AppleVis Unleashed January 2024: The Writing is on the Wall

I was saddened, but not surprised to hear Apple's software changes will only be available in countries within the EU. This sounds very interesting, and I wonder if those of us outside said countries will be able to use this through a little tinkering. Does the new third-party payment system only apply to EU countries as well? I agree what Apple is doing regarding the 27% cut is reprehensible. Time for some more legislation. Fortunately, it looks like we win on the hardware front, as it would be too difficult and expensive to produce individual models for different countries. Then again, I might be wrong, and Apple does something nasty with replaceable batteries in the United States, such as sealing the battery compartment for models sold there. We'll see.

I vote we change it to "The Oliver Report.

Thank you, that is all. 🤨

I would like to second(?) the request that transcripts of podcasts be made available. If not for all, then at least for those that involve following step-by-step instructions for, e.g., learning a new app or a revised/updated app. I understand that it may be pretty laborious at times, but it would be a welcome addition to what Applevis has offered to date. Thanks for considering this request.

If you use Apple Podcast in iOS 17.4, you will be able to get it. Beta 1 of 17.4 is out and has this feature.

There are various apps that will make the transcription process significantly shorter and easier, providing results accurate enough to require sufficiently few corrections in most cases.

Aiko will transcribe the podcast for you. It is free.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1672085276

Using Whisper with the large model with an aggressive beam search and suppression of repetitions, it took my 2020 iMac about 4 hours to transcribe the podcast. For fun, I tweaked it as much as I could to get the best out-of-box results. Bearing in mind there are no distinctions made for speakers--that's something only the podcaster can do--here are the results, which I'm sure you would agree are surprisingly good--certainly adequate to speed-read in lieu of listening. Enjoy.

(upbeat music) - An AppleVis original. - Five, four, three, two, one. - Hello and welcome to AppleVis Unleashed for January, 2024. My name is Thomas Domba, also known as not a mouse. And we are here once again for a brand new year, guys. Along with me, I have Mike Mallarcy. How you doing, Mike? - Good, it's good to be back. A little month off, all the craziness of Christmas. - Right, I know I had a much busier Christmas than I anticipated. I have family came in and don't normally have it for the whole week. And so it just threw everything out the window. That just happens, right? - Yeah, that happens. - Right? And then we got John Gassman here as well. Howdy, John. - Hello there. - How's it in sunny Southern California today? - Well, if you'd asked me that yesterday, I would have said it's really, really good here in rainy Southern California. But it's not raining today. It's, you know, not warmed up all that much, but it's beginning to get some sunshine out here. So it's a nice day. - Wow, I mean, Mike and I wish it would rain. I mean, we'll take that. - Yeah, we had plenty of rain yesterday. - Well, it's not so much the rain rain, it's so much the frozen precipitation we're all keen of. - Yeah. - Yeah, Mike and I got buried in snow. It's been colder than cold. But you know, I shouldn't be whining. It is January in the Northern Hemisphere. And I do live in a city where it will wane from anywhere from zero degrees Fahrenheit up to a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It's just like, wow, why do I live here? - Well, you can always move. - Right? What do you think, Florida? - That's certainly a warmer place, that's for sure. (laughing) - Well, we'll see about that. We'll see about that. - Then you'll be on the podcast here talking about the alligator on your porch and you couldn't go outside that day. - Right. - Right? Well, I can just bring him in and just have him just growl for us or, you know. - Train it, put a little service on it. - Throw some ham bone to it, whatever. How was everybody's Christmas? - Busy. - Nice Christmas. - We get anything great? Vision Pro? - Nothing technology-wise. No, basically just stuff I needed. You know, clothing, a new wallet, that kind of stuff. Nothing really technology-wise. - Underwear, things like that? - Yeah. - Socks? - I'll model it for you next month, maybe. - Well, you know, our families, there's always that one, I have to buy somebody underwear. I never understand that. It's like, that's, I don't know, that's not Christmas. - I don't do that one. No. - No. - No. (laughing) - Well, I got a couple things. I got a new battery case for the iPhone 15. So I'm back onto having a case that got a built-in battery. And then I got the auto echo, the echo auto. So I have the Alexa on the car now. - Oh, okay. - I mean, I have Apple CarPlay, but it's not as exciting as you think it is. It's not that, it's not like I have to have it, but having the A-Lady on the go, you can ask all sorts of questions, play games with it. That's fun, 'cause if we're on the road, which we do every so often, and then the Mrs. Mouse and I will be able to play different skills, and we can play Jeopardy and things like that. So I think it's a lot of fun. Great for kids. - I somehow, I've never even heard of this echo auto. - Right? It is kind of a very quiet thing nobody knows about. Yes, it's this really, really small thing. It's probably, I don't know, two inches long by one inch wide and it's got microphones on each side. And then it uses your Bluetooth on your car. And if you don't have Bluetooth, it comes with an audio jack that goes into your audio jack. And it uses your phone as the internet. And so you just talk to her. - Hmm, that's kind of cool. - It is cool, Mike. I think for kids, when car trip is well worth it. - Yeah, definitely. - Right? 'Cause you could play all sorts of games and they can request for music. You don't have to share phones. You don't have to use it. 'Cause the Apple car kind of stinks 'cause you only get one person that can get on the car play at a time. So if you want to share stuff, you have to do the air share and stuff. And that's kind of a pain. - Yeah, my only hesitation is we've got five little ones running around here. And I'm trying to imagine all of them trying to talk to me at the same time, trying to play the song that they want, not the one that the person next to them wants. - Yeah, but there's this really cool switch. The dad can go right down there and hit the mute button on it. So once the skill's going, yeah, you can go beep. Now, nobody's talking to it. It's pretty cool. I like it. I enjoyed it very much. Yes, now it can spy on me everywhere and anywhere now. Cars, anywhere. I am not safe anywhere. - And has Alexa got any more intelligent with this new toy or she's the same old Alexa? - She's the same old Alexa. You know, I mentioned that there is a Alexa 2.0 in beta. So it's called Alexa ask me or something. It's some sort of a new Alexa that's in beta. And that uses the old GPT Alexa. It's supposed to be way more intelligent. But I think it's not due out until June for the public. And we'll see, because I heard that you may have to pay for that if you want that. - Yeah, that's what I'd heard too. And how much would you have to pay, do you think? - Well, that's the thing, John. I'm already talking to the A lady for free. Why would I want to pay for her now? - Right, right. - Maybe you're paying for the increased intelligence. - Yes, definitely. I don't know. I haven't heard any prices. If I had to guess, I bet it'd be about 10 bucks. That'd be my guess. - Which is not really too bad. - Kind of, it just depends how much you use her. - Yeah, I was just thinking I'm not sure how much I'd actually use it. - Right, especially if it's on my phone. I'll just ask that. But you're right though. I don't know. We'll talk about it when I hear more and when it comes out. But that's a good question. Well, it is 2024, which is hard to believe, it's January. And I was just thinking to myself, I had to go back and think about it. It's been 14 years since this is the month, 14 years ago. And this month I got myself an iPhone 3GS. So I didn't, boy, I was like, wow, it's been that long. - It has been a long time. - And that one wasn't even accessible, was it? - Yeah, that was the first one, right? - The 3G was not accessible. The 3GS, which was the second one, was. And that's why I got it. And I think that same year in the fall for iPhone 4 came out and I got that as well. So with 2024 here and now, last month on Apple Viz, we had the, what we discussed back here in November was the Apple Viz Golden Apples Award. So it has come and gone. So we now know the final result of that. And the best app, guys, went to Be My Eyes. No surprise there, right? - Not at all, no. - I was happy to