Welcome to In The News for October the 30th, 2026.

I am Brett Burney from appsinlaw.com.

And this is Jeff Richardson from iPhone JD.

Happy Halloween,

Brett. Good to see you.

Almost Halloween Eve. Hallows Eve.

Halloween Eve.

Yeah.

So it is a scary time of the year.

And Apple is doing all that they can to make it even scarier for me, Jeff.

I am so losing

track of all of the products that are getting released now that it's like i'm having the fear

of missing out fomo is in real for me for this halloween thanks to apple okay but let's walk down

some of these things because first and foremost we talked about the iphone duo which now i feel like

that's old news now even though it's probably one of the biggest stories that apple has come out

The iPhone Duo.

You pre-ordered one,

and then I saw this week you went and touched one at the Apple Store, and then you canceled your pre-order.

This is my favorite line from your post that you had this week, Jeff.

The iPhone Duo is an engineering marvel. It is a delight to use,

and I'm canceling my pre-order because I absolutely do not want one.

Please explain, my friend.

You know, this is why it's great that we have Apple stores in most people's towns, or at least hopefully nearby,

so that you can actually go try things out, right?

I mean, this is the reason that Apple is always so liberal about letting you try the products and do whatever you want.

They don't limit what you do.

You know, I was there for over an hour,

and there wasn't a single time when a person bothered me, interrupted me.

Now, if I had wanted help, of course, I could have asked for it, and they were right there.

And I thought maybe I'd have had five minutes.

I didn't think I'd be able to get to it.

But like they had plenty of duos and I was able to just sit there and just do everything

with it.

And it was really, really nice because this is what I wanted.

I wanted to have some hands on time to get a sense of it.

And again, don't get me wrong.

I know that an hour is not the same as a day or a week or anything else like that.

And yet an hour was more than enough time for me to understand this because this is just

a such a delightful device,

Brett, when it's, it's cute and it's, I love that it's small

and you can like easily put it in your breast pocket or something like that.

It's just so nice.

And, you know, when you open it up,

oh, my goodness,

it is just it is just magical.

It is so it is so incredibly engineered.

I just I'm just beyond myself with how amazing this device is.

You say down here, it's like you never get tired of opening and closing.

There is so much love.

Opening and closing the device is a delight.

I did it countless times and it brought me joy every time.

And, you know, remember last week when you and I were talking about Joanne Stern's review,

that Joanna Stearns reviewed that she had that machine to open and close it a million times

and saw that it was durable and it didn't hurt it at all.

Well, that's good because people are going to want to open and close this all the time.

It's just really fun.

So,

I mean, everything about it's just such cute.

And I will admit when you open it up to have this little device that you stuck in your pocket

and yet you have something that's not quite, but almost the size of an iPad mini.

It's like there's going to be a lot of uses like looking at the internet and stuff like that,

that this is just wonderful.

Having said that,

for me,

This is just not what I would want.

Because for me, it's like,

at $2,000 up,

it was going to be hard for me to justify having

both my regular iPhone,

my 18 Pro Max,

and a second.

I would have thought about it if it was really like,

you know, I've definitely used an iPhone

and an iPad.

You know, I use those two devices.

So I would have like, did I have room for a third one?

I don't know.

But ultimately,

I thought not.

But the real question for me is,

what could I replace my iPhone and use this?

And because I think that's the question that most people are going to ask.

Most people are not asking, should I have two devices?

It's usually,

I want to get a new iPhone.

Should I get a regular form factor, like a more traditional form factor?

Or should I get the Duo?

And gosh, Brett, I don't know.

You know,

me and I've heard other people say the same thing.

It's just when it's closed,

because it's so short and so small,

you just lose so much real estate.

And I will admit that I'm more sensitive to this than many people because I have used for a few years now the big version,

the Max version.

The Max, the Pro Max, right.

And so I'm used to a bigger screen.

If you've never used an iPhone Pro Max,

well, this is still going to be smaller,

but not quite as dramatically smaller.

But for me,

it's just like you lose so much space on the screen that when it's closed,

you know, I would definitely see the utility of when the iPhone Duo is closed in terms of looking at alerts.

And looking at the time.

Notifications,

right?

You know, notifications,

that would be totally fine.

But to actually use it,

it's just, I think it's too small.

So then you flip it open and then it's big,

which is really nice for some things

like the Maps app and Safari and stuff like that.

But then for other things,

it doesn't quite take advantage.

And like when I'm looking at email,

which I do all the time,

when you have it open,

it's like,

because it's so small,

you only see a few emails on the left side of the screen.

And then it's big on the right.

You know,

this layout works fabulously on an iPad because you can see lots of emails on the left and you see whatever email is selected, you can see it on the right.

That's really nice.

But in a really small one like this where you can only see three or four emails,

I just found it sort of limiting.

And then I'm like, okay, well, let me turn it from landscape to portrait.

But then you turn it from landscape to portrait and then it just like makes no sense at all.

Then it's just like, you know, it's too big to be useful.

It's like,

I don't get it.

So, you know, there's just a number of times where for me,

it's I don't know.

And it's nothing against Apple.

I think they did the best job they could with this device.

But for me,

it doesn't work.

Having said that,

I have now listened to lots of podcasts and read lots of articles this

week,

Brett.

And while some people have said the same thing as me,

other people have been like,

this is

so wonderful.

I love it.

It's great.

And so that's the thing.

I love the diversity opinion.

I love that Apple is doing something weird,

doing something different.

Because for some people, this is it.

And for some people, even if it's a little less practical for some facts,

for some features,

the idea that it's something new and delightful and everything else,

that is totally, because

that's what it's all about.

You want your phone to be fun again.

And so I just think that I'm so glad that this product exists.

I love the fact that it is giving so many people so much joy.

And yet for me,

this is just not practical.

It's just not.

It's,

you know, I use my iPhone to get work done all the time.

I've got emails.

I've got text messages.

I'm looking up and down the screen.

I'm doing it.

I do like having a slightly bigger screen.

But now I'll say, you know, I mentioned that because my Mac is so big,

that's part of the reason that this looks so small to me.

