140: Immersive Soccer, TV+ Birthday, and Nice Try Security

(upbeat music) - Welcome to In the News for March 29, 2024.

I am Brett Burney from appsinlaw.com. - And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhone JD.

How you doing Brett? - Good morning, Jeff's good to talk with you as always.

And why don't we talk some soccer? - Yeah, you know, I had-- - Or some football.

Let's talk about a little bit of this.

I thought you had some great points that you were making this week in your post, Jeff. - I had two very interesting sports related things last night, Brett.

First of all, I don't go to sports, to live sports very often.

But last night I had an opportunity where somebody had a suite at where the Pelicans play NBA basketball.

So I got two tickets for the suite, which was so fun.

So I brought my daughter 'cause she's a-- - Yay! - She knows a hundred times more about basketball than I do.

And we went to the game to watch the Pelicans play the Milwaukee's Bucks.

The Pelicans won, woo-hoo!

But it was a great experience because, you know, I was reminded as I was there that when I'm watching a football game or a soccer game or a basketball game, if you're watching at home on TV with the announcers, I feel like I totally understand what's going on.

It's the best way to really follow the game.

When I actually go to the Superdome to watch the Saints or the Smoothie King Arena last night to watch the Pelicans, you know, of course I can see what's going on, but not quite as close.

Although it was wonderful to be in a suite yesterday.

Don't get me wrong with, you know, everything else like that, big seats.

That's a nice way to do it.

But there's something about the experience of being there.

You know, it's just the crowd noise and the lights and the sound.

And so the overall experience, it's just very different.

And anyone who's been to a live game knows what I'm talking about.

It's a very different experience than just watching it at home.

And I mean, you can debate which one is better or worse, but they are truly different experiences, even though you're watching the game.

So I did that last night and I was sort of excited about it.

And the Pelicans won, so we're all excited.

And then last night I was putting together today's post.

I saw that what you just mentioned, Jason Snell and other people have talked about how Apple released an immersive video late last night, which was a highlight reel from Major League Soccer, the American Soccer League, from the game at the very end of 2023.

So it's a game that was four months ago. - Wait, yeah, four months ago, okay. - And they put it together into this highlight reel.

So it's only five minutes, but Apple had its special 3D cameras.

This is for the Apple Vision Pro, by the way, if that's not clear.

Apple had its special 3D cameras.

They had them like at the corner of the field.

They had it just above the goal.

They had it in the crowd.

They had it as the team comes out.

At the very end, they had it in the team locker room and they put it together into this little video.

Brett, it was the most incredible video I have ever seen in my entire life.

It was stunning.

I mean, first of all, the picture quality was amazing.

These cameras that they're using must cost a bajillion dollars each.

It was so perfect, but it was so, I mean, Apple calls this immersive video.

It was so immersive, Brett.

It was just, you felt like you were right there on the soccer field because these immersive videos, they are 180 degrees, right?

So as far as you look up and down and left and right.

Now, if you turn completely around, it's just black, but everything around you.

So your entire field of vision when you're wearing the Apple Vision Pro is filled up with whatever they're filming.

And like, you were literally in places that you would never be able to stand on the sideline like that, unless you were a coach.

You would certainly never be able to be perched on top of the goal, or behind the goal.

Nobody would ever have these incredible angles that they have shot.

And it's so immersive, even when you're in the crowd.

There's parts of the video where you're in the crowd.

And of course, that's just in the stands like everybody else could be, but it feels so immersive.

It was so much that when it ended, I was upset because it was only five minutes.

I wanted to stay there.

And because it was a highlight reel, you know how highlight reels, they'll have like five seconds and then they go to another five seconds.

You cut back and forth.

I sort of wish that they didn't do that because I just wanted to sit there and enjoy the surroundings.

And so I took my Apple Vision Pro off and my son who happened to be awake at the time runs over to me, he's like, I apparently, I was saying, oh my goodness, so many times out loud that he of course had to watch it.

So then I got to watch it.

I shared it with him and he got a chance to watch it.

And I was watching his reactions as he was moving around looking silly with goggles on his face.

And he was doing all the oohing and aahing.

It was amazing.

So my point is this, when you're wearing the Apple Vision Pro, which of course is definitely the future, seeing the future today.

And when you're watching an immersive video, it was as good as that Pelicans game was in the stadium last night.

And don't get me wrong, that's a different experience.

I think the five minutes that I spent watching the soccer game, and I'm not even a big soccer fan, was more impressive than the amazing suite at the Pelican games.

And how much would a ticket to a suite at a Pelicans game cost or any NBA game?

I'm sure like, I don't even know, over a thousand dollars a ticket or something like that.

So if you're looking for a way to justify the cost of the $2,500 Vision Pro, this was incredible. - It's space for itself. - Here's what I've been, I've been thinking about it ever since last night, Brett.

And one of the things that I was thinking about is Apple immersive video.

What's out there?

And the reality is, and this was also mentioned in that John Gruber article that I linked to. - Yeah, yeah, right. - It's not that much.

There's really not that much.

You know, when Apple Vision Pro first came out, which was eight weeks ago, they had two series, they're called series, which makes you think there's gonna be other episodes.

The first one was called Adventure.

And the very first episode there was a woman named Faith Dickey, who was doing high of these, this high lining. - Oh yeah, I remember this special. - And we've talked about this.

And I think when I described it to you before, I've said like, you're so close to this incredible thing that she's doing and she's right.

It was almost like this intimate experience 'cause you're right there with her and it's breathtaking and it's amazing.

And then the sec, but this is the first episode of Adventure, they haven't come out with a second episode yet.

The second show is called Wildlife.

And it is the first episode of you're at a rhinoceros sanctionary.

So you have like these baby rhinos coming up to you.

It's the cutest and most amazing thing.

And you can see the texture in their skin because they're so close to you.

It's amazing.

I can't wait to episode number two.

We still don't have it yet.

And then there were two other things that came out.

There was Alicia Keys rehearsal room where she is just, she's in a recording studio and like you're right there with her, which is really cool.

