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Daily Tech News Show

12 Sep 2026 · 52m · 17 chapters

Episode artwork

Apple iPhone Duo Reaction - DTNS WEEKEND

In short

The episode is a panel reaction to Apple’s September 9 announcements: the iPhone Duo (foldable), iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch Series 12, and AirPods 5.

Guests

Nika Monfort and Terrence Gaines (Snob OS podcast) and Jen Cutter (DTNS/Daily Tech Headlines).

Key claims

The iPhone Duo is “impressive yet unattractive” due to its passport-style closed look and visible crease; reviewers’ demos look strong, but the price is steep (starting $1,999 for 256GB). The panel debates whether it competes with iPad mini (7.2-inch open) and notes Apple Pencil support. They’re skeptical about Apple Intelligence/Siri AI readiness, citing iOS 27 still being in beta when the phone ships. Watch Series 12’s “record everything” concern is reframed as opt-in, with transcript-only and a 15-second rewind. AirPods 5 are seen as closing the gap with Pro via swipe/gesture controls, with pricing caveats.

Notable examples

Verge photos/videos of the Duo; heart-rate “spikes” and on-device stress/readiness metrics; gym noise-cancellation experiences with AirPods Pro.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes.

Chapters

1:41

Analyzing the iPhone Duo

Panelists discuss the iPhone Duo's design and functionality.

“Instead of spending hours setting up lights, cameras, and retakes, you can turn a script, photo, or presentation into a polished video of you in minutes.”
3:54

Analyzing the iPhone Duo

Panelists discuss the iPhone Duo's design and functionality.

“It's fun to talk about Apple stuff and just Apple.”
4:39

Foldable Phone Opinions

Panelists share mixed feelings about the foldable phone design.

“So the thing is with the foldable phone, I always call it a flip phone because it's not really folding.”
5:41

Exploring the Form Factor

Discussion on the usability and practicality of the phone's size.

“And what I mean by that is, same thing Anika said, I was looking for two vertical phones smashed together.”
9:16

Implications for iPad Market

Panelists debate the impact of the iPhone Duo on the iPad market.

“But The Verge had a bunch of good photos and videos.”
12:06

Storage Needs Discussion

Panelists discuss various storage needs and preferences.

“Can you be equally as productive on this iPad mini in the iPhone duo, right?”
14:00

iPhone Storage Needs and Pricing Discussion

Explore the storage requirements and pricing of the new iPhone models.

“And the only reason why I'm only at 200 is because I looked on there maybe about a month or so ago and saw that I was like 249 of 256.”
17:40

Skepticism Around Siri AI and iOS 27

Discuss concerns regarding Apple's promises for Siri AI and the new iOS.

“So I had a long, we talked about this yesterday.”
22:23

Market Perception and User Needs

Analyze how Apple's product targeting aligns with user needs and spending habits.

“and it's still not quite ready and it still doesn't quite work.”
27:26

Market Perception and User Needs

Analyze how Apple's product targeting aligns with user needs and spending habits.

“and script trackers are all in different places.”
Show all 17 chapters
30:15

Discussion on iPhone 18 Features

Examine the features and privacy concerns surrounding the new iPhone models.

“If you're 45 or older and at average risk, it's time to screen for colon cancer.”
38:37

Apple Watch and Health Monitoring

Delve into the capabilities of the Apple Watch and its health monitoring features.

“and just to kind of have for yourself, for example, every so often when I'm, and I'm, I have a, I'm looking at my Apple watch right now just because we're talking about it.”
42:00

Exploring Health Tracking Features

Discussion on the health tracking features of new Apple devices and their impact.

“And they talked about that in the announcement as well.”
45:00

AirPods 5 Announcement and Features

Overview of the new AirPods 5, their pricing, and features comparison.

“So going back to the announcement itself, we did get the AirPods 5.”
49:48

John Ternus as Apple's New CEO

Reflections on John Ternus's leadership style and the future direction of Apple.

“So before we wrap this up, wanted to just get get a little temperature check from everybody about how we feel about John Ternus.”
56:16

Nika's New App: BragBook

Nika discusses her new iPhone app, BragBook, designed to track personal wins.

“In the App Store, it's an iPhone-only app called the BragBook.”
56:53

Terrence's Contributions and Projects

Terrence shares his work with the Tech John and SnobOS podcasts focusing on technology.

“And I am one third of the tech John with Rob Dunwood, where we talk about technology from a African-American perspective.”
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Transcript

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3:01Sarah Lane: Hey everybody, welcome to the DTNS Weekend Edition, gratefully provided to you, and thanks for your support of our show. I'm Sarah Lane, and today we've got a fun panel. We're going to analyze Apple's announcement of that iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone Duo, the Apple Watch Series 12, and the AirPods 5, and everything in between. Joining me on our discussion today, again, great panel. We've got Nika Monfort, Terrence Gaines, and Jen Cutter. Nika Monfort and Terrence Gaines, two halves of Snob OS podcast. You both have enjoyed many an Apple event with us. So thanks to both of you for being back with us today.

3:46No problem. Good to be back.

