October 30, 2023 • 34 mins
In this episode:
- What to expect at Apple’s upcoming “Scary Fast” event
- Apple is raising the prices on some of its services again
- Managing your subscriptions and their ever-increasing costs
- A Better Writing Experience on iPad? - Rock Paper Pencil iPad Screen Protector and Apple Pencil Tips
- Jeff’s spent a month with the FineWoven case and it’s…fine?
Links from the show:
Apple “Scary Fast” Event
AppleTV+, Arcade, and News+ subscription prices increase from today
Rock Paper Pencil - Magnetic iPad Screen Protector and Apple Pencil Tips
Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!
Contact Us
- Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
- You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
- Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
- Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
- Tom has a new YouTube channel
- Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design
Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!
- Review on Apple Podcasts
- Rate on Spotify
- Recommend in Overcast
Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jeff Battersby (00:00):
It's sweet temptation, sweet sweet.
Tom Anderson (00:12):
Hello and welcome in.
It's another episode of BasicAFO podcast that's mostly about
tech.
I'm Tom Anderson, joined asusual by my co-host, jeff
Battersby.
Jeff, how are you, sir?
I'm well.
Jeff Battersby (00:24):
I am very well.
This is a gorgeous fall day inNew York today.
Tom Anderson (00:29):
Same in Virginia today.
It's been splendid all week.
A little late summer Feels likemid-September, no humidity, but
the temperatures have beensweet.
Jeff Battersby (00:38):
Oh my gosh, it's been.
I've been sitting on my frontporch writing every single day.
Tom Anderson (00:44):
Nice yeah.
Jeff Battersby (00:46):
Okay.
Tom Anderson (00:46):
All right, well, welcome in to everyone.
Jeff Battersby (00:48):
Welcome back.
No, just we're going to a30-minute episode today.
Tom Anderson (00:51):
We're going to try and compact these things out of
respect for your time.
Let me up quick and we're goingto try switching the format up
just a little bit.
So let us know what you thinkabout this one.
As always, if you have aquestion, hit us up for you back
at basicafshowcom.
Also, be sure to follow us,subscribe, whatever the
terminology is in your favoritepodcast app.
(01:13):
So, without further ado, let'sjump into this one.
We had a couple ofannouncements this week from
Apple.
Jeff Yep, we did, and so, as werecord this, it is October 28th
.
Show will come out on October30th in the afternoon.
So, depending on when youlisten, it may be before or
(01:34):
after the event that Appleannounced for this Monday,
october 30th.
Interesting time slot for thisone 8 pm Eastern time, 5 pm
Pacific.
Do the math if you're in Europe, I think it's one in the
morning or something like that.
So good luck.
So, given the tagline for thisone, scary fast.
(01:55):
This looks to be a Mac updatefrom everything that I've read
and kind of makes sense.
Jeff Battersby (02:01):
Yeah, people guessing on.
Is this some guesses both sidesof an M3 iMac or an updated M2
iMac.
Who knows, maybe a, I don'tknow.
You think they'll throw Macbookair in there.
Tom Anderson (02:15):
I doubt it.
Bloomberg had a post articleyesterday I think it was Mark
German and it looks like 14-16inch MacBook Pros will get
updated, imac will get updatedand then after that it didn't
seem to be much Makes sense formaybe the weird time I think
they're kind of leaning into theholiday of Halloween coming up.
(02:37):
Maybe they'll play off of thatif Tim Cook comes out and like a
Dracula outfit.
Jeff Battersby (02:41):
It's worth watching just for that.
Tom Anderson (02:44):
And there might be something to that.
Jeff Battersby (02:46):
But yeah, I guess it's time for me to go
back to the Heggenburger in andout burger.
Tom Anderson (02:52):
Right, it's time for you to get refreshed.
Jeff Battersby (02:55):
That time has come.
I am headed back to the BayArea on the 10th of November.
Tom Anderson (02:59):
So it's possible.
Maybe it's right.
Jeff Battersby (03:01):
Maybe a little in and out and get myself a new.
Tom Anderson (03:04):
Macbook Pro.
Yeah, that could work.
So it does sound like that.
It is an interesting time,though eight o'clock Usually 1
pm, eastern time, and 10.
Jeff Battersby (03:15):
So it makes me think maybe they're just having
some fun, but it's probably nota huge announcement either no,
and well, and the nice thing isand this was brought up you know
, no more, these are not live.
You know it's not right.
People sit around watching this, so they record it and they put
it out in prime time on theEast Coast.
You know this is same timeyou'd be watching Monday night
(03:35):
football.
Tom Anderson (03:37):
That is true.
I think it'll probably.
Let's see football starts at8.30.
Does?
Jeff Battersby (03:42):
it, I think, off for Monday night, I think Maybe
maybe.
Tom Anderson (03:44):
I think this will be done by 8.30.
Jeff Battersby (03:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Tom Anderson (03:47):
We'll just take a guess.
Usually they're roughly an hour.
I'm going to give this one 30minutes.
Jeff Battersby (03:50):
Okay, well, trying to, and now see we're
trying to keep up with Apple bykeeping this podcast at 30
minutes.
Tom Anderson (03:56):
Yes, Well, I think they got inside word from us
that that's what we were doing,so they yeah Awesome.
Not so good news in terms ofannouncements Apple's jacked up
prices on their services again,which is just great by the way,
this is not just Apple doingthis.
Jeff Battersby (04:13):
Every single one of these streaming services is
screaming another dollar out ofyour pocket, which raises some
questions which we'll get to.
But go ahead to the prices, tom.
Tom Anderson (04:23):
Okay, so they have increased prices of Apple TV
plus and Apple News Plus by $3.
We're going to do US prices.
It'll be different withcurrency stuff depending on
where you are listening.
But anyway, plus $3 for AppleTV plus and Apple News Plus.
So Apple TV plus is now $9.99.
Apple News Plus $12.99, whichseems like a lot for that.
(04:46):
Apple Arcade went up $2 to$6.99, which seems a lot for
that.
Apple won bundles, which Ithink you have a bundle right.
Jeff Battersby (04:58):
I do yeah, premier.
Tom Anderson (05:01):
So, of course, in conjunction with seeing their
prices go up as well, theindividual plan has gone up $3,
the family plan up $3.
So individual is $19.95.
Family plan is $29.95.
The premier plan you really getscrewed.
It's up $5 to $37.95.
(05:22):
I'm not a fan of that.
Jeff Battersby (05:25):
started at $29.95, if I recall A few years
back.
Tom Anderson (05:30):
Again.
No surprise, but do not losefaith, dear friends.
The free iCloud storage plan isstill five gigs.
Jeff Battersby (05:38):
You know what?
Just enough to do nothing with.
Tom Anderson (05:40):
Exactly it might as well be zero.
Jeff Battersby (05:43):
Yeah Well, and what's interesting is I was
reading around, actually readingTuring Fireball last week, and
he Groober, was.
John.
Groober was talking about theseupgrades and you don't usually
hear him get too ugly about thiskind of stuff, but he was like
(06:04):
he doesn't understand why thereisn't a little more storage on
the table.
And I don't either.
I mean I am using, you knowI've got the two terabyte plan,
so I'm using, you know, a fairamount of that, still not all of
it between and I'm the one thatuses up most of the space.
I have almost completely goneto iCloud Drive for most of my
(06:27):
stuff other than the Synologydisk station that I have here,
and occasionally Dropbox forstuff that I need to do Dropbox
for.
But I have five gigs Come on.
And Apple could afford to give alittle more away.
It feels I don't know, it feelsicky that they don't it does.
Tom Anderson (06:48):
It feels very cheap and I think it was a basic
.
Apple guy made that chart ofthe iCloud's free storage tier
and it's been five gigs since itwas released.
Yeah well nice a decade or moreago, right, so, which is great.
So now might be a good time.
If you do have a bundle, thenmaybe you just picked up because
(07:14):
I went out.
It's only a couple of dollarsmore and I get these other
things, which is kind of what wedid initially.
Because I don't really careabout fitness plus.
I don't use that.
I don't use Apple news plus,apple Arcade.
I checked out, don't really usethat.
