Apple Crunch December 2024: The Air Flop and the Return of the Bend Gate

By AppleVis, 3 January, 2025

In this edition of Apple Crunch, Thomas Domville, John Gassman, and Marty Sobo discuss recent Apple news and other topics of interest.

Chapters:

Introduction
Results of the AppleVis Golden Apples Award for 2024
Apple iOS 18.2 Goes Public
Let's Talk Apple Hardware Rumors for Spring
Let's Talk Apple Hardware Rumors for Fall
Closing

Resources:

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by Aiko, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hello and welcome to Apple Crunch for December of 2024.

This is our last podcast of the year before we head into the new year of 2025.

My name is Thomas Tomville, also known as Anonymous.

And along with me today to tie up the end of the year with the Apple Crunch, I have John Gasman.

How are you, John?

Doing fine.

How are you?

You know, I'm doing great.

I'm doing great.

I had a wonderful Christmas time, got lots of wonderful gifts and goodies and things like that.

And right over here we have Marty.

Marty, how are you doing?

Dude, thanks.

How are you?

I'm fine.

You guys have a good Christmas?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Every year.

You chill out and just relax and just let the day just be about nothing, nothing to do but watch the Disney parade and hang with family and, you know, close friends and watch a lot of football this year and some basketball, too, and get fat off all the food, all the little things.

Right, Marty?

All that is true.

That is true.

I think we did most of ours, either Christmas Eve or on the weekends of or after with the family.

But nonetheless, let's go ahead and kick off because we are going to pretty much focus most of this podcast today is going to be about what is Apple's going to provide in terms of hardware and software for next year, 2025, get you a little teaser and something to look forward to the upcoming year.

But before we do that, we had our annual Appleviz Golden Apples Award for 2024, as we have done for many years now.

And we are now going to reveal the winners of that award.

Now the I just want to make sure that everybody knows that the community does get to weigh in and they're the final results.

And so all the votes is pulled and tallied by the votes by the community.

Now this year we did a little bit something different and then we had something called the Golden Apples Committee, which is the first time we've done ever.

And essentially what this committee does is that we kind of reach out to the leaders of the community out there and we just kind of ask them what they thought should be included in the nominees for their community to vote on.

So it's kind of a nice thing.

Thank you, Marty, for your vote, along with Shelley Brisbane.

And we had all sorts of people.

Please forgive me all the name.

I know Jonathan Moseley was on that list.

There was a great deal of people and you can see who those committees were on the Appleviz Golden Apple Award page.

But let's go ahead and dive into the best app of the year.

So I was kind of surprised to see this win and that is the Scene AI by Microsoft.

So Scene AI is the winner of this year.

Now I will say this year they included a couple new updates that made it worthy and that is being able to take a video and give you a description of the video.

So it was absolutely free.

And then lastly, they enhanced the recognition of photos.

So if you haven't seen that, those two were kind of a big thing this year and apparently the community thought so as well.

Have you guys played with the Scene AI?

I don't even touch it very often.

I do a little bit.

I mean, it comes in really handy honestly for like quick text and stuff like that.

Yep, same here.

But I haven't really messed around too much with the video.

No, I would say the same thing.

I have not really played with it all that much this year.

Now the one thing I know about Scene AI that other ones don't, have you ever noticed when you have a picture of someone that it tries to approximate their age?

It's the only app I've seen done that.

Yeah, it's kind of a weird thing, but I guess some people like to have that option, I guess.

I mean, I would think that that's for more people who really don't have any vision whatsoever to get some kind of an idea of the person they're talking to, where they land, kind of in the age sphere, I guess, you know, are you talking to a 16 year old kid or are you talking to a 16 year old somebody else, you know?

Well, it's so odd because, you know, I try to be my eyes, I tried all sorts of different things, and none of them would even tell me, they'll just say middle age, younger age, but it always seems like when I do it, and thankfully, it gives me a younger age than I really am.

So it will think that like the other day, it says it was a 53 year old man with short hair.

And I'm like, oh, that's really nice of them to think I was a little younger than that.

So hopefully that everybody is using it, but I just thought that was kind of odd.

But anywho, so the CNAI got to win the best app of 2024, Honorable mentioned.

And this is the one I thought would win and didn't, and that is the Pixiebot.

I absolutely love this, and we'll be talking a lot more about this towards the end of the podcast.

The Pixiebot is an app if you're not played with, definitely play with because here's an example.

My family runs a fantasy football, and I won the Super Bowl of the year, and we have trophies.

And my sister sent me the trophy that I'll be receiving by photo, and I had described by Be My Eyes, and it is so-so.

And then I ran it through Pixiebot, and it did a much better job.

So I was stunned by the results, and Pixiebot, the developers have been real heavily active on AppleViz, and it's probably one of the most busiest forums we have ever had ever on AppleViz.

If you find the Pixiebot discussion going on AppleViz, there's like 340, 350 comments going on.

It is the busiest I've ever seen of everything.

But nonetheless, Pixiebot came up with an Honorable mention and VoiceVista.

Now VoiceVista did not surprise me at all.

So I'm just curious, were you guys, did you think, hmm, okay, I can see now you win?

I wasn't familiar with Pixiebot really at all, so I've never tried it.

And then VoiceVista I've heard about and have used it briefly.

So it didn't surprise me that seeing AI would work, because people tend to go with what they've used before.

So I think that played a big part of it, plus seeing AI did make a couple of improvements and enhancements.

So that helped him out a lot.

The Pixiebot may not as be as well known.

No doubt.

I agree.

I mean, I had not played with it.

So that doesn't mean anything, but it just may mean that it'll take a year or so before people find out how good of an app it is, and then it might go up in terms of stature.

I'm kind of waiting to see what's going to happen in the next couple of years, because on a base level, all of these apps kind of do the same thing.

They all can translate a picture or a photo to you or describe a room or read some text.

So I'm kind of waiting to see how all these apps are going to separate themselves moving forward over the coming years.

And I'm also curious to see what kind of innovation we're going to get with something brand new that isn't happening quite yet or something super innovative that one of the apps will just go, whoa, you'll go to that app for that specific thing, because it does it like no other app.

Oh, I totally agree, Marty.

I think you're absolutely right.

I think this is just a young, emphasy state of what we can expect in these coming years is going to be remarkable.

And you kind of hit it on the head.

I mean, there's been so many different releases in the past six months that does pretty much all the same thing.

And what is going to differentiate yourself is we will soon find out.

So it'll be interesting to watch.

And John, you're right.

I totally agree.

I think what typically will happen is that a lot of people that come on the community, they aren't up to speed on all the different apps, and that's just the way it is.

And I think that CNII was one of the top one out there that I think most people would pick.

Now, I was surprised that Mona didn't win.

So it wasn't even an honorable mention.

So that was a shocker to me.

I thought I figured the CNII would be up there and I figured Mona would get some big tally votes on there, but it did not.

So that was kind of, yeah.

My thing about a Mona thing is that it's such a specific app.

Yes.

It's built for using for mastodon.

So you have to be a mastodon user.

That's the first thing.

The second thing is not only do you have to be a mastodon user, but then you also have to be a Mona user, right?

And they already have some really big apps like Ivory is really big.

There's a few.

So mastodon does have a lot of people that use mastodon, but on the retrospective things, it's still pretty small in comparison to a lot of the other social medias out there.

And then on top of that, you would have to use Mona when there's other good apps that are accessible like Ivory and a couple others as well.