see that. And it was a, I mean, complete landslide. I never seen, all the years we've done this, it has always been kind of close. There's always a runner up, second and third. Now, there was nothing. It was like, shoot, 80, 90% of the people that voted were it was Be My Eyes, so rightfully so. Now, the best game of the year, which at first ever was a complete tie. We had two winners for the first time. And those two winners were Timecrest and Xanagrams. Now I mentioned back in November, I was hoping Xanagrams went and it did. So Xanagram won. I never really touch Timecrest. I kind of delve into it a little bit. I know you guys, not much of a gamer. Have either of you even looked at Timecrest? - The most I have done is read the description, right? - Right. - Same. - That's all I did. - That's awesome, Mike. I'm glad you at least read the description. It's a very interesting game. But nonetheless, I think those two deserve it and rightfully so. So we had a tie for the very first time. So check out in the show note if you're more interested in those three products or apps to find out more about them and if it's something that you would like to dive in for yourself. Wanted to give a big thank out for all the participants that came and voted on the Apple Golden Apples. We also had something this month that we have been doing for, Josh, I think this is the second year we did the Apple Report Card. This is a kind of a way for the community to come and vote on what their thoughts are on various OS that Apple's have to offer. For example, there was iOS, there's Apple Watch, there's a TV, there's a Mac. And we kind of broke it down to different components. And it was surprising in some ways. And so if you're interested in details of the report, I'll leave that in the show note. We're not gonna go and dive in deep into it. I'm just gonna go through the highlights of it. Like, for example, what they thought in terms of the voiceover features for iOS and all the different OS. It was slightly up from last year, not a whole lot. I think it was like four point something out of five. So it was still a pretty high grade scale. The voiceover experience was pretty high. It also has improved slightly. And along with the Braille features, it was also slightly improved. And Braille experience was slightly improved. And I was also surprised to see low vision report card, it was slightly improved. Now, the only area that hadn't really improved is an overall, as in voiceover features for the year and an Apple performance. Both are still low scoring as meaning, I think it's still like 3.1 or 3.2 out of five. So I'm gonna break this up, guys. I'm gonna give you my thoughts first, and then I'll hand the mic over to you guys. My first thought is, I'm thinking when iOS 17 came out, what do I think of the new features? And that is, we got new voices. If anybody recall, we got Eloquence and we got some premium voices and things like that. And then we got some ridiculous stuff like the novel voices, which I still don't know what that is in there for. You know, I am so-so on that. I know a lot of people love Eloquence, great. A lot of people were happy with that. And I think it's always great when we get some improvements of the Neurons Vocalizer voices. But my thought is, I'm kind of disappointed in a way because it seems like they're just throwing us old stuff. And meanwhile, Google, A-Lady, and Microsoft all have brand new voices and they sound beautiful. It's all server-side and everything. And I just feel like Apple, it's fallen behind. They really have fallen behind when it comes to voices. I get it that they want to purchase whatever they can, but I just don't feel like they're making any effort on their own to create new outstanding voices. Yes, they came out with the new Siri voices. That's great, but that's a voice or two or three, depending where you're from and what region you're in. You may not have four or five choices like we do in Siri. But even though, you don't have all the different various countries and voices. So I'm just kind of disappointed with that. The other one I'm kind of disappointed, this point and speak. Hmm, I mentioned this before, I'm not a fan. It is definitely not for blind people. You would have to know where you're pointing at. So I think for low vision, sure, I think that was great. I just felt like they didn't do a great job this year in that, so I also agree. I give it about a three out of five. I wish we would see something, some sort of an effort that is big. And as experience, I will say that iOS 17 itself has been kind of a, I don't know, iOS 17 is okay. I think all the errors and bugs I sent to Apple do get resolved and fixed, most of them. It seems like a couple always seem to be there, but there's always seem to be bugs in there. For example, this is a main feature that Apple puts out is called the poster. And the poster is a contact poster that allows you to set up your picture and a little things that, so when somebody call, when you call that person, if they have an Apple iPhone, your contact poster shows up on there. My mom loves that, but it has unlabeled buttons, it's weird. And so it just makes me wonder where is the quality assurance into this stuff? Where are the testers? Not testers like us, beta testers, I'm talking internally. Are you kidding me? Your programmers aren't making this accessible from the get-go, and you have to go back to somebody internally to say, "Oh, these buttons are not labeled." I'm just still not sure if the mainstream programmers in Apple are totally with accessible or an accessibility, making sure everything works as the way it's supposed to, other than us try to find it and internal people have to find it to tell them how to fix things. So I just, I also give that a three as well. I just don't think that, I think they could do much better. - So I don't know if it's just me, but that update contact thing that pops up right at the top of your messages, I've never even been able to get it to work. - Right? - It just doesn't even activate. I always have to get somebody else to turn voiceover off and have somebody with eyes do it. - It's terrible. It's a mainstream. You made that a main feature. It's you, Apple, and I'm just shocked that their programmers aren't making that accessible from the get-go as they write it up and build it up. You know, that's what they count on, and they aren't. - They've been criticized for that, though, for a lot of years and not much has changed in terms of making them completely accessible. It's as if it's not a high priority for them. - Well, it just seems like it's backwards. I mean, yes, it is a high priority for the accessibility and Tim Cook to say it is a high priority, but you're right. It's not a high priority in enough that Tim Cook isn't pointing fingers at these teams. You guys all need to go back and relearn or learn. It needs to be a basic must-have in order to work there, and that is to understand how to use Swift and all that. That's fine, but you know how to do accessibility. Now, I get it. Third parties, I'm fine. I get that. They're not always gonna do it, but we're talking Apple stuff. So what do you guys think about The Greatest Self? - I think it's fair, honestly. I think it's a very fair rating 'cause like we've been talking about, I actually read everything that you said. Eloquence, love it on my PC, hate it on my phone. It's awful. I still just use Alex because there's just never been anything compelling ever, and I do. I feel like most of the features that come out, anytime there's even notes on accessibility, usually the times I get the most excited is when it says bug fixes, and it's not, don't even give me new stuff 'cause I just want the things that are already here to just kind of work. So I don't know. I was 17 just as a whole. I'm kind of, yeah, buying three stars. I think that's more than fair. - Don't get me wrong. I love my Apple iPhone. I love Apple, and it's okay that there's times that we disagree or we like to bash on Apple, but as a whole, I am a very happy iPhone owner. And so that's why we had kind of a different grade so that upper area is what I thought about Apple now in my experience. So I don't regret it. I mean, 14 years now using iPhone, I am very blessed to have something that is as accessible it is. Yeah, it has its annoying little quirks, and there's small bugs. Sometimes the bugs can be big, but they will eventually get a fix. I just think they're kind of slow on that. I just wish the accessibility team isn't always the one that have to go back and clean up after them. And so that means it's going to be time, and there's going to be a lot of red tapes. They have to go through all these tickets, and so it's going to become a slow process. It's just a shame that they have to clean up after people's mess when that mess should be somewhat already clean. So if you're in the kitchen, you're cooking all this new food and stuff, at least kind of just clean off the