So I was thinking, as as Italked to you about this weekend
messages, that I was Maybegoing to jump out of the bundle
(07:34):
and move just to music plus andiCloud plus.
But it turns out Someone in thehousehold is a big news plus
user which you haven't seen.
So I'm staying put.
But yeah, glad I asked.
Jeff Battersby (07:50):
Little, little little time sleeping somewhere
else.
Tom Anderson (07:53):
If you had done it wrong, yeah it's like when I
asked she's oh yeah, use it.
all the time I was like whoa, Ihad no idea and she listed off
six or seven, maybe eightmagazine and she thumbs through
when she's bored.
Okay, wow, all right, so wekept it.
But if, if you're consideringit, you know it's probably a
(08:13):
good time to take a look andmaybe say, okay, well, I really
only use these two, so I'm goingto drop that and save 10 or 12
bucks a month, because that addsup, I mean, it's 120 bucks a
year so Because I've trimmedsome things out of late.
We've talked about that a littlebit in the show book.
We've talked about it quite abit outside of the show, so you
(08:34):
know I've gotten rid of some appsubscriptions, like I got rid
of drafts.
I got rid of craft, which Istill need to get a bunch stuff
out of there.
So mark this down in our book.
If we had, one of things Tomplanned to do but didn't do Is
to get my stuff out of craft.
So I'll probably get to thatDecember 1st and be like, yeah,
(08:54):
I'm not getting that stuff out,I'm just gonna feed them another
40 bucks for the year, which,in comparison to the premiere
plan at $38 a month, seemspretty cheap.
So so I did that.
I got rid of some streamingservices for TV shows and things
like we got rid of Hulu, we gotrid of Disney Plus.
(09:15):
I would love to get rid ofNetflix, but that's her news
plus of streaming services.
I'm not gonna touch that one.
So I've tried to terrain some ofthese in.
I did pick up a new one thisweek, which we're not gonna get
into too much today, but I gotthe chat GPT plus subscription
at 20 bucks a month.
Selling your soul to Satan,that's okay, he's saving me time
.
Saving me time up front isgonna cost me dearly in the end,
(09:38):
right right, that's what italways is T-Sweet sweet, sweet.
So what about you?
Have you trimmed down anysubscriptions?
Jeff Battersby (09:50):
Yeah, I have gone through and done a lot of
things I, like you, craft gotrid of.
I think that runs out and Idon't have anything substantial
in there.
I was using we were using it, Ishould say, mostly for this
show, so there's nothing inthere that I need to keep that
way.
I am dropping fantastical, notbecause I don't like it, but I
just don't think I'm getting asmuch benefit From it.
(10:10):
I've started as I think Ishould be getting from it for
the dollars that I'm spending.
So I'm jumping back to AppleCalendar, which for me, is
working just fine.
It has actually gotten to be amuch better application in the
latest few versions of the OS,so I'm dropping that.
I Did get rid of my cablesubscription a little bit ago
(10:33):
and I'm still kind of foolingaround with the what ifs and
what Forge for that, so I nolonger have an HBO or whatever
it is called now.
Max Max is no longer in myhouse, so I don't have that.
That was part of my cablesubscription.
I'm Playing around with acouple of different streaming
(10:53):
services.
Here's the thing that kind ofdrives me crazy, and that is
that, you know I I watch somesports, not a ton, you know, but
like to, I'm watching the theWorld Series Great game last
night by the way, rangers winand a walk off in 11 innings,
which was frigging brilliant,also frigging exhausting.
(11:17):
Uplilly yeah, it and it.
I watch soccer, you know, andin fact you know, pay for a
peacock plus or whatever I thinkthat thing's called
subscription so I can watchPremier League soccer and and
enjoy that again.
I don't really sit down andwatch those games.
I'm doing other stuff in in theoffice, typically while I'm,
(11:38):
while I'm watching, but I liketo be able to keep my eye on on
the Premier League and do thatkind of stuff.
I Would love a package thatjust allowed me to choose this,
this, this kind of all a cart,you know, and and have it be all
the things that I need it to be.
I do not watch any broadcasttelevision, zero other than
(12:00):
sports.
I am currently trying outYouTube TV, much to my chagrin
you know how much I hate to doany of that stuff but have
bounced around from a couple ofthose.
It's frustrating.
Here's a crazy thing, by theway, and speaking of
subscriptions, which I'vedropped this subscription as
(12:21):
well I got an ESPN subscriptionthinking that I could watch ESPN
, but it's not an ESPNsubscription, it's ESPN plus,
which does not give you, likeyou know what you expect it to
Game on, sign into your cableprovider, what the frig is that
about?
Like I'm paying you dorks, giveme, give me what it is.
(12:42):
So I am, I am in the process ofdoing the same thing that you
are in the process of doing.
I am, I am Pulling out what itis that I want to spend money on
, and I may eventually fall backon the, you know, the Hulu plus
stuff which gives you ESPN.
(13:03):
With all this stuff on it, howmuch is that a month.
Typically I'd have to go backand check probably 12 14 bucks.
Yeah, it's not that expensivereally.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's prettyokay, it's.
I think it's maybe 19 bucks forthat.
Okay, you know, for all of thebecause I do.
You know, I am like reallyenjoying Loki on Disney.
Really it's a really good oneof the few Marvel things that
(13:27):
seems okay.
There's a lot of crap on theretoo.
It just seems like they'rethrowing you know content out to
have content out there.
But all these streamingservices could do a much better
job of offering some a la cartepackage.
You know that they could easilyhave access to that.
You could easily have access tothe stuff that you want.
(13:47):
I do not need any of the other70 channels that YouTube TV
offers.
I don't Nothing.
There's nothing on.
Truthfully, there's a lot ofcontent.
There's nothing there and whatwe're Bitching.
Tom Anderson (14:00):
We don't do that here.
Jeff Battersby (14:02):
Never.
It's the bitching AF show.
If the the other thing that'sstarting to drive me a little
crazy is is all of the contentthat is like is subscribe to me,
subscribe to me, subscribe tome.
There are a lot of people thatI want to read and I think we
mentioned this couple, or Imentioned this couple episodes
back.
(14:22):
I really, you know, I reallymiss like the normal magazine
newspaper idea.
You know you got medium andyou've got sub stack and you've
got all these other littlethings and medium is I'm
canceling that subscription to.
It's Valueless.
There used to be pretty decent.
It's garbage.
Yeah, a lot of people have goneto sub stack but in order to
(14:46):
read their stuff you gottasubscribe to a bunch of
individual people.
So, come on, you know like howmany of those I, for the same 40
, 50 bucks a month that that Iwould have gotten with a
magazine, like I do subscribe tothe Atlantic and Read that on
the regular.
I get a print subscription.
(15:07):
I have accessed all that, butthere's a good way to go in old
school With the printsubscription.
Oh, dude, I am.
You know I like.
Just before I came down here torecord with you this morning, I
sat and read my New York Times,tom.
Well, I can still.
I Can smell the newsprint on myfingers.
The fish round, I like thestart fires and start my grill.
Tom Anderson (15:30):
Well, it's good for you Very artisanal here.
Jeff Battersby (15:34):
So, yeah, anyway , kind of rant over, but I'm I'm
a little, I'm a little worn outby all the little, all the
little subscriptions.
Tom Anderson (15:42):
Yeah, it's moving to that death by a thousand cuts
Kind of thing, and if you'renot careful, I mean and again, I
don't mind subscriptionsnecessarily, but there's,
there's.
The thing is there's so many tochoose from and it's like, well,
I'm not going to spend $300 amonth on, you know, 75 different
(16:03):
subscriptions.
So you know, and I think that'spart of what I'm doing with this
Changes that I've been with,these changes I've been making
is not so much I'm getting outof subscriptions, but I do think
it's a good idea to Justevaluate and I think you've
mentioned that before too Justreevaluate what you have,
because sometimes you know anapps a good fit, don't mind
(16:25):
paying for it.