3:48Sarah Lane: And Jen Cutter, obviously, you know her from DTNS and Daily Tech Headlines. Hey, Jen. Hey, it's good to be here. It's fun to talk about Apple stuff and just Apple. Yeah. And you and I, I mean, gosh, I can't even remember the last time we were on a show together. We're sort of ships in the night these days. So, yeah. No, it's good to have everybody here because we all care about it. I was thinking about, okay, what do we tackle in terms of what was announced? and I had thoughts of just going in order of how the announcement went on Tuesday, September 9th, but I think we should just start with the duo, the iPhone duo, because that's the big one that has gotten so much press over the last couple of days, especially from publications and people who have been able to try it out, you know, who are at the Apple event in general.

4:39Sarah Lane: So, Nika, I'll just start with you. Do you want this? No. No. Okay. All right. Let's talk about it. So the thing is with the foldable phone, I always call it a flip phone because it's not really folding. It has a hinge. But for me, the point of it is if I were to get a foldable phone, for me, the use case is using as a daily driver, basically as a phone. So I want it to look like my iPhone. My issue, honestly, is with the aesthetic of it. I don't kind of like the squished passport type of look to it. Maybe superficial, but, you know, I like what I like. But just looking at the technology itself, that looks pretty cool.

5:24The demo that they gave in the event, the device and its functionality, you know, looks pretty good. The price tag is pretty hefty and it doesn't aesthetically look like I would want it to look because I would mostly use this folded and not open. so that's kind of my whole thing with not just apple's foldable but with any foldable is i want

5:47Sarah Lane: it to look like my phone uh terrence are you going to be arguing with nika on snob os uh i had a later date about this or do you agree uh i agree uh i on our show we talked about this yesterday and it's my week to produce the show so the title for this week's show and snob os is impressive yet unattractive. And what I mean by that is, same thing Anika said, I was looking for two vertical phones smashed together. So when they announced the iPhone 17 Air last year, most people's assumption was, oh, they're just gonna smash two of those together. Had they did that, I would have been all in. But since they tried to change the form factor, again, very impressive about why and how and the thought process that went into why they made it passport style.

6:40And when you open it up, it turns into a, you know, a mini tablet and iPad mini, if you will, you know, impressive on how they did the hinge, impressive on how the transition, when you open it up, the screens transition, impressive on the touch and why they did the touch ID versus face ID, impressive that they figured out how to put the camera, the front facing camera behind the screen and hide it to where it doesn't look as visible until you need it. All that's very impressive, yet unattractive because I'm not used to that small passport style look. So having said that, I'll probably wait until they can minimize that crease just a little bit more because we all saw some of the reviews and you can still see that crease.

7:27And I thought Apple was going to nail it and you can still kind to see it. So I'm gonna wait.

7:33Sarah Lane: So so talking about the form factor, Jen, I mean, 5.3 inches when closed, to me also sounds small, because I'm used to the iPhone Pro Max. And, you know, I'm just sort of like, do I want that little little screen, you know, just sort of for daily stuff, unless I open it up? What are your thoughts? I am famously anti foldable on DTNS. And this is the first one I like. I actually like it because it is a passport. I know I was watching this and waiting to the end being like, ah, this is going to be so boring. And I'm like, oh, no, I like this. I can't afford it. I will not be getting one. I'll be waiting.

8:16So hopefully they'll figure out the whole crease thing in the end. But that form factor works for me. To me, my brain reads this as, oh, this is an iPad that I would like in my life. And because it is small, I'm kind of more scared about the thinness and me breaking it that way. But because it is small, I have a chance of fitting it in a pocket. And real quick, and if you add the idea that most people use their watches now, I use my Apple Watch a lot to send text messages. I use my AirPods to use Siri to say, hey, text my mom, text my wife. I use my watch to set reminders and all the little things, right?

8:53I'm really not using my phone a whole, whole lot doing the combination of everything. So I could see, again, I could see why them changing the form factor is like, now we can do it. Because there are still a lot of people who use a combination of things that could take a place of having to use your phone the whole time. So I just wanted to add that piece.

9:10Sarah Lane: I thought one of the interesting things, I think it was from The Verge. They had a bunch of, well, everybody's done there, who were at the event has done their sort of like, first look. But The Verge had a bunch of good photos and videos. And what's kind of cool about it is, okay, when it's folded, sure, it can fit into a pocket. Depends on what kind of pocket we're talking about. But, you know, maybe would fit into a pants pocket that's loose enough. When it's open, it, you know, turns into that 7.2-inch screen. or it can kind of work as, you know, if you were watching a movie on a plane, for example, you know, and you've got your tray in front of you.

9:56Sarah Lane: You're just using that first part of the foldable and you don't have to prop it up with, I don't know, your backpack or a book or anything like that. The form factor options are the most interesting to me. What I am slightly worried about how small it will feel if you just need to do something real quick, you know, using that front screen. But I don't think that's really the point, right? I think that's almost like, yeah, you have that if you want it. But when you open it up now, you know, the world is your oyster. But I wonder what this does to the iPad market, because it would be an iPad mini, very mini, right?

10:41Sarah Lane: But it's competing with the iPad in a way that I'm not totally sure how Apple wants us to want both of those things. And throw in the fact that the Apple Pencil works with this thing as well. So that's kind of like another kind of ding, so to speak, towards the iPad. And to me, the openness of it, whether you have it fully opened, I've seen some videos of people having it kind of like a book. where it's kind of like closed. It's not fully open. It's not fully closed. So I've seen different uses, people, you know, kind of using it. But I think it does, it does kind of feel like it is kind of encroaching on the, you know, iPad market to me.

