it to replace the batteries when necessary.

So, okay.

That problem that you described of having an air tag forget, you know, loses connection with your iPhone.

I have never experienced that before.

And so if I was you, Brett, besides doing some independent research on it, which you might consider doing is, you know, like you say, resetting that air tag, you know, taking that air tag, remove the battery for a while, put it back in.

Right.

Yes.

From scratch.

Yeah.

It might be worth it.

I'm going to put it back if anything, because again, I've never had any issues and that's why I started thinking about it with two days ago when I had that little issue and I'm like, wow, I don't ever think about this and I don't want to not think about it when there's an issue.

Like, I, in other words, I want to be a little more proactive if I can on that.

Okay.

Very good.

In the know, my tip in honor of us talking about the eclipse, I knew that there was an astronomy watch face that came out a long time ago for the Apple watch.

But if you go into the edit mode of some of these watch faces, you have different options there.

In other words, you can go in and you can edit it, you know, the different colors or if you want, this is how you change the complications on the watch face.

But if you go to the astronomy watch face, Jeff, maybe you already knew about this.

There is one of the options there that will show you the entire solar system.

And I have just had a wonderful time this morning playing around with this in honor of the eclipse coming up.

But not only can you see sort of like the concentric circles like the picture I've got on the screen right here, but if you tap the watch face, once you have that face up, then you can use the digital crown to move the planets around and you can see the days.

You can go backwards, you can go forwards and it will show you exactly where the planets are going to be located on those particular days.

And so I was going all the way to April 8th and it was just interesting to see, well, that's what the planets are going to look like on this day.

So anyway, that was my little tip that I've done the astronomy watch face, which I think by default is the picture of the Earth, right?

But if you go into that astronomy watch face and you go into the edit mode, you can either show the moon as opposed to the Earth, then you can show the solar system as opposed to the Earth or the moon.

And then I think there's a random option there, which just shows some kind of a random planet, I believe, something like that.

Anyway, that's my tip today is you can go into your Apple watch, go to the astronomy watch face and then go into the edit mode and find the solar system option there.

And it's just kind of a neat thing to have access to.

There's even the idea that you can have like the full solar system if you wanted to see the whole circle or you could have a random view so that it goes to like one little section of the circle as it goes through.

And every time you look down, it kind of changes that option on there.

But that's my tip today.

Yeah.

As you can guess, since my face has been down the entire time you've been talking, I'm sitting here playing with it.

You've been looking at it.

Yeah.

And if I understand correctly, first of all, it's cool.

I had forgotten that you can tap and then use the crown to change the day.

Now the solar system view is showing me the planets, but it's not showing me the moon.

Right.

Correct.

And so what I was hoping is that if I turn to April 8th, which of course I did, as you said it, I was hoping to actually see the moon come in front of the sun.

But no, I know I did the same thing.

I'm not saying that.

And my son, because I was like, son, can you tell me, you know, which what number planet this is how bad I am, what number planet the earth is from the sun.

He's like, dad, it's three.

And I'm like, hey, I said, look at this, look at this, you know, but I can't see where the moon is blocking.

He's like, dad, the moon is not a planet.

I'm like, son, this is why I pay the big bucks for your education.

It didn't work for me, but you have hope.

Anyway, I just thought that was really cool.

And in honor of us talking about this, I just looked that up.

And it's one of these little kind of hidden little gems, I think, that Apple puts into this.

By the way, one of these stories, I don't know if it's this one that I'm linking to here, but with the Apple Watch Ultra, I've got a really beautiful screen to be able to look at all of this.

Obviously, if you've got a smaller watch, you can still see it all.

All of that information is there.

It's not like Apple put anything special for the Ultra, but it is kind of nice to have a little bit of a bigger screen to be able to show some of this information in there.

And it's just kind of neat that it has that little hidden little gem in there in the astronomy watch face.

And that's my tip for the day.

Yeah, that is a cool tip.

I have never made-- I have the astronomy watch face as one of my options.

I have never made it like the one that I'm using.

But maybe in honor of the eclipse, I'll keep it up there as we get closer to it to think more about ourselves.

Well, like I said, by default, it just has that Earth picture there, which is cool in and of itself.

And I remember you can go in, and I think you can interact with that Earth picture as well.

And I didn't know that you could change it to the moon or the entire solar system like that.

So it's just kind of cool that you have those options there.

Yeah.

That is a good tip.

Good tip.

So my tip today is to talk about something that's been around for a while.

Sometimes I talk about tips that are something brand new that you want to take advantage of.

And then sometimes my tip concerns something that's been around for so long that I sort of forgot about how it works.

And then it's like you run into trouble.

And this is one of those second examples.

So I was looking at my iPad.

We have discussed in the past that the main screen of my iPad is nothing but widgets that show me all sorts of different information that's relevant.

And one of the things I have on my iPad is I have-- it's my weather widgets.

It's two widgets that I switch between.

One of them is a caret weather widget, which I like.

And then the other one was the app that I discussed last week on this podcast.

And then I actually went on my website a few days ago.

It's called Weather Up.

So I switch between the two of those.

Sometimes I like to look at one.

Sometimes I like to look at the other.

But I was looking at that the other day.

And I was glancing down, expecting to see the weather.

And instead of seeing the weather, Brett, I saw Apple Music.

I'm like, Apple Music, what are you doing in my weather spot?

What's going on?

And so I was very confused.

And I'm like, did I add an extra widget by mistake?

And so then I did the little thing where you make your screen go all jiggly.

And I opened up the widget.

And I took it out.

And then it came back in later on.

And I'm like, am I driving myself insane?

I know.

But I took it out.

And here it is back in again.

And so this reminded me that I was just forgetting how widgets work.

So the way that I solved my particular problem is I held down on the widget.