I will tell you an advantage of that.

Because my Mac is so big, you know, the iPhone Pro Max is the heaviest iPhone,

right?

And I have gotten used to that weight.

it was definitely a transition when I first moved up a couple years ago.

But nowadays,

I put this in my pocket and I'm totally used to that weight.

I noticed when I put the iPhone Duo in my pocket,

it's a tiny, tiny bit heavier,

but not so much that I noticed it.

So for me,

it's like this weight is totally fine.

A number of people that I've read reviews online who had previously been using a regular size iPhone or an iPhone Air,

they were like, oh my goodness,

the Duo is so heavy.

And all I have to say to that is I got used to this weight on my iPhone Pro Max.

So I think you'll get used to it too for the Duo,

even though it's much heavier.

And the weight's a weird thing because like when it's closed,

because it's small, it seems

heavier.

But then once you flip it open,

because it's thin and thin,

your brain tells you it's lighter,

even though that makes no mathematical sense.

It's obviously the exact same weight.

It's just the, you have the illusion of it being lighter.

Now,

I have not had an opportunity to go to an Apple store yet.

I've been traveling, even though my son has been screaming at me, like we need to be going

to the Apple store because he's jealous that you've got to go.

And I haven't taken him to it.

But here's the thing I wanted to ask,

because I've been saying this in the very beginning.

I want to try out that hinge for myself.

Now, it sounds like you were very pleased with the hinge and the construction.

And you've talked about when it's folded and talked about when it's unfolded all the way.

But what I was a little more interested in was toward the bottom of your review here.

Can we call it a review?

your one hour review of the iPhone duo that you also had it in like a book mode or you had it like

in what I call laptop mode. And then there's 10 mode. There's so many different modes.

Like,

how did you enjoy those other modes other than just closed and open all the way?

They're very fun.

I don't know how useful they are.

Okay.

Well, at least not for what,

not for

what I use,

you know,

the, the, the mode where you have, it looked like a book where it's a little

bit open.

If I'm actually reading a book on my iPhone,

is that really useful to have it?

I don't

know. Maybe.

I mean, it's just sort of a something. So it's cute.

It's definitely cute.

I don't know

how useful it is.

And likewise,

the so-called laptop mode that you described,

for what I was

using in the Apple Store,

there were no apps that really took advantage of it. And so if you're just

looking at a webpage,

having some of it flat.

But on the other hand, I know for a fact that there

are third-party apps like the Netflix app,

that when you have it in this mode, you can put it

that laptop mode and it sort of,

you know, sits it on a table.

So it's flat and you have all the

play pause and stuff on the bottom and the screen on the top.

That's really good.

Plus there have

been all of these third-party apps.

And I didn't, I don't think I mentioned this in the review,

but I mentioned, I mean, I mentioned it today's post,

all these,

these other developers are coming

up with creative ideas for what to do with the fact that you can sort of partially open and close

the screen.

So like, there's the one like here that the tiny machines app that makes it look like a

little bit of ancient computer,

which is just cute as can be.

And there's other ones too. I mean,

people, Oh yeah.

Here's my favorite.

Like the Walkman,

the Walkman one. That's one.

Another

one is the, I think it's called Toasty app that like you open it up and you make toast and like,

like you're making a panini and you close it and it makes your panini and you open it up.

And all these other crazy apps that people have come up with,

you know, there's one that people

came up with where like you draw on one side of the screen and then you close it. And it's like

the paint goes on the other side of the screen and you open it up again. And then it's, it's,

flips,

but people are coming up with delightful and fun things.

And I know I've heard, this is

not an original thought,

but I've had many people say,

remember when the original iPhone,

well,

maybe not the original iPhone,

the second iPhone that had an app store,

when the app store first

came out,

developers came up with crazy things like developers that realized because it has an

accelerometer in it,

I can tell when the phone is tilted.

So I'm going to make an app that makes it

look like as you,

as you turn the phone,

drinking it.

And there was a Zippo lighter,

the Zippo lighter

There was the infamous fart apps and everything else.

You know,

people came up with all these crazy things and it got old after a while.

But at its core,

it came from people trying to do something fun and you can do something

fun with this.

And I love that people are doing that.

And that was the one regret is that because I was in the store and I could not install

apps on it, I didn't have a chance to try out some of these very fun creative apps.

And again, are any of those totally useful?

I mean, maybe the Netflix one is, I don't know if the other ones are,

but they're fun

and there's nothing wrong with having something fun.

Something else that I realized you could not try adequately in the store

was the lack of face ID versus the touch ID,

right?

Because you didn't set this up.

And I was wondering about that because that's what I have seen

that most people have panned a little bit is the fact that the touch ID,

it takes a while.

They're upset that there's no face ID.

Test that out because obviously the iPhone duos in the store

are just open for anybody.

Yeah.

And I've heard some people, in fact, I linked to some of them today.

There are some tricks that people have realized that, well, you know,

it's a little awkward to put your finger on it for Touch ID.

Right.

It's less awkward to put like the middle part of your finger on the button.

And so they've said, what you can do is you can train Touch ID to recognize the middle of your finger,

like, you know,

whatever that,

I don't know what parts of the finger are, but, you know, down here.

so that therefore you can use Touch ID

without having to reposition your hand.

I mean, that's a clever little workaround.

Again, I didn't have a chance to try it,

so I don't know.

People have, there have been rumors,

speculation,

everything else that the next generation iPhone Duo

will add Face ID because people really like that feature.

And that would be wonderful to do that in the future.

I did, however, get a chance to try out the camera.

And the front facing camera,

you know, the quality of it is not great,

but I do like the idea that it fits under the screen and you totally don't see it. You know,

it doesn't take away from the screen.

Yeah. What you're showing right now from the back camera.

So the back camera on it,

it's,

you know,

it's a fine camera on the back. This is the main camera.

The main camera on the back is just fine.

And if you're upgrading from an older iPhone,

you know, three,

four, five years old,

it's probably going to be just as good as what you

already have.

So that's fine.

On the other hand,

if you have,

I mean, for me, I've got the newest

18 Pro Max,

one of the reasons I enjoy upgrading my iPhone every year is that my pictures get

better.

