iOS Today 658, Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

Mikah Sargent (00:00:00):
Coming up on iOS today, Rosemary Orchard is out. But don't worry, I am joined by Christopher Lawley and we round out our WW d c operating system coverage this time with Watch OS and TV os. Stay tuned

Speaker 2 (00:00:19):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is Twitch is tweet.

Mikah Sargent (00:00:29):
This is iOS today with Micah Sergeant and special guest, Christopher Lawley, episode 658 recorded Tuesday, June 13th, 2023 WW D c watch OS 10 and TV OS 17. This episode of iOS Today is brought to you by Brook Linen. This year, give your dad the gift of a good night's sleep. They deserve the best rest. And Brook Linen has their comfort covered with a lineup of home essentials made for relaxation. Visit brooklinen.com today and get $20 off plus free shipping on orders of $100 or more with the code i o s and buy HelloFresh America's number one meal kit. Get farm fresh pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. Skip the grocery store and count on HelloFresh to make home cooking easy, fun and affordable. Go to hellofresh.com/ios 16 and use code iOS 16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping and buy cash.

(00:01:34):
Fly Cash fly delivers rich media content up to 10 times faster than traditional delivery methods and 30% faster than other Major CDNs. Meet customer expectations 100% of the time. Learn how you can get your first month free@cashfly.com. Welcome back to iOS Today, the show where we talk all things iOS and TV os and Home Pod os and watch OS and iPad os <laugh>. And look, there are so many operating systems that Apple works on every year. And at ww d c each year they announce the new features coming to those various operating systems. Last week, Rosemary Orchard and I talked a whole heck of a lot about the various features you can expect coming in iOS and iPad OS 17, but we couldn't get to everything else. So today we cover everything else. It's watch os it's TV os and maybe a few other scraps that you may have missed. Joining me for this episode is not Rosemary Orchard, but it is special guest Christopher Lolly. Welcome back to the show. Chris. Thank

Christopher Lawley (00:02:47):
You for having me. I'm definitely no Rosemary Orchard but I will do my best to try and fill those shoes.

Mikah Sargent (00:02:52):
This is what I say every week, <laugh>. But we are, we are glad to have you here. Of course, you were at the event first time meeting in person Yes. And that was very exciting. And you of course were you know, covering as much as you possibly could. There was lots to talk about. I know that you since coming back from the event, have still done a lot of coverage. There was a YouTube video that you published recently where you asked some people some things. I'm saying it that way so that you can tell us about the video <laugh> yes. And kind of promo that.

Christopher Lawley (00:03:30):
Yes. And in fact, Micah was in it. And a lot of other people you may know Jason Snell to Ann Moore I know has been on the show. I went around and asked a bunch of developers and creators and bloggers and podcasters what their favorite thing announced at WW d c was. But I put an asterisk on it that they weren't allowed to say the headset <laugh> because it would've been a really boring video. Let me tell you something, y'all Micah, did you get a headset briefing? Did you get to

Mikah Sargent (00:03:58):
Try it? I did not. No. No, sadly not. Neither

Christopher Lawley (00:04:01):
Did I. <Laugh> Cupertino that week was split into two groups. Yes. It was the people that got to try the headset <laugh> and the rest of us that were angry and jealous that we didn't get to try the headset. So yeah. It was, it was a fun week. Got to see Micah in person for the first time and hung out a bit on Monday and Wednesday. I don't even remember. It's all a blur now, but it was wild. There was some great stuff. And I know you guys already talked about iPad os but if I can just sneak in one thing, of course, stage Manager is fixed. Woo.

Mikah Sargent (00:04:33):
Now what does that mean? Stage Manager, this is something that I brought up. I, I mentioned that you specifically were excited about Stage Manager being fixed. What does that mean?

Christopher Lawley (00:04:41):
Yeah, I think you were sitting at the table when I realized exactly what fixed is. So there's a few different changes to Stage Manager that I've been really excited about. So first off, you can now resize windows more freely. It's not completely free, it's still based on the the layout system that it was in iPad OS 16. But there's a lot more intervals to it. You can make the, the, it's not as snappy and forces you to have a really specific window size. It's a lot more free. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, you can also move Windows anywhere you want without other windows in the background being shifted around. So you can freely move windows around, which is really nice. And then the other thing that I consider a huge, huge improvement is now if you have like a keyboard and trackpad or mouse selected added paired, wow. Couldn't think of the word to your iPad, you can now shift click on an app from the doc or the recent section and it will add it to your current stage. So instead of, you know, having to open an app and then drag and drop an app into the other stage and like do that whole song and dance, you can just open apps right into that current stage now. And this is something I'm very excited about. Well, Siri just went off <laugh>.

Mikah Sargent (00:05:57):
Yes. You know, Siri always wants to chime in and apparently is excited about Stage Manager. You heard it here first. So with that knowledge underway, let us dig into the first of the two operating systems we want to talk about today. And that is the next version of Watch os it's time for watch OS 10. Before the show started, we were kind of grumbling about the fact that Watch Os unfortunately is not in the same numbering system as the rest of the operating systems. So you've got iOS 17, iPad OS 17 and yet Watch OS is somehow on 10. Look, it did come out later and it is an operating system that obviously is tied to the watch and it's wholly separate from the other operating systems. Kind of the, the, when it comes to iOS and iPad os, they're very similar.

(00:06:54):
One is just running on larger screens and even TV OS is kind of an offshoot and home pod os which we talk about on the show, but is not technically exactly what it is. Internally. All of those are sort of offshoots of what exists. You know, the, the software that runs on the HomePod is very similar to tvOS. So in that way it makes sense that Watch Os has its own number. It just gets a little confusing at times. But yeah, watch OS 10. There are some new exciting features and I also feel like some a bit of reminiscing of older features that have that have been on Watch os in the past that have come back. So first and foremost I think is the way that some of the apps that you have are just, they just have some, some tweaks to them, right?

(00:07:54):
They, they they have some tweaks to make it so that more of the screen is showing more information at all times. So on Apple's website they actually talk about how for example, the Clock app. And I love this because Rosemary and I of course are in very different time zones. And so now I can easily use the Digital Crown to kind of swipe through different times or rather scroll through different times and see what time it is for her versus where I am. And they talk about how each of the corners of the screen are completely used. I am curious if you are running, frankly are just in general any of the betas and if so, are you also running the watchOS beta?

Christopher Lawley (00:08:41):
I'm running all of the

Mikah Sargent (00:08:43):
Betas

Christopher Lawley (00:08:43):
Except Mac Os because I just got a Mac Studio Review unit, so I've been focused on working on that, but I'm gonna put Sonoma on it later. But yes, I'm running all the betas including Watch OS and TV os as of last night because I wanted to prep and be ready for the show. So normally I don't do TV os that's the one I don't typically cover. But for you Micah, I and your audience, I did it. Thank you. So yeah, I, I'm, I'm kind of liking watch OS 10. It's, I know it was kind of rumored that it was gonna be this big like design overhaul and it really wasn't that, but there was a lot of really nice touches in it.

Mikah Sargent (00:09:22):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, again, this, this really does feel overall like they're just some slight shifts to things that make the watch more usable because you have these, these apps that, you know, at first you want them to be kind of glanceable right? And be able to, to quickly get information. But as time has gone on and as we've gotten used to these devices on our wrists, there's room for sort of a, a more data that can be available at one time. So it has, I think, significantly improved the access that you have on the watch. And I, I have a feeling too that if Apple is looking at the sort of the data of purchases, something tells me that a lot of the time people are opting for the larger screen Apple watches rather than the smaller screen Apple watches. And anecdotally that's what I've seen Rosemary Rocks and Apple Watch Ultra and you've got, you know, a lot of screen space on there.

(00:10:30):
And so if you've gotta let screen Space, why not make use of it to the best of your ability. Now I think one of the most important features that's been added in Watch OS 10 or that will be coming in watch OS 10 is something that we've sort of seen in the past in early versions of Watch Os there was a sort of glance view where you could get quick access information from different apps and over time that disappeared. You got the control center instead. Well, things have kind of changed back to the ways that they used to be, but with some polish, I think some fit and finish. So yeah, there's a feature called Smart Stack and basically no matter what watch face you're on, you can scroll with a digital crown up from the bottom of the screen essentially, and it brings up a bunch of different widgets in a smart stack.

