Apple Crunch September 2024: Where's the Apple Intelligence?

By AppleVis, 27 September, 2024

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

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

Topics featured in this episode include:

  • AppleVis Returns and AppleVis Unleashed Gets a new Name
  • Thoughts on the Apple's "It's Glowtime" Product Line
  • At Last the iOS 18 is Out
  • Where's the Apple Intelligence?
  • Apple working on a cheaper Apple Vision headset, a second gen Apple Vision Pro, and smart glasses

Links:

If you have feedback or questions for the Apple Crunch team, you can reach them at AppleCrunch@AppleVis.com

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 September 2024.

My name is Thomas Domvill, also known as AnonyMose, bringing you another month for Apple Crunch.

Yes, this is the first time we have the name of Apple Crunch, but before I get to that, let's bring in the guys here.

And over here I have Mr. John Gassman.

Hello, John.

Hello there, Thomas.

Just crunching away here on my microphone, just to bring the new podcast.

Good pun there.

I like that pun.

It was adequate.

That was a nice touch.

Nice touch.

You have a good month?

That's just been a couple months.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Since April, the last time we were together on a podcast.

Right.

So it's been long overdue and you had, you know, it is towards the end of the summer now.

Gosh, up here in the Northern Hemisphere, is it cooling at all over there in California?

Yeah, it is, especially during the morning times.

It's dropped now into 80 degree weather.

So we're, we're not cold, but we're cooler than we were back in at the end of August.

That's for sure.

That's great.

Well, I'll tell you guys now we have always had Michael Malarci.

That's always been on the Appleviz Unleashed for many, many years.

And Michael have decided to step down folks.

Yep.

Michael has stepped down.

If you do not know, he was recently got married and now that not only got his new wife to take care of, but he now has five kids.

So he got a busy, busy household now, and he just couldn't commit to doing everything all the time, every month for us.

So he will be sorely miss I will miss you, Michael.

And thank you so much for the many years you have come on to the podcast to help us on our monthly show.

However, we do have a new character.

Yep.

I'll call him a character and you probably have heard of him.

Welcome Marty Sobo.

How are you?

I am good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

How are you guys doing?

Awesome.

Now, Marty, once you tell everybody about yourself now, for those that don't know Marty, I'm going to have him introduce himself to you and he does do other podcasts.

So he'll talk to you about that.

Yeah, so I am the co founder of unmute, and we do podcasts that are tech and accessibility.

And we do all different kinds of topics.

So we're not just doing, you know, like just Android or just Apple, we're doing all the things.

So we talk about Mac computers with voiceover and iPhones and iPads and Android devices and Windows and Mac and all the things.

So it's, it's fun.

We love what we do and it's a good time.

And I also love to be here.

I've been following this show and been friends with Thomas and John for a long time.

So this was a great fit.

I was super honored and excited to be asked to be a part of this.

So here we are.

What do you think, John, do we, should we let him in?

We're taking votes as we speak.

Most of them have come in now and the answer is, well, yeah, I guess so.

All right.

We'll let him in.

But no.

Thanks guys.

I appreciate it.

Welcome board, Marty.

It's so great to have you.

And yeah, you do a great job with Michael over there on unmute.

Be sure to check that podcast out.

If you guys don't listen to that show, Marty and Michael have been doing that for a while.

And I enjoy every bit of their podcasts as well.

But you know what the biggest news of the month, guys, and that is we got a new name.

So yep, Apple Crunch, it is the new name.

So what you used to know is AppleViz Unleashed, it is now known as Apple Crunch.

There's a couple of reasons for that really, you know, when AppleViz was shutting down and everybody probably you haven't heard about that and gone through the, the turmoil process of that like I did in the team during that turmoil, you know, we were completely disarrayed.

It was like a bunch of zombies just walking around.

We had no idea what to do, what direction and we really didn't think AppleViz would come back.

And with that, I went ahead and create SeeingTheDark.net and was going to put Apple Crunch on there, not knowing AppleViz would come back.

Well, lo and behold, as you wouldn't think, and it just happened that AppleViz came back up and we'll talk about that in a moment here.

But during that time, I was going to go ahead and keep Apple Crunch on the Seeing The Dark and put on the AppleViz.

But now that I'm a paid member, well, one of the downfall of being a paid member is that I'm no longer going to be able to put those podcasts on Seeing The Dark, which is fine with me, hey, I get paid for what I love doing and to keep it exclusive to AppleViz.

So that is the story behind Apple Crunch.

I didn't want to take the AppleViz unleashed to the Seeing The Dark.

We just kind of want to rebrand it, kind of give a new name and a new shine to it.

So I hope everybody likes the Apple Crunch.

I was thinking, I don't know if people know that the old Apple logo had a little apple on it.

It had a bite out of it.

I was thinking, all that'd be clever, it'd be Apple Crunch.

So that's how the idea came up.

So it sounds like John and Marty are on board.

They seem to like that better than the unleashed, is that right?

Yeah, it sounds great.

It's always good for a change every now and then too.

So I think it's good and easy to remember and that's what counts.

Nothing like a fresh, crunchy apple.

That's true.

And next time we come on the podcast, we'll be armed with apples and every now and again, we'll just eat on the air, right?

Right.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

Check us in the account for both of you.

Thank you.

It'll be in the mail soon.

All right guys, let's talk about this Appleviz.

What in the heavens happened?

Yeah, as a lot of you know, that David Goodwin kind of stepped down and we had no sense where it was going to go.

And now Appleviz has reopened.

Yes, I am so glad to keep Appleviz the way it is and keep everything the way we used to love about Appleviz is still there and hopefully we'll be able to put a lot more new things and new features to bring to Appleviz in the future.

And I appreciate you both of you being such an Appleviz fans and come to visit our site a lot.

I'm sure it was pretty disheartened to both of you.

Oh yeah, for sure.

And I'll say something that was interesting about my situation as you know, Thomas, is that this with me coming onto the podcast with you guys happened actually a long time ago but I wasn't allowed to talk about it until just recently because of all the changes that were happening.

It all kind of happened shortly after you and I had talked and then we didn't know what was going to happen.

Right.

So, you know, yeah, we were kind of in limbo land there and I appreciate you both just hanging in there.

But you know, I have to throw a shout out for Be My Eyes and so that is the company that came to the rescue and kind of partnered up with us and kind of did the acquisition of Appleviz.com for say.

So they're there to do technical know-hows and things like that, so that we can do what we do best on Appleviz.

So along with Applecross, you'll get all the same things you have always loved about Appleviz reviews, guides, forum posting, app entries, podcasts and things like that.

So thank you for our listeners out there to hanging in there and I'm so glad to be back and I'm sure the guys are too.

You know, as September comes around every year, guys, it's no different than any other time the Apple keynote came out.

I want to know where these people come up with these cute little names for these shows like It's Glowtime and I'm thinking when I first heard that, I was like, what is that?

What is that supposed to represent?

Because everybody tries to read in between the line of what that's supposed to mean and I kind of sort of don't don't.

What is It's Glowtime?

I think usually they just really like get the marketing team to make a play on words and do all that kind of stuff.

They get really creative and sometimes they put, you know, what they call like hidden gems or, you know, little secrets inside their advertising, especially when you look at the digital copy that goes out, you know, the graphics of the event and all of that stuff.

So people try to figure it out.

I think it's kind of turned into like a fun game, you know, between Apple and everyone else who's trying to figure out what they're thinking without actually them saying exactly what they're thinking.

What do you think, John, what do you think Glowtime is about?

I don't know.

It didn't mean a whole lot to me.

I mean, you know, it's just, but you know, it wasn't important that it did.

To me, it's just another year where Apple makes a lot of announcements and brings about new things to the, to the marketplace.

And I think that's fine.

Whatever they choose to call it is fine as well.

Nothing changes.

It's just a different title every year.

You're just saying that the heck with the, with the title, let's just get into the good stuff.

Let's see what the products is guys.

I have to go care.

Yeah.

I'm not buying a new phone or, or upgrading my iOS based upon the title of their, their presentation.

I'm looking at features.

Well, you know, I wonder if it has to do because it's got a, the brighter screen and a little clearer.

Maybe that's me.

Maybe that's where the globe come from.

I don't know.

But with that keynote guys, you know, we did get some pretty good updates here.

I thought, and for the most part, and I'll explain a little more later here, but we got the AirPods 4, we got the two models that came out for that.

We also got the Apple watch 10 and then a plus, of course, we've got the iPhone 16.

Big question.

Do either of you get anything or plan to get any of those?

I am going to trade in my 14 pro for a 16 pro, but I'm waiting because typically Verizon has a holiday sale.

So right now you can go to Google and say, okay, what are you going to give me for it?