It's just better quality.

And,

you know, you're showing an example right now that like I took two pictures side by

side, one with my iPhone 18 Pro and one with the iPhone Duo.

And like,

you know, when they're small,

they look fine.

But then if you look at it on a big screen or if you zoom in a little bit, you're like,

oh,

wow,

you can totally tell one is a much more sharp and clear camera than the other.

So, I mean,

is that important to you?

I mean, goodness.

My parents were infamous for years and years and years.

Almost every picture my parents took with their phone, whether it was film or digital, was blurry.

You know, it's sort of a tradition of family pictures in my family were blurry.

That's just what they were.

If that doesn't bother you,

well,

whatever.

But if you do like to have better pictures,

well, then,

you know, a nicer,

a different iPhone will give you better pictures.

If you have an iPhone 17, an iPhone 18,

maybe even a 16,

you're going to get better quality pictures than the iPhone Duo.

And you just have to decide if that matters to you.

On the other hand,

if you're outside,

if you're in the sunlight,

if everything else is good,

well, then the pictures are going to be fine.

So you just have to decide how much that matters to you.

I'm getting a little torn looking at your review here,

Jeff, because I can tell that you are a little mesmerized with this device,

but you canceled your preorder.

And I guess I'm just coming down and you did a good job here in the end of your of your post here on the conclusion here that the iPhone Duo is fantastic,

but just not for you specifically.

I like how you said this here.

If you want an iPhone that is different and delightful,

this is the one to get.

If this is even better, if you want to make new friends,

get the iPhone Duo.

It's just like walking around with a cute puppy.

So,

you know, you and I may not necessarily be the guy that needs to have a cute puppy walking down the street.

But for those people that might want that latest and greatest,

it would still be a good device.

It's just you got to understand some of those limitations and whether they make a difference for you.

Yeah. And the point is not I mean, nobody cares whether it's the phone for Jeff Fertrickson.

I'm just telling you the fact that it is so obviously not the phone for me.

should, if you are, if you are on the fence,

believe me, this is one that you want to get

into your car and go over to an Apple store and try it out because you need to decide if it's for

you.

And I really think, I mean, I used it for over an hour,

but you know, it took me 15 minutes

to be just blown away and amazed by it.

But once, you know, once I got past 15 minutes of using it,

actually like, how would you get things done?

Which is very easy in an Apple store because

Apple preloads this device with like tons of emails and text messages as if it's a real person's

device.

And so you can just very easily get into the flow of what would it be like to use it for

email?

What would it be like to use it for text messages?

And, uh, and you can use it. I mean,

I sent myself, the reason I have pictures in this review is because I was taking pictures and just

sent, you know, emailing them to myself and that sort of, that all, that all works.

And so,

um,

you want, you're going to want to try it because this is absolutely not the iPhone for everyone.

And I know that's always true.

I mean,

years ago when Apple came out with the iPhone,

um,

air,

you know, for some people that was really nice to have the lightest possible iPhone,

But for other people, they're like, oh, no, the compromises are not worth it.

And this is just more extreme of that.

The advantages of this phone are amazing.

You know,

goodness, you unfold it and you have an iPad.

On the other hand, the disadvantages are pretty amazing too,

pretty incredible.

So like you need to decide for all these compromises,

is this the right phone for you?

And again,

I have so many people I have read on the internet and listened to podcasts that

they have said,

this is my favorite iPhone ever.

I'm so happy I spent the money on it.

even though it was $2,000 as opposed to the $1,000 I normally spent.

So,

but this is just,

it's going to be a polarizing device,

but I'm really happy that Apple made it.

Well, they're happy they spent that much money until the screen cracks on there.

Could you, I got to ask because I've seen some of these now.

I feel like every time we have a new device,

somebody comes out.

And of course, this is what makes the headlines,

right?

Even though I think it's just a tiny,

tiny percent of the devices out there.

But there's been enough that it's rose into the top of the list of the headlines that the iPhone duo does crack the screen or somebody like.

It into the sand and so some sand got in the hinge and so that's breaking a little bit of it.

You know, so you can tell I don't I don't think this is that serious,

but I just wanted you to address it real quick.

So two thoughts I have on it.

Number one,

yes, a small number of devices within the first two or three minutes,

like

immediately after someone started using the device,

there was a crack on it,

which means

it's obviously a manufacturing defect.

And it got blown up on Reddit because once you have four or five or six people talking

about it, that's enough on Reddit and everything else on the internet that it blows up.

And so people like my son came in, I was like, oh my goodness,

they all crack.

I'm like, no, no, no, it's just a small percentage.

It's a brand new device.

It's a brand new manufacturing.

There's going to be some variety of defects.

You bring it to Apple, they immediately replace it.

Yeah, every Apple store has a certain number of iPhone duos on the side that they will not sell that are just there.

So if somebody has a problem, they can swap it out.

So my prediction is they're going to figure out this problem and that it's going to be very quickly fixed.

But here's why I actually do think it's worth thinking about it a little bit.

This device is a brand new type of device.

And whenever any company, I don't care if it's Apple or a car manufacturer,

whenever anyone has their new version of a model,

of course, there can be some bugs.

And so many people are worried about durability for a device that you open and close and open

and close and open and close.

So durability is a legitimate concern for this.

And so maybe the crack is a minor thing.

Maybe that's going to be fixed and that's going to only affect a tiny percentage of

people.

But does it indicate that there could be other issues coming?

I don't know.

You know, if anything happens within the first period of whatever the one year warranty,

whatever, I'm sure Apple will fix it.

But, you know, many times in my life when I have purchased a brand new type of device,

You know, a good example is my Vision Pro because that thing was so expensive.

I absolutely would get AppleCare for it because I'm like, you know, this is a new device.

And what happens two years in if something starts to happen that Apple did not foresee,

but I don't want to be outside of the warranty and it's expensive.

I now have AppleCare One,

which means every new Apple device that I buy is automatically

covered by the warranty.

And I would,

whether you have that or just get regular AppleCare, it might be worth it

for a device like this because who knows what may happen 18 months down the road.

