iOS Today 660, 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 back, and we, I, Mikah, Sergeant Ed Rosemary Orchard are going to talk all about apps and games for your Apple tv. Stay tuned,

Speaker 2 (00:00:15):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is Tweet.

Mikah Sargent (00:00:26):
This is iOS today with Rosemary Orchard and Mikah Sargent, episode 660 recorded Tuesday, June 27th, 2023, apple TV apps and games. This episode of iOS Today is brought to you by 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 thank you for listening. As an ad supported network, we are always looking for new partners with products and services that will benefit our audience. With our tailored host Red Ads, you will get an authentic and proper introduction to your brand With every ad read, visit twit tv slash advertise and launch your campaign today. Welcome back to iOS Today, the show where we talk all things iOS, tv, os, HomePod, os, watch, os, iPad os, and all of the other platforms that Apple puts out there for us to download onto our phones and our tablets and our computers and our smart speakers, and our wearables and everything in between. We love to talk about these platforms, the devices, and just in general give you tips and tricks on how best to make use of them. I am one of the hosts of iOS today, Mikah Sergeant,

Rosemary Orchard (00:01:58):
And I am Rosemary Orchard, who is in deep back. I got several emails from folks while I was off asking if everything was okay. And yeah, just been a holiday day for the last couple of weeks. So yeah, I'm very excited to be back and diving straight into all great things, iOS or TV os as it is for today.

Mikah Sargent (00:02:13):
Yes, I'm so glad you got some time away some time to rest and relax. Thank you to Christopher Lawley for subbing in he did a great job while you were out, but yes, we all e eagerly awaited your return and are very happy that you're here with us today. So without further ado, let us kick off today's episode. You know, we don't talk about the Apple TV directly all that often and neither does Apple <laugh>, but we thought that it'd be a great time to talk about some of the apps and games that are available on the platform that make I think, good use of what T V Os provides. Because if you think of it as just a set top box, right, just this little puck that you plug in and it gives you access to the different television shows and movies and music videos that are out there, that's fine, but there is a lot more that you can do with this little puck.

(00:03:14):
And depending on how new your puck happens to be you may be able to do even more. There is a long time app that has existed in the sort of Apple ecosystem and it has made its way to the Apple TV as well. I was talking to Rosemary about this before the show because it used to be that I, I remember downloading this app at one time because you go to YouTube, right? And you type in, you know, the name of a new movie, let's say there's a new movie coming out called The Sponge Who Loves Me. And so I typed that in into YouTube and there are like three or four trailer options that are from some random place that don't have the full trailer. And then finally you find the actual trailer for the sponge who loves me. And you, you know, get to watch it with iTunes movie trailers, you know, you're seeing the full trailer. You don't have to go searching and trying to figure out what it is. And then of course, you get some extra features built in. So let's head over to the Apple tv which you will see momentarily in front of you currently. It shows a view over Japan looking toward the Pacific Ocean. That's one of the things

Rosemary Orchard (00:04:28):
I love the screensaver. Yes, I just wanted to mention if you tap on the track pad of your Apple TV remote, then it'll actually show you where that is, which is really great for something like this. But indeed, any of the views do that. It's really cool.

Mikah Sargent (00:04:40):
Absolutely. So I'm going to hit the apple TV button which some people would call the home button, which wakes the apple tv. And we'll scroll down to get to trailers. When I click or tap on trailers, then I can see some of the most recent films that are out. So we've got a film called Underrated. We've got a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, dumb Money I'm trying to see, I'm judging books by their covers. And I would say that this one here, what's going on? Oh, it's called Cobweb. It's probably scary. So I don't think we'll play that one. Let's play the trailer for Elio. So watch, so first of all, this screen here is showing a bunch of new films that will be coming out, but then you can click on any of these and see a bunch of information.

(00:05:37):
First of all here, it's not showing when it's going to be out. Up at the top, it'll sometimes show in that area when specifically it's going to be what it's rated, if it's coming out soon. But here we can see the director, we can see who stars in this film. We can also see some of the sort of details of the film. And then easily just click to play the trailer. Now, I think in the final we'll have to take out the audio or something so that this doesn't end up, but essentially here we can see the trailer play out. So I'm just gonna show a quick little, you know, first few seconds. Of course, this is a Pixar film and this is showing it in high quality, high detail mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, and, you know, you're getting the actual trailer as opposed to it being some, you know, random thing that's cut it all together.

(00:06:29):
You can add it to your favorites so you can keep track of the films that you want to see eventually. And then up here at the top you can split between what's featured to Top charts. So this includes some films that are out right now, for example, like spider-Man what is it? Across the, across the Spider. Thank you. Across the Spider verse. We've got a fan also Elemental, which I've heard is not doing so well. You can check the calendar to see what films are coming out when and be able to watch through those, the films that are currently in theaters. And then check this out. It shows you in theaters nearby. So I could see, oh, Ronan Park is not showing anything today, <laugh>. I have a feeling that this is just, it needs a chance to kind of figure out the location and then that would work. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And then of course the favorite films that you add there. Or you can search for one, if I, I have a feeling if I tried to find the sponge who loves me, I would not find that because I made that up entirely in my head. Yeah. Anything else you wanna say though about the iTunes movie Trailers app on Apple tv?

Rosemary Orchard (00:07:37):
I mean, I, I honestly kind of just use this as like a way to scroll through and see what films are upcoming that look like they might be interesting. So, you know, some people like to go to imdb or other websites to, to see what's coming up or just, you know, it, it comes into their orbit in some way or another. I tend to end up opening this app once every, you know, couple of weeks probably, and just sort of scrolling through and having a look and seeing what's interesting and, and, you know, finding things, finding out about new films and so on that way. And yeah, it's, it's a nice way to find them. And as you, as you mentioned, you, you end up getting the trailers, you don't have to deal with YouTube adverts to, to see them or, you know, some random thing that somebody's cut in there, modified audio, et cetera. You know, you're getting the real trailer. And that's, that's really handy so that you don't end up with, you know, random spoilers or something being intersected into it.

Mikah Sargent (00:08:29):
Yes, the, you can I'm sure find like the 96th Fast and Furious in here and go, wait, they're making another one. It's, you know, very exciting to kind of scroll through and start to plan out what you, you know, might want to watch. This is a great way to stay up to date. Cause I find that with music, I will have missed some music that has come out. And so I'm going, how can I keep up with that? And I have an app now that does that, but for the longest time I'd kind of get upset and come back and go, wait, hold on. This group released a new album. I had no idea. Cuz you know, it's further on down the line in terms of my favorites, the ones that I, I'm always watching for their latest stuff. Now this next choice is, I'm really glad that you brought this up because I do think a lot of people forget some of the the, the perks that they have depending on the services that they're subscribed to. So Rosemary you kind of had a tip that you wanted to share with folks.

Rosemary Orchard (00:09:29):
Yeah, I wanted to just kind of remind folks, if you have Amazon Prime, you have Amazon Prime video, and it turns out there's a whole bunch of shows on there. There are some things that are exclusive to Amazon Prime, but there's a bunch of stuff that's available on Amazon Prime to watch that's just included with your subscription. Of course, this is available on the iPhone and the iPad and the Mac as well as the Apple tv. But if you download that app, then you can actually watch a bunch more stuff on your Apple TV that you may already be paying for, because this is the thing, you know, it's really easy to end up going like, okay, so I'm subscribed to Netflix and Hulu and, you know, h b o Max, and, you know, and then you start listing through and suddenly you've got like 48 different subscription services that you need to sign up for to watch stuff. And so don't forget, Amazon Prime video is something that you may well already be paying for, and I know quite a few listeners of iOS today and someone will already have Amazon Prime or you know, if you're trying Amazon Prime for the delivery then don't forget you get those videos as well. Take full advantage of those one, two week trials or even month long trials that you can sometimes get. If you are doing that,

Mikah Sargent (00:10:36):
There is a show on Prime. It's, it's technically a free V show but free freebie is just I M D B. When Amazon bought I M D B, they had like an I M D B TV thing and then they rebranded it as freebie. That doesn't matter if you have a Prime subscription, you should absolutely positively watch a show called Jury Duty. Jury duty is this incredible and incredibly creative show where a guy is told that because he gets summoned for jury duty, right? And he is told that he is going to partake in a documentary about what it's like to be a member of the jury to do your civic duty and go and be a jury member. So he knows that there will be cameras. He agrees to be part of this documentary and kind of get interviewed with the process of signing up for this jury and potentially making it onto the trial.

