And is there any controversy surrounding them? [laughs]

[laughs] You know, look, Apple introduces a new Apple Watch pretty much every year.

Uh, this year we got two.

We got the Series 12, and we got the Ultra 4.

Um, no SE update this year.

Um, mainly just the sort of main line and the Ultra.

They share a lot of the improvements.

So tell us about the foldable phone.

Are they large improvements over existing models? And is there any controversy surrounding them?

You know, look, Apple introduces a new Apple Watch pretty much every year.

This year, we got two.

We got the Series 12 and we got the Ultra 4.

No SE update this year.

Mainly just the sort of main line and the Ultra.

They share a lot of the improvements they got.

Um, what do we, what are we rocking there? And how do you feel about burgundy? Yeah.

Even their older phones

... older phones.

The Apple Watch did not.

The Apple Watch came in at the same starting prices as it has in the past, as did, um, as some of the AirPods stuff, as you said, got cheaper.

Um, and so they're trying to sort of, I think, reach down a little bit further into, uh, the AirPods market for people who maybe aren't in the market for AirPods Pro.

Uh, the major, uh, advantages here, as we said, there's a improved AN, uh, active noise cancellation with, uh, transparency, uh, an adaptive mode that blends the transparency and the noise cancellation.

Um, improved sound quality, which is always what they're, they're looking for.

[laughs]

Mm-hmm.

From things like providing a health age, which is something that other health wearables do, to providing this overall readiness score that kind of looks at your, you know, a whole health, how well did you sleep, like, what's your vitals look like, and that sort of giving you an idea of how much you could push yourself if you're working out or doing something like that.

Um, and so that's a big chunk of what they really spent the time talking about with both the Series 12 and the Ultra 4, um, is, like, what, what new health capabilities can be unlocked by this improved sensor.

Um, beyond that, I think a lot of what we saw were just sort of the usual niceties, like there is, uh, you know, a l- a little more processor power.

Uh, there's some battery life improvements.

And then we have the other major chunk of what they talked about, which are, uh, a couple new features, uh, to bring Apple Intelligence into the equation, because no device may be untouched by Apple Intelligence, [laughs] and that includes the Apple Watch.

So we have a pair of new features, one of which is called Live Rewind, the other of which is called Siri Recaps.

So tell us about the foldable phone.

And is there any controversy surrounding them? [laughs]

[laughs] You know, look, Apple introduces a new Apple Watch pretty much every year.

Uh, this year we got two.

We got the Series 12, and we got the Ultra 4.

Um, no SE update this year.

Um, mainly just the sort of main line and the Ultra.

They share a lot of the improvements they got.

So tell us about the foldable phone.

Are they large improvements over existing models? And is there any controversy surrounding them?

You know, look, Apple introduces a new Apple Watch pretty much every year.

This year, we got two.

We got the Series 12, and we got the Ultra 4.

No SE update this year, mainly just the sort of main line and the Ultra.

They share a lot of the improvements they got.

The things that Apple spent the most time talking about are this improvement in the health sensors, specifically in the heart rate sensor.

Um, what do we, what are we rocking there? And how do you feel about burgundy? Yeah.

Sorry, you didn't

get that one.

That's closer, yeah.

Let's say...

I think our country is associated with whips.

Well, yes.

I mean, I guess.

used to love

[sighs]

Uh, the answer, some stuff that seems not very private.

Uh, hot on the heels of a report last month that Apple's Hide my Email feature did not do a very good job of hiding users' emails, Joseph Cox at Four Four Media is back with a second report about, this time about the iCloud Private Relay feature.

If you're not familiar with this, it was rolled out a few years ago as a part of Apple's iCloud Plus suite, which is a paid subscription service that bundles a bunch of different things including, you know, more iCloud storage, but also one of them is this Private Relay.

Uh, the idea behind Private Relay is it is a way to obfuscate your information so that that cannot be accessed by websites, things like your IP address, for example.

Rather than showing your actual IP address, everything sort of runs through a proxy network that Apple maintains, and therefore it makes it harder to geolocate you, target ads at you, that kind of thing.

This goes hand-in-hand with a lot of the other privacy features Apple has developed in its various pieces of software, uh, such as Safari and a lot of its, uh, cr- uh, anti-tracking provisions.

