Welcome to In The News for October the 9th, 2026.

I am Brett Burney from appsinlaw.com.

And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhone JD.

Hey, Brett.

Jeff,

it's like another week,

another announcement from Apple.

The hits keep coming.

My goodness.

It's like I feel like we finally get over the things that they announced maybe a week ago,

the new products that have come out.

And then all of a sudden next week,

we've got a new announcement coming out from Apple.

And this one is I forget.

Are they officially calling it like the welcome home is what they're saying, right?

This was something that was posted to X from Greg Joswiak.

And look, it's these these nice folks doing some needlepoint of a beautiful little needlepoint Apple here,

which was the announcement for Welcome Home.

So October 13th, that's next Tuesday, I believe.

Right.

We are going to get a new Apple announcement.

And because it has the hominess of a needlepoint Apple and the rumors that we've heard so far,

you leaked to several today.

It looks like we're going to get some new home,

smart home products from Apple,

which we've been talking about for a long time.

But are we really going to see it happen next week?

This is amazing.

Yeah,

this is exciting stuff.

I mean, let me just say very quickly on the little announcement video, that little teaser.

It is cute that it's like, you know,

stitching,

which is like a homey sort of thing.

And I always love it when Apple embraces the original six colors logo.

So I like that too.

It's a throwback.

Absolutely happy.

That's the Apple that I know and love, even though we only see it every once in a while.

So the home of it, I am so excited, Brett.

I am so excited because I've always loved home technologies.

And the thing that it has been missing has been that Apple presence.

You know, how many times through life have we had a situation where,

you know, let's go

way back in years.

Let's go back here as 20 plus years.

You know,

the MP3 market,

you had these MP3 players.

It was a cool technology.

We knew it was neat,

but like nobody had really done it right.

And then Apple comes along with the iPod and just changes everything.

You know,

the smartphone market, there were all these smartphones.

There was the Blackberry.

There was the Trio.

And then Apple comes in with the iPhone and does it right.

And it changes everything.

And home technology is something that I have wanted for a long time for Apple to really

get into it.

And they have had little bits and pieces.

Of course, we have the Apple TV hardware,

which is the best device in the category.

We have had the original HomePod, which I never owned, and the HomePod Mini,

which came out,

what,

six years ago in 2020.

And I own a couple of those, the HomePod Minis, and those are very nice.

But then there are other things like, you know, one of my biggest regrets of Apple is that years ago,

they had their Wi-Fi routers, which were, I'm blanking out the names,

they're called the…

Oh, yeah.

It's the airport.

Is that right?

And then just when Wi-Fi technology changed,

when mesh technology came along,

it would have been so amazing for Apple to have a new airport that embraced mesh technology,

but instead they just got out of the field.

They just stopped.

Companies like Eero came in, and I use Eero, and Eeros are fine.

But I mean, it's not as good as Apple.

And it would have been so perfect to have like this, the hub in your home would be your router,

would control your smart home devices.

And so if I could go back and change history, I wish Apple had not exited that field.

But here we are.

Anyway,

so fast forward to Tuesday.

Tuesday,

the rumor is, I mean, it's not a rumor anymore.

It was originally a rumor from Mark Gurman of Bloomberg.

And now Apple has confirmed it with this announcement.

So what we don't know is what they're going to release.

But there has been so many,

you know, I think we have a pretty good idea of what they're

You know, perhaps the least interesting,

there's going to be a new Apple TV and presumably the Apple TV will have a better chip in it.

Why does that matter?

Because it will allow it to support Siri.

And likewise,

they're going to presumably have new HomePod minis that will support Siri.

And let me just say parenthetically,

literally last night,

I was wishing I had this product.

And the reason for that is I've gotten used to,

last week on our podcast,

we were talking about all the wonderful things you can do with the new version of Siri and iOS 26,

right?

Right.

And I've gotten used to the fact that I can just ask it for information.

And it tells me.

And so last night,

my wife and I were talking about one of my extended family members is a performer named Max Diaz, and he's on tour right now.

And I was just wondering, I wonder where he's performing tomorrow night.

And so I just spoke into the air because I was in my living room and my HomePod minis were there.

And I was like,

where is Max Diaz going to be on tour tomorrow night?

And I got the old response from the old Siri,

which is,

you can find some information on

this on the web if you want to open up your phone.

Would you like me to?

Yeah.

Exactly.

I want you to just tell me the answer.

And my iPhone can do that now.

I mean, heck, even my Apple Watch can do it.

But my HomePod Mini cannot do it.

So they need to put the new version of Siri into the HomePod Mini.

Now,

since I already own three of them, I'm not exactly thrilled that I would necessarily

have to replace all of them.

I have this hope that Apple says like,

we'll release the new ones,

but like they're backward

compatible.

So if at least one of your HomePod minis is a new one,

maybe it could tell the other ones

what to say.

Cause you know, this is just my personal hope that we don't have to buy new ones.

So anyway,

those make sense.

But what's more exciting just because it's something fancy and new is that Apple is going

to have this product that has been rumored for gosh, what we've been talking about this

for a year and a half,

maybe at least because the rumor is that Apple had the hardware,

But the hardware would only work with a really good AI,

which we now have in the new Siri.

And so this,

you know, whether you call it a home pad or something like that, the idea is it would be like these HomePods,

but it would have a screen.

And there's been all sorts of theories about what it might look like.

It might look like those old,

gosh, if I have my name right, the iMac G4,

which had like a little half dome base and a screen.

Oh, and then the arm that it swiveled.

Luxo Jr., the beginning of the Pixar movies,

you know, stuff like that.

So there's a rumor that

that's what it looked like. There's a rumor that you'll be able to take the screen off the base.

And if you just want to have the screen on your wall.

So,

but the idea is that, and it'll be sort

of like, it won't be a computer,

it'll be a screen,

but it'll presumably be a screen that just runs

like widgets.

So think of like when you put your iPhone in the standby mode or think of like maybe

what's on your Apple watch, you know, they're not like full apps,

but they're sort of like

widgety type things.

So this is the rumor.

And then of course the idea is that it would be like

a central hub for your house to control your matter devices, your home kit devices.

And I just think

that this, so everything that I've just described would be great.

And I'm really excited about it,

but,

and this is where we don't, you know, this is the speculation.