11:29Sarah Lane: Well, because if you have this and then you also have an iPad Pro that's large, okay, I see where there are two different things. but they're sort of supposed to do the same thing. Well, I guess it depends on two things, I would assume. You know, yes, you could get rid of an iPad, but still at$2 ,000, that's still a lot. Yeah, and that's the starting price. That's the starting price. That's a pro price. That's the iPad pro price you're talking about. And then the second thing is, you know, maybe there's some people who are still super productive on an iPad. Can you be equally as productive on this iPad mini in the iPhone duo, right?

12:14Can you get around and do all the things or do you still need something a little bit bigger to resemble a productive size of an iPad?

12:25Sarah Lane: Now, Jen, you mentioned, hey, this is just, you know, beyond my pay grade, you know, as far as price goes, I think pretty much everybody in the world is like, yeah, it's really expensive. And that's for 256 gigabytes. For the base model. Yeah, for the base model. Exactly. Although I actually, so I'm still on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is great. I haven't felt the need to upgrade. It's been a great phone to me. And I was like, gosh, I don't even know how much storage I have on this. and I looked and I've got 512. I have 418 gigabytes left. I am not using my storage. I think I could get away with 256 gigs because I use so much iCloud storage.

13:16Sarah Lane: So everything is just, that's just where I happen to store things. So I'm paying for that in other areas. But what does everyone else need? Yeah, so you're a music collection, you're streaming, I'm guessing. Yes. And you're not using it to record videos. Not many. And not a whole lot of apps. Like you've got like your basic stable of apps and haven't really. I've got a ton of apps on there, but I only use a few of them really. I'm rarely going beyond my home screen. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That would be, that would be different. That would be different. So storage needs. I think we probably all have feelings about that.

13:52Sarah Lane: What does, what does everybody feel like is like, here's the base I can deal with. So I'm looking at my phone now and I've used 200 of 256 gigs. And the only reason why I'm only at 200 is because I looked on there maybe about a month or so ago and saw that I was like 249 of 256. I was like, oh, crap. So I went in there and removed all of the music that I had downloaded to the phone. It's like, all right, well, most of the time I'm listening to music. I'm at home. I can stream that through the Wi-Fi. It's fine. Right. So I actually had to go in and change some of my iPhone storage settings to get down to a, quote unquote, comfortable amount of storage space because Apple intelligence is coming.

14:35That's going to be more of a download, more storage requirements. And I've got the cloud compute stuff. I'm pretty sure that's going to want to hit up your storage. So 256 may not be enough for a lot of people. And if we're talking about what, 2200 for what, what are the different sizes? Is it 256? I know the two terabyte is,

14:59Sarah Lane: is just over three grand, which is just bonkers. At the same time, I was like, Ooh, two terabytes, but I'm like, I am like the last person who would need that version. Well, if I paid that much for a phone, I'm putting everything on there. Everything. That is my laptop, my iPad, my phone. Yeah. Niko, what about you? What are your storage needs? So I checked as well. I'm sitting at 191. And I kind of said, what is taking up the most space? It's photos. And I have the larger iCloud Plus storage that I don't really use. I could probably put some backups and some stuff on there. but I have like my feelings towards cloud.

15:42So it's just like, I don't know. So I was like, let me just keep it on device for now until I have to get it off. But$2 ,000 for 256 gigs, that's a lot. That's a lot for not a lot of storage. I would have probably respected it a little bit more if they just didn't have a 256 and just started with the higher. of course they didn't I don't think they want the sticker shock of what I don't know what the I don't know what the two what the 512 is it's probably what 25 23 25 something like that yeah they probably didn't want that sticker shock but with what we've heard about iOS 27 and what it's supposed to do what uh Siri AI is supposed to do and what you know all that's supposed to look like, you're going to need all of that to be able to run one of these, to be able to power, you know, one of these machines and one of these devices.

16:44And it's just like, how much extra are you going to be able to put on your device when you need the processing power, the storage for this new iOS 27? So somebody getting a 256 gig duo is they're going to have to be honestly pretty skimpy with what they put on their phone because it's not going to be able to handle it i don't think so real quick i went i went and looked so 256 is 1999 next one up is 512 at 2199 next one up is a terabyte at 2599 and then the two terabyte is 3199 this is not including tax Jesus

17:28Sarah Lane: I've got a 16 and I've killed 400 so I guess Nika and Terrence are on the no duo for us Jen and I are both like hmm, duo curious I mean listen I don't hate it if somebody is like Sarah would you like to you know use this I'd be like yes yes yes but yes sticker shock for sure what do we think then for anybody who's interested in upgrading or even moving into the iOS ecosystem for the first time about the iPhone 18 Pro. So I had a long, we talked about this yesterday. I am still skittish on the fact that Apple is going to be able to deliver on all of the Siri AI slash Apple intelligence promises.

18:20If you're telling me again, yet another year, buy this phone because when we launch the new stuff it's gonna make so much sense and then it was made for each other right and then you don't do it or like for instance perfect example i was 27 is still in beta when it comes out siri ai and or apple tells it's still gonna be in beta right so that tells me it's like all right now wait a minute why is it still in beta so that even gives me a further down a rabbit hole and like is it going to be ready for when the operating system give when apple gives me all the stuff that they promised is it still going to be ready because it still doesn't really sound like it but you want me to buy this phone because it's going to be ready do i waste my do i spend my money i don't want to say waste that was i don't project.