(00:11:24):
So this is almost like if folks have are familiar with Apple Watch and watchOS, it's kind of like the Siri face that has been part of watchOS for quite a while now, where it's giving you relevant information and a very glanceable view. And so I can quickly see my weather, I can see my now playing if I'm playing, you know, something on my iPhone or even on the Apple Watch directly, I can see upcoming events like, oh, from nine to 11, I'm going to be doing iOS today with Christopher Lawley today. That's good to know. Also the weather, my activity, and then there are some little buttons at the bottom that can quickly let me access different features. All of that is available, available via the Smart Stack and again, accessible from any watch face. But with that comes a change to the way things work because I used to just swipe up on the screen to access control center and now that's not there. So what do I do now? We just press the side button to access control center. So I'm curious, have you gotten used to that? Has your muscle memory changed yet? Are you still trying to get to control center with a swipe up?

Christopher Lawley (00:12:36):
Every once in a while I still try and swipe up, but I think like the, to this morning I was I changed Focus modes using my watch and I just, I hit the button and was just like, okay, I think it's sinking in. I really like this change. I love the series Siri Watch Face back in the day, especially year two when it got updated for third party app support, but it never got updated past then. So when watch Face, when the watches got bigger, that watch face never adapted to those bigger screens. So it just kind of became, you know, a kind of junk almost because it just, it didn't, you know, I have this fancy new watch and I want watch faces that are gonna take up it. So the watch face I've been using now, I don't know if you can see this or not, but it's the California watch face, which I really like. Cause it looks like it looks nice, it's not, you know, and, and you know, we're in California here, Micah <laugh>, you

Mikah Sargent (00:13:32):
Know.

Christopher Lawley (00:13:32):
So it's, it's nice to have that kind of good looking watch face, but it's still a computer on my wrist, so I still want information. So being able to have that nice watch face, but oh, now I can quickly scroll up into the smart stack and see all of those widgets is really nice. Now the bummer thing is, is third parties are going to have to update to get those, some of their widgets in there. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So I'm, I'm kind of waiting on, on some really specific apps to get in there for the, the, the smart stack to be useful to me. But now there's stuff like calendar and now playing and fitness which is pretty useful to have right there in that stack.

Mikah Sargent (00:14:13):
Absolutely. And of course, I think with almost every new addition or new update to watch os we get at least one new face this time. There are two new faces and I was very excited as a person living in Sonoma County to see Snoopy and Woodstock come to the Apple Watch. This is the, I think, so I'm not a big Disney person, so Mickey and Minnie never really sort of had me all excited, but seeing Snoopy and Woodstock live at the presentation, if someone had looked over at that time, I had just like the biggest grin on my face. I was so excited about it. Cuz I just, I find those two characters delightful. The watch faces are very playful. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And that was fun, in fact. So during the week, I just learned this from one of the designers who works on Watch os during the week, the Snoopy face will be, it has a black and white background, and Snoopy and Woodstock will kind of interact with the time specifically. So Woodstock, for example, is hanging out on the minute hand Snoopy appears from the bottom, and then depending on the weather that can change. If you are currently active, then you might see Snoopy catching a Frisbee. But on Sundays the background changes to a colorful background. And the reason for that is because it was always the Sunday paper that had the full color funnies. Oh.

(00:15:46):
So they were tying that to just like the newspaper where it prints in Keller on Sundays. I thought that was delightful. Very clever, very cute. And yeah, I, I love the little Snoopy faces. Now, of course, I always have to balance my delight with my desire for a bunch of information on my watch <laugh>. So those are, are, you know, sort of rare occasions where I actually use those faces, but knowing they're there and being able to activate them if I want to is kind of fun. The other face that came is one called Pallet. So the way that it works is it uses kind of three layers that overlap on the watch. And each of these layers kind of corresponds to different times. The colors change throughout the day, so you can sort of glance at the face without even necessarily needing to see the hour and minute hands and know what time it is. It's my understanding that they try to show kind of sunset and sunrise. So you'll notice that yellow spill of color there all of that information is a way to kind of easily tell what part of the day you're in. For me, pallet's a little bit too minimal, but I know some folks Yeah. Who are sort of more design minded. Were very happy about the pallet edition.

Christopher Lawley (00:17:13):
It, it's, it's, it's a bit too colorful for me. Like it, there's like too much going on mm-hmm. <Affirmative> for it. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> to, for me to like be able to use it. I like color, but I like splashes of color and stuff like that. I don't, I don't like it to wear, like, here's a bunch of colors and they all mean different things and figure out what that means. It's, it's too much for my brain. Yeah.

Mikah Sargent (00:17:33):
I'm, I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you. We actually need to take a quick break. So I can tell you about our first sponsor today, but we will be back with even more coverage of Watch OST v o s and anything else we might have missed or some of the things rather we might have missed to WW D C 2023. This episode, I am joined by Christopher Lawley with Rosemary Orchard returning in two weeks time. But now it is time to tell you about Brooke Linen who are bringing you this episode of iOS Today. I have to tell you, I have never felt like I've had a more perfect sleep situation than I do now that I have my brooklynn sheets, I've already got the mattress that cools me. The mattress itself was also a sponsor of the network.

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(00:23:17):
They talk about in watch OS 10 cycling being sort of a big part of this. There are new metrics that you can get whenever you have special Bluetooth accessories. So there are bikers will be very familiar with these accessories that can measure cadence, speed, and power. And so these can be strapped to the bike in different places. One place is on the actual pedal itself and if there are any bikers out there, they're nodding going, yeah, yeah, we use this all the time now it's just better integrated in watch OS 10. So you can sort of use that directly as well as a new Power Zones workout view. So with that power meter being connected via Bluetooth than Apple Watch is going to over time create a functional threshold power measurement. And what this does is it helps create these kind of power zones.

(00:24:12):
So as you're biking, as you're cycling, you can see which zone you're in, and then over time it can work to help you figure out kind of your performance and, and how long you can keep going. They also have kind of optimized the way that the metrics appear. So whenever you start a cycling workout, it's gonna show up as a live activity on your iPhone that way you can see on your iPhone and this bigger screen, all of that information, how fast you're going, your average speed, your distance, your heart rate, et cetera. I was excited to see the improvements to hiking as a person who very much enjoys hiking, including some new views in the Compass app. So this in the, in the newer version, you can see a three-dimensional view. And what is neat is that they have some new waypoints.

(00:25:05):
So we've talked about this in the past. Waypoints are within the, the Compass app. And with, with Apple Watch a way to kind of mark where you've been. So it's great for saying, you know, Trailhead is here, or my base camp is here, or this is where the car is now, there are some automatic waypoints that will be added. There's a waypoint for when you last had connectivity to your cellular network. So whenever you were last able to make a call on your cellular network. But then further on down, there's a, there's a waypoint that will be added for placing an emergency call because in the United States and in many other countries there's sort of a rule that any cellular network needs to allow for an emergency call to be placed on their network if they, if your phone is in a place where it can connect to any cellular network.

(00:26:03):
So the Compass app will drop a point when it gets to, and it's notated as SOS on this screen that we're showing the last point that you were able to make a full on call on any cellular network that's available. And then of course, after that, if you've got a newer iPhone, you can use the satellite feature to place that call. So that was very exciting. As well as some more trail information that's included within apple Watch, very exciting and topographic maps paired with elevation alerts. So now you can kind of see these different points. I find this very helpful because I don't know about you Christopher, but when I hike, it's almost never a true hiking trip unless I get lost <laugh>. That's when you know you're really hiking. So I'm excited to see these, these features come that will maybe make it so that I don't have to get lost anymore.