There's a thing called prehistoric planet immersive, which is computer generated.

It's, but it's as if dinosaurs are real and you're like watching them walk around and stuff.

And those are the ones that are movies.

There's also this thing called encounter dinosaurs, which is technically an app, but so it's a little interactive.

Like you hold your finger out and a butterfly comes and lands on your finger, but it's basically watching a movie, right?

It's basically watching a dinosaur movie.

And that was, I mean, those five things is what Apple came out with eight weeks ago.

The only other thing is they have a demo reel.

Remind me, Brett, you have gone to Apple store to do a demo of an Apple vision pro or not?

You haven't done it yet. - I haven't yet, no. - When you do it, they're gonna show you a demo reel, which is everything I've just described.

They're gonna show you a little snippet. - I remember the butterfly thing, yeah. - And yeah, and they will show you snippets of some of the future episodes of this adventure show and the other wildlife show that are still not available for anyone else to see yet, but that's it.

So this, the immersive video is by far the most impressive thing you can do with an Apple vision pro.

It blows everything else that you can do with this device away.

And we need more of it.

I mean, as John Gruber points out in his article, Apple should be releasing stuff every single week and they're not.

And this, now that we have one more item, this major league soccer cup playoff highlights, it's great, but it took them four months to put this thing together.

I mean, they gotta get their act together.

And you know, it's not even just that.

It's not even just the Apple vision pro has been out for eight weeks.

That's not a very long time, but Apple introduced the Apple vision pro back on June 5th of last year.

So they've had a lot, I mean, they've known this was coming.

They've had lots of time.

Apple certainly has lots of money.

Apple certainly knows a thing or two about making movies, you know, with Apple TV plus, I don't understand.

And again, I realized that this is almost like a first world problem because so few people have Apple vision pros right now.

I know that.

And so for me to complain that there's not enough content, you know, too bad, you know, who am I to complain about Dibley squat?

I totally understand that.

It's gonna be a while before the Apple vision pro is, you know, something that more and more people have and there's future versions of it.

But at the same time, this is the time for Apple to start building up content so that by the time somebody does buy one a year from now, there's lots of content available.

So, you know, I'm gonna end my rant by saying that the brand new thing with the soccer cup, it's breathtaking, it's amazing.

If anyone out there listening, if you have an Apple vision pro, like I said in my post today, watch it immediately.

If you don't have one, please go find a friend that has it or go to an Apple store and ask if they will let you watch it.

It is amazing.

And when you watch this and you start to think about a potential future of watching live or even semi live sports, you know, maybe things, you know, a couple of days later in this, it's just breathtaking.

It's amazing.

It's unlike anything I've ever seen before.

It's just too cool.

But Apple needs to be coming out with more stuff.

They just, they need to.

I don't understand why there's so few things available right now. - This jumped out at me in Jason's article here, this five minute highlight package is being released 110 days after last year's MLS cup final.

That is not a great turnaround time.

And that's it.

So, first of all, I'm thinking, Jeff, they surely would have recorded the entire match, right?

In immersive video or whatever that they're using to record this.

So we have the footage somewhere and that was my second thought that you already touched on.

It's not like that this is a result of funds, insufficient funds.

Apple certainly has the resources and the funds to be able to get this out if it was a simple matter of just making it happen.

And so then I'm thinking, is it the mechanics involved that is being the, you know, the governor on this?

I mean, is it something that just can't happen because it doesn't take that long?

Do we not have powerful enough processors that Apple obviously does have it?

I mean, those are just the questions that come to mind on this.

It's, you know, once I read Jason and John Gruber's points here, John says, "Perhaps the most single most surprising aspect of Apple's launch plan for Vision Pro is the relative dearth of original immersive content."

You've been talking about this lady on the high wire for a while.

We've seen, like you said, we've seen all the journalists that have gone in and done the little reels that they have.

And maybe there's one thing for it being a highlight reel as opposed to being maybe a full featured, you know, full length, either a soccer match or a movie or something else.

But it just doesn't make sense.

Like there has to be something else under the hood that we just don't know about.

Maybe, I don't understand why this would necessarily be, you know, delayed as much as it is.

And obviously, you know, this is being shared by a lot of people, but just doesn't make sense. - Yeah, I know that editing takes time, but really this much time.

And you know, when I think about editing, what I would really love, I mean, as you point out, Brett, they clearly recorded that whole soccer game, right?

So, and I don't know how many cameras, I don't know how many camera angles they had, unless it was just one camera they were moving around.

Presumably there were these, whatever 3D cameras they were using, if they had, let's just say eight of them, I don't even know, six of them, you know, what would be totally amazing is imagine watching a game, whether it's a soccer or a football, whatever, where you, because it was recorded, you as the viewer could just sit there and click on some button to switch between whatever angle you wanted.

Like right now, I wanna be on this side, right now, you know, put me in the crowd, put me over here. - Right, right. - And if I could just, you know, I don't need someone else to be the editor, I could be my own editor and decide what camera angle do I wanna see, that would be the most impressive, there's nothing sophisticated or complicated about what I'm describing, at least in theory.

It would be the most incredible way to watch a game ever.

And because this immersive video is so mind-blowing, when I was coming in to record today's podcast, I was listening to a podcast called, another podcast in my car called "Dithering," which is John Gruber's on it, who wrote this article.

And John Gruber was describing back in the '80s and '90s, and maybe even still today, they used to have this TV show on HBO called "Inside the NFL."

And what they would do is instead of using, instead of using the video from the NFL games, they would use film that was recorded with a film camera, which meant it had to be developed.

But when you would, and many people listening to this have probably seen these before, when you watch a football game that was recorded in film, the quality is so much higher than the video, right?

It feels like it's a professional movie, and as a result, it adds like gravitas, plus they would often slow things down and have the deep voice describing the game.

And so it gave a football experience that was completely unlike watching it on TV.

