SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Drums, please.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:20]
This is life
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:22]
with a twist of lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:24]
So, John, it's been a while.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:27]
Not really.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:29]
Our listeners have noticed no difference.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:32]
I understand that. But the last episode attention
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:34]
to the man behind the curtain.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:36]
There you go. The last episode we recorded was a little while ago. We recorded in advance of last week's episode. Because somebody thought they needed to travel The United States Of America.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:49]
No. No. This was because I had a visitor, not because I was traveling. Oh, the week it was the week before.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:54]
God. Yeah. Gotta keep my calendar straight, John. Sorry about that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:58]
But continuing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:59]
a trend we began last week, I have a correction to make from our prior episode.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:05]
This one's less serious, I swear. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:07]
during the podcast, I referred to
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:10]
the AirPods, the original ones, as having the h one chip, and what I meant was the w one chip. The h one chip is actually the newer chip that's in the second gen AirPods.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:22]
So for those listeners that caught my gaffe, I apologize,
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:27]
and, the correction is now noted. You really do have lots of coworkers who listen, don't you?
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:33]
I this was not a coworker. It was someone who's very attentive and caught it, and I was embarrassed when I realized the mistake I'd made because, you know what, the letters w and the letters h, they don't look alike.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:45]
They kinda do.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:47]
No. No. They don't. Depends on what font you use.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:52]
There you go. I I think you'd have to use a wacky font, like the Crayola font. There you go. Another another interesting tidbit from last week, apparently,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:00]
we have the same number of episodes
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:02]
whose title refer to me as we do Patrick.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:07]
I believe that's true.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:09]
Okay. You said this, and it it bothers me. So I just I'm gonna I'm gonna say upfront that this episode should have my name in the title.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:17]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:19]
The podcast has your name in the title.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:22]
I I understand that, but when I appealed to that during our discussion of Patrick's name appearing in the title of our episodes, you told me it doesn't count. So True. You set the standard.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:32]
I'm just holding you to it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:34]
Alright. I'll see what I can do.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:37]
Alright. Let's, let's talk about Apple because we
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:41]
the last time we recorded, we talked about all of Apple's early releases.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:45]
And then I think what
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:46]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:48]
it was before that episode was released, the Apple event occurred. Correct? Correct.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:54]
And we have not talked about it. So this is a little belated, but I think I think it's relevant. I think it's important. I think we should talk about it because
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:01]
I am curious if there's anything that happened that you care about. Did you even actually, let me just back up. Did you even watch the event?
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:09]
I did not watch the event. The last couple of Apple events, I pretty much followed the live
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:14]
tweeting of the event
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:16]
through The Verge
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:19]
and kinda watch their commentary on it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:22]
Okay. So then you probably got most of the material, I would imagine, because they do they have, like, three three people
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:30]
who are tweeting everything. So Yeah. And they're actually there
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:35]
usually at the events doing that. Because they are more important than life with Twisted Lemon, apparently. So any of you people who are in charge of Apple event invites,
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:45]
you can you know how to contact us.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:47]
Yeah. I I don't I don't see that happening, but we'll we'll hold on to the hope.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:52]
We'll hold on to the hope. We could be the next Walt and Eli.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:57]
Gosh. I I think you're
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:00]
you gotta set your bar a little lower there, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:03]
Beavis and The first thing
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:06]
what is what's that? Beavis and Butthead?
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:10]
You had to go there. Alright. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:13]
hopefully,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:15]
no kids are listening. Good grief. Alright. Let's,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:20]
do
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:21]
you do you care about news, John? Like, was this even relevant to you the first thirty minutes of the the talk?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:27]
Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:29]
Okay.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:30]
I don't pay attention to most news
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:33]
anyway,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:34]
much less news that I'll have to subscribe to.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:38]
And I would imagine
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:40]
you have never paid for news content
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:43]
ever. Right? Right. I did consider
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:46]
subscribing to the local newspaper so I could get a crossword every day, but that's about it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:53]
Oh, lordy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:55]
I think so when we first moved to Indianapolis,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:58]
we got the indie star, and I think that was the only thing that Sarah
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:02]
followed in the paper was the crosswords. So Nice.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:05]
I knew I like missus Lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:07]
Now I did read it. That we got it because I wanted to know what was going on. I think what I learned is that the Indie Star,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:13]
while having some relevant information
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:16]
to Indianapolis
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:17]
and Indiana,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:19]
by and large is mostly just USA Today filler,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:22]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:23]
you don't really have to pay for that. Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:27]
it's you can you can get that free through other mediums.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:31]
But I in the past, I've paid for The Wall Street Journal.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:35]
Let's see what else do I paid for. I I think I paid for other news sources. I might have done the Wapo for a little while. So this Apple News
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:42]
plus launch
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:44]
is $9.99 a month. I, specifically caught that they are,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:50]
offering The Wall Street Journal, and I think I didn't check this. I probably should've. But I think that's actually a discount over what you would pay through the Wall Street Journal. So that was interesting,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:00]
because I remember that being really expensive. It was it was cost prohibitive for me.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:05]
But a whole bunch of other stuff comes up as well. I think, like, news junkies are gonna love this. I think,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:12]
I I I'm hard pressed to believe that this appeals to the mainstream though. What was your take?
