The Talk Show With John Gruber

Glenn Fleishman returns to the show. Topics include indoor plumbing, a spoiler-free discussion about HBO’s excellent “Westworld”, our favorite beverages, Apple’s AirPods launch debacle, Apple TV single sign-on, and more. Sponsored by: Mailchimp: MailChimp: send better email, sell more stuff. Fracture: Your photos, printed directly on glass. MailRoute: Hosted spam and virus protection for email. Use this link for 10% off for the life of your account. Links: HBO’s post-Westworld Easter Egg laden site for Delos Inc.. Ask Siri about “Westworld”. “A History of the World in Six Glasses”, by Tom Standage. Interesting New York Times story from January on Donald Trump’s brother Freddy, who drank himself to death in 1981. Glenn’s review of NewerTech’s $49 NuPower 60-Watt dual USB-A/USB-C charger — a single charger that can charge both a MacBook and iPhone at the same time. Tim Cook purportedly emails customer saying AirPods should ship over the “next few weeks”. Yours truly on what’s going on with the AirPods delay: unexpected manufacturing problems. Thoroughly Considered: the Studio Neat podcast. John Paczkowski summarizing the inauspicious partner list at the launch of Apple’s single sign-on service for TV content. Farhad Manjoo explains why he thinks gadgets are dying as a category: smartphones, probably. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Joanna Stern returns to the show to talk about the new MacBook Pros (and their keyboards), stockpiling old MacBook Airs, dongles, Touch ID, SnapChat Spectacles, and more. Sponsored by: Eero: Finally, Wi-Fi, that works. Use code thetalkshow for free expedited shipping. Audible.com: With Audible, you’ll find what you’re looking for. Get a free 30-day trial. Fracture: Your photos, printed directly on glass. Buy now to get them in time for the holidays. Links: Joanna’s review of the new MacBook Pros. My review. Joanna and Walt Mossberg talking crazy about stockpiling MacBook Airs. Joanna’s guide to the adapters and dongles — lots and lots of dongles — you might need for a new MacBook Pro. Joanna’s review of SnapChat Spectacles Mark Gurman’s reports on Apple getting out of the AirPort base station market and Amazon making a new Echo with a built-in 7-inch display for the kitchen. Adam Geitgey: “The New MacBook Pro Is Kind of Great for Hackers”. Monoprice. Griffin’s Breaksafe, a dongle-plus-nubbin replacement for MagSafe on USB-C equipped MacBooks. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Jason Snell returns to the show to talk about the new MacBook Pros and the Touch Bar, and Apple’s new book chronicling the last 20 years of their industrial design, Designed by Apple in California. Sponsored by: Backblaze: Online backup for $5/month. Native. Unlimited. Unthrottled. Uncomplicated. Harry’s: An exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. Use code talkshow for $5 off your first purchase. Casper: An obsessively engineered mattress at a shockingly fair price. Use code thetalkshow for $50 toward your mattress. Links: Jason’s review of the new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar. My review of the same. The Glif iPhone tripod mount. BBEdit. PCalc. James Thompson’s Easter egg idea for PCalc’s Touch Bar support. Jeffrey Friedl’s Mastering Regular Expressions, the greatest book that ever was or will be written on regular expressions. Sal Soghoian’s automation site for AppleScript, Automator, and more. My Title Case Script. Control Strip from classic Mac OS. Bartender utility for today’s MacOS. Horace Dediu: “Wherefore art thou Macintosh?” Yours truly on Microsoft and the word “compromise” back in 2013. Iconic, Jonathan Zufi’s excellent 2013 book on Apple’s design work. Designed by Apple in California. Taschen, coffee table book publisher extraordinaire. Jony Ive’s interview with Wallpaper on Designed by Apple in California. “I said, ‘Get it away!’ and I shipped all that shit off to Stanford.” This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Merlin Mann returns to the show to discuss the election, by which I mean we mostly talk *around* the election. I hope we never do another show again with such heavy hearts, but whatever you think about this election, I think you'll like this show. Sponsored by: * [Squarespace](http://squarespace.com/gruber): Build it beautiful. Use code __talkshow__ for 10 percent off your first order. * [Automatic](http://automatic.com/talkshow): Your smart driving assistant. Get $20 off with this link. * [Circle](http://meetcircle.com/): Disney's new way for families to manage content and time across devices. Use code __thetalkshow__ to get free shipping and $10 off. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by [Caleb Sexton](https://twitter.com/calebsexton).