And Apple immersive video, it's the same thing, but even more, because as much more impressive as film is, as video, I'm sorry, is film versus video for watching a football game, immersive video versus regular video is 10 times more impressive.

So there are precedents for this.

There's nothing I'm describing that anyone with foresight cannot understand how amazing it would be.

There must be just some barrier, cost or otherwise, that stops Apple from doing more of this.

And again, we're talking about sports, but frankly, go back to your shows, go back to your adventure show and give us more episodes. - Right. - Hopefully this will all be remedied, and six months or a year from now, we'll be saying, "Ha ha, remember when there were only a few things available and now there's so much."

But so- - We keep throwing around this phrase, banting it around all the time.

It's like, this is looking towards the future.

And it just, as you were mentioning that, when it's immersive video versus "regular video," obviously this is going to become the "regular video."

Right?

I mean, I just can imagine once the Apple Vision Pro, we've just seen version one now, not even barely a month for crying out loud, it's gonna get smaller, it's gonna get more streamlined, it's gonna get better.

And I guess this is what I get excited about is I don't have a Vision Pro yet, but just hearing you talk about it, of how exciting that it is, I almost kind of remember some of those transitions into 4K video and what it looked like.

My goodness, it looks so real.

Like you can see the wrinkles on their face.

And now just to be able to imagine what this is going to.

But- - You know what I think about, Brad, is remember back in the 1990s when QuickTime first came out for computers?

And in fact, you maybe weren't even a Mac user back then.

You may have been a PC user back then.

But when the first QuickTime movies came out, they were basically postage stamp size.

It was so small, but the idea that you were watching a video on the computer was so cool.

And then over time, it got bigger and better and everything else.

And so I feel like we're at that same sort of beginning stages that don't get me wrong, the quality right now is far better than postage stamp, but it's the same idea that there's not much content available.

It's just becoming, it's actually a pretty good lead into the next topic we're gonna talk about now that I think about it, which is, if you're ready to move on, the Apple TV+ has just celebrated its fifth year.

And what I think is so funny is when Apple TV+ first came out, I mean, how many shows were there?

Four, five, six?

I mean, there was nothing, right?

And now there's so many. - 20 show, yeah, it's just a few.

Yeah, incredible. - It's, so it was fun this week to sort of, you know, toast Apple TV+ for having five years out there.

They've got so many shows there.

You know, one of the things, yeah, the one that you're showing right now that said that at least according to IMDB, I'm not sure how reliable of a source that is, but it's the highest rated content, which it makes some sense because unlike the other streaming programs that have a deep back catalog, Apple really doesn't.

So all they really have, you know, with a couple of exceptions, like some things that are just temporarily around for a couple of months, it's really all their own content.

And although they've had a few shows that have been stinkers, most of them have been quite good.

And so, you know, just from a statistical standpoint, it does not surprise me that they have more high quality shows per capita or whatever the right word to describe it is than any other network, just because it's almost like, you know, all they have is the good stuff.

They don't really have the bad stuff, the medium stuff, which has been great. - This is Felipe Esposito writing a nine to five Mac.

And I thought this was just really interesting.

I really don't pay attention a lot to the ratings and stuff, but I thought this was so interesting because it says Apple TV has some of the highest rated shows on IMDb.

But what to me was even more interesting, Amazon Prime Video, it says leads the segment of library on IMDb, 13,827 movies and shows that are rated in there.

That's double than that of Netflix, which comes in second. - Interesting. - But Apple TV+ has only 271 titles available.

I mean, just to think about that disparity of the numbers there, but yet the Apple TV+ shows, which obviously you and I have talked about and enjoy tremendously, it's just to see that they are doing so much better from a rating perspective, from a personal rating perspective, that's pretty amazing.

And I think that there's continuous support with what they're trying to do.

Yeah, go ahead, Jeff. - I was just gonna say, maybe it's an advantage because have you ever had this happen, Brett?

Where like you open up Netflix and you don't even know what are we gonna watch?

There's unlimited stuff.

Whereas when you open up Apple TV+ and they have that top 10 or top 20 trendings, just look at that list because chances are, unless you've seen them all, there's gonna be something on that list that is absolutely worth watching.

And you don't have to spend an hour deciding which one of the 20,000 shows are we gonna watch tonight.

So, I mean, I don't know, maybe this is a little contrarian, but I guess you could argue it's an advantage that it's a limited number. - Interesting.

You know, just going back thinking, a couple of things quickly, but first topic we were talking about this one too, just the changing landscape.

I mean, to me, entertainment is always such an exciting place to kind of watch where some of these changes take place.

I saw Casey Neistat, which obviously a lot of people know on YouTube.

He was his friends with the director of a movie that just came out, "The Roadhouse," right?

That's on Amazon Prime, by the way.

And the whole video that Casey did, because he's Casey, was talking to this director who wanted this experience, this movie experience, to be in theaters specifically.

Like it was just like a party, like the way you have to go and watch the video to kind of get it.

But he was fighting, the director was fighting with Amazon Prime because Amazon Prime did not want to release it to the actual theaters.

And they only wanted it to allow it to go straight into the streaming service.

And this director was upset, upset.

He was gonna boycott all this kind of stuff.

Well, eventually he ended up going down to South by Southwest and watching it in the only theater showing that it was gonna be in, 'cause it was all the stars and everything was there.

And it was just interesting to watch that because it's a very well-respected director.

He did "Swingers," right?

Or whatever that Las Vegas movie was.

I mean, just several great, great movies.

And it was just interesting to watch him insist upon how he wanted people to experience his movie, this "Roadhouse" movie, which looks pretty impressive, in the theaters.

Like he wanted that experience, but yet it was going to the streaming.

And I remember the director saying specifically, it's because it's a party.

Like you want to be with other people and watch this as an experience, as opposed to maybe being in your living room.

But then now you talking about the Apple Vision Pro all these times and just having, right now at least, this immersive video is an individualistic experience.

You have to do it, unless you have other people with Vision Pro, but even then you're kind of in a virtual environment on some of that.

