iOS Today Episode 593 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. Look, there are new iPhones and iPads and a bunch of new goodies that Apple just announced. So we thought we'd talk about what you should know and whether you should upgrade to the latest devices, stay tuned. Rosemary and I have a lot to talk about on iOS today.

... (00:00:21):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is TWiT.

Mikah Sargent (00:00:28):
This episode of iOS today is brought to you by buck Mason, buck Mason's clothes are second to none. Once you try buck Mason, they'll become your go-tos too. Head over to buck mason.com/ios and get a free t-shirt with your first order. And by ultimate ears fits ultimate ears fits are the world's most comfortable earbuds with premium sound and all day comfort use promo code iOS at ue.com/fits to get your pair. Whoa, ha ha. He welcome to iOS today. The show where we talk all things iOS, iPad, OS TV OS watch OS home pot OS look, it's all the OS that Apple has on offer. We love to talk about them here on iOS and it is the perfect time because we've got new versions of all of those operating systems, but also we've got new products. Apple just announced that it's Apple event and Rosemary orchard. And I thought we'd talk about those. I of course am one of your hosts, Mike Sergeant

Rosemary Orchard (00:01:37):
And I am the Rosemary of truth that Mike had just mentioned or who I grammar important, but it's Tuesday. So maybe not so important.

Mikah Sargent (00:01:46):
It is a Tuesday. It is early and it is a Tuesday. Well, I guess it's later for you, but still it's a Tuesday earlier for me. What time it is. Yeah, exactly. Earlier the normal, oh man, it's just all over the place, but we are excited of course, to be here and talk to all of you. And, and the first conversation we're gonna have is all about new devices. Apple had its event last Tuesday, as we record the show Leo Laport and I covered the event live. So you can go check that out. But if you hadn't heard Apple announced some new devices, some new products, including a new iPhone se yes, the se is still alive and well still in the lineup. And some folks might be wondering, Hey, what is this? The phone for me is one of Apple's other phone, the phone for me, should I be upgrading to a new phone?

Mikah Sargent (00:02:42):
What do I need to be doing here? And in fact Rosemary was interesting. You brought this topic suggestion up because I had a high school teacher of mine, my debate coach, in fact who tweeted at me shortly after the Apple event and asked me for some advice on whether she should upgrade to a new phone. And we went back and forth while I was explaining kind of the different ins and outs pros and cons and whatnot of these different devices. So this was the perfect time because folks do tend, I know I'm sure you get text messages to around this time. Like what did Apple announce do you have a summary for me? So yeah, it's a good, it's a good time to talk about this stuff. And we'll kick things off with the iPhone se because this was a phone that had been rumored for some time to be getting an update soon. Finally here with 5g and this of course is Apple wouldn't want it necessarily described this way, but it is Apple's budget for phone. It is the phone for folks who are looking to get a, an iPhone and want to do so without spending a whole bunch of money starting at four, four, $4, starting

Rosemary Orchard (00:03:54):
At $4 would be a

Mikah Sargent (00:03:55):
Break. That would be wouldn't it wouldn't it. That would be great. So let's talk about the iPhone se Rosemary. What did you think about this latest phone and kind of, what are your thoughts on the design and everything?

Rosemary Orchard (00:04:06):
Well, I think, you know, for a lot of people, it looks very familiar and they're very clearly, if you look on their website, they're very clearly targeting the people who still got a six or seven or an eight because, and it still looks quite similar to those a ISIS as well. When you do the comparison size wise, it's similar, it's still got touch ID, which is, you know, something that people with phones older than the 10 would have, and probably appreciate if they're used to it. But also they're very clearly targeting those people who want to have the advantages of things like fast charging. So for example, they say, if you plug it into you a 20 what or higher power adapter, then you'll charge it from nothing to 50% in 30 minutes, which is pretty great because I know the people who tend to buy this type of device will tend to keep it around for quite a while.

Rosemary Orchard (00:04:53):
And needing to be able to charge it up when eventually over the course of its lifetime, it does lose battery. Then you know, that is a, a good advantage to have. And if we scroll down just a little bit here, then there's a comparison with the S E two, but it's also got some comparisons with the, the six, the seven and the eight or the six S the seven and the eight. I should note the six S is the oldest device that supports I 15. So it is, you know, it is clearly targeting those people who really haven't upgraded yet, but are going to be getting left behind in the, not two system future if they don't update their device.

Mikah Sargent (00:05:31):
And I think something that I ended up talking to my coach about, and I think folks should be kind of when they're, when they're thinking about this they're kind of two groups. There is the group that, like you mentioned, are rocking the design of the iPhone se meaning that their phone has a home button. It's got sort of the, the squared edges on, on the screen. The, the whole front of the device is not a whole screen. If you are used to that, if you like that, and you are looking for an upgraded phone that still has that, then this is the phone for you. Also, if you decided to upgrade to a new iPhone at some point that did have face ID that for, for some people, when you say face ID there, I don't know what that means, but you say it doesn't have a home button on the front.

Mikah Sargent (00:06:21):
The whole front of the phone is the screen. If you upgraded to a full screen phone iPhone, and you did not like that, you missed the home button, then this could also be the phone for you. But if you are using an iPhone that is got the full screen front, and you like that design you like face ID, you like those things upgrading to the iPhone se is probably not for you because you will be going back to the older style. You're losing some screen real estate. And even though it has the latest and greatest chip set in it, it does not mean that you're gonna get that experience that you want. And that ended up being the conversation that I had. I first asked my coach what, you know, what is the phone that you're rocking right now? Do you like that phone?

Mikah Sargent (00:07:07):
And then kind of went into it from there and discovered, you know, she wants to have the cameras that are part of the, the iPhone 12, 13, et cetera. And so it, it, you know, that idea came up with like, okay, if I get the iPhone, I see I've only got one camera on the back. I don't have the multi camera system I'm gonna have that home button. So it, I think the good thing about this phone is that it doesn't complicate things too much when you are trying to sort of off for advice on what phone someone should upgrade to. This one is very clearly for a specific purpose, and I think that it is, it can be a great first iPhone for some folks. And it can also be just if somebody wants to stick with that, that, that style that they're used to, this is a great opportunity to continue you with the style, but get a faster phone, a new battery, obviously inside and some of the latest and greatest features and future proof for the next five, six years.

Rosemary Orchard (00:08:10):
Yes, exactly. Knox Harrington's just point out in the chat room. There are quite a few places where you can get the iPhone 11 for about the same price as the iPhone se, but the lack of 5g is pulse gonna bite you there. The other thing is, is this device was just released last week. So if you buy this, now you are gonna be good for quite some time. Like they're only just dropping support for the six S like next year, probably they haven't dropped it yet. So that's me speculating. But there, there is, you know, there's a pretty good likelihood that the, the L 11 might get dropped before the before the se I very much that'll get dropped before the success, unless there's something very wrong there. So it's worth having a look at those options as well, if you're looking to upgrade.

Rosemary Orchard (00:08:49):
And of course the refurb store where they've just released the iPhone 12 is another great place to look if you're in the market for a new iPhone, but you've had a look at the se and you've evaluated and gone. Maybe, maybe I want something a bit more, but I would definitely say if you're looking to get, you know a first iPhone for a younger child or a family member who doesn't really care about their devices, the se is a great option because it will get them in on the Apple ecosystem with the built in privacy and secure features and home kid, and all of the sharing that just comes natively with everybody being on one platform without you having to splash out loads and loads of cash on a device that maybe they don't care about that much yet. And, you know, they will in the future, maybe they won't, but it's a great device for a lot of people.

Mikah Sargent (00:09:34):
I agree. I, I agree. The one thing that's important to note is, and I'm trying to find now there are some bits of news about what the iPhone S here it is, Apple's iPhone se does not have millimeter wave. And so that's important to note, you know, for somebody out there, who's wondering okay, so this iPhone has 5g. What does that mean? What doesn't it mean? And this iPhone se has 5g saved for the millimeter wave experience. And if you're going, what the heck is the millimeter wave experience? That is the very, very, very fast very sort of wide bandwidth type of 5g that only works when you were very close to one of the towers that supports millimeter wave. So this was the kind of 5g that people talked about being at, at, if you go to a concert or you go to a sports stadium, or one of those places, they might have towers right there in the stadium that support this super fast, super high bandwidth millimeter wave technology.