Yes.

[sighs]

Uh, the answer, some stuff that seems not very private.

Uh, hot on the heels of a report last month that Apple's Hide My Email feature did not do a very good job of hiding users' emails, Joseph Cox at 404 Media is back with a second report about, this time about the iCloud Private Relay feature.

If you're not familiar with this, it was rolled out a few years ago as a part of Apple's iCloud+ suite, which is a paid subscription service that bundles a bunch of different things including, you know, more iCloud storage, but also one of them is this Private Relay.

Uh, the idea behind Private Relay is it is a way to obfuscate your information so that that cannot be accessed by websites, things like your IP address, for example.

Rather than showing your actual IP address, everything sort of runs through a proxy network that Apple maintains, and therefore it makes it harder to geolocate you, target ads at you, that kind of thing.

This goes hand-in-hand with a lot of the other privacy features Apple has developed in its various pieces of software, uh, such as Safari and a lot of its, uh, cr- uh, anti-tracking provisions.

Mm

[sighs]

Uh, the answer, some stuff that seems not very private.

Uh, hot on the heels of a report last month that Apple's Hide My Email feature did not do a very good job of hiding users' emails, Joseph Cox at Four0Four media is back with a second report about, this time about the iCloud Private Relay feature.

If you're not familiar with this, it was rolled out a few years ago as a part of Apple's iCloud Plus suite, which is a paid subscription service that bundles a bunch of different things including, you know, more iCloud storage, but also one of them is this Private Relay.

Uh, the idea behind Private Relay is it is a way to obfuscate your information so that that cannot be accessed by websites, things like your IP address, for example.

Rather than showing your actual IP address, everything sort of runs through a proxy network that Apple maintains, and therefore it makes it harder to geo-locate you, target ads at you, that kind of thing.

This goes hand-in-hand with a lot of the other privacy features Apple has developed in its various pieces of software, uh, such as Safari and a lot of its, uh, cr- uh, anti-tracking provisions.

Mm

[sighs]

Uh, the answer, some stuff that seems not very private.

Uh, hot on the heels of a report last month that Apple's Hide my Email feature did not do a very good job of hiding users' emails, Joseph Cox at 404 Media is back with a second report about, this time about the iCloud Private Relay feature.

If you're not familiar with this, it was rolled out a few years ago as a part of Apple's iCloud+ suite, which is a paid subscription service that bundles a bunch of different things including, you know, more iCloud storage, but also one of them is this Private Relay.

Uh, the idea behind Private Relay is it is a way to obfuscate your information so that that cannot be accessed by websites, things like your IP address, for example.

Rather than showing your actual IP address, everything sort of runs through a proxy network that Apple maintains, and therefore it makes it harder to geolocate you, target ads at you, that kind of thing.

This goes hand-in-hand with a lot of the other privacy features Apple has developed in its various pieces of software, uh, such as Safari and a lot of its, uh, cr- uh, anti-tracking provisions.

Yes.

That's entertainment.

That's probably the most generic white guy name I've heard in a while.

Know some detectives he didn't play.

Okay.

Start naming those.

Process of elimination? Rule them all out.

Eventually, I will get to the right one.

It's a

Mm.

That's now, they also, Apple tweaked the prices of [chuckles] the AppleCare stuff, so that's now $14.

So, if you wanted to get AppleCare on top of that, setting aside one more thing I'll talk about in a second, then you're gonna pay more.

Not a lot more, but a little more.

Um, obviously, there's also AppleCare One, which they introduced, uh, well, late last year, early this year, um, which essentially is your monthly thing that covers several different devices.

So, you could, if you have multiple Apple devices, maybe you would save some money if you have AppleCare on all of them.

Uh, like many people, I think including you, I do not tend to be an AppleCare subscriber.

Yeah.

Bad times

... a lot of, a lot of unfortunate things have befallen the Xbox division at Microsoft.

Um, we had a new CEO who took over earlier this year, Asha Sharma, um, and back in June, she had promised that there would be an upcoming Xbox reset, which is not just resetting your Xbox, as it turns out, but in fact resetting a lot of the people who work there.