Will they go even farther?

Because is,

is that Apple has connected with at least one manufacturer,

LG and perhaps others as

well.

And the reason that there are rumors about LG is that LG,

you know, when companies have new

products, they have to file with like the F is the FCC thing to file with communications.

And

apparently you can do that stuff in secret,

but maybe LG didn't do it correctly. And so it leaked

out that these are some of their filings. And so Apple has had many times in the past where they

have wanted to have a product,

but they don't necessarily want for them to make the product.

And so, for example,

you know, I love my Apple pencil,

but if you want to have a stylus for an

iPad that doesn't pair with a very specific iPad, but instead can work with all iPads.

There's something called the Logitech, the Logitech crayon. They're fantastic for schools

because any Logitech crayon will work with any iPad,

but Apple doesn't make those Logitech makes

those. But we all know behind the scenes that Apple designers,

they basically made the darn thing.

And they just said, Hey, Logitech, can you make this? And then Logitech makes it,

but like Apple came up with it and they've done it in the past too. They've done it like

another market that Apple exited from years ago was the monitor market. And now they're back in it

and they have the studio displays.

But for a long time,

Apple was not making monitors,

which was a shame because their monitors were really good.

And they were working with, again,

LG.

And they had the LG, I want to say it was a super fine monitor that LG made it.

But they worked very closely with Apple.

And they've done it with Belkin before too,

for like a Univision Pro cases.

So Apple has had these situations where they work with other

companies,

but they basically tell the other companies what to do. And the other companies

are experts in manufacturing.

And so the rumor,

and given the leaks,

it's a strong rumor,

is that Apple is working with LG. Now, what would they do?

I mean, what are the smart home

possibilities?

You know,

a camera,

an internal camera, an external camera,

you know, thermometers.

I mean, that whole category of, you know,

present sensors.

I mean, of all the smart home devices,

smart locks,

who knows,

who knows,

but you and I both know, cause we've been talking about home,

smart home technology for so long that like,

there are products out there that we do enjoy.

Like,

like I, I,

um,

but then there are some other products that aren't that great.

You know,

there are some companies that they support the new matter standard,

but they, they only sort of

half grudgingly support it.

Um,

you know, I really like my, my Lutron devices,

but they,

you know,

this is a category that would be much like the MP3 category years ago and the smartphone category.

I would love to have Apple come in here and say, come on,

this is how you do it.

Correct.

And we want it done well.

And wouldn't that be wonderful?

So again, maybe I'm hoping for too much.

I'm hoping for something really up here.

Maybe the reality will be a little closer to earth.

Who knows?

But we'll find out on Tuesday.

And I'm really excited.

I don't think you're alone.

I mean,

I have heard people talk about this for so long,

Jeff, from the context.

You and I have talked about this as well.

It's like Apple came out with that HomeKit app, or it's called Home,

right?

It's the Home.

And it's one app that I thought when they first announced it, which has been several years ago now,

that this is perfect.

It's like one place to go that I can control all of my smart home devices.

But instead,

you have Lutron apps, which I think the Lutron,

like I remember in the day,

if I wanted to buy something from a smart home,

I would have to go on the box and make sure that it was HomeKit compatible,

right?

Apple HomeKit compatible.

I mean, you'd have to look for that.

But then you have Lutron devices, which I think works through the HomeKit.

You have the Eufy cameras,

which I do as well now.

And you and I have talked about the fact that you can, I think,

get it through the HomeKit app,

but we don't.

We go through the app.

You lose some features if you do that.

Exactly.

You lose the quality and stuff.

So it's a perfect example of,

you know,

they're compatible,

but it's not what you want.

And so this is why if Apple got involved in it,

they could say,

guys,

here's the deal.

You know, I don't want this situation where,

you know, for example,

it's a light that it

would work with matter.

Like you can use HomeKit,

whatever it's called now, to turn to Home app.

But if you want to have any of the more advanced features,

you got to go to that company specific

app and stuff, which is, you know, it's not a huge deal,

but let's just have some, some quality here.

Let's have it work a little bit more integrated.

Right.

Right.

Well, this is what I've heard from

folks over the years is that like one,

once they came out with that home, why is it taking so long

for Apple to like jump into this? I mean,

Jason Snell is a perfect example, I believe,

right? He's

talked about this for many, many years in the sense that he wants like Apple to go in, or maybe Andy

and not go, you know, some of those guys were like, they've been talking about the idea. It's like,

this is a great idea. Like Apple,

just get into it. Like just, just releases. We know that you can.

And so then this makes me think along the lines, Jeff,

that we just had the change-a-roo of Apple

CEO.

We went from Tim Cook,

who is a genius from the logistics of,

you know, product,

you know,

manufacturing,

if you will,

to John Ternus,

who has come and grown up as an engineer and has

focus on the hardware side.

And it's not like, you know, they just talked with him two months ago and

say, hey, John, you want to take over?

They've been planning this for a long time. So,

you know,

John Ternus has been thinking about some of these things.

And is it the fact that we're seeing this

shift now,

a reflection maybe of new leadership under John Ternus? You've seen some of the rumors

that I have this past week that,

you know,

some John's making some changes at Apple, right?

Some folks are getting let go or they're kind of,

you know, narrowing down certain departments and

stuff like that. You know, every, anytime you've got a big switch like this and a change of a new

CEO leadership,

that there's going to be some changes made,

but I can't help but think that

all of a sudden now we have this reflection on new hardware,

that something that's brand new for

Apple coming into this.

It's that, that gets me a little exciting to know what's maybe coming down

the road as well.

And let's just say, Brett, I mean,

talking about new hardware,

let's not forget

that one of the most interesting new products in years is the iPhone duo.

The iPhone duo,

A few weeks away.

I mean, as we're standing here today,

one week from today,

reorders.

I think I have that right.

I think it's the 16th,

October 16th.

I'll find out.

I'll find out.

And two weeks from today,

it's available in stores.

So we are on the brink of the iPhone deal.

That would be exciting enough for an October announcement.

You're so right.

You're so right.

We have this other stuff.

And, you know, as a little behind the scenes thing,

this Apple announcement on Tuesday,

it's not happening in California.

They're happening.

