The Talk Show With John Gruber

MG Siegler returns to the show to talk about Apple Watch, the future of premium TV and movies, and a preview of next week’s “Hi, Speed” Apple event. Sponsored by: Nest Payroll: Easily pay your nanny, caregiver, or housekeeper quickly and legally. Use promocode talkshow30 to get your first 30 days free. Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order. Feals: Premium CBD delivered directly to your doorstep. Get 50% off your first order with free shipping. Links: MG on Apple Watch Series 6, and why he swapped Graphite stainless steel for blue aluminum. MG on App Clips and the Clip demo of the game Phoenix 2. “Apple, Influence, and Ive” — Ben Clymer’s 2018 profile of Jony Ive for Hodinkee. The seminal 2018 town hall meeting led by John Stankey, the longtime AT&T executive who now oversees HBO, that foreshadowed HBO’s decline. Christopher Nolan’s work on the 2018 50th anniversary “unrestored” print of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nolan’s ill-advised decision to force Tenet into theaters amidst the COVID pandemic. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol — perhaps the best film in a great series, directed by Brad Bird. Cary Joji Fukunaga — director of the astounding first season of True Detective and the upcoming No Time to Die James Bond film. Michael Clayton — quietly great movie by Tony Gilroy, starring George Clooney. DisneyQuest, the aborted urban entertainment center in Philly that Disney never built in the late 1990s. United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. — 1948 Supreme Court antitrust case that resulted in movie studios being banned from owning theaters. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest “Underscore” David Smith joins the show to talk about iOS 14 widgets, WatchOS complications, sleep tracking, and his App Store chart-topping hit Widgetsmith. Sponsored by: Eero: We’re asking a lot of our Wi-Fi. Eero can help yours do more. Enter code thetalkshow at checkout to get free next-day shipping. Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order. Mint Mobile: Get your new wireless plan for just $15/month with free shipping. Underscore’s apps: Widgetsmith Watchsmith Sleep++ Pedometer++ And a lot more. Seriously, he makes a lot of apps. Other links: Under the Radar — Underscore’s weekly podcast with Marco Arment. Daring Fireball: “‎Widgetsmith and The Case of the Missing App Store Bunco Squad”. National Weather Service. Weatherline. Michael Ward’s classic 2004 piece for McSweeney’s: “E-Mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone”. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Michael Simmons joins the show. Topics include the release of iOS 14, widgets and home screen customization, pricing models for indie apps in the App Store era, and, of course, flying robot cameras. Sponsored by: Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order. Feals: Premium CBD delivered directly to your doorstep. Get 50% off your first order with free shipping. Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $20 credit with code talkshow20. Links: Fantastical’s iOS 14 update with customizable widgets galore. Apple gave developers less than 24 hours notice that iOS 14 was about to ship, despite spending all summer encouraging developers to be ready with iOS 14 features at launch. Nova — Panic’s new code editor/IDE for Mac. Sketch — excellent Mac design and prototyping tool. Agenda — excellent notes/planning app for Mac and iOS. @mcharo on Twitter customized all his apps with icons of their company CEOs (or indie creators). IEEE Spectrum: “Why You Should Be Very Skeptical of Ring’s Indoor Security Drone”. Mac desktop customization memory lane with Greg Landweber’s utilities: Greg’s Browser — NeXT-style column view file manager for classic Mac, worked wonderfully alongside the classic Finder. Greg’s Buttons — Control Panel to customize the interface of System 7, turned flat black-and-white buttons into cool 3D buttons. Now we’ve turned all our cool 3D buttons into boring monochromatic flat buttons. Aaron — brought the then-future Platinum appearance to System 7. BeView — made your Mac look like BeOS. Kaleidoscope — the masterpiece of the genre, from Landweber and Arlo Rose. A full-on custom theme engine for an OS that was not designed with system-wide theming as a feature. The golden age of interface customization hacks. Appearance Manager — Apple’s officially supported theming engine that wound up shipping with just one theme. Info on Apple’s Hi-Tech, Gizmo, and Drawing Board themes. August 2000 ATPM story by Christopher Turner on Kaleidoscope and Appearance Manager. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Peter Kafka returns to the show to discuss the news from Apple's "Time Flies" event -- new Apple Watches, new non-Pro iPads, and particularly the Apple One services bundle. Sponsored by: Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $20 credit with code talkshow20. Mack Weldon: Reinventing men’s basics with smart design, premium fabrics, and simple shopping. Get 20% off your first order with code talkshow. Links: “Ricky Jay’s Magical Secrets” — Mark Singer’s wondrous profile for The New Yorker in 1993. I just burst out laughing when I re-read this snippet I quoted from that piece for DF. The complete Ricky Jay archives at DF. Spotify’s statement griping that Apple One constitutes anticompetive behavior. The latest episode of Peter’s own podcast, Recode Media, with special guest Ben Thompson. Apple’s “Time Flies” event video. My thoughts and observations on the event and announcements. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” — Apple’s new retro style commercial for Apple Watch Family Setup. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

