Why iPhone?

Hey, this is Steve blue and you are listening

to the geek cast radio network Hello and welcome

to the 340th episode of GeekCaster Radio. I am

one of your hosts, Steve, Joe and Mike. And joining

me, I don't know if this is not his network debut,

because he was on Altered Geek for years and

years. He helped Steve Megatron launch that show.

But I don't know if this person has ever been

on the Geekcast Radio flagship podcast. It is

none other than Mike Booth Ninja Powers. Hello,

sir. How are you? Good. And I believe I have

been. It would have been a like. It would have

been like 2009, 2010. Yep, the early days. Yep.

Probably, most likely. Early, early stuff. Yeah,

I'm gonna have to... Yeah, I went to do some

research on it and then I was like, crap, I have

to do other things. But Mike is here. We are

going to be talking about why iPhone... Oh boy.

So, I've been... So when we started the network...

I had already been watching YouTube for a couple

of years and I got into watching tech YouTubers

at the time. Now this was at a time in 2009 -2010

where it wasn't everybody that's out there on

tech YouTube today. Like the landscape back then

was so totally different. And every once in a

while we would do Attack episode of geek cast

radio hell. I remember this like it's like it's

the back of my hand It wasn't you or Steve or

anybody, but it was other people that I had on

episode 4 of geek cast radio at the time was

all about the iPhone because at the time I just

had I had the iPhone 3gs at the time I think

because I used to be an Apple user But yeah,

how did this even come about like? Did you say

you wanted to be on did I ask yeah, I don't even

remember where where how we got here The genesis

of this episode then so this episode yes this

Okay, so bear with me because I'm it's Friday

after work and I'm a little bit inebriated But

I should be coherent enough to do this podcast.

So I Honestly, I think it's just it stem from

I don't post a lot on social media about anything

and anything that I do post is more. It's more

of it's not for anyone to have an opinion on.

It's more for it's more like journaling for me

at this point, because one of the things I like

about Facebook is just like I like I hit up Facebook

daily, but it's only to look at the memories

like I want to see what I did on this day. for

in perpetuity, you know, so I, I chronicle like,

uh, moments that I, that, that happened in my,

in my life. So I think with this particular instance,

it was just like every September I posted about

my success in Pre -ordering an iPhone and then

I shared I don't even think I did this this year

Usually I share like some unboxing photos of

the new iPhone that I got but I think you saw

my Pre -order stuff my pre -order posts and reached

out to me about wanting to do this episode Yeah,

well because again, like I said I for I want

to say since about late 2019 up until now So

basically the last almost five years I have been

watching a lot of tech YouTube because from 2010

or 11 to 2017, I had a dumb phone. I went back

to dumb phones. I didn't do smartphones anymore.

After the iPhone 3GS, I was just kind of done

and I wasn't in a position to actually be able

to purchase. The next new whatever the next new

thing was I think the last smartphone I remember

having and It's so sad because the only reason

why I loved that phone so much is because it

had the best weather app of any phone ever It

was the HTC Sensation and the only reason why

the HTC Sensation I say has had because it's

no longer around the best weather app ever is

because there were actual, I mean, yeah, the

Google app has it now, but like there were really

good weather app animations. Like I remember

there being a thunderstorm. I opened my phone

and I don't necessarily need to look outside.

I can just look at my phone and I know I'm stupid

folks. I get it. It's okay. But yeah, so basically

after that from like 2012 to 2017, I didn't have

smartphones anymore. And when I met Karen at

the time in 2017, and we upgraded phones and

everything else, I ended up with the Samsung

S nine. Okay. And I've just never think I had

that phone for work. But anyways, that's besides

what keep going. Keep going. Sorry, keep going.

So Yeah, so I had the Samsung S9. I had it in

purple because purple's my thing. Once you go

purple, you never go back. Unless, you know,

you can have it in any color as long as it's

black though. But yeah, so I had that and I had

that for the longest time and I didn't, I'm not

a person that upgrades and this is gonna play

into the conversation and once Mike starts telling

his story, folks, this is why the whole thing

happened. Because, uh, yeah, I'm not a person

that upgrades every year. I'm a person that I

settle into something and I like it and it works

for what I need it to work for what I need it

to do for me. Like my phone is social media.

It's posting about the podcast. It's watching

YouTube. It's watching other things. It's playing

games. It's texting messaging whatever anything

other than actually making phone calls you know

what i wish the phone the phone part part of

the thing doesn't even work i don't need people

to call me just text me like a normal person

so yeah that's me i don't upgrade not often anyway

when karen got really just before karen got really

really sick in 2021 they announced the pixel

6 lineup And I was like, ooh, Tron phone, because

everybody will say that that camera bar reminds

them of the Tron movies, most people anyway.

And I upgraded to that and I was like, oh, I

got the Pixel 6 Pro at the time. And that lasted

me from 2021 up until about three months ago

when I don't know what the hell happened to it.

It was something with the charger, it was something

with the phone, and the easiest way for me to

get a phone without, you know, having to... shell

out large sums of money that I didn't have was

go through the insurance, because literally there

was something broken with the phone. And if I'm

paying for insurance, then why not? They were

supposed to send me an exact replacement, Pixel

6 Pro. They sent me a pixel 7 Pro. So technically

I got a one -year upgrade when I didn't even

read it. It's fine It's whatever I don't really

like like for me the and somebody said this I

forget which tech youtuber it was but like curved

phones or You know curved glass or over the edge

or however, you know curved displays like Where

I hold my phone is in the curvature of where

your index finger and your thumb is it's that

section So that's so it's curved My hand is not

a flat rail. Thank you. It's not a sharp edge.

It's a curved thing so yeah, the 7 Pro is a little

less curved than Than the 6 was but but yeah,

but you sir This this is Mike powers folks Mike

powers how Mike Mike and I met through Steve

Megatron Mike used to do a podcast long time

ago called the lunch table They eventually called

it the lunchroom and it became a few other things

I think and then we we've had him on the cast

radio for years Like I said, he started altered

geek with Steve Megatron. It was the two of them

at the beginning He also did oh, what was the

off the cuff he did off the cuff with Joe art

and And Sean Z. Was there another person with

you guys? That was it. It was also XRG. I did

XRG for you guys. Yep. Yep. Did XRG for us. So

Mike's been around. Mike, there has to be something

special for Mike to come out of his podcast shell,

which that's what this is. And the ultimate question

is after I saw his post about, well, it's my

yearly tradition to get the next new iPhone.

and my the question running through my head is

other than slight camera improvements and Apple

intelligence which is that we will it doesn't

seem to me from all the reviews I've seen of

and you have the iPhone 16 Pro Yes. That's the

one we're going to be talking about tonight,

folks, just for everybody's clarification. He

has the iPhone 16. He has them both. He has the

16 and the 16 Pro, but we're talking about the

Pro. I saw everybody's MKVHD, Mr. Who's the Boss,

Michael Fisher, insert whatever tech YouTuber

you want to put. I saw everybody's iPhone 15.

Even though I'm not in the Apple camp anymore,

I still like to watch the stuff. I still like

to see what's in the stuff. and I like supporting

those people that I watch. So it's one of those

things where I watched all the iPhone 15 Pro

reviews, I watched all the iPhone 16 Pro reviews.

Not much has changed in a year, so why? Explain

why, please. Okay, so this is, first of all,

it's a loaded question, but I just want to preface

this with anyone that would comment or has a

comment to say about. Apple I don't disagree.

I I will never argue again. I will never argue

in favor of Apple for anybody Okay, I just want

to make that abundantly clear. I don't disagree

with what the naysayers say I don't think that

they're wrong and what they say about Apple I

Think that Apple has has a core audience and

I am that core audience there and that doesn't

appeal to everybody And that's fine and to me

that is fine, but you will never I will never

stand and yell at you Like I you know, I I I

don't care. I don't care what phone people people

use. I That's the dumbest thing in the world

But for me I think that I have I still remember

like so my very first my very first phone I got

in 2005 I was broke ass college student and I

Was kind of I was living on my own Very first

cell phone was a free phone from singular. Does

anyone remember what singular wireless was? Oh,

yes At the time it was just I'm just getting

I'm just getting a phone but I had also um, just

a couple years earlier was the was the release

of the ipod and I I I'm a sucker for aesthetics.

I like things that look good I'm a sucker for

clean animations and for really well designed

products um, something that feels good to hold

and to handle so I like I mean, this goes back

earlier than even 2005. This goes back to like

2000, 2001 when I'm like learning about like

building computers and all this stuff. And I

found out that you can't build a Mac. You have

to buy a Mac. Yeah, you can make a hackintosh.

Sure. But I didn't that that never like appealed

to me. And then Apple released like the iPod.

And I'm like, oh, this is really cool. And I

remember seeing my first glimpse of Mac OS 10

on Screen savers on tech tv kids ask your parents

so i love the way that look it was it to me it

was way ahead of anything that windows xp was

doing at the time in fact you saw like windows

xp was trying to do what. Apple was doing which

is what in my opinion? Controversial opinion

here, which is what Windows has always tried

to do but they so they you know Apple releases

the iPod I don't have a Mac at this time. I have

a Windows computer because that's all I could

afford and Apple released the iPod and my cousin

bought one He only had a Windows computer But

the only way to use an iPod with Windows was

with like the music match or the music match

jukebox software. Yep Okay that's the only there

was a there wasn't that there was a plug in that

worked with the music match jukebox software

that. That's how you use the ipod with the windows

computer. And at the time i was i was using windows

media player to manage all of my content because

itunes was nothing yet. Windows. And I told my

cousin I said this is the iPod was really slick.

I loved it from the get -go But I'm like, I'm

not using music match. I'm just not going to

do it when Apple releases iTunes for Windows

I will go out and I will buy an iPod and What

was it? Give me I didn't do any research from

any of this I'm just going off of like my memory

and what I remember So if my timelines a little

fuzzy, I forgive me, but I believe it was like

It was fall of 2002, there was that splash thing

that said hell has finally frozen over. Here's

iTunes for Windows. Today we are announcing that

the second generation iTunes doesn't just run

on the Mac, but it runs on Windows too. Exactly

the same thing on Mac and on Windows. This is

not some baby version of iTunes or the music

store. It's the whole thing. And it was the launch

of the iTunes music store as well across OS X

and Windows. And I kept my word. I went and bought

an iPod. And now I've got this iPod that has

this way of putting, you know, I can put all

my music on it and I can use iTunes. I dumped

Windows Media Player. So fast. So fast. Yep.

There was no competition. And the real thing

that solidified it was with the launch of the

iTunes store, Apple was trying to grab their

market share as fast as possible. So they were

running all these promotions. There was the thing

with Pepsi, where you buy a 20 ounce bottle of

pop and underneath the cap was probably a code

for a free song. Yep right so and there was a

way to cheat that if you get the bottle sideways

you could see what was under the cap before you

even purchased it so you can make sure that you

always bought a pop that had a song. So I quickly

built up I had all of my pirated stuff by my

ripped CDs my torrented stuff and then I had

like legal music that I was. Purchasing from

itunes with caps and then it became. I've got

and I've got this iPod, but the iPod wasn't just

music like the it also was It had a calendar

function to it. It had a contacts app in it It

had all this other stuff, but Windows had no

way of using that stuff Yeah, so all of a sudden

I had this device that I had that had more capability

than what my computer could provide it So it

was later on this was like early 2004, I pulled

the trigger and I went and bought my first Mac.

And it was solely for the purpose of putting

contacts on my iPod. Yep. Which I never used.

Never used. Oh, it was only it was only if you

needed to remember a phone. Like we come from

a generation of folks where. I OK, I can say

these numbers because I don't think they're active

anymore. 6 1 7 5 8 5 8 4 8 7 6 1 7 5 8 5 2 5

3 9 those were one was my grandmother's number

one was our house number like we come from a

generation where we would just remember stuff

because we came from the generation yeah you

had the numbers yeah exactly but i think but

it's okay it's fine So I I you know, I bought

I bought the I I bought I bought an iBook my

very first iBook was a G3 Oh, man, I don't think

it was a G4 I think was a G3 iBook with it was

a hundred megahertz and it had 364 megabits of

RAM so In an airport card, I had to pay extra

for wireless like wireless functionality in the

computer But I love that thing so much and like

it it It really like the you always hear about

how the iPod was a gateway thing to Apple's ecosystem.

And it they got me like it was it was they made

this thing. I had to I got iTunes. I used it.

I loved it. And I was like there was more functionality

I wanted out of it, but I needed to buy an iBook.