Right.

has this um they have this place in um tribeca new york it's a loft that apple purchased and um they

often invite you know people from the media to go there you and i have not been invited yet but who

knows marquez brownlee was invited so i'm sure you know right i'm sure when apple thinks of marquez

brownlee we'll be next right right bernie yeah but anyway um they uh so they're going to go to

this studio and they'll sort of get announcement and get to see it but like one of the rumors i've

heard is Apple likes to give certain members of the press free access to exciting new technology

so that they can do a review.

And so the rumor,

and this is a speculation from John Gruber,

and I'm sure it's true, is that Apple's going to have this event next Tuesday.

They're going to

show off their new home devices.

At the same time,

some of those people, they're going to say, hey,

you want to come to this special room over here?

And they're going to go into the special room,

and they are going to get an iPhone duo that they're going to have under embargo.

And then that Friday when pre-orders go live or maybe sometime the following week, they'll be able to talk about it.

And so,

you know, Apple had a reason.

And I think this is probably true.

My guess is that Apple had a reason to get certain members of the press, you know, can you come see us personally,

you know, and while you're here.

So it all just sort of comes together.

And I really think that's what's happening.

So, I mean, this is an exciting time.

You know, we've got new iPhones.

We've got new Apple Watches.

We already know the duo is coming out.

And now we have what could be a modest announcement of just like a new HomePod mini.

But I'm guessing it's going to be more than that.

I really think that we're going to see this home hub device,

whatever it's going to be called,

and maybe even expanding into third party devices like the ones from LG.

I mean,

this could be a really big announcement on Tuesday.

And,

you know, it's almost exhausting how much new Apple technology we have coming out.

Again, like you said,

you know, with with John Ternus, the guy that that grew up as a product guy,

you know, he gets to announce all these fantastic products.

Right.

Right.

The rumor that John Gruber has reported on from Mark Gurman is that the products, we might see the additional ones.

A smart dead boat lock.

This is potentially in connection,

working partnership with LG.

A smart dead boat lock.

An indoor security camera.

Okay.

Can I pause on that one right now?

Yes.

The rumor that I've heard, and I'm sure you've seen this too,

is who wants some people are unhappy with having a camera in their house looking at them.

You know, the idea like, you know, I'm walking around my house in my pajamas.

I don't necessarily want a camera looking at me.

Right.

The rumor that I've heard is that Apple's,

if they are going to have this indoor security camera,

it's not going to be a security camera in the sense of recording video.

but it will be a recording.

It'll be a camera in the sense of sort of understanding presence of

things. Like it can see things, but it's not saying,

and it reminds me of, you know, the rumors we've

heard of the AirPods that would have a camera inside of them. That's right.

That's right.

Not that they would record video,

but just that they would be able to recognize,

um,

you know,

the person you're talking to is Brett Bernie and I know who he is, or,

or there is a tree over here

to the left, or there's, there's, you know, the dogs over there.

And so it would, it would tell

that to you,

you know, the AI would understand those things,

but it wouldn't actually be recording

video.

And so that is a rumor.

Who knows if it's true or not, is that if Apple did an indoor security

camera,

it would be able to say,

you know,

there's a person in your living room and I'm on vacation

right now. I'm like, why is there a person in my living room? That's not a good thing.

You know,

I'm going to the house right now,

but that it wouldn't actually have. So anyway, I just want

to pause on that.

I don't know if this is true or not. We'll find out on Tuesday if they even have

this,

but that is a rumor and it would be interesting if that's true.

So go on with the

I'm going to stretch out that pause, though, quickly,

because an indoor security camera from what you're talking about,

and I think we've addressed this,

that home pad potentially could have some kind of a camera in there because that's part of how you might interact with it.

So that's what I thought of when I said when I thought that indoor security camera,

as opposed to just a camera by itself,

that it could be something that's going to be integrated into maybe that home pad as well.

And in fact, one rumor we've heard is that the home,

we're going to call it a home pad for now, who knows?

That home pad, by using that camera that you're describing,

it would be able to see,

oh,

right now,

Jeff Richardson is talking to me.

And so I will show his widgets.

Oh, right now,

it's his son that's talking.

Right now,

it's his wife that's talking to me.

And it will change things based upon.

So like if I say something about a calendar,

it will see, oh, Jeff's the one talking to me right now.

So it's his calendar that I'm going to add an event to,

not his wife's calendar.

So again, we'll see all rumors,

but that could be it.

So smart dead boat lock and indoor security camera.

The other two that they said are outdoor security camera.

To me, that would similar be to Eufy.

I'm interested to see how that's going to go.

And then a floodlight camera,

which I guess to me, I think of outdoor,

you know, over the garage or something like that.

Yeah,

kind of an idea.

But anyway, so that's been the rumors.

I just wanted to kind of go through like and then, I mean, people have been going nuts with this and kind of doing some mock ups.

you know, what that would look like. And,

and, you know,

just the normal stuff that we see from folks when they get excited about like

what does, what would a smart deadbolt look like kind of a thing.

But again,

I mean,

a smart lock would make sense because we already have some of this people will

do it.

If you've got an Apple watch and you walk up to your door,

could the Apple watch unlock it? I mean, or the iPhone.

I mean,

there's all kinds of ways that this could be integrated and still theoretically

be secure in that. Anyway. Yeah.

Very, very,

very exciting.

We'll have a lot to talk about next Friday.

That's for sure.

Yeah.

And you know, how rare is it,

Brett, that Apple,

I mean, I guess it's not a new category

because they do have some things right now, but I mean, this would be sort of a big step forward.

And like, we don't, we don't get that very often with Apple.

Right.

So, I mean, it's,

it's always interesting when it happens and, and it's only a few days away as people are listening

to this. So exciting stuff. Very cool.

Okay.

Let's go and talk about iOS 27.

Now last week,

I'm going to,

I'm going back to your site here because we had so much fun. You and I together

recording in person a video of us doing like,

I think we had about 25 to maybe 27.

I feel like

there was a few bonus tips in there.

We ran through all of our favorite iOS 27 tips last week,

which was a lot of fun. And boy,

people are loving it.

We've got all kinds of great downloads.

And we

did a video of that as well as the regular audio podcast.