And it sure is nicer.

You know, my daughter just texted me a day or two ago,

Brett, because she's in college and she dropped her iPhone and her screen is cracked.

You know, whatever that happens.

Oh,

no.

But I'm like,

this is why you have AppleCare, because if you didn't, it would be expensive.

But for her, she just needs to get herself to the Apple Store.

And I think it's $29.

And they put a new screen on it and it's done.

So, you know, whatever.

No big deal.

So that's my thought on the whole durability and the cracks and everything like that.

Let's move on. The iPhone Duo, because the iPhone Duo is such old news right now.

Even though it's two weeks old, because Apple announced what I like to reference this week.

They announced the iPhone Duo that doesn't fold.

It does fold, but only once.

The new,

brand new iPad mini.

Where did this come from?

I mean, we actually heard a little bit of rumors on there, but the iPad mini has not been updated as frequently as its older or bigger siblings.

But we and it was this was like a little bit less of fanfare.

Right. I think they just had it in a press release.

They didn't even have an event or anything.

They just announced,

hey, we've got a new iPad mini.

It is a little interesting to me just because they really ramped up some of the power.

And I think even in the screen,

right, the screen is.

pretty amazing,

almost similar to what our iPad Pros are,

but they also ramped up the price a

little bit with it as well.

Yeah. One of the nice things that Apple has done with iPads over the

years is if you get that iPhone at the iPad Pro,

which you and I use,

it's going to have the latest

and greatest features.

It was the first one to have a big screen.

It was the first one to have,

you know,

things you get the really nice Apple console,

but then over time that technology

trickles down into the lower iPads.

And of course you're going to always have the entry-level iPad,

which is really inexpensive,

good for kids,

just a few hundred dollars,

whatever.

But over the years,

the iPad Air has gotten so good that when attorneys in my office or

anywhere else come to me and they say, which iPad should I get?

I now tell them,

if you're asking me that question,

you want the iPad Air.

Because you would already know if you were a power enough user to take advantage of the

iPad Pro.

Don't get me wrong.

I love my iPad Pro.

It's one of my favorite devices ever.

But for most people, the iPad Air is there.

And then,

so the iPad mini,

way back when it first came out, in fact, I got like maybe the first generation iPad mini.

I think you used to have one too.

It was a nice iPad because it was tiny and small.

You know, it had a lot of the same characteristics of the Duo that we were just talking about.

It's like so small and you can carry it around.

But it was also an inexpensive device.

And so a lot of people said, well, it's also a nice device for kids.

They have smaller hands.

It's less expensive.

The new iPad mini is not that.

It's not the less expensive device.

But what it is is a lot of the really wonderful features of the iPad Air and the iPad Pro have now come down to the iPad Mini.

So you have a beautiful OLED screen.

And let me tell you, when you have a big screen, even though an iPad Mini is smaller than the other ones, it's still a bigger screen than an iPhone, for goodness sakes.

You want to have a beautiful screen if you're watching movies and TV shows,

even just looking at graphics or art.

It has a beautiful screen.

it's got a nice processor you know because they don't upgrade the ipad mini very often

it means that this ipad mini is i think twice as fast as the one it replaces yeah it's got an a20

pro in it now now the a20 pro that is an iphone chip right so it's not like the ipad pro which

uses the m series that we have on the computers but whatever i mean in some of those there's just

marketing names i mean all that you really need to know is this is one of apple's latest chips

right so you're going to have a lot of oomph in there so you know it's going to be able to keep

It's going to be able to handle a lot of the AI stuff.

You know, the things that you want, it's going to have.

And then there's even some interesting features too.

Like,

you know, every iPad that I've ever used always has like little holes in it for

like the speaker grills and stuff like that.

Like I've got right here on my iPad,

bro.

This one does not have any holes, any speaker grill,

because what they've done is they've

put in the speakers behind the screen.

And we'll have to see how people say it sounds in real life.

Of course, most of the time when I'm using my iPad, I use AirPods anyway.

But by putting the speaker under the screen and eliminating that speaker grill,

it means that it's even more dust and splash resistant.

And it's the first one that Apple has actually given a rating to,

what do they call those IP ratings?

Right.

Now,

does it mean that you want to go underwater with this?

No.

But,

you know, if you're on the beach and it gets sand on it, it's going to be fine.

If you're, you know, sitting by the pool and somebody splashes you or you're inside the house,

things spills on it, it's going to be fine for splashes and spills and stuff like that,

which means it's a little bit more durable.

And this is an example of a feature that it's going to start on this mini,

but I suspect that this will move its way up and eventually be in the air and the Pro and everything else.

Assuming that maybe not the Pro because the Pro has those nice four speakers that the iPad Pro sounds like really good.

Yeah, I like my Pro. Yeah, it does.

So anyway,

so it's got a nice features on it.

And again,

the inherent limitations for me, an iPad mini is just a little too small because

if I'm my iPad,

I'm using it for looking at all my emails,

looking at documents as an

attorney,

I'm annotating and I'm reading briefs.

I'm highlighting cases I download from Westlaw.

You know,

I want that bigger screen and I don't need it to be able to stick in my pocket.

It would have to be a pretty big pocket anyway.

I noticed that in the commercial I linked to at the end of my post today,

they have a woman

put it in a pocket and I'm like, well, that that only works if you have a bigger pocket.

It's a big pocket.

That's a very big pocket.

But still,

the iPad mini is cute and it's small.

And oh my goodness, it is so light.

So if you don't mind the smaller screen, maybe you have bigger vision,

better vision than I do.

Or if you don't need it for reading documents,

you're just going to have something to,

you know, just to,

you know,

use more casual,

you know,

surfing the internet.

It's a nice device.

And I'm glad that Apple updated it.

So it is a nice device.

It's got some of the pro features in something small.

And, you know, Apple probably won't update this for a couple of years once again.

And that's fine because this is a very, very good iPad mini.

So this is going to make people happy for a long time.

If this form factor works for you.

The two things I've seen people point out, and maybe you just did, it's thinner.

So that's kind of nice, right?

It's a little bit thinner than it was.

