The Talk Show With John Gruber

By Daring Fireball / John GruberTechnology

The Talk Show With John Gruber episodes

April 30, 2015117: ‘I Touched Ron Johnson’ With Guest John Moltz
John Moltz returns to the show. Topics include Gruber’s retina, Apple Watch backorders and the watch itself, news from Microsoft’s Build conference, how to introduce yourself to people you’ve publicly branded a “jackass”, and more.
Sponsored by:
Audible.com: Sign up today for a free audiobook of your choice and a 30-day membership trial.
Automatic: Cool connected-car adapter (a.k.a. “dingus”). Save $20 with this link.
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Casper: Premium mattresses at extraordinary prices. Save $50 through this link.
Links:
Sony makes $20 per iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 from image sensors.
Sony loses money on its own phone handsets.
Ben Bajarin on Xiaomi slump in phone sales in China. (And Apple’s rise.)
Microsoft’s impressive HoloLens demo at Build this week.
Windows 10 to Run Recompiled Android and iOS Apps.
VentureBeat and Recode both fall for iSuppli’s claim that Apple Watch Sport costs only $83 to manufacture.
Tim Cook, earlier this week, on these speculative cost breakdowns: “I’ve never seen one that is anywhere close to being accurate.”
Mike Rundle argues Apple Watch is too small.
Dr. Drang visualizes declining iPad sales.
Local Edition, bar in downtown Frisco.
Very Nice Website.
The Pentax K1000. Gorgeous.
2 hr 33 min
April 15, 2015116: ‘Browser Pooped on the Wee-Wee Pad’ With Guest Joanna Stern
Special guest Joanna Stern of The Wall Street Journal joins the show to talk about Apple Watch and the new MacBook (and her reviews thereof).
Sponsored by:
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Squarespace: A better web starts with your website. Use promo code “jg” for 10 percent off.
Harry's: An exceptional shave for a fraction of the price. Use coupon code “talkshow” and save $5 on your first order.
Backblaze: Unlimited, unthrottled, uncomplicated backup for just $5/month.
Links:
Joanna’s Apple Watch review and video.
Joanna’s review of the new MacBook.
Apple’s battery life page for Apple Watch, which states that the 42 mm models get longer battery life.
Browser.
2 hr 35 min
April 03, 2015115: ‘Turd on the Front Porch’ With Guest Ben Thompson
Special guest Ben Thompson returns, with the intention of not talking about Apple Watch — and so of course we spend two hours talking about Apple Watch. Other topics include the launch of Jay Z’s streaming music service Tidal, audience ceilings faced by different types of dedicated TV devices, and Meerkat-vs.-Periscope and the nascent revolution of ubiquitous live-streaming video. We make some NCAA men’s basketball Final Four picks, too.
Sponsored by:
Dash: Create your own beautiful, fully-customizable dashboards on the web.
Igloo: The intranet you’ll actually like.
Casper: Premium mattresses at great prices, with a no-questions-asked refund policy.
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Links:
Ben’s website: Stratechery.
David Pierce, writing for Wired: “iPhone Killer: The Secret History of the Apple Watch”.
Daring Fireball, back in 2013: “Exhibit A in the Case That Newly-Hired Apple Vp of Technology Kevin Lynch Is a Bozo, a Bad Hire”.
Kevin Lynch’s personal website.
Billboard: “Jay Z on Competing With Jimmy Iovine: ‘I Don’t Have To Lose…For You Guys To Win’”.
Steve Jobs unveils Apple’s “Digital Hub” strategy at Macworld Expo in January 2001.
Panic: “The True Story of Audion”.
Yahoo Finance: “YouTube’s Highest-Paid Star Is a Woman Who Unboxes Disney Toys”.
Recode: “Apple Asks TV Programmers to Supply Their Own Streams for Apple’s TV Service”.