So I went and I put myself in debt and I bought

my first iBook just so I could put contacts on

my iPod. And you know i did other things with

it like i learned how to do like i made a couple

of like anime music videos and all this other

stuff and i got like for a little while it was

i've got my ipod i bought like a second ipod

when they came out with like the video ipod i

got i got into like ripping videos to put on

my and and to put on my ipod for a couple of

years and then. I remember I upgraded to my next

Mac and it was like when Apple switched from

power PC to Intel processors in 2006, I bought

a Mac. It was an Intel Core 2 Duo because that

was the hot thing. And I had that. I think I

got that in 2000, like early 2007 is when I got

that. And I love that thing but keep in mind

I had the iPod but so now we're getting into

where like my phones, right? So I had a 2005

I had a very I got my very first phone It was

a free phone when you signed up with a carrier

as a Motorola V 180. It was a little piece of

crap flip phone that had like a blue keypad on

it and my friends very very quickly dubbed it

the toilet bowl phone yeah it was because because

when you open it up the keypad is blue and it

looks like a toilet yep so i mean it was it was

a slick phone but you know okay whatever it did

it it did what it's supposed to i bought it so

i could call people And then I, you know, 2006

rolled around. I moved back home. I moved from

Grand Rapids to back home with my husband, my

family. And I went through the whole like Motorola

rocker phase because like everyone, everyone

in the tech sphere was like, Apple's going to

do a phone. They're going to do something with

phones. It's going to be the iPod. It's gonna

be it's gonna be something and 2006 was kind

of like coming to a close I remember was like

the fall of 2006 and I was like kind of like

I kind of want a new phone But Apple didn't do

anything at WWDC. They didn't do anything at

Macworld in 2006. So I was like, okay fine I'm

gonna upgrade my phone and I went and got a Motorola

sliver And I love that phone too because I again

Maybe I have a maybe I have a because of my first

phone was a this is a longer story jumping ahead

here for a second. But maybe it maybe this is

why I'm so averse to foldable phones. My first

phone was a flip phone and was that crappy V

180 every single phone I've had I've had since

then has been a slab. The sliver was the slab

form of the razor for anyone that doesn't remember

it was. It was I did not remember and I'm yeah,

I did not remember. I'm looking at images of

it right now. Oh, my God. Yes. So it's it's the

it was the razor, but it didn't fold. It wasn't

a clamshell. Yeah. So anyways, I bought that

phone in like late 2006. I was with a, you know,

it's singularly become AT &T has switched over

all this other stuff. And I, you know, I love

that phone. And then along comes was it Macworld

2007? Mm hmm. And right or wrong, I'm just gonna

say this right now, if anyone hasn't ever heard

me on any of the other podcasts that we've done

where we've mentioned Apple products in any way,

shape or form, I don't see myself as having somebody

that I would consider to be a role model to me.

Everyone's like, oh, don't meet your role models.

I don't think I have. There's no one that I'm

like, I'd be worried to meet. I've read several

biographies about him. You know seen movies and

interviews and all this other stuff, but steve

jobs is somebody that I if if I had to pick somebody

that was a role model for me It's steve jobs

I I would watch the keynotes that he did and

i've watched them over and over and over again

and the guy knew how to sell he And I did this

last year in the lead -up to the iphone 15 He

didn't when when he was in charge He wasn't selling

you a product He was selling you an idea of the

ecosystem of, yeah. Yes, that's partially it,

but I think it's more, he's not selling you a

product, he's selling you an experience. He's

not telling you what it does, he's telling you

how it feels to use the product, how it feels

to use the device that they've conjured up out

of thin air. This is a day... I've been looking

forward to for two and a half years. So, three

things. A widescreen iPod with touch controls,

a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough

internet communications device. An iPod. A phone.

And an internet communicator. An iPod. A phone.

These are not three separate devices. This is

one device. And we are calling it iPhone. Today,

today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And

I and I, again, watching all the keynotes, there

was the ones everyone that he did was about selling

the experience. And then unfortunately, when

he had to step down and then eventually he passed

away, which honestly, I can say is probably the

only time I've impact. I've been impacted by

a say. I don't want to say celebrity. I'll say

a famous person's passing. And when I say I was

impacted I don't mean I was in tears or saying

I couldn't go to work or anything like that But

it was like one of those things like I'm never

gonna get to see this guy present anything again

Like in that and that was pretty much the extent

of it. Like I wasn't like Woe is me or anything

like that cuz I don't know him. I didn't know

Him, okay I'm just saying cuz there are people

that take things to the extreme Okay, well gee,

thanks for calling me out well Just a brief because

this is that this actual it's funny you even

talking about this. This is actually good I wrote

about this I wrote about quote -unquote Celebrity,

you know deaths and things like that or having

grief over famous people passing kind of thing

I wrote a blog about this because like for me,

it's like if I get a chance to talk to like I

If I mention the name David Wise, what is the

first thing you think of? I honestly, I couldn't

even tell you. Okay. Okay. You don't. Okay. It's

fine. No, no, no, no, no. I just wanted to make

sure because I don't want to throw a name out

there that you may or may not know. And I don't

want to make it sound like I'm treating you like

you're stupid and you're not obviously. Hello.

I'm not saying that at all. I just want to make

sure. So David wise was the writer on, he did

written episode. He did writing for transformers,

cartoons that you want to cartoon in the eighties.

He did, he, uh, Cemented the 87 turtles character

is a he's an animation writer. Okay when he died

Back in like I said 2010 -20 whatever it was

that he passed away it affected me to the point

of oh my god I've interviewed this guy like I

I had a chance to have an experience with him.

So I see where you're coming from I see where

you're it but for me, it's like If any anyone

affects me in any way whether it's just what

like Robin Williams Robin Williams pat dying

basically the whole world just let out a big

cry session because of all the movies that he

started and of all the stuff that he said and

everything else and just You just have that reaction.

So I understand that you don't and that's fine

I'm not trying to make this whole thing about

that. This is more, you know, but Anyway, maybe

I shouldn't have stepped on that landmine. It's

OK. Well, we kind of have to because Steve isn't

with us anymore. But so but everything after

every keynote that they had done, which I don't

think Macworld went on too much longer that after

that, but like WWDC, the iPhone announcements,

everything post Steve or start, well, jobs or

whatever you want to call them was became. more

about selling you the product, not the experience.

And that is very apparent when you watch them

all back to back. Oh, yeah. And so I just when

I when he got up on stage in 2007, which is pretty

much like the height of I mean, Apple has obviously

gotten bigger since 2007. But like that was It

was groundbreaking. Yeah. And I don't think,

I don't think they get enough credit for the

showmanship that was in that presentation. I

don't think they get enough credit for what they

announced and what they did, uh, from various

people. Um, but, but he got up there and I was

like, Oh, again, hook, line, sinker. I was like,

I had to have it. But at the time it was here's

this phone in it. And at the time it was it's

four 99. as they weren't going to do the subsidized

model. It was, there's no contract. There's no

nothing. You go in, you pay this price. You are

not under contract with the carrier. And I was

like, I was like, well, I can't, I can't, I can't

do that. And I remember it came out at the end,

at the time it came out in the middle of summer.

And I worked, it was, I don't remember what I

was doing. I think I worked Friday nights and

then I worked Saturday nights at the movie theater

or something. I don't remember what my schedule

was exactly then, but I remember before I went

into my shift, I stopped into my local AT &T

store and they had the kiosks set up there. This

is interesting because I can relate this to another

product that I just purchased, but when Apple

shows their products, they tend to look bigger

than they actually are in real life. And so I

kind of thought that about the iPhone at the

time. I was like, man, that thing looks huge,

especially compared to my sliver. It won't, you

know, it's going to, it whatever. And I, and

I went into the, I went into the Apple store

and I was like, this was the dumbest idea. I,

this, I should not have done this. I, I literally

went into work after playing with the phone.

I, I touched it. No one came and talked to me

at the AT &T store. I picked up the demo thing.

I looked at it for all about. five minutes, I

swiped through a couple of things, I didn't play

any games, I didn't have a chance to use any

of the features, I was like, I left there going,

I have to get this. And I spent, I remember it

was a Saturday night, I spent all, the phone

came out on Friday, it was a Saturday night,

I was working at the movie theater, I spent all

night at the theater when I wasn't running around,

threading projectors, like, how do I get this?

How can I make this work? Because I know that

I've got a credit card. I can just go and buy

it. But it's like, how do I make sure that I

can pay this thing off? Yep. And I remember I

got out of work at two o 'clock in the morning.

I'd already made arrangements with my sisters

to go to the mall. I didn't want to go to AT

&T and buy it. I went to the Apple Store. And

my closest Apple Store was an hour away. I got

out at two o 'clock in the morning. I didn't

sleep. I came home. I was reading all the reviews.

I was looking at all this stuff and I got up.

I got my sisters up early and we went down to

the mall. We were there when they opened the

AT &T store open. And I remember I walked into

the store and it was the only first and only

time I'd ever seen this in the Apple store. Every

table that they had was completely cleared of

all devices and they had still have one of these.

There were iphone bags it was a heavy duty almost

plasticky bag like foldable bag that has like

the shoelace handle thing and it had a print

of the iphone on the box and it are on the bag

and it was black and in each bag there was already

an iphone in each bag and the store was All of

them and there was no wine I walked in I walked

in and I said I want I think I said I think I

got the cheapest one there was like I think there

was a four or an eight and then at the release

an eight anyways, I walked in and I said I just

need the cheapest one that I can get and I got

it and I walked out and that it changed like

everything for me because My I had never had,

okay, I had a phone. I didn't have, when I worked

at the movie theater, I did a double on Saturdays.

Like from almost the moment that I worked, that's

what it was. Friday night I went to the Apple

store and I went to the AT &T store, I looked

at the phone, I knew I had to have it. I went

in on Saturday to work and I did a double and

I sat there for 17 hours thinking about how I'm

gonna buy this phone. When i would go into work

on saris and keep i'd already been working at

the theater for a year. Right saturdays to me

didn't exist the world didn't exist for me on

saturdays. Okay, so I would get up at 8 o 'clock

in the morning. I would drive into the theater

I get out at 2 a .m Maybe I would go out with

a couple people after the after work was done

But I'd be home by 3 and I would go to sleep

and I wake up on Sunday So my my week was literally

like there was Friday and then there was Sunday

I had no contact with anybody on Saturdays No,

I didn't know what was going on in the outside

world and then all of a sudden I I was able to

Engage with my friends on Saturday. I was able

to visit all the forums all the web the websites

that I went to all the RSS feeds that I would

look look through on like, you know Sunday through

Friday I had access to all that stuff and it

just it changed everything for me and The next

year there was a thing, you know, they came out

with the 3g and I because because I bought the

first phone it was under contract they did the

subsidized thing for that year so oh it only

cost me two hundred dollars I can afford two

hundred dollars so let me go okay so I went and

bought it for two hundred dollars and then I

don't remember what happened with the 3gs I think

I got somebody else to Sign I think I added like

a family member and they ported their phone in

but because they ported their phone in their

line was eligible for an upgrade So I bought

the 3gs for $200 on their phone on their line

So it kind of went it is so from there. It was

like this tick -tock thing, right? So I was like

with the iPhone 4 I was able to buy it with my

I was able to do it under my contract So I was

like, okay, here's 200 more dollars. Give me

a new phone and the story and Which for I don't

know how we want to do this But I'm just gonna

say right now the iPhone 4 and the 4s is one

of my top iPhone designs hands down Only one

other phone has beaten it in my opinion and then

so it would and then on the 4s I used a family

members upgrade program upgrade thing to get

it for $200 It went back and forth, and then

with the 6, was the last time I used my upgrade

for it, and that, I was able to get it for $200,

and that was the first time, the 6 is the other

phone. There has not been a display, I don't,

don't get me wrong, I love OLED panels, I love

them to death. There has not been another display

on an iPhone that looked like the one on the

iPhone 6. And I will die on that hill. Okay,

just the straight iPhone 6 No, there was there

was there okay, so there's a 6 and then there

was a 6 Mac or 6 plus I don't remember those

Macs or a plus at the time Yeah, okay got you

but that but that phone that that line 6 line

that display nothing else looked like it and

I remember the following year with the 6s which

was another big deal because now I didn't have

to use anyone's upgrade so when the 6s debuted

I didn't have to use anybody's upgrade on my

family plan. Like I didn't have to connive anybody

or use anybody else's upgrade thing to get a

phone for $200. Apple introduced what they call

the iPhone upgrade program, which is you pay

us X number of dollars a month, we give you a

phone, you get a phone, and after it will give

you a phone and AppleCare, and after two years,

the phone is paid off. However, at the end of

one year, you are eligible to upgrade to a brand

new phone. Remember that yes. Yes, I remember

that. Yep that changed that right there changed

everything So I think for me that changed everything.