But then, if you know job roleschange or maybe you drop a
hobby and you're not reallyneeding it anymore, well, drop
it, pick up something that'smore applicable to what you need
, which is part of what's thebig reason I went into the chat
GPT plus Subscription this weekis we've got a big AI focus at
work right now, so I thought Ineed to spend some time with
that and and really get to knowit and what it can I can't do,
(16:49):
and there's a hundred Plus ofthose services available, so
that's just one of them.
But so digging into that and Ihave found some value from that
already with some time savings,and so that that's been to me
that's worth the 20 bucks.
Now, if it gets to the pointwhere I just don't use it
anymore or I'm not seeing thatvalue and then I'll drop it too
Fantastic, how I think is what?
(17:09):
60 bucks?
Jeff Battersby (17:10):
Yeah, it's getting super expensive and it's
nice because you got apps forevery put.
You know every device thatyou're you're working on but do
yeah, it's, you know it's acalendar.
Tom Anderson (17:21):
Yeah, and the the thing that keeps me in it for
now, like if they jack the priceup again, like another 20%,
like they did last time, I'llprobably drop it.
The calendar sets I use a lot,and so that's where you go in
and if you've got you know fivecalendars Maybe you've got a
work calendar or three, like wehave at the office, like I've
got my calendar.
We have a Campus communitycalendar that shows, you know,
(17:45):
it's registration for fall, it'sAdministrative offices are
closed for holiday, those typesthings.
And then we've got a couple ininterdepartment that are like
you know, here's who's out today.
Here's the planning calendars.
I probably have 12 to 15between work and home and so I
can set up sets and you can havethose be.
(18:05):
I Think they tie into the focusstuff as well, which I don't
really use.
That but I do have them set upfor time.
So like at 8 o'clock itswitches to my work view
calendar during the week andthen at 5 o'clock it
automatically switches back tomy home calendar.
So I don't see you work stuff.
Again, I like it a lot.
But if they Say go from 60bucks to 80 bucks, I'll be like
(18:26):
I don't like it that much, I'lljust get them.
You know, a cheaper calendar appand keep work stuff in that app
and use my personal stuff in adifferent app.
Jeff Battersby (18:34):
And then the question is can you do the same
things that you're doing withfun, fantastically using focuses
and and things that which Ihaven't played with yet?
That those are ideas and right.
Much like you, you know, I workfrom home mostly, so I don't
have, you know, I I do have a 9to 5 calendar, but sometimes I
don't have a 9 to 5, if thatmakes any sense right?
Tom Anderson (18:55):
No, it does work in the evening.
Jeff Battersby (18:57):
So it.
Those kind of focus changesdon't work for me.
They're not always reliable interms of what it is that I'm
doing.
Sometimes I'm doing someschedules and something and
signing them at night.
Tom Anderson (19:11):
Then mine might be yeah.
Jeff Battersby (19:13):
So yeah, we'll see I don't need to spend that.
Money is basically what itcomes down to, and I'm trying to
find ways to do that better.
There are apps for that.
Now I can't even remember whatthe name of it is, but there's
one that's advertising all thetime now, but they see it during
football games, right inbetween the betting and ads.
(19:34):
No coincidence, I'm sure yeahright, spend less money on your
subscriptions and more moneybetting on football.
Draft Kings yeah, exactly, butthere is a I think it's Rocket
is what it's called.
It used to be it's a part ofRocket Rocket more.
Rocket is the name of managersubscriptions, correct, but
you're paying the subscriptionfor that no manager subscription
(19:56):
.
That's wild.
Tom Anderson (19:57):
Yeah.
Jeff Battersby (19:59):
So have a nice day.
Tom Anderson (20:00):
Yeah.
So I guess takeaway is thosethings.
I think it's just somethingthat is probably good once a
year just to look at, say, do Istill need this If you do keep
moving forward, if you don't, orsomething else, or move to
nothing, it just keeps going forother things.
Jeff Battersby (20:16):
When it comes to streaming services, the nice
thing about those is you candrop one and then if some show
comes on, you pop it on.
You watch the show that youwant to watch and then you drop
it again.
You know it's a little less.
You know, in the old days itwas like cancel cable, yeah, you
cancel 50 different things.
This is a little, from thatperspective, you know, a little
(20:40):
less onerous when it comes to,you know, figuring out what it
is that you want to watch orwant to do.
But yeah, I don't know.
And, by the way, max has gottena little janky.
Anyway, like Apple TV for me,there's a lot of good content on
there If you're interested inwatching, you know, tv.
Apple TV for my money has kindof taken the place of HBO.
(21:02):
Hbo is now all sorts of junkyother stuff.
You know, right, tv shows Idon't give a crap about Yep.
Tom Anderson (21:10):
And speaking of your money, of my money, what
have you spent some money onrecently?
You've got some new stuff.
Jeff Battersby (21:16):
Yeah, I did.
I picked up and I've playedwith it some an Astropad screen
cover for the iPad, which is akind of interesting concept.
So you get a new tip for theiPad pencil, for the Apple
pencil, and it is a screen coverthat goes on.
That feels a lot more likepaper.
(21:38):
I you may or may not know thistime right With you know,
typically pencils or I have acouple of fountain pens that I
use that provide a lot ofresistance when I write.
My handwriting sucks so and itsucks worse with you know, with
slippery pencils or pens orthings like that that don't work
(22:01):
very well and that's a problemfor me with the Apple pencil,
the Apple pencil you know,against.
Glass is slidey, you know it'snot, it's not very precise.
So my already junky handwritingbecomes really, really junky
with with the introduction of,you know, glass in that little
tip.
This actually provides this.
(22:22):
This Astropad screen coverprovides a it's a magnetic,
basically cover that goes on theon the display.
So not a pain to remove and putback on again.
It's pretty simple as far asthat's concerned.
Special tip that you put on thepencil and it's got kind of
(22:43):
hard to explain, hard to explainit's.
It's a slightly more resistantcover.
So in other words, it's, it'sdabbled a little bit, it's got
little dots on it.
You know it's more like paper,that's all I would say so that
you can write with this, drawwith it, do all the other things
that you might do with it, andit works quite nicely.
(23:06):
For that I spent a while writingnotes.
I'm working on a project rightnow where I'm actually keeping a
notebook on the work that I'mdoing kind of like day to day,
and jot down ideas and doingthings of that nature.
That project may be revealed atsome point in time later, but I
am taking some time, you know,to write things down in a
(23:29):
notebook, essentially keeping adiary, but not exactly that Also
ideas and things that go on,and I use a combination of
things.
I use notes when I'm doing that.
So I took some time to writewith the, with the Astropad and
the Apple Pencil, and it worksreally well for me.
The downside for me is, whileit's on it considerably dims the
(23:54):
screen, that that the protectoritself essentially puts a fog
over it.
So if I'm going to watchsomething, which I often do like
, if I'm cooking dinner orwashing dishes or doing things
of that nature, I'll have theiPad up there.
(24:15):
You don't want that on whileyou're watching.
You know, whatever it is, thatyou're watching the football
game.
Tom Anderson (24:20):
I think that's the brilliant approach to this one
that's quite a bit different,like Paperlike, of course, is
very popular One of those coversthat you slap on the iPad and
gives you that more paper-like.
Jeff Battersby (24:33):
Yeah, semi-opaque though.
Tom Anderson (24:34):
Yeah, it does impact the display quality.
Like you get a littlerainbowing from the cover itself
, the way the light refracts offof that.
But I like that.
This one's magnetic, so youjust drop it on there, you're
right.
When you're done you can takeit off.
Yeah, yeah, that's a realthat's pretty slick.
Jeff Battersby (24:53):
It is.
It's a real benefit, that is areal plus side to it.
But you know then, when youtake it off, you have to care
for it as well right you have tomake sure it goes back into,
you know, and they provide.
It's like a sleeve, it's morelike, you know, a peachy folder.
That's gonna make me like 5,000years old.
You remember peachy folders?
Tom Anderson (25:15):
No, tom doesn't even remember that.
Yeah, okay, I probably wouldn't.
Maybe, if I saw it, yeah, youwould.
So how does it attach to theiPad with the magnets?
Does it go around to thebackside, just straight on the
front?
Nope, on the face.
Jeff Battersby (25:26):
So it's got on.