dishes and the pans and stuff. Not saying you have to put it in the dishwasher and everything, but at least make it clean, right? It just seems like the chef went in there and made it just a big old mess, and the products looks great, but the kitchen is a disaster, and they have to go in and clean it up. That's what I feel like. Yeah, I agree. All right, well, you guys are making this easy. All right. (laughs) I figured somebody would be a little different, but that's okay. I'm glad that-- I used Android for a while, and by comparison, this might make some folks angry. Using Android, to me, feels like using the buggiest version of iOS ever. Like, everything with Android, for me, was just a hassle. Like, I switched my main phone to it for quite a while, and I won't ever go back. Like, there would need to be significant bugs for me to ever consider that. So, I'm still happy with it, but just as far as, I don't know, I guess, being excited about it, about new things happening, that's just not really there. It's interesting, and I know I'm gonna get flamed for this, and that's all right, but it seems like the people I know, and the people I listen on to Applebiz, and the people I hear through social platform, it seems like about the people that go to try out Android, and they were an iPhone user, about 80% of them come back to iPhone at some point, and it's not immediate. Sometimes it is quick, couple months, couple weeks. Sometimes it's a couple years, and they have no regrets coming back, and I think we all could say, I would love to try Android, but if I'm seeing that kind of statistics from the community, that means to tell me it's not quite ready. I would love to try to dab into stuff, but I still think Apple as a whole is doing a great job. Sure, there's been a lot of complaints about a lot of things, but I think that's for everything, and I think that only is there to improve things. I mean, if you didn't complain about something, then there's something wrong. That's what I'm thinking. Nothing's perfect, ever. So, with that, guys, thank you for participating in the report cards. All the people out there that voted on it, we really love you, and helping us out, and giving a great result to hand out to Apple. So, hopefully Apple will come by and read that, and listen to us. It seems like they aren't, if everything is similar, especially the feature, and so, got kind of a low grade that stayed the same. I was kind of hoping to see that improve, but for me, I didn't see that much of an improvement. So, hopefully they'll change for the iOS 18. All right. It seems like Apple is starting to feel the fallout, guys. Oh, wow. Starting to kind of sneak up on Apple. For years and years, Apple has always been kind of pushing forward on a lot of things, and just kind of being on the edge of things. Meaning, let's start with the Apple Watch. Oh, my goodness. I don't know about you guys, but I was getting whiplash, just from reading from what the Apple Watch. What? It's banned? Well, wait a minute. Two days later. Okay, it's back. A week later. Oh, it's back down. Oh, wait a minute. Three days later, it's back. If you guys haven't been following this, this has been insane. So, let me give you a background on this, what's going on with the Apple Watch. So, the blood oxygen feature is something that we find on the newer devices that allows you to see your blood oxygen level. So, if you ever go to your doctor, I know here it's that fingertip thing that they put you on your finger and they kind of see how much oxygen that you're actually absorbing, and that's what that feature is for. Well, Apple being Apple, which I think we'll discuss about when I think about that, but that feature, there's some patents that they're using to make that work on an Apple Watch. And Maximo is a company that owns that patent. Well, they've been in court for many years on this, and finally, about a year ago, Maximo won. So, and of course, Apple's been appealing ever since, and they just ran out of appeal time. So, it got banned, meaning that any Apple Watch 9, they had to completely take off the shelf. It wasn't even being sold. So, it came back first time because they put another appeal on there, and then, of course, that appeal went through really quickly and says no, and then they banned it again. And then Apple decided, well, to hell with everything, we'll just take the sensor off the device entirely, and then just sell you the device as is without the blood oxygen sensor. Okay, I am gonna let you guys tell me what you think about that before I'll get on my soapbox. (laughs) - Well, they're just avoiding the inevitable because the courts have already ruled. I think, if I'm understanding it correctly, they've ruled in favor of Maximo. And so, you know, instead of just basically Apple saying, okay, all right, let's settle this, they're doing what they can to make the sales continue, even if it means taking that one feature away for a while. - Right? So, yeah, you're right, Maximo won. And Apple's been taking advantage of using their patent and soaking in the money all these years that they had. It's been a couple of models now, so they made billions off it. And then they decided not to settle, to just say, hey, okay, we'll pay you for the patent. How much is it gonna cost so we can keep having it on our watch? And that just blows my mind that they don't want to settle with them. I don't know if Maximo is being unreasonable, as in, oh, we want this much, and maybe it's too expensive, or Apple is being selfish and saying, fine, we're just gonna take it off, and you're not gonna get anything. And so, it leaves us in the crossfire. You know, if I bought this and I lost a feature, I would be upset about it, and there are people that upset. They're just like, well, that's fine. How about you get us a discount or some money back without this feature, because-- - Yeah, lower that price tag. - Right? So, it shouldn't be full price for it now, 'cause you lost a major sensor and a major feature of a device. - This whole thing, in conjunction with everything going on with Epic Games, has kinda left a bad taste in my mouth just with Apple and how they're dealing with all this stuff. I don't, obviously don't know, but I definitely am in the camp of Apple's just being selfish and just wants more and more and more. They're just doing everything that they can to get all they can. 'Cause right now, they're trying to get Epic Games to pay for all of their core fees for all that catastrophe that happened. - Right? And we've been talking about that, because-- - $7 billion or something like that. Yeah, it just seems to be that Apple wants their cake and they wanna eat it, and everyone else just needs to do what they want. - Well, here's what I'm confused about. If you design something, you put it out, Apple's huge, they got their own lawyers, they got their own people that checks on patent and stuff. You knew, you had to know that there was a patent on that. And there was a moment there when it was first banned that they said, "Okay, we're seeking to see "if we can change the software "that will avoid that particular patent." And then apparently, either they're working on it or they never found one for the time being. But my problem is, why come out with something that has a patent and you know that's gonna come as an issue? And it seems like, well, a lot of companies do that. They just said, "Well, we're gonna make more money "than it's going to cost us to go to court with them." So, I hate that mentality. And it's like you, Mike, I'm starting to get a bad taste of their attitude and they're better than this. They're way better than this. I can't see Steve Jobs ever allowing that to happen. And it makes me wonder about any future sensors that comes out. I hope that they go through the route like him. We have all the patents for this. Okay, we gotta go or we have royalty license set up to use that patent. Let's be nice people. Let's be a good company. Let's not fight it to death and try to milk money out of it and to end up in a situation like this that hurt us as a consumer. Gosh, I'm just going off today. It's like I got an attitude today, didn't I? - I was gonna say, it is unfortunately as ridiculous as it sounds, do the right thing. But at the same time, we're talking about corporate. - Right, money. - Global companies, so. But I'm still shocked they haven't made a deal. Let's not lose the sensor entirely. - Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I guess for whoever made that final decision, it's more worthwhile to just make it go away. - Well, I would assume that's a Tim Cook decision. So is this the beginning of the end for how we thought Tim Cook was as great as he was? So we'll get to a little bit more of this as we get on, but we'll go on to the next one here. That is, well, look at that, guys. The Apple Vision Pro is here. It's here at last. It finally arrived. The pre-order has gone out and it'll be coming out next week. Those