Welcome to In The News for December 5th, 2025.

I am Brett Burney from appsinlaw.com.

And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhoneJD.

Hey, Brett.

Hello, Jeff.

Good morning.

Glad to see you back.

And wow, some news this past week.

Like what in the world is going on at the executive level at Apple?

Oh, my goodness.

You actually started off with your post today with a story about the general counsel

that she's going to be leaving there was another announcement that lisa jackson who has been

really in the spotlight i think over the last couple of years from apple and but the big story

that i even knew about was the ui chief right i guess it was he had something to do with ai as

well steve lemay was i think poached by meta if i'm not mistaken no it's actually it's okay okay

it was yeah okay so there's all kinds of things going on like so much that happened this past

week. Okay. Walk it down for us, please. Yeah. There's a lot going on. I think the first one

that actually hit the news, I mean, I guess you could go even further back than that. There was

a guy named John G. Andrea who was originally brought from Apple to do AI stuff. And then he

was sort of pushed in the back and was doing more background research. So, you know, that, but that

was, so that was sort of an, but again, he wasn't a high level executive. I mean, he wasn't a high

level person, but he wasn't in that core group of vice presidents that you see on Apple's executive

leadership webpage where they've got like the 10 people that I'll report to Tim Cook.

And so, but those are the people that are perhaps most important at Apple.

And so then we've had, you know, this, you know, string of people.

So Alan Dye, first of all, who is somebody that I had heard of, but I really got to know

just this past WDC, WWDC, when Apple unveiled the liquid glass interface, which of course

changed the look of everything.

He was the one that did the presentation.

And of course, there's no way he would have been the one that did the presentation if,

you know, everybody had known he was about to leave.

There was a fascinating article by John Gruber at Daring Fireball where he basically said, you know, good riddance.

You know, he has.

I know.

That's a little harsh.

Very harsh.

He's talked to so many people at Apple who were not impressed with this gentleman's abilities to do design.

And, you know, again, I don't know.

Who knows?

Maybe John's right.

Maybe he's wrong.

But, you know, some people feel the same way as him.

So, you know, I don't think that he was pushed out by Apple at all.

the senses that he just got a position that he wanted more,

but maybe the writing was on the wall and maybe he also wasn't happy with

where he was at Apple. Obviously he wasn't happy if he decided to leave.

So what John Gruber saying is, you know, thank goodness.

That was like who for Apple in his opinion,

because he thinks that people that are going to do a better job with design.

And so the person that they have moved up to the person that you just made

name Steve LeMay, somebody who's been at Apple for a very long time.

I mean, I want to say the nineties or something like that. In fact,

the funny story that was in the cult of Mac article, who was it?

I forget who wrote this, but it was Leander Cainey.

Yeah, Leander wrote it.

That apparently, I think back in the 90s

when Steve Jobs came back to Apple,

he was in a meeting,

Steve Jobs was in a meeting with this person, Steve LeMay,

and somebody said the word Steve

and it was confusion over which one he was talking about.

Which Steve?

Steve Jobs says, you know what?

We're going to call you Margaret for now on.

And according to the story, people still call him Margaret.

I mean, heck, if Steve Jobs gave me a nickname,

I don't care what it is.

Whatever it is, that would be okay.

Yeah.

So, but anyway, you know, the scuttlebutt that you're seeing from these reports, and again, I don't know this from Adam, but this guy from Adam, is that he's really good and he's excellent with user interface.

I mean, the thing is, like, here's the big picture here that John Gruber talks about.

User interface design is so, so important for Apple.

It has been for decades.

And some people are, and Alan Dye, he says, was part of this camp, you know, want something new just because it looks new.

But other people say, well, it's fine for it to look new, but it's really got to be usable.

You know, the good example of that is there are times when liquid glass, especially on

a Mac, it's impossible to read the text.

And like, that's a huge usability thing, right?

You can't have, I don't care how pretty the, you know, lickable design looks like.

If you can't read text, that's a problem.

And so it's that old form over function debate that people have talked about for forever.

And so the hope is that this person that's going to may now be in charge, who I'll affectionately

refer to as Margaret, that he will, because he's much more of the importance of user interface.

And like, you want it to look good. You want it to look cool. That's what Apple's all about.

But part of being looking good is how useful it is and how intuitive it is. And so it would be nice

if John Gruber is correct. And if a result of this transition of this, you know, is that Apple

moves back to its roots in some ways on design. So that was one transition, but then those people

are not at that C-suite level.

The ones that you started to talk about,

the general counsel of any company

is obviously a huge, big position.

And Lisa Jackson as well.

The general counsel position at Apple has,

Apple, just by the nature of the company,

especially if it's gotten so big,

people are suing it all the time.

Governments are regulating it all the time.

There's all these-

All over the world.

Things that people at Apple might want to do

because they consider it better for the user experience,

but other people's might consider it anti-competitive

And we've seen so much in that.

I mean, it is a very complicated decision, not to mention all the IP and all the patents

and everything else.

So, you know, my hat's always been off to the people that have been really good general

counsel.

I mentioned in my article that the person who had been before her, who was Bruce Sewell,

I always heard really good things, you know, all the scuttlebutt about Bruce Sewell, that

he did a fantastic eight jobs at Apple.

And everything that I've, you know, I think that for the most part, Kate Adams has done

a really good job too.

I mean, it's been I think it's probably been harder for her general counsel job than perhaps any other general counsel in the history of Apple.

And so after eight years, you know, I could see her saying it's time to move on.

But the background of all of this is the rumors that Tim Cook is looking to step down at CEO.

He's been CEO for an incredibly long time and he's getting up there in age.

And the rumor is that he might move to just being chairman of the board, a position that he could hold on to for another decade.

And so he could still be the person that talks to the Trump administration and all that sort of stuff, but let somebody else, somebody younger, like for example, the rumors that it's going to be John Ternus, who's been at the company for a very long time and is incredibly smart, maybe let him run the company.

I think that would be a fantastic situation of keep Tim around in that chairman board, but have somebody new as the CEO, and that would be a good transition for the next 10, 20 years of Apple.

But if you're going to do that, if you're going to have the new sheriff in town of John Ternus, it would make sense that he should have people, the people that report to him should be the people that he, you know, the best for him.

And not that these people that are currently there wouldn't be loyal.

I'm sure they would be.

But, you know, if I'm someone like Kate Adams and I've been there for eight years and maybe I'm thinking we're retiring.

And if it's, I mean, she would know for sure if Tim Cook is going to retire in the next year, maybe this is the time for you to announce that you're stepping down.

And so we can have a new set of people, a younger generation under John Turner.

I mean, I'm not saying that Apple has planned all of this stuff.

I certainly don't think they plan for Alan Dye to leave.

But my hope, and this is just looking for a silver lining perhaps, but my hope is that this, you know, five years from now, we look back and say 2026 was a huge transition year for Apple.