If you've got the iPad inportrait mode, what it has is it
has bands on either side, juston the left and right hand side,
that attach to the magnets thatare on the display itself
Anyway.
So you just swap it up thereand it connects little.
(25:47):
You know, it doesn't snap intoplace if that makes any sense.
You kind of have to adjust it alittle bit so it's.
You know, even with the edgesyou can put it on cockey if you
want to.
When they say, if you want to,it's easy to.
You know it's easy to make thatmistake and have, you know, a
little edge hanging over the topand the bottom.
But it easy to readjust, it'snot really difficult to do that.
(26:07):
So does it squirm?
Tom Anderson (26:09):
around much as you're writing, or once it's on,
is pretty strong.
No, it's on, it's on.
Jeff Battersby (26:12):
And it's really good and a little bit of you can
sense and there may be a waythat I can fix this a little
better you get a little sense ofdistance between the actual
protector and the glass below.
So like when you press on thatthere's occasionally there's
like you can feel the gap.
Tom Anderson (26:30):
That's what I was wondering, like with the
attachment piece like cause Iwas thinking if it were the
magnets on the front.
Like it, you can only get it soclose to the display.
Jeff Battersby (26:40):
The magnets are super, super hard.
I mean it's yeah, they don'tneed to be very big, it's almost
indiscernible, and it could be,when I've experienced that,
just a matter of you know, maybeI need to stretch the edges out
.
You know, like when you'remaking a bed right, you kind of
have to tighten everything andthen tuck it underneath.
It's kind of that same thing.
You got to make sure that whenyou're laying it down, that
(27:02):
you're laying it down as tightas possible.
It's not bad, it really is notbad.
So I do like it a lot and Iwill use it for those kinds of
notes.
What's the?
price tag on that.
It's like 35 bucks and thatincludes pencil tapes and the
sheet itself, so it was not toobad.
Tom Anderson (27:21):
I might have to get one of those Jeff.
Jeff Battersby (27:23):
I think, so have me tent it on.
Tom Anderson (27:24):
Because I do like to write.
I don't write on the iPad a lot.
It's usually when I'm trying todo some like serious thinking
and just kind of get my headwrapped around some concepts and
sketch stuff out.
Jeff Battersby (27:35):
But yeah, it could be interesting.
Maybe I'll give it a shot.
Tom Anderson (27:38):
Good, All right and next up next up.
Jeff Battersby (27:41):
Talk about that fine woven case.
Tom Anderson (27:43):
Let's do it.
Jeff Battersby (27:44):
You've had that for a while now.
I have now.
I've had it on my phone now forat least a month it's been at
least that long and I'm callingBS.
I'm calling BS and all thepeople that says that it's piece
of crap and it's going to staineasily and do all that stuff.
I have been using this as Iwould normally use it, as I used
(28:07):
my leather case before, andfact of the matter is I like the
thing.
Is it worth 60 bucks?
Ok, maybe not.
I can eat that, but all this,ooh, it's crappy, it's scratches
.
You had to be doing somethingto make it.
Tom Anderson (28:24):
Well, I wonder too , because it's new, if they were
just some early batches, theymaybe were not as good as some
others, because we've seen thatwith leather cases when they
come out, some come out andthey're like creases, like
production creases in it notwear and tear creases and stuff,
because I've seen pictures onMac rumors that people have had
and Steven Robles did a YouTubevideo with different cases and
(28:48):
things and what I like aboutSteven is he is one of the most
balanced YouTubers and Applethought people.
He does the Apple Insiderpodcast too and he didn't like
it because he didn't like theway it felt.
But I wonder if that was maybesome of it too, or some of that
(29:10):
was an issue, because somepeople were saying that the
cutouts at the bottom were offcenter and were kind of janky.
But we've seen that with theleather cases, though, before
too, and so maybe that's all itwas.
Jeff Battersby (29:21):
It was just as first runs.
Tom Anderson (29:22):
We've fixed most of that stuff.
Jeff Battersby (29:24):
Yeah, I got this , though at the time that they
were released, I ordered onealmost immediately.
So, yeah, that's possible, butthat's hard to say.
I'm looking at it now.
I did get a blue case, which isunusual for me.
I'm not really a blue guy,blue's not my favorite color,
but I took a dark blue one andthere is nothing wrong with it
(29:50):
from my perspective.
Tom Anderson (29:51):
Let it go, folks.
Thumbs up, two thumbs up, twothumbs up from Jeff Jeff on the
AstroPad.
Flame me for it.
The fine woven case, yeah, yeah, I mean that's good, you see
what everyone else says, butyou've got firsthand experience
of that.
You got that thing, did yourleather case and.
Jeff Battersby (30:07):
I'm going to go back to naked too, oh you are.
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's kindof the goal in this, but this is
a lot.
Anyway, what was the nextquestion, tom?
No, I was just going to ask ifthat leather case showed up.
It has not showed yet Because Iordered the wrong one and then
a million other people orderedthe right one.
I'm getting my right one whenthey finish production on it.
(30:27):
So I have not seen that yet.
So it's coming, but it ain'there yet, ok, all right.
Tom Anderson (30:33):
So not there yet.
Not there yet, ok, so fine,woven is good.
Yeah, we'll wait to see whenthe bullstrap case shows up.
Maybe do a little comparisonbetween the two.
Jeff Battersby (30:46):
Yeah, they're going to be significantly
different.
I can tell you that there'sdefinitely going to be a.
Tom Anderson (30:50):
Yeah, because that bullstrap is like legit sweet
leather case.
Oh yeah, because you had the 15Pro Max, like you felt that
You've seen it, you know what'scoming, you just need the right.
Or you had 15 Pro because youhave the Pro Max phone, but yeah
, so you're just waiting for theright one to show up.
Jeff Battersby (31:04):
Yeah, and I'm just going to say again too that
I thought the jump from the 15Pro to the 15 Pro, from the 13
Pro to the 15 Pro Max, was goingto be significant Hand issue in
like not not comfortable.
I'm finding no problem withthat either.
Tom Anderson (31:21):
Have you adjusted to the placement of the action
button or?
Jeff Battersby (31:24):
is no hate it.
Tom Anderson (31:25):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that's actually about needs to
be down below.
Jeff Battersby (31:28):
Yeah, it's, it is.
What I find myself doing ishitting the volume button.
Yeah, when I want to hit theaction button, it's currently a
look and find.
So that needs to be Midpoint ofthe midpoint of the the phone.
It needs to be below the volumebuttons.
Tom Anderson (31:46):
Yes, that's probably what.
So this is the 15.
They'll get another year or twoout of this 16, 17, so iPhone
18 will probably really goodOkay so maybe I'll wait till
then.
Jeff Battersby (31:55):
By that time, you know, then you'll just be
able to tap two fingers togetherwith your headset.
Yeah, exactly.
Tom Anderson (32:06):
Yeah, with the headset.
So All right, I think that's it, tom.
We did it in 30 minutes.
Jeff Battersby (32:12):
Yes, look at us go dang.
That was pretty good.
Finish your whole workout andenjoy the whole show.
We've done it right this time.
Tom Anderson (32:20):
We may have, so I said do let us know, though,
which think of the shorterformat versus the longer.
Jeff Battersby (32:27):
That seemed to go pretty well, I thought yeah,
no, I think so too, and you cantell us at feedback at basic af
showcom.
You can find us on the web atbasic af show.
Tom Anderson has a newsletter.
How do you get that time?
Tom Anderson (32:43):
you go to Tom F Anderson com and there's a sign
up link there.
It's also in the show notes forevery episode, so if you want
to just tap over to that in yourpodcast app, you can do it
right there, yep, yep.
Jeff Battersby (32:54):
So make sure to share us with all your friends,
all your enemies, all yourfriend of me's, anybody that you
, uh, you know that you thinkshould, anybody that you think
would be nice to have themlisten to us, because we're good
.
Tom Anderson (33:07):
We appreciate you just need more.
Jeff Battersby (33:09):
We need more people listen to us, as always,
our Podcast artwork is byRandall Martin design highly
recommend.
As I mentioned, he's beenworking on a book with my sister
.
He did a fantastic job, looksgreat.
She's got that coming out herepretty shortly.