19:17Do I spend my money on something that Apple really hasn't delivered on yet?

19:24Sarah Lane: I mean, we've got the A20 Pro chip, which also was in the Duo. The iPhone 18 Pro has the six core CPU, seven core GPU. Apple says, can't find a faster chip in any phone at all. Nika, are you in the upgrade group? Are you ready? So I am not in the upgrade group because I don't, I have an iPhone 16 Pro. I don't think that there is a big of a leap in the 16 Pro and the 18 Pro. There are a couple of things I definitely like. The Apple reference image, I think that's pretty cool. When they said that part on the announcement, I was like, okay, I'm hopeful that this is where this is going. They are not just slapping AI on something.

20:19They are actually embedding it, and it's an actual use case, and it's an actual issue that they're fixing with this. And of course, it's only on the 18 Pro Pro Max. So when I saw that, I was like, okay, maybe I get my hopes up and maybe I'll see some more things that, you know, really kind of real be in because I mean, I'm waiting to spend these Apple dollars. I have a 16 Pro for crying out loud. I have an Apple watch 10. Take my money. But it's like they don't want it. But it's one of those things where it's, I don't think it's a big of a leap. What if you are, if you're in the market, if you're on say, maybe a 12 or a 13 or a 14, definitely that will be a bigger leap.

21:06You'll get a better user experience between that jump. But so far, the changes have been relatively incremental. And the thing is, they keep selling iOS 27 and saying that it's going to do all these great things. And this phone is made for that. But like Terrence mentioned, when it comes out, It's still going to be in a beta and it's not ready when you give me the phone. If that's the case, just wait to give me the phone when the software is ready, because it puts us back into the mindset of two years ago when Apple Intelligence was first, you know, announced and the high expectation that we're getting for it.

21:46Then it was the issues with having to sign up for the beta, getting queued to install the beta. People are like, I don't think it's working because my beta is taking too long. And it's just those type of inconveniences, although they may seem minor, when you are spending this kind of money for a device. It feels like empty promises. It does. And it's like people, I know for me, I'm a little bit gun shy. Like, are you going to actually give me what you've been promising? We've been here before. You know, I don't want to be Lucy and Charlie with the football. And you swipe it away for me at the last minute after I've spent twelve hundred, thirteen hundred dollars on a device.

22:23and it's still not quite ready and it still doesn't quite work. I think Apple is losing some of its credibility if they can't deliver on what they promised with this iOS 27. I think that may cause some problems for them if this thing isn't fully baked and ready to fire out the gate.

22:44Sarah Lane: Now, Jen, I don't actually even know what phone you're currently using or multiple phones right now, But does the iPhone 18 Pro seem up your alley if you don't end up going with a deal? Well, actually, the first thing I did when I saw the AI reference thing for the photos was I contacted my friends at CTV, at CBC, at other newsrooms. I was like, hey, guys, what do you think? They're like, wait, they did what? That's awesome. So they're very excited about it. Sure. And I came from an iPhone 11 Pro Max, but it was dying at the start of the year. So I upgraded to a 16. So I've already bought in. And just like Nika said, this is not enough to push me forward into it.

23:27If I was doing photojournalism, then yeah, I'd write this down as business expense and let's go. But yeah, coming from a 16 right now that, again, does not have all of the features that I was sold on in the store. They were so hype about it because I went to the Apple store because it's just the easiest way to get a phone. And they're like, oh, it's going to do this, this, this and this that it doesn't do yet. so we're all in that exact same boat going like all right you gotta put the tires on the road now

23:54Sarah Lane: i think you make you make a good point about if you were doing uh you know predominantly photo journalism stuff or working in a newsroom where images that were you know you you were going to be passing along to people you really want to make sure if they've been altered yourself these days yeah yeah so that i mean i think that's a great feature and it's also just good for people to have more knowledge about you know what's doctored and what isn't but i i did feel like and i mentioned this when i was talking to tom and when um on dtns on tuesday when i was watching the announcement which is very apple polished you know they always are i was sort of like some of the photo stuff that they talk about feels like they're talking to ad agencies you know specific markets right Content creators, photojournalists, they are speaking to me.

24:47That's what I got because, you know, we talked about in our show, the same with the duo. These devices now are seeming to be targeted. I think the duo is really target to people who mostly consume content on their phone. If you're watching trailers, if you're on TikTok, if you're on YouTube, if your main reason for your primary reason for using your phone is content creation, the duo is probably going to be excellent for you. but if you're not it's just going to be kind of like another squish thing that it doesn't quite fit or whatever and the same thing with the um with the 18 pro pro max it seems like it's targeted to specific people and maybe that's where they're counting on getting their their money from getting their sales from because i think probably the average user especially in these times people are very, people are being very particular about what they spend their money on because money is, it's always very important.

25:43But even more so now with the price of everything going up and all that stuff, people are being very conscientious of what they spend their dollars on. If you have a 16, if you have a 17, even if you have a 15, you're going to be very mindful of do I really need this thing when this software that they say is so great is going to work on what I already have.