And the company is so much stronger as a result.

And it's tough to say because Apple is like one of the number one companies in the world.

So like I think even better.

But one last thing I'll mention, you mentioned Lisa Jackson and you said that that might be the even bigger one for you.

And I mean, environmental concerns have been so important.

If I remember correctly, Apple hired and I guess it was Steve Jobs who did so when he hired Lisa Jackson and she had previously run the EPA.

She's a right.

Some sort of an image like a chemical engineer by training or something like that.

But she's from New Orleans, which is something I like since I'm from New Orleans.

But she's done amazing things with Apple.

And apparently she's been the one that makes sure that like, you know, their products are using recyclable things and renewable resources and pushing Apple to be more green.

And, you know, one of the things that we love about Apple is not only do the products have amazing user interface design and they work so well, but, you know, you feel good about them because you know that the company cares about the environment footprint of its products.

And it just makes you feel better.

Not only are you using something that you love to use, I love my iPhone, but it's nice to

know that there's more recyclable parts and low carbon footprint.

And she's been incredible.

This one's interesting because the press release that you're showing right now makes it seem

like they're not going to directly replace her.

Part of her job had to do with government stuff.

And that part is going to go into the general counsel.

And another part of her job, which was the pure environmental stuff, is going to move

to the chief operating officer of the company.

And so that could be because they are completely deciding they don't need that position anymore.

Or it's occurred to me, because I think this is what happened when they hired her in the first place, this is a tough position.

You know, you've got to find somebody that's smart, that understands it, but also understands the politics.

Like, it would not surprise me if, you know, she transitions, she leaves in January, the job gets transitioned to other people throughout the course of 2026.

And then Apple, maybe John Ternus, if he's in charge, you know, they start to look for

someone new.

And if they find someone that they believe is perfect, well, then maybe they put someone

else in that type of position in 2027.

Who knows?

I mean, anything's possible.

I hope that all of these transitions, some of which we now know are going to happen,

others like Tim Cook retiring are still just a rumor.

I hope that in this period of transition, Apple, you know, loses, doesn't lose what we

all love about the company, obviously making good products and everything else.

Not that Apple doesn't make mistakes.

So anyway, it's an interesting thing.

And the general counsel particularly interested me because as an attorney, I've always thought like, gosh, if you work in-house at Apple, let alone in general counsel position, oh my goodness, what a way to use your law degree.

I think I mentioned Lisa Jackson just because it seems like since we've been doing this podcast that she's been having more of a spotlight role.

because, you know, over the years when they have done some of these keynote presentations,

like I remember her standing on top of the roof of the spaceship.

Yeah, I remember that too.

Because it was just like I had never seen her and I just looked it up.

She's been there since 2013, so, you know, maybe about eight years or so,

which I just thought maybe it was even newer than that.

And then I remember, was it last year, Jeff, that they had that commercial with Mother Nature?

I don't think Lisa Jackson was in there, but I remember them being in that room.

like apple just over the last two to three to five years i feel like have doubled down on some of

that environmental stuff and you know they they're just always touting how much that they're doing on

the recycling side and i guess i just thought that it was a surprise to me i thought that that position

would continue on in such a higher profile that it you know or that apple would continue to maybe

double down triple down on some of that and it was just interesting because i feel like lisa jackson

even though i didn't really know her just anytime that she was put in that spotlight i thought she

did a really good job and um i just think that that's interesting 2013 she came to the company

is that what you found okay so steve jobs died in 2011 so it was tim cook who hired her not steve

jobs i just knew that she had been around for a long time um there was a funny video that i linked

to and we may have even talked about it on uh in the podcast in the past a few years ago uh tim

cook was in new orleans and uh lisa jackson was there with him because of course you know she's

here and she was taking him around to like all the restaurants not only fancy places but even

sort of like a little more hole-in-the-wall po'boy places and stuff.

Yeah, they went to Domilises, right?

Domilises, look at you.

Or Dookie Chase's, right?

Exactly.

You don't go to Domilises unless you've got a local with you.

Somebody knows, exactly.

Yeah, I love Domilises, but the fact that Tim Cook knows it too is funny.

So anyway.

Okay, so real quick, just back to the UI thing, the Steve LeMay,

because I don't know Margaret.

I haven't known.

But if he has been there since 99,

then obviously he worked under Johnny Ive for many years, right?

I mean, and there's such, there has to be a quite a bit of inspiration from the design aspect.

In fact, there's some nice stories here in this story from Leander here that I don't even see Johnny Ive in some of this.

This is, what do they call this?

The iPhone software design team.

And that's like the original, that's now this is the design team, not the engineering team,

which I know I think are a little bit different, but it just occurs to me.

It's like, you know, it's some of this still a fallout from Johnny Ive leaving.

Who's what he's been gone now three years or something like that.

Maybe not quite that many, but it's like these are still people that worked probably very closely with Johnny Ive.

They just weren't they just weren't in the spotlight as much.

Yeah. I mean, and we should say what we're talking about here with his job and with Alan Dye leaving.

This is not hardware design. This is not designing the iPhone.

This is software design, user interface design.

Now, Johnny Ive, of course, was started with hardware design, but near the end of his tenure,

especially after Steve Jobs died, I think to sort of give people reassurance about the

company, they also put him in charge of software.

And there are some people that argue that Johnny Ive was not as good on the software side as

he was on the hardware side.

You know, you can make debates on that.

But even though I don't know that he was necessary, well, he certainly would have been directly

under Johnny Ive at the end.

But the John Gruber article theorizes that, you know, this person's Margaret is far more of the Johnny Ive world of, you know, really understanding design and doing well, whereas Alan Dye was not.

And, you know, he sort of remarks that, you know, we all know that Johnny Ive is now at that new company that that's called IO or it might be called IO.

They're having quite problems in the courts about that name.

But, you know, he's like Alan Dye would never be hired, according to John Gruber, by Johnny Ive.

they did not go they did not get along so um so johnny left june 2019 was when he left out there

you go in 2019 so it's been like six years almost wow that's time flies that's that's a little crazy

okay i just wanted to point that i guess i just wanted to ask that because it just seems like

maybe that that's some of why it is a good move and i'm going to cling to john gruber's you know

thoughts on this i mean obviously he's got a lot of people internally and i think i even see in here

or one of these areas they were talking about um another like inside person from apple oh here it

is right here steve lemay is by far the best designer i have ever met or worked with in my

entire life this is somebody that used to work at apple apparently uh software designer former

colleague software designer anyway just interesting stuff like that okay we can move on i hope that

wasn't too boring for everybody but we always are interested in sort of some of those moves you know

at the top level or middle level bottom level it doesn't really matter just always interesting to

kind of see how apple is um moving along or bumping along however it goes but let's go to

something where i i would guess that uh steve lemay margaret lemay would have had some influence on

is the ipad mini what you say jeff and brett are you talking about the ipad mini not the ipad pro

you how dare you but i remember you teased us about this a few weeks ago jeff that your firm

was getting some iPad minis,

even though we all know you are a huge fan of the iPad Pro,

the larger version.