And they say 540 or so 570 for Apple 540 if you go to Verizon.

But during this holiday sale, which typically happens around the middle part of November through early January, it's a substantial increase above and beyond that.

So I think when I got my 14 pro, it was right about $800 and I'm expecting or hoping that the same will be true for the 16 pro.

So come November we'll see and then I am planning to upgrade to a 16 pro.

We were talking on another podcast about why we didn't get the 16 pro max because it gives you more room on the phone for braille input.

But it's also a couple of hundred dollars more.

So that's a, that's a lot of extra money.

So we'll just see how that goes.

But I think it's going to be the 16 pro cause I already bought the case, so now we've got the real, I guess that's how you keep yourself within your, you know, without spending more than you want to spend.

You're like, okay, I bought my case.

Now I can't change my mind.

Well, I could, but retirement plays a big role in things now cause I'm, I am literally on a fixed income.

So, so, you know, that plays an important role.

Now it didn't, as when I was working, it, it didn't play as much of a role, but now it does.

So, you know, I've had a pro max before and I liked it, but I don't necessarily need it.

So it's a good thing.

You're a budget, conscious guy now and now with that, but you, you pinned yourself in the hole in the corner.

You got yourself in cases.

I got to get something for this case.

What about you, mister, so boy, you could, so do you, let me ask you this, do you own an Apple watch?

Yes, I do.

And what series do you have?

I have the eight large one with cellular.

So I would imagine you would keep that.

You're not going to go update to 10.

Well, you never say never, but you know, sometimes the shiny gets you.

Right.

So what are your plans?

Well, so if this is kind of an interesting story, you know, when the 11th came out back when, you know, they announced to the kind of new designs of the phones, 11 was the first of the, of that, this kind of generation we're in right now.

And where they come out with like a pro size regular, and then a max size.

And I always wanted the max size and I could never get one because every time I tried to get one, they were always out of them.

So I always just went, all right, I'll take the regular pro and be fine.

Well last year I actually was in the Apple store with a friend of mine and I wasn't going to do anything.

I was just going to tag along with him and I asked one of the people, do you guys happen to have the 15 pro max in with the 512 SSD in it?

And they were like, oh yeah, we have them in stock.

And so I got one.

And so I've been running a 15 pro max for the past year.

And as much as it's an awesome phone and it does everything I need and I don't really need to upgrade, the size is just ridiculous for going out and about.

I mean, it doesn't fit in a pocket a lot of the time.

It's kind of a wieldy.

I mean, I do love it, but I almost want to go back to the regular pro size so that it actually fits in a pocket and it's easier to carry around and all of those things.

So that would be the only reason why I would switch and get a 16, which I know isn't even a good reason, but I might do it anyway.

Hmm.

So is this a possibility you might find it in the Christmas stockings?

Is that what you're saying?

No, it'll be way before Christmas, maybe before Thanksgiving.

We'll see.

It'll be more like a Halloween stocking.

There you go.

Well, I know my listeners are going to gasp, but there's going to be this, I can just hear this audible thing across the world.

When I say this, I did not get a iPhone 16.

I am not going to get one.

And this is the first time I haven't gotten one every year, except for the iPhone 12.

I kept that for two years.

I'm just happy to clam with my 15 pro and I just didn't see anything in the iPhone 16 pro that I absolutely needed.

So I know that came sort of a shocker, but now that doesn't mean that the household didn't get anything.

My wife still sports a iPhone 12 pro max, believe it or not.

She's still got a 12 and I was like, Whoa, but she finally pulled the trigger and we ordered her an iPhone 16 pro max.

It's not here yet.

It'll be here in a couple of weeks.

Can't wait to get my hand on there.

You know, speaking of being larger of the max size, I mean, my gosh, I, I, I'm going to have to go to the store and feel what the 16 pro feels like because they did increase the size.

Now that's pretty nominal, but sometimes those nominal things can feel like, Whoa, that's a big, big difference.

So I'm kind of concerned about that because I am not much into really large phones and I know this iPhone 16 pro max is huge, you know, and think about it.

It's bigger than that.

And you know, for fun of it, Marty, I even compared it to an iPad mini and you know that the iPhone 16 pro max is only one and a half inch shorter than the mini.

Yeah, that's just, that, that just goes to show you how large the phone is.

It's almost ridiculous.

Now I had to ask both of you, is that, does that deter you now?

Obviously Marty, it does.

How about you, John?

Are you in favor of the huge phones or not?

I had one before and it was all right, but I, you know, I don't necessarily need one.

So I probably won't have this case, but by the way, I do have one, one other question for you, Thomas, maybe the most important question on this podcast.

Are you so sure that your wife is going to allow you to touch her 16 pro max since you're not getting one?

Right?

Well, she knows she's in safe hand cause I absolutely do not like the max.

It's just too dang big.

It's, it's like Marty says, if it doesn't fit in my back pocket, forget it.

So I know I have no desire.

I mean, she has a max now and I cannot stand using it cause it's that big.

I, it's just, there's an issue when I can't take my finger one handed and touch the top.

You can't do that with the max.

It's a two handed device.

It's, it's that, it's that way.

But I will say that, um, with the deal that we got, um, they gave her 800 for her phone.

I was like, whoa.

So that made it only 400 bucks that we had to pay out.

And I was like, okay, you got a deal.

Um, that was an excellent deal.

So this year was a good year to trade in your phone.

Um, this was the highest amount that Apple is giving back on a phone, um, as far down as the 12 and in certain circumstances, they probably will give you a thousand.

It just depends on your carrier and of course the fee and stuff like that.

But nonetheless, it's got the bigger size, which I am kind of glad you, well, it's good to know that you guys were in the same boat.

I could see that low vision folks would probably love it because it's a larger screen size.

That makes sense.

Yeah, I would think so.

Um, the other thing I was kind of taking it back, I was seeing some reviews that people were having with her 16 pro and they are getting about an average of four hours more on a charge than they are with the 15 pro.

And that kind of took me back.

I was like, whoa, that's, that's, you know, it may not sound like a lot, but that's a lot.

And the 16 pro max gives you even more battery life from what I've been told.

So right, you know, it just depends on what your needs are.

True.

Yeah.

If you're looking for the batteries, you know, uh, Michael Hansen, he is, he wants the maximum battery.

So he got himself an iPhone 16 pro max, um, yep, he got himself a kind of a big old tablet, but he loves the battery life on it.

Now I will say the new 16, what I was totally shocked about with that is that all models got the new camera controls.

You know, I'll be honest at first, I wasn't really sure about the camera control.

If that's be something I would use.

Now you're a camera fanatic and you take a lot of pictures.

Maybe it does, but some of the reviews I've seen, they said they don't like the location of it because it's a little bit further down than they anticipated.

I guess that's right.

I mean, when I hold my phone, my two fingers, my index and my thumb are towards the top.

And if you're a right handed person, your thumb is already on that top.

So it's kind of a, it takes a little more work to get to the middle button, especially on the max size.

I've heard this kind of a cumbersome area.

Is that something that kind of appeals to you guys?

That kind of that cute little camera control?

I probably won't use mine very much, but, uh, you know, if I were to use it, it's just an adjustment.

You just have to move, know where it is and move your finger to that spot.

But I can't see myself using it that much because I don't take that many pictures.

I guess if I learned how to do it, then that might make sense.

You don't take a lot of pictures.

What about you, Marty?

What do you think about the camera control?

Is that, do you take a lot of pictures?

Not really.

Honestly, I'm kind of in the same boat with John.

I don't really use the camera that much, which is unfortunately a bummer, you know, but in our situation, we just don't use the camera all that much.

I mean, if I'm going to use it for anything, usually it's to like try to scan a document or you know, something more utilitarian than to go out and try and shoot photos or video.

You know, I mean, I try once in a while, but it's just not something I do that often.

I will say it would be handy.

So if you take a lot of pictures, so how this works is that you tap it once and the camera comes up, you tap it again and you know, you take a picture.

That's how that works.

If you hold down the button, during your video, your shooting video, and as soon as you let go, the video stops.

And of course, they talked about the light sensitivity, which means you kind of do kind of a press a little bit lightly and it gives you a different option.

The one cool thing that I found with it is if you have be my eyes on your, on your locked screen.

So as you know, and I was 18, which will be coming up, you can replace that flashlight and the camera down there.

And if you put be my eyes in there, so you can just kind of click it open, tap on be my eyes.

And then that camera button now becomes your be my eyes picture.

So you don't have to tap the, take a photo, you just go and just click on that little button and it takes a picture and you get your description.

So that was useful.

The other thing that has potential is the visual intelligence.

That is kind of interesting.

And that's one, I want to kind of just kind of see what that does exactly, because it didn't say a whole lot.