(00:11:38):
And then if he makes it onto the trial as a member of the jury, then the documentary will continue with him. Otherwise it'll continue with whoever else happens to make it. So he agrees to do this. What he doesn't know is that while he is an everyday average you know, real person, everybody else that's involved, all of the other jury members as well as the lawyers the, the judge, everybody else, they're all actors and are essentially doing like, improv in the moment. They've got this whole kind of idea of what they want to do, but it's mostly improv. And then they have James Marsden who is like, he's, he's known enough that people will recognize him. So he's there to kind of distract him a little bit because it's, you know, even movie stars end up getting jury duty.

(00:12:34):
So the idea is that like, he ended up getting stuck with jury duty and it is hilarious. It is heartwarming. It, I ended up crying at the end of it. Like, it's, it's really good. So if you have Amazon Prime, and even if you don't because you can still watch it with freebie with ads, go check out this show Jury Duty. I can't say enough good stuff about it. Like it was, it was so fun and funny and interesting and clever. And my only thing is that I don't know if they'll ever be able to do it again because people would probably be on high alert about it. And so that makes me kind of sad because I kind of wanna see how other people would react in these moments. So yeah that's another reason, reason why I'm glad you brought up Amazon Prime video.

(00:13:17):
Alright, moving along this app has been recommended to me a number of times and honestly to listeners of the network. We used to get questions on the Tech Guy Radio show regarding Apple TV and kind of staying up to date with what's available and knowing where it's able to be watched. Well, there's a great way to do that. It's called Just Watch. So this app is a way to know where you can or cannot watch different content that's out there. So let us, actually, I wonder, let's do a search for jury duty, and I'm gonna hold down the little button to dictate jury duty and we'll see if that, okay. Then we can do a search for that and up Pop's jury duty. So I will click on it and it shows, ah, look, you can watch it on Prime Video.

(00:14:17):
It gives you the information about it, so you can see kind of the, the rundown of what it's about what it's rated what some of the reviews are thus far on I M D B. And then if I click on this button and choose watch season one, episode one, it will pop me out into Prime video right from this app. I, I hit the back button, so that's why it didn't go. But let's see. Let's just go back to the main screen, the home screen and see some of the other stuff that's out there. There's a show called Florida Man that's on Netflix, so let's click on that. And then if I click watch season one, episode one, then it will ask me to open Netflix. I can open Netflix and in theory, I don't know if I'm logged into this Netflix on this Apple tv, but if I was, or, and I might still be, yeah, then it would pop me in directly to it.

(00:15:12):
And I think Rosemary, that is a thing that people might not realize is kind of unprecedented, that you can do these deep links in the different the different apps, the different streaming services. That's not, not something that you're going to get everywhere, particularly with Netflix, for example, which does not have that deep level of integration still with the Apple tv. I now, I'm, I'm distracted for a moment to say everyone should also watch from <laugh>. Stephen King recommended it on Twitter and I started watching it. You have to be a fan of sort of horror, slow burn, thriller mystery is how I would describe the show. So if you have the patience for a slow burn, if you have the the, the, I don't know, the, the, the wherewithal for a horror and the heart for a thriller and the mind for a mystery, it's so good. It's so interesting. It's so weird. I really like that show. Anyway tell me what you wanna say about just watch. I think it's such a great app to have in your arsenal on the Apple tv.

Rosemary Orchard (00:16:32):
It is, and it's a great app not just to have on the Apple tv, but remember it exists as a website. You can have it on your iPhone, your iPad, and so on as well. So you can share this with all of your friends. It also exists on Android, don't worry, folks who've got friends and family members or even some of their own devices running Android. It is everywhere and it is location contextualized as well. So if I look for a show over here in the UK that maybe is available on say Netflix in the us but is available through a different service over here, it will show me that service. And it prioritizes showing things that you can stream based on, you know, the subscriptions that you have. But it will also show places where you could buy something to watch it.

(00:17:12):
So, for example, if you wanted to watch Titanic then you could put it in and if it's available on streaming services, it will show you that if it's not available to just stream as part of a, a subscription service, then, or you know, it's available just to purchase separately. It will also show you places for that. So it can do things like open the iTunes movie store as well so that you could rent it or buy it from there, which is just really, really useful to, to keep in mind when you are trying to, you know, watch something and you don't know where it's available because there's like a bajillion services and just trying to Google it leads you down the rabbit hole of this was on Netflix, it's now not on Netflix, but it might be coming back on Netflix. Okay, I don't care if it's coming back to Netflix, if I wanna watch it today, I need need to know where I can watch it now. So yeah, this is definitely a great free app to keep in mind for all of those things that you would like to watch, but you just don't yet know where you can watch them.

Mikah Sargent (00:18:06):
All right. And the last one here before we take a quick break is the long lived movies Anywhere service movies anywhere was this sort of group idea that you should be able to buy a movie in one place and have that movie show up on your devices and in the services that you have across all sorts of different platforms. So if I buy a movie in the iTunes store and the iTunes movie store, then it should be able to launch my Xbox and in the movie library there, be able to watch that same movie. So basically you log in with your movies anywhere account on any number of devices and depending on the device, it may be kind of like a setting where you in the settings go in and log into movies anywhere. Or it may be an app like it is on the Apple tv.

(00:19:13):
And in the case of, of what I have, you know, I was able to log in to movies anywhere on my Apple TV via the app. And then if I decided to use a Roku device or a Chromecast device, if I log in with my movie movies Anywhere account there, then the purchase that I did for Waiting for Guffman for example, would show up in all of those places. My favorite Halloween movie Trick or Treat is available in all those places. Basically all of these films that I have purchased at some point, and some of these were just whenever movies Anywhere first launched, they just had some options available for free. So I was like, well, yeah, of course I'm gonna get these and add them to my library. But the Social Network, my favorite film, I, it doesn't matter where I'm watching there are so many different movies anywhere participants that, you know, you, you can end up pretty much watching those movies in very high quality, if not, you know, the highest quality available regardless of where you are watching it. So, yeah. Anything that you wanted to say about this, the social network, anything that you wanted to say about movies anywhere? Do you have the same access in the UK that we have in the US or similar?

Rosemary Orchard (00:20:33):
Yeah, it seems pretty similar. It's not necessarily quite as wide, we just don't necessarily have exactly the same services over here. But it, it seems to work for me and for the things that I, I've got in there, so I'm quite pleased about that. And it's just like, just watch, it's worth having in your arsenal so that you can then, you know, watch your things anywhere because that's kind of what you wanna be able to do, right? Just because you have an Apple TV at home doesn't mean you always have an Apple TV to be able to watch stuff on.

Mikah Sargent (00:20:59):
Precisely. Alright, let us take a quick break so I can tell you about the sponsor today. It's HelloFresh who are bringing you this episode of iOS today, this summer, HelloFresh is here to take the work out of eating well. You can eat well without having to work for it, at least not that hard. Reach your goals with delicious calorie smart and protein, smart lunch and dinner options. Plus they've got new vegan recipes as well. You can get Farm to table quality with every Hello Fresh box. Hellofresh is 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. I love that because it means I can open the bag and not worry about rotten potatoes or bell peppers that are sticking to the bottom of the bag. These are fresh and ripe and delicious.

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(00:23:45):
And they're fun to go through with. They're fun. I, I've saved one that I plan on remaking because it was so delicious and this was one of the fast and fresh meals. Like it didn't, it didn't take me very long to make, and yet the flavors were just ah, so yummy, so good that I wanted to continue to to, you know, make that meal in the future. So I think you're gonna have a lot of fun with this, and we've got a great deal for you, so you have no reason not to try it. Hellofresh is America's number one meal kit. Go to hellofresh.com/ios 16 and use the code iOS 16 for 16 free meals plus shipping. Ah, that's why the 16 is there. That's hellofresh.com/ios 16, and use code iOS 16 to get 16 free meals and free shipping. If I heard that <laugh>, I would've been hopping on this a lot soon.

(00:24:44):
Like I, yeah, as soon as I heard this, why not 16 free meals and you don't have to pay for the shipping. Come on, let's get some delicious food. Let's let you try some new ways to make a meal and potentially, you know, HelloFresh might be the, the way that you go. So much fun stuff that you can make. And I have honestly, every HelloFresh meal that I've had I very much enjoyed. So, thank you HelloFresh for sponsoring this week's episode of iOS Today. Let's head back into the show this time to talk about a few other apps, including some games that are available on Apple tv. The first one, we gotta get out our claws because it's time to talk about Mr. Krab. All right, so you've talked about this before, Rosemary. This is one of the apps that actually inspired me to want to suggest that we do in Apple TV apps and games episode. Because one of us had talked about Mr. Krab just in general, and then I remember you mentioning that it was also available on Apple tv and I thought, ah, yeah, this game does make sense for Apple tv. And I went home and downloaded it immediately to play there. Yeah,

Rosemary Orchard (00:25:58):
Yeah. So it's, it's a great little game. And you just use your Apple TV remote, you click to jump and Mr. Crap just runs in a circle. But fortunately he's on a little spiral. And so as you go around, you, you need to try and collect your bubbles. You need to dodge any hazards that might pop up, like, for example, little holes. And if you, you know, fall down a level or something, then you just drop below and you wait until you hit a bumper and then you'll start running back in the other direction.