So I'm not really that surprised that Mona didn't get higher up, even though it's a great app.

It's just not enough people that use mastodon and then on top of that use Mona.

What do you think, John?

I was about to say the same thing.

When you're in a niche area like that, it's tough to break through and lots of more people would have to become mastodon users and then use Mona on their phone, which could happen.

But in theory, what we're all saying is that what people use the most would be probably seeing AI over say mastodon clients of sort because they use that heavily and that would be more viable and a better pick.

Well, yeah, because you're going to be able to be using seeing AI like across all of the many different tasks that you do.

I mean, currently you can use it to do research, you can use it to write stuff and you can, you know, there's tons of stuff, you know what I mean?

It's in everything now where, you know, a social media thing like mastodon is such a niche smaller thing that, you know, not only do you use mastodon, but then you'd have to choose Mona for your mastodon usage.

So that's a good point.

Now I know both of you are not much of a gamer, so this section will probably go pretty quickly.

Now I did predict the one that went on the best game of 2024 went to Doncaster.

That was a no brainer.

Those that are in the gaming network, Doncaster is a very unique game that entails kind of it's more of like a card game that you play RPG style.

So it kind of brought something unique and different that we have never seen and being so accessible and so difficult to play, which people like the difficulties, but it is definitely not one of those games that is a fidget spinner or anything like that.

You can just play in the doctor's office is one of those.

You got to sit down for a while and play.

So thank so I want to wish the Doncaster a wonderful congratulation for winning the best game.

Now hold on a second.

What is wrong with a fidget spinner?

We all love spin our fidgets.

Come on.

Now I have a fidget spinner right here that I'm playing with is that that's it.

That's good.

Right.

Mine's a little spinner.

It's got a little three way thing and it's got light display and it's got Mickey Mouse on it.

So of course that's what I have.

There you go.

See, right.

Don needs a fidget spinner.

Yeah, we'll have to get that we have to get you the Disney spinners.

I go I very rarely play games.

So all you do is it's just we have to get you one just so you can see what it is.

It's one of these things that if you don't know what it is, you're like, hey, you know, but then you put it in your hand and you and you won't stop and you can't say, right.

Okay.

Well, that was not actually a game really.

It's just a thing.

Anyway, go ahead, Thomas.

So you're going to have to get a fidget spinner, John.

You'll see what I'm talking about.

Okay.

Well mentioned Braille Alliance is another winner up there that was a pretty close second and a lot of people send it like that kind of game and it teaches you how to use Braille in a games form.

So I think this is a great app.

If you are learning Braille for the first time, you want to have a little fun with it.

Braille Alliance is something to look for.

And then the one that kind of just stunned me is audio cat because I was like, wow, because I figure asthma and landed Olivia would be more up there and it wasn't.

So apparently a lot of people like audio cat, but there is a podcast audio audio cat somebody did for us.

And so go give that a listen.

But other than that, let's see here, let's get into the developer of the year of 2024 Jai Fu Wei, forgive me if I mispronounce it, but that is the developer of voice Vista.

So it's great to see a developer win in the category that isn't the same of the best app.

Typically we'll always see the winner of best app usually wins the best developer and just kind of a side note, this is the first time we returned the best developer of the year.

We have not had this for a couple of years back.

So we asked the golden apples award committee to see what they thought and we should bring it back.

And they said, yes.

So we have now brought the developer back.

Honorable mention for developers, it's a sparkling design and pixie bot.

They were up there as number two up there and number three and June on quang, which is behind Mona.

So I was surprised to see that.

At the same time, you got some nice recognition going there for the best developers.

And then we did something totally brand new that we have never done before.

And we are, we have decided to retire the hall of fame.

So we'll no longer have the hall of fame and we introduced something called a lifetime award.

So it's kind of an achievement for those that have shown so much commitment over the many years that we have been on iPhone devices and et cetera.

And so we wanted to kind of give it a shout out to the person that created AppleViz and that was David Goodwin.

So we call this the David Goodwin award showing the recognition of the best of the best.

So thank you, David, for giving your blessing for offering this award.

And once again, this is a lifetime award.

So once the winner wins, they win that as a lifetime achievement and they will not be listed in future awards for this category.

So this came of a major surprise for me and the winner is Envision.

So congratulations to Envision out there for winning the David Goodwin award.

I was really taken aback because we had probably about 14, 15 different options out there.

Everything you could possibly think of was out there.

So Envision won that.

What do you guys, what are your thoughts on Envision winning then, John?

I am not surprised at all because their commitment to the blind community is outstanding with regard to the app, the glasses and Ally.

They depend upon the blind community for feedback.

So no, I'm not surprised at all.

They've done a great job and they are very deserving.

Wow, John, you are the PR man.

I was like, well, that's great, man.

I know you have always loved Envision.

We have had many discussion about that, about you, Marty.

I agree with exactly what John said.

I would have said the same thing.

Really?

Yeah.

They've been out there a long time.

They've been doing it.

They've been in the game and they continue to innovate and improve.

So well deserved for them.

That's amazing.

Well, I guess I was the only one that was caught off guard on that, but we did have a last minute push on that.

It seems like I know a lot of the developers did and I know Envision was not alone.

I saw a lot of newsletter from Envision and within their app and their mastodon, they wanted people to come out and vote on their golden apples.

So there you go.

So Envision is the winner.

What are the honorable mentions?

Let's see what we got here.

We got Weather Guys Limited, which came in second.

I was very happy to see this.

I think that not only does Envision have put so much commitment and time into the community and for their app, I think Weather Guys, no doubt, is a close second.

I totally agree with that assessment, even though it is a niche when it comes to weather.

But you got to admit that that's been around for many years and have won a lot of different awards.

And then third place, this was also a shocker for me that Aria was a third in honorable mentions.

So we got the Envision and Aria coming up there right at the top.

So I suppose that shouldn't surprise me.

I guess if Be My Eyes was on there, I bet they would be up there in the top three.

So make it all the three big ones that we love.

But some people were asking why wasn't Be My Eyes on there?

Well, we decided to not put Be My Eyes in any categories because now that they own Apple Vis, it wouldn't be...

We just didn't think it'd be fair, nor do we think it would be right.

And they agreed with us.

So just to let you know why Be My Eyes is not up on that list.

But thank you, everybody, for voting in this year's Apple Vis Golden Apples Awards.

So those are the winners.

So let's talk about, real quickly, about iOS 18.2.

Just came out about three weeks ago now.

And now that it's been into both your hands, I am curious, what do you guys think of any of the Apple Intelligence, if you got to play with it?

Let's start with mail categories.

What do you guys think of that?

Did you notice that right off the bat?

I turned mine off.

Yeah, I need it.

I turned it off.

I mean, I have some of the other stuff I still have on.

But the mail I turned off because I don't want the intelligence to make those decisions for me.

I want to read my own mail and make my own decisions.

I'll delete what I want to delete.

I don't need anybody to capitalize it for me.

I mean, I'm smart enough to read and understand it.

So to me, it's not useful.

Other people may feel differently, and that's fine.

But I turned it off.

You know, that was my prediction.

Remember that last month?

I said, you guys are going to hate it?

And you guys confirmed it.

It's just, I don't know what to tell you.

It's just not great.

Hopefully, they'll be able to...

Another thing, too, is if you have multiple devices, then it's really screwed up because depending on your devices, like I have a couple devices that are older test devices, and they don't have the intelligence yet because they're not a 15 Pro or a 16 on older devices.