And so am I.

I still have one that's now,

I think mine was from 2021,

and I still love my iPad Pro.

I want to update it pretty soon.

But we don't hear a lot of people

talking about the iPad mini.

When it first came out,

I mean, I had at least the first two generations

and I loved them.

It was just, I just,

every time I say iPad mini,

my hand goes like this

because I just have this idea

that I could hold it in one hand.

And I love that.

But now you have one

based on the i17 pro processor chip and you wrote a review a couple of weeks ago about this and i

just i found it fascinating that a you're even going back to an ipad mini and b it's not bad i

mean we know it's not the ipad specific ipad that you're going to reach for every single time but

it's pretty good the way that it is and there's still a little slot in the world for the ipad mini

it is an adorable device i mean it's just so adorable you hold it in one hand um i had the

first generation ipad mini and i really enjoyed using it i i often used it with my you know

regular size ipad at the time you know sometimes i would travel and i would sort of have like my

ipad dual screen set up like a regular ipad and then my ipad mini next to it and i would be looking

at things like email on my ipad mini and i'd be working on a document on the ipad um ever since

I moved up to the iPad Pro with the big 13-inch screen, 12.9 now 13-inch screen, there's enough

real estate on my iPad that I can run, especially with the iPadOS 26. It's easier to run multiple

apps and stuff like that. So I don't have a need for it. But when I had this opportunity at my firm

about a month ago, because they bought a bunch of these minis for a project that we're doing here,

and they weren't ready to use it yet. But like, do you want to just play with it for a few weeks?

I'm like, sure. So it was fun to go back and try it out. And I will tell you, there are,

I ended because I'm about to get to give this back.

My overall impression of it was not as favorable as I thought it would be, because although it's I love that it's so light and you can sit there.

And if you're doing things like reading Instagram or Reddit or even just scrolling through emails to a certain degree, it's it's so nice and small and it weighs nothing.

And that is awesome. But as a tool to get work done, it's just too small.

I mean, the picture you're showing right now that has it on top of my iPad Pro, and I know this is, you know, it's like those, you know, really small person, really tall person.

You know, it's less than half the size of my iPad screen.

And that is too small for most of the things that I do for work, for reading documents, for annotating documents, for reading emails, for looking at Microsoft Word documents, for, you know, all of the work type things I want to do.

You can use the Apple Pencil with it.

I mean, you can.

Even the Apple Pencil, too.

Oh, really?

And part of me is like, oh, well, it's almost like a little steno pad.

And that's really nice.

But I have found that it was just a little too small.

You know, maybe that's something that if I got used to it more might work.

But I just prefer having a bigger, you know, a pad for when I take notes because I take handwritten notes all the time.

Something more like a legal pad in size.

And I just found it a little small.

I also found it slower than I thought it would be.

You mentioned that it has the A17 Pro processor, which is the processor.

So this, you know, unlike other iPads that often have like the M series processor, what they put in the computers.

um you know i have an m4 and they now have an m5 ipad this a17 pro trip was something that was in

the iphone just about two years ago and so i thought well since i mean iphone pro and so i'm

like well since it was only a few years ago that was in the iphone pro maybe this is actually going

to be a fine ship for an ipad and it is a fine ship for an ipad but i tell you brett maybe i'm

just spoiled because i you know when you you don't really realize how responsive and fast something is

until you leave it.

And then you're like, wow, I miss it.

And if one thing the iPad mini did

is it made me appreciate how snappy my iPad Pro is.

Because things like everything I do,

opening an email, opening a document,

doing this, going to Dropbox,

everything just takes that extra second or two of time.

And I'm like, oh.

And I don't even notice that on my iPhone,

even though my iPhone's probably not quite as fast

as my iPad Pro, but I did notice it here.

And everyone's a little bit,

But every one of them sort of breaks on you a little bit and stuff like that.

Plus, the screen is not as nice when you scroll through things because it doesn't have in the ProMotion display.

It's like it's harder to read things as they're scrolling.

So you need to wait and look at it.

So it's just got a lot of compromises.

But I will admit that – let me be clear.

As someone who has the highest and most expensive iPad Pro – well, not most expensive because I don't have the M5 version.

But maybe I'm the worst person to compare it.

You know, if you had, if you hadn't had an iPad in a while, then you're not going to notice a decrease in speed because it's because you weren't moving something else.

And if you, if you're using just a lower end iPad or even an older iPad air, then maybe you'll just appreciate the smaller size.

And then it's so it weighs nothing in your hand.

I mean, you're leaning back reading something.

It's, it's just like holding us the piece of paper.

It weighs nothing, which is really, really nice.

So there are some advantages to it.

And for some people that might like it.

So let me end by saying most of my review and most of my thinking about this was how is this as an iPad?

And as you can just hear, for me, this is not enough iPad for me.

But the interesting part is, and you're trying to picture right now, there's this rumor that Apple is going to be next year releasing a foldable iPhone.

So something that, you know, it's like my iPhone would open up and would close.

So it would be as small as an iPhone.

You can keep it in your pocket, but it would open up to have a larger screen for times where you wanted to have a little bit more screen, but you didn't want to pull out an iPad.

And I was amazed that if we put my iPhone 17 Pro Max, so it's a really big screen, and if I put that on top of this mini, you know, as you can see, it's not that far off from what the screen size would be for this rumored mythical folding iPhone that may or may not come out in a year or two, if ever.

But the times that I thought this iPad mini worked best were the times when I wasn't replacing an iPad, I was replacing an iPhone.

Like I said, scrolling through my Mastodon client ivory or scrolling through Reddit or something like that.

The times that – here's another way to say it.

The times that I was holding it in portrait mode like an iPhone as opposed to in landscape mode.

In landscape mode, it was just too cramped.

But in portrait mode, thinking of it as a bigger iPhone, it wasn't too bad.

Or if I did have a landscape mode, but like an unfoldable iPhone, that's when I think I got the most value out of it.

And so it did make me think if Apple does come out with this device and the rumor is if they do, it would be very expensive, probably over $2,000.

Would I want to get a foldable iPhone or would I just want to stick with the next generation of what I have now?

I don't know.

I mean, I want to see what Apple has to say about it if the product comes out.

So the iPad mini did allow me to start to think about that a little bit, which was really interesting.

So it is a fascinating product.

I know for some people, I mean, heck, in my office, we needed to have like a small little device that we're using for this AV thing that works with like Apple TVs and stuff like that.

It was perfect to have something small.

We're sticking it inside of one of these cases.

It's got all the rubber on it and stuff like that.

So it'll be nice and sturdy.

The iPad mini is perfect for that.