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:20]
I
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:21]
pretty much glossed over and got back to work. I mean, I'm not gonna pay any attention. It kind of annoys me when the Apple News app
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:30]
just pops up randomly when I click on a feed or something like that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:37]
Don't I don't have cost.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:39]
You can you can, like, remove it from your phone, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:43]
Can you? Yeah. I think Yes. You can you can delete the news app. I I actually ran into that today on my MacBook.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:53]
I put in a URL trying to get, like, a list of most recent blogs instead of all the filters that they had it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:59]
So I tried slash feed, and then it said, hey. Do you wanna open this in
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:04]
Apple News? I said, sure. Maybe that will give me what I want. Didn't come up.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:09]
Alright. I pulled this up just as a frame of reference. The Wall Street Journal, digital subscription,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:15]
if you pay for six months, it is $20 a month. If you pay for twelve months, it is $15.60 a month. So if
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:23]
you can find yourself to just using Apple News, the Apple News app, which means you have to be on an Apple device. Right? And you have to be logged in with the same Apple ID. Bunch of interesting caveats here. You can get it for $9.99 plus a whole bunch of other stuff.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:37]
So I think Right. Like, price point wise, it's compelling, and I definitely understand,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:43]
you know, why
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:46]
people would pay for it. And, you know, like, things like The Wall Street Journal would kind of appeal to me a lot for, like, the op ed pieces. So didn't, like, Zuckerberg
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:55]
put something in The Wall Street Journal fairly recently?
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:59]
Maybe. I'll be honest with you. When I
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:01]
when I got the Wall Street Journal, I did not pay much attention to the op eds.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:06]
I the thing that I liked about the Wall Street Journal, having taken a journalism class or two,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:11]
I I actually liked the traditional journalistic approach of of, like, the style of writing, the shortness, the brevity of it, the directness.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:19]
So for me, it was,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:21]
you know, it was appealing in that regard. A good a well written
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:25]
newspaper article,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:27]
you don't have to read to the end to get the important bits. Right. Right? So it's it's kinda like the opposite of all other writing, where the most important things come first, and then you expand progressively through detail as you go down. So if someone stops early, they're not missing the point of the article, and I like that. I like that about The Wall Street Journal. I also felt like in terms of bias,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:48]
at least and and again, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:50]
maybe I'm too biased to be able to say this, but, it felt more centric for me, and that was also more what I was going for.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:59]
Now
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:01]
when would you read the news, or when do you read the news currently? And what do you use to consume news currently?
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:07]
Okay. Well, you're this is a bad time to ask because I just went through a digital minimalism
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:13]
phase here. Okay. But, if you rewind a couple weeks maybe we should talk about that. If we rewind a couple weeks,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:19]
the IndieStar app, because there's still a bunch of free content on there Right. And and I usually it's just a quick skim. And then I actually use the news app quite a bit. I use the news app mostly for,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:31]
the free articles that are on there. I follow very specific publications. I don't allow Apple News to suggest new channels to me or anything like that. So it's a really it's a really curated list. Right? It's like Wapo, New York Times, Popular Mechanics,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:45]
Curbed,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:46]
and, Behind the Steel Curtain. Like, those are the things that that I follow.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:50]
And so I will check it usually in the morning, like if I'm having a cup of coffee or something like that. And then, anytime I have a prolonged visit to the restroom.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:00]
Interesting.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:02]
Yeah. I get my news from
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:05]
Twitter or people talking at work, and maybe that's why
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:10]
I'm always angry about the news.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:13]
It could be. I I will say this. I've not been on Twitter now for almost a month, and Really? I tagged you in, like, four things today. Well, I didn't see any of them, John. I don't even have a Twitter app on my phone at the moment, so Nice. Take that with a grain of salt. But I'll say this, I I used to get news that way. I realized that I was not getting the kind of news I wanted.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:34]
One thing that I've started to do, because again, I'm trying to, like, stare at my screen less,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:39]
my phone screen,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:40]
is I I actually subscribed to NPR's Up First podcast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:44]
Have you seen this at all? So you recommended one
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:49]
at some point. I mean, it's probably been several years ago now that you used to listen to.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:54]
I so for a while, The Wall Street Journal had a couple that, like, a a Wasn't there one that was, like, ten minutes long?
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:00]
Gordon Deal. I think I recommended Gordon Deal to I
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:04]
think he was a little longer than ten minutes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:07]
Gordon Deal was mostly good, but there was, like, just some fluff. So up first to me is it's always ten minutes. It's NPR.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:15]
It's
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:17]
too quick to really, like, have opinion or bias in terms of the reporting. Like, they're just literally, like, blazing through headlines. I like that. I like that I can just play it. I don't have to stare at a screen. I can do other things.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:30]
I'm I'm that's, like, my thing right now. So I am trying to reduce the amount of news that I consume.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:36]
I will say that Apple News plus was very tempting. It was very tempting to me.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:41]
Interesting.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:42]
I did used to get news headlines from an email called the skim.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:47]
There were a couple problems with that. One, I'm not their target audience because I'm not a millennial Starbucks loving white girl.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:54]
And two,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:56]
the bias just got kinda bad, which is
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:00]
there's, like, five main stories in an email. And if your bias is showing through that, then I don't really I'm not gonna really read it. I don't care which way the bias is either. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:11]
I have honestly never looked at the daily skim.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:14]
I just pulled it up
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:16]
because you mentioned it. And the fact that they have to highlight their headlines in yellow,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:22]
like, it's like like a yellow highlighter, like, streaked across them. I don't think that used to be the case.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:30]
But it was written in this really kinda,
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:33]
like, I don't even know what the word would be. It's not really snarky, but kind of this light fashion where they had fun with it. So that's what drew me in and kept me up to date, and then
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:43]
now I'm now I don't pay attention to anything.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:46]
Yeah. See, I I I strictly want headlines
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:50]
and whatever minimal detail I need as quickly as possible, and then, you know, move on to the next thing. Got it. Alright. Speaking of moving on to next thing, we've talked about Apple News plus far too long. We got a lot to get through this in this episode. We have lots of things here.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:05]
Apple Pay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:06]
Apple Pay got a facelift.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:10]
It like, basically, I guess, I would summarize it as this. They're doing their own credit card, and you don't actually physically have to have plastic,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:18]
but they will give you plastic if you want.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:20]
I'm curious. Did you ever do Apple cash Apple Pay cash? Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:26]
Not a ton,
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:27]
but
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:28]
this was probably one of the more interesting announcements to me from the Apple event.