got their hands on it. Anyone, did you guys place a couple orders on it? - No way. - No way. - And I hear-- - That price tag is, well. - They've sold 180,000 or something like that. I mean, that's-- - Yeah. - They didn't have any troubles. They sold between 160,000, 180,000 units is what I think the estimate is, but that's a lot and they sold out and now it's being delayed. If you want to order it, it's now, I think it's slipped five to seven weeks. So you know that the demand was there initially and that didn't surprise me. I mean, there's always gonna be a few. I mean, if you think about it, guys, 160,000, 180,000 might sound a lot to us, but that really is nothing in the scheme of things like a watch or the iPhone or anything like that. Those, we're talking millions. They were selling tens, if not more than that, per quarter. So we're talking big difference. - But look at the price. I mean, when you look at a watch, what is that, a few hundred dollars versus $34.99 for a headset? I mean, that's the difference. - Right, it is because that $34.99 price tag is what's holding, will always hold it back. You know, I don't care. You know, Tim Cook is telling everybody, this is not an AR/VR headset, this is spatial computing. This is the new computer era and I'm thinking, that's great and all, but for the majority of people and the majority of the consumer and the people like us, $34.99 is way out of reach. You know, where we can buy a new Mac, a Mac mini for 700 bucks. Yeah, you got to, and I get it. It's a first generation. We know the first price of a generation is always gonna be costly, but you know, as I say that, yeah, iPhone certainly hasn't never come down in price. So that's why. - Apple doesn't have a habit of lowering prices. - No, no. - And now I've been seeing articles about costs to repair when things break and like the lens itself was $800, I think. Like just keeping that thing going, just don't drop it. If you buy one, protect that thing with your life 'cause it's up to like $2,500 to fix things as they break, which is almost a whole new one. - Now you could get the AppleCare, but it's 500 bucks. - Wow. - 500 bucks a year for AppleCare on that beautiful baby. - Based on what I read, it seems to me like the primary advantages, or not advantages, but the primary things that they're making available are aimed at a visual audience. - Definitely. - And so for those of us who are blind, I mean, while it's kind of interesting, it's not anything that's gonna benefit us. And whether that'll ever change or not, I don't know. You know, they did kind of in a roundabout backdoor kind of a presentation is that they did show some accessibility they put into it. So there were accessibility built in with mine, but you know, it's disappointing because, so they come out with a preview. There's a 10 minute walkthrough of the Apple Vision Pro. So I've watched it and listened to it. Sounds amazing, but like you say, John, is that this is so visually enriched and powerful for those with vision. I was disappointed that they didn't have a separate trailer for those with disability and things that we can do with it. If you really are touting about accessibility and stuff, why aren't you making it that? Why, I get it. You don't have to put in the original mainstream walkthrough, but make a trailer for us too, if you're really serious about it, because now we're in the dark. Nobody out there knows what this will mean for us and what can we really use. And we'll find out in a couple of weeks, I'm sure. We'll start hearing things in terms of accessibility and if it's worth it or not. If it doesn't allow me to use Aira, Be My Eyes, or anything like that, forget it. I'm not, if you're making me use what they got, and that is tech detection, door detection, pointing and speak, forget it. It's not going to be worth it, that price at all for me. So we'll have to see. And it's not just $34.99, that's just the basic model. So if you want more storage, it's gonna cost you more. And gosh, what was I reading? $200 for a travel case? - Oh yeah. - The battery pack. So the battery pack that lasts for two and a half hours, if you want a external, if you want another battery, $200. How does a battery that only lasts for two and a half hours worth $200? - I don't, it doesn't make any sense. - Maybe the high-end audience can afford it, but I'm not so sure how many of them really can. But that seems to be who Apple's going after. But that's a lot of money. - It is a lot of money. And for, it's definitely for a niche market. You're not selling a lot of it. We'll see how that goes. But there's been great reviews. Those that have had the chance to use it and that have visual sight, have eyes, they say it is awesome. The only thing I've heard that people, some people, and it doesn't surprise me 'cause the AirPod Max was the same thing. Because it's such a large device, it's gonna be kind of heavy. And it's very heavy. I heard it's a pound and a half that's sitting on your face. So you can imagine having a pound and a half of a hamburger pack on your face, just pulling. And so I heard that it's not so bad at first, but after 20 minutes, some people are getting head fatigues and so their neck's starting to get sore and stuff. - Yeah, so if you're listening to this and you're going into college, maybe consider chiropractic. 'Cause in a couple of years, all these people walking out with these weights on their faces are gonna need some neck adjustments. - Right? It's like you need a counterbalance. Maybe this one I could sell. I can put a pound and a half bean bag on the back of your head to counter. There you go. - Plastic surgery might really start to be prevalent in the next few years. - There you go. - Just need some Christmas ornaments full of concrete to hang on the back of it. - Now, here's the kicker to really think about. And that is, yeah, it was quick to sell out, but have anybody noticed this? Is that that first two days, it slipped out to five to seven weeks, stomped. Seems like nobody else is buying it. So all those that wanted it, got it. You tell me that the billion units that we have now that Tim Cook says that there's a billion devices using Apple in the world, you only got to sell 160,000 of these and there's no more selling. So it makes me wonder, because I was thinking it's going to be completely sold out and it's going to be delayed for months and months and months and then maybe entirely for the rest of the year. That was not the case. With the iPhone, it could be delayed for three or four months and people were okay with that. But this, it's only been pushed back for five, seven weeks and it's just stopped. It's just like there aren't any more. It makes me wonder how, if this baby's going to fizzle out and not sell a whole lot more. But they claim they're going to sell a million of these this year. So we'll have to see. I am curious, but we'll have to wait and see. But finally, the Apple Vision Pro is out. So let us know if you got one or if you played one, send me an email at [email protected]. I would love to hear about it. I know, I don't think any of our team members had the opportunity, will have the opportunity to go check it out other than going to the store. All right, now, Mike, here comes. Here comes the bad taste with Apple that we're talking about. And the writing is on the wall, guys. The garden wall, I think, is starting to crumble, part one. So this is what we are talking about when Mike talked about the Epic versus Apple. So some, I think it was back 2020, when Apple kicked out Epic app out of the store. Why? Because what they did, they made a link to an external payment so they wouldn't have to pay the 30% tax that Apple requires when you purchase things on the app store. So because of that, Epic got kicked out and then Epic took Apple to court. So four years later, here we are. And gosh, I think it was last year where Epic won part of it and Apple won part of it. And that is Epic won, meaning that, yes, you should have the rights to have an external payment store. And Apple won because it was not found being monopolist. So with that, it took all this time that Eaton went all the way up to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court says, "We're not going to pick up on this. We are going to leave it as is what lower court has decided." And so that is as is. So with that, Apple was forced to now allow developers to have in their apps to either purchase it from the Apple app store or add link to an external payment site of their choice of the developer. Problem is, oh my God, I was like, I can't believe they did this. Apple decided, "Okay, we'll play that game." And they are being so selfish and mean. So what they're making Epic do in other companies is sure, we will now give you a link, not a problem, but it's going to cost you 27% instead of 30%. And that defeats the whole point of them going to court entirely which tried to avoid the tax. But in theory, yeah, that court never really decided what it should be or what it should, I get that. So I think Apple is abusing this challenge and abusing what we all know what that meant when they should have rights to the external payment. And get this, they are expecting their developers, if you do have external payment center or site that you keep track of all the things you sold and then we are to gather that record and then we will charge you 27% of what you gathered up. I was like, are you kidding me? How is that going to work? And why do you think that would even work? - I would hate that job too. I'm just the guy that looks at receipts and just sends a bill. Like that would not be a fun job for me. This whole concept, this whole thing is just kind of crazy. Like it doesn't surprise me, but I don't know. I was, I guess, hoping for something better than this, which all the new changes because of the EU coming down the pipeline just make me so happy. 