26:06Sarah Lane: I also thought it was interesting. And this then Apple may have done this last year. I don't totally remember with the 17 iPhone 17 announcement, but the Pro and the Pro Max are now just it's just one is bigger than the other. It used to be when the Max was first introduced that that was the best camera that you could have you know that was the best chip that you could have you know there were little bells and whistles where it was like if you don't want to go bigger then that's fine you have the smaller version now it's just they're both the same but you have you have two different form factors i happen to to like the max uh i just i don't know my eyes are bad i just want a big screen which is which is why even the duo when it's closed i'm like i don't know seems kind of small to me, but I'm sure I'd get used to it.

26:56Sarah Lane: But, uh, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, we're, we're in an era now where it's like, all right, here's, here are our models. And of course, Apple has this, uh, the iPhone SE, um, and more feature phone stuff, uh, options for people. But for the most part, you know, the, the flagship stuff is you got the pro, you got the pro max. They're the same. I mean, the max is a little bit more expensive just because it's bigger, but it's not any better anymore. And then the do is just a whole different thing. Episode prep gets messy when research, Slack threads, and script trackers are all in different places.

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30:45And we don't know what the iPhone 18 regular is going to look like because that wasn't announced on this. So it's like, hmm, is there going to be a new iPhone standard? What is that going to be? Is it going to have these same type of features? Is it going to be able to use Siri AI? Like, what are we going to get with this?

31:06Sarah Lane: I feel like Apple, because the rumor now is a spring event that will have an updated SE, a rumored updated iPhone Air. And I don't know, whatever else. Hopefully some AirPod Pros because we didn't get those this time. We did not. You're right. You're right. And I think that Apple probably just wanted to put some space between, you know, the whole foldable thing and some of the less expensive models that, you know, are still going to sell quite well for anybody who's in the market for them. But going back to the issue of just sort of privacy and understanding what's going on, one of the things that I found with the Apple Watch Series 12, which was announced on Tuesday, that, I mean, Apple certainly didn't address this ad nauseum, but I saw a lot of chatter online about it as people being like, wait a second.

32:01Sarah Lane: So if somebody's wearing an Apple Watch, they can just record everything that's going on around us all the time. And I had to chuckle a little bit because it's like there are lots of devices that do things like this. TVs. People are recording everything, so they have it already. Yeah. This is not something that they've brought out of the earth for the first time. But a lot of people wear Apple Watches. And you just don't really think of them as recording devices. And I wondered just what you all thought about some people's just sort of ickiness over the fact that anybody could be recorded at any time.

32:46It hurt my enthusiasm for the new watch. I'm in the market for a new watch. This one looks great because I've been debating between this and the current model. I have a Series 8, so that's basically end of life. And I'm heavy into the fitness stuff. I love the new features that are coming. I'm pretty good with battery life and stuff. But because of this feature and because of the way that people have been talking about it, I'm like, oh, man, like the glasses are called pervert glasses. What are they going to call the watch? I need this for the fitness tracking and I need this for some health tracking.

33:18I have disordered sleep and it's kind of important to me to be able to have this information from my doctor. So do I just buy a watch and wear it in the house? Like, that's not what I want to do. I want to just wear my watch. Although I don't use it the same way Terrence does because you seem to do a lot more with your watch. Now, I am the weirdo who does not use Siri, who has never used Siri. The first thing I do on a phone is turn it all off. So I don't have that assistant stuff going on. But Terrence, what do you feel about this feature? Does this make you want a watch more or less for the new version?

33:47I was indifferent.

33:51I don't want to say I assumed I was being recorded all the time anyway. but at the same time I could see the usefulness of that specific feature and you put your I guess you put your support or you put your confidence behind Apple is going to do this you know surveillance if we're going to call it surveillance Apple is going to try to do a little bit different to make you feel a little bit better about it I'm not saying you know Apple's going to nail it you know the first time i'm pretty sure that people are going to be like the same thing have squeamish and you know already concerned about privacy and security to have issues my assumption was well yeah apple is going to do it a little bit better to make you feel more comfortable same thing apple is trying to do with siri ai same thing they're trying to do with this whole apple ai in general but apple's apple intelligence they're doing it just like everybody else like we mentioned tvs are recording you glasses are recording you you know everything is recording us now but apple's going to do a little bit more nicer if that makes any sense yeah i mean apple has has been adamant

34:59Sarah Lane: that this is an opt-in thing um this is not something that your your your your watch is like supposed to do without your knowledge sending it to you know some data center somewhere but I do feel like, and, and we all understand that it's like, okay, I could opt in, you know, maybe I go to a meeting and in a coffee shop and that could be really helpful type thing. Um, or, you know, I'm just trying to remember something that somebody said to me an hour ago. Uh, you know, so the rewind, I, I think that that's, those are going to be fun features to play around with. What I worry about is how everyone is just very pessimistic about what other people are doing.

35:45Sarah Lane: Sure. Rightfully so. Yeah. Because people are weird. Well, yeah. It's like if I'm wearing glasses, AR glasses, you know, that can record people and somebody notices them, I think it's fine that they're sort of like, hmm, what are you all about? Are you cool or are you not cool? Because that's just how we have to deal with other humans. but when it comes to like you know a watch which for the most part i mean i look at the weather i look at the time um you know i get an email or text notification every so often i use it for activity tracking i mean i use it for a lot of things but none of that stuff has anything to do with anyone else and i think probably the for me is one of those things where people unfortunately are recording things at all times, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally.