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:34]
It was cool what they showed off of, like, their banking app was really polished, looks slick. I don't know if there was anything really groundbreaking
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:42]
on that front.
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:46]
But, yeah, Apple Pay, I think that this is overall good thing, and definitely a thing that interests me most.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:53]
So correct me if I'm wrong. You've not been a credit card carrier in the past. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:58]
In the past, I have not. That changed in January
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:02]
when you turned my financial world upside down, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:06]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:07]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:10]
this card, right, pitches simplicity specifically around points, just around, like, management as a whole. I think it's it's interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:17]
I don't know that
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:19]
it's not a killer feature for me. Right. I generally like Apple Pay. I have all my cards loaded up on my watch, my phone,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:26]
and my Mac. Like, I I do all of that. Big fan of that. Apple Pay Cash, I've used one time. I love the idea. I love the idea because I think, like, Venmo is stupid,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:37]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:38]
I I I don't have a problem with Have I sent you money with Apple Pay?
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:42]
I don't think you did. I don't I don't remember that. My father-in-law and I go back and forth on this all the time. Like, if I buy him coffee and bring it, he'll send it via Apple Pay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:52]
I mean, it's like, I get it. It's totally cool. I dig it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:55]
I it's just I don't I haven't had anybody that had exchange money with. Usually, I'm buying. So, like, who am I gonna send money to? That's nice of you, Stan. You're a generous guy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:05]
I I think if if this can make it easier for younger people
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:10]
to have a line of credit and somehow manage to do it responsibly, because I think that's the real kicker. Right. You know, more power to it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:19]
This I don't know. I like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:21]
I didn't really care to be completely honest with you. Well, fine then. You stick with your Apple News plus.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:28]
So alright. Just just level with me. When this comes out, are you gonna get the the full card and the physical card and the whole jazz? Probably not. It was just the most interesting from the day.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:38]
Okay. I think you should do it because I'm probably not going to, and and you can report back about it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:43]
I know that our friend Patrick Sturtevant was all excited about this.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:47]
Oh, interesting. We'll have to ask him about that when we see him. Yeah. Okay. Next up, Apple Arcade. I I play games on my phone, but not these kind of games. Right. Do you John, do you even know what Fortnite is? Yes. I do. I have not played it, but I know what Fortnite is probably because my wife teaches fifth graders.
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:07]
So historically, you have been kind of a gamer though, haven't you? Yeah. I never got into, like, smartphone gaming, though. I know that this is a huge market, but, basically,
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:18]
I've never seen great performance from any really interesting games.
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:23]
So I've got games like the
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:27]
World Series of Poker app on my phone and,
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:30]
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:31]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:34]
Okay. So I have Carcassonne and I have Carcassonne. Just haven't played recently.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:40]
Post explosion, things of that sort. Basically, board games have been transformed, which don't quite fit in this category
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:46]
that Apple Arcade is targeting. I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:50]
this this space interests me. I just I don't wanna spend any more time on my phone than I already am.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:56]
I I enjoy games. Like, don't get me wrong. If I'm legitimately bored, I will pull out the, you know, Nintendo classic that I got from Target last year, and I'll plug it in, and I'll play some Super Mario.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:09]
But that
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:10]
it's, like, mind numbing. It's nostalgic. I don't have to really Right. Engage at a deep level. And I think these games, at least the ones that they demoed on stage, are highly engaging.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:20]
Yeah. So I think that they're really
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:23]
trying to target like this
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:26]
I don't know if I would call it like this entry level gamer,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:30]
but
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:31]
it's not targeted at the pros who are building their own machines to play games all the time. And it's not really targeted at us who
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:39]
don't wanna spend an hour on our phone playing a game.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:42]
But I think it fits
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:44]
it kinda is like a Game Boy replacement from back in our day.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:48]
Yep. That's that's how I saw it too. I think they're going head to head with Nintendo. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:53]
So And if
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:54]
I recall, Nintendo has a subscription based service, I thought,
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:00]
as part of the Switch platform. Yep. Maybe.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:03]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:04]
Because there's like that Tetris game where you can play with a 100 different people. So Yeah. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:11]
like, this to me wasn't new territory except that,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:15]
it's Apple doing it, and they're
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:17]
I I think they've got the potential to target a much wider net than, say, Nintendo,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:22]
or Microsoft, right, which is also in the gaming space, or Sony for that matter. So I think it'll be interesting to see what happens. One thing that I found intriguing
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:31]
was there was no additional charge for family sharing of this plan. Interestingly, the same was true of Apple News Plus, which,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:40]