So now I've got I don't remember what year this

is I want to say is like 2015 So now I've got

this and now I'm in this iPhone upgrade program

and I've got the success The following year is

when things started getting really weird with

Apple's products, because now it was, we've got

a phone, but they're not... Up until this point,

the phones were identical. And everyone that

you bought you're either paying extra for storage

or you're paying for a larger screen size Okay,

the form factor was the same with the seven all

of a sudden it was okay. Now we've got one camera

We've got a phone we've got an iPhone 7 that

has a single camera lens on it And then we have

an iPhone 7 plus which has the port which has

two cameras on it and allows you to take portrait

photos and in my head I'm like, I'm not getting

There's only in my head. There's always only

been one iPhone and the iPhone has been whatever

the high -end was Right. Okay that to me that

the high -end one is always what the iPhone is

Went with the bigger iPhone, but it was really

funny as so remember in in 2015 I joined the

iPhone upgrade program with the success and I

remember in 2017 the fall of 2016 when they announced

the seven Everyone that had every you know, I

was like, oh, this is great. I'm gonna go I'm

in the iPhone upgrade program. I'm gonna jump

to the new one and I lot the pre -order day came

and This happened with everybody Anyone that

was in the iPhone upgrade program You were just

treated like any other customer. So it was it

was a first come first serve thing and then it

became and it was like, wait a minute. Wait,

wait, wait, wait, wait. I mean, I'm in your program

and you're telling me that the phone that I want,

I can't get. Like, what is the point of me paying?

I internally, I was this. But the rest of the

Internet was outraged for me. So it was like

I'm not gonna add to this like yeah, it sucks,

but Keep in mind when I'm saying all this stuff.

I'm very much aware that it is a phone. It is

well But I just want to I just want to come back

to this I'm just I'm just making sure everyone

knows that I'm well aware of what I'm buying

so But but Apple to their credit they heard the

internet and They sent emails out to everyone

that was in the iPhone upgrade program and they

said, OK, here is your link. Tell us what you

want. And so I was able to place an order for

the iPhone seven plus and I was able to pick

it up on launch day. I had to go to a store.

They couldn't ship it. I could go to the store

and pick it up. On launch day and all was right

with the world. after that they implemented a

procedure where if you were in the iPhone upgrade

program you could like pre pre -order and The

rest is kind of history. So after that little

hiccup going from 2015 to 2016 like clockwork

It's been here's the iPhone announcement. Here's

when I can pre pre -order. Here's my pre -order

day I'm getting the newest one. The only time

I didn't jump for the newest one I think this

is the only other time we've really talked about

the iPhone on here was the in 2017 they launched

the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 10 and I remember

coming on the on the show with you got with you

and Steve and we're time we kind of talked about

like the design language of it and how the not

in the notch oh yes I remember yeah I remember

this now yeah okay so that that I didn't that's

the only time I went with the 8 plus I did not

get a 10 because I didn't I couldn't At the time,

and I think it's even, I think I've even, I found

my Facebook post about it and I'm very, obviously

there's the podcast that I recorded with you

and Steve, but I said that it looks, the 10 looks

like a device that is full of design compromises.

It's like, this is what we want, but this is

the best way we know how to do it. And it didn't

match what I thought Apple was. I went with the

8 and then after that I went with the 10s. I

did I abandoned the the home button I went with

10s and I went with FaceTime in 2018 and then

2019 they came that's when they released the

pros and I've always had a pro since then because

like I said the there's the the high -end the

the can't the phone i don't even want to call

it a phone anymore the device that does the most

is the one that i consider to be the iphone everything

else is like this is for uh and this makes me

sound arrogant or bad but it's for mass market

appeal well yeah it's for like so i think it's

mkbhd no no i know i know i know what you're

trying to say and i'm gonna kind of what i think

it's mkbhd that says i think it's marquez brownlee

that says there's the iphone and then there's

like there's the iphone for everybody and then

there's the enthusiasts iphone The iPhone 12

Pro, 13 Pro, the iPhone Pro Max models, those

are the enthusiast models for people that are

in the tech world that like all the techie stuff,

that like all the bigger screens, whatever else,

whereas the regular iPhone 12, 12 mini or 13

or whatever is for the general audience. I think

that's usually how he says it is. The bigger,

most expensive, most has every feature ever is

for the enthusiast of the phone. I agree with

that. So I know that I don't need to upgrade

every year. And I, you know, my wife and I make

a running joke about it, like six months into

owning a new phone. I'm like, I don't necessarily

like need to like upgrade. And my wife gives

me like this side. She's like, why are we having

this conversation? You know, you're just going

to get whatever they announced. And I don't want

to say like it Maybe I'm a sucker, but I know

I'm a sucker Okay, like they know there's like

there's always some there's always something

that they throw out that makes me go I can't

not upgrade And I can't I can't but I mean, I

don't know when we want to like that. That's

kind of my history with the iPhone. Yeah, I I

fell in love with the device There's a myriad

of reasons why I like Apple products. I I love

the ecosystem I know a lot of people just don't

care for the I like Apple products because of

how they treat I'll say the prosumer experience

of the device But to me those help Those limitations

that they place on their products free me up

to actually enjoy the product. I am a notorious

tinkerer. And if there's a setting that I can

mess with, I will mess with it until it isn't

any fun anymore. Oh no, that's not good. And

so the fact that like, you know, like, uh, my,

my, my friends are like, Oh, Mac OS 10 doesn't

let you do this thing with terminal. And I'm

like, you don't, don't use terminal. Like, I

don't like, I know that I can, but I don't need

to do that. And it, or it's like, um, like the,

the Android phones, Oh, you can do, um, custom

fonts or this other stuff. And it's like, I don't,

I don't need that. Like I don't. I don't want

that. And now there's you get you get people

that are like me where it's like I'm I'm diehard

Apple. I'm this is all that it's going to be.

But there is a period of time in like twenty

fifteen to twenty twenty fifteen, twenty ten

to twenty twelve. I found myself in this really

weird, really weird. I'll say fortunate spot

where I was able to. Try out two other phones

and I put aside my. iPhone 4S. And I tried a

Windows Phone 7. OK, OK. And I. That phone was

still around. I. For me, the pinnacle of of phones

goes goes iPhone. Windows Phone 7. Android. And

so I love the I the the on a on a desktop environment

the metro UI is garbage absolute garbage hate

it. Phone it was refreshing it looked great it

felt great to use. So I played around with that

for a little bit and it was great and it even

had this really cool feature at the time for

2010 because it was an OLED display. It had a

nightstand mode, which we'll come back to this

in a second. But it had a nightstand mode. You

charged it, you put it on its side and it showed

you the clock. Wow, this was 14 years ago, folks.

So and that that was that was really cool. It

had live tiles like the apps were they weren't

like app icons They were tough. The app was a

tile So like all the fancy widgets that you see

on Android and on the iPhone now They were that's

what the app the apps were just widgets on the

Windows Phone 7. They were just live tiles that

updated in real time Amazing In it like I said,

it just felt good to use I mean you could change

the colors of the squares to then it was all

the same color So like blue red yellow, whatever

you whatever you wanted to make it and then so

I messed around with that for a little bit And

then I found myself going. Okay. I want to try

I had some friends that were like you don't know

you don't you don't all you've ever had was an

iPhone You don't you don't know you can't have

this conversation. I'm like, okay fine I'm here

pressure is a bitch Hey, but it wasn't even pure

pressure. It was more of a okay. It was more

of a flex on my part cuz I was arrogant I was

like, okay fine. I'm gonna go drop money on an

Android phone. I don't even care for so that

you guys can get off my back but Here's the thing

with Android phones that I've never cared for

I I do not like Samsung phones If I was ever

going to buy an Android phone ever again ever

again, it would be Google pixel. And the reason

for that is I don't like skinned phones. I cannot

stand a phone that has its Android, but it's

skinned. Right. Yeah, because Samsung puts their,

um, what we're talking about. I don't even know

what it is. I don't even know what it is. So

I, but so what at the time there was the Samsung

made. It was a stock Google phone. It was the

Nexus devices. Yeah, so I got a Nexus s and x

it was a Galaxy or Nexus s Anyways, I went and

bought one of those at Best Buy because it was

like get it for a hundred bucks I was like, okay

fine. I'll go and try this damn thing out I got

it and it was stock Android. So I was like, okay,

there's no, no, no frills, no nothing. Like this

is just how it's gonna be. And my experience

with that device from like a hardware thing was

horrid. I picked it up and I got it on like a

Friday. And I went into work on a Saturday and

the I took it, you know, I took it off the charger

at 8 a .m. I got to work and the damn thing was

already down 50 % and I'd only driven for like

an hour, not even an hour. It was already down

50 % battery. And so I'm like, OK, maybe it's

because it's new and I'm doing something wrong

with it. So I plug it into charge. I plug it

into charge and I don't have I didn't have a

piddly ass little like slow. I had like a two

amp charger. But I use for my iPads. Over my

iPad and that thing It was on the charger all

day, and it never got back to 100%. Yeah, that's

that's bad. What ended up happening was something

was wrong with something was wrong with the device.

And long story short, I did a number of things.

I turned it off. I did like force restarts. I

reset the damn thing. I pulled the battery out

because that was a thing that you could do at

the time. And I receded the battery and put it

back in thinking that's all it needed. And Boy,

long story short, I ended up returning it and

getting a different model, and it was fine. The

second one was fine. It held the charge like

it was supposed to, but I had gone, you know,

being an iPhone user, I went to Windows Phone

7. Windows Phone 7 was different enough from

the iPhone that it was refreshing. The Android,

the stock Android experience, I found to be...

Too similar to what iOS was that I thought but

not enough that I found it frustrating So at

that point I was like, you know what? I'm done

with this. I've done it. I I played with it.

I kept it for a few months I you know, I played

with it. I used it as my main driver I did not

have an iPhone at the time like I it was this

I was like I'm gonna give up my 4s and I will

when I order my 5 that's when I will get rid

of this so I And you know that was that was 14

years ago now But like I said, I just don't,

I can't do the Samsung phones because I don't

believe in skinning it. I don't care that you,

you didn't make the OS. You didn't make this,

you put a piece of, you put lipstick on a pig

and threw it out the door. That is my opinion

of Samsung phones. On that note, since he's been

talking, folks, I've muted myself and I've been

searching to figure it out. Samsung's operating

system is one UI. So the one UI skin on top of

Google's Android I don't remember enough what

I and this is so stupid and I'm pretty sure the

Android phones copied this because I think iPhone

did it first Because the only like I said earlier

in the episode iPhone 3gs was the last one I

ever had and the one thing I absolutely loved

about the iPhones back then Okay, this is again

folks we understand we are being stupid tech

nerds and stupid idiots and geeks and whatever

That's the whole point of the geek cast radio

show the geek cast radio network My favorite

thing about the iPhone 3gs was the camera shutter

looked like the James Bond logo Just you know

just doing the spy thing. That was my favorite

thing about And just ever since then like I think

that's the only thing I remember from the Samsung

Galaxy s9 that I had other than the fact that

it was purple because by that time I had so for

me like not even Continuing on with history or

whatever. But like when I went to get the iPhone

in 2007 2007 2008 iPhone 3gs, whichever one I

forget. I don't know if I I think I whatever

When 3gs was 9 9. Yeah Okay, I think I had two

of them at one point, but those are the only

two I ever had was the three line I never had

anything above the three line and the only reason

why I got it was because I wanted number one

the camera that they had and Number two I had

already been using iTunes. I've been using iTunes

on Windows since 2005 and I had all like I would

back then I like I still have the whole music

library now I have like probably over, I don't

know, I want to say close to $10 ,000 worth of

music purchased from iTunes because, you know,

a book 29 download times like 3 ,000 songs. That

adds up. And then I've got videos, so I've got

TV shows, I've got movies on iTunes still, so

I still use, to this day, I still use iTunes.

I still check iTunes to see if anyone's left

us reviews on iTunes for the podcast. Like, just

show what we're doing right now. I still check

that every once in a while. I still use iTunes.

