Tom Anderson (00:00)
This is Basic AF episode ninety-nine. Show notes for this episode can be found at basicafshow.com. What's up everybody? Tom Anderson here, joined as always by my good buddy, Jeff Battersby.

Jeff Battersby (00:13)
You know what,

Tommy, I'm looking at myself and I think I have a droopy eye just like you. I wanted to be like you, Tom. I wanna be just like you, like you, and nobody else but you. Yeah, right. You're losing your hair and I

Tom Anderson (00:23)
Well, we're getting closer. And I'm losing hair, so I'm so this

Jeff Battersby (00:29)
and I've got a droopy eye. And I you know, well so it goes. And Tom

Tom Anderson (00:31)
Yeah. Another ten years

we'll we'll be twins, great. Yeah. Just what the world needs.

Jeff Battersby (00:36)
great. Everybody wants that. Yeah. Two two

bald idiots with droopy eyes. Good morning, Tom, how are you?

Tom Anderson (00:43)
Yes. Yes indeed.

Good morning, brother. quick before we jump into things 'cause we have a packed show today.

Jeff Battersby (00:51)
Yes we do. Zoom zoom.

Tom Anderson (00:54)
we are trying to grow the show, friends. So if you like the show, tell a friend. Hell if you don't like it, tell an enemy. We'll take them too. Done matter. Tell anybody. It doesn't

Jeff Battersby (01:00)
Yeah, we'll take everybody. Right.

Tom Anderson (01:03)
matter. Just tell we'd appreciate it. Programming note for next episode. So two weeks from this one, Riley Hill's going to be coming on to

Jeff Battersby (01:12)
Woohoo!

Tom Anderson (01:14)
do a kind of deeper dive into the iPhone Duo, which we're gonna talk about my first impressions here in a little bit. So that should be a good one. Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (01:22)
What wait, Tom. What did you do?

Tom Anderson (01:26)
We'll get to it. This is the tease. We'll we'll get into. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (01:28)
dude. this is the teaser trailer. Great. So

when Tom says tell your friends, he also might tell you that you can push a little money our way. Three bucks, three bucks a month, come on. You could do it. You could do that in the show notes. you know. Yeah.

Tom Anderson (01:42)
Yep, it's right in the show notes. Support the show. If you are so inclined, we would appreciate it.

Jeff Battersby (01:49)
No, i we'd like you to be inclined. So yeah.

Tom Anderson (01:53)
We would. All right.

Jeff Battersby (01:55)
All right, Tommy.

Tom Anderson (01:56)
All right. What's what are we gonna kick off with, Jeff? I'm thinking maybe

the yep.

Jeff Battersby (01:59)
Well, there's a the tomorrow, for those of

you listening today, if you're listening yesterday,

Tom Anderson (02:06)
I am so confused.

Jeff Battersby (02:07)
yeah, right, you should be. It's everything everywhere all at once. the

Tom Anderson (02:10)
Yes. So good.

Jeff Battersby (02:12)
there's a pro and tell hardware event scheduled for sorry, I said tomorrow, it's the day after tomorrow. Wednesday, October twenty eighth. this is should be, if you're listening to this the proper way, Monday.

October twenty sixth right now. Wednesday, October twenty eighth, there is going to be a pro and tent starting at ten AM Pacific time, one o'clock Eastern time, where Apple might be introducing a touch screen MacBook, MacBook Pro or whatever. and that should be pretty interesting. We've been talking to Ben Young Savage about that a little bit, and he's kinda into it.

Tom Anderson (02:55)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (02:56)
I'm not. I don't even like my fingerprints on my iPad screen. So and I don't like it when anybody touches my laptop screen. So you know, we'll see. but that's that's coming up. So we we should be able to see a couple of things. iPad mini eight, OLA display. Possible. Yeah, well, everything's

Tom Anderson (03:20)
Price increase? Most likely.

Jeff Battersby (03:23)
gonna have a price increase because of RAM prices.

Tom Anderson (03:26)
I always thought the mini was overpriced as it is. So

Jeff Battersby (03:26)
Thank you, El Presidente.

yeah. So anyway, a couple of interesting things coming up. We shall see. We'll look forward to that. And who knows if it if it's super duper interesting, we might bounce on, but I doubt it. but that's that is day after tomorrow if you're listening to this on Monday, tomorrow if you're listening to this on Tuesday, today if you're listening to this on Wednesday and you missed it, if you're listening to this on Thursday.

So yeah, should be interesting. Looking forward to it. And we shall see. shall see.

Tom Anderson (04:00)
Yeah, I'm curious to see what they

do with the touch screen on the MacBook. Like, what's the sell? Like just having a touch screen on the MacBook doesn't seem all that great. You know what I mean? It's like what's going to be like the thing

Jeff Battersby (04:10)
Mm no.

Tom Anderson (04:12)
that people are going to go like, yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I'll I'll fork over the extra money for that. So we'll see.

Jeff Battersby (04:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, and one of the things Benjamin said was he'd love Apple pencil support and and the ability to flip it all the way over. In other

Tom Anderson (04:29)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (04:29)
words, you know, to make it so it it folds in the opposite direction so you could use it as a essentially an iPad, you know, something to write on. So it'd be interesting to see. Don't I the appeal doesn't appeal to me. I don't want your fingers on my screen, pal. but and I don't want mine on there either. It was just looking at my iPad without

you know without anything on it at right before I came down here and it's like, Dang it, gotta clean that again. so yeah, no thanks. but for some people, you know, useful tool. And I have seen a lot of people who take notes on their PCs that have touch screens, you know, flip those things over all the way and do it. So we'll see. Apple, you know, hopefully remains innovated. But this is a lot of new stuff in the Turnus

Tom Anderson (05:18)
Man, they had it queued up. I dcause it has been nonstop.

Jeff Battersby (05:18)
The Yeah, right.

Right. Everything. Everything you wanted, John Turnus has given to you. So Woohoo All right. So that's that. and then Tom, we just had an Apple home event. Tell us about that. What was it?

Tom Anderson (05:35)
We did. That was a couple

of days after our last show. they had some folks come in to a New York City location to see some new things that they have for the home. and we'll kick it off with kind of the highlight, a new device, the Apple Home View.

Jeff Battersby (05:51)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (05:52)
it is what I would call a home pod with a display.

Jeff Battersby (05:59)
Which has been talked about for quite some time.

Tom Anderson (06:01)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (06:01)
This is not news. This is just a thing that that is there.

Tom Anderson (06:04)
Yep. And

you know that that's something like I'm finding the home pods now and I don't and we'll get into whether they're gonna get any of this or not, but I've not long after I got them, I always thought they would be better with a display. Because one

Jeff Battersby (06:20)
really?

Tom Anderson (06:20)
Siri was no good. and so

Jeff Battersby (06:23)
What?

Tom Anderson (06:23)
but also like when you're looking for music to play, a lot of times you're browsing and you

Jeff Battersby (06:29)
Uh-huh.

Tom Anderson (06:29)
know, and then you find something. and with that

You always had to do that on your phone or your iPad or something and then airplay it over. It wasn't right on the device. So I that immediately fixes or improves one thing for me. but we'll talk about it just a little bit. Comes in five colors, has a seven inch display.

Jeff Battersby (06:52)
She said.