you know, okay, fine, whatever. How many people in your family follow the news? With Apple Arcade, if you got more than one kid and they're, like, doing that kind of thing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:49]
like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:50]
I think that's appealing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:51]
Yeah. This is different than, like, Apple Music, right, where they upcharge you for being a family.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:59]
You know, I I think it's kinda cool. I wonder
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:02]
if that like, to me, it seems like that will cut into profits for game developers,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:07]
and that could impact the catalog.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:10]
I don't know.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:11]
Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:16]
There's potential that I end up in this kinda
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:20]
space just to check it out, but it's really gonna take a game that really interests me, I think.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:26]
I quite honestly, John, I think you should just pony up the $9.99 because you're not doing Netflix right now and toy around a little bit. I I say pony up. I have to start up HBO soon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:37]
Well, this isn't coming out till the fall. That's what I was gonna say. You got some time,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:42]
which which I thought was also interesting that they announced it here in March and wasn't coming out till the fall. Like, I don't I don't understand what the rationale
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:51]
for that was. Yeah. We didn't give, like, an overview of the event yet, but it was weird.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:57]
It was weird. I think we'll get into that a little bit more. Yeah. So the only thing that was of particular interest to me was the next thing, which is Apple channels.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:05]
And the way that I would describe this is they have created a way for various content providers, like CBS All Access or HBO or Amazon Prime,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:15]
to basically hook into a single unified
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:18]
interface, this channels app, or this the TV app Right. Kind of enhanced. And they're they're gonna represent these services as channels. And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:27]
this I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:28]
was really interesting because the experience
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:32]
on the television is kludgy at best.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:35]
Like, just doesn't feel good. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:39]
What was really interesting to me, and I thought extremely out of character,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:44]
is that Apple, who quite frankly has been losing the battle in terms of
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:49]
TV devices.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:51]
Right? Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:52]
I think it's few and far between that have an Apple TV.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:56]
Right. One, because it's so expensive. Actually, I think that's probably the only reason that it's few and far between. Right? It they have been priced out of the market by an order of magnitude. It's a more powerful device, and I get that, but I don't think people actually care. Yeah. As long as they can stream their Netflix and Amazon Prime and whatever, then there you go.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:15]
Exactly. And so, you know, the $35
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:18]
Fire Stick or whatever or the $30 Chromebox,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:22]
like, those
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:23]
things Apple has decided not to compete with.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:26]
And at this announcement, they actually said that they were going to make their Apple TV app,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:33]
right, available
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:35]
on
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:36]
I think they announced a a set of smart TVs,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:39]
Roku
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:40]
and Amazon Fire.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:42]
Right? Now notice there's somebody that wasn't mentioned there, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:47]
Google.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:48]
Google. Google was not in the mix.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:51]
But, you know, I I've touted before that I love my Roku smart TV.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:56]
I would love to have an Apple channels app on it. Like, that would be killer. That I'm I'm totally totally stoked for this.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:03]
Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:05]
But did see when it's coming?
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:07]
A
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:08]
couple months.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:09]
May. May. Again, another what felt like premature announcement. However, apparently, this is in the betas now, the new channels app. So some people are starting to be it's starting to get to play with it. Cool.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:23]
So I'm running
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:26]
I think it's a second gen Apple TV. So I'm still on, like, the old UI and everything like that,
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:33]
and it still does what I need.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:37]
I am I'm I'm trying to there was something that compelled me to move forward, and I don't recall what it was now. There was a feature
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:44]
that I wanted. And eventually, like, what I wound up doing is I bought a four k
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:48]
Apple TV, and that ultimately drove me to buying my new TV.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:53]
The problem is that most of the things that I get off of it because of movies anywhere,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:58]
I can watch on Roku without having to switch to Apple TV. So I buy all my movies on iTunes, but I've got are you familiar with movies anywhere?
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:06]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:07]
Yeah. Okay. So, you you know, you connect your accounts, and I can watch movies I purchased on iTunes over on Amazon or whatever, and I don't have to think about it. So for me, that that has also kinda killed the Apple TV. There's just not
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:20]
Right. There's nothing that brings me back to it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:23]
Interesting. A better experience might do it though. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:26]
Alright. So Now Cool.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:29]
Did you watch Apple TV plus? Did you watch any of the segments from that? I did not.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:37]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:38]
how would you describe the hype behind this leading up to it?
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:43]
How would I describe it?
