Welcome to in the news for January the 31st, last day of January 2025.

I am Brett Burney from appsinlaw.com.

And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhone JD.

Hey, Brett.

Jeff, it is 15 years old now.

The ye old iPad.

We're going to stop at the bottom of your post today, go it all the way down to the bottom because you put a video that I agree with you, you start off like probably Steve Jobs best keynote performance, if you want to call it that, and I think I would, was the when he introduced the iPhone.

But second best, I agree the iPad and not just because of the iPad, honestly, just I I felt like memorized lines from this presentation, Jeff, because I talked to people about it, just like you say at the very, very end there.

He was introducing this idea like everybody has a phone already, everybody has a computer, is there room in the middle for a third category of device?

And 15 years later, it's not the biggest seller of Apple, but it still stays strong.

Yeah, it's one of those interesting things that when I started to play this YouTube video again, which of course I've seen multiple times, you just find yourself wanting to keep watch it.

You know, part of it is because he does such a great job of explaining the iPad to a world that did not really have anything like it in the past, although there had been efforts to the tablet.

And it's also fascinating because although he excitedly shows off the interface and stuff like that, we have come so, so, so, so far.

I mean, you look at just the home screen of it and at the very bottom where the apps are, there was like a 3D shelf that the app sat on as if they were in space sitting on it and stuff like that.

There's so many things that have changed over the years.

And yet the ultimate usefulness, you know, the thing that I know you will remember is that when he went to use the device, he moved from standing up to sitting down on a couch.

Yes, I was going to say that.

Yes.

Brilliant stagemanship.

Brilliant.

Because it just reminded you that this is the device that, you know, your iPhone you might use while you're out and about and doing a million things.

But the iPad, you're going to sit in a chair or sit in your couch, sort of lean back, hold it right there, touch the screen.

And here we are 15 years later, still using it.

I remember this announcement because the, in fact, as we speak, you're traveling right now because you're doing something to get ready for the lawyer convention, the ABA Tech Show.

And I remember being at ABA Tech Show in 2010, shortly after the iPad was announced.

And we were all talking about, you know, what was this device going to be?

How was it change things?

And in 2010, I bought my first iPad.

And then of course, I've never looked back since, just used it so much.

So, you know, it's the iPad.

And I've had an amazing device for so many people for so many reasons.

And 15 years ago this week, wow.

I do remember like the fact that he had a chair.

I mean, Steve Jobs really never sat down and maybe they were on stools sometimes, you know, when they were talking to journalists and stuff like that.

But like you said, it was just a beautiful day.

Because I remember now I think the phrase like holding the internet in your hand, that might have been like the iPhone, right?

When Steve Jobs kind of first threw that out.

I remember specifically him sitting down on that chair and they had a brilliant way that they were like looking over his shoulder, but then they had the screen up on the huge screen behind him.

And he was going to the New York Times website.

And I remember that so vividly because I'd been able to get access to websites on our phone before.

But just the space of the iPad and today, of course, it looks so Fisher Price-esque with the huge, you know, bezels and everything compared to today's iPad.

I mean, at that time, that was so amazing.

That's to your point, you were talking about those floating icons, the skeuomorphic-ness, right?

Isn't that the fancy word we use for that?

With like, you know, the notes app and everything.

I mean, just to see the evolution.

And even as you mentioned in your post here that, you know, Steve Jobs is not looking the best.

He's not very well during this time, but he just had such a passion.

I mean, he'd been working about this.

I mean, we've even gone through rumors, I believe, that they were thinking about the iPad even before the iPhone, right?

And the way that they kind of meandered around all of that.

But January 27, 2010 was when Steve Jobs took the stage.

And if I'm not mistaken, I think it took three or four, like it was April of that year, right?

When it actually was available.

Am I right about that?

Like he announced it, but it didn't actually come out until a few months after that.

It did take a little time.

Yeah.

And I didn't get mine until later on in the year.

But yeah, absolutely.

It was interesting.

And you're right.

I mean, Apple did want to make an iPad first.

They just didn't have the technology for it.

But along the way, they're like, you know, we could make a smaller version.

Let's see if anybody wants this small version.

Of course, the iPhone is the biggest selling product of all time.

But the iPad's pretty cool too.

So that was running, at the time, the iPad was running really a version of iOS, right?

It was the same operating system that was running.

It was just kind of expanded out a little bit.

And I remember even those days where you could run an iPhone app on the iPad and it just looked weird.

It wasn't taking up all the screen.

Anyway, how far we have come, because at some point, I forget the date when the iPad OS and iOS kind of forked a little bit, most of the same.

But today, the reason I'm getting to this all is we're looking at iOS 18.3 and I just updated my phone and I updated to iPadOS 18.3 on my iPad as well.

Not a whole lot new in 18.3, but a couple of things that are interesting.

Yeah.

I mean, this is one of those updates that the main reason I think you want to do it is because of the security updates.

Every once in a while, Apple, well, Apple always fixes security bugs because there's always bugs in software.

But every once in a while, they tell people that, "Hey, we're actually addressing an exploit that people are actually using in the real world."

Now it doesn't mean that you're going to happen to you, hopefully not.

But I mean, this is not just some theoretical, somebody could do XYZ.

This is a, somebody is currently doing XYZ.

So you might want to go ahead and install.

So that's, I think the most, if there's a compelling reason to install it, everybody installs the updates eventually.

That's it.

There's other little minor tweaks that we've talked about, like the minor changes to Apple intelligence.

When Apple does its summaries on your lock screen, they are now in italics to indicate that this is, the system is doing an AI summary.

This is not an actual quote.

And in fact, because of the, we talked about it last week, because the BBC and other news organizations complained about the summaries, they've actually removed that feature for now while they continue to better date that idea.

But, you know, there's other little minor improvements like that.

But there's a lot of Apple intelligence stuff.