Mikah Sargent (00:10:52):
This has sub six gigahertz two by two, multiple in multiple 5g. So everything kind of leading up to that. And it's interesting, there's an article from the verge that says 5g millimeter wave is kind of a, a fad and that because Apple didn't release it in the iPhone se that is proof that the E 5g millimeter wave is a bit of a fad, whether or not you, you know, we believe that's true, you believe that's true. You know, that, that will kind of, we'll see how that comes comes to be, or doesn't come to be. But I really do find it interesting that this iPhone does not feature that technology. And part of the reason is, is there was another article that talked about how, oh, it was also on the verge. The 5g, the 5g iPhone se will be for carriers, not customers.

Mikah Sargent (00:11:51):
And this, I think is interesting because it, there are these phones that carriers will kind of offer to try and get you to join their plan to join their service. And you can definitely see this more cost effective phone being that that, that option and four folks, you know, you join this and you can get a 5g iPhone for free when you join the plan. So, you know, we'll keep an eye on that as well. But I just, I found that interesting that it doesn't feature some of the technologies the 5g technologies that were being hyped not too terribly long ago. Now we're just sort of settling into the, the five it is available across the, an out, in our case, across the country and around the world. Yes.

Rosemary Orchard (00:12:38):
Yeah. I should note that the the, the millimeter ultra wide is not available outside the us. That's only available on iPhones inside the us on the iPhones twelve one thirteen. And I wonder perhaps if some of the reasoning behind Apple not doing this in the se is because it's one less model to produce of iPhone, because of course they have to produce different versions of the iPhone for China and Hong Kong and, and so on and so forth. Because those ones, instead of having an E I support physical jewel Sims, but the Chinese version of the iPhone is for the modified to have a specific version of iOS on it. And I previously had an iPhone from Hong Kong, my 10 S max worked great with SIM loved it. But nowadays I can get away with EIM fortunately, but I do wonder if part of this was an effort to reduce the number of devices that they need to produce. And perhaps also maybe an either that the market outside the us is perhaps hung or for a more pocket sized pricewise iPhone than the the us itself. Where of course there are people in all income brackets, but it does seem to be European countries in general where the iPhone se sells better than other iPhones.

Mikah Sargent (00:13:55):
Right. Right. I think that covers the new iPhone se why don't we go ahead and take a, a quick break and then we will come back with some more chat about the new iPhone for example which is it, it, it maybe didn't get too many updates, but comes in a, comes in a new color. We'll get there in just a moment, but I do wanna tell you about a new sponsor here on iOS today. It's buck Mason, who are bringing you this episode of iOS today. So you probably have, you know, in, in your closet, your, your favorite items that you, that you app, you know, you've got your, your, your shirts that you like, your sweaters, that you like, your jeans, maybe that you want to wear all the time. And I have to tell you this morning, I put on this shirt here, and this shirt that I'm wearing is one from buck Mason, this very nice cotton shirt.

Mikah Sargent (00:14:56):
It's got some buttons on the front or some pockets on the front and what I love, and it's hard to see in the camera, but there's actually a little slot in the left pocket here where I can slide in a pen that could then it there, and I could pull it out if I needed to to write on my my, my notepad or something like that. This to me is all, all of my sort of carpenter dreams realized I've got my, my pen right there. I can take some quick notes and jot down the measurements for the, the, the cherry wood table I'm working on. I, I do feel very sort of fit and ready for the, the task I'm taking on. Thanks to this buck, Mason shirt buck Mason has clothes that are second to none because of their timelessness.

Mikah Sargent (00:15:47):
They choose styles that will work for, for anyone at any. That's kind of the, the, the whole idea here is that it's a, it's a timeless kind of classic style. And what I like about it is how their different clothes kind of can come together to create a look. You can get a shirt with like a sleeve shirt. You can get a, a, an undershirt underneath it that all kind of goes together. That colors that they choose look really nice together, so that it makes it very simple for you to kind of create outfits and sort of mix and match outfits as you're trying to go. You know, they've, they've got information size charts and stuff like that, to make sure that the, the sizes are right for you. And they, they cover all the essentials, jeans, shirts, jackets and quite a few other products, sweaters all sorts of good stuff there on the site.

Mikah Sargent (00:16:39):
You get a nice tailored look too, which is really nice. It's not these, these sort of wide shirts that hang off of your body in any way. They they'd go with a nice tailored style. So you can, you know, after you have washed them, you can put them on and still kind of maintain that tailored style. Again, pay attention to the size chart to make sure you get the, the size that's perfect for you. That way that tailored look looks good. When you put it on and I should also mention, so one of the shirts that I got it's called the curved ham tee. It's so fantastic. GQ calls it the best t-shirt in the game. And yes, I have to say that curved ham is really nice. It just gives this sort of refined look that you don't get from just any shirt you go and buy.

Mikah Sargent (00:17:28):
It's just this nice styled tailored look that is, is really nice. So buck Mason let me pick out some different items and again, including the shirt that I'm wearing right now. And one of the things that they, they offer, oh, right there. You can see that hoodie, that green hoodie yes. Surprise, surprise. Micah got a green hoodie. It is so nice. It's very it's, it's very thick, but it has this kind of you, you feel it and you just know that it's like a quality material and these gigantic strings, these draws for rings that hang down for, for the hood. All very nice. And then I got a matching pair of sweatpants to go with it. So I got to have that kind of come together and it looks really nice, even whenever I'm just lounging and relaxing.

Mikah Sargent (00:18:21):
So I've got the, the shirt that's, you know, a little bit more buttoned up collared look that that's nice. In fact, I think the model right there on the right is where wearing the shirt that I'm wearing. But I also like that they've got some stuff for, if you just wanna be comfortable at home, once you try buck Mason, they will become your go-tos as well. You can head over to buck mason.com/ios and get a free yes. Free t-shirt with your first order. That's B U C K M a S O n.com/ios to get a free t-shirt with your first order buck, mason.com/ios. And of course, thank you to buck Mason for sponsoring this week's episode of iOS today. And thank you for this shirt that I have on that makes me feel like the carpenter I've always wanted to be. I appreciate it. Buck Mason. All right. Let's get back into the show to talk about a certain iPhone that was announced NBD, Tim, for sort of waiting to announce this one, no biggie Apple did

Rosemary Orchard (00:19:30):
Heard your screams across the globe. Micah. I heard your screams of anguish across the globe, because you said last week in the episode that even if there was a green one, you didn't feel like you could upgrade because you've already got a 13 pro and guess what? They didn't just do a 13 in green. They did a 13 pro in green as well, because why wouldn't they, ah,

Mikah Sargent (00:19:51):
Ah,

Rosemary Orchard (00:19:51):
So annoyed. I mean, I'm, I'm, they're gonna do it to me next year with purple guaranteed, guaranteed. It'll be a lovely OGEN color of purple. And I will just be so annoyed, so annoyed that I'll miss out.

Mikah Sargent (00:20:01):
What's so frustrating to me about this is that it is in the green that they have across the lineup. So like right now I'm rocking the, the green watch bay and, and the green Apple watch, right. I'm rocking the green colors that are Apple's latest version of the green colors. I also got the the loop, the, the flu loop that is also green. And so, oh, and my the, the leather case for my iPhone is that Alpine green color. So I have everything that would've matched with this green iPhone, but they didn't announce it back when the iPhone came out and that just breaks my heart. It was funny cuz during the show, Leah was like, look, if you wanna trade it and get the green iPhone, you can. I said, oh no, it's not. I, I mostly joke. But it does.

Mikah Sargent (00:20:48):
It means a lot to me that people always reach out when that kind of thing happens. And they're like, sorry that this happened. Or I, did you see the green iPhone? Yeah I did. And this, I have to like that green of the, specifically the iPhone pro that is the green color. That is my favorite version and of green. That is the green color that I love that sort of naturey MOSY deep foresty kind of green. I really like versus, you know, like a lime green or a super dark green or a more blue, green, not my favorite, but that green, that the new iPhone 13 pro is rocking is the green of my dreams. So it was just kind of like a, you just had to go with the perfect green didn't you, it was really frustrating. But Rosemary, does the green add anything to the specs of the phone or is it just the color for folks who are going okay. Is there anything different about this phone? Is there

Rosemary Orchard (00:21:49):
It makes Micah green with envy? I should note that, but aside from that it's an iPhone 13 or 13 pro depending on which one you're looking at, the only difference is the color. And for people going, wait, have they done this before? You might be thinking, yes, they did purple iPhone mini an iPhone. They didn't do this one in the pro. They did just do is sort of a lilac color. I've got the wisteria leather, Apple watch there for contrast for people just so that, that we have some point here that, you know, this purple didn't match that perfectly Apple, you gotta a Doover you gotta do over on purple. But next year, just put green straight in the lineup for Mica, because I have to say it's one of those things where I think they're doing it to boost the sales midyear of people who didn't upgrade maybe cause they weren't that big a fan of the color or something. And then, okay, well I guess like, you know, this color is, is better. I'll get this one. But it is so frustrating for the people that already upgraded, but would've really like that color. And I know that Apple aren't gonna go back and change things. You know, the people who are on the iPhone upgrade program will get to magically trade it in after six months to, to get the different color. But it does feel very aggravating for those of us who already went in and, and got our new iPhones to have to sit

Mikah Sargent (00:22:58):
And wait.

