Speaker 1: Let's get some tech updates and find out what's going
Speaker 1: on in the world of technology, and our very good
Speaker 1: friend Trevor Long's on the phone, technical guru from EFTM
Speaker 1: dot com. Mate, I've got to tell you, I'm not
Speaker 1: happy what's happened. Well, since Apple updated the phone the
Speaker 1: other day. I mean, I don't know whether or not
Speaker 1: this is in conjunction with them bringing in a new phone.
Speaker 1: And whenever they do this, they try to make everybody's
Speaker 1: phones they've already got obsolete. So what they've done is
Speaker 1: they've taken the function out of my phone where when
Speaker 1: I give the weather and it's say seven degrees it
Speaker 1: used to say, but feels like and I've been able
Speaker 1: to give people really accurate weather forecasts every morning to
Speaker 1: the innth degree, and I could say, well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's seven degrees right now in Sydney, but it feels
Speaker 1: like they've taken that function out of the phone.
Speaker 2: Really, here's the thing. I don't use the Apple Weather app.
Speaker 2: I just used the Bureaus app. Yeah, but you're right.
Speaker 2: As I look at my location, I don't see any fills.
Speaker 1: Like see and you know what, though, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: It's working in Canberra.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh really, yes, maybe they just can't estimate
Speaker 2: how it feels like in Brisbane and Sydney because we're
Speaker 2: so volatile in our temperature. But I have certainly it's
Speaker 2: nothing to do with a new update or anything that
Speaker 2: was our past. No, none of that is yet available
Speaker 2: right to the average punter, or clearly something to do
Speaker 2: with the data that they're getting. You see, I mean
Speaker 2: Apple doesn't do weather. They just buy the data from
Speaker 2: some other company, and so I would suggest that that
Speaker 2: data has changed something, something's aw.
Speaker 1: They're in a little bit of a you know, let's
Speaker 1: get him to get the app thing, you know, a
Speaker 1: little bit of a sort of wouldn't want.
Speaker 2: You to have. They would love you to use the
Speaker 2: weather app and not rely on another app.
Speaker 1: So what you're friends with them?
Speaker 2: I wouldn't go that far, but you know, getting nailing
Speaker 2: them down on a particular tiny feature like that near
Speaker 2: on impossible.
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of things that you want
Speaker 1: to talk about, but let's just quickly go back to
Speaker 1: how you were blindfolded and led through you know, this
Speaker 1: sort of inner sanctum of Apple when they released all
Speaker 1: the information. How secretive was it? Did they take your
Speaker 1: phone away from you, so you couldn't take any photos
Speaker 1: of their new technology. Were you under like, you know,
Speaker 1: sworn to secrecy or anything like that.
Speaker 2: No, they don't take your phone away from you, but
Speaker 2: they're very clear about what you kenna can't do. So
Speaker 2: there's I've been to Apple Park, they're headquarters many many
Speaker 2: times over the last kind of ten years, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's not changed much, but there's a brand new building
Speaker 2: little not a building, it's actually underground and it's come
Speaker 2: peeks out of a hill and it's this beautiful, beautiful
Speaker 2: building or area they call the Observatory. And I've been
Speaker 2: there a couple of times, but this time they were like,
Speaker 2: you can take photos here right here. They put a
Speaker 2: sculpture in this one location, but I couldn't take photos
Speaker 2: anywhere else. They're very kind of protective of some of
Speaker 2: those things. But the real I guess protective nature of
Speaker 2: Apple is unlike other companies, they don't tell us in events, right,
Speaker 2: so a little kind of inside baseball. But when I
Speaker 2: go to let's say, a Samsung event, So there'll be
Speaker 2: a Samsung event in July, I'll normally have had a
Speaker 2: bit of a briefing about what's coming up. I might
Speaker 2: even gotten to see, touch, feel and use the product
Speaker 2: and take photos and make videos about it before it's
Speaker 2: even announced under strict non disclosure agreement based on a
Speaker 2: certain data and time. But with Apple, it is one
Speaker 2: hundred percent blindfolders in terms of you know, the information
Speaker 2: that we have, we turn up and we wait, we watch.
Speaker 2: If you're online watching an Apple event, you're learning at
Speaker 2: the same time I'm learning what's going on.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I want to hear, because I want
Speaker 1: to believe that they've got their building underground, dug out
Speaker 1: the side of a mountain, inner bunker, and we all
Speaker 1: want to believe that that's the case because of the
Speaker 1: secrecy of everything that.