2 hr 35 min
March 20, 2015114: ‘All of Us Assholes in Journalism’ With Guest Serenity Caldwell
Special guest Serenity Caldwell joins the show. Topics include last week’s “Spring Forward” Apple media event; the new Force Touch Trackpad for MacBooks, and the prospects for force touch in future iOS devices; and of course, Apple Watch.
Sponsored by:
Foremost Edition: Small-batch, American-made clothing line for men and women. Use the code “PROMOCODE” at checkout to receive 20 percent off.
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Harry’s: An exceptional shave for a fraction of the price. Use coupon code “talkshow” and save $5 on your first order.
Squarespace: A better web starts with your website. Use promo code “jg” for 10 percent off.
Links:
Jacqui Cheng’s review of the original 2008 MacBook Air for Ars Technica.
Christopher Phin fondly remembers the PowerBook Duo.
Greg Koenig: “How the Apple Watch Is Made”.
Luma Loop — high quality, well-designed camera strap.
Serenity’s MacBook Air accident this week.
The Atari 400 and its craptacular keyboard.
2 hr 20 min
March 12, 2015113: ‘A Tube of Lubricant for Your Life’ With Guest Matthew Panzarino
Special guest Matthew Panzarino joins the show. After some brief chitchat on Meerkat and monocular vision, we get into the obvious topic this week: Apple’s “Spring Forward” media event in San Francisco. Sub-topics therein: ResearchKit; FaceTime and open standards; accessibility and Tim Cook’s refusal to measure the ROI of such things; Jeff Williams’s first on-stage appearance at an Apple keynote; Angela Ahrendts; the new single-port MacBook; San Francisco as the new keycap font on the MacBook keyboard; the Taptic trackpad; the timing of this event; and more.
Oh, and something called “Apple Watch”.
Sponsored by:
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Igloo: The intranet you’ll actually like. Sign up for a free trial.
Harry’s: An exceptional shave for a fraction of the price. Use coupon code “talkshow” and save $5 on your first order.
Squarespace: A better web starts with your website. Use promo code “jg” for 10% off.
Links:
Meerkat.
Video for Apple's "Spring Forward" event.
Matthew's scoop on the Apple Watch diagnostic port.
Matthew on Apple Watch: 'The Apple Watch Is Time Saved'.
Yours truly's pretty good guesses on Apple Watch pricing.
2 hr 58 min
March 04, 2015112: ‘Retina Quality’ With Guest Paul Kafasis
Special guest Paul Kafasis returns to the show. Topics include the new Pebble Time watch, the imminent arrival of Apple Watch, Paul’s clever new doorbell (and unfortunate refrigerator situation), a little bit of baseball, and why I can’t attend next week’s Apple event in San Francisco.
Sponsored by:
Warby Parker: Boutique-quality, classically crafted eyewear at a revolutionary price point.
Casper: Great mattresses at low prices. Use code “thetalkshow” and save $50.
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Hover: The world’s best domain name registrar. Use this week’s special code, “springtraining”, and save 10 percent off your first purchase.
Links:
MacRumors “speculative pricing” forum posting that social media turned into a “leaked price list from Apple”.
Ring, Paul’s clever new doorbell.
Just The Tip, Paul’s podcast with my wife, Amy Jane Gruber.
Paul, writing at One Foot Tsunami, on Apple’s continued disregard for the Unicode 7 “Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended” emoji glyph, arguably the most pressing technical issue facing Apple and its users today.
Apple’s response to Paul's Radar on the “Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended” emoji.
Audio Hijack 3, Rogue Amoeba’s new update to their excellent audio recording app for Mac.
Interesting ESPN feature on Alex Rodriguez’s return to baseball.
2 hr 23 min
February 23, 2015111: ‘12 Hours a Day’ With Guest John Moltz
Special guest John Moltz returns to the show. Topics include Apple Watch; rumors that Apple is working on a secret car project; our love of old Mac hardware; and a long discussion on Ian Parker’s extraordinary New Yorker profile of Jony Ive and his design team at Apple.