And music by Psychokineticsalso same dude, different,
(33:32):
different group, celsius seven.
So look up psychokinetics andCelsius seven on your favorite
streaming services.
Tom Anderson (33:43):
Sounds good and we do thank them for that.
All right?
Yes, indeed, so that's gonnawrap us up.
Thank you Once again for beinghere.
Have a great rest of your dayor night.
Yes, see ya all later.
It's sweet temptation, sweet sweet.
Tom Anderson (00:12):
Hello and welcome in.
It's another episode of BasicAFO podcast that's mostly about
tech.
I'm Tom Anderson, joined asusual by my co-host, jeff
Battersby.
Jeff, how are you, sir?
I'm well.
Jeff Battersby (00:24):
I am very well.
This is a gorgeous fall day inNew York today.
Tom Anderson (00:29):
Same in Virginia today.
It's been splendid all week.
A little late summer Feels likemid-September, no humidity, but
the temperatures have beensweet.
Jeff Battersby (00:38):
Oh my gosh, it's been.
I've been sitting on my frontporch writing every single day.
Tom Anderson (00:44):
Nice yeah.
Jeff Battersby (00:46):
Okay.
Tom Anderson (00:46):
All right, well, welcome in to everyone.
Jeff Battersby (00:48):
Welcome back.
No, just we're going to a30-minute episode today.
Tom Anderson (00:51):
We're going to try and compact these things out of
respect for your time.
Let me up quick and we're goingto try switching the format up
just a little bit.
So let us know what you thinkabout this one.
As always, if you have aquestion, hit us up for you back
at basicafshowcom.
Also, be sure to follow us,subscribe, whatever the
terminology is in your favoritepodcast app.
(01:13):
So, without further ado, let'sjump into this one.
We had a couple ofannouncements this week from
Apple.
Jeff Yep, we did, and so, as werecord this, it is October 28th
.
Show will come out on October30th in the afternoon.
So, depending on when youlisten, it may be before or
(01:34):
after the event that Appleannounced for this Monday,
october 30th.
Interesting time slot for thisone 8 pm Eastern time, 5 pm
Pacific.
Do the math if you're in Europe, I think it's one in the
morning or something like that.
So good luck.
So, given the tagline for thisone, scary fast.
(01:55):
This looks to be a Mac updatefrom everything that I've read
and kind of makes sense.
Jeff Battersby (02:01):
Yeah, people guessing on.
Is this some guesses both sidesof an M3 iMac or an updated M2
iMac.
Who knows, maybe a, I don'tknow.
You think they'll throw Macbookair in there.
Tom Anderson (02:15):
I doubt it.
Bloomberg had a post articleyesterday I think it was Mark
German and it looks like 14-16inch MacBook Pros will get
updated, imac will get updatedand then after that it didn't
seem to be much Makes sense formaybe the weird time I think
they're kind of leaning into theholiday of Halloween coming up.
(02:37):
Maybe they'll play off of thatif Tim Cook comes out and like a
Dracula outfit.
Jeff Battersby (02:41):
It's worth watching just for that.
Tom Anderson (02:44):
And there might be something to that.
Jeff Battersby (02:46):
But yeah, I guess it's time for me to go
back to the Heggenburger in andout burger.
Tom Anderson (02:52):
Right, it's time for you to get refreshed.
Jeff Battersby (02:55):
That time has come.
I am headed back to the BayArea on the 10th of November.
Tom Anderson (02:59):
So it's possible.
Maybe it's right.
Jeff Battersby (03:01):
Maybe a little in and out and get myself a new.
Tom Anderson (03:04):
Macbook Pro.
Yeah, that could work.
So it does sound like that.
It is an interesting time,though eight o'clock Usually 1
pm, eastern time, and 10.
Jeff Battersby (03:15):
So it makes me think maybe they're just having
some fun, but it's probably nota huge announcement either no,
and well, and the nice thing isand this was brought up you know
, no more, these are not live.
You know it's not right.
People sit around watching this, so they record it and they put
it out in prime time on theEast Coast.
You know this is same timeyou'd be watching Monday night
(03:35):
football.
Tom Anderson (03:37):
That is true.
I think it'll probably.
Let's see football starts at8.30.
Does?
Jeff Battersby (03:42):
it, I think, off for Monday night, I think Maybe
maybe.
Tom Anderson (03:44):
I think this will be done by 8.30.
Jeff Battersby (03:46):
Yeah, yeah.
Tom Anderson (03:47):
We'll just take a guess.
Usually they're roughly an hour.
I'm going to give this one 30minutes.
Jeff Battersby (03:50):
Okay, well, trying to, and now see we're
trying to keep up with Apple bykeeping this podcast at 30
minutes.
Tom Anderson (03:56):
Yes, Well, I think they got inside word from us
that that's what we were doing,so they yeah Awesome.
Not so good news in terms ofannouncements Apple's jacked up
prices on their services again,which is just great by the way,
this is not just Apple doingthis.
Jeff Battersby (04:13):
Every single one of these streaming services is
screaming another dollar out ofyour pocket, which raises some
questions which we'll get to.
But go ahead to the prices, tom.
Tom Anderson (04:23):
Okay, so they have increased prices of Apple TV
plus and Apple News Plus by $3.
We're going to do US prices.
It'll be different withcurrency stuff depending on
where you are listening.
But anyway, plus $3 for AppleTV plus and Apple News Plus.
So Apple TV plus is now $9.99.
Apple News Plus $12.99, whichseems like a lot for that.
(04:46):
Apple Arcade went up $2 to$6.99, which seems a lot for
that.
Apple won bundles, which Ithink you have a bundle right.
Jeff Battersby (04:58):
I do yeah, premier.
Tom Anderson (05:01):
So, of course, in conjunction with seeing their
prices go up as well, theindividual plan has gone up $3,
the family plan up $3.
So individual is $19.95.
Family plan is $29.95.
The premier plan you really getscrewed.
It's up $5 to $37.95.
(05:22):
I'm not a fan of that.
Jeff Battersby (05:25):
started at $29.95, if I recall A few years
back.
Tom Anderson (05:30):
Again.
No surprise, but do not losefaith, dear friends.
The free iCloud storage plan isstill five gigs.
Jeff Battersby (05:38):
You know what?
Just enough to do nothing with.
Tom Anderson (05:40):
Exactly it might as well be zero.
Jeff Battersby (05:43):
Yeah Well, and what's interesting is I was
reading around, actually readingTuring Fireball last week, and
he Groober, was.
John.
Groober was talking about theseupgrades and you don't usually
hear him get too ugly about thiskind of stuff, but he was like
(06:04):
he doesn't understand why thereisn't a little more storage on
the table.
And I don't either.
I mean I am using, you knowI've got the two terabyte plan,
so I'm using, you know, a fairamount of that, still not all of
it between and I'm the one thatuses up most of the space.
I have almost completely goneto iCloud Drive for most of my
(06:27):
stuff other than the Synologydisk station that I have here,
and occasionally Dropbox forstuff that I need to do Dropbox
for.
But I have five gigs Come on.
And Apple could afford to give alittle more away.
It feels I don't know, it feelsicky that they don't it does.
Tom Anderson (06:48):
It feels very cheap and I think it was a basic
.
Apple guy made that chart ofthe iCloud's free storage tier
and it's been five gigs since itwas released.
Yeah well nice a decade or moreago, right, so, which is great.
So now might be a good time.
If you do have a bundle, thenmaybe you just picked up because
(07:14):
I went out.
It's only a couple of dollarsmore and I get these other
things, which is kind of what wedid initially.
Because I don't really careabout fitness plus.
I don't use that.
I don't use Apple news plus,apple Arcade.
I checked out, don't really usethat.
So I was thinking, as as Italked to you about this weekend
messages, that I was Maybegoing to jump out of the bundle
(07:34):
and move just to music plus andiCloud plus.
But it turns out Someone in thehousehold is a big news plus
user which you haven't seen.
So I'm staying put.
But yeah, glad I asked.
Jeff Battersby (07:50):
Little, little little time sleeping somewhere
else.