They slightly updated something.

And in fact, we might talk about this again in a second.

If you have the newest iPhone on my camera control button, if I press the camera control button, I launch the camera and I take a picture.

And I hold down the camera control button.

I see that sort of Siri colors around my screen and it moves into the mode where my phone can tell me something about the world around me.

So if you point it towards, you know, a plant, it'll tell you what kind of plant it is.

And one of the tweaks in 18.3 is that if you, for example, let's say you're looking at a poster of an upcoming concert or something like that, you can point it at it and it will understand the dates and the times and the event.

And it will say, do you want to add a calendar entry for this thing?

So it's again, is it something you're going to use every single day?

No, but it's just another example of the feature maturing over time.

And that that feature, by the way, is called visual intelligence.

Right.

And I see that.

So now that is built in and more accessible because I know in the magnifier app, right, Jeff, as part of the accessibility features, they do have I forget what they call it on there, but you can point it at something and it can recognize or attempt to recognize like an object.

And it does really an amazing job and it can read it out to you.

Like I said, it's an accessibility feature.

But now this having built in and I'm just seeing this screenshot here that you link to from Mac Rumors.

I mean, it'll tell you a little bit about it, maybe give you a link if you want to go to Wikipedia.

This in this picture, they're pointing it at a tabby orange tabby cat.

And so visual intelligence is now telling them about it.

But the fact that that's so much more accessible is really cool.

Yeah.

I mean, there are countless, countless examples of Apple first introducing a technology as an accessibility feature because it's specifically helpful for people that have difficulty hearing or seeing or something else like that.

And some people are like, oh, why does Apple spend all this time on helping people with disabilities, which of course is a ridiculous question to even ask.

But if you want to be callous about it, one of the side benefits is often these features that start out being an accessibility feature have some more widespread.

And the next thing you know, a year or two later, it's a mainstream feature.

And so, yes, as you say, we've seen the roots of visual intelligence and something that Apple was working on long ago.

Now it's become something that I say it's for everybody, everybody that has a new phone.

So and, you know, many, many other examples of this, too.

Right.

One last thing quickly, I just want to point out at the very top of this, this is from Julie Clover, like I said, at Mac Rumors.

When you update to 18.3 now, Apple intelligence is now an opt out feature, not an opt in feature.

And I just thought that was that was interesting because I feel like, you know, in 18, you know, we knew Apple intelligence eventually was was was was going to like I think be, you know, across the board available and everything.

But now that they're just very little tiny baby steps now and just making sure that it's really embedded within everything it used to be you had to go in.

I remember when I updated to what, 18.1 or maybe 18, I had to go in to my settings app and say, yes, turn on Apple intelligence.

Well, now when you go to 18.3, it's going to be on by default.

You could argue that that's a controversial change because Apple intelligence is still very much in beta.

And I will admit, you know, here we are a feature that we were first heard about last year and now it's in our hands in its early stages.

It is obvious.

I mean, Apple calls it a beta project, a program.

And I completely agree.

I mean, this is this is not a fully baked product.

It doesn't you know, its usefulness is still limited and it makes mistakes as of course, Apple, any form of AI, including Apple intelligence is prone to do.

And you know, this is one of these things that I in its marketing, Apple promotes this feature because it's the new whiz bang feature.

And because everywhere in the world around me, you can't throw a stone at the Internet without hitting an article talking about AI.

But you know, this is something that really is not quite ready for primetime.

And the idea that it's now everybody has a turned on as opposed to being something that, you know, you do option turn on, you know, you can argue there's controversy there.

It's just such a rapidly changing field.

You know, I didn't link to it today, but one of the big news features this week was that there was a new company out of China that came out with an AI program that they're calling, I think, Deep Seek.

Deep Seek.

Deep Seek, exactly.

And the big thing there is that unlike the things like chat GPT and Claude from Gemini that we know about that require incredibly sophisticated hardware, you know, like these NVIDIA chips to do a ton of crunching to come up with the language model, to basically come up with their smarts.

This is something that because Chinese companies don't have quite as much access to that, the rumor, at least, we don't know all the details, is that it is a very sophisticated, large language model AI, but that did not use all of the resources behind it.

And as a result, it means that it was much less expensive.

And all of this circles back to Apple, because people are saying that this development is really good for Apple, because right now, although we know Apple is working on its, we believe that Apple is working on its own large language model for AI that's going to be focused on running on the device, because Apple has had its researchers have released, you know, public papers and journals and stuff like that.

But when you have like, especially something like this, that's sort of quasi open source and others can take advantage of it, the cheaper it is for AI, people like Apple that are going to kind of have options.

I mean, yes, you can use chat GPT, but in the future, maybe you can use other things as well.

So, unlike somebody that's really, you know, focused on their one model, a company like Apple, that's a little bit more nimble, and that focuses on having things done on device and technology that you can come, you can create the large language model with less resources.

I mean, all of this moves, you know, makes everybody happy towards a future in which Apple will be better positioned to do more with it.

So again, it's, you know, AI is here, and yet we're still at such baby steps.

I mean, just like we look at that, two seconds ago, we talked about looking at the iPad 15 years ago, and you're like, oh, isn't that, you know, we've come so far from there.

We all know we're going to do the same thing for AI.

We're at that same place with AI now that you and I and so many others were with the iPad 15 years ago. 2025 might be the year that we see Apple release maybe yet another device.

We've covered this story several times, Jeff, that Apple is maybe doing some kind of a HomePod, Home Center screen, HomePod with a screen kind of a device.

But the rumors seem to get keep getting a little stronger every time you link to a story from Jason Snell, who was talking about the latest newsletter from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, who is one of the biggest names to release some kind of rumors about Apple.

But I don't know.

I don't know if we're getting closer for the way, but Jason Snell always has some good thoughts, I think, balanced on what we can maybe expect this year.