If you take a picture of a plant, it'll tell you what the plan is.

I was like, Hmm, I don't know about that.

I'll have to see how that works and describe things.

I don't know if it's a low grade kind of a rudimentary kind of describing things.

I don't know.

So the visual intelligence got some potentials.

Yeah, I'm sure that's going to be really cool.

I guess the one cool thing about the button is that it's a physical thing more than trying to put your hand on the screen and try and click the screen in the right place to take a video or a photo.

If you have a physical button, it's going to be easier to feel where the button is and know that you actually are taking the picture.

You know, that's probably a better experience, I would think.

I agree.

I think it's going to make it feel more natural.

The more that you use it as unnatural, the location is, you know, like John says, it takes some memory to memorize where that button is and to remember that's where it is.

But I think it's going to be really used a lot for those that use camera a lot now.

As for the three of us that don't take a lot of photos, I just really don't see a whole lot of action out of there other than the visual intelligence.

We'll have to see how that plays out.

Now the coolest thing I was reading up and I thought this was ingenious idea of Apple to do, if your iPhone 16 ever becomes bricked, for whatever reason that might be, typically when something gets bricked, you have to take it back to Apple, go to the Apple store, or you just get out to your computer and get your iTunes out and whatnot and then re-blow the firmware back onto it.

Well now guys, if there's two of you that has an iPhone 16 and one of your phone gets bricked, and now what happens is that now you got the option on the recovery mode, when the screen comes up, would you like to pair this or retrieve it from an iPhone 16 that's in the household.

So if a phone is nearby, it'll actually blow the firmware right on the phone without you having to get the computer out.

That is pretty cool.

Not that I have never had that experience, thankfully, of breaking a phone, but what an amazing option.

It is and that's hoping that you have another phone nearby to allow that to happen, but it's a great idea and you never know when it might come in handy.

I had one time when I got a new phone and I couldn't remember the password for whatever reason and I went through about eight different password attempts before I remembered.

I was getting pretty close to, I think the maximum number is 10, is that what it is?

Yeah.

Until it becomes a brick.

I was close.

But I did finally remember.

I think it slows down each time, doesn't it?

Each try it starts slowing down and making you wait longer and longer.

I think so.

This was a few phones back, so.

No, it does, Marty, and there's a funny story.

My uncle, he has two kids, of course he has a son and a daughter and they both had iPhones.

Talk about evil brother, but that's so typical of a brother doing this.

I could see myself doing this back in the days if that was an existent, but he would always take his sister's phone while she's not looking and just put in the password and just keep doing it until it's like you have a day before you can attempt it again.

Oh my gosh.

That's terrible.

Terrible.

You know, I'm laughing because I can see, oh my gosh, that's evil brother, right?

But I don't know.

Have you ever broke your phone, Marty?

No, I haven't actually.

Okay.

So we have all been in a fortunate situation.

I just know people out there that's just done it by accident or for one reason or another they just got himself in a pickle and they break the phone.

But nonetheless, I thought that was a cool feature.

It's not something that we'll probably ever use in our future, but if it did, now you know that's there.

Now speaking of the iPhones and all these things that are on sale, this was also kind of, well, I shouldn't be surprised because I said to myself, I said, what is in this phone that is really going to compel to people?

And I thought first, Apple intelligence, and then to know that it's not going to be on the phone for a while.

I think it was going to dig into the sales and sure enough it did.

Early reports of the first weekend sales was pretty bad.

According to a analyst, they are seeing a 27% down in sales for iPhone pro 16.

So the 16 pro models are 27% down from last year's order.

It's also a 16% down for the iPhone 16 pro max, which I was like, wow.

Now the other one, well, that wasn't so much of a surprise.

And that is the typical lower models, which has got the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 plus.

Those sales are actually up from last year.

Now it doesn't compensate for what the other models lost, but nonetheless, you know, that doesn't surprise me.

And I kind of was guessing the iPhone 16 would get better sales only because did you guys notice that during the keynote, all the devices, whether you look at the Apple AirPods 4 or the Apple watch and same for the iPhone 16, they all got a huge update in terms of they kind of eliminated a lot of the pro features are now found in these budget minded devices.

So the air pod four, for example, got a lot of advanced stuff that you found in the air pod pro, um, the apple watch 10, Stito, it grabbed a lot of the ultra features and they iPhone 16, which just blew my mind got an actual brand new chip.

It always had the same chip as a previous pro models.

And so with all that, it just makes you wonder, yeah, you kind of expected that.

They do some weird things sometimes when it comes to the products they come out with, you know, a couple of times I go, what's the difference and why would you want to bump up when the lower model is so close?

I think, uh, you know, we noticed this when they came out with, let's see, it was maybe last year or two years ago, the iPad air and the iPad pro 11 inch were so close to each other that it was almost, why would you buy the pro?

You know, they did that this year too, a little bit.

Like if you look at the new apple watches, the larger size, they're saying the screen on the larger regular apple watch 10 is actually larger than the screen.

That's the ultra too, which kind of blew me away when I heard that, but I guess it actually is a bigger screen.

So at that point they're making a lot of the features both on the 10 and on the ultra very similar like they've added a lot of stuff to the, to the apple watch 10 that they had in the ultra and it's almost, well, if you're going to buy an apple watch, what would be the reason for you to bump up to buy an ultra two when you can get the 10 for all, almost a couple of hundred dollars less that has a majority of the same features.

It's very confusing.

It is really close now, I will say in previous years you, there are some differences, but when you look at it, so as you mentioned, the apple watch, wow, the processes, everything on there has got the underwater, it's got the same depth, now it's 200 feet.

You got the water temperature, you got all sorts of things.

I was like, that's unbelievable.

And you got a bigger screen, the iPhone 16, what really threw me for a loop was that that camera control was available to all the models, not just to the pros and the pro max, you know, where before we had the action button and et cetera, and that was only for the pros and pro max.

And now it's all through all four models of the camera control.

And plus the processors aren't that much difference, they're taking a look at the benchmark and there is a little difference, but not substantial as you've seen in the previous year.

So this is the year, if you have been waiting, if you're still stuck on that 12, 13, and wonder if this is the year, I highly recommend you looking into this because you're not going to get a better phone than this for many years to come.

This is the one irregular year that they had to do this.

And that's because the apple intelligence needs a better chip.

And obviously they're trying to push that.

And that's why it's not taken over the 15 pro chip.

I think the main reason why we didn't see the 15 pro chip go on to the iPhone 16 is that I think they're reserving that for the upcoming SC model.

So think about it guys.

I mean, you got a option to get a apple iPhone SC that's going to be coming up in the early part of next year.

That is got the OLED screen.

It's got the face ID.

It's got the same chip as a 15 pro.

That means you'll have apple intelligence on it.

And I'm thinking, Oh, this is the year.

If you really love the SC, I would hold back and get that SC when it comes out.

Cause you can not beat that price for that.

One thing I was kind of curious about with the new SCs and they did this on the 16th, which they never ever do.

This is the first year that they did this, but they put eight gigs of Ram on all the models.

So whether you get a regular 16 or you get a pro 16, they both have eight gigs of Ram this year.

So that is something they don't usually do, but they did this year, which was really surprising to me.

They're very close.

I mean, there are some small differences, but when it comes to the hardware, they're pretty close and I'm curious to see if they're really going to go all in on this apple intelligence.

Is the new SC going to also have eight gigs of Ram?

I mean, how close is that hardware going to be to the 16 and the 16 pro?

What's your take, John?

I think if they can make everything very similar, they got more potential for people buying all types of different phones that they're trying to market and they're not, there are no clear differences anymore.

Like there used to be.

Am I remembering correctly in that the 16 has 256 storage and the 16 pro, I think it is and then the 16 has 128 in terms of starting.

Is that correct?

I don't know.

I do know the iPhone pro 16 pro max is starts at 256 now.

I don't know if the pro or the iPhone 16 starts at 128.

That's a Greek.

One of them does, but I can't remember which one it is.

I'd imagine the iPhone 16 is still 128 and I don't think you can max it out.

I think the max out point on the 16 is less than the pro version.

I think it's the max on the regular 16 is 256 and I think it can go all the way to two terabytes on the 16s or maybe it's one terabyte.

I forget which, but you can get substantially more hard drive space on the pros.

I'll have to definitely check on that and come back with you next month on that.

So you know, along with the keynotes and all these new goodies and stuff that we got from the products came along with, as always get a new brand new spanking new iOS and we got iOS 18, so at last iOS 18 has been released.

Have you both updated to iOS 18?

Yes.

I love it.

That was good guys.

We couldn't have done that any better.

You both said it at the same time.

All right.