Christopher Lawley (00:26:59):
Yeah. In, in that video that we mentioned at the, the top of the show I was talking to a friend I Justine, about these features. These were the picks that she had for, for that video. And the hiking thing sounds really great, especially for, like, I I go up to yo Yosemite a lot and I definitely get lost in the woods every once in a while. So they've always had the back trace feature, backtrack, I forget what it's called, but the ability to like go back and be like, okay, this is where I last had cellular would be really nice. And the cycling stuff. My parents are big cycle people. Big, big, big cyclists. I almost had bikers, but that's a different thing. So, but so they're, they're absolutely gonna love this. I'm kind of curious to see what accessories hook into this. And that'll probably be their Christmas present this year because, you know, I gotta make videos <laugh>.

Mikah Sargent (00:27:51):
Right, exactly. So you get to talk about it. That's great. And then there is some, some updates. This is technically across both iOS and Watch OS and now even iPad os with the introduction of health on iPad os. But there are some new updates to mental health and I've, I've been pretty excited about this. I've been using it cuz I am running the beta. I'm waiting to go fully delve deep into demos and things like that until the public beta ships. So that's why today we're not showing a whole lot of the features in realtime use, but instead showing the, the website. But with the updates to mental health, there's now some emotional awareness features as well as daily mood features. So what what ends up happening here is throughout the day you can set this however you want to.

(00:28:47):
You can set, you know, 3, 4, 5 reminders. You can just have two. It's two by default. You will get a notification, a little tap on your wrist that says, Hey, tell us how you're feeling right now. And so you can choose to log your feelings and you have two options. There's the option to say, this is how I'm feeling in this exact moment, or this is how I felt over the course of the day. And each of those, that, that's a different thing. It's a momentary emotion or it's a daily mood. With the momentary emotion, you can say you, you sort of use the digital crown to determine how pleasant you're feeling. Very pleasant, pleasant, neutral, slightly unpleasant. There's sort of list there. And then afterwards it has some options for adjectives to describe how you're feeling. So you can say, I'm feeling worried if you're slightly unpleasant, I'm feeling sad, I'm feeling I'm feeling lost, I'm feeling lonely.

(00:29:47):
Or if you're feeling good, then excited, I'm feeling energized, invigorated. And then after that it'll ask you what in your life is making you feel this way? And you can choose, you know, family, partner self-care work tasks, all sorts of different options. And each one of these except for the first one where you're actually just logging the mood or a momentary emotion, each one of those steps afterward is optional. So if you aren't really in the mood to choose any of those, you can just skip past them. You can also add new tags if you'd like. And then it will log it in your mental health app. Afterward as you continue to build this up, you will get some information about how different factors might be playing into your state of mind. So if your exercise is down, perhaps during that day, you're not feeling so great.

(00:30:48):
If your exercise is up, it could be a day where you do feel good or if your, you know, the amount of time you spent in daylight is up, then that could also be making you feel good if you are not sleeping enough that could have you feeling unpleasant. It basically, it helps you kind of tie these different data points that you've started to collect together and look at the impact that that has on your health, which I think is really a very cool idea. And then on top of that feature, it will also not on the Apple Watch directly, but as part of this new initiative in mental health, occasionally you will get questionnaires if you turn on this feature that are the standardized questionnaires to determine your sort of risk for anxiety or depression. And so that will give you some information about how you might be feeling based on those momentary emotions and those daily moods.

(00:31:48):
So I've been trying to stick with that. When I get these log requests, I'm trying to fill them out. Cause I'm curious to see the insights that it shows over time. So that's been pretty neat. And then I'll mention, mention one other health thing. And you, you can kind of share your thoughts on these two things. There's also vision health. So Apple made a point during the keynote to talk about how there are different sort of activities or actions that folks can take, especially kids can take to improve upon their vision by reducing the risk of nearsightedness or myopia. And one of the ways is by spending more time in daylight, research shows that spending more time outdoors and in daylight can help reduce the risk of nearsightedness. So the Apple watch, using the ambient light sensor can keep track of the time you've spent in daylight and then use that information to kind of give you an idea of how much time this is particularly for children that they are kind of pointing this feature to toward that way you can know, okay you should probably spend some more time outside that can help reduce the risk of myopia.

(00:33:11):
And then there's also a feature for iPhone that I've been using that has been kind of, if I can I guess do the pun, it's been kind of eye-opening. Which is a feature that uses the front facing sensors to determine how close you are holding your iPhone to your face. And if you're holding it too close according to what is suggested for reducing the risk of nearsightedness, then it will pop up a full screen notification saying, Hey, your iPhone's a little too close to your face, move it back. And then you move it back until the thing says you can continue, you tap continue and you get back to your phone. I hold my phone too close to my face quite a bit. And so that's been kind of shocking to me. I was a little, I was a little caught off guard by how, how much I hold my iPhone kind of even, you know, sort of here is too close to my face. And for folks who are listening, it's about, I don't know, eight to 10 inches, maybe a foot away from my face. But after a while I'll get a notification on my phone saying, move that back. So that's been kind of interesting. So yeah, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on these new health features.

Christopher Lawley (00:34:23):
Yeah, I, you know, I love, love some good health features. The the log your state of mind one though kind of, kind of feels like apple's just ripping off mood rings, you know? Yeah. On those things you got for a quarter and you're just squeezed really hard to be, I'm just kidding. <Laugh>. I'm kidding. No, they're great. They're a I've been playing with, well, not playing, I've been using the state of mind mental health features and I really like those. I really like what they're doing with that, especially because I am somebody that you know, I have ups and downs just like everybody else and I have good days, I have bad days. And it's interesting to be able to log those trends and be able to say like, okay, hey, when I exercise or when I actually eat breakfast or when I actually, you know, like, have a sleep well or something like that, I have a good day.

(00:35:09):
It's, it's wild that that would actually, you know, come into consideration. If you sleep well, you'll ha you know, be rested and be ready to work for the day. But I haven't done the vision stuff yet. I'm curious to see what that looks like. Cuz I'm, I guarantee you I hold my devices way too close to my face, so I'm sure I'll be right there with you getting those notifications, but I'm glad to see Apple do more and more health stuff every year. It, it definitely seems like there's always something every year and it's just, you know, a matter of checking off the boxes and like, you know, seeing what they can do and what, you know, certain government regulatory Bo bodies will let them do.

Mikah Sargent (00:35:50):
Yes. That always of course is part of the the question. Right. they, so yeah, I, I, of course am kind of keeping track of this and, and seeing how these features do help to improve things. Some other features coming to watch OS 10 this is mostly for developers, but there are improved workout APIs that will make use of the motion sensors and the Apple Watch Ultra and the series eight. So that way we, they showed on screen golf and tennis, I think it was golf in particular where developers can kind of help somebody figure out their golf swing and maybe not needing a bunch of extra equipment to do that. Offline maps I was very excited about. I downloaded some offline maps to my iPhone, but if they're downloaded to your iPhone, you can use them on the Apple Watch which is great, you know, as long as your Apple Watch is tied to your iPhone.

(00:36:46):
And then one thing that wasn't clear on stage that became clear to me afterward when they talked about the name drop feature, the feature that lets you share contact information with someone else by simply bringing your phone near their phone, what they did show on screen, they said it works with Apple Watch and they showed an iPhone and an Apple watch next to each other where you could bring the iPhone to the Apple watch and then it would also let you share that contact information. The thing that wasn't clear was whether it would work Apple watch to Apple Watch, it does work. Apple watch to Apple Watch, so Oh cool. If you use, there's a complication in watch OS 10 called my card. And if you tap on the my card complication and they tap on their my card complication and you bring the Apple Watch faces to each other then and you know, you let the little screens kiss, then it will share your contact information.

(00:37:36):
They will share theirs via name drop. One last thing I'll mention for watch o s 10 are follow up medication reminders. We talked about this briefly. Yes. this is exciting, although I have to say it will not shift me from using Do do is the app that I use for this and I will continue using Do I Love Do. But for the folks who, you know, may be looking for a first party solution, this is great. If you're wondering what we're talking about here, it is basically continuing to be nagged until you take the medication that you've logged in that you know, that you've added to your medication reminders in the health app. So that way you will definitely make sure that you take the medication you're supposed to be taking. So that's fantastic. Anything else you wanna say about Watch OS 10 before we take a quick break and then come back with T V O S and the rest of it,

Christopher Lawley (00:38:29):
You know, not the, the medication, the repeat medication stuff is really nice. Widgets are great. And then having corner complications inside apps just to maximize that screen real estate. I think this, it's not a huge update but I think it's going to be a very useful one.