'Cause I'm like, Apple can hole up over here and man the barricades, but there's only so much you can do. - I'm surprised, I'm okay that Apple took them to court because they developed the App Store, they made all this. I understand, I understand. If I made something and people try to tear down my wall, I get it. It's something that I made that you want to tear me down and that's fine. But it went through fair process, it went through court and this is the end result. You have to say, okay, it's going to happen. And only to do this? - Yeah, Apple's trying to give Epic Games their bill too. - Right? Is that if you guys didn't think that was insulting enough, now Apple is telling Epic they owe them, Epic owes Apple $74 million for their legal fees that it took to go through court. Now, granted, it did say in the lawsuit and Epic did agree that if something were to happen like this that they would pay and foot their bill. But it just doesn't sound great. It's kind of like Apple is being like a whiner. 74 million is nothing. Come on, for Apple? And then to say, fine, knowing that we're gonna charge you 27%, we also want our money back for the lawsuit. And I just think-- - It's crazy. - I think they're going to, you know, I know, everybody knows they're gonna lose this. They're gonna go back to court. They're gonna lose this again. And so why waste the court time and everybody's money and time when you know this is coming down? Or could you at least make it not so excessive? I mean, the whole point was 30%. Make it 10%, make it 5%, say, all right, that's fine. Here's 10% to at least support what we have in structure and running, right? - Yeah, I mean, I feel like that would have been maybe a reasonable choice to make, but here we are. - What do you think, John? - I agree, and we're in a situation where the big company is trying to rule everything. And I don't think that they should get away with it at all. I mean, come to a reasonable outcome, I mean, they're gonna make plenty of money down the line anyway, so. - Well, let me turn the table, okay? What if I were to say, I think Apple is trying to say, we're trying to protect you because now you're being sent to an external payment. How do you trust them with your credit cards and your payment that they're going to do the right thing and isn't going to be stolen and whatever not? Now you got that headache to deal with. So what do we do with that? But before you say, well, we'll use Apple. What if I say, what if it comes down to that Netflix or Epic says, you can only purchase this externally. You cannot use your Apple Pay on this anymore. You cannot use the Apple Dome that is so secured and private. Now you're giving your credit numbers, all your personal information to another people. That's the whole point why I love the App Store, 'cause I know I can trust Apple with my information and credit cards. That's the whole point. And I think that's what Apple is trying to say, but I get it. I get it that you can't exclusively be monopolist and just have yours only and nothing else. So I'm kind of worried that Epic and Netflix and all these people are going to jump ship and go external at some point when they go through court again and say, they can't charge that obsessive. This is not fair. But what are your thoughts on that when I turn the table? - Mine's quick. If at the end of the day for me, I can pay 30% less, I'll take the risk. - I would agree with that. And I would also say, I'm just getting so sick of companies and governments trying to tell me that they're trying to protect me and that they're looking out for me. They're looking out for themselves. And if they can turn it around, then they will. I'm just very cynical these days because it's so many of these entities have said that and they've got something completely the opposite in mind. And I don't know whether it's that case with Apple or not, but it's just, they're playing games. - They are definitely playing games. But as an Apple fanboy I am, I hope that they continue to allow us to continue to use Apple Pay when I purchase things. So I hope that exists for both ends so I have a choice. But saying that, like Mike says, now it would be different if Netflix would give me a discount if I use their external. Now, if you do that, then yes, obviously we would want to do that. But it would only be companies I would trust like Netflix, not saying that they aren't foolproof, but they'd be a heck a lot better than some third party in a different country and that I never heard of. That is where I'm kind of worried. And I think it's only gonna hurt some developers out there if they choose to go that route. But at the same note, there are gonna be suckers and people that do that. So you know there's going to be a few out there and I promise you there's gonna be some out there that's gonna be a scam. Like you pay it and never comes out and then they get kicked out. It's just this whole fraud thing, I wish it would never be at all. So this is what is going to happen now. The can of worms is now out and these are the consequences that we both are going to have to suffer. I don't like what Apple did, but at the same note, things are going to get less secured for us at same time. Now, to follow up that the Apple wall garden is crumbling part two, we'll talk about the EU and what's going on over there. Now we've been touting for years about the Digital Marketing Act and how that passed. And we know as of March 7th of this year is the month of that and the day that those companies like Apple will now have to offer sideloading, which means that you are now able to get apps outside of the Apple App Store, which is sounds great and wonderful. And so it sounds like Apple is going down that track. Now, I've seen where Tim Cook is visiting the EU and all that and he's trying their hardest, but they know they lost. So they are pretty much given up and say we are going to do it. So it does sound like it's going to come. It's not just about external app store. It's also about external payment store and the NFC, which I think originally, I think Apple should have had open from the get-go. I don't think it's right that Apple only NFC for them and them only. I totally agree. Now the app store, I have a little different feeling about it, but when it comes to the NFC and Bluetooth and all these things that they tighten up, you can only use with Apple Apple. That's I don't get, but this sounds like they're going to be opening that up as well. Now it's saying that, it sounds like Apple has already in the process of making two different app store now. Those that have to comply with the EU and other countries that may have access to external. So you're going to have two completely apps, two different app stores. I don't know what that means. If I can't imagine if that means for the developers, if they have to post it in both places, it's I can't imagine, but any who I don't know all the details, but it's saying all this, it's kind of funny 'cause I just read an article here that Microsoft is going to be one of the first company to offer its own app store to replace your Apple app store. So you'll have a pretty reliable another company that we could probably could. I mean, to me, it would be a lot better than John Smolls app store that doesn't have any regulations or security and I would be leery. So this is part two of the Apple garden wall is crumbling. So what do you guys think about that? - You make a pretty good case for it. That's for sure. And I, you know, we'll have to wait and see, but years ago, if you remember, Apple never lost a case, right? And we just kind of went along with whatever happened. Now, whether it's different leadership or lawyers, Apple is not as strong in that regard. They're still very strong. I mean, they got a lot of money behind them and they're a huge corporation, but they've come out on the short end of the stick a couple of times here. - This is big. You know, we've been, they've been touting and the Apple wall garden. I mean, we use that word because that is