Saying that, I am curious your experience in terms of bugs now for me and what we released this year for Apple is for a bug reports, you know, it really is kind of a minor update, just depending on how you see that.

Now if you're a lost green guru and you love your control center, obviously there's some big changes there, but really on a glance, there isn't a lot of changes in terms of the normal general stuff, but there are some pretty dynamite accessibility stuff.

But let's talk about bugs.

So have you both experienced any bugs?

I'll start with John.

Have you seen a lot of bugs for yourself?

Not really.

Nothing that really stands out, but that I would remember and say this is a showstopper for me or nothing like that at all.

So, right.

So it's been pretty smooth for you then.

Yeah, it really has.

Yeah.

What about you Marty?

You got the same experience.

Overall, I've had a really good experience.

I did find well one bug for sure.

The second one, I'm not sure if it's a bug or if it was done intentionally.

The one that was lesser of the two evil was on all my devices when you install iOS 18 and I don't know if you guys experienced it or not, but voiceover is really slow when you're done with the installation and you have to go back in and bump it up to whatever speed you had it at from previous.

I don't know if you guys experienced that and I'm not sure if that's done on purpose or if that's a bug, but the other bug that I know is a bug is on the Apple watch, the same thing happens when you update to the new operating system.

Voiceover is really slow on it when you're done with the update.

You go into the watch app on your phone to update or to speed up the speed of your voiceover on your watch and it's broken in the sink.

Even though you've changed it in the app, it does not sink over to the phone and actually speed up your voiceover to what you had before.

It doesn't actually do anything.

It just is like the connection between the two for whatever reason, it doesn't connect.

So the only way to fix that is to use the rotor on your watch and go in and speed up your voiceover to whatever speed you like it at through the rotor on the watch.

But other than that, I haven't really found a whole lot of bugs.

Right?

I haven't really either.

There's a few, but they're very minor, but no, I have the same experience as with you.

I know there's other people that have the same thing, is that once they installed 18, this seems for whatever reason your speech rate default back to where it was typically by default and sometimes in some cases, you know, I've heard this where it'll just bounce your voice out and it may take a little bit before your voice gets restored.

Or if you want to kind of speed or expedite it, you just go back into settings and choose your speech that you wanted, but I will say there are some pretty cool new accessibility stuff in there.

Now I'll keep the big one in a moment here, but some of the things that came as a surprise with the voiceover tutorial at last, oh my gosh, this was way overdue.

I mean, I couldn't believe that they never had this kind of a tutorial from day one.

Have you guys tankered with that at all and looked at that?

I did a little bit and it's fun to mess around with it.

I thought it was definitely like, I agree with you.

It's definitely well overdue.

They should have done this from the jump in my opinion, but hey, better late than never.

Right?

What do you think, John?

Did you play with it?

I did a little bit and I think what they really need to do is make sure that new people coming in are aware that this is now available to them, because it's a great way to learn about voiceover or at least get yourself started on what can be a very overwhelming device if you're not familiar with it.

Yeah, that's the only disappointing part about it, right?

John is that I applaud them for the voiceover tutorial.

I think that's great, but what you didn't do is that if you bought your device and you turn on voiceover for the very first time, that should be an option for you to take.

Or right after you set up your device, hey, I noticed you got voiceover, would you like to learn about voiceover and here's a tutorial?

Or some sort of a gesture that will automatically start that tutorial, because who in the world is new is going to know, go under settings, go to accessibility, go under voiceover and then go down to voiceover tutorial.

I mean, you would have to know quite a few swipes and taps and be able to do that just to get to it.

So I feel like the whole beginner gestures just went out the window because you just made it that difficult for them just to find it.

So that's my only gripe about it, really.

And odds are that the Apple people in the store and in general, aren't going to know a whole lot, if anything, about voiceover, unfortunately.

When you open up a new app, like if there's a new app that's installed on your phone or even a stock app when you run updates or you put in a new operating system and you're going to go and you're going to open that app the first time, you'll notice that it tells you what's new in that app, right?

Whether it's, whatever it is.

If you go through a lot of the apps now, because reminders and notes, they have a bunch of new features now.

And when you open those up the first time on 18, it'll give you some information about all the new things or some of the highlights of the new functions that are in whatever app you opened up, right?

The first time.

When you turn on voiceover for the first time, it should have a thing where it would say, are you familiar with voiceover?

If you're not, check out our tutorial and then you can just click it and it'll take you right into the tutorial.

And then if you don't want to and you're an avid voiceover user, you can skip it if you want to.

But that would be the best use case for that, I feel like.

Right.

People will know about it right away as soon as they turn on voiceover and go, oh yeah, I would love to do the tutorial.

No, I don't think Apple would ever do this, but Apple should also put a little line in there that says, and if you want to learn more about what's available to you, go to www.applevis.com and take a look at what they have to offer.

Now they'll never do that, but they should.

They definitely should.

They won't ever do it though.

You guys are maxing out on your checks in the mail.

I mean, I can only give you so much, but thank you for that.

Mailman just had a hurting at delivering the last couple here.

But you know, Marty's right though, is that that would be the first thing to show.

And if you are familiar with it, what would be nice, which is the other feature, it shows you what's new with voiceover.

So it gives you a new section of every little details of what's new.

That would be an option.

So if you already know it, skip that, hey, would you like to know all the new things with voiceover?

I like that option right there.

So I think they got potential and I think they can do better.

And I will definitely pass that along to them.

Hopefully we'll see that in iOS 19.

But nonetheless, there's other things that came along in there and there's just a long list of them, but I'm going to, I'm going to talk about the biggest one.

I think it's going to be the biggest shine of iOS 18 and that is the braille screen input.

Now I am not a braille user.

So do you guys use braille?

And if so, do you use BSI?

And if so, what do you think of this brand new thing?

And I was 18.

I'm not a braille user.

I am.

Yeah.

But I've never been able to get it to work the way I want it to.

And it's for whatever reason, I want it to work like my Perkins braille writer does, and I can never get the fingering correct.

And that's probably a user error and just something that I'm goofing up on, but I want to give it another try, especially now that Apple has put all this work into it.

Cause I think what they've done is great.

It's just a matter of this dumb old blind guy getting it to work properly on his phone.

You're not, you're not the only one.

There's a lot of people that are having a hard time because they tell you to put one finger on each corner of your, of your device and double tap both at the same time.

That's activate the BSI and that's not an easy gesture to do.

I got it to work sometime and I don't get it to work sometime.

So I, it makes me wonder if it kind of changed the gesture a little bit to make it a little more easier for us.

But nonetheless, it's, it's supposed to be a major enhancement.

It's supposed to be like, um, like you got a keyboard, you can implement these different chords again.

So it doesn't have to be just for typing anymore.

So it allows you to access your device much easier by using different braille and commands.

So I thought, wow, so I was thinking about that for you, John, is that I wonder if you will come to the point where if you just implement the BSI and then just be able to go say, Hey, I'll just want to go to a notification and just go and it just comes up and you don't have to do all the fancy gestures that you've done before.

I have it on in my rotor.

And so now every time I'm in an edit field, it goes on, which is, which is, which is nice.

And then I can always turn it off.

I need to want to leave the edit field, but so braille sensor, braille note where you have like a note taker and built in and you got all these different things.

All right.

Do you have the, um, that kind of a braille device?

I have a braille display.

Yes.

Okay.

This is just a regular display.

It's not like a note taker.

Not anymore.

No.

Well, this is almost like a note taker.

I mean, think about it.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Right.

Wow, this is just huge because for those that are, um, braille literate and, um, like the note taker, I think you're going to absolutely love the BSI.

All right.

So I got to ask this, both of you, so Marty, what is your most favorite part about iOS 18?

Is there anything in there that kind of like, I really like that?

Yeah.

I would say so far, one of my favorite new features is control center, how you can customize it and how you can add apps in there and launch apps from in there.

Now I will say the one caveat to that is the developers, if you're running a third party app need to, you know, upgrade their app so that it's capable of being able to be used within control center.

But as long as they do that, then you can go in and you can add apps to control center and launch them from there.

You can customize it and do all kinds of cool stuff.

The control center is pretty awesome, I must say.

How about you, John?

Anything that's like kind of just, wow, I love that.

I think the main thing, even though I haven't gotten it to work the way I want to yet, is the Braille screen input.

I think that is by far the most, the major advancement between 17 and 18.

Oh yeah.

I'll be honest, I think it's one of the biggest feature they had in years.

I mean, that's just phenomenal, it's just huge.

You know, the one thing was making in iOS 18, right?

Where's the Apple intelligence?

That's everybody's asking, right?

We all kind of, I don't know, maybe not everybody knew.

You know, my mom didn't know, she heard about the Apple intelligence.

She thought that was going to be baked into iOS 18.