Tom Anderson (06:54)
Thank you, sir. I was waiting for that.

Jeff Battersby (06:55)
Ha ha ha.

Tom Anderson (06:58)
and it looks kinda like an Apple Watch. A big Apple Watch.

Jeff Battersby (07:02)
Right, it is. And it's got its very own special operating system. So it's not using iPad OS, it's not using Watch OS, it's using something in between. It's very specialized in terms of what it does and some clever features too. for example, Tom, if you and I were living in the same house, which that'll never happen, thank God.

Tom Anderson (07:25)
Give us ten years.

Jeff Battersby (07:32)
Yeah. All right. yeah, we'll see. We'll see. If you still love me then. the you made me lose my train of thought, Tom. If we were living in the same house, you would you and you might have seen this on the ad that Apple that Apple stuck out there. Tom when you were having an affair with a woman on me, I wouldn't be able to see the notes that she sent you because it locks the various users out.

Correct. So yeah, it's it's a clever little device. And honestly, I didn't think I was interested in it, but I may actually be interested in one of these. in

Tom Anderson (08:14)
How interested, Jeff?

Jeff Battersby (08:16)
well, I don't know. Interested enough to maybe buy one. How's that?

Tom Anderson (08:22)
Okay. But you haven't pre ordered anything. Okay. Okay.

Jeff Battersby (08:24)
no. I'm I'm

I gotta touch it first, you know. Try it try before you buy, pal. I

Tom Anderson (08:30)
Right.

Jeff Battersby (08:31)
gotta s I gotta squeeze oranges.

Tom Anderson (08:34)
Sniff the pineapples, all that stuff.

Jeff Battersby (08:36)
Right.

Tom Anderson (08:37)
okay. but yeah, so seven inch display, it's got a FaceTime camera with center

Jeff Battersby (08:41)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (08:42)
stage.

Jeff Battersby (08:43)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (08:45)
And then what it's interesting, no proper app store, so like no third party apps, unless

Jeff Battersby (08:50)
No yet.

Tom Anderson (08:54)
the app has CarPlay support, which is very interesting. so if your app is a CarPlay app, you use it in your car, you should be able to use it here. So, you know, podcast apps, music apps, the Chick fil A app probably. Remember we talked about that a while

Jeff Battersby (09:11)
good.

Tom Anderson (09:12)
back, you laughed that Chick-fil-A had a CarPlay app.

Jeff Battersby (09:14)
Yeah. Because why? Yeah. Does it work on

Tom Anderson (09:15)
Be interesting to see if that worked. You can just order right there.

Jeff Battersby (09:17)
Sunday? That's all I want to know.

Tom Anderson (09:18)
Well, the app does, the stores don't. So so it starts at 300 bucks, or it's 300 bucks. 299 to be exact. Now they've got this. This is the most confusing aspect of this product to me, is the wall-mounted version.

Jeff Battersby (09:35)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (09:35)
Okay, so we said, you know, the first one's like a home pod with a display. It's a little different, but if you want just the display, you can get the

wall-mounted version. That

in and

Jeff Battersby (09:47)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (09:47)
of itself doesn't confuse me much. It's like, okay, that's fine. Yeah, it looks decent, I guess, on the wall. and the whole premise of this Apple says is to be kind of like the center of your home experience. So you can tie into your home kit products, so do your light, your thermostat, your fan, all that. So like in a little mini control center type setup. Bunch of widgets is really what they look like. And so this one gets slapped on the wall. So you get less

'Cause you don't get the bass that has presumably the better sounding capabilities. But it's the same price. And then

Jeff Battersby (10:20)
Yeah. Plus more because you have to get the mount.

Tom Anderson (10:23)
right, you gotta get like the cabling and and all that for that. So it's it's very weird. but it is what it is.

Jeff Battersby (10:29)
Yeah.

That one doesn't appeal to me. I would not be getting that. but yeah, that might that might appeal to me. What is kind of interesting is Apple also we won't say introduce, but they kinda introduced what they're calling the home collection. they partnered with LG and they got a bunch of devices, which you want to know something?

I th it they it's a ported LG's smart thermostat. I don't really like LG 'cause they're always s sniffing in your panties. but there's another Schneider home smart thermostat. Who knows? Maybe they're maybe they're collecting your data too. But the the

Tom Anderson (11:24)
Mm.

Jeff Battersby (11:25)
nice they're all are. You know, it's like, hey, let me in your house. but the

The all of these things can be connected and controlled. And I wanna say for the record, I was early on with the nests. you know, when the f nests first came out, I got the nests and I really liked them until Google took them over. And

Tom Anderson (11:48)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (11:49)
I don't know whether you know this or not, but unlike the straight up hardware version of thermostats that we've used for our entire lives.

Google discontinued their support of my thermostat. You can still use it.

Tom Anderson (12:11)
Right.

Jeff Battersby (12:12)
You know, you can still dial it up and dial it down like an old thermostat. So at least that part's there. but what a bunch of boneheads. So now I can't control it. You can't control it from the Nest app, which sucks. Anyway. that not

Tom Anderson (12:25)
Does that work with HomeKit? Can you do that through Home Kit at all still?

Jeff Battersby (12:28)
the it's because I got in so early, it's not a home kitter.

Tom Anderson (12:31)
It was ahead

of that. Got it. Okay. Hmm. That's fun, isn't it? Mm hmm.

Jeff Battersby (12:32)
Yep. Yep. So it's a older version. Isn't it? You know.

And I I will tell you that my plumber looked at me and goes, Are you nuts? You know, why are you connecting a computer? Why you complicating something that works really well when it's uncomplicated? And I looked at him like he was a moron and who's the moron now?

Tom Anderson (12:57)
Ha ha.

Jeff Battersby (12:58)
Me. Yeah,

I got

Tom Anderson (13:01)
Yeah.

Yeah, well I'm there too. I don't have a nest. I've got the Echo Bee one of theirs. which

Jeff Battersby (13:06)
Yep, yep, those are nice ones.

Tom Anderson (13:08)
has been fine. It's been working well. so far not discontinued or dropped for

Jeff Battersby (13:13)
Yeah, well.

Tom Anderson (13:13)
support. So it's okay. the home collection stuff is a bit later. They don't have a date on that. So I think that's

Jeff Battersby (13:21)
No.

Tom Anderson (13:22)
early twenty twenty seven. is when that is coming. real quick just close out this section of things.

Before I forget Homeview, available November 13th, pre-orders now. And then we also got a new Apple TV 4K

Jeff Battersby (13:40)
Yes we did.

Tom Anderson (13:41)
for the low low price of $300. So the Apple TVs have gone up a lot in the last 18 months because you used to be able to, I think it was $149, $169, something like that. Because they had two models,

Jeff Battersby (13:53)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (13:54)
right? Remember they had one you could get with Ethernet, one was Wi-Fi only, so there's a bit of a price difference there. Can't remember the exact pricing.

Then they bumped them up a couple of months ago to one ninety nine

Jeff Battersby (14:05)
Yep.

Tom Anderson (14:06)
and jumped all the way up to two ninety nine. So

Jeff Battersby (14:09)
Yeah, and remember how much those things cost when they first came out? Do you recall?

Tom Anderson (14:14)
The like the OG OG, the big one with the hard drive in it. What was that?