their own wall and that's their own garden. That's been kind of used here and there everywhere. And one of the many reasons why Android users just hate Apple because of their wall garden. I wonder how much that will change as a Android user now that you're able to download your own apps. You can do the changes, you can do everything you want, but using Apple products. So I am curious how that's gonna change the realm of those with that mindset, what they'll be able to do. Again, this is kind of a same discussion I had in the previous one. You know, Apple, again, this is a win-win for some people that want this and that's great, but it's also kind of a loss loss for us consumer because we have always been protected. We always had that security and that's what made iPhone work the way it does. That's why it never crashed so hard because you installed the 30 party and it was poorly written and protect us that we know that there aren't fraud with that app. Now you're gonna have to deal with, do I trust this itty bitty company app to work or do I trust that this Netflix update isn't going to crash my phone instead of just not working the app, at least my phone was still working. And golly, Jesus, you start making some internal changes to make things some tweaks here and there. You're now getting into the realm of where we had that protection and love. Now you're talking about Apple starting to get some really bad grades because it's not their fault. Of because things are crashing and bombing. Now we're in the Android land where we have security to worry about and to contend with. So it'll be interesting to see how it works in the EU. And, but like you said, though, John, I guess it's been a long time coming. I know here in the States, we're gonna find out in March, I think that the antitrust law, I think it's gonna, if the writing's on the wall, I think it's going to happen worldwide. We're going to open this up. - Yep, would love it. - You would love that. - Yeah, at the end of the day for me, I feel like deciding to get an app from somewhere, like if you don't check, if you don't verify, that's your problem. And I like having the option to make that choice. I haven't jailbroken anything in a long time, but I used to do it all the time. And it was wonderful 'cause I could change so many things that Apple didn't or wouldn't do that made my phone so much better. Like I really enjoyed being able to do that. But I don't know, I just feel like it comes down to the individual. If you're comfortable taking that risk and you know how to do your research into what you're getting yourself into, then go for it. And if you don't or don't have the maybe time or patience to dig into it, then stay where it's safe. It just gives the users back the choice, which I think is the most important part. - I'm in agreement. I like choices and I think this will only open up to much more and better things to come. At the same note that you got to know is that the Apple App Store will always be there. If you want to stay in the wall garden, it's not like you're forced to. You have the option and choice to do that. Now, if an app that you want isn't on the Apple App Store, then that's the risky option you have to decide on. And I think AppleViz will now become a whole new realm of now not only is this app accessible, now I'm starting to think, is it reliable? Is it a chalk with a bug? Is it gonna crash my device? What kind of things and is it safe? So it's like it gives us a whole new boost for AppleViz when it comes to checking on apps and it'll be interesting. So it's just the eye of the beholder of what you think of this. I know some are gonna hate it, but like I said, I think you could just stay with the App Store if you want. Now, again, if Netflix decided to jump ship and only offer to the Netflix App Store, you're not gonna have a choice. So you're gonna have to depend on that. And you need to know that it may do funky things with your device and that never happened before. You cannot blame Apple. And I think that's gonna be very hard to explain that to people as they're gonna continue to bash on Apple 'cause things don't work the way they're supposed to. All right, boy, Tom is on a roll today. - Right here, folks, Mr. Attitude. Oh, man, well, it sounds like John and Mike are with me on this, I think. - Yep, yeah. - I got support, all right, you guys got my six, all right. Nice. All right, let's talk about iOS 17.3 that just came out this week. Mike, I can't believe this is this. So 17.2, last time we were talking about it, it was supposed to come out in December and it did. And I mentioned, hey, check out the music collaboration on the playlist, you can share that. And they removed it at the very last week of a release of 17.2, so it never came out. But thankfully, it did come out in 17.3. I don't know why they delayed it, but it's now back out. The stolen device protection is kind of a big deal. There are some pros and cons to this. I'm kind of concerned about this just a wee bit, 'cause I don't think some people out there like my mom is gonna totally understand this, because when you install 17.3, it's gonna ask you about that. Hey, do you want to protect your device even further? Sure I would, I mean, why wouldn't anybody do it? And you hit that yes. I don't think they realize the circumstance. So essentially what Apple did is they gave us a new feature to tighten down the phone. If it gets stolen or thieves takes our devices, it prevents them from, when they do get into the device, being able to change your Apple ID, erase your phone, things like that, which is great, right? Thinking, that's wonderful. But I don't think people realize or understand is that you, as a consumer, then I do have the biometric. Well, you are also gonna be kind of hindered by that and certain things are not gonna be able to be changed, for example, if I go to my T-Mobile store, that's my carrier here in the States that I use, and I get a new phone, you're not gonna be able to be able to turn off the Find My to, 'cause they always tell you to turn off your Find My and then erase your phone and you hand over your device and get a new device. Well, you're not gonna be able to do that because you're not at home or a location that you frequently go to. So when you are home or work, it knows automatically these are the frequent location and it's safe there. So I can then turn off my Find My, whatever. So you have to think in advance to turn that off. So I can imagine when you show up and they're gonna say, "Sorry, you're gonna have to go back home, "making a new appointment, next time you come, "make sure you turn this off before you come to the store." So there are gonna be some things that you are going to be surprised that you can't access when you're not at home. So just think about that for you too. I don't know if you guys enabled that yourself. - Not yet. - Nope. - Nope. - Not yet, in fact-- - I don't wanna mess with this right now. - I don't even remember getting the prompt. - It may not give me the prompt. It did for me, some people said they didn't. I was like, "Hmm, okay." Or maybe they removed it from the GM release. Maybe it was too confusing for people like I was mentioning to, like my mom would say, "Well, hell yeah, I'll turn that on." Maybe they're finding that out and says, "Well, maybe we'll bury this." And if you hear about it, maybe you'll know a little bit more before you turn it on. - There's an article written about how to enable it. Maybe I'll go into Settings and look for it. - Yeah. - And just see. There is, if you go under Settings, and if you have a Face ID, it's called Face ID and Pass Codes. If you're those with Touch ID, it'll say Touch ID and Pass Code. Go in there, and then it's under Stolen Device Protection, and you can enable it and disable it there. Right underneath there, there's a link. If you double-tap that, that'll take you to the Apple Support page to talk more about it, what it does and what you're doing. So just something to think about. Also comes with new wallpapers with it, guys. - Woo! - Oh, my gosh. - How is that? - Oh! - Hey, look, it looks pretty, John. - Man, I'll tell you what. If I'd have known that that was there, I would have, immediately upon finishing the installation, I would have checked into that. - Oh, I, oh, right. - It's like every time the first-- - By golly, that's the first thing I check. - Yeah, and all the new emojis, too. - Right? - Gosh, yeah, yeah. - What new-- - My favorite. - Unfortunately, nilch, zilch, nada, zero, no. Every word I can say, say no. There are no voiceover fixes. We are finally at that point where they just gave up or they're just moving on to 18. We're not gonna get any more fixes. - Hey, who knows? Maybe now that the EU's putting 'em in their place, maybe they can focus some of their attention back on their software. - Right? - Finding cord all over the place. - Hey, Apple, if you're listening, your contact poster isn't accessible. - (laughs) Yeah. - Okay. Your