Mikah Sargent (00:22:59):
Ah, yes, I agree. So I'm look, I'm happy. I got the phone day one and ultimately my phone is rocking a case right now, this one from Noma goods and the case would be on it in, in the case of me getting the new iPhone, however, it would match perfectly. That's the thing that frustrates me. That's the thing that frustrates me. But ultimately I'm happy for anyone who's waited to get an iPhone and will be getting a green iPhone at this point in time. Yes. I, you know, there's not a whole lot more to say really about the iPhone 13 that hasn't already been said because it's been out for a while. And of course whether you get the iPhone 13 or the iPhone 13 pro those are both iPhones that have have already been reviewed multiple times, including from us here. So you can learn more that way if you, if you want to. So let's move on to the new iPad air, which is basically an iPad pro, tell us about the iPad, a Rosemary.

Rosemary Orchard (00:24:04):
Well, first, most important thing, it no longer comes in green. The last version of the iPad air did come in green new one doesn't so Mike is maybe not missing out quite so much there, but Apple have as a, always described it as the most powerful and versatile iPad air ever. And it has the center stage camera on it, which I know is something you might be thinking, wait, is this really useful? But I have to say, I've got it on my iPad mini. I use that all the darn time. It is really great when you're on video calls with other people. It's also got support for the, the Apple pencil magic keyboard, which I'm not a hundred percent certain. Mike, I did the previous iPad air support the magic keyboard as well. I know the 10 and a half inch ones did, but I know the, a more recent one had support for the flat sided Apple pencil, but my brain has failed me unfortunately, on the magic keyboard.

Mikah Sargent (00:24:53):
I honestly, I, oh yeah, it did. The first one did the reason I know that is because I have an iPad air first gen, well, the, the, of the newer ones right in front of me and I'm running my finger along the back and I can feel those. And you

Rosemary Orchard (00:25:06):
Can feel the

Mikah Sargent (00:25:06):
Three bumps, four dots. Yeah. The three dots.

Rosemary Orchard (00:25:08):
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yes. Where it connects. So yeah, it's great. It comes in purple, which, you know, full props to, to Apple. But I have to say, Michael, I'm not sure about you. If you've got an iPad in front of you, you'll be able to say the saturation on these devices, like I'm in a fairly purplely lit room. Like, and so this looks kind of purple, but this really isn't that purple in real life. It's kind of a silver with a purple-ish hint, if you squint and you're looking at it in exactly the right liking levels which is a shame it's yeah.

Mikah Sargent (00:25:38):
It's, I mean the green, it looks green, but it's just like it's like a Lecan scratched its scalp next to a fan and the green dandruff sort of brushed against the basic aluminum color on the, on the iPhone casing. Yeah. That's a horrible, horrible image, but that's,

Rosemary Orchard (00:26:03):
It is, but it is approximately accurate. It also comes in Starlight, which is, is the sort of champagne color that the Apple watch comes in now and the iPhone 13 and 13 mini, not the pro ones or do the pro ones come in that I've forgotten. But it also comes to the us C, which is, is great because, you know, we, we are moving slowly towards us C world, and I'm glad that this has us C so that you can just plug a heart drive in which of course is not something you necessarily think that you're going to want, but as somebody whose mother almost exclusively uses her iPad and resorts to her Mac as the absolute last thing, it's one less thing that she needs to read for her Mac for. She can plug in a USB drive or something to get some files off of it when she's given them, which is great.

Rosemary Orchard (00:26:47):
So I, I have to say this is looking like just a nicer, more up to date iPad. It's, you know, basically an iPad pro in a slightly smaller colorful case. And it's, depending on what spec you're looking at, you may actually find, do check out the prices of the 11 inch pro as well, because it, it may end up depending on how much storage you want, not being that much of a jump to go from the air to the pro and don't forget the pro may already be available in the refurb store, whereas the air will not be because that's only just come out.

Mikah Sargent (00:27:23):
That is, that is a really good point that I had not considered. Just being aware of the refurb options that are available. If you are thinking about getting a new phone as, or a new phone, a new iPad, as far as this goes, I think this is a really good iPad. This is a really compelling option for folks who are maybe looking to get an iPad for someone who's going off to school, for example, or to have, as you mentioned, kind of as a, a primary computer, instead of something like a, a PC. When it come, I, my, my grandma, I gave her an iPad pro before I moved because I had ended up upgrading to a new one. And when that generation of iPad pro goes away, I may be looking at the iPad air as that replacement for her simply because it works with the magic keyboard, which is the important thing.

Mikah Sargent (00:28:26):
And it is I mean, it is incredibly powerful still, but she doesn't need all of the pro things that are added onto it that you get with the iPad pro. So now that yeah, you know, the magic keyboard, all of that can kind of work together for that iPad. I think that this is a great device for this, this device covers, I think a lot of people before you need to go to that pro model instead. Yeah. Unless as you mentioned, you know, looking for those deals that could possibly be, become that you could come across with the refurb.

Rosemary Orchard (00:28:55):
Yeah. The only thing I'll mention is a thing to watch out for, it's not really a negative because I personally consider U SBC a positive, but if you're considering upgrading a family member that until now, now has had an iPhone and an iPad, and you can just plug the same cable into both. You're going to need to make sure that they don't try to plug the lining cable into the USBC port. It shouldn't go in but if they try really, really hard and use percussive maintenance then they could theoretically damage their, their iPad. Hopefully they damage the cable, but that's something worth considering when you're up that you need to make sure if you've not got any USBC devices in your life, you are going to need to get some USBC cables and or chargers as well, because of course USBC can carry much more bandwidth or power over, rather in both cases, actually the truth than lightning. And U S B a, but you will need to make sure that you've got the appropriate charges for that.

Mikah Sargent (00:29:50):
Indeed. All right. That is some news about the iPad air. And with that, we've covered the devices which means I think we, yeah, let's, let's go ahead and take a quick break before we come back with iOS 15.4, cuz there's a lot to talk about here. And that means that we can, we can discuss all the fun, new things that Apple announced our next sponsor. This is also the first time for iOS to day it's ultimate ears fits, oh, this is so fun. With how much we rely on our devices. It's easy to forget about the hardware we are born with. Like the ear it's same as your fingerprints. There aren't any two ears that are exactly alike. And that's why your earbuds probably cause you some to, or even physical pain after a while, you're you keep those earbuds, your, your earphones or your headphones and your ears.

Mikah Sargent (00:30:48):
And after a while, it could start to get a little uncomfortable. The ultimate ears fits true wireless custom fit earbuds from ultimate ears are here to change that. And they did. I have pair here from ultimate ears. They sent my way and these things are so cool. So back in the day, you used to have to like, you'd go online, you'd buy this strange putty material and you'd boil a pot of water on the stove and then wait for the stove to cool down. And then you'd drop these, this putty stuff into the, the water that had cooled down. You pull it out, you stick it in your ear, it's hot, it's uncomfortable. And you sort of press it in and let it mold to the shape of your ear. And then you'd send those off. And then the where wherever you were sending them to would send back a pair of custom at earbuds for you or ear tips for you.

Mikah Sargent (00:31:47):
Ultimate ear said, let's just take all of that nonsense out of the process and let's have it all happen right there in front of you with the earbuds themselves. So I, I can't tell you how cool this is. So when you first get them you will open up, you know, the box and everything. And you've got some silicone tips or some, some special sort of rubberized tips in the box and they are kinda neutral. They're unfitted, they, they don't have any special shaping you follow along in the app, the UEFI app, as you complete the process. And what happens is yes, take them in your ears and then a special set of, of LEDs in the actual earbuds themselves will light up and warm those earbuds and then will reshape them to your ears right there in your ears.

Mikah Sargent (00:32:42):
You can even kinda like feel it shaping perfectly to your ear canal, as you are waiting for the process to complete. It's such a cool, such a cool thing. And when you do that you get a very nice seal, a very nice fit. And then I saw also mentioned, there's this cool purple light, that shines. So it just kinda looks cool as you are completing the process. So you just hold them into your ear. You let the process complete, and the app will guide you along as you can see, Leo's kind of dancing, cuz there's some music that plays while you're doing it. And then suddenly they fit your ears perfectly. And I gotta tell you, it's so easy. Now I can pull 'em out, pop 'em in and they just fit right in. They isolate the sound. It sounds good. It feels good because of that custom fit.