He bakes this article in the phraseology, which is something we've always said before.

You know, the best time to have done something was way back when, 10 years ago.

But the second best time is today.

You know, people say that all the time.

Right, right, right.

So he's making the same joke for this Apple home device, because, of course, those of us who have been using smart home technology like me for a long time, you know, boy, I wish that Apple had come out with something that was just it just works and it's simple.

You know, it would way back when.

But you know, they didn't do that.

The second best time might be this year.

You know, you and I were just talking maybe a week or two ago about how standards like matter and threads and all these other things are sort of coming into their own.

And so what Jason says is, as those standards really start to mature, which we think is, you know, going to happen this year, and you know, the market still doesn't have a leader in it, it's not like everybody buy smart home products from X, Y, Z company.

There is there is a space for a product that is best of breed, nicely done, presumably more expensive than the competitors, but just works.

And that is Apple.

That's what Apple does.

You know, there were all sorts of MP3 players way back when.

And then Apple came out with the iPod and people are like, oh, yeah, that's the right way to do it.

And everybody bought the iPod.

And Apple has repeated that so many different times for different technologies.

And so I really hope, you know, one year from now, we'll be looking back and saying, yeah, 2025 was the year that Apple started to change this.

And, you know, as Jason points out in this article, one part of it might be the device that would be sort of like a HomePod or a HomePod mini with a screen, but that hopefully would have other things, too, like maybe Apple's version of a doorbell camera or some other types of camera.

Right.

So there's always the tension between when should Apple itself make the product and when should Apple make a better platform for third parties?

Of course, they've been taking the latter approach with HomeKit for many, many years now.

Maybe it's time for Apple to move into actually saying, look, here's the right way to do a camera.

Here's the right way to do some, you know, home hub device.

So I'm excited.

I mean, there's so many rumors that I feel like there's a really good chance Apple will announce something this year.

And I can't wait to see what it is.

Well, in 2024, we saw the Apple Vision Pro.

How about a little bit of a focus on in the Vision?

We'll do a little section here.

Great.

A couple of great stories on this one.

I feel like I've seen this story before, but I'm never going to get tired of seeing how doctors, medical professionals are using the Vision Pro is specifically even in like the surgery.

And I thought this is a great story from Harry McCracken, of course, who always does some great coverage.

But just reading through this continues just to get me excited.

I think almost at an emotional level, Jeff, it's like that's it's perfect.

Like this is an excellent thing.

The surgeon is talking about how they always have to struggle with turning their head back and forth, looking at different screens and monitors and whatnot in the surgery, in the surgery, in the surgery room.

But now if you could have all of those screens where you could just dart your eyes around, maybe without having to take your eyes and focus off of, you know, an open body in front of you per chance, just great stuff there and just continues to get me excited about like some actual uses of the Vision Pro, you know, in the, quote, real world, as you word.

Yeah, we've seen others talk in the past about how surgeons use this technology for the reason that you just said.

I think Harry McCracken is talking about it this week because there was some sort of a convention or something like that in maybe San Diego, where a lot of people were talking about it.

But it remains a current topic.

I will tell you, Brett, I literally thought about this about two weeks ago because it was the time for me to have that thing that we do as we get older, a colonoscopy, you know, not great.

But, you know, as I was in my procedure, so I was on the operating bed in the room where they were going to do the procedure just before they administered the whatever to me and I completely fell asleep.

But just before it happened, all around me, I mean, the surgeon was in there and there were all these screens.

I mean, there was one screen that was going to show the camera from the device that they're putting in me and then other screens.

And I was actually thinking to myself, this is exactly what these types of articles are talking about, is that if the surgeon could just continue to look directly at what they're doing and have everything they need right within the eye of sight without having to strain their head, I can understand that.

And of course, we all know that today's Apple Vision Pro is a little heavy and a little bulky and the expense is not really a big deal because, I mean, as they put out this article, they spent $20,000 on monitors.

So spending $4,000 for an Apple Vision Pro is not a big deal.

But, you know, it's going to get better in the future.

And you know, we're going to get to a point where it's just, of course, you go into surgery and of course, your surgeon has, you know, whatever the goggles du jour are on their face.

So that's all coming.

They say imitation is the finest form of flattery.

Another little article you linked to is a video from Marcus Brownlee, which is always really fantastic.

And I like how this little video thumbnail, he has to say in big, huge letters, "This is not a Vision Pro."

And it's a good video.

I've been watching the whole thing since you linked to it because it looks like a Vision Pro, but it's not.

It's from Samsung in conjunction with Google running like a version of Android.

Just really fascinating.

And of course, Marques is so balanced all the time in what he does.

But it's really interesting to see that so much of, you know, to your point, you were just talking about before almost, it's almost like it's flipped around now.

There's been other goggles, other spatial computing type of an ideas, but Apple did something amazing with the Vision Pro.

And now it's like other companies are coming back around and imitating what the Vision Pro doing, at least from the look and feel and some of the ideas and even the gestures.

I mean, just the way Marques was covering this, I thought was great.

Samsung copying Apple design?

Have we ever heard this before?

Wow, it seems like I've played this record in the past.

You are ridiculous, sir.

You know, Samsung, of course, is coming up with this particular hardware.

But what's actually really interesting here is they work, like you said, in close connection with Android.

Android has their Android XR operating system, which is in beta.

And you know, it will be an operating system for all sorts of companies that want to have something in a VR, AR space as an alternative to Apple.

And so this is the first time that we, you know, it's just regular folks can actually see what it might look like.

And, you know, who knows when it's going to come out?

Samsung says at some point this year, who knows what it's going to cost?

I'm sure they'll take the Apple price and then just go a little bit below it.

But part of me was disappointed because, not in Marques' video, it's a fantastic video, but you know, almost all of the features that he's showing off, it's like, yeah, that's the same as the Vision Pro.