I said, no, Apple's decided to do a slow burn on this.

And sure enough, they decided to do a slow burn.

So, unfortunately, there's no Apple intelligence anywhere to be seen in iOS 18.

However, 18.1 is in beta right now and it should be out soon folks.

So in October, I'm predicting October, probably in the middle of October that the 18.1 roll out.

Now, of course, this is where the CAS 22 is, is that a lot of these features that I'm going to be talking to you about is only going to be seen with the iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max or iPhone 16 and those particular models.

I know we have a lot of people that were disappointed and kind of expressed their frustration on Apple this.

I get it.

I really, really do.

You know, it's kind of like how I felt when the iPhone 4, I was the iPhone 4 user and the 4S came out and it has Siri.

I was like, oh man, this cool new Siri lady, that sounds pretty cool.

And sure enough, it was just for that phone only.

And you know, there's reason for it, but nonetheless, it is got some things in there.

I'm kind of waiting for a couple more things, but the nice part about it, I am not the world's best Siri dictation kind of guy.

So when I initiate her, I always kind of like forget what I'm talking about.

And I kind of stumbled around, which is now kind of like, I can go, oh God, what am I thinking about?

Oh yeah.

What's the weather?

She'll be able to understand that better.

So you can kind of stumble across and initiate series and things like that, which makes things a little easier.

Siri did get some improvement in terms of being able to ask questions.

So I am getting less of, here is a link to the web.

Here's a web page that might contain what you wanted.

It always drove me bananas.

That seemed to have improved a little bit.

So it's starting to get a little bit smarter than that.

And plus Siri voice, it's got a new voice.

It's a little higher quality, got a much bigger inflection as in like, hello, with a question mark or like, I am sad.

You know, it really starts you do a great job with that, but my biggest thing for this one is the writing tools.

Now I've been waiting for the writing tools.

I absolutely love this writing tool.

Now I will say this is kind of a rudimentary kind of version.

When I say rudimentary, so I'm comparing it to chat, GPT, and I'm comparing it with co-pilot.

I think they do a way better job in rephrasing or correcting grammar or helping you summarize things.

Yeah, it does that, but it seems like it's on a small scale.

So it does a decent job, but not an awesome job.

They definitely have some potential to increase the writing tool capabilities.

I have to ask you guys, are you guys interested at all in the writing tool?

Is that something you could see using a lot for serial dictation or for mail or anything like that?

I'm definitely going to play around with it.

I mean, I want to see how it compares to what else is out there, especially chat GPT.

I also like the fact that they're implementing it into a lot of the program.

So like if you're an email or anything like that, you can utilize the tools right in there.

You don't need to go to a third party app.

So you're right, anywhere that has a text field, you can use that writing tool.

So, okay, so Marty, you do what I do.

We use our chat GPT sometime to help us correct things.

What about you, John?

Do you do that at all?

Are you one of those English master degrees that you're just really good at what you type and say?

I haven't tried to use the chat yet, at least not in terms of iPhone use.

I've done it on the web, but I haven't played with it too much on the iPhone.

And I really would like to do that because it's going to be incorporated so much in the near future.

So I do plan to do that.

Right.

I tell you where I find it useful, serial dictation.

I think we all can raise our hand.

You know how serial dictation always butcher what you say and that always does it.

So now I can dictate and then I can highlight it and do a long press and go to writing tools and I correct it for me.

And I was like, voila, no more editing, have to go backspace and delete this word.

It will just clean it all up.

And it's like, now that is what I'm talking about.

That is AI at its best there.

So that's one situation I absolutely love about the writing tools.

The only thing I really don't like guys, and I'm not alone.

I've seen a lot of reviewers out there with 18.1.

You're going to see something called summary.

What this does is summarize things for you.

So in other words, when you open your lock screen, you typically will say, Hey, there is a message from such and such and he says such and such and the same thing for mail.

Well, say goodbye to that.

Well, kind of sort of I'll explain in a moment, but anywho, it tries to summarize things.

If it's multiple compensation going on in a same thread.

So I try to summarize it, I don't know, but if you guys try to, I think it absolutely sucks.

I'm not going to lie, it is so bad.

It is, it doesn't, it isn't the same.

Yes, it does summarize it, but it's very vague.

And it's like, everybody wants to go out to eat at a pizza's joints.

Okay.

That's a great job.

But when you go look at the actual messages, it's kind of like, well, I'm thinking about going to seafood.

Oh, how about peace and another person, but yeah, I love pizza.

And that's what it's summarized.

I don't, I just lost, I want to see what was said.

So I don't know, a lot of people are turning this off.

I have turned it off myself.

So when that comes out, you can be rest assured that if that's something you don't like, I believe it comes turned on.

I'm not sure if it does or not, or if you have to turn that on, you're going to be turning that right off.

I don't know if you guys heard about that, about the summary.

Have you heard about it?

I did hear about it.

I've read about it.

Yeah.

I'm not, I don't have 18.1, so I haven't tried it.

Right.

And so have you guys heard about the same thing?

Like it's just not prime time yet.

Yeah.

It needs more work.

Right.

There are some accessibility issues, which is unfortunate.

I was surprised that they broke them things for an 18.1 and not an 18.0.

And I, you know, it's still early on.

I think we still get one more release and that's about it.

And usually when you get down to the stage, it doesn't always fall in.

So for example, when I turn voiceover off, it doesn't say I turned off voiceover off.

It's just silent.

I was like, this is not good.

Oh, that's bad.

Stages like that, there's a few of those, but the biggest one, and I mentioned it in my I was, I was 18 review and they took it out at the grams.

So in the 18.0 GM came out, you're probably wondering, I think Thomas, it must've been drinking too much or something because that feature isn't there.

And that is a feature.

If you have the face ID, will you have to swipe up to go to the home screen or swipe up to your app switcher?

Well, I tell you an 18.0, the last beta or up to the last beta, they added a new option.

So the third take up was your app switcher.

And by now we got to the memory since in our mind, we just kind of swipe all the way up.

We don't even think about the ticks or anything like that.

And that was the app switcher.

Well they introduced a tech to Siri in that mode.

So if you swipe all the way up to the fourth tone or all the way up, you automatically prompt or place right into the text field to ask Siri a question, but they ripped that out when 18.0 came out.

I imagine a lot of people will complain about it because it was kind of, it took me a while to realize like I was swiping too much and it just became normal for me.

So I got to learn it and then they took it out.

And then in 18.1 with this last beta, the beta five, they put it back in, but now they put the app switcher at the very top, which is still kind of a same problem because where I used to swipe up just about yay.

And that gets me to the app switcher.

Now it takes me to the Siri text field.

So you really have to swipe up, up, up, up, up.

It's like you've got it all the way to the top before you get to the app switcher.

I just don't know what I think about this at all.

I prefer the other method if they're going to do it at all.

And I don't know if you guys heard about this new voiceover gesture to open up your app switcher.

I don't think I do.

I have not.

Okay.

So as something new, I'm not guaranteeing that this will be in 18.1, but I, it seems like they're persistent, like they're going to be doing one way or the other.

So stay tuned, listened on this podcast where I'll try to probably do a podcast on the new stuff in 18.1.

I think it will have some things in there that deserves a podcast alone, especially about the new writing tools and et cetera.

But watch out for that app switcher thing.

So why would they put Siri in the app switcher when doesn't the side button still work to bring Siri on?

Yeah, it does.

But this is so you're duplicating efforts.

Why would you do that?

Well, because the side button allows you to initiate Siri.

So you talk to her.

This is the same thing.

I don't know if there's, if you knew there's a feature, I think it was last year or year before where they introduced that where you can now type to Siri and that's what's introduced.

And so it's more for voters that are deaf probably, but no longer have to do a bunch of work just to get to that.

And I see that they're trying to do that for accessibility for those that are deaf and it makes it a welcome thing.

It's kind of like that and they can just type to Siri right there.

I think that's the reason behind that.

I've never used that feature.

I'd forgotten all about it.

Right?

I don't know.

I think it's a welcome feature because anybody that I think that the deaf deserve to have their own gesture to initiate something easily without having to set it up and making this button work or have to redo a particular gesture to be able to get to the Siri text.

So I don't know.

That's just my two cents.

That's one of my thoughts.

But anyhoo, it's just something to think about something to be aware of.

Now what I'm really looking for two guys, and this is the big one I want is 18.2.

That has a release date of December.

That's the one I want.

That's the one I'm really looking for and that incorporates the chat GTP into Siri.

Is that going to be kind of a huge deal for both of you guys that if that feature came along, would that be something you would use all the time now?

It depends on how it works.

