Gadgetory

just gonna go with it we are live from the Giant Bomb studios in san francisco california it's the apple byte extra country podcast with your host mr. brian Tong hey what's up everybody welcome to apple byte extra crunchy extra munchy episode 56 I've been gone for about a week and a half I was off site so that's why we didn't do anything on Friday so we're gonna kind of do a little makeup show Monday with some of the updates that were talking about everything that's buzzing in the Apple world again the show is all about you please make sure you call us you are a huge part of our show 1 800 61 62 63 8 is that number your name where you're from and your message 20 to 30 seconds tops we did squeeze I think a couple one minute guys in yes but it's really important to at least get to your point let's not ramble on let's get to it so I'm going to get right to the show and we know it's been about a week since the iPhone and Apple watch have come out actually in the hands of people it's been released in other areas but we're gonna talk about some new product rumors because you guys are probably tired of us talking about the iphone check this out how about apples echo like device there are echoes style smart home device now this has been rumored for quite some time I have been the number one proponent of the Amazon echo Jews from standpoint of how it was one of those game-changing new platforms that is literally changed how we use our gat you know something like voice control in the home home automation and obviously Google is jumping on board but Apple has also been jumping on board now this report from Bloomberg and mark Gurman says Apple is pressing ahead with the development of an echo like smart home device based on the series assistant that's according to the report it started more than two years ago so that was about the time that Amazon echo launched do you remember when the Amazon first game echo came out like were you like what is this or how did you feel about yeah I thought it was super awesome I was like that's the future right there let's talk to stuff talk two things but not only that like you know I also thought Syria was the future you know yeah Siri first came out I was like I can talk to my phone now it was pretty it was the idea was sweet adjust that Siri wasn't as good as other stuff like Google right but in the very beginning was she was she was I'd be like play metallica oh and you were okay with her yeah yeah i like i like i mean i've always been a fan of google voice is just from a speed and accurate and point it may not have as much of a personality serio yeah yeah but it's always been on point so no Apple is taking this concept of an Amazon echo like device but it'll be an apple smart home device and again it's been going on for two years the device will be designed to control things like appliances locks lights curtains and via voice activation the finalized plans are still not done and they could potentially scrap the project which they really shouldn't only because apples ecosystem is so huge you have so many devices the other cool thing about this is let's talk about other hooks that it could be involved what if it read your emails or your text messages just because you asked them to yes because it was hooked to all those services now if it reaches the market it would really be its most significant hardware piece since the Apple watch which has come out to lukewarm reviews the echo has built all these third party partners one of our friends I devices inc com is one of those people I was gonna give a shot working was working with smart device already got it you gotta give a little bit of a shout out but Google's home is coming out reportedly next week at their keynote on October for so it'll be interesting to see where they stand how they differentiate themselves from amazon and then really is there space for a third model because i always feel like there's I think so well for Apple users there always is right sure their land and but the thing that I've been hearing about this device is that people are worried because it has a camera in their supposed to be like some sort of face recognition yeah and it knows who walks in the room and maybe I'll start playing music from your purchase songs or something yeah yeah you know that you have on iTunes so that that raise that raised some privacy scares for a lot of people you know I would think so they Apple earlier acquired facial recognition startups a phase shift and emotion not to be if not facetime faced face shift and emotion over the past two years on that kind of leads the connection of how are they going to use this visual facial recognition besides always serving as a controller for some of these smart home devices which used to scene we could process a lot of different siri commands we talked about emails text messages what about tweets streaming content from Apple music you can see how their ecosystem hooks would be really nice with this device know for sure so we don't expect to come anytime soon the report also says the standalone speaker was initially going to potentially work with some sort of Apple TV functionality were attempting to actually integrate it into the apple TV but then said um I think we should