Like you said earlier in the show, iTunes, one

of the biggest features that Steve was selling

us on was You know that giant CD collection or

that giant CD tower you have? You can take them

all and just shove them into the computer and

have them in iTunes. You can have your music,

but you can have it on your computer so you don't

have to keep, you know, switching out the same

six CDs in your six CD changer from 1997. So

I love... I have no hate towards Apple, towards

iPhone, towards whatever. I love it. It's just,

at the time of life that I was going through

in 2008, 9, 10, 11, 12, whatever it was, it just,

I ended up going back to dumb phones. And then,

like I said earlier in the show, I went to the

Samsung and, yeah, no, I want actual Google Android,

and yeah, you were absolutely right. pixels are

the way to go i love like i'm waiting probably

one more generation and i know you said you don't

like foldables my biggest thing why i eventually

want a folding phone is because like i forget

what the camera what the camera what the uh screen

i think it's like what is six uh seven pro isn't

it 6 .7 or 6 .8 whatever the screen size of this

thing is I can see my comics on here for the

pull bag I can read them just fine the guided

view works and everything else but that doesn't

work the same as it used to on my computer because

Amazon is dumb and they get rid of the Comixology

website and the way they do it now is just that's

a whole other whatever but like I the reason

why I want a folding phone at some point is so

I can read comics on a slightly larger screen

Other than my monitor because like I said the

Amazon website does them stupid and it's not

the correct way to do it but I Mean, yeah, like

I'm looking at all these designs. You've talked

about like I have right now. I have three tabs

open 4s 6 and 7 plus and I'm looking at these

designs and I'm just like Yeah, that that shiny

metal it wasn't metal probably but the shiny

was always Oh metal. Yes, this is the app the

iPhones have always been metal and glass. Okay

Wait Sorry, someone's gonna yell at me. Maybe

a 3g and a 3gs for plastic and we're plastic

We're glass thick the the I the first iPhone

and the iPhone 4 and later they were all Aluminum

and glass and then stainless steel and glass

and now titanium in class. Yeah So I'm looking

at the 4s I'm like I said the 6 and then the

7 plus and I'm just like I think out of the three

designs I wish they kept the more glossy look

of the 4s is back on the future ones because

i'm looking at the seven plus and i'm like that's

matt black now that's this is where we kind of

get into like the so let's get everything yeah

we can get into the design of the iphone because

it kind of leads into one of the other things

that was under script which is about like the

design language is kind of settled right yeah

but i feel like again that's something that makes

it that i appreciate Okay, they don't they aren't

out there trying to Reinvent the wheel every

every year like it's right. So unlike other other

manufacturers They'd like they they change the

design they they add things like okay now the

edges are curved and there's notifications in

the edge of the glass or Android I don't know

if Samsung did this I know Google did like you

can squeeze the phone now Okay, fine. That's

a thing. I guess that people want to be able

to do so But here's here's the thing I have with

with my family. I am the I'm the tech guy in

my family Okay, when there is a tech problem,

my family calls me and I have this rule with

my family Which is you buy what I tell you to

buy and I will help you If you buy something

that I did not tell you to buy you are on your

own Yep, and I have stuck by that my entire adult

life and to Apple's credit with the iPhone My

family my family all they all have iPhones and

I'm able to help all of them regardless of which

iPhone they have because fundamentally It's the

same device So I'm able to like help them out

and figure something out like they didn't change

something here to try to sell something to somebody

or to sell another couple million phones? I don't

know. I appreciate that the design language isn't

refreshed every year. It's this weird thing where

Maybe I'm maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree

here But I the thing that I can think of right

now top my head is like Apple got a lot of flack

or gets a lot of flack for Being the last one

to switch to USB C for charging. Okay, right

gotcha But let's let's let's look at something

here. Alright, so the very first iPhone had a

30 pin dot connector Which is the exact same

thing that the iPod had which was the one of

the highest selling consumer products ever released,

right? Right That was dropped with the I think

was the five no is the fire This is really bad

Once it was it could have been the it was somewhere

between the four s and the five s it was dropped

in favor of lightning Which was a huge deal huge

deal is this the 30 pin connector had been around

since 2001 and now we're in 2010 2011 so You

just spent 10 years with a 30 -pin connector.

How many cell phones in that 10 -year span came

out that all had their own different charging

cable? Like USB -C Mini, USB -A, USB... I don't

even know what different... I can't even tell

you all the different names of USB -C cables

there are. I know that I can identify them. I

can't tell you the names. If I see them, I know

the difference. I can't tell you the difference

between a USB mini cable and a USB micro cable.

In my head, without seeing them physically, I

don't know which one's which, but there's a difference,

right? And then they went from Lightning, another

13 years we'll say, to USB -C. Again, Android

devices, cell phones, any number of consumer

electronics devices was Whatever USB port they

felt like putting in the damn thing that they

could get a bargain on okay, like it meanwhile

in 24 years there have been three Apple power

cords Like an Apple's the one that gets shit

on because they're the ones that they're they're

the ones that they're the king of the hill But

you've really only had to change three cables

In in the entire span of a product cycle, so

it's it's that thing where it's like, yeah, I

My family runs into problems with the iPhone

when they're forced to do stupid stuff like change

from lightning cables USB -C cables because now

my parents are in the unfortunate spot where

some of their stuff uses USB -C and some of their

stuff uses the lightning cable and Their stuff

still works and eventually that'll go away as

they upgrade their phones everything I think

it's just our phones that are stuck on lightning

cables because they don't they don't upgrade

like I do obviously but you know, it's like I

Like the design language being consistent. You

don't need to reinvent the wheel like refinement

is fine with me making making something that

is tried and true better is Unless it's fine.

It's it's like perfect for me. Like you don't

you didn't you didn't need to reinvent. You don't

need to reinvent the wheel to sell me a product.

So I don't mind that they, you know, the home

button went away in 20. I think it went away

somewhere in like 2017. It's still on the iPhone

SE, but like. Again, that's ten years with a

home with a device that had a home button That's

that that's a design language that you picked

up any iPhone you knew how to use it So now we're

going on for almost a ten years with iPhones

without home buttons and Everybody knows how

to use that. It doesn't change I don't have to

re -educate my parents every time they get a

new phone. It's literally like I can order my

parents a new phone. I've done this. I can order

them a new phone and I just tell them, set your

old phone next to your new one and follow the

instructions on the screen and wait 30 minutes.

Boom. It works. Everything's fine. And all they

got was a new device and everything looks and

functions the exact same way. It's not they don't

have to spend any time learn how to use it again

None of that stuff and I and I and I appreciate

that but at the same time And I will admit this

is where things get a little like I kind of like

Mad at myself. Like why do I why do I upgrade

every year? Why do I do this? Well, we'll get

into that but well, I'm just saying like it's

like it's it I get I get excited for the phone

Or the new device and I get it and I get the

phone out of the device and I set it up and I

play with it for about five minutes and then

Gone like the it's I've got a new phone for another

year. Yep So that the the fix the endorphin fix

is very short Like so I've got so As we've been

doing the podcast, I have three different tabs

open up in in Chrome. I've got three different

Google tabs. I've got one for specifically because

this is going to be my little gripe here because

I wish more phones would do this, but some don't.

I've got the specifically the iPhone 14 Pro purple.

I will explain that in a moment, but everyone

should know why besides the fact that i'm all

about the purple iphone 15 pro and iphone 16

pro now we will talk about the 15 and 16 later

but i want to bring up the 14 because number

one it's the dark purple it's steve job's favorite

color dark purple is my favorite color yada yada

yada whatever but my thing is when they changed

the cameras and they upgraded the cameras the

corner that's not like When I so when I see the

the Google pit I'm gonna say the six and the

seven too But specifically when I saw the six

I was like that's the way you do a camera you

do it as a camera bar You don't do it as a camera

block or whatever the heck Apple calls their

camera array here on the back of the phone because,

and I know everyone's gonna say this, everyone's

gonna bring it, oh my god, it wobbles. Well,

half the time, most of us, 90 % of us maybe,

I don't know if you're like this, you can say

if you are or you're not, most of us are gonna

keep our phones in a case to keep it protected,

so really, technically, wobbling on the table

isn't gonna matter. So, I just wanna correct

something here. camera bump that you are talking

about with the 14 has been around since the iPhone.

Well, Devon 12. Yeah, well, the bump. OK, the

bump first showed up on the six. What you're

talking about, the three, the three camera array

like the square that that that has been around

since the iPhone. I want to say 12 in 2019. Okay

Yeah, I mean like again for me, it's not like

Okay, we we've seen all these i'm trying i'm

trying to see what the complaint is here because

i like I I I get that the phone wobbles But if

you're gonna come at me with the phone wobbles

or if that's someone's complaint about a phone

No, no find something else man. Yeah But we're

talking about design language and change or not

change and being streamlined so when Google Upgraded

and did the whole new design like they needed

to do something with the pixel because the pixel

Like I think the net I think and Steve used to

have a 4xl and I was like ooh 4xl Let me take

a look. I never actually had a 4xl but but so

my point is about the design language is yes,

technically I agree the phone companies should

keep Most of it the same one like once they do

a change like you said the the new camera array

happened around the 12 Okay, so we've had that

for the 12. So five -year when did the 12 come

out? Was it 2019? Okay, so we've had this camera

array on the iPhone since for the last five years

When I saw what Google did with the 6 Pro and

the camera bar versus the camera array or corner

or whatever you want to call it I was like oh

that looks like something more like that I would

want to do and now that I've upgraded to the

next one up from the 6 to the 7 I don't like

the camera bar as much on the 7 I think the 6

one looks better but the design language of change

of sometimes you have to do a change and then

people will get used to it And then yeah, technically,

you're right. Absolutely. I agree with you. Keep

it as simple as possible, but maybe like do the

subtle changes or like what they're doing now,

I guess, with with the this new quote button

that they're not calling a button, but we'll

talk about that afterwards. I don't know. My

main gripe is I want to look at Apple and I want

a design on an Apple on an iPhone That is going

to make me come back to them. Like that's the

only that like You know what I mean? Like I get

what you're saying Look, okay. So look at it

this way though. All right, so every every smartphone

Obviously Okay, just gonna call this out the

show black mirror. Everyone knows where that

comes from right? It's literally the cell phone

It's the it's the front glass. So every smartphone

on the market is a black mirror from the front.

They are all just black slaps. You right. If

you put one down next to if you put one down

next to another one, if you're not an enthusiast,

you off off black screen off, you would be hard

pressed to tell which one is the next one over.

Right. So. You have to look at the the backside

of the phone is where the marketing comes into

play. Right. OK, so I think what it is is there

is a that the camera bump, which is what I call

it. And so for other people call it to that to

me, the camera bump is what identifies a phone

as an iPhone. So it's. That is how you can like

one phone enthusiast can identify another phone

enthusiast or another person's phone is by the

camera bump. So. That's and I feel like that's

why they're not. Because if you put a case on

an iPhone, you cover up the Apple logo unless

you put a clear one on there. You cover up the

Apple logo. So what's the only thing that the

phone has to differentiate itself, which is the

camera bump? It's the camera it's the it's the

way that the camera is arranged so if everyone

all of a sudden decides to Now don't get me wrong.

I I am NOT the biggest fan of the camera the

the way the cameras are arranged I wish it was

more like the pixel I wish it was a bar across

the back But there's other things about the iPhone

that I wish were there I wish touch ID was in

the Apple logo on the back side of the phone

why I have no idea why it's not there perfect

placement, but It's, it's, it's, that's not what

they chose to do. And so it's like, that's just

what I have to live with. If this is going to

be my device of choice. But I think at this point

it's more of a, it's an identification marker.

It's the Apple logo without it being an actual

Apple logo, because even the, even though the,

the, the lesser phones, the, you know, the, the,

the 12, the 12 plus the, the, the, the, the,

the mass market phone for everybody, they also

have a camera bump on them and they are. very

uniquely iPhone camera bumps. And so I think

it's that's just it's kind of like Android has

the three down the side. Like that's not Android.

Samsung has the three down the side. That's how

you identify like a Samsung phone. And Google

has decided, OK, we're going to do three, you

know, horizontally across. And Apple decided

to make a stove top. Yes, so that's what it is.

I mean you've got you've got your you've you've

got your You got your studio apartment stovetop.