Mikah Sargent (00:33:29):
And here's another thing that's super important. I this is personal to me. I got my UE fits and I size them to my ears and noticing that the right ear just didn't feel quite right. Okay. Don't worry about that. Because in the UEFI app, there's actually this process that you can follow along with and say, Hey, this didn't quite fit. They'll ask you some questions you figured out. And then at the end they'll give you some suggestions. It may have just been that you just needed to adjust it, make sure that you put the tip on, write all that kind of stuff, but it could also be that they were not the right ones for you. So I ended up at the end, they sent a message to their support team. The support team sent me for free a pair of the small version of those Eart tips.

Mikah Sargent (00:34:14):
And I got them in the mail. They came in a box, they're all sealed up, cuz light can make a difference when, before they've been procured. And so it's all sealed up. I took 'em out, put 'em in and then I did the fit set up again with some smaller Eart tips, ah, perfect fit the right one fit just as I needed it to the left. One was final along. It was so cool that that they went ahead and sent me the the, the tip that I wanted that would actually fit for me. So they are the world's most comfortable earbuds. They have incredible sound and you get that all day comfort. You get a perfect fit in 60 seconds. That's all it takes. And that means that they're gonna stay put when you're on the go, but you can wear them all day long without that painter, that discomfort it's they call it form technology and that's what helps those, those ultimate ears fits mold to the unique contours of your ears.

Mikah Sargent (00:35:09):
And then that's that app helps to, you know, make sure that they're updated to the right firmware version, but also to help you complete that fit process with eight hours of continuous playback on a single charge and up to 20 hours with a case ultimate years fits are perfect for listening to your favorite shows all day long, including iOS today, it's built on industry leading expertise, trusted by pro musicians and high-fi enthusiasts for over 25 years. Ultimate years is probably a brand you're familiar with. If you've ever had I EMS in your monitors, they're engineered to provide a full warm sound with a tight punchy, low end. And I love this too. I forgot to mention custom EQ presets in the app so you can set them up exactly how you want them. You can play and pause music and answer calls with their built in controls and use the free app to set custom actions.

Mikah Sargent (00:35:54):
So you can say, Hey, if I do this, I want voice assistance to trigger, or I want volume adjustment by this many taps. If you try fits and you don't love them as much as I do, you don't have to worry. Ultimate ears offers a 30 day money back guarantee plus help with making sure that you've got the right size. As I mentioned, plus, you're gonna get free shipping free returns and a one year warranty. Whether you use one device all or switch between several it's important to find the tools that fit your routine so you can stay productive. That's where the ultimate ears fits come in. Use promo code iOS. Very important. You have to use that code. If you want to check these out, that lets them know that you heard about it here on our show. Use promo code iOS at T com slash fits to get your pair of you E fits that's ue.com/fits with the promo code iOS, go there, grab a pair.

Mikah Sargent (00:36:45):
You're gonna be so blown away. And then also just to have a lot of fun along the along the way, because it's a lot of fun getting those to fit perfectly in your ears. Very, very cool ultimate ears fits. And thank you so much for sponsoring this week's episode of iOS today and for these excellent earbuds. I think they're so great. All right. Let's move along to talk about iOS 15.4. That's right. Apple has released the latest version of iOS 15.4, iPad OS 15.4, also new version of HomePod software TV OS watch OS and Mac OS. We're gonna cover the iOS 15.4 updates because that also ends up covering the iPad OS updates as well. And this first one is for folks who use your, who use the built-in password mechanics that I iOS provides. So password saving now has an extra feature. You wanna tell us about that Rosemary?

Rosemary Orchard (00:37:44):
Yes. So I actually saw this tweeted by one of the developers who actually works on this at Apple. And he said that there are now notes in the password app on iOS. So I'm just gonna pop open my password manager. And I think I've hit a, and the example, one that I created last time, which is most unfortunate. So I'll just start by creating a brand new password here so that I can show people. So I'll just put in example.com because otherwise I'm going to end up revealing some personal information, which I don't really want to do. And I'm going to have very secure user end password. But now once I tab to done here, I should be able to add notes. And this is a small thing it's very small, but it's actually incredibly useful. So for example, if you've got a website with a rubbish URL and it doesn't really tell you what it is, then you can add a note that this is an example for Twitter, for example.

Rosemary Orchard (00:38:41):
And then you will be able to find it more easily later because this is something I know a lot of people like in other solutions, like last pass you've been sponsored and show one password, key, pass, bit warden, et cetera, et being able to add a note just allows you to add extra context. You can also use it to store things like, for example, the backup verification codes. But I would note this is not a good field for that because you'll see here, I've, I've tapped on that. That information is still visible. My password IST easily guess password, but, and that's a warning that it gives you, it doesn't can give you a warning that notes are visible, but you can see right there that it is visible. So I would not use this for storing really secure data, but it is something that you can use for storing useful little bits of information. Like for example, if you've gotta use the name and an email address, you can write the email into the notes field and that's pretty handy to have

Mikah Sargent (00:39:36):
Very nice. Yeah. I love that over time, this sort of built-in password manager is getting more and more powerful. As, as time goes on, we get to see those updates that make it easier to just use. And more importantly, for me, recommend to family members, friends and others, the built-in password manager, rather than going through the process of setting them up with a third party password manager like I use. So thank you, Apple and the team for continuing to improve upon that technology so that we, as technologists can continue to insist that people use a hazard manager of some sort to keep their accounts protected. All right, this next one I'm so excited because Rosemary orchard is gonna show us a demo of this folks we've been waiting for universal control for ages. This is the technology that Apple showed off.

Mikah Sargent (00:40:33):
They demoed at WWDC that would let you use one mouse and keyboard for your Mac devices, your Macs devices, and your iOS device. Well, particularly your iPad OS devices. So you could move your cursor between an iPad that was nearby and back and forth between that and your Mac and use the keyboard as well. For those devices, it is kind of boggling and was such a cool thing, but a throughout the whole period of time that we were testing out the betas of this universal control was not available for most of that time. And so folks were kind of going, oh, are they gonna be able to release it? Well, now that iOS 15.4 is here in the latest version of macOS is here. Universal control is here. Rosemary take it away.

Rosemary Orchard (00:41:19):
Right? Well, I'm just gonna start with, I've got a razor BAS mouse here, which is connected to my Mac. It's got the, the little what you call it, the dongle that's plugged into the charging thing. And I also have a Keer on keyboard, which again is connected to my Mac. These are connected via essentially cables. So there is no funny business going on with the Bluetooth here. But what I'll do is I'll just pop up my iPad and also spoiler Micah. I did this just now in the password section. I'm just getting mouse over from the right hand side of my screen. And I can actually see my cursor from I, my, my iMac right here on my iPad. I can scroll up and down. I can use my keyboard shortcuts like command F to find something like search for the word pancake in the pancake recipe, I'm going to find it and I can command tab to the next application and just start typing away.

Rosemary Orchard (00:42:11):
So I'm really pleased with the, this I've been trying this out for a few days and it's really good. It is marked a Macs as a beta feature. But it's been working really well for me. And I should know you can also do this the other way round. So I can't actually do this, unfortunately with the iPad error because the iPad error just doesn't have anything in connected to it right now. But if I was using my iPad pro with a magic keyboard, then I can actually move the cursor from my iPad pro onto my Mac to do something and then move it back to do something else, which is just amazing. And it works so well, like really, really well. I am really impressed with it. And I'm, I'm just least that it's out, even if it's officially under a beta flag in the non beta operating system. It, it works really, really well.

Mikah Sargent (00:43:02):
Seeing how well it works is what makes me happy that Apple took its time that, you know, they weren't ready to release it until they could say, Hey, this works very well. And we wanted to be kind of a seamless experience. It's one of those things where the complexity is so far obscured that when you talk about it, it sounds like it's such a simple thing. And so it doesn't quite sound as mind boggling and awesome as it does when you actually use it and see it in, in action. When you sit down at your desk and you're able to move your cursor between those two different operating systems and be able to use them. I mean, it is really cool how well it works. It is just slick and it, it opens up the possibilities for me with so much and makes me very excited about kind of how I'll be using it for this show and for other stuff that I work on, all of it is just so fascinating.

Mikah Sargent (00:44:03):
So yeah, universal control. I think I've seen so many positive reactions to this new way of doing things. And I just hats off to the team behind this and to the team who worked on the original continuity stuff where you've got continuity keyboard, where copying on one device and then being able to paste on an iOS device or vice versa. The ability to if you are running, say safari on your iPad for your nearby Mac, to be able to launch safari to that tab or messages, or what have you, all of those different features that work together the ability to like right click in different locations and choose import from iPhone or iPad this is on the, a Mac and then be able to import photos from those different locations. All of those features that, that have these devices communicating with one another are just so slick and cool.