Jeff Battersby (14:17)
The OG OG. Yeah, correct. Well, and

it was little teeny tiny thing.

Tom Anderson (14:25)
Which one?

Jeff Battersby (14:25)
The

though actually no the first one, right, with the hard drive. The original original. Those things were almost nothing.

Tom Anderson (14:27)
Right, yeah. Yeah, they were

yeah, they were cheap. They were ninety nine dollars, hundred and nineteen something. I forget somebody did

Jeff Battersby (14:34)
Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Super

Tom Anderson (14:37)
a chart. I I'll see if I can find it, throw it in the show notes, but they kind of did like the inflation adjusted price of stuff. And it's funny, it's it's very much like a a U shape, like they like went up, they started to trickle down, and then like everything else now they're going back up. Which is great.

Jeff Battersby (14:52)
Super duper expensive.

Tom Anderson (14:56)
and then a home pod mini.

Two.

Jeff Battersby (14:57)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (14:59)
So and you they've got some new colors there, one of which you mentioned you like.

Jeff Battersby (15:04)
Yeah, I do like I like the green one.

Tom Anderson (15:06)
Yeah, it looks good.

Jeff Battersby (15:07)
It it does. It's actually it's actually a really it's a really good look. That green one is.

Tom Anderson (15:14)
Yeah, they actually put

a little punch into these colors. They're not well them I think the minis, home pod minis they've done okay with 'cause I've got like the orange ones in the garage. Those look nice. If you like orange. but like the blue is a dark rich blue, the green is a nice rich green. They do have a pink.

Jeff Battersby (15:29)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (15:31)
and then the black and the white.

Jeff Battersby (15:34)
Yeah, they're calling them chroma colors, Tom. So but yeah,

Tom Anderson (15:36)
Mm. Fancy.

Jeff Battersby (15:39)
I and you know what, those home pod minis are I I I like them. I have several. I would buy them used or gently used. all the ones that I got. I never got one of those home pod minis for the full price. I would go to Best Buy and get an open box and yeah, pretty cool.

Tom Anderson (16:01)
Yep.

Jeff Battersby (16:02)
And it does allow you to play these things all over the house. So, you know, it's it's a nice I don't know what Sanos costs these days, but it's a nice alternative to Sonos and easy to move easy to move around. So yeah.

Tom Anderson (16:17)
Mm. Yeah, and they did add

support with the new Apple TV for s hold on, I'll give you the exact Apple speak.

Jeff Battersby (16:27)
Give it to me, Tom.

Tom Anderson (16:29)
Let's see.

Well, I lied though, don't want to have it here. Unreal sound,

Jeff Battersby (16:35)
You don't

Tom Anderson (16:36)
but they say well it's spatial audio. But the what I was meaning to say there was they have added official air quote surround sound for home pods. So

Jeff Battersby (16:51)
yeah.

Tom Anderson (16:52)
you can do the two up front, two in the back, and the picture on the website they've got the two full size home pods up front and the minis Azure satellites in the rear.

So if you're all in, probably not too bad.

Jeff Battersby (17:08)
Yeah, no, fair enough. If you're all in. So and I I saw somewhere that I think the next update to iOS, which is where also the y you know, you you update your your home pods using iOS in the home app.

it there's a new feature that Apple has added to these which is called SoundGlow. but I think from what I understand Soundglow is gonna be available in the older ones too. So that's what I've heard. Could be a lie, but yeah it you know,

Tom Anderson (17:50)
And what is that for people who don't know?

Jeff Battersby (17:52)
you the the color of the album cover shows up on on the top of your home pod while music is placing. So, you know.

Tom Anderson (17:59)
Right.

Jeff Battersby (18:00)
Cool, cool. So yeah, we'll see. I mean, I know that they're color capable, so it it's entirely possible that that that will work.

Tom Anderson (18:09)
Yeah. Which not earth shattering but it could be fun. You've got a the lights down

Jeff Battersby (18:14)
It's yeah.

Tom Anderson (18:15)
in the room, you're just chilling out and it just adds a little ambiance there. Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (18:18)
Right, right.

Little mood lighting, Tom.

Tom Anderson (18:21)
A little mood lighting for us in ten years, Jeff.

Jeff Battersby (18:26)
People are gonna start talking to him.

Tom Anderson (18:28)
As long as they share the show. Say whatever you want.

Jeff Battersby (18:30)
Yeah, right. Right. Yeah. Okay. We're we're friendly

to all communities. so including our own community. we're a community of two, Tom and I.

Tom Anderson (18:46)
Yep. All right.

Jeff Battersby (18:48)
All right. Next up, Tom. Just a little bit of news. All right.

Tom Anderson (18:51)
Next up. So

Jeff Battersby (18:55)
What were you never ever getting, Tom? Well maybe not never ever.

Tom Anderson (18:58)
Well, this specific time

around, it's a new iPhone

that I've picked up. And yes, we're talking iPhone Duo First Impressions here. so

Jeff Battersby (19:12)
Okay. my

first impression, Tom, I want to hear the hinge.

Tom Anderson (19:16)
You wanna hear it?

Jeff Battersby (19:17)
Yes.

Tom Anderson (19:18)
See if I can do it without dropping it. Hold on.

Jeff Battersby (19:20)
geez, is it already that scary?

Tom Anderson (19:23)
Well, you know, dude, it I'm not even twenty four hours in yet. So a little little grazy. All here we

Jeff Battersby (19:30)
snap.

Tom Anderson (19:30)
Now that's the open.

Jeff Battersby (19:36)
goodness. That alone gives me chills. I'm not even joking. Yeah, okay. I'm r I'm ready for it. man, how many times have you opened it so far?

Tom Anderson (19:42)
All right. It is a sweet hinge, okay. It's really nice.

probably twenty, maybe. It's funny,

Jeff Battersby (19:54)
Okay. Great.

Tom Anderson (19:56)
somebody put a a fake picture. I saw it on I think it was on threads. And you know how they have the you can go in and you can see your battery health and the cycles and everything.

Well, someone made a quick and dirty one that's the hinge life cycle.

Jeff Battersby (20:11)
Ha!

Tom Anderson (20:12)
So it showed you've opened your hinge thirty seven tim or your iPhone thirty seven times and it drops down

Jeff Battersby (20:18)
my god.

Tom Anderson (20:18)
the life cycle of the hinge to like ninety eight percent. man, that's great. And people were

Jeff Battersby (20:22)
that's so funny.

Tom Anderson (20:24)
like, Is this for real? And I was like, Come on, y'all.

So that was pretty funny. but yeah, so

Jeff Battersby (20:33)
Yeah, that's hilarious.

Tom Anderson (20:36)
let's let's talk about this thing a little bit, shall we?

Jeff Battersby (20:39)
Yeah,

it kind of a fraught experience. So let's talk about it from beginning to end. First of all, who's the first one in your house to get one of these? Yes, right. She ordered it. And then

Tom Anderson (20:47)
my wife was. Yes. Yeah. So

th she was funny because when I showed her the announcement from the event, she was like, Mm. And then like I showed we kind of kept scrolling down the page and you know it shows all the different use cases and things you can do and everything and she starts to go, huh? Mm. wow.

Ooh. And then I was like, Plus the pencil's going to work with it. And she was like, All right, I want it.