I'll just say, by the way, a little behind

the scenes that you and I had a meeting to go to last week. And so that was a short podcast. It was

only 30 minutes believe me if you and i had not had to rush out we could oh yeah it would have

gone three hours and we would have had a hundred tips from ios 27 but anyway okay but i want to

come i wanted to introduce ios 27 there's a couple of stories he had to where i i'm starting to see

some of this as well first of all there's ios 27 big major upgrade to the point where a lot of times

people are hesitant to jump,

make those big leaps,

right?

When it's iOS 27.0 to 0.1 or 0.0.1,

people are not as big of it.

But I still know a lot of folks that have not upgraded to iOS 27 yet.

They're like, oh, I want to see everybody fall on their face first and everything.

And that's fair.

I'm totally okay with that.

However,

it seems like we've got some stories around that Apple is strongly

or more strongly encouraging people to get that upgrade going.

And by now, I feel like it's been out long enough.

I will tell people, I think it's okay to go ahead and upgrade on this. But then you had another story from John Gruber again,

saying that now that more people have actually upgraded to iOS 27,

he thinks he's starting to see some slowness in the Siri Apple,

the AI tools,

right?

just because maybe more people are on iOS 27.

I'm not really sure.

I feel like some of this is just the normal curve

that happens after a big major upgrade like this.

But we'll watch it and see what happens.

I have a question for you about that.

And you may have told me this a few weeks ago and I forget.

So when Apple has a big new update like iOS 27, iOS 26,

they will give people alerts on your iPhone.

You know, you should go ahead and upgrade.

But they often wait a few days

and they stretch it out over time.

And certain people in one part of the country might get it and other people in other, you know.

And the reason that Apple does that is just to sort of,

you know,

not have everybody doing all at once.

And the rumor that David Smith was talking about,

which was what John Gruber linked to, because David Smith makes like Widget Smith.

So he sees it's a very popular app.

He sees that people are running and he could see that fewer people were upgrading to iOS 27.

And his guess on that is it's because Apple was sort of encouraging people more slowly.

So part of the reason for that is,

you know, why would Apple not want everybody to upgrade on day one?

The reason is, is that Siri AI,

which is still in a beta stage,

it is,

you know, it puts a

lot of burden on Apple because of the private cloud compute and stuff like that,

that they've

got their servers to handling these inquiries.

And so even once you upgrade,

you don't immediately get access to the new Siri.

I reported a few weeks ago when you and I were talking about it,

that for me,

it was

turned on very quickly.

And I think I told you that on the podcast.

And then I realized afterwards,

I think the reason for that is because I had been running

the beta version of Vision OS 27 on my Vision Pro,

I was already, my Apple account was already

on the Apple list.

I see.

He has the new AI.

And so with my iPhone,

I was like, oh, Jeff's already on the list.

So I got access initially.

So my question for you, Brett, is you were not running any of the betas this summer,

right?

That's right.

That's right.

Do you remember when you upgraded to iOS 27?

I guess you said, I want to start using the new Siri.

Do you remember how long it took before you actually got access?

I remember that it told me you'll have access to the new Siri,

but there would be a delay.

Like, I don't know that I was asked a question.

Maybe I was,

or if I wanted or not.

I don't remember having a choice of whether or not to accept it.

However,

to your point,

it wasn't available immediately.

I want to say it was at least a day and a half,

maybe about two days.

There you go.

And I finally got it was just like a notification on the phone.

It's like, hey, you can now or it'll be upgrade.

And then we've talked about this as well.

It's not so much that you just you have to get access to the Siri,

the new Siri aspect,

but it has to go through and index everything on your phone as well.

And I remember that that took a while to come through.

So,

yeah, anyway, that was my like I didn't get it day one, but I was wondering, like,

How is it that you had access?

And I bet you were just on a higher priority of a list because you had one of the betas on there.

Just on my vision pro,

it was certainly the least successful way to use it, but I did have access to it.

And in your experience,

that mirrors what I've seen online.

People have said that it's about two days, or at least this is what it was when iOS 27 came out.

I would be curious.

In fact, if you're listening to this and you upgrade to iOS 27 like right now,

I'd just be curious.

Send me an email.

Let me know how long it took for you to get access to the new Siri.

I'm wondering if it's still about two days or if they're a little bit faster, a little

bit slower.

But, you know, I know this is a huge,

huge thing on Apple.

Again,

I wish that even more things were done on device.

And I know that's what Apple wants,

especially now that I have like a new iPhone that can

do a lot of this on device.

But the reality is that a lot of the inquiries do require going out to the Apple private

cloud compute and then come back.

And don't get me wrong.

That all happens very,

very, very quickly.

I just know it could be a fraction of a second even faster.

So anyway,

just back to the story.

So the story was that Apple has been a little bit slower in encouraging its users to upgrade.

And that's what John Gruber reported.

But then what Joe Rosagnall reported, like literally, I think yesterday,

is that,

yeah,

this was just yesterday on October 8th,

that like as of now,

Apple is finally starting to

encourage everybody to upgrade.

So, I mean, if those are both true,

then it means that they did it just a little bit longer

this year, just a little bit longer ramp up.

But now it is time.

I noticed that it's either going to be like a notification on your screen that you'll get,

or if you open up your settings app, there's usually like a number,

like a red one on a badge,

right?

It's like, okay, what's going on?

Like, was there,

that typically to me says there's some kind of a problem,

something I

need to address.

And that's what it'll normally be.

You'll go into the general and the app updates.

And then that's when you'll see like this picture that Joe Rosen is showing here,

that

if you're still on 26.7.1,

they'll encourage you to upgrade to iOS 27.

So now I've got a question

for you, Mr. Jeff,

because you have an iPhone 18 Pro Max.

You also use the AT&T cellular network.

And that is a perfect storm,

apparently,

that has been happening for folks that got an 18 Pro Max

and use AT&T that there have been some cellular issues to the point where Apple apparently is even

maybe offering to replace some hardware.

I feel like the first thing that they're trying to do

to fix this,

though,

is they have released iOS 27.0.1.

So right now, if you're on iOS 27,

I've already upgraded to 27.0.1.

I'm assuming you have as well.

And I'm wondering first,

Have you had any of these issues that I'm seeing reporting around?

It seems like it's just a very small percentage.

And number two,

have they been resolved if you've upgraded to 27.0.1?

Yeah.

So as I understand, no, I didn't have the problem.

My understanding is that,

you know, the only new iPhone sold by Apple right now that still

uses a Qualcomm modem is the most expensive one, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, the Max version.