So, uh, this week the company announced mass layoffs, about 1,600 staffers getting cut, with 1,600 more scheduled to be cut, uh, over the course of Microsoft's next fiscal year.

More interestingly, we've also seen that they've spun off a couple of the studios that they have bought, notably Compulsion Games and, uh, the legendary independent studio Double Fine Productions, which made Psychonauts, are both moving back to independent status.

Uh, while some of the other studios that Microsoft had bought will go, uh, basically be sold to new, new owners.

Um, and then you're gonna have some more options with some of the other studios, including Arkane, which is a- another sort of big m- uh, marquee name.

Mm-hmm

Bad times

... a lot of unfortunate things have befallen the Xbox division at Microsoft.

Um, we had a new CEO who took over earlier this year, Asha Sharma, um, and back in June, she had promised that there would be an upcoming Xbox reset, which is not just resetting your Xbox, as it turns out, but in fact resetting a lot of the people who work there.

So, uh, this week the company announced mass layoffs, about 1,600 staffers getting cut, with 1,600 more scheduled to be cut, uh, over the course of Microsoft's next fiscal year.

More interestingly, we've also seen that they've spun off a couple of the studios that they have bought, notably Compulsion Games and, uh, the legendary independent studio Double Fine Productions, which made Psychonauts, are both moving back to independent status.

Uh, while some of the other studios that Microsoft had bought will go, uh, basically be sold to new, new owners.

Um, and then you're gonna have some more options with some of the other studios, including Arkane, which is a- another sort of big m- uh, marquee name.

Mm-hmm

[laughs] Bad time

... as a lot of, a lot of unfortunate things have befallen the Xbox division at Microsoft.

Um, we had a new CEO who took over earlier this year, Asha Sharma, um, and back in June, she had promised that there would be an upcoming Xbox reset, which is not just resetting your Xbox, as it turns out, but in fact resetting a lot of the people who work there.

So, uh, this week the company announced mass layoffs, about 1,600 staffers getting cut with 1,600 more scheduled to be cut, uh, over the course of Microsoft's next fiscal year.

More interestingly, we've also seen that they've spun off a couple of the studios that they have bought, notably Compulsion Games and, uh, the legendary independent studio Double Fine Productions, which made Psychonauts, are both moving back to independent status.

Uh, while some of the other studios that Microsoft had bought will go... uh, basically be sold to new, new owners.

Um, and then you're gonna have some more options with some of the other studios, including Arkane, which is a, another sort of big m- uh, marquee name.

Mm-hmm

Bad times

... a lot of unfortunate things have befallen the Xbox division at Microsoft.

Um, we had a new CEO who took over earlier this year, Asha Sharma, um, and back in June, she had promised that there would be an upcoming Xbox reset, which is not just resetting your Xbox, as it turns out, but in fact resetting a lot of the people who work there.

So, uh, this week the company announced mass layoffs, about 1,600 staffers getting cut with 1,600 more scheduled to be cut, uh, over the course of Microsoft's next fiscal year.

More interestingly, we've also seen that they've spun off a couple of the studios that they have bought, notably Compulsion Games and, uh, the legendary independent studio Double Fine Productions, which made Psychonauts, are both moving back to independent status.

Uh, while some of the other studios that Microsoft had bought will go, uh, basically be sold to new, new owners.

Um, and then you're gonna have some more options with some of the other studios, including Arkane, which is a, another sort of big m- uh, marquee name.

Mm-hmm

Bad times

... a lot of unfortunate things have befallen the Xbox division at Microsoft.

Um, we had a new CEO who took over earlier this year, Asha Sharma, um, and back in June, she had promised that there would be an upcoming Xbox reset, which is not just resetting your Xbox, as it turns out, but in fact resetting a lot of the people who work there.

So, uh, this week the company announced mass layoffs, about 1,600 staffers getting cut with 1,600 more scheduled to be cut, uh, over the course of Microsoft's next fiscal year.

More interestingly, we've also seen that they've spun off a couple of the studios that they have bought, notably Compulsion Games and, uh, the legendary independent studio Double Fine Productions, which made Psychonauts, are both moving back to independent status.