Tom Anderson (07:53):
If you had done it wrong, yeah it's like when I
asked she's oh yeah, use it.
all the time I was like whoa, Ihad no idea and she listed off
six or seven, maybe eightmagazine and she thumbs through
when she's bored.
Okay, wow, all right, so wekept it.
But if, if you're consideringit, you know it's probably a
(08:13):
good time to take a look andmaybe say, okay, well, I really
only use these two, so I'm goingto drop that and save 10 or 12
bucks a month, because that addsup, I mean, it's 120 bucks a
year so Because I've trimmedsome things out of late.
We've talked about that a littlebit in the show book.
We've talked about it quite abit outside of the show, so you
(08:34):
know I've gotten rid of some appsubscriptions, like I got rid
of drafts.
I got rid of craft, which Istill need to get a bunch stuff
out of there.
So mark this down in our book.
If we had, one of things Tomplanned to do but didn't do Is
to get my stuff out of craft.
So I'll probably get to thatDecember 1st and be like, yeah,
(08:54):
I'm not getting that stuff out,I'm just gonna feed them another
40 bucks for the year, which,in comparison to the premiere
plan at $38 a month, seemspretty cheap.
So so I did that.
I got rid of some streamingservices for TV shows and things
like we got rid of Hulu, we gotrid of Disney Plus.
(09:15):
I would love to get rid ofNetflix, but that's her news
plus of streaming services.
I'm not gonna touch that one.
So I've tried to terrain some ofthese in.
I did pick up a new one thisweek, which we're not gonna get
into too much today, but I gotthe chat GPT plus subscription
at 20 bucks a month.
Selling your soul to Satan,that's okay, he's saving me time
.
Saving me time up front isgonna cost me dearly in the end,
(09:38):
right right, that's what italways is T-Sweet sweet, sweet.
So what about you?
Have you trimmed down anysubscriptions?
Jeff Battersby (09:50):
Yeah, I have gone through and done a lot of
things I, like you, craft gotrid of.
I think that runs out and Idon't have anything substantial
in there.
I was using we were using it, Ishould say, mostly for this
show, so there's nothing inthere that I need to keep that
way.
I am dropping fantastical, notbecause I don't like it, but I
just don't think I'm getting asmuch benefit From it.
(10:10):
I've started as I think Ishould be getting from it for
the dollars that I'm spending.
So I'm jumping back to AppleCalendar, which for me, is
working just fine.
It has actually gotten to be amuch better application in the
latest few versions of the OS,so I'm dropping that.
I Did get rid of my cablesubscription a little bit ago
(10:33):
and I'm still kind of foolingaround with the what ifs and
what Forge for that, so I nolonger have an HBO or whatever
it is called now.
Max Max is no longer in myhouse, so I don't have that.
That was part of my cablesubscription.
I'm Playing around with acouple of different streaming
(10:53):
services.
Here's the thing that kind ofdrives me crazy, and that is
that, you know I I watch somesports, not a ton, you know, but
like to, I'm watching the theWorld Series Great game last
night by the way, rangers winand a walk off in 11 innings,
which was frigging brilliant,also frigging exhausting.
(11:17):
Uplilly yeah, it and it.
I watch soccer, you know, andin fact you know, pay for a
peacock plus or whatever I thinkthat thing's called
subscription so I can watchPremier League soccer and and
enjoy that again.
I don't really sit down andwatch those games.
I'm doing other stuff in in theoffice, typically while I'm,
(11:38):
while I'm watching, but I liketo be able to keep my eye on on
the Premier League and do thatkind of stuff.
I Would love a package thatjust allowed me to choose this,
this, this kind of all a cart,you know, and and have it be all
the things that I need it to be.
I do not watch any broadcasttelevision, zero other than
(12:00):
sports.
I am currently trying outYouTube TV, much to my chagrin
you know how much I hate to doany of that stuff but have
bounced around from a couple ofthose.
It's frustrating.
Here's a crazy thing, by theway, and speaking of
subscriptions, which I'vedropped this subscription as
(12:21):
well I got an ESPN subscriptionthinking that I could watch ESPN
, but it's not an ESPNsubscription, it's ESPN plus,
which does not give you, likeyou know what you expect it to
Game on, sign into your cableprovider, what the frig is that
about?
Like I'm paying you dorks, giveme, give me what it is.
(12:42):
So I am, I am in the process ofdoing the same thing that you
are in the process of doing.
I am, I am Pulling out what itis that I want to spend money on
, and I may eventually fall backon the, you know, the Hulu plus
stuff which gives you ESPN.
(13:03):
With all this stuff on it, howmuch is that a month.
Typically I'd have to go backand check probably 12 14 bucks.
Yeah, it's not that expensivereally.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's prettyokay, it's.
I think it's maybe 19 bucks forthat.
Okay, you know, for all of thebecause I do.
You know, I am like reallyenjoying Loki on Disney.
Really it's a really good oneof the few Marvel things that
(13:27):
seems okay.
There's a lot of crap on theretoo.
It just seems like they'rethrowing you know content out to
have content out there.
But all these streamingservices could do a much better
job of offering some a la cartepackage.
You know that they could easilyhave access to that.
You could easily have access tothe stuff that you want.
(13:47):
I do not need any of the other70 channels that YouTube TV
offers.
I don't Nothing.
There's nothing on.
Truthfully, there's a lot ofcontent.
There's nothing there and whatwe're Bitching.
Tom Anderson (14:00):
We don't do that here.
Jeff Battersby (14:02):
Never.
It's the bitching AF show.
If the the other thing that'sstarting to drive me a little
crazy is is all of the contentthat is like is subscribe to me,
subscribe to me, subscribe tome.
There are a lot of people thatI want to read and I think we
mentioned this couple, or Imentioned this couple episodes
back.
(14:22):
I really, you know, I reallymiss like the normal magazine
newspaper idea.
You know you got medium andyou've got sub stack and you've
got all these other littlethings and medium is I'm
canceling that subscription to.
It's Valueless.
There used to be pretty decent.
It's garbage.
Yeah, a lot of people have goneto sub stack but in order to
(14:46):
read their stuff you gottasubscribe to a bunch of
individual people.
So, come on, you know like howmany of those I, for the same 40
, 50 bucks a month that that Iwould have gotten with a
magazine, like I do subscribe tothe Atlantic and Read that on
the regular.
I get a print subscription.
(15:07):
I have accessed all that, butthere's a good way to go in old
school With the printsubscription.
Oh, dude, I am.
You know I like.
Just before I came down here torecord with you this morning, I
sat and read my New York Times,tom.
Well, I can still.
I Can smell the newsprint on myfingers.
The fish round, I like thestart fires and start my grill.
Tom Anderson (15:30):
Well, it's good for you Very artisanal here.
Jeff Battersby (15:34):
So, yeah, anyway , kind of rant over, but I'm I'm
a little, I'm a little worn outby all the little, all the
little subscriptions.
Tom Anderson (15:42):
Yeah, it's moving to that death by a thousand cuts
Kind of thing, and if you'renot careful, I mean and again, I
don't mind subscriptionsnecessarily, but there's,
there's.
The thing is there's so many tochoose from and it's like, well,
I'm not going to spend $300 amonth on, you know, 75 different
(16:03):
subscriptions.
So you know, and I think that'spart of what I'm doing with this
Changes that I've been with,these changes I've been making
is not so much I'm getting outof subscriptions, but I do think
it's a good idea to Justevaluate and I think you've
mentioned that before too Justreevaluate what you have,
because sometimes you know anapps a good fit, don't mind
(16:25):
paying for it.
But then, if you know job roleschange or maybe you drop a
hobby and you're not reallyneeding it anymore, well, drop
it, pick up something that'smore applicable to what you need
, which is part of what's thebig reason I went into the chat
GPT plus Subscription this weekis we've got a big AI focus at
work right now, so I thought Ineed to spend some time with
that and and really get to knowit and what it can I can't do,
(16:49):
and there's a hundred Plus ofthose services available, so
that's just one of them.
But so digging into that and Ihave found some value from that
already with some time savings,and so that that's been to me
that's worth the 20 bucks.