Mikah Sargent (00:38:47):
Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, let me take a quick break to tell you about our second sponsor today. It's Hello Fresh this summer. Hellofresh is here to take the work out of eating. Well reach your goals with delicious calorie smart and protein, smart lunch and dinner options, plus new vegan recipes too. You can get farm to table quality with every HelloFresh box. Hellofresh. Seasonal ingredients are picked at peak ripeness and travel from the farm to your doorstep in less than seven days for fresh flavor in every bite. And that's one of the things that I've very much appreciated about HelloFresh, is when I open the box and I open the bag, I don't need to worry about what I'm finding inside that's not moldy and gross. It's peak ripeness, peak freshness, wonderful stuff. Figuring out what's for dinner is not at the top of anyone's summer activity wishlist.

(00:39:45):
It's certainly not at the top of any list that I have. And so HelloFresh is there to deliver mouthwatering chef crafted recipes and fresh ingredients to your door so you can spend your summer doing well, whatever you want. Hellofresh Market also has new snacks, meals, and more to add on to your weekly order, like their fun Sam Mores bundle for the kids. You can make entertaining easy with a selection of crowd pleasing eats like the bro worst bar with caramelized onions, dee slaw and pineapple relish, or a snack board with pretzel bites, spiced bar nuts and hot honey peach jam. If you need dinner ready, like now, well look for quick and easy recipes on the Hello Fresh menu, including fast and fresh options ready in just 15 minutes or less. And I have to note that those fast and fresh options, you don't need to worry about them being, you know, subpar or not as good as everything else.

(00:40:40):
I'll talk about one of the fast and fresh options that I had. That was great. Hellofresh is more convenient than grocery shopping and yeah, many people probably know that, but did you know that it's also less expensive as well? It's also 25% less expensive than takeout. So you're saving money whether you're grocery shopping or you're doing takeout. This is gonna save you money in both places, no matter your lifestyle. You'll always find delicious recipes on the HelloFresh menu. You can take a bite outta something new with 40 recipes to choose from weekly. You can even swap proteins and sides to make a recipe just how you like it. So if instead of pork in the recipe, you want chicken, you can do that. You switch out the protein very easy. One of those fast and fresh meals that I made it was a sort of roasted potato salad and chicken.

(00:41:34):
In fact, it might not be that right there. Parmesan Parmesan chive chicken and potatoes, I'm pretty sure that's the exact recipe. It is a fast and fresh recipe. It's low carb for folks who have that concern and it took 15 minutes or so to make. But what was great about it was this wonderful sauce that you got as part of the the recipe. And I remember sitting down and eating it, and my partner said, I could order this at a restaurant and I would be so very happy with it. This is, this is so good. So much so that I saved that recipe card so that I could try to recreate it at some point because it was very, very good. So I think everybody should at least give HelloFresh a try. Give it a try for the next 16 meals.

(00:42:24):
Hellofresh, it's America's number one meal kit. Go to hellofresh.com/ios 16. I know that's a little confusing cuz we're on iOS 17, but I promise it makes sense. Hellofresh.Com/Ios 16, use code iOS 16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping. See, it's the number of meals. That's hellofresh.com/ios 16. Use the code iOS 16 to get 16 free meals plus free shipping. Our thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring this week's episode of iOS Today. Man almighty, there is suddenly a, a brush of a breath, a a breeze of coffee smell in the studio. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And now my, my body is, is just going coffee <laugh>. It smells amazing. Anyway back from the break and now let's talk about TV os because I was so excited that I, I went into it expecting that I wasn't going to hear about TV os at Cwdc. Right. We didn't think it was gonna be announced on keynote notes. I

Christopher Lawley (00:43:30):
I was with our friend Mike Hurley that like, if they mentioned TV os it would be a waste of time considering they introduced a whole new platform at this. But it wasn't,

Mikah Sargent (00:43:40):
It wasn't, I was so excited to hear Wdo or to hear TV os announced, announced and talked about on stage. And even though it's a little difficult to find a page just on the basic apple.com website that talks about the new features, there is a newsroom article that talks about what's new in TV os the big change. The big feature that I'm very excited about is FaceTime coming to TV os. So I also installed the TV os Beta. I haven't not had a chance to try the new FaceTime feature, but just installing it. I was very impressed with the sort of change in the look and feel. There are some slight adjustments to the way that it looks. I believe that I've got more tiles on each row now. That may not be <laugh>. I, I, I ca I wasn't sure.

(00:44:39):
The spacing is better, it looks better and I can access more than I was able to before that I am certain of. But speaking of FaceTime, so for the long, or for, for since the last update to Makos, we've had something called continuity camera. And what it allowed us to do is be able to take our camera on our iPhone and use that at or an iPad as well, and use that as the screen for our max. So folks especially during the pandemic, but elsewhere who have wanted to be able to use this great camera that's built into the iPhone as their webcam had been unable to up to that point. Finally Apple added the feature. You could sort of dock your iPhone camera above the screen and then suddenly you had this great camera that would work, serve as your webcam.

(00:45:38):
And then they added a bunch of different features that sort of use the processing to pan the camera around and try to keep your face in focus. With the addition of that feature, apple had this great idea of let's bring it to TV os let's make it so that I can start a FaceTime call on my big old screen and then use my phone camera as the way to communicate with the people on screen. So I, I was talking I think this was, I can't remember if this was one of the features that I talked to you about in the video, but it was definitely one that I talked about in general following the event. And also got to talk to a couple of the folks who worked on this feature and, and sort of thank them as well, <laugh>, because this feature in particular is one that is gonna make all the difference during holidays.

(00:46:37):
So I moved to California from my home state of Missouri back in 2019 and moved by myself out here. So all of my family, all the people that I have known are all back in my home state. And due to the pandemic and everything else that's been involved, I have not had the opportunity to visit them during the holidays. And so during the holidays, what we've done thus far is I bring the 12.9 inch iPad down, slap it down on a little table, and then they awkwardly pass around an iPhone <laugh> during the holidays. And we say our hellos and we hang out a little bit. And it is kind of, it, it's, it's jarring. It's not fun. This I am looking forward to because this is going to be the opportunity for us to kind of get to share our living spaces.

(00:47:33):
I have a huge screen in the living room and so it's gonna feel like they're right there and I that I, I can't, I can't quite describe how wonderful I think this is going to be. I was really, really pleased that this would be coming to the Apple TV now of importance. It is an Apple TV 4K feature, so if you were hoping to use it with an older model, apple tv, that is not the case as it stands because it very likely needs the processing power and also the upgraded wireless capabilities of the Apple TV 4K together to make this possible. But yeah. I'm curious, you know, were you excited about this feature coming to Apple tv?

Christopher Lawley (00:48:28):
Yeah, yeah, there's, there's a few people I have like really long FaceTime calls with and it'd be nice to just be able to set it up in the living room on the big TV and have my iPad and still be able to work and stuff like that. But this to me screams that they are working on a new Apple tv. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> that's probably built into some kind of soundbar with a mic and a camera. So you have center, center stage, not stage manager. I once called it Center Stage Manager <laugh>.

Mikah Sargent (00:48:56):
It's a very particular role. <Laugh>

Christopher Lawley (00:48:58):
Apple Apples naming. Ugh. But yeah, this screams to me that there is a new one coming and that's pretty cool. Like, like hardware wise, I would love to get like an Apple TV built into a soundbar and stuff like that cuz it just makes sense that they would put it as an all in one device or that they're working on some kind of vertical I iPhone stand because you, you need like something to put your iPhone on or your iPad on. And I, I could, especially with standby mode, I could see Apple maybe working on like a vertical MagSafe stand. So I think these features are hinting at some future hardware stuff.