And so the mail is completely different on that than it would be on one where it is turned on an AI-enabled device.

So for me, my answer is exactly to what John said, plus I just didn't like the fact that it's different depending on what device you're on from device to device.

I agree.

I think the biggest thing I didn't like about it, I had no idea where my new stuff were.

Even though there is a settings buried way deep in the settings in the mail that you can turn on the badge to reflect how many emails that you have not read.

So it would say 8, for example, and I would go into mail and then it would only show 1 under my primary.

Yeah, but that's confusing.

So where did the other 7 go?

That's confusing because all these years you've been looking at your badges going, oh, I have this many unread messages.

Right now, all of a sudden, you're going to switch that?

That's a hard thing for most people.

And I find...

I just think it just made a big mistake in not showing where those were.

Like is that under this folder or is it under this category?

When I would start to read some of the things that I thought was more important, then you have to go down below all of that garbage to read your physical messages and it took just as long to do it that way as trying to eliminate all that stuff.

So getting rid of it, you're right at the top of your list and you just read.

Here's my question to both of you.

Most of the people that I have talked to, as a matter of fact, just about everybody that I've talked to, turn it off.

They don't like it for all the reasons John has just mentioned.

So my question to you is this.

Do you think this is going to be one of those things where they went, eh, let's just can it.

We'll put it back.

We're not going to deal with it.

Everyone seems to be in the camp of we want to control and organize our own email and they'll just kind of let it go and they're not going to really develop it anymore or you think they're going to continue to try and push and push and see if they can like over the years get it somewhere that everyone across the board can can stand it.

I think that Apple, if Apple has intelligence, they will listen to the people and they'll take it out.

If they want to arrogantly just keep it in there forever, uh, people are just going to ignore it anyway.

Um, you know, you got to listen to what people are telling you.

And if people are saying, no, this is not important to us, then, then you've got to listen to that.

I wonder if there's any difference between sighted users and blind users with regard to using this or turning it off.

I don't think so.

It all co-organizes and works to all the same.

I don't think it does anything different.

Yeah.

I personally think that this is what they're thinking.

I think they're going to keep it.

If you don't like it, change it to list view.

Okay.

And that's what I did.

I think second, I think they're going to take the input and feedback and realize there's been a lot of pushback.

How can we improve on this?

So I think they are going to improve on it.

So in other words, give us a little more controlled categories, not only more control the categories, but give us where those new, uh, batches are.

And number two, create our own categories.

So we don't have to use theirs because I don't like the naming of some of them.

It makes it a little confusing.

Um, I think they need to, I think they're going to improve on that.

Now matter of fact guys, um, speaking of a new iOS 18 coming up, one of the features are going to be coming up soon.

I don't know when we thought 18.3 would have this and that is they're going to, um, redesign the mail and that was mentioned at WWDC and we haven't seen that.

So I will be curious what that means that they enhanced it a little bit better to make it more, more usable, but that's the remain to be seen.

But to answer your question, I think they're going to keep it.

You don't like it, put it in list view and then we'll just ongoing to improve on it.

I don't think they're going to can it, but I think they have no choice but to improve on it.

So I think we will see some improvement, but not today or anything.

Speaking of eight, I feel that if they are going to do anything, they could continue to improve it, right?

But they should also, at least for now, have a completely turn it off switch and let you do your email, however you want to do it.

So you can either have it either on and you can try to see how it works for you.

And if you don't like it, you can completely turn it off and go back to completely controlling your email the way you want to control your email.

I totally agree with you.

Um, now let's talk about 18.3.

I'm on beta 18.3, absolutely nothing new for you to report.

And there have been very minimal anything in there that I've seen.

I haven't seen anything new on that.

So I'll be curious if anybody knows what's new in 18.3, please give me an email me at applecrunch at applevis.com.

I'd be really curious because some of the new features we thought would be in 18.3 is not.

It's kind of like a kind of a bug update kind of slash slash kind of a thing, which is welcome, but just keep you a notice on that.

Now let's move ahead to 20.25.

Let's talk about a little bit of I was 19 folks.

There's a reason why I'm talking about I was 19.

First of all, there's great news for all the people out there that have devices that support I was 18 and that is because news is coming out that if you have a device that supports I was 18, you will now be able to upgrade to I was 19 with no problems.

So no iPhone devices will be dropped from I was 19.

Now you're asking, that's interesting.

That's awesome.

It's also kind of a bad thing.

Why is that bad?

Well, that means and reports have is that they have very small new features.

So when I was 19 gets released, there isn't going to be much in there.

I think that Apple kind of set themselves up for this.

And we have talked about this, gosh, a couple of months now with all three of us with I was 18, how we're kind of disappointed, how they're kind of spreading things out.

It's like a new trend that Apple kind of didn't really think they're going to be doing.

Well, it sounds like I was 19 is going to be the same thing, meaning that all the new features, all the good stuff is not going to be out on release.

But apparently they have dedicated so much of their staffing or their programmers or developers, whatever you want to call it.

And they are still continuing to work on I 18.3 and 18.4.

And because of that, generally those people are typically already set and working on the next I was.

And that would be I was 19.

So thus for they aren't working on I was 19 as busily as they normally have in the past year.

I mean, you guys, Apple just kind of shot themselves in the foot with this new trend, and I think they're stuck with it.

Well, I think though it goes deeper than that.

I think if you remember a few years back, there was a giant kind of pushback from, you know, Apple users, which was you're going to come out with a new operating system and you're going to do one of two things.

Tell us our phone is not eligible, you know, won't update or you're going to make it so slow because it's not powerful enough.

But instead of making it a brick or not being able to update, you can update, but it's going to just be really super slow.

And there was a lot of feedback.

I mean, there was a lot of pushback.

So I think now they walk on X shows a little bit when they come out with a new operating system.

They got to make sure that the new operating system is going to run across the board on, you know, at least up to five years old devices.

But that doesn't mean you're going to get all the features.

But I think that that is really where they shot themselves in the foot when they had to deal with all of that, because now they really have to pay attention to making sure that whatever they're putting out there in one way or another, older phones are going to be able to update without completely either being super, super slow or just not working at all.

I think also part of it is they're still playing catch up on the AI for 18 and there's not a lot of time or manpower to devote to what they want to do in iOS 19 as of yet.

And then you've got AI continuing and the advancements being made to move into 19.

So you're by joining the party late.

They've they've really hurt themselves in terms of productivity for the remainder of 18 and then moving into 19.

If you look at the current version of iOS 18 that's out right now, all of the new features that they're touting basically only work on a 15 pro or a 16 model, whether it's regular or pro.

So you think about all the people who have devices that are older than a 15 pro, which puts you at a 15 regular and back that, yeah, they get 18, but they don't get any of the AI features.

I mean, that's a lot of people, the majority of people, unlike power users and people like us who always got to have the latest and greatest, you know, there's a lot of people out there that are still using 12, 13, 14 year old phones, I mean, a model phones.

That's a lot of people, plus not to mention all the SE people, you know, that's a lot of people who aren't actually getting to experience a lot of the newest capabilities and features on the iOS 18.

You know, you both struck on on on your thoughts, John, I totally agree.

I think that the reason they have to spread things out is because they're working on AI.

I think everybody on board is probably 80% of developers are probably working on AI, no doubt about it, just to catch up.

And I think that's going to they have a slow slugging process up that mountain.

