Episode Summary
Executive Summary: The episode mixes humorous follow-up with substantive product analysis: Apple Photos’ confusing hard-link behavior, sync and backup risks, Apple Watch comfort and usability, and repairability. The hosts also examine Microsoft’s Build announcements—Visual Studio Code and iOS/Android app compatibility tooling—praising the hustle while questioning long-term platform strategy.
Main Topics: Apple Photos: hard links, performance, and backup concerns: The hosts clarify that Photos reuses iPhoto originals via hard links, which makes disk usage appear duplicated even when the underlying bytes are shared. They also discuss slow operations, sync behavior, and the difficulty of restoring a library safely from backup without cloud-state conflicts. Apple Watch ergonomics and daily usability: Marco reports positive day-to-day experience with the Watch, including band comparisons, notification tap strength, wrist detection issues, and how the device changes time-checking habits. The discussion also covers watch-face choices and keeping complications minimal. Apple Watch repairability and upgradability doubts: A teardown of the Apple Watch leads to skepticism about upgrading internals, especially for the high-end Edition model. The design appears densely packed, glued, and not intended for easy internal swaps or consumer repair. Microsoft Build: Visual Studio Code and cross-platform strategy: Microsoft’s cross-platform editor, Visual Studio Code, is praised as a strong, modern tool with good IntelliSense, Markdown preview, Git integration, and rapid support from Microsoft engineers. The hosts discuss Microsoft’s use of Electron and other companies’ technology to move quickly. Microsoft’s Android/iOS app compatibility efforts: Project Astoria and Islandwood are debated as ways to bring Android and iOS apps into the Windows ecosystem. The hosts question technical details, legal dependence on reverse-engineered APIs, and whether this solves the deeper problem of Windows Phone’s weak market share. Programming empathy and efficiency: A recurring theme is the idea of having 'empathy for the computer'—writing code with awareness of cost, repeated work, and performance implications. The discussion connects this to loop hoisting, compiler/runtime behavior, SQLite scaling, and general software design judgment.
Key Arguments: Apple Photos uses hard links, so two libraries can each report large sizes while sharing the same underlying photo data; apparent duplication is not the same as actual duplication. Photos’ background processing, including import, face recognition, and cloud sync, can continue long after the UI seems idle, so performance should be judged only after the system fully settles. Using iCloud sync is not a true backup strategy because sync propagates both good and bad states; recovery requires explicit reset/delete controls and careful library restoration. The Apple Watch is comfortable and useful when worn slightly looser, but looser wear can reduce taptic reliability; a simple watch face with few complications is preferable. Apple Watch hardware seems built as a sealed, highly integrated unit, making internal upgradability or DIY repair unlikely and probably undesirable. Visual Studio Code is a notable Microsoft shift: it is free, cross-platform, and pragmatic, leveraging Electron and other existing technologies rather than insisting on a proprietary stack. Microsoft’s app-compatibility projects may help with app count, but they don’t fix the underlying ecosystem problem: too few users and too little market incentive for developers. Performance and usability concerns in Photos may stem from large database operations and implementation choices, not merely from user perception or old hardware.
Data Points: Apple Watch wear time: 14 hours - Marco says he wore the watch for 14 hours that day and saw no wrist mark from the sensor dome. Photos import state: 25,000 photos - Marco references importing a library of roughly 25,000 photos into Photos/iCloud. Shared album limit: 5,000 photos - A listener reports shared albums cap out at 5,000 photos, making them unsuitable for whole-library sharing. Small-library performance report: 7,800 photos - A user reports keywording is still slow on a 2012 MacBook Air with only 7,800 photos. Watch taptic strength success rate: ~75% - Marco estimates wrist detection works about three-quarters of the time. Apple Watch screen timing: split second / very short display window - He says the screen often turns on briefly and then turns off too quickly when wrist detection misfires. Backblaze price: $5 per month per computer - Sponsor offer for unlimited online backup. Casper mattress price range: $500 twin to $950 king - Sponsor pricing cited for Casper mattresses. Casper trial period: 100 days - Customers can try the mattress for 100 nights and return it on the 100th day. Harry's starter kit: $15 - Sponsor starter set includes a handle, three blades, and shaving cream/gel. Harry's coupon: $5 off - Promo code ATP provides a discount on first purchase. Battery / sync timing in Photos: 30 days - Apple’s cloud-photo deletion workflow gives users 30 days to download content after disabling iCloud Photo Library. Backblaze scale: 150+ petabytes backed up - Sponsor mention of Backblaze’s total stored data. Backblaze restores: 10+ billion files - Sponsor claim about total files restored by customers.
Pivotal Quotes: "Empathy for the computer" — John: Used to argue that programmers should think about machine cost and avoid needless repeated work. "It is very slow for per-photo operations on a maxed-out iMac 5K" — Listener report relayed by Marco: Used as evidence that Photos feels sluggish even on high-end hardware. "You can’t even manually do it" — John: Referring to the 5,000-photo shared album limit as a blocker for using shared albums as a whole-library solution.
Implications: Listeners should treat Photos sync as convenience, not backup; Apple Watch remains promising but imperfect; and Microsoft’s new cross-platform tools are impressive, though their long-term strategic payoff is uncertain.