Mikah Sargent (00:26:25):
Oh, darn it. I did it again. <Laugh>.

Rosemary Orchard (00:26:26):
There we go. Yeah. so you, you'll get better at it as you go, Mikah. Perfect. See, there, there we go. You call it the purple bubble. You just have to remember purple is best. And yeah as you go through the first level, it will teach you how to do different kinds of jumps, like jumping higher where you press hold and things like that. And yeah, it's, it's a fun, very simple game that I, I enjoy just having around. It doesn't require a huge amount of thought and concentration but it's, it's just entertaining every time. I play it as you progress, you can get through the levels, you get points that can unlock new characters for you to play with and so on. I believe there's a misra and various other characters and yeah, it's, it's just good fun.

(00:27:10):
You get confetti at the end as you've just seen. So well then Mikah, you, you got a good score there. Yay. Yeah, it's, it, it, this is a fun one and unlike some other games that are available on Apple tv this works exceptionally well with just a good old fashioned Apple TV remote, whether you have one of the, the new silver ones or one of the older black ones, it'll work with both no problem. And you don't necessarily need to get bust out something like an Xbox controller and connect that to your device instead which is something that you can do believe it or not you can actually connect an Xbox controller to your Apple TV to play games. So, yeah. Worth worth remembering that when you are playing some of these, especially some of the ones from Apple Arcade, if you've got that they, they work a little better when you connect something like an Xbox controller, PlayStation controller, or the Nintendo Pro Controller, I should note, they do need to be wireless controllers for this to work. The wired ones do not work, but yeah, you can then take full advantage of the games on the Apple tv, which is good fun. Though sadly from experience, some of the games that are available you would think are fabulous, and then, and then you try playing like Soic and it's just not as good as, as

Mikah Sargent (00:28:18):
It was, as as you remember. Yeah, that's, that's sad. But I am having a lot of fun playing this, and I love, it's pretty much just one button interaction.

Rosemary Orchard (00:28:30):
Exactly. Like you can teach people to play this very quickly, like kids will figure it out. You know, it's, it, it's very, very understandable immediately, and yeah, you can, you can even have people like placing bets of, okay, well if, if, if you get through this level, I'll do the washing up

Mikah Sargent (00:28:45):
<Laugh>. Ah, that's exact, that's great. That's a great idea. Yeah. Yeah. Except I'm worried that I would end up doing, because my, my partner's a gamer, so I think I would end up doing all the washing up every

Rosemary Orchard (00:28:54):
Time. Yeah. I, I think this is not like the, the the kind of of game where you, you have to be good at gaming to, to, to get this like you, you'll be able to figure it out pretty quickly regardless.

Mikah Sargent (00:29:06):
Oh, I can use the snail to keep me safe from the starfish. Yeah,

(00:29:09):
Exactly. If people are listening to this sort learn sorts of things, you go, that's just going to be very confusing. Yeah, no, this is a lot of fun. And it was available for free on the app store, which is quite a delight. Up next is one of my favorite games, and this is available as part of the Apple Arcade subscription. I've played this game a lot on my iPhone and on the iPad as well, but it is also available on the Apple tv. And I think this could be a fun way to kind of see a large screen of beautiful patterns because the game is called Patterned. So if you have an Apple Arcade subscription either directly or through one of the other sort of premium options, then you will be able to play this game.

(00:30:04):
It's having trouble loading right now on the Apple tv. Let me, I think force quit it and we'll try again to get it loaded. But you could almost think of it like a jigsaw puzzle game that you play through and create wallpapers and screens. Yeah, it's, it's oddly kind of loading off to the side on on this Apple tv. So I don't know what's going on here, but I, yeah, I've played this on the iPhone and you get these beautiful wallpapers that you can make your background if you want. And that's one of the things I like about th that's a kind of quality I like in games is when I end up with something at the end, it helps me kind of justify for me having spent time on it where it's more than just, you know, doing a thing over and over again.

(00:30:59):
But at the end you get this beautiful wallpaper sadly not able to be used on the Apple TV itself, but at least if you play it on the iPhone or elsewhere you can, you know, create a screen out of it. So yeah, I don't think I'm gonna be able to show this one, unfortunately on the Apple tv. It's just struggling to load. I wouldn't be surprised if it's because I've logged into Apple Arcade on a phone running a beta, and so now it's having trouble communicating with the Apple Arcade servers or something. Anything you wanna say about that before we talk about Drawful? I also was not able to get that one. It, oh, patterned again. Apple Arcade Drawful available in the app store for 9 99. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So this is though, this is a premium game and it's one that you can have a lot of fun with. It's part of the folks who make the Jackbox party packs. I, I've had a hoot and a hauler playing Drawful. I imagine you have as well.

Rosemary Orchard (00:31:57):
I have, I've definitely had a lot of fun playing Drawful. Essentially what happens in Drawful is it'll pop up a code on the screen. Everybody opens the, the, the Jackbox website on their, their personal device. So that could be a tablet, that could be a, a phone. It doesn't have to be an iPhone or an iPad. You don't have to install any apps. You type in the room code once everyone's joined you all get given a prompt. You have to draw your prompt. There is no eraser. This is very important to note. There is no eraser, there's no like, adjustments to like the, the fineness of your, your pencil or anything like that. You are just using your finger to draw on a screen. The prompts can be very weird. Sometimes they can be very fun. And yeah, so you draw it and then everybody has to try and guess what you've drawn and give it titles and things like that and, and try and get points from each other.

(00:32:46):
It is a lot of fun. And you can actually get this as part of some of the Jackbox party packs as well, or jackbox games which are also available for Apple tv. But the Jackbox games are also available on other platforms. So Fox may have already encountered them, for example, on Steam or Nintendo Switch. And yeah, definitely recommend checking these out if you're looking for games that Fox can play together without you know, everybody having to download and install apps, you just open a webpage. If grandma doesn't have an iPhone or an iPad and she's just got a a, a dumb old flip phone, you could lend her your iPad. As long as she can use her finger to draw on the screen and tap, she'll be good to go. So yeah, it's, it's a lot of fun and certainly a great party game for Fox.

Mikah Sargent (00:33:34):
Up next is Crosse Road, which is I think a well known game at this point. It is excellent to play on the Apple tv. Works very well, looks really good. And I think is a delight. So let us start, I've got a, a chicken here and it's showing that I start by using the track pad. I can click to move in a specific location or in a specific way and let me, there we go, swipe over and swipe up and swipe over and swipe up. And now we get to the road that needs to be crossed. And if you've ever played Frogger, this sort of interaction will be familiar to you. You wanna get across the road before you get hit by a car, or in that case a train. And then we've got some logs that we can use to get across. And then once again we are trying to get past these cars and then another train and the sign shows when the train is coming. And so I was able to get across there, oh no, I landed in the water.

Rosemary Orchard (00:34:49):
Oh, you jumped into the river <laugh>. Yeah.

Mikah Sargent (00:34:51):
You, I don't know if you noticed there was a little lag going on mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. So depending on which Apple TV you're using, you may experience some lag that could impact. But it is still worth checking if it works on yours. It could also be because we are doing all sorts of stuff like, you know, showing what's on the screen and whatnot. But yeah yeah, there was some lag involved there. Crossy Road is available for free in the App Store mm-hmm <affirmative>, and it doesn't seem to have any in any in-app purchases from what I could tell.

Rosemary Orchard (00:35:26):
So it does have some in-app purchases where you can pay to play as other characters and so on instead of playing as the chicken. Got it. But overall I've never paid anything for this game which is, I slightly regret cuz the developers certainly deserve some support for it. So maybe I should go buy some of the in-app purchases to, to give them some support. But it's, it's a good fun game. And it, it doesn't matter which Apple TV remote you have, if you have the older one, the black one then that, that will work fine. But if you do have the newer one and I've just managed to hit my microphone while I mar that's got the, so the silver one that's got the, the circular track pad with the buttons around it, you may find that a little easier to use actually, cuz you can just click up or down, well, you can't click down in in Crossy Road but you can click left and right and it will move you left and right. As well as being able to swipe as you go. So it's certainly nice to have that as an option. And if you're not ready to upgrade your Apple tv, you can upgrade to the new Apple TV remote, which charges via U S B C which may be an improvement for folks especially as this one's gonna get fine. My location with iOS 17.