Now, if it gets to the pointwhere I just don't use it
anymore or I'm not seeing thatvalue and then I'll drop it too
Fantastic, how I think is what?
(17:09):
60 bucks?
Jeff Battersby (17:10):
Yeah, it's getting super expensive and it's
nice because you got apps forevery put.
You know every device thatyou're you're working on but do
yeah, it's, you know it's acalendar.
Tom Anderson (17:21):
Yeah, and the the thing that keeps me in it for
now, like if they jack the priceup again, like another 20%,
like they did last time, I'llprobably drop it.
The calendar sets I use a lot,and so that's where you go in
and if you've got you know fivecalendars Maybe you've got a
work calendar or three, like wehave at the office, like I've
got my calendar.
We have a Campus communitycalendar that shows, you know,
(17:45):
it's registration for fall, it'sAdministrative offices are
closed for holiday, those typesthings.
And then we've got a couple ininterdepartment that are like
you know, here's who's out today.
Here's the planning calendars.
I probably have 12 to 15between work and home and so I
can set up sets and you can havethose be.
(18:05):
I Think they tie into the focusstuff as well, which I don't
really use.
That but I do have them set upfor time.
So like at 8 o'clock itswitches to my work view
calendar during the week andthen at 5 o'clock it
automatically switches back tomy home calendar.
So I don't see you work stuff.
Again, I like it a lot.
But if they Say go from 60bucks to 80 bucks, I'll be like
(18:26):
I don't like it that much, I'lljust get them.
You know, a cheaper calendar appand keep work stuff in that app
and use my personal stuff in adifferent app.
Jeff Battersby (18:34):
And then the question is can you do the same
things that you're doing withfun, fantastically using focuses
and and things that which Ihaven't played with yet?
That those are ideas and right.
Much like you, you know, I workfrom home mostly, so I don't
have, you know, I I do have a 9to 5 calendar, but sometimes I
don't have a 9 to 5, if thatmakes any sense right?
Tom Anderson (18:55):
No, it does work in the evening.
Jeff Battersby (18:57):
So it.
Those kind of focus changesdon't work for me.
They're not always reliable interms of what it is that I'm
doing.
Sometimes I'm doing someschedules and something and
signing them at night.
Tom Anderson (19:11):
Then mine might be yeah.
Jeff Battersby (19:13):
So yeah, we'll see I don't need to spend that.
Money is basically what itcomes down to, and I'm trying to
find ways to do that better.
There are apps for that.
Now I can't even remember whatthe name of it is, but there's
one that's advertising all thetime now, but they see it during
football games, right inbetween the betting and ads.
(19:34):
No coincidence, I'm sure yeahright, spend less money on your
subscriptions and more moneybetting on football.
Draft Kings yeah, exactly, butthere is a I think it's Rocket
is what it's called.
It used to be it's a part ofRocket Rocket more.
Rocket is the name of managersubscriptions, correct, but
you're paying the subscriptionfor that no manager subscription
(19:56):
.
That's wild.
Tom Anderson (19:57):
Yeah.
Jeff Battersby (19:59):
So have a nice day.
Tom Anderson (20:00):
Yeah.
So I guess takeaway is thosethings.
I think it's just somethingthat is probably good once a
year just to look at, say, do Istill need this If you do keep
moving forward, if you don't, orsomething else, or move to
nothing, it just keeps going forother things.
Jeff Battersby (20:16):
When it comes to streaming services, the nice
thing about those is you candrop one and then if some show
comes on, you pop it on.
You watch the show that youwant to watch and then you drop
it again.
You know it's a little less.
You know, in the old days itwas like cancel cable, yeah, you
cancel 50 different things.
This is a little, from thatperspective, you know, a little
(20:40):
less onerous when it comes to,you know, figuring out what it
is that you want to watch orwant to do.
But yeah, I don't know.
And, by the way, max has gottena little janky.
Anyway, like Apple TV for me,there's a lot of good content on
there If you're interested inwatching, you know, tv.
Apple TV for my money has kindof taken the place of HBO.
(21:02):
Hbo is now all sorts of junkyother stuff.
You know, right, tv shows Idon't give a crap about Yep.
Tom Anderson (21:10):
And speaking of your money, of my money, what
have you spent some money onrecently?
You've got some new stuff.
Jeff Battersby (21:16):
Yeah, I did.
I picked up and I've playedwith it some an Astropad screen
cover for the iPad, which is akind of interesting concept.
So you get a new tip for theiPad pencil, for the Apple
pencil, and it is a screen coverthat goes on.
That feels a lot more likepaper.
(21:38):
I you may or may not know thistime right With you know,
typically pencils or I have acouple of fountain pens that I
use that provide a lot ofresistance when I write.
My handwriting sucks so and itsucks worse with you know, with
slippery pencils or pens orthings like that that don't work
(22:01):
very well and that's a problemfor me with the Apple pencil,
the Apple pencil you know,against.
Glass is slidey, you know it'snot, it's not very precise.
So my already junky handwritingbecomes really, really junky
with with the introduction of,you know, glass in that little
tip.
This actually provides this.
(22:22):
This Astropad screen coverprovides a it's a magnetic,
basically cover that goes on theon the display.
So not a pain to remove and putback on again.
It's pretty simple as far asthat's concerned.
Special tip that you put on thepencil and it's got kind of
(22:43):
hard to explain, hard to explainit's.
It's a slightly more resistantcover.
So in other words, it's, it'sdabbled a little bit, it's got
little dots on it.
You know it's more like paper,that's all I would say so that
you can write with this, drawwith it, do all the other things
that you might do with it, andit works quite nicely.
(23:06):
For that I spent a while writingnotes.
I'm working on a project rightnow where I'm actually keeping a
notebook on the work that I'mdoing kind of like day to day,
and jot down ideas and doingthings of that nature.
That project may be revealed atsome point in time later, but I
am taking some time, you know,to write things down in a
(23:29):
notebook, essentially keeping adiary, but not exactly that Also
ideas and things that go on,and I use a combination of
things.
I use notes when I'm doing that.
So I took some time to writewith the, with the Astropad and
the Apple Pencil, and it worksreally well for me.
The downside for me is, whileit's on it considerably dims the
(23:54):
screen, that that the protectoritself essentially puts a fog
over it.
So if I'm going to watchsomething, which I often do like
, if I'm cooking dinner orwashing dishes or doing things
of that nature, I'll have theiPad up there.
(24:15):
You don't want that on whileyou're watching.
You know, whatever it is, thatyou're watching the football
game.
Tom Anderson (24:20):
I think that's the brilliant approach to this one
that's quite a bit different,like Paperlike, of course, is
very popular One of those coversthat you slap on the iPad and
gives you that more paper-like.
Jeff Battersby (24:33):
Yeah, semi-opaque though.
Tom Anderson (24:34):
Yeah, it does impact the display quality.
Like you get a littlerainbowing from the cover itself
, the way the light refracts offof that.
But I like that.
This one's magnetic, so youjust drop it on there, you're
right.
When you're done you can takeit off.
Yeah, yeah, that's a realthat's pretty slick.
Jeff Battersby (24:53):
It is.
It's a real benefit, that is areal plus side to it.
But you know then, when youtake it off, you have to care
for it as well right you have tomake sure it goes back into,
you know, and they provide.
It's like a sleeve, it's morelike, you know, a peachy folder.
That's gonna make me like 5,000years old.
You remember peachy folders?
Tom Anderson (25:15):
No, tom doesn't even remember that.
Yeah, okay, I probably wouldn't.
Maybe, if I saw it, yeah, youwould.
So how does it attach to theiPad with the magnets?
Does it go around to thebackside, just straight on the
front?
Nope, on the face.
Jeff Battersby (25:26):
So it's got on.
If you've got the iPad inportrait mode, what it has is it
has bands on either side, juston the left and right hand side,
that attach to the magnets thatare on the display itself
Anyway.
So you just swap it up thereand it connects little.
(25:47):
You know, it doesn't snap intoplace if that makes any sense.
You kind of have to adjust it alittle bit so it's.
You know, even with the edgesyou can put it on cockey if you
want to.
When they say, if you want to,it's easy to.