Special guest John Moltz returns to the show. Topics include what we expect from this week’s Apple Event for new Mac hardware, and my impressions of the Google Pixel phone after a week using one. This week’s show introduces labeled chapter marks for subject matter. If you use a podcast player that supports them, such as Overcast, let me know what you think. Sponsored by: Casper: An obsessively engineered mattress at a shockingly fair price. Use code thetalkshow for $50 toward your mattress. Audible.com: With Audible, you’ll find what you’re looking for. Get a free 30-day trial. MailChimp: MailChimp: send better email, sell more stuff. Links: Ars Technica on the Mirai botnet that uses insecure Internet of Things devices. Brian Krebs on the Internet of Things botnet. Images of the new MacBook Pro Magic Toolbar that leaked from Apple itself as resources in MacOS 10.12.1. Darth on the Magic Toolbar and Esc-less hardware keyboard. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Ben Thompson returns to the show. Topics include voice control with AirPods, how to get your entire music library onto an iPhone while using iCloud Music Library, Apple Watch durability, the Dash/App Store controversy, the disappointing and frustrating state of Siri and voice-driven AI assistants, Google's new Pixel phones and the strategy behind them, Snap's (née Snapchat) Spectacles (and why they're nothing like Google's ill-fated Glass), and more. Sponsored by: Backblaze: Online backup for $5/month. Native. Unlimited. Unthrottled. Uncomplicated. Harry's: An exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. Use code talkshow and get a free bottle of Harry’s post shave balm. Away: First-class luggage at a coach price, including built-in USB chargers. Links: How to download your entire music library to a device using iCloud Music Library. 1991 TidBITS story on NowMenus, a classic Mac OS utility. BetterSnapTool, a Mac window management utility Ben uses. Clipboard history managers for Mac: Copy’em Paste LaunchBar Pastebot Keyboard Maestro Draft: web app that’s Ben’s preferred writing tool. Fluid: longstanding utility that let’s you turn any website into a standalone Mac app. Me on Twitter, posting a photo of my wife’s Apple Watch that fell apart coming off the charger. And then cracking wise. Me on the the Dash/App Store controversy. Dash developer Bogdan Popescu’s “full story”, in a statement to iMore. The circumstances that led Apple to link to the two developer accounts. Phil Stokes on Dropbox’s abuse of admin privileges and Accessibility permissions on MacOS: part 1 and part 2. John Hempton of Bronte Capital on Twitter: “Some Comment on the Twitter Buyout Rumors” “Measuring How Bad Twitter Is” Walt Mossberg: “Why Does Siri Seem So Dumb?” Ben Thompson: “Chat and the Consumerization of It”. Charlie Warzel, writing for BuzzFeed last year — “Apple’s Junk Drawer Problem” — under the premise that most people replace Apple’s apps on the iPhone with Google’s. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Matthew Panzarino returns to the show. Topics include Google’s “Made by Google” hardware announcements (the Pixel phones, Google Wi-Fi routers, their Amazon Echo competitor Google Home), mobile photography, Samsung’s acquisition of Viv, and more. Sponsored by: Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Igloo: An intranet you’ll actually like. Try Igloo for free. Eero: Finally, Wi-Fi, that works. Use code thetalkshow for free overnight shipping. Links: TechCrunch: “Samsung Acquires Viv, a Next-Gen AI Assistant Built by Creators of Apple’s Siri”. Replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone catches fire on Southwest plane. Video of Google’s “Made by Google” event. Pixel phone specs. The DxO One camera peripheral for iPhone. Matthew’s 2012 “Hardware + Software Epiphany” tweet. The Here One in-ear “wireless listening system”. Steve Jobs meets ESPN president George Bodenheimer. Classic story. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Serenity Caldwell returns to the show to discuss Apple’s new stuff: the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Apple Watch Series 2 (and the semi-new Series 1), iOS 10, MacOS Sierra, and more. Sponsored by: Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Great gift idea. Backblaze: Online backup for $5/month. Native. Unlimited. Unthrottled. Uncomplicated. Automatic: Your smart driving assistant. The best dingus you’ll ever buy for your car. Save $20 with this link. Links: Mat Honan story of getting hacked back in 2012. The pain-in-the-ass, don’t-do-it-in-the-wrong-order process of backing up and restoring an Apple Watch. iMore: “What You Need to Know About Backing Up Your Apple Watch”. Sena cases for iPhone 7. (Serenity mentioned using one.) “Who needs a slider?” Example video from Serenity showing how slo-mo video from iPhone 7 can create a smooth tracking product hero shot. More slo-mo on iPhone 7. Austin Mann’s stunning iPhone 7 camera review in Rwanda. Great use of iPhone 7 Plus’s Portrait mode for product photography, by Ayaka Nonaka. This is the “pair of boots” photo. My Flickr album of iPhone 7 Plus Portrait mode comparison shots, including this one of a whisky bottle mentioned during the show. Serenity’s camera test between iPhone 7 Plus Portrait mode and a Canon DSLR. Serenity’s just-released review of Apple Watch Series 2, including a terrific video shot entirely with iPhone 7. Noise: iOS piano keyboard app with 3D Touch haptic feedback. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Jim Dalrymple returns to the show, to discuss last week’s Apple event in San Francisco, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Apple Watch Series 2, and more. Sponsored by: Capto: Global Delight’s screen capture and video-editing app for Mac. 15-day free trial and save 25 percent with code FIREBALL. Casper: An obsessively engineered mattress at a shockingly fair price. Use code THETALKSHOW for $50 toward your mattress. Audible.com: With Audible, you’ll find what you’re looking for. Get a free 30-day trial. Links: The 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders and Johnson & Johnson’s handling thereof. Jony Ive says “aluminium”. My Periscope broadcast from the hands-on area at the event. Lots of special guest stars. This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Rene Ritchie returns to the show to discuss what we expect to see at Apple’s upcoming event in San Francisco: new iPhones (without headphone jacks, and with a radical new two-lens camera on the Plus-sized model), Apple Watch 2 (and a new fall lineup of watch bands). We also discuss Samsung’s recall of the Galaxy Note 7 (because of exploding batteries), when we’ll see new Mac hardware and new iPads, and more. Sponsored by: Backblaze: Online backup for $5/month. Native. Unlimited. Unthrottled. Uncomplicated. Igloo: An intranet you’ll actually like. Try Igloo for free. Automatic: Your smart driving assistant. Get $20 off with this link. Links: Apple’s event invitation, suggesting depth-of-field camera effects. Rene Ritchie: “How Apple Does Camera”. Ming-Chi Kuo on what he expects from the iPhone 7 based on supply-chain sources. Tim Cook’s possibly intriguing slip of the tongue regarding Apple Pencil working with iPhones. Jason Snell on new Mac hardware: “If Not September 7, Then When?” This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.