main feature from WWDC. Anyway, moving on, yo. Before I wrap up, I am gonna talk to you about the latest news I've heard with the iPhone 16 that's coming up this year. I know, I know. Some of these things are kinda interesting. I wanna just kind of throw this back on you guys. I'm kind of, again, I'll explain myself in a moment here. So the mention of we talked about how the new iPhone 16 Pro and the Pro Max is going to get larger screen. That is still on track. Sounds like that is going to be coming. As we get further into a couple more months, we'll see if that comes true. But so far, it is by a lot of leakers or sources out there still saying that's going to be. Now, here's the kicker, guys. And I didn't mention this last time because I was like, eh, it's too early. But now we're starting to get more and more people on board and saying it's gonna happen. They're gonna add a new button. What? Yeah, it's called the capture button. It's gonna be below your power button or your side button. And at first, nobody really knew what it was going to be used for. And I thought capture button, maybe that has something to do with a photo. You could take like your selfie now with it. But you know, hold your phone and find the side button and find a button that would be, that's not in a great location to like take a picture in front of you. Like you're taking picture of your family. I think that sucks. I don't think that's very good. Not only that, but here's my gripe about this new capture button that it sounds like it's gonna be a thing. And I'll explain what they say what the capture button does. Steve Jobs, when he first came out with the iPhone, you know why he loved the iPhone? There was no buttons. It's minimal, simplistic. It's only got buttons that you need. That's it. Now I feel like that Steve Jobs is probably turning his gray because now we add the action button and now we're gonna have a capture button. It's like, are we going back to the buttons again? So I'm not a big fan of keep adding buttons to devices. I think this is the wrong direction. I understand the idea once I understood what the capture button is. But for us, it's gonna be deadly. It's not gonna be as quiet for us. So apparently it's for video. And my understanding is that it is meant to be held horizontal. So you're supposed to hold your phone horizontal so that capture button is towards the top. And if you swipe left or right on the button or on the capture button, it will zoom in. If you lightly press it, it will focus. And if you press hard, it'll start the video. So I get that they've been advertising and touting and doing huge PR for years about how awesome their camera is and the video and the capture of it. I'm not, even if I was sighted, I don't think I want that capture button. I think that you're going against the grain of what Steve Jobs wanted. So hand over to you guys. So what do you guys think of the new capture button that might be coming on your iPhone 16? - I just hope with all these other changes that we can maybe purpose that to do something else. I can think of other things I'd want it to do, but not, I never take videos ever. - Right, we take pictures, but that's what the action button is for. It does have an option to take picture. So I'm thinking, all right, so they're kind of, why didn't you make that in the action? Could do the same thing. Just redefine the button a little bit so it'd be the same result so we can do, but then they'll say, well, you can't do it horizontally. I'm thinking, well, all right. I'm thinking my wife and everybody I know of, when they take video, they don't do it horizontally. That's just me. But you're right. You would hope that they give you some other option to, other than capture. I'm not sure if they will because the action button is, that's what the, that's designed for. - Yeah, I don't understand it. - I totally agree. I rarely use video, but I understand what Apple's doing. They're aiming for a sighted group of people and they didn't have cameras or video on the iPhone. There'd be nothing to promote. (laughs) - Yeah, they're probably thinking about all these TikTok users out there. - Probably, you're right. - To make new TikTok videos. - They're trying to entice the people of convenience. And I don't know, I'm just not a fan. It's like, okay, are we going back to buttons again? You might as well just put a full size quarter keyboard on the back now. - Hey, I just saw that there was a company, CES, that has that kind of case for your iPhone now. It adds like two extra inches to the bottom of your phone, but it's a whole, like the old blackberries. - Right. - You get that case now, yeah. - Got the little chicklets. I think it's called click or something like that. (laughs) That, I was like, oh my gosh. And people were very excited for that. And I was like, oh, Steve Jobs is going to, he's, you know he's flipping in the grave. That's, he got away from that. And then lastly, before I, I'll mention is that they noticed in the code of iOS 18, that this is interesting. I'll have to see this to believe it later, that they're going to go back to where the iPhone 16, they all have the same chip. So there aren't two different chips where we have now, where the 15 and 14 are using the year old, older chip of the previous year. So it'll be interesting if that comes. And by the way, this sideloading, I bet, and I haven't seen anywhere, I'm just guessing. I bet we're going to see 17.4 when beta comes out, that it's going to show us that sideloading and all that stuff is coming. So I'm anxious to see if that is going to be the thing. All right. So what's new in Apple Viz for the month, gentlemen? I am going to start with the first two things and we'll close it up. Got some sad news here. I just heard today that menus for all is discontinuing and we'll be ending the end of February. - Yeah, low, low sales. Get 'em in. - You know, they make a good statement. They had a great blog about it and saying, you know, assistive technology, the problem with assistive technology is that there aren't many people buying things. So, I mean, that explains why Braille displays and everything is so outrageous and expensive is because the business model, they got to have sales. And if you don't have very many people using it, they're going to be discontinued. I'll be honest. I kind of knew from day one when menu for all came out that it was going to be gone within a year. And the reason I say that is that the developer themselves said they poured so much money into development for that. If they don't get the money back, they're going to be folding within a year. And I said, all right, you're folding within a year. If you, it's unfortunate. It's really sad that they aren't going to get the money back as they want it. But there was a lot of complaints at first about it because a lot of people are saying this should be free. It should be, accessibility should be free all across the, no matter where you live, that stuff should be already free to us. And so I get their point, but yet I don't. You know, there were Braille menus you could probably do and you can download it from their website of the store, but it made it convenient that I was able to just kind of see what is around me and what's on it before I went. So it's sad to see it go. I thought it was a bit overpriced. They wanted, I can't remember how much it was. I made a podcast that I said is a little expensive for me. If it was this price, I would probably go for it. If it was 99 cents or maybe $2 a month, I'd probably go with it, but it was pretty pricey from the get-go. - And I think also one of their major problems was that they had a database which wasn't very big overall. And a lot of it was fast food. And there was no real way to find a good sit down, restaurant or nice restaurant. It was all fast food type stuff. And while that's okay, you gotta give more than just that choice. - There was a lot of duplicates I saw. If I were looking to say a Mexican joint that I have here, it would show up, but it would show up like four times. It was, they were using a third party database. And I know that is probably the only way they were gonna be able to have millions of point of interest or places to be in there. Sourcing would be difficult for them to get all that information into one. But there were some funky bugs in there and it was never fixed. Just different things. But I think new technology comes along with Be My Eyes. Now you can just scan your menu and have it read to you. I think that kind of took things away from them and things like that. - It's probably not a reason for a developer to come along and come up with a new app, 'cause now we can do that with Be My Eyes and InVision and seeing AI, and pretty quickly too. - Well, I feel bad for people that do use it and love it. And I can see why you love it. It's a great app. And it's sad to know that if a developer is thinking about making something for us, that they have that to contend. I think about that all the time for audio games. It's like they're pigeonholing their own app that's gonna be reliable on the blind community to support them financially. And I can tell you right now, that ain't gonna happen. - No way. - I think especially when it's in something like in the case like this, that for people that can see, get it for free. 