Mikah Sargent (00:49:36):
Yes. there was also the, there was a WW d c session that I'm probably going to watch today cuz I just have not had the opportunity to for a new sort of kit. Oh yes. The developers are able to take advantage of called Dash Kit and it basically lets camera apps communicate with motorized docks. Oh, I said dash kit, I meant Dock Kit. Yeah. And so it will let you, you know, th walk your iPhone to a MagSafe dock and then the Dock and the iPhone can kind of communicate with one another. And what is that going to look like? Well, I think we can pretty much figure out what that's going to look like. That there will be apps that will be able to follow you around a room so that you can move around and talk along with center stage.

(00:50:28):
There are some other kind of bits and bs to this. Center stage of course is the feature set that lets the phone use the multiple cameras or the iPad or your even your Mac. Use the camera to show it. It, there's technically a larger view that it's looking at and then it kind of zooms in on you and moves with you digitally as opposed to sort of physically. There are also some new gesture based reactions. So two thumbs up. Can I can't remember if two thumbs up is fireworks. I think it's fireworks. I don't remember. I haven't used them yet. Yeah, I've not used those yet either. The Hearts, the Heart will do some hearts. So you can do some fun, cute little things while you're kind of having a conversation. And then also share play of course, is the big announcement from from previous wwd cs where you and others can over the web share in a session together of, of either watching a movie, listening to music playing a game.

(00:51:35):
And with Split View on Apple tv, you can all watch something together while you're FaceTiming together as well out of the corner. So there's a great way to kind of communicate and use, share play to do that. Whether you're using it on an iPhone or an iPad, you can transfer between those devices. You can switch to the different versions. And then something that I saw people getting very excited about, including my co-host on Clockwise, Stan Morin he was kind of saying, yeah, this is cool and all the FaceTime's coming to Apple tv, but what sucks is that it doesn't work with Zoom. And then right after he said that they said, oh, and WebEx and Zoom <laugh>, we'll be launching TV os apps later this year. And so you'll be able to use them with this continuity camera feature.

(00:52:25):
So developers will be able to use the Continuity camera APIs with their Apple TVs and be able to access that and make use of it. Another feature that is coming to TV os is an upgrade to Apple Music Sing. So you could already of course it's, it's karaoke but they, they don't call it karaoke. Yeah. and right now you've got your music, you can play it and kind of have the vocals brought down and see the lyrics with continuity camera you'll be able to show yourself on screen with some kind of features going on in the background so you can see yourself while you're playing and dancing. I went to a birthday party where there was a karaoke event not too long ago and I thought of this individual for do being able to do this because we were kind of up and dancing around as we were singing into the microphones. And having that little video effect as well kind of makes it feel like you're in a music video experience. But I think outside of FaceTime for TV os the single most exciting feature to me is the update to control center. Chris, tell us about your thoughts on control center and TV os 17 or tv? Yeah, TV os 17. See I was thinking watch o s 10. Yes. Ooh, got confused. Yes. Nope, nope.

Christopher Lawley (00:53:40):
You're good. You're good. I'm excited for the control center stuff. So it's kind of broken up into tabs now. So there's a tab for quickly pairing speakers, home pods, AirPods, things like that. There's also fast user switching and better home integration, first scenes and most importantly cameras. So you can see like the cameras in or outside your house or doorbell, cameras cuz I don't know about you Micah, but if I order food and stuff like that mm-hmm. <Affirmative> it's nice to have the little popup and see like, hey, this person's dropping off food. Or like the Amazon people like, or, or FedEx. Cuz FedEx never rings my doorbell unless they need a signature. So like the package will just be sitting out there. So it's nice to kind of get that little popup and stuff like that. So I, I think Control Center is, is a really, really good update. Fort v os 17. See I did it. See, yeah.

Mikah Sargent (00:54:34):
Right.

Christopher Lawley (00:54:34):
And I have, and I even have my notes right in front of me with the <laugh> with that labeled that. So

Mikah Sargent (00:54:40):
Yeah, I'm, I think that the new control center looks great. Oh, I should also mention, I mentioned coffee and now suddenly there's coffee in front of me.

Christopher Lawley (00:54:47):
Oh, this is so great. Wait, I wonder if that'll work for me. Yeah. Coffee <laugh> or actually Diet Dr. Pepper. Yeah. See Diet Dr. Let's see, let's see if that should FedEx

Mikah Sargent (00:54:53):
Is at your door with a Diet Dr. Pepper. but you didn't have you didn't, you don't have something nearby to look at it, but No I think the updates to Control Center are great. It looks better, it's sort of easier to access. A lot more settings are available right there in control center and they're trying to improve upon the user switching experience too. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So more apps will hopefully pay attention to <laugh> the user

Christopher Lawley (00:55:23):
Switching experience. Yeah, that's, that, that's the key. So many apps don't care about that and have their own user experience, so it's like, why even set up the user stuff int v o s? So hopefully, hopefully you know, those certain media apps will update to support those.

Mikah Sargent (00:55:41):
Yes. along with that, when you use the remote, so I, I tend to use the Siri remote and there is a new find my feature that basically the, whenever you turn it on, there's a circle that shows up on screen and as you get closer to the remote, the circle gets bigger and bigger and bigger letting you know that you're pretty close to it. So it's just using the signal that's built into it. Very exciting. A lot of folks thought that at first, whenever they announced this, that there was a secret uwb ultra wideband chip inside of the Siri remote. No, that's not the case. It's just using the wireless connection, the wireless signal to try and find wherever it happens to be. But I, I use this area remote a lot. My partner, however, most of the time, uses the remote that's built into the phone. And I think one of the, I know, right? I saw that, that look. Huh The person who is less techy in the household is the one that's using the remote on the phone, which is just mind. I

Christopher Lawley (00:56:42):
Never use the phone. I never, the only time I use the phone is if I'm exhausted and the remote is too far away and it required me to like, sit forward and <laugh> and I'm just like, oh, I'll just use a phone then. But the remote, the fine. My thing, this is huge. Okay, so my niece, who is a year and a half old plays this game with their Siri remote, where she likes to hide it. And it got to the point where my brother had to go and buy one of those cases for the Apple TV remote that has an air tag chip in it,

Mikah Sargent (00:57:13):
<Laugh> now. Oh man. This

Christopher Lawley (00:57:14):
Will technically, the having the air tag will technically be better cuz you'll get the directional stuff. Yeah. The find my remote. So from what I understand I got a little inside knowledge on this is, it's built into the remote app in the, or the remote in control center for the TV app. Which is cool, but it doesn't, it, there's no direction to it. It basically, it's like a game of hot and cold. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> like, you know, like, it basically tells you when you're getting hotter and hotter and hotter and eventually, like, you're right on top of it. So attaching like, if you're somebody that has a one and a half year old in the house that likes to hide the Apple TV remote, the air tag route might still be the best. But you know, if you occasionally like it falls in the couch cushion or like you put it in the other room cuz you just weren't thinking or something like, yeah, this, this could be a really nice feature.

Mikah Sargent (00:58:03):
Yeah. And along with, so the, the reason why I brought up the using it, using the remote on iPhone is because in TV o s 17, if you use the remote on iPhone, it will switch to your user profile. So that is perhaps more of an encouragement to make use of the remote on the iPhone because that way then it will switch to your user profile. And then apps that do support the user account thing will work in that way because I, I'm not too bothered by this, but again, partner very much likes the up next to only be the content that he's watching up next and not, you know, if something from my side of things gets onto that, then it's like, why is that there? So I, I like that it'll switch automatically and that way I won't forget to switch the user and make sure that the up next is only the stuff that I have.

(00:59:01):
There are some updates to the screensaver as well including some new locations, but also using your own photos that are curated memories so those can show up. That is exciting for some folks. I think there's a new feature that I on on T v o s 17 called Enhanced Dialogue. This is a feature that's available on a lot of third party soundbar and basically it just changes the EQ or at EQs the audio so that people are more clear whenever they're speaking. It works for any movie or TV show on Apple TV 4K that is paired with a home pod. It separates the dialogue from the background noise and brings it forward to the center channel. So in movies where the audio or the dialogue seems to not be great for whatever reason this can kind of improve upon that.