Mikah Sargent (00:45:02):
And I just, I love 'em so much so congratulations to the team behind all of that stuff. Another thing folks should be Excel to hear is that it seems as if it will get a little bit less risky to try out beta software on the Apple watch. And that is because Apple watch firmware can now be restored from an iPhone. If the iPhone is running iOS 15, B 0.4, if you've got a watch, that's given you lots of trouble and you want to be able to fix that trouble what needs to happen in many cases in the, in the, in the case that it's, you know, kind of beyond repair from just a reset is that the firmware needs to be reinstalled and it kind of needs to be sort of a clean slate. And up to this point, you ended up having to send in your device to Apple or going to an Apple store and having them take over with iOS 15.4, they're trying to put that in the hands of folks where you yourself are able to upgrade or, or reinstall the firmware restore the firmware to a Apple watch.

Mikah Sargent (00:46:13):
So that's handy, super handy.

Rosemary Orchard (00:46:15):
Yes, that is really great. I was at WWDC a few years ago when I was installing the beta watch software on my Apple watch and it was downloading. And I, it had just got to the point where I just clicked install. And I saw a bunch of tweets appearing on Twitter of people going don't install it, don't install it. It's bricking, Apple watches. And it's like, okay, time, time to stop, time to stop, like diving for the Apple watch charger to disconnect it. Fortunately, I didn't install the update, but with this, it would be much easier to roll back if something had gone wrong.

Mikah Sargent (00:46:45):
Yes. All right. What else do we have here? Oh, we should. I think we, we, we did mention the face I D I got an improvement to where you can use face ID with a mask when you update your phone, if you have not, you're listening, when you go to update your phone and you sort of start the install of iOS 15.4, you will be prompted to do some more face ID readings. And all that is doing is providing face ID a little bit more information about the parts of your face that will be exposed when you are wearing a mask that way it has that information. And can use that to help verify your identity when it goes about trying to scan your face while you're wearing a mask. So my partner just upgraded to iOS 15.4 last night, and he was asking me, why do I have to do face ID again? And I explained that, you know, again, collecting some more data to help you get things figured out. All right. Other features you wanna mention?

Rosemary Orchard (00:47:46):
I was going to say that one of there's a lot of new emoji in I 15.4, there's over a hundred of them. And thank you to scooter X for linking us to that. Because of course, new emoji are a good reason for people to upgrade. Though, of course there is a pretty neat feature on the Apple TV and home pod, Micah, which I don't know if you saw in the update, but I was excited to see purely from a travel perspective.

Mikah Sargent (00:48:12):
Yes, if you're getting out and traveling and in the past, you've gone, you, you you've taken like an Apple TV with you because you wanna be able to watch things. You get into the room you plug in your Apple TV, you got the HTM, I cable, you press the button to turn on the Apple TV, and then you, you need to connect to wifi and you aren't able to connect to wifi worry, not because Apple is gonna help you out there captive portals. They're evil as scooter X says in the chat. Yes, they are. But now Apple is going to help you if you want to connect. I think so. I had a, when I was reading about this, I did have a moment of laughter thinking about somebody taking a whole old school home pod and an Apple TV, setting it up in their hotel room. Like, I, I mean,

Rosemary Orchard (00:49:02):
Make it too home pods for that stereo experience. Mica that's, that's

Mikah Sargent (00:49:08):
The sufficient

Rosemary Orchard (00:49:09):
Travel that no,

Mikah Sargent (00:49:11):
You know, exactly. You have to check that bag because it's, oh, this is my home theater bag that I bring to the, to the hotel with me. But Apple is gonna let you sign into captive portals using an iPhone. I think it's an iPhone or an iPad with the Apple TV to be able to log into the captive portal. So if you going, what the heck is a captive portal? What are you talking about? If you've ever stayed at a hotel and you go to log to the guest wifi, maybe you tap on it and then up pops a web page, or just a page. It might not look like a web page to you that has some sort of writing on it, some sort of information on it. And it says, Hey, you need to tell us your room number.

Mikah Sargent (00:49:50):
And then the key, for example, that the person at the front desk gave you, or maybe it just has you, you need to type in your last name and your room number or whatever it is that interstitial that page, that pops up where you need to type in more information in order to log into the wifi that is called a captive portal. That is how it sort of grabs you. And doesn't let you log into the, until after you've done that process. Now you will be able to use one of these devices with a captive portal, instead of having to figure out some way to circumvent that captive portal or using up your tethering of your iPhone or something like that in order to connect to the internet, to be able to watch things on your Apple TV. So very cool. Yeah. Feature.

Rosemary Orchard (00:50:33):
Yes, it is a very cool feature though. I would personally suggest if you are looking at looking an Apple TV and so on with you on trip, maybe just pack a pair of AirPods of some kind for your audio experience rather than a stereo pair of massive home pods. Because also even if you check them, they're probably not in short, so you don't really wanna do that. And hefting them into the overhead locker. Just doesn't sound like fun on a plane, to be honest.

Mikah Sargent (00:50:58):
Yeah, no, definitely not. Right. Let's talk about some news then we'll head into shortcuts corner and the rest of the show first is that Firefox has gotten an update that will make it seem a little bit more familiar to folks who are using the latest version of safari. Tell us about the Firefox update on iOS.

Rosemary Orchard (00:51:22):
Yes. So of course I've only installed the updates too far folks on the O the iPad, which I don't have connected, but essentially what happened with iOS 15 is Apple moved the search bar down inside of safari. And so I will start by just showing people what that looks like, so that they are more familiar, because if you remember before, it used to be entirely at the top, which meant that if you wanted to change the URL or do something, then you to have to stretch your thumb all the way to the top of your device, which was just not very ergonomic. And if you didn't have something like a pop sock to pop socket to help you out could be quite tricky if you've got smaller hands in a larger device, which this is just the standard 13 pros, not the max.

Rosemary Orchard (00:52:03):
But people will be pleased to hear that Firefox, which has indeed just updated for me, has installed this update. So that now you can actually change it in the toolbar settings to be at the bottom. And it prompts you to do that when you open it for the first time after installing the update. So now as you brows around the internet, and I'll just agree to this Google hook notice the search bar is at the bottom. And the address bar is the same place which makes it a bit more familiar. People might be wondering why would you bother to use Firefox on your iPhone? Because it does actually use exactly the same system as safari end of the hood one. Good reason is it syncs your bookmarks between devices. And so if you are using Firefox on a windows machine where you can't install the iCloud software, then it's a pretty good way to get your bookmarks onto everything else. So that's one of the reasons why I have it installed. And also sometimes it's just nice to have an alternative browser option

Mikah Sargent (00:52:59):
Indeed. For the longest time folks who used the Peloton were a little bit frustrated in, in some cases, if they were Apple users, if they were Apple device owners, because Peloton did not have a lot of the integrations with the Apple watch or with Apple products that you would get from other kind of fitness platforms and fitness devices. Now for the first time Peloton is selling Apple watch bands, and there's an article over a nine to five Mac chance Miller that talks about Apple and Peloton kind of well rather Peloton offering more so support for the Apple watch. In fact, Peloton has support for Apple watch heart rate integration for its bike and tread products. And then also has some Apple watch bands that you can purchase if you would like to rock a Peloton logo and free advertising for a Peloton on your wrist.

Mikah Sargent (00:54:07):
You can do that if you'd like, this is a conversation overall about how before Peloton and Apple kind of weren't playing ball with one another and how under new leadership that might be the case. But we, you know, have heard about business struggles in the past for Peloton. So I would also suggest that any opportunity for Peloton to bring in more folks through new features and things like this is one that is going to be welcome for the company, as it continues to try to stay afloat after the rumors of bankruptcy and, and concerns that the might end up having to shutter. So I'm not surprised that this is happening.