Speaker 2: Can most and Dale will love this, but the most remarked,
Speaker 2: I mean, Apple Park is so big. So it's a
Speaker 2: it's a ring. Actually actual building is called the ring
Speaker 2: because it looks like a big spaceship, right, So it's
Speaker 2: a big ring. Park lands on the outside, parklands on
Speaker 2: the inside the inside of this ring. So just to
Speaker 2: give you scale and perspective of the size of this building,
Speaker 2: on the inside of this ring, you could place the mcg. Wow,
Speaker 2: it's an enormous building, right, So just imagine a four
Speaker 2: story large building built around the mcg as a ring,
Speaker 2: and then there's just acres and acres of parkland. The
Speaker 2: Steve Jobs Theater, obviously named after the founder, is built underground,
Speaker 2: and there's just a small beautiful glass building that peaks
Speaker 2: kind of above the ground that you enter through. But this,
Speaker 2: I mean, this is this is the place where they
Speaker 2: have their events, whether we are seated to hear keynotes,
Speaker 2: speeches and things. And I had to leave San Francisco
Speaker 2: on Tuesday nights to fly home. I missed the opportunity
Speaker 2: to see the screening of the Formula one movie which
Speaker 2: Pail in the Steve Jobs Theater. It would have probably
Speaker 2: been the highlight of my life. But as a Formula
Speaker 2: one fan and someone who has the rare access to
Speaker 2: that facility, I was pretty disappointed. But the Steve Jobs
Speaker 2: Theater is probably the ultimate movie theater in the world,
Speaker 2: and underground fifteen hundred or two thousand seat theater built
Speaker 2: by Apple.
Speaker 1: Fact, that is exactly what we want to believe the
Speaker 1: Apple headquarters would look like. So you know, we've vicariously
Speaker 1: enjoyed the whole Gotham City experience through you, so Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for that. All right, let's talk about
Speaker 1: family and friends tracking app Life three sixty and how
Speaker 1: it integrates with things you know, like this is me
Speaker 1: trying to explain things like a labrador trying to explain,
Speaker 1: you know, a brief history of time. So you take
Speaker 1: it over from here.
Speaker 2: This is the This is the idea of two tracking
Speaker 2: apps coming together. So for many years, we've had a
Speaker 2: thing called Tile, which is a little tracking device you
Speaker 2: can put on your car keys, you might put one
Speaker 2: in your backpack so you never lose these items and
Speaker 2: basically works via blue tooth so the things around you
Speaker 2: can find it. There's another app completely separate called Life
Speaker 2: three sixty, and it works on your smartphone. Now. For example,
Speaker 2: my kids have had this on their smartphones for five
Speaker 2: to seven years, ever since they've had smartphones. And it
Speaker 2: basically means that if I'm seeing it home, I can
Speaker 2: look at the app and go, well, the kids are
Speaker 2: at school, sport, or they're walking home, or I can
Speaker 2: see where they are. And it gives parents in this
Speaker 2: modern age, peace of mind. There's a lot of people
Speaker 2: listening to be going why do you need to track
Speaker 2: your kids? But actually, in the modern age. It's a
Speaker 2: fantastic piece of mind to know that your kids are
Speaker 2: moving from A to B or they have gotten to
Speaker 2: their destination. They said, so well, Life three sixty acquired
Speaker 2: Tile and so now they're one one company and one app.
Speaker 2: So you've now have one app that not only you
Speaker 2: can see where your families, but you can see where
Speaker 2: your things are. So it's basically one app that rules
Speaker 2: them all and it's finally fully integrated. It works really
Speaker 2: really well. So if you're someone who has grandkids or
Speaker 2: kids and you're using Life three sixty, you should now
Speaker 2: know that you can also include your backpack, your keys
Speaker 2: and things like that in the same app, so that
Speaker 2: you've got one app to find all your things.
Speaker 1: Brilliant. Now that's really good and really good for the
Speaker 1: family to just quickly. You know the Apple air.
Speaker 2: Tag, Yeah, give a concept, Yes, how.
Speaker 1: Do you change the bloody battery in that thing?
Speaker 2: So it's two sided, it's white and silver. Yeah, silver side.
Speaker 2: You push in, so holding it maybe in the palm
Speaker 2: of your hand with the white side down, you push
Speaker 2: in on the silver side and then then twist it
Speaker 2: andy clockwise. The silver will pop off and there's a
Speaker 2: cr two three two little button battery in there that
Speaker 2: you simply replace and then when you put it back
Speaker 2: in put the silver on, it'll beep and you twist
Speaker 2: it and it's ready to go again for another year
Speaker 2: or so.
Speaker 1: You don't know how many people you've helped out with that,
Speaker 1: because all of the people like me that have got
Speaker 1: been given it will be having that thing going beat
Speaker 1: beat people all the time. It doesn't beat it.
Speaker 2: Look, it's made to be. It's made to be hard
Speaker 2: to open, not ye right, other kids, So the kids
Speaker 2: can't open it with ease and get the button battery
Speaker 2: out and eat them because that's a challenge. We don't
Speaker 2: want young kids consuming button batteries. It has cost them
Speaker 2: lives and injuries. So yeah, it's very strict regulations around
Speaker 2: button batteries. But so that's why it is somewhat difficult.