If you're going to invoke Siri and say something and it works the way it works right now, I'm not sure that it would be hugely popular because the thing about like chat GPT, for example, is you go in and you get a baseline of something that you're working on and then you can prompt it and you can get it to where it's perfect and then when you're happy with it, then you take that text and you remove it and you place the text into whatever text editor you want to put it in.

So it's going to be, in my opinion, it's only going to be a replacement for chat GPT if it has those same functionalities because otherwise it's kind of just like asking it, hey, you know, where is the closest coffee shop or whatever.

I don't think it's going to be hugely different because if you can't get the text out of it and if you can't prompt it to use for other projects later, then I'm not sure how popular that would be.

What are your thoughts, John?

I understand that, but unfortunately, we just don't know enough about how it's going to work until somebody gets a chance to play with the beta.

I hope it goes a lot further than that.

The thing about Siri is that Siri is not all that accurate right now, so we won't be letting ourselves down too much if chat GPT isn't that accurate either and it does hallucinate.

I just want to play with it and see what happens first.

I'm not going to depend on it until I'm convinced that it's a major upgrade because it has its good points and bad points.

So does Siri.

So does Alexa.

You know, I'm glad that they're building it into these devices, but thus far we haven't seen the positives and maybe we will when they come out.

I don't know, John, because I use that heavily every day.

I use chat GPT every day.

Oh, I do too, and it's gotten better since I started using it.

Oh, it's gotten way better.

So the hallucinations are minimal, I think, these days.

It's nothing like what they used to be when they had horrible hallucinations.

But I think the information is coming from is much better than there are a few things here and there.

But I don't know, guys, I really, you're right, Marty, and it'll make you wonder.

You know, Siri used to have a history where you can just tap on the screen and show you what you said and what she said.

And I wonder if that's still going to exist and if that's something I can copy because that would probably answer your question there, but it probably wouldn't have the prompt where you can like, I'll be curious about the prompt, can I correct it or ask for further improvement to something?

Will that come back?

That's just to be seen.

But nonetheless, the minimalistic, I can actually start to use this device more reliable.

So in other words, I could just ask her the questions, when is the next full moon or what was the origin behind, you know, today, for example, I was asked my wife, I said, where in the world did the mind your own beeswax come from, or, you know, I was like, I was just curious.

And I asked her, of course, she didn't know a thing.

And I asked Alexa and she knew, and I was just, I was like, oh, this is so frustrating.

So with a chat GPT, my understanding, if Siri can't answer originally, she's going to reach out to chat GPT.

So I would have had the answer back and probably had a better response than what the Alexa gave me.

So I'm really, really, really, really looking forward to this.

But I will I am with Marty, I need to see the difference between my chat GPT app that I use compared to Siri, I think you will still have to use both.

But nonetheless, it is a much bigger and better improvement if you need something quicker by just tapping or asking her and then having to open up chat GPT or what if not, the image creation or image playground, it will be an 18.2 that allows you to create your own images.

So I'm really looking forward to that.

I think that'll be the biggest update.

And then of course, 18.3 and for the Siri will get better and better.

So by the end of 18.4, Siri should be way better and where we want it to be.

I still think Apple has a good start.

I still think it's kind of fundamentals in some respect.

And I think it's always going to grow more after that.

And they're saying March for that final 18.4.

So that's really not that far away.

Right.

But now this is not official by any means.

But a lot of analysts have been talking about this.

And John and I have talked about this in the past.

And I said it right out when I heard WWDC, Apple intelligence.

I asked John, I was thinking, Oh dear God, John, please tell me they're not going to charge that service.

And some of the analysts thinks in about two years time, Apple is going to slowly get you hooked into their AI.

And they're thinking about the Apple will probably start a service for advanced Apple intelligence that you will have to pay on a monthly basis.

That will probably range from $10 to $20 a month.

I was like, Oh my gosh, you know, that would be so Apple, right?

I mean, their services and things like that.

I could see that happening.

I mean, don't you Marty?

Yeah, they have the, well, if we're going back and we're talking about chat GPT just for a quick second here, how I was talking about when you go into chat GPT and you get your baseline and then you prompt it and get what you're happy with.

And then you remove the text out of that and place it in whatever text editor.

It would be awesome if you could do that right through Siri.

And then when you're all done, it just syncs right into your notes.

Like you could hit a button that says, you know, take your final and just drop it into notes and then notes.

You could either add text, change text around.

And if they added the mark down to it, I mean, notes and chat GPT on an Apple device would be pretty incredible in my opinion.

Right.

Right.

I mean, exactly.

I mean, if that were to happen, if they could incorporate more of that, I suppose those services would be worth that much, wouldn't it?

Yeah.

I mean, people are paying 20 bucks a month now just to have the chat GPT and you still have to go into the chat GPT app to use it.

And then you still got to take your final text out and put it in another text editor.

And depending on what you're doing, whether it's marked down or whether it's plain text or whatever it is, you have to make sure that whatever app that you're putting it in, whatever writing app or notes app, that it's going to support whatever it is you're trying to do, whether it's plain text or mark down or whatever you're trying to do.

So it would be great if you can do it all in one ecosystem.

I think a lot of people would pay that no problem.

People are paying 20 bucks a month just for chat GPT right now without issue.

They pay it all day long.

That's why I think that service will happen.

I think those advanced things that you come to love about chat GPT and that I love about it and we're paying for that.

And it's almost like, well, if it's going to be included in the phone and Apple is going to do that because you know, it isn't going to be chat GPT or open AI that's doing that.

It's going to be Apple intelligent.

They are going to make this more advanced so to be kind of a, it would definitely be a competitor to a chat GPT and that's a, there's no doubt that that is definitely a fire across the bow.

I don't predict that within a year, but probably about two years, I definitely can see that happening when it gets closer and closer and closer.

Right now it's so fundamental that we don't get that option.

Now I'd be curious, John, now you don't pay a monthly like we do for chat GPT.

Would you be willing to pay 10 bucks extra to get some features like that, that makes it more incredible experience with the AI?

If I could see the value in it with regard to features and things that it helped me to do on a daily basis, knowing that it was all in one phone, yeah, I would.

Right.

I think because it's so expensive to begin with.

Right.

And I know Apple's got a lot of money, but I mean that, that erodes into your, into your profits.

Right.

You thought your Apple one is already expensive, just think about the add that onto it.

I just know Apple, I just really, if I had, I really do think this is going to happen, but not now, but I think the potential is there.

Now if they don't do it, I think that would be incredible value for them, for their phone.

And it might come with that way because they do have other competition folks and that's Samsung and your pixels.

And if those phones offer all those that for free, then Apple has to make it free.

So it's not official, but it's just something to think about.

Analysts are just thinking this is a potential and something they probably could do to make more money.

And Apple like being themselves, they would take advantage of that.

All right guys, now to the last topic here before we head on this podcast, I want to talk about these discussions about Apple in the process of making cheaper headsets and smart glasses.

Now the reason I bring this up is that we have had rumors forever about these things that they're going to come out with a new cheaper version of stuff.

And so it's interesting.

Yeah.

And I, you know, it's, it's vaporware and it took them forever just to get the vision headsets, but I'm bringing this up because yesterday we had Metaconnect and for those that didn't know or what Metaconnect is, it's Meta.

So people, you know, Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, what's up Instagram, that kind of a platform over there.

Well, they got these set of glasses.

My favorite is the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.

So I have the Ray-Fair, but and yesterday's convention was a mind blower because if you have anybody that will try to undertake the Apple what they got, I think these guys got it.

I think Apple is going to now be chasing them rather than being the leader.

And I knew this was going to happen because when you charge $3,495 for a headset, you're, you're way out of the people's budget.

So what they discussed yesterday is about a MetaQuest Orion and their Meta Ray-Ban Wayfair.

So these are the new generation and new things that they're coming out.

And what makes this appealing guys is that I got to ask both of you, do you both interview on a Meta Ray-Ban glasses or a Quest?

No, no, really?

Okay.

So I do have one and the three biggest companies out there that in the community is Aira, right?

Envision and Be My Eyes out there.

And all three have one way or another, have made some sort of a commitment with Meta in the past three months or so.

Let me break it down for you.

So Aira, obviously we all know what Aira is and so they are wanting to put that onto the smart glasses, the Wayfair one, the Ray-Ban ones.

And what's different about them is that they're taking a different approach and I don't think it's going to work well as they think so, because my, I heard a little birdie telling me that they're using the WhatsApp platform to make that implementation work.

So it isn't an exclusive Aira so-called app, it's kind of going through a channel that they can allow them to get out.

This Meta Ray-Ban is tight down, I mean, it is proprietary.

Everything on there is their stuff.

But now Envision made a deal or grouped up with Meta and they took their approach way differently than the other two.

And Envision have the new Alley that's coming up, which I think is kind of cool.