If you want something for a small child, if you want something for, you know, your grandmother that just wants something small but big enough to read.

There are a million wonderful uses for this.

And even though it's not, for me, a good thing for an attorney or other professional to use

for work, it is delightful for sort of an entertainment device if the speed decrease

doesn't matter to you.

And there's rumors that Apple's going to improve the iPad mini next year, and maybe they would

improve the screen and improve the processor.

And that would get rid of some of the issues I had with it.

Of course, it would still be a smaller screen, so it would still be too small for me to read

documents on and annotate.

But it's a really interesting product, and I cherish the fact that I had an opportunity, what has it been, 10 years now, to revisit what the iPad Mini is all about.

I hear all of your statements, and I agree with them all.

But I think the only caveat I would say there is that it sounds like that's all true if the iPad Mini would be your sole iPad.

Like if that's the only iPad you've been.

I guess over the years, Jeff, I felt like maybe even from the beginning when the iPad mini came out, I personally never looked at it as this is the iPad that can replace my bigger iPad, whether it was the 10 inch, 11 inch or even the 13 inch.

Right. I mean, I feel like from my observation, the iPad mini is really just becoming a fortunate, unfortunately, however you want to look at it.

It's just becoming almost like that single use type of a device.

Because I tell you, when most people that I talk to, when they're looking at iPad mini, they're not looking at it to say, this is the iPad that I want.

They're saying, do I get an iPad mini or do I get a Kindle paperwhite or or a small remarkable like just for taking notes, you know, something like that.

Like, I feel like the iPad mini and I don't think that Apple is at least marketing it this way, but they got to be aware of this.

I mean, the only reason that I feel like I would get an iPad mini today is because I want a smaller iPad or a smaller device to read books on.

That's really what it comes down to.

Or maybe to your point, I was like hearing about, you know, using it in portrait mode as like a bigger iPhone screen.

But then at that point, why am I spending, well, $4.99 or $3.99?

Because you even link to an Amazon has it for $3.99.

Why would I spend $3.99 just for a device that I'm just going to use for reading books on when I could go get a Kindle for something less or some other device that would be much less expensive?

Does that some of that make sense?

I agree.

I would never look at the iPad mini from, again, personally, as this is my only iPad.

This is the replacement.

This is the iPad I'm going to buy.

I feel like the iPad mini is, this is the extra device that I would get in addition to the actual iPad that I would use every day for actual work, to your point.

I'm glad you raised that point because that's very insightful.

And you're right that when I previously had an iPad mini, the first generation 10 years ago, even then I didn't consider it my main iPad.

I consider it ancillary.

But the reason that I compare it to my iPad Pro is that I was looking for times, you know, for me, what I wanted the iPad mini to do was fill a hole in my life.

Much like the original one we did 10 years ago.

And for me, it didn't have to replace my iPad.

I was fine with the fact that I would do some things on my iPad Pro and some things on the iPad.

Okay.

But what I found is that more times than not, whatever the task was, I'm like, it just makes more sense to use my iPad Pro for this.

Or the other stream, I would say, it just makes more sense for me to use my iPhone for this because it's even smaller in my hand.

Right.

I'm just sitting there on the couch and I want to scroll through stuff.

Okay.

And so I was, what it was amazed is I thought there was going to be this big middle ground

that the iPad mini would be this delightful way to fill it.

And instead what I found is like, it was such a narrow area of when it made more sense than

my iPhone and more sense than my iPad pro.

And, uh, it just wasn't significant enough.

Um, because believe me, I mean, when it came out a year ago, because it looked so cute

and I thought it was powerful, I actually thought like, would this be something nice

to ask for for my birthday or Christmas or something, you know, just like to, it would

It could just be a fun extra device and stuff like that.

But after using it for the last month and after trying to push myself to use it so I could really find what it did well and what it did not, I found – because my wife is playing with it.

And she's like, well, is that something you might want for your birthday?

And I was like, to tell you the truth, no.

Because the one thing I've learned, and it was great to have a chance to try it myself, is that there's not enough times when it's – for me, there's not enough times when it fit that perfect little device.

Others may disagree.

But that was me.

Well, and again, when I see it in the wild, if it's an actual person, it's for something very specific.

Like I see it reading books on an airplane is really the top size for that.

But I do see it, though, in the wild in like commercial instances, like just I think similar to what you're talking about.

I see iPad minis when I go to a conference room of an organization or sometimes when they're using, you know, Square, like at a coffee shop.

It's an iPad mini as opposed to a full size iPad.

you know, what they call the point of sales, right?

POS devices to where, you know,

that's what you're using to interact with, you know,

some making some kind of transaction at a store

or something like that.

And so I would guess that Apple knows this obviously,

and I would suspect by far a huge percentage

of the use of the iPad mini.

It's probably gonna be something

in that commercial aspects there.

Obviously, I don't know,

and Apple is never gonna tell us,

but that's the only times that I really see the iPad mini.

And every time I think it's so cute, like I would like to have one.

But I'm glad that you provided this review because I feel like it's grounded in the fact like, yes, it's cute and it's a shiny object.

But I don't know that I really need one, right?

It's like I'm just going to go and fondle one of the Apple store, you know, every six months.

I'll be happy about that.

Yeah.

I mean, I could say the same thing about the brand new iPhone Air, right?

I mean, it's great.

Yeah, great point.

Great point.

But it's not for me.

You know, it's beautiful.

It's fun that they have it, but it's not for me.

Okay, well, thank you for providing the review

because I remember several weeks ago,

you talked about getting one.

And even me, I was kind of like, what?

Like, what are you thinking?

What are you gonna do with that?

And anyway, we'll see.

I do hope, I guess I still hope that Apple continues,

like you said, to invest in it and to update it.

I guess I can't really justify that comment very much

other than just the fact that I like that Apple

is continuing to invest in sort of the iPad ecosystem,

as you will.

as it will but it will be interesting the most interesting thing is what you were just saying

like for the photo of the iphone like is this what they're trying to do is just you know get it to

with the fact that we can we can see how that's going to work but okay time will tell and that'll

be interesting okay moving on another review that i uh was thrilled that you brought up today was the

air tag time capsule well i guess it's just called the time capsule by elevation lab i feel like they

could have come up with a better name for that but this was something you reviewed almost a year ago

now which basically is a i mean i call it a container for your air tag where you're putting

in double a batteries instead of the cr2032 or 2023 battery that you would normally put in the air tag

this thing could last for years i remember you did this video this review i liked it then and

And then what you talked about today is not only can you get the time capsule by Elevation Lab, the original one that you reviewed, but now there's a very nice little cute compact one that you can also get today.

I think this is a really cool product because there are some times that you might want to have something that it's nice to have a tracker in it, but it's something that you just want to put it in there and never have to worry about it again.

Don't get me wrong. AirTag batteries do last a good year or so, and that's fine.