Speaker 2: But I think pretty easy to open.
Speaker 1: Well, if you know how, I've had this thing and
Speaker 1: it just keeps going back like that and I just
Speaker 1: kept looking at going surely there must be a way
Speaker 1: to get into it. Now I know thanks to you.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Apple's AI strategy getting a bit of
Speaker 1: the criticism.
Speaker 2: Why is that, Well, look, they cop the off that
Speaker 2: because a year ago they announced that theory their voice
Speaker 2: assistant would be ever so smarter, she or he would
Speaker 2: be able to understand more about you through a level
Speaker 2: of intelligence based on what you do on your phone.
Speaker 2: So it could know that you know your mother is
Speaker 2: this person based on your contact, that you've got a
Speaker 2: flight for your mother in your diary, and that if
Speaker 2: you asked at what times my mum landing, it would
Speaker 2: simply know these things. So a real level of intelligence
Speaker 2: to the next level that never launched. And so they
Speaker 2: got a lot of criss criticism over the last few
Speaker 2: months kind of what's going on here, how have they've
Speaker 2: fallen behind? And they actually kind of hit this front
Speaker 2: on at the event. They've kind of made it very
Speaker 2: clear that it didn't meet their expectations. I was given
Speaker 2: the opportunity to sit down with one of their senior executives,
Speaker 2: Greg Joswiak, who is a lovely bloke, but you know,
Speaker 2: essentially he said this, we thought we'd chip it, and
Speaker 2: we made a tough call. It didn't meet our expectations.
Speaker 2: It was kind of fascinating to hear them talk about
Speaker 2: this in such a way that they have a threshold
Speaker 2: they have a bar for which products and services much
Speaker 2: must meet. And what I think people are misunderstanding is
Speaker 2: they think of AI as being you know, Chat GPT
Speaker 2: versus kind of Google, whereas Apple's not in that race.
Speaker 2: Apple's not trying to create a chat GBT competitor. In fact,
Speaker 2: they partnered with chat GBT. So what they're doing is
Speaker 2: building AI across the device in ways that are useful
Speaker 2: to you and little kind of things across the phone.
Speaker 2: So it is it's a fascinating thing that they kind
Speaker 2: of mea coulpra and took the flat for not launching
Speaker 2: something they said they would, but they also kind of
Speaker 2: drew a line in the sand and said, look, this
Speaker 2: is this is how we see AI. We want AI
Speaker 2: to be useful to people, and they think they've delivered
Speaker 2: a lot of those features already.
Speaker 1: But listen, I want to get you to hang on
Speaker 1: because there's something else really important that we've got to
Speaker 1: talk about as well. Can you hang on for a sec? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: all right, something very important to do with it Telstra
Speaker 1: Satellite SMS after this, just getting back to Trevor. Now
Speaker 1: we know Trevor, let's quickly talk about this because I've
Speaker 1: got the news coming out Telstra's satellite SMS service now
Speaker 1: working in the Bush more than a million texts of
Speaker 1: Incent hallelujah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't muck around either. It launched on Sansung
Speaker 2: Galaxy S twenty five. A couple of weeks. Sgo's now
Speaker 2: available on Apple iPhone. So if you've got an iPhone
Speaker 2: thirteen or later and you're a Telstra customer on an account,
Speaker 2: not on a prepaid when you're in the middle of nowhere,
Speaker 2: your phone will be able to send and receive SMS messages.
Speaker 2: In just I think less than ten days, they had
Speaker 2: a million SMS messages sent via their network. So who's
Speaker 2: the game changer for the bush. It means that you
Speaker 2: have some level of communication, whether it's an emergency or
Speaker 2: just to contact your mates and family. And yeah, now
Speaker 2: on iPhone and Samsung phone. So that's that's a huge
Speaker 2: advance from Telstra.
Speaker 1: Does that mean also that the phone quality is going
Speaker 1: to be better, that they're going to have better covering
Speaker 1: or right.
Speaker 2: Nothing to do with phones? Yeah, okay, yeah, great leap
Speaker 2: forward in SMS ing, but nothing to do with phone
Speaker 2: calls unfortunately at this point.
Speaker 1: Well it's a start, right.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. Let's just take the little wins when
Speaker 2: we can.
Speaker 1: I think, thank you for sharing that information that you
Speaker 1: weren't supposed to share with us about the Apple headquarters.
Speaker 2: It's fine, they're not listening so well.
Speaker 1: We're never going to be allowed back in there again.
Speaker 1: But no, I really appreciate that. If people want to
Speaker 1: find out everything they need to know about technology, you're
Speaker 1: the man. But what's the website?
Speaker 2: E FtM dot com.
Speaker 1: Mate, good to tell it to you, Trevor. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Have a terrific day that you, Trevor. Long
Speaker 1: there our technology gurup