You've got your heat pet. What is it the heat

plate for the iPhones and then you've got your

Viking stovetop Oven top for the iPhone pros

like Honestly at this at this point that is just

the design language of the phone to identify

it as a brand So to shake that up it causes like

a it's a fundamental thing that I think would

come with another Mass shakeup, but at this point

in the in in phone design in general And again,

this is one of those places where I praise Apple

for towing the line And they get knocked for

it, which is fine there because people aren't

wrong But they can just you know. You can only

make. Slab of. Ask look. So much like a slab

of glass. You can't we've already reached the

point where there. Star Trek pads you know you

can't. You can't get them much but so for them

to in and again looking at it from like it I'm

not making excuses I'm not trying to cheerlead

for them or anything But you gotta look at it

like I I tend to step back and look at it from

a business standpoint Which is okay, they've

refined this build process this manufacturing

process over and over and over again And so all

they have to do is keep Changing the internals

but meanwhile manufacturing the phone keeps costing

less and less and less so the martyrs get there

while they're already astronomical on an iPhone

They get higher and higher and higher because

they're not changing the design every second

year so whereas you see companies like Samsung

like Samsung and I'm sorry, but I honestly believe

Samsung and Google pull out the gimmicks that

they pull Because they are trying to find a way

to combat The sales number of the iPhone like

you got to look at it Okay, is it is the iPhone

a bad product because they failed to like they

don't have to change anything about it and it

still sells Meanwhile everybody else is like

throwing the kitchen sink into a phone and hoping

that it sells and Whether it does or not who

knows Like, I've always, you know, the entire

time I've been with an iPhone thing, it's like,

I've always heard, Android's had that for years.

Android's had that feature for years. Android's

had all this stuff. And it's like, that's great.

I'm glad you guys have had that. But you know

what? I didn't need that feature. There's a chance

that Apple probably put that feature in the phone

and I don't even use it. And if it's there, it's

probably implemented in such a way that it's

just, it's i'm sorry frankly better like they're

not first they they apple doesn't want i don't

feel i can't remember the ipod apple wasn't even

first with the ipod i will say they were first

with the iphone but that was the last time i

think they were first like to to to and the one

not even with the watch i mean they kind of they

came in the ipad okay Okay, I'm sorry. I'm now

I'm diluting everything definitively The phone

was the first time they came into a market and

just blew it down. Okay, everything else was

we're not first But we're going to make the experience

it again not selling a product. We're going to

make the experience of using this device better

and That end I can't, and maybe that's what they

want, and maybe that's why I'm a sucker and I'm

brainwashed, because I have a Mac that has, I

just upgraded all my stuff this year. I've got

a brand new phone, I got a brand new watch, I

bought a brand new Mac that has way more horsepower

than I'm ever going to use. I bought an iPad

that has way more horsepower in it than my Mac

that I bought this year has in it that I'm ever

going to use. My phone has way more horsepower

in it than, either of those devices and I don't

do anything with them. If I know that, you know

what it is though? My phone connects to my computer

and I can text people on my computer and the

text messages go out on my phone and my notifications

come to my watch and then you know what the comics

that I download on my Mac, they show up on my

iPad for me to read and I don't have to It's

that people forgot about it, but it's the it's

just it's a Mac. It just works like it's layered

issue. It's again, it's the it's the ecosystem

that everything just works because it's Apple

and you have Apple everything and I do and I

and I and I 100 % agree with that. But that's

also why like I I know that I am thoroughly entrenched

in that ecosystem and I won't. But I won't disagree

with you when you go like, well, Android lets

me do this. And I feel like that's great. That's

cool. See, I subscribe to the whole thing of

there are a lot of things that Android has done

and will do that come first, that are first,

that Apple may look at and make their own version

of at some point down the line. Because like

you have said, they're not trying to be first

anymore with the things. But, like, I don't know,

man. I don't look at my phone and say, oh, Android

has all this, but iPhone doesn't. I don't know.

I don't know. Let me tell you one interesting

feature that I'm trying to figure out. Again,

it's been 14 years, but I had an Android phone

when I worked. For Christy Digital, I had an

Android phone for a year and a half as my company

phone. Does Android have visual voicemail? You

mean like you can see the the text of like the?

No, no, no, not transcription. My email, my voicemail

show up like like like like an email box and

I can select which one I want to listen to. Yeah.

I've never seen it on an Android phone. Hang

on a second. Mean I I'm not saying it doesn't

exist I just didn't say yeah, you know in 2017

when I had an Android phone It didn't have visual

voicemail on it and I'm like, how do you not?

How does Android not have visual voicemail on

it in 2017? I just put it in messenger for you

See what this is But yeah, I'm pretty sure that's

visual voicemail because I can listen to it I

can read the transcription and I can share it

delete it Okay, that must be at least it wasn't

on the galaxy phone that I had so maybe it was

a Maybe they just added it or something. I don't

know. Well, I've had it since well Either way.

Yeah, I was that was like that That's that's

one of the nifty little features. I thought that

hmm. I Always heard that they brought it over

from Japan but they build it as, we made it really

easy to see your voicemail. And I'm like, that's

so, I don't have to like log into anything. I

don't have to call a phone number, like listen

to voicemails in order. It's like, here's your

voicemails. They're arranged here like they're

emails and you can listen to the ones that you

want or just delete them. Yep. Yeah. That's the

thing. And it's funny you say that calling in

a number. Oh my God. back in the Nokia 5120 and

51 whatever days and and and all that back in

the mid to late 90s oh man having to call your

own phone number to get the voicemails oh god

you know visual voicemail has definitely been

around for a while i don't know how long it's

been on android off the top of my head but every

android phone i've had since 2017 has had visual

voicemail I just remember the one that I had

for work if I got a voicemail on it I had to

like What was it press zero or something on a

keypad to call? Yeah, something like that to

call into my voicemail and then I had to put

in a pin like it was so bad I just had all my

my phone calls were just forwarded to my my windows

my my my iphone like Yep, just any phone call

that came that got because That honestly I'll

say that was really cool being able to being

able to forward a phone call on my on the Android

device just like someone called this called Send

it to this phone number that was really easy

to do and so that's that's what I did once I

realized I couldn't get voicemails like Conveniently,

so anyway, that's besides the point. I that's

just so just I don't know I'm fine with the design

language saying stuck stale whatever you want

to call it like cuz like I said, there's only

I mean It's a slab of glass, man. What more do

people want it to be? I don't want a foldable

device. I can tell you that much right now. So

I will stick with my slab until someone pries

it from my cold, dead hands. I think the thing

with me is with the iPhone just, and again, I

haven't held, I haven't had an iPhone in my hands

since You know 14 15 years ago, but just looking

at the design the 15 pros specifically because

we're gonna get into the why Why you went from

the 15 to the new one? Like what's the new one

have that the old one doesn't over last year?

But just looking at the design I think for me

it's more of I have this thing of centering like

People can't see this because it's audio but

like most of the time I use like The scent like

if you look at the script that we'd like the

geocast reader presents there's the image of

the low the old ass logo the podcast. On geocast

radio and then you go to left so i don't know

it's it's. I like center stuff i like stuff that's

in the middle of the thing so it like with the

with the pixels where you have the bar horizontally

over the thing. Symmetry yeah the symmetry of

it all i think that's my only gripe about like.

In the long run as long as they're good cameras,

it really doesn't matter because like I already

said You're gonna put it in some sort of Apple

Clear case or something or what? I don't know.

Whatever doesn't matter. I Know I'm with you.

I'm a sucker for symmetry. That's the other reason

why I also like Apple Apple products is that

they at the time the a lot of Apple products

is subscribed to the golden rule for aesthetics,

but I um in the back of the iphone does not subscribe

to that at all but it at the end of the day it's

one of those things where you look at and go

you have to like you can make complaints about

you can make complaints about just about anything

but then at the end at the end of it you have

to step back and go how do i actually use this

right am i do i grab my phone how often do i

just stare at the back of my phone i don't stare

at the back of my phone there's nothing there

for me to look at I look at the front of my phone.

I can't see the camera array. As long as everything

looks symmetrical from the front, I don't care

what the back looks like. It's not just like

a knock towards you. This type of thing is a

problem with everything, right? So for example,

one of the other ones I can think of off the

top of my head is TVs. All right, just a little

tangent here. But OLED panels. I did a dumb.

I did a number of research on OLED panels before

I bought my first one. I researched them for

about four years before I bought my first one

in 2019. But one of the things I learned when

I was doing my research is I'm reading like ratings

.com and digital trends and some other people

talk about color and all this other like brightness

and stuff like that. And then they were talking

about like. Lot of a lot of these websites for

like oh we put up a grayscale test pattern and

the The the panel struggles to show you zero

to five percent gray so yeah, I'm sorry the you

so it struggles with the not not not zero because

OLED can show you zero so the first four percent

of the grayscale the the panel struggles to show

you Okay Thanks for one, thanks for putting that

in my head when I'm trying to make an informed

decision. But two, I don't look at test patterns

when I'm watching something. Like you're not

gonna notice that it can't handle like 4 % of

gray. There's another 96 % of gray that it can

show you. So just because like it's... Like,

yeah, you have to, you have to, you have to step,

take a step back. Everyone should take a step

back and like, look at how you, how you interact

with something, how you use something. So it's

like, yeah, that flaw is there, but I'm not looking

at test patterns. I'm watching YouTube videos

and movies and like, I'm not worried about the

fact that it can't show me like. The last. 4

% of gray before it turns to complete black.

I can't see that on a daily basis. Yeah, it bothers

me that the lenses, they're not symmetrical with

the phone, but everything in the bump is symmetrical

to itself. But again, like I said, when I went

down this tangent, I don't look at the back of

my phone, man. Like you said, all I want is good

cameras that I can point it at and click a button

and it takes a picture. Yeah. I mean, I think

for me specific, you know, I agree with what

you're saying. I absolutely agree. And you're

right. I think for me, it's like, with the seven

here, with the seven pro here, it's a flat, like

it's. Well, since I have it in a case, it's flat.

Like there's no. like I can't feel the camera

bump that's on the back of the 7 Pro when it's

in the case and you're right you're not really

looking at the back of your phone like maybe

when you're cleaning the lenses like if you're

wiping it off or something absolutely but again

it's one of those things where I think in the

way they present the product and the way they

advertise the product I think that they like

I know they do this whole visual thing of the

lenses pop out at the screen sometimes and when

they do the When they do the events when they're

trying to show off the new thing and that's cool

and all but it I don't know It's just design.

It's not the worst design phone ever There have

been plenty of other phones that have worse design

than this and like you said The stove top all

the lines except I wish there was a fourth. I

think that's so stupid. They should add a fourth

camera to that pump. Yeah, I'm OK. Like I said,

I, you know, and you know, it's even funnier.

You know, you know, it's funny about the bump

is it's been on the phone since 2019 and it's

gradually gotten bigger every year. But here's

the thing I never noticed. Really? Upgrade every

year. I know I I Never noticed and you know,

it's funny I I take the phones out of like I

would get the new phone I get the old phone out

of the case. I look at it. I look at the difference

in like the colors because like there was every

year they had a black phone, but it was like

Space gray and then there was like the next year.

Yeah, it'd be space gray again, but it's a slightly

different like tint or there was black and then

there was slate and like whatever the uh just

just the darker color phone was i would always

just compare the colors so i get the i get the

phone out the new phone out of the box i get

my old phone out of the case and i'm like okay

here's last year's black and here's here's this

year's black and they're definitely not the same

color but i never bothered to be like oh the

bump got bigger like i i just You know that wasn't

a thing for me and I keep all my boxes like I've

definitely noticed like looking at all the boxes

like yeah I can see that the camera got bigger

when I see like side -by -side like Videos or

photos of like obviously the camera bump like

expanding across the back of the phone Yeah,

I see that it gets bigger, but it's like that's

just physics, man Like when you put bigger lenses

and sensors in a phone, you have to have space

for that stuff. So it's just one of those things

where it's like, yeah, but honestly, I never

noticed. And as far as the rocking goes, my phones

do rock, but I don't ever use my phone. I don't

want to say ever, I don't ever use it. Like five

percent of the time I use my phone is like flat

on a surface Every like 95 percent of the time

it's in my hand So I don't really notice it rocking

too much and then again that also depends on

the case you put on the phone, right? So if I

had an Otter box on my phone It's not gonna rock

because it's an Otter case like that completely

changes the profile of the device But I, I always

buy Apple cases every year I buy, I order a phone

and I order an Apple case and I slap that on

there and then it stays in there. It lives in

there for a year. So the Apple cases are usually

like thin because I don't want a big bulky case.

So, and they just have a single cutout for the

camp. Like the bump is still very much there.