And the bezels are smaller,

which I have to say, I think I was looking at somebody's iPad mini the other day,

the last time I was in the Apple store,

which has been a while.

But I did notice the bezels are really big on some of those.

And so the fact that they're still smaller, although when I was looking at a picture here,

it's still pretty big,

I think,

compared.

But then I look over at my iPad Pro and it's about the same size now.

So that's nice.

It's still a small screen because it's a small device,

but at least it's bigger than last year's iPad mini, right?

They have just, you know, with a little bit less bezel,

you have a little bit more screen.

And so that's nice.

You know, why not?

I like that.

They did that in the past on the iPad Air and the iPad Pro.

They made the bezels even smaller so you could see a little bit more screen.

And that was a nice change.

so that's awesome they made it thinner and smaller but they made the price or the price bigger on this

yeah it's not i wouldn't it used to be 499 was that what it started out or maybe even 399

way back when yeah and then most recently it had been 599 but okay okay 99 so you know 700 700

bucks and that's 700 bucks for the entry model which has got like 128 i think a space so like

if you add i mean you're very quickly going to make it more expensive if you add anything you

don't have to. I mean, maybe for some people, the entry-level model is all they need.

But if you

did want to have more storage capacity,

if you wanted to have,

you know, the, you know, other

changes to it, you know,

cellular and stuff like that, you know, this can, this can get expensive.

I mean, it's pretty easy to spec out an iPad mini to be over a thousand dollars,

which is crazy

because it used to be, like you said, Brett, that iPad mini was really cheap.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Okay.

We'll move on because the iPad mini,

it's such old news now by now

because also this week, which I think there was a little bit of an event.

I did not actually get to watch it in real time.

Maybe you did.

But Apple has now announced new MacBook Pros,

which isn't that big of news because typically every year it improves a little bit

or every other year or so.

But,

oh,

boy,

one of the biggest things,

I mean, I'll stop short of calling it,

you know, a conflagration of something that has happened here.

But there is touchscreens now available on MacBook Pro.

And one of the reasons that this is just, you know, making everybody crazy

is because Apple for so long has insisted that they have a touchscreen on a MacBook Pro.

And then all of a sudden they did,

which is pretty amazing.

I'm kind of happy to it.

Some people are not as happy about it.

This is a great article you link to from Michael Eisenberg, you know,

as another lawyer where

he's like, I don't know that I need a touchscreen on my MacBook Pro,

but I know there's probably

a lot of other people that are happy with it now.

Yeah.

I mean, you totally do not need a touchscreen on your laptop computer,

even though Windows

computers have had them for a long time.

But it's just sort of like every once in a while,

you're looking at something on the screen,

you're looking at a YouTube video, and it just seems intuitive to press that play button

or to, you know,

touch it.

And so that's and that's the way that Apple approached it.

They are not saying,

you know,

oh, my goodness, the most important thing about it is touch.

But they're just saying it's a really nice MacBook Pro.

Oh, and by the way,

you can now touch the screen.

And I think that that's the right approach to it.

It's just it's,

you know,

they didn't change the interface in major ways,

but they did do

some minor changes,

minor things to it.

Like, for example, when you touch the the three buttons at the top left, the red, green

and yellow buttons,

like they sort of get a little bit bigger just so that it's more

easy for to make sure that you're touching the right button.

You know, they did some minor things like that.

Which is like the iPad,

right?

That's like the iPad interface.

They were kind of boarding from the iPad to the MacBook Pro now a little bit.

This is the review that you're showing right now from Federico Vatici says, what, this is the laptop for the iPad generation.

And I think that's an appropriate way to do it.

But by the way, it's not just the touchscreen.

It's also a really beautiful OLED touchscreen.

And we were just talking about OLED for the iPad mini.

Yes.

You know,

that's something that will make more of a difference.

If you're using a laptop computer,

you know, if you have it hooked up to an external monitor, you're not going to notice it.

But when you're using it on its own,

having that nicer screen is going to be really nice.

And it's also a little bit lighter than the model it replaces.

And, you know, a lighter laptop,

because by definition,

you're always carrying a laptop around.

That's nicer.

So this has definitely got a lot of nice things to it.

I will say this,

though,

and this goes back to the article that we were just showing from the tech savvy lawyer.

If I was getting a brand new Mac laptop right now,

I would take a very close look at this.

Yes.

But I would also take a close look at other models because you might decide,

you know what,

rather than spending more for this model that's got touch,

maybe I want to spend more with a

computer that has got more memory because memory is so expensive right now. You know, you just need

to decide the trade-offs.

Eventually,

eventually we will get to the point where Apple probably has

touch on almost all of its laptop computers,

except for maybe like their MacBook Neo or

something like that.

And so this will trickle down over time.

But for now,

on this one, I mean, it's a cool feature.

And hey, if you've got the money to spend, you're going to love having it, I'm sure.

But it's certainly not a need to have feature.

Well, if it is something that you are going to want to get, you're going to be paying a

little bit more for this.

I was astounded at the price,

the base level pricing on this, Jeff.

If you want a 14-inch MacBook Pro,

it starts at $2,899.

Again, that's the base model.

For the 16-inch base model, it's $3,399.

Now,

I know that you're not just paying for that touchscreen.

There's a few more things that they've added into it.

I think this is what they call the ProLED XDR display.

And a few more things that they've added in.

But still, that is a crazy price line.

In fact, you probably saw the same things quickly,

too,

that some folks specced out a MacBook Pro all the way up with like 128 gigs of RAM and 16 terabytes of space.

I don't know who needs quite that much yet,

but it came to like $15,000,

Jeff.

Now,

again,

that was people just going a little nuts, you know, and doing it for the TikToks.

But that's pretty amazing that even at the base level that you're looking at $3,000 to start with.

Yeah.

I mean, of course, you've always been able to spec out a computer to be super expensive.

And if you're working at Pixar or making the next Pixar movie,

maybe that makes sense for you.

But the real thing, and Apple makes this easy on the website,

which is what you're showing right now,

if you compare the regular MacBook Pro to the MacBook Pro with this ProLED display,

the opening price difference is $900 more.