I mean, you copied the apps on the screen, you copied the windows.

It's like, come on, can't you do something interesting here?

Some of the gestures, right.

The one thing that he said was, I think he was looking for something to make it look interesting.

And so the one that he pointed out was that Gemini, their version of like, you know, Siri, was built into it so that as you're just sort of looking around in the world, you could say, you know, as you're looking at a tree, you know, you could press the Gemini button on it and say, what kind of tree am I looking at?

And because the device is seeing the same thing you're seeing because it's showing it to you, it would just identify it and talk to you about it and stuff like that.

Again, we just talked about this 10 minutes ago.

This is the visual intelligence feature that Apple currently has on the new iPhones.

And it's a little bit of a pain to hold up your iPhone to get information.

But that we all I mean, of course, of course, that same technology that Apple is currently perfecting in the same iPhones, you know, it's going to come to a future version of a Vision Pro.

So that as I'm looking at the world around me and you know, what we really want is the world where it's as small as a pair of glasses that you just wear.

And yet as I'm looking around, I can ask a question about something that I'm looking at and, you know, maybe my future AirPods in my ear or maybe something displayed in the corner of the screen of my glasses will just tell me about it, you know.

And that, of course, is coming.

This is the this has been the topic of science fiction for a long time.

And we are now on the cusp of it being in our hands, ready to use.

So it's exciting.

It makes me think of a product ahead of its time, apparently, like the Google Lens.

I mean, that's been sort of a scapegoat of multiple jokes and everything, but actually kind of going a lot.

I mean, that was the idea at the time.

I don't think we even had the technology to support that.

And I think that's why it became the butt of so many jokes and stuff.

But it's like now if we can take all of this technology, which ultimately we will and put and boil that down into something that's small in a pair of glasses, that's that's going to be great.

Sounds like you were busy watching a few more items in your vision probe maybe this past week, including bull riding.

What is this?

What is this called?

Man versus beast, right?

Is it going to be a full is it a short film or a full film?

Oh, it's a short film.

OK, but they I think it's a one or something.

OK, OK.

I think it's just a one off ten minute film.

And it came out, I think, after midnight Eastern time last night.

I watched it around eleven o'clock last time in the Central Time Zone.

And, you know, like any of these Apple immersive videos, you feel like you are there.

And although I've never been to a rodeo before, it was fascinating because, you know, there are times where the camera is in the state is in the seats and you can sort of see what the people in the seats see.

But there are other times where they have the camera right on the gate.

That's like two feet from where they release the bull with the bull rider.

And you're like, I mean, these bulls are impressive creatures.

Oh, my goodness.

They are huge and they are just so strong.

And the people that are riding on it, you know, you can argue about whether or not you're in favor of bull riding.

But I mean, it is it is impressive.

And, you know, well, I'm from Texas originally, Jeff.

So well, there you go.

So in your blood.

So in your personal experience, Brett, as you know, yes, there's only so long before you stay on the bull, before you do get knocked off.

And then when you do, yes, indeed, like you're on the ground and this bull that weighs a bajillion pounds is, you know, jumping around and about to land on.

Yes, it is out of the way.

Get out of the way.

So to to have the, you know, the adrenaline rush that comes from being so close to the action because of the crazy pro immersive experience, it is.

I thought it was really interesting.

All right.

Well, that might be enough vision pro for the day, but it's like I mean, there's there's there's so much more.

I mean, I you know, I keep getting so excited talking through you when we talk about this and every every week and anyway, just good stuff.

Let's go to the Apple Watch quickly.

You mentioned I think it was at the top of your your post today in conjunction with the iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3.

I think that was in conjunction with this.

Apple has done this several years running now.

They introduced a black unity collection.

And I don't know that I normally like download all of the faces.

But man, this one looks amazing, including the Apple Watch face as well.

These are wallpapers, I should say.

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, there's there's all sorts of different things they come up with.

You know, the Apple celebrates Black History Month every year and hopefully they will continue to do so, notwithstanding our current administration.

Let's not get into political topics right now.

Let's just talk about technology.

Yes.

This one is a really cool watch because, you know, the the line Apple has done things.

They have screensavers, like you say, they have a new band for the Apple Watch, which was actually interesting.

Yes, they've done that, too.

Right.

It has the black unity colors on it.

And it's one of these things that and you've seen this type of thing before, where like, if you look at it from one angle, you see one thing.

And if you look at it from another angle, you see another thing.

Oh, you know, that sort of technology.

They use it in the woven sports loop.

And so look at that.

When you sort of move.

And I saw a YouTube video where somebody showed this off like yesterday, that as you move your watch around, like from one angle, you see more red and from another angle you see more green.

So it's just sort of that's that's sort of cool on the loop, on the band.

Right.

This is on the band.

Oh, nice.

OK.

So to be consistent with that, Apple did something similar with the new watch face.

Now, you don't have to buy anything to get the new watch face.

If you own an Apple watch, you can do it.

Right.

So what they've done is they have it's it's a sort of you're seeing a picture of it.

If you're watching the video right now that it has even animation.

Oh, this is the cool thing.

So first of all, just from a design standpoint, whatever artists they did to find this to say, let's do every one of the numbers that's on a clock one through 12 and make it big on the screen.

So like right now, you know, it's it's nine in the nine o'clock hour.

So there's a huge nine on my screen, but it's made out of the numbers change.

It's made out of these, I guess, like threads.

And then as you as I move my watch back and forth, much like the brand new watch band, it actually sort of changes and reflects.

So it's it's bold.

It's really interesting.

And I can touch it.

It sort of moves back and forth.

We've seen that before with other watch faces.

So it's just it's really it's a nicely done watch face.

And I think it's really cool.

So one feature I started to put into my post last night and I deleted it at the last minute just before I hit publish because I couldn't get it to work.