So it does like I'm sitting here on my desk and

yeah, the phone still rocks, but Like I said

95 % of the time the phone's in my hand. I don't

sit over it on my desk and type on it, but Yeah,

but whatever that's ah but Just real quick because

we're talking about design real quick because

you were talking about I talked about the six

The thing with the display on the six and this

is very hard to articulate because one it's very

hard to find anyone that has a six anymore but

do you know like Back before they used to have

live demos of phones like they would have like

you'd walk into the store and Like the dummy

phone would be there and it would have like a

sticker on the front of it of what the operating

system looked like so the six The screen the

display was pressed so far up to the glass on

the six that it There was no gap between the

display and the glass. So it looked like a sticker.

It was seamless. And I very much remember that.

And it wasn't just my phone. I saw it on my wife's

phone. I saw it on the display units in the store.

It was the only time that the whole idea of the

phone just kind of looked like a slab. like here's

this there was no gap and with the 6s they added

in force touch which was the pressure the gimmick

of the pressing harder on the glass and you know

putting force on it and that obviously had to

have a little bit of a gap between the display

and the glass in order for that to work and so

that's been gone since then like and i so i'm

like man they had like Could only imagine what

an iPhone 6 would look like with an OLED display

like I Just want I would love to see that but

I'll never get to see be amazing Yeah, no that

is not like and you know I grabbed two images

I grabbed one image of the 15 and the 16 because

I'm like What's the difference in these overall

for the design and all as I can tell? That the

difference is specifically the back of the phones

and again I know we're not looking at the back

of the phones, but like the rails And the way

the cameras the way the camera bump is it's just

slightly different. But yeah, I mean I like the

iphone design. I just I don't know I for me.

All right. Why did I upgrade? from the 14 of

the 15 or even the 15 to the 16 so Yeah, yeah,

yeah the 15 to the 16 so if the 15 Pro has everything

you want in a phone It does everything you needed

to do it takes the kid pictures that you wanted

to take if you're if you take big I don't know

if you're a Picture person if you're always taking

pictures if you're not if you're watching stuff

on the phone If the screen is as good as it's

as you want it to be then what's the difference?

For you to upgrade to the next one Like what

did they do with the 16 that made you want it

now over the 15 outside of your it's the yearly

I just have to upgrade 60 to 70 percent of it.

I just I have to do it. I Listen, I wish I could

break the cycle thought last year for sure I'm

just saying like I wish I wish I could break

the cycle I thought last year I might have broken

the cycle because last year was the first year

since the first iPhone that I did not get one

on launch day I got the 15 the Monday after they

came out but that's a long story okay but so

I thought you know I missed launch day in the

world didn't fall apart who would have known

So I thought maybe maybe I can just not do the

16, but the closer it got to like the 16 launching,

I just knew there was no way I wasn't going to

do that. My wife even knew there was no way I

wasn't going to do that. But for me, I think

it's just kind of like my yearly tradition. It's

like the one piece of tech I can afford to. Just

keep fresh like around me like my. My iPad, the

last time I got an iPad was 2018. I just got

an M4 one this spring. So like that was pretty

long. And then before that I had, my MacBook

was from 2017 and I just traded it up for an

M3 like this year. So like it's, I hold onto

like the more expensive stuff, but the iPhone

for me is so cheap and Upgrading annually, I

think, saves me a lot of hassle from feeling

a lot of the long -term customers feel with cell

phones. I don't have to feel the wear on the

battery. I don't have to feel the operating system

slowing down or getting sluggish. I don't have

to worry about new features not working that

I might be interested in. There's just a number

of things that I don't have to worry about, and

that might be kind of like a symptom of FOMO.

But I just don't... i don't have to worry about

the device just like dying on me like it's just

like i get a fresh i get a fresh device every

year it it works for the next year and it has

the latest and greatest of everything on it that

said i will 100 agree with every everything that

everyone has said about the 16 which is that

it's been and i don't really want to talk about

this a whole lot but it's been heavily heavily

marketed with The with Apple's AI features, the

Apple intelligence stuff, which isn't even which

isn't even on the phone. Yeah, it's not even

on the phone yet. It's not going to be on. I

think it's not going to be until like what next

October or so. It's it's coming in October. Well,

some of it it's it's coming in four parts. The

first part is in October. So like. That to me

was like but I don't buy I kind of buy something

based off of what it does for me right now and

not what it will do right so I thought that the

And I'm not even all that interested in Apple

intelligence because I don't care for what I've

seen of a excuse me of AI so far So again, that's

not a conversation I want to have here But yeah,

this phone was like heavily marketed around that

stuff and it isn't even available out of the

box So it's like, okay, what did I buy this phone

for? Well, it's one the display got slightly

larger Okay, because I was thinking about going

back to the larger phone But I got to keep the

smaller one and got a slightly bigger display

and I think that the new Button that we can talk

about or not talk about Is what the action button?

Well, I think it's what the action button should

have been. But I also think it is the. Forebear

of what's coming next. For the iPhone. And it

was like I just I I want I want I want to have

that I want to be able to play with that before

it becomes a thing unlike everywhere so I can

learn how to use it and how it works. And I try

to stay ahead of my family that way I don't I

don't want my family to buy something that I

don't have access to Like I wouldn't want my

mom to get this this thing and me stay on like

an old one and and not be able to help her use

it, you know, but like I don't know but I don't

know I The other thing too, I think for me and

this is very much what's the word? Superficial

I always got the black I always got the black

iPhone. Got you. Since they started introducing

colors. Always black, always black. With the

iPhone 12, I got the green one. The forest green

or the hunter, the dark green one. Yeah, whatever

that one was. I got that one. And so I always

get a case when I buy a phone. And then six months

later, I buy myself another case just to freshen

it up a little bit. And I'll buy a different

color. Well, with the green phone, superficial,

I was like, what? Nothing else looks good with

this. What? What am I? What? What? Like, yeah,

yeah, it's just the little cut out in the back.

No one fricking cares about about me. And like

I said earlier in this podcast, I don't look

at the back of my phone, but I know I know exactly.

I know. Like it's it's in. So I'm just like I'm

going green doesn't go with anything. So at that

point, I was like, you know what? I can't. I

have to go back to getting black phones. I have

to do it. But at the same time, with the pros,

I don't like shiny stuff. I don't like chrome.

OK. I like matte finishes. Pros always had polished

stainless steel bands around the outside, which

I always hated. But hey, I put it in a case.

So who who notices? Nobody. but my apple watch

i always got an aluminum apple watch because

i didn't i would have loved to have gotten a

stainless steel apple watch but i didn't want

it polished so always got aluminum because they

they're matte and i could have gotten a regular

iphone because they're a matte aluminum but no

i want the stainless steel thing so i was very

happy when the 15 got announced and they switched

to titanium and they did natural titanium because

I love titanium. Okay. Love it. Like I think,

I think titanium is like my gold. Like I, I hate

gold. I hate the color of gold. I, I love titanium.

Like I almost bought like an Apple watch ultra,

like the first generation one. I almost bought

one of those because it was matte titanium. Like

it, I didn't even care. I didn't care about how

big it was. I didn't, I didn't care about that.

It was like super like, like it was made for

outdoors and all this other crap. I was like,

it's a tight, it's a titanium watch and it's

Matt. Like I want that. So the, when the 15 was

announced and it was made out of titanium, titanium,

that was going to be made out of titanium. I

was like, if they do a natural finish of titanium,

I'm that is, that is what I'm getting. And so

that's what I got. and i think one of the reasons

also that i upgraded this year is because you

don't know when apple's gonna drop a color and

so i was like i they they did natural titanium

again this year and what was really weird is

it's literally the same color remember remember

how i said earlier like the blacks were always

slightly different versions of black like yeah

that like It's literally the same color of natural

if there's one complaint I have going from the

15 to the 16 is that the natural titanium? Color

did not change like even the back glass is it

was the same color back glass like it like they

didn't even make it like a different color gray

or anything like that like But whatever I think

that's one of the reasons I grabbed it. It's

like okay It's it's still brushed or this case.

It's blasted titanium. It's not brushed like

the 15 was brushed titanium This one is blasted

titanium But it's a it's a natural finish and

I'm like I like that and so who knows if they're

gonna have that next year And if they don't have

that next year, they don't have a color. Maybe

I don't upgrade fat chance Hell will freeze over

and I will stop podcasting if you don't upgrade

next year, but I think honestly superficially

that's one of the things like I and because the

gray goes with I can get whatever color case

I want to go with the gray phone, just like the

black phone. So it's like it's just it was it's

the it's in it again. It's not shiny. Yes, it's

shiny, but it's not polished like it's not. The

bands aren't polished. I can use it without a

case and I can. It looks really good without

a case on it. And I've just always liked titanium.

I think it's just this. It stems from my one

of my first watches was a fossil watch made out

of titanium. And at that point, it was like the

most expensive thing I was ever able to buy myself.

It was like one hundred and ninety dollars for

a titanium watch. And I love that thing. I still

have it. And I've bought a number of other fossil

titanium watches. And I've just that material

is it's kind of like I think it comes from comic

books, adamantium. Titanium, Vibranium. I'm 100

% sure it literally stems from that. I have no

need for titanium in my life. I don't do anything

where titanium is a thing, where it's beneficial

outside of its weight reduction properties. But

I like the shade of natural titanium. I like

that color of gray that it is, or silver, if

you want to call it that. Like it so much that

I even switched I used to get for a while I had

black I had a black MacBook and black iPads This

year when I upgraded everything I got a silver

MacBook I got a silver iPad and I just bought

I did I bought an Apple watch ultra 2 that is

in the natural titanium color because I wanted

everything to be Silver or close to it, you know,

like I don't I'm again. I'm a sucker for aesthetics.

I love polish. I like a really well -made product

and that's what the phone is. The phone has always

felt that way to me. So with the iPhone 16 and

remind me, cause I don't, when did they introduce

the action button? Was it the 14 or the 15? 15.

Okay. So on the 15, they, they introduced the

action button. The action button is you can have

it mapped to anything you want it to do. Like,

most people I know, oh, I'm gonna have it, you

know, one press and I can call my wife or one

press and I can call my mom or my dad or whatever,

you know, or one press and it opens the ca -

it's just that kind of thing. This year for the

16, they add what they call camera control. Yeah.

It's a button people it's a second, but I'm not

complaining about the fact that it's a button

What I'm complaining about is they won't admit

that it's a button, but it's a button for you

to use Good. Sorry. Oh, no. No, I I feel like

that harkens back to I'm going to sell you an

experience Okay. So yes, it's a button. What

is it doing? It's controlling the camera therefore

it is camera control And it's it's yeah, it it

is a button I will not deny I do not deny that

but and honestly it could have been It could

have been a little cooler than it actually is

I think Um, um, what's your experience with it?

I think it's pretty slick. I Will I the like

and this is where I say like I think it's the

fee I mmm, I'm just gonna say it It's what the

action button should have been and I think it's

like literally the future of what the iphone

is going to be Okay And I but I think it's going

to get better because for for example the apple

like the home button on the ipod or on the iphone

was a was a was a was a button for the longest

time and with the seven with the seven and the

eight and the se The home button was no longer

a button It didn't click it. It did not it was

tactic It like it felt like you were pressing

on it and it was clicking but if that That circle

the home button was not depressing in any way

the way is so the and the track pads on the MacBook

they And even the magic the magic trackpad that

Apple has those don't click it is a Taptic feedback

is a haptic feedback from the from the Taptic

motor in the in the MacBook that the keypad does

not move it Feels like it does So the fact that

this is a button an actual button rather than

like a haptic thing Kind of it throws me a little

bit like again It feels like this is like it's

very much the first generation of this And I

feel like maybe they call it camera control because

that's what it is and it won't be a button forever

I feel like when they can figure it out that

it will be I I imagine with this I think the

home, but I think I think the the sleep wake

button the volume up I think I think every button

on the iPhone and within the next year or two

is gonna become a happy press it's gonna be a

solid state button I think the kit I think the

camera control is the first step in that and

it was just let's just kind of show the future

of what this is going to be and with something

that everybody uses which is the camera Will

get you used to how how this type of how this

type of button works and then next year the sleep

-wake button will be touch sensitive as well

and you'll be able to manipulate other settings

on the phone with it or something like that like

I Just think it's like I Not defending them.