Mikah Sargent (00:36:31):
Yeah, I would prefer to play it with the little directional arrows. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, Alto's Adventure is next. You can get it for 4 99 in the App store. And it's made by Snowman. Snowman makes incredible apps and games, or I should say games. So it's going to be beautifully designed. It's going to have great sound design, it's going to have wonderful interactions. And I think people will be familiar with Alto's Adventure just in general. Yes, so here is kind of the loading screen, and as you mentioned, Rosemary, this game supports controllers. I wish I had an Xbox controller. I could show kind of how that works. So Rosemary has a beautiful pink Xbox controller that unfortunately we can't pass the wireless over the internet to us here. Or else we could do

Rosemary Orchard (00:37:22):
That. Yeah, it's not going through the camera somehow. Michael, I'm not quite sure what's going on here. I think we need to do a little bit of an update, but you can, that's issue, isn't

Mikah Sargent (00:37:30):
It?

Rosemary Orchard (00:37:30):
<Laugh>? Yeah. You can compare these controllers to, to your Apple tv and we can pop a link in the show notes as to how to do that. But Xbox controllers PlayStation controllers PlayStation four onwards Nintendo Pro controllers, the wireless versions and some other Bluetooth controllers can be connected to your Apple tv, which will enable you to use them, which can be great for games like this. Especially if you've got folks like Mikah's partner who are more into games and gaming, then they, they, they'll be much more familiar with using this sort of controller and it can certainly be a lot easier. I know, like when I'm sitting there playing Zelda, for example, it's, it's a lot easier to be using this shape controller than to try and do yeah. Touchscreen. It just doesn't seem to work for me. And, and therefore Trackpad doesn't either for that sort of thing.

Mikah Sargent (00:38:19):
And here I am playing through Alto's Adventure a little bit. It's kind of an endless runner game. And I'm grinding and doing some back flips and landing gives me more points a rather more speed, which increases the size. Oh no, I missed that. Increases the size of my, I don't like the look of this warning sign. You'd better be careful my scarf as I am working. It's a huge chasm. Make sure you have enough speed and time your jump right. Whoa. Oh no, I didn't time my jump right. So I crashed, but I was able to reset and keep going here. So let's try, oops. I should have done that differently. Yeah, no, that's bad. So as you go through, you are collecting your llamas as you go down and

(00:39:13):
okay, let's try one more time. Oh, I was trying to get more speed. Okay. Anyway, that's <laugh>, that's Alto's Adventure. Yes. The last one in this section is an app called Breathing Zone. And I'm really glad that you suggested we include this one because Breathing Zone is an app that kind of brings the mindfulness experience to the Apple tv. So you open it up and you see this kind of illustration of multiple little leaves of different colors, and you can set the setting. So your breathing rate might be six beats per minute and the how long you want to go, what the pattern looks like, you can do breathing zone, equal zone, extended exhale, or 4, 7, 8 breath. And then the sound that may, that's made and the voice you can choose, well, let's see, between female and male or have no voice at all. And then let's go back to, oh, we can also change the color. If we don't want multicolor, maybe we just want one like this beautiful orange color, very invigorating. And then when we click breathing, then it gets small

(00:40:29):
And we inhale and we hold and we exhale and hold. I'm gonna switch this back to the main breathing here of breathing zone, and then we'll go back and we will breathe together. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. <Laugh>. I'd have to say it's rather it's faster than I than I am used to doing. Usually you inhale and you hold it for a little bit and then you exhale and you hold it for a little bit. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> to activate the parasympathetic nervous system in any case, breathing Zone is also available for free in the App store. I wish that it could have an integration with Apple Health to track my, like, mindfulness minutes. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, that'd be cool. But I imagine those, that API might not be accessible for tv.

Rosemary Orchard (00:41:34):
I believe that was one of the APIs that was announced at WWDC this year. I could be wrong, but I know that they did announce some more health integrations and fitness integrations available to developers. And so I'm hoping that the breathing zone folks will be able to work on that and integrate that. So for those of you who have like an Apple Watch, for example, will actually be able to integrate it and use it and link all of that up. But it's certainly a nice option if you'd like to try, for example, the breathing exercises available on the Apple Watch, but you don't have an Apple Watch and you do have an Apple tv. You know, have a play around with the settings and adjust them to to see what makes the most sense for you. And give it a try. It's certainly a nice free way to give it a go.

Mikah Sargent (00:42:14):
And then last but not least, let's not forget that soon this fall there will be a new version, oft v os available. And when that new version comes, there will be some new features. You linked to an article from from, let me try that again, from make use of that has information about the new features you can expect. I will say I have tried using FaceTime with the Apple tv and it was a really neat experience. So FaceTime is coming to the Apple tv. Essentially what is going on there is they're using the continuity camera features that link your iPhone to right now, your Mac, where you can use your iPhone as the camera. They've made this possible using the Apple tv. So you pull up FaceTime on the Apple tv, it asks you to connect a nearby iPhone.

(00:43:12):
So I am able to connect it with mine, and then the camera on the iPhone suddenly becomes my camera view. And then my TV has the view of my other participants. I can take my phone and place it sort of on a mount near the television or even closer if I want it to be. And then using the center stage features and all of that magic, it will readjust to the screen or rather the camera to show the participant or participants in the view. And I have found it quite delightful and I'm looking forward to using that in the holidays that are coming up.

Rosemary Orchard (00:43:53):
I was just gonna say it, it's gonna be really interesting to see this. And also I think just things like being able to find that darned Apple TV or remote when if like, I mean, there's a reason why I have mine in a silicon case because this metal just slides into my sofa somehow. It has like a magnetic attraction to the sofa bed inside of my sofa. And so it just junk goes in there. So I, I pop mine in a silicon case, but being able to find it when it goes missing, it's gonna be very handy.

Mikah Sargent (00:44:18):
And then the other feature that that is coming to the Apple TV that I'm super pumped about is VP and support on Apple tv. So right now it is a little bit complicated for the average user to be able to play or to use, rather to activate a VPN for the Apple tv. You've gotta do some kind of behind the scenes stuff to make it work before you then get VPN use or you can, you know, use your router that has a vpn, blah, blah, blah. This is gonna make it so that if you have a VPN that you use, that you pay for maybe ones that you don't pay for, I don't see suggest using those. But if you do then right there within the Apple tv, you're able to turn on that VPN and make use of it.

(00:45:15):
Apple Music karaoke improves so that you can kind of partake in the experience with singing and dancing, which is fun. And then, I don't know, did you, have you seen I really like the new control center design. I think it's gorgeous. And it has everything that I want right there. Fast user switching is a lot better. And it also is smart about if, if you, if you choose to, instead of using the remote, use your iPhones as the remote, then the person's iPhone that's connected to it will make it that person's account as the one that's on the Apple tv. So, let me try to rephrase that. Let's say Pete and Candace have an Apple TV that they share and they both have their own Apple TV accounts. If Pete uses Pete's iPhone to turn on the Apple tv, the Apple TV will switch to Pete's account.

(00:46:21):
If Candace uses Candace's iPhone with the remote app that's in control center to use, do stuff on the Apple tv, then it switch to ca switches to Candace's account. So it's a pretty neat little kind of extra feature to make sure that the right account is active at a given time. Now if only third party apps would better integrate with the user switching that's on Apple tv, then I would have everything I need in life. Because right now, every time I launch an app, the first thing I have to do is choose which account I want to use, please. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, just look at what the account is. Apple's made that feature available for the longest time in TV V os I know. And no one enables it. It's so frustrating.

Rosemary Orchard (00:47:04):
No, no. It would be really great if your apple TV user could link to your Disney Plus or your Netflix or your Hulu user. So if I am logged in, if I'm using the Apple TV as me, then I don't need to, you know, select me and Disney Plus and so on and so forth. It would be really nice to just not have to worry about that. But as it is right now, we're not there. But the new, the new control center really does look great. And I'm particularly a fan of how things like the sleep timer and so on have been surfaced. And I'm also quite excited by the enhanced dialogue feature, which is going to be coming in T B O S 17. So at the moment there is a reduced love noises option available most of the time.