And there was some bug with that modem that with the AT&T network,

that if once it occurs,

you are a gone pecan and the only way to fix it is to get new hardware to get to replace your

device but if it hasn't if it hasn't bit you yet you could prevent it from occurring by doing this

software upgrade and so i usually install okay apple updates you know as soon as they come out

just because i want to see what's going on and so you can talk about it and so i did install this

and so i was not bitten by the bug before this software this update came out and so i guess i'm

now protected in fact i've even read it wasn't in this story it was another one that i didn't

to today that, you know, Apple is going to as pretty soon, they're going to come out with 27.2

and 27.2 is going to have like an even,

even more of an update to like even do a better job of

fixing this for, for the, um,

the people that have Qualcomm modems like I do.

So we'll see about that.

And just parenthetically,

why is it 27.2 and not 27.1?

You know, we may have talked about this

27.1 is apparently going to be the special operating system that the iPhone duo is using.

27.2 is the one that everybody can use.

So for those of us that don't have an iPhone duo,

you're going to see your iPhone upgrade from a 27.0 or 0.1 to 27.2, whatever.

There's silliness with the numbers.

Gotcha.

But so no, fortunately,

I was not bitten by this bug,

but enough people are that Apple actually said something publicly about it.

And I think you said this maybe in your post as well.

The 18 Pro Max,

just like you said,

still uses the old Qualcomm modem,

but the 18 Pro non-Macs uses the new C2 modem,

right?

So theoretically,

that's one of the reasons that maybe they are not affected.

If you just have the 18 Pro,

but if the 18 Pro Max and you're using AT&T,

that's when some of these issues.

And again,

I've only seen a few dribble out.

It doesn't seem to be as quite as widespread or as scary as maybe it sounded at first,

but anything like that.

First, can I just say,

even the fact that we don't have more of these kind of issues

when new phones come out, it's still pretty amazing to me.

So much so that when I do see some kind of a story like this,

I'm like, oh my goodness,

like,

okay, this got to be really serious.

But I'm thrilled,

obviously,

that always, as usual,

Apple is quick to address it.

And I'm glad that you didn't affect it.

But maybe because you did upgrade so quickly on that,

you know, to 27.0.1.

And again,

if you've already upgraded to 27,

no reason to not go ahead and upgrade to 0.0.1.

I mean, those are just so incremental.

there.

And it's just not for this fix. They usually include some kind of security, you know,

fixes and stuff like that. So that's worthwhile to do that.

Here is a cute story that I love today

that you link to a little.

Let's see, it's like it was like an interview,

right?

That somebody from

the independent overseas had with Tim Cook,

which we haven't heard too much about, right?

He came on

at the very beginning of the announcement from Apple before he said, you know,

here's the guy

and pointed at John Ternus.

And then he's like, I feel like he just rode off into the sunset,

but he hasn't right. He's now the executive chairman of so-and-so some fancy title that

he still has at Apple.

But now I feel like he gets to do more fun things like go to England

and meet with the King of England and a bunch of kids,

not just that,

but also the King of Pop,

Elton John is there as well. I'm like, you know what, Tim,

you go and have a good time.

One of Tim Cook's new jobs,

in addition to being chairman of the board,

or I mean, that

his primary job as chairman of the board now is that he is the person at Apple responsible

for dealing with leaders of other countries and leaders of our own country.

So he's got to deal with President Trump.

God bless him.

But he also deals with the leaders of China and England and every other country.

And so this falls within his responsibilities is to be sort of the,

you know, he is the

secretary of state of Apple,

as it were.

And so it makes sense that he would be the one to go to England.

This is something, I think it's called the King's Trust.

It's been around for a long time, 25 years, I want to say.

Like it's something in England that they promote young people being creative in all sorts of ways.

And Apple has been a part of this collaboration for a long time.

And so they found,

you know, I think it was like teenagers or people in their 20s that would come in and get a chance to use some really cool Apple technology.

But as a surprise,

they also got to meet, like you said, Elton John and the King.

So that's nice.

That was a fun story.

But it's an interesting interview, too.

I mean, not that Tim Cook reveals too much.

Yes.

But he did say, you know,

he's now he's stepping back.

He's letting John Turnus do things.

I thought the funny question was the interviewer said to him,

you know,

a lot of people who

run a company would want to,

you know, knowing that you're going to have something like the

iPhone Duo,

you know, these new home devices,

there's so many hardware devices,

you know,

wouldn't a leader want to stick around to like make the last thing they do have those

exciting announcements.

But Tim Cook's like, no,

that let John take care of that.

I'm happy to step back.

Let John get the limelight.

It's an exciting way for him to start.

so that was interesting but it's a cute little interview yeah so this was at apple's batter sea

uk and i only know that because they have those two big smokestacks that they do you know fun

christmas uh projections on in the uk but i loved how this interview talked about the story real

quick so it's a bunch of kids right that were doing some creative work and music and stuff like

that so they get to meet tim cook i mean you know that would be exciting in and of itself but the

interview goes on to say cook then was whisked away and then a special guest arrived the kids

didn't even know they were going to meet the king of england king charles showed up and then

apparently king charles goes off and they're like oh man that was fantastic they walk into this is

part of apple's new music hall is what they call it right i think the music hall or something and

then who's sitting on the stage elton john i mean what a day man you know you could just write a nice

little entry in your in your daily diary for that one because boy that would have been a fun day

on there but anyway just really cool to see tim cook getting to do some fun things for a change

um we've talked about the fact that we have the new iPhones the new Apple Watches but one of the

things that was just kind of slipped in that John Ternus put in was brand new AirPods 5 not AirPods

Pro this is the AirPods 5 and I like this little story you linked to today from M.G. Siegler was

like you know there's like a small gap now between the new AirPods 5 and the AirPods Pro so much so

that the AirPods 5 are probably maybe all that you really need to get. They're really good.

And the

noise cancellation is really good on these.

The reason I wanted to highlight this is that you and

I, I mean, we both love our AirPods so much that of course we want to have the best possible AirPods.

And so I've had the AirPods Pro ever since the Pro has come out.

And ever since the Pro version

came out, I have never looked back at the regular AirPods.

And what MG Siegler made me realize is

those regular iPads,

iPods have actually gotten a lot better.

