177: ‘Surface Curious’ With Rene Ritchie
The Talk Show With John Gruber
12/28/16
•122m
About
Comments
Featured In
Rene Ritchie returns to the show. Topics include Siri vs. Alexa, and whether Wynn Las Vegas’s announcement that they’re putting Amazon Echos into their 4,700+ guest rooms is a sign that Amazon is building a meaningful long-term lead in the nascent voice assistant market; Mark Gurman’s week-ago piece for Bloomberg, “How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists”; Consumer Reports’s bizarre but widely-publicized battery test results for the new MacBook Pros; and a brief year in review look at our favorite new Apple products from 2016.
Sponsored by:
- Casper: An obsessively engineered mattress at a shockingly fair price. Use code thetalkshow for $50 toward your mattress.
- Audible: With Audible, you’ll find what you’re looking for. Get a free 30-day trial.
- Warby Parker: Boutique-quality, vintage-inspired glasses at a revolutionary price. Try up to five pairs at home for free.
Links:
- Super Mario Run only needs to be purchased once per iTunes account for use on multiple devices, but can only be played on one device (per iTunes account) at a time.
- Wynn Las Vegas is going to put Amazon Echos in its 4,700+ hotel rooms.
- Wynn has not one but two resorts in Macau — Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace — neither of which can use Amazon Echo until Amazon adds support for Chinese.
- Digital Trends: “A Holographic Virtual Girl Lives Inside Japan’s Answer to the Amazon Echo.
- Tim Cook, in a company-wide Q&A: “Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we’re committed to desktops. If there’s any doubt about that with our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our roadmap. Nobody should worry about that.”
- Bret Victor: Touch Bar development started at Apple eight years ago. Follow-up tweets here, here, and here.
- Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg: “How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists”.
- Consumer Reports: “New MacBook Pros Fail to Earn Consumer Reports Recommendation”
- Me: “That’s absolutely bonkers.”
- Rene Ritchie: “Consumer Reports Fails to Earn MacBook Pro Credibility”.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Previous Episode
176: ‘Frolic’ With Craig Hockenberry
December 16, 2016
•122m
Craig Hockenberry returns to the show with his gigantic fleshy palms. Topics include Donald Trump's highly publicized meeting with a handful of U.S. tech company leaders (including Tim Cook), the release of Nintendo's Super Mario Run for iPhone, Uber's autonomous car that was caught cruising straight through a red light in San Francisco, and Craig's excellent new book, Making Sense of Color Management.
Sponsored by:
- Squarespace: The best way to create your own website. Use code talkshow for 10 percent off your first order.
- Harry's: An exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. Use code talkshow for $5 off your first purchase.
- Backblaze: Unlimited, unthrottled online backup for your Mac, for just $5 per month.
Links:
- Craig's excellent new book, with a foreword by yours truly, Making Sense of Color Management, from A Book Apart.
- More from Craig on the story behind the book.
- Uber's carefully-worded PR spin on their autonomous car that was captured on video running a red light.
- Trump's tech summit meeting, and the look on Tim Cook's face.
- Poll shows U.S. Republicans rate Vladimir Putin 67 percent more favorably than Hillary Clinton, and 54 percent more favorably than Barack Obama. (Source.)
Next Episode
178: ‘Now Banned in China’ With Jim Dalrymple
January 9, 2017
•128m
Jim Dalrymple returns to the show for the first episode of 2017. Topics include New Year’s Eve, Siri/Alexa/Google Assistant, Apple’s aging AirPort and Mac Pro lineups, the future of desktop Macs, Apple Watch battery life, and rumors of upcoming new iPads.
Sponsored by:
- Mailchimp: MailChimp: send better email, sell more stuff.
- Squarespace: Make your next move. Make your next website. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
- Harry’s: An exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. Use code talkshow for $5 off your first purchase.
Links:
- Chuq Von Rospach: “Apple’s 2016 Year in Review”.
- My follow-up, specifically on the AirPort and Mac Pro hardware.
- Matt Birchler: “Siri vs. Google Assistant”.
- Dave Mark, on the slew of Alexa-related products at CES this year: “Alexa Is Everywhere”.
- Chris Adamson, on why he just bought a “new” Mac Pro.
- Apple, The New York Times, and China.
- Photos from inside Harry’s razor blade factory in Germany.
- Rumors about upcoming new iPads, including a new bezel-less edge-to-edge design.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted