In the News
In the News
106: Magical AirTags, iPhones Standing By, and No Time for New Romans
Watch the video!
https://youtu.be/RMD-uZB74Ws
In the News blog post for July 21, 2023:
https://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2023/07/in-the-news685.html
- Bonus Podcast!
- No Time for New Romans
- iPhones Standing By
- Will the Real HomePod Mini Please Stand Up
- HomeKit Flare Ups
- Beating Up the AirPods Max
- Tax Free Apple Purchases!
- Where Y’at? Segment - Magical AirTags
- Brett’s iTip: Avoid Tolls in Google Maps & Apple Maps
- Jeff’s iTip: Travel in the Future Using Apple Maps
Adriana Linares | New Solo Podcast: The All-Mac Edition: The Episode For Mac-Curious Attorneys
Andrew Cunningham | ArsTechnica: So long, Calibri: Microsoft has settled on a new font for its Office apps
MacStories Team: An In-Depth Look at StandBy and the StandBy Chargers We Recommend
Jason Snell | Macworld: Why everyone should be running the latest betas on their Apple devices
Stephen Hackett | 512 Pixels: Welcome to the Wild World of HomePod mini Stands
Howard Sneider | The Gadgeteer: Eve Flare smart LED lamp review – HomeKit or Matter to fit your mood
Chance Miller | 9to5Mac: Review: Beats Studio Pro are here, and they make AirPods Max impossible to recommend (for now)
Wesley Hilliard | AppleInsider: Apple reveals US tax holiday rules for six states
Kelsey Vlamis |Insider: When an airline made his bag disappear, a magician bought another plane ticket just to get back in the airport and track it down with an Apple AirTag — and found it sitting right on the tarmac.
The Underdogs: Swiped Mac | Apple at Work
Brett’s iTip: Avoiding Tolls in Google Maps and Apple Maps. Especially helpful when you’re in a rental car driving from airport and you want to avoid the incredulous tolls charges.
Jeff’s iTip: Travel in the Future Using Maps. Choose a future departure or arrival time: Tap Now (below the Directions list), select a time or date for departure or arrival, then tap Done. The estimated travel time may change based on predicted traffic.
Brett Burney from http://www.appsinlaw.com
Jeff Richardson from http://www.iphonejd.com
Welcome to In the News for July 21, 2023.
I am Brett Burney from appsinlaw.com.
And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhoneJD.
Good morning, Jeff.
Hey, Brett.
That's right.
Bonus podcast today.
Bonus but not, not our podcast, but you and I, my fair co-host friend, we were a guest
on a friend of ours podcast called new solo.
Now as most of our listeners know, both you and I, Jeff work in the legal world.
And so Adriana Linares is a host of a legal focused podcast called New Solo for solo practitioners,
solo lawyers.
And she invited us on to talk about lawyers using Macs.
Although, I got to tell you, this podcast, I think it's over an hour long.
[AUDIO OUT]
We just went on and on.
So much of the information can be applicable, I think, to almost any profession.
But this is out today.
We'll have a link in the show notes.
It came out even after your post, Jeff, so you need to be get a chance to link to it.
But this is called the all Mac edition, the episode for Mac curious attorneys.
Yeah, and despite the title-- and obviously,
if you're an attorney trying to decide
Yeah.
what to do with your computers, I
think the episode has a lot of great information in it.
Right, right.
But frankly, anyone--
I mean, we did talk about some lawyer specific
in the sense of professional,
like assuming that you're using your stuff to get work done.
And it's not just Macs too.
We talked about iPads and iPhone and the whole ecosystem.
Software.
I'll tell you what,
I know.
it was actually, it was a really interesting discussion.
Like I really enjoyed it about, you know,
if you're trying to make some decisions,
you wanna upgrade your hardware, what should you get?
It was so fun, so fun.
What should you be looking for?
And what are some of the best tools
that you should use with your stuff?
It came, I thought it came out really well.
Okay, so we'll link to that, but thanks.
Hey, if you can't get enough of me and Jeff this morning,
(laughing)
we got another podcast for you.
Indeed.
Now let's talk about something really, really technical
and technology focused, Jeff.
How about fonts?
Indeed.
Even more specifically, the fonts being used
[BLANK_AUDIO]
in Microsoft Word, or I guess it's Microsoft Office, right?
But Microsoft Word, boy, have I got some thoughts on this
Yeah, I mean Microsoft Word is obviously the 10,000 pound gorilla when it comes to writing things.
just because I know you and I have been using
Microsoft Office software for so long,
but apparently Microsoft is now gonna change
the default font that comes in Microsoft Word.
And this was a nice post you linked to today.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Although, as you said, this is not just Word,
this is also other Microsoft apps,
Excel, stuff like that.
No, it does not.
Microsoft does not change its default font very often.
You know when they do so that they put
[LAUGH]
a lot of time and effort into it.
Right.
When I think of fonts,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
I can't help but think back to the 1980s when
I had switched from using previous computers to the Mac.
One of the big things about the Mac was that for
Right, Comic Sans.
the first time it was a computer that
actually offered you all these creative fonts.
Of course, some of them were just really crazy,
like the old San Francisco font that sort of looked like a ransom note.
But the idea that you could, you know, and the idea that you could use this bit,
[ Laughter ]
you know, bitmap printer and use different fonts just seemed, you know, so revolutionary.
And then especially if you had a laser printer.
And over time, you know, we've gone that I don't use the crazy fonts as much now
as I used in the '80s, but fonts are definitely something that I think of.
Even though, as I pointed out in today's post, a lot of the fonts,
a lot of the times when I'm doing professional writing, I'm just using the most basic
of fonts, Times New Roman, sometimes because courts require it and people sort of expect
Right, right.
Yeah, apoptos, apatite, apatose, I don't know.
it.
But I do think it's worth taking at least a little time if you write to consider the
fonts that you use and just think about the impact of that.
And obviously Microsoft does so too, which is why they've come out with the new font.
And I actually think it looks like an interesting font.
Aptos, I guess is how it's pronounced.
It's a nice looking font.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
So was Times New Roman the default font
for Microsoft Word way back in the day, Jeff?
From like the, in the 1980s, I don't know what their default was, but
Okay, okay.
Yeah, exactly.
from like the early 90s, I graduated law school in 1994, definitely around that point.
In the mid 90s, all the way through the mid 2000s, that's what it was. And then it switched to
Calibri, which a lot of people give Calibri grief. I mean, it's, it's, you know, whatever
Me, me included.
a default is, so many people use it that it sort of gets, you know, a bad rap. I mean,
Yeah.
it was a fine font. When Calibri came out in the 2000s, Microsoft was trying to come up with a font
Right.
that would look good printed out, but would also look good on the computer screens at the time.
Right.
And, you know, you're never going to find one thing that pleases everybody. And it was a
Right.
Right.
sorcery font, so it didn't have the little, you know, lines on it, like, like Times New Roman did.
Right.
But I actually think that there was something to it.
Right.
It's not something that I--
Right.
I mean, I tried not to use it, but I didn't really
Right.
mind it if it came up.
But I do think that--
Right.
look at them side by side.
I actually think the new Aptos font looks a little bit better.
Right.
I thought it was-- the quote that I had today,
Right.
what was it?
Right.
The developer said that it was like--
what did he say?
He says, it's like Helvetica with a bit of a human touch.
And I think that that's--
describing fonts with words is obviously-- it's
Really scored the right guy there.
like describing music with words.
Yeah. I remember when they went to Calibri, this was, you say it so nicely, I say San
I mean, how do you do it?
But I actually think that's not bad.
It's got a nice look to it.
And so, you know, I look forward to seeing the change.
[silence]
Serif, but you're like San Serif. So I remember that they had Calibri, that was the San Serif
[laughter]
[silence]
font, but then they also had Cambria, right? Which did have the Serifs on it, on there.
Mm-hmm.
[silence]
Mm-hmm.
[silence]
Mm-hmm.
And so I remember that those were the two default fonts that you can get.
[silence]
And I know when people use the default fonts because it's like, you know, that's just what's
there.
It's what's available.
I have always been one to eschew the default fonts if possible, but I don't want to eschew
too much, right?
[silence]
I don't want to go too far flung eschew because like you, I'm usually typing Word documents
in a professional setting.
So obviously I don't want to use something that's like script hand, you know, font or
anything crazy.
Um, I remember a long time ago I was doing a presentation for the Georgia State Bar and
one of the fonts that you can get by default in Microsoft Word is called Georgia.
Mm-hmm
And like you said, many courts still today require Times New Roman just because of the
Mm-hmm
size and the typeface and they, they even have restrictions on, you know, line spacing
That's sort of funny yeah
and everything else.
But I remember that Georgia State Bar was the only bar that said, Hey, when you're going
to turn in materials to us, it has to be in Georgia font.
But I liked the Georgia font, and I
continue to use that because it looks very
similar to Times New Roman.
But I would agree with a little bit of a human touch.
I can tell what Times New Roman is being used.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, Georgia is the font.
People can see that, and it's kind of boring on there.
But we're really-- yeah.
Go ahead and then I'll go.
I would just say we're really nerding out of the fonts here.
Yeah.
But just this gentleman here that this article that you
Mm-hmm.
linked to, Steve Madison, who was also responsible--
like you talked about Microsoft really paying attention to this, right?
This gentleman was responsible for Windows 3.1 original true type fonts,
including Times New Roman, Arial and Courier New, as well as Segoy,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Segoy, Sego, I've never used that one, but I know.
So anyway, he apparently is behind this new Aptos as well.
Yeah, Arial is interesting because it sort of has a bad reputation for
So a lot of history even in this, but, you know, just really curious stuff.
being Microsoft's attempt to copy Helvetica and
Right. Uh-huh. Right. Right. Right.
yet not have to pay for the Helvetica licensing fee.
So it's not quite as nice as Helvetica, but it's really close to it.
Oh, okay. There you go. And you're not even in Georgia, which is great.
I will tell you that the Georgia font, like you say,
it's similar to Times New Roman.
Georgia is actually the font that I use
for the text on iPhone JD.
If you use just the default fonts
that come up on the website, I think it looks pretty good.
I, and I'm not even in Georgia,
I went to college at Emory in Atlanta.
So I have a little connection there, I suppose.
They're okay, they're close enough.
Oh, interesting.
I will say one last thing and maybe more of interest
for just attorneys and people that are total font nerds.
But in Louisiana, where I do most of my law practice
In the state appellate court system,
we have our appellate court and then the highest court,
the state Supreme Court.
In our appellate courts, we're required to use a 14-point font.
And I personally think that Times New Roman
Okay, okay.
in a 14-point font is very readable, and I like it a lot.
But in our state Supreme Court, you need to use a 12-point font,
which I actually find Times New Roman
(laughing)
to look a little small in 12-point.
Right, right, right.
And that's the reason that even though, like you said,
Cambria was one of the alternative
Microsoft built-in fonts that Microsoft,
came out with about 15, 20 years ago. I think that if I, for me, for my eyes at 12 point,
Yeah, yeah, I'm a big fan.
if you compare Times New Roman and Cambria, something about Cambria, just because it's a
tiny bit more narrow, the way it's sort of spaced out, I think it just looks a little bit more
pleasant to the eyes. And so I, it takes up a tiny bit more space. If I remember correctly,
Yeah.
Right, right, right.
Correct. Right.
the same brief in Times New Roman will be a little shorter and the same brief in Cambria
They don't care. Yeah, exactly.
is a tiny bit longer, but I just think it looks nice enough. And most people don't notice it.
I realize that 90% of readers don't even notice this, but 10% will.
Yeah. It makes a difference. It does. Yeah.
And I actually think that a lot of people who would claim they don't notice it,
I sort of think subconsciously when you're just reading a brief that's well formatted
and stuff like that, and that looks good on the page, I actually think that it could make
It makes a difference. It does. Yeah.
a difference. And, you know, we could get into all sorts of other geeky formants,
Yee-haw.
like do you justify on the right side or do you not justify? And do you have one space
between words or two spaces? You know, there's all these sorts of, you know, things that people
Yeah. Well, I just, before we move on,
that really get nerdy in this talk about, but I think it matters enough to at least think about it.
So, you know, I think about it.
So beneficial for descobrirify, signify and let you go
we have to of course address,
you've already alluded to the Apple fonts.
I didn't even know this page existed
until this article linked to it.
this is fonts for Apple platforms, which it makes sense
because if you're designing an app or, you know
some kind of an app for, for the, the Apple, you know
ecosystem, whether it's Mac OS or iPhone OS
it's good to make sure that you have
because I forget exactly when Apple changed
to San Francisco.
We, I, it must've been within the last couple of years
Yeah, within the past decade for sure.
or so, or at least this version
with this version of San Francisco, right?
Cause every time, every once in a while they'll change it
but I didn't even know you can go to this page
and you could download San Francisco pro
They have compact, mono and New York.
And again, this is mostly for developers and stuff
that are doing like human interface kind of work,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
that kind of a thing.
But I like this that you,
I didn't even realize that you could go
and download these fonts from Apple.
But thank you Apple for even offering this.
Yeah, and of course those are built into all of the Apple devices,
You know, this would be good if like,
if you're interested in using the app,
the iOS iPhone fonts,
you could download it here from Apple.
And that's pretty cool.
the San Francisco font.
Of course.
Me too, me too.
I think San Francisco is a beautiful font that Apple came up with,
like you said, a number of years ago.
Right, right.
It's what they use, I guess it started on the iPhone,
but it's on the iPhone, the iPad, the Mac now.
It's a very legible font.
Call today, iPhones are standing by.
It's easy to read.
I like it.
And another Sans Serif font.
I think it looks really great.
(laughs)
You link to another article today,
[ Silence ]
which I feel like we're just getting deeper and deeper
into the new standby mode,
which isn't available officially yet,
at least not publicly,
other than there's a public beta.
So this is iOS 17.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
You and I have talked about the many additional features
coming in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17,
but this was a great article from MacStories,
Frederico and John Voorhees,
talking about their favorite features
from the new standby feature,
And additionally, which means I've already spent money today
the standby chargers that they recommend.
What a great article here.
Yeah, I mean, as you said, Brett, this is not the first article on standby mode,
Right.
because it's one of the really beloved features of the upcoming iOS 17,
Yeah.
but I think this is the best one so far.
And I say that for two reasons.
Yeah.
First, the first half of the article, which I believe John Voorhees wrote,
does a great job of going through all the different modes that you can use,
whether you use the widget mode that has a different thing on the left and right side,
[silence]
when you have your iPhone just sort of on a stand,
or the time modes that show like, you know, the big clock.
Right.
and they talk about some of the limitations and stuff,
[silence]
but it's a great article for describing how the mode works.
And I learned a lot more about the mode
that I didn't know about.
Yes.
That's the first part.
[silence]
The second part of the article that says,
okay, to really take advantage of this mode,
you're gonna wanna have some sort of a stand
[laughs]
[silence]
that you attach your iPhone to using MagSafe to charge it.
And what stand you're gonna use,
Yeah.
because there have been stands for years
Right.
that would hold an iPhone using MagSafe,
But oftentimes the iPhone would be
in the vertical orientation, up and down,
portrait orientation.
Yes, multiple.
But of course to take advantage of standby mode,
you need to be in the horizontal,
in the landscape orientation.
And so the question that we've mentioned before
in the podcast is like,
I feel like I need to get a new stand,
in fact, more than one new stand,
because the stand that I'm gonna use for my office,
Right.
I might only want the iPhone on it.
(laughing)
But the stand that I'm gonna use at home on my nightstand,
Yep.
I'm gonna wanna charge multiple devices overnight.
Something different.
And so I feel like I have this brand new need
Right.
Me too.
for different types of stands for different circumstances.
Right.
And so the second half of this article,
and I was so happy to see this,
they start to look at all the, well, not all the options,
but many of the options out there
and discuss what their favorites are.
The one that I've talked about in this podcast,
I think as recently as last week,
was the Studio Neat stand that I've been looking at.
Right?
And I don't even think that that's one that they considered,
No, it's not.
but they did talk about some other ones
Right?
that looked really good.
And I tell you what,
I'm not ready to make a purchase yet because I'm not running iOS 17 yet,
but I'm going to continue to look very closely at articles like this for
[PAUSE]
the next month or two.
Because obviously there's never going to be one perfect stand,
different people have different preferences.
But I love that more companies are going to be paying attention to this,
coming out with stands, we're going to have tons of new options.
And I look forward to reading more to decide what stand I want to use at my
office, what stand I want to use at home.
And so it's just nice to have sort of a new category of accessories.
It's not a new category.
It's been there before, but it's being used in a new way.
- Yeah, absolutely.
So it's really interesting to read about all the options.
Yeah.
So you were saying that you actually purchased one, Brett, from this article?
Well, I am gonna get the cube.
That's the one that he really likes.
So let me just say on the first half of,
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
exactly what Frederico does.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
On the first part of this article, as to your point,
the thing that struck me quickly, Jeff,
was wow, there's a lot of customizable options here.
And remember, Brett, these are just the built-in ones, because I think third
More than I would have expected
from a new feature coming from the iPhone.
Does that make sense?
Like, yeah, I know, I know.
parties like Widget Smith will probably be able to add to this.
Absolutely.
So it's gonna be a huge number of options, yeah.
That's what struck me,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
'cause normally when we see a new feature from Apple,
it's like, it's just the basics, right?
And then it gets better over the next couple of years.
But just the way that John was explaining this,
I'm like, I can do that and that,
Mm-hmm.
and I can change that and the color on that.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
So I'm very impressed with that first part.
And that's the main takeaway I had from that first part.
And then the second part,
otherwise known as how to spend more of Brett's money.
[LAUGH]
Yeah, it's all of the different options here.
And this first one that Federico liked a lot.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
First of all, to your point,
you haven't gotten one yet, Jeff.
And here's the thing, we're talking about the stands
[PAUSE]
that are already available now.
Before all of these product developers even knew
that Apple was coming out with the standby mode.
Correct.
[PAUSE]
I can only imagine the flood of additional stands
that are gonna be coming out
once we do have the public version of iOS 17.
And I welcome that.
I mean, I'm just saying,
Mm-hmm.
I'm just recognizing like one of the reasons now,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
like we're trying to plug these older products
that were designed in a certain way for, like you said,
most of the time we just have it in portrait mode
because that's how we look at our phones all the time.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
But no, we need a stand now that can flip
maybe between portrait and standby.
And frankly, the more I read about all these articles
that you've shared, I'm going standby all the time.
Like I cannot wait.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
And to your point as well,
like I haven't upgraded into the public beta or to iOS 17,
but you link to another great article here
from our friend Jason Snell,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
that he's even saying, you know what?
It's not as bad as it maybe used to be.
In other words, we would use to tell people,
don't worry about the public betas, right?
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Like let the other guinea pigs, you know,
work out all the kinks and everything.
But I thought Jason did a great job in this article
of saying, you know what?
You might be okay running it.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
And I liked even his point in there is that
if you do run the public beta now,
which again, it's public beta, not the developer beta,
public beta, that's why I keep saying that.
But that means it's, you know,
Yeah.
it's kind of gone through already some ironing out of issues
but Jason says, this is your opportunity to tell Apple
what you don't like about it now
so that you don't have to deal with it for the next year.
I don't know if that's even true necessarily,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
but I thought he had a good point in that too.
Yeah, so that, you know, he said, if you're on the fence about whether to install the iOS 17 beta, I guess what Jason's saying is it's okay, it's okay to go ahead and do it.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm still not quite doing it, I'm not on the fence, I don't want the, you know, I don't want my battery life to decrease and I don't want to have a stability issues.
I'm getting closer.
I know.
But if I was going to do it, it might be to try this standby feature. One more thing I want to mention about standby, before we move on to the next item on our agenda is that I did not know before realizing this article in Mac Stories
What yeah.
I know.
Yeah.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
that standby mode treats notifications in a special way.
Yeah.
And he had some pictures in here that they're sort of,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
and you can turn it off.
You don't have to have notifications come up
Right, right.
on the standby screen,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
but if you decide to show it, to have it come on,
it makes it sort of like, you know, big.
It really takes advantage of the landscape screen
Right.
that you can have the person's picture or, you know,
Right.
whatever you use to represent their picture in there,
and you can have the notification.
And I can actually, so as I'm sitting here in my office
Right, right.
and I'm just typing away on my computer,
if I have my iPhone next to me in standby mode,
I can see it being useful that for certain notifications
like a text from my wife or my kids,
just to have it bigger and right there
that I can just sort of glance it and see it
Right, right.
as opposed to the current system
where my watch will tap me
and I see I have a notification,
but I actually have to pick something up to look at it
and see what the notification is.
So I look forward to trying,
Absolutely.
again, everything about standby mode,
You know, we've brushed on this just a little bit, but it occurs to me, because I agree
I'm really excited about.
For people that are just sitting at a desk
or in a kitchen where you have something off to the side
that you can glance at, I think it's gonna be great.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
with everything you're saying, I cannot wait for standby mode.
I see this as even being on my nightstand,
like you've mentioned, and like even John mentioned in here.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Currently on my nightstand,
I have the MagSafe charger for the Apple Watch,
because again, we've mentioned this a couple of times,
Nightstand mode, exactly.
but I don't think we've really delved into it too much,
that I like my standby mode on my Apple Watch,
which I think they call nightstand mode, right?
I think that's officially, yeah, nightstand mode,
Very similar idea, very similar, yeah.
which is I can just, you know,
[silence]
turn my head and glance over there
and in standby mode, the Apple Watch,
it actually, the screen goes off unless you wave your hand
or you tap it or get close to it.
And then it just, you know, nicely and gently comes on
and it tells you the time.
And if you've got an alarm or something like that,
it doesn't give you any kind of other information.
But I love that nightstand mode, Jeff.
Like that's just been helpful for me to glance over
and see the time.
But now I feel like that idea is just multiplied
10 times over with standby mode on the iPhone
Yeah.
Correct.
to where, you know,
getting back to the actual physical stands now.
Normally what I do with that MagSafe charger
is my Apple watch is, you know,
standing up in vertical mode.
So that the screen is facing me
and my phone is lying down in horizontal mode, right?
I don't see the screen of my phone because it's charging,
but I almost want the opposite now.
I want my iPhone now to be standing up
Mm-hmm.
and facing the screen facing me at night.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
And then my Apple watch, I really don't care.
I just want it to be charging somewhere, right?
And that's why I think I'm so interested
in some of these stands at the bottom here,
specifically this Anker three-in-one cube
[silence]
that Frederico likes so much,
because it does exactly what I was just explaining.
You can now have the iPhone standing up
the screen facing you,
or it's kind of at a slight little tilt there.
And then there's a little tiny, cute little shelf
that pops out to the side
that has an Apple Watch charger on it.
So that's the one I think I'm gonna get.
But I gotta tell you, I'm biting my lip
because it's like, do I wanna do this now?
because if Anchor does it this well now,
are they gonna come out with a better version
Yeah. Yeah.
when iOS 17 comes out?
Anyway, these are just, you know,
I agree, you know, first world type of problems here,
I understand, but it's like, man,
You raised a good point there, Brett,
this is just getting so exciting
in what we could possibly do next.
Right.
that I hadn't thought about until you just said it.
I really like nightstand mode on my watch.
But once I'm using standby mode on my phone,
Oh, right.
do I no longer need nightstand mode on my watch?
Because it's going to be better.
Right.
Maybe you're right. Maybe in the future,
it's okay for my watch screen to be flat or something that it's not directly looking at me.
Gosh, I hadn't thought about that. It's really interesting. I can't wait to try it out and see
Hmm.
how it all works. Good point.
I know, I know.
Good, okay.
Well, we'll link to these articles so you can read to you.
You know, all of our folks can read through
the different stands and then let us know.
I think you even invited folks.
Like, right, like let us know,
like if you're gonna be using a stand
or what you're kind of looking at.
I guess that's how you pronounce it, yeah.
So that stands for the iPhone.
What about stands or holders for the HomePod?
I thought this was a nice article here.
I know you have talked about,
what did you call it here, Jeff?
The Balalo Real Wood Tripod for the HomePod.
Here, let me bring up a picture of that.
Yeah, Balalo.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
It looks really nice though.
I mean, it's really sophisticated looking here.
And it looks, it sounds like those are the ones
that you got for your HomePods,
but this is a great little story from 512px on other stands
I bought my stand for my HomePod Mini because I wanted something functional.
that you might want to consider for your HomePod.
Right.
I had a specific need.
It was behind my couch.
I wanted to raise it a little bit, but I wanted to look at nice.
It's very pretty.
Yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
This is very simple.
Didn't cost that much, 25 bucks, something like that.
It holds up my HomePod Mini.
Right.
It looks great.
That's what I was looking for.
Looks good and is functional.
The article that you're talking about from Stephen Hackett,
(laughing)
he sort of went to the other extreme.
Right.
Things that, well, starting with one that might be useful,
which is a little portable HomePod mini charger.
I love it.
But he then gets into these crazy things
that like hold the HomePod mini on its side,
which you know is not how Apple designed this.
It's like a big eyeball.
They used, it's actually, it's like a big eyeball.
It's like a big eyeball.
It's like Hal.
It's Hal looking at you.
It looks a little bizarre.
(laughing)
And I actually don't know if you get the best sound quality
It does.
Right, right.
when you're doing it in this direction.
But it's just funny that, you know,
And then even the little robot here, that looks similar to your real wood.
different manufacturers have come up with, you know,
different ways of mounting and charging
and everything else, the HomePod Mini.
It's funny, it's funny.
That one's crazy.
Exactly.
This was, this looks like something out of like the portal video game or something, right?
Or maybe Star Wars, like the droids.
(laughing)
But that could be fun.
So anyway, if you've got a HomePod
Or you can go Star Wars, yes.
and you are looking to get a nice stand for it,
we'll link to that.
You can either go simple like Jeff did, very elegant,
or you could go a little crazy like Steven Hackett.
You can pick.
(laughing)
Once you do have your HomePod,
here's another little nifty gadget that you link to today.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
This is called the Eve Flare,
which is like, it just looks like a HomePod almost.
Yeah.
It looks like it is a sphere that lights up, right?
Now I said HomePod, but this actually works
with the HomeKit, which could work with your HomePod,
I guess, if you set it up correctly,
and it works on matter.
We've talked about the Eve company before, I believe,
but this Eve flares, a nice little white plastic sphere lamp
which you can change the colors and everything.
It's been out for a while now, but I've always been sort of intrigued by it.
I mean, it's sort of a standalone orb, as it were.
And the idea is that you would sort of,
Right.
it, you charge it and it stays charged for,
[ Silence ]
I think this review said that he went about six hours
with it on a full battery charge.
And like, you might like go outside, for example,
to your backyard and maybe you're sitting around
like a table out there.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
You could just put this orb out there
and it's not gonna provide super bright light
that you would use for like, you know,
reading a book or something like that.
But just in terms of some atmospheric light, you know,
Yeah, right.
whether you have it in the middle of the table
or off to the side, or maybe you have two of them.
And like most of these modern LED lights,
it's infinitely configurable.
So you can change the color using the iPhone app.
It works with HomeKit, like you say, Brett,
so you can turn it on and off using your Apple Watch
[BLANK_AUDIO]
and everything else.
And so, I mean, if you wanna set just the right mood
and have just the right color of light,
whether you want something a little more orangey yellow,
a little bit more blue,
it just, it looks like a sort of an interesting thing,
Right, LEDs, mine too.
about a hundred bucks, or I could see some kids' rooms.
I mean, I know in my son's bedroom,
he's got all sorts of lights all over the walls
and stuff like that, that he can change the colors of it
[LAUGH]
and make his room look whatever color he wants.
Right, right, mine too.
So it always struck me as sort of an interesting device.
I was listening to another podcast the other day and it was a travel podcast and they were
And this review seemed pretty positive of it.
So yeah.
I just saw this this week.
talking about going to Las Vegas. I don't know if you've heard about this, but I looked
this up the Las Vegas sphere. So when I thought when I saw the Eve flare, I thought, Hmm,
Yeah, this is crazy.
You
Mm-hmm. Is that how it works?
I could maybe I could control a little light sphere on my desk or it'd be really cool if
I could control a light sphere in the middle of Las Vegas.
This thing is humongous.
Apparently, it's covered in screens on the outside, Jeff.
And then on the inside, there's got to be there's some kind of entertainment complex.
works.
[laughs]
(laughing)
I think you too is going to go and have a concert inside of it.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
But yeah, look, it has the whole screen on the outside.
So you can go on the either on the inside or the outside.
I mean, where else but Las Vegas, but I mean,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
it just, I just heard that the other day
and I was thinking, wow, well, that would be interesting.
I'd like to control the Las Vegas fear too.
That'd be nice.
(laughing)
Okay, let's talk about earphones.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Now we always talk about the ear pods, the AirPods.
And I know we talked a few weeks ago
where my daughter bought herself the AirPods Max
and I became very jealous of my daughter.
But this article you linked to made a good,
I think they came up with a good argument
for maybe considering the Beats Studio Pro
over the AirPods Max.
Right.
The Beats brand is interesting because Apple's owned them for years and years now, right?
So, you know, even though it doesn't have the AirPod name in it,
Right.
they incorporate the same technology that AirPods have in terms of having a great connection to your phone and, you know,
the different modes that you have with AirPods. So you really get all of the same advantages of the AirPods Max.
But because this is sort of one of the latest and greatest things,
Right.
Over the ear, right.
at least Chance Miller argues that it's got some, you know, interesting design features and, you know,
some other little features you don't get with the AirPods Max.
You know, this type of over-the-ear headphone,
although I'm really intrigued by it,
I don't think that it's probably for me.
Right, absolutely.
It's a little bulky.
But for some people and for some types of listening,
this is obviously the best way to go.
You're going to, of course, you're going to get the best
noise cancellation.
If you're on a plane, you'll,
this is probably the best possible thing you could use.
Okay that's a good way right.
So I wanted to link to this article
because if you're in the market for AirPods Max,
it's at least worth, you know,
I always think of the AirPods Max as the AirPods
that look like Beats headphones.
And so now we've got the latest version of the Beats headphones that maybe is sort of one step
better than the AirPods Max. Maybe not, but at least it's worth considering the two of them.
It's interesting.
Interesting.
[silence]
Yeah to be clear we talk about
are little ear buds, right?
The AirPods Max, right, exactly,
we're both of us are aware of them.
The AirPods Max are the over the ear headphones
and the Beat Studio Pro are over the ear as well.
They look like what we would generally consider
to be like regular headphones.
And of course, you know, the big name in this area
for years and years has been the Bose Sound, whatever,
Hi.
you know, the noise canceling on there.
I would just tell you from this article
as chance makes out.
And when I've heard people talk about this
is mainly because the Beats Studio Pro are very comparable,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
but they're $200 less than the AirPods Max.
Really, that's the biggest argument
that I see people making for that.
I will also tell you, my daughter is my daughter.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
So she did a lot of research herself
when she was looking for the AirPods Max.
And she was very, very close
to considering the Beats Studio Pro.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
But Jeff, it just came back down to the Apple ecosystem.
Like she went into the Apple store, she tried them on.
I think she tried both of them on.
And it's just, there's just something a little bit more
[PAUSE]
polished, I guess, on the AirPods Max,
which you would hopefully expect as much
if you're paying $200 more.
And she ended up going with the AirPods Max.
Yeah.
It's just that sleekness.
Yeah.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
It's just the way that it was compatible
and it works exactly the way that she wanted it to work.
We've talked about this.
It even has like that digital crown component on there,
[NOISE]
you know, that you can click, you know,
for turning it off or switching between noise cancellation
and everything.
And the Beat Studio Pro,
I thought Chance Miller did a great job in this article
of making the argument on both sides.
And it's good to read, like you said, Jeff,
if you're in this market.
But yeah, I mean, even my daughter was very sensitive
on the price, but she ended up going with the AirPods Max
just because, you know, those extra little touches
that you're not gonna get on the beats.
Two features that he mentioned, for example, that you don't get on the Beats, you know,
Yep, yes, exactly.
you have to pay more money for the AirPods Max is, I guess, and I'm used to this with
my AirPods, that if I take my AirPod out of my ear, it pauses the music automatically,
Right, right.
right?
And apparently the AirPods Max work the same way.
That's right, that's right.
You take them off and it's nice enough to pause the music.
So if somebody comes to talk to you and you take them off quickly, you don't have to worry
Correct.
about fumbling around to find the pause button.
And then the other thing is that the AirPods have always done a great job, including the
Yes.
Right.
Right.
the Max version apparently of switching devices
You are right.
between when you go for between an iPhone and iPad
and every different devices.
And I don't think this Beats model does that.
So like you say, you get some extra nice features,
You are right.
the additional polish, but you're paying a lot more.
So there's no one right answer or wrong answer.
It just depends on what you're looking for,
how much you're willing to spend.
But on the other hand, you do get a lot of the other features
that you can with the AirPods work just as well
Yeah.
with the beats, so it's something you can think about.
Well, if you're in the market for the AirPods Max
Potentially.
or even the B-Studio Pro,
you might wanna wait a few days
because you could purchase it tax-free.
(laughing)
That's a little bit of a stretch here,
but Apple has done this in the past.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Yeah, Apple has done this in the past
and I don't know if they do it every single year.
Typically, I see this around the beginning
of the school year, right?
So when most families are in the market
Yeah, yeah.
for purchasing Apple computers
or other technology for the school,
Apple will work, I mean, it's not just Apple,
it actually is from the states themselves, right?
[BLANK_AUDIO]
It's from the states, the states have these tax-free days
and it really goes for anything else, right?
You know, pencils and whatever else
that you might need for school.
But obviously more and more,
it's more on the technology side.
[PAUSE]
So this is a good article that you linked to
that kind of rounds up, there are six states so far
that have at least announced it,
that, you know, for like the next,
I think it's over the next week or so,
maybe even into the first week or so of August,
Exactly.
but you can go and purchase a variety of school supplies,
[PAUSE]
including some Apple products without tax on top of it.
Exactly. In different states, they have different things that you can get.
Right, right, that's right.
In some places, it's just a laptop computer, and in some places, it's a little bit broader
that it might include an iPhone or an iPad or certain types of iPads.
But if you're in the market to get something for back to school anyway,
which so many people are,
and if you live in one of these states,
why not delay your purchase a week or two and
- Sure, yeah.
maybe save yourself some state sales tax and make it a little bit more affordable.
Right, yeah, and by the way, he does a good job in here.
You either save the money or use the saving,
that extra $100 or $200 that you save on tax or whatever,
maybe put that towards getting a little bit more storage,
a little bit bigger SSD, something like that.
So just something to think about.
[ Pause ]
Who is this?
Wesley Hillier does a good job in saying,
this is separate than the Apple back to school promotion.
Right. That's what they control.
Every year Apple usually has, exactly.
Exactly. Yeah.
[ Pause ]
Apple has some kind of a little deal.
Typically, we've seen it to where you buy a MacBook Pro
and you get a free set of AirPods, not Pro, but AirPods.
Right.
[ Pause ]
Or more recently, I've seen it that you buy an iPad or a Mac
and you can get like $100 Apple gift card, right?
The gift card.
That you can apply, right?
Right.
And it gets you a little bit off on there.
Bright.
So that's Apple's back to school promotion.
But as he says in this article,
you can use that in conjunction
with potentially the tax-free.
Bright.
But you're right, now that I see it here,
each state has their own limitations on here.
Like the total sale price of all exempt items
Where are you at?
can exceed $750 if you're in Alabama.
The total price can exceed $1,500 if you're in Florida.
So anyway, just do a little Googling around and make sure,
but yeah, if you're gonna purchase something,
certainly for the kid or even for yourself
as back to school aspects,
be sure and keep track of the tax-free options there.
Time for our where you at segment.
This is a good one today.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
It seems like they're all good.
It just almost seems like they're getting better and better
from the stories aspect on there, Jeff,
which I just think is so funny.
This one was from Danny Orleans,
[LAUGH]
I guess it's Orleans, right, on there.
Danny Orleans is a magician.
I think he's based out of Chicago, right?
He was flying to Newark 'cause he was going in
[silence]
to do a magician's magic show for a trade show.
And he got to Newark and United Airlines told them
that all of his equipment or his sound equipment wasn't there.
It wasn't going to be available, which is devastating, right?
Because this is his show.
He's got to go and do.
Well, the AirTags came to his rescue.
You take over the story, Jeff.
Right.
They told him that your bags didn't even make it here and then he looked at his air tag and looked at you know this location and find my he's like yeah they didn't make it here i can see that they're right here at the airport and so he went to the to the to the luggage place and try to get help and i said we can't do anything to help you they said you know we'll find it and ship it to you.
Right, he showed them, right.
Yeah he showed me here is like you know we're gonna get it will get it to the next four or five days he's like my shows in two days i can't wait for five days i'll be home in four or five days you know this ridiculous but because of the air tag he could not just that he could see it was at the airport,
Right.
Right.
he could actually see it looks like it's right outside this terminal 90.
And so, but the problem is he's already in the baggage claim part. He can't get to terminal 90.
Right, right.
So the funny part was he went and bought himself a ticket. He picked a random city, Boston,
(laughing)
Boston, right?
and it was a refundable ticket so that he could turn it back in. But he bought a ticket just so
Right?
Get back.
that he could get through security, go to the gate, go to terminal 90, look out the window,
(laughing)
Right here.
and sure enough, and the funniest thing, I mean, the picture tells a thousand words here.
the funniest thing is the picture where he's like, "There is my bag." And so like he's walking
On the tarmac.
around the airport trying to find all these United people saying, "Look, you see that bag out there?
(laughing)
Right.
That's my bag." And he's funny because he's like, all these airport workers are just walking by the
bag. It's in the middle of a tarmac, like where planes would be going back and forth and people
Incredible.
are just ignoring it, just assuming, you know, whatever, bag in the middle of the tarmac,
who cares? And so he finally was able to find somebody that when he, you know, when you actually
"Look out the window, see that bag? That's my bag."
It's right there.
And of course, they wouldn't let him go out there because of security and stuff,
(laughing)
Sure.
but they had to send a United person out there to then bring it to baggage claim.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
But again, it's a funny story.
But in the fact that it was for a magician whose bag disappeared just makes it even more humorous.
Exactly.
But I tell you what, if you're traveling with something that matters to you,
[LAUGH]
stick a $20, $25 air tag in there because most bags don't get lost, but sometimes they do.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
And he would have been completely without a solution
Absolutely.
if it wasn't for that little $20 air tag.
(Jeff mumbles)
And then thanks to the air tag, he was able to get his bag and do his show.
Right.
So how can you not put an air tag in a bag when you're traveling,
Right.
whether you're traveling internationally or wherever you're traveling,
you know you need your bag.
That's why you brought your bag, because you need your bag.
That's it, Jeff.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
He would have been completely helpless
'cause I've done this before.
You go down to baggage claim,
everybody else is waiting there.
Everybody else has to wait in line to get to the person
[Pause]
to say, Hey, my bag isn't here and you got to fill out the claim and everything.
And then they will typically say, we'll find the bag and we'll send it to your
home address or your office address, whatever it is, it'll be four to five
Mm-hmm.
business days, whatever.
[Pause]
And then what do you do at that point?
You're like, uh, okay, I guess I got nothing else to do.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
And so that you go on with your life, hoping and praying that the bag
[Pause]
is going to show up at some point, but no.
When you have the air tag, you can actually spot it.
And I have done this.
I don't usually check bags anymore,
mainly because I know this is how the airlines are today.
Yeah, yeah.
But when I do, I make sure, I mean, that was,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
even the travel blogs that I follow,
I just mentioned that earlier,
all of them are saying,
"This is probably the number one travel accessory
you should be investing in today."
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Truly, and not just because of the humor stories
that we sometimes share,
but even if you're traveling somewhere,
I have one for all of my bags,
whether it's my briefcase or my rolling bag,
[silence]
or even my wife's purse,
I put them everywhere just simply because at some point
it's gonna be good to find it.
And when you need it, you need it.
And that's it.
Like, you know, good on Danny for at least going through
and pushing this a little bit
because he could have just turned around to me like,
okay, I guess I got nothing.
I gotta cancel my gig or whatever, but no, he pushed it.
And like you said, he even had to buy a ticket
to get back into the terminal.
It must have, it must have fallen off the truck.
And the picture is right there.
You can see it just sitting there with nothing else around.
It like, it's almost like it fell off
the little trolley or something.
It's something like that.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Exactly.
It's crazy.
And it looks like it's a Pelican case
You
'cause it's his sound equipment and stuff.
You
Anyway, we could just go on and on, but yeah.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
I mean, just getting the air tags and putting them in.
And by the way, I just ordered another little set
of my CR2032 or 2023 batteries, Jeff.
>> Mm-hm.
I just like to make sure I have enough of those on hand
[BLANK_AUDIO]
because we talked about this before.
They do not have the bitterant coating on there,
but just making sure that you have a good supply
of those little batteries, you know, not a ton,
but I just wanna make sure that I replace them enough,
you know, 'cause I use them in other things as well.
But that's what those little air tags use
are those little tiny batteries on there.
So make sure you got some of those on there as well.
And then lastly, this is,
we'll just throw this into the where you're at segment.
It fits, yeah.
I saw this movie yesterday and I thought,
[laughs]
I knew you were gonna link to it.
[silence]
This is great.
So we've talked about the underdogs before.
[silence]
I think this is the third video in this series.
[silence]
Maybe it's the fourth or something.
Yep.
But this is a four people
[silence]
that Apple has these cute little mini movies on
[silence]
[silence]
about, you know, they're trying to get,
I think it was a pizza box that they were developing
[silence]
or something before, right?
That was the first one, yeah, years ago in 2019, yeah.
Yeah, that was the first one.
And so now they're going to a meeting,
[silence]
but this was interesting because in a very humorous manner,
[silence]
[silence]
it highlights the security aspects
[BLANK_AUDIO]
of the Find My service with Apple.
No, no, we can't.
Yeah, I mean, I don't want to give away the plot, although frankly,
you can't really give it away because it's more silliness than anything else.
(laughs)
Right.
But suffice it to say that somebody's laptop is stolen, and
they chase after it thanks to the built in features that you can find mine.
Now, my first thought when I saw this video was to cringe,
Uh-huh.
because we all know what, you know what I'm gonna say,
Yep, yep, yep.
you really should not chase the bad guys yourself.
[silence]
You should involve the police or the law enforcement.
Having said that, I also know that depending upon where you are, you know, your, you know, stolen bag or stolen laptop might be, you know, item 100 on the list of police priorities.
So they may not be willing to drop everything and join you in a chase.
Right, right. Right. Right. Sure.
Whereas perhaps you, you know, I understand the desire to just go find it yourself.
So be careful out there if you're in a situation like this for real.
But putting aside, you know, the reality of the situation, it's a funny little movie.
[silence]
It's a very funny little movie where they are chasing the
It is. It's great. So well done.
the the dimwitted bad guys to try to find the laptop.
Right. Right. Right. Absolutely.
So it does.
And also, I mean, in addition to showing the Find My stuff,
the movie does a good job of pointing out some Apple security features,
how you can remotely lock things if something's lost,
which applies whether you have an iPhone or an iPad or a computer,
Yeah. It also highlights the dangers of clicking on links and
what you have.
So it's a cute little movie.
It's worth watching.
Yes, it does.
emails, you have to watch until the very, very end and after the credits, even, which
It does.
You do.
I thought that was funny.
In the know.
I thought that was funny.
I love at the, the, the credits I thought at the end, just real quick, you know, it
(laughs)
says, you know, starring and it has like all the lists of the Apple products.
It's like it has the actors in there, but it's like all the Apple products that you
In the know.
could, that they feature in there as well, which I thought was a really cute.
So we'll, we'll link to that in the know.
Here is my tip today.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Unfortunately, I had to fly down quickly to Texas for my mother's health, but I was able
to come back.
Everything's fine now.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
It reminded me of something that is sort of a little bit of a pet peeve of mine.
I think most people know this, but I'm just going to highlight it again.
When I fly into an airport like in Houston, the George Bridge Intercontinental, or another
[ Silence ]
airport that is notorious for this I've seen is like Orlando, or my wife recently had to
to fly over to the Denver airport.
When you get a rental car from these airports, Jeff,
for whatever reason, and I think I know the reason,
you are almost immediately shuffled
onto a very beautiful roadway or a highway
that just happens to be a toll road.
(clears throat)
It's like, it's very difficult to avoid the toll roads
[silence]
at some of these airports.
Now, I know why some of these places do this
because it is very lucrative, I can imagine.
And especially from the rental car agencies
because many times people don't even think about the tolls,
but of course the rental car agency
has already taken care of you, right?
They have built in a toll tapper for you.
And just to a charge an extra additional fee
for that convenience for you,
they're gonna just, it's like two or three times
the charge of the actual toll.
[laughs]
You can tell them a little bit bitter about this
because I've been burned a couple of times.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
So here's the way I get around this.
When I flew into Houston this past week,
I got a rental car and sure enough, the quickest way,
the easiest way to get where I needed to go
[BLANK_AUDIO]
was full of toll roads.
And of course the rental agency had a beautiful big tag
you know, on there and like,
hey, do you wanna have the tolls?
[BLANK_AUDIO]
I'm like, you know what, I'm okay.
So as soon as I got the car
and I start exiting out of the garage area,
you know that I prefer Google Maps still,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
although I flip back and forth sometimes now,
But on both Google Maps and Apple Maps,
when you say, show me directions to this location,
you have the option of avoiding toll roads.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Now, very simple, it seems like most people know this,
but I gotta tell you, number one,
Google Maps that I use,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
it seems to me it's a little bit hidden.
I have to do two or three additional taps to get there,
'cause it's like only after I say, show directions,
and then there's like a, it has the directions,
and it shows the quickest way to get there,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
and the most fuel efficient method to get there.
But in the top right corner, there's three little dots.
And if you tap on those three little dots,
then you have to tap on options for your trip.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
And then you can toggle on avoid tolls.
Now, Apple Maps to their credit,
it is right there on the front screen.
In fact, if you say, I wanna drive here,
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and then there's a little dropdown that says avoid tolls,
or you can even say avoid highways.
You know, I don't normally avoid highways.
I like the highways, but I avoid tolls.
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you don't wanna take the back roads.
Now, the only thing quickly on this is,
if you do this, you are probably going to be going through
some, let's say more interesting parts of town.
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So you just wanna make sure
you are following the maps appropriately on where you go,
watch for the turns and everything,
'cause you don't wanna end up
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in a weird part of town sometimes.
And I've done that before.
So I just kind of watch it
and I always make sure that I have car play
and everything set up
before I leave the rental car garage,
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just because I wanna be comfortable with all of that.
Now, the other last thing quickly I'll say on this
is that if you wanna do this all the time, which I don't,
there are times when I do don't mind paying tolls.
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Typically it's with my own car and my own tag
that I wanna use, but I don't avoid it all the time.
But if you do wanna avoid toll roads all the time,
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you can go into settings on the iPhone,
into the regular settings,
and then you'll see a maps option,
And then you can go into driving and you can toggle on avoid tolls for all of the directions.
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Now, you still have the option to turn that off in the individual map app itself.
So you can do that.
And then a similar vein, if you go to Google Maps, you have to dig into your Google account
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settings for Google Maps.
But you can toggle that on a similarly as well.
Like you have to go into the Google app and do that to where you can just say all of my
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driving directions.
I want to avoid toll roads all the time.
Last thing here is make sure you turn it back off.
If you want, like me, I have to remember like,
okay, I gotta turn that on or I gotta turn that off.
Fortunately, both Apple Maps and Google Maps will tell you
if you have a toll charge on a particular route
that you're gonna go.
So now, that helps remind me
that I gotta turn this off or on.
So anyway, that's avoiding tolls
in both Google Maps and Apple Maps.
Right. Right. How much right? Right. Right. Yeah, that's good. I yeah, I don't usually
That's a good tip. Hopefully,
you're not doing this while you're driving,
but as you're quickly planning your trip,
you can toggle it on and off to take a look at it.
You can say, "Okay, if I avoid the tolls,
how much longer will the trip be, if any?"
You can see what roads you're going to be taking,
not that you necessarily know the roads in its new city,
but at least you can get a sense of what they're
looking like on a map and stuff.
That's nice. You can take a look at that.
That's a good tip.
- Yeah.
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find that it takes that much longer, but you're absolutely right, Jeff. And again, that's
a great point that you make, because again, you're going through more interesting, some
would say maybe more seedy parts of the cities in which you're in. So again, just be very
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aware of the area, you know, and be aware of where you're going, because a lot of times
it is going to be more stoplights, it's going to be more turns, you know, that kind of a
Yeah, my tip is related to this, which is traveling in the future.
thing, because that's what the tolls allow you to do, right? And that's how they sell
it is the fact that it's going to be streamlined on there. And I get that. And sometimes I'll
I'll do it, but if you are like me
and sometimes you want to avoid it,
this is the way to do it.
Ooh.
Woo, sounds exciting.
No, it's not quite as exciting.
(laughing)
It's very related because it's in the same place.
So in Apple Maps, for example, as you were describing, Brett,
Right?
when you tap a destination and then click
on the button for directions, you just
scroll down a little bit and you will see an option there
Uh-huh.
of toggling on and off to avoid tolls.
In that same area, you will also see an option for,
(laughing)
am I leaving now or do I want to change the time that I'm
Mm-hmm.
- Oh, I didn't know that.
leaving?
Because sometimes you might be planning a trip at night
- It's funny, I didn't know that either.
- Oh, okay.
- This is just a thing that is happening.
when there's nobody in the road, but you actually
might be driving during rush hour.
I'm gonna do one more.
And so during rush hour, something
I'm gonna do one more.
- Oh, okay, I'll do one more.
that looks like a 20 minute drive
may actually be like a 45 minutes or an hour drive.
- Just do one more.
- I'm gonna do one more.
- You're gonna do one more?
And so if you turn this option on, you can tell Apple,
- I'm gonna do one more.
- Okay, one more.
- Okay, one more, okay.
- One more.
I want you to tell me what is the best route
- Okay, one more.
- One more, okay.
- One more.
and how long can I expect this route to take me
(laughing)
- This is funny, I'm gonna do one more.
- One more.
at five o'clock on Thursday afternoon,
- Okay, one more.
- Okay, one more.
- One more.
as opposed to 10 o'clock on Tuesday night
Wow okay. Oh yeah there it is.
when I'm thinking about my trip.
And Apple does a really good job with this.
I mean, one of the things, and I'm sure Google does too,
Right.
but because there are just so many iPhones out there,
and Apple is seeing how long it takes
for actual trips to take place,
they know of the thousands and thousands of people
Look at that.
that have done this similar route
on a Thursday at four o'clock,
Right right right.
this is how long it typically takes those iPhones
that are inside of cars to go that route.
It can do a pretty good job.
Right.
And so when you're trying to prepare for directions,
Huh.
Right.
you can say, if I'm gonna do this at such and such a time
in such and such a day in the future,
what are the best options?
How long is it gonna take?
The route that it recommends will change
I see that.
based upon the time of day,
because sometimes a day,
maybe the interstate is going to be much slower that time of day during rush hour.
Right.
So it may make more sense to take an alternative route.
Whereas on the other hand, if you're traveling at a different time of day,
the interstate is going to be so wide and
clear that it's definitely the way that you want to go.
So it's nice to have this option.
Right.
I mean, so many times we're looking at Apple Maps,
not because we're traveling someplace right now,
Right, right.
but instead because we're going to travel in the future.
So this is a great option to toggle on and take a look at if you're trying to plan a trip,
especially like what you described, Brett,
if you're planning a trip in a city that you don't know as well,
you're traveling there and you don't know what it's like around the airport.
That is something I had no idea was in there.
It's a cool little feature.
It's right there.
And it's funny because that button is right there.
Like you said, it says now,
Very cool feature.
as is, you know, 'cause theoretically,
they think you wanna leave now,
but if you tap it,
then you have the ability to pick a day and time,
just like you said.
And you can even say, I wanna leave at this time,
>
or I want to arrive by this time.
I will use that for sure.
That's a really neat tip.
Wow, this is like the map app tip today.
[LAUGHTER]
That's really good.
Woo, okay, I think we covered everything.
fun show today. Thanks Jeff. And yeah, I'm sure we'll be talking more about iOS 17 and
we'll see more people talking about that. I'll see if next week I have A, the public
beta of iOS 17 and B, a new stand for my iPhone. We'll wait and see. Let us know folks. All
We shall see.
right. Thanks Jeff. We'll talk to you next week.
Thanks, Brett.
Bye-bye, everybody.