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:45]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:47]
So everybody knew
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:50]
that this was coming.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:52]
I expected something
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:54]
very different.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:57]
Tell me what you expected, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:00]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:01]
I expected something closer to
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:05]
an Apple Music sort of model
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:07]
where it was more
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:09]
bringing in different things
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:12]
and giving you access to
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:14]
really high quality content that you just don't get on Netflix or Amazon
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:19]
and really upsetting the movie industry like they did with iTunes originally in the music industry.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:27]
But those were the Steve Jobs days.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:30]
I think the dream
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:32]
is probably to be able to do
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:35]
a la carte channel selection.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:37]
Right? Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:38]
And also to
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:40]
move beyond
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:43]
watching shows when they're scheduled to broadcast
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:46]
and subscribing to shows. Right? So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:50]
you know, my my ideal is I can choose
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:52]
a couple of networks to stream sports from,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:55]
and then I can subscribe to 10 shows for $10 a month. Right? Right. And if I could have that, like, it'd be a no brainer. I wouldn't have to think twice. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:06]
I I think that the industry probably doesn't want to do that because it like, good content right now subsidizes
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:15]
a lot of really awful
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:17]
just work. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:20]
Like the Hallmark Channel. The Hallmark Channel does not exist because there are enough people that want it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:25]
There are enough people that want other channels that the Hallmark Channel is implicitly bundled with, and so it's a slice of the pie. And I think that's the kind of thing that is at risk. So that they didn't announce that. This is not a Hulu competitor.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:38]
This is not a Sling TV competitor.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:42]
This I wouldn't even say this is an Amazon Prime or Netflix competitor,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:46]
because they didn't they didn't actually say that they were going to
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:50]
share any
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:51]
existing content that Apple doesn't a 100% own Right. On this new service.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:58]
They I'm trying to think who all did they have. They had
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:02]
what's the lady from Friends?
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:05]
Jennifer Aniston.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:07]
Thank you. Jennifer Aniston was Reese Witherspoon,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:10]
and then Steve Carell apparently doing a show together. They announced it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:15]
It was okay. Like, I I'm I'm mildly interested in seeing it. Prior to that, actually, I guess the starting point was Steven Spielberg
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:23]
was was the opening act for all of this. Did you did you see like, I can't imagine.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:30]
I I don't know. Like, he must be really passionate about this show that he's doing, is based off of this magazine he read as a kid, which if I understand correctly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:38]
has been produced in a show before. He did terribly. So who knows how this will go?
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:43]
They didn't they didn't really have, like, a proper trailer Right. For either of those shows that I just described.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:49]
So I I don't know, man. Like, I don't know what we're getting into there.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:53]
Yeah. I mean,
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:55]
it was weird. And I saw some
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:59]
Twitter traffic where people were ripping into Steven Spielberg because didn't he come out and say something against
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:06]
these sort of
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:08]
one off content things?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:11]
Did you see any of No. I didn't. I didn't catch that. I wish I would've taken more notes or something.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:16]
That would that wouldn't surprise me. I like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:19]
I I think there there has to be a tension in the movie industry
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:23]
against
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:25]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:26]
non HBO,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:27]
HBO like television shows. So I would include things like
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:32]
The Man in the High Castle, the fantastic
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:34]
missus Maisel or Marvelous Missus Maisel, whatever it is, as well as Netflix shows like Daredevil
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:41]
or
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:42]
other ones that I don't watch like Orange is the New Black, has been very popular. I'm trying to think what else has been big on Netflix.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:50]
Stranger Things is the current one. There you go. Yeah. Stranger Things. Everybody watches Stranger Things. I don't. So I think I think those shows are they don't compete with Law and Order. Right? They compete with with movies. They compete with people buying movies.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:06]
So I can see how there would be some tension there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:09]
I don't think, you know, the HBO had a interesting arrangement with the movie industry for a long time. I think that's kinda been turned up on its head. And I think you can see that it's been turned up on its head because HBO has taken their
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:21]
own produced content to a whole new level. Right. Right? Like, The Sopranos was awesome, but the production costs had to be pretty low. Yep. Game of Thrones is has got to cost an arm and a leg, literally.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:35]
So, you know That was fun. I understand. I caught it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:40]
I'm here all day, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:41]
I think that's who Apple wants to be in competition with though, with these
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:48]
HBO like
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:49]
shows.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:50]
What was what was really weird to me about this whole thing was the, like, the high point of the Apple TV plus event
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:00]
was Oprah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:01]
Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:02]
Did you see that coming?