make this its own device like the Amazon echo yeah I was just going to say like why would they do that because it already Apple TV already has sort of that built-in you could talk to Siri and say their watch right yeah I want to watch such and such so yeah it doesn't make sense you could almost if they could adopt the technology and just basically pop into that Siri remote that would actually be really nice but to have an always-on listening a speaker type device like the echo you can do so many things with it totally you can get cnet podcast oh look out hello who so that's going to be really cool to see how that all kind of comes together another thing that we've been talking about is the Apple watch too but another report from Bloomberg Bloomberg's alex webb is talking about how Apple is working actively on kind of the next generation of health kit now we know health kit collect some of those metrics you do while you're active you're running your heart rate your steps but they're hoping that health kit can evolve and do more things like come up with apps that are part of the platform for things like sleep tracking your sleep patterns another one would be actually gauge your fitness level how you do that measuring the time taken from your heart rate to fall from its peak to resting level that's how they can measure your actual Rhett your overall fitness level we already know they have apps that measure heart rate but this to actually take all these data points and then create kind of a profile or be able to read them and combine them and give you an overall view diagnostic of your health that's what they're hoping to do with this next evolution of health kit really turn it into a diagnosis based on these multiple metrics and apps that are hooked into it that's cool so and then Siri can know when you're sick right I'm sick Siri Siri I don't feel good Apple's Siri I'm feeling down i'm feelin town that's like I don't know I feel like apples gonna have a lot of information on us they're like okay Steven Beecham sick right now he might you they might they have played they probably already have that without you knowing they probably do you know what I mean so um they've they've you know bought apple bought glimpse incorporate it was a startup that was built for pulling electronic health records from different databases and the hope is that in addition we've always heard about Apple getting involved in the medical field Apple is hoping to use all of these different pieces of the puzzle put them together and then help them build electronic health records in a simple digestible format pretty much directly from your watch using software that's cool so it's kind of they really want to be part of that healthcare platform we've already seen them use it um you know and experimentally the iphone more they've talked about how they use it for like diabetes tests and things of that nature and pilot programs so it's bringing the kind of bringing the Apple watch the next level we'll see how that plays out I do have to say about the current Apple watch too I got one but I just at the end of the day I don't personally don't care about GPS enough and I'm gonna return it like oh really my my current gen one Apple watch with watch Oh trace is more than good enough for me right now that's cool the waterproofing someone actually called about yeah yeah the waterproofing like hey it is the first gen apple watch actually waterproof it's not officially waterproof but it is water resistant there's no actual official metric we like took showers with it for fun but it doesn't have like the same waterproofing actual coated seals inside like the new series two dozen if you really care about water water sports yada yada you probably should lean towards the series too but you can I'm not gonna say it's guaranteed but it's pretty darn good with just the first gen apple watch yeah it also doesn't have the squirting mechanism out of the speaker right this waters good yeah the speaker edge what is the water ejection speaker yeah that was crazy in the Apple watch too i did find out though that before you go swimming you actually have to turn on that mode so it closed so you better not f up and forget to activate the water ejection speaker that's funny and then potentially get water inside of your your Apple watch that cannot be ejected wow so you do have to turn on essentially like a mode for it I think I had no idea I did not know that until i read that like many things on the internet i did not know that i did not know that i did not know that but so for me now you know i like to test the stuff out i think that will watch 24 me as a no go right now they are using an actual bigger battery but the returns on the overall battery life have been shown or reported to pretty much be the same so i have been scolded for saying oh it has a better battery fine it has a bigger battery but you don't actually see those gains in the end so um that makes it interesting but again if your gps person runner or swimmer that's the only reason I really think you should even look at this otherwise look at some of the better deals on the series one are you a GPS person no I don't run I don't run on trail so I don't really care yeah I mean even even if you do go