And it's just interesting. - And that's the knock, Brett.

It's true because whenever I'm watching content, well, like last night, for example, I had to watch the soccer and then I gave it to my son. - Give it to your son, right. - And then he watched it.

And likewise, I've watched movies that have been totally incredible 3D movies to watch on the Vision Pro.

I'll mention a silly one.

Just the other day, I happened to notice on Disney+ that there's a Pixar movie that came out years ago called "Luca."

It's a cartoon.

It's like little monsters that live off the coast of Italy, but it's in 3D.

And so I started, I haven't finished it yet, but I just started watching a little bit.

And it was just so fun to watch.

And there was so many little in-jokes, but it takes place on the coast of Italy.

And my wife and I traveled there a couple of years ago and so many things ring true.

Like you visit some place and you see it in a movie. - Yeah, you're like, "Hey." - I wanted to be talking to my wife about it, even though she was downstairs, she can't see it 'cause it's just on my head.

And that is the downside of the Vision Pro is it's a very solitary experience, unlike being at that basketball game last night where you have everybody around you or traditional TV watching and stuff.

So, yeah, it's different. - But then on the other hand, I'll just mention this real quick.

I became a huge "Dune" movie fan when that came out, as you remember, right?

And that's on HBO Max, which is, none of those are Max now, just the streaming service.

I did not go watch that in the theater and I waited until it came out.

And I remember that it came out in a very short timeframe on Max.

And I have loved it.

I've re-watched several scenes and I loved it.

This is a movie though, Jeff, that my wife has no interest in at all whatsoever.

And so from this aspect though, this is a movie that I would love to experience on my own, in my own world, and I would love it from an immersive video perspective.

Now, in this instance, it's only gone to theaters and Max hasn't even announced, or HBO hasn't announced when it's gonna be available on the Max streaming service.

I haven't seen it yet.

And it's like, I am itching to go.

I was even looking up in Fandango for movie times, which I think I forgot my account, Jeff, 'cause I haven't been to an actual live movie in years, but I was like so itching to want to see this.

And I wanted to go and see it in the IMAX experience.

There was only one in my area and it was only there for like a week.

And so now, do I settle for a quote, regular theater experience?

Which that's gotten much better from our days, right?

I mean, you've got like recliners and everything now, which is crazy.

Or do I just wait till it comes on the streaming service, in which case, then I'm either going to be probably on my laptop screen, watching it by myself, because my wife isn't gonna want to watch it with me necessarily.

Or do I find time to stay up late and watch it at night, on the big screen?

It's just like, I know some of these things aren't new, but just to underscore your point, some of the things we were talking about, it's just making me think, do you wanna choose your own entertainment service?

How is that gonna look like?

But anyway, it's just a lot of this coming to mind now that we're talking about Apple TV+.

And again, that underscores even the fact that Apple has put so much effort and funds into the shows for Apple TV+.

That is another point that I'm like, how is it taking so long from the immersive video?

Unless it's just more of a control thing, right?

They just wanna make sure it's perfect and looks beautiful and everything.

Who knows, only Apple knows right now, but it's just, it's a little bit fun to watch all this kind of stuff.

I'm glad you're reporting on it. - One of these days, Gret, we're gonna have a TV show on Apple TV+, that's gonna be weekly, and every episode is gonna be an immersive video and for Vision Pro, and it's gonna be amazing.

Now, that day I'm describing, it may be 20 years from now, I have no idea, but it will come at some point. - All right, let's move on to another big announcement that Apple had, something that we have been anticipating, and usually around this time of year, Apple announces the dates for WWDC, the Worldwide Developers Conference.

We're excited about this for several reasons.

First of all, it's like a week-long conference for mostly developers.

They come to Apple's campus a lot of times, although now they do it virtually a lot, and there's some really good nuggets of information that come out all week long about different things that they're doing and little hints and stuff.

But the first day of WWDC is typically when Tim Cook and other executives take the stage, well, take the virtual stage, and they introduce or announce several changes.

Both, typically we get a highlight of what we think is coming for the next iteration of the operating system, iOS.

Every once in a while, most of the time, they'll throw in something along with some hardware aspects here.

Now, I haven't been able to delve into this too much yet, Jeff, but what are we expecting now for WWDC, which is going to be in June, June 10th, is the keynote conference. - June 10th, right. - June 10th, yes, sir. - Yeah, so we're gonna hear something on June 10th, and as you said, no question, we're gonna hear about iOS 18, the next version of the operating system.

Hardware's always a possibility.

You and I have talked to the past. - Not a guarantee. - We know that Apple has some iPads that they're waiting to come out with.

But the latest rumors I've heard is that now they're not gonna come out until May, who knows.

So as we get closer to dub dub, maybe the iPads will be announced on June 10th as well.

We'll see, but I don't know.

I mean, there have been big hardware announcements at WWDC in the past.

I don't know if we'll see them this year, maybe, yes, so you know.

But what I'm really interested in is, and I guess this is more of a software thing than a hardware thing, but it's the artificial intelligence.

I mean, the thing that Tim Cook told us was coming, I linked this morning that, who was it?

It was Greg Josubiak said, he didn't say artificial intelligence.

He said, "Absolutely incredible AI." - Ooh, it just so happens that those are the same letters. - Exactly, so we're gonna definitely see something AI related.

It's gonna probably be part of iOS 18, and I think that's gonna be exciting.

So I'm looking forward to it.

And like you say, June 10, not that far away. - I am positive that we'll be hearing some more people talk about this and kind of give some illusion of what we might be expecting and seeing.

But yeah, I mean, we can always postulate what's gonna happen, but usually Apple is pretty good about surprising us and other folks as well.

Or sometimes to be fair, disappointing us, right?

We expected this and this to happen, and they didn't even talk about that.

But anyway, it's a good time we'll be had by all.

I'm positive, it's gonna be pretty exciting to kind of see.

Because we have to see some wrinkles where Apple has been talking about AI, right?

They released an amazing paper not too long ago.