But, you know, just the other day I got an alert that my luggage one was, you know, it was running out of battery and I had to go replace it.

And not that I was about to travel, but, you know, it does, you know, we all know we replace the batteries and they're a little changed.

I always got a package right here.

There you go.

I always think it's a little hard.

I keep them on hand.

You have to like twist the bottom of the air tag.

But so I thought that this was a brilliant idea.

And how funny that all you need to do is put some batteries in it.

And then suddenly it will last up to 10 years.

I mean, you use these energizer, whatever they're called, these lithium ion batteries.

The ultimate lithium.

Yeah.

So I've got one in my car.

And again, it will last forever.

I never have to worry about it.

I think this is a really cool idea for a product, but I will have to admit that 10 years is

really almost too long because the reality is I'm not going to keep that time capsule

in my car for 10 years because I'm sure at some point, you know, maybe next year, maybe

27, 20, 2027, Apple will come up with a new version of an air tag that'll, who knows,

it'll probably have some whiz bang features and maybe I'll replace it.

So I thought it was really interesting when I saw that they now have a new one that they're

selling that it's, the price is just a little bit cheaper, but the real advantage of it is

it's much smaller.

I think maybe it uses AAA instead of AA batteries or whatever it is.

Oh, does it?

Yeah, you're right.

It does.

Yeah, AAA batteries in this one.

But it's smaller.

It's really tiny.

And it'll last for five years, which I think is an incredibly long period of time.

If you've got like, you know, a boat or a piece of luggage or a car, something you want to put it in and never think about it.

You never have to worry about the battery for all intents and purposes.

Plus, there's some other advantages too.

Both this small one and the big one that I reviewed that I own, it doesn't look like an AirTag.

So like if somebody – I mean I guess it would still beep at some point.

So maybe it would give itself away.

But like if some bad guy was trying to steal something and they saw this, they probably wouldn't even necessarily know what it was.

It doesn't scream AirTag or anything like that.

But the time caps that I have in my car, I mean I doubt – there are times when I will just – for no good reason, I'll just like double check.

Is my car still where I worked?

Yeah, it's just nice to know it's still there.

And it's funny that the way they work because enough people walk near it with their own iPhone that it picks up the location and sends it back to Apple.

The whole AirTag technology is fascinating.

So I just think this is a really cool product.

I think it's nice that they're continuing to develop it, to develop it.

And now that they've got a smaller version, you know, earlier this year when I bought the

big version, I mean, not that it's that much less expensive.

It's maybe $5 cheaper or something like that, $10 cheaper.

But I probably would have purchased a smaller version because it strikes me as even more

useful.

But if you wanted something for 10 years, you can get the bigger version.

So I think it's a nice idea.

It would make a good gift, a good gift for somebody too.

Now you have, just to be clear, you have to provide your own AirTag and you have to provide

lottery so it's like either 20 bucks for one hexagonal screw uh uh allen wrench well actually

that does come with it oh it does okay good yeah it did but it's either um so it's 20 bucks for one

30 bucks for two or you can get four for 40 bucks because only 10 a piece if you get four of them

yeah um and that's just that's a few dollars cheaper than the big ones but i just think it's

a creative idea um you know bravo to elevation lab for coming up with this a year ago and i'm glad

that they came up with the new version of it.

Very cool.

Here's a tip from Jason Snell at Six Colors.

This could have been one of our tips of the week here.

Getting an iPhone back on the Wi-Fi network.

I read through this because it really just confirmed,

oh yes, I've had to do this several times.

But I just, I like the fact that Jason put it in here.

If you have an issue with your Wi-Fi network not connecting,

especially in a place where you know it's connected in the past,

or frankly, anytime that I've had an issue sometimes, Jeff,

with like getting on the Wi-Fi or getting into LTE or whatever,

I will go and do a reset, not on the entire phone,

but just reset the network settings.

Yeah, this is an interesting article for two reasons in my mind.

First of all, networking, whether you're talking about an iPhone,

an iPad, a computer, it's one of those things that always just confuses me.

There's just so much going on.

It's a lot of voodoo mumble jumbo in the backyard, in the background.

And so if an iPhone is not connecting to Wi-Fi,

The first interesting thing to me is that Jason goes through all the troubleshooting steps that he tried at first.

And those are the ones that occurred to me.

You know, simple things like turning off Wi-Fi and turning it on again.

Sometimes that solves the problem for me.

Or turning off the iPhone and turning on it again.

That's right.

He has a good list or disconnecting from the network and connecting again.

He has a good list of like those first level troubleshooting techniques.

But the one that he ultimately found that worked for, I think this is for his father-in-law or something like that,

was this thing about the network, resetting the network settings.

I mean, I guess in the back of my head, I knew that that was a thing, but I can't tell you it's something I would have jumped to.

I mean, maybe eventually I would have gotten there.

I certainly will now that I've gotten this article.

So, you know, bizarre things happen with Wi-Fi, with cellular, with all this sort of stuff.

And so this article was a nice thing to sort of stick in my head of the next time it happens to me or a friend or a family member.

This is a good list of here's the different troubleshooting steps you want to go through.

Because, you know, it's wonderful that most of the time,

opera products just work.

But sometimes they don't.

And when that happens, you know, the people like you and me

and anyone who listens to this podcast are most likely to be the people

that others turn to for help.

And so it's nice just to have this, you know, list of things you can try.

Well, I suspect one of the reasons people don't do this very much

is because it sounds scary.

Like you have to go into your iPhone settings, you go to general,

And at the very bottom, there is, well, now in iOS 26, it's called transfer or reset iPhone.

Well, first of all, who wants to reset the iPhone, right?

I mean, you're going to, are you going to be offline?

Now, I do this a lot, especially when I'm getting ready to trade in an old iPhone.

This is exactly what you have to go and do.

And there's one option here that sounds really scary.

Erase all content and settings.

Who wants to do that, right?

But right above it now in iOS 26, there's a reset button.

And there is a whole slew.

There's a whole list of things here.

Reset all settings.

Delete all eSIMs.

Reset keyboard dictionary.

Reset handwriting style.

Reset home screen layout.

Reset location and privacy.

But one of them is reset network settings.

So the point that I'm making there is like, you know, unless you are comfortable doing this, you've done it before.

Like you're not resetting the entire phone.

You are just basically, and I think Jason talks about this in here.

When you do erase network settings, you're just erasing all of the remembered Wi-Fi networks that you've connected to.

Right.

You are disconnecting all the Bluetooth items that you've connected to.

And right there, that might turn some people off.

Like, well, I don't have to go back and reset all those.

Well, in some cases, this might be the next step to do.

So it basically just resets everything that you've connected to from a network standpoint.

And then, you know, theoretically, and I think Jason walks through it here, that once you reset just the network settings,

The rest of the iPhone is fine.

Then it'll say, hey, I found your network here in your house.

Do you want to connect to it?

And you put in your password and you go on.