run on trails now you have the gps enabled then like you look at it you're like oh there's a bunch of little colored lines like sweet awesome i mean it's like my colored lines guys I like the Nike+ app allows you to watch your trail but again if you have to really be a trail runner too i think feel get the best advantage of it if you just run around residential streets and some no one cares but yeah to kind of see your path can be funny useful i'm sure is what people think about it they might be listening to like no I totally love it let us know like what you would really use the GPS in for the Apple watch at one eight hundred 61 62 63 because i don't know if it's just me I think it's nice but it's not I gotta have exactly I'm something that you might want to have mac OS Sierra hey lock go see ya I got it on my work laptop or you I love it is it working just like it yeah you know what to me it honestly feels a lot like El Capitan but I I haven't really seen anything differently I notice you just feel like it's a lease fastest faster it's looks more slick new startup screen that's yeah that's really about it subtle subtle new shading and buttons in there you know a transparencies and things like that it's here it came out on the 20th some people um at least a couple people told me that it it overheated their logic board oh yeah so I've noticed that I don't know if it's a widespread issue but again like anything there's no need rush it I was out on a trip so I able I was able to install it on Friday night but it took or saturday sorry Saturday night so I was behind but I didn't you know when I started using like I'm not missing much just just doing just doing some updates with machal Sierra so let us know what you guys think about it you know you have the built-in um Apple pay you have the Siri functionality you have the ability to unlock your Mac with your Apple watch if you're within vicinity um you know you have a few little bells with that there's the iCloud Drive that is kind of like thing that your desktop that can now be used on pretty much or access on any Mac at any time it's like a that's like a cloud drive basic yes that's what I use Dropbox all the time so that could be useful for me i'll probably still use drop Yeah Yeah right just cuz you're so yeah I'm totally it's like yeah it's ingrained it is it totally is so we have that just a few other small updates we talked about the iphone launching a worldwide it's launched in 30 more countries now the Apple watch series 2 is arrived in 20 plus countries and then iOS 10.0 point to the rule the update it fix this little lightning headphone issue where if you are using the Lightning earpods on your Apple iPhone potentially it could stop functioning the remote could stop working you couldn't control volume so they have fixed that in there okay good very nice oh yes what's even nicer how about us how about a word from our sponsor okay let's get to it I devices handpicked by Apple to become one of the original to be the original home kit launch partners curly has the largest line of home kit products on the market I devices believes in top and the quality craftsmanship sleek design aesthetic smart home customization designed and engineered in house in Avon Connecticut it stands behind the quality and craftsmanship of their products 100% us-based customer service from real people I devices has a complete line of connected home products including smart plug Wi-Fi thermostat rain tight outdoor smart plug and newly introduced socket adapter to make any dumb bulb of smartphone alright each product has a fully customizable night light that can add ambience and flair to your smart home there is no hub there are no fees it just works with simple setup and seamless integration let's talk about the premier home kit aggregator app you can manage control all I device products and any other home kit enables of enabled device there these are more than just got gadgets they're like you can do it and you could do it these are more than just gadgets these are smart home products designed for a complete smart home experience bo yeah so surf on over to I devices calm and use the promo code apple byte that's for fifteen percent of its I devices I and si.com off your home evolution say it with me Steven I devices evolving your home sweet thanks I devices for continue to roll with us on the apple byte extra crunchy nothing but love for you all and you all should check it out we have used them and they are pretty sweet just a few quick hits before we get our voicemails Apple will begin selling the sonos wireless speaker systems online starting today and then in stores next month if you're familiar with sonos and there's smart speakers in your home ability to play music in multiple rooms a same songs in different rooms different songs in different rooms a really cool really cool platform and it's all I think what it might be behind it i I'm sorry I blank for saying I believe Apple music is now finally it was running a beta on sonos ah and so that's probably most likely why they're coming out to retail stores now that they fully support it totally like different question than this sonus hitman you can you use these so no speakers for like 5.1 surround wirelessly well you can