And so you need to decide, do I want to spend $900

for a much nicer screen,

for a touchscreen,

and some of the other advantages that you get?

And I mean, that's just totally,

you know, you're just going to have to decide.

By the way, perhaps one of the most important and revolutionary changes,

which we have not

mentioned yet, why are you bearing the lead,

is that once again,

the Apple logo on the back

of the MacBook can actually blow.

Which is so funny because years and years ago,

we will all remember that because they were

actually backlit screens,

some engineer realized, well,

hey, there's already a light behind the

screen.

What if we just had an opening?

And that way it would make it look like the Apple logo.

And I mean, there were all these pictures that you would see of like college classrooms where the entire back of all the computers were these glowing.

All the glows.

So Apple took that away about 10 years ago.

And they decided,

even though they no longer have backlit screens,

it's different technology with OLED.

They're like, you know, we're just going to hook a stick a little like in there.

So make it light up again.

And somebody asked John Ternus,

why did they do it?

And he said,

because it's awesome.

And they're like, well,

yes, there you go.

Yes,

it is,

John.

Thank you.

In some ways,

this is what we're so excited about.

We want an Apple.

that makes cool devices just because they're awesome.

Make that glow,

make that Apple logo glow

on the laptop computer.

Make the iPhone Duo fold.

I mean,

let's do these fun things

because Apple products should be very useful,

but we want them to also bring a smile to our face.

Okay, well, the MacBook Pro,

the brand new MacBook Pro,

touchscreen MacBook Pro is the new, new news.

Let's go back to old news

and even old, old, old, old,

older news.

That's like, what,

three weeks old now?

We were so excited when we talked about the HomePod that was coming out here.

Just a second.

Let me bring it up here.

This is the brand new HomePod.

And if I can remember correctly,

Jeff, I think you ordered some new ones.

Is that correct?

The HomePod Mini 2.

The reason I mentioned it is,

I mean, this is a minor change.

We now have a HomePod Mini 2 that goes on sale today,

today,

so that you can walk into an Apple store and get it.

And there are minor changes.

And I think the only one of significance is that it now works with the Siri AI.

So if you like the idea of walking into a room in your house and asking a question just

into the air and having the more advanced version of Siri give you the answer,

you can

now do that.

Because my current HomePods don't do that.

It's the old style that it says, oh, I can't answer that right now.

Look on your phone, whatever.

I mean, some things it can answer,

but most of them Very

frustrating.

Yeah.

Yeah,

it's a little annoying.

Having said that,

I don't know if it's worth replacing all of your iPad minis just to have that feature,

especially since all you need to do is just pick up your phone and you can talk to your phone.

And as long as you have the new Siri on your phone, you can do the question there.

But if you are going to get a new HomePod mini anyway,

because sometimes it's nice to add more and more of them to get more sound around your house,

it's nice that the new ones will have that support in it.

There are some other minor feature changes too.

Like, for example, if you want to put four of them and surround sounds with an Apple TV, you can now do that.

But for most people,

I think the only change that's noteworthy besides the fact they have some different colors,

you know, to match your home decor is the addition of the Siri AI.

So that's nice.

And, you know, just as a reminder, the one question I have, and now that they are in sale today, I want somebody to answer it.

If you have a house that you've already got like three or four or five downstairs in your house and you add one more new one,

that's this brand new model, the HomePod Mini 2.

Is it going to be smart enough to capture your question so that it can send it to the Siri AI?

Or is your voice going to be captured by whatever HomePod Mini you're closest to?

And if you're closer to one of the old ones,

then you don't get the new features.

I don't know.

That's the only outstanding question I have.

But I probably will not get one.

But, you know, I'm glad that they have.

It's nice that they refreshed it.

I'm trying to remember when the HomePod Mini 2 was announced.

Wasn't it like three weeks ago or something?

Yeah, it was the same event when Apple also announced the new Apple TV,

which is only a very minor.

And perhaps,

and most importantly, the new Home View,

which was something new.

The Home View,

yes.

But we're just in such this bizarre period of time where Apple is announcing so many products,

and some of them are available for other ones.

And so it's, ugh, it's crazy.

So the Home View, did you order the Home View either?

That is what I ordered.

That's what you ordered?

Okay, okay.

Yeah.

And even though it came out a while,

even though it was announced a while ago,

it was announced before some of these other products we're talking about.

It will not be in people's hands until I think it's what, two weeks from today.

So I'm trying to figure out when that's coming out.

Wow.

Yeah.

Two weeks from today.

So I pre-ordered mine.

In fact, I'm just going to look right now while we're talking.

I'm looking at my Apple store app and it says my order delivers on November 13th.

So two weeks.

November.

OK,

so a couple of weeks on there.

good because now it's starting to come back to me all the things that we that we looked over because

i remember this was also the event where they announced the apple home collection right now

these are the right but this is in conjunction with lg and schneider electric um this is like

the locks um and the cameras but now those are not available yet i can't remember here in this press

release maybe they say it at the very bottom but i mean those were announced and i don't think that

they're available yet i think people have pre-ordered them yeah i assume that those are coming out

around November 13th too.

So Apple's home stuff will be two weeks from today,

but it's like every

single week there's something new coming out.

It's just,

it's crazy.

Goodness gracious.

Okay.

Let's jump to a story,

which we could have done in where are you at story, but I thought

this was cute.

We could end with this quickly today. This was on military.com. I don't even

know really how you found this story, but probably because you had somebody like looking out for

something was looking out for stories about an Apple watch.

But I like this.

This is I think he's

a veteran,

right? An Air Force veteran.

And he was wearing an Apple watch and it alerted him to

possible sleep apnea.

And I just like this is a great story. I just love that it's being covered

by something like military dot com, which I'm assuming they do a whole ton of technology

related type stories.

But it was cool that this gentleman,

this Air Force veteran didn't feel like

had an issue or a problem.

The watch alerted him to it.

He I think it says that he sent a screenshot

from the watch to his doctor and the doctor was like, well, yeah, let's check that out.

And thank

goodness. I think he ended up getting a CPAP machine and some other treatment so that it,

you know, he avoided something that could have possibly been tragic.