'Cause she's she sketches a lot. She does, you know, drawings and watercolors and stuff

Jeff Battersby (21:20)
Uh-huh.

Tom Anderson (21:21)
with her iPad now. so anyway, the pre-orders went up October 16th. and then just this past Friday, the 23rd, was the first day of deliveries and when they were available in the store. So they went on pre-orders kicked off eight AM Eastern on the sixteenth. So, you know, everyone was kind of getting ready. Of course, Apple has that get ready for the pre-order, so your pre-order, pre-order.

where you can go into the Apple store, build the configuration you want, save your payment method, you know. If you want to do the Apple card zero percent or use Jeff's favorite Klarna, whatever it is, you can get all that ready, they save it, store comes up, tap tap, you're done. so once I'd decided I was going to try this thing, I went ahead and did that

Jeff Battersby (22:07)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (22:07)
too. Now did not order hers that way. We went through Verizon. Okay, so that was the plan. And the plan's gonna shift here in a second, but that was the plan.

So get up Friday morning with a bunch of other people and about 750, sit down at the desk, got everything ready to go, in multiple places. Like I've got the App Store up on my or the I'm sorry, the Apple store up on my phone, I've got the Apple store up on my iPad, I've got it up in a browser, just in case, right? Because I've heard horror stories like the this is, yeah,

Jeff Battersby (22:37)
Standing in line for Led Zeppelin tickets. I get it. Okay.

Tom Anderson (22:40)
this is basically. that was more fun. But

Jeff Battersby (22:45)
Ha ha ha ha.

Tom Anderson (22:46)
We so we Verizon had a countdown timer on their site. So like Apple just says, We'll be back and, you know, getting things ready or whatever they say on the Apple store app and then it just loads. but Verizon had a countdown, so you could actually pick everything you wanted and then it would say pre orders open up in five minutes. And so I'm checking the clock and I'm seeing the five minutes and I'm like, Well, five minutes is actually gonna be like seven fifty eight.

So this is great. I can order hers, then the app store or the Apple store open, I'll do mine, everything times out. so 758, it kicks in, go through, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, hers is ordered like two minutes, done. with estimated delivery of the twenty third, which is day one, which is perfect.

Jeff Battersby (23:29)
Yes.

Tom Anderson (23:30)
So waiting, waiting, app store.

Or the Apple store, I keep saying the App Store, but the Apple Store for me opened up at about 803, 804. Like it was a couple minutes late for me. I've heard other people say the same. So I think it just varies because I mean, obviously it's all over the place. So it just depends. Right. So I had my pre-order, pre-order ready. And as soon as the Apple store app reloaded, and it was automatic it was already delivers November 6th or something like that.

And I was like, son of a bitch, it just opened. I was

Jeff Battersby (24:05)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (24:05)
like So I was like, okay. So I'm like, well, let me see what Verizon has. So I go back over to the Verizon site. They're show s showing the twenty third. So I'm like, fine, I can do it there. That's where I always have gotten my phones anyways, just through them. So went through, boom, boom, boom, did what I needed. Done. Estimated delivery to the twenty third. Like, sweet. So I got them both locked in, ready to go.

And then like I was done, but I kept kind of watching everything. And man, the date slipped so fast. By like eight thirty, we were into December. And I'm like, holy crap. an Apple store, yeah.

Jeff Battersby (24:42)
Wait, is that on on Apple Store or on Verizon store? Okay.

Tom Anderson (24:46)
Verizon was still showing like mid November, 'cause I was just comparing the two before I went to work. And then I think it was maybe by nine o'clock, it was already to January twenty fifth.

And I think that's where they just kind of blocked it 'cause it's still January twenty fifth, so I think they're just leaving it there. I suspect if they're able to ramp up production in a suitable manner, a bunch of these dates will move up. Like some of them have already started to move up. so that was all good. We get to later in the week, on Thursday, so the day before delivery date, get a tracking number from our wife's

We've picked it up, ready to go, and mine's just kind of sitting there. I'm like, oof.

Jeff Battersby (25:30)
Mm.

Tom Anderson (25:32)
And again, big picture. It's a phone. None of this really matters, but it's in the spirit of quote unquote fun of

Jeff Battersby (25:40)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (25:41)
new products from Apple Day that a bunch of us get into that have nothing better to do with our lives. and so

Jeff Battersby (25:45)
Mm.

Tom Anderson (25:47)
I'm like, hmm. So I'm sending you and Ben messages like, hmm, it's I got nothing.

But it never changed. Like it never they never said, okay, new estimated date would be the twenty-fourth or November or whatever. So it just kind of sat there in limbo for a while. So Friday comes, check hers. It's like, yep, delivers between twelve and two. I'm like, sweet, well at least hers will be here. Mine still didn't have any action on it whatsoever. I'm like, mm. So wait and wait and wait, wait, wait, nothing. Her shows up, get her set up.

She's off and running. Her case came in earlier in the week, so got that put on. She's ready to go. Everything's good. so Friday night. nothing until about nine o'clock. And then I got an email that says we've got an update and yours should be showing up on the twenty fourth, which was Saturday. So that's not bad at all, right? I mean, obviously

Jeff Battersby (26:45)
Yes. Yesterday. No, right.

Tom Anderson (26:48)
everybody's anxious to get their hands on something new, but

you know, a day, whatever. but I th you know, and this is through Verizon, like we said, but I think this was all of the carriers. because when you start looking around, you start seeing people like ATT, same thing, T Mobile, same thing. The conspiracy theory spun up that Apple pulled from the carriers once they saw they were getting bad press about not having any in the store for people to go get. So they took hours to

Jeff Battersby (27:16)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (27:17)
put in the store. I'm like, man, you guys need to calm down. It's like

But it's fun. It's like, man, people are getting wild. so anyhow.

Jeff Battersby (27:26)
Grassy knoll, baby.

Tom Anderson (27:27)
Yep. Tinfoil hats and everything.

Jeff Battersby (27:30)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (27:32)
so I got a tracking number Friday

Jeff Battersby (27:35)
Yes.

Tom Anderson (27:35)
night, which was cool, and then didn't really update too much until Saturday morning. But Verizon to their credit, I don't know if the other carriers have done this or not, they sent out an email sometime Friday evening.

saying,

hey, we know you were supposed to get your iPhone duo today. And because of unforeseen supply issues, we're not going to get it to you today. So it's kind of a apology, make good. Here's a hundred bucks. So they gave it a hundred bucks gift card. which will just go to a future bill. But hey, didn't have to do it, but they they

Jeff Battersby (28:05)
Nice. Yeah, yeah, that's great. No.

Tom Anderson (28:10)
jumped in front of it, took care of it.

Jeff Battersby (28:11)
So you got a hundred dollar discount on your phone? Nice. Yeah, of course.

Tom Anderson (28:14)
Right. So I'll take that.

and so then yesterday, I suppose we're recording.

Jeff Battersby (28:20)
A lot of my five percent, baby.

Tom Anderson (28:22)
Mm-hmm. So it's Sunday as we're recording. So Saturday. got my tracking number. It was in Virginia. It was on the truck at nine o'clock.

Jeff Battersby (28:32)
Where it sat until

Tom Anderson (28:35)
I don't know because it got here at three thirty ish, but according to the tracking number was still on the truck. Like hadn't left yet. It was it was still waiting to leave, but so it did get here. and I but then some people were saying they had dates for the twenty third, now they're out in November, somebody said December. So I don't know. It's it's

Jeff Battersby (28:55)
Jeez.