place them oh I know that at least you can do a 2.1 surround setup I don't off the top of my head I don't recall if you can do a 5.1 I feel like you can't but someone's gonna correct me because I haven't I don't have a so-so no set but it's really more for like that medium-sized to bigger size home speaker in different rooms that then can link up they have like a I believe they have a sonos black sound bar but not like a 5.1 if I recall but if I'm wrong just you know give me a bad apple okay also this this is a apple patents are very exciting here for the Apple white extra crunchy I mean the patents really tell us well you know what what Apple is looking to do down the future oh yeah what about this one Beecham you want to talk about this yeah I'm trying to get it up here on the website on the cnet com website but Apple has patented a new design for paper bags why they're reinventing the paper bag brian Tong this is a big deal let me find that paper bag article I can tell you some specifically about me please tell me ok so this bag right it's literally an apple retail store bag and what makes this this is a patent application that was applied by Apple the paper bag may include a bag container that's basically the shape of the bag formed of white solid bleached sulfate paper with at least sixty percent post-consumer content that is that's the hook sixty percent post-consumer content so if you it's like a you know way more efficient it's easier I think it's also easier to break down as well yes better the environment this is an apple patent ladies and gentlemen so I would run to your stores immediately and ask them if they have the new apple apple pie bed I bag yeah I bags yeah i was reading the article it's interesting like bags airbags the apple has a history of patenting random stuff and I guess they patented a fabric with laser etched words on it oh yeah they should pretty sure like that and then a five-axis robotic arm which seems like someone who'd already have a patent on I bet you know what that 5-axis robotic arm is for I have no idea do you remember when they launched I believe it was the iphone 6s possibly they showed off that robotic arm that kind of dismantle owns yeah what was wrong angle them had a name like naughty or something like but I bet you'd that he's related to that patent somehow someway totally he just might be and since we're talking about kind of goofy quirky gadgets how has the tech game gone a step too far has it because check this out this is called the loo della it is a smart candle yeah but that's too far it's an iphone controlled smart candle that it's not like a LED light it's an actual flame it's the first it's a world's first real flame smart candle it's called Lou della it retails it will retail this candle buddies ladies and gentlemen will be going for 149 are you kidding me they'll start for pre-order at $99 those candles better last for a lifetime Wow so it's it's not it never melt is it i guess knocks it looks like wax it has a changeable scent and has a real it has a real legit flame candle light baby liddell ax lu de la look it up there's got to be like some like you know disposable cartridge inside I don't know putting out gas or some I do not know but uh yeah Wow I do not enter all right should we get to our awesome voicemails yes remember y'all can call us on the apple byte extra crunchy wow how who what when where why how I have the number 1 806 162 638 let's get to the calls stopped the song here here we go call number one hi my name is Josh I'm from ambler Pennsylvania I absolutely love your show thanks for doing it my specific question is about the future of the ipad air I have the I'm sorry the ipad mini i have the ipad mini 4 i really love the size form factor but i'd really love an ipad mini that was basically an iPad Mini Pro you know the a processor is kind of weak for this day and age so I'm wondering if you think that'll get upgraded in the spring or whether they'll just do away with the ipad mini considering people are buying ipod pluses thanks again bye bye i think they're gonna keep it around as long as they possibly can just because the form factor i really hope that we see something new but no there have been no actual rumblings that appointed to anything iPad Mini related like you kind of talked about it looks like because of the larger screen iphone taking up some of that big screen stuff at the moment it looks like next year's iPad release will be a 9.7 a 10.5 and a 12.9 that's everything we've heard so far so we will wait and see I think the ipad mini still has a place you know in the product line but at the same time they just aren't selling that many ipads so we'll see where Apple believes that they're making their bread and butter because quite honestly and as sad as it is for me to say because I'm a huge ipad pro junkie the ipad pro ipad line in general just isn't getting much love yeah because people aren't buying them as much you don't need them you can you can do fine with like a 2nd gen 1 yeah first gen 1 even and and once you buy one you can keep it for like years and years and years and done it forever so okay next call hey Cheech and Chong this is John Collins from spotsylvania Virginia as curious if you guys thought then