(01:00:04):
I I think it's a, it's a great feature. Now what's interesting is that in the newsroom notes it says on Apple TV 4K paired with HomePod second generation, right? Mm-Hmm. I'm rocking two FirstGen home pods and I was able to turn on this feature in this first edition of TV os 17 in this first version of t o s 17. So it'll be, I'm curious to he see if that, whoops, I'm curious to see if that goes away. After a while or if it stays for any Apple people watching the show, please don't take it away from me. <Laugh>. I was very excited about this because the reason why I like this specifically, Chris, is because I live in a town home, so there's no one below me or above me, but I do have people on either side of me.

(01:00:49):
And those same situation, those home pods, those just standard sized home pods, the Biggie Home pods, they put out a lot of sound. So we tend to have them turned. We have reduced base turned on, but we also tend to have them turned down. And if I could, right now with this new feature, we can hear people's voices, but that other sound stays a little bit quieter and that's perfect for what we want. I don't want that to be taken away because then it's writing that dial again and that's not fun. Dolby Vision 8.1 is also supported. So if you need that <laugh>, then if you're a big, big Dolby Vision nerd, then you'll be going, oh yes, finally this support 8.1. And then I also wanted to mention third party VPN support is coming to Apple tv. So it used to be you kind of had to do some setting stuff.

(01:01:40):
Yeah. You're, you're pumping your fist. I'm also pumping my fist. Yeah. this basically means that the VPN I use, I'm hopeful to see it soon. I use Express vpn. It is also a sponsor of the network, but I love Express VPN regardless. I can't wait for an Express VPN app on the Apple tv. I think that's gonna be fantastic. And it'll make it easier perhaps to take a trip to Australia Yeah. And be able to watch some stuff while I'm in Australia. But yes. Chris, tell me your last thoughts here on TV OS 17.

Christopher Lawley (01:02:14):
Well, on the VPN stuff, I mean, if you happen to be a big Star Trek person, but you know, maybe not be subscribed to Paramount Plus, just so you know, the UK people tend to get Star Trek stuff on Netflix. Ah,

Mikah Sargent (01:02:29):
Just,

Christopher Lawley (01:02:29):
Just putting that out there. Interesting. Just, just, just

Mikah Sargent (01:02:32):
So if you're taking a trip to the uk, anytime you see you can watch it on Netflix.

Christopher Lawley (01:02:36):
There you go. So that's a good use case for it. Yeah. I, so the, oh, and the the voice boost thing is really interesting. So the sound system I have here I I bought a new TV and a new sound system when I moved. And it specifically has a channel for voice stuff because a big complaint lately is the way audio is being mixed for movies and television shows is voices are getting covered up. So I don't know about you Mike, but I, I used to have to use the feature with the Siri remote where it'd hit the Siri button and be like, what did they just say? And it skips back like 30 seconds or 15 seconds or something like that. And it turns on the subtitles. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> for just a few, few seconds. And I had to use that a lot. But having that, that center voice channel really helps things, you know, stand out and move. So that's really nice. I don't, I don't use the home pod. I have, I have two of the second generation home pods here in my office right now. I use them from music, I love them from music. I don't use them for TV stuff. Cuz I like to play things a little bit louder and my neighbors are cool, so <laugh> Oh, that's good. They're okay with that. So yeah,

Mikah Sargent (01:03:44):
I should note I am and have long been probably it's, it's one of my oldest habits person who has captions turned on at all times, so, oh. I don't actually need to have the feature but it is nice that I just, I have that too, but it's wild. Some on the rare occasion where I'm watching someone something at someone else's home and they are not a captions person and I suddenly am just going, I don't even know what anyone is saying at all at any time. <Laugh>.

Christopher Lawley (01:04:16):
See, my problem is, is I end up reading the captions and ignoring the movie.

Mikah Sargent (01:04:20):
Oh, like

Christopher Lawley (01:04:21):
My A D H D just kicks in. It's like, okay, I can only focus on one of these things. Yes. So I just, I can't do captions. Yeah.

Mikah Sargent (01:04:27):
So I originally was that way. And anyone who, who feels that way, but is also feeling like they're missing a lot in shows and movies and stuff, I would really encourage it's, it just takes more time. You start to develop this ability to take it all in and only use the captions whenever you're having trouble kind of hearing something. But I totally respect anybody who can't do captions to gets totally fine. I, and many of the people that I know either are, have been caption users for a long time, or I've converted them into caption users and now <laugh> can't do any other way <laugh>. It's, it's yeah, it's, it's, it's the way I enjoy content. Now before we move on, I do want to give you an opportunity to mention anything else that you think deserves a, a quick chat. If there was anything that stuck out to you at the event or following the event as you've kind of been digging in that you want to tell our listeners about.

Christopher Lawley (01:05:30):
Yeah, so I, I mentioned stage Manager changes already. That's, that's probably the thing outside of Vision Pro that I'm the most excited about. Actually, honestly, I might be more excited about those than, than Vision Pro. Vision Pro obviously a big thing. I did not get to try it, so I don't really have that much to say about it. But the other thing that I'm really excited for is app shortcuts. So these are features built into the app. So the example Apple has been giving is you can pull up Spotlight, type in photos, and then there will be options to open up certain albums. But there are apps already working with this because of prior APIs. I believe it's using App Intent or Yeah, whatever. It doesn't matter <laugh>. But like you, so like from my time tracking app time Marie, I can just type in Time Marie and Spotlight and start time tracking. And to me what this is is spotlight extensions, which is something I asked for for this year and I kind of feel like I got it. I'm curious to see how third party apps truly like a, you know, delve into it. But I think that's gonna be like the sleeper hit feature of the year.

Mikah Sargent (01:06:43):
Okay. fair enough, fair enough. Let us take a quick, oh no, actually I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this quick follow up in news and then we'll take a quick break before we come back with feedback questions and of course our app caps to round out the show. Last week, Rosemary Orchard and I talked about how there was an I more article that mentioned Hey, whatever you do, don't download the iOS 17 developer beta. Because we are seeing that it's showing up for a lot of people. So anybody after iOS 17 pub, or not public beta, but the developer beta came out could allegedly launch the settings app tap on general tap on software update, and then would see a thing that said beta updates and be able to install the iOS 17 developer beta immor and some other places put out articles saying, Hey, not a good idea.

(01:07:38):
Don't do that. It's going to result in you having beta software on your phone that may crash. Especially if you're out and about. That's an unsafe thing to do. You might need this, da da da da. And I was a little skeptical about it at first, but after the show I got feedback from several folks who've sent, who sent me emails or tweets or what have you, and said, Hey I saw this too. This was something that I experienced later. Cause I reached out to Apple about it and later heard back about what was going on here. And basically it has resulted, or it's come from a change in apple's sort of process for who can use developer betas. Ios developer betas and other developer betas were tied to your iOS or rather to your Apple developer account, which was and is a $99 per year subscription.

(01:08:40):
You pay $99 a year that makes you a developer. You can access the developer portion of the website, developer apple.com and create apps, publish apps, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. As of this year and for the first time, apple has changed the way that the process works or what is required. Now anyone can download the developer beta, try it out, use it, provide feedback. So long as they have a developer account, what they can do is they can sign up for a free developer account so you don't have to pay $99 per year to create your developer account. That then allows you to download the developer betas. The rest of the stuff is still locked away behind that $99. So if you want to be able to use the other stuff like let me see. So it says you can learn how to develop apps for Apple platforms for free without enrolling with just an Apple id.

(01:09:54):
You can access Xcode software downloads documentation, sample code forms, and feedback assistance, as well as test your apps on devices. So basically the publishing part making use of apple's is features like what is it? It's the, the weather stuff, all of that stuff. Yeah, weather kit. Weather kit, thank you. Xcode in the cloud, I believe will probably also be locked behind that. So Oh yeah, there's a whole chart from nine to five max. So in order to join that and get more stuff like developer events and ad hoc distribution, proprietary app distribution, custom app distribution software, basically the developer app development part of it, that all of course requires you paying for the account. But with just signing in with your Apple ID to a developer, to the developer program, you can indeed now install the developer betas. So still caution against doing so if you are not versed in the ways of troubleshooting that setup, but it can be done and you can do it without having to pay now. Anything you wanna say about that before we move on? Yeah.