Uh, while some of the other studios that Microsoft had bought will go, uh, basically be sold to new- new owners.

Um, and then you're gonna have some more options with some of the other studios, including Arkane, which is a- another sort of big m- uh, marquee name.

Mm-hmm

Tell us all about it.

Yeah.

You know, it's always an interesting moment when a CEO has to go talk to a news publication, and even more so when they have to deliver some bad news.

And this week we got to see Apple CEO Tim Cook do just that when he went to talk to The Wall Street Journal and tell them that sadly, Apple is going to have to raise prices.

Uh, this is not a thing that they do very much.

It happens occasionally from time to time, um, and mostly it's to keep up with the state of the world.

And in that case, uh, today, this week, the, the state of the world is bad.

Mm-hmm

Tell us all about it.

Yeah.

You know, it's always an interesting moment when a CEO has to go talk to a news publication, and even more so when they have to deliver some bad news.

And this week we got to see Apple CEO Tim Cook do just that when he went to talk to The Wall Street Journal and tell them that sadly, Apple is going to have to raise prices.

Uh, this is not a thing that they do very much.

It happens occasionally from time to time, um, and mostly it's to keep up with the state of the world.

And in that case, uh, today, this week, the, the state of the world is bad.

Mm-hmm

Tell us all about it.

Yeah.

You know, it's always an interesting moment when a CEO has to go talk to a news publication, and even more so when they have to deliver some bad news.

And this week we got to see Apple CEO Tim Cook do just that when he went to talk to The Wall Street Journal and tell them that sadly, Apple is going to have to raise prices.

Uh, this is not a thing that they do very much.

It happens occasionally from time to time, um, and mostly it's to keep up with the state of the world.

And in that case, uh, today, this week, the, the state of the world is bad.

Mm-hmm

Can you tell us about that part?

Yeah, this part really focused on some of the things that Apple has done before, but it drew together a couple different things, um, you know, including parental controls and safety for kids.

Now, what was interesting, I think, in part here, was this section was sort of spearheaded by, um, Dr. Sumbul's, um, Des- sorry, I just lost her name.

Um, but she is Apple's head of, VP, uh, of Health.

Um, and so, uh, that was kind of an interesting move, right? They provide this to sort of take the angle, uh, Sumbul Desai, uh, of, um, health being the aspect into this.

It's not a software feature, it's a health feature.

And so what they did was talk about the controls that have been available under the sort of screen time features and, and related features over many years.

Mm-hmm.

Can you tell us about that part?

Yeah.

This part really focused on some of the things that Apple has done before, but it drew together a couple different things, um, you know, including parental controls and safety for kids.

Now, what was interesting I think in part here was this section was sort of spearheaded by, um, Dr. Sumbul's, um, Des- sorry, I just lost her name.

Um, but she is Apple's head of VP, uh, of health.

Um, and so, uh, that was kind of an interesting move, right? They provide this to sort of take the angle, uh, Sumbul Desai, uh, of, um, health being the aspect into it.

This is not a software feature.

Mm-hmm.

Can you tell us about that part?

Yeah.

This part really focused on some of the things that Apple has done before, but it drew together a couple different things, um, you know, including parental controls and safety for kids.

Now, what was interesting, I think, in part here, was this section was sort of spearheaded by, um, Dr. Sumbul's, um, Des- sorry, I just lost her name.

Um, but she is Apple's head of VP, uh, of health.

Um, and so, uh, that was kind of an interesting move, right? They provide this to sort of take the angle, uh, Sumbul Desai, uh, of, um, health being the aspect into it.

This is not a software feature.

Mm-hmm.

Can you tell us about that part?

Yeah, this part really focused on some of the things that Apple has done before, but it drew together a couple different things, um, you know, including parental controls and safety for kids.

Now, what was interesting, I think, in part here, was this section was sort of spearheaded by, um, Dr. Sumbul, um, Dis- sorry, I just lost her name.

Um, but she is Apple's head of, VP, uh, of health.

Um, and so, uh, that was kind of an interesting move, right, to provide this, to sort of take the angle, uh, Sumbul Desai, uh, of, um, health being the aspect into it.

This is not a software feature.

It's a health feature.

Mm-hmm.