A11Y, you turn that into L's, that's Alley.

I didn't realize that, surely that's not coincidental.

But anywho, that's their new real-time voice AI.

But that's going to be introduced just to Envision Glasses.

But they're using the Meta technology.

So that's where the Meta comes in.

Well, they're using it on the new app as well that's coming out called Alley.

It's about to be a private beta.

The thing that interests me is that they're using the Llama, which I'm not as familiar with, because if it's open source, I'm more familiar with the other stuff.

So I don't know really whether it's good or whether it's, you know.

So it's good, it's good, it's not awesome.

I think the chat GPT voice AI is much better, but you know, it is something.

But you're right.

It is going to be an app on your iOS, but it's not going to be an app on the, what I was going to say, the Meta Ray-Ban.

So you still have to use their glasses or their app on your iOS to initiate it.

And I don't know yet if that's going to be a pay service or not.

So that'll be interesting.

Do you know, John?

Well, it is, it's free, but they haven't, from what I've been told, they haven't ruled out the possibility of a subscription down the line.

So who knows for sure.

Yeah.

I would imagine there will be limitations as in how many hours you use that per day without a subscription.

And if you want more hours, I've not been, I've got the, the, uh, envision, uh, assistance beta and we're going to be moved, we're going to be moved over to the ally.

Those of us who were on the premium, the first beta.

And as we record this, we have not been moved over yet, so we don't have specific information in terms of what the plans are.

And that may evolve over the months too.

Right.

What makes this different guys is that during that MetaConnect, Be My Eyes was mentioned on the stage.

I was totally blown away.

I had no idea they were going to make that announcement.

And what Be My Eyes did, they did the most smartest thing I heard out of all these three that I mentioned.

Ira and Envision will definitely be taking notices and going, what, they did it?

Because one of the things that Envision CEO says is that he said it specifically, that it's not open.

We cannot access their video.

Well, Be My Eyes somehow did.

They were grouped with Meta and their wearable.

I am on that group and now the, that is Kat is out of the bag.

Be My Eyes will be coming in the future and I do have a Ray-Ban wafer that has Be My Eyes built into it.

Yes folks, you heard that right.

So now when you say, Hey Meta, it'll just pop up and you say Be My Eyes and she turns on and voila.

You're now calling a volunteer with your glasses, I'm able to look where I want to have help with hand free and get a volunteer to help me.

And that experience has been phenomenal.

And to be able to access that camera, I, you got to be thinking what Envision is thinking.

It's like, how did they do that?

And Ira is going to be doing the same thing because they were going through the what's up to get around that because the camera was closed with exceptions.

So I'm hoping that they open up to everybody, but that is something to look forward to.

What makes me really, really happy about this guys is the price.

The price of a Ray-Ban wafer folks is $299.

That is going to be a earth shattering revolutionary thing that Be My Eyes done the first time around when Be My Eyes was able to present us this, take a picture and describe things to us and things how revolutionized that was.

This is just once again, Be My Eyes did again.

And that is now we're able to tap into these bands that are cheap.

I'm not talking about Envision $3,000 range or Celeste and whatever not.

And things like that cost $50 a month.

So I mean, there are advantages to all of these things and there's disadvantage.

You got meta.

I mean, who doesn't like meta when it comes to privacy?

So you do have some privacy issue, but if you're willing to spend $299, I don't know guys, with that knowledge and knowing that things are going to get more involved because in the MetaConnect, they have the real time visual that ChatGPT announced back in May that has where you are to be able to walk around and it will talk to you as it sees.

That's going to be built into these Ray-Ban wafer glasses.

So with that knowledge in tow, I am really curious what you both think of this.

I'll start with John.

Is that something you would like without that?

Are you an Envision person?

Do you have Envision glasses?

I've got the glasses, yeah.

So would you, I mean, now that you're budget conscious and if you're a VoHAB doesn't pay for one of those, or I can think in my mind right now, can you imagine what the VoHABs are thinking right now and say, I'm not paying $3,000 for that anymore.

Now you got these wafer that can do most of those things for $300, you're getting this because I can see them doing that.

Is that something you would be interested in?

As long as there are privacy concerns, no.

If they get rid of, if they cut back and don't sell your stuff to the first person who comes along and asks for it, I might consider it.

But the privacy concerns to me are huge and I think they've got to overcome that problem before I would spend money on them.

I understand that completely.

Now what if I told you the be my eyes, the call and volunteer is completely private, Meta does not have any information about that?

That's fine.

I could either do it that way or use the app, you know, either way.

Right.

I'm not, I'm not saying never, I'm just saying right now, I would not.

It perks the interest, doesn't it?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

It's good that there are choices.

I'm glad that there are choices.

I think that's great.

What do you think Marty, I really curious what you think.

Well, I'll start with Ira.

I am still on the fence on how that's ultimately going to go because if you go back a few years, you know, Ira used to have glasses and they tried to get away from them.

They've been trying to get away from them for the past few years because it was just too cumbersome and so now Ira pretty much exists solely.

You can do everything you need to do with Ira just right on your phone.

You don't need anything else.

Now I know that's not a perfect solution because if you need to be hands free, then that's not great, especially if you're maybe, you know, trying to find a location and you got your cane in one hand and something else in another hand and then you got to hold up your phone.

Obviously that's maybe not a great experience all of the time.

I'm just not sure how at the end of the day it's going to work out with the glasses.

People see what happens and there's also a lot more competition than there was before.

Now going back to the privacy thing, I don't know if I had to use or show somebody, you know, a private thing that I would trust a hundred percent, you know, be my eyes or one of the volunteer things where people aren't vetted or whatever.

So they're going to have to resolve that I think before or whoever it is, I mean, not just be my eyes.

I'm just saying anyone.

I think the only place right now that has that on lock would be Ira, but they're going to have to really figure out how to make it work on the glasses and be at a competitive level like they are now because I don't think I would share anything private, personal or anything like that with any of the other volunteer type apps, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

I totally agree with you is that when it comes to Ira, I think if they were smart, I think they would ditch the WhatsApp approach and do what to be my eyes is just to be directly connect and that the privacy is just to them only, they don't have to depend on anything.

You still have to depend on those people that you're talking with, but they're professional and they're signed to a non-disclosure where the be my eyes is a little different because the call of volunteers are simply volunteers.

So these are people you do not know.

I don't think they signed off in non-disclosure.

You can't talk about what they talked and things like that.

I could be wrong.

I'll have definitely have to ask them.

But I know that the privacy will be on their top priority when it comes to does matter, have any access to those videos.

I'll have to ask them, but I'm going to say no, they do not.

And so with that in mind, bear in mind that makes me feel better about the meta glasses when the Ira and be my eyes become part of that.

I think I would trust that now the visual AI in real time, you know, you got the same issue with chat GPT, you know, those real time AI is you both are, they are collecting data.

I don't care who you, I mean, we pay 20 bucks for chat GPT and guess what?

They're spying on us.

They're collecting on us.

That's just the name of the game.

And that's just how things work.

And unfortunately, men have just got a bad rep.

You know, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp are all data hoarders.

I think the top two are heard were LinkedIn and Instagrams are the worst when it comes to privacy issue.

And so yeah, they're going to have to figure out some things, but the same time we got to also ask the question of pricing, right?

Like everything else is way expensive.

So meta is only between three and $500, depending on which model and features that you get when you buy the glasses, which is still substantially cheaper than any of the other glasses out there.

But what are you losing by paying such a small price?

You've got to give up all your data, you know, to Facebook or to meta or to whatever.

And a lot of people are just absolutely not, I won't do it.

You know, a lot of people say that.

And that cracks me up because I'll say, oh, you got a Gmail account.

Oh, you use Google Docs, really?

I hate to tell you that you got privacy there.

Any Google products you use out there, you got the same issue.

Oh, you got an Amazon and Alexa?

Great.

Guess what?

You got data sharing problem there too.

It's everywhere.

So I can't blame just meta.

I know meta is probably one of the worst offenders out there, and I agree with that.

But at the end of the day, if it's a free service, we're all on a tight budget.

A lot of the clients that the one I used to be a rehabbing engineer, most of the, almost every one of those were dire strait when it comes to money and there's no way they can afford Envision or Celeste for the life of them.

And fortunately, some of you might have some family or got some help that can help you offset that.

But at the end of the day, when you look at it, it's like, well, I don't want to do it, but if for $2.99 and it makes my life that big of a difference, I'll do it.

And just keep in mind, just keep things that are private medication, credit cards, things like that.

You want to keep it away.

I think that's pretty standard practice, whether you use Be My Eyes On or IRA or Envision, you are conscious about that.

So I think, end of the day, I think is what you are willing to do.