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:04]
No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:04]
Yeah. I that was not even
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:07]
on my radar. Now, don't get me wrong. I like Oprah. Right? She might have ruined A Wrinkle in Time, but whatever. Like, I get past that. I
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:16]
just couldn't figure out
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:19]
what
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:20]
like, why
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:21]
she was a higher point to this event than Steven Spielberg. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:27]
That like, Steven Spielberg were basically got relegated to an opening act for Oprah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:32]
And and I'm just having a hard time grokking that. I should mention, forgot, Aquaman appeared doing some show that didn't make a whole lot of sense when he described it. He's he's an odd duck, like Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:42]
Real odd duck. Al Drogo.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:45]
There you go. Yeah. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:48]
Yeah. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:49]
the Oprah is
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:52]
I think it's a marketing play
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:54]
because
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:55]
she has
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:56]
a ton of influence on
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:59]
pop culture.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:01]
Well, and our parents' generation. Right? And our parents' generation. She she really appeals to our mothers. I at least that's my suspicion. I don't know. I think my mom went to to see an Oprah
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:11]
broadcast,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:12]
but, like, that's that was Oprah's heyday. Right? Her Chicago based,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:17]
you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:18]
daytime show.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:20]
Right. So when I was working on some,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:23]
what what you would call, bum marketing,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:25]
So kinda like affiliate marketing
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:28]
that you don't have to pay anything to play.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:32]
One of the big things was called the Oprah method,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:36]
where if you could try and guess what Oprah would mention on her TV show and get out ahead of that, then,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:43]
you would get a ton of traffic and make a ton of sales,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:47]
when that actually hit.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:49]
Okay. There you go. So Whole marketing tactic
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:52]
around Oprah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:55]
I I mean, I that makes sense. She talked about I I think there were two projects she was working on.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:01]
I I might be misremembering this. One's a documentary, if I recall. Right. And and I don't entirely recall what it was about. It didn't leave a lasting impression. But the other is like a book club, which, you know, Oprah's Oprah's known for being a book nerd, and and I dig that. I get it. I don't really think the books that she's going to highlight are the kind of thing that I read. But, you know, like, I that's interesting. Like, I think that's valuable content. I still just don't know if it was the high point for the whole thing. That said,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:28]
I watched this part of the
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:32]
event and thought to myself, wow. For such talented actors, they are awfully painful to listen to. They felt over scripted and unnatural
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:41]
with the exception of Oprah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:43]
Oprah had a, I think, rough start to her talk, but otherwise,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:46]
she was the most natural conversationalist of the group, and that
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:51]
for me was a breath of fresh air.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:56]
Alright. So that just kinda says what the other people were like when you were listening to them. Yeah. I I don't know. It
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:05]
I I was not I was not impressed with this event in general. I I think the hype leading up to it was
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:12]
just
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:13]
was not deserved. Right? Right. I don't think there were any significant game changer changers. Apple TV plus,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:21]
I don't what did they say? It's coming in the fall. Yep. They didn't give even a specific month. So there's a huge
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:26]
time horizon there. How much does it cost? Oh, there. No pricing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:31]
Yeah. I mean I couldn't believe that. Why didn't they do this event in the fall and then make this
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:38]
last Monday event focused on the things that they released in news releases? I mean, new AirPods,
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:45]
new Macs,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:47]
all that stuff. I think the news release stuff thing just has a smaller market share. I think the fall is reserved for an iPhone launch.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:55]
And so the summer, right, is reserved for WWDC.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:58]
You're just kinda running out of time to do things. If you recall, I think it was about this time of the year when they launched the iPad,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:05]
maybe, if I recall.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:08]
Apple's got this play to increase their services revenue, and services include Apple News, Apple Pay, Apple Arcade, Apple Channels, and Apple TV Plus. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:17]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:18]
I I think that they gave it its own event, not because it's, like, huge earth changing stuff, but because they were gonna get more press for it. That that's my best guess. I, like, I can't come up with any other explanation.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:32]
I just hope this doesn't turn into
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:35]
my phone acting like adware
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:38]
and prompting me to subscribe to all these things all the time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:42]
I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:43]
they're going to do this more tactfully than anybody else in the business. I've
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:48]
dismissed
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:49]
one and only one Apple News plus, like, you know, offer,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:54]
and that's it. So, you know k. Who knows? We'll see. I think I think it's a fair concern.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:00]
I think Apple has to be careful that they don't become Google. Right? Right. This stuff.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:07]
They they may not be, like, selling other people's advertising, but their own advertising can be just as detrimental.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:12]
I I guess I should note
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:15]
Apple News,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:17]
and I believe Apple TV Plus, they both touted the privacy aspects of it. Right? So with Apple News in particular,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:23]
you know, producers are not getting information about you.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:26]
There was lots of cheering, hooting, hollering. That's great.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:30]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:31]
I'm happy for that, but I I still think, like, we're putting a lot of trust in Apple at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:37]
Which
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:38]
historically
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:40]
is
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:42]
valid.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:44]
I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:47]
To to me, the risk is when Tim Cook moves on. Right? Because this has been privacy has been Tim Cook's thing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:54]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:55]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:56]
don't know what the next,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:58]
you know, CEO of Apple will look like.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:01]
Alright. Yep. John, there was one thing that I was hoping for to be announced that they did not announce. Do you know what it is?
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:09]
I have no idea.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:10]
I just want my stinking iCloud reminders to sync properly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:14]
I I want I want that fixed. I want iCloud sync to just work again. Ever since I went to California,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:22]
my all of my reminder notifications are in the wrong time zone. I have no idea how that happened. Wow.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:27]
Yeah. Yeah. It is so frustrating. But here's the thing, they're only in the wrong time zone on my watch. On my phone, they come up at the correct time. You figured that one out. Have you restarted your watch?
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:38]
I've restarted it. I upgraded it. I removed all of my reminders from my phone.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:44]
I I don't know. I'm at this point
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:47]
Is screen time working on your kids' devices yet?