Tom Anderson (28:56)
crazy, like who knows? hopefully they'll get their stuff sooner than that. 'cause that's wild to wait. But anyway.

So

that was the pre order fiasco.

Jeff Battersby (29:03)
So we can extrapolate

from this that Apple actually has sold a ton of these.

Tom Anderson (29:10)
To some degree, yes. Like we don't know how many they made, but they're selling everyone they've can make.

Jeff Battersby (29:13)
Right. But i it sounds like they under underestimated

how many they were gonna sell because if if Apple's website and the stores are backed up until, you know, God knows when, and your cellular company, your, you know, in ATT, T Mobile, Verizon, whomever it is, I guess we can refer to

businesses is whomever 'cause the the Supreme Court has made businesses people too, right? So so I whomever works for this. i i if everybody's running short day one, and i this reminds me of the i initial release of, you know, the iPhone. Remember, you know, you could stand in line. It was like, Well we have three, you know.

Tom Anderson (30:09)
Good thing I'm second in line. Yeah. And the iPhone

Jeff Battersby (30:10)
Right. Yeah. And I was usually

Tom Anderson (30:12)
ten was similar. Like all these like big kind of shifts, like product shifts. So like when we went to the plus size phones, I think there's big demand there. then the iPhone ten. Now with the duo, we'll see with the twenty next year's rumored to get a a really big design change for that one being the twentieth. I think they want to do something

Different there, but we'll see. now the stores do have some. Like I've seen people's, you know, a bunch of people showed up on Friday and were able to get phones. So they do have some some in store.

Jeff Battersby (30:47)
In the stores.

Tom Anderson (30:48)
but it's like, you know, it's been in the past. You check the app, see what they got the morning, and then you reserve your spot and you go pick them up.

Jeff Battersby (30:56)
Right. Okay. So

Tom Anderson (30:58)
So we'll see.

Jeff Battersby (30:59)
that was the order process. You got it yesterday. You sent me a nice little unboxing video. Very simple. It was not much to it, man. It's open the box and there it is.

Unwrap it. You put Yeah. Woohoo,

Tom Anderson (31:09)
There it is. Got a cable. Which

Jeff Battersby (31:12)
a cable.

Tom Anderson (31:14)
Yeah. I wish Apple would go back to making that a little more to that, like they used to do. Like I don't know

Jeff Battersby (31:19)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (31:20)
that I need a charger, but they used to put like stickers in and like after a while you have too many stickers. So I get it, but it it was more of an experience. Like now you get like a kind of a cheap feeling paper wrapper on it 'cause it's recyclable and everything, which is obviously better than not, but

Jeff Battersby (31:35)
But there was something unique

about that paper this time too. What was that?

Tom Anderson (31:39)
Yeah, so with the the wrapping on the device they had printed what the buttons on the device are for. So it ships flat, like it's not folded. and so it ships open like an iPad. And then so then it would show, you know, this is the power button, this is touch ID, these are your volume buttons, and here's your charging port down here on the bottom left when it's open. So little thing there.

Jeff Battersby (32:00)
Okay. Yeah, which is

different. Apple hasn't done that before, as far as I know, with their w with any of their devices. They haven't had no. Never it wasn't

Tom Anderson (32:10)
Yeah, I don't remember seeing it either, so but if if they

Jeff Battersby (32:13)
on my iPhone when I just got it. I mean everybody knows how to open an iPhone now, but it wasn't on my iPhone when I when I got it. So Okay. So you unwrapped it for me and played with it a little bit. What's what's your initial impression? You've had it less than

Twenty four hours. Sorry, I'm trying to get a light hooked up here and I shouldn't be doing that while we're recording. less than twenty four hours, and although your wife has had it for thirty six ish hours at this point in time. what's your take so far?

Tom Anderson (32:50)
So

so far, hardware is fantastic. But it's Apple, so you're not really surprised, right? I mean it's that it's what you expect. the titanium edges are great. The front screen looks great. the nanotexture display looks fantastic. now I've seen some people complain that outside it might look a little washed out or something. I haven't tried that yet, but I'm like, I'm not really gonna be standing around outside too much.

Doing that, but to each their own. Everybody's got their own use cases and everything. But it is really nice. Like it's it's subs significant in your hand. You can see it there. Nobody else can, but Jeff can.

Jeff Battersby (33:33)
Yep. I can.

Tom Anderson (33:35)
weight-wise, it's not too far off from the Pro Max that I had.

Jeff Battersby (33:39)
Okay.

Tom Anderson (33:40)
I think technically it's a few grams heavier, but you're not really going to notice it. But because it's shorter, or as I've said before, that humors you quite a bit, squatty.

Jeff Battersby (33:50)
Mm-hmm.

Potty.

Tom Anderson (33:51)
it feels more balanced in my hand than the Pro Max did, which because,

Jeff Battersby (33:55)
Okay.

Tom Anderson (33:55)
you know, with the Pro Max, you've got a quite a bit at the top just because of the height of it, right? and so in the hand it feels great. I will say, in the pocket, so much nicer than

Jeff Battersby (34:11)
Really?

Tom Anderson (34:11)
than the Pro Max. Now the Pro is probably it's not going to be maybe as noticeable, but it

Slides in like, you know, typical jeans, pockets, plenty of room. Doesn't poke you in the hip when you sit down with it like the the other phones can do. Pro Max especially. The Pro maybe not as much. so that I really, really like. the hinge is great as we talked about when we started.

Jeff Battersby (34:38)
Mm-hmm.

Do love that sound.

Tom Anderson (34:41)
Yeah, it's it's very satisfying. And the crease, which is always a thing with the photobles, right? So

Jeff Battersby (34:49)
Right.

Tom Anderson (34:50)
the crease, is there. No surprise. It's not there when you first get it as much. It's like it's real, real faint, and then when you open and close it a few times you start to see it. but w

Jeff Battersby (35:00)
When you say that

though, is it just that you can see a little curve to the screen? And and is that true when it's fully opened or is it stretching out a little bit when you do?

Tom Anderson (35:08)
So it's when the dis when it's off, it's quite noticeable when it's off. But you don't care because it's off, right? Whatever.

Jeff Battersby (35:16)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Tom Anderson (35:19)
When it's on, if you have a dark background, perhaps, like maybe your wallpaper's a darker color, you may see it more there. But like with my usual stuff, I'll hold this up, maybe you can see it, but like I can't tell.

Jeff Battersby (35:35)
No, I'm looking at it right now. I don't see it.

Tom Anderson (35:38)
Really. Like if you go off angle and the lights right, you can see it. But it's it's not really a big deal. Right. Now

Jeff Battersby (35:43)
Okay. But not not noticeable. Okay.

Tom Anderson (35:46)
how that holds up after eighteen months, twenty four months or something, yeah, who knows. But you know, Apple does have the cover, that nano texture cover can be replaced, which should kind of reset it a little bit back. So I think that's the r biggest reason they went with that was to kinda mute the crease being so visible. But

Jeff Battersby (36:05)
Okay.

Tom Anderson (36:06)
so

Not really a concern there.

I

I told you it's like touch ID feels like a step back.