(00:47:44):
If you swipe down from the top when you're watching something on Apple TV and you switch to the audio tab, then there's an option to reduce loud noises, which means that if you're watching something that usually, you know, the volume goes along at a fairly consistent level, and then there's BA explosions and then it goes back to this normal level, it will reduce, you know, the, the, the massive increase there. Enhanced dialogue is a, an accessibility feature essentially, which attempts to pick the dialogue out of the, the audio that's playing and enhance it. So, you know, folks who maybe have difficulty hearing things will be able to, you know, actually hopefully, fingers crossed, hear the audio. Yes. with what's being said instead of having to rely 100% on subtitles. So yeah, I'm, I'm glad that that sort of thing is coming as options for folks who need that.

Mikah Sargent (00:48:31):
All righty. It is time to move along to the news. The news is up next. First in the news, I have to say I was a little surprised when I was perusing the news this morning and I saw what to my wandering eyes should appear, but an increase in prices for a friend I hold dear. Why is Apple? Thank, thank you all for acknowledging my rhyme. Thank you for the applause. You can't hear it, but there's applause in the studio right now. There's not, anyway, so iCloud storage prices have raised in the UK and in other places what is going on? It's already expensive enough to get, like, it bothers me that the free storage is so small and gives so many people mm-hmm. <Affirmative> so many issues and they're raising the prices on you. What's going on, Rosemary?

Rosemary Orchard (00:49:29):
Yeah. So I think this is a combination of a number of things. You know, the prices aren't for, for this haven't budged in a while. The price for Apple one, the, the bundle which includes Apple Music, apple TV plus, apple Arcade, et cetera and iCloud storage, those went up last year in the autumn. But the, the individual prices for iCloud storage didn't. And I suspect it's one of those things where yeah, exchange rates and so on have changed. So they are updating the tiers. Apple doesn't follow the exchange rates precisely. They sort of set a price and stick with it for quite a while. But yeah as it is, it was 79 pence a month for 50 gigabytes of storage. It's now going up to 99 pence a month for 50 gigabytes of storage.

(00:50:15):
I do wish they offered more at a lower price. Because as it is, attempting to talk my parents into paying two pound 50 for 200 gigabytes of storage was difficult. As it is we have an Apple family account and I pay for Apple One, so that, that solved that problem. That was my Christmas present to them, <laugh>. But yeah, talking people into paying more money for cloud storage to back up their devices and in particular their photos, which if they went people will be really upset about, is always difficult. So yeah, I'm sad that it's going up in price, although it is understandable to an extent.

Mikah Sargent (00:50:52):
Yeah, that's what, that's why this frustrates me. I understand that, that things are expensive and like we know how this works. We know we're happy paying what we pay. I also kind of just went the way of having the premium and then having family on it. But you can't necessarily get that through to someone who you want to have more storage. And so it's just this frustrating thing where I wish that it started at 200 gigs and then went up from there mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, because I, I think I could convince maybe someone $12 a year. That's all you have to do $12 a year and you're not gonna have to worry about this. So yeah, it's frustrating. Let's see, what else here? So Mac Rumors has gone through and talked about some of the new stuff that has come to iOS in the second beta of iOS 17.

(00:51:49):
Of course, they're working through the developer betas right now. The second beta was released and they'll continue to release betas before the public beta in July, at which point Rosemary and I will be able to kind of dig in and, and talk about specific features and more folks will be able to kind of get on the beta train if they want to and join in the fun. But as the betas make their way through this summer this is the time where Apple tests the software, looks for flaws, fixes them. Then once we get to the fall, the, the true versions will be released typically in line with new iPhones. And some of the new features that you will find include, include a new update screen mm-hmm <affirmative>, I like that it does have more information on the update screen.

(00:52:45):
So it's in the software updates, you can kind of see what you need to know about the public beta whenever that will eventually come, as well as the Apple Developer program in general. Apple designed apps are getting these new app tip features, which is really neat. This is actually a whole new system that Apple has introduced to give third party apps a common language for showing tips inside of their apps. So what's great about that is that it becomes familiar to the user in a way that they know that if they look for that grayish tannish rounded rectangle that's going to tell them how to use an app. And so that common design language will give people kind of a comfort as they learn how to make use of an app. Location settings also include a new micro location feature.

(00:53:39):
We don't yet know what that means but I would not be surprised if it has something to do with with ultra wideband chips and a specific location in an area. Or it could just be that as these iPhones and especially the Apple Watch, think the Apple Watch Ultra is a great example of this because the satellite that's built into it, the GPS technology that's built into it, not the satellite, there's not a satellite inside of this thing is very, very, very, very, very, very hyper detailed in location. So when we think of micro location, we're thinking of, you know, tiny increments of movement to tell where somebody is in a moment. It's unclear to me if, you know, that is pulling from the Apple Watch Ultra. If it's pulling from an iPhone, we will probably learn more about micro location as time goes on check in, which is a great new feature that gives you the, and I won't go into a bunch of detail about this, but essentially lets you share with friends that you're about to take a trip somewhere.

(00:54:44):
You're about to walk somewhere, you're about to drive somewhere. And if you in that journey end up stopping, then the phone can kind of check in with you and see if you're okay. And if not, then it will contact those friends and let them know where you are. That has gotten some little adjustments. And then using cross fade in the music app, no longer crashes. And you can also change how long a cross fade is, if that's something that you're into. As well as some other small changes. I don't wanna read through the whole Mac Rumors article because then you won't go there and I don't wanna remove the value of checking it out. So obviously check out the link at our show notes. But yes, we're going to see these small little refinements and mm-hmm <affirmative> the introduction of new features that Apple announced, but don't yet have ready for the betas coming out over the course of you know, the next few months. Anything else you wanna say about iOS 17 beta two? How's shortcuts working for you? Cuz I remember you saying that you couldn't get shortcuts to launch.

Rosemary Orchard (00:55:48):
Yeah, I was having an issue with shortcuts launching and I'm pleased to report that a thanks to a lovely listener here. I was able to find the problem wasn't a specific person's problem, but unfortunately an app that I was using had an app intent that seemingly was causing shortcuts to crash. So if I f failed feedback, contacted the developer who, you know, did their absolute best to try and find out what's going on here, because I didn't do anything special to break it. And fortunately, beta two has fixed it for that app developer and temporarily uninstalling that app did resolve the issue. The meantime unfortunately my iPhone is not showing up right now, so I'm gonna have to have a look and see if I can fix that. But one of the things I did wanna note is a the automations that were added, specifically the new automations trigger for transactions.

(00:56:37):
So when you use apple Pay on your iPhone to, for example as a transit pass or as identity or to buy something, there's now a little thing in here which says receive transaction as input and it gives you things like the merchant and the amount and things like that. And that is gonna be so handy for budgeting apps. I think this is gonna be super, super cool. So I'm really excited to see that. And, you know, some of the other refinements and, and tweaks, but shortcuts is just so fast now, Myah, it's, it's great. Like it wasn't slow, slow before. It was slow when I was demoing it because I have got so many apps and so on, but, and I was sharing my screen, but now it's, it's just super fast and it's great. I'm really excited.

Mikah Sargent (00:57:18):
That is exciting. Any other stuff you wanna mention in the news before we move on? Cuz we're running out of time?

Rosemary Orchard (00:57:25):
Nothing super huge though. There is a new airplay two adapter from Eve who was recently purchased, which seems to be sort of coming soon. And so if folks are looking for an airplay adapter for some speakers that they've already got, there is a great Logitech one. I think there's a Belk one as well out there mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, but there looks to be an Eve one incoming as well. So options, options abound for those folks who already have great speaker systems, but would like to have you know airplay integration on those.

Mikah Sargent (00:57:55):
I am hoping that this version is going to have some great audio options because I have the one from, I believe I have the Balkan one, either, it's either the Balkan or the Logitech one, I don't recall at the moment, but Whate, whichever one it is, its pretty low audio streaming quality and I would love it if we see one from Eve that kind of improves upon that. And based on the like port options on the back, it's looking pretty neat. So I will eagerly I, I know I, I'll have to reach out to their press people and see what they have to say about it cuz yeah, that, that looks cool. It'd be cool to talk about it. Alright, with that I think we should move along to Shortcuts Corner.

(00:58:53):
This is the part of the show where you write in with your shortcuts corner requests and Rosemary Orchard, our shortcuts expert provides a response. Rosemary has been gone the past two weeks, so we have not done Shortcuts Corner, so I know you all are itching for us to return to normalcy. A sense of calm and peace with Rosemary answering these questions. So without further ado, I do need to get into this question as it is quite a wordy one. Cody writes in to say, Mikah and Rosemary, Hey there. I've been on iOS for a while now, but I'm still slowly venturing into the world of automation and shortcuts. Recently I started a new job where I work with all things Apple while I'm learning a lot and making progress. There's one thing I'm struggling with, setting up a appointments across multiple calendars at once.