Rosemary Orchard (00:54:51):
I, we'd also like to point out that these are actually not a bad deal at all. You get two Apple watch bands for $32 and they're the Fluor Laster time. So if you got a stainless steel Apple watch or something where you ended up with say one of these leather links, this is the chair leather link. I should note that I'll try and demo it the other way around where if I open it, it just sort of sucks itself back up, which is a pretty nice feature. But if that's like your day to day, Apple watchband, and you don't have another one and you want one for exercise, but you don't wanna get a nice one all sweaty and horrible, $32 for two versus $49 for one I, or maybe it's five. I don't remember Micah in, in the us it's a pretty good deal. And it means that, you know, maybe one for you, one for a friend or a partner, or maybe just one for Wednesdays and one for Thursdays, and you swap them depending on the day of the week. I don't know, but it's, it's not a bad deal if you don't mind having the pone logo on your wrist. And it's almost certain it better back than picking up something cheap from Ali express or Amazon, which when it arise may not even fit your Apple watch

Mikah Sargent (00:55:54):
Indeed. If you have a PS4 or a PS five, and we'll talk about the difference between those two and just a moment you should know that after the Apple TV app was introduced to the PS four and the PS five by way of the PS4 TV and video section Apple or Sony rather is offering a nice trial period for PS four users. You can get Apple TV plus for three months for free. So you get a three month trial of Apple TV plus, and if you have a PlayStation five, you can get a six month free trial of Apple TV plus. So Apple TV plus of course, is Apple's premium station where you, or channel or whatever you wanna call it it's place where you can watch the Apple TV plus content, including Ted lasso. The Finch movie invasion foundation, servant, lots of different movies, television shows, animated series that Apple has slowly rolled out on Apple TV plus.

Mikah Sargent (00:57:00):
And just at the Apple event, Apple showed off quite a few new series and movies that it is working on. So you may hold out a little bit, just give it a little bit of time and launch that free trial of Apple TV plus a little bit later this year. So you can check out all of the new content that Apple TV plus is going to add soon on PS4 and a PS five Apple TV plus, and the Apple TV app itself are available across lots of different platforms. PS four PS five, of course but also different smart TVs. It's all over the place. And Apple has done a good job of making sure that folks can use that app, get access to their own iTunes, movies and television shows that they've purchased. And also all of Apple TV's own content through Apple TV.

Mikah Sargent (00:57:48):
Plus lastly, we will talk about the studio display, which was the one other thing. Well, we didn't talk about the Mac studio, but that of course was covered heavily on Mac break weekly. But the studio display is Apple's latest display. Very cool display that is a, what is it, a 5k panel that connects like you will be used to, if you've ever used one of Apple's own displays before one cable to kind next to your Mac. It's got speakers built in that have spatial audio. It's got a webcam built in that has the, what is that called sensor stage which is a special technology that can kind of move the crop of the camera around to keep someone in focus, 600 of brightness on this display, which is relatively high for a 5k display with a P three wide color.

Mikah Sargent (00:58:52):
So overall a really nice display, but under the hood, it's rocking an, a 13 chip in it. And that is what powers kind of the, the different technologies I like center stage and the ability to contact Siri using that special key phrase, as long as it's connected to a Mac. And so in effect, the display runs iOS given that it has an, a 13 in it. And so it's not a 13, or it's not iOS front and center or anything like that, but in effect, it runs iOS by way of that, a 13 Apple, Silicon chip. And I know folks are going, Ooh, what could Apple activate in this thing in the future? I don't know if that's gonna be the case, if there's, you know, more that it would do, but I think as it is really cool display, my Thunderbolt display was my, was easily one of my favorite Apple products I've ever had. And I used that thing for so long. I'm really excited about the studio display. I'm curious about your thoughts, Rosemary.

Rosemary Orchard (01:00:01):
Yes. I'm also very excited about it. I also think that it is a good thing to, at the very least look at if you are somebody who 99% of the time uses an iPad and you're totally fine with it. And sometimes you just need some extra screen real estate. So you're writing a longer document or something, and you want a slightly more ergonomic setup, but you don't necessarily want an entire Mac. Now, obviously it would probably be cheaper to buy a Linux PC and a, a monitor of some kind to go with that than it is to necessarily buy studio display for that particular case. But if you really are very happy with the iPad and you just will be able to connect all your stuff to it to a display, then, you know, it's worth looking into it. And of course it will also work with any max in the household as well.

Rosemary Orchard (01:00:47):
Which is a nice, nice option. And I should make a note for anybody looking at this, just FYI, the stands are not interchangeable Apple, sell it either without a stand to put on a visa arm to float on your desk or with a fixed height send or fixed height and or adjustable height and tilt stand, but you cannot swap stands. So once you get it with one stand, that's it forever. Or until you find somebody who wants to trade their Apple studio display for your Apple studio display, which may be trickier than you'd think. I guess we'll see, but it looks pretty nice. And I, I have to say with the, the screen resolution and everything, it is a, a, an appropriate fit for the Apple lineup, especially when it comes to looking at something like the iPads and the iPad pros, which of course have got these amazing screens in them. It, it's going to be much more comfortable migrating from that to, to that display than some cheap Dell that you salvage out of an office sale 15 years ago.

Mikah Sargent (01:01:46):
Indeed, indeed. All right, folks with that, we've reached the end of the news segment of the show, which means up next, we've got shortcuts corner.

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Mikah Sargent (01:02:39):
Welcome to shortcuts corner. This is the part of the show where you write in with your shortcuts requests and Rosemary orchard. The shortcuts expert provides some response in many cases, a shortcut that you can use. The first bit of shortcuts corner feedback comes from rich. Rich writes in I'm the Apple photos organizer in our family. Rich, that's a big job. I regularly go through my pictures to see that faces have been properly IDed by Apple's AI. And I'm the one with the two terabytes of FA Apple family storage space. And I'm the one that grabs cute pictures off of family, text threads, and social media to make sure all of those get cataloged per the above, especially those three adorable grand children. Congratulations on three. That's awesome. Here's my question. My grown children, three, all married are on my Apple family plan.

Mikah Sargent (01:03:28):
And I'm wondering, is there a way I could set up a shortcut to copy all pictures? They put in a specific folder each individually, or shared that I would then automatically, or that would then automatically copy to my photo library this way. They have an easy lift to give me copies of family picks. They want to share, I'm thinking maybe a shared family album and a shortcut on my phone that copies any new pictures in there to my library. Would that work? How, love the show? Thanks rich from Huntsville, Alabama. Rich, thank you for writing in. I hope that there is a way to do this and based on the show notes, it's, like there might be Rosemary. Tell us all about it.

Rosemary Orchard (01:04:07):
All right. So first of all, we're just gonna take a quick look at these shared photo albums in iCloud, because I think that's something that people maybe forgot a little bit exists. So I created this amazingly named iOS today, test photo album earlier today and invited Mica to it. And since then a couple of things have happened. So I added some pictures myself, including how to update your, your home pods. So you could check that out in the home app. And then this, this cute picture appeared I'm is this Mitski? I think that's Henry I'm

Mikah Sargent (01:04:37):
That's

Rosemary Orchard (01:04:37):
Henry, Henry, sorry, sorry. I'm that's, I'm confused between the dogs, but there we go. Absolutely adorable. And then I've just added this one because you've mentioned rich making sure that the AI has tagged things correctly. And you'll see here, there, there is no tagging on this picture because it is in a shared album. And that is somewhat important to note because that information does get shared. Now, there is something else important to note, and that is this pictures from me and this pictures and this picture actually potentially is not a full resolution. And that is something that you need to watch out for with shared iCloud photo albums. This isn't something that Apple have actually documented anywhere, but it is something just to be aware of the photos from in a shared album may not be full resolution. So just to make sure everybody understands with a shared photo album, when you create it, you can invite people.

Rosemary Orchard (01:05:28):
So obviously I've invited Micah and there's an important to, to make sure subscribers can post. And that means that they can add their own pictures to this. And then you can turn on and off notifications. So you get told when people have done things and there's also public website. So if you've got family members or friends who don't use iCloud then you can still share things with them via a public website. But with that covered, there is a worker on potentially if you want the a hundred percent full resolution ones, you using either Dropbox file uploads or an iCloud shared folder, and we can put links to those in the show notes, but you asked for a shortcut rich to help you get the photos. So what I've done is I've created a really simple three step shortcut and our, our first step is fine photos.

Rosemary Orchard (01:06:12):
So we're looking specifically for photos for the album is iOS today test. And that's the one that I set up just for the show. And then I've got, choose from photos, and then we're gonna save the, the photos. So I could put these in any album I wanted to, I could throw them in temp. I think I'll just check them in, in recent, because that's, that's what I usually do. But then when I run this, it's going to give me the option and I've got it. Pre-Selecting all these photos for you. And what you can do is just tap on any of the ones that you don't want to remove them. So I, I don't want that last one that one's mine, this very key picture of he, yes, please. I can tap done. And then this has been saved my recent album, meaning that when I pop back into photos, if I do just jump back all the way to the top and look for recent, then he Henry will appear momentarily.