You know it's easy to make thatmistake and have, you know, a
little edge hanging over the topand the bottom.
But it easy to readjust, it'snot really difficult to do that.
(26:07):
So does it squirm?
Tom Anderson (26:09):
around much as you're writing, or once it's on,
is pretty strong.
No, it's on, it's on.
Jeff Battersby (26:12):
And it's really good and a little bit of you can
sense and there may be a waythat I can fix this a little
better you get a little sense ofdistance between the actual
protector and the glass below.
So like when you press on thatthere's occasionally there's
like you can feel the gap.
Tom Anderson (26:30):
That's what I was wondering, like with the
attachment piece like cause Iwas thinking if it were the
magnets on the front.
Like it, you can only get it soclose to the display.
Jeff Battersby (26:40):
The magnets are super, super hard.
I mean it's yeah, they don'tneed to be very big, it's almost
indiscernible, and it could be,when I've experienced that,
just a matter of you know, maybeI need to stretch the edges out
.
You know, like when you'remaking a bed right, you kind of
have to tighten everything andthen tuck it underneath.
It's kind of that same thing.
You got to make sure that whenyou're laying it down, that
(27:02):
you're laying it down as tightas possible.
It's not bad, it really is notbad.
So I do like it a lot and Iwill use it for those kinds of
notes.
What's the?
price tag on that.
It's like 35 bucks and thatincludes pencil tapes and the
sheet itself, so it was not toobad.
Tom Anderson (27:21):
I might have to get one of those Jeff.
Jeff Battersby (27:23):
I think, so have me tent it on.
Tom Anderson (27:24):
Because I do like to write.
I don't write on the iPad a lot.
It's usually when I'm trying todo some like serious thinking
and just kind of get my headwrapped around some concepts and
sketch stuff out.
Jeff Battersby (27:35):
But yeah, it could be interesting.
Maybe I'll give it a shot.
Tom Anderson (27:38):
Good, All right and next up next up.
Jeff Battersby (27:41):
Talk about that fine woven case.
Tom Anderson (27:43):
Let's do it.
Jeff Battersby (27:44):
You've had that for a while now.
I have now.
I've had it on my phone now forat least a month it's been at
least that long and I'm callingBS.
I'm calling BS and all thepeople that says that it's piece
of crap and it's going to staineasily and do all that stuff.
I have been using this as Iwould normally use it, as I used
(28:07):
my leather case before, andfact of the matter is I like the
thing.
Is it worth 60 bucks?
Ok, maybe not.
I can eat that, but all this,ooh, it's crappy, it's scratches
.
You had to be doing somethingto make it.
Tom Anderson (28:24):
Well, I wonder too , because it's new, if they were
just some early batches, theymaybe were not as good as some
others, because we've seen thatwith leather cases when they
come out, some come out andthey're like creases, like
production creases in it notwear and tear creases and stuff,
because I've seen pictures onMac rumors that people have had
and Steven Robles did a YouTubevideo with different cases and
(28:48):
things and what I like aboutSteven is he is one of the most
balanced YouTubers and Applethought people.
He does the Apple Insiderpodcast too and he didn't like
it because he didn't like theway it felt.
But I wonder if that was maybesome of it too, or some of that
(29:10):
was an issue, because somepeople were saying that the
cutouts at the bottom were offcenter and were kind of janky.
But we've seen that with theleather cases, though, before
too, and so maybe that's all itwas.
Jeff Battersby (29:21):
It was just as first runs.
Tom Anderson (29:22):
We've fixed most of that stuff.
Jeff Battersby (29:24):
Yeah, I got this , though at the time that they
were released, I ordered onealmost immediately.
So, yeah, that's possible, butthat's hard to say.
I'm looking at it now.
I did get a blue case, which isunusual for me.
I'm not really a blue guy,blue's not my favorite color,
but I took a dark blue one andthere is nothing wrong with it
(29:50):
from my perspective.
Tom Anderson (29:51):
Let it go, folks.
Thumbs up, two thumbs up, twothumbs up from Jeff Jeff on the
AstroPad.
Flame me for it.
The fine woven case, yeah, yeah, I mean that's good, you see
what everyone else says, butyou've got firsthand experience
of that.
You got that thing, did yourleather case and.
Jeff Battersby (30:07):
I'm going to go back to naked too, oh you are.
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's kindof the goal in this, but this is
a lot.
Anyway, what was the nextquestion, tom?
No, I was just going to ask ifthat leather case showed up.
It has not showed yet Because Iordered the wrong one and then
a million other people orderedthe right one.
I'm getting my right one whenthey finish production on it.
(30:27):
So I have not seen that yet.
So it's coming, but it ain'there yet, ok, all right.
Tom Anderson (30:33):
So not there yet.
Not there yet, ok, so fine,woven is good.
Yeah, we'll wait to see whenthe bullstrap case shows up.
Maybe do a little comparisonbetween the two.
Jeff Battersby (30:46):
Yeah, they're going to be significantly
different.
I can tell you that there'sdefinitely going to be a.
Tom Anderson (30:50):
Yeah, because that bullstrap is like legit sweet
leather case.
Oh yeah, because you had the 15Pro Max, like you felt that
You've seen it, you know what'scoming, you just need the right.
Or you had 15 Pro because youhave the Pro Max phone, but yeah
, so you're just waiting for theright one to show up.
Jeff Battersby (31:04):
Yeah, and I'm just going to say again too that
I thought the jump from the 15Pro to the 15 Pro, from the 13
Pro to the 15 Pro Max, was goingto be significant Hand issue in
like not not comfortable.
I'm finding no problem withthat either.
Tom Anderson (31:21):
Have you adjusted to the placement of the action
button or?
Jeff Battersby (31:24):
is no hate it.
Tom Anderson (31:25):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that's actually about needs to
be down below.
Jeff Battersby (31:28):
Yeah, it's, it is.
What I find myself doing ishitting the volume button.
Yeah, when I want to hit theaction button, it's currently a
look and find.
So that needs to be Midpoint ofthe midpoint of the the phone.
It needs to be below the volumebuttons.
Tom Anderson (31:46):
Yes, that's probably what.
So this is the 15.
They'll get another year or twoout of this 16, 17, so iPhone
18 will probably really goodOkay so maybe I'll wait till
then.
Jeff Battersby (31:55):
By that time, you know, then you'll just be
able to tap two fingers togetherwith your headset.
Yeah, exactly.
Tom Anderson (32:06):
Yeah, with the headset.
So All right, I think that's it, tom.
We did it in 30 minutes.
Jeff Battersby (32:12):
Yes, look at us go dang.
That was pretty good.
Finish your whole workout andenjoy the whole show.
We've done it right this time.
Tom Anderson (32:20):
We may have, so I said do let us know, though,
which think of the shorterformat versus the longer.
Jeff Battersby (32:27):
That seemed to go pretty well, I thought yeah,
no, I think so too, and you cantell us at feedback at basic af
showcom.
You can find us on the web atbasic af show.
Tom Anderson has a newsletter.
How do you get that time?
Tom Anderson (32:43):
you go to Tom F Anderson com and there's a sign
up link there.
It's also in the show notes forevery episode, so if you want
to just tap over to that in yourpodcast app, you can do it
right there, yep, yep.
Jeff Battersby (32:54):
So make sure to share us with all your friends,
all your enemies, all yourfriend of me's, anybody that you
, uh, you know that you thinkshould, anybody that you think
would be nice to have themlisten to us, because we're good
.
Tom Anderson (33:07):
We appreciate you just need more.
Jeff Battersby (33:09):
We need more people listen to us, as always,
our Podcast artwork is byRandall Martin design highly
recommend.
As I mentioned, he's beenworking on a book with my sister
.
He did a fantastic job, looksgreat.
She's got that coming out herepretty shortly.
And music by Psychokineticsalso same dude, different,
(33:32):
different group, celsius seven.
So look up psychokinetics andCelsius seven on your favorite
streaming services.
Tom Anderson (33:43):
Sounds good and we do thank them for that.
All right?
Yes, indeed, so that's gonnawrap us up.
Thank you Once again for beinghere.
Have a great rest of your dayor night.
Yes, see ya all later.
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