And just doing that, it's almost like the tried and true troubleshooting step for Windows.

Reboot, right?

Well, any computer for that matter.

Reboot.

But instead of rebooting the entire device, you're just rebooting or basically resetting all of the network settings.

And it works.

I've done this several times, and it's fine.

It's just, yes, you do have to go back and like, I have to reconnect Bluetooth to my Apple Watch.

I have to reconnect Bluetooth to my speaker Bluetooth, Bluetooth speakers.

And some people just don't want to go through all of that.

But in some cases, it's the thing that you need to do.

Good stuff on that.

Well, tis the season.

How about some fun stuff real quick?

We got three fun items.

I remember, I think it was a year ago, we talked about this fun story.

This is the Battersea power station over in, I guess, outside of London, if I'm not mistaken, right, in the UK.

I think that's right, yeah.

That Apple projected, it was Wallace and Gromit last week, if I remember, right?

It was like these videos on these very stately looking, I guess they're sort of like the smoke columns or whatever it was.

I guess the smokestacks, yeah, I guess.

Smokestacks that they used to use.

Now, I think this is now a mall or a shopping mall or a business.

It's business, I think, is what it is, right?

It's a business workspace there.

But it's so cool that they've done these projections on these humongous smokestacks.

And this year, it's not Wallace and Gromit, but it's iPad-designed Christmas trees that are being broadcast and projected onto these crazy smokestacks, which is so much fun.

They apparently had a contest where you could do your designs and send them in.

And just looking at the picture you're showing right now, they look so cute.

You know, some of these look like they're done by artists.

Others look like maybe they're even done by kids.

Who knows?

But they're crazy designs.

And I would love to go and see it in person because, you know, it's really interesting.

I love that Apple does this every year.

And for those of us that don't live in the UK, it's fun that we get a chance to sort of, you know, watch it, you know, or see pictures of it or read stories about it and stuff.

Yeah.

I love here's the video.

I think we showed this last year.

We showed it.

You can see people walking back and forth down here.

And I mean, it looks it doesn't look that big, you know, from the pictures that we're showing here.

But yeah, but it is a very imposing monument there.

that's a huge building anyway just thought that that was really cool but like just from a technical

standpoint like to be able to project something into something that big like i i i don't even

know you know the technology but that's really cool it's neat not only that but it's a it's a weird

uh shape on this right i mean it's like it's got a bigger bottom section and then it looks like

traditional smokestacks and obviously the christmas trees just work so beautifully in this right

because you've got the big bottom for the base of the tree and then it goes up.

But I mean, I don't know how you project that.

I mean, yeah, it's got to be some magic that happens with the projection side.

But that feel got me in the Christmas mood.

Something else that got me the Christmas mood.

If you were watching football during Thanksgiving like I was,

you may have seen this weird little, I mean, it was like a puppeteer commercial.

And I was going to dismiss it until I saw an iPhone drop.

And I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute.

this could eat this has got to be something either from you know t-mobile verizon or something or

it's an iphone commercial and i gotta stop and i got to see the actual commercial but you i think

last week linked to the making of the commercial this is the commercial is called um what is it a

critter carol and it's so cool and the making of the of the of the of the commercial i think is

even funnier than the actual commercial itself apple has been coming out with these holiday

commercials for I can't even remember how long. They always debut around Thanksgiving and they

run all the way through Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, to about a one month period. And like

you say, they show on network TV and stuff like that. And they're always very different. I mean,

sometimes they feel like an old Rankin and Bass production. Sometimes they feel like

stuff. Sometimes they're live action. So this one has sort of a Muppets sort of feel to it.

And again, at first it's like, is this even an Apple commercial? But then you realize the little

critters are using iPhones to take a picture. A dropped iPhone. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's a cute little, you know, puts you in a happy mood for the holidays, which is nice.

But as you said, Brett, the commercial itself was fun.

But the making of it, I thought was even more fun because they used iPhone 17 Pros to film it.

You know, Apple is promoting the fact that, you know, the iPhone in your pocket is just as powerful as what people use to film, you know, movies and stuff like that in some ways.

And I just thought it was so fun to like see the puppeteers and how it takes like multiple people to have one, you know, you know, puppet do its thing.

And the iPhones.

And it was just I thought it was fascinating.

So watch the commercial because you want to have the context for it.

Do that first.

But then go back and give yourself three minutes to watch this.

It was really cute.

My favorite part was that the puppeteers would stay in character.

Or I don't even know that the animals talk in the actual commercial now that I'm thinking about it.

But somehow they were in character in the puppet while they were doing the puppets, like walking through the studio.

And that was just my favorite part.

Yeah, well, they do talk because they're singing a song, right?

It's a song that's from Flight of the Conchords, which was an old show on Apple TV of all the places to pick a song.

This is, you know, Jermaine, I forget what those guys' names are.

They're so creative.

But I never thought that a song from Flight of the Conchords on HBO would show up, however many years, 10, 20 years later, in an Apple holiday film.

And yet the song really works.

So bravo, whoever came up with that song.

You just mentioned Apple, HBO Max.

And I remember you – I think you linked to this today.

Didn't – the App Store winners were announced, right?

And I think HBO Max was like the top Apple TV or the winner of the Apple TV App Store.

Interesting on some of that.

I just, you know, other, you know, breaking news is HBO, which is owned by Warner Brothers, has been selling itself for a while.

And they just announced, was it yesterday, that Netflix purchased it.

And so that's going to be fascinating to see how Warner Brothers, which is all movies, history, you know, Casablanca and modern stuff.

And it's HBO.

You know, how is that going to all interface with Netflix?

Is Netflix going to still bring movies to the big screen?

I certainly hope so.

Right.

But it'll be really interesting.

And as you just mentioned, the HBO app and the Netflix app, are they going to remain separate apps?

Is it going to be one big app?

We just went through all the name changes for HBO for their Macs and everything else.

Is it going to be now called Netflix box office?

Who the heck?

I don't know.

We'll have to see.

That's all breaking news.

I found the link that you had.

And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, the different apps that were up for nominations.

And then where was it?

It was try the bottom here, right?

Because there's so many of them now.

There are so many.

There's different aspects where maybe I already passed it up, but I remember the Apple TV was HBO Max was the the winner in that.

And just interesting. All right. Last video.

Man, if you if you're not feeling good already after looking at the Battersea projection and the Critter Carol, watch this one today.

Oh, my God. The video is called I'm Not Remarkable.

But obviously it's a play on words in a way because these folks that are in this movie are so remarkable.

I teared up watching this just because it was so well done, so inspirational.

And of course, between the lines, it highlights the accessibility features from Apple.

And so if you can't really tell from this, all of these people that are the stars in this little video have some kind of a disability of some kind.

and just how they're overcoming it from a college age perspective.

This was just great.

Thank you for linking to this today, Jeff.