It's dumb. It's it's a button Someone could just

literally call it a button and everyone would

stop with the they're not calling it a button

but i think again they're just trying to sell

the experience and all they care about is telling

people about what it does and all it does at

this point not what it is all it does at this

point in time is control the camera and it's

actually pretty slick it's kind of like using

like i i've messed around with it and i think

it's going to get better with like ios 18 .1

because right now you can't do you can't set

every setting from that Captured button. Yeah,

right. Gotcha. You you will be able to do but

it's but it is slick and like it's it's you know,

it's touch sensitive and it does have some Taptic

feedback because you can light press on it and

it feels like you're clicking it and Then there's

like a hard press where you're actually clicking

it. Gotcha. It's like, okay, you guys got halfway

there. You couldn't have gone the whole way so

But I think it's kind of like it's it's it's

just the future of what's coming because they've

been the rumors have been going around for a

while that they're going to switch everything

to solid state buttons and everything will feel

like it's clicking but none of it's going to

be clicking and I think this is the first step

in that uh and I like I said I also think it's

what the action button should have been like

the action button should have been should have

had like a a touch thing on it like I should

have been able to like slide my thumb along and

maybe to like scroll down a website or I don't

know what you could have done with it but um

it'll be interesting to see what they're able

to do when the other buttons get this functionality

yeah absolutely all right so i think we've already

answered the question that i have here do you

ever see yourself not being an apple user we

already know folks it's a no i have too much

money too much money yeah in an apple stuff and

i'm sorry yeah so no one's ever going to tell

me that it doesn't not just work Don't don't.

No, I didn't. I didn't want to do this because

I wanted to throw you under the bus. And Apple.

Yeah, no, this isn't like you. Mike's got two

days. So one of the things I always in my early

days of podcasting, one of the things I always

wanted to try, but I can never do because I didn't

never podcasted with anybody else that had a

Mac. OK, so garage band. I garageband is the

software that I use whenever I was editing the

podcast that I produced well with On the Mac

there was a program called I chat and it was

basically it was an aim. It was an aim Because

it was a way of using instant messenger without

having to use a wall instant manager well Garageband

and I chat would interface with each other And

keep in mind, this was 2000, I got the computer.

It could do this in 2004, and I was never able

to do this. So this was back in 2004. GarageBand,

you could start a voice chat with any number

of people in iChat that had iChat, other Mac

users that had iChat. You could start a voice

call like we're doing right now. And you could

launch GarageBand. And you could record that

call and every single participant was their own

channel This was in 2004 and right like I chat

isn't a thing anymore. I think it might still

do that with like I message right now, but I'm

not I just never got it working I found other

ways of like we're doing my podcast was like

man Podcasting would be so easy if everyone that

I wanted to do this stupid show with could just

just had a Mac because I get everyone would be

on their own channel and you could mix and do

all the vault all the levels and like it's just

it man That stuff just worked man Like I I found

what I found ways of like achieving the same

thing But I had to use like a number of other

apps and things like that It was just like but

like I never I never got to use anything I never

got to do a podcast with the simplicity that

Apple had built into its ecosystem. or 6 -20

-2020. I wanted to do something different with

this show, with Studio 2009. This is not GeekCaster,

it's getting confused now. Over on Studio 2009,

I wanted to do something different, and I have

had the, you know, you were on one of them, you

were episode 29, I believe. I had the comic book

origins for the pullback, so it's 30 questions

all about reading comics, yada yada yada. Well,

I've since expanded that into other areas and

two of the other areas are podcasting, listening

to and producing them and video game journeys.

So we will talk about that later because that

that's going to be interesting. But yeah, I mean,

overall, you got your, you know, you spent your

money, you made your choice. Like same thing,

like with me, when I make a choice of something,

I'm going to make that choice. I'm not going

to go back. What's a perfect he's like if wherever

I want to go to dinner or wherever I want to

go to lunch or whatever like if I want Dean's

milk over Walmart great value brand may like

you just make a choice and you stick with it

and that's cool I like that's cool again the

whole point of this episode is why iPhone and

Your experiences with it. So do you have like

a top five? Likes and dislikes from the 16. Well,

I'll tell you right now like you know how I think

you know that they said they add features that

androids had for a while that I just don't use

them or whatever like the big thing with like

iOS 18 was all the customization that you can

do like oh you can color your icons you can arrange

your icons all this my stuff hasn't changed I

don't do any of that okay in fact you know what

I don't even have my my my wallpaper and my lock

screen are black Like and they have been black

like my like it I don't have about I don't have

a wallpaper I don't have any of that stuff on

my phone. I haven't had it on my phone in Dude

I think the last time I had a wallpaper on my

phone was 2013 maybe Ever since then it's just

black. I don't I don't need I don't need a picture

behind it. I try I experiment I put a color back

there I'll put up like a blue wallpaper or something

or I've got I've got like a really cool wallpaper

that changes with like the weather. Right. And

so like like if it's raining, it shows like an

animated rainstorm for like the first like five

seconds when you unlock the phone and it. But

you know what? I keep them on there. And about

five minutes later, I'm like, no, goodbye. Just

go back and take me back to my black wallpaper.

I don't I don't I don't I don't need to see this.

I don't I don't care. I just. Honestly, I've

been I've been messing around with the camera

more lately because I'm trying to get more out

of the phone Because I do kind of let the phone

just take the picture and I think I For me someone

who's never had a point -and -shoot I've never

had a mirrorless camera. I've never had a digital

camera like never had one of those The iPhone

has always been my camera It takes Great pictures

as far as I'm concerned. Right. So I've never

had an issue with that. I've always said it has

way more horsepower than I would ever need. I

don't even game on it. I can't. Okay. Will put

a game on the phone even my iPad I can't game

on my iPad either I will put a game on them and

I will play it for about 10 minutes and then

I will delete it I I can't play games with touch

controls. I can't do Dude, I just I consume media

on on my on my phone in my iPad. I don't Yeah,

so you're listening to music or podcast or whatever

you listen to and then you're watching TV shows

and you're watching movies I don't watch TV shows

or movies on my on my phone or my iPad, sir.

I'm sorry But no, I do I consume YouTube But

I'm just that's that's kind of it. That's that's

more of me. Just joking around but I don't know

it's uh, I Don't have any complaints because

it's it's the iPhone. It's what I've known for

What 13, uh, almost 14 14 years 15 years. No,

uh, we're For three 17 years for three years

from 20 20 years. So Um, so it's all it it's

the iphone. It's it's to me upgrading every year.

It's been the same phone for 17 years It's the

the biggest change came when for me came when

they dropped skeuomorphism, which Was a sad day

What's that story I know it was just it So, you

know, it's he morphism is right where it's like

the so it's the it's a it's a you Okay, I'm probably

gonna be wrong here, but it's an open an oversimplification

It's when the graphical user interface mimics

real -world objects So okay like like i books

for example when i books first launched when

there when skew morphism was still the design

language you opened up i books and it was an

oak bookshelf. like you saw all of your books

lined up on an oak bookshelf and When they dropped

all that all of a sudden is you just open up

iBooks And it's just a blank screen that has

a bunch of book icons on it. There's no personality

to it There's no flavor to it The biggest the

biggest travesty in the whole thing and you'll

probably love this or you'll hate this But I

thought always thought it was the coolest thing

the podcast app so podcasts under skew morphism

When it was a it showed a reel to reel player

So it had like the you know that the tape going

around and Right. So when you when you hit play

the the reel on the left side had all the tape

on it and the wheel on the right side had nothing

on it and when you hit play the the wheels spun

and Slowly the wheel on the left got shorter

and the wheel on the right Got bigger until the

episode was over. Yeah, and when you hit like

stop the the the The reels would stop and kind

of like shake because it wasn't like it was like

an analog thing It's like oh the motor stop and

like you would see like the little arm like the

tension arms like bob up and down on the on the

on the tape like That stuff that I've I mmm that's

that that flavor that just you don't have to

make something look this good. Yeah, and They

got rid of all that stuff, man. Like it, it.

It kind of like I remember like one of the things

like one article I read. That kind of changed

the way that I viewed the iPhone. It was very

early on. It. The iPhone, the way the iPhone

function, and this was back before there was

like multitasking or fast app switching or any

of that other stuff that like everybody wanted

out of a get go. It was the iPhone. became whatever

you wanted it to be. It turned into that. You

want it to be a recording device, you opened

up the recording device and there was a microphone

there. You knew that you set it down and you

were like, there was a microphone. I had the

little recording needle on it that showed you

the volume levels of what you're recording. It

became that. You opened up the Compass app. It

looked like a compass. It became that thing.

And now they just. I just do too much. Or it

doesn't do enough because, like you said, with

the iBooks app, originally it had like, oh, it's

this nice design background. It looks like it's

on an actual oak bookshelf kind of thing. And

then they took it. It's like they took the personality.

They took the strips now. Don't get me wrong.

I love I like the way that it looks now but they

did they tore the they tore the personality out

of it because there was like there used to be

like stuff like when like when the screen would

drop down so you could see their notification

like the screen that was under that would like

it had this the green felt from a poker table

is What was under is what was under the home

screen? That was so that's so cool. That's cool.

Like you haven't you have a display that can

show you whatever you want Mm -hmm and make you

feel Anything and you just you did you him? And

this is not just Apple this is everybody this

is because because the Google followed I'll just

say Android because Samsung is just a skin right

but Android followed. Yeah, you know Apple right

off the cliff Like and they just it they stripped

all the personality out I can't even I can't

even be him even think of like what the other

There was just the camera app like look like

a camera or like when you're recording a video

There's a little red light that turned on like

in the camera app when you're recording a video

like it just there was so much personality and

in the whole thing and all just got stripped

out of it and that was going from like ios i

think that was ios 7 that they stripped all that

out all that stuff out of and faith in favor

of a flat ui which has been the underlying principle

of the whole thing since then which i like but

you didn't need to do that for everything but

i get i get it it's a design language you want

one app to feel like the next that way it's easy

for everyone to figure out how to use something

and i get it It was just, it was just really

sad. Every time I look back on it, I'm like,

man, it was so cool. Yeah, but like you look,

yeah, exactly. It was so cool. It was so fun.

And the thing of it is, is you look like you

said earlier about the, about the iBooks app.

You open it up, you see your books and they kind

of look like they're on a bookshelf. I think

that's a cool design language because you can

do the same thing. Like not iMovie, but like

if you open iTunes. Your on your iPhone it should

have like each type of media should be like well

movies and TV You can have them display like

it should look like again length design language

that is cool features that look nice features

that are make it feel more than just a phone

pewter and like like we said computer Yeah, exactly.

No more ones and zeros, Apple. Come on, let's

go. What do you want? What do you want from the

iPhone design or the iPhone overall in the future?

What what is your next? Like what's the next

thing for you other than just upgrading from

year to year? Like what do you want to see the

iPhone do in the future? And this is just speculation

and rumor from like the tech blogs. I want to

see what this iPhone Air is going to be. I also

am in my in my head Because keep in mind I know

that I don't need to upgrade every year, but

I like to upgrade every year I The one thing

that has kept me with the pro line for as long

as it has It is the promotion display that the

pro line has where it can go from like 24 Hertz

all the way up to 120 Hertz I I like that I can

feel that my wife can my wife can't look at my

phone because it drives her, it makes her sick.

The regular iPhone is only 60 Hertz and she is

totally fine with that. That's totally usable

for her. But I've heard that next year's iPhone,

the ProMotion display is supposed to come to

the regular iPhones. So like, I don't know, you

just removed a feature of the Pro that I actively

used, right? Because like I don't need all the

camera. I don't need all the cameras. I don't

I I don't take that many photos I'm not a photographer

So I think like if they do the 120 Hertz display,

I might be able to get a cheaper iPhone next

year I don't know I I know that like The gimmicky

stuff that they've added like the always -on

display that came with the 20 with the iPhone

14 I don't use that it's turned off on my phone

would like to see Personally, I would like to

see the dynamic island used a lot better It is

still three years later a half -baked idea and

it's sad, huh? So they they haven't updated anything

with dynamic So they have but here's the thing

the dynamic island in my opinion Should be where

all the notifications come from that makes sense.

Okay, so like for example if I get a phone call

So if I get a phone call, the Dynamic Island

expands while I'm using the phone, while I'm

using it while I'm looking at it. If I get a

phone call, the Dynamic Island expands and gives

me the answer button or the hang up button and

shows me, it becomes the caller ID. If there's

a clock going on, it shows the clock, music playing,

it shows that, whatever. But the problem, if

I get a text message, that doesn't come from

the Dynamic Island. The text message still comes

In the same spot, the text message came. Yeah,

notifications. Yeah, it just comes in a notification.

Square and disappears like every notification

should be coming from the dynamic island and

I don't know why it doesn't. So I I would like

to see that get used more because it is it is

very in my is very slick. I know it's been mimicked,

but it's it's still very slick. It's a very cool

way of hiding the cameras on the front end of

the display. It's not that noticeable to me or

even my wife. She thought she was going to hate

it and she doesn't notice it at all anymore.

