Episode Summary
Executive Summary: The episode centers on Apple’s butterfly keyboard reliability problems, the future of Thunderbolt 3/USB-C, and possible WWDC announcements including a Siri-enabled home speaker and SiriKit expansion. The hosts also discuss Google Photos’ family-sharing shortcomings, the poor Mac Photos app experience, Google’s Kotlin endorsement, and Apple’s new diversity leadership role.
Main Topics: Apple butterfly keyboard reliability: The hosts argue that the 2016 MacBook Pro keyboard has a serious design flaw: keys sticking, repeating, or failing, possibly worsened by heat. They distinguish feel from reliability, calling the latter unacceptable and likely widespread enough to force Apple into a redesign or ongoing repairs. Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, and Intel’s strategy: Discussion focused on Intel adding Thunderbolt to CPUs and licensing it for free, removing barriers to adoption and potentially making AMD compatibility easier. The hosts compare Thunderbolt’s prospects to FireWire’s decline and debate whether USB-C will become ubiquitous or remain niche. Rumored Siri home speaker and SiriKit limits: They speculate on an Apple speaker with a screen, likely unveiled at WWDC, but remain skeptical because Apple’s voice assistant and smart-home ecosystem may not be reliable or broad enough. They highlight potential for audio-app integration, but note SiriKit’s current limitations. Google Photos vs Apple Photos for family libraries: A long discussion explored how families manage photo libraries across multiple Apple IDs. They praise Google Photos’ sharing ideas but criticize both Google and Apple for failing to provide a true shared family library with synced edits, metadata, and less duplication. Mac Photos app usability: The hosts sharply criticize Photos on macOS for lag, deep modal layering, poor navigation, and weak editing ergonomics. They want faster performance, better search/face recognition, and more direct controls, especially for large libraries. Google I/O and Kotlin endorsement: Google’s embrace of Kotlin is treated as a strong positive for Android development. The hosts note its Swift-like syntax and better modern language features, while questioning long-term implications for server-side language ecosystems. Apple inclusion and diversity leadership: They view Apple’s creation of a vice president of inclusion and diversity as a positive, substantive move if it leads to real organizational change rather than symbolic PR. They cite Apple’s environmental leadership as precedent for meaningful role-based influence.
Key Arguments: The butterfly keyboard’s biggest problem is reliability, not feel; an unreliable laptop keyboard is a basic design failure, not an acceptable trade-off. Apple may be able to fix affected keyboards by swapping in revised parts, but owners fear this could require repeated repairs across the entire generation. Intel’s free Thunderbolt licensing and CPU integration remove some obstacles to broader Thunderbolt adoption and weaken the argument that Apple must stay with Intel purely for Thunderbolt. USB-C looks promising as a universal connector, but the peripheral ecosystem is still immature and consumer adoption remains uneven. A true family photo library is still missing from both Apple and Google ecosystems; current sharing workflows force duplication, manual exports, and loss of edits/metadata. The Mac Photos app is functionally and performance-wise inferior to what users need for large libraries and repetitive photo work. A Siri home speaker may wow audiences in demos, but it depends on Apple solving assistant reliability, privacy, smart-home compatibility, and content integration. Google’s Kotlin move should make Android development more pleasant and modern, especially compared with older Java patterns.
Data Points: Keyboard angle in Apple support article: 75 degrees - Apple’s KB article instructing how to clean MacBook keyboards with compressed air Keyboard cleaning motion: Left-to-right - Apple’s support instructions for cleaning the MacBook keyboard MacBook Retina models covered: 12-inch 2015 and later - Apple support article title referenced in the discussion Apple diversity role: Vice president level - Denise Young Smith was named VP of inclusion and diversity Conference lunch example: No Odwalla - A box lunch report from a San Jose conference raised concern about WWDC catering Google Photos uploader issue: 10, 35, 50, 100 failed files (varied counts) - Users described repeated upload failures in the Google Photos Mac uploader Photo library size: 80,000-100,000 photos - One host described the size of his personal photo library Family sharing: 2 adults plus children - Discussion of Apple’s family sharing model and the need for shared photo libraries
Pivotal Quotes: "I think we can probably all agree that an unreliable keyboard in a laptop, especially such a young laptop, is really worrying." — Marco: Critique of the 2016 MacBook Pro butterfly keyboard reliability problems "This is not a keyboard to be worked on by an expert. It's a keyboard to be worked on by a trained expert with a spare parts stash." — Michael M (read on-air): Email describing how fragile the keycaps and butterfly mechanism are "The photos app feels like walking through waist-deep molasses." — Casey: Complaint about sluggish performance and awkward workflow in Apple Photos
Implications: Listeners should expect more scrutiny of Apple hardware reliability, especially keyboards, and of Apple’s ability to execute on Siri and photo-sharing features. The episode suggests incremental progress in ecosystems (Thunderbolt, Kotlin, photo sharing) but persistent gaps in Apple’s software UX and smart assistant strategy.