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:50]
Nope. Still not working. Haven't heard from the Apple guy recently.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:53]
That was another interesting thing about arcade. They were saying that Apple Arcade is tied into screen time. I was like, that won't work.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:01]
So I'm not bitter, but I I am frustrated.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:04]
Right. Which is not a good first step here.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:07]
Nope. Almost like, you know, the AMC website going down when I'm interest endgame tickets go on sale. Yeah. So let's talk about that. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:16]
we are recording this on Tuesday,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:18]
and it's usually the second, which was the
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:22]
according to Patrick Sturtevant,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:24]
right, this was the day.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:26]
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:27]
had failed him,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:29]
I think, couple times, hadn't it? Yes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:31]
Failed him and us.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:33]
So he was now
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:35]
trusting
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:36]
a news release from comicbook.com,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:39]
if I recall,
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:40]
that they would be available at 8AM
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:43]
today.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:44]
So y'all That was Eastern time because I was very confused when 7AM,
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:49]
you were talking about it. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:51]
Well, you should have just assumed Eastern time. So here here's the thing though.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:56]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:57]
you know, y'all are coming out to hang out with me, so I promised I'd buy the tickets. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:01]
And I got up early,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:04]
you know, for me,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:05]
and got myself ready, showered all that, had a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_1 [00:37:10]
I'd been at work for an hour by this point. Yeah. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:14]
And I log on to AMC,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:16]
and I see where the Avengers are listed, and I just keep refreshing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:20]
Right? Because we wanted to go to the,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:22]
Dolby experience thing or whatever that we talked about in a previous episode at one of the AMC theaters on the northern part of the city.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:30]
And I'm refreshing refreshing refreshing. Boom. Seating chart comes up. Right? So I select my seats. I'm going to check out, and then I get an error. And I got an error. And I got an error. I got an error. For forty minutes, I tried this. Constant errors.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:47]
I saw stack traces. I saw load balancer errors.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:50]
I saw error messages from IIS,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:53]
Microsoft IIS,
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:54]
and I saw
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:56]
modal notifications that would pop back five hundreds, five o ones, five o twos, and five o threes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:02]
Right? Those are those are eight c So error
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:05]
literally,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:05]
AMC,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:06]
like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:07]
took the covers off to show me all of their programming warts,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:12]
and and I was embarrassed.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:13]
I was legitimately embarrassed for them.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:16]
The those AMC engineers should be ashamed, because it like, the Microsoft IIS error pages are really easy to turn off. I even think that there is a wizard when you first install IIS that asks you, hey,
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:30]
do you wanna substitute another error message? Set a custom error message. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Of course, you do. You always want to do that. The c sharp stack trace that I got in one of the errors today, completely inexcusable.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:42]
So Hey, on the plus side, it was c sharp and not The point isn't the technology. Right? The point is they literally showed me their like, the stack trace for their execution
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:51]
stack. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:38:54]
I was mad, and I was messaging you guys, and I decided, well, with Patrick's help, that we were gonna go with a plan b.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:01]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:02]
our first showing of the movie
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:04]
is that Regal RPX,
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:06]
whatever RPX is. I've never heard of that. Patrick says that he likes Regals. As long as he's happy, I'm happy. But we got tickets
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:14]
for 6PM
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:15]
at the Regal. It's the first showing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:18]
Then somehow, and I'm still not a 100% sure how we're gonna do this with a three hour two minute movie.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:24]
We're going to track all the way downtown to the State Museum
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:27]
where we have an IMAX that is not affiliated with AMC.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:31]
Thanks be to God, it's not affiliated with AMC because I was able to get tickets,
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:36]
for that showing at 10PM.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:38]
Again,
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:39]
not entirely sure how we're gonna pull this off, but by golly, we're gonna try. If we leave Borgardt behind, we leave Borgardt behind.
SPEAKER_0 [00:39:47]
That guy's gonna have to learn how to walk fast and pay attention.
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:51]
Dial in. Yeah. So AMC goes down. They were down till well past noon or still having issues.
SPEAKER_1 [00:39:58]
So I like following them on Twitter.
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:01]
At some point, they retweet their AMC guest services account,
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:05]
and I'll quote what they they said in this tweet. We want everyone to be able to grab their Avengers endgame tickets, but it looks like we've gotten Thanos' snap.
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:15]
We're working on getting things back up and running. And in the meantime,
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:19]
pay attention here, please keep trying our website and our partner sites.
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:25]
Okay. So Somebody
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:30]
thought they were being clever. Right? Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:35]
Hashtag too soon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:37]
Right? Because I didn't have my tickets.
SPEAKER_0 [00:40:39]
I imagine a lot of other people didn't have their tickets. I this this crossed the line that I was not comfortable with.
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:47]
And you go through and they're responding to everybody. Great customer support, tactics here, but they're always they keep saying, keep trying our website.
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:57]
And
SPEAKER_1 [00:40:58]
so it's like these customer
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:00]
help desk reps
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:01]
who have no idea what's going on. Like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:05]
I'm sure the engineers are super happy that they have hundreds of thousands of hits on the website while they're trying to bring stuff back up.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:14]
I I mean, this
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:17]
clearly, they did not
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:19]
provision enough equipment to handle the load. Their competitors did. Right? Mhmm. Fandango
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:26]
didn't have a problem except when I tried talking to agency. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:29]
Regal, lickety split fast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:31]
IMAX,
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:32]
lickety split fast. I gotta think, IMAX and Regal and Fandango were getting hammered too.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:39]
So Yep. Big fail, AMC.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:41]
I don't know what your infrastructure looks like, but this is a solvable problem in 02/2019.
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:46]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:41:47]
You don't have to have physical boxes sitting there anymore either.
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:51]
No. I mean, we're assuming that they do. Maybe they didn't, and they just don't know how to, provision up. I I don't know. I and
SPEAKER_0 [00:41:58]
I'm I'm I feel a little bit bad because I'm trivializing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:01]
you you know, what it takes to build scalable software. But I feel like if you are AMC,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:07]
the amount of tickets that you were going to sell today
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:10]
would have caused you to pause
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:13]
and to prepare for it. Right? Because there there's no doubt in my mind that they lost revenue today
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:19]
because people are going to other theaters. Because I it was yours.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:24]
Exactly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:25]
Exactly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:26]
I I I bought two tickets
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:29]
for four people today,
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:32]
and none of them are at AMC. And AMC was my first choice. It was my first choice for both showings.