Like, as you say, for example,

they actually have noise cancellation.

Now it's not,

you know, it doesn't fill up your ear canal

like the pros do.

So it's not quite as robust,

but it's pretty good.

And his point is that there's

one advantage that the regular AirPods have that the pro doesn't, at least for some people,

is that, you know, the pro have the replaceable tips that are sort of like silicone.

So they're

sort of like flexible and stuff.

Exactly.

Yes.

Everybody's ear is different.

And for some people's

ear shape,

the,

the sort of hard plastic original version of an air pod is actually better for their

ear.

And,

you know, I have to admit,

I like the AirPods pro I wear them all the time.

Um,

I feel

like they,

the current version does a little bit better job for me than anyone before,

but I still,

I guess just based upon my personal ears,

I still feel like they're not like a hundred percent

perfect.

And like, it does make me think,

gosh,

I wonder it's been so many years since I used a

non-pro AirPod.

I wonder if I went back,

if I actually would think that they're more comfortable.

I don't know.

So anyway,

it's just,

it's no,

if you're looking to upgrade,

it's no longer

a foregone conclusion that you should get the pro if you want the, you know, the latest and

greatest. I mean, they do have more features.

Don't get me wrong,

but the AirPods regular

are pretty good.

You know, Apple has this return policy

that you can buy something and return it,

no questions asked in two weeks.

You know, you might consider getting the AirPods 5,

seeing what you think, and maybe it's good enough.

Not just good enough, maybe it's even better

because maybe that shape,

that design

would be better for your ears.

Might fit better.

And am I right?

Another thing that came to the AirPods 5

that have been on the AirPods Pro for a long time

is the ability to take your finger

and slide the volume up or down,

which on my AirPods Pro,

I love having that. So I don't have

to like open up my phone to change the volume.

I just like flick my finger up and down on my

AirPods on the stem of my AirPods Pro.

And I think MG is saying here that that is now in the AirPods

five,

one of his favorite little features,

which I agree with.

And the fact that that's on there now

as well,

like that gap is so much more narrower now between the regular AirPods five and the pro

I feel like to your comments,

I still want to go with the Pro just because I rely on these things so much and I use them everywhere that I go.

But man,

it would be great to save a little bit of money.

And maybe the AirPods 5 non-Pro version would be just fine for a lot of people.

Absolutely.

Let's talk about Apple Wallet quickly.

A little story.

I saw this as well earlier today.

I feel like maybe every,

I don't know, three or four months,

we talk about the new states in the United States that added their IDs to Apple Wallet.

I was thrilled when Ohio did this.

And I think it's now up to something,

maybe 20 states, something like that.

It might be even a little bit more on there.

And I've started using it now,

mostly at TSA at the airport.

I really I feel like if I get pulled over for speeding, I don't know that a police officer would accept my Apple Wallet, you know,

ID.

They should.

They should.

I know they should,

but it all comes down to,

you know, are they comfortable with it?

Anyway,

this is the first time I've seen two states at least say,

no, thank you.

We don't want the digital ID.

And it just struck me as just being a little backward and unnecessary because I feel like,

can't you see the inevitability here?

Like, this is the way we're going to go.

And how can I mean,

I think it was one comment from somebody,

Ron DeSantis in Florida,

that the convenience of a digital driver's license is outweighed by the potential for government to abuse it.

Not going to happen in Florida.

No digital ID.

Now,

I do see his point in the sense that,

yes, there is convenience and it's outweighed.

But I mean,

I know I've got a physical driver's license,

but we all know that on the back end, like it's part of a database.

I don't really see much of a disconnect.

Maybe somebody can explain it to me.

And I feel like even if the states so far that do allow you to have a digital ID,

Jeff,

you don't have to opt in.

You don't have to do it if you don't want to.

I just helped somebody from Illinois.

Illinois is one of the newer ones.

And you have to go through the process.

You've got to take a screenshot.

It's got to be approved by the Bureau of Drivers, whatever in your state.

But it's like you don't have to opt in.

So what's the harm in at least allowing it?

But we'll see.

I bet that this will change.

I predict this will change at some point.

Here's the issue, as I understand it.

Right now, if you show your driver's license because you're going to buy alcohol and you

show that you're 21 or you're going to a bar,

that's a physical piece of card.

Nobody,

the fact that you just flashed your card and somebody looked at it, that's not

being recorded in a database anywhere.

And so there's no record that I went to Pat O'Brien's bar in New Orleans and I flashed

my ID.

The idea is that with a digital ID,

in theory,

a government could, because the way that many of those things work is when you open up the app,

in theory,

it would like check in to double check that your driver's license is licensed.

This is actually the way it works in Louisiana right now because Louisiana doesn't support Apple Wallet.

My Louisiana digital ID,

in theory,

checks in.

And I don't know if the government,

you know,

keeps that anywhere.

Again,

the number of times that I flash it is so limited.

And the main reason why I have it is it means that I can jump in my car and drive somewhere

and I don't have to worry about having my wallet with me because I know that I have my license

just in my iPhone.

So the number of times that it's actually checked is very small.

But it's true that in theory,

it could mean that the government would keep tabs of, hey,

where were you on the night of such and such?

Well, our database shows that you're there.

But the problem is, and so this is,

if there's any logic to what Governor Ron DeSantis is

saying,

that's it.

But here's the flaw with his analysis.

First of all,

Governor DeSantis,

you are the governor.

You are the governor.

If you want to say, we're not going to have a database of when you use your digital ID,

you know who would have the power to do that?

The freaking governor.

So like, this is so,

I don't understand that for him to say.

And then that's number two,

number two,

for Apple Wallet,

Apple specifically does not keep

that information.

They do not share it with anyone.

They say that in, I mean, this is why we want Apple.

to do technology products is because they are so privacy focused.

They say in clear black and white,

there's no record.

There's no calling home. There's no nothing.

And so Governor DeSantis.

And now it does track it, though,

because I mean, quickly, to your point, when I put this up,

it does.

Yeah,

it tells me every time that I've used the digital ID, which has only been twice now

at a TSA location.

So it does keep tracking my phone.

Yes. But you're saying that it doesn't.

Obviously,

Apple doesn't share that information because it is behind my ID.

Yeah.