And I feel like my wife has a good litmus test

for what does and does not work when it comes

to product design. Because she's more I'm more

I'm enthusiast. My wife is mass market. Right.

So they I don't know. I just. I'm fine with,

like I said, I'm fine with the slab of glass.

I don't necessarily know that I want it to be

thinner. I don't need it to be thinner, but I'm

interested to see what the iPhone Air is. It's...

The thing has been... I don't know what they

could do, honestly. Give me... I want to see

what the Taptic buttons do, the solid state buttons.

I want to see what that does. To me, the phone

has been perfect for a number of years. Like,

I like the... the iPhone 4 the iPhone 4 4s 5

5s and All the iPhones from the 20 from the from

the 14 on I know you don't like this, but they've

had the flat sides and I like that. I Don't like

the rounded bezels You don't need the curves.

No, I like I like the I like the look I like

the look in the finish and the feel Feel like

it looks more premium like your what the tolerances

for the product design are lower When you have

flat sides then when you have curved sides, I

that's just personal opinion Yeah So I honestly

I don't I honestly don't know what they could

do other than like Show me different colors.

I mean, that's technically what my wife goes

for now too is like did they release a phone

in a color? because like she so she had a 13

and When Apple announced the 14, you know the

everything in the 14 line lineup got an update,

but I was like you don't need to No, no, no,

no she had a 14 Yeah She had a 14 and then last

year I said Damn it. I told her to skip one year

because she would be literally buying the same

phone again. Right. Got you. Got you. For the

standard line, I can't remember if it was the

13 to the 14 or the 14 to the 15, but I said,

don't get a new phone. We'll wait and your iPhone

upgrade program will run out and then I think

it was going from the 12th. I don't know. I'm

sorry, dude. I can't remember what it was. It's

okay this year though like sheet last year. She

bought a new she got a 15 she skipped the 14

So it was the 13 she skipped the 14 last year.

She bought a 15 And she's like, I'm just gonna

stick with this phone for another two years cuz

that's what I can do that I don't need to upgrade

every year and then I sat down I was watching

the keynote and they showed the regular phones

and they showed the pink one and I was like,

oh my god And she's gonna get it because it's

yep. So I be they went okay How do I how do I

what do I gotta do to make sure she can get this

phone? Because I knew I knew that she was gonna

want it and so we just she wanted we we were

able to get rid of her old phone and We got her

the new one and we put her in the iPhone upgrade

program because next year if they come out with

a different color She can just go ahead and grab

that or she can keep the phone for another to

another year and be done with it like Like she's

had options at that point. It was just I don't

know we upgrade because we have we it's mostly

just cuz we can and like it like I said, I think

it's like a It's a peace of mind thing and it's

less frustrating. Like I don't, I don't have

to worry about a product going into end of life.

I don't have to worry about a product. That's

true. Uh, what is that? Uh, what's that? What's

that word? Everyone likes to throw around artificial,

um, absolute, uh, uh, obsolete, uh, artificial

obsolescence or whatever. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's

not the right that's not thinking of but it's

I don't worry about that Yeah, I don't know what

I want I don't know what I want to see to be

honest with you It's usually and I and every

year before the iPhone event I'm like, I don't

know what they could possibly do and then they

get up there and they show me one thing and I'm

like done Where do I sign up? Yeah, and it's

it's either some crazy new feature I didn't know

I wanted like the dynamic island or it's a new

material that the thing was made out of that

I thought was better than the stainless steel

or Honestly, this one was this was probably the

hardest one, but I honestly feel like the camera

control is a window kind of like the The face

ID was on the iPhone 10. I feel like the camera

control is yeah is a window into what's coming

and I'm probably wrong No, let's hope not All

right, is there anything else About why iPhone

that you want to talk about? For me, it's just

simplicity man. I doesn't get any It doesn't

I don't worry about anything with my family So

I don't think there's anything else I can think

of very cool. Very cool. All right, folks We're

gonna go to a quick podcast ad break You're gonna

hear a bunch of podcast ads from the podcast

that we promote here on the geek cast for your

network I want to come back to close the show

right after this Hello Geeks and Geekettes! Looking

for a podcast that covers a vast array of topics?

Then check out Altered Geek Unleashed, where

we discuss our thoughts on this week's geeky

news, tech, gaming, television shows, movies,

cartoons, comics, and more. So get Altered Get

Geeky with the Altered Geeks, every Friday on

the Geekcast Radio Network. Yo Joe! And welcome

to the Cracktastic Plastic Podcast, where a punk

rock band of brothers get together to talk about

one of our shared loves, toy collecting. Toy

hunt by day, punk rock band by night. We'll take

any excuse to get the van. We all collect different

toy lines like those real American heroes. GI

Joe! To the toys that are more than meets the

eye, Transformers! To He -Man and the Masters

of the Universe! From vintage to modern and all

topics in between, you can always expect some

rowdy and passionate discussion because we love

talking toys here on the Cracktastic Plastic

Podcast. Hey, welcome to the last Comic Shop

Podcast. A comic book podcast that actually talks

about comics. Yep. Each week we open the shop

up and read and discuss a comic. Sometimes we

pair that up with comic book movies or TV shows.

We're not. Lots of times it's just comic books.

And sound effects. Oh yes, definitely lots of

sound effects. So tune in on all the major podcasts

and platforms to the Last Comic Shop podcast,

or check out our library of evergreen shows at

www .lastcomicshoppodcast .com. For the best

in science fiction, join Mark Baumgarten, Vicki

Jakubowski, Zion Kuros, and Juan San Miguel on

the award -winning podcast, Markku 42's Universe.

Dr. Who, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star

Trek, and more are all fair game with Mark Who

42, which has been around since 2012 in one form

or another. Mark Who 42's universe is proud to

be a part of Geekcast Radio Network, the best

place to get your geek on. Listen to us bi -weekly

or weekly if we have a topic relevant for you,

our listeners. Marku42 on GeekCast Radio Network.

A match made in a galaxy near you. You are receiving

this transmission from the Rod Pod. Upload pending.

Stand by for soundtrack transfer. I am Maggie.

And I am John. And we are trapped, hurtling through

space in a ship shaped like Rodimus's head. The

ship, for reasons we haven't been able to determine,

contains the entire run of the IDW Transformers

Phase 2 comic. Which chronicle the events following

the end of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons.

So we figure we may as well read them all in

order and report our findings to you. Stand by.

Stand by. Upload complete. Now. The Rod Pod.

Look for us at Married W Comics. dot libson dot

com at itunes at stitcher or wherever good podcasts

can be found so uh tell all or one tell all or

one on the simplistic reviews podcast we talk

movies we talk tv we talk hello julie what the

heck are you doing trying to make our spot sound

more exciting by adding explosions yeah i'm pretty

sure you could have got the point across with

sound effects not the real thing car download

the show on itunes or if simplistic reviews dot

blog spot dot com i'm sure your insurance company

will cover that no they won't no they probably

won't all right we are back here on geek cast

radio episode 340y iphone with mike booth ninja

powers this has been awesome this has been fun

Just spouting nonsense about the iPhone. Oh stop.

It's not nonsense knock it off And I was looking

into the geek cast radio archives and the altered

geek archives For the network we did I forget

who we did it with but I did the very first iPhone

episode back in 2009 was episode 4 of GCR where

Who was on this if this website would open faster

faster faster faster? My buddy Bill Stephens,

Mobile Mike, and Jeffrey. So back then, they

were doing this thing called Mobile Tech Moment

back in those days in 2009. And I had them on

for the iPhone originally. And then according

to the research here on September 22nd of 2017,

you and Steve did iPhone X, CBS, Star Trek issues,

HD standards, and all that stuff over on Altered

Geek. I'm pretty sure that was you. Yeah. You

return join to catch up back in twenty seventeen

so fun fun fun times all around here the geocast

radio network you got anything you wanna promote

anything you wanna mention anything you wanna

tell people you're up to whatever you wanna do

i'm not up to a whole lot i don't really post

on social media anymore but it's. Twitter or

X or whatever you want to call it is at Booth.

Actually, most of my social media handles are

at Booth Ninja 81, but I don't really update

on them anymore. Mostly because I just stuck

my head in the sand and I've been better for

it. It's like I have, I have thoughts and opinions

about things and I know I've reached out to like

you and Steve like a couple of times, but then

it usually ends up being like, I don't feel like

sharing my thoughts and opinions. It's like,

I just don't want to, I don't feel like shouting

into that space. So. Well, give him give him

some love folks Tell him you want to hear his

thoughts and opinions because we want to talk

to him about his thoughts and opinions on stuff

because we enjoy it It's all about the friendship

around here at the geek cast radio network. It

is it is it's just about it's just about how

much energy I want to put into things Absolutely.

Well, I always tell people I tell every person

that I have ever podcasted with in the 16 almost

16 years I've been doing this At this point,

now that I'm recording, editing, publishing,

I'm doing all the stuff. All these people, like,

like this. I gave you, like, five or six bullet

points. All you gotta do is show up and talk.

You don't have to, like, sometimes maybe if I

want somebody to read a comic or watch a TV show,

that'd be fine, but, like, you don't have to

do any of the editing. You're not doing the recording.

You don't have to worry. I mean, if you wanna

promote it, please promote it, obviously, once

it's eventually out and online and everything

else, but, like, I do all the work. You just

come and have fun. That's always been my thing.

Like I'll take care of everything as long as

we have the conversation. It is fun. I just have

to get rolling. I think part of the problem for

me is I don't interact with, uh, like when I

was podcasting a lot, I was working at the movie

theater and I was working with, I was around

people that I could have conversations about

movies and TV shows and all this other stuff.

And like right now there's it's where I live

and with like the pandemic the last few years

it's primarily just been my wife and I. We talk

amongst ourselves and like that's as far as I

need to go like I don't really like I don't have

deep conversations with my friends or anything

like that so it's like I I've shared my opinions.

I'm done. And it's like, it's, I don't know.

I don't, I don't, I'm just in general, it's just

one of those things. Like I'm not, it's, it's

not like a, it's, it's not a one more place for

me to share it anymore. It's like a, I've, I've,

I don't know. I maybe I've just grown up. I don't

know what it is anyways. No, I will definitely

promote this because I did have fun doing it.

And I do like talking about all things Apple,

but like I've said, I will never defend them

and their choices that I just know their choices.

I am okay with their choices and I like their

products. So. Yeah, no, absolutely. And like

I said, this was never about bringing you on

here. And like I said before, in the middle of

the show, I'm like, ew, he has cooties because

he's an apple. It was never about that. It was

about finding out why you like for me, like,

I don't know if I said it at all in this podcast,

but like for me, I had this Pixel 6 Pro from

2021 when it launched up until this year. I had

it for three years because I didn't feel like

the phone did everything I wanted it to do and

now the 7 that I have does pretty much the same

the 6 did. There's not much change at least for

me other than the actual design but again I put

a case on it so you don't even see the back of

the phone unless you close the case. So yeah,

I mean, it was just about having a fun conversation

and I haven't talked about Apple stuff. Like

I said, we haven't talked about Apple stuff since

2017. Like we just don't because we're not like

Steve isn't in that arena and neither am I. You

are. And I think it's an opinion and a conversation

that our audience would want to hear because

I'm sure there are plenty of our listeners out

there that are iPhone and Apple product people

like you are. So again, everybody's opinion matters,

no matter what. And I just want to have fun.

I'll always share my opinion, but I will never

play. I will never. Yeah, whatever. I can't think

of what I'm trying to say right now. Yeah, no,

I'm I'm always happy to. I think I'm I think

I'm more likely to talk about Apple than I am

about anything else right now. But it's probably

also because it's September and I just got new

toys, so who knows? Yeah, you just got new. Yeah,

exactly. You got to talk about the new toys.

Absolutely All right, folks We hope you enjoyed

this episode of geek cast radio and wish you'll

join us next time when we will be talking about

now I wrote this down in the middle of the episode

and this is something Mike and I are gonna have

to talk about off air, but You had mentioned

your Fridays and Saturdays and working 17 hours

So I wrote down in all caps in bold working at

the movie theater I don't know if that's gonna

be the next episode or not folks Depends on what

we say in the in the in the behind the scenes

and all that stuff, but for now I am TFU and

Mike with... Mike Booth Ninja Powers. Thank you

for listening until next time. We're gonna use

a word with a lot less baggage. Windows. You

know what Windows is?