Now Marty made a good point and that was going to be a question I was going to ask to both of you is that I also predict that iOS 19 is going to be heavily AI, meaning that there are going to be barely any new features for those that are not on those devices that support Apple intelligence.

And so that's the sad part.

And I think that's going to be the reality.

Now let me ask you both questions here.

Now I mentioned this before, and it's kind of funny, I kind of go back and forth on this.

And here I am, I'm just kind of slamming Apple about their spreading out to do different versions for a different feature.

But you know, in the past, I've mentioned saying, you know what, it'd be great if you don't have it ready, then just slow it out and then we have new features, each version comes out.

So I'm wondering, that is what they're going to do.

So 18.3, you might have this new thing, 18.4, you'll have something new, rather than being all slugged in at the very first of iOS.

So do you guys have a preference?

Do you prefer to get all at once or do you think that they're doing the right thing and spread them around, even though we don't like to wait, but if it isn't ready and then maybe it's best what they do now?

Other assistive technology companies, Vespero for one, have been doing that for a number of years because that way, not only do they have something to give people on each release, they can quickly fix things when the release has come out every six weeks or so.

And Apple, you know, it probably is in that situation now as well, especially with the workload that they have in front of them because AI, it's probably larger than anything they've ever done.

Do you both think that we will never see an onslaught anymore?

So for example, when iOS 20 comes out, it'll be the same thing.

It'll be a trend.

There'll be updates.

Do you think that those days are gone?

Well, it depends on how they push forward.

They are trying to catch everything up, but in my opinion, and if you kind of think about this, it's really a better way to go and it's been working all of these years.

But let's just think about like the Apple lineup of computers, right?

You've got everything from, you know, in terms of desktop, you've got an iMac and you've got a Mac Mini and Mac Pro. You've got all their desktop lineups and you've got the laptop lineups, right?

You know when you're going to go buy a computer out of the gate, everybody tells you get the computer for the tasks and the things that you need your computer to be able to do.

So for example, if you, let's say, are a student, right?

And you're basically writing papers and do an email, listen to music and maybe doing some video and photography and, you know, stuff like that, then a MacBook Air is going to be awesome for you.

It's going to be portable, lightweight.

You can carry it around, all of that stuff, you know?

But if you're someone who is going to be doing tons of rendering, tons of video, all kinds of pro stuff, you know, well then you're going to jump into a MacBook Pro, maybe a 16 with more RAM or hard drive on and on, right?

I think that that's how they should do the phones and the iPads because then you can decide what phone you want to get for the needs that you are wanting to do or needing to do, you know?

That's just a way better way to do it, you know?

And then everyone knows where you land and what you need your phone to do because, like I said before, not every single person is going to be doing the most pro-est of things, you know?

Some people just want to be able to, you know, do email, browse the web, listen to music, social media, whatever, but other people, yeah, they want to take their phones and they want to go out there and they want to do HD video and, you know, fly drones and do all this other crazy stuff with video footage or photography or whatever.

But not everyone wants to do those things.

So if they develop the hardware and they place everyone and every hardware device in whatever you need your device to do, like they do with the computers, then we wouldn't have all of this, you know, all over the place kind of thing, you know?

I think that would just be better.

We kind of have that now, right?

I mean, think about it, the iPhone, so, I mean, what's important here?

Screen size?

So maybe you need to look at the Pro Max, is Apple Intelligence something you want?

Yes, you can do this with the Pro models.

Maybe you can get away with Apple Intelligence with the regular iPhone 16, but if you want the, you know, the camera buttons, then you got the SE to consider and then you got the older models, you know?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with buying a new iPhone 14 Pro out there, it's still a speedy little beast, but it doesn't give you Apple Intelligence.

However, if you want to save some money, maybe an iPhone 15 Pro, I don't know, you kind of sort of have that because in a way you're talking about like, you know, like you said, maybe a MacBook Air with an M2 chip is better, so I'm thinking, well, that's kind of the same as an iPhone 14 Pro, you know, because it's not the newest one but it's not the slowest one either.

I mean, it's just, I see your point there, but it's just something to think about what your needs are.

I think what get people really kind of, I understand some people get really bent and that is because they're mad because Apple Intelligence isn't on their devices, should be in all devices, but you know, in reality of things, that's what's going to happen.

There's going to be new things that come along with the hardware that is going to be just basically for that device, you know, and I get it, I get it, but the thing is, is that the nice thing is that you still get the iOS 19, regardless of the phone you have.

You may not have all the features and stuff, but in the end, I think iOS 19 is going to disappoint most people because they don't have the newest device.

I think that is just going to be Apple's PR way of pushing Apple Intelligence, which is sad, but let's move into what can we expect coming from Apple in terms of hardware for next year of 2025?

Now there's some news as they expect in the first three months between January and February is that we are, we have been talking about the MacBook Air.

So it sounds like that is going to be the first hardware coming out.

This is a MacBook Air with the M4 chip.

So that'll be the last of the Mac to receive the M4 chip.

I think that is going to be a great price still because the MacBook Air is still reasonably priced anyway, and to get such a awesome M4, I've seen a lot of M3 MacBook Air out there starting to be discounted, and rightfully so.

I think that you knew that the updated MacBook Air is coming, so they have to kind of get rid of that out of their stock.

So this is a great time to look for that.

My son's partner, she got a MacBook Air with an M3 and she got a really good discounted price on it.

And so I thought, man, that's really sweet.

Just don't forget, every MacBook Air now, I think across the board, as a matter of fact, I think all the laptops now, as well as the Mac Mini, they start at 16 gigs of RAM.

That's a game changer, I feel like.

Just going from 8 to 16 at the base level, like you're going to, you could walk out of there with any one of those machines with 16 gigs of RAM out of the gate.

I think that's a huge and very important update that they've done now.

So good point.

Yeah, the 16 gig is kind of a big thing.

They really reversed on that.

They were counting how you really didn't need that, but people really wanted it.

And you're right.

Even the MacBook M3 is now what came with a standard 8, now comes with a standard 16.

So it does, right?

And even if you wanted something less to save a few dollars, you can still get an M2, but it comes with 16 gigs of RAM now.

Exactly.

That's a game changer.

It is.

And I think John makes a point that he made earlier, and that is Apple listen.

They listen to the consumer and they got a lot of backlash on that, not getting to 16 gigs.

So I think they do listen to the consumer.

I think if you have a heavy enough pushback, I think they'll listen.

Sometimes.

There's been a huge amount of pushback on why are you still only putting 256 as the base in the hard drive, you know, but they haven't changed that yet.

I can tell you why.

Two reasons.

One, the price of SSDs now are absurd, it used to be dirt cheap and they would be able to do that easily.

But the price of SSD has gone up so much.

It's very expensive.

Even for Apple to be able to boost that up is very expensive.

And so I think it's a price problem.

And number two, that's how they push their iCloud service, of course.

So that's probably what I think is the reason.

Now what can we expect in March for the typical keynote, spring note, what do you want to call it to the spring keynote from Apple?

Well, I think it's a no brainer.

And I think a lot of you out there love your iPhone SC, rightfully so.

So the SC4, which is going to be the SC2024, or 2025 really, is going to be coming out.

And I think this is going to be a huge one.

I think for all of you, because gosh, it's been what, two, three years since the SC has even been updated?

Longer than that, I think.

I think the last one was in 22.

Wow.

So it would be three years.