'Cause you can just go to a restaurant and look at the menu, not an issue. I think that's part of the issue too, is nobody else has to pay for this kind of information. And I'm sure that was a big barrier for myself for sure, but I'm sure others as well. That was part of why I didn't pull the trigger. I was like, I don't want to pay for something that everybody else just gets. And I also had it convenient that I have people with eyeballs around me that can tell me what's on it. - ACB, NFB doesn't have something like that. I'm surprised as much as they do, they don't do something similar to that into their own service. We have NFB Newsline that has papers and it's got everything underneath the sun. It does elections, ballots. It tells us what's gonna be on the election. I'm just kind of surprised those two haven't done it. It would be kind of cool if one of those two would pick them up and improve on it, that I think that case, it'd be something that they purchase and we wouldn't have to worry about subscription. I would use it hands down. But anywho, that's the news for Applebiz. Now as we close here, as we always do you guys here, now I have one question for Mike, I think, 'cause John, you don't play Dice World, right? - Never have. - Okay. Now, Mike, Dice World, you and I play all the time, right? - Yep. - And let me ask you something. I want to talk about Dice World etiquette. Would you think, if I told you this, if I keep continuously lose or whatever, how do you do it? If you win a game, do you ask him, hey, I wanna play a game because I won. I want you to be last to roll because that's advantage of being the person that accept it because you're the last person to roll so you could try and try to beat him. But anyway, if you're a loser, would it be an etiquette to say if you win, you should be the one that tells the other person, let's play again. - That's how we do it. My girlfriend's family, I got most of them playing it, so I've got games with them and whoever wins is the one to reissue the challenge. - Good, I'm glad you're on my line. I get people that I play over and over and over and I win a few, I lose a few, sometimes I lose a lot, but every single time, they never, never, ever request for a game. So those that have been playing with me dice roll, it's like, I wonder why Tom not play me. That's because that reason, folks. - Yep. - Call me a bud. - Yeah, after like the first day when like a game would end and both people would challenge the other person and then we have like 10 games with four different people. - Right. - It's getting crazy, so we all made an agreement. - Yeah, and it was confusing because I don't want to start another Fargo game that you ask and I ask and we got two games going on at the same time. I just want one Fargo, one four, 24, whatever it is. - They really should just add a line of code that when you hit that button to challenge the person again, to have it check and go, hey, they actually just challenged you. Are you sure you want to start a new game or do you want to just accept that one? - Right. - It'd be an awesome feature. - That would be an awesome feature. I think that's a great idea. I, well, that's been bugging me for the past month, so I'm sorry for those that have been playing me and I haven't played with you for a while and you wonder why. It isn't, it's not because I'm mean. I just think it's an etiquette because I don't think it's fair that you get the last roll on Fargo every single game if I'm losing constantly. - Yeah. - Okay, so I don't know, John. This is, is this a third world problem that Tom is having? (laughing) - I should probably just say yeah, just to get a reaction out of you. (laughing) - I am not playing dice roll with you then, John. Hit or die. - That's okay. I've never played for, and for no particular reason. I just have never, never bothered. - Probably just don't have the time. - Well, that too. Although I've got more time now, but I just, it's not a high priority for me. - Oh, it's a fun game, man. I love when Mike and I play 'cause it hasn't been one-sided, so that's kind of good. - He's good at Nazi, I will tell you that. - God, our Fargo games have been something. I think I've lost most of those, but actually it's been going better for me. - Right, but I'm starting to learn your strategy, and there's some other people too, is that what you do, you go for five of a kind. You never worry about the small straight and large straight, so I'm starting to see that trend with you. - Yeah, usually that just happens by accident. I'm like, oh, sweet, I forgot I needed that. (laughing) It's not even a strategy, it's just me not thinking about it. - I see three of the same number, like, I'm going for it again. - Yeah, yeah. What's going on with you, Mike? Anything you wanna share with us for the month? - I've got a movie. - Okay. - It's called "Leave the World Behind" by Sam Esmail. He's the director. It's kind of a mystery, sci-fi, thriller, drama, I guess, would be the categories I would stick that in. - Okay. - Essentially, just imagine if tomorrow you went on vacation, you booked an Airbnb, and you get there, and then the internet goes out, and the radio goes out, TV goes out, and you are like, well, that's weird, and you go out to the beach, and you see a big freighter ship just sort of aimlessly coasting, and then it crashes, and satellites are down. The world just kind of falls apart, and then the family that actually owns that Airbnb shows up, and you're all together trying to figure out what's going on. That's the general premise of the movie. - Holy smokes. - It's a fun one. - All right, what do you-- - Oddly enough, executive producers are the Obamas. - Oh, no way! - I wonder what this movie's about that they put their names on, and I enjoyed it. It was good. - Oh my gosh, that sounds really good. So it's a movie, not a series, right? - Yep, on Netflix. - And where do you find this? - A Netflix movie. - Netflix, okay. - Yeah, I enjoyed it. - I'm gonna put that down. I have vacation coming up next week, and so I put Oppenheimer in there. I put, I still gotta see Elemental. I got too much on my list to watch. There's no way I'm gonna watch it all next week, but-- - If you haven't watched Servant yet on Apple TV+, that's a good one, too. - Okay, that is good to know, my man. The only movie I watched, besides the ones we talked about Christmas, obviously I did watch White Christmas, Christmas Story. I watched My Christmas Vacation, and I threw in, oh, what was the fourth one? I can't remember, but I ended up watching Indiana Jones 5. I was disappointed. I now see why it flopped. It just didn't have the Indiana Jones, as we know in the first two movie. - Ever since the Crystal Skull, I-- - Right? - No. I think they just should have stopped back then. - It was just kind of, there's a lot of slow moments where I thought the first two movies, there was action all the time. This one, there's only a few great scene. I can't imagine it was great, but I was disappointed, but I still give it three out of five. - Yeah, honorable mention, too, Greyhound. Watch it all on Apple TV+. - That was good. - And the action starts right away and goes all the way to the end. It was-- - Right? - Yeah, you just get right into it. - Tom Hanks. - Tom Hanks. I gave that, to me, I love that movie so much. I gave that five out of five. - Yeah, I give it four. It was very good. - Yep, I absolutely loved it. How about you, John? Anything new with you you'd like to share? Did you go on any Disney experience? - Let's see. Well, I did Candlelight in December with Disney, of course, and that was a lot of fun. And we're planning on going out to do a birthday type day. We're, for Larry and I, both at Disney, we just have to pick the dates. And, you know, just-- - Well, thank you, gentlemen, for coming on to Appleviz. I really appreciate you two, and I'm glad that we had a month off during the holidays, and I hope that everyone else as well that's listening had a great holidays and happy new year. Off to 2024 with a bang, and that is going to do for this month, Appleviz Unleashed for January 2024. My name is Thomas Donville, also known as Not a Mouse, along here with Mike Mallarcy and John Gassman. Until next month, guys, take care. Bye-bye. (upbeat music) - Please feel free to contact the Appleviz Unleashed team with a feedback, tips, or questions at [email protected]. This Appleviz podcast has been brought to you by the community of appleviz.com for the latest in resources and tips and tricks to get you the best experience from your Apple device. Visit www.appleviz.com. [MUSIC PLAYING]