Yeah, it makes me tear up to think about it too.

Apple has always done such a great job with accessibility features.

And I love that they put the effort into it.

You know, there was the infamous time, what was it, a decade ago,

that somebody at a shareholder meeting said, you know, to Tim Cook,

why are you spending so much time on this stuff?

And he's like, you know, this is who we are.

What are you talking about?

You know, of course, we want our things to be accessible to everybody.

Plus, as you and I have talked about time and time again on the podcast,

But, you know, accessibility features that might be specifically designed for somebody who has vision issues or mobility issues, they often, everybody can use them often in different ways.

There are ones that I use it.

So I love that Apple does this.

So, you know, they have, of course, they're going to toot their own horn, but this is a fun video.

Apple, I think it was this week, what was it called?

National Persons with Disabilities.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Not something I knew was a thing.

But Apple used that as the occasion to celebrate this commercial.

And it is, it's just so fantastic.

the uh the person who's you know in the front of the video i don't know who she is i mean i guess

she's either blind or has low vision but her singing voice is amazing it's great the article

that i linked to from shelly brisbane wrote for six colors shelly brisbane who often writes about

accessibility issues for apple products um she was noting that like the person that that um that

wrote the song i think she said he does like you know uh broadway shows something like that it is a

Tony award-winning composer, Tim mentioned, uh, the song is so catchy. Like I watched it yesterday.

It made me tear up. I watched it again. It was so good. And then I was in the car driving to work

this morning and like, I found myself, you know how you like have a song in your head. Like it

was right there on my head. Cause I was still sort of singing it. Cause it's such a great song.

So if you haven't watched this video yet, you know, boy, do you have something delightful to

look forward to? It's fantastic. I think the other thing just quickly, I want to say is like,

they just don't even take themselves so seriously, right? They're even like making fun of themselves

There's a line in the song about, you know, you can even use your toes because they're showing people that don't have hands or arms using their toes to type.

But then there's one lady that doesn't have legs.

And so she comes up and she's like, I don't have those.

And, you know, I just it's not really funny.

I'm just taking it in the spirit that I'm presenting it.

But it's just the fact that they're not taking it seriously.

And it's just that they're embracing, you know, their quote unquote limitations or non limitations.

it just makes you feel good all over it so i'm gonna have to go watch it so i sent it to the

family at this point i'm like everybody just needs to watch this and feel good i said it to my daughter

last night because she's a high school senior and is starting to get acceptance letters oh there you

go and this video starts with somebody getting acceptance letters for colleges and i'm like yeah

like that's the excitement that we're going through in my house right now too yes yes okay in the know

in the know tis the season that you're probably going to have people over to your house and

what's the first thing they do after they give you a hug they need the wi-fi password am i right

they got to get online they got to check everything so you know there's a few things i've talked about

this before that today if somebody else you know connects or wants to connect to your wi-fi that

has never done it before then typically on other apple devices like an iphone typically it will

pop up with some kind of a notification says, you know, John wants to use this password. Do you want

to share the Wi-Fi password instead of having to say, well, you know, it's uppercase F, lowercase,

you know, Y, three, one, two, you know, all this kind of stuff. Right. And it's so easy. That has

worked out so often. Another thing I think with iOS 18, you can go into your Wi-Fi settings.

You can go and tap on the Wi-Fi password so that it can be revealed because otherwise you just have

to remember it. Like if you remember the old days, right, Jeff, we could go into the Wi-Fi settings,

but you couldn't see the Wi-Fi password. It was just dots in there. And so they made that change

to where you could actually copy it or you could reveal it so that you could see it. So, you know,

here's another way that I just, I found, I find it to be fantastic, but so confusing at the same

time. There is a third way that Apple talks about that you can share your Wi-Fi password,

but you don't go into your Wi-Fi settings to do this.

If you go into the passwords app,

which is an app that I don't go into very much,

and I know you don't go into very much

because we use one password

and I use one password for everything.

But if you go into the passwords app,

which is now an app, right?

In iOS 26, I think it was iOS 18 or so,

there is a Wi-Fi section there.

So obviously there's a passwords section there.

There's a Wi-Fi section there.

And if you tap into the Wi-Fi section,

First of all, you see all of your remembered Wi-Fi connections that you have made over the years.

They're all listed there.

I don't know why they're listed there separately, but if you tap onto the Wi-Fi that you're connected to, you can now say show network QR code.

And so it creates a QR code that somebody can scan and that they'll connect to your Wi-Fi right there.

Now, that's fantastic.

The confusing part for me is why is this QR code not available in the Wi-Fi settings?

Like, I don't know why I have to go to the passwords app to find this.

This is a fantastic option to have somebody connect to the Wi-Fi where you are.

You know, it doesn't have to be your house.

Obviously, it can be your office or wherever else that you are.

But why not put that into the Wi-Fi settings?

I just that boggles my mind.

I'm sure there's a good reason for it.

I can't think of it.

But that's my tip.

I just wanted you to know there are several ways that you can share your Wi-Fi passwords when you've got people coming over, you know, for the holidays.

But one of the other ways, if you don't want to share or, you know, sometimes that share password doesn't come up reliably all the time, I find.

And so in this way, you can go into your passwords app, the passwords app, because I have to reiterate that.

Tap on Wi-Fi, find the network you're connected to, and you can say show QR code.

And obviously lots of people know how to just use our camera to get that and get a link that you can connect and it automatically fills in the password on there.

So that's my tip.

I didn't know about this.

This is cool.

Do you know if it – so I just tried it for like the Wi-Fi, the public Wi-Fi here at my law firm.

At the law firm, right?

I just brought it up on my iPhone and I used that iPad mini to scan it.

And it instantly brought up a little thing that said, do you want to connect to the network, which actually is the network it's already connected to.

So it's interesting to know that.

But here's my question.

If I show this Wi-Fi password to someone at my house who has an Android device or a Windows computer, I wonder if they scan it, if it will also do something to give them.

You know, that's a good I don't know.

That's an excellent question.

In fact, I'm going to I'll look it up while you do your tip, because I don't know.

I would assume so, Jeff, because I feel like it's that's just a link, right?

That it I mean, a QR code is always more than a link.

when I did it on my iPad mini, it didn't say here's the password. It gave me a button saying,

do you want to connect to this network? And so if I had hit yes, I wouldn't have had to even know

what the password was. It would just connect. And it's really nice. I mean, that's the best of all

worlds. That's exactly what you want. Who cares what the password is? Just let somebody get on

and do this. So I'd be curious to see what happens, but it's very cool. And I agree with you that,

although it's fantastic when you get that pop-up device on your iPhone saying, do you want to share

the password? And when it works, that's the best way to do it. It's fantastic. I love it. But

it doesn't come up when you think it would. And so this is a way to just do it. And, um, and I did

not know it was an Apple's password app. So thank you for sharing that. That's a very cool tip.