They just talked about using some Google AI, I think on their platforms or making some partnerships.

So we'll have more of this leading up in the next month or two.

Another thing that you linked to today, which I think is great is T2 charging.

We've talked about this a little bit.

And typically this requires a T2 compatible charger, but the iPhone wasn't able to take advantage of it until 17.4, iOS 17.4 was released.

And now apparently you can get a full 15 watt speed wireless charge, which is great. - Yeah, even all the way back to the iPhone 12, which is incredible.

You know, for folks just as a reminder, Apple has its technology called MagSafe.

And if you get something that is MagSafe certified, and if you're using hardware that works with it, then as you said, Brad, you can get 15 watt charger, which is 15 watt charging is still much slower than plugging in a cord, but still it's starting to get relatively fast.

And so I have in front of me, we've talked about it before, one of these little products that as I'm sitting here, I've got my iPhone sort of MagSafe plugged in and I can see the time and stuff and it's charging as it sits there and I love it.

So the original version of Qi has been around for a long time.

And when we say Qi, it's Q-I. - Sorry, I shouldn't have. - So now Qi 2 gets double the speed, which means it's just as fast.

For all intents and purposes, Qi 2 is basically MagSafe.

It's MagSafe for things that are not MagSafe certified.

It's MagSafe for Android, for everybody else.

And that's no mistake.

Apple actually donated to the Qi standard, the MagSafe technology.

So it's not like it's a coincidence that it's basically the same thing.

And so what it means is that a third party can make a product.

They don't have to pay Apple to get the MagSafe certified label.

They can just say we're Qi 2 compatible.

And as long as it's a decent enough product, of course, there's something to be said for something being MagSafe certified because there's a little bit of trustworthiness there.

But if it's from a reputable company that you know, then you can get a Qi 2 charger and it'll probably be cheaper than something that would be MagSafe certified and it will be just as good.

So it's nice to have Qi 2 out there.

And it's a nice surprise that the latest update to iOS 17, 17.4, it now goes back to, you can use it with the iPhone 15, 14.

It had been the 13 and now just as a surprise, they threw in support for the iPhone 12.

As I'm sitting here, Brett, I'm trying to remember which version of iPhone first added wireless charging.

It may have been the iPhone 12. - Was it 12 or 13?

I'm trying to remember. - It wasn't, well, I mean, if this adds it to iPhone 12, so it must've had it.

Because the original iPhone 10, when it came out with the big screen, I don't think it had wireless charging.

I'd have to go back and look at my notes. - I know. - But it's always nice when Apple takes a product that's been out there for a long time and gives it a new feature.

I mean, that's great.

You know, so you don't have to buy the latest and greatest to get access to a new feature. - So MagSafe is only available from Apple.

Is that correct?

Like if you get a MagSafe. - Right, well, that's their brand name for it.

And of course it's confusing because there's two types of MagSafe.

There's MagSafe for computers.

And the MagSafe for computers is a cord that at the end of it plugs into the computer, but it's got magnets so it can pull off.

And the nice thing about MagSafe cord is that if somebody knocks the cord out of your laptop computer, it's not gonna drag your laptop along with it.

It's just magnets, so it'll just disconnect.

And then they have MagSafe for the iPhone, which as you've just found, was introduced with the iPhone 12, as I expected.

And so that is, it's nothing at all like MagSafe for the computer.

That's just the idea that you can connect something with a magnet to the back of your iPhone and it will charge while it's connected.

Or of course you can use MagSafe for other things too.

Like I have an Apple case that has MagSafe just to sort of keep it on there.

Or people can use MagSafe to pass data.

You can do lots of different things with MagSafe, but charging is the main one. - Well, I was asking because I was thinking to myself, well, I'm only gonna go with MagSafe.

Like I feel, this Qi 2 is a general thing, but then I'm thinking, wait a minute, if I get it from Apple, it's branded as MagSafe.

But I have probably three or four other wireless charging things that you and I have talked about that are not from Apple, or from typically like kind of, well, not knockoff brands, but non-Apple brands.

But that's not MagSafe, or that's not branded as MagSafe, but it is using Qi, right?

It's just pretty much the same underlying technology. - You can buy third-party products that say on the label MagSafe compatible, and they have paid money to Apple, and Apple has certified it as MagSafe.

And so, and there's a certain, I find that if you get something that says it's MagSafe compatible, you can trust the quality of it, 'cause it means that Apple has taken a look over it.

But you're right, there are also companies out there that don't wanna pay the money to Apple for the certification process.

And as long as it's still a reputable company, give it a shot.

Now, on the other hand, maybe you're saving yourself 20 bucks and you get a product that's complete, it's gonna fall apart in a week, I have no idea.

So, I mean, you always have risks whenever you find some no-name company on Amazon or something like that.

But-- - Okay.

Well, this is helpful.

While you've been talking, I've brought up this page on 9to5Mac, it's their MagSafe page, and it's exactly what you just described.

They have the Mac version, the iPhone version, and they even talk about the MagSafe compatible.

Okay, thanks for helping me clarify all of that.

That's good.

And then, similarly, that is a story that came out from the fact that we upgraded to 17.4, even though I think last week, Jeff, we talked about 17.4.1, and there was a couple of security fixes that there was no description or underlying information, except, this is Michael Potok now at 9to5Mac, was able to at least uncover some of the details of the two security fixes from 17.4.1.

Not that big of a deal.

I think, as I find many times, these are very fringe kind of solutions or occurrences, but it's good to know that they have been fixed, I guess. - What was good for me, Brett, was to see when they described what they fixed, it said, "We've patched something "that could have caused something."

That could have.

And that word could is key because sometimes Apple releases an update and they say, "Oh, this is actually out in the wild "like right now."

And that's the ones that you're like, "Let's hurry up."

And this time, the ones that they fixed are more theoretical, bravo to Apple.

Of course, you wanna fix the flaw before somebody exploits them.

But I think, and I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think that last week, when you and I were saying that Apple had not revealed what they patched yet, I have a theory on that.