Christopher Lawley (01:11:11):
It's interesting that they're making developer beta free and open to everyone when they have the public beta. Cuz that was always what the public beta was for Yeah. After the interesting iOS seven beta cycle. So that's interesting that they're doing that because the really, the only thing that separates the developer beta and the public beta is the developer beta gets the first one or two betas of the new OS updates, and then it usually, after that it gets, like, gets the new updates a, a day or two ahead of time before the public betas. There's no feature difference between the two. So I'm curious why they're doing it this way and also why the N NDA is still in place and we can't show things <laugh>.

Mikah Sargent (01:11:52):
Yes. Yes.

Christopher Lawley (01:11:53):
Because I wanna, I wanna make videos <laugh>.

Mikah Sargent (01:11:56):
Yeah. That, that must be particularly difficult for you to, to do, to sort of navigate around. For sure.

Christopher Lawley (01:12:03):
Yeah. The, this, the June is always an interesting month for me. <Laugh>. Yeah.

Mikah Sargent (01:12:08):
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(01:14:04):
And we at twit have been using Cash Fly for more than a decade, wouldn't have it any other way. We can confirm that it is just as good as we're talking about here, Lauren, how you can get your first month free@cashfly.com. That's cash fly.com. C A C H E F L y.com. Thank you Cash Fly for sponsoring this week's episode of iOS. Today, our episode covering watch OS 10 and TV OS 17 after Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. All righty, we are moving into feedback and questions. The first bit of feedback comes from, actually, I'm sorry, the, the one bit of feedback today comes from John in Crystal, Minnesota. John writes, hi, Rosemary Micah, and or a possible guest host. Ah, John. Hey. Hey. It's like John New <laugh>. I recently helped a family member upgrade from the original iPhone SE to the one released in 2022.

(01:15:10):
She suffered a stroke about 11 years ago, so sometimes she has short-term memory issues. I think the bigger screen has motivated her to learn more about the iPhone. She proactively asked me to show her how to download apps today, and I helped her install her first one. She was a bit shocked when I told her that detailed manuals aren't typically included with tech items anymore. I'm hoping to find a book or Easy to navigate website that may provide categorized information on the basics of using and navigating through iOS. There are quite a few books out there already, but I'm concerned that a good portion of them may have outdated information in them. I'll also be encouraging her to watch iOS today to just observe how you both use your devices, even if things get confusing sometimes. Thank you for all the work you do and the behind the scenes twit crew do.

(01:15:57):
I'm a Happy Club twit member. Thank you, John. And also John included the pet tax. This is Hedvig and Hedvig is 16 years old. For the folks who are listening and not watching, it's a beautiful kitty that is, I think he's quite stunning in his, in his regalness if you will. So this question I was very happy about because there's a very easy answer that I want to give, and that is that even though tech manuals are not included with your Apple devices, apple still creates and publishes manuals for the Apple devices. But to save paper and save the environment, they just published them online. So there's a website support.apple.com/manuals that has all of the manuals from Apple. And then you can break it up from there into different products. So Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Mac, et cetera.

(01:16:58):
We will link directly to the iPhone set of manuals. And with that, it shows you some very it, it's smart enough to realize that you may want different things. So you might want the iPhone user guide for iOS 16, which you can view on the web or you can also get it in Apple Books. So the individual would be able to download it to their device and be able to browse it within the Books app and kind of learn more about it there. Plus they have information for specific iPhone models. So the iPhone 14 plus, or the iPhone 14 Pro Max or also the iPhone se. So Apple has these great guides that I think the way that they're broken up into the information that they have is very handy. And I've actually used these in the past to help kind of inspire some episodes of shows that I've done where there may be a feature that oh, right, folks might wanna know more about that.

(01:18:01):
So I am going to recommend that this individual will start with the iPhone user guide for iOS 17. Or excuse me, for iOS 16. I'm, I'm in a 17 state of mind. And that is going to include kind of the basic information, but it comes with a table of contents and it has your introduction to iPhone, what's new in iOS 16 set up and get started. Basics. I mean, it's all broken up into the different categories that the person might want. And by the end of it, I think your per this person might end up being more knowledgeable about using their iPhone SE and using the latest version of iOS than many of us who report on this daily because there's so much impact information in those manuals. And you, you come across a little tidbit somewhere and go, wait, I can do that. That's so exciting. So best of luck, John, and I'd love to hear back about how going through that guide worked for you. Outside of that, you should check out consider checking out some YouTube videos from folks who cover the operating systems and how to use them like a certain Christopher Lolly here. Chris, what is your YouTube? How, how do we get there? What's the link for you?

Christopher Lawley (01:19:15):
Yeah, so you can just search for my name on YouTube. It's Christopher Lolly, l a w l e y, or you can go to youtube.com slash then you gotta do the at symbol Chris Lolly, l a w l e y. It's, it's honestly easier just to search Christopher Lolly. It'll, it'll be right there. L a w l e y. Yep. That's, that's me if you're watching it on the video screen. Awesome. I just published a video this morning about my, my daily iPad workflow, so, yeah. Oh,

Mikah Sargent (01:19:42):
Cool. Alright, well I think it's time to play the music for our app caps.

(01:19:58):
This is the part of the show where we place caps the top our heads to honor our app and GA app and or Gadget picks of the week. These are the apps or gadgets we are using now, have been using from some time that we think are great and wants to share with all of you. Chris, first tell us about the capa top of your head and then tell us about your pick or picks for

Christopher Lawley (01:20:20):
Today. Well, it's, it's a hat you have because it's my WW d c 2023 had we everyone got them that attended the event. It was a great event. And nice to, nice to add one more hat to the to the pile. So, nice. Yeah, I, I as far as my app goes, I actually have two, do you want to pick which one or do you want me to cover both of them?

Mikah Sargent (01:20:42):
I think you should focus more on the second one and then do sort of an honorable mention for that first one cuz we did an episode on it, so.

Christopher Lawley (01:20:50):
Gotcha. Okay. So my app pick is, it's called Ouchie. And basically what this does is it is an app to help you block other apps. So I mentioned earlier I have a D H D and it's been, it's been a real struggle lately. I've been, I've been really struggling with it. So I'm using this app and I'm tying it in with focus modes and shortcuts so that when I am in a specific focus it blocks apps. So when I'm in my writing focus, it blocks ivory, it blocks discord, it blocks all those kind of distracting apps. Apollo is in there, r i p. But yes, it, it, like, it blocks these apps so I can just stay focused on the task at hand and I'm not, you know, trying to distract myself with Mastodon and other that other stuff.

(01:21:44):
So it, it takes a little bit of setting up to do. I did a video that's kind of like an iPad apps roundup video and there's I walked through how to set it up in that video. It, it takes a little bit of setup cuz you have to use shortcuts to do this properly due to system limitations. But the app also does a really good job of walking you through setting it up and stuff like that. So I really like this. If you're somebody that struggles with distracting yourself with your devices this is a great way to kind of block those apps that can distract you for a specific amount of time or an indefinite amount of time until you turn it off. And, and it's really helped me focus. And then my honorable mention, I, I just have to say it because it's like my app of the year, it's the, my app of the decade century. Who knows? I've been asking for it forever. It finally happened. Final cut on the iPad,

Mikah Sargent (01:22:35):
Bu cut on the iPad.

Christopher Lawley (01:22:39):
This is, this is such a big deal to me. Like huge changed the way I worked. I sold my MacBook Pro now because I don't need a laptop Mac to travel with anymore wwd. C I just had my iPad and

Mikah Sargent (01:22:54):
You've been using it, it was huge. Final cut on the iPad. It hasn't been working for you.