iTunes radio AKA i do music now pretty much is it going to ever have a web interface so that we get to it when we say at work it's that I haven't have itunes installed not possible for a lot of people just curious what your thoughts are on that all right okay I have some device it's a good question i do have some advice for my buddy I think they really actually would prefer that you use your like phone or your other device to go to iTunes and buy music from it instead of using a web-based store yeah because it's like it's in your pocket it's there anytime I get what you're saying I'd like to serve the desktop but and your say no you can't install itunes on that actual physical machine well you got itunes on your gadget and i'm assuming that he probably has an iphone otherwise he wouldn't be using itunes at all yeah i was thinking like he's thinking more like you know like a not like a spotify but like um what's the other one starts with a gorgeous like quick musics like just music radio kind of application you know what i mean i think he's talking out musically uh rhapsody I'll bragging Rhapsody Ramsey we're just like am online music radio service that's playing that its just its own app you know so you don't have to have itunes and all that stuff so yeah why don't they do something they did for a while then now they just direct you directly to the app but he's saying but what if I can't download the app on the machine yeah because a lot of people that were like we couldn't get Mac Oh Ciara oh no you no no no not it's not allowed not allow sir not a lot yet not a lot we were like I always feel like we're like six seven months after they they bring it out were then allowed to use it but you know we're on a corporate network and they want to make sure they keep it tight they don't want to get hacked yeah that's a good question they say I think they should why why not manpower will don't download that I think they would but I'd well I think it's it's just more of a man power issue I think there's a lot of things that they'd feel like um yeah I think we're going to work on updating the software to x y&z before we do this yeah if they did that they should have done it when they launched the radio stations that they did what were those when they beats down and just like that and just in general and they when they update an OS just or you know release it release it then yeah yeah just do something with that within aligning with the software so at least you have a good story to tell so all right thanks for calling buddy okay next call hey Brian and beach this is shane from Sioux Falls South Dakota just calling to say love your show thank you guys for keeping me company while driving for work with the apple lightning headphones do those work on previous generations or is it something just the iphone 7 also curious if we've looked at what are the benefits of using that driver using the Lightning driver for headphones is that something of benefit or is it just gimmicky thanks love the show how about this i won't call it gimmicky but it is a pure digital audio connection yeah so that's one benefit but i will tell you using an iphone with a lightning connector earpods and a dongle for regular earpods it has created a lot of subtle nick picky issues that you just never would think of really so for example how about this i plug in my ear pods with lightning to my laptop I'm sorry to my phone but I can't plug him into my laptop I'll need to use add adapter yeah or I'll just buy another pair of headphones from my laptop how about I juice I don't want to lose the ear pod headphones because to me it's annoying I'd rather bring a dongle converter with an actual real audio headphone so that it's more versatile when I try to use them anywhere else right once you have a airpot headphones you can use own any other device only an Apple device yeah yeah but if like maybe it sounds silly but if you want to hear something from your friends maybe you're at some sort of kiosk or maybe you're in a car or whatever the hell you want a real physical audio headphone connection I there's so many subtle uses and I'm like oh man there by getting away with that it's not gonna work and how about plugging your phone and listening to it at the same time and charging at the same time not gonna happen not gonna happen there's all these little things so um I think that really the major benefit is it is Apple's telling us that it helps slim their products down which no one is necessarily asking for but that's okay and then create a pure digital audio connection cool cool cool cool all right last call for alcohol hi this is Martin from North Carolina I want you guys to talk about apples neglect of the Mac lineup like for example the mac pro from 2013 out when it came out are they had outdated hardware nevermind now and it's way more expensive for the performance than anything you could get a custom built pc with all the professional software you need to UM the mac minis from 2014 the dose dual cores the top the high-end ones they perform worse than the quad core mechanism 2012 I'm but very frustrating and then the imac baseline starts at one point six gigahertz of dual core processing power with a 5400 RPM hard drive and that's 1099 now is just