I had seen some website that suggested that Apple had, they had updated some devices, but not all of them.

Like for example, they updated the iPhone before the Mac.

And I think that Apple wanted to get patches for all of its hardware out there before they revealed to the world what they were patching.

Because otherwise, if you told everybody what the patch was for the iPhone and they had not yet patched the Mac, some clever bad guy could say, "Oh, let me exploit that for the Mac real quick "and there's no patch available yet."

And so I think that that's what happened here is once Apple had its patch available for all of its platforms, then they disclosed to the world what they fixed. - Let's go to our where you at segment, Jeff. - Where you at? - Two stories that you reported on today.

One has an unfortunate ending.

The other has a happy ending.

This just made my skin crawl reading this.

I think because like, I don't even know what you would do with this situation.

But maybe you can give the story a little bit better.

Apparently there was a carjacking involved.

The police were able to track, theoretically, track the car based on somebody's AirPods being left in the car.

And it was at an address of a home of this poor family where the SWAT team came in because the carjackers apparently were armed.

So they were not taking any caution here.

Like they went in full force, ransacked the house apparently all because the carjackers apparently had tossed the AirPods into the yard of this house.

This is just insane, Jeff.

I don't even know what to think about this really.

But I can see where and why it would happen.

I just is like, this seems like it should be in a different world, I guess. - Yeah.

You know, on the one hand, the police must've been excited because they did not know how to track down the carjackers.

And then they get this one great lead of somebody saying, "They've got my AirPods and I'm using Find My and I can show you exactly where it is."

You know, it just seems like such a great lead.

And yet, as you said, you know, sometimes unintended consequences just because the AirPods, and I guess the AirPods were actually there.

It said they were later found outside.

So the AirPods- - They were in the yard.

Right. - Yeah.

So the AirPods were actually at the house. - In the grass. - But that does not mean the bad guys were there.

And so unfortunately the SWAT team, and you know, I don't know what to say.

I feel bad for the family, obviously. - Sure. - That must've been incredibly scary and everything else.

On the other hand, you can sort of understand, I don't know, maybe the SWAT team should have had, you know, what do they call it?

Like hearsay plus corroborating evidence. - Sure. - Maybe, you know, Find My plus corroborating evidence.

Maybe you would have hoped that they had something- - That's a new standard for evidence. - That's a new standard, yes.

Find My plus corroborating evidence. - For arrest warrants and search warrants. - Exactly. - But, you know, I mean, again, I think just because of the profession you and I are in, I'm glad Amber Neely at Apple Insider is reporting on this, but there's always at least two sides to every story, maybe multiple sides to the story.

And, you know, we just don't, we don't know exactly, you know, from their standpoint. - Fair enough. - I mean, the police department hasn't reported on this, but I mean, like, wow, like just, just incredible.

I just don't even know what to do on that, but I'm sorry for that family, like you said.

Okay, how about the happy ending story?

This would, hey, it seems like we almost heard this one before, but it never gets old. iPhones emergency satellite features led authorities to a group of stranded hikers for a 24 hour rescue operation.

I mean, this involved a helicopter that couldn't land because of weather.

And then there was like, what was this car that they used, or some kind of a vehicle that they used on here?

I can't even remember where it was.

The helicopter couldn't land.

And then, oh, a snowcat.

That's what I was looking at. - That's what it was, yeah. - So finally a snowcat apparently had to weave itself up this mountain.

It was like 3,500 feet in altitude, but they were able to rescue them thanks to the emergency SOS via satellite on the iPhone, one of the folks iPhone that they had. - Yeah, as you say, Brett, not the first time that somebody has been hiking.

They've been off the grid, no cellular service, but something horrible has happened and they were able to use the satellite service to get help.

So that is fantastic that that worked, but there's just gonna be lots of stories like this one of people taking advantage of the service.

The reason that this story actually jumped out at me, Brett, it had nothing to do with the story, but the place where they were hiking is called Mouse Hood.

I had never heard of Mount Hood before.

I don't know if you had, but the reason that I know of Mount Hood is that when you have an Apple Vision Pro, you know how you can create an environment like just to pretend like you're somewhere else where you're using it.

Like one of them is, you know, one of their environments is Mount Hood where you're on top of mountains and you're looking out.

So when I read about these hikers being on, you know, hiking Mount Hood, I'm like, oh yeah, Mount Hood.

I've been there before.

Yeah, whenever I put my Apple Vision Pro on. - It's almost like you could have been staged by Apple. - I just turn a dial and now I'm in Mount Hood.

So yeah, I know Mount Hood. - I'm just gonna guess that these hikers, they probably won't use that scene in their Apple Vision Pro like they're gonna wanna pass on some of that.

The thing is, Jeff, I can't get tired of going over these stories, reporting on these stories, because it's like until every single person with an iPhone that has this capability knows and has the satellite feature, because I can just imagine.

I mean, you're dehydrated, you're tired, you're exhausted, and it's like somebody has an iPhone and they have to A, remember that they actually have this capability on the phone.

And then they know how to use it, right?

They remember how to use it in the state of despair that they're in at the time, and that they have enough battery power to even use this.

You know, I mean, it's just all those kinds of things.

And it's like, I'm never gonna get tired of reporting on these stories because it's such an important component there.

Last thing, the video of the week.

Thank you, Jeff.

This is like the stream of Apple commercials, but they're just so good.

They're just so good at what they do.

This one is called "Nice Try."

And I gotta tell you, I had no idea what was going on with this commercial until the very end.

And I'm like, I see what you did there, you sneaky Apple.

This is a good one here.

I like it. - Yeah, so I mean, in case you haven't seen it yet, I guess we shouldn't spoil it.

So let's just say it shows off some of the security features of the iPhone that everyone could take advantage of, no matter who you are.

And it's a cute little video.

It's worth watching. - Did you see this little tip here?

Look at this.

The thumbnail for the YouTube video.

Look at the little dot under the exclamation point.