Yeah. And of

course, TSA would track that information. But TSA is going to track when you go through

insecurity whether you use a physical driver's license a digital it's all tracking anyway so like

this whole concern it's like this is such a nothing burger this is just a nothing example

of politicians that are making up problems that are not problems as opposed to focusing on the

real problems so anyway so i feel bad for the people in florida i feel bad for the people in

south dakota maybe they will have new elected leaders in the future that will change things

but anyway well okay so it was florida and rhode island at least i'm sorry rhode island stories

Yeah, the Rhode Island that said,

and I don't know that there was anything on record from Rhode Island.

Maybe there was.

Yeah, there is.

This was something.

OK, there is.

There is down here.

But it was just funny because this Ron DeSantis tweet or X comment was made in response to somebody tweeting Ron DeSantis and saying,

Governor,

when can Florida digitize the driver's license?

Like they want it.

People want it.

And that was the response that I read from from the governor.

Anyway,

interesting.

Again,

I predict this is going to turn around.

I mean,

to me,

it's just one of these things that are inevitable.

Why do we even have physical IDs?

I think your point is excellent and well taken.

I'm glad that you pointed that out because I hadn't really thought about that.

But again,

I have no illusion.

Even if I go to Pat O'Brien's and buy a hurricane,

there could be some way to track that somehow,

some way.

I hear your point on that, but it's just,

I mean,

yeah,

it's going to change.

In the know.

In the know.

Here's my little tip today.

We've been talking about iOS 27,

and you and I have addressed watchOS 27.

And there was a couple of pretty big changes in here.

And so the one that I just wanted to highlight today, it's not so much a tip necessarily as the fact that I remember when we first started talking about watchOS 27 several months ago,

there was going to be a big change in how that you got access to your list of apps on your Apple Watch.

right what we have always been able to do and this is muscle memory for me if i wanted to go

and find an app on my apple watch i would simply press my digital crown and for me i liked having

the list of apps right now some people like that little beehive uh color i used to use that for a

long time but i just like the list because i could go into it but now this was one of the big changes

that list is still there but when you press your digital crown if you've upgraded to watch os 27

instead of getting a list,

you get now what Apple calls the dynamic app grid.

And unfortunately,

you don't have a way to control this,

like what gets shown on this,

right?

By default,

you have one, two, three,

four, five, six apps around in a circle,

and they're all circling around a Siri app right in the middle.

So this is, you can see if you look on the screen here,

that little Siri app is right there in the middle, which is good.

although I got to be honest with you,

I don't normally access Siri that way from my Apple

watch.

I will just raise to talk to it,

right?

Or I will say the word Siri instead of going into that dynamic grid.

Now,

I knew several months ago, I was very nervous about this because I do like going

to specific apps at times on my Apple watch.

And I liked,

and I always used to do that by going to that list.

So I was nervous.

It's like, if I can't control this dynamic app view now,

how am I going to get access

to the apps that I need?

Well, first of all,

Apple is going to be like, hey, we got this.

Calm down.

And I got to tell you, for the most part, now that I've been using watchOS for a few weeks,

Jeff, I have found that indeed the apps that I would be going into my list of apps previously to find are showing up right in my dynamic app grid.

Have you had the same experience on that?

Absolutely.

And,

you know,

and you said that there are six apps.

Technically,

it's actually five because the bottom one is a little indication that if you tap it, you can see all of your other apps.

I actually don't know why they have that there because you don't have to tap that one.

You could just scroll up on your Instagram and you'll go to it as well.

But regardless.

But yeah, if by showing,

I mean, there's not that many apps that most people use on their

Apple Watch.

So by showing your most frequent five apps,

there is a darn,

darn good chance that the

one that you want is right there.

And if it's the one time in a couple of months that you want to go check your heartbeat,

you

haven't done that in a long time,

well then sure, scroll down and find that one to see

it.

You can find it.

But if you've done that recently, it's going to be up there anyway.

So I agree.

For me,

it has really,

and I'm still getting into the muscle memory of using it.

But whenever I use it, I'm like, this is delightful.

This is exactly what I want.

It's actually,

I was afraid it would make it harder to get access to my apps.

Same,

exactly.

It's actually the opposite.

It's making it easier to get access to my apps.

And I'll just say quickly, the other way that I accessed and interacted with my apps,

Jeff,

is if I knew that I had several apps running in the background,

like this is the scenario

is I would have my workout app showing like if I'm running,

right?

But then I'm playing music

from Spotify as well.

And I like to control my Spotify songs on my Apple watch.

So what I would

do is I would double click my digital crown and it would give me a list of the apps running in the

background,

similar to if you on your iPhone, you can see all the apps running.

Well,

that has gone

away. You cannot double click the digital crown and see you're running apps.

But I found though,

that now when I click,

single click the digital crown,

if I want to access my Spotify app,

that is one of the apps of that list of five in there.

Anyway,

so all I'm doing is just pointing this out

because I think this is different from a lot of people,

the way that they would have interacted

maybe with some of those apps.

My hope is that Apple is getting

fairly good feedback from this

as in like people like me and you,

we're okay with it,

we're liking it.

But give us more ways to customize it.

Like, for example,

I don't want that sixth app there to be my list of apps because like you, I just scroll in the digital crown.

Give me a sixth actual app that there that I can access,

right, so that I am bubbling up more of the apps that I want.

Or give me the ability to maybe customize two or three of these apps so that they're always the Spotify app or they're always the settings app.

You know, I just want to have a little bit more customization there.

Like Apple,

you're doing great.

The dynamic app grid is good.

I just want a little bit more.

Like give me the ability to customize that a little bit more and I'll be happier.

So that was more of my tip.

I just wanted to point that out.

That's a big change if you're an Apple Watch user and utilizing that dynamic app grid.

Give it a little bit of time.

I think like me and Jeff,

you're going to get okay with it.

And I have found for the most part,

it's always bubbled up the apps that I would want to access

anyway.

But Apple,

yeah, I just want a little bit more control.

So that's my tip.

Yeah, and it's a good reminder that it's there

because again, this is something new.

So you may have muscle memory of the old system.

This was the new system.

That's exactly right.

That's a good tip.

Yep.

Okay, my tip of the week has to do with backup.

And we talk about backup every once in a while.

Oh, great.