36:35You got these flat cameras everywhere. You have people, if you're in a business, they got cameras, you know, someone's over there recording something else. So it didn't bother me extraordinarily a lot. It's always like some concern. And then the fact that it only goes back 15 seconds. So it's interesting to see how the actual recording works. Are they recording the whole time and you can only go back 15 seconds? What do they do with all of those recording? But, you know, like I think it was Terrence who mentioned it, you know, Apple does, you know, more than most take into account data privacy, you know, storing your things and making sure that they are safe and they're protected.

37:24So that gives me a little bit of, I guess, I won't say relief, but a little bit more confidence in this feature. And it's giving you the transcript. So it's not actually giving you the actual audio from that conversation. So that kind of helps a little bit as well. I think probably for me, the biggest thing with the iPhone 12 my mom is in the market and she was going to get one uh during prime day and but she wants one that does the blood pressure and she was like fine before she's like find me an app that tracks blood pressure I was like there is no app that does that it has like a manual thing where you take your blood pressure and you can track it but it's not anything that actually on the watch does it and I was like I don't know there's some new sensors coming out in a couple of months if If you want to wait to see if it comes out, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.

38:18So that's kind of like the biggest thing for me is I told her, I was like, yeah, no blood pressure model. She was like, okay, find me another one then.

38:28Sarah Lane: Yeah, we're not at the point where you don't have to go to the doctor anymore. You know, we are definitely at a point where you can get a lot of great data to share with medical professionals. and just to kind of have for yourself, for example, every so often when I'm, and I'm, I have a, I'm looking at my Apple watch right now just because we're talking about it. It's a series seven. It's perfectly fine. The battery has, has shot down a bit, but for the most part, I really don't feel a big need to upgrade except for a kind of a thinner, lighter model, which would be nice. but um but every so often it'll say like seems like your you know heart rate increased while you were sitting idle for the last 10 minutes and i'm kind of like gosh really am i just like stressed out or you know like this is it's not necessarily telling me anything that you know it's not like sarah you know you're sick but it's it's just just little pings that i feel like Alerts that say, keep in mind, keep in mind.

39:33Sarah Lane: Are helpful. And this is without me having anything that I'm actively monitoring. Just sort of like, huh, I wonder what that was all about. And sometimes I'm like, gosh, I am actually really stressed. You know, or I'm like trying to write an email really quickly. Or, you know, there's something. So I am a huge proponent of not just Apple Watches, but, you know, all tracking devices, you know, for a variety of exercise and sleep. like you mentioned, Jen, and various health stuff. But again, you have to buy into the fact that a company, whether it's Apple or another company, is going to be handling your data.

40:09Sarah Lane: Now, Apple, at the beginning of their announcement on Tuesday, which had a little Tim Cook, little cameo, he sort of was like, hey, everybody, okay, bye. But it all kicked off with very, we're Apple, you can trust us everything's on device you know we don't look at your data we're not selling your data this is you know apple's been doing this for quite some time and you know unless you just don't want to believe them um i think that they're they've they've been very good about that uh and with other data breaches with other companies you know that's where apple can kind of lean into it and be like, see, you know, trust Apple, pay us more.

40:54I'm so glad you brought up the stress thing too. Because like I bought an Apple Watch only when I found out that it's on device. Things are on device. None of this goes anywhere. My data is mine. That was amazing to me. But with the stress thing, with the heart thing, I was looking at all the new features, like the recovery HRV, all that kind of stuff. It tells you your readiness score. People who are not used to this amount of data are going to stress themselves out over it. I know. Super unnecessarily. I thought the same thing.

41:20Sarah Lane: I was looking at this like, some of this is great for me. And oh, about the heart rate thing too. I don't remember, they never really addressed it, but like two updates ago, heart rate readings were weird for everyone. Because like, I was looking at my hockey stats after a game and I'm thinking like, okay, I appreciate that people don't necessarily know my proper age, but I know that if my heart rate hit 210, that's not how that works. It's pretty high. It's not good. It's like 220 minus your age is basically what people consider their max. And I'm like, okay, well, that's a wrong reading. And then they sorted that out afterwards, and now it's a lot more normal.

41:56But yeah, I was getting these weird spikes where I'm like, man, I am super chill right now. I am definitely not rocking 195. Yeah, yeah. And they talked about that in the announcement as well. They talked about the new sensors that measure the blood flow better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's helping you a lot of this stuff from the wrist. It is super impressive because I used to have to buy polar stuff to work for the training equipment for the gym so that all the coaches from Team Ontario, etc., could see all our stats. So it is nice that, like, I can do this by myself. I don't have to go to a Gatorade high performance camp or pay Gary Roberts.

42:34Like, all of this stuff is available to everybody. But, yeah, I just hope that people who are getting into it for the first time try not to stress too hard about the numbers. don't take it too too serious don't overload yourself with information you know digging through all of the different help app features i know i check my sleep score every morning that's like the first thing i do because like making sure i get my score versus the specific info like do you find the score is a good high level summary for you know what i don't do wake up because my watch will just ping me once i get up um because i get up pretty much at the same time

43:10Sarah Lane: every day but you know sometimes it's like okay sleep score and i'm like yeah okay and when it says low sleep score i'm like i don't even want to know it's almost like obsessive now that i look at it because i want to see the biggest thing for me is i want to see how often i wake up that was a big thing because at one point i was waking up at three o 'clock in the morning every morning and it was really freaking me out because it was like clockwork, like clockwork. Then I started to look online and I figured out what that was. And so I started taking medication and I was like, like a vitamin supplement.