Rosemary Orchard (01:07:02):
In the meantime though, Micah, I do have apparently a great picture of a two in one cat cave, which looks suspiciously like Turkey tin that I found yesterday that I should probably pop in that shared album for future reference. But that's how you can do that. So it will appear in a moment it does take a little while to sync. The other option you can do inside of your shortcut is to actually share the photos or similar to another device. Now, one thing I will say rich is if you have a Mac at home and you are, you, you use photos on that as well. I'd actually recommend looking into something like Hazel or folder action through automated shortcuts or keyboard Myro to have all the photos added to a folder automatically imported into photos, just because that can happen entirely, automatically without you doing anything. And that's where something like an iCloud folder or Dropbox file request can come in because then everybody can easily upload their pictures. It's not much of an ask to do, and bam, you'll get all the pictures and make sure that you keep pictures of all of your grandchildren safe and sounds so that you can embarrass them later in their teenage years.

Mikah Sargent (01:08:17):
Lovely. I love it. Of course we have links, so you can head to twi.tv/ios and find the latest episode to be able to do that. Or you can go twi.tv/ios/ 5 93 to get the direct page where we've got the links. All right, the next bit of shortcuts corner request comes from drew. Drew writes. I recently started listening to the show and have found it very helpful. Thank you for the quality content. Hey, thanks for being a listener drew. I am trying to create a shortcut that will trigger when connected to CarPlay, but only on a specific CarPlay. We have two cars with CarPlay, but I only want this shortcut to run in the are with a specific dash cam installed and not the other car. Therefore, the basic CarPlay automation for connect disconnect, isn't specific enough by itself. If it helps the names listed under my cars and the CarPlay settings are sync three and you connect dash and then series of, of numbers thanks in advance for any help you can provide the through.

Rosemary Orchard (01:09:18):
Well, this is a little bit of a challenge because the problem that we have here is CarPlay as drew mentioned, is not particularly specific and I am using my iPhone for this because believe it or not, iPads don't have CarPlay. But so what you can do with CarPlay, you can say when something connects with disconnects, but you can't specify happening on the CarPlay option. You can't say which one which kind of ruins it. And there is an alternative potentially in the Bluetooth option, because usually when you connect to CarPlay, assuming it's a wireless CarPlay, then it will use Bluetooth among other things to connect. But the problem with this is I'll go through and I'll just tap next a few times. There's no ask before running option that I can turn off, which means that this is gonna pop up a notification on screen to say, Hey, do you wanna do the thing, which I'm guessing is probably not going to be great for you drew.

Rosemary Orchard (01:10:11):
So instead I have a come with an option, which actually turns out, we've talked about on show twice before in episodes, 5 79 and five 90 where you can get the audio output name of something. And so I'm using an an application called toolbox pro for this, and it can get the details of the current audio output device, and then copy that to the clipboard. So if I run this at the moment that it's telling me system capture now, depending on your setup and everything, you may find that it just tells you CarPlay for each car. And if that happens, I have a little tip for you, which you should be able to do if you go into settings and then Bluetooth you'll see, I have my CarPlay adapter here. And then sometimes you are able to rename these things.

Rosemary Orchard (01:10:57):
So for example, if I, I pick my Sony headphones, when they're actually connected, I would get an option to rename them. Which is pretty great. So give that a try drew, hopefully that will help you. I can't guarantee it will because we don't have an access a list of all of the different devices that are connected to your phone. That's not something that's available to us yet with shortcuts, but maybe it will be with Iowa 16. And in the meantime, hopefully this will give you a hand. The other thing that you could consider though, is looking at something like an NFC tag, which you put on the dashboard of your car. So you get in your car, you tap your, your phone on the NSC tag, and then it does what you need it to do, which will run entirely automatically though, depending on the actions involved, you may still need to unlock your iPhone for the shortcuts to be able to do everything.

Mikah Sargent (01:11:47):
All right. Again, you can find the and more information about that in the links, moving on two feedback and questions. Johnny writes in with an interesting one. I have not had this problem. It seems like Rosemary, you have not either. So something else could be going on here. Johnny writes when I 15 came out, you could select text straight from the screenshot capture screen without even having to save the image. First, this seems to have been removed in one of the later patches that Apple actually remove that functionality, or did I accidentally turn this feature off somehow? It's a great time saver to capture text without having to go back and delete the save screenshot from the photos app later, Johnny in chapel hill, North Carolina. So Johnny is talking about live text, which is a feature in iOS 15 that uses all sorts of AI machine learning stuff to help you select text on the screen.

Mikah Sargent (01:12:39):
So Johnny is taking a screenshot of something that I guess does, this is the part that's a little confusing because typically if you take a screenshot of something you it's like a, a page that has text on that, you could just select the text there. But let's say that there is some occasion where you're not able to select the text. Johnny is hoping to be able to select the text on the screen in that screenshot page. Let me I'll switch over to the iPad here. So be able to select some of the texts from this page. And so I'm on the screenshot and in the top right corner, there are four buttons on the far left. There is sort of, it's a, it's a, it's a rec or it's a square that has kind of four, four corners around it.

Mikah Sargent (01:13:29):
There is the icon for annotating. There is a trash can for throwing this away or deleting it. And there is the share sheet icon in the far right that first icon to the far left on the right side of the screen is the screen, or is the button for live text. So I can tap on that. And that will bring up all of the texts that's on screen that I could then select and be able to copy and paste. This is working on the iPad mini it's also working on my iPhone. So maybe Johnny before it automatically started to show that, and now you have to hit the button first. That could be maybe Rosemary what's going

Rosemary Orchard (01:14:08):
On. I think what it might be is that on the iPhone, it's actually hidden behind the markup up button. Ah,

Mikah Sargent (01:14:15):
So

Rosemary Orchard (01:14:16):
I've got my iPhone showing here and I've got the markup enabled because usually what I do when, you know, I take a screenshot is I'll go through and I'll doodle on it. And that's the, world's most illegible doodle with the tiniest text. But if I tap on the pencil, then this goes away and then I get this crop and select crop and scale or select text option where I can then select the text. So I suspect that the answer is, is it's kind of hidden for Johnny. And so he's not finding it where he thought it was because he maybe accidentally enabled markup or deliberately enabled markup and then forgot that it was hidden. It doesn't matter either way. I'm glad that that's working for you though. I will note if you are looking to I'll just delete my screenshot. If you are looking to select text, most pages, you can just tap and hold and then you can, you know, drag the, the sliders up and down to, to easily select text skipping the screenshot section though, of course, sometimes you end up with we formatting and taking the screenshot is way you can get rid of that.

Mikah Sargent (01:15:13):
Indeed. Alrighty, folks with that, it is time for our app caps. I will be going first this week. This is the part of the show where we wear silly caps, a top hour head to honor our app pick of the week. There are sometimes gadget picks of the week. These are the apps or gadgets that we are using this week that we think are awesome. And we want to share with all of you, and in order to honor those app or gadget picks, we wear silly caps, a top hour head this week, I will be kicking things off. So I will start by describing the up the top of my head, which is a wig made of feathers all sorts of different colored feathers. In fact, it's so saturated with color that it looks a little bit it's sort of bled out into the screen.

Mikah Sargent (01:16:06):
It does, the, the camera does not capture it very well, but there are all sorts of, of feathers of different color top of my head. And it makes a wig that unfortunately leaves little bits of feather all over my hair after I take it off. But for you folks, for all of you, I wear this cap at top of my head and also to honor monument valley two. Yes, the very monument valley game is back in its second rendition. As part of Apple arcade, you can get it for Apple. Arcade is 4 99 a month, unless you've never used it before, in which case you can get a trial for it. But this is the very popular puzzle game, monument valley two. And it is full of all sorts of good stuff including good music. I have, I think it's, it's playing. I don't know if it's right. It

Rosemary Orchard (01:17:04):
Is be playing.

Mikah Sargent (01:17:06):
Excellent. So you start out as you do before in a, a puzzle and the whole point of the game where the whole sort of method of the game is to move your character along the path and try to get them. I started to walk along and then suddenly a small Childs and comes running down the path to join their parent. So they do a little hug and now you've got two characters chatting with each other and as TEC D has pointed out on the chat, no multicolored birds were harmed making mic AURs hat. That is true. These are synthetic feather, which is part of the reason why they fall out and leave little bits of, of nonsense. And John pointed out in the chat that couldn't see any green feathers. They are there, they're just in the back.

Mikah Sargent (01:18:01):
And that's my poor planning on how I arrange the hat. So now these two are together. I can tap on the screen and get them to the next place, which I want to them to that sort of orange square there to activate this level. And then you can see that the tree disappears. It goes down into the depths and the first part of the puzzle. Again, the cool thing about this game is that it uses sort of the, the, the arrangement of these layers in this kind of isometric view. So that perspective plays a role right now that line looks like it is above the level that we are currently on. But if I turn the crank, you can see how the perspective shifts and now suddenly where it was above it is now the low, and this helps Mike characters get up to that next level and we'll get them all the way to the end here.