John Moltz returns to the show. Poodles are great dogs. Windows stinks worse than ever. Everyone should watch Ted Lasso. Sponsored by: Hello Fresh: Get fresh, pre-measured ingredients and mouthwatering seasonal recipes delivered right to your door with Hello Fresh, America’s #1 meal kit. Backblaze: Unlimited cloud backup for just $6/month. Start a free 15-day free trial today. Links: How to Solve the “Code 43” Nvidia GTX10xx or RTX20xx GPU Problem. Me on pricing the “Apple One” services bundle. “Ted Lasso” renewed for second season. Cabel Sasser’s tweet on kids and software pricing. WinToUSB — $30 utility for installing Windows on an external USB drive. Avery — the printer label company whose name I couldn’t think of. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Anil Dash joins the show. Topics include the 25th anniversary of Windows 95, and the parallels between the cyber era of computing and today’s App Store controversies. Sponsored by: Honeybadger: The web developer's secret weapon. It only takes a few minutes to set up Honeybadger’s total monitoring suite. Try it free for 15 days. Eero: We’re asking a lot of our Wi-Fi. Eero can help yours do more. Use code thetalkshow at checkout for free next day shipping. Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order. Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $20 credit with code talkshow20. Links: Anil on Windows 95. Jason Snell with the Mac user’s (and MacUser’s) take on Windows 95. My take on Snell’s take. Microsoft’s Windows 95 “Start Me Up” commercial. Francisco Tolmasky’s observation on Apple’s control over iOS stifling innovation. Glitch. Boscov’s. How 728,000 “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial” Atari 2600 cartridges wound up in a landfill. Vectrex, the vector-display home video game system I nearly pissed my pants to play. Classic Mac OS’s curiously-named built-in text editor TeachText and its successor, SimpleText. OS/2 Warp. OS/2 Frequently Launched Criticisms. Michael Sippey demoing TypePad for iPhone at WWDC 2008. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Rene Ritchie returns to the show. Topics include Phil Schiller advancing to Apple Fellow, Microsoft’s simmering spat with Apple over Xbox Game Pass and the App Store’s ban on game streaming services, and Epic’s sizzling spat with Apple over, well, the entire concept of iOS as we know it. Sponsored by: Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order. Feals: Premium CBD delivered directly to your doorstep. Get 50% off your first order with free shipping. Raycon: The next wave in wireless audio. Save 15% with this URL and code talkshow. Links: Beats 1 is now Apple Music 1 (and the Beats brand is probably not long for this world). Apple Newsroom: Phil Schiller advances to Apple Fellow. The Curious Editing of 'Artemis Fowl'. John August’s Arlo Finch series, which is unrelated to Artemis Fowl but very cool nonetheless. Rene on Apple’s decision not to allow Xbox game streaming on iOS. Epic goes to war with Apple over the App Store. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Nilay Patel returns to the show to discuss this week’s House antitrust hearing featuring testimony from Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg. Sponsored by: Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $20 credit with code talkshow20. Mint Mobile: Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month and get your new plan shipped to your door free. Stitch Fix: A personal styling company that makes getting the clothes you love effortless. Save 25% when you keep everything in your Fix. Links: Full 5.5-hour video of the hearing. Casey Newton at The Verge: “Overdue, messy, and unsatisfying — but also a necessary part of a hugely important conversation”. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and famed character actor M. Emmet Walsh, who was born to play him. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) grilling Jeff Bezos on anti-competitive business practices at Amazon. Lina M. Khan: “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox”. Seminal paper published in The Yale Law Journal in 2017. The Verge on the 2010 emails between Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, and Steve Jobs that set the rules that keep Amazon from selling Kindle books in their iOS app. Tim Wu’s The Curse of Bigness. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Christina Warren joins the show. Topics include the App Store and antitrust, the general crumminess of video streaming service UIs, and historical examples of when Apple gets something wrong. Sponsored by: Mack Weldon: Reinventing men’s basics with smart design, premium fabrics, and simple shopping. Get 20% off your first order with code talkshow. Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order. Raycon: The next wave in wireless audio. Save 15% with this URL and code talkshow. Links: Steven Levy on the G4 Cube’s 20th anniversary. Me on the Cube and lessons learned. Report commissioned by Apple comparing the App Store to other “digital marketplaces”. Rolling Stone TV Critic Alan Sepinwall: “Who Loses Big in the Great Streaming Wars? The User”. Jason Snell pointing out that even the playback UIs stink for a lot of streaming apps. Jonathan Mann on Apple (Steve Jobs) deciding to use his “Antennagate Song” to open their emergency press conference. From the DF Archive: “Antennagate Bottom Line”. “The Innocence Files” — outstanding series on Netflix documenting the work of the Innocence Project, which works to free those convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. Rocket — Weekly podcast hosted by Christina, Simone de Rochefort, and Brianna Wu. Christina on Twitter. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Adam Lisagor returns to the show. Topics include the cinematic and presentation style of Apple’s WWDC keynote, some post-production details on The Talk Show’s WWDC episode, the tribulations of producing professional videos during COVID-19, and the new sounds of MacOS 11 Big Sur. Sponsored by: Atoms Everyday Face Mask: Multiple sizes, multiple colors. Breathable, washable, and reusable. Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order. Feals: Premium CBD delivered directly to your doorstep. Get 50% off your first order with free shipping. Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $20 credit with code talkshow20. Links: Big Sur alerts. Big Sur system sounds. Prank with a loud computer startup chime in a crowded library. Sandwich’s conceived/shot/produced in quarantine video for Slack — working from home to make a video about working from home. The Talk Show Remote From WWDC 2020. Apple’s video with Craig Federighi introducing the iPad Magic Keyboard back in March, a precursor to the WWDC video style. My eve-of-keynote guess that WWDC’s keynote would look like that Magic Keyboard intro video. Apple’s old iTunes “Rip Mix Burn” commercial set in an empty theater. Steve Jobs introducing the G4 Cube at Macworld New York in 2000. Adam’s delightfully thoughtful thread on face masks. John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on coronavirus conspiracy theories. Mat Honan back in 2012 on how and why he got hacked. California King — the reboot of You Look Nice Today. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.