43:51And I was like, I have to see if this is actually working. And it actually is working. You know, I'm sleeping more through the night. I'm not getting up at 3am. I'm getting better quality sleep. And I look at all the things. So I look at the score and like the breakdown, but then I look at like, you know, how deep of sleep I'm getting. Am I getting enough sleep that can, you know, rebuild my body for like the next day? And then looking at the, you know, vitals, the biggest thing for me is like how heavily I'm breathing, making sure that, you know, my pulse locks is pretty high. And the other thing is the heart rate, making sure that I'm like not stressed in my sleep and I'm actually getting, you know,

44:31Sarah Lane: good sleep good sleep yeah it's very important you've got the rem you've got the you've got the deep and then the core and all these things yeah the restorative i mean all the companies have their own little words for them but yeah i mean this is all it's really important and you can go a long time just being like i don't know why i'm always tired you know why do i always have a dip at 11 a.m it's it's you know a lot of this is it's good information to have even if you don't change your lifestyle. I think it's good information to have. So going back to the announcement itself, we did get the AirPods 5.

45:08Sarah Lane: So$129. Have some new language options. Nothing crazy here. $149 if you include the charging case. Anybody in the market for those? Well, another point, I think the STEM controls are not included in the$129 price. You got to pay$150 to do the tap and the hold and the volume. I have to double check that. Oh, I didn't realize that. That sounds important. Yeah, that's what it says in the notes that to get the$149 has the volume swipe because you know it kind of has that little thing to like swipe up and swipe down. I've only had, I was like not really an AirPod person for a while for no good reason.

45:51Sarah Lane: I just, I had some Jabras, they worked fine and I was just like, eh, I don't care. but once I did the jobbers were lost unfortunately at some point I'm like all right let's get some AirPods and I got the pro series 2 and I actually lost those as well and so I'm on my second easy to lose these little suckers but but yeah the the swiping up and down once you get used to it it's like I can't imagine not having that option but if you're always tethered to your phone then it's not that big of a deal. It's something you either have or you don't. So it is, it's definitely a cool perk. Yeah, you can use, you know, because you have like, you can squeeze a stem and it does different things.

46:39You can kind of set it. Now you don't have to set it to volume control. You can use those gestures for something else. To me, this is like really closing the gap between the, you know, OG AirPods and the AirPods Pro because it's the gap between the two is getting smaller and smaller and smaller similar to kind of what we talked about um uh what was it on one of the other products i can't remember which one where it the the difference in the the the brand kind of like tiers that gap is closing and that To me, this is what these AirPods Pro, no, the AirPods 5 are. It's like closing that gap between the last Pro version.

47:27Sarah Lane: Well, and when it comes to earbuds, it's not like the Pros are going to be bigger. You don't want that, right? So it's like at some point, I wonder if it just becomes one product. it makes sense but are they still making AirPods Max? That's still a thing right? yeah over the air I don't think they made any new ones they're not updating them they're just kind of there if you want them I will say more so that the AirPods Pro and the AirPods Max that gap is starting to shorten a lot because when I got the AirPods Pro the first time and I also had a pair of AirPods Max and I returned or sold my AirPods Max because when I got them in my ear right you know do a little I do my little push and twist right and then once I turn on the noise cancellation I'm not an auto audiophile but I could barely tell the difference between the immersion differences you get between the max and the pro yeah so as a result it's funny when i when i go to my local gym which is not as often as i should be going but that's a story for another time but you get you get a lot of not just people only wearing earpod maxes but but just over the ear headphones where i'm just like but everyone's so sweaty ah um so i'm just i'm just not i'm not doing that when i'm working out But my gym also has just ambient music, like EDM music that's just playing constantly that has no beginning or end.

49:11Sarah Lane: It's just awful. And yeah, when I turn on noise cancellation with the AirPod Pros, I mean, I can still hear it kind of, but barely. And it's loud. I mean, it really makes a difference. The noise cancellation on the Pros is really, really good. Honestly, sometimes I just put them on and I'm not listening to anything. It's just like, I just want quiet. I don't want all the extra stuff going on. Just give me a moment of zen where it's not, you know, a bunch of stuff going around. So, yeah, the the the, you know, on these things, the the noise cancellation is really, really good. Yeah. So before we wrap this up, wanted to just get get a little temperature check from everybody about how we feel about John Ternus.

49:58Sarah Lane: He's the new head honcho. He's the new CEO. Jen, did you feel like he commanded presence? Do you have faith in him? Every time I watch these productions, I feel bad because it is not the fault of the people in the productions. But it's so choreographed. So I'm always watching for, okay, who are they queuing to just do that little walkthrough behind? Right. Because I'm not watching the CEO. They queue the person who's very intently looking at this blank piece of paper. And Apple really went hard on that this time. It's a great campus to walk around and shoot in, so I kind of get it. Yeah. Well, for especially during, you know, kind of our earlier COVID days, it would it would just be like the empty Apple campus because who would be there anyway?

50:40Sarah Lane: And now it's like, they're definitely like, okay, somebody has to be they're talking in the background. Okay, walk, walk, walk. Okay, definitely staged. Yeah, I was looking at everything that wasn't him. Yeah. Well, all right. So I don't know, Nika, what are your feelings about this new era we're in? So I think in this new era, I think for definitely the remainder of this year and likely through the spring event, he's still going to be getting his sea legs, so to speak. I know he's been prepped for this for most of the year and it's been like a transition. But I think that transition stuff has been more on the corporate side of things.