(00:59:40):
Here's the backstory. I've been going to the chiropractor a few times a week to help with back pain. The appointments are quick, but they're during work hours, so, oh no, this is me editorializing. So I have to take time off. When I get the date and time for my 15 minute appointment. I put it in my personal calendar so my wife and I can plan our schedules. Then I create an out of office event. It doesn't have to be official, just a marker to block my schedule for 30 minutes before and after the appointment on my Google Workspace account. After that, I create an event on a shared calendar that my team can see. This one doesn't need to be marked as free or busy and doesn't need to be shared with anyone. Finally, I create another two events on my Google Workspace calendar for the entire time, 30 before 15 during, and 30 after this time I invite around eight for each people, but the appointment needs to show as free so it doesn't block off their calendars.

(01:00:38):
These have to be separate as they are my immediate coworkers for one and my clients for the other. Whew, that's a lot to keep track of. I've been using Fantastical for a while now, both on my Mac and my iPhone and iPad, but it takes a lot of time and effort each week to set up these appointments and ensure I'm doing it properly. If the time slash dates were the same, I would just duplicate the events. But since they change and there are so many calendars, it's hard to make sure I get everything covered correctly. I'm wondering if there's a shortcut or perhaps a Cal Calendar app that I can use to automatically set up each appointment on all four calendars using some kind of preset logic. Is this even possible? And if so, could you point me in the right direction? Thanks for all you do.

(01:01:21):
It is a blast to listen to the show. I got the who team to listen every Wednesday in the office. Oh, I got the whole team to listen every Wednesday in the office. We all enjoy it. Hello Cody's team. Thank you for listening in. And if you heard that it was the sound of the, of Cody's back cracking as they get an adjustment in <laugh> in the chiropractor. PS the pup text is here as he interrupted me on writing this email to get his picture taken. He knows what a phone can do. So we have a photo. Oh my goodness, what a good boy. Look at that big tongue. Oh, so this is a sweet big boy. I'm not sure. It could be some sort of lab mix. I, I'm not sure, but it's a beautiful sort of tan and white dog and just looks happy as can be hanging out on a lawn. Just chilling, just chilling. And now I want to pet the dog. Thank you for paying the pet tax. Cody, thank you for writing in. I'm curious to hear what Rosemary has to say. The first thing that came to mind for me was the templates feature and fantastical, but mm-hmm <affirmative>, I would imagine you've got some shortcuts magic that you might wanna work into, into it.

Rosemary Orchard (01:02:39):
Yeah. So I am having a slight problem. I'm guessing beta magic has happened and in this case not so magic. So if I try and show my iPhone on screen right now, you get a lovely black box. So I'm just gonna walk folks through this verbally and we'll, I'll try and include the shortcut in the show notes so that folks can actually download this and give it a play. Maybe I can

Mikah Sargent (01:02:57):
Go through it while you're talking. Sorry. Maybe I can, I can try to create the shortcut while

Rosemary Orchard (01:03:02):
You're talking. Yeah, yeah. I can walk you through creating it Mikah. That will work really well. So essentially you know, kudos to Cody. He has already gone through and figured out the logic that is needed. Okay, so to start with, what we need to do is we need to ask for input so that we can then get the time of the appointment. Because this is where everything happens. You know, Cody's figured out 30 minutes before, 15 minutes after the end of the appointment, the appointments are 15 minutes. So when we ask for input, we can then change the text to time, which is the first thing that we want. Possibly date and time. I'm guessing you don't necessarily make these same appointments on the day that they're gonna be there. You might make them a few days in advance and you could put in a prompt here, but we don't necessarily need to do that.

(01:03:46):
So yeah, let's go either way. So that's a good start. So now we've got the start time of the appointment. So then we probably need to figure out the end time of the appointment. So we can look for the adjust date action, which will then allow us to adjust that date Ta-da Magic. So we're gonna add 15 minutes to this and this is gonna give us the end time of the appointment. So then we've got our start time and our end time. And then from here we can add a calendar event. Now you can use the calendar actions for this or you can use fantastic Hell's actions, whatever you prefer. I would recommend that we just use the, the calendar for this and there should be, there we go. Add new events, add new new event. I I'll that

Mikah Sargent (01:04:26):
Go. Oh, let me just type it

Rosemary Orchard (01:04:27):
Down I think,

Mikah Sargent (01:04:28):
And then hopefully that'll find it better. Get upcoming events at event v Oh, we go at

Rosemary Orchard (01:04:34):
New Event. At New Event. Okay, perfect. So in the title we can put the chiropractor as the appointment. So this is the main appointment. And then, then the from section Uhhuh when, when we pop into there, we can tap on select variable Uhhuh, <affirmative> and then select provided input. Okay, ta-da. Very simple. Now you can rename this. So where it says variable name, you can actually set this to like appointment start. For example

Mikah Sargent (01:05:01):
Go. Don't have to do that though. So then we'll put this as appointment start. Yeah.

Rosemary Orchard (01:05:05):
Okay. Yeah, just to keep, keep things nice and clean and simple so we know what we're looking at later. Cool. And then in the two section where it's got a sort of placeholder for tomorrow at 1:00 PM again, we'll tap into that select variable and then we will use the adjusted date Adjusted date, which we can change to our appointment end. So that we know what that one is. So we've actually already learned like the most important parts here. But if Mikah taps on the little arrow in this ad appointment, then we can make sure that we get this into the right calendar. So you could select different calendars here. And so for example, in this case, probably the main calendar you probably wanna turn off show compose sheet. Okay. because otherwise it's gonna pop up and ask you to confirm it every single time. And when you're adding like four or five events at once, it's gonna get annoying. But by doing this, we've already got adjusting dates and times and adding calendar events. So then you'll reuse this logic to adjust the date from the start. So you'll go back 30 minutes from the start appointment start time. So you'll add another adjust date action, okay. Which is actually suggested at the bottom. Nice. and then this time instead of add, we'll make it subtract,

Mikah Sargent (01:06:17):
Subtract,

Rosemary Orchard (01:06:19):
And then we can change that to 30 minutes. 30 minutes. So it'll be 30 minutes. And then where it says new event, we wanna sort of tap and hold or Oh, tap.

Mikah Sargent (01:06:28):
Okay.

Rosemary Orchard (01:06:29):
Yeah, if you tap and hold, then it should give you the option to select. And there we go. So appointment start is right at the top under our clear, our nice variable naming has helped us. So we've got our appointment start and then we can adjust our appointment end date the same way.

Mikah Sargent (01:06:43):
Okay. So I'll add another adjust and add another appointment and adjust date. Okay. And then we'll do,

Rosemary Orchard (01:06:52):
And then we wanna add 15 minutes to the end so to the appointment end

Mikah Sargent (01:06:59):
To, and we'll tap and hold, then we'll do appointment end. Okay. Yeah.

Rosemary Orchard (01:07:02):
Perfect. And then we would simply add another event here. Okay. So we'll do event with event. And this is the second calendar event. So the one that's blocking out your time. And so, you know you could just type afk or something in there. There not, not quite sure exactly what Cody needs, but yeah. And then we'll go through the same process of selecting the, the tapping into the various things and selecting the do adjusted date modified ones for the first part. And these can be renamed as appropriate to whatever makes sense adjusted date there. And so this is good, but the one thing that Cody noted here that they need to do, which we don't have in the extended options, which you'll want to make sure that you've turned off showing compose sheet is setting this to be busy or free. Oh yeah. Cause that's something we need to be able to do. So Mikah, if you look in the actions inside of shortcuts under the edit calendar or under the apps for calendar

Mikah Sargent (01:08:03):
I'll tap on apps and then I'll tap on calendar. Yeah,

Rosemary Orchard (01:08:06):
Exactly. Then there should be an edit calendar event,

Mikah Sargent (01:08:09):
Edit calendar, which through, up and down right there. Yeah. Perfect.

Rosemary Orchard (01:08:12):
So this will allow us to change details of the calendar event that we've just added, Uhhuh <affirmative>. So if you tap on the detail option, then it should give us a number of things such as attendees that'll be very helpful for Cody. And if the calendar supports this, the free busy status, then it should also offer the option for that

Mikah Sargent (01:08:31):
Set, my status of the new

Rosemary Orchard (01:08:33):
Events. Yeah. And so you should be able to set that to something, I believe the status is here is for event invitations rather than anything else. Let's see, let's see if we can do, I'm not sure, I know Outlooks, calendars do support this. And I believe that shows up in, in shortcuts. Certainly it did when I was testing this Okay. Earlier today. But yes.