Apple says on the website that you're showing right now that along with the new look of this watch face, it also features Apple said a distinctive rhythmic time to mark every hour and a half.

And so I thought I turned it on and I would wait.

You know, it's like, OK, 11, 1130 this morning.

It was like seven, seven thirty.

It wasn't making any noise for me.

And so literally I got it to work the first time just before you started to hit record today.

OK, OK.

Let me just tell you what I did.

If you go on your Apple phone, you know how the phone has the Apple Watch app.

So if you open up the Apple Watch app and then you go to clock, which is one of the settings things.

And if you tap on clock, one of the choices you'll see if you scroll down a little bit is called Chimes and Chimes.

There it is.

It has an on off switch.

So make sure it's turned on.

And then once you turn it on, there are currently three different times that you can choose between.

And one of them is unity rhythm, which is the one that works with this new watch face.

But there's two others in there.

One of them is called Birds.

And do you see what the other one's called?

What's the other one called?

Bells.

I only have two because I haven't done the watch face yet, Jeff.

But once you install the watch face, once it's installed, you'll see the third one.

And so even after I turned it on, it still wasn't working for me.

So then just this morning as I was playing around with it again in the.

So when you're looking at your watch, I'm sorry, when you're looking at your phone, if you change your selection, like if you if it's currently on Birds and you change it to the other one, as long as sound is turned on on your watch, I think I think it has to be down there and you will actually hear that sound coming out of your Apple Watch.

Oh, I got to try that today.

Once I did that, then I'm like, OK, now I can hear what the rhythm, the unity rhythm chimes sound like.

I say chimes.

It's almost more like a drum beat or something like that.

And then once I had sort of done that thing to manually make it work, suddenly I noticed on the hour it was working.

So I don't know, maybe it's a little bit of a bug that you have to actually manually play a sound before you can turn it on.

So again, all of this to me is really just more of a novelty because I normally keep my Apple Watch completely silent.

I want it to tap me, but I don't want it to make noise because you know, you might be in court or something else like that.

But every once in a while on the weekend or just for fun or last night, I'll turn on my noises just because it is nice.

I mean, I do if it's not bothering other people, I do sort of like the noises on the Apple Watch.

And so to circle back around everything I've talked about for this watch face, it changes when you move it, it changes when you touch it, it has a special chime associated with it.

It looks really good.

All, Brett, all of this makes me think, I so wish that Apple had so many more watch faces, either themselves.

I mean, wouldn't it be amazing if we had like a hundred or 500 or maybe if Apple doesn't want to let third parties do them because you know that somebody would say, you know, much like the moving back and forth works because of the gyroscope.

I'm sure there's some other sensor in the Apple Watch that somebody would say, hey, I know how to take that sensor and make it do something really cool with the watch face.

And you know, I'm not creative enough to come up with it.

But then you see something like this watch face, you're like, oh, somebody was smart enough to think of something that's really, really neat.

You know, wouldn't it be cool if there was something else, you know, maybe a watch face that displays some statistical information that's interesting to me.

And as I turn my watch one way, it shows one thing.

And as I turn it the other way, it shows something else.

Who knows?

It just reminds you that, you know, again, we just said, you know, the best time to have done something was long ago.

And the second best time is today.

You know, I'm glad that Apple is giving us this right now, but wouldn't it be great in the future?

They allowed a lot more variety in the market since diversity is something that we should all be in favor of.

So just to read, I just did add the unity rhythm watch face to my list of watch faces.

And sure enough, I go to the clock and that unity rhythm option is there.

I haven't listened to it yet, but I will.

And then quickly, just on your last point there, I mean, I don't go into the face gallery when you open up the watch app on your iPhone, you've got three tabs at the bottom.

They got my watch, which is all your settings.

You got face gallery and then discover which, oh, that's just like some informational information.

The face gallery, I mean, I remember when we only had a, you know, maybe a handful of watch faces.

There, there is quite a number in here.

There is a lot of problem.

I would use more.

Yeah, I know.

And I hear what you were saying on the customer, but here's, here's the issue I'm coming into now Jeff, when I look at my watch faces, in other words, the list of watch faces on my watch tab, I have 20 watch faces in here, Jeff, like how many, how many watch faces is too many watch faces.

I mean, I really only stay on the one, like I talked about last week, that modular ultra just because I got to watch ultra.

And I liked that, but you know, I don't, I can't even remember some of these, like every time something new comes out, I typically will add it.

Cause I want to look at it like the unity rhythm today.

Anyway, it's just like, I sometimes I got to go in there and clean that out.

But anyway, thanks.

I'm going to enjoy this new watch face today for sure.

Before we move on, I'm going to try one thing and it may not be loud enough to work, but I'm going to put my watch here very close to my microphone.

Okay.

And I'm going to change it first to the birds.

So when I does this, she, hopefully you will be able to hear the birds and then I will switch it back to unity.

So let's, let's everybody, everybody quiet.

And let's see if this works.

It's so quiet.

It is very quiet.

Yeah.

I don't even know if I could hear it on there.

And you know, that just reminds me that although I am so adverse to my watch making noise, you know, if my watch did make that little bitty bird sound every 30 minutes or that unit rhythm, you know, would other people around me even notice it?

I don't even know.

Which is perhaps a good thing because it tells you that it's the hour or the half hour without annoying people around you.

So I don't know that that sound experiment was probably a failure.

I should have had like, what are those microphones called that they have like the ASMR videos that like they, they really pick up all the noise.

I don't happen to have one of those in front of me right now, but if I did, we would all be enjoying.

That's okay.

I'm just going to, I'm just going to insert some kind of fun, fun song into the middle.

I'm there like that.

If you upgraded your iPhone to 18.3 or you're going to today and you use the Gmail app on your phone, you might want to make sure that you update the Gmail app as well.