And I just think it's it's

a feel good story.

I always love these stories. And in fact, I didn't link to him today,

but I noticed last night that if you go to YouTube and you look at the Apple page, you know,

They always have videos and they've got like two videos right now up that are called like,

you know,

real Apple watch stories.

And it's the same idea as this one right here is that it's just individual stories of a

person's like, I didn't realize anything was wrong.

My Apple watch told me it saw something that could be an issue.

I talked to my doctor and oh my goodness, I had a big issue and I'm so glad I did.

And so that's, you know, I love my Apple watch for so many reasons for notifications and

everything else.

But the idea that it's like my little buddy on my wrist, that's just looking out for me.

I mean, not that it's going to catch everything,

but heck, if you do see something,

let me

know,

you know?

And, you know, sometimes it'll tell me it's really noisy around me.

And I'm like, yes, I know it's noisy around me because I'm at a concert,

you know, whatever.

But other times it's like, well, you know, thank you for telling me that my heart rate

was really elevated because gosh, it shouldn't be.

I'm just sitting here,

you know, like a couch potato,

you know, watching TV.

So if you want to know these things.

And so I,

you know, I love linking to these stories because they just,

for every story,

like for this individual person,

this was huge.

This was huge.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Very good.

Okay.

In the know,

let's do, I feel like we haven't done the tips

in a while, but here's, here's my quick little tip. I just wanted to alert this. I was working

with somebody that had an iPad and they got frustrated because they were somehow,

I think

what happened is they double tapped or inadvertently, they double tapped the top of a window that they

had in the iPad.

And all of a sudden that window got a little smaller. So this is more of just sort

of like, you know, in the know,

you should be knowing FYI kind of a thing on here.

What I'm

really talking about is in the iPad, I think most people today,

Jeff, and I think both you and me

stay in the windowed apps option for how to interact with the iPad,

right?

We have,

there's

three different options on how you can have the apps appear, right?

First is the full screen mode,

which is typically what we had from the very beginning with the iPad.

Every app is just full

screen, you don't have a way to change, make any changes,

right?

You have stage manager,

which came about a few years ago.

I never really kind of got comfortable with it because I just

kind of had the split screen.

But then just within the last year,

year and a half, maybe two years,

they had these windowed apps,

which to me always felt like it made the apps on the iPad work a

little bit more similar to how I'm familiar with Windows on a Windows computer or a Mac computer.

I can resize any of these apps.

I can have multiple apps on the screen.

And I,

for the most part, keep my iPad in windowed apps,

which is great because, again, I can rearrange the windows. I can resize the windows.

But here's one thing just quickly that I wanted to highlight, and it's kind of buried here in this little Apple support story,

is that if you are looking at an app in its full screen glory,

which you can even if you have the windowed apps option turned on in the iPad,

I still regularly have the app that I'm using in the full screen mode.

But if you just simply double tap the top of that full screen app in your iPad,

it will basically it's not it won't.

I don't want to say it's minimizes the app, but it shrinks it down right to where it can be more of like a window that you can move around and resize as opposed to the full screen mode.

It's a little hard to to define exactly what happens there.

But if you do inadvertently double tap the top of an iPad screen and it goes into that window,

you can simply double tap the top of that windowed app again and it'll go back into full screen.

And I just found myself using that fairly often as a way to switch back and forth.

If I've got different apps, you know, on the screen and I want to go into full screen and come out of it.

But I also just noticed, like I said, I was working with somebody that they were upset that something did happen.

They didn't mean to go out of the full screen,

but it just happened on them.

Right.

We hear this all the time.

And what really I think happened is they just inadvertently or accidentally,

they had just double tapped the top of that windowed app and it shrunk down.

So anyway, this is more of just kind of an FYI tip on there,

is that if you're in windowed apps mode on your iPad,

which is what I normally am,

you can go into full screen.

You can double tap the top of the app and it'll go between full screen

versus a windowed app.

Are you trying that right now?

looks like you're a little confused.

Yeah.

So no,

no. Cause I was just following you.

I haven't

turned off.

So,

and I don't know what the default is. So on my iPad,

if I, if I double tap the top

of a window,

it does not,

you know,

I had it turned off, but I, I now to see that it is an option.

And also I will also mention FYI,

you and I use the iPad a little differently because I normally,

like most of the time,

my iPad is in the full screen mode, the traditional mode that we've had

forever.

But I will routinely,

because I just like having everything as big as possible.

Yeah.

But I routinely,

routinely switch into the windowed mode.

And in fact,

I know that when I have my iPad

in my,

what's this keyboard called?

The Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad.

Right.

If I hit the key that's at the bottom left, which is like a globe key and the letter C,

it brings up the control panel.

And right there on my control panel, I tap the little button to

switch over to windowed mode.

And I do that frequently because if I'm,

if I want to do

multitasking,

well then of course I want to have different layers,

you know, windows on top of each

other.

So I,

I,

I move back and forth between the two. I never touch stage manager like you,

but the other two modes, I do it all the time,

but my default is not windowed mode. It sounds

like your default. Oh, it's not. Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, but I do like windowed mode.

You know, one thing I did do with my windowed mode is there's another thing that you can change.

I think it's in the settings too,

that when I am in windowed mode,

I always display the menu bar at

the top,

you know,

file edit. That's right. We've talked about that before in the past.

That may have

been a tip that you had in the past or I had somebody had in the past.

Um,

and I sort of like

that because when I am in windowed mode,

I often have my iPad in,

you know, in my,

my magic keyboard

with got like touchpad and stuff.

And I do want to take advantage of those windows.

So,

um,

so

anyway,

you know,

cool stuff. Can I ask you just real quick on that?

If you have that menu always

showing,

do your stoplights buttons always show on the upper left corner as well? Yes.

Because

typically, okay,

they do. Okay.

Because typically I don't have,

I don't have that turned on.

And so if I want to see my stoplights,

I usually have to like,

you know, pull down or tap the top

of that or go out of that mode.

Okay.

So in other words, if I double tap the top of my window,

I go into windowed mode and then I can see the stoplights and I can tap it. And like you say,

it goes a little bit bigger when I tap on there.