Mikah Sargent (01:09:00):
Yeah, so I wonder if I had ch chosen a Google calendar as the calendar if, whoops, let's do twit, my twit account. And then we'll see if that lets me change that to

Rosemary Orchard (01:09:16):
Yes. There looking, make sure that it's looking, there's so many more options at the, the right calendar event when you're editing as well, because that'll be editing the, the event just above it rather than the one that you've got expanded. Oh,

Mikah Sargent (01:09:27):
Okay. So should I move set my status? Should I move that app or? Well,

Rosemary Orchard (01:09:30):
You can just tap and hold on the, the new event variable. Oh, this

Mikah Sargent (01:09:34):
One in there. This one, okay. And then

Rosemary Orchard (01:09:35):
You choose, yeah, and then you can select variable and then you'll be able to select the specific

Mikah Sargent (01:09:40):
Select variable. And then I wanna do that one. Okay. There we go. And then cool to value

Rosemary Orchard (01:09:47):
Set. I, I, I think the, my status is specifically for just like invitations. So there, there's something in there, but by the way, you can definitely add the attendees into this which is incredibly useful. So yeah there's, there's alsos of things that you can do there. So fingers crossed this is gonna give Cody the starting point that they need to, to do you know, everything. The only thing that may be a question mark is depending on which calendar service you're using if you can set the free busy status. But if you only have to open your calendar and edit the free busy status of a couple of events, that's true quickly when you've done this, still feels like that's gonna be a win over having to enter four appointments manually which is gonna be a pain.

(01:10:33):
And also, even if you are using something like Fantastic Health Templates which are really great, I highly recommend them, but because you need four events based around the same date time, that's gonna be kind of tricky to manage. So yeah just one of those things where I think that shortcuts is the best solution for this. So good luck, Cody, right back if you run into any trouble, and I'll see if I can get a completed version of this maybe not in time for the show notes tonight but just maybe email to you later or something so that we can get a good example. Ready.

Mikah Sargent (01:11:06):
Absolutely. That is a fantastic question, a fantastic pet tax. And now I want to take a quick break before we come back with our app caps. Look here at twit, we are dedicated to building a highly engaged community of tech enthusiasts by offering them the knowledge they need to understand and use technology. In today's world, that's what we do on iOS today, every single Tuesday. In order to do that though, we need to create partnerships with trusted brands and make incomparable introductions between our audience and our partners. You know, like HelloFresh that I talked about earlier, you out there can keep your brand in front of your target audience and continue to grow it twit, we deliver powerful host red ads like you heard by us, the tech experts. And according to Nielsen, 56% of podcast listeners pay more attention When a host reads an ad on their show, we pride ourselves on delivering information relevant to our audience.

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Are you ready to elevate your brand? Of course you are. You gotta hop on board, launch your campaign today, break out of the advertising norm, and grow your brand by giving an authentic introduction of your products and services to a qualified audience by experts you trust. Check out what we have to offer at twit tv slash advertise, that's twit.tv/advertise. And we thank you for considering joining us and being a sponsor on the network. All right, we are back from the break, and that means it's time to play the music for our app caps. This is the part of the show where we wear silly caps to honor our app and or gadget picks of the week. These are the apps and or gadgets we are using now or have been using for some time that we think are great and wanna share with you. And in order to have some fun while we cap off the show, we put silly things on around above, below over our faces. Without further ado, let's talk about our app caps. Rosemary, should I go first or do you have the, the app

Rosemary Orchard (01:15:19):
Ready? Well, my app cap is ready. I have changed my app cap because my phone for some reason just doesn't wanna show on the screen or neither does my iPad. Something is up today, but that's not a problem because my backup app cap, it's right here. It's on my iPad, it's attached to my iPad. Now, I have talked about the Moth snap photo, folio Folio before, but they've got a new version of it. So this is an iPad mini six. And this is the Moof case. And so what you have here in the Moof case is the ability to just sort of pop it open and magnetize it and it gives your iPad a little raise so it's not sitting straight on the table or on your lap or whatever. It's standing up a little bit and it's standing up approximately 50% of the height you know, away from you the, the, the table or whatever.

(01:16:07):
But the difference with the new version of this compared to the previous version is that there is this little triangle here in the back. And this little triangle allows you to, when you fold it out, then flip the base around and both slide it in, which would be a lot easier to do if I were trying to look at the camera at the same time. And then you actually have it standing at sort of a normal height, just like the, the apple sort of smart cases do or did. And this is really nice because this works in both landscape mode this way around, but it also works in landscape mode this way around, which is really nice for drawing or writing onto it. Nice. Yeah. And it's, it's, this is just a really nice sort of magnetic case.

(01:16:47):
It does it, you know, it pops onto your iPad super easily, of course. And it sticks out from the edge of the iPad just a little bit, which means that if you've got an Apple pencil on here, it's not gonna immediately get bonked off. You know, if something, you know, happens to, you know touch it as some happens on some other cases. But it's very nice it comes in black brown or sort of light off whitish color. And this is available not just for the iPad Mini, it's also available for the iPad Pro in the 11 and 12.9 inch options. And my favorite part is, is like, it's sort of, it looks leathery, it feels leathery, but it's actually a vegan leather, so it's not actually, you know, no cruelty to animals or anything involved. And it's they are doing their best to do eco-friendly sustainable options here.

(01:17:32):
So this is a really nice case option. So the iPad version coming with an extra case that fits onto the, the iPad Pro which has a little sort of Apple pencil holder is 99 99 at the moment. But they do actually have just just this case as a separate option which I will have to double check the pricing on, but I believe it was a little bit cheaper. So yeah, this is definitely something worth considering if you're looking for a case for an iPad. And Moft have got lots of great accessories that are worth looking into. They do Mac safe wallets and things like that as well. So, and lots of colors. It's really lovely stuff.

Mikah Sargent (01:18:15):
Yeah, they, I the sort of origami nature of, of what they do. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> always very fascinating and I I appreciate the design. It's just, it's so smart. So smart.

Rosemary Orchard (01:18:27):
Yes. I've just checked, it's 59 99 for the 11 inch I iPad Pro 69 9 for the 12.9 inch IEP Pro, or 39 99 for the I iPad Mini. So the, the case of is available you know, on its own as a cheaper option, which is very nice. Oh, yeah,

Mikah Sargent (01:18:42):
Good prices too. Yeah. the, the camper top, my head is a Panama jet hit and I'm not going to keep with this accent. The, the app that I'm talking about this week is oh, I guess if people don't know what a Panal jet, it's like a white woven hat. And then it has a black strap on it that says, I think Panama Jack on the side <laugh>. Anyway, the app that I'm talking about, it was a finalist for an Apple Design award in the innovation category. And I had never, I'd honestly never heard of this app before. So I when we were talking about last week, the Apple Design Award winners I mentioned that there was one that I wanted to win and Christopher Lolly was saying oh, I know exactly which one he's gonna be talking about.

(01:19:37):
And when I ended up saying camo Studio for the Mac, he was caught off guard. Cause he thought, for sure I was gonna be talking about this app. So I knew I needed to check it out because he thought that I would be super into this. And oh my goodness, am I ever, I have talked before about how I'm obsessed with sleep. That's not just a thing that I made up. I really am. I, I don't have it anymore, but I once had a subscription to the Journal Sleep. It's very expensive, so I didn't stay with it, but I was doing a podcast on sleep science and dreams. And so I would regularly read these new studies, so now I just read the free ones that they publish. But this app is based in sleep science, and it is a really fascinating sort of joining together of, of what our technology can provide with what the science says and everything in between.

(01:20:29):
So here on my phone you can get a quick look at kind of what it, what the app looks like. It gives you what's called your sleep debt. And this is kind of somewhat contentious because there is sort of a scientific belief that there's no such thing as catching up on sleep. And then there's a more modern scientific belief that maybe there is a such thing as catching up on sleep. And that when you go to sleep and your sleep hygiene is, you know, on fleek, meaning that every single day you're going to sleep on time, you're waking up on time and you keep it consistent, everything's fine. But if you don't, then on the days where you end up sleeping in late, that is because your body is catching up on what's called sleep debt. So the app is going to, when you first set it up, it goes through this whole process.

(01:21:27):
It asks for access to different information, including your phone's movement, but also to any sleep information that is stored in your Apple Health. And after that, it'll take that information and analyze what your, what your common like need for sleep is, and then can use that to calculate your sleep debt. So for me, it was pretty accurate to what I believe about myself, which is that I need eight hours of sleep each night. Some people need more, some people need less. I have always functioned well when I get eight hours of sleep and had locked that in before this. So that was the first thing that kind of made me go, okay, this app knows what it's talking about. Right now it's showing me that I have 1.6 hours of sleep debt. That's because last night I did not sleep very well.