Jeff Battersby (36:16)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (36:17)
but knew going in it had touch ID. So it's not like it shows up and surprise, we swapped out your face ID. Now you get touch ID, and then I'd be pissed, but now it's a known thing. so you know, I've forgotten about these kind of the little tricks we used to do with touch ID. Like when you set it up, it's like, hey, set up a finger. And you're like, okay, cool. But you can set up several.

Jeff Battersby (36:38)
Right.

Tom Anderson (36:39)
And so, like I've done my pointer finger, my thumb, and then I saw someone on threads was like, you can also do the middle part of your finger, it will register it. So

Jeff Battersby (36:48)
interesting.

Tom Anderson (36:49)
like you can set up different ones. So once you kind of figure out how you're naturally picking it up, you could do that. Now, where it

Jeff Battersby (36:54)
You can make those changes. Yep.

Tom Anderson (36:56)
gets awkward is if you're if you've got it open. So when you have it open, the touch ID is over on the right hand side. Depending on which way you rotate it, when you

rotate it, like to use it in portrait mode, the touch ID could be on the bottom or it could be on the top.

Jeff Battersby (37:15)
Interesting. Okay.

Tom Anderson (37:17)
And so it's what other fingers do I need to set up to kind of make

Jeff Battersby (37:22)
Right.

Tom Anderson (37:22)
this a little easier? Like obviously, if because if you're holding it with your right hand and the touch ID button is up here in the upper left, I probably just want to do like a finger on my left hand so I can get up there and get it. something some people have been doing, I haven't turned it on yet, I probably will to try it out, is you can use your Apple Watch to unlock it and avoid kind

Jeff Battersby (37:44)
yeah.

Tom Anderson (37:45)
of some of that stuff.

That's nice for the unlocking piece, but I think we're again I haven't tried it. I don't think that helps like when you go into like one password or the passwords app, right? Because those are going to be locked behind

face ID or touch ID.

Jeff Battersby (37:58)
Yeah, you have to double double click

usually your watch in order to do that. So Right.

Tom Anderson (38:03)
Right,

like on the Mac, that's you can do that. I don't know if that carries over to the phone because at that point I don't know that there's as much benefit because it's like, Well, I've already got the phone in my hand, I can just touch the touch ID for the passwords. And that was something and I think the reason touch ID really stood out is because it's new and I'm setting it up. So I'm putting in a ton of passwords 'cause I get my mail reconnected. I'm getting one password set up, I'm getting all these other and so it's non stop, I need passwords. So I'm like, you know

Getting touch ID ain't crazy here. up day today, I probably won't use touch ID that much. but we'll see.

Jeff Battersby (38:38)
Right. Okay.

Tom Anderson (38:41)
so hardware, really good. cameras I have not gotten out to do much with yet. I sent you a couple of just quick ones I did as I was heading out to get some coffee this morning. yeah, they're okay. Hmm.

Jeff Battersby (38:52)
Yeah, Dunkin' Donuts looked great. Where's mine?

Said Dunkin' Donuts looked great. Where's mine?

Tom Anderson (39:00)
Wife dragon.

Jeff Battersby (39:01)
Okay. Yeah, correct.

Tom Anderson (39:02)
and so I you know, they look okay. I think low light, it's not gonna be as good as the pro. I mean I don't think anybody would expect that because that's why it's not the pro. but we'll see. I'm going out this afternoon. We've got some errands to run some more try to get some more shots in and see how it looks.

Jeff Battersby (39:19)
Yeah, I look forward to seeing those too.

Tom Anderson (39:21)
So point five, one X

Optical quality two X and then you can do your digital zoom after that. I'm curious to see how the PixelMeter Pro has that super high res photo enhanced stuff, like if that might help with some of the the lack of quality.

Jeff Battersby (39:38)
i I Yeah. I I will tell you I use that

all the time and it's it's a great feature. In fact for some of the black and lights that I've been sending you, i the again, Halide, using Halide a ton on those have not been using I need to need to try the phone app again and try the styles that are in the phone app 'cause there are a number there as well. But the for me right now, Halide's

Everything I do photography wise is in Haley right now. but the default black and white that they have is kind of grainy. You know, it's by design, you know, it's

Tom Anderson (40:16)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Jeff Battersby (40:18)
a film type that's supposed to be grainy. so I've been if I have pictures that I like in that, I've been throwing that into PixelMater Pro and two things denoising it using PixelMator

Tom Anderson (40:29)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (40:30)
Pro and then doing the resolution upgrade and it makes them super sharp. If I send you a picture of the owl

Tom Anderson (40:35)
Yeah, the ones you sent look great.

Jeff Battersby (40:37)
Did they send you that owl picture I took or no?

Tom Anderson (40:40)
Don't think you sent me that one, no.

Jeff Battersby (40:41)
I'll

have to send it to you. There was an owl at this place we were staying in technically twenty nine palms but Joshua Tree. And it it well my daughter Kristen was kinda hanging out there, the owl just landed on a on a branch, so she came in and got us and could see it in perfect silhouette, but super low light. Took the picture with halide. so relatively grainy, but looked looked really good and

ran it through the denoise feature and the and and then the you know enhanced don't know what they call it off the top of my head now. But they, you know, it basically upsamples super res I think is what they yeah.

Tom Anderson (41:20)
It's like super ML resolution or something like that.

Jeff Battersby (41:25)
And it it's amazing what it looks like. I'll send you the picture a little later. But you know,

Tom Anderson (41:29)
Okay, cool.

Jeff Battersby (41:29)
that's that that app is pretty solid. So all right, you've written you've written in the notes here app situation.

So it sounds like

Tom Anderson (41:40)
Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (41:42)
sounds like something. Tell me what it is.

Tom Anderson (41:44)
All right. So obviously with these just have starting, you know, started to get to people, right? So they're two days for a day three of availability. a lot of developers did go ahead and get the simulator with the new X code and updated their apps. and I wanna talk more just about some of the UI things that Apple's done too. But with the app situation, some of them have updated and you know, it's it's a nice first step.

Some of them have updated and it looks really good. a fair number of them have not yet updated. So we had the same thing with the iPhone 10 because it was the first phone that didn't have the home button.

Jeff Battersby (42:26)
Yes.

Tom Anderson (42:27)
And so it was full screen. And so the apps that were not updated had black bars at the top and the bottom. and on this, if they have not updated, it looks silly. To put in my it, it's not as

Weird on the front screen. Okay. So on the front screen they open up and there's just a black bar down the right hand side where the

new thing they put in for wireless, the battery and cell signals, like your little

Jeff Battersby (42:57)
Yeah, yeah.

Tom Anderson (42:57)
status bar stuff. And and app apps that are updated below that are where the controls go, like for mail, like a new mail, forward reply, those types of buttons. so if they've not updated, that's what you get on the front screen. You get the black strip down the side. When you open it, you get something.

Jeff Battersby (43:17)
Something.

Tom Anderson (43:18)
And it ain't much.

You get basically it's almost like a little mini phone app on the screen, with significant black bars all the way around it. I'm going to show you. Nobody else

Jeff Battersby (43:31)
Show me, Tom. Nobody else can see it, but

Tom Anderson (43:34)
can see it, but you can. and there are screenshots of this all over the place. So if you want to see it, you can look up. But it's basically just like the f the phone app as such. Right?