I actually use, I think I use three different mail apps on my phone, Jeff.

I got my personal on the, on the Apple mail app.

I have Microsoft outlook, which is a really good app I think on the iPhone.

And then I do use the Gmail app.

So I made sure that I updated it today and I looked through some of this and, and I really do appreciate the fact that, that they, they, they have updated it.

I don't know.

It just looks a little, little, uh, smoother.

I don't really know how to describe it.

I mean, they're, they're not drastic changes, but if you use the Gmail apps, it's worth updating it today.

Google has something called material design, which is sort of their new, it's on Android.

Now it's on iPhone.

I actually don't think you need to update the app as in like from the app store.

I think that it just sort of, cause you know, Google is so web-based, I think it's just pushed to the app.

Oh, that's true.

Okay, good.

So if you use the Gmail app, open it up.

It's got like, I think it's a nice clean look.

I like it.

Dynamic color.

They're even putting in there anyway, just worthwhile to, uh, to open that up.

Uh, great article you linked to today from Adam angst over at a tidbits, which we followed.

He's been writing for a long time.

He even says that here, uh, 35 years apparently, but this was so interesting because I thought about you as I read this, because we've talked about the Apple intelligence tools in helping in the writing, like in your notes or in your, in your mail app.

And you know, it'll offer to try to write something better.

I mean, this has even been in Microsoft outlook now with copilot, but we're talking about the Apple intelligence here.

Adam apparently has been using Grammarly, uh, which a lot of us have used for several years now.

And he was comparing why Grammarly he thinks beats the Apple writing tools.

Now, uh, he does have the caveat for serious writers.

And like I said, I thought about you because you are a serious writer in your profession.

And it's just the idea of maybe Apple intelligence is good enough for people that are not so serious of a writer in their profession.

But anyway, just some good thoughts and insight here from Adam.

Yeah.

Since a primary part of my practice, my law practice is being an appellate attorney.

You know, writing is a very core part of what I do as any big part of writer.

You know, the number one part of it is you write it.

But then the second part that is so important is you edit it and you reread it.

And it's so important.

Rewrite it.

It's always bothered me that for iPhone JD, when I do posts, like for example, my Friday posts, you know, I do them on Thursday nights and I go through them and I do them.

But frankly, I don't spend the time editing them that I certainly would for a professional work product that I'm turning into a report.

And so invariably I will discover or somebody will send me a helpful note in an email, just tell them, Oh goodness, I messed something up.

And so I will tell you, Brett, that last year I actually decided to start paying for Grammarly.

Really just to sort of double check.

And I will tell you that Grammarly does.

I mean, I literally used it last night with my posts and it will go through and sometimes it will suggest word changes that I'm like, you know, that's not my personal style.

So I disagree with you.

Right.

Other times it will find something that is definitely a grammatical error.

And I'm like, Oh yeah, that would have been embarrassing if I let it slip.

And so I've been using Grammarly for, you know, I don't know, about half a year now.

I don't use it every single time, but suffice it to say, if you ever see a grammatical mistake on my website, you should of course blame Grammarly, not Jeff Richardson.

That's my- Absolutely.

But so with this in mind and with my recent use of Grammarly, when Apple added the writing tools to its new Apple intelligence that we got a few months ago, I was curious, Hey, is Grammarly going out of business?

Well, so far from my personal experience, Grammarly has nothing to worry about because Apple intelligence writing tools are, you know, very first generation.

They have a long way to go.

Maybe they'll get better.

But I was surprised that it took until January 30th for somebody to write an article like this that really does.

Maybe that's somebody else's writing and I've missed it.

But Adam Engst, who's a serious professional writer and knows what he's talking about, he did a great side by side of, you know, here's comparing one to the other.

It will not surprise you from his title alone that Grammarly is far superior right now.

But again, hopefully Apple's technology will improve over time.

And you know, as much as I might compare them as if they're alternatives, the reality is, is that like if I'm like on my iPhone and I'm typing an email, there's not really a way for Grammarly to have a plug into that right now.

But Apple writing, Apple's writing tools can be a plug in.

So I would love these tools to mature so that if I'm just like writing a quick email to a client, I could just double, you know, tap a button and say, just double check that I don't have any embarrassing grammar mistakes in here.

And so, you know, we're in the baby steps now.

But anyway, I remember talking to you a few months ago, I want to say the end of 2024 when Taylor Swift had a concert in New Orleans and there were so many people in the city.

Well, you're getting another event that probably won't bring as many people into the city.

You have the Super Bowl coming to New Orleans in a couple of weeks or something like that.

I have it next week, a week away.

Oh my goodness.

Well, if you can't get to New Orleans to see Taylor Swift or the Super Bowl, then good news.

I think you link to basically we can watch it for free in 4K on any Apple device.

That's pretty amazing.

Thank you, whoever the gods of Super Bowl are.

That's really cool.

So the Tubi app, T-U-B-I, which is another one of these streaming apps that I really have never tried before, but apparently it's partially owned by Fox and Fox is running the Super Bowl this year, and so everybody will be able to put the Tubi app, to use the Tubi app to watch the Super Bowl and the halftime show.

And so there's this article saying that if you watch it on an Apple TV or another Apple device, it'll be a nice 4K stream.

So I will probably try it out.

And it will of course give me a reason to install the Tubi app on my Apple TV, because it's not there now.

And I'm sure they're going to probably make me sign up for some beta or something like that.

And while I remain a Tubi subscriber, that is Tubi determined and will probably not be Tubi or not Tubi, probably not Tubi.

But anyway, we shall see.

But it's nice to know that you can watch Super Bowl.

I will just mention parenthetically, by the way, that you joke about more people coming to a Taylor Swift concert.

I would disagree because given the stuff, my office is very close to the Superdome and there is so much going on in downtown.