SPEAKER_0 [00:42:37]
But you know what? You let me down, AMC. If you're out there, you gotta, you know, show me some love to bring me back home because it's gonna be a long time before I go back to an AMC.
SPEAKER_1 [00:42:48]
You think that they would have prepped
SPEAKER_1 [00:42:51]
their customer facing people
SPEAKER_1 [00:42:53]
to respond in better ways too. Like, even if everything goes swimmingly for 90% of people, you think that they would be more prepared for when something went wrong when they're expecting high traffic volume.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:05]
Just
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:06]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:07]
I don't know. It's
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:11]
IT is hard, man. And communication between software engineering and support is hard.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:17]
And I when when you're not prepared for something like this, a lot of balls get dropped and communication usually suffers. Unless unless you've designed
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:25]
your site reliability around good communication processes, which most do not.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:31]
Right. You're you're asking for a mess like you had today.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:35]
So it wasn't the support people's fault. There's nothing they could do. Right. You know, it those those poor souls are on the front line of the snappening,
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:45]
literally.
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:47]
But
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:48]
we have tickets, two showings,
SPEAKER_1 [00:43:50]
we have dinner reservations.
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:52]
It'll be a good day for life with the twist on them. Yes. It will. Yes. It will. I don't actually know when we're gonna record
SPEAKER_0 [00:43:59]
because we
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:00]
won't even get home until 1AM.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:03]
But Yeah. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Wouldn't be the latest I've recorded a podcast after Avengers movie. Yeah. There you go. I I will tell you this. I am I don't know what your plans are, but I intend on having zero alcoholic beverages
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:19]
on the day of Endgame.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:21]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:22]
I am not risking falling asleep in any of these shows.
SPEAKER_1 [00:44:27]
How do you feel about us skipping out before the credits
SPEAKER_1 [00:44:32]
from the first showing and waiting until the end of the second showing
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:36]
to see? That that thought has crossed my mind. I'm not sure what Patty will think. I I
SPEAKER_0 [00:44:42]
we'll we'll see when he listens to this how he reacts. But I think that's a definite possibility for us to get over to the IMAX. The thing I'm the most worried about, honestly, is parking at the, state museum. I don't know what that'll be like.
SPEAKER_1 [00:44:54]
So we'll we'll see. Who knows? How much are they gonna ticket you for parking in a place that's not a place?
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:01]
That's a good question, and I don't know the answer to it. But we could find out. Yeah. We need to find out how much an Indianapolis parking ticket is.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:10]
The there are other parking options near the state museum. I gotta think though
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:15]
that the state muse I mean, the state museum itself is not gonna be open.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:18]
Neither will the
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:20]
other two museums that are kind of attached to that area.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:24]
So alright. Maybe just one other museum. No. It's two. It's the NC double a and then the
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:29]
oh my gosh. I can see the name, but I can't remember what it says. Anyhow,
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:32]
I I I don't think it'll be a problem, but, you know, we'll see. Like Right. This will be an adventure. On a plus side, we'll have already seen the opening.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:41]
Yeah. Yeah. I but here's the other thing. I don't know will they let us in if the movie's already started.
SPEAKER_1 [00:45:46]
Oh. Right. IMAX.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:48]
Yep. Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:50]
So there's a it's it's a high stakes game we're about to play. I'll bring my running shoes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:56]
There you go.
SPEAKER_0 [00:45:58]
Alright, John. On that note, my friend, I think we will save all the other wonderful things that we were going to discuss till the next there's too much here.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:07]
There is. There is. This note that we have that we type out, it just keeps growing. Yep. Good material for episode 40,
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:14]
which is coming Oh, man. Next week. Episode 40. Can you believe that we've done 40 of these things? 12 more until you get to figure out how many people listen.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:23]
Is that was that the requirement? I don't even remember what you're referring to. You said when we get to episode fifty two, one year of
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:29]
podcasts.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:30]
I'm afraid I'll just be disappointed at this point.
SPEAKER_1 [00:46:34]
Millions millions of listeners.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:37]
Oh, boy. Alright. So big big episode 40 next week. I don't
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:41]
know, every time we get a zero, we need to celebrate.
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:44]
But in the meantime,
SPEAKER_0 [00:46:46]
please head over to iTunes, search for Life With A Twisted Lemon, and leave that five star review that you have been burning to leave for a long time. If nothing else, just hit the five stars. If you wanna write a little something, let me know who you are, and I will send you stickers because I've got a ton of them. I have a ton of them that I know what I'm gonna do because I gotta get rid of them before I can run another set of stickers. So Yep. Please leave the review. Remember, if it's not five stars, head on over to our Reddit page and you can leave it there.
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:13]
Patrick will tell you how to get there. Yeah. Last but not least, twistoflemonpod.com,
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:18]
twistoflemon on
SPEAKER_0 [00:47:20]
Facebook, Twitter, and all the other social networks that I don't use.
SPEAKER_1 [00:47:24]
Right. Did I get it all? We're only on two. But yeah. Cool. Talk to you later, Sam. See you, John.