Isn't that good? - I did not notice that.

Very clever Apple. - I think the kids call that an Easter egg.

That's interesting there. (laughs) All right, in the know.

I got a simple one this time, but this came up for me because I keep thinking about those stories that you and I have talked about from Joanna Stern and her colleagues at the Wall Street Journal that have talked about the security flaws.

Or, I don't know if a flaw.

To me, it's not so much of a flaw.

It has a mix of social engineering at the same time that Apple could have done more, but they didn't have to do more.

All that kind of stuff, right?

Wrapped up to, we've done this a lot.

Well, one of the settings that I just wanted to make sure that everybody was still familiar with or comfortable with is the auto lock setting on your iPhone.

So you can go and see this right now.

Go into settings, scroll down until you see display and brightness.

And then one of the settings under there is auto lock.

And if you jump in there, you can see that attention is detected when you are looking at the screen.

So now with face ID, the phone will actually detect if you're actually looking at it or if there's been attention being paid to it.

When the attention is detected, iPhone does not dim the display.

The only reason that this keep coming up for me, Jeff, is because just the fear of like, we're constantly picking up our phone, using the phone, and then we set it down, right?

'Cause I like, if I'm at dinner, I pick up the phone to check something and then I set it down.

But I don't always just lock the phone when I set it down.

I just set it down, the screen is still on.

Usually, 9.9 times out of 10, that's not gonna be an issue.

But if I'm in a crowded spot, a bar, some of those scenarios where Joanna and her colleagues were discussing some of these issues, it's like, I want the phone to automatically lock if it's just sitting there after a set amount of time.

Now I've gone back and forth on this over the years.

I used to have it to like two or three minutes because I'm like, well, wait a minute, what if I wanna pick it up again?

I don't wanna have to like, in the past, retype in my past code because that usually takes about a second or two.

Now that I have Face ID, and it's so good on Face ID, Jeff, it's so quick.

So now I have gone back to where I get it down to the least amount of time, which the least amount of time that Apple will allow this for you is 30 seconds.

So the idea is I pick it up, Face ID almost recognizes me immediately because one of the other settings is raised to awake on there, right?

So as soon as I pick it up, the phone tries to detect my face and it does, and it unlocks even before, in the time that I pick it up from the table and bring it up to my face, it's already unlocked typically, which is great.

I think that that's fantastic that it does that.

So it's already unlocked.

And so now when I set it down, I don't care that it's 30 seconds.

To me, that just has an up level of security because I know that as soon as I set it down within 30 seconds, the phone's gonna lock, I don't have to worry about it anymore.

But I also know that as soon as I pick it up again and it looks at my face, it's going to unlock.

Now, the last thing quickly I'll say is that in a few seconds, if the phone doesn't detect that you're looking at it, it will automatically go dim.

Like it goes almost like half brightness, right?

And it does that maybe 10 seconds or so before it actually locks the screen completely on there.

So I just wanted to remind everybody about the auto lock feature on the iPhone.

My recommendation, unless, well, frankly, I can't even find a reason why you would keep it unlocked more than maybe a minute, especially if it's a newer iPhone with Face ID, it's so quick on unlocking it that you might as well just put that down to the least amount of time to have it to say unlocked.

And then just go with that.

To me, that's just another layer of security on there.

Plus it helps your battery.

If the longer it stays on the screen, that's a battery suck on there as well.

So that's my tip for the day, Jeff, is the auto lock feature.

Most of the time, we don't even think about it.

Go in and just check it.

And if you can, bump it down as low as you can. - So thank you for the tip.

I've just checked mine, Brett, and mine is set at three minutes.

I don't remember purposefully setting it at three minutes, but after hearing your tip, I might move it down, just to sort of, at least for like a week and just sort of try it out. - See what it does.

I mean, I can think of one thing that, and I mentioned this in the past, and again, I know very few people have Apple Vision Pros, but when I use my Apple Vision Pro to get work done, I will sometimes pick up my iPhone too, and I'll be sitting there looking at it and it doesn't unlock.

And of course the reason it doesn't unlock is because I've got these big goggles blocking half my face, even though I can see the Apple, I can see my iPhone, it can't see me.

And so that's sort of a pain to have to put the passcode in.

So that's one thing.

I will also mention just another tweak on this tip is that there are some rare circumstances where you might want just the opposite.

And you mentioned that auto-lock can be as little as 30 seconds.

It can be as high as five minutes, or you could put it on never.

And one of the reasons that I sometimes do never, and I know that I'm sure that you do too, I will sometimes give presentations from my iPad or something like that.

And so I'll have my iPad plugged into a projector and I just want my iPad to stay on the entire time.

No, one's going to steal it.

I'm right there in front of an audience, you know, and it's right there.

And so I might be interacting with the audience, answering questions for a few minutes.

I don't want to go back to my iPad and have it have gone to sleep for any reason.

And so I try to remember before I start my presentation.

Now, obviously if you're in Keynote, it's not going to go to sleep.

But if I'm just like, if I'm just mirroring my iPad, I don't want it to go to sleep.

So I will go and I'll put it on never, and I'll keep it on that never mode throughout the course of my one hour, whatever it is, an hour and a half presentation.

And then when I'm done, I'll put it back to what it was.

So it's useful to remember this feature for the reasons you described of having it short, but also keep in mind for having it long. - Gotcha. - Okay, so my tip of the week is something that we have mentioned before, but I don't think we've ever mentioned it as a specific tip of the week.

And I just wanted to give it some specific love, which is the live voicemail feature, which was introduced with iOS 17.

And maybe it is just me, Brett, but I have noticed over the last year or two, I'm getting more spam calls on my iPhone than ever before.

And I even, through AT&T, there is a feature you can turn on, I forget what it's called, but they have an AT&T app that will try to detect spam.

I think it's called MyAT&T.

And every once in a while during the day, I will glance down and it says, "Oh, spam call was detected, so we didn't even make your phone ring."

And I'm like, "Thank you, AT&T, that was very nice of you.