In fact, one of my partners is in trial and the trial court in New Orleans is a hop, it's like two blocks from the Superdome.

And he was the judge saying that, you know, we're closed down next week because with all the traffic changes and the streets being closed, like you can't even get to court.

So, you know, just justice is on a hold.

Justice delayed, maybe justice denied.

But justice is on hold in New Orleans because we have a big sports game.

So, you know, say what you will about that.

But anyway, it'll be fun.

It'll be fun.

We should have started our in the show section with that because that is good.

But there are several other things quickly.

Let's talk about Apple TV Plus.

There's the Super Bowl happening and you can get it if you can download the 2B app on your iPhone or your Apple TV.

But maybe soccer or football, real football, the world's football is more your style.

Apple adds DirecTV as the MLS season pass distributors.

You know, just some additional news as Apple continues to grow their environment in this area here.

Yeah, Apple TV Plus for now, for a couple of years now, has been the only way to watch Major League Soccer because, of course, Apple bought an interest in it and purchased those rights for a very long time.

But the news is that Apple has decided, much like you can download an Apple TV app and use it on non Apple TV devices to watch things like Apple TV Plus, they're going to take their MLS season pass product and allow you to purchase it if you use, for now, DirecTV or Xfinity.

And so much like if you're a DirecTV person, you can subscribe to HBO Max or you can subscribe to Hulu.

You'll now be able to just individually subscribe to MLS season pass.

And it's an interesting recognition of the fact that even though Apple TV Plus gets a lot of buzz because the quality of the shows is so high, its market penetration is so far beyond things like Netflix and stuff that Apple has said, not enough people already have Apple TV Plus.

And so we want to allow people that don't have Apple TV Plus, but still give them a way to watch the soccer games.

So it's an interesting change.

Several other shows coming out on Apple TV Plus.

You mentioned Mythic Quest.

You mentioned another show, The Guardian.

Can I just tell you, Jeff, since I'm in Phoenix, Arizona this week and as coming out here, I typically do not watch shows when I fly.

Every once in a while I'll get something, but I had a BMI bot coming out here, Jeff, and it's like, you know what?

I loved Silo season one.

And that was what, two years ago, whenever it was that they stopped that.

And I've had on my list, of course, I need to get back into Silo season two.

I remember that cliffhanger from season one.

And so sure enough, I was able to download the first episode and I could not stop.

I think I binged all 10 episodes, Jeff, in the span of like two and a half days.

It was incredible.

And so now, and it's funny, at the end of it, at the end of it, which, wow, I mean, there's so many questions, of course, but it was funny because the next show that Apple TV Plus was suggesting for me to start then after the end, the last season of Silo season two was Severance.

So that might be on the way on the plane road back to start that.

I look forward to hearing your report.

Good stuff.

You know, it's not just you that's watching it because I didn't link to it today, but I noticed this week that Nielsen has its top 10 shows and, you know, the Netflix shows are always dominating that list because so many people have Netflix.

But Silo actually is in as of this current week is in the top 10.

And so is it really though?

So just talking about, you know, a very small number of people have Apple TV Plus, but for those who do have it, they are absolutely watching Silo and they should because it's a good show.

So Silo is really good.

The other one is you mentioned Mythic Quest season four.

I watched the beginning of it last night and it looks like it's going to be a great season.

I'm very excited.

It's a fun show.

So we have some some nice, nice stuff coming for Apple TV Plus and Prime Target is one that's getting some buzz.

I haven't started watching it yet, but I'm going to have to check it out.

It looks like a prime target.

That's right.

I seen it.

I mean, you know, when you jump into the Apple TV app or in on the TV, of course, they're always good about advertising, like what's coming up next.

And so I've seen it's called the Prime Target.

I said the Guardian, but that's somebody that was covering it there.

And anyway, it just I mean, the way it's described here, they said, like Goodwill hunting meets the born identity.

OK, I'm sold.

I think that's really fantastic on there.

Love it.

Last story.

I'm so glad that this is available now.

If you wanted to have a unique case for your iPhone, why not a big, humongous banana?

And you know, when I read your article before I jumped to the link, I'm like, OK, it's just going to be a yellow case on the outside of the iPhone.

Nope, nope.

It's a humongous banana that the iPhone just fits inside of here.

Pretty, pretty, pretty silly, but incredible.

I love this.

All of us learned as kids that you can hold up a banana to your face and pretend like you're talking on the phone.

And so now your phone can actually be a banana.

But as you said, it's not just a banana.

This is actually this this company, Case to Fi, whatever.

Case to Fi, right.

It's their Andy Warhol collection.

And so, you know, Andy Warhol, of course, was so famous by taking everyday objects like a banana or a Campbell's soup can or things like that, right, turning it into pop art.

And so it's his version of a banana that was done for an album cover, which has got a very distinctive Andy Warhol-esque look to it, of course.

And and that is what the case looks like.

So this is very unpractical, impractical.

If you go to the case manufacturer's website, they tell you that this will not add protection to your iPhone.

Do not drop your iPhone with a banana.

This is purely for artistic and amusement purposes.

But it sure does look funny.

So it says it's an ornamentalist.

This case is recommended for ornamental and normal use only.

It should not be subject to harsh impact, scrapes or other vigorous activities.

So it's just really for the show, right, on something like that.

But I mean, you know, still, it's amazing.

Why not?

And did I not see down here?

They also have you mentioned the Campbell's soup can.

Apparently, they already have some Campbell's soup inspired cases as well, not just for the iPhone, but for your AirPods as well.

Case to find a company I did not know existed, Jeff, but I'm going to definitely follow them from this point forward.

That's great.

In the know, OK, because I saw this story dealing to about cases, it started me thinking I have my iPhone and I've had it for a long time.

And I think iPhone Apple calls this the clear case with MagSafe.

Am I right?

So this is an actual Apple case and I very much like it.