(01:22:17):
I got six hours and 23 minutes of sleep. So that's almost two hours. It's a little under two hours less than I normally get. So it's showing me my 1.6 hours. What's cool is that it also shows you your peaks and slumps during the day based on how you slept. So there's this sort of feedback graph and it shows here's the total sleep that you got last night, six hours and 23 minutes. You went to bed at little past, or you fell asleep at a little past midnight and you woke up at 6:30 AM you, it even shows like this is the part where you're gonna have some grogginess. So your grogginess will kind of end at around 8:30 AM and then you're going to peak your, your energy lovers are gonna peak around noon, and then they're going to dip really bad between four and 6:00 PM which I have to tell you that has been accurate the past several days that every time between four to six comes around, I'm kind of getting a little low.

(01:23:19):
And then it also, I love this depending on when you should go to sleep, based on when you plan to wake up the next day, it will tell you when you should start kind of winding down. And if you do take a melatonin supplement, you can add that in as well. And it'll say, this is when you should take the melatonin supplement for it to hit at the perfect time for you to fall asleep at this specific time. And then the next day when you should wake up between six 30 and 8:00 AM based on how your sleep debt is, how much sleep you're supposed to get, et cetera. Now you can. And they also have this thing called the melatonin window. That is whenever your body is naturally putting the melatonin into your system to help you go to sleep. And then if you also take melatonin, as I mentioned, they'll, they'll suggest that earlier in the night.

(01:24:05):
There's a bunch here. You can have some like sleep sounds. If you need to have a brain duct before you go to bed because you commonly will sort of spin on thoughts, you can do that. It has some guidance for how to prep the bedroom to make sure that you're sleeping well. A some like walkthroughs on relaxing your body blue light glasses, if that's something that you think you should wear to help keep the blue light from getting into your eyes, which there's a lot of science to back that up as well. When I love this, when you should stop drinking caffeine for the day when you should have your last meal when you should stop having alcohol, because folks, if there's anything I get through to you, it is the following. Alcohol can help you fall asleep, but it wrecks your circadian rhythm after you are asleep.

(01:24:59):
It helps you fall asleep. It does not help you sleep well. So if you have trouble falling asleep, try to find a different way to help yourself fall asleep, because once you're asleep, alcohol basically drops you into your third stage of sleep. And because it, it sort of skips first and second level, then it just throws things off from that point on and you don't get the proper sleep that you're supposed to get. Your brain doesn't get the refresh that it's supposed to get. And that's why you often will find yourself waking up so much earlier after you've consumed alcohol because it's just completely wrecked everything. So if you think it, you know, I've heard people, I've, I've said this before, and then they go, no, alcohol helps me sleep. No, it helps you fall asleep. It does not help you sleep. Anyway, the app has these great things.

(01:25:44):
So I could say you know, what is my sort of, what is the half-life of caffeine in my body? So remind me to avoid caffeine after a specific time. I will say, remind me. And then I will go to my energy schedule and it says I should not have caffeine after 1:35 PM So that's good to know. Will I stick to it? We'll see. But it is good to know that that's the case. I should not have caffeine afterwards. And then it also shows my current like energy levels. I think this is really, there's so much to it that it is, it's so, so, so, so, so cool. It is a subscription. It's $60 a year. I don't know yet if they have a monthly subscription. Basically when you first use the app, it kind of walks you through everything and then right before you get to start using it, using it, it says you can do a free trial for seven days and then it's $60 a year.

(01:26:41):
Or you can do a trial for a month at, I think it was 2 99 or 3 99. So you can try it out for a month for that price. And then it goes to $60 a year. I imagine probably prorated or no, I guess it'd be just for the next 12 months. So it doesn't really really matter as far as that goes. But I am really digging this app. What I'm curious to see is how well it works without me, for example, wearing my watch to bed or using my iPhone like in bed because I don't, those are, that's not how I track my sleep. My eight sleep, who is the sponsor of the network is my main sleep tracker at this point. And it just does it automatically, but it pops that information into Apple Health and then this can pull from Apple Health.

(01:27:25):
So I'm hoping that it'll be able to do that and not sort of rely on need to rely on the its own built-in tools, cuz it has like three different options. One is based on how much you jostle the phone when it's on the nightstand. One is where you place it on the mattress, and then the third option is where it uses a, a wearable like your Apple Watch. So we'll see as far as that goes, I'll report back for that, but a lot of people I know use their phone as their means of tracking their sleep or a wearable. And so I wanted to give mention to this app for that and just even just downloading it to get your full kind of energy, your dips, your peaks, et cetera. And my sort of seal of approval as it were in terms of the sleep science backing up a lot of this information.

(01:28:12):
I have not been ex this excited about an app in a long time. This exci, I mean, I'm like up, up, up excited just because it's so cool. And it is so based in, in sleep science. So yeah, congratulations to the team who made this. I'm sorry that they didn't win the apple Design Award, but hopefully they'll go on to win other awards and they've certainly won my award for what it ma for what it Counts. With that, that brings us to the end of this episode of iOS Today. I wanna thank all of you for tuning in today to join us live to watch the show. If you have shortcuts, corner requests, feedback concerns, questions, all of that stuff, you send that to iOS today at twit tv, iOS today at twit tv. You can also tweet at us or master Dawn at us, or blue Sky at us or just, just just reach out however you want to.

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We've got audio version of the show, video version of the show, apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, YouTube. We try to be in all the places we've got links to all those places so it's very easy for you to get on board. I also want to mention Club Twit at twit tv slash club twit. Consider joining the club. That's the other way you can help make sure that we get to continue doing what we do here at twit TWIT TV slash club twit. With that, you sign up for starting at $7 a month, $84 a year, and you get some great stuff. First. You get every single twit show with no ads. It's just the content you get access to the twit plus bonus feed that has extra content you won't find anywhere else behind the scenes before the show, after the show all sorts of great stuff including Club Twit events.

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Those are there as well. And then you get access to the Discord server. A fun place to go to chat with your fellow club TWIT members and also those of us here at twit. My dear co-host, Rosemary Orchards, one of the most active hosts in the Discord. So you'll be able to hang out and chat with Rosemary there. Again, TWI tv slash club twi along with all that great stuff, you can check out some great shows including the Untitled Linux Show, which is, as you would probably guess, a show all about Linux. You can also watch Hands on Windows featuring Paul Thoro. It's the short format show that covers windows tips and tricks hands on Mac, which is my show covering Apple tips and tricks. I'm really looking forward to the episode that's going to publish Thursday. I just finished talking about window management.

(01:31:24):
This next episode came from a question from a listener who said, how do I back up everything that I have in Apple's Cloud and in Apple Photos and all those places? How do I take all of that and put it somewhere else? So we're gonna go through Apple's suggestions for that and I'm really, I'm looking forward to that episode. As well as the show from Scott Wilkinson, it's Home Theater Geeks which just relaunched in the club and more coming soon. Yes, we're going to have more content available to you club members, exclusive to you club members. So you gotta sign up, you gotta join the fun. And in doing so, also get that warm fuzzy feeling in your heart knowing that you are supporting us directly. Alright, with that it is time to say Rosemary Orchard. Where could folks find you online?

Rosemary Orchard (01:32:10):
Well, they can find me right here on the podcast where I will forget to describe my app cap. So I'll just mention it quickly. It's a Navy cap, it's got some pink flowers on. It's got a nice little mesh back, actually, it's quite good and an extra wide brim to keep the sun out of my eyes. But other than that, you can find me here every Tuesday recording iOS today in the Club Toit Discord and on my website rosemary orchard.com, which has links to various different places you can find me online around the internet including rosemary@snail.social on methadone. And I've been trying out Blue Sky and you know, posting there and mostly just reading what other people have been posting and I'm posting a bit more on Instagram at the moment, so feel free to find me there as well. What about you, Mikah?

Mikah Sargent (01:32:47):
Awesome. You can find me at Mikah Sargent on many a social media network or head to chihuahua.coffee, that's c h i h Hua h hua.coffee, where I've got links to the places I'm most active online. Shout out to bento.me, I think is the name of the service who helped me design this great page that has all the links, all the links across the web. Good stuff. And I guess now it is time to say goodbye to all of you. Wonderful, wonderful folks out there. Thank you for tuning into this episode or downloading this episode of iOS today, Rosemary and I will see you next week for yet another episode. Goodbye.

Jason Howell (01:33:33):
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