Mikah Sargent (01:18:56):
And then we're going to shift this once again so that they can access the little square that removes them onto the part. Now the process will continue as we try to make it to the next level. So you very quickly kind of get the idea. It's a really nice puzzle with yeah, excellent music. That is beautifully, beautifully designed in the first version of the game. I imagine it'll be the case with this second version of the game. You can export some of the menus or some of, of screens that you have as wallpaper because these beautiful pieces of artwork that exist here, it all just comes together to make for such a great game, monument valley two again, Apple arcade as an Apple arcade subscriber, you can download it for free. It is also available in the app store as well. If you would like to get it that way. So that's available in both places in case you were not an Apple arcade subscriber, and would like to just pick up the game itself well worth checking out, especially if you liked monument valley UN do is excellent. All right. Rosemary orchard. Tell us about the cap top of your head and your pick of the week.

Rosemary Orchard (01:20:11):
So the cap top of my head is a very plastic Viking helmet, which is probably just as well. Cause I think actual met and bone would be really, really heavy and very uncomfortable to wear, even if it's just for a few minutes. But it, you know, it works its a hat and it's got a bit of shine to it and is completely utterly unrelated to my app choice of today, which is sofa. And sofa is an app that allows you to collect stuff that you wanna look at or read or play or watch or listen to later so that you can have a whole bunch of different things in here. So I've got a pile where I've just been collecting some podcast. So I've heard a pretty great like Mac break weekly is, is great. My case sergeants also on clockwise, if you maybe want some more mic in your life.

Rosemary Orchard (01:20:55):
And then I've also got some things to check out in apps and books and games and movies and TV shows to watch, but under the games to play I could add another game. I, and if I tap on this, it is specifically going search for board games. So I've actually, I can actually create a new group entirely for iOS games, which is what I'll call it if I can spell. So I'll do that for iOS games. And then if I tap create, then I have a new, oops, that was the wrong thing. I need you to make it into a list, sorry list iOS games. And what you can do then is you can specify if it should be in a particular group. And then once you're here, then you can add things to it.

Rosemary Orchard (01:21:41):
So I'll search for apps because it's technically an app and I'll call it and I'll just search for monument valley. And it will hopefully it for me in just a second. So I've got monument valley monument valley two and Mon monument valley two plus, which is the Apple arcade version, which is the one I'll be playing cause I've got Apple arcade and it's just added this here in this view. So I've now got a lovely, pretty tile where I can then tap on it and I can get some more information about it. It's grabbed all of this information from the app store. And if I want more details, there is an option to upgrade to super sofa, which I'll come back to in a moment. But I have to say the basic sofa app is pretty darn great. So I can throw things in a pile if I don't wanna organize them or I can then move them to specific folder later if I wanted to.

Rosemary Orchard (01:22:27):
Which means that I can say yes, I want to keep this and I'm gonna put this in, oh, I don't have a list for that yet. So I'll need to create one. But if I wanted to, then I could move for example, this book somewhere else. And I can also do things like put it on my shelf. And for people who like to you know, reference things between their notes and other things, then there's also this copy deep link action, which I'll just paste into drafts so that everyone can see what that looks like. And it will just when I tap on it. So I'll just put drafts in link mode and tell you what, I'll just go back into the app and go back to my pile. And then if I tap on this link that I copied from books then it will open that one specifically and take me right back there, which could be quite nice.

Rosemary Orchard (01:23:11):
If you're looking to be able to do things like that, now sofa is free to download, but it does have the sofa super sweet, which you can find out more about if you go into the settings. So you can get things like sticky notes, you can get activity, stats and filters. You can put items on a shelf which prioritizes them in your list. You get enhanced details like music services, podcast players, et cetera, and all of the themes. And that is 3 49 a month for a single, for one person. Or if you've got a family plan it's for 99 a month. But I have to say sofa is worth checking out, even if you're just looking for the free option, just because it's a great way to create a whole bunch of different lists of things that you might wanna read or watch or visit whatever it is. And you can collect them altogether. And it helps you organize your downtime without making you organize your downtime, which I know the last thing you wanna do when you've got some free time is spend your time rearranging your reading list. If you actually wanna read a book, you, you wanna pick a book and read it. So it's nice to have a dedicated place to throw all of those things, which looks pretty nice.

Mikah Sargent (01:24:22):
I love it. I'm gonna, I'm definitely getting this because right now my partner and I keep just a notes a note, a shared note, and we've got like a checklist of things that whenever we're talking and you're like, oh wait, you haven't seen that. You've definitely gotta see that. Or, oh, this is a movie. What I've never heard of that movie. We gotta watch this together. So it would be nice to have all of that together and yeah, with that extra feature to sort of pull metadata from places, that's a pretty cool idea. So I love the design of this. I love how it looks. And the idea that yes, when I'm immediately thinking of something in the middle of a conversation, I throw it into the pile, but later on, I can then organize it how I want to perhaps while I'm watching one of the while I'm watching a show that doesn't require attention ever, then I could go through and organize my pile as I want to. Very neat.

Rosemary Orchard (01:25:10):
Exactly.

Mikah Sargent (01:25:11):
Exactly. All right. Folks with that, we have reached the end of this episode of iOS. Today. You can email us with your questions, feedback, shortcuts, corner requests at iOS today@twi.tv. Let me say that again so that you don't think that the at I said at the beginning is part of the email address. It is iOS today@twit.tv. We record the show live every Tuesday at 9:00 AM Pacific, which is 12:00 PM Eastern, but let, let's just go with 9:00 AM Pacific that's one I'm certain about those times can change based on, on whether we're in day like saving time or not, unfortunately, but we think the best way to get the show. Even if you don't wanna tune in live is by going to twit TV slash iOS and subscribing to the show in audio or video. By going there, you scroll down, you can click subscribe to audio, subscribe to video and just find the podcast application or service of your choice.

Mikah Sargent (01:26:09):
We're on Spotify, YouTube, Apple podcast, Google podcasts. We try to be in all the places so that you can get the show there if you want to. And now's a good time to mention as well, club TWI, if you would like to support us directly, this is how, how you do so it's club TWI, twi.tv/club TWI for seven bucks a month. You get every single one of our shows add free. So all of the TWI shows add free, including the, the show iOS today. You also get access to the members only TWI plus bonus feed that has extra content. You won't find anywhere else, including many in AMA coming this Thursday, I will be interviewing our web engineer Patrick Delehanty for for the both it'll be live on the discord, which I'll talk about in a moment, but it will also be in that TWI plus bonus feed and going forward, I'm interviewing the non hosts here at TWI.

Mikah Sargent (01:27:01):
So you'll get a chance to learn about the folks who make happen behind the scenes which I'm very excited about. And then as I mentioned, the discord server, you get access to as well. That is a place where you can go and chat with your fellow club, TWI members, but also those of us here at TWI who are often in the discord hanging out and having conversations, all of that at twi.tv/club, TWI seven bucks a month to be able to support the shows directly. If you'd like and you are an Apple podcast user, you can also support the show by going by launching Apple podcasts, searching for iOS today and finding the audio feed and then clicking or tapping to subscribe for 2 99 a month by doing so you will get the audio version of the show, add free and you will be supporting us directly. So that's another great way to help out if you'd like Rosemary orchard folks, wanna follow you online and check out all your great work, where should they go to do so?

Rosemary Orchard (01:27:55):
The best place to go is Rosemary orchard.com, which has links to all the things I do online around the internet and places where you can find me, including everyone, Twitter share at Rosemary orchard and in the club discord on a regular basis. There's some good questions going on right now about the scroll direction, iPads, which I'm just looking into the answers for. Where can people find you? Mikah?

Mikah Sargent (01:28:14):
You can find me@micasergeantonmanyofsocialmedianetworkorheadtochihuahua.coffee, C I H hua.coffee, where I've got links to the places I'm most active online. Thank you so much for tuning in into the, this episode of Iowas today. I hope you got your questions answered, be it whether you should upgrade to the latest iPhone iPad, what's new in Iowas, 15.4, all of that magic stuff that we got to talk about today, thank you for tuning in, and we will see you next week. Goodbye.

Jason Howell (01:28:41):
The world is changing rapidly so rapidly. In fact that it's hard to keep up. That's why Mikah Sargent and I, Jason Howell, talk with the people making and breaking the tech news on Tech News Weekly, every Thursday. They know these stories better than anyone. So why not get them to talk about it in their own words, subscribe to tech news weekly, and you won't miss a beat every thursday at twit.tv.