Sponsored by:
Automatic: Super cool connected-car adapter. Save 20 percent through this link.
Squarespace: Start here. Go anywhere. Use coupon code “JG” and save 10 percent.
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Links:
Ian Parker’s New Yorker profile of Jony Ive and his design team.
Macintosh SE/30.
Macintosh IIci.
Report that Apple has a team designing a car.
Dan Lyons is shocked — shocked — that Jony Ive owns a Bentley and has a chauffeur.
2 hr
February 13, 2015110: ‘Rats in the Lobby’ With Guest Merlin Mann
Merlin Mann returns to the show to talk about movies and shit.
Sponsored by:
Fracture: Your photos, printed directly on glass. Use coupon “daringfireball” to save 15 percent.
Harry’s: Be the smartest man in the (bath)room. Use coupon code “talkshow” and save $5 on your first order.
Foremost: Purveyor of small-batch, American-made clothing for men and women. Use coupon code "finally" for 20% off (and the same code works at Need, too).
Links:
The Carson Podcast.
PBS Masters special on Johnny Carson. If you haven’t seen this, watch it. If you have seen it, watch it again. Trust me.
Henry Bushkin’s book on Johnny Carson.
Dustin Curtis: “Privacy vs. User Experience”.
The Wisdom of Insecurity.
Kids in Mind.
Phthalates.
From The Talk Show archive: “H.R. Fluffypuff”.
2 hr 9 min
February 04, 2015109: ‘How Many Keys?’ With Guest MG Siegler
MG Siegler returns to the show, reporting from London. Topics include last week’s blockbuster earnings report from Apple, the increasingly imminent Apple Watch, phone display sizes, the impact of China on sales, rethinking the intended purpose and success of the iPhone 5C, speculation on Apple’s 2015 product roadmap, and whether Bluetooth is the future for mass market earbuds and headphones.
Sponsored by:
Oscar: A new kind of health insurance company.
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Backblaze: Unlimited, unthrottled online backup for your Mac for just $5 per month.
Links:
Red Obsession: Interesting 2011 documentary on the wine industry and China’s growing role in it. Currently available for streaming on Netflix.
MG Siegler on the iPhone 5C back in April 2014: “The iPhone 5C Billboard Assault”.
Apple’s outstanding Q1 2015 results.
Samsung’s not-so-good results.
1 hr 54 min
January 24, 2015108: ‘Malaprops’ With Guest Ben Thompson
Topics include Apple’s pseudo “sabbaticals” (employees who leave the company but then return after a year or two); Google’s cultural similarities to Microsoft; the ways that Apple (and iOS users) might miss Scott Forstall; accessibility as a high priority for Apple; Instagram’s success (and how they effectively ate Hipstamatic’s lunch); a debate on just how “simple” Twitter is; Box’s successful IPO, and Dropbox’s support for Yosemite’s official Finder integration for such services; MIT economist Jonathan Gruber pissing in my Google juice; Chromebooks; Amazon’s overall strategy, and the colossal failure of their Fire Phone; and, lastly, a good chunk on Microsoft’s Windows 10/HoloLens event last week.
Sponsored by:
Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Need: A refined retailer and lifestyle magazine for men.
Igloo: The intranet you’ll actually like.
Links:
Ben Thompson’s Stratechery website and Exponent podcast.
Mark Bylok’s The Whiskey Cabinet, an excellent new book.
Duet Display — iPad app that turns your iPad into a second display for your Mac.
Box’s IPO.
Tim Cook’s tweet on Box’s IPO.
Hipstamatic
Jibe vs. Jive vs. Gibe
Michael Jackson’s death.
Austin Carr’s excellent story for Fast Company on the development of Amazon’s Fire Phone.
Amazon Echo — the standalone always-listening AI assistant, with a three-month backlog.
Joanna Stern on Windows 10
HoloLens.
3 hr 11 min