unacceptable I thought I thought apple would have moved on to higher power higher base clock speeds and all flash memory by now but you know anyway let me know your thoughts on these things thanks bye my friend as the great Michael Jackson once said you a not alone I am here with you I'm gonna stop that because people like all right I just got to the end of this pockets on him singing once i'm gonna turn it off now you know before okay I am y este okay I'm gonna stop or just voice no thank you thank you Oh Michael Jackson not mine but uh no you are you are not missing it we are expecting a potentially see some max getting upgraded in October hopefully I don't know if they're gonna even upgrade the entire line but they really desperately need to do something even just the mac pros like their high-end you know desktop workstation I don't think it's been updated in at least two years and our editors are like um yeah this is not the best video editing machine we talk a lot of our editors are not and running and really happy with it yeah totally that's the garbage can right yes it's yes attraction trash receptacle the the jet the jet engine I think we will definitely see new imacs you know it'll be up bumped up with graphics cards and processors um and the mac mini good lord 5400 RPM drive you gotta get up on that oh yeah yeah there's so many factors I i have to i think it's like the building a car they're building too many reenabled thing they're built you know their focus on the phone they're trying to innovate the phone the headphone there's so many things they're building this massive cupertino headquarters base building you know so they got my think it's a lot of stuff then maybe they're just like neglecting you can see I think more than anything you can see the neglect in their software focus yes because all I'm saying I kind of pointed out I can't remember if it was last week of the week before but I point how the iOS 10 podcast app versus music app versus movie app they're all media players yeah but they're all completely different in how they totally pletely different they're laid out how they're used yes straight up the music player is like a column on the far right side that looks like what your phone is it's not filled to the screen on an iPad I'm just like what are you guys doing yeah so you know felt their stretch then let's just put it that way yeah I accidentally updated my phone to iOS 10 yeah like I plugged it in in the computer like yeah sure why not yeah I thought it was updating itunes but actually updated but it you know it's I'm living with it and it's okay the music app is little better the buttons are bigger it's so still just a more streamlined I do like the music app is the icer it's a little bit easier it's easier to get to stuff so that's not as crazy but you know I've been using the iphone 7 and I've got to tell you I don't have a 7 plus okay that home button that's like a flat you know taptic feedback touchpad kind of like a laptop um touchpad it took time to get used to but I'm used to it but man I really feel like I'm just using an iphone 6s really I really do really other than the fact that there's a lightning cable that bugs me in the home button but I'm not complaining about Italy and gentlemen the speed of it is nice but you know these phones already so fast when you start dealing with this every day you're like huh I don't really feel much of a difference yeah yeah in fact I feel like I'm missing something well which you are what I've noticed is just the lift to wake you know when I just lift your phone and it wakes up how do i turn that off because I don't like it I'm afraid it's gonna there's my battery life yeah it will most likely does let's see here someone could just like tweet me or someone could just like say yo oh no I'm gonna I'm gonna look in the settings on that I can't remember I was looked all over the place and they could not find how to turn that off because now every time I looked on my phone it lights up and I do not like okay here we go go near display and brightness I was trying to find out what it was actually calling some like I think it's called any different it's raised to week raised to wake up or turn that bad boy off early and brightness raised wait there it is got it all right thank miracles happen here on the show just a Rapala said I did fix it I fixed it wrapping this up again we like to thnkx today's sponsors I devices manufacturing meticulously designed and thoughtful products like smart plugs switches thermostats and socket light bulb adapters that sort any dumb bulb into a smart bulb with dimming capabilities and full-color custom customizable night lights if you're still watching this I'm gonna say this it works with Siri and Alexa oh haha your your echo just went off surf on over to I devices inc com that's I NC use the promo code apple byte for fifteen percent off your home's evolution say it with me Steven I devices evolving your home alright that's gonna do it for this week's a early show I guess we will we are planning on having one on friday if everything goes alright with our schedules it's the app white extra crunchy episode 56 that's a wrap we'll see you guys here you guys talk to you guys in a bit who's this out bye you you