And the fact that I'm talking about it

probably makes you realize this is not great

because this is a sad story, but fortunately it's happening.

Again,

technically it's two sad stories I'm about to tell.

So I have,

you know, I take lots of video with my iPhone,

like 4K,

4K video, the quality is really good,

but it means that it takes up a lot of space,

right?

And so when I take that video,

I don't keep all that video in my photos real because it would just make it too huge.

It would take up too much space on my computer with, you know, my SSD drive.

And so at my home, I have a Mac at home,

which I encourage people to use.

And my Mac has an external drive connected to it.

It's just an external hard drive.

It happens to be from Western Digital.

And I bought a big one a couple of years ago.

It's like 18 terabytes.

So it's got lots of space on it.

But I use all of that space for,

you know, all my videos,

all my Final Cut Pro products

because I put them together.

And that stuff takes up a lot of space.

And so I like having that.

And so I,

and I have a second one.

So I have the one that with my backup.

And then I have a second one that's actually just a backup of the first one,

just in case

one of them ever dies.

Because as you know, all hard drives fail.

It's just a matter of time.

And over the years,

I've had, you know, I can't even count of how many times I've had

hard drives fail.

And sometimes when hard drives fail,

they're still within their warranty,

which is often two or three years,

sometimes only one.

And I have had the reason I typically have been buying them from Western Digital is that when my Western Digital drives happen to fail within that warranty period, whatever it is, two or three years,

they have a pretty good online process that you can just send them your old one and they send you a new one, no questions asked.

So it's pretty good.

And in fact, my current drives, I think at least one of them I've replaced in the last few years.

Anyway,

I happened to notice last night that that drive that I rely upon,

it died like

three days ago and I didn't even notice it.

I'm like, oh,

no.

So,

I mean, the good news is because,

and this is my tips today,

I do two versions of

backups.

First of all,

I use software called SuperDuper,

which was recently updated to SuperDuper version

four,

which is the best version ever because it is so, there's two big Mac apps for software.

One is called Carbon Copy Cloner.

One is called SuperDuper.

They're both excellent.

Use whichever one you want.

But if you're trying to pick one,

SuperDuper is particularly good because they just updated

it about a month or two ago with a brand new interface that's very clean, very easy to

understand.

And it's really easy to understand what to do with SuperDuper because I'm going to back

up every night at this time.

I want you to take everything on this drive and back it up,

everything on this.

So it's a complete backup.

It's a complete SuperDuper copy.

And so for me,

when my main external hard drive failed and I discovered it last night,

No problem,

because my backup is 100% updated as of three nights ago.

So, I mean,

the one that's called the backup, I just changed its name, and now it's the primary one.

But now I don't have a backup drive,

so I have to get another one.

So that's one way of backup that I use it.

The other way of backup that I use is I use a service called Backblaze,

which, again, we've talked about it before.

And Backblaze is nice because everything connected to your Mac, every external drive, you could have a million of them.

I have a couple.

Every external drive can be backed up online through Backblaze.

And so,

you know,

when my one drive failed, I can replace it because it's got the backup.

But what happens if my whole house catches fire and all my drives fail?

Well, it's nice to know that everything is backed up online somewhere.

And I have had times in the past where I've had serious drive errors.

My local backup either wasn't existing or wasn't there.

And so I was able to go to Backblaze and you pay them and they send you a drive that's got

all your data on it.

So,

you know, that's the best way to have a backup is to have a local backup and an

online backup.

So that way you have three copies of all your important data.

You have the original,

you have the local backup,

and you have the cloud backup.

That's the best strategy.

It's what you should do.

So one sad story for me, I told you there were two,

was that my drive failed.

It's a sad story,

but I have a backup,

so whatever.

My second sad story, Brett, and this is the sadder story,

is you know how we've been talking

about how things are so expensive because of the RAM prices and hard drives and everything else?

Oh, yes.

The drive that failed for me,

and I looked on Amazon to see how old it was.

I either purchased it five years ago or it might be four years ago because I have two of them that, you know, they're identical.

And so I don't know if the one that failed was the four-year-old or the five-year-old.

But regardless,

when I bought it five years ago or maybe four years ago,

it was $350 for an 18 terabyte drive.

Wait, how much was this?

18 terabytes.

Okay, 350.

18 terabyte, 350.

Which, you know, was fine.

To replace it, Brett,

do you know how much it cost?

I'm going to guess a little.

$800.

Whoa.

$800.

More than double the price.

and like i looked around like oh my gosh what's going on and i looked around online and like

that's what everybody's charging for this nowadays yeah hundred dollars yeah so then i'm like this

is ridiculous i don't want to spend eight hundred dollars but then i'm like well you know what if i

don't i'm not going to just have i not have a backup because what happens if the next one fails

it's going to fail at some point right right so like i am not happy about this i am pounding my

feet but again i mean i know that our all hard drives fail it's just a question of when so like

I did it.

I bit the butt last night, Brad.

I clicked the button.

800 bucks.

That is sad.

It'll be delivered tomorrow.

But necessary.

Yeah, it's necessary.

These are my memories.

Exactly,

Jeff.

And then, you know, at some point,

that backup one's going to fail too.

And then I'm going to replace it.

And that might be another $800.

And like the idea of spending all this money is like, I hate to do this.

But on the other hand,

these are my home videos.

Like I don't want to lose them forever,

right?

You don't want, right?

Right.

But yeah,

I think you've got several.

We've talked about this.

My son just started pricing out like a gaming PC he wants to get.

And Jeff, you and I have built PCs and been doing this for a long time.

It's just incredible the prices today for even an SSD,

an SSD, an SSD, or for the graphics card.

If you can even get a graphics card.

Anyway, just insane what's going on.

You and I need to go into the microchip business,

I think, right now.

It's what we need to do.

Okay,

but fantastic.

We can never, we should just have a backup tip for every single week that we talk about this, because this is great.

And I appreciate it, if nothing else,

you walking through your strategy and utilizing SuperDuper, which is fantastic software,

and utilizing Backblaze,

which is a great cloud-based backup system and platform as well.

Anyway, just great to walk through that.

Okay, well, again,

we know next week is exciting.

You and I will talk next week,

and I am positive we will have a lot more to talk with.

So we'll talk with you next week, Jeff.

Thanks,

Brett.

Bye-bye, everybody.