But you always have that menu showing,

which means that you probably always do see

those stoplight buttons on the upper left corner there.

And I can understand why people would not want

to have the menu showing at all times

because it does take up some space.

But for me, because I have this big 13-inch screen

on my iPad Pro, and you can get an iPad Air

with a big 13-inch screen too,

for me, I don't mind losing a little bit of space

on my big screen because those menus are often helpful.

And also,

again, I'm not living in windowed mode all the time.

You know, when I go in there,

it's when I turn on my power feature,

Jeff mode.

I'm doing more complicated things.

And by definition,

when I'm doing more complicated things,

having access to Windows to get easy access to commands is actually useful.

But most of the time,

I'm in full screen mode,

which means I don't see that menu at all.

So that's just how I do it.

Okay.

So speaking of the iPad,

let me move on to my tip of the day.

Yes, please.

My favorite podcast app is called Overcast made by Marco Arment.

And he has some other good apps too.

He has a brand new app that came out a day or two ago called Fineliner.

And Fineliner is an app that he really developed for the iPhone duo that we were talking about.

Oh,

really?

His thought was, if you're going to have a little,

you know, foldable iPhone in your pocket that can unfold,

and if you happen to have an Apple Pencil for it, wouldn't it be nice to have like a little,

you know,

notebook that you can take notes in?

And so his original thinking was that this would be this app.

And so he developed,

he's not using the Apple built-in technology for,

you know,

writing on a screen.

He's got like his own little engine and stuff.

And it's just a very simple note-taking app.

It doesn't have, I mean, I take notes on my iPad all the time and I use GoodNotes.

And GoodNotes has got a million features and I love those million features.

They're really nice.

But if you just want something simple,

you just want to write things down and change colors.

You know, that's all you want to do.

And maybe erase.

This has those core features.

And so it's a nice note-taking app,

but that's not the reason I'm recommending it today.

The reason I'm recommending it today is,

Brett, you have got to download this app.

Because even if you don't have an iPhone Duo,

even if you just have an iPad,

as long as you have an Apple Pencil,

when you first use the app,

the first thing it tells you is draw a picture of your face.

And you're like, why am I drawing a picture of my face?

And then the next thing it says is,

Now I want you to draw like an open,

a greater than sign, a less than sign.

I'm like, what am I doing?

And then very quickly, you realize that you are drawing the interface to the app.

So when you are using the app, every single button in the app, every single button in

the app is an app that you drew by tracing,

but still using your own handwriting.

So when you trace,

you know,

and Brett, it is adorable.

It is adorable.

And if I haven't done this yet,

but if you want to go one step further,

he will display

the entire alphabet and you trace over the letters.

And so you put the letters in your handwriting.

And that way,

every time the app shows any words to you,

it will use your own handwriting.

So it's like,

it is the most personalized,

the most, and on top of everything else,

it's

totally free.

If you want to pay more,

you can get some extra pens and colors and some different paper and

stuff like that.

$13.

for the deluxe pack here.

But again,

and if you love the app,

definitely go ahead and upgrade.

I encourage you to do so.

But if you just want to check out something fun,

totally download this app.

It is just Oh

my goodness.

It

is real fun.

It's

a cute little notebook.

Am I

going to actually use it as my notebook?

I don't

know because I use good notes.

But I love

the idea of it.

And it technically

works on the iPhone,

but I don't

recommend use on a regular iPhone. I don't recommend

it on a regular iPhone

because you don't

have a spy list.

So you have to

like use your finger

Right.

But I will say it does work on the iPhone.

So like if you were going to take notes on your iPad or your iPhone Duo,

because it all

syncs using,

you know, Apple iPhone,

when I open up the iPhone version of Fineliner,

it shows me the notes that I took on my iPad.

And that's nice.

For example,

the GoodNotes app that I use all the time,

it has an iPhone app too.

And I don't really use it on the iPhone very often.

But sometimes I will just want to take a look at some notes that I took on my iPad.

And I love the fact that I can just bring it up quickly.

I'm never going to take notes on my iPhone,

but I love that I can review notes very quickly

on my iPhone.

And so that just happens the same way.

Marco said the only reason that he made an iPhone app available was because Apple doesn't

allow you as a developer to release an app only for the iPhone Duo.

So technically it has to be available for the regular iPhone too.

But having said that, I actually think it's nice if it's available for the iPhone.

So if you have an iPhone Duo,

or more likely if you have an iPad with the stylus,

do yourself

a favor.

Okay.

Download this app.

I'm going to grab it.

Play with it for five minutes.

It will make you smile.

It will make you smile.

And it's also,

I mean, it's not just a gimmick.

It's actually a very nice app, but it's just a very simple note-taking app.

He's put in some.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's put in some excellent little features.

You can even export as a PDF on here.

You can share notebooks.

He's got it syncing with iCloud so that if you had a couple of different iPads or stuff,

you could sync between them all.

I love this.

It's all vector-based graphics.

So everything that you write,

you can zoom in and it's going to look incredibly perfect and stuff like that.

So it's a nice little app down.

Do yourself a favor and download it.

Oh, I'm so glad you mentioned that.

And no hesitation whatsoever.

Recommending something from Marco Armit. I mean, he has just been around for so long and such a such a very well respected programmer and developer.

And,

you know, just the overcast Apple load. I still use that and happily pay the subscription on something on on that app.

Okay, well, thank you,

Jeff.

This is cute.

I mean, I'm excited.

I'm probably going to be doing this instead of actually getting work done today.

Because it's going to, just the fact that you're even drawing your face.

And I can make my own handwriting font.

Like, that's not brand new so much.

But anyway, this is going to be a cute thing.

Thanks for mentioning that.

Okay,

I know we have some scheduling conflicts and things coming up.

So we won't promise it.

I think next week we're okay,

though, right?

Next week we're okay.

Good.

So who knows what Apple will announce between now and then that we could have something else to talk about and even new news.

But anyway,

it's great to always talk with you, Jeff.

And we will talk with you next week then.

Thanks, Brett. Bye-bye,

everybody.