Jeff Battersby (43:48)
Gotcha. All right. So it's

it's like when you run a run an app on the Mac that yeah, or the iPad, right? That's not updated.

Tom Anderson (43:52)
iPad. Right. And you can blow it up so it gets a little bigger, right? So it is it's

basically the iPad experience for phone apps if they don't update or something. Yeah. And again,

Jeff Battersby (44:01)
Until people update those. Yep. Okay.

Tom Anderson (44:03)
not mad about that. It's so soon in the release cycle and I'm sure like most of the apps that I have will get updated probably within a week or two. So not a big deal.

Jeff Battersby (44:14)
Yeah, and presumably

Apple with their apps have taken advantage of of all these, you know, the dual screen feature or the wider screen feature. in fact you showed me today, I don't know what app it was. I didn't really take a deep gander at it, but you had you had the duo set up as a like a little laptop. So you had the keyboard down, folded up, you know, had the the the screen folded up a little bit.

virtual keyboard on the lower side and you had whatever app that was. What was that? Okay. So

Tom Anderson (44:45)
that was craft. Yep.

Jeff Battersby (44:47)
craft is updated to be used with the iPhone 2, which is great. Nice. That's why you love craft so much, Tom.

Tom Anderson (44:58)
They're good devs.

Jeff Battersby (44:59)
Craft has no cruft.

Tom Anderson (45:01)
Well, maybe a little. Like every app has some craft.

Yeah, so that that's the thing. And y I think Apple with their apps and the apps that have updated to what Apple is providing them through the developer tools, is going to be a learning experience for Apple and the developers because they shift everything over to the right.

Jeff Battersby (45:24)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (45:24)
so your controls that used to be at the bottom, say on a traditional phone, or

what we've known as iPhone UI for a long time now. on the duo go over to the right in that

Jeff Battersby (45:35)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (45:36)
that bar there. I don't know that I love that. I so I think that's a little bit of we're kind of in that experimental

Jeff Battersby (45:44)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (45:45)
era because it's brand new and I think they're gonna figure things out with some updates and things as we go. because one thing that is noticeable is if I have the app open.

And so like I've got craft open, all of my controls are on the right hand side. Well, when I'm using it opened and in landscape mode, so it's kinda like iPad mode, as you can see all the buttons are over there on the right hand side.

Jeff Battersby (46:11)
Yes.

Tom Anderson (46:14)
They're hard to reach because you've got to do like

Jeff Battersby (46:17)
interesting.

Tom Anderson (46:17)
the hand gymnastics to go and like roll your hand out a little bit to to reach them where on the bottom you would just be able to hit

Jeff Battersby (46:27)
Yeah, interesting. And I I think I said before and I can see it being a problem now. I I all my phone stuff is with my left hand. I'm a I'm a lefty when it comes to phone usage. wide open, that would be a pain in my neck. You know, that would that would be problematic. And even you know, the width of it, it it's wider than the Promax, correct? If when you have it closed.

Tom Anderson (46:54)
it is just a bit, yeah, when it's closed.

Jeff Battersby (46:56)
Okay. So Pro

Max was a hard reach for me to that side of the screen anyway. That's one of the reasons I'm back to a pro. I love that by the way. The just this the straight iPhone seven yeah, whatever whatever number we're on now. Eighteen pro.

Tom Anderson (47:11)
Eighteen. Yep.

Jeff Battersby (47:13)
the the Pro Max, you know, that was a reach for me. The the Pro is is the right fit for my hand. I really do. I'm so happy that that I get all the camera

without, you know, having to spend more money in the the size of the the Pro Max. But i that little width gain would be a pain for me too, again, because of the left hand and that stuff's gonna

Tom Anderson (47:40)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (47:40)
be on the right hand side. So it's it's interesting. I'd be interested to hear from true lefties. I'm not a true lefty. I'm a little screwed up as everybody knows.

Tom Anderson (47:49)
Ha ha ha.

Jeff Battersby (47:51)
you know, I do things I eat left,

I use chopsticks in my left hand. Although some days it chopsticks in my left hand just doesn't work. So I do it in my right hand. You know, it's one of those things.

Tom Anderson (48:03)
Switch hitter.

Jeff Battersby (48:04)
I am a switch hitter. Have been. in the baseball sense.

Tom Anderson (48:09)
Right. And what

it's and so what's interesting is when you put the phone when it's open into portrait mode, then the controls drift down to the bottom.

So depending on which orientation you have it in, it it they kind of jump around. and so I don't know where that's gonna end up. Again, it's it's not a super big deal. It's just things you notice once you start to use it. It's like, hmm,

Jeff Battersby (48:36)
Yeah. Sure.

Tom Anderson (48:38)
I wonder why it did that. and I'm sure they've tested all this, but I think as I said, once that it's been out for a little while, people use it, they get feedback.

There people start to use it more, you know, just like everything else, the more people use it, the better it gets or it should get. and so that I think that will eventually take care of itself. pencil support is not there yet. That's coming in 27.2, which I think is from what I've read. Should be out this week. Yeah, it's

Jeff Battersby (49:03)
Corner. Right.

Tom Anderson (49:04)
right around the corner. So that was quicker than I expected. So I went ahead last week and ordered the USB C pencil because that's the one it works with. And so I thought, well, I'll go ahead and get it. I don't know when the update's coming, but it turns out it's maybe this week, which would be nice.

Jeff Battersby (49:16)
Okay. Cool,

cool.

Tom Anderson (49:17)
So I will try that as well. I did get the Apple case, the iPhone Duo case, they've named it, which is kind of the

Jeff Battersby (49:24)
Yep. Yeah, and you

said your wife has a case from the jump.

Tom Anderson (49:29)
Yeah, she's got the same case in the dark color. I bought the sand, I think they call it, but it's like a khaki color. It's the lighter color. I so she has hers on. She's paranoid about dropping hers. She drops her phone a lot. So this should be in good use. This might be our first Apple Care situation and it probably said now that I've said that I'll be the first one to do it.

Jeff Battersby (49:51)
Right.

Tom Anderson (49:53)
And the case is okay. Like it's nothing special. it's two pieces of Yeah, so

Jeff Battersby (49:59)
really? Okay. That makes sense actually.

Tom Anderson (50:02)
a piece for each half. and they do have adhesive on them. So when you take it out of the box, there's

Jeff Battersby (50:07)
so it sticks.

Tom Anderson (50:08)
like a little strip you take off around the edges and then you kinda snap it on there, to help. And I've first people were I was reading, people were like, Well, why would they do that? Apparently that's very common for foldables because there's such a small surface area that

if it drops, it would just f fly off if it didn't have any adhesive on it.

Jeff Battersby (50:27)
Got it.

Tom Anderson (50:28)
I don't know. I have not looked into it enough. I just don't care that much about it. but I have not put the case on yet.

Jeff Battersby (50:35)
Okay.

Tom Anderson (50:36)
I am considering tempting the fates and going without a case like Jeff Battersby does.

Jeff Battersby (50:42)
Okay. I too.

Tom Anderson (50:45)
Because it just looks so nice, Jeff. It's like that case

Jeff Battersby (50:47)
Does. I know.

Tom Anderson (50:49)
does not look that great.