But nonetheless, the whole point of the topic was, I'm really curious.

Now that there is starting to swing finally, because there was a while there, we're in a lull.

Like, where is the glasses?

And nobody would come up and Medi came out first.

It wasn't that great, it's horrible.

And then you got the Vision Pro that is $3,500, you kidding me?

And now I'm thinking, I think Apple sees this on the wall.

And that's why I think they got caught with their pass down again, just as I predicted when the AI was going to come to Apple, they just, they're coming, but they're way late in the game.

And I think if they can compete against that and have a glasses that is reasonable, I can't see their glasses being less, I can see it being just less over under a thousand.

If they were to come out with glasses, I bet it'll be about a grand, maybe 700 to 1000, but that's just Apple.

But I would imagine that glasses would be gorgeous.

And with their AI stuff, that is what I'm waiting for.

But that isn't anywhere in the near future.

So we got to do about now.

So with that in mind, that's really appealing about Apple thinking about doing glasses and lesser price vision set.

And with that, I am curious, are you guys going to be kind of more interested now in these wearables and headsets that are now starting to get in the budget friendly area?

I know John's had his envision for a while, but I'll be curious what he does with it when his contract is up with that and if it's something he would keep or if he would get a new model of that, or if he would go with a different brand.

How long have you had that, John?

I've had it for a couple of years, so there's a yearly subscription.

Right.

And so don't you have like a two year contract with that or something to pay off the glasses?

No, I was working when I bought them, so I bought everything then.

Okay.

So you bought it and now you just got the maintenance fee that you do on it.

Right.

Okay.

Some people will buy out the subscription to buy the glasses.

So wow, I would think being a two year glasses, the older Google glasses, you would think that hopefully Google will come out with the new glasses.

But let's just say it gets to the point where it gets old.

I don't think they're going to enhance what they've done.

I know Envision is looking around for another platform.

They said they've got a lot of Google glasses available so that they could stay there if they had to for quite a while.

But you know, I'm waiting to see what they do and they come up with something that's better.

I mean, I'm not crazy about Google glasses, but that's what I've got for the moment.

I like the old Horizon camera that was right in the middle of your nose.

It's just easier for me to take a picture with the camera right above my nose rather than on my right eye.

So the Envision is in the lens itself or is there a larger component that sticks out of the other glasses?

It sticks out a little bit.

It's in the Google Glass, the camera.

I would have preferred that they center it more, but they didn't.

So you know, if they should come out with a different pair of glasses, then we'll take a look at that.

Right.

Yeah, the Ray-Ban, the camera's in the left side, but it's a Ray-Ban glasses.

So if you're familiar with the sunglasses, it's exactly like it.

There is no anything, when people look at it, they will never know that it's a smart glasses by looking at it, which is kind of nice.

But it has the same problems as the Envision, it's offset.

So on the left side, it's a little bit offset.

It's got kind of a fish lens, so it's a little bit, it takes a wider shot, which is kind of odd when you look at the picture sometimes.

But my wife says the picture came out great with those.

I can tell you that the cool part about calling the volunteers that if I want to go back to my phone, I'll just double click my little button on top of my wayfarer and it just goes back to the phone.

And if I double click it again, it comes back to the glasses.

So it's just something for you to think about and something that's coming out real soon.

And that's it, guys.

Well, that is it for the Apple Crunch for September, guys.

And you guys got anything you'd like to share, any new things you bought or something you found out you'd love to share with everybody?

I heard about an app that I was not familiar with when we did a different podcast concerning backing up your computer and your iPhone in preparation for getting a new phone.

And it's an app that you get from the Windows store called Apple Devices, are you familiar with that?

No.

Apparently, you can back up all your stuff with it.

Is that free?

Yeah.

And apparently, it even includes log-ons and sign-ins.

Just grab that a little bit more to me.

So what is this?

So this is a software that goes onto your Windows computer?

Yeah.

Now, I've not downloaded it yet.

I just took the information down.

I was going to go look it up later on in the day.

So you may not want to use this.

You may not want to use this on the show.

Give me a little bit more about it.

So does that allow you to do what?

Instead of using iTunes to back up your information?

You can use this device, Apple Devices, Windows app and back everything up.

It's encrypted as well.

When you say device, is it just software or is there actually a piece of hardware you got to plug into the computer?

No.

I think it's software.

You download it from the Windows store.

Well, you'll definitely have to look into that more for us and tell us about it next month.

You got me peak.

I'm curious about that.

Yeah.

I don't know any more about it either.

I was going to go do that and I ran out of time.

So.

Imagine that.

That's okay.

It might, you know, times.

What about you, Marty?

Anything you'd like to share?

Well, you know, we've been talking about these new phones and AirPods.

And so we'll see what happens.

I might have to take a stroll down to the Apple store and you never know.

I might walk out with a new 16 pro and maybe some new earbuds and maybe a new watch.

I don't know.

We'll see what happens.

Good for you, man.

The only thing I have to share is this stupid overcast.

I have been a overcast.

Oh, I love my overcast app for my iOS that allows you to listen to many different podcasts.

So it's a podcast aggregator.

Is it overcast?

Both of your go-to podcast aggregator?

Yes.

I've been using overcasts forever and I'm so disappointed with it right now.

VoiceOver is a dumpster fire.

It's so awful.

I just, I don't know what happened, but for me, the biggest overcast problem I have is when you're swiping through, it actually tells you, let's say you're on Apple viz podcast, you know, in your feed on the app, it actually will read you the title of a different podcast and then give you the description of other different podcasts.

I don't know.

It's a mess right now.

Did they say it was supposed to work with iOS 18?

Well, it actually came out before iOS 18.

So maybe it hasn't been updated.

He's been updating it a lot, but he's not fixing the accessibility features, especially VoiceOver.

Right.

So the background is that it's their 10 year anniversary, so he decided to redo the whole thing.

Well, you can just see how this is going to go wrong for us.

And sure enough, when their 10th version came out, it was a dumpster fire.

That's a good word for it.

It was an absolute dumpster fire because there's definitely unlabeled buttons.

You thought you're tapping on the right podcast, or if I double tap and hold, it used to go straight to the play.

Now it goes to close and I have to swipe all the way left to go to the play.

It's just bad.

But the thing is though, Marty, I try Castro and there's a lot of similarities to Castro and overcast, but there are some differences.

Obviously, the Castro has a kind of an inbox and you can throw everything into a queue where overcast is kind of more designed if you want to do each things individually or to create your own playlist.

But they've got the same, you know, like normalization, remove silence and things like that.

The only major difference is the Castro is a subscription.

So if you want those cool features, you have to pay for it.

Not that I'm against subscription, I just feel like I've already, I'm already subscriptioned out and I'm not going to, I tried for a month and I just didn't see what's worth it on Castro.

So I'm back to overcast.

I did try to go back to my downcast.

It's just not the same.

I was like, Oh God, overcast does have a subscription, but at least it's only 10 bucks a year.

It's not that bad.

Yeah.

I think that's more of a tip jar.

Isn't it?

I think now you just pay the 10 bucks a year kind of thing.

It removes, if you don't pay the 10 bucks a year, I think it's got some ads and there's a couple of other features that you can't do, but for the most part.

Right.

Yeah.

You never see the ads anyway.

And two, I thought it was mostly tip or used to be just strictly tip.

There was no advantage of it other than you were helping the developer.

It wasn't like you unlocked anything.

So anyway, that's my, my beef for the month.

I'm just so disappointed.

So if any of the Lynchers out there have a great suggestion other than Castor on downcast, let me know.

I'll be curious what you think.

I really liked the overcast stuff.

As I mentioned, the normalization, remove the silence and the speed process and streaming.

That's kind of a big deal too, cause other ones kind of force you, downcast force you to download it.

You can't stream.

I was like, or we can get maybe the developer to hear us and maybe he'll fix the accessibility features and we'll get back to the great cast we know and love.

That'd be great.

I think he knows about it.

He's just either got a lot on this list and that's the last priority or what, or we need to kind of get on him.

I don't know.

I'm sure he knows about it, but you're right.

We should get contacted.

But with that, thank you so much, Marty, for coming on and being our new permanent member of the Apple crunch team.

So thank you, Marty, for coming on and thank you.

I've had a blast and I'm excited to be here and we'll see what we do moving forward.

So thanks a lot.

And I'm honored to be here.

Awesome.

And to you, John, we love you too, man.

Thank you so much for being on with us this month.

Both of you are so insightful and so helpful.

So thank you guys.

You're welcome.

It's a lot of fun and we'll look forward to October.

Excellent.

Yep.

We will see you next month for Apple crunch for October 20, 24.

My name's Thomas Stauvel, also known as not a mouse signing out.

Bye bye.

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