51:26I don't think we're going to really start to see his version, his era of Apple until probably about a year from now, because everyone has been so, you know, just think about the time it took to kind of switch gears from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook. I think he's going to have that, you know, kind of like that period. I think right now he's just trying to keep the ship going, keep it in the middle, keep it going forward. Don't break nothing. Don't don't don't mess up anything. You know, we kind of got this set. Let's just kind of roll with this. kind of get the last of the Tim Cook stuff released and out in the wild before I think he can actually, you know, show his personality within the company, whether it be, you know, on the product side or whether it just be him personally, because we didn't really see a lot of him prior to this.

52:24We mostly saw a lot of Craig Figurini and I think a lot of people thought that's who, when they announced a new person, I think people thought that's who it was because we've seen him a lot. He was so prevalent and so prominent. And John Ternus is relatively new to the visibility of it all. What I am interested to see because he does come from, I'm a mechanical engineer, he does come from the hardware background. I'm cautiously excited about some of the products that we are going to see for him. I think in his era, we may see a lot more focus on hardware than software because we've seen kind of the drama behind Siri AI.

53:08And we've seen a lot of the drama behind Apple Intelligence. We've seen a lot of the drama behind, you know, the redesign of some of the OS, what they did to.

53:17Sarah Lane: I mean, even Apple Maps. Remember the early days of Apple Maps? Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So I think, you know, they're trying to, with this phase of him kind of transitioning, let's try and get the software kind of settled. of course they'll still be working on it but you know spending some innovation time on actually the hardware side of things and i'm throwing it out there you know i still haven't completely gotten off of my air power mat i know it's been several years now if you listen to our show you know how i've wanted that and i was excited about that so hopefully with the hardware guy at the helm, maybe we'll get some pretty cool hardware coming out of this.

54:00Sarah Lane: Terrence, do you agree with Nika? Are you cautiously optimistic about the Ternus era? It's a well-oiled machine at this point. Between Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, that was a whole transition thing. Now Tim Cook, I think he's got it all ironed out and all the people. So now Apple can hand it off to somebody else, plug and play, get going, right? I do want to see John Turnis have a little bit more personality. I don't know. I mean, I don't know this dude, but since it's so well-oiled, since it's so plug and play, add a little pizzazz. So I want to see if he gets off a couple of jokes or is more personable, unlike some of his predecessors, have a little personality.

54:47If he does that, and I'm like, all right, Apple's in good hands. if he doesn't, Apple will go on. They'll keep making products. People will keep buying products, rinse and repeat.

54:59Sarah Lane: Well, thanks to all three of you for just, you know, just kind of going through this now that we've had a couple of days to think about the announcements that we've heard, what we're interested in, what we don't want to buy over the next month and a couple of months, you know, for anybody who is going to buy that duo, we might have different opinions depending on what we hear from others and what we're playing around with ourselves. I know Apple Intelligence, for all of us, will be very interesting. But in the meantime, thanks to everybody for joining us for now. Jen Cutter, we all know you from everything all DTNS, but is there anything else you want to plug where people can find you online?

55:41No, just all the DTNS stuff, but oh wait, what's this? I am doing daily sports headlines. Oh, yeah. So now we've got a sports show, DailySportsHeadlines.com. Get all the news of the day nice and fast, ready for you every single morning.

55:56Sarah Lane: Excellent. Nobody could do it better than you, and I'm sure of that. Nika Monford and Terrence Gaines, two halves of SnobOS. Let folks know where they can keep up with all that you do. You can find me at TechSavvyDiva all over their interwebs. And I also, I don't think I've been back on the show. I have a new app, maybe about six weeks old, if that long. In the App Store, it's an iPhone-only app called the BragBook. Head on over there and download it. It's a Wins Tracker app that helps you keep track of wins big and small. Awesome. Terrence Gaines, also of the Tech John, let folks know where they can keep up with all that you're up to these days.

56:40Sure. or you can find me all over the internet at brother tech. Like Sarah mentioned, me and Nika make up the snob West cast. You can find us every Friday on when we announce podcasts. And I am one third of the tech John with Rob Dunwood, where we talk about technology from a African-American perspective. So you can find us there at the tech John J a W N.com. Well,

57:06Sarah Lane: thanks to all of you for being with us. Thanks Nika. Thanks, Terrence. Thanks, Jen. Let's do it again soon. That is it for this episode of DTNS Weekend Edition. We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Thank you for supporting us. Patreon.com slash DTNS. If you're on the fence, become a patron today. We would really appreciate it. We will be back on Monday with all sorts of news. And over the weekend, Daily Tech Headlines. Talk to you soon.

57:43The DTNS family of podcasts, helping each other understand. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

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From the publisher

Apple just unveiled its latest lineup: the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, the much-anticipated iPhone Duo, Apple Watch Series 12, and AirPods 5. But the big question is: is Apple’s first foldable iPhone actually worth the hype? Jenn Cutter and SnobOS Podcasters Nica Montford and Terrance Gaines join us to break down Apple’s boldest iPhone yet—and whether the iPhone Duo changes the game.


Starring Sarah Lane, Nica Montford, Terrance Gaines, Jenn Cutter

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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