Jeff Battersby (50:50)
And and feeling feeling the phone in your hand is Yeah. There you go. Thanks. You you just did it to me again, Tom.

Tom Anderson (50:56)
yeah. so here's the look

at the front screen when it's closed.

Jeff Battersby (51:01)
It really does look nice.

Tom Anderson (51:04)
it does, yeah. And so I am on the fence about the case.

Jeff Battersby (51:09)
And you were talking about maybe getting a bull strap case too, right?

Tom Anderson (51:12)
yeah, it looks like they're gonna have one which, you know, I got the one for my sixteen Pro Max after you had one and

Jeff Battersby (51:17)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (51:18)
said how much you liked it. So I got one for it. It's been really, really great.

been happy with it. So they've got one coming out in December.

Jeff Battersby (51:26)
Okay.

Tom Anderson (51:26)
So I might try that. and I may eventually put the Apple one on just for something if I'm going out and run around a lot or something. But what I don't like about the adhesive part is it's like you can only take it off, put it back on so many times before the adhesive no longer is adhesive. So it's like,

Jeff Battersby (51:45)
I think the presumption is and and this is true. It's not true of me 'cause I used to bounce between the two, but most people put those things on and never take off. You know.

Tom Anderson (51:54)
Right. Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (51:56)
I, you know, took mine off, but i you know, when I was using the sixteen Pro Max, the weight was such that what I use to hold my camera right now, when we're recording, it it would slide. The thing would tilt.

And so I had to put a case on anytime we recorded. I don't have to do that with this one. so and then I would forget about it, I'd leave it on. So, you know, I was taking it on and off all the time. do not need to do that with this one, and I really kind of love it. all right, Tom, we've already burned over fifty minutes, five zero minutes. you had one other note in here. iPad user looking for foldable pocket-sized iPad or iPhone user looking for occasional large display. What

do you mean

Tom Anderson (52:40)
Yes.

Jeff Battersby (52:40)
by that?

Tom Anderson (52:41)
So thinking who will like this and who won't.

Jeff Battersby (52:46)
Gotcha.

Tom Anderson (52:47)
Right. So if you are, like I am, a a pretty heavy iPad user, this really scratches an itch. Like this is great. I can take a close to iPad mini sized iPad, fold it up, throw it in my pocket, off I go.

Nice. So if I'm sitting around and I want to do something, I can open it up, have a nice, you know, display there to work with. The opposite though, like if you're a just a heavy phone user,

Jeff Battersby (53:19)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (53:20)
because I think what ends up happening is most people end up using their foldables folded most of the time, probably like by a large margin, that

It's really going to depend how much you can tolerate the smaller screen when it's closed. Because when it's closed, the screen again, because it's not as tall as we've gotten used to with the iPhone seventeen, eighteen and and things like that, is a dramatic difference. and especially when you factor in, they've got the bar on the right hand side, that navigation bar, like the little toolbars and everything.

Jeff Battersby (53:56)
Uh-huh.

Tom Anderson (53:57)
So it it's really gonna depend what you're

what you're looking for and I don't know the answer for me just yet because I've had it like you said earlier, not even twenty four hours. So this is all very, very fresh. so we'll see. And I think next show when Riley comes on, I think we'll we'll have a lot more to say.

Jeff Battersby (54:15)
Yeah, I was gonna say Riley's

Riley's gonna be the the one to talk to us about, you know, that that iPad that iPad iPhone, you know, that that overlap, especially since Riley continues to be the only person I know that does everything he does on an iPad. So which is impressive.

Tom Anderson (54:33)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and

Jeff Battersby (54:35)
So it this'll this will be the it it'll be a good conversation with him.

Tom Anderson (54:39)
Yeah.

And he'd bought the Samsung Galaxy Fold eight before this came

Jeff Battersby (54:45)
he did.

Tom Anderson (54:45)
out. He did. So he had that one he as his work phone. and then so he's got the duo now too. So he'll be able to compare and contrast the two. some there

Jeff Battersby (54:54)
Awesome. That'll be great.

Tom Anderson (54:55)
as well. And then by then I'll have a couple of weeks, you know, going to work, dragging it around, doing stuff 'cause like I've hardly left the house since it came in, dropping it probably, God help me. Apple Care,

Jeff Battersby (55:01)
Drop it dropping it.

Tom Anderson (55:06)
which by the way, real quick,

This really was nice having the Apple Care One family plan because like it says fifty bucks already had twenty one devices in there and with the duos they just automatically showed up, no extra money out of pocket, which by themselves are twenty bucks a month. So if you're deep into the Apple ecosystem, individually twenty bucks a month for Apple Care for those.

Jeff Battersby (55:28)
Wow. Indiv individually twenty bucks a month. Whoo, baby.

Tom Anderson (55:34)
So that and again, throw away all of the do you need the extended warranty stuff.

But I think for this particular phone, I think you will want to have that.

Jeff Battersby (55:43)
Yeah, and

honestly, for Apple stuff, I d just for that off chance, you know, me with the naked iPhone, that you drop it. And I have dropped this one more times than I've dropped any phone because it right. It's right. No friction, baby.

Tom Anderson (55:57)
That's slippery aluminum.

Jeff Battersby (56:03)
so i it it definitely makes sense to to have Apple Care. and that

Tom Anderson (56:07)
Yeah. And especially Jeff.

We have our first duo gate, like the antenna gate with the iPhone

Jeff Battersby (56:14)
Yes.

Tom Anderson (56:15)
four. We have people whose screens are cracking.

Jeff Battersby (56:19)
yeah, and I've seen some little little weirdness. Those guys are probably trying to fold it and see what happens. But

Tom Anderson (56:25)
Yeah, I don't know. I and it wouldn't surprise I mean, given how many they're selling, there's gotta be bad batches, right, that have the problems. But

Jeff Battersby (56:30)
Yeah, of course it happens.

Tom Anderson (56:31)
I'm sure Apple will take take care of those

and they'll be fine after.

Jeff Battersby (56:34)
I I saw one where

they got some weird screen thing. They brought it in and got it replaced immediately. So good for them. All right, Tom.

Tom Anderson (56:39)
Yeah. All right, closes out.

Jeff Battersby (56:41)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've killed an hour of your time today. And as always, we're really grateful, especially if you stick around to this part of the show where we say thank you to Psychokinetics and Celsius Seven for the show music and to Random Martin Design for our artwork.

Like, subscribe, tell everybody you know about the podcast. If you feel like it, send us a few bucks. You can email us, you can leave us voice messages. There's all sorts of ways for you to get in touch with us. And we'd like for you to do that. Tom, where can we find you?

Tom Anderson (57:13)
On threads at Tom Anderson and then at Tom Fanderson dot com.

Jeff Battersby (57:17)
Yep, and I'm at Reyes Point, R E Y E S P O I N T. Typically only on threads and barely there, but hey, I'm on social media, kind of. we're really grateful for you coming here. So thank you very much, Tom.

Tom Anderson (57:36)
Thank you for your courage, Jeff.

Jeff Battersby (57:38)
Thank you, Tom. I'm happy to give you my courage, whatever that means.

Tom Anderson (57:42)
Thank you. I appreciate

that. So that's it for this one. We'll talk to you again in a couple of weeks when Riley comes on to talk more about the duo. Till then, have a great rest of your day or your night.

Jeff Battersby (57:52)
See ya.