And then you have all these little pop-up things that come up.

But one of them is called Edit Stack.

And when I got to the Edit Stack, I could see both of the widgets I put in the stack.

And just below it, there are two options.

And one of them was called Smart Rotate On.

That one I have on.

So it will switch between the two widgets from time to time.

I'm fine with that.

But then the other one is called Widget Suggestions.

And I had totally forgotten that this was even a thing.

Somehow, Widget Suggestions got turned on for me.

Maybe I tapped it by mistake the other day when I put the Weather Up app in there.

I don't even know.

Oh, I see that.

But because Widget Suggestions was turned on, it meant that in addition to the two widgets that I specifically selected, Apple was just randomly showing me other widgets from time to time that I thought that I might be interested in.

And I do not want the Apple Music widget in my weather place.

Oh, I see.

I see.

Okay.

So, but I mean, as I'm describing this to you, it's so obvious.

But it took me days, days to figure this out.

And then finally, like, oh, Widget Suggestions.

So I went in and I turned it off.

And now everything, the world has been restored as it should be.

My very special place on my iPad only shows those two weather widgets.

And so the link that you're showing on the screen right now for folks on YouTube, and we'll include this in the show notes, is there's a page on Apple's website that just tells you how widgets work on the iPhone or iPad.

Again, this is nothing new.

Some of this stuff's been there for a long time.

But this page, for example, describes what I just told you about that suggestion and all sorts of other little aspects about widgets, about, you know, do you want to have them rotate automatically?

You know, how do you interact?

You know, all these little basic tips that I guess I had forgotten some of this stuff.

And so it served as a nice refresher to me.

And then as I was looking at this page, as I was looking at smart widgets, I was also reminded that, you know, Apple calls this a smart stack on the iPhone and iPad.

And it's a smart stack because it can switch between things automatically.

But that term, smart stack, is actually used in a different context on the Apple Watch.

And that was the other link that I gave you.

If you switch to that, that in the Apple Watch, it's the same term, smart stack, but the way that you activate it on the current Apple Watch, and I'm sure you know this, is on your current Apple Watch, if you're just looking at the time, and if you either use your finger to press at the bottom of the screen and scroll up, or if you turn the digital crown, either one of those two things, it will bring up a different view where at the very top, it shows you sort of like what your battery, what the time is and the date.

And then it brings up a number of Apple Watch widgets.

Most of them are there.

You can put some in yourself or Apple will suggest some.

But again, this is the smart stack on the Apple Watch.

So unlike the Apple iPhone, where you can decide where you want to have a smart widget, you can't have a smart widget in the spot that you pick on your watch.

Whatever you put on your watch, you only have one widget there.

You can't stack them on top of each other.

But what you can do is when you scroll up from the bottom of your screen, this is where the smart stack is on the Apple Watch, where you can have different widgets.

And I actually have gone through and modified that and put ones that matter more to me and ones that matter less so that, and I think Apple suggests some from time to time too.

So I don't use this a lot, but every once in a while, when I'm just sort of fiddling around and I'm looking at my Apple Watch, I would just sort of scroll up and I will see different things that are happening.

I'm seeing something about a podcast.

I'm seeing the weather.

I'm seeing my exercise circles, reminding me as Apple loves to do that I need to get back on the treadmill.

Come on, Apple, I'm getting there.

And then at the very bottom, there's one that actually has three that shows me a couple different things together.

So anyway, just different ways to use different widgets and both of these pages will be included in our show notes if you want to be reminded of all the different features that you have.

I'm so thankful that you showed the widget suggestions.

A long time ago, I put a smart stack on my iPhone, which I love, and it had three apps.

I have weather, I have my workout rings, and I have photos because I like that little photos widget that'll just show different photos like based on the day or anniversaries or whatever.

I have smart rotate turned on.

I feel like Apple does a pretty good job of like, okay, it shows that typically between 6 a.m. and 8, you typically are checking the weather, right?

So that's the widget that shows up in the smart stack.

But I have noticed that it didn't drive me quite as crazy as you, but I've noticed every once in a while, they'll put in Apple Music and like a new album or something that, hey, you were listening to this around lunchtime two days ago, and it just shows up in the place where normally only those three widgets are.

I have tended to kind of just like, oh, yeah, that's right, I was listening to that.

And I just kind of liked that it has those suggestions.

I'm going to leave my suggestions turned on for that reason.

But I feel like now I know why those are coming up there.

You're right, I have widget suggestions turned on.

But I can certainly see why, you know, for some very specific aspects, I would not want that to be turned on.

But that's really the only stack that I have, a widget that I have on my iPhone.

And I love having that stack there.

I like being able, you know, you can just flick through them quickly if I wanted to switch it off of whatever widget that Apple suggests to me, I just flip up and it goes back to my weather or my photos app or whatever else that I need.

But you know, I love having the smart stack, but you're right, I want to play around just with that just a little bit more to make sure that I'm tweaking it specifically the way that I really want it.

But yeah, that's good, the widget suggestions.

I can certainly see from your perspective why you may have wanted to turn that off, you know, because you just you want it to only do specific things.

But yeah, that's a great tip on that too.

The smart stack is really cool.

I was so happy when they put that on because I like keeping my screen real estate tight.

But I still want to have more information on there.

And I just like the fact that you can flip up really quickly to change that stack in there.

So good stuff.

And yeah, the Apple Watch, I got to play around with that a little bit more.

I feel like when they made that big change on the Apple Watch, I really haven't spent enough time to do that smart stack.

But it can be very valuable to again, get access to a lot more information quickly.

Good stuff.

Thanks, Jeff, as always.

And yeah, good.

Everyone go out and get your eclipse glasses.

We'll put the links in the show note.

Always good talking to you.

We'll talk with you next week.

Thanks, Brad.