Well, you know, well, that makes it a perfect time to update your SC if you have the mean to do that.

So I'm going to tell you everything that there is to know about the SC.

It seems like all the information we've been reporting on SC has not changed at all.

And because of that, I don't think we're going to see any surprise in the SC.

So it's going to have the same chassis as the iPhone 14, which means, folks, we will have Face ID.

I know a lot of people are not happy about that, but I think the time has come.

The Touch ID is no longer going to be around.

So all the iPhones will now have Face ID.

So that's something you're going to have to kind of decide on your own if that's something you want to do.

I know several people said that was a deal breaker and they're going to go back to using Android because they still have the finger touch on those devices.

So, you know, everybody has their own thoughts and reason and that's a deal breaker.

I'm afraid to say that that is not going to be a thing anymore.

So Face ID is going to be here to stay and replace.

You are going to get a bigger screen.

So right now, the display is going to be about a 6.0 inch, so not as big as a 6.1 on the older devices that we have because the newer devices for this year are going to be bigger than that.

A lot of the devices have been 6.1, so you will expect a bigger screen.

But wait, let's also preface that with something really quick.

It's a little bit deceiving because on a iPhone SC up until now, you still have the home button and you have a lot more bezels.

So just by removing the home button and making it weigh less bezels like on the newer models, that's going to make the screens larger.

So the device itself may not be that much larger, but you're going to get a larger screen because less bezels, no home button.

Good point, Marty.

That was the case when we first got our Face ID devices that the screen, the size of phone remained about the same size, really.

It was just a wee bit, I mean, very minimal, a little bit bigger.

But because you're getting rid of the home button, you got a larger display because now you're replacing that home button with nothing but display under it.

Good point.

I like that.

You know, camera, everybody loves cameras.

So you actually get a 48 megapixel camera, which is a big deal.

Now with the SC, you still get a single camera lens, so you only have one lens.

Back on my Pro I have a, they call it a tri camera rings.

So there's three little camel bumps that is on the back, but you only have one.

They are talking about, and I was surprised to hear that there are a few people reporting that it will receive an action button, but not the camera control button.

Even so, that's kind of a big deal because, you know, that's always been kind of a newer type of phone device feature.

So you'll get your action button on an SC.

Now the only thing that kind of irks me is that it's using the same chip as they place in the iPad Mini.

Now I'm not sure if we talked about this or not.

It's going to use the same chip, well, it's not the same chip.

So I have an iPhone 15 Pro, typically that's the chip that they always put into the regular phone of the next following year.

So that is going to be the chip they're using, minus one core.

I know one core doesn't sound a lot, but nonetheless, I'm just like, why would you do that?

I just don't understand why would you take one core out other than savings or trying to save a buck, I guess.

But same process as your iPhone 15 Pro, which is still going to be able to support Apple Intelligence.

So yes, Apple Intelligence will be on SC, which I think is great.

You are also going to get a brand new Apple chip in there, meaning that your cell chip is no longer going to be the Qualcomm or Broadcom, I can't remember which one it was.

But it's going to use Apple's version of their new chip.

Now the only thing I don't like about that is this first generation.

I don't like really first generation things.

And so it's no telling what it will do, but it doesn't support MMWave, which is not a big deal.

MMWave is very niche and you have to be like really close to it to take advantage of it.

But I'll be curious how that works.

Now if it's Apple's way, I think it may be a game changer and I'll tell you why.

Because Apple chip is always designed on efficiency and if you know as well as I do, when you use your phone and use 5G on your phone, your battery life just goes, it just like just sucks it up, right?

I'm hoping that the efficiency when you're on a phone call doesn't drain your battery as much.

And I think that'll be the case because you guys ever notice when you're out and about in a car or in a hotel, whatever not, and using 5G, you notice your battery's going down whether you use the cell or not because of data.

You ever notice that?

How it goes down quicker?

Depends where it is.

I feel like it goes quicker when it's trying to search all the time and find a service or 5G or whatever.

But yeah, it still does go.

But it makes you wonder how that chip is going to handle that and if it'll be more efficient.

Now because you are getting that more efficient chip and you're getting the efficiency chip on the iPhone 15 Pro chip, it makes me wonder how the battery is going to be.

I think you're going to get a better life of battery on that.

I will tell you, it'll depend on the battery itself.

I've noticed that when I had my iPhone 14, I loved the battery on that.

That battery lasts really well.

I had 100% for almost a year and a half before it went down.

This year I have an iPhone 15 Pro which is my, I did not update to iPhone 16 and I noticed my battery isn't lasting as long.

And I'm not doing anything different and that's what's puzzling.

So it makes me wonder if the Apple intelligence is thinking it or if it's because I don't know what it could be but just something to note, I hope the SE doesn't have that issue.

You will get the USB-C so that's another thing everybody needs to know about that no matter what phone you get and now it's going to be USB-C.

I know that's going to be a big step for a lot of you but I promise you you're going to love the USB-C because everything I have is USB-C now and I just use one plug for everything and it's beautiful.

It's gorgeous.

I love that USB-C.

That comes in very handy.

You can do so much with USB-C that it's just a way better option.

You can plug in external hard drives or hubs or whatever you need to do.

And there's even a lot of things that people don't even realize they can do with it.

Like for example, if you have current model whether they're AirPod Pro 2s or Series 4 AirPods that have USB-C, if you're out and about during the day and your AirPods start to get low, you can pop your USB-C cable into your phone and pop the other end into your AirPods and give them a quick charge 10 minutes or whatever, 15 minutes and regain some battery power back in your earbuds if you're using them all day long.

That's exactly what we've done.

My wife has an iPhone 16 Pro Max and she was getting low and I said well no problem, just connected to my phone and she was able to charge up her phone from using mine because I have a kind of a backup battery pack on my case.

So I have no worries about that so I charged up her phone for just a little bit.

Yeah there's so much you could do with this, it's amazing.

Now the only thing that they are questioning is the price going to be the same.

A lot of people are reporting it's going to go up.

So if that's the case it's probably going to be $549 instead of just $499 which is nominal but nonetheless it is a price increase that none of us really like to see.

But overall I'm impressed.

I think if you've been waiting on your SE and you've been waiting for three years and you want to get a new SE and you don't mind the Face ID, I think you should do it.

I think this is going to be game changer for you.

Not only you get your action button but most importantly you get the Apple intelligence for a great reasonable price.

You get USB-C too which is also hugely worth it in my opinion.

Right.

What do you think John?

Do you think this is going to be like a really big year for SE folks?

I think so because the blind community is in love with the SE phone.

When you talk to people who may not be willing to spend the money on the 15 or the 16 they don't have a problem with the SE and it gives them most of the things that we see with the 15 and 16.

Not everything but most of them and for them it's a great investment and so I think upgrading to the most current SE will be a big thing that people will want to do when it comes out.

No doubt.

I think a lot of blind community owns one and I think they're excited for this and rightfully so you should be excited.

This is a great time to update no doubt about it.

The other device that we think will be coming out in the spring along with your iPhone SE is a new AirTag too.

Now I was kind of surprised that they would be updating it but it will have better range.

I suppose that would be good.

Right now it's kind of limited to how far it can be detected so I guess a little further out distant would be nice to have additional to your AirTag so you can detect it further.

Of course it will have improved wireless chip.

I don't think that's going to be that much of a deal.

Now the privacy is kind of a big deal.

