Episode Summary
Executive Summary: The episode centers on Apple’s iPhone 7/home button changes, the reliability tradeoffs of new input methods, and a deep dive into Sierra features—especially iCloud Drive, Universal Clipboard, AirDrop, Watch unlock, and Photos portrait mode. The hosts repeatedly weigh convenience against robustness, praising some new capabilities while criticizing Apple’s tendency to ship clever but flaky sync features.
Main Topics: iPhone 7 home button and Force Touch reliability: The hosts debate whether the new home button is an improvement, acknowledging its tactile advantages but objecting to occasional misfires, especially compared with older mechanical buttons and the Mac Force Touch trackpad. Sierra feature review and upgrade hesitation: They discuss MacOS Sierra’s headline features—Siri, Picture-in-Picture, Watch unlock, Messages enhancements, and tabbed apps—while stressing that many are not compelling enough to justify early adoption on main machines. Cloud sync and Apple’s reliability problem: A major criticism is directed at iCloud Drive syncing Documents/Desktop and at wireless features like Handoff, Universal Clipboard, and AirDrop, which are described as useful but frustratingly inconsistent. Taptic Engine and iPhone hardware internals: The show explores how Apple may be using one of the iPhone’s audio chips to drive the Taptic Engine, framing it as a clever repurposing of speaker-like hardware. Camera portrait mode on iPhone 7 Plus: The hosts react to Apple’s faux bokeh/portrait feature, with one side praising its accessibility and the other arguing that it still looks unnatural compared with real optical depth of field. McLaren rumors and Apple’s automotive strategy: They revisit rumors about Apple and McLaren, concluding that partnership makes more sense than acquisition because McLaren’s supercar/F1 identity should remain intact. Backups, RAM issues, and practical system maintenance: Listener reports about OWC RAM faults, iOS 10 backups including passwords, and frustrations with iTunes/iCloud backup workflows are used to argue for reliability and better tooling.
Key Arguments: The new iPhone home button and Force Touch trackpads are better in some ways, but less reliable than mechanical controls, and reliability matters a lot for input devices. Sierra’s best features are quality-of-life improvements like Picture-in-Picture, Messages previews, and Watch unlock, but none are compelling enough to force an immediate upgrade for the hosts. Apple’s cloud sync features often feel like unforced errors: useful in theory, but too buggy or opaque to trust for core user data like Documents and Desktop. Universal Clipboard, Handoff, AirDrop, and similar continuity features are admirable, but years of inconsistent behavior make them hard to rely on. The Taptic Engine appears to be driven using audio-style signaling, which is a clever hardware/software hack. The iPhone 7 Plus portrait mode is impressive for casual social sharing, but it does not replicate true optical depth-of-field and often looks artificial to careful eyes. Apple should partner with McLaren rather than buy it, because McLaren’s identity and expertise in supercars and F1 are valuable on their own. Encrypted backups and improved iCloud restore behavior are desirable because they reduce dependence on flaky iTunes backups and save local SSD space.
Data Points: iCloud/backup rollout: iOS 10 iCloud restores now include passwords - Discussed as an improvement over requiring encrypted iTunes backups OWC RAM issue: 10–15 days - One host’s iMac reportedly stayed up this long before installing Sierra OWC RAM issue follow-up: 8 days - Uptime after installing Sierra on replacement RAM sticks App backup time: 20 minutes - Described as the time wasted on slow iTunes backup attempts Photo library size: 1,897,958 items - Count of items in one host’s Documents folder when discussing iCloud Drive sync risk Tracker network size: 1.5 million devices - Sponsor claim about the size of Tracker’s crowd GPS network Sponsor discount: 30% off - Tracker promo code ATP Sponsor discount: 10% off - Fracture promo code ATP
Pivotal Quotes: "once you get it working, don't touch it. Never touch it again." — Marco: Advice about audio gear and settings stability "we are losing something here by making things that were 100% reliable 99% reliable" — John: Critique of the new home button and Force Touch trackpad "This is a feature without an interface, so there's really no way to debug it." — John: Comment on Universal Clipboard / cloud sync style features
Implications: Listeners are encouraged to be cautious with Sierra’s cloud features and to value reliability over novelty. Apple’s best path forward is improving core system stability and making sync features truly dependable before expanding them further.