So I am the results, you know, according to Google Gemini and other results, yes, you can

share. I'm looking at a video now to where it has the QR passcode. Now I'm just not sure

hearing that. Hang on. This little video is going to, and maybe I'll link to a video or so that

I think it just, okay, it just directs you to your Wi-Fi settings in the Android device.

So it looks like it should come up on there.

Like to me, that would make sense.

Like I feel like that would be ridiculous if Apple didn't build that in.

And, you know, QR code is pretty universal, right?

It should go to whatever component.

But to your point, like, you know, if you don't want to just go to a website,

and some people I know don't like putting QR codes on there,

but that should work with an Android just fine.

Yeah, very cool.

So my tip has to do with universal control.

Universal control is the thing that if you have multiple Apple products next to each other,

you can use the keyboard and the mouse from one device with another one.

And I have been using this for years at home because at my home,

I have a Mac mini connected to a studio display.

And then I will have my iPad next to me.

And sometimes, yeah, in fact, the picture you just showed,

you can actually see a picture of it.

And sometimes I would want to use the keyboard on my Mac,

like my nice big extended keyboard.

but actually to do something quickly on my iPad.

And most of the time it works just great.

And I can actually take the cursor on my computer and I can move that cursor over to my iPad

and it works great.

But sometimes every once in a while, like my iPads to the left and my computer screens

to the right.

And I would move the cursor off the left edge of my screen, expecting it to go to my iPad.

And it doesn't.

I'm like, do you not see it?

It's right there.

I mean, I don't know how they talk to each other.

It's all, you know, mumbo jumbo.

But like, and then on a whim, I moved my cursor off to the opposite side of the screen, which is not where my iPhone, my iPad's physically located.

And then it'll pop over here.

I'm like, oh, for some reason, you're thinking my iPad's on the right, but it's actually on the left.

Or you think it's at the top, but it's actually on the bottom.

And so I'm like, how do you fix this?

And so the solution is, is, you know, there's this a setting on the, for example, if you're using your Mac to do this, it's part of the displays settings.

So you go into displays and you're showing it if you're anyone watching the video right now.

And then when you go into displays at the very top of the screen, it has a graphical representation of I think your computer is here and your iPad is maybe to the bottom left or right next to it, you know, side by side.

If you have like a laptop and an iPad, they might be side by side screens or maybe it's even higher.

But you sort of make it so that more or less as you move your cursor off the edge, it will go to the correct part of the screen where it's the top, the middle, the bottom.

But if you need to adjust that, there's this button at the bottom called arrange.

And as you would imagine, if you click it, if you click it, it then allows you to tell

the computer, yeah, here's where I want to, you know, this is in real life.

My iPad screen is right here compared to my Mac, or you can even have two iPads and do

this with them if you're using a dual iPad setup.

And so that is just a reminder because when it happened to me at first, I didn't know what

was going on.

And then once I figured off that it was, it was out, I'm like, well, how do I fix this?

Where do I go?

Is that an iPad thing?

Is it a computer thing?

So I looked it up and put in the show notes, Brett, I put the link to the support article

from Apple that describes it.

But even the support article doesn't show the picture that you're pulling up right now because that was just a screenshot I took of my Mac to show it where it's got that button at the very bottom.

So anyway, that's my tip is if I use this, things are in the wrong place, you can click that arrange button and you can put things the way they're supposed to be.

I use this all the time.

So let me ask you, when you are doing this, do you have your Mac as a Mac and your iPad as an iPad?

Because if you set them next to each other, then you're talking about sharing your cursor between your Mac and your iPad when it's still an iPad, right?

But they're still being true to themselves because that's another thing you can do.

A completely different thing is to share the Mac screen to the iPad.

And sometimes it's useful.

But you know, most of the time, and I know you do it because when you and I have recorded podcasts in person together, I see you doing it.

And so you're basically using your iPad as a second screen for your Mac.

It's an extended desktop.

And that is totally useful, totally useful.

But for most of what I'm doing, like I'm working on something at home, like I'm drafting a brief and my Mac is just running Microsoft Word and that's fine.

My iPad, I'm using like, you know, Goodreader or GoodNotes or one of those PDF Expert Pro.

I'm using one of those apps on my iPad to look at the documents, look at my notes.

I don't need – my iPad can be an iPad.

But what's nice is that the cursor that's in my hand or the keyboard that's in front of me, I can just use it back and forth.

Now, if you have, you know, a keyboard dedicated for your iPad, then you don't need this as much.

Although even then sometimes it's useful.

But especially if you just got your iPad sitting there or something, that's when this is useful.

You know, let the iPad be the iPad, let the Mac be a Mac.

But I've already got a keyboard and a mouse.

Can I just use it with both of them?

And, you know, this is something we've talked about and I know we'll talk about in the future more.

iPad OS 26 is so incredible when it comes to using a mouse and a keyboard, but especially a mouse on the iPad, because now you can get menus and everything else.

And so, like, it used to be useful to take advantage of this universal control feature.

But ever since September, when we have iPad OS 26, there are even more times when it's nice to be able to use that cursor from your Mac and quickly use it on the iPad and then go back to where you are.

Well, and then just quickly on the arrange button, I use this all the time, not just connecting to an iPad.

Like when I go into the office, I sit at different desks.

Sometimes there is a monitor that's like, you know, higher up.

And so my laptop sits below it and the monitor is above it.

Sometimes there's a monitor off to the right side or the left side.

And I go into this arrange button and here's the picture.

What I love about the way the Mac does this is that when I connect to an external monitor, whether it's a monitor or an iPad or whatever it may be,

you can free form wherever you want this to be.

So in some cases I'll go into the range and I'll say,

if I've got the big monitor, you know, above my laptop,

then I expect, like you were saying,

I want to go by mouse all the way up to the screen.

And then I want it to go to the monitor sitting above the laptop screen.

And so I will arrange it that way. That, that arrange button is great.

I have, in fact, I, I, I think there's something similar in windows today,

but I have just found that this is superior in the way that it just Mac

allows you to free form it.

Like when you put it in a spot and not only that, it will remember it as well.

So when I go to a different location, if it remembers that same monitor, it'll put that monitor in the same place that I had set it at the last time.

So it'll do different monitors on that as well.

Windows has something similar for dual monitor setups.

And I mean, as I'm talking to you right now, I do have two monitors next to each other and I do use that to play.

But what Windows doesn't have, to my knowledge, is anything like universal control where you could have the same keyboard.

And no, that's, you know, that's an Apple feature.

That's an Apple feature.

Yeah, and it's good.

All right, good stuff.

Well, thank you for getting together today.

I know it's been a while, but my goodness, this is so fun to talk about.

We got the iPad mini.

We've got feel good videos to watch.

We're getting people in the mood for the holidays.

Good talking, Jeff, and we'll talk with you next week.

Thanks, Brett.

Bye-bye, everybody.