I'm glad that I wasn't interrupted."

But other times people get through and it'll be a total fake call, or maybe not a fake call, maybe there's somebody for a political donation or something that I just don't wanna be dealing with as I'm trying to get work done.

And I've noticed that back in the day when answering machines were still a thing in the '80s and the '90s, people used to do something, or even later, people used to do something called screening calls where you would keep your answering machine on at home and people would leave a message.

And if it's somebody you wanted to talk to, you would pick up the phone and talk to them, but otherwise you would screen the call through the answering machine.

Live voicemail does the same thing.

So what you do is when a call comes in, if it's a number that you don't recognize, you can just tap right on the screen there to go to voicemail and the caller will go to voicemail, but then you can tap a button where you can actually see the, like it transcribes in live time what they're saying.

And so I'll be sitting here at my desk at work, somebody will call me, I don't know who it is, I'll just send them the voicemail and do the live transcription.

And as I'm sitting here typing, I'm glancing at my iPhone screen.

And if it's actually somebody I wanna talk to, which for me, Brett, if they're not on my contacts, I mean, maybe one out of every 25 times, I mean, it's very, it does happen, it does happen, but it's very rare.

If it's someone I wanna talk to, you just pick up the phone and you press the answer button and you start talking to them.

And you'll surprise them because they're like. - Oh, voicemail, right. - People are not used to the feature unlike the old screening and answering machine thing.

But you can then talk to them right then and there.

But most of the time, it's nonsense.

And in fact, most of the time, once the caller is sent a voicemail, because they know that they're just a solicitation phone call or whatever, they just hang up.

And so I have, this has been a real life savers and exaggeration, but it has definitely reduced the annoyance of unwanted callers substantially for me ever since iOS 17 came out last fall with the live voicemail feature.

So I have loved it over the last couple of months.

If you're not taking full advantage of it, you should really check it out because it really is nice. - So this nicely dovetails into my tip, Jeff, because I gotta tell you, I love this feature, but I feel like I haven't been able to experience it fully because I can see the call command.

I don't pick up the call and I let it go to voicemail, right, is the way we used to call it.

And then I can see that the screen is still on for me.

And it is, it's like, it's waiting.

Like I can tell that it's transcribing the voicemail being left.

But then because I have my auto lock set, the screen goes off before I could actually see the entire thing.

Does that make sense?

I don't know if that's an auto lock feature, but it's like, I don't wanna tap the screen 'cause I don't wanna pick up the call.

Although I think there's some actual button there, right?

So I don't know, I would just, I guess I'm more asking, is that an auto lock feature that it just, I don't get to be able to experience.

I wanna see the entire message, but because I have my auto lock feature set to 30 seconds, you had three minutes, then I see somebody starting the message and then the screen goes off. - Yeah, that probably is what, so that would be a reason to have a little bit longer of an auto lock. - That could be one of the reasons, right? - You do have to tap a button.

I mean, you're not gonna see the transcript automatically.

You have to tap that button to say, show me the transcript as they're leaving it.

And, but if you've tapped that, and I guess for my current setting of three minutes, yeah, I mean, much like the picture that you're showing me on the screen, I will see the words come up on the screen as they are talking.

And again, you can usually tell within the first sentence of the transcription, whether it's somebody you wanna talk to or not.

So you normally do not have to wait very long at all to do that. - Now I will say that if I do pick up the phone, I'm not answering the call, right?

But if I pick up the phone and the phone can detect that I'm looking at it, I do see, that's the couple of times that I have seen the actual transcription, like the full over.

So anyway, it's just, I guess it's finding that small balance.

I mean, I'm gonna lean toward the security side of having my auto lock go off quicker.

But in some cases, if it locks and I then unlock it, well, then this screen, the live voicemail screen is gone.

It's like I go into my regular phone screen at that point, and then I have to go into the voicemail app and everything on there.

But anyway, yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because now maybe I'll experiment both ways.

By the way, that app, AT&T has a separate app for doing what you're talking about.

It's called Active Armor is what it's called.

Active Armor, Active Armor Mobile Security.

And you have to go through and you have to tell it whether or not you wanna stop certain calls, block all spam callers, block telemarketer callers.

There's a whole little wizard that you can go through on this.

It used to be much simpler, but they've upgraded this now.

My AT&T is like how to get into your AT&T account.

But at least I still have the Active Armor app is what it's called there from AT&T.

Allows you to control what calls get through and a large of possible spam calls on there, which is good.

I need to reset that up.

In fact, I just opened it up and I was like, I gotta go through the whole guide and wizard on this as well.

But you're right, I've been getting a lot of calls too and I might have to go through that. - Yeah, thank you for getting the correct name of the app.

But I mean, literally as I'm looking at right now, so you can see a call log of when it's blocked things.

And so I can see that it blocked one call for me on Wednesday of this week.

It blocked four calls on Tuesday.

And in fact, for those calls, one of them- - Oh, wow. - Actually one of them came through and that one came through.

There's two that it labeled as a spam risk.

And there's one that it labeled as a telemarketer, which is just as annoying as a spam risk.

So it's interesting that you can actually look at your logs and see what it's been doing so that it's completely transparent and stuff.

But it's not perfect, but for every call that it catches, that's one less call that I have to deal with.

And you don't have to pay anything extra for it as an AT&T customer, it's for free.

I suspect that Verizon and T-Mobile and the other carriers probably have something similar.

And I know that there are third-party apps in the app store that do something similar as well.

But yeah, it's nice.

So between this- - Well, it's the cat and mouse game.

It's the constant cat and mouse game, right?

As soon as somebody, AT&T finds a way to block it, then of course the people that are trying to do this are gonna find a way to get around it.

But yeah, I have been using the earlier versions of this AT&T app and I'm sure other providers have something similar on there as well.

And it's a good thing to at least have, if nothing else, it at least stops some.

And I'll take that. - Yeah. - Very good.

Thanks, Jeff, as always.

We'll talk with you next week, sir.