Now we have had a lot of problems with AirTags being used as stalking devices and what they've done and I didn't realize they've been doing this, they remove these guys or people stalkers or whatever these creepers are finding a way to disable those speakers in it.

So you could not locate it if you were being stalked on and you notice the AirTag is with you somewhere you always have the ability to turn on the sound.

Well they were clever to disable those speakers but nonetheless this is supposed to be improved privacy in some form.

I don't know what those are but I know the speakers is one of those so you're not going to set up some sort of mechanism where you cannot modify the speakers in any way.

I'm kind of surprised that's such a big deal because you still have the proximity sensor that like detects where it's at but maybe the androids or the older devices doesn't have that option.

I'm not 100% sure so they had to rely on the sound but nonetheless AirTags 2 is coming out.

Now do you, I think, Marty did you have AirTags?

Yes I do.

And I think we talked about that before and John you had one right?

Yes and I primarily use them when I'm traveling.

That's when I pretty much use them.

I have one in the suitcase, one in the backpack although the backpack kind of becomes using it all the time because I really throw it in the backpack and it's just always in there so if my backpack is with me it's got an AirTag in it.

That's same with the suitcase.

I just leave it in the suitcase all the time.

Yeah I'm ditto with you guys.

I have one in the suitcase and I have one in the car.

I've had it hidden in the car so if we were to lose or forget where we parked or somebody stole our car we'll at least have an AirTag in there.

We hope that they don't discover and remove so we know where the proximity of the car is.

So those are the two items.

This brings me to a hilarious story I got to tell.

And John will probably really, he's probably heard a lot of this but you know I grew up in California so I went to Disneyland a lot when I was a kid and then as I got a smidge older I don't know maybe 10, 11 years old something like that we went to Florida and we went to Disney World and at the time my grandparents were still alive and so it was my parents and my grandparents and you know my family and stuff so you go and you don't really think about it.

You're just kind of absent minded right?

We went you know we piled into the car from the hotel.

We drove over.

We parked our car and went into Disneyland did our thing and then when it was time to leave you know we were trying to remember where we parked the car right?

But not only did we not remember exactly where we parked but we also realized that we didn't really know what car we were driving because it was a rental car and no one paid that much attention to it.

And every rental car in the parking lot is so similar then you know it was like how in the world do you and I'm telling you my grandfather literally was going down the aisle and putting the keys in every single car until it like one unlocked.

It was the craziest thing.

Wow.

Now you have a tag you can just stick it in there and go right to the car.

Or if you have the Disneyland or Disney World app there is a an area in there where you can it'll find your car for you if you have it if you have it enabled which is nice.

Is that hysterical?

That is an awesome story.

You know that's kind of similar to a story on my first date with my wife.

It was during winter and we went to a movie and came out and it's been snowing.

And so it's it's completely like five inches of snow out there everything is white.

And I was like oh no where did I park?

Now with that but every car was white and trying to find.

You know what we do nowadays my wife just puts her keychain right up in the air and just push the horn alert and it always works.

That works too.

If you're close enough you will right and so you know you're about an aisle over you'll be able to hear.

But yeah not too far distant but that's a great story Marty I love that.

So let's talk about the second half what's going to be coming out in the second half.

Well of course the iPhone 17 is going to be out.

Of course we just got done with iPhone 16 but it's got some interesting twist this year.

So a lot of people have been talking and you know you know it used to be we didn't get to know about anything until late spring summer.

But it seems like the last two three years it has been spot on.

So I'm pretty certain that a lot of these I'm pretty comfortable that will come true.

And that is they're going to get rid of the plus size.

So there's a couple of years we had the iPhone mini for those that remembered and loved it.

Well and then they went to the iPhone plus which is not exactly the pro max but it's the bigger size of the regular size of the iPhone.

So you had the iPhone 16 iPhone 16 plus.

Well that is not going to be the case apparently it didn't sell enough minis and now they didn't sell enough plus what else we're going to do we're going to do something new.

And that is going to be the iPhone 17 Air.

So what is that that is going to be the new Air is supposed to be the thinnest iPhone ever developed by Apple and that is even thinner than I believe the iPhone 6 is the winner when it comes to the thinnest and it's going to have one camera.

So very much like the SE.

Now what's interesting the display is going to be six point two inch.

I was like whoa that is a plus size but it can be the thinnest and it's going to be bigger and then let's see do you think it's too many options.

I mean you're going to go into a store and you're going to be let's not say a pro user let's say an average consumer user is looking to get a new iPhone because yours is super old and the battery is not holding charge too good anymore and it's just past time right.

So now you have to go in you got to decide am I going to get an iPhone SE am I going to get an iPhone 16 or whatever the model is let's say 17 and then you choose do you want the 16 or 17 regular or pro model and then I'm sure they're still going to have the pro max and then you're going to have an air.

I mean do you think this is too many decisions.

I do I don't understand why they think they need to have other than the SE the regular model the pro and the pro max.

I think that's all you should have and then there's a significant difference between all four of those to make a decision.

When you throw in one more into the batch I feel like what are you doing you know you were going for the smaller size of many that didn't work out for you then you saw well people like bigger size we'll go do the plus that didn't work out for you.

Why do you think the air is going to be any different you know here's my biggest fear with the with the air and I think it's going to fail for this reason.