I've had it in there.

This is pretty much where my iPhone stays all the time.

The thing is, like you, every once in a while, I like to get it out and just just carry my naked iPhone.

That's what I typically call it.

Although it makes me so nervous, Jeff, because there are like corners on here because I've dropped it a couple of times.

And so I rarely take it out because I'm nervous.

But the second reason I rarely take it out of this case is because it's such a good case and it hugs the phone so well.

And when I try to get it off and I've tried different ways to like pry this off, I get a little nervous.

It's like I don't want to break it.

I don't want to do anything.

Well, I followed this little video.

I'm going to link to it in my show notes here.

The correct way to remove your iPhone MagSafe case.

And he talks about, well, I've seen some people.

I don't know if I've even seen people do this, but he'll push his thumb on the cameras and then push the phone through in that way so you can take it off.

But he was talking about how you could scratch your camera lenses.

What if you got, you know, lotion?

I don't like to touch my camera lenses.

So if you watch right here, he's getting ready to show you a technique that I find works really well.

He flips the phone upside down and then he puts his thumbs on either edge of the bottom of the case and he just slowly and easily pushes it backwards to where you can then see that the phone will separate from the case a little bit and then you can just kind of slip it out.

In fact, even, you know, it's I feel like it would get a little bit easier after a while, but I usually try it by just doing one corner at a time.

And then, you know, while I'm trying to pry this out, the other corner flips out, but then the first corner flips back in.

It can just be frustrating is what I'm getting to here.

But when I found this technique, I've been able to do it really easy and really quickly.

You just simply push it off.

Kind of have to have the phone sitting on like a hard surface.

But then as you separate it from the case, it really just pops right out.

And so you can pop it right back in.

So anyway, a very simple tip that I just wanted to show you, but I appreciate this from Jack Keel on his YouTube channel and showing this because while I could read something like this every once in a while, it's really is interesting and a lot helpful sometimes to see it in action.

So that's my little quick tip.

Use both thumbs to quickly pop off your iPhone clear MagSafe case.

That looks like an easy way to do it.

As you said, I don't currently use a case for my iPhone ever since.

Right.

With the flat sides, I feel like I don't have to.

But just because I do, it doesn't mean I encourage others.

In fact, literally just this week, I looked at my daughter's phone and it had this huge crack in the back of it.

And I'm like, oh, my goodness, what do you know?

And then I realized, oh, no, it's just she has one of these clear cases similar to you and the case itself.

Good, good job.

So, bravo case, you're doing your job, you're absorbing the impact and not not damaging the phone.

So anyway, so good tip there.

Excellent stuff.

My tip was one that I discovered at the same time that you may have discovered it last night, which is because I was, you know, we you and I do this podcast because we love it and we're so thrilled that people join us to listen to it.

But there are absolutely associated with it.

And you pay some of them like paying for like our service and I pay some of them like our domain.

And so at the end of the year, we try to do an accounting of, you know, who paid more and let's let's let's balance the books, as it were, since we're at the pretty much last day of January.

I figured last night is probably time for me to let you know how much I owe you.

And so in the process of typing a text message to you, I was just trying to show my math of, you know, if you take this number plus this number plus this number, here's how much I can pay you to make it even.

And so that's how you did that.

This is a feature that came out in iOS 18 a few months ago, but I just had used it real life.

And if you're in the messages app, you're typing a message to somebody, right?

You were texting me.

Yeah.

Two hundred and sixty five dollars plus twenty four dollars and 16 cents plus whatever equals.

As soon as you type that equal sign, look at that, do the math for you and instantly it will show the answer.

And as I was in the message, oh, nice.

As I was doing it last night when I was texting you, I was starting to add them up in my head and think I think this is.

And as soon as I hit the equal sign, my phone showed me the answer.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, of course, that's because I'm sure that's what I was about to say.

So it's a very doesn't that make so much sense is and again, it's only for simple.

You're not absolutely, you know, complicated, you know, functions and stuff like that.

But for a very simple, you know, this plus this plus this equals as soon as you hit the equal sign in your message.

Yeah.

It will show the answer for you and then you can be precise to the penny and think that you are so smart.

I love it.

You know, I'm trying to think and I'm playing with this right now, if I'm not mistaken, I believe that this works in the notes app as well.

Have you tried it there?

Let me see.

We it sure does.

OK, we talked about this, you know, way back when with the notes app.

Yeah.

Not only for what you're describing, but also because you can use the if you use a stylus, you can actually, you know, have you write your math.

Yeah.

And this is something that you and I discussed in iOS 18.

But again, I know that we mentioned it, but I had not actually used it like it's having it in the messages app.

It's just part.

I mean, I was just having a conversation to you, as I always would, and just putting in numbers which I would have done anyway.

And it just happens seamlessly and unobtrusively.

And it was so useful.

And so that's why I thought my tip was to be a reminder that this feature is out there.

You don't have to first choose the calculator app.

You can just do the calculation right there in your messages.

And then when you send the message, the other person can see your math.

I love it.

Yeah.

It's just so built in that my only my only fear would be I'm so lazy now.

Why do I need to know any kind of mathematical is pretty much anything I interact with is going to do it for me automatically.

I love it.

And, you know, in case we get into the silos, right, if that happens, of course, you know, I have to I have to go and find out my own ciphers to to get the special message, you know, for all the safeguards and everything.

Anyway.

OK, so, OK, stop.

I'll stop.

Good stuff on that.

All right.

Excellent.

Jeff, good tip.

I like that built into messages now.

That's that's that's really cool.

All right.

Wow.

Lots of good lots of good stuff.

I'm going to go enjoy my unity watch for a brand new watch face.

I'm really excited to listen to the chimes all day today.

And I'm sure everybody around me will be happy as well.

Thanks, Jeff, as always.

We'll talk with you next week.

Thanks, Brett.