Christopher Lawley (01:22:57):
Oh yeah. Every, every, every video I've edited since Final Cut has come out or or final Cut was announced. I got access to it a day after the announcement. I was actually in LA for briefing for, for the announcement. It was really cool. But the day after I got access to it, every video since then has been edited on Final Cut for the iPad and it has worked really well. It's still very much a version 1.0. There's some rough spots in there. But the base of it is really good and I'm extremely encouraged by it. And I got to talk to some of the team o on it and stuff, and I'm just, I'm really encouraged.

Mikah Sargent (01:23:36):
That's exciting. So this is a very troubling time for me because I am wearing a cap on my head that runs contrary to everything I know about telling the difference between an alligator and a crocodile because this hat has a broad rounded snout, which would suggest it's an alligator, but alligators are black in color, it's crocodiles that are gray, green. I also can't, and, and cro crocodiles have these narrow snouts that kind of go out. So it's got the shape of an alligator, but the color of a crocodile. And because it doesn't have a bottom mouth, I can't tell if teeth that stick out from the bottom mouth, which also helps to tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator. So I am wearing a Cro Cator cro cator cap in my head. <Laugh>. and the app that I want to talk about today is an app that I saw mentioned in the editor's choice recently called Automat Toys.

(01:24:40):
And Automat Toys is a cute little game that lets you kind of work through some different puzzles very simply. So we're gonna launch into this puzzle, it's blue in color, and you start by placing a coin into the machine by pressing the button in the bottom right hand corner. That button in the bottom right hand corner is an action button. And it is what you're going to use to trigger different actions within this stage. So I've just sort of taken out the marble and if I press the button, you can see it pops that red up to sort of bounce the ball along. And I'm gonna bounce it one more time. And there's a timer that's going in the background while you're doing this. And now I'm moving into a part where I need to kind of alternate my pushes here.

(01:25:30):
I know that I'm gonna have some timing stuff that I need to do because I want to hammer this marble while the drawer is down so that way it can go into that drawer and move along. And then I can kind of tilt this drawer. Oh boy, let me see if I can just keep it. There we go. Then we'll pop this up to the next part, pop it and pop it and pop it. And then we need to, oh, no. So there I was supposed to bring down a slide and so I ended up losing one of the balls. And so we're gonna keep moving along and as we move through this stage, depending on how well you perform, you will get stars that correspond to how well you did. So here, we're coming back to this and I want to make sure, oh, oh, darn it.

(01:26:32):
This is tough. There we go. And now we've just about come to the end here. So we're gonna make it through this puzzle and onto the next part. And through and down, down, oh no, I wasn't supposed to do that. No <laugh>. So you get the idea here. It's a fun little puzzle game that has some haptic feedback, some haptic feedback, rather with the haptic engine that kind of makes you feel like you really are playing this little marble game. It's Rube Goldberg. You can play the first three levels for free and then after that it's just a dollar 99 to unlock all the stages. So I think relatively inexpensive for what you get. And it's just a fun little game to play in your, your downtime. Super simple. Very clever, well designed, available on iPad and iPhone.

(01:27:28):
It's called Automat Toys. So yes, consider checking that out folks. That brings us to the end of this episode of iOS Today. If you have feedback you wanna send our way, send that to iOS today@twit.tv. We do record this show live every Tuesday at 12:00 PM Eastern, which is 9:00 AM Pacific. It'd be great if you tuned in live at twit.tv/live so you can share your thoughts or shared gifs in the chat with alligators or crocodiles dancing around. That would definitely be a crocodile cuz it's green. There's a crocodile in the chat. Ah, and then you can watch us as we make the show, see all the parts that end up getting edited out or make their way into the final episode. Of course, the best way to get the show and to help us is by subscribing to the show.

(01:28:16):
Hit that subscribe button, that follow button, whatever it happens to be. Twit.Tv/Ios is where you go. There you will find links to subscribe. Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, YouTube. You just click subscribe to audio or subscribe to video and then choose your platform that you're using and that will get you the show on that platform. If you would like you might consider also supporting the show and the network by joining Club Twit at twit.tv/club twit. Starting at $7 a month or $84 a year, you out there can join the club. When you, do you get every single Twitch Show ad free? Yes. It's just the content. No ads because you in effect are the support for the show. You also get access to the members only twit plus bonus feed that has extra content you won't find anywhere else that's outtakes behind the scenes before the show, after the show all sorts of fun stuff including Club Twit events and access to the members only Discord server.

(01:29:14):
A fun place to go to chat with your fellow club TWIT members and also many of us here at twit. My co-host Rosemary Orchard of iOS today is incredibly active in the Discord. And Chris, I can't remember if we, I, after this I'm gonna make sure that you get an invite to join the club. Oh, nice. As a contributor so that you can be part of that. And then if you have questions for Chris or wants to share feedback with him you may find him there in the Discord as well. I also want to mention that you get access to some great shows that are Club Twitter exclusive shows. There's the Untitled Lenox Show, which is, as you might imagine a show all about Lenox. You also get access to the Hands-on Windows program from Paul The Rot.

(01:30:00):
It's a short format show that covers windows, tips and tricks. There's also hands-on Mac created by yours truly, where I cover win or Windows tips and tricks where I cover Apple tips and tricks. It's not just the Mac, but also iPhone, iPad, et cetera. Although right now I'm going through a series of episodes all about Windows Management on the Mac. So split screen, full view stage manager coming up, all sorts of stuff there with managing your Windows and also home Theater geeks, which newly relaunched in the club with Scott Wilkinson. All of that value available on club twit TWIT TV slash club twit. So please consider joining there, starting at $7 a month, $84 a year. And it's not stair step cost. It's not like if you want these extra things then pay more. It's just that some folks said, Hey, we'd like to give you more than $7 a month. So we made that possible, but that probably starts at $7 a month. Honestly, it's one of the greatest things you can do to help make sure we can continue making these shows for you. So please consider joining the club. Alright, Christopher Lolly, if folks wanna follow you online and check out all your great work, where should they go to do so?

Christopher Lawley (01:31:11):
Yeah, you can go to my website. It's the untitled.site and it has links to all my stuff, including my YouTube channel, Macedon page, Instagram, all that fun stuff. So it's all, you can just go there and links to everything are there.

Mikah Sargent (01:31:26):
And it's quite literally the untitled.site. Not Yeah, the untitled.site. Okay,

Christopher Lawley (01:31:32):
Got it. No, no, it's the, the Unti untitled.site is the url. Beautiful. I was, I thought I was very clever when I came up with that.

Mikah Sargent (01:31:40):
<Laugh>, what's your site? Untitled? It's the Untitled site.

Christopher Lawley (01:31:44):
No untitled.site was taken, so that's why I did the untitled dot side. Yeah, see

Mikah Sargent (01:31:50):
That. I remember back in the day when I, you know, had gamer handles and I always tried to, and if you couldn't get the one then you'd put like one st afterward or in this case, you know, you'd put the in front of it. Yeah, that, that's, yeah, that's what you gotta do. As far as finding me online, you can find me at Micah Sergeant on many a social media network. Or the best thing to do is just head to chihuahua.coffee, that's c hhi hua hua.coffee, where I've got links to the places I'm most active online. You can check out my different podcasts and my different social media networks. So please consider heading there. I'm excited to say that Christopher Lolly will be back with us next week as we cover the Apple Design Award winners. I'm very much looking forward to that. There were a lot. Oh, and also, we'll, we'll talk about the folks who were nominated as well. There were a lot of great nominees this year and well deserving winners for the adas. But until then, it is time to say goodbye. And thank you for tuning in to iOS today.

Jonathan Bennett (01:32:52):
Hey, we should talk Linux. It's the operating system that runs the internet, bunch of game consoles, cell phones, and maybe even the machine on your desk. Then you already knew all that. What you may not know is that TWIT now is a show dedicated to it, the Untitled Linux Show. Whether you're a Lennox Pro, a burgeoning ciit man, or just curious what the big deal is, you should join us on the Club Twit Discord every Saturday afternoon for news analysis and tips to sharpen your Lennox skills. And then make sure you subscribe to the Club TWIT Exclusive Untitled Linux Show. Wait, you're not a Club Twit member yet. We'll go to twit.tv/club twit and sign up. Hope to see you there.