Number one why did the mini fail because the battery life that was I was going to get a mini until I found out the battery life really wasn't very good on it and I'm afraid that making it thinner it's going to have the same issue you're going to be sacrificing battery life for the thinness then you're going to have the bin gate problem there's no way you can have such a thin device without having a bin gate issue did they forget about the bin gate before yes you're going to put titanium on it whatever not but I don't think that's going to resolve the problem because it's just so thin and it's so huge six point six and you're just anyway think about that the other thing that I think is going to fail is that if you look at the spec that they're going to put in it they're going to put the new apple chips in there that talked about the cell well you're going to not going to have the mm waves on that and the chip itself the speed of the processor in there is not going to be as fast as the rigor iphone 17 my understanding but I don't believe that I think it'll be the same speed as the iphone 17 but it is bigger than the iphone 17 and the iphone 17 pro just keep that in mind it's going to have one speaker I mean to me I like the two speakers top bottom it sounds great it's beautiful it gives it stereo sound sounds really immersive and good for such a small device but to save space it's going to have one speaker you believe that I don't know I think it's just it's starting to it's starting to sort of just bleed into each other you know and how do you answer the question like why should you get this phone over that phone I don't know you know I mean it just is too many choices I think people have a hard time you need to give them a or b and say this one's great because it's got this and this and then if you want to go with the pro model you get these extra features and you can do this and that right leave it at that you know it's just otherwise too many choices in my opinion I promise you apple is going to push this big time because it's the thinnest device and it's new I think it's thin isn't always the best right I think it's something you put in your pocket put in your bag in and out like a if it's too thin how much durability does that take away when I think about a phone that's the one thing that I always have on me everywhere I go all the time it's the most used device because you have it everywhere you have it on the go you have it on the couch you have it everywhere and if you have something so thin then that makes it less you know durable like is that going to break faster bend faster what if I put it in my back pocket and accidentally sit on it or something I don't know I mean I think they're going to they're going to find out the hard way and I'm just warning people about that now because you will hear about this I have no doubt I'm pretty certain that this is going to come out and they're going to tout on it but just think about that in advance of those issues that I mentioned I think that's going to be a big thing so that's my apple flop of the year pick is that one it's going to be the iPhone air now speaking of the iPhone 17 now the good news is that all devices will now get promotion which is kind of been long overdue I never understood why it made it on the pro version only for what it's going to be the third year now that only the pros had the promotion what it's a promotion those are the better display with the 120 kilohertz screen refresh is does that make a difference not for us but I think for people that have low vision and whatnot and it does make things a little clearer and nice but that's kind of a trick to you it's not always it's only certain times that it kicks into 120 when you utilize it so that's kind of one of those weird things like the iPad m chips it's like are you utilizing the processor now that's going to be the same thing it's not always going to be kicking into the full potential all the time so it's not all the time but everybody will also get a 24 megabits funds freezing it's like why does it take so long for us to get we've had 48 megapixel on the back for so long and we're still stuck with 12 megapixel on the front that makes no sense but now we're going to begin a slight upgrade I'm surprised but they're going to stick in a 24 megabits I shouldn't complain but you'll get better camera quality facing you and because you got the promotion it's always on I have this feature turned off you guys have that feature turned off I don't I don't really use it one way or the other honestly yeah yeah really you just you never physically went in and turned off yourself no I never thought about it I don't use it that much that's my thing as well I mean you know I just right if I'm gonna do a facetime call it's usually audio and if I'm doing any video stuff it's usually you know work why stuff podcasting you know and it's on my computer otherwise if I'm doing it on the phone I turn off the video because if I'm gonna know I'm gonna be on a call for you know the next hour and a half if I have to do it on a phone you know then I'm gonna turn off the video you know because I want to save as much of that battery as I can well that's exactly why I turned off always on just thinking that any nominal battery saving I can get and I'm sure it is nominal but I are you talking about always on as in the display kind of like the Apple watch I turned that off as well I turned that yes I did turn that off yep just like on the on the watch let's talk about some of the iPhone 17 and we'll wrap this baby up we're forgetting one major thing though actually two things we are not talking about the M4 studio the Mac Pro M4 now I don't know what they're gonna do with the pro whenever they do it because they have the studio and majority of the people go to that now but there is an M4 studio coming I'm pretty sure in 25 because that's the only desktop left besides the pro that doesn't have an M4 yet and I think they're you know everything M4 minus the Mac Pro you know this year yeah well there's probably a reason why I lucked it out who in the hell has those you'd be surprised really yeah you think I'd be curious out there those have the the Mac max the max and the ultra I'd be curious if you own that and if you do send me a note at apple crunch at applevis.com I'd be curious how many people out there actually have that or even just a Mac studio I'd be curious if you have one of those because I would think that would be very small in the blind community very small hmm you'd be surprised actually really okay okay well let's hopefully we'll get some emails on that iPhone 17 news iPhone 17 regular size is going to be increasing from six one to six three inch so you're gonna get a bigger size display I'm telling you every year we're gonna get some freaking huge mungus improvement or I don't know if that's improvement but they just keep making it bigger and bigger and I think the big thing to note about this one is that this is where Marty has mentioned many times is to take stay attention to particular to the RAM inside why should I worry about RAM now we never had to worry about it before it's all about Apple intelligence my folks how fast you be able to get the response from Apple intelligence and stuff so unfortunately the iPhone 17 is going to have eight gig a RAM only so where you get the Pro models you're going to get the 12 meg of RAM so that is going to make a difference yeah for sure I mean any phone that is going to be having capabilities of being able to run AI stuff needs to have a minimum of eight gigs that's why on the 16 regular it's got eight gigs which is the same as the Pro which is the first time they've ever done that and the reason why they did that was so that both models whether it's a 16 regular or 16 Pro can still run the AI stuff right the other thing that's kind of surprising is that rumor has it they're going to be ditching titanium I thought the whole point of them boasting the titanium was his lighter and I mentioned before it made a big difference in light wise but it was stronger so it makes me wonder if they got a new aluminum that is even stronger than what they have now for titanium but rumors are having they're going back to aluminum and you're not going to have a full glass plate on the back of your device is going to be half glass half aluminum on the back I have a case on it better the thoughts is is that right now with the glass upper half is posing a lot of problems it seems I don't seen this but apparently one of the biggest things when you drop your phone not only do you crack the display on the front but a lot of people are reporting and that is the camera humps you know those are sticking out like a sore thumb and those are breaking just as easily as the front so I think they're wanting to make it more durable on the top half to make this solid and there's been talk about reinforcing that hump with an aluminum ring around it to kind of give it a little more sturdiness and being able to not be able to break it as easily we're also forgetting another thing really important they're really trying to push a lot of the MagSafe accessories so you know if you have something metal it's going to be a lot stronger you know magnetically than glass would be and also you don't have to be as careful let's just say if you have a different something that's all metal opposed to something that's glass you know that's interesting I never really even thought about that yeah you know there's got to be reasons for it these are the things I found I'd be curious about that the last thing I want to mention about the iPhone is that the Pro Max it's going to have a manual aperture settings I know that doesn't mean a lot to people for a camera guy like myself I used to do photography a lot being able to set your own aperture is huge that is huge in the in the camera business area I don't think a lot of people are going to be using it I think this is going to be mostly professionals that want to control how much light is coming in to take in getting pictures and stuff like that but nonetheless wait wait wait let's go back and talk about this because this is really important for one second and I want to say this the reason why this is going to be game changer and this is going to be really important is because if you go to any super expensive full you know camera with the lenses and the SLR and all that stuff right I think if there's even any and I'm not even sure there is any but as a majority there's no accessibility on any of those cameras well you have to either get something that's fully automatic or you have to have someone help you even if it's a manual camera and you turn the knob you're not exactly sure which thing you're on and if there's a screen and you have to go into the screen and change settings there's no talking there's no way for someone who can't see the screen to be able to adjust so if you want to have those kind of camera controls for the first time everybody across the board will be able to have that functionality because you'll have voice over that will allow you to be able to read all the menus and do all the things with the camera and all of that if that's something that you want to be able to do as a low vision person or even someone who doesn't have any vision you could at least get your settings where you want them and at least try to have that kind of experience where you cannot on an SLR or any of those other really expensive cameras that's true you're very right I mean even those that have digital cameras or SLRs that had that previous experience with that has been frustrating not to be able to know your f-stop speed set and it is a game-breaker I think so but I you know I'm thinking my wife she's a camera user but she would never use that and so I think the general user is not going to be using that all that much but it is a game changer if you are blind and you want to make some great process into professional photography I think this is definitely going to be something for you to look at now I am going to stop there and we will talk more about what new hardware you can expect coming up in 2025 as I want to wrap this up and talk about closing and that is and some of the things I came across last month and PixiBot is one of those guys now I am starting to use PixiBot I absolutely love PixiBot and I'll tell you why the different reason number one when using PixiBot you get to choose the large model or the AI models that you want so you're not stuck like me my so you're not stuck with the open AI 4o so it is an option for you to choose so you can select 4o if you want but I am using there are Claude and there are all sorts of different things I am using the Google Gemini and that seemed to be doing awesome for example as I mentioned earlier I won a trophy and I ran it through Be My Eyes it was so so it was just as descriptive as always and I thought it was fantastic but until I took my PixiBot and I picked the Gemini experimental one it described it so much more I couldn't I didn't think that was possible so you being able to not only select the AI models but you get to select what length you want so if you don't like it really elaborate too much verbosity you can set it down to minimal and so you have minimum what results you want you get to adjust that and that's beautiful and of course on top of all that you got your video so you can upload five minutes worth of video and audio describe that video for you it is mind-boggling what this does and I am thoroughly impressed by PixiBot and unfortunately Be My Eyes is no longer on my home front page I use PixiBot exclusively for this and the developers is amazing making changes to it all the time adding different models different things to it and he is wanting to see if this is possible and which I'm going to talk about next is that the hype of the month last month guys was live AI my gosh it was a flood last month Jim and I was the first one out the gate to give you live AI live AI is the what we've been waiting for you got the video camera going and you move around you can ask questions about certain things and you do not have to keep hitting take pictures take pictures you do not have to enter prompt you just ask it you just tell it live right there and you can say well yeah what's on that screen without having to type anything it this is the new revolutionary step forward so Jim and I started it and then we had chat GBT do it but I tell you the winner out of all those is yours John in vision ally is the winner hands down I did a comparison and toe-to-toe ally was the best so if you're not on ally and you would like to I will send a link in the show note where you can go get a public beta from envision so you can get yourself ally I think it is going to be the next game changer for everyone I think the first person that gets that any of that stuff on a headwear it's going to be the winner yeah so I am just waiting to see who that's going to be but for right now ally is my go-to when it comes to live AI and pixiebot is my go-to still shot photos I will try pixiebot I will tell you that when some of some of you know that I beta private beta test jaws when picture smart AI came out and I can't even remember when that was that without looking up the the bill but anyway we used at that time chat GPT and Gemini and they eventually switched from Gemini to Claude because at the time Gemini hallucinated a lot now maybe that's changed a lot I don't know I have not used Gemini very much since then but if it must they must have fixed it because it seems to be getting a lot more attention now so pixiebot is using it then maybe it doesn't hallucinate as much anymore but I will definitely have to to go give that a try and as far as allies concerned yeah I like it a lot and I love you know I love just talking to the I use it a lot in speech because the conversation is quick it's within you know you ask it a question and one and a half seconds later you have an answer and it knows a lot about you based upon what you decide to tell it they're gonna eventually go away from a lot of the things that you can go to individually on the glasses and on the envision app like check size small text and light perception you know like looking at the lights because you can now ask it or you will soon will be able to ask it those very same things and it'll answer you and it'll be a lot quicker than going to each control right oh there's pros and cons and I'll tell you now first you hit it on the nose earlier Gemini really was terrible when it comes to photo they have drastically improved I have not touched Gemini until this December is majorly changed is a radical change is way better but it does have Claude so if you prefer Claude you can pick Claude as your go-to choice on pixiebot now in terms of live AI when it comes to Gemini it does hallucinate I don't know why is any different but Gemini on the live AI hallucinate too much it thought a couple things I was holding it was not recognizing correctly so I wasn't a big fan when I first played with it the other cons with all three of those that I mentioned Gemini open AI and ally the only problem with those three is that you are probably are going to have to accept the fact that you are going to have to pay for a subscription no way around it Gemini and open AI is going to be 20 bucks a month there's no way around it there's no they give you 15 minutes free on the Gemini I don't know how I don't think it's even available for free yet on the open AI maybe at some point it might be free but at this point you have to pay ally my understanding from what I hear they are going to offer a free tier maybe they are still deciding there supposedly you might find something out in January 2025 more about that I'll be really anxious to hear what the subscription pay is going to be for it now obviously you have to be paid there's a lot of processing they are using and I understand that I really do free tier is going to be very basic you are not going to get the full kick out of what you do on the paid subscription so just because you get pretty excited about live AI I think we are coming to the end of the road when it comes to being able to utilize things for free yeah and it really is going to depend on how much you use it and what you use it for you're probably right I think the free tier would be that it's probably limited it's kind of like IRA the first five minutes free mm-hmm and just like I said the Gemini which is 15 minutes for free for the live AI I'm sure it's going to be similar to that so it's just depending on the uses the other con I've heard too a lot of people report this not a great thing to use in a crowded place or busy or loud place it interrupts it thinks you're talking and when somebody else is talking around you and it stops and so there's some I know the allies actually doing something to do about it and a lot of people request to have a mute button so when they are in a busy I think that would be potential have you played within this stuff Marty at all um a little bit not a huge amount yet which one did you use the Gemini yeah and would you think of that first um it was cool I mean they're all cool and I just think they all still have a long way to come still and I also think it's a little bit frustrating when you get different situation or different results depending on what you pay for what you're willing to pay for and at some point it gets very expensive paying for all the things you know especially at 20 bucks a month so well that's what I mean who's going to be the first winner and when I say when I met that whoever's going to be on the wearable first it's probably going to be the one that's going to win my money and meaning that if open AI comes with their live AI on a wearable then I'm probably going to be most likely using that wearable and paying 20 bucks for that if ally comes out with it first then I'm probably going to be stuck because it's one of those things who's going to come out first because that's that's just the way the name of the game is I think a meta honestly yeah you know meta is is is on the process yeah that's in beta to the live AI on the meta they're also doing things that a lot of the others aren't that is allowing third-party companies to come in and provide them the technology to incorporate into those glasses you know so like for example seeing AI right like they're doing all the seeing AI stuff but they're getting it onto the glasses and meta doesn't have to do that they're having seeing AI doing it or any other company that wants to get on there so they're doing something that really no one else is doing they're bringing the technology at a super affordable price compared to the rest and they're also allowing the third-party developers to come on to their platform and that allows meta to just concentrate on the core hardware and software while the third-party companies are you know each individual thing is you know each individual company is concentrating on improving and making it better for that particular wearable I mean there isn't anything that cheap right now that works as good as the meta glasses do with as many features as they have and as many features that are coming point taken I agree I that's one area I failed to mention and that is for those that are meta ray-band glasses like myself and Marty it does make you wonder because the live AI isn't currently in beta I don't have access to it yet but when I do I will report back but that would be a game changer because again as I mentioned whoever's first on the wearable it's going to be my winner the only thing I am kind of and I knew it's going to happen there's been talk about new meta ray-band glasses coming out this year so they're going to be a new model so that kind of irks me a little bit I hope if they improve on the camera lens then I don't think that would be a no-brainer but I hope that the live AI isn't going to be a subscription on the meta we just don't know how they're going to afford all that but regardless the new wave is out the new revolutionary is here the live AI is going to be the thing right now if you want to play with the allies one I highly recommend to all of you have you guys played with anything or anything to report back before we wrap up the show no no I mean I'm kind of in the same I don't have anything new right now all right about you John nothing major I'm I'm on the beta for ally and a couple of other things but nothing nothing really majors going on right now all right well that's great guys that's all right that's so just so you know that's the whole point of the show is to kind of share resources and hopefully kind of share that to all of our communities out there that may not be aware of all these things so this is the the best part about the podcasting ends of bringing the news to you guys so all right well that's going to do for apple crunch for December of 2024 and I mentioned before this is our last podcast of the year and we'll be coming back to you guys next year and I won't be a whole year away but another month and then we'll be in a brand new year of 2025 and I can't wait to see you guys we'll finish up on the hardware where you can expect for the rest of the year with the apple releases and we'll talk about more of the apple news if you feel like you would like to email us for questions or anything and thoughts like that please feel to do so apple crunch at applevis.com my name is thomas domville also known as anonymous along here with john gasman and marty salvo we are signing out goodbye to you bye bye